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It was the post monsoon season in Mumbai when covid was easing out a bit and people were on the move again when we decided to go for another workation. It was almost 8 odd months since our first Workation in Goa in Dec 2020 and as it was one of the best travel experiences of our life, we wanted it again (By"we" I mean me and my wife Poonam) in Dec 2020 and as it was one of the best travel experiences of our life, we wanted it again.
As we were already visiting our family in Bangalore for Diwali, we wanted some place not too far off from there. It was almost 4 years since I had visited Kerala and the thought of it seemed exciting. Kerala it was!
We had always stayed in separate rooms in homestays or hotels and we thought it'd be nice if we chose a hostel instead. This would be a different experience altogether from the longer stays to connecting with people to other activities and of course food. The first name among hostels that came to our mind was Zostel. Neither me nor Poonam had stayed in Zostel anywhere in India and we went ahead and book it like we always do. Not too much research on the property, just book it and we will figure the rest out. We booked Zostel Munnar for 9 nights which seemed to be a dream place in photos and we were confused between a beach place like Varkala/Kochi or keep the entire trip in the mountains. We chose the second option and thus, booked Zostel Vagamon. This this trip was a "Soles on Wheels" experience (Zostel Munnar and Zostel Vagamon have a common Instagram handle named @solesonwheels ). I am covering part 1 of the workation in this article, parts 2 and 3 will be covered in the articles that follow.
Part 1 - Zostel Munnar diaries
I had been to Munnar back in 2017 with my couple of friends but that was a touch and go experience. But I knew I could explore a lot more than just a touristy experience. We boarded a bus from Bangalore at around 9 in the night. Being a comfortable sleeper coach, our night was peaceful and the wake up call was around 6am where another smaller coach took us to Munnar. We reached Munnar through the entire ghat road surrounded by mountains overlooking grand tea plantations gazing at the morning sun. A helpful autorickshaw guy guided us on the weather conditions and few places to visit and dropped us to Zostel Munnar.
We had booked a standard room which costed us roughly Rs.2,000 per night. Our check-in was very smooth and the guy at the reception Mr.Nibin was very friendly. Parallelly, we also met the owner of Soles on Wheels, Mr.Balu who was staying in the property with his cute family. A very humble and down to earth guy with whom we later also connected in Vagamon and were truly inspired by his success story.
We took a hostel tour ourselves, exploring the spaciously amazing common room with a huge pool table and other games, a big terrace giving a 270 degree view of the plantations and of course, the most unique working area. It was as if it were a perfect workation spot for both of us. More so, there weren't many people in the hostel being a weekday, so it was all the more peaceful.
We had a delicious meal in the afternoon, hosted by Sanjeev Ji whom we also connected with very well. Zostel Munnar is a relatively new property and they are still setting up the staff and amenities. Yet we managed to get some delicious Kerala Thalis, Puttu and even Idyappam, lip smacking !!
Slowly we were gelling up with the others and got to know a few raging travelers who have been on an adventure stint since covid, few were on their very first solo trip and few were Kerala locals on a small break. I was inquiring a lot about a trek to Kolukkumalai which is the highest tea plantation in Kerala, however, no concrete information could be derived. Finally we came to know that there isn't any way to reach Kolukkumalai from the base because it is mandatory for people to take the jeep ride to the main gate post which it is a walk which people call as a trek. But I am still skeptical as there could be some other way to trek maybe from some other direction.
For the weekend, we had an option to either book a jeep ride to Kolukkumalai from Zostel which would have us wake up at 3 in the morning and leave by 3:30 to view the sunrise. But looking at the rainy weather(Yes! rains in November), we understood all people would see in the morning was fog and clouds, so we decided to sleep in, have a hearty breakfast and hike to the base of the famous Attukad waterfall and visit Top station on Sunday.
Attukad Waterfall:
We were joined by couple of pals, one was from Mumbai and other one was from Assam. We left Zostel for a downhill hike in the rain. There is a trail directly from Zostel main gate. We were tracing a wet, slushy, leech laden and occasionally slippery path. Occasionally the path would divide and get us confused, but thankfully the Zostel manager Jitu bhai had been guiding us prior to the hike and also once on call during the hike. Thankfully, we met a few locals who further guided us towards the base of the waterfall. The trail had been through a dense jungle surrounded by lush green vegetation and cardamom trees. After maybe an hour and a half, we managed to reach Attukad waterfall's base which was amazingly wooshy because of rain and it was indeed a sight to remember. We rested on the nearby rocks for a while, not too much because everything was slippery and we knew that the uphill climb would be another adventure :)
As expected, it took us nearly two hours to reach Zostel on a wet incline uphill battle, crossing foggy jungle trails, but satisfied and happy.
Top Station:
On Sunday morning, nearly 80% of the crowd was gone. What we have observed is that people would usually spend a night, max two nights in Zostel and leave and being a hostel it is expected. But we wanted to experience more, we wanted to be a part of the Zostel, to connect with the staff, the locals and as many people who would stay there. Cut short to Sunday morning, both Poonam and I were preparing for a Himalayan trek scheduled in December and being a fitness coach, I had been training our group for the same. The same day was our 5 kilometer run challenge. Boy! what an amazing run it was on the ghat roads of Munnar. Early morning with almost no traffic, we traced the troughs and crests, smelling the freshness of the plantations alongside and a gentle turn of the head would open up the grand Munnar valley filled with clouds, flowers and mountains.
After a rejuvenating run and a sumptuous breakfast, we headed over to the Munnar market. There are autorickshaws arranged by Zostel that take you to the market 8km away at a nominal charge of Rs. 250 (200/- till the end of the main road and 50/- for coming downhill at the Zostel gate). One of our Zosteller buddy Vishal accompanied us and we took couple of two wheelers for 8 hours at a charge of Rs.500 each.
Top station was around 40km one side and luckily there was no rain that day. We had little sun but the roads had dried out thanks to our luck :). We were charged and happy in the amazing cold weather scaling ghat sections. Not too many vehicles crossed us. We did stop at 3-4 points randomly for the views, checking directions, tea and also wild elephants were a treat to watch.
In around 3 hours, we reached the Top Station parking which was as usual with a common "view point" flooded with public. Hilariously, someone had put up a check point asking for a 20 rupee per person ticket to climb 10 odd stairs to reach a crowded viewpoint and take a panoramic view of the Top Station. Nevertheless, the view was worth it! The weather was with us and roads were superb, what more could we ask for.
We understood it would get dark on our way back and we decided to stay together and ride cautiously. In the middle there were sections of pure jungle, deep, dense Kerala jungle with no streetlights. On top of this, our scooty had a very dim light, it would stop when I let go of the accelerator, I had to literally peek down to check if there are any potholes. Couple of times, Vishal and I missed each other and had to stop and wait. There was no network in almost 90% of the trail. After a point, I had to handover the scooty to Poonam due to my poor visibility. Slowly but surely, we reached the Munnar market at around 8:30pm. Since we couldn't order our dinner at Zostel because you need to place the order couple hours prior for them to arrange for it, hence, we decided to have dinner in the market. Vishal, being a Jain had explored some good food joints and we went inside one of them. That dinner will always be remembered. Being so hungry, we had the most delicious Paneer butter masala, dal-rice and hot chapatis with papad. We thanked Vishal for this amazing experience and off we went back to Zostel.
The next one week was spent working out in the morning, long walks in the nearby plantations, office work, lots of foosball and pool. My mornings would start early deliberately because I wanted to spend my mornings with my coffee and book on the terrace alone. It was a lively experience. Few mornings were dark and cloudy, few had amazing views of the nearby mountains and few had a soothing sun.
Nevertheless, each morning was super peaceful. Special mention - Jitu bhai, the property manager who was witty and very helpful. He would tell a lot of stories and guide us on our travels in and around in Kerala. He would also personally check on us and take care of us with everything. We clicked a lot of photos with the entire staff who was really sweet.
Jitu bhai helped us book a cab to Vagamon the next day for Rs.3,500 which was actually the cheapest among all the cabs we inquired from. On a Saturday morning, we checked out of Zostel Munnar. All the staff came out to see us off and it was an amazing gesture. I didn't see all these members out seeing people off. We mutually liked each other and personally we would want to visit again sometime :).
Part 2 of our Workation in Vagamon is covered in my next article, do give it a read. More adventures and experiences.
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