Ponmudi Travel Video Guide

Ponmudi Travel Itinerary

• Maps and flag of India
• Ponmudi travel photos
• Ponmudi travel forum
• Flights to Ponmudi
• Hotels in Ponmudi
• Hostels in Ponmudi
• Buy the guide book!

In the tea-growing region of the Cardamom (or Ponmudi) hills , about 60km northeast of Thiruvananthapuram and 77km from Kovalam, at an altitude of 1066m, is the hill station of PONMUDI . It is not a town, or even a village, but merely some accommodation along a ridge, commanding breathtaking views out across the range as far as the sea.

The main reason anyone comes up here is that it serves as the only practical base for visits to the 53 square kilometres of forest set aside as Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary , which protects elephants, sambar, lion-tailed macaques, leopard, and assorted birds. Although Peppara is theoretically open all year, the main season is from January until May; check before you go with the District Forest Officer, Thiruvananthapuram Forest Division, Thiruvananthapuram (tel 0471/320674).

The beautiful drive up, via the small towns of Nedumangad and Vithura, runs along very narrow roads past areca nut, clove, rubber and cashew plantations, with first the Kavakulam and then the Kallar River close at hand. The bridge at Kallar Junction marks the start of the real climb. Twenty-two hairpin bends

(numbered at the roadside) lead slowly up, firstly in the foothills, past great lumps of black rock and thick clumps of bamboo ( iramula ), then through the Kallar teak forest. You finally emerge into tea plantations; the temperature is noticeably cooler and, once out of the forest, the views across the hills and the plains below become truly spectacular - on a clear day you can see the sea. There really is nothing to do up here but the high ridges and tea estates make good rambling country.

Your Tips For Ponmudi

• Goa India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  If one word could be said to encapsulate the essence of GOA , it would have to be the Portuguese sossegarde , meaning "carefree". - India
  

• Bombay (Mumbai) India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  Young, brash and oozing with the cocksure self-confidence of a maverick moneymaker, MUMBAI (formerly Bombay ) revels in its reputation as India's most dynamic and Westernized city. - India
  

• Agra India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  The splendour of AGRA - capital of all India under the Moghuls - remains undiminished, from the massive fort to the magnificent Taj Mahal . - India
  

• Fatehpur Sikri India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  The ghost city of FATEHPUR SIKRI , former imperial capital of the great Moghul emperor Akbar , straddles the crest of a rocky ridge, 40km southwest of Agra. - India
  

• Calcutta (Kolkata) India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  One of the four great urban centres of India, CALCUTTA is to its proud citizens the equal of any city in the country in charm, variety and interest. - India
  

• Delhi India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  Delhi is the symbol of old India and new ? even the stones here whisper to our ears of the ages of long ago and the air we breathe is full of the dust and fragrances of the past, as also of the fresh and piercing winds of the present. - India
  

• Rajasthan India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  India's largest state, RAJASTHAN , emerged after Partition from a mosaic of eighteen feudal kingdoms, known in the British era as Rajputana , "Land of Kings". - India
  

• Kerala India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  A sliver of dense greenery sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the forested Western Ghat mountains, the state of KERALA runs down the southwest coast of India, around 550km long and 120km wide at its broadest point. - India
  

• Varanasi India Travel Videos
  India Travel Itinerary
  Older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together . - India