In today''s high strung and tension-filled world we all need a retreat where we can refresh our spirits and throw out the accoutrements of everyday existence. Munnar, in Kerala, offers one such retreat where you can definitely re-charge your batteries.

Situated at a height of over 1,700 metres above sea level, this place is a nature lover''s paradise. If you seek a sense of peace be sure to find it here. This is where you can fill your holidays with quiet moments and take in vast expanses of green that play hide-and-seek with the clouds which keep descending on thearea. This is where you can savour the peace and quiet (you would never get in a concrete jungle!) within the cool stillness of the several tea gardens that dot the skyline.

One of the ways of approaching Munnar is from Thekkady. The distance from Thekkady to Munnar is approximately 110 km through some of the narrowest roads that hug the hills. As the car veers from side to side in its quest up the hill, you see only hills and the valleys  alternating their position in line with the turn of the steering wheel.

Once every now and then, the calm scenery is broken by the quaint and small villages and towns with tongue-twister names -- Anakarai, Nedunkandan, Sanathapuram and the like. These hamlets seemingly spring up from nowhere and break the monotony of the undulating greenery forcing you to wonder "How do people live in such far flung places and what do they do to keep themselves occupied?" Truly, time seems to stand still at these places and, even a good speed of 40 kph seems excruciatingly slow.

That the boundaries of Munnar are fast approaching is announced very loud and clear. The dense forests give way to a great expanse of hills covered with neatly laid out tea gardens.

Yes, Munnar is the haven of planters -- having been discovered nearly a century ago by pioneer planters who came to India. The tea and cardamom estates dominate the entire landscape -- and, indeed, the entire life of Munnar. In particular, Tata Tea Ltd. is, like God, omnipresent at this place -- with nearly every acre of land being Tata Tea property and every third resident working for the company. Munnar has several sidelights to see and mentioned below are some of them.

Pothamedu View -- situated on the highest point of the Kannan Devan hills and a well-known lookout point -- is one such sidelight. It is quite unannounced and does not have thetrappings of a lookout point that one is generally used to. You creep onto it and can quite easily miss it if you are not careful and have not clearly asked for directions.

The lookout point is imposing indeed. Backed by hard grey rocks that rise menacingly into the sky, it overlooks a vast unending expanse of verdant green. To a city inhabitant it is like being teleported to a totally different planet.

The silence is only broken by the distant roar of the Attakadu water falls -- the mist from which rises up to come into view at Pothamedu. For as long as the eye can see, there is only peak after peak after peak of unending mountains which seamlessly merge with the clouds to form a hazy skyline. In between the only colour you see is green, the only air you breathe is pure.

The fact that you are so high above sea level is very evident here. Even as the winter chill bites, you can feel the heat of the setting sun seep into you -- a sun that seems so close to you that you want to reach out and touch it.

The setting sun adds its own charm to the entire scenery. The rays of the setting sun peeping over the mountains add a golden hue over the green. As if a wand has been waved, the setting sun brings about a sea change in the region. The cold and nippy breeze dies down, the occasional chirping of the birds ceases, the moving leaves drop dead and become motionless, the roar of the waterfall seems less ferocious and more distant. Then, all of a sudden, after a brief interlude of grey twilight, a thick envelope of darkness descends on the region and shuts off everything.

The Attakadu Waterfalls are at Pullivasal, where the largest tea-processing factory of Tata Tea is also situated. The HeadWorks Dam on the Pullivasal River, just 6 km before the falls, was inaugurated in the early 1940s by the Dewan of the state of Travancore. This dam also serves to connect the Kannan Devan Hills and the Pullivasal ranges. In the early 1920s, much before this dam was constructed, the British had bored a tunnel through the Pullivasal range of hills at the end of which they had constructed the Pullivasal Hydro Electric works -- Kerala''s first electricity generating station.

The Eravikulam National Park, formed in 1978, is situated atop Rajamalai -- quite literally meaning ''king of mountains''. Along the route to the park -- which again is through narrow winding roads that is a landmark of Kerala -- you come across the Nayamakkad Waterfalls, one of the many waterfalls that dot the Kerala landscape. The falls begin at a cavernous hole in the mountains and cascade in torrents over several layers of rocks before, surprisingly, coming to a tame end. The water from these falls irrigates the tea gardens that cling Rajamalai.

As you reach the national park the air becomes thinner and you see the clouds more clearly. The park is home to the Nilgiri tahr, langurs, sambar, gaur and the lion-tailed macaques. Of all these species, the special attraction at the Park is the Nilgiri tahr orthe ibex. In the local language the ibex is also called the ''varayadu'' -- as, in Tamil, ''varai'' means hard rocky mountains and ''adu'' means goat, thus implying ''goats that live and thrive on hard rocky mountains''. The speciality of the ibex is that it is a rare species and only 5,000 such animals exist in the world today -- of these about. 3,000 are found at Rajamalai. You can reach the ibex only after a 5-km walk from the head of the park.

Another 12-km walk leads you to Anamudi -- which at an imposing 2,700 metres above sea level -- is the highest peak in south India. It is only the brave that completes the 12- km walk to Anamudi.

Rajamalai is also known for the blue-red orchid -- neela kurunji -- that blooms every twelve years and transforms the barren rocky sides of the mountain into an attractive blue-red carpet.

The Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, also set up in the early 70s, is another attraction. Situated on the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu it is home to several herds of wild elephants, bison and langurs, besides containing several hundreds of sandalwood trees --all of which can be seen from the watch tower constructed specially for this purpose. Animal watching is very much like bird watching and fishing -- it requires a lot of patience and "just-sitting-there" till the animals show up.

The most interesting part is the drive from Rajamalai to Chinnar. As you descend the heights of Rajamalai, you drive straight into the clouds, which hang low over the mountains for the better part of the year. These clouds make driving a herculean task -- what with near-zero visibility, narrow roads and steep drops on both sides. For the really brave who would like to experience life on the razor''s edge, the following is recommended:

The visit to the Chinnar sanctuary must be made in the late afternoon so that the return journey into Munnar city is after sunset. With a heavy cloud overhang and absolutely zero visibility in the thick envelop of darkness you cannot make out the road in front of you. You leave your fate in the hands of the skilled driver, who is driving with his head out of the window -- only so that he can make out the road and where to turn … one wrong turn and … you may land up in a heap of metal scrap.

Along the way you also cross Marayoor where, recently, the relics of a new stone-age civilization have been unearthed. The place is also known for its tribal culture and several sandalwood processing factories.

The Matupetty Dam -- one amongst the many in Kerala -- was completed in 1953. With a total length of 297 feet and a catchment area of 105 million cubic feet, the lake created by this dam provides a picturesque picnic spot. This dam is the site for yet another power generating plant in Kerala.

The route from the Matupetty Dam to the Kundalle Dam --yet another historic site -- provides two interesting diversions. The first is the Indo-Swiss Project on cattle breeding and fodder production. A joint venture between the governments of Kerala and Switzerland, this project seeks to develop high milk yielding milch cows.

Spread over 100 acres of land, this project provides a welcome break in the topology. The green carpet of grazing grounds clearly stand apart from the unending rows of tea gardens of Tata Tea. Here high quality cows are bred and these cows give between 15-20 litres of milk every day. Fed on a good diet of fodder these cows are looked after a crack team of vets to ensure that they remain healthy at all times.

The second interesting diversion is the Echo Point -- situated below the Arrivakkad Tea processing plant of Tata Tea. If you were to stand below the factory and shout at the thicket of trees across the Matupetty Lake, you will clearly hear a loud and resounding echo of every word or sound you utter.

What is really intriguing about this place is the fact that the echo can be heard only if you face the trees in a perpendicular direction and not if the sounds are directed at the trees in an angular direction.

From Echo Point you move on to the Kundalle Dam. Also called the Setuparvatipuram Dam, this 850-foot long dam was constructed over 100 years ago during the 25^th year of the reign of Sri Chithira Thirunal, the maharaja of the state of Travancore. With a reservoir capacity of over 250 million cubic feet of water, this dam is, indeed, an engineering marvel that has endured for more than a century.

Besides the above sidelights there are several points one can see, but most of these are several hours drive away from Munnar. The above sights would take all of a day and a half to cover in speed and about three days if you were to spend your time leisurely at each of these places. After that even if you stayed back only to sit and stare at nature around you it is time well spent as you would never get the same serenity and pleasure in a city like Bombay or Delhi or even Bangalore.

Unfortunately, the scars of modern day living seem to be creeping on to Munnar. The logging licence granted to the public sector Hindustan Newsprint Ltd has increasingly seen the forests being denuded of its green trees. One only hopes that the company, for every tree felled, is planting a new sapling that will one day grow to become as big as a tree that was felled - thus maintaining the ecological balance of the place.

Further, the government''s desire to set up Asia''s first high-altitude sports training centre at Munnar has seen an army of over 150 trucks emptying their contents on to the centre of the town -- contents that are extracted from the hillsides, leaving ugly, gaping patches on the hillsides. While leading citizens are thinking of approaching the relevant authorities to clamp down on this madness one remains unassured about their ability to succeed given today''s political environment.

But, despite these minor blips on the radar screen, Munnar is, indeed, the jewel of south India.