Name: Tea Bungalow On The Rock
Address: Gundumalai Road Surianalle Munnar 685618, Suryanelli, Suryanelli, Suryanelli, 685618, India
Rating: 8

Location

Tea Bungalow On The Rock

Nice location, good service and yummy food. The host was very friendly and good respond on all our needed information. Don't miss the homely food prepared by them especially fish curry and fish fry. Thank you Antony and Muthu.

In my recent stay with my family at this bungalow in Oct 2nd week for a couple of days, I had mixed experience. As I always liked to have glimpse of enjoying the old charm of British period bungalows, I preferred this place. And more over specially, as this year was Neelakurinji Flower Season (Jul-Oct 2018), and after devastating flood in Kerala and heavy rains, the nearby Kolukkumalai peaks was the only place to view the Neelakurinji Flower. The flower blooms once in every 12 years with 49 species available around Neelagiri region in Souith India. The last blooming season was 2006, the current season is Jul-Oct 2018 and the next season is Jul-Oct 2030. The flowers is best available inside Erivikulam National Park at Rajamala Region, Kollukumalai peak and slopes near Munnar City, Kerala  and also near Kodaikanal in Tamilnadu. But after the repeated heavy rains in Kerala, in 2018 Jul-Sep , most of Neelakurinji flowers got damaged at Rajamala and only somewhat few flowers were available at Kolukkumalai Peak nearby Surriyanelli where this Tea Bungalow is located. So we chose this  place to stay for same purpose. 
The bungalow has two buildings inside the same premises, One is old British Bungalow and the other is French Bungalow which is a very newer one. Now let me put my experience briefly. 

Pros :
Location  : The location of British Bungalow is magnificently beautiful if you like peace, calmness, serene and out of chaotic hustle bustle of town. You can hear only chirping of birds, sound of nature, a very nice view of Arriangal Dam/Lake from the campus and the surrounding view of amidst Tea Garden slopes.   

Rooms : The British Bungalow has 2 rooms, 1st one  is Red Room with another  attached small adjacent room which can accommodate 2+2 adult pax and 2 kids and toward garden view. 2nd one is yellow room with no attached small room and can accomodate 2 adult pax and 1 or 2 kid and toward the nice view of Arriangal Dam/Lake. And the entire bungalow has a common balcony while entering in, Corridor, Living room with Firplace, Dinning Area etc. Both the rooms are furnished with all old antique furniture, very nice relaxing king size spacious beds.

I didn't stay but saw the rooms in French bungalow which are equipped with luxurious modern furniture and fittings in Bedroom and Toilets.  

View : The view from British Bungalow area is really breathtaking of The Annaraiangal Dam, 

Service : I traveled with my 1.8 year baby. The current bungalow manager, Mutthu and his friend, Antony are very courteous to look after the guests. Even they helped a lot to prepare for for baby at their kitchen. Food quality, what they serve is quite good and up to the standard.

Now the Cons :

Modern Wifi / Internet : As they maintained the old days charm at British Bungalow, you wont get any wi-fi but i heard it's available at French bungalow

TV : at Old British bungalow not TV & cable connection there and French bungalow has. It's quite better that you stay away from those and spend a quality time with family and kids on holidays.

Infrastructure : Though it's very impressing to enjoy the old day's charm, how can stay away from mobiles? in British building, the electricity connection is not adequate to provide required voltage. Even we couldn't charge mobiles phones and power banks for 3 days. Management has to look into these. The Sockets on switchboard are somewhat different, you will fight a lot to push plugs of mobile chargers or anything else.   Management has to look into this Voltage/Ampere issue and replacing sockets.

Food : I'm a Bengali guy and  As i read few last reviews , I heard there a Nepali cook who can provide North Indian foods on request. But when i visited the place the Nepali cook is not there and One old age local uncle use to come on call to prepare food. Though I love South Indian Food as well, the option is very much limited on food variety available currently at this resort/home stay which are almost fixed to few south indian variety only. They don't anyhow prepare lunch for the guests at their kitchen and arrange from outside on request. They prepare Dinner for guest on request but we had a very bad experience. We checked with Antony and he confirmed to cook Tawa Roti or Fulka (aka Phulka) and some curry items. But when they served it was nothing but ready made chapatis and just fired in oil and turned to very hard like a papad. We clearly mentioned, we need Phulka without oil, but they served chapati painted with oil which we don't like at all. So i realized they don't the basic difference between Phulka ( in north indian style) and chapati / chapathi. As the nearest outside food option is a bit far from bungalow, it's very tough to arrange alternative in night. Somehow they managed the situation with rice and other curries. But anyway, you can expect only 2-3 items in dinner on A-La-Carte basis. 

for Breakfast the only available current option is : Dosa/Idly with Sambhar and Chutney OR Poori-Masala Or Apayam with Friut Juice and Tea/Cofee. The food quality is quite good.

Service : They charge for everything outside the Stay Plan, CP. Even they don't have Tea/Coffe maker with Sugar, Milk, Tea/Coffee Sachet inside the room and charge INR 20 /- for each cup of tea/cofee.

Room : French Bungalow is located near the tea garden and doesn't have a view to the Anayirankal Dam.  French Bungalow Rooms have no balcony. Management should add balcony with few of the rooms.

We stayed in this hotel for 3 nights. Our main plan was to visit Kolukkumalai, Meesapulimala, Anayirangal Dam & lake only. 
Hence this is a right place to hang on and relax. This hotel has got a serene view of Tea plantations. 
Service was good, we were the only guests since it is a off-season (SW Monsoon) and that was an advantage for us. 
We requested the cook to prepare a customized menu for us and it was delicious too. 
One can walk around the tea estates in the evening if you want to spend some time outside the hotel.

This place is about 25 km away from main town munnar. It is very peaceful clean rooms I liked it a lot. The nepali housekeeper was excellent was there for us all the time it is also because we are only guest there at that time worked for our advantage :)

Suryanelli

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Nice location, good service and yummy food

Experience staying at Tea Bungalow Munnar - On the Rock

Good place if you want to relax and stay away from crowd

Good place if you want to find some peace

This place approximately 14 Km away main town Munnar . One can very well understand the hazard of travelling  14 km in hilly terrains .Not only the place is situated far from main town Munnar but also there is no kitchen or dining facility provided by the management . The hotel should make it clear that this place is not Munnar and despite providing breakfast there is no dining facility or restaurant in the property . 
There is no proper staff either . When we visited there was one manager and one receptionist cum service boy only .

Tea Bungalow On The Rock

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