The Vagamon is a beautiful hill station located on the border between the Kottayamand the Idduki districts of Kerala. It is filled with lush greenery of the sprawling tea plantations. The place is believed to be discovered by the Britishers who also brought the tea to this place. Nothing is present relating to commerce in the place, just the nature left to thrive on its own in the region.
Along the beauty of the valleys, the greens of the meadows, the place is filled with the small cascades and the mists and fog brush the tea leaves that gives the place the appearance of the Scottish highlands. Hence this hill station is sobriquet as the “Scotland of Asia”. May be if it was the bagpipes playing in the background the traveler would for sure mistake the place for Scotland.
Located in at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level, the hill station gets covered with flowers and plenty of orchids during the spring season. In the list of the top 50 places to visit in India, Vagamom also stands proudly as rated by the National Geographic Traveler. It has the cool temperature ranging between a minimum of 10 degrees and a maximum of 23 degrees even during the summers.
As one climbs up the hilly region along the finest road, that are cut along the slopes of the rocky hills, one can have a spectacular view of the rolling plains lying deep into a distance and the pines of the hills.
An interesting example of the cultural harmony is got from the three hills that constitute Vagamon. These three hills are the Thangal, Murugan and Kurisumala hills that represent the three chief religions in the state namely the Hinduism, Muslim and the Christianity.
Vagamon is the right place for adventure activity for it offers a variety of activities that can be done in the hill station. These include the trekking along the rocky routes through the rocky roads, tea gardens and the meadows, paragliding from the bare hills, mountaineering and rock climbing.
This rich kingdom lies on the fringe of the lofty Western Ghats extending down to the Teekoy where it just slopes gently. As the south west and the north eastern borders of Vagamon are very steep slopes the hill station would not have been accessible if it was not for the narrow strip up of land rising up from Teekoy.
The road that connects Vagamon is in itself a construction marvel that puts it in the list of state highway apart from the others. The construction of the highway took a toll of the lives of many workers here and hence to commemorate their service, a 20 foot tall memorial tower is constructed at the beginning of the road in the Teekoy town junction.
There are some good places to visit in the region. The Kurisumala Ashram is one such place worth your visit. Here the Christian aesthetics, who also believe in other Indian religions, are settled and are also involved in the social work to help out the villagers.
In order to reach Vagamon the nearest airport available is the Cochin international airport, the train reaches the nearest till Kottayam railway station and the nearest bus station is also located in Kottayam from where the journey to the hills starts.
