Let me first clear a few doubts one of you had –
1. Ooty is not right next to bangalore. It is approx. 200 km away
2. Coonoor – Ooty is around 20 kms.
At Coonoor, I am staying at YWCA (a budget guesthouse – unfortunately nothing to do with Young Women, Christian or otherwise) which is an old colonial building replete with a grand piano and high ceilings in the rooms (which accounts for my freeeeeeeeeezing during the nights!). This guest house is famous for Yoga classes - i decided to opt out when i found out that the classes begin at 6:30 am (I am on holiday, please).
Over breakfast daybefore, I ended up explaining the subtelties of the game of cricket to a Canadian and to (more surprisingly) an Australian couple. The Aussies did, thankfully, admit that the Indian cricket team played better than their australian counterparts in the recent tour. Then there was this big argument over whether 42.5 overs means 42 overs and 3 balls or 42 overs and 5 balls. Go figure !
The Canadian, Patrick, has probably one of the most envious jobs in the world. He's moved to the somewhere in the Alps in France and runs a tourist agency and ends up travelling with the groups he organises the tours for. all over the world. Wow!!!! I told him that if ever he wanted an assistant....
I then left for Ooty (which nowadays has an unpronounceable name – Udhagamandalam). Wanted to go by train so I reached the railway station (if it can be called that, it is tiny, but cute) and guess who i met - Mr. Venkatachalam (for those who didn’t read my previous mail, he was the TT from the previous day). He gave me a look that typically bollywood brothers give each other after meeting for the first time since their separation at the Kumbh Mela. Despite that he could not get me IN the train (yet again!) but he got me ON the train. When I say on i mean literally on. Outside each bogie is a small seat reserved for god-knows-who. He made me and this other reservationless traveller sit there. Of course once the train started moving (moving is the operative word as I could have walked faster than it), both of us climbed up and sat on the top of the train. We felt like malaika-less shahrukh khans. We didn't do chaiyya chaiyya but i climbed down after 5 minutes as i felt it was pretty dangerous even though the train was moving at a snails pace. The train ride took over an hour and a half even though the distance was a princely 18 kms. But the journey itself was extremely pretty. One could see valleys on both sides, dotted with tiny houses or temples or the ocassional cow or goat grazing on the grass. All around there were tea gardens. The most prevalent brand here seems to be "Nonsuch Tea" which sort of sounds like Nonsense (which reminds me, I have to be back in office tomorrow!).
Ooty is a hillstation gone horribly wrong ! One guide-book correctly describes it as the "road well travelled!". Just like any other over-visited hillstation, it is terribly crowded. Only when you break away from the town centre, do you see the 'charm' of the place. Like Coonoor, it has lots of british sounding places. However, compared to the Fords of Coonoor (Bedford, Woodford, Milford, Culford), Ooty has its share of locks (Wenlock, Havelock....). I tried to visit the Higginbotham bookstore (which from outside looked like it was built a century ago) but unfortunately, it was closed for Pongal. After two days of hard work (you know, travelling around!), i decided to splurge a bit and had lunch at the Savoy (a taj property). It is a quant little hotel where I ended up having lunch sorrounded by retired foreigners and the Indian MBA types (damn them!). On a nearby table was an American family with 3 young kids. The tiniest one was a cute little girl of around 3 -4 (the sad part was that she had an arm missing, but she more than made up for it by her vivaciousness). As the mother spilled some beer on the table the man on the table next to them said good-humouredly "Thats good beer wasted". The little one immediately asked her mother "Mommy, do you know this man". The man said "Little girl, you are suspicious". She immediately replied "I am not suspicious, I am Victoria". That got every body in the dining room smiling and laughing. It was here that I finally saw bengali tourists (just when i was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong with the bhadralok). Came back to Coonoor the same day by bus (fortunately, the bus stand had signs in English too!)
Yesterday, I went to Kotagiri using it as a base to visit a couple of places. If you thought Ooty was bad, wait till you see Kotagiri (Hill-station gone wrong Part II). It was like a miniature Ooty but more per capita chaos and mess. Anyways, I didn't hang around for too long but took a bus for Kotanad which is around 18 kms away. From there one can get a view of the plains (last thing i wanted to see as it reminded me that i would be back home soon!). Had one of the best cups of tea there. On the way back the driver decided to stop the bus every 200 m to pick up, presumbly, almost every relative he had in the area. The tea in the area is called (surprise surprise) "Kotanad tea". However, what intrigued me was that they called it "Orthodox tea". So called because it is close to what classic Tea is all about (not the herbal or the organic variety). So Kotanad tea fits the definition of Tea to a T (sorry, I just couldn't resist that REALLY bad pun!).
Once back in Kotagiri, i visited "Catherine Falls" about 9 kms away. The Bus dropped me there and the next one would come 2 hours later so i went upto the point from where one gets close to the falls (close enough to hear but one can barely see it!). Anyways, from there I got to see Dolphin's Nose (So you guys REALLY didn't read my last mail!). I squinted my eyes - still no Dolphins nose. I looked at it from various angles - still no Dolphins nose. Maybe I needed more imagination (damn, I knew i should have had beer for lunch!). With two hours to kill, I ambled around the little hamlet that sorrounded the place along with the Tea gardens reminiscent of Munnar (though not as green).
I finally reached back to Coonoor late in the evening (it was cold and dark but I was enjoying it, at the risk of catching a bad cold). Tired I reached my room and plopped on the bed. At around 11:30 I was woken up by loud music blaring from a nearby loudspeaker (some festival I guess!). I went on till the morning so I hardly got any sleep. This music from the loudspeaker was accompanied by grumbling sounds coming from somewhere. On investigation, i realised that I had, in my fatigue, forgotten to eat dinner and it was my stomach making those noises. Too cold / late to go out, I ate the packet of biscuits i had in my bag (hows that for foresight!).
So today, bleary eyed, I am not doing much. Just ambling around in Coonoor. The train back to Mettupalaiyam is at around 4:30 and yes, this time I have a confirmed reservation (Mr. Venkatachalam or not!).
