The drive to Ooty was far more pleasant than I expected. Many people told me the roads would be bad and unpredictable. It took us 7 hours to reach there which was reasonable for the distance we covered.
We stayed at the Savoy Hotel which is one of the older hotels in Ooty. It has a British Colonial style architecture and although the bathrooms were modern, the rest is preserved as it was 150 years ago. Initially I was not pleased with the whole antique look but after a few nights, I found it quite charming. The hotel was very family friendly, they had a game room, two children's playgrounds, hammocks, horseback riding, bicycles for the guests to ride and a large lawn. They had an activities coordinator that arranged cricket and other games during the day and games around a campfire at night before dinner. The kids really had a ball, they could have easily spent most of the day occupied at the hotel itself. Sindhu made some friends and even exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. We met quite a few families from Bombay, since voting day was Thursday, they had an extra long weekend and took the opportunity to escape from the heat.
I enjoyed the chilly nights but I still found the daytime to be a bit too hot, it was about 25 to 30 degrees Celsius. Twenty years ago I didn't bring any warm clothing and we had to buy shawls to keep ourselves warm. This time around, it was warmer and more manageable without a shawl but I still couldn't resist and purchased one anyway.
Prasad was obsessed about taking a train ride to Coonoor as he had heard many good things about it. We were not able to get reserved seating but purchased 3 rupee 2nd class seats. We arrived 10 minutes before departure time and the 2nd class carriage was completely packed and there was no space to even stand. I refused to get on, as I was not about to deal with two cranky children that would have to stand for the next 1.5 hours. Prasad was able to get reserved seats a few days later but on the same day we were heading back which was not too feasible. So we had to let go of the train ride and we drove to Coonoor instead. We visited the Highfield Tea Plantation and we were able to get a tour which was educational for me at least. Seems the best tea is from Darjeeling since they are at a higher elevation but the tea from Ooty/Coonoor is a pretty close second. The beautiful terraced tea plantations are what make Coonoor and Ooty so lovely.
The next day we decided to see the local sights in Ooty. Since it was a long weekend, the roads were blocked and it took us 1 hour to drive a few miles to the Botanical Garden. We also visited one of the Toda settlements. Although we did see their huts and temples, they now live in regular cement homes and the children attend English medium schools, the men drive scooters and probably have regular jobs. The women are business oriented, they sell their shawls, oils and other items at multiple places. Since the traffic was so horrendous, we headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon there.
Rushil really enjoyed his stay especially the endless hot showers which he obviously misses and repeatedly mentioned that he could live at this hotel forever. Although Sindhu did not express herself in the same dramatic way, she definitely had a great time. I think we'll be back in Ooty again.
3 comments:
Oh my gosh - this totally brings back memories of Ooty for me. I went to Ooty about 1/2 a dozen times when we lived in Bangalore - I went along with every relative that wanted to go and did the Karnataka in 10 days frenzied trips as well as the weekend getaways to OOty. I remember staying at the Savoy with my parents (it was just the three of us then) and then contrasting that experience with a trip with my grandma (10 day tour bus + really cramped living quarters) and actually thinking to myself how much more I enjoyed the bus rides because I was a chatter box and chatted with everyone on the bus - I used to get lots of trinkets from fellow passengers who were constantly surprised that I was traveling without my parents and would buy me something thinking I was homesick.
I traveled a lot with my grandmother on these crazy bus trips (she was an avid traveler) and went all over the place with her.
I just needed your note to jog memories hidden away..
sounds like you had a great time! I bought myself a Toda shawl in Ooty years ago and still use it though it is quite sad looking now :-)
Did you shop in Coonoor? Strangely enough, the shops in Coonoor had very decent kurtis and tops, much better than Trichy which is a bigger town. But Coonoor is known to be rich because of the estates and the Mallu population there.
Maith,
I did not get to shop at Conoor, will have to check out the stores next time.
Teju,
Last time we went to Ooty we also went by bus, I remember we arrived late at night, 3 women - unfamiliar with the language but if I remember someone on the bus helped us find an auto so we could get to the hotel.
Mythili
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