The Blue Mountains

The bird’s eye view showed a huge plain dotted with green and picturesque cottages set amidst palm groves, the hills however were nowhere in sight. As we swooped down to land at Coimbatore airport, I was surprised to find that ours was the only aircraft, quite an unusual sight from other airports which seem choc-a-bloc at all times of the day or night. That however was not the only surprise waiting for me, once off the plane I looked around to see where the bus was only to find fellow passengers walking to the airport building, I followed suit thoroughly pleased with the idea of being able to walk across an airport.

A four hour journey by a rickety bus playing Tamil films found us moving through urban landscapes to rural to foothills and then finally an abundance of tea gardens. Finally the hills what a relief! The bus made frequent stops to pick up and drop travelers and at one such stop I witnessed the art of wearing a sari south Indian style. A middle aged lady traveling with a younger woman probably a daughter-in-law was standing in the middle of the road when she felt her sari was coming loose, not to be disturbed by such trivialities she promptly took off the sari and then proceeded to wear it more securely again right in the middle of a traffic island. I seemed to be the only one who found her action incongruous as the traffic kept flowing smoothly.

We dropped down at Udhagamandalam better known as Ooty, the ‘Queen of the hills’. (Every hill station I visit seems to be the queen, have a good mind to start a hunt for the king). A quick wash and an amazing cup of coffee later we were ready to hit the town and discover its many charms. Must put in a word here for the hotel we stayed in, a Tamil Nadu government owned property it was away from the noise of the main streets and had a serenity that was immediately endearing. The highlight however was the dirt cheap rates.

We hit the main street only to find childhood dreams come true every second shop seemed to sell home made chocolates and such a variety too. Dark chocolates, milk chocolates, caramel, pista, almonds, walnuts, cherry, and everything in between wrapped up in delicious melt in your mouth chocolate. Wonder if Hansel and Gretel had it so good.

A stroll around followed by a sumptuous and very spicy kebab meal later we were ready to hit the bed. It had been a long day after all waking up before dawn to catch the flight which in true Indian style had been delayed by more than an hour.

The next morning saw us walking to one end of town to see the Ooty lake, a typical touristy place where we did the typical touristy activities of hiring a pedal boat, blowing air bubbles in the air, and buying some baubles for friends and family. That done we were ready to hit the botanical garden which was on the other side of town.

The garden and indeed the entire area have an amazing variety of flora. I have never ever seen such abundance in nature, seemed like all the colours in the world were present in the form of one flower or the other. An enchanted garden no less.

At the end of the trip around the garden I found my dream house, well actually the guard house but am willing to settle for the guard if I can live in it. Absolute fairy tale stuff!

Forgot to mention that all this while had been snacking on a variety of chocolates. (Wondering why I am mentioning them so much? to make you drool of course) So finally we thought a proper meal was in order and settled down to some nice vegetarian fare at a pretty restaurant called the Sidewalk.

We spotted a lounge bar Zyr on the way and checking it out promised to be back in the evening. In the meantime we thought a little rest wouldn’t be such a bad idea and hit the hotel. Once there the tiredness of the long walks promptly took over and before we knew it we were sleeping. The lounge bar didn’t happen but we did check out the hotel bar a nicely done up in the old style place not well stocked though.

The plan for the next day had been to catch the toy train to Coonor, explore the town and then walk our way back to Ooty. We however woke up late and after breakfast realized were too late to catch the train. We changed plans and decided to do a conducted tour of the area instead which would take us to almost all the worth seeing places in and around Ooty and also to Mudumalai a wildlife sanctuary situated at the tri-junction of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka made famous by Veerapan.

The guide told us tales of the zillion Hindi movies that had been shot on these hills, and pointed out trees and slopes where a particular kiss or fight had taken place. Interestingly enough he also showed us a golf course, seriously pointed out a small yellow flag on the course and proceeded to explain that it helps in playing golf. Hearing him speak English in his Tamil accent was definitely the highlight of the entire journey.

We were then taken to a Pine forest, shown a typical tribal village from afar and also the Pykara dam and lake. The lake was very beautiful stretching over an area of thirteen kilometers and covered on all sides by wild vegetation mostly untouched by human hands as yet. We did see some sections where trees had been chopped off and were aggrieved to think that on the next visit a Hutch or Airtel logo would be visible in this pristine area also.

Oh! Before I forget I must mention I had a taste of a typical Tamil lunch served on banana leaf at a quick stop the bus made. From there we went to the sanctuary, missed an awesome shot of a mother elephant bathing her young because the bus driver refused to stop since as he put it, ‘not wild elephant madam only trained ones’. Felt like asking him how that made a difference to the shot.

It was kind of made up by the sighting of a wild herd which had its young with it and was very protective of them so we were not able to take any good shots. But the way the whole herd shielded the young from our sight was something worth seeing. The matriarch of the group after sometime lost patience with the two buses full of lunatics trying to take a close look at her brood and pushed them into thick jungles.

The light had started to fail by the time we started on the return journey to Ooty. The shorter route we took this time had 36 hair pin bends on a stretch of 12 kilometers and it was a thrilling route through thick jungles with signs of ‘go slow animal crossing’ at frequent intervals. The driver unbelievably maneuvered the bus on this route with the cell phone glued to his ear.

We reached Ooty around eight and then after picking up a few things for family and friends and a quick dinner we called it a day, a beautiful one for sure. The next day we were up again at crack of dawn to catch the flight back home.