Travels Through India

I visited Ooty in Sep 2003 with Kah Hoe and Andrew. If my memory serves me, it took us almost seven hours to drive there. The drive was especially memorable since KH seemed determined to drive into every pothole we came across.

"Ooty, also known as Udhagamandalam, is the "Queen of hill stations" and the capital of Nilgiris district. It is one of the most popular tourist resorts in India. Nilgiris means "Blue Mountains". It is a land of picturesque picnic spots. Used to be popular summer and weekend getaway for the Britishers during the colonial days. It is situated at an altitude of 2,240 meters above sea level." - http://www.ooty.com/ooty.htm

Ooty reminded me a lot of Cameron Highlands, with the flowers and tea plantations. Except that it's much cooler. The three musketeers, HL JT and TC, just went there over the weekend and reported that the temperature dropped to as low as 3 or 6 degrees Celsius, depending on whose version you got. It had rained a little before we arrived, so everywhere looked like it had been washed clean. Because of that, it was also much cooler and foggy that evening.

We stayed at the Taj Savoy. The grounds were lovely and the surrounding area was great for short walks. The next morning, we woke up to a crisp and clear morning. We drove up to Dodda Beta, which offered an excellent vista of the surroundings. The cars had to queue up for the road to the hill top to be opened. We three chinamen became some sort of celebrities with the kids on school outings clamouring to have their pictures taken with us. The must have thought we were related to Jacky Chan or something.

We then took a drive and short walk around town, bought some Ooty chocolates and i was time to head back to Bangalore. Definitely a good getaway for a long weekend, especially to get away from the summer heat and pollution.