Hotel Preethi Classic Towers Ootacamund

From 19th to 22nd March 2009.

The trip i started writing

It was running in our minds for couple of months to visit /explore a monument place Humpi around 300 km away from Bangalore. Though it was originally Sreeni & I who thought to make it with Sreeni's new born baby, Royal Enfield (2 months old). Later with so many twists & turns in the story and some research work done by us we changed our plan to Masinagudi in Mudhumalai 95Km from Mysore (~35Km from Ooty ...

... that the school gives people is with them for life.”

After less than two days Hebron gave me something that will stick. I have a strong sense of myself, and what I’m doing with my life. I am acutely ambitious about it, and long ago vowed that if I can’t go to heaven or live forever then I can only live an extraordinary life. And it’s nice to know that there is a phenomenon out there that reflects who I am. It’s good to be part of the group.

Planning -

The trip was planned to be a road trip and i got my car fuel tank filled with 35 L of Petrol about 1 day before the trip. Since my car (Maruti ZEN) would give an average of 13 KMPL , full tank would easily take us to ooty which is around 300 KM from Bangalore.

The willow Hill hotel was booked about a month in advance. The room rate (standard) was 1250 per day ...

... Reserve. Spectacular views teamed with no rain and warmer temperatures gave us a wonderfully relaxed few days. We took a morning safari into the reserve hoping to spot wild elephants, we returned having seen only spotted deer in the wild and captive, working elephants at the mahoot camp. We enjoyed fantastic food, cold beer and excellent service, almost forgetting we were only two hours away from chaotic Indian city life.

It was on ...

... habitat and we weren’t.

Soon after a seemingly long trip down the mountain slope, we reached the river and its icy cold muddy waters. But after putting our feet and body through ordeal, cold water was bliss, muddy or not. Soaking our poor feet and then splashing and playing gave us all the much-needed relaxation time to unwind and fill our tummies. Also gave
people ample ...

... happens often) it has its own generator (as most of the larger hotels do). Across the road are a couple of supermarkets where you can buy all kinds of things, more of that later as well as a couple of internet cafes (electricity permitting of course). Talking of electricity, the reason there are so many power cuts is because there simply isn't enough electricity to go round, so they have something called 'load sharing'. Everyone ...

... banana fritter, chick pea fritters (a bit like felafal) and variations on a theme. The slightly larger premises would do iddly (fermented rice cakes), vadai (savoury doughnut) and pongol (no idea), puri, little pastries stuffed with egg and paneer (cheese) and perhaps a couple of local variations. What you can buy also depends on what time of day it is. Snack time (not breakfast, lunch or dinner) means dhosas, and a variety of breads with chutneys and sambals ...

... of military tattoo at the show grounds and my Indian gentleman escorted me pretending to be my servant, as he didn't have a ticket for that either! The splendid looking cavalry horses were parked right in front of our front row seats and I was admiring their leopard skin saddle blankets when I noticed some of them had leopards heads attached and realised they were REAL. I felt really rather sick. Unfortunately I ...

We got up, had an early breakfast of porridge and omelette, and headed towards the botanical garden. My macro lens had fallen to the floor (luckily I had a UV-filter that took most of the damage) so the best way to test everything was taking pictures of flowers and insects. The botanical garden was very nice but nothing different from the other botanical gardens around the world. So in the end we took more pictures of lizards and frogs than of orchids or rare flowers. And ...

... the use of the body, then moving on to other stages (pranayama - contoling hte breath, then vital energy, then meditation...) In the course I was exposed to some very interesting spiritual concepts as well as challenged to add a huge amount of discipline to my mind at a time when I want to be roaming free...so it was really challenging to stay focussed during the course, and for the first time that I can remember, I don't think I was a fantastic ...