Ooty Villa Park
Travel Blogs from Ootacamund
High tea
... dilapidation, crawl up the surrounding hills. Two bustling bus stations at either end take the passengers onto other hill stations or back down into the warmth on rickety diesel fume spewing buses, various shops and business offer their wares, and restaurants offer their fare. Chocolate shops sell handmade chocolates from pyramids of stacked chocolates and a busy market provides all the other supplies the town requires. The market itself is a bustling hive ...
OOOOOOOoooooooty!
... us an alternative which despite seeming like a setting for a hostel horror film was a huge relief at that time in the morning!
The next day was spent recovering from our freezing night with some porridge and tea, and getting our bearings around town. We visited the botanical gardens which apparently receives 20 million visitors per day. Not sure where they were all hiding, maybe in the suitably named "bog garden" (found just ...
Ooty 6
... that it is now very difficult to even get a seat in one of the three or four restaurants in Ooty that are suitable for tourists. It's a problem running a business in a town that for most of the year is out of season and then during the high season has a huge influx of people / customers.
Another thing I've noticed is an increase in the numbers of people wanting to have their photo taken with me. I was grabbed by the father of a large family who walked ...
Ooty 3
... so they figure it doesn't cost anything to ask.
One guy I who was approaching me today look almost certainly like he was going to hit me up for some change. But when he got next to me he put out his hand as if he wanted to shake hands. This turned out to be an advanced begging technique - as he simply held firmly to my hand while asking for money. To his surprise - and even somewhat to my surprise - I didn't approve of my hand ...
"It's fun to stay at the ..."
... at this altitude and particularly unusual in their familiarity. The pinnacle of this was probably the basket of sprouts. Big business in Ooty apparently. You need a good frost?
The final piece of drama of Ooty was the descent. I boarded the train with ornate wooden carved booths and stained glass partitions powered by steam. There was some squabbling over window seats which was won by the most obnoxious teenage boy whose parents insisted that ...