Sherlock Hotel Ootacamund

... till Mysore except in Mandya we found plenty of speed breakers, it was annoying while driving in the night as we could not spot some. Mysore to Gundalpet road was nearly okay and then the real challenge of driving starts. The road from Gundalpet to Bhandipur was around 20 km and could drive only in pot holes, it was really in a pathetic situation to drive. Ravi made a very good attempt and we safely reached Bhandipur national park at 8am. The driving speeds went down ...

... study has gone into the social phenomenon. There's even an e-magazine, Denizen, written by and for TCKs (http://www.denizen-mag.com).

So ciologist David Pollock describes a TCK, or global nomad, as "a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership of any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK's life experience ...

... masonry and bronze and marble plaques commemorating the British officers and missionaries who died in and around Ooty during the Raj.

There was a large and overgrown colonial cemetery on the slope behind the church, and we wandered among the tombstones and towering eucalypt trees. The guardian waited patiently and Joseph thanked him with a few 10 rupee notes as we prepared to leave. Next was a spot of shopping at a handicraft shop run for the Toda people, a hill tribe that ...

... a big room or hangar filled with plants made out of canvas shapes wound around with thread. Seen close up, these are quite impressive and beautiful. Unfortunately, in the Thread Garden you can't get close, and the lighting is rubbish, so that is just looks like a room of dusty plants with posters boasting about how great it is.

Lastly, but not leastly, we visited Jolly World, which promised to "synch us into a world of fun". It is an amusement park which ...

... Ecalyptus oil as there are ecalyptus trees everywhere. For that matter, there are almost every kind of oil available to buy in Ooty, from citronella, almond, saffron, with ecalyptus being most popular. So it was a very enjoyable day....lovely scenery, laidback trekking, or walking really i would call it, friendly locals. I think it is sooo nice for the locals to let us to their homes, to spy sort of speak, as i know i certainly wasn't the first tourist in their home, they have many ...

... and even Sambar deer, something Shareef told us we were very lucky to see. On the walk home through the tea plantations Shareef challenged us to a riddle: How do you catch a cheeky monkey with friendship? I'll leave the riddle with you, but if you think you have it or want the email, feel free to email us. EM: Leaving Ooty was just as much of an experience as trekking around the picturesque Tea Plantations. We had decided on catching the ...

... it smells, it's polluted...it's aestheitcally horrible. Add to this cold, miserable, drizzley weather which churns the dirty roads into a paste, and there you have Ooty. Am I selling it to you? There are no signs that you are 2200m up from sea-level. Ooty is on a plateau so that you can only really see a few unimpressive Box Hill sized mounds around. Although both Ooty and Darjeeling are hill stations, that is where the similarity ends. I loved Darjeeling, and I don't ...

... some exceedingly good cakes from a bakery on the way to the centre). Fort Cochin has the oldest church in India, St Francis Church, built around 1500 and renevated a few times since then, so it's still in pretty good shape. There's also Santa Cruz Basilica, which was closed for lunch when we passed by. Down to the harbour and we walked passed the large cantilever fishing nets which are used at high tide to catch shrimp. Unfortunately high tide was at 11am the ...

... of horror on drivers faces when they saw such foreigners "lowering themselves" to ride in such low form of transport! One woman passenger, we saw was moping her brow, clearly in a state of shock at such a sight. Wicked. Next chapter to be continued...................

... be the first English any Indian child learns and as we had only one pen we had to refuse, they then request sweet, sweet sweet!. Beautiful and relaxing as it was it is great to be back on dry land in amongst all the hustle and bustle and away from all the insects and moths that seemed to descend on our boat at dusk. Unfortunately our digital camera seems to have been broken in Liz's fall from the train so we can't upload any more photo's until we replace it.