The Residency Coimbatore

<br>When we decided to zero in on ooty and kodai for our very recent tour,we did some mapping and found that coimbatore was the ideal location to start our tour since it was in middle of ooty and kodai. We were about 8 of us and we needed a minivan for tour so we again started hunting on google for a suitable car rental company, who had a good airconditioned tempo traveller. We found Kannan Tours &amp; Travels Pvt Ltd as one of the leading ...

coimbatore is a heaven in India. The climate is excellent throughout the year.<br>the water from Siruvani is excellent. The people here are more courteous and helpful.<br>the public transport is most convenient to travel.If in need there are autos(but get the fares fixed) and call taxis.(know how much they charge, some ...

... contact Mobility India, an organization based in India that provides assistive devices like artificial limbs, braces,and wheelchairs to the local population. There is funding for new chairs, and hopefully the wheelchairs distributed by Mobility India will meet the needs of the users at FFC. I also built a set of parallel bars out of PVC plastic to be used by the younger kids, many of whom have cerebral palsy, for dynamic weight ...

... the past 3 days and getting a bit miserable and cold...but today the gods are smiling and it is a beautiful spring type day...birds singing....me still doing morning 6.30 yoga, now with the sun beaming in my eye and blinding me into a wobbly sun salutation due west!! *grin* Anyway back to the gifty because we all like those for no reason....On Monday and Tuesday is the festival of Dwali...now I would like to explain what this means but I don't know more than it's like our Christmas ...

... No more than 200m away. Just eating and drinking, ignoring us. We linger for a while and then we head off. In the distance we see a small island with stairs leading from the water up behind the trees. The boat docks there and three men come to take our stuff up. At the top of the steps and behind the trees is a lodge; an old Raj era hunting lodge, with a lawn and garden surrounding it and wicker furniture. At the top of the staircase, we are greeted by Sabu, the concierge for the Lake ...

... being what's your good name? where are you coming from? are you married? My standard answers being Jim, Orstraylia and no, although i occasionally invent an imaginary girlfriend if they look too concerned at my marital failure. 90% of the this attention is welcome, not only is it nice to feel like an E-grade celeb but it means that it's always incredibly easy to strike up conversations with the locals. People are genuinely happy to chat ...

... of the gods for the people. Pretty interesting - to me I was reminded of Aztec culture the way the temples were constructed. Now for the best part - OLIPHANTS!!! Yes, in true tourist trap tradition you can ride an elephant once you finish at the Palace. Normally I'd say this is cheesy and cruel to the animal, but in India the elephant is sacred, so I figured I could indulge myself. I paid my 50 rupees and climbed on the beast. I want to just say that while I was on this animal ...

So we had a very long and hot taxi ride from Cochin (Kochi) to Ooty. Ooty is a hill station. A high place the English used to frequent when they were ruling India. It is located in the Niligiri Hills which means Blue Hills because there is often a blue haze here. Just like the Blue Ridge in Virginia. Anyway, I have no idea why these are called hills. From Cochin ...

... these coins go towards maintaining the temple, buying oil for lamps, flowers to decorate the Gods, etc). In return, they give you a tube rose (which smells heavenly) that you put in your hair, kum kum, and a spoonful of water which they pour into your hands for you to sip and then smooth over your hair. Alexis and I wisely bypassed the water. All of this occurs in front of a shrine to the Gods of that particular temple, where only the monks are allowed. Upon leaving, the women kneel upon ...

... ll brake too much and burn your brakes out. So we continued slowly, attempting to avoid using the brakes, when Prabhu suddenly pulled on the handbrake and screeched to a halt. "Sorry guys, we have to stop here and let the brakes cool." This wasn't too much of a problem I guess. It was close on 1am though, and Goshni was expecting a call when we reached our lodgings to say that we were ok. We were sitting waiting for a while, entertaining ourselves however ...