Out of the city...Kodaikanal

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Our arrival into Kodaikanal was unpleasant to say the least. Not so much the overnight train journey we had just endured to Kodai Road, but more so the drive from the here to our accommodation.



You see once you have reached Kodai Road station, there is still an 80km drive from here to Kodaikanal proper. Being that this is a climb of around 1000 metres, you would expect this to be a pleasant journey up the mountain soaking up the views on route. Unfortunately, the driver of our taxi had other ideas, and decided that rather than let us take in these splendid views, he would race up there like a lunatic as quickly as possible whilst overtaking on blind bends with his hand constantly resting on his horn for ‘safety’, as standard here. Vomit from both Donna and I seemed imminent.

Luckily, after shutting our eyes and making the horror of car travel all go away, we made it in one peace to the town, and upon opening our eyes, we were greeted with a scene quite far removed from what we had in our heads.

I mean, it wasn’t that we hated the look of here or that this was even a bad place. It just wasn’t quite what we had envisioned, as this was apparently a popular honeymooners destination? Add this to the fairly miserable weather, I think this dampened our spirits a little.

So after a little self-pity from us both and a metaphorical slap round the chops, we stopped sulking and went straight down to the vegetarian restaurant in our hotel and ordered our first Dosa (these would feature quite heavily in the days to come…..yummy!)

After a few days here walking around the streets and seeing the local sights, we really started to appreciate this little place high in the hills. It was a far cry from the bustling streets of Chennai, and since being here, with the exception of a couple of drivers, we barley had anyone to fight off.

Had the weather treated us a little better, we would have been able to enjoy the views of the valley which is a major pull for coming here in the first place, however it just wasn’t to be for us this time. We did see a little decent weather here and there, but, it was also cloudy and therefore even rather cold at times being so high up. This could have lured us both into another sulk, however the fact that all the local men were donning those ridiculous tiger print earmuffs helped us keep a smile on our face throughout…

Our time here in Kodaikanal was actually a nice little detour away from the cities and I think overall, we were both actually quite glad we made the effort to come. We certainly didn’t do much here other than take a few walks, hang-out in a couple of the nice cafes they have and eat some amazing vegetarian food, but that suited us just fine for now.

Our next stop would be Mysore, and again, we would have to take the overnight sleeper in order to reach our destination. A hassle we could probably do without, however Mysore is one of the major Yogi areas in India, so we felt however bad the trip was, we could always distress with a little Yoga...

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Standard cow
No matter how many times we see this we still chuckle. Love these photos.