Snooty Ooty

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On Chiristmas day morning we set off to a indian mountain resort, 2230m high. The indians all said: oooh it will be cold!!! But we went anyway on the recommendation of an indian lady we had met on the train going to Hampi. The scenery was spectacular during the busride. The street was more or less single track for most of the way with many potholes as it wound up into the mountains. We came past dense forest and steep teafields and arrived in a serious of high valleys that had a very european touch. At the side of the road people were selling bright red/orange carrots and huge radishes, all fresh from the field (in December 2000m high). Ooty resembles a french skiing resort in the summer in the 70s. Lots of concrete in very beautiful countryside and lovely crisp air. It did get a bit chilly at night but we were by no means cold. (TK: No it was amazing: Xmas day and it was like an English Summer; by the way how warm was it where you are?)

The maharadja of Mysore has his summer palace here and his former guest house is converted into a B and B. It was just like in the lake district, even though we only went there for breakfast on the lawn in the sun.

Leaving Ooty we took a small mountain train to the next lower village on the other side of the mountain. Should have been a steam engine but was diesel. Very romantic though (We feel a bit middle-aged collecting jouneys on steamtrains in the world...)

The rest of the day we took a bus and another train to get to Coimbatore and from there took the train at the Godawful hour of 5.30 to arrive in Kerala.

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