Ooty, Coimbatore and an Adventurous Number Two

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Dislcaimer: This blog entry does indeed go where the title so eloquently infers. With that said, you can turn away now or skip paragraph 5 while reading. Hope you’re not offended, but hey, it is a part of traveling!

I landed in Mumbai a little after 4 in the morning and watched daybreak from within the tinted airport windows as I awaited my 10 AM departure to Coimbatore where Adina had been interning at a local hospital for the previous three weeks. Adina and her classmate Lisa, who has been on this internship assignment with her, scooped me up in a taxi from the tiny Coimbatore airport and we were immediately on our way for a weekend trip to the Nilgiris mountain town of Ooty. Quickly the bland urban colors and stale dry heat were replaced by lush greenery and cooler mountain air as we ascended to over 2200 meters on narrow switchback roads.

I don’t know if Ooty is not on the foreigners’ radar, but we didn’t notice any other foreigners during our time here. On the other hand, Ooty is most definitely a tourist destination for regional Indian tourists as it was inundated given it was a holiday weekend. The extent of the city, home to about 100,000, we were witness to was a bustling few intersections of crazy traffic and sidewalks of alternating restaurants and stores, selling everything one can imagine from gold jewelry to hygienic products. We dabbled in it all, buying up oils, spices, teas, chocolate and jewelry, but the consistently incredible food was the savoring experience of Ooty (and India as a whole, as we haven’t had a bad meal yet). Every meal, be it breakfast dosas or idly, talis served on banana leaves, or any of the veg dishes we’ve experimented with, has been an incredible sensory experience for the tongue, so rich with spices and flavors our brains are not accustomed to.

Shopping and eating aside, we also had spent some time enjoying the Nilgiris outdoors. Adina and I spent the first morning hiking up a steep hill nearby our hotel. The first half of the hike winded through tea patches and the top portion of the mountain took us through eucalyptus forests, eventually emerging at a cleared plateau with a small shrine and views of the surrounding valleys and mountains. A general haziness, which has been standard throughout our time in southern India, gave emphasis to the depths of the mountains we stared at, as each more distant peak dramatically lost its green hue. On another of our mornings in Ooty, Adina, Lisa and I set off on what was meant to be a stroll through the neighborhood but turned into much more.

We walked the narrow road on the side of a mountain which winded its way through the “Ooty suburbs” consisting of small houses along the hill side forests and beautiful tea fields. Along the walk, every local along the way shouted and waved hello from wherever they stood. At one point, a young girl and her mother stopped us in our tracks, insisting we come inside for some tea. The rest of the family joined us, several brothers to the young girl, an older sister and her newborn, and the father, all with huge smiles across their faces and our own, as we sat, sipping the tea they had prepared for us, in the tiny bedroom which presumably many, if not all, of them shared. For the next twenty minutes, they showed us old family photos and other prized mementos, and then the gathering shifted to the cricket field across the street, where I dazzled the crowd with my bowling and batting skills. Before we were allowed to continue, my camera was commandeered and the kids and then the father proceeded to take many pictures of us of their own accord. More than an hour after this unexpected pit stop, we were finally on our way, continuing our stroll, but it was an amazing experience to be so courteously and openly welcomed by this family. It was genuine and they seemed so warm and open and curious about us. It was as much fun for them as it was for us.

The other main Ooty activity was a day trip around the Nilgiris culminating with a game drive at a wildlife sanctuary called the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. This day was comical from start to finish. We made a few stops at crowded view points and with each stop we were swarmed by Indian tourists who perhaps were unaccustomed to seeing white people. Families would gather around us to take photos. A baby was even put in Adina’s arms for a picture at one point. This would be the trend throughout Ooty and Coimbatore, whether walking down the street or at a grocery store. With a smile, we temporarily escaped the Indian paparazzi and continued to a nearby lake, one highly recommended by the owner of the bed and breakfast we were staying at near Ooty. The man-made lake which was called Pykara was a huge attraction with the Indian tourists evident by the at-capacity parking and the long lines to take a 10 minute boat ride on the lake. We followed the herd and took a cruise of our own in the tiny rusted piece of metal with a motor attached. As we neared completion of a loop around this reservoir, we laughed to ourselves because the perceivable attraction of the lake eluded us, which thereby provided a novelty for this trip… it was the most random boat ride we’d ever been on. After a quick lunch stop, we were finally at the tiger reserve, the motivation for this day’s trip. Unfortunately however, the main areas of the reserve were closed when we got there, and why we do not know. Without a wealth of options and having spent several hours in the car to get to this point, we decided to hire a private truck to take us on a game drive to a part of the reserve that was still open. Indeed it sounded like a good alternative. With Adina and Lisa in the back of the truck and myself riding shotgun, it quickly became apparent why this part of the reserve was open, and it was because the drive was along a main road, complete with traffic and small towns along the way for its majority. Surely, the tigers and leopards of the area are attracted to the constantly honking traffic! After quite some time, we at last were in some kind of wilderness, granted there was still a significant amount of through traffic and plenty of honking. About ten seconds into reaching this segment of the tour, the sky opened up with an intense thunderstorm and the angular downpour soaked the three of us as the windowless vehicle and pointless roof upholstering offered little shelter from the rain. No sooner than the rain stopped, than my first and only (knock on wood) bout with your infamous India dysentery arose. Well, shit… literally. For those moments, pooping under a bush in a tiger reserve, I was glad there were only 90 tigers populating the 320 square kilometer reserve, and clearly, I survived this death defying #2. With that said, forgive me for taking the blog in this direction, but looking back on our 2 hour game drive, which included 1.5 hours of commute time, getting soaked and seeing two peacocks, this was the story to take away from this day filled with laughter.

After a great weekend in Ooty, we taxied our way three hours to Coimbatore, the industrial city of two million people where Adina and Lisa were interning at the Kovai Medical Care Hospital (KMCH) Occupational Therapy Department. Coimbatore is not a tourist destination which in several ways made it an interesting place to be. Though there was little to see or do, that which we did experience was catered to the locals, and in this way the activities felt like quite local experiences. Since Adina and Lisa had work all week, I was more or less on my own for this stretch, which I mostly spent checking out different markets within various areas of the city and binging on tali lunch buffets. Additionally, I spent a half day visiting a beautiful Hindu temple called Marudamalai, about an hour from where we stayed in Coimbatore. Nestled at the top of some foothills of nearby mountains, the temple was an impressively colorful and ornate piece of work in dedication to the Hindu god Murugan. Though the age of the temple is unknown, it is suspected to be at least 1200 years old as it is referenced in inscriptions of other temples of known to be at least such age. As I meandered the temple for an hour, my thoughts were mostly spent admiring the details of the temple and imagining the extent of how the backdrop of Coimbatore below (and India in general) must have evolved over 1200 years.

Well, that wraps up week one in India. Adina and Lisa have now completed their internship and we’re heading further south, towards the coast of Kerala for the final installment of this adventure.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Photo please
I used to wonder what people did with the photos when they asked to have us pose with them. Looking back on these pics years later if my camera also recorded the event, they always reminded me of a friendly moment and such memories were strong. Great pic...lookin' good.

[GrandRegent]

Thanks for sharing
The information you provided its really good.