Ooty is cold this time of year

we visited the "hill station" town of Ooty this last weekend. hill station is a fancy word for a city in the hills. the british used them as retreats during the brutally hot indian summers and as shirley and i realized when we got there, it is cooler in the hills. in fact i bought a fleece the first night we were there. normally i wouldn't buy something like that, rather i'd just tough it out, but for $3 i went ahead and splurged.

we got to experience two forms of public transportation this trip. first we took a bus from coimbatore to mettupalaiyam. the bus ride was quite full, but we got on and even got seats. the cost was 10 rupees per person (about 25 cents). we stayed the night in mettupalaiyam for 350 rupees ($7) and got up at 5:00am to catch the nilgiri mountain railway to Ooty. the train didn't actually leave till 7:00, but we didn't have tickets, so we had to get there early to wait in line.

like most things in india, it was pretty unorganized and when we got there there were two lines. i took one line and shirley took the other. shirley's line, after some additional running around, turned out to be the one to get a ticket and my line was the line to get on the train. i'm glad shirley wasn't in my line b/c it was as crowded as a rock concert and indians are very comfortable being very close to you. there was a guy going around selling coffee and i had to make a video of him b/c of the way he chanted "coffee, coffee, coffee."

while in line, shirley was talking with some indian students and they said they weren't sure if they would get tickets b/c it was a busy holiday weekend, but they were sure shirley would. the reason for that is b/c the railways give preference to tourists, which turned out to be true, we got on the train and they didn't. this makes up for being charged more than the locals ALL the time (the taj mahal cost locals about 50 cents and costs tourist $15).

the train wasn't setup length wise, where you walk down an isle to your seat, rather there are numerous doors that open into a small berth with two benches for 12 people (in the states fire codes would probably limit it to 8, maybe 10). we got in with an indian family which was nice b/c they had a lot of kids, so they didn't take up as much space. they were very nice, one of the fathers, sebastian xavier, was a national swimmer for india. his son was named mark, as in mark spitz.

the train ride was almost 5 hours. shirley and i kept falling asleep during the ride which was a shame b/c this is one of those train rides that goes through some pretty nice scenery. it made stops along the way though, so we were able to stretch our legs and snap some pics. we also saw monkeys, but they didn't do anything funny like on the tv.

after 4 hours we made our last stop and as we're sitting there we notice people mulling around outside looking in the train. sebastian told us they were trying to get on. shirley and i looked at each other in amazement b/c there was nowhere to sit and the standing room would be super tight. well, it turns out some people don't mind standing b/c sure enough 8 people crowded in and stood for the last hour. i made a video of it b/c i wanted to make sure you could see how crowded it was.

Ooty is SW of hyderabad and about 80 miles from the ocean. back in the day it was known as 'snooty ooty' b/c all the wealthy brits stayed there. as for today, it feels pretty much like most of the indian towns we've been too. overcrowded, dirty, rickshaws, and the same markets. however, outside of the town is nicer with it's rolling green hills and lots of tea plantations.

we stayed in the lymond house, which was over 100 years old. when we walked in i thought they were storing frozen foods inside b/c it was so cold. seriously, it felt 15 degrees colder inside than it was outside. these old homes didn't have much natural light and with their super thick walls they just became ice boxes. we had to go back outside and sit in the sun for a while.

and the rest of the highlights; a sidewalk, tea museum, fake flowers, and soccer with kids (see pictures of Ooty)