I decided
that I wanted to go to Ooty, mainly because I like the name. My travelling plans really are as scientific as
that. The only way to get from Mysore to Ooty was by bus
(deep joy). I was told that it would
take 4 hours and it would be a comfortable private bus. Instead it took almost 7 hours and was the
most uncomfortable mode of transport imaginable. It was a tiny bus but that didn’t stop them
filling it with as many people as humanly possible. There was not even enough room to have my
knees straight. At one stage I was so claustrophobic
I thought I was going to have a panic attack and for once I’m not even being overly dramatic.
The bus
made various stops but the driver announced everything in Hindi so I didn’t
have a clue what was going on. An old Indian
bloke on board took pity on me and tried his best to translate. On one of the many stops he did the universal
sign of pretending to hold his willy to indicate to me that it was a toilet
break (well at least I think that’s what he was doing).
It felt
like the journey would never end. The only
thing that cheered me up was when we drove though Mudumalai National Park . It wasn’t that I saw any animals (not even a
sniff of a tiger) it was the signs that they had displayed that made me
giggle. All over the park there were
signs telling you how you should behave.
These are a few of my favourites;
Do not feed
the animals, you will just invite menace.
Do not
drive fast, you may kill a wildlife.
Be
quiet. Noise enrages the animals
I finally
arrived in Ooty 3 hours behind schedule (not that I really have a
schedule). Ooty is a hill station (apparently
the most famous one. It was nicknamed Snooty
Ooty by the British in the early 19th century (oh, the British are
just too comical). It is quite
spectacularly beautiful, full of thick pine forests and mountains as far as the
eye can see. What is also nice is that
it’s quite chilly. It makes a nice
change from the blistering heat of the rest of India . I think I could really like it here.
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