West Coast travels II
1) Train Picnics
Yikes!! We read in today’s paper that 21 people were arrested on trains between Chennai and Kerala for drinking alcohol! Oh. My. God! Luckily the guards on the trains we were traveling on did not catch us! Whahaha! Fly like a butterfly, swig like a bee. They would have been horrified at my father and my husband swigging large quantities of whisky. Mind you had we been caught, we would have said that it was all naughty- dad’s fault and that he made us do it.
The thought of being forced to stay an extra couple of years here is all too much! We will never do that ever again…. Sigh…
2) Keralan Kanoes
We are going back to Kerala in a couple of weeks time, so will write more about it then. Here is a snap of us in a canoe in the backwaters. What a great day that was!
3) Snooty- Ooty
Our last stop with naughty-dad was to the English established hill station of Ooty. When we read Lonely “the bible” Planet it said that 20 years ago Ooty “resembled an unlikely combination of southern English and Australian: single storey stone cottages, fenced flower gardens, leafy winding lanes and tall Eucalyptus trees. Times have changed… Ooty’s center resembles any overburdened provincial India town” (p.384) and when we went to the tourist office we were told directly that “Ooty has been ruined for 20 years.” Such was out auspicious beginnings with Ooty
The Ooty Steam Train
The most romantic way of getting to Ooty is on the miniature steam train, which chugs its way up the Nilgiri Hills, through tunnels, beside magnificent waterfalls and tea plantations. It goes through wilderness regions, which are very rare in over-populated India. Ooty is at 2240m above sea level and the steam train travels up the mountain at an impressively slow rate, allowing you to enjoy it. On our day of accent however, what was suppose to take 5 hours took 7 because the oversized expresso machine of an engine overheated and partly exploded about a quarter of the way up. The funny thing about this is that all of the Indians (there were only 5 westerners in board the whole train; the Indians on board that we met were very well off families from Bangalore and Chennai) jumped off as soon as the engine exploded despite the best efforts of the officials to keep them in. And they scattered all over the hill taking photos. We have perhaps not mentioned properly in previous blogs the Indian love of anarchy which on this wonderful day travelling up the hill to Ooty expressed itself in two forms i) a disregard for authority ii) throwing all their rubbish out the window and into the glorious countryside. While the train puffed its way though the countryside, out went lolly wrappers, newspapers, drink bottles and everything else you could possibly imagine. And this is common practice. When we went to the magnificent Mudumalai National park and wildlife sanctuary you have to get bussed around the park and are not allowed to get out at all, even at one of the most beautiful waterfalls we have ever seen, because our local guide told us secretly, "the Indian people litter and the tigers might be injured." So, thus started our “keep Indian Beautiful” campaign, with just 3 leaders and no Captain Clean-Up. Many people were told off in the process of this campaign. One such telling –off can be seen here in this picture (ali looking a tad frumpy and grumpy). A four year old girl threw a chip-packet onto the track when there were bins right next to her. She will never. ever litter again! One down only 999 999 999 people to go!
Our campaign will succeed damn it! Ooty will reverse the clock to pre-20 years ago! Ooty will be clean!!!
Yikes!! We read in today’s paper that 21 people were arrested on trains between Chennai and Kerala for drinking alcohol! Oh. My. God! Luckily the guards on the trains we were traveling on did not catch us! Whahaha! Fly like a butterfly, swig like a bee. They would have been horrified at my father and my husband swigging large quantities of whisky. Mind you had we been caught, we would have said that it was all naughty- dad’s fault and that he made us do it.
The thought of being forced to stay an extra couple of years here is all too much! We will never do that ever again…. Sigh…
2) Keralan Kanoes
We are going back to Kerala in a couple of weeks time, so will write more about it then. Here is a snap of us in a canoe in the backwaters. What a great day that was!
3) Snooty- Ooty
Our last stop with naughty-dad was to the English established hill station of Ooty. When we read Lonely “the bible” Planet it said that 20 years ago Ooty “resembled an unlikely combination of southern English and Australian: single storey stone cottages, fenced flower gardens, leafy winding lanes and tall Eucalyptus trees. Times have changed… Ooty’s center resembles any overburdened provincial India town” (p.384) and when we went to the tourist office we were told directly that “Ooty has been ruined for 20 years.” Such was out auspicious beginnings with Ooty
The Ooty Steam Train
The most romantic way of getting to Ooty is on the miniature steam train, which chugs its way up the Nilgiri Hills, through tunnels, beside magnificent waterfalls and tea plantations. It goes through wilderness regions, which are very rare in over-populated India. Ooty is at 2240m above sea level and the steam train travels up the mountain at an impressively slow rate, allowing you to enjoy it. On our day of accent however, what was suppose to take 5 hours took 7 because the oversized expresso machine of an engine overheated and partly exploded about a quarter of the way up. The funny thing about this is that all of the Indians (there were only 5 westerners in board the whole train; the Indians on board that we met were very well off families from Bangalore and Chennai) jumped off as soon as the engine exploded despite the best efforts of the officials to keep them in. And they scattered all over the hill taking photos. We have perhaps not mentioned properly in previous blogs the Indian love of anarchy which on this wonderful day travelling up the hill to Ooty expressed itself in two forms i) a disregard for authority ii) throwing all their rubbish out the window and into the glorious countryside. While the train puffed its way though the countryside, out went lolly wrappers, newspapers, drink bottles and everything else you could possibly imagine. And this is common practice. When we went to the magnificent Mudumalai National park and wildlife sanctuary you have to get bussed around the park and are not allowed to get out at all, even at one of the most beautiful waterfalls we have ever seen, because our local guide told us secretly, "the Indian people litter and the tigers might be injured." So, thus started our “keep Indian Beautiful” campaign, with just 3 leaders and no Captain Clean-Up. Many people were told off in the process of this campaign. One such telling –off can be seen here in this picture (ali looking a tad frumpy and grumpy). A four year old girl threw a chip-packet onto the track when there were bins right next to her. She will never. ever litter again! One down only 999 999 999 people to go!
Our campaign will succeed damn it! Ooty will reverse the clock to pre-20 years ago! Ooty will be clean!!!
posted by aligrae | 1:25 pm
1 Comments:
Good to see you two alive and well and, er, ... getting ootty and abootty as it were!
The train looks amazing ... almost like an aged Hogwarts Express in the wrong locale!
Keep the stories coming!
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