Ooty of the Mountains

Ooty is a hill station up in the mountains. It was where the English went to escape the heat, and it's where the well-to-do Indians now vacation during the hot, summer months. We went during the off-season, which meant that everyone wanted to sell us something and it was rather CHILLY. We went from wanting air-conditioning to building a fire to keep warm! It was actually quite cozy to have a couple of evening conversations around the fire. If we hadn't concluded the evenings by returning to our cold and slightly musty beds, it would have been better.

The town of Ooty was a bit of a disappointment. It had fallen to the clutches of over- development, and its old charm was overrun pretty completely. Luckily, the surrounding tea plantations were still lovely, and we hired a guide to take us around the countryside for a day.

We all felt quite at home as we tromped through the tea fields, up gullies, and through sheep pastures. At times I felt as if I was back in Switzerland, and Jessie commented that she felt she was in Ireland. The scenery was quite different from what we were used to in India. We stopped in a little village for lunch, and watched the man make tea. I was full of anticipation, since we were in tea country, but was disappointed by how sweetened the tea was--you couldn't even really taste the tea! But at least Patrick snuck a great shot of the man cooling the tea. Perhaps I should take this moment to comment that I am totally stealing all of Patrick and Jessie's photos from the trip for the blog. We saved my photos on Patrick's computer, and the back-up disk is not working for me. So I hope you're enjoying their quality shots!

As we passed through the village, children began trailing behind us. It still amazes me how fascinating we are just because we're lighter in color. They all wanted to kiss Eli and pinch poor Evan's cheeks, and Patrick was forced to carry him as a protective measure. Even some of the water buffalo were afraid of us because we were strange looking. In this shot you can see the buffalo staring Jessie and children down.

After a few days in the brisk, clean air, we were ready to move on to Mysore, a city that was working itself up into a festive frenzy for Dusserra.