Long weekend in Ooty

Our little engine that could (dedicated to LKT)


Jumbo spotting


The following photos are from our early morning jungle trek.






misty lake in the early morning hours

Team Tufts with our guide

A view of Ooty from the winding "hair pinbended" drive.

The weekend of February 8-11, we conquered the overnight trains and traveled west for a weekend in the hilltown of Ooty. Built into the mountainside, Ooty serves as a respite from the heat and humidity of Tamil Nadu. I felt refreshingly chilled for the first time since I've arrived in India (apologies to the Boston folk, I hear it's been pretty cold.) We took an overnight train from Vellore to Coimbature (by far the most appealing means of traveling thus far.) We arrived at daybreak in Coimbature and made acquaintance with the steam engine that carried us, slowly but surely, up the mountain to the town of Ooty. We learned the "chug-chug" is not a fabricated noise, but truly an accurate portrayal. The train stopped frequently, allowing for photo ops as well as water refills for our little-engine-that-could. The scenery included stretches of green tea plants, graceful valleys dipping into thick rivers and rivuleted with waterfalls, and compact houses etched into the mountainsides.

We found ourselves some horses for a more intimate tour of our surroundings. I could only encourage my horse, who I named "Eeyore" for his lack of enthusiasm, to break into a halfhearted trot for 30 yards or so. A bit of a tease, but fun all the same.

From Ooty we traveled northwest to a family style "Jungle home" where we had home cooked meals, a campfire (sadly sans s'mores,) and an early morning jungle trek. Upon the backdrop of still lakes and wildflowers, the rustle of wildlife and the sounds of early morning chores were delicately studded. Our barefoot guide wove us through the landscape with care.

Night out in Chennai...

Ross, cutting out the pesky wine glass middleman...! (ok, it was a posed shot, but he looks pretty ready to down it, doesn't he?)

the gentlemen.

Taking my turn with the hookah...

the ladies.

On our night out we hit up Zara, a "happening" restaurant which blasted American classics and served a variety of continental tapas. From there we met up with Aparna's crew at a patio style hookah bar, where i took my turn in the rotation. The flushed cheeks are thanks to Ross, who never letting the Sangria glasses go more than half empty... I miss that Australian!

Tada Falls

The "Simmerna" falls, to be featured as a hot spot in the Simmerna guide to South India... where if you're lucky you'll catch these bathing beauties:)

The crew trekking along the river bed, which served as our path.

Aparna found this less traveled hike for us, about 85 km north of Chennai just over the state border in Andhra Pradesh. We used random travel blogs we found online to plan the hike, seeing as how there is no AMC guidebook equivalent. The blogs described "formidable rock formations" and "treacherous steep inclines," however, we found it pretty managable. We hiked up the riverbed and used rock climbing skills when necessary to hoist ourselves through crevices and over large boulders. I must say, I was impressed by Kim & Aparna's natural skills, I think we have found a few new Metro Rock recruits :)

Mamallapuram

A stone mural. The carvings earned Mamallapuram a "National Heritage" title.

trees, rice paddies and ocean

the other two angels are just not as quick on the draw as I am, that's all...

Will and Ross choosing an interactive tour of the carvings...

This gigantic boulder, perched seemingly precariously, is actually called "the butterball." This was Kim's favorite, and she really enjoyed saying "butterball" over and over throughout the day:)

Kim and I with our first coconut. Not at all what I expected coconut to taste like - the milk was almost salty to my Americanized taste buds and the pulp was a bit too slimy, although dried out I think it'd been fabulous.

part of the "Five Rathas," a group of Pallavan rock cut temples excavated 200 years ago by the British.

the shore temple, striking with green grass, red dirt, grey stone, black blue ocean and baby blue sky.

A couple weeks ago, a few of us took a day trip to Mamallapuram, a coastal village boasting an aesthetic shore temple, ocean side seafood cafes and stone carvings ranging from murals etched into cliffs to intricate hand-size figurines of elephants or gods.

The road to the beachfront is lined with shack after shack offering stone carvings, bangles, and other knick-knack Indian paraphernalia. As the conspicuous foreigners, we are urged to enter every shop and if we accept the invitation, items are flooded before us. A few members of the group entered countless bidding debates with shopkeepers trying to gauge just how low they could go. Between shopping and negotiating transportation fares, my bargaining skills have improved in India, and I think Grandpa Dave would have been proud. Stone carvers sit and chisel curved lines into sandstone or marble, giving birth to statuettes, the most popular being replicas of Ganesh, the god with an elephant's head, and small elephants imprisoned by a mesh-work of stone within the belly of a larger elephant.

We wandered through the park housing many large stone carvings which we enjoyed posing with, and then folllowed a rocky path a short distance away from the village where we found ourselves above fields and paddies, lakes, ocean, palm trees, and sky.

Afterwards, we returned for coconuts and sunset on the beach. The ocean was warm, but we didn't venture too far - partly because of the time, partly because donning a bathing suit would have been inappropriate for the female contingency (a few Indian women were swimming in full saris) and partly because we'd been warned that the riptide claims a few lives each year.

After a two hour drive, we were delivered safely back at the Ananda around 10pm, topping off an exceptionally long and fulfilling Sunday.