ooty 15th - 17th Jan 2005

Another Hill station, with some colonial remnants about it. Amazing scenery en-route even though the bus journey was the normal white knuckle ride. Climate here is nice and cool, bit a little chilly at night. Hill stations in India though all seem the same. Once you’ve seen one, you may have well seen them all. Getting there always scares the hell out of me, all are full of Indian tourists fleeing the heat of the plains, all have streets lined with shops selling crap, and all seem to have a really bad selection of restaurants where simple things like 'plain rice' are out of stock. Not great places to find a nice cold beer either.

All this said the reason I came to Ooty was for the journey down the other side of the hills, via a narrow gauge steam train. I couldn’t come to India for four months without at least one steam train journey.

I got stuck in Ooty for two days as the train was fully booked. There’s not a great deal to do here but its was a nice enough place to sit back and relax, have the odd walk in the country and chill. Somehow Mysore's giant cows got up here too! they compete for space with the disproportionate population of horses, and the combination of cow pat and horse manure gives this place a somewhat rural smell.

I finally get the train and it was great (amazing scenery etc.) until a stop half way down where the Indian family from hell got on and shared my compartment. Me and seven of the most obnoxious people I've ever had the displeasure to meet all crammed into one tiny little cabin designed for two dwarfs. I got pushed away from my window seat by three kids who decided to just clamber over me and wedge themselves up against the window. The fat mum looked on at her children with admiration whilst the dad breathed alcohol breath over me whilst continuously picking his nose. Meanwhile the grandma and the auntie kept dishing out sweets to all the children encouraging them to continuously clamber back over me. Not happy at this point but I managed to bite my tongue and endure the rest of the journey. The journey was followed by a 2 hour wait for a delayed connecting train and I eventually arrived in Coimbatore well into the night. Still I did get to go on a steam train.. Weyhey!!