Ooty and the Road to Cochin
I decided to go for the seated option on the night time bus to ooty. Its actually not a bad way to travel here in India where the roads are pretty shocking. For about 10 minutes I sat with what seemed like a full double seat to myself but I should’ve known by now that there is no such thing as a spare seat when you are in India. Low and behold an Indian man in I reckon his mid fifties turned up just before lift off to claim the berth next to me. Boy did he smell, I took out my tiger balm and rubbed some under my nose!! Tiger balm is bloody magic people, it works on absolutely everything, its the only thing that makes the bloody mosquitoes who can I reiterate are still having the feast of their lives when they see me coming!!!
This bus also had a large tv up the front, I was about 4 seats back so the earsplitting volume did nothing to aid any sleeping endeavours! They were playing a bollywood movie, it was probably the only film that I have watched more than 5 minutes off. It was really rubbish, seemed to be a mix and match of about 4 seperate american movies – even directly nicking some of the jokes. The locals on the bus absolutely adored it though..
Once that was over I managed to get something resembling sleep for the first time aboard indian buses. I woke up at about 5.30 in the morning, it was still dark but you could tell that the roads were beginning to get steep, the engine of the beat up bus was struggling as it weaved around the endless hairpins. Once it brightened up we arrived into ooty. It was very foggy at this stage. I asked to be dropped off at the first place that was listed on the guidebook. So up and into reflections guesthouse with me. I rang the bell, but no one answered. Figured I would go in anyways. Walked around the house till I found 3 tiny women working in the kitchen, not one of them had a word of english but they got the message that I wanted a room so up they went out the back of the house to where I saw there smiling down at me – Homer, the israeli guy I was hanging out with in Hampi sitting there with a jug of coffee and a big cake. Apparently all the dudes I was hanging out with from when I left goa had pretty much followed the same route as me and they were all in the same guesthouse. I took the room and went to sleep for what seemed like forever.
When I woke up it was pissing rain, rain like I have never seen. It didn’t stop for 2 whole days, as a result Ooty was a complete washout. I knew I was just gonna be there for a day or two so I didn’t bother purchasing cold or wet weather gear, instead I just took the time to chill out in front of the fire drinking tea, coffee and the odd hot toddy. I’m sure in drier times it is a beautiful place to spend some time but it just didn’t happen for me this time.
Getting out of the place was difficult as trains were booked out and some roads were blocked due to landslides caused by the incredible rain. We had to settle for the first time on the public bus system to get us to Cochin, yes the one you see on the tv and the post cards that are incredibly overcrowded and cramped. Its no wonder this is the place that they invented yoga, I don’t buy all that spiritual origin bullcrap, I reckon it was invented so they could squeeze as many people as possible into these rust buckets.
It took 3 buses and 13 hours to get to cochin – sounds like a nightmare but it wasn’t at all. I had a great time – the scenery was at times amazing, going down the mountain was scary at times when you saw the countless number of feet drops that lay but inches from the side of the road. On our second bus from Coimbatore to Trissur I sat beside an electronic engineering graduate from cochin who loved soccer. The time absolutely flew talking to him, I did tease him alot and hit him with lots of jibes about supporting chelsea and various other things, it drove him to ask me ‘Is everyone in your family as crazy as you?’, if only he knew…. He then left me with ‘You need a haircut mister!!’. We arrived into Cochin at 11 that night, we picked the first place that we found and after some really quick food it was off to bed… Kerala for Xmas..
Ciao,
Phil
Tags: Cochin, India, India, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
Phil Gill
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