Being Snooty in Ooty

So I swallowed a mittfull of Gravol and we took the 10 hour drive from Fort Cochin to Ooty in the hill stations of Tamil Nadu. "Snooty" Ooty was the summer home of the Madras British government and the birthplace of snooker. Left behind were the palm trees and imported rain trees of southern Kerala and we moved north through ancient teak forests, bamboo groves and, finally, to the eucalyptus and poinsettia trees and tea plantations of the Western ghats. The cities we passed were much less hectic than those of the north but I have to admit that I rather miss the chaos. As soon as we got to the hills more Gravol was required for the tight hairpin turns. I tried to keep my eyes closed to avoid the extra sensory input to my tetchy gut but I did have to open them occasionally for the utterly breathtaking scenery or Cl's cries of "mummy" whenever it looked like we would be creamed by a big bus coming around the turn. It took 2 hours to drive the final 69 km to Ooty. There's only so fast you can go when you are dodging rickshaws, scooters, cows and huge buses on switchbacks that are barely wider than the outstretched arms of two people. I did finally see my cows and the occasional monkeys getting into some monkey lovin' by the side of the road.

I can't imagine the Brits moving the entire government up here each summer. They must have gone through a lot of Gravol.

We did the cutest train from Ooty to Coonor that had open windows. I am happy to report there were no sticking out head meeting tunnel accidents.

The tea plantations are fascinating. Tea bushes are picked every 15 days and only the unfurled top leaf bud and the subsequent three leaves are ever used and the rest of the plant is just cut back to encourage new growth of these tops. The top part has the most delicate flavour and it becomes more robust each leaf down. The top unfurled bud is the part that is dried for white tea, which has a flavour so delicate it can barely be tasted. That bud and the next leaf down are dried for green tea. The green tea this plantation brews tastes as though it has caramel in it. The bud and the top two leaves are used for Oolong tea and the bud and all three leaves are dried for black or "orthodox" tea. Then they are graded by size for quality. The largest pieces are the top quality and the smallest are sold as tea dust and used for masala chai.

Our hike didn't happen as planned. The hotel manager who promised he would book us a hiking guide for today just looked blank and dazed when asked this morning. He displays the same expression when he owes change for a large bill. Change? What is change? No have, Madam.