Ok, now I'm really testing my memory here, forgive me if I get this a little wrong, as it has been over a week, this was my first sleeper train journey in India, We waited in the 1st class waiting room, which was full of mosquito's, I put on, my repellent, plus a patch, worked well, except, the place stunk of urine, but there was a power point to charge phones etc, this was where I discovered my tablet wasn't charging... the horror... anyway, after waiting several hours... 4 for so, watching people go by, looking at me as if I was some side show attraction... we got on our train... Damn! It may have been a little better in daylight to see what I was doing before stumbling past other sleepy travellers.. I managed to get 1-2 hours sleep... got to the place that starts with a "V", 6am, visited a wash room, as I needed to go pee, cost 10 rupee, was a queue to get in... OMG did it stink, was a quick in and out, to be honest the whole train station reeked of urine, people were asleep on the floors, ( mostly homeless), we went across to a cafe, fora morning coffee, watched a giant roach, run along the foot path... ugh...
One quick call, our cab driver was here within 10-20 mins, to quickly take us off to Ooty, travelling along we went past several schools, and educational facilities, one of which was 300 acres multi storey buildings... I would hate to think how many people were there...
Travelled for a while, Driver was very chatty.... and very concerned that I wasn't married, Damn.... started to go higher up into the mountains, 2000 metres up... visiting several scenic sites along the way, as it wasn't the weekend, we were the only people there, from what they were saying... these look outs...are totally packed.... views were amazing...
Made it to Ooty, after visiting a few tea plantations, and botanical gardens.. weather was a lot cooler in the mountains, low 20's with not much humidity, it was nice, Ooty, was pretty clean by Indian standards... the whole town, banned the use of plastics bags... and a lot of signed were up.... keep it green... don't litter, (with a picture of a cow eating a plastic bag)....
Started to feel really sleepy around 2 pm, we were still driving around, visiting places, (having a local driver in India, makes a real difference)
Found the place we were ment to stay, a government, lodge, that is only used 3 months of the year, was pretty nice.... even tho it was a little run down... cost $6 per night...
Crashed... and had a good sleep...ready for the next day... which involved going into the forests, around more tea plantations, huge agricultural area with pleasant climate, you can see why the English, first settled this remote Corner of India....
Anyway... here are the pictures
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