Honeymoon ?
Drove to Mysore and reached my in-law's place around midnight on Friday. We got a traditional welcome, 'Paadapooja' , 'Aarathi' etc. We then had a rather heavy dinner which included two sweets, jamoon (my favourite) and moong dal burfi. It was 1am when we went to bed. Got up at 7.30am and with Kal's sisters help, burnt some MP3s onto CD, for the road. My MIL forced us to eat couple of dosas before we left. It took a while to wade through the early morning traffic in Mysore and hit NH 212. Cruised along this upto Gundlupet and then took a deviation towards Bandipur. The drive through Bandipur and Madhumalai forest was interesting. We spotted lot of deer and one baby elephant. As we climbed up the ghat section, we got a breath taking view of the valley below. We stopped at a tea shop and drank Nilgiri Special masala tea. The masala costs Rs6000 per kg !! Two cups of tea cost us Rs30. We reached Ooty at 12.30pm and headed straight to Hotel Sinclair. We liked the rooms and the price seemed reasonable (Rs 1500 for a double room, off-season rate) and decided to stay there.
We had lunch and lazed around in the room till 6pm. We then went to the town to buy choclates. We returned to the hotel and watched 'Rules - Pyar Ka Super Hit Formula' over dinner :)
On Sunday, checked out of the hotel at 11.30am and went to Doddabetta. This is the highest peak in Ooty. There were a lot of people even in the off-season and to make things worse, it was very sunny and hot. From there we headed to Dolphin Nose view point, which is about 30km drive from Ooty. More than the view from the viewpoint , the drive through tea estates and winding roads with sheer drop on one side is thrilling. From the viewpoint, one can see , Catherine waterfall, natural map of India ( need to put some pieces together and figure this one out. the guides over there will point this out, it is not very obvious), Mettupalyam, Black Thunder water park and Coimbatore.
It was almost 3.00pm when we reached Ooty. I convinced Kal that we would reach Bangalore very late in the night if we did not leave Ooty right then. So we dropped plans of visiting the Botanical gardens and started towards Mysore. I decided to take the road via Masinagudi, which is about 30km shorter than the normal bus route. This ghat section is more dangerous and has 36 hair pin bends. Also this road goes a bit deep indside Madhumalai. This road joins the regular road at Elephant Camp. Reached Mysore at 6.15pm, thanks to me driving at 90-100kmph most of the way ;) We had skipped lunch. So had early dinner at my in-law's place and left for Bangalore at 7.15pm. Reached Wipro Kormangala at 10.22pm. Kal had to check some things related to work. Reached home at 11pm and crashed.
After all this I got up at 7.30am this morning dropped Kal to work and reached my office at 9.30am. I need more sleep !!! :((
We had lunch and lazed around in the room till 6pm. We then went to the town to buy choclates. We returned to the hotel and watched 'Rules - Pyar Ka Super Hit Formula' over dinner :)
On Sunday, checked out of the hotel at 11.30am and went to Doddabetta. This is the highest peak in Ooty. There were a lot of people even in the off-season and to make things worse, it was very sunny and hot. From there we headed to Dolphin Nose view point, which is about 30km drive from Ooty. More than the view from the viewpoint , the drive through tea estates and winding roads with sheer drop on one side is thrilling. From the viewpoint, one can see , Catherine waterfall, natural map of India ( need to put some pieces together and figure this one out. the guides over there will point this out, it is not very obvious), Mettupalyam, Black Thunder water park and Coimbatore.
It was almost 3.00pm when we reached Ooty. I convinced Kal that we would reach Bangalore very late in the night if we did not leave Ooty right then. So we dropped plans of visiting the Botanical gardens and started towards Mysore. I decided to take the road via Masinagudi, which is about 30km shorter than the normal bus route. This ghat section is more dangerous and has 36 hair pin bends. Also this road goes a bit deep indside Madhumalai. This road joins the regular road at Elephant Camp. Reached Mysore at 6.15pm, thanks to me driving at 90-100kmph most of the way ;) We had skipped lunch. So had early dinner at my in-law's place and left for Bangalore at 7.15pm. Reached Wipro Kormangala at 10.22pm. Kal had to check some things related to work. Reached home at 11pm and crashed.
After all this I got up at 7.30am this morning dropped Kal to work and reached my office at 9.30am. I need more sleep !!! :((