Hello from Ooty.

hi everyone,
Ahh, it feels good to sit down, and get away from the chaos that is India. Seems like any where we are there are billions of people. I know that is a bit of an exaggeration, as India's pop. is "only" about 1.2-6 billion. Way too many people.
We have to wait in down town Ooty until about  five. I am having a couple of tops made (cotton) for the grand total of about 11$. I found some material I liked, and then went ahead with the measurements. It is hard to find anything ready made for me here. (Unless I go into a dept. store). The Indian women are pretty small. We are looking for a coffee shop, actually a tea shop. We have both fallen in love with Masala Chai. It is Indian tea with a number of spices thrown in, milk, water, and sugar if you want, all boiled. It is soo... good. We went to a tea plantation this morning, and tasted the tea they made there. It is a very different process then how they do it in China. I think I am rambling a bit, oh well, blame it on the weather. It is wet, and cold here, just like Oregon. Though tomorrow we head back to the low lands where it is sure to be warmer. We are at a "Hill Station." Supposed to be where they founded snookers. It is around seven thousand feet. It has been raining off and on, and is quite chilly. Luckily we came prepared, we both have fleece, and gortex. We took the "toy train" a little ways this morning. It is supposed to offer beautiful scenery, but the fog was so thick we could see absolutely nothing.  The reason it is called a toy train, you must refer to Mike's post. I am sure he will explain it.


then we came back to town here, and had a good lunch, and then our guide left us, and we are walking around. We tried to do Internet earlier, but there was no power in town. This seems to be a common occurrence. So far it has not remained off for very long. The lights just flickered.

To get here we took about a six-seven hour train ride. Oh boy was that grimy. The train was relatively clean by Indian standards, I guess, but it was pretty bad. I tried not to use the toilet, but I had to give in. And to my pleasant surprise it was not bad. The railway stations are just like I have read about. Tons of people, going every which way, goats, cows, music blaring, and lots of people staring at you, and a few coming up to talk to you. Always men. I am not looking forward to the two overnight train rides we have coming up. One down here inS. India, and then another up north. I guess we just get sleeper class, which is bare minimum. I am glad we brought along our silk liners that Larry brought to us from Vietnam.  The over night ones, are "only" eleven hours, so hopefully it will not be too bad.

After the train ride, we had quite an exciting three hour van ride up to Ooty, this hill station. It was damn scary, but after a while l sort of got used to it, and st oped gasping, and closing my eyes, at every hairpin turn, on the wrong side of the road, with a big bus heading for us. At one point, the whole bus gasped in unison. After that, one of the Spanish ladies asked our guide, Provin, to say something so that we would feel safe. He did say something, but I am not sure any of us felt any safer. This is crazy driving, worse then Peru, worse then Spain, or anywhere else. Our guide said that this kind of driving had relatively low mortality rates, because everyone was going slow, and being careful, whereas they do the same kind of driving, on the freeway, at higher speeds. I can't wait (yes I can) to see that.

Our hotel room is quite rustic. We have a queen sized bed, very, very hard, and lots of wool blankets. The bathroom is huge. There is a shower head, and you just stand under it, and turn on the water. No enclosure of any kind. But it does have a flush toilet, and toilet paper. We stay there one more night, and then we are off again to a jungle retreat in Masinagudi. Hopefully, we will see some elephants, and birds.

So far India is pretty much what I expected. Chaotic to the max. Thus far, I feel the need to escape street life pretty quickly. After walking around for an hour or so, I am more than frazzled.And we have not even reached a big city yet. It is nice to be able to step inside an Internet cafe, or coffee house. I am sure Delhi will be over the top, but maybe I will be more used to it by then. I hope so. I am glad I read what I did, and I read a lot, so that I was not so totally shocked.

Not sure how much of a "retreat" we are going to. Not even sure how we are getting there, but I can tell you, that I am not looking forward to the trip down this "hill."

Hope everyone is well...
Susan


--
Susan Kuhn
Trip email: susanindia2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com