When I went to Ooty

There I saw a Kutty (sometimes changed to Mammooty)

Sitting on a Chatti (pot)

Eating a plate of Rotti (bread)

My brats are singing in the Toyota Innova we hired, cousins, and us on a short trip to Ooty. The drive up was long from Trichur where we all assembled and started our trip. The hairpin bends up to OOty got our driver sick. Anyway, he got us there safe and went to sleep after puking. My hubby’s Doctor Cousin and hubby were the others with us and since they knew about Ooty more we were on a conducted tour.  Surprisingly, with no pre-conceived ideas my hubby decided to relax and go with the flow. Ah peace! :)

Do you know what is the one necessary requirement your co-travelers should have? Love for food! If that is there the trip is already a hit. We were to reach Ooty for lunch and leave the next day before lunch.

My hubby starts ranting if we cannot find a good bathroom and his cousin the doc was equally finicky about public bathrooms and roads – Did I mention that she lives in Adelaide, Australia? There I was thinking… we had better find a good place or else they will go on a crusade against the country.

However, the doc’s hubby who went to school in Ooty in one of the famous residential schools of the hill station had found us a lovely place called King’s Cliff, which had a good view and must have been an Englishman’s house of yore. They have nine rooms and all called after Shakespearean characters - we were in Othello! Gulp! I even saw an Iago room there.

We had a small sitting area then the bedroom with a fireplace, a dressing area, and the bathroom. The bedroom had a bouncy bed and a beautiful green chair near the fireplace. The tariff included breakfast and lunch and we tucked into some fabulous food on the lawn under a garden tent where the breeze would come in now and then with chilly air and none of us had any warm clothing.

Brr brr! After having a Minestrone soup, Mahe Dum Biriyani which has fish and not chicken – a revelation to me, Kheema kulcha, chicken do pyaaja, beef steaks, butter chicken,vegetable fricassee and tiny scoops of ice cream which tasted like homemade ones,  we walked down to Charing Cross and then took an auto rickshaw to the lake.

The boating was good… the water is green and dirty said the boatman the lake being a catchment area the water fills up and never leaves. After that, the brats did some bumping cars and 3-D shows and my smaller son came out howling! We had roasted corn, cotton candy, sugarcane juice, and even fresh carrots with their green leaves on.

Finally, we did horse riding. I was on the tallest horse and it was a she named Rani and she was no scrawny emaciated horse but a huge powerful animal. So when her reins got entangled with my hubby’s horse’s reins she shook her head vigorously and I feared she may gallop away. I thought of Christopher Reeve for a moment and went Gulp! However, nothing happened we went for a long trot, the kids and us and it was a treat!

Horse riding on the road made people going and coming look out at us, we all did some cowboy like poses, clicks and all hubby I bet imagined he was Clint Eastwood. As we got off there were some goras waiting to ride the horses and they sat on the horses as if to say - this is how the real cowboys do it. However, on closer observation they were also hanging on to the horses for dear life. Horse riding got Superman paralyzed; well you cannot help being a little scared.

Shopped for sweaters as the evening came and Eucalyptus oil, Vanilla, and tea for people back home. By the way I have no clue what to do with the Vanilla any ideas anyone? Then we headed back to King’s Cliff where the fireplace was lit and watched Rajnikanth's film Arunachalam – “a copy of Brewster’s Millions”, I announced as soon as I saw the old Rajnikanth giving the conditions for his inheritance to his son. Both men did not care they wanted to see some Rajni antics.

Next day everyone had a good breakfast buffet to choose from with croissants, brown toasts, oats, mashed potatoes, masala omelettes, sambaar vadas, rotis and dal and for some reason sausages were not on the house and you only get four for 50 rupees. The men made a note on the feedback form they provided about this.

Went to the Botanical garden, enjoyed some lovely flowers and ferns, and felt tempted to go back for the flower show in May as most of the plants were full of tiny buds and they are to all bloom together and wow then. After this we headed back home with the brats singing… the song at the beginning of the post! When I went to Ooty... la la la la!

P.S. Was busy at home a lot of things happened will blog about it soon but wanted to get the Ooty post out first as its fresh. Waiting to catch up with all Ilanders now.