How to escape the heat - head to Ooty!

At the end of April my wonderful girlfriend would head out from the UK to join me.  As a fellow VSO from The Gambia, Lucy didn’t hesitate to help me with work at Kankia School.  We headed to school by bicycle - temperatures were still in the "cool" 30s.  We arrived without mishap, despite the trucks, although I think Lucy would have preferred to have travelled on her VSO motorbike!

Off to school, cool hat there Ms. Hepburn!

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" proved very popular

Pottery made by the students after an amazing lesson - check out the elephant!

After a few days at school it was time to head off travelling.  April and May are the worst months for high heat in Orissa - my plans were to head somewhere cool and that would mean finding a hill station. The closest (and highest) was Udhagamandalam - or more sensibly known as Ooty (from it's colonial name Ootacamund).  We would get the overnight Coromandel sleeper down the coast to Chennai (formerly Madras), before flying across the state of Tamil Nadu to Coimbatore.  Chennai is a hectic coastal city with a population of over nine million - I think every one of them seemed to be on roads as we drove across town to our hotel.  After freshening up we headed to a tapas bar for calamari, tenderloin steak, chorizo and a mojito or two.  

After a lazy day (including a visit to the oasis that is the Amethyst Cafe for scarf purchasing) we took the short flight to Coimbatore.  The following day we would make the train journey up to Mettupalayam (the names don’t get any easier) where our hotel would pick us up.  The original plan was to get the mountain railway to climb up the 7,000ft - but the fact it takes five hours to cover the twenty eight miles (and my lack of planning) meant we settled for a taxi, which took an hour and a half instead.  In fairness the driver wasn't that crazy (by Puri taxi driver standards) - we only occasionally overtook on blind bends!

Our hotel in Ooty would be a former tea plantation owner's house - The King's Cliff.   All rooms in the hotel were "themed after Shakespearean plays" (I think that was pushing it - name after would be more realistic).  We were lucky enough to get “Midsummer” with its own fireplace (and daily supply of logs).  At night you definitely needed the fire, the temperatures were refreshingly cold.  Fleeces were needed during the evenings/mornings (thanks again to Lucy).

Always happy with a real fireplace in the "Midsummer" room

The King's Cliff Hotel in Ooty

During the next four days we would visit the local rose garden, the botanical gardens (very busy when we actually found it!), the mountain railway (for a shorter one hour ride) and the neighbouring town of Coonoor.  My only hiccup in the whole trip (bear in mind this is India) would be arriving at Ooty train station a day early.  Only when the ticket inspector checked our tickets did I realise the goof - and I almost got away with it!

Ooty Rose Gardens

A true rose among roses

Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the drivers are getting a lot younger!

The trip to Coonoor (by mountain railway on the correct day) allowed us to enjoy lunch at the Taj Garden Retreat before heading to the Lamb's Rock - a viewing point right on the edge of Nilgiri Mountains.  We headed out by auto-rickshaw and then decided to walk back through the amazing tea plantations, stopping off for a refreshing coconut drink (monkeys permitting).  Near the end of the walk I wasn't too sure of the route into town, so I flagged down an auto.  Lucy carried on walking oblivious to my plan (I hadn't shared it to be fair).  The look on her face as we pulled along side her and asked if she wanted a lift, priceless!  On the return mountain railway journey we experienced the strange phenomena of Indians cheering every tunnel we passed through - and also taking photos of one another!  I’m sure there are tunnels on the regular railways?

At Lamb's Rock, Mettupalayam 7,000 ft below

A refreshing coconut drink in the tea plantations

After our time in Ooty we headed home via Mumbai with a brief stay in Puri.  Planes in India are becoming more like buses.  Our flight from Coimbatore was destined for Kolkata with stops in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar (where we hopped off).  Our hotel in Puri (The Kandhara) was an amazing oasis only a few metres from the bustling main road, we pretty much had the whole hotel (with pool) to ourselves.

Gandhara Hotel in Puri, our very own little hotel

The best way to escape the 40+ degree heat

We headed back to Gram Vikas a day early as Konkia School were holding a Parents' Day; I was urgently needed to help edit a five hour epic video down to a more watchable one hour for the parents. As a heat-wave had moved in (temperatures in the 40s) I decided against cycling to school, instead catching a lift on a motorbike.  Despite the knowledge we were heading to Kankia my project co-ordinator friend managed to forget his passenger and we sailed past the school.  After a kilometre or so I managed to make contact with Sarat and we returned back to school.  My return journey would also be fun - the local GV nurse wondered if I could ride her scooter back (with her riding pillion).  It was fun whizzing back down the road, dodging water buffalo and cows while receiving commands to "use horn" or "go slow".  We made it back in one bit.

  

Lucy originally planned to return home after three weeks - but as the real trooper that she is she extended for a further week to help out with the teacher training workshop.  Had she known the temperatures would keep soaring (and the power supply become more intermittent) I'm not sure she would have been quite so keen to stay (although she did get to spend more time with me).  Her primary school expertise was ever so valuable - a room at Kankia School has now been named after her.
(I made that bit up)   

Lucy helps Debendra with an ice-breaker, or is it the start of the hokey-cokey?

To finish off the trip (and to escape the temperatures) we headed to Bhubaneswar for the last couple of days - a hotel with a swimming pool and air conditioning was in order and one that sold model Ganeshas! The Trident Hotel was perfect with excellent service - we even had a decent bottle of chilled white wine!  Thanks Lucy x.