I checked myself into the dormitory of the local YWCA and immediately encountered 3 new friends, Bobbi, Naomi, and Laura, all from England, sitting in the ice-cold parlour. The YWCA was built back in the 20s or 30s and had a certain pre-war charm, the big open parlor, being one such feature.
When I got there, Bobbi, Naomi, and Laura were debating their next move to check out Ooty. In their Lonely Planet guide was listed a strange little attraction called a the Thread Garden. Described as a 'miracle' and the 'first ever in the world', it supposedly took 50 workers 12 years to construct it. We had no idea what a thread garden actually was, but clearly, with an intro like that, we had to check it out! So we packed our 4 bodies into one tight little auto-rickshaw and departed to learn the mysteries of the thread garden of Ooty. The best way to describe this place is a fake flower emporium. it was indoors and set around cutesy little garden paths and looked like a regular flower garden except everything-- from the petals to the leaves and stems- was constructed and finished with embroidery thread. The effect was adorable, but not quite the miracle we were expecting. If it weren't for the 80x zoom on my camera, i would not have been able to see any of the thread craftsmanship. For 10 rupees entry, it was still a fabulous bargain for such a bizarre attraction.
Next we partook of afternoon tea at the Mysore Maharaja's summer palace which is now a very posh guesthouse. the grounds were fabulous and we had to be carted around from the main building to the tea garden on a golf cart. there was an ornate ballroom and beautiful old black and white photos of palace times at the turn of the century. The brits and I enjoyed a round of tea (and hot chocolate for me!) and biscuits while in our backpacker grubby attire in the guesthouse's restaurant where the staff were better dressed and mannered than we could ever hope to be while travelling. It was a great little taste of posh living for an afternoon.
The next day I took a day tour of the surrounding area and was the love single person on a bus filled exclusively with couples-- or so i thought. I met an American guy and French girl, Brian and Laurie, who are travelling for 10 months around Asia and frequently masquerade as a married couple to avoid the incomprehension of local custom of the concept of travel buddies. We saw a waterfall, a forest reserve and a wildlife sanctuary on the tour and discovered that we were headed for the same next port of call so we decided to join forces to make our way into the state of Kerala to soak up the coastal fishing city of Cochin and the atmospheric backwaters immediately south.
To get from Ooty to Cochin, however, I would have to face death on the bus ride down out of the mountains. It took about 3 hours of terrifying hairpin turns and near collisions on the tiny mountain roads while trying to tune out a 200 decibel Bollywood film playing on the bus' TV. The conductor took a liking to me and sat me at the front of the bus to show his fondness-- Biggest mistake ever. At the front I had a head-on view of every single near-miss and new hairpin turn. With every acceleration and careening turn, I could picture the rickety bus rolling down the mountain and immediately wished I had taken out a life insurance policy. Near-death aside, the scenery was absolutely stunning- the stuff of travel brochures and national geographic specials, but things were so precarious i didn't want to extricate my camera. Luckily we made it to flat plains and smoother roads but then got held up in a town with a mob of people praying as it was Eid and every single Muslim man and boy was out at the town mosque. We arrived just as prayers were finishing and so everyone was flowing out of the grounds of the mosque and it basically looked like Wellington St on Canada Day after the fireworks- minus the drinking and debauchery. Helpless to drive further we had to sit in the sun for 30 minutes til the crowds dissipated and then finally moved on. Brian, Laurie, and I finally made it to Cochin after a full day's bus travel and thus began a couple of days in Kerala. More next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment