India - Through Chris's Eyes

Wednesday 31st March

03:30 came and we jumped aboard the train that was to take us the two-hour trip to Metapulayam, from where we'd take the Nilgiri Mountain narrow gauge train up to Ooty. On arrival, we were told that the train had been cancelled as well so we yet again had to find alternatives to get us to the Hotel Darshan in Ooty.

We decided that a taxi was our best option. The road up the mountain, which rose to 3000ft above sea level, was a series of hairpin bends with huge drops to the side. Unbelievably it was incredibly busy with all number of transport types on the way. In places the road widened a little which only added to the already overtake-at-any-cost attitude which seemed to be the norm. At one stage a lorry was being overtaken by a bus which was being overtaken by a bike and all three being overtaken by us.

Eventually we arrived at the Hotel at about 8:30, I'm still not sure how but this was about 4hrs earlier than planned, very strange, but this is India and I expect stranger things will happen no doubt.

We were shown to our room, which was very nice with a large balcony area overlooking the lake. The temperature here had dropped to 22c on arrival and unbelievably we both had goosebumps. Shortly after we took what was meant to be a three-hour snooze, turned out to be six and a half hours but both of us needed it.

Took a little stroll into town to sort out Serena's mobile phone problems, they have very strange rulings over mobile use from state to state here and still she can receive messages but cannot send or phone.

Had some nice food in a Nepalese restaurant before walking back to the Hotel around 21:30. We had a quick coffee and took time to go through our photos we had taken along the way, then retired for the night.