I scheduled an excellent state government bus from Bangalore to Ooty (English bastardization of the Tamil name Udagamandalam) which is a former British Raj hillstation. Elevation of Ooty is 7,300' and is just below the highest peak south of the Himalayas, Doddabetta, which tops at 8,605'.
The state government of each state runs a wide array of operations such as bus transport in various categories, hotels and the like. While the hotels tend to be somewhat run down (generally most were built in the late 60's early 70's) the bus system is very well run with web based ticketing, etc. I took one of the Airavat (Volvo) buses. As the crow flies it is 122 miles between Bangalore and Ooty. Bus trip took 10 hours with two 20 minute stops. Its not hard to calculate average speed but its around 12 miles an hour.
It was actually better than that because the road once you hit the mountains is very far from a straight line. Also making matter worse is the fact that there are two roads from Mysore (the nearest big city and one of the stops) to Ooty. The more direct way and the other which doubles the distance. The short, direct road has hair pin turns that cannot accommodate buses and large trucks. Even the long route just barely does so. Stopping for whoever is biggest and farther into the curve is standard practice as the road is only about one and half lanes wide in most places. Its often narrower where erosion for the 40+ inches of rain per year washes large chunks of pavement over the edge. Fortunately, we only fell into one of these gullies on one occasion.
After much spinning and burning of rubber, all were requested to exit the bus in order to reduce weight and with much rocking back and forth the driver extricated the vehicle and we got back on and continued.
Despite the very smooth ride of the very fancy bus, there was much upper digestive tract distress from the rear half of the bus. Fortunately I, through the excellent website had reserved the front seat with an excellent view out the front so no issues here.
I did no poll of the individuals who experienced distress but it appears many had taken part of the apparently delightful fried goodies at the two stops we made. I stuck with a few kela (incredibly delicious (far more than those available here) ) small bananas and some mango juice. But by the time we pulled into Ooty at 7pm I was ready for dinner. Unfortunately, because of the altitude (and thus temperatures) the incredibly delicious dosas, idlis and uthapam (which require grinding soaked rice and urad dalh (a tiny yellow split pea) and then letting them sit overnight like sourdough) are harder to come by here despite that they are staples of all south Indian food.
I did get one uthapam for lunch yesterday which was excellent. It was a tomato uthapam where they thinly slice the tomatoes and put them on top of the uthapam in a sort of pizza like fashion.
I should have scheduled more time in Ooty as its very delightful. Nights are cold, the elevation gets you above about 1/2 (the densest) of the continent wide smog, and its quiet at night.
Due to the high elevation tea is cultivated here (in addition to the Himalayas). The Nilgiri's (the Blue Hills) main export is tea cultivated on terraces on the hillsides.
Here are some of the tea plantations next to where I am staying.
I went to the main market yesterday which was the traditional type of stalls in tight formation with shredded traps overhead for shade (overhead for the average Indian but closer to eye height for someone at 6' tall.
With the exception of the Muslim section with its dead and alive animals of all sorts (and the ensuing intensely odoriferous atmosphere all those unrefrigerated animals create) the market, like the one in the little town I worked in in Madhya Pradesh is pure sensory overload with stalls of everything you can imagine from fruits and vegetables of varied and interesting forms all painstakingly stacked in geometric arrangements that are simply gorgeous, to candies and sweets, to rope and buckets, coconuts, spices, flowers, etc. Most stalls are segregated so most of the spice stalls are in one area, flower stalls in another, some stalls with just bananas of various varieties, so when you pass by the flower area you get the INTENSE aroma of jasmine, by the ginger stalls, intense ginger or cardamom.
It is overwhelming. This is not the sanitized, sealed and wrapped world we live in.
Here is a view of some of the hillside houses of Ooty.
The state government of each state runs a wide array of operations such as bus transport in various categories, hotels and the like. While the hotels tend to be somewhat run down (generally most were built in the late 60's early 70's) the bus system is very well run with web based ticketing, etc. I took one of the Airavat (Volvo) buses. As the crow flies it is 122 miles between Bangalore and Ooty. Bus trip took 10 hours with two 20 minute stops. Its not hard to calculate average speed but its around 12 miles an hour.
It was actually better than that because the road once you hit the mountains is very far from a straight line. Also making matter worse is the fact that there are two roads from Mysore (the nearest big city and one of the stops) to Ooty. The more direct way and the other which doubles the distance. The short, direct road has hair pin turns that cannot accommodate buses and large trucks. Even the long route just barely does so. Stopping for whoever is biggest and farther into the curve is standard practice as the road is only about one and half lanes wide in most places. Its often narrower where erosion for the 40+ inches of rain per year washes large chunks of pavement over the edge. Fortunately, we only fell into one of these gullies on one occasion.
After much spinning and burning of rubber, all were requested to exit the bus in order to reduce weight and with much rocking back and forth the driver extricated the vehicle and we got back on and continued.
Despite the very smooth ride of the very fancy bus, there was much upper digestive tract distress from the rear half of the bus. Fortunately I, through the excellent website had reserved the front seat with an excellent view out the front so no issues here.
I did no poll of the individuals who experienced distress but it appears many had taken part of the apparently delightful fried goodies at the two stops we made. I stuck with a few kela (incredibly delicious (far more than those available here) ) small bananas and some mango juice. But by the time we pulled into Ooty at 7pm I was ready for dinner. Unfortunately, because of the altitude (and thus temperatures) the incredibly delicious dosas, idlis and uthapam (which require grinding soaked rice and urad dalh (a tiny yellow split pea) and then letting them sit overnight like sourdough) are harder to come by here despite that they are staples of all south Indian food.
I did get one uthapam for lunch yesterday which was excellent. It was a tomato uthapam where they thinly slice the tomatoes and put them on top of the uthapam in a sort of pizza like fashion.
I should have scheduled more time in Ooty as its very delightful. Nights are cold, the elevation gets you above about 1/2 (the densest) of the continent wide smog, and its quiet at night.
Due to the high elevation tea is cultivated here (in addition to the Himalayas). The Nilgiri's (the Blue Hills) main export is tea cultivated on terraces on the hillsides.
Here are some of the tea plantations next to where I am staying.
I went to the main market yesterday which was the traditional type of stalls in tight formation with shredded traps overhead for shade (overhead for the average Indian but closer to eye height for someone at 6' tall.
With the exception of the Muslim section with its dead and alive animals of all sorts (and the ensuing intensely odoriferous atmosphere all those unrefrigerated animals create) the market, like the one in the little town I worked in in Madhya Pradesh is pure sensory overload with stalls of everything you can imagine from fruits and vegetables of varied and interesting forms all painstakingly stacked in geometric arrangements that are simply gorgeous, to candies and sweets, to rope and buckets, coconuts, spices, flowers, etc. Most stalls are segregated so most of the spice stalls are in one area, flower stalls in another, some stalls with just bananas of various varieties, so when you pass by the flower area you get the INTENSE aroma of jasmine, by the ginger stalls, intense ginger or cardamom.
It is overwhelming. This is not the sanitized, sealed and wrapped world we live in.
Here is a view of some of the hillside houses of Ooty.
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