Weekend Escapade - Ooty

Friday evening both of us surprised each other by coming home before dinner time and both of us were even more surprised when we told each other that we don’t plan to go to work in the weekend. Then suddenly out of the blue S said that lets get out of Bangalore for the weekend. And then we decided to drive to Ooty (the simple logic was we knew the route till Mysore and were confident we could figure out the rest). The drive till Mysore was good except (one could easily average a 110) for a bad patch at Mandya (there is less of road and more of potholes) and a speed breaker near Maddur which sort of sent us flying in the air. No one could have seen that speed breaker in the night, there is just no indication and when one is driving at 110 missing a speed breaker could prove to be quite a breaker. Thankfully we did not break anything. Since it was already 11.30 in the night when we reached Mysore we decided to spend the night there. Finding dinner at 12 in the night was quite a task in itself. Finally we discovered this road side stall which was still open and we got some rice; now I can’t recall what it was called but it was eatable and that is what mattered at that time. A much better idea would have been to stop at one of those hazzar dhabas we passed by in the highway.

Next day morning we made a quick trip to Chamundeshwari Hiills and then headed to Ooty. The guy at our hotel thouroughly confused us about the route to Ooty. He just kept repeating about there being a short cut but never actually explained how to find that one. We just decided to follow the directions on the raods and finally ended up taking the route through Bandipur and Mudumalai; with trees towering on both sides, it was a pretty sight all along. We also managed to see some wild life (read elephants, deer). Finally we reached Ooty some time in the afternoon and started looking for accommodation. We finally stayed in this place called Dannish Villa at sheddon road. The place is managed by club Mahindra. I liked the place a lot. The rooms are done in a very contemporary style (and come furnished with home theatres and huge LCD screen televisions and they have a decent collection of DVDs you can borrow from) and by the location of the place I am sure most of the rooms must have beautiful views and ours was no exception.

We spent the rest of the days driving all around Ooty and near by places. It was a good break from the hustle bustle of the city. The weather was just right, neither too cold nor too warm and the fresh air….how am I missing it. We lost our way a way too many times and the first time did not even know the address of the hotel so it was good fun trying to guess which way was our hotel(and all the roads look the same). I loved the fish in garlic sauce at ‘Toda Café’ and the coconut pudding at Savoy. I have bought enough chocolates to last me a year but I am sure I would manage to finish it in less than a month.

The only dampener was India’s loss to Bangladesh in the world cup. S still hasn’t recovered from it. Even Kimi winning the Melbourne Grand Prix on Sunday morning did not cheer him up. There also S finds himself in a funny dilemma; he is (was, not able to figure out) a McLaren supporter and a diehard Kimi fan; Ferrari was the ultimate enemy. But now that Kimi has changed colours S is sort of divided. He wants McLaren to do well but also wants Kimi to win every race. What a predicament! Anyways I have always cheered for the Ferrari so looks like finally we would be cheering for the same team which would also mean no more bets (there goes my few extra bucks!!) and watching these races together would become much less entertaining (albeit peaceful).