Its tea time

Another indian town, done and dusted. Leaving ooty today after an extremely pleasant time here. Ooty is at 2200m so its much cooler than most places in the south and I've actually had to use my jacket! Ooty is a lovely indian town, nestled in the mountains and surrounded by tea plantations and old colonial styles it brings a bit of home into the craziness that is india! Now when i say it brings a bit of home to india, don't think this means typical english at all. Instead imagine the odd tea shop selling something that resembles a cake, and sugary sweet milky tea alongside a stall selling caged chickens and perhaps a motorbike repair stall. This is how the british managed to come into india, squashed between every day life.

Lloyd, emily and I thought out would be nice to hike to the highest point in southern india. We were hoping to find the forest trail that leads up but eventually settled for the road. The walk up was beautiful but the top was spoilt by a crowd of tourists and a paid entrance to the view. The complete commercialisation of the top want enough to ruin it but we didn't linger long, and headed back down the road to enjoy the more peaceful views on the way.

On the way down we stopped at a tea plantation and watched briefly how tea is made before being able to sample it. I've bought some masala tea I'm looking forward to trying.

I have to admit a did spend quite a lot of time in our antique hotel reading and enjoying the atmosphere while drinking loads of unsweetened tea.

I'm now in the sivananda ashram near madurai and enjoying the peace and quiet out here. Very few cars hooting and no staring eyes. (yesterday while waiting for the train I felt so uncomfortable being started at my disgusting teenage boys that I had to go into the paid waiting room to avoid the looks).