I'm in Ooty right now with Rianna in our hotel room, trying to warm up after a morning going around the city in the cold rain and thick white fog. After staying up late into the night talking, we got up this morning and went out to breakfast at a nice hotel where I had an omelet and A LOT of tea! I really love the tea here. It's so sweet because it's made using milk instead of water, and especially in a climate like Ooty where it is cold and rainy it's a great way to warm up.
After breakfast we drove out to the lake and went on a boat ride. Rianna's host father (who is also the Youth Exchange Counselor for the Rotary club), another rotarian, Rianna and I all had a good time on the water, and Rianna and I couldn't help but laugh when her host dad borrowed one of her scarfs to wrap around his head and the other Rotarian came out wearing a pink jacket! When we got off the boats, we went on a short train ride on the Mini Train. We went along the side of the lake for a little while before turning back with a little jolt of the cars.
After finishing up down by the water, we started to walk back up towards the car where the two aunty's' were sitting to keep warm, but decided to go on a horseback ride! It was honestly a little scary...we both mounted up and a man walked the horses up a steep hill to the road and let go of the rains...at first I was really nervous, but my horse and Rianna's just followed one another, and apart from the one time when mine decided to cross the road in front of a bus it was a lot of fun and smiles!
We all piled into the car and took the two aunty's' to a spot where they wanted to do a bit of shopping, and the four of us left continued on up to the highest peak in the Nilgiri Hills- it was a telescope house at the very top! We drove for about ten minutes up narrow, windy streets through a thick cloud of white mist that had settled in among the trees around us. We reached the top and three of us (our group got smaller as everyone got colder!) walked a short way to the look out. Although we couldn't see any of the views, it was a really cool place, and it was a lot of fun when a big group of people insisted REALLY excitedly that Rianna and I take a photo with them! I guess the two of us MIGHT just be the only two blond Americans in all of South India...we definitely got a lot of attention from everyone since we were together!
4 comments:
woo hoo. i'm SO glad you came with us! i had a ton of fun...i'll see you soon
:)
Sounds like you had the same weather we're having this weekend. Right now, it's rainy and cold here, too.
Ooty sounds delightful, despite the foolhardy horse. :D We've had auto drivers with the same disregard for, um, large traffic items.
Have fun in school.
P.S. I, too, LOVE the tea! In fact, I think I'll make some here shortly. I'm feeling c-c-c-c-cold.
I also love it that you're now in the habit of referring to mom-age women as "the aunties." You have definitely acculturated. :D Cool!
And, yes, we've also experienced that same phenomenon of Indians wanting their photo taken with us, like we're some exotic, alien, film stars.
If we old people with dark hair (er, formerly dark) (and, um, in one case, formerly hair) get this celebrity treatment, I can only imagine that it must happen tenfold for a couple of young, fair, pretty blonde girls.
Make sure you insist that they let YOU click their photos as well! That seems to startle them, but it's fun — and we always get a chuckle out of those group-of-strangers photos later, too.
Sara
This was the exact same place where Surya told me that he going to the US...
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