Last Weekend in Ooty

I spent last weekend in Ooty, about 3 hours by car northwest of Coimbatore in the Western Ghats. I had a great time and needed a break from work. It was really relaxing and absolutely beautiful- I ate great food and drank fresh tea, saw some beautiful mountains and wildlife and got to check out some gardens around town. Ooty is a ‘hill station’ (resort-y towns built at high elevations) created by the British in the 1800’s as the summer headquarters for the Madras (now Tamil Nadu) government. I can see why, the weather was great there, it was hard to come back to the heat of the Tamil Nadu plains!

The town of Ooty- almost at 8,000 feet, it didn’t feel like India. It was really cool, I actually had a fire in my room at night to stay warm. It was also really nice to be able to walk around and not sweat my ass off!

Adorable.

Tea Plantations- they look ripe for a good frolic but I hear there are three reasons why you might not want to: fertilizer, snakes and leaches. You’ve been warned.


They still are beautiful though, some of the most striking scenery I’ve ever seen!

I took the toy train down from Ooty, it's called a toy train because it rides on a very narrow gauge track. It was built in the 1800's by the Brits and it was a really charming way to leave Ooty. It still runs on a steam engine too, which is pretty cool and totally old-school!

There were great views from the train the entire ride down

This monkey was hanging out on the roof of a train station waiting for handouts- I saw a lot but didn’t get very many good pics.

Sunset in the Western Ghats.