The unplanned travel - The Ooty-Coonoor trip on May 01, 2008

People are afraid of the unknown; they want everything under control। Is it that they are afraid of facing the unknown or not ready to face the unknown?

The Planning

Monday April 21, 2008. Dada (Manas Kishore Sarkar, GIM batch-mate and now my flat-mate and colleague) comes and asks “what is the plan of the May 1^st? Are we going anywhere or not? If not then I will better go home rather than to stay here.” May first is on Thursday and if we take Friday off then we can have a long weekend of four days. We are not only suffering from work but also the heat so can't miss even a single chance. Till now Only Dada and I are there for the travel and places thought of are Munnar, Ooty and Coorg.

Vikas (Sharma, my second batch-mate, flat-mate and colleague) doesn't like outings very frequently and Gadia (Anshul Gadia, a TAPMI pass-out and my colleague and sector mate) can join us only on the weekend but only if we are going to Munnar since he had been to other two places.

I ask Ankur (Jaiswal, GIM batch-mate, now working at Bangalore, likes to be called Viper and people say so but with W ) if he is free on the weekend of May third and he can take leave on second May. He says, "Ya, its a good plan but will come only when there is a group of atleast 6 ppl."

Dada and i decide that since Munnar is not that big place to visit in 4 days so we should go to Ooty because there is one more place to visit nearby - Coonoor. First two days in Ooty and rest two in Coonoor.

Tuesday April 22, 2008. I check for the bookings of the train and buses to and from Ooty but no room. Everything is full; I check the Tatkal booking for the Nilgiri express from Chennai to Coimbatore. Dada takes the job of advance bookings of the hotel but is very busy so agrees to do it on Friday. He wants to travel in the Nilgiri hill train by any means. I check that also but long waitlist there too. My plan is to take the Nilgiri express from Chennai (MAS) to Metupalayam (MTP) and then take the Nilgiri passenger hill train from MTP to Udhagamandalam (UAM). and back the same way. No jhanjat of bus।

Friday April 25, 2008. I check the tatkal of Nilgiri express and all the night trains from Chennai to Coimbatore, but all are waitlisted. I had no companion other than Dada. No bookings and planning of four days. I get an idea that I have four days of holiday so can also go home. I check the prices of direct flight to Jaipur and these are cheaper than before: only 4800+ now. But मेरे अन्दर का यात्री कहीं ना कहीं कुल्बुल्ली कर रहा था। Secondly I can not say to Dada that i want to go home since when he asked me on Monday then i said that we two could go to visit together thinking that we would get some booking. Am I afraid of unknown???

We decide to check the returning Tatkal booking on Sunday. I am up till 4 in the night of Saturday but could not find any timings of Tatkal booking online. The website says online booking opens at 5 am without specifying the Tatkal booking. I sleep thinking it would be useless to stay awake if Tatkal opens at 8 am.

Its Sunday morning and i wake up at 11 am and when i check the website of IRCTC, I find out that the Nilgiri express is full. Means no booking at all. Luckily i see the Tatkal of Nilgiri passenger from UAM to Coonoor for our travel from Ooty to Coonoor. I booked it for Dada and myself. A start of our Ooty trip has been made.

Monday I get a call from Ankur saying there is holiday in GMR so Anshika (Khaitan, GIM batch-mate, now working at Bangalore) and Shriram (Karthik, GIM batch-mate, now working at Bangalore) can also join us. And if they do then he will also come.

The Doomsday

Wednesday April 30, 2008. Till now Dada have tried atleast 20 hotels but all are full during this weekend which really is scaring us. we get a feel how Ooty is going to look with crowd. I tell Ankur that we have no booking and are going unplanned. He says it will be his first travel without any planning and proper bookings. I hear from Ankur that he tried for bus bookings but didn't get any so will be coming by car. He will leave in the early morning and will reach by afternoon.

In the office I decide to leave by 6.30 and try my luck again for buses. Everyday i had been going to KPN travels in the hope that they start the special bus (as the counter guy said they do sometimes) or they release the VIP booking (which they keep in every bus) so that we get the seat in that. Finally I leave the office at 7 and reach the KPN office opposite my office.

The guy says it will be released by 7.30 and i wait for it. Now i get a hope that finally we will have booking in hand so that we don't have to worry. I wait till 8 to hear that only 1 seat out of 8 odd seats are released and rest are still blocked from head office. B#@$%& H@$$.

Then Dada and i decide to leave KPN and go to Koyambedu bus stand to check out the running buses. We pack our luggage and leave home by 9 pm. When we reach the main road we think of going to KPN the last time and check the seats but all in vain. As we are coming out of KPN travels we see a Fast track taxi dropping some people. I don't know how I get the idea but i ask Dada if he wants to go in that. We ask that guy about the charge for Koyambedu bus stand. He says it will be according to meter. In Chennai we have forgotten what is meter in a taxi. We say OK to the guy and get in.

When we are sitting inside and he got on the driving seat he starts the meter which shows Rs.150.00. The guy says minimum 150 for 6 km and then Rs.14 per km. Dada and I are looking at each other. I ask the driver how far is the bus stand but he says doesn't know. What an amazing taxi driver he is.

We go ahead crossing the traffic jam. One time I am looking at the meter other time I am looking at my watch which is racing with the meter. Approx. 9.40 we reach the Koyembedu bus stand with meter showing 175. We think its ok since we came in an AC vehicle. but the guy says 200. there are small numbers blinking and showing 30 which driver says is for waiting in the traffic jam.

We reach the bus stand and look for the buses. Some brokers standing there give the prices for the Coimbatore bus as 570 and 650 for the semi-sleeper bus. I have seen the price of non AC bus in KPN as 380 so don't accept and start bargaining. We go ahead inside the bus stand and ask almost all the counters but half of the counters don't serve Coimbatore. we only found a guying who takes us to a bus starting for Coim. He also quotes 570 and says its the last bus to Coim. We drop him too and went other side asking for the bus. No bus there too. but suddenly Dada collides with the same guy so we just decide to take the bus. He insists on 570 but we finally end up paying 550 and are happy to do the bargain successfully despite the language barrier.

Our journey starts now.

Thursday May 01, 2008. We reach Coimbatore at 9.00 in the morning. The driver of the bus tells us that we can get the bus to Ooty from the bus stand which is just 10 steps away. We go there and find that thats a local bus stand. Suddenly we see an add of volvo bus to Chennai at 9 pm. We ask for the returning bus of forth May but no seat in that. We drop the tension of returning and continue our journey.

We enter the other bus stand and our eyes widen seeing the longgggg queue for the Ooty bus. It looks as if the whole Tamil Nadu is going to Ooty this time. We have no option so we go and stand in the queue. There comes a taxi provider who says 400 per person for Ooty by Indica. We say 200 per person but he says no so we go ahead in the line. after 10 min another person comes and he directly says 200 per person. Dada and I look at each other with happiness but the guy makes a mistake. He said something 300 hundred which i didn't understand because of Tamil but we understood it as 200 for 1 and 300 for 2. We catch the point and started bargaining but he doesn't accept. We stay in the line. We are really sick of the line and the heat there. Suddenly the guy comes and says 300 is ok and we happily jump out of the line and go towards the Omni.

Ooty

The traffic is too much on the way so it is taking long time to go only 83 km. We cross Metupalayam then the hills start. The breeze becomes cooler but the feel is not like Kodaikanal. I see one waterfall and start taking the photos. I tried all the angles but could not take a proper photo of it. It took us 3 hours and when we reached Ooty it was 1 pm.

The taxi wala drops us at the station and now the fight for hotel starts. We take an auto and start looking for hotels. We go to many places but all are full. Then we find a hotel which is ok looking but have balcony too with not very high prices: Hotel Raguram. We instantly took it. We go in the rooms and see all over and realize it was not a good decision to take it. but no turning back now. Money has been paid. In one bathroom the WC is broken and in the other the wash basin is not working. one room doesn't have the TV then other room doesn't have the bulb in the bathroom. परवाह इल्लय atleast we have a place to stay in Ooty.

We get ready and go out to have lunch and then head towards Botanical garden. It is sooo crowded that i can't see the garden anymore. We get in and find a side which is closed for Janta so took a few snaps that side.

................

I get a call from Ankur saying they have just reached Ooty and taking the snaps somewhere on the way. I just lie down on the grass waiting for him to reach. They reach the garden by 6.30 and we head towards Hotel Monarch to have a coffee at The Willow Hill, the best place in Ooty for coffee and i love it. We have coffee and starters there and then leave for the market outside Botanical Garden. There is a fountain at the circle on the road which is very beautiful. We think of having dinner there first and then of taking snaps but when we finish our dinner and come out the fountain is off. We get back to hotel when Ankur, Anshika and Shriram get a shock after looking at the hotel. Ankur decides to go and find the another hotel in the morning to stay on second day.

Friday May 02, 2008. Ankur wakes up at 7.30 for finding the hotel but nobody else can make it so only Ankur and Anshika go out to find the hotel. When they come back we finally decide to stay back since most of the good places are full and those which have rooms are very expensive. We wake up and get ready to go out to Doddabetta the highest point in Nilgiris. The road to Doddabetta is totally jam packed. A driver of vehicle returning from there tells us that the traffic clearance will take atleast 2 hours. We park our vehicle and start walking. Some how we reach Doddabetta and have a amazing view of Ooty and Mettupalayam. I read in the print out I took of all the places to visit that you can see plains of Coimbatore and Mysore on a clear day and we are lucky that when we are here it is a sunny day. Then we head to wax museum which is really good, a bit small though.

On the way back we stop for lunch at Dhaba Express. Ankur tells that he has seen a hotel near that which is very nice and reasonable too: Hotel Ooty Gate. After getting the energy we move towards the lake. Dada and shriram go for boating. Later Dada, Ankur and I go for kart racing there. By the time we do the kart racing shriram and Anshika go for checking the ticket of hill train in station.

We finish all this by 6.30 so thought of going for a coffee again at some place like willow hill so Ankur gives an idea of Holiday Inn. We all are cursing him but agree without saying a word. We go there and order a coffee. It took late so everybody took something to eat too.

When we come out of the hotel it is 9.30 so we miss photos of that fountain today too. We then go to market and do some shopping. The bangalorians decide to visit Mysore on the last day which is sunday. So we think of leaving on the saturday night. It is of no use for two of us to stay back. Secondly if we can cover coonoor in one day then its better to have sunday for relaxing so that we reach office fully charged up.

Coonoor

Saturday May 03, 2008. Shriram gets up and goes to check general ticket of hill train for himself. Dada and I get ready and go for catching the train of 9.15 to coonoor. Ankur and Anshika will come in car. Shriram gets a second sitting ticket but the line of people for getting on the train is so long that he can only get to stand in the train. The train ride is simply awesome. something for which there are not appropriate words. We reach there in just one hour. Next we have breakfast there and go out to SIMS park. that is a nice park on hill with a pond inside.

We then ask for Lamb's rock and Dolphin Nose. Both the places are on the same road so we go to these places one by one. Lamb's rock is more of tracking path of 500 meters. But Dolphin Nose is the most memorable moment of our trip. the whole way is through nice tea gardens and there is a small waterfall on the way where we took photos.

...........

When we reach there the sun hides behind clouds and and the weather becomes very nice. We have a नारीअल पानी there and then go inside a tea garden. When we are coming out of it and think of leaving a bunch of cloud comes out of the valley and start rising. It goes past the nearby hill. It is looking really beautiful. We then start back for coonoor since its late and we have to catch the bus for chennai from coimbatore.

We reach coonoor bus stand at 6.30 and the bangalore people go to find a place to stay at night. Dada and i waited for one and a half hours for the bus. There is a broker shouting in Tamil on us and not letting us talk to any taxi person. So many taxis came and accommodated many people there who could speak tamil with that broker. I really felt like killing that guy there. !@#$%*^&

At 8.15 we get a taxi on which again that broker jumps to and starts shouting. but luckily we jump in. We then urges the driver to just drive and he leaves from there. Unluckily the driver takes the route via kotagiri. We reach coimbatore at 10.45 and went to the private bus operators. We get a semi sleeper in 380 but the last seats. Dada says whats there just take it and don't think. Its the time of the bus so the vendor says to stay back. But i give my mobile number and rush for dinner.

The bus ride

I have traveled in every kind of bus and in every kind of seats. But this bus driver is unbelievable. In my last trip to Kodaikanal I could not sleep because the taxi driver was dozing while driving. Today the driver is not letting us sleep. I think he is a fan of Speed Movie. He not only drove the bus like a crazy but also did all kinds of action with the bus. I was in air most of the times upto 6 inches. He was driving the bus in the style that he could manage to throw all the passengers in the air. Thanks to god we safely reach chennai on Sunday morning 9.30. At 10 we are back at home with good memories, nice experiences, new energy, body breaking exhaustion and what not...

Photographs by: Ankur, Manas and myself.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions posted in this blog are entirely personal to the writer and doesn't include anybody's comments or thinking. This blog is for fun reading and the writer of the blog doesn't bear any responsibility of any kind of loss or mishap occurred due to this blog. This web page may contain links to other web sites. The writer of the blog is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such websites.