We went to Connoor. All we saw were cliffs, valleys and generic tea estates. There is a small botanical garden called Sim’s Park which was in full bloom. Ironically, this smaller sister of Ooty’s Botanical Garden had better flora than its elder sibling.
Some random shots of flowers to show off my camera.
Some more camera-show-off stuff.
A group of kids were drawing in Sim’s Park. I thought that they were doing still life. To my dismay, they were drawing Mosques and Minarets.
Singara Tea Estate owned by Mumtaz, the erstwhile Bollywood actress.
By the time we finished our site seeing tour, it was pretty late. Even the dim visibility of dusk couldn’t dim the enthusiasm of the tourists.
Boats and People in Ooty’s boat house.
We had a lot of time to spare. We walked back to Cherring Cross to have our food. I can recommend Nahar’s Sidewalk Cafe for its Pizzas. For a pure vegeterian restaurant, it was excellent.
In the evening, we walked around the entire Ooty market that stretched from the Railway Station to Cherring Cross.
A bitter aftertaste: We had a bad driver at Ooty
The travel desk at Woodberry’s Resort was outsourced. The agency had fixed their rates which were made available by the hotel. Sadly, they couldn’t contact the agency. So, they contacted an individual driver, Franklin, to escort us. He drove us around for the first day but did not want to go to Connoor on the second day. Instead, he contacted another guy, Prabhat, who took us around Connoor and Ooty. At this point of time Franklin quoted a cumulative price of 2600 INR. By the time we were done with the tour, he demanded we pay a total of 3100 INR over the phone. After some argument, I gave Prabhat the remainder of the money because it was still less than the travel agency’s rates (and I was too sick to argue).
Later he started bugging us and even stood at the bus stand waiting for us. He demanded we pay him at the agency’s rate of 3400 INR because he was setup by the hotel. I did not get the rationale. He was not from the agency and jacking up the price twice did not make sense. Since my mom and sister was with me, I did not want any trouble. After a lot of altercation and knowing that safety was more important than 300 rupees, I shooed him away. In the end, the bitter aftertaste was not because of the money. I was anyways ready to pay the agency’s price if the agency had sent a cab. It was about the way Franklin had handled the business and stalked us.
I will not recommend Woodberry’s Travel Desk for this reason alone although the hotel (and its food) was pretty good. If you decide to stay there, arrange the cab yourself.