I full day in and around Ooty was ahead of us.
We started with a visit to a nearby tea garden and processing facility in the morning. We enjoyed a guided tour around the tea garden, after which we were given an introduction to the processing steps … from the individual leaf to the final tea bag.
The majority of the tea produced here is black tea for the domestic market, most of it ending up tea-bagged. Very limited production of higher quality of white tea also takes place.
We got into Ooty after a long travel day; after some time to freshen up, we met again for a walk around town, a visit to the local market, serious shopping (with spice boxes in high demand) and – finally – dinner.
After dinner – on special request – we had a stop at the local wine store – a dodgy hole in the wall, that made many of us reconsider the need for alcohol. 😉
We left Kochi and headed inland towards the Nilgiris, first by train to Coimbatore and then continuing by private vehicles up to Ooty (at 2240 meters above sea level).
This evening saw us attending a Kathakali performance.
Kathakali is a traditional form of art in Kerala; Kathakali aims to tell a story through dancing and music. Costumes and make-up are grand and colorful; preparing the make-up already takes up hours. For more details on the origins, refer to this (very good) article in wikipedia.
The story, we saw, was a shortened version of Baka Vadha or Death of Baka, telling (or dancing) the story of Bhima deciding to fight the man-eating beast Baka, his encounter and struggle with Baka and finally his victory over the beast.
This gallery contains 8 photos.
The tour now had started; we stayed in Kochi for another day, which was spent with a tour around the major attractions. We kicked it of at Santa Cruz Cathedral and continued around the area, I had already explored the … Continue reading
As odd as it may sound … so far, I have kind of avoided traveling to India – mainly due to the ambiguous feedback, I did hear from others (in about 60% “Oh my god … so intense, never again”, the other 40% “I loved it, BUT …”). However, I had to make it eventually – so here I was … booked on a one month trip, covering two weeks in Southern India and two in the North.
My trip started with a flight to Delhi, a loooooooooong (9 hours) lay-over at Delhi airport (thanks to Air India for canceling my original flight) and a short hop down South to the coastal town of Kochi.
With the tour only starting in the evening, I had a good part of a day to start to explore the area … which I did – covering the main bits around Fort Kochi, including the beach, the Chinese Fishing Nets and the churches.
