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This turned out to be the most amazing holiday of my life!! The place was S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R... ..
This turned out to be the most amazing holiday of my life!! The place was S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R and so were Mr. and Mrs. Vijay! Not to forget the food too!
After a bit of survey on a couple of travel sites, we narrowed down our final destination to Ooty 'Red Hill Nature Resort'! We got in touch with Mr. Vijay right away and got the room on the rear side of the resort booked for ourselves - our stay was scheduled for two nights in April(mid) of 2010. We were a bit apprehensive about the temperature during the day time, but were sure that the nights would be pleasantly cold.
We reached Ooty bus station in the wee hours of the morning. Mr. & Mrs. Vijay were kind enough to arrange for our ride to the Red Hills. We met Mr. Vijay's nephew at the bus station (who also own a home-stay, very close to the bus station) and since we wanted to freshen up a bit after a tiring bus journey, he offered to take us to his homestay to let us refreshen. Soon after, he offered us some hot coffee and that's when we met his wife too. We were immensely touched by such a cordial reception. Extremely friendly that they were, we chatted over coffee, and then made a move to head out to the Red Hills.
We travelled half the journey by car, and then we moved into this jeep to cover the terrain that followed. So we set out again and after quite a few bends and turns on the rocky tract, we were reached our destination. And this place felt like a dream! It was a beautiful morning, the sun shone brightly on the greens surrounding the bungalow from the British times, and yet the air was crisp and chilly. Standing at this point, we could see levels of tea plantation, sloping down, the green converging with the serene Avalanche lake below, in the backdrop of the enchanting Nilgiris. I was extremely smitten by the scenic beauty of this place. Things felt complete when I saw the room that we were to stay in. White walls with white Victorian windows all around, the floor, the furniture, the fireplace, transported me to the British era quite instantly! I quickly freshened up and got out, only to find Moby (Mr. Vijay's dog) standing there to welcome me! I screamed, but the big guy didn't budge, nor did he bark! He was as silent as he could be and looked blankly at me. Thankfully my guy came back from Mr. Vijay's. Maybe Moby did realize I was scared and turned around to walk away. We then headed out to breakfast. Moby was there waiting for us again. I quickly realized that this dog was to do no harm. (In my entire stay at the Red-Hill, I didn't know what this guy sounded like. All he wanted was for people to play with him. He was extremely friendly. And he was beautiful!)
Neatly set up, the dining area formed the central portion of the resort - the common meeting place of all people in the resort. The food was delicious (we had dosas, sambar, omelette, bread and butter for breakfast - (everyday was different)) and both of us ate to our heart's content! It was quintessentially home-made food. (We were only beginning to feel how great the food was also going to be for the next two days! Yummy! Hehe. My guy and I are both foodies! And this place seemed like heaven!!) Soon after, we met Mrs. Vijay and told her how much we enjoyed our meal!
In the afternoon, Mr. Vijay arranged for a trek for us, to the top of RedHills. Both of us had come in just a pair of flipflops each! Mr. Vijay was sweet enough to get us two pairs of trainers. We then changed into our gears and started for the trek. A group of three other people accompanied us - along with dog Moby! Moby was the brightest of all, he knew exactly which way to go and he'd patiently wait for everybody at a couple of milestones. The trek was not an easy one for me - considering I hadn't really moved around in some time, and the terrain sloping, and rugged! My guy was pretty active, as much as were the other people. I always kept lagging behind and Moby made sure I joined along! My cute lil guy also had to reduce his pace cuz of me! Haha. So there we were. We had conquered the Red Hill! The glistening Emerald lake below! Splendid! Our way back was quite tiresome, I slipped a couple of times and since it was beginning to get dark, we couldn't take the route via the dense forest. We had to cut through plantations along the outer edges, and that took us quite longer than what it would have otherwise. Luckily, Mr. Rajendran (a local guide) helped us with the way back. By the time I reached the resort, I felt like I had conquered the world. My body ached, but the pain felt sweet. Totally, we trekked for about 4 hours.
The next day, after breakfast, we headed out for a second trek through the tea plantations - this time downhill - to the Avalanche lake below. The trek wasn't as gruelling as the previous day, but it was quite a walk! We met a few villagers on the way and although we couldn't communicate with them in a particular language, they helped us out at a point where we thought we got lost! We finally reached the lake. It was placid. It looked beautiful. We sat there by the lakeside for about an hour and then headed back to the resort. Scrumptious as our lunch was, we felt like we had earned it! Hehe.
The time after that we were too tired to do anything else. We enjoyed every moment lazing around the resort. We hung out in the gardens, clicked some really great snaps, chilled out in the dining area, played some poker by the night - oh! that's when Mr. Vijay arranged for a bonfire. It was Saturday night. And just as people began to have some fun around the fire, it began to pour! Just what I wanted! It grew a lot chillier and I was enjoying every bit of it!
We were to leave the next day, and it felt quite disheartening to leave that place, back to the humdrum of a busy life! I thought to myself how lucky Mr. and Mrs. Vijay were! Mrs. Vijay was a sweetheart! I asked her for the recipes of sambar and daal and she patiently repeated them to me! We packed some yummy home made chocolates too for our friends back home! And the homegrown tea!
The calm of the place, the amicable people of this place, have got my sweetheart and me wanting to come back here!
(Oh forgot to mention, the second day when we decided to laze around, a group of people went for a ride into the national park there! We missed a leopard they all saw that day!)
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