Trip to Queen of Hills--2006

Ooty trip 17th and 18th June 2006

Yes…it was Friday evening..16th of June 2006!!

All of us were ready to board the bus for the trip to “Queen of Hills”, Ooty... (Udhakmandalam..)

Ooty is a hill station, situated at 280km from Bangalore. It’s a hill, which connects eastern and western ghats!

As planned earlier, Garima boarded the bus first and hand picked-up Vinoth, Selva, Niranjan, Srawan Uttam and Joy came to my house, where me and Bhanu were preparing extra rice keeping Uttam in mind!! (he was watching some excitement moments of football and discussing with Neeru) Around 10.30pm, we left our home and picked up Gayathri, who was waiting for us at Rajrajeshwari nagar gate.

Then our accountant, Bhanu collected Vinoth and Gayatri’s share before allowing them to get in to the bus!!

After crossing Kengeri we had a pit-stop. Where had some delicious food cooked by Gayathri, Joy and Selva...

Unfortunately, Uttam did not play his role and we were forced to waste the food!!

Then everyone settled in the TT listening to some nice songs from Gayatri’s Cds and the one recoded by Bhanu and Garima.

But when Bhanu tried to settle back, Srawan did not allow her as he was thinking about his future hi hi… (I think everyone remembers his dialog!! Yesssss..He wants become father…..)

When we opened our eyes, we saw Sun rays falling on us through Nilgiri trees and dew on the tea leaves reflecting the light! It was very cold, somewhere around 10 deg c.

At 6.30 am on 17th June, we checked-in at YHAI, Youth Hostelling Association of India.
YHAI provides accommodation for trekkers and branches are situated all over the world.

Where he had nice accommodation and food. After refreshing, there was a small (!!) photo session in front of the hostel. See the family photo below…


We finished our Break fast in a nearby restaurant, which nobody liked except our dear driver.

We went to Botanical garden, where we just paid the parking fees and came back J
As rain did not allow us to get down from the TT.

At around 1 PM, we went to lake and enjoyed the boating there..


After boating, we came to hostel, got refreshed, loaded the TT with sanks bags and went to Railway station to head to Mettupalyam by Toy train. We asked the driver to come to Mettupalyam by 6.30 pm and he told he will be there at the scheduled time. We boarded the train at 3.15 Pm. Since we had already booked the tickets, it was easy for us to get the seats in the very crowded train. Everyone enjoyed the toy train journey which was about 4 and half hours!!. We enjoyed the beauty of the nature by enjoying bread, butter, Jam and chips..

Neeru, Srawan, Uttam and Selva were enjoying in their own way and Gayathri, Bhanu and Vinoth were busy in locating (!) the reason for their enjoyment!

When we landed in Mettupalyam a great surprise was awaiting us. When called the driver, he told he was waiting for us at Coonnoor!!!. There was confusion for some time regarding going back to Coonnoor or Ooty or calling the driver to Mettupalyam.
To add spice to this, driver’s phone was not reachable!! Somehow we contacted him and finally he was coming to Mettuaplayam and we spent some 2 hours in Railway station waiting for him!



Finally, we went to Ooty by our TT!! at 10.30 pm
Since we had asked the hostel people to prepare the dinner for us, when we reached hostel, everything was ready. We enjoyed some good food!.
Since journey was tiresome, everyone was eager to sleep..With others being exception. As usual J


Next day, 18th June, 2006, our plan was to go to Doddabetta, Garden, 9th Mile and Paykara falls. So we woke-up early and left hostel to Doddabetta at 8.30 am after photo session….
We had plan to have bread, butter and Jam on the way, but as most of us were hungry he had the breakfast at Doddabetta.


Everyone we trying their hands in forming the bubbles with soap solutions. Neeru was very eager to have his snap with the bubbles J
We took many snaps there and enjoyed some great ice creams!

In the afternoon, we went to Botanical garden, where there was a loooooong session by Uttam, who was teaching Srawan, how to take the snaps!! (It was only theory session)

Joy did not come to see whole of the garden as he was not feeling well. Many things happened in the garden.. Gayathri, Bhanu and Selva had mini shopping there near garden.
Once again we had nice lunch in the hostel itself.

There was discussion regarding checking out of the hostel. Finally we decided to go to 9th mile and Paykara falls, come back to Ooty, have dinner and then check-out from the hostel.

After taking rest for some half an hour, we left to see 9th mile (without Joy, who was not well and was watching football) listening to some very good songs. Again Garima had good time with the driver there!!

9th Mile is place, which is 9 miles away from Ooty, on the way to Bangalore. It’s a hilly area, where cinema shooting is done. Very beautiful and all enjoyed there. specially Uttam J
Neeru & Horse: Neeru is very fond of horse riding and we all enjoyed his horse riding ;)

We have a very nice snap Neeru on horse without the horse hahaha…

We spent nearly an hour there and went to Paykara falls. At the entrance, security persons were not allowing us to enter in to falls as it was late..5.30 Pm. On our request, he allowed us inside and asked us to come back within 15 min..

Payakra is falls next to a beautiful lake, which is 8km away from 9th mile! We all enjoyed the wide water flowing between the rocks..

Many of us felt that it would have better if we had visited that place in the morning itself..it was thaaaaaat gooooood!

On our way back, we went to Botanical garden, where we had left our volley ball (which did not volley not even for single time!). Fortunately it was there in the ticket counter.
We purchased some chockos, Nilgiri oil, and cake and tea powder there.
We finished our dinner in the hostel and said good bye to very friendly people of Youth Hostel.

We left Ooty at 10.30 pm and on the way back we saw ‘Gilli’ a nice Tamil movie, although Uttam was enjoying in last seat..I mean he was sleeping ;)

I got down at Mysore at 3.30 am and rest came back to Bangalore.
Garima had last encounter with the driver, which is managed well J

When we came back, we had a complaint from someone saying that we did not allow that person to spend time with her husband..Sorry Gayathri!!! Better luck next time or next person…hahah

All in all it was a nice trip and I thank each and everyone for making this trip a memorable one!