10/21/10 on to Munnar

Woke up this morning at the Y to what I gathered to be Muslim chants broadcasting from loudspeakers.  They seemed to be emanating from the city center.  That's just fine as it made for a perfect alarm clock 5 am in the morning.  Took a "tabot" shower, gathered my belongings and headed for the Ooty bus station.  On my way I spotted a tea shop and settled in for a few minutes with a milk tea.  It was nice taking in the town as it slowly began to wake up.

On the bus, I soon befriended a British couple visiting India for 2.5 weeks.  They were only my 3rd sighting of foreigners in as many days.  We alternated between watching the gorgeous scenery of the Nilgiri Mountain ranges and talking about our personal history.  Robert was a retired British Airways employee.  I never did catch Jeanie's line of work but I swear that she's a spitting image of Helen Mirren.  After the bus, the three of us soon discovered that three people could fit into an auto rickshaw filled with our belongings.  Over stuffed, the "auto" meandered towards the train station where Robert and Jeanie hopped off.  We said our goodbyes and off I went taxied in the same auto to the Ukkadam bus station.

After another round of "Frogger", I made my way to the Munnar platform where I soon found myself buying a milk tea and two Aloo Somosas.  I spied a coconut vendor and bought myself some coconut water straight out of a real coconut.  Ahhh!!!

As I was minding my own business waiting for the 2:15 pm train to Munnar, a male police officer waved me into his office where another lady was sitting behind her desk.  I had been waiting near there thinking it was the safest spot at the station.  After routine questions of "Where are you from?", "Where are you going?", I soon found that they were puzzled at why a Chinese guy was in Coimbatore.  We made friends real quick and I was quickly introduced by the male officer to another lady officer as his "friend visiting from America!".  The other lady sitting behind the desk was a Computer Science college student named Sonja.  After another round of friendly and funny exchanges with the lady officer, she stepped outside and whistled over to one of the snack kiosks to fetch me some milk tea.  How nice!  I was really started to have fun as more officers came to have a laugh, when I found myself being ushered out of the office by Sonya to catch the last bus out to Munnar.

While on the bus, I was yet again the center of attention, this time amongst my fellow passengers.  One particular fellow who looked like a bum, gave me somewhat of a hard time.  He kept asking in Tamil (the major language in the area) for things to eat, my telephone number, to take him to America(holding my arm in the process), money, etc.  Another passenger Srinath whom I later befriended acted as the translator, begrudgingly I might add.  Starting to look annoyed, the "bum" translated through Srinath that he was only having "jolly".  He even produced what looked like 10,000 Rs from the folds of his Longi.  After the guy exited the bus, Srinath relayed that he was an unscrupulous pick pocket.  Needless to say I checked my pockets and found all to be in order.  Relieved, I began asking Srinath about himself.  He was a Mechanical Engineer college student on his way home for a break.  We soon exchanged e-mail addresses and then he was gone.  Seems like traveling involves a lot of brief friendships.

It soon got dark out and I was still on the bus to Munnar!!!  I began to worry if I would be able to find the homestay Matthias recommended.  After 13.5 hrs on the road, I luckily found myself in an auto rickshaw taking me to my destination.  Without a proper meal all day, I hunkered down to what I hope to be a restful night in a $5/night homestay.