To see our photos of Tanjure and Ooty, click on the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015740&id=1112916442&l=7913b1f92a
The final day at Madurai was very quiet, they finally stopped selling and went home!!!!
Since the temple at Madurai was completely under renovation, decided to go to Tanjure, another World Heritage listed temple town. The temple here was not painted, and was in very good condition considering its age. We were very popular with the locals, as soon as we sat down to rest, the hordes would come to talk to us, have their photo taken with us, or ask Peter to take their photo. They seem obsessed by cameras here, and have no hesitation in coming up for a look at photos on your camera. Wanting their photo taken with us seems to vary, but especially in the temples we get overrun with requests to be in a photo with them. It doesn't hurt us, but I do not understand why they would want our photo.
Tanjure also has a palace, but it is very run down, still we climbed to the top of the bell tower for a good view over the city. This part of Tamil Nadu is very flat (Cotton country) and very hot.
From Tanjure, we took a day bus to Coimbatore, which is quite a nice town, but wit no soecial features other than being a major junction for road and railways. The next morning saw us on the train at 5.15 am to catch a train, so we could then transfer onto the toy steam train which goes up to OOty. The toy train was bugger than we expected, with 3 carriages, and enough people for 4 carriages. Still, with perverse Indian logic, we all got on, though some of the clients were rather upset. It seemed that reservations did not count for much. So, up the hill we went stopping every 20 minutes or so to take on more water and admire the views. As we got higher, we went into tea country, which brought back memories of Munnar!! Also, lots of excellent views, even though it was a bit hazy. Arrived at Ooty about 12. Ooty is a fairly spread out town, which does not seem to really have a centre. If you were staying there, I am sure you would get to the different sights, but most things were more than walking distance. After a light lunch, we caught the bus back to Coimbatore (3 hours, rahter than nearly 7). still it was a fun day.
Then it was time to hit the road again, a day bus to Bangalore ( turned out to be about 11 hours as we got stopped for about an hour as a minister was opening a new bridge, and all traffic ceased. Of course, in typical Indian way, When the traffic wasn't moving, people drove up the other lane (for the people coming in the other direction), which created complete gridlock, and took quite a while to sort out. decided not to stay in Bangalore, so caught the night bus to Hampi, and got there about 6am, rather tired.
To see our photos of Tanjure and Ooty, click on the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015740&id=1112916442&l=7913b1f92a
