Udagamandalam Things to Do Tips by muddybok

You see, I’m not exactly a slave driver nor like to ill treat people. But the dinner at King's Cliff is really a class of its own at Ooty, and they served with style at very easy pace. Ended up my auto driver given up waiting for me to finish off my dinner and drove back empty car. Not even bother to ask the restaurant manager to check when I will ready to go back town. Where is his professionalism man?

Poor me and my girl friend have to walk down 1km hill road (in the dark) and another 2-3km before we finally get another auto service. Not that I mind walking the first few kms, but not in the dark at remote area, going down hill in cool December night at hill station of Nilgiri. If I were to get mugged or biten by stray dogs that night, I will never forgive that driver…. forever.

Since the dinner in India generally start late, the dinner finished late and I ended up walking down the hill from King's Cliff Hotel in the dark (with small MagLite) overtime. Yes, that is the O.T. part of my Ooty trip.

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Nilgiri means "Blue Mountains". The entire area of the Blue Mountains constitutes the present district of Nilgiri. The height of the hills in the Blue Mountain range varies between 2,280 and 2,290 metres.

For RP360 per head, you can enjoy a full day trekking around Ooty hill stations. You'll trek passed various hill terrains and the guide will point to you some strange formation of hills, natural jungles and domestic plants, and etc. The guide also pointed out some barking deer's dropping and telling us that big cats such as tiger will normally found in places where barking deer lives.

Bring enough water and some biscuits. We even share out some of our tidbits with other tour members. One of our tour members even shares with us his discovery of delicious chocolates in Ooty town, and that was part of my PART III of Nilgiri trekking evening.

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Udagamandalam (a.k.a. Ooty) is the headquarters of Nilgiri district and is fondly known as the "Queen of hill stations" among the tourists. At 105 kilometres away from Coimbatore, you can catch the famous toy train (Nilgiri Mountain Railway UNESCO world heritage site) connects Ooty with Mettupalayam and Coonoor.

Nilgiris' charms are from its natural setting, steep hills and fantastically narrow valleys with numerous rivers and some awesome waterfalls provide beautiful scenery. Nilgiri is also the major tea growing areas in South India, and these tea plantations providing wonderful sights for passengers using the Nilgiri Mountain Railway toy train.

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Back in Malaysia, our Cameron Highlands tea planters do no need to grow some tree to shade the tea plants due to much gentle climate in Malaysia. For Nilgiris' planters, silver oak trees are often being the choice of shade trees for their tea plants.

Why do they need shade trees you may ask? The reason for shade trees in Nilgiri is attributed to its 4 seasons climate & frost can form and strike these tea plants by surprise. Having these silver oak trees is like having huge low maintenance green house to prevent frost bites to tea plants. Frequent exposure to frost will destroy the tea plants that normally taking decades to achieve its peak production.

Around mid spring, all excessive branches will be pruned from these silver oak trees, and those leaves will form part of the organic fertilizer for tea plants. New leaves and branches will grow just in time for late autumn & winter frost protection.

The first picture also shows some farmers covering tea plants with fern leaves to prevent sudden frost strike in early spring.

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Travel at maximum speed of 33 km per hour, the Ooty toy train treks across scenery plains, tea plantations, forests and some beautiful waterfalls at the distance. The train also passes 16 tunnels and tall girder bridges on the way, and kids will making howling noises when the train is going through the tunnels, make this toy train journey to Ooty, something not to be missed. Feel free to shout along with them if you care to let lose your hairs in such a hill station destination.

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Yes, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway is part of the Mountain Railways of India (UNESCO Site).
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/944

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In my earlier tips i mentioned about delicious chocolates at Ooty and this tips is suppose to be "Shopping" tips, but what a waste if you buy these fresh chocolates and not going to enjoy them over a good cup of tea or coffee. It will be a total waste if you buy them here in Ooty and try to eat them when they are melting or soften when you reach the low land.

It is quite surprise to me that you can find chocolates of such exceptional quality in Ooty at very reasonable price. And the chocolates also provide extra heat energy for you when the evening temperature drop to much lower reading as compare to day time at Nilgiri Highlands.

Better still if you bring some of these chocolates to your trekking trip and share them with strangers and it can be a very good ice breaker for people from different cultural backgrounds.

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Part of the trekking route is walk passed one Toda village where we have quick break & lunch. And we have great time chatted with our tour members. We share food, they asked us about our cameras and whether we're pros, we teach them some photographic tricks and we talked about our cultural practices. The girl in the green top with green house backdrop is a Jew and she is traveling with her dad to India during her school break.

We talked about festive celebration because Toda village is also preparing for the celebration next day. Then David (the dad) explained that the daughter's name is Sivan, which means the new (planting) season or renewal. And Sivan kind of shocked to learn that i cannot go to Israel because my passport is not valid there.

Since they are quite unlikely to visit Malaysia & i cannot visit Israel (technically), the trekking at Ooty is kind of great place to meet and talk to people of different cultural practices. Of course we're here to see the Tora village too. Click into extra pictures to see some village houses and people from Toda village.

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Sivan is the third month of the Jewish calendar. Traditionally it marks the time that the Jewish people became a nation by receiving the Torah at Sinai. According to tradition, the people arrived at Mt. Sinai on Rosh Chodesh Sivan.

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We always say we went places and we do people watching. But when you travel in India sub-continent, you'll the one being watched instead of you doing the people watching. Kids approached you, parents ask you to take photos with their families.

Don't feel intimidated when situation above happened to you because you still get to tour the country with so many people open up to you to learn about their culture and for you to share what is back home.

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I was told that once upon the time most of the Toda houses are built like this (temple) and due to external influences, Toda houses are now evolved to be like ordinary Indian village houses. Only the Toda temple still remains as it is and with the exception of circular pit lined with stones around the temple.

The entrance of Toda temple is small and closed with timber block probably to prevent kids or small cattle to go in. The old Toda houses also have small entrance in the past to mean for protection from the wild animals.

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Toda Religion (extract from Wikipedia)
According to the Todas, the goddess Teikirshy and her brother first created the sacred buffalo and then the first Toda man. The first Toda woman was created from the right rib of the first Toda man. The Toda religion also forbids them from walking across bridges, rivers must be crossed on foot, or swimming.

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The creation of 1st man & woman sounded so much like in Genesis.

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