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Leaving Pondy we decide to catch an overnight bus up to the Western Ghats, the mountainous region in the centre of India. Our destination was the hill station, Kodaikanal. Hill stations were the famous escape locations for the British, with their heavy rain and cold temperatures any home sick Brit could feel right-at-home, so many migrated up and built little pieces of England, stone churches and cottages and common sights. The most famous hill station in India is known as Ooty, but we had read its been over commercialised and the old stone cottages have been turned into nasty high rise concrete hotels. So we picked Kodai and rumbled into town on the bus at 9am. After checking in to a hostel we went out for an early lunch and ordered a Thali, easily the greatest meal you can eat in India. The thali is a giant tray with 6-8 small bowls inside. In each bowl is a different sort of curry, dry, wet, saucy, mild, spicy and inside the tray goes a large portion of rice, and its often accompanied with some popadoms. With your pick-n-mix special of 8 different flavourer's and textures of curry its great value, but its also an all-you-can-eat affair, the waiters won't stop filling your plate. All for less than a pound. Brilliant. We had planned to go walking in the surrounding forests and hills around Kodai but the weather had other ideas and heavy fog left us with about 10m of visibility so we stayed in the town and explored around. We found the beautiful man-made lake at the end of the town and by 4 the fog had cleared enough to hire a boat and peddle our swan the 4km around the lake. It was all very quaint and relaxing, eating chocolate, admiring the lake district style view and peddling a swan at a snails pace around the lake. In the morning the weather was still clear and the view down into the valley was amazing, almost on a par with Nepal, just minus the snow capped peaks. We walked along Coakers path and talked to the local families doing their stretches and waving their arms around, 'Enjoying your morning exercise?' 'Yes thank you'. We packed up and took the bus to Madurai, to catch a train down to Trivandrum. Cooper Out Love Dan & Kat
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