Our bus ride into Ooty was...not pleasant. We had reclining seats for a comfortable night's sleep. The only problem being that if your feet were not propped up on the seat in front, when the bus braked hard (which happens very frequently on Indian roads) your whole body slides forward and almost underneath the seat in front. As Sean discovered. Rude awakening. Okay, so back to sleep. Mr. Snorer starts up behind, louder than the bus engine. We put in the earplugs. This helps a bit, but not enough to block out both him and the Snorer to our right, and the Snorer in front. A chorus of snores followed us through Karnataka right until our breakfast stop an hour outside of Ooty, where the winding road hairpins every 100metres. And so begins the chorus of travel sickness echoing around the bus. This only punctuated by Sean's shouts of; 'If you get travel sick don't travel on bloody buses!' Insert similar expletives wherever you like in that sentence.

We walked to the guesthouse which was a little haven from the rain descending above us. When the room contained no fan (a first for an Indian room) and only blankets and duvets, we wondered what the village had in store for us. We napped in the room before waking to watch 'Lost Boys: The Thirst' on our TV. We wouldn't recommend. So we left the room in search of comfort food; an Indian thali. When we saw the other westerners in Ski jackets and bobble hats, Sean began to wonder whether his wardrobe of shorts, t-shirts and flip flops was up to the challenge. When asked 'Are you not cold?!' Sean patriotically replied; 'No, I'm British!'.

The thali was heaven, locally made, and they clearly don't get a lot of westerners in there from the looks we were given and the fact we had to ask for spoons to eat it with. We're still not quite up to the Indian standard of eating curry with only one hand. Went for a walk into town for coffee, and then around the lake. Enough cold weather for one day, we headed back for a dinner in the guesthouse, made from home and served in the dining room. Bit of a novelty having a dining room and living room to chill out and eat our locally produced chocolates, but quickly remembered it wasn't actually our living room when the owners wanted to go to bed and so just turned off the lights... Back to the room for a couple of films but Sean was too tired to even finish a Bond film! Now that's saying something. Curled up in our blankets a much better night's sleep than we have had since Hampi, and we had a nice long lie in with more films in the morning.

The next day was Diwali so all of India was out in style and we were surrounded by fireworks all through the day and night. Unfortunately a combination of mist from the cold, and the smoke from so many of them, pretty much obliterated any good sights. We did the typical tourist things, going to the Tea Factory in the hills, even though there was no one working there due to the holiday, we still saw how the process was made. We then headed down to the lake for spicy sweet corn, a horseback ride around the lake, and a pedalo on the lake. We were greeted at all turns by handshakes and 'Happy Diwali!' and of course the ecstatic smiles of Indians seeing westerners.

We had a gorgeous lunch and dinner at the most local little restaurant by our guesthouse. The old guy running it was so cute, running around pleased to have guests at lunchtime, and then serving the locals and us at dinner. Really spicy thali and lovely dhal and rice for dinner, and we didn't have to ask for the spice! Kept us warm throughout the day, and the whole thing cost less than a fiver!

Ooty was pretty cold and rainy so we didn't venture out to the tea plantations themselves. But being in the cold and curling up in duvets was so reminiscent of being in England that any homesickness was cured and we were ready to get back to come Indian heat!!