We arrived in Munnar and spent 3 hours looking for a cheap place to stay and for two motorbikes to explore the area. We were carrying our full package, which means around 20kg each. We finally found an honest deal, so we finally dropped our stuff and went around the hilly city of Munnar to recover from backache.
The city itself is nothing particular beside a nice bazaar and a mosque, an Hindu temple and a church facing each other.
We estimated that there are more three wheelers than inhabitants in Munnar, and they are probably part of an organized mafia preventing tourists to rent motorbikes for a good price in order to sell them expensive taxi rides. And it worked... We had to rent a three wheeler for 4 hours to visit the surrounding area.

We kept enjoying all kind of Indian foods, but no way to remember the name of the dishes... from paneer to chapati, and from alu gobi masala dosa to curd idly: at every meal we got lost in the endless menu for 15 minutes, before a waiter comes to us to make us feel even more confused. Only certitude: always delicious!

The day after we left Kerala state to enter Tamil Nadu: 5 different buses brought us to Mettupalayam, where we reached around 8pm after a 9 hours journey. This place being totally non-tourist friendly we had to stick to the real Indian way of life, means we had to spend the night in an extremely dirty lodge, few meters away from the bus stand, and just above the only liquor store in town. Greatest moment of the day: when we realized that our pillows were smelling like urine. I won't talk about some other details to prevent hurting some reader's sensibility.... Good night!

We woke up 4.30am (it's becoming an habit now), and walked to the train station to catch a train to Ooty(Udhagamandalam).
We had to wait 2 hours, standing on the platform, until the station master decided to wake up and consider us... We were able to get the last 2 seats on board the only daily train!

Journey to Ooty covers 47km... in 6 hours. The train is being pushed (not pulled!) by a steam locomotive along very steep railroad tracks, and stops every 20 minutes to fill up the water tank of the engine. It felt like being somewhere in 19th century. Train ride could have been great, if leg room would have been larger than 10cm, if we could have a window seat, if we could be seated in the direction of the ride and so on... Finally the filling stops were the best moments to enjoy landscapes and stretch our legs.

This time we finally decided to drop our packs in a hotel before starting our guesthouse chase: took us one week but we made it!
We walked around the city for several hours to find a very cute place to sleep, and two big motorbikes to explore the beautiful Nilgiri mountains. Renting or buying a motorbike is the only way to go around without being scammed by taxi drivers all day long, and to have total freedom on itineraries and timing.

I never really drove a motorbike, and certainly not a 180ccm with 5 (or 6, I still don't know) gears. I had to learn by diving in the crowded Indian streets, on the left hand side of course, with no real traffic rules except ringing horn all the time to let the others know about my presence. Finally I found it's much safer than in other places, mostly because the speed downtown never goes above 20km/h.
Things changes a bit by leaving the city, mountains roads are much more dangerous: cows sitting in the middle of the road right after a blind curve, school buses taking over and overrunning on your lane on a very narrow bridge and so on. So one really has to be careful, main rule is: always use horn and never use front brake, unless for emergency.

After after a few hours on the road we reached something close to the Indian way of driving, so we could enjoy the wonderful mountain roads, and we were able to use gears higher than 2!

We started our tour with a 100km ride, stopping from time to time for a hot tea, or simply to enjoy the view over the endless tea fields.
Randomly, we stopped in a very remote village, and started walking across the paths. Soon, we were invited to join a family for lunch: salty chips and bananas. When we first arrived, about 10 people were here. After a few minutes, something like 40 people were around, most of them popped out from the house, others came from other parts of village. We were treated like kings, and were introduced to a god-child: a 12 years old girl, dressed like some Hindu divinity. She was living beside the rest of the family, and kept in a separate room, sitting all day long like a statue. Every family member was making continuous donation to this young girl, which seemed to make her a bit overtaken by all this attentions.

In the evening we decided to try some other kind of food: we went to a Chinese restaurant where we had what I consider one of the worst meals I had in my entire life.
We learned a lesson: eat Chinese food in China, and Indian food in India.

By the end of the day, I developed a pretty strong flu. My friend Phil was luckier, and he kept exploring the area while I was stuck in bed fighting against fever and some other funny intestinal issues. Unfortunately Phil had to experience one of the front brake emergency: a school bus was overtaking a big truck just behind a bend, and overrun Phil's lane... To avoid tasting bus's bumper, he pulled front brake, wheel started slipping and Phil started flying. Nothing serious, just some superficial scratches. Of course bus just kept going.. it's probably normal for drivers to
bring down motorbikes like bowling pins.