This time we did it with our full family. Since my Mum-in-law (mummy) had not visited Ooty even once, we decided we will make this trip a memorable one for her. So we invited my dad & mum also to this trip . Mera parivar sukhi parivar :-)
Reached Ooty on 9th evening. We got our booking done for 2 nights in Regency Villa (property belongs to Mysore Maharaja). Got two cottages for ourselves. By Weather was wintry that our beds seemed to be moist all the time. Walking barefoot was out of question that night. We were forced to sleep straight..why?? you must be wondering J Coz the moment we moved, the place we had warmed up by sleeping would feel moist again J And that chilly weather our daughter was happily sleeping outside her blanket. Had to open my eyes most of the time to check on her..if she was covered or out of her blanket.
Got up early on 10th morning. Bangalore would have made me sleep till 9.00 or 10.00 A.M. but I was wide awake by 7.00A.M. And surprisingly daughter was also awake and ready to get out of the cottage. She was all excited by the weather and the mountains. All of us decided to have hot tea/ coffee and decided on trip to Coonoor. Husband drove the car to Coonoor and I with my family came by the Ooty Coonoor local train. Cost per head was just Rs.5/- Someone had asked us to sit on the right side of the train to enjoy the scenic view of Ooty Coonoor journey. Well we did…but it so turned out the train was going the other way round J so we were ultimately sitting on the wrong side of the train.hehehe. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the journey will the crowd screaming whenever there were tunnels coming in. The distance is 19kms and took an hour to reach our destination. It was perfect timing, hubby also made it on time. We got into our Car went straight to SIMS park. Nicely maintained park with lots of trees of different sizes and shapes. Quite a huge park..rather garden. Daughter wanted to go in for a boat ride (horribly crowded and water was dirty), but we somehow managed to convince her out of it by showing her the fishes in the pond. We also bought some seeds and plants at a reasonable price in this place and decided it was time for us to go. On our way out we found a lady selling Rudraskha beads for Rs.3/- per bead. Mum-in-law bought some of those. Had some mirchi bajjis & chai at a small shop outside the park.
At around 3.00 we decided to visit one of cousins who stays in Coonoor. Her husband works with Navy and is currently based Coonoor Army quarters to complete his Masters. They took us around their campus….beautifully maintained. What pride one gets to see the army base. The central area of the army quarters had a circle in memory of thousands of martyrs who had fought for the country. Around 5.30 or so we headed back to Ooty. Short walk in the market area, did some shopping and back to our room.
11th morning we decided to visit the Mysore(in Ooty) Maharaja’s Palace area. At 9.30 we were there. It was 5 mins walk from our cottage. Wow!! Amazing palace…loads of wood work..beautiful paintings…royal chairs & sofas…large dining hall…extra large modern kitchen which had a hidden underground path way to the dining area…huge party hall with royal interiors and a Piano too (shooting done for a lot of hindi & tamil movies here). We also got the opportunity to have a look at the Maharaja’s room and his sons rooms. Beautiful!!! King & Queen size beds with footrest, paintings to remind you of the royalty, Dressing table with large 3 sided mirrors. The washroom we thought would be old styled…but again this had been done up with the latest of the shower area, llllarrrge mirror again, hair dryer, bathtub. Anything & everything present there. Oh yes, not to forget the lovely fireplace which was artistically done. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pics of any of these. Fyi,this place is now being converted to 5 star or 7 star hotel rooms and would be charged 15000- 25000Rs per night. Can u imagine!! We atleast got to see it for free :-) The whole place was done up with wood work and to give it a more personal touch they had put up all the childhood photographs of Maharaja & his family and friends. After complete satisfaction of visiting this place, it was time for us to check out. By the way, a cup of tea/ coffee/ milk would cost you Rs.50/- each :-) So we didn’t really have anything to eat in this place. Our breakfast, lunch & dinner was mostly at Saravana Bhavan(reasonably priced and tasty food). Checked out at 11.30 or so and went to Rose garden. Again like last time Ahana loved the greenery…wanted to play on the grass lawns for long but it was time for us to leave for Bangalore.
Reached Ooty on 9th evening. We got our booking done for 2 nights in Regency Villa (property belongs to Mysore Maharaja). Got two cottages for ourselves. By Weather was wintry that our beds seemed to be moist all the time. Walking barefoot was out of question that night. We were forced to sleep straight..why?? you must be wondering J Coz the moment we moved, the place we had warmed up by sleeping would feel moist again J And that chilly weather our daughter was happily sleeping outside her blanket. Had to open my eyes most of the time to check on her..if she was covered or out of her blanket.
Got up early on 10th morning. Bangalore would have made me sleep till 9.00 or 10.00 A.M. but I was wide awake by 7.00A.M. And surprisingly daughter was also awake and ready to get out of the cottage. She was all excited by the weather and the mountains. All of us decided to have hot tea/ coffee and decided on trip to Coonoor. Husband drove the car to Coonoor and I with my family came by the Ooty Coonoor local train. Cost per head was just Rs.5/- Someone had asked us to sit on the right side of the train to enjoy the scenic view of Ooty Coonoor journey. Well we did…but it so turned out the train was going the other way round J so we were ultimately sitting on the wrong side of the train.hehehe. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the journey will the crowd screaming whenever there were tunnels coming in. The distance is 19kms and took an hour to reach our destination. It was perfect timing, hubby also made it on time. We got into our Car went straight to SIMS park. Nicely maintained park with lots of trees of different sizes and shapes. Quite a huge park..rather garden. Daughter wanted to go in for a boat ride (horribly crowded and water was dirty), but we somehow managed to convince her out of it by showing her the fishes in the pond. We also bought some seeds and plants at a reasonable price in this place and decided it was time for us to go. On our way out we found a lady selling Rudraskha beads for Rs.3/- per bead. Mum-in-law bought some of those. Had some mirchi bajjis & chai at a small shop outside the park.
At around 3.00 we decided to visit one of cousins who stays in Coonoor. Her husband works with Navy and is currently based Coonoor Army quarters to complete his Masters. They took us around their campus….beautifully maintained. What pride one gets to see the army base. The central area of the army quarters had a circle in memory of thousands of martyrs who had fought for the country. Around 5.30 or so we headed back to Ooty. Short walk in the market area, did some shopping and back to our room.
11th morning we decided to visit the Mysore(in Ooty) Maharaja’s Palace area. At 9.30 we were there. It was 5 mins walk from our cottage. Wow!! Amazing palace…loads of wood work..beautiful paintings…royal chairs & sofas…large dining hall…extra large modern kitchen which had a hidden underground path way to the dining area…huge party hall with royal interiors and a Piano too (shooting done for a lot of hindi & tamil movies here). We also got the opportunity to have a look at the Maharaja’s room and his sons rooms. Beautiful!!! King & Queen size beds with footrest, paintings to remind you of the royalty, Dressing table with large 3 sided mirrors. The washroom we thought would be old styled…but again this had been done up with the latest of the shower area, llllarrrge mirror again, hair dryer, bathtub. Anything & everything present there. Oh yes, not to forget the lovely fireplace which was artistically done. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pics of any of these. Fyi,this place is now being converted to 5 star or 7 star hotel rooms and would be charged 15000- 25000Rs per night. Can u imagine!! We atleast got to see it for free :-) The whole place was done up with wood work and to give it a more personal touch they had put up all the childhood photographs of Maharaja & his family and friends. After complete satisfaction of visiting this place, it was time for us to check out. By the way, a cup of tea/ coffee/ milk would cost you Rs.50/- each :-) So we didn’t really have anything to eat in this place. Our breakfast, lunch & dinner was mostly at Saravana Bhavan(reasonably priced and tasty food). Checked out at 11.30 or so and went to Rose garden. Again like last time Ahana loved the greenery…wanted to play on the grass lawns for long but it was time for us to leave for Bangalore.
1 comment:
you know i have been to Ooty many a times, but have never ventured this much! I shall do it sometime next year (it's december now)
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