It was Valentine's Week and we haven't been on vacation for so long and by chance I again saw Andaz Apna Apna and found that some of the scenes were shot in Ooty . When I googled found that Bollywood is a big fan of Ooty and some of the very iconic movies and songs were shot there . We being movie buffs decided for a road trip to Ooty .
First thing we did was to book the tickets for the toy train tickets from ooty to coonor , this is the same train on which the song Chaiyan Chaiyan was shot .
We got waiting for those ticket as we booked a week before but we got those confirmed a day before we had go on the train , so book in advance .
We started from Bangalore at 5:00 am , took a breakfast stop Udupi Krishna Bhavan Channapatna , crossed Mysore by 9 :00 am and than started the best part of the journey through Bhandipur National park ( Karnataka) and Madumalai National Park ( T.N.). We spotted some deer and lot of monkey on our way crossing the forest . You are not allowed to stop and get down while crossing the forest . After that started the famous 36 hairpin road of Ooty which you would have seen in many car commercials. We stopped at some view point before going to our first stop before check in the hotel .
Our first stop was Chocolate Museum , it was not that big but good for one time .We didn't purchased chocolate from there but the prices are same if you purchase from there or from the ooty city .
We checked in the resort , it is a very beautiful small boutique hotel with only 9 rooms , close to the main attraction but not too close to be noisy . They serve amazing food and I would definitely go back and stay here only .The rooms gives you a very nice English era feel which i loved . After resting for some time we started for destination 2
This is very beautiful and well maintained
By the time we reached the boating was closed , but we were happy just to see the lake , we saw the other part of lake from the toy train next day .
We had our dinner at quality restaurant and went to Moody' s Chocolate
They have the best truffles and everything is locally made . We got all kinds of chocolate and also got some famous coonor cheese from same shop.
Went back to resort in lovely cold weather and enjoyed the bon fire in the night . There were only 1 more couple and a family apart from us .
Next morning i got up early just to enjoy the view , peace and calm around me in the beautiful garden at the resort . We had a train at 9:15 am for coonor . We had the best breakfast in a long time and as we are tea drinkers Ooty coonor is a paradise for us .
We reached the toy train station on time , checked out the train museum and waited for the train which came on time and started on exact time .
This was the most beautiful train ride for me. Reached coonor in an hour .
We booked a taxi for 4 hours to take us to all tourist attractions of Coonor .
We covered the Tea Estate , Dolphins Nose , Sleeping Lady point , Sim's Park , few waterfalls on the way .
We also visited an eucalyptus oil factory and a tea factory and purchased both tea and oil .
It was a very nice experience , the cab took 1500 rs with the guide .
We had lunch and came back to station to catch our train back to ooty at 4 :00pm
In evening we went to Moody's again for our favourite hot chocolate and had dinner at CoCopods near our resort .
This was the day we had to go back , got up relaxed at the resort , had the yummiest breakfast and checked out .
While going back we took another route which is NH 181 which has 2 other tourist attractions .
We covered the Pykara Lake and Pine tree shooting point where Raaz was shot and many other famous movies .
The whole NH 181 is very very scenic , we stopped 3 -4 times on the way to just enjoy the view . Took a coffee break at CCD , before again entering the MaduMalai Forest , this time we got lucky to see elephant and baby elephant crossing the road . We also saw different deers which baby deers .
This was the end of our very relaxing quick weekend getaway to Scotland of India.
Things to Buy :
° Truffles
° Nuts Chocolate
° Ooty Carrots
° Coonor Cheese
° Tea Tea and Tea
Things to Remember
° Carry Water Bottle there is no package water bottle in ooty , plastic is banned as soon as you enter Bhandipur National Park .
° Make a note for entry timing , as most places close by max 6 pm and on Friday mostly by 2 pm
° Carry winter wear and sun screen , it was cold but if sunny you will be tanned . We went in February .
° Have a lot of local tea , one of the best tea I had on this trip .
° Take the NH 181 highway if you are going by car and not very experienced in driving , the other road has very steep hairpin road
° Stay in a perimeter of 4-5 km from the Bus Stand or Botanical Garden as most places are close to that and roads are better , some road coming to Ooty gets closed at night / evening due to wild animals .
° Food is amazing everywhere we ate .
° Toy Train is one of a kind experience and must be done , reserve tickets early as the last minute thing has no surety even if you stand in lines for hours.
° Definately club Ooty with Coonoor or Wellington or any of the National Park i.e. Bhandipur or MaduMalai.
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