Down the Mountains!

Wow! What a bus ride. I asked for a ticket on a luxury bus but it wasn't leaving until late so I had to take the next best thing. Packed, clunky, but way better than the wrecks most of hte locals take. The drive out of Ooty is like going down one of those rollercoasters. Down, down, sharp haripin bends, steep slopes, deep valleys, oh so beautiful, and the driver was really careful. Nothing like what I experienced in Greece. I was relaxed pretty much the whole journey.
Last night in Ooty we had a homemade meal prepared by the cook 'auntie' - warm, soft chapatis and a cauliflower curry. As good as my mother makes it! Then after dinner the guy running the place made a campfire and we sat around it. Graham told us all about his very exciting day. You see Graham spent the first 11 years of his life in India (his parents are South Indian) and he went to a private English boarding school near Ooty in the Nilgiri Mountains. After his family emigrated to Australia he never came back to India. And now he's doing it with his partner Suzannah. So he wanted to go back to his school that he absolutely loved as a kid. Well, when he returned from the visit he couldn't stop talking about what he saw and showed us the many, many pics he took. The school is still running and is bigger, but he remembered a lot and he seemed very emotional about the visit. So under the Indian sky where the stars were numerous and the fire crackling and keeping us warm, we heard all about it.

And now I'm in Coimbatore for the sole purpose of catching a train to Cochin in Kerala. But I have to overnight here. That's okay because I do like what I've seen of this city. I'm in a new, clean, modern hotel which is smack dab in the middle of all the nice eating places and shops.

Am I enjoying myself? That dowsn't seem an appropriate question in this country. It's so hard to see people in such poverty. People talk about being scammed or ripped off by autorick drivers. But I just see how hardit must be for them to make a living. Who cares if you are ripped off by a dollar or two. It means nothing to us yet can make a difference to them. My heart goes out to all the folks trying so hard to make a living by doing the most meaningless of things. It makes me so damn guilty about my life. How is it that I can be so lucky and choose how to live my life and be comfortable?

Om Shati!