January 11, 2016
Restday in Ooty: almost lost our jackets
"I think I need my smartwool" Rachel says "Maybe your fleece" Patrick mentions as he has his heavier red jacket on. We are at 2300meters, it's been awhile since we've been in cooler temperatures.
We are headed out to explore Ooty, the streets are convoluted and even with the map from Lonely Planet and google maps, we have difficulty finding the coffee shop we were aiming for breakfast. Finally figuring out the maps, we realize we must have passed it so we turn around and from this angle, see the shop. A nice cappuccino and chocolate muffin was a treat.
The Indian people love their sweets. There are shops with all sorts of butter cookies and "homemade" chocolate all along the streets. Walking the streets is an obstacle coarse, crossing the street is like dodge ball, or like one big Mario videogame...avoiding motorcycles, tuk tuk, cars, pedestrians and cows. Cows roam freely and because India has an "open garbage system" the cows scavenge food and dying from eating plastic bags. Ooty has become plastic free, buy something and the item is placed in a cloth-like bag or paperbag. On the road cycling up from Coonoor there were signs, "Ooty invites you but not your plastic". There is a "Plastic Cow Project" that contributed to making this ban happen. http://www.karunasociety.org/the-plastic-cow-project
We walk to the Botanical gardens. Established in 1848, the beautiful terraced landscape has a very green grassy open area, lots of people visiting. Lots of workers cleaning up the flower beds, adding good compost soil, preparing the beds for planting. When we are near the exit, a group girls ask to take our picture with them. Rachel placed the purple backpack carrying our jackets down against the wall and with all the excitement of picture taking left it behind. "Where's the backpack?" Patrick asks after shopping for muesli. Realizing the backpack was left behind, we scurried back to the gardens. There it was, still against the wall. In all our travels we've lost very few items, this was a relief that no one had taken the backpack.
Taking advantage of different options, we ate western food today. For lunch a Subway sandwich and dinner Dominos Pizza. Tomorrow we move on.
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