Brrrrr...Kodaikanal Hill Station, India

After an almost epic jeep-bus-bus 7-hour journey we finally made it to Kodaikanal, a hill station at 2100m originally set up by the Americans. The bus trip up was amazing [read terrifying] with stunning views down onto the plains. The temperature slowly dropped as we ascended and when we arrived it was down at around 18 degrees. Not so bad you might think but when you only have one fleece jumper and the hotels have no heating the chills set in fairly quickly!

Bus ride up to the hill station.




You can completely understand why the Americans set up this hill station (and the Brits set up others in the region) as it is like a pocket of Europe in India. Kodai is set on a mountain top with a sweet little lake, upon which we went out on a rowboat in our 15 layers of clothes, and has a completely different atmosphere to India. It was cleaner, quieter, with European-style plants, and could have easily been in the Alps were it not for the stalls selling jumpers and chai wallahs on every corner.

We had a nice afternoon rowing around the lake at 2100m in a old row boat, it seems to be a very popular event with the local visitors.

We had to move hotel as it was booked up after Xmas, and found ourselves in a hotel that had only just been completed, we were guest 8 and 9 !!. We still are not sure of the name of the hotel as the sign had yet to go up.

We hoped to stay for Christmas but on the second day, as we watched TV in our hotel room, dressed in 5 layers, under 2 sleeping bags, a blanket and a sheet with fleece hats on (and still cold) we thought: "let's get the frack out of here"! We hoped it would be a taste of home but without central heating or even hot water showers, it's just not quite the same.

So we got a bus the next day and experienced our first real Indian adventure as we turned a corner and this awful grinding sound was heard and smoke started pouring from the wheel. The bus broke down halfway down the mountain and we hung around for an hour or so wondering if we'd be camping for Xmas when luckily another bus came past. As Soph and Phil so rightly advised us, a bus in India is NEVER full, and we were getting on it regardless of what the other passengers thought. So we pushed and shoved and stood our ground and found plenty of space! Aha, we were on our way again to spend Christmas in a completely random town...