my perilous journey to Kodai

I have had such a wonderful stay in this city. The Varughese's have shown me a wonderful time including a tour of all the tourist hot spots and a 3 hour hike to a beautiful rocky overlook. (Pictures will be coming later.)

Beautiful, green Kodai mountainside.

Dolphin's Nose, the destination of our hike.

Sitting at a safe distance, there were sheer drop-offs, with George and Kalyan

A friendly puppy that showed us around.

I am so thankful that I was able to make this quick visit. It almost didn't happen. I was a little nervous about traveling to this spot by myself, but I just went for it. I new I'd have to ride 3-4 buses to reach Kodai from Sellipatti and have to change from bus to bus being completely illiterate (in Tamil). Luckily, all of the bus drivers/staff were very patient and extremely helpful to me. All went well until we reached Madurai (major city of 1 million). Before our bus reached my stop, all of the passengers were made to exit. I followed one man who was going to the same bus station I was, and found out from him and some other passengers that there was a city-wide bus strike. No buses would be heading to Kodai that day.

So, what's one to do? I called up my the Varughese's and they advised me to take a taxi for the last leg (120+ km) to Kodai. This was depressing both environmentally and monetarily, but what is one to do when the buses stop running? And the taxi service took full advantage of the situation (me being a foreigner and the bus strike) and charged me 1 1/2 times the normal taxi amount. It could have been worse. I used my almost nonexistent bargaining skills to knock off a couple hundred rupees, but still ended up paying a large sum. But I was very relieved to have a kind enough taxi driver and arrive in one piece (no small accomplishment considering the extremely narrow and curvy two-way road that we drove on very fast the whole way to the top of the mountain!!). But the driver sounded his horn going around the curves and I managed to control my car sickness, and we had a good trip to the top.

I'll be interested to see how my next solo journey by train to Delhi will go. This will be my first train experience in India and I'm excited (and a little nervous). I'll write again once I reach the North!