Meeting our Indian family :-)

A nice relaxed morning before we began our 5-day tour with a local operator, Rajat. We decided to make the most of the couple of free hours before Rajat’s arrival with Gaz heading into town, whilst Rach relaxed in the gardens with a book. Gaz’s trip involved a tea purchase at a local shop and a bit of blog publishing (INR 10 for 30 mins – what a bargain!).

Rajat and his father, Ravi, arrived at 11.00am and we said goodbye to the Gateway Hotel (one of our favourites of all time, for sure) as we were shuttled away in a 4x4. Both were very chatty and cheerful. We arrived at the family home, where we would be staying for three nights in homestay accommodation, and were met by Rajat’s mother. She was also extremely friendly and, after adorning us with flower lei, showed us around our little cottage-style room. Lots of local décor! We had a bit of vegetarian home-cooked lunch (extremely tasty) before we jumped into the car and headed off for our afternoon’s activities.

First stop was a random little trip to a honey harvester museum in the strangely bustling hilltop town of Ooty (an old colonial enclave – much of the old British architecture and style was evident). We watched a documentary of local tribal guys scaling huge cliffs on home-made vine ladders to get rock bee honey. Very cool indeed. We were also shown a beehive by the assistant. She looked pleased to be doing something as it was not exactly busy there!

Next stop was the local market, where Rajat and Ravi guided us around seemingly hundreds of stalls, whilst we moved shoulder-to-shoulder with local shoppers, cows and goats. Most stalls were selling food, and we got a sample of local bananas (on ‘banana alley’) and curry leaves, together with a gift of fragrant intertwined flowers. It was all friendly madness. Gaz managed to make two good purchases – a cheap watch (less than three quid) and six ‘ladu’ sweets.

We then spent an hour walking around the botanical gardens. Lots of manicured gardens and towering trees, but what we’ll remember most is getting mobbed by a huge group of school boys, who crowded around us taking photos. We felt like celebrities, not helped by many other locals secretly or overtly snapping away at us as we walked around!
We got back and changed for dinner. We were greeted by the whole family, plus Rajat’s wife. First up was a sit and chat over a lime and sweet-salt drink and semolina crisps. Very tasty, but the best was yet to come. We ate another delicious home-cooked meal with plenty of vegetables and Indian bread, topped off with home-made chocolate. We ended up talking until well past 10pm and were thoroughly knackered when we retired to our room. Rock-hard pillows aside, a great day!