Snooty Ooty, India

It is day 6 of our Southern Indian cycling holiday and it has not disappointed us one little bit. This is the first time I have had access to internet facilities, so I will try and summarise the blur of sensory overload which we have experienced in the past 6 days.
We arrived at Bangalore airport at 10pm. I was already exhausted from the flights and knew that we had another 5 hour wait before our cycling group arrived from the UK. We had sussed out some sleeper chairs in the airport and were going to take a few cat naps during the long wait. In the meantime, we had to withdraw money from the ATM and were having troubles with the one ATM in the arrivals hall. So I was advised to use one of the four ATMs outside. So off we shuffle to the ATM and manage to withdraw some money. Phew, our financials were sorted and now it was just a matter of resting. Well, not so!! They would not let us back inside the arrivals hall so we spent the next 5 hours waiting for the group outside the airport. 'Welcome to India!'
At 4am, we were transferred from Bangalore airport to Mysore - a 3 1/2 hour transfer. My eyes were popping out of my head by the time we had arrived.
Mysore seems like so long ago but was a fun, crazy introduction to a big Indian town of over a million people. Our first cycling day started and ended cycling through the hectic, non law-abiding traffic. There is so much craziness going on that you just have to brave it and force your way through the mayhem of tuk tuk drivers, street food stalls, motorbikes, animal carts, goats being herded and all the rest. It was so much fun but there is no way that an Australian tour company would expose its customers to such hectic traffic conditions. All the more reason to love India :)
The cycling so far has been entirely door-to-door and it has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There is no way that you would be exposed to the remote back roads that we have had the experience of cycling along. Each village has its own character and there is so much going on from clothes washing in the rivers and streams; the drying of sheets laid flat on patches of grass; thin but strong men steering their ox to pull carts laden with sand or bamboo or stones ; groups of women dressed in their colourful saris; men gathered to talk shop.
The colours of India are just so vibrant. I have never seen such colour rich markets especially the sections which sell dyes. The dyes are the brightest of bright colours - purples, yellows, greens, reds. They display them in bowls and then shape the powdered dyes in a conical shape. Simply stunning.
There has been a festival in this region throughout the past week and so we have been lucky enough to see colourful processions; cars/tucks/tuk tuks/bikes adorned with banana tree leaves and long garlands of marigold and other festivities.
Yesterday was my birthday and I was blessed and frightened by a morning sighting of a wild lone male tusker in Bandipur National Park. We cycled off from our accommodation into the National Park for 30+ kilometres. We happened to be cycling uphill and around a bend when we saw the elephant. He wasn't happy as he raised his trunk and trumpeted. I was scared beyond belief and the thought of being charged by an elephant on my birthday kept flashing through my mind. My legs pedalled so fast that they must have looked like a blur. My birthday ended with a visit to a local orphanage run by a Swiss woman. Over 70 children live there and they are schooled until about 16 and then encouraged to enter university or pursue a trade. The kids were so warm and inquisitive and asked us to sing a song. Isabel, one of the English women in our group, suggested that everyone sing me 'happy birthday'. It was lovely and very unique. The Indian version goes on for ages in true Indian style :)
We are now in Ooty and certainly worked hard to be awarded a lovely hotel for the night. We had a 13.5 km extremely tough uphill climb with 36 hairpin bends (and about another 100 other bends). The climb was steep (about 70 degree incline for most of the way). Terence and I couldn't believe the unrelenting hill climb. I kept saying, 'we're not climbing up there, are we!'. Myself, Duncan and Terence made it to the top first and were so relieved. I have never endured such a tough cycling challenge in my life and I can't believe that we completed it. But we did! And now it seems like ages ago as we are now surrounded by the creature comforts of the hotel in Ooty which overlooks the bustling town below. Ooty is in the hills and is a lot cooler than the temperature in Mysore. It is a welcome relief and also a contrast in scenery - pine trees intermingled with eucalypts and whiffs of fresh eucalyptus oil graces us every now and then. Terence and spent the afternoon scouring the stores for the odd antique collectible. We walked to Mohans (a store that had been advertising its wares on billboards for the last 2 days). We finally got there and its doors were closed. So we had to settle for shopping on Commercial Street. Th best part was stumbling upon the local market where everythign and anything could be bought. Butchers chopping off goats heads; fish being scaled; vegetables such as aubergine, broccoli, beans presented so beautifully; flower seller displaying their long garlands of marigolds in circular piles. I love it! Oncw upon our time, we would have bought veges in this manner and perhaps it will come back with the rising popularity of produce and slow food markets. India is slow food at its best!
Curry is awaiting me .....