Kodaikanal
I thought Kodaikanal was going to be one of those cliches anyway.LIke tourist places in India- gorgeous paintings with hideous frames. Plastic, persistent sellers, a culture that has evolved to please , manipulate, cater to foriegners . (Really am sure these trinket sellers will give consumer psychologists a complex) .
(Think Goa,Agra,Jodhpur,Dharamshala...)
IT seems to be in my nature to start on a pessimistic note but the fact is that Kodai was lovely!
The lake in the centre of town has a four kilometer road all along it. You can hire bicycles for ten bucks an hour. Riding along the lake with gorgeous flowers , the cold though ,headheavy,earachy and hangovery -not unpleasant, you really feel like a song.
If i sounded cheesy I didn't mean to.
Anyhoo...it is hard to imagine that the town is in Tamil Nadu because it looks typically Himalayan - the vegetation and everything.It reminded me a lot of DHaramshala especially because of the many Tibetan restaurants and shops.
The plums were beautiful , cheap and luscious!
We stayed two nights there in two different houses. The first was a quaint old old house with fireplaces and no electricity. The second was sort of on the outskirts .
The mist here made you feel like you were sharing at a shining white wall that just built itself over the mountains,the trees , the grandeur.
Well. actually we were sloshed almost throughout the trip so I can't really remember more details . Wrote this long back and am posting it now ...yes so basically Kodi is the place to go...