Kodaikanal

I arrived at this Hill Station 5am, Saturday morning. It was extremely cold. I got some sleep after a long bus ride, but even with all my clothes and 2 blankets I was still freezing. 16 degrees feels very cold when you are used to 35 degrees. Luckily it was sun during the day, I walked around the area and found a place to rent a bike by the lake. I expected less people at this "remote place", but loads of tourists here, tourist bus and hotels and restaurants. My short 5km bike ride around the lake was far from peaceful, a high school group of sixty students from Kerala was accompanying me :) They where so kind taking an excellent picture of me and my bike :) I love cycling.

On Sunday I intended to move to this guesthouse up in the wally with a beautiful view out of town, but when I saw the rooms I changed my mind and walked back to a warm comfy hotel. I can stand a lot in warm areas, but in this cold I needed a warm semi clean bed. And warm water!

On Sunday I met a girl from Israel, also traveling alone. She stayed at a small village Vattakanal with a lot of other backpackers from Israel. I wanted to see this place so I walked with there. About 1 hour walk to get there from the center of town. Beautiful nature there, great view, local people and a lot of monkeys eating trash.

Beautiful view in front of their hut in Vattakanal. I did not want to walk alone in the dark back to town so I drove back in a old Jeep from the sixties with a local "taxi driver". I prayed the whole way back on the bumpy road that the car would not fall apart.

Me and Zoya. On Monday, yesterday we had plans going on a cycle trip to see mountains and waterfalls, but it was very cold and cloudy so we stayed most of the day indoor in my hotel. She left in the evening with a night bus to Kochin, on her way to Alleppey and Varkala. Unfortunately she managed to take with her my headset. So today before my bus to Ooty on my way to Mysore I have to search the town for some new once. Will be pretty boring on a 16hours bus journey without music and my audio books if I dont find a new headset.