For our third and last day in Madurai we decided to do day tour up to the hill station of Kodaicanal, which is about 120 kms from Madurai and situated at 6000 feet elevation...a great place to cool off from the heat of the plains. We paid our 295 rupees each (about $6) for the all day tour and lunch.
The guide (I use this term quite loosely)/bus driver came and got us at the hotel, barely grunting in recognition. When we came out of the hotel, I looked to the right and there was this lovely modern bus waiting. Unfortunately, the guide headed to the left to this old, dilapidated 1950s era bus. We got on and there was incense burning and Ganesh on the dashboard. Every other passenger was Indian, so of course during this trip we stood out like the sore thumbs we seem to be everywhere. After going around in circles for one hour picking up passengers, incense still burning away next to Ganesh (my favorite god in the Hindu pantheon, by the way) we were on our way for the 5 or so hour bus ride.
A note here about driving in India. In a word, DON'T. Hire a professional or take public transport. You see, the way Indians drive is a bit unsettling. There are rules of the road, of course, but nobody, I mean nobody pays the least bit of attention to them. The rules of passing, speed, one way streets...all the rules of driving are meant to be bent, broken, or just not obeyed. At first this is very disconcerting, to say the least. But after awhile you just go with the flow and leave up to fate if you will make it to your destination or not.
The drive up to Kodaicanal was something. Driving along at a pretty good speed, another bus decided to pass us, even though he could plainly see a large dump truck a few hundred meters ahead plowing right for us. Nobody slowed down to let him by and he made it around us by centimeters. And this was another bus filled with tourists. Our driver wasn't quite as bad, except for the occasional passing on a blind curve going up this 6000 foot mountain. We had a couple of nice stops on the way, including one for the delicious Tamil coffee. This is coffee where milk is the liquid and the coffee maker takes the hot milk, pours it through some coffee powder and then pours it into another container from way up, stretching one arm high and the other low, so the coffee can pour through about 1 meter of air, landing in the lower cup and frothing into sweet coffee goodness.
We made a few stops along the way to see waterfalls and valley views, getting a whole 10 minutes for each stop. "Waterfall, 10 minutes only", Valley view, 10 minutes only", "Museum, 10 minutes only". But when we got to the chocolate/massage oil/tea store where they make a big fat commission, "This stop, 20 minutes!". I wonder why?
Finally getting to our destination, we had a rather lame thalli lunch (waddya expect for $6?) and then got to walk around the lovely lake there. By this time we were talking to our fellow passengers..most being from Dehli and a couple had been to the US. All nice folks.
The way back was quite exciting. We had a train to catch at 11pm, giving us several hours of time when we got back. But about 80 kms from Madurai there was a huge bang underneath our bus and it turned out to be a problem with the gear box. So the rest of the way we drove at about 35 kms per hour as the bus driver couldn't get it out of 2nd gear. But we made it with time to spare and all in all had a great adventure.
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