Coimbatore, India - July 15, 2004
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Ooty is a beautiful hill station a few hours away from Coimbatore where we went. It is laden with Tibetan refugees, tea plantations and amazing rolling hills. |
Well, our medical training in Coimbatore is officially over. Now it is time to see some of this beautiful, exotic land. Today, we are traveling a few hours away to the hill station of Ooty. Ooty is a beautiful, tranquil city nestled in the Western Ghat Mountain Range in Southern India. It boast some of the highest influx of tourists in all of India. The ride there was incredibly awe inspiring. The foliage and the towering hills were a site to see. All around us, we saw beautiful flowers scattered amongst acres upon acres of tea plants.
We got out of the car at one point close by Ooty to take pictures of the scenery. We were somewhat angrily greeted by the locals who accused us of stealing their tea secrets! The nerve! Well, rest assured, we took those pictures anyway, and boy did they turn out nice. When the Chinese occupied Tibet, many refugees came to Ooty. The climate suited them just right I suppose. The Tibetans own numerous shopping complexes, selling colorful shawls, Tibetan trinkets, and yes, even good old-fashioned fudge! Seeing as how the dollar went a very long way in India, we shopped and haggled till we dropped.
At the end of the day, the four of us knew that our time together on this Indian journey was over. I would be going to visit more family in the neighboring state of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu's 'son' would stay in Coimbatore, and Alex and Emily would more than sufficiently quench their tourist desires by going to Agra and the magical land of Rajasthan.
Two weeks seems to fly by when you're living life to the fullest.
Shrinivas Hebsur, Med 2 (Class of 2007)