Ootacamund or Ooty - The Queen of Nilgiris.....

I have visited Ooty a dozen times but I still love going there for a holiday.
I simply love the place.The weather there is so cool and pleasant .
Ooty is actually Udhakamandalam in Tamil, tongue twisting name and apparently the Britishers discovered this place and developed it as a hill station. Not being able to pronounve the local name they gave an easier name Ootacamund which got further shortened to Ooty.
There are lots of very elegant English looking cottages with chimneys here and some really huge old buildings which were all built a few hundred years ago by the Britishers.

Ooty is situated in the state of Tamil Nadu.It is situated within the western ghats and amidst the Nilgiris( Eucalyptus) hills.The hills were once covered with Nilgiris trees.But many of them have been chopped off now to make way for roads, resorts and other things. Ooty is called the queen of Nilgiris.

There are of course many things to do and see here.The major attraction being the lake and the boating .The lake is really huge and it spreads out in all directions . The last time we were there, our boat got entangled in the sea weeds and stuff growing on the side LOL- it was quite an experience getting the boat out.

There is a really beautiful waterfall about 20 kilometres down the hills called the Pykara falls and it is an amazing place.During summer one can climb up and sit on the rocks next to the waterfall, but it is impossible to get close during rains as it is too full of water.The water is very forceful, quite scary.It is a lovely place for a picnic.

Then there are hills surrounding the hill on which Ooty is situated.One can go climbing all these hills and just trek around all day.

Another fabulous place is the Botanical gardens of Ooty.It is an amazing place with a variety of plants and cactii.Everything in the garden looks gigantic , probably because of the ideal weather and the quality of the soil.The Roses are huge and the dahlias the size of a plate, and the cactii are unbelievably large.There is one variety which spreads some 30 feet in radius and is about 50-60 feet high.It is extremely well kept and such a little heaven.In fact one gets to see some very rare flowering plants which one needs to buy from a nursery in towns, growing by the road side in Ooty.

The restaurants are not too good in the Ooty town.The choice in my opinion is very limited.There are of course the bigger hotels and resorts, where you do get great selection of food, but it is generally very expensive.There are not too many good restaurants or eating joints in Ooty.
I preferred eating sandwiches and hamburgers in 'Daily bread' which was a hang out of the local Anglo Indian crowd . Since we had a good selection of food where we stayed 'The Sterling resort' , it was not too bad.In fact when we went to spend the day at Pyakara falls we requested the resort restaurant to pack some sandwiches which they did, and they were delicious , an assortment of sandwiches and some vegetable cutlets as well.

Since most of the tourists stay in some resort or a Hotel, they are not too bothered about the restaurants because all these resorts serve excellent food.

There are lots of things one can buy here .I think most people go for the famed Eucalyptus oil and other herbal and medicinal stuff, which is available in plenty here.

I think one must plan and visit Ooty while in India...