India 8- Coonoor to Chennai

Prompted by Jemima having a toothache, we check out a recommended local dentist in Coonoor, and on discovering how cheap the prices are, we take full advantage, and within half half an hour of meeting Titus and his partner wife Ruby, Mark is also sitting in the dentist’s chair, and initial work starts on a tooth implant (his old tooth fell out when he bit on a nut a few years back). The exorbitant costs in the UK has meant that he’s never really bothered to even think about replacing it. (Our house extension had full priority!)

Jemima’s tooth is filled and she is given a given a gum shield, to help straighten her teeth. And I get some teeth erosion fillers. It had never occurred to me to come to India to make use of the dentists, but I shall definitely bear that in mind in future when I have to invest in some dentures. Why not have a holiday at the same time?

We leave Coonoor on the lovely toy train towards Chennai, a delightful steam chugger train which slowly snakes its way down the mountain, so slowly. it takes 4 hrs to travel 34 Kms, the slopes are so steep, and the steam train stops along the way to refill with water at a little station, long enough to sip hot cardamom tea on the tracks. The views are breathtaking, more tea plantations then steaming jungle, then it’s down to the flats of Mettalapalium. Here we have several hrs to kill, and a picnic tea on the platform before our night train to Chennai.

We are now adept on these trains, and as it pulls in to the station, we work as a team, handling the luggage, finding our berth and in no time the sheets are on the beds, pillows and blankets In place. Jemima and Gabriel are up on the top bunks but now wide awake with excitement.

5 am in the morning is not such a great time to arrive in Chennai, and the whole of the station, including us, is fast asleep like some spell has been cast on the citizens of this city. The station master wakes us up and we have to get off the train, rather reluctantly.

Monsoon has arrived and it rains most of the day. We check into a plush  hotel  and savour it’s comforts and mod cons, hot water and internet. Ah, reliable internet. This gives us an opportunity to research the next chapter of our Journey – Nepal. Our bedroom is vast, and provides the children with the opportunity to play and at 6.30 we indulge in a fabulous Breakfast, stretching endless counters with all conceivable variations of what it’s possible to eat for breakfast.  The children are thrilled. We all tuck into (rather unimaginatively) bacon and eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, even baked beans (kiddies heaven on a plate), tea and toast, fruit plate, juices et al……(we are obviously missing the UK).

Then we hear the news about the tragedy on the mountains in Annapurna, and I email Karma, our prospective guide in Nepal, to check he and his family are ok.

We are not long enough in  Chennai to warrant any explorations and really don’t fancy the pouring rain, though I might have been tempted to see where the British first set up the East India Trading Company.

I am feeling sad about leaving India. One month seems too short a visit to soak in this vibrant, colourful, characterful country, let alone explore it and do it justice and I am wishing now that we had 2 months here instead. Hey-ho, better one month than none at all I guess.

The food has been quite delicious, rich and varied, and almost entirely vegetarian, though a little on the spicy side, the kids are now fans of dahl and rice. Hoorah, and no longer hankering after Mum’s food in St Margaret’s. The exotic juices and lassis very spoiling and apart from our week at Casa Susegad and our English breakfast here in the Vivanta, we have only indulged in local regional food.

We have loved the train journeys, the singing cries as the sellers offer their edible wares.  “Chai, coffee coffee, chai ” or the “hedda hedda curd”as they do their rounds on the trains with  offerings in portable urns and baskets.

All my fears of  travelling in India with the kids have been unfounded. We even choose the Indian loos over The Western ones (when there is a choice) – why can’t we have little hose pipes and taps next to our loos in the UK, as opposed to loo roll?

No one has been sick.  Really can that be so?!

Little petrol-fuelled tuk-tuks have replaced the bicycle rickshaws, which leave you reeling with guilt when you have an arduous journey, and the rise of the middle classes can be seen everywhere. Indians have made up the majority of tourists that we have seen and life seems more prosperous for many. Having said that, our journey through the slums of Mumbai, the smells and hoards of rubbish everywhere and the simple fact that 58m people still defecate in open spaces are tell-tale signs that there’s much more development still to be done and we have seen relatively few beggars.

So Goodbye to India – hasta la vista

Rajisthan and Kerala next time methinks,

Its good to be leaving on a happy note.