from Ukhulas to Ooty

The boat from Ukhulas to Make was $50 per person.  We booked it the day before with the school headmaster who runs the service. When we got on the boat they had sold our seats to someone else..but they took our bags and said we could go on a smaller boat in about an hour... But when it came time for that boat to leave, they said it couldn't go the whole way, but could drop us at another island from where we could get a boat to Malé for $75 per person..  So our bags were heading for Male and we were facing a $50 price rise. All quite annoying, and we agreed with Saeed that we would get the headmaster to pay the difference...which he agreed to after we had arrived in Malé.

The small boat was really bumpy.. The bigger boat for the second part was smoother.. The boat stopped so Henry could do a wee off the back...then later Winston had to do a wee in an empty bottle.

We went in MarryBrowm in Male. The food was rubbish, but it had AC and there was a nice little play area that Winston and Henry enjoyed.

We went to the hotel in Hhuhlumale, and found the room was too small to fit an extra mattress on, and they wanted an extra $25 per night making the total $80.. So we told them where to go , and I went to 6 hotels in town on the back of Nasheeds motorbike, and eventually found Wonder Retreat for $65 per night. It was fine except the toilet didn't flush properly and the room smelt a bit of eggs once we removed the automatic air freshener.

I sold 5 hammocks to a resort.

We got the bus to the airport but managed to leave a bag at the bus stop. Lucky I realised after a few hundred metres and we got the bus to stop and ordered a taxi.

The airport was quite empty. The plain was a propellor plane and that was half empty too.

We had arranged with the same rickshaw driver Shahir to meet UA at the airport in Cochin. It was easy and he dropped us at the Abad Plaza hotel in Kochi. It took about 100minutes because the traffic was bad, so we didn't get time to swim. The check in person was a bit of a dick, but the room and the hotel was pretty good, almost up to 5 star without the expense.. It was 3000rs per night. About £32. The breakfast was excellent also, especially the Indian fiod., they even had a decent egg chef.

Mr and Henry got up at 6:30am and went for a swim on the rooftop pool. It has 2 pools.. One which is about 50cm deep, so perfect for a 3 year old. The main pool was good too.

We got a rickshaw to Coimbatore train station for 50rs, and paid someone 150rs to carry our bags to the right platform and put them in our train carriage. I had booked the AC carriage as 34c is a bit hot. The train cost about 800rs £8. It took 3.5houra to Coimbatore. Me and Henry walked the length of the train and stopped here and there to look out the windows. The kitchen carriage must have been 50c. We had a chicken fried rice on the train which was pretty good for £1 And pretty spicy.. Winston and Henry ate well despite the spiciness.
We accidentally got off a stop too early because another passenger told us it was the right stop... He got off too, but managed to jump back on before the train left. We could not be so nimble with all the bags and all of us... I phoned the taxi driver I had arranged to meet a Coimbatore, but just as I was trying to tell him to meet us, my phone ran out of credit...  So we took a rickshaw to the main station for 150rs, and Boer end the drivers phone to call our taxi driver, so it work end out fine.

The taxi to Ooty took about 3 hours and cost 2000rs £20. There were loads of monkeys on the roadside and some amazing purple flower trees. Henry puked up from travel sickness due to the twisty turny bumpy roads.. We arrived at our hotel in Ooty around 5pm.. The British Cliff Club.  I had prebooked that on Stayzilla.com for about 5300rs for 3 nights. We had to pay an extra 500rs a night for a heater, but it is quite a decent place. I think we are the only guests. The owner/manager is a bit mental...everything he says at high volume and he never quite looks at you when talking...

In Ooty we went to a doctors about Henry's verruca, he prescribed some ointment. His office was behind a pharmacy in a very modest room. He didn't charge...makes me wonder how his income compares to a Swedish doctor who work in not so modest surroundings. He was amazed that Henry had never had antibiotics at 3 years old...but I'm not surprised how.many Indian kids get infections with all the filth around.

We went to the dinosaur theme park which was a bit kitcsh and good fun. It cost 570rs (£6) for all of us. 

Just had lunch sitting on charpouys in a restaurant near Ooty lake while Winston and Henry play with a toy tank and rickshaw.