Christmas in Kodaikanal with very English weather!

A common sight..here school kids and parents forced onto the road by another wandering sacred cow!
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Following my long hopes of relaxing on a beach with cocktail inhand for Christmas, we both kinda felt like we had already spent enough time beach relaxing in Thailand and now it was the time to take in far more cultural sites. Consequently we took an early bumpy 3hr bus ride from Madurai to Kodiakanal through very luch scenery to the western Ghats which rise to over 2200m from the flat coastal plains below.

We were lured here by the promise of great trekking and striking views across the Vagai plains as far as Madurai on good days. Unfortuentely, however, Kodiakanal was enveloped in thick cloud almost from the moment we arrived until the morning we left and views were not a feature of our stay. As you can imagine this creates rather chilly weather and i'm now thoroughly regretting sending home my walking-boots and fleece (sod's law i carry them for almost 2 months without using them).

White wine was OK but the red (even at Rs1200) was plain awful

A warm Indian welcome!
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On the hunt for Christmas goodies, mainly edible though also including a Christmas tree and lights, we went shopping in the small touristy town. Most of the shops seem to sell the same touristy tack as the world over - but we found Kodaikanal to specialise in chocolate and spent many hours sampling those on offer!

With a tiny plastic Christmas tree, a huge set of lights, candles and tacky tinsel we decorated our room...by and large the only people celebrating Christmas here! Following a very chilly night where we both slept fully clothed making full use of the additional blankets, we walked around the lake on which Kodai is centred in search of suitable restaurants for our English and Danish Christmas meals. We bumped into a few locals selling honey and in a moment of weakness for the two of us we agreed to buy an industrial sized bottle (Rs120) for our Christmas treats which we later had to discard finding it to be full of ants!

Soz with her rare Kurinji flower picked for us by our local guide Logu!!
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Glaedelig Jul! We had reserved a table at the Kodai Resort Hotel for dinner where we were informed of the wide range of dishes on offer as well as being able to BYO alcohol which they would open for us. On arrival however, we found it to be a Buffet night, with a different manager on the scene alcohol consumption was out of the question :(

One of the local floral sights worth seeking out was the Kurinji flower, which only blossoms once every 12 years - Dec. 2006 being it! So in the middle of a local trek with our young guide Logu we were somewhat taken aback when he proceeded to pick the only flowering Kurinji that we saw all day!!! At all of the main tourist view points wild monkeys are on hand and i got many excellent snaps of them feeding on veg thrown by the locals and tourists alike and their general mischeivous behaviour.

All this climbing and no view - the cloud seaps into the forest...
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Christmas day was spent largely at the Carlton Hotel with loads of US$ given to Sara and me by Aunty Margery and for once we were able to avoid counting the Rupees and just order whatever took out fancy. The food was really good and we pleasantly suprised when they had G&T (most shops haven't got tonic water) but were very disappointed by the poor quality of wine on the menu. White wine was OK but the red (even at Rs1200) was plain awful - with no international choice available. Feeling rather stuffed we spent the rest of our day relaxing on a pedlo on Kodai lake supping Kingfisher.