Week 4:Vacation(Part 2)

After the sightseeing, Kasie, Maddy, Kristen and I were dropped off at the bus station so we could take the bus to Ooty, Tamil Nadu.

So this bus ride took about 8 hours.It was not supposed to take that long, but our bus arrived late, we stopped for lunch and coconuts, the bus conductor lost her cell phone so we had to stop the bus so she could look for it, our bus broke down during our lunch but got fixed and 15 minutes later it broke down again and we changed bus.So,that was basically our journey to Ooty.We crossed the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border and got to see elephants, deers and peacocks in the forest reserve.

Deers at the forest reserve

Since Ooty is at a higher altitude, the place is a chilly.So we arrived around 9, checked into our rooms and headed out for dinner.We were going to call a driver that Kasie's collegues recommended tomorrow to go around Ooty. We stayed in Hotel Ooty Gate




So the next day, we had breakfast and waited for the driver at 9am...but he didn't show up.So we gave him until 10 and decided that we were going to look for a tour agent.We found one nearby our hotel and managed to buy a tour package that would allow us to look around Ooty as well as Connoor.

First we visited the tea plantation.It was beautiful and people could even hike up to see the view from above. For certain amount of money, one can pose with the clothes worn by the ladies plucking the tea leaves and get their picture taken. After looking around and taking pictures, we decided to get huge packets of tea. I bought two 500g packets of tea; masala tea and chocolate tea. I am not a big fan of the masala tea but the chocolate tea tastes amazing!

Then we visited Dolphin Nose,one of the peaks in Ooty. We hiked up the trail and took some great pictures. That particular day was rather misty, so it was hard to see the view.

Our next stop was the Botanical Gardens,where we all had to pay an entrance fee and a fee for carrying cameras.Which is ridiculous, but that's just me.

 

A Shiva temple that we saw on the way back 

 

And we also visited this place where we could go boating but it was raining so heavily,it was impossible to go boating.Some big shot guy came to visit the place and cameras were everywhere,so we could to literally push people to get out of the way.Anyway,I managed to get an anklet for myself, which I am super happy about!:)

We went for dinner at this Western place, since we were all craving for some Western food and look what we got!

Tandoori pizza!

Chocolate brownie

I didn't know my dad owned a restaurant!

Anyway,Ooty was a blast and I really had a great time there! The 4 day vacation really helped all of us and I was excited to be going back to PremaVidya the next day!:)

Week 4: Vacation

VACATION TIME!

Yes,this is a very exciting post for me.I've got to do some very cool things during our 4 day vacation. So basically the 14 of us split into different groups and headed our separate ways.One group headed to Andhra Pradesh, which is north of Bangalore, Karnataka and the other group headed to Kerala, which is south of Karnataka.

Logically speaking, I should have gone to Kerala and visit my half Keralite roots there(my father is a Malayalee. Hence, I have a Nair as my last name). Instead, I decided to visit the SVYM organization in Mysore, Karnataka. Mysore is about 2 hours away from Bangalore but we were planning to visit the tribal school, which took an additional 2 hours.We stopped at a kamat, a restaurant at the roadside and saw many, many monkeys.

Masala dosa. Dosa wrapped around seasoned potatoes.

This is called gulab jamun.It's an Indian dessert made of milk flour and deep fried.It is then  added into syrup to sweeten it. This is the best Indian dessert hands down.

Baby monkey!

After having breakfast, we continued our journey to Mysore.We had a really pleasant driver who showed us the countryside of Mysore since he is from Mysore. Here are some pictures.

Our first stop was Viveka Tribal School. This school was specially built for tribal school children. Education here is done a little differently. Instead of following the mainstream, 1st to 12th standard, the students here are categorized by their abilities in class. The children were very excited to see us and it was nice talking to them and answering all their questions.We were shown around,and I was surprised to discover that this school is equipped with a Biology and Chemistry lab, and it's very much like our labs in the Malaysian high schools.Students here have shown improvement in terms of their SSLC pass percentage, something this school prides upon.

Our tour guide's Innova

Then, we visited the Kenchanahalli Hospital, where a combination of allopathy and ayurveda is used to aid patient recovery. Read more about this approach here Integrating Different Forms of Medicine to Lower Cost. Also,be sure to read the rest of my classmates' thoughts on social entreprenurship on the Global SE Blog.

Then we visited the SVYM Hospital is Sargur. This is a 90 bedded hospital with multiple specialty.Patients who cannot be treated in the Kenchanahalli will be sent to this Sargur hospital.We also had the opportunity to meet Dr. Bala, who is the CEO of the SVYM organization.He was very humble and he told us that SVYM have had many failures but it did have some sucesses and the sucesses are what we see now. He also was frank with us when he told us that the founder of PremaVidya, Mr. Naresh Bala is ill with leukemia and they are trying to multiple medical opinions before they decide to do anything.

The next day, we visited the Mysore Maharaja Palace and the St.Philomena's Church.I was forced to pay 200 rupees since I was a foreigner while Indians only had to pay 50 rupees.Bloody unfair.Anyhow,the palace was extremely beautiful except for the annoyingly rude officers.I think I don't do well under authority.Oh well!

St.Philomena Church

The statue of Mysore Maharaja(King of the Mysore)

Entrance of the palace

Mysore Maharaja Palace

Two tigers protecting the garden

Me and my friend

Our North Indian lunch