A Trip to Coonoor

After a long time the children insisted that we have an outing. The long weekend of 29-31 March 2013 appeared to be ideal for the sojourn.  We had never seen Ooty and planned for the trip there. Unfortunately because of lack of accommodation within our budget we had to choose Coonoor.  What a bit of fortune!  We had to pass through Ooty on the way and at first sight itself I hated the place. Extremely congested and commercial it looked no place to relax.  The next day when we visited the Botanical Gardens this feeling got further strengthened.

My son Khundmir found a friend whose friend knew a Bed and Breakfast joint in Coonoor which was extremely reasonably priced.  We were seven adults and an infant and the entire accommodation consisting of 2/3 bedrooms, two bath rooms and one large sitting cum dining area with lovely front and back lawns was going to cost us Rs 4000 per day !

The caretakers were a very nice family who really took care of us. They provided us with food, coffee/tea, baby food etc as per our requirements at a very reasonable rate.

The food was homely and piping sot in the nice cool atmosphere which added to the enjoyment.

We started on Friday at 5:30 AM.  We planned to have breakfast at the legendary Tiffanys at Maddur.  The legend has really got sour ! We reached the place around 7:30 and were told that the famous Dosas were not available.

Only Idli, Maddur Vada and chow chow bath were available.
The service is totally bad bordering to insulting.  The attitude appears to be we are the best so take it or leave it.  We had a lot of leftovers which we requested them to doggy bag for us. They refused and were extremely rude. We complained to the man on the counter who was ruder.  Never again will we visit this place.


We reached Bandipur around 9:30. The drive through Bandipur and Mudumalai Forests was not very pleasant as the forest gave a haunted look. Dry try without leaves, no animals and an eerie atmosphere. May be because of this the drive appeared to be too long and tedious.


The road from Masanagudi just outside the Mudumalai Park is bad for abot 15 KM.  But once the climb starts the road is good. It took us 45 minutes to negotiate the 36 bends. Coonoor is another 20 KM out of Ooty. The moment you get out of Ooty it becomes extremely pleasant. Coonoor is a nice laid back place where you can really relax.

After spending a couple of nice days at Coonoor we started back on Sunday morning.  On the return we made good time coming down and did it in 25 minutes.
We stopped at Masangudi for breakfast.  It was awful. It is extremely difficult to spoil Idli Chutney but this place achieved it.  To add insult to injury the charges were tourist place charges  Rs. 40 for dosa !

We were lucky this time in our forest drive and could spot some deer, peacock and elephants.

Reached home by about 3:30 PM after having lunch at Kamat Lokaruchi near Channapatna. This was another disaster. Read my review about this in Burrp.