I say goodbye to my hotel, I really enjoyed it here. The TukTuk stops in front of the Postoffice ("no problem, I wait and take care of your luggage; I'm your friend"). Reassuring. Then the ferry for the last time. A man sitting in front of me is coughing, I'm guessing tuberculosis. Poor guy. Some young boys sit next to me looking at pictures of cricketers.
The differences
I'm alone now in the compartment, the sleeping Indian guy leaves, obviously startled. I look out of the window, letting the country pass me by, see horrifying images of drastic poverty, worse than ever before. Despite compassion, I am a spectator. I sit in my air-conditioned compartment, full stomach, in good health and with enough money in my pocket.
I can't do anything else, as long as a movie is playing outside. The train heads in the direction of the interior of the country. Another Indian guy has joined me and falls asleep. Quiet snoring fills the compartment from now on. A nice feeling of not being alone. Darkness slowly descends from the east. Small faint lights, lost in the night. It seems to me that no one is really alone in this country. Not only by the permanent presence of millions of people, it is something else. Strange - it seems to me that people treat each other more lovingly than they do in our countries. A lot has been lost to us.
We arrive with surprising punctuality in Coimbatore. In the meantime, I have become a competent traveler. It's always the same routine. Getting out, looking around, waiting at the ticket counter. The communication with the lady at the counter is somehow difficult. There are 1st Class tickets to Mettupalayam, but it's not worth the price. The Nilgiri Railway provides only 2nd Class tickets anyway. I buy "Indian Railways at a Glance" and get quite surprised by the size and weight of the book.
A TukTuk takes me through the dense traffic and delivers me at the hotel. I don't like anything about it. I have a strange room with a huge mirror on the wall.
After all, there is a really good restaurant on the other side of the street. I eat wonderful Chinese food and wonder about the staff, the guests, everything. I eat and go to sleep.
Mettupalayam
Around 2 o'clock in the morning, I'm wide awake and watch "Star Wars Phantom Menace". At 04.30 I say goodbye (the two guys at the reception are asleep on the floor) and let myself be taken along the deserted and almost noiseless roads to the train station.
At the train station, half of Coimbatore's inhabitants are already on their feet. I'm almost certain that many of them don't have a permanent place to stay. But once again, it' s one of those surreal moments that I like so much. Another planet, and I am a visitor from outer space. Yet everything is calm, serene, of an amazing peacefulness. Beautiful.
The locomotive is waiting
On the platform, I catch the eyes of a young couple sitting in the 2nd Class compartment. I join them, and shortly afterwards Jenny, a lovely Belgian girl, joins us. Happy chatting, while the train starts moving and slowly pulls away into the twilight of the morning.
In Mettupalyam the Nilgiri Blue Mountain Railway waits on the platform, expecting its guests impatiently.
An irritating hustle and bustle results. Nobody knows exactly where to sit with which ticket. Eventually, I find out that only half of the superior car is reserved and that therefore one is allowed to sit there. Jenny and I dare to do it, while the two Frenchmen don't trust it and prefer to stay in the tightly packed 2nd Class compartment.
Nilgiri Blue Mountain Railway
Eventually the train starts moving, with infernal noise, smoke and steam. The small, weak-looking locomotive pushes the train with the 4-5 carriages. It's a wonderful experience, albeit quite exhausting. In the 16 tunnels the locomotive steams and roars, hammering like Saruman inspecting his underground factories in the Lord of the Rings. Sometimes we stop, refill the water, everyone gets out, taking pictures , laughing, talking. Pure happiness.
Just beautiful.
And here the video of very poor quality:
After the steep climbs, which by the way can only be mastered with the help of the rack-and-pinion system, a Swiss patent, we are greeted by a lovely landscape, characterized by lush green tea plantations, eucalyptus trees (how strange), coloured spots of houses in between. The railway was financed by the owners of the tea plantations at that time. One feels to be in another world, lifted off from the heat of the plain, into suddenly clear, noticeably colder air. Sometimes, when the sun disappears behind clouds, a touch of shivering suddenly appears. Unexpected and unusual.
Goodbye, little brave locomotive
Somewhere along the line, the steam engine is replaced by a more modern diesel model. Goodbye, little brave locomotive, you did a good job. May you continue to puff another 100 years up the Ghats.
The second part of the course is a bit faster. I am talking to a gentleman living in Ooty. I can imagine him as a doctor, but he turns out to be a businessman who has something to do with organic fertilizer.
And then there is Ooty (actually Udagamandalam, but who can remember that). 2400 meters above sea, hot in the sun, and as it turns out later, dirty and uninviting. For now, I look for my hotel, a small room in the "Reflection Guest House". I hope the name is well chosen. It does not have warm water, at least at the first try, but maybe I'll do it all wrong again.
I let myself drift through the extremely dirty streets and alleys, past the dirt and debris on the roadsides. The animals, here in large numbers and partly in a miserable condition, look for something edible on the street. I can not help but feel uncomfortable. And there is something about a strike, which could jeopardize my planned departure. What the hell, I'll let it come to me. Strange how different my reactions are. Kochi - Enthusiasm, Ooty - Dislike.
It gets cold
As soon as the last rays of the sun have burned up, it gets noticeably colder. Also, my sweater is barely warm enough to give enough protection. I go to the hotel early, tired and a bit annoyed, read a few lines and think it's not that cold. But after some time it turns out to be deceptive: first I have to pull one warm blanket up, then the second, finally I put on the sweater, and then also my long pants, and at the very end I wrap a cloth around my neck , What a fucking cold!
P.S. Matching Song: The Communards - So cold the night
And here the journey continues ...
