Through the Nilgiri tea plantations

The next stop of our trip was Ooty, a small city in the Nilgiri Mountains in the state of Tamil Nadhu.

The climate is quite different of what you would expected in South India. sunny and hot during the day but quite cold at night. We took a tour through the tea plantations.

The landscape is quite surreal: glowing bushes of green cover the hills. Silver oak trees grow between them.  I was told that they  provide shade in the summer, while in winter the leaves are trimmed..

The rounded shape of the bushes is the consequence of the constant trimming of the tea leaves.
The tour included a meal on a restaurant in the local village. The tables were covered with newspaper sheets. the Banana leaves served as plates to mix the food and eat.

The men wore mundu, a piece of cloth around their waste instead of pants. Here in the Nilgiri mountains the mundu were in bright colors while in Kerala were mostly white. They combine usually white a western shirt.

We took a normal bus to go back to Ooty. When you travel with bus, and you arrived to a station you have to prepare to get out immediately. Otherwise the coming passengers will block your way out.