21st Feb - Ooti for the dentist and sight-seeing

Johnie cooked a fantastic eggy bread for breakfast and we spent the morning chilling and reading. We left at 11.30 to go to Ooty so that I could go to the dentist again for some fillings. The drive takes about 1 hour. I realised quite how steep the pass is when going up it by car. It did not feel that steep. Johnie told us that it is actually 1 mile higher in Ooty than it is at his house. Apparently it gets really cold in Ooti at night time. Although it is colder here at night time than Kerala it is not too cold to not feel comfortable in trousers and a shirt. There are hardly any mosquitoes too.

Johnie dropped me off at the dentist and then took the kids and Suzie to his club for a drink and an explore. The dentist was a very interesting experience. Normally in the UK the dentist will give injections as a matter of course so that any drilling done is not sensitive. In India this is not the norm and you have to specifically ask if it is getting too painful to continue. I succeeded with the filling on the bottom of my jaw not to have the injection - just to see how sore it really is when they drill. I wimped out on the filling on the top. The dentist was a very friendly chap and it felt like he did a good job. My fillings look great and feel fine and only cost me £15 per filling.

After the dentist I went to the local chemist and got some antimalarias and antibiotics. It felt good to be slowly crossing things off my "TODO" list. The tablets that would have cost me £100 in NZ to get (doctors appointment necessary etc) cost me less than £5 here!

I even found a shop that sell Western perfume but decided not to buy it as it is too expensive verses my budget. I bought some chocolate for Johnie and the kids and then met the others for lunch. Johnie ordered a huge dosa for all of us. It was fun.

Johnie is a playful person and we were both in a cheeky good mood. We had great fun in an Indian shop asking for silly things and trying to buy the labeling machine from the confused Indian men. We saw a make of underwear called "Goodlay" and crisps called "Full Toss". With product names like this it is very hard not to play.....

We did some shopping in Modern Stores - the shop which sells many of the item that Westerners might need. Johnie has got it absolutely sorted what he can and can't buy in India and the best sauce. We also went for a coffee at Coffee Day, a chain of coffee shops in India (equivalent of Starbucks). It is the only coffee shop in Ooty.
The sky was grey for most to the day and it rained again as we were leaving Ooty. There was a lot of traffic on the pass home as there is a big festival this weekend. We went the off road route for the first stretch to see if we could spot some rare monkeys. We did not see any but it was great to go through an even more remote part of the jungle and then pass through the little villages and farm land. Johnie really is a great host. He has seen all of these things many times but chooses to share the experience with other people for no personal gain.

When we got back on to the main road we stopped off to chat with the "Break Checker" (the spelling on his shirt - not my bad spelling this time). This guy does not get paid by the government but chooses to stop people coming down the pass if their brakes are smelling. There are a large number of people that are killed each year when their brakes fail on this extremely steep pass. Most Indians do not know how to use their gears to slow down and instead just use their brakes - which then fail.
The Break Cheaker knows Johnie as he regularly donates to this cause. Johnie was invited to the wedding of the Break Checkers daughter.
The sun was setting as we arrived back. Johnie took us off road to watch the sun set over the mountains. I love it here so much. Mountains, sun, friendly people - no yacht racing though.....