Travel Day 2: Mumabi to Kodaikanal

I had a 9:40 flight out the domestic airport in Mumbai, so after a quick breakfast of roti, jam, a fried egg and tea, Ronald drove me to the airport. This time around check-in went pretty quickly. After going through security, I bought a bottle of water (my first purchase in India) and headed  to my gate to board. I found out that my flight was actually stopping in Chennai before Madurai. It was a transit flight though, meaning I didn't have to get off the plane.

        

                                                   Great inflight entertainment!

After about 4 hours of flying, we arrived in Madurai. I collected my bag and headed outside to find my ride to Kodaikanal. I walked out and found someone holding a sign with my name right outside the door. It was the FIMRC driver named Mubarak. We hopped in his car and headed to Kodaikanal. We first had to drive across the plains before reaching the mountains. The car didn't have AC so this was a hot drive.

       

                                          The brown landscape of the hot Indian plains.

Before reaching the mountains, we stopped for lunch at a veg (vegetarian) restaurant. Mubarak ordered for me since I didn't really know what was going on. We got rice with a bunch of little side dishes to eat it with. In typical Indian fashion, we ate with our hands. It was great fun.

                                    

Attempting to eat rice with your hands isn't enough of a mess, so you mix it with dishes that are the consistency of soup. I also not sure how sanitary eating off a leaf is but it does look cool! After a very filling lunch (Mubarak kept getting the waiter to serve me more food), we hopped back in the car. We finally got into the mountains. The scenery was beautiful but the switchbacks were very windy. I was so tired at this point I was falling asleep in the car but the turns kept jerking me back awake. Around 6 pm, we finally made it to Kodaikanal and the FIMRC guesthouse where I am staying. I met Arun, the FIMRC site leader, and four student volunteers who were already there. We cooked some spicy vegetable rice for dinner and then I showered and headed to sleep.