Savor The Awesomeness: Ooty DAY 5

The 5th Day in Ooty, TamilNadu

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011.

Today, we woke up early morning, and, instead of eating breakfast at our hotel, we headed over to the Taj hotel for breakfast. The hotel, Taj Savoy Hotel, was a mere 2 kms away from ours. They too had a buffet breakfast, but I think their's was considerably better. The hotel was set up like an old British colony, beautiful. Breakfast was delicious. The most mindboggling part was, at the live counter, the chef, Joseph, made the most amazing dosas! They were crispy from the outside, while soft and doughy from the inside. I don't think anyone could EVER get sick of those! They had homemade jam, fresh fruit smoothies, and amazing hospitality. Our hotel has amazing hospitality too though, which is awesome. :D

The Taj hotel also had the cutest rabbits on their gardens! They were all busy eating broccoli while carrots lay on the side, and we enjoyed staring at them for 30 mins or so.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Tea Gardens once again, but different ones this time. They were gorgeous too, and this time was different not only because the place was different but because this time, we were not met with thick layers of mist and fog. Papa and I walked around in the tea gardens, and we saw people plucking the tea leaves and packing them up for the factories.

On the way back, from the road, we picked up an overwhelming scent of tea. Upon exploration, we discovered an operational tea factory, and they were nice enough to give us a tour. This tea factory was a co-operative; owned by around 900 farmers and run by the government of TamilNadu. Everyday, they processed around 15000 kg of tea leaves, producing around 3000 or 4000 kilos. They made different types of teas, and we saw all of the machines and workers in operation, unlike when we had gone to the other tea factory as that day was a Sunday, so it was a national holiday. The man at the factory told us that the farmers get paid 12 rupees per kg of green leaf they give the factory, and the end product of the factory gets sold in an wholesale auction for about 75 rupees a kg of processed tea. He also told us that for every 4kg of green leaf, 1kg of tea gets produced, the rest going to waste. It was a very interesting visit!

We then returned to the hotel, and are currently watching the cricket match. India versus Pakistan. Its the match of the century! :p

More later..