The relaxed and laid-back life…Coonoor!

Coonoor – Ooty road trip

After a lot of deliberation and squabbles, we finally zeroed upon this South Indian tiny hill station of Coonoor for our annual anniversary vacation in August 2019. The first question was where do we stay? Ooty was a default choice as it was the largest city in the area having better hotels and North Indian restaurants. However, we didn’t want to go to the crowded Mussoorie of South, so discarded the idea. Next in the queue was Lovedale or Wellington. Well, we couldn’t find a decent homestay at either of these places which suited our requirement, so Coonoor it was, our abode for 4 nights. We decided to book Teanest Annexe, which was located around 5 km from Coonoor town inside Singara Tea Estate.

Coonoor

It’s a 3 hrs drive from Coimbatore to Coonoor. The plan was to fly from Delhi to Coimbatore on 2nd August early morning and rent a car from Zoomcar at Coimbatore airport. I had already booked a Tata Nexon for the three of us. I had never driven this car before and was looking forward to it. On our last trip to Rann of Kutch, we had rented a Tata Hexa, which was amazing. Brand Tata had rekindled my faith in it. We planned to stay at Teanest in Singara Tea Estate, Coonoor. The bookings were done and we were informed that the tiny room which we had booked was upgraded to a Suite. Wow! Anything free was more than welcomed. Slowly and gradually, the day passed, and finally, it was Friday, 2nd of August.

Coonoor – The flight

The flight departed Delhi Airport on time. Throughout the flight, I was asleep as I had got up at 3 am. Upon landing at Coimbatore airport on time, I checked the Zoomcar app. No information regarding my car was available. Something seemed wrong but I decided to worry about it later, after picking up my baggage from the belt. Time showed 09.30 hrs when I got a call from an unknown number. It was a Zoomcar representative.

ZoomCar

She informed me that the car I had booked, a Tata Nexon, had met with an accident and was unavailable. Now, they wanted to upgrade my car to Hyundai Creta but asked me to pick it up from a 14 km away location. I was okay to pick it up from there but wasn’t comfortable dropping it at the same location on my return journey. I requested them to allow me to drop it at the airport. They refused to entertain this request. I declined too. Next, they offered me a Mahindra Scorpio from the airport location. I agreed this time. Time read 09.45 hrs.

Zoomcar – worst customer care

By 10 am, we reached the location and checked out our allocated car. It had Bangalore Electronics City registration number (Karnataka State – KA 51). Upon checking the vehicle I found that car was dirty as hell, had crushed chips scattered in all seats and mats, the car charger and music system wasn’t working, the seat was torn at a lot of places and AC air wasn’t blowing properly, maybe due to choked air filters.

I called the Zoomcar customer care again and informed them of the situation and asked them to allocate any other car, even a WagonR in good condition would do. Instead, they asked me to wait and promised to send the center supervisor there. A guy named Raj came in some time and expressed his helplessness in getting the car fixed. Instead, he suggested me to speak to customer care again and request a change of car. After much waiting, heated altercations, and threats later, they allocated me another Scorpio, which was much more driven. Its charger and music system were working, though its AC again gave us nightmares.

Zoomcar – Incorrect papers

Trust me, it was a painful experience to deal with customer care who gives a damn whether you are stranded with your family or are with a kid. Since morning, we hadn’t eaten much. We had planned to have breakfast after getting a car on the highway. Time read 12.00 noon when we left Zoomcar premises. An ordeal which started at 10.00 am, ended at 12.00 noon. Before leaving, upon checking the paper file, I looked for the Tamil Nadu Permit receipt and found a paper with a sticky note saying “TN”. I made the mistake of not actually checking the contents carefully (maybe because we were already late). I took Raj’s cell number (thankfully – to be detailed later) and we started our drive to Coonoor by 12.15 pm.

The Road to Coonoor

The road from Coimbatore to Coonoor is two-lane, without a divider. The quality is average and traffic is mostly slow-moving traffic near Mettupalayam. We reached our hotel by 14.45 hrs. Check-in was a breeze and we were greeted with a complimentary basil leaf tea, which was refreshing.

We had planned a ride on Mettulayapam – Ooty toy train which departed from Coonoor by 16.00 hrs. Coonoor has a tiny railway station parked somewhere on Nilgiris on the main highway to Ooty. More than daily commuters, there were tourists jostling inside the train compartment elbowing to get a corner seat. My wife and son enjoyed the train ride, while I drove to Lovedale station to pick them up there, which was about an hour away by train. As I drove along the serpentine road to Lovedale, the weather changed for the better. It turned misty and a cool fresh breeze caressed my face along with a slight drizzle. The green tea gardens all along felt greener due to the misty wash of drizzle.

Lovedale Railway station

As I reached Lovedale station, it seemed like a tiny stopover lost somewhere in time. No traffic, no cars, not even a single soul loitering on the platform. The sound of a cool misty breeze swishing across tall trees was omnipresent. It looked so scary and creepy. A scene straight from 2002 Bollywood Blockbuster Raaz. In fact, one story of another Bollywood thriller ‘Dus Kahaniyan’ was filmed at Lovedale railway station. While I was enjoying the weather, the toy train suddenly emerged out of the mist, and the station buzzed into chaos. We clicked a few pics at the Station entrance and drove back to our hotel enjoying the salubrious weather. I really liked the lonely drive inside Singara Estate amidst lush green tea gardens with cool wind blowing from peak to peak of hills.

Zoomcar issue – Stuck at Police checkpost

The next morning post breakfast, we left for Avalanche Lake and Upper Bhavani Lake viewpoint which was around 65 km from our hotel. Time read 09.00 hrs. We assumed it would take a max. of 3 hrs due to curvy roads. We were wrong. Just as we took a turn towards Wellington, we were stopped by Traffic Police. The guy demanded to see Tamil Nadu Permit seeing a KA 51 registration car. Confidently, I opened the file and took out the paper marked “TN”.

To my horror and disbelief, it was Andhra Pradesh’s permit and not Tamil Nadu’s one. The guy asked me to park the car on the curb and demanded Rs 5000/- as a fine and permit fee. This double whammy of not having requisite papers and Rs 5000/- came as a shock to me. I asked for some time for arranging papers to which he agreed. I called up the customer care of Zoomcar and explained my situation. They completely washed off their hands saying that I should have checked the papers and this amount will not be reimbursed. They hung up the call. I again called them up and put up a simple question.

Zoomcar staff finally helped

How can Zoomcar offer me a KA registration car from Coimbatore (which itself is in TN state) if it doesn’t have requisite papers? Had I rented this car from Karnataka and brought it to TN state, I agree, onus lied with me to have the right papers. They had no answer to this question. They asked me to wait on the road and said they’d escalate this with their superiors. I waited on the road, stranded with my family for good 30 mins but no one called.

The agony was excruciating. The frustration was building up within me and I just wanted to leave this car with authorities and let Zoomcar recover it back on their own. Amidst these thoughts, I called Zoomcar representative Raj (whose number I had taken luckily). The guy was quite helpful and promised to send me a WhatsApp image of the document. The ten mins wait lasted an eternity and then finally, I got an image of the Tamil Nadu permit on my WhatsApp. Fortunately, the Traffic Police guy didn’t bother me for a hard copy and let me go without paying anything. Time read 11.00 hrs. This entire episode lasted for more than an hour.

Coonoor Ooty Day’s outing

I started driving faster than normal and in a jiffy, we crossed Lovedale and many small towns on the way. The road was good and it had started drizzling. The weather had been kind throughout. No sudden pouring or landslides. By 13.00 hrs we reached Avalanche Lake Entry point. We parked our car there and booked a Jeep Safari for Rs 2000/-. The Jeep trip would cover three points – Cauliflower Shola, a temple, and the Upper Bhavani Lake viewpoint. While we waited for the Jeep, we thought of having lunch at the canteen. Ubiquitous dosa, idly, and filter coffee along with bread omelet were our staple diet since we had arrived. The food was delicious and the total bill was Rs 300 for the three of us. Pretty reasonable.

Cauliflower shola viewpoint

The drive through the jungle was remarkable, though road and jeep were in a wretched state. Slowly, we inched towards completion of this 11 km journey which was supposed to take 3 hrs. The Cauliflower shola was just a dense jungle where trees resembled Cauliflower. We stopped for 5 mins basically to stretch our backs and in turn click quick pics. The next stop was an old temple behind which a waterfall was flowing which had lesser water than what flows on potholed Gurgaon roads during monsoons. The journey started getting boring with the usual views of the jungle. I don’t know what hurt more – spending Rs 2000 for this rickety ride or my back.

Upper Bhavani Lake viewpoint

However, as we reached the Upper Bhavani Lake viewpoint, all my inhibitions were brushed aside. I was standing in the middle of nowhere with an awesome view and no other tourists around. A cold wind was blowing violently. For once, I didn’t curse my almost bald looks, rather I was proud of them. My hair didn’t even interrupt once while my pics were being clicked. My wife, on the contrary, was constantly trying to hold her hair to manage a decent pic.

Due to the ferocity of the wind, I wasn’t able to open my eyes properly, here, my goggles came to my respite. In the end, it was me, who holds a collection of good pics at this amazing viewpoint. The drive back to the base was uneventful. With Tamil (or Kannada) songs playing in the background, I tried to focus on the view outside as I could not understand a bit of the lyrics.

The drive on the way back to Coonoor was uneventful. The hotel was empty with not even a single other room occupied. Food was being prepared as per our choice and entire garden was available to us. Thats the beauty of going to such offbeat places, no botheration.

Coonoor – Ooty attractions

Next two days, we roamed around so many places amidst heavy rainfall… Ooty Lake, Wenlock Downs 9th mile, Pykara Lake, Needle Rock viewpoint, and Pine Forest Shooting spot. All places had an amazing view but my personal favorite is Needle Rock and Wenlock Downs 9th mile. Both places offer a spectacular view of the scenery and offer a wow backdrop for pics. At Ooty, we had lunch at Earl’s Secret. This is a beautiful property on top of a cliff. Food is delicious, though a bit pricey.

Coonoor attractions

At Coonoor, we visited Lamb’s Rock, Dolphin Nose Point, Fall’s View Point, took a long leisurely walk across Singara Tea Estate, and also enjoyed the salubrious ambiance of Wellington Lake. Overall, a quiet lazy town. I wish I could settle down at Coonoor post-retirement. A perfect hideout, away from the hustle bustle of urban life (even the word ends with ‘ban’).

Coonoor to Coimbatore airport

On the day of return from Coonoor, we just got up late, had a king-size breakfast, and took a leisurely drive to Coimbatore. Fortunately, our Scorpio showed no tantrums. The slow, unrushed drive through dense forest and greenery felt soothing. As we descended, the air got warmer and pollution caught up with us. We felt at home breathing fumes from the vehicular exhaust…ah, Delhi is approaching! The flight to Delhi was on time and we were home by 22.30 hrs.

The quick short trip to Coonoor was refreshing and much-awaited. This tiny green hill offers unmatched beauty. A must-visit for offbeat enthusiasts and those seeking a break from mundane life.

Coonoor – I am impressed.

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