[nnandi]

Originally Posted by kannan666

Road condition is excellent, the roads have been done up recently. However, last time I was there during the first week of March, there was some trench work going on along the highway for around 12kms from Gudalur towards Ooty and that had reduced the road width as the debris was lying by the roadside. This should have been completed by now I guess, other Tbhpians who have used this road lately, please confirm.

Like I mentioned earlier, the entire NH67 (from Ooty to Gudalur) is awesome and road is brilliant.

@kannan, the trench work is not complete and debris is still on the road. This is on Gudalur route, just before entering Mudumalai. Again, this is motorable, not too bad.

[sridharganesan]

Originally Posted by nnandi

Yes, Dad loved it the most and kept telling us about what he saw when he visited Ooty back in '73.

About the resort, you said it all, I could not find anything which can be mentioned about the place. We planned just 2 days before the start of journey, whole ooty was booked by then. So only those non-existent places were available. They gave a fancy name to the place- "Julia Resort". Unfortunately, it was just a ramshakled lodge, which did not have proper rooms, nor proper beds, nor good toilets. The rooms were smelly and the linen had holes! The toilets did not even have a geyser! It did not have a restuarant. Inspite of this, they had the nerve to charge Rs. 1500 per night per room! (Hotels like Khems/Glanton Manor/Preethi Classic/Ooty Gate start at Rs.1200 for B&B). Entire night, there are dogs barking outside and the only hotel attendent keeps yelling from gound floor at the top of his voice, waking even the kids from sleep! When I complained to the Manager (Sagayaraj), he was defiant enough to say "this is the peak season, you don't like, then vacate as I have people waiting outside"! Completely atrocious and a rip-off, they never have heard the word "Hospitality" in their life, I am guessing! I never had such a shoddy exp with any of my stays in any place ever in life! Goes to show, planning everything in advance pays off!
My advise, please do proper research on the hotel before taking family!
And if ever Julia resort gets re-furbished into a 5 star, I would still aviod it, remembering this exp!

Great travelogue, Nandi. Your smooth style of conveying your experience makes all of us to relive your experience. Sad to know about your hotel stay, though! I fully agree with you that we need to do enough research so that we don't end up in such horror joints. BTW, did you check King's Cliff at Ooty? I had stayed there once and the place was amazing! It is a large colonial type house converted into a hotel. But anyway, good to know that you had a whale of time at Ooty along with your family.

Cheers.

Sridhar