On the winding drive from Koda Road Station to Kodi at around 5 am, I try not to make a list of things to do. A list means structure, which means asking someone for directions, and that means going where everyone's been and is still hanging around. Instead, I talk to the driver. 'So many tourists spoiling your town, no?' By the end of the 3-hr drive, I'm armed with ideas and a determination that will keep me away from anything that has an attached shopping street. Or a bellboy.

I decide to have a Kodaikanal holiday that isn't ditto my dad's of 25 years ago. Since then, I hear, honeymooners and rowdy boy gangs have taken over. But surely there must be more to Kodi than a repetitive line of rocks giving different views of blinding white mist. Surely it isn't already explored out.

Most of the tourist entertainment in town is centred around the starfish-shaped lake, which forms Kodi's nucleus. Honeymooners take the customary boat-ride, kids scream for horse-rides and parents negotiate with taxi drivers for a day-trip of Kodi's 16-Sights Tour. The town is a small maze of churches, hotels, restaurants, touts and home-made signs advertising homemade chocolates. But look beyond the facade and you'll find another dimension to Kodi.

Look behind the rocks the guide's pointing at; demand to turn left when he turns right; look at the little cottages hidden by the mammoth holiday home. It takes a gritty kind of tourist to outfox the local travel guide. But when you manage, you'll find a door into Kodi that is only for special guests.

But first, promise you won't stone the monkeys. Or etch your eternal love or turbulent lust for someone on a tree.

All right; now we're ready.