Author: queenbee (Page 2 of 7)

Days of Leisure

October 12, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 8:

We had been travelling for a week already and Mr.Bee is the sole driver for our trip. Adding to that, KBee and I were down with cold. I had taken a head bath and towel dried my hair, still, I caught a cold! (Carry a hair dryer with you, if you are going to visit a temple and have little time to towel dry the hair, thanks to the temple timings and travel constraints.) Hotels in India don’t provide hair dryers, except for super luxury ones, which have foreign visitors! (The Jaipur Hotel we stayed at, last year had hair dryers, separate ‘he’ and ‘she’ wash basins and Jacuzzi too, with two different doors to access the area! Such opulence!)

Anyway….

We woke up early, had our baths, had breakfast, rode an auto to reach the Kukke Subrahmanya Swamy temple.

A clean and peaceful temple town – Subramanya, Karnataka — Pic Source : Google

Although the distance from the hotel to the temple is walk-able, we preferred the auto, because it was quite sunny! (The temperature App in my cell showed it was 32 Centigrade and we are used to more than that in Hyderabad, but we were closer to the beach city Mangalore!) It is best to use the auto services than take the car and face parking difficulties.

We breezed through the temple, with it being an off season for visitors. We returned to hotel in half an hour, spending more time near the ATM to draw out some cash, than in the temple itself! GBee and KBee wanted to buy the beach toys which were readily available near the temple shops.

One set each for both the kiddos.

With this little purchase, we returned to our room. At lunch time, we went to the in-house restaurant, had our lunch and returned to the room. We decided to not travel anywhere for the day. We ate, we drank, we watched T.V. and overall had a lazy day. Our original plan had been to visit either Dharmasthala or Sringeri, depending on our mood that day. Interestingly, our mood that day was to be lazy. So we didn’t budge from our hotel room!

Meanwhile Mr.Bee got the car checked and cleaned, since we travelled in rains and the car mud guards were heavier by a couple of kilos!

With a simple dosa dinner, we ended our day.

Day 9:

After the much needed rest, we woke up by 8 a.m, freshened up and had our breakfast. We packed our bags and checked out of the hotel. We were on our way to Southadka, an open to sky Ganesha Temple (no structure is covering the Moola Virat, Maha Ganapathi), 35 km away from the Kukke Subrahmanya temple! (Visiting both the divine brothers Ganesha and Subrahmanya in the reverse order has been fun. I was happy, because both GBee and KBee are named after the said Gods as Ganesh and Karthikeya.)

A one-of-a-kind temple, without a Garba Gudi. Deity is visible to all, from far and wide! Pic Sourced from Google.

BTW, if you are up for it, there is a shopping complex with spices, coffee powders and antiques available and you can shop till you drop. We avoided the shops because the kids wanted junk food and we had to divert them with all our new found street smart attitude.

Well within half an hour, we ended our darshan and started our journey to Mangalore. Incidentally, when I turned on the radio, I could hear Malayalam songs, so between Subrahmanya and Mangalore, I think we also crossed the Kerala state border for a brief period of time.

The drive was less than 2 hours and we reached Mangalore on time for lunch. I was reminded of my Infosys Mysore roomie, RR, who worked in Mangalore for 2 years. God, I am out of touch with most of my friends! (Sad reality of stay-at-home moms, who also happen to be introverts!)

We stayed at the VAZCO Mangalore Beach resort. All we had to do was cross the 10 feet road to reach the sandy beach! (Best experience ever!) As we checked-in, I observed that the resort was empty except for us and a couple! I was disappointed. But since it was Thursday and people generally don’t travel to beaches on weekdays, I decided to wait and watch.

We had yummy, paper thin Chapathis, with paneer sabzi and lassi glass-sized watermelon juice, to wash down our food! We had booked a family room which comes with a separate seating area outside our room and that was where we spent eating our lunches and dinners during our stay. The separate area comes in handy if you have kids who throw half the food outside their plates! The kids would eat messily and we could go into our room and sleep, while the service staff would clean it without disturbing us and our privacy, a win-win.

After the lunch, we rested for an hour, freshened up, wore our beach outfits with me applying ample sunscreen lotion. (Turns out, at the end of our beach holiday, only I didn’t tan at all. The kids and Mr.Bee had a Mangalore beach tan!)

KBee, GBee and I had a blast, making sand castles and Mr.Bee ended up being our beach photographer. We took a zip lock pouch with us to store our ‘so-called’ water-proof cells and the room key fob. Zip locks are life savers!

We returned to the resort, spent another hour completely hijacking the swimming pool. We had a blast. After washing off most of the sand from our bodies, we returned to our room and ordered garama garam onion pakoras with green chillies for added effect! Yummy! Even the fault finding kiddos ate in silence!

Onion Pakora with added green chillies – Soul Food!

We spent the rest of the evening watching T.V. and resting. KBee had been doing good. He didn’t have a relapse of fever and I was happy and thankful for that. (I met some other mothers during our course of vacation and they would judge me for bringing a tiny kiddo for a 10 day vacation. If we are prepared for food and medical requirements, no harm in travelling with a 2 year old baby. )

We really needed a break from our mundane life and thankfully, the vacation had done the trick of recharging our depleting batteries.

With a yummy yummy fried rice and lip smacking masala butter milk, we ended our day and slept like logs!

P.S:

Don’t ever miss butter milk in Karnataka. Anywhere in Karnataka, buttermilk is to die for.
Who knew a vacation can be at once hectic and leisurely!
Queen Bee’s favourite food is anything with ample green chillies! Weirdly, green chillies make my mouth water!
If you ever have severe cold or if you have breathing issues and allergies, it is always best to visit a beach area. The salty beach air works like a natural nebulizer and clears up even tough sinuses!

Till the next post… cheerio!

Of Successful Landings!

August 24, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Firstly, let us congratulate the ISRO! Bravo!

We should pat our backs and enjoy the proud moment, even though we hardly had anything to do with the Chandrayan-3 landing on the Moon. It is momentous, next only to India’s Independence!

Even the schools across India suggested that we should watch the Chandrayaan-3 land on the Moon. GBee’s school sent us messages to watch it with our kids and introduce them to Space Magic, which the general public refers to as Astronomy!

Anyway,Mr.Bee and I were busy discussing the Chandrayaan-3 on our terrace, no less, while intently staring at the Moon, as if naked eyes can perceive the Chandrayaan-3 from Earth!

Incidentally, the sky looked spectacular, with orange hues on one side of the sky, thanks to the setting Sun and the light blue coloured floating beauties, the clouds, near the milky Moon! Awesome view indeed. I clicked a few pictures, but I couldn’t justify the beauty with my poor photography skills!

While we were deep in our discussion, GBee and KBee were entertaining themselves with their own chichorapan and mischief!

Talking away with sky forming a dreamy background!

I began to guess the spot where Chandrayaan-3 must have landed and Mr.Bee was laughing at that. Suddenly we heard a loud BAM.

Going from 0 to 100 on the Fear Factor scale in a jiffy!

For less than 2 seconds, we looked at each other and ran towards the parapet wall, where both the kids had been playing. They are shorter than the wall and that gave us a temporary sense of security. Before the incident had happened I thought, they can’t climb the wall, they can’t see what’s on the other side, so let’s chat with Mr.Bee. That is the reason behind leaving the kids unattended!

Play time means – using a rock as a ball

KBee had found a rock for himself, which was the size of half a brick. He had thrown it over the parapet wall, not knowing that, there is an AC outdoor unit on the neighbours sun shade! The rock had landed on the AC outdoor unit, before rolling off to the ground. Thankfully, no dent was visible on the unit. We inspected it carefully.

The Chandrayaan-3 had successfully landed on the Moon and this weird rock has landed, albeit temporarily, on the AC unit. A historic moment indeed, both for India and KBee respectively! KBee got an earful from both Mr.Bee and me. He has an avid supporter in his elder brother, GBee, who pleaded his case, saying that KBee is still a baby, which is TRUE! Case closed! Khel Khatam, dukaan bandh! (which loosely translates to Game Over)

P.S:

What happened next? Did the neighbours scold? Did they fight us? These questions will not be answered! This is an open ended thriller!
I tried my best to draw the beautiful sky, but it was difficult with little time and little resources. I use ‘paint’ in my laptop! (I previously had a drawing tablet Wacom, but I couldn’t maintain it properly and it died on me.)
This disclaimer is for all the good people who find fault with anything. I didn’t compare Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon to a rock falling on an AC. I am just drawing parallels. Some situations remind us of completely different or eerily similar stuff. It can go either way.
If you find a mom, who looks like hell, it means she has had a scary moment recently. So don’t judge her and let her live in peace. She doesn’t need more stress in her life. Even a kid sleeping for an extra hour can cause stress!

Wait for the next post, till then, cheerio!

The Home Fun!

August 16, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Just as GBee began his education this year, Grade 1 and all, we have come across the term Home Fun. Gone are the olden days when we as students in school, were given ‘Home Work’! Kids these days have Home Fun, daily and that too in at least two subjects!

This specific incident happened when I was busy folding the laundry, while instructing GBee on how to go about his Home Fun! Incidentally, I always have to correct myself each time. I begin talking like, ‘GBee, let’s start your home work, I mean home fun!’

Sadly, even GBee says it is his home work! He even wrote GBee working on the wall behind the table! (He is into graffiti, lol!)

Anyway…

And..the conversation starts…

Before I could get my brain back into the groove from all the humming while folding the laundry, to even respond to GBee, KBee, the baby had replied to GBee.

I could hardly believe my eyes, I mean, ears! See, I am flustered!

KBee is a silent guy, who hardly responds to stuff. Sometimes, he prefers giving silent hand gestures to get his point across. So, seeing such a boy, reply voluntarily to his anna, was a bit overwhelming for me.

Surprised and shocked that KBee can even reply to conversations…

KBee even repeated himself, when I expressed my surprise.

Before I could gather my bearings, the kiddos were huddled together in their own private conversation.

Full blown conversation happens….

And that was how I began to see that both have their conversations.

This is the kind of Home Fun I enjoy.

Come on Home Fun, let’s do this!

P.S:

The stuff in GBee’s hand is supposed to be a text book. I hope that was clear, I tried my best to draw!
The moment I heard the word Home Fun, from GBee’s teachers, I found it vaguely familiar. Then I understood what it was. I was reminded of ‘E.T. Home Phone’! I hope you have seen and admired the ‘E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial‘ movie, by Steven Spielberg. (it was released in 1982, well before I was born, but I still watched it!) It is one of the best of the best, a classic!
On an unrelated note, 1990 Tamil movie Anjali and 2003 Hindi movie Koi Mil Gaya, both were inspired by the ‘E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial‘ movie. At least Anjali had good acting!
Lastly, I really enjoyed the E.T. adventure ride at Universal Studios, Orlando.

ET adventure ride – where we can cycle around with E.T. – pic courtesy Google

P.P.S:

I will be back with the remaining vacation posts. GBee has exams this week. Cheerio!

Subrahmanya, here we come!

August 11, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 7:

We woke up early. KBee and GBee looked active and happy. One night of peace can do that to anyone. Both had fun playing in and around the cottage, while Mr.Bee began searching for his shoe!

Yes, you read it right. One of Mr.Bee’s shoe was missing, but we found it soon, at the bottom-most step.

The kids running up and down the steps

Like Sherlock Holmes, Mr.Bee looked around, found footprints and decided that they were made by a deer. (At first, I wanted to believe they were made by a Cheetah or Tiger. That would have made a very compelling story for my travelogue!)

A deer must have taken the shoe, God knows for what and left it after dragging it for a while and ran away!

After the brief sleuthing, I gave both the kiddos a bath, had a bath myself and waited for Mr.Bee to return. Our car battery had died and he had to call in a mechanic.

By 8:30 a.m., I was already so hungry and I didn’t know how my kids were still playing without hunger pangs stopping them!

We went into the dining area of the resort and sat at a table. The two other tables were also filled up by families of 4. Interestingly, all the families had two sons each! (Not a single girl child in the whole resort. So sad!)

We found Telugu people from Hyderabad at the resort in Sultan Battery! When we went to Delhi, the next room neighbours were Telugus. We went to Taj Mahal, Agra, heard pukka local Telugu from fellow travellers. (East, West ,North, South, you can meet Telugu people everywhere!)

We had idiyappam with matar masala curry, rice rawa khichdi, bread with steamed banana (yummy), freshly cut ripe mango and warm Pathimugam water which is pink in colour and only available in Kerala.

Who needs jam when you can steam ripe bananas?

After our hearty breakfast, we had a quick photo session, before checking out of the resort.

One of the Art installations at the Resort

Mr.Bee bought coffee powder at Sultan Battery, because that is what Wayanad is famous for. We also bought some yellow banana chips (which are GBee’s favourite) and jack fruit chips. Since our stay at the Thejas Resort was not in our original plan, we didn’t extend our stay. We were already 1 day behind our tour schedule! (We had called the hotel in Subrahmanya to postpone our dates by one day.)

The drive from Sultan Battery to Subrahmanya is a pleasant one.

Clean and Green roads – C/o Sultan Battery

The villages near Sultan Battery made us sit up and take notice of them. Every little village was clean and well kept. I could hardly find a chocolate wrapper on the road! Everything was spic and span. Both sides of the road was lined with greenery, with beautiful red hibiscus plants near almost every home. As we drove through the roads, we saw medium sized jack fruits weight training the trees! (May be the huge harvest of jack fruits is the reason, Kerala started making jack fruit chips.)

We found similar jack fruit trees in Karnataka as well…

Jack Fruit tree – zoom in to see the fruits clearly

While we drove through forest in Kerala and entered the Karnataka State Border, it began to rain heavily. We had to have the hazard lights blinking and wait on the road, because we were unable to see anything at all.

Beautiful Forest Roads

We met a monkey on the way. Just as the monkey was nearing my side of the car, Mr.Bee opened the window (he thought I would enjoy chatting up with the tiny wild dude!) and I thought for a minute that the monkey would jump in! Luckily, I closed the window before anything untoward happened. (I felt as if I was escaping a dinosaur, closing a window at the last minute!)

Scared of the monkey, but can’t resist taking a photo!

The roads leading to Subrahmanya from Sultan Battery were ghat roads and by the time we reached Subrahmanya, I was sick of ghat roads! At some places on the road, it felt like the road suddenly came to an end, because, it would suddenly slope downwards! (reminded me of Carowinds!)

Let me include the 5th member of our trip, our Metallic Grey Itachi

We finally reached SR residency, KBee and GBee stopped by the reception to admire the fishes in the aquarium! KBee began yelling at the fish, trying to make them look at him. Obviously fish don’t turn and look at anyone, not even a 2 year old boy, even if the kid is shouting at the top of his lungs for their attention!

A new kind of notice board (comes with a typo!)

We reached the room, made ourselves presentable by taking hot showers and started for the temple, to visit Kukke Subrahmanya.

Thankfully, it was a working day and that too, schools had already re-opened after the summer vacation. So the temple had hardly any crowd. We had a good darshan of the God and returned to the hotel.

We had dinner at the in house restaurant at the ground floor. We ate masala papad, roti with dal tadka and palak paneer and to satiate our thirst, we had watermelon juice.

With that, we returned to our hotel room, to end the day!

P.S:

One lady sitting beside us during dinner looked so much like the actress who played Sai Pallavi’s sister in Fida. Mr.Bee and I took our time observing her and turns out, she is a doppelganger (a dupe, in short)!
Incidentally, I met the director Shekar Kammula, director of Fida during my days of working as a Design Engineer. We shook hands, but I was tongue tied. I couldn’t tell him how much I loved his movie, Godavari! (He came there with his kids, who were in ‘tantrum’ mode)
The doppelganger first ordered masala papad. That made me order it. After seeing us eat masala papad, another couple ordered it! Before the closing time, every table at the restaurant had masala papad either in their mouths, hands or on the table! It was yummy too.

Till the next post, cheerio friends.

The (Un)Lucky Worm!

August 2, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

It gives me immense pleasure when I see my kids playing outside, with worms and insects no less. I feel satisfied and pat myself on the back, when they entertain themselves with insects and not with the T.V or the much dreaded cell phone. Ya, they take after me.(Though they still have a long way to go) I had the best childhood, playing with all kinds of insects (one of the perks of being an introvert) and I still find it funny how my mom never stopped me from playing with them.(She probably never knew!)

Let me make this clear. Playing with insects involves, observing them from close quarters, seeing what they do when a leaf is placed in front of them or when food is available readily. It also involves checking out their living quarters, like an anthill and trying to understand how they manage to make those! I hope this doesn’t sound creepy, but it is entertaining in its own right.

I had previously written innumerable posts about this, but they are lost in the sea of internet and my back up issues of blogging. I may write about them in future again, but for now, the topic is the kids playing with worms, an earthworm, to be specific, if you are really into details!

We went on our bi-monthly visit to my parents house and the kids were playing in the verandah, when this little incident had taken place.

My parents have a lengthy verandah which kids their age love. They can race each other, listen to the birds early in the morning, run after the lone butterfly or even spray each other with water from the low level tap. Once or twice, some birds may even come after you, to peck your eyes out (or to kill the lice in your hair), if you make any suspicious movements!

So, one Sunday afternoon, GBee and KBee were running after their grandfather, showing him around his own garden! (Ya, they took him to a plant to show its flowers to him. They took him next to the mighty coconut tree to show him the coconuts, as if its something new. It is his own house for Heaven’s sake!)

GBee suddenly found an earthworm on the cement walkway, slowly going about its business, crawling slower than either a sloth or a snail! He called out to us. KBee too came running at once, not to miss out on the fun, whatever that excited his brother.

Spotting the rogue earthworm!

Suddenly, GBee ran away and KBee tried to touch it (or poke it, probably), but I stopped him midway. GBee returned with a tiny bucket filled with water and splashed it on top of the earthworm!

Watering the earthworm or playing with it?

I thought he was intent on killing off the poor earthworm! But I was mistaken. He was in-fact making a swimming pool for the little creepy crawly! Goes to show how much he loves a swimming pool. (He keeps asking me to buy a house with a swimming pool, as if that comes cheap!)

Once he was done pouring water, I envied it, one lucky worm, got itself a swimming pool, no less! But that might be my opinion. Who knew what the worm wanted? (It probably wanted a less adventurous life with no sudden splashes of water immersing it completely!)

Imagine if we had a downpour of rain, just like a bucket had been emptied suddenly on our heads. That would suffocate us surely. So on second thought, the earthworm must have cursed its own bad luck!

Why me?

So what do you think the worm was thinking?

P.S:

In the last panel, I zoomed the earthworm, so that I could show the facial expression better!
My daddy was impressed by GBee’s thought process, about gifting a swimming pool to the earthworm and all! Did such thought ever run in your brain? NO, right! It is so out of the box, rather, out of the bucket!
Watching insects of various sizes surely changes your perspective of life. We begin to understand life, problems and happiness are all relative. We also understand that philosophy also comes to us in bursts and intervals and thankfully, doesn’t engulf us completely. Even philosophical thoughts are temporary like our sorrows and happiness. Food for thought!
I thought my readers needed a change of pace with all the posts about Ooty. The next post will continue the progress of our vacation.

Cheerio till the next post friends.

Ooty, got his Goatee!

August 1, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Foreword!

Thanks to the recent incessant rains in Hyderabad, the internet in our area was down for 5 days. Once the internet was up and running, schools declared holidays due to rains. Since the kids were home, I hardly had free time on hand. That dear friends is the reason I couldn’t complete the post on time.

****

When I look back and think about our visit and stay at Ooty, I can’t help but feel bad for Mr.Bee. Can you imagine someone pulling at the hair on your chin? Painful, right? That’s how it felt looking at Mr.Bee trying to drive peacefully in Ooty!

Ooty, got his goatee! Goatee is Mr.Bee’s signature style. Many thanks to him, for never going through the ‘No-Shave November’ phase. I am sorry to all the bearded dudes out there, I am not a fan of beard and that is me being nice about it!

Day 6:

We woke up at 7 a.m. Our plan for the day was to check out of the hotel and go to Subramanya, in Karnataka.

But thanks to the hectic schedule of visiting Parks and what not, KBee was under the weather! He was down with fever. Two year olds have little stamina. Crocin came handy in this situation. (We took a medical kit with us.)

Mr.Bee and I, both wondered if we had to extend our stay in Ooty for a day, to give the much needed rest for KBee or start to Subramanya, hoping for the best!

We decided on going to Subramanya and sticking to our initial itinerary. The cold weather and rains had gotten to KBee, at-last! (Weather in Subrahmanya was more to our interest.) But since it started drizzling again, we waited it out and by the time we had our breakfast, it was well past 9:30 a.m.

Our host in La Montana wanted us to shoot a brief video and we spent another 30 minutes there. After loading the car with all our suitcases and stuff, it was 11:00 a.m.

Once we were on the road, the respected Traffic Police of Ooty didn’t let Mr.Bee drive in peace. They made us go about in circles on the roads. That is their way of controlling traffic, sending people into any road they find empty!

We were still in Ooty by the time it was 12:00 p.m! What sort of technique the traffic personnel use to divert people, I don’t know, but it frustrated us to no end. Mr. Bee was pissed off from driving in the same roads again and again, going in circles.

After wasting an hour, we came out of Ooty town, to the outskirts. While Mr.Bee went out to buy the pocket friendly fridge magnets, I and the kids sat inside the car, me thinking about my hunger pangs! (It was nearly lunch time and we were hardly out of Ooty!)

Anyway, I love to decorate the fridge and the Godrej almarah with funky magnets of every place we ever visit. Hence fridge magnets seemed the best choice of souvenirs.

After the brief halt to shop, we sadly bid goodbye to Ooty, bye bye Ooty! (I had fun at Ooty and at the end of every vacation I become sad!) and were en route Subrahmanya, Karnataka.

Once again, we were not allowed to take the route from Ooty, to Mysore. We were diverted again. (The roads and traffic is highly dependent on the climate, forest and animals about. This is a personal opinion. So, it is like a lottery!)

Our already late start was delayed yet again by the horses crossing the road!

Horses on roads – A rare sight indeed!

We took brief halt at the most beautiful scenery, the Picnic Lake. We took loads of photos, before getting back into our car to continue our journey. (I remember buying similar framed sceneries to give away as gifts. I liked one such frame so much, I gifted it to my mom on her birthday, when I was in primary school! Who even gifts their mom a scenery? Lol! Those were the days!)

Scenery to die for!

And more…

Lake view!

We had a hurried lunch at Gudalur, Tamil Nadu. The food was passable, but the buffet was ready to be served and we hardly had time on our hands. It was already 2:30 p.m. by the time our hands reached our mouths, to feed ourselves the lunch! (If I were to eat such food everyday, I would surely become waif thin!) I bought some fruits too, before starting our long drive to Subrahmanya. But, God had different plans for us, He changed our itinerary!

Gudalur Road – Pic Courtesy – Google

We took a wrong turn near Gudalur and instead of going towards Karnataka, we ended up going into Kerala. Imagine our surprise when I began seeing name boards in Malayalam! The roads were picturesque, scenic, beautiful as well as calming! (It felt like dejavu, a dream moment. Such simple village roads had a deep effect on me.) I began rewinding my brain to all the South Indian movies that I have seen, which must have been shot in similar locations!

We had a silent drive through Kerala. It was mesmerizing to observe each and everything, that I forgot to talk and my chatter box of a mouth was shut, for once!

Mr.Bee and I were worried that we wouldn’t be reaching Subrahmanya before 9 p.m.! We debated among ourselves about the best course of action. We are not comfortable with night driving, that too near forests and with kids, one who had a slight fever and another who ended up vomiting his lunch, thanks to the Ghat roads and Mr.Bee’s fast and furious driving! (Thankfully, Mr.Bee has hair on his head, he is not a taklu like Vin Diesel and the Rock!)

We took the advice of Mr.Bee’s colleague, R. He told us to halt for the night at Sultan Battery, since it is the biggest town in Wayanad, Kerala, instead of driving further. It was hardly half past four in the afternoon, but we decided to stop at Sultan Battery and give the much needed rest for the kiddos.

Clean town – Sultan Battery

We checked into the Thejas resort. (I selected the resort, as it was my younger son’s name!) Turns out, this was the best decision we ever made in our entire trip! The resort took us close to nature and left a lasting impression on us. While Mr.Bee was busy with the check-in procedures and the likes, GBee and I were busy clicking photos. KBee was fast asleep, though.

Sunset @ Sultan Battery – View from the resort

Our cottage looked like this….

Cottages are the way to go!

I didn’t leave out the flowers in the resort…

Violet Beauty, might be a Lily!

We ordered food from Zomato to our room. They only serve breakfast at the resort. It was the simplest and the tastiest dinner of our trip. Ghee rice with tomato curry! (Since both the kids were under the weather, that was what we selected as our dinner.)

We slept, with me admiring my room and the surroundings and Mr.Bee enjoying the IPL finals in his cell! (No t.v. in the cottages!)

P.S:

We gave KBee another dose of crocin at night and he was already showing improvement. GBee had motion sickness, so nothing to worry about.
The crickets, the peacocks and the birds in Thejas resort made sure that I wouldn’t forget the experience soon. They kept reminding us that we were indeed in Kerala! There were mosquitoes as fat as houseflies. Once the mosquito repellent was switched on, the mosquitoes were not a problem anymore.
Since there was no T.V. in the room. GBee and KBee entertained themselves with the iPad Mini and had their dinners.
Do you know about the 36 Hair Pin Bends road in Ooty? It is said to be a dangerous and difficult road to drive. We didn’t drive in this route, we have our children to thank for! We thought it was better if we didn’t go in this route. Check out this video.

Till the next post. Cheerio!

Ooty to Coonoor and back!

July 13, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

One of the first things we decided very early on is that, our main stay would be at Ooty, in our 14 day vacation. The other thing we were sure about is to ride the train from Ooty to Coonoor, to take in as much nature’s beauty as we can, to last a year or until we took another vacation, whichever is the earliest!

Day 5:

We woke up early, got ready. Mr.Bee and I wore matching jeans jackets whereas the kids, as usual, were stuffed into their rain proof, winter jackets, thanks to their mom being a scaredy cat! (You would too, if you too had a toddler who has an affinity to catching cold at the drop of a hat!)

We, GBee, KBee and myself, stuffed ourselves silly with toasted wheat bread and grape pudina(mint) juice. The juice was a little bland for my taste. Only Mr.Bee didn’t have bread toast. The three of us were bored of eating the dosa. (I can eat toast everyday!)

Mr.Bee wanted to surprise me, by taking me to the famous Murugan temple at Elk Hill. The statue of Murugan/ Subramanya is famous and similar one exists in Singapore!

Murugan @Elk Hill

We started for the temple, thanks to Google Maps. But the over enthusiastic Ooty Traffic Police, diverted us to some other road. From there, we were re-routed by Google Maps, only to end up at a dead end. (The French people call it a cul-de-sac!) We cursed under our breaths and ditched the plan of going to the Murugan temple, because, with the snail paced Ooty traffic and the Traffic diversions, thanks to the government servants, we were getting late for our train.

At the Ooty railway station, we wasted another 20 minutes, to park our car. We ran into the railway station just in time for our train. As soon as we got in, the train had started! I played the Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge and Jab We Met train scenes in my head and rushed towards the window seat, making the petite lady who occupied my window seat to sit elsewhere. We started at 11:25 a.m. and were to arrive at Coonoor by 1:00 p.m.

Nilgiri-Railway – If this pic doesn’t fill up your heart, I don’t know what will!

We started for Coonoor. The train route showed us the beautiful mountains, the tea estates, waterfalls, tunnels. Mr.Bee also looked outside the window to search for our hotel. He spotted it at last and took a couple of pics too. He spent the entire ride taking photos and videos of the scenery surrounding us.

Spotting the Hotel from the train – Fans of La Montana!

The scenic railway stations on the way from Ooty to Coonoor looked like the ones from foreign movies. (Such beautiful spots exist in India, we can find them at some unlikely places!)

Picturesque and ‘clean’ Coonoor Railway Station!

We took a couple of cute family photos at Coonoor Railway Station, which I am not sharing. We exited the railway station by 1:40 p.m. People were waiting for cabs and cab drivers were eager to be hired! We reached the exit and hired a taxi, to show us around Coonoor. We had little time window, as we needed to catch similar meter gauge train at 4:00 p.m. to return to Ooty by 5:10 p.m.

First and foremost, we reached the restaurant to have our lunch, as the kids and I were famished. (The view was amazing from the window and I forgot the name of the restaurant.) We wanted to waste as little time as possible, but it was already 2:30 p.m. by the time we got out of the restaurant.

Even though, it was not a part of the itinerary, our cab driver took us to Tea and Chocolate Factory in Coonoor!(He wanted to earn his commission) It was already drizzling and it being a Sunday, was a holiday and so we had a private, unofficial tour of the Tea and Chocolate Factory. The old gentleman, who acted as our tour guide, showed us the Eucalyptus Oil Factory too, for good measure. (We didn’t hire a guide, it was hardly needed, but the gentleman offered his services and told us we could pay him as much as we pleased.)

We also tasted the Chocolate Tea, famous in Ooty and Coonoor, didn’t know what all the hype was about and got into the cab, after buying some chocolates and Eucalyptus oil. We took a few pics in a jiffy, trying not to get any more wet than needed! (It was drizzling.)

We reached the Sim’s Park, where there was a fruit festival in full swing. Fruits were arranged in various shapes of worm, pyramids, giant pineapple made with pineapples, fruit basket made with a variety of fruits and so on. We could hardly take any pictures, what with our kids running about, a prolonged drizzle of rain and also the sea of tourists demanding Mr.Bee and my attention, simultaneously!

Queen Bee posing for pic @ Sim’s Park

Finally I got a few pics taken at Sim’s Park, away from all the bustle, once the rain subsided a little.

There were old trees in the park, as old as 100 years. One tourist found himself a Rudraksh bead near a century old tree. I don’t recall the scientific name of the tree, but I went ahead and looked around, hoping find any stray Rudraksh. (The park keepers were so thorough in the cleaning and maintenance that I could hardly find a dry leaf, let alone a Rudraksh!)

With that, we rushed to the train station, with 10 minutes to spare. The Coonoor railway station is well maintained, in spite of the steady flow of tourists and vacationers. We took a couple of photos, hanging from the train, like in the Prabhas starrer, Radhe Shyam! (Our photos were a little less glamorous!)

We shared our compartment with a beautiful Bengali family. GBee tried talking to them, in the little English that he knew. Even KBee tried to start a conversation with them! Everyone in the compartment were older to him and KBee tried to baby talk his way into the conversation! (He is yet to learn talking coherently.)

Each compartment can fit 10 adults. There are two classes in the toy trains too, First Class and General!

On our return journey, we came across some mountain Bison and the train operator had to ‘toot‘ the horn for at least a dozen times for them to move away from the train tracks.

Bison, finally moving away from the tracks and going into the forest

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo. We had to zoom in to get a pic! 40 MP cam is of little consequence!

We reached Ooty on time, checked out the shop to buy return gifts, but everything was super pricey and we returned to the car empty handed. By the time we reached our hotel, it was already well past 6 p.m.

After a sumptuous dinner, we retired to bed, early than usual. Of course, I continued reading my e-book, finished reading it and loved it too.

P.S:

My sincere advice to anyone who wish to visit the Tea factory and Chocolate Factory is that, instead of visiting them in Ooty, you can do that in Coonoor as well. The Ooty factories have heavy rush and the Coonoor ones have lesser number of visitors. It is especially useful if you have toddlers!
The temperature in Coonoor is higher than in Ooty. We won’t even require sweaters or warm clothing to stay here. I think even from the traffic and tourist stand point Coonoor is preferable, if you have already visited Ooty, that is!
It is always better not to bring your car to the railway station, if you don’t have kids below the ages of 5 years. It is better to catch a cab. We almost missed our train, waiting for free parking spaces.
One round trip from Ooty to Coonoor reminded me of three movies and their scenes. But did you know the song Chaiyya Chaiyya from Dil Se was picturized on one such meter gauge train near Ooty? By the way, we were also given goody bags with chocolates, Maaza, Bourbon biscuits and a keychain. The kids ate the biscuits on the return journey.
I have been to Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh, but it pales in comparison to Coonoor, as far as I can remember.

Thanks to GBee’s home works (they call them Home Fun in his school!) and my own interest in watching Gossip Girl, I have been late in posting here. Cheerio, till the next post.

Ooty : Of Birthday, Boat House and Botanical Garden!

July 1, 2023 / queenbee / 2 Comments

Day 4:

Mr.Bee and I started our day early at 12:00 a.m., to kiss our GBee a happy birthday, who was oblivious to our wishes and continued sleeping peacefully. (The kiddos look cute in their sleep and when they wake up, I end up looking like a devil, thanks to their hyper activity!) After a couple of minutes of reminiscing our first born, Mr.Bee and I dozed off to sleep.

At 7 a.m., hot water baths later, we had our breakfast at the hotel, spent fifteen minutes in the play room and returned to our room.

I wanted to have a photo shoot of both my little heroes, who wore matching t-shirts and pants. But thanks to GBee, who always avoids looking at the camera and KBee who always runs towards the camera, we could hardly take one good picture to capture the moment! (I don’t understand how people have Instagram worthy pics with kids, beats me!) Nothing, absolutely nothing can tempt them to stand still for a photo together, until and unless its a selfie, where they can look at themselves in the phone!

As per our travel itinerary, we got ready for the boat house, with raincoats, umbrellas, sweaters and caps. (Ooty weather is similar to that of London, which is said to be unpredictable!)

We wasted a good 15 minutes, trying to park our Vento, waited in line for entry tickets and once again had to wait in the queue for boat rides. By now, we got used to the heavy rush throughout Ooty. Luckily, we met two families from Telangana at the Boat House, so together, we bought the 16 member boat ride tickets. The 8 member and 4 member boat rides had bigger queues.

Boating in Ooty – Pic source – Google!

The boat ride itself was fun, with both GBee and KBee howling like a pack of wolves, which they learned from watching the Wolfe videos in Youtube! (Throughout our vacation, they made me and Mr.Bee, howl along with them, like a pack of wolves.) The others in the boat ride were surprised by us howling, but that didn’t deter us any!

During our boat ride, we also saw a toy train, in the woods. We weren’t ready to stand in the toy train queue, so ignored the ride. (There is another reason for avoiding the toy train, which you will know in the next post!)

After the boat ride, we were craving for some snacks. Water sports cause food cravings! We bought fried spiral potato and masala sweet corn. That was when we checked the time, it was time for lunch!

Spiral potato or Tornado Potato – Pic Source: Google

We exited the boat house and it started drizzling, as we ran towards our car in the parking lot. GBee and I giggled as we ran. Mr.Bee ran carrying KBee in his arms which made KBee laugh out loud in excitement and merry!

We had our lunch at the Angaara, which turned out to be the go-to place for us in Ooty. I don’t remember what we had for lunch, but Mr.Bee wanted to surprise GBee, so he requested for a cake for our first born.

The staff didn’t disappoint us. They attached two brownies together, decorated it with a ‘Happy Birthday’ cake topper, colourful sprinkles were sprayed judiciously and a few red cherries on top, caught our attention. (GBee hates cherries, so he made us remove them!)

Impromptu Birthday Celebration with a brownie cake – Pic Source : Mr.Bee

The birthday boy blew the candle, as soon as we lit it and began to sing the usual, Happy Birthday! (He wanted to get back to his game in the cell, which Mr.Bee had given him earlier, as a birthday treat!) The birthday brownie was yummy. Both the kiddos filled up their stomachs with the brownie and left the lunch for us, the parents to complete!

Mr.Bee asked me where I wanted to go next and what I wanted to do. I wanted the kids to go to the Botanical Garden and enjoy it, just like I did, many years ago. Mr.Bee was apprehensive, but then, we ended up going to the Botanical Garden. (I promised Mr.Bee that we would not be staying in the Garden for more than an hour. We wanted to retire early to our room.) Travelling with two kids is no mean feat!

The grand old trees of the Botanical Garden! – Pic Source : Google

As soon as we entered the Garden, we knew for sure that, spending more than an hour would be very difficult, what with the huge crowds. We let the kids run helter skelter. Both of them had no worries in the world, when they ran far away from us, breathing in the fresh mountain air, as far as their tiny legs took them, without tiring them out.

The beautiful, undulating grass terrain was the perfect setting the kiddos needed to play.

Bunch of college going kids started rolling downhill on the gentle slopes. GBee soon caught on and had the time of his life, rolling down the garden landscape, along with them. KBee didn’t want to be left behind. He started rolling on the grass turf in circles! It was fun watching both of them enjoy. I had my eyes set on KBee and Mr.Bee had to follow GBee around, trying not to let them out of our line of sight.

Rolling down the hill – Pic source : Google

We let them play for as long as they wanted to play. Thankfully, there was an in-house photographer there, waiting to click pictures, we got our photos taken and returned to the exit, with the laminated photos in our hands.

At the exit we saw a Bharatanatyam recital by a group of 4 girls. I felt happy. I loved the idea of watching a classical dance recital in the Botanical Garden!

Bharatanatyam Dancer Dolls – Rose Show – Pic Source: Google

We returned to the room, after battling the perennial traffic. We had originally planned on ordering a birthday cake at the hotel, near the campfire, but then, we decided to have the cake at lunch, with just the four of us!

I had a piping hot chai, while I got back to reading the murder mystery e-book! GBee and KBee entertained themselves with the stickers again, too tired to run about. We had an early dinner and called it a day.

I was ready to sleep, eager for the next day to start already! Bring it on, day 5!

P.S:

It is always a plus, if you have the right kind of book to read!
GBee and KBee tired themselves silly, running in the Botanical Garden, they had hardly any energy left to fight.
Since the weather in Ooty is generally low, there are no ACs and fans in the hotel room.
If you are an amateur ornithology enthusiast, you can find Hornbill birds in Ooty. I saw most of them at the boat house and a few at the gardens and on scenic roads.
If you thought the hotel may provide you with hair dryer, just like I did, you are mistaken. If you need a hair dryer anywhere, you need to take it with you in India! (Hotels in USA provide dryers, but not in India. I found it the hard way!)
Most people speak Hindi or English in Ooty. Language barrier is not an issue, at least for us.
All the photos in this post except the one with the brownie cake have been freely used from various sources. Mr.Bee and I had to run about everywhere and taking beautiful pics for the blog was least of our concerns!

Till the next post, cheerio, folks!

Ooty : Of Gardens and Factories!

June 26, 2023 / queenbee / 2 Comments

Day 3:

We started our day early, waking up to the huge French windows overlooking the private balcony. The windows were completely filled with the condensed water on the outside and I had to wipe the windows a little to see if the Sun had risen! (Cold climates can do that to your windows)

Ooty, the beauty

A perfect holiday for me always includes a good murder mystery, so there I was wide awake early in the morning, on the sunny balcony reading an e-book, which was perfect for the occasion, called The Murder at the Mayfair Hotel, by C.J.Archer. (Will review it down the line.)

Once GBee woke up at 7 a.m., he and I wore our sweaters and caps, ran towards the playground on the bottom level of the hotel. We played together on the adjacent swings like best friends do! He also played on the slide for his hearts content. That’s when KBee and Mr.Bee came down and all the four of us played on the see-saws.

Slides, see-saw and swings – Zoom in for the playground at the bottom level!

By the time we had our baths, we were late for our breakfast. Everyone had theirs before 8:30 a.m. We went by 9, had our breakfast, played for a little while in the kids playroom which had carrom board, Ludo, chess board and Table Tennis. We spent 5 minutes at each table and returned to our room, to plan our day.

We reached the famous Botanical Garden of Ooty, the heavy rush at the entrance reminded us of Kumbh Melas, of which we only heard through News channels! (We didn’t buy the entrance ticket, but returned to the parking area, to visit some other place.) I bought a beautiful grey,black and red poncho at the Tibetan market, bought seeds of beautiful flowering plants suitable for Hyderabad and got into the car.

We had our lunch at the Angara. Their Cream of Mushroom soup was the best (though, I am not a fan of mushroom). Since the weather in Ooty is low, at 14 C, even the water served for drinking is lukewarm. There is also a ban on plastic in Ooty which is a welcome move by the Tamil Nadu Government. (Even in Tirumala, near Tirupathi, plastic is banned. These environment friendly gestures are highly appreciated.)

It started drizzling by the time we came out of the restaurant. We decided to go to the Rose Garden. We had already bought rain proof jackets for both the kiddos at the Tibetan market earlier, so rain was not an issue for us.

The Government Rose Garden too looked like a sea of humans was going about in it! The garden itself had less number of roses in bloom! We spent most of the time in the garden running, me behind GBee and Mr.Bee behind KBee! I found myself wondering, why won’t they stop running and let my eyes enjoy the scenery? But then, they hardly sit quietly at home, expecting them to sit in a huge multi-level park with greenery seemed preposterous.

Me running after GBee, KBee following me and Mr.Bee capturing the moment, forever!

We took a couple of photos with the in-house photographer and exited the rose garden, before taking the photo of the below butterfly. (4 of us were tired from running around!)

The Butterfly in the Rose Garden!

After a brief snack break, we decided to test our luck at the Tea and Chocolate Factory! Wherever we went, there was a heavy rush of people, mostly from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, who came to enjoy the weekend at Ooty. (I am telling this by the license plates I saw everywhere!)

Anyway, we reached the Chocolate Factory and GBee was so excited to see so many chocolates, he kept ‘wow’ing. (I hope that’s a word!) KBee is too small to know what a chocolate really is, but he was excited too, to run away!

We breezed through the Tea making and Chocolate making, rushed towards the shops. We bought Masala Tea, Ginger Tea and Green Tea, some chocolates like dark almond, dark rice crackle, dark hazelnut etc. I also bought some Eucalyptus Oil and pain oil too. We also bought Kashmiri woven shawl for gifting. With this we returned to the car.

Tea & Chocolate Factory – Pic courtesy Search Engine

We reached La Montana, had our evening cuppa Tea in the room, read some 50 pages of my e-book, waiting for time to pass!

At 7 p.m., the campfire was lit. GBee wanted to play on the swing, so Mr.Bee was on his toes. I and KBee enjoyed the campfire. We met fellow tourists, a huge family of Gujaratis, a newly married couple and an extremely silent family of 4!

I also tried the swing, with KBee on my lap, but both of us ended up falling on the ground! I hurt my hand, when it grazed the metal chain, thankfully KBee was unhurt. He found it funny that both of us fell forward, me landing on my knees, holding KBee in both my arms. He laughed for a while! I too laughed it off, (in embarrassment, actually!)

At 8 p.m., we returned to the room, since the Gujarati family had started dancing and we were famished. We had a simple dinner of veg fried rice and curd rice and called it a day. As usual, we slept like logs.

P.S:

It is advisable to buy your jackets, sweaters and shawls in Ooty. They have some very good pieces on display too and none are made locally, but imported from other states.
The curd rice in Ooty was awesome. I had it every night of our stay there. Yummy! Never knew a simple curd rice can fill both your heart and stomach!
Traffic and parking are the main issues one would face in Ooty. If you are travelling in your own vehicle, God save you!
Chocolate Tea is famous in Ooty, but I didn’t know what the fuss was about! Sorry! I loved the masala chai that was given for sampling at the Tea factory.
Every night, the kids entertained themselves in the room with the stickers I packed for them. They would stick, the variety of stickers, on the walls, suitcases, bed and on each other!
If you are travelling with picky eaters like my boys, I advise you pack some homemade eatables for them, to fill them up. I made them a powder, which they add to their rice, idlis, dosa or eat directly without any accompaniment.

Till the next post, bubye!

To Ooty, at last!

June 24, 2023 / queenbee / 2 Comments

Day 2:

Originally we had planned on starting our drive from Bengaluru to Ooty at 6 in the morning but ended up starting little after 9:30 a.m. Inspite of that, there was little traffic. Thank Ram, Sita, Lakshman and their gang! (Just saw trailer of Adipurush and no wonder I keep remembering the said Gods!)

Mr.Bee rode us through the Nice Road, from Bengaluru to Mysore. It was a good road and a drive on it felt like flying on the clouds! (I am scared of high speeds and Mr.Bee is a fan of speed racing.)

We made a brief stop near Mysore City Bus Nildana. I wanted to reminiscence the good old days of my life at Infosys, Mysore campus. My friends and I would come out of the campus every weekend to Devaraja Wodeyar Market and enjoy hours of retail therapy, called shopping by mere mortals! We would buy fresh fruits to last the week and I also remember buying a number of books by Agatha Cristie, along with clothes and accessories.

I showed one of our regular haunts to Mr.Bee, the Cauvery Emporium. He loved all the Rosewood furniture on display there. GBee refused to leave the Rose wood sofa set on display, whereas KBee was mighty impressed with the Rosewood inlay frames of Lord Ganesha on display!

Karthikeya(KBee) admiring the Ganesha Inlay!

The above pic is sourced from search engine, but KBee kept pulling at my kurti, to make me move towards this one frame of the elephant headed Lord Ganesha, all the while uttering the words, ‘It’s an elephant, it’s an elephant, mommy!’ (KBee couldn’t differentiate between my favourite God and an elephant. He is only 2 years old, so, Saat Khoon Maaf!)

I really really wanted to have my lunch at Das Prakash, since it was already late, we rushed to the Kamat Madhuvan, Ittige Gudu, which was nearby. The Kamat Hotel at Lakdikapul, Hyderabad is a personal favourite, so we gave this Mysore Kamat restaurant a chance! (Next time Das Prakash!)

Although we had to wait a little while to get seated, I loved the food that was served there. We had the North Karnataka Thali. The menu had Jowar roti, methi leaves and cucumber salad, sprouts curry to name a few. It is a win win for health conscious people. We bought a paan at the end, to round up our meal. (I worried myself silly, that Mr.Bee may feel sleepy behind the wheel, what with such a hearty meal!)

The brief lunch halt turned out to be more than a two hour break, but never mind, who is rushing us? No one!

The Mysore to Ooty road is a pleasant drive. We hardly met any traffic and the beauty was scenic. Just before entering the forest area, Mr.Bee and I bought Kala Jamun and Choco Bar ice creams respectively. (The kids were fast asleep in the car-bed and we enjoyed our ice creams!) We drove to Ooty via Bandipur Forest as well as Mudumalai Forest, saw deers, stags, elephants, monkeys in huge numbers. We also saw a couple of peacocks too. That’s when we woke up the kiddos, who were excited to watch the animals up close. In the middle of the forest, among-st the flora and fauna, I felt at peace! (in-spite of two hyper kids shouting at the top of their lungs!)

Since, all the deer are ignoring the camera, enjoy the scenery!

The Baby Elephant with its two legged friend.

The drive in the forest was the best. We took the longest possible route to Ooty, hoping to spot more and more animals and to entertain the kiddos. The ghat roads are a fun drive and after every 3 turns, there would be a tiny stall, selling boiled sweet corns, wild baby carrots, pickled Indian gooseberries (Amla in Hindi, usirikaya in Telugu) , jack fruits (panasa in Telugu) in varied sizes. The mountainous region looked over-populated, if the traffic is any indication!

By the time we reached our hotel in Ooty, La Montana it was already 8 p.m. and the temperature was 14 C. Since the dinner would be served only till 9, we rushed to our room for a breather and rushed to the in-house restaurant to have our buffet dinner.

La Montana – Heaven on Earth

The buffet was memorable because, there was a musician playing live music on his tiny piano. He was playing a recent hit song from the Tamil movie starring Dhanush and Samyukta Menon, Sir, to be exact. I even recorded it in a video, but it is not presentable, thanks to my kids running here and there, in front of my cell, trying to distract me!

Anyway, we reached the room, tried to watch a little t.v., but soon dozed off into a deep slumber, thanks to the cold climate, cozy bed and comforters.

Ooty, we will check you out tomorrow! That’s my last thought before sleeping away.

P.S:

My precious little gems, my chocolate filled muffins, GBee and KBee talk mostly in English, even if I talk in Telugu to them. Looks like the pink Peppa Pig is a bigger influence than the stay-at-home-mom! They even have Peppa Pig night wear, those little tv addicts!
La Montana – The heaven on Earth, because, the view is to die for! From the balcony, we could see the beautiful estates, the rose gardens, people going about their business, the nearby mountains, the huge trees and far away valleys, look at the Sun Rise, feel the mild breeze and what not! If you don’t have your cuppa tea here, in the balcony, every morning during your stay, I don’t know why you even planned your stay there!
I forgot the shop, but in the Devaraja Market, Mysore, we get the best asafoetida or hing. My uncle showed the store to me, but I have forgotten it with the passing of more than a decade of time! (Any Mysore locals reading this post can direct message me. Any help is appreciated.)
While we were passing the Mudumalai forest, I remembered Oscar winning documetary The Elephant Whisperers which was shot here and wondered if I would meet the now famous duo! We didn’t, obviously!
I wonder who named the jack fruit, it feels like cursing the poor fruit!
This is not a sposored post. I am just naming the eateries and places, which I really enjoyed.

Wait for the next post. Till then, adios!

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