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!