Category: Travel (Page 1 of 2)

Munnar : Of Terror Attacks and No show safaris

December 3, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 6 (23rd April 2025):

We woke up, freshened up, had breakfast and sat in the hotel room. I was under the weather and Mr.Bee was sweet enough to take the boys out to play, by himself.

They played in the playground at the White House Hotel, while I had a rejuvenating nap. I woke feeling a little refreshed and active.

We had our lunch in the room, watched some random movie.

Incidentally, this was also the day after the Pahalgam terror attack, about which we came to know a little late. Since we had been on the road all day (Day 5), we couldn’t be in touch with anyone (no signals at most viewpoints) and that must have been terrible for both Mr.Bee’s and my parents. We didn’t know there was a terror attack and we didn’t know people were trying to get in touch with us!

Anyway, after our evening snacks, we got out of the room at last, to go for shopping. Mr.Bee bought me a Kasavu saree at the Kasavu Aalayam. (Yet to wear it)

Our next stop was the Munnar Chocolate Factory. GBee and KBee were excited about visiting MCF and even without eating a single chocolate, they seemed to be in a sweet-induced-high!

We reached room in time for our dinner and slept peacefully.

Day 7 :

As if Munnar was silently crying for the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, the day had started out bleak, with a downpour!

Although we were on a holiday, we still felt sad for the effect the terrorists had on tourists. (Incidentally, Munnar is a safe place. Most of the population here follow Christianity.)

I kept thinking about …what goes inside the brain of a terrorist ? Are they even human ? Are they crazy ? And more such thoughts continued…

We had originally planned for a safari tour, to watch the animals in the majestic Munnar. Sadly, the rain was a deterrent.

After our lunch, we decided to go out anyway. Coming to Munnar and sitting inside the hotel room for most part of the day, seemed useless.

Once the heavy rain turned into a drizzle, we booked our safari, through a phone call. (Safari tours are just a phone call away)

Our rental Ertiga driver, who was still with us in Munnar had no major work for two straight days. He was happy chatting up with other drivers and sleeping lazily throughout the day.

Our safari tour guide brought a jeep, loaded us inside and we started out.

I packed a bag with some 45th Avenue cookies, water bottles, ear muffs and fully charged phones and we were ready for the elephants!

As soon as we reached Anachal, we took beautiful photos at various viewpoints.

@ Anachal

We entered the forest area and thanks to the heavy rain since the morning, the forest was replete with waterfalls and rain water run-offs.

You really need to be there to see the beauty of Munnar. I can’t explain it any better.

At one viewpoint (pic above), we saw a car driver, park his car on the rocky trail, fill up a bucket with the water from the foot of the waterfalls, to wash his car! Even that simple task seemed new to us. (Who even washes a car near waterfalls in the city? No one.) It was a novel experience, although using a soap is not exactly environment friendly in places like Anachal and Mankulam.

Munnar is a beauty and thanks to the rain, we got to see it, in its true glory.

By the time we reached Perumbankuthu Waterfalls, the rain was not a drizzle anymore. It was more of a downpour. Our safari driver stopped the jeep, gave us two umbrellas and pointed towards the bridge and the steel deck we needed to go to, to take in the view.

Angle 1

Angle 2

Angle 3

Steps leading to deck – on normal days, with no rains…

The bridge and the viewpoint were completely deserted. (Who even goes around for tours when there is a downpour? No one, except some rare specimens like QB and family!) Here too, inspite of the umbrella in my hands, drenched feet and cool breeze causing shivers, I still enjoyed the view. It will stay in my memories, for a long time to come.

@Tiger Cave – QueenBee and a bridge!

We later made a brief stop at the Tiger Cave, near Mankulam village. It was closed because of the rains and we returned to our jeep. Every village had small shops with noodles, tea, coffee and the forever unhealthy option of packets of half filled potato chips of Lays and others.

GBee loves potato and it’s byproducts, so he demanded me for a Lays packet. I complied his request, by giving him the millet cookie! He looked at me in silence, he has the whole life ahead of him, to complain, he will get there soon!

We continued our tour, the final destination being Anakulam. It was already half past five.

The jeep came to a halt at the junction which was prominently marked by Holy Mary with Baby Jesus in Her arms. Many vehicles were parked there, filled with tourists in all sizes and shapes. We even saw a white family, who waited for a glimpse of the elephants, patiently.

We met a desi family, who are NRIs from the U.K and we discussed the tour plans and feedbacks. They were past the age of 60 and the kiddos too didn’t shy away from telling them what they really thought about the safari tour!

We waited and waited till 6:30 and decided to return to Munnar from Anakulam, since it was already getting dark and the kids were hungry.

The safari tour guide had already warned us about a ‘no-show’ from the elephants, because, heavy rains meant cold climate and foggy pathways in the forests and the elephants preferred to stay together with their herds, than roam about towards the village or play in the water, like they usually did!

@ Anakulam – on a normal day

GBee was mighty disappointed and even after a month or so after the trip came to an end, the only thing he remembered was that we couldn’t spot a single elephant in our safari tour!

@ Anakulam – a “no – show” , when it rains.

After more than one hour, we finally reached the hotel. Mr.Bee, GBee and KBee had dozed off in the jeep but I stayed awake, looking at the deserted roads and sleepy forest, on our way back.

After a quick wash up and change of clothes, we were ready to call it a day. I wish I had seen some of the pukka local elephants, spray eachother with water, but one can’t have everything!

We slept like logs, thanks to the safari trip in the jeep.

P.S :

1. I admire the army personnel who were responsible for the Operation Sindoor. Thank you guys. I don’t know know how you do it, but thanks anyways!

2. I am also thankful that we have a pro active PM and not a meritorious silent puppet, who served the Desh Drohis in silence.

3. Since it is already December and I am yet to complete my April vacation posts, I decided to finish it off first, before writing about anything else. Timing sucks!

4. The photos which were taken by me or Mr.Bee have my blog name in them, but the others I have freely taken from online. Thanks to the kind sources, who let others use their photos, without plastering them with watermarks!

5. I seem to be attracting lots of spam messages. Thanks, but no thanks!

Till the next post, bubye!

Mohiniattam, Kathakali and Kalariyapattu : c/o Munnar

October 24, 2025 / queenbee / 1 Comment

Day 5 – Part 2

After all of us took hot water baths, we changed into fresh clothes and were ready for our evening plans to fall through.

N, took us to the Raga Traditional Arts Performing Theater, a 10 minute drive from the White House hotel.

But, as soon as he stopped the car, GBee opened the car door on his side of the car and managed to scrape it against the wall. Turns out N’s boss is the Devil’s reincarnate, because, at once N lost his composure and started reprimanding GBee and Mr.Bee. By the anxiety N was going through, I had imagined the door must have been mangled and is on the verge of collapse, but the scraping on the door was hardly visible, even in the day light! (All this was to probably demand extra bucks from us for which Mr.Bee complied, since GBee was at fault.)

Anyway, with that discussion about compensation out of our way, N allowed us to go inside to watch our program.

The first program of the evening was Mohiniattam. Later Bharatanatyam dancers too joined in the dance and it was one mesmerising show. I love watching dance shows. (Mr.Bee and I have been to actress Shobana’s dance show, where she played Lord Krishna. This memory is locked inside my brain, as a part of Charlotte, USA folder!)

Bharatanatyam dance

The next leg of the performance was Kathakali, which had been my dream to watch live. (Dreams, do come true!) The skit was based on an incident from Mahabharata, Dushasana Vadha, i.e. Bheema killing off Dushasana, for disrobing Panchali, Draupadi, in the court room.

All the performers together at the end

As you can see in the above pic, Bheema is standing to the left, where as Roudra Bheema (when he is extremely angry, because of insult to his wife) is in the middle, while Dushasana is on the extreme right.

The Mohiniattam performer is flanked by Bharatanatyam dancers on either side.

When Bheema is angry, he is portrayed by the guy in the middle and I think that his aura is red and dangerous, hence the costume. He looks very similar to Bhoot Kola performers from Kantara and we had to close KBee’s eyes for him to not be scared. The performance of Roudra Bheema was intense. (They may not be paid as much for the effort they are putting in!)

Bheema and Dushasana- warning each other.

After the performance, the audience were allowed to take pics and selfies with the artists. We took a photo with them and incidentally, KBee was not facing the camera, but one of the Kathakali performers! (It was hilarious.)

Eye catching, vibrant Kathakali performer – KBee’s person of interest!

As soon as we were done with one performance, we had to rush towards the arena of Kalariyapattu! I never knew I needed this!

Kalariyapattu students and their Guru performed various stunts.

The performers pray to their weapons before start of the stunts.

Jumping through Rings of Fire!

Then there is this stunt….

Playing with fire!

It is difficult to explain but, I had most fun watching the stunts live. Even GBee and KBee who were like, let’s go to the hotel and sleep, after watching Kathakali, but Kalariyapattu, brought new life in their dull faces!

With renewed energy, we returned to the hotel. We pacified N again, promising him that we will pay the charges for the scratch.

As soon as we pressed the number 4 in the lift, we understood that the key card of our hotel room is nowhere to be seen! GBee had asked Mr.Bee for the card and put it in his pocket, but it was nowhere to be seen. (GBee had put the key card in his pocket, but before the start of the performances at the Raga, we were made to stand for the national anthem. That must have been the time GBee lost the key card from his pocket.)

You guessed it right, we paid a fine, to get a new key card! Turns out GBee was having a bad day, after all!

P.S:

1. Even after the car door incident and key card incident, we could hardly scold GBee. He is a careful boy, 95% of the time. Today was just not his day!

2. Wait, I forgot to mention, GBee managed to pull a weapon from the Kalariyapattu arena and all the weapons toppled, like you see in movies! Yup, bad bad day! (I was busy running after KBee and GBee managed to create quite a ruckus)

3. Mr.Bee re-lived his Muay Thai Kick Boxing days, by shaking hands with Kalariyapattu experts and taking a photo with them.

Mr.Bee posing with a Kalariyapattu exponent.

4. At one point, the Kathakali performers stood among the audience and KBee was shaken. He is scared of people wearing heavy makeup and costume. He had a similar scare, when he had watched the Varaha Roopam song from Kantara, when he was hardly a 2 year old baby. He had screamed loudly and wouldn’t stop crying till I had turned the t.v. off. (In my defense, he had been playing in the bedroom while I was watching the song in the hall!)

5. All the images of Kalariyapattu stunts are NOT mine. I have downloaded them from search engine.

6. We had a hearty dinner of vegetable fried rice, tomato soup and the usual and retired for the night.

Till the next post, cheerio.

Spice Garden and Rose Garden : c/o Munnar

October 23, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 5 – Part 1:

Mr.Bee and I woke up early in the morning, sat across each other in the balcony, looking at the huge trees of various kinds. The only one I could recognise was that of Eucalyptus. I saw a beautiful red nosed green parrot on the trees and that made my day. (I remember seeing a green parrot in Rajamundry, during my stay at my dodda’s place.)

I woke the kids up and after our baths, we went to have our breakfast downstairs. We met fellow Telugu tourists, chatted with them and parted ways. (Wherever you go, Kerala, Kashmir, Kashi or Kanyakumari, anywhere in India, you will find at least one Telugu tourist! That’s my personal experience talking.)

The kids and I didn’t like eating anything, except for plain old bread and jam. Mr.Bee is surprisingly a non-picky eatery, during travels.

After our breakfast, we decided to pass our time in the playground. I love the swings, it brings back memories of my school days and all. GBee loves playing on the swing, just like me, whereas KBee hates it, like Mr.Bee (Mr.Bee doesn’t mind Bungee jumping, but he can’t sit even for a minute on a swing!) Since it was our anniversary, we asked GBee to take a couple of pics of us. Even though a 7 yr old does not have much experience with taking pics, GBee not only took good pics, he also suggested various poses for us to mimic!

We returned to our room and started planning for the morning and afternoon hours. Our evening plan was already in place.

N, our tour driver suggested the Greenland Spices and Ayurvedic Garden tour. I was like, why not!

We booked ourselves a garden guide, who would show each tree and plant and explain the finer points. She knew Telugu too and it was fun, listening to Telugu in a Malayalam accent and I didn’t mind it a bit.

Red Ginger Lily

Princess Flower Plant

Red Banana plant

Cardamom plant with Inch Plant at its feet

If you wonder how a cardamom looks before being Sun dried, then, this is how it looks….

Queen Bee holding a cardamom, with KBee in the background playing with seeds and what not!

We had a blast, looking at all the plants of Aswagandha, Brahmi, Bringaraj, cocoa, Punarnava plant, red ivy (used to heal wounds) etc. She even showed us plants and the combination of which is used as medication for different health issues. It was an informative tour. (Since I was worried about presence of snakes in the Spice Garden, she assured me that one particular plant repels snakes, the Sarpagandha)

With that, we returned to the car, ready to go to our next destination, Munnar Rose Garden. Once again, we saw many colourful flowering plants and other garden plants, which were cut in interesting shapes and looked ornamental. (GBee and KBee wondered why we were looking at so many plants in a single day!)

My overly enthusiastic (pun intended) chocolate muffins, enjoying their time @ Munnar Rose Garden

We took atleast two dozen pics, spent close to 45 minutes in the garden and got into the car.

Our next stop was the Echo Point, Munnar.

Echo Point – Munnar

We paid the entry fee, stood there at the end of the tiny mound of a hill and shouted out, to hear the echo which boomeranged at us from among the trees, on the opposite side. There was boating option available too, for those interested. If you want to attract the full force of the Sun, boating is the way to go!!

Incidentally, we were yet to eat our lunch and extremely tired from all the walking. We returned to the car, after buying beautiful soveneirs, a.k.a, the fridge magnets and some wooden figurines.

We had originally planned on paying a visit to the Idukki dam, but later shelved the idea. We stuffed ourselves with all the snacks available at various locations.

While N drove us back to the Munnar town, all the 4 of us had a power nap. We woke up refreshed and happy, as we reached the White House hotel.

Since it was well past our lunch time, we ordered snacks and juice and patiently waited for our room service to make their appearance!

To follow our schedule, we had to be out of the room by 4:30 p.m., so we got busy, by getting ready for our interesting evening. The Raga, here we come!

P.S:

1. Long ago, I saw snow white cockatoos in Sydney, not in a zoo, but in the balcony of an apartment and more of them on the streets, where they fly freely!

2. After visiting the spices garden I understood why the spices are costly. The process of picking them and making them usable is a time taking process which takes lots of patience. Even plucking them from the tree needs to be done carefully and requires expertise.

3. We also stopped at a random point on the road, near the tea and coffee estates, saw a couple of deers running about.

4. Dodda amma is a Telugu term used to refer to one’s maternal aunt, older sibling of mom. Pinni is an aunt, who is younger sibling of mom.

5. During our visit to the nursery in Sangareddy district, the admin told us there are snakes and to be cautious when coming with kids. Luckily, Munnar Spice Garden administration knows what they are doing, since they have Sarpagandha too!

6. All the photos except the one showing the Echo Point were taken by Mr.Bee. This post is of the travel series, previous one being Munnar, at last!

Munnar, at last

July 18, 2025 / queenbee / 1 Comment

Day 4 :

After our breakfast, we checked out of Pine Borough, bid goodbye to Kodaikanal and started for Munnar, in the last leg of our vacation.

As soon as we were out of the Tamil Nadu border, the climate felt sunny and mild and I was happy we were not in cold, chilly climate.

N stopped at a random eatery for his breakfast, while Mr.Bee and I had a coffee and tea respectively. The stall had photo of Amma, Jayalalitha and somehow, that reminded me of Thalaivii movie of Kangana Ranaut! (Beats me! Why did they cast a pahadi North Indian to play a pukka South Amma! Incidentally, I also loathe the Chandramukhi 2 of Kangana. What a royal waste of time!)

Anyway, on our way to Munnar, just as we entered the Kerala border, we stopped for lunch, we were famished. We halted at Safair, which serves the worst food ever. We could hardly eat a mouthful of food. It must be heaven for non-veg customers, because, they were lining up like bees, but it is absolute bekaar and tasteless eatery for vegetarians. We could hardly finish eating the two dishes we ordered, lemon rice and curd rice!

N was surprised we returned in less than half an hour. We ate the fruits we bought, before exiting Kodaikanal.

I also saw a restaurant which was Bethel Suji restaurant and I remembered the famous dialogue of Phoebe, “Who names their child Bethel?” LOL. (I am FRIENDS fanatic!)

GBee began counting bikes, all those which he saw on the highway and his score reached 1757. ( He entertained himself this way, because KBee would sleep as soon as we were inside the car!)

Even though we knew there were not any good restaurants, we stopped at Safair because we wanted to take a scenic route to Munnar and NOT the shortest route. We took the Gap road. It is the best! ( Always go for the scenic route, not the shortest route!)

Gap road – Munnar, the most scenic road with tea plantations!

We stopped at many viewpoints, took photos and had fun. Munnar is basically heaven and just looking at it is not enough, you should also be mindfully present to enjoy it! Here, cell is just a distraction.

We saw all the tea and coffee estates, most of them belonging to TATA group, who have them for a lease of 999 years! Trespassing is prohibited, so, no photos from inside the beautiful tea estates.

At one viewpoint, since we hardly had a good lunch, we stopped for sweet corn, which is easily available along with Maggi, along the road at all the viewpoints. All the 4 of us were happily chomping our sweet corn cobs when Mr.Bee saw a group of monkeys running towards us. I swear they were at the top of the hills when we started eating. As we started eating, they came down hill, waiting to cross the road to snatch our precious corn.

Mr.Bee wanted to buy us some time, so he threw his cob towards them. They got distracted for a bit. I asked the kiddos to eat their corn, fast. I chomped as much as I could before throwing mine too, at the hunger- striken monkeys. (Situation called for a sacrifice!)

We then rushed towards the car. N banned us from eating in car and monkeys won’t let us eat in peace!

We also had to throw away the kids corn cobs, before going ahead. The kiddos found the throwing away of half eaten corn cobs towards the direction of monkeys, very entertaining! (They were like, mom let me throw, let me give it to monkey.)

We took in as much beauty as we can, staring at our surroundings and all. Kerala government is strict about the cleanliness, which means we get to see wire bins in unique shapes at almost all important locations, for collecting plastic waste like bottles.

Plastic disposal bin

After spending most of our afternoon checking out the streets of Munnar, we checked into the White House hotel.

The kids were highly impressed with the White House hotel. KBee was so sweet as to believe we were staying there forever. GBee was laid back and knew, we were only on a vacation.

After quick baths, changing into fresh nightwear, we reached the in – house restaurant, ordered our dinner.

We also made plans for the next day, after discussing with our hotel manager.

We went to the kids play area, played for sometime (kids had fun) and returned to our room.

The room service brought our dinner, which was simple as ever, fried rice, watermelon juice for all.

Since the weather was not cold like Kodaikanal (Oh, how I hated wearing socks in the hotel room in Kodaikanal), we had fan running at full speed and AC on, we slept like logs!

P.S:

1. Gap road in Munnar is the best. I remembered all the movies I had loved, thanks only to the beautiful tea plantations and estates which were in the backdrop, demanding my attention!

Remember Chennai Express and Life of Pi?

2. India has huge potential, but maintaining the cleanliness is the problem. Let’s hope for the best!

Till the next post, bubye!

Lake Kodai and Coaker’s Walk

June 26, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 3 – Part 2:

After our visit to the Guna Caves, it was time for lunch. We had been planning on going for a boat ride at the picturesque Kodai Lake. The boys were eagerly waiting to row the tiny boat on their own!

N dropped us off at the Hotel Carlton, for our afternoon lunch. While we walked towards the hotel, a couple of transgenders demanded money and we had to comply!

The view from the hotel Carlton is to die for.

I had no idea of what I was getting into, until I saw with my own myopic eyes! We sat under the umbrellas in the outdoor seating area, away from the lunch hour rush and felt at peace. I looked at the boats in the distance, which looked tiny and immersed myself in the beauty. I suddenly remembered all the scenic photo frames which I had seen in my childhood and decided that they were nothing compared to the view infront of me.

Since the kids never get past the starters, we ordered veg manchurian and crisp fried dry baby corn manchurian for them. Mr.Bee and I ordered a soulful soup of cream of mushroom, which was out of the world. It is one of the top 10 dishes I ever tasted and that is saying something.

Mr.Bee and I were immediately happy about our choice of hotel. Mr.Bee ordered an orange mocktail and I ordered my only favourite mint Mojito.

Just as the kids were done eating their starters and we filled up our stomachs with soup, it began to drizzle. We thanked our lucky stars for not being stranded on the lake, with a drizzle wetting us up! We saw frantic tourists, rowing towards the boat house.

We waited a bit for the drizzle to subside, but it escalated into a rain. We ran indoors. The interiors too were competing with the scenic exteriors of the hotel. (Good job Hotel Carlton). There was an indoor wooden ramp (made of rose wood, I guess) probably for prams and wheelchairs and KBee began sliding, like it was his personal slide.

The fried rice we ordered came at last and we ate it in a jiffy. It lived up to our expectation. Infact, Mr.Bee wanted us to check out from Pine Borough and stay at hotel Carlton after this one lunch.

GBee wanted to play at the playground but access was only for the hotel guests not for restaurant guests. (He stared longingly at all the slides, see-saw and other playground equipment visible from the upper outdoor dining area)

Pointing at the other guests and talking about them loudly!

When we were finally done, we called N, who picked us up and dropped us off at our next destination, the Coaker’s Walk. We ditched the plan of boating thanks to the unpredictable weather and sudden drop in temperature.

The Coaker’s Walk was fun, because it overlooked the valley and although there was still a curtain of mist hanging infront of eyes, it felt worth the walk.

There were make shift stalls all along the walk and we only bought a tribal couple fridge magnet, got our photo taken and printed (which now hangs on our wall), I bought a pair of ear muffs and Mr.Bee got himself a beanie, because the cold air was beginning to shake us!

There were stalls of sweet corn, chaat and ice cream, but we didn’t buy anything. Here too the Londonesque weather kept us on our toes. The sudden drizzles made us run for shelter under the plastic tarp of a junk jewellery stall.

We decided to return to the room and while we waited for N to pick us up, I saw beautiful trees and demanded Mr.Bee to click some photos for me. All the photos of trees in the post were taken by Mr.Bee.

Trees with flowers in lavender and orange colours and a huge cactus tree.

We were so exhausted from all the site seeing that we returned to room at 5:20 pm. We had a light snack of kodai apples and Dadoo’s dry fruit Laddoo.

Just as we were ready to hit the sack and turn on the room heater, all the 4 of us cuddling together, the hotel admin moved us into a better room.

With a light dinner, we ended our day. I packed up all the loose articles as tomorrow we were moving to another hotel.

P.S:

1. The new room had a bunk bed for kids and 1 queen bed for adults. (The previous room had only 1 king bed and our kids are the movers. They keep moving in circles, which means a king size bed is useless for us.)

2. Inspite of walking all day, the kids still managed to bring out residual energy, to jump from the top bunk to the queen bed! I spent the night, mostly shouting, asking them to stop jumping and sleep! (I was sleepy and tired and Mr.Bee generally falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.)

3. All the shouting I did was useless as they continued to jump and Mr.Bee continued to sleep!

P.P.S:

Our KBee started schooling this academic year and that keeps me on my toes, only my posting schedule will suffer, mostly! Cheerio my friends.

The Devil’s Kitchen and more

June 11, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 3 – Part 1:

I woke up early, (thanks to the church bells in Kodaikanal) decided on what clothes all the four of us need to wear and waited patiently for more than an hour, before waking up the sleepy trio, the boys.

After the kids were ready, they played in the open area outside our room, which was as slopy as a park slide. I warned them against going far away, since it was hilly and I was sure there were rattle snakes in the area. (The rattling sound I heard at regular intervals among mounds covered with grass might have been anything, but better safe than sorry) KBee found some tissues, made a paper ball with it. They rolled the paper ball downhill, taking turns and had fun. I spent the time recording their activities.

We had our breakfast at the hotel itself. I had bread and jam. Kids had dosa, because they are part of the Dosa Fan Club! Mr.Bee had milk bread with coffee. We got into our ‘car for the week’, ertigo and off we went in the cool breeze!

Our first stop was Fairy Waterfalls. It had a small flow of water, it being summer and all. We had to park the car somewhere nearby, go through a gate, (as if entering private property) to access the waterfalls. It was peaceful place, only two other people were admiring the nature and sadly we saw plastic bottles inside the lake too. Some idiots never learn!

Summer Special – itsy bitsy, Fairy Waterfalls!

See the pale rainbow at the bottom of the waterfalls? We were mesmerised looking at it. As we were enjoying the moment in nature, we heard a horse neighing violently. I don’t know about the kids, but that scared me. We found a white horse ahead and it was jumping up and down, neighing repeatedly. We returned to our car after taking selfies and KBee was surprised to see a white horse. He only saw dark horses in T.V, white horse was a novelty.

Later, we went to the Echo point. To reach the point, we have to go through an enclosed pathway, with 100 something stalls of chocolates, bags, soveneirs on either side of it . It’s like entering a tunnel of goodies! It was congested with human traffic and we walked at a medium pace, to let KBee catch up. Thanks to the heavy mist that day, we couldn’t see the valley properly. We spent hardly 10 minutes at the point and returned to our car. We also met a group of school going girls who had a boom box with them and they played some songs while dancing and shouting all the way to the echo point. At last, I could catch one song, “peelings” song from Pushpa2.

Our next stop was Pillar Rock Flower Garden. Here too, we waited a while for the mist to clear so that we could look at the beautiful Pillar Rocks. We had a brief glimpse of the magnificent Pillar Rocks, took a few selfies and exited.

Pillar Rocks are not visible in the background because of the heavy mist

We made a brief stop here for our snacks, which were salted raw mango, boiled kabuli chana chat, fruit salad and rose flavoured soda. (lemon soda was unavailable!) I also bought Kodai Apples for our snack, for later in the room.

At every viewpoint, we had parking issues, so our driver N would park it far ahead and we spent most of the day, walking. Even KBee tried his best.

We reached the highlight of the day, the Guna Caves or the Devil’s Kitchen. The caves got the alternate name because the Tamil movie Guna starring Kamal Hasan had been shot here. Even the Malayalam movie Manjummel Boys was shot here which is based on a true story. The Guna caves is blocked now, thanks to people getting lost inside them. As per records, 16 people have disappeared inside the caves, in different incidents.

Anyway, you can only imagine how it felt looking at the nature, where the tree roots look magnificent than the tree itself! (I can write a whole post about this one location)

No pic can do justice to the beautiful Guna Caves – Courtesy: Google

GBee, wanted to climb to the top most point of the roots, which was more than 30m in heightfrom the pathway. There was also clay everywhere, so I warned him against it, but Mr.Bee didn’t like us stopping the kid. So both of them climbed towards the tree to the top, while KBee and I waited for them at the bottom. Interestingly, we had to run around the whole park thanks to the monkeys which kept coming to us, to sniff if we had any snacks with us. At one point, I threw a cookie away, to divert the d*** monkey. Later I also threw away a half eaten guava! (We thought we had fooled the monkeys, because we hid our snacks, but they still managed to find us, out of all the hundreds of tourists!)

Monkey Menace!

Since it was a weekend, the people at each tourist spot were in hundreds! What did we do next…? Read the ‘part 2’ post, which will be up soon.

P.S:

1. During the peak season, we will have to register our car or cab or any vehicle beforehand. They allow only fixed number of vehicles.

2. By the time we reached Guna Caves it was hardly time for lunch, but the climate was very cold. We bought the kids cute ear muffs at the Pillar Rocks Flower Garden, to keep the cool air out of their ears. There are also many YouTube videos which show the Guna Caves and feel free to watch them.

3. When travelling, it is better to always keep snacks and fruits handy to avoid hunger pangs. That’s what we did. We had cookies and guava at Guna Caves. We would have prefered eating away from the keen eyes of the monkeys, but the driver N banned us from eating anything inside the car. He kept warning the kids to remove the shoes as soon as we entered the car. He had his reasons.

Till the next post, Cheerio!!

Palani to Kodaikanal

May 11, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Day 2:

Mr.Bee and I woke up at 4:30 a.m on the advice of the hotel admin. He informed us that we selected a particularly important day to visit the temple and warned us that the temple crowd would be akin to mini-size Kumbh Mela. He was not wrong! It was Shashti thithi, which is auspicious as Vel Murugan a.k.a Karthikeya was said to be born on that thithi.

I looked out of the windows, (our room 2** had a balcony facing the hill) and saw the most beautiful view.

Mr.Bee and I, discussed among ourselves and decided to wake GBee up first.

GBee was confused about why there was no sunlight outside and thanks to his EVS lesson in grade 2, he knows what an eclipse is! I told him, we just woke up early to visit the Murugan temple.

During bath, I heard peacocks making wailing calls! If you hear a peacock wailing or crowing near by, it is generally assumed as a sign of presence of snakes. That too if you hear them in the premises of a very popular Murugan temple, whose deity Himself is a snake, then what more to add to that? My heart was filled with devotion and fervour.

After both Mr.Bee and KBee were ready, we rushed to the winch queue. We can either climb the 700 odd steps to the temple or go in a winch to the temple which is situated on top of a hill.

The winch and the scenic beauty!

We spent 2 hours in the winch queue and hardly moved 20m from our initial spot. If you are going to popular temples, you should mentally prepare yourself that you will be pushed, shoved, verbally abused, on top of it, physically tired too!

By the time it was 6:30 a.m. , an announcement had been made that devotees need to take a break and return after 6 hours! (That’s was how heavy the flow of devotees had been to Palani)

I felt upset and low, as it seemed we may not return to the temple. We didn’t want to harass our kids by waiting in the hot weather and climbing 700 steps with 2 kids below the age of 8, seemed preposterous! We resigned to our fate and accepted defeat.

We shopped for Velaayudham and I got myself a photo frame of Dhandayudhapani (Murugan). I remembered we had not visited the Vinayagar and Meenakshi Amman temples in the premises. We visited both and returned to the hotel. KBee only ate a couple of biscuits and GBee didn’t even have those.

At the Hotel, the admin saw our disappointment and advised us to visit the other Murugan temple 5 minutes away from our hotel. He informed us that this one was the original Dhandayudhapani Murugan temple, which was later relocated to the top of the hill. We visited the temple by walk and I remember a middle aged gentleman who entered the temple with us, stayed with us, asked me to go to the front and let me pray to Murugan in peace. He was no where to be seen after talking to me. (It felt like divine intervention, an emotionally charged moment for me)

After our breakfast, which was below average, we packed the soveneirs, checked out from the hotel and started for our next stop, Kodaikanal. Woohoo!

In barely 2 hours, we reached Kodaikanal. The driver, N made a brief stop at the outskirts, for his breakfast. He had an omelette. Mr.Bee and I ordered tea, which was ‘one-sorry- excuse-of-a-tea’ and I poured it down the drain! (When travelling, one should adjust to eating mediocre food and drinks or not buy them at all!)

We checked into Pine Borough, Room ££, which was built such that it was half way into the hill and that made it extremely cold to live in! We had to rent a room heater from the hotel, to stay warm!

We ordered food by WhatsApping the reception desk, sat in the afternoon Sun, under the patio umbrellas. KBee and GBee were famished and so was I, it was 2 p.m.

Mr.Bee and GBee engaged in the cell, while KBee and I chatted away.

Even though KBee was hungry and it was well past his lunch time, he suggested that the bugs were hungry and not him!

We had our lunch in the room, rested a little while and then spent a good hour in the garden outside.

As the weather became colder and since we started hearing strange sounds ( like that of a rattle), we returned to our room. The kids played with their dozen Hot Wheel cars, whereas Mr.Bee and I watched Baahubali, dubbed in Hindi!

After having Dadu’s snacks and a late dinner, we called it a day!

P.S:

1. At the entrance to Kodaikanal, one lady officer, bent down inside our car and nabbed our plastic bottles. Plastic is banned in Kodaikanal, just like in Ooty and Tirumala!

2. I had a wild guess that the rattling sound must mean a rattle snake, since we were staying on a hill resort. God knows if I am correct or not.

3. GBee, still in the mood to count the windmills, began counting bikes (since there are no windmills in Kodai) and his total reached to 172!

4. Interestingly, one of the admins at the Kodai resort was named Palani!

5. The recent war atmosphere in India had an effect on me, so I could hardly write. That is the reason for my late post. #IndianArmy, #OperationSindoor.

Till the next post, cheerio!

Kochi to Palani

May 4, 2025 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Mr.Bee and I were celebrating 10 years of married life this April and we craved for a vacation. We had many destinations in our list from heavyweight like Paris to desi islands of Andaman and Nicobar, but chose Kerala because our youngest just turned four and we wanted him to have a safe travel experience along with food for his extremely selective palate. Kerala it is!

Mr.Bee booked our flight tickets to Kochi for the last week of April. Driving a car in Kerala would have been a cheaper, better and scenic option but GBee is not a patient traveller. He warned us early on that he hated travelling more than 2 hours in a car! He likes to reach destinations sooner and get into holiday mood, faster! (After our Maharastra tour fiasco, we were apprehensive about travelling in a car)

As our flights were booked and hotels reserved, Mr.Bee and I planned our travel itinerary, we had a rough idea of what we wanted to see and what not to miss at any costs.

DAY 1:

On the morning of Good Friday, we boarded our flight to Kochi after filling up on the airport Pizza from Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria, which was superlative, to say the least. We originally planned on checking-in to the executive lounge, but the serpentine line outside it scared us. We bought some snacks too at the Dadu’s counter as a last minute snack option for later in the evening at Kochi.

We said our hellos to the airhostesses and sat in our seats, me on the aisle seat with KBee occupying the window seat and GBee in the middle. Mr.Bee had the aisle seat across us.

I felt very cold in the flight and covered myself up with my scarf, while the kids were happily enjoying the view out of the windows.

Out of India or Outer Space!

For a moment our kids thought we were going out of India. I said no, then they decided we were just travelling to outer space for our vacation! Seriously though, vacation in outer space, who are we, Sunitha Williams and family?

As we were near our destination we had a little bit of turbulence and GBee decided we are going to crash! He was not scared, just excited that we are crashing, whatever that means! Thanks to the turbulence I changed the seats and let Mr.Bee sit with the kids and I had a quick nap.

Meanwhile Mr.Bee ordered Maggi noodles for the kids who were suddenly hungry and once their stomachs filled up, they became more excited, if that was possible! (noodles were too spicy for them, but have you ever heard of kids rejecting junk food?)

We landed at Kochi and KBee was worried that our 2 suitcases were not to be seen and that we only had one hand luggage! At the baggage claim, he found it interesting to get our luggage back on the conveyor belt.

After calling our cab driver, whom we booked for a week, we exited Kochi and were on the way to Palani, going from Kerala to Tamil Nadu.

Mr.Bee and the driver N were the only ones awake. I had a quick nap and the kids slept soundly in the back seat of the white Ertigo. Both had their heads in my lap and I was fresh as a daisy after my nap. Since it was Good Friday, the roads in Kerala were filled up with more than 500 Christians on road. While a few were enacting Jesus’s crucification others were singing songs and praying as they continued their procession, without any traffic interruptions.

We stopped at a snack point, where we had hot chai, which was mediocre and had some freshly made bajji. The mirch bajji was sweet and the plantain bajji was oily but eatable. Since both the kiddos had their heads on my lap, only Mr.Bee could get out of the car. I also asked him to buy us some banana chips and jack fruit chips, which turned out to be the best decision that day.

Jack fruits for sale at ‘Mollywood’ – the snack stop on highway

Our driver drove smoothly and even at high speed the car felt like it was fully under his control. We travelled in small village roads, short cut to Palani, that’s what N said as he took the route. The beautiful Kerala, the clean roads and the village atmosphere caught us off guard and Mr.Bee and I continued praising Kerala and it’s beauty. We already fell in love with Kerala 2 years ago, when we travelled to Wayanad.

After almost 4 hours of our drive, I decided to wake the kids up or they wouldn’t sleep at night! GBee was already complaining as soon as he woke up that we were still in the car and it was dark outside. I fed the kiddos the fresh chips and that shut them up. They began to enjoy the drive even though it was dark outside.

As soon as we entered Tamil Nadu, we found many windmills and counted them. That was the most fun we had that night. Soon, near Pollachi – Palani road, we saw thunder, lightning and rain. Inspite of all that, we kept counting windmills and at one point KBee shouted “I found a wind bill!” and all of us laughed. Then little-little kiddo KBee reprimanded us for laughing at his mistake and shut us all up, effectively!

Just 3.9Km away from our destination Palani, we waited near the railway crossing for the train to pass. As I was looking around, to remember the moment as much as I can, I saw a huge ant hill, enough to hold a family of snakes!

We reached the temple town of Palani at 9:40 p.m, had difficulty finding our hotel Subham. After a good 15 min of confusion, we finally reached the hotel. Kids had plain dosa and I had podi dosa for dinner and managed to drag our feet into bed.

Our day1 of vacation 2025, had come to an end!

P.S:

1. As soon as we reached Shamshabad Airport, Hyderabad, I saw PVP, son of late PM of India, who was travelling with his family.

Even GBee met one of his friends from school at the airport. The said friend was flying to bangalore, while we had earlier flight to Kochi.

2. As the car reached Pollachi – Palani road, GBee observed that the car was just gliding on the road, thanks to the rain. He said there was no need to drive the vehicle in rain! These little conversations bring me immense satisfaction and I try to understand a little about their psychology.

3. In Kerala, I found that people placed 1 foot high brass lights in the middle of the main doorway, probably to scare away any wild animals or reptiles, which are very common in villages.

Lights in Kerala village homes

4. The kids loved windmills and we enjoyed the drive from Kochi to Palani and the kids didn’t even ask me, “Are we there yet?”

Jannaram and Kadem!

December 16, 2023 / queenbee / 1 Comment

GBee’s school had given the students 15 day Dussera holidays and we didn’t plan any travels, because of it being an important Hindu festival. We stayed back home and spent 10 days doing nothing much, except what we do in our daily lives.

Just 3 days before the end of the Dussera school break was coming to an end, we decided that we were extremely disappointed about not visiting any new place. That was when Mr.Bee zeroed in on Jannaram! (We had other destinations in our mind too. But both were more than 6hr drives from Hyderabad and 3 days is very little time for such sort of vacation.)

Mr.Bee brought out our car bed, inflated it, prepped it for our travel and I was incharge of packing the luggage. (I forgot to pack Mr.Bee’s evening shorts and he had to buy it at Jannaram, turns out it was the best mistake I ever made. Mr.Bee bought 3 new shorts and they were way better in quality than those he bought at Hyderabad!)

Day 1:

Aadi Yogi in our car, with beautiful flowers of Paarijatham!

We started by 7 a.m, (we woke at 5:30!) carried the kids into the car, even though they were sleepy and cocooned them in their blankets. But the kids were wide awake, it seems, our kiddos like us, love travelling. They were hyper to say it mildly!

We stopped at Minerva, Siddipet for breakfast. I ordered pesarattu, GBee his usual dosa and Mr.Bee ordered the breakfast special which saved our lives and mostly, energy. The breakfast special consists of an idli, a puri, a dosa and upma. This is the best choice when you have no idea what your kids might eat.

GBee’s dosa never arrived though! Mr.Bee scolded the waiter thrice and at last, the waiter packed a dosa for us, even though we said we were going to dine-in! We didn’t leave him any tip because we were vexed with the attitude. Imagine having to eat breakfast when your kids dosa hadn’t arrived. You don’t feel like eating by yourself.

At Karimnagar, Mr.Bee bought greenest of the green mandarins (Kamala pandu in Telugu) and surprisingly, they were yummy. Fresh fruits in towns and villages are generally of top quality.

We reached Haritha Resort, Jannaram by 1:45 p.m., gave the boys hot water baths, since they didn’t have one in the morning. We rushed to the in-house restaurant for two bowls of fried rice. The hunger we had, made the food taste heavenly. Even my picky eaters ate in silence!

At 3:30 p.m, we were ready for our Jungle Safari! (Always dress warmly and wear caps, sweaters if you are going for a safari. It gets cold in the forest.) A private safari for 4 is for 3500 bucks, a duration of 2 hours. We saw deers, eagle, wild boars(Adavi pandhi in Telugu), baboons (Kondamuchu in Telugu) and Cheetal deers.

The Three heads!

By the time we returned to our rooms it was 5:30 p.m, with dark sky and cold climate.It was only 21’C yet, it reminded me of Ooty!

We had our dinner in the room, phulkas, dal tadka and curd rice. (Our staple menu at any hotel stay)

Day 2:

After having our breakfast at the Udipi Hotel, Jannaram, we started for Kadem, a nearby town. We didn’t like the Udipi hotel, but that was the only mediocre one in Jannaram! We ate idli and vada. We drove 25km, to reach Kadem and the boys entertained themselves by watching the hundreds of monkeys which sat on both sides of the road, checking out the vehicular traffic. While the kiddos were half expecting to see elephants, like we did near the Bandipur forest reserve, I was reminded of my childhood vacation in a similar town of Wyra, where my paternal grandmother used to work. The most unexpected things remind us of deep rooted memories!

Anyway, we reached the Kadem Head Regulator to ride boat, but the boats were not taking tourists or anyone that day. I fail to remember the reason. We then went to the Kadem Dam, to look at it closely, mostly for my sake, trying to re-live my days as Design Engineer inspecting the site! But the dam was still not safe to drive on, deadly, in fact, if you have hyper kids, who think with their legs! (No parapet walls, even the stones which were placed on the sides were not of the required height.)

We decided to check out the Kadem Haritha resort, which is way better compared to the one in Jannaram, solely on basis of the play area for kids and food in the in-house restaurant. Kadem Haritha Resorts has the beautiful dam as background. We had our lunch and returned to our room at Jannaram.

The beautiful Sunset

The funny thing is that, the vegetarian cook at Jannaram resort was on leave that day, so we had to travel 25km again, to have our dinner at Kadem Haritha, again! (we drove through the forest reserve at night and it was only 8 p.m. but looked like it was midnight. Even the town dwellers were surprised to see vehicles moving about after 8p.m.)

The dinner at Kadem Haritha was a bust, because, the waiter forgot to bring our rotis. We waited a whole half an hour, before we demanded him what happened. He had them made, but placed them on another table and forgot all about it. He was busy feeding his own 5 year old child! After realizing his mistake, he gave us Rs.20 off on our bill!

We returned to our room, after travelling through the tiger reserve. (Rs.50 toll for late night travels. We should pay as well as risk facing the tiger too! Injustice!

We reached our room and slept soundly, making our room completely dark, since it was the night of Lunar eclipse.

Day 3:

Breakfast at the lone bearable hotel, Udipi, of idli and vada, again! We took a detour to Dharmapuri and reached Hyderabad by 6:30 p.m.

Our short and sweet trip had come to an end!

P.S:

We didn’t see any tigers in the forest reserve during our jungle safari, because most of the roads inside the forest were flooded during the rainy season. The tour guide told us, it will take atleast 3 years to completely mend it! He suggested us to visit Kadem. Thanks man!
The play area at Kadem Resort is huge. I played on the swing for 20 minutes or so, till KBee discovered that I was enjoying! I love swings.
At Dharmapuri, GBee bought a toy trumpet and on our way home, we felt our ear wax melt!
When we stopped at the Mayura Veg restaurant and the food was good. The cricket world cup had already started and on that particular day India was playing against England. We selected a booth in the restaurant, which was near the big screen!
The Aadi Yogi that adorns our car is from Subrahmanya, Karnataka! We are hopeful, that someday, we will visit this original at Coimbatore.
The incharge at Jannaram resort took immense liking to KBee and wanted to keep KBee for himself! The surprise was KBee, being a 2.5 yr old trying some stunts and surprising us all! (I don’t know where he picked it up!)
I have a tiny cartoon regarding this trip, which I will post later, because, this post is already long. Till the next post, cheerio!

Returning home!

November 11, 2023 / queenbee / 1 Comment

Day 12:

Since it was a Sunday, the resort was full of people, coming in with their families, young and old. Every room was filled.

Today was the day of us travelling back to Bangalore from Mangalore. We had our baths and came down for our breakfast at 9 A.M. The breakfast was being served outdoors, thanks to the increased number of guests. (Eating outdoors reminded me of my village!)

I ate idli, the kids ate vada and Mr.Bee was more adventurous, so he ate the upma from the breakfast buffet! The summer staple fruit watermelon was available too. The kids had a serving each of watermelon. The serving bowl was the size of a chutney bowl at Chutneys, Hyderabad! I had a piping hot cuppa masala chai too.

Chutney bowls to serve diced watermelon

We returned to our room, after asking our caretaker to help us move our luggage to the car. We started off from Hyderabad with three suitcases full of clothes. Depending on the place, we would take out one suitcase at every part of our vacation, Here too, we had one suitcase and a bag of clothes along with our beach tools etc. It is no mean feat, bringing down the kids to the car (KBee is prone to running head on into the road and the traffic!) so we needed help of the caretaker guy. He got a well deserved tip too.

KBee, GBee and I got into the car and Mr.Bee packed the luggage into the dickie or trunk and we started our long drive. Google Maps showed us that we may reach destination in approximately 7 and half hours.

It was an uneventful drive, thankfully and we stopped at Ossoor at Sakleshpur. The restaurant is in a coffee estate and most of the points go to the beautiful ambience. The food could have been better. We ordered tandoori roti with broccoli curry and paneer sabzi. We were not sure which curry the kids would like, so we ordered two. Turns out, they liked neither! Kids had watermelon juice and I ordered mosambi. (By now I was sick of watermelon!) I had to drink it as soon as it came to the table, because mosambi turns bitter within 5 min. Mr.Bee had a piping hot coffee with his lunch. He had long drive ahead of him, so caffeine is helpful for his system.

We shopped a little at the gift and toy store in the estate, both for our kids and Mr.Bee’s cousin’s kids. While Mr.Bee was busy ‘Gpay’ing, KBee and GBee had fun running around the estate and I took my time looking at the surroundings! The best thing I liked was,seeing some couple bikers who had come to have their lunch there. (It is our dream to drive a bike in Leh, Ladakh!)

Can you spot the puppy?

Anyway, we were on the highway, after spending a leisurely hour at Ossoor. We made another stop later to buy farm fresh jack fruit and baby cucumbers. I was salivating at the fresh produce.

Once inside Bangalore, we made a pit stop for snacking near Bangalore outskirts. I saw groups of bikers again, here. I forgot the name of the eatery, but it is a popular hangout, if the people and the parked vehicles are anything to go by.

Also, if you are a biker, Karnataka is the place for you. The tea and coffee estates, the ghat roads and hair pin bends make for a beautiful drive. I think we stopped for tea at 6 or something. By the time we reached the cousin’s place, it was already 9 P.M.

All we did was, take a quick bath and have dinner and hit the bed. The kids, though they met for the first time, bonded well, that too within the first 10 minutes.

Day 13:

We woke up, got ready and were on the road by 9 a.m. We hoped to visit the Dodda Ganapathi temple, but thanks to the traffic which started from the apartment itself, we had little hope!

We went directly to Mr.Bee’s office at Bangalore, chatted happily with his colleagues P and N, while KBee and GBee ran around in the plush lawns. GBee fell into a foot deep pit, where the controls for lawn watering equipment were present! (The tiny pit was hardly knee deep for a 6 year old, thank God.)

We later had Team lunch with Mr.Bee’s Bangalore team at The Big Baadshah. Everything, the food, the buffet menu, the ambiance, the mocktails were fabulous, impressive.

Baadshah ..oh Baadshah!

We later went to play box cricket, where GBee had fun running around, getting in the way of everyone, while Mr.Bee played cricket with his teammates. I couldn’t join the fun, because KBee had a nap on my shoulder! (Generally, he only sleeps on his dad’s shoulder, but since his daddy was busy, he adjusted on mine!)

Once again we returned to the cousin’s home at 9 P.M, thank you, famed Bangalore traffic!

GBee, KBee and V had most fun that night, jumping on the beds, running around playing football and what not! At night KBee cried too, waking up from his slumber to complain of pain in his legs. Hectic day. Phew!

Day 14:

Returning to Hyderabad.

We woke at 5, got ready and were on road by 6 A.M. There was no traffic at all, since it was a weekday, the highway and the roads were practically empty. After admiring the beautiful hills and the windmills at the Karnataka – Andhra border, I was once again reminded of the Grandfather Mountain, which has similar topography and climate. The drive from Bangalore to Anantapur is a memorable one.

We reached Seoul Store, Penukonda by 9 A.M. Thanks to the KIA manufacturing unit nearby at Anantapur, there are Korean stores and restaurants near by. I bought myself some Korean products and toffees.

We had our breakfast near Anantapur, where the piping hot tea I was carrying to my table, fell on my index finger and burned it badly! (It was self serve eatery and I drink chai when travelling!) My long skirt got in the way when I was walking, so my skirt is the culprit!

Anyway, we had our lunch at a drive-in at Mahabub Nagar. The food was good. Even pets were allowed inside and I saw one old couple with their Pomeranian in their lap, eating some non-veg dishes and feeding the animal.

We reached home by 4 P.M. our first ever looongggg vacation came to an end at last!

P.S:

Mr.Bee wanted to visit the Fort at Sakleshpur, but we missed it! We had to take a right somewhere but we forgot completely about it, until we passed it and went ahead for 5 min! It is difficult to take U-turns on highways, because we have to first search for an opening in the heavy vehicle traffic.
On the highway, I came across many name boards of different homestays and estates. In between all that, I also saw FulJar Soda boards everywhere. Mr.Bee and I were skeptic about trying it, but later, on reaching Hyderabad, we were told that we made a grave mistake by not tasting the FulJar soda. It is a summer drink to refresh the parched souls! Don’t forget to try it, if you are in the vicinity of Ooty and Karnataka.
I was happy looking at the leather jackets and helmets of the bikers and their beautiful bikes. It reminded me of the 2007 comedy movie, Wild Hogs, starring John Travolta. It is a favourite of Mr.Bee and me.
GBee still remembers his cousin now and then, whom he considers his best friend too and asks us to take him there. He thinks we can go to Bangalore in an hour or two!

Till the next post, cheerio!

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