Category: Travel Butterfly (Page 2 of 2)

Ooty, got his Goatee!

August 1, 2023 / / 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.

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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:

  1. We gave KBee another dose of crocin at night and he was already showing improvement. GBee had motion sickness, so nothing to worry about.
  2. 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.
  3. Since there was no T.V. in the room. GBee and KBee entertained themselves with the iPad Mini and had their dinners.
  4. 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 / / 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:

  1. 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!
  2. 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!
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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 / / 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:

  1. It is always a plus, if you have the right kind of book to read!
  2. GBee and KBee tired themselves silly, running in the Botanical Garden, they had hardly any energy left to fight.
  3. Since the weather in Ooty is generally low, there are no ACs and fans in the hotel room.
  4. 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.
  5. 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!)
  6. Most people speak Hindi or English in Ooty. Language barrier is not an issue, at least for us.
  7. 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 / / 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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!
  3. Traffic and parking are the main issues one would face in Ooty. If you are travelling in your own vehicle, God save you!
  4. 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.
  5. 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!
  6. 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 / / 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:

  1. 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!
  2. 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!
  3. 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.)
  4. 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!
  5. I wonder who named the jack fruit, it feels like cursing the poor fruit!
  6. 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!

Bengaluru Beckons!

June 19, 2023 / / 2 Comments

Mr.Bee and I had planned a short vacation, way back in November 2022. But LIFE happened and we cancelled our trip at the loss of some hard earned money. So this time, we wanted to travel, but with a flexible itinerary, to avoid cancellations and to not be disappointed. That is how we started our 14 day vacation, with 2 year old KBee , 6 year old GBee on our nearly 6 year old Vento!

Since Hyderabad felt like a sauna, we decided on a cooler destination and immediately zeroed in on Ooty. (I have fond memories of Ooty from my teens and Mr.Bee had never been to Ooty.)

Our trip started with buying loads of healthy snacks for our drive, a 10 litre Milton cooler for water needs of the kiddos, emergency medicines, medical kit and 4 suitcases full of clothes for all the 4 of us!

Day 1:

…..Started with our drive from Hyderabad to Bengaluru . We started at around 6 a.m., (originally planned on starting by 5 a.m.) drove to Kurnool, on time to have our breakfast. (Both the kids had fallen asleep on the car-bed we had installed on the back seat. ) I had masala dosa and it is the best I had in recent times. GBee demanded cell phone to have his breakfast, but thanks to the dozen or more police officers having breakfast at the Hangout, he stayed away from throwing tantrums and had his plain dosa in silence. (GBee is afraid of the police.)

Even though it was still 8:30 a.m., the Sun was already showing his might. So we kept ourselves and kids hydrated by drinking water and Gatorade in alterations.

At Ananthapur, we bought the juiciest and sweetest guavas ever. I ate two in a sitting. They were awesome. Thanks to the seller, we also had some guava leaves, which I placed on top of the dash board, to test my theory. Plants and flowers attract heat and cool the surrounding areas, so the leaves on dash board meant, they took the heat and the passengers have none. (If you are going out during peak summer heat, place an onion in your hand bag or shoulder bag and get on with your business. The onion prevents sun strokes by absorbing the heat, especially in tropical climates, it is very helpful.)

We reached the outskirts of Bengaluru at around, 1:30 p.m. and had our lunch at Nandi Upahar, near the road to Nandi Hills. There was a waiting line and although the restaurant needed a face-lift, we had our lunch and started our drive into the City of Traffic, Bengaluru! (Don’t get me wrong, I love Bengaluru and its pleasant climate, which is similar to that of my second home, Charlotte, NC,USA.)

We reached Mr.Bee’s colleague, R‘s house, at BTM Stage 2, took our time to freshen up ourselves and by the time it was 5 p.m., we went to the nearby park. GBee and KBee had a blast playing there. Once it started drizzling, we ran out of the park and rushed home. Our dinner that night was Dominos Pizza, because, the food delivery showed a waiting time of more than 1 hour, thanks to the heavy rain that night. We had a Vegetarian Gourmet Pizza, with added basil seasoning and it was good. GBee was over the Moon thanks to the junky dinner!

We slept, for a night of peace. Both the kiddos slept like logs, a long drive can do that to anyone!

I woke up at 7 a.m., as usual and was mesmerised by the silence of Bengaluru. I saw atleast fifty people going for walks, jogs in fitness gear. A retiree continued with his stretches, all the while, nodding his head to one or two familiar faces. Everyone was going about their business in silence. This pleasant scene tempted me to ditch Hyderabad and move to Bengaluru. But then, I am a pukka Hyderabadi.(Also, I had temporary lapse in judgement!)

R even tempted us guys by saying that the plot nearby was ready for sale! As if! We just enrolled GBee into a new school and that’s when it hit me, how easy it is to take decisions before having kids and after! We moved to India, in the blink of an eye from Charlotte, but something like that is unthinkable now.

Anyway…..

For breakfast we had scrumptious thatte idli (first time eating it) and medu vada with tasty pudina chutney.  

Thatte Idli –  Image Courtesy Google Search Engine

With that done and stuffing some Mango leaves onto the dashboard, Mr.Bee, I and the kids bid our farewells and started for Ooty! Chalo Ooty! That’s how we started our Day 2!

P.S:

  1. Interestingly, if you want to convince your mom that you don’t want to go to school or college, an onion in one’s armpit, raises the body temperature and causes fever! Now take a blood oath that you won’t tell your mom, this is where you read it. I don’t want any mothers cursing me!
  2. It is always better to check leaves for caterpillars. Thankfully, GBee was quick to observe that the mango branch of Bengaluru tree had a very active caterpillar. I jumped out of my skin, car came to a sudden halt and the branch went right out of the window! No one was hurt by the above incident!
  3. I couldn’t post for more than 3 weeks, because, we were busy with the vacation, the return, the laundry, the school induction programs, the books, the uniforms and the likes.  Hopefully, I will bore you guys silly with more posts. The next post will be about Udhagamandalam, Ooty for short!

Cheerio till the next post.

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