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.
