Tag: Pine Borough

Munnar, at last

July 18, 2025 / / 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 / / 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.

Palani to Kodaikanal

May 11, 2025 / / 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!

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