Yesterday, it took us 122 minutes to cover a distance of 16 kms from my home to silk board. By the time we reached our boarding point, we barely had 15 minutes to gulp down some dosas and board the bus. The bus was supposed to drop us at Kodaikanal at 6:00 am today. Thankfully, it was late by two and half hours. We were not equipped to combat the early morning temperatures of 14-16 degree Celsius.
The place that I had booked is about 3-4 kms from the town centre. We reached with about an hour to spare before our check-in time (10:00 am). The owner was kind enough to get our room ready before time.
Our hotel building.
Kid’s play area inside our hotel premises.
Walking around the town and the lake
I had scheduled all our site-seeing trips for tomorrow and day after tomorrow. We had nothing to do but roam around the town. My mom also needed a woollen shawl (for those early morning temperatures). The owner of the hotel dropped us at Naidupuram junction. We took a shared Omni to reach the Club Road junction.
A quick plot shows that we had walked 7.5 kms. https://goo.gl/maps/QwHkocsmzFo
Here are a few photographs from our walk.
Kodaikanal Bazaar Road. My mom bought a cheap woollen shawl from one of the shops.
The minarets of Jamia Masjid on Bazaar Road.
A lot of people into angling sit on the banks of the Kodaikanal lake. This man was trying hard to throw his hook into the deeper waters.
Kids enjoyed the paid horse-riding experience with their guides on a bicycle!
Bicycles were also available for hire. I got to know that BSA had a tandem model called Duo. It is not a traditional tandem bike because of its dual freewheel design. I also found that a lot of guys had made some custom tandem bikes by welding two normal cycles together. I would be very cautious about renting them.
How can there be no boating rides in a lake that is huge enough to have a perimeter of 4.6 kms? As the day progressed, the length of the queues for boating increased.
A disappointing day for our stomachs
So far, I haven’t been a fan of the food I had in Kodaikanal.
In the morning, we had our breakfast at a restaurant called Mahaveer Restaurant. It was recommended by the bus operator. While the idly was edible, the upma and the bread-Butter Toast was pretty bad.
Later we had some average coffee at Potluck cafe. I think their business is more focussed on beverage related pottery rather than the beverage itself. While the presentation was good, the coffee was barely comparable to the stuff I get near my office.
Coffee at Potluck Cafe. The coffee had way too much chicory for my taste.
We had our lunch at a hotel which calls itself Punjab Hotel. It is just opposite to Potluck Cafe. The food was a far cry from anything Punjabi. However, to their credit, the mix veg was good. Not to mention, the chicken dish was absolutely forgettable. The hotel served our purpose of filling our stomach.
In the evening, we tried our luck at a Tibetan restaurant (The Royal Tibet). We were fed some forgettable thukpa, some horrible veg momos and decent chicken momos (Still, the momos of Taste of Tibet / Yak Restaurant in Bangalore would squash them). They did not have any wheat based items. So, no tingmos either.
We did not take any chances for our evening tea. We skipped all the fancy restaurants and headed straight to a Cafe Coffee Day. We sought comfort in familiarity.
My mom had packed some mixed veg and rotis from another restaurant named Tava for dinner. It was probably the most palatable meal we had in the entire day.