Category: Travel

  • Kodagu Moments – Days 2,3

    Continued from Day 1.

    The replacement for the early morning trek was a coffee trail trek that began at 10.30. Breakfast was sumptuous, and in addition to the elaborate buffet, you could also get dosas and eggs made-to-order. We returned to our room before getting to the Leisure area to begin the trek. Arun Poovaiah arrived on time, but we had to wait for a few guests who took a while to land up! After introductions, to each other, and to some fauna near the building (like the Burmese you can see in the second image – it stops growing if it comes in contact with an alternate life form! And I thought I was asocial!) we began walking higher, towards the second phase of the property’s expansion. On the way, we were shown the Arabica and Robusta coffee plants. The second phase was where the deluxe suites were being built – they were complete except for the work on the interiors. I think 227 was the suite we saw, and it was a rival to the ‘best view in the resort’ tag. To top it, there was a Jacuzzi on the balcony!

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    Here’s a quick view of the scene from the balcony.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpm1nO3wLeU&w=500&h=300]

    Poor Arun, having encouraged questions, was at the receiving end of some utterly random questions! I hate to sound like a jerk, but I really wished I had lmgtfy stickers! When he asked us for feedback on the stay, most guests said there were not enough activities – live bands was one suggestion! Led me to wonder whether humans had lost their ability to make their peace with silence and stillness. ​Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness. 
 ~ Tim Kreider. Ah, well. Arun replied that live bands were not really in the scheme of things, but they did have tennis, basketball and badminton courts. We had also discovered a ping-pong table, carom and several board games in the Leisure area earlier. This is one feedback we had – that the welcome folder in the room should have this information, WiFi passwords etc.

    We had been asked specifically to wear jeans and shoes for the trek, but several in the group pretended not to have received the memo. Thanks to that, the leeches in the area decided to invite themselves to the party! Arun totally downplayed it saying that it was blood donation. 😀 We then saw a rudraksh tree and the poor guy was asked for the significance of the number of faces a rudraksh had! He did say that a single faced one only appeared once a century and apparently Rajinikanth, Sonia Gandhi and Queen Liz had one! From there we moved on to see Elaichis, and the leeches decided to crash the party again! I got a video of one doing its version of the pub crawl.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw-L_aBIavg&w=500&h=300]

    We also saw the soon-to-be spa, the sports courts, and even the area for the swimming pool before we completed the trek.

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    Lunch was another buffet, and there was still no pork! We asked for it and were told that we’d get a portion for dinner. We also saw a couple of kids whom we suspected were aged less than the resort’s 12 year old criteria. Hmm. On the way back to the room, I thought the buggy ride would serve as a good proxy tour of the resort. Here it is!

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mLnFPmBoWs&w=500&h=300]

    D had already made plans of how to spend the afternoon – Arun had invited everyone to The Verandah to make their own blend of coffee. I begged off and went into deep meditation, from which I emerged bleary eyed an hour later, when D came over to call me to taste the coffee she had blended, ground and brewed. We even got a packet of it. After we walked back to the room, we played a Calvinball version of chess, and then (for the first time) walked to the restaurant from the room. Silence except for crickets, a light breeze, bliss!

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    We did get the pork curry, but though it was tasty, it was too little too late. This is another feedback we gave – when in Coorg, it is unpardonable not to serve pork in every single meal! After dinner, we played carom, and D was convinced that we should buy one. Yay! I’d been asking for one forever now!

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    And thus ended Day 2, and our check out time the next day was 11 AM.

    Day 3

    The only time the service faltered was after breakfast when we asked for a buggy. It was raining heavily, and we had to wait for about 20 minutes before we got one. I have to say that this was the sole exception – the staff had always been courteous, and understood the meaning of service very clearly. They’d go out of the way to help and always made it a point to ask if we needed anything. Most everyone smiled, and that was wonderful! We ended up paying Rs.34500, inclusive of the driver’s food (nominal charges, and his accommodation was complimentary) for 3D/2N and while it might seem on the high side, and the place is not the easiest to reach, all things considered, it’s worth it if you can convince them to feed you pork regularly! 😀

    We left out by around 11.30. and the driver’s clock showed 4.50. Our time was not right, I should have taken it seriously! We had initially thought of lunching at Madikeri but we made quick time on the way back and based on the distance, decided on Cafe Coorg near Hunsur for lunch. At Kushalnagar, the driver braked suddenly thanks to an idiot in front of him who, without any warning, decided to stop and attempt a U turn in the middle of the road! A bike scraped our vehicle a bit, cursed us and we thought that was the end of the day’s adventures. We stopped at Cafe Coorg and managed to keep down the food. Enough said. (Probably a good idea to have an early breakfast at Tamara and lunch at Madikeri)

    A little after that, the awesomeness began. A sudden hump ahead made the driver in front of us brake. Our driver was too late to respond, and we could only watch in helpless silence, as despite the hand brake, we skidded straight on to the back of the vehicle ahead of us! No one except our car was hurt. The other car’s owner was a Mallu and after mildly complaining about the damage to his vehicle, (which wasn’t much) prophesied that our vehicle wouldn’t move! He offered us a lift till Kengeri but we declined. We then limped r.e.a.l.ly.s.l.o.w.l.y till Srirangapatna, where we got a mechanic. There was a theatre playing ‘Bulbul’ opposite the workshop, but D wasn’t very interested. The ‘fix’ took half an hour, and we resumed the journey. Turned out in a while that he had made it worse – the engine began to overheat! We barely managed to reach Mandya. Several bullock carts chose this opportunity to add wins to their CVs! Hmmph! Our driver managed to get us an alternate vehicle at Mandya, after unsuccessfully trying to convince us of the benefits of a Volvo bus, and then practically assembling all the taxi drivers around to offer bids, and suggestions!

    We started from Mandya at 6, and managed not to touch other vehicles. But this driver also understood that we were on a vacation and despite directions and suggestions, decided to show us most of Bangalore before dropping us in Koramangala at 9.45. Ten hours and fifteen minutes on the road! D claimed that all the tranquility she had attained at Tamara was lost on state highways! But hey, we have 2 posts and photos to show for all of it! 😉

  • Kodagu Moments – Day 1

    A variety of factors led us to look nearby for the first of this (financial) year’s vacations – a relatively unambitious trip to Coorg. But it was our first trip to the area, so we decided to make it special by resorting to luxuries that we otherwise stay away from during our travels. The trip began on a Friday morning, and our Celcabs driver was only about 15 minutes late. At 7.30 we got out of Koramangala on to tolled NICE and un-tolled other roads, and parts of Bangalore that we’d seen only on Google Maps.

    Though we’d have liked to try out breakfast at Maddur Tiffany’s, hunger and a persuasive driver led us to Kamat Lokaruchi, just after Ramanagara, at about 9.15 AM. We decided that the ‘buffet’ option would be the least taxing mentally. At Rs.120 per head, it wasn’t the stuff legends are made of, but pretty filling and reasonably tasty – pongal, dosas, (masala and standard) Kotte Kadubu, vada, jalebi, kesari bath and so on! The pit stop was short and we then passed more Kamat outlets, a few CCD, McDonald ones, and even a KFC and Empire, all much more spacious and luxurious than the ones in Bangalore.

    On to Channapatna, Maddur, and a Mandya quite different from the muddy little town that I had somehow visualised. Ambareesh (whom we have something bordering on affection for – thanks to Sumalatha’s mallu movie connection 🙂 ) was everywhere, and thanks to ‘Bulbul’, so was Darshan! Shaded roads, a smattering of brand outlets and large parks, Mandya made a pretty picture. Neither of us knew that we’d meet again in a more elaborate way during the trip, but that’s for later.

    Srirangapatna, Hunsur (which has a few highway eateries) Periyapatna later, we passed Bylakuppe, where ocher and saffron robed monks swarmed, and a couple of them managed to scandalise D when she spotted them in a non-veg restaurant which heavily advertised chicken as a specialty. I told her about the Dalai Lama being a non-vegetarian and she refused to believe me! After Kushalnagar, we were at Madikere just before 12.30. Given that our destination was only about 40 km away, we decided to wait till we got there, for lunch. But 40 km actually took almost a couple of hours, and past Napoklu and Kabbinakad lay the end of our journey – The Tamara, where we had reserved a weekend break package.

    The billing happened first, heh, as did a welcome garland a vanilla drink that was oh-so-refreshing! Since we were reasonably famished, and there was some confusion regarding the room, we went straight to the restaurant. A buffet awaited us, and we weren’t really discerning of what we ate – I remember it as a large blur! Our luggage saw our room before us. A buggy (on-demand and a call away) is the most common form of transport, unless you want to walk, which is a splendid option. We’d specifically asked for Room 111 (or its adjacent 112) because they offered the best view in the property. And so it was.

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    Since even a few thousand words aren’t really enough, here’s a video that D shot.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BlvcLi0rZM&w=500&h=300]

    As with every other trip, my headache decided to pay a visit in the evening! Thankfully, there was an option to lounge around on the balcony, or to watch the landscape change colour right from the bed! Easy to guess what I chose. 🙂

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    The buffet dinner had a couple of Coorg dishes but not what we had come seeking – pork! But we pigged out anyway. By then, it had begun raining. That meant that our trek planned for 6.30 AM had to be canceled, since the paths would be slippery. I pretended disappointment, but apparently not enough of an act to convince D! Haha. Day 2 would therefore begin a little later. At least one of us was not complaining!

    To be continued…

  • Filipinotes – Days 6,7

    ….continued from Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

    Waking up at 5 AM during a vacation. Check. Ok, 5.10. We left the hotel a little after 5.30 for our flight at 7.50. Coco Huts had cost us 10800 pesos, and was totally worth it. Very helpful staff! This time the flight was from the Caticlan airport, 45 minutes – 1 hour away. The transfer crew thankfully were more helpful with the baggage, and we even had the van all to ourselves. At the Caticlan jetty, we had to pay porters about 20 pesos per bag/per shore to get it into the boat and out, but it’s worth it from experience! From the jetty, we were taken to the airport, and had to pay airport fees of 200 pesos each. But it’s a nice, small, clean airport and there’s WiFi. The Cebu flight was on time and we reached Manila around 9.

    We realised when we landed that the hotel had arranged transport for us from Terminal 1! We boarded the transfer bus to Terminal 1, and it promptly broke down on the way! Thankfully, we were picked up immediately by another bus and dropped at Terminal 3 departure. We made our way to Arrivals and tried to find the taxi counter where our transfer to the hotel had been booked. The folks there studied the mail print out with a reverence and attention that made it seem like an archaeological specimen! Turned out English was a forgotten language there, so they pieced together letters and formed words, then tried to understand the sentences that resulted. We repeatedly kept saying Nissan and even stood in front of that specific counter but they waved us into silence as they studied the manuscript! The girl at the Nissan counter continued giving her undivided attention to her chewing gum. No multitasking, no sir! Half an hour later, they had reached line 6 where Nissan appeared, and the girl was summoned to take care of us. She wasn’t convinced, but spat out the gum and proceeded to her next task with the enthusiasm that our nation’s leader displays before giving a speech.

    The car took another 15 minutes to get to us, and from there we took an hour to get to Casa Bocobo. It cost us 600 pesos, and much cheaper that the 1000 peso options we were given by other airport taxis. We suspected that metered taxis would have been cheaper. At Casa Bocobo, we were told that check in time was 2 PM, and the earliest time we could be given a room was 12 PM – checkout time. We spent the next two hours staring at various available walls. While D sulked, I was busy multitasking – the combination of a lack of breakfast and the early wake up provided me some material to start a headache.

    We stubbornly decided to have a meal only at SM Mall of Asia, our destination for the day. At 12.30, we were taken to our room, and I discovered that I would need an adaptor to charge anything here! We quickly freshened up and took a cab to the mall, 250 pesos and about 20 minutes away. After getting there, and discovering that reading about the 4th largest mall in the world and understanding its ramifications were two different things, we realised that there was no way we’d be able to cover it in a day! We surveyed the lunch options and decided to go multi-cuisine at Pho Hoa. After a quick but excellent meal Pho, Kungpao chicken, Brochette, mango juice and Black Jelly drink and 855 pesos later, D was heady with the prospects of the massive shopping time ahead of her, and my headache gave a me a welcome message!

    The interactive maps at the mall were helpful but upside down and we spent quality time getting lost, but since we weren’t looking for anything specific, it was okay and we kept discovering new avenues and shops! I found an old favourite that had disappeared from India – Springfield! There was also a smaller version of ODEL in Lanka, and we rued the fact that we had already picked up stuff for everyone! This place is obviously a shopper’s paradise, and I frequently wanted to ask D if she needed tissues to stem the salivation. Across the road was the bay, and at about 5.45 we made our way there to watch the sunset. The promenade was alive with crowds, kids playing and mime acts! The mall had a huge number of options that allowed us to watch the bay as we had dinner. After inspecting the options, we chose Abe where we tried Manok sa Luyang Dilaw, chicken in coconut milk, and Betute, farm frogs filled with minced pork. 🙂 D was queasy about the latter when she ordered and kept asking if they’d be fried, but I saw none of that later as she crunched away the dead frog’s legs! 😀 Rice and beer and sangria followed. The bay view was beautiful, and the meal cost us  1100 pesos. Worth it, and the only thing that spoiled it a bit was my nagging headache. The taxi back cost us 300 pesos, we gave 50 extra because the driver was a sweet old man, who looked like he could survive in Bangalore traffic. 🙂

    Back at the room, I asked for an adaptor – unfortunately not available, and confirmed our taxi for the airport, thankfully available. Thus ended Day 6, our last night in the Philippines.

    Day 7

    The plan was to visit a nearby mall. We had given our breakfast preferences the night before and quickly consumed that in the restaurant. The adaptor was finally available as well!

    Robinson Mall happened to be a really short walk away, and on hindsight, we should have just lunched here the previous day! The shopping options were quite good as well, and we bought more here, despite having less than 2 hours. This has become a ritual, the last day frenzy and the rush to the airport. We reached Casa Bocobo just in time. We had already paid the 2500 pesos due. Stuffed the new acquisitions into the bag and hoped into the cab which was waiting. 650 pesos took us to the airport. We changed currency from the one option available. This airport is an 80s style one and doesn’t really have options to do anything much. The Malaysian Airlines flight to KL was delayed after we boarded and some fidgeting later we were on our way. This one didn’t have screens, so we were a bit bored. At KL, we were back in the familiar corridor and killed time (with the help of chocolate drinks at Old Town and currency exchanges involving amounts less than $10 😀 ) before the flight to Bangalore! Four hours later and the last 15 minutes of Life of PI and 3 episodes of Big Bang Theory later, we were in Bangalore. After the sloooooow motion Immigration queue, and a Meru, we were finally home!

    I loved Philippines more than Bali and Cambodia – Palawan for its beauty and balance with nature, Boracay for the sunsets and the buzz, and Manila for just being an awesome city to look at and be at. Thailand is probably close in terms of mind space. Philippines had everything we wanted in a vacation, and is relatively less touristy. It was well worth the visa headache, which involved us submitting everything we had except my dad’s horoscope and property documents, and cost us Rs.3500 each! The trip cost us about Rs.1.9 lakhs with flight tickets (including within the country) at about a lakh, staying options at around Rs.4ooo, meals at about Rs.1500 each and shopping of course! In essence, ranks right up there in terms of journeys, and highly recommended! 🙂

    The End

  • Filipinotes – Day 5

    ….continued from Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

    Another lazy day had been unplanned. The only planning as usual were the meal spots. For breakfast, D had identified a crepes joint called Ti Braz nearby, which also had other breakfast options. Though the beach view was awesome, we chose to sit inside, and were served a pretty mediocre breakfast for 820 pesos. Back at the hotel, we asked for a spa session, which had been advertised in the room in the form of a brochure. That was confirmed for later in the day. Since we were to leave early the next day, we also asked them to check with the guys who were supposed to drop us at the airport on when we’d have to leave. We wandered about all morning, tasting a Boracay version of a breezer, (chocolate flavour dominated) shopping, and as per plan dropped in at Mesa (part of the Boracay Regency) which had a ‘modern Filipino’ cuisine….and WiFi 🙂 After sadly learning that the Ostrich meat wasn’t available, we had a Tilapia simmered with mustasa and gata (mustard and coconut) that seemed like a stew, beef cooked two ways (crispy and saucy) and a  laing fried rice. The fish was almost like a stew with mustard leaves and quite good. The crispy beef was bland but the saucy one made up for it. The Laing fried rice has pork in it. Enough said. Washed down with Rum-Coke. A fine meal at 1275 pesos.

    We slowly walked back to the hotel, a short walk away, and got to know that the spa appointment was at 4, and we’d be picked up the next day at 5! :O A nap later, we learnt that the spa would be coming to us! The mobile massage squad did their job in the room itself! Cost us 700 pesos (for two) and worth it! Massage services are the only ones giving food outlets a run for their money in Boracay. Across the beach front, you will be accosted by those advertising massages, or adventure stuff. I slept off and missed the sunset but D managed to catch it, though she said it wasn’t as beautiful as the previous day.

    Dinner was planned at Jony’s, in the extended Station 1 section. We had actually thought of having lunch here, but then flipped the plan. That turned out to be a good idea. This was a quieter area, and we could watch the sea peacefully. We had catfish, a chicken preparation inspired by the Chinese, and plain rice. D ordered a Mango-Pineapple shake that turned out to be better than her ex-favourite Jonah’s! Inspired me to try a mango shake as well, and it was really good. A perfect last meal at Boracay – 1129 pesos. We talked about the shops we’d seen that seemed to have been started in the 80s, and wondered what kind of adventurers had made their way to Philippines then. I remembered reading Alexander Frater’s “Chasing the monsoon” and the feel of India in the late 80s it gave. That’s one of the reasons I blog – years later, I hope someone, from all of this, would be able to get a glimpse of how the world was, and how a life was lived. A page across time. 🙂

    We slowly walked back to the hotel, and received a message that the pick up was at 5.30. I hoped I’d be able to keep a promise to myself to avoid early morning adventures during vacations! Thus ended Day 5.

  • Filipinotes – Day 4

    continued from Days 1, 2, 3..

    For the first time during the vacation, the morning dawned like one! We’d slept listening to live music and woke up after 9! Though Coco Huts gave a 20% off on breakfast at their Army-Navy restaurant in the premises, we decided to explore a bit. Beach facing options were the focus, and we found Cafe del Mar a hundred metres down. D, as usual, managed to pick up an awesome Chef’s special omelette while I got more standard fare! Couldn’t complain though, especially given the awesome view and a bill of 540 pesos. The table number was 21. #youremember We’d been told that since the heater in the room hadn’t been fixed, they’d be shifting us to the family room. They did that soon as we got back from breakfast. This one was spread across 2 levels (and a mezzanine one in between)  and could accommodate about 6 people! We were requested to use only the lower floor and the balcony. Fair request. Like all rooms, this one too was all wood, and had a verandah facing the beach.

    We hadn’t made any specific plans for Boracay in terms of what are called ‘activities’. The only planning we did was figuring out the places to eat at! D Mall featured a lot in our research, and on our way the previous night we’d seen it on the road and thought it was a bit away. But on the beach, it seemed much nearer. It’s just off the beach and the first horizontally spread out mall I’d seen. 🙂 As if the eating options on the beach weren’t enough, this one had many as well, along with shopping options! But D had one destination in mind – Jonah’s Milkshakes, and she claimed to have seen it on the road the previous night. After getting on to the road we ambled a bit before realising that we should probably ask someone. Turned out that it was right after the spot where we’d been dropped the previous night! My turn to look at D accusingly! Our mango and mango-pineapple shakes were delivered in bottles, and proved to be a task to finish, though it was good! We shopped a bit, seeing Gandhi in the strangest of places, and a restaurant called The Hobbit House (turned out that they had one in Manila as well) where they employed midgets as servers, before dropping the stuff at the room and heading out for lunch.

    A Thai option was available in the form of Saneh Thai, where we planned a light lunch of Tom Kha soup and a Chicken Satay (because nothing else was available) I also asked for a ‘Rhum Coke’, (not a spelling error) perfect for a balmy afternoon. Cost us 850 pesos. After another round of trinket shopping, we thought we’d explore the area a bit more. We went further along the beachfront (to the left of our hotel) and marked options for future meals. One of the places that did give that was the Coco Cafe, where we had some nice coffee and great WiFi for 305 pesos. 😉

    Once we got back to the hotel, I also found spots that gave me access to their internet, which had proved elusive the day before. After a brief rest, we got out to catch the sunset. Turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever seen. There were boys doing sand art, and when we clicked pics, they politely asked for money. 🙂

    After some more sunset clicking, we walked to the ‘right side’ of our hotel and were almost deceived that we were at one end. But we could proceed along the beach and discovered there was a quieter area with restaurants beyond. Again, we mistakenly thought this would be Station 2 or 3. Boracay has 3 Stations – 1,2,3 in descending order of ‘happening’ quotient. 🙂 Our hotel was at Station 1 and it turned out that this quieter area was actually an extension of 1. Tito’s, a stone’s throw away from our hotel, where we hadn’t been able to get a table the previous night, was kinder at 7.30 and Absinthe, and Sisig were consumed, along with some great music. Some tummy space had been reserved because we wanted to try out the Mati Chocolate Sin at Zuzuni, right next to our hotel, a dish recommended across the web! The day before we had reached the place pretty late and they had claimed they were about to shut shop. The dish turned out to be quite good (chocolate usually is!) and together, the dinner cost us 980 pesos. I quite cheaply hung around just outside Coco Cafe, and browsed the web even as D browsed fish stalls!

    Back in the room, live music could still be heard, and I slept in the comfort that the next day could be another late start! Thus ended Day 4.