We had to check out of our hotel by 5:30 am as that was the 48 hours since check in. This, strangely, worked out just fine for us. We had to catch the tour bus to Kodaikanal at 7 am. So not a hardship.
We packed up our backpacks and headed over to the New College Inn Hotel to pick up our bus. My expectation was a comfy ac’d Cruiser. Imagine my surprise when this broken down old 21 seater shows up and we are shuttled on to it. I’m thinking, “Oh, we’re off to pick up the real bus somewhere.” No, this was the bus. We meandered around some of the streets picking up additional passengers before arriving back at our original boarding place to pick up the last passenger at 8:30 am.
Off we went to go up the mountains in this rickety thing. Our driver asked us all for 50 rupees additional and we paid it, but the last passenger picked up was a bit balky at an additional fee. One of the Indian passengers explained it was “tip” for driver. Our driver did not speak English, except for the names of the various sights we were seeing. The “Dum Dum” Falls, which from the vantage point was neither a falls or did it go dum-dum as the driver was able to explain, was how it got its name.
Somewhere behind us is dum dum falls
Note the monkey in the tree
As we drove higher into the mountains, we were seeing more and more monkeys. I think they are macacs, but I am not sure.
We next hit another “nature park”, with another small water fall known as “Silver Falls”.
We made a third stop at a nature area before being left at the side of a road with vague hand motions of how to get to our hotel.
We walked around the long way to the Carlton Hotel. This was a splash out of a place. A king’s ransom by Indian standards, but quite reasonable by American standards.
This was the view from our room, over looking Kodai Lake. We ate lunch in the hotel, which I must say was excellent. The Hotel is very old school Raj style. There are people all over the place ready, willing, and able to provide some service. We were seated in the Silver Oak dining room and given menus. Mary, our faithful server, was there to help us. I had ordered some rice and another dish which escapes me right now, and she asked, “gravy?”, I said of course, and she then said, “what kind?” I asked what was her favorite and I got the head wobble, and she disappeared. What came out was this fabulous chicken dish. I asked what it was, and it was butter chicken. So different from any butter chicken I have ever had before. Spicy, creamy, flavorful, not overly heavy. perfect over rice. Bill ordered a palak dish that was quite good as well. We had tons of papadum and beer. Life is good.
We retired to the room and sat on the balcony to read and watch the paddle boats on the lake. After dark we decided to explore the “village” of Kodaikanal and see if there was somewhere to get dinner. We walked up the hill and took a left at the top to find “town”. There was really no there there. On one side of the street were shops selling local treats, chocolate, honey, eucalyptus oil, and various other potions. We managed to buy a bar of soap, because you never know if there will be soap, TP, or other necessities provided by the hotel. It changes from place to place. Nothing suited me in terms of going in for a meal so we wandered back to the hotel and had dinner there.
Do I recall what I ate? No, which is unfortunate, because it was quite good. I was quite exhausted because I didn’t get enough sleep worrying about waking up in time for the early check out, so I retired to the room and Bill did his hotel explorations.
I fell asleep and Bill eventually wandered back to the room. Tomorrow is another day!
There was a convention of Otto cotton dealers in the hotel as well. A large outdoor tent/display area. Inside there were areas for vendors to display their goods, and various lines of products. I velt
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