We awoke to a phone call alerting us that breakfast was ready and were we interested in coming down. Groggily, I answered, “we’d be right there”. Slap on some clothes, brush the teeth, comb the hair and presto, brekkies presentable.
The breakfast buffet was quite lovely. On one side of the buffet table were western delights, such as fruit, cereal, oatmeal, etc., and on the other side were lovely Indian treats. The usual idly, various rice dishes, chutneys, and ubiquitous sambar. Oh how I am missing sambar as of this writing. There were also some lentil dishes. The lentil machne (sorry for spelling) was absolutely devine. It was a spicy concoction of lentils, vegetables, and spicy base. It was made with the black lentils, which gave it a dark brown color. The texture, for me, was wonderful. Thick, but not too, chewy, but not too, and spicy, but not too. Delicious. I fell in love with it. Never yet getting an equal to this one. There was another lentil dish, more closely related to dhal, it was tasty, but my heart was drawn to the other.
We were asked if we wanted omelets, which we said yes to. We just as easily should have said no, as the meal was quite filling, and the omelet really put it over the top. We rounded out the breakfast with copious amounts of milk coffee, which was not presweetened, thankfully!
Retiring to the room, we needed to figure out a) what we were going to do, and b) how were we going to catch the bus back to Madurai. We decided to walk over to Croakers Walk and see where that led us before choosing another activity. We stopped at reception on our way out and Bill inquired if they could help us contact the tour “director” and ask where our pick up would be the next day, and at what time. My anxiety was already worrying about the logistics.
We headed up the hill to Croakers Walk. This is a cliff side walkway overlooking the valley and mountains around Kodaikanal.
The walkway has been paved and has been in use for a very long time. There was a modest entrance fee and there were many stands selling either food items or souvenirs. At the end of the path, you were unceremoniously dumped out onto a road way. A coin toss had us going to the right and we came upon this entrance into a church.
We did not enter the church yard, but kept going along the road way. The greenery was quite beautiful. All around there were these lovely Daturas and various shrubbery getting ready to bloom.
We decided to take a look at Bryant Park that were off to our left. Again, there was a modest entrance fee and in we went. The gardens spilled down from the hillside to the lake. At this moment, we did not know that. We walked along the high path and descended into a middle pathway which led to a green house. We went in, careful to obey the signs to not touch anything, nor to take photos. The touching I got, but missed why we shouldn’t take photos of what looked like the set up for a botanic garden pot sale.
We found the water garden, which was currently not in bloom fully, just a few odd water lilies getting ready to bloom. The water looked a bit murky and of questionable quality. On exiting the gardens, we saw a bird that was probing the ground looking for some food. Its head resembled a woodpecker, but its beak was more like a sandpiper, but it had beautiful plumage. The garden’s exit deposited you at a midway of sorts. Stands selling winter outerwear, as there were young women in sarees shivering and buying outerwear seemed like a sensible thing to do. As the midway wound down, there was a section given over to pony rides. We quickly exited that as the smell was overwhelming for me.
It was a beautiful day, so around the lake was our “structure” at that moment. It is about 4-5 km around the lake. It was a very pleasant walk, there were people out paddle boating and enjoying their time in the country. Along the way we noticed quite a few trees had fallen over into the lake. Judging from their roots it had happened fairly recently. I couldn’t tell if they were dead, or the ground had gotten too soft and they toppled for lack of support.
Corn over the open fire before rubbing it all over with a lime half that was stored in a tub of slat and chile. The husks were saved as a serving dish. It was delicious, not the sweetest corn in the world, actually kind of starchy, but very tasty.
We continued our trek around the lake back to the hotel. It was a beautiful afternoon for the walk. Clear, warm, and relatively quiet. Just the occasional motor scooter or cow ambling by.
On returning to the hotel, we found the bar and settled in with our books until dinner time, just enjoying the amenities at the hotel. Bill went off to explore the convention tent and I stayed and read. When Bill returned, one of the gentlemen sitting at an adjacent table struct up a conversation with us as it seemed to him we were happily married and he wanted to know the secret. Bill, good soul that he is, responded. This was not a great place to be giving marital advice. As they chatted, it became clear that this guy was having marital problems and was asking (sort of) for the key to our marriage. He had been drinking the whole time we were in the bar with his buddies, who had abandoned him at this point. it became clear to Bill that this was a nonending conversation, and he started to try to wrap it up. We realized that if we did not leave the bar, we were going to be stuck with him the rest of the night. At this point, he has tears streaming down his face and it nursing a whisky. We exited and went back to our room. Bill stopped at the front desk for something, and I was overlooking the lounge area when I noticed the barman escorting our “friend” out of the bar. We retired to our room until dinner time.
I ordered the lentil machne hoping for a similar experience from brekkies, but sadly, it was not as delicious. It was good, but not “faboo”. Bill ordered chicken stroganoff and we ended the meal with some carrot halvah and rice pudding, both so sweet it was difficult to eat, but we persevered until our teeth itched.
Off to bed.
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