Back on the road, our driver headed south along the coast, known as the Coromandel Coast (among others). He recommended a place a generous half-hour south of Chennai, and we were very much "whatever - food and a toilet would be good".
Their choice was a place called Ideal Resorts just north of Mamallapurum, a western tourist oriented beach front resort. Toilets (western, clean) provided relief, and gave me a chance to put my contact lenses in.
The resort restaurant was spacious covered area, with ceiling fans. (When asked where we wanted to sit, I said somewhere with fans, so they turned all the nearby ones up full once we were seated.) Lunch was from an a la carte menu, and arrived in a leisurely fashion, but was truly delicious.
Between the six of us, we ordered four vegetable dishes and five mains and some rice. All were magnificent, and the boys particularly really enjoyed it too.
Beer is cheap, and comes in large bottles (650ml), and JD and G had that. K and I had fresh lime soda - freshly squeezed lime juice, soda water, and sugar syrup supplied separately for you to combine to your preference - cooling, delicious, and not overly sweet. Just perfect!
Banyan Tours (our tour organiser) shouted us lunch as recompense for the delay earlier, which was unnecessary, but appreciated. As Dad (G) said, they're now square.
After lunch, we had a very quick wander around, down to the beach (beautiful, and the water was warm, perhaps mid-20s),
and then on the way back to the van, we made the mistake of entering a shop while waiting for G to catch us up.
I came away with a beautiful, if rather expensive, turquoise silk-wool pashmina, with hand-embroidered paisleys on it. (I'll photograph it soon)
Their choice was a place called Ideal Resorts just north of Mamallapurum, a western tourist oriented beach front resort. Toilets (western, clean) provided relief, and gave me a chance to put my contact lenses in.
The resort restaurant was spacious covered area, with ceiling fans. (When asked where we wanted to sit, I said somewhere with fans, so they turned all the nearby ones up full once we were seated.) Lunch was from an a la carte menu, and arrived in a leisurely fashion, but was truly delicious.
Between the six of us, we ordered four vegetable dishes and five mains and some rice. All were magnificent, and the boys particularly really enjoyed it too.
Beer is cheap, and comes in large bottles (650ml), and JD and G had that. K and I had fresh lime soda - freshly squeezed lime juice, soda water, and sugar syrup supplied separately for you to combine to your preference - cooling, delicious, and not overly sweet. Just perfect!
Banyan Tours (our tour organiser) shouted us lunch as recompense for the delay earlier, which was unnecessary, but appreciated. As Dad (G) said, they're now square.
After lunch, we had a very quick wander around, down to the beach (beautiful, and the water was warm, perhaps mid-20s),
and then on the way back to the van, we made the mistake of entering a shop while waiting for G to catch us up.
I came away with a beautiful, if rather expensive, turquoise silk-wool pashmina, with hand-embroidered paisleys on it. (I'll photograph it soon)
Oooh. I'd love to see the pashmina photo
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