Chennai to IBR

 

Pulling out from Mumbai airport.  We were flying Vistara Airlines. I had never heard of it before. It wa a nearly empty plane.

The Vistara magazine had an article about Kodaikanal and Mahabaleshwar (a different Mahab)

Once we got above the clouds, we got to enjoy the sunrise. 

Masala omlet with a potato cake.

Remember this butter?

The flight was uneventful and we even got to Chennai a little early.  Add another 1 hour and 20 minutes to our actual flight time. Making it 19 hours and 35 minutes flight time.

Chennai airport, women's restroom

We were met by the driver of the Radisson shuttle. Note his sign.

The Radisson was very close. It was also very fancy.

We picked up a few things from the complimentary breakfast buffet to have for our lunch.  They wanted us to load up our plate and then let them carry the plate up for us. They were not happy when we refused.  

The room is also way too complicated for me.  It was a challenge just to figure out how to turn out the lights and close the drapes so we could take a little nap. 

The shower was amazing.  Water comes from everywhere.   But it was a challenge to get the temperature right.  The toilet seat starts warming up when you sit on it and there were about 5 settings.  I did not study the settings.  

Our complimentary lunch.

George managed to take a little nap.  I will just try to go to bed early tonight. We ate our lunch.  Our driver arrived at noon to take us to the Ideal Beach Resort (IBR) in Mahabalipuram.  What a wild ride.  Riding on the "wrong" side of the road, lanes are just a suggestion, and horns are a required form of communication, It was about an 1 1/2 hour drive south of Chennai.  Ros had arranged with Mr Thayalan's company to give us all rides from our various locations to the IBR.  

When we arrived we were right behind Shanta, Vivian, Paul H and Rebecca (all classmates).  Paul Z and Janet (his wife) and Don and Carla (his wife) were already here.  George has met all of them before except for Rebecca.  Rebecca has done most of the planning for our get together.  She has done an amazing job.  We will meet others of the class later.  We checked in but the rooms were not quite ready so we went to lunch. George and  I just had pop. By the time lunch was done, our rooms were ready.  We are in #34.  

We are on the second floor and we have a little balcony.

Lots of crows.

Rebecca (our Rebecca) flew in on the 1st with her daughter, Marry and 3 of Marry's friends (Ashish, Guru & Sultan).  They are staying in a different hotel.  They got here around 5:30 pm.  

Paul Z and Paul H

Rebecca, Don & Vivian

Ashish, Guru, Sultan, Mary and Rebecca

We wandered around mostly on the beach.

Line of fishing boats

The Indian Ocean water is warm like the Atlantic.

Practicing the zoom on my camera.  I need to work on holding the camera steady. 

Nice pool

Sultan, George, Guru, Ashish, Marry, and Rebecca

Irani Tikka Panneer is what I ordered.  But we had a lot of other dishes that we shared.

Fun decoratively cut up onion on top of the Sultan's biryani.  There was a lot of food.

My class ended out sitting at a table close.  I would go over periodically to visit. 

Shanta, Vivian, me, Rebecca, Paul H, Janet, Paul Z, Don, and Carla

Rebecca and her gang got an uber back to their hotel

Now I am ready for bed. A little wine and blogging first

It is an Indian Sangiovese from the Nashek Valley in Maharashtra near Mahabaleshwar.  It is ok.  Smoky and a little on the sweet side but drinkable.