Weekend Getaway
The months of February and March had been a bit difficult for Nazia and me with her having to spend nearly half of these two months in Delhi to attend to the call of duty. She finally got through with it all and returned to Bangalore on 24th of March. The weekend was eagerly awaited as we longed to spend some good time together. Luckily, Friday was off for me thanks to the "Ugadi" festival and Nazia took the day off as well.
We had a lazy start to the long weekend as we went back to sleep right after breakfast at home and I woke up just in time to rush for the Friday Namaz. Nazia gathered some supplies while I was in the prayer and we headed back to have a quick lunch at home and a movie on the DVD. Evening came and I felt like fine dining so we headed out to Restorante Italia on Outer Ring Road. It's a highly recommended restaurant for Italian fare. We had pizza and pasta there -- it was more than we could finish -- and we got back home feeling really sleepy. After a cup of tea each, we felt awake again and started looking for options for the weekend. Half an hour of searching later, we couldn't turn up anything more convincing than Golden Palms Resort & Spa on Tumkur Road. Eagleton Resort on Mysore Road came a close second (saved for another weekend).
The room reservation charges for GP were listed as INR 13,000 for a night on their website and we definitely weren't going to spend that much. We decided to head there anyway and either try for discount room rates (my hunch was that given the tourism slump, this was a likely possibility) or spend the day there and drive back home. Finding out driving directions was left for the next morning as sleep came over and we were off.
Saturday
We woke up Saturday morning at the regular time and wife made nice breakfast while I looked for driving directions. GP has a road map on its website that's completely useless. Yahoo! Maps gave us an approximate idea of the route to take. We had to hit Tumkur Road via St. John's Church Road (I lived there previously). Got the directions on to the cellphone via GMail (the "send to mobile" directions are too short to be useful) and noted the GPS co-ordinates for good measure (again obtained through Y! India Maps).
We left from home around 1130 hrs and getting up to St. John's Church Road was a non-issue. After that I, the navigator, pulled out Maps on wife's Nokia E71. She had been very impressed with Maps and GPS on the E71 while on her 1.5 hr commute from work to home (one way) and vice-versa in Delhi. I was nonchalant about them but I was about to become a convert over the next few minutes. With maps, I could figure out where we were and after a little bit of prompting from Nazia I became comfortable with the application and could chart our course out. The level of detail of those Navteq maps and the accuracy of the GPS is really impressive. If you're able to go about 40km from point A to B in this city without asking anyone and without taking even one wrong turn, it means something. I hardly believed GPS could work in this country!
We reached GP before 1300 hrs and it was good to see its familiar environs once again. I'd been to GP in December 2006 for the Yahoo! Year End Party. We got into the reception and enquired about room rates. Got the same quote of INR 13000 + taxes. So I asked if they were offering some discounts. "How much are you looking at?", the guy at the reception asked. I said we were looking at something in the 6-7k range otherwise we'd just be okay leaving by evening. He pulled out an offer sheet from somewhere that quoted a package for INR 7999 including taxes, which offered a room for one night, free lunch or dinner buffet, free breakfast, 15% discount on Spa packages and a free head/back/foot massage for the couple. There were a couple of day packages too but they weren't all that exciting. So after a little bit of pondering, we decided to go for it!
Golden Palms
In terms of its layout and environment, Golden Palms is good. The rooms are laid out along the periphery of the site, each with a balcony looking out to a splendid garden full of palms or to the large swimming pool -- Asia's largest, as they claim it to be. The room that we got was nicely furnished and well lit. I don't remember checking into a room with a balcony before. We also got a complimentary plate of fruits -- two bananas, an apple, a mango and an apricot. We relaxed, took a shower and did some picture clicking in the balcony before heading out for lunch. I decided to stick with the 35mm f/2 D exclusively, this time. The IQ of this lens is well worth bearing the inconvenience of a prime lens. Nazia complained a bit in the beginning but soon she was happy clicking with the prime as well.
By the time we reached Cafe Solaire, where our lunch buffet was due, it was too late. We ate a la carte -- biryani and keema pav -- and that also settled the choice between taking the lunch buffet or the dinner buffet for free. Lunch was really good, especially the biryani. We took a stroll after that and clicked some pictures before returning to the room. Next up was tea in the balcony while watching the dusk settle on us. The balconies have a North-South orientation, except for the presidential suite, so seeing the sunrise or sunset was out of question. We watched as the lights came up in the gardens and the pool was lit up in emerald.
Saturday Evening
We headed out again for a drink by the pool at "Badsha", the pool-side BBQ. Took some photographs on the way there including the one featured above. While having our iced tea, I took a photo of Nazia with a candle in the foreground and the illuminated pool and other lights in the background. It came out well and she soon figured we could take a shot of us both using the self timer. I was usually reluctant to give the camera to random joes. With the cam precariously propped on a glass still containing ice tea, we took a shot. It came out well, and we went through a few more variations until we got something that looked real nice :-)
Dinner happened after that. The buffet at Cafe Solaire wasn't as delectable as the a la carte stuff we had in the afternoon but it wasn't bad at all. Buffets at hotels are rarely better than that. Some more photography, lounging by the pool and walking through the garden happened before we called it a day. We were aiming for an early morning the next day.
Sunday Morning
We got up around 0730 hrs the next day and were back in Cafe Solaire for breakfast buffet by 0830 hrs. I had cheese omelette with chicken sausages, pancakes and hash browns, and some more chicken sausages while Nazia tried more of the fruits, breads and south indian fare. She had the better breakfast. Next up on the agenda was the spa but before that we had to settle an important issue -- where to watch the debut race of the 2009 F1 racing season! Nazia took charge of it and got our check-out time extended from 1200 hrs to 1330 hrs so that I could watch the race in the hotel room. Don't I just love her? :D We signed up for the spa stuff -- she for a complete ayurvedic massage and sauna, and I for a head and foot massage followed by the sauna. I was done by 1130 hrs, just in time to see the cars go off for the warm-up lap. Nazia was back from her treatment about an hour later.
The race was amazing but I wouldn't talk much about it. Check out f1.gpupdate.net instead ;-)
Return
We checked out at 1330 hrs on Sunday, and the total expense at the resort was less than INR 10200. We drove back to the city and headed for lunch at Bamboo Shoots on Museum Road. Had Thai Red Curry and Steamed Rice, which I really liked and she really didn't like :p All that rice made us feel a little drowsy so we headed to the Barista nearby. There I got a call from home (Delhi) about a missing article and I realised I'd left my cellphone in the hotel room. GP folks called the last number on the call list which happened to be deeksha_mukhi's. She in turn took malcolm_frink's number from teemus and called him while he was in Delhi. Anyhow, we called GP folks back and confirmed they had the phone. We told them we'd come and pick it up right away. We reached there by 1630 hrs again and said the final goodbye to the resort. The drive back home was much more enjoyable as the afternoon sun gave way to a pleasant evening.
We got home and had some nice home made stuff for dinner and called it a weekend. A great weekend, indeed.
We had a lazy start to the long weekend as we went back to sleep right after breakfast at home and I woke up just in time to rush for the Friday Namaz. Nazia gathered some supplies while I was in the prayer and we headed back to have a quick lunch at home and a movie on the DVD. Evening came and I felt like fine dining so we headed out to Restorante Italia on Outer Ring Road. It's a highly recommended restaurant for Italian fare. We had pizza and pasta there -- it was more than we could finish -- and we got back home feeling really sleepy. After a cup of tea each, we felt awake again and started looking for options for the weekend. Half an hour of searching later, we couldn't turn up anything more convincing than Golden Palms Resort & Spa on Tumkur Road. Eagleton Resort on Mysore Road came a close second (saved for another weekend).
The room reservation charges for GP were listed as INR 13,000 for a night on their website and we definitely weren't going to spend that much. We decided to head there anyway and either try for discount room rates (my hunch was that given the tourism slump, this was a likely possibility) or spend the day there and drive back home. Finding out driving directions was left for the next morning as sleep came over and we were off.
Saturday
We woke up Saturday morning at the regular time and wife made nice breakfast while I looked for driving directions. GP has a road map on its website that's completely useless. Yahoo! Maps gave us an approximate idea of the route to take. We had to hit Tumkur Road via St. John's Church Road (I lived there previously). Got the directions on to the cellphone via GMail (the "send to mobile" directions are too short to be useful) and noted the GPS co-ordinates for good measure (again obtained through Y! India Maps).
We left from home around 1130 hrs and getting up to St. John's Church Road was a non-issue. After that I, the navigator, pulled out Maps on wife's Nokia E71. She had been very impressed with Maps and GPS on the E71 while on her 1.5 hr commute from work to home (one way) and vice-versa in Delhi. I was nonchalant about them but I was about to become a convert over the next few minutes. With maps, I could figure out where we were and after a little bit of prompting from Nazia I became comfortable with the application and could chart our course out. The level of detail of those Navteq maps and the accuracy of the GPS is really impressive. If you're able to go about 40km from point A to B in this city without asking anyone and without taking even one wrong turn, it means something. I hardly believed GPS could work in this country!
We reached GP before 1300 hrs and it was good to see its familiar environs once again. I'd been to GP in December 2006 for the Yahoo! Year End Party. We got into the reception and enquired about room rates. Got the same quote of INR 13000 + taxes. So I asked if they were offering some discounts. "How much are you looking at?", the guy at the reception asked. I said we were looking at something in the 6-7k range otherwise we'd just be okay leaving by evening. He pulled out an offer sheet from somewhere that quoted a package for INR 7999 including taxes, which offered a room for one night, free lunch or dinner buffet, free breakfast, 15% discount on Spa packages and a free head/back/foot massage for the couple. There were a couple of day packages too but they weren't all that exciting. So after a little bit of pondering, we decided to go for it!
Golden Palms
In terms of its layout and environment, Golden Palms is good. The rooms are laid out along the periphery of the site, each with a balcony looking out to a splendid garden full of palms or to the large swimming pool -- Asia's largest, as they claim it to be. The room that we got was nicely furnished and well lit. I don't remember checking into a room with a balcony before. We also got a complimentary plate of fruits -- two bananas, an apple, a mango and an apricot. We relaxed, took a shower and did some picture clicking in the balcony before heading out for lunch. I decided to stick with the 35mm f/2 D exclusively, this time. The IQ of this lens is well worth bearing the inconvenience of a prime lens. Nazia complained a bit in the beginning but soon she was happy clicking with the prime as well.
By the time we reached Cafe Solaire, where our lunch buffet was due, it was too late. We ate a la carte -- biryani and keema pav -- and that also settled the choice between taking the lunch buffet or the dinner buffet for free. Lunch was really good, especially the biryani. We took a stroll after that and clicked some pictures before returning to the room. Next up was tea in the balcony while watching the dusk settle on us. The balconies have a North-South orientation, except for the presidential suite, so seeing the sunrise or sunset was out of question. We watched as the lights came up in the gardens and the pool was lit up in emerald.
Saturday Evening
We headed out again for a drink by the pool at "Badsha", the pool-side BBQ. Took some photographs on the way there including the one featured above. While having our iced tea, I took a photo of Nazia with a candle in the foreground and the illuminated pool and other lights in the background. It came out well and she soon figured we could take a shot of us both using the self timer. I was usually reluctant to give the camera to random joes. With the cam precariously propped on a glass still containing ice tea, we took a shot. It came out well, and we went through a few more variations until we got something that looked real nice :-)
Dinner happened after that. The buffet at Cafe Solaire wasn't as delectable as the a la carte stuff we had in the afternoon but it wasn't bad at all. Buffets at hotels are rarely better than that. Some more photography, lounging by the pool and walking through the garden happened before we called it a day. We were aiming for an early morning the next day.
Sunday Morning
We got up around 0730 hrs the next day and were back in Cafe Solaire for breakfast buffet by 0830 hrs. I had cheese omelette with chicken sausages, pancakes and hash browns, and some more chicken sausages while Nazia tried more of the fruits, breads and south indian fare. She had the better breakfast. Next up on the agenda was the spa but before that we had to settle an important issue -- where to watch the debut race of the 2009 F1 racing season! Nazia took charge of it and got our check-out time extended from 1200 hrs to 1330 hrs so that I could watch the race in the hotel room. Don't I just love her? :D We signed up for the spa stuff -- she for a complete ayurvedic massage and sauna, and I for a head and foot massage followed by the sauna. I was done by 1130 hrs, just in time to see the cars go off for the warm-up lap. Nazia was back from her treatment about an hour later.
The race was amazing but I wouldn't talk much about it. Check out f1.gpupdate.net instead ;-)
Return
We checked out at 1330 hrs on Sunday, and the total expense at the resort was less than INR 10200. We drove back to the city and headed for lunch at Bamboo Shoots on Museum Road. Had Thai Red Curry and Steamed Rice, which I really liked and she really didn't like :p All that rice made us feel a little drowsy so we headed to the Barista nearby. There I got a call from home (Delhi) about a missing article and I realised I'd left my cellphone in the hotel room. GP folks called the last number on the call list which happened to be deeksha_mukhi's. She in turn took malcolm_frink's number from teemus and called him while he was in Delhi. Anyhow, we called GP folks back and confirmed they had the phone. We told them we'd come and pick it up right away. We reached there by 1630 hrs again and said the final goodbye to the resort. The drive back home was much more enjoyable as the afternoon sun gave way to a pleasant evening.
We got home and had some nice home made stuff for dinner and called it a weekend. A great weekend, indeed.