After 2 days in Nandi hills we went to Bangalore city. The Mister was clear he was least interested in monument hopping so I planned to show him the gardens instead but that did not go as per plan. Well atleast we drove through Cubbon park.
On the first day, friends decided to catch up for dinner as I was in BLR after 3 yrs. They treated me to a wonderful dinner at Farzi Cafe, UB city. I found my new love Karela calamari. The food was lipsmacking and the company warm and comforting.
The second day I decided to go for darshan to Shree Brahmachaitanya Mandir, after which we met family friends and Gurubandhus. Parimala aunty and Chetan took us to lunch at a new place in their neighborhood of J P Nagar. A lovely Punjabi meal at Asha sweets followed. She blessed me with gifts as I was visiting her first time after marriage with the mister. I missed Ashwath Narayan uncle a lot.
The evening too was spent with another dear friend, S dinning at Sodawaterbottleopenerwala, the Parsi-Irani outpost at Lavelle road. Husband had his fill of Dhansak and Saria, while I gorged on the snacks and made a meal out of it. Mushroom on khari, bun maska and chilli cheese toast with lagan nu achar and was surprised with the fruitified Raspberry! We complimented the chef for the food before we left.
The next day we were to leave for Srirangapattana. While we were at the restaurant the cab guys called and I shared rest of my itinerary with them. He seemed very polite but I had doubts if he was listening. There was a second call amidst din and I knew nothing got across. In the morning the driver called "Madam I am Narsimha, waiting for you outside the airport!"
So there went our plan of our early start of the drive to Srirangapattana. Then Narsimha arrived and right in front of our eyes started loading some other people's bags in the boot of the car. Such was our day. Finally we did leave Ibis city center by 11.30 am. Fortunately after that our simpleton driver turned out to be very good with navigation and driving too.
To tell you about Ibis. We booked it on Booking.com. It gave us the options to pay at the hotel and showed some offer. I was happy with the price which looked like 25% less. On reaching the hotel we were pointed out that the price did not include taxes. I had a hunch, it came true. The reservation had embedded links that gave the actual break up. So we shelled out 28% more and stayed there for the location. I wanted the view of Cubbon Park and proximity to my friend's home so I could meet her. On being shown the room, I was totally disappointed. It was a very tight space with only a moulded semi-circular space for a bathroom. The window had a slice of the view of Cubbon park and Kanteerva Stadium. I decided to be happy with it so not to upset our holiday mood. My husband liked the space though for its modern design or was it their breakfast? To give it to them the breakfast which was included in the package was wonderful and we freaked out on the melt in the mouth idlis kept in a steamer so you got them hottest.
On the way we munched on Shrewsbury biscuits we had packed from Sodawaterbottleopenerwala the previous night and watched the trees and houses fly by.
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