Day 6 - Madurai and Kodai

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Got up and decided to go out for South Indian breakfast. Heather decided to join me since we were discussing about Murugan Idly house the previous night. We heard from our driver Balu that Murugan Idly is only open in the evening. We went to check out Gowsika restaurant which was close to the place we were staying. This place was recommended by Balu's fellow drivers. The restaurant was pretty clean and typical South Indian joint.

We tried Idly, vada, special rava dosa and finished with coffee. The food was good and enjoyable. When we came back rest of the gang was feasting on the Continental breakfast at the hotel. We checked out at 9:00AM and headed out to do some shopping in Reliance food world. While driving I started seeing that we were leaving the city and Balu said that we were heading out to Kodai. I failed to inform Balu that we would like to see Thirumali Naiker Mahal so we turned back and headed straight to the Mahal.

The Mahal was under renovation when we visitied but it still looked awesome. We bribed a guy to take us up the Mahal where we saw some beautiful sights. After the Mahal we headed out to Kodai.

On the way to Kodai we tried some tended coconut but no one really liked it. I ended up finishing up all 3 coconuts that we ordered.

The journey to Kodai was so beautiful with some fantastic valley views. Since the monsoon had started there were so many waterfall on route. We took tons of pictures en route. When we entered Kodai we stopped for some tea and snacks. We headed straight to our private bungalow RANDS. This is a private accommodation that I found online. It had a wonderful valley view in the front and had 3 bedrooms. The had a caretaker who was a wonderful cook and host. We spent 7000RS for the entire house for 2 nights stay. Meal preparation was 500RS for four meals and the groceries were about 900RS. The main house had 2 bedrooms and 1 bedroom was below the main level. We decided to give the lower bedroom to Balu so that he could stay warm.

As soon as we unpacked and settled we asked the caretaker to prepare Dinner for us. She asked for the menu and we decided to have chappati, chicken kurma, rice and rasam. While the dinner was cooking me and Dan went to the town to get some beer and medicines for John's cold.

We decided to open the scotch bottle with few bottles of beer for the night. After a few drinks and chatting we finished the wonderful dinner and went to sleep.

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