Ride to FruitsNBeans Mountain Resort

Location - The Palani Hills range, Periyur, Tamil Nadu, India

Dates - Mid Sept 2020 after lockdown

Finally a ride after being locked in during lock-down.  The place is located a bit less than 500 km from Chennai. 

A group of 6 of us from Chennai went on this ride via Ulundurpet, Trichy, Dindugul.  I was on my Ninja1000 and there was one Afric Twin, one FatBob, one StreetBob and a couple of FatBoys. We were joined by a fellow rider from Bangalore on his Tiger800 and a couple of riders who came by car from Coimbatore and Madurai owing to issues with their mounts.

with our bikes, enroute

The ride itself was a bit different as we planned to carry packed breakfast, as we did not want to stop enroute on account of covid. We started off at 4.45am from Cresent college on GST road and reached the destination by 2.30pm.

waiting for other riders..early start

Roads are awesome and there was no traffic on the way to the resort.  The last 20km past Dindigul are winding and single lane roads with speed breakers.  While the roads itself were well laid, the constant slowing for speed breakers was a pain.  That said the hill/ghat roads were quite picturesque.

green forest around the hills

Reaching the resort the 200 odd meters was too slushy and slippery owing to earlier rains and we had a tough time covering that.  

slip and slide to park

The Resort

Mr.Panidan, a fourth generation owner of the coffee estate on which the resort is situated was waiting to greet us and check us in.  My battery gave up and my bike refused to start while I was trying to park it.  Mr.Pandian immediately arranged for extension cords that would reach a power socket, so that I could charge my battery.

As you enter

Rooms -   The rooms itself are spread over two building blocks adjacent to each other, all on the ground floor level.   The rooms were clean.  The sheets and towels were clean.  Bathrooms were clean but not well lit.  There is a small sit out outside the rooms we were staying in.  The main double bed had a nice mattress and was comfortable.  There were two smaller beds in the rooms we stayed in and the mattresses were not very comfortable.  The cots themselves were not for people over 5'10''.  There are a number of paperback and hardbound novels and literature in the rooms.  The furniture all wooden, supposed to have been made from trees that fell inside the resort.  Some of the wooden chairs weigh a cool 5kg or more.

         the sit-out, just outside the bedroom

the main bed and the smaller additional one

this guy gave us company for 2 days, below the wash basin..quiet chap coming out once in a while...did not disturb us in any way.

Other rooms - The snooker room was above the dining room and had an area where we could gather and have a few drinks.  The snooker table itself was damaged and so were the balls.  The cues had no tips.  The dining room at the ground level is in the first building as you enter the resort.  Could accommodate around 25 to 30 people comfortably.  The dining area includes an outdoor area overlooking the front porch.  

lounge beside the snooker table

Food - the menu is shared in advance and the cooks and the caretaker took care of any special requirements we had.  However, we had to walk upto the kitchen to place any order for room service.  The food was not bad and kept the hungry flock happy.

no dearth of food or good service

Amenities - the only TV is in the dining room.  Telephone signals are poor.  Jio worked in some places at some angles (mostly for calls and sometimes for slow data).  BSNL was supposed to work better.  No wifi was available in the rooms.  Mr.Pandian gave us a phone with jio connection for the 2 days we were there.   

There is a bonfire area near a small artificial pond in the front of the resort.  There is a stream flowing through the resort and the manager accompanies you for a 2-3km walk around the resort in the mornings.

the pond

morning walk

walk around the resort

beside the bonfire

We were joined by Harley riders from Madurai for breakfast on the 2nd day at the resort.  It was a pleasant surprise as they brought tasty halwa from the top sweet shop in Madurai, Prema Vilas for all of us.

On the way back my bike did not start after a fuel break.  Had to push start it.  Thankfully we stopped only after a minimum of 100 km riding, so there was enough juice in the battery for the next cranking of the motor.

We left around 9am after a light breakfast and reached Chennai at around 6pm.

The weather was awesome both on the onward and return legs, given we have only hot, hotter and hottest seasons in Chennai and most of TN.

For more on the resort - http://fruitsnbeans.com/

Travel safe. Maintain social distancing. Wear masks.  

Siv and fellow riders Senthil, Balan (manonmotorcycle.com), Rajesh Venkateshwaran and others.