Feeling One With the Road

I was pleasantly happy, at my first Road Trip with my new car. I plan to do more of these trips around Chennai. There are so many beautiful sights to see in the roadside villages, the mountains, the lakes and the lovely greenery all around. I've earlier done a road trip to Mahabalipuram twice, but this trip to Tirupati was nice. Mahabalipuram, feels like an extension of Chennai, so it doesnt really add to a Road-Trip experience. I have a few holidays coming around April. May plan for another road trip. It also helps, that my wife can drive on the highway, so I dont feel too tired also.

Mahalo Folks!

I just had an awesome time in Maui(part of the Hawaiin Islands in the Pacific Ocean). Its the perfect unspoilt paradise, that thankfully has not yet been affected by large scale commercialisation. This trip has opened up new vistas for me to travel on road, which I have never done in India. I have largely used public transport to get around places, but have never ventured out in my car. In Hawaii, I decided to rent a Buick car, and went around Hana and Haleakala, driving at speeds over 100 km/hour. It was the trip of a lifetime and the best part was the sunset last evening at Makena, along with the sun-down drum party, that welcomed the sunset. With 200 odd people, waiting for the sundet and celebrating it, it was a lovely moment as the sun descended down.

I am guilty of not posting much, but I plan to include a brief summary of the 8 weeks that I have been here in the United States, capturing some of the travel titbits that I have learnt.

Yet to recover from the Hawaiin holiday mood. A weekend trip to Hawaii is like a orgasm gettinig nipped in the foreplay. Nevertherless, I plan to visit it once again later this year, and for a bigger time period. Till then Mahalo, folks from Hawaii(Mahalo means Thank You)

Random Trip- Nellore

I headed to the central railway station at 2 30 pm, and met my friend Madhan, who consented to my idea of travelling to some random place, without any expectation from the trip. We approached a guy in the line, and asked him to buy us a ticket, to some place, at a value of 150 rs. It was not the greatest of sales pitches, and needless to say, the guy stared at us as if he saw Hizbul Mujahideen in me. This happened with 4 more people.

Finally Madhan was able to speak to one passenger who was in the line, who didnt suspect us, but was still confused as to what we wanted. We lowered our pitch to this " Hi, Can You buy us a ticket to where you are going? Dont tell us where you are going? Just buy us the ticket, tell us the cash involved and the platform number in which we need to board the train. It helps if you could ask the time, as you could potentially board the wrong train on the right platform and could get caught for ticketless travel.

The person buying the ticket, can buy tickets for us only 1 physical ticket, so we were tagged to go along, wherever he went. We couldnt get down, randomly in between. As soon as we boarded the train(and I tried my best not to look at the train name/number), My eyes fell on the words Yercaud, in the name board next to our compartment. Once I was in, I heard people speaking, and to avoid their rattle, I switched on my ear plugs and gazed at people around me in the compartment, observing every sinew of their anger, joy and dissapointment. Some preferred to bask their sorrows along the window of the compartment, while seemed to dream "Mera Number Kab Ayega", as the train slowly chugged off Chennai Central.

In between, we had some samosas, which had a generous overdose of oil on it, and was waiting to get converted into cholestrol :-). I also spotted a man with a glaring green colour dress, which confirmed my suspicion that were travelling in the direction of Andhra Pradesh. One of the advantages of travelling from Chennnai is that 3-5 hours in any direction, you would be in a different state(Kerala/Karnataka/Andhra Pradesh) having a totally different linguistic culture. So it didnt take us long to see that we were heading towards Gummudipoondi, and Andhra Pradesh it was.

Madhan and I had a blissful hourlong nap, which was amidst the crowded train, which had 23 people occupying a potential 8 seats(if you came in the reserved compartment). The train journey was beautiful in the un reserved compartment, with the conversations with fellow strangers. One guy had a xerox shop in Adayar, one was a student looking for a job, one was a husband deprived of sex(he , one was a young man going home for his holiday from Pondicherry and many more such stories, that one gets to hear aimlessly, when travelling with strangers. Not that one cant get this in a reserved compartment, but with a little comfort comes aloofness, and I have often observed that in the AC Compartments, people are very snobbish and all they care is about sleeping and charging their mobiles.

This compartment was crowded to the brim, and people had to talk with each other or stare out of the window, with the lovely evening breeze to pass time. This is the beauty of either un reserved or second class travel, where you can easily socialise with people, than in a comfort driven train. No bloated ego's to protect or no image to hide. You can just be yourself, without the fear of having to transform yourself into a snob!

When the train halted at Nayudupeta, I wanted to get down at the quaint station, and explore the village for a couple of hours, but since our ticket was tagged to the guy who bought it, and he showed no signs of getting down, we couldnt get down. If we did, it would be a case of ticketless travel, and its easier getting caught at smaller railway stations. Naydupeta holds special memories for my family as my mother and I were stranded at this railway station in 1985/86 for three days, due to a bridge collapsing amidst heavy rains. So for memories sake, I took a picture to show my mother the station.

When the train neared Nellore, we saw a huge mass of people getting up, and fighting their way to the door. Our man, Srinivas, was also in the crowd, so we too prepared to get down and chase the guy for our ticket, which he gave us once we got down on the platform.

Madhan and I decided to explore town, and have some thing very central to the Andhra Pradesh palate. We went to a hotel called Simhapuri and ordered some hot-spicy starters. I wanted to have the typical Andhra meals, but since Simhapuri didnt serve Andhra meals, we had to get local information and move on to Komala Vilas, which we heard serves the best Andhra meals at a reasonable rate.

I generally never have powdered rice, but i guess, I was very hungry that night, so I gobbled the powdered rice, along with Ghee and had a sumptous meal. We walked back to the railway station, and bought a ticket to Chennai. We were told, our next options were the Dhanbad Allepey express at 11 20 pm, and the Howrah Mail, which would go to Chennai. If we missed either of these trains, we had to wait for the trains from the national capital, which reached Nellore well past 3 am. The Dhanbad-Allepey express was very crowded, and I didnt have the mood to get in and reach Chennai at an untimely 3 am. Nevertherless, we were enjoying our conversations on the bench seat, under the moonlight, watching the numerous goods trains that slowly chugged past us.

The Howrah mail came, and the unreserved compartment was again crowded, so in the limited 2 minutes we had, we ran to the other end of the train and found that most of the compartment doors were locked, except for 1 sleeper compartment. We waited near the toilet, until the TTR came, and we requested him for any berths that may be free. He gave us a couple of berths after the train reached Gudur. The next 3 hours, I had no idea, how it went. I slept like a log and woke up to people and porters noisily bargaining.

The trip wasnt over just yet. My friend Madhan suggested we go to the Eliots beach and sit there near the sea, to watch the sunrise. We reached the beach at about 4 20 am, and were there till 5 30 am, after which Madhan discovered that he lost his bike key on the beach(through a hole in his kurta). We couldnt do much about it, and at 5 45 am, there was no bike mechanic, one could go to. Madhan decided to head home and sleep a while, before waking up and finding a mechanic. I took a share-auto from the beach to the Indira Nagar railway station, and just as I imagined, Sunday meant lesser frequency of trains. It was 6 0 3 am, and the next train was scheduled to arrive at 6 32 am, so I waited by walking across the tracks uptil perungudi, and then walked back to Thiruvanmiyur railway station, where the train arrived.

Short but nice trip! but the real spirit of random travel happens when you decide to get in some random train and get out at some random station. To do that, you need a pre-paid ticket card/pass thats valid for a certain number of days. Foreigners have this provision of an Indrail pass, which allowes them travel across the country for a certain class for a period of 90 days. I need to check if such a provision is available for Indians, in our own land :-)

Images from the Trip

Bags queing up, before the passengers come in!

Mera Number Kab Ayega?

Zindagi Kaisi Hain Paheli Haaye?

Bought a Chinese Pencil as a gift for my wife

My Ticket to Nellore!

Food Rates at Komala Vilas- Authentic Andhra Meals

We were here!



Train Gazing in the moonlight, past Midnight- Lovely!

Nayudupeta- Photo taken for memories!

Nandi Hills- Awesome Destination for a Quick and Dirty Trip

I had been last week to Nandi Hills with my fiance. The place seems excellent for a short weekend getaway. We were there only for a part of the day, but ideally its a nice place to stay. There are 2 hotels to stay. One being Mayura Pine Guest House and the other being the horticultural bungalow in the hill. I am not too sure about the rates, but I guess it wont exceed Rs 500 a day. Its ideal to go there in the monsoons when the mist makes it lovely to wander around the park.

The only turn off there are monkeys who would scare you to death, by holding you at gun point and ordering you to give any food material you have. You should be careful, in not having a light bag, as the monkeys know to pick your bags. The monkey tried my bag, but thankfully it was very heavy due to my disorganised packing.

The place is lovely for long walks in the woods, and is commutable by public transport from Bangalore. Its 2-3 hours by road and its advisable to take the State Transport buses directly or go to Chikbalapur and then go to Nandi Hills.(Majestic Bus Terminus), as it gets difficult to drive a Car/Bike in the mist on curvy mountainous terrain.

We had our brunch and Linner at Mayura and it was a fairly inexpensive place, with basic food items being cooked. Lunch doesnt have too much of a menu, as they make what people consume the most. Roti Dal/Rice wins hands down. For people looking at Alcohol, Mayura also serves alcohol, which to me appeared strange as all through the journey, i saw signs saying Nandi hills has prohibited consumption of alcohol.

It also forms a good weekend break from Chennai, if you are tired of trips to Ooty, Pondy, Mahabs and Kutralam.

Thailand Trip- Part 2

Thailand Trip- Part 2, continued from Part 1


We checked into TP Watergate hotel, in the area called Pratunya. This part of Bangkok near the famous sky scraper of the BMW tower, seemed like one of the bylanes of old Kolkata. After we settled into ablutions, I decided to cut my hair, as I couldn’t do it in Chennai, due to being busy with a lot of other stuff. It came at a princely cost of 100 Bahts (150 rs). I slept off, while the barber started cutting my hair, and got up and saw that my hair was cut to a basic satisfactory level( It is rumoured by my mother over time, that if my hair level goes beyond a cut off, i am more vulnerable to catch cold and fever. Sounds Crappy, but its always worked on me).
Along with the TP Watergate hotel stay (3 star and 4000 bahts a night), we also got a guided tour for a couple of hours in a limousine, with a Thai Chick. She showed us around some of the historical places from the cool confines of the vehicle, and for a few locations, we got down and saw the golden Buddha and the Wat Pho temple. Learnt from her that every king in Thailand over time was called Rama and the current king’s portrait/poster was splashed on every thing commercial in the city.




We even encouraged her to sing some Thai music to her, and she started singing something that had the words ‘phuk’ , coming very often. We later realised that somewhere in the Thai lingo, very inadvertently ‘phuk’ forms a part of their dictionary. It was a little tough understanding her English, and sometimes sign language and presumptions, was our only way to prevent irritation of not understanding. In return I sung "Kabhi Kabhi" in Hindi to give a glimpse of Indian music. Shyam and Jyothi, exchanged glances and thought..some one was flirting excessively.

After our mini excursion, we were lulled into visiting a gem exhibition, which we window shopped and were also directed to a travel agent who was quoting very high fares for planning our trip. She mistook us for tourists, but we travellers decided that the best way to plan, was to head to an internet centre and do our own research.

We had rough visions on what to do. One was visit Maya Bay in Phi Phi, where portions of my cult movie ‘THE BEACH’ was shot. The other vision was to laze around for a couple of days, gazing at blue-green waters, and get east to Samui islands and Koh Tao. Having heard of Nok Air and other budget carriers we worked out a rough schedule which was an all beach schedule. We had to drop off the northern Chiang Mai(Hills) plan because of lack of time. This is what we planned from 3 hours of research from 5 pm-8 pm in the nice net center that charged us only 20 bahts an hour.

Bangkok Hotel- Don Meaung Airport (400 Bahts) Taxi (Day 2)
Don Meang Airport- Phuket Airport- Flight for 3 passengers-5100 bahts(day 2)
Phuket Airport- Phuket Town/ Patong Beach- 400 Bahts (day 2)
Hotel Budget for night stay for 3 nights- Not more than 2500 bahts ( day 2,3,4)
Things to do for the next 3 days at Phuket- Lets go there and plan!

Day 2
We got up late at 10 am, and checked out by 11 am, and decided to reach the airport early enough for our 13 40 flight. This was a different airport (Don Meaung) from the one we reached on day 1(Suvarnabhumi Airport).

At the airport, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were asked by bag attendants/airport staff on what had we planned in Phuket, and when we said we hadn’t planned, we were politely directed to the travel desk, where a lady was showing us various options to stay, while showing us a huge enlarged map of phuket.
Over the course of the conversations, I discovered that there a few islands west of Phuket, around Similan islands, where a lot of honeymooners go. The tourists invariably end up staying in Patong, enjoy the night life, head to the planned phi-phi tour, go bungee jumping, elephant-back tour, snake park and of course head to the go-go bars all around.

The backpackers would have done this

Wait for public transport or shared Tuk Tuks from the Airport to Phuket Town(south east), where accomadation is backpacker friendly and is quiet laidback from the commercialisation of Patong(west). Get on a boat to Phi-Phi, cut on prices by offering to sit on the top of the boat, and get on islands not in the tourist radar!




What did we do? Having taken the taxi to Patong, we decided to be tourists partly by getting a hotel in patong, and booking a trip to James Bond island, Phi Phi islands and Kata Beach. We tried the local night life, by going to bars red in colour and made the most of an offer that gave 2 Breezers for 100 bahts. You have women/men staring at you, trying to seduct you and the best thing you should do is stare back at them and escape as soon as you are done with your drink. ‘Never out stay your welcome as a guest’ was the lines from ‘THE BEACH’that I remembered then, and went to Patong beach at about midnight to taste the local flavour of 30 Baht Pancakes which are similar to our dosas/light Parattha and come with various flavours of cheese, banana, gnutella and strawberry and chocolate linings.



Earlier in the evening, we had gone to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. I quite forgot what we had, but I remember a lot of cheese and nice green vegetables. We sat in a nice beach facing setting in the open air initially, but due to threat of rain, our Thai turned Mexican waitress asked us to have it inside the restaurant.

Day 3-

Shyam and I got up early, and decided to head to the beach at 6 am to have our bath. No challenge in doing that as the beach is as flat as the cricket pitches in India, with no/little waves to topple you over. After our session in the water and a long discussion on marriage relationships and our pre CAT/GMAT life, we decided to head back to the hotel at 7 15, to catch the 7 45 am van that was to take us to Phuket Town. Shyam and I decided against bathing again in order to save time, while Jyothi was getting ready. Shyam had used some time last night to go to the local supermarket (I guess it was called 7/11) and buy some bread and Jam, which we used for breakfast.

Shyam and I sat at the breakfast table laid out at the hotel, when we spotted to Ladyboys ( men who have had a sex change operation to become women for earning money through sexual services) in a gearless bike . They stopped the bike near our hotel and came near us saying “Masschage....” and shyam vehemently drove them away by shouting “No” 3-4 times. One of the ladyboys got scared and went away towards the other fat firang who was sitting to our right. The other ladyboy also went in the same direction and came near me and started to keep her hands on me, to which I resisted and tried to get away by placing my elbow in an effort to drive her, but she was quick and clever, and managed to find the purse in my backpocket and slid her hand, without me realising. I realised it when she went away and I found my pocket empty, and she was struggling to start her bike. By the time, I ran and lunged for her bike, she was gone-speeding on the bike. I ran and shouted for help and people around me didn’t understand English, so I danced to show in sign language pointing to my bum and show the ladyboy who was speeding away.(My actions must have looked like Kamal Hasan in Moondram Pirai/Sadma).

A policeman saw my predicament and offered me a ride, and he was doing well in chasing the ladyboy when he suddenly turned right. I asked him why, and he mumbo jumboed something which I couldn’t understand, and did a U turn to Patong beach and I was furous and shouted at the policeman and he stopped near the end of the beach, and another policeman asked me ‘what u want’. The policeman who took me said ‘ u want police’?. I said I wanted him to chase the robber to which he said “ u first tell police, we then chase robber’. I felt the whole world collapse around me, as I expected the police to catch the ladyboy over a hot chase and recover my purse. 2500 Bahts, 700 rupees, My business contacts and visiting cards, My 2 Credit Cards , My Debit Cards and my driving Licence, all gone... and the police now wanted to know where it happened.


So i directed him to my room at Add Mansion, and there my friend Jyothi asked me to quckly call up home and let them block my cards. I did that at 100 bahts a minute, and I realised I had spent 3000 rs in trying to block my cards, as HSBC and CITIBANK would not allowe me to say what I want and would irritate me with ads running upto 45 seconds and coming twice or thrice in a call.
I was listening to ads of insurance and money services paying 150 rs a minute and cursing HSBC and CITIBANK as I patiently gave all the details. The most irritating detail was the HSBC folks asking me to read out my card number, when I had lost my card, and asking me questions on the exact value of the last transaction down to the last paise for their verification. I could not remember most of the details of my cards, especially when the bus to Phi Phi islands is holding a gun to my head, waiting for the three of us.



Since the Ph Phi tour was booked, we decided to go ahead with the tour. The bus had to pick up some one else also, so Shyam asked me to go to the police station, while the bus would pick up the other passengers and come to town via the police station at Patong.
Enroute to the police station, the other ladyboy and I were on the open convertible police van, and she was saying “ why u complain, now me pay money, u pay money to police. My time waste, ur time waste”. She meant she was losing business and I was missing out on a nice holiday. As soon as we entered the polce station, she was sent to a mini jail, where some drunk prostitutes were there with a couple of policemen, while I was directed to another room, and asked to wait in a corner. 5 minutes became 10 and 10 minutes became 15, there was no response from any of the police officers who were busy examining a bunch of papers and talking Thai. None of them understood English. I was patiently waiting for them, to call me and rewinding the whole incident in an infinite loop.

The Rest of the Story continues in Part 3.

Pictures


Checking out the book stall at the Don Meuang Airport, Bangkok...while waiting for the Nok-Air Flight to Phuket.


The place every TOURIST visits, the Golden and Sleeping Buddha.

Some tall structure that is helping me hone my photography skills. Bangkok



At the Temple of Wat Pho! Shyam, Jyothi and your's truly (L-R)

Checking out at TP Watergate Hotel, Bangkok

Need a Break!

Its been 4-5 months since I wrote regularly on my blog. After Twitter came, its made me more lazy and all I care is just to update on Twitter and Facebook. I need to get back to documenting a lot more of my thoughts. When I look back to the years 2002-2009, its a wonderful way of documenting all thoughts/and going back in time to see how life. My time spent on the internet and social applications has been less, and the Mumbaikar life has made me attach the biggest priority to sleep and holidaying.

Have come to Chennai this weekend, for a temple trip to Rameswaram. I suddenly feel , life in the last 1 year, has been fast and I need to catch up on a lot of things, just idle away time like the good old times. Hoping that this trip would go in some direction towards it. My dream would be to go on a laid back hedonistic trip around the world, to recoup from the stress of work, but again right now, nothing seems concrete. I just need a break. Lets hope Rameswaram is the first of those.

Weekend Trip-Part 4- Vengurla to Arambol-Keri

At the Sweet Water Lake on the Goan Coast.

GOA??? Wasnt I in Maharashtra during sunset? After we discovered at around 5 30 pm, that food might be a problem at Vengurla, We decided to explore the next beach, so a state transport bus from Vengurla market, took us to a town called Shiroda, and from Shiroda we reached Terekhol(border of Maharashtra). We took an evening(make that twilight) ferry and reached the other side, and had no other option but to take a taxi to civilisation-Arambol

Damage- 400 Rs

Next, we settled into German Bakery(Damage- 300 Rs), a room good enough just to park your electronic luggage. We then headed out for a dinner at "21 Coconuts Inn' for a candle lit dinner, which was briefly interrupted by the romantic tele-prescence of Vinay's boss. By the time we finished, both of us were tired, and we hit the sack by about 12 am, after a brief walk through the arambol market, hunting for medicenes(for my headache).

Next morning, we were up by 5 30 am, and I had a bath in the arabian sea, while I waited for Vinay to get ready. We started to cross arambol and came to the Sweet Water Lake beach. The sweet water lake was dry and it wasnt worth taking a dip there.

We saw a couple of nice portable boats cum tents. Looks like the Russians are all over(Little Zizou ishtyle). Only the Russians can be that adventurous, and after day dreaming about what a beautiful life those people must be having, and bitching about Indian corporate life, we set on to climb a huge hill, to reach Keri

While we were trekking, Vinay decided to take rest at a huge rock, and dozed of for a while, while gazing at the blue sky. It was a lovely feeling, dozing off and then waking up to the blue sky above as vision comes after a period of darkness. Try it some day!

The mountain had a bunch of bushes and thorns that we had to make way through to reach the other part of the mountain. Vinay, then decided that we follow the footsteps of the dogs that were rambling, as they knew the terrain much better than us. Better to rely on dogs than our mutiliated intelligence(thanks to the Corporate world).

Paradise Regained! Thats the view of Kerim beach- More coming in Part 5!

Weekend Trip- Part 3- Vengurla

Birdwatching on the Beach


Found a quiet abandoned hut of a fisherman. Invaded it for siesta purposes


Loved it so much that, Vinay and I were in the shade of the hut from mid-day to sunset on conversations around how evil corporate life is, and normal bickering that fresh B school passouts do in their quest of operating in an utopian scenario.

We had trudge through a jungle in the afternoon searching for people who could serve us lunch. Civilisation is not what strikes you when you hit Vengurla. So the price you pay for virginity in a location is the lack of civilisation for organising food.

Weekend Trip- Part 1- Mumbai to Sawantwadi

There has always been this romance associated with unreserved and unplanned travel in trems of meeting new people, understanding their life story, and exploring lands already explored by well known travellers.. I set off on this trip alone, after office on last friday. At 7 15 pm, I decided to call it a day and head to Dadar Railway station for buying a 'unreserved' ticket from Dadar to Pernem. Now the best train to catch, to head to the konkan coast, would be Train number 6335, from the outskirts of Mumbai. When buying unreserved tickets in Mumbai, for travel north or south, the best place to buy it would be at the bigger railway terminuses like Dadar/VT/Bombay Central/Bandra Terminus/Borivali/Panvel. I tried buyinga a ticket from Lower Parel, but that is seemingly not possible and if you do head to the Dadar, you need to get it only from the counter on Dadar East.

Dadar-Pernem- 137 rs

Now after purchasing my tickets and realising that the 10 pm train at Panvel was a better option than the Konkan Kanya express, I decided to head to Mani's lunch home at Matunga and explore the combo that keeps every Tam guy worth existing- Ghee roast and filter coffee. After a short tiffen, I managed to find a taxi to Wadala Road station and took the local train to Panvel, which eased and ambled to Panvel by 9 30 pm, with the crowd being 1/1000th of what it was when I bullied people to head butt my way at Wadala road.

Once at Panvel, I removed the heavy bag I was carrying and allowed my shoulders to be free. The last 2 day's work out sessions had obviously made every sinew of my shoulder writhe in pain. I was feeling weak all of a sudden, whether I would have the energy to last the night braving the crowd in the unreserved compartment. But Today was Gudi Padwa, Maharashtrian new year, so every Mumbaikar was at home celebrating with family and if he was a travel freak, he would have left on Thursday night and not on Friday night, when I was leaving.

Just when my shoulders were groaning, I came across a short, dark man who seemed to be glancing into reams of paper. I guessed, he must be the TTE, and went and asked him if there was a possibility of getting a reserved seat. Today was my day, and given that quite a few states celebrated new year on Friday, nobody was competing with me on the train to Sawantwadi. The TTE charged me 200 rs extra for accomadating me in a middle berth, for me to lay me shoulders to rest.

Fine to the TTE- 200 Rs

I must have woken up every half an hour after 2 30 am, and finally decided to get up at 5 am, as the train was scheduled to arrive at Sawantwadi at 5 15 am. With everyone sleeping in the compartment, I couldnt rely on 'wisdom of the crowds' to get off, so I decided to take the plaunge of connecting the mobile phone GPS on my N-81, on Roaming(this combo guzzles the charge on your mobile). I was still a few kilometres from my destination, and so I decided to abandon my 2 foot space of the middle birth and stand at the footboard, allowing the morning chill winds to hit my face. After staring aimlessly at darkness, I saw that next to the toilet, there was a charging point and decided to charge my mobile phone. My friend Vinay, was to pick me up at the station. He had arrived the previous night after a sales visit to central Maharashtra. Vinay had brought an auto along and we drove to Sawantwadi town, which was 9 km's from the station. I hear that there is only 1 hotel near the sawant wadi railway station, and if you are caught up at the station, there's atleast a paid home to go to unlike stations in Goa( Pernem/Thivim/Karmali/Cancona).

We had breakfast in an udupi hotel, where the sun's rays had just pierced in at around 7 15 am. We tried to ask the hotel proprietor for breakfast at 6 20 am, but he was least interested in serving us, as words like 'customer', 'dhandha' are alien terms in this slowmoving,bovine and peaceful town.


Its not that you have too many options within a few minutes of the hotel opening. Whatever we asked for resulted in 3 items being suggested/reccomended. Upma,Sheera and Poha. We were in a mood for any thing, as long as it facilitated bowel movement and gave us a pleasant taste to make us feel good, while we saunter around the town.

The plate on the left is mine, which has Sheera(Yellow sweet) and Upma. Vinay is seen having Poha, which has become his favourite dish after he relocated to Mumbai.

The town reminded me of the faint little town of Malgudi, which had a sense of calm written all over it.

People are early to rise and discuss news with other people in the promenade of the lake.

For more updates, watch part 2 of the Blog, to be published soon

Promises!

Sometimes boredom doesnt quite hit you, if you have enough activites to keep yourself busy. Right now, I have quite a few travel books to complete. My Book list is as follows

1) Holy Cow
2) Ladies Coupe
3) Vagabonding

I hear tommorow is holi, and we get a day off at work. I, being a south indian have never experienced holi festival until last year, when at GL, my classmates caught hold of me, changed my face colour, put me in the coloured gutter water and tore my shirt. That was one crazy revelry and I hear in Mumbai, its all the more severe. It will be good to experience it.

Goa- Trip Part 3

On 25th Morning, we went about hunting for Dolphins around Palolem. The boat guys will always point in a direction opposite to what you are seeing and say "dekho dolphin". We did see a couple of them jumping a mile away, but it's not like free willy, where you play with whales and dolphins. Its a nice trip on the boat, to get better views of the smaller islands around. Dont go expecting to see a dolphin.

Nischal decided to perch himself on the highest point on the beach to spot dolphins. All he did were to spot skimpily clad firangs swimming near the coast. Still his eyes wouldnt complain, would they?

Our Cottage, room number 17, on Bridges and Tunnels ( A hotel in Palolem Beach, on the hill) turned out to be a vantage point for seeing nature at its best. Right below as we opened the doors of our balcony, we could see women in various stages of nudity,trying to soak up the sun, and also the lovely bluish waters of the coulumb bay. If this was our view to the west, see the picture below to see our view to the east


That was the panoramic view of Palolem Beach, dotted with coconut trees and bamboo huts

On My Own Trip!

After watching "THE BEACH", I somehow felt that aimless travel had a supporter in me. I would love to escape to some place thats not found by many, and just aimlessly laze around there. Will I be able to find my Utopia? Someday when the project is in a stable state and the folks above me are not greedy enough to launch more products, I just want to take off, on my own trip.

I have always felt, trips should never be too organised, it should be impulse driven and aimless and should be the mind's way of connecting with the culture of the land that I go to. It shouldnt be about booking an accomadation before starting. I have started doing that in most of my trips when I am not with a very 'safe' minded person.

a) Did a impromptu trip last october, when I felt bored of my classmates during my Internship in Bangalore. Did a quick trip to the Majestic bus stand and took the first bus that was empty and going anywhere north. It turned out to be Gokarna, and the bus had too many holes, so I was dripping wet, with the only set of clothes that I had.

b) Did another impromptu trip to Goa, November 17/18/19 last year, when I felt like travelling by unreserved all the way from Chennai.My friend joined me a day later from Chennai. I did that to celebrate the fact that I got a D Minus, as against F grade, in Prof Venkat's subject, last year. When you are competing to fight for grades that are in various levels of failure(, D, D- and F), even a D Minus seems like a war dance.

c) Another impromptu trip happened in February, after placement season, when I went with two friends to Goa again.

d) 4 days before convocation, another impromptu trip to Havelock Island(Andamans)

But most of my places that I had visited are run of the mill places, so my next impromptu trip, would need a little more planning and research on the web, to search for the unfamiliar.

Some of the places that are part of my bucketlist are

1) Europe- Greece to Spain
2) Russia to China on the Trans-Siberian express
3) Thailand, in the lesser explored regions(that Lonely Planet Thailand advises me)
4) Borneo, for some adventure like Ananconda 2
5) South America- For some Amazonian adventure
6) Need to read more of Lonely Planet to complete this list!

I will finish this post with some of the best scenes from T H E B E A C H.

Goa Trip over the Weekend-Divar Island, Old Goa

This trip was my first trip around part of Goa which is east of Panjim into Old Goa. 5th Visit in 27 months, sure does prove how crazy I am about visiting this place. I am too tired to guide picture by picture, but am willing to provide my thoughts on the place and some travel tips around Divar Island in my next post. Till then enjoy my pictures

Basic Facts

Old Goa has 2 islands around it, namely Chorao and Divar. Divar island is home to 1 big resort called Devaaya Ayurveda Resort, where we stayed for a couple of nights. It is suprisingly home to 36 bars within that small area of an island. It seems those bars compete on prices so fiercely, that they offer lower rates for alcohol than other parts of Goa. I found this out during a random enquiry on cheaper hotels in that area. To answer more specific questions on cheaper alcohol and rooms in Divar Island, please contact Augustine Fernandez, who is the proprietor of Step Inn Bar and Restaurant at 9881889348.

Pro's- Very peaceful place, ideal for lazy morning and evening walks.

Con's- The place is cut off from the mainland in case the connecting ferry has some problem, and ferry service exists only between 6 am and 12 am. Not many options for a comfortable housing apart from Devayaa resorts(Approx per pax per night). But if you are game for some rough shack like acco, you can search around the place or contact Augustine Fernandez( number given above in this post).

Madipakkam to Maximum City!

Madipakkam(chn) to Maximum city(Mumb) has been quite an ordeal already. I arrived an hour late yesterday afternoon, and to my dismay some passenger mistook his blue bag for my large suitcase and sped off. I was waiting for a long time near the conveyor belt for that seemingly elusive blue bag suitcase, but it never turned up. All my clothes were in that suitcase and it felt painful to think that someone had flicked that within minutes of arricval in Mumbai. My friend Akshob, on the phone made matters worse by laughing at the incident and likening me to “Tenali Raman in Big Bad Mumbai”. Go air immediately assured me that it was a case of swap as one more blue bag was not collected. I just hoped it was a swap, and waited for the go air staff at the airport to get in touch with the other passenger who’s swapped luggage. They did some research on their database and found that the number registered was a wrong cell number! Way to go......!!!

They found that the ticket was booked through Makemytrip and the passengers address was also not mentioned, only the makemytrip office address was mentioned. Then they called up the MMT office and some good Samaritan there, gave the correct contact number. I was smiling after a confused look for the best part of half hour after the plane landed. The smile didn’t last long... the phone was switched off. The Go-Air Team assured me that the luggage would be found in a couple of hours. I decided instead of waiting here, I shall rather make my way to office. I step out of the airport and tens of taxi trivers crowded me as if I was a celebrity and asked me where did I want to go. Parel was the place, and the numbers they started to quote was “Just 400, Just 600”. I just wondered, the taxi fare they were quoting was 6 times my basic fare from Mumbai-Chennai on Go Air. Finally found a Fiat Taxi who swore by the meter. I was advised 150-200 as the range, but you see, when you are a new traveller , statistics makes way to push the range to 300-350. Geez... these guys could give the Chennai Auto walas a run for their money. I generally hate commuting by Taxis in any place for that matter, but since I had luggage and I couldn’t dream of getting into that confusing Mumbai network of trains with my paraphernalia, I went for the taxi.

I arrived at the office, signed a few papers, forms, had a nice lunch, and as I was belching away my suitcase worries, A call comes from Go-Air that my baggage has been found and restored at the office. Now going at peak time to take the bag, meant again planning. Peak time in MUMBAI is between 5 pm and 10 pm when an overwhelming number of people cram their way into highly overcrowded trains as if their life depended on it. The roads are already occupied with bumper-bumper traffic for those who couldn’t make it to the trains. So how else to do you reach the airport? I was feeling weak and defeated in Mumbai J, and decided to retire to the company guest house at Wadala, via another taxi. I reached Wadala and did what I do beat tension, SLEEP in peace, until a call from my classmate Dwaipayan woke me up. It was almost 7 then, and at 7 30 pm, I asked my guesthouse cook for directions, and he saw that I was confused and decided to offer his services for help. He decided to accompany me to the airport. The seriousness of his advise, looked as if he was planning a strategic attack for war commandos to sneak and snake through Mumbai traffic. Frankly, travelling in Mumbai needs some real planning, as it makes the difference between a fume and a cheer. From Wadala East-Near Imax, I took a taxi to the wadala road station, which cost me 40 rs and from there I bought 2 return tickets to Andheri( don’t ask why. I was advised by my cook). The ticket had it written that this ticket is usable till Monday morning, which was so nice considering the mind of a weekend traveller. Wow that’s some customer service! As I stood on the station, a train seemed to come written 7 57 B on it, but my cook advised my against travelling in it as it would stop at Bandra, which meant I would need to get down from the harbour line and cross over to the western line which would be very crowded and unwise to attempt. He asked me to wait for the Andheri local, which would come as that meant that the train would make a natural progression from the harbour line to the western line, without having to board another train till Ville Parle.


Ville Parle arrived... and we took an auto from there to the airport. Just as Bollywood would show an estranged mother meeting her son, I ran into the airport into the wrong terminal and found a guard who seemed from the North East(High Cheek bones). I started in Hindi , pointing my hand at an imaginary counter, that my bag was swapped at a Go air Conveyor belt and I needed to go inside. He only looked in more seriousness at me without opening his mouth. I thought he didn’t understand hindi, and started to speak broken hindi with a gap between each syllable, so that he got an rough import of what I wanted. Basically I went on a SLOW mode, as people from the East of India, have a morbid fascination for talking very fast and finishing the sentence even as they begin speaking(sample Prakritish Buragohain spelt at neck break speed -Pogdees bugwen). He finally opened his mouth saying “pls speak in English”. Sheesh! Was my Hindi bad or he didn’t understand hindi. I was confused and shaken aback. I narrated the whole thing, and he said, that I was bluffing. I was flabbergasted and proceeded to show the tickets and baggage receipt, when he said that he thought I was bluffing as I pointed my hand towards a counter, and that particular building had only Kingfisher and Indian flying. He said Go Air would be the next block and not this. Oh man! Why did he engage me in such a long conversation then? I went to the next counter and thankfully the ordeal was over quickly spotting a cute Go Air girl in a Black and Green T shirt. She helped me with the rest of the formalities.

Having the 15 kg luggage in hand, I was fervently hoping for an auto, but no auto driver budged as being in the airport, he expected a minimum savari of 100 rs or atleast 50 rs, not the 10 rs ride to the ville parle station, which would be an opportunity cost of 90 rs for him, if he plied there. Hard Luck, I had to walk with the luggage across the Sahara Hotel to the higway and crossed it to find an auto, who took me to Ville Parle for 10 rs. The rest of the journey was quite uneventful, with me looking at the complex network of trains that Mumbai had, in the display near the door. The trains are pretty well organised and are dot on time here, and people just seem to keep on running...after they get off from a train. The crowd on the trains and the platforms had me in a dizzy. This weekend I will buy a local time table and chart plans for my travel to office. Looks like operations Management has just got a new case study! Figuring out the most optimal way to travel in the Mumbai Trains and BEST buses.

The Goa PhotoBlog-Part 10

Thats our room, as basic as it gets for 500 bucks between three guys. Actually We found it largely satisfying, as our criteria for a room was
a) shack on the beach
b) Decent food
c) Basic rooms with a properly working toilet and a bed that you could rest your back on for a few hours.
d) Room that had decent locks, especially when you have Laptops and Digicams inside
e) Room with a plug point to charge the mobiles and Laptops. Nothing More Nothing less..

This worked like a dream. The food is pretty good here(I am a vegetarian, so options are anyway limited) This is called 21 coconuts inn, nearing the end of Arambol Market and on the beach, near where all the Honda Activa's are parked.

Room with a View! Thats the view outside our grilled windows. A great place to see Goan sunsets!

The place below the restaurant where he had food. Even though it was warm in the afternoon, thanks to some trees in the vicinity, the chill breeze was good enough to bask lazily in the afternoon.

Here I am working hard at my core competency! with music in the ears on a sleepy afternoon in Arambol Beach.

A Year Off?

Check this news. I'd ideally love to take off for sometime before settling into a job. Once I get to know where I would be employed, I would be in a better position to plan my travel. After thumbing through Railway Time tables and Outlook Traveller guides, I had a brief route plan in mind.

Chennai> Renigunta> Vijayawada>Puri>Howrah>Guwahati- explore East by Road. Arunachal Pradesh,Sikkim are some of the places in mind.

then from Howrah>Dhanbad>Gaya> Lalooland(Patna)>Varanasi>Rae Bareilly>Ayodhya>Lucknow>Dehradun>Ambala>Jalandhar>Amritsar>Jammu Tawi -Vaishno Devi Temple and explore Kashmir

Then follow the route through West Rajasthan,Gujarat,Maharashtra,Goa,Kerala Karnataka and back to Chennai.

Seems a long journey with atleast 20+ days required, but it should be fun travelling alone across the length and breadth of India. Atleast If I cant take a year off, I should be able to sneak in 15-20 days of travelling before I join the corporate world back again. Most of the journey should be reserved, especially in the regions of UP,Bihar and MP, which are largely dangerous states to travel in unreserved. It should be great fun updating a travellogue while on the move. Lets see how things pan out!

Goan Odyssey!

B school life is as much about learning theories as much it is about making new friends and Networking. I happened to go on a trip to Goa sometime back, and forgot writing about it. Goa too me seems the ideal place for a student bachelor to find a foreign country at Indian prices. People keep asking me why do I have this morbid prefernce for Goa again and again. I've gone like three times in the last 16 months, from Chennai, and being a Chennaite, the rulebook says that Marina beach, Pondicherry,Mahabalipuram and Ooty should be the places explored. People think Goa is about sex, booze, non veg and immoral behaviour, but if you take a deeper look than the normal impression a Tam Brahm would have, you would see a wonderful Indian state opening up where all you see is a laidback culture which works just the right tonic for a short 2-3 day holiday amidst our rather stresses schedules.

I go to Goa, to yearn for some adventure, that is normally not possible in a sordid state like Tamil Nadu, as the beaches have policemen at night, and they instruct you thats its time for bed, and ask you to push off after 10. Adventure at Night on a Beach? Is that possible...?? Have you ever seen the full moon night casting its mild light silhouted against the blue waves of the ocean at night? Have you ventured into just lying on the ocean floor as the water comes and grazes you? Have you ever entered into an endless conversation over tea, as the wind calms your nerves? Have you ever stared deep into the abyss of the ocean, and felt music in your ears with the sea growling at night with its waves? Have you ever been stranded in a forest near a beach at 2 am, thanks to your bike conking off? These are some questions I ask myself why I go to Goa over the beaches here on the eastern coast. Far too much policing on the eastern coast.

The thing I like about places like Calangute and Baga are the way the whole city seems to come alive after sunset till sunrise. Goa seems to be a collection and a crazy concoction of people all over the world. Goan sunsets on the beaches are some of the most alluring sights to a perfect evening at the sea, for dinner. As soon as I seem to hit Goa, there seems to be something in the air, that presses the "calm" button, as you snake through the roads and the mountains, through colourful goan houses, and even more colourful restaurants on the road. The night drive through the highway from Panjim to Arambol via Calangute is probably the best that I have experienced. I have quite a lot of pictures to share from my previous two tours of Goa, that havent found its way to the Blog. Right now a little dissapointed with the loss of my 6030 Nokia Mobile... thats the 4th mobile lost in 6 years. Sometimes bad luck hits you when you dont really need it(Who needs bad luck anyways! ? ).

The blog had lesser posts due to some pre occupation at college. Now I hope to be a little free with lesser classes spread. Keep plugged on for a detailed Goan travellogue on what to see and what to miss.

I Just Want to FLY

This Paragliding was apparently done at a place on the Goa-Maharashtra Border. I so much feel like going and flying like a bird over the mountains and the Arabian sea.

Back to the Railway Times

What made last year memorable was the train journeys that I had travelled, during the course of the year. Two train journeys that stand out, were the trips made with office, when I was at Sulekha.com. The whole office, or most of whom I knew, travelled for an official trip once and a marriage the next. These 2 trips helped me socialise and get to know persons very well. Given that most of the people were in the 20-28 bracket, it was asy to relate to the crowd. The travelling folks were in one sense simple, that they had not seen much of the outside world, and viewing their world and being a part of their conversations brought together some fond memories.

We visited Ooty in April for a company trip (about 60-70 folks), and a small 1 day trip to a village near Trichy for an employees wedding, and oh....I forgot to include another wedding for which we didnt take leave but still travelled together on the train. This was to Tirutani, when we took the evening 16 30 passenger train to Tirupati. Those memories were great, and I get another chance to re live them partially.( as most of the employees who came on the earlier trips are now joining me in the ex-sulekha gang going to the next wedding trip)

This is happening on the 26th of August, and I have booked myself a journey to Namakkal with four of my friends at Sulekha(now all of us are ex-suleka nevertherless), and look forward to one of those lovely all-night-shout-talk-bitch-2nd class rail journey. Thats one big respite I will have from the course at Great Lakes, which is getting hectic by the term.

Back to College Days?

One of the best things about the memories of college life was the freedom to try out many things and constantly stay connected with friends, going out together, having fun talking with each other day in and day out.That kind of networking is hardly possible while working, as your mind constantly keeps chaperoning you to get back to the work table to keep peering into the 15 inch monitor to code for a living. I do still manage a trip or 2 in a year with my college mates, and just to get that extra rustic and adventurous feel of college life, I make sure we travel in 2nd class sleeper and have one unreserved leg of the journey, that makes us rewind back to the good times back then, when each of us had limited cash. Now making these trips seems slightly difficult as every body becomes busy in spurts, and can never predict the possibility of taking prior leave. Most of my college friends, are in that part of the career graph that takes off, and off course in an average Indian in the IT Industry, the Onsite trips are the manna from heaven that most slog for. The last time, I contacted the guys for a trip was in September when we wee to hit Goa during New Year. Out of the initial 18, only 6 turned up.The others were hardly even thinking of making a trip, as a few more hours and a few more days of work, was what they were betting on to make the appraissal presentation better.

I dont blame them, but it's true that the bonhomie of college relationship becomes loose as one moves on in life. I happened to chance across this picture on my friends orkut profile. I miss those simple days of engineering, when meeting each other was a priority. This picture was taken 8 months after passing out, in our first major outing after college life at Munnar.

The 12 who made it to the trip, are now in different phases of life

L.G.Ganesh- Comfortably settled at Honeywell Bangalore and waiting to get married to his classmate Bhavna. The Munnar trip was the last time, I spent hours chatting with him. Life has changed after that. Today its a rarity, if he picks up your call, and even rarer he calls back.I do speak to him, once or twice in a year, but the spontaneity of college days are gone.

B.K.Sudhir- In TCS Chicago. Worked here for 15 hours a day to go onsite and ends up working even more there. He has settled with a new Toyota Camry, and is getting used to the Chicago culture. He is the only guy, who accepts that work sucks and he is in to all this becuase of a certain economic family requirement.

Vinu Shankar- Started with a job in Goa (Indian Molasses Corporation) and found it too boring and ended up in CTS, and after a couple of projects and benchdom, is thinking of exploring the entrepreunerial route. Vinu... is one of those folks who has time for life. Vinu is more of a orthodox guy, who still has that childish way of speaking and playing the jester.

Dinesh Mallemala- After HCL and a start up, now in TCS. Just settled into a tough project. He underwent hell for the past few years and has managed to comeout unscathed.

Santosh- Initially unlucky to have not got a job within a few months but proved his mettle with EDS and is again busy most of the times. Though he says he is game for a tour, havent seen him for a tour after 2005 Munnar, though have met him during our sunday triplicane treats.

Achut- Life for him is all about playing Mottamadi cricket at Triplicane on sundays and slogging out the next 6 days at Infosys. A dedicated worker who suprisingly has changed, as he gets around organizing tours, that ultimately never happen. He is working all the more hard in Pune now, trying to go abroad for what he calls a "paid holiday".

Hari- After he made it to Verizon, a couple of months after this photo, he has hardly been seen. He complains that work sucks and life sucks, but which IT worker doesnt complain :-) ? Life is all about Java and Dot Net and I havent seen him in ages.

Prasad- Slogged hard at CTS, and got an Onsite trip for his rewards. He is slowly settling into his job at New Jersey,constantly believing that his project will stabilise and he will one day get the time to do sightseeing in the US.

Prasana Kumar- I guess, he is one of the more organised guys in the batch. He earns pretty well, and has gone on to buying a house. His hobby is to code on Sundays at office, but a pretty open guy, who has not changed much from college. I remember just calling him for a lunch, for a meet up at Egmore and the guy turned up immideately.Guy with great attitude...but just that work keeps him too busy.

Anand- The guy is one of the most lazist souls I have met. He will think twice to walk across his street, but is open to biking a 100 km's a day to code. One of the most brilliant technical guys in my batch and HCL too has invested a lot of faith in his abilities. Amidst work, Anand has managed to come for most of the outstation trips from college days and after college.

So thats about most of the guys....we hardly get time to meet. The memories of college days are like the scent of sweet aroma while travel.It doesnt last too long and my bet is that unless we guys meet up, this aroma is going to evaporate into thin air. Right now, most of us are in diferent work locations and once we are into marriage, the probable time, once can spend with friends significantly comes down.

I have probably lost one chunk of college life memories, because of certain friends who are lackadaisical, but not this time around. Now life in a college at an MBA, wil hopefully bring back sweeter memories a few years down the line and will not be evaporated, as an MBA is all about networking.

So ask yourself, when was the last time you spent TIME with close friends for a week, just as it was in college days, and not a couple of days over a close by weekend destination?