Phuket!

The much needed break in the final semester! Super hot, got super tired, but beautiful place! Me, Satty, Mukund, Kamal and Raunaq. Enjoyed all of it: bikes, ATV, elephants, boat - all the rides! Here goes the photostory:

                                Langkawi 2016

Booked only ten days in advance, the Langkawi trip didn’t need any concrete plans, most decisions were rather impromptu. Renting a car catered to our laziness as much as it made our schedule flexible. Thanks to Kamal’s phone music collection and Mukund’s awesome portable speakers, our drives were so much fun! While Satty, Kripa and I dictated the playlist, Mukund, Ranjit and Kamal kept swapping seats to satisfy their desires to drive. The video will self-narrate our travel story, I will thus write only about a particular incident that deserves a special mention here.

We all were eagerly looking forward to Kilim Geoforest mangrove tours, it was perhaps the best part of our trip; overwhelming beauty! It was indeed an unforgettable experience for more than one reason. We booked the tour through an agency de Baron, who were associated with the boat company Alif Boats. We got onto the boat which was to tour us around bat cave, fish village, mangroves, eagle spotting area etc.  We were not provided with life jackets, to begin with. The whole tour across different caves and islands was smooth; the boatman was cheerful and friendly.

On our way back in the final leg of the tour, we were moving at a high speed in the middle of Andaman Sea. The boatman sitting at the back of the boat was enjoying the sea view around with no assistant in the front to guide. I was sitting at the front, and saw a stationary boat right in the front, in a direction transverse to ours: 150-200 m away. Realizing the impending crash ahead, and a sudden a burst of flight hormones, we screamed at the top of our voices, out of fright and probably also hoping it would alert our helmsman.

Our careless boatman paying least attention and unable to act on his reflexes, could not steer the boat away in another direction. Fortunately, the guy on the stationary boat heard our screams and moved his boat away and we just got saved from what would have been a disastrous boat crash, with no land in view. We were very disappointed with how irresponsibly our boatman acted, as he still didn't care to look in the front after the accident. The impact with which the crash would have happened, all of us would have been thrown into the middle of the sea with no life jackets. It's scary to even think about those 5 seconds.

Lessons learnt? 1. Insist on life jackets if you aren't provided with one (regardless of the water depth). 2. If there isn't a assistant to guide the helmsman, always stay vigilant and don't take your boatman for granted. Look out for ALIF boats!

The boatman was fortunate to get away without any scathing remarks from our end, and a generous tip (he should have rather been given ‘tips’ for focussing! But feeling morally obligated to share this could-have-been fatal experience, I wrote a tarnishing review on TripAdvisor about ‘Alif Boats’ company. This is for people who look for reviews before booking their tours and can make an informed decision after learning this experience. That apart, the trip was great, so watch the Photostory!

                                                        USA 2015

Welcome to my first Photostory! An attempt to make my travel story by letting the pictures do the job. The task of narrating the story was quite challenging and hard to translate my state of emotion in the tone of my voice. I'd highly appreciate to receive any comments to make my next photostory better and exciting. So plug in your ear phones and hoping my accent in comprehendible to most people. Hope you like it!

Cameron Highlands

Just so that I have it on record, I took my first trip to Malaysia four months ago with a set of crazy friends: Pratik, Sur, Kamal, Dhiren and Lavi! The first trip which hasn’t found a place in my travel blog for such a long time due to various reasons: work, deadlines and interest wanes off soon, does it not? Since the next trip is around the corner, this had to go in just for the sake of it. As it goes, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, this diary is going to be more of pictures because: the beauty of Cameron highlands is inexpressible, neither did we do/see much worth mentioning nor do I remember much of whatever little sightseeing we did.

We visited the tea plantations, which is the most sought after attraction. Though it was as green as it could get, it was incomparable to the beauty of the tea garden we visited in Sri Lanka (Nuwara Eliya). Other places I don't even remember the names, can be seen in the pictures..

Pictures Courtesy: Surabhi, awesome nature captures! Click on the pictures to see an enlarged view.

                                                                                                                                                

                                  Wondrous We-at-Nam!

A year long period of travelling dormancy was broken with a blissful trip to one of the very beautiful countries in South East Asia: Vietnam.  The process of planning the holiday, making itinerary, booking flights and hotels was as exciting and fun as travelling itself. All set, we embarked on our New year escapade from Singapore with a short stopover at Ho Chi Minh city; time spent mostly playing UNO cards and learning basic Vietnamese words and their pronunciations: Thanks to Google Translator! An uneventful flight journey followed after which we reached Da Nang, a widely spread city in the central province, around which we spent the next couple of days. Thoroughly enjoyed the drive from airport in the twilight: broad immaculate roads, having more than 70% people on two wheelers (all helmeted), cycle rickshaws with people on front, hoardings with incomprehensible roman alphabets, starred red communist flags finding place every 10 metres, narrow but long houses with glass frontal, busy decorated roads with people hustling for new year celebrations.. Welcome to We-at-Nam! (US soldiers named it Nam).

Dumping luggage at the hotel, we headed straight to have dinner with veg noodles and salad, rice paper wrapped fried pumpkins (yum!), specially cooked for us vegetarians. We took a walk to the ancient town of Hoi An, brightly lit streets which have preserved French architecture from colonial times, with a tinge of Chinese and Japanese styles. Bountiful shops selling local handicrafts on the riverside were thronged by tourists, with illuminated wooden houses on other side. A boat ride by an old lady happily rowing us across Thu Bon river with colorful floating lanterns was no less than paradise. Lying on the boat on the chilly night with music and buzzing people in the background, shining light reflections on water, staring in the star-less cloudy sky, was so calm and serene. Surabhi and Aninda took a few pictures, it was tricky since it was dark and camera couldn’t capture the beauty that our eyes felt and saw: perfect appetite for Friday night thrills. We strolled through the waterfront watching the amazing blend of ancient tradition and modern music, loud yet peaceful ambience constituted the cultural centre of Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage. It was unique to welcome New Year in a different country, though we were fast asleep when the clock struck 12.

                                    

Sur and I woke up early next morning and quickly got ready only to realize later that we forgot to reset our alarms and were 1 hr ahead of time. Stuffing in the limited veg breakfast available, we were met by our tour guide for central province: Uncle Chin, a cheerful old man with a sound knowledge on Vietnamese history and culture and was as enthusiastic to share stories as much as we were interested to hear. Marble mountains was the first stop of the day, where we first had a look at the marble sculpting process; the statues quite expensive were intricately carved and embellished. There were five mountains representing different elements of universe, but due to time constraints we chose to visit the Thuy (water) mountain which was the largest of all. Having to take a swanky elevator at nature’s best was a put off, but going up gradually revealed a wide expanse of the city. The site being coastal, was overlooking a beautiful beach and offered a panoramic view of the rest four element mountains. It was a tortuous mountain track, several hidden, rocky caves, with Buddhist and Hindu temples and statues conserved in pristine state. The caves had great significance during the war times as the Vietnamese communists would hide in these caves at night. Climbing up the mountain was effort taking, especially with some rains, the uneven terrains and steps become more slippery. Due to this reason, we missed out on some details and Mukund always managed to catch up with Uncle Chin, or rather the reverse. While driving back, we stocked up fruits and bread and listened to Uncle Chin’s stories about Lady Buddha and other related events.

 

We passed through a picturesque countryside on our way to next destination: My Son (Meaning: Beautiful Mountain), last of Hindu temple remnants from Champa kingdom. Stopping by the museum, Uncle Chin briefly explained how people migrated from south of India and constructed temple complexes between 8^th-14^th century in different parts of Vietnam. We moved ahead to the sanctuary, which were bombed during French and American wars and all that remains now is some mahogany coloured bricked constructions in the lushy green land with a faint fragrance of residual Hindusim. Preserving the ruins of centuries old temples, with creepers growing through the untouched shriveled bricks, mutilated idols, were some things that made the heritage so appealing. Interestingly, the shape of each complex outlined the structure of ‘Shiv linga’ and they worshipped full structured Shiva idols, not just the Shiv lings. Most of the Hindus here converted to Islam, saying a goodbye to the only Hindu civilization in Vietnam. On our way back, we paid a short visit to Cham museum which houses some statues and idols, Sanskrit/Pali inscribed stones that survived the war bombings. Marking our attendance at a nearby beach and standing by the waves for a few moments we continued our journey to the Imperial city, Hue through dusk till night.

Being punctual students, we were on time to be received by our energetic Uncle Chin next morning who warned us from being tardy, lest we forgo some important to-visit places. It was long walking through the sprawling decrepit citadel of Nguyen Dynasty, whose monarchy lasted until 1945. The building, altars, library, entertainment theatres designs were typically Chinese, ornated with red-golden designs and the affluence spoke for itself. The then forbidden city where king privately held meetings, Queen’s palace etc were destroyed and several other structures were either being restored or rebuilt. Tankers, airplanes from the wars times were in display outside, visible even while walking through the city roads. Short on time, we took a quick ferry ride to the other bank, everyone was muted and watching the water: it was quite a sedating view. We visited tombs of two emperors from this dynasty built well in advance before their deaths at different locations in proximity. The build, architecture, serene and peaceful surroundings only iterated the beliefs of the wealthy emperors in ‘after life’ and their efforts in reassuring comforts post death. Our historical tour at Hue, filled with truck loads of information and trivia ended here leaving us exhausted and famished. Throughout Surabhi was doing ‘RGgiri’ competing with class topper Mukund, who was undoubtedly Uncle Chin’s pet. Hungry minds devoured the parceled fried rice on way to Da Nang airport, where we parted from our tour guide moving forward to the next leg of our trip: Northern Vietnam.

 

Sur and I carefully listened to class topper’s his-story of Hanoi during the flight journey and watched a beautiful sunset atop snowy clouds. We headed straight to Hanoi railway station after landing for overnight journey to Sa pa, the most awaited part of this trip. Excited walking past the classy coaches, we arrived at the first sitting hard berth coaches (ours), much to our disappointment. Fully booked, seven mins for the train to depart, we made a call to pass this one. It’d have been impossible to spend a whole night sitting on these wooden benches and still be energetic enough to trek the next day. There began the adventure, the first challenge of which was hotel hunting on a freaking Friday night preceding the new year weekend in Vietnam’s capital. Aninda, Dipa ji and Parthiv took care of our luggage, and we went to ten hotels before the posh May De Ville gave a nod. Next challenge was to plan a to-do for the next day which could match levels with the beauty of Sa Pa trek and make us not fret about having missed it. Skimming through the lonely planet guide and internet, we unanimously decided on a day trip next morning to Ninh Binh, the first capital of Vietnam.

Third challenge was finding cheapest quotes from a travel agent for Ninh Binh, and soon enough we were cramped inside a 7 seater car with our short statured tour guide Chiang. The 3 h journey without a break was quite hurtful to spine and joints, although we managed to keep ourselves distracted by singing bollywood songs, on request by Chiang. We visited the tomb of emperors from Ling and Le dynasty, which looked quite inferior to the previous grand tombs. It was amusing to see the kind of offerings for their gods and ancestors at the altars: coke cans, cigarettes, red bull, biscuits etc. We sorely missed Uncle Chin’s narration, as Chiang’s accent was inconceivable with the omission of last syllable of every word (Wi for wife, ee for eat etc). Now comes the best part (thankfully!) of our trip, a mesmerizing boat ride through Tam coc river in pairs of two (Sur and me). Our stylo oarsman was rowing with his legs, which although seemed challenging was quite energy conserving. There were photographers on other boats eager to click our pictures and sell, most of us were indifferent as it was hard to take eyes off the beauty we were witnessing live. The weather was pleasantly perfect, in the almost clear sky, the view of blazing warm sun playing hide and seek among mountains and valleys was just so fascinating. Afar and disconnected from bustling city life, this fantasy world left us speechless, we enjoyed the heavenly view in silence. The sound of cranes, oars pushing the water back rhythmically, quacking ducklings forming a train, chilly air blowing by the cheeks, quiet tourists passing by on other boats, it was so calm and peaceful that time came to a standstill. It smelt damp and felt cold as we passed through limestone caves with plentiful stalactites hanging around. Dusk fell when we turned to go back to our starting point, had goosebumps, both due to freezing air and enchanting view! I felt jolted out of this reverie as the boat took us to the river bank; with cars, buildings, noisy crowd, yeah the real world in sight. Ofcourse we realized Sa Pa didn’t happen for a very good reason. Heading back to Hanoi, we had a rushed up dinner just to be on time for the much recommended water puppet show. The show focused on the rural and cultural life in Vietnam, the aesthetics and techniques were commendable. Post show, we took a short walk around the beautiful Hoan Kiem lake and called it a day.

We started early next day for an agonizingly long bus ride to the most famous touristy spot of Vietnam: Ha Long Bay. The bus seats could be blamed for the uncomfortable journey, there was a short break to stretch legs. A vegetarian table booked for us in the ferry had nondescript lunch waiting for us, it  was gobbled up quickly to enjoy the scenery on ferry deck. The sea was calm and seasick-people friendly, there were huge grottoes resembling animals all around the sea. In a sub-trip, a bamboo boat sailed us around floating village area, which was an absolute rip off. Peripheral ends almost going numb Sun shone to make us feel warmer in the freezing weather. We stopped at one of the limestone caves, climbing upto which we saw humungous stalactites and stalagmites. It was fun interpreting and guessing the different shapes formed like: elephants, broccoli, curtains, human, dead lizard etc. The ambience was fabricated, colourful lights on S&S, tubelights, staircase; though beautiful structures it felt unreal. Way back, lying on the deckchairs I stared into the empty sky; couples around me were enjoying the romantic view of sea, fully grown bushes ornamenting weathered rocks. The view of distant grottoes in the shrouded mist resembled huge pointed ice bergs. Ha Long Bay trip was a mundane repetition and bigger version of Ninh Binh, saturating long, big boat flooded with chattering tourists, commercialized and overly hyped. The much dreaded long journey back to Hanoi was spent playing word games which wrapped up the last day of our trip.

6 friends, 6 days, 6 cities, all 4 capitals, 4/8 UNESCO heritages, history, culture, scenic beauty; what better can an ideal holiday offer? Met wonderful people who went out of their ways to help us, enjoyed sumptuous vegetarian meals and multi course breakfasts, total detachment from real life, spent time playing games, so much travelling and learning; this dreamland was beyond expectations.. Thanks to my fellow traveler friends for making this trip such an enjoyable and memorable one!

Photo Courtesy: Surabhi, Aninda. 

                                   Weekend Holiday at Bintan Villa 

Unable to contain the excitement for the weekend beach holiday, Mrinal, Satty and I spent the most of the Friday evening mix matching and trying almost our entire wardrobes to pick the right pair of clothes and most importantly hats.. Simultaneously on was the task of cooking aloo mutter ki sabzi contributing to the potluck lunch the following day for the ten of us. Confessed Narcissists, posing in front of the camera for ample pictures, at 2 AM we finally called it a day, and thought it was time we start packing our bags, as we had to leave the house in the next 4 hours.

The ferry, privately owned by the Bintan Lagoon Resort sailed through the South China sea, taking us to the resort in about an hour, leaving some of us terribly sea sick and nauseatic towards the end of it. Standing on the deck through the journey, watching the ferry creating a gushing jet of water propelling forward, and singing our favourite songs at the top of our voices, was a perfect kickstart to the fun-filled weekend holiday. At the resort, we were welcomed by a troupe of beautiful ladies clad in traditional attire with garlands and dancing to Indonesian music beats, giving us the feel of a classical Hawaiian Beach Holiday.

After gorging ourselves with lip smacking home-made food at the resort lounge, we timepassed doing some random activities and chit chatting until it was the time to check-in. Much to our delight, Mrinal and Pratik managed to cast a spell and woo the resort HRs to upgrade our accommodation from individual hotel rooms to a palatial four bedroom villa overlooking the beach. Tastefully furnished to a high standard, the two storey villa looked wondrous with a private swimming pool, surrounded by a beautiful garden with deckchairs and with a provision of everything that we could have ever dreamt of. The kitchen was sumptuously well equipped, attached to the living room provided with a big screen TV -loud speakers in front of warmly cushioned sturdy couches. We also had a 24*7 access to an awesome 8 seater battery charged buggy to commute inside the resort on our own and thus enjoyed the liberty to travel long distances effortlessly. On request, the master bedroom was elegantly decorated with rose petals and a chocolate cake, which pleasantly surprised Aninda-Dipanwita who were celebrating their six years of togetherness. 

                                    

Quickly refreshing ourselves, we all took a plunge into the pool which was the start of ultimate water fun, further taking sips of juices and small bites of Pringles at intervals- felt like living an aristocratic royal life with all the services just a phone call away. Saurabh busied himself sincerely teaching the non-swimmers the fundamentals of floating, breathing and swimming, while Ranjit-Pratik-Dhiren were practicing different swim strokes. Aninda- Dipa enjoyed the anniversary special couple swimming. As the dusk was falling, we decided to hit the beach and indulge in muddy wavy fun. Pratik-Saurabh-Satty-Dhiren and I went inside till permitted water levels, trying to stand upright against the strong water currents- singing, screaming and swinging to our favourite danceable numbers, while the others chose to remain on the shore.

  

Meanwhile, Ranjit and Raunaq got acquainted with riding the buggy and explored the whole resort sprawling over 4000 hectares, memorizing the route and important locations to show us around. Ranjit and Raunaq hit off well in this trip owing to their common interests, majorly buggy riding and cricket! The resort was self sufficient with 10+ restaurants, multiple shopping centres and also offered wide variety of options for water sports and other recreational activities for all ages. We ordered dinner from an Indian restaurant, primarily comprising bread and veggies, daal and soft drinks- it was such a homely feeling to dine on the table with the entire family, random discussions and humour filling in the conversations. Post dinner, we sat listening to music on the veranda, mesmerized by the beautiful moonlight trickling down the cloud veiled sky and peacefully enjoyed the pleasant sea breeze. At midnight, we revisited the deserted beach, sauntering along the shore, looking at the sky and counting the finite stars intermittently twinkling, playing hide and seek with the puffy clouds. Back in the villa at three in the morning, tired and lethargic, most of us went horizontal almost immediately, while Mrinal, Pratik, Saurabh and Dhiren being naturally nocturnal creatures sat by the pool chatting for a while more.

Having barely slept in the past two days, I woke up groggy to a pleasant Sunday morning, and strolled along the beach in solitude.. Took the opportunity to do my breathing practices and meditation by the sea - it was blissful with the sound of the sea waves hitting the shore in background. After everyone was awake, we went to the Breakfast buffet, which  comprised of countless assorted delicacies, breads, fruits, juices etc, that even after stuffing our tummies for 1 ½ hrs, we still couldn’t manage to try some of them. The discussions were so full of Pratik-Dhiren’s one liners that we couldn’t resist splitting our sides the entire brunch. Their influence was substantial enough to induce someone like Mrinal to start being punny-funny and play along, after unsuccessful attempts to ignore. Excited by the prospect of not being penalized for my bad jokes, I too exploited the opportunity to spew up all my puns, bad jokes that have been blocked inside me for a long time now, owing to the recent piggy bank rules.

After going bellyful, Raunaq drove the buggy touring us the resort which fanned out over a lushy green area of land, with a couple of golf courses being a part of it. We constantly swapped our positions in the buggy so as to get a complete picture of the area from different angles on the slopy terrain. There was not a moment when people weren’t laughing or making comments, Saurabh joined Pratik-Dhiren in re-repeating the very versatile yet clichéd Andaaz Apna Apna dialogues in different ways and every possible situation, inspite of us girls showing our annoyance. Raunaq clearly enjoyed the absence of his driving contender Ranjit, and sang along with us the exclusive travel and holiday songs..

 

At noon, we finally relented in our itching urge of playing in the pool and took a dive into the cool water. Pratik-Dhiren–Saurabh crouched in the pool with both their palms close to their nose, mimicking a “crocodile” and would slowly come to us and start splashing water until we were out of breath. I mostly stayed on the periphery, but Satty dared to provoke the guys repeatedly by trying to take revenge and always ended up being the victim, gasping for breath. Mrinal joined us later and bravely went to the middle of the pool only to be the next scapegoat. It was a more gender biased game, with us girls being underdogs not knowing to swim or survive in the water.

Dhiren-Saurabh-Ranjit started playing pool games assessing their swimming skills and under the water breathing proficiency, one of which made them go inside the water, one person would scream a word in the water, and others had to guess the word. Pratik taught me a couple of ballroom dance steps and toured me around the pool with I floating like a dead man, and I did the same with Satty and Mrinal. We were so overwhelmed by the company and fun, that we never realized sun’s scorching heat hitting us straight, until we took a shower. Terribly tanned with sun and chlorine water’s cumulative effect, all of us are ruddy faced with burning and peeling skin, so I call this holiday as “Burntan at Bintan”.

 

Lazing in the lounge with everyone doing arbit things, we had a rushed up dinner at an Italian restaurant in the resort. The gracious resort managers arranged a private bus for our group to reach the ferry terminal, leaving us wondering the reason behind all the special treatment and pampering through these two days. Recapping the events, jokes, new witty one liners still continued during the ferry ride, incessantly targeting our kiddo Satty. Saurabh and Aninda revealed their palmist-self, with everyone pushing each other and queuing to show their hands eagerly. We reached Singapore late on Sunday night and we did not stop talking, punning, or laughing through the immigration line, nor did it stop while we all were waiting for cabs to head back home.

The trip couldn’t have happened with a better company or better timing, with everyone super frustrated with their work lives.  Everything still fresh in our memories and talking about it over and again since we returned, this intoxicating trip has given us such a high, that it has just left us craving for more. Looking forward to some taking more such relaxing fun trips. Cheeers guys! 

                                       Serene Lanka

My excitement and thrill awaiting the holiday to Srilanka was boundless, this being my first ever overseas trip with friends. Unsurprisingly, Sri Lanka tops the tourism charts offering a wide variety of visiting places for enthusiastic excursionists.

I refrained from declaring myself a Tamilian, albeit I found the Srilankan locals quite hospitable and affable. Sarees worn by women professionals here differ from the conventional Indian style in a pleasantly unique manner. The cuisine lacked diversity, the fiery food burning its way down the foodpipe discouraged us from venturing much. Of all the facts l encountered about this country during our trip, the one that astonished me the most was the financial security provided by the govt to farmers, tour guides etc in the form of pension schemes- a rare incentive in developing countries.

Our trip kick started with educating sessions at historic places, essentially an insight into inception of Buddhism here, followed by an adventurous hiking and finally we found unwinding ourselves by lazing in the gleaming sun-warmed beaches;  perfectly amalgamating all aspects of an ideal holiday! We were guided by our chauffeur Daminda, a graduate in archaeology, who had a sound knowledge about the country's history, and regaled us with interesting stories; interactions with him made our learning experience much enriching!

Sigiriya- Rock Fortress

The city housing the fortress was a short lived capital of Srilanka in fifth century AD, providing king the requisite defence infrastructure (built with interesting tactics) against adversarial attacks. We saw the remnants of various pleasure activities the king lavishly spent and indulged in – like huge swimming pools for his 500+ wives and keeps to bathe in. Half way up the fortress, a mirror wall was constructed which reflected the frescoes of seducing ladies painted inside the fortress- a sight visible to the king while relaxing in the pleasure gardens.  

The summit of the lion shaped citadel after climbing thousand and odd steps, provided an all embracing view of the entire city. The sweat due to the exhausting trail was blown away by the strong wind currents at the high altitude and the panning scenic beauty.

Dambulla Cave Temple

Situated atop hill, it also demanded an arduous task of climbing uphill, with periodic breaks to catch our breath. The cave is divided into five parts, decorated with Buddha statues sculpted in reign of several kings. The cave has different poses and sizes of statues, the unique one being the passing away pose of Buddha after attaining Nirvana. It was interesting to see a Vishnu statue in a Buddhist temple, signifiying the influence and relevance of Hinduism with respect to rituals and beliefs.

 

Kandy

Planted high above sea level, the view from our hotel was an eye “candy” - overlooking the Kandy lake, with the tree branches extensively drooping, almost touching its own reflection in water.

We watched a cultural so-called aristocratic upper Kandyan dance, which in ancient days was performed to drive away the evil spirits. It included the most commonplace tribal stunts - on fire, balancing on the plate etc, and also some classical bollywood steps, and thus was far from entertaining.

The tightly guarded Buddha Tooth Relic temple preserves the canine tooth of Buddha in an ornate casket which is believed to have journeyed various places in last 2000 years. The walls of the temple are designed with intricate carvings and paintings of the annual Kandyan procession (Periraha) of dancers with royal elephants, wrestling games, bull fights etc. The culture of offerings to deities is similar to Hindus, casket rituals being performed by the white attired Monks, present very few in number. Moonstone statues of Buddha gave a brilliant look, also present were Buddha paintings with all the imaginable facial expressions. The huge gold plated Buddha Statue was symmetrically embellished with preserved elephant tusks; the SL govt has banned ivory exchange/trading.  

Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawala

Being the first and one of finest elephant orphanages in the world, it boasts to shelter the baby orphan elephants along with any aged disabled elephants and to provide them nourishment and care. Pushing our way through the throng, we saw sixty plus elephants feeding on humungous amounts of green leaves and fruits- like any vegetarian, they too have fewer options! The plight of the chained baby elephants was pitiable, they now have become a mere source of revenue for the orphanage, with tourists pouring in just to watch them bottle feed and shower.

 

Obediently following the commands of its mahout, a thick skinned elephant with long hard yellow coloured tusks lied down on the water, and let us shower and scrub it hard with a coconut shell. We then took a short yet fun filled elephant ride around, after which the elephant posed for pictures with us like a professional! The elephants from this orphanage are often donated to temples for royal processions.

Nuwara Eliya

The meandering elevated road leading to the hill station had bamboo and avocado trees planted on one side, and plants with exotic multi coloured flowers on the other. We halted by one of the biggest tea plantation factories called Mackwood tea, spread over several kilometres, where they briefed us on the manufacturing and processing of tea from raw leaves. We were mesmerized by the breathtaking view down the step tea plantations with narrow river flowing through, simultaneously gulping the not-so-tasty Mackwood sample tea.

Excited to see the location of mythological epic Ramayana, we headed to the Asoka Vatika aka Sita Eliya. Contrary to our imagination of a garden with a stone bench under a stout tree where Sita sat, it turned out to be a Sita temple located adjacent to forests, with the priests diligently performing the pujas- it was a bit disappointing... The only minor hitch in the trip was when we realized we booked the wrong dates for the hotel here – to our dismay, the issue was resolved soon without much hassle, when we found a seemingly haunted villa in proximity.

Horton Plains (World’s End)- Early next morning at 5, we drove up the hill station to a hiller and chiller place, from where we started hiking. It was a challenging drive on the curved treacherous path blanketed with opaque mist ahead. Shivering in the chilly climate outside, with all the determination and efforts we started walking on the uneven terrain. The muddy-slushy path had rare species of herbs-shrubs and ponds with multicoloured pebbles disposed on either sides of it, ultimately leading to a narrower course enclosed with dense bottle green trees. Trekking 4 km along the craggy path ahead, the trees gradually opened up revealing the sky leading to the Miniature of World’s end- aptly named so. The view of mountains and trees with clouds and mist flowing across was exhilarating. Walking a km further up led us to World’s end; unfortunately the view was marred by a shroud of mist. The second half of the hiking was the highlight of the trip, strolling along the bumpy dense forests slowly unveiled a panoramic view of the Horton plains. Watching the birds flying, sambar deer grazing, moss laden rocks, with narrow stream of water making its way through the enormously spread lushy green plains was an absolute wonder. The 10 km nature hike just didn’t seem to exhaust us, and left us craving to do it again..

 
Hikkaduwa Beach

Long road journey down the hill to Hikkaduwa beach was spent playing Antakshari, conveniently flouting the game rules only to sing our favourite numbers! We finally reached our fancy and luxurious hotel having a provision of private beach and offering a vicinal coastal view of tall coconut trees along the sand, strong waves hitting and making their way through the partially submerged boulders; forming a picturesque seascape. We spent time relaxing in juice bar facing the short length sea shore past midnight, and fell asleep to the rhythmic sound of high tided waves.

After having barely a four hour nap, we rose before the dawn to see the first sun rays falling on the water making the sea shimmer. We all took a plunge into the water, wallowing in the numbing cold sea water and slushy mud. The ultimate fun started with Pratik and Mukund splashing water on me incessantly, till I was assured a rescue from Mrinal and Surabhi who rused me to go closer to them for protection. To my horror, all of them conspired and starting sloshing the wet sand -saline water on me to no end, leaving me gasping for breath. I was the first victim, but was glad when the ritual  was religiously followed by taking turns for others as well, prolonging it to a 4-5 hr long relaxed fun session. Drenched thoroughly in the water with mud sticking onto us, our unsuccessful foray into making sand castles, eventually throwing mud balls on each other only resulted in a completely disheveled looking us. Parthiv was enjoying his own company, practising different swim strokes against the sea waves. Aninda engrossed himself in taking pictures, Many Thanks to Aninda for forgoing the beach fun, but for that we would not have had these beautiful moments captured.

After spending our own sweet time performing the ablutions, we had a sumptuous multi course buffet at the hotel. The sluggish afternoon was followed by a short walk along the shore to watch the nuances of the transitioning sky at dusk. Peacefully appreciating the beautiful sight of the sun setting, we bid adieu to Srilanka and our short fun filled holiday!

Every day of the trip was lively and enjoyable in its own kind. Thank you all my friends for making this vacation such a memorable one.. Cheers to us!!