New Years 2012: Goa.. Again

December 28:
The day the sojourn started. Usual suspects were the Sandeep-Geeta-Naan family, and the Parul-Aanchal family. We had Driver Ramesh in his Innova accompany us, and he arrived prompt at 9p.m to National Avenue. The journey began with everyone chatting, so as to try and stay awake and back-seat drive Ramesh’s car, but I slept so that I could be awake at the last leg of the journey and back-seat drive Ramesh during an hour I am more comfortable with. Of course, the noise from all the talk was not too conducive, so I awoke in a while, and joined in on the all the talk. We played 20 questions for some part of the journey, and watched with sweaty palms the rest of it as Ramesh navigated circuitous roads with near zero visibility because of “driving through clouds” – as explained by Aanchal with the Chandra Bindu!
This went on till about 4 in the morning, after which everyone crashed, and it was just me and Ramesh navigating the roads. Navigating and chatting. Ramesh seemed interested in knowing all the history behind me and Geeta!
And then this went on till we hit Goa at about 10a.m, and drove straight to Philip Olinda GH in Anjuna Beach where we stayed.

December 29:
The GH was a nice place – simple and neat with sufficient place for us to sleep, barely any distance from the Anjuna Flea market and the beach. This was part of the plan as we intended to hit Curly’s on New Years, and this place would be walking distance for us. Of course, on New Years, we could barely walk, but that’s getting ahead of the story. On December 29, we checked in, had breakfast at a nearby café, and then went straight to the closest shack and started off with beers.
We got back to our rooms around 2p.m, slept for a bit, and then went to Candolim beach to attend the must spoken of “Sunburn” party. Problem was we only had 4 passes for 5 of us. But we decided to figure that out once we got the passes. And then finding the passes itself was insane. Coz we reached a certain Gate A, and our source with the passes who was inside asked us to come to Gate B, and we walked and walked without finding this gate, and figured life only after getting a map from someone. This Gate B was a really long way off, but we managed to get there and get the passes with barely an hour left for the show to end, and realized that the entry is only through Gate A and we had to walk all the way back just to get in to the place. Naan gave up by this time and told the rest of us to get in whilst he sit and grab a beer at a shack.
So we 4 quickly went in, took a few photos to prove we were at Sunburn! And went out to meet Naan who was peacefully sitting on a bench against the beach sipping on good old Goan Kings beer. We moved to a shack called Sai’s shack as it had a neat looking upper deck. But after getting here, realized the place was quite sad, which expensive beer, poor food, and actually a cramped sitting place for the 5 of us. So we went to another shack called Francisco shack. And now this one was really neat. There were barely any people when we first entered, and the only reason we sat there was because we liked the music that was being played. Well, guess many other people too liked the music, and eventually, the place was fairly crowded, there was dancing happening (mostly by just the 5 of us) and even a bonfire where a lot of people gathered to sit or dance around. It was one of those really random, but killer fun we ended up having. After drinking, dancing and eating, we moved out of the beach and hit a restaurant on the way to the main raod where we told Ramesh we’d come, and had dinner here. Only good dish we had was a chicken gravy, that we gorged on with Roti’s. Little did we know that this would actually be the only good meal we were gonna have this whole trip!

December 30:
Day 2 in Goa began late. The plan was to have breakfast at Infantaria where Geeta promised there would be the most amazing non-veg burgers and puffs we’ve ever had, followed by a visit to Fort Aguada, a place I’ve wanted to see every since DCH, but just never managed to in spite of at least 10 visit to Goa since the movie, then lunch at Martins, followed by Caravella gambling at night. But instead of this plan, we pretty much had brunch at Infantaria where we were too late for the puffs and had to compromise with regular lunch which was really not that great, and then went to Brittos where we paid 100 bucks to sit on the couches on the beach, where we got tattoos done, Parul lost her slippers to a really well executed plot by a lady selling Goan paraphernalia, took tons of photos, and watched the sun set before doing some more shopping at Baga and then heading back to Anjuna.

So far, everything we set out to doing since morning hadn’t happened. Instead of awesome Martins lunch, we had crappy brunch at Infantaria. Instead of Fort Aguada, we got tattoos and played witness to the slipper losing incident. This was quite hilarious actually – all of us were peacefully sitting on those couches where this lady comes to sell her stuff. And very smoothly takes of her slippers and wears Paruls nice ones and leaves the place!
Anyway, the only thing left on the agenda for the day was Caravella gambling, but given how the day panned out, this was also gonna bite the dust. Party because only Parul and I seemed interested in gambling, and mostly because of a traffic jam between Baga to Anjuna that ensured we reached back to our GH only by 9p.m.
Another plan for the night was to meet Jidesh and gang at Club Cabana that was very close to Anjuna. So we decided to first meet at a shack on Anjuna and then head out clubbing. But once we hit the shacks, we just stuck to shack-hopping for the rest of the night. Agnelos, Elephant Café, and Hippies were the shacks we hit for the night. This and omlette-pavs from aunties on the beach was all we did coz we were low on cash and none of the places accepted cards. We borrowed 1k from Jidesh, and Naan walked all the way out to draw cash from an ATM and the damn thing was shut. So we stuck to bare minimum expenditure plan and went back to the GH at an hour I don’t really remember.

December 31:
New years eve had arrived. I woke up early to began the action for the day. Went out with Geeta to buy breakfast at Infantaria that we missed the previous day, and basically make up for all the lousy food we’d been eating so far in Goa. Did some shopping on the way for some table mats that Geeta really liked. Head back to the GH and had breakfast, which were indeed some of the best non-veg puffs we’ve ever had, along with Beer and Breezers, to get a good start to the day.
Then we got ready and hit Curly’s at 3p.m where Shreyas and company had a table reserved for us. We sat here, drank, ate and spoke till we watched the last sunset of the year. Ninja regaled us with stories on his various theories – the watchman-maali-chor theory, the JKES-kutta-baby-sher hierarchy, and the famous ladder theory.
After all of this, Zeelu and I head back to the place he and Ninja were staying to pick up the space cake Neha had baked. Man, this was soon to turn out the real “highlight” for the night. Zeelu and I had a good chat all the way to the house, checked out the place they were staying in while Shreyas and Neha got ready, and finally head back to Curly’s around 8p.m.
By the time we went back, Curly’s was a different place altogether. They had cordoned off all entries, including the little backdoor one that we had exited just an hour back. Sealed them off with metal detectors and over-grown bouncers. And charged a cool Rs. 500 just for entry! To think we were just sitting inside, and now had to pay 2500 for the 5 of us who had come out, which included Naan who stepped out just for a pee, unlike the rest of us who went to Shreyas’ house, just to re-enter the place where the rest of us were sitting. Anyway, this seemed to net off, coz the waiters at Curly’s only charged us Rs. 700 for all that we ate and drank there. So this made us not feel too bad about cheating them and about having to pay Rs. 2500 to re-enter.
Anyway, we went in and sat by the beach this time instead of our tables inside, and glad we did that coz the place had gotten really crowded and messy inside – always a downer during New Years where everything goes out of control! Worse than this was the space cakes we all had and Geeta and I developed a really weird reaction to it. We just kept throwing up and throwing up. I remember walking towards the beach at least thrice to empty out my stomach, and by the third time I was out of even the semi digested Infantaria breakfast that was there in my stomach, coz I was pretty much puking bile and air!
Geeta was having a similar reaction sitting where she was. Parul and Aanchal seemed fairly ok in spite of having as much cake as us. Zeelu and the rest were too used to it by now to have a crazy reaction any more to it. So basically, hours before New Years midnight, all Geeta and I did was sleep and throw up. The only thing we remember that night, post consumption of the cake, was the fire-works at mid night, that somehow we managed to wake up to see. Thereafter, it was just the walk back to our GH, where we went and crashed.
December 1:
Spent most of the day nursing our troubled stomachs as we drove back to Bombay. We took far longer this time because of a bad accident that had happened on the way. Left Goa at 11a.m and reached Bombay way past mid-night.
Except for those last few hours of the year, I must say it was quite a neat trip to Goa. I remember thinking that I’ve never really enjoyed Goa as much during my visits here, especially during New Years, coz I never manage to do the things I really want to do. Even this time, I couldn’t go to Fort Aguada, have Martins lunch, or do the gambling in Goa bit. But in spite of that, the things we ended up doing – partying in Francisco shack (me), chilling at Brittos (Parul), sunset at Anjuna (Aanchal), Shack-hopping at Anjuna (Geeta) and Candolim beach on Day 1(Naan) where some of the things each of us thoroughly enjoyed and reminisced about on our way back.
All in all, neat Goa trip, good trip with Naan, great hanging out with the clown combo of Aanchal and Parul, and of course, my first New Years married to Geeta :)


Btw, I just listed out the last few New Years I could remember..
2011: Bombay – Getting Married
2010: Bangalore + Chikmanglur
2009:
2008: Gokarna
2007: Bombay: Andheri Sports Complex
2006: Bombay: Bangdu’s friends house party
2005: Goa Bosch
2004: Bangalore – Kamanahalli Jiving place
2003: Bangalore Sparks
2002: Church – Nose accident
2001:
2000:
1999:
1998: Bangalore Army Place

London Trip

Friday:
London was a trip that Geeta and I were wanting to make since quite a while now. It was the reason we cut our honeymoon short and save those holidays for this trip. But there were so many problems before we finally managed to make the journey, like my passport not being accepted, and then going through all that trouble to re-apply for it and then apply for the visa - it was quite an ordeal. Finally when we reached the airport at about mid-night, we had another scare there coz Geeta's tickets were not available. I had a tough time making the flight bookings as Cleartrip was not able to process online and I was talking to them over phone while traveling between places to get this done - so suddenly, I was worried whether something went wrong with the ticketing process.
We breathed again after the guy at the Air India counter gave us the ticket print. Then we checked in through the long snaking lines of the international airport and finally sat near our gate. Geeta resumed her work that she couldn't complete during the day. We both worked from home this day, but worked like crazy coz there was just too much to finish. So much so that we started packing only at 9p.m when the cab was to come by 10. It was one mad rush.
Then the flight itself was another mess. Air India as usual had to screw up someplace and our entertainment systems were the only ones not working on the flight. I tried changing our seats, but Geeta didn't want to move and so I stuck to reading Arvind Adiga.
Air India really is all that people claim it to be - one terrible flight. Its partly because only Indians fly it and like typical Indians, we make a total mess of the flight. While we were walking out, there were bottles, blankets, all sorts of things strewn around the flight. But the crew don't make things any easier either. Some of the food comes serves real cold. And since we were sitting on the last seats, they ran out of non-veg food for us. And of course, the biggest crib would be the way the crew treats us - absolutely nonchalant.
Anyway, we just tried to catch up on some sleep and get through the journey.

Saturday:
Naan was there to pick us up at the airport when we landed at 8a.m UK time. We had a SIM card that G's parents used during their trip 2 months back and coordinated with Naan through this. We walked to his car - Vauxhall Astra, which was quite a neat looking hatchback. I had a feeling that this was a GM car (equivalent to the Opel in India because of the similar name) and some googling on Naan's iPhone and this was confirmed.
The journey from the airport to Naan's house in Tooting Bec was awesome. As usual the first things you notice are the super clean and wide roads, the neat cars that never repeat, and a voice that directs you at every turn. Then there are sights typical only of London - the bulb shaped London Taxi's, the double decker red buses, and loads of people on cycles. During the days that followed, sights of people in tubes wearing a corporate dress with trainers became banal. There seem to be a lot of people cycling or walking to work here, and dressing up for it the right way.
Upon reaching Naan's house, we were super impressed with the big clean apartment he and his malu roommate (who was from Kottayam!) stayed - it was way too neat for 2 guys to be living in! The biggest surprise of all was the food Naan had cooked for us. He actually made Chicken curry and Prawn Fry for us - and it almost tasted as good as what mom makes in Bombay!
We quickly washed up and sat down with Carlsberg for brunch and planned out our next few days. We decided to go travel to Cranfield - Naan's college on Sunday, do some local sightseeing on Monday and Tuesday, meet Shalini on Tuesday evening, go to the theatre on Wednesday evening, Scotland on Thursday and Friday, and finally, for Saturday, our last day in London, and my Birthday, we couldn't make any plans yet, so decided to play it by the ear.
After the scrumptious meal, we grabbed some sleep, woke up and got ready to go out for dinner. We went to a place called Kenza in Central London, which was a Lebanese restaurant that had belly dancers performing. Naan had called some of his friends, his roommate AJ, Munna Sunna who was AJ's girlfriend (or not - nobody was sure!) from Jordan, and another couple that we hardly got to talk to. I called Praty who came with his girlfriend Urvashi, and 9 of us sat to have a very nice meal - the Ramadan feast, as Ramadan was on and the Muslims - AJ from our table, were on fast during the day. For lack of any clues on what I wanted for a drink - I ordered a regular Jack and Coke. This became my fall-back drink during most of the trip. But as soon as I ordered it, Praty asks me to order the most expensive drink on the menu as it would be his gift for the wedding. I ordered a whiskey called Glenmorangie, and had it on the rocks. We had a good time chatting about school and did a lot of catching up with Praty. Geeta and Urvashi seemed a bit bugged as we went on and on about it. The meal was really good too - proper 3 course, starting with Hummus and Pita and Falafal, on to Biryani, which Munna insisted was not Biryani, but meat skewers just laced with rice. Well there was definitely more meat that rice on the plate, but looked very much like Biryani to me. Then finally came the deserts. Somewhere in the middle of all this, the belly dancers came on. I was hardly through my first drink when this happened and was definitely not high enough to join them in the dance. But one of the dancers pretty much pulled me out to the dance, and I began to shake it just like her. I called Geeta up too and asked her to learn some moves for later on. Then another dancer began dancing with Naan on the other side of the table. This was even more hilarious, as Naan was showing of his moves and actually teaching her to dance!
All in all, really good evening and amazing way to start the London trip.

Sunday:
After the big party the previous night, it took a while before all of us woke up and got ready for the long drive that was planned for today. We were to drive to Naan's college, Cranfield, and then head to Cambridge, both about 60 miles from South London where we were. We began at 11, after G and I made quite a mess of the kitchen that we weren't too familiar handling, yet attempted to prepare breakfast in. But somehow the final product - plain omlettes, toast and coffee seemed to impress Naan.
We began our journey in the Vauxhall, after setting the GPS and choosing a nice female voice to guide us. But 5 mins into it, and we were stuck in a crazy traffic jam. Naan almost gave up on the trip and said we'd rather just check something in London out. But G egged him to carry on, and the journey turned out to be truly worth it.
Cranfield was a neat looking college. We took some pictures there, met one of Naan's batchmates, Budhi, who still stays there and had lunch at his place - good old Daal and Rice. Then went to Cambridge, which was really stunning - seemed right out of the Harry Potter Novels. There is an activity here called punting, which Naan kept insisting we must do - and that was the absolute highlight of the day. It was a row boat where there is one guy at the end rowing with a long oar that reaches the bottom of the river bed - sort of looks like the Kerala boats coupled with the setting of Venice. We had the option of doing this on our own for £60 or going on a share boat for £45 (15 per person). We chose the share, which is actually much better, coz a professional punter comes along with us, and narrates the stories of all the colleges of Cambridge as we pass them by. On our own, it seemed fun in the beginning, maybe even chances of falling over if we weren't too careful, but definitely looked tiring to do.
We got to hear about the various colleges - Trinity, Josephs, many others, and took tons of photos.
The punting ended with our punter crashing in between 2 boats to park his boat, and the guy on shore who was mooring our boat tells the punter "TT doesn't look for a place to park the boat, TT makes the place. I would love to see what you do with the car". Man, these English do have a witty sense of humour.
Once we got out, we took a walk to a place where we decided to chill and have a beer. We ordered Becks this time, and I wanted to try out the national dish here - fish and chips. Soon we were sitting by the riverlet, sipping our beer and having the fish which was quite different from what we normally have, but tasty in a certain way nevertheless. The fish by itself was bland, and the accompaniments were honey and ketchup and avocado. Somehow made a delectable combination, and we were quite enjoying it. Naan not being too big a fan of fish ordered crab cakes, which were quite delicious too.
We then walked around, tried to find the Botanical garden where the apple tree that Newton sat under still stands, but couldn't find the place and we too tired to continue walking, so bid adieu to Cambridge.
On the way back, G just crashed out and Naan and I were having a nice long chat about life in general till we hit the London bridge. It was a really nice feeling to be crossing the famous bridge that we sang about as kids.
We got home by 10p.m after stopping over at a Tesco - my first visit into this big retailer, and picked up some drinks and munchies. I was so thrilled that a bottle of JD, on conversion was just 800 bucks! That is just so stunning when the damn thing is so expensive in India with all the import tax and things. Came home, finished the leftover of Naan's food with the drinks and hit the sack by mid-night.

Monday:
Naan took us to Wimbledon today, which was fairly close to his place, and a really posh area in London, as this is where many of the tennis players stay and even own houses - with Wimbledon being one of the best tennis grand slams and all. We had brunch here at a place called Dog and Fox. It was quite empty when we were there, but apparently the place is one of the 'it' places during matches at Wimbledon. I ordered a Guiness here which came freshly brewed. Quite a different taste this beer and Naan and G didn't like it too much - so we never ordered this again the rest of the trip.
After a good Enlish breakfast - full with bacon and eggs and toast, we drove to Windsor castle. Went on the audio guided tour here, around the high walled brown castle, peppered with the English guards with their big hats, that people came and stood next to to take photos and they just wouldn't budge. We even got to see a small change of guard show when they marched past us which was really interesting. After a bit of English history, through all the kings and queens chambers et al, we headed back to London. Stopped at a park on the way at a place near Putney - another posh part of London, and took some more photos as this park that oversaw a lake.
Then as we drove, we took an impromptu call to head to a famous burger joint called GBK - Gourmet Burger King and had a famous dish here called Habonera which was one heck of a spicy burger - and this is for 3 Indians to say coz I believe we have some of the most spiciest foods. This burger was drenched in a red chilly sauce that began burning my lips by the second bite. But it was still somewhat tasty, and we gobbled it all up. People here were having the burgers with fork and knife - again very neatly English. But I was having it the way I think a burger was made to be had - all messy and falling all over the place.
Downed the burgers with a beer called Steinlager beer that was from New Zealand! And really needed it to pipe down the burning skin on my face.
Once we got back home, we were too tired and crashed fairly early.

Tuesday:
G and I originally planned to wake up early and prepare breakfast for Naan who was going to work on this day after spending the last 3 days with us. But we were just so lazy, that by the time we got out - 8a.m, Naan was almost on his way out. G was quite upset that we couldn't prepare anything for him, and this mood got worse when we removed the clothes from the washer to find that they had all turned pink because one of G's new shirts ran colour. 2 of my nice shirts were now pink and totally un-wearable. Then we got ready to go out and in the hassle of trying to lock the door, I dropped Naan's key which had a glass keychain, and that broke. Then when we were on our way to see some places of London, we realized that the camera was out of charge in spite of me putting it for a few hours in the morning. Basically, it was one terrible start to the day. Now we were at the Victorias Square outside Buckhingham palace, and had an option to either head to Hard Rock which was fairly close by and charge the camera, or head back home and charge it and also take Naan's camera to be on the safe side. G insisted we go back and try and re-start the day. So we got back, finished all of Naan's food from Saturday, I had JD from the bottle we bought from Tesco, charged the cameras and began London once again. The rest of the day went quite fast. We saw Trafalgar Square, went into the Tower Hill near the London Bridge where the Kohinoor was kept, went to Westminister to see the Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and the original 10 Downing Street (and not the club that we've frequented the last 2 years in Chennai) and finally got into the London Eye across the River Thames where even Naan joined us. So quite a bit of London covered on a day, that was really quite eventful. We then had strawberry toppled waffles across the River Thames and got back to Tooting Bec where Shalini was waiting for us at the station.
Shalini was looking fairly English - with a skirt, black stockings and heels. Seemed like London grew on her, especially since she already has a UK passport. We went home with her, got ready and headed out to a club in Wimbledon where Naan used to go occasionally to salsa. It was competition night, and everybody there, except Shalini, G and me were not dancing. Naan went about dancing with lots of girls there. But the overall experience was really amazing. Shalini left shortly as she had a long way to go back. Three of us hung out for a while having beer and more JD and coke. Then headed back home, stopping a place where we bought Pakistani Biryani (really tasty) along with some chicken starter.

Wednesday:
Second day in London when G and I were on our own. As usual we hit the station, charged our travel cards with the day pass and headed out to Central London. Today's agenda was to shop. We went to H&M, M&S and lots of other stores, where G kept seeing stuff she liked, but refused to buy any. Finally she bought 2 shoes from an Indian store there as they were reasonably cheap. London is nowhere close to being a frugal city to stay in. Everything here is expensive, and the shopping followed suit. So we were still converting while looking at stuff and just didn't feel like picking up anything. We spent some money on gifts for people back in India, but that was all we bought, apart from the shoes G picked up. We then went to a steakhouse called Angus and we only ordered one Chicken dish and a Stella Artois beer here, as I was still converting, and this was more expensive that a top class hotel for me, and we were only at a way-side hotel just now. So I didn't want to order too much and the waiter made a bit of an issue with only one dish being ordered. But we were prepared to tell him thanks and leave in case there was a problem, but he said its fine and "allowed" us to order just the one dish. Man, here was some of that snooty English behaviour that you hear about!
After the meal, we met Naan at the Victoria station where we went to the Apollo theatre to catch the very famous show - Wicked (not yet made into a movie, and hence still a little less known outside of UK) and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. It was a proper English musical theatre with loads of effects and quick changing props. Was a real treat to watch this. I was very tired and sleepy and found it difficult to stay awake the entire time. But loved the bits I managed to see.
Way back we bought some dinner from a place near the Tootic Bec station itself and headed back home.

Thursday:
It was time to head outside of London today, and we flew to Aberdeen in Scotland to meet Harsh. Now Aberdeen is just a commercial city with a lot of oil mining companies. There is pretty much nothing for a tourist to see here apart from the grey coloured and uniformly shaped buildings. Naan, G and I reached Harsh's house by about 9a.m, after driving to the Luton airport in London (really far from Naan's place) and taking an Easy Jet flight (equivalent to the Spicejets of India). Harsh played some songs for us on his electric guitar and we started off on our rented Vauxhall (again, but this time it was a black beauty of a sedan called Insignia). We stopped at a place called Marshals farm which was a country side barn house that served some English breakfast. We had the usual bacon and eggs and toast here. G ordered pancakes as this was too much meat for her to digest (literally) and began our journey to the West Coast. The idea was to reach a place called Gairloch which was completely on the other coast (Aberdeen being on the East) and pass some highlight points on the way - the first of which was the Glenfiddich distillery. This was a really nice experience. It was stunning to know that all of Glenfiddich around the world is prepared right here. The commercially available ones are 12, 15 and 18 year olds. But only at this place, there is a 14 and a 19year old available. So I bought the 14year old and Naan and Harsh picked some bottles of their choice. We watched a film about the distillery and also had a bit of whiskey tasting which was served and explained to us by a Scottish lady in a proper Scot accent.
Our next stop was to be the Loch Ness near the city Inverness. The Loch Ness is now a lake, and the monster we are familiar with is just an Urban Legend. Well, cant say anything more coz we didn't really visit the place as we were running out of time, stopping at a lot of places and clicking photos amidst the absolute beauty of the Scottish highlands. We finally made it to the west coast and hit a place called the Kyle of Lochalsh where we grabbed a bite. From this point, things started going awry. Naan and G were not happy with the way Harsh was driving. He was actually a bit too fast on absolute blind turns in these parts. He slowed down a bit after I spoke to him, but then he insisted on going through a different route, which not only made the journey longer, but more precarious because the roads got thinner and more circuitous. Also, we reached a place called Applecross which was a really nice place that we should have ideally come straight to for lunch rather than stopping at Kyle of Lochalsh. We couldn't really enjoy this place much as we had to get on with the journey as the sun was setting and we didn't have a place to stay. At Applecross we made a few calls from the Inn there to all the neighbourhood Bed and Breakfast places, and they were all booked out. Now I had asked Harsh to make reservations for us, but he insisted that it would be easily available. Now this was not the case as it was season time and all places were booked out.
We continued on the journey and passed quite a few B&B's, and although people were really helpful, it was of no use, as we just weren't finding the place. The sun had almost set and we didn't even have water to drink with us. Things were getting quite tense till we finally found a place called Keissimull in a town called Sheldaig, which was still an hour away from Gairloch where we initially planned to go, and decided to book the place there. That's when we realized we didn't have money either and these places only take cash. So we had to go to a pub where they were sweet enough to let us swipe our card for a few drinks and return some extra money. We managed to pay the B&B caretaker with this and found us a place to spend the night. By this time, Naan and G were totally out of it and just wanted to crash. I was quite upset that the trip turned sour towards the end, but anyways decided to head out to the pub with Harsh where we made some friends and Harsh played some songs with a violin player there and the two of them sounded really good together. We had a combination of drinks - Glenmorangie, McCullum and Tenets beer. Finally called it a night well past mid night.

Friday:
The day began with Breakfast at Keissimul - more bacon and eggs and toast, and we headed to Gairloch - our original destination. Took photos here, bought Tenets beer from a local shop and continued our journey. There was a really nice spot in Gairloch where we stopped and spent quite a bit of time. Because of this, we had to give Lock Ness a skip on the way back too. However, we kept stopping at places where we could take good photos and when we were about 3 hours from Aberdeen, G suddenly cries out saying her ring is missing. We stopped and searched the whole car, but couldn't find it. So we carried on our journey, and nobody spoke till we reached a place called Aberlour 2 hours away from Aberdeen where we decided to lunch. As soon as we stopped, we started looking for her ring again. Harsh and Naan yanked the back seat out and Naan found the ring below the seat there. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief after it was found. We could finally resume enjoying the Scottish drive. At Aberlour I had a sirloin steak, my first steak in UK, along with a whiskey called Aberlour, the local brew, which was really tasty. We carried on till we reached Aberdeen airport well in time for the flight and checked in and waited to take off.
We landed at 11p.m and were home before mid-night. I was to turn 29 in a few minutes, and all of us quickly changed and went to the kitchen to cut a tiramisu cake that was there in Naan's fridge, along with a candle and Gentleman Jack that we bought from the Aberdeen duty free. We started of being a bit tired with the entire journey, but Gentleman Jack got us back in good spirits and we had quite a few swigs while watching Beerfest on TV and finally burned out the lights at 2a.m.

Saturday:
So it was birthday number 29 and I was in London. Just back from a trip to the Scottish hinterlands and having seen a fair amount of London. Only thing left to do today was shop! We had initially planned on catching the cricket match at Oval on this day or the Arsenal Liverpool match which was happening in the city. But decided against both of them as it was a bit pricey. So we went out and spend this money on shopping, and I must say, this was the most expensive shopping I have ever been part of. So we only spent about 4 hours and bought a few clothes, but it all still cost a whopping 280 pounds! The shopping experience was however pretty good. Like in the Armani store, there was a DJ playing music, a really hot chick tending to us, and a ton of awesome cool clothes to try out. Bought a few clothes here that just about fit the wallet and felt pretty good about it. Zara, Gap and few others covered the remainder of the shopping.
After the shopping, we decided to go to Hard Rock, which was the only thing left on my list of things to do in London, but there was actually a queue outside the pub - and they were all tourists. Guess HRC No. 1 really is as famous as its touted to be. We checked the waiting time and it was about 1 hour and that was really a bit much given how tired we were with all the shopping. So we decided to go to a place called Gaucho which was on Naan's list of things to show us in London. It was an Argentinian Steakhouse and the place was really one awesome experience. The entire place had real dim lighting, and the walls were covered with what looked like the outside of a cow. This place was really going all out with the steak concept. The food didn't disappoint either. I ordered the rib-eye steak this time as I already tried out the sirloin steak in Aberlour and thoroughly enjoyed that, and I must say, the rib-eye totally beat the pants (or maybe the coat, the fur coat, in this case) of the sirloin steak. Naan ordered the sirloin, and the rib-eye was better than this as well. Now I have a fave steak anytime I go out. We also ordered drinks and I asked for the JW Gold Label as Naan kept saying it was a good drink, but thankfully checked out the price for it and it was actually 75pounds! I cant imagine a single drink costing that much! So I switched to Famous Grouse which was on the other end - at 7 pounds the cheapest drink on the house and ordered 2 of that.
After a really enjoyable meal, we walked towards our tube station - Oxford Circus, and this was absolutely the central of central London, and right outside the station, all sort of things were happening. People playing music, dancing, and tons of chicks dressed super hot walking all around. G had a hard time keeping my eyes on the ground ahead, and after clicking a few photos of our last memories of London, we bid farewell to the UK.
That brought us to the end of a neat UK experience. Until the next time your majesty..

South East Asia

Friday:
Mom, Jeetu and I began our 9 day long trip to South East Asia at 7p.m. Plan was to spend 3 days each in 3 different countries. So we got loaded with Matrix SIM cards for each country, and took US Dollars to convert them to Bhat, Rupiah and Ringitts as and when required. Left Chennai airport at 9:00p.m, and it was a long trip to Pattaya..

Saturday:
Right at the beginning itself mom started complaining about our travel agent in Chennai - Dexter, coz we had a really long stopover at Colombo that we hadn’t planned for, and sat shivering at the airport, unable to sleep properly, all the way from 10p.m when our flight landed in from Chennai, upto 7a.m when the flight to Bangkok was to take off. I managed to get some sleep, as I’m quite capable of sleeping anywhere at all, but both of them were having a real tough time. We finally made it to Bangkok by 1p.m and took a coach straight away to Pattaya. By the time we checked in, it was nearly 4p.m, 20 full hours since we left home in Chennai!
Anyway, checked in to our hotel - Golden Beach, which was a bit of a confusion, as I first thought GOlden Beach was just a beach, and we were to be staying at a hotel on that beach. So I kept asking our travel agent in Thailand - Anucha from Welcome Travels which hotel we were to be staying, and she kept saying "Golden Beach"!
Anyway, the cab guy assured us he would take us straight to the hotel. So we got there, relaxed a bit, had our first Thai meal – which I totally made worth it, by trying out some Crocodile! Yup, actually had Crocodile meat, and it tasted pretty good. Sort of like pork with egg I would say! Sis and mom were totally getting grossed out by what I was doing, but I just love experimenting with food, and was gorging the dish, downing it with some Singha! We then went for the famous Alcazar show, which was a really good watch, and called it a night after one horrible pastry from the hotel that we thought of having for dinner, as our lunch was quite late today, and the Crocodile was not yet digested!

Sunday:
Began our Pattaya tour early morning, after one minor hicupp where the cab that came to pick us started driving us to the Bus stop coz he thought we were on our way back to Bangkok. We had to tell him that we barely got to see Pattaya still and had an entire days tour left. So he turned back and we cleared up the confusion with friendly Ms. Anucha from, who then put us in a cab with 5 other Indians – 3 Sardars in their 50’s, who turned out to be a lot of fun, and one newly married couple – Ashish and Neha who were from Delhi and currently settled in Bangalore. So much talking ensued.
We first went Parasailing, which was just really awesome coz it was the first time I was doing it over water. The last time was on land in Kashid. The initial take off was the best part, and then somewhere in the middle, the driver slows down till you just about hit the water, and then takes off again – that was again a really awesome feeling. Our second adventure was Undersea walk. This again only me and Jeetu did and we left all our stuff with mom to hold and went under water with a big tub on our heads. The initial drop up to the water bed was painful as there is huge pressure difference and our ears totally pop. But once you get used to it, it becomes a lot of fun. The experience was so much like snorkeling in Andaman, only this time, I was not at the surface, but amongst the fish in the sea. I was once again thinking of Avatar, and the experience was more awesome this time, because I actually saw a plant that was just like the one in the movie, where it just closes shut the moment you touch it – sort of like a prettier and quicker Mimosa Pudica (commonly known as touch-me-not - I’m showing off my Bio here!).
After these 2, we went to Coral island where there were more adventures – Jet sky, water scooter, banana boat. I just went with Jeetu on the scooter, sitting behind her and called it a day. Too much adventure for one day. Bought my Singha and sat sipping watching the beach. Jeetu joined me with a Magnum that I kept insisting she try out, and mom found some Guava from somewhere and started lecturing both of us on how we are missing out on all the Vitamin C that she is consuming! Moms!!
Soon we got back to Pattaya mainland and went to an Indian place for lunch. I was so pissd with this! All the way to Bangkok and eating bludy rice and daal! But guess Anucha didn’t want to experiment, what with so many Indians and all. Ashwin and Neha were veggies to top it! The Sardars were gorging on whatever was there. They were a really friendly bunch. In the boat ride on the way back from Coral island, they were giving me advice on what all I should do in Bangkok. Of course, they said that my fun is supremely limited coz I’ve come with family, but gave me good shopping advice all the same.
After lunch, we headed back to Bankok. We missed the red shirt protest that was happening in Bangkok today, and got to our Hotel just after the melee. Read all about it in the Bangkok post at night at our Hotel Princeton, which was in some place called Din Daeng, and far from Sukhamvit where most other hotels are, and far from MBK and other shopping malls as well. But at least it was a fine hotel with a nice swimming pool that Jeetu was enjoying in while I went to buy food from out. Bought different things from different places so all of us could experiment, downed it with Chang beer this time and watched MI3 on the sole English channel that was available and called it a night.

Monday
This was the last day in Bangkok and the itinerary was half day tour of the city. Half day tour became just a few hours, coz by 10, all Jeetu wanted to do was start shopping, like as if the world was coming to an end, and our guide, Mr. Bobby was only too happy to let us go to some jewelry store where he was probably getting commission for brining guests, and he just scooted after that. So we, along with Ashwin and Neha, who we bumped into again, and who were on their last day of their 9 day sojourn, went to Pantip Plaza and began our shopping, or rather what I’d like to call – the day Jeetu and Mom plundered Bangkok! They went totally ballistic shopping. At Pantip, Jeetu was beginning to lose it coz she wasn’t seeing any clothes and bags and slippers and whatever else she wanted to pick up. So we quickly bought the camera she wanted, and I finally picked my 1TB HDD which I contemplated so much the last time I was here and skipped and then scooted to MBK. We bid adieu to Ashwin Neha when we entered Pantip itself, coz they just wanted to browse, having already spent enough on their trip, and I knew Jeetu is going to go crazy here. Once we went to MBK, it was a sight to watch. The bags just kept piling. Finally, by 6 in the evening, just when I thought we were done and should head back, Jeetu starts asking for “street shopping”. I had to tell her that Bangkok is not like Bombay where we can find a Linking Road, and MBK is probably the best place to shop. But she still wanted to go ask a Tuk Tuk guy. So we did that, and he told us that such places would all be closed. Then he says he will take us to a suit store en route to our hotel. These Tuk Tuk guys are notorious for doing this and this was our second time today. We tried denying, but it was of no use and said we’ll step in for 5 mins. The place the idiot took us was a suit-tailor where only made to order deals were made. The guy realized we had just unwillingly come with some Tuk Tuk guy, so asked us to not waste either of our times, and we went back to the Tuk Tuk. The guy drives us out of there, and in 5 mins, stops at some remote place and starts yelling at us, saying we were supposed to be inside for 5 minutes. We yelled back saying the shop itself was not willing to keep us there and there was nothing we could do. But the guy doesn’t stop yelling and asks us to get off and continues to shout while leaving, saying he hates Indians! Man, what a mess! I quickly got mom and sis out on to a main road and we stopped another Tuk Tuk who was charging 150 Bhat to our hotel. I was ok with paying for it, coz I wanted to get out of there fast. But then we felt it was too much, and didn’t want to get into any more mess with these people, and stopped a nice fluorescent pink Corolla Taxi that drove us back in the comfort of it’s a/c for just 100 Bhat. That was a good deal! Reached our hotel, freshened up, had a head and shoulder massage which was my first ever Thai massage, and I was seriously wondering how such a thin girl could dig her fingers so deep into my back! I could hear mom and sis keep telling their masseuse to go easy as these people were giving a sort of massage that we weren’t used to! Anyway, it definitely felt relaxing, and then we ended the day with a last Thai meal – Pork, Duck and Prawns, to the sound of a live band playing at Prineceton.

Tuesday:
Woke up at 3:30, with barely 5 hours of sleep to catch the flight to Bali. The moment we checked out, the cab was waiting for us. Welcome Tours have not faltered this far! Got to the airport and a long flight to Bali in Air Asia. Managed to catch some sleep in it, and reached Bali by 9:30IST, 12noon Bali time. The person who was to meet us was waiting out, in spite of us not calling and informing him of our arrival, which was something we were supposed to do as per the itinerary worked out by Dexter. He introduced himself as Sandy, which I later got to know was spelled Cendy. I almost told him that some people call me by that name too!
Half hour drive to Diwangkara Holiday Villa, and the entire journey I was staring out of the window, just short of a dog with its neck sticking out! Bali must by far be one of the prettiest places I’ve seen. The entire city is brown and woody, with lots of trees and pretty looking buildings. Really loved the whole place. The crowd was not as hot or stylish as Bangkok though, which was something I noticed when I traveled to Bintan as well last year. Anyway, we checked into our room and had lunch – our first Indonesian meal! Proper Nasi Goreng and a Malaysian noodles I cannot pronounce. I was really enjoying the food, but Jeetu only had one piece of chicken and mom also ate very little.
Then we toured around the hotel property and took tons of photos, and caught a small nap and then left to Kuta Beach, supposedly the best beach of Bali. We were to catch the sunset there, but mom kept asking ‘where is the sun?’. It was far too cloudy, and the beach was way too crowded for us to enjoy it. However, an archer conned me into buying a bow and arrow (I have absolutely no clue what I plan to do with that thing) and sis got a funky hairstyle thing done at the beach. After that, we got back to our hotel and took a walk to catch dinner outside. The whole of Kuta beach left along with us, it seemed, coz nobody stays outside after sunset! Anyway, for dinner, Jeetu and mom wanted to try some food outside the hotel. They didn’t mind Indonesian again, but just not at the hotel. But after the place where we had dinner, a shack called Watering Hole, I don’t think they will ever have Indonesian food again. Once again, I was the only one enjoying the chicken and fish, mom and sis were totally bugged with the food. So much so, that towards the end, mom was having plain rice with sauce!

Wednesday:

Today was a full day tour of Bali plan. More of the wood and stone carvings, temples, paintings, and of course, more shopping!
We first went to a song and dance show called the Barong dance. It was based on a famous mythological story of Indonesia – war between Rangdha - a tiger monster and Sadheva, some good lady. Was a pretty good watch. After that we went to a temple called Thirth Amur which literally translates to Water Bubbling, and the temple is basically built around a spring which keeps bubbling out of the water. Was a really good sight to catch. The temple itself was really beautiful. Cendy was explaining how this was one of the few temples where outsiders were allowed all through the outer corridor, middle corridor, up to the inner corridor. The entire thing was in open air, and the rituals included placing an offering at the end of a pond where people stand in line and take a bath. There were men and women all together, quite an unusual sight. Here we did some shopping, which I must say was one of the most frugal in Bali this far. Following this we headed to an active volcano sight. Had lunch at a place which overlooked Mount Batur, Lake Batur, and another active volcanic mountain – Mount Angudha. Really beautiful place. Tons of food, which for a change both mom and Jeetu liked, and tons of photos later, we headed to Ubud. Our last stop before heading back. This was a temple palace where the royal family still stayed. So certain portions of the place was cordoned off for visitors. There was one section where little girls were learning to dance. The same dance form that was there in the Barong dance earlier in the day. Mom went on saying Bharatnatyam is better! Even during shopping, she would keeping saying, ‘you can get this at Cauvery Emporium for lesser’, ‘you can get better things in Bangalore’, and so on.. Very typical Indian mentality I think. Anyway, the day ended with mom going in for an Indonesian massage, and Jeetu taking the Foot Reflexology thingy, and me going for a much needed jog after all this food I’ve been eating!

Thursday:
Today was our last day in Bali as we had an early morning flight once again the next day to KL. First half was free and Cendy was going to meet us only at 2p.m. for a half day tour.
While mom and Jeetu chilled out in our very beautiful room at Hotel Diwankara, I decided to go out, use the net and also get a massage done. Boy, this was one massage that I would never forget! For one, the guy giving the massage was pressing so hard, that later on in the day, my legs were hurting, almost as if I'd worked them out in the gym! Never knew a massage could induce such a feeling. Also, he was trying to make conversation in the broken English that most people, save Cendy, spoke here. I remember so clearly the things he asked:
"How old are you?"
27
"Oh, you dont look 27 at all!"
Thanks
"How are the girls in India?"
Pretty good
"You like girls in Bali?"
Yeah, I guess (was really hoping his next question wouldnt be, 'would you want one?')
"You have a lot of hair"
(Didnt anticipate this question) Hehe, yea I do
"We Balinese dont have this much hair at all!"
"Are you married?"
No
"Do you have kids?"
(what!!) No..
"Do you want it stronger?"
(you can actually massage stronger!!??) No, please..
This went on for a bit and the massage turned out to be quite unlike any other I've ever got!
Cendy picked us up at 2 sharp and we headed out to the famous temple Tanah Lot. En route, we stopped at one monkey forest where there were more monkeys, and even flying foxes than I've ever seen anywhere else. Mom Jeetu kept squealing every time a monkey passed by, and they just wanted to get out asap. Tanah Lot was really pretty. At certain angles, and in high tide, the temple seems to be floating in water. Tanah Lot translates to floating temple. Tons of photos, and a bit of shopping later, headed back to our Hotel. During the entire 3 days, Cendy kept talking to us and giving us a lot of information on Bali. He made the entire tour so much more interesting. I would completely recommend going on a guided tour here. Bangkok and KL one can manage on your own, but Bali, definitely needs to be done with a guide. Some of the reasons I can think of:
1) Not too many people speak English in Indonesia, so it makes sense to have a guide translate for you
2) There are so many places to visit and things to do, its better to have it all organized, so that you make the most of your time spent there
3) There is so much history and culture in Bali, that on your own, you would never get to know things like the caste system in Bali (very similar to our own), the architecture, the Kings that ruled Bali and gave its current appeal..
Cendy really made the whole Bali experience worthwhile. A very good thing about him was, he never helped us bargain when we shopped. He wanted his people to have a good business without him spoiling it for them. I found that commendable. Tipped him 100,000 Rupiah when we left, but it was nothing compared to what a phenomenal tour guide he was. Always ask for Panaroma Travels, and Cendy from there, during a visit to Bali.

Friday:
Left early morning and reached KL by 10a.m. Got to our Hotel - Grand Continental (which I soon learnt had absolutely nothing 'grand' about it), by 11a.m. and realized that check-in time is only at 2 and we had 3 full hours to kill! Hotel guys 'obliged' to have our room ready by 1, and we went roaming around wondering what to do. Found an Indian hotel where mom ordered tea and was heaving such a sigh of relief saying it was the first cup of proper tea she's had in a whole week. There were so many times in Thailand and Bali that I had to go hunting for a cup of tea of this tea-addict mom of mine, and she just never liked any of them! Finally she seemed satiated, and after some 'Thosai' and 'Maggi Goreng' later, went into our room. Our half day KL tour was to start by 1:30 itself! What organizing!
This half day tour was total gibberish. We first saw the Petronas, from some garden 2kms away from the tower, which the tour guide said was 'Photo point'. What shit! We had an equally good view from our hotel itself. Then went to a Buddhist temple and the Kings Palace which we again only saw from the outside, and then went to some chocolate factory and an artifact store! Its so irritating that these tour guides take us to such nonsense places where they make their commission, and we get a totally shitty tour. We were completely dissapointed with the KL package so far. After the "tour", asked the guide to drop us off at Bukit Bintang where we could do some shopping, and Jeetu was totally cursing me for having made her spend so much in Bangkok coz she was liking the shopping here so much more. What was actually working for us was the conversion in Ringitts. Lot better than the Bhat conversion. Mom and she once again went about testing my mathematics skills by asking me to convert everything they picked in rupees, and then going on to buy so many things. Mom was getting terrified as the time got closer to 9, as she felt it was unsafe to be out this long, and Jeetu just didnt feel like leaving as she felt like a kid in a candy store! But we had to get out, bought some food from a Chinese restaurant outside the Sung Wei mall and went home and had it with some Carlsberg this time. Had 2 full bottles! Guess iSt was the Friday evening effect.

Saturday:
Genting full day tour today. Became 3 hours tour. Coz although we left at 9a.m, we stopped at Baku Caves that was a good sight, but also stopped at a watch factory that was once again extremely uneccessary. Then there was bad traffic as it was a holiday - May1, and finally the long queue for the cable car at Genting, and ended up reaching the resort only at 2p.m. Only to be told that we need to leave at 5! We just caught 2 rides. Each had a waiting time of more than an hour, and we tried optimizing by eating while watiting in the line itself. But still barely managed to see the resort, and really felt the entire KL planning was messed up. We were actually supposed to be given one night stay at Genting. That would have made so much more sense as we could have spent more time and enjoyed more rides. This was just so rushed and no fun at all!

Sunday:
The whole day was to ourselves, and we decided to go up the Petronas. Reached the place by 8:30 and realized that tickets were already sold out! This was my second time here and once again couldnt get to go up! THen we checked out of the hotel, as we had to do that by noon, even though our flight was only at 9 in the night and shuttle was coming only by 5. How much could Dexter screw up KL for us!
Went shopping in Chinatown which was loaded with fakes, but Jeetu just wasnt enjoying it as she wanted to go back to her candystore in Bukit Bintang. So we went back there and I was completely drained out by then. But these 2 ladies never seem to tire when it comes to shopping and they went on and on. I had to convert cash twice to satisfy them as I kept running out of our "budget". Anyway, we finally left the place by 3:30, did a bit of shopping at 7/11 where we bought some local chips and chocaltes and finally got to the KL airport by 6. So freakishly early as the shuttle would only ply at that time. So waited it out and just couldnt wait to get back to India now.

Overall, some tips would be:
Bangkok:
1) Packaged tour is fine, as there are only a standard set of things to do in Thailand.
2) Convert only USD's here as Rupees conversion to Bhat kills you!
3) Dont take the elderely to Pattaya. I did try to avoid this, but the travel agent kept selling it to us and we went ahead.
4) Shop till you drop at MBK!
Bali:
1) Definitely go on a packaged tour.
2) Stay in Diwangkara, or anywhere in Sunnur beach. Its close to most of the interesting places.
3) Only convert USD's again. Rupees, or even Bhat's kills you here.
KL:
1) Avoid packaged tour in KL at all cost. The place is so small, with so few things to see, and an extremely well organized train network and taxi guys that behave just like the ones back home, it all can be easily done without a travel guide.
2) MBK in Bangkok and Bukit Bintang can be close shopping rivals!
3) If you want to go up the Petronas, get there not later than 7a.m!

Most important tip can be: Avoid Dexter travel agents. They were decent in parts, and that too because their counterparts in the SEA countries made up for their goofups, but Dexter on their own - very shitty.

Some highlights of the trip was:
Bangkok:
1) First time parasailing and under sea walk for me - brilliant experience
2) Alcazar show in Pattaya is a must watch
3) MBK mall - so many things you feel like buying here
4) Trying out Crocodile meat!
Bali:
1) Prettiest place I've ever travelled to
2) Watching surfers in real at Kuta beach
3) Most insane massage ever!
KL:
1) Shopping at Bukit Bintang
2) Longest cable car journey up to Genting - 3.4kms long

Basically it was a good trip. Think I'm completely done and dusted with South East Asia now! Mom has had enough of her "foreign trip". Dont think she'll ever want to go again. Although I'm really glad she went now itself and not any later. She would have hated it so much more later. Jeetu has had her share of shopping! Although I'm quite sure she would loved to stay back and do some more. Next time around, she will just chuck all the sight seeing, and stick only to shopping!

Andamans

Feb 9:

Woke up at 3 in the morning to head to Andamans. This was the only market that I would be going to by flight, and it was booked at this unearthly hour. Got to Port Blair by 6 and the day pretty much began then itself. Went to the depot there - Jadwet. Spent a lot of time understanding everything - from the history of Andamans to the history of Jadwet, from the proprietor of the depot - Mr. Mohammad Jadwet, who we soon got to know was a complete rockstar of a guy.
We were booked at a hotel called Fortune, where the rooms overlooked the water, and it was simply beautiful. Had lunch there, did some work on our laptops and then went for the RS meet that got over only at 11. It was indeed a very long day.
However, in between lunch and the RS meet, we squeezed a small visit to a beach called Wandoor for about 2 hours, and it was the most unexpected and amazing things we experienced.
The beach itself was white sand with felled trees because of the tsunami. Then we took a speed boat to a spot where another boat waited. This second boat had a glass floor so that we could see the sea bed, and this was the amazing part of the impromptu visit.
The corals and plants we saw were really awesome. All three of us kept staring at this. Then we spent a short while at an island there, the name I forget coz Murugesan was calling it something very complex.
Murugesan here was a complete laugh riot. He keeps saying the funniest things. He saw something in the water, and suddenly went running behind it saying "catch catch". It was such a funny sight. Then we went and saw what it was, and it was a Sting Ray. We had to tell him that it was one of those that even killed Steve Irwin! He left the poor thing alone after that, but not after managing to take a good photo with it. Murugesan and the camera are one deadly combination. He just goes ballistic taking photos with it. Especially those of his boss Bishakh. He shoots Bishakh staring at the water, staring at the sky, just about every last thing that Bishakh does! At one point, he was even shooting his footsteps in the sand! Murugesan even took some photos of mine, only they were my backside. Quite a few of them actually. Dunnno what his fetish for that was.
Bishakh wrote a "BB" in the sand and took a photo of it. Murugesan doesn't understand what it was, and asked him if it meant "bad boy"! Bishakh had to remind him that its his name, Bishakh Balakrishnan. Murugesan even came up with a name for photos against the sun, which typically shows only the sillhuettes of the people in the photo. He called them "blackie"!
He also has a tendancy to add "The' before everything. So its "THe Blackie photo", "The Bishakh".. So much, that we started calling him "The Murugesan". There can be only one of his kind!
After satiating ourselves with photos here, we got back to Port Blair for the RS meet. This was something everyone really enjoyed, as never have people from mainland come to acknowledge the work people at Andamans do for HUL, and it was indeed a very big market for us. So we told them how important they were to us, gave them awards, and had a nice dinner with all of them. It was a very nice experience, but a really tiring day. First day in Andamans, and worked 18 hours!



Feb 10:

Visited the biggest RS in Andamans - Vincent Traders, and realized the RS was in the worst shape one could find an RS! Salesmen being doubled as delivery boys, horrible godown, bad beat plans.. Spent a lot of time explaining things and tyring to get some corrections in place. Then visited an outlet of another RS - CCS, and saw more stock pressure of some of our products like Red Label and Squash, than anything I've ever seen in Chennai! It was stunning to see things like this here.
We had to wrap up the day by lunch, coz post that there was a ferry that was taking us to Havelock. Had lunch at a place called Lighthouse Residency, and though it was really small place, it served some of the best food we had. The fish was out of the world! Gobbled a lot of food there, and then boarded a ferry called Bambooka.
It was a regular ferry, but the only one at this time, as the more popular "Makruzz" ferry, co-owned by our very own Jadwet was plying only in the morning. However, we had the best seats in Bombooka, as an entire VIP lounge was booked for us, while the rest of the junta sat in the cattle class of over 100 seats. We enjoyed this trip. Stood out on the deck as well for some time, and Bishakh and I were just checking out these 2 really good looking firang chicks, and all of a sudden, they start making out!
Reached Havelock and there was a car waiting for us which took us to a beach called Radha Nagar beach where we were told to catch the sunset. This was by far the best beach I have ever seen. I would rate this right up with the vast white sand beaches of Karwar. The water was a brilliant colour, and it was so soft and inviting. It just dissappeared in the distance, merging perfectly with the sky. I just couldnt resist taking my clothes off and getting into the water. It was probably the best swim in a beach I've ever had. One could easily confuse it for just a big clean swimming pool!

After the sunset at the beach, we went to check in at Siver Sands resort. The place was really expensive, so three of us decided to share one singe cottage, as it was anyway big enough to house even five people in all! After checking in, we went to this hotel called Wild Orchid which is famous for its food, and had Red Snappers and Chicken. Really good food. I was having my usual whiskey and coke and Seema was having her usual Vodka and Organge juice. Since we both really wanted Bishakh to drink, and since he only has wine, and since Wild Orchid only serves wine in full bottles, we bought an entire bottle and did bottoms up on exquisite wine towards the end to wrap up dinner soon.
We had to wrap up soon coz first of all, 9 was the last order at Wild Orchid. Whole of Andamans is just on a different time zone. Lunch closes by 1, dinner by 9. It all goes with the sunrise at 5a.m and sunset at 5p.m. But more importantly, we had to close dinner soon as when I walked out to make a phone call, a couple on a bike asked me where a place called Coconut Groove was, coz there was a party happening there. So I went back and told Bishakh and Seema to wrap up soon so that we could go for the party. But by the time we went to Coconut Groove, it was 10, and too late for a party to be going on in Andamans! What a place.
So we just got back to our resort, and on the way, we were laughing at how we hadn't paid for anything at all. Ever since we came to Havelock, everything was taken care of, and we only needed to pay once we got back to Port Blair, at the offices these places had in Port Blair. In fact, the waiter at Wild Orchid even came and asked us if we need any cash, coz he was told that we only have cards, and may not have money for anything here. Too crazy! We were of course going to pay for everything booked for us here, even if it was a VIP lounge on the ferry that we normally may not have booked for ourselves, but to be taken such good care, that they'd even give us money to enjoy ourselves was a bit much.
Back at Silver Sands, we bought some bottles of beer, went and sat by the beach, drank and cracked jokes till way past midnight. We called it a night by around 1, coz we had to wake up and go snorkeling the next day.

Feb 11:

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Focus. Can't breathe through the nose. Focus. Have to force the breathe out of the mouth. Inhale. Shit, water in my mouth. Surface, surface. Take the tube out. Spit out the water. Open the goggles. Eye hurts. Salt water. Wipe my eyes, blow my nose, put the goggles back on. Put the tube into the mouth. Bite it. That's the technique. Alright, ready to do this again..
Man, I never thought snorkeling could be this tough! Woke up this morning with a splitting headache, took a bath, had a tea, and once the rock music quietened down in the head, went out and had breakfast. Then a small jeep ride to a beach adjacent to Silver Sands resort, and a long boat ride to a beach called Elephant beach. We kept wondering why we had to come so far, and the beach was so sad, with so many tourists. We were just not appreciating any of this snorkeling that we decided to do today.
To top it, I decided to go snorkel on my own. Told the guy I know how to swim. So he gave me a really uncomfortable life jacket and I was attempting this thing I was doing for the first time, and just not liking any of it. Gulping salt water, eyes burning. It was painful!
Just then, a fish swims right in front of me. It looked just like Nemo's friend. Wow! I just follow the sight of the fish, and suddenly, corals! Tons of them. Sea weeds, Water mushrooms, they were all sprouting in front of me. I was just cribbing this whole time, and suddenly, I was awestruck! This was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It was straight out of an NGC underwater expedition episode, only this time, right in front of my eyes. I forgot the ordeal the equipment was causing me and kept staring at the water bed. I resurfaced numerous times - to either adjust my life jacket, or spit out the salt water, or pour out the water that entered the goggles. But I kept at it, coz what I was witnessing was worth it and so much more. Our boat guy who was helping Bishakh and Seema came for me, and exchanged my life jacket with a water tube. He said it would be much more comfortable, which I soon completely agreed with, and also pointed me towards the place where the water bed became more astounding than ever. I snorkled for quite some time, and just before heading back, decided to try something adventurous. Let go of the water tube, dive to the bed, and pick a souvenir! Needed a lot of guts to do it. I am not that great a swimmer to manage myself back to shore without the tube. But I just had to do it.
So I did it. Took of my mouthpiece and made my way down. Grabbed the first coral I could get my hands on and came back up. The water tube had gone quite a distance away from me. I swam quickly towards it and caught it before I start to panic. Managed to do it, and then tried repeating the stunt and picking two morefor Bishakh and Seema, But I just didnt have the energy or probably even the balls to try it again. So I just swam back to shore, and realized this was quite painful. Used up pretty much my last reserves of energy to get back, and was thankful I didnt attempt the second round of coral picking.
The moment I got back, I walked towards the other two to tell them my valiant efforts of stealing a coral, and that's when Bishakh tells me that I was indeed stealing it, as its not allowed to take anything from the water bed here. In fact, the boat guy even took it and kept it aside as there were some officials on the beach and he said we'd get into trouble if he sees it with me. One official even came and spoke to us just 5 minutes later when we were changing, asking us how is life and telling us to conserve the place. He didnt notice the coral, but I decided to just drop it back in the water after all that. Managed to take one photo with it though - my big accomplishment in Havelock!
The boat journey back was quite painful. For one, I was really tired and was trying to sleep, and two, the boat kept rocking crazy this time, and water kept splashing on me. After getting back on shore, Bishakh tells us that he was contributing to the waves in splashing water on us, and neither Seema nor I noticed coz we were trying so hard to sleep. What a crazy guy! Ended up getting all my clothes wet, and I was as it carrying so few.
Back on shore, we got back to our rooms, took a much needed shower to get rid of all the grime that finds itself in strange places when you spend too much time in a beach, checked out, and had lunch at Silver Sands itself, as Wild Orchid closes at 1:30p.m for lunch. What a crazy place this is. Last night our last order for dinner was at 9p.m and today this! This place is just 2 hours hours ahead of the rest of the world!
Silver Sands lunch was really disappointing. The place is really nice, and the guy at the reception told us it is the biggest property on Havelock, but they have a long way to go with the food.
After lunch, we drove to an outlet of the RS CCS, and was shocked to see it. The kiosks at Radhanagar which were not under our coverage was so much better stocked with our products than this place. Worst part, he gets serviced only once a month and was carrying expired stocks!

After the brief market visit, went to the port and took the Makruzz - best ferry in Port Blair, so claim hoards of billboards all across Port Blair. Once again, we were given the best seats in the house. There was Delux, Premium and Royale! We get Royale. There are just 8 of them, in the 200 odd seater Makruzz. Jadwet really arranged all of this in style for us.
Got off at Port Blair to Murugesan and Jadwet waiting for us, and headed to Fortune to check in once again. Watched a sound and light show at the Cellular Jail and took a walk around the park next to it. All of it gave us a brief preview of the history of Andamans and it was good witnessing all of that. Then went to a hotel called Sinclairs which had a beautiful view of the beach. It overlooked a very famous beach in Port Blair called Corbyn's Cove. Dinner at Sinclairs was a mixed bag. Terrible starters, but awesome main course. Murugesan provided the entertained here as well. Started talking about all his girlfriends. His exact line was "once I was a playboy. I had one girlfriend doing pharmacy, one in arts, and one in science". What a guy! And he's telling all of this not to Bishakh or me, but to Seema! "The Murugesan" rocks.

Feb 12:
Flight out of Andamans was at noon, and we had a ton of things to do before that. Visit both the RS again, pay for all our expenses at Havelock, buy some souvenirs.. Thanks to everything in Port Blair being 5 minutes away from each other, we managed to complete everything well in time. In fact, we even had enough time to grab a bite at the airport hotel. We just had to have fish once again, and thankfully they were serving it there. The fish didnt disappoint, just like everything else at Andamans. The place, the hospitable people, the numerous things to see and do - Andamans is really one hell of a holiday destination. If only there were more than just a KF and IC flight, plying between more than just the Chennai and Kolkatta sector, at prices lesser than the 12k minimum they operate on, this place could really be a fabulous holiday destination - maybe even the best in India!

New Year 2010

I was at home in Kerala three days before New years, trying to figure out what to do on December 31. Kept thinking about the previous year and how much of a disaster it was! I was in Silvassa last year, and traveled to Bombay on the 31, just so that I could spend the night with my friends there. I did manage to meet Bangdu and Amit, but we went to a house party at Dev's and pretty much waited till the wee hours of the 1st morning for the party to even begin! Abhi and some others were out clubbing, and I ditched them thinking I could save some money and go for a simple house party itself, and also get to hang with Bangdu, Amit and Dev. Anyway, just didn't want a disaster this New Years as well. But the way things were going, it really did seem like this New Years too would be nothing short of a messed up one.
I actually wanted to try and ensure that this New Years went well, coz 2009 was really not one of my better years. There were some really big highlights, like finally going abroad - twice that too, getting the job I wanted, and so on.. But there was some real catastrophes in 2009. And they seemed to just be pouring down on me, especially in the last few months of the year. Only for that, I was really looking forward to starting off 2010 well and hoping that the rest of the year goes ok.
So Jeetu, Poonam and I decide to take a train on 30th and reach Bangalore on 31st. We got there by the afternoon. I made plans with all my friends there. Geeta had come down from Chennai and was staying with one of her friends Bobby in Bangalore. We all decided to catch up at night. I made a few calls, but realized places were too expensive (as usual) to party. So once again, we decided on a house party. Only difference was, this time, it was my own house. So I could try and ensure things go better. I met up with Geeta and Bobby in town around 8, and we went to Le Rock. Hung around there doing the Bangalore - rock music and beer, till about 10, after which the two of them went to church. Gopal and China joined me at Le Rock and we got pretty high.. By 11, we left the place, which was totally packed and happening by then! Never knew Le Rock to take that shape! Picked up Geeta Bobby from St. Patrick's and drove home. Now this drive was hilarious. China was at the wheel and scaring the daylights out of everyone with his already bad driving. Can't believe I'm saying that, considering I was the one who taught the nut to drive! And Gopal was in the back seat shouting for Kadlekai! Geeta and Bobby must have been completely scandalized by these two drunk goons. But I was trying my best to placate the situation and keep it fun.
We got home, and Pali and Munda were waiting there for us, along with all of Jeetu's friends. It was just 5 mins to midnight. only people missing were Sony, Asha and Sunil. Otherwise, the usual suspects were all there, and had a really nice time welcoming 2010 when it did. After that, I just showed the house to Geeta and Bobby, made drinks for everyone, gave Geeta the gift I'd bought for her with Jeetu's and Poonam's help in Thekkadi, and just had a nice time with everyone.
Geeta and Bobby left just after mid night, and I continued all the way till nearly 4 with the boys. Hari joined us around 2, and all of us stood in the balcony chatting away. It was really nice to be hanging with 5 of my school friends, 3 who are currently in the US in fact, and had come down on holiday.
We were ragging Pali solid as he had pierced both his ears. China gets ragged anyways! Hari was trying hard to behave American with his in-between accents. Gopal was the regular idiot he is. And Munda was the star, coming up with all sort of funny stuff. We were just thinking that this year is going to be quite a life changer for many of us. Good chance that Munda and Gopal, and maybe even China could get married. If things work out for Pali, even he might just tie the knot. I know Hari and I have a little way to go, but in many ways, this might as well have been the last time all 6 of us met up, just like the school buddies we've always been..
Anyway, we went for a drive at 4, dropped everyone off. Hari stayed over. Slept for an hour, and he went back to his place as well. I woke up around 8, got ready and went to see Arun's twins - Yohan and Izaac. It was really sweet that he's had twins. They were just 1 week old and looked adorable. Then from there, I met up with Geeta and Bobby and we drove to Chickmanglur. I'd been to this place in 2003 with Shiv, Praveen, Mukund and Tunu. We'd gone to Shiv's estates there, gorged on so much food, and had such a good time then. It was the only trip I had gone with that gang, apart from the Munnar trip we did with the entire college junta. I remember us planning so much to go on another trip, but it just never happened. And now, Mukund and Vikram are married, and Shiv is in the US and Praveen in Rajasthan. The gang's completely split. So much like my school friends. Its like all of us grew in Bangalore, and then just exploded to every other place on the planet. There's hardly anybody left in Bangalore, and that's why I hardly ever feel like going there anymore..
So the three of us drove to Chikmanglur. It was a very nice drive. With me doing the last 200 of the 300 kilometers - which almost seemed like it would never end, coz the roads just became really bad, the sun had gone down, and we'd taken a supposedly shorter route that showed us no milestones and we had no clue how far we were from the destination. We finally made it around 9. Checked into the hotel, which turned out to be a big disaster in itself, and went out for dinner at the CCD next to the hotel. CCD was just to refresh ourselves a bit. But the sandwich we had here was pretty much the dinner for the day. Coz we drove to the Taj after this, but the place was so expensive, and food so bad, that we wasted the lamb chilli that we ordered, and just had 2 shots of rum instead. In CCD, Bobby nicely messes up the new shirt I was wearing that Geeta gifted me, by trying to compete with me on who would pour the sauce out of the sachet on to her plate first, and the boy ended up squeezing it straight on to my shirt!

Spent some 20 minutes trying to get it out so that it doesn't stain the shirt, and after that, borrowed his sweater as I hadn't brought a change of clothes, and then, lived in that sweater till we got back to Bangalore, coz it was that comfortable!
Taj was a beautiful place we drove to. There was one particular section there, where we could see the Chikmanglur skyline, and it was a full moon night to add to the beauty of the place. It was really sweet hanging out there. But the dinner being disappointing killed it for us.. We got back around 2 and crashed out. Just before I slept, I noticed an SMS from Jeetu asking me to call her. I'd kept my phone off as it was running out of battery, and since I came up with nothing, even the charger was left behind. But I didn't reply to her thinking it was too late and thought I'd just call her in the morning. I'd diverted my calls anyway to Geeta's phone and knew that if it was urgent, they could call me, and get through. And call me they did, at 5a.m, when I was just planning to wake up, as we'd decided to getting up early and catching the sunrise. Sony was the one who called and said she, Jeetu and Sanu were in Chikmanglur! I obviously thought they were kidding at first, but the way she spoke, and given how nutty those 3 can be, I did believe they were there. So I washed up and drove to the bus stand which was really close to the hotel we stayed, and actually picked the three of them from there. Jeetu was talking of how they were so bored and didn't want to do nothing in Bangalore, and just went to the bus stop in the hopes of taking a bus to Pondicherry, and when they saw a Chikmanglur bus, and the conductor started telling them that it was the last bus out of there, they just hoped on and landed in Chikmanglur. Wat nuts!
Anyway, I was really glad they were there. Coz the previous night, I was actually supposed to meet up with them as Sony missed out on the New Year night party and we thought of catching up on the 1st. But then I had to leave with Geeta and Bobby on this trip, as this was pretty much the main reason Geeta had come down to Bangalore. But now, everyone was together, and we actually ended up having such an amazing time on the 2nd of Jan. It almost seemed like the New Years party was still just going on, and it was like the longest party we've been in!

The 6 of us took a drive, decided to go to Kemungundi, which was about 50kms away, but in terms of time, ended up taking us nearly 3 hours, thanks to the supremely bad roads. Bobby and Geeta could just never get the name of the place right. They called it everything from Kannangudi to even Kammanahalli! But never Kemungundi!
We reached Kemungundi completely worn out by about 1. Jeetu had done most of the ghat section driving and Bobby and I managed to grab our 40 winks. The entire journey we kept stopping and taking hazaar photos. There was one section where the view of the mountains was just unbelievable. It was so windy there that our clothes were flying all over the place. Then there was another spot where there was a lake and one single tree with beautiful red leaves in the middle of it. Then a waterfall place which was the crappiest waterfall we've ever seen, but the place made some of the best paratha and eggs we've ever had!
Overall, the journey to Kemungundi was the real highlight. Kemungundi itself was fairly quite boring. It was just one big garden kind of place. We just had lunch. Bisi Belle Bath! True Digga style! Then started off to Bangalore.

Just before leaving Kemungundi, all of us went in a line to the loo there. Bobby and I went first and we came out and told the rest, its not 'Pay and Use', its 'Pray and Use'! The place was just a small shed like structure. Geeta was trying to sound local and called it Sheddi! Bobby and I cracked up like crazy when she said that! We had to explain to her what it meant in Mallu. Geeta was a complete laugh riot actually. Bobby and I kept teaching her mallu words and told her things like Kaladhe means angel! But the funniest part was, she could just never say Kaladhe properly. She kept saying Kadale and things like that. Somewhere I think she even mixed up Kaladhe and Kemungundi!!
The journey back was once again quite tiring with me doing the last leg, coz Bangalore gets really crowded. We thought we'd reach by 7 itself, but instead got to Bobby's place only by 9. That was in spite of Jeetu's Michelle Schumacher driving that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. She did make good time, but we wasted it with a break we took at a highway CCD.
At Bobby's place, Geeta and I went and bought KFC for everyone, and we sat eating it with some alcohol. All 6 of us were so tired and just contemplating on our trip, and except for me and Sony, the rest pretty much looked like they were going to crash any minute. But we both really wanted to play Pictionary. So we started a conversation saying 'hey, look, there's a game here' 'wow, you know how to play?' 'cool, lets start'.. The rest required a bit of convincing, but thankfully they agreed, coz the next 2 hours was just too much fun. Pictionary can actually turn out awesome fun at times. So Bobby and my two sisters were in one team. Geeta, Sanu and me were in the other. We initially started kicking their ass, but Bobby and Jeetu soon figured the game, and being the competitive people they are, they got into it pretty strong. We came back towards the end, because Sanu also started actually contributing to the game and guessing and drawing right. But we were tied at the last point, and just like that, Bobby and his two women pulled the game away. The game was such good fun, and best part were all those hundreds of jokes in between, just like the way things were even during the trip.
The next day we just chilled out, and Geeta and I had a train to take to get back to Chennai. While sitting in the train, we were just thinking what a random, yet awesome this New Year turned out to be. And probably, the party is finally over only now. Coz we need to wake up, and go to office!