Lankan Sojourn

After visiting Leh during the Hemis Festival, and Cambodia during Songkran, it was now turn to visit Sri Lanka during the one of the only 2 festivals they celebrate in a year, the other being New Years, the Buddhist Vesak Festival.

There were certain drawbacks to travelling at this time, like clogged roads and an alcohol and non-veg food ban, but we figured ways around it, and ensured it was yet another exciting adventure.

First, some top lines about Sri Lanka:
* In spite of the wide coastline, it's Pork and Beef that's more popular here than seafood
* Order the "devilled" versions in the non veg dishes as often as possible - it's Sri Lankan for a deliciously spicy ensemble
* There is a massive 25% tax the government levies here - so carry enough LKR to get away paying in just cash wherever possible
* Visit the North East Coast, which is still virgin territory given LTTEs recent exit in 2009
* Try to pass off as Sri Lankan wherever possible. The difference between the rates charged for foreigners and locals is steep

April 30
Travelling to Sri Lanka is so simple that you don't feel like you've left the country at all, till you get out of the airport in Colombo that is. For one, the flight is a 2 hour direct Jet Air from Bombay, and with the exception of Tiger beer being served on board, is not too different from a flight to Delhi - the flight charge also being similar in some cases! For another, the visa process is so easy, that you just fill up a form online 24 hours before your flight, and you don't even need to show the print out of the acknowledgment at immigration, they just paste a little sticker which becomes your visa.
Anyway, we exited the airport and found our driver holding out a board with my name and the Unilever symbol on it. So the journey continued to look like a domestic one, in fact, like an official one, until he drove down the car that was to be ours for the next 4 days - a Toyota Prius! This is when it first struck us that we weren't in India, as Hybrids are not that popular yet in our country that probably needs it far more than our little cousin down south.
In fact, we were surprised to notice that most cars here were Toyota, Honda or Suzuki. It was modern day colonisation by the Japs!
We drove to Hotel Renuka, which was on Colombo 3, and while checking in, I searched on Zomato for places with words like Red, Sky, Cloud, Lounge, as Geet was mentioning few clubs with those words, and found one called Sky Lounge that turned out the perfect place to visit, as it was a club that offered a near 360 view of the city, great drinks and food, and most importantly, good party music!
The evening turned even better, when Geet's friends Yohan and Arthy decided to visit us in spite of the late hour, and hanging out with them over drinks and our first Sri Lankan dish, Devilled Chicken, was a great way to start off the trip.

May 1
The moment we got ready, I rushed to the Burger King just opposite our Hotel and packed a Beef Whopper and a Chicken Crunchy Burger. Was delighted to finally eat a classic BK Burger, which the Indian versions have completely spoiled for me. What I genuinely admire about the BK Burger is how it holds itself together till the last bite, unlike many other burgers that crumble around your fingers while eating it.
While I was purchasing the burgers, I noticed our Hotel was just next to the Colombo coastline. Unfortunately we didn't have too much time to check it out as we were running late for our long trip to Habarana via Kandy.
We reached Kandy in the comfort of our Prius, with our driver Mohan, at about 3pm, by when we were craving some lunch. Mohan stopped at a roadside restaurant called Food Court where we thought we may get some authentic Sri Lankan food, but the dilapidated joint was actually serving Chinese! To top it, they had just had one dish, which was their lunch meal option, and given it was too late to try and check out another place, we decided to dive in. It was Chicken Fry, Fried Rice, Shrimp Pickle and Cabbage Gravy, all rolled in one single plate. Geet and I ordered just one plate and just about managed to finish it between both of us. We were thinking just as we finished the meal, that this must definitely be the cheapest Non-Vegetarian meal we have had outside India, coz the plate cost just 100INR! Anyway, this was completely made up with the amount we spent on Food and Stay the next few days.

Mohan next took us to the Tooth Relic temple, just opposite the Kandy Lake, the 2 main attractions of this city. We learnt some history about Buddha’s one tooth that fell from his burning pyre, being saved over centuries, and now lies buried beneath 7 bells at this very temple. There were loads of Buddhist monks who went about their prayers as tourists took their photos here, which is very typical of Monks everywhere, and after a lot of photos of the temple and lake ourselves, we headed towards Habarana.

We reached Cinnamon Lodge at Habarana at about 8pm and were checked into a deluxe suite that they upgraded us to, and it was one of the fanciest places we have stayed in. Bathtub, Queens bed, big screen TV with Sony Six, the works!

After a quick shower, we hit the restaurant and planned to order a light a la carte until we noticed the buffet spread. It was the biggest spread we had ever seen, and for 1500INR per person, we knew this was a feast we cannot just surpass. So I got the JDs coming, Geet got the Mohito's coming, and we sat by the pool for the feast of the trip. Grilled Lamb chop, Peking Duck, Grilled Pork Belly, Appams, Chicken Curry, Shrimp Salad, Thai Beef, Crab Chilly, Fish Fry.. The list was endless, and the most amazing part, each and every dish tasted delicious. It's very rare for a buffet to have more than a few dishes that taste good, and this one has such a massive variety, and still scored everywhere!
We ate till we were completely satiated, and only then called it a night.

May 2

We started the day early as we were recommended to trek up Sigriya Rock before it gets too hot. So we tried having breakfast at 730am, but managed very little giving the misgivings of the previous night. However, the next 3 hours burnt all that food and a lot more, coz we climbed 200mts to the peak of this Unesco heritage site of SL, which was an architectural wonder when it was built back on 400BC. From the top, we got a beautiful view of the city, a giant Buddha on one side, and forests on the other. The best part of this trek was that Geet made it too. In spite of her vertigo and general laziness, she still punched through and was there to enjoy the view from the top together.

Sigriya forts entry was 1000INR per person, and for SL local, just 20INR. One consolation is that SAARC country members still pay only half of the other tourists, but it was still too steep for us. So a tip here is to try and speak some Tamil, keep your driver with you if required, and try to pass of Sri Lankans. We anyway look the same, and can avoid paying these steep tourist fares that are charged at most places.

The next stop was Dumbella Golden Temple, which is supposed to be the largest Buddha statue in the world with that posture. Few photos later, we hit a local restaurant, where the waiter insisted we order the Devilled Beef instead of Beef Fry, and it was here that I realized the Devilled is Sri Lankan for their best House dish. So we pretty much kept ordering this over the rest of the trip, and it never failed to impress. We had this Beef dish along with the buffet, which were Chicken Curry, Fish Curry, Veg Kurma and Greens Sambhal. I couldn't have the last 2 dishes, given how filled I was with the Beef, and even the local beer, Lion Lager, which we tried out here for the first time on the trip, didn't help improve my appetite much.
We got back to the room after this and just crashed out till the evening. We were supposed to go for a safari at 5pm, but the charge of 4000INR coupled with our fatigue with the day's trek led us to cancel those plans and simply hit the swimming pool instead.
There was a beautiful full moon above us, in a pool that was warm, well lit and incredibly clean in spite of the number of people in it. Geet continued practising her kicks, while I got my 5 standard laps done, before it began to rain and had everyone except for a bunch of noisy kids quickly exiting the pool.
Once we showered, we decided to indulge once again in the mammoth spread. This time though, we brought our own beer from the room which we purchased earlier from a Grocery in order to avoid paying 3 times its cost at the Hotel. The waiters were fuming when they saw us with the beer, but given we got to know them the previous night, just let it slip by, as we gorged on more meat, Appams and other delicacies for the night, which was somehow a completely different ensemble from the previous day. That's how incredible Cinnamon Lodge was.

May 3
We woke up to the celebrated Mayweather Pacquio boxing match today morning which we watched over breakfast, after which we packed, took some farewell photos of the property, and headed towards Trinco. The Virgin beaches on the East coast, portions of SL that began seeing tourists only after the LTTE ousting in 2009. We reached our Hotel, Anilana Naliveli, and realised we had the best room they had on offer for us. It had a balcony the size of our hall back in Bombay, a view of the infinity pool overlooking the Indian Ocean right from our bed, and a bathroom you could literally place a King sized bed in.We took a lot of photos of the room itself before stepping out to the beach restaurant and grabbing lunch, which was Devilled Pork for me and Fish and chips for Geet. 

The Pork again was probably the best I've ever had, and after filling ourselves, crashed in our room before taking an evening walk under the full moon on the cleanest white sand beach we've seen.
We closed out the day with room service, as the buffet spread didn't look as interesting as what we've been eating at Habarana, and besides, really wanted to go easy on the food for a change.

May 4
Post a light breakfast at the Hotel, we took a boat ride to Pigeon Island, the main attraction of Trinco, and accessible from the very beach, Nilaveli, where we were staying. Tamil speaking boatman Siddique gave me the ride of my life, not on the boat, but while snorkelling, when he took me to a section in the water where I suddenly see a shark right in front of me! Now I've seen too many reruns of Jaws and Deep Blue Sea, to know what a shark looks like, and the fins and gills on this one was conspicuous. The only consolation was the fact that this one seemed to be a baby shark, as it was just as long as I was tall. So I tried being brave, and swimming on, but that's when I see another, and then another, until I had 4 of them swimming around me at one point. Images from the movie Beach now started whirling in my head, and I was freaking out enough to turn back. But just as I was trying to signal Siddique to back up, he started tugging me further to the deep end. I began imagining the baby sharks mommy is what he was trying to show me, and I didn't want any of it. So I forcefully abscised myself from him started swimming back. Once back on shore, he tells me that he was trying to show me a turtle, apparently a rare sight in these waters, and where "vellaikara’s” pay good money to come and take a look. I was perfectly fine skipping a turtle sighting, as I thought I just faced a near death experience. Once I walked back to where Geet was waiting, even she first asks me if I managed to sight a turtle, as some of her friends said it’s the best thing to do here. I was so annoyed that everyone on this island feels the turtle is the thing to see, and think nothing of the world’s greatest water predator that I just encountered here.

It was only later, while talking (in Tamil!) to some of the locals on Pigeon Island did I figure that these were “Black Sharks” that I saw, which are actually the harmless versions of the ones we see in movies, those celebrities being the “Great White Sharks”. This new knowledge, coupled with the fact that the same place where I was swimming alone with Siddique now was infested with foreigners made me feel pretty silly about getting so scared and swimming back to shore. But in any case, I still enjoyed swimming with the sharks, and it will remain the highlight of this trip for me, apart from that gastronomic adventure at Habarana!

We then began our drive from Trinco back to Colombo at about 11am, and the drive time was supposed to be just 5 hours. So Mohan kept stopping at different places en route to pick up stuff for his family, and it gave us the chance to experience some local cuisine like Dahi with Honey, Sri Lankan Mango and Coconut, and roadside Roti with Tomato pickle. We even stopped at a Zam Zam restaurant for lunch, which are small “tapirs” that I have seen all around Chennai and always wanted to visit, and finally managed to hit one here. It’s a different concept of dining, where the waiter will bring a big plate of Naan’s and Appam’s, and you have how much you want from it with whichever side dish you can order separately, and he will take the remaining back and charge only for the ones you ate. Quite an esoteric concept to experience, with food that once again tasted great!

We continued on our journey, which ended up taking nearly double the originally intended time, as we reached our Hotel in Colombo only by 9pm. This was because the roads were clogged with Vesak celebrations, and because Geet and I weren’t the ones driving, and given the car was a comfortable Prius, it wasn’t an altogether painful experience, as we got a complete local flavour of Sri Lanka, which is quite rare for tourists who are typically only shown the touristy side to countries they visit. People standing in line in front of a tall and heavily lit Buddha’s statue, other people serving them Tea while the stand there, local songs being sung, all of it was really nice to observe. We saw some tourist spots also, like the Kanniya Hot Wells which are small Hot Springs, and a Konneswaran temple, which is a rare Shiva temple to visit in these parts.

Altogether, the last day gave us a unique flavour of Colombo, which was a fitting farewell for this quick Lankan Sojourn.

Icelandic Winter

March 29

One of the first things that hit you about Iceland is the flight to Reykjavik itself - Icelandair has the next best in-flight entertainment to Emirates, with USB charging, wide screen, and so much content before taking off, that you don't get bored for a second from the moment you enter the flight. Some of the points I noted from the entertainment system in the flight was:

·         Iceland has the highest waterfall (Gulfos) and the largest glacier (Vatnajokul) in Europe

·         Words like “heck”, “berserk” and “geyser” are originated from places in Iceland

·         There are 126 swimming pools, that's 1 for every 2500 Icelanders 

·         50% of them believe in Elves and most can trace their origin back to the initial settlers (Vikings)

The next thing that hits you is the water! The sulphur content in the water is so high here that it takes you to your biology class when you prepared H2S in the lab and had everyone cringing because of the smell. 

Next on the list is the weather. Icelanders normally say that if you don't like the weather, give it 5 minutes. And that's absolutely true, because the weather can go from sun to snow to rain and back to sun in about 5 minutes.  

The moment I stepped out of the flight in Reykjavik, it was snowing, and that was the first snowfall I had witnessed. It wasn't on the top of the things that I wanted to do on this trip, but it was definitely something I've been waiting to do for a long time and happened to be the first thing that greeted me when we got out. 

We got out without immigration at the Reykjavik airport as the check happened in Paris itself, and it was all internal flights after that. Figured our bus ride and got to our apartment which was a self check in type where you don't have a reception, and simply have to punch in the code that was sent to you by mail. This was another first and a neat experience. 

Soon we got unpacking, had the food that Geet's mom sent with the Gull beer that Naan picked at the airport, and it was the lent breaking moment for me, which was apt coz there was church right outside our apartment that I managed to say a short prayer to and get back to regular hedonism after over a month of abstinence. 

We then crashed for a bit and rushed to the rendezvous point for our first Northern Lights tour, but landed at IST and the tour promptly left without us. Taught us to not remain Indians and switch to non-IST mode if we have to ensure no more gaffes likes this for the remainder of the trip. 

So we made up with a drink at a restaurant called Bravo, which came after a lot of hunting at Downtown Reykjavik for a good place to pub since it was really quiet given Sunday night. Bravo offered a DJ, a pretty ambience, and some crowd, that some of the other Tripadvisor recommended places like Kaldi Bar, Chuck Norris Grill, Lebowski Bar and Dhillon lacked. So we sat there for a while and had an Icelandic beer each and cabbed it back to our apartment. 

March 30

We began the day by preparing Bru that Naan was looking forward to and waiting for Lael to land. 

She soon got to our apartment in an i30 she rented from the airport, and we used that to drive to Blue Lagoon, which was our agenda for the day. 

Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa in Iceland, and the best of the 126 such geothermal pools available in the country by a long shot. This is because the experience you get here is unparalleled. First of all, its a natural 2-5feet deep pool which is at a temperature of ~40 when it is near sub-zero outside. The entire pool is surrounded by ice capped mountains, and there is natural silica that you can pick off the rocks and apply to your face as a mask, and to top it all, you are served beer right in the pool itself! There are other things to keep your fancy like an in-water massage, an artificial waterfall you can stand under, and a natural steam room made of hot rocks! The entire concept is fantastical, and easily the best spa experience one could get anywhere on the planet!

After chilling till our fingers went numb, we drove to Downtown Reykjavik for dinner, and randomly selected a restaurant called Old Iceland coz it looked quaint and didn't have images of fries and burgers put up outside which Naan indicated is a clear sign for touristy international cuisine, which is not what we were looking for. 

Old Iceland turned out to be a fantastic restaurant where we had our first Icelandic meal, and later got to know that it was actually among the top 10 restaurants from Tripadvisor. I had Steak, which was the next best after Goucho in London. Geet had Fish Pasta, Naan and Lael had the Lamb and all of us enjoyed our food. The Lamb here had a slightly different taste that Naan seemed to really enjoy, but was somewhat a bit too much rare meat for me to take in. Avoiding the lamb was a perfectly fine thing to do, as the fish was all fresh and amazing, and there were tons of other dishes like whale and shark and horse meat that we tried in due course. 

March 31

Our 2 day tour to East Iceland was to start at 830 and we got ready promptly to avoid any further mishaps. We were picked up by Diddi from Extreme Iceland Tours who was our driver and guide for the next 2 days and began our long journey East as he regaled us with stories from Iceland. One of them was about Mount Heckla, from which the word Heck comes from, which basically means "Hell". This mountain is an active volcano that erupts every 100 years, and last erupted in 1918 and therefore should be blowing up anytime now. But back in the day, people believed this to be the very place where the Devil himself stayed, hence the name Heckla, and folks believed this till 2 young Icelandic adventurers climbed the mountain to look down at the crater, and when they came back, their Danish authorities asked them if they saw the Devil, and because Iceland was a Danish colony back then, these guys replied saying yes they saw the Devil, but wasn't Icelandic, it was Danish. 

Iceland became a sovereign Republic around the same time India became independent, and before that it was a Danish colony for a long time and a Norwegian colony for even longer before that. 

Today Iceland is a country of 3lac people on its own, with Tourism as its biggest industry, followed by Fishing and IT. The lack of military is indirectly another source of income, and Iceland is one of those rare countries that has absolutely no army navy or airforce, and only depends on NATO for protection from pirates and things. We hardly saw any police as well in the country, which is again odd for a place that is supposedly very safe. 

Anyway, through all of these stories, Diddi took us to 2 waterfalls and a wonderful black sand beach before we reached Hotel Gerdi where we were spending the night, and saw one of the most spectacular sunsets this evening here. Soon we started socialising with the folks from our tour over dinner, and stayed up for a while in the hopes of catching the Northern Lights. But slowly people started trickling to their rooms and by about midnight we gave up on the Lights as well and crashed. 

April 1

I woke up to a beautiful view from our room. Something I hadn't noticed the previous night, but in the morning, what we saw was the Atlantic Ocean with the sun rising from it, right outside our window. I woke Geet up with a start saying I could see the Aurora, and when she came rushing, I called "April Fool" and got back at her for being the first one to fool me for the last few years on April Fools Day. 

Well, we got ready after that and reconvened with the rest of the group over breakfast and learned that nobody managed to catch the Aurora the previous night. Feeling content that we didn't miss much, we began our journey to Vatnajokul, the first of the three National Parks at Iceland that we visited over the trip. 

We were given an entire gear; helmets, axe and crampons, which we suited up and began our hike on the glacier with Diddi leading us. It was the typical walking on snow in a straight line you see on NGC, and we were at it for about 2 hours, meandering through crevices and caves on the glacier, before getting to the nearby town called Vik for much needed lunch. 

I tried out the Fish and Chips here, and they were by far the best we've had. Naan who normally avoids Fish, ended up enjoying this as well. 

We continued on our journey, seeing Icelandic Horses, visiting the Eyjafletlajokul mountain which erupted in 2010 causing all those flight delays across Europe given the ash storm that covered the skies, and somewhere around 7pm, our bus broke down. 

Diddi managed to flag another bus that could only fit in 8 people and we were 14 of us. So we 4 decided to stay back along with another American couple. 

We had our Whiskey flasks that we purchased in Bombay filled with “Yoki” whiskey, which was the local Icelandic malt that Naan had picked from duty free when we landed, and decided to drink that with some short eats that all of us carried to kill time. 

The breakdown turned out to be a good thing coz 2 things happened. One, we managed to prolong our trip enough to have enough night time driving to spot the Aurora. Two, Diddi took a lot more interest in showing us the Aurora this time around given he felt guilty for screwing up with the bus. 

So by around 9pm that night, after the bus was fixed and we were en route, Diddi stopped at a place that was freezing cold, but where we managed to catch our first Aurora Borealis experience. 

It was not that easy to spot; quick waves of greyish tinge in the sky, that we managed to capture through prolonged exposure on the camera, but struggled to do it given it was freezing outside. But after sometime under the Aurora sky, everyone ran back inside the bus to get some warmth and we were pretty soon on our way back, the Aurora following us every now and then till we hit Reykjavik where the city lights and closed cover blotted it out. 

April 2

In spite of reaching home only by midnight, we had to get out by 745am on this day for the Golden Circle Tour that we booked. We skipped dinner the previous day, and rushed through some croissants for breakfast before starting off. 

The operator was Grayline this time, and the guide John was a poor show compared to Diddi. 

We covered Thingvellir National Park, where we could see the actual divide in the American and Eurasian tectonic plates that run right in between Iceland, the Gulfos waterfall, which is the largest waterfall in Europe, and finally, Geysir, a place from where we get the word Geyser, and a natural hot spring that simply blew my mind away with the bursts of water from the ground in the Strokkur crater section at Geysir. 

Lots of interesting things to see on this trip, which is recommended as the top Tour to do at Reykjavik, but Grayline is an operator I would recommend avoiding. 

After 3 hectic days of travel, we all wanted to just go out and have dinner at a really nice place and crash for the night as we didn't have any plan for the next day. 

So we suited up, and hit downtown Reykjavik, with a plan to dine at Grillmarkadurinn which came top recommended for Icelandic food on Tripadvisor. But once we got off the cab, Geet pointed to a restaurant that John had called out earlier in the day as a classic Icelandic restaurant and we decided to check it out, and the view of the candle lit tables from outside, with an interesting menu on display sold Laekjabrikka to us, and an amazing dinner followed. We had Whale skewer, Lamb with Apple and Dried Shark as starters, Horse Steak, Fresh Fish, Duck for main course, and Lava cake and Skyr (Icelandic Yogurt) for dessert. It was the epitome of a scrumptious meal!

April 3

All of us woke up really late, getting the much needed rest we were craving, then prepared our own breakfast, which was Lael teaching me how to prepare Bacon, which turned out to be the crunchier tastiest bacon I've had, and the rest of us pitching in with Bread Toast and cut fruits. 

After a lazy breakfast that finished only by about 2pm, we decided to step out and visit Blue Lagoon once again. I researched on other Geothermal pools in Reykjavik, but somehow, none of them seemed to be as classy as Blue Lagoon. So we cabbed to Hertz, picked our Kia SUV that was to be our ride for the remainder of the trip, and drove to Blue Lagoon. We stopped at a spot where we halted even the last time, and noticed that the entire landscape has changed in these 3 days given the rains that had poured in between. All the snow was gone and the green land mass was now visible. 

At Blue Lagoon we learned another new thing this time, that the service is just amazing. We had to wait 2 hours to get into the pool given the holiday (it was Good Friday), and one of the guys who helped us, gave us wrist bands that we exchanged for free beers at the pool. That was incredibly nice of them. The whole experience at Blue Lagoon with its automated lockers, tasty Tandoori Chicken Paninis, beer in the pool, naturally heated water and saunas were all something we couldn't get tired of in spite of doing it for the 2nd time on the trip. 

Once we got back, we quickly changed and hit Downtown Reykjavik for dinner, but realised that most places were already closed and it was only dance clubs that were waking up at this time. But since we were hungry, we walked around asking for a restaurant, and found 3 people having a smoke outside a place called K-Bar, who started off by directing us to some pizzerias that had only a small probability of being open, but eventually asked us to enter K-Bar itself as they didn't want us to go hungry. The 3 of them turned out to be the bartender, waitress and chef of that restaurant they were standing out of, and reopened the place pretty much for us, and served Lettuce Wraps with Chicken and Rice which was the only thing available, and all of us just gobbled it up given how hungry swimming at the spa made us, and how incredibly tasty this unassuming dish and restaurant actually was. Iceland was truly a place we began loving at this point. 

After another hearty meal, we decided to visit a club now, but the moment we entered the car, I fell asleep, and ended up choosing Downtown as the destination again on the map, and that had Naan driving in circles till he realised I was completely wasted for the night, and allowed Lael to do the rest of the navigation and got us back to our rooms. Clubbing was just not on the cards given our fatigue, the time surpassing Cinderella's curfew, and the copious food we had by this time. So it was back to our beloved apartment for one last night before we were to check out the next day. 

April 4

We just about managed to check out at the stipulated 10:30am on this day, with me fixing breakfast for everyone, which was scrambled egg and toast with fruits, and began the journey to Snaefellajokul National Park, the 3rd and last of the National Parks Iceland had to offer us. 

We drove to a town called Grundarfjordur, right next to the Park, which was the smallest town one could visit. It had one grocery store, which had one cafe, which had one coffee machine, and that one coffee machine wasn't working. So since we couldn’t grab coffee and our rooms were taking another hour to be ready, we drove to the one restaurant in the town and had lunch here while watching Arsenal whoop Liverpool on a big screen that was set up here which a bunch of local folk enjoying the favourite European pastime. 

We ordered pizzas and burgers and had them with fresh draught Viking beer, and once satiated, bought some groceries and checked into our cozy little studio apartment. 

We slept the afternoon and decided to go out for a party that was to be happening at the one restaurant that planned to turn into the one club for the night. But a few shots later, we were too tired, drunk and sleepy to make it, and decided to just use the groceries which I'd bought earlier to prepare a quick fix dinner of bread and noodle that actually turned out pretty tasty. 

April 5

We began our drive back by 11am as we needed to reach Reykjavik on time to drop Lael at the airport. Stopped at a cafe en route where the waitress was really excited to see us as she had visited India and went to places like Varanasi and Wayanad where even we hadn't been. Some coffee and pastries later, we continued on our journey, seeing more stunning sights of the river, fields and mountains all around. We tried visiting a place called Berserkejahraun, which is a lava field with a huge crevice in the middle, which was apparently created by 2 Viking brothers called Berserkers who created the crevice as a path in between the lava field to impress the father of the girl they were both in love with. However, the father buried them in the same lava field as they were guys out of control, and hence the term “going berserk” originating from here. We couldn’t really get to see the place as we were relying on Google which is always awry at the last 200-300 metres, and hence just stopped at some interesting waterfalls and frozen lakes on the way, before taking the impressive 5 mile underwater tunnel once again before getting back to Reykjavik.

We finally reached the airport well in time, and ate at the Joe and the Juice centre where Geet and I ate at the Copenhagen stopover on the way here, and the Spicy Tuna and Joes Chicken Paninis we had here were really tasty. So much so, that it was the first time Geet had Tuna, which was one more of her adventurous pearls during this trip as she normally never experiments with food.

Overall the trip offered some amazing food. For a change, Geet was not held down to just croissants and fruits, but actually enjoyed good Chicken and Fish that was offered here. Naan was completely loving the Lamb here and ordered that at nearly every chance he got. I was enjoying all the different types of meat that you probably cannot get anywhere else. 

So after dropping Lael and getting some sleep, we went to Downtown for our last meal of the trip before we were to fly out ourselves the next day. This time, we searched and dined at Grillmarkadurinn itself, and the restaurant really deserved to be one of the top rated on Tripadvisor. The interiors were designed with all things unique to Iceland - lava rocks, pillar stones, green grass with snow covers, and the waiters were real friendly chatting us up and offering tips for the food we were ordering. 

We had the Horse Steak, Duck, Lamb and Beef this time, but I personally didn't find the food as good as Laekjabrikka and seemed to prefer the veggies Geet was having. Guess it was an overdose of meat over the trip for me, and probably an apt time to be having the last meal at Iceland this night.

April 6

As we drove to the airport in the rented Kia, just as we were reminiscing about the past week here, the sky suddenly lit up with a bluish tinge of the Aurora. It was a far spectacular sight compared to the one we were struggling to capture during our tour, with the colours brighter and the spread thicker. Unfortunately, we were late for our flight, and couldn’t really stop for some photos, but the sight of the Aurora tailing us, as if to bid goodbye to a bunch of tourists whose main purpose of the trip was to catch these lights, was of paramount significance.

A great way to bid adieu to another great trip. 

Nasik, Sulafest, Feb 7-8, 2015

Saturday, February 7

We have always thought of visiting Nasik for Sulafest, and somehow ended up skipping it for the last 3 years that we have been in Bombay. This time too we nearly missed it as Geet fell very ill the previous week and had not completely recuperated by this day. But we decided to take a chance anyway, and made a visit to the Sulafest that we were cursing ourselves for not making it these last few years.

I woke up at 5:30am itself with all the excitement about the travel, and really wanted to leave before the irritating Bombay traffic started at 8:00am, but by the time we actually left, it was 8:09am, and I was thinking this is going to delay all our plans for the day, as we were to pick up Parul and Shreyansh and then coordinate with Mallika and Nikhil and tail them in their car. But thankfully, traffic was a bit slow to start, as even Bombay get tired by the 6^th day of the week I guess, and we managed to pick up P&S by 8:45am, just 15 minutes after our rendezvous time.

En route, we even caught up with NJ, Sushim, Payal and Bangdu who were hotboxing peacefully and driving, and all of us had a stopover at a place called Midway, which was just about mid-way from Bombay to Nasik. All of us were pretty high by then, and ordered a ton of food, all of which tasted fantastic. Mallika came up with one of her pearls here, when she said that the Squirrel character in Ice Age kept losing his nut, and it was probably a way for the makers of the movie to keep telling us that we must be out of our nuts to be watching this. Never really thought about it as “losing your nut” for the poor Squirrel in the movie until M mentioned it.

After downing Poha, Omelet Pav and Vada Pav, which came exactly in that order, as that is how these guys placed the order with the waiter, we had Coffee that I actually exclaimed tasted very different for Tea. Mallika was quick to pounce on me to say that this is actually coming from the Coffee Brand Manager! All I could say was that I was probably too high to make out the difference.

After a good time together, we hit the road, this time with Nikhil driving our car and Shreyansh and I sitting in it. I was in the backseat, and dozed off instantly, and just didn’t feel like getting up when we reached Mallika’s grandparents house in Nasik where we were to spend the night. I woke up grudgingly thinking I will sleep once I find a bed inside the house, but we walked in to a place that wasn’t cleaned for over 2 years! There were actually newspapers covering the furniture with a date of September 2012 lying around. So I had to wait till the maid came in and cleaned up the place, and in the meantime, Mallika was giving away some chocolates she got for the neighbours, and I was having such a craving for chocolates, that P&S decided to go out and get some for me as M didn’t let me have any of the ones she got for the neighbours, and instead of Crackle or Nutties, P actually brings Kitkat, which is more a wafer than a chocolate actually! Anyway, ate what was available, and then quickly changed to hit the Sulafest that already began at 2pm and we were leaving only by 4pm.

We drove to a point where the cars were being parked, and we were to take a bus from here to the main venue. This was when I first got a glimpse of the crowd visiting this place – loads of hot girls in very little clothing! It was stunning to see something like this in India.

We quickly parked, sent the girls by the bus, and we guys walked to the entrance. There we had to figure a way to sneak our smokes in, and Geet came to the rescue, placing one pack in her shades case, and another inside the pocket of her jacket, and peacefully managed to sneak it in. We were given arm bands of different colours depending on whether you were visiting for 1 or 2 days, and I got our 2 day band, which of no use, since Geet and I planned to get back on Sunday itself, given she had a flight to Kolkata on Monday morning, and more importantly, still recovering from here illness.

Once we got it, we checked out a section where they were serving wine for Rs. 300 a glass, and P had an idea to buy a bottle itself from inside and drink out of that, and that turned out to be a brilliant idea, coz they had an offer where 2 bottles – one White Wine called Reisling, and another Red Wine called Zinfandel were being sold for Rs. 1250 together. We bought one pair, picked plastic glasses from the bar, found a place just outside, which was a little lawn overlooking the vineyard, spread our mattress on the grass, and chilled out for the next few hours.

There was even a guy selling packed food coming to us, which ensured none of us had to get up for anything apart from taking a leak, and we spent a few blissful hours in that area chatting and taking photos. The 2 wine bottles finished quite fast, and the rest of the evening was spent continuously refilling them, and we actually finished the night with 9 bottles between the 6 of us!

Anyway, after the sun had set, we decided to get to the amphitheatre where bands were performing, and made our way there and then looked out for Bangdu and the rest, and once we caught up with them, found a nice spot just a few feet in front of the stage, which was pretty awesome given the crowd that was actually there. But the entire ambience was so bohemian, that people were just sparsely spread around, and everyone just chilling with their wine. The music just added to the flavor, with a Cuban band playing salsa music. Geet and I tried out our cha cha cha steps, and all of us partied into the night.

The music died at 10:30pm, after which we snaked our way back to our cars, me barely awake. We had called 2 drivers to drive our cars back, courtesy Shashank who is currently the Factory Manager at Nasik, who safely took us back to our place.

Sunday, February 7

I woke up with a start at 8am, thankful for quite a few things in this order – had a blanket over me, my nose was not blocked with a cold that I usually get after drinking wine, Geet was sleeping next to me, my phone and wallet were lying closeby.. With this, I tried to go back to sleep, but wasn’t really happening, so I woke up, as usual being the first and only person awake wherever I am and went out to buy some Tea, which was probably the freshest you could find, coz the cows were just behind!

Spent the rest of the morning sitting out at the balcony, cooking some Vitamin D for myself with the morning sun, and reading the last few pages of Shantaram from Bala’s Kindle. I couldn’t really have asked for a better start to the day.

The rest soon got ready, and we started off to Igatpuri to lunch at a place called Manas Resort. However, it was only fixed Thali here and no Butter Chicken that everyone wanted, so continued ahead to land at a place called Dalvi Darbar which was quintessential Dhaba minus the beer. Some of the best Butter Chicken we had there, with spicy Chilly Chicken, and the tastiest Boondi Raitha I have ever had! Geet came up with one of her pearls this time, but asking for a “bilkul chotti half roti”.

After a good heavy meal, I handed over the driving to Shreyansh and Parul, and the 2 of us got in the backseat and crashed for a bit. We soon dropped S off at Thane from where he took a bus to get to Pune, and we bid adieu to M&N as well.

Got home shortly thereafter, continuing to feel thankful, this time for the fact that we had friends like M who actually had a house in Nasik, and P who managed to get Shashank to book the drivers for us, and most importantly, for Sulafest, such an amazing event so close to Bombay, with hot crowd, bohemian music, great wine, and an overall ambience that can sincerely rival even Oktoberfest!

Panchgani – New Years 2015

Prelude:

This was a New Years we just couldn’t plan in advance, as Geet and I didnt know our work schedules given we moved roles towards the end of the year and unclear of how our schedule in the new roles would be. In spite of having sufficient holidays left, we realized a little too late in the year that we could still use them, and then went in search of holiday destinations that was still affordable - and none worked out, obviously!

Flights to Sri Lanka were 30k+, flights to anywhere in India, including Goa and Jaipur were close to 20k, room rates after that was also steep, so going anywhere far just didn’t work out. It had to be someplace closeby, someplace we could just drive to.

And this was when Sagar called me to check on New Year plans, and given we had none, and he was planning to organize one at a Bombay getaway like Panchgani/Mahabaleshwar, it just made perfect sense to tie in with him.

In the next few days, the destination was finalized as Panchgani, since he was able to coordinate with an agent to procure a guesthouse over New Years here. The cohort was also finalized - Sagar, Disha, Nikhil, Mallika, Parul, Shreyansh, Geet and I.

This worked out very nicely as 4 couples for a guesthouse with exactly 4 rooms! 
The plan was on!

December 31:

I flew in from Bangalore on 30^th night after being there with Geet since December 24^th, and it was a much needed relaxed stay at home that I’ve sort of been craving for in the longest time. Geet herself got back on 28^th itself given some meetings she had in Bombay, so I was all by myself, and got to spend good time hitting the gym, watching TV, eating home food, and most importantly, chatting with the people I havent spent as much time as I should have through this year - the 3 generation ladies of Amchi, Mom and Jeethu.

After landing in Bombay post mid night, I went to Geet’s parents place where she was staying, and planned to wake up at 5am in order to get to our place, pack, and leave by 630am along with Disha to Panchangi – this was the plan Sagar and I decided on before I took off from Bangalore, as he said he would be coming with Nikhil and Mallika post lunch on that day (Parul and Shreyansh were to join us from Pune). However, there was a change in plans within those few hours I was in the flight, and this was just a teaser to how fluid the plans turned out the rest of the trip.

So the new plan was that Nikhil and Mallika would come with us in the morning, and Sagar and Disha would leave post lunch. There was no issue with this plan, except that when I connected with Nikhil in the morning, he gave no signs of leaving before 9am. I pushed him to make it 845, and used the time for us to pack and leave peacefully. We slowed it down so much, that we finally made it to Sagar’s place in Hiranandani only by 9am where we were to drop off our car so that Disha and Sagar could bring it, and we were to go with Nikhil and Mallika comfortably in their Civic. But the 2 of them only came by 10am! Geet and I tried using this time to buy some breakfast from Haiko, but eventually got bored to death waiting for them.

However, we finally started from Bombay at 10am, far later than what we intended to, with the only comforting thought being that neither of us were driving, and sat comfortably in the back seat of the Civic. We headed straight to Pune, with only one stop at Lonavala for refuelling the car and ourselves with a cup of tea, and waited at a restaurant called Joshi Vadewala on the outskirts of Pune for Parul and Shreyansh to join us. They made us wait for an hour, which was the second time in the day this happened for me and Geet, and the 6 of us finally made it to Panchgani only after sunset.

Thankfully, one of the caretakers met us at the highway and directed us to the cottage, which would have been impossible for us to find in the darkness, and we got in to check out what was going to be our home for the next 18 hours – or so we thought.

In spite of the long journey, we excitedly began unpacking and setting up the place with the disco lights, speaker systems, laptops with music, hukkah’s and other party paraphernalia we carried from Bombay for this night. And just as we were finishing, Sagar and Disha joined us, barely an hour after we came landed here, in spite of them leaving at 2pm in the afternoon – a whole 7 hours after Geet and I left our house that morning!

Showed how many breaks we took while coming, and how fast our little i10 is capable of going when in the hands of Disha, with Sagar to cheer her on, rather than when in my hands with Geet checking me every time I cross 100kmph.

By about 9pm, the entire place was setup, and Geet wanted everyone to change into their Cowboy costumes, which was decided as the theme for the night. Now none of us were in the mood for it being fairly tired and just wanting to start drinking, but Geet took Parul and they went in to change. The others also went in shortly to change, and only Shreyansh and I were sitting in the porch, preparing the hukkah, feeling too lazy to wear a costume. But once Geet and Parul came out, looking the perfect Cowgirls, we had no option but to put in a bit of effort ourselves. So Shreyansh and I went in to change as well, and all of us still looked under-dressed to what Nikhil and Mallika did, coming out looking like Siamese twins, with Nikhil sporting a fake beard to complete the Cowboy look.

Finally by about 10pm, we had our first drink, which was prepared by me after checking with everyone on what exactly they would want, and carefully laid out all the 8 glasses for everyone. Pretty soon, everyone was drunk, as it really didn’t take much time given how tired all of us were with the journey on that day, and welcomed New Years with a beautiful bonfire that was lit up just a minute before the clock struck 12, and this eventful time was marked with some firecrackers that were set off by some neighbours, which is always a beautiful way to ring in New Years.

So we all hugged and wished each other, took tons of photos, and ate the food that Geet’s mom sent for us, and the one’s prepared by Disha herself at the guesthouse during the time the rest of us decorated the place. So there was Chicken Fry, Chaat Croquettes, Paneer Chilly and Garlic Bread as starters, and then an entire assortment for dinner that was prepared by the caretakers of the guesthouse.

After eating to our fill, we sat playing taboo for some time, which in our drunken state was quite messy, and finally called it a night at 3am.

January 1:

There could be very few New Year morning better that this one at Panchgani when we woke up. It actually began to drizzle, which was the only day of rain as per the weather forecast in a 10 day period from the last week of December to the first week of January. It was metaphoric – rains to wash away not only the mess we created the previous night, but also to wash away an entire year in order to present us with a bright new clean 2015.

We sat in the porch area where there was a seating setup to serve breakfast, which covered the space there was the bonfire and drinks table the previous night. We couldn’t sit there for too long though because of the drizzle, and rushed into the room where Geet and I slept since that one had a dining table inside. Post a heavy breakfast of the best Omelets we have had, Nikhil regaled us with some Hindi songs he sang and played on his guitar, and then got ready to visit Mapro’s, which everyone seemed to know as the must-visit place when in these parts. Geet and I had no clue about this, and we were really glad we were with people who knew this place, as they gave us an experience that was truly worth it.

Mapro’s is a mini amusement park that has been developed by the eponymous squash brand, and has a section where they sample their various squashes that you can try out and then purchase the ones you like (if you feel like), or sit around in their tables that overlook the mountains and order their delicious pizzas and sandwiches, and even take a tour of their factory - a section of which is open to public.  

We did all of this, and sat for a long time on their little tables gorging on the pizzas and sandwiches, and then topped this with something they call Strawberry Cream, which is basically fresh strawberries over a layer of ice-cream, that is then topped with a layer of fresh cream. The entire ensemble is just sinful, and although it looked too big for one person to finish, each of us downed an entire Strawberry Cream on our own. The Sandwiches too were brilliant, which is quite a feat as we know some places in Bombay where they serve killer sandwiches.

While gorging on all of this, we discussed the day’s plans, which were originally supposed to be that Nikhil, Mallika, Sagar and Disha leave to Bombay after this lunch, and the remaining 4 of us drive to Pune and spend the night at Shreyansh’s place there. But the day started out so perfect with the breakfast under the rains, and developed even better to lunch at Mapro’s, that we felt like keeping it going, and agreed to spend another night there.

So Sagar immediately made some calls and arranged the second night for all of us there, and after wrapping up the heavy lunch, we left Shreyansh’s car behind, and the 8 of us took off in 2 cars to see some view points of Panchgani. Nikhil went in circles without really letting any of us know that he is lost, and finally landed at one point that not only offered a brilliant view, but also had surprisingly fewer people given some of the other points we crossed.

Tons of photos later, we drove to the Mahabaleshwar market just after sunset where the girls did their shopping. Sagar, Shreyansh and I left ahead in one car in order to pick up the third and head back to the guesthouse to start setting it up early.

But just when we unpacked everything once again and was beginning to start the party, Shreyansh realized that the silver foil in the hukkah was missing. So he and Nikhil went out to buy them, and in order to not keep everyone bored, I prepared some nice shots for all of us to have, and we did 3 rounds before they came. Shreyansh said he was glad they went back to buy the silver foil, as they realized the cars lights were on, and that would have been a disaster as the battery would have drained out the next day. So everything did happen for a reason, and pretty soon, it was another crazy party, and this time around, people were enjoying it even more given we were not that fatigued with the travel as we were in the previous day, and were generally in a better party mood.

We did play some more taboo, although it got very competitive this time around, and finally called it a night just after mid night, since Nikhil, Mallika, Sagar and Disha had planned to leave very early given they had work on that Friday.

January 2:

The 4 of us still staying at this pretty cottage woke up to another brilliant morning, had some more of their incredible omelets, and started our drive towards Pune. The idea was to hit Pune by around 2pm, break for lunch, and then continue our way to Bombay. However, this day too was to witness another twist in the plans.

By the time we made it to Pune, it was nearly 3pm, and we hit this restaurant called Malaka Spice that gave you this Goan shack feeling right in the middle of the city, with its freshly brewed home beer, large plants across the tables, and food that tasted brilliant. The 4 of us were enjoying it so much, that we decided to stay back in Pune and leave only the next day, which would be the 2^nd time we would be completely packing and unpacking our clothes, and this time around, we didn’t even have a change of clothes as were never prepared for a 3 day trip!

But we still decided to stay back, and had some more beers over an extended lunch that was interspersed with intellectual conversations about marriage inter alia, and then crashed out at Shreyansh’s place in the evening.

We woke up only at 9pm, and got ready while watching Big Boss, and went out to a place called Stone Water Grill in Pune’s Koregaon Park’s Annexe, where Sushant also joined us. It was a really neat place Sushant picked out for us, and not only were we enjoying the drinks and music on the tables outside, but came in and had an amazing spread for dinner, which included Spiced Duck, Pork Belly and Greek Salad.

We ended the night joining the party that had begun at the discotheque outside, and danced around a little before heading back to Shreyansh’s place, to finally close out a trip that started out as a 1-day affair, and extended to 3 full days, where we danced, drank, sang, ate and had an amazing time with friends. A fitting finale to an eventful year, with new hopes for the next one.