Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

Just about a month ago I went to Singapore for a 4 day trip and I loved the city. The people were very friendly for the most part and I quite enjoyed my time there. I have been there once before on a disastrous trip back in 2011 where I ended up spending 2 days at the Airport because of issues with a transit visa. Thankfully this trip didn’t have any such problems.

We got there early in the morning on Sat and we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express where the rooms were quite tiny. Infact the entire room along with the bathroom would fit into my living room here in India but the stay was quite comfortable and I liked the hotel. The one issue I did have was due to the hotel being an express hotel so they didn’t have an all night restaurant or room service. They did have an all night bar where the only veg option was a Pasta where they literally boiled noodles, soaked the result in olive oil and then added huge chunks of garlic (boiled to tastelessness) and served. I ate that one night and that was more than enough.

The first day (Sat) we mainly roamed around near the hotel as we were still a bit jetlagged and feeling lazy. 🙂 While walking around we saw this restaurant called Central Perk that looked very familiar and decided to have a late lunch there. It took me a few mins to realize why it looked so familiar and then I realized that the place was a replica of the restaurant from ‘Friends’. It had great food with some of the best fries I have had in all my travels. The portions were huge and it was a struggle to avoid wasting food. In addition to the great ambience the staff was super friendly as well and we spent quite a lot of time eating/relaxing at the place. After lunch we walked over to the China town and shopped for a bit over there.

Friends themed restaurant

That night we met up with Sid, Rithika, Varsha, Manav and a few other friends for dinner. It was great fun to meet up with people I hadn’t met for years and wasn’t expecting to meet. (We had gone out expecting to meet only Sid & Rithika)

The next day we went to Santosa Island starting with the ‘Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom‘. It was an eye opening experience to see all the different species of butterflies in one place because we don’t normally think about there being so many types of butterflies in the world. It also had a section dedicated to the insect kingdom but I didn’t really find that part as interesting except for the 370 million year old fossil they had on display.

Butterflies are supposed to taste great

A 370 Million year of fossil

Next we tried out the Megazip and Megazip Adventure line where you zip over forests and beaches at a height of 75 meters traveling at speeds upto 60kph for almost half a kilometer. They have 3 lines running in parallel so you get to race your friends down to the beach. We also did the Mega jump which is a 15 mtr jump from the top of the tower but I didn’t find that as exciting as the zip line.

We walked around quite a bit as we had to wait till 7:40pm for the ‘Wings of time’ show. At first I was annoyed that we had to wait for so long but it did give us enough time to walk around the entire island and check out all the attractions. We ended up sitting at a beach side restaurant for a drink because we were tired of walking around and had time to kill and saw a really picturesque sunset. Finally it was time for the show and it was worth the wait. The way they projected the show on spray’s of water was very different and innovative. After the show we took the cable car back to the main island and then the subway back to the hotel.

We spent the whole of Monday at Universal Studio’s and as expected it was awesome. I loved the rides and could have spent another day over there. The Transformers and Cylon rides were the most fun for me but Jani wasn’t a big fan of the roller coasters so she didn’t enjoy them that much. By the time the park closed we had tried out pretty much all the rides and loved it.

Universal Studios

After the place closed we had dinner and went on for the night safari at the zoo. It was a different experience but I didn’t like it that much. Possibly because I am not a big fan of animals locked up in a zoo (even in one without evident bars). This took a while and by the time we were done it was quite late so we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

On my final day we moved out from the hotel and checked Jani in to the Marina Bay Sands as she was going to stay back for another 3 days for her conference. The hotel is quite lovely and I wish I had more time to explore all the stuff/places they had in the hotel but I had limited time. So we decided to check out the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest instead. I am not that interested in flowers and horticulture but even I was impressed by the sheer variety of the flowers they have managed to cultivate in this area. The Cloud Forest was a whole another experience all together as well, when you walk it the first thing you see is mist followed by a 3 story waterfall. It was nice and chilly inside the domes and I loved it. The dome has some lovely plant life and I got to see a Venus Fly-trap for the first time in their Lost world exhibit.

The Flower Dome

All too soon the trip was at an end and I had to take the cab to the Airport where I had some time to kill and ended up buying a nice klipsch speaker as I needed one quite badly and got a good deal on the speaker as well.

Going forward will try to document any trips immediately after the trip ends so that I can do justice to the narrative and experience. This is all for now, will write more later.

– Suramya

The lyrics of the 1984 song “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head perfectly captures the spirit of visiting Bangkok (and Thailand). I was lucky enough to visit Thailand and experience it myself a few days ago. I was there for 9 days but was working for 3 days in the middle. We (Jani and Me) flew out from Bangalore on Saturday morning which in itself was quite exciting. I had to come home from Whitefield to pickup my luggage and then drive to the Airport. For some reason I couldn’t get any cabs from the office at the time so had to book a shared cab instead which went all over the place and I wasn’t sure if I would make it home on time but luckily I did make it back and was there at the Airport in plenty of time to catch the flight.

The flight was nothing special so not much to say about it. We got to Bangkok early in the morning and since Jani was there for a conference and was a panelist we got the VIP treatment. There was a lady from the conference waiting right outside the flight door and escorted us through the entire process of immigration, baggage pickup etc. Once we collected our luggage there was a car waiting for us to take us to the Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park hotel which was sponsoring a 3D/2N luxury experience for the Panelist (I got to tag along without having to do anything which was great 😉 ).

We reached there early in the morning and once we had breakfast we just crashed for a bit since it had been a long few days before the flight. The hotel was great and the facilities were very comfortable. We didn’t do much the first day except walk around the hotel for a bit but the next day we had some fun activities. I got to make a traditional Thai dish that I couldn’t sample because it had shrimp/Fish oil in it. However the chef did give me alternate ingredients to use when I got home. I can imagine all of you who know me well shaking their heads at the idea of me cooking something but it was an interesting experience.

What we cooked

At lunch since I was the only vegetarian in the group I got served a special meal. I have to say that the staff went out of their way to make sure I had a great experience. Although there were times when I felt a bit discriminated against as you can see in the photograph below where the white bowl at the bottom of the pic is the bowl in which I was served soup and the big silver dish in front of Jani is what the rest of the folks were served in.

What vegetarians got vs what the rest got

On Monday we moved to the Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Center at Central World which is where the conference was being held. We visited the ‘Uno Mas’ restaurant near the top of the hotel and the views were amazing. Not much happened for the next few days as Jani was busy with the conference and I was busy at work. Below is my ‘office’ during the stay there and as you can see it was an great place to work from. I did consider working from the pool side but that would have been too distracting and too hot to be a feasible option.

My Office in Thailand

The hotel has a great bar/restaurant on the roof called the Redsky and because we had heard such great reviews we decided to have dinner there one night and even though the cost was a bit on the higher side it was worth it because the views were spectacular and the drinks were quite nice as well. We were there for a few hours and the time flew. Plus they don’t have the idiotic shutdown at 11:30 that Bangalore has during weekdays so we could stay there as long as we wanted. I did get Jani to try out Blue cheese and she absolutely hated it. I have a lovely video of her trying to control her expression after eating it but in the end she made such amusing disgusted expressions that I was on the floor laughing. (Ping me if you want to see the video 😉 )

Dinner at Red Sky

Having drinks on the rooftop

Bangkok skyline

Bangkok skyline Part 2

On Friday we took a city tour of Bangkok starting early in the morning which in retrospect was a mistake as Bangkok is a city that is dead during the day for the most part as everyone is sleeping, nights are when the city actually comes alive. Inspite of that the Golden Buddha temple and the other sites were quite spectacular. Unfortunately since we were a bit strapped for time we didn’t stop at the flower market but rather just drove through it. We did but a few souvenirs but for the most part refrained from shopping.

The Golden Buddha

The Golden Buddha

Shortly afterwards we bid farewell to Bangkok to drive over to Pattaya for the remainder of the trip. We got in touch with Sunny from Sunny online Travel who helped us plan out our itinerary for the last few days of the trip. He went above and beyond to suggest things to do and places to see within our budget. Thanks to him we didn’t have to worry a bit about what to do and where to go in Pattaya. If you are in the neighborhood do visit him and he will ensure that you have a great experience at a reasonable cost. To give you an idea of his hospitality he personally picked us up from the hotel and drove us to see the Alcazar Show and then drove us back to the hotel once the show was done. In all my years of travel I can’t remember any other guide doing this without charging a ridiculous price for it.

The Alcazar Show was an amazing experience, and I have to be honest that initially I was a bit skeptical about going to a lady boy show but the show was so tastefully done that I was floored by the experience. I wish I could have taken pics with all the staff but that wasn’t possible. But we did manage to get a pic with one of the main stars and she was super nice about it.

Pic with the leading lady

After the show Sunny dropped us at the Walking Street which is one of the biggest and busiest party hotspots in Thailand so that we could explore the nightlife. There was a ton of great pubs/bars/exotic dancers in the street and it was a very different experience for other such party places in the world that I have seen in the past. We walked around for a while and then it looked like it was going to rain so we started walking back to the hotel and just as we were about a third of the way there it started pouring. As Jani always carries an umbrella in her humongous purse we didn’t get too wet but for a while it felt like someone was pouring water on us with a bucket.

Walking Street

Once we made it back to the hotel we crashed early as we had a hectic day planned. We started the day with a visit to the Floating market of Pattaya where we were one of the first people to get there and the iconic floating shops were still in the process of setting up. In a way it was good because as the place was still starting up there was not much stink and it wasn’t very crowded either. We started of with a canoe ride to the other side of the market where we checked out some cool shops and interesting items for sale. We walked around the whole market and attended a few shows like a monkey show that kept things interesting. They also had a zipline which looked interesting so we did a round on the lines. Due to the fact that we were there early in the day we didn’t have any queues anywhere which was great.

The Floating Market

All dressed up in traditional dresses

After we were done with the market we went over to Nong nooch tropical Botanical garden which was ok, nothing too special. There was an hour long cultural show which honestly felt boring especially after having been to the Alcazar show. The pots and the garden there was quite nice but in my opinion we could have spent that time at the floating market and enjoyed it more.

After the garden we drove over to the marine Underwater world and it was good. A bit of a let down after having seen the one in Europe in summer but still quite nice overall. If I hadn’t seen the one in Europe I would have def been wow’d by it. Fun fact was that Jani spent most of the time telling me about which of the exhibits she had eaten already, in the end I had to tell her to only tell me about the ones she hadn’t yet eaten and that list was a lot shorter 🙂

After the exhibit we drove over to Ripley’s Believe it or Not and we did all 7 exhibits. I liked most of them except for Tussaud Wax works which wasn’t too great. The horror rides were great fun though Jani did manage to confuse everyone in the cast by keeping her eyes closed throughout both the haunted ride & haunted house. Unfortunately I listened to her and didn’t get the photo they had taken of us and now regret that decision. Ah well.. The next time I am taking the pics no matter what. This visit concluded our day so we headed back to the hotel and it started raining again… But we weren’t in the mood to do much so we just crashed as the next day we had an even earlier start to go Diving :).

The next day we again woke up early to go diving with the nice folks from the Jomtien Dive Center. They picked us up from the hotel and then we sailed for about an hour and half to get to the first diving spot. The water was a bit muddy but we did manage to see some great sea life. Lots of sea urchins and fishes. After the first dive we had lunch and got to our second spot where we dived again, this spot was a lot better with more sea life and corals etc. I did see some sea horses as well which was quite cool. Both dives were approximately 45 mins each (which is the usual length for a recreational dive). The entire thing took us the most part of the day so once we got back to shore we walked about a bit and then called it a night.

Pic on the boat, on the way to the diving spot

Shot of me in water (I am the one in the center)

On our final day in Pattaya we again got up early (which is something I would like to avoid in future trips) and started the drive back to Bangkok. Since our flight back was at night we stopped at the Jungle safari where we spent the entire day walking around in the heat to see the various animals. It was quite fun but I really didn’t like the heat and would have prefered to be in an AC car or something. Still the birds & animals we saw were worth the effort so… There were quite a lot of shows highlighting the various species so it was fun.

Front row seats for the seals show

Entry to the park (Apparently it was quite stinky)

Once we were done with the safari we drove to the airport and bid adieu to Thailand for a flight back. I would want to go back again for a longer trip so that I can explore the rest of the country but probably will travel to other countries first. I took quite a lot of photos (~600) so I am not going to be posting them, although Jani has posted the highlights on Facebook so if you are interested you can check them out there.

I finally finished this post just about a month after I made the trip which is all thanks to Jani for bugging me everyday about the blog. This is all for now, will write more later.

– Suramya

This past weekend I took part in another trek organized by the awesome folks at Nature Walkers. This one was to the Nagalapuram Waterfalls and was a little bit easier than the last trek I had done with them (Tadiandamol). From the trek summary:

Nagalapuram is one of the beautiful hill station situated in Chittur District, southern part of Andra Pradesh, around 280 km from Bengaluru. Normally known for the various water falls situated in the hill station. We say Nagalapuram is “Queen of Water Falls“, to see why you should come with us to explore

The trek started off on Friday night and was a bit of a crazy start for me as I had to rush home from Whitefield to make it to the pickup point on time. We were a group of 22 folks from different backgrounds and personalities who got together to experience a totally amazing trek. The group was quite diverse with lot of first time trekkers and a few regulars. Unfortunately due to the size of the group and the ridiculous cost of travel permits for large buses we had to break the group into two TT (Tempo Travellers) with 11 passengers in each. That kind of sucked because the group got divided into two and the folks in one TT didn’t get to interact with the people in the other TT as much as I would have wanted. It was an overnight drive to the falls and a few of us (Me, Jani and Shahrukh) were up till late catching up and then talking about jobs and interviews etc. I am sure after a point folks around us were wishing that we would just go to sleep.

We got to the Homestay around 7am and went in to freshen up. The homestay was run by the Andhra govt and more than anything it reminded me of the haunted houses in horror movies because of the look and the surrounding forests. The rooms were fairly basic but since we were planning on staying in tents it didn’t really matter. The rooms were just there so that we had a place to freshen up.

The not so haunted Homestay

We were welcomed by a whole bunch of monkeys and dogs and we offered them tea as a gesture of friendship which was accepted. After tea a few of us decided to go hang out with the monkeys in their native environment and ended up in the branches of a nice and comfortable tree. All this time the remaining normal folks were getting ready and waiting for breakfast.

The Three musketeers monkeys.

Waiting for breakfast.

After a little while the food arrived and we had to climb down since no one was willing to feed us in the tree. 🙁 During breakfast we were fortunate enough to witness the declaration of true love and managed to get a photo of the happy occasion 🙂

True Love!

After food we started off to the base camp to begin the trek in the TT as it was about 30 mins away from where we were staying. On the way we entertained ourselves by dancing (trying to dance in my case) and singing.

Starting the trek

By the time we got to the starting point the sun was up and it was really really hot. In this trek the first half hour is on a plain with no shade so it was like being on a flat plate getting roasted slowly. To pass time and distract ourselves from the heat me, Shahrukh and Anupam started singing and continued to sing till we reached the first stream. I am actually surprised that the others didn’t strangle us after the first 10 mins to get us to shut up. Once we crossed the plains and entered the forest the heat became a lot more bearable. The path was pretty smooth during this part of the trek. After about an hour we reached a stream and all of us took a break. Honestly none of us wanted to continue without a long break to relax and cool down but Manoj convinced us that the first waterfall was just a few mins away and a whole lot better than this small stream so we packed up and started the second stage of the trek.

Recovering from being roasted in the heat

This second portion was a lot more challenging with us entering hillier terrain and narrower trails, but it wasn’t too tough so we made good time to the first falls and reached it fairly quickly. It shows how well organized the Nature Walkers team is and how much they care about safety that they had ensured all the members of the trek had life jackets so that we could enjoy the water without taking undue risks. (This is in addition to banning all alcohol and smoking during the trek) We wasted no time in changing and jumped into the cold waters of the fall. Trust me the water was really cold and it felt amazing after the heat. We all swam around, climbed up the falls and basically had a blast. All too soon we we summoned out of the water so that we could head out to the second waterfall and we did so with a whole lot of grumbling as we were having a ball in the water.

Having a blast in the water

The path to the second fall was even more hilly and the trail was challenging with really steep climbs in parts. There were portions where we had to climb around a rock on the trail by stepping on a ledge that was not more than 2-3 inches wide. Then there was this rock chimney which was interesting to climb.

Unfortunately this is when the trip took a darker turn as we found out that one of the trekkers from another group had gotten injured in the next fall and was being carried back to the head of the trail. On speaking with the members of that group we found out that the guy had jumped in the water and for some reason failed to surface after going under. After 5-6 minutes his body surfaced and that’s when the rest of the group realized that something was wrong and rushed to help him. They did manage to get a lot of water out from his lungs but failed to get all of it out so he was still unconscious and they had to carry him through the hilly terrain back to the start of the trail.

One thing that I felt really proud of while watching and helping them was that *every single person* in the area pitched in to help when they found out about the accident. Not one person refused or ignored them. Its not everyday you see people helping so selflessly. However by the time they had reached where we were it had already been more than an hour. The kid had started bleeding from his nose and his pulse was really thready so we weren’t sure if he would make it or not. After helping them down from a chimney in the trail we continued on to the second pool but it was a much more subdued group that reached the second pool. We broke there for lunch but didn’t get into the water as no one was in the mood.

After a brief rest break the group started off for the third pool but a few of us decided against continuing to the third fall as we were still a bit upset/saddened by the accident. So 6-7 of us stayed back while the remaining folks continued to the last pool which apparently had a really good view along with a place where you could dive into the water safely. The folks who stayed back watched some idiots trying to prove how brave and macho they were by drinking and performing idiotic stunts to impress the girls. Its a miracle someone else didn’t get hurt as well.

The remainder of the group got back with just enough time remaining to allow us to make it out of the forest before dark. By this time we all had recovered our sense of adventure so we had a blast singing, chatting, and getting to know our fellow group members. When we boarded the TT our driver told us that the injured guy was pronounced DOA (Dead on Arrival) by the ambulance and that this was about the 10th death in the past 3 months in that region. It just shows that trekking and alcohol don’t mix. There are calculated risks that are ok to take and then there is being an idiot. At times the line between the two is extremely thin and once drinks are involved, it is non-existent. But there was nothing we could do so we started back

After stopping for Tea on the way we reached the homestay and there was almost a stampede for the bathrooms as everyone wanted to shower and change. By the time we all freshened up dinner was ready and we fell on the food like starving people. Since they gave us the food in buckets along with Pattals instead of plates, we all ate in the traditional style with a few people serving the food and the rest sitting on the floor to eat. Then the order was reversed and the folks serving in the first set sat down for dinner and the rest served food to them.

Having dinner the traditional way

After dinner a majority of the folks decided to crash from the night while a few brave souls stayed up to chat. Initially we had planned to have a bonfire but soon realized that it was too hot for it so just sat out in the open and talked. After a while we wanted to crash but found that the tents were doing a credible impersonation of being an oven. So we came back and slept in the open which was amazing as the moon was full (or near enough) and the the cool breeze made it quite pleasant to be outside.

In the morning we were woken up by monkeys who came over expecting morning tea like the day before and got really upset when they didn’t get any. Like any sensible people we decided that Discretion is the better part of valor and retreated in the face of their anger to the guest house to freshen up. Once all the folks got ready we broke our fast at this small shop where they made fresh dosa’s and puri’s and served them to us piping hot. Post breakfast we all visited Kone Falls and the Temple which was nearby and a few of the folks had a dip in the falls. We had to depart from the location a lot sooner that we wanted to but unfortunately we didn’t have any option as we were anyways way over the checkout time at the homestay.

Group photo taken just before we left

The drive back was again a lot of fun (and more interactive than the drive to the place) as it was daytime and everyone was awake. We played a bunch of games and sang (yes we do seem to sing a lot) quite a bit. All too soon we were back in Bangalore and had to head back home. With heavy hearts we said our goodbyes and went home.

I really enjoyed the trip and like always ended up making a whole new set of friends and am definitely looking forward to the next adventure/trip.
Special thanks to Manoj and Pavan for organizing the trip and managing it so well that all we had to do was focus on having fun.

This is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

PS: In interest of full disclosure just want to let folks know that I am one of the official bloggers for Nature Walkers starting with this trip.

How do you summarize a 10 day trip to an island paradise with incredibly hospitable folks that you took with a group of awesome friends? This has been the question that has been annoying me over the past few weeks since I have gotten back from my trip and as you can guess by the lack of posts before this one I haven’t really found a good answer to it yet. However a month is more than enough time to ponder and I realized that because I was avoiding posting anything about the trip I was also not posting anything else on the blog either because that summary had to come first. So without any further ado here we go.

We flew from Bangalore to Colombo via Chennai. If you are ever planning on going to Sri Lanka take a direct flight, the Chennai airport is the worst airport I have had the ‘pleasure’ of flying out of. The duty free shopping area is 2 shops with minimal goods and the ‘food court’ is one shop that didn’t have have the items on its menu available. (this was at about 10pm or so). We got to Sri Lanka at ~2am and took a cab to our B&B which was decent, not great but decent. From there our grand adventure started the next day. We got lucky and got a great driver (Sujeet) who was excellent in guiding us and making sure we had a good time.

The first day we mostly traveled and didn’t really do much but starting the second day the fun started. We did a whole bunch of water sports (Jetski, water-skiing, Banana boat, River cruise etc) and we visited a turtle farm where we saw turtles aging from a few days to one over 150 years old. We also did a river safari where I tried out a fish spa for the first time. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and for the cost it was worth it.

The third day started off with me going for Scuba diving and the rest of the folks went snorkeling. Managed to do two back to back dives, one was to a sunken ship and the other was in coral. Got to see some really colorful fishes but nothing too spectacular. Unfortunately the underwater camera at the dive shop was broken so didn’t get any underwater pictures but the memories are certainly great. After we got done with the diving we drove down to Galle and saw the famous clock tower and fort. The tower wasn’t very impressive and was under repair. There was also a nice beach and some colorful nick-knacks to pick up. (Though we ended up not guying anything). The fort was nice and it was obvious that it would have been very impressive during its peak.

On the fourth day we decided to go whale watching and that meant waking up at 5 so that we were there at the port by 7am. The trip was nice but extremely hot and since we were on the deck with no shade all of us got tanned (and slightly burnt) by the time we got back. Unfortunately we didn’t see any whales but we did see a whole lot of dolphins as they were pretty much constantly following our boat. The fact that we didn’t see a whale was disappointing but later in the evening we visited an ancient stupa and prepared for an early morning the next day so that we could go on a leopard safari.

The fifth day started off really early again (before dawn) and though we saw a lot of birds we didn’t see any leopards. This and the fact that we didn’t see any whales earlier made us decide to avoid any further safaris in the trip and focus on other kinds of sightseeing. So on the next day we visited a couple of ancient temples, stupas etc and on the 7th day we went river rafting. The rapids were grade 3&4 for the most part but it was a lot of fun esp the part where we got into the water and swam around.

On the 8th day we visited Sigiriya which is a world heritage site and saw the amazing construction and palaces that had been built so long ago. It was impressive and humbling to see what people were capable of constructing with pure muscle power without any of the modern technology to assist them. If you visit, make sure you request a guide because otherwise you will miss out on a lot of the background information and things you def must see.

The last day was spent relaxing at the Colombo beach after spending some time shopping and seeing the local sites. It was with a heavy heart, amazing memories and a lighter wallet (not that much lighter since things were not as expensive as we thought) we boarded our flight back. I wish we had more time there because we weren’t able to cover any of the northern or eastern part of the country but that gives us an excuse to plan another trip so lets see how that works out.

I have uploaded the photos to Facebook so you can check them out over there.

Well, this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

After the KP trek I wanted to relax so last weekend I went for a day trip to Hogenakkal Falls with friends and this weekend I did absolutely nothing and it was glorious 🙂 This post was supposed to have been published last week but first I was waiting for the pics to be uploaded and then got busy with work so didn’t get a chance to finish the post before today. But better later than never so here we go.

We (14 of us) left Bangalore at ~7am which was quite good considering certain folks (and I am not going to name names) were running quite late and made me wait outside my house for almost 45 mins. We had hired a 13 seater Tempo Traveller for the trip and the guy made pretty good time. Coincidentally it was Shammi’s birthday so when we stopped for breakfast we cut the cake and created enough of a racket disturbing everyone else in the restaurant that the owner asked us to move to a private room so that we didn’t scare the rest of his customers away.

The Mandatory cake facial

After finishing food we were on our way and spent the next 3 hours fooling around. Played a whole lot of dumb-charades , took selfies and basically drove the driver nuts. The way was quite scenic and traffic wasn’t too bad but even if that wasn’t the case the company was fun enough to make the trip enjoyable. This time most of the folks who came for the trip were people who we knew so there were no unpleasant surprises like last time.

Everyone Smile

Once we got to the falls we found that the only place where you were allowed to go into the water was this one place that didn’t look very clean and there was a very long queue so we all decided to skip that and go directly for the boat ride in the coracles (Bamboo Boats) with the idea that we would get into the water in a cleaner less crowded area. As there were 14 of us and each boat could only take 4 people at a time we rented 4 boats and were off. The boat ride was a two part affair where we boated to an Island sort of place and then had to walk across to get to the other side while the boatman carried the boats across then we got back in the water and spent a good 2 hours (maybe more) in the water. Not sure of the exact time we spent in the water as I had to take my watch off and put it in the bag along with the phone to prevent it from getting soaked. Though having things in the bag didn’t really help much because my spare set of clothes were completely wet by the time we finished, thankfully the phone and the watch escaped this fate and were reasonably dry.

Us in the boat

Some of the small falls we saw during the boat ride

Due to some restrictions we were not allowed to get in the water during the boat ride but thanks to some negotiations we were allowed to get in the water in a secluded area with a small waterfall and it was great. We spent almost an hour in the water over there and had to be forced out of the water.

After the boat ride finished we had a late lunch (really late ’cause it was around 4pm) at Hotel Tamil Nadu. The food was decent and quite tasty (though that could be because we were starving so all food would have tasted good by this time). After lunch we fooled around a bit outside the restaurant ’cause no one was in the mood to head back.

Lets climb a tree like our ancestors used to…

Group Pic outside the Tamil Nadu Restaurant

How can we have a birthday celebration without Birthday Bumps?

On the way back we had a pit stop on the way to watch the sunset and it was gorgeous. Took a whole bunch of pics and then we were on our way again. After a bit folks decided the best way to pass the time was to dance in the bus. I am surprised that the driver didn’t get into an accident considering the amount of racket we made and how distracting it must have been to have 14 people dancing/screaming behind him for almost 3 hours. Unfortunately none of the photos I took of the dancing came out clean, but still the memories are crystal clear. We stopped for dinner at a roadside bar/restaurant but it looked very shady so we decided to get the food packed and ate our dinner in the bus itself which was an experience in itself.

Sunset on the way back from Hogenakkal Falls

Group pic at the sunset point

Finally we reached Bangalore around 10pm (maybe a bit earlier) and then all of us went our different ways with great memories and a plan to do similar trips again in the near future.

Well this is all for now, will write more later.

– Suramya

This past weekend I decided to go to Kumara Parvatha for a two day Trek instead of spending it lazing about at home and even though my legs have gone on strike and refuse to work after the trip it was an amazing experience. The trip was organized by Shirky as part of the Bangalore Entertainment meetup group. This is the third trip I have done with him as part of the meetup (the others were to Gokarna and Mangalore for beach parties) and as always it was great fun.

Kumara parvatha is supposed to be the most difficult trek in Karnataka’s and comes to about 30km of trekking. The one advise I have for anyone attempting this trek is that this is not a trek for beginners, do not expect any amenities. It is hard and you need to be the kind of person who appreciates natural beauty to appreciate it. If you haven’t trekked before it is very easy to feel demotivated and put off from the entire concept of Trekking. Basically don’t expect Changing room, rest room, bedroom, shower, porters etc on this trek. Unfortunately there were some folks in the group who didn’t do their research and for some reason decided to come for the trek without any preparation or research on what to expect. For the most part everyone took it in stride and chalked it up to a good learning experience, however there were some folks (and I am not going to name names as that is not the point of this post) who decided to blame everyone except themselves for their lack of preparation which caused some issues later in the trek and post completion.

We started the Trek with 21 people from Bangalore via KSRTC bus and from the start itself the trip was quite eventful. We had our first casualty (one of the girls fell and hurt her knee) even before we boarded the bus and one of the guys lost his phone. When we called the number the person who found the phone picked up our call and asked for the pin to unlock the phone, when we refused for obvious reasons he told us that he had no intention of returning the phone. Thankfully it wasn’t an expensive phone but still, it was disappointing.

Group photo at the beginning of the Trek

We got to Kukke Subramanya at ~5am after an uneventful drive and freshened up over there before starting the trek at ~8am. The morning was brisk but within a few mins of walking I was dripping in sweat and ready for a halt :). We managed to walk for a whole 10 mins before we took our first halt which set the trend for the rest of the trek.

We made it to Battara mane by ~11am. This was after we stopped quite frequently for rest and spent a good 20 mins or so at a stream we found mid-way to recover. Battara mane which translates to Battara’s house is ~7kms from the beginning of the trek and is the midpoint of the route. For the most part the trail was in the forest so the sun wasn’t a big problem but the last kilometer or so was in grassland so it was burning hot and exhausting.

Refreshing halt at a mountain stream on route to Battara mane

Initially we had planned to continue to KP after a brief rest and food but we were told that camping on KP is banned due to a recent forest fire caused by Trekkers. So we decided to camp at the Forest department’s camping site about half a kilometer from Battara’s house. Which honestly speaking was a great stroke of luck because I don’t think a lot of the group would have made it that far and considering the amount of fuss that was raised about the conditions over here I shudder to think how folks would have reacted when they were told that there are not bathrooms/food areas at KP.

We had lunch at Battara’s and that was one of the more disappointing parts of the trek as the food was not that great. I had read online that it was very simple south Indian food but that doesn’t cover it. The food was bad. You pay 100 Rs for Rice and Sambhar which was more like Rice and Rasam because I didn’t really see any vegetables in it. Oh and you also got pickle :). The food is self service with no utensils like spoons provided so you get to eat with you hand. I saw a bunch of foreigners trying their hand at it and they enjoyed it. However if you are able to you should carry your own food as you can’t really have the food provided multiple times. We got to enjoy it 3 times and that was more than enough. For dinner you should ensure you are there early because at times you can have a shortage of plates and have to wait. In our group folks made do with 6-8 people eating from a single plate and it was hilarious.

After lunch we rested for a bit and then walked over to the Forest departments camp site where we proceeded to try putting up our tents. Interestingly only two of us had ever set up a tent before and it took a group effort with 10-12 people helping over an hour and half to get the first one setup. A few folks figured it was more important to sleep than help us setup the tents but in the end I think we were better off with them not helping. Though I did hear a few complaints from those folks later in the evening about how disorganized the event was and how no one knew how to setup tents etc.

Relaxing after finally managing to setup the tents

After the tents were finally up we checked out the nearby View point and got some amazing pics (see below). This time I spent a lot less time taking photos & more time enjoying the view and the company. I will share more photos once I receive them from the folks brave enough to carry a DSLR on the trek. Once it got dark we started a campfire and played a few rounds of antakshari with a couple of interruptions by cattle who wanted to stop by to say hello and try to eat any food items left unattended. By 10 we were ready to crash. Some of the folks felt that the view of the night sky was awesome enough that they decided to sleep outside. This turned out to be an eventful decision as they were woken up by cows a few times when the cows tried to eat their hair.

View from the sunset view point

Group photo at the sunset view point

Sunset

We woke up at 4:30am the next day as we wanted to start the next stage of the trek by 5:30am. Taking down the tents in absolute dark using flashlight was an interesting experience but with the help of most of the people we got it done fairly quickly and were ready to start on the remaining part of the trek. At this time 8 people decided that they did not have the capacity to complete the trek and wanted out. So they declined to continue and went back down the trail. Unfortunately they also declined to carry their sleeping bags/tent back down so we had no option but to carry them down ourselves.

We stored our tents/equipment etc at the forest department and started the trek with just food and water. Unfortunately by the time we got to Kallumantapa three of us out of the 13 remaining were not feeling well enough to continue so with a disappointed heart we came back down leaving the last 10 members of the group to finish the trek.

The valley covered in mist at ~7am

Breakfast at Kallumantapa

After we got back I slept for a bit waiting for the remainder of the group to get back while the other two went ahead down the trail to try to catch an earlier bus back. Once the remainder of our got back from conquering the peak and recovered we had lunch and started back. At this time since the earlier folks had not taken any of their sleeping bags etc with them we were left with 11 people to carry 15 sleeping bags, 6 tents and all our personal bags. Obviously this was quite painful and by the time we got down my knees were on strike and it took us long enough that we finished the last 30 mins of the trek in the dark using flashlights.

Once we got out from the trail we dragged ourselves to the lodge and got a room to freshen up post which I was feeling human enough to get dinner which was finally something other than rice and sambhar. At 9:30pm we boarded our bus back and reached Bangalore at 4:30am. At which time we found out that due to the last min confusion on who was carrying what we managed to loose one of the tents. Which was a brief downer but still, stuff happens in trips so it wasn’t too bad. Got home at 5:30 and crashed like a log.

Even though I didn’t get to finish the trek it felt great pushing my limits and I am def planning on doing this again in the near future so that I can say that I completed KP.

Well, this is all for now. Will write more later.

– Suramya

This year I decided to do something different for New Years and instead of the usual club/house party I went for a 48 hour camping event with live music. Think of it as a music festival with camping. The event is called Chasing Storm and it happened near Coorg which is about 270 km from Bangalore.

I Left for the event at 5am on the 31st and got there by 9:30am, unfortunately the entry for the camping area wasn’t opened up till 12:30pm because they were still in the process of setting up the tents and ensuring that folks didn’t get any reptilian visitor’s at night by spraying stuff to subdue snakes. Once we were in there wasn’t a lot to do till evening so we just hung around and chatted with other folks attending the festival. In the evening the live bands started playing and some of them were really good. I specially liked Swarathma and Solder.

The highlight of the event for me was getting to listen to Usha Uthup live. She is one of my all time favourite singers and hearing her in person was an awesome experience. It made the entire trip worth it. Even though the lady is 67 years old (she announced it on stage) the energy she has is amazing. I wanted to take a photo with her and get her autograph but wasn’t able to as she was swamped and then left before I got the chance.

In any case I was busy chasing the other star who was also in attendance, ‘Rajit Kapur’ who played ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ in the early 90’s TV series. The series is one my favourite Indian detective shows. So meeting him was a great pleasure. I did manage to get a photo with him (see below) and talk to him for a few mins. And before you ask; No I did not tell him that my sister named her dog after him (Vyomkesh) as I didn’t want him to beat me to death. 😉

Me and Rajit Kapur (Byomkesh Bakshi) at Chasing Storm

Here are some pics (A lot of the night photos didn’t come out too well because of the disco lights) I took during the performances at Chasing Storm .

Usha Uthup performing live at Chasing Storm

Solder live at Chasing Storm

Swarathma taking a bow

Finally here’s a photo of the camping area where we spent two days. Well, sort of… didn’t really get that much sleep over the two days because of the sheer no of things going on at the time.

The Camping ground

The drive back was a bit painful because at 5am the visibility was down to maybe 2 mtrs and it took me about an hour to cover 10kms. Once the sun came out around 6 am the visibility improved and I was able to pick up a bit of speed but it wasn’t till about 7-7:30 that I was able to drive at a speed higher than crawling. Finally made it to Bangalore at 11am and went straight to work so that was fun. Survived that day mostly on Red bull and Coffee.

Over all it was a good experience and I had fun so it was worth the 500+ Kms drive. Well this is all for now. Will write more later.

– Suramya

PS: This was supposed to be posted last week but didn’t really have the energy required to write/think so kept pushing it out. But better late than never right?

Early this month we (Me, Vinit, Surabhi, Vir, Mom and Dad) went for a week long trip to Lakshadweep. It was a much required and anticipated trip (I have been wanting to go since 2010) especially after the crazy week I had dealing with Hurricane Sandy. We left on Thursday night by train from Bangalore to Cochi and from there we took a flight to Agati island. There were ~15 passengers in the flight, including the 6 of us and the 2 airhostesses. The runway on Agati is a narrow strip of land sticking out into the ocean and when landing you can see water on both sides of the runway. Below is a shot of the island I took during our approach; the entire island is about 7 kms long and 1.5 kms wide, and we were the only tourists on the island…

Arial Shot of Agati Island

We were there for 7 days and spent all the time on the beach, including having our lunch delivered to the beach.

The beach where we spent most of our time

Well, except for the time we spent in the water scuba diving. Both me and Vinit got our diving certificates (I actually had to study for tests) but it was worth it. We did 4 openwater dives and 5 confined water dives in 7 days plus did a lot of snorkeling as well. During the dives we saw 2 sharks (one White tip and another whose name I can’t remember), couple of dolphins, a sea turtle (while diving, lost count of ones we saw from the boat and from the beach), crabs, tuna fishes, star fish, crabs, lobsters etc etc.

We did take a ton of photos (~1500) and I have posted a selection of the pics here. I was going to post them here as well but then decided to be lazy and just provide a link to the album here. Check it out.

I have been meaning to post this for a while now but life got busy. Ah well… It was an awesome trip and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a great vacation spot.

– Suramya

As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I just got back from a 9 day trip to Gujarat (plus a day in Bombay) and it was a great experience, we drove about 1500 kilometers, visited 11 temples, saw 2 lions, 4 bluebulls, 5 monkeys and a few dozen deer. As promised this post will document the trip with pics so this will be a long post. For those reading this on Facebook, the pics don’t show for some reason on the wall so you need to click on the title and read it on the blog directly.

The trip started with me flying to Rajkot, Gujarat on the 18th from Bangalore via Bombay (I still think Mumbai sounds silly). Had a few hours halt in Bombay so I spent it at domestic Airport and wasn’t too impressed with the airport, I think the ones at Delhi & Bangalore are a lot better with nicer amenities. Met up with Ronak, Jeelna, their cousin and uncle at the airport and flew to Rajkot. Since we got there at about 9 pm we just checked in at Hotel Rajdoot .

Let me divert a bit from the topic here to really recommend Rajdoot to anyone who is traveling to Rajkot. Its not a 5 star place but their level of service and friendliness of the staff more than makes up for it. I mean what other place will send one of their staff to search for a saree shop twice when a guest calls them up inquiring if they have the number of that shop? The staff went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed.

We spent most of the 19th morning shopping. Actually Jeelna was shopping, the rest of us were tagging along for the ride. The process was over a lot sooner than I expected but I think I might have hastened it by falling asleep in one of the shops 🙂 In the afternoon we behaved like typical tourists and roamed around taking a lot of photos and saw the first temple of the trip:

Us acting like tourists at Swaminarayan temple

Me in front of Swaminarayan temple, Rajkot

We got to travel 5 in an Auto which is not the record for me but it was a first for the others and so a lot of fun.

6 people (including the driver) traveling in an Auto is fun

The next day (20th) we started early and left for Dwarka. We made a few stops on the way to see temples, visit relatives and eat good food (although I guess if you were on a diet it wasn’t that great). Got to Dwarka late in the evening and went for the evening aarti. Unfortunately camera’s are not allowed inside the temple so we were only able to take external shots. It was a hard to take evening shots without a tripod but we managed 🙂 still I think the pics taken during the day were a lot nicer. Actually, they better be nicer as we got up at an insanely early hour for this and were nearly frozen while walking around taking the pics.

Dwarkadhish temple at night

Dwarkadhish temple really early in the morning

Side view of the Dwarkadhish temple.

Everyone other than me lit diya’s and floated them down the Gomati river (Relax, the diya’s were made out of leaves so were bio degradable)

Ronak and Jeelna lighting diya’s at Gomati river

All took time and everyone started getting hungry so we decided to feed ourselves with whatever was handy.

A hungry person will eat anything

including the sun

From Dwarka we went to the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga Temple and from there to Bet Dwarka which is on an Island and can only be reached by boat.

The Nageshwar Jyotirlinga Temple

Me and Ronak on the boat with bet Dwarka in the background

Once done there we drove on to Porbander which is the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. We did stop at a few other temples on the way but their names are all sort of blurred now. so…

Carvings on one of the temples we visited

In Porbander, we took it easy for most of the day with just a visit to Gandhi’s house and yet another temple. Gandhi’s house was built in the 1800’s and had 22 rooms but it felt like it was built by dwarfs for dwarfs. Take a look at the pic below, that is how high the doors were. I had to be careful while inside not to bump my head.

Me at the entrance to Gandhi’s house and no I am not standing on an elevated platform

I am kneeling on the floor in this pic.

The staircases were even more insane, they were so steep that a rope had to be set up to aid people climbing up. I wonder how old people made it up there in one piece… Maybe the older you got the lower Floor you got to stay on.

Ronak discovers the insane staircases you had to climb to get between floors.

The rooms had built in exercise equipment

The hotel we stayed at was nice, Ronak especially liked the awesome view from their room.

The awesome view from our room in Porbander

From Porbander we drove to Somnath which has a very interesting history. Somnath is known as the Shrine Eternal as it has withstood the shocks of time and the attacks of the destroyers. It has risen from its ashes like a phoenix each time it was destroyed or desecrated. The present temple is the seventh temple built on the original site.

When we got to Somnath late at night we found that none of the hotels had any rooms available as the chief minister was in town and his entourage had booked all the rooms. Thankfully we got lucky in the 2nd hotel we tried as they had a cancellation literally 2 mins before we walked in, otherwise we would have spent the night in the conference room of the hotel which had been converted to a common style dorm. Went for darshan the next day and then drove to Gir.

Ronak and Jeelna braving the sun in front of Somnath temple

We got to Gir in time to take the safari but I was seriously disappointed. I had visited Gir in 2002 with family and had such an awesome experience that I was eagerly waiting for it. That time we took a jeep into the Interpretation zone which is a fenced area of 412 hectares and spent a few hours there just observing the wildlife with a great guide. Now unfortunately the place has been commercialized and instead of jeep safaris you now take a 30 min bus ride to see the lions. It felt like we were visiting a zoo on a very large scale.

On the bright side we did see a lion and lioness during the brief tour. Though they were just lying there for the most part, but the lion did get up once and showed us its ass before lying back down. When I complained to my dad about this his response was “why? were you expecting them to get up and dance for you?”

The original plan was to take a safari to the sanctuary in the evening and then spend the night in Gir before driving to Rajkot, but after the 30 min ‘safari’ we decided to drive on to Junagadh where we spent the night before driving back to Rajkot the next day.

We spent another day at Rajkot at Hotel Rajdoot and then drove to Vadodara the next day. Once there we rested for a couple of hours before attending Ronak’s cousin’s Mehendi/Sangeet. After the function was done we stayed up talking till almost 2:30 am and then I got up at 4:30am for my return flight to Bangalore via Bombay.

I spent a day in Bombay. Had lunch with Ruth and Rebecca, walked past the Gateway to India and spent the evening with my cousin Rishabh at his college. Had a lot of fun.

Got back to Bangalore at 5am and promptly crashed, spent most of the weekend recovering from the trip and lack of sleep.

There you go, a summary of the trip with some photos. Will post more in an album when I get some time (and get the pics for the last 2 days from Ronak).

This is all for now will post more later. I should go crash now as I have an early morning at work tomorrow .

– Suramya