Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 4

Day 4 – (Darcha – Pang ) 11^th August 10

The day began early around 4:30AM and we had to crap out in the open as there were no restrooms and so we did. Uttaran got into a poetic mode while downloading and said the inspiration was the beauty of the place. I have heard that many ideas strike in the toilet but I poem was a first timer, well here is the poem :

What a view when i was at the loo,

It could have been to a fortunate few,

Slowly the sun grew,

Giving a yellow hue,

When i was doing poo

Everyone took their sweet own time to get ready but we managed to get nice breakfast, and got late again. There was an issue as soon as we started, there was a petrol leak from GK’s bike, this was the worse bike now, ofcourse Sayrathi’s bike was not with us. So a quick jugaad with a thin wire fixed the thing and we were set to go.

Around half an hour into the drive we reached “Deepak Taal” it was beautiful lake in the heart of the mountains, I hadn’t seen a beautiful lake than this before, we took out time there appreciating the beauty of the place and moved on after a while. The roads were nice to drive and we were going at a decent pace. Next stop was at Sarchu around 11 AM and to our surprise we got Daal chawal there, of course Maggie was also available, I had heard a lot about Sarchu and was supposed to be our stop for last night but we couldn’t make it due to delay and had to stay at Darcha, and found that it was quite similar to Darcha, a few more tents and places to stay.

We pushed on and reached Lachulungla, the highest pass we had reached so far, GK was struggling with altitude sickness and he had to take a Diamox, and we were also out of water so we had to borrow it from some passing by foreigners.

As we were climbing up the bikes were at hard labour, hardly managing to go up in the first gear and lack of oxygen was also not helping the cause. At one of the bends Varuns bike could not move further, any guesses who his pillion was (of course it was Bandar) and while trying to get down from the bike he managed to get entangled in the bike and both of them fell J. Just ahead I parked and we reached to their rescue. Bandar had strained his ligament again, and was in a bit of pain.

The worst part of stopping where its not necessary is that all the trucks you have overtaken so far move ahead at their slow pace and you need to overtake them once again L. On that note I must say that truck drivers in this region are the sweetest, you need to honk once and they will give way, some times you don’t even need to do that, more often than once did the truck drivers pull up at the side to let us through, i had a lot of respect for them. A few kilometers ahead a truck parked at the side stopped and asked for “Oxygen wali Goli”, and we were happy to give him the Diamox.

There were a lot of Army trucks on this route and it made for a wonderful site. One of the army trucks had a flat tyre and there was a road block, so we got down from the bikes and took some pictures, one of the army guys asked us as to what we were doing here and as told him we are here on a holiday, he had a surprised look on his face and he said we want to go back from here, why would you want to come here for a holiday J. Country man, little did he know the absurdities of city life J. It was a break of around half an hour and we pushed off again.

We drove for another hour in the valley and got climbing up again almost reaching the top we found a nice view and got down to take some pictures, believe me guys the beauty of the place is breathtaking and the calm and peace about the place was feeling so good.

On one of the turns a slowed because of traffic on the other side and Sayarthi hit my bike from behind and fell down. Luckily no one was hurt and no major damages to the bike.We had almost reached Pang but were thirsty as hell so we stopped by the side and washed our faces in the river and also drank the water, it was cold and refreshing. Almost at pang we had to cross a check post and needed to register there. The point is that these are so remote places that the police wants you to register urself just in case you are lost and they can track up. Two of the bikes had gone zooming past the checkpost and the officers were really annoyed with them on doing such a thing.

We reached Pang around 4 and it was pretty early for us to park, but most of us were just tired driving, driving and more driving, so we wanted to take a break. Ashish wanted to move on but we didn’t buzz. GK was still in bad shape and headed straight to the bed. Pang was no more than a few tents and we parked at one of them, all of the tents were the same cost , so we stayed at the one we had parked J. It was owned by an old lady, but she was very energetic and she handed over a notebook to us to write down whatever we take, this sense of trust was a great gesture and cannot be forgotten. Of course we were not gonna cheat her, but trusting travelers is a big thing.

The toilet was again in the open but there was slumdog millionare type of a rest room as well, and Sayarthi had some relief as he dreaded the open. We had a nice meal strolled around for a while and hit the bed early.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 3

Day 3 – (Manali – Darcha) 10^th August 09

We had not driven for more than 2-3 Km and it started to rain, we as it is were not carrying many clothes and a heavy raincoat was out of the question, luckily I was carrying my Beeline raincoat ( or rainsheet u might say) and wore it, thanks for the effort we put in to buy covers for the luggage otherwise we would have been in deep shit.

Raining in Manali

As we continued the views were mesmerizing, we stopped and had tea for others to catch up, it was around 9 and the rain had stopped. We had tea and some bread butter for breakfast and carried on. We wouldn’t have gone far when we got into the heavy traffic jam of Rohtang pass.

The roads were all muddy and slippery, and we had to ride on the side of the cliff where one slip can do its thing, it was testing all our biking skills. We saw Sayarthi fall down in his bike (giggles) but luckily he wasn’t hurt. I got to the edge of the cliff once and my bike stopped, I asked Katti to get down and tried to get the bike out of there, but it wont move and if it slipped a bit I was goner, no matter how gud I ride, I am still a small fella and the bike was big so I tried again, and didn’t work. I took a deep breath relaxed a little and saw that I haven’t put it in a gear :P . that did it katti had chuckle about it and we were off again.

It would have been a big fall had i fallen from there :D

We had Maggie (Maggie is available everywhere, infact it’s the only thing available in many of the places and the 2 minute thing always works) and eggs at Rohtang pass, there was no snow and was the picture was very different to the one I had seen when I cam e here last in 1998.

Soon the roads were clear but the conditions were not rider friendly and Katti wanted to drive but gave it soon back to me, as he was really worried about my back. We saw a gang of about 50 westerners returning from the trip, all of them in their Bullet 500’s, it was a gud site to see.

Everyone trying to fix Uttarans Bike

We hit another roadblock when the cloth for dusting the bike got somehow entangled in the chain and had been stuck inside the cover, it was shredded to pieces and might harm things if it doesn’t come out, myself and GK being having small hands tried our best to retrieve whatever we cud, but there was a lot still stuck inside. And the tyre was rotating with a lot of friction, suddenly an idea came to my mind. I asked Uttaran to put the bike on main, put it in gear and accelerate full throttle, though there was a lot of friction, but it was just cloth and shredded to pieces and flew out when full throttle was applied, the plan had worked. The incident wasted almost an hour and we were ready to head off again.

Tandi -- Next Filling Station 365 Km Ahead

We stopped at Tandi to refuel as it has a famous board saying last filling station for the next 365 KM. Another funny moment happened when Katti slipped in the dusty road to Keylong and because of the luggage on both sides he was unhurt.

Meanwhile the seal of the engine oil cap in my bike had broken and broken in a funny way, the cap had broken and the rest of it was still stuck inside so there was a very small hole from where the oil was coming out and ruining the jeans I borrowed from my brother :P …. The descent was decent from there on and we stopped at a mechanic shop in Keylong, to fix the engine oil problem as the oil was leaking and low engine oil can cause serious problems.

And the thing we dreaded happened, the spare was not available. On this point another brilliant idea (jugaad) came in Bandar’s mind and he said we can refill the engine oil daily with the use of a syringe, and myself and him headed out to find a hospital or a medical shop to get a syringe, we found a hospital and headed back, on the way back I was talking on the phone and found Ashish loose a bit of balance and fall on the side, I cut the call and immediately ran to help him J . An even more funnier thing happened a moment later, we were coming up on a steep slope and the bike wont pull, we tried every trick in the book and it wont pull up, with the breaks in one hand one leg down on a heavy bike I was like trying to do circus act. Then I asked ashish to get down and help me with maneuver and as soon as he got off, the bike just took off. So it was his little weight (100Kgs) that the bike was unable to bear :P .

We reached Darcha at almost sunset, found there were only a few tents to stay and we didn’t care as it is, had hot paranthas and loved them. Sayrathi found the gurl who owned the tent as cute, which was enough to pull his leg for the rest of the trip. Uttaran was carrying his tripod and we tried to take pictures of the clear sky full of stars I had seen after a long long time but no one succeeded. Time to head to bed.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 2

Day2 – (Rupnagar – Manali) 9th August 09

Everyone got up fairly early and got ready, realized what a big pain tying and untying the lugaage can be everyday. 2 Bikes were in a bit of trouble so they did not have a pillion and had more luggage on them. We filled the tanks and started off again.

Sutlej River

We crossed the Sutlej river, took some pictures and off again. After only an hour of riding the hilly region started leading to Bilaspur which was a gud sign. GKs Bike had a clutch wire problem and the jugaad was in place to get it on its way :) . Sayarthis bike had started troubling now, it was misfiring and was looking in bad shape.

Varun was the cashier and had the common pool, to be a bit on the safer side I asked Varun to give me 5K so that we have money just in case, in the evening I realized that Varun had given me 15K instead of 5, and that is the riddle Varun cant resolve and everyone else cant stop laughing about.

The roads were really nice and the views were exquisite. Around the afternoon we crossed a long tunnel, obviously it was very dark tunnel, but I was riding in the tunnel for the first time, it was different kind of thrill I was thinking it is only one way when suddenly a head light flashed from the front and I realized I still need to be on my side of the road. The ride through thetunnel was really exciting, we joined for a break and realized that Sayarthi and is bike are nowhere to be found, waited for around 20 mins, when he joined us reporting his bike needs a mechanic.

We had a late lunch at Mandi, food was never on our mind (ofcourse till the time you can remain hungry :P). I was following Sayarthis bike as it could not be left behind and now we were stuck as it was not starting. People had taken rest, just a bit ahead of Kullu and Sayrathi and we joined them for a cup of tea. It was alongside the Beas river ( the second river we were crossing since morning ). It was a pleasant time of the day and we njoied the tea alongside the river, meanwhile Sayarthi pushed on to find a mechanic and make up time as his bike was not able to go above 50 anymore.

We reached Manali around 6 and caught up with Sayarthi almost there which was gud, the first thing to do was to find the mechanic and second was to find a place to stay, so we divided into two and started looking. We found a decent place to stay and parked ourselves there, whereas the other guys found the mechanic and all the bikes had to be made mountain ready and overhauling needed to be done. So all the bikes went to the mechanic.

We did not carry any polythenes or anything to cover the luggage and rain was a big possibility now, so myself and dutta started on a search to buy some, looked all over the mall road and found something that might do the job for us. Dutta also got a pair of shoes as his had given up already. Had an ok dinner and slept nicely.

PS : forgot to add earlier, the Mechanic said that Sayarthis bike has given up and cannot take the treturous ride ahead so we were left with only 4 bikes, the bigger problem though was, that what do we do with the bike as we were in Manali and were not going to go back the same way as well. Bandar found another jugaad and got Sayarthi to park at SBI in Manali, later we got the Gati guys to send the bike directly to banglore. Well it was kinda of a blessing in disguise as the bike was really holding us back.

Ladhak – Heaven on earth. Tour Diaries, Day 1

It was a dream for me to ride to ladhak on a bike as its considered the most beautiful ride ever, but I never thot I could do it after my back problem in 2007. The doctor had strictly told me not to do too much biking and a 3000 Km round trip was certainly out of question.

A week before the journey Uttaran came to Delhi to drop his bike which he got from Banglore and to rent thunderbirds for the others for the trip, this was the first time I felt that I should go realize my dream, but the back pain that put me on bed for almost 2 months had not gone out of my head completely and I knew how bad I had suffered. So I sat down and decided what to do as I really didn’t want to miss it. SO I came up with the idea that no matter what if I start feeling the back pain I would immediately head back home, no straining the back more than its limit, doesn’t sound that simple but believe me I would follow that. So I was the last minute addition to the Gang of 7 now with 5 Bikes: Ankur (chotu), Ashish(Bandar), Uttaran(papa/bhokal), Gaurav (GK), Mohit (Katti), Varun and Sayarthi.

Sayarthi had arrived a day earlier and we had to get the 3 bikes we rented and Vijai Dixit was kinf enough to get the third one for us. Everyone else came late night on 7^th and stayed at Manu’s place, We had to start early morning next day.

Day1 (8^th August 09)

As usual we got up late, infact Ashish and Uttarn came to my house and woke us up :D .. so we started getting ready and since we were already late why not take our own time J .. so everyone got collected at my place and we had breakfast at my place, figured out how to use the Bungee chords to tie up the luggage and were set to go (at around 11 of course) … since I was the last minute entry I really didn’t know the plan for sure but today we planned to reach Chandigarh and the decision was not to ride more than 250-300 Km a day.

My House, Noida

One of the bikes started giving problems as soon as we started which is not really a gud sign, but luckily no major trouble and we were on the way. I am not new to the Delhi traffic and know all to move in the traffic. As we reached the Karnal by pass we gathered together and found that Sayarthis bike is not doing so gud. Oh! I did forget to tell you , Sayarthi had a 1988 Royal Enfield and it was not picking up speed, and 60 was the best it could do, and maybe the reason was that Sayarthi and Ashish were sitting on it. So we moved Ashish to another bike to give Sayarthis bike a breather and trust me the bike would have felt a lot better.

We stopped in at places for water and snacks and it was really really hot, slowly made our way to Ambala. Everyone was quite exhausted specially because of the heat and hungry, but here is where Bandar comes in, he had googled that there is a famous Puran Singh Dhaba in Ambala and we shall eat there only. There were Puran Singh Dhaba’s everywhere, so the fantic search for the right Puran Singh Dhaba started and lasted for almost half an hour on which it was decided that the one we found is the authentic Puran Singh and lets eat there. Trust me I would have eaten anywhere they would have taken me, the food was average and not really that great. Anyways we had a lot and finally moved on.

We took a diversion from Ambala and left behind the Chandigrah road and got onto the way to Rupnagar AKA Ropad. On the way there was a beautiful patch with wheat fileds on both sides of the road and the calm evening weather, I just loved the ride J wished it went on forever. After some time Katti took over and I was in the back seat njoing the view, after half an hour I couldn’t sit anymore the back had started hurting really bad, so I got back to riding the bike and seemed ok in a while. We reached Rupnagar around 6 PM and it was starting to get dark. Now the problem was to find a decent place to stay for the night.

As we stayed Ashish went on to find a Hotel and came back after half an hour to take us to the Hotel which was a bit too far, we had to cross a Railway Gate and when we reached ther we found out that GK is missing, on calling him we found out that the his bike has some problem, so Uttaran went to have a look, when they came back after 1 hr we burst into laughter that after a long time they finally discovered that the power button was off J.

We had a nice dinner in the hotel itself and went to sleep. It was going to be an early morning tomorrow.

What does a deserted island has in store for us ?

I haven’t been out in a while and I really wanted to be out exploring. We finally get time from the busy schedule before postpaid launch and we decide to go Koh-rong island which has a long beach and beautiful snorkeling places. After my first experience of snorkeling in Vietnam, I am pretty excited for snorkeling and want to do something more, maybe dive and full of adrenaline and excitement again.

There are some old friends recently joined in the project and Yoga da and Haseena join myself, Roopesh, Gladston and Abhishek in the adventure. We take a cab from Phnom Penh to sihanoukeville ( 190 $ for the big van with return. Camry was approx 50$ one way). If you know me and Haseena, I think we are two people who really cant sit quietly, so the whole of three and half hours theres music and a lot of chattering, I still think some people managed to sleep though ( Abhishek was caught snoring J ).

We reach Sihanoukeville at around 1 AM and our cab driver took us to a Hotel, the hotel was ok at a decent 12$ per room, so we decided to take it. As usual we had not planned enough for the trip and the hotel guy wouldn’t give much information about Koh-rong, the little we knew bout it was that the ferry leaves at 8 and we need to catch it for sure. Everyone got cozy in their rooms, and bid gud nite, though still some people had the FIFA fever on.

Next morning I got up at 5 and woke up Gladston asking him to wake everyone else ( as I know people are gonna listen to him). Everyone was ready around 6:30, but the hotel guy still wasn’t much help about the island and the boat, so we decided to leave for the ferry terminal and find out for ourselves. As we approached the beach we knew there are a lot of tour shops and after a bit of roaming found a boat leaving to Koh-rong for 60$, which seemed ok and we decided to roll,, this was the first time I felt that the trip has started on a healthy note and we did not have to worry much about managing.

We reached the boat at 8 and were ready to roll, Haseena lost her footware tryig to get on the boat :P … it was not at all funny . we came in the boat and I was getting excited to go in the sea again J … and we waited and waited and waited, the boat had some 5 europeans more to come who arrived at 9:30, which left most of pretty frustrated, but nonetheless once they came and the boat started things started to be pleasant again. Also to note that we knew that the island will not have any electricity and there was Argentina – Germany match that day, with Yoga da not wanting to stay on the island and he kept saying he will come back for the match, though atleast myself and Gladston did not have any such plans.

It was a small boat and the thing about small boats is that they are very very slow. And the time wouldn’t pass and the buildup to the excitement was killing me, after a long two and half hours we finally were going to reach the island. Almost at the shore we saw a snake like fish floating upright on the water at a very fast speed, it looked awesome, these are the things only few have the pleasure to watch and the moment is too difficult to capture, I am glad I was present there in person.

As we were docking the boat, I noticed there are only few boats on the island and a very few houses, once we landed on the island it looked beautiful , a very long beach of white sand and not many people to bother, it was picture perfect. Myself and Gladston set out to find the scuba shop in the island for snorkeling and diving, as we went around we couldn’t find anything and things started to look bleak. All my excitement was changing into fear and finally we found theres no boat to take us snorkeling and we are just there to enjoy the deserted island. It was an utter blow as my whole purpose of the trip was to go snorkeling, and I wasn’t gonna get any. Soon ideas started to pop up in peoples mind that what to do, and we immediately wanted to head back in the evening, so that we could utilize tomorrows day with some snorkeling tour in sihnoukeville. This also got an utter blow when the boat driver said that hes not going back today at any cost. We sat down, ordered lunch to cool down and turned out that the lunch was as horrible as well, now I realized that it was like every other trip and things were starting to look pretty bad again, but is there any scope for things to change.

After a dismal lunch we decided to stop remorsing and take a dip. We had two snorkeling kits and we wanted to try anything is we can, we took a dip and soon it was the fun of the beach and trying to swim and snorkel for me J, Gladston saw at a distance that the beach is rocky and there might be corals that side, so we set out to try our luck for that, it was at least 2 km away from the point we were and all the trying to swim and trying to walk in water was really making me tired.

Haseena is a bit afraid of water and agreed to get in if Gladston accompanies her and she did but I really wish I had a camera, she would not leave Gladston hand in knee deep water, this proving the point that shes really afraid of water and we did not try to drag her in for the rest of the trip.

We continued on the quest of corals and kept walking further and further away, and Gladston did finally manage to find a lot of fishes, but the place was too rocky and since I couldn’t swim it meant a no for me, still me and yoga da tried walking as far as we could and entered the rocks, eventually meaning that we both had a lot of cuts on our legs, this trip was again getting from bad to worse as nothing was turning out right and walking barefoot on the beach with cuts in the legs was not a gud thing to do.

I finally was able to see a few fishes and we decided to call it a day to snorkeling. We had to make a long way back to the cottage and the sun was blazing its full fury, I turned 3 shades darker atleast. We sat down took a bath and tried to relax a bit, Gladston and yoga went out to find a place for dinner. To our surprise they both were missing for almost two hours in a small place and myself and Haseena decided to go find em. When we reached at one end of the village we found them coming back and Gladston was really delighted, to our surprise he told us that tehres a beautiful waterfall nearby and he took a bath there. Later he also told us that Yoga was knocking on everyones door to look for food and the kind villagers offered him a lot of things. It was getting dark and going to the waterfall didn’t seem a gud idea so we decided to go for it next early mrning.

These guys had ordered a lot of food at a restaurant and were dinner problems were also solved, as we reached the restaurant at 7:30 I was a bit dark and to our surprise there was too much of food with prawns, fried sea fish, fresh water fish soup etc, more fish meant less options for me, and I tried the prawns, everyone really enjoied the food, and I had to content with them njoing it J.

Getting up next morning was really tough but somehow everyone managed to, yoga decided not to come as he had a lot of cuts in the leg and the rest of us made our way to the waterfall, there are two ways to go up the waterfall the normal way and the way up the stones, and with Gladston I ll always take the road less travelled. The climb was a bit steep but nowhere near the hike we had in Kampot and seemed more than easy, but it was a first time for Haseena but she is tough, slowly but steadily she was making her way up. Its really fun to work as a time and help your team members as and when required J.
As we reached up the water from the fall was really really cold and Galdston had already made his way through, I was next and as soon as the water fell on me, I lost my breath, I had to retreat, then slowly I made my way through and got used to the cold water, after 5 minutes I was ready to take the plung. Oh the water falling from the height with a great force, its an incredible experience, I couldn’t have hoped for anything better that morning. The streams of water falling on my body with so much force, it was just incredible. So it was a first time for me taking a bath in the waterfall and it goes among the best of my experiences in life so far. Thrilled with the emotion we made our way back down.

We didn’t know what yoga was upto as he wud be upto something afterall, we went to the same place for breakfast and found him learning how the Banking system works in the village. We found him covered in bandages like 15 of them on both foots and it really seemed. We had a nice breakfast of yellownoodles with egg and vegetables and set out on the way back.

The way back had a bit more challenges for us as it was raining really hard at times and getting drenched was the only option, but we founfd the only safe place in the boat and hurdled together gossiping around for almost 2 hours, and there also Yoga found a safer spot, he went to sleep inside the cabin where they keep luggage and stuff and avoided all the rain J.

It was great to see that the rain had stopped when we ported, from there we headed straight to the snake house to have lunch and capture some snake pics, I was really hungry and hogged like anything. I recorded a snake removing skin which was a first time experience as well. I have always been fascinated by the wild life especially snakes (thanks to NatGeo) but seeing things in person is altogether a different experience.

And as I look back now, all my trips have their high and lows and this trip was no different, things not going right always makes you appreciate the good moments just a bit more and I am really glad that I went to a deserted island exploring a bit more of the, coming closer to nature.

Phu Quoc, Vietnam – My first Snorkling experience

I have just reached Cambodia from Malaysia after a 10 day transit and planning a short trip again makes me excited, also the thought of snorkeling is all the more fascinating as I have wanted to do it since long. Had to put in a bit of effort to get the Cambodian visa extended and also get Vietnam visa. On Friday we also come to know that Monday is a holiday as well and we can extend the trip to another day J .

Day 1 – The day of mishapps

So as planned we reached the Cambodian border late night on Friday and took a hotel. Got up early morning to cross the border, this was my second border crossing on land and the first one on foot as we had to walk across and get something to reach Ha Tien. We got the immigration done by 7:30 and were hopeful of catching the 8 O’clock ferry to Phu Quoc, so we got 3 motorbikes and headed straight to the port, as we got down on the port a guy said that the boat has already left at 7:15 today as it was a long weekend and many people were travelling.

This was a blow to us as we were hoping to reach Phu Quoc by 10:30, he also told us there is no boat today and we have to go to Rach Chia to get another ferry, he was kind enough to take us to a bus stop where he said the bus would arrive in 25 minutes and we can go to Rach Chia, we had coconumt water and were lazing around when the bus came, the conductor got down and asked us to pay for the ticket in advance and the ticket was 500,000 d per person, it seemed a bit more but since we were not used to the place and it was put on us suddenly and the bus was honking, we gave him the 1,500,000 d and boarded the bus, within 5 minutes of boarding things started to seem fishy, and when asked about the ticket we were told it was just 30,000 d … and then everything started to make sense, we have been conned on just setting a foot on Vietnam, he also charged us 20 times the ticket cost and almost half our planned money was already gone, all 3 of us were feeling bad especially me and Gladston, and wanted to do something bout it, but the problem for us is we are just going to spend 2 days here and we don’t really have a choice to either njoi and go after something that we might not be able to find at all. Parthi had already stopped thinking and told us that we better forget if we want to njoi the rest of the trip, so we headed to Rach Chia.

The bus dropped us in Rach Chia and we had to walk around 2 Km to the port in the sun which was a bit of a diconcern, plus we were got willing to take help being afraid of going for a ride again. Reaching Rach Chia another scam unfolded as we got to know that the tickets for the ferry were unavailable and we needed to buy them in black, normal price 270,000 d per person and we would get it in 400,000 d per person, we had already been cheated and this really didn’t seem nice, so we decided enquiring everywhere, and finally managed 2 tickets for 300,000 d and one for 350,000 d which was more but not 20 times at least. We headed in the boat and reached Phu Quoc.

We couldn’t change currency in Rach Gia and were almost out of cash when we reached there and the first thing we wanted to do was to buy a ticket back to Ha Tien on Monday afternoon, the ticket Parthi enquired was 190,000 d and we didn’t have enough money to buy it, it was 4 already and we haven’t had much since morning and a bit tired and disappointed we got to the city and Gladston withdrew cash from the ATM, and we started enquiring about the ticket and the ticket to Ha Tien was not available, this made me panic a bit as I had to leave to india on Tuesday and it wouldn’t look nice if I have to delay the ticket for another day. So I tried my best to find the ticket and couldn’t L , it had just not been our day and wasn’t seeming to get better either. It was around 6 and Gladston said better to find a hotel and lets try for the tickets later, I wasn’t sure if I should give up but I had no option, so we rented 3 motorbikes, one was the same guy I was searching the tickets and 2 more to head to Mango Bay which Parthi really wanted to check out as it was only 5$ a night, on the way Gladston’s bike got punctured and me and Parthi carried on to check the hotel, it was a luxurios Bunglow type hotel along the sea and costed 88$ pre day, Parthi was impressed and wanted to stay, but I didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily and I knew Gladston wouldn’t either, so we called Gladston and he immediately asked us to come back, since we were on 3 different motorbikes in a new place, it was really difficult to coordinate and wasted another 45 minutes and now I was starting to feel really bad, I still couldn’t forget we haven’t got the tickets back.

The guy took us to a hotel called the Moon Resort which was ok and also by the beach,
we liked the place and took it, tired and hungry I really needed to take a bath and eat something, a bath was really refreshing and we headed to the Indian restaurant across the road for dinner, the food was really good and it calmed me down a bit, and Gladston admitted that the Hotel and the food were the only 2 good things that happened to us today, we had also enquired about the snorkeling tour and the motorbike guy fixed a tour for 15$ per person for the whole day and that looked reasonable. His name was ‘Wow’ as pronounced. He also took us to the night market and we walked our way back. The day had finally ended.

Day 2—New Day New Beginning

We got up early and got ready for the tour, we had to go to the An Thoi island and it was a long van ride to reach there. On our way we stopped at a pearl farm where they saw us how they extracted pearls. We had a look around the place and the pearls seemed overly costly, but Parthi seemed obsessed on buying oval shaped pearl necklace for his mom and if it was not for Gladston he would have got something really overpriced.

Soon we boarded a boat and were ready to head to the sea, it was a long boat ride before we stopped at a small fish farm and I had my first encounter with the Puffer fish, it looked really cute, with the help of Gladston I understood how to hold a crab as well, and also posed to get a click with a sea turtle.

It was 11 and we were still on the boat and I was beginning to feel if the day is going to be as bad as it was yesterday. And then the boat was stopped and we were asked to jump in to snorkel, Gladston had already told us how to wear the equipment and how to use it as well, so as soon as he got the signal he was off, but me and parthi were noway entering the water without his help. I was not comfortable jumping and Parthi doesn’t know swimming at all. After some time we jumped with the help of a rope, but still weren’t ready to let go of the rope, Gladston called and said he will hold hand and take us along, so I was the first to go, he took me along and I put my head down and as I started see little fish around my eyes went wider and there was a huge rock right infront of us and I was thinking that we will crash into it :P .. Gladston stopped near it and told me to stand on it while he gets Gladston, he also told me that I can swim around and come back to this rock, but I was pretty scared standing there and did not want to move an inch, but the current of water and the flippers weren’t helping a bit and I was getting really scared. After some time Gladston got Parthi on top of a rock as well and came around me and we swam for a bit together and I did not hold on to Gladston that time, Gladston dived a few times and showed me a few fishes and sea urchins, I was amazed to see them and my interest was growing, now I was feeling more comfortable with the life jacket and decided to follow Gladston wherever he went, the whole world was so mystical and I really wished that I hadn’t stayed so long in the boat, I really wished we had an underwater camera to capture all the beauty. Soon it was time to head back and I swam all the way to the boat on my own, I was growing in confidence and was just waiting to get the next swim.

It was time for lunch and it was served in the boat, the lunch was really royal and we had fish, tofu, rice, noodles, crab ( Gladston had bought em at the place we stopped ) and we had a plentiful, I also dared to eat crab which was actually quite nice and I did not get the rashes I thought I would cause of the allergy. Soon it was time to jump and I did not wait for Gladston and jumped alone, swimmed across till the beach and looked for corals, this place wasn’t that good and there were all dead corals, we ended from here soon and left for another place, now I had no problems jumping in the sea and doing snorkeling alone.

The third place was supposed to be really good and it was a nice place where we saw a lot of fishes some I know were the zebra fish, sea urchin, a variety of clown fish and many more, I wish I could dive and not just snorkel, the water world was drawing me towards it and I wanted to be a part of it, Gladston said he wants to go around the small island and look for some big fishes and if I wanted to come along, I was up for the challenge and we swam together across it, as we reached the other side the water was really deep, felt a bit scared for a moment but then realized I need only 7 feet to drown and the depth doesn’t matter, so kept swimming without any problems, the whole round did not yield much but just added on my confidence in the life jacket and we headed back to the boat.

This was our last snorkeling stop and now it was time for some fishing, it was not as inventive as in Cambodia but was pretty much the same, and the boat guys took us to the right place and I manged to catch a fish soon enough, the locals were catching a lot of them and I seemed to be the only one else to catch as well, Gladston and Parthi did not manage t catch a fish L and I managed to catch 3 :D .. but the star was the british lady who caught one fish that was 3 times bigger than what anyone else had caught.

From there we headed back to the port, meantime Wow had called and told that he couldn’t get the tickets and I really feel happy that I didn’t let that ruin my day. We headed to the Sao beach from there which was a beautiful white sand beach, and all I wanted to do there was sit and relax. The tour was over and the guy dropped us back to the hotel, we tried to arrange a squid fishing tour but were unable to find a gud rate so decided we would go kayaking instead. Wow was present at the hotel and we decided to go search for the tickets again, Gladston volunteered and Wow said that he will return in an hour be ready by then.

I got to capture yet another beautifull sunset while Gladston and Parthi headed on a kayak, I felt really happy clicking some nice shots as I haven’t been able to in the last 2 days, and soon it was my turn to kayak. I know Gladston is already suffering from tennis elbow and did not want him to make too much effort rowing and I wanted to do the most of it. So we began and Gladston as always pushed us to reach another far point and we did it with ease, with the boats coming in from everywhere and the light fading it was best to head back and so we did, and I rowed like crazy to make a good speed and it all ended up well.

We took a shower and Wow was here to take Gladston along and we headed to the Indian restaurant, I knew Gladston wasn’t optimistic in getting the tickets, but I knew he would not put any less effort though, we had just ordered a starter and Gladston was back , as he approached he signaled a thumbs up and I was delighted to see that, he had managed to get the tickets and it was a great relief, we tipped Wow and his first reaction was “ Are you sure?”, he was so surprised to get the tip and we asked him to pick us up early morning and take us to the harbor.

We couldn’t stop discussing as to how different people are as we got conned on the first day and everyone trying to take extra money from us and how Wow was trying to help us save every bit without any regard for money whatsoever. The day was a real opposite to yesterday, and everything fell in place, I thanked god for a great day and went to bed.

Day 3 --- we head back

We got ready and Wow was on time as usual, he was elated by yesterdays tip and was buzzing with energy. We had decided to rent a bike and go around the island and we never got a chance, so I gave my bag to Wow and asked him to ride, I drove till the harbor and was ready to leave, he left us in the boat and said goodbye.

The boat ride as we had stool tickets that means not the regular ones turned out to be on the back seat, but we had no regrets and njoied it to the optimum, we reached Ha Tien at 10:45, but had to wait for the bus till 1 and finally reached Phnom Penh at 6.

All in all it was a great experience of some good things and some lessons to be learnt. I njoied the trip and ended it on a high note.

Lankawi, Malaysia

I have been excited all through the last month as I have hoped to travel to Malaysia and everything did fall in place at the right time. As I got out from the flight the first surprise was to see Ranbir Kapoor who was also waiting for the inter terminal train, I waved from a bit far and he waved back seeming really happy that someone did recognize him J.

As I was took the taxi I came to know that Rupal stays near the Petronas towers and the excitement grew, the towers were actually visible from a distance and the early mrning mist made the high rise buildings seem like mystical castles. As I reached the hotel I met up with Rupal and then the rest of the day was pretty ok.

After dinner we took a round around the petronas towers and it did look beautiful, but the more important thing we had to catch the bus to Lankawi. The bus ride was good except the fact that the AC felt like I reached Moscow and it really didn’t let me sleep all night. We reached Kuala Perlis at around 7:30. From here we had to take a ferry to Lankawi (Kuah), the boat was faster than what I had experienced but I slept through the most of it.

Langkawi – Day1

With a bit of a struggle we finally reached Pentai Chinang, the beach area of Lankawi, took a decent hotel and started exploring the place. We saw a lot of Jet Skies and parasailing from a distance and thought that would be the best way to start, so we headed straight for parasailing. After I put on the gear, there were some instruction given and I had to run a little before it lifted and as it lifted it just pulled me high in a flash, it was an experience on its own and then the view from high up was really nice I wish I got the camera up there L … I landed pretty safely and it was an end of another adventure ticked off the list.

We had lunch and were not sure what to do next, so we visited a touridt office and found that the only thing possible to do was to Island Hopping, so we thought to give it a go next. The tour started on a boat with around 15 people, a relatively small boat, but moving really fast, it seemed like going on a speedboat, the first stop was a lake between the mountains, where we could dive in or go for a paddle boat, instead we decided to stay at the shore and just appreciate beauty, there were a lot of monkeys who more not hassling the tourist much.

From there the next stop was Eagle feeding, I had seen so many eagles up close for the first time and it felt really nice, and again the urge in me to take a good picture of a flying bird crept in, but I was still unsuccessful L .. I did manage to take a gud video but unluckily deleted it as well L.

The third and final stop was a really beautiful beach, it reminded me for a bit of Pengong Lake (Nothing can beat Pengong Lake though), but a big beach with very few people around was nice to see. Myself and Rupal both dived in and had fun there, I also managed to see a school of beautiful fish in Beeline colours ( Yellow and Black stripes) and also captured a green coloured crab.

The tour ended and we headed back to the hotel it was around 5:30 we returned and was still very hot to go out, and Rupal wanted to rest so we took a slight nap and went out Around 7 to see the sunset, me and my obsession for taking pictures of the sunset got me far away from the point we were and the clouds didn’t actually let me get any nice shots and suddenly it started raining cats and dogs. We took shelter in a restaurant and took a bit of food.

Now we had to decide what to do tomorrow. Rupal wasn’t keen on snorkeling and I wasn’t too keen either, so we decided to take the Mangrove tour (was also recommended by Gladston). On the way back to the hotel we saw a castle like Indian restaurant and decided to have dinner there and it didn’t let us down, the food was really nice and it was time to hit the bed.

Langkawi – Day 2

The second day began with a bit of a hustle as we got up late and had the worse Maggi I have ever had ( if you want to know how can someone spoil maggi, come to Malaysia). We rushed to the pickup car and were fairly surprised to see 3 Indians gurls accompanying us.

We were going on the Mangroves tour and the first stop was the Bat Cave, it was a bit different from the other bat caves as the number of bats were quite low and it didn’t stink that much J … from there we headed to the fish farm. The farm was full of different kinds of fish like the Grouper (were huge and were the most common there). Next was the stingray, the feeling of feeding a stingray was nice and I did not get stung J … also saw the archer fish in action, where one of them spit on the piece of meat and it fell into the water J also saw the amazing HorseShoe crab and the Mantis prawn.

We moved on from there in the rich mangroves for the next stop being the crocodile cave, ofcourse the crocodiles were all gone and it was a small cave almost like an under bridge on water, we crossed it to reach the Eagle feeding frenzy, there were around 50 Eagles and Kites flying around us and it was really an amzing site, there wings were huge and the ease of their flight made me wanna be like one of them J.

Next we headed to a nice deserted beach but it was in the middle of the afternoon and I really didn’t want to take a splash so we walked around the beach for a bit and then moved on, we had almost reached Thai border and we could see the vast ocean dividing the two countries, it was now time to head back to the place where we started and it was a good half hour boat ride which brought us to the end on the tour.

We headed back to the hotel to collect my luggage and were deciding to head back to KL, the gurls suggested us to must see the Cable Car but going there in the afternoon didn’t seem like a good option and staying there for another day wasn’t seeming worth it, so we decided to head back to Kuah and then took a bus back to the KL …