O pen up…

On day 3, we were left alone to adventure around the island. We had taken the wonderful decision to hire a scooter (scooty, kinetic honda kind) on that day. We did not even have a map with us and we set towards North and with the help of the sign boards, we reached Port Louis and spent the afternoon at the Waterfront again. While coming back south, we decided not to turn west and proceeded southwards. After a while, we reached a nice restaurant on the south-west coast and stopped there for tea. It was a nice feeling to have a good tea after a day long trip from the west to the north west, back to the south-west of the island. While we were riding, we were caressed by the breeze from the sugarcane farms, the winds from the hills we drove past and the nice sea breeze that welcomed us in the evening as we drove west towards our restaurant.

The next day, we were taken to the east coast, from where we were going to be taken to a small island. We did amazing adventures like – the undersea walk (yep we walked under the ocean), double tuber (where the tube on which we both sat was tied to a motor boat which while speeding made us jump up and down, left and right on the water) and parasailing (that was amazzzing, we were up above in the sky above the ocean for about 4 minutes and guess what – I made a perfect landing). Overall, it was a fun-filled day and we got to know two more couples honeymooning in Mauritius. That evening, we had a nice chat with one of those couples who were staying at our resort.

The next day we hired a scooter again and set off to Port Louis again. This time we explored a little bit of North Central part of the island. While returning, we explored the west coast (I managed to find a musical ice cream van where Deepthi so badly wanted the “tring tring” musical ice cream they sold). Then we chanced upon another honeymooning couple we had made friends with and spent the evening chatting.

The next day, we were to return back to India, but we had some 3 1/2 hours left with us and decided to enjoy the ride on the scooter through the time. I took Deepthi to the Center of Mauritius to the volcanic crater where Deepthi wanted to taste the ice cream they sold. From the centre, we asked directions back to the west coast. Everyone was suggesting to us to take the same road we came by and to not hit the road that takes us to the forest area and to the mountains. The kind of adventure couple we were, we took the forest road. Through the curves along the lush green forests we drove and as we came more towards the South, we had to climb some hills. We managed to find another great valley area with wonderful view of the South coast and nice waterfalls adorning the hills. And through the hills we drove, passed by the Shiva statue and finally hit the South coast, drove along the South-west coast and back to the west coast.

It was ammmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing………..

The first day, we were taken on a car on the South tour. We were lucky to be taken in a car for the pennies we paid – the other honeymooning couples had to settle for a bus, some of them not even having the pleasure of sitting side by side. Apart from the fact that we were taken to more shopping places than we wanted to go to, we enjoyed the trip. The roads, the people became more familiar to us (believe me Mauritians are not the best hospitable people – but they are very interesting with their French accent). We got to see the huge volcanic crater, Troux Aux Cerf, from which the island had formed ages ago. The huge Shiva statue (yes most of them were hindus – they were more religiously celebrating some Murugan festival than probably we do in Chennai), some waterfalls, seven coloured earth and the amazing South-west coast.

The next day we were taken on the North tour and were taken to Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius. The Caudan Waterfront, a huge shopping mall just beside the bay, was an amazing place to hang out. We had our lunch there in an Indian restaurant ‘Namaste’.

Hi,

So I returned from US on 20th Jan and set off to Mauritius the next day – our first anniversary, with Deepthi. I was in a true holiday mood  and felt very emotional when we were in the Air Mauritius flight. Beleive me, even Air India would feel good after you fly Lufthansa (had a real bad experience in Lufthansa while flying in and out of US). Deepthi and I exchanged some nice words to each other as we set ourselves on the journey. After 6 hours of flight, the first glimpse of Mauritius enthralled us. Amidst the lush green hills and the sugarcane farms we landed and it was very hot outside , some 37 degrees celsius. Just 2 days earlier, I had experienced -2, so Mauritius felt like heaven to me. Most of the people we met were of Indian origin, of course it had been 4 generations since they had left India. We were given our itinerary which did not look promising, but I had all the hopes for a great holiday. The drive on the island was very nice, we introduced ourselves to the 2 couples travelling with us in our coach. They had come on honeymoon, which made us the senior citizens there !

The resort where we were put up wasn’t that great – but we felt that was value for money. And since we were not on our honeymoon, we did not need such niceties. The hotel was on the west coast (yep we had a beach beside our hotel). The beaches in Mauritius are amazing and are very interesting. They are surrounded by a coral line which is some 30-50 feet away from the coast. The tides stop there and their impact almost becomes zero by the time they reach the coast (This coral line had actually helped Mauritius survive during Tsunami). The water with its aqua marine blue colour can fill the hearts of any romantic.

The next day we set off to Mystery spot, a nice mysterious place located near Santa Cruz. It was a 1 hour drive through hilly winding roads with nice picturesque sceneries and amazing roads – all of which I had captured on the cam. Mystery spot is a hilly area where gravity laws are defied – no perfect scientifc explanation has been given so far. A person taller than me appeared shorter than me and I could walk slantingly etc etc. It was a nice experience, I did take the photos and the video. When we returned, I was all tired and sis took me to a nice mexican restaurant – Chipotle’s. Nice tacos stuffed with Black beans, Guacomela sauce (again the spelling!!) and also some rice item with corn, sauce, beans etc filled my tummy – my GOD that was a meal! I have to take Deepthi to such restaurant some day – she will enjoy it a lot.

I had a nice dinner and set back on the return journey, only to learn at the Oakland airport that the pilot had not turned up!!! After listening to my complaint that my first ever trip within US was being ruined, the United guy offered me a direct flight trip from San Francisco till Philly the next day morning along with accommodation in a nice hotel called Westin. The hotel was good, but the experience was unwanted. I had to take time off on monday and probably will have to compensate by working on a saturday. Neways, that was about the journey. It was great and I am all tired. I returned to my hotel to find my Dell Lappy delivered ! I love it!

We set off to San Francisco on train. I captured the train journey on the handycam. Nice journey with a 15 minute travel over the pacific bay. we got onto a tram in San Francisco – looks like the trams are a trademark of the city. I captured even that on my cam. Then we reached the ‘Fishermen’s wharf’ from where we set on a Bay cruise that took us through the bay area of the pacific ocean around the golden gate bridge – that is a historical bridge which had opened up trade in San Francisco some centuries ago. The boat then took us through the Alcatraz – which is an island in the ocean. Alcatraz is a prison where dangerous criminals are jailed. It is next to impossible to escape from the prison because of the security there and also because noone can swim 1.5 miles through the cold water to reach the city. Only 2 tried to escape long time ago, one of whom died and the other only survived bcos he was captured by the coast guards.

Then, we spent the entire day walking through the streets of San Francisco – we visited Madame Tussaud’s museum over there. The wax idols there were not exact replicas – not the quality ones they have in London and Los Angeles – but they were good all the same. Srikanth took a picture of mine with Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Salma Hayek, Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie. We bought some ghirardeli’s chocolates (did I spell it right?!) and set back to Fremont. It was a tiresome night and I had a good night’s sleep. Ankith was in a good mood and sang danced for several rhymes he has been learning nowadays.

Hi,

I had been to California over the weekend. It was a long journey – a 6 hour long flight and another 1 hour long flight. United was the airlines I flew by. the operations were bad, I had to run for the connecting flight in Los Angeles with a transit time of 15 minutes only to learn that it has been delayed. And the gate number had been changed 3 times, before they finally flew us through a small flight where even the cockpit was visible to the passengers. The good thing was I met a Japanese guy there who started talking about India. I was wearing a kurta that time and he said it was looking good. He asked me for all the info about India – where do you find the people with turbans, where do you find those guys in mela doing all the tricks with fire, ropes etc. I had to tell him that the cities do not have such population. He was even interested in meeting fakirs. I was amazed at the knowledge he has on the Indian culture, but had to correct him several times of the perception he has. He was so afraid of catching flu over there, etc etc.

The air hostess in the first flight was a 50+ year old lady , but she had nice sense of humour which made the travel enjoyable. I got down at Oakland airport to find Srikanth, my brother in law waiting for me. I cannot tell you how happy I felt that time. Here I am in an alien country and for more than a month have not met a relative in person. It was really a great moment to see him and we headed straight to fremont. Fremont was a nice city with a fine weather and wonderful residential localities. I found my sister’s residence beautiful. Ankith, my nephew was sleeping and my sis gave me some nice home made chapatis to satiate my hunger. I had a nice sleep. I woke up in the morning and had nice andhra food cooked my sis – rice, donda kaaya curry and mamidikaaya pappu. It was gr8!!!

Hi,

Araku – If you have not heard of the name, let me try to use my pen to describe the beautiful mountainous area near Vizag. Dad, Mom, Deepthi and I attended my cousin’s wedding and were happy to catch up with many close relatives some of whom I had not met for years. The plan was to travel back home the same day until Deepthi proposed a trip to the Araku valley area to spend a nice day. It was easy for her to convince me and Mom, but Dad put up a strong fight having got tired of back-to-back journeys. But then, I always had confidence in Deepthi’s persuasive skills. Deepthi not only made him agree to the trip but also managed to get a booking at one of the jungle resorts in Araku valley region. She booked a ‘Wooden Log Hut’ accommodation for the four of us at the ‘Jungle Bells’ resort in the village named ‘Tyada’. Hold on if you want to know more about the jungle resort and the feel of the tribal culture we had experienced there.

So, the four of us set off from Vizag in a train that started early morning. The rail journey was one of the best I had – through tunnels that took us into the heart of the Eastern Ghats. Although I hadn’t kept a count of the number of tunnels, I could hear the 9 year old kid sitting nearby yelling at the top of her voice, “50”. We came across several beautiful lush green valleys and chill waterfalls that shone in the early morning sun.

We got down at the station ‘Borra Guhalu’ meaning ‘Borra Caves’ and walked down the railway tracks and then off them to get to the entrance of the caves. On a board that was hanging at the entrance, there was a description of the history of the ‘Borra Caves’ and also the scientific explanation of the formation of caves in the mountains. The name ‘Borra’ is a telugu and oriya word meaning hole and the caves have been named so as – ‘years ago when a cow fell off the mountains into a huge hole, the caves were discovered’. Legend says that the cow had fell through the caves into the river flowing at the bottom of the hills and came out alive. That had triggered the belief that there was something divine attached to the caves. The river was named ‘Gosthani’ river. Gosthani translates to cow’s udder.

The scientific reason for the formation of the caves seems to be the flow of water for years together through mountains breaching the rocks (something of that sort). Several structures of stalagmite (or was it limestone – plz bear with my feeble brains) have been formed inside the caves due to the settling down of the dripping liquids into various shapes. These structures have triggered the imagination of the people who believed that idols of various Gods have been formed naturally inside the caves.

After reading the description, we walked down the entrance of the caves. It was a beautiful sight. The hole at the top through which the sunlight beamed would have triggered the imagination of writers like Enid Blyton. We hired a guide who took us through the caves showing us various structures which have been imagined to be Lord Shiva, Parvati, etc. And then he pointed us towards certain dangerous locations inside the caves where a lot of honey combs resided (2, 3 people who ventured in there never returned. And then he showed us the top of the caves which was black (ash-like) in colour and told us they were all bats. Deepthi asked him, “I hope the bats won’t attack us”. He assured us they won’t. Some of the structures there seemed to have got the black ash like colour due to the bats (probably some deposits from the bats which he did not want to talk about).

Then, he showed us a place at the top of the cave where there were some idols people worshipped. We walked up there and realized that it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Getting down was far difficult because a small slip would have costed us our lives. We came back to the entrance of the caves all exhausted because of the hiking. On the way back, he showed us various locations inside the caves where famous movies – ‘Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari’, ‘Guna’ and ‘Jamba Lakidi Pamba’ were shot. If I were in the production team of those movies, I would have lost 10 Kgs by the time the shooting had finished. We came out with huge satisfied smiles on our faces. Deepthi was all smiles as she knew everyone was thankful of her. It was not all over yet.

We took a jeep to ‘Tyada’ where we had booked a room in a jungle cottage. It was a hilly road and we reached there in 40 minutes. ‘Jungle Bells’ was a nice resort with several wooden cottages built on the lush green hills. We had to climb to our cottage ‘the Wooden Log Hut’ – a wooden hut-shaped accommodation mounted on logs which were planted into the hill. There was a balcony and 2 rooms with attached bathrooms. We finished our lunch and had a nice afternoon nap all tired from the hiking. We were in for a surprise when we went down to the jungle restaurant in the evening for tea. The tribal women were about to perform the tribal dance ‘Dhimsa’ in an area just next to the restaurant. I finished my tea and was all set with my digicam to capture the tribal dance. Some men came and lighted a fire and to my surprise were heating the ‘dhol’ in the fire. Deepthi said heating the ‘dhol’ would help them produce louder beats out of it. The tribal women walked in, all of surprisingly same height. They were wearing saris in the tribal fashion (tucked into the blouse).

Bang on time, the music started and the 13 women holding each other at the waists started moving in an amazingly synchronized fashion. I was not tired of watching them dancing the same steps for about an hour. Each time after going around the stage twice, they would all gather in a circle screaming in a high pitch voice. The dance was a treat to watch except for some 5 minutes in the middle when one of the crazy guests got on to the stage and danced rather awfully causing annoyance to the tribals. He was soon pulled out of the stage and the tribals danced merrily leaving us with a taste of their culture and lifestyle. After the dance, we 4 finished our dinner and went back to our cottage. Dad and Mom went into their room, but Deepthi and I decided to enjoy the moment by dancing like the tribals. Hearing our footsteps, Dad and Mom came out and immediately Mom joined the party. The 3 of us held each other by the waists and danced like the tribal women for about 15 minutes on the balcony. It was truly a great moment I will remember for years to come, the 3 of us just hopping around merrily holding each other’s waists. Dad got a bit conscious to dance but he sure was helping us with the choreography and was a good audience.

With thousand watt smiles we went back into our rooms and had the best sleep of our lives. We got up early morning the next day and set off in a bus to reach Vizag from where we caught a train to Rajahmundry and reached home at about 3 PM. This surely was one of the best places I have ever visited. So when are you going to visit ‘Araku Valley’?