Trek to Sar Pass

Date: 6 May 2009 to 20 May 2009
Places visited: Manali, Solang Valley and all places en route to Sar Pass

Alright, with the bird brain that I have, I’m taking forgetfulness to new lows (or highs). I tried to blog about Kashmir more than a month after the trip, and the disaster of my previous blog is there for all to see. So, point noted. From now on, the trip report shall come in as soon as I finish a trip.

People on board this time – Swaying Palm (SP), Caught in Love (CIL), Rathore (R) and yours truly. Somehow these love-struck wonders seem to make their way into our camps quite often these days on all our trips! These were the four of us who went together. Other characters will be introduced as the story progresses.

So, Swaying Palm casually sent me a link while chatting sometime around mid-Jan / Feb. It was to the Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) website. I’d vaguely heard about them before, but never knew what they actually did. Going through the link made me realize that they arrange some awesome treks and trips at throwaway prices. Initially meant for students, they accept people of all ages anyway. You only need to become a member of YHAI before you can register for a trek.

Of the many treks that were there on the site, two seemed to catch our attention – one was to a place called Sarkundi while the other was to Sar Pass. Wikipedia and Indiamike seemed to suggest that Sar Pass was the prettier one among the two. So, the bunch of guys that we were, we decided to settle for the hotter chick. The entire trek was for 11 days. The first and last day just being reporting and departure days, the actual camping was 9 days long.

The planning for this trip started months ahead. Convincing people for such trips is always a big headache, but we somehow managed to rope in two more enthusiastic souls. Another bunch of 11 people decided to do a biking trip around Manali and Rohtang Pass around this time. We kept our brains intact and decided that we’d not join them but go ahead with the trek. After all, it’s not often that you can test your body and mind and play around with your life. Biking can be done anytime!

All set, CIL and I set off from Bangalore on May 6th by KF evening flight. SP and R were already in Delhi/ Jaipur by then, so we’d meet them there the next day. Next day being election day, May 6 was a dry day in Delhi. Oh before we get there, I should tell you about the place we stayed – a comfortable hotel called Hotel Chanchal Deluxe – in a place called Paharganj. Try going there in the night and you’ll realize that it’s in no way lesser than Vegas. Entire streets of neon lighting filled with hotels all along makes it quite tough to find your hotel. In this place, you name it, you’ll find it.
Got up at around 11 the next day and tried to head out. 5 minutes in the sweltering heat and we decided that the room with the comfort of an air conditioner was a million times better. Even as we were heading back, SP and R arrived with their luggage. We put it back in the room and headed to Connaught Place for lunch. Nirulas beckoned. Burgers and meals and ice creams and a few hundred bucks poorer, we realized that we had a bus to Manali at 5:30 pm and it was well past 3 by now. So the four of us decided to head back to the hotel. Since I wanted to try out the metro, we thought we’d go by metro till New Delhi Railway Station and then walk down to the hotel. Our hotel was very close to the railway station. The only landmark we knew here was “Sheela Cinema” – a place which we’d only heard about as a landmark, never seen.
The metro ride was a nice experience in itself. When we got out of the gleaming metro station, we realized that we were completely lost! Since finding out the right place in Paharganj is quite tough, I walked up to a man and asked him how to get to Sheela Cinema. He told me that there’s another theatre quite close by and that we could go there instead. I insisted that I know the route to Sheela Cinema. He started swearing at me with a few lewd gestures to boot. Taken aback, I moved on. We tried asking a few others for directions but it almost always seemed to evince the same kind of response. We then caught an auto whose driver promptly charged us forty bucks and dropped us at some place. He told us that Chanchal Hotel was in the next road and was walkable from there. After alighting, we realized that we’d been taken for a ride (quite literally!) and dropped off at some other godforsaken place. Another wild hunt and about half an hour later we ended up at our hotel. We freshened up, packed our bags and left for the bus stand. After coming back to Bangalore, I asked my colleague who’s a native of Delhi about Sheela Cinema - turns out it’s a place which films only adult content.

8th May
Got out of the bus in Manali and headed to the room. Today was our “off” day – we had nothing solid planned as yet, but wanted to do something exciting nonetheless. We had a tentative idea of going to Solang valley – a 17km drive. Solang valley is popular among tourists as a place to do paragliding and Zorping. Zorping is an activity in which 2 people are tied up inside a transparent ball and rolled down the slopes of a mountain. Sounds exciting, but it didn’t really excite us when we saw it there. It’s something similar to what you see on Takeshi’s castle sometimes. Hehe. We got ready and headed to the city center around 1pm – after the cab guy who was supposed to pick us up gave haath. We managed to find two Enfields for Rs.350 apiece. Taking them, we headed off to Solang valley. After a bumpy ride with a couple of photo stops, we reached Solang valley. We bargained and got the Rs.900 ride for Rs. 700. (We were taken for a ride – literally and figuratively too). There’s something exciting about jumping off a cliff – even when you’re not dejected in life. And when you know that your life is in safe hands – more or less – you feel OK. The wind was just fine, and we all managed to have a pretty good landing after about 45 seconds to a minute in the air. The views were brilliant – snow clad mountains on the left, grassy mountain behind, pine forests on the right.

By now it started to get cloudy and CIL really wanted to get back before it started raining. I kind of agreed with him, but nevertheless, wanted to have a plate of mirchi bajji and maggi before starting off. After having waited for what seemed like eternity, we realized that scooting from there was a better option – so we headed back to Manali all famished. On the way back, we stopped at a teeny-weeny shop where we had some of the best momos. He even gave us the hot broth in which he’d cooked them. This was truly relished by us after a cold and long day out in the dusty and grimy roads.

Pit stop done, photos taken, we drove back to Manali. Along the way we saw people going for hot air balloon rides next to the Beas river. That huge blue and white monster sure looked sexy with fire bellowing down its bottom. So, that was today. Dinner at some place called Madras café and we were back in the room. Somehow there’s this fancy to name restaurants as “Madras Café” in Manali. We were able to spot atleast 4 Madras Cafés within a radius of 200 meters.

May 9:
We needed to report at Base camp Kasol today. This place is about 60km from Manali but takes 3-4 hours drive due to the hilly terrain. SP and Rathore had still not completed their shopping. Also, we were all waiting to get raincoats from the Adarsh and gang who’d gone biking before us. We finally met them and after spending about half an hour and raiding their belongings, off we were on a bus to Kasol. We had to change buses at Bhuntar. As we were already late, there was no time for lunch today either. Talk about Bhooka Naan. So, we effectively did nothing the entire day. We spent only about an hour with the other guys. And we travelled from 3 to 7pm. When the bus dropped us off at base camp, it was quite a beautiful sight – the Parvati river flowing below. Next to it were about 20 tents – all lit up with serial lighting and shiny streamers. It somehow looked very fascinating and enticing like “The Shire” from The Lord of the Rings. The bittersweet (mostly sweet) ordeal started here on. We were allotted our tent (#17) and we settled down for the night. After dinner, there was a “campfire”. Since YHAI believes in sustainable travel/ trekking and eco-friendly camping, etc, the campfire is a bunch of serial lights strung together.

Each batch generally elects a leader, a deputy leader and an environment leader. The leader is called upon to light the campfire by flicking the switch. After a few songs and dances, just when we thought we were getting bored, Magic Uncle came on stage. He was a 50 something guy from Chennai who can do a few magic tricks. While we could see through some of them, some were really good fun to watch. He made a guy tie his hands up. His assistants had to put a blanket over his hands and he removed the knot and waved his hand. He put it back inside the blanket and now when the blanket was removed, his hands were still tied! Well, this was how it was supposed to work atleast. But the first time round, our guy tied the knot so well that he wasn’t able to remove the knot at all!! He asked his assistants to untie him and started all over again. But a few other tricks that he did later as we proceeded on the trek were quite interesting. Too bad he had to drop out half way through the trek due to bad health, else I’m sure we’d have had a lot more fun – either with him, or at his expense.
Since SP, Rathore and myself were planning to camp at Spiti valley after the trek, we’d borrowed a couple of sleeping bags from the biking gang. This came in handy while sleeping inside the tent at base camp.

May 10:
The whistle blew at 5am and we’d have to get ready in no time and start with the exercises. After the drill, we were given breakfast. We’d been instructed to take our own plate, spoon, steel tumbler, etc. which we used for our meals. This was followed by a 3km “acclimatization” trek today. It was raining this morning so we went up the hill with our raincoats on. We went till the top of a hill where we lit pine cones and made a small fire. The whole afternoon was to ourselves, we went to the Kasol city and had a nice bath in the hot springs next to the river. The whole idea of bathing in the open in your underpants along with a couple of other guys freaked me out, but then.. when the temperature is so cold, there’s nothing like a hot bath amidst such scenic settings… So we went for it :) May 11:
Basically a time-pass day today. Did some stuff like rappelling and rock climbing. By evening, we started packing our bags for the actual core 1 week trek which would start tomorrow. We’d come back to base camp after 7 days. We’d been instructed to travel light since we’d have to carry our entire luggage in the backpack on our own all through the trek, through all terrains. So, something akin to cost-cutting started in all the tents. People had to decide what to leave back at base camp so as to reduce the weight of their backpacks. It’s impressive how innovative people can get. Most of us left our plates behind thinking that we’d use the lunch box for both packed lunches as well as for having food at the camps. People didn’t get soap to reduce a couple of hundred grams. Some got the soap, but left the soap box back. SP suggested taking half a tube of toothpaste instead of a full one so as to save 50gm. CIL left his slippers behind.. But not a good thing to do considering you’ll need to wear them at every camp to go out here and there. This done, we just prayed that we’d have a good trek, and, more importantly, that the weather gods would be kind to us. A previous batch had to be called back because of bad weather and they could never cross the pass. That was the last thing that we wanted. Having gone all the way, we wanted to come back having accomplished what we’d set out for.

May 12:
Kasol base camp - Shila by bus.
Trek from Shila – Guna Pani
D-Day had arrived. We set out of our tents in our rented YHAI backpacks. All the extra luggage was checked in for safe custody, and off we went!

Sujith (fellow trekker): “Ek baath bathaon?”
Rest of us: “Kya bhai kya?”
Sujith: “SP - 12”
Rest of us: “Wah bhai wah!!”

This was one of our slogans for the rest of the trek.
We left the base camp and caught a bus to this place called Shila which is about 10km from base camp. The trek starts from here. As soon as we got off the bus, our guide was there waiting for us. He showed us the route. From this point, we could even see our camp for the night – it was on the mountain in front of us. So near, yet so far…

Including the lunch break, it took us close to 5 hours to reach Guna Pani. We reached there by about 3pm. So, the trek had begun! And this was our first camp outside Kasol. It’d be another week of roughing it out before we headed back. While having soup and tea, we tried to socialize with the other group members by playing dumb charades and 20 questions. By then, it was dinner time! None of the camps have lighting of any sort, so dinner needs to be finished before it gets dark. Also, none of them have toilets, so you either need to do stuff before it gets bright and sunny outside, or, get used to doing stuff in broad daylight.
May 13:
Guna Pani – Fual Pani
This morning, after breakfast, we cleaned up the tents and campsite and started off from Guna Pani at about 8am. Our next destination was Fual Pani. We usually took breaks every hour or so, and lunch break was a leisurely one hour. There would always be locals making maggi, omlettes and masala chai at the lunch points and selling them at exorbitant rates. But then, considering you’re in the middle of nowhere, most of the times even without a cellphone signal, none of us could complain about the prices. And not having a working phone meant no pizza delivery!
SP, CIL and Rathore were usually the frontrunners in the group, always reaching the next camp much ahead of others. On the one hand, it was bad cos they were not adhering to the rules of staying in a group, etc etc.. On the other, this always ensured that we got to sleep in the best tents available in each camp.
The rest of us reached Fual Pani by 5ish in the evening.

By then, our three heroes were already sleeping in the tent ready to welcome us. Once all of us had arrived, the camp leader gave us his welcome speech. Since he was leaving this camp, he introduced us to another camp leader who happened to be a bespectacled teacher from Ahmedabad. Both of them nicely advised the threesome to stick to the group and not go to the next camp ahead of the guide. But it’s another story that rules are meant to be broken while on a trek.
This camp is on a very steep terrain and everything feels like it’s been tilted by 30 degrees. The camp, the tents, the ‘loos’.. quite tough indeed.
Here Oratorji (Ajit Pasi) caught our attention by teaching us a new game called ‘Mafia’. The game has a co-ordinator who secretly decides a mafia/ killer from amongst us. The rest of us become innocent villagers. The mafia kills one innocent villager in each round of the game, and the villagers try to reason out, vote and kill a person from amongst the players who they feel is the mafia.
The game can be quite intriguing and interesting! Rathore went on a rampage killing whoever he felt like because of his “Don’t use logic, use gut feeling” logic (pun unintended).
Dinner and we continued mafia again at the expense of missing the camp fire despite the camp leader himself coming to our tent and asking us to join in.

May 14:
Fual Pani – Zirmi
Breakfast and off we went. But not before a speech by the teacher from Ahmedabad. Few points of his speech were:
Magic uncle to be safely taken back to base camp since he was feeling the trek to be quite exhaustive
Nobody to reach the next base camp before the guide..
Atleast from the next camp onwards, I request all of you to join in the campfire unless you are feeling sleepy. Please don’t sit in the tents and play amongst yourselves.
Thank you for the co-operation extended. (Part of original speech template sent to all camps)
This evening we reached Zirmi – a beautiful place amongst lush green meadows. Not many trees around the immediate vicinity. The beauty of this turns into a disadvantage early in the mornings when you start scooting high and dry for some form of tree cover so that you can finish your job in quite solitude – with time all to yourself.
The camp leader was from Punjab here and he welcomed us to the base camp.
Thanks to our threesome, we got the best tent here – facing the valley with a pine forest in front of our tent. Beautiful location.
Water was a slight problem here – so nobody was to touch the pipe that was coming down from some stream far away.
However, people kept tugging, pulling and lifting the pipe which meant that water supply was intermittent. And each time we’d have to call the kitchen staff to set things right. Considering the amount of pain that they went through to connect back the pipe each time, nobody usually came out of the kitchen happily to fix the pipe. Tony/ Lucky Man (Lakshman) used his fluent Hindi to apt use with phrases such as “Hey, Pipe ke upar kaal math rakho!” (Kaal is leg in Kannada).
Mafia continued. This night, Paul and K2 kept the alarm for 4am the next morning to finish business in the dark.
It rained and there was a light hailstorm sometime in the evening, but nothing heavy/ disruptive.

May 15:
Zirmi – Tila Lotni

4am in the morning:
Alarm rings - Beep beep.. Beep beep..
K2 :”Four”
Paul: “K2, what time is it?”
K2: “Four”
Paul: “What time is it?”
K2: “Four”
Paul: “Is it four”
K2: “Yes, it’s four o’clock.”

By the end of this conversation, most of us were awake. The two of them left the tent. As they opened the tent door, we saw the whole valley awash in pure white moon light. You could see the full moon with its craters casting milky white light on the mountains, the pine trees, the ground, everywhere! Sheldon (Vivek) told Krishna to try capturing it on his SLR. I wanted to go out, but was too sleepy to even open my eyes any longer. And it was so freakin cold, that venturing out was like moving from a nice hot fireplace into an igloo – no thanks. So, I slept assuming that Krishna would have got a good shot. Krishna came back after sometime to say that it was very tough without a tripod. Some moments are best captured in the mind I guess.
Sujith later told us that the temperature was 3.2 deg Celsius the previous night.

Today we headed out to Tila Lotni – the highest camp in this trek at 12000 feet. Fed up of Aloo, pooris and rotis, I had nice hot maggi and an omelette for lunch today. Maggi had never tasted so good! And was worth the 35 bucks I paid for a bowlful of it. The price of these things at lunch point keep rising along with the altitude. After all, its tougher to get supplies to higher altitudes.
After lunch, much of the trek was in snow. Rathore and SP tried to race up a hill with a local guide, ran out of breath in a few seconds and had to sit down and take rest.
A lil while later, it started raining. All of us took out our rainsheets, raincoats, etc and continued walking. Trudging through the ice, slipping and sliding, the rain turned into a snowfall! For many of us, it was our first time in snow. And a snowfall was an added bonus.
We reached Tila Lotni by 4:30- 5pm. The campsite is right next to mountains filled with acres of snow! We danced, took pictures, and got ready for the big day tomorrow. We would cross Sar Pass!

May 16:
Tila Lotni – Sarpass – Biskeri Thatch Day arrived! Our camp leader had told us that we’d have to leave by 4am this morning since the weather is highly unpredictable at these high altitudes. The boys in our tent (experts at dealing with the alarm clock) kept the alarm for 2:30 am. We’d have an hour or so to pack up and get ready.
The alarms went off on time, we got up, got ready and waited…
And waited…
And waited some more!
The camp leader was nowhere in site! Unlike other camps, he didn’t even blow the whistle. This was a welcome change, no doubt. But at the same time, this was D-Day! We wouldn’t mind the whistle if we had to leave the camp on time.
Slowly people started getting ready and by the time we finished breakfast, it was close to 6:30am.
Since the weather was brilliant, they’d decided that we’d leave by 7am. But the camp leader never informed this to us. The trauma of this experience haunted me for a week even after we landed in Bangalore. I’d be wide awake early in the morning. It took me a full seven days to get rid of this bad habit.
Packed lunch consisted of biscuits and juice today – a welcome change from the heavy and greasy stuff.
We started off on the trek at 7am. The climb was steep. After an hour, we’d almost finished the complete “grass trek” and were about to begin trekking in snow. The Tamil Nadu team went first and waved their TVS flag for the cameras.
The trek to Sar Pass started. CIL was running a temperature and for the first time during this trek, he was actually trekking with me. He eventually caught up with SP and Rathore after the lunch break.
During lunch, SP and Rathore went up a hill and slid down all along the way. It was fun and I tried it too. Since I’d taken videos of them sliding down, I expected the favour to be returned. The first time I started sliding, apparently SP was not yet ready, so he didn’t even take a snap of me. And I thought that it was me who had to be ready for sliding, not the other way round!
Never mind, I went up the hill once more and slid down again. This time, he wasn’t ready again and only took a snap of me.
Scared that I’d not tolerate this once more, he asked me to make CIL take the video for my last attempt. I nicely showed him how to operate, how to zoom in and how to zoom out.. Mistake of my life. CIL zoomed right into my face at 48X while I was on top of the hill. By the time I started sliding down, I was out of the frame. And by the time he started to track me, I was at the bottom of the hill.. Lesson to be learnt : Never tell a novice to zoom in / zoom out while taking a video. That way, you atleast have the subject in the frame!
With my 3 efforts down the drain, I’d wasted my lunch time, and we started heading for the pass. A part of this journey was quite treacherous and scary. Some were walking as if they were on all fours. Cos any slip of the foot and you’d be a couple of hundred feet down the hill. And it’d take quite an effort to get back to the top.
We walked in a single file and crossed the pass. It was an exciting trek today.
After crossing the pass, we had to get down the mountain. And the shortest way to do this was to slide down. Wheeee….. A 100- 150ft slide down the hill along with our rucksacks!
We still had about 5km to reach the next camp. Climbing down puts a lot of pressure on the toes and knees and it took a couple of hours to reach Biskeri Thatch.
The group leader out waiting to welcome us. Since our clothes had soaked in all the snow and become wet, it was a fresh set of clothes today!!! Yaay.
We had hot soup and pakodas. Most of us were too tired to play anything involving physical activities today. So DC and mafia were ruled out. Mafia requires people to be sitting. Not sure what we did, but I think it was 20 questions.

May 17:
Biskeri – Bhandhak Thatch

With the main expedition completed, it was more a matter of having to finish the trek now. People got up leisurely, finished breakfast, got ready and packed up. With no particular goal/ aim anymore, we clicked pictures along the way, stopped here and there, and basically loafed our way to the next camp. We rappled (sort of) to get down a small 10ft cliff, crossed a wooden bridge (one of the many) over a river and sat down to have lunch. We spotted a huge brown bear which ran away when we started shouting, finished lunch, and continued.
Once we reached Bhandhak Thatch, another camping site in a beautiful meadow – some of our group members decided to leave straight to base camp. It would take another 3 hours of trek. But some of us decided to stay back and enjoy the camping site. The camp leader was a man from Maharashtra who was very cordial. He allowed us to play cricket inside the camp. Rathore, who was in the other team, was the umpire for the first innings, and he cheated like there was no tomorrow. Then our team we batted and won the match! Despite not having a cheat for an umpire anymore. Kudos to SP who stayed on the pitch from the first ball till the last. While the rest of the top order gave haath, I came to the team's rescue and did my bit to finish off the match along with SP. SP was the highest scorer with 1 wicket and 2 catches as well. A sweet victory it sure was!

We then played fire in the mountain. People were made to do stuff which they’d probably not have done in front of such an audience before. One noticeable difference today was that since our original group leader (Ashok) had decided to leave for base camp, Oratorji became our new group leader! This guy loves to give speeches at the drop of a hat. He advised us that since this was the last camp, each one of us should make it a point to say whatever we want, to whomever we want.
This night there was a campfire inside one of the tents. We played antakshari for a while. Once that got boring, we headed to our tent where we talked for sometime, shared a few jokes, and slept.

May 18:
Bhandhak – Manikaran – Kasol - Manali

This morning, we had noodles for breakfast. Something totally unexpected from a campsite. After this, Oratorji gave his customary speech, and having picked up our ID cards from him, we left for base camp.
After a 3 hour trek, we came to a huge, dusty quarry with hundreds of trucks moving granite out. From here we caught a bus to Manikaran which is famous for its hot water springs. We checked into a hotel where the hot water from the springs comes into a big tub. It has two inlets – one for hot water and one for cold water; and an outlet – for the dirty water.
We were nine of us, and we rented one room for 2 hours. The place looked slightly better than the Hotel Decent of Jab we Met fame. The bath was Rs. 15 per head and the room was for 80 bucks or so for the two hours.
We got into the pool – aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh….. Nothing had ever felt as good as a hot water bath after seven days!!! We were in ecstasy.
Cool drinks followed after the totally draining hot water bath.
We got ready, visited a few nearby temples, had lunch and caught a bus to Kasol at 4:30pm.
We picked up our luggage, packed our bags, picked up our expedition certificates and caught a bus to Manali.
Reached Manali by 9pm.
We then checked into a double “double” bed room. This was a big room with two double beds! It happens only in India. Hehe..
Even though we were in the mood for partying, nobody had the energy for it. So, crassh it was for today.

May 19:
After getting up, we realized that all roads beyond Rohtang pass were blocked due to heavy snowfall and landslides.
We went to a restaurant called German bakery where we had some amazing continental breakfast of eggs and toast and pizza and donut.
With nothing much to do now except probably go to Dharamsala or some other run-of-the-mill place, we dilly dallied about what to do. Rathore was getting bugged of mountains. SP suddenly wanted to attend an important meeting in office! CIL was anyway going home today.
We rescheduled our bus and flight tickets. Did shopping, bought shawls, sweaters, and a local topi! And then we bumped into the Karnataka gang. Had lunch with them.
All of us left Manali by bus that evening.

May 20:
Reached Delhi this morning. The weather here was 43 deg C. You can walk on the road and feel the hot air hitting your face.
We went to GK where NDTV lives. Got ready and had breakfast at his place. Had lunch at Pizza Hut in South Delhi.
Flight back to Bangalore.
Landed by 6pm.

Surprise #1: CIL’s dad was waiting for us at the airport!!

May 21:
Surprise #2: (In the office)
:O
“Thought you were coming back on Monday??!!!! How come you came so early?!”
Me: “Yea dude, change of plans”
Them: “How was the trip?”
Me: “Awesome man.. Wait till I blog about it.”

Kashmir

11th April 2009 to 16th April 2009
Places visited: Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam.
Mode of transport: Bangalore-Delhi-Srinagar by flight.

So, two awesome vacations in a span of less than 4 months that too during recession. Not exactly what I had in mind at the start of the New Year!
The Hindu supplement “Young World” had carried an article on the newly inaugurated Tulip garden in Srinagar around the 3rd week of March. The write-up said that this was the biggest tulip garden in Asia, and in fact, the 2nd largest in the world. The largest is in Holland of course.
So the boss at home casually showed me the article and I said, “Hey, I’ve been dying to go to Kashmir since a decade now, and you guys always say its too scary cos of the violence and stuff. This year, we’re gonna do it!!”. Big Daddy agreed, though somewhat reluctantly, but my Bigger Daddy at office had to give a Yes.
That done, we started planning for the trip. Having a friend in Kashmir helped things out a lot in terms of planning and getting taxis at the right price, etc.
Flight bookings – check.
Accommodation in Srinagar – check.
This was as spontaneous as it could get for a family vacation!
Disclaimer: This was a family trip, so don’t expect any great adventure like my previous trip :)

11th April:
My first flight by Kingfisher, and Mallya didn’t disappoint me. Everything went on well. Left Bangalore at 6:45am. Changed flights at Delhi, reached Srinagar by 12:30pm.
With not much time left in the day today, we decided to visit a temple called Kheer Bhavani, where obviously, from my point of view, the most important thing was the Prasad – kheer :)
This was followed by a visit to the Hazrat Bal mosque. This mosque sits on the edge of the Dal lake. I’ve always been curious about mosques, and had never been inside any. So finally, that dream too was accomplished. I saw this wonderfully constructed edifice in marble where people came in throngs to offer their prayers to the lord. Seeing me clicking photographs by the dozen, two kids ran up to us and said “Hello uncle”. When we replied with a hello, they said “How are you?” with all the shyness of village kids. They wanted me to take a photograph of them. Mission accomplished, they ran back into their streets without even wanting to see their pic on my cam! A few more shots of the kids around there, and off we went to rest for the evening.
Most of the shops in Srinagar down their shutters by 7:30pm, so you don’t really have much to do after that.
The Dal Lake is about 16 sq. km. in size and only about 7ft deep at the deepest point. There’s a road which goes all around the Dal lake, and the drive is truly amazing. You have the lake on one side, the forests and houses on the other, the snow capped mountains in the distance.. A sight to behold indeed. The lake is filled with about 3000 houseboats, most of which are probably illegal. They have big names like “Helen of Troy”, “Young Alzira”, “Rubani Palace”, etc. the last one being the boat in which the song “Bumbro” from Mission Kashmir was shot. And mind you, some of the houseboats don’t move. They just stay in their same place throughout their lifetime.

12th April:
Today was a Sunday, and my friend agreed to accompany us to Gulmarg. About 100km from Srinagar, this place is filled with snow throughout the year. The drive to this place takes you along acres of mustard fields and then some snow. Gulmarg’s where the “Jai Jai Shiv Shankar” song was shot.
There’s a cable car which takes us up to 3950 meters where we’re literally on top of the clouds. A day’s trek across a mountain from here in the snow will land you in Pakistan. Built with collaboration with the French, this is the highest point in the world to which you can get to in a cable car, I am told. As you go on the gondola (as the cable cars are called), you can see ski marks of some daredevil skier on the steep slopes below.
The gondola has two stages. The first level takes you upto a 1000m? I’m not very sure. This is where the “Maa Tujhe Salam” video was shot. The next level is pure white blinding snow. It takes you a couple of minutes on your way back to adjust to the normal lighting. Oxygen is rarefied at this altitude, so oxygen cylinders are available in case someone needs one. Oh, by the way, did you know that skiing is part of the extra-curricular activities in school?
Today, we also visited a traditional Kashmiri house, had Qahwah – a type of tea made with tea leaves, saffron, honey and almonds. Did you know that in Kashmir, it’s a social stigma if a man doesn’t have his own two storied house? So, everyone is forced to buy land and construct big houses even if there are only 4-5 members living in them. That explained all the big beautiful houses all around the city. And land prices in Srinagar are slightly lower than Bangalore owning to this reason! Also, only natives of Kashmir can buy land in Kashmir which has resulted in a peaceful and not-so-commercialized state.

13th April:
Next day was a trip to Sonamarg. This place was filled with snow just 3 days before we visited. The snow had just been cleared, meaning that most of the shops were closed and the footpaths were in 3-4 feet snow. We went for a sledge ride here due to the constant pestering of the poor chaps around. On the way, there were some brilliant mustard fields to be seen. One thing that you notice is that just as in every other place, the rich-poor divide is quite remarkable. On the one hand, you have the rich ones living in big houses zipping around in cars, while on the other, you have the sledge pullers, the horse riders, etc. who eke out a living just by doing menial jobs. The snow here was really pure and pristine. We followed it up with lunch at a shady “Sardar’s Dhaba” as it’s known around these places. That done, back to our room it was.

14th April:
Today was a sunny day and we decided to go local and finish the spots around the city.
We started off with the gardens – Shalimar, Harwan, Nishat Bahg and Tulip garden. After lunch, we did Cheshma Shahi – a place where pure Himalayan mountain water comes out of a natural fountain. This water is considered to be pure and healthy, and people come from all over to drink this holy water. Next was the Shankaracharya temple. This is on top of a hill and needs a bit of climbing. Photography is strictly banned, and the army has taken over almost complete control of this place – as with many others in this troubled city. We rounded off today with a ride in the Shikhara on Dal Lake. A Shikhara is an open boat with a small roof on top, It is generally yellow in colour and can seat upto 4 people comfortably on its low-slung sofas.
It had just rained before the boat ride, and a beautiful rainbow popped out in the background while we went boating. As soon as you get onto the lake on a boat, you notice something surprising – another boat comes along with yours. This boat generally has two people- one to steer and ride the boat, and another to sell his wares to you. So, a floating shop! They sell all kinds of wares – from walnut wood and brass cigarette holders to jade earrings to necklaces to saffron. The boat takes you around the lake showing the floating gardens, the bazaars inside the lake, the various houseboats, etc. An hour or so later, you’re back to the shore. These shikharas are also used as a means of transport to get from one place to another in the city.

15th April:
Another must-visit place in Kashmir is Pahalgam in the Ananthnag district of Jammu. Many Bollywood movies have been shot in this region, and some of the spots are quite inaccessible by foot – so you either need a 4 wheel drive or need to travel on horseback. Kashmir valley was one such place – beautiful to see, but hard to reach.

16th April:
Time to head back home! Srinagar airport has close to 7 layers of security and frisking before you can board the flight. It starts right at the gate even before the car can enter the airport, and ends just before you enter the aircraft.
Whatever it was, there was absolutely no reason to fear for your life while in Srinagar. There are enough armed guards and security personnel deployed all around.
If you do want to see the diversity of this great country of ours, the natural beauty that abounds this region do visit this region. I’m sure that it’ll not only help boost tourism to the troubled state, but also send out the right signal to the bad ones trying to spoil this great land of ours.

Kashmir, I’m surely going to come visiting sometime soon!

Cheerios.

Lakshadweep for New Year's 2009

Islands visited: Minicoy and Kavaratti
Time: 26th Dec, 2008 to 2nd Jan, 2009
Mode of Travel: Ship
Cochin - Minicoy by MV Tipu Sultan (20 hrs journey)
Minicoy - Kavaratti by MV Kavaratti (12 hrs)
Kavaratti - Cochin by MV Kavaratti (18 hours)

With the lil bit of travelling that I've been doing these days, I felt I should start a separate blog to put down my experiences (thanks to the constant reminders by Sid). So here goes my first blog.. and what better way to start off than Lakshadweep!! I intend these blogs to be more of my experiences put down, but I'm sure there'll be enough details to make an itinerary out of it if need be :)

A few of us started planning on a trip for the New Year's of 2009 around 2 months before the December of 2008. The locations we thought of were Sri Lanka, Andamans and Lakshadweep. Of course, there were other plans that were made as we commenced the journey, but we'll come to that later on.. As usual, the actual planning began only around November. This being a budget trip, Sri Lanka was out of question with flight tickets at around 17k return. Andamans too turned out to be expensive. Ship journey to the Andamans was 60 hours long, which effectively left us with Lakshadweep.
Another factor which tipped the balance in favour of Lakshadweep was that we knew a local through a common friend (Sid). And mind you, going to the Dweeps as the guest of a local will bring down your costs by close to 40%. Lakshadweep being a restricted area, visitors can either travel as guests of locals, or need to take a package from the Lakshadweep Tourism Dept (SPORTS). Travelling as guests will need you to have permits (similar to visas) made in advance through the local.
So having fixed the location, we now got in touch with the local (Ajmal) and started getting our documents processed through him. Passport copies, photographs and other documents shuttled back and forth various email addresses. FAQs answered promptly by Ajmal, we packed off and caught a bus to Cochin on the evening of 26th of December. Even though our ship to Lakshadweep was only on the 30th, we felt that we could spend the weekend in Cochin. We were on our way!!
Day 1 – Cochin and the fight
Reaching Cochin the next morning, we thought we'd spend the day around the city. We planned to hire a taxi and go to either Munnar or Thekkady the next day. But this being New Year's vacation season, it might've been easier to catch a killer whale in the middle of Cochin's MG Road (which, by the way, is about 7-8km long), rather than find a taxi for the next day. We called up travel agents, spoke to people in shops, searched on the net... all to no avail. While paying the cyber cafe guy, we casually asked him if he would be able to arrange for a taxi, and after a small background verification about where we were staying, he said YES!!! Oh heavens had opened! We were going to Munnar the next day after all!
One small problem: We were staying at the Central Fisheries Dept (CIFT) guest house, and the cyber cafe owner thought that we were trainees there (well, I told him so :D). Since he apparently supplies cabs to them all the time, he thought of doing us a "favour" by giving us his private vehicle! It wasn't even a registered taxi, for god's sake! The cabs there have this funda of 80km or Rs.1500 per day, and he agreed to give us the cab that evening itself. After confirming with the driver if we could carry over the remaining kilometers in case we didn't finish it up that day, we decided to take the taxi that evening itself and use it to travel around the city. A trip to Fort Kochi and the fish market almost completed our activities for the day. The beachside is also a popular spot for theatre, drama, Kathakali, wrestling, and other activities, so we enjoyed watching some of this at Fort Kochi.

The sunset was brilliant, and photographers in the gumbal happily clicked a few shots.
Sid had been a regular at this place called the F1 Bar in Cochin, and he wanted us to visit that place for the evening. After all, Sid was the main reason we were doing this trip, even though he was conspicuous by his absence. So we obeyed his orders and decided to check the place out. Oh yea, he couldn’t join us for this as he was on a business trip to Kuala Lumpur during this time! Beat that ;)
The address to F1 – the bar run by a group of firangs? M.G. Road. Hell, yea!! That was all we knew! The six of us changed and got into the cab. The driver had no clue about this place, but we figured we’d find someone along the way who’d guide us.
This being tourist season, the owner of the car told us that we’d need to return back by 10pm, as there was a ban on vehicles plying on the city roads after 10pm. Apparently, the police commissioner’s permission was required in case we needed to travel later than 10pm! Well, this is what the cab’s owner told us. The sleepy city that Cochin is, I don’t think there’s any reason for anyone to stay up later than 7pm, most of the shops are closed by then anyway. Infact, some shops weren’t even open most of the time. However, we haggled with him and told him we’d be back to our rooms by 10:30pm or thereabouts. (Anybody feeling the fight building up yet?)
Before we left for Cochin, Ajmal had told us that we’d have to go to some police station in Cochin and pick up the ship tickets as well as the permits and pay the cop for it. However, he'd not given the police guy’s contact number, but promised to message me the number later. All through the day, I’d been trying to contact Ajmal (the Dweeps local) to get the policeman’s phone number, but he never seemed to pick up the phone, which was strange. Cellphone signals are a rarity in most of the places in Lakshadweep, so if a cellphone rings, you can be almost sure that it will be answered. This seemed strange. Someone who’d done so much for us seemed to have suddenly stopped responding.
…. And we set off in search of F1 Bar. Like I already said, MG Road is long, and it took us a good 30-45 mins of searching. Every few meters, the driver would show us a board, and we’d say “Nooo.. Go on”. This happened a few times by when we’d reached the end of MG Road! Still no sign of F1. We decided to head home. Oh, by now we realized that we were staying on MG Road too! Dinner back on the way at a South Indian restaurant Dwarka was awesome. Infact this became our regular hangout in Cochin from that point on.
It was past 10:30 by the time we reached the guest house. We got out of the cab and were about to get into the guest house, when the driver said, “Sir, Tomorrow 5am?”
Not wanting to get up so early the next day, we decided to ditch the Munnar plan, but go to some place nearby. Having decided on some closeby waterfall, we were about to say goodbye to him when he said, “Sir, Rs. 1500”. And we were like “Whatt??!!”.
Driver (D): “Sir, you’ll need to pay Rs. 1500. It’s daily settlement”
Us (U): “But we already spoke to you and you said that we can carry over the remaining kilometers”
D: “No sir, doesn’t matter whether you travel 80 kms or not, you have to pay 1500 every day”
U: “So does that mean that if I go on a long drive to some far off place, I need to keep paying you Rs1500 every day????!!!!”
D: “Yes”
A nice beautiful war of words ensued. The driver called up his boss and spoke to him. I spoke to the boss. The boss spoke to the driver. Driver spoke to me again. We said we won’t pay- boss told me he gave us his private car only because we were trainees at CIFT- I said we don’t care, he was charging us for it anyway – Boss said its 1500 or nothing – We said we can’t pay 1500 for the 35 kms we’d travelled that day. I reminded the owner that they’d agreed to carry over the remaining kilometres. This was not the right way to handle customers – he was cheating us. And I made the cheating point quite clear to him.
By now the boss was pissed, and he’d hung up. The driver was instructed to collect 1500 from us, or nothing at all. In which case, our trip for the next day stood cancelled, obviously. Both parties being adamant, the driver started the ignition, pressed the clutch, shifted to 1st gear, and zoom!!!!!
Well, it was past 11pm now, we were at the gates of the guest house, the security guard staring at us. So off we went into the room, my blood still boiling from the fight. Discussing the things over, we managed to sleep later.. Maybe 4am? I’m not sure.

Day 2 : Hash and Wellington Island
We got up pretty late the next day. It was Sunday already, and we were to board the ship tomorrow. We’d still not picked up the tickets. Ajmal’s phone was ringing, but no answer.. Strange is the way fate can sometimes play with you. I’d asked Sid the previous day to check what was brewing in Lakshadweep. By today, Sid had done his homework and found out that, well, our contact Ajmal had been caught with weed by the Lakshadweep police. He would need to depose at a court in Cochin. Travelling to the mainland by itself takes a day, so even though he was out on bail in the Dweeps, it would take a few days by the time he’d get out of this mess. On the other hand, more importantly, all permits to his guests would stand cancelled!! Oh boy, the six of us sat in a room – 3 on each cot, palms on chin, elbows resting on knees for support. What had seemed to be the best New Year’s party we could’ve ever thought of had just turned out to be the worst. Of course, there wasn’t much to be done.
Sometimes, we just gotta deal with whatever’s happening, and see what’s the best way to get out of the mess first. And then, see if we can go back to the plan. The third option is always there – Plan B. It should actually be known as Plan C. A couple of folks jumped the gun here – they already switched to Plan C. Caveman was in a “Get over it guys, we’re not going to Lakshadweep” mode. NDTV and Caveman started planning on a Kerala roadtrip inspired by the Motorcycle Diaries. The tall fellow and Loverboy were quite silent by now. I was my quiet self– lost in my own thoughts as usual. The fight had spawned a separate thread at the back of my head and was still running now. Fighting once in a while is good, I feel. It helps pump blood to all those parts of the body which we don’t use so often these days – like the brain.
Still dejected, we headed to Dwarka for a brunch. The clock must’ve hit noon by now. Today, we took a bus to the restaurant. Caveman’s Malayalam skills definitely helped us ask people for directions once in a while. Who else can come up with sentences like “Cheta.. Dwarka hotel…. How to go?” Well, you get the picture. Caveman justifies this by saying that he's got a starting problem with his Mallu skills. Well, whatever :)
Hogging on good dosas and curd vadas, a strange thought just popped into my head.. While we were planning this whole trip, even before I’d got in touch with Ajmal, Loverboy had spoken to some colleague of his and got another contact of a Dweep local. He’d passed on the number to me. When I'd contacted this guy while in Bangalore, he had not been really helpful and forthcoming regarding information on the islands. However, he'd messaged me the SPORTS office phone number in Cochin. It’s on an island called Wellington Island. Of course, the number is available on the SPORTS website, but then, I’d not bothered to note it down. Thanks to my amazing phone, which has a huge memory compared to other phones such as the Sony Ericsson orange and white, I still had this message with me. Pushing my luck real far, I just called up the number. It was a Sunday, close to 1:40pm, and I was pretty sure no one would pick up the phone. To my surprise, a voice answered!! And guess what??!! The ship that was leaving tomorrow, the very same ship by which we had to go, had a few vacant seats thanks to someone else’s cancellation!! He asked us to come to the office immediately as they close by 2pm. So NDTV, Caveman and myself rushed out, got an auto and headed to the SPORTS office, which is some 16km from Dwarka. The rest paid up the restaurant bill and followed us later on.
At the office, the guy worked out a deal for us by which we could visit both Minicoy and Kavaratti, even though the package (Swaying Palms) we were paying for had only Minicoy in its itinerary. We were six guys, and took a package for 3 couples. Probably Dostana has helped India open up a lil - a welcome change I should say. It helps lessen the competition for the rest of us straight guys. Well, for the junta, we were just too excited that the trip was back on. We couldn’t care less about the details. Since credit cards are not accepted in the SPORTS office, we went around scouting for ATMs. The Dhanalakshmi Bank ATM was the nearest one, but too bad, no money in the ATM. We then headed to a few other surrounding ATMs and collected the required cash. Having paid the money and taken the receipt, we went back happily. Ship travel virgins like us didn’t know that it’s necessary to take a boarding pass for every leg of our journey from the port of departure itself. But well, in hindsight, this story wouldn’t have been so interesting if we’d not been so naïve.
The rest of the day was heaven - till evening. This evening, the cab owner had sent a few of his chelas and goons to the guest house is search of us. But our group had split into two. While three guys (NDTV, Caveman and Swaying Palm) had gone shopping for beachwear in the city, the remaining three had gone to book bus tickets for our return journey to Bangalore. We'd not booked this earlier since we didn't know when we'd be returning back from Lakshadweep. But once the package was decided today, we were able to fix a return date. The New Year's time always puts pressure on the resources of any transport system, and the buses were no exception. We searched high and dry.. for govt. buses, private buses, volvos, a/c, non-a/c, trains... But it was fruitless. Finally, one travel agent near the railways station called up the bus depot and found out that there were exactly 6 seats left in a volvo. He asked us to catch an auto and head to the bus station immediately. He also asked the bus office guy to hold the tickets for us, saying that we'd be there in 5 minutes. Jags, loverboy and myself rushed to the bus station in a rick hoping to get the bus tickets. Infact, the auto driver took us on some really bumpy roads to save us time. But all that travel through the gulleys was a waste. As soon as we reached the station, Jags and I rushed to the counter, leaving loverboy to pay the auto guy. But as fate would have it, by the time we reached the bus station, which is hardly 10 minutes away, the volvo seats had been taken. However, we were able to get tickets for the the 3rd of Jan for non-a/c. This was for the same day that we wanted, but in a non a/c bus. We took it anyways. Loverboy had lost his way from the rick to the reservation counter. This guy can't speak even a bit of Tamil for nuts. Even though Malayalam is spoken in Kerala, most of the people understand a lil bit of Tamil, and that's how I manage in Kerala. So apparently, after we left loverboy behind, the auto guy asked loverboy for more cash than what we'd settled for before. Unable to bargain and ask him to reduce the fares, loverboy thrust 20 bucks in the hands of the auto driver and ran away into the crowd in the bus stand.

So with the bus tickets done, we came back to the guest house. The other group had called us a few times by now asking us what was taking us so long. Those fellows always leave the dirty work to us and then wonder why such stuff takes so long.. I had the keys to the guest house, so the other group had to wait outside on the lawns for a couple of hours while we did all this circus. Hmmm, anyways, in the meanwhile, the cab owner's goondas had scared the hell out of Caveman and party, and they'd agreed to give them some cash, though much more than what we'd said earlier. But after all that shopping, they didn't have cash with them, so the goons were waiting along with our boys for us. As soon as we went, they took the cash from us and left. Later on, I came to know that the owner was quite pissed that I'd called him a cheat. Infact, the goons had been asking "Where's K?" from the very beginning.

That night's dinner was in Subway, right opposite Dwarka. The sandwiches were just OK, not really worth the price. We'd also had some pizzas delivered to the guest house earlier, and I should say that our experience with international food chains in Cochin has not been good so far.

Day 3: Tipu Sultan, here we come!!
The ship reporting time given to us was 9am. We made it to the wharf on time – 10am to be exact. That’s definitely “on time” by our standards! Now remember, any time you go on a cruise, never, never, never, never, never forget to take a boarding pass for the journey you are about to make. We did exactly that mistake. We go till the ship and the security guard stops us there and asks us for a boarding pass. Since the ship is owned by a different department and the tourism department just has a quota in it, some haggling ensued between the tourism dept manager and the ship manager. Each called up their higher ups and after some adjustments that were made through the phone, we were let in to M. V. Tipu Sultan – an ageing beauty which must’ve been state of the art way back in 1973. We’d not taken first class tickets, but Tourist Class. So, it was an A/C chair car. Well, the chair car was OK to sit, we didn’t care much about how to sleep anyways. We all slept on the deck under the stars that night. And how did we pass time that day on the ship? Quite as any other day. We were hanging around the wheel room (the cockpit of the ship) when we were allowed access inside. We also found a young naval officer from Bangalore taught us how to check the GPS, calculate bearings and change maps. Later, we spent time on the deck spotting dolphins and flying fish. Imagine standing on the edge of the ship with dolphins jumping around in the deep blue sea!! Now imagine five of them racing against the hull of the ship, jumping here and there.. Yea baby, it sure was amazing! Tall fellow was so excited, he felt that he’d got his money’s worth already.
In the evening, NDTV taught us a new game with playing cards, and of course, UNO on the deck attracted a few Curious Georges. Tall fellow and NDTV went to this other bunch of people playing cards next to us and learnt how to play poker. Somehow none of us had the patience to learn or play anything new now, so we decided to play that some other time.
I should say food on the ship was decent enough to eat. But the common toilets always made us think twice before eating and drinking. I guess the old ship needs some maintenance!
Nevertheless, I should say a ship journey is a must for everyone!

Day 4: Pearly Gates/ Heaven/ Minicoy

Dear Minicoy,
You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be, and I don’t wanna go home right now..
This morning, after breakfast, we were on the deck when we spotted an island far away. We were nearing Minicoy! The lagoon is surrounded by clear shallow waters for more than 2km around the island. So, the ships cannot come close to the island, but stop far away. We need to transfer to small boats to reach the island. All the other tourists to the island were day tourists which meant they’d get back to the ship by evening. However, we’d stay in paradise for 2 more days. We had our lunch along with the rest of the junta and then dove straight to the green sea. Ok, I need to step back here for a moment to give you a lil background about Minicoy. This is a relatively large island compared to the others – measuring 15km by 12km. Minicoy is about 400km from Maldives, and is the southernmost of the Lakshadweep islands. So, they culture and traditions of Minicoy are very similar to that of Maldives. It has a hospital and a police station, among other things. The sand is pure white, and the beach is pure green. You can shift your gaze to the distance and see the colour of the water gradually change to deep blue as the ocean floor goes deeper. The people are the friendliest bunch we’d ever seen and go to any extent to keep their guests happy. They were probably trying to promote their island for tourism, but the place is so freakin damn good that we’d suggest it to everyone anyways. Rashid and party took very good care of us in the resort. We swam in the water, dived into deep waters RDB style and played around soaking in the sun. We were then taken to the beach side resort a couple of kilometres away in an open autorickshaw – an indigenous invention. It’s an auto used to transport goods – the ones which have an open trailer behind. The trailer has benches for passengers to sit. It so happened that the resort manager had a son studying in BMS college in Bangalore. He was impressed with the two BMS junta in our gumbal, especially when he came to know that his son had played cricket under the captaincy of loverboy. We got a free upgrade to A/C rooms even though we’d paid only for non-A/C since the entire resort was empty right now.

Apparently, a group of 15 couples had cancelled their trip, which effectively meant that we had the entire resort to ourselves. This being the only place for tourists to stay in the entire island, this also meant that we were the only tourists on the island!! It couldn’t get better than this. The comforts of a five star beach side resort, and the whole island just for us! In the evening, we took the kayaks on the beach and took off in the waters without informing anyone in the resort. And of course, no life jackets on.

Loverboy and swaying palm (a.k.a Tall fellow) too came along with us even though their swimming skills are nothing to write home about. After all, the water is just knee deep, so in case you drown, all you gotta do is stand up and pull the kayak back with you.
So we were in the water for about an hour on our kayaks when one of the resort guys came on another kayak in search of us. Since we’d not informed them while going, they were worried that we’d got into some trouble and sent this guy in search of us. Meanwhile, Caveman took NDTV, loverboy and me walking on dead coral reefs. The corals are basically calcium deposits, and when they’re dead they become hard and rough. Goodness gracious, we got back onto our kayaks after about 15 mins with bloody scratches all over our feet.
Back in the resort, we relaxed, clicked pics, and enjoyed a few games of carom. Later that night, Caveman caught a huge crab on the sea shore. We washed it in fresh water from the tap, dropped it and made it scramble around like crazy in the dining hall. Swaying Palm freaked out and jumped about like Olive Oyl (Popeye’s girlfriend). The crab was now transferred to my hands and after a click-click session, we left the crab back in the sea.

Good night for today, lights out.

Day 5: The Chief Guests go Scuba diving, Snorkelling and catch an Octopus
This being the 31st of December, was the most memorable day for us. The morning started off with snorkelling in the coral reefs. We spotted fishes, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and lots of other marine life. Snorkelling is done off an uninhabited island close to mainland Minicoy. We reached the place by boat and immediately started off. We were six of us with about 3 guides. The group split up very soon and each one was headed in different directions, slipping and crashing against the hardened coral reefs every now and then.
After about an hour of snorkelling, while we were headed back to the shore, Caveman and party seemed to have found something fishy. By now the other group too joined them and it seemed like there was something going on there underwater. Jags and me (who comprised the third group) quickly joined in and came to know that Caveman had spotted an octopus. They were desperately trying to pull out the poor creature from beneath the reef, along with the help of the instructors. Thanks to the poking and pulling, the octopus started coming out in instalments – first one leg, then another.. It still tried to save itself by injecting ink at us in a last ditch effort. Caveman not being someone who gives up so easily, put his hand right into the reef and pulled out the whole creature, which by now, was dead. Not wanting to throw away our prized catch into the ocean, we got it back to the resort. Having got it back so far, we asked the chef to cook it for us. So here we were, five veggies and a non-veggie who only likes chicken, asking the chef to cook an octopus which we’d caught ourselves.
After a nice heavy lunch, we set off for scuba diving today. The scuba diving instructors charge Rs. 500/- for a dive which lasts roughly 5 minutes. Those brilliant five minutes when you see colours and shapes you’ve never seen on land. Those five minutes which you’ll cherish for a long time. Those five minutes when you’ll kick yourself for not having bought an underwater camera. Those five minutes when you almost forget to breathe through your nose! Thank god that you actually need to gasp for breath through your mouth, else I’m sure every first-time scuba diver would gasp out of excitement and gulp in water and phinish!!!
A few more pics in the sea, and back we were at the resort. The instructor Ali has his own boat in which he headed back to his place.
The manager told us that today being the 31st of December, there’d be a party in the resort. A few distinguished villagers and officers from the island would be there too. By evening, the guests started pouring in. I guess they were about 50-70 in number.
We on the other hand, were busy playing another game of carom when we were mildly asked by the manager if we’d like to start dinner. It was close to 9:00 pm by now. We said we’d have it later. He asked if they could serve us soup as we were playing. We said OK. So they served us soup right there. We continued playing till 9:30pm when the manager came again and asked us if we’d like to have dinner. We wanted to have it later, but that’s when the manager insisted we continue playing after dinner. After all, we were their guests at Minicoy, so how could anyone at the party start dinner without the guests starting?! So, basically, we held up a bunch of 70 hot-shots of Minicoy – IAS officers, village heads et al, just because we were too intrigued in our game of carom! The embarrassment didn’t stop there. We were made chief guests of the evening, and a cultural program was held showcasing the local dances, music and traditions of Minicoy. After this, the Guests of the Island (the Bengaluru Boys) were called on stage to perform. The dumbstruck six-some managed to shake a leg for a minute or so before being sent back.

The crowd dispersed. New Years rocked!!! And the song “Hibbarulashe” set to the tune of “Dil Dekhe Dekho” kept ringing in our ears. Even though booze is banned on the island, we were offered a bottle of rum for Rs. 2000/- by one of the guys at the resort which we politely turned down.

1st January, 2009 : Adios amigos!
A bittersweet symphony indeed, today was our last day on Minicoy. After paying a visit to the Minicoy lighthouse and the fishermen’s village of Boduathri, we said goodbye to all the locals we’d met and headed to M.V. Kavaratti for our overnight voyage to Kavaratti- the headquarters of Lakshadweep.
M.V. Kavaratti is a spanking new ship hardly 6 months into service. It is a really really cool ship. It has first class, second class and bunk class cabins. While tourists are only allowed in the first class, the bunk class is meant for locals to travel between islands as well as to the mainland. The bunk class is the cheapest, and is a dormitory with no windows. The locals use the ship to transport birds and other animals as well. This ship was already full of people who were a part of the Samudram package. Fat aunty from Bangalore later told us that they’d visited Kalpeni before coming to Minicoy and that Kalpeni sucked big time. Everyone on the ship felt that Minicoy was the best. And we were glad to have made the right decision of staying there.
Now as soon as we boarded the ship, we were asked for boarding passes at the reception counter. But the office guy in Cochin had given us nothing but a bill saying we’d paid 60k for the trip. It was never communicated to the ship that we’d be travelling on MVK. So we were as good as ticketless travellers. After arguing and realizing that there was no point, we gave up. Manager Khoya told us that he’d arrange bunk class for us for tonight. The next morning when we landed in Kavaratti, we were supposed to check with Director on the island and have the emergency quota released which would then accommodate us in first class. The loos again were horrible, and stank from a mile away. Our luggage secure in the police strong room, we slept peacefully that night in the bunks. Swaying Palm is so tall that he couldn’t fit into the bunk. Caveman was looking for some adventure and didn’t feel like sleeping in the dorm. So the two of them slept on the deck that night. Of course, before that we all “added minerals to the ocean” as Swaying Palm mildly puts it, not from the deck mind you, but from the helipad. We had two folks guarding the staircase of the deck while the rest went about their jobs.

Jan 2nd : Snorkelling and beach volleyball in Kavaratti
The next day in Kavaratti was amazing again. This time, it seemed like all the colour had shifted from the seas onto land, thanks a bunch of 150 people from Pune who’d come as part of the “Agarwal Club”. The F-23s were too good it was definitely a sight to behold. Best part, we didn’t need underwater cameras for this.
Jags, Caveman and I swam to the scuba diving place and snorkelled. We wanted to dive too, but there were already 43 people from the Agarwal Club, and there was no place for anyone else. Damn these people who come in big groups and spoil the vacation of other smaller groups of people. However, snorkelling here was brilliant. The coral reefs are more here than Minicoy and the fishes seemed to be everywhere! They seemed to be getting between our legs while swimming – we encountered almost a few hundred of them at one place. The colours of the fishes here – orange, white, yellow, blue… And not one or two, but groups of fishes of the same colour. A sight to behold indeed.

By the time we got back to the shore, Loverboy and Swaying Palm had decided to join the Agarwal Club kids for a game of beach volleyball, thanks to a certain F-23 who was playing with them (was that Neha? Not sure). It’s another thing that she left soon after. The rest of us joined in now. A fun game it was, with me playing like a blind man. However, we won the game and thrashed their asses.
Just when we assumed that an adventure is over, the next one seemed to be brewing in the bay. Back on the ship, with no luck of the emergency quota, we were under the impression that we were stuck with the bunk class. However, that was not to be. We were not even stuck to bunk class anymore. After dropping us at Kavaratti this morning, the ship had been to Kadmat and back. While the ship was already full with passengers, the ship folks had managed to get in more people onto it. The locals were filled to the brim in the bunk class. Since this class doesn’t seem to have any reservation system, all our seats were as good as lost. Well, we’d had a horrible experience the previous day that we didn’t really bother that much. We had our sleeping bags, and could sleep in peace anywhere. However, the rooms of the Agarwal club had been changed and allocated to some firings. There was high drama on the ship with Manager Khoya being cornered by a bunch of uncles from the Agarwal Club. Khoya by now in tears, was ready to do anything for anybody.
Now just before boarding the ship in Minicoy, a bespectacled Cisco boy had come to us in search of Swaying Palm. He’d seen his NetApp t-shirt from a distance, and come to speak to him. Apparently, he had friends at NetApp. Well, we’d forgotten about him after that. He was travelling alone, and seemed to be in his own world making new friends (or friend, should I say). This guy was in a 2- bunk room in first class. First class, as the name suggests, is truly first class on board this ship. Each cabin has a private bathroom – and at that point in time, that meant luxury to us. Cisco boy (his name was Mythreya by the way) told us that the other berth in his room was empty, so we could make use of it, as well as the loo. After Minicoy, this was a second heaven for us. It gave us the passport to eat and drink as we liked! While we were sitting in the room and rejoicing all this, Khoya appeared with two firangs. He’d decided to allocate both Cisco boy’s berth and our berth to them, but thankfully we were in the room when that happened and were able to save the room. So that night, Jags slept in the bunk with all the valuables while the rest of us slept on the deck of the ship. Adding minerals was done through the first class cabin today though.

Jan 3rd: Back in Cochin
The ship arrived in Cochin, albeit a few hours late. That’s the thing with these ships, they let you have an awesome time, and then some more. So, invariably, your other plans go for a toss.
After a good lunch at Dwarka, our adda, we bid adieu to Kerala and headed back to Bangalore by bus.
Total cost of trip – 15k
Total experience on trip – Priceless

This was one of those “There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s Mastercard” trips.
And hell, we rocked!!