The last 2 weeks of the year is usually spent in the quite confines of my in-law's place in Dharmsala, Kannur. This year doe to the 12th exams of Nishanth and the return of Nandita after her semester, the trip was curtailed to a 4 day visit.
The significance of the visit was more important in that we celebrated the 70th Birthday of my MIL. The occasion was celebrated with a visit to the temple in the morning followed by a lunch at home with all her siblings present in town.
Being a very socially active personality, these gatherings mean a lot to her and can keep her going the rest of the year.
Here is a link to the pictures taken during the occasion.
The previous evening i.t 25th December we visited the the Chal beach with the dog. It was a fun trip and all of us had a good time. The beach had some Christmas festivities and we managed to find isolated spot for enjoying the sunset.
We had to take a RTPCR test in order to enter Karnataka, we got that done and plan to head back on the 29th AM. The next exciting event is the home coming of Nandita after her 3rd semester.
A long standing wish was to visit the Rome and historical City of Vatican. The stars had aligned to for such a trip.
This trip was one with Praveen and family and as Paru put it - it was Indians from America and Americans from India meeting in Italy.
Day1: Emirates flight to Dubai and onward to Rome. Landed in Rome at 8pm and took the train to Rome Central from where we walked to our Airbnb apartment. P had already landed and we had dinner crashed.
Day 2: Started early we checked out and boarded the 8 am train to Venice. Impressed with the timings and the service we sped along on a 4hr trip to the destination. During the course of the journey the train hit speeds of 300 km/hr and we arrived at 12 :03. Exit the station and we step on to the water ways bustling with water taxis and water buses waiting to take eager tourists and locals to the destination.
It is certainly a unique place that I have ever visited. Reached our apartment by 2 and dumped the baggage and headed out for lunch and a feel of the place.
Had a sumptuous lunch which turned out to be quiet expensive but was worthwhile. After lunch we spent the evening soaking up the scenes and taking pictures. The place is such a maize that is was quite a struggle to get to our apartment. After a long walk we finally found the apartment and the flight of stairs 4 floors high seemed more daunting then when we carried 8 suit cases a few hours before.
Had dinner and drinks that we had bought along the way, the rest of the evening was spent chitchatting and the kids still brimming with energy pillow fighting in the next room.
Over all it was a good day and brought out the awnes of the place in me.
Day 3: All well rested we started the day with some good coffee and pastries from the local bakery for breakfast. We headed out in another direction of the island. Plenty of pictures to describe the experience.
Day 4: We were done with Venice and had an early morning train to Florence where we connect to Pisa. It was certainly was an adventurous trip. The train was scheduled to leave Venice at 8:48 and we had to take the boat bus to the rail terminal. All was well, we board the 7:29 boat and spent a good 40 minutes to get to the station. Once there we realized that our train number was not on the display. Soon we realized that the train was from another station in Venice. We tried our luck and boarded the 8:30 shuttle to the station and ended there are at 8:40. Just as we found the platform and entered it the train pulled in. Phew, that was close.
The next close call was the 10 minutes to change trains in Florence to head to Piza. We made that interchange successfully as well. What made it even more dunting was the 8 suitcase and kids that we had to haul along.
The rest of the day was good with a visit to the leaning tower of Pisa and the church. Nishanth's tantrum and his quarrels with Vihaan will be always associated with our visit here.
We walked back to the station grabbed some food and boarded the train to Rome. Landed in Rome and spent some time commuting to the new apartment that we had booked at Airbnb. It was a big sigh of relief when we entered the apartment an the day had ended.
All in all it was a great day and memorable. Pictures from the day at this link.
Day 5: The hectic schedule and uncertainties from the previous day soon dissipated and all of us woke up to a lazy morning. We bought some bread, eggs and milk from the store nearby and had a relaxing break fast.
Vihaan reminded me the next morning in his typical accent and demeanor - "Manoj Valiachan, yesterday you got angry on a 5 year old". The confidence in his voice sounded like he was totally innocent from the quarrels yesterday and put me in a spot as the person with the wrong doing.
We headed to the Vatican and met our tour guide at 2. The entire place was teaming with people milling around with organized tour guides.
It was a worthy trip with the guide taking us from the Vatican museum to Sistine chapel and finally to St. Peter's Basilica and drawing our attention to specific aspects of history and it's relevance to what we were seeing.
The walk took over 3 hours and ended at the Vatican square. We grabbed some food and took the metro back to the apartment.
Day 6: The next morning was a lazy one. We had a breakfast of eggs and bread cooked in the apartment and had a scheduled tour of the Colosseum only at 3pm.
We left the apartment by 12, had lunch on the way and walked by the fountain as we headed to meet our tour guide. We received a good briefing of
Day 7: This was a day where nothing was planned. By noon we decided to go to Fracati. It was a short train ride into the country and very scenic. We walked around and had more gelato and the kids just ran around.
Towards the evening we headed to the town square where we had roasted pork some wine and cheese. We took the last train back to Rome and stumbled into the house all tired with the exception of the kids.
Day 8: This was the end of the trip for Praveen and family. They had a flight at 11am and left the apartment by 8:30.
Once they left the apartment wore a deserted look with the kids sulking away. We had a good break fast and decided to spend the day going around the City. Took the tube to the Circo Maximo and spent the morning walking the lush landscapes of Rome. Spent some time at the banks of the Tiber River and just spent some time watching the water flow at the steps of a Church built on a small island on the River.
We had a sumptuous lunch here and headed to Villa Borghese and Piazza Del Popolo.
The town square was amazing, we took a few pictures and shopped for souvenirs.
Had a few good pastries over here with some coffee and chocolate milk and grabbed a Pizza on the way back to the apartment.
The rest of the evening was spent packing to head back home.
Day 9: This was it, we were at the very end of our vacation and it was time to head back.
What seemed like a normal process was not to be. We had planned on taking Uber to the airport, as it turned out the app would not let me order one using cash payments and Paytm. Tried to add a credit card however the SMS authentication would not go through. Here it was flight at 11:30 am , boarding time at 10:45 and we are about an hour away at 8:30 am struggling with ordering the taxi.
We decided to take the metro and Traintilia to the airport. It was at this time that Nishanth reported a tummy ach and had to use the bathroom. That shaved another 10 minutes.
It was now a race to the airport. We took the metro to Roma termini reached there at 9:10. Bought tickets on Leonardo express that departed at 9:35 with a scheduled arrival at 10:07. Every minute counted.
Impressive as the trains and timings were, this one was late by 5 minutes and the arrival was now 10:12. We rushed to checking our bags and at the end we were left with 15 minutes to get to the gate.
Long lines at the security and immigration cut it really close. At the end of it was an emirates agent wait to rush us to the gate. It was then that we realized that the race was not done. Had to take another train to the terminal and another long walk to get to the gate. Phew, finally we were at the safe zone.
I would like to start of by thanking our dear friend BMJ for making this trip possible and etching wonderful memories into our lives. If you would rather view just the photos, it is available here.
Day 1: I headed from Bangalore by train and reached EKM around 4 AM. Veena with kids, Dad, Mom, Uncles and Aunts took the train from Kannur and reached EKM by 4 Am as well. Since the ship departure was @ 10 AM this gave us enough time.
I headed to Ravi Mama's place took rest, refreshed and headed to the station to meet the rest of the folks. A police bus picked us up @ around 10:30 and took us to the Cochin port. Here we spent a lot of time just loitering around, as there were a big group of students from the island returning back after their trip from Cochin. Regular commuters were also waiting to get checked in to the ship and they were carrying all kinds of cargo from the mainland. The check-in process was chaotic and represented the typical age old processes followed by the government.
As tourist we went through the formalities of checking in after about 1:00 PM The ship was named Kavarati after the island we were heading to.
The ship was huge but much smaller that what we had seen in cruises earlier. It had different classes and reminded me of what we saw in the movie titanic. The lowest of them were the BUNK class which the regular commuters used. They were just rows of stacked bunk beds at the lower levels of the ship. The first and second class were on the higher decks and were pretty much individual rooms which had 4 beds in 2nd class and 2 in first class. These classes had their on separate dining areas.
We had out food in the 2nd class dining area and walked around and had a good idea about the layout of the ship. The ship pulled out of the harbor by 4 pm and it was a different view of Kochi from there.
We spent a couple of hours just hanging around in the deck and taking pictures and immersing ourselves in the beautiful views. We headed for dinner around 7 PM and some of us rested while others spent time viewing the clear dark skies from the deck. The beds were very comfortable and the swaying of the ship made for a good rocking motion and most of us were fast asleep by 9 PM.
Day 2: We reached Kavarati around 7 AM, the island just seemed like an over grown beach and tiny from the distance the ship was docked at. The waters near the island are shallow and we hop on to smaller boats and come to the island. It was a mad rush to get out of the ship with people jockeying to get on the the boat at the earliest. In part it was our fault as well. The officials advised us to stay in the room till they call us, with the large group that we were some of them just followed the masses and we found ourselves amidst the group of commuters and cargo trying to make their way onto the small boats.
We were received by the local officers and got into a car and headed to a guest house that was pretty much a bread and breakfast kind of place. It had a cook and a helper for all our needs. They had prepared puttu and kadla cootan for breakfast.
In conversations we found that vegetarian food was a problem as milk and vegetables had to come from the mainland. Most of the oldies wanted to rest while Veena, Kids and myself headed out for a walk towards the beach. We spent the morning there and headed back to the room towards lunch. Benita came with a cake to celebrate the anniversary of Veena's parents.
Towards evening all of headed towards the dock. There is literally beach and water everywhere. we spent some more time in the water and seeing the sun set. Along with us on the ship there were a whole bunch of tourists on a package where they get of the ship each day on different islands and return to Kochi after 3 days. We watched them head back to the ship. While walking back to the room, amma struck a conversation with a local and she gave us a bottle of home brewed fermented coconut water. It was called "Meera". It tasted really good and we wanted more of it and asked around but had no luck.
Had a good dinner with more fish, dal, rice and chapati, celebrated the anniversary with cake cutting and retired for the night.
Day 3: It was a early day. Had breakfast of poori and aloo and headed to the beach by 8:30. We started of with a glass boat ride. It was a good experience. We could see the corals and fish from the safety of the boat. The water was pretty choppy and the boat was swaying from end to end like a pendulum. Some of us were scared and some feeling nauseous. During the time we were anchored, the boat was turned off and it would not turn back on again. Here were sitting in the middle of the ocean rocking heavily with a boat break down. An emergency was radioed and a speed boat soon arrived. It hooked up to our boat and started to tow it. In the mean time the people who were relentlessly trying to start it had some luck and the boat whirred to life again.Neetu and Nishanth entertained themselves by jumping into the into the water and swam around the boat while we were waiting for the emergency boat.
Next up on the agenda was SCUBA diving. 8 of us signed up for it and many quite unsure of what it entails. We were assured over and over again by various people that is was absolutely safe and just follow the golden rule of "BREATH and WATCH" - as simple as that. All the rest will be taken ca\re bu the dive instructors.
We were given a class for about 45 minutes and none of us knew what SCUBA stood for..? Any guesses without googling?
We then headed to shallow water for some breathing practice after which we got on boats and headed of into the ocean. Each of us were accompanied by a certified SCUBA diver and he controlled the apparatus and managed every aspect of it. It was a truly wonderful experience to be on the ocean floor and experience the life forms under water. They even took pictures of us under water and handed us CD's. You can find them with the rest of the pictures in the link.
After that we headed back to shore and went to the house where a nice hot lunch was waiting for us. After resting that afternoon we decided to walk to Benita's house that evening, The walk turned out to be longer than expected and we heard a lot of complaints and whining from the seniors.
Visiting with Benita and family made up for the walk and soon we were all engrossed in conversations and food. Benita arranged to transport us back to the room. We also visited the local temple on the way back.
Day 4: After breakfast we arranged for the taxi to take us around the island. We started of visiting the dock on the eastern shore. This dock was not actively used as the sea was really rough and the tides high. There were occasions when the sea water skimmed the top of the docks. The view of the island and light house from here was enthralling. We walked around took pictures and watched the local boys fish.
We visited the helipad that is a critical infrastructure to commute to the island. The airport itself is situated in Agati and people have to commute to Kavrati by helicopter from there. The helipad was at the very tip of the island and made for a good view of the ocean.
The light house was closed for visitors, so we just viewed it from the bottom. Next was a tour of the desalination plant where sea water was converted to fresh water for use in the island. The technology used was quite indigenous where the water was evaporated through pressure and the steam cooled through circulating colder sea water from bottom of the ocean. The beef from the engineer maintaining the plant was that the government sets up such plants but does not do much to maintain it in operational state. We tasted some of the desalinated water and it was flawless.
Next up we drove by the Islands administrators house and headed back home in time for lunch. More fish, rice, dal, papad, cabbage and pickles awaited us.
That evening we went back to the beach and spent time swimming and playing in the water. Towards the end Neetu decided to dive of the deck and she hit the bottom and was thrown back. It sprained her neck and was in terrible pain. It scared the hell out of us as she could not move her head and the slightest of movement gave her shock waves. We decided to rest the night and access the situation in the morning.
Day 5: Started with breakfast of a local delicacy called Bhatri(BA-THI-RI)
and chilly fish curry. Bhatri is made from ground rice mixed with
coconut milk and made to be like roti's. Loved the breakfast.
Neetu woke up that morning with a lot of discomfort and crying about the pain. We were supposed to head back that evening. Benita arranged for a visit to the goverment hospital on the island and an X-ray was done. The doctor did not see any big issue as such but wanted us to go back and get a scan done. He prescribed some medicines and put a neck brace to prevent any jerky movement. The medicines and the brace helped her feel better and after lunch we headed to the dock to take the boats that would transport us to the ship.
The ship we returned in was much smaller but the rooms and such were pretty much the same as before. This ship was called "The Lagoon". After all the jostling to get on the ship we pretty much settled into the rooms, had dinner and enjoyed the views from the deck.
This ship was less powerful and the estimated time of arrival @ Fort Kochi was 11:00 AM. We spend the morning watching the ocean and at one point also experienced a thunder storm in the ocean.
A familiar situation to get of the ship was also experienced. After we got off, all of us went out own ways and another trip goes down into memory.
Here is a write up of Rishabh, Nandita and Nishanth.
THE GREAT THAI EXTRAVAGANZA
BY RISHABH SHETTY
Thailand is
a marvelous country in which no words
can describe its hidden wonders. Situated
just east of India ,it can be referred to as one of the “gems” of south-east
Asia .My trip to Thailand was just a surreal experience and what better way to
experience Thailand at its best than during the world famous and nationwide
:Songkran festival or water festival. The official currency of Thailand was the
“Thai Baht” but many a times during the trip, the fathers mistook it for “Thai
Butt”!! .
Our first stop was the capital, Bangkok. This grand city is home to
uncountable skyscrapers and numerous historical sites and the malls there
also added to that “WOW” factor. Our hotel there was the Novotel
Pleonchit sukhumvit which was centrally located to the best malls of Thailand
.Even the Skytrain station was located
at our footsteps.The total duration spent here was 2 and a half days and during
this short period , we tried different types of Thai cusines , checked out
malls ,went to historical sites and a whole lot of things .Bangkok is known as
one of the best shopping destinations.. hence, most of our time we spent in the
swanky malls and the street markets . Our last day in Bangkok was a memorable
one as in the morning , we spent 4 hours in the Grand Opulent palace of
Thailand. The architecture and the pietra-dura was stunning .Hats off to those
17th century architects who built this complex .
Next was a visit
Platinum mall where electronic was at its cheapest .Overall it was a fun
experience while we walked around 3 hours in the mall .We then bought some
goodies at the renowned street markets and walked for 2 hours .While going on a
1 and a half hour walk back to the hotel, we found ourselves at the heart of
the songkran festival. We got drenched with cold water trickling down our back
…we also got to witness a rock band live!! And eat fish which was marinated
with rock salt .these moments in Bangkok I will cherish all my life .
Our next
stop was the famous Krabi islands.
Krabi
is a tourist frenzy spot located south of Thailand close to Phuket .Our
resort was called the Holiday Inn resort ,which was situated right next to AO Nang beach and the
hosted the best swimming pools in town
with amazing amenities like 4 waterslides !! the biggest and fastest being the
green one … Now since he Krabi town was pretty far off,we didn’t go there
,instead we went shopping at the famous markets situated near the main AO Nang beach stretch . Our
total duration spent there was 3 and a half days. Our visit to the AO Nang beach was a nice one
as I found a lot of hermit crabs and some knick –knacks from the sea that I
could keep.
On our last day , early morning we took a boat to the world-famous
Chicken Island for snorkeling !!.It was called Chicken Island as the rocks were
shaped like the head of a chicken. The water patterns and snorkeling there was
an out-of –this-world experience as there was different water colours showing
the depths of these coral infested waters .While snorkeling we could see
various marine animals ,be it sea cucumbers to schools of fish .This day was a
day to cherish for the rest of my life.
When I look
back now at the time I spent in Thailand ,I feel we could have scrounged for a
few more days to check the hidden wonders of Thailand …………….
OVERALL
,this was trip was a must-keep in my treasured chest of memories.
By Nandita
From 2016 summer vacation the days between 13th to 18th April were spent at one the the most beautiful and hottest places, Thailand. Those exhausting yet fun six days went by too fast. And in memory of these six days i would like to recollect the various things which occurred during the given time span. First of all, the over all general itinerary of the trip was to fly from Bangalore to Bangkok on the 12th, reaching on the 13th we would spend 2 and a half days their. After which we would catch a flight to Krabi where we would spend the remaining 3 and a half days and hence, return to Bangalore.
We arrived early on the 13th but, managed to pig out in the airport until around 6 when we got a van to head to our hotel, Novotel. We were all pumped to try the exotic Thai food, so we headed out for breakfast, we weren't disappointed. Due to our obvious lack of sleep, we rested until lunchtime, after which we went to the Central World, a popular mall in Bangkok. We were in the city at the perfect time as the Thai New Year, Songkran was in full swing. The mall was no less, there were fresh stalls providing us with authentic Thai specialties. We got some shopping done and then headed back. We didn't hesitate to change into our famous swimming suits and jump into the warm pool outside.we stayed there until late. Afterwards we all snuggled in with a warm plastic box of Thai takeout. Thus, concluding our first day. Or second day, was started with an early breakfast and then we were headed towards the Grand Palace. True to it’s name, the palace was grand. They had delicate tinted glass work and the whole thing was coated in gold. Thought it was hot, it was worth and the lunch afterwards at another mall was also promising. Later that night, we toured the streets of Bangkok , only to get caught among the festivities of Songkran.
And, there in the middle of the renowned city of Bangkok, did we see the Thai new year in full swing. We took part in the festival to complete our now Thai lifestyle.
The next day was spent in the airport. We bid our goodbyes to Bangkok and headed for Krabi.
We reached Krabi at around $ and headed to the hotel to feed our deprived hungry. With no note of hesitation we jumped into the pool, we spent the rest of our day there. Due to our late lunch, dinner wasn't much of a question. We had a pizza between four of us kids. The next day was spent at the beach we had a traditional Thai meal with cold coffee for lunch. On coming back to the hotel, we took a dip in the pool. That night, we went out for dinner again, yet, no Thai dinner. The next day, we sailed out to Chicken Island where we went snorkeling. Krabi was yet beautiful place.
IISC conducts an open house the 1st weekend in March and I drummed up the kids from our neighborhood and spend the whole day looking and listening to what the various departments had to offer.
The parent side of mine had a vested interest in that I was hoping something may fascinate the kids into making it their career.
We had Nandita, Nishanth, Mrudula, Sneha Sreedhar, Sheha Nagaraj, Sharada, Shreya along with the 3 adults, Veena, her dad and myself.
Some pictures from the trip.
After the long day I forgot my camera @ Pizza hut only to find out a week later. Was lucky to get it back from the restaurant.
Dussehra holiday planing started earnestly well in advance, as all holiday plans should, however it ended up as a last minute trip.
This year we had planned to visit the Wagah border, the golden temple in Amritsar and a few days @ Dharamshala. We worked through the details with Veena's parents and then with our friends Vivek and family. Eventually everyone had to bail out for one reason or another and we were close to the holidays with nothing on hand. A quick trip to Singapore with Sridhar & fly was considered and dropped. Finally it came down availability of train tickets to the historic town of Hampi, with the Hayatt offering a relaxing getaway with a trip of the ruins that finalized the trip.
We took the Hampi express from Bangalore @ 10 PM and reached Torangulu station @ 6:30 AM and did an early check-in to the hotel. The Jindal Steel Works housing complex was pretty huge, well maintained and impressive. The roads and facilities inside the township could easily match that of any developed city abroad.
On Day 1 we just stayed @ the hotel, drove around the township and enjoyed the facilities.
Day 2: We toured Hampi
Nishanth with flowers of the water Hyacinthe
we had lunch @ the Mango tree restaurant of one of the shanty roads off Vitalla Temple.
Day 3: One down 3 to go....!
Towards the end of a hot and dry tour of Hampi Veena was down with fever and she was beginning to show symptoms of catching something. Day 3 was Dusssehra and we pretty much spent the day @ the pool and enjoying the sumptuous food at the hotel.
Kids spent a good 4+ hours in the pool and towards the evening we headed out to the township where the festivities were happening. We witnessed the victory of the good over the evil and subsequent fireworks to celebrate Dussehra.
We stopped by Kaladham a 3 D cultural and art exhibit by the hotel in the Vidhayanagar township and snapped a few pictures.
Finally the most awaited event, the lighting of Ravan:
Day 4: Final day
The morning was spent in the pool. We checked out by 2 had our lunch and headed to the Tungabhadra dam. We spent a good 3 hours and returned to the Hospet railway station to catch the Hampi express.
One of the best hotels that I have stayed in so far, I must rate the Hayatt, Hampi and the food as excellent.
As the years roll, another Dussehra goes by, the biggest difference we now see is our vacations do not fit into a single family room any more... !
