Scene V - River Rafting in Bhadra river

Arun's instructions:

• The life jacket can stand 120 kilos, so there is nothing to worry (sigh!)


• Hold the paddle end with a proper fist formation.


• The other hand should hold the paddle stick at a height comfortable for one to paddle.


• To move forward, put the paddle at 90 degrees into the water, with your upper body moved a bit forward and pull the paddle back along with moving your body backwards.


• Vice versa to move backwards.


• When I say hold on, hold on to the rope tied to the boat.


• When I say rapid forward, paddle rapidly so we move forward faster.


• If the boat topples (Ah! This was the tough part to even listen to!). If the boat topples, you would start floating within 2 seconds. Everybody move towards the boat and hold it up with your hands.


• Now! who all knows swimming? (I knew this would be coming! Should we even try this? But I want to...) It might be difficult for only the guide to save all of you, in an unlikely event. So, he also showed how we could lock the paddle heads and pull each other.
  

First thing asked us to do is to get down to water, experience the floating. I was only told then that the depth was 30-40 feet! I just pulled up my socks and got into the water, never wanted to leave the rope. It was an amazing feeling. I hadn't imagined I would go floating in 30-40 feet deep water levels. We enjoyed our time floating in the water for about 10-15 minutes.

Arun then pulled us all up into the boat (he just held us by the jackets and pulled up like gunny bags). When we started he said, "Rafting is a team event. Very much needs everyone to be in synch".

Sree and Saket took to the front. I and Atanu synched up with their paddling. Arun was controlling the direction sitting at the back. We rafted a small fall, in the due course hit a rock. But we did synch up good to move out quickly. That gave us all a bit of confidence. The falls were not too high, but there were currents and whirls we had to escape. The river would be plain for a few meters and then there would be 2-3 falls and currents we had to rapidly paddle through. We stopped by every stretch to look back and feel good about getting through it. The whole experience was fantabulous!

Scene IV - Its everyone's first time

We had just trekked down, and having breakfast while it started raining. We thought we would miss out on more activities. But were not disheartened, 'cos everyone were geared up for more rounds of carom games. After the breakfast, we informed at the reception to find out booking for rafting and then decided to start carom.

Flashback:
Saturday evening's boards: Sree and I won against Atanu and Saket. Then the team got shuffled. Saket and I won against Sree and Atanu. And it took us 7 hours to have only played two full boards. That was quite a game.

So, we were all geared up for more rounds. We played for about an hour when we heard from the reception we had to leave for rafting. We didn't want to stop playing, neither did we want to miss out on river rafting.

We packed our stuffs, checked out from the resort and headed towards the rafting place. Its 30 kms ahead from the resort, we spoke to the people and got our route map.

It was the first time for all of us. I'm sure we all experienced our share of jitters inside. Th thoughts - How would it be? I don't even know swimming! Would the water levels be very deep? Would we really have control over it? Its everyone's first time!!

We had to park our car and move 7kms ahead in their van. The van carried the boat, the jackets, helmet and paddles. We would raft for 7kms and reach where we parked. Arun was our guide. He helped us get ready. I could hear my heart beats loud and clear!

3 years back, when I went to Goa, I had confronted my fear of heights going on a para-sailing ride. Only to realize how beautiful things look from a bird's view. But after I experienced an almost drowning, I had gotten the fear of drowning there. And now, here I was trying it out!

Scene III - The trek, the realization

After a nice cup of tea in the morning, we set out to trek at 7:45 AM. We had a guide who took us to the hill top through the Bhadra forest area. It was a dense forest we were trekking in to. Every time we do this after a break, it makes us realize how much of stamina we have lost, how fit/unfit we are to do this. And everytime, the realization soon vanishes when we are back to our routines.
The trek was too good, until the guide told us there were leeches. They were around only when we were almost to reach the hill top. One thing I was telling Sree before we planned for trek was that we should go to a place where there would be no leeches. And lo! Here I was standing on the rock, screaming, having experienced my first leech bite :( and Sree got 2 of them.
Of course there was no prick or pain, its only the feeling that a slimy thing is stuck on you. It fell off when he poured the salt on it. There were 2-3 stuck on my pants which were pulled out. It took a while for me to come out of that messy feeling and to start enjoying the height and the view.
The surrounding mountains were covered with mist and it looked astounding. Lying down on the rocks and viewing the clouds spread across the sky was a moment.

The climb down the hill top was a quick one, because I was running down trying to ensure I don't allow more leeches to stick around my pants and shoes. I guess that does not help. We observed how they stood straight on the ground to leap out and hold on to us. There were more on the pants while we climbed down, but luckily nothing could get on to the skin. Sree pulled them out before they could.

We had a grand breakfast and were all set for the day.

Scene II - At the resort

We reached the resort at 3:00 PM. The roads from Chikkamagalur to the destination was not good enough for a smooth drive. Few kms when we had to climb the hill was good. We had phoned the resort people and informed them about our arrival, and they had readied the lunch for us.

At the resort, we could not get the tree tops, so we opted for executive rooms. The view from the resort reception and the badminton court was amazing. Mountains, coffee plantations and think forest around.

The executive room was amidst the coffee plantation. The room is quite big, very comfortable and with a spacious sit out.


We had a good lunch and the place to eat had the same setup of a tree top with a nice view to the mountains, forest, coffee plantation and the lake where we could go fishing and coracle ride.

After a good lunch, we decided to take a nap for half hour. The half hour was not the sufficient one and everyone knew that. By the time we woke up it was 5:30. We went up to the eating place to have some tea and onion pakodas. With no activity to be done after 6:00 PM, we decided to play carom. We ordered some evening snacks and wine to the game room while we played. We were reminded twice for the dinner, while we still played. We then decided to continue the game as is after dinner. We came back from dinner and continued to play. Finally at 1:00 AM we decided we should go to bed or we would not wake up for next day morning activities. And we had played two games of carom for 6 and half hours!

Scene I - The kick start

Plan: Start from our home at 3:30 AM. So, wake up at least by 3:00 AM

Flashback:
Friday afternoon, I came back home from office at 4:00 PM. Had a power nap for 2 hours, woke up at 6:00 PM. Sree came home at 9:00 PM. He had got the Heroes Season II episodes 3 to 6. We could not resist not watching it. Packed our clothes, watched the series and slept at 1:00 AM, with alarm set to 3:30 AM.

Start time moved by half hour.

3:30 AM - alarm rings. SNOOZE! Saket calls to wake us up. SNOOZE!
3:45 AM - alarm rings. SNOOZE!
4:00 AM - alarm rings. It is time to wake up or we would get stuck again in the Tumkur road amidst the trucks and lorries. So we dragged ourselves out of bed.

There are some last minute packing, a few small and necessary things to be picked up. And the route map! We realized we had to note down the route map. Sree opens the resort website and finds something interesting! http://www.eagleeyeholidays.com/location.htm

Did you open the link (before continuing to read this) and look at the pic?

He found his photo with his Tavant team on the website! He only realized then that he had been to this place and had a great time with all the events they had arranged. They had gone on blindfold trekking and rappelling!

With Sree not able to digest the fact that he had not paid attention to his photo on the website, he had been there already and it is the same place we are going back to, we started at 5:10 AM. 5:20 we pick up Saket, 5:45 we are at Atanu's place. He shows up at 6:10.

The snack bag this time is heavier and larger than last time's. Sree had told Atanu to cut down on the junks and he did exactly the opposite, he doubled it up!

Finally we are on the start and luckily avoided all the traffic we thought we would get held by.

First stop: to swing holding the hanging roots of the trees.



Second stop: a field where they grew flowers.

Third stop: For breakfast at a restaurant.

Bangkok - Food

It sure is a bit difficult to find some vegetarian food. We had to specify many times to the restaurant to make a no meat dish, with only vegetables. It was hard to explain to them that they need to cook something without meat. More than hard to explain, it was harder to understand whether they understood the order right. Everywhere you can see sea creatures sold, even bred within small ponds in some restaurants. We saw these crabs that were put in a container in a restaurant. When you order, they take them out of the container and cook it for you.

Cooked:
We had to resort to some cakes, wafers and doughnuts for quick bites. It sure was a learning experience to manage and handle food issues in places.

Did not stop travelling

I did not write here, does not mean we did not travel :)

Hoganekal Falls

Last weekend we decided to go on a drive towards the Mettur dam. When we were driving back from Coimbatore to Bangalore, Sree had taken this route. I was sleeping in the car all through, Arun was giving him company on the drive. So, Sree recommended that we go on a drive in that route, since I had missed it.

Aditi, Didi, jeeju and even mom accompanied. And we planned to go to Hoganekal falls. The drive was, of course very pleasant and beautiful. We stopped for lunch at Hosur and then for tea in Palacode.

We had started late, almost at 12 in the noon and with no plans to hit any destinations, we had taken relaxing four hours drive. By the time we reached Hoganekal falls, it was close to 5. We seemed to be the last of the lot to be entering into the water while everyone were walking out.

The Coracle ride was very good. And it was a pleasant weather and time (after 4) to go on a coracle ride. The guy explained that there will be lot of falls formed once it rains. He took us close to one of the falls and circled the coracle under. The water splash wet all of us :) Aditi was excited about it.
There is also a beach formed with the river water on two sides with a pience of land in between. It was a beautiful view. An interesting business model seen was the snacks and drinks sold on coracles :)

We could see people getting massages on the rocky banks of the river. The short trip to the falls was very pleasant. Jeeju drove most of the time and seemed to enjoy. We stopped at Palacode for omelets and egg poach. We couldn't stop ordering for more.

Bangkok - The welcome

The arrival at Bangkok was an unpleasant experience. We had to wait for few of our colleagues to get the on-arrival visa and the counter looked chaotic. It took close to 2 hours waiting to get the visas. And the immigration clearance counters were not operational even though almost all the counters had a queue of more than 50 people in each. The officer arrived to the counter early, however, the clearing out began only when he could make himself comfortable for may be half hour. Also, he seemed least bothered to listen to this grief and was directing us to the feedback counter to provide feedback. The scene was such as if he knew there can be no improvement imposed. This might have been the situation only for the early morning landings. I didnt hear about this from our colleagues who were there the previous evening.

Since few of us waited for the on-arrival visa, we missed the warm welcome that was arranged for us. Rest of them who made it out of the airport in time, were welcomed with garlands.

The traffic did not let us miss Bangalore even for a day. In fact, Bangalore traffic seemed better than that of Bangkok. Besides, the taxi drivers drive very rashly. We had to hang on to the cars whenever we took a taxi to go out of the hotel. The signals within the city roads can last upto 15 minutes each!

All the taxis are Corollas and they remind you of the gems chocolate colours - pink, blue, green, orange, red, yelllow, etc. Tuk Tuk drivers demand heavy money for transportation, almost 2 times higher than the taxis.

The city looks crowded always. Explaining destinations to taxi drivers is an adventure. They hardly understand English and the pronunciations matter a lot. Every word has to be broken down to sounds :) A miscommunication caused my lady colleagues to end up in a brothel!

Bangkok

Last year Sree had a lay over at Bangkok and HongKong. These were the two destinations he wanted us to travel together. We could not make it together, however, I got a chance to make an official trip to Bangkok, beginning of this year.

Before we even made it to the place, I had a chance to research some history of the place, to help our MD prepare a welcome presentation for the event.

Bangkok was instituted as the new capital in 1782 by king Chakri. By 1860 many European countries and North America had trade treaties with Bangkok. Vietnam War marked a major period of change in the history of Bangkok as money poured into the country from abroad and improvements were made to the city’s infrastructure. The great reform occurred in the reign of King Rama V (1868-1910) who brought the nation into modernization in various aspects, including administration, education, justice, communications and public health. In just over 200 years, Bangkok has grown from a small collection of villages scattered among canals and rice paddies alongside the Chao Phraya River to an enormous sprawl of a capital.

Our stay was arranged at Hilton Millennium which is also alongside the Chao Phraya river. There are many hotels, restaurants, floating markets and night markets alongside. The river is a major transportation artery for many water taxis and ferries. Mobility between restaurants and hotels are by the ferries.

Night markets, floating markets and the shopping malls are the-things-to-do in Bangkok, apart from of course, the various other things the place is known for.

Kanyakumari - The southern tip of India

Everyone knows it is the southern tip of India. We happened to go to Nagercoil for our friend's wedding and made it to Kanyakumari which is very close by. The boundaries are the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Kanyakumari was referred to as the Cape Commorin by the British.

Vivekananda rock is where they say, Swami Vivekananda spen his time meditating. Ferry is the only way by which we can go to the Vivekananda rock. The few minutes journey in the ferry is bit scary because the wave strength, even though it seems that the sea is divided by The Rock, is quite high. But it was a great experience. The place is very peaceful and windy. Looking at the waves hitting the shore is a revel, out of the World experience. Especially watching the pattern of how the wave hits and the water moves off the rocks back into the sea.
A black stone statue of Thiruvalluvar, famous for his philosophical work Tirukkural, is built at a bit of distance from the Vivekananda Rock. Again, we have to take the ferry from The Rock to the Thiruvalluvar memorial.
The solar calendar is scientifically depicted on the rocks and the shadow change as per can be observed.
It is a very peaceful place to be. I wished we had stayed there for long.

Monetary Bay Aquarium

Jan 2006 is when I happened to visit US for the first time. It was an official trip for 45 days and our stay was arranged at Irvine, where our office is also located. I could make it to my sister's place for only one weekend, Cupertino. So, the weekend I could to visit them, she planned for drive to SFO, Monetary Bay and the 17 mile drive. We could have only covered so much in 2 days.

Drive to Monetary bay, was driving up the hill and the experience was exciting, the weather at its best. It was still winter and foggy in the morning.

The most thrilling experience in the Monetary Bay Aquarium was the movements of the fish school. The entire school was moving in one direction and nothing could break their synchronization. It was a semi circle tank of water almost to the ceiling height and I enjoyed most watching them move around in so much of co-ordination.

Tirupur and Coimbatore

Friday we had invited Didi and Jeeju for a chilli bajji party. The chilly was handpicked by me and each one of them turned out to be as hot as they can! So, to eat those chilli bajjis, we kept some water melon slices ready that could aid us abbreviate the burn :) To everyone's surprise, we all managed to finish them all, wondering if we would be normal the next day morning ;)

With lots of dilemma, finally we decided we will drive to Coimbatore to attend our friend's wedding reception. It was three of us, Arun, Sree and I. We decided to start early on Saturday morning, so we could escape the traffic jam on Hosur road.

As planned, we started at around 5 in the morning. Stopped for breakfast at Adyar Anandha Bhavan (Bangalore calls it A2B), spent some relaxing time there. The restaurant was very decent, in the premises of a fuel bunk, landscaped with garden and children play area.

Then after 2 hours we stopped for a cup of tea, unknown of the town we had reached. Then we stopped for some cold milk and ice cream in Tamil Nadu's famous suppliers - Aavin, and we reached Tirupur by 12:30.

Tirupur is known for export quality textile manufacturing and garment exports. I had plans to do lots of shopping there. Comfort and relaxation took over the priority, so we decided to sleep all day :)

Sunday we travelled to Coimbatore to attend the reception. I decided I would shop there for some nice cotton wears. This time, the dearest friend made us run around for some accessory shopping needed for the bride in the first-time-visited place. we were left with no time for our shopping and drove all night back to Bangalore.

Did you know? (From Georgia Aquarium)

Georgia Aquarium

Last year's User Group Conference was held at Atlanta. It is a 3 days event where we get to meet our customers in person, arrange best practices' sessions, customers share their experiences in real time projects, customization and so on.

One of the dinners for the event was arranged inside the Georgia Aquarium. It is known to be the World's largest aquarium with millions of gallons of fresh and marine water along with many aquatic life found anywhere else.

Sipping the cocktails, we got an avid guided tour around the aquarium. The guide explained how Rays are sensitive to touches and the way one needs to try touching a Ray or a small shark in a touch tank.

The evening at the Georgia Aquarium was exclusively for us. It was a very synergistic evening with so much to know about the sea creatures and our clients :)

I spy!

They say that the Tanjore temple was built during the Cholas period. The structure seems untouched, however, there is a Brit face in one of them!
Ooops... this is the closest shot I could get with my Camera.

Thanjavur (Tanjore)

Thanjavur, they say, is the pride of Tamil Nadu. It was the royal city of Cholas, who were ruling till 13th century with Thanjavur as the capital. There are many temples in and around, of which the big temple is the most famous one left by the Cholas. The temple is built within a fort.



We visited the Big Temple, the Art Gallery, the Palace and the Thanjavur Handloom showroom. The art gallery has the collection of the bronze idols of Gods, Goddesses and the kings from as old as 8th century.



We could walk up the stairs to the top of the palace Gopuram. The stairs get narrow as you are climbing and you will feel whether you would really be able to pass through them. The stairs are built from all four directions. At every level of the Gopuram there is a hall with the supporting pillars and you can stop by at the windows to view the city.

There is an 8 storeyed structure where the King(s) and the Queen(s) would climb up to watch the city. This is located right next to the Queen's bathing pond. (There is an exact similar structure constructed in the Disney Land, Anaheim)


Thanjavur is known for its paintings, Thalaiattu bommai (the nodding head dolls made out of mud/POP). The paintings and art work are very impressive and meriting (and expensive). The paintings are very colorful, with a dominance of gold work in them.