Tag Archive for Travel

Trip to Masinakudi & Wayanad – Part I

After a lot of broken promise to Rooban… I was finally caught hold by and was unable to give any reasons… It was a trip planned by Rooban along with Prakash, Imanuel, Karthick & myself between 29/09/2011 to 03/10/2011 to Masinakudi & Wayanad

It was Thursday and being a working day I had to wrap all my work on time as I was travelling during next 2 working days… I was asked. To be ready by 11 PM and until 10 I was busy with my work… Finally I wrapped everything and rushed to my house by 10.30 and packed everything in next 10 min…

Since my iPad & Samsung was about to be drained I kept them on charge… But our friends Rooban, Prakash& Imanueal were late and they came by 1 AM… After getting settled we all get ourself seated and I was awake till vellore where we had a pit stop… It was here I crashed to sleep and I woke up the next morning near Sathyamangalam… This picture taken using lighting from the car near vellore…

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Then it was hectic drive crossing some towns & hamlets in Karnataka and finally we reached Masinakudi by 1pm… After checking into the resort we asked the resort maid to prepare our lunch & folks crashed to sleep… I used that time to catch up with emails and with folks in office… I thought getting a bat and ball will help if we get bored in the resort and I went out to Masinakudi town which was 6 KM from resort…

Finally lunch was ready by 4.30 PM and folks were ready after good lunch and sleep… I motivated them to stay in resort to play cricket… But Rooban wanted to explore places immediately… Then we started our drive to Theppakadu by 5 PM and we didn’t see any wild animal… We went to Moyyar Dam and we took some snaps out there…

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The time we returned it was half past seven and it was too dark… There was a Scorpio which warned us of an elephant attack… We marched ahead in spite of warning and we took some snaps of the elephant which even more irritated Tusker… It immediately started chasing us… This is my second experience in the same place… Only difference was last time we were out of the vehicle and this time we were inside… The driver of the vehicle was prompt enough to press the accelerator and we escaped once again…

On our return of the resort we befriended a bunch of civil service students who were on a field trip and we had a party time with them in the night… We understood the benefits, challenges about a civil servant…

Then I crashed inside the vehicle as the resort was not neat… Then finally we got up by 8 in the morning we all refreshed, took bath and packed our bags to Wayanad…

Everything revolves around company

These days I’ve been loosing interest in many hobbies & when I looked for reason it was the company you have…

Movies: I’ve been a great movie buff and I was in my peak between 2004 – 2010… These where the times I went for movies with Major, Balaji & Kavi… These are people with whom I do a lot of post movie discussion and I enjoyed them… But these days I don’t have such a perfect companion to enjoy watching movies…

Photography: This was very amateurish but never flourished as Balaji was the only companion with whom I was enjoying this art and after him I completely stopped taking snaps…

Long Drive: Again this was at itz peak with Major & Balaji and after them this has come to a halt…

Vagabond Travel: This is one thing I did as an individual… Though there was no physical companion when I was traveling… There was a companion in depression, boredom & loneliness which made me to enjoy my vagabond travel…

Thunder / Lightning Watch: This was very short lived by me & Balaji use to stop our car near Kovalam back water to enjoy seeing Thunder Light on the water… We spent many long hours for handful number of days…

Live Concerts: These were times with Aparnaa & after her marriage I’ve never been to a live concert until I went to AKON a month back…

At different stages there were different people with whom I enjoyed different things… Now am again in the hunt of a new company with whom I can start enjoying new things or continue things which I enjoyed earlier…

Am missing Something

For last couple of days I’m into introspection mode… I don’t know what it is; but I always feel like missing something…

It all started the day when my parents asked me to delete the pictures of me having toddy…

So findings of my introspection is; I’ve not been doing my crazy things I use to do like;

  • Travelling
  • Watching Movies
  • Itz been a while since I drank like crazy & behaved crazy
  • Since I partied

Interestingly my parents are happy these days as I’m not going out & come home at odd hours & spending money. For them all above things are irresponsible behaviours…

So henceforth I’ve decided to take a Sabbatical for a week every month & go to Bangalore or Madurai to lead a life of my wish… Then be in Chennai & lead a life as per my parents wish…

Lives were at Stake!!!

Yesterday one of my GrandUncle (Grandma’s Brother) died and we had to visit his funeral at Trichy. Since ours is a large family we had a around 10 folks who had to make it. Since it was heavily raining and everyone was not prepared for a drive we decided to hire a TempoTraveller. We all boarded the Van by 9 PM and it was all misery from then on.

  • Because of unavailability of driver the Cab owner has sent another driver who has just completed his 13 hour shift.
  • Immediately we found this guy sleeping while driving.
  • Myself & 2 of my uncle had to engage in a conversation with the Driver to see to it that he is not sleeping.
  • We took 5+ Tea breaks to refresh him.
  • He feel sleep and applied breaks on the middle of the road & we have to thank almighty that there were no heavy vehicles behind us.
  • He slept and he didn’t notice a lorry in the front and I had to alert him.
  • Then twice he would have collided with a lorry.
  • Then he took a nap for 30 min since he couldn’t resist his sleep.
  • In spite of all this agony we were friendly with him. But the gesture was not reciprocated. When ladies wanted to find a good place to get refreshed. We missed a right turn to get to the Petrol Bunk. This guy refused to take a reverse or a U-turn. Instead we had to goto another Petrol Bunk which had nasty toilets.

Then we reached the place by 5.30 in the morning. What would take 3 – 4 hours to travel a distance of 300 KM took us double the time, with lot of stress… The price paid was myself & 2 of my uncles spent the whole night without any sleep… Also the condition of the vehicle deserver another blog…

What worries me is people are getting ruthless and there is not moral values, business ethics. The owner of the Cab has played with the lives of 10 people. He could have told that he is falling short of Driver. But the greed of making money has made him push a person who has already worked for 13 hours and had to drive another long distance and that too in the night.

Human lives have become too cheap these days…

Trip to Varkala

It was a sudden plan to Varkala Beach in Kerala… I didn’t do much research about the place but i brought the point of my friend Laxman who is a planned person and he does his homework before doing something… So, i’m a smart worker & blindly follow my friend and he has never gone wrong…

Though we planned at the last moment it was very wavering because of Manoj… But when Laxman decides something he will push people and will make it happen somehow & he convinced Manoj to make it… Then I got a call from Sathish asking if we must make it for sure… I said i’m going to go for it because I hate being wavering & he followed me… Only while boarding the train we came to know that he met with an accident and had scratches all over his body…

Then again there was a setback because the Laxman’s service manager said he can’t deliver the car by evening… So, we decided to go by train… When we went to buy the ticket we were shocked to know that the ticket costs just Rs.110/- per person and we had saved a lot on Petrol, Car Lag etc ;) … But the travel time was double than driving distance because train travelled on a U direction…

Train started 30 minutes behind schedule  & I crashed by 11.30 PM & got up by 8 AM by hearing sweet malayalam speech by cute looking Mallu girls… Train reached Varkala one hour behind schedule & we reached the place by 9 AM…

Then we travelled in an auto-rickshaw & reached out Hotel Hill View… One reaching the spot I’ve no words to tell about the place… It is an hill with Arabian Sea below & what a marvel to ones eyes… We got a Sea facing room & after refreshing we all went to take a Dip on the sea and we had our Lunch…

Again we reached our hotel took a shower & now am blogging… After this we are going for shopping on the sea view shops and  we got an invite from a friend for late night party… Tomorrow will go for an ayurvedic massage & by evening am traveling back to Chennai…

Since there is Wi-Fi in the hotel & because of BlackBerry my work didn’t get affected… So, it is a double delight & enjoyed a lot till now…

Tough Traveling to Madurai

Boarding the bus was very uncertain until the last moment for folling reasons;

  • Was feeling drowsy because of Dolo650…
  • My father was late and he was unable to drop me…
  • There was an unexpected family issue (thanks to my mom for handling it all alone)…

I was not interested to travel to Madurai that day… But I didn’t want my laziness to beat my spirit and I started packing my bags 45 min before the departure of the bus… Boarded an auto 25 Min before the departure of the bus… Reached Bus Depot 5 min before departure & after getting my boarding pass immediately the bus reached the boarding point…

It was a big gamble because I decided to continue with my travel 45 min before departure and if there was any slight delay in any of my task means I’d have missed the bus…

But my real irony started on the bus because there was an old man who had disgusting looks & was stinking badly… Also I was not able to position myself properly on the seat… Within minutes this guy started snoring and that made things worst for me…

But everything happens for a reason & my consumption of Dolo650 for last 3 days made me drowsy and I slept and only got up at Madurai… If I was not sedated that day it would have become too hard for me…

Finally reached Madurai Safely & am back with a bang for the Tight Schedule…

Traffic Menace

Started the day by waking early in the morning & things started well;

  • Replied to all official emails.
  • Answered all personal emails.
  • Then took a Business Analyst friend of mine to give some advice to my new Business Analyst & also got good insights about Business Analyst practices.
  • Then met a Serial Entrepreneur friend of mine and it was nice interacting with her.
  • Then went to my favorite Aavin parlor in Adyar with my CFO & dropped him back.

It is from here my agony started. From GN Chetty road to reach my home it took 2 hours and I was really irritated. All the good progress in the day got overshadowed by the traffic and unruly drivers in the City. But the time I reached my home I got mentally tired.

Struggled to reach Coimbatore

Yesterday was a hectic & frustrating day;

- Slept long & reached to board meeting by 12.30
- Then had a nice board meeting.
- Then thought of video blogging & got free installation & integration of VBlog from Contus Support.
- Thought of publishing my first video blog but was unable do it in hurry.
- Rains spoiled the road & made it unwalkable.
- Caught a rick to board the bus.
- From there the nightmare started.
- The bus took a long route to Coimbatore.
- The route was full of pits and we were thrown up & down. Until we reached Erode we had a bumpy ride & was unable to sleep.

Though I enjoy such unexpected experiences. I was in a bad mood to enjoy it this time. But finally reached Coimbatore & started planning to chill out the bad mood.

Weekend Plans were Screwed

After a long time I’m having a bored weekend at Madurai. After relocating back to Chennai a year back I use to complete my trips during weekdays & return to Chennai to enjoy weekends.

This time I planned to mix my trip with a weekend because planned for a trip to Kuttralam or Kumily.

But all plans were screwed by a friend who spent major part of his previous week at Kodaikanal. Also he never hinted that he is going to screw the plan.

Last 3 days we met for dinner and dispersed. Some spice were missing in our meetings. Even today we went for lunch & had a afternoon nap & they went back home.

Finally I had Major for rescue. Went to Coffee Float, a walk at race course road & a walk in our area. It was a nice 4 hour where we were sharing out personal life experience, some official & some nostalgic discussions.

Some how I passed the weekend & its time to concentrate & finish my visits purpose in next two days.

From Alleppey to Chennai

My original plan after my tour of Alleppey was to get back to Madurai and then return to Chennai. But i was scared of Laxman’s driving and i decided to get back to Chennai directly as i had a company with Rooban. So this is what happened;

  • We had no bus from Alleppey but there was a train by 4 PM. Rooban assumed it would be full and he suggested going to Cochin will give us more options.
  • We boarded a Bus to Cochin with was one and half hour drive from Alleppey.
  • Cochin was hot but was very nice city with was calm & had all attributes of a city.
  • We got down and went to a place called M.G.Road which was a shopping area having lots of Big shopping centers.
  • The same road had offices of many Private bus operators office & all the busses to Chennai were full.
  • Then we took another auto and went to government bus-stand. Here all busses to Chennai have already left. Also bus to Pondycherry was full.
  • Then we took an auto and went to Railway station only to find all trains running full.
  • Then again came back to Government Bus-stop.
  • Only choice was to board a bus to Coimbatore and the choice were a Trivandrum – Coimbatore bus which was about to come by 4.30 & a bus to Coimbatore from Cochin by 5.30.
  • Since it was 3 o clock we had to wait till 4.30 & all bus had route names in malayalam and things were again confusing.
  • Still bus to Coimbatore hasn’t arrived and we decided to board a bus to Tirupur and thought of boarding a bus to Coimbatore from there.
  • When we sat we got an announcement telling Trivandaram – Coimbatore bus has arrived and we were lucky to get a cramped last seat.
  • We had a hectic bumpy journey and we travelled through Tirupur – Palakkad & finally reached Coimbatore by 11 PM.
  • Coimbatore is a place which doesn’t have a night life. Even second show movies starts by 8.30. Hotels gets closed by 10 PM.
  • All bus to Chennai have left & again we had to work on options.
  • We had a choice of leaving to our relatives house and start the next day. But i didn’t want to do that because the hard travel from Alleppey will become useless.
  • We were lucky to get a cramped Mini bus which was overly dumped and no space to even stretch our legs.
  • We had to immediately board the bus and we have no time to have dinner too.
  • Then after 2 hours of drive driver stopped to have some tea and there i had a Maaza and we started again.
  • Finally the bus reached Chennai by 9.30 AM.

Finally reached Chennai after a hectic travel for 21 consecutive hour. All this was possible only because of the the Ayurvedic Massage i had in Alleppey which kept my body cool.