The Desert Valley- Ladakh Part 1

           It’s one of those days when I’m simply in a cranky mood because of all the noise and pollution around me. Also because I don’t know when is it next that I will be visiting a place as heavenly as Ladakh. It’s been exactly one month I’ve returned from that place. I do not precisely remember the chronology of all the events that took place in the 10 days that we were there. I would have turned to an itinerary to recollect which places we had visited and when, But we never had one. But we did not have an absolutely unplanned trip either. What we did have when we left from here was a local person’s contact number who would be driving us around the place for the 10 days and a hotel booking for the first 4 days in Leh, just so that we wouldn’t be roofless when we reached the place.

         I’m still struggling to summon up the exact things we did in Ladakh. So I thought the least I can do is sit with a cup of Kashmiri Kahwa tea that we bought from there (which tastes nothing like the one I had at Chang-La Pass; something probably went wrong in its preparation), hoping it would remind me at least of the freezing temperatures there. But that seems next to impossible. The October heat here will not allow me to do that. In another effort, I scroll through the 150-odd pictures clicked on my camera. That helps me remember that the day we reached, we’d only rested in our rooms for a while for “acclimatization” (as instructed on every website where we hoped we would find an itinerary) and later walked up to the market to have dinner. The memory of having lunch seems blurry though. The second day we probably visited the Hemis monastery, the Stok palace and the Shanti Stupa. The third day was the day for river rafting at Zanskar. The fourth day we left for Pangong, stayed overnight and returned the next morning in Leh. The sixth day we left for Nubra Valley, stayed overnight and returned the next morning. The eighth day we left for Tso-Moriri Lake, stayed overnight and returned the next morning. The tenth day was time for departure.

         That’s quite bland for a vibrant place like the Desert valley we’ve all wished to visit at some point of time. I have realized that listing the places we visited is certainly not the best idea. It wouldn’t be justice enough for describing a place like Ladakh; it’s rather the place that will make you fall short of words to describe its beauty. It’s the place which looks the same, no matter how far you go, what height you’re at or how many turns you’ve taken at the roads guarded by mountains on either of the sides. It’s a place which will make you feel that even a new sight is the same, mundane one. And yet, it’s a place which will hypnotise you into being awed by the beauty of the ordinary; it will make you greedy, for you will want to fill your eyesight with the same old landscape.  

       

So while this is certainly not the end of the account of Ladakh, I will certainly take time to gather words to explain the experiences, and not just the scenery. 

Goa: part 2

I think we managed to surprise a lot of people- friends, acquaintances, and other people who showed general interest in our Goa trip- when we told them that we wouldn’t be having alcohol at all. I don’t understand why Goa is synonymous with alcohol. I say this after having been there, because I realized Goa is so much more than just alcohol, because seriously that’s not the only liquid available there; there’s sea water too, you know! (Which is obviously not edible, but it helps you drown all your emotions in it, just try staring at the endless stretch of oscillating water, could be a great alternative to liquor). Because that’s what I’ve associated Goa with- Beaches and sea! But wait, there’s more too- for Eg: restaurants that are shut during lunch time. I’m not joking. That was the first thing we encountered when we actually got out of our rooms and because we had reached around lunch time, we decided to have lunch first and then walk towards the nearest beach- Anjuna. Little did we know that we would be having lunch that afternoon at the beach itself! We kept walking past closed restaurants only to find ourselves at a “cafe” which overlooked the sea. “Cafe Liliput” the sign board read, an arrow pointing towards the right which we followed and entered into the gate from where the sea was visible, the sound of which was heard from a distance already. It looked like the perfect place to have lunch, and it was! For all the time we were there, I couldn’t make my mind as to whether I should be devouring the amazing food or the mesmerizing sight of the sea that seemed to have changed its colour to a darker shade of blue at a distance from the shore. That moment, I knew why they say that everything happens for a reason (often good); Now when I look back, I feel good about the fact that all of the nearby restaurants were shut, which is what made us walk up to the cafe at the beach, though the walk was terrible because of the heat and our hungry stomachs; which also led to another good thing- a realization that we HAD to rent scooters as soon as possible, for the sake of convenience! And good for us, there was a bike rental right next to the hostel we were staying in. We got for ourselves two scooters, and decided that we’d be travelling around the nearby areas on them: double seat on one and triple seat on the other!
   Also, if you’re wondering whether the word “hostel” written in the previous sentence was a typo, instead of which I should’ve written “hotel”, you’re wrong! Hostels, dormitories is not something that everyone opts for when on a vacation, it’s something some people opt for when they wish to save money- a LOT of money. I feel no shame in revealing the fact that my Goa trip was so cheap that if I plan for another cheap trip, I can execute it in approximately the same amount that I needed for Goa. And this is the biggest advantage of planning inexpensive trips- because you save a lot of money on one outing; it allows you to travel more. This, of course, is for the travel junkies. This is one major reason I would encourage travelling cheap; and why not, you don’t have to compromise on comfort, safety or anything that you would get in a pricey hotel (except for a feeling of luxury, which is not really needed  as long as you are granted enough comfort).
   So after a lot of hunting on the internet we came across this one particular Roadhouse hostel in Anjuna, of which the basic details available on the website pleased us enough to make further enquiries and shortly after, we fixed our stay at this hostel and I do not regret one bit- we got everything that we were looking for: A six bed air-conditioned dormitory and free Wi-Fi and good ambience. In fact, I feel glad that we opted for a dormitory because that way all of us could be together.
   So according to the plan, the first two days we visited the vagator beach, Baga beach and fort Aguada. The beaches were good, no doubt; Aguada was the best (for me). But more than all these places, the real fun lied in the journey: the way we kept looking and asking for directions, the way we stopped every time we saw the traffic police because, well, triple seat was not allowed; hence every time we came across the police, we stopped, both my friends on the other scooter got off, walked past the police as we waited ahead, got back on the scooter and continued. We did this every single time. And yes, the most unforgettable part being how lonesome the narrow streets, without any streetlight, became even at seven or eight in the evening that we feared losing our way back to the hostel; And once we were close to losing our way when we happened to take a single wrong turn and after roaming a lot, we happened to reach the same place. Thankfully we were in the vicinity of our hostel and from a distance we could see the “Cafe Liliput” light- the guiding light. Losing your way is fun sometimes! So that’s how we travelled to the nearby places. The fourth and the fifth day we visited the Calangute and the Candolim beach (Candolim beach was the cleanest and the least crowded of all of them), and the Mapusa market.
However, the third day we had planned to visit Old Goa and hence we had to hire a car. After having visited the Temples and Churches, we were left with Dona Paula beach, and I had the best time there because of the weather- it had started raining and there’s nothing like a combination of rain and sea.
    Time and again, I have come across experiences that have led me to believe that local people are the best part of a place. The driver, Harish, was a friendly person whose mannerisms made us believe that he had taken the responsibility of making sure that we had fun and that we reached back to our hostel safely. But we were glad that was not the last time we’d be dropped back safely. The last day, we hired the same car to reach Thivim station, from where we were to board our train to Mumbai. And Harish, who was accompanied by the shop owner from where we had hired the car, had come to drop us at the station. When we reached the station, they told us to let them know that we had reached home and we saw them waving at us as we walked away until we were out of their sight.
   Goa had welcomed us on a good note and Goa had bid adieu to us on an equally good note; which is why it will always be etched as good memory in my mind. I have bought souvenirs from Goa, but nothing can match up to that one souvenir that I call the experience.

Goa- Part 1

I have never been as much enchanted by the sea as I have been by the mountains. Hence, I never looked at Goa as a place that could gratify my wanderlust. But Goa as a vacation spot with friends is, no doubt, a very thrilling idea. Blame it on a few Bollywood movies we’ve been watching while growing up, which for once were entertaining and had good content too! They’ve kind of imbibed the idea within every person who’s grown up watching them that Goa is the ultimate hip destination, and hence so perfect for a vacation with friends. So as with everyone else who belongs to our generation, we’ve been victims of this trend too and hence my group of friends had been planning a vacation to Goa, apparently since four-five years; that is since the time I wasn’t even a part of this group. And when I did happen to become friends with them, eventually they asked me if I would join too and obviously I said yes, because well, it’s a sin to say No to vacations, travelling, adventures or anything alike. The trip was planned and we were set to leave when our final, very last exams of the graduation course had ended. It was as though we wanted to complete our graduation not for the sake of a degree but because we knew that once it was over, there lied a marvellous time ahead- a time of beaches, of drives along a road that overlooked the sea; but most importantly a time of being with friends only and a time of making memories that would last a lifetime. Be it just for a short span of Five days, but we were looking forward to the time we could be carefree before we returned and began with a much more responsible life by virtue of being a graduate.
        The trip was planned, our tickets and stay were booked, our bags packed, and us waiting with our luggage at the railway station an hour prior to the train arrival. The train arrived; we looked for our seats and had made ourselves comfortable by the time the train left. And yes we also posted on Facebook that we were leaving for Goa- because, mandatory! Formality completed! To add to it the Indian Railways made sure we had a good beginning to our trip by upgrading our bookings from three tier AC to two tier. The next morning we woke up to an expected news- that the train was late by about an hour; but it didn’t bother us; why would it- we had ample amount of craziness within us that would help kill time and we did not realize when we decided to disturb the rest of the passengers by singing songs- a typical part of every journey without which the journey is incomplete. We continued our indulgence in such time-killing activities and it yielded success because in no time we realized that our destination was just about 15-20 minutes away and we were all geared up to greet Goa at long last. We set our foot at the platform of Thivim station, where a rainy, misty climate welcomed us. We were in Goa in the first week of June- a time when monsoon had already made its presence felt and I couldn’t wait more for a gripping experience of Goa during off-season.