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Making merry in the middle of La mer

Making merry in the middle of La mer
From time immemorial the vast expanse of water, that we call the sea, has held the human beings in awe. From then till now and I am sure into the future, our visits to the beaches or cruise on a boat will never stop. Such is the attraction of water.

I am no different. I love going to the beaches, I love cruises, I love island hopping boat rides.

I had signed for this much touted island hopping trip in Krabi on one of my solo trips to Thailand. Idea was to hop from one island to another after some time in each. You get the idea! 🙂

If you are short on time, this is the best way to see the best of these islands. Well, on the appointed day the van driver, a short lady, picked me up from my guest house and then went around town picking other passengers before parking at the dock.
It was very well organized, as usual… something I quite don’t see in India. We had our lunch on the second island and spent lazing around. A few passengers were playing beach volley and football. I was busy taking their pictures. 😉
Soon we left for the third island. I could

Sept Cascades Tamarind Falls in Mauritius

Cliff jumping in Mauritius

Only the day before I had witnessed a purely South Indian festival of Thai Poosam in the exotic island called Mauritius. I was exhausted after the festival and later driving round the island with some friends.

When I woke up next morning I was as fresh and energetic as ever. I was poring over the map to look for some off beat places when I spotted Sept Cascade. Literal meaning is 7 waterfalls. It sounded interesting. I checked with hotel reception. One of the guys had not seen or heard of it; the other one said no point going there since it is not been raining. The falls are beautiful only during and after rains.

Well I had already made up my mind. Asked him how to get around using the local bus and got some tips. He said rarely do tourists want to go to there and that too in a local bus.
I smiled “This one does!”. 😀

sept cascade @lemonicks.com

Do you see 3 levels of ponds? There are 7 of them.

Not really a

Going Bananas !

Recently there was a furore in sections of print and non-print media about India being a Banana Republic and People of India being mango-people. Well, whatever be the truth, Mango or no-mango, it is always a great fun going bananas in the sea. 😀

Scene is set in Calangute Beach, Goa. There are plenty of activities to be done. Para-Sailing in the sea, inflatable of many shapes and sizes tied to boats etc. What took my fancy was this long inflatable contraption tied to a boat. There were sitting places and handles to hold but no harness.

going bananas ride @lemonicks.com

A banana is being checked before going into the water.

“What is this?” I asked.
“This is Banana Ride, Ma’am”, Said the guy.

I wanted

Impromptu shower in Himalayan danger zone

Have you ever bathed in front of 100s of people with full clothes on? No, I am not talking about taking a dip in any pilgrimage site or any sacred river, but in a dangerous rock falling zone aka Himalayan danger zone where every single person present there prayed for safe journey!

It happened to us during our recent Trip to Uttarakhand. We had completed our Treks to Valley of Flowers and Hemkunt and now wanted to visit Badrinath.

landslide badrinath Himalayan danger zone @lemonicks.com

Do you see one wheel of the bus hanging? It was that dangerous to drive.

This was a Monsoon period

Thrills of underwater world

A lot of you must have wondered about what does the see look like from the inside. When one of my family members learnt scuba diving and brought wonderful photos and stories of underwater world from Thailand, I was sold to the idea.

Oceans and seas offer great, breathtaking views. Unless you go down under, you can not realize how fascinating the underwater world is. The attraction of those amazing colors, the wonderful living things and the feel of being at sea bed makes you want to spend more time there… even if your oxygen cylinder indicates the opposite. 😀
Do you remember the photo below?

underwater world @lemonicks.com

The fascinating life & colors of underwater in Thailand.

Since I

Hiking to Tappiya falls

It was monsoon season when Vasu and I had landed in Batad in Ifugao province of Philippines.
Batad, as we all know, is a UNESCO Heritage place in Philippines and its claim to fame is its many hectares of tall rice terraces; all of them hand built over thousand years back and their descendants still farming here!

During monsoon reaching Batad itself is very difficult with only one trip of Jeepney per day on a muddy one lane road on mountains. Invariably it gets stuck in the mud with no one in sight except its passengers. I won’t go in details as how we reached our guesthouse down in the valley. 😀

rice terrace @lemonicks.com

View from our window. Yes, in spite of incessant rains we crossed and went to the other side. 😀

The view