BRAToSPHERE

Tag: vacation

  • The Perfect Vacation – Maldives

    What is an ideal vacation? The dictionary meaning of the word is – “an extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling”. Recreation, adventure, learning – it all boils down to one thing. Experience.

    Vacation is our way to create experiences. Our trip to Maldives last January was one such memorable experience we had. A short 3 day trip, worth memories for a lifetime.

    We started our journey from Chennai, boarding the International flights on Sri Lankan Airlines to Maldives via Colombo . Our first destination, the capital city – Male. The small island city is the most populous in Maldives, and one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

    The airport itself is on a small strip of an island, and is one of the most scenic landings I have ever seen. With the sea on both the sides and the straight runway too ending into the sea, it makes for a thrilling experience. After we completed the immigration (VISA on arrival for Indians. yay!) and checked out of the airport, we took a short ferry ride (10 Maldivian Rupees) to Male.

    We stayed in Male in a small boutique hotel and the primary objective of our brief stay here in Male, before heading to the resort island, was to get the local flavour and understanding of the local way of life. Male is just like Mumbai, just a lot lot smaller. Busy roads, narrow lanes, fish markets – all by the sea. We took a walk around the coastline of the island, and were back at our start point in two hours! This is Male – small and full of life.

    A quick snippet about Maldives – the island nation is an archipelago of thousands of small islands, what else? Some of these islands have been converted to resorts and beautiful expansive, luxurious hotels have sprung up here. The other islands are inhabited by the locals, and about a decade back were kept out of bounds for foreigners, but is a great place to visit, also if you’re planning on going on vacations, here are 5‌ ‌Fun‌ ‌Outdoor‌ ‌Activities‌ ‌To‌ ‌Try‌ ‌On‌ ‌Your‌ ‌Future‌ ‌Vacation‌ in the islands.

    The liberal government, with an objective of sprucing up the local economy opened up the inhabited islands for the general tourists and this is where one can now get to see the local life and the beautiful virgin raw beaches!

    Shot on iPhone 4s. At the Beach

    We decided to stay in a inhabited island and chose Rasdhoo for our two day holiday in the islands. Proximity to Male (onward journey was a 3 hour ride by a public ferry and the return was by a relatively expensive one hour speed boat ride to Male) and the beautiful pictures helped decide on rasdhoo.

    The beautiful small Rasdhoo island was the perfect getaway for the holiday. The untouched, sun kissed beach was exactly what we were looking for. And yes, the island was inhabited! The official page says a population of 867, we could not see more than a 100! Max. This is like the number of residents in a single tower of a society, or a single wing of a chawl in Mumbai!

    The island itself was amazing with an old world charm attached to it. The whole island was so tiny that a walk around the island, by the sea would be a short 20 minute walk. Bang! You are back to the start point. From the centre of the island the beach is less than 250mts, in any direction!

    Hanging in there. Shot on iPhone 4s

    We had a beautiful large room, in a newly built retreat run by a local resident. The local cuisine and the small coffee shop near the beach gave us the opportunity to get to know the locals better. Black coffee sure is a big thing here! The island experience was like having a private island all to yourself.

    After a good two days in the island, we returned to Male by the speed boat. We then took the short 10 minute ferry ride to the airport island for our return flight back to Chennai, via Colombo!

    Back home to Delhi in a Indigo Web Check In, with a lighter wallet but a loadful of beautiful memories and a whole 2GB worth of pristine photographs!

    The perfect vacation!

  • Home Vacation

    Early morning at 5AM. The morning run by the bay of the beach cancelled due to the rain. Sitting here in my balcony with a cup of coffee in my hand overlooking the vast mighty sea. Perfect bliss.

    I am in my Home Town, my place of Birth – Visakhapatnam, on a week long holiday. Holidays are always a good time to reflect. To ponder. To recharge the internal body and the mind to be ready for the ensuing grind.

    When i first declared that i am off for a week to go home on my holiday, the immediate reaction from a colleague was of shock. “Home! That is not a vacation. You are visiting family”.

    “Yes! Even better. It would be like a family vacation!”, i snapped back. The colleague was still not impressed.

    I realised, family visits are not perceived as a vacation. This appeared quite strange to me.

    Let us assume the same colleague is on a holiday to Vizag with his wife. He has no family here, and thus takes up a hotel/guest house opposite to the beach. Spends most of his time in and around the sea like any tourist would do and eat some good sea food everyday, again like a picture perfect tourist. That would classify as a perfect vacation by the beach.

    But well, i think i am doing exactly the same. I am staying opposite to the sea and by extension spend most of my time in and around the water. I get to eat good food, with an added bonus of it being home cooked. and i am chilling all day and evening doing absolutely nothing of importance or productive.

    The present day unicorns like AirBnB and the countless others offering Home Stays are selling exactly the same experience. Vacations at a home like setting.

    So, my trip to Vizag is as good as a holiday right? With an even better setting as all of this is in the midst of family and friends with whom i have spent all my childhood.

    This is like an annual holiday i get to take with all my family and friends. Could not get better.

    To top the overall experience i get to spend sweet nothing time writing such random ramblings sipping on a cup of good home made coffee overlooking the beach.

    This has to be the perfect vacation.

  • The Summers

    Summers have always evoked a special emotion in my mind.

    During my younger days, summers inevitably were associated with one big word – HOLIDAYS! Two long months of holidays when I can do all that I wanted and have no time pressures. No evening homework, no restrictions on play hours. Just pure fun and timepass all day.

    Retrospectively I think it would have done well if I had actually lived a Spartan life and enrolled myself in the multiple holiday coaching classes that kids these days do! Would have been proficient in paying the guitar at least. Anyways, as they say, it is never too late to hum a string!

    But well, I don’t have summer holidays anymore!

    One thing that makes everyone fond of the summers are the Mangoes. The option of “Har Mausam Aam” is good during off season, but in the summers it has to be the real Mango in every variety – Alphonso, Langda, Dussehri,etc any form would do.

    Summers bring in those fond memories of Nani’s house in Rajasthan. The two day long train ride in a sleeper class coach from Vizag to Sujangarh, via Delhi was an event that we had looked forward to, not worrying about the heat. The mangoes at Mama’s shop were an added incentive!

    Coca-Cola. Little did I had of then that one day I would be so strongly associated with this brand. Summers implied that any number of glasses of Coke would be okay. Rasna still brings fond memories of the fights that I used to have my brother on who has he bigger glass.

    Comics. Summer Holidays implied that I can read comics for as much time as I want. As I grew older, comics turned to novels, magazines and the likes. One thing remained common though, Fun reading which replace the normal boring class books for these two months. I still remember the travel memories when I would stare at every wheeler book cart at every railway station longingly wondering why I can just not buy the entire shop. “I would own a book shop when I am older”, I would tell myself and bury my head back in my copy of Tinkle.

    In the present life, summers are like any other months, with a lot of heat added in the weather.

    The Saturday morning football needs to be wrapped up quick to escape the fury of the sun. The weekends are all indoors well within the confines of an air conditioned room reading and sleeping. (Now I know why every magazine comes out with a list of summer reading picks!)

    The very thought of having to step out for normal chores brings in a bout of lethargy.

    In spite of all these inconveniences, summers would always be cherished. And am off to relish myself on a succulent ripe yellow Mango.