Saw this song before? Envied the water and the catamaran they were on? For the few of you who don't know, this song was shot in the outskirts of Chennai at "Fisherman's Cove" hotel. Ok, I didn’t mean to write the review of this song here, however, I wanted you to know that I had the exact superb ride on the Catamaran at the exact same place :)) hehehe Envy that??
It was just those lazy evenings at work, we suddenly decided to something fun and adventure during the weekend and then we jumped to the idea of going for a Catamaran ride. Our gang wanted to do this for over a year now and we always had no time to go for it, but somehow this time we all just wanted to go, no matter what! So, as an enthu organizer I went ahead and booked this ride offered @ Rs.600/- per head by the Fish Cove Hotel.
Before we even reached fish cove, we announced the day to be eventful. Why? Yen? Kyun? - For 2 reasons. One, my friend was driving his new car for the first time, and that too on ECR from his home to Fish Cove. Second, The moment our folks at home came to know that we are planning to get into the middle of the sea, they completely freaked out and gave us a piece of their mind!
Well, none of this brought our spirits down and we managed to reach Fish cove safely! The guy @ Fish cove welcomed us and started doing his duties. Made us sign a paper which said - "I, the Hotel, am not responsible if you die or drown or come alive after this ride" - Well it was not written this blunt, but you get the message! We started walking towards the beach and the group was feeling nervous. Some of us were already saying last prayers, one said, I am just so glad I am going to die with you. And another one was screaming – Oh no, Mummy and daddy not even here to see me for the last time. (Yes, we are a bunch of drama queens and kings :)..)
After wearing the flashy orange and yellow life jackets, we were about to leave for the catamaran and our volunteer from the hotel said - "Guys, I take leave now, Have fun". And we were like - What? You are not going to die with us?? ...OK exaggeration. He left us with the boat owners and the catamaran started with a bang! The catamaran as such is couple of wooden logs tied together to make a sleek boat. We held each other as tight as we could and began to drink all the sea water which came splashing on us. After that, I realize I can close my mouth and stop screaming: P
The water was salty (what else do you expect?), so salty that I was almost puking. We halted in the middle of nowhere (I think we were closer to Andaman than Chennai..hehe) and then the boat guy said, jump. “What?” Said my friend, he didn’t bother to give an answer and just pushed her down. We finally held on to the rope and slowly slid into the sea.
It was just too overwhelming! So much Water, so much salt, so many waves! In a few minutes all our anxiety cooled down and we started enjoying the water. The life jackets actually worked (We had doubts if these would even withstand us). The gigantic sea had won us over and we were just so glad we were there. We floated and floated and floated in all directions the waves took us for about 45 mins and then like obedient kids, came back to the boat.
The catamaran brought us back safe to the shore and we were alive! yes! we made it! We are the most courageous of the lot God made! the ride left us with awe and tan :) and what a memorable day that was!
Interested to do something similar? - Contact Satish from Fish Cove @ 9176178422. Have a great time! Ciao..
I recently went to an ECO Beach Resort in Pondicherry called - The Dune. I heard about this one from one of my friends from Pondy and he kept saying it’s a nice place to go to! I finally made it there on my anniversary (wow I wrote my previous post here while I was honey mooning and now It’s anniversary). Anyways, our anniversary fell on a weekend and for celebrating we wanted to go to a nice place which didn’t ask for loads of travel, and bingo! We went to Pondy!
What can I say about this place, I initially thought that it was an over-hyped, over-priced place made for the firangs who visit Pondy and I and Vishnu would probably be the only Indians around! I am so glad i thought wrong! - The place was heaven! It had nothing high fundu about it, a place made with simplicity and common sense. The cottages are not luxurious and hep, but cosy and serene. I must say the place is little expensive, but I also think that it is a trade off for being close to nature. The cottage we took was "The Flex House". It was supposedly sea-facing - but after tsunami, they grew tall trees/bushes in front of the cottages (Govt rule). The cottage would be a size of a one bedroom apartment. The wall and windows were illuminated and the bed was placed right in the center of the room (Like a big box in the middle of the room). The windows would open to a sitting area facing a small lawn which had a tiny lotus pond, a hammock and a bench. We were given 2 cycles and were told to feel free to cycle around the place.
I have never driven a cycle in my life (though I have driven Scooty, Kinetic Honda and every other small bike). I took inspiration from my hubby and sat on the cycle, nervous! After a few meters of cycling (and him running after me) I finally got the knack and Yippppeeee!!!!!!!! I could CYCLEEEEEE! We spent most of the evening cycling and exploring the property. We finally parked our cycles near to the beach and spent hours looking at the soothing water. We as usual got into our funny photos mood and went click click click :).
We came back from the beach later in the evening and as we got into the cottage...Tada...surprise!!!!!! We had a beautiful flower decoration done on the floor. This surprise was given by The Dune staff :) So nice of them, I thought! We spent some lazy hours and finally went for dinner cycling :). As we entered the fully lit restaurant, the manager routed us away from the restaurant to the tables outside in the lawn. As we approached, I figured we were in for a surprise again! Yes, I was right; the table was beautifully decorated and specially reserved for the both of us :) We had a nice long romantic candle lit dinner and were waiting for our huge bill to arrive and that's when another surprise struck us! The manager, the chef and the waiters all gathered at our table with a small cake which said "Happy Wedding Anniversary" and a big card with a big drawing and signatures of all the staff @ The Dune! We cut cake and thanked for their surprises! Both of us surely enjoyed that moment and completely fell in love with the place.
I was happy that we went there to celebrate our special day! We completely enjoyed our short stay and we never wanted to come out from there. The weekend went by in a swift and the next day we were back to the scorching hot city called Chennai and were back to our normal routines as well!
About the Dune: http://www.thedunehotel.com
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beach,
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Now that most of the sightseeing and traveling is over, i would refrain on writing posts after posts about our return journey. Lachen was again unbearably cold the next day and We were anxious to get back to the hot plains. We headed back to Gangtok that day after another 5 hour drive down the mountains. Teesta River kept us company all along and both of us finished our last bits of brownie and muruku to distract ourselves from the ever "rocking" journey. We bid farewell to our heroic driver at Gangtok and took rest in the same hotel and in the same room (Wonder if they kept it empty for us).
Next morning our ride arrived at around 11 am. We visited the Gangtok Handicrafts museum on the way back to pick up some souvenirs for the team back in Chennai. We were allowed to see the folks who actually work there and make this stuff; Very impressive. We finally settled on a bamboo stick base pen holder with golden dragons (for the guys) and orchids (for the gals) painted on it. The new driver was extremely fast and brought us back to New Jalpaiguri 4 hours before the train time!
We as usual started hunting a restaurant at the station and spotted the evergreen IRCTC cafeteria. (Remember him from Kolkata station don't u?). We had few dosas and omelettes (as usual) and I was so thankful they made some decent food. They were atrociously cheap (yes you saw it right, Cheap). Their food quality was not the best in town but decent enough to feed the hungry souls like us. Their quantity was far more than what HSB gives in a complete Rs.70 Meal! Hail IRCTC! Though you are not the best, you are not the worst either!
We bought more books and parked ourselves at the platform until our train arrived. I started writing important pointers for my blog (yes this blog) and made sure I don't forget those small but important facts about the trip. I was also on a reading spree and bought more books to while away my time.
The train dropped us back to Sealdah station and we chose not to go to Victoria Memorial again and headed towards the Airport! We bought more books at the airport and Vishnu caught up on the Current affairs from the local Newspaper. In a few hours we were back to Pavilion and Appa (My father in Law) was eagerly waiting to receive us!
What a Trip! Surely the best so far and I hope I do more of these again! As I say good bye to this post, I would like to thank some people who really made this trip the best!
- My Travel Agent - Savion Travels. Especially Mr. Pankaj and Mr.Anand for arranging everything from NJP and back!
- Mr. Ram - Our very wise driver - Showed us the most beautiful sunrise and took us to some breath taking spots.
- The Hotels - Fortune Resort, Darjeeling. Royal Demazong, Gangtok. Fortuna Lodge, Lachen - They served us unconditionally and made us comfortable in the not-so-comfortable weather conditions.
- Mr. Kumar - Our driver from Gangtok to Guru-Dongmar and back. No matter how slow you were, you were surely courageous enough to drive through those paths for a living!
- IRCTC Cafeteria @ Kolkata and NJP - You fed us well and didn’t charge a fortune!
- The cook @ Lachen - You served us the best food ever!
- The book stalls at every station and airport - You are the source of a lot of time pass.
- Finally, Mother India - You are simply beautiful!