#Travel Diaries
Part 1.
My summers
usually follow the same routine. During the first week of the vacations I generally
have one movie date with my girl- friends and then we meet once more during the
month long vacation. My entire friend circle being quite lazy, we find it extremely
difficult to wake up and get our asses out of the bed. On the other hand,
family trips are a very rare thing in my house; most of our summers are gone in
contemplating where to go and how to go. I have been very much used to the
tailored holidays I spend. The last time we took a family trip was about 2
years ago to Kerala which was of course phenomenal. But I will leave that
travelogue for another time. Right now I have something more amazing and
memorable to share!
However,
this summer was quite different. No, not about the heat. It was as terrible as
ever. I am mentioning about our vacation plan. Surprisingly, we had plans ready
by April, tickets booked 2 weeks in advance, hotels booked way before the trip
and we had company too. Honestly, I felt
weird as hell, because planned get aways were never our thing, and with both
parents working, some quality family time is quite a thing! But somehow, this
time we collaborated with three other families and decided to head to a jungle
resort in Dharwad and then a road trip to Goa and Dandeli and back to
Hyderabad.
Hesitation
about the whole program was something I felt till I actually boarded the train.
Of course, from then on it was all a happy phase. We and another family
travelled together in the train to Hubli and then hit the roads for almost 2
hours to reach Dharwad, a place very much known for jungle resorts. Most of our
road trip went in clicking pictures and loud chatter. All that I could think of
was 3 days in a resort in the midst of a jungle, towards one side of your
cottage is a lake and towards the other side a deep dense jungle. The thought
got me jumping on my toes. My mind went for a toss and I just couldn’t stop imagining
how it was going to be.
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| Sai river view jungle resorts. |
We finally reached the most awaited jungle resort, and
trust me; the entrance to it was mind blowing. It was an extremely narrow road
with trees and twigs and weeds and all of the other stuff that are found beside
trees. We first had to walk through this path, very carefully and then get into
a huge bamboo raft that took us into the jungle through the waters. The
pleasant breeze, the sound of the water gushing, the slow movement of the raft
and the swaying of the trees in the jungle, I could stay there forever. And
good god, the view. Fog filled mountains that seemed to be touching the clouds
and trees and trees till as far as you can see.
A group of 15 members in such a
place of scenic beauty, with no signals in our mobile phones, no internet, no
practical connection with anything or anybody of the outer world, you can definitely
imagine how it must have been. To be
honest, this was a good and much needed break from a lot of things and this
vacation did me so much good.
 |
| River Crossing. |
With water
surrounding our cottages, we got to do a lot of water sports like Kayaking,
Banana rides (which was for me the best ride, I can do it like a thousand more
times), speed boat, water scooter and most importantly river crossing. Let me
just illustrate this last one to you. Imagine hanging upside down over a 40
feet deep river pulling yourself from one side to the other. Terrific. Till today, it was the best thing I have ever
done. Really. Of course I was dead
scared and did not want to do it at the first place, but today I am so glad I did
it. The amount of courage it gave me and the thrill I had after doing it, irreplaceable.
Hanging above 40 ft. deep water and the fear of falling down any moment, that
is what taught me that life could get over in any second. Just live the moment.
Somehow, after that I was a different person to myself. Of course with tons of perspective and
excitement, this water sport also brought me an unbearable hand pain. Well, it’s
not easy to hang upside down and pull yourself! To anybody, who is ever
planning to take up water sports, do try river crossing.
With walks
through the forest and occasional treks, some hot yummy soup on the bamboo raft
in the middle of the lake and hilarious singing and dancing competitions, we
never knew how two nights passed. It was time to leave to Goa, Well, before I move
to that part of my travel, let me just say that this part of the journey was
most phenomenal because life was entirely different there. 3 days to myself, no internet, no disturbing phone calls, nothing to complete and no deadlines to
meet, it was all peaceful and calm and just as good as I ever wanted things to
be. No complexities, no disappointments, nothing to worry about. The wheel just
kept on moving smoothly. If I had the chance, I might even choose to stay back
there for a long long time. But life doesn't work that way, does it?
 |
| The team. |
Wow. Now I have
gone down the memory lane, and I am sure I am not coming back any time soon. So
the other part of my travel should wait, maybe it will come up very soon as
another write up!
To those who
have accompanied me, CHEERS! You are a
part of my best memory and I am glad you were all a part of making it one hell
of a trip. Today when I look back at all those pictures, I realized we thought
we were just having fun, never realized we were making memories!
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