Welcome to Thailand

Thailand happened suddenly. Prashant told me about the plan sometime in May, and I immediately decided to go. He'd done all the research, decided where to go (the primary idea being rock climbing), and all I had to do was show up. Not totally in control like I usually prefer it, but well, I'm not the rock climber ... atleast not yet! Shantanu, even less of a climber than I am was also recruited; more for the idea of the beaches than the climbing, I suspect!

Deja-vous! Walking out of Krabi airport, I see Kerala ... and I see America. The landscape and weather are exactly like Kerala, and the roads and Japanese cars look just like America. The shuttle bus takes us to Railay pier in Ao Nong town, and very soon I'm waiting at the restaurant for 6 other people to show up so I can take a long-tail boat to my destination. The setting is perfect ... The sky is blue as blue sky can be, the water is turquoise as turquoise water (Correct me if I am wrong. I can only identify 8 colors, and turquoise is not one of them!) can be, the food is awesome, the people are friendly, and the waitress is pretty!


Talking about pretty waitresses, I soon realise that ALL the other waitresses at the place were at some point waiters!!! Remember all those things that people told you or you read on the internet about Thailand's famous ladyboys? Well, I'm not sure if my waitress was one ... but I decided to not ask questions, answers to which could potentially be a dampener to my spirits.

Coming into Railay, the view of the beach is one of the prettiest sights that you can see. Limestone cliffs jut out of the sea everywhere, more cliffs mark out the limits of the beaches, and there's a sparse crowd that's having a great time out there. There's restaurants / shacks on the beach, people in kayaks, fishing boats. Everything to make for a perfect holiday.


We find our way to Diamond Cave resort, which is on the bay side of Railay. It's a really cozy place, neat rooms with air conditioning, fridge, television, a balcony, and at 1200 baht a night ... a complete bargain. Off season travel is the best! A comparable hotel room at any tourist destination in India would easily cost twice as much. It's no wonder people flock to Thailand!


Prashant and Sharad are waiting for us to get there ... It's time to go climbing! My Thailand adventure is looking good already!

Doing a 'Chavan'

The good news is Uncle had a 300mm lens for me. Only hitch ... it's in Bangalore. As always though ... good luck shines, and Kumar happened to be on a visit to Bangalore, so he would be carrying my 300 for me on his way back to Valsad. All I had to do was pick it up at Kalyan at 09:40 PM. Easy enough task to do ... but I ended up 'doing a Chavan' on that one!

Doing a 'Chavan' requires that special level of absent-mindedness and bad planning that comes to very few souls (Chavan himself being one, and now me)! The legendary Chavan once missed a flight because he calculated "2000 hours" to be 10:00 PM. Another time, he made us wait a night at the airport because he got the timezones wrong and would actually only be landing 24 hours later. A third time, him and me collaborated to miss a flight, because I thought divine intervention would bring a "no-traffic-blocks-day" to Bangalore (Yes, my optimism knows no bounds!!!).

So I'm in the office at 8:00 PM, and I think, "9:40 is a long way off ... 20 minutes to Mulund / Thane in a rickshaw, and 30 minutes drive with Shantanu upto Kalyan station. Hmmm ... What was that? You wanna grab a beer? Well .. I guess I have the time." So Shraddha, Avinash, and me get to Pop Tate's and get a table when I start thinking "Hey ... maybe this is too close ... got to rush!" Shantanu calls to check where I am ... and I get the "Whattannidiot!" tone from him. That's when I decide to leave. It's 08:20 and I still have an hour and 20 minutes to get to Kalyan.

Why the roundabout route you ask? Why not just take a local train to Kalyan? Well ... I'm not much of a local train person ... too crowded for me. I'd probably never even get in! Plus, Shantanu had some new music in the car for me to sample.

"Rickshaw! ... Rickshaw!" ... no response. First signs this ... I've never had to wait more than a few seconds to get a rick at Pop Tate's! I start walking, and couple of hundred metres towards Vikhroli depot, I flag one down. 08:25.
"Mulund check-naka?" ... Nod of the head and I get in.

08:35. Gandhinagar. So far so good. Signal's turned green twice, and not too much movement. Not unusual for this signal, but it's usually clear past this. So chill. Third green light .. and I see it's not really clear! Does not look good!

08:40. Gandhinagar.

08:45. 30 meters past the signal. Still Gandhinagar.

08:50. We're finally clear. Someone chose the wrong time, and the "wrong-est" spot for an accident. 50 meters either way, and the traffic would not be this bad!

09:00. Nahur / Airoli flyover. We're supposed to be taking the left below this bridge and heading to Mulund(W). But it seems like my rickshaw man has other ideas. I check. He confirms that it's straight we go ... Well ok. maybe that other route through Mulund(East) is faster!

09:01. Halfway up the flyover. Point of no return. "Sir ... you want to go to East / West?". I could have smashed his head with a sledgehammer, but I did not have one handy ... so I let it pass. "Check-naka = Mulund(West)". I give him a minor lesson in Mumbai's geography, with as much sledgehammer as I can deliver in my tone of voice (which, my friends tell me, is not much). And we take that other route through Mulund(East).

09:13. Mulund check-naka. I pay the man and run across the check-naka to find Shantanu. He's waiting.

09:17. Shanto (Bangladeshi rock band) is playing something in Bangla, and we're off to Kalyan. Switch to Avial a little while later. Aadu Paambe. Is awesome stuff!!! Smiles all around.

09:35. The turn-off to Kalyan from the highway. 7kms to go. 10 mins before the train leaves Kalyan station ... Kumar calls to confirm it's running on time.

09:42. Very close to the station. The train has not pulled in yet, and I see hope.

09:45. Still not reached the station. Stupid traffic, pedestrians, animals. Kumar is waiting on the platform with the bag in his hand.

09:48. Flyover ahead. Now that's something we should not have been seeing! Wait a minute ... it looks familiar. Hmmm ... hmmm ... Damn! And then another Damn! We've overshot the station by a km or so!!! We're just turning around when Kumar calls to tell us that the train's leaving ... and there goes any chance of me using that lens in Thailand!

We did think about going out to the Bhiwandi hookah place for a bit, but realised that we had already taken the wrong turn and were heading back towards home! Probably a good thing considering the events of the evening. Tomorrow already looks like a better day ...

Fast Car

"India Shining" ... Although the BJP lost an election on this slogan, it is true that a lot of Indians are buying a lot of new cars, and as it stands today, Mamata Bannerjee seems to be the only one standing in the way of the "One car per Indian" dream!

Shantanu's new Swift Diesel is the only thing that's made me change my mind about how to choose a car. 

I used to thinks that a car should get you from point A to point B; nothing else. After last Sunday, I realise how much difference it makes to have a car that's fun to drive!

It's Sunday afternoon and we've got mileage to do. The car is now 2 days old and has clocked 380 kms; another 720 to get the engine run in up to first service! We leave my house at 2 PM and decide to go all the way up to DiveAgar. It's 180 kms away and going by past experience, a 4 hour drive at least ... ETA 6 PM. Even with the 3500 RPM running in period RPM cap, we are able to drive FAST ... and the Swift handles like a dream ... smiles all around :)

The coast close to Shrivardhan is a string of beautiful beaches starting from Dighi in the north and going up to to Harihareshwar in the south. Of these, DiveAgar is probably the longest. It's a 2 km stretch of beautiful sand and easy sea. The village is also known for the 'Golden Ganapati', a pilgrim attraction.

The first time I had come to DiveAgar, I spent an entire day on the beach with only one other car-full of visitors. Parkar's was the only place in the village offering accommodation along with some awesome gharguti (home cooked) food. It's a different picture now. Big resorts have sprung up, and almost every home offers food. The good part though is that the village still retains it's original charm, and the beach is big enough to accommodate the increased number of tourists without making it look too crowded.

We were pleasantly surprised by the roads and made our destination is just about 3 hours ... around 5:15 PM! What also helped us is that there is now a shortcut to get from Mhasla to DiveAgar without having to go through Shrivardhan. We did not intend to stay too long ... so all we had time for was a pleasant walk on the beach, some photographs, and enquiries as to the rates at Exotica resort (the rooms are basic, air conditioned, and the property itself is beautiful - at 2500 a day, slightly overpriced though), before we started the drive back home.

A couple more stops along the way for photographs and chai, a small detour through NH17 - Pali - Khoppoli (when the road is in better condition, this is a really scenic drive), and we were back home in time for dinner. 400 kms, 8 hours, and one nice beach ... a perfectly acceptable Sunday afternoon!

I'm leaving on my vacation today ... it's family time in Kerala followed by time with friends in Bangalore, and a camping trip in Kudremukh. More about this when I get back ...

The hill in my backyard

Karnala used to be a favorite for the school picnics, the age when a shaded spot in the trees with a few caged birds seemed like a good idea. One time I remember going there and wondering why it was called a "bird sanctuary" when the only bird I saw was in a picture pinned to a tree! Age tells me now that most animals usually stay away from predators (which we very well qualify to be ... considering that we've put the birds in cages just to protect them from ourselves!).

I live 40 kms from this place, and have never been to the fort up there!

I always thought it quite a shame that I (being this avid trekker) never got around to climbing this hill! And for the last 3 weekends, I've been trying to get Shantanu and Sukesh to get off their asses and go there with me. Last weekend, after all these years, I finally got to the fort of Karnala with Shantanu.

It's a smallish fort bang in the middle of the sanctuary, only about 450 meters above MSL. The trail from the sanctuary entrance to the fort takes about 1.5 hours to do, and is a nice walk, gently sloped and mostly shaded. A rock pinnacle about 40 meters tall (a favorite with climbers) is the most striking feature of this place.

The beauty of Karnala is that it is so close to home ... practically in my backyard. It's the perfect place to head for half a day, get a fair bit of exercise, and an awesome spot to relax and chill. I'm expecting to be there more ofen now!

Celluloid dreams

I wanna be that man on celluloid
Wanna be that man on stage
And when he woos those ladies
Wanna do it just like him

They sell you aspiration,
They sell you dreams ...
Gotta aim for all that glory
Why not? When you got no aim

They drive those mean machines
Wreck them and walk away
Even kung fu is passe
All I gotta do is take aim! BANG!

They sell you aspiration,
They sell you dreams ...
Why wake up from my slumber
When the morning's still away

I wanna be that man on celluloid
Wanna be that man on film
6 billion and counting still ...
Do we need one more like him?