Picture this!

Picture this!
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Trip to You-don't-know-where

Ole!
Its seems like a long time since the last leap year. So here I am, posting on a date that won't come again for another 4 years...
Woot Woot!

You may recall that I had mentioned a brief stay at an undisclosed location in my last post for 2011...well, gape away at the pictures!



November/December 2011.

I won't take the name of the place....because the enigma makes it all the better. My great grandfather used to live here...his wife, that is to say, my great grandmother, still does..

I enjoyed the stay, watching trains pass by (the house is right next to the track), picking the fruits from the garden, reading a novel, playing the greatest chess match I ever played in my life, strolling on the beach, and eyeing, not too surreptitiously, that oh-so-pretty foreign chick taking in the view...

The beach there is perhaps the cleanest I've seen in India. And the food my great grandma makes is just extraordinary. Unbelievable delicious, all with homegrown veggies and fruits.

A very short two days, but the best of the year, by far.

Here are the pictures...

vanilla creeper




mini sized chillies...picture taken from a distance of less than 3 inches

cashew tree







supari

heh heh


supari layed out to dry on the roof









sunrise on the beach




patterns made by crabs






green peppers

a growing pineapple

and another one

Saturday, January 22, 2011

How NOT To Travel

The following event is straight out of an idiot's diary- namely, me. I had a great time commuting to Mysore from an undisclosed location and back, I kid you not.
Having made no previous plans, I decided on Thursday night to book a bus for the following morning. I had not known there would be 4 holidays. Anyway, I packed up my stuff in a backpack and a suitcase at night itself and thought, well, it's all set, nothing can go wrong now.Ha,ha.

Next morning,
6:50 am
I wake up, grab a brush and put a little make up(yes, I'm a sissy who likes to wear skirts and be feminine, in a totally non-gay way-I'm Scottish). I take bath, whip up some oats and gulp it down.

7:55
At the bus stop.
Damn.No bus.
Take a share-cab, reach the inter-city bus depot after a huge traffic jam.

8:40
Damn.
Wrong place.
It's a private bus, which is on the other side of the depot, which I conveniently forgot.
By the way, the bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30.
Wheee.

8:50
I reach the private bus depot. I see a girl, asking for the same travel agent. I ask her, "hey what time does your bus leave? I missed my 8:30 bus"
"I had come for the 9:30 bus, but they gave me a boarding pass for the 8:30 bus. You're one lucky bastard, aren't you?"
ohkay, she didn't really say that.....not the last part anyway.
Neither did she ask me to give her a smoochie woochie.
I guess I'm not much of a lucky bastard after all. Still, I got the 8:30 bus.
Woohoo!

9:00
The bus started.The sunlight streamed solely onto my head from the opening above(covered with glass) and made me feel like I was in a spotlight. I took out my book and began to read, getting really engrossed in it. I was quite enjoying myself, until an ear-splitting noise brought me back to the earth.The sound of a speaker.
I looked at the TV screen. They were airing a movie. A Tamil movie.
:|

To ignore it, I fished out my mp3 player from my pocket and drowned out the terrible cacophony.

2:00
 The bus stopped for lunch. The conductor said, "15 min का time है, जल्दी खाके आ जाओ."
What the fuck??
They've got to be kidding.
They weren't. Well, not entirely. I quickly had some fried rice, and the bus left after 20 minutes.

I went back to the bus and slept.

4:20
The bus reached Majestic Bus Terminus in Bangalore, and I got down. I asked the conductor where I'd get a bus for Mysore. He uttered something incomprehensible and pointed vaguely in a direction. I turned and tried to see what he was pointing at but did not understand. So I turned back to ask him again. Only he wasn't there. Nor was the bus. It had left. With my luggage in it.
Wheeeeee!

I took out my boarding pass and dialled the agent's no. He didn't speak english.
I dialled again for the Bangalore branch.No reply. I found out somehow where the office was and headed straight for it. Meanwhile my phone's battery was low and I just had Rs. 3 balance . When I reached the office, I launched into a tirade against the lousy service and great inconvenience caused to me. Then I asked them where I could find the bus. I didn't like the answer. 20 mins later, after reaching the garage on foot, I finally found the bus and got back my bag. Since no autos are allowed in the garage, I had to go back on foot.
Hardly 2 minutes had elapsed, and the handle of the bag, which directed the rollers, broke. I was forced to carry the damn thing for 2 kms to the bus stand. I finally got into a bus headed for Mysore.

My bad luck was far from over. When I reached into my backpocket for the money to buy a ticket, yeah, you guessed it, it was not there. 300 bucks. Whoopsie.
No, my wallet, mp3 player and phone were all safe in the front pockets. I lost 300 bucks, god-DAMN-it!!
The rest of the journey was uneventful.Hehehe. Of course not.

20 minues into the 2nd bus ride, I had an inexplicably full bladder.
Bad news: No bus stops probably for 2 ½ hours.
Good news: That there is no other bad news.

I tried desperately to control the law of nature.I guess you'd like to hear about how I wet my pants at the age of 19. I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to disappoint you. I managed to make myself not pee for 1 ½ hours.I shifted my weight, took deep breaths,suddenly stood up, suddenly sat down and finally slept forcefully. Then came a stop.

RELIEF.
I paid the bathroom attendant 10 bucks extra for my appreciation.

9:30
I reached Mysore.

10:00
I reached home.


The End