When you have grown up going to only ONE place on all your holidays, you don't tend to develop travelling as a hobby.
I am one of those very rare bongs who had not gone to any place apart from my parent's native land i.e. Kolkata till my late teens (apart from Agartala at the age of 2 and Bombay once along with my Dad on his official trip, when I was 13-14). Well, staying away (in #Jabalpur) from his birthplace, my Dad was also not wrong to be drawn to his home all the time but to cut the long story short, I was never bitten by the travel bug.So from the details mentioned above, I'm sure it's clear for my readers to gather that someone who had not seen most of her own country, going for a foreign trip was a distant dream... quite literally.
And in hindsight, I guess luck has not favoured me as far as giving opportunities to go abroad... (Ya time for the sob story now...:'( ) For eg.: I joined a BPO during my graduation days with a secret desire for a project abroad. Well, all I got was few updates about the weather of various places in the United Kingdom from some nice customers, that too over the phone...
Then I studied journalism to become a fierce war correspondent to report from 'dangerous' yet interesting places, but ended up only going as far as editing stories on my computer about Facebook listing on NASDAQ, which is in... Tada... New York!Thus, in a nutshell, in my 26-27 years of existence, travelling evaded me.
But then came my knight in shining armour who swept me off my feet and rode me away on his white horse to far-off beautiful lands...Which means, I fell in love :) got married and went for my first trip abroad on my honeymoon! Yooohoooo!We decided on two places in Thailand -- Phuket and Krabi islands over a five day trip from April 27-May 2 this year.
I dunno if all of you who have travelled abroad felt the same on your first trip, but when I woke up in the morning on landing at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok, I suddenly felt very homesick alongwith excited.We had a connecting flight to Phuket in 90 mins time.
It was written all over the place that Thailand is a land of smiles, but we hardly found any on the airport officials there. Guess it's the same at all International airports, including India.We reached Phuket at around 9.30 local time (+2.5 hrs IST) and then headed towards our hotel Blue Ocean Beach Resort in Patong area.
Communication is a challenge in Thailand and we understood it pretty soon as we were taken to the wrong hotel just because of a spelling mistake in the name of the place by our tour guide. Anyways, so after reaching the place around 12.30 on Apr 28, we decided to check out the local area.
Well, if you are vegetarian then you might find it difficult to eat. And even if you're someone like me who does eat seafood, eggs and mutton, I found it difficult to get adjusted to the local cuisines. Yes what I did like a lot was the pan cakes that were available on the roadside. I had some caramel and banana pancake. Also, the roadside alcohol vendors (Yes, they were just like some roadside eatery) which served awesome cocktails!We tried an Indian restaurants as well, which was run by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis but their food was too oily, too spicy and not at all tasty.
We were travelling through a trip advisor firm and as per it's itinerary, we were to travel to Phi Phi islands early morning on the next day. Well all I can say is that the only good part about that day-long excursion was the end of it :-p Well there was nothing much to do apart from travelling in a jetty kinda ship for 4 hours to-and-fro and then being stopped in the middle of the ocean to do sea diving without any instructor. So non-swimmers like me and my husband had nothing to do. We were taken to Phi Phi islands for lunch and we came back to our hotel at around 5 pm.
We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and heard some local band singing Jon Bon Jovi songs. Bought some souveniours and took the famous Thai massage (only foot :D) while coming back.
Next day, Apr 30, we went for a half day tour with two other couples accompanied by our guide Lita. It was a good day, where we covered some local tourist spots. I have always been scared of trying adventure sports but I did gather the courage and tried ATV. Well it was tough but was fun!!!
In the evening, we left for Krabi Island. It's a 3.5-hour drive from Phuket and reached our hotel Aaonang Cliff Beach Resort at around 7.30 pm. It gets its name from one of the huge (and scary looking I might add in the night) cliff right opposite to it and the beach is also at a walking distance from it.Personally, I loved Krabi much more than Phuket. May be it gave us more chances to bond as a couple.
The walks to the beach every evening was the most fun part ever as I used to buy some souveniour or the other from each of the shops lined up on the pedestrian block. I would never forget our trip to the beach at around 10 pm in the night when it was nearly empty. Only some distant sound of music playing in a near by cafe and both of us were trying to jump over the waves that were touching the shores again and again. It felt surreal. Childhood relived once again...
On the last day of our trip, i.e. May 1, we went for a four-island tour in a speed boat. And we had THE BEST TIME EVER!!! A must must must for everyone travelling to that place. We had a funny guide who was also the speed boat owner, Mr Cho, who gave us ample amount of time at each of the islands for us to explore and enjoy. And enjoy yes we did :D
I guess I have never had so much of fun in water since may be I was five and Dad used to take me to the Hugli river in then Calcutta to take a bath :)I even tried scuba diving without knowing how to swim. Got the worst tan ever, but it was all worth it.
And then we bid our good byes to the place on May 2 amid thunder storms and rains.Well this trip has given the perfect beginning to our relationship as Man and Woman! You know the feeling when you spot your Man in a crowd in airport and say... that's my Husband. Well yes, it was great to find that.We plan to see all the places in this world till we can... and we know we will :)
I am one of those very rare bongs who had not gone to any place apart from my parent's native land i.e. Kolkata till my late teens (apart from Agartala at the age of 2 and Bombay once along with my Dad on his official trip, when I was 13-14). Well, staying away (in #Jabalpur) from his birthplace, my Dad was also not wrong to be drawn to his home all the time but to cut the long story short, I was never bitten by the travel bug.So from the details mentioned above, I'm sure it's clear for my readers to gather that someone who had not seen most of her own country, going for a foreign trip was a distant dream... quite literally.
And in hindsight, I guess luck has not favoured me as far as giving opportunities to go abroad... (Ya time for the sob story now...:'( ) For eg.: I joined a BPO during my graduation days with a secret desire for a project abroad. Well, all I got was few updates about the weather of various places in the United Kingdom from some nice customers, that too over the phone...
Then I studied journalism to become a fierce war correspondent to report from 'dangerous' yet interesting places, but ended up only going as far as editing stories on my computer about Facebook listing on NASDAQ, which is in... Tada... New York!Thus, in a nutshell, in my 26-27 years of existence, travelling evaded me.
But then came my knight in shining armour who swept me off my feet and rode me away on his white horse to far-off beautiful lands...Which means, I fell in love :) got married and went for my first trip abroad on my honeymoon! Yooohoooo!We decided on two places in Thailand -- Phuket and Krabi islands over a five day trip from April 27-May 2 this year.
I dunno if all of you who have travelled abroad felt the same on your first trip, but when I woke up in the morning on landing at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok, I suddenly felt very homesick alongwith excited.We had a connecting flight to Phuket in 90 mins time.
It was written all over the place that Thailand is a land of smiles, but we hardly found any on the airport officials there. Guess it's the same at all International airports, including India.We reached Phuket at around 9.30 local time (+2.5 hrs IST) and then headed towards our hotel Blue Ocean Beach Resort in Patong area.
Communication is a challenge in Thailand and we understood it pretty soon as we were taken to the wrong hotel just because of a spelling mistake in the name of the place by our tour guide. Anyways, so after reaching the place around 12.30 on Apr 28, we decided to check out the local area.
Well, if you are vegetarian then you might find it difficult to eat. And even if you're someone like me who does eat seafood, eggs and mutton, I found it difficult to get adjusted to the local cuisines. Yes what I did like a lot was the pan cakes that were available on the roadside. I had some caramel and banana pancake. Also, the roadside alcohol vendors (Yes, they were just like some roadside eatery) which served awesome cocktails!We tried an Indian restaurants as well, which was run by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis but their food was too oily, too spicy and not at all tasty.
We were travelling through a trip advisor firm and as per it's itinerary, we were to travel to Phi Phi islands early morning on the next day. Well all I can say is that the only good part about that day-long excursion was the end of it :-p Well there was nothing much to do apart from travelling in a jetty kinda ship for 4 hours to-and-fro and then being stopped in the middle of the ocean to do sea diving without any instructor. So non-swimmers like me and my husband had nothing to do. We were taken to Phi Phi islands for lunch and we came back to our hotel at around 5 pm.
We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and heard some local band singing Jon Bon Jovi songs. Bought some souveniours and took the famous Thai massage (only foot :D) while coming back.
Next day, Apr 30, we went for a half day tour with two other couples accompanied by our guide Lita. It was a good day, where we covered some local tourist spots. I have always been scared of trying adventure sports but I did gather the courage and tried ATV. Well it was tough but was fun!!!
In the evening, we left for Krabi Island. It's a 3.5-hour drive from Phuket and reached our hotel Aaonang Cliff Beach Resort at around 7.30 pm. It gets its name from one of the huge (and scary looking I might add in the night) cliff right opposite to it and the beach is also at a walking distance from it.Personally, I loved Krabi much more than Phuket. May be it gave us more chances to bond as a couple.
The walks to the beach every evening was the most fun part ever as I used to buy some souveniour or the other from each of the shops lined up on the pedestrian block. I would never forget our trip to the beach at around 10 pm in the night when it was nearly empty. Only some distant sound of music playing in a near by cafe and both of us were trying to jump over the waves that were touching the shores again and again. It felt surreal. Childhood relived once again...
On the last day of our trip, i.e. May 1, we went for a four-island tour in a speed boat. And we had THE BEST TIME EVER!!! A must must must for everyone travelling to that place. We had a funny guide who was also the speed boat owner, Mr Cho, who gave us ample amount of time at each of the islands for us to explore and enjoy. And enjoy yes we did :D
I guess I have never had so much of fun in water since may be I was five and Dad used to take me to the Hugli river in then Calcutta to take a bath :)I even tried scuba diving without knowing how to swim. Got the worst tan ever, but it was all worth it.
And then we bid our good byes to the place on May 2 amid thunder storms and rains.Well this trip has given the perfect beginning to our relationship as Man and Woman! You know the feeling when you spot your Man in a crowd in airport and say... that's my Husband. Well yes, it was great to find that.We plan to see all the places in this world till we can... and we know we will :)
