In the wonderland

Tags

New Zealand, Real Journeys gloworm caves, Te Anau, Te Anau Gloworm caves

On the western shore of lake Te Anau, lies a small Cavern house. It is from here, you are taken into a completely different world underground..

A world where you go down the narrow bridges, slowly into the darkness, till you reach a place where you just hear the sound of water gushing around you, the lights slowly dimming, and then you board a boat which takes you further along, into the magical world of tiny little green starts, all around you.

You sit there in silence, in the dark, taken in the shining beauty around you, listen to the sound of river flowing, carving its path through some rocks and you feel incredibly small, in the marvel called universe and yet peacefully content.

And then you realize, again, His existence, is not a myth…..

p.s.- in this magical world, the wizards called guides row the boats in complete darkness and you would not even know when and where the two boats cross each other in the narrow water channel.

Story of a sailor’s wife!!

When I started this blog, I intended to write about the places I visit and the people I meet there. But the story of Mr. and Mrs. Noble is so incredible that it did deserve an exclusive narration.

So once upon a time, there was a Parsi man. He had a nice home in the most sophisticated part of Pune, a Mercedes at command, a beautiful wife and everything one could ask for. But he was not happy. He was not living his dream. His dream was to live a sailor’s life. Live near the ocean, be on the ocean for living. The comforts of the city did not temp him much. After resisting to his temptations for a while, he decided to follow his heart. Being in Pune, he was just a few hundred kilometres away from the sea. But there he could not get what he dreamt of. He could be near the ocean but he could not sail, he would have to find some other means of living. So where would he go, what would be the place where all that he wished for would be granted?

Far far away from his home-town, on the extreme eastern part of India, there lied a tiny island – the Island of Andaman. The sailor’s mind was set on that. So, he decided, he decided he would go to Andaman to pursue his dream.

“You are mad!!, How could you think about going to a land you don’t know anything about!!!” People around him thought he was crazy. But he was firm. His wife stood by him. She had a bigger challenge in front of her. She had to leave all her comforts to go live on a completely unknown land, miles away from home, family, life. She did not know if she could get a decent house as soon as she goes there. She did not know how long it would take to get her own house. But then she thought that if she does not agree with the plan, it would be unfair to her husband…. after all, it was him who she owed all her comforts to!!

And so, the Sailor and his wife moved to the Andamans. And there they realized that capital city Port Blair had nothing, for the starters.
============================================================

“I told him only a madman Parsi can think about moving here!”, Dinaz exclaimed.

We were sitting in the porch of pretty little water house, that Dinaz owned, having our lunch and she was telling us how they moved to Andamans some 30 years ag.

“I had a nice well-set life, in city like Pune” and that was like the biggest surprise to me! “What?? You are originally from Pune?? You serious?” “Ohh yeah! We used to live in Salisbury park. I had my mercedez, all my club memberships like Poona Club, Ladies club everything. We left all that to be here”.

And I was in for a brilliant interesting almost fairy tale like story. “So how did you decide to move here? I mean this must have been difficult. To come and stay on the island on the other side of the country, so far from friends, family everythin”.

“Oh yes, but then he wanted to be a sailor you know. And he was not happy and I didn’t want that. After all, I owed all my comforts to him. So I decided to support him”.

“So how was it like, I mean Port Blair, Havloc, everything, back then?” The story was so incredible, that I could not stop asking questions.

“There was nothing, nothing at all. All the big hotels and well-built houses are quite recent. It was all shacks by then. In fact ours was the first “House” as such in Port Blair”. After seeing the now-a-days Port Blair city, with all the three star hotels, Super ferries to travel across islands, Wonderful roads, it is difficult to believe.

“Ours was the first actually built house, with tiles and walls and rooms, you know. Otherwise there were just the shacks here and there”, said Dinaz, while having lunch with us on her cozy water house.

“Thank god he was a shippy!! He used to get all that we need from Chennai or Kolkata when he would come back from the voyage. When our house was done, people used to come to see that. It was like a mansion you know.

Even the grains, the oils and everything was difficult to procure in those days. So I am so used to manage well in available resources, you know..”

“So how long have you been here? Everybody here seems to know you…”, I said, still trying to digest the incredible story of Late Captain Noble and Dinaz..

“We moved here in 1985, so I am local in terms of Andaman now!!”

She went on, telling us about the stories of the Andamans, how it had developed, how they had come a long way, how did she start her homestay, what she plans to do to take her homestay further …

“My husband did everything, I am just trying to maintain what he had set-up, the house, the farm, the water-house everything!!”

“And how did you end up getting an island?”, asked I.

“Well, they were auctioning the small islands around the Port Blair and we gave it a shot. There was nothing on the island. It just had a cashew farm,  but cashews rip the soil out of all the essential minerals and degrade the quality of soil. So we decided to clean-up everything and start afresh.”

She now grown cinnamon, pepper-corn, pepper, and many other spices. Mind you, its all organic. It has a huge compost tank and the farm-works were at work when we visited.

She then took us to the other side of the island, more precisely to the “shell-shore”. Again, a surprise awaited us. So many shells, divine conches, in fact one with the insect inside were lying there. Beatiful, colorful, amazing. Never imagined there could be so many shades to white!! In all possible shapes, sizes.

“Can I take a few as souvenir? I still can’t believe what I have experienced.”

“You can, but don’t take too many, otherwise they will make you throw them out at baggage check”. Visitors are now permitted to take the sea-stuff out of Andaman, in large quantities. This has prevented the shores being ripped of the shells, oyster shells and all.

“I plan to build small cottages on the reef. There are so many things I want to do you know, even the water house, needs some maintenance”.

That triggered our discussion about the history of the water-house. I mean, come on, who could think of building a house, on the rock, in the middle of the sea backwater?

“So who thought about building this water-house? I mean how did you think of building a house on the rock in the middle of the back-water?”

“Oh, it was more out of necessity! Whenever we would get any material for our house of the farm, the boats would not go till the island. Also, we were very new here. So it used to get little uncomfortable to stay on the island with the farm-workers. So we thought of building something here. But when this house was built, we realized how pretty it had turned up. We would just stay here for days on. In fact we still do. Last year, when there was a quake and Tsunami in Japan, me and my daughter were here. We had come here around Wednesday or Thursday with intention to leave the next morning, but then we just stayed and stayed and stayed, until on Sunday, Mohan (the caretaker of her homestay) came saying, “Madam udhar poora Japan dub raha hai par tum idhar se nikalta hi nahi!” (The whole Japan has been swept away in sea and you don’t want to get out of here). It is always like that. Once anybody comes here, they just lose the track of time.”

“So true”, I agreed. It had been more than 2 hours. The tide was receding. It was time to go back to Port Blair. We got into the dungi, with a even more respect for the beautiful, strong Parsi women, who had hosted us for past 5 days. Our first encounter with the Parsi candidness was made really memorable by Dinaz and her family.

The waterhouse – highlights of Andaman Part I

Near the beautiful city of port-blair, in the serene backwaters of the Indian Ocean, there lies a huge rock – a mini island in itself. Now you would ask me what is so special about it? Well, nothing really, except that, it has a nice, cozy, humble house built on it, with really nothing – or in a completely different context everything you need for a solitary, relaxing vacation.

It was our last day in Andaman, and our hostess – Dinaz – had agreed to unveil two special assets of her to us – the organic spice farm on her private island and the water-house, on the way to island – or I should say – on the water-way to her farm. “We got to start from here at around 11/11.30. I have checked the tide-chart. If we start by 11.30, we would get nice 2-3 hours to see the water-house and the farm.” If you want to go to some special, offbeat places in Andaman, and you are going to travel in the small fishing boats, you always have to check the tide-charts you know.

We had to take a small trail to reach the point from where one of Dinaz’s farm-workers was to pick us up and take us to the Island in his dungi. It was also the point from where we could get the first glimpse of the water-house – something we could never forget. Here we were, on one bank of the back-water, on port blair, we could see the Noble Island on the other bank, and then there it was, the cutest, cosiest house on a rock awaiting us, right in the middle of the backwater.

First glimpse of the water house from Port Blair

She wanted to come with us to Noble Island

“The water here is bottle green. There is a typical marine specie which glows, when disturbed and you can see the sea sparkled up if you come here on a new moon night. It is extremely pretty”. “I wish it was a new moon’s night!! But on a new moon’s night, we would not be able to enjoy the view”, I consoled myself.

The moment we reached the house, I ran into the room inside to the window and well!!! The view rendered us practically speechless – for next 2 hours. From the window, we could see the dark green backwater smoothly confluence into the blue, emerald green waters of Indian ocean, the colours changing so beautifully.

Can you see the crab? It had camouflaged itself so well, that it was difficult to capture

The small porch where the steps of the water house lead to,offer the mesmerizing view of small hills on each bank hiding behind them the blue, clear sky, and the beautiful curves of the backwaters running through them, disappearing in the wild, dense green mangroves – the little plants telling us that you can find life anywhere, only if you have the spirit to look up, you just need to rise a little up and you can breathe.

Water everywhere

Another view from window

It was all quiet, peaceful. We could hear occasional sounds of little fish swim to the steps of the water house, sight some of them jump out of the water to reach there destination.

Perfect place for meditation

View of the noble island on the other end. There was a small walkway to the island where you can see the ropes. It got washed away in 2004 Tsunami

At last, our hostess reminded us that it was time to leave the little house and get back. With a super peaceful soul and fully energized mind, we bid good by to the water-house and started for the “Noble Island”. More on that in the next blog!!

How well you know the forts of Maharashtra?

Guess the fort in the following picture…

 

Love affair with Sahyadri – Part 1

Tags

Kas, Mahabaleshwar, Sahyadri

Sahyadri never fails to amaze me. I was born and brought-up in Maharashtra. I have travelled in arguably all the ghats of Sahyadri – at least those in Maharastra – but every time I travel through one – I find it different. Be it a trek, be it a drive, be it a cycle trip – Sahyadri is always there – He challenges me, teases me and always rejuvenates me, and so did he today.

We went for yet another mesmerizing drive – Pune – Kas – Bamnoli -Mahabaleshwar – Pune.  “Kas”

and “Mahabaleshwar” – although these two destinations are over-crowded, very much talked about and all, the route which connects them is a serene, untouched one. The hilly road, tiny villages, flowers (yes – the season for Kas is over – but there are flowers at many places on this road), pretty farms offer a poster perfect destination for photographers. Since most of the route is covered with greenery, you may spot some wilderness on the way. Last year, a monitor lizard crossed our way and this year it was deer.

I guess the words are just not enough to make justice to it.. so enough of the jargon… Let us time-travel it together through my lens.

View from Nivant Hill Resort where we had our lunch. Cozy rooms, deck overlooking the valley good food, nice service, what else do you want for a weekend?

Breathtaking valleys of Sahyadri!

We begin our journey from there..

Sahyadri, Rock-solid literally

Jungle begins

When the road is better than the destination

So there were no flowers at Kas… but we saw some of these….

Trees.. No.. flowers… I don’t know what they are.. I just know they are pretty

We start a small descent, to Kas talav

First glimpse of Kas talaw, the road leading to it from Ghat

And now on, we were always accompanied by Koyna river.. small streams crossed out path every now and then.

Clear waters, beautiful woods, tree canopies…

It gets better

The tiny stream along the road..

And it has flowers too..

It’s strawberry time baby! We head to Mahableshwar.

Little strawberry farms look better with Sahyadri in the background

Camera shy, are we?

Ajji packaging the strawberries and she does it superfast – age no bar!

Strawberries – ready to hit the market

On our way back, we saw a wild fire broken somewhere in the valley. It had gotten dark.. Only a few lights in Wai villege are visible.

The darkness, the fire, the ghats… Wild!!

We were back in Pune with a car-trunk full of strawberries, taste of thick shake at Mapro, and memories…

P.S. :
1. We started at about 9 in the morning and after a nice breakfast at Virangula, we headed for Kas. On the way to Kas from Satara, just as you start climbing the ghat, there lies a nice little cozy place called the Nivant hill resort (a good option to stay if you have time). The resort, along with excellent food and service, offers a breath-taking view of the valley from its restaurant deck and from all the rooms.

2. There are two options to explore this route –

1. If you are coming from Pune/ Sangali/ Satara : You could drive till Tapola, stay overnight there : There is a small place called Sakha-Nivas – I haven’t explored it but the reviews are good. They offer activities like backwater tour. You could do them the next day and come back via Mahabaleshwar.
2. If you are coming from farther places, you could stay at Nivant, explore the drive and go back via Mahabaleshwar.

Dandeli, by chance….

Tags

Dandeli, Farmhouse, Forest, Goa, KaliRiver, Rafting, white water rafting

As they say, the best experiences of life are often unplanned!!

We had been in Goa for past 2 days and the next day we were to go to Dharwad to attend a friend’s wedding. That night, we were just chilling out by the swimming pool in our humble villa in Goa, having a ball of time, when our friend started telling us about his Dad’s trip to Dandeli. One thing lead to the other and finally, the next morning we were off to Dharwad – via “Dandeli”!!!! !! Quite some detour!!! The enchanting forest covered Goa – Dandeli road is truely the travellers’ paradise!!

Goa-Dandeli Road

We contacted Mr. Milind Kodkeni who runs a home-stay there; well this was what we knew about him till we went there!!

Milind and his family welcomed us with some amazing home-cooked lunch : Puranpoli, potato subji and rice.

He then took us for a small drive and walk in the jungle for some birdwatching. We were lucky to spot some eagles, blue kingfishers and many other birds, I don’t even remember the names of (Milind kaka knew almost all of them by the way…  🙂 )We also saw the cob-webs of tarantulas, black-widow and huge ant-nests. He also took us to spot offering majestic view of the valley – sort of an echo point.

A pretty little forest trail

Milind is not a person merely offering a homestay to earn money. But he is someone, who has been born and brought up in Dandeli. His forefathers owned saw mills there which were later shut down by the government to prevent further deforestations. His wife is a corporator and he himself is a farmer and a wildlife enthusiast.

Backwater of Kali river

The forest of Dandeli is extremely rich in its wild-life ranging from spiders, snakes, birds to black panthers. And we were fortunate to catch first glimpse of it with a knowledgeable person like Milind kaka, All this proved like a teaser and we left Dandeli wishing we had more time.

Hungry, are you??

Spot me if you can

We reached Dharwad at night with the same thoughts, and finally over dinner, formed yet another crazy plan of going back to Dandeli the next day, after the wedding was over. We were slightly sceptical about the feasibility but still we decided to give it a shot.

Next day after the weeding was over, we met the bride and the groom and after a hasty lunch, we rushed to Dandeli.

We had already called Milindkaka and the he had the whole excursion planned for us. It started with a trip to his friend’s Farmhouse. His friend Narasimha has a farm house on the border of the forest. A typical countryside home, there was no electricity there when we reached. It was a thrilling experience to just sit in the porch of the  house (osari), sipping tea and watching the surroundings get darker slowly!!!!

Feeling hot, buddy? A giant enjoying on the wash-basin on farm house!!

After some time, Narsimha kaka took us to another moonlit stroll in the forest. When we reached the trail and got out of the car, it was all dark. Frankly for some time, I was too scared to walk without the torch. Finally Narsimha kaka switched it off and ask me to shut my eyes for a minute. When I opened them, they were immediately acclimatized to the moonlight. I could now see the difference between the ground levels and all. It was so calm, serene and peaceful there… Narsimha kaka is a person who has spent all his life around the forest, seen plenty of wild-life including leopards, chitas and what not. He was sharing his forest experiences.. the earlier days of deforestation, and how “rare spotting of tigers” is an indicator of good forest health 🙂

As it gets darker!!

Finally we returned to his farm house and Milind kaka came there with delicious traditional home-made dinner and we returned to his Dorms late night.

Out of the dark!

Dandeli offers white water rafting in Kali river. Since we had absolutely decided to leave early morning the next day, we told Milind kaka that we would not go for it (silly us!!). But apparantly Milind kaka was resolved on making us go for it. While we were getting ready to leave the next morning, we got a call from Milindkaka telling us that there was another group interested in rafting and so he had made arrangements for an early excursion, if we were ready for it. And so, we changed the plan again (for the nth time) and went to the rafting spot.

The trainers gave the instructions, explained the signs and their meanings and we were off…. The Kali river offers the rapids of level 3 to 4. The cold, crazy water rapids kept on bumping on to the raft. After going downstream for a while, our trainer revealed a surprise to us. He decided to take us upstream and hell yeah!!!!!!!! It was as crazy as it could be!! all the water splashing on your face, the turbulence and the thrill!!!!! Wow!! by the time we reached the finish spot, we were drenched with water!!!!

We got back to the dorm, changed, had a nice good brunch at Milind Kaka’s place and the bid good bye to him and his family with a heavy heart, only with a resolution of going there again.

P.S. : other than the jungle experiences, there are quite a few places near Dandeli, which are worth paying a visit, like Sintheri rocks. One could do most of the things with 3/4 complete days.

Goa away from beaches, really??

Tags

Arabian Sea, Cancio's house, Chorla Ghat, Fort Aguada, Goa, Mandovi, Mandovi River, Western Ghats

We were looking for a holiday destination for 3-4 days and well…. we had “strictly” decided against Goa : why end up in the high season, diwali time chaos? So much hassle getting the bookings, ridiculously high prices, overcrowded beaches!! We wanted something near western ghats. Amboli was ruled out since it is too cliché, other beach destinations were out of question as we were to spend 3 days in Karde. Half the places in Konkan near the ghats were full. Others we did not find as promising!! Finally, after a lot of exploration, we came across something different and in the very place we had ruled out. I read a blog by Shivya Nath : http://the-shooting-star.com/  There was a post by her on the “other side of Goa” and she had mentioned about a home-stay called “Cancio’s house”. The reviews were good and Shivya strongly recommended it. So we decided to give it a shot. I called up the owner : Roberto and he said it was available and we finalized it. Little did we know that we were about to form an acquaintance we would cherish forever.

Roberto and Raquel are the perfect hosts a homestay can have. They own this great heritage house in the northen part of Goa called Aldona, a few kms away from the beautiful Chorla Ghat – truly away from hustle of the Goa beaches.Over 500 years old house has a huge guesthouse which they have converted to Guestrooms offering privacy which many homestays lack : but frankly – Roberto and Raquel make you so much at home, you will end up spending more time in their house than in the cottage!!

We got our first experience of “the Goan Hospitality”, when Roberto called us in the morning on the day we were supposed to reach their place to know the time we would be reaching there and if we would like to have dinner with them. When we reached Goa and called him for directions, we realized he has a photographic memory. He told us to look for a temple after 6 speed breakers, and it was really there after “6” speedbreakers 🙂

The guest-house

After reaching the guest house, we were warmly welcomed by him and his wife and yess – their little bundle of joy – Rafaelo – their youngest son. They offered us tea and some finest mango cupcakes I have ever had. Seriously, Raquel has an eternal stock of cakes and she can go on feeding you unless you protest hard. Roberto took us to their home (little away from the cottage) and there we were welcomed by their other two sons. Everybody was so friendly that we instantly felt like being part of the family.

Ruberto and Raquel have put in so much efforts in maintaining the charm of the cottages by restoring all the original furniture, keeping the roof “Kaularu“, having the four-poster beds, chest-up dressing tables and traditional clay-pot for water. Roberto proudly informed us that all the water used in the property was drinking water from his well and he had not have to sell a single bottle of mineral water since the day they started with the guesthouse.

The next day, after the super-delux breakfast (double omelet, homemade jams, veg/chicken patties and fresh bread from local bakery) we headed towards the rock-cut caves near Aldona. They are not very big but worth stopping by as they date back to 5 AD.

Beautiful Arvalem falls near the caves

We came back to the guest-house only to realize that this trip was going to be a real food trip!! Mouthwatering bangda fry and prawns curry was awaiting us!!

View of Vagator beach from fort Chapora

In the afternon, we left for the fort Chapora to catch the sun-set. The fort is situated on a small hill and the climb is not very challenging. It has some historical importance. Marathas and Portuguese had a battle in this fort during Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s rein. The marathas almost took over the fort and “treaty” was signed with the Portuguese.

Beautiful Landscapes of fort Chapora

We went back to the guest house just to be served with the fresh hot chicken tikkas, french fries, orange juice and dal-rice made by Raquel.

Roberto on his Yacht and the serene backwaters of Aldona river

And now the most special day of our vacation arrived. Today Roberto was to take us for a speedboat ride to spot some dolphins through the backwaters of Aldona river. What a wonderful location!! Lush green forests on each bank of the river. Roberto took us to the confluence of Aldona and Mandovi and then to river mouth where Mandovi meets Arabian sea. What an experience it was. All the turbulence, the dolphins (we could spot quite a few actually, lucky!!), and the beautiful view of the sea. On our way back, Roberto also gave us a tour of his Yacht.

The afternoon was made special by the traditional Goan food Raquel made for us : Chicken and veg xacuti, dal and rice.

Traditional goan bakery

Greenary, beaches and the mighty Arabian sea

Another evening was made memorable by the breathtaking views of the Arabian sea from the light house on Fort Aguada. The original light house on the fort is closed down and a new one is built near the fort which is open for public till 5.30 pm. It offers a mesmerizing view of Goa beaches, Arabian sea and fort Aguada.

Old light house and fort Aguada with Arabian sea in the background

It was our last night at Cancio’s house. We had a ball of time chatting with Roberto and Raquel till late night. Roberto gave us a tour of his house, his future plans for the homestay and everything. It was like we knew them forever!!

The next morning, after a short trip to the Aldona church and some nice breakfast, we bid adieu to this wonderful place, of course with the intention of going there soon!!!!!!!!

P.S. If you want a “hatke” view of Sahyadri ranges, you can go to Chorla ghats, those who want to head to NH4; this is a really good option…