From L.A to San Francisco Part 1

Oh man, this post is gonna be huggggggggggge. 5-day trip with full-time photography in manual mode to boot. Since I plan to put up lots of photos, I thought I'll divide this up into 2 parts (maybe more if the need arises :-D). So lets start off without too much ado.

I've mentioned it once or twice (or maybe a little bit more than that) how I want to see California. When we first came here, we thought that Sri would get a change sometime and we may move towards west coast. So we didn't really plan a trip then. Added to that Sri had already been there a couple of times before we got married, so lets say he wasn't too keen :-D. But since Sri is currently in a fixed position and we won't be moving anywhere anytime soon, we had to make a move sometime.

Sri told me along time ago that he had heard about Highway 1 in CA and how he had never been there. So we thought that if we ever go there, the plan would be to drive on the highway. While we were planning a trip and looking for return tickets to either Los Angeles or San Francisco, we realized that driving to and fro didn't make sense. Driving one way was okay, but driving back just to catch a flight was a waste of time. After this stroke of brilliance, Sri booked a one-way flight from here to Los Angeles and another one-way ticket from San Francisco to here. The plan was to drive from L.A to SFO and check out all that we could in between. The one-way tickets were a bit expensive but we'd save time and effort of driving some 5-7 hours.

The plan was put into action on 4th June 2010 Friday. We left Lexington at around 5:30 PM in the evening, caught a flight to Cincinnati and then from there to L.A. Due to the time difference of 3 hours, we got to L.A at 10PM local time. I had packed some phulkas for the night which we guLumed on the second flight :-D. Sri had told Snugli again and again all about the trip. So she was all excited. She knew where we were going, how we were going, who were all going, what we'd do there and recite the entire thing when asked to :-D. She didn't fuss at all on either of the planes and fell asleep on the 2nd one :). All we did after landing in L.A was to rent a car and head to our hotel.

On 5th June the plan was to explore Los Angeles. L.A is famous for only a couple of things - Disney world, Universal Studios, the Hollywood sign and the Hollywood Boulevard. We have been to Disney World and Universal Studios on our Orlando trip. We do want to go to Disney again for Snugli, but we can always go to Orlando again for that. So we decided to avoid those parts completely in L.A :).

Our first stop in L.A was the Griffith Observatory. It serves as the vista point to the Hollywood sign. You can't really see the sign up close, because the entire area is restricted. When we went there, the sign was covered with mist, so we could hardly see it. So we spent some time in and around the observatory.

The observatory was interesting - we didn't see any shows, but they had pretty good displays. An exceptional display was the actual periodic table with all the elements on display. There were also a Foucault pendulum (which shows the rotation of earth) and several telescopes. By the time we got out, the mist had cleared up a bit. Here's the Hollywood sign..




and here's us :).




2 more :-D.







Enough of the sign :-p. Next we went to the Hollywood Boulevard. The main point of interest was obviously the Hollywood walk of fame which is a set of sidewalks where many celebrities are immortalized by stars on the footpath.




We took a walk around for quite sometime and looked around. I really didn't know what to expect, but I somehow felt sad seeing all the names being trampled by everyone's feet. I mean what kind of a monument is that? It felt totally weird. But hey, it didn't stop me from taking photos :-D.

We stopped for a moment at the Kodak Theatre where Academy awards (Oscars) are organized annually.




Snugli met this guy in front of the Disney store and refused to let go ;-) :-D.




We moved around and saw many "stars", some of them being Charlie Chaplin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Travolta, Robin Williams, Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse, Kevin Spacey etc. We also went to the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in front of which are many celebrities' hand and footprints embedded into cement. But soon we decided to move on, have lunch and start on our drive. Here is the entire route map (click to enlarge)..




Pheeeeeew :-D. The plan that day was to drive to Solvang, then to Lompoc (our hotel for the night) and back to Santa Barbara for a sunset on the beach. On the way to Solvang there were a couple of nice vista points :).




Solvang (Point B on the route) is a small village in California which offers a "taste of Denmark". The architecture is all Danish with small houses, shops and several windmills :).




It felt like a place in fairy tales - very pretty, very sweet and quiet. We took a surrey carriage for rental and had a lot of fun cycling around.




Snugli had fun too, except she wanted to be the one steering and pedalling ;-). We also tasted some Danish pastries and chocolates :). In the evening we first went to Lompoc (Point C) to rest at the hotel for sometime and then to Santa Barbara city for a bout at the beach and dinner.

We stopped at the Arroyo Burro Beach and I was surprised at how chilly it was. There was a mist, so there was no sunset, plus there was a pretty strong wind blowing. We had thought of stepping into the water for a while, but it was too cold to do that.




Did stay for a while before we had dinner and then put ourselves to rest :). The only problem the entire day was that Snugli got some rashes, don't know from what - whether it was the bed, the exposure to the sun, allergy to the sunscreen or maybe some plant she touched on the way, no idea. Can't believe I forgot to mention that (this part is an addendum to the post). Shows how something that drives you crazy at one time doesn't even matter a few days later :-\. Well, I was scared that it'd spread, but thank God it didn't. But she was hell bent on itching it like crazy and we got this all-purpose Benadryl gel (it took all factors into consideration) and the rash was gone after we came back :-D.

The next day 6th June 2010, was the D-day for our drive on Scenic highway 1. The "scenic" part begins at Morro Bay (Point D) and supposed to end at Monterey (Point E). The special thing about this route is that you have the mighty Pacific ocean to one side and some mountainous landscape on the other. We were warned that there was no food or fuel available on most of the highway, so we packed a lunch of sandwiches to take with us (Thank Goodness that Snugli eats anything and everything these days :-D).

The beauty started as soon as we started :). There were innumerable vista points to stop at and it was all pretty breath-taking. Here's one of the vista points we stopped at..




There were hoards of squirrels and sea gulls at this particular place, so Snugli had a wonderful time trying to catch them :-D. The squirrels were especially unafraid to come near us (they were obviously used to people), probably looking for something to eat..




We stopped at another lovely place where we could see sea-lions lazing around..




This below one was the only active sea lion around, the rest of them were busy tanning themselves :-p.





We stopped for lunch at another quiet place and made a picnic out of it.




Stayed there for quite sometime, just enjoying the surroundings (well, one reason was also that Snugli took a long time to eat her sandwich :-p). I didn't really mind that as I was clicking away on my camera :-D.




After lunch we started driving again - the only disadvantages being the curvy roads and a fussy Snugli. We tried to stop often and we did have lots of opportunities, believe me :-D.




Flowers on the roadside ALWAYS call for some snaps :-D.







Though the mountains were bald, had no frills and were plain looking, the drive itself was worth it. But I couldn't help thinking that there are such wonderful routes even in India (I know of one such from Udupi to Murudeshwar) and they are not even advertised anywhere. Here is US everything is hyped and it sometimes is just not worth all the hullabaloo. Anyways, our next stop was at the Bixby bridge which is one of the oldest and longest bridges on Highway 1. I took the following snap from another vista point from which we could see the bridge..




And just like that we crossed the scenic part and were in Monterey.

We had our lodging for the night at Monterey, so we put up our stuff and then went to a beach to play in the ocean. It was pretty cold and again the mist made its presence known, so all in all playing on the beach was cold :-D. Not uncomfortable cold though. The only uncomfortable thing about it (which came later ;-) :-D), was the sand getting into places it shouldn't :-p, hehehee :)). Snugli really enjoyed it, so in turn Sri and I did too :). All of us were shivering when we got out and went back to our room for a hot shower :).

Last on the agenda for the day was the 17-mile drive. It is a scenic road famous for its mansions (a community of rich and famous people), its beaches and its golf-courses (one of them - the Pebble Beach golf course is hosting the US open golf tournament currently). It started off pretty good - as serene as a thick forest with mansions inbetween ;-). We stopped at one of the beaches for some time..







It was very private and beautiful :).




But after sometime it kinda got monotonous and wasn't that fun anymore. If you want to visit, be warned that there is a toll fee of $9.50, to enter the premises :-p. We subsequently had dinner at an Indian restaurant (it was called Ambrosia India cafe and it was awesome :-D) and called it a day..

Part 2 here..

The awareness..

I had this weird/funny dream today that I just had to share.

I was being chased by these robotic creatures (courtesy of the movie "Transformers" that I watched yesterday) when I get to the top floor of this really hugggggge building. You can't even see anything below. From up there I throw my, wait for it, wait for it... iPhone to the unseen ground!!! Suddenly it was as if a switch flicked on between my subconscious and consciousness and I realized it was a dream (within the dream). My logical deduction-> "If this was real life I'd never be foolish enough to throw my iPhone from the top of a skyscraper" :-D. After just a second, that awareness passed and then I was running back below to save my iPhone ;-).

So there was a moment of sanity in a world of madness ;-) :-D, don't we all need that sometimes!

On the wings of time..

I know its been a long time since my last post. Most of these days, time feels like a whirlwind, it goes so fast that I keep wondering what is happening to it. Actually thats not true, I do know how its going, but somehow get surprised every time that okay another week is over and I didn't do all that I wanted to do! I do have many thoughts to jot out and a huggggggggggge travel post coming up, but sometimes I wonder, is anyone even reading my blog? I know my family does and my close friends do, but I hardly get any comments (even if I do, I hardly respond :-p) and sometimes, only a few times mind you, I feel, why the heck am I even putting the effort? But I do know the answer to that. I write for myself, but even typing seems like a chore these days :-\. And the ramblings go on..

Forget that and lets get on with the updates that I have..

1) As I mentioned earlier, we went to California for a 5-day trip about a week back and had a pretty-wonderful-time-except-for-a-few-things :-D, so I'll be writing about it soon.

2) As for how the time goes, I am hopelessly addicted to Survivor (and Jeff Probst ;-) :-D) these days, so am watching the older seasons on a continuous marathon in the afternoons (about 15 seasons done, 5 more to go :-D). Plus have been reading up on Photography, Astronomy and Astrophotography, so lot of things going on in my head. Yeah, that reminds me, have to put up a post on each of those :-p, atleast something on photography which is still going on in full josh mode :-D (lots of experimenting and lot of success :-D) . So, my morning is gone in cooking and some days, taking Snugli to the library and my afternoons vanish in reading or Survivor ;-).

3) As for evenings, I go swimming twice a week, actually thrice including the one time we take Snugli swimming (yup, another post due). I took some lessons last November, re-learned a few things and learned a few new styles. Basically having a lot of fun :)). There is also my gardening which is going great (which means one more post), my gladioli are back and I have new Dahlia flowers coming up. I plan to plant some chrysanthemums soon, so have lots of work there. Flower photography is blooming to say the least ;-).

4) Have to mention the nights, don't I? ;-) :-D. Since about a week, have been trying to catch a glimpse of Comet McNaught (it appears only sometime pre-dawn, so got up 2 nights for that :-\). Its still not really visible to the naked eye, but I thought maybe my camera can "see" it. Well, I have been disappointed so far, but it is supposed to brighten up next week, only to fall below the horizon. Lets see if I can catch it before it falls :).

5) And then there is Snugli. She is fully into her terrible twos and believe me, they are as terrible as they can get! Since she's literally driving me up the walls (Oh God, I have so many posts!) and school doesn't start here until she's 4 years old (I think or maybe its 5), I have started to look for a daycare/pre-school for her (there are waiting lists for the damn things :-p). I don't really plan to send her for the entire day, but I need a break for atleast half-a-day, thrice a week. Right now still looking into it, hopefully something will be finalized by month end..

6) Also wanted to add that we saw Toy Story 3 yesterday and its awesome, awesome, awesome. Especially the last part about growing up and moving on brought tears to my eyes, reminding me so much of my past (our connection with our childhoods never goes away) and making me think about the future when our little ones will fly the nest :(. I think all the women were crying (I noticed atleast 2 other women, we sniffed and then grinned at each other, hehehe). Please don't miss it and if you haven't seen 1 or 2, then there is no better time than now ;-).

As you can see, things haven't been "boring" in the Deeps household :))). I really wish for the 100th time that I had a mind reader which would jot down posts for me. Is somebody listening?? Oh well, I'm here, I am writing, I am living life as I want it and thats all that counts..

The conversation 2

She: That guy keeps staring at me!

A few seconds later..

He: Neighbour's envy, Owner's pride {grins}.

Men!!!

BTFYA 9 - Less than ideal :).

The final post of the series :). I have to say I enjoyed doing this, though I am sad that it is ending at 9 posts (I don't like odd numbers - one of my quirks :-D). I wish I could have stretched it to one more, but don't want to write anything just for the sake of writing it :). But whatever I have written I am plenty happy with and thats whats important..

Five years ago, as a new bride, I wanted everything to be ideal. But more than everything else, I wanted myself to be ideal - the ideal wife, the ideal daughter-in-law and when the time would come, the ideal mother. I cannot speak for everyone, but I think most girls feel like this. We are always conditioned like that by our parents who are in turn pressured by the society as such. Anyways as I was saying, I wanted to follow all the rules in the non-existent book, so to say. I didn't want to be the rotten apple of the bunch :-D.

But things have a way of going in the opposite direction of how you want them to and isn't that the truth! Not that I'm the rotten apple :-D. I have always been basically a goody-two-shoes in a devil's clothing ;-). So sticking to my own "rules" wasn't the hardship I imagined it to be. But slowly I realized that the definition of "ideal" is different to different people. Though you may think that you have been ideal in doing certain things, there will always be people to contradict you and make you think otherwise. I can't really blame them, because their definition of "ideal" was most certainly something else. The more I struggled to be ideal, the more I realized that I was losing myself. Idealism is an illusion, created by a few unknown people, which only serves in making you miserable.

Moreover, it didn't matter whether I was ideal or not. It never does. People around me were never ideal (yup, according to me :-D) and the situations almost always weren't. For a relationship to work, the effort has to be from both sides, be it in any relationship. If the one side is exerting all the effort, never appreciated for the work put in, while the other side is still venting out frustrations without putting in any effort, then the relationship is doomed no matter what. My dad always says that "You try as hard as you can and don't expect the other person to do the same". For example his saying about a simple phone call is "You make a call to the elders out of respect (even if they don't call you) and you make a call to the younger ones because they don't know better" :-D. Very ideal, I know :-D. I have always tried and followed that (and its not only in the matter of phone calls), but still it gets to me sometimes that most people around me don't try as hard as I do. So how is it ideal in anyway?

For a relationship to work, both sides have to make adjustments. There has to be give and take. But as I said earlier, I felt that while making those changes, I was losing a part and later most of myself. If you are compromising everything, even your true self to make a situation ideal, then who is it ideal for? It certainly wasn't for me. I found myself over-thinking, over-emotional and upset with everything, with even myself. And I realized that sacrificing myself for the greater good is certainly not the thing for me :-D. I have made certain adjustments and they are a part of me now, but all in all, I am what I am. If you can't accept me the way I am, then there is nothing I can do about it (I cannot harm my true self for the so-called well-wishers' sake). One of the women quite close to me once said that she has adjusted and compromised everything all her life, first with her hubby and in-laws, then with her children, just to keep things moving smoothly. But I refuse to live like that. Its not that only I should have a say, but that I too should have a say in the decisions made (I hope you get what I mean). I refuse to blend into the background..

I am not having this epiphany after 5 years. This has been a day-to-day learning. But as I look back at my 5-year younger self, I find myself laughing at her, at the ideas and the ideals she had. If she had known what I know now, she could have avoided a lot of pain, suffering and anger :-D. And that my friends, is called life experience :).

Just a note to people who found this post too vague - I know its difficult to understand unless you are in my shoes. But I know many women are - compromising their true self for the betterment of the family and I hope they can relate to this..

And this post is the end to the Back-to-five-years ago series. I hope you enjoyed the series as much as I enjoyed being nostalgic :).

BTFYA 8 - South Africa and Mauritius

Last but one post of the Back-to-five-years-ago series. This actually happened 5 years and 3 months ago in Feb 2005, but well, I couldn't really put up this in Feb, as things were beyond my control then. Well, better late than never :).

One of things you do after you get engaged and are about to get married is decide where to go on your honeymoon :-D. Well, my first choice was and is Switzerland (still haven't gotten that wish :-p), but any place in Europe is no fun at all in the month of Feb ;-). I hadn't been outside India except for a Nepal (Kathmandu and Pokhran) trip with my parents, so I said anything was fine. When Sri suggested South Africa, I have to admit I thought it strange. I mean I had never had SA in my have-to-see-in-my-lifetime-tick-mark list :-D. But well, as I found out more about it, the more I was excited :). So we thought we'll head to South Africa and then to Mauritius for a couple of days.

Not only that, when I met Sri I told him that I want to bungee jump once in my life. Well, his wedding gift to me was a bungee jumping chance in SA :-D. We decided that we'll go and then take it from there. We never told either set of parents that we were even considering anything like that :-D. The secrecy was fun and if we didn't jump, then they would never even know about it ;-).

We got married on Feb 4th, spent the next couple of days in Hyderabad (where we had another reception ceremony) and were back to Bangalore on 12th. We had the flight to Johannesburg the very next day on 13th.

I always say that you don't know a person until you have lived with him/her. So basically we learnt each others' quirks only on this trip and it was enlightening to say the least :-D. On the flight (I think it was 5 hours long), I woke up to see that Sri wasn't in his seat. After waiting for more than half an hour, I started getting worried thinking he maybe having some stomach problems. Then I get up and look back and guess what I found. My hubby found some empty seats and was sleeping quite comfortably :-D, hehehee :)). Yeah I did try to strangle his neck once he got up, just because he got me so worried ;-).

We landed in Johannesburg on the 14th of Feb and flew to Capetown from there. We took a walk around the hotel and we visited the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront at the Table Bay. The table bay faces the huge Table mountain and its simply a beautiful place. The waterfront was like any pier you see in US, but since I was seeing a pier for the first time, everything was fun. I think we had lunch at a Thai place, another first :). All in all we roamed around the place for quite a while. Another surprising thing then was that the sun didn't set till about 7:30 Pm which was a big deal for me than. I remember being so thrilled that the sun is high up in the sky at about 6 PM :-D.




The next day we went on a tour of Capetown and surroundings. Our first stop was the table mountain. The mountain is named so, because it has a level plateau (of about 3 km side to side) and has cliffs named Devil's peak and Lion's head. You can see 3 main things from the top - almost the entire Cape town (with the table bay), Robben island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for almost 27 years and Signal hill which acted like a lighthouse for many years there. The signal hill is famous for the noon gun (which is fired at precisely 12 in the noon).

We climbed on to a rope-way and got to the top. The weather was another plus point of SA. It was very pleasant even at the top and we spent a long time walking around and seeing the views all around.




After that we got down and went to the Cape point. We took the Flying Dutchman Funicular (an uphill railway) to an old lighthouse and then had to climb steep steps to get to a place where the Cape point could be seen. They even had markings in various directions showing how far it was to various places in the world from there (I remember New Delhi being one of the places, but I certainly don't remember the distance :-D).




From there we got down and moved a short distance to get to Cape of Good Hope. Unlike what many people think, the cape is not the Southern tip of Africa (we thought wrong too!), but it is the extreme southwestern tip of Africa. The cape point as well as the Cape of Good hope are both in the the extreme southwestern peninsula of Africa, while Cape Agulhas is the actual southernmost tip.




I felt pretty proud to have visited one of the most talked about places in history :). We went on to visit a penguins colony in Boulders beach and then had lunch there near the beach. Spent some time near the beach and just like that our tour of cape town was over :).

On 16th Feb, we rented and car and started driving (well, actually Sri rented and drove the car :-D). Our plan was to drive to Port Elizabeth and visit a couple of places on the way.




I had never been on a self-driving trip before and didn't really get the charm of it until we did this. The comfort of stopping anywhere you want and visit any place for how much ever time you want to is something else and somehow the trip has been the basis for all the driving trips we have gone on here in the US (hope to continue the same once we are back in India). We stopped for lunch at a place called Mossel Bay (Point B on the map) and spent some time at the beach there. Then drove to Oudtshoorn (Point C) where we'd stop for the night.

The hotel at Oudtshoorn was named La Plume and right opposite to it across the road was an ostrich farm. The big tall birds were majestic and they were oh so curious about the two of us (we were the only people lurking around). We knew that their kicks are pretty powerful and wondered whether the fences could actually stop them ;-). Still I wanted to pet them :-D. Well, I did get my wish the next day :-D.

Next day, 17th Feb early morning we headed to the Cango Caves. The caves were beautiful and we had loads of fun since we took the adventure tour of the cave.




The adventure tour was another extreme thing I have done in my life. It had climbing precarious steps, moving sideways in narrow spaces, crawling and sliding through natural rock openings. It was absolutely thrilling :-D. You can see the entire tour here on this page :-D.

We next went to Cango Ostrich farm, where I got to feed an ostrich :). The ostrich eggs are so strong that they can bear lots of weight on them (we both took turns to stand on a set of eggs!). Well, we could have also ridden an ostrich, but both of us said no to that (I wonder why now :-D).




We had a good time and then visited the Cango wildlife ranch which was right across the road from the farm. It was a pretty normal zoo except that we could pay and touch leopard cubs/tiger cubs if we wanted to. I really wanted to, but it was pretty expensive, so couldn't :-\. From there on we drove to our hotel in a place called Wilderness. The route from Oudtshoorn to Wilderness was on mountainous region, so it made for awesome views on the way.




We reached Wilderness in the evening and went to Knysna (point D) to take a sunset cruise at the bay there :). Knysna is pronounced "Nice na" which was apt for the place :-D.




We came back and stayed at Wilderness. Our hotel was right next to a beach and I remember going there in the dark, sitting on a couple of steps in light rain with Sri and feeling really blessed to be there :).




The next day was the D-day. We went to the Bloukrans bridge where a company called Face Adrenalin operates the world's third highest bungy jump (it was the world's highest when we went there - 216m). We didn't even know whether we'd do it until we went there. I remember seeing the bridge and muttering on the way to myself that I must be crazy :-D. We actually wanted to jump in tandem (harnessed together :-D), but sadly they had only solo jumps. We paid up and then there was no going back :-D.

I was the second person to jump off the bridge that particular morning, the first being a member of the operating team (Sri conveniently dumping the honour on me by saying "Ladies first" :-p). We were bound with harnesses while the team members told us how exactly the jump would happen. People have the tendency to hold their breaths and they told us that we have to try and breathe :-D. I remember being crazy scared all the time, I guess the expression on my face says it all :-D.

I still get goosebumps watching the video :-D. It has been the most amazing experience of my life so far. There is about 7 seconds of pure terror and when the rope (which is elastic) pulls you back, thats when you know you are alive and the adrenaline rush after that is huggggggge ;-). They pulled me up and I was jumping up and down :-D. Next was Sri's turn :).




I still tease him saying that he didn't actually jump, but the guys there pushed him :-D. Here's us all ecstatic :).




We didn't really know what to do with the adrenaline, so we immediately went to the Tsitsikamma National Park where we hiked it off :). We took the waterfall trail which is almost 3 km one way (so hiked for 5-6 km in total) and we had to literally climb rocks to reach the water fall. And it was beautiful. The water fall faces the ocean and it makes for a wonderful view. Here's me sitting in front of the ocean..




Sri was sitting facing me with the waterfall behind him, so you can imagine the scenery :).




Well, we went back to Wilderness for the night and next morning drove to Port Elizabeth. From there, we flew to Johannesburg and stayed the night there at a Casino (don't remember the name sadly :-D). Still don't know how or why it happened, but we were upgraded to one of the highest suites there :-D. And the suite was like a huge mansion. Man, some things you never forget :-D.

Next morning, 20th Feb,our 6-day SA trip came to an end as we flew to Mauritius. Somehow Mauritius felt like a letdown after SA, mainly because of the weather. It was very humid and sultry weather. Sounds nice ;-) :-D, but believe me, it was uncomfortable after being in such pleasant weather all over SA. We had a package tour for Mauritius which included stay in a hotel called Les Cocotiers which had a beach and a 3-day tour. The beaches there surprised me with the serene water and almost no waves. Its almost like the island is actually in a lake :).

The first day tour consisted of going to the Grand Baie (Grand Bay) which was a pier and had the typical attractions of a pier.




The tour had about 6 couples all Indian and all on their honeymoon :-D. Yeah it was a love fest alright :-D. From there we went to the Pamplemousses Garden, which is seen in most Indian movie songs :-D. We even saw trees planted by various Indian prime ministers and presidents there :-D.




And that was that for the day. The next day we went to several places. We saw Dutch ruins, a model ship making factory and a Lord Shiva temple. We also visited the Chamarel Waterfall..




And then went to a dormant volcano crater known as Trou aux Cerfs. Well it didn't look anything like a volcano :-D.




Supposedly this volcano could become active at any time within the next thousand years :-O.




Our next stop was the 7-coloured earth. This was fascinating - at first look it looked like a mud dump, but its actually volcanic sand reflecting off different shades of colours..




We do look tired, don't we? :). That was it for the day.

The next day was the pièce de résistance :-D. We were taken to this beautiful island called Île aux Cerfs (french meaning "deer") by boat. The island had beautiful blue clear water and white sands. We really enjoyed the water and the environment. Though it was crowded and there were no deer to be found, it was still pristine and lovely :). No photos though :(.

Well, the next 2 days we could do what we wanted, but we basically lounged at the hotel and relaxed. I wanted to go para-sailing and do another activity called undersea walking, but well, I twisted my ankle a bit when playing on the beach (it wasn't as bad as it sounds), so Sri absolutely refused the para-sailing idea :-D. Meanwhile we didn't have water shoes and the water in the deer island as well as our hotel had these sharp thorns (don't know what they were) and somehow Sri had these multiple thorns embedded into his foot. So he became a total baby about it and hence we couldn't go undersea walking either :-p. I spent one whole evening tending to the thorns in his foot :-p. Romantic, isn't it? :-D.

I have to admit, we did enjoy a couple of beautiful sunsets at the hotel beach :).




And then we returned to reality, hehehe :)). Back to Bangalore and to our lives together. But soon, we had to move to US and the initial years were something of a long honeymoon ;-).

I still remember how weird I used to feel when calling Sri my husband at that time - the word tasted so new and different :-D. And the phase certainly wasn't all fun - I had never been away from my parents so long, away from my country so long. There was also lot of initial adjustments to each other going on, so there were some weird phases around :-D. It was certainly a period of transition :). Also we did tell our parents about the bungy once we came back and got nicely scolded, hehehe :). I love telling people "We bungee-jumped on our honeymoon" purely for the shock value and the expressions on their faces, hehehe :))).

Writing this post has been more fun than I thought it would be. I had to research quite a bit because we don't have the itineraries anymore and we don't have photos of every place we went to. So I kept asking Sri, did we stay here or there. Did we go here first or there? :-D. Since Mauritius has a French influence, I didn't know the names of most places we went to :-D. With internet, its not impossible to find out stuff these days, thank God :). I loved reliving the memories and got all nostalgic. Has it really been 5 years already? And we have a toddler too! Time sure feels like a whirlwind sometimes :-\.

Well, I really wanted to write this post as this was a major part of our relationship. Once more post in the BTFYA series and I'm done. It should be up soon :).