My Travel Tales- Day 5 of Write Tribe of Festival of Words

 

 Today's Theme: Travel

This must be the toughest prompt for me in the week long blogging challenge of Write Tribe. Because I’m not a travelling person! In fact I travel so much every day between my home and office that, weekends I just prefer to put up my feet at home and relax with a book or watch a movie. But when my mother was working in a bank, we used to travel often using the LTC (a travel related compensation for bank employees) privileges. I have been to Mumbai, Nasik, Ajanta and Ellora, Ooty. After I got married I realized that my husband liked travelling and discovering new places, so whenever he requested me to travel along with him, I used to agree half-heartedly. We have been to places near to Shimoga (since my husband is from Shimoga), Mysore, Pondicherry, Delhi, Shimla and Manali. 

My Travel Memories

But out of all the places that I have visited, Goa is my favorite place for a vacation. The sandy beaches, the glorious sun, the flowing alcohol, the late night parties, the music, the fun and frolic. Goa is one place where I can easily forget all my worries and truly soak the goodness in. I have been to Goa twice which is extraordinary for me because I travel so less that I avoid visiting the same place more than once.

The first time I visited Goa was with a group of my colleagues and it was also the first time I tried my hand at alcohol. We had booked a Qualis jeep as we were 8 of us, including the driver. We started from Mangalore around 10 PM at night. We were high on beers, supplied so thoughtfully by our male colleagues. I was ignorant of the fact then, that beer created this high, intolerable pressure on one’s bladder after a few bottles. 

So there we were, my other female colleague, Savi and I, in the dark ominous night, with no toilet in sight and with this uncontrollable urge to pee. One of my friends pointed out an extremely large boulder on the side of the road and shrugged his shoulders. I’m not particularly proud of what I did, but I had to do what I did.

There was another incident that comes to my mind which happened during the same trip. 

All my colleagues decided to visit Tito’s which is the famous night club and bar in Goa. It’s popular for its awesome music, large dance floors and the electrifying crowd. A line of cars were parked on either side of the road, for a stretch of 5 kms in front of the pub. There were so many people just outside the pub, some in highly intoxicated state, and I did see a few couple snogging in the faux privacy of their cars. Of course most people were oblivious to this even though the car windows were transparent. I guessed that it was a very common occurrence so I acted casually as if seeing couples in foreplay was an everyday occurrence to me. 

As we got down from our vehicle the guys in our group were having cold feet. One guy said that it was not safe for girls and if there was a fight, then we could be targeted as we were tourists. It sounds ridiculous to my own ears now, but at that time all those alien sights around me had stupefied me. I was like ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Needless to say, it was my first visit to any night club and my heart was racing even before entering the bar. 

A few policemen saw us loitering outside the bar and asked us to show some identification proof. We were horrified. A group of young girls and boys, in an unfamiliar land, nerves taut with anxiety, surrounded by grouchy policemen- that’s not a situation I’d ever want to be in again. Savi, who was a HR professional in our firm, suddenly sprang to action and explained graciously about our visit and showed her corporate badge. The policemen left us alone and we climbed the jeep and took off.

Although I don’t travel much, I have decided to travel to Andaman and Nicobar islands in the next year, 2014, and try out snorkeling and deep-sea exploration. That’s one of “the to-do” things in my bucket list. 

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013.