Desert Safari ,Belly dancing and Sheesha !

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Thrills and chills are many if you are in Dubai !!

Well , ever touched the warm golden desert sand which lights up in the bright shining sun ! The feel is something you would never want to slip out of your hands like the sand does !

Desert Safari at Dubai is something which can not be missed . After all what is Dubai without the deserts, what is Dubai without sheesha , what is Dubai without the gorgeous lady doing belly dancing , what is Dubai without the kebabs ?? Nothing ! But hold on, What is Dubai if you get all these things together at one place , It makes Dubai what it is .. a kick-ass entertainment place ! Desert Safari offers all these. The local tour guys came to pick us up from the hotel sharp at 5 pm.The spot where Desert safari happens is in the desert on the Dubai Oman border !! woo hoo .. a long drive in the land cruisers that whats it is .. Enjoying the comfort along with peppy Farsi music which you definitely cant understand but it is such that you would want to shake a leg for sure once you hear it ! The Arabic driver who also spoke a little bit Hindi apart from Arabic was a fun guy to chat with.The tour Guide Mr. Rajesh as his name was had informed me well in advance " That chintan if you want to enjoy the ride to the maximum , be seated on the first seat " and I was like all right !! let's do it !

So all of a sudden the driver quits the highway and suddenly takes a turn in to the desert on the side which was running parallel since a long time now ! Everyone in the car got freaked out and he was like do not worry its a short cut have been playing in the deserts since I was a kid and know all the routes by heart! trust me it looks the same where ever you may go in the desert , there is just sand sand and more sand but I wonder where my driver had the skills to figure out the path in the barren land.We reached a spot where all the other land cruisers were.. They all deflated the tyres , they do this so that the car doesn't roll over when moving up and down the steep desert slopes.

Desert Safari is actually the experience of sitting in a landcruiser and moving up and down the slopes on a super jet speed . Your heart is in your mouth when you are doing that ! So , well had our share of adrenalin rush and proceeded for dinner.Before that we had different activities that could be done like camel rides , there was a place where you could click your pictures in traditional arabic dress , did that and then you could get a henna tattoo done , I got my initials written along with a spider on my forearm . There was a place where you could sit down and have hookah . Now, I am a big hookah fan and love doing it but it is an activity not too appreciated by my parents but well I told them that I have to do it and am going so they were like all right.I went and had a sheesha to myself .My tour guide who never had a sheesha before tried taking a few puffs but in vain .I guess everyone out there was an amateur and I felt like a pro blowing rings in mid desert , teaching Europeans and Americans, how to take the smoke in , how to release it and well , yeah .. I had my moment of glory there. My guide got us a beer and I was like what better than a carlsberg with hookah that too in mid desert but I was yet to experience a beautiful surprise .There I was drinking and smoking the hookah pipe and the beautiful belly dancer appeared with skimpy outfit , looking like a diva . Yes, the show was to start now ! So I witnessed a diva belly dancing for you in mid desert under the stars , sipping on beer and having hookah.What more could I have asked for !

Then soon after the show was over there was a bunch of gujju's . By the way I happen to see Gujju's no matter where I go in the world and they started with garba and I was like come on not here !! I being the gujju myself like the dance form and do it well actually but not after such a brilliant performance ! So I decided not to pay heed to it and had dinner which consisted of Arabic , Lebanese and fresh Kebabs and Tikka's cooked by the drivers who got us here . It was a night to celebrate and So I did. We returned to the hotel late at night after which I did a lot of exploring and all before sleeping but all that later .Ciao for now !

Dubai - The Arab Jewel !!

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Rageeztan ki mitti mein chalte hue main kab apne kadmon ke nishaan chodta gaya ..

Manzeel ki chah mein .. Apne armaano ko Dafnata gaya

Paa gaye kuch toh ghum na hoga zyada,

Par naa Paane ke darr mein, jeevan ki sachai ko modta gaya.

This are few lines I just wrote which hardly have a relevance with the blog I am going to write but yeah they do have a relevance with our daily lives.Well , came up with these because the blog I intend to write today is about Dubai.Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi.Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature.This trip was very recent ,it was in October 2009.Well, all the other trips I had done earlier had one thing in common and this one was a little different , that is because all the other trips which I had made were either family trips or they were custom tailored for our family but this one was a little different as this one was a group tour .I was really excited and was looking forward to have nice company in my group and probably some nice girl with whom I can hang out or make good friends with .With all this excitement rushing through my veins I went to Mumbai , Sahara International airport.Our flight was early in the morning around 5'ish.We reached the airport around 1.I was looking for our group and was anticipating to see some nice crowd but to my dismay the group consisted of few couples who were of my mom dads age , well thats not it , there were some more who were of my grandpa's age .I was shocked and utterly disappointed on seeing the group . My tour guide was also 40 year old and I was supposed to be staying with him. I was never so sad in my life as much as I was then.The tour guide seemed chilled out and he bought us all coffee. I boarded the flight and within 3.5 -4 hours we were to land in Dubai.En-route I met , Mr. Manish a young man from Dubai, who was seating beside me and had come to India on a business trip and was returning home.He guided me for everything in Dubai , he told me where you can have sheesha,hookah as called here, where you can get booze and where do you find girls , all the things I shouldn't have known . With all that general Knowledge in my brain , I tried to digest and remember what all he said.I told him that first two are fine , I don't need the third part but well he was like, whats wrong with having some information and I was like what the hell , yeah .. he is right!

Dubai Airport is one of the best I have seen.with real gold work in the airport and its unique design , It stands out as one of the few best airports ever.Plus it appeals to me more due to the fact that It has sports cars and bikes lined up for just giving out as prizes to lucky draws which take place every month.Imagine winning a Lamborghini in a lucky draw!! I would just go crazy! Anyways , later on we were taken to our hotel which was not all that grand but it was nice and the room was good with the entire entertainment system and all! I was really happy to see all those amenities .Later I went to check out other parts of the hotel and reached the pool where I bumped into a Moroccan guy who handled the spa there , had a hearty conversation with him ,Later on I made friends with a South american female who was having a nice swim .She wanted me to click her picture from her cam and thus , we came to exchange pleasantries. It was fun, the first hour I had made two nice friends , it seemed the trip was going to be very exciting !!

The trip was spanned over 7 days in which the tour comprised of 4 days , other 3 days we had decided to spend with my uncle who has now settled in Dubai.The highlights of the trip were many which I shall write about soon ! so Hang on ..

Snorkeling with the fishes !

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Hello friends, in the last post I wrote about Mauritius as a place and the general information and experiences there,However I did tell you that there are some special experiences which I would like to put individually. Snorkeling being one of them. Snorkeling is the adventure sport where you have the mask which a long tube sticking out of it which remains above the surface of water whereas you remain under it.The trick is to suck the air from the mouthpiece but well, the trick is very difficult to master without tasting the salty water innumerable times ,I must warn you about that.So, basically, our resort had an option of providing snorkeling gear.I was like let me try it and the moment I started to practice it ,I faced the consequence of gulping the salty water many times as I was supposed to suck the air from mouth and not nose but due to your primary habit you tend to do just the opposite .In a while i did get used to it.

The next day we had decided to go for a full day on the sea yacht ride.If that is not exciting enough , let me tell you the scenario ,crystal blue waters , green mountains and the white yacht with black glasses and live barbecue happening there . Of course there were drinks too.The boat driver was Mauritian but followed the Bollywood cinema a lot and SRK was his favourite star . The surprise which came to we was that when we reached mid ocean which by the way are infested with sharks , the yacht driver asked us if we wanted to snorkel and I was like Oh my God in these waters , nevertheless by seeing the south African couple and the Australian companion of mine , I was like lets go for it .

The world below came alive as I dipped into the water , for as much as I could see ,there was clear blue water and colourful fishes all around.Red,blue , fluorescent ,orange ,striped you name it and they were there. The feel to see them right below me was getting my adrenalin pumped up but that wasn't it for me, I climbed up on the deck again and got a loaf of bread , now when you dip any bread in water it will become soggy and its particles will float in water if you try it ,That is exactly what I did , dipped it into water and the next thing that happened is the feeling for which I have written this entire blog.the particle came up towards my body .There were hundreds of fishes which were swimming below me and they always swim in schools and the bread attarcted them naturally . now they started feeding on the particles stuck on my body the feeling of hundreds of beautiful fish between you two hands is not something that you get to experience a lot, do you ? it is a very special moment and feeling for me which I shall never forget .

You should try snorkeling , it is a fun sport ! Will be back with more stories and adventures , so hang on ! ciao till then !

Mauritius Baby !!

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Zoom into the beauty of the nature ... where there is peace, serenity and calmness.Which place would you get to experience the thrills and yet could just sit back ,sip on your drink and enjoy the creation of the alma-mater.Mauritius was this one place which offered all this to me.Its a popular tourist destination. The flight was fine , I was travelling air Mauritius and I guess it took us 6 hours to get there and once we were flying over Mauritius , the view was simply majestic and breathe taking .crystal blue waters and golf courses , villas and beaches .Its is the place you just want to be.the resort we were staying in was called gold beach resort and was ocean facing with a beach and when I walked on onto it ,I exactly figured why it was named so.The golden sand appeared even more golden and radiant due to the warm sun rays.It was a place which offered a lot of new experiences to me,which I shall describe soon .It was way back by the way in 2005.I was just done with my 12th boards which by the way is a big deal as all of you know,so I was as it is totally relaxed.

Well , it is not a blog about where all you should go but it is about experiences but I don't think including some information regarding the places would harm you .So to tell you about the place , my resort was in 'flic n flac' , yes that a name of a place over there.Port Louis is the capital of the country .The major income of the country comes from tourism and rest from sugarcane cultivation.en route to our resort we passed innumerable sugarcane plantations and our guide who was a descendant of India but was born and brought up there told me .By the way there are lot of people who migrate from India and have settled there.Actually when I was there the prime minister of Mauritius happened to be a person from Indian origin.The best tourist attractions in Mauritius are the seven coloured earth, which is a fascinating spot as there is sand which is of seven different colours and it is a totally natural process, the sand obtains this different colours due to the high amounts of minerals which exist there.The other spot is called the "Black River gorges" which is a giant water fall , the spot is very pretty.Anyways , the best things that you do at such a place is adventure sports and we did a variety of that.On a bright afternoon we were taken to coco island which was nearby in a big boat , there was this whole Indian family with us and it was all fun and singing . Later on the real fun began when we reached the spot for adventure sports.We did a speed boat ride and it was a thriller . we were cutting through water at the rate of bullet through the air when fired . Para-gliding was something I will never forget , they take you all the way up in the sky only to drop you into water and then you are brought back on the wooden platform where you started from.the reason for it being memorable is my mom and dad instead of landing on the wooden platform landed in water and my mom who does not know swimming got paranoid when that happened .It was an effort to take them out and when I realized they are safe I was clicking pictures of mom getting all worked up instead of helping the other people get them out .gosh, not what you expect someone to do in such a situation but I was sure they were safe so natural instincts just took over I guess.

The best part about my resort was that they had cottages for everyone and one cottage had two rooms but to my luck when we went there , not one cottage was vacant where both the rooms of the same cottage were vacant .So it so happened that my mom and dad were in one cottage and me and my sister were totally in a far end cottage and thus every night I could just sneak out !! hurray for that!

The food was brilliant where I was staying but apart from that I am a total foodie and I have to have pizzas where ever I go .So couple of days we had a local brand called debonairs and then obviously there is pizza hut.The food was always with some entertainment when at the resort . Sometimes a band playing or sometimes the traditional dance they have , which is called sega dance where the dusky Mauritian beauties shake there bellies to traditional music which sounds like country music but with much more power and intensity.By the way,I normally sit back and watch people but when I saw the ladies were inviting people from the crowd to dance with them I totally jumped for the opportunity.For details you need to contact me personally.

All in all , I would term this blog as a general overview of Mauritius and there were some exciting moments and things I did regarding which I shall put another post which shall hopefully not be so big! :P

So until next time I shall sign off now.Later!

Flight to America !!

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I was listening to some nice Arabic music and it totally brought the thoughts of belly dancer gorgeously, graciously dancing and almost made me change the topic to write about DUBAI and the UAE ... but I figured that how can I just move onto the last paradise I visited .. I have to start from my first trip , my first experience in real long distance and long duration travel.The year was 2001 , the memories come rushing in my mind although I was pretty young then but I still remember each and every detail as I was pretty excited about the trip, after all it was the first international trip I made.The month was April and the date was 24th, sachin tendulkar's birthday :)

The location also being the one which I always wanted to go to .. The United States of America!

The flight was at around 3 am from Mumbai Sahara International airport. Personally, the best part of the trip for me is the flights . When a flight takes off ..oh my god , the adrenalin rush I get is just something else.I feel the blood racing through my veins and heart beats going faster , mind trying to capture this feel for future reference. Pretty soon the flight did take off and I saw Mumbai, I had never seen before, the queens necklace as it is called , it appears like a necklace but they are actually lights in the dark night in the city that never sleeps.What was very enticing to me on board the flight were the options for movies , you had your own screen where you could play games and listen to music.I had decided I am not going to sleep for the 17 hours of flight and I did manage to be awake through most of it.I behaved just like a typical Gujju is expected to behave. Gujju's have this tendency to pounce upon anything and everything that is free.So apart from all the exquisite meals I got , I had around 14 cans of diet Pepsi on the flight because they were free !! The pretty air hostesses did not seemed surprised or worried which made me feel they had passengers like me daily. I had gone along with my mom and was handling everything from checking in to managing baggage , it made me feel like a grown up , say a man ! :)

We stopped at Frankfurt after which we hopped onto another flight which took us to Atlanta,Georgia which is the hub for the delta airlines , the one we were travelling. It was all very new and amazing to me , on Frankfurt airport I was exposed to the small German cars I could see passing outside through a huge glass window, followed by some in depth research I did on world famous liquors. Now that I think of it,I was just like 14 years :) ! finally some more hours onto another flight and we heard the captain saying "welcome to america , we are about to land in Atlanta ,please fasten your seat belts " .I was extremely delighted to hear that and was all geared up for the sight.Finally after landing , not only was I excited but was hungry too ..the first thing that I ordered was a dominoes pizza but it wasn't the local one this time and trust me it did not taste local either . I have always felt this about Dominoes , that it's taste differs from country to country , whereas Pizza Hut has a standardized taste globally . This I am telling you of personal experiences .

Anyways , our final destination in the first leg of US was Houston ,Texas,which by the way strangely pronounced as "youston",I did know that as I had heard my cousins say it but had I not I would have surely faltered.The Atlanta airport was huge and it had a train (subway as they call it there ) to travel from one gate to another . it has gates from A right upto T with 40 places in each from where flights take -off .Well , the interesting thing I saw in the subway was a young american couple making out and this kind of visuals as you know, we are totally deprived of in India . Ha ha , so there I was a young boy staring at that couple , trying to figure out what exactly is happening ,while the rest of the crowd was hardly bothered or concerned and my mom chose to look the other way, obviously shying away from facing me, she did not know her kid was more intelligent and mentally developed than she thought he was :P. That was the moment I felt that I am definitely no longer in India .

We did then board our 2 hour flight to Houston ,Texas and there we had the whole family of ours waiting to receive us. This was just how my journey was from India to the US but it was something crucial I wanted to share as it is eventually always " the journey that matters more than the end or the start " as quoted by Linkin Park.

lot more to come regarding the US trip in 2001 .. I am still contemplating whether to juggle between countries and places or whether to finish one country and then move onto the next. Around 7-8 in my kitty and of course the national places which are altogether left.so kindly comments regarding the course of action,that would be appreciated . thank you for your time , good morning world and good night chintan for now :)

Journey begins ..

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The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

What St. Augustine has to say does make sense , the earth is so vast . Living in country like India where there are diversities in whichever state you may put your foot into, in terms of living , food and cuisine , culture and traditions , dressings and innumerable other things. Imagine the world is full of thousands and thousands of such countries and places which are diverse and waiting to be explored by one and all.

My dad and I have one thing in common amongst various other things of which I am really glad, that is both of love to travel.I feel I am very fortunate in this aspect as I have had the opportunities to travel lengths and breadth of this country and apart from that have been lucky enough to have traveled to numerous international destinations.If we were given an option where we could buy an expensive car , a new farm-house or could travel extensively , we would unanimously opt for the latter .

This blog is not a guide but yes it may guide you to various places nationally and internationally informally obviously , It is not a reference book of what activities can be done at those places but yes , you may feel like doing them once I share my experiences with you. Of course , I cannot express what I felt like or the joyousness I experienced while doing them or being at those places but well I can at least try . This blog is about the memories I want to cherish and share with all of you , also the memories I would like to make permanent digitally so that later on , if at any stage in my life when I visit this blog, I would feel the same thrill , excitement and joy of travelling . I want you all to have a good time reading it , have fun and be informed too. more to follow soon. adiós.