Continued from Amazing Travel Moments: Part I At the top of a mountain. All night. In the company of a sanyasin. Have you ever spent a night on a cliff top, drunk with the mountain air lying in the open under a canopy of a million stars? Add to that a sanyasin sitting by your side near the sputtering fire healing your soul-wounds more by silence than by his whispers that resonate with the gruff mountain winds. You must, some … Continue reading
Nightfall in a Kettuvallom. 7pm. With one of my best friends. There is a glorious moment in every ride across the Punnamadakkayal. When night falls the driver beaches the boat on some lonely shore near a village. If lucky, you could catch a raft of ducks paddling across the deep green water back to their dusky home somewhere on the field where your boat is tied to a coconut tree. Up the single track path, you walk for 10 minutes … Continue reading
To all my moralist friends who spread juicy stories about their colleague. They are absolutely right. I flew abroad and drank an ocean. But they must note one more thing in their diary: their friend had left India with little hope. 1) Alcohol sale is strictly controlled in the mountain kingdom. A dry day is observed every week. And you won’t get a drop before the clock strikes 1pm. 2) Once in every year, Bhutan observes a month of absolute … Continue reading
Chile, South America: They believe this blindly. If the water mermaid, La Pincoya, dances on the beach facing the mountains on their island, with her back towards the sea, there is little hope for the day. But if she dances facing the ocean: AHOY! Come, let’s rush! We have plenty of fish waiting for us in the sea. Chilao, the enchanted archipelago – separated from the mainland of Chile by a narrow channel and a unique culture – is shrouded … Continue reading
