Vacation!

A hectic vacation is quite like a cumbersome girlfriend. You're in it for some form of distraction from the monotonous boredom, yet you feel more stressed than relaxed at the end of it. It is due to this that a vacation should ordinarily be kept relaxed with ample time to get sleep.

My programme for 3 weeks looks like this. I leave for Gokarna 12th night and return on the 15th early morning. 2 days later, on the 17th afternoon i go to Goa and return late night on the 20th. From the 26th, I have my mid term exams.

I returned from Gokarna yesterday in the Morning. What i realised about travel is that the destination is quite as important as the journey, unless the journey itself is fun. When I think of the old saying about how lifes a journey and not a destination, I can only say its bull shit. Lifes as much the destination as the journey. Especially when the journey's bumpy. When the journey's smooth u tend to ignore the destination and enjoy the journey. So lifes all abt the destination. Its just that one seems to forget the destination when one's enjoying the journey which makesthe journey painless and the destination worthwhile. I do not say for a minute that an EASY journey is necessarily a good journey. A good journey is one which keeps u distracted from everything else, yet allows u to be aware of the final destination.

Why this came up is due to my recent tryst with VRL travels. The bus itself is probably the worst ive ever seen. The seats are quite uncomfortable, the bus has no suspension and the driver seems to mistake the bus for a Formula 1 car. The bus ride lasted nearly 12 hrs, when i boarded the bus at 745 at Jayanagar and reached Gokarna at 730 in the morning. Gokarna was of course insanely hot. Upon reaching Gokarna, we hired a taxi for all nine of us to get to Kudle Beach. When we reached the end of the road traversable by the sumo, we walked down a precarious hill. My compadres decided they wanted to save money and opted to stay in shacks with no fan (not even a table fan), lots of mosquitoes and a common loo which was a 20 minute walk away. I was accused of being elitist for deciding to stay at a decent hotel with an ATTACHED loo. Of course, 3 others followed suit and the difference per head was 150 Rs (in my eyes it was easily worth 225 a head, at least for the fan). The beach itself was absolutely clean with no man made or natural garbage, or faeces. It is a joy to see such a sparklingly clean beach.

I ended up going on a boat ride to help pass the time at the beach when 5 of the others decided to trek up a hill to watch the sunset. The boat took us to the nearby beaches - Om, Paradise and Half Moon. We got to see the sun turn orange from the middle of the sea, with the motor off and peacefully. I then jumped into the water arnd 300 m from shore and attempted to swim back. From under the water, all i could see was the boat and was hence using that as a beacon to guide me to shore. However, the boatmen decided that if I died itd be on his conscience and decided to go in a circle arnd me to ensure my safety. Due to this, I lost direction and had to stop and yell, "Which way to the shore?" To which the response from the boat was "Keep swimming straight". I finally made it back to shore and the kinda high that ensued was quite exhilirating. I had always wanted to do that. I did learn something important from this journey though. Waves recede. DO NOT DO BUTTERFLY IN THE SEA CLOSE TO THE SHORE.

The second day was just relaxed and 5 decided to trek up the hill in the scorching and walk the TAR roads of Gokarna in order to shop. Being lazy as i was, I stayed back with 2 of my chain smoking roommates, who cudn ve made it had they wanted to and a tiny little girl for whom the hill seemed like Everest (above a certain height, all mountains look the same height for relatively shorter people). We stayed back and rented a boat instead which took us around the mountain and dropped us off at the beach. Being as stupid as i normally am, i got my jeans wet by standing in the beach. The way back was quite complicated as the "majestic" VRL bus only started from Honnavar. We had 8 tickets on this bus and 1 on a direct Gokarna to Bangalore bus. We sent one of the responsible girls alone in the first bus and 8 of us set off on a local NWKRTC bus to Kumta and then Honnavar from there. We reached in time to ve rock hard idlis and oily puris later catching the VRL bus and leaving.

We all had sleepers on this bus and the tiny girl had motion sickness throughout (how she came back, stayed awake in class and gave a case presentation is BEYOND me). We finally got off near Rajajinagar and made it back to campus well in time for class. On the whole it was a fun experience. I now look forward to indulging in some water sports in Goa. My flight leaves in just over 11 hours from now.