Underwater

"Ok" I signalled to dive instructed making circle with thumb and index finger and leaving the other fingers straight.

"Jump into the water" called my Dive instructor, Lucy. She was Brit though had been in Australia for a while now.

I was quite nervous, wearing about 8 kgs in weight and huge and heavy oxygen tank on my back I couldn't see how I would float. Surely the little air we let into my vest wasn't going to be enough. I jumped in and to my surprise I did float. "Ok"

"Lets swim to the mooring line"

Four of us and the dive instructor headed to the mooring line. I was going to be the first one to go down. Lucy took air out of my vest and signalled to my mask. "Ok" I replied. Then to my ears "Equalise air pressure". I held my nose and blew "Ok". Final check, take out the regulator and breathed out "bubble.. bubble...bubble....". Back in "Ok" I signalled.

I am couple of metres down when the dive instructor leaves me to get the others. Somethings wrong, 2 people have already panicked and want to abandon. Meanwhile I am underwater alone and getting quite anxious. I am breathing heavily and the dry air from the tank still makes me feel like choking. My mask is not right, its filling with water. I look up and blow in attempt to clear it but instead it fills with more water. Shit!! I can't go up my vest is without air, I need the dive instructor to come down. I breath faster and faster as time goes by.

Finally Lucy is back, I signal to her that something is wrong, its my mask. She asks me to clear it, but that doesn't work. Now I am frantically signalling her to take me up, 3 breaths a second heart rate close to 180 or so. She fills my vest and we finally go up. Within 5 minutes my dive is over, I abandon head back to the boat. That was scary, it was my first dive!

An hour later next dive session I vow to try again. This time I won't panic, I tell myself. We dived again on the mooring line. I try to relax and think about the reef and fish. We dived to about 10 metres and it was fantastic. Unbelievable number and variety of flora and fauna of all colors imaginable. It was a totally different world, one I had never seen before. I touch and hold of couple of things that the dive master oked. Even gave out couple of "wicked' signals that she had taught me earlier. Among the coral was this huge thing that closed it mouth if you touched, fauna that disappeared if you clapped and the biggest sighting of them all a "black tip shark" passed us about 5 mts away. In all its strength and glory it passed us a lighting speed. We were back up in 30 mins and the dive was so amazing that I did another one next day.

The dives were part of the offering in this trip I was taking on board the "reef encounter" where stayed overnight near the reef. There were about 6 dive/snorkel session that one could indulge in and when I was not diving I was snorkeling. It was so much fun to go out on the reef and explore this part of the world we had never seen before. We've all seen glimpses in national geographic but i didn't care much for sea life till I got a first hand glimpse of its diversity and colour. At diving takes you to a new high! Now I was hooked on this adventure activity. I'll be back soon for many more dives.

Look back at Euro Trip

My 50 day long trip acroos Europe covering 15 cities was exciting, adventurous and exteremely enjoyable. Though I kept a personal journal noting down events and thoughts it would be quite some effort to type that online and would be incredibly long as well. Also, not everything in there is for public consumption. However, so those who did not follow me on twitter as i kept tweeting along the trip, I decided to compile all the tweets into one blogpost. This might provide you some idea of my day to day expereince. For my friends on FB you have access to my pictures too. I plan to follow up this post with another about some planning tips and Finances for anyone intending to do something similar.

Day1: Super excited as I startmy 2 month, 14 city Euro trip today!
Day 2: Just landed in Amsterdam and checked into my hostel. Looks great, right in the center of everything. Ready to head out after a shower
Day 2: walked around, explored the city and did what everyone does in Amsterdam on Day1
Day 3: headed for the museums today. Took the walking tour yesterday which was fabulous! Slept at 3:30AM last night, easing into party mode!
Day 3: Break on through, to the other side!
>Day 3:Escape nightclub was good but have seen better!
Day 5: End of exciting but exhausting and expensive Amsterdam! Heading over to Brussels today
Day 5: Found the 'Grand Place' in Brussels truly awesome. Lots of museums to cover tomorrow before heading to the Euroferia festival!
Day 6: Really enjoyed Brussels, it has some amazing sights and vibrant street culture. Also managed to dance salsa at 'Euroferia' festival
Day 7: Antwerp is lot more than a Diamond trading city; great plazas, cafes, restaurants, cathedrals and other sites. Loved the day trip out
Day 7: People mainly speak French in Brussels but I don't really mind, its great to hear even if you don't understand most of it!
Day 7: Caught up with Henri at 'Delirium', exchanged travel stories and drank some delicious beers!
Day 8: First long EU rail journey from Brussels to Hamburg. Enjoyed the countryside scenery and the rail trip
Day 9: Hamburg: took the walking tour to cover most of the city; checked out the port and other areas in the evening. Beer's cheap here!
Day 10: Its been 10 days of rain, wind and chilly weather, come on, I thought I was on a summer tour.
Day 10; Hamburg: Kunsthalle (Arts Musuem) and Maritime museum were both amazing; 'Reeperbahn' was interesting, though less said the better!
Day 11: Took the train that loads on to a ferry onroute hamburg to Copenhagen; so cool!
Day 11: Reunited with Kapil!
Day 12: Copenhagen: walked around the city; checked out Christiana, Rosenberg Garden and castle and the little Mermaid
Day 13: Copenhagen: covered the national museum and Glypototek; Copenhagen is a pretty expensive city but has beautiful parks and sights
Day 14: Long train ride from Copenhagen to Berlin. The hostel looks amazing, good, cos we are here 5 days. Lets get the party started!
Day 15: Berlin: Took the walking tour and explored the city on foot for almost 9 hours. Berlin is an amazing city with so much history!
Day 16: Berlin: Sachenhausen concentration camp by day; Pargammom Museum in afternoon; Pub crawl at night; Partied till the sun came up!
Day 17: Berlin: covered 4 Museums, climbed up Reichstag for an awesome view and checked out the WWII ruins of the old church
Day 17: Berlin: 10 hours on foot + 7 hours pub crawl - 5 hours sleep + 10 more hours on foot = Very Very tired!
Day 18: Berlin: The palaces in 'Postdam' were great; so was the east side gallery. Another pub crawl tonight....yipeee!!
Day 19: Long train ride from Berlin to Warsaw. On first sight Warsaw looks great. Its Saturday night....ready to head out and party!
Day 19: Lithuanians, Mexicans, Indonesian, Taiwanese and Indian all partying together in the polish capital....how about that!
Day 19: Third night this week of partying till the sun comes up, Phew! Didn't know Warsaw was such a party town. Now I know!
Day 20: Warsaw: Walked around and covered the Royal Castle and Starego Miasta.
Day 20: Warsaw: Gorgeous city with beautiful and nice people, lovely squares and streets. I <3>
Day 21: Warsaw has some excellent expansive parks; 1944 Uprising museum was great; Completed bookings for stopover at Krakow & Auswitch
Day 22: Just landed at Krakow from Warsaw. First sights are interesting; btw have I mentioned I love the Polish, they are nice.
Day 23: Went saw Auschwitz. No words can describe the madness that happened there. Headed to prague tonight.
Day 24: Stranded somewhere in between the Czech and Polish border! Hurricane; No trains, no Buses...No-one speaks English!
Day 24: 7 AM-Bonhium...8AM-Train to Ostrava..9:30 Train to Polom...10:30- Bus to Hranice...4:30PM - Prague..finally! 10 hrs behind plan!
Day 25: Prague: Walking tour was amazing! Prague is such a colorful city; great history and sights. Prague castle is magnificent!
Day 25: Prague :7:30AM back from a night of partying....need some sleep! btw advice..never try 4 shots of Absynth in one night!
Day 26: Walk along the river was great. Hard to keep up the pace on 3 hours sleep. Prague is amazing though, on every level!
Day 26: Prague: "Karlovy lázně" one of the best night clubs I've seen. 5 storey, different music every level, packed and awesome!
Day 27: Traveled through Slovakia to reach Budapest. Slovak countryside was beautiful. Budapest at night looks awesome!
Day 28: Budapest: Checked out the 'Pest' area. 'Heroes square' looks imposing. St Istvan Bascilla and Vajdahunyad castle were interesting.
Day 28: Budapest: Covered National Museum and Buda area including the Royal castle. View from up top were amazing! Enjoyed the Turkish bath!
Day 29: Budapest: Drank some beers in the park and played bridge to celebrate Yohan's b'day. Doesn't seem too exciting but it was fun!
Day 30: Traveled from Budapest to Vienna. Wombat's hostel is awesome. Watching Wimbledon & doing laundry today. Hang out at the bar later
Day 31:Interesting night last night at the Hostel! Sleepily explored Parliment, Gothic cathedral and Museum of Fine arts today. Tired now!
Day 32: Vienna: City of Palaces that reflect the pomp and glory of its Imperial past. So many of them, I wonder if they had other hobbies?
Day 33: Vienna: Covered Pasterplatz and Danube island and feel like dancing to Viennese waltz. On to Italy; headed to Venice tonight!
Day 34: Arrived in Venice via overnight train. Getting lost in Venice is not too bad, beautiful streets, canals and scenery.
Day 34: Sitting on the Venice waterfront on a beautiful full moon night listening to Pink Floyd..dreaming...drifting...
Day 35: Venice: Palace Ducale was quite intriguing. Blue waters, canals, gondales, tourists..beginning to see what Venice is about.
Day 35: Venice: 1.5 Ltr wine for 2 Euros is a very good deal. It makes me :)
Day 36: Venice: Moreno Island is a real gem. Narrow alleys, lovely bridges and great waterfront views! btw plenty more wine tonight :)
Day 37: Enjoyed the train ride from Venice to Florence. Nice Scenery. Archi Rossi Hostel is Florence looks great!
Day 37: Florence: Blown away by the beauty of Florence. Night life on Wednesday is top notch as well!
Day 38: Florence: Explored sights around the city. Florence has an long and interesting history. Its also a great place to people watch!
Day 39: Straighened theLeaning tower of Pisa, walked city of Sienna and was thrilled at the site of 'Il Campo'
Day 40: Not sure if two hour wait for The Uffizi gallery was worth it. Good but not the best Ive seen. btw toooo many Americans in Florence!
Day 40: Florence to Rome. First night in Rome, a night of partying. This Hostel is crazy!
Day 41: Rome: Everywhere you look in Rome you find things from thousands of years back. 'Trevi' Fountain is incredible!
Day 42: Rome: Colusseum is magnificient. Was amazed walking through the old Roman city. Its amazing how advanced Roman's were!
Day 43: Vatican is Grand; Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo - Magnificient, breathtaking, jaw-dropping.. words don't do justice!
Day 44: Borghese gallery is one of the best Private museums I have seen; Rome has too many great Plazas; Last night in Rome :(
Day 45: Rome to Athens: Ran for about an hour with 25kg backpack thanks to italrail efficiencies, $#@#; lost 15 Euros to Ticket machine :(
Day 46: Acropolis is quite amazing though I wish it was better preserved. Its hot, Hike up is not fun, New Acropolis Museum is good though
Day 46: Athens: Checked out the night scene and local drinks with a Franco-Greek group! Interesting experience, made for good conversation.
Day 47: Hiked up Fillipananou Hill. Another very hot day! Guess who found in Athens - The Indian Navy - crew from INS Delhi and INS Beas.
Day 48: The Roman and Ancient Agora are incredible. Some ruins date back to 6th century BC. Might the beach parties tonight!
Day 49: Day trip to the Island of Aegina. Crystal clear waters, green sea and sandy beaches. Drove around the island on scooty. Good fun!
Day 50: In Abu Dhabi enroute to Mumbai, then onward to Bangalore. Will be home in about 16 hrs!

51 days,15 cities,10 Countries,100+ sites,60+ Churches, over 30+ Museums, 25+ drinking nights, 10 pub crawls and Euro trip is finally over!

Illinois Adventure trip

We needed a getaway, a road trip; something adventurous yet relaxing. Of the many options we finally settled for Illinois countryside that seemed to have quite a few adventure sports on offer. A group of seven, we started early on Friday, rounding of shopping for essentials before heading on towards Illinois. We had rented a spacious Mini-van to allow us the luxury of indoor games en-route our 8 hour drive to base camp i.e. Morris. My attempt to describe how much we enjoyed the drive would be futile as the excitement was literally captured in the confines of the mini-van. Put some heavy rockers together with loud music and there is bound to be some head banging. And what do I say about poker enthusiasts? Well we did also have a picnic on the way with a not so competitive soccer game and even friendlier Frisbee throw. It was a wee hours of the morning when we finally arrived at Morris.Good night sleep later we were ready for some adventure activities.

Our day started late and mood was somewhat dampened by bad weather which prevented us from either skydiving or river-rafting. However we did find that we could go on a river cruise by renting a Pontoon. Thrilled on this opportunity we hurried to our destination. Renting formalities completed, we all jumped on the boat with food supplies. After taking quick instructions from the staff, I pulled the boat from the Dock and headed downstream. The weather was great with temperature around the 75 F and a good cloud cover. We took turns behind the wheel of the pontoon and being our first time we were all excited to steer the boat. When not at the helm we sat in the front with feet hanging over the edge and enjoyed the ride or lazed over the deck enjoying snacks we brought onboard. Cool breeze made us relax and this was totally our idea of a perfect getaway. Moments of silence and harmony were interrupted by motor boats speeding across leaving ripples in the water that rocked our boat. It was amazing as simple things such as these and passing scenery generated so much excitement and delight. On our way back, still half an hour from the dock we were treated to some heavy downpour. Pinching drops of heavy rain made it difficult to stand but like kids eager to get wet in the rain; we enjoyed every bit of it. Until we got too wet and shivered with cold. Our landing couldn’t have come soon enough for us. Drenched but merry we enjoyed a sumptuous dinner at the Captain cove’s inn. Quick pit stop at our hotel was followed up with a visit to the downtown Morris which was all but a few blocks on a single street. Few drinks later it was time to call it a night.

Bright and sunny Sunday morning could be more aptly put as the lull before the storm. It was our day to go skydiving g. The group was keen, enthusiastic, excited and more but at the same time anxiety was evident. Understandably so, not often do people jump of a plane albeit with a parachute. We arrived at skydive Chicago around noon and got right down to the paperwork i.e. pages and pages of disclosure agreeing not to sue or hold responsible should anything go wrong. Not the most comforting feeling. Anyways we got that done and were ready for our instructions. They were pretty simple actually – keep good shape, look at the horizon, check your altimeter and pull your parachute. We kept the instructor on his toes with some clever questioning “parachute always opens, doesn’t it” “has anyone died doing this?” He was obviously impressed by our display of courage. Nevertheless we did get down to business after an anxious wait for our plane. Our instructors’ help us put on the jumping suits and we were joined by our cameraman shooting the videos. We walked down to the glider that was going to carry, ahem how many 20 people, really? 20 people, but this is such a small plane. Yup we sat on the plan packed on each other’s laps. The engines spurted and hummed but got us in flight, barely and we wobbled our way to 13,000 ft when the doors opened. 3 pros smiled, waved and jumped off, their bodies disappearing in a jiffy. Okay whose idea was all this? It was too late to bail. So slowly, I mean real slowly and one by one we crawled to the door, counted to 3 and jumped. So here is how it feels in words.

Jump….ahh…woooooow…what a view…falling fast…oh the wind….get your hands extended…wind is killing me, breath breath…the cameraman…lets pose…..oh the Hat check….look at the altimeter…find my parachute cord….look around…everything’s fast…everything’s stationery……..cameraman…pose again…what abt 360…here it is…..look around….oh..ughh.. Whats that jerk …damn its 4500 ft and instructor pulled the cord, should have checked altimeter. Within 60 seconds of the jump we had fallen 8000 odd ft. With the parachute open there was this amazing calm and an excellent view which we could now enjoy. Take a deep breath! ‘How about some maneuvers’. ‘Lets try a red turn’ a right one and then a left one. Few minutes later it’s time to prepare for the landing and what a sweet one that was. Incredible, amazing thrill. I am not sure if this describes the experience. I guess only way to get the nostalgic feeling is to do it yourself.Cameraman caught me on the ground for a brief interview for my video and then I joined my friends for victorious hugs and congratulations. Awesome experience. Try it!

We knew that nothing else we did on the trip would match this experience but we tried anyway. Next of the list was canoeing and kayaking which we thought would be a relaxing experience. Four of us (3 bailed out and camped instead) rented a canoe and a kayak, wore our life jackets and headed upstream. River was calm, scenery was good and it was all very pleasant and soothing. Except for some speeding motorboats. Paddling upstream did take some effort and soon we just hung out the oars and lay down in our boats, soaking every bit of the calm nature experience. Few hours later we were nice and relaxed and headed back to shore. We met up with our team and chilled for a while under shade of a tree where they were camped. With the day drawing to a close it was time to head back home.

It was Monday and later that day we had to start heading back to Minneapolis. We did have one last event planned. It was wine tasting at local winery in Utica County. Small town of Utica had an almost artificial, Hollywood set feel to it. The local winery was known for its fruit wines but we weren’t going to restrict ourselves to those. We picked up our mark sheets and pencils and sat down at the Bar. Starting with the dry red wines, off-dry, fruit and then the dessert wines we tasted most of the 20 wines available on the list. 5 of us started the tasting, 2 bailed out in the middle and 3 that completed it including me, I must say were very shaky on our feet. As expected the really good tasting wines were the fruit wines and sweet wines but couple, I must remark were delightful. Impressed, we all bought a fair share of our bottles. Drunk, it was now time for food and we had a sumptuous meal at a local restaurant. The whole day had a very nice relaxed feel to it, very unlike our previous day.

All of us thoroughly enjoyed the experience and left content on our way back home.Looking back I think we got exactly what we expected from the trip - some adventure, some travel, some sightseeing and whole lot of relaxation. You have to do this every once in a while.