As soon as I caught my first glimpse of this beautiful beach, I knew that my time in the Philippines was going to be magical. That first glimpse of cute beach resting huts and swaying coconut trees spoke volumes. I simply couldn’t wait to get to shore and explore.
We had encountered choppy waves at the Small Lagoon, but it started getting a little bad by the time we reached the entrance of the Big Lagoon. Once we got there, our guide once again gave us two options: kayak or swim. However, this time, even the confident swimmers looked wary. One tour-mate even decided to just photograph it using his drone and not even bother venturing into the water. A few of us decided to brave it – with kayaks, but even that proved to be a bit of a challenge.
There’s no doubt about it – Nepal is a traveler’s dream! With visa free access, a mixture of history, culture, mountains and raging rivers, this country is on every traveler’s bucket list. And being the base for the stunning Himalayas and amazing Everest doesn’t hurt either!
Nothing quite prepares you for your first sight of the Eiffel up close. I stood there for a good five minutes just admiring the view, whilst Maggie busied herself taking photographs. There was an ice cream stand selling ice cream at inflated prices, but that didn’t deter me from getting one. Now that I was here at the Eiffel, for a short while I wanted to be a tourist.
Supposedly, King Bladud (father of Shakespeare’s King Lear) contracted leprosy and decided to leave and travel the countryside, while disguised as a swineherd. One day, whilst travelling the Avon countryside, Bladud noticed the pig bathing in warm spring water, subsequent to which they appeared to be cured. Deciding to take a chance and follow their example, Bladud himself bathed in the hot spring water and found himself free of leprosy.
A quick evaluation and several detailed discussions later, this is the conclusion we reached: the 1 and 2 star tours were not safe for a variety of reasons: it was likely that they would not deliver what they promise; the boats themselves were of questionable quality and therefore subject to accidents like fire or sinking (we witnessed one such incident firsthand ourselves!).
Birishiri, a small town located in the Northern region of “Netrokona” in Bangladesh. The buzz and attraction about this place is mainly because of the crystal blue water in one of the lakes there, which is caused by erosion of the ceramic hills surrounding the lake.
I booked a one-way bus ticket from London to Paris via Megabus ( less than GBP 20) and arrived at the London Victoria Megabus Terminal for my 10.30 p.m. bus, with decent time to spare.
At this point I was tired and fed up of his attitude so, with my arms crossed and a “I don’t give a crap anymore” look, I told him firmly that he had two choices because I was not going to pay him – he could either take me back to the airport or else he could take me to the tourist police.
Once in a while an amazing opportunity comes along, and you just have to jump up at the chance. And, as luck would have it, I received an amazing chance to spend a wonderful weekend residing in a colonial bungalow snap bang in the middle of Duncan Tea Estate.
It's not always easy to fall in love with places. But Bichanakandi had just what was needed - the power to soothe the soul. And that too, just over the span of a weekend!
