shivbhargava's blog

TAJ CALLING-

It is said that one who turns to catch a last glimpse of taj, certainly comes back to see it again, so dear don't log on to this wonder otherwise you have to log it again

2-3 January-09- Next morning we reached KAVARATTI the capital island of LAKSHYADWEEP at 9 am . After normal routines we disembarked to small boats moved 2-3 kms to reach the SADDAM HUSSAIN beach. This was a big island looking to have all necessary tourists requirements along the beach. We had a memorable trip in glass bottom boats inside the sea moving 2-3 kms inside. The wonderful sea world was there, the big and small colourful fishes, 3 feet long turtles, live corals twinkling like bulbs , sea animons and many small creatures. This is the world we can only see in lakshyadweep . We had 2 hours long sea bath and knowing that this was our last sea bath of trip we were not willing to come out. After lunch we saw sea musium, aquarium ,enjoyed a beautiful sunset and then came back to our ship, the ship moved at 7 pm for our way back to kochi. Next morning we enjoyed our remaining time of trip at the ship deck , the ship reached kochi at 1.45 pm. Night stay at hotel classic. Next morning ( 3rd jan) we took our flight ( 7.00 am but it was late by 2 hours) reached Delhi at 2pm. By car we reached Agra at 7.30 pm. So dear friends here comes the end of our memorable journey to lakshyadweep. I hope the description will be helpful for you to plan your visit to the island. Any other detail you need for the trip , you are welcome

1ST JANUARY,2009- HAPPY NEW YEAR- So here we are. The very first day of the year and we are on the dream Island of the Laxyadweep. As we wake up in the morning , we greeted each other a very Happy new year. On the breakfast table in cafeteria it was a very pleasent view, as a gathering of more than 70 people were celebrating the new year occasion. After the breakfast we boarded on small boats to reach the 4 km away island MINICOY , from the ship. This were a bigger island not as calm as the kalpeni and yes the beauty of island is again uncomparable. In island from 9.00 am to 2.00 pm we enjoyed the sea bathing, rowing and enjoying the very cristal clear sea water. One can sea the marine world even from above the water. It was nice blue clear water with depth of 2-3 feet for almost 300 meters inside beach. After bath we had lunch and visited local village. Saw the TUNAFISH , which is exported from here. We enjoyed the sunset beside the beach and kids playing with the sand and collecting the shells from the sea. After tea in evening we came to ship at 5.00 pm . And then the ship started for its last destination of trip -Kavaratti and kept ourselves buisy with the seeing our photos . The people of the ship were enjoying with dinner and ship was mooving over the roaring waves of lookalike calm sea.

31st December- Next morning last day of the year-08 we reached KALPENI island at 6.30. From the window of the cabin when I looked outside, it was very beautiful view of blue water and at a distant a very beautiful island was also visible. We were exited to reach there, before that we got fresh and took the breakfast and then reached to 1st floor of ship to get over to the small boats to reach the island. This is also a daring experiance to board the small boats from the ship as the high waves make the small boats jump up and down and in between that you have to jump/shift from ship to the jumping boats, one has to be cautous.The kalpeni island was 500 meters away from the standing ship. We reached the island and were welcomed with the coconut water and then after rereshment the small boats again took us to further small island 500 meters away. This small island was very beautiful but full of rocks, we had to be very cautious and rubber slippers is important to wear for walking. Here we did snorkeiling ( swimming under water, to look for the hundreds of multi-coloured fishes) it is very enjoying . We enjoyed two hours of snorkeiling , in the process I missed my slippers in the water, my son missed his earplug. At 1 pm we finished the sea bathing , boating and snorkeiling and came back to initial island and took the bath and then lunch was served . After the lunch we took the rest and did walking around very silent island and very beautiful island ( photo attached). In autos we had the full trip of island, saw a hoisery factory and reached to the tip of island - kapeni. By 5.30 pm we came back to our ship . The evening new year party was waiting in the ship. Special orchestra team was arranged on the ship as this was also the first new year for the ship and its staff. After dinner we went to bed and skipped the new year party as we were very tired. At sharp 12.00 in night the ship whistled 12 times loudly and the captain of the ship announced HAPPY NEW YEAR to all the tourists.

30TH DECEMBER- After getting ready in the morning , we checked out the hotel classic and reached Sports office ( the official tour operators for lakshyadweep, got the tickets after the balance payments ( diamond class-17000/-,silver class-13000/-) and reached at Mattancherry wharf ( 1/2 km away from sports office)to board the ship- M.V. KAWARATTI. We boarded the ship at around 12.30 and took a full round after checking in our diamond class cabins 306-306. The ship had two (1-2) floors of bunk classes, 3-4-5 floors were having silver and diamond classes. The cabins of two bed were fully equipped with the bed, study table,chair,sofa, attached bathrooms with complete facility. At 1.30 pm the announcement was made for lunch, we reached the cafeteria and took the lunch, there we came to know many companions of our ship. The ship mooved at 4.45 pm , we observed the movement from the helipad at the top of the ship. The ship was commissioned on 20.7.08 , capacity of 750 passangers. After dinner we went to bed to sleep. Due to movement of ship we were having some nausia feeling so to avoid that one should have the medicines.