Tuesday, 14 March 2023

Solo-trip amidst Coronavirus pandemic to Langkawi - Part 2

Sorry folks for being away a long long time. Was caught up in a lot of things simultaneously. As far as I remember, I had shared only my first day experience of solo-traveling to Langkawi. I had already started planning my second solo travel to Perhentian Islands in my head. But unfortunately too much has happened in the last 2 years, I returned to India, I was subject to prejudice & chauvinism in my previous organization which had taken a serious toll on my mental health. In this age of Gen Z, mental health is of highest magnitude for folks like us who are drowned in deadlines & project deliveries. Anyway, back to my Langkawi trip which I undertook when the whole world was in the middle of a pandemic & I am happy that I took the decision of solo-tripping.

You can read all about my 1st day at Langkawi & how to reach there here: Langkawi Part 1.

On the 2nd day I decided to travel to North, North East & Southern parts of the island. This is the reason I always opt for a self driven car - no dependencies on any third party/ies. My 1st halt was at at a wild beach adjoining the Pantai Pasir beach. I realized why the beach was called "wild" as it is completely secluded and isolated. I didn't see any traveler or tourist come to this beach & I had a wonderful me-time here. The only negative aspect of visiting this beach solo was nobody to take my photos so I had to rely on my selfie-taking skills.

Wild beach




This beach is also a classic small scale example of an estuarine system/depositional environment as one can see the picture on the right (terms which only Geologists can decipher 😛).

Thursday, 10 September 2020

Solo-trip amidst Coronavirus pandemic to Langkawi - Part 1

Update: The prices mentioned in my blog are all of 2020. My viewers who are or will be visiting Langkawi AFTER 2020 - the prices are subject to change.

Tried to click a panorama of the jaw-dropping view from the Skybridge
Did the header catch your attention? Of course! That's what it was supposed to do. So we are now in the 9th month of 2020 - a year in which surely I consider myself "fortunate" enough to have witnessed & lived through (till now) the year of the millenium. After relocating to Malaysia with a new job, I was in my own utopian bubble, fantasizing all the beautiful places I would be traveling to slowly. But alas! The Covid-19 or Coronavirus pandemic transmitted all over the world in such an accelerated rate before even the countries could realize how pestilent it is. More than half of the year is almost gone but a successful vaccine is yet to be invented.

Saturday, 9 May 2020

Backpacking to Kalgha Village, Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh

It's been quite some time since I published about our backpacking trip to Chalal village & Kasol. So after spending idyllic 2 days vegging out in Chalal village, we were ready for the next leg of our backpacking trip and that was Kalgha. We packed our stuff & left for the bus stop as the next bus was to arrive soon at 10.50-11 am sharp. The weather was charming with the sun just warm enough not to make us sweat in that October early afternoon. Soon our public bus arrived & all of us were not expecting it in the condition it was when it arrived - crammed up with the villagers & the locals, along with a small kid (I mean a baby goat here :D). We could have left earlier as well to avoid the horde (classic mentality of the quintessential "middle class" families, more so when they are starting out young), the timing of the previous bus was 9.30 am but we were confident that we wouldn't be able to wake up so early.
Parvati River at Chalal
Nevertheless, we boarded our bus and pushed our way through the multitude and secured a standing spot near the window with support. The driver was one hell of a driver, I think all the mountainous drivers are - they drive though the perilous roads everyday every hour all around the year.