Munnar Anytime.....Every time! [God's Own Country-2]

Munnar Anytime.....Every time! This line I found somewhere on net when I was trying to collect as much as information on tourist places in Kerala before my planned visit in January 2011. What a place it is! After visiting Munnar really I found this line truest to its meaning.

Munnar, a small hill station located at altitude of 6000 ft in Idukki district of Kerala; merely 4-5 hours drive from Cochin Airport. Once you have visited this place you simply cannot forget its breathtaking ever expanding tea estates, various hydra projects’ tourism spots and sanctuaries. A fresh air filled with aroma of Spice to add up in to the list. In short a gateway to relaxing and rejuvenating destination.

This is the place where first time I saw a cardamom plant ever in my life! As we all know Cardamom is termed as Queen of Spices! Our driver took special interest and tried to explain us entire process of how cardamom is dried up and sold in market once it is harvested from plant. But to our irony of understanding his kind of Malayalam English we hardly understood a bit of it.

So after coming back from the trip I had to Google about the same. I must say it is quite long a process this queen of spices undertakes before getting into shape! Whoever is interested can find initial information from links as follows:

http://cardamomindia.blogspot.com/

http://www.plantcultures.org/plants/cardamom_production__trade.html

Following is few bits and pieces of information of the places or facts which I liked the most here.

Eravikulam National Park

The Western Ghats, Anamalai Sub-Cluster, including all of Eravikulam National Park, is under consideration by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for selection as a World Heritage Site.

26 species of mammals have been recorded in the park including the largest surviving population of Nilgiri Tahr (mountain goat), estimated at about 750 in number. IF you are lucky enough then you will be able to see one of them. I must confess luck was not in favor of mine so I couldn’t see any of them! You can also view Anamudi mountain peak which is the highest point in India outside the Himalaya-Karakoram mountain range from this national park.

Six mini-buses are operated by park staff as part of the visitor-management program as well as a pollution-control measure. Private vehicles are not allowed within the park. INR 35 is charged per head as an entry fee for Indian nationals. Foreign nationals are charged INR 200 per head.

Tea Plantations:

‘Taza Ho le.....’ yes you guessed it right, this is the tag line of TATA Tea advertisements on TV now a days! How apt it is...your inner self will be full of renewed and refreshing energy when you are passing by these breathtaking tea plantations in Munnar. I would suggest it is better to hire a two wheeler bike from local vendors in Munnar town to visit these plantations. Generally at rent of Rs. 300 per day bikes are available. The feel will be entirely different and more enjoyable if you roam around in Munnar in a two wheeler rather than a Car.

Neelakurinji Flowers

Neelakurinji a flower which paints the hills in blue colour once in twelve years in month of August to December. The Neelakurinji, was blossomed last in 2006. Yes I missed it that time but again next year i.e. 2012 I have a chance to see them blooming. I am not fool enough to miss that one so Kerala this Ghanchakkar will come again in 2012 be prepared!!!!

Apart from above there are places like Mattupetty dam, Top station, Echo point which you can visit and get lost in serenity of Munnar! Hope I can visit this place anytime and everytime I visit Kerala!!!

God's Own Country-1

Recently I got chance to visit Kerala. What a trip it was...! A break much needed for all of us. I have so many things to share from my Kerala trip. I will narrate in parts this time and try to bring some unique flavours of Kerala god’s own country!

Glimpse of beautiful Kerala started as soon as we arrived at Cochin Airport. Airport is having traditional Kerala architecture outlook. Most prominent feature in Kerala’s architecture is its gabled roofs. The moment I arrived in parking area south Indian scene was totally set. Men wearing Mundus [White dhoti...Traditional Kerala attire for men]..... Ladies with lots of flowers in their hair.....ahhhh south Indian flavour everywhere setting mood of the trip!

I had hired cab from http://www.savaari.com/ which was going to be with us for our entire Kerala trip. One of the biggest worry which was occupying my mind while I was planning for the trip was concern to have cab driver who can speak either Hindi or English to avoid any communication hassles. Still my Chile trip and my adventure with Spanish language during those trips were totally fresh in my mind! I never wanted to go through same situation again. I had given call and reminded the tour operator minimum 10 times for arranging a Hindi / English speaking driver for our trip; still I was not confident that I would get the driver perfect!

As they say what we think same we get! Same thing happened to me also. My doubt came into reality and our cab driver named Saiju hardly knew any English words :). Hindi language was totally out of scope for him!!That was the First puncture in my so called over excited wagon wheel of the Kerala trip. In my own country also I was in same situation which I faced in Chile! Why Why Why me always! :(. Again I would have to depend on sign language more rather than spoken language in order to communicate with this fellow. I never wanted to experiment on sign language again due to backlog of my horrifying experiences in Chile for the same.

Here comes my mother’s first instruction for me before entering the car: “Hetal order driver, not to play any south Indian songs!” I couldn’t stop laughing as our Madurai trip resurfaced in my memory lane! Hmmm...Mothers can never forget you know! Somehow I managed driver to agree my mother’s terms and condition. Finally our journey started from Cochin to Munnar.

Munnar is a hill station located around 135 kms from Cochin. It takes 4-5 hours drive by road to reach Munnar from Cochin. After almost 2 hours drive my mother triggered a funny conversation.

My Mother:”How big this Cochin City is Hetal? See we have started from airport for last 2 hours and still continuously on both sides of road we are seeing residential buildings. Ask driver when we will reach highway and when this city will end? “

I tried my level best to make Saiju the driver understand query of my mother! And you know this time I succeeded in that. Yuppie....I also do learn and improve upon my weakness!

Here is Saiju’s answer: “Madam, this no Cochin, 4 cities over. This national highway. Kerala chota road, chota city, near city!

In short he wanted to tell that Cochin city got over long back. After Cochin City we had crossed another 3 cities and now we are going through 4th city! We never realised it! In Kerala all cities or towns are very much connected to each other, hardly we could find out that now one city is over and another city/town has started. We are used to seeing a huge empty plain land and farms between two cities which clearly demarks the boundaries. But here we found almost all towns or villages in Kerala are totally inter connected with hardly any demarcation between them! Wish our international borders also become like this one day!

The road which my mother was naming as city’s internal small road actually turned out to be a National Highway! We couldn’t believe that for a while and thought that this driver is joking! But after some time I saw a sign board of national highway which proved that Saiju was correct. We were indeed on National Highway which was hardly 8-9 feet wide! In spite of such narrow highways or roads, we never observed any traffic chaos or accidents anywhere in our 9 days road trip. Simply Smooth and silky journey! One of the reasons to make me fall in eternal love with this god’s own country!

Masti @ Matheran

One of the lazy week end…decided to spend in Matheran along with my friends. Turned out to be a nice refreshing weekend thanks to calm and peaceful Matheran. Matheran is the smallest hill station of India, located around 90 kms from Mumbai, on the Western Ghats range at an elevation of around 800 m (2,625 feet) above sea level. Matheran is connected by toy train to the mainline rail route at Neral Junction. Neral Junction is well connected by local trains from Mumbai and Pune.

From Neral Railway Junction even sharing taxis are available which charge Rs.60 per person and drop till Dasturi Car Park. Dasturi Car Park is the point beyond which no vehicles are allowed to reach Matheran town.We preferred to walk  for 3 km from Dasturi park till Matheran Town.

Our walk through red dusty pathways was although tiresome [due to layers of fat on our bodies!!:) Indeed it was just amazing. Matheran is popular amongst trekkers. All trails in Matheran are well marked. So if you decide to explore the place by walk also getting around is not so difficult in Matheran.

 Matheran is an eco-sensitive region, declared by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India. It is one of the few places in the world where vehicles are not allowed. This is the uniqueness of the place, makes you feel like you are again part of historic era where you have no vehicles around. If you want to roam around the place you either walk or hire a pony/ hand pulled rickshaws.

There are so many Parsi heritage bungalows which are converted into Heritage hotels or resorts in Matheran.  Most of them have head office in Mumbai from where booking can be made in advance. Even so many tourist agencies are there just outside Neral Railway station for people like us who do not do advance booking of hotelsJ.

No noise pollution of honking horns or no air pollution – in short divinely peaceful place where you just get lost in serenity of natural surroundings.  You listen sweet songs of birds when you get up from bed; wherever you see around you find dense green forest and soothing smell. All in all a paradise to be in. An ideal place to spend a lazy week end.

Atithi Devo Bhavah...

Recently I had a chance to visit Adalaj ni Vav near Ahmedabad during holidays of Janmashtami. To give brief about this place, the term ‘Adalaj ni Vav’ is gujarati word  which means ‘A step well of Adalaj’. It is a master piece of magnanimous Indian architecture of Ancient Indian era. Adalaj is small town located near by city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat –India. One can easily reach through Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway route by road within 30 minutes from Ahmedabad. This step well was built in 1499 A.D. by Queen Rudabai. It is said that following its construction (which took 15 years) the entire workforce was killed-off to prevent any rival ruler or realm from replicating its work. 

When I entered premises of this step well in 2010 I was astonished by its cleanliness!! My eyes could not believe that this is the same rotten place which I visited along with my friends during my College days way back in 2004-05.

This was the scene at same Adalaj ni Vav in 2004-05. Although stone carvings of the well impressed us but pile of garbage kept here and there inside and outside Step Well’s premises depressed us at the same time. Most of the tourists whoever had visited this place earlier had put their name with charcoal here and there on walls of the Well. Also so many wrappers of empty food packets and beverages were lying inside the premises. Ugly act of few idiotic people’s urge to make their name remembered forever by writing their names on walls was spoiling the marvellous beauty of the Well.

Why people do think that by writing their names on wall of historic monument they will become eternal? Or rather I believe that’s the only way those stupid people know to make count on their names. They lack any other skill to get noticed in people’s eye otherwise!! Whatever it may be but as a tourist to that magnificent historic place of India we were not at all happy to look all this ugliness.

But what a paradigm shift in 2010!!! Here I go again to the same place; to my surprise the premise out side the well was neatly cleaned and maintained. There was a decent garden made outside the well for people to rest and enjoy with family. Inside the well all those idiotic names and funny jokes were wiped out from each corner and wall.

There was only sheer beauty of stone carvings and architecture of the Well in front of my eyes. Being a Janmashtami holiday there were few tourists also inside the premises around 100 of them. But at no place I found single peace of waste garbage. People were calmly roaming around the place and enjoying the scenic beauty of the well. What a drastic and positive change in 5 years!! I was very happy to see at least one historic tourist place in India getting back to its glorious well deserved respect amongst tourist.

I know still there is much more left to be done like proper parking arrangements are not there or decent hotel/ restaurant facilities also absent. But still The step well premises and its internal beauty is well preserved now.. and I was so proud to look it in this shape…

While coming back I was thinking about this facelift of the Adalaj ni vav. How and who would have made this to happen. So many probable reasons came in my mind which may be driving force behind this paradigm shift.

1. May be it was due to recent visit of Amitabh Bachhan and his shoot for Gujarat tourism Advertisement. All employees of tourism department of Gujarat would have gone there and put their force in full fledge to clean this premises out and put it back to its previous glory. But I visited this place many days after that shooting happened and the gap of few days is enough to make that place dirty again with kind of inflow of local tourists it gets everyday…

2. May be it was due to Aamir khan’s Advertisement ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ for Tourism department of India. He has inspired common people in real sense and which has lead to generate awareness, respect and sensitivity towards our very own historic places amongst common man. http://www.incredibleindia.org/newsite/atithidevobhava.htm#3 
3. Or may be Generation Next of India our very own Youngistan has matured enough to exhibit self discipline to preserve such historic tourist places by them selves.

Whatever may be the reason but an avid tourist I would like to see such kind of paradigm shift at every place in all over India so that together we can make and vouch for ‘ATULYA BHARAT’. At the end I would like to share one link with you all which is created by Ministry of tourism http://www.atithi.org.in/. I really don’t know how effective it is but such a thought itself is driving us towards new beginning of the partnership of common people and government towards positive and Impressive India if we can really make it work and implement in true sense….

Ahhh..Lonavla

Hmmmm...I know I am back to blogging after loooong gap... but it is always better to be late than never right!

Recently I got chance to explore Lonavla and Khandala. What a refreshing and charming experience it was. These places get converged in to heaven during rainy season....I had heard only this sentence thousands of times but ahhhhh what an astonishing experience it was when actually I could feel it myself.

It was indeed a funny experience to watch madly rush of people engaged in activity of reaching out to every drop of waterfall to get drenched :). The vendors who were selling 'VadaPav' [Indian Fast food, popular in Maharashtra], Sweet corns, Bhajji [Very popular Indian fast food, especially in rainy season] right admist of waterfalls carrying umbrella in one hand and plate full of various food items just amused me.

Such an prompt and innovative idea to reach out to customers, create and cater to new markets for their business. Believe me each and every tourists present there were getting attended by vendors and their orders and payments were getting collected in such a orderly fashion. Shop owners who were having food stalls near by all these waterfalls; had also arranged life gaurds to save people if they slip down in water. Huuuh Boss here I saw corporate social repsponsibilty along with unique marketing technics as well. Do they really need to go to any MBA schools to learn all these management fundamentals? !!!

The beginning 2010....

Year 2010 started for me with my visit to One of South India's great temple towns, Madurai on 1st January, 2010. As per popular anecdote about this city- On the day the city was to be named, as Lord Shiva blessed the land and its people, divine nectar (Madhu) was showered on the city from his matted locks. This city was henceforth known as Madhurapuri, which later on became Madurai.

My mother was accompanying me this time. We started our bus journey from Bangalore to Madurai. It was scheduled to be only overnight journey and we were supposed to reach Madurai around 6 am. As usual when I am traveling it will never go smooth. Madurai trip was not different then that. You would have already guessed it by and large if you are regular follower of my blog.

I was as usual busy sleeping in bus and it was around 6 am my mother woke me up. She told that she is sensing something unusual the way driver was driving the bus. Bus was going Zigzag way on a straight highway which was very dangerous. In fact all passengers suspected that driver must be drunk that’s why he is driving like this. With so much annoyance for forced sacrifice of my dearest sleep, I got up and started to go towards driver’s seat to talk to him along with fellow passengers.

Suddenly one bus stopped just ahead of our bus, and that bus’s driver started yelling on our bus’s driver. Of course those hot headed dialogues between two drivers were in Tamil language and I could hardly understand anything out of it. One of my fellow passengers looking at my puzzled face came to rescue and translated their conversation. Our bus’s driver was getting scolding from other driver for his rash driving. Our bus’s driver was giving clarification that he is feeling so sleepy that he is not able to drive bus properly.

Hmmmm poor driver was forced to drive by his manager. Driver told he was continuously driving for 48 hours throughout various tourist locations. Their manager was not ready to give them rest even to sleep. Due to heavy rush of tourists, manager was lured to cash in profits by making all their staff to do overtime. as demand was high and his resourses to cater to that demand were optimal . The end result was that all of us were suffering…

We called our tour bus operator and asked if he can arrange to send any other driver so that bus can reach Madurai. But he showed his inability for the same and instead he started scolding driver. Horrified driver asked us to get in to the bus and he was all ready to drive the bus till Madurai in that condition. All the passengers chose not to continue in bus. Luckily after around 15 minutes waiting on highway one state transport bus stopped. We all got in to that bus and continued our journey towards Madurai.

Unluckily that bus was having TV inside. Let me put it this way, TV was not reason for our bad luck but the Tamil songs and comedy shows which were getting showcased in that TV were definitely the reason for bad luck for me and my mother. My mother was really terrified by continuous torturing of those shows and its super high volume.

With great respect for Tamil language I am not demeaning it by putting this statement. But to a person like my mother who has hardly listened Tamil words in life, to tolerate all Tamil songs, videos, comedy shows for almost 4 hours was really hell lot of pain.  We were like aliens in entire bus… on completion of one joke in TV almost all passengers used to laugh like mad people and enjoy every bit of it. The same time my mother was having exactly opposite reaction on her face.

I couldn’t stop my laughter on observing this contradiction in reactions. Looking at my laugh my mother got more irritated and started scolding me –“Why you are laughing now? As if you understand all jokes which they are yelling in TV here.”  I told my mom that my stay of 3 years at Bangalore and 6 months at Chile with all Tamil teammate’s gang at least gave me tolerance level now to withstand this language!!! She got more furious now as I was making fun of her irritation on those TV programs.

When finally we reached Madurai by 11 am, my mother took big sigh of relief. After almost 4 hours I saw a smile on my mother’s face!!!!! We took auto to reach Meenakshi temple straight away. Temple’s huge, amazingly sculptured tower at least reset my mother’s mood and took her out of shock of Tamil entertainment which she got in bus!!!

The Meenakshi temple is the geographic and ritual center of Madurai. The temple walls, streets and finally the city walls (ancient) were built around the temple in concentric squares, symbolizing the structure of the cosmos. Ancient Tamil classics mention that the temple was the center of the city and the streets happened to be radiating out like the lotus and its petals. It is one of the few temples in Tamil Nadu to have four entrances facing four directions.

While driving through lanes of Madurai, for sight seeing, suddenly our cab driver stopped our car at one corner. There was one Muslim durgah located there and just besides it a sign board of TVS Company was there. Driver started narrating stories of TVS then.

How many of us knew full form of  TVS Scooty  - The famous two wheeler which we drive in India. TVS stands for ‘TV Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Limited (TVSs)’. Needless to mention here that T. V. Sundaram Iyengar started his first business venture in 1911 in Madurai. I found utter respect and proud for Mr. T.V. Sundaram in Local public of Madurai. For them he was like a superhero.

My cab driver was showing us the place where TVS got started. TVS started its operations just behind one  Durgah [the holy shrine of Muslim Saint]. The company offices located there remains closed during prayer time of this durgah. According to his words Mr. TVS had utter faith in this Durgah. As gratitude to this durgah, he promised to the priest that his company will forever maintain it from the company’s funds. Mr. TVS believed that blessings from durgah were also one of the driving forces in success of the TVS Company. This is Real flavor of India don’t you think so.

I am not sure how true this information of TVS and its connection with Durgah was. But because it was given by a local person who had born and brought up in Madurai and knew the place for 50 years, my instinct tells me to believe in his words.

One more confession here, it was during return journey from this great temple city; the idea of writing this travel blog clicked in my mind. And then starting a travel blog based on my travel experience became my New Year resolution for 2010.

I know by and large this is the only one New Year resolution in my life which I am able to implement until now!!!! This visit was milestone for me. It gave me strength to revive life with new hopes and aspirations. I could gather strength to bounce back in life with my original zeal which I had lost somewhere.  Hope this new beginning will continue, and will give me enough interesting travel experience to share here in my blog.

Close Encounter with Death @Cajon del Maipo, Chile

Surprised by the title?!!! Well you will understand why I chose to give this title to my post... as it unfolds.

My stay in Chile was nearing to its end. My return tickets had been booked. Yet deep down in my heart I was wishing to make for at least few of the long list of destinations in Chile which I could not visit during my stay. Before finally I bid goodbye to this wonderful Latin American country, I wanted to make one Ghanchakkar trip.

Cajon del Maipo was one of that. It’s a is a canyon (as shown above in photo) located in the Andean southeastern portion of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile.. This time I was lucky enough to get few of my colleagues also to join in this trip. On one fine sunny afternoon of Saturday we all started our journey towards this marvellous place.

We had done our stay arrangements @ Cascada De las Animas Resort. I have only one sentence to describe this beautiful resort i.e. ‘A stunning place to stay and let yourself get lost in nature’s beauty.’

My main motive to visit Cajon del Maipo was to go for White water rafting in River Maipo. What an experience it was!!! Rafting is indeed an exciting thrilling outdoor adventure.... not to be missed in lifetime...

That Day Maipo river was flowing between Level 3 to 4. For people who are unaware of the Rafting, let me share this information. The International Scale of River Difficulty is a standardized scale used to rate the safety of a stretch of river, or a single rapid. The grade reflects the technical difficulty and skill level required associated with the section of river for Rafting. There are total 6 levels are defined according to this scale. Level 1 is easiest while level 6 is termed as unraftable river.

After finishing our insurance formalities we straightway headed with our instructor for Rafting. Before it got commenced there was briefing sessions for all of us. On our special request instructor gave us additional session in English language. At the end of the session instructor asked “How many of you does not know to swim?” It was only me in the entire group of 24 people who raised the hand!!!!

It was really a good and thrilling beginning, to put on special rafting attire, to learn how to handle paddle... to learn how to follow instructor’s order in case of emergency situation....instructor again and again repeatedly told all of us that even if you happen to get thrown out of Raft because of Rapids just don’t panic. Just keep flowing with the water , make sure to hold on the paddle, As the paddle is very costly, we can’t afford really to lose it ....He also showed us the Rescue Kayak and place of the holding hook where we can hold in case of emergency rescue is carried out in the river.

I have shared few of the images of our raft and team in this post. Initial 2 or 3 rapids went past smoothly and we were enjoying each moment. Typical team cheers after passing across each rapids was awsome feeling. Our eagerness and adrenalin rush started reaching high...so as the Rapid levels and the water force.

 It was a real wild, swirly and chilly river- roaring at its highest pitch and inviting us to conquer it. For a little while river was little calm, so guide asked all of us if we want to feel the water of river we can jump outside the raft and swim for a while. But of course it was allowed for people who can swim!!! Even though he was not very well versed with English language his ability to guide the team was exorbitant.

Mani, My friend who was also accompanying me on the raft told me: “Hetal I am jumping in the river, I can’t stop myself to feel this.” I stopped her forcefully, telling that she should not take that risk. After all we are all away..far far far away from our family. What will happen if suddenly rapid will come, unnecessary risk we should avoid taking. Mani started laughing at me telling Come on Hetal coming for rafting that itself is biggest risk we have taken, but if you are telling no then I will not jump. I even don’t know why I stopped her from jumping in the river for only 10 seconds even though she knew swimming. But my instinct told me to do so. And I forcibly stopped her.

We were reaching to our halfway through. Mani was upset with me. She was keeping on making faces and cursing me for not allowing her to swim in that wild river. We kept on laughing and enjoying the rafting.

Soon the force of the water became so much wild; we could here only roaring noise of river rapid and instructions by our guide to paddle backwards and forward. Suddenly one big rapid came and guide asked us to paddle backwards fast. I started paddling don’t know why I was getting tilted and sliding slowly in the raft towards outer side....I could hear one voice from behind.. From my friend Arun..”Hetal paddle it hard don’t move yourself why are you tilting towards right... keep on paddling and I am getting scared....”

Banggggggggggg.... those were the last words I could hear. Suddenly I saw a big white wall kind of forming in front my eyes and immediately next I found myself deep inside water. Total blackout. There was no voice of anyone, no breath, no light. It happened in flash of second...I could hear only wild sound of roaring water.

I tried to wave my hand sideways, to understand where I have come suddenly. I got only water around me. Still I was not able to see anything, I couldn’t hear anything. But at least I could sense that I am flowing inside dark water. Except this my mind was not giving me any signal. I was totally clueless on the situation on what is happening around and within me.

After 5-6 seconds I could think that may be because of that wild rapid, I am actually thrown outside the Raft and now floating in the water. But I couldn’t understand why I am not able to see anything, as I was wearing life jacket, ideally I should be floating on the surface of the river.

I started now trying to take stock of the situation by waving my hands in upward direction. I found some rubber kind of material up like a ceiling wall. I started to raise my head also up, I got hit with that wall kind of material and my helmet’s inner ring which holds the head got broke. So helmet got slide till my nose covering my both eyes. Except that wall kind of stuff up still everywhere around me there was only water.

After around 1 minute floating like this finally I saw some light from the little gap of close to 1-2 mm between my nose and helmet ring. Suddenly I started listening voices of Mani.. “There she goes.. She is on left side of raft floating away in the river... save her ...Hetal hold the rope... catch the rope”...Instructor’s voice ...”Don’t panic... we will save you...try to catch the rope.”

Now I could understand entire situation. Actually I was sitting on the right side of the raft, that wild rapid thrown me outside raft in the river. After I was thrown in river, because of the direction of Rapid or the flow of river I actually slide underneath the raft. And that wall kind of stuff above my head little while ago was nothing but our own raft. I was floating underneath it in river. That was the reason I could not hear anything. After some time raft got drifted sideways so luckily could come on the surface of the water because of the life jacket which I was wearing. And that’s how I could start see some light and hear voice of people. Now it was rescue time for them to save me.

Interesting situation isnt’t it :). I couldn’t catch the rope thrown by my instructor because of the broken helmet was covering my eyes almost entirely, I could hardly see anything. I started drifting farther and away from my raft and team. God knows why but my mind was following each instruction given by the guide at time of briefing of what needs to be done in time of emergencies.

I didn’t breathe inside the water, when I was floating underneath the Raft. This actually avoided the ice cold freezing water of Maipo River to enter inside my body. It saved my body to get frizzed underneath water. I didn’t tried to swim against the flow of water when I came to surface, instead I kept on floating in the direction of the water flow of the river keeping my body in same position as we were taught to keep in case of such situation. This avoided any injuries to my body due to rocks and wild water rapids in the river. All these things my mind was following without my deliberation and knowledge actually! I was letting my self float in water keeping tight grip on paddle which I was carrying. For me my paddle was only companion which was accomnying me throught out that deadly incident :).

On failure of rescuing me through rope, guide sent Kayak [Which can be seen in upper right corner of the photo] behind me to catch me. Kayak is a small boat which has a covered deck and can cut the wild river water and its swirls very swiftly. These kayaks are handy as last resort for rescue operations when no other technique has worked. After around 5 minutes of floating alone in mid of water, I could hear some Spanish voice around me. Yes it was from the paddler of the Kayak. I was thinking why Spanish should haunt me here also where I am struggling between life and death!!!!

I shouted on top of my voice: “I can not see annnnnnnnnnythingggggggggggg.”

Paddler on Kayak: $$$$%%%%########%%%%%%

Me: No Espaniol..Ingles por favour...I

Paddler on Kayak: $$$$%%%%#####%%%%

Me: I can see anything. English please.

I started waving my hand and I could feel its Kayak I am striking. I got relieved that now my life will be saved, finally safety Kayak has come to take me from this River. But because my vision was obstructed due to broken helmet I couldn’t see the holding hook of the kayak that normally a person is supposed to hold during rescue operation. Instead I started to hold paddle of the Kayaker. As a result of that he lost his balance and kayak turned upside down. I got slide further away from Kayak as well!

It was this time I actually lost the hope. I presumed that now Kayaker is also in the water like me, nobody can save me. I need to keep on floating in river, now god will take me wherever he wants. So I just closed my eyes and started visualising each of my loved ones one by one. May be it was last time in my consciousness I was going to feel them before me death. These thoughts were keeping me engaged and this time water came rolling down in form tears from my eyes. This was only moment in entire incident where I found myself weak.

To my surprise again after sometime same Spanish voice got struck into my ear. Bingoooo ..ray of hope again of my survival. Soon my hand got struck to the rescue kayak again. I, like a blind person, started banging my hand on kayak’s side surface to get the holding hook to hold on. This time I was lucky, I could catch it. I could hear voice: ‘Si Senorita, $$$$%%%%%%&&&&’. I assumed I have done the right thing by holding some part of the Kayak and that tiny little boat started drifting me towards our main raft. After 2 minutes or so I started listening clapping and cheer sounds from so many people. That gave me hint that I am reaching towards my raft now may be.

On reaching near to raft, our guide pulled me inside the raft. Mani rushed towards me and hugged me. I still remember her sentence: “Are you ok Hetal?” On waving my head upside down in affirmation to her question, She uttered: “ Lucky mad girl, you must have enjoyed there no? Instead of you I sould have got thrown out in water, I missed that feel , How exciting :) and she kept on laughing”.

I busted into laughter listening to her words. Guide asked: “ Hetal are you good to go? We are still half way though, we have to finish entire stretch... shall we continue, will you take your position and start paddling again?”

I nodded my head and straight away started to paddle again for onwards journey. We reached the end point after 30 minute and crossing few more rapids even worse than the one which thrown me in river. But this time I conquered them all....In return journey to the base camp in the bus all fellow tourists were talking about me and how they rescued me...:) . One lady came near my seat and told:” Brave girl, Heard about you just now, in spite of being a non swimmer you held on and fought for life and continued to raft again till the end... bravo Indian lady..hats off to your spirit.”

Unforgettable encounter with death....indeed. This was my last adventure in Chile which was so much memorable.