That phase of life when in your teens you went gaga over not just Hrithik Roshan, but also those turquoise & teal seas and the beautiful island in Kaho Na Pyar Hai! What if you suddenly got to reminisce about that phase while you are cruising on a speedboat at 100 km/hr speed right on those teal and turquoise waters?!

When I first moved to Singapore a decade back, I expected to see some beautiful beaches here, since, if not on an island, where else would you find beaches? But when that island happens to be a developed country and you resided right in the heart of the city and was totally caught up in the everyday routine of life, it didn’t matter whether there were beautiful beaches or not. After all, how many times have I even visited Marina beach all through my life? Anyway, a decade of living on an island had actually made me forget all about those deserted islands and pristine beaches.

When we planned for a trip to Langkawi, Malaysia, island hopping and mangrove tour were, indeed, part of our itinerary, like every other tourist. But, while reading through the itinerary of the package which we had chosen or even while watching a few YouTube videos of the places, I didn’t really notice the colour of the water.

Langkawi happens to be an archipelago which has geoforest parks having the status of UNESCO world heritage site.

Reaching Langkawi on a Friday evening, it was already 7 pm when we reached our hotel and, hence, we couldn’t do much that day apart from walking through some surrounding streets of our hotel and shopping at a supermarket.

The next day, we started our sightseeing with the island-hopping tour. It was some half an hour’s wait at the jetty before we could board the boat. It was an extremely unpleasant wait, though, thankfully in open space, with a strong smell of petrol in the air and no breeze whatsoever blowing.

I was distracted for some time initially, since my son, who was already scared of travelling by boat, had to sit amidst strangers since we boarded the boat last and couldn’t get seats together. I had to keep turning around to check on my daughter and son.

After some minutes, the beautiful landscape dotted with hills and hillocks on the edges of the water started grabbing my attention.
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One thing that often feels surreal in my mind nowadays is how much travel I have been doing in the recent times. A little more than a decade ago, there was this craving in me to visit a lot of places. At the peak of my blogging spree, I read about a lot of places in travelogues and travel blogs and very badly wanted to see every one of them.

As I tick off Hampi, Badami, Pattadakkal, Aihole, Mahakoota, Banashankari, Madurai, Rameswaram, Cambodia and Myanmar from the destinations list, all visited within a span of one year, it indeed feels surreal that I have finally visited so many places that I have only been reading about so far!
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When we started planning for our vacation to Myanmar, every book or travelogue mentioned that you will be greeted with ‘Mingalarbar / Mingalaba’, Myanmar’s very own version of ‘Hello’ except that it means a lot more than just a ‘Hello’, since it is apparently derived from the Buddhist Pali word ‘Mangalar’ meaning ‘source of prosperity, blessing or anything joyous or auspicious’.

We were first greeted with a ‘Mingalarbar’ at the security check at Changi Airport, Singapore. After that, right from the drivers to Hotel staff to shopkeepers, everyone everywhere continued to greet us the same way. There were even those that went to greet us with a ‘Namaste’. Greetings apart, the entire set of people we came across all through our trip turned out to be very courteous.

As the plane was getting ready to land in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, all that was visible was water everywhere with patches of land replete with development and buildings.

I didn’t quite fully know the magnitude of Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers at that time.

From the moment we came out of the plane at Phnom Penh International Airport, I kept getting a feeling of home, read India, all through. The airport didn’t have anything special enough.

Maybe it was the autos (and that too Bajaj autos!) and two-wheelers all over the congested roads.

Maybe it was the small/low-rise buildings forming the major part of the place or maybe it was the congested markets or maybe it was the dozen two-wheelers parked haphazardly everywhere,

Or maybe it was the flooding of roads in ankle-deep water just after a very short spell of heavy rain.

Or maybe it was the way the tuk-tuk drivers keep running behind you to take a ride or maybe the presence of beggars outside all the tourist attractions and temples.

Or maybe the sight of cotton candy, popcorn, pinwheels and balloons sold along the Tonle Sap river promenade at Sisowath Quay was reminiscent of all those and more being sold in Marina Beach.

Or maybe the presence of our Hindu Gods even in Buddhist temples.

Or maybe because the Cambodians’ way of greeting each other by joining both their hands together just like our very own way of greeting.

But there were a lot of other differences. To begin with, Cambodia follows the ‘Keep right’ while driving on the road unlike UK, India or Singapore. This is because of the influence of French on them.

You see all signboards of shops written predominantly in their local language, Khmer.

Apart from cars, two-wheelers and autos, tuk-tuks form a major part of traffic on road. A few cyclos which are similar to the erstwhile rickshaws of India are there too.

There is not one but two currencies used here – U.S. Dollar as well as Cambodian riel – and all the shops here accept both the currencies.

Rivers, pagodas, Buddist temples, markets, museums, Government offices, the royal palace, high-rise hotels – all these are what makes up Phnom Penh.

More on Phnom Penh in the upcoming posts….

Good Morning! Hello from Kuala Lumpur International Airport! It’s vacation time and we have just embarked on our first real vacation after four long years! Cambodia is our destination and we are in transit in KL airport from Singapore.

I bid adieu to Singapore taking in the aerial views of Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and Esplanade and seeing the sky glow in its beautiful golden orangy hues even as the sun rose.

Singapore to Kuala Lumpur takes hardly 45 minutes by flight.

I saw some beautiful aerial views of islands, rivers and palm trees before landing in KL.

The airport in Kuala Lumpur reminds me of the airport in Hyderabad.

In a short while from now, we will be departing to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.