Oh, what a vacation it was!

I'm back people, in case you are curious. No, tennis did not happen. Neither did the three novels. It was quite a disappointment to carry the tennis raquet all the way to Vizag, to reside in a room so close to the courts, but not to be able to play just because Rohit was getting engaged. I mean, don't you agree that people just can't set their priorities right these days?

Anyway, what did happen was photography. In abundance. I shot five rolls in six days, and I still used to run out of film by the end of each day. I did get some really nice shots, which I am going to upload over the next few days.

On 11th, I and Gina drove down the highway from Vizag to Bhimunipatman (popularly known as Bhimli) on a Kawasaki Eliminator (owned by Rohit's dad). I must say I am impressed with the engineering of the bike, and also with the roads in Vizag. Having lived in Pune for almost a decade, I had forgotten what a plain road looked like, so the drive down the highway was a nice reminder of my childhood when I used to speed down the roads in my hometown on, hold your breath here, my mom's Luna! Yes, I used to unravel all of 2.3 BHPs which the lean-and-mean Luna packed on those roads (provided I was not going up a slope, in which case I had to add a few BHPs of my own). If you have gown up in the 70s or 80s in India, there is no way you can't remember those mopeds which looked either like skinny motorbikes or obese bicycles, depending upon whether you usually look at the glass as half full or half empty or whether you prefer to gulp from the bottle.

I digress. The highway from Vizag to Bhimli runs along the coast and, at around 22 kms, is the longest piece of highway in India along the beachline. The drive was absolutely fantastic because:

• There was very little traffic on the road once we were five kms out of Vizag.
• It was late afternoon, and sunlight was not too harsh.
• The temperature was perfect and the air balmy.
  
• The road was impeccable, for most part.
• The bike handles very well.
• We were in a good mood, on account of being on a holiday.

Anyway, we saw many sights, stopped every two hundred yards to shoot photos of beaches lined with coconut trees till a point when we realized that printing all those photos would require most of those tree to be cut.

Towards the end of our drive, just short of Bhimli, we saw a bunch of fishing boats lined along one of beaches, so that just the tips of the boats were visible from the highway, jutting over elevated dunes like dogs resting their snouts on a pillow. We decided to stop and investigate further and much to our delight we discovered that there were photo opportunities everywhere. Sunlight was perfect, colours were vivid, and we still had a sufficient number of shots left. So, ladies and gentlemen, I present some of the most prized shots of the trip. Please do let me know what you think of them. And keep checking for more.

Adios.

Tricolour

Fisherman's eye view

Untitled

French