Last sunday I had been to this boat house near mahabalipuram, an excellent place with backwaters from the Bay of Bengal. It is located 15 kms from mahabaliburam and approximately 1.5 hr drive from Chennai.
When my friend invited me to go to this place, at 1st I was a bit hesitant. And when I heard this place is full of water sports, I thought one really needs to be fit to get involved in such activites (the truth is, I dont know how to swim!!!). But actually I was totally wrong. All you need is a fun loving mind...!
We reached the place at around 7.30 ish, had a light breakfast and we were, all set to begin...
We were given Life jackets. To start with, all nine of us boarded a motor boat and headed to the ocean. It was a 30 minute boatride in the backwaters before we reached the ocean. And I must appreciate the scenic beauty of the place. The green coloured water, and trees on boths sides and most importantly the birds... there were 100s of them.
We went inside the ocean and spent nearly an hour in the cold water. After which we took a 'tender coconut break' for 15-20 mins. Now comes the best part... We hired a fishing boat (motor boat number 2 - courtesy - the local fishermen) and went inside the sea. after travelling for about 10-12 kms we halted at a place. all we could see was water, in all directions. I was a bit scared to jump into the sea, inspite of the fact that I was wearing the life jacket. many of my friends took a dive. And we did some fishing too...
when one of our gang members, Indra, found it difficult to make it back to the boat, I went for the rescue and saved her... (somebody pls nominate me for the 'red & white' bravery award)!!! I am pretty sure that the 8 people who came along will be laughing out loud on reading this... but atleast let the rest of the world think that I am a hero!
When my friend invited me to go to this place, at 1st I was a bit hesitant. And when I heard this place is full of water sports, I thought one really needs to be fit to get involved in such activites (the truth is, I dont know how to swim!!!). But actually I was totally wrong. All you need is a fun loving mind...!
A little bit about the gang... We were a group of 9 people. except for me, everyone else was really fit and they go on regular treks. I was the odd man out. but i did manage to have super awesome fun... :)
We started from Chennai Thiruvanmiyur at around 6am (getting up so early on a sunday morning - not at all easy!). 9 of us went in 3 cars. early morning drive on the ECR (east cost road) was a real treat. Myself, Sagar and this really cool Mexican dude Poncho (Alphonso) went in the saame car. While we were on the move, Poncho taught us a little bit of (Spanish). We returned the favour by teaching him some 'really good words' in Tamil and Hindi.... en route we had a couple of pit stops.
We reached the place at around 7.30 ish, had a light breakfast and we were, all set to begin...
We were given Life jackets. To start with, all nine of us boarded a motor boat and headed to the ocean. It was a 30 minute boatride in the backwaters before we reached the ocean. And I must appreciate the scenic beauty of the place. The green coloured water, and trees on boths sides and most importantly the birds... there were 100s of them.
We went inside the ocean and spent nearly an hour in the cold water. After which we took a 'tender coconut break' for 15-20 mins. Now comes the best part... We hired a fishing boat (motor boat number 2 - courtesy - the local fishermen) and went inside the sea. after travelling for about 10-12 kms we halted at a place. all we could see was water, in all directions. I was a bit scared to jump into the sea, inspite of the fact that I was wearing the life jacket. many of my friends took a dive. And we did some fishing too...
when one of our gang members, Indra, found it difficult to make it back to the boat, I went for the rescue and saved her... (somebody pls nominate me for the 'red & white' bravery award)!!! I am pretty sure that the 8 people who came along will be laughing out loud on reading this... but atleast let the rest of the world think that I am a hero!After almost 2 hrs we came back to the shore around 11am and we had another 'tender coconut break'. we now boarded the boat number 1 and headed back to the boat house.
the water scooters and the speed boats were waiting for us. All of us took the water scooter for a 10 min ride each. it was very interesting and enjoyable. It was like attending a personal interveiw after a group discussion :-) the scooter does a maximum speed of 70kmph, but since it's on water, you feel as if its going at 120kmph or something... The life guard who comes along with you on the scooter gives you maximum liberty in riding the scooter the way you want, since it's only in the backwaters and not in the ocean. the speed boat (3 people along with the driver) was also equally good. Poncho took a kayak and spent almost 1 hr rowing it around the place (man you need a lot of patience to go kayaking)
It was already 12.30 after all this. we came back to the car and we ordered some sea-food. Food was'nt all that great there... finally at around 2pm we all left the place and headed back to the city.
I was one memorable sunday!!! Would love to do this once in every 2 months...
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