I am selling several of the stuff in my possession. Below are the items, their condition, a tiny bit of info about them and the price I am looking to sell them. If anyone is interested, please do drop me an email. I am in Male' at the moment so you can pick it up from me anytime.

Here are a few photos from my recent trip bouncing around in India.

Ah! I just got back after two weeks of "backpacking" in India. With my girlfriend as my travel buddy, we hit parts of the state of Kerala and Tamilnadu - Trivandrum, Kochin, Ooty, Mysore, Coonoor to name a few interesting cities. We were able to pull off the entire trip on a looowww budget of 200$ or so for the entire trip - minus the Maldives-India air tickets ofcourse.

We stayed at low class lodges; some had walls that were peeling off, some had bed covers of questionable cleanliness and all had bathrooms with low toilet seats accompanied by broken/no flushing mechanism. Despite that, for some weird reason, most of them had a TV. I kept to trying out and eating mostly Indian sort of food at standard Indian food stalls. Masala dosa and South Indian Idli passed my taste bud tests . The India chai (tea) became one of my favourite drinks. It tastes heavenly compared to the normal "packet" tea we drink usually. The dodgier food stalls seemed to make better chai than the (better) restaurants - really!

Traveling around was what took the most time out of our schedules. It was a very tiring activity too. However, traveling around was easy thanks to their extensive bus system. We avoided the more expensive auto rickshaws and chose to acquaint ourselves with the cheaper-yet-crummier buses which turned out to be a really fantastic mode of travel in India. We traveled mostly during night time and spent daytime exploring and sightseeing. The buses make stops every few hours for food to fill the hungry stomachs and also for toilet escapades to empty up the screaming full bladders.

Fending off from all the "businessmen" that kept on popping up every now and then annoyed me heaps - they don't bugger off when paid a 1 rupee coin unlike the myriad of beggars that pound at you for some money. Almost everyone seems to attempt to swindle you out of some money - so when it comes to ANY monetary transaction one has to be on total guard. I reckon this is especially true when they figure out we weren't locals. Sadly, we spoke zilch of Hindi and thus were easily marked as being "foreigners". That said, the younger generation was admittedly more helpful - they kindly gave us directions and (most in Kerala) seemed to speak good English.

It was definitely a fun and enjoyable trip. The temples, the palaces, the gardens, the museums, the galleries, the backwaters, the tea and coffee plantations, the mountain tops, the waterfalls, the journeys to-n-fro, the people and the animals made the sightseeing very exciting. However, what impressed me most of all, was the harmonious coexistence of all that diversity that populates the land. It was very impressive indeed!

I just returned from a stay at the just (officially) opened Water Villa at Meedhupparu resort. This new all-water-bungalow addition to the resort is the more luxurious, posh part of the resort and is sectioned off from the rest of the resort. The Water Villa (WV) has several spacious water bungalows with a very attractive interior and a personal sea deck for sunbathing and relaxing. The sea out the bungalow deck is well populated by marine life and made for a good snorkelling. There is also a trained butler assigned to each room to help out with any need the customer may have. The WV restaurant carried fine dishes and surely prepared some of the more delicious dishes I've had in ages. There is also a open spa, where scented oil massages can be taken while listening to the hypnotic sound of the waves lashing onto the beach. It surely made me drift off into a deep, deep relaxing sleep...

I liked the place overall. I am refreshed, energized and back in Male' ready to have the peace attained at the resort to be spoilt by the "developed", over-populated and noisy environment that Male' so proudly promises.

I spent the past few days at Kuredu resort. I have not been to a resort for years now and this was certainly a good relaxation getaway. The resort promotes "no shoes, no mobiles" and had only one little (expensive) cybercafe for internet. Thank god for the presence of Dhiraagu GPRS, otherwise I'd have been left dead in the water with no internet access. That can be very scary, indeed. The island the resort was on was quite big in comparison to most Maldivian islands I'd say. It took me a good hour to walk much of it. The resort seemed to have a large number of Maldivian employees and they were all (surprisingly) a very helpful and smily bunch.

The lagoon surrounding the resort was rich with manta rays and baby sharks. In fact, one of the most memorable moments at the resort was seeing the emergence of four large black manta rays swimming together in unison under the well lit lagoon surrounding the jetty protruding into the sea. The elegance of their movements and the ease with they seemed to glide in the water was just amazing. Additionally, the side of the island facing the famous Maldivian sea known as "baraveli kandu" sure seemed to be abundunt with "baraveli". It was quite amazing to watch baby baraveli tag along with the mama/papa baraveli along the beach line. "Baraveli" is called "hermit crab" in English and are a very interesting animal. My brother brought home three big hermit crabs late 2004 and they've lived in our house since then, subsisting by themselves in the "kashi veli" sand that texturizes mom's home garden/veranda!

Here are a few photos of the resort...

I arrived in Maldives this morning. I've had a tiring two days of packing up my stuff and moving out of my room. The sleepless, restless working had left me shattered and tired - so much so that I kept falling asleep in and out in broad day light, even in mid conversation/thought! The lack of proper food intake probably contributed to this near delusional state of mind. (I dispense the extra details in case someone wants to replicate the effect :p).

Male' looks changed on the superficial level - just like the superficial lives that the superficial people here live and love to live. Really feels like the same 'ol home sweet home really... sigh.

The temporal variable defined for marking time spent by a human, more commonly called "age", is something people place a breakpoint on and hold celebrations upon a change occuring. My "age" variable incremented today - another year gone by, closer to death and so many things that I want to do remain undone. So many things staying at an elusive distance - tempting me to live another day to explore the possibilities. Hope the coming years bring me better, umm... luck! Oh yes, on a more optimistic note, I am "thankful" for all that I am "blessed" with.

Happy birthday to me