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How to Get More Out of Koh Samui on a Budget – Part 4
Now that we have landed in Koh Samui, the next hack would be to: 6. Use Credit Card Instead of Cash This little hack we found out by fluke. The evening we reached Samui, we found ourselves mighty hungry. An 18-hour journey with almost zero sleep after a full working Friday had stripped us of our energy and we needed to refuel to get our vacay started – we hate wasting a drop of our vacation time apart from necessary sleep time. So, we freshened up and sat ourselves quite comfortably at a restaurant with a weird name – Top Ten BBQ – just around the corner of the ARKBar…
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How to Get More Out of Koh Samui on a Budget – Part 3
With choice of season and airlines out of the way, we can focus on: 4. Choice of Hotel I’m a little picky when it comes to choosing the stay. Cleanliness stays at the top of my list. I have a thing for natural light in the room, a nicely-done bed, squeaky clean floors and enough space to move about without banging into the walls or furniture. A well-maintained restroom with clean towels, showerheads and taps and no (atleast not visbile) rust marks or floor spots makes my day. Now that’s a lot to ask for while travelling on a budget. But I’m willing to compromise for the right price. A…
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How to Get More Out of Koh Samui on a Budget – Part 2
Following along the lines of the previous post, we come to: 2. Airfare Here’s what I do when I check flight prices: 1. Add my destination in Google Flights 2. Check dates during my chosen month for low price, choose one and hit enter 3. The lowest fare is shown at the top of the list. I scan through it to pick out the airline names that are offering a resonably priced ticket and also to check the connecting flight operators (if any) 4. Directly go on over to the airline’s website and tally prices Why do I do this? A) This gives me an idea about the airlines that…
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How to Get More Out of Koh Samui on a Budget – Part 1
Just weeks before our first marriage anniversary, this March, Tathagata and I found ourselves in a headspace to plan a short (somewhat weekend) trip somewhere nearby. A lot of research was done, a lot of suggestions were taken and quite a few destinations were listed in our memory notebook. But somehow none of those seemed to work out, there was always an excuse to strike each one out. In the end, we decided to drop it. Quite surprisingly (not!), a month or so later, on a Sunday evening, we ended up sitting side by side with a laptop, my debit card in hand, at the final step of booking a…
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Familiarizing with New Roots – A Visit to a Quaint Countryside
I am a god-fearing woman. I’ve been a believer for 28 years now. I believe faith is that littlest ounce of hope that pushes us to rise from the ashes of our deepest and darkest times and makes us better human beings. My faith in God has helped me find balance in life and answers in the most difficult situations. And this faith, I believe, stems from our roots. From the moment I moved into my new home, I’ve felt my in-laws’ devotion to their roots. I’ve watched them draw strength and inner peace from their belief in the God of their roots – Lord Gobindo (Krishna) and Radharani. The…
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Of Family Get-Togethers and Homecoming
I have grown up in a nuclear family. Maa, Baba and my wandering imagination. That has been my world till early 2018. And then I got married. My marriage unlocked a whole different world for me. A whole new world of relationships. I married into a large family – large enough to make the number of fingers I have seem too less to count all the siblings (let alone aunts and uncles and grandmothers) I was suddenly surrounded with. Oh my! A family too big to fit into one large house. And they were all mine – mine for life. Gradually I started to see how well-knit my new family…
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I Caught the Spring Cleaning Bug + 1 Confession
Come March and my winter-sun-soaking heart starts to slowly and dreadfully make its way towards summer. Except for the bounty of mangoes that this season brings, there isn’t a thing that would put this awfully hot, sweaty season in my looking-forward-to list. Tathagata argues – he wouldn’t trade summer for anything. As we started stowing away the woolens for the season, I caught the spring cleaning bug. There’s probably something about spring and de-cluttering. I have always seen my mother cleaning, shifting and organizing her way through the house during spring. Perhaps she passed that onto me this year. Organizing my closet has constantly been on my mind since a…
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How We Ushered in Spring With Music and Colours
I live in a country that is home to 1.37 billion people and well-above 20 festivals per year. Trust me, we cannot imagine life without festivals. So naturally every time a festival walks through the door, we get together and welcome it with open arms. No matter how different the rituals are, one thing remains common – togetherness. These festivals have a sneaky way of bringing families together. No matter where you are, come those special dates and you would feel an overpowering longing for home, for togetherness. I think a family that celebrates together, stays together. On one such special occasion, 50 people from different walks of life…
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One Year of Marriage: When the Rubber Meets the Road + 7 Lessons
Our wedding was majorly two things. Magical and fleeting. I was so busy going from one ritual to the next that before I knew it, I was unwrapping gifts! I felt different alright but I was yet to grasp the true meaning of the 3-day long ceremony. While unboxing one of those gifts I realized that a wedding is both, an end and a beginning. The end of a nerve-racking ceremony and the beginning of my marriage. When you are taking your 7 vows at the wedding altar, it is impossible to fully understand their gravity in the truest sense. You just sit side by side in front of the…
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Bali: Culinary Ecstasy
No trip is complete without food – local food, to be exact. And Bali conjured up dish after dish of mouth-watering delicacies with a pinch of yum and oh-so-much love. Being hearty eaters, we dug in. Our biggest culinary moments are all about gorging on exotic cuisines and we rarely say “No” – even if it is almost raw mussel. Our favourite things in life are big portions of food cooked with love and sunny days. Trust me, we are frugal that way. So while we were in Bali, we did what we do best. From fresh sea-food to drinks served in a treasure chest, we left no stone unturned. And today,…