A Vacation to Remember!

Rise and Shine and Excitement!

It was finally the day we were to leave for our family vacation to Thailand! (I know ‘family’ and ‘Thailand’ don’t go hand in hand, but trust me we had a lot of fun. Continue reading please…) I jumped out of bed filled with excitement and a huge smile pasted across my face! I woke my husband, Neelesh while drawing the window blinds apart. The scorching sun too seemed gleeful that day. The entire day went by in giving the packing a final touch.

The Final Packing included making these cute impromptu Disney inspired luggage tags!

We reached Delhi airport a few hours early as I simply love being at the airports! I have an unexplained obsession for airports (provided they have an array of those colourful brand outlets & food court!). I love staring at the chocolate and toy stores, often ending up buying some. I can spend hours sitting in the bustling waiting areas there, reading a good book all by myself! Just writing about it makes me feel joyful! Anyways!

The gleeful me at the Delhi Airport

Family Reunion

After a dozen photo clicks, three Thai cuisines and an animation movie on the flight, we finally reached Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Neelesh and I were now supposed to head towards Neelesh’s Sister, Parul didi’s place. Parul didi along with her husband and twin daughters had been living in Bangkok for the past 3 years now. Neelesh’s parents had already reached there the day before. All of us had planned to leave for Pattaya the same day. After an hour’s ride in the cab, Neelesh and I soon reached Parul didi’s place. The tiredness from our overnight journey was overpowered by our following destination.

The ‘oh! so delicious’ Thai cuisine

As we entered in to the villa we had booked for our three-day Pattaya stay, we kept adoring it from corner to corner. We decided to unwind the day in the pool with cocktails, cards and local Thai cuisines. We had planned for some water sports for the following day, on a nearby island, an hour’s ferry ride away from Pattaya. I was thrilled as I was finally going to try deep sea walking tomorrow.

Having fun with family in the beautiful villa

When things took a different turn…

However, the next morning started with a few glitches. First of all, none of us woke up on time and had missed the first ferry from Pattaya. To add to it, the gas stove decided to break down the same day! We somehow managed to arrange for tea and breakfast from near-by stalls. After which I couldn’t find my passport (which was needed for the water sports). We somehow managed to reach the Pattaya pier and realized we had just missed the second ferry too! It seemed as if the universe didn’t want us to make it to the other island today.

We somehow made it to the island. The clear blue waters and fresh air made it worth all the trouble. The first water sport we were going to try was snorkeling. We soon changed into our costumes and got into a speed boat which would take us to a spot where snorkeling could be enjoyed the most. Our helmsman was a Thai native and didn’t understand a lot of English words, and well, we didn’t understand a lot of Thai words. We were to meet our guide at the snorkeling spot who would guide us in detail about the sport.

All smiles at the beach and island!

The bad day didn’t seem to end…

As we know, when sitting in a boat, it is important to keep both the sides balanced, or the boat can turn over. Since it was the first time all of us were sitting in a speedboat, we had little idea of how rapidly it moves and how hard it hits against waves. We were all overwhelmed with its powerful take off. We all sat tightly clenching the boat’s rods as tight as we could, when suddenly my phone slipped out of my open handbag and slid to the other side. Without a second thought, I leaped to get my phone and lost my balance and slipped. Neelesh, who was sitting next to me too leaned forward to grab my arm. The helmsman yelled something in Thai but before we could attempt to understand anything, the boat capsized and all of us were thrown deep into the ocean with the speedboat pushing us down. To add to our distress, only three out of us eight family members could swim. The first thought that came to my mind while I was drowning was, “God please save us this time. I’ll never ever get into the waters again, I promise”. That’s when I saw Neelesh extend his hand towards me. Gasping and struggling for breath, as I extended my right arm to grab onto his, I suddenly felt something behind me. I swiftly turned to check who it was, when I saw a shark like creature nearing me with a wide-open mouth. I shrieked my lungs out with all the energy I had!

“What happened Nitisha???”, asked Neelesh who was woken up with a startle from his deep sleep upon hearing my loud cry. “Did you have a nightmare?”

I couldn’t utter a word as the shark from my dream seemed so real. Soaked in sweat, my heart was racing, but I took a breath of relief as I realized we were sound asleep in our Delhi home and all of it was just a dream. Neelesh passed me a glass of water and it took me a few more seconds to calm down.

I guess COVID-19 has made me long a vacation so bad, I had to make vacation plans in my dream. I hope this pandemic gets over soon, and all of us can take that long awaited vacation, debarring the speedboat capsizing and the shark of course!

Do let me know in the comments section below if you too are longing or dreaming of a getaway far from all the panic currently going on.

PS: The above photographs are from our actual family trip to Bangkok that we took last year.

This Blogpost is part of the SpeakEasy Blogging Challenge hosted by Dipika and Ruchi and participated by 32 other amazing bloggers with the theme “Travel”.