Trang: Oooh! The water so cool.

Work seems to continue, but nowadays I get these little nice breaks. Like earlier I ended up in Langkawi and last week I was on a cruise from Mumbai to Lakshwadweep, an island in the South of India - absolutely beautiful. We took the superstar libra cruise from Mumbai. This is a Malaysian-owned cruise running to L'dweep and also Goa. I think it continues this route upto June, this year.

I never been in the ocean before and never in a ship, so this trip was already ready to provide me an experience - whatever. When I began to enter the port, my head had visions from the movies - lots of tourists, foreigners in bikinis and elderly couple. Well, as I entered the first thing I saw were these 100 kids from some up-market school! Nice kids, but they destroyed my fantasy. But for not long.

On the ship, while much of the crowd was the excited elder couples and the whispering newly married ( who seemed to be sleeping in their ornaments) we had for our pleasure - a run of the Gladrags Model hunt. A group of girls and guys, who probably are finalists in this hunt were all over the place. shooting, posing, stripping, getting wet. Unfortunately, neither the girls or the guys were my type! Lolz. How to explain to my friends, who were facing a breathing problem each time the models passed by?

Anyways, the ship is a big professional experience. There are many restaurants, which were well used by the guests. There is a Casino and of course the bars all over. However, the disc was empty almost always... to the point that the DJ would not do anything but keeping sorting his DVDs. Asking him anything was a waste of time.

The ship is 12 years old but kept absolutely fresh and new. The crew is from all over South East Asia and Nepal and a few Indians who I suspect were from Malaysia or Singapore. I found them either very lost and cold or very friendly. Two extremes.

Eventually, I found my favorite haunt in the bar at the Casino where the people at the bar were the friendlest and fun. This is the first time I checked out shooters. I do not drink much, but on these two nights I had a string of shooters - B52, Russian Challenge, Brain Damage, Tequila and names I cannot remember!

The cruise is full of live events - fashion shows, a very good live band, cabaret and more. But frankly I rather be where I can talk to people.

The journey was realy smooth. Not much rocking around and the waters quite calm. But else there was not much to see around but water and water and the splash the Ship made while cutting through. And of course the sunset. But guess, its not easy to spot a dolphin or a shark. I saw not one... Guess they do not pass this route or what?

When we arrived at Lakshwadweep it was awesome. I saw 3 different colours of water, crystal clear. We were at one of the many islands that make up the L'dweep islands. On the island were various activities - kayaking, snorkeling, diving, glass boat and more. And of course the village drive. Frankly the set up at the island is rather poor. The island is inhabited by malayalis and I think most of them are muslim. The village is quite crowded (for my view of an island) and goats all over and its not what one typically associates with an island deep in the ocean. It of course is better than Bangalore city where there is hardly any space and all traffic. But its just my little fantasy of 'exotic islands' don't match! But then who am I to decide other's lifestyle? However, keep your focus on the beauty around the island and its just fantastic. The colours of the fish in the waters and a range of other sea beings is just too much for a first-timer like me.