It has been
10 years since we have been travelling together. Recently during lockdown, we
thought of making an album which would comprise of our travel photos alone.
Since all these years we have been storing them digitally, there were no
physical albums. So, we were going through the process of selecting &
sorting photos that needs to be printed. That’s when we realized that “A photo
indeed freezes not just that moment. It also carries a lots & lots of
memories along with that.” And that’s how the idea popped up in Dileep’s mind
of writing blogs on our travel.
Sri Lanka
was in our bucket list since long due to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Sri
Lanka for me meant nothing more than Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. But it was
in 2018 that finally the trip happened. And it was a trip which we thought got
almost cancelled even after a much planning & bookings which we had never
ever done with any of our trips. This trip was planned just because Dileep had
a colleague from Sri Lanka in his last ship. He gave a list of must visit
places. So, we wanted that trip to happen immediately. That’s how the trip was
planned that too when Dileep was still onboard. Dileep came back from the ship
on 9’th of August and the trip was booked for 16’th of August 2018.
The Sri Lanka Trip experience would be incomplete without telling about Kerala Floods. In 2018
Kerala received pretty much heavy rainfall that all the dams were full. We knew
the dams would be opened one by one and we never knew what would happen. Most
of the flights were getting cancelled those days due to rain which led to
difficulty in landing & take off of flights. We met my friends who were
residing in Africa & were supposed to leave the very same day Dileep
reached Cochin. They were also not sure about their flights till they reached
Africa. And the entire discussion during our lunch was about their flight
whether it would take off or not. My friend who was about to leave that day, was
at times busy calling the airlines, but was not able to connect with them. This
was just the beginning. Kerala was yet to see the worst days & so were we.
The 2018 flood created a number of records in the history. It was raining continuously from 8’th of August. All 14 districts were given red alert. Kerala being such a small state has 54 dams and that’s when we also came to know that these many dams were built in Kerala. Out of which 35 of them were opened for the first time in history which resulted more water & flood. Even many places were isolated. Our flights to Colombo were booked. It was scheduled to fly on 16’th August from Cochin International Airport. On 15’th Cochin airport was closed and we tried to contact with airlines from noon which we got connected in the evening. Finally, our flights were rescheduled for early morning from Trivandrum. Meantime, here we were getting news of trains being stopped in mid stations due to water on the tracks. Similarly, buses were stopped, as roads were flooded. Now we started thinking of chances of reaching Trivandrum. Dileep booked the train tickets to Trivandrum which was supposed to go till Nagercoil. But chances of us reaching Ernakulam South Railway Station seemed to be bleak. The railway station was just 2.5Kms. But with luggage & the heavy downpour, walking to the railway station was impossible. But somehow, he managed to get an autorickshaw and we reached railway station on time. On reaching Trivandrum around 3-4 AM, there was an announcement that the train which was supposed to go till Nagercoil is ending its journey at Trivandrum due to landslide ahead. Railway station was crowded and there was chaos all around. And luckily, we managed to reach airport somehow and finally flew to which was so called Land of Demon. Little did we know the wrecks going to happen.
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