The Vacation That Changed Everything

By Nandini Laddha

Beside me sits a young woman my age, who incites a somewhat nostalgic feeling inside me- the kind where you desperately try to retrieve the memory of the face in front of you. It looks oddly familiar, like I almost know the person beside me or used to know her at some point in my life. I had been pretending to look at the clouds outside the window and looked away, fearing it might get uncomfortable for the woman, if I stared for too long. But the itch in my brain refuses to go away, like a puzzle piece that you just can’t wrap your head around- when you feel the answer is so close to you, almost at the tip of your tongue, begging to get out of your body.

The air hostess says my name- Ms. Roshni, would you like to have something to drink?

“Coffee, please.”

I watch the steam ballet into the air as the air hostess placed the hot cup of water right in front of me, on the tray table. She provides me with the coffee and milk powder sachets to make my makeshift airplane hot coffee.

“Hi! Sorry to disturb you but are you Roshni Mehrotra?”, says the woman who has been tickling at my brain for far too long.

“Yes. I am she.”

“I cannot believe it! Do you remember me? I’m Shanaya. We used to study together in Chandigarh. It has been-”

And just like that, the memories flood in like some invisible gate has been lifted off and I have finally got the access and all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

“Of course!! I remember now.”, I say, cutting her mid-way in my excitement, “Oh my God! It’s been such a long time! More than a decade! What a coincidence to have met you like this.”, I smile.

“Yes! That truly is one hell of a coincidence for us to be visiting Thailand at the same time and having taken the same flight too! How have you been though?”

“I’m doing great. How about yourself? Are you visiting or vacationing with someone?”

“I’m good too! I actually came on a solo trip as part of a tour group. There are 10 people in the group.”

“Wow! I also booked a group tour, as a solo traveler! Are you with Travelenture too?”

“No kidding! Yes!”

We both kept gasping at the never-ending coincidences between us. Same destination, same flight and the same tour too! It was starting to feel like serendipity, a meant-to-be, like the Universe had pulled all its strings for this curious spectacle to unfold.

“What have you been doing these days?”, I ask Shanaya as I blow on my hot coffee, disrupting the steam’s perfect Pirouette. 

“I am freelancing as a product designer.”

“I design websites and a variety of different products for my clients”, she adds looking at the clueless expression of my face and proceeds to show me her business instagram account.

She shows me the design concept of a punching hole machine, with hole sliders of different diameters and a better sense of precision as the machine is made of a transparent material. 

As I look through her account, I see a bunch of sketches and also come across a wood lampshade, with carvings inspired from Indian-handicraft designs. It feels surreal, almost unbelievable, that a person, who was not so great at art in their childhood, is now the creator of these beautiful sketches that I could not even imagine myself making, even in my wildest dreams. Life really does unfold in quite mysterious ways.

“They all look so beautiful.”, I say in awe of her account

“Thanks! I try to do my best.  What about you? Are you based out of Mumbai?

“Yes. I just shifted to Mumbai for my job. It’s only been 6 months. I work at a private equity firm as part of the investment team. We evaluate companies across various industries to see if they would make a good investment and try to generate a decent return for our investors.”

“You’re in finance. Sounds fancy! You always were so good at studying.”

I smile at her compliment as I finish the last of my coffee and give the cup to the air hostess and close my tray-table.

“Where do you stay?”, I ask

“I work out of Delhi. I was visiting a client in Mumbai and decided it would be easier to take a flight from here. Turned out to be a good decision for I got to meet you like this.”

“It was a great decision.”

The flight will be touching ground in the next half hour. I look at the window, admiring the sun, playing peek-a-boo with the clouds as the morning descends on us. 

I have always fancied going on at least one solo trip in this lifetime of mine. Yet the journey to D-0 (the trip day) was full of jitters. Being an introvert, I had always found it hard to put myself out there and as D-0 neared, my brain kept piecing all the things that could go wrong with this trip- from unable to gel with anyone in the group and consequently, drowning in my solitude throughout the trip, me being the only solo traveler amidst the entire group, getting severely injured during the trip and a whirlwind more of what-if situations as I lied awake through the nights leading up to the present day. Yet my brain could never, even in its wildest and boldest of thoughts, conjured up the situation that I presently found myself in.

As much as I would like to entertain the thought that I have found someone I know on this vacation, nothing can change the fact that Shanaya and I are mere strangers for each other. More than 14 years have passed since we were best friends and all these years of no contact has done irreparable damage to our friendship. I would not like to pretend, even in the slightest bit, that I know the person sitting next to me.

Unable to get out of my endless, unforgiving maze of thoughts, a jolt runs through my body, shaking it to the core. The flight has landed. Now, all that awaits is loads of fun and adventure for the next 6 days.

We collect our luggage and take our leave from the airport. I breathe in the fresh, crisp morning air which seems to smell different here. Maybe it’s the excitement of exploring this new country, maybe it’s the jitters of my first solo trip, maybe it’s the sweet scent of spring, or, maybe it’s the oblivion of what surprises could unfold in the next 6 days.

We spend the taxi ride mostly in silence; both of us tired from the travel. It was an early-morning flight and being a night owl, I had decided not to sleep at all, lest I end up missing my flight. Even the aircraft’s coffee couldn’t prevent a yawn from escaping me.

We are the first ones to arrive at the hotel. Our tour guide, Kanny, warmly welcomes us and presents a few refreshments while the receptionist hands us our room key. The Tour has a twin-sharing room policy and it no longer comes as a surprise when both of us end up becoming roomies. The universe really is giving this everything it’s got.

We make way towards our room to freshen up and relax a bit. The room turns out to be much better than my expectations of it. We keep our luggage in the small gallery near the entrance. I open the curtains and find that our balcony is overlooking the beach. 

It will be a few hours until everyone arrives and until then, I decide to indulge myself in some sweet dreams. As soon as I lie down on the soft, white bed, my body automatically shuts itself down, like a robot out of charge. 

I hear something, a voice calling out to me. I feel a flicker of someone’s touch on my arm. With half-opened eyes, I find myself in strange surroundings and an even stranger woman, almost yelling, “Wake up! You have to get ready. Everyone is downstairs for breakfast.” 

I open my eyes as the reality kicks in. I’m on vacation in Krabi, Thailand, on my first solo trip. The stranger woman used to be my best friend several years ago and is now my roommate for this trip.

“You’re finally awake. Let’s go downstairs for some breakfast and meet the group.”

“Yeah”, I say groggily as I let out a yawn. I wash my face and get ready before we go down for breakfast. 

The breakfast is a mix of English and Thai cuisine. They have your usual bread, butter, jam, tea, coffee along with certain Thai delicacies. I feel excited to try out a new cuisine and take a piece of the Thai breakfast item with some bread and butter and cold coffee.

We sit at the big table and our tour guide takes over.

“Hello everyone! Welcome to Thailand and the Travelenture family. My name is Kanny and I will be your guide for this entire trip. I come from a small province in northern Thailand and have been doing tours since 5 years. Why don’t we all start by introducing ourselves?”

We all give a short introduction of ourselves and how we came about taking this trip. The group seems to be quite culturally diverse, with people from across the globe. There’s a trio of girls, who have been friends since childhood, from South Korea, two couples from different parts of Europe and another solo traveler from Australia.

“For those of you who wish to try Thai cuisine, we have Khao Tom Mat. It is a dessert made with sticky rice and coconut milk, encased in a banana leaf. We will also have a Thai spread for lunch. Post breakfast, we’re going to visit the ‘Emerald Pool’ after a short stop at the ‘Hot Water Springs’ and at the end, we’ll see the ‘Tiger Caves’. The Caves have a dress code, so, please wear or carry trousers with you. We would be back at the hotel by late evening. At night, we have prepared some ice-breaker events to get to know each other better.”, Kanny said with a smile on her face.

“This is so delicious. You have to try this”, I tell Shanaya as I take a bite out of my Khao Tom Mat. 

“You can really taste the coconut and the banana leaf. I can’t wait to try their mango sticky rice.”, she says with a satisfied smile.

“Me too!”, I reply.

A small bus takes us to the Hot Water Springs and Emerald Pool, which is as blue as its photos on the Internet, maybe even bluer. 

There’s a small trail to reach the Emerald Pool. The entire trail is surrounded by different types of trees, pools and you can hear the insects chirping, trilling and buzzing. Along the trail, we see the Crystal Pool, which is huge expanse of water, reflecting the verdant surrounding it. I can feel the calmness of the water seeping inside me. The Emerald Pool looks straight out of a fairytale. It has a bright yet subdued blue to it and the water is so clear, you can even see some branches and logs lying at the bottom of the lake. I take the entire scenery in, trying to click a mental picture.

“Roshni! Come along. We’re taking a group picture”, says Shanaya.

I smile and make the infamous ‘V pose’, the peace sign as a stranger clicks our group picture. We change into our bathing suits at the washroom and go for a swim in the common pool, before heading for lunch. We have rice and Thai curries for lunch, which taste as delicious as it looks. For dessert, we have some ice cream from a nearby stall. I knew the post-lunch nap hit me hard when the 1-hr journey to Tiger Cave seemed like 5 minutes.

“The Caves have a hike for those who wish to go for it. It’s a medium-level hike, involving a lot of stairs. We’ll spend an hour here before returning to our hotel. See you in an hour!”, says Kanny.

“Do you want to go for a hike?”, asks Shanaya

“I can go, if you’re up for it.”

Halfway through the hike, I realize how unfit I am as I gasp for breath after climbing a measly flight of stairs.

“I really need to hit the gym once I’m back.”, I say

Shanaya laughs as she clicks a candid picture of me bent down with my hands on my knees, looking at the Earth for inspiration and strength.

We explore the caves at the halfway mark, admiring the stalactites, stalagmites. The trees surrounding the caves are especially unique with their trunks and roots being wide and flat instead of the usual round that is the norm. We pay our respects at a small temple in the midst of the hike and turn around to reach the base. I combat the heat with an iced coffee and she, with a mango smoothie as we wait for the other members to return. 

“Today was really beautiful. Everything feels so new and unique when you’re in a new country. It feels so good to have a break from the usual, mundane office routine.”, I say.

“I completely agree with you. Travel makes you realize there is so much more to life than just doing a to and fro between your office and home. I feel so tired but in the best possible way.”

“I feel like a curious child. Everything seems exciting and gives me butterflies, but in a good way. I don’t know if it’s the heat or something else, but the cold coffee here tastes divine.”

The group returns from the hike and we go back to our mini-bus and depart for hotel. The night is a melody of drinks, games and soulful conversations. We stay up till the wee hours of the night playing, laughing and chatting with each other. With this first day, all my former worries about solo travel also come to an end. 

 We wake up early next day for our island tour. I lather sunscreen all over and go to have the breakfast. I just cannot get enough of the Thailand’s amazing cold coffee and Khao Tom Mat. We take the mini-bus to the nearby beach and complete the island tour registration to get our boat tag. Soon enough, we board the boat with our life jackets and set for sail across the pristine blue ocean waters. As the boat gains pace, the sweet-salty wind hits me in the face and runs through my hair. I watch the white foam gathering near our boat, the sunlight sparkling over the crest of waves, looking as magical as ever. We have a fun time playing in the sea, clicking lots of photos with each other, trying to snorkel and ending up inhaling the salty sea water.  

“Maybe it’s the sea, maybe it’s the place. I don’t know but I feel good. I feel content. I feel alive right now. Like life is worth living again”, I tell Shanaya as we eat up fresh watermelons and collect our rice and curry box for lunch.

“Travel has that effect on people.” 

“The sea here is so blue and the sand so white. I always thought of myself as a mountain person but beaches don’t sound too bad now.”

“I have always been a beach person.”

We return to our hotel and go straight to the pool, splashing and playing in it. After resting a little and freshening up, we get ready to explore the street markets of Krabi at night. We shop for souvenirs, bags, clothes and other trinkets for our family and friends, eat loads and loads of mango sticky rice and ‘roti’, another Thai street food which is like a fried crepe but so much better and with so many diverse toppings from condensed milk to banana to nutella. We get some drinks from a caravan and go to watch the fire show at the beach. 

“I miss when life was this peaceful. Everything feels so chaotic and messed up now.”, I say as we hear the waves crashing along the shore.

“I know. There are so many responsibilities and things to deal with. I miss our childhood. Everything was so fun and easy back then. We were so carefree.”

“Do you remember how we thought our school was built on a graveyard and even went around the school to inspect for ghosts and other abnormalities!”

“That was a fun time!”, Shanaya says laughing her heart out.

“We’ve both come such long way from what we were. I’m pretty sure our childhood selves would be so proud of the things that we’ve accomplished and survived through.”

“I know, right!”

We spend another day in Krabi before leaving for Phuket. We see the Big Buddha, have fun roaming around the streets of Old Town, go for yet another island tour and explore the scandalous night life of Phuket.

The rest of the trip goes by in a blur and before I even know it, we’re packing our belongings to catch the return flight from Phuket. We have a layover at Bangkok, from where I’ll take the Mumbai flight and Shanaya, the Delhi flight. We have already exchanged numbers to stay in touch and meet up whenever either of us is in town. 

My first solo trip was really something to remember. I got to know so many new people and had so much fun with everyone. But more than that, I’m glad I got to know one person, Shanaya, again. 

By Nandini Laddha