Department Trip-Kashid Beach……a trip I will always cherish

Every semester(OK almost every) our department(or any other in IITB) conducts a department trip.We go either to a beach or a trek.In my freshmen year we had been to manori beach.

In 3rd sem we went to Mahuli fort , and now we were planning to go to Kashid beach.Its a beach-town about 130km from mumbai

Prologue

We had a really long week of quizzes before the trip which was planned on Saturday.The way the semester starts off at IITB is that in the first month you have almost zero quizzes or test.And after that they all just start pouring in.So this was the week when the “acad” part of 4th sem@IITB started.Generally Friday nights are the time when you just wanted to see a movie or do something you like or just spend time on making yourself happy.I had some multi-postponed work to do and also i wanted to watch some action movie(in my lappy) and just spend friday as usual.

The trip was about to start at 400am so my wingies suggested me to sleep early.We had classes till 8pm and even had a quiz that morning, So i really really wanted to watch a movie or do something that soothes me before sleeping.But by the time I ate and had a bath(yup i mostly bath at night on busy days) it was already 930ish and ppl were already sleeping.You spend some time spent on internet and its already 11pm.So I decided to sleep since i didnt have enough sleep even the day before(see:quiz).

Reaching There

Since 4 out of the 6 batchmate-wingies i have were in the department council that planned and executed the whole trip, they had to wake up really early at about 300am(One of our wingies who wasn’t coming stayed awake to wake us all up).I woke up at around 4 brushed my teeth packed stuff missing out my towel (which i highly regretted later).We (me and ppl of hostel who were not in the council)reached Kresit(the start of our journey) at about 430am.We were supposed to leave at 5am but as usual the breakfast came at around 515am and by the time we left it was already 6am.

It took us 5 hours to get there, the council estimated about 4hrs to cover 130km but due to a bad driver who took frequent breaks for tea(and snacks and what not) we were late.Since i was heavily sleep deprived i slept till 930.I felt like i was absolutely fresh after my big-nap.For some reason i sleep well while travelling long distances and i like the freshness after you wake-up fully-energised.We had some Freshmen in our bus so we had an informal “INTRO” session with them for sometime.We finally reached the beach at about 11am.

Kashid beach

The beach has a pristine look and we could see a lot of people.We had a small meal in form of poha and were ready to get into water.Now I have a spectacles with power of 6 and 4 respectively which means without them i can only see or recognize things about 1-2m from me, and I couldn’t carry those into water.I did bring my googles and swim-cap(which i regretted not using).We(the sophie batch) had brought 3 volleyballs, and started playing sea volleyball for sometime then I indulged in playing pranks(or rather was the prey) on ppl and throwing them out of balance.The sea water was very salty and dusty , it caused a slight burning sensation in contact with eyes and a really bad experience who swallowed it.

Then we started playing the dogde monkey game(also known as keep-away) with 3-4 “monkeys” in the sea with the volleyball.I for one had many chances to be one of those monkeys and thoroughly enjoyed playing it.We then went on to have the sea rides available.This was the first time i experienced banana rides and bumpy rides.Though I attended a training camp in swimming I only knew to float and swim small distances, so i was very afraid of water specially huge water bodies and oceans.

I couldnt have done those rides without the help and support of friends.Your heart starts pumping in the anxiety and you get very nervous about the various bad-things that can happen(bring in final destination like what if the life jacket is faulty and I drown or will I be able to do this or maybe I’ll do this after am physically fit.And then friends come in and persuade you and help you overcome all these fears.

So I ended up doing both the rides and enjoyed every bit of them.I fell off the bumpy when it was taking circular turn.While the turn was happening half of my body was out of the platform and I thought I could bear the pressure of my weight with my hands when the turn ends, so i left the holds to find myself thrown out into the ocean.Thankfully the guy on the wave-rider came over to the platform and helped me get up on the platform.I shifted to the middle of the bumpyride as suggested by the instructor.In two situations I found myself in the middle of the ocean with life jacket being the only thing  between me living and drowning.I felt it was liberating and the overall experience was definitely worth a try.

Lunch

We had to go to murud beach to have our lunch at Patil Khanaval.It was about 30mins journey from Kashid beach.As always i had really awesome sleep in the journey that went on for about 45mins.I later regretted waking-up for lunch as we had to wait for about 30min for our lunch to come.After lunch we had faluda and had a look around the surroundings.There was a hat shop selling selling beach hats.I for long time wanted to have one classic hat.I ended up buying two, a classic hat and an american cowboy hat.

 

 

Photoshoot and horse ride at the beach.

No time left for any other activity(jaljira fort dangerous) have to leave.

Return journey

We left at about 6pm.As always I slept and woke up at 8:23pm.

What started as Antakshari turned to singing random songs then rap then popular advertisements followed by intro songs of various cartoons, anime and tv series.

We didnt stop for dinner in our journey and reached campus by around 11:45pm to hostel, by the time i had my bath and ate food it was already 1am.Some time spent on internet and it was already 2am.I slept without having to put any alarm …something that I always like to do but doesnt happen very often.

Overall the trip was worth the 11hr travel(which I mostly slept) and will be in those memories that you always cherish.

Cheers!!!