Friday, June 1, 2012

Busan and Goeje Trip

Summary of my memories from Busan and Goeje trip ..

Returning from a superb trip with some wonderful people I was wondering what to say and how to thank the organisers team, and the fantastic gang. Seeing pics and status updates in fb made me feel this trip shouldnt be faded away with thanks and sharing pics .. this is a special memory, it has to stay n when anybody involved want to know, refresh, remember it again they shud be able to re-live it .. this thot became the trigger for me to take up the blogging of memories of the trip ..

being a techie by profession, sorry fella's if its technical n gets boring while reading :D ..

so here it goes .. 3, 2, 1 start ..

Day 1 ..

waking up as early as 4 A.M on a saturday and hurrying up to pickup point .. feeling chilled morning breeze, met new guys Praveen and Ranjit n super spirited Rahul Gowdru n Divya Shree  ..  clicking few pics at start of journey to next stop - Suwon.. more guys n ters joined at Suwom n brought along with them loads of packages for entire gang to survive for next 3 days .. soon as people settle down n journey started, enters the expert event manager - Bharat n starts the introduction sessions .. one by one from the last seat in bus till the first all giving their intro .. the best intro being the yummy breakfast menu by Vidya .. (serioulsy the idli was soft n mast) .. reached Gumi and there joined our Viswanatha Siddappa  n Manjula  .. moving on a distance n taking a pit stop for brkfast .. hmm the bread, butter, jam n cornflakes never tasted so delicious :) :D .. journey moving on Bharat took charge, start of with antyakshari n thus happened the discovery of super singing talent Vidya  n the kalakaar in body builder Santhosh ..  wen human memory gave up in recollecting songs, technology came into use .. Samsung, think smart ;) .. end of singing now time for action game - dumb charads .. a rapid fire training by Divya Sudarshan to her team on some actions to decode the words.. Divya , never knew India n globe can be shown so easily :) .. thanks to you n the fighting spirit of Vidya  ( other team wud have thot, yaakadru malgiro simha na kenakidvi antha :)), we won the action game :) .. entered Busan n more couples joined in .. the gang was now complete and next stop the Haeundae beach .. lunch time .. so many varieties at lunch, seeing them made me greedy :) but stomach felt full :( .. lunch done n visit to Busan aquarium, Sundar  bearing all the entry fees .. once aquarium done, everyone onto beach .. all having good time on their own way, I had a short swim .. wen all done n ready moved on to our stay at Goeje ..

driving in the dark n narrow roads, our Transporter (driver was nothing short of transporter movie hero) ensured we reached safe n just before 9:00 P.M .. ladies jumped into kitchen n got busy cooking dinner for the gang .. it looked like they were in a competition and they indeed were competing - with time :) .. few lads supporting with onion and vegetable cutting while others n rest of gang freshening n gearing up for the night ..  Divya  carrying heart shaped stickpad scribbled my name n gave it to stick on me .. all the dinner setup done, eyes eagerly awaiting for the food to arrive but instead enters Bharat with mike in hand n gives a heart attack .. yes, Heart game begins .. hurray, i got the first heart from the Homeplus Kamal Hassan - Chandru -u :) .. night went on n game started to heaten up .. hearts were won n lost n when guys started getting used to the rules n wen it was going easy there comes another twist .. rules changed n game got a new push .. everyone eyes gleamed with new hope n restarted heart attack .. dinner is served - bisi bisi anna, garam rasam, curd n curd rice .. Manjula Viswanath  fully concerned if rice will be enough .. all other ladies conveying her it will be sufficient .. hmmmm yummy dinner and that too in middle of game n as we were eating the hearts were still being stolen, even from the alert Bharat too, with lot of gimmicks :) .. Divya Shree looked like clear winner, she had more hearts n everyone now targetting her .. dinner was completed n all setup cleaned ..

everyone now wondering wat next, will it be the results time of heart game .. banthu innondu twist .. with game heart still on, start of a new game - Pictionary .. wat a wonderful game it turned out to be, there were just laughter n laughter around .. angels became Bat-man by Naveen Aluvala , ghost had an electric shock by Chandrashekar Mahadeva , India was used to reach Korea by Keshav Prasad  and finally just drawing a big V was enough to tell its India .. amazing fun it was .. Thank you Organiser team for putting up this game .. Pictionary finishing of late into night, at almost 1 .. now gang eager to know wat next .. and as expected another twist .. start the dumb charads game and a reminder, still the heart game was on but hearts were stolen from Divya Shree n were held by Sheela Golageri  this time .. not sure wat happened, but Sheela  was attacked by her hubby - Santhu, Divya Shree, Bharat and Vishy  .. finally her hubby managed to get the hearts by pinching, scratching, poking her hand :) :P .. dumb charads went on, also heart attack on Santhu also carried on .. games closed by 2:30, King of Hearts was declared and also the points teams managed .. End of Day 1 ..

Day 2 ..

fighting off sleep never is easy, I woke up by 7 n had a sleep hangover :( .. whole gang, even kids had woke up early n all ready, even brkfast (ever tasty bread, butter, jam and cornflakes :)) also done by 9:30 n set out to explore Goeje .. Poornima and Deepa taking pics at pension with hill n sea background .. once all ready .. right right, first stop Waterfall .. expectations being high n curiousity building as we walked hill for half a km .. finally reached to find, water has fallen off completely n only droplets were remaining .. kudos to team for not losing enthusiasm, they walked into the small water pool with kids n had a gala time in watever water tat was left .. while watching gang enjoying, Sunil Shettigar came along n asked 'mele hogi nodonva ondu sathi' .. i looked up n then looked at my feet, n said, 'sure hogona' .. both of us walked up to top of the waterfall .. few more guys saw this n joined n after few random pics later, Rahul  setup his tripod n took an awesome group pic .. whole gang on a wooden bridge, thankfully the bridge held till the pic was taken :) ..

back to bus, all agreed that before next spot lets stop for lunch at Goeje beach .. bus started towards beach .. Korean songs were playing in the TV in bus .. Bharat entry n asked Vidya  to sing a folk song n gave the mike .. she started n wat do i see, in TV a Korean lady singing .. wat a sync, wat a co-incidence .. Vidya  singing in bus n the Korean lady singing in TV .. word to word, the actions in TV n singing in bus, super sync .. started with smiles n it went on to big laughs .. it was like being in a laughter show .. lady song over n now a old man talking in TV .. kalakaar, king of hearts Santhu, taking over with one of namma old Kannada folk song.. hadnt seen that much laughter since long time .. it was a laughter riot, it also ended my sleep hangover .. Thank you Vidya n Santhu n also our Bharat for starting it :).. reached Goeje beach n everyone relishing the lunch - Tomato bath and Curd rice which we all had packed in mrng .. just above an hr time was given to enjoy in beach, nange thumba kadime anisthu, so I decided for playing in sand on beach .. painting maado idea banthu, setup maadkondu, first duck barde n then a tree with 2 people sitting on either side of its trunk barde .. no more ideas came up, so thot y not give a shot at sand art .. i began making an apple but later mood changed n ended up making a heart .. it did come pretty good .. namma Keshava  anthu adramele jump maadoke full ready :) .. in between Praveen  na neerige haako plan n Bharat had almost succeeded but Rahul  freed him .. clickedfew  pics of the sand heart, by then all had freshen up n get set for next spot - Windy Hill..

while on way to next stop which was near to pension, a small team started plotting, slowly news spread n it was fixed .. project BBQ - veg n non-veg (chicken), Project lead by Sundar  n Vittal  .. project BBQ, execution began, bus stopped n few ppl went on hunt for items for BBQ .. adyenu uro adu, chicken not available anywhere, so finally settled for meat BBQ .. I remembered we have the IPL 5 finals n got 2 crackers .. had decided no matter whoever wins we will burst crackers .. gathered watever available items n wen reached pension for break, dumped items, worked out the setup for BBQ n gang started off for Windy Hill .. Windy Hill - amazing view, glad wind was less, every corner looked just fantastic .. lot of photo sessions happened till light faded away .. not feeling like leaving the place everyone slowly dragged themselves back to pension .. ladies began dinner preparations, Gamblers took centre stage and rummy started with full zoom in main hall, while project BBQ kicked off in balcony, Sundar  leading the non-veg section and Santhu  driving the Veg section .. hmmm each one was super in its own way, enjoyed the delicacies .. using Keshav  laptop, I managed to put cricket on the big screen .. project BBQ and rummy finished same time, dinner was ready .. screen off, dinner setup done n gang began relishing on the yummy dinner (rasam was more superb) ..

end of dinner n start of twist, yes another game - Housie, hosted by beloved Bharat .. (Homeplus) Chandru and Binu, Naveen Bankar, Mahesh Sayibabu and Manju Priya  won prizes in it .. after Housie, time for Treasure hunt at night 12 :) .. Game began and after long time using only brain without any technology proved a bit tough .. Team B and Team A won 1st n 2nd prizes respectively .. by then it was past 1 A.M n guys began to ponder on the score .. Final match had turned out to be interesting one n guys began checking on scores while Bharat began the prize distribution ..  wat a ceremony it was, a sweet n innocent dance from Manjunath Dh  wen his wife Asha  sang Kuladalli mele yavudo .. (M.P.Prakash avrige competition ithu :)) .. i saw elderly become younger when our Viswanatha Siddappa  showed his dance moves .. hand front-u, back-u, leg front-u back-u, full body shaking-u, as speed, aa moves, abbabbaaa sooperoo, super movements .. prize distribution ended n match started over .. sleeping arrangements done but all waiting for match to complete .. KKR wins n I ran to kitchen to burn paper on induction stove n get some fire .. managed little fire, enough for Bharat n I to burst the crackers ..

End of Day 2 ..

Day 3 ..

again all up n ready by 9:30, started off to ferry point n took ferry to Oedo island .. ferry zoomed n took less than 20 minutes to reach Oedo .. we were informed that we have just about an hr n 20 minutes to visit the island n be back to catch last ferry operated by the company we had booked .. everyone noted time n tour kicked off, few of them grabbing the maps n others just heading on as the sign boards showed PATH .. to tell about the place, it was simply amazing .. greenery everywhere n beautiful scenic view .. a true paradise .. roman style sculptures, different types of flowers, trees, bushes cut in designs n much more .. covering most of island almost all of us reached near to pickup point .. few of us on way back grabbed a cone ice, which reminded me of the Mewad ice cream I used to have as kid .. the last ferry arrived, a head count of gang showed almost 9 missing .. before ferry started almost all of them reached, the remaining guys managed in next ferry .. reached Goeje beach n had lunch - Pongal n curd rice, at same place as we had in Day 2 .. lunch done n started off return journey by 2 P.M .. long way back I was planning on grabbing some sleep n just wen eyelids closed Rahul  tapped, 'yeddelri, yake malagthira, view nodi yeshtu super agide', half opened eyes i looked to my right n indeed it was one of the beautiful view I had seen .. we r on top of sea n blue/green mixed color water extended till the end of my sight n bit of mist, yellow sun, small boats n yatches n ferry's like tiny toys, birds n sea guls flying, n an island in a distance .. simply beautiful, tats all i can say .. i dont know why but i was smiling n still dont know the reason .. Thank you Rahul  .. hmm God is the best painter and nature is his art ..

Journey moved on, games continued this time it was girls Vs guys .. One by one drop points reached, first at Busan and then Suwon and at end Seoul team .. each one getting down with loads of memories n smiles on faces .. i felt their smile meant they were happy they came for the trip ..

End of Day 3 ..

to add to above are some more special moments like Keshav  singing 'Boni aagada' song .. King of Hearts Santhosh singing all romantic songs to us n his eyes silently dedicating them to Mrs. Santhosh .. Mahesh Sayibabu  talking abt his childhood (love story from 6th std) .. Divya Sudarshan , Rahul Gowda , Manjula  and Bharat  serving cakes, chocos, snacks and drinks all thru the journey time .. Bharat , keeping everyone involved all the time n proving why he is expert event manager .. Viswanatha Siddappa  sharing the information on the special places around .. Mother of Mahesh  being very happy n sharing her thots .. younger becoming elder wen Nischay taught everyone the life cyle of butterfly .. I wish our syllabus be made so simple n easy to understand .. Manju Priya  serving home made tea ..  Vittal  distributing special laddo .. those were the summary of the memories which I have and I saw around ..

To one and all, elder ones, younger ones, kids, I like to Thank you from the whole of my heart (not bottom or top but with complete heart) ..  thank you for making 3 days of my life as a wonderful memory .. special thank you to the organising team, I saw, I felt and I understood wat all you guys go through .. your sacrifices, selfless efforts, even though being tired never letting the energy down .. You guys were just great .. I learnt many things from you guys .. Thank you everyone ..

I would have missed many things, if anybody would like to add it up, please feel free to add it in the comments.