Noosa – Sea, Sand and Sunshine

April 24, 2018April 24, 2018 by disguisemeforever, posted in Gratitude, Hope, Journey, Life, Melbourne, Travel, Travelogue

The place

My friends and I decided to travel to Noosa this year January. Noosa is located on the southern end of Queensland, an Australian state and is in the Sunshine coast. Noosa Heads, a town and suburb of the Shire of Noosa is located approximately 136 kilometres north of Brisbane, the state’s capital and is in the main hub.

We flew to the Sunshine coast airport from Melbourne and then rented a car from the airport and drove down to the Peregian beach where we had booked our accommodation. It’s a scenic 24km (approx) drive along the coast with the sea in sight now and then. We had booked our stay through Airbnb and must admit that it was one of best houses we ever stayed!

On the way to the Peregian beach we stopped for lunch and had some wonderful Thai food. The weather in January was hot and a bit humid too. However, the sunshine was welcoming and the beautiful beaches stole our heart.

The beach was even more mesmerizing in the night! The starlit night, the lashing of the waves, the quietness and the companionship made us cherish every moment and feel at peace.

A Day well spent

The next morning, after a good night’s sleep, we decided to explore Noosa by ferry. We boarded the ferry from the Noosa Yacht & Rowing Club and there begun a wonderful journey in the Noosa river waters. It was a beautiful sunny day, the sky and the river water was clear blue and the weather was impeccable for a river cruise. We disembarked at the Sofitel Noosa Heads and gallivanted in the Hastings Street famous for its boutique shops and restaurants.

Screen Shot 2018-04-24 at 12.43.42 pm

fullsizeoutput_c3b — Noosa River journey

We had a wonderful Indian lunch at Kali Gourmet Indian restaurant . The restaurant had delicious Indian food and warm and welcoming staff. We then explored the beach at the Noosa Heads and the colourful boutique shops in the Hastings street.

fullsizeoutput_c37 fullsizeoutput_c2b

fullsizeoutput_c1f — Beach in Noosa Heads

We took the return ferry in the afternoon and then decided to view the Sunset from the Laguna Lookout in the Noosa National Park. It was a spellbinding sunset. We were captivated by the landscape and life felt good!

fullsizeoutput_c0c

fullsizeoutput_c03 — Sunset at Laguna Lookout

Fraser Island – Adventure reloaded

The next day we had planned a day trip to the famous Fraser Island. The Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island stretching over 120km. We got picked up by the tour providers at 6am and then headed off to our first stop where we boarded a four wheel drive tour bus. We crossed the Noosa river in the cable barge and stopped at the Rainbow beach for morning tea. It was a scenic journey so far and the rainbow beach was true to its name.

Next, we had a rocky ride inside the forest area to the crystal clear freshwater Lake McKenzie. It was an absolutely beautiful lake with tropical turquoise water, fine white sand and surrounded by forest. After our rocky ride, the lake was welcoming and we immediately jumped onto the water. We spend time in the lake exfoliating ourselves with the white sand and splashing water on each other. It felt like we voyaged back to our childhood! Soon we felt hungry and were served delicious “Aussie style” bush barbecue with a varied assortment of fresh salad and drinks. We stuffed ourselves and soon it was time to head back to the mainstream.

On the way back, we dropped by the magnificent Rainforests. We walked inside the cold, dark pathways of the forest. It was thrilling and we praised nature at every step. The luxuriant canopy of palms and vines made each moment memorable.

We returned back by evening, tired yet rejuvenated!

The Experience

My friends and I have a busy life in Melbourne like many others. We planned this trip to Noosa with an agenda of relaxation and holiday. On the last day of our trip, we had checked the boxes! Noosa is not only one of the most beautiful places we had visited but it felt like the sea, sand and sunshine have hitched to make Noosa magical! If you love beaches, Noosa is where you should be! Every moment we spent here was full of awe! Australia has many beaches and I have visited many of them, yet Noosa had its own appeal and will make me come back again when I want to liberate and revive myself! Noosa, you stole our hearts with your charm, see you again someday! Till then, keep travelling!

fullsizeoutput_ba3 — Sunrise on the last day at Noosa 🙂

My friend at the Cafe!

August 4, 2016 by disguisemeforever, posted in Gratitude, Journey, Letter, love, Melbourne

I have a friend at the coffee shop. I don’t know her name but she knows mine. She also knows what coffee I usually order. Every morning, one of the motivations I have, to come to office, is my coffee and a small chat with my friend. We talk about everything, about the weather, the food, my evenings, her evenings, about flowers and life in general.

She is a beautiful young lady with a warm smile. She talks to everyone very nicely; everyone likes her I believe. She has very beautiful eyes. Just the other day, my hands were very cold and I was freezing in the Melbourne winter. When she met me for taking my order, she was feeling bad for me and said I should buy gloves. Later, when I was going out for lunch, she offered me to wear her gloves, in case I am too cold. I felt really gratified with her gesture.

We don’t know each other well, neither we spend so much time together, but the small gestures of love make my day warm. Such are the effects of ‘being human’.

Today when I went to grab my afternoon coffee, the café was quite empty. My friend came over and offered me a cookie from her own share. I gladly accepted. Then she said today is her last day in this café! I felt a gush of sadness crept inside me. I didn’t know what to say! I looked at her and she smiled and said, “You’ll make new friends”. She said she is travelling to Northern Australia and after she comes back, she would join some other café, somewhere else. She also shared her gratitude towards me and said how nice its been talking to me all these last five months in this café.

I finished my coffee and walked up to her to say the final good bye. She gave me a hug and said, take care. I started walking back to my work and didn’t turn back.

They say, “Goodbyes are never forever”. I wonder why I felt bad when she said she is leaving, why I never asked her, her name. This is life! We make friends and then bid them farewell and then make new friends again in the journey of life. Sometimes you suddenly don’t see that same face you see everyday and search for it, faces change, everyday. Sometimes you can’t even say good bye to everyone you love. That’s the truth.

Just be nice to everyone you meet, say hi and ask how are they doing. Life is too short to have grudges. I will miss my friend at the coffee shop tomorrow, but who knows, maybe I will see another warm face saying, “What coffee would you like”? 🙂

Dear Diary…

March 3, 2016 by disguisemeforever, posted in Gratitude, Jouney, Journey, Letter, Life

Dear Diary,

I am missing you a lot. When suddenly your pages were over, I was crammed with a sudden vacuum, despair, and fear. I shuffled through to the previous pages in the hope of coming across another blank page where I can write my thoughts down but there were none! You were suddenly over. I still started scribbling in the white spaces on the top of the margin area, or wherever I could find any half-filled pages. I just didn’t want to let go of you. I wanted to hold on to you till all the white spaces were filled with my thoughts, words, emotions, and feelings. I was possessive. Knowing the fact that I can always buy a new one, that there are millions of diaries being sold in this world everyday, I just couldn’t believe that my personal diary is not going to be with me anymore. It was a painful feeling.

I spent all night reading you from the scratch. Every page I read, my memories were reinvigorated. I could see things, feel them and sometimes even smell them. So many dates in a person’s life, so many wonderful experiences and some bitter ones. Some dates which are important and some events, which make the other dates important. All the events were very carefully articulated with my favourite fountain pen. I remember those moments when I wrote them and slowly we were Confidant. As days and dates turned through the pages, I started feeling better remembering the journey I had made in my life. ‘The only thing constant in life, was change!”

It was dawn when I read the last page and then slowly closed you and held you close to my heart. When I closed my eyes, a few drops of tears rolled down my cheeks. It was as if I voyaged several years over a single night. Can’t believe we spent so many years together and now suddenly you and I will not be together anymore. But that’s life isn’t it? But you will always be close to my heart and whenever we want, will spend time together revisiting the memory lane. You will always be a Confidant and will always be closest to my heart.

Lovingly yours…

The Indian Marketplace (Bajar)

November 3, 2015 by disguisemeforever, posted in Gratitude, India, Journey, Kolkata, Life

The marketplace in India tells you what the real India is about. People who have so much pain in their lives, yet they are not scared to smile, to laugh and even to make you laugh!

Incredible India!

You will survive….!

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015 by disguisemeforever, posted in Journey, Life

Sometimes you are happy! So happy that every part of your body, your mind, your soul is just dripping happiness. Every nerve, every vein, in fact every cell in your blood is just so happy. You feel like dancing, singing, may be even like screaming your heart out and say the world that you are happy! As happy as one can be! Everything feels right, every songs seems to be melodious, every food tasty, everyone around seems wonderful and even a stranger feels like an old friend! Oh the world feels so beautiful!

Then comes some grey clouds and make us sad. You hate everyone around. The same songs feel noisy, food distasteful, and the stranger is as if about to kill you. You don’t feel like talking to anyone because you are drowned in melancholy. No one understands you and you feel like a burden to this earth and the earth a burden to you! Your world collapses!

When I was learning swimming, I was very scared of the deeper end of the pool. My trainer used to say that when I reach the deeper end, I should switch off my mind and just not think anything. I should trust the water that it will hold me within itself and not let me drown. Wasn’t an easy one, trust me! After months of regular lessons, one day I went for swimming and I was a bit sad and unmindful that day. I swam to the deeper end, saw the depth of the pool underneath and was just ignorant and numb about it. I swam back safe and my trainer was smiling. She asked me if I was scared that day as well and I couldn’t honestly recall what was I thinking when I was on the deeper end!

Happiness, sadness, pain, anger, fear, anxiety, ecstasy are all like instructions or lessons we convey to ourselves. Then slowly we start to learn how to react to them. We laugh when we are happy and cry when we are sad. Then there are one of those days, when we just don’t feel anything. We are just numb! Sometimes you just have to let go and trust that this universe will hold you within itself! That you will survive…..

My Best Friend…

May 24, 2015May 29, 2015 by disguisemeforever, posted in Gratitude, Journey, Letter, Life, love

She was the first one I shared my childhood secrets with. The one with whom I watched the first adult movie. Her absence taught me what “missing someone” is. She was the one to have never-ending chats and night-long discussions. Enjoying the festive seasons, crying on the regular break-ups, sharing ice creams and stupid jokes. She was just there.

Teenage transformed into adulthood. Best buddies to travel buddies. Guiding each other, celebrating our togetherness, dancing all night, singing songs while we forget the lyrics and laugh for hours. Always up for a drink. Shopping mates. Exploring life and the places together. Never busy to take calls. She was just there.

Slowly our life extended, people came and went. Bonds sometimes lasted, sometimes lost. Carefree girls became vigilant women. Life changed with the ticking of the clock. Sharing ice creams had changed to sharing the complexities of daily being. Our innocence had turned into being judgemental. Happiness sometimes was overshadowed by pain. But she was just there.

Life took different paths, went to different destinations, countries, but homecoming was always her. The mere presence meant healing. The warmth of the hugs could be felt for ages. Happiness was just looking into her innocent eyes. Her rebukes were life’s facts. Winter till summer, spring till autumn, she was just there.

Sometimes we prioritize our relationships based on our feelings, our love, our understanding. We cry for undeserving people. But we forget that one person, with whom we travelled the most cherished days of our life. Such unconditional love, so much innocence in the touch and so less expectations. That one person, whom we call “best friend”, is just always there.

Gratitude….

April 12, 2015April 12, 2015 by disguisemeforever, posted in Gratitude, Journey, Life, love

Just wanted to say Thank You……

You have taught me to say things I would otherwise keep to my heart. You have taught me to acknowledge and say Thank You. You have taught me to see the vastness of the sky and feel so small compared to it. You have taught me to smile at people, to ignore their ignorance and to love their virtue.

I used to complain if the day was too hot, or too cold, or too humid. I used to complain about bad roads and traffic jams. Now I can smile at dawn and greet the day with my warmth and thankfulness that I am alive. Now I know that however rocky the road is, it’s the journey that matters and not the destination. Now I know that a traffic jam is a reason to spend some more time with you!

The simplicity in life is its greatest virtue. To be simple, to cherish the sky, the nature, the seasons, the strangers, the known-ones, to ignore the immodest, to smile like a child, to cry like an infant, to share like a mother, to forgive like a teacher, to guide like a father and to love like a lover…is life! It’s not about those painful moments, its more about the moments of joy and ecstasy. You taught me many things in life which I would not otherwise understand. There are things beyond me, there is a whole world looking up at me and expecting something. There is a reason I was born. The day I realise that reason and smile back at the world, I am complete. I am living. I am alive.

The Sunset

February 11, 2015 by disguisemeforever, posted in Journey, love

I am an abandoned car, standing on the Highway. I am just left alone till…. I guess the Sunset.

You see those two figures, leaning against each other? There, look far on top of the small hill across the road. From there, the sunset can be viewed the best. They lean against each other slowly as the sun is all orange and dazzling. They look into the setting sun and promise each other another day full of love and compassion. They promise to be nice to each other. The setting Sun make them feel incomplete and as if they have to live another day, to make each other feel complete. As if, that one-day would give them all the joy they are looking for in the setting Sun. As if that one day would be the last day of their life.

The Sun is now almost about to embrace the horizon. Its aura left in the sky. The figures come closer. Their heads together and so are their hands. They close their eyes for a second before they see the sun go down the horizon. The sky as if becomes sad of being apart from the Sun and becomes darker. They kiss at the dawn of the dusk, their first kiss.

A weekend day out!

January 25, 2015January 25, 2015 by disguisemeforever, posted in Journey, Melbourne, Travel, Travelogue

The Soliloquy

November 21, 2014November 21, 2014 by disguisemeforever, posted in Journey, Life, love, Plead, Soliloquy

The Request:

“I know you are listening, please open the door, am sorry. It’s been an hour already and am outside your door, please let me in and I can explain. The clouds look dark. It’s about to rain, please. I know you are standing there, tranquil, motionless yet frantic. Your eyes are all hazy with the tears you want to conceal. Your dignity overshadowing your pain. A small strip of hair falling across your face and concealing the depth of your feelings. Your fists clenched. Don’t fall apart; hang on, I will tell you the reason of this unscrupulous conduct of mine in the breach of the moment. I know you will understand. Just please let me in, let me hold you once, tight, and make you feel the warmth inside my heart, once please.”

…

The Plead:

“I will not leave without meeting you and confessing the truth. The truth, which will either change our lives or will end my life forever. So many things happen in our lives, can you always explain or define moments? Tell me if you can define all the moments we had together, our moments? I am already drenched. My eyes are filled with the rainwater, or are there tears? Tears, which are tearing me apart from you. Tears, which are craving to tell you my story, my delineation, my fragment of truth. Sometimes reasons even if unreasonable are facts. You have to listen to me; you have to know the truth. My voice is becoming feeble, my hands are damp, my feet shaking and my heart…my heart is still beating, though the beats are not perceptible but I know its beating. This life owes me a last chance.”

…

The Pain:

“I never knew you could be so harsh. Please, don’t do this to us. We deserve a life together; we deserve our share of happiness, our share of joy, of ecstasy and laughter and many more moments of togetherness. This rain cannot be the last rain in my life. We are just a door apart, please open this door for once and let life greet you, please open this door one last time and let us breathe few more breaths together. I promise to return your trust and turn all the pain into happiness. Please, I’m dying.”

The place

A Day well spent

Fraser Island – Adventure reloaded

The Experience

Share :

Share :

Share :

Like this:

Share :

Share :

Share :

Share :

Share :

Share :

Share :