A life changing experience in Bora Bora - SCUBA diving for the first time

The previous post in this series is here..

When we booked the Snorkeling experience the family discussion was “okay, what activities are there in Bora Bora for us to do?” The answer was “Snorkeling, 4 spots avaiable..”, then Jet ski - 2 spots the day after, ATV tours only 2 spots on last day and Introductory Scuba diving - 2 spots.

I decided to try Scuba diving. Was thinking of my friend E back in college who would talk non stop about getting ready for her diving experience and how one need not be an expert swimmer to dive. The family rolled its collective eyes. Jr. said worse case, she will come with me. That is when San decided “I am going to try this. It says you don’t need to know swimming”. Wasn’t going to discourage her and said “great!” and 4 eyes rolled back almost completely. Meanwhile the kids wanted to Jet ski and they signed up for it. The times had an overlap. So it was the two of us for diving. San called them to confirm that it was okay that she was not a swimmer and they said “okay”!

When we were snorkeling earlier, the kids pulled me aside and gave me an earful for encouraging San to come diving. They said “we are not happy with you going but look at her. She is having difficulty snorkeling, how is she going to survive diving? please stop this madness appa!”. Told them that she is scared but wants to try. She will watch me and come along. Worse case we waste the money if she bails out last minute.

Day 3 morning was rained out. We had an early light lunch and waited. The Jet ski people showed up at the hotel and said the tour was cancelled due to bad weather. The kids were really disappointed. So they decided to just go to the pool in the hotel and then go to their room. We waited to see if the diving would be cancelled.

The dive tour folks showed up and said “We are good! it is not bad weather for diving!” So off we went. Once there the lady at the counter said “it is okay. if you follow instructions, you will do fine!” and introduced us to Mr. David, our instructor. There were two David’s on the boat who were instructors. one spoke French and the other both French and English. We went with a family of 6 from France who were all in their twenties. A guy with his girlfried, his two sisters and their husbands. They were really nice and only the guy spoke English. It was first dive for most of them as well but they were good swimmers. I did not know we could get our phone on the boat. Left it in the lockers! They were kind enough to take our picture and airdrop it!

While we were on the boat we got a lot of instructions. Most importantly the sign for okay was the “pramaadham” sign, thumbs up meant “take me back up”. Someone in our house watches movies causally and asks “who is this guy?” 5 minutes before the climax comes and the guy happens to be a key part of the plot. Guess that person listened to the instructions like they watched movies.

There is an instructor with two people max at one time. So first 30 minutes we sat on the boat with 2 folks from the other family. Instructors took the other 4 down and came back up. Then the French David took the French couple with him. Anglo-French David was waiting in the water for us. We got into all the gear with the oxygen cylinder on our back and the fins on our feet and he asked us to take a leap of faith and jump off the boat. We both did to our surprise. The fear was visible in San’s eyes when she came back up to the surface after jumping in but once she got used to the bubbles she was all smiles.

Mr. David told me to stay on the surface and snorkel while he took San down first. He made her go to the bottom, grab the sand with her hands, try to touch the fishes and they looked up at me. She was doing fine. Then something happened and she showed the thumbs up sign. Later I found that he was asking her if she was okay and she said yes with the wrong sign.. So he took her back up. Then it was my turn!

We went down and he saw I was doing fine and took me deeper. Still get a rush thinking about the view and the silence with the occasional sound of the bubbles coming from my breathing. Was totally calmed out just slowly breathing through my mouth and watching a wall of a few hundred fishes in front of me. Then we moved past corals and this time got to see them from ground level and the view and fishes were just mesmerizing. Looking up at the sunlight coming from the water surface and dancing around was just amazing!

It was a life changing experience! When I finally came back up, had no words to describe it. Just an adrenaline rush. Took me a few minutes to compose myself and talk to folks. San was thrilled that she went through this. It was about to rain again and we made our way back to the dive office.

Mr. David told me on the way back “your wife was doing great. Don’t know why she suddenly asked me to take her to the surface?!”. I asked San and she says “I gave him a thumbs up to say I was doing great!”.. Couldn’t stop laughing.

Should have bought at least an iPhone cover or rented the gopro at the center (it was 70 bucks and they hand you the SD card). Wasn’t confident of holding a gopro and the gear on a first dive, so skipped it. There are no photos from the bottom of the lagoon to share.. but there will be soon. A video highlights reel..

We were given certificates for our first dive and took pictures. After coming back to the hotel, both of us were silent. We decided to go back into the water for some time at our hotel and were still processing what we had done. The last time I remembered both of us being silent and looking at each other like this was after one line turned into two on a pregnancy test 23+ years ago. Maybe this was my way of thinking “now there is no going back.. might be hooked to this diving thing”.

We had taken a big chance with diving and it is by far the most outrageous thing we have tried and were happy at the end of the experience.

Was extremely proud of my wife for going with this and doing what she did. Told the kids to never underestimate their mom, ever!

It was time for a shower and come back to the restaurant for dinner!

An evening in Baixa

The previous post in this series is here..

After our guide dropped us off in Baixa, our first stop was the Elevator. San told me that standing in line to go up that elevator was not worth it. So we walked up the steps to the streets above and got pictures.. when we walked back down it was early evening and there was an intense craving for chai and desi food. We did not get a good read of the map. So we ate at the first indian food we could find. It was decent food but we simply could not sit inside the restaurant as it had a weird smell. Later we learned that there are places with nicer seating and less smoke.

Then we decided to walk all the way to the other end of the main road to the water front. I had a tough time catching up to my wife as she was running everywhere and my ability to follow was limited by the number of butter naans that had been consumed. It was an amazing evening with the sky putting on a show for us at the waterfront.

After spending an hour or so taking pictures and watching the street performers, we walked back to our hotel.

A video highlight reel ..

We were going on an all day packaged tour the following day. So we went to sleep early. My local tourguide had already visited two of the three places we were going to see and had already started describing it to me!

Our first day in Portugal was a hit !

You will be fine!

It has been 6 weeks since I stopped drinking water during Yoga class. When I started to give up water during class, thought that it was going to be incredibly difficult.

Over the last few weeks (did miss two weeks during travel) always thought that there will be that "one class" which would get me to run back to that water fountain outside the class. So far, so good.

Think my mind knows now that as long as there was a glass of water 30 minutes before class, everything will be fine a good 30 minutes after class is over. Like Mary Jarvis had predicted on the 18th of March..... "you will not die if you stop drinking water during class. you will be fine!"

This is like starting to drive a battery car for the first time. Initially you have range anxiety. You are not sure if you can go to a place and get back. There is always some variability on the mileage depending on how fast or slow you go locally, which in the Yoga room is equivalent to not giving every pose a 100% in a stupid attempt to "conserve sweating" which is actually counter productive. You know there is no "nearest gas tank" where you can fill up and continue on a battery car.. Eventually when you get the hang of the routes you travel and know your speed, you stop having range anxiety. You know you will be fine. 

What is the worse that can happen? you stop on the side of the road and have to call AAA? You are exhausted on the yoga mat and the teacher has to drag you out by your feet? (well, that has not happened to me yet... but a teacher did joke to a first timer that they should always have their feet towards the door during class and when asked why, replied "that is in case you die here and we have to drag your body out. it is easier feet first towards the door"... the teacher said it with a straight face and everyone burst out laughing)

It has been an interesting month. Two weeks in Asia. First week on business trip, followed by a quick Chennai visit for my nephews "upananayanam" or "Janeu" ceremony. It was a great experience. I was the only one representing the four of us. My sister came as well and after four years my parents got to be in the same roof with all three kids even if it was only for three days. 

My sister and me with parents, while my brother is performing the ceremony on stage in the background. The photo of the five of us was not taken on my camera! So I have to wait for it...

Did manage to take a shot of my mom with all her siblings. The last time I managed that shot was in 2005 when my Grandfather got married to my grandma all over again at the age of 80!

13 years later my uncle has lost a lot of weight and looks like a concentration camp survivor and my mom and aunts have all put on weight and have some kind of health issue or another. They are all smiling and going about their lives and while that makes me happy, wish they would all take up some form of regular exercise. Was giving them the "never too late, never too old, never too sick..." spiel but it did not go very well. 

My grandma is still around and tack sharp!

As soon as I got back home, San and the little one went to India to represent the family at her cousins wedding. There was  no time to catch up on social media or do anything other than manage to go through the routine while getting over jet lag. Made it to Yoga almost every night after coming back, even if it meant going very late in the night. Hats off to all those single parents who come to Yoga class. Now I know why they pick the late night class. 

We had a lot of discussion during the India trip on the impact of my deciding to settle in the US, how time and space can be hard barriers, but how family still holds together thanks to culture and tradition etc. The thread ceremony marks a boy's commitment to learning the scriptures. My brother and myself had our ceremony at the same time and it was a big experience for me. Somehow the meaning of the word "responsibility" came into consciousness after that ceremony. Till then I was happy playing cricket with the boys and I-spy with the boys and girls in Sambandham street without any awareness of the fact that I was not going to be a kid forever. Glad there was a ceremony like that to slap you into life!

There is no such thing for girls and my mother was telling me that the next big function for me was Jr's wedding...

It was great to watch my nephew go through this experience and suddenly tansform into a big boy and start to learn.. with the Gayathri mantra! He has excellent pronunciation and hopefully he gets to improve his memory by reciting things by heart over time. If he keeps up the breathing exercise that is half the yoga done already!

Clicked this one right at the end of the function. The Narayanan family has successfully passed on a male tradition to the next generation! Looks like the boy has the weight of the world on his shoulders and he might as well have. Passing on a quest for learning and questioning and understandign go a long way to the betterment of the world. The most important thing one needs to learn is "how to learn". Everything follows.

Next will be time to pass on female traditions a few years from now..

I had an amazing time paticipating in a function after so many years in India, taking pictures, chatting with relatives, catching up, and most importantly playing with my nephew and niece. 

Instagram filters were a big hit with my niece.. every 10 minutes she would come to me and go "Periappa, doggie ears photo pannalamaa?"  Think we exhausted every filter..

During the INdia trip, I avoided a lot of things that are usual. Said no to "ghee" for the most part, restricted myself to "small portions" of food (as small as my mom would allow) and avoiding a lot of fried stuff. That actually made life easier after coming back. 

All said and done "I am fine!" as is the family.