We just came back from an off site recently - 3 days of awesomeness, lazing around, drooling over the sun & the sand. This was the first time both our offices (Noida & Shimla) got together, in fact this was the very first time a lot of people met each other (I am comfortably choosing to ignore the all day long coding sessions that take place through video conferencing)..

Back to the trip now...

The trip began way earlier than 24th of Feb. It was actually mid December last year when it all started with an almost 2 day long ordeal to book the flight tickets with Air Asia. We all guys at the Noida office took up the onus to book the cheapest international flight tickets ever known to mankind - We just had to be finger snapping fast because

- Firstly we were going for dime a dozen kind of deal on Air Asia and these deals go off really fast

- Secondly these deals are always a bait [Obviously we were well informed and we chose to fall for it because the deal was cheaper than the return fare to Mumbai on Spicejet - beat that!!]

- Thirdly there were a lot of details to be filled in and considering we had to coordinate between 2 offices - let's just say they weren’t easier to come by.

Trip details

What : 3 days & 4 nights of awesomeness

When : 25th - 28th February, 2011

Where : One of the most beautiful islands - Langkawi (Malaysia)

How : Flight [first for a few & first international for many]

Stay : Four star resort ‘Bella Vista’..Sounds exotic...right?

Who : Insta’Rockers’

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Day One : The date with the jets!

The most exciting day for all of us..everyone was waiting for the awesome to happen as we land. Guess what? it did happen! Our majority junta was flying for the first time…Imagine the excitement when you have 35 odd folks out of which 95% have never boarded a flight and rest 5% have never boarded an international one.

Needless to say it was an experience to fly with a group of 35 odd folks on the same flight...people were just so thrilled that they were on their toes as soon as the seat belt sign went off.

The amazing journey had a really painful ending...imagine the plight of a group which had traveled across the northern India [Shimla - Delhi] fighting cold, mountains and motion sickness...than spent the whole night traveling into the economy class of a budget airline with absolutely no leg room. After so long a journey what we all really craved for was some private time in the bathroom..but no! we had to spent at least 2 more hours in the hotel lobby because it wasn’t time yet for people to check in(according to the arrogant staff on the hotel reception desk)

Anyhow things rolled out fast and after persistent efforts from Rishi and Ankit we were able to get the rooms allocated to us by 3:00 PM (They pulled it off in less than an hour). Everyone was dead tired and we just decided that we will all be dining together in the evening today and we all went to our rooms.

We went out for dinner to a beach side restaurant near Patai Cenang [The most famous beach of Langkawi]...had a quick meal (primarily pizza...rice..pasta & garlic bread) and decided to walk on the beach.

Watching the sea in its full glory can really be a humbling experience.

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Day Two : Around langkawi in a day!

This was the day where we all hung out together and went to see the places together...The whole gang was broken down into 5 teams and each team was designated a driver who was responsible for ferrying the people from Spot ’As’ to ‘Bs’

We chose to travel to the most touristy locations on this day like ‘The Underwater World’, ‘Oriental Village’, ‘Cable Cars (Sea level to an altitude of 800 metres in flat 10 mins) & ‘Amazing Sky Bridge (Just for the sake of information its the same bridge where the climax scene from the movie ‘The Don’ was shot).

Cable car ride was really the highlight of the day...the view was really breathtaking; one could see forests, mountains, beaches, waterfalls, sea and the clouds. It was a perfect moment to forget the problems and simply get lost in the view.

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Day Three : To each his own!!

This was the most wild day for the most of us..We were let loose in a foreign country where there weren’t any cops to threaten us or traffic to stop us.

This was the most creatively spent day for all of us...Some of us chose to indulge into water-sports...others into luxury cruises [dirt cheap I tell you] and leftovers like me - who were stuck with the wanderlust and just decided to do a quick road trip around the island and making sure to stop at all the beaches and finishing up our quota of beer for the whole year.

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Day Four : Return of the kings!

Finally after 3 amazingly well spent days we had to come back..and with heavy hearts we bid good bye to a really nice island & its natives (Its the people which make any place awesome and we had some really amazing experiences to take back home this time).

We had done it all in the small amount of time we had with us...looked at some sights, bought souvenirs, interacted with the locals, checked out all the possible places to be seen...I would really recommend Langkawi as a holiday destination..it has some really amazing people & places. Moreover its cheaper than taking a trip to Goa.

We had to work together to find locations, places to eat or just to locate our own people - I must say, it wasn’t easy but everyone managed to arrive on time - everytime.

It was quite challenging to coordinate a big group and meet the schedules...but we did it! We as a group managed to stick to our deadlines without missing a single flight or a taxi ride.

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Lesson's learnt from the trip!

1. You don’t really need to know too much English in Malaysia- Malay people don’t know it either

2. Its a pain to not to honk while driving...after all its an integral part of growing up in any city of North India

3. Its impossible to survive as a vegetarian [Hats off to 90% of our group :D]

4. There are some places on this earth where Beer & Petrol are cheaper than Water

5. There is always an option to hire a travel agent but than you won’t have the stories to tell

6. Don’t pack too much, especially clothes..why? you don’t end up wearing half of them.

7. When hungry - walk to a local store and get cuppa noodles...they taste ridiculously delicious when you are hungry.

8. Indian restaurants outside India suck!, they are over-hyped and the most expensive ever!!

9. Do not trust the Pizza from a local restaurant - it could very well turn out to be a cheese spread over a ‘Poppadom’

More Pictures Coming Soon!!