Kovalam (Kerala): September 2017 - 11 year old Sid's "luxury" stay at The Leela Kovalam. This was a luxurious one week escape from daily (Delhi) grind for the three of us. Staying in beach view and club rooms of The Leela Kovalam, we unwound on the Kovalam beach. No "tourist" stuff, just lazing around, short walks, several hours on-the-beach/in-water with mocktails (beer for me :)) every day and great food! Interestingly, we ended up feasting on the famous "south Indian thali" only once during the whole week - remaining meals were delicious combinations from exotic menus available in the area (including a "German" bakery). Of course we ended up experiencing the darkest shades that tanning brings and proper recovery took many months. A particularly interesting semi-natural phenomenon was witnessed by us every evening on the Kovalam beach - as boats of local fishermen would return, pufferfish would wash up on the beach with the tide and then they would all be back in the ocean with the tides before dark. Close encounters with these sea creatures beyond "Finding Nemo" were amazing from the first to the last evening.

Diu: May 2015 - 8.7 years old Sid's trip to "Ilha de Calma". This outing can be summed up by a lot of tanning and unparalleled luxury (by our standards). For the first time, we stayed in a "movie-like" room with a wall of glass in front of the bed facing a white sandy beach with only the horizon in view. Most mornings were spent walking on our almost pristine beach and paragliding.  Four-five hours per day were spent walking in the streets of Diu exploring the remarkably intact Portuguese architecture and relics. Diu caves are really fascinating with beautiful natural openings for sunlight to come in. All evenings were spent in water on "our" beach, with several water sports as a regular feature. We had a one day excursion to the amazingly built Somnath Temple - cameras were not allowed. Apart from the lovely architecture, there was an interesting pumping mechanism to bathe the Shiva-linga with devotees' offerings - great example of a technological application without hurting anyone's sentiments.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands: June 2013 - 6.7 years old Sid's trip to the pristine beaches of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We stayed for 8 days in a tent nestled in tropical forests of the Andamans, next to a white sandy beach. We saw different shades of blue and green waters, especially turquoise waters, for the first time outside pictures/screens. Sid was without any modern entertainment - totally dependent on nature (except regular coatings of "Odomos"). Remarkably, he did not miss television at all! This "natural" vacation was followed by a 5 day stay in complete luxury in Port Blair (We were informed that several "celebrities" had earlier stayed in our cottage - e.g. Tabu, Princess of Thailand, Ex-Presidents of India). Needless to say, Sid spent the first few hours in the cottage in front of the television. Nearly a third of the whole vacation was spent in clear waters. He kept a daily account of his trip too!

Time outside water was spent walking on the beaches and in the forests, making sand castles and marveling at different shades of blue water with only the horizon in view (along with some far away islands or very occasional ships or boats in the sea).

Kanyakumari (Southern-most point of India) and Kovalam (Kerela, South India) : November 2007 - 1.2 year old Sid's first encounters with the sea