A road trip to ISLE OF SKYE.. where Heaven meets Earth..

I've been a little tied up, hence the sporadic updates. I was over in Scotland during the last bank holiday weekend (about 2 weeks ago, sorry for the much delayed post).. and 4 days has never flown by so quickly in the last 5 months I've been in the UK! It was one of my best holiday ever, apart from the good fun we had with the road trip, Scotland itself is such a beauty, I can't find words to explain.. maybe "where Heaven meets Earth" as Arvin puts it..

Here is a summary of the road trip, as opposed to my initial ambition of writing a full travel journal.. I will spare you guys the detailed explanations of every place we drove pass or stopped by as I feel you are all capable of googling what takes your fancy. Instead, I will briefly describe, adding in some interesting bits and pieces that made the trip such remarkable!

Thursday evening (24/05/06) I left office made my way to Heathrow for my 7.50 pm BMI baby flight to Aberdeen. We (me and Navee) reached Aberdeen around half nine and caught a cab to Arvin's flat nick named Kg Muhibah (due to residents who were from the 3 main ethnic in Malaysia). We were introduced to Arvin's flatmate W and I and then Waley who was going to join is on the road trip the next day. It was a good feeling to be surrounded by so many Malaysian, after a long time. it felt like being at home. (additional note: Thanks to Waley and Izam for the noodles. you guys had no idea of our starvation level. and special thanks to Arvin for the Pizza that never came.. )

A few things were very evident as we arrived Scotland. The further north you go, the thicker the accent and the colder the weather. As much as I dread the cold, this time somehow, it wasn't all that bad. more pleasant cold than London, Scotland's fresh winter breezes and blue skies made the chill a little more bearable.

Day ONE (Friday)

Though the initial idea was to set out about ten-ish, we got a bit delayed and finally took off at 3pm (duh?! ).. We picked up our car from Aberdeen Airport at around 12 noon. It was a black Ford focus 1.6, that wasn’t bad at all. Stopped by Asda supermarket to stock up on food and drinks. after shopping and lunch, there we were, all set for the ride.. As for the seating arrangements in the car, based on pressure, torque and drag analysis carried out, it was highly recommended that Arvin and I contribute to the forward stress while Waley and Navee will contribute the rear stress.. any different arrangements were not acceptable as per ADA 01224.... With Arvin in-charge of the wheels, me of the map, Navee and Waley the in-flight entertainments .. we finally took off..

although we flew in to Aberdeen, I didn’t get to spend much time there. All I remember are the huge number of the buildings in the centre mostly made from big slabs of granite (as the nick name suggests 'the granite city') while passing by the city heading towards Inverness, which was about 3 hours drive away.

It was a scenic journey through increasingly green fields. we stopped in a few places along the way for a few photos. the one you see here is one of my favs.. it was an awesome view of the yellow field, (daffodils? mustard flowers? ) not too sure of the name. the one normally see in bollywood or Tamil song clips…damn picturesque .

The other interesting stop we had was just before Inverness. (Or was it in Inverness? cant remember exactly) It was a monument on a hill top that had a beautiful view of the entire city. But funny thing is, none of us a clue on who on earth that man was and therefore Waley gave him an imaginary name, James. And thus, there we were, posing at Uncle Jamie's monument.. Uncle Jamie , we love you!!

We stopped at lovely local bar, Snow Goose bar somewhere after Inverness. The place was so full that we had our drinks at the smoking zone outside, which was even nicer.. we chilled at the bar while discussing the plans for the next day when suddenly interrupted by this lady next to us. she heard us talking about Roselyn Chapel (yup, all in the Da Vinci Code's spirit!) and offered to help with some info. Scotland as I’ve found, lives up to its reputation as one of the friendliest cities on earth. Asking someone what bus to take will often lead to them escorting you off the bus and to your final destination!! She called her bro who was in Edinburgh to check for the exact directions and showed us on the map, the best way to get there. It turned out that her parents were also travelling towards Skye for the weekend. She asked us to leave soon as it'll take at least 3 hours to get there and it was already 7 pm and gave us a few other tips. We were stunned.... didn't know what to say.. We thanked her and continued our journey to reach Skye before dark.. we still had a few stops in between. so, could this prove another theory , that the further north you go, not only the thicker the accent and colder the weather, but also more welcoming and pleasant the people are? indeed!

Our next stop was THE Loch ness, the deepest body of water in the woprld and also the most famous in Scotland. And certainly a charm! the drive along the coast of Loch NEss was.. was.. i dunno, am lost for words. The breathtaking scenery accompanied by the mellow 'vaseegara' song (from Minnale) made the atmosphere magical.. for once, in the whole trip, not a word from anyone... due to the time constraint, we had a quick stop for a glance and a couple of shots (of course!) before we got going... lack of time beat our temptation to stop and play with the water unfortunately (nvm, there is always the next time!). we didnt have the sight of nessie though.. apparently the Loch Ness monster, which is known to be still living in the lake will only appear when the country is in trouble.. and how can there be trouble when we are there?

The first language on the island is Gaelic (Thus Loch Ness, Loch is Lake in Gaelic). so, you'll see that all sign boards in on the way to skye and around there are written in both Gaelic and English.. and yah, did i mention the deers that we met along the way? it was about an hour before the Skye border, all off sudden a couple of them came from nowhere crossed the road in front of us.. we certainly could not make a sudden stop but the pic beside is my futile attempt of a shot while driving.. can u see them?

The next was, the beautiful Eilen Donan Castle just before Kyleakin, which was the border of Skye where we were gonna spend the night. It was absolutely freezing. So, we stopped for a quick picture and made our way to the hostel. It was almost 11 by the time we hit the Skye Bridge. The initial ferry cross was replaced with a bridge a couple of years ago. Apparently, the bridge was originally supposed to cost 8 million but ended up blowing a 32 massive million. It was designed to look like seagulls but to me, it just looked like any other bridge!!

we checked in our hostel around 11-ish. It was a 4 bedded room with shared common bathroom. Dinner was in the courtesy of our honourable chef, Waley , Indo-me (duh?!), some left over pizzas from lunch complimented with vodka. While sky is great to look at and visit, we learnt that it is difficult to get food after 5. (let alone 11pm!) After dinner we took a drive thru the coastal roads for some night view but unfortunately, it was pitch black! we were only glad to be back to hit the sack after the long day..

Thats it for Day 1... Day 2 to follow shortly.... meanwhile click HERE to check out some of the pics from the trip.. adios!