ghumakkar.com

Last weekend I was at Dilli Haat and this time I decided to shoot some pics and write a small story. I have been to this place quite a few times but this time I was pretty convinced that Dilli Haat is a must visit place for any ghumakkar (traveler). so let me first give you a very basic description of the place.

Dill Haat is a new age weekly flea market with fixed structures which is dedicate to art-n-craft-n-food of various states of India. Its situated opposite INA Market, very close to AIIMS on Ring road, very well located. A not so small open-closed kind of setup where you have lots of food stalls shelling delicacies of various states, small shops selling Kashmiri Shawl, Madhubani Paintings, Firozabaadi bangles, UP Khadi stuff, wall hangings, lamp shades, more bangles, books, more clothes and a small performance area where some cultural troupe from some state performs once in a while. One other important thing is that the artisans keep changing, I guess they get it for a particular period say 2 weeks or a month and then its given to some one else. The prices are as usually un-predictable but not un-reasonable, so scope for bargain.

Last weekend, 12 Aug 2007, there was this Teej Festival so lots of Rajasthani

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Kemmangundi- what a heavenly place, unknown and unexplored.

Enroute
We chose monsoons to visit the place. A group of six- Kantharaj, Vinay,Anurag,Ramu,Anil and yours truly Sudhir- drove upto Kemmangundi (1434 m)in an Innova. Bangalore to Chikmanglur was a routine highway drive. Just before Chikmangular, we took a detour to Belur. It houses a fascinating ancient temple that dates back to 1117 AD built by a Hoysala king. After spending some time there we reached Chikmangular where we stopped for lunch. Lunch over, time to hit the hills. From thereon, we did not take the standard road via Tarakere. Instead, we took a narrow uphill road via Kaimara , a dangerous proposition in the monsoons.

We negotiated around 4 landslides and were scared also the tyres would get stuck in the mud. Most of the time we were engulfed by fast moving clouds. Only once were we rewarded with a scenic view when the cloud cover lifted for a couple of minutes. The landscape is anyway full of forests and waterfalls.

The distance from Chikmagular to Kemmangundi via kaimera is about kms. It took us about 2 hours to reach Kemmangundi. Negotiating the treacherous narrow road ( or should I call it a path) was an experience in itself.

About the place
Our booking was in a PWD bungalow. There are no hotels or resorts out there, which in fact is a blessing.

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There are times in life when you feel like closing your eyes and meditating away the stress built up over many many days… Then something happens and you feel a calm overwhelm your senses, wash the stress away, cool your head, make you smile… Shogi, hidden away in the serene hills of Himachal, just just this to our group.

The plan: After deliberating for about a week as to where we should take our weekend break, Bidisha - a dear friend whose family was joining us, came up with Shogi as a destination. Actually we had almost finalized for Barog, but her info on the place, coupled with the website http://www.park-woods.com/, we immediately set our hearts to going there.

Travel: there were 2 options before us. 1st - take the shatabdi to kalka and take a car from there. 2nd - take our own car from Delhi itself. We chose the latter, and it paid us well. An innova takes 8 adults quite comfortably, provided you have a carriage on top. An ice box filled with Breezers, music to boot, and our relentless kids passed the time quite beautifully.

There are 2 routes that one can take. One is the obvious, through the Ambala flyover and toll point. The other, that we took, was a divertion through Haryana. We took a right turn from Shahbad, and

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Now that I have been in London for quite a while, it will not be a bad idea I guess to try and share some of my explorations of this interesting city with you.

One of the obvious things that any tourist does on coming to London is to reach Westminster to have a dekko at the Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and of course, the London eye. I have done it on numerous occasions now, as the first time tourist initially and the companion to other first time tourists thereafter.

Although generally I would not be excited writing about the most touristy place in the city for the sheer lack of any mystery, London’s top tourist area on the Thames is actually not BAD.
There are two recommended times to go: the Busy sunday day-time (or the busy any day-time) when its your lucky day and the sun is out; and then there is the evening time, about a half-hour / one hour before dusk, when the place is doubly more beautiful and ten times quieter.

The average tourist takes the tube to most destinations…………………..

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