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Recently had the chance to visit Cornwall in the UK for a three day trip with my friend. Honestly, the reason was purely because I couldn’t get my visa for Spain in time for the intended trip to Costa del Sol and Madrid, and I desperately needed some sun and sand. However, having said that, Cornwall is arguably the most beautiful part of England.

The County of Cornwall is at the south-western tip of Britain, and the tip basically stretches out into the sea. So Cornwall’s north coast faces the Atlantic while the south coast faces the English Channel.

The area, although being small, provides a varied option in terms of landscape and activities. The north coast is grander with more golden sand and surfing beaches, while the south is more sheltered beaches with coves and bays. The very tip (called Land’s End for obvious reasons) is more remote and rugged than anywhere else in England. Newquay and St.Ives’ are a couple of popular towns on the north coast and Falmouth, Truro and St.Austell on the southern coast. Since we had three days and we did not want to keep driving around everywhere, we decided to choose between the north and the south. We eventually decided to go for South Cornwall, as the beaches are less touristy and more quaint, it is quicker to reach by train from London and also has a couple of extremely popular gardens that we wanted to check out. On top of it we learnt that Daphne Du Maurier, who wrote ‘Rebecca’, one of our favourite novels, based it around the area we were intending to visit. That made the excitement two-fold.

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This travelogue was written by me sometime back immediately after the trip when I was in Hyderabad so it may sound like recent and also the names of towns and places may sound unfamiliar and I did not try to expound on them as at that time they were quite well-known among folks around me. The title is inspired from news that we keep on hearing about “Gas” find in Krishna-Godavari (”KG”) basin. Also there is mention of trains, railways etc. which is my interest.

A visit to Coastal Andhra was due for a long time and I was waiting for right time, weather and company. Last week (Dec 2006 end) went to Kosta which is the local name for coastal Andhra Pradesh region. It has a few smaller regions namely Konaseema (Godavari river delta), Diviseema (Krishna river delta), Circar (region from Vishakhatnam to Rajahmundry) etc. We (me along with four other friends) kept the itinerary flexible and kept revising the plans to maximize the opportunities. The plan was multi-purpose, to ride in a ferry over sacred Godavari river, travel on branch railway lines in the region, eat local cuisine and generally explore the area. We did not consult much on the internet because there is not much documented.
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It was seven years back… we took off from New Delhi airport and I had embarked on my very first plane ride. We were going to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur.

We board the plane and find our seats. Clamp on our seat belts and wait. The plane gives a shudder, pulls back and taxies slowly to the runway. Here it stops for a few moments and then with a fast run lifts off. The buoyant feeling is wonderful.

Jurong Bird Park
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Ajanta Continental is a family run hotel in Dehradun, Uttaranchal. I stayed there for two nights in May,2008 and thought that a small quick review with some pictures might be helpful for fellow ghumakkars. It is located on Rajpur Road, the one which connects Dehradun to Mussorrie. Most of the other reputed hotels are located on the same road. If you are coming from Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) side then keep going on and pass ‘Hotel Madhuban’, which is the most expensive and supposedly one of the best hotels in town, and after a little more drive you would see ‘Hotel Ajanta’ on your left. Its just bang opposite ‘Hotel Great Value’ which is now under Clarkes and is expensive.

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