Welcome to Andamans!

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The pilot announced “Crew, Ready for takeoff!” The flight from Chennai took off sharp at 0500 hours. It is advisable to opt for a windows seat as on the approach towards the beautiful Islands, one gets a visual treat offered by Andamans.

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Amarnath Yatra :: Pishutop, Zajipal & Nagakoti

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These Bhandars provide tea, snacks, breakfast and hot vegetarian foods to the pilgrims, free. They camp all major places on the way to the Holy Cave to serve hot foods to the pilgrims. A holly attempt, I must say, may be the path, to their belief, to receive grace and blessings of Lord Shiva. The holy songs of Lord Shiva in the tunes of most modern bollywood songs were playing in these Bhandaras and were lifting up the spirits of pilgrims.

Pilgrims, who climbed up on foot the first steep mountain ‘Pishu Top’, were standing exhausted there. But they had an aura of achievement too, the aura of victory over the first hurdle, ‘Pishu Top’ and for some of them it was no less than the climbing and conquering of Mount Everest. They were proud pilgrims, posing for snaps before and on the stone painted with welcoming message “Swagatam Pishutop”. They deserved that too, but for us who came here on horseback, it was not a party time yet!

We set off again and it was now an easy road along the East Liddar River. Soon we left behind the beautiful Pishutop, I looked back, may be for a last sight in my life. I was enjoying every bit of this route and realized beginning of the most beautiful journey of my life.

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बालटाल से पवित्र अमरनाथ गुफ़ा : श्रध्दा व श्रम का अनोखा संयोग (भाग 3)

बालटाल से पवित्र अमरनाथ गुफ़ा : श्रध्दा व श्रम का अनोखा संयोग (भाग 3)

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हम लोग सामान्य गति से चल रहे थे लेकिन धीरे -धीरे राजू और उसके परिवार की गति कम होने लगी. शुशील उनके साथ ही चल रहा था और मैं उनसे काफी आगे निकल आया था. दोमेल से 1.5 किलोमीटर आगे रेल पथरी नामक जगह पर दो भंडारे हैं। मैं वहांरुक कर उनकी प्रतीक्षा करने लगा और बीस मिनट बाद बाद वो भी पहुँच गए। चढ़ाई चढ़ते हुए लम्बा विश्राम करने से शरीर शिथिल हो जाता है और मुझे इससे परेशानी होती है। यहाँ भी ऐसा ही हुआ और मुझे लगा की अगर ऐसा ही चलता रहा तो शायद शाम तक ही गुफा पर पहुँच पाउँगा। मैंने उनसे कहा मैं आगे जा रहा हूँ तुम थोड़ा आराम करने के बाद चल देना। अब मैं तुम्हे बरारी टॉप पर ही मिलूंगा और तुम्हारा 11 बजे तक इंतजार करूँगा। अगर आप इससे लेट पहुंचे तो समझ लेना कि मैं आगे चला गया हूँ। ऐसा कहकर मैंने दोबारा चढ़ाई शुरू कर दी।

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Montreal City tour

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On Saturday we had started our journey.Our train departure time was 0645 from Toronto (Union station ).Business class coaches were quite good , spacious and clean . We were given warm welcome and assistance by VIA Rail friendly staff.The difference in Business class and Economy class here is only food.In Business class food is included where as in Economy class we have to buy food.As a usual routine we got our tea , biscuits and later breakfast in train.In the end they had served complimentary wine.It was a 05 hour journey and we reached Montreal at 1200 noon.As we were entering in the Montreal City we can feel just by looking at the road , houses and other infrastructure  that it is a completely different city not similar to Toronto.
When we were booking our Hotel we thought of two factors; one is cost/location i.e. distance from railway station as our return train was also early morning train.Secondly as were not able to decide on Hotels as per reviews posted in Google we decided to go for a chain and brand Hotels which are tried and tested.Thus we finally booked our room in Sheraton Hotel Montreal.Our decision of choosing a Hotel Near Central station and close to city centre helped us a lot as we have not used any public transport / Cab service in Montreal.So we walked from station to Hotel.It was a 06 minutes walk.

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Unexplored Uttarakhand – The Misty Mountains Retreat in Jhaltola, near Gangolihat

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It had been a long tiring winter and a recharging vacation had been on the cards for far too long. Sushil – a close friend, suggested a new retreat in Uttarakhand – The Misty Mountains. He had been there with his wife and another couple in his friend circle. The name itself suggested just the kind of place I wanted to go to. Reminded me of the many exotic locales from fantasy books I had read over the years. I was sufficiently intrigued to check out their website at http://themistymountains.in and was soner convinced.

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Amarnath Yatra – Jammu to Baltal base Camp

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जम्मू से आगे पुरे रास्ते में जगह-जगह अमरनाथ यात्रियों के लिए लंगर लगे हुए हैं। खाने-पीने की कोई समस्या नहीं। क्योंकि हम लोग नाश्ता करके नहीं आये थे और अब तक हमें काफी भूख लग गयी थी। हमने गाड़ी वाले से कहा की किसी लंगर पर गाड़ी रोक दो, नाश्ता करना है। ड्राइवर ने बटोट से थोड़ा आगे एक लंगर पर गाड़ी रोक दी। लंगर राजपुरा के पास का था। लंगर में डोसा, पानी पूरी, आइस क्रीम, कुल्फी, कोल्ड ड्रिंक, जलजीरा, दाल चावल, रोटी सब्ज़ी, पॉपकॉर्न, हलवा, खीर और गरमा गरम चाय सब कुछ मिल रहा था। जितना चाहे प्यार से खाओ पर झूठा बचाना सख्त मना है। खाओ मन भर, न छोडो कण भर। वहां ड्राइवर सहित सभी लोगों ने नाश्ता किया, गर्मागर्म चाय पी और पौने घंटे बाद ठीक 12 बजे दोबारा से यात्रा शुरू कर दी।

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The Magnificent Deeg Fort & Palace

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Deeg is a small town as close as 30 km from Bharatpur however, with good connectivity with Delhi & Agra. Its pre-historic presence is inscribed in the Skanda Purana as Dirghapura. Also important because of it lies within the range of 32 km Parikrama path starting from Goverdhan in Mathura.

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My first hill ride from Delhi to Dehradun and Mussourie

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While planning for the route, we had no idea about the Saharanpur road conditions and more worse was leaving the highway for a while, anyway, next 40 kms or so were on kind of worse unending roads. You can imagine the roads with the fact that I was not driving straight literally even for a second and there was no road at all but just potholes filled with mud and water. We all were literally praying that when this road would come to an end cursing the local SP MLA.

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Niagara Falls

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Over all Canada is peaceful.. full of chinese, desis and almost all nationalities.. How is Canada better than USA? well the rules are strict,…

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अमरनाथ यात्रा 2014 (Amarnath Pilgrimage) – प्रथम भाग

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बात जुलाई 1998 की है। मैं इंजीनियरी करने के बाद बेकार था । हमारे शहर से एक बस अमरनाथ यात्रा पर जा रही थी। मेरे पिता जी उन दिनो बिमार थे और घर पर ही रहते थे। उन्होनें मुझसे कहा कि सारा दिन आवारा घुमता है, अमरनाथ यात्रा पर ही चला जा। मैं यात्रा पर जाने के लिए तैयार हो गया। आने जाने और खाने-पीने का खर्च घर से मिल रहा था तो कौन मना क रता।

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