04 Apr

Road Trip to Amarnath from Delhi – Reaching Kashmir (almost)

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Just after coming out of the tunnel we were in Anantnag district, a completely different landscape awaited to greet us in the heavenly adobe that accrue the thrill with lush greenery of the valley, even the air seems filled with exotic fragrance and one impromptu feel younger in heart and jubilant and ecstatically romantic. A view point with a board of TITANIC VIEW POINT is ideally located on the left side of the highway and no visitors I guess can pass without a short break at this point. The Kashmiri handicrafts are available at sale by mobile vendors, no idea of its authenticity however, nothing wrong in bargaining. A few snaps to banta hai boss and so we did. After a short break, a few clicks and filling our lungs with the refreshing oxygen, we were back on wheels with a better pace both because of the extra energy gained at the previous halt and also the road now was broader and straighter.

Suddenly after driving a few minutes from the Jawahar Tunnel, we were stunned by the sight of agitating wild mob on the highway equipped with Lathis, Swords and knives, shouting aloud and stone pelting on something which was not visible. A few trucks and local cars were on halt and waiting helplessly. I kept my car away from the site of turbulence and positioned it in a way that it can easily be turned around in case of emergency to flee. Honestly, all our smiles vanished and vulnerable thoughts engulfed our mind. I pretended to be calm and showing some dare went off the car to ask about the incident to a couple in a local JK number Alto. They smiled and replied, everything will come under control after the CRPF arrive the venue. We found the J&K Police standing mute with no actions against the agitating mob.

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The Paradise on Earth – Kashmir

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…Srinagar’s Tulip Garden is Asia’s largest Tulip garden, which was opened just few days back for the season. It had more than 3 lakh flowers in full bloom imported from Holland…A single visit to House Boat was sufficient to clear all our doubts regarding safely of child, mosquitoes, stinking issues blah blah. We changed our minds and negotiated with the owner of “PANZEY” (House Boat) and settled there for all 3 three nights.

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Bonderam – The flag festival of Divar Island, Goa

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A little background on this ‘one of its kind’ festival. The “Bonderam” festival is celebrated on the Island of Divar on the fourth Saturday of August every year. The word “Bonderam” originated from the involvement of flags. “Bandeira” is the Portuguese word for flag. It is stated that during the Portuguese rule in Goa there were frequent disputes between two sections of the Divar village, namely Sao Mathias and Piedade over property issues. These often led to violence and fights in the village. Subsequently, the Portuguese introduced a system of demarcation of boundaries with flags.

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उदयपुर – झीलों तथा महलों का शहर……..

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इस श्रंखला की पिछली पोस्ट में मैने आपलोगों को नाथद्वारा स्थित भगवान श्रीनाथ जी की गौशाला, लाल बाग तथा एकलिंग जी के बारे में बताया था उम्मीद है पोस्ट आप सभी को पसंद आई होगी। एकलिंग स्वामी जी के दर्शन करने, मन्दिर में स्थित अन्य छोटे मंदिरों के दर्शन करने तथा कुछ समय मंदिर में बिताने के बाद हम लोग मंदिर के सामने रोड़ से ही एक जीप में सवार होकर उदयपुर की ओर चल पड़े।

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Indolent weekend in the Charismatic Chokhi Dhani

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How can a Jaipur trip be concluded without some shopping? We grabbed a local cab (can be booked from the resort reception only) and requested him to get to a single good place where most of the things are available. Unlike many of the Indian tourist places, drivers and guides in Rajasthan are still unbiased and reliable. He took us to a factory outlet, where they produce staff at the two levels of basement and have three floors of retail and wholesale shop. Got a good bargain of various stuff there. Some of the materials are also available in the resort itself, but as you can imagine those are unreasonably costly and very small collections as compared to the outside outlets.

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Summer Road Trip – Kakdagaad Haridwar

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Dinner is at a small Rajasthani Dhaba with really yummy food. One thing we have experienced throughout the trip is that the food has been consistently good in the small places and not once have we had any tummy upsets. It just reinforces my belief that one must have what the locals have in the places that they patronise… one really can’t go wrong then.

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Universal Studios – Los Angles and Orlando

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The first memorable ride I remember in LA was the studio tour by bus, they take you in a multiple bogie bus for a tour, it gives you an experience of flood, train accident, Kingkong. In the middle of tour, driver and conductor starts arguing whether to cross a bridge or not which looks very fragile and can break any time. Conductor says that bridge will go down if we drive down the bus but driver wants to take a chance and he finally drove down the bus over the bridge. And, all of sudden you experience that bridge has broken, everybody starts screaming, after few minutes, bridge comes back to it’s original position and everybody start laughing. Your bus enters in to a railway station and suddenly everything started
shaking, one train tried to hit our bus, fire on the platform and then you say “Wah Kya Scene hein”. Then you pass through a Mexican city, bus suddenly stopped due to flood, it felt that we all are going to drown in the flood. I must say that this was one of the most memorable 90 minute ride I can have any time. But, this bus ride is not available in Orlando, all the above scenes has been converted in to a separate exhibit or ride. One of the exciting ride in Orlando was when they take you in the boat and sharks start following your boat and all of a sudden one of the shark appears from the water – name the movie now.

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भगवान एकलिंग जी दर्शन

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लालबाग, श्रीनाथ जी मंदिर ट्रस्ट के द्वारा बनवाया एक सुन्दर उद्यान है जहां कई तरह के फ़ुलों के पौधे, बच्चों के लिये झुले तथा मनोरंजन के अन्य साधन हैं, यानी सुकुन के कुछ पल बिताने के लिये इस उद्यान में सब कुछ है और छायाचित्रकारी के लिये तो यह उद्यान अति उत्तम है। जब हम यहां पहुंचे तो उस समय यहां हमारे अलावा और कोइ नहीं था, क्योंकि यह बाग दोपहर के बाद ही खुलता है। इस उद्यान में जी भर कर फोटोग्राफी करने के बाद हम अपने ऑटो में सवार होकर अपने अगले पड़ाव यानी गौशाला की ओर बढे।

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Summer Road Trip – Devariyatal (Deoriatal), Uttarakhand

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Dusk is a beautiful time… especially in the mountains. The mandatory snaps are taken and Oooh and Ahhh over! We wonder what to do with ourselves without any light since candles are out of the question in tents when our guide comes with an LED lamp. It is really bright and good enough to play cards by. An engrossing evening indeed! In a while he gets dinner for us near the tent. We are very touched by this gesture. We see everyone else has had to go to the shop nearby for food but the ambience just outside our tents, near the water with an almost full moon shining is magical. He has even got the prickly nettle vegetable made which I had asked him about. This unpretentious yet delicious dinner and the exquisite atmosphere of this place will rank right up there as one of the most cherished moments of my life.

We are up before dawn in the hope that some of the misty shrouds have lifted enough to allow us at least a faint glimpse of the famed Chaukhamba. No such luck. To make up for it though, we hear numerous bird calls. Following them we head off towards the forest rest house. An enormous tree on the eastern bank of the lake with some of its branches hanging low over the water seems to be attracting a variety of birds. Many of them are taking turns in splashing around and having a quick bath right at the edge of the lake under the tree. We stand there mesmerised at the sight!

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Gateway of South East Asia – IMPHAL

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The old Fort is damaged but a lot of new construction has come up in the Fort. ‘Kangla’ was the ancient capital of Manipur from the ancient times down to the year 1891 AD.

Inside the fort there is an old Govindji temple, temple was closed & it seems that now no body offers prayer there.

After that we went to visit new Govindji temple which is not very far from the fort.The famous temple of Shree Govindaji is one of the prime attractions of Imphal. This Hindu temple has the deities of Hindu gods, Radha and Krishna Govinda.

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Summer in Kashmir

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Doodhpathri is a beautiful place with carpet like meadows. You will find cattle grazing and shepherd boys. It is called the valley of milk because it produces rich milk in large quantity. I truly loved this place and also managed to click some pictures with the shepherd boy and his sheep. Check out the mud huts where the Gujjar live. Lazing around the meadows is a must.

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