02 Feb

Maha Kumbh Mela – A day in Prayag

By Amitava Chatterjee

As the sun sets slowly in the west, we wave goodbye with a promise to come back again and pray to the almighty to give us a chance to witness & be a part of another Kumbh mela at some other place, where all the pleasures of a comfortable life are shunned for the time by millions of devotees.

गौरीकुंड- केदारनाथ- गौरीकुंड (भाग 3)

By Naresh Sehgal

जिस जगह से हम उतर रहे थे वहाँ बादल काफ़ी कम थे लेकिन नीचे की ओर गरुडचट्टी बादलों के कारण बिल्कुल दिखाई नहीं दे रही थी यानि की हम बादलों से भी उपर चल रहे थे। मुझे हिन्दी फ़िल्म का वो गाना याद आ गया ‘आज मैं उपर, आसमान नीचे…’ । थोड़ी ही देर बाद हम बादलों का सीना चीरते हुए गरुडचट्टी पहुँच गये और काफ़ी देर तक बादलों में चलने के बाद तेजी से नीचे की ओर उतरते गये। थोड़ा और नीचे उतरने के बाद फिर से मौसम साफ़ हो गया।

अन्नू भाई चला चकराता …पम्म…पम्म…पम्म

By GHOOMAKKAR PANKAJ

आज अपना पहला यात्रा अनुभव आप लोगे से साझा करने जा रहा हूँ हिंदी लिखे हुए वैसे भी अरसा हो गया! इस ब्लॉग को…

Delhi to Hyderabad By Road – Road trip – Part 2 – Final

By IronButt

Once you cross the MP border and enter Maharashtra, the real pain begins. The border was a stretch of non existent roads with craters all over it. To add more to misery, there was a RTO checkpost which was checking the trucks and had created a huge Jam at this place.

After crossing the border, roads were bad, though there was tar on top but sudden potholes do surprise you and take a hit on your suspension.

After around 30 Kms from there, 4 lane road started which took me straight to Nagpur byepass. Paid my toll @ Mansar, and drove down the Nagpur byepass. I had initial plan of taking a stoppage at Nagpur and then start afresh from there, but never found any boards inviting me inside Nagpur, and I reached the next toll gate which was outside Nagpur. Now I had covered more than 250 Kms and wanted to have some rest but there were no dhabas or motels available.

ऋषिकेश – देवपर्याग – रुद्रप्रयाग – गौरीकुंड (भाग 2)

By Naresh Sehgal

ऋषिकेश से लेकर रुद्रप्रयाग तक के रास्ते में पहाडो पर काफ़ी कम हरियाली है और ये काफ़ी रेतीले लगते हैं लेकिन रुद्रप्रयाग से केदारनाथ की तरफ़ मुडते ही दृश्य एकदम बदल जाता है। चारों तरफ़ हरियाली ही हरियाली है ,घाटियॉ बहुत खुबसुरत हैं। हम इन खुबसुरत वादियों का आनंद लेते हुए अगस्त्यमुनि से होते हुए गुप्‍तकाशी पहुँच गये ।वहाँ गाड़ी रुकवा कर चाय पी और आस पास के सुन्दर नजारों को निहारने लगे। गुप्‍तकाशी से घाटी के दूसरी तरफ़ ऊखीमठ साफ़ दिखाई देता है।

Shergarh – Sixth City of Delhi

By Nirdesh Singh

Before entering the main gate, get off at Mathura Road and enter the lake area. You can take the kids out boating. But you have more serious things to do. You walk towards the looming Talaaqi Gate. This gate like the others is also capped with chattris and protected with bastions. Walk along the ramparts on the right with the rim of the lake on your right. Once the moat probably ran around the fort but now is limited to the western flank. Just make some noise walking so that you do not startle love birds cooing in the bushes.
Shergarh is a sprawling compound bound by walls on all sides. There are three gates: The Western Gate for entering is called Bada Darwaza flanked with mighty bastions, Northern Gate is called the Talaaqi Darwaza or the Forbidden Gate and the Southern Gate is called Humayun Gate. Humayun Gate is the signature symbol of Purana Qila with the two ubiquitous pavilions on top. At the foot is an amphitheatre where the Light and Sound show about Seven Cities of Delhi is played out in the evenings.

Mussorie – My best ever economical trip Day 2

By Abhee K

This place is located nearly 1364 Meter above the sea level . The Kempty Falls, surrounded by high mountain ranges and located at a high altitude of 4500 feet, is a good place for picnic or for spending a couple of hours listening to the music of water in the midst of the Greenery which cover the surroundings This waterfall attracts many tourists particularly from plain areas. Located at a distance of 15 KM from Mussoorie town , it can be visited by conducted tour or by taking a shared taxi near Gandhi chowk taxi stand. We opted for shared taxi.

Mussorie – My best ever economical trip day 1

By Abhee K

We were really not sure what 6000 ft actually means, so after every 10-15 minutes we used to think Mussorie has come. But we were still not at Mussorie. Then at one particular point we saw a board Mussorie welcomes you and after sometime we reached at a place where there was number of taxi and it was the last point i.e. Mussorie. Weather was now little cold. We had covered our son with sweater and shawl and got down from taxi. We asked for the route to our hotel and a taxi person guided us to a staircase and then to the road. We paid charges to Taxi and was carrying our luggage.

ओंकारेश्वर……………चलो एक बार फिर से.

By Kavita Bhalse

शाम करीब ७ बजे हम लोग औंकारेश्वर पहुंच गये। औंकारेश्वर में ठहरने के लिये हमेशा हमारी पहली प्राथमिकता होती है श्री गजानन महाराज संस्थान यात्री निवास, तो हमने सीधी राह पकड़ी संस्थान की और कुछ ही देर में हम संस्थान के सामने खड़े थे।

स्वागत कक्ष पर कुछ जरूरी औपचारीकतायें पुर्ण करने के बाद हमें हमारे कमरे की चाबी मिल गई। हमारा कमरा यात्री निवास नंबर ४ में था. अब चुंकी बहुत जोरों की भुख लगी थी अत:निर्णय लिया गया की सबसे पहले भोजन किया जाये। यहां यह बता देना सही रहेगा की श्री गजानन महाराज संस्थान के हर यात्री निवास में किफ़ायती दर पर भोजन की व्यवस्था होती है, चुंकी हम पहले भी श्री गजानन संस्थान (शेगांव) में रह चुके थे तथा भोजन भी कर चुके थे और वहां हमें भोजन बहुत पसंद आया था अत: हमने आज भी भोजन यहीं भोजनालय में करने का निश्चय किया और चल पड़े भोजनालय की ओर।

खाना सचमुच बड़ा स्वादिष्ट था, ३० रु. में थाली जिसमें दो सब्जी, रोटी, दाल, चावल तथा एक मिष्ठान्न के रुप में हलुवा……शुद्ध सात्वीक भोजन और हमें क्या चाहिये था? सो भरपेट करने के बाद हम लोग अपने रुम में आकर थोड़ी देर के लिये लेट गये। अब हमें ओंकारेश्वर मंदिर में शयन आरती में शामिल होना था जो की रात नौ बजे शुरु होती है. इस समय साढे आठ बज रहे थे और यही समय था शयन आरती के लिये निकलने का, अत: हम लोग मन्दीर जाने के लिये तैयार होने लगे.

चुंकि वातावरण में बहुत ठंडक थी अत: बच्चे तो इस समय बाहर निकलने में आनाकानी कर रहे थे लेकिन उन्हें हमने चलने के लिये मना ही लिया और अन्तत: हम लोग उनी कपड़े वगैरह पहनकर अपने रुम से बाहर निकल गये। बाहर सचमुच बहुत ठंड थी और हमें तो नर्मदा नदी पर बने झुला पूल से होकर ओंकारेश्वर मन्दीर की ओर जाना था जहां और ज्यादा ठंड लगने की संभावना थी।

Cochin – Sightseeing by cruise and Cherai Beach

By Abhee K

As weather was hot, this ride was giving us good relief from heat. For first 15-20 minutes it was just like a normal cruise experience similar to Mumbai Gateway of India cruise ride or cruise ride at Rameswaram. But we were happy as kids were enjoying this ride with lots of space to sit as well as to run inside the boat and to see sparkling water.On our way we got to see many boats like country type, Russian yacht etc.

Although, it was a pleasant journey but I didn’t find it worth or it’s not value for money. Boat sailor but surely took us at the midst of sea and we saw numbers of Dolphin fish. Watching Kochi Harbour, Bolgatty island resort and Dolphin were good experience. Chinese Fishing net is an icon for Kochi but I didn’t find anything interesting watching that. The total time we spent here was 02 hours and we found it tiring. We came back to Marine Drive. Marine drive is a nice hangout place with many eatery joints.We had some light lunch and icecreams and came back to our friends place at 1730 hrs.

A trip to Mewar, Raj – Jaipur Once again

By Rakesh

painting section: Second floor of this magnificent museum consisted of some rare books on display and a series of Raagmala paintings on display.These paintings are based upon different Ragas and Raginis of Indian classical music system. Different types of Raagmala series have been painted in different parts. Pahari style, Deccan style, Rajputana style. Each Raga is personified by a specific color, mood , time of its singing is mentioned on the painting and a story is told about a Nayak and a Nayika. I had read about tese paintings but was seeing these for the first time. I also had the privilege to see the paintings based upon stories from Hitopdesha and Panchtantra. Just beautiful. Another surprise for me was the the presence of classic book JANGNAMA by Shah Muhammad(original).

Overall we spent about 2 hours in the museum and were tired. The big walls of this museum are adorned by the life like portraits of erstwhile kings of Jaipur state. Now was the time to have some snacks for the evening and visit the famous zoo of Jaipur, if not so big then not too small also. Dear Pavani’s desire was to have a look at the lion and the tiger which was duly fulfilled here.

THE ZOO: The desire was of Pavani was duly fulfilled as the first cage in the zoo was that of Leopard and next to it lay the cage of Tiger (wish double fulfilled).

A trip to Mewar, Raj – Pushkar and Jaipur

By Rakesh

A small and picterusque town famous for one and onky temple of Brahma Ji, the town is also famous for the foreigners coming to the time to learn Yoga and instrumental music in the streets of Pushkar and numerous cafes adorning the streets. I can vouch for only temple perhaps my main motive was that only so I did,nt bother to look out for the guests from abroad or cafes. After inquiring my way to the temple of Brahma Ji, I straight away drove in that direction until I reached the place where Ghats were located. I thought may be temple is located in the centre of the sarovar there. So we all went towards the Ghat area and the thing that I wanted to avoid at all costs followed us , hounding by various priests(pandas to have one or other form of puja for salvation of soul. As a person I m dead against these things as it seems to me more as an economic activity of these priests, nothing more(my personal opinion). Many persons were involved there in one or other ceremonies per their beliefs. But I did,nt want to listen to these priests about all this. One priest said “Unless you take bath in these Ghats and perform a puja your visit to Brahma temple would be incomplete” Why so? I just asked myself. After enquiring again about the temple from a family , we came to know that it was just on the next end of the street. I just pulled my family members from there hearing this. While walking towards the temple, in one corner , there was a small shop(PANDIT JI KI LASSI). Iski story baad mein bataoonga.

1 himalayanwheels Along the old silk route – East Sikkim

Really enjoyed reading this detailed travelogue of the Old Silk Route. You’ve captured the raw beauty and challenges of the route so well, especially Zuluk and Lungthung snowfall moments. It…
2 Thinairexpedition The adventure of driving to Leh and Pangong from Kargil

Really nice Asif. I am going to Leh–Ladakh this June, feeling excited already
3 B Chandramouli Experiencing the temple town of Puri, Oddisha

Hi. Thanks for sharing your experience. Kindly share the Panda's contact details on my email id and also the dakshina that can be paid to him.
4 Shivani शिव खोडी – SHIV KHODI

What a wonderful blog, written very precisely and informative. This blog will definitely help me to plan my trip to shivkodhi.
5 sunil kumar गौरी से वो मुलाकात व इकाकुला का हसीन समुद्र तट !

Very well written about Bhitarkanika .
6 rjnivah Andaman and Nicobar – Around Port Blair

Really enjoyed reading this detailed Port Blair itinerary—it nicely captures both the sightseeing and relaxed moments like Wandoor beach and Chidiya Tapu. The mix of history, nature, and local experiences…
7 armaan Andaman and Nicobar – Around Port Blair

Really enjoyed reading this, it feels like a well-paced and genuine travel experience rather than just a checklist. The mix of relaxed beach time, museums, and a bit of trekking…
8 Abhinandan Sharma Delhi to Nepal in my Honda City!!

Great post. Planning to take my Honda city there soon. Was not sure if i can take a sedan there.