02 Feb

Alexandria, the pearl of the Mediterranean

By D.L.Narayan

Alexandria was home to Egypt’s second wonder of the Ancient World: the famous Lighthouse built by the Ptolemies in the 3rd Century AD. Soaring to a height of 140 metres, its beacon was visible to seamen over 50 km away. It was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world for centuries till a powerful earthquake destroyed it in the 14th century.

A Memorable Tour to Kutch- Part 2

By Mukesh Bhalse

Mandvi is known for its 400 year old ship building centre. The local carpenters still make ocean going Dhows in much the same way that their ancestors had done a century ago. One can go and visit the men at work, shaping the great vessels with hand tools and coaxing the seasoned timber into shape. The predecessors of these very same ships had roamed the Indian Ocean and made Kutch a maritime power. Hand made models of these Dhows can also be procured from local artisans.

Pyramids: sepulchres of the Pharaohs

By D.L.Narayan

The sides of the Pyramids were originally clad with highly polished white limestone slabs and were topped by gold-plated capstones called pyramidions which picked up the first rays of the sun and these rays reflected off the cladding to make the entire pyramid glow with solar luminescence.

A Memorable Tour to Kutch – Part 1

By Mukesh Bhalse

Meanwhile there came two foreigner tourists and they asked me about bus for Bhuj, The same bus in which I had to board was going up to Bhuj so I informed them about the bus. They also had a long time to wait for bus so in order to pass the time they started talking me regarding the India, its culture, tourist places etc. Though they had a very good hand book containing complete information on India tourism destination but still they were very enthusiastic about India. They were from USA and one of them was Kevin who later became my friend as we had to travel together for next 7-8 hours.

It was 11:00 O’ clock and I was feeling hungry, I saw a small shop having garmagaram Jalebi and Fafda, I along with Kevin went there to taste this delicious Gujarati breakfast. It was really tasty and Kevin also liked it, Jalebi was a miraculous dish for him.

Cairo, the city of a thousand minarets

By D.L.Narayan

ghumakkar loves serendipitous moments, when one comes across something remarkable but totally unexpected. I had such an experience a few minutes after landing in Cairo. The drive to the hotel from the airport was rather uninteresting as the architecture was pretty drab, just row after boring row of grey, rectangular concrete blocks . All of a sudden, I saw a building which looked like a Hindu temple…

Venice: City of Dreams

By Naveena Israni

The buzz of the place, sparkling water, numerous boats, quaint buildings – all combined to create an image like nothing we had seen before. Venice is enchanting, romantic and iconic, bustling with life yet crumbling and ghostly. Everywhere we looked, it seemed like we were inside a painting or a film set arranged around picturesque canals.

Kerala’s Green Treasures-Part Three

By Venkat

Alleppey beach beckoned us and we reached there in the scorching mid-day sun at 1 pm. We didn’t spend much time at the beach because of the extreme heat. We started looking around for a nice restaurant for lunch and the local suggestions led us to Hassan Restaurant, just half a km from the beach, on the way towards the town centre.

Drive to the district lake

By rawatgaurav81

Around noon we reached Nainital.The weather was just perfect and nice breeze was blowing which was a great relief from dusty and parched plains of delhi and gurgaon.Since we hadn’t booked the accommodation,we had to search for the hotel and also this was a long weekend ,people had started reaching the hill station.

Ujjain Darshan-2 / उज्जैन दर्शन-2

By Mukesh Bhalse

मोक्षदायिनी शिप्रा (क्षिप्रा) नदी: श्री हरसिद्धि मंदिर के पीछे कुछ ही दुरी पर क्षिप्रा नदी है. उज्जैन इस पवित्र नदी के पूर्वी छोर पर बसा हुआ है. इसके तट पर अनेक ऋषि मुनियों ने साधना की है. स्कन्द पूरण में कहा गया है की सारे भूमंडल पर शिप्रा के सामान कोई दूसरी नदी नहीं है, जिसके तट पर क्षण भर खड़े रह जाने मात्र से ही मुक्ति मिल जाती है. इसके पावन तट पर महँ सिंहस्थ (कुम्भ मेला) के अलावा सोमवती -श्रीशनिश्चरी अमावस्या, कार्तिक पूर्णिमा व ग्रहण आदि पर्वों पर लाखों नर नारी स्नान करके पुण्य लाभ प्राप्त करते हैं. क्षिप्रा महासभा द्वारा प्रतिदिन गोधुली बेला में क्षिप्रा की महा आरती की जाती है.

Mumbai-Canacona(South Goa)-Bangalore-Mumbai by car.

By hiteshbuch

After several turns passing through small villages and asking on the way at long last we sighted the narrow NH 17 and turned left onto it toward Canacona. We reached the huge and luxurious Intercontinental Lalit Goa Resort at about 5 pm and checked in after a 9 hour drive from Satara. In retrospect, despite the slow progress, we actually thought we enjoyed the drive through the generous greenery and the suspense which lingered for the better part of the day. We had covered a total of 654Kms.

Ujjain Darshan-1 / उज्जैन दर्शन – 1

By Mukesh Bhalse

उज्जैन के प्रमुख दर्शनीय स्थल निम्नानुसार हैं –
श्री महाकालेश्वर मंदिर, श्री बड़े गणेश मंदिर, श्री हरसिद्धि मंदिर, श्री चारधाम मंदिर, श्री नवगृह मंदिर, श्री प्रशांति धाम, श्री राम जनार्दन मंदिर, श्री गोपाल मंदिर, श्री गढ़ कालिका मंदिर, श्री चिंतामन गणेश, श्री काल भैरव, श्री भ्रतहरी गुफा, श्री सिद्धवट, श्री मंगलनाथ मंदिर, श्री संदीपनी आश्रम, वेधशाला, श्री चौबीस खम्भा मंदिर, शिप्रा नदी, कलियादेह पेलेस एवं इस्कोन मंदिर.

चूँकि हमारे पास समय की कमी होने की वजह से हम यह सारे मंदिर तो नहीं देख पाए लेकिन इनमें से अधिकतर स्थलों का अवलोकन करने का सौभाग्य हमें प्राप्त हुआ जिनका वर्णन करना मैं आवश्यक समझता हूँ.

Mahakaleshwar Ujjain / उज्जैन – महाकाल की महिमा

By Mukesh Bhalse

श्री महाकालेश्वर मंदिर संस्थान द्वारा संचालित अतिथि विश्राम गृह में फ़ोन द्वारा संपर्क किया (0734 -2551714) तो पता चला की वहां कोई कमरा खाली नहीं है. कुछ देर की मशक्कत के बाद अंततः हमने अपने रहने के लिए मंदिर के एकदम नजदीक ही स्थित एक प्राइवेट गेस्ट हाउस में एक कमरा दो दिनों के लिए बुक करा लिया. कमरा लेने के बाद हमने हाथ मुंह धोकर थोड़ी देर आराम किया तथा भोजन की तलाश में निकल गए. महाकाल मंदिर के मुख्य द्वार के सामने वाली वाली गली में कुछ भोजनालय हैं जहाँ खाना उपलब्ध है लेकिन खाने में निराशा ही हाथ लगी, खाना स्तरीय नहीं था.

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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.
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