05 May

Paradise Regained: Day 1 & 2

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Some of us decided to pursue air route while some others took a more adventurous route of going by train and road to reach Srinagar. While waiting to board the flight at Delhi for Srinagar we heard “choice” words being used against Air India. Looked like some others had tasted the same medicine I had! I found out that they were also taking the tour through Sachin and were part of our larger group. I joined the group to vent out my feelings against AI. Ahh… felt good … Now I was ready for the “Paradise on Earth”.

As the plane made its descent in Srinagar, green carpeted land embraced by the beautiful Himalayas greeted us. As the plane made its final descent little cottages and the dotted cattle idly grazing on nature’s carpet came to focus. The snow on the hills was literally the icing! If my camera had “emotion feature” built-in it could have probably done justice to the scenery. I was yanked back to reality by the “ooohs” and the “ahhs”, excited voices of the children and the swaying of the necks of the passengers from one side of the plane to the other.

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Alluring Amsterdam – Part 3

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Since the weather wasn’t too favorable for cycling, we decided to opt for the guided tour. A 6 hour round trip with a visit to the cheese and clog factory plus walk tour in the fishing village of Amsterdam – cant get any better, can it?

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A Whiff of Paris

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We skipped the conventional and recommended “Lido” show and “The Moulin Rouge” on our trip to Paris. These were highly recommended night shows, presented aesthetically and were a huge crowd puller at Paris. We had to skip the energetic and spirited adventure bus. Our priority was to keep the young ones engaged, interested, while keeping our expectation about their energy levels strongly grounded. So we did take the hop in hop off bus to tour the grand city (Sacre Coeur, Champs Elysees etc) but planned on a 3 days stay at Disney World Paris.

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Nainital

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Twilight is dancing on the lake water. All the myriad reflections of life are alive. The sun is receding behind the mountains.  There are no more clouds in the sky. I wish for a starry night. Soon the last boatmen will oar his way back; his mind will be occupied by his earnings of the day. How much is sufficient, how much is luxury? In the end, we’ll all be Capitol Cinema – alone, old, dead.

My favorite bench near the band house is unoccupied. I scurry my way to it. The gurudwara, the oaks and the local salesmen stand tall. They have lived lives here, they are living lives here…

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Motorcycle Diaries. Road to Badrinath…

Motorcycle Diaries. Road to Badrinath…

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Some details on Joshimath. It is a popular hill station and a famous center for pilgrimage at a height of 1,890 meters above sea level in Chamoli district of Garhwal division in Uttarakhand. It is the base for trekking to the famous Valley of Flowers. It is connected with a 4km cable car up to Auli, a hill-station famous for ice skiing sports, making it the longest and highest trolley of Asia. Joshimath is the also the home of the oldest tree of India, Kalpavriksha, which stands here from the time of Adi Guru Shri Shankaracharya, who established this town as one of the four maths or monasteries, in the 8th century.

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Alluring Amsterdam – Part 2

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The shuttle dropped us at Schiphol Airport and from there we took a train to the Centraal Station (20 mins train journey). “Tours and Tickets” is a famous agency which organizes city tours, canal cruises and other tours around Amsterdam city. We went to one of their counters in the Damrak region (5 mins walk from Centraal) and exchanged our Holland pass coupons for a city tour!

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Ranikhet – the unexplored paradise

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The hotel that we stayed in was called as Rosemount,a  lovely old heritage property with old world charm,  the splendour reminds you of an era gone by. It is known to be as old as year 1900, elaborate window frames and the large rooms have preserved the pristine glory in its true form even today. The manager told that one could see beautiful Nanda Devi and entire range from rooms and the garden.  Well it  was late evening , we could see nothing and rather slept early.  Ahem Ahem !! Next day in the morning, I opened the windows to majestic Nanda Devi and other snow covered peaks towering over! It was a view to remember.

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Alluring Amsterdam – Part 1

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Soon after we reached Schiphol, we enquired about where we could take the bus to Kuekenhof. We had bought our Kuekenhof tickets online and this being a combo ticket for the transport (to & fro) and the garden entry, we dint have much to bother about!

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Ludhiana to Badrinath/Mana/Vasudhara Falls

Ludhiana to Badrinath/Mana/Vasudhara Falls

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Ludhiana to Rishikesh road was in very bad condition while enter in U.P state. Laxman Jhula chowk is famous place in rishikesh “The Land of Rishis”.
Many small hotels are situated here and it provides good rooms in low range generally in 250/- to 400/- rupees. Rishikesh is very peaceful as well as Capital city of Adhyatam.

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Mukteshwar Revisited

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Once we settled down, freshened up, we met the other guests, quite a few from Gurgaon, went around the property and watched the view points. Later, in the evening I went down for a walk and to see the area towards Krishna, and Sun set spots. Guess what? I came across a loosely locked gate, just after Krishna, with a notice “Private-No Entry”. Curious, an Indian after all, I sneaked in. There were no security, no dogs, no one out there. I walked up the private road with my camera.

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An unforgettable to trip to my village in Kangra and other places!

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it just cant be explained in words the joy of driving in rain and that too on Delhi Panipat road.It was raining so heavily that on few occasions the wiper would prove to be futile.It was an awesome drive till Chandigarh, barring few diversions due to construction work going on on few stretches.
After crossing the city we were on the Nangal Una road that road was not bad either but had no comparison to delhi-ambala highway!

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Ranthambore – My Machaan???

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We broomed the place under the tomb with a make shift Jhadoo and sat down; it gave us fantastic view of partly dried lake with deer grazing in the marsh. Amazingly there was no Machaan, to tell you the truth we forgot that it was a must at all the locations. Hours passed and we documented the deer and small carnivorous animals. At sunset, the wind direction changed and I could smell very strong tiger urine as and when the wind blew. It began to worry me a bit due to my experience in jungles watching and spotting tigers; I knew we were in the tiger territory for sure.

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