01 Jan

A Visit to Lavasa, Pune

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There is not much to do at Lavasa except walking along the waterfront promenade, the prime attraction, which is very well maintained and clean. It was about 10mins walk from our hotel, Mercure. It also offers various options for dining at restaurants serving delicacies from different countries like American, Australian, Lebanese, Singaporean, Chinese along with Pizzas, Ice-creams and Indian street foods like Chats & Tikkas. Some of these are overpriced. It is recommended to have meals at the hotel; however, one can try these restaurants for one meal.

We had our dinner at American Diner, which was obviously a costly affair. The place had on offer, a 5 course dinner for a couple (Valentine’s eve) at a discounted price of Rs. 1000/- (we did not opt for it). The restaurant serves imported drinks. We tried a Vodka brand called Pinky (this is the first time, we heard about this brand). It was ok.

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Delhi to Lucknow in 5 hours via YEW and Agra Lucknow Expressway

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It was a pleasure driving on this road. I counted 57 vehicles while going towards Lucknow on this expressway which means a lot of people are still unaware of it. I tried to maintain a consistent speed of 120 kmph on this road, but to my surprise I found I was driving at 130-135 kmph. There is very little noise while driving on this road. I encountered total 4 small diversions (diversion means when you have to drive on the wrong side of the expressway).

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Sunset

Zanzibar: How to explore Stone Town on foot

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Also known as Zanzibar mix, it’s an Indian inspired Zanzibari Tanzanian bowl of curry soup with lots of toppings. It’s packed with diverse flavors and textures. The ‘Mix’ is a bowl of smooth and tangy soup cooked with lemon and mango, with pieces of mashed potatoes, onions slices, peanuts and crispy bhajias immersed in it. It’s topped with a spoon of coconut chutney, a dash of red-hot chutney and a scoop of deep fried potato shavings sprinkled on top.

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Travel reminiscences from the 1970s …

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अब के बिछड़े तो शायद कभी ख़्वाबों में मिलें,
जिस तरह सूखे हुए फूल, क़िताबों में मिले

While recently listening to the above gazal of Ahmad Faraz,by Mehdi Hassan,the line ”jis tarah sukhe hue phuul kitabon mein milen” jogged my memory about the old faded travel photographs of years gone by lying, for decades, in the trunk in the basement.

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Lavish yet affordable trip to Matheran, near Mumbai

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• Girls should consider wearing something very appropriate as the crowd consist of good as well as cheap public.
• As a couple you should consider not carrying much luggage as there is no one to look after it.
• Please be careful of the broken bottle glasses all over the place.
• Please be prepared with the right type of footwear since the place is slippery.
• The water currents are very mild and the fall is amongst the safest fall in the state.
While leaving for top we again got a share cab for us with the same fare. We trekked from Dasturi to our hotel this time. Yeah! Now I am planning to add trekker in my resume..lol. The rest of the day we spent inside our cozy hotel.

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मेघालय – शिलोंग , स्कॉटलैंड ऑफ़ दी ईस्ट

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जब हमने सुना कि एशिया का सबसे स्वच्छ गांव का पुरस्कार भारत के एक गांव ने जीता है और वो मेघालय में है तो मैंने इसे अपने प्लान में शामिल किया । लीविंग रूट ब्रिज देखने के बाद हम इस इस गांव में पहुंचे जो कि लीविंग रूट ब्रिज वाले गांव से 2 किमी दूर स्थित है।गाँव को साफ़ कैसे रख पाते है जबकि सैलानी आते जाते रहते है रोज़ खूब सारे।

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Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary – The Green and Serene spot of Haryana

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After some time we reached the watch-tower and beneath the same we were lucky to spot a barking deer and we were quick to click a picture of the same. Then from the watch towers we spotted the beautiful sightings of the migratory birds.

Common Teal, Common Greenshank, Ruff, Black-winged Stilt, Northern Pintail, White Wagtail, Northern Shoveler, Yellow Wagtail, Rosy Pelican, Spot-billed Pelican, Gadwall, Wood Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper,

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The Living Stone

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It is a very small temple which has sixty four Yogini figures placed inside the circular wall. Each Yogini has a name and special characteristic such as one with lion face, one with a monkey face, one standing on a human head or one standing in fire and so on. There are a few Yogini temples all over India and all are circular in shape depicting the ‘Yoni’.

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Alleppey Backwaters

Visit to God’s own country – Kerala

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Cochin is about 50 kms from Alleppey. After visiting Maritime Navy Museum, we headed for Fort Cochin area. Fort Cochin area consists of Churches, Dutch Palace and Jewish Synagogue. For history enthusiasts its a place for going back in the past and know about Jews, Portuguese and dutch reign in Cochin.

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Jaisalmer – Top 10 things to see and do

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Located 18 km away from Jaisalmer, the way to desert Kuldhara village is known as the ghost village. Lying abandoned from the past few centuries, this village has no signs of human life and is also known as one of the haunted places in Rajasthan. A clan of eighty-five villages, Kuldhara was once inhabited by the Paliwal Brahmins, but due to some adverse happenings, the natives evacuated the village within a night. It is also said that while leaving the village, the villagers put a curse on it.

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Haridwar – Stairway to heaven revisited

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In the dead silence of the night, the gushing sound of the fast flowing river sounded like heavenly music. Soothing, mesmerizing and it deported you a heavenly bliss. It was like being hypnotized, lifting the spirits to incredible heights. I can’t recall when I went off to sleep; but when I got up early morning, I walked to the bank of the river and watched it flowing away gingerly. I have never forgotten that river sound since then.

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Phnom Penh in Cambodia TO Can Tho in Vietnam by bus

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We called up our hotel in Phnom Penh as well as Can Tho, but no luck. Everyone shared the bus routes but all of them were going to Can Tho, via Saigon. It seemed so lame and dumb to do that. When everything fails, Internet comes as a savior so we started scavenging sites like TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet and what not. To our luck, we found one hard-to-believe post saying that

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