Roads

Baratang: A Tribal Treat

By Naman

Long back, a group of tourists shot a video of the Jarawas and uploaded the same on the web. According to the United States, this act was not justified and it was classified as hindrance to the tribal life of the Jarawas. The issue was raised out loud and was finally brought up to the Indian Government. After all sought of discussions and panel meetings, the government decided to offer protection to the community. The jungle was then handed over to the police and CCTV cameras were also installed amidst the wild. A convoy system was setup wherein a convoy of vehicles at specific time will be accompanied by the Police officials to cross the jungle from Jirkatang to Baratang and vice versa. The government also banned the use of mobiles and cameras in between the journey. The first convoy had to depart at 06⁰⁰ hours and we were to go in the same.

Setting Sail to the Three Islands

By Naman

Always remember to carry your ID Card along with you as it is need at almost every tourist spot in the Andamans. The ferries depart every hour and we were to go by the 09³⁰ one. We were not offered any lifejackets and the ferry setup made me worry. Safety was on compromise but yet again one doesn’t have any another option. Recently, a ferry sailing from North Bay to Ross Island sunk and as many as 21 people died. Why can’t we follow safety guidelines rather than waiting for accidents to take place? As soon as the boarding began, I was the first one to step in and occupy the seat ahead of the wheel room.

Welcome to Andamans!

By Naman

The pilot announced “Crew, Ready for takeoff!” The flight from Chennai took off sharp at 05⁰⁰ hours. It is advisable to opt for a windows seat as on the approach towards the beautiful Islands, one gets a visual treat offered by Andamans.

Some memories of travels of days gone by – 1960 – 1975

By Jatinder Sethi

The title of this blog says “Holiday-Travel of Days Gone By!” and our holiday travel started around 1966. That’s almost 50 years ago! Our first trip, by Jeep ,was to Kulu valley and Rhotang PassI At that time there was no road beyond Kothi to Rohtang. And we stopped at the rest house at Kothi. Our elder son was six and younger was just one year old.

Can you guess the date of our arrival at Kothi ? You perhaps were not even born then, neither was Ghumakkar nor internet! October 30, 1966 was the day we jeeped at KOTHI.!

Manali to Delhi in one stretch: Memoir and road review

By Nitish Kumar

We had informed the reception that we would be moving out early morning though still it felt strange leaving hotel without informing anyone in person. I mean what if some guest decides to walk out with blanket or towel or anything else? Did we miss some step there or the reception didn’t got the point when we informed in night that we would be moving tomorrow morning?

Ride to Kibber

By Vas

ad astra per aspera
which literally means, “a rough road leads to the stars” and this pretty much came true for us when we started our ride from recong peo to tabo. recong peo was a let down. i am being honest in my criticism…it was a disappointing place and the only thing that was worth remembering is the sight of the mighty kinnr kailash. I am feeling blessed to have seen it.
post recong peo, we were heading towards Tabo. en route we stoppd at nako and we were simpy bowled over by the place… the place was so quite and peacful…
we had a sumptuou tibetan meal followed by a hot cup of tea. here we also fulfilled one of our long pending wishes- tieing prayer flags on our bikes..so each one of us picked up a prayer flag and tied it to our bikes. the old lady at the shop told us to write our names in the flag. we also met this vry nice kid by the name of Ajay who ofered to take us on a guided tour of the nako lake and the monastery..

Solo Travel, Himachal Tribal Circuit – Lahaul Valley

By Anil Sharma

During this stretch, a car had a flat tyre in the middle of a stream. The traffic had halted and the passengers of our bus, helped in changing the wheel. We started crawling forward, for being blocked once again by the same car, which was ahead of us. This time the car got stuck in a stream having big boulders. Again the passengers and staff of the bus came to the rescue of the car. Stones were planted strategically in front of the car tyres to provide some friction and the car was literally lifted out of the stream by the passengers.
We descended to the valley at Batal and from there we moved in the valley, literally on the river bed up to Chatru, which was our mid-day meal stop. Trekkers going to Chandratal from Manali or Keylong can stay here overnight. Chatru was the smallest village I have seen in terms of population, with a population of just 20 people. In fact there are no houses here, just 3-4 eateries catering to needs of the entire spectrum of passengers.

Exploring AP – Nagarjun – Suryalanka – Vijaywada

By Pronil

My favorite, never take the route back which you take to reach a destination, thus maximizing the opportunity to explore and know more. There are so many places in AP to Visit, so it was a week long plan to make a trip. I had 3 days in spare and almost 700-800km or budget based on my car’s milage. We were longing for Suryalanka beach from long, its the nearest beach from Hyderabad, not much advised in summer but still a beach is my attraction. We listed down, bora caves, bellum caves, warrangal, vijaywada, srisailam, nagarjun sagar, suryalanka, vishakhapatnam and many more. Finally, friday afternoon I decided for Srisailam, a piligrimage with just 200 odd km away from my home in Hyderabad. So, I texted my wife and my brother in law (he was on a short visit to our place) that pack your bags we are going to “Suryalanka”… that was an inadvertent mistake. Which I did not realize until I reached home from office. I was surprised to know that my family was apparently happy to know that we are going ot Suryalanka. I spoiled their excitement admitting the mistake.

Solo Travel, Himachal Tribal Circuit – Spiti Valley

By Anil Sharma

Next morning brought a very pleasant surprise. In the morning, I was having tea in the hotel balcony, clicking pictures of the serenity of Spiti valley. One youngster arrived in the compound of the hotel on a bike. It took me a while to recognize that he was one of the two boys from Mumbai whom I had met three days ago at the time of land slide traffic hold up near Karcham. Thus far, I was thinking that the bikers must have turned back from Nako village, where the road was totally destroyed. I was curious to know, how they had crossed that stretch. He [Alok} informed me that when they reached Nako village, being a Sunday, there was no BRO labor at Nako. So, they took a night halt in Nako village and next morning, with the help of BRO labor, they lifted their bikes across the steel girder. Hats off to these adventurous souls.

In Kaza also, I had to hire a car for visiting Key monastery and Kibber village [highest altitude village in the world- accessible by road}. In these valleys, government buses to remote villages go in the evening and return early next morning. Thus, 4-5 hour trip by car would take two days by public transport. We went about 7 kms. on the highway towards Manali and then took a right turn uphill for Kye monastery. It is an old monastery some 15 kms. from Kaza and the uphill road is good. But this monastery is not considered as important as Tabo and Dhankar monasteries by the Buddhists. The monastery is in much better shape, compared to the Dhankar monastery.

केदारनाथ यात्रा 2014 – सोनप्रयाग से केदारनाथ।

By Anoop Gusain

रामबाड़ा पहुँच तो होश उड़ गए। सिर्फ रामबाड़ा नाम के अलावा पर सही माने मे कुछ नहीं बचा था। अभी मैं मंदाकनी नदी के बाएँ ओर चल रहा था लेकिन रामबाड़ा बाद आगे का पूरा रास्ता जिस पहाड़ पर बना था वो पहाड़ पिछले साल ढह गया था। सीधा बोलूँ तो रामबाड़ा बाद प्रशाशन नया रास्ता बनाया था। नए रास्ते पर जाने लिए बाएँ ओर से मंदाकनी को एक पुल के जरिए पार करके दाएँ ओर जाना था। और अभी तक इस पुल पर काम चल रहा था।

कितने भयानक रूप से जलजला आया होगा। रामबाड़ा का नामोनिशान मिटा दिया। मेरी पिछली यात्राओं मे मैं और मेरा साथी यहीं पर विश्राम किया करते थे और पेट भर पराँठे खाया करते थे। यहाँ पर रात को सोने का इंतज़ाम भी हुआ करता था। ऐसी ही मेरी एक यात्रा मे केदारनाथ के दर्शन से लौटते वक़्त हमने रात के 2 बजे यहीं रामबाड़ा पर एक दूकान वाले से विनती करके कुछ खाने की पेशकश की थी। उस वक़्त उसके पास सिर्फ आलू की सब्ज़ी थी। हम उस साल 6 दोस्त गए थे। सभी भूखे थे हमारी हालत पर दुकानदार को तरस आया और बोला कि चलो ठीक है अंदर आ जाओ और पहले चाय पी लो तबतक मैं आटा गूँद देता हूँ। गर्म-गर्म रोटी और आलू की सब्ज़ी खाकर मज़ा आ गया था। तो मेरा ये वाक्य सुनाने का तात्पर्य यह है कि रामबाड़ा अपने आप मे एक सम्पूर्ण कसबे की तरह था। जहाँ पर यात्रा सीजन मे लोग हजारों की संख्या मे होते थे। यहीं पर खच्चर स्टैंड भी हुआ करता था। लेकिन इस बार सब खत्म। जो पहली बार गया होगा वो कल्पना और यकीन अभी नहीं कर सकता कि रामबाड़ा पर कैसा कहर टूटा था।

केदारनाथ यात्रा 2014 – गुप्तकाशी से सोनप्रयाग – भाग 2

By Anoop Gusain

पता चला कि सिर्फ ब्लड प्रेशर की जाँच हो रही है। मेरा नंबर आया डॉक्टर ने मेरे BP की जाँच की तो मशीन ने 110/140 दिखाया। डॉक्टर ने कहा इस इसाब से तुम आगे यात्रा पर नहीं जा सकते। मैंने मायूस होकर डॉक्टर से बोला इतनी दूर से वापस जाने के लिए नहीं आया हूँ। उसने कहा टेंशन मत ले यार। मैंने फिर से बोला कि अकेले ही ड्राइव करके आया हूँ इतनी दूर क्या यह वजह हो सकती है वो हँसने लगा बोला तुम थोड़ी देर बैठ जाओ 30 मिनट बाद फिर से आना। मुझे टेंशन हो गई थी मैं बाहर गया और सुट्टे पर सुट्टा लगाने लगा। 30 मिनट बाद फिर से मैं जाँच के लिए गया तब भी मशीन ने 110/140 ही दिखाया। डॉक्टर बोला भाई ये तो गड़बड़ है मैं अनुमति नहीं दे सकता। आखिर मे डॉक्टर ने मेरा शुगर की जाँच की शुगर 135 निकली। शुगर ठीक थी। उसने जाँच केंद्र बंद करने से पहले 6 बार मेरे BP की जाँच की थी पर मायूसी के अलावा कुछ हाथ नहीं लगा। उन्होंने अपना सामान समेटा और चल दिए। डॉक्टर के एक सहयोगी ने मुझ से पुछा गुसाईं जी आप तो पहाड़ी ही हो तो ये क्या चक्कर है। मैंने बोला मैं तो समय-समय पर रक्त दान भी करता रहता हूँ कभी भी मुझे दिक्कत नहीं आई क्यूँकि रक्त लेने से पहले भी हमेशा BP की जाँच होती है तभी मैंने उसको बोला आज मैंने सुबह से सिगरेट बहुत पी ली है। वो एक दम से चौंक कर बोला भाई यही तो दिक्कत है यही कारण है कि BP ठीक नहीं है। उसने बोला अब और सिगरेट मत पीना और खाना खाकर सो जाना। मैंने खाना मे दाल, रोटी, सब्ज़ी, सलाद लिया और अगली सुबह पाँच बजे का अलार्म लगा कर सो गया।

Bhopal – Nagpur- Raipur – Road Trip Review

By Dr. Ravi Sharma

We were on the Ring road, Nagpur at around 12.30 pm and after that we continued towards the NH 6/AH46. We decided to continue without taking hold due to traffic in the city. We just stopped to exchange of driver seat at the outer ring at the start of AH46 where the road sign shows that Raipur is now 275 kms ahead. So now I have the pilot seat in my hands. We continue towards the Raipur on the Nagpur- Durg- Raipur express way. The complete AH 46 is a 4 lane road, but with some traffic. After driving about 70 kms we reached Bhandara at about 2 pm and here we decided to take a halt and have lunch. We found a restaurant just on the highway and also a petrol pump besides it. So this is the best place to have a halt. After having a good lunch at Bhandara and having a tank full of my car, I continue ahead towards the Raipur. The road is excellent with lots of toll plaza in between we paid around Rs. 250 as a total toll from Weinganga Toll plaza to Raipur Toll plaza.

The road from Bhilai is with lots of traffic and from here I found the name expressway and paying toll as an injustice to the travelers. But still after a lot of hustle and bustle we reached Pandri Raipur same day and we notice the time is 6.25 while entering the Raipur from Tatibandh Square and covered the distance from Tatibandh Square Raipur to Pandri Raipur (9.7 kms) takes 45 minutes and finally reached our hotel in pandri Raipur at 7.10 pm. Thanks to the congested and traffic with no traffic sense peoples of Raipur. Now I have to complete the official and the important tasks for which we have travelled Raipur.

1 Steve James Calcutta -The city of Joy

Winter is the perfect time to travel and explore new places! Pick your dream destination and book with Brahmand Tour. See our tour packages here https://www.brahmandtour.com/5-days-golden-triangle-package
2 Vinod Kumar Calcutta -The city of Joy

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3 Deeba M A short Day trip from Vadodara to Hathnimata Temple & Waterfall

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4 Mythili V Om Parvat – Abode of Lord Shiva

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5 Mythili V Kerala – A Tourist State

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6 Rakesh Lansdowne – Walk and simply walk

Very nice kumkum, agar hindi me likhte to ot bhi acha lagta Landsdowne me bhi janchuka hu bohot achi jagha hai
7 Ankit Verma रूपकुंड की यात्रा Roopkund Trek – २

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8 Akhil Mehta रूपकुंड की यात्रा Roopkund Trek – २

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