Shalini's travelogue

Yercaud - Day 2

2011-12-01T08:49:00.001-08:00

After a fun filled first day in Yercaud, we were all awaiting for an activity packed second day of stay :)

The misty mornings in Yercaud are so blissful and the monkeys that visited us in our balcony added more fun and was the only factor that made me get up that morning. I am so used to sleeping and never getting up when the weather is cold and the place is nice and cozy. I have been doing this for right form the time I was 2 years old when I visited Kodaikanal for the first time, and it continues even after two decades ...

The guys wanted to take a dip in the pool and the rest of us wanted to visit the touristy places in Yercaud. After, a bit of discussing about who does what.. we all finally landed in the restaurant to have breakfast and we totally gorged it all .. burrp! The one thing about buffets in GRT is there is a lot of variety, the food is good and with good company, there isn't anything else that one could ask more.

We started with an english breakfast and gradually moved to Indian and ended with some breakfast desserts, that is how elaborate and sumptuous our day began. The guys went to the pool after a failed attempt in trying to cycle around the place and the rest of us got ready to tour around yercaud..

Our first stop was at the lake which was about 2km from our resort. Around the lake were numerous places of interest and activities .. after visiting the garden, the kids park which had some pets and after finding that the Shevaroyan temple was closed we finally ventured into boating .. Five of us in one boat and it starts drizzling, it was beautiful :) :)

On the way back to our resort we visited the Pagoda point where I got to view the beauty of the hills as the mist settled, nothing can beat the beauty nature creates :)

After finding out that the places to see in Yercaud were the same as any hillstation in Tamilnadu and as it was time for lunch we decided to head back to our resort to join with D and H for lunch. It also happened to be friend D's dad's bday.. We had planned a surprise cake cutting in the room for uncle that evening, the staff in the resort were really friend and ever so willing to help :)

We had a relatively easy lunch as we had plans to go around Yercaud after lunch as well. We visited the nursery that was a stone throw away from our resort and got couple of dozens of plants and when we loaded it all in our Tempo traveller, there were more plants than people in the vehicle.

The adventure started when we decided to visit a waterfall, it started becoming cloudy and by the time we reached the waterfall, heavy drizzling had started.. rain did not dampen our spirits and we started walking under umbrellas towards the waterfall, which we were told was couple of 100 meters away from where we were but it actually was about 4km away and the path to the water fall turned out to be very slippery due to rains .. after having a fun walk in the rian for about 500 meter we decided to return back to the vehicle to get back to the hotel..

The best part of going around Yercaud was when we got on to a viewing tower when it was raining like crazy and the wind was so chill and we spotted our resort. It is one of the bad photos that I have taken, but every time I look at this it makes me smile thinking about the experience we had while clicking this pic :) :)

The image with a lot of lights is our resort

The evening fun of Day 2 .. coming soon !!

Yercaud - Day 1

2011-11-26T11:04:00.001-08:00

It was time I had a break form our regular going to work schedule and have some time off for ourselves and with family and friends. Gladly things fell in place when I took couple of days off and had a looooong LEAVE of 9 days during Diwali .. (luxury !! )

After continued efforts on planning a trip to Chikmangalur, and then to Kumarakom we were finally on our way to Yercaud, the jewel of the South (It truly was, and I didn't know it until we were there .. ). Part of the Sheavroy hill range in the Eastern Ghats, Yercaud is at an altitude of around 1500 m from the sea level and 20 hair pin bends to reach the hill town of Yercaud.

It was a 6 hour drive through a picturesque highway from Chennai along NH 45 and NH68.

We had a stop over in Salem for lunch and co-incidentally we stopped to lunch at GRT Grand Estancia, Salem. Co-incidentally because we had planned our stay in Yercaud at GRT Nature Trails.

It looked like GRT Grand Estancia was a relatively new property and they had only one restaurant functioning at that point. After a sumptuous lunch and with less than an hour long trip, we saw the majestic mountains that we our home for the next couple of days.

We were received with heavy rains as we reached our hotel in Yercaud at the 20th hair pin bend. The rains gave us sometime to settle down and enjoy the coziness of our rooms before we could make further plans.

After about an hour of exploring our room and enjoying the endless view from our balcony, my friends D, H and me went around the resort, through the gardens, coffee plantations, guava plantations and walking over a glass floor over a valley on a rainy day made the walk more slippery. It was a very beautiful place with very friendly service. Since the rain played spoilt sport, we did not make any further plans for the day and spent the rest of the evening playing Snooker and foosball.

The best part of the entire trip was there was no internet connectivity and mobile connectivity was very low and was subjective to where we were. We finally decided to go outdoors when time came calling for dinner. We decided to visit the Lake Forest resort for dinner, as suggested by a colleague who loved his stay and experience at Lake Forest.

This place was around 3 kms from GRT Nature trails. However, travelling in the hills after dusk seemed quite a bit of a challenge especially while it was raining. Lake Forest looked beautiful, the place was antique and very interesting with its history and the history of things that gave the place the antique look. It was one of a kind place and I totally loved the look and feel of the restaurant in Lake Forest. We reached the place much before the dinner time, which gave us some time to go around the place.

The rooms in Lake forest were quiet spacious with its antique look. However, I liked the rooms in GRT Nature trail a lot better. After clicking some funny pics around the place, we settled in for dinner. The buffet spread was simple and neat and the food tasted yummy.

After a day of long road trip .. games .. good food .. beautiful views and fun times. It was time for us to hit the neatly made up bed in our rooms and get ready for an activity packed tomorrow ..

A quick peek from our balcony..

Twinkling lights of Salem

View from our balcony on a bright evening

Yercaud is one of the most beautiful hill stations I have been to, with pristine nature that is unspoiled and not flooded with tourists. It was a great beginning to a good holiday !

My last day of the Puttaparthi, Bangalore trip - Day 3 of 3

2011-08-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

After the first day in Bangalore and the second day in Puttaparthi, we returned to Bangalore before starting on our journey back home to Chennai.

This time over it was full time shopping in Bangalore at the Garuda Mall and the Bangalore central mall, with a short visit to the Lalbagh garden just before we started to Chennai.

My favourite in Bangalore is the buffet breakfast at Woodland's hotel and this time again we didn't miss it either. A seperate post on that in my food blog.

On a spiritual route (Puttaparthi Bangalore & Puttaparthi) - Part 2 of 3

2011-07-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

I am glad we made this trip then .. Six months after the trips as I make this blog post now .. Sri Sathya Sai baba is no more .. !

After spending the first day in Bangalore, we headed to Puttaparthi the next morning.

After a sumptuous buffet breakfast at Woodlands, we started on our drive to Puttaparthi from Bangalore which was for about 3 hours, along vineyards in the roller coaster like highway ..

It has been for many years that my parents and grand parents wanted to make a visit to Puttaparthi .. It was my first visit to the place and it was totally different from what I thought it to be like .. The first look of the place was neat, calm and uncluttered with every essential facility one could possibly think of from a full fledged hospital to educational institution to entertainment centres to a private airport .. it was all part of the Sathya sai trust.

Unbelievable but true, I saw people from all over the globe, there were volunteers as well as visitors .. There is an Aarthi being held every evening for which Baba pays visit to, for which thousands of devotees gather for many hours in the Prashanthi Nilayam to have a sight of him.

I have never been fond of Bhajans or large pilgrim gatherings but it was totally very different case in Prashanthi Nilayam .. the atmosphere was Vibrant .. I was more curious in wondering what makes so many people from around the globe come here ..

The Bhajans lasted for around three hours, before Baba came in for the Arathi. Gladly we got a glimpse of him thou' me and my mom had moved out of the place before he arrived.

The streets around Prashanthi Nilayam are filled with hotels and small shops selling curios. We spent another hour shopping for stuff before we reached our hotel for dinner.

Kerala Tales

2011-05-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

When your flight lands in the runway admist cocunut grooves and banana plantations, when your drive to the hotel is along the Arabian coast line, you know for sure your in God's own country. This is my first visit to Trivandrum, the place is serene, relaxed and you sure don't want to come here on an official trip and miss doing all the touristy stuff.

Though my stay is for quite long, there is very little that I am going to get to know of the place this time, which is only wanting me to make a long holiday trip to this part of the country.

The walk into the techno park in itself feels more like walking into a serene college campus than into an IT park space. Thanks to the wonderful landscaping and lots of greens as far as my vision goes.

Even as I sip tea from the cafeteria in the fourth floor of the building, it feels more like sneaking a peek while climbing a mountain.

Beautiful sunsets, long stretches of beach, friendly people and most of all the slow paced lifestyle is few of the many things that add to the charm of this little town in the south west of India.

As I draft this post I see the first thunder showers of the south west monsoon setting in from my room window.

On a spiritual route - (Bangalore & Puttaparthi) Part 1 of 3

2011-02-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

Anticipating an extended weekend, we (my family) decided to visit puttaparthi (a small town in the Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh border) brought to fame by Baba's Prashanthi nilayam ashram.

We did a four day road trip from Chennai to Puttaparthi via Bangalore and back. Seven of us in a tempo traveller, it was a very comfortable trip sans the mis-adventures.

Enjoying a steady drive on the NH 4, with a couple of breaks in between we reached Woodlands hotel in Bangalore by 1pm and headed straight to Sunheri, their South Indian restaurant for a sumptuous banana leaf meal ..

All this while from Chennai to Bangalore to the point of finding the route to Woodlands, we used Nokia ovi maps from my phone. This happened to be the first time I used GPS this extensively and fell in love with technology.

We checked into our rooms and after resting for a while, decided to visit the bull temple and Garuda mall.

We reached close to the bull temple around 5 pm, there were two temples in the vicinity. In front of one of the temple was a cow and the locals were busy feeding the cow, asuming that to be the bull temple we entered it only to realize we were misguided by the cow .. eventually we visited both the temples. While leaving the temple we bought a bag full of ground nuts that was being sold outside the place, as we were told it was custom for p
eople to buy these ground nuts back after visiting the bull temple.

After which we decided to visit Garuda mall, do a bit of shopping, get done with the dinner and head back to our hotel. Garudal mall was hardly 2 kms away from the bull temple and it took us more than an hour to reach that place (Let me warn you, it is a very bad idea to travel inside Bangalore city in a tempo traveller or in the likes of it ), our route was diverted thrice, met couple of cops and we were finally at Garuda for our dinner .. I had some yummy waffles from crepe connection that made my evening to compensate for my failed shopping plans ..

You probably know how a girl should be feeling when her shopping plans are flopped, with such a mood I hit the bed to get up early the next morning ..

Going uphill , the darshan and more .. From the hills of holyness - Tirupathi (Part 3)

2010-10-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

We planned to get up early morning by 4 am, but eventually after a long journey the day before we comfortably slept until five and started from the hotel to the Tirumala temple around 6 30am .. Before ascending the hill, the vehicles were checked in the toll gate and the luggages carried were scanned as well and was marked using a nama katti (more like a white chalk) which made us think how did it really matter..

The journey uphill started from the toll gate and it took us close to 45 mins to reach the hill top near the Tirumala temple. The ride along the paves was serene and beautiful, the cold breeze passing through your face made it a refreshing start for the day.. Nature is truly beautiful when taken care of ..

On reaching uphill we dined at the Mathura restaurant for a quick breakfast of steaming Idli, dosa, pongal and vada ( The vada s were crispy and soft - Delicious!)

After getting our quick darshan tickets which costed about Rs.300 per person , at around 8 30 am we headed to join the devotees waiting in the queue .. On joining the queue I was surprised to see people selling breakfast .. juices .. biscuits and lays .. to keep the devotees from starving , for it takes hours to have a peek at Lord Venkatachalapathy. It took us four hours . I remember the last couple of times we were at Tirupathi we had got some special Darshan tickets, in which case we were at the temple either early in the morning at 4 or in the evening at 6 30 and didnt have to wait this long in the queue.

The time waiting in the queue was well spent people watching.. Finally at around 11 30 am we were out of the temple after the darshan and collection of the famous Tirpathi ladu (prasadam).. After spending close to an hour of window shopping along the streets adjoining the temple. We took the journey downhill to reach our hotel, and then on lunch and leave back to Chennai.

On the trip down hill I came across groups of people walking up the hill for the Darshan and heard stories from my parents about the same and how few generations ago people from my native made visit to Tirupathi is Bullock carts and how they exchanged the bullocks with known families mid way and collect their animals back on their return trip.. Interesting I thought, but would have taken them ages to complete the journey .. a mammoth task it would have been.

Looked like there were quite a bit of wild animals in the forests surrounding the temple, which I came to know from the boards placed along the road down hill. We came across a herd of deers fenced and there was a guy selling cucumber and carrots which one can buy to feed the deers .. We got one box of them first , the more I fed the more I wanted to .. so ended up getting another one .. the deers were so friendly .. thinking about them even now brings a smile in my face.

We vacated from our hotel and I had this innate urge to taste some authentic andhra food before heading back home.. After a bit of discussion we decided on dining at Fortune Kences .. This place is not known for its authentic andhra food thou' it had most of the items in its buffet spread.

After a heavy lunch, with my stomach full and even contended heart .. we made our journey back to Chennai :)

I now see Thirumala to be more of a hill station than a pilgrimage spot, it could turn out to be a weekend getaway or a budget holiday for those of them in and around Chennai.

From the hills of holyness - Tirupathi (Part 2 )

2010-09-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

We reached Tirupathi on Saturday evening and decided on making the uphill journey happen the next day morning, due to lack of time and because of the heavy traffic that we saw on the road leading atop the hill.

We booked a room at Hotel Bhimas Residency for that nights stay. After spending close to half an hour refreshing ourselves, resting a little and clicking pics of the view from the room , we decided on heading to the Padmavathi temple which was approximately a 15 minute drive from our place. This temple is situated in a place called Thiruchanoor/Alamelumangapuram.

We reached the temple at around 7pm. After close to twenty minutes of waiting had a good darshan. One very annoying thing was that they had a continuous recording being played asking the devotees to take care of their belonging like they do in exhibitions and and other fairs which to me did not give the fulfillment of being in a temple.

To pacify all this I was super happy when I saw ladus being given as prasadam in this temple as well, like that in the thirumala temple. After having some ladus and packing the rest to share it with family and friends back home , I saw a group of people having some different kind of Prasadam and then it was time to go collect ours as well and this time it was some delicious hot pongal being served in cups made of dried leaf (thonai). I have always liked prasadam s given at temples right from the time I was a kid.

Once out of the temple, the small shops adjoining the temple selling accessories, toys, and stuffs that are unique to the place always adds on to my entertainment quotient be it in any place, so the next half an hour we spent walking around the streets around the temple.

For dinner we headed back to the hotel where we had booked to stay for the night. I remember even during our last trip to Tirupathi we had stayed at Bhimas Residency - nothing very special about the place, a good not so expensive place with all basic necessities.

(My next post on the trip uphill and darshan at the Tirumala temple is coming soon )

From the hills of holyness - Tirupathi (Part 1)

2010-09-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

It was during one of the weekends we decided to make the long pending Tirupathi trip materialize. It was a bright Saturday afternoon when mom, dad and I started from Chennai to Tirupathi. It is a five hour long journey by road and we had booked a cab, so that we could just sit back and relax and enjoy as we travel past the green fields and mountains.

It gladly turned out to be less sunny in a few minutes from the time we started the trip and was even better when it started drizzling.. It took us close to three hours to get across the TamilNadu border, before which we took a small break for snacking alongside the last high way restaurant (Hotel Kasi) that we found after which hardly any caught our sight until we reached the town on Tirupathi. The food here was so yum, probably I was very hungry ( will make yet another post ans link it here for those of you who would like to know more about the restaurant).

It was an unusually large eat out for a restaurant along side the highway which served varied cuisines and also had other small shops where I also got the top up done for my mobile phone. We had some hot samosas with delicious chutneys and some masala chai as well.. Perfectly suited the weather and the relaxed weekend we were living.

Few hours on the road and I kept myself busy clicking pics of the green fields and mountains I came across and also munching on the boiled ground nuts that we got near the Tamil Nadu - Andhra junction.

After which I saw jalebi like words on bill boards and advertisements in shops, now I know I am in Andhra and few kilometers away from Tirupathi.

On reaching Tirupathi by around six in the evening, our driver suggested we visit the Tirumala temple in the evening as it would be less crowded than making a visit to the temple tomorrow morning, but looking at the huge flow of traffic uphill we decided to keep the temple visit for the morning just like the way we had initially planned.

Travel offers

2010-04-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

My vacation is around the corner, in fact a real long one this time which might even last for over a month .. There are a number of trips being planned .. one with family and the other with a bunch of friends from university.

These trips are indeed the fun part of my holidays always and if you get an offer in your travel ticket or accommodation or food, it just is the icing on the cake .. This is exactly what Orbitz do. Orbitz is a leading online travel company which offers great deals with their orbitz coupon to travelers of all kinds .. leisure, business etc. making the whole experience lighter on your pocket.

Orbitz coupons are available for hotels across various categories and travel tickets, across many locations.These coupons are valid for a particular period of time, so I suggest you use them to your benefit soon and that's not all , the website gets loaded with new offer coupons almost everyday. I'm sure this would be a great way to celebrate the holiday spirit in a fun way.

Up close and personal with the elephants

2010-04-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

This was my first up close and personal encounter with elephants. Never before have I seen so many elephants of different sizes around me. There were almost couple of dozens of them. It was at the Dubare elephant camp at Coorg.

This place was the highlight of our trip to Coorg during the summer of 2005. Since its almost 5 years now, I will try my best to recollect as much possible.

We were at Dubare by around 9am - we made sure we were there on time as we were told we could feed the elephants breakfast if we make it there on time. So, we didnt want to miss the opportunity.

We were dropped at a place which was seperated from Dubare by river cauvery, we took a steam boat to reach the elephant camp. As our boat moved closer to Dubare we passed elephants bathing in the river - the visitors were allowed to bath the elephants too and to our surprise there was a huge queue to lay their hands on the elephant. I was scared then, but was excited to take a pic of my dad bathing the elephant.

The Dubare elephant camp is home to around 150 elephants and we were explained in detail about the elephant's activities and their behaviour in detail. (I will try uploading the video of it, if possible)

Visitors were also allowed to feed the elephants with huge balls made out of rice and various other substances that was provided at the camp. One can also take a ride onto the jungle on the elephant with the mahout accompanying you. Though we didnt opt to do this, I heard it completes the trip to Dubare. There also is a water rafting place very close to Dubare.

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I was told that it is better to run downhill rather than going uphill in cases when being chased by an elephant.

I would like to hear your experiences at Dubare as well. I could recollect a handful of info since it had been a real long time. I hope the pictures suffice to it.

The last evening in Jaipur - City palace and Rambagh palace

2009-12-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

It was one of the evening that I was most looking forward to, not because it was our last day there I totally loved Jaipur. It was for the only reason that we were gonna dine at Rambagh palace that evening. What a way to end the trip :)

But before that we had planned to visit the city palace - the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur. This place has a number of buildings that seve variuos purposes. We got to see the Dharbar kinda place where the ministers gather to look upon any issues or to make any judgement. It was more like the court of yester years.

There also was an exhibition of paintings and other art works in a few halls in the palace , the works were so very artistically done. City palace is also home to the largest (heaviest) silver ware in the world .

For once in my trip I truly wanted to experience Jaipur in the royal rajasthan way, so when it was decided that we were to dine at Rambagh palace even my cold and fever couldnt stop me from getting dressed up in a finely sequined salwar suit and pair it with finely embellished jutas I got from Jaipur and I was all set.. :)

Loved the grandeur and royalty of the place , I know little of the historic connections to the place but I jus' know that Queen Gayatri Devi lived there when we visited a year ago (but she is no more) and a part of the palace has been converted into a hotel by the Taj Group. This was enough to se me gleaming my way through the paths of Rambagh palace.

We arrived at the place late evening and got to witness some traditional music and dance show by the folk artists. And then it was time to head to dinner. The service was too good, one of the best in the country :) .

Loved every bit of my time at Rambagh palace , I wasn't allowed to take pics of the restaurant when more and more guests started coming in *sigh* :)

Le Meridien - Jaipur

2009-12-11T06:07:00.000-08:00

We had almost a day left in Jaipur after our arrival from Ranthambore. This time over we had booked to stay in Le Meridien, Jaipur (it was a time when I was highly influenced by the hotel show in Travel channel :) , so wanted to check out as many hotels as possible)

The hotel so looked like a palace by itself both with its exteriors as well as interiors in contrary to Rajputana Sheraton where we had stayed previously which was more contemporary in its outlook. But, both has its own charm . I couldn' spend much time in Le Meridien since it was only a day stay and we had plans to explore the pink city a little more , in addition to it all I was down with cold.

These were my findings of the hotel in the few hours that we were there .. they have got beutiful lush gardens and they hold a barbeque evening there I suppose with traditional Rajasthani music and dance to entertain their guests .. there were also some puppet shows .. I jus' got a glimpse of all these on my return to the hotel in the night after visiting the sinequanon places that we sure didn't wanna miss during our trip.

The Safari at Ranthambore

2009-11-26T03:21:00.000-08:00

We started of with the safari right after our lunch at around 2pm . The canter arrived at Khem Villa . We were advised to carry a bottle of water and some warm clothing to protect us from the chills as the place starts getting really cold by the evening.

After around 10mins we were entering Ranthambore national park ,around 15 -20 of us in a canter and there were a few more canters that started into the national park along with ours. In the entry to the national park, they were selling few souvenieur merchandise - we got a couple of t-shirts , like the way I always do whereever we go.

Our journey into the Ranthambore national park and back was pretty long. I had expected it to last for may be 2 hours but it extended to more than 4 hours. Neverthless, it was a fun filled adventure.

Ranthambore national park spreads across an area of 400 sq.km. with a huge variety of Flora and fauna. The national park is divided into 4 sectors and the tourists are allowed to visit only 2 sectors. Ranthambore is open for visitors from October to May of every year.

Around 15mins into the park and we spotted the first aimal , a deer and that was jus' the beggining and along the journey we spotted a handful of animals and birds - various kinds of deer, spotted, samba, boar, peacock, tiger's dentist, pelican ....

We came across a huge water body where the many canters that started pulled down as they heard some kind of noise from the forest and we were told we could spot a tiger coming to the water body very soon. That got all of us waiting in hushed silence , yup no noises .. silence please!

With the binoculars out of the bag, camera s in hand, out of the seat standing high in the canter, with photographers out with their huge cameras and tripod stand .. we were all waiting this way (Tiger watching) for close to an hour and trust me it wasn't boring. And little more thana n hour we waited but couldn spot any tiger. Then we came to know for the couple who had come form Netherland who was in our canter , it was their 2nd safari in a day and they still didn't spot the tiger either *sigh*.

It was time for us to get back. On our way back, a few mins after staring from the tiger watching spot , the wheel of our cnter got stuck in a marshy area. After almost half hour of pushing, pulling and trying out all kinda techniques we were finally on our way back.

We also got to watch the sunset at Ranthambore which made me really happy. I for some odd reason always happen to like sky photography :) .

Thou' it was a lil disappointing as we couldn't catch a glimpse of a tiger but it was a very memorable safari into the forest.

It's time for celebration in this corner of the Internet

2009-11-25T05:08:00.000-08:00

I'm so delighted to announce that the jury of Indibloggies have nominated my travel blog among the top 12 travel blogs in the country.

I would be glad if you could post your vote for me at http://multivote.sparklit.com/web_poll.spark/21900 if you like my blog. Shalinis travelogue is listed in category 9.

Thank you! Your vote could win me an award as the top travel blogger in the country :)

Our 2 day stay at Khem Villa, Ranthambore

2009-11-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

Our next stint after Jaipur was at Ranthambore . This place is widely popular for its tiger reserve and thats the reason we were there too! We stayed at a place called Khem Villa, a family owned property run by a couple who were truly passionate about what they were doing and loved connecting with their guests ..

Pics enroute to Ranthambore

Everything here was natural , the eco tourism kind. This place had 3 kind accomadation the standard rooms , tents and villas and we opted for the tent. Inspite of the chill weather which made me fell ick at the end of the day .. I still don' regret having choosen the tent .. It was fun in a different way :)

The campus in which Khem villa was had its own beautiful garden with papaya trees (from which we got to eat papaya for our breakfast next morning) , mari gold and other beautiful flowers whose names I have no clue about.

The food served there was totally home grown right from the vegetables to grains .. The place also had a quaint library with a small collection of books on various topics.

The evening saw all the guests and the owners of the property get together over a camp fire, that was warm - literally (with the weather getting too cold in the night) and the owners connecting with the guests.

That's when we came to knw that there was a tiger visitor to the property couple of days ago to a far off lake adjacent to the property . Ah! wish we were there then ..

In between all of these happened our safari into the forest , which deserves a post by itself :)

It was time for Khanna ..

2009-06-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

I have always loved good food and authentic food always excites me though I am not a great eater. After hearing loads of things on a good note about Rajasthani food especially their generosity in adding pure ghee to food items I was not surprised when my Thali (the traditional plate containg all the food items) was placed before me.

With my guide's suggestion we went to this really popular restaurant (Lakshmi Rajasthan Bhandar or more fondly called teh LMB Restaurant by the localites) that served traditional rajasthani cuisine.

I loved the churma(it was a sweet dish). Dal Baati and Churma are delecacies that are prepared only on special occasions. I was feeling more than full by the time I could taste jus a couple of dishes. I loved the taste thou' .

One interesting fact I came across was that since Rajasthan was a dry land and since they had to store food items for a long time as the land was also not suitable for vegetaion , most of their food preperation was out of dal and other pulses that can be stored for a very long time.

On the way back after a sumptuous meal, we planned to visit a store selling blue pottery goods and somewhere close to Jal mahal I saw a series of shops selling memerobilia. When I got there to select a few articles to take back home I found a man selling namkeens that was so aristically arranged :) He infact refused to let me take a picture of it, but later he was sweet enough to voluntarily came up to me asking if I wanted to take a picture :)

This land is indeed very colorful ;)

Jaipur - Day 1 - Amber Fort

2009-02-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

After a short stint at the Hawa Mahal we drove to Amber fort. On our way to the fort we came across a few shops selling savouries (these looked so different compared to the usual ones we get across various other places in India). From our guide we came to know that these were the local specialities and were found only near Amber fort and not even in other parts of Jaipur. Then how can I miss not sampling them ? It tasted similar to the usual ones except that they were big made :)

The walls of the Amber fort are bulit similar to that of the Great wall of China. There are 3 ways through which you can reach the fort - an elephant ride, drive up or trust your own legs and walk up the slope. I opted to take the elephant ride and we entered the fort sitting on top of an elephant , jus' the way the King or Queen would have years ago - It did feel really majestic :)

If your planning to take the elephant ride to the fort be sure to be there on time as there are no elephant rides after 1pm and the demand for the ride is high as told by our guide. We were fortunate enough as we didn't have to wait for too long.

The architecture of Amber fort is a mixture of Rajput and Mughal architecture using red sandstone and white marble. All the paintings that you would see here are made out of natural colors.

This is the Kali temple in the fort where the king prayed before any war.

The mirror work is extraordinary in the Sheesh Mahal which according to its name glows with thousands of pieces of mirror. The moment a ray of sun or moon falls on these mirrors, the entire palace begins to radiate.

There were 12 seperate house like thing with hall, bed room etc..as the king had 12 queens. Since one of the queen was from Kashmir and availability of saffron was scarce. The king set up a garden where he could grow saffron but in vain.

The two big utensils are used for frying and the long pave where these are placed are sometimes used to let elephants fight with each other while preparing them for war .

There was a Cafe coffee day as well where you could get replenished after hours of walking around the fort.

Jaipur - Day 1 - Hawa Mahal

2009-02-05T22:27:00.000-08:00

After enjoying our sumptuous breakfast it was around 9 ish when we planned to tour the pink city and Ms.Nidhi was our guide for the day. She was very friendly and it was more like travelling with a friend .

Our first visit was to the Hawa Mahal - Wind Palace .It is one of the most captivating piece of work by the Rajput rulers. In earlier days the women of the Royal family were not allowed to mix with the general public but that did not keep them away from the day to day happenings . The court room had special chambers for the women to watch the day to day proceedings .

Hawa Mahal was the window to the outer world for the royal ladies :)

Our stay at Jaipur

2009-01-31T11:01:00.000-08:00

For our first 2 days of stay in Jaipur we opted to stay at the Rajputana Sheraton . A beautiful hotel run by the Sheraton group whose exteriors have been designed to look like a palace. My dad had a membership with Sheraton group so we got this really cool offer to stay there at half the cost and avail numerous other offers on food and beverages :) . Their staff were really very courteous , well I did really have to make a special mention about it .

The room looked so welcoming as we entered . Me being me so wanted to crash into the bed but had to wait for a lil while before I could click pics before its all messed up. I loved the interiors too, me thou' not a great fan of Sheraton hotels I do have to agree that they have some really nice rooms :)

This is one of the really nice hotels I've stayed at and one that has made a great use of technology wherever possible .. I was surprised to see that the TV volume lowered automatically as I picked the phone to call the reception.

My favourite place in the hotel was this courtyard kinda area which was open to sky and has a lot of small shops selling various ethnic stuff signature to Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Chennai - Jaipur

2009-01-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

It was one of those winter mornings ( first week of Jan) where one can expect a sure flight delay on those flights heading to the capital (Delhi) due to the heavy fog. We weren't too suprised when our Jet Airways flight got cancelled . We were given an option to choose a connecting flight via Bengaluru , but we opted to fly Jet Lite as it reached Delhi earlier and we also wanted to try out their service.

To compensate the price difference Jet offered us to use their Lounge :) . On reachiing Delhi we drove to Jaipur , which was a 4hr. journey .. For lunch we stopped at the famous Haldirams Mithai (sweet) shop in Gurgaon en route Jaipur . Treating our tounge to the yummilicious jaelebis , pani poori, roti and subji (side dish)

I don' really have a sweet tooth I'm more of the savouries person but this place has made me fall in love with sweets like never before :)

We reached Jaipur around 6 in the evening and checked in at Rajputana Sheraton where we had booked our stay for the next couple of days .

My list of places to see before I die..

2008-12-29T01:51:00.000-08:00

Wonder why i've been doing a lot of thinking about travel and new destinations , may be it's the hangover after reading a lot of travelogues and watching travel channel for hours together or may be jus' due to the excitement of my upcoming Jaipur trip :)

Jamshedpur
California
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
New York City
(The whole of USA)
Mumbai
~~Goa~~
~~Coorg~~
Jaipur ( will soon be striked off the list)
Chandigarh
Rio de Janerio
Spain
~~Singapore~~
Thailand
UK
Salzburg
Swizz
Canada
Maldives
Ibiza
Gran Canaria
Dubai
~~Coorg~~
Kumarakom
~~Munnar~~
Turkey
Disney Land
~~Delhi~~
~~Taj Mahal~~
Paris
Egypt
Venice
Shimla

I'm sure there will be a lot more places that will add to the list in coming times :). The striked ones are those that I've already been to.
What is your list of must visit places??

Goa - Bengaluru (Bangalore)

2008-12-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

We boarded our train late evening on Day 3, it was approximately a 15 hour journey and we reached Bangalore the following day. We hardly had a few hours in hand before catching our traing back to Chennai the same day night. even before the train landed we started making plans for the few hours we had - the plans ranged from Shopping to Wonder la (theme park) , jus' chilling out ...

We checked into a budget hotel (Pawana) which was close to the Yeshwanthpur train station. After refreshing ourselves and hogging our lunch we decided to go shopping as a visit to the theme park seemed impossible with our limited time in hand.

We shopped at Commercial street and one other place (I don' really remember the name)where I got a nice T-shirt and Alladin pants :) Later on, we walked to the nearby Garuda Mall did a little bit of Window shopping , snacked and had fun at the horror house - was atleast scary enough for me *sigh*

Before we set to get back to our hotel to back the stuffs we shopped we planned to drop by Amoeba - a sports bar where we decided to play a game of bowling and chill out for sometime :)

Oh yea, how can I forget those yummy patries at Barista :p

We had to get back , as it was time for our train back home - This is when we were at our adventurist best , we lost our way back to the hotel thou' we knew it was close to the bus terminus we didn't really know which side of the terminus it was . It took us a whole 30 mins of walking around and a 5min. journey in an auto to get back to our hotel :) (Thanks krithi for reminding me to add the adventure part ;))

What a trip it was , each one of us had so much fun in our own way :)

Unwinding at Goa - Day 3

2008-12-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

This day fortunately or unfortunately turned out to be Bandh ( as in the whole city was shut off) no shops, no companies, no buses due to various reasons. This was the day we had actually planned to visit the Institue of Oceanography. So, our Industrial visit has turned into a college tour :)

We also didn't have any other option than staying in our resort. It was also the day we had planned to vacate the rooms but couldn't so had to move into another room slightly bigger than our previous one with more people in this time (almost a dozen).

This is what happens when we girls occupy the bed :D

After shifting rooms and letting go ourselves for a couple of hours we went to check out the restaurant at our resort. This time on we had planned to taste some Goan cuisine. Me being a veggie didn't really have much of a choice but the one I tried out was really Yum!

This is dish here is some Vindaloo( made out of baby potatoes) which I tried out.

These are some fish and chicken treats from the Hawaii of India :)

After treating our taste buds to some authentic goan stuff it was time for Good bye Goa and Hello Bengaluru (Bangalore) . On our way to the Vasco train station we shopped for cashews to take back home as they are quite popular in Goa .

Cruising the Arabian Sea - Day 2

2008-12-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

On the later part of the second day after enjoying an evening along the shores of the silent backwaters , we went on a ship "SWASTIK" crusing along the Arabian Sea .

The ship had three floors , 1st floor was the disc where we grovved to some peppy music , the first floor had a cafe where one could indulge in after all the fun and the top floor gaves us panaromic views of the sea , shore and other cruise ships , here we were treated to some lovely goan culture through a traditional goan dance and a portugese dance :) Very colorful it was ..

After getting back from the cruise we headed to our resort for dinner , after a sumptuos meal we headed to the beach to spend the night there chatting, chatting and more chatting . Finally reached our resort in the wee hours of morning . Well.. It's always fun when freinds are around :)

Fort, beach and the cruise - Goa Day 2

2008-11-25T22:34:00.000-08:00

Early next morning we started to Aguda fort , I have very little clue about the history of this place but one fact I'm sure about is that the bollywood film Dil Chahta hai was shot here. So all of us were thrilled to click few pics at this spot :)

Aguada in Portuguese translates to 'water' and the fort has been called so for the spring within the ramparts that provided water supply to the ships that called here arriving after the long sea voyage from Lisbon.

Later that day was a time for some adrenalin rush, we set out on the water scooter in the beach jus' for the sheer thrill of it.. OMG!! loved the feel of the chill breeze hitting my face but did feel a little scared at times :p . It was my first time experience in a water scooter :) . Goa is turning out to be a times for many of my firsts :)

By then it was time for lunch, after a heavy meal we opted to spend a fun filled relaxed evening in the shores of Vagator beach. It was a calm black soil beach with rocks in the middle. We also did a little bit of shopping ( I got these goan slippers , and some junk jewellery ) in the shops along the beach.

day 2 to continue..

Goa - Day 1

2008-11-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

We reached Goa around noon the following day. We stayed at Alor Grande , it was a pretty nice place to stay at. The rooms were spacious and comfortable.

We had our lunch in one of the resto bars adjacent to our resort. It was a lively place where one could hang out with firends playing board games or enjoy a noon with your favourite book and a drink. The place had a collection of board games and books ( a very nice one to be specific).

We rented couple of cars so that we could drive by the city in the later part of the day. Around 6 in the evening we hit Baga beach . This gave me the true feeling of being in Goa, after enjoying in the beach we returned to our resort for dinner. Are plans for the night were already set and most of us were so excited about it :)

We hit the disc after dinner to enjoy the night life in Goa. We went to this night club called Tito's , amazing fun we had. Around 2 am we left the place as most of us were hungry , we drove down to the nearest cafe that was open and chatted our way into dawn :)

It's one night that all of us had so much fun..

The train Journey to Goa

2008-11-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

This is one trip thats very close to my heart, my trip to Goa is my first trip out of Chennai with my friends . It was a 5 day trip . Our main stay was at Goa and on the way back to Chennai we were in Bangalore (Bengaluru) for a day.

Our IV (Industrial Visit) organisers - Narmada and Ashish.

We started boarded the Vasco expree from Chennai central station on 17th Oct at 1:30 pm and reached Goa the following day at 11 am. The whole of night we had so much fun singing songs, dancing and pulling each others leg :) . We passed through many scenic locations and tunnels from around 9 in the morning until we reached.

The journey continues...

Singapore:Songs Of The Sea

2008-11-07T22:33:00.001-08:00

This was the laser show I was talking about it in my last post. Enjoy but don miss to catch the show live is your visiting Singapore , going down to Sentosa for this one show I would say is worth visiting the Island :)

Sun, Sand and the Sea @ Sentosa

2008-11-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

Sentosa is an island few kms away from Singapore which you can reach via the Sentosa express train, cable car or road. We opted to take the mono rail that connects Singapore to Sentosa from the Vivo city station.

Sentosa is a beautiful place to relax and chill out from the city's fast paced lifestyle. Here you can romance the sun, sand and the sea :)

This place can entertain people of all age groups, but let me warn you ..Sentosa is a tad too expensive. On reaching Sentosa we opted for a package entry to the various attractions . First we took a ride on the sky tower. From the tower I was actually able to see Singapore and traces of Malaysia as well .

We took a Merlion walk and moved to have a peak into the butterfly and insect kingdom. OMG!! I never knew few insects looked so attractive until I was here :) . I specially liked the butterfly park which was a huge netted area filled with colorful winged little things..

We had a peak into the underwater world, where I was enlightened about the various species of sea species. They also have various packages where you can up close with the variety of sea species.
The dolphins were a fun lot to watch in the Dolphin lagoon, it moreover rained jus' before the show started . So I was a little skeptical if I would be able to catch the dolphins in action. But, neverthless I wasn't disappointed.

Lastly , comes the star of the show or atleast that how I'd like to call it. The Laser show , which drew a huge crowd. The Songs of the Sea laser show gets all my votes to make my trip to Sentosa a very fun filled and a memorable one..

I loved everybit of the show. Its one place where the water, light and the fire comes into action. I specially liked the fire thingy.. Will try finding the video and posting it soon .

Shopping at Bugis street

2008-11-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

This turned out to be one of my most fun filled shopping experiences in Singapore. This a place where you can get stuffs at bargain rates. Bugis gives an air conditioned street shopping experience with over 600 stalls from hawker centres, cafes to shop selling trendy street wears.

We got off at Bugis junction and jus' opposite to the MRT station is Bugis street. Bugis junction is where you can find high end malls , the place where you can shop for branded , exclusive merchandise whereas jus' crossing the road leads you to the essence of street shopping for those of you who love to bargain , jus like me. I would consider this to be the perfect place to buy souvenieur and gifts for friends and family back home.

I got myself the Singapore dress, did a little bit of clothes shopping and collected a lot misc. items from the $10 store which you find all over Bugis. Thou' one can't assure about the quality of stuffs found here, but neverthless a fun place to shop at and understand and experience the real local culture of Singaporeans.

My day at the Singapore Zoo

2008-10-06T21:44:00.001-07:00

Singapore Zoo is considered to be one of the the most beautiful zoos in the world. They have a huge varity of flora and fauna all over the place. We opted to take thecombo ticket for adults which includes entry to the zoo+bird park and the night safari , tram charges extra.

I spent almost half of my day at the zoo starting from morning till late noon . The animal feeding sessions are one of the most interesting parts. You can also enjoy your breakfast in the wild with the orangutans . I didnt get to enjoy this experience as we reached a lil later than the breakfast time.

One animal that interested me most was the white tiger , it was very active and was indeed the focus of every visitor's attention.

The zoo also had a lot of picturesque places.

As we walked across the primate kingdom I was in for a schol as all the monkeys were in open , all breed all kind. But, believe me they were in their own world and never harmed the visitors. The next time someone comments asking me not to behave like a monkey, guess i should bring them here to show how well behaved they are ;)

The zoo also had animal shows - splash safari show , elephants at work show and a few other. It was interesting to see the animals displaying the skills. For those of you who wanna click pics with these animals, you can at a special charge.

There are also horse and elephant rides which the visitors can opt for . A visit around the zoo with your four legged friend.

A beautiful place to be at if you have a day at your hand and love for animals.

Jurong Bird Park

2008-08-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

Jurong bird park is one of world's biggest bird park with over 9000 birds belonging to 600 species. The journey took us almost half hour to 45mins by MRT and bus. This was our first time we were travelling in a public transport in Singapore. This actually helped us get closer to the place . The MRT s during the peak times(in the morning and evening )are usually crowded . We got an ez-link card to travel using the public transport, something abt the ez-link card fascinated me that I brought it along with me :)

Bus depot, before hoping on to our bus to Jurong

Atlast we were there to meet our feathered friends .

We took the mono rail to go around the park . Apart from jus' viewing the birds, the park has a lot of other things like the birds of prey show, birds and buddies show and a lot more. We also got to feed the lorries , thou I was initially scared about the birds sitting on my hand, later it turned out to be fun :)

Feeding the lories

Scarlet Ibises

Toucan

At the Birds and Buddies show

At the Fuji Hawk Show

I don know what these are called, but they were HUGE

Me with the parakeets :)

This was my first experience to get upclose and personal with birds and loved everybit of it. It is one of the sine qua non place if you visit singapore

Mustafa Shopping centre / Serangoon plaza

2008-07-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

We reached our hotel by around 6:30 in the evening and after an hours rest we planned to go shopping at Mustafa as this was the only option we had in hand as it was already late evening. We took a cab and headed straight there ( my first thought was cab charges are not all the expensive in Singapore, but later on I fell for their MRT and buses)

Mustafa Shopping centre also known as Serangoon plaza is this HUGE HUGE shopping place in Singapore and the only one that is opened 24*7 . So almost all the nights in Singapore we spent shopping here :) . This shoppers paradise is of two blocks, the first block is closed by 11pm whereas only the 2nd block is open 24 hrs. So, when you plan your night shopping see to it your in the right block. Unlike what I ended up in.

Both these blocks contain all the stuffs you could name *literally* from bags, clothes, jewellery, food, books, artefacts, furniture, electronics, consumer products and jus everything.. guess the only thing they don' sell is husing and automobiles. Me at Mustafa Shopping Centre

Some Indian Savouries
I was there at Mustafa almost 4 or 5 nights of my total 7 nights in Singapore, spent around 20 hours shopping there and believe me I was still not able to see the entire shopping centre, so huge it was :). On the way to Mustafa shopping centre we stopped at one of the Indian restaurants at Little India to savour some Indian delicacies atleast one meal everyday, so that we don' miss home food .Dosa (rice pan cake) with Chutney and Sambar from an Indian Restaurant

Changi Aiport

2008-07-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

There I was finally at the Changi Airport in Singapore. It took us more than an hour to leave the airport after picking up our baggages and going through the immigration procedures. The airport was a world of its own with so many branded stores , hotels and what not. We didnt spend much time looking around the airport, thought we will have a look at it on the day of our return flight.

Entrance of Changi Airport

There were two things that amazed me even before I could get into the cab, one was the travelator in the airport - thou it wasn't anything great it was the first time I was seeing a moving platform :) .And the other thing was the discipline that was followed by everyone startin from the cab drivers ( They queue up in front of the airport exit point and as passengers come they come one by one , they jus get into the cab that arrives - no bargains, no changing of cabs ) . Most of the cab drivers I came across were very friendlya nd always willing to say stories about singapore. they were all proud that they belonged there.. That's one nice feeling.

Travelator
We boarded the cab and left straight to THE SHA VILLA (earlier known as the Regilas court) where we had booked for our stay. It is a small 40 roomed boutique hotel located at the Lloyds road, very close to Orchard road (the shopper's paradise). This hotel was a neat and clean one with no frills attached, where you can have a good night's sleep and enjoy your complimentary breakfast. It is run by the Singapore hotels Association (SHA) . The people at the hotel are very friendly and they genuinely want to serve their guests. Most of them looked like studentsundergoing their training.

THE SHA Villa

The room we stayed

A view from our hotel

Singapore - Ariel view

2008-06-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

From the time I boarded my flight or was it even much before that? I was truly excited about the trip and was clicking anything and everything that came my way.

My first question to the airhostess once I was in was, if I can click pictures from the flight and she said 'yes!'. There was no stopping me from there on.

Singapore is a beautifully layed out city or should I say properly planned. Here are a few ariel views of Singapore and its harbours.

Singapore - History

2008-06-10T01:10:00.000-07:00

The history of Singapore dates back to the 14th century when it was a malay kingdom called Temasek or seatown. At that time it was a bustling trade place for many nationalities including Chinese, Arabs, Indians, Europeans and Malays. In 1299 a Sumatran prince named Sang Nila Utama(Sri Tri Buana) landed on the then Temasek to set up his kingdom and apparently saw a lion . This made him name the island Singa pura a sanskrit name for Lion city. Thou' the island enjoyed trading prominence and good relations with other countries , its popularity faded.

Singapore's history museum

Sir Stamford Raffles
Centuries later a great man arrived with the intention to "return the ancient glory" ,Sir Stamford Raffles landed by the Singapore riverto set up a trading post. The rest as they say is "Mordern History" ;) . Raffles didnpot only set up a trading post but built a business quarter as well . That area is know popularly known as Boat Quay.

Boat quay

* few excerpts are taken from the travel brouchers from singapore tourism.

*pics courtesy - Google images

Singapore

2008-06-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to post here for quite a few months but have always been postponing for reasons unknown. But here I am finally to start posting about Singapore. I visited Singapore during the start of this year and its been an amazing experience and more so because this has been my first trip abroad. Apart from the travel experiences I would also like to share with you few things I learnt about Singapore before my visit.

Welcome!

2008-01-04T02:03:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I welcome you all to my new blog space. Here,I will be writting about my travel adventures and my globe trotting experiences starting from next week once I return from my trip. If you would be interested you can link me to your blogroll.

These are my other blogs Random thoughts(This is one blog I update regularly), In and around chennai, My recipe corner.

Thanks for dropping by, wish you all a Happy New year!