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It was a dream come true, as all along during my engineering college days, I didnt have chance to visit ooty only 100 kms away from mysore,  i had visited Madumalai , Bandipur Reserve Forest during one college tour about twenty seven years back , i remember having spotted some wild elephants which was scaring enough then .

this time to  ooty via  hyderabad- coimbatore  the weather was ofcourse very pleasant with lots of rains, cool breeze in the evenings , during the last week of April so cold that we had to repent for not having woolens with us, anyway its bearable. lots of greenery in and around ooty but the city i found a bit dirty and filthy. i could only guess, why this is so until our cab driver answered my question that the population of ooty is whooping 20 lac. my goodness .chaotic traffic in the ghat region, for 90 km, it takes minimum 3 hours to reach the Coimbatore airport

Govt. must bring in a legislation to limit the population of hill stations , its urgent and needed if we intend to preserve it for our future generations.huge population has resulted in unnecessary traffic to and fro plains ,i found pune mumbai like traffic jams here in this ghats at 8000 ft . it is posing threat to the Nilgiris, Mr. Jairam Ramesh Environment Minister, where r u ? Are you listening ?  Atleast as a first step, allow only CNG vehicles in the area, like in Ajanta, a world heritage site and many other places. Take the steps that stop the rot immediately.

Ultimately, i am afraid one day indians will be confined to their  homes if this continues . “Akhir apana ghar, guru ka dar”.

Banana chips,spices are good worth buy, also are lovely fresh homemade and irresistible chocolates at coonoor, a place more famous as a second world war memorial and an artillary center. Moving around in the Nilgiri hills itself purifies your soul and body and mind too.Botanical garden , a real feast to the eyes, as we were visiting the garden,the temperature had suddenly dropped due to rains and it was shivering cold. Around this  time, ooty hosts its annual botanical garden show and exibition, sad we missed it narrowly.Overall display of the flowers and rare species of flora and fauna,at 8000 plus feet, really soothing for eyes at sims garden, coonoor too. the boating at ooty lake really enjoyed by all of us, our company in the 10 capacity houseboat were some IT chaps from bangalore,it was really heavily raining at the time of boating.we were literally soaked in the rains.

Derby villa resort, a heritage building , is still in the process of up-gradation.

admin | Travel | 05 28th, 2011 | No Comments »

Mewad  in eastern Rajastan ,barely 75 km from lake city Udaipur,the mighty  Kumbalgarh fort stands majestically unfurling the history of  The Great Ranas of the Mewar , the pious land of Sisodiya’s. The Haldi Ghati battle , the heroic saviour the great horse chetak, Maharana Pratap’s, recluse for twenty one years , well i am totally mesmerized, reading the history in text books is one thing and actually visiting the place , and feeling it , well i cant express myself right now as to how  i was feeling .

Gaddari, due to which Maharana Pratap lost the Haldi ghati battle, has been a curse to the Indians , can we not ever overcome it ? , its a question i am asking the youths of this country,a computer savy, ultra modern in looks and action but the same old crap at the heart.

Mewad, the land of excellent mouth watering Royal  rajastani cuisine for which they are famous across india ,humble people , possibly the only cultivable land in Rajastan , good vegetation , fairly better weather compared to other parts of Rajastan,marble and other precious stone in abundance found here.home to shrinathji at Nathdwara, a beutiful temple of lord shrikrishna , more popularly known as laddu gopal . Udaipur, lovely city of  palaces, lakes ,forts,beautiful gardens, one of the planned cities in the northern India. comparatively cooler compared to other Rajastan urban cities, Mount Abu ,nearby 4-5 hours drive.

“i must compliment the roads in Rajastan, they are well maintained. the Udaipur -Ahmedabad Highway was awesome, being a part of the golden quadrilateral project of National Highways Authorities of India, en route Gandhingar airport to catch flight to pune,  Both sides and the center of the highways beautifully lined by colorful bougainvillaeas. a lovely sight indeed.” pl. visit the uploaded video of this road on YouTube.Link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwLZX4GA1WE

overall, a short but sweet holiday. Club mahindra kumbalgarh resort is just superb. They have now matured into one of the finest hospitality industry.

admin | Travel | 05 27th, 2011 | No Comments »

At Mashobra, about 15 km away from shimla & on higher altitude  at abt. 8800 ft MSL compared to shimla, the weather was at its best during April second week. The temperature during day time was nearing thirties, while late afternoon and evenings were definitely on cooler side. A thought came to my mind that the entire nation had to pay for the cool air that was in abundance in this place naturally, we should realize this and try to conserve the nature. I was particularly very happy that here the nature is so powerful and awesome, that developmental activities in Himachal are going to be at the receiving end.

One evening it was definitely chiller, while going out for my evening walk I had to protect myself with woolens to brave moist chilly winds with the temp., around 7 to 8 degrees Celsius. Boy, I must confess I was won over by that cool breeze. These were the moments, I would be ever recalling in the life, when I am down. I had written in my Auli blogs abt the same weather. My companions were the deodars, pine trees rising from the deep valley abt 500 ft, tall abt 180-200 ft, majestic trees, the real treasure of Himachal. I could not resist the desire to record the silence of the deodar jungles only broken by the sweet chirping of the birds, in my digicam.

During the month of April the weather in shimla, is no doubt good but I found it a bit crowded, vehicle population is causing the damage which I am afraid next generation will have to bear the brunt. I really pity them; we ourselves are responsible to this.

The journey by the Toy train from kalka to shimla (Himalayan Queen) was really worth it , with almost 100 tunnels en-route. The only discomfort is the seating in the compartment. it  is really uncomfortable for a journey of five hours. Of-course,the journey through the Himalayan ranges override’s all the discomfort to be very honest.

Although I was looking forward to find snow covered kufri hill tops, may be  due to global warming, I didn’t find one. Anyway I am looking forward to my winter visit to Himachal when I am sure will find lot of snow.

I am slowly loosing my desire to travel around in the country, as I find the people are getting increasingly reckless with increasing prosperity. I was pained to find littering and carry bags all along, all kinds of garbage along the way during my journey to and around shimla. For god’s sake why can’t we spare hills at least from getting polluted? We should wake up to this menace causing irreparable damage to the environment in the hills. Here I must mention that an American family from California was traveling with us in the compartment; there were three kids between age group 5 to 15 along with their parents. I found their attitude towards the environment quite amazing absolutely no littering and all that stuff. They had adapted to the discomfort of the seating arrangement better than us. When we talk of India becoming superpower these little things do matter as a matter of culture. I am particularly very distressed, angry with the travelers, increasingly they are displaying their careless  attitude in the public life as a matter of pride. “Kuchh bhi chalata hai”, attitude.when will they start loving their nation & care for it ?

We visited Chandigarh city en route shimla .I was always fascinated by stories about its planning, and its beauty. I was dumbstruck and could not believe that such a city ever exists in India. The planning is just superb; I feel every town planner should visit this city.

The roads and side plantations along the roads are really a feast to the eyes, so soothing. There is another city which equally well planned down in south, Mysore, in Karnataka, where I had the privilege to pursue my university education in engineering during 80’s.the city was planned by none other than the Great sir M. vishweshwaraih,the God for engineering fraternity during the period of the great Wodeyars erswhile rulers of Mysore.

admin | Travel | 05 11th, 2010 | No Comments »

This time,in April  for a change we descended down to south, kerala, God’s Own Country. and what a change it turned out to be. Many may tell varied versions about munnar , periyar etc., but the most memorable  part of the holiday  for us was the  drive from cochin airport to munnar, approximately  four hours by car. i loved the drive more because the entire drive was through the lush green jungles and one of the best roads i have ever seen in ghat section leading to Madurai from Cochin.

keralites Very nice and friendly people. i had heard about the language problem , yes, to some extent, it is there, despite 100% literacy , surprising isn’t it ?.

it was really a  welcome soothing cool escape from the heat in the plains where mercury hovering around 45+ degrees . With a daily  schedule  of  chilled morning , a heavy downpour in the late afternoon, and misty evenings with the misty winds and clouds at an altitude of 7000 ft MSL. Imagine we were covering ourselves with thick blankets in the night in the month of April ,peak of the summer, and the night temp.  dipping to  9′degrees Celsius.Overall a lovely place in summer with the exceptionally good service at the club mahindra’s lake view resorts, absolutely top class and authentic kerala food delicacies in the ala carte menu. I will not forgive myself if i do not mention the friendly staff at the resort. they are just too good like your own family members.

Basically one should visit munnar to stay at the place and enjoy the weather at munnar with an alternate day a trip to periyar wildlife sanctuary ,spice plantations,Tata and Goenka group tea plantations, can be included in a weeks schedule which won’t be much hectic.

I will come back to munnar again. bye till then !!!!!!!!!!!!!

admin | Travel | 07 15th, 2009 | No Comments »

A lot has been said and written about Mussourie, its weather , scenic beauty, calmness that prevails when the winter sets in , higher altitude places under the cover of snow and not easily accessible.Only the people from cold region that is northern India can really brave the cold.

surprisingly, the winter especially around the christmas time a real chill sets in on mussourie. i remember one day during our stay my wife and younger son stayed back at the hotel and myself with my elder son who is in his teens went around for a walk, we reached Barista , the famous cafe, it was just 5.30 pm in the evening , already dark in the hills , we helped ourselves with a cuppa of coffee at the Barista’s with yummy  a death by chocklate cake , i will never forget the taste.

admin | General | 07 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

Come holidays , we are off to different destinations, most of the time they are resorts, located either in the high mountains ,green jungles or seashore, as the advantage with them is you are assured the solitude and peace for which you have come so far away from home.many a times its an experience altogether different from the usual hustle-bustle of the hotel industry.a good care is taken at these resorts to make you feel at home !!!!!!!!! clubmahindra’s kodagu valley resort is one such lovely place one would like to visit frequently, a real calm and quite town amongst the western ghat’s flora and fauna, en route Mangalore from Bengaluru.

you may sometimes carry fear in the deep corner of the heart, what if a tiger attacks in the middle of the night , so thick is the jungle in this land of warriors that you may never venture out on your own or else you may get lost in the jungles totally at the mercy of the great indian tiger.i hope they don’t read this review.

The air is eternally pure and fresh , i was surprised to find that we were encouraged to drink the direct tap water filtered of course , natural mineral water at the resorts , at first we were a bit hesitant, as all these years ,we are forced to drink the bottled drinking water , but to our surprise the quality of the water was the best in the world, one must travel there to have a taste of the water. God bless this Devarakaadu ( the jungle of gods), and let it remain like this for ever .

Local coffee, arabica and robasta blended with chicory (10%) ,is really good for the coffee lovers.you can shop here for some local spices like pepper, elayachi, etc…apart from this not much to shop.ideal place to unwind and relax.absolutely no urban rush in this sleepy town . its rich kodagu culture, lifestyle has earned itself a  status of “scotland of east “. only place in India where local kodagus  do not require an arms license to possess a weapon. A land of true warriors and trustworthy people.

A visit to Mysore approx. 140 km , a days tour,the royal city , is mesmerizing as  i look at the city , its planning a hundreds of years ago by the royal family of the great wodeyars dynasty. simply awesome.

A visit to Kauvery Nisargdham , and Tibetan golden temple near khushalnagar, dubare elephant training camp on the shores of shallow kauvery river waters are some places around coorg ,( kodagu, mercara, madikeri are the other names local people like  the place to be known as, but officially it is MERCARA).

Authentic coorg food contains mostly  non veg delicacies  with a comparatively fewer  varieties  in veg section with a very generous use of coconut and spices locally grown.

admin | Travel | 07 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

I have taken a long break in blog writing as I was on holiday tour,of rain drenched goa and coastal Maharashtra, kokan region during the third week of August, a short break from daily chorus with my son. Holiday means pampering yourself, isn’t it ? ,(a modern tour mantra.) .

My goodness , how much rain kokan region gets !!!!! I really felt sorry that so much water is being wasted, unused and untapped. We talk about drinking water getting scarce these days, here is a sight of millions and millions of gallons of water, neither used for any damn purpose nor being stored in the dams.,what a colossal waste !!!!!!!!!!! , a real pathetic sight, hope the concerned one’s wake up before it is too late, a real waste of water, when you compare with Canada having largest number of lakes on the globe, we too can have it with proper planning.

As I was traveling from Mudgaon to Mumbai by kokan railway, the journey a real feast to the eyes. As a traveler, you must at least once travel on this route in your lifetime. A breathtaking engineering marvel. We get the personalities like shri. Shreedharan, once in a hundred years, who deserve the highest salutation the country can offer, imagine the hardship he has saved to the millions of travelers on this route. The scenery on this route is beyond words, if you travel during monsoons. You are just dumbfound at, the freehand ,the Almighty nature has used in sketching the panorama all along the route.

Goa as usual at its best, I for one feel that goa is round the year tourist spot, you go anytime, it’s the same, and nothing changes.Concrete jungle development ,all across goa, no doubt saddens the spirits of eco-loving travelers. It is always not necessary that we must emulate the west in everything they do. Enjoyment should have its own limit; or rather you should know where to stop. Local Goans are marvellous people, always fun loving and happy go lucky, willing to welcome the guest…. Evening sea cruise for an hour is really refreshing amidst the deafening noisy atmosphere on the deck with goan and koli dance and music. Pray god pl. save this your own paradise from the greedy mankind.

I will come back with more on Goa shortly………..Bye !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

admin | Travel | 09 27th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Actually when I began to post blogs on my website, I should have done so from Haridwar.  Sometimes, some experiences are so dear to your heart that you don’t feel like sharing them, just you float on the ecstasy that is experienced bysheer visiting the place. I never even imagined that one day, I would be standing on the ghats of Gangamai, at Haridwar. Because looking at the prospects of leisure travel at that time, it looked to be a remote possibility that time. But Lord Shiva,my presiding deity willed otherwise, I could visit Haridwar, all of a sudden unplanned.

Haridwar, first time I visited, it was in the month of December, the Ganges water was at its chilliest. We could not even dip our finger in the flowing chill waters of Ganges; we shuddered at the thought of taking a bath in river,eventually we did take bath.

The Ganges’s charismatic presence is dominant in the day to day affairs of the city. Be it a Kankhal or Chandidevi or at Manasadevi, you never leave the track of the Ganges. They say , nowadays the Ganga is polluted, but to me I found the water reasonably clean ,may be I was taking bath at the times of Kumbh-Mela, when all the factories and all other polluting sources were banned. The water was crystal clear. No river in India for that matter has remained unpolluted, thanks to mankind. Man has still not realized, the extent of damage  done to the environment. My heart is weeping, helplessly. When these policy makers’s will ever come to senses? My argument is pollution created by human beings is not at all a threat, it’s the industry, and can these industrial belts be located on seashore as an option? If they are located in the countryside they may pollute the ground water. A thought worth giving a try !

I think we should be more responsible in utilizing our great natural resources. Many a time’s, I feel the earlier generation was more environment-friendly & the modernization and above all the mankind’s apathy towards the nature have created lots of problems due to which our future generations may have to pay a dear price for survival.

Sorry for the deviation from the main blog.

Coming back to Haridwar….. .Well connected with New Delhi and Dehradun, There are good no of good quality hotels, the food is also good (strictly vegetarian). Being a gateway to Himalayas & Chardhams, lots of devotees and tourist flock the place round the year, a reasonably cheap place, and modes of transport also cheap. my children like the food served at the restaurants “Invitation “and Le Grand , my home away from home. I was surprised to find an exclusive pickle shop on the Ranipur road.

admin | Travel | 07 15th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

When my friend suggested me to visit Auli, i thought it must be full of ice around there , i was rather worried as to how we will be able to brave the cold, i had earlier read abt tall rope-way towers , the difficulty in such a horrible weather etc…………. but on reaching there to our surprise ,except the cold weather which was chill enough to drive us immediately to our rooms, there was nothing to worry. But then, you should be ready to expect any sudden change in the weather at this altitude , any given day without any prior indications abt it. Man, who always boasts being in the knowledge of each and everything happening around him , is confronted here at the Himalayan heights , about its uncertainty in the life .i witnessed all the three seasons on a day, which really frightened me . Imagine a lightening stroke damaging the BSNL exchange crippling it totally,no mobile coverage , nearest working telephone booth at abt 15 km at Joshimath , hostile weather , very bad road(due to weather extremities) ,  motorable only  by a  four wheel drive jeep  on such a terrain, i really enjoyed the solitude,  initially my wife was literally wild abt the place, later after a day’s acclimatizing she calmed down, now after coming back home ,she continuously praises the place, expressing the desire to visit again.

All the way from Haridwar abt 280 km away one travels through the high Himalayan mountain range on one side and thousands of feet deep valley on the other side , somewhere the icy peaks visible along the way,Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini rivers, accompanying you thro’out the journey,  we were traveling in the month of April last week, , we were traveling in a Marshall jeep,a heavenly experience indeed.

Cliff-top Resort just superb, they have a fully equipped kitchens in their rooms, so an invitation for the male culinary curious fraternity, to try out out their skill giving much needed respite to their better half’s from the daily chorus.they have a grosary shop too, no need to worry.but the restaurant of the resort is really equally  good , only thing you should be able to brave the cold till you are served the food , its biting cold out there, not cosy like your heated rooms.

Location of the resort just mind blowing with a 240 degrees view of Majestic Himalayas from Nandadevi to Neelkanth to name a few , cool fresh air, long walks around the place give you Navsanjeevani, for years to come, just keep walking,take care …………. bye for now……..

admin | Travel | 06 24th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

In my last post, i narrated the chill weather at mussourie . the temp drops to zero degrees during the last week of December and first week of January & without proper protection it’s really impossible to brave the cold.the roads are deserted by seven pm, even the MALL ROAD , wears a deserted look. that quite chill atmosphere does provide one a solitude  and tranquility. many a times i enjoyed the quite times , with faint tunes of Christmas celebrations going on in the surrounding hotels,was the only breaking the silence once in a while. sometimes this absolute silence is beneficial emotionally . i was thinking ,over the years this solitude becomes a rare commodity to find in your daily chorus, whenever i am in mussourie, i tend to leisure the time this way, may be to trying to unwind and find yourself.

one must visit the surkunda devi temple at the height of 10000 ft, at dhanoltie, a place abt 45 km away from mussourie. the trek from 6000 ft to 10000 ft is really demanding , but then if you are planning to go to higher Himalayas later , surkunda devi trek is a homework one should complete as a preparation.the view from surkunda devi on a clear day is an absolute bliss !!!!!!!!!.,a full 180 degrees view of the great peaks around mussourie, you r dumbfound at the might of Himalayas. no power on the earth can match it.the drive to dhanoltie from mussourie is fearsome , advisable to travel in gadhwal mandal  vikas nigam operated buses.the gadhwalis are real gem of the people, always helping, people from plains must enrich  lives of these people by avoiding use of non bio degradable commodities.

admin | Travel | 06 9th, 2008 | No Comments »