Long way around: Dec 2011

Photos here

It had been a long time since Indu and I took some time off; plus the arrival of our baby daughter had put all travel plans on hold. Finally, we decided to go for a short road trip; short being the operative word here. Distances look deceptively close by, when viewed on Google maps.

Valparai popped up as a destination. We could stop over at Coimbatore / Kovai, and the national highway to Coimbatore is supposed to be a good one. We could head to Valparai, and stay put there for a few days, and then head back home.

Atleast that was the initial plan.

SriLanka: Sept 2010

Photos on flickr

We initially planned to go to Madhya Pradesh: spend some time in the north-east part of this huge state, visit historical sites, and some of the national parks. But then, we found out that the national parks are closed during this time of the year because of the monsoons.

That was a bit of a disappointment. More so because I had recently purchased books on Pratihara temples, and Yogini temples, and was looking forward to seeing these historical places. Maybe a destination for the next vacation.

Indu came back from work, one evening, and said “Sri Lanka, lets go there”.

Goa: Feb 2010

Snaps available on Flickr (this time around, we used the mobile phone’s camera, because we left our digital camera behind)

It was time, already, for our Annual Feb trip. This time around, the idea was to chill out in Goa.

Booked air-tickets in a hurry: Leave on 8th Feb, and return on 13th Feb. In my haste to book the tickets I chose 13th March instead as the return date, and then had to spend the next hour talking to airlines, and changing the return tickets, and spending an extra Rs. 1500 in the bargain. Sheesh!

It was a hectic week at work for both Indu and I, prior to our trip, and we actually ended up working till late night on the 7th, just so we could close out things before our trip. Also it just so happened that we had returned from my cousin’s engagement, in Mysore, that weekend. So basically, the day we were to take the flight to Goa, we were dead tired, and just looked forward to getting to Goa, and getting a lot of sleep and rest.

Tiruchirapalli and thereabouts: Dec 2009

The trip snaps are on flickr

Decided to join my parents on their annual pilgrimage to Samayapuram. Since we were anyway going towards Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), we included visits to Thanjavur and Kumbakonam in our plans – we wanted to see a few temples in that area, to soak in all of their history and architecture.

The Indian railways online booking facility is convenient and makes booking tickets rather hassle free. The railways site is probably the first site that got my parents to perform an online transaction on the web, rather confidently. Well, they could make the user experience a tad better – maybe something like the Cleartrip site, which is my favorite well-designed travel site.

Booked tickets: Onward to Trichy, 16th Dec, and return from Kumbakonam, 19th Dec. 3 full days of travel, and we were looking forward to this trip. 

Rajasthan: Sept 2009

The trip snaps are available on flickr

We needed a break from work, and also it was time we vacationed someplace; a car-trip down south, or a trip to Rajasthan were options that we considered. Rajasthan was just desert and heat in my mind, and I somehow didn’t exactly warm up to this idea. But then Indu’s insistence, and some research on the web sort of convinced me that this may be worthwhile after all.

We applied for leave, and booked air-tickets to Jaipur and back. I usually use Cleartrip to look for tickets… somehow the layout of the site, and the aesthetic and utilitarian layout of content on that site really appeals to me. Anyway, I digress.

We then listed out our trip details, and the various costs on a spreadsheet – we used Google docs for that purpose. The plan was to spend a day and half at Jaipur, 3 days at Udaipur, a day or two at Ranakpur, a day at Jodhpur, and then return to Jaipur for the flight out to Bangalore.

Ooty trip: Feb 2009

Trip snaps are available on flickr.

(Updates 25 Feb) Videos: Pykara falls, and Golf lessons

Least planned of our trips so far. The idea was to just get to Ooty, stay put at the guest house there, and then figure out what to do next.

Srirangapatna

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/hush-sss/

Woke up lazily on Saturday, 07 Feb, and after a hearty breakfast at Adiga’s, headed to Mysore. A sunny day, and without too much of the painful traffic – we were in luck, and a good start to the vacation. Drove on without a stop anywhere, and once we neared Srirangapatna, decided to stay at some resort there – spur of the moment decision. Stayed at the Ambalee Resort, opposite the fort. Decent enough rooms, but a tad expensive. Again considering that the rooms there are always in demand, guess that explains the tariff.

Had a simple lunch, and we slept till 4:30pm. Decided to drive through the fort, and have a look at the Ranganathaswamy Temple and the other sites within the fort. The temple is a 9th century temple, with some amount of history attached to it. But then again, like most sites of historical interest within India, there is a total lack of information about the site, at the site. Maybe the Archaeological Survey of India should issue booklets about that historical sites, their importance, history, facts, and sell them at the site. Am sure that will be lapped up, and the visitors to the site will appreciate the site or monument all the more.

Had a look at the ruins of Tipu’s palace, the place where his body was found, a beautiful mosque and then drove from there to the Nimishamba temple. It is situated on the banks of the River Kaveri, but then the environs of the temple are a mess.

Uttarakhand trip: Sept 2008

This trip to Uttarakhand was on the cards for sometime, but we just didn’t get around to planning for it, and actually deciding on a date for travel.

All the snaps are on flickr

Planning

Finally decided that 20th Sept works for us, booked tickets and planned the trip in a hurry:

• BLR-DELHI-BLR by air,
• DELHI-HALDWANI-DELHI by rail (Haldwani being the nearest rail station to our destination Ranikhet),
• and the final leg HALDWANI-RANIKHET-HALDWANI by road.
• Stay in Ranikhet, at the Windsor Lodge in Kalika estate
• Other places that we should probably check out: Maybe travel to Corbett’s park, spend a day or two there. Travel to places from which we could spot the Himalayas.

That was basically it. Except for the last point, everything else was relatively easy to plan for, except for booking the tickets – was that fun or what. The irctc.co.in site is no fun, though it surely is great when it works right the first time.