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.

We were also hoping that our daughter would comfortably settle into the baby-car-seat, and hopefully not get too cranky during the journey. As it turned out, she was not a bother at all right through our journey. But then, am getting ahead of myself.

Day 1: Coimbatore

Loaded up our car with luggage, and left around 7:30am in the morning. Peaceful drive. Stopped over at the Krishna Inn near Krishnagiri. The idli-vada-pongal-coffee combination was good, and we looked forward to the drive from thereon.

Made quick time, upto Salem, because the roads are really good, and relatively empty of traffic. The divider was lined with colorful flowering plants. The same held true till Coimbatore was 40km away. Then the Avinashi stretch of road happened. The road is in poor shape – the highway is still under construction – and this stretch took us a good part of one-and-half hours of motivation-sapping driving. We finally reached Kovai; freshened up at the place of stay; headed out to meet some close relatives there. It was an evening well spent.

The plan was to drive out to Valparai the next morning.

Days 2, and 3: Valparai

Slept well, and left for Valparai around 11am the next morning. The drive from Coimbatore to Pollachi, and some way out of Pollachi is not particularly good – there is way too much traffic on a narrow 2 lane not-so-smooth-road.

The fun part of the Valparai drive starts at the Aaliyar dam (check out this video shot from the dam). The views are beautiful, and the road is winding, with 40 plus hair-pin bends.

Valparai is a place of tea-estates; makes the place look picturesque, and neatly maintained. The actual town is a tiny one, with probably a zillion bakeries. I haven’t seen so many bakeries densely packed into a place.

Also, from a mobile phone connectivity perspective, only BSNL and Aircel are available there. Our Airtel phones remained dormant, and that was a welcome phase of sorts.

Stayed at a pleasant home stay, run by a retired medical doctor. She suggested we head to the Anamalai club house for lunch or dinner. The club house is in the middle of tea estates, and has a couple of rooms for boarding purposes. This is worth checking out.

We had dinner at the Martha’s Mess; dosa-roast, omlette, and kerala parota. Tasty meal, reasonably priced. The place is rather basic though – closer to a meals-ready restaurant type.

We decided to head out to Athirapilly on the fourth day of our vacation, and stay at the Rainforest resorts there.

Days 4, and 5: Athirapilly

We were informed that the road to Athirapilly is not in great condition, though it is motorable. We planned for the journey to last 3 to 4 hours, and expected to be at the resort by noon, considering we started sometime past 7am.

The road from Valparai to Athirapilly is best avoided – for the good part of the journey the road is pot-holed, and shorn of tarmac. We were in no hurry to get anywhere, and slowly worked our way through, spotted the giant squirrel, and loads of elephant-dung enroute.

Finally made it to the resort, and this place is breath-taking. The resort faces the Athirapilly water-falls. The view from our room had us floored. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

The food was rather decent, though pricey.

We managed to trek down to the falls, and it is worth a visit.

At this time, we had already covered 700km, and weren’t too keen on taking the ‘motorable’ road all the way back to Valparai. Instead we decided that we will head out via Chalakudy – considering the road is really a good one – and probably visit Cochin too.

This was with the intent to heading back from Cochin to Bangalore via Palakad-Salem. The logic being: it was too early to end our vacation, we will be using the national and state highways back, and that this route is atleast 100 kilometers shorter than the route back from Athirapilly via Valparai-Salem-Bangalore.

Days 6, 7, and 8: Cochin

The resort manager got us a room at the well maintained business hotel in Cochin – Avenue Regent. This property is part of the Avenue group that maintains the Rainforest resort too.

After a decent breakfast, we headed out to Cochin, and were at the hotel after a 3 hour journey. The last 45 minutes was spent in getting into Cochin, through some heavy city traffic.

M.G road, the one on which our place of stay is, is packed one-to-a-dozen with jewelery outlets; rather overwhelming.

Checked out the underwhelming marine-drive, nice and quaint Jew town and Kochi fort areas, and also managed to stay put at the hotel for a day.

The Mattancherry palace is worth a visit. It is also called the “Dutch” palace. We loved the style and details of the murals painted within the walls of the palace.

Among the eateries, close to the Avenue Regent hotel, the Dwaraka vegetarian restaurant is a decent option.

Cochin wasn’t worth the visit; the Jew town area visit was a welcome respite.

By this time, the road-trip was getting to us – we had traveled quite a distance, and still had a ways to go – and we decided to head back to Bangalore without stopping at Coimbatore, but probably with an overnight halt at Salem.

Day 8: Tirupur - night stopover

The roads from Cochin to Thrissur are in decent condition, but from there on to Palakkad is not a very pleasant drive. The road condition and significant amount of traffic makes the drive an energy sapping one.

We took a welcome lunch break at Palakkad – at the Indraprastha hotel’s restaurant. Lunch was a good vegetarian fare.

From there on the journey was comfortable, except for the fact that we were on a two lane road with oncoming traffic. I was fatigued by the time we reached Avinashi, with Salem still a two-plus hour drive away. Indu managed to spot an advertisement for Hotel Ginger in Tirupur, and as luck would have it, that was just 15km from where we  were at that point.

Checked into the rather clean and comfortable hotel Ginger, freshened up, had a quick dinner, and we slept well that night.

Day 9: Bangalore

The next day morning was the start of a 300 plus kilometer journey back to Bangalore. The highway is really good, and rather safe to drive. We made good time to Salem, stopped at the Saravana Bhavan there for a quick lunch, and it was onward to Bangalore from there. Rather uneventful but comfortable drive to Bangalore, and we were back home by 7pm that evening.

Finally,

We had covered quite a lot of distance by road, more than we had bargained for. It did create some amount of fatigue, but then the places we went to and things we experienced there were worth the effort.

Our daughter was safely and comfortably ensconced in the baby-car-seat, and happened to sleep for most of the journey. This made the entire vacation a pleasant one, and one which gave us a lot of memorable moments.

Photos here

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”. There wasn’t too much of a debate at that point. Opened up the laptop, looked for tickets from Bangalore to Colombo, and Chennai to Colombo; noticed that the one from Bangalore was almost twice the cost of the one from Chennai; decided to opt for the Chennai one, and also to make use of this opportunity to meet up with some friends and relatives in Chennai.

Browsed TripAdvisor to check out reviews of Sri Lanka – places to visit, hotels – and booked our travel tickets. The plan was to leave on the 17th Sept to Chennai, take the 18th morning flight to Colombo, and then return from Sri Lanka on the 29th.  The week prior to our travel date was a busy time at work, and this made us look forward to the trip a lot more.

Another thing I sort of thought we could try to do was to drive in Sri Lanka – hire a car, and self-drive around the country. A quick search on google for self-drive experiences brought up a discussion on the lonely-planet site. Got in touch with Ana, the thread poster, and she shared a detailed experience of self-drive in Lanka, and recommended I try it too. I was all charged up about it, and decided to get myself an international driving license (IDL). But then, the busy work week didn’t help with these plans, and basically headed to the destination without the IDL.

The general plan was to land in Colombo, then head to Galle, visit nearby Unawatuna, spend some time in hill-station Kandy, and then back to Colombo.

Heading to Chennai

Decided to head to Chennai by the afternoon Shatabdi; stay in Indu’s colleague’s apartment for the night, and take the following day’s early morning flight to Colombo. Uneventful, but comfortable train ride. Once at the stay-for-the-night, we ended up having a conversation late into the night. After a couple of hours of sleep, woke up around 3am the next morning, and were at the airport by 4:30am. The flight was scheduled to leave at 7am. The wait was painful;  what with the lack of sleep, the rather dull Chennai airport waiting area with airport announcements substituting for muzak, and my body crying out for an idli-vada kind of breakfast at 5am in the morning. Found something to munch on, by which time Indu had somehow managed to contort her body to fit into a chair in the waiting room, and had dozed off. I wandered into a book shop, and practically read the title of every book there.

Finally, yeah, finally, passengers started lining up at the gate, boarded the flight, and we were excited that our holiday to Sri Lanka was getting kick-started.

Arrive in Colombo

The Air India express flight, to Colombo, was clean, and they served some hot breakfast. Rather decent experience, considering they were the most inexpensive option on this sector.

The flight path is parallel to the Palk straits, at some point in the journey, and the pilot announced that the “Rama sethu / bridge” was visible to the passengers sitting on the right-side of the aircraft. I was amazed by how close Sri Lanka is to the Indian subcontinent, when viewed from the air. Maybe its time to bring back that ferry service, which linked the two countries, and looks like that is the case.

As the flight lined up to land, and was still flying above the clouds, it was drizzling a bit, and we noticed a rainbow – it was below us – and it brought a smile to our faces.

Landed in Colombo, picked up our luggage, immigration was a breeze – visa on arrival for Indian tourists – and took a cab to Colombo House. Its atleast an hour-and-half drive to get into Colombo, from the airport, and among the things that struck me immediately was the relatively orderly traffic on the roads; relative to what am used to back home in India. For instance, vehicles come to a stop at yellow-striped-pedestrian-crossings, allowing pedestrians to cross the road, even when a cop is not around to ensure that they do. Most automobiles are those from Japanese manufacturers. The roads aren’t too crowded, though they are busy with vehicle and pedestrian traffic, and was reminded that this is a country of 20 million people. This is more from the context of my city of residence, Bengaluru, which is atleast 6 million residents at last count.

We had called ahead and booked a room at the Colombo house, and once we reached there and checked-in we noticed that it is one of those quaint bungalows in the city. It is a bungalow converted into a travel-lodge, or more of a bed-and-breakfast style accomodation. First impressions were that this place has seen better days.

Colombo House

After a shower, we slept for a while. I asked for some tea from the rather cheerful caretaker lady, enjoyed the wonderful Sri Lankan tea, and decided to take a nap. Woke up around 4pm, and stepped out to get some late lunch. Went looking for a place to eat, and instead wandered into a book-store – Vijitha Yapa –  much to Indu’s dismay. I was curious to see what books a bookshop in Sri Lanka has on its shelves, and also to find out from a local about a place to get some decent lunch. A shopper walked in, and I got Indu to ask her for some suggestions – she mentioned ”Cafe on the 5th“, which happened to be a restaurant right around the corner. We headed there, after I purchased a book, and had a rather decent vegetarian lunch.

From there, we walked towards Duplication Road, with the intent of getting to the Galle Face road and walk along the coast a bit. Came across a Zesta tea boutique at the intersection of Duplication and Bagatelle road. Decided to have some tea there. This boutique had only recently opened, and we had a rather long chat with the friendly folks running the place. Had wonderful cinnamon flavoured tea, and then resumed our walk towards the Galle Face road.

We wanted to pick up a local mobile connection, for the duration of our trip, and were on the look out for a mobile-shop. Found one – Torana, on Galle Face road. Struck up a conversation with the owner there – Ranjith, a very friendly and helpful man – and got talking about our experience in Sri Lanka so far and also about his trips to India. He offered to take us out for breakfast, and also suggested a couple of places that we could go to to sample good vegetarian Sri Lankan cuisine. When he stepped out of the shop to attend to something else, we had a chat with the girl who was attending to our mobile-SIM-card request. She was a Sri Lankan Tamil, and we got talking in Tamil – the Lankan Tamil dialect is rather distinct, and we fumbled with our words. In any case, the girl was thrilled to talk to us, and when it came to movies, she confessed that “Sooperstar-Vijay” is her heart-throb. We enjoyed these conversations, spent some time chatting up Ranjit and his daugther Isha, and also browsed through the collection of vinyl records on sale in their shop. It was sort of starting to get dark outside, so we promised to catch up with them later, and headed to the shore-line.

Colombo: Beach, railway tracks, and the road

The shore lack a sandy beach, and because of the rather overcast conditions, the ocean was rather rough. It was a nice evening though, and a strong breeze was blowing in from the ocean. It was a nice sight to see the railway and road lines, from Colomobo to Galle, running parallel to the coast. On the way back to our place of stay, we popped into the ubiquitous Cargills’ Food-City, and picked up some fruits and snacks. Stopped at Colombo House to freshen up, and then headed out to Raffles for dinner – we had noticed this place during our afternoon search for a lunch place. It is located in a nice sprawling bungalow, and the restaurant has a nice cozy feel to it. The food was average; maybe because our vegetarian requirements reduces our options to experiment.

Back at the “house”, we settled down with books, and slept. The idea was to have breakfast the next morning, and leave for Galle. We returned to the “Cafe on the 5th”, had some sandwiches and tea for breakfast, and then checked out of Colombo house, and headed to the central bus stand. The auto ride is along the coast, and with a beautiful view of the coast line. Once at the bus stand, we deposited ourselves in an air-conditioned bus headed to Galle. This bus was a 15 seater or so. Once the bus was 75% full, the journey to Galle started. The bus stopped every few minutes to pick up passengers, and for anyone who flagged down the bus.

Bus ride; Colombo to Galle

Indu and I had seats right in the front row, and the bus took all of an hour to leave Colombo and the other small towns near it, and finally we had an unhindered view of the ocean – the road runs parallel to the coast all the way upto Galle, and the crashing waves made it a wonderful sight. We were awestruck by the power of the waves, and the engaging sight of small cosy houses and greenery along the way.

The music being played in the bus was from a mixed tape that the driver owned – it was playing some Sinhalese movie music, with the occasional Hindi Kishore Kumar number.

The three hour ride to Galle breezed past, and occasionally on this journey, I couldn’t help but regret the fact that I didn’t get my international driving license along; would have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience to drive on these roads, and take a break where ever we wanted to. The next trip to Sri Lanka will have me driving around in that country.

Once at Galle, everyone got off the bus. Called up Singha Villa, and spoke to Dieter, the owner, for details on how to get there from the Galle bus stop. A short 20 minute auto-ride (autos are called tuk-tuks in Sri Lanka) brought us to Singha Villa, in Unawatuna. Unawatuna was once a small village, with a rather calm beach. The beach is rather calm when compared to the rest of the west coast beaches. Today Unawatuna is a tourist hotspot, and is a hit with tourists during the tourist season. It still resembles a small sleepy village, during the tourist-off-season – our travel to this place coincided with this season.

Unawatuna, finally!

Once at Singha Villa, we were greeted by Dieter, the owner of the place. He is one enthusiastic, and warm person. Singha Villa is a sort of a homestay-bed-and-breakfast sort of place. He showed us to our room on the third floor, and the room and the view from there made us feel glad that we chose this place to stay. In any case, this place was suggested to Indu by her colleague, and based on her feedback we decided to head here. It turned out to be a good choice after all.

Settled down in Singha Villa. The room was clean, well-lit, and spacious

The initial plan was to spend a couple of days here, and then head to Kandy, but then that changed as all adhoc travel-plans do.

Dieter engaged us in a conversation about the place, his Thangka painting interests, and his travels within India and good part of South Asia. He is an engaging conversationalist.

We then settled down, relaxed a bit, and then headed out for a lunch of sorts. A leisurely walk towards the beach brought us to Sunil Garden restaurant. They served good sandwiches, smoothies, and coffee. We returned to this place a few times during our stay.

Walked for a bit on the beach; its a very nice strip of sand and peaceful waves. The coast-line is crescent shaped. At the western tip of the crescent the huge dome of a Buddhist temple is visible, over the top of coconut trees. There are quite a few places to stay and restaurants right on the beach; some are so close to the water that during high-tide waves lash their walls.

The village, if one were to call Unawatuna that, has very good green cover, and has its share of bird-life, and monkeys. We fell in love with the place, by sunset that evening.

Dieter prepared some wonderful pasta for dinner; a good dinner, hit the sack, and slept rather well. The sounds of the wildlife, and the lashing waves on the distant coast lulled us into sleep.

The next morning, we decided to visit Galle, and spend some time there. We walked a kilometer or so to the bus stand, and took the bus to Galle. It’s a 25 minute bus-ride. At Galle we headed to the Galle fort. The fort walls are well-preserved, and apparently they stood up well to the devastating tsunami that hit this region. The fort is a world heritage site, and quite a few the buildings within the fort still retain the period architecture. The fort houses quite a few people, and is a living space. We walked into the nearest Bank of Ceylon, to exchange USD to Lankan rupees. Once done, we walked around a bit, and then landed at Amangalla, for lunch.

Well maintained hotel - Amangalla

Amangalla is a beautifully maintained hotel, and has been restored from an earlier historic building. We had a good lunch, checked out the rooms and tariff; and made a mental note to come back here and stay sometime.

We then walked around the fort, skipped the museums – somehow didn’t feel like going in there – and walked to the rear of the fort. The lighthouse in one corner, and the beautiful coastline in front of us, was a scenic-postcard sight from the fort ramparts. We walked through the small and quaint streets within the fort, and noticed Ibrahim Jewellers – the designs displayed in the window looked interesting, and we decided to come back here another time, and check out their jewelery collection.

Wandering around in Galle Fort

We continued to wander through the streets, and chanced upon Pedlar’s Inn cafe; refreshing tea, snacks, and a few games of Brainvita / Peg-Solitaire later, we decided to head back to Unawatuna.

It was getting dark by the time we reached the bus stand, and got into a bus headed to Matara – buses headed to Matara stop at Unawatuna junction. We made the mistake of mentioning “Unawatuna” as our stop, instead of “Unawatuna junction”. The difference being atleast a kilometer, and that rather narrow highway is not conducive to pedestrian traffic, what with vehicles zipping on the roads with the occasional reckless driver on the road. Finally reached Singha Villa, and Dieter’s wife Bashini had prepared a delicious dinner – Sri Lankan curry and rice.

Unwatuna and rains

Our initial plan was to spend a couple of days in Unawatuna, and then to take a train ride to Kandy, or Nuwura Eliya. After a few days there, head back to Colombo. But, as things turned out, we decided to just stay put in Unawatuna.

Rain, reading a book, relaxing

It just so happened that over the next couple of days, clouds gathered over Unawatuna, and it started raining; rained for a couple of hours, interspersed with bright sunlight, and then back to another couple of hours of rain. We sort of liked to just stay put in our room. When it rained rather heavily, we could see the waves lashing the coast line, and the spray flying a few meters into the air, with the distinct boom of crashing waves. It was a mesmerizing sight. We pulled up a couple of chairs onto the balcony, and settled down to read the novels we had brought with us. It was a relaxing time.

Unawatuna sunset colours

Staying put in Unawatuna
We dropped all plans to explore the rest of Sri Lanka, and that sort of brought in a sense of relief; we didn’t have to plan anything more, and we just took it easy and strolled around Unawatuna, its beach, its various small shops selling touristy stuff, snacking at the various eateries, and watching the beautiful colours during sunset. The current banner image for this blog is one of those sunset snaps.

Black-hooded Oriole, http://flic.kr/p/7pRuop

Purple-Rumped Sunbird, http://flic.kr/p/7pRuop

The other fantastic aspect of our stay here were the fantastically coloured birds, which we could spot on the trees within the Singha Villa property. The colours were eye-popping.

"Kondai-kuruvilla", http://flic.kr/p/7CgULY

Asian Koel, http://flic.kr/p/7CgULY

Crimson-flame-backed woodpecker, http://flic.kr/p/7CgULY

Rose-ringed parakeet, http://flic.kr/p/7CgULY

A troupe of monkeys used to visit the area on a regular basis; they even raided the Singha Villa papaya tree, and snatched away some ripe papayas.

Southern-purple faced leaf monkey, http://flic.kr/p/7CgULY

We returned to Galle for another day-trip, visited the fort, and purchased some nice semi-precious jewelery from Ibrahim Jewelers. Also picked up some lace-work fabric. Stopped by at Laksala – government run handicraft shop – and picked up a couple of Sri Lankan masks, and various other knick-knacks.

The other aspects of our stay in Unawatuna, and specifically Singha Villa, that we cherish are:

• the simple but delicious breakfast, and wonderfully brewed tea; mostly prepared by Dieter
• the hearty dinners – usually Sri Lankan rice-and-curry, thanks to Bashini
• the greenery, and abundant and varied bird-life
• the crescent shaped Unawatuna beach, and its rather peaceful waves; except when it rained, and the waves lashed the coast
• the bus-rides to Galle and back, with a view of the Galle harbour and fort, as we neared Galle
• the fantastic stories that Dieter related, and the wonderful warm conversation with Bashini, Kumara, and Dieter right through our stay, made this trip entirely memorable

Finally, rather reluctantly, we decided to return to Colombo, and spend a day there before returning to India. We took the train ride back to Colombo.

Back to Colombo
The train ride is a rather bumpy one – the coaches are rather ancient, and hopefully the end to the horrible civil war will help the country focus on getting back on its feet, and maybe improve its railway infrastructure. The train tracks run parallel to the coast-line, and we had a good view of the ocean right through the journey. On the final stretch into Colombo, it was sunset time, and the fantastic colourful view of the sky and ocean was breath-taking.

We headed to the Ottrey Inn. It’s a rather old mansion in Colombo (in area 4 of Colombo city), run by an affable owner-caretaker. Except, the beds were hopeless – clean sheets and all that – but the bed springs had given up their ghost. We didn’t sleep properly the two nights we stayed there. The flooring is red-oxide based, and because of the humidity, it just stuck to our feet. It made us feel that the place was not very well maintained. Instead of staying here, we should have pampered ourselves at the Galle Face hotel, or the plush Hotel Cinnamon. Maybe the next time around.

In Colombo, we spent most of our time shopping for stuff. We spent a good amount of time at Odel’s, purchased a whole lot of clothing, tea, and general stuff, and finally a huge duffel-bag to cart away all our purchases. Stopped for a relaxing and much needed foot-massage at the Foot-rub place, within the Odel complex. Also, shopped at the Stone ‘N’ String shop, and picked up a whole lot of very nice semi-precious stones jewelery; highly recommended place to pick up jewelery.

That just about completed our stop over in Colombo.

The day we were to fly out of Colombo, we spent another hour at the Foot-Rub lounge at the Colombo airport, and got another relief-inducing-de-stressing foot massage. Made some last minute tea purchases from the Mlesna, and Zesta tea kiosks. We were all set to get onto our flight back home.

Chennai, and back home
The trip back to Chennai, and then from there to Bangalore was a relatively uneventful one. It was good to be back home, but then the memories of our trip remained fresh in our minds for a few weeks thereafter.

The next time around, I should plan to drive around in Sri Lanka, and travel the entire country. Beautiful country, and friendly people, and one worth visiting a few times.

Photos on flickr

These fantastic photos collections, of Sri Lanka, generously shared on Flickr, are worth a look:

• photos of Sri Lanka by Dhammika Heenpala
• photos of Sri Lanka by Madhawa

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.

Arrive in Goa, day 1

We were at the Goa ITC Guest house, located in Colva, by 3pm, wolfed down a decent lunch, and hit the sack. Woke up late evening, strolled a bit around the guest house, had dinner, and slept again.

Goa guest house front yard - panorama shot

Benaulim Beach, day 2

Woke up refreshed. The guest house and its surroundings – lush green cover, blooming flowers beds, the laid back feel, and the silence interrupted often by bird calls – reminded us we were on a holiday, in Goa, and it was time to make the most of it. After a hearty breakfast, we rode out on a hired Activa (the caretaker, Patnaik, arranged this for us). The ride to Benaulim beach, 3 kms from the guest house, through narrow roads, and the cool breeze, was a quick one. We walked out onto the beach, looking for a beach-shack that we could just laze at. We found “Blue Corner”, and its beach beds shaded by coir umbrellas. Looked perfect to us. Settled down, after generously applying sun-screen. Ordered beer, and settled down with a book. Perfect. I happened to be reading Aldous Huxley’s “Perennial Philosophy” at the time; the beach, sea breeze, and the light beer, made the read all the more engaging. Indu was working her way through the verbose-chunky-engaging-in-parts “Shantaram” novel, and was enjoying it too.

A few vendors came by, Indu bought a couple of sarongs from them, and over conversation got to know that they are from north Karnataka – had some relaxed conversation with them in Kannada. Had lunch around 3pm, and settled down for some more time, till the sun started dipping towards the horizon.

On the way back, we stopped at furniture place that seemed to have antique furniture. The shop owner told us that the furniture is brand new, made of teak, and just copies antique furniture design. We liked some of the stuff we saw there. Briefly debated about buying stuff there, and then decided to give this some more thought over the next few days. We eventually did pick up stuff, before we returned to Bangalore.

We returned to the guest house, after a day well spent lazing at the beach. Delicious dinner, and we hit the sack.

North Goa, day 3

We were informed that a flea market is abuzz on Wednesdays, at the Anjuna beach. Hired a Pulsar for the long ride to north Goa. The highway was not exactly desolate or choc-a-bloc with traffic, but having a bike helped us breeze through it anyway. The day was perfect, and the ride was enjoyable. One of the best parts of the ride was the one over the bridge on the Mandovi river – it is painted mango-yellow, and looks particularly colourful. We got to Anjuna, finally. A lot of traffic was headed that way, and we immediately noticed that north Goa was busier, and filled with tourists – mostly foreign tourists at this time of the year. The flea market walk through, and the occasional bargaining was an ok experience. The entire experience is oriented towards the non-Indian tourist – there are a lot of trinkets that appeal to them, and the prices are ridiculously high too.

On the Mandovi river bridge

We had lunch at a restaurant facing the beach, and then decided to head back to south Goa. On the way back we stopped at a Cafe Coffee day for some coffee, and then stepped into a Reebok showroom nearby for some t-shirt purchases. From there on we stopped a couple of times on the way, to click snaps – one on the Mandovi river bridge, and then near some fields en-route.  We headed straight to Colva beach to watch the sunset. Walked into a rather empty beach shack, ordered for some beers, and snacks, put up our legs, and watched the sun sink into the sea. Very relaxing end to the day.

South Goa, day 4

Quite a few people we spoke to asked us to head south and check out Palolem and Agonda beaches. These beaches are in the Canacona district of southern Goa. The bike ride to south Goa was a much better one – the highway passes through laid back villages, lots of green cover, winding roads through the hills, and with glimpses of the Konkan railway rail-track. The day was perfect for the ride; it was a bit overcast, and the cool breeze combined with the scenery kept a smile plastered on our faces. We arrived at the Palolem beach first. The sea is really calm at this beach, the waves just lap the shore. It is surrounded by hills on one side, and this adds to the beauty of the beach.

Walked around the beach for a while, and then headed to this small restaurant called Blue Planet – it advertised healthy vegan food. We weren’t disappointed. The fresh fruit juice, the thick and freshly made soup, and a big bowl of salad filled us up just right. Good food, and a welcome break from the usual routine of pasta, paratha, or paneer based food.

Agonda beach

We then rode down to Agonda beach, and this beach was practically empty, and really beautiful too. Again settled down at a beach shack, with some beer, and stared at the horizon. Jumped into the water, and let the waves batter us a bit. Relaxed a bit more, and then decided to head back. We took some back of the beyond country roads to head back Margao, instead of the highway. This was the best decision we made, on the entire trip. The road passes through some awesome winding, dipping, and climbing roads through hills, and fantastic breath-taking scenery. This road is a biker’s delight. At one point, the road climbs a hill, and at the top we were treated to an almost 180 degree view of the sea, with Agonda beach a sparkling strip at a distance off to the left. Made the entire journey even more memorable.

It was half past seven, by the time we got back to the guest house. Patnaik helped reserve a table for us at a restaurant named JoeCons. A relaxed dinner, some live music with a couple of songs dedicated to us, recalling the details of the ride, and then back by 11pm for a good night’s rest.

At the guest house, day 5

Furniture shop

After all the hectic activities over the past couple of days, we decided to chill out at the guest house. Sat around in the manicured garden, and lazed around in our room. Headed out to Benaulim beach to have dinner on the beach, under the star-lit sky. On the way over to the beach, we stopped at the furniture shop, where we had spotted some good teak furniture, selected the pieces we liked, and settled on a price that seemed reasonable. Gave the guy an advance, and arranged for the furniture to be transported by bus.

The dinner was really good. We practically sat in the dark, with just a single candle-stick lighting our table. Perfect,relaxed dinner – couldn’t see the sea, but heard the waves crashing onto the beach, and the ever present sea breeze cooling us down. We should have done this beach-dinner more often. Maybe the next trip to Goa will get us to spend more time at the beach, and importantly, more time in Goa.

Back to Bangalore, day 6

The next day saw us at the same beach shack on Benaulim beach. Our flight to Bangalore was around 5:30pm in the evening. We spent time at the beach till around 3pm. Got back to the guest house, settled our bills, and tipped the resourceful and ever-helpful caretaker, cook, and helper. Our taxi took us to the airport in 30 minutes or so. We spent the next hour at the airport, purchased a couple of books to read, got onto our flight to Bangalore, and back home by 9pm.

This trip seemed to be too short. Our minds / spirit was still back in Goa, but physically present in Bangalore. We promised ourselves to go back there, for a longer period of time. A month seems just perfect.

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

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. 

Day1: Around Trichy

Took the night train from Bangalore to Trichy – rather convenient train, reaches Trichy early morning, by 4:30am or so. An auto ride deposited us in Hotel Femina. The hotel has definitely seen better days, but the rooms and bathrooms are clean, decent restaurant and food, and its central location makes it an ideal place for travelers. We slept for a couple of hours, arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 9am, so that we could head to Samayapuram, which happens to be 20km from Trichy.

A light drizzle accompanied us all the way to Samayapuram – it had been raining there the past week, and there were reports of heavy rain in Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, and other places down south. We were hoping the rains would let up by the time we landed in Kumbakonam.

Colourful shops, at Samayapuram

The darshanam, abhishekams, and related activities at the temple lasted for a couple of hours. We were very happy with the proceedings, and the way the day had turned out so far. Returned to the hotel for lunch, and a nap.

The plan was to visit Bhikashandar Kovil, and Thiruvanakaval in the evening. The former is a small village, associated with my father’s ancestors. We wanted to pay our respects at the small deity at the village.

We stopped at Thiruvanaikaval first, because we had some time on our hands.

Magnificent temple elephant at Thiruvanaikaval

This is a beautiful temple: the sharp and well-formed sculptures, the multi-hued and tastefully coloured idols on the tall gopurams, and the cool weather added to the experience. The sanctum sancatorium was closed, and was scheduled to open an hour following our visit. We didn’t wait for that, because we had to head to Bhikshandar Kovil. On the way out, all of us stopped to admire the magnificent temple elephant – it was in its prime, and reminded me of the single rock Mahabalipuram Shore temple’s elephant sculpture.

Arrived at Bhikshandar kovil. This was Indu and my first visit to this place, and I was filled with thoughts of my grandfather, and his ancestors, and trying to imagine their life in this place. I was emotionally overcome by the fact that I was in the same space as they had, if not at the same time.

It was dark by the time we decided to return to Trichy. We debated the option of moving onto Thanjavur and staying there for the night. Finally, we decided to head to Kumbakonam instead. Everyone we spoke to had a different view of how long it would take us to go there, by bus and compounded by the possibility of rain, and the fact that route to Kumbakonam is under renovation of sorts (four-laning in progress); the time ranged from 3 hours to 4 plus hours. After a quick dinner, we took the bus out of Trichy to Kumbakonam, around 9pm The bus conductor was confident of reaching Kumbakonam well before midnight. The cool night air, and discussions about the things we saw during the day kept us occupied and we didn’t seem to notice the 2.5 hours that went by. We were dropped off close to Hotel Rayas, where my parents had made room reservations for the Kumbakonam stay.

The hotel has rather compact rooms, but is very well maintained – clean hotel, clean rooms, beds, and bathrooms. The plan was to visit Thanjavur the next day. We retired to our rooms, and slept like logs.

Day 2: Around Thanjavur

Started off at half-past nine in the morning. The first stop was at the Garbarakshambikai temple. The goddess idol was beautifully decorated, and the lack of crowds, and the nice bridge crossing across the Kaveri, and the wonderful weather post-rains was a good start to the day.

Thanjavur temple courtyard

From here, we headed to the “Big Temple” at Thanjavur. We were at the temple complex by 12:15pm. The sight of the temple, and walking through its earthen-brown coloured squat massive gopurams is always a overwhelming experience. Indu went berserk with the camera. We headed into the sanctum sanctorum. The sight of the massive 13foot lingam, associated statistics, the spirituality, and the myths surrounding it combine into a memorable experience.

Once we stepped out into the temple courtyard, we got a guide to take us through the details of the temple complex, and its history. This temple monument and its complex is an overwhelming experience, every time. The massive scale at which it is built, the beautiful symmetry of its structure, and the intricate sculptures on this structure require a lot more time than just 2 hours to take in and appreciate. More details of this temple here – wikipedia to the rescue.

Headed for lunch, to Gnanam. Decent lunch later, we decided to check out the Sarasvati Mahal. It turned out to be a major disappointment, not because of its lack of history, but the rather abject condition the palace is in, and the rather poorly displayed exhibits. Its not an interesting place for a tourist or an amateur history buff, rather it is supposed to be a valuable mueseum and reference library for academics, and history researchers.

On the drive back from to Kumbakonam, we decided to stop by at the Thygarajar samadhi site, in Thiruvaiyaru. For composer who has influenced a good part of Karnataka music, this site is devoid of any sign of the greatness of the man, or any historical details.

Back in Kumbakonam, a simple-delicious dinner at Hotel Archana, and we slept like logs.

Day 3: Around Kumbakonam

Indu and I woke up late the next day, and by the time we got ready, my parents had already returned from breakfast, and also brought back a breakfast-parcel from Archana’s. Great way to start the day!

Gangaikondacholapuram Temple

The cab ride to Gangaikondacholapuram was a very pleasant and memorable one; the weather was fantastic, cool breeze and slightly overcast day, listening to some pleasant Ilayaraaja music (SPB‘s voice makes songs sound better than they are), and driving on practically empty well maintained roads, which passes through green countryside. Couldn’t ask for more.

The temple there is a replica of the one at Thanjavur, but slightly smaller and incomplete in certain places, but no less magnificent. At the entrance to the temple complex we were greeted by pairs of parakeets shrieking loudly.It was a beautiful sight, to see these bright green birds, perched against the dull gray of the granite temple structure. The temple complex is set in beautifully manicured gardens, and the temple exterior is maintained really well. The ASI has done a good job here. The interior of the temple apparently is not under the ASI (am sure its some sort of religious-bureaucracy nonsense at work here). The interior is dark and dingy, and maintained poorly. Again the size of the lingam, and the stories and myth surrounding it are overwhelming.

We spent an hour or so at this place, and then decided to head to the Darasuram temple. This temple is a smaller structure than the other two Chola temples that we had seen so far. But it is an exquisite site for rich sculptures, and attention to detail in temple construction. The sculptures and architecture of this beautifully intricate temple is awe-inspiring, and we just walked through the temple in a jaw-dropped-stupor. The guide we hired there provided a useful and informative walk-through of the temple complex. This temple reminded me of the richly sculptured temples at Beluru and Halebidu.

At the end of a couple of hours, we decided to get some lunch at the Sterling resort at Swamimalai. The lunch was not up to the mark. From there we headed back to the hotel to get some rest. The return train to Bangalore was a little after 6pm. We took a nap, picked up some yummy food for dinner, from Archana’s, en-route to the train station. We couldn’t stop talking about our wonderful experiences during this trip, on the train journey back, atleast, that is, till we decided to get some sleep.

A truly memorable trip, and one which made me appreciate the history of the places that we visited, and one which has gotten me hooked onto learning about Chola history and architecture.

The trip snaps are 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.

Day 1: Start the trip, and head to Jaipur

The flight out to Jaipur was uneventful, and once we landed there, the in-flight announcement informed us that Jaipur was a warm 38 degrees in the shade. Later we were informed that this was the first time in a century that weather across Rajasthan has remained at summer-time temperatures, even in the month of September. Lucky us.

The heat was something we had to put up with, but then once we stepped out into Jaipur with the realization that our vacation had begun, all the temperature concerns took a back-seat.

We headed to the Rajputana Sheraton, from the airport. Had a decent snack, and hit the bed. Relaxed for sometime, and then stepped out into the heat again around 5pm. A cycle-rickshaw-wala offered to take us to the nearest market. We were reluctant to get into a cycle-rickshaw initially, and then on confirming that it is only a 5 minute ride away, got in. He promptly dropped us in front of a handloom store, and mentioned that this is the market. Looked like it was the usual racket of herding tourists to specific shops, and get them to purchase things from there. In any case, we spent the next couple of hours at this store, because we liked his collection of textiles and materials. The store is the Rajasthan Handloom Textile corporation, near Galaxy hotel. Bought a bunch of bandhani type textiles.

We planned to return to this store the following Monday to collect the purchases, instead of lugging it along on the rest of the trip.

Stopped over at the Railway station, headed to the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation information center, inquired about the taxi rates to go around Jaipur for a day, and finalized on a taxi to pick us up the following morning.

Returned to the hotel, had dinner, and hit the sack. We were exhausted by then.

Day 2: Jaipur look-about

Woke up early, and when I stepped out of the hotel room, I could feel the heat building up outside. It must have been in the 30s at half past eight in the morning. We were glad to have asked for an AC taxi to tour Jaipur.

Had a hearty breakfast at the hotel, and finally started out on the tour at 9:30 ish. The plan was to visit the Birla temple, Albert Museum, Jaipur City palace, lunch, Amer fort, Jal-Mahal and back.

In front of the Albert Museum, Jaipur

Albert Museum is closed Mondays, so we just clicked a few snaps of its facade.

The Jaipur city palace is colorful, and the textile museum within it is worth a visit. We hired a guide to take us through the palace and its history. Costs about Rs.150 for the guide. Its worth it.

The pashmina shawls, the embroidery, the richness of the materials and the sheer number of artifacts on display need to be viewed and appreciated over a day, rather than the hour or so that we spent there. There is too much to see and absorb. The day was really hot too, and once we were through with the Jaipur city palace, we headed out for lunch. Post lunch, we headed to the Amer fort.

Amer fort in the background

Amer fort was our first encounter with a fort in Rajasthan, and it is a really fantastic sight. The moat surrounding the fort was dry, because of the rather dry year in Jaipur. This did not take anything away from the beauty and imposing structure of the fort. The Amber palace within it has been built and extended over centuries, and every successive king has made his contribution in increasing the size and grandeur of this palace. The Sheesh Mahal, and the expansive views of the city and fort from the palace windows are breath-taking. A guide is absolutely necessary to understand the history of the place, and also to easily navigate through the huge fort and palace.

At the Sheesh Mahal

We were exhausted by then – the heat was really getting to us. It didn’t curb our enthusiasm though, because the tour so far had totally engaged us, and the Rajasthan experience had been memorable so far.

On the drive back, we stopped at the Jal-Mahal -  a palace on a man-made lake. Clicked some snaps there. On the drive back to the hotel, we stopped at a blue-pottery place (Jaipur blue pottery art center), and spent an hour or so there looking at their collection of pottery, and understanding the process of making such pottery. We also stopped at the Hawa-mahal and clicked a few snaps.

Our driver for the day, Santosh Singh, made the entire day tour enjoyable with his tid-bits about the city and its history, and also his engaging conversations.

Back at the hotel, a quick freshening up, and a relaxed dinner readied us for our night-travel to Udaipur. The train was on time, and we settled in for the night. The train was to chug into Udaipur by 6am in the morning.

Day 3: At Udaipur

We had arranged for a taxi to pick us at the station, and he was waiting for us, as arranged. It is a 1.5 hour drive to Jaisamand lake from the city. The drive is through some green country-side, and wildlife sanctuary – enjoyable in the mornings, because of the generally cool weather. We were stuck by how green Udaipur is. It is situated in a natural valley, and has a lot of lakes.

Once we reached Jaisamand, the lake looked simply breath-taking. We were looking forward to spending a couple of days at the Jaisamand Lake resort. It is a hotel built on one of the islands in the lake. Called up the hotel, and they sent a boat to pick us up. Everything was wonderful so far.

View from the Jaisamand Lake resort

Things changed once we reached the hotel, and were taken to our room – the lift was musty and dark. The corridors were rather depressing, and once we were shown to our room, we didn’t know what to make of it. The view of the lake and surroundings were really nice. The room itself was sort of depressing – the carpet on the floor looked worn out and not so very clean. The toilet was huge, and not so very clean. It had towels from the Oberoi and other hotels. Indu and I were thoroughly disappointed with this hotel. The management was trying to setup this hotel to be another five-star luxury one, but just didn’t have the experience to run such a hotel. They could have just gone with a simple clean hotel -  because the location of the hotel is fantastic… no one is necesarily going to ask for a face towel, or a stupid camel ride. Anyway, an hour at this place convinced us that spend Rs.4000 a night here was totally worthless, and decided to check-out. We called up the taxi (the one from the morning) to return from Udaipur and pick us up. The management in the hotel insisted on charging us for a night stay, and some arguments later, it was reduced to 50%. We just wanted to get out of this place by then. The hotel is an ugly blot on this location.

By the time we got back to Udaipur, it was already 2pm. We had noted down Amet Haveli‘s number, because of the reviews on TripAdvisor. We headed there, and the cleanliness of the room, the hotel, and the views of the lake from our room won us over. The tariff is a tad expensive, but by then we didn’t care. We had wasted enough time for the day. We chose to stay here, had lunch, and slept.

Woke up around 5:30pm, and walked to the nearest bridge to cross over to the old city. This is a better option, than taking a rickshaw to the old city. Its just a 10 minute walk. Once in the old part of the city, its a wonderful experience – there are a lot of shops catering to tourists. Most of the shops are paintings or curios … not very interesting. The bada-bazaar area, Jagdish temple area are all nice. We generally took in the sights, and also because it was Navarathri/Dusshera, the good part of the roads and city were lit up, and people were congregating at various spots to dance away the night (Dandiya dance)

Hot jamoons (image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94801434@N00/)

Also spotted a place where fresh jamoons and other sweets were being prepared. Downed a couple of hot jamoons. This turned out to be a daily routine, right through the Udaipur stay.

Day 4: Udaipur sight-seeing

Woke up the next morning to see sunlight streaming into our room, and also the reflections of it sparkling on the lake outside our window. Some of those reflections found their way into our room, and basically lit up our room in liquid shimmering sunlight.

Had a relaxed breakfast at the Amet Haveli’s restaurant – the Ambrai. Watched an old man teach his grand-daughters swimming, by first binding one end of a dhoti to their torso, and holding the other, and getting them to flap in the lake waters. Other resident folk came by and took a dip or a swim in the lake. It was a picturesque setting – morning sun, cool shade of the trees at the Ambrai, views of the Udaipur palace and other havelis on the lake banks.

Following breakfast, walked to the City palace (just across the bridge, and close to the Jagdish temple), got our tickets, and a guide, and spent a couple of hours atleast walking through and admiring the contents of the palace.

Decided to have lunch at Hotel Natraj (highly recommended, for its simple, yet, quality vegetarian food). Walked to the hotel, after a stop at a fresh-fruit juice shop for some refreshing mosambi juice, conversation, and directions to Hotel Natraj.

Post lunch, stopped at the Elite tea center (Bapu Bazaar area) and purchased some somph, amla, and elachi based churan stuff. Got back to the hotel, and slept till sunset.

Decided to walk about a bit, and spotted the “German Bakery” next to the bridge, and immediately got chatting with its owner – Suresh (aka Daada). Conversation flowed over cups of hot tea, and Daada gave us some tips on how to get to Chittorgarh, and the other places to see in Udaipur. He also suggested we rent a bike (from the Hira motor cycles shop), and go around Udaipur. That sounded like a good plan, and we also decided to return to Daada’s restaurant for breakfast. Tracked down the Heera shop, got some details on renting a bike and the costs, and made a mental note to return to this place if we had some more time in Udaipur. Along the way we also met Rakesh Soni, who is a artisan and has his paintings shop near the Jagdish temple. We spent another hour of conversation with him, understanding his painting techniques, listening to his interesting travel tales, and his tips on how to not get swindled at touristy locations.  None of these conversations took on the buyer-seller or tourist-local combination… rather they were just normal conversation between people who didn’t try to get the other to buy anything from them, or profit from the other. These were fun conversations, and it was good to meet people and have simple engaging conversations with them.

Walked down to the jewelery street, near bada bazaar area, and found a shop open. We spent the next hour there, buying some Meenakari jewelery. Then walked past the jamoon place for daily quota of jamoons. Back to the room for a contented night’s sleep. The plan was to visit Chittorgarh the next day.

The Udaipur City palace, as viewed from the Pichola lake

Day 5: Trip to Chittorgarh and back

Another brilliant peaceful sunrise woke us up. We spent some time lying around in bed and gazing at the lake. Then got ready, and headed to Daada’s restaurant for breakfast. Had a decent breakfast and chai, and headed out to the bus-stand from there, to get onto a bus headed to Chittorgarh.

We were issued tickets to Chittorgarh, and bus we were supposed to get onto had already started moving out of the bus-stand, and we didn’t have a clue about that. Some general confusion later, and arguments with a disgruntled ticket issuer, we finally got our tickets transferred to a different bus. Thankfully there are buses to Chittorgarh every 30 minutes or so. An hour and half of bus ride through blistering hot sun, but the breeze blowing through the bus windows was surprisingly cool enough, and we reached Chittorgarh by 2pm-ish. The moment we step off the bus, we are accosted by an auto-driver who also offered to be our guide, and he promised to give us a fantastic tour of the fort and its monuments for 200 rupees. After some general head-scratching, we decide what the heck, he can’t be all that bad, and decide to use his auto-guide services. After a decent lunch, we headed to the fort.

By then, the sun was really heating up the place, and I guess the fort area must have been in the 40s. Blistering is the word. But then, the fort and its environs, and details out of Ram-Kishan (our driver-guide) was riveting enough, and we managed to put up with the heat and sweat. We stopped by at the granary/food-storage area, the ruins of the Kumbha palace, the functioning and beautiful Meera Bai’s temple, before we got to the area of the fort that has the magnificent Vijay Stambha.

The Vijay Stambha area is adjacent to the courtyard where Rani Padmini committed Jauhar. The story of the jauhar, and the societal structure and mental makeup of that time sort of weighed on our minds. We walked along the beautifully situated Gaumukh reservoir, and the Sammidesvara temple. Also had a quick look at the Rani Padmini palace, in the middle of another water reservoir. We were surprised by the number of water bodies, filled with water, in this fort. Quite a few of them are natural springs. This entire fort is also built on the top of a single huge hill. Strategically located, strong natural defense structures, and availability of fresh drinking water made this one of the coveted forts, during its glory days.

By the time we covered these monuments, we were feeling weak and dehydrated. We then downed a bottle of water each, and then headed to the Kirti Stambha – another exquisitely carved tower. From there, we had a look at the fort’s rear gate, and the expansive views from there. Custard apple trees dot the entire fort area, and apparently bear one of the choicest custard apples during the season.

Kirti Stamba at the Chittorgarh fort

Ram-kishan, our driver, dropped us back at the bus-stand, and we were on the 6pm bus back to Udaipur. The ride back to Udaipur was uneventful, and a cool breeze kept us in good relaxed spirits.

At Udaipur, we dropped by at a place that served Dal-bati-churma, near the bus stand, and were hungry enough to wolf down a couple of plates of it. It was delicious. Then took an auto, and headed to the jamoon place, and from there walked back to the hotel, and dropped into our beds. Content, and with dreams of the beautiful Chittorgarh fort.

Day 6: Head to Ranakpur

Another awesome day to wake-up to, at the Amet Haveli, and we were feeling sad that we had to leave this place today. After the relaxed breakfast at Daada’s, we headed to the Jewelery market yet again to pick up some of the stuff we had purchased a couple of days back. In the bargain, we ended up purchasing a lot more jewelery than we had initially planned. We were then left with an hour or so to return to our room, have lunch, checkout, and head to the bus-stand to get onto a 3pm bus headed to Ranakpur. Naturally, this didn’t work out… the lunch was at a relaxed pace, and we decided to take our time getting to the bus stand.

Finally got into a bus headed to Ranakpur, around 4:30pm. The bus initially collided with a car, while reversing out of the bus stand, and then just kept loading people on as it briefly toured the city before heading out to Ranakpur. We were comfortably seated, but in our minds we wanted to get into the Aranyawas at Ranakpur before night-fall.

The bus sort of lumbered along the road to Ranakpur, and at a half-way point, the engine compartment of the bus started billowing smoke. Everyone got out of the bus in 2 seconds flat, and most of the guys around started yelling their opinion of what has gone wrong, following that up with a lot of I-told-you-so. In any case, thanks to mobile phones, the conductor of the bus called up the depot in Udaipur and checked if another bus was on its way.

In the mean time, some of the passengers were trying to flag down other vehicles on the road, to hitch a ride to wherever it is they wanted to go to. I sort of convinced Indu to flag down a jeep, which, as it neared us, turned out to be a Police Jeep, and those policemen glared fire at us as they sped past us. Poor Indu didn’t know where to hide herself, and I had to laugh. At the wrong time. After a few minutes, we both managed to laugh out loudly about the incident, and hoped that the replacement bus reach us sooner than later. The “replacement” bus turned out to be yet another bus on the Ranakpur route, already bursting with passengers.

There was a mad scramble to get onto the bus. We boarded last, with all our luggage. Its a wonder how 100 plus people squeezed into that bus, with all our luggage. The rest of the journey is best described as traveling via Mumbai’s local trains at peak hours,  with the train weaving its way at hectic pace through a winding ghat section. This was fun, in its own way. We were finally deposited in front of the Aranyawas main gate around 9pm in the evening.

The cottage room allotted to us was spacious, and clean, and comfortable. We then proceeded to freshen up, and had a nice relaxed and delicious dinner. Couldn’t have been a better end to the adventurous day.

Day 7: Stay in Ranakpur

Aranyawas is located amidst beautiful rolling Aravalli range of mountains/hills. Its got thick tree cover, and the temperature is atleast 8 degrees cooler than the plains. Also the area around the hotel is visited by various birds. We were basically woken up by the “music” of bird cries. Woke up lazily, and then headed for breakfast. The breakfast was as delicious as the dinner, the night before. The staff were courteous, and “conversation-oriented”. We felt really pampered, and relaxed. Post breakfast, with camera, and novels in hand, we wandered about the property. Clicking snaps, or just staring into the distance. Then finally settling down at a check-dam, watched dazzling blue kingfishers going about their breakfast, for hours on end. Before we realized it, it was already lunch time. Had a good lunch, and then it was time for siesta.

Aranyawas hotel

Woke up in the evening, and then I sat out in the balcony… and spent an hour or so conducting a staring match with a pigeon-like-bird perched on a tree branch close to the balcony. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend time doing nothing. Felt rather refreshed, and yeah, I gave up, the bird won the staring-contest. We decided that we wanted to spend another night at this hotel, and to truncate our Jodhpur plans to just a few hours. Aranyawas’ manager, Mr Subhash, made a few calls to find out about various modes of transport to Jodhpur, and finally worked out a reasonable cost for a taxi to Jodhpur. We just loved the service at this place, and the way the staff went out of their way to make us feel at home, and to sort out transport and other such  issues.

Day 8: Head to Jodhpur and return to Jaipur

Woke up feeling refreshed. The taxi was to pick us up at 2pm ish. A hearty breakfast, some more bird watching at the check dam, and a quick snooze later, we were ready to head out towards Jodhpur. We felt we should have spent a few more days here, or better still, purchase a piece of property here and stay put (doing what? no idea). A few kilometers from the hotel is Ranakpur, and its magnificent Jain temple. We spent all of 10 minutes here, and continued towards Jodhpur. The heat hit us as we descended to the plains, and was with us all the way to Jodhpur.

Mehrangarh Fort, in Jodhpur

We were at the outskirts of Jodhpur by 4:30ish, and the Mehrangarh fort was the place we wanted to head to, before it closed for the day. The fort entrance closes by 5:30pm. We wanted to see whatever we could. Managed to reach the fort gates at 5:30pm, and were deeply disappointed that we couldn’t enter the palace in the fort. We consoled ourselves by looking at the exterior walls of the palace, and the fort. The carvings, and designs were breath-taking. The plan is to go back to Jodhpur sometime later in life, and spend sometime walking through the fort and its palace.

Stopped at a handloom and handicraft’s shop, spent a couple of hours buying some textiles there. Then reached the railway station, dumped our luggage in the cloak room, headed to the nearby Kalinga restaurant for some decent dinner. The train to Jaipur was to start at 10:45pm, but finally left the station at 11:15pm. The seats of the train were covered in fine sand-dust, because it had just arrived from Jaisalmer, and its desert environs. Dusted the sleeper, and slept like a log.

Day 9: Back to Bangalore

Indu thankfully woke up before the train pulled into Jaipur. We got out of the train, and checked into the retiring rooms at the railway station. The rooms were clean, and so were the attached bathrooms/toilet. We checked into a double bed room, and went back to sleep. The occasional train pulling into the station with a loud honk tried its best to wake us up, but we were too sleepy to be bothered. Finally woke up, got ready by 10am. Had breakfast at a nearby restaurant. Went back to the Rajasthan Handloom Textile to pick up the stuff we had purchased the week before. Then returned to the railway station, checked out of our room, and headed to the airport. We had hired an auto to do the Jaipur run-around and drop to the airport. Once at the airport, we sat back in the cool air-conditioned comfort of the spanking new airport, and ran through the trip in our minds for the hundredth time.

An uneventful flight later, we were back in rain-cooled Bengaluru. Home.

The 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.

Decided to drive to Mysore, have dinner with Nags, meet up with Pavi’s parents, and drove back to the resort for a good night’s sleep. It was an evening well spent.

Heading to Ooty

Woke up early the next morning, still groggy eyed. The morning drive, and the fantastic weather dispelled any lingering sleep. Took the route through Mysore city to reach the Nanjangud/Ooty road, instead of taking the bypass-ring-road to reach the Ooty road. The bypass is circuitous, and long. At Gundlupet, stopped at a CoffeeDay outlet for a refreshing cup of coffee and some stuff to munch. Is a good idea to take a coffee break there, because a few kilometers down the road, the road practically disappears. Horrid stretch of road for a few kilometers, but then it didn’t dampen our spirits.

The drive through Bandipur and Mudhumalai forests were uneventful, though we were constantly scanning the route to spot some animals. The Kalhatti ghat section is always an exhilarating climb, with 36 steep hair-pin bends. Before we knew it, we were at the Ooty guest house. It was 9ish in the morning. Beautiful guest house, with a totally laid-back attitude. A hearty bread-omelet breakfast later, we had a walk around the guest house to explore the place, and also see the various trees, flowering plants in its 7acre compound.

Ooty guest house, panorama shot attempt by Indu

Settling into Ooty

Decided to take it easy after reaching the guest house. Shower, sleep, woken up for lunch. Post lunch, walked around the place, to see what Ooty looks like, while on foot. The bright day, with a cool breeze was just perfect for this sort of a walk-about. The tall majestic trees, eucalyptus trees all over, beautiful spring-time flowers, and blue skies kept a permanent smile on our faces.

Later in the evening, drove around to become a little familiar with the place, and also to figure out spots to visit. Drove past the rather lousy Ooty lake, figured out where the Botanical gardens were located and the main Commercial road. Ended up at the Ooty Golf club finally. Inquired if they allow guests to play at the course, and that we just wanted to use practice at the range, and not play the course. Was possible to do just that, and the rates were rather reasonable. Around 500 bucks a person for a couple of hours, with an instructor, and the works. Decided to return there, for a session, on Tuesday.

Pykara, and shopping

Pykara lake

Drive to Pykara the next day morning. Its around 20kms from the town, and the tree lined roads were a treat to drive through. Once we reached Pykara, we first headed to the lake, but after some difficulties in tracing out the road leading to the lake. Sign boards are minimal, if any. But the destination was truly worth all this effort. A picture of still, blue, sparkling waters was right in front of us. To add to this, there were hardly any tourists there. Wasting no further time, we decided to go on a boat ride along with another couple. The silence, the constant purring of the boat motor in the background, and the blue green waters of the lake turned this into a really nice, relaxing boat ride. Indu was hardly able to contain her joy; she wanted to jump into the lake for a swim. On the other hand, I was trying to sit as still as possible. Oceans, and lakes are all fantastic, as long as I do not have to jump into them, or take a boat ride on them.

From there, we headed to the Pykara falls. A scenic, clean, and a very approachable water fall. We spent sometime with our legs dangling in the cool waters. Noticed that it was approaching 2pm by then. Decided to head back to Ooty.

Post lunch, and a nap, decided to head to downtown – basically Ooty’s commercial road. Dropped by at a jeweler, one we had met sometime before while in Bangalore, bought some pendants, and then planned to return sometime the next day to browse through his antique collections shop.

Golf, and Coonor

Ooty golf club

The next day morning program was to head to the Golf course, and learn to drive the ball. Met the instructor, Ashok, and was promptly informed that I won’t be allowed to step onto the course in my jeans (some archaic golf etiquette). A quick drive to change into shorts, and back, and quickly got engrossed in the practice. Ashok is a really good instructor, and we were learning a whole bunch of things about golf, and also enjoying it. Practiced for an hour, with a 5-iron, and managed to hit the ball atleast 170-200 yards. Felt good. Indu learned quite a few things too during her session. It was an informative, and useful day with golf, and by the end of the session we had a good idea of some of the techniques involved.

Post lunch, we left for Coonor. Its atleast an hour’s drive from Ooty, and the road leading to it is a rather busy one. Sims park, in Coonor, is a must see – well designed park, with lots of beautiful and exotic plants. Spent a relaxed hour in the park, and then headed to spot called “Dolphin’s nose”. The entire route is through tea-plantations, and because of the lack of traffic, we cruised at a relaxed pace to “Dolphin’s nose”.  This spot is at the top of one side of a valley, and “Catherine’s falls” can be spotted on the opposite valley side. Good vistas, and the drive is more fun than the destination.

Once we got back to Ooty, we paid a visit to the antique-items shop – spent half-hour there, and liked a set of furniture pieces. Decided to return the next day and spend some more relaxed time there.

Stopped at Prabha sweets, on Ooty commercial road, and tasted some of the yummy cutlets and samosas there. Highly recommended.

Shopping, and golf

The next day morning we headed to the antique furniture shop, picked up some pieces we liked, and some haggling later, completed the transaction there. Headed back to the guest house for lunch, and then a good golf session. Post session, Ashok  – the instructor – mentioned that he usually goes for a evening walk through the course, and offered to take us along, if we were interested. Started the walk with him late in the evening, around 6pm, and since the course is bordered by a forest area, we spotted quite a few hare, and sambhar deer. Spent a couple of hours on this mini-trek, with Ashok recounting some rather detailed stories.

Golf and tiger reserve

Thursday morning we decided to check out the local Mudumalai Tiger Reserve office, in Ooty, and see if there was an option to book a room, and a jungle safari tour. Rooms (log houses in their parlance) were available at the sanctuary, we booked one, and decided to leave Ooty that afternoon and head to the “log house”. This is located in the Mudumalai Tiger reserve, at Masinagudi. That’s atleast a couple of hours drive, primarily because we have to descend the rather steep Kalhatti ghats.

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianandnisha

Headed back to the guest house, checked-out of there, had lunch at hotel Nahar on commercial road, headed to a round of golf, and left for Masinagudi around 4pm. Reached Masinagudi by 5:30pm, and drove to the Tiger reserve camp – some 7 kms from Masinagudi. The log house is a regular room, with some wood paneling on a wall. Not very accessible, if you don’t have your own transport. We drove to the safari camp, to see if we could get onto a late evening safari. We couldn’t make it to the last safari for the evening, and decided to get onto the early morning, 7am, safari. Since we were at the camp, we spent some time at the elephant feeding routine, that occurs in the elephant camp there every evening. The elephant feeding routine attracts wild boars from the nearby forests, and peacocks and deer assemble in that area in large numbers. It was a really good sight to see so many animals.

Return

The next morning, we left the log-house around 6am, drove through the mist shrouded Mudumalai forest to reach the tiger reserve camp, only to be informed that there weren’t sufficient numbers of tourists to start the safari. There were 6 tourists including us, and they needed atleast a dozen to be around so that they could start the safari. The 6 dwindled to just the two of us, we were sort of disappointed that the safari didn’t work out. Decided not to hang around there any longer, and left to Mysore.

Were in Mysore by 10:30am, and spent a good couple of hours with Mallika. Lunch with her at Dasaprakash paradise, and then we headed to Bangalore. Home by 4pm in the evening.

All the snaps are available on flickr

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.

Day 1: To Delhi

Flight to Delhi at 5pm. Get to Bangalore airport, an hour early, and then wait 45 minutes to be informed that the flight to Delhi is going to be an hour late. 10 minutes pass. Informed that the flight is 2 hours late. Great. By then we had checked out most things that had to be checked out at the airport. I missed my laptop – its so much easier to spend time while on the internet. As luck would have it, we had checked in our books too. Damn. And as luck would have it, again, chanced upon a room that had laptops that we could use for free. Wow. Indu and I got a laptop each, and basically didn’t notice an hour pass by. I then get a call from SpiceJet, the airline carrier, informing me that the flight has been canceled. What the? A hassled frantic dash to the airline counter later, we are pacified with the information that we will be on a 8pm flight, except it won’t be the one we had booked. Who cares, as long as we are headed to Delhi.

Uneventful flight to Delhi. Its an annoying kind of rain in Delhi – the one in which you get wet if you hang around a while, but don’t notice its raining – yep, the signature Bangalore kind of rain. Its 11pm by then. Take a cab to the place we are to stay for the night. Nearer to the destination we call up the caretaker of the place-for-the-night, for directions. Directions are basically useless. Each one of us in the cab has a different interpretation of the directions. Spend an hour driving in a 2km radius trying to track the place. Frustrated, and pissed. Its past midnight. And thanks to luck, for the third time that day, we all finally agree on the directions, track down the place, and finally see off the cab. Clock around 1am-ish.

Consoling thought – its better to be on a delayed flight at the beginning of a vacation than at the end of it.

Day 2: Delhi monuments

Good sleep, and wake up to notice that the rain still hasn’t let up. Gloomy and wet outside. Our train to Haldwani is at 10pm that evening. The plan was to go check out some of the monuments in Delhi. Indu, fortified by a good breakfast and tea, whirs into action: Calls up people she knows in Delhi, checks with them on the things to see and do, and the best way to get from place to place. Not that we used any of that information, but it was comforting to know that my wife knew how to get around the city.

By the time we got out onto the street, the rain had let up. The weather was real pleasant – no humidity, not hot, and an awesome day to go see places, and ofcourse a nice day to take snaps.

Hired an auto guy to take us to the nearest railway counter, because our tickets to Haldwani were still wait-listed, and on the way worked out a deal with him to take us to some of the monuments in the city. Once at the railway counter, were informed that our tickets were still wait-listed, and bought a set of second class sleeper tickets, as a just in case.

The places we visited in the city are:

• India Gate – witnessed the changing of the guard, and it was a rather sombre ritual. The names of people etched on the walls of the monument, and sombre look on all the guards faces does drive home the point that war is real, and people such as these guards are ready to give up their lives fighting one. The usual photo-touts, and some noisy tourists tried their bit to distract us but the effect of the monument and the people guarding it still remained with us. It was worth a visit.
• Lodhi Garden – beautiful garden with acres of well maintained lawns, trees and flowering plants. A few tombs lie within the garden; not necessarily well maintained, but still retain some of their elegance.
• Safdurjung’s tomb – not too many visitors to this place, but its a rather huge monument, and once we looked at Humayun’s tomb this monument seemed like a cheap copy. Still impressive nevertheless.
• Humayun’s tomb – absolutely beautiful monument, primarily because it is maintained really well, and is also a world-heritage monument. The combination of red sandstone with marble and the fractal style of design makes this one impressive looking monument
• Qutab Minar – this took our breath away; its a structure built in the 12th century or thereabouts, is still the highest tower in India, and the intricate and beautiful designs on the structure made it a worthwhile place to visit. The iron pillar in the same complex was rather impressive too – it hasn’t shown signs of rust though it is approximately 1600 years old. Check out the wikipedia article on the iron-pillar-of-Delhi

Fantastic day in Delhi, and time well spent. The city has so much history; there are monuments everywhere you turn.

Post dinner left to the railway station. The first auto-driver had no clue where the Rohilla railway station is, and the delay ensured that we reached the station just when the train was about to leave. We picked up our luggage and with superhuman strength ran across the over-bridge, and just as we were descending the stairs to the platform the train started moving out of the platform. In my mind, I was already thinking of alternate ways to reach Haldwani, when some folks on the platform noticed us and started yelling for the train to be stopped. The guard in the last compartment heard them, and stopped the train. We dumped our luggage into the unreserved compartment, and were so thankful and flush with adrenaline that it took us a while to let all this sink in and that we were on our way to Haldwani. We got into our assigned compartment at the Old Delhi station – which happened to be just 30 minutes away.

Exciting start to our vacation.

Day 3: To Ranikhet

Reached Haldwani by early morning, and we had arranged for a cab to pick us up at the station. The moment we stepped onto the station we could feel the proximity of the hills – the air was clean, crisp, and cool. Within a couple of kilometers out of the station we were starting to wind our way up steep ground – hills quickly gave way to mountains. The drive, the scenery, the clean cool air, made this a thorougly enjoyable journey.

As we neared the Ranikhet golf course, we were greeted by the sight of the Himalayas. We were awe-struck. The Himalayas were blazing white in the morning sun, and it was a clear day. We were at 2000m, whereas the peaks in front of us were above 6500m. It was a sight to behold – even the clouds seems to be lower than those peaks. Brilliant!

The Windsor Lodge is on the edge of the Ranikhet golf course, and has spectacular views of the Himalayas’ peaks. It also has a lot of wood-decor inside, and makes it look like a nice big log cabin.

We freshened up, had a good breakfast, took a bunch of customary snaps, and went to sleep. Woke up for lunch. Slept soon after. Woke up around 5pm, went for a walk around the place, and were just thrilled to be in such a beautiful place. Walked to the golf course, inquired about the rates and timing, and decided to try it out for the next day. Early dinner, and off to bed

Day 4: Ranikhet runabout

Lazy morning. Heavy breakfast. Off to play golf, on a bright slightly warm day. We were the only ones on the course, and we wanted to learn to play golf. It was fun, and we soon realized its no easy game – lots of techniques and technicalities. Spent a couple of hours there; learning to drive, chip, and putt. Felt exhausted, but thrilled – imagine a course with a view of the Himalayas.

In the evening, took a local taxi down to Ranikhet town, and checked out the Kumoan Regiment Center and museum. Decided to visit a place called Kausani for the next day.

Day 5: To Kausani

Took a local taxi to Almora – which is a couple of hours away, and drive through a very scenic route. The taxi kept stopping every 10 minutes to pick up or drop off passengers. At one point 14 of us were stuffed into the Sumo vehicle. New experience, was fun. Once we reached Almora, the plan was to take another taxi or bus to Kausani. We were informed that we should have got off much before Almora, at Kosi, and hop onto a vehicle from there. No complaints – because the journey seemed more fun and interesting than arriving at the destination.

Stopped at Kosi. Had some hot pakoras. Got into a bus headed to Kausani. Breathtaking scenery along the way, and didn’t notice the 2-plus hours go by. The initial plan was to look around, catch a glimpse of the Himalayas, and head back to Ranikhet. Once we got to Kausani, we just felt like staying for the night. Decided to look for hotel, and walked by quite a few, before we reached the KMVN lodge approximately 2km from the bus stand. The location was simply awesome – and we were told that approximately 300km of the Himalayan range was visible there. Except that the Himalayas were cloaked in clouds at that time.

Day 6: Kausani and nearby

Woke up the next morning, and it was clear weather, and we were just blown away by the view outside of our cottage. Compared to Ranikhet, the views here were just awesome. We could see all the peaks – Trishul, Nanda Devi, Panchachuli, Badrinath and Kedarnath. It was just WOW!

After a hearty breakfast we decided to visit the nearby places:

• Bhageshwar – confluence of two rivers – Sarayu and Gomathi.
• Baijnath temple – has a 12th century temple in that place, next to the Gomathi river
• Tea factory closer to Kausani – get a quick tour of the tea treatment and packaging process
• Shawl factory closer to Kausani – get a quick tour of how shawls are made. We bought a few here.

Day 7: Back to Ranikhet

Morning was clear and skies were free of clouds. Spectacular views of the Himalayas.

Back at Ranikhet by afternoon. Relaxed the rest of the day, and spent time looking at the snaps clicked so far. Organized for a taxi to drop us at Haldwani for the following day, and also tried to figure out what we could do about our wait-listed tickets back to Delhi.

Day 8: Back to Delhi

Taxi drive back to Haldwani via Bhimtal. Beautiful day, and scenery, and we stopped at a small village called Garam-paani for some samosas. Delicious; more so because we were hungry, and also entire drive and scenery experience just filled us with a feeling of well-being and contentment. Stopped for a second at the Bhimtal lake and snapped a picture of the lake with its backdrop cloaked in mist. Reached Haldwani. Picked up dinner on the way. Our tickets to Delhi were confirmed by then. Got into the 2-tier AC compartment, and fell asleep.

Day 9: Return to Bangalore

Train pulled into Delhi station at 4am in the morning. Got back to the guest house in Delhi, and slept till 8:30am. Woke up to some nice poha-chutney-tea for breakfast. Took a cab to Delhi-haat. Picked up some knicks-and-knacks. We hardly had time to get back to the guest house, gobble up lunch, and leave to the airport. The flight left, as scheduled at 1:30pm, back to Bangalore.

Couldn’t believe that the trip was over, and we actually went to places that we had captured on camera.

Fantastic break, and the view of the Himalayas with a bonus view of sunrise / sunset on those ranges is worth every rupee spent.

All the snaps are on flickr