Adalaj, Modhera, Patan & Sidhpur – Vav, vav – Wow!
* Vav = ‘Step-well’ in Gujarati. Once upon a time, when Doordarshan was the only channel on TV, I had seen a Gujarati movie on a Sunday afternoon. It was Ketan Mehta’s "Bhavni Bhavai"- starring Naseeruddin Shah & Smita Patil. Based on a Gujarati folk tale, some significant scenes from the movie were shot in [...]
Temples of Tamilnadu – 2009 Big trip – Part II
This is Part II of the 2009 Big trip where we covered the Temples of Tamilnadu. >>>Part I of the 2009 Big trip – covering Andaman & Nicobar, Port Blair & the Havelock Island trip is at this link The long drive part of the trip started from the 24th of Sep 09. The route [...]
Chembra Peak, Meenmutty waterfalls, Himavad Gopalaswamy betta.
This is a trip from March 1st & 2nd 2008, which I dug up from the archives. Infact the main reason why I started to write these travelogues is that within a few months of a trip, the memories slowly begin to fade and the story behind each pic gets fuzzier and fuzzier. I also [...]
5 years with the Xing…
Our Santro ‘Xing’ completed 5 years and 1,00,000 kms in 2010. . . 5 really pleasurable years! I don’t think a very detailed ownership report is required since there are 100s of reports out there for the Xing. So just a small note on the experience so far. During all our trips, not once did [...]
Kukke Subramanya & Kumara Parvatha; a drive and trek
We came back today (26th Jan 09) after an unforgettable trip spread over 3 days, drove 690kms from Bangalore to Kukke Subramanya and back… and trekked for a total distance of 26kms to the top of Kumara Parvatha. Kumara Parvatha (KP) is the second highest peak in Karnataka after Mullayanagiri and is considered to be [...]
Havelis & Mosques – Ahmedabad old city
Sangeetha was in Ahmedabad during the weekend of 26th & 27th June 2010. That weekend, we took some time off to visit a couple of places in and around Ahmedabad. After covering Adalaj, Modhera, Patan and Sidhpur on the 26th (That is a seperate travelogue), we went around to see a few places in Ahmedabad [...]
The Elephant & the Tiger – Hathi Bhata & Ranthambore trip.
It was the 19th of December 2011. We had just come back from the big trip around Rajasthan. Vani & Aish had taken the flight back to Bangalore the previous evening. Sangeetha & me still had a few more days of vacations left and we scanned through our list of ‘must see places in Rajasthan’. [...]
Angsana Oasis Spa & resort.
A couple of weeks ago (Feb 2009) I had been to Angsana Spa, on Doddaballapur road. This was no pleasure trip though… it was for an offsite training and team meeting. Angsana is located in a residential gated community called ‘Northwest Country’, a Prestige group property. There are a couple of villas in some of [...]
Flying High – Ballooning @ Jaipur.
26.10.2011, Jaipur was celebrating Diwali… and we celebrated it in a different way. We went Ballooning ! There are very few places in India where Ballooning happens regularly; luckily Jaipur is one of them. Since Ballooning requires favorable wind conditions and relatively plain land to operate safely, it is a seasonal activity and is conducted [...]
Chandragiri – Relics of the fallen empire.
In south India, tales of Vijayanagara – Hampi and Krishnadevaraya are part and parcel of our cultural initiation. Be it through stories narrated by our grandparents, through our history text books or through Chandamama & Amar Chitra Katha. What we normally get to hear or read about are just some glimpses from history, a high-level [...]
Kotilingeshwara – A quick little trip.
On the 30th of March 2008, we were returning back to Bangalore from a family trip to Chittoor. Since we had started our return journey quite early in the morning, we were quite ahead of schedule and were driving back at a very liesurely pace. On a couple of earlier trips along this route, we [...]
The shore temples of Mahabalipuram
In early 2007, we had to go to Chennai over a weekend for a family function; this was the first time that me and Sangeetha were visiting Chennai together. After the function we had some time on hand and post lunch we headed out to Mahabalipuram, which is included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage [...]
IIMA Campus – Nature Walk.
On Sunday I went to the old campus for some bird watching… and saw quite a few of em.. Birds of the feathered kind I mean. Honest! It started with a mail… ” Prakriti – The Nature Club of IIMA is organising a nature walk to observe and appreciate the beauty of flora and fauna [...]
Incredible Rajasthan ! – A 2320 kms road trip, without reservations.
Normally most of our trips are planned in advance. We at least have info about the places to cover, a rough idea of the time required at each place, road conditions and the route to take… What made the Rajasthan road trip incredible for us is : We just had an arbitrary list of [...]
Trainspotting at Dudhsagar.
A quick little travelogue – This was not a ‘Xing’ drive, but a TT-trip & a weekend trek. We started from Bangalore at around 8.30pm on the evening of 6th Nov 09 and came back into Bangalore at around 5.30am on the morning of Monday the 9th Nov 09. Trip outline: Trek to Dudhsagar falls: [...]
Shivaganga, a sunday in the sun.
First the basics: [1] This is a good one-day weekend trip from Bangalore. Total distance from Airport road to Shivaganga and back was 142kms on the odo. [2] Only equipment needed will be a pair of sneakers for a comfortable walk [people even climb up barefoot or in normal footwear], caps, sun-glasses and a liter [...]
Weekend drive to Srikalahasti.
Looks like this is a season of weekend drives for me! Some pre-planned, some unexpected… On 8th & 9th Aug 09, we did a weekend trip to Srikalahasti near Tirupati. My in-laws had a pooja vow to complete there and had planned to go by train. But tickets were on the 3 digit WL even [...]
Search for the perfect sand dune – Osiyan, Khimsar and Nagaur trip.
Till we actually moved to Jaipur and explored Rajasthan, any thoughts of Rajasthan would evoke visions of Camels, Sand dunes, Forts and Palaces. While finding Camels, Forts and Palaces is quite easy, finding a Sand dune is not so easy. Especially dunes that look like the ‘perfect’ ones shown in movies… While researching on [...]
Is this most haunted place in India ? – Bhangarh, Rajasthan.
Just Google for ‘the most haunted places in India’ and Bhangarh features on almost all the pages and lists that pop-up. There are all sorts of stories on the net about ghostly encounters, visitors who disappeared and other paranormal activity at Bhangarh. Bhangarh had been on our list of places to see from quite some [...]
Mysore, Byalukuppe, Madikeri, Bhagamandala, Talakaveri, Dubare.
It was our wedding anniversary over the weekend and another reason to head out somewhere for a long drive! Initial plans were to drive towards Kerala / Wayanad areas, but the news of all the recent forest fires led to us having second thoughts and we veered towards Kodagu. Route taken (in terms of the [...]
