Rupin Pass Himalayan Trek

Why do you have to trek? It's dangerous! Why can't you just be a "normal 34 yr old mom"!!!
Why?
Because when the mountains call, one has to go...

Cliché?? yet so very True!!

For me, it's not about boasting, or any summit fever or trying to prove something. It's all about the mountains, and how just being surrounded by them fills me with euphoria. It's like meditation - away from everything worldly, away from even the thoughts of the day to day life, away from everything pretentious. Just so close to nature, so close to pure beauty, that it fills you up with simple yet profound happiness. And when you come back to the "real" world, you come back to the same world you left behind, to the world you belong to, and yet something has changed, and that makes a whole lot of difference.

Arunachal

My love for the mountains took me to Arunachal this time. One of the best thing of travelling to north east is that its not yet commercialized [barring few cities]. And you will find a pristine land, close to nature full of warm people, who still preserve their culture, know their roots and find happiness in simplicity.

I was planning the usual Tezpur to Tawang route. This is the most famous route done in Arunachal, Tawang being the largest monastery in India and second largest in the world. I still intend to return to Arunachal and visit this awe inspiring monastery someday. But for now, I stumbled upon an offbeat and exciting itinerary, just on time.

Hampi - A slice of our history!

Hampi – the former capital of Vijayanagara empire of 1500 AD. It was a very prosperous and huge city in its time and currently is a very important world heritage site situated in Karnataka, India.

Have always been interested in history and have been wanting to go to Hampi since a very long time. But it’s a sunny hot place, so winter months, is when one should go. This Jan, finally a plan to visit Hampi over the long weekend, got finalized in a very impromptu manner with few of my friends. It was 6 of us ( 3 from Bangalore and 3 from Pune Mumbai ) who reached Hospet early Sat morning, via overnight sleeper buses. From Hospet, its barely 15 kms to Hampi. As soon as we entered Hampi, we felt transformed to another era itself. The boulders and rocks strewn across, the ancient ruins scattered here and there, the whole atmosphere took us back in time. This being a long weekend, accommodation was little hard to find and we managed to get rooms on the other side of the Viruppapura Gaddi Tungabhadra river. Very basic but with a good relaxed view.

Time to Head back: Anuradhapura to Colombo to Pune

We woke up quite fresh today, after a comfortable ten hours sleep. A long day was lined up for us - first a train to Colombo, then 2 flights to Mumbai and then by road till Pune. 

For once we didn't have an early start. We got up at 7, had breakfast of eggs bread and fruits. Our train to Colombo was at 10:20. Surprisingly the first class reserved wasn't air conditioned, I mean the third class reserved to Ella was much better. Maybe they have special trains running on that route, considering that it is popular amongst both locals and foreigners. Journey was hot initially, but it got cooler as we headed south. It had been raining in Colombo

Anuradhapura

We wanted to be at Anuradhapura well on time to be able to see the ruins on the same day, as again we had only one day to reach there and see the place. Even with an early start, we could only get a 7 Am private bus, as that was the first bus and the first direct government bus was at 9:45. We boarded the private bus and waited - It was going to be a slowwww and long ride. It was barely 120 or so kms and straight roads, but still we reached only by 11. What I liked was, before the journey started, the bus did a parikrama of one of the temples there in Trinchomalee. This was something unusual, first I thought wow the driver is taking us from near the temple, and we got darshan sitting in bus itself. Next moment I realized he was actually doing a parikrama. Nice !

Roaming around in Trinchomallee

Kinda confused - what to do next day? The famous Pigeon Island seemed to be a costly deal (3000 lkr per head) and I wasn't too keen on doing snorkelling here, having done that at one of the best places, Lakshwadeep. So we decided on going to Trinchomallee instead - see Ford Fedrick, and Swami rock. Heat was a bummer, but we still headed out with our umbrellas. We took the local bus till Trincho and then walked till Fort F and above towards Swami rock, where a Shiv temple is. Hot hot!! By the way, one can see deer here, like we see dogs in our city - just roaming around.

Reached Uppuveli

Again an early start today - We left by 6 for the bus station and soon got a bus to Habarna. An hours journey and we were there. However then we had to wait for almost an hour before the next bus. Overall journey was fine. We reached Trinchomalee/Uppuveli homestay by 10. Here also it was quite hot. We stayed indoors during the day. 

At Habarna - As we wait for the connecting bus to Trinchomalee

The homestay had a very nice sit out, where we sat most of the time and had our meals too. Today was one day, when we had all proper meals - bread eggs for breakfast, chicken fried rice [seemed like the first tasty meal in Srilanka] for lunch and chicken noodles for dinner [not so good, turned out to be sevai instead of noodles].

A day in Polonnaruwa

Got the early morning Government red bus to Polonnaruwa – again very cheap. The local transport is extremely cheap here and in relation to this, food is very expensive. Journey was overall fine with some local songs being played in the bus [ Many of them had same tune as Bollywood songs]

We reached Polonnaruwa in 3 hours and were at our homestay by 10. It looked deserted, we kept knocking and ringing the bell, and finally even yelling "hello anybody there", but in vain. We spotted one more house adjacent to this one in the same compound with door opened. Could recognize it from the pictures I had seen in airbnb. Again this was deserted - We looked for any note our host might have left, but nothing. We were contemplating going to some neighbour house and requesting them to make a phone call to our host. Thankfully just then the mother of our host came in. She couldn't speak English, but we got directed to our room.

A day in Kandy

Thankfully a nice sunny morning [ After yesterday’s heavy rain, we are going to be equipped with umbrellas just in case ]

After breakfast, we first headed to the Tooth temple. Walking along the Kandy Lake we reached a point, from where looking in the direction of the city, we saw the giant Buddha statue on top of a hill, which so symbolizes Kandy.

Next to Kandy Lake

Our train was at 6:40 am, but we were up since 4. In fact I had barely slept, as Ishu wasn't comfortable, kept getting up for water (she hadn't eaten anything since lunch). Finally she puked water somewhere around 4. We cleaned and washed. Forced her to eat one biscuit, finally she slept. I was very worried at this point, cuz she wasn't eating at all.

We finally left at 6, walked till the station & waited for our train - Its such a small quaint station. Train was kinda empty till Nuwara Eliya and we took in the passing scenery once again. We took a more positive approach with Ishu - Played with her, gave her banana one bite at a time. She slept a lot too and seemed to be getting better. In Nuwara Eliya, coach completely filled up - Few students with some musical instruments sat next to us. They sang and played music for almost the entire journey till Kandy.

A day in Ella: Little Adam's Peak

Our home-stay in Ella was amidst the tea estates, so while sipping tea in the veranda, one could take in the gorgeous view. I woke up early to capture some of it with my camera. 

After breakfast of banana pancakes with maple syrup [which was good], some coconut roti [hard and dry] with dal and sambol [made of coconut] and tea, we decided on going to Adam’s peak. May be Rawana Falls via bus if that’s possible?

Ishu wasn’t keen on joining us – she wanted to play with Sethuli and the kittens. Sudhashini (our host) offered to overlook the girls playing, while we go for our little hike. Though little apprehensive initially, we felt that was a better option, cuz she wasn't too well and clearly not interested, so we left her at the home-stay with our host, her daughter and the kittens. 

Colombo to Ella Train Journey - Feast of Greenery and Nature.

Up by 4:45 and ready to leave by 6. Couldn’t rely on public transport at this hour, so got a cab booked with the help of our host to reach railway station [450 lkr]. After the initial slight confusion as to which queue to stand in, we managed to buy the tickets for all planned train journeys. So now we have 2nd class reserved tickets from Colombo to Kandy, 3rd class reserved from Kandy to Ella and back. We were very apprehensive as to how 3rd class reserved will be, but there wasn’t any other choice. And for Anuradhapura to Colombo, we got first class tickets, again no other choice. I wanted 2nd class reserved in all cases. But now we can experience all different classes.

We reach Srilanka

ALL packed and ready to leave! Why Sri Lanka? Honestly this little island country was not even on my “TO GO” list until recently. But when I did consider this place for our family backpacking vacation, and started reading about it - It felt like a place NOT to be missed.

Our cab from Pune to Mumbai airport was in the middle of the night, and we reached airport still in the middle of the night. Next 3 hours after whiling away time at the airport, eating bread Nutella [packed], we slept off the minute we boarded our first flight. Oh how I wished it was a direct flight, but wait, this is budget travel, comforts at bay! J

Grand Canyon [Nov 08]

I had always been awed by Grand Canyon whenever I had seen it on TV, and so, when I got a chance to go to USA for some work, I was hoping that I will be able to make it to Grand Canyon. Incidentally I had no company to plan this trip, but then I got an invitation by my friend staying in Vegas to come and visit him. What more was needed, I could meet this friend after a long time and could also do some sight seeing around. So I got my flight tickets booked for a long weekend, and also for a one day organized tour to Grand Canyon from Vegas.

Longing since years and Planning since two months...All Set

Well its no secret how much I love to travel and how little I am able to compared to how much I would like to. Lol this post isn't about ranting in this direction. Its just that finally I was able to plan a trip I was hoping to plan since long. I will any day go on a back packing trip than on a luxury trip with fancy hotels. I will always prefer making my own itinerary, doing my own planning and bookings rather than hand that over to any travel tour agencies. That's my way, I love to plan trips - and believe me when you are on a budget its not a walk in the park to plan. So many things to consider, dig out relevant information, what's the best and yet cheapest possible way to travel between places, where to stay, which all places to visit amongst the endless possibilities, budget constraints, time constraints. And now to add to it - "travelling with a 2 year old constraint".  

Little Rann of Kutch

Was just going through some of my old pics and thought of uploading these couple of them from Rann of Kutch. I made this one day short trip more than 1.5 years back and these pics bring back fond memories :)

We had reached Ahmedabad via an overnight train in the morning and after a shower and breakfast started for Dhrangadhra by road. It was noon by the time we reached there and after a short nap headed for the salt dessert. Neither the driver of our jeep was acquainted to the place nor there were any directions marked so it took us a while to find our way. Besides Little Rann of Kutch not being as famous as its counterpart The Great Rann of Kutch, nobody could really understand why we were making a big fuss in a small place like  Dhrangadhra. I still remember the way our driver was asking directions in his strong Tamilian accent : Rann ma jana hai :-)

Vegas & Niagara Falls

Today with lot of free time on hand I started going through all my old snaps, of my once upon a time US trip. Putting up few of those pictures here.

I have seen many stories done on Vegas on the Travel and Living channel [TLC now], and mostly it revolves around the wild life in Vegas and how the city never sleeps. That all is so true and once you enter Vegas you can clearly see yourself enter an artificial bigger than life world complete with the glitterati and the razzmatazz.

Gujrat Road Trip – 28th – 31st July 2010

Fig 1: Trip Route

This plan was kinda made suddenly and the whole credit for planning it up goes to my parents. They made the entire bookings for lodging and transport and all that was left for us to do was enjoy it!

So on Tuesday (27^th) evening after a regular day at work I left for Pune station and boarded the train to Ahmedabad. Due to short noticed train booking, we had sleeper berths and as usual it was all very crowded, with waiting list people trying to sleep where ever they could find any space. Ahmedabad being just 12 hours away from Pune, it wasn’t much of a hassle and before we knew, we were at home having sumptuous breakfast.

After breakfast we were on road by around 10 am, heading towards Balachadi. We decided to take de route and visit Lothal, which is about 80 kms from Ahmedabad. Lothal is an excavation site for Harappan Civilization dating back to 2500 – 1900 B.C. So you can actually see some ruins here, and also the various artifacts unearthed here, displayed in the museum.

Trip to Mahabaleshwar (25 - 27th June'10)

Monsoons in Pune and in the Western Ghats in general are a very rejuvenating experience. Everything seems so freshly washed and the greenery around is a treat to the eyes. The drop in temperature is a much needed respite from the blazing hot summers. And mist in the air gives a surreal touch to existence.

If you ever ask me where I would like to go, I’d have to fumble amongst so many places in my mind that I might not end up coming with a place. After initial fumbling however I am able to consider the practicality of weather, schedule, budget, convenience etc and make up my mind. Same thing happened this time. Considering the short 2 days we had and also the dependence on the public/local transport we decided on going to Mahabaleshwar. Only hitch was I didn’t fancy going to a much commercialized place thronged with people. However I took my chances and didn’t regret it.

Shots in Ahmedabad..

In this trip to Ahmedabad [Jan 2010] I could not go for any sight seeing but I did click pictures of this n that.

Reaching on 17th Jan I had just missed Sankranti, the festival of kites which is one of the major festivals in Ahmedabad. But as can be seen from this pic, I didn't miss the kites much ;-)

This is one of the many pics of Peacock, I had taken during my evening walks in the cantt. You can find so many peacocks and peahens casually roaming around in the camp. They manage to scuttle away the moment you try getting near, and so all my shots are taken by zooming in on them. I also managed to get some pics of a dancing peacock, displaying its feathers. My persistence finally paid off well :-)