Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Hampi

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It has been eons since I wrote, also it always feels like eons since I have travelled. There has been a feeling of numbness when it came to writing. It happens every now and then and to best of writers. There are those days when life feels drab and grey. But on those dark, cloudy days there is nothing like indulging in a cup of steaming hot chocolate and curling up with a favourite book.

So what have I been upto?
I have been planning the trips to come, day-dreaming, obsessively reading travelogues for inspiration, over-enthusiastically mailing my husband link after link and sighing way too much.

But the first quarter of 2014 wasn't all that bad. I took a 5 day break and took off for Hampi with a few of my girlfriends. It was a very peaceful trip. I do want to go back again with Shayne and explore more sites and also stay at Shanthi. Shanthi is a beautiful resort, tucked away in Anegundi which is on the other side of the river facing stark green rice paddy fields. We went there for lunch one day and the place was just so tranquil that my friend dozed off waiting for our meal. The food is not so bad compared to other places. Food by the way is a trial and error kind of thing in Hampi. Definitely try Mango Tree restaurant.

All is calm and wonderful


Although we flew both ways from Mumbai to Hubbali, we spent way too much time travelling as there are no direct trains or flights to Hospet from Mumbai - which is the closest spot to Hampi, just a riksha ride away. However there are daily buses running from Mumbai to Hospet if you are not weary of long bus rides. Avoid taking the local buses unless you are feeling adventurous from Hubbali to Hospet. The buses take much longer and might not be direct buses which means a few changes. And with two other pretty girls by my side I had to fight off a lot of drunk lungi clad uncles poking their behind in our faces. Some of them were practically sitting on me and I had to elbow him as he didn't seem to understand any Hindi. The train journey from Hospet to Hubbali was so much more comfortable on the way back.

So you take a train/flight and get to Hampi, the melancholicly beautiful land of ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site. The former capital of the Vijaynagara Empire, is now captured by monkeys and you better be beware of them. While we all sat waiting for our riksha/bicylcle South Hampi tour and were admiring the beauty of the Virupaksha temple from a shady spot, guess what crime we became witnesses to? What we saw left us stupefied! A tiny langur sees a bunch of unattended bags lying. He sneakily opens the zip of the bag and removes a mobile phone and runs away! I wonder if that was for his girlfriend.

We got proof!
 The mobile phone was recovered after a bunch of people pestered the langur while he jumped from pillar to pillar and he realized that the phone was not a banana! I now have to run off and leave you to ponder over this grievous crime.

Happy Gudi Padwa/ Happy Ugadi/ Happy Cheti Chand for the people in a festive mood to celebrate.

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Go Karna in a grid

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Go Karna: A spiritual town with four beautiful but not so easily accessible beaches. Om Beach is what you see in the picture above and it acquires its name as it is shaped like the "Uu"in ॐ; and can be reached via Namaste Cafe, although it is a slight trek.

We found a really tranquil little cafe called Rasta Cafe perched at the furthest end of Om Beach. We ordered our 35 rupee local chilled beers and watched the tides washed the shore till the sky was lit by a full moon and an odd hundred stars. It was just so peaceful. If you trekked on the hill up ahead you would reach Paradise beach. Kudle Beach was another beach close by but again you had to either trek to the beach or take boats. Unfortunately, since the rains had already arrived in the Karnatak region and the waters were rough, we couldn’t take boats to the other beaches. 

But two days at the picturesque Om beach surrounded by hills were certainly well spent.  And we spent a lazy day in Palolem (South Goa) during this spontaneous road trip. The sudden showers were a pleasant bonus. And it seems we brought the rains with us on the trip back home to the mad, colourful and ever-bustling Mumbai city.

More locations on the Konkan coast have now been added to my list, besides Karwar and Tarkali.
To the sun, sand, sea and cheap beer and bursts of showers of happiness and yes, more travel. Cheers. 



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Weekend trips

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This happens to be the first post from my phone, for which I am using the blogger app. Working for a tech magazine has its advantages. But more importantly about today's post... weekend trips and one day get aways.

The whole point is to "get away" right? From the madness, the chaos, the mundane routine, the people in your face and space... if you live in Mumbai, or any such eclectic and crowded city you will understand why weekend trips are like the relief a passing cool breeze can give on a sizzling hot summer's day.

So the last weekend, we took off to Atgaon, next to Shahpur, which is on the way to Nasik from Mumbai. We stayed at this rustic, quaint place called The Hidden Village (site link). It's barely a two and a half hour drive if you leave early enough and is located inside the Atgaon Village.

Surrounded by nature and the wilderness, you can go trekking to the near by lake and take a dip. I believe there should be a waterfall if you happen to go there during the monsoons. There is a play side area for children and activities like pool, carrom, a foosball table for older children. All your meals, veg and non-veg are provided by the resort, they're like home-cooked meals, hence really yummy.

What I really liked was the swimming pond, which was in reality a humongous tank pumping in fresh water from a near by well. A super and refreshing concept, if you ask me. There was also an actual pond in the resort with gigantic toads, ducks, millions of tiny fish and snakes. I decided to spend some time sitting by the pond to catch up on my reading and I saw a turtle and the fish ripping a snake apart - definitely a scene out of national geographic. Another first. It was amazingly fascinating.

Other day trips to Gorai happen as often as we can help it. By we, I mean my husband and me. Only recently we discovered Aksa beach and I was surprised by how clean the beach was, compared to other beaches in the city. Other day trips this year have been to Delhi this year due to work, during which I manage to steel a few hours to enjoy yet another facet of the capital city.
@Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon
@Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon
@Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon
The quaint scene from our room @The Hidden Village, Atgaon
@my husband at peace taking in the lake side view near the Hidden Village

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Scream you must'nt

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Hello there to my readers, after a really long break. Lots of pending posts I know. I was going through a period of total withdrawal, wherein I shut myself up and just couldn’t get myself to write. I hope to post more often than I have in the last one year.
A picture from our trek to Sagargad

The last year was a good year for me in terms of travel. S and me took trips to the Andamans, we did a fifteen day honeymoon in Thailand, took off to Singapore, and attended the Sunburn festival for the first time in Bombay and Goa. Other shorter scattered weekend trips to Chennai, Gorai, Pune, Alibagh and Lonavala could be thrown to that mix and I’m still not satiated. Obviously I never will be, unless I am travelling on a one-year budget world-tour. We heard about a couple who saved for five years and took one year off to travel. How amazing is that? Sigh, they were also earning in dollars.


My post today is about a lollapalooza (my new favourite word) - a really funny incident that took place today in the local train on my way to work. The pictures should give you a good idea of how rush hour in Bombay looks like. Yes, it’s not so pleasant. And it probably gives me another reason to get away from this maddening city ever so often. I don’t like people in my face, it makes me claustrophobic. After falling on the platform twice and getting punched, kicked and losing my toe nails to an angry bunch of heels on several occasions I try and be a little safe and take the ladies special usually, which is a little less crazy.

This morning, while I was standing facing the door with the Rock of Ages album blasting in my ears and struggling to play Temple Run 2 inspite of the usual shoving and pushing, I heard several screams emitting from the door and saw women squirming in front of me. What could it have been? A cockroach or a rat? I gingerly step ahead out of curiosity and I see a handsome stray dog that has waltzed in. Women continue to scream and move away as the beautiful animal looks on innocently, unable to understand, only wanting to be petted. A young girl and her mother shush everyone, telling the ladies to stay calm and stop shouting as they were only scaring the dog. The dog wags his tail, looks around nonchalantly and continues to walk unruffled, manoeuvring his way amongst more screaming women. Not once did it bark.

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Andamans - a tropical Paradise

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I know I promised pictures of our Thailand trip in the last post and have been extremely lazy in posting them but life has been passing me by in a whirlwind of activity. More precisely life post marriage has picked up pace, although I do have my lazy moments. But I've learnt how one has to don the cape post marriage and look up to the road runner to get everything done. Luckily for me I have a steal of a husband who helps me around the house more than I had bargained for.

As I am done justifying, below are some pictures from our most recent trip to the Andamans.

Clownfish Cafe was a very pretty little joint to spend the hot afternoon in. They serve pizzas, pastas and sandwiches. We had the seafood pasta, the mango flavoured chicken dish and mango milkshake. The food was not bad but the ambience was simply beautiful. And the PADI office is right here too.

Corbyn's Cove beach at Port Blair.

The Central Jail at Port Blair is now a national monument. It's a beautiful structure where too many horrible things have taken place. The freedom fighters of India were bought to this jail, as it would seclude them from the struggle and tortured in ways one cannot imagine. There is a light and sound show that tells the sad story. Only I wish they had made the show less boring because it is a very beautiful and unfortunate tale.

A school of fish can be seen in the shallow waters of the Elephant beach. That is where they take you snorkeling from Havelock. You can rent snorkeling gear off the beach, but first check if it is already part of the package or you might have to pay twice. They have coaches that take you snorkeling a little deeper into the sea-so unless you are a pro already, I'd advise you to take a package with a coach as it takes a lot more stamina to swim in the choppy waters of the Andamans.


The Full Moon Cafe was by far the best place in Havelock for food. The place is a neat little wooden shack with lots of lanterns and a book rack. I could spend an entire day just lazing in this place and re-ordering their ginger lemon honey (a drink that was available in every restaurant in the Andamans and by the end of the trip we were hooked to it), this place also serves green tea. We ordered the Bamboo steamed fish and it was a real treat for our palates yearning for authentic Andamans cuisine. This dish is served with rice and was quite enough for both of us.

At Radhasagar beach

Stay tuned as pictures of our Thailand trip are yet to be uploaded. There are so many pending posts that I need to jot down, I hope I can be more regular in posting from now on. Feedback is very much appreciated and a great form of motivation, so please do let me know your thoughts and ideas and places you would like to hear about.

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Looking back

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Back in Mumbai, I often went off to Marine Drive to recharge, it was something about the sparkling little diamonds in the sea I usually thought that gave me peace. But only when I went off to Taiwan I realised it was also the clear, beautiful, horizon above the sea, uncluttered with cement and concrete that put me at ease. For the first time in my life just driving around from home to work was so beautiful. One could see the sky stretching endlessly from the windscreen beyond the buildings. Although Houli was just a small town in Taiwan, it would surpass Bombay anyday in terms of development and infrastructure.

It wasn’t just the external beauty of the place that made Taiwan such a memorable experience but also the simplicity and purity of thought of the people that makes me want to go back and visit the place. The concept of dignity of labour very much existed in practice in Houli, wherein the family I lived in dined with their domestic helpers and factory workers on the same table, in the same space. And my home-father even cooked me breakfast and served us food at times. Never have I seen such humility in our own country and I was pleasantly surprised because the people I was living with were probably the richest in that town.


ps: Shayne Rana and me have qualified in the Top 10 in 'The Wanderers' contest.I am super excited! So far we have got 150 votes and are at fourth place, the competition is getting fierce. I hope we win!

If you'd like to vote or spread the word, this is the link: https://apps.facebook.com/wanderer-voting/OR           http://tinyurl.com/6btekfg


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