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Vietnam Voyage – The Itinerary
Category Archives: Asia
How to have a Max Weekend in Dubai
This story starts with a video I saw on Facebook. One of my friends had visited Dubai recently and he did something jaw-dropping! He dived from a plane right over the amazing Palm Jumeirah, completing, what I felt was, a jump of a lifetime! I decided then and there that if I ever got the chance to do sky diving, it would be here!
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Hogenakkal Falls – A Weekend Escape
It was one of the weekends when Spilla was here for his project. We decided to rent out a car and go for a drive somewhere nearby. After a lot of research and debate, we decided to make for Hogenakkal Falls which was on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We first tried Zoomcar but couldn’t get the car we wanted. Then we decided to explore other options if available and found Carzonrent who also offered self-drive cars. We did a quick check of how much the rates added up to with the distance and mileage and found that for longer drives, Carzonrent made much more sense as it was the cheaper option. We booked a Swift for our drive on Saturday.
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How to get Leh ‘d – A Non-Adventurer’s Tale (Part Two) | Pangong
If you haven’t got a chance to read Part One, click here. You don’t want to miss it! Done? Let’s explore Ladakh and the place I’m looking forward to the most – Pangong lake!
Day 7
The day began at 8am – there were no wake up calls for the day as it was dedicated to local sight-seeing. Some people opted to go for river rafting. I wasn’t too keen on it as I wanted to explore the town and surrounding areas. Along with some others, I decided to hire a cab and explore Leh. After breakfast, we set out for sightseeing. Most of the places of interest in Leh are on the Manali road.
Continue reading How to get Leh ‘d – A Non-Adventurer’s Tale (Part Two) | Pangong
How to get Leh ‘d: A Non-Adventurer’s Tale (Part One) | Ladakh
I’m pretty sure you’re wondering why I called this “a Non-Adventurer’s Tale”. For people who have read my other blogs, you must be wondering if scuba-diving in the Andamans, sky-diving in Dubai and river rafting in Kullu are not adventures. They are, of course. But going on a 3000 kilometers bike trip on a bike (that you’ve never sat on before) and taking, what is considered, one of the toughest routes in the world, is something different altogether. And as for the “Part One” – I really wanted to fit everything into one post but then it wouldn’t do justice to the places I visited. So, I’m keeping it to Two parts this time – one for the onward journey and one for the return.
Continue reading How to get Leh ‘d: A Non-Adventurer’s Tale (Part One) | Ladakh
The prequel – A Tale of Six Islands | Andaman
The previous set of blogs that I wrote of North India, had 6 parts and I decided to shorten the next trip’s account to make it reader friendly. This will be a story of 6 islands which are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands – in three parts. A trilogy is the safest bet, at least in movies – LOTR, Matrix, Bourne, Oceans, Toy Story. The only thing that works for me with more than 3 parts is Federer’s Grand Slam victories. I wouldn’t mind seeing him win a 100 times!
This part is the prequel – the one where the story takes off.
This story starts off in a supermarket where we are holding tubes of sunscreen like monkeys holding an iPhone. SPF 20, 30, 40?!! Having no clue about the technicalities, we made a rational decision like a manager – after trade-offs between the price, brand and SPF level, we picked out a few. Pleased with ourselves, we returned to college. (We later found out that our choice hadn’t really been the best one! :P)
We were a group of 11 – six from our hostel wing and five adopted members. We started our trip with steak burgers at Downtown Café in Calicut. Super Yum! We then headed to the railway station to catch the West Coast Express to Chennai. It felt like a really short trip with time flying as we played bluff and mafia.
We were welcomed the next morning at our very own Mehtaji’s home with delicious grilled sandwiches, bhel puri and sweets. I had taken on my usual role of the money bank with my camera bag acting as the ATM. We booked tickets for the movie Queen, which had recently released. And missing movies in Chennai would be a crime, given the cheap ticket prices.
We checked-in for our flight the next morning to Port Blair, the capital of Andaman, so that we got window seats. All planned and set, we walked to the Marina beach. Right next to Mehtaji’s home was the main office of AIADMK (a prominent political party). The shops near the place had small photos and frames having Amma’s photo – like you get the ones for Gods near temples. Chennai is indeed different!
At the beach, we shot some balloons (with those moong dal bullets), discussed the atrocities of the college admin while sitting at the shore (will never get tired of doing that), ate a sub (chicken ham with loads of mayo) and went in for the night show at the nearby theatre. The movie was delightful and kinda fit in with what we were looking for – a last big escapade to enjoy a long trip without having to worry about deadlines or leaves.
The next morning we took taxis to the airport. We spent some time doing bakar and cracking some very punny jokes – couldn’t help it with so many Mallu’s in the group. Soon, we were on our way to Port Blair, Andaman as the rickety Air India flight took off to cover the 1200 km over sea. So as promised, this prequel is where the story literally takes off. Stay tuned.
Check out the three blogs from the trilogy here:
- Port Blair and Jolly Buoy – Part One of “A Tale of Six Islands”
- Havelock – Part Two of “A Tale of Six Islands”
- Neil, Long and Ross – Part Three of “A Tale of Six Islands”
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Delhi in a Day
If you have one day to explore Delhi, what would you do? Explore the history of the city, visit monuments to enjoy the splendid architecture or find out places that showcase the amazing food? I would love to say – everything! But if a day is all you’ve got, you need to pick your agenda. This blog explores the historical monuments and major tourist attractions of Delhi – all covered in one day.
Continue reading Delhi in a DayA bird’s view – at Night!
After 6 long months of B-School I was on my way back home. I was hoping I’d get more frequent breaks when I first saw the trimester system (which would mean 3 breaks in a year as compared to 2 in engineering). I also hoped to go home more often as my college was in Kerala. Hehe! What wrong notions! 😛
Continue reading A bird’s view – at Night!
A Weekend in Munnar
What makes Munnar the perfect weekend getaway? It is a part of most Kerala itineraries these days along with Alappuzha and Kochi. It is also an ideal destination for group trips – in fact I’ve been to Munnar twice and both have been group trips from my colleges. Here’s all you need to know to plan your perfect weekend in this beautiful hill station.
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