My Travel Stories!

What does one expect from travel? For some people it could be relaxation, for some adventure, for some peace and for some soul searching. It rarely happens that a travel story could mean all. This trek is one of those rare forever memories.  Chopta Chandrashila is a 13,100 ft range in the Himalayas. There are of course easier versions of the same trail but we trekked all the way from Sari to Chopta. I stayed in tents, slept in sleeping bags, didnt realize even for once that we had no electricity, woke up by the sun and slept by the moon.  The fact that we were making our way through the majestic Himalayas ( its forests, its plains and its snow ) made the whole experience overwhelming. You are so away from the daily noise and unnecessary routine that you can afford to be in the make belief world where everything is peaceful, the world is nice and life is good :) Lets get to the technicalities. The process is quite simple. I had booked a week trek with "Trek The...

For this one, I will have to take a plunge in the pensieve (Harry Potter Fan alert!) and really look for the memory coz it was a long time ago. One of my most beautiful travel memories at the same time :) This one wont have a flow or any sequence of events but just some of the best times afresh anytime I imagine Orissa. So Rambha is a tiny village near Bhubaneswar. It is one of the less traveled places by we Indians but completely flocked my foreigners ( How I love the way foreigners travel without a care in the world !! )  Rambha is a coastal town but because of its locational advantage the water here is calm and peaceful giving you the mirage of a lagoon. Yes you wont get the sea waves here but if you are looking for peace, a nice swim and sunset on the boat this is the place to be. Few things that are not very popular about Orissa is that it is beautiful and raw beyond ones expectation, at least it was like this in 2009. The Government has done a brilliant job ...

<Out of habit I check my last post and that was way back in August. No travel in September, what the fuck am I doing :X :X.. anyway lets get started :D> What do you do when you have a 5 day straight holiday and the travel freak in you starts jumping all over the place but you also gotta celebrate Diwali / Indian customs/ rituals/ married me / bla bla - You have a mini 2 day Diwali and rest of the three days you go travelling <3 So this is again a short weekend trip. Yelagiri (a tiny hill station) is around 230 kms from Chennai. If you plan the route accordingly you can also cover Gingee Fort (also called Troy of the east) on the way.   Fun Fact:  Gingee Fort was ranked as the most impregnable fort by Shivaji but ironically it has changed multiple hands, first the Cholas, Vijayanagaras, Marathas, Mughals, French and then the Brtish.  It has three major forts Krishnagiri ( around 900 granite steps), Rajgiri( around 1600 granite steps) and  C...

If you are fond of hills, if you are looking for solitude - then this could be you next destination. Thekkady was my first visit into the state of Kerela and I was not disappointed at all. Me and my friends chose to take a car and drive all the way to Thekkady (you also have direct buses from Bangalore though). There are multiple routes so if you are going on a road trip, a quick check can help drive through well maintained roads. Even though its a hill station, the number of hairpin bends are comparatively very less. We reached Thekkady around 11 in the night and checked in to Chrissies Hotel . The hotel has a lot of greenary inside. We luckily got the top floor rooms and the view was just amazing. We did have monkeys as uninvited guests but thats okay, they just took some of our food and a towel :D The hotel staff is amazing and they helped us with everything they could. The day in Thekkady started with a nice slightly overpriced continental breakfast. From there we took a je...

Now this was one short and sweet trip and it could not be better. So I traveled from Chennai with two of my friends. Rameswaram is an overnight journey from Chennai, ten hours to be precise. So we simply took a bus Saturday night, reached Sunday morning and took a bus back Sunday night.. so simple ryt! Now Rameswaram is known for the iconic   Ramanathswamy Temple , for being one of the Char Dhaams and has immense mythological significance. The temple of course has beautiful architecture like other prominent temples in the State. The thousand pillars ( I tried very hard to find the place where that picture of all the pillars converging has been taken but could not), long corridors, the high compound walls, the 22 tirthas ( holy water bodies), the aura of all the stories about this temple being built by Ram and Sita themselves is astounding. But before that we had to freshen up :P So we got down at the bus stop and figured out from the auto driver that there are few places whe...