Diary of a Travelophile

A Day of Hiking at Zion National Park

2012-01-10T20:13:00.000-08:00

Surrounded by pink, whilte, red, sandstone cliffs all around, and the virgin river giving natural way out through this sandstone castle.Zion national park is a perfect sceneray to explore.

Red Rocks all around..

On the weekend of thanks giving 2011 we planned a day trip to Zion national park. To reach the park we crossed a 1.1 mile long road tunnel , built in park for connecting it with roads.We stayed in a hotel in SpringDale, to stay close to park to start day early next day.

We started our Hike early around 8 AM next day.Temperatures were really cold at this time. When we started exploring the Emerald Pool trails, the upper and the lower emerald pools, and then headed towards the Grotto.

View from angel Landing

From Grotto we started our hike for Angels Landing a 8.6 kilometer round-trip.The climb involved climbing steep narrow mountains with chains for support.

Magical view from top of angel's landing

Emerald Pool

With a great sense of achievement and satisfaction we headed, for our trip further.

Chicago

2012-01-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

Chicago the city of sky scrappers, is a culturally diverse and friendly city of Midwest.Its inspiring to see how a city once completely destroyed by fire is birthplace of sky scrappers.

On the banks of Lake Michigan,Chicago boasts of a picturesque skyline, and public art

As a child in general knowledge books I read Chicago as a windy city, after spending a day in downtown, i realized the reason behind the name.

The morning of day when I had planned to visit, it rained heavily and after a couple of hours winds, took clouds away and the same chain repeated 3 times during the day.

In such a weather a sight of rainbow was not a surprise, and looking at rainbow from top of sears towers was a awe-inspiring experience.

An architecture tour of city is gave a good idea of various buildings around,for example the corn towers are designed to have no interior right angles, something without which i cannot imagine any building.

The sears towers is the tallest building of united states,110 story high, based on bundled tube structure inspired by inspired by an advertisement for a package of cigarettes.

There is something to write about unending list of skyscrapers in Chicago, but important to note is some of them where constructed in 1920's.

Chicago downtown has parks, beautiful navy pier by lake Michigan,art museums,public art and night life.

My day in Chicago downtown, made me wonder of how mankind has made progress and how a few people are smart enough to channelise so much money to single place.

An Evening in Devon Street

2012-01-09T20:58:00.000-08:00

Devon Street Chicago The Little India or the Desi Corridor, has a complete Desi feel to it. The houses in the street have a architecture very similar to what we used to have 40-50years back in India with shops on ground floor and a three story on top.This reminded me of my own nani's house which looks very similar to the pic

Devon is full of Indian restaurants, various stores selling saris,jewellery,electronics, spices and even pawn shops.

Devon is the most intriguingly multicultural street in the city, with businesses run by Indians,Pakistanis, Iraqis, and Russians, among others, and catering to Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians.

Coming to Devon made me feel like I was still in India. The sights of shops, names of shops restaurants, the smells the food, crowds on street....give a feel very close to India.

Machinac Island

2011-11-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

Arch Rock

Imagine yourself completely surrounded by crystal clear waters all around, standing in lush green trees, secluded from the outside world, no cars around only cool winds,sounds of waves gushing all around, with loads of fudge and candy shops all around.


Clean water of lake Huron

Mackinac is a small island secluded enough from the rest of the world to be totally seductive.I was captivated by the island the moment i stepped on the dock.Beautiful houses, shops, streets decorated with flowers and horse carriages on the road, it's a completely different world.

Bicycles and buggy are the main options to explore island.We rented bikes and drove it along the periphery of island, exploring it completely.We explored bluffs on island, visited Fort mackinaw.

Mackinaw island has beautiful Victorian homes,Lovely golf courses,historic fort, lovely hotels, it is like a completely different world altogether.

Wanting to stay more, explore more our trip came to and end, and we headed back, to real world.

Manali

2011-07-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

If there is a heaven on earth it is Himalayas.Snow capped mountains,blue river,tall trees all around...It cannot be more perfect and more romantic.

Views..Bus Journey

It was by luck that one of my friends planned this trip and we joined them.We took a bus from Delhi to Manali.When we got up in morning the views from our bus were breathtaking.Our bus was ascending mountains, across banks of a river, in midst of forests.Different phases to river life could not get any clearer.As the bus was accessing up we were getting closer to the snow capped, mountains and the river was getting thinner and thinner.

Once we reached Manali we visited Rohtang Pass and Hadimba temple and the gardens around.I shopped around for shawls, stoles.

View from Hadimba Temple

There is something related to food and Manali, the food tastes delicious. appetite increases.Maggie on the top of mountains.Food after a trip back from Rohtang Pass... it cannot get better.

Pondicherry

2011-05-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

Wanna visit Rue de la Cathédrale ? Head to Pondicherry.

Overnight journey form Hyderabad, in March of 2008 during holi we headed to India’s Little France.We took a train to Chennai and bus from there.With drivers shouting Pondy Pondy ... we finally boarded a bus heading Pondy:).

The sea embraced scenic ECR highway connects Puducherry from Chennai.It took us around 4 hours to reach Puducherry.We took bicycles on rent and explored the streets.
The streets of Pondy are wide streets made of bricks, some streets even have canals in between.There are lots of churches.We visited Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Promenade(a designer Hotel),Gandhi beach and saw various mansions around.We also visited a church.

We sat on the pillars below the, a bridge near the statue of Joan of Arc.Its and amazing experience to sit there, and walk on those pillars above the waves and below the bridge.

Next day we rented a bike and visited the Auroville City, the mediation center there and the old banyan tree.

We visited the auro beach.The Beach has clean with clear waters and clean sands.There were few surfers also around.Due to rains we had to cancel our visit to other beaches.

There are lots of French tourists in Pondy,especially in the Auroville City.Its a fun to see them dressed in local attire. There are beautiful liquor shops in पुदुचेर्री.A visit to bakery shop there is a must, they have various kinds of European breads.Pondy has tried to keep alive its french connection even the police, men there wear red hats.

With much more to left to explore,loads of shopping to be done from the various boutiques, we left the place due to lack of time.Pondy is a unique Indian town with its french history,beautiful beaches, auroville and much more.

Matheran

2011-05-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

One of my most memorable trips is Matheran.It was rainy season of 2006 when we friends decided to visit Matheran.We started early morning, it took us around 4 hours to reach Matheran.To reach Matheran we traveled partly by local train, ricks and finally climbed up the mountain.

Three of us climbed up hill,walking on the tracks of train, clicking images and enjoying greenery.After an hour of trekking finally we reached Matheran and started searching for a place for accommodation.After settling in we started exploring Matheran.Weather was really good. It was light rain and Fog.We could hardly see beyond 10 feet.It felt as if we were walking on our private road.We snag songs and danced as we moved around.

We started by heading towards Charlott Lake.There was lots of fog around the lake and we felt the lake is huge, as we could not see boundaries. The water merged into the fog and created really nice illusion.Soon when fog cleared we found out that the lake is small, surrounded by lush greenery.

We visited lots of points, on way to Charlott lake and back.The way is full of arches of fog laden trees.Darkenes created by fog, dense forest,red soil, light rain and frogs jumping from nowhere made this trek a memorable one.

Since there are no vehicles allowed in Matheran, the place is peaceful and a perfect escape from the hustle bustle of Mumbai.Monkeys are everywhere in Matheran.They snatch even camera's from hand.

Food in our hotel was really tasty.Cannot forget to mention the Morning Tea:).There are no ATMs in Matheran, which made our trip more exiting.Limited budget has its own fun.We gathered every penny we had to shop for the souvenir hats for three of us.

Beautiful place, perfect weather, appetizing food and most important company of some of the best friends around made this trip unforgettable.

Ellora caves and shani shingnapur

2010-07-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Some time back I got a chance to visit Ellora caves and shani shingnapur, the famous shani temple, for a short single day trip.Here is a short travelogue.

Ellora caves a world heritage site are really inspirational and heavenly. These caves were built around 350 AD to 700 AD period.These caves are cut into a single mountain all around, and one cave the Hindu cave, this is the first one I visited cave no 16 is so huge that I got confused with rooms in corridors around the temples as 34 different caves:). After seeing caves I realized, all the carvings where built for centuries, generation after generation, people worked with their dedication beyond all extremes to complete these architectural and art marvels.

Cave 16 this is a huge cave with Lord Siva temple built.This cave has 2 storied corridors and open spaces around the temple.It took over a century to build this cave.

Simple symmetry can create great beauty and heavenly feel. The beams of top and pillars around with a distant statue of Lord Buddha ,looks really simple and heavenly.

These caves though a world heritage sites are not properly maintained.

Shani shingnapur
Having heard a lot from people, news channels that no houses/shops in this village have doors.I did not want to miss my chance to visit this place.
On our way I saw some shops with no doors and just curtains.The temple is open for 24 hours.We reached there at around 11:30 am on a Saturday and could visit temple.
Statue of Shani is a black rock installed on an open-air platform. Devotees perform Abhishek with water and oil.People offered liters on oil,for Abhishek.
The temple is well managed, with proper organization of queues etc.

The feel at that place is really different and I was amazed to see devotees pooja and faith.
Wondering what is done with so many liters on oil and where it is collected, we left the place.

Mount Abu

2009-12-23T10:05:00.001-08:00

During Ugaadi(March/April) in 2009 we went on a family trip to Mount abu and near by places.
My first trip with my inlaws. We started from Delhi 6 in afternoon and reached mount abu early morning next day.

Mount abu popular as a hill station, has nothing much to offer in terms of hill station.
On our single day trip to Mount Abu, we started sight seeing early and visited nakki lake, Delwara temples,Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University and Museum,Jain temples and sunset point.

Nakki lake is a lake in mid of mountains, rocks around the lake are interesting.We went for boating in the lake and explored the rocks around.

Delwara Temples make Mount Abu to be a must visit place.These temples have really beautiful carvings and I found them simply marvellous.Carvings make you feel how on earth without machines and electricity such marvels could be built.Hats off to the dedication of people who built such beautiful temples.Photography is restricted inside Delwara Temples.

Next we visted Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University and Museum, they forced us to listen to a short introduction of the belief of Brahma Kumaris . The gardens in the university are well maintined and beautiful.Various kinds of flowers around.

Near mount abu there is Air force base and we could see marks of jet planes in the sky.
Sunset point has beautiful view of sunset. On a high our mount abu trip came to end, and we started our our religious journey to temples around.

Shimla

2009-10-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

We wanted to celebrate our second wedding anniversary.Over night journey from Delhi and all exited to see snow, I chose Shimla.

We reached Shimla at around 5 am in morning it was chilling.Most of the roads in shimla are winding roads, going uphill.The hotel itself had two addresses, one on ground floor and the fifth floor of hotel took us to Mall road.

On the first day in shimla we visited Kufri and Tardev. Kufri is famous for views, of snow clad mountains and winter sports. Although we could not find any snow we enjoyed the pony ride, and views of snow capped Shiwalik Range from a height.We also visted kufri zoo where we saw snow leapord, and bears playing on top of trees.You could get a snap with 'Ajgaar' around your neck in kufri, for 20/-. On our way back we visited the famous jakku temple.(There are too many monkeys around jakku temple who steal specs:)) .On the way to Kufri we also visited helipad in shimla.

Second day we visited naldehra and tatta pani. We did hiking in the hills of naldehra and also visited the golf course there.I really enjoyed hiking in the pine trees, with fresh air and sunlight all around, it was nature at its best.

Tatta pani is at the banks of poonch river, there is a hot waters water spring(with high sulpher content ) there, right at the bank of river.With chilling water of river flowing at one side and hot water from spring, at the same place, it was amazing to see it. Rafting can also be done at TattaPani.
On the last day of trip we just roamed around on mall road, seeing all the betiful monuments of shimla and caught the toy train to get back to Delhi.I felt the journey in toy train is too long and hyped.

I forgot to take my camera .. thus have very few snaps taken from mobile...

Rishikesh

2009-05-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

I had been crazy to do rafting and finally late night Thursday evening 9th April I decided to go for it.Rishikesh is famous for white water rafting and close to Delhi,so we decided to go there.
We took a bus from ISBT Friday Morning and reached Rishikesh at around 3 PM.We had not done any homework and had no ideas, where to go. After some calls to friends and family we got the details and were able to book a one night camping and Rafting tour.

We had delicious lunch at Brunch at Laxman Jhula and reached the camping site near Shivpuri.It was awesome.Beautiful Ganges,cool winds camps in midst of all that. The sun set and Moon rise from from the mountains was breathtaking.From green blue river water and skies to darkness to..silver shinning river.It was flawless and captivating....

As the moon started climbing higher in the sky,it was time for camp fire.Our Tents had two beds and lantern the only source of light.Surprisingly there were no mosquitoes :). With lovely camp fire appetizing dinner, and beautiful sounds of river water we ended our day all excited about rafting.

Morning at Camping site was beautiful, there was a cold breeze all around,sounds of water gushing in and scene of river water making its way in between mountains
it felt very fresh and inspiring.We sat on the river bank for long time and had our breakfast, all set and packed for rafting.

We left the camp site at around 10AM for the point where the rating starts in Shivpuri.We were given helmets, oars, life jackets for rafting.We were divided in group of 8 to people per for a single raft and given rafting instructions.As I sat in the raft I was amazed to see the raft has holes :), and the raft guide was throwing water in the raft, to prevent it from heat.

There are 9 rapids in the 18 Km route from Shivpuri to Laxman jhoola.
Crossing a rapid was like a roller coaster ride in water with no seat belts.We were allowed to swim/float in the river water. I thoroughly enjoyed floating in the river.The water was clear and green depth around 20 to 30 feet.

There are two cliffs in the route where cliff jumping is done.Jumping from the cliff around 10 -12 feet is experience of a life time.Finally our Rafting ended at Ram jula at around 3 in afternoon.

We were all tired and hungary. We had our lunch at Choti wala and took rest. The view from the guest house room was awesome.We could see the aarti of Gangaji from our guest house.

In Rishikesh we saw Ram and Lazman jhula which are suspended bridges across Gaga.All tired we had no energy to explore Rishikesh.Next day we left at around 10 in morning to Haridwar.Due to heavy traffic jam between Haridwar and Rishikesh, it took us 2.5 hours to reach Haridwar.We were left with no time to see Haridwar so, we left for Delhi from Haridwar.