One question that I love as well as hate is “Where to go in South America?” Love it because I love talking about our trip and I can go on and on for a few hours. Hate it because it’s an extremely difficult question to answer in a few short sentences. I mean first of all it’s a huge ass continent with 13 countries! And we man...
The first time I heard of this picture-postcard town, it was in a small blurb in the Indian magazine Outlook Traveller. Back then (5-6 years ago), international travel was very rare for us and this name was just filed away in some corner of my head. But over the years, the name kept cropping up, in articles or travelogues. And after...
(This was a small trip with Pradosh’s parents, while spending Christmas holidays with them. Not really like our other trips around Bombay, but we had a great time nonetheless, so here it is) Puri doesn’t need much introduction. It is one of the char dhams of Hinduism, site of the famous Jagannath Temple and the annual Rath Yatra....
(part of our Madhya Pradesh roadtrip) Mandu is called India’s best preserved medieval city, and justifiably so. Built by the Malwa governor Dilawar Khan in 1400, Mandu had an interesting 300 years of existence before it ceased being a capital and then was abandoned due to plague. Mandu is very similar to Hampi in the sense that the...
(part of our Madhya Pradesh roadtrip) Sanchi needs no introduction – most of us remember it from our history books. However, I dont think Indian education system does justice to all these magnificent monuments left behind by kings long gone by. For example, the Sanchi Stupa is the sole surviving stupa built by Emperor Ashoka &#...
(part of our Madhya Pradesh roadtrip) Vidisha is an ancient, but little known town in Central India. In fact the Great Stupa at Sanchi owes it’s existence to Vidisha – as Emperor Ashoka met and married his first wife Devi at Vidisha (she was a merchant’s daughter). Sanchi was one the first stupas built by Ashoka and...
(part of our Madhya Pradesh roadtrip) If we go into India’s recorded history, the earliest written records we have belong to the Maurya kings (4th century BC) – mostly edicts and inscriptions left behind by Emperor Ashoka – or accounts of foreigners like Megasthenes and Fahein. The Nanda dynasty, who preceded the Ma...
160 kmph on the speedometer. Engine screaming near 5000 rpm. The road wide, smooth and shimmering in the heat. On both sides of the road is barren yellow land. Dry, with occasional scrub here and there. No sign of life for miles. It is cool in the car, but our senses are wide awake – lots of adrenaline pumping as the car goes faste...
We hadn’t done a driving holiday yet (though we had been to Pune in the car), so we were on the lookout for an opportune time and a destination. The time appeared in form of Gandhi Jayanti on a Tuesday – the last long weekend of the year. And for a while I had been itching to visit Aurangabad – to see the Ajanta and Ellora cave...
We did a Bandhavgarh National Park + Khajuraho trip over the Republic day weekend. The travelog for Bandhavgarh can be found here After another hearty breakfast, we bid adieu to the Tiger Den resort at Bandhavgarh and started for Khajuraho (230 km away) at about 8 am. We figured we should reach Khajuraho by 12.30 pm – accounting fo...
Large and diverse as our country is, it can claim to only 28 odd UNESCO world heritage sites. Hampi and Pattadakal are both on that exclusive list. The capital of the 15th century Vijaynagar empire, Hampi had a small but bright existence in India’s vast history (compared to some of our cities which span several millennia), with its...
It is probably one of the most touristy destinations in or around Bombay, but as we discovered to our delight, Elephanta caves can be a very nice day outing. An early morning trip to Gateway of India on Saturday morning, followed by a nice ferry ride in the Mumbai Harbour, and finally the caves themselves (which seemed to be in much ...