Blogs from Chandigarh, Punjab, India, Asia - page 2

Not on many tourist itineries, Chandigarh's made for an interesting stop on our way to Delhi. On arrival, the first thing that was very apparent from the minute we got in a tuk tuk from the train station was that, unlike any other Indian city we'd visited, it followed a gridplan. It was designed in 1947 by Le Corbusier who felt that it should represent a modern Indian city, being the first to be designed and built post-independence. Having lost Lahore, the former state capital of the Punjab, to Pakistan at independence, Chandigarh was to become capital of both the state of Punjab and the state of Haryana, but as a union territory was to be part of neither. Why, when it was felt that Chandigarh should be marked out as being representative of a new ... read more

DRIVE DOWN FROM SHIMLA & CHANDIGARH. Monday 9 April, 2012. We were collected at 9.00 am by our driver for the journey back down to the plains. In some respects the car journey down was more interesting than the Toy Train ride up as we were able to see the daily life of the people living on the mountains. There were children going to school in their smart, clean uniforms; stalls selling vegetables, holy cows again (there weren't any in Shimla). We stopped for a comfort break after about 2 hours at a really nice clean place. Two hours later and we were on the motorway heading towards Chandigarh. Chandigarh is the state capital of both Punjab and Haryana, but part of neither. It is a Union Territory administered by the Federal Government. This slightly strange ... read more

Got up as usual at 4:45am for which we all have got accustomed to by now, we got ready by 5:30 am and then packed all our luggages on our bikes and left at 6:30am. Rode through curvaceous and mountainous roads between Mandi and Chandigarh which was painstakingly slow because of the curvaceous roads with lot of gradients added to which heavy truck traffic and reached Chandigarh by about 1:30pm. Ofcourse we stopped for a quick lunch on the way just at the outskirts of Chandigarh because we didn’t want to waste time. As soon as we reached Sector 28-D, we checked into Hotel white Palace who gave us a palatial suite with 4 beds, a couch and a dining table. Then we all quickly packed all the luggage to be sent by truck and went ... read more

Got up at 4am did some reading on Leh Ladakh and got ready by 5:30 am. JP and Ravish came home by 7 am. We all did some small repacking and were ready by 7:15am. The IFMR gang came to bid good bye and left by 7:35am. We left home by 7:45am after saying good bye to our families. We got dropped at the airport in my car and we were there by 8:40am. By the time we checked in and finished the Security check it was around 9:15am. Just had enough time to have Breakfast and Boarded the flight IT 215 (Kingfisher) which left sharp at 9:55am and reached New Delhi about 10 minutes early by 12:20pm. We disembarked the flight and went to the other terminal through the domestic transfers lounge and had lunch ... read more

Last India blog! Thursday night was reception and the actual wedding ceremony, so we got dressed in our traditional indian clothing (a sari for me and a kurta for Jonathan). The sari was very difficult to figure out, and it wasn't until we got to the groom's house that I was told it was on backwards! So, a few of the women there were kind enough to help me out, but even they had trouble! At the reception another Indian women stopped to "fix" me, and then it happened again a few hours into the reception. I didn't feel too bad, everyone said how hard it was to get it right! The sari was beautiful, the bride's aunt picked both of our outfits out for us, which was so kind! Now to the reception. WOW! It's ... read more