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Pradipta De
I like visiting places which are not in any travel list ... not the big cities, rather small little-known places which are off the radar of tourist guides. I am currently living in Delhi, India which gives me ample opportunity to discover the majestic Himalayan region, as well as the deserts of the Rajasthan. Hope my wanderlust spirit will take me around and I will be able to take all on a tour of the incredible places I hope to cover.Prad
Travel Blog Posts
Srilanka: Beach Holiday Destination at Shoe-string Budget
Published: July 30th 2011Asia » Sri Lanka » Southern Province » Weligama
July 28th 2011
You want to have a beach vacation. It must coincide with the New Year s Eve. It must also be cheap. Heaped with such constraints, I set out to plan a trip for us – Maya and me. Usually, when I have such difficult constraints to satisfy, I usually bank on a customized trip organizer to tide me through the mess. So far I have found www.nivalink.com to be the most reliable when you are planning something on a tight budget, yet keen on not missing out on any of the fun. Initial discussion brought up several popular names, like Thailand, Malaysia, Goa, Maldives. But end of December is the worst time to plan a trip to any of these places because of their popularity. Then it struck us why not Srilanka. Till 2009, Srilanka was ... read more
Chandrasila: A Weekend Destination for a Trek
Published: July 3rd 2011Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Chopta
June 5th 2010
Most people have heard the names of Kedarnath and Badrinath. But few may have heard the name of Tungnath. This is also a famous pilgrimage site dedicated to Lord Shiva, and falls on the way between Kedarnath and Badrinath. Anywhere in the Himalayan hills if there is a pilgrimage, there is usually a nice spot to trek to as well. As we were searching for a quick getaway to warm our feet before a longer trek in the summer of 2010, we came across Chandrasila (4090 metres) which is few metres higher on the way to Tungnath (3680 metres). The village at the base of Tungnath is called Chopta. When you check the distance of Chopta from Delhi, it is does not look too far. So we started on a Saturday morning with a plan to ... read more
January 2nd 2009
The chance to visit Italy came by quite luckily. I was planning a visit to Switzerland in Dec 2008. Searching information for the visa I came to know that Switzerland will start issuing Schengen visa from now on. I knew that I will have to use this opportunity to make a stop another European country. It did not take too long to plan a trip to Italy, which is really an hours ride from Lugano in Switzerland, where I was planning to spend the week of Christmas. A day after Christmas Maya and I sat down together to plan the trip. We would leave from Lugano on the morning of Jan 2, and planned to spend about 7 days in Italy covering mainly Napoli and Rome. The train tickets were easily available online, but a bit ... read more
August 15th 2008
Some places are such that when you think of capturing the beauty of it in words, you feel afraid that you will do injustice. Ladakh was an experience like that for me. It was so overwhelming in its grandeur and visual experiences that I kept postponing this blog for months. I would stare at the pictures and loose myself in those unforgettable moments. 5-days for experiencing Ladakh is really too short. But that was all that we had - Debdeep, Maya and me. Debdeep is in some sense my photography guru and to get him to accompany us in this trip was a bonus. There is no place in Ladakh which does not seem to explode with photographic grandeur - every mountain, every monastery, every angle. One can go completely berserk snapping pictures, and still feel ... read more
Chandratal: Beauty Unbound
Published: September 22nd 2008Asia » India » Himachal Pradesh » Spiti Valley
June 6th 2008
As summer approaches, and the plains heat up, the season for Himalayan treks begin. Usually most of the well-known treks in the Garhwal, Kumaon, Himachal regions are accessible between the months of May to September. Since May we were ready to hit the trail as soon as any of them become accessible. The information from the Himachal tourism office in Manali confirmed that Rohtang pass, gateway to the Lahaul-Spiti region, would be opened up around May 15. This date usually varies depending on the severity of the last winter. We were advised to plan any trip not before June first week. So it was - we planned our trek to Chandratal lake on the first weekend of June. Bharat flew in from Bangalore, and from Delhi four of us were there - Nilanjan, Dipanjan, Himanshu and ... read more
Fagu: Getting away from Shimla Madness
Published: July 5th 2008Asia » India » Himachal Pradesh » Shimla
May 23rd 2008
If you have been to Shimla in the high season of summer, you will be able to appreciate the title of this blog. It becomes completely impossible to get any reasonably priced accommodation because all the hotels push their prices up, and what you end up getting is quite dismal going by the price-performance ratio. I was aware of all this, but this trip was planned in a rush. My parents came to Delhi, and I wanted to take them to some hill-station which is not too far from Delhi. The journey to Shimla is relatively comfortable. The Shatabdi-Kalka leaves from Delhi in the morning, and drops you off at Kalka around midday. Then it is a 3-hours drive to Shimla from Kalka. Shimla Given their age this journey to Shimla is long enough to tire ... read more
April 15th 2008
The jungle safari jeeps came rushing from the other side, and screamed past us leaving a trail of dust. We were headed away from the spot where the tiger apparently was moving. Our jeep turned its face, and raced on back to the spot. Our guide and driver had been promising us a good tiger sighting since morning, and finally they too sensed the chance of living up to their promise. We were in Bandhavgar National Park in Madhya Pradesh for a 2-night/3-day wildlife vacation. A big group of about 12 people put together by our colleague Koustuv. The organization was impeccable with our stay planned at Tiger Den resort at Bandhavgar. There are two ways to reach Bandhavgar from Delhi. Cheaper, and in my opinion better, is to take an overnite train to Katni junction, ... read more
March 15th 2008
How would the royals spend an introspective evening? I have no experience of it; but lying lazily at the terrace of the Lake Palace Hotel at Alwar overlooking the Silisehr lake and the adjoining rolling hillocks, with a gorgeous ambience created by the cool evening breeze after a hot summer afternoon, and the fading rays of the disappearing sun, I felt like a royal. The evening was stimulating all my senses to the core. We had driven down to Alwar in Rajasthan in the morning. It is just a couple of hours drive from Delhi along the Delhi-Jaipur highway, and then taking the Bhiwadi bypass route. Compared to usual roadways in India, this stretch is excellent. Three of us, Balaji, Nilanjan and I had driven to Alwar on a Saturday morning. We had heard about a ... read more
Jaisalmer: The Western Frontier of India
Published: May 29th 2008Asia » India » Rajasthan » Jaisalmer
February 22nd 2008
Most of our trips around Delhi are weekend affairs - leave on a Friday evening and back in office by Monday morning. But this prevents us from venturing far from Delhi. It was time for a longer trip as the winter was drawing towards end. Searches were on among us to find a good place that merits applying for a leave from office. And, then I landed on this website -- http://www.aathitya.com/tourism/fair_festival/ -- that lists the fairs and festivals at different places of India. February was the month for the Desert Fair at Jaisalmer. For Bengalis (people from the eastern state of West Bengal), Jaisalmer holds a special place in their heart, having grown up watching “Sonar Kella” zillion times. This is one place immortalized by the famous movie director Satyajit Ray through the adventures of ... read more
Back to the Forests of Rajasthan: Sariska and Bharatpur
Published: March 1st 2008Asia » India » Rajasthan » Bharatpur
January 23rd 2008
While planning a weekend getaway from Delhi, especially in winter, Rajasthan is the undisputed choice. The centerpiece of our trip this time was Bharatpur, the famed bird sanctuary at the border of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. But being amateur bird lovers, we knew we would not need more than a day in Bharatpur. We needed some place nearby to visit, and Sariska seemed to be a good choice. Along the way we found out about another place to visit - the biggest center of exorcism in north India, the Balaji temple at Mehendipur. With all our previous experience of planning trips, we have become efficient in putting together the logistics for a trip. Car was booked for two days, called up one or two hotels to find out if there was a rush. Finally, a group ... read more
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