WonderYears

The next stop on the trip was Meghalaya, the land of clouds. The plan was to come from Kaziranga to Guwahati and go to Shillong, but got advise from locals to take a detour through a bus-stop before Guwahati, which we did. Saved a few hours, not that it matters when one travels without goals . You will not see any pictures of Shillong in this blog, I was shocked how crowded the city is. Narrow lanes bustling with cars and all sorts of vehicles, seemed like Mumbai (except Shillong had even lesser space). The city is now well known for its educational institutions and kids from all over India seem to throng here for good quality schooling. The central market was choc-a-bloc, with hardly place to put ones feet. All in all, it wasnt what ... read more

Well, am doing the last few entries of my India trip almost a year after the trip... Had given up during the trip due to lack of Internet in North East... and all high aspirations of coming back to Mumbai and completing it went to dust, thanks to sheer laziness... but now, after almost a year, someone inspired me to complete the tale... Its not nice to leave a story in the middle... so here's the year back trip's remaining portions... How I remember details? Well, pictures are always the easiest way to recall... here goes, hope at least a few of you would enjoy reading :) ======================================================================== Leaving chilly Darjeeling, we reached the mountain kingdom state of Sikkim, pleasantly surprised that the weather was much warmer, despite Gangtok being at almost the same altitude as ... read more

From Varkala, Isabell and I decided to travel together to Andamans, we made an overnight stay in Chennai en route, we went to one of my Cognizant-time hangout joints for dinner, was good memories coming back after so many years. All those friends have dispersed, been so long since I saw them. We arrived in Port Blair on 28th Feb from Chennai and immediately took the ferry to Havelock Islands, which is the most popular place here (read 8-10 thousand tourists a year). The ferry ride was a 2.5 hour fun ride, full of beautiful sights of the sun and perfectly blue waters. (Getting the ferry ticket is sometimes tricky if you don't plan in advance) Upon arriving at the resort, went straight to the beach at the resort and was treated to the most stunning ... read more

Described as the Venice of the East, Alleppey (now called Alaphuza, but no local calls it that :) is a beautiful place of backwaters, coconut trees, paddy fields and complete silence if one chooses so. The resort, I was staying in, was a very interesting collection of wooden rooms, bamboo rooms, tree houses and normal rooms. I experimented with the tree house there first, but found it too cramped up and moved to the bamboo room. Really nice place to stay, completely different experience than normal life I arrived in Alleppey, unsure of whether I would be doing a houseboat trip (didnt make sense doing it alone). But the place I was staying at had lot of tourists (think I was the only Indian there) and I met Isabelle and Wolfgang, two travellers from Germany, who ... read more

Apologies for some spelling/grammatical mistakes on the Tarkarli posting, was writing it while being completely pooped, so didn’t proof-read. Talking of spelling/grammatical mistakes, here are some cool ones I came across in Goa 1. Sign on a leather bag shop - "Great Genuine Fake Leather" - the shop was full all the time, guess customers like honesty :) 2. Sign on a doctors clinic (below it was listed all the mental disorders he could cure) - "Psycho the rapist" - no wonder his clinic was completely empty :) I reached Goa on 9th morning and immediately it felt like home. Goa always has felt like home, this time was no different. I was gonna stay near Baga Beach based on a friend’s suggestion and found the cottage to be a pretty relaxed place 2 minutes from ... read more