An evening in Calcutta

Yes, I was here for just 1 evening, during transit to Bhutan, but I still felt the urge to pen down this experience owing to the memories collected that had to be shared.

We reached late afternoon and I instantly felt that there was something in the air. As I do every time I go to a new city, I instantly consulted Google for temperature. It showed 33, feels like 44 degrees Celsius. I dint understand these feelings that Google states until my experience in this city, travelling in a cab, without AC. The air is thick enough to give you a solid dose of heat, but I see no sunshine, only an overcast sky.

We were staying at the Astoria Hotel located on Shakespeare Sarani Road and that’s when I realized the traffic situation here, it’s tough!!!

Our plan was to cover Victoria Memorial, Howrah Bridge and New Market. It was raining intermittently, but heavily throughout the evening and we managed to cover just Victoria Memorial and Howrah Bridge. We enjoyed the walk in the beautiful garden at Victoria Memorial. Howrah bridge turned us into looking and feeling like drowned cats! However, we manged to catch the sunset over the bridge and that made it all our effort worth it!

Victoria Memorial

Howrah Bridge

Ended the day with street food on Park street! Jhal muri, ragda patties, sandwiches and rabdi - can't ask for more here!

Calcutta as I prefer to call it, is a perfect blend of old and new. There was this one road near the Salt Lake stadium that had huts on 1 side, high rise apartments and malls on the other, and a metro rail line running above. Beat that!!

This city, with a touch of the English era, with flyovers and decent roads, with modern apartments and malls, has character! I will visit again to explore this city to my heart’s content.

Chilly cosy Ooty

Sitting back at home, pondering on what was the one thing that was most awesome in Ooty. Was it the combination of the chilly weather and our lack of preparedness for it? Was it the double deluxe valley facing room which gave us our isolated time with nature and our cosy-much-loved fireplace? Was it our long bike rides which resulted in our shoulders aching with all that break-holding? I think it was my best friend with whom I experienced it all. God bless friends, life would be so dull without them.

Ooty welcomed us with its chilly weather and sunshine, which resulted in a ferocious tan. We rented a bike at the very beginning of our stay and created our own schedule. First on our list, Avalache and emerald. This is about 30 kms from Ooty (everything worth seeing is about 30kms from Ooty!). Started off eager, after a Tamilian breakfast of Pongal and masala dosa. The ride was hard and the terrain beautiful. We encountered wonderful views and tiny hamlets. We encountered kind people who never hesitated to guide us. We did not use google maps and exclusively depended on sign boards and locals, brave us! Emerald is a dam, a little further to the dam leads to the waters, so beautiful. Avalanche is a forest offering safaris. Back to our hotel with the promise of a fire and hot chocolate. We got in before sunset, lest we lose our way.

Our hotel, Sherlock rested on top of a hill, was not easy to get to, the road was rustic. Our stay here was simply amazing! The cottage with its own private garden, the valley view and the hospitality, which was the one of the best I have experienced.

Next day we woke up at our leisure and decided to explore Pykara waterfalls. The ride again was hard with lots of hairpin bends and the view was a bit different from the previous day’s. The previous day had us hopping from one village to another, today it was just the highway and us and the beautiful tall trees lining the roads. We had to climb down to view the waterfalls, not the best waterfalls I have seen, but it was good to be among the tourists! On the way we caught a few viewpoints which made our trip fruitful.

Evening found us at Charing cross, the main city place of Ooty, hunting for chocolates! It was home-made chocolates in every other store! We made our way through them and finally ended our stay with a wood fired pizza at the sidewalk café, which earned my stamp of approval!

New Zealand - Pure, Magical and Wonderful

I had one feeling throughout my journey through NZ...mesmerized! 

I was totally hooked the moment I stepped out of Christchurch airport and I confess that I am still hooked!! Beauty was everywhere I turned, at every mile I travelled, and in everything I experienced.

The ultimate way to experience NZ: on you own, in a car; that's exactly what we did. We got into a rented car one morning and set out on a journey through the mountains of South New Zealand. It was a joy to drive on the roads there! There was very less traffic so we could figure out all the signs, speed limits and rules at leisure. The roads were real smooth and none of us felt any stress of driving that is such a given on Bangalore roads. It truly felt like a holiday drive, even in hilly areas and in rain, imagine that!! 

First Look

As every drive is to a destination with some breaks to rest and soak up the scenery, we laid out a route that takes us through Franz Josef Glacier to Quenstown and back to Christchurch via Lake Tekapo. New Zealand highways are designed keeping tourists in view as I observed lots of camping sites, view points and rest areas.

Makarra-Lake Hawea Road

We reached our cabin in Franz Josef by late afternoon. The cabin was well equipped and had all the facilities to cook a hot meal and trust me when I say it gets really important to have a hot meal on a chilly day! We set out to explore the town and discovered that we could walk up the whole town in less than an hour!! We discovered a place with hot spring pools and we took complete advantage of it. A hot pool near a glacier, how amazing is that!!! We soaked up to our heart's content (that's how leisurely our holiday was turning out to be!) and set out to frame the place in our memories with renewed vitality. Night drove us to seek out that hot meal we had promised ourselves and great sleep!

Rain forest

Next morning we went for a tour of the Franz Josef Glacier. We turned into kids looking at the glacier, fun and carefree! We never stopped paying attention to all that surrounded us! The icy glacier, the rocks at the bottom, the whitish stream of glacier water, everything was awesome! 

Walk to the Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier

Glacier stream

It was now time to head towards Queenstown and we made it just after nightfall. We could not resist stopping by the scenic spots on the way, even at the cost of our schedule! That was how mesmerized we were!

Mount Cook

We had one agenda in Queenstown - Adventure! We set out in the morning to accomplish all that we wanted to do here, we had anticipated this months and months in advance and it was finally D Day. We turned crazy and performed the Navis Swing and the Ledge Bungy in one single day!!! The experience was extremely exhilarating and super duper fun!!! Navis swing was outside town between the mountains and Bungy that we did was on a mountain inside the city where we took the skyline Gondola to reach the top! Mission accomplished, we went to explore the town and ended up at the lake. We always seemed to end up at a lake near the mountains, maybe it was an internal GPS or something installed in us! Here we sat on the sand for a while being amused by the bold ducks who were trailing after anybody who was ready to share a morsel with them! We explored a little further and went to the nearby Albert town. We had a nice stroll there and relaxed at a Cafe there before returning to our hotel.

Bird's eye view of Queenstown

Next day was our most challenging drive in NZ, the drive back to Christchurch at a single stretch! We again could not help stopping to soak up the scenery en route, especially at the tempting sight of Mount Cook!! Mesmerized is again the word that comes to mind!!

We reached Christchurch just in time to catch our flight and boy watta ride we had!!!

Reflections Lake 

Some tips for fellow travel planners:

We rented the car from Apex Rentals. They provide a pick-up and drop from the airport to the airpark. We had booked a GPS instrument along with the car. This proved to be most useful since even though we had a SIM card with data, there was very less network connectivity in most places.

We stayed at a cabin in Franz Josef-Top Ten Holiday Park and it was amazing! You could buy some food items in the town an whip up something at the amazing kitchenette at the cabin!

We stayed at Tanoa Aspen hotel in Queenstown. It was a good budget hotel and it had a wonderful spa pool that any guest could use!! we soaked up in the spa pool one night with stars for company. It was magical.

One road leads to another!

Melbourne - Australia's Sporting Capital

Melbourne pronounced as melben is the first thing I learnt about this city. The second, of course was the MCG-Melbourne Cricket Ground. I was here during the 2015 World Cup and everybody who knew anything about cricket was gung-ho about the MCG. 

I visited Melbourne after Sydney so I am going to describe the city in contrast the Sydney here! 

The most fascinating thing in Melbourne is it's Trams. The advantage being that the CBD is a tram free zone, which means that I could travel in trams for free inside the CBD. Another treat was that, there is a tram for tourists (City Circle) that takes us to all the tourist things-to-do places in Melbourne city for free! Purchase a Myki card at any train stations and recharge it to travel outside the CBD in Trams. 

Tram!!

Most exciting: I saw a baby seal penguin at the St Kilda's beach one evening. The evenings here are windy and cold! the wind at St Kilda's was all set to lift me off my feet! 

St Kilda's beach

Melbourne appears most beautiful by its rivers, Yarra is the best known. 

By the Yarra river

Just hang around the CBD and you will never get bored! You can alight from the tram at Flinders street and check out the happening Federation Square, walk by the Yarra river towards the MCG and take a tour of the grand stadium. Walking by the Yarra river will also take you past some interesting Cafes and Bridges. 

Flinders Street

Melbourne loves its coffee! You can find most of the crowd in front of Cafes in the morning. Coffee is a must to most of Melbourne or that's what it seemed like to me! There are street performers here who can completely enthral and entertain you. There are so many restaurants that exploring them in you evenings will be a treat! Not only your days but spend also your evenings in the CBD to see two different shades on Melbourne. You can never get enough of Melbourne! 

To have a bird's eye view of Melbourne catch the tram and head towards the Melbourne Star which looks like a huge Ferris wheel. 

You can take breaks from hanging out in the CBD by going on short drives around Melbourne. The drives I went were to Healesville sanctuary where I met lots of kangaroos and some really friendly birds, Mount Dandenong where the high mountains make for a lovely drive and amazing views. The Great Ocean Road however is the ultimate drive! We stopped at the 12 apostles which are limestone shacks and Loch Ard George which had the most amazing waters! 

Loch Ard George

Lastly I did some healthy amount of shopping at Swanston street at CBD and the HighPoint Mall.

Twelve Apostles

Discovering Sydney

A bustling city is what first comes to mind when describing it in a word. I am writing this while sitting in the heart of the city on an evening. The morning held a hint of rain and it poured the entire afternoon. Now the clouds seem to take a break and here I sit under the Opera house. The city seems alive as if the rain did not impact it at all. The breeze still speaks of the rain that was and that is to come, and the sea gulls are back between the people unafraid, begging for a morsel.

We did the touristy things here with a twist. The twist being that we entirely relayed on our own resources and not that of a tourist agent! We arrived one afternoon, headed to the Circular Quay which seemed like the heart of the city, collected all the information, guide books and maps at the tourist information centre there and set about scheduling our Sydney itinerary. We changed this several times during the entire stay in order to suit the weather and our mood, the joy of being out in a city on your own. 

Opera House

Places we visited and how!

Sydney Tower - take the train and alight at the Townhall station and walk to the Tower.

View from Sydney Tower

Purchase a Hop on Hop off day pass at Circular Quay and jump into the ferry to tour the Islands. Take the attraction combo pass to visit the Tarango Zoo. You can spend the whole day at the Zoo if you wish as the other islands hold little appeal. The Zoo has lots of shows to take in and some cool animals like Meerkats.

Climb the Harbour Bridge- We booked this activity online a month before. The Harbour Bridge is again near to the Circular Quay. We climbed the bridge in the rain and the view was spectacular!

Opera House- Take a tour of the Opera House to learn a bit on how it goes on! The tour tickets are available at the venue.

St Mary's Cathedral

None of the above will be operational after 5pm except the Tower, a lesson we learnt!

The last day we went on a drive to a special place named Kiama, a classic seaside town in New South Wales. the Kiama Blowhole has a history that is unique and fantastic! We packed at a pizza at the nearby Dominoes and sat by the harbour and ate at this beautiful location, an absolute delight!

Storm Bay at Kiama

We stayed at a service apartment which was about 20 mins from Circular Quay. It was close to the Train and bus stations. We booked the accommodation through Airbnb website.

Best part of Sydney-the people!!! So friendly and i am not saying this statement in any of my other travel posts! There were countless times that we lost our way,even with Google Maps we had a tough time to figure out which bus to take on which side of the road! Whom ever we approached for help with the directions went out of their way to help us out!

Good to know:

​For train tickets, there are ​

​ticket kiosks at every station. Ask at the information centre about the station name and purchase your tickets.

Purchase a SIM card at the Sydney Airport which has a good data plan so that you can use Maps to find your way.

Down the App: Trip View, to plan your routes.​

For the bus you can purchase the tickets at any convenience store.

Nothing is too far in Sydney CBD (that's what the locals say!) so keep your most comfortable walking shoes on!

Anzac Memorial at Hyde Park

Kanyakumari – The Land of a Goddess

With large number of devotees, Kanyakumari or Kanniyakumari seems like a typical Indian temple town. November and December is said to be the best season to visit Kanyakumari owing to the pleasant climate. The climate worked out well for me but not the huge number of people there (being a typical crowd hater). We arrived at 9am on a Friday morning by bus. The bus dropped us close to our stay and we walked to our destination – TTDC hotel run by Tamilnadu Tourism Dept. Our checkin time was 10am and we were made to wait until our room got free and cleaned which dragged on till 11am owing to the irritating and foolish rule of the hotel of having both checkin and checkout time as 10am. Meanwhile, we had our breakfast at the TTDC restaurant. We finally got our room to find out that it was not to the standard of our expectations, not even close to it. We freshened up and decided to take up the matter with the front desk staff. We were luckily offered another room due to a cancellation and got a super-sized room at an adjacent building within their property also run by TTDC, the Heritage Cape Hotel. We happily decided to bear the extra cost for the room and our accommodation budget got extended to Rs. 2000/day! I later found out that due to some server issue I was allotted a room online that was not there and hence they had to give me a room (any room) since I had already booked it online. With the matter resolved to our satisfaction we set out to explore the town of a virgin Goddess. First stop was the Vivekananda rock memorial for which we had to take a boat. The queue for the boat was so long that it went beyond 3 streets! We decided to eat our lunch and then see if the crowd gets lesser. We found a pure veg restaurant nearby and had our lunch, I must say that it was unexpectedly costly!! We walked back to check out the crowd and saw to our dismay that the crowd/queue had only increased! We abandoned the plan and went to sit on the beach side and observe the crowd. The temple of Kanyakumari was scheduled to open its doors at 4pm and we stood in the queue at 3pm to avoid the rush. We did avoid the rush to a large extent by this move and finished our darshan satisfactorily. In a span of 2 meter walk from the temple entrance to the chappal stand we were jostled by the crowd, I cannot imagine our plight if we had not stood in the queue an hour early. We asked around a few tour operators there for a taxi for sightseeing the next day and booked one. We then roamed around the streets a bit and settled down around the view point area. This was relaxing but owing to a cloudy day we could not catch the sunset. We returned to our hotel once it got dark and I settled down with a book. We ordered dinner from room service and the service was good!

 

Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thiruvalluvar Statue

Next day brought us clear skies and slightly sunny weather. We checked out and started from our hotel at 10am with a list of places to see! First in the list was the Guganathaswamy Temple, which is about 2 mins from the beach. It’s a small temple and hardly takes 5 mins to visit and get back since there is no crowd here. We set out to the Suchindram town famous for the Thanumalayan temple. The distance is around 10 kms from beach but took us a long time to reach since we had to cross a bridge which allows one-way traffic at a time and there was much traffic. The temple is unique since its deity is a single form (linga) of 3 lords – Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. It even consists of a huge statue of Hanuman carved out of a single granite rock and a huge statue of Nandi. However, I could not enjoy this temple much due to the huge crowd. I however enjoyed looking at the temple’s kalyani! 

 

Temple entrance

 

Kalyani

 Next stop was the popular Nagercoil’s Nagaraja temple. It was surprisingly less crowded! We then set out to the padmanabhapuram palace in padmanabhpuram, former capital city of Travancore. Located at the foot of Veli hills which form a part of Western Ghats, this palace is an excellent example of Kerala architecture. Even though this palace is in Tamilnadu, it is under the jurisdiction of Kerala. It took us an hour to explore the palace! We were allowed to go into almost every room of the palace and it would take more time to properly explore the palace.  It held some beautiful artifacts and paintings!

 

The 300 year old clock which still keeps time

 

Kuthira Vilakku - horse lamp that remains horizontal and ensures no oil spill

 

Palace entrance

 

Side view

 

Artifact in the palace

 We then visited the Udayagiri fort nearby. This fort seemed to contain forest with not much to explore. There was a pond and some geese around it put there mainly for tourist and not much fun but since it was on the way and we could cover it in 20 mins, we went for a walk here. We had a late lunch and it was time for us to head back. On the way we visited the St.Xavier’s church which was quiet nice. 

 

Inside Udayagiri fort

 

St.Xavier's Church

We made it to our bus just in time and settles down to look at the countryside! I suggest that you watch out for the wind turbines around an hour after you leave Kanyakumari, the Muppandal wind farm. With more than 2000 wind turbines, they are a sight not to be missed!!!

Kodaikanal - The Princess of Hill Stations

We reached at 10am on a Monday morning, mildly irritated with the long journey of 12 hours. Who would have thought that Kodaikanal is so far from Bangalore! We had always heard that people drive to Kodia and had the impression that it would be an easy distance, like say 7 hours, 12 was so much more!! And with the last 3 hours spent climbing up the Palani hill range!
As soon as we stepped down the bus, we felt THE Kodai weather, chilly and sunny! We later learnt that it was a perfect weather day at Kodai!
We reached our hotel Altius Nest in 5 mins by taxi for which we paid 100 rupees!! This seems to be a minimum fare to travel from anywhere to anywhere in Kodai n the duration of the ride is almost always 5 mins! Hundred is too much money for 5 mins but since tourism is a major economy driver there, we just had to grin and bear it!
Our room was a honeymoon suite booked more for the great discount I got on goibibo and the reviews I had read rather than the rate of the suite! It was clean and decent, wooden sloping roof, wooden floor, a TV, an electric water kettle, a black tiled bathroom and a picture window overlooking the green hills. No disappointments here! Hunger led us to the cafe downstairs which had a beautiful view. We ate pongal and eggs as this was the only available breakfast available, pongal came with big bowls of red and green chutneys along with sambar, all of which were great! 

 

Hotel Altius Nest

We freshened up and decided to explore Kodai city on foot. Meanwhile we inquired for our next day’s itinerary of visiting the pine forest and the dolphin's nose at our hotel; they helped us book a taxi for it. Taking directions from the supervisor at Altius, we set out! First and the most anticipated stop was the Kodai lake, the beautiful misty Kodai Lake. We bought some peanuts mixed with grated cabbage and carrot and set out in a row boat for a round around the lake. The boatman to our luck was a wonderful photographer and was taking over my camera at the drop of a hat! But he took some great shots so I have no regrets there! We actually went into the mists on the lake and it was quite n heady feeling! The boatman cued into our excitement and offered to extend our ride for 100 rupees ( no surprises with the charge huh?) We quickly agreed but later realized that he hardly extended our round; he just made another stop for photos which was not so bad either! The boat ride in total cost us 220 rupees. We next went looking for cycles n found horses!! Majestic and beautiful horses! We rode them for 1 km, and very soon had to part with them! 1 horse ride per km costed, no doubt, 100 rupees!!! Our next stop was the Coaker’s walk which was about 15 mins walk from the lake. We had some corn on the cob and hiked to our destination. Kodai roads are in inclines and declines and rarely will one find a levelled road! The only levelled road seemed to be around the Lake. It was fun walking the streets, so different from Bangalore!

 

Kodaikanal Lake

 

The misty side of the lake

Coaker’s walk offered us wonderful view points which were mostly obscured with fog which was also a great sight to see.
We walked back towards the lake where there was a tea room serving Italian! The Credis tea room had a great outdoor ambience and good food! We finished our food to find that the time was 4:30 and decided to walk back to our hotel. Since the hotel did not offer any entertainment in the evening, we decided to get facials done at the Prana spa. We initially saw the pamphlets in our room and thought that it was a part of our hotel but later found that it is part of another inn which was a few minutes away. The spa person picked us and dropped us back to the hotel after a relaxing facial. We relaxed in out room with a bottle of non-alcoholic wine, some plum cake and slept soundly by a heater and an extra quilt, for which we had to request in the hotel.

 

Boiled peanuts bhel

The next day started with a bright sun. We basked for a while in the sunshine and set out in a taxi for our day’s adventure. We started from our hotel at 10 am in the morning on a promising day of sunshine, but soon the weather turned foggy as we ascended into the forest area. The plan was to start with the valley tour to continue to the dolphin nose tour. We saw a 500 year old jamun tree which is said to bear fruit even to this day! Unfortunately it was fenced since people started carving their names into its trunk :-( We continued to pine tree forest, the pine trees here as so close to each other that the trees completely fill the sky! Muted sunlight is allowed between the branches! Pine trees due to their proximity to each other produce oxygen during the day and the combined carbon dioxide produced during the night can render a person/animal unconscious, this is also the reason that there are no other plants or even grass amidst the trees.

 

We then stopped at many view points such as, upper lake view, moier point, pillar rocks and guna caves. 

 

Upper lake view

 

Moier point

 

on the way to Guna cave

 

Fairy falls

By now the weather had gone foggy rendering a mystic screen to the forests. We stopped for just a minute in fairy falls and quickly continued to Pambar falls. Pambar falls was lovely! We followed the course of the water downstream to reach the lion cave. The path was slippery and we experienced many slips, but it was manageable since we had our guide with us. Many people who came without a guide were often confused and appeared a little apprehensive. We got back after a 20 min trek (to and fro) to visit the much anticipated dolphin nose. Unfortunately, by the time we got to dolphin nose, the weather had turned extremely foggy, visibility was bad and we had to forgo this trek. We visited a beautiful church La Saleth and came to the city area around the lake. We had lunch at Astoria which I totally recommend. We ended our adventure with a walk in Bryant park. We bought some dry flowers to take back home and returned to the hotel.

 

Pambar falls

 

La Saleth from the side

 

La Saleth entrance

Kodaikanal is one of the few places where one can comfortably walk and explore. However, before buying anything, enquire the price in 3 different shops to be sure of the correct prices. Kodai is a place for you to go for the wonderful weather and if you like exploring a place on foot!

 

The beautiful misty Lake