DesiPundit » Travel

Coorg Tales

Patrix — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:00:42 +0000

Mother Nature had one of those colouring books you might’ve used as a kid. She opened it and like a whimsical child decided to use only one colour for this particular page. She chose green. Rubbed all of the wax out till the crayon got reduced to nothing and it all spilt out of the page. She then chose another one, a different shade of green, which met with the same fate. That was a feeble attempt at creating a snapshot of Coorg just after the monsoons

ChoxBox is enchanted by the beauty of Coorg and its surroundings [hat tip: Sujatha].

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Bike trip guide

Nikhil — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:15:49 +0000

Nithin in a four part series,writes about planning a bike trip, from getting people to route planning , from preparing your bike to taking off.

Chapter 1: Riding Buddies
The most important part of your trip preparation, the weightage to this factor keeps growing as the length of the trip increases. For a weekend trip, you could probably hit the road with people you have no clue about, but on a lifetime trip like, say Leh, or an all india trip, you cant afford to go wrong on the people you pick.

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Meeting Johny Lever fans in Europe

JK — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:16:29 +0000

We even met a German who believes in spending “quality time” with his 15 year old watching Bollywood movies since they love it! And guess what, he knows all Bollywood actors including Johny Lever!! Now who would imagine that! I thought Shahrukh Khan or Hrithik Roshan who btw were his daughter’s favourite actors, were the stars to watch out for, but Johny Lever!! I was truly amazed.

Priya writes about the surprises she encountered during a 2 month travel in Europe.

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Mexico’s Hidden Gem – Queretaro

Nikhil — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:14:34 +0000

Queretaro was definitely the cleanest tourist destination I have seen anywhere in my life. The people in the city are extremely friendly and helpful. Very few people speak English, but a little bit of Spanish on your part will open up doors, bring out smiles and take you a long way. Most of the tourists are Mexicans and people from other Latin American countries as well. We spent a lot of time in the Plaza de la Armas, which is a beautiful square surrounded by restaurants, cafes and bars on three sides.

Rhishi writes about his trip to Queretaro in Mexico.

Hat tip [Quirkquotient]

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Chinese Food in China

IdeaSmith — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:53:31 +0000

A visit to China gets N talking about her culinary experiences - right from streetfood to barely-cooked seafood.

All the food is placed on a rotating glass top at the centre of the table and everybody gets a set of chopsticks. As the glass top is rotated slowly, you can reach in and pluck out of a bowl whatever you want. Only if the dish absolutely demands it do you serve food in a plate of your own. Otherwise the glass top keeps rotating and you keep picking.

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Learning from Thailand

JK — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:03:28 +0000

Here is the notable thing. Tuk, the cabbie, ying-ying, the canoeists, the floating restautant – none of these people were officially a part of the company that operated the trip. However, every person performed their role to perfection and with complete predictability. We did not have to call or talk to anyone to co-ordinate anything. Imagine the same thing in India – the likelihood of one of these pieces not working seamlessly would have been very high.

Hari Nair recently visited Phuket and writes about some lessons he hearned from Thailand’s tourism.

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Toddy & Temples

IdeaSmith — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:35:21 +0000

Brouhaha on the election trail, picks up a number of interesting images of places, people and experiences.

Belying his age this toddy-sapper in Jammikunta near Warangal is about to reach dizzying heights as he takes to a palm tree.

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Election flowers bring manifesto showers

indiatime — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:10:26 +0000

The funniest and saddest thing about India’s uncertainnial election seasons is the party manifestos and promisory documentation that precedes any last minute voting booth strategies. Unlike the other great democracy, Indian voters hardly get enough time to think over the policies, whet out…

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Olives and Cypresses

Patrix — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:25:07 +0000

I had expected to see a small medieval town in the city centre, but what surprised me was the size of the old city. It is huge. I wanted to see the Piazza del Campo, the famous square where the annual Palio horse race takes place. As we walked on and on, there was no sign of this square but arrows on the streets indicated that it was further ahead. Finally when we did come to it, it was one of those “A-ha” moments that you never forget in your life.

Urban planners call it the explosion of space. Sunil travels to the Vinci, the birthplace of (duh!) Leonardo Da Vinci and Siena in the Tuscany region of Italy.

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Fordability and affordability

indiatime — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:15:53 +0000

In another hour or so, the Nano, Tata’s people’s car, the $2000 automotive wonder, opens for sale at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. For the Tatas to pull this off is a remarkable testament to the Indian auto giant and its owner’s drive to make yet another mark on the industry that Tatas…

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Hermitage Living

Patrix — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0000

The Hermitage is a homely place, for there are just 3 units available for guests – a Macchan (sort of tree house with a bathroom at ground level), a Kadaba (traditional village house with an open-air bathroom outside) and a Gota (a rural cottage with electricity and attached bathroom).

Anu travels to and loves the experience at The Hermitage, a primitive and rustic ‘resort’ near Belgaum. Plenty of pictures too.

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Drive to Danushkodi

Nikhil — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:07:04 +0000

Thejesh visits Danushkodi and shares some photographs.

Just with in a kilometers distance we started to realize that we have sea on both sides of us. This jeep was behind us.

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Anatomy of a disastrous Indian vacation, part 2

krishashok — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:53:28 +0000

Here is part 1
In the previous episode: After an exciting, fun-filled flight cancellation experience at the airport, Ashok and gang found themselves at the Esplanade bus stand staring at what they were told would be a Volvo. Read on…to find out what it really turned out to be.
Background…

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2008’s Trivial Matters

IdeaSmith — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:36:50 +0000

Former DesiPundit and prominent photo-blogger Akshay Mahajan traces his journey through 2008 and tells the best of each month’s stories through his pictures.

From the Varnasi vignettes to the Hong Kong races, a rundown movie matinee in Bangalore to Saigon’s streets, Akshay’s travels are captured for posterity when he marries stunning visuals with sensitive commentary.

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Avoiding the Rajdhani

Patrix — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:00:00 +0000

The sample song that you listened to; they play it at all the hours of day and night. One of the things I am looking forward on a 36 hour journey is to catch up on sleep! It is impossible with the music blaring at all hours at a volume over which I have no control.

Traveling from New Delhi to Bangalore, Mridula prefers the Karnataka Express instead of the Rajdhani Express in spite of the added six-hour difference in travel time.

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Landing in Mangalore

Patrix — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:06:43 +0000

Imagine a hillock, the top of which has been flattened to build a short—and it is really short at 5200 feet—runway. Imagine also that at both extremities of the runway, the edges of the hill drop away precipitously into a blue haze. And, if you have not already switched off mentally by now, imagine that the runway is not level, but slopes down from east to west, almost by 30 feet.

Rada describes the scary experience in landing at Mangalore via air.

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Trip to Iran

Nikhil — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:21:01 +0000

And the image of Iran and its people has been colored by over thirty years of western press releases; an image comprising of denial of rights to females, religious intolerance, and inhumane punishments for crime. But all this was hardly apparent to me as I toured by myself for ten days across 8 cities in Iran.

Shivaji who is back from a trip to Iran writes that Iran is a must visit destination.He writes on the places visited and the people whom he met.

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Nandi Hills at dawn

Patrix — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:00:00 +0000

The beauty of going to this place early morning is that, one can expect the unexpected role-plays that nature can perform. At one point, the clouds were just above us, thinning and thickening, providing a shifting mysterious view of the landscape. Trust me there were moments when the camera lens was set for a shot but then the clouds, traveled and the entire composition was distorted.

RemainConnected drives to Nandi Hills at 4am and provides yet another example why photography should be done in the early hours of the day.

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Backpacking to Badami

Nikhil — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:16:15 +0000

I had seen Badami in two movies- a Telugu flick and Mani Ratnam’s Guru, so I knew what to expect. The start was not dreamlike. 14 hours, 3 buses and more than 24 hours since my last bath, and the humid summer heat only made me more uncomfortable. The first place I chose to visit was the museum for obvious reasons – air conditioning, better restrooms and cold drinking water.

Harsha writes about his trip to Badami, the capital of Early Chalukyas.

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Bengaluru Simpluru

Nikhil — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:35:14 +0000

Priya shares her 5 paisa gyaan on BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation).

Vajra is a very good example of daylight robbery. These are some ’special’ buses, coloured grey to show the area of law in which they operate. They charge one-and-a-half times the usual rate, but for what? The seats are not more comfortable, the bus is not air-conditioned, and it’s not even limited-stop. Bah!

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