Journal of our Travel Tales and Photos

Bhimashankar Temple - Jyothirlingam

2011-09-20T13:28:00.003+05:30

Bhimashankar temple is one of the 12 Jyothirlingas in India. The temple is situated is around 120 km away from Pune. It took 3.5 hours from Pune with a 15 minutes break at Godegaon for breakfast. We had planned a one day trip to Alibaug with our friend and family. But since it was raining non stop for the last few days, we decided to drop the plan. Since we were getting two consecutive days as

Balaji Temple at Narayanpur, Pune

2011-03-04T15:10:00.000+05:30

The entrance gate When you break the news of moving to a new city, folks will be eager to share any little info about the city, some first hand info or heard from friends or families. And some of them might not have even passed through that city as part of a journey to say the least. But will have lots to tell in the tone of authentic info. So before we moved to Pune, we too has our share of

Weekend at Matheran

2011-02-17T13:19:00.000+05:30

Matheran, meaning the forest on top, was on top of my list when we moved to Pune. Though Mahabaleshwar and Lonavala is much talked about hill stations, I wanted to visit Matheran for a long time. When we decided for a short holiday and hubby was not very particular about any specific place, I decided its Matheran. All I knew that vehicles are not allowed in Matheran. So you have to either take a

Flower show at Empress Garden

2011-01-24T15:03:00.000+05:30

There was a flower show for 3 days at the Empress Garden, near to the Race course, Pune. We visited on Sunday and it was the last day of the show. The garden has many huge trees which gives much shade to the sprawling garden. I am visiting the garden for the first time. So I don't know how the garden is during the other days. But most part of the garden looked done up as part of the on going

Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon

2011-01-12T10:23:00.000+05:30

Its been a long time since I updated my space here. After Jan-2010, I didn't travel much. I had planned to write about the various temples in and around Palakkad. But it did not take shape into blog posts. And my husband's job brought me to another state. I thought life in a new place will give me some material to blog here. The initial few months went into settling down in the new place and had

Murudeshwar - Karnataka

2010-01-22T13:43:00.000+05:30

Boarded the West coast express (Chennai-Mangalore) on 14th at 9:00 P.M. Reached Mangalore at 4:50. Headed straight to the waiting room. After refreshing, got tickets to Murudeshwar and travelled by the Mangalore Verna Express (Train No KR2). It left Mlore at 6:30. Most of the passengers were tourists to Udipi/Mookambika/Gokarna etc. The journey was good with lovely sights of greenery and

Vacation at Mumbai

2009-09-10T16:46:00.005+05:30

The vacation destination for 2009 was decided to be Mumbai. With dates rescheduled twice, I wasn't sure, if we will make the trip. So I did not plan much on what to be done after reaching Mumbai . Tickets were booked. To confirm my fears, the media was blaring non-stop about the spread of Swine flue. We had almost decided to drop the travel plans to Mumbai. Finally with some pushing from R

Thechi/Chethi Poo ~ From My Garden

2009-07-10T16:43:00.002+05:30

In my childhood days, we used to suck the nectar from the thechi poo. This was one of the favorite past time during summer holidays.Chuvappu/Red Thechi Manja/Yellow Thechi

Different colors of Hibiscus from my garden

2009-06-30T15:47:00.003+05:30

Hibiscus/ Chembarathi(in Malayalam) - Few pics of the varieites of hibiscus from my garden. The word Chembarathi even now brings the image of this variety to my mind, though numerous hybrid varities are around. There are few more colors in my garden, which I could not click before the plants were trimmed.

Yercaud -Part II

2009-06-03T16:41:00.004+05:30

Yercaud trip contd...Day 2We had an elaborate breakfast of idli, vada, masala dosa, puri and masala, pongal , tea and a glass of lassi.That was Shevaroy's special breakast. we had fixed the auto driver who took us to Pagoda the day before, for taking us around the other view points. We started at 10:AM sharp.First stop was Lady's seat and few metres away is the Gent's seat. Spectacular view from

Destination Yercaud ~Poor Man's Ooty Part I

2009-05-28T15:28:00.007+05:30

View from Pagoda Point1st May,2009The summer was becoming unbearable. Still a month for the rains to pour, if at all monsoon arrives as expected. Its time for a much needed break from the routine. This time, wanted to go somewhere just to unwind. Was not very keen on sightseeing. Yercaud suited us. we had an idea of a family get together and asked my both Brothers-in-law to join with their

Alappuzha Part-II

2009-01-22T15:05:00.000+05:30

Day 2 - 16th Jan,2009Started at 6:30. Went straight to Ambalapuzha, 11 kms from Alappuzha. The kalabha utsavam was going on there. There was crowd but we had a good darshan. Took the token forthe famous offering of the temple - Palpayasam. The prasadom will be distributed at 12:30 only. We then proceeded to Mannarsala, the temple for Snake god. Around 10 tourist buses and numerous taxis were

Alappuzha/Allepey Part -I

2009-01-20T23:48:00.002+05:30

Alappuzha trip was planned with the purpose of visiting Mannarsala, Ambalapuzha and other near by temples and a boat ride through the back waters. Satish said the priority is for temple visit. So if time permits, can consider boat ride. I had done enough googling and knew all these could fit in our schedule and just nodded to what he said.As decided, we got into the Chennai-Alleppey express from

Wayanad-Part III

2008-10-20T14:06:00.002+05:30

Day 2 : Thirunelli temple, Kuruva Island and Banasura Sagar damThat day being Id, Naushad had arranged for another cab. So that day's driver was Prakasan. He was an elderly gentleman, born and brought up in Wayanad. He entertained us with the history of Wayanad and showed us various adivasi colonies and told us about the habits of adivasis etc. We were to start at 8 today. Since we got the

Wayanad - Part II

2008-10-14T10:21:00.000+05:30

Day 1The cab , a blue Tata Indica, came on dot 11 A.M. It was comfortable for two of us. Naushad was to drive us the whole day. He told us, we will be visiting Edakkal Caves, Soochipara Falls and Pookot Lake for the day. Our first stop was Edakkal caves. Having heard a lot about Edakkal caves and I was very much thrilled with the thought of going there. Noushad left us at a point beyond which

Wayanad - Part 1

2008-10-10T16:12:00.002+05:30

We both were planning for a break for sometime. Finally decided to go during the Ed-Gandhi Jayanthi holidays. Satish agreed to take an additional day off on 30th Sept. So dates decided. The major part was where to go? My first preferred destination was Coorg/Madikkeri. Browsed net for info and found many travelogues and tips on Coorg. And I found many mentioning about Wayanad too. Wayanad is in