Venkat’s travel diary – Singapore – day 2
13 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Bird, Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari Singapore, Recreation, Saravana Bhavan, Singapore
Our second day in Singapore was reserved specifically for interaction with wildlife. We began the day with a visit to the Jurong bird park, a bird sanctuary housing a large collection of birds from various parts of the world. This place is known for its interactive bird shows where we are visually treated to a plethora of birds performing various amazing stunts and tricks that can make any onlooker wonder whether they are real or not (I had that doubt initially and took me some time to confirm that it was indeed real tricks performed by real birds) .The first show called the “the kings of the skies” is a half an hour show which is a must watch for everyone who visits this park. In this show various carnivorous birds like vultures, eagles etc perform various stunts on the commands of the host. There are just two shows in a day one at 10 am and the other at 4 pm, so ensure that you make it to one of the two shows. We made it to the 10 am show so that we could see the next show at 11am called the “birds and buddies”. This is another interactive show that you should not miss at any cost. This show has a talking parrot, flamingos, parakeets and many other friendly birds performing various tricks including singing songs, playing with each other etc. After these two shows we went around the park seeing various other attractions in a monorail (you heard it right, the park has its own train system). Some of the interesting ones were penguin coast where you can see different types of penguins, lorry loft where you can feed a lory (a small colourful bird) and parakeets in the largest man made aviary built. Rest of the attractions were not great and you can find it in any normal zoo or bird sanctuary.
After having a super lunch at Hotel Saravana Bhavan in Little India we went back to our hotel to take some rest as our next sightseeing place can be visited only at night. Our next sightseeing trip was to the night safari which is one of its kinds in the world. It is a haven for animal lovers as you are shown what animals do at night in their own habitat. Once we entered the park we came to know about a fire dance that was going to take place in sometime, so we waited for it half heartedly as we were eager to see the night safari. But when the show started we found out it in few minutes that the wait was worthwhile as the fire dance turned out to be a visual paradise as the fire dancers did things with fire that we couldn’t even imagine. After getting spell bounded by this performance, we left for the night safari. In this we were taken in a tram around the park with the driver giving a detailed explanation of what each animal is doing at that time, the details about their habitats etc. But after the high standards set by the fire dance performance, we felt disappointed by this tram ride as it did not meet our expectations since it was specifically designed for animal lovers and our affinity for animals was usually repulsive. If you are a true animal lover I advise you to cover the park on foot as in tram you tend to miss a few animals and also you miss the chance to study them closely. After this we went to the amphitheatre at 9 pm for the last program of the day which was an animal show featuring various nocturnal/non nocturnal animals and birds displaying their skills in a moonlit background. Our day ended with a dinner at the famous Chettinadu restaurant Ponnusamy.
Venkat’s travel diary – Singapore – day 1
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: china town, Little India, Merlion, silk air, Singapore, Singapore Changi Airport, travelogue
Phew! Finally made the first cross country trip of my life after a wait of 21years. It was a suddenly planned trip and we decided about it just a few days before the actual D-day, giving just enough time for our travel agent to arrange everything. He had arranged for us a five days five nights trip to Singapore including accommodation at 3 star hotel, local transport in a luxury car with a personal chauffeur, sightseeing trips and return air tickets.
DAY 1:
Our Silk Air flight which is the sister airline of the famous Singapore airlines was a clear disappointment having none of the in flight luxuries that we expected. The only consoling fact was the good looking air hostesses who for a change wished me (in India the air hostess wishes the person in front of me and the one behind me but ignores me completely)when I entered the aircraft and took good care of us all through the 4 hour journey. On arrival at Singapore we were astounded by the enormousness of the Singapore airport more commonly known as the Changi airport. Comprising of three floors, this airport has its own train shuttle system for transfers from one terminal to another, an infinite number of shops and a record number of restaurants one of them being Ananda Bhavan,an Indian restaurant serving tasty South Indian food. This restaurant or for that matter any restaurant in Singapore is not recommended for the faint hearted Indian travellers specifically the ones who try to convert the dollars into rupees after every time they spend. After our light in quantity and heavy in cost breakfast (sorry I am a true Indian) we went to the meeting point at arrival hall to meet the chauffeur and the luxury car promised to us by the travel agent. The driver happened to be an old Filipino guy and the luxury car an older than the driver, Nissan van which looked something like a mini version of our Indian tempo traveller which gave a jerk periodically after every kilometer it travelled.
The first day was reserved for the guided city tour of Singapore which comprised of a visit to the famous Merlion, sightings of Singapore flyer (a giant wheel like structure giving a bird’s eye view of Singapore), Raffles hotel and Raffles hospital, some government buildings including the Singapore court. At Merlion we took some photogaraphs in front of the national emblem of Singapore which is the Merlion( upper part of a lion and lower part of a fish for those who couldn’t guess it with the help of the name). Other than the photography session and view of the Singapore river there is nothing much to do here, hence we continued our city tour to the next destination which was China town(as the name suggests it is a Chinese locality located in the heart of Singapore). Here we visited a couple of Chinese temples which was truly beautiful and is a must see for everyone. We also visited the famous flea market known for its cheap goods, but the so called cheap items were ten times costlier than what we get in India.
Hence obviously we left China town swaying our empty hands. Our final stop was at Singapore gems museum where we were shown how the gems are cut and designed to give the final product( the most boring part of the day). Having no interest in gems or how they are cut we left this place in a time faster than the time that I would spend in the loo. After this we were dropped at our hotel in Little India which is another locality in Singapore inhabited mainly by the Indians. The three star hotel turned out to be a service apartment converted to a hotel. It took us an enormous effort to find our hotel as it was not a hotel at all and no one knew about it. Fortunately the rooms were very comfortable with all the facilities that were required in a good room. After keeping the luggage in our room, we began our search for an Indian restaurant for a good south Indian lunch. Being in Little India, this mission didn’t prove to be very difficult as in five minutes we found out a nice restaurant known as Komalas serving nice south Indian lunch. After lunch we returned back to our hotel to take some much needed rest after the 4 hours flight and nonstop sightseeing. In the evening we visited the world famous 24X7 Mustafa’s shopping centre. As far as we could see, there was not a single item that we couldn’t find here. The place was so huge that we couldn’t decide what to buy( nice excuse for not spending money) and we ultimately decided that this is one place that we should visit again before leaving Singapore. Just opposite Mustafa’s we found a chain of famous Indian restaurants including the likes of Saravana Bhavan, Sagar Ratna, Hot chips, Ponnusamy, Anjappar, Copper Chimney etc. We decided to try all the restaurants before we leave Singapore and hence began our short term goal in Singapore with a visit to Hot Chips. After an excellent dinner we ended our first day in Singapore when we retired to our hotel for the night.
Venkat’s Travel Diary – Kanyakumari
20 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Diwali, Indian Ocean, Kanyakumari, Kanyakumari amman, Mathur Thotti Paalam, Padmanabhapuram palace, Suchindrum, Swami Vivekananda, Tamil Nadu, Thiruparappu, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruvalluvar, Vivekananda Rock Memorial
DAY 1:
‘The more you plan a vacation, lesser the chance it will happen’ considered a myth by many but, proven a fact by us. Our trip to Chandigarh, Shimla and Manali last Christmas was followed by a chain of planned vacations that never happened due to some or the other reasons. So adopting a new policy of not planning a vacation anymore, we decided to go to Kanyakumari, our native place, this year with just a couple of days notice. Due to such short notice, we faced two problems, first the only mode of transport available was flying and second the tickets were expensive. Nevertheless we booked our tickets in a low cost airline with a slight difference that it was not ‘so low cost’ this time. But we didn’t have to worry about the boarding and food over there as we had our grandparents’ house to stay and a grandmother who can cook food better than any five star hotel chef in the world.
Though we had been to Kanyakumari countless times, this trip was different in two aspects. Number one, this was the first time we were going there in a flight and two, we decided to make this into a sightseeing trip rather than the usual ‘eating and sleeping’ trip.
We boarded the flight from Mumbai to Trivandrum (nearest airport to Kanyakumari) on 18th October (two days before Diwali, hence the vacation). Even though the tickets were priced high, the services provided onboard were still for the low cost. You still had to beg for the second bottle of water and the food items were sold at such high prices that you will be forced to replenish your cash once you reach your destination. As I was sitting in the aisle seat, all I could do was to stare at different people who went to attend the natures call or at the airhostesses walking down the aisle to attend the passengers. After two hours of staring and reading the same newspaper thrice, we reached Trivandrum and wasting no time we collected our baggage from the terminal and went to find a taxi. We were glad to find that there were prepaid taxis available and we went to the counter to book a taxi to Kanyakumari. But we got a shock of our lives when we were asked to pay around two thousand for a non a/c car. We knew the distance from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari was around 80 kilometres and two thousand was high even for an a/c car. But with no other option left, we paid the amount and left for Kanyakumari. But soon we found out the exact reason for the exorbitant amount. Two thousand was not for the distance but for time. The 80 kilometre journey took around 5 hours due to poorly maintained roads and poorly managed traffic. We had our dinner in a restaurant known as Gowri Shankar at Chungankada(funny name), a place near Nagercoil, around 30 kilometres from Kanyakumari. The food was a treat to our taste buds and even better, the prices were extremely cheap. We reached our home in Kanyakumari soon and after wishing all our relatives and some chitchatting we went to sleep early as the horrendous drive had tired us greatly.
DAY 2:
We began the day with a visit to the nearby Kanyakumari Amman temple. Even though located in Tamil Nadu, this temple is a Kerala temple in every aspect including the stringent rules that the devotees had to follow, one of them being the removal of shirts by the male devotees before entering the temple. This rule made me have second thoughts about going to the temple as I had no intention of showing my six pack bags to the fellow devotees. But after some cajoling by my parents and some extremely smart covering of the body by me we covered the temple. After this we went to the beach which is just behind the temple. This beach is the meeting place of three water bodies: the Indian Ocean in the south, Arabian Sea in the west and the Bay of Bengal in East. Since we had been to this beach million times we didn’t spend much of our time here and after a few minutes we went to back to our home for the breakfast. After a yummy breakfast, we went to the next place on our itinerary, the Vivekananda Rock memorial. This memorial, built on a rock in the middle of the ocean is a treat to the viewers’ eyes and has become the emblem of Kanyakumari. Being in the middle of the ocean, the obvious way to reach it is by boat. Taking a ferry (which runs nonstop till the evening), we reached the memorial. This memorial contains photos, relics and statues of Vivekananda during different stages of his life. The reason for choosing this place to build the memorial was that it was the place where Swami Vivekananda did penance during the final stages of his life. Next, we went to see the statue of Tiruvalluvar, situated on a nearby rock which again has to be reached by the same ferry. This statue is 133 ft in height and is an architectural marvel and shouldn’t be missed at any cost. After this we went back to the mainland to take some rest till evening.
In the evening we had three places to cover, Kamaraj museum, Gandhi museum and the sunset point. We covered Kamaraj museum and Gandhi museum quickly as they both had nothing much to offer for a history hater like me and mostly contained photos of the leaders during their lifetime. Though I must admit it is a must visit for those who are interested in our country’s history and the leaders it produced. But our main agenda for the day was to see the sunset and we set off for the sunset point at around five thirty. It is a spiral structure built on the seashore and once you climb the top you will have a great view of all three water bodies from here. When it was nearing six, we saw the sunset, a truly spectacular sight. We were lucky that day as the clouds were clear and we had a crystal clear view of sunset. That night, we all were in Diwali mood and we burst a lot of crackers and topped it with a sumptuous dinner made especially for Diwali by my grandmother.
DAY 3:
Being diwali today, we didn’t leave the house and spent time unproductively by bursting a lot of crackers and watching various programmes on television.
DAY 4:
We began the last day of our trip by first visiting the Suchindrum temple which is located at around 13 kilometres from Kanyakumari and houses a 22 ft hanuman statue and also a description of all three Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in the same idol. Again this temple too had the same funny rule that I mentioned and which I despised. This was followed by a visit to the nearby waterfalls called Thiruparappu( around 40 kilometres from Kanyakumari). Though not as famous as Courtallam (a famous waterfall in Tamil Nadu, for those who don’t know about its fame), it still was a splendid sight and we enjoyed it as it was not crowded and we were allowed to stay under the falls for a long time. Next was a trip to the Mathoor Thotti Paalam, a 115 ft aqueduct built in 1966 to carry water from one hill to another. It is the highest aqueduct in the entire South Asia. The last place in this trip was the Padmanabhapuram palace, a palace built during the reign of erstwhile Travancore Rajas. It was interesting mainly because of its splendid architecture made mainly of wood and constructed in Kerala style which was pretty good to see.
We returned back to our house before nightfall and slept early as we had a morning flight from Trivandrum the next day and had to travel again by the same pathetic route from Kanyakumari to Trivandrum.
Venkat’s travel diary – Manali
02 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Hidimba Devi Temple, Himachal Pradesh, Himalayas, manali, Manali Himachal Pradesh, Manikaran, Naggar, Rohtang Pass, Solang Valley
DAY 1:
Continuing our quest for snow, we left for Manali from Shimla on 29th evening. We had booked our tickets in a ‘deluxe bus’ that runs at night. Once we reached the bus stand, we were in for a rude shock. The bus in which we were going to travel had no traces of a deluxe bus. Perhaps, the only thing that was deluxe in the bus was the word ‘deluxe’ written on both sides of it in an extra large font size. Since childhood, I had this bad habit of fighting for the window seat in trains and buses with my younger brother, which always ended in me sacrificing the seat for him. But on that day, he gave me the seat without a fight and I was delighted. But this delight turned into a nightmare after some time as I found out that the window was jammed and was not closing. No amount of pressure on the window or on my brother to sit on the window seat rendered any result and cursing my fate I spent the entire night in the bus in a weather that looked like subzero conditions to me. Adding salt to the injury was the fact that there was neither any leg space nor pushback in our seats. No normal human being could sleep in such conditions and I being one was no different.
DAY 2:
In the morning, three things were bound to happen and it happened, first my face was numb with coldness, second my entire body was aching and finally, I made a new year’s resolution of not travelling in a tourist bus again in my life. But the last one hour’s journey from Kullu to Manali was an unforgettable experience in my life. The snow capped mountains covered in mist and the crystal clear brook running parallel to our road was strikingly beautiful. But the best part of it was yet to come. There was snow on the ground and our joy knew no bounds on seeing it and we were dying to touch and feel it. Our wish came true soon as the bus stopped in Manali and there was snow all over the ground
After having our heart’s fill in touching and feeling the snow, we took a taxi to our hotel. We had booked our rooms in Sterling Resorts. On reaching the hotel, we found out that this hotel was no match to the previous two hotels in Chandigarh and Shimla and it was just average in both looks and service. The receptionist asked us to wait for sometime as the room was still getting serviced and asked us to wait at the restaurant. When we had gone for the breakfast to the restaurant, we found out that the service was pathetic there too. The table cloth looked so dirty that we were left wondering whether it was really a table cloth or a cloth to clean the table. After ordering the breakfast, we waited for an hour before the breakfast finally arrived. We heaved a big sigh of relief as we found out that the food tasted good. After the breakfast we went to our room and found out that it was decent and not as bad as I expected.
We left for sightseeing immediately and our first visit was to the Hadimba temple. This ancient cave temple is dedicated to Hidimbi Devi who was a character from the epic Mahabharata. This temple is located in the middle of a cedar forest and is a wildlife enthusiast’s delight with its rich flora and fauna. The entire temple was made of wood and was covered with snow on top and looked magnificent. Outside the temple, we took photographs wearing traditional Himachali dress which was provided by the photographer. The photographer also offered us a couple of rabbits to hold, but we rejected the offer as it was looking extremely dirty and more brownish than white.
After Hadimba temple, we went to the Naggar fort which was an integral part of the Pala Empire Made from rocks, stones, and elaborate wood carvings, it houses the rich and elegant art works of Himachal Pradesh. It is presently a hotel run by the Himachal tourism board, but one can still see the grandeur of the Pala Empire in some artefacts which are still intact there.
We don’t know whether it was because of the cold climate or the nonstop travelling, we suddenly started feeling hungry and craving to eat something hot. The driver, a local lad recommended a hotel called Adarsh in the mall road. Trusting our driver, we went to mall road and we were expecting it be similar to that in Shimla. But it was completely different as it was noisier and more business oriented. There were hundreds of shop forming a line selling local items like scarves, sweaters and jackets. We decided to come back for a round of shopping during the evening and right now we decided to concentrate on food. We soon located adarsh restaurant and had a sumptuous north Indian lunch. The food and the service were pretty good.
After lunch we decided to go to Solang valley which is a tourist spot located on the way to Rohtang pass. Even though we wanted to visit Rohtang pass, we were told that it would be completely covered in snow during this time and it was not accessible by road. Solang valley is a place well known for various skiing activities that take place here including the winter skiing festival. Over here, you have an option to either try skiing or feign to ski and click photographs. The latter option was the easier, cheaper and also the popular one. Going with the trend, we clicked photos of ourselves on the stationary skis. We also tried to build a snowman in the snow which was abundant over here. But we soon found out that it is possible only in movies and in real life it is pretty difficult even to make a round snowball.
After this exhilarating experience, we headed back to our hotel room to get refreshed. As promised we went back to mall road to ease the burden on my dad’s wallet. As it turned it out, it literally became weightless after a tiny round of shopping which included some Himachali topis (hats), scarves and a memorabilia of Manali to take back with us. After a visit to the ATM which was bound to happen sooner or later, we went to have dinner. Like the lunch, this too was good and enjoyable. We returned back to our hotel after dinner to give our body the much needed rest after the debacle at the bus and the long travelling.
DAY 3:
We had reserved this day for Manikaran, which is famous for its hot water springs and many temples nearby. We left for Manikaran, which is around 45 kilometres from Manali, after our breakfast. The route as expected was filled with beautiful landscapes and sceneries and gave our camera nonstop work to do. Once you enter Manikaran, you can sense a rise in temperature due to the hot water springs that are abundant here. Manikaran is a sacred place for both the Hindus and the Sikhs as you can see a large number of temples and gurudwaras all around it. Of them the most famous is the Ramachandra temple dedicated to lord Rama and Seeta which we visited first. We were told that the water in all the springs here are so hot that you can cook rice in it. To find out ourselves we bought a small bag of rice and immersed it in a spring nearby. After ten minutes of holding and considerable amount of pain in my right arm, I found out that it was true; the rice really had been cooked but not completely as I had kept it for just ten minutes. After this we went to a nearby Gurudwara and followed it with lunch at a small restaurant where the food was below average. After lunch we did some shopping for some time, but bought nothing for a change. Soon we began our return journey to Manali in order to reach there before dark. We did reach there before dark and had an early dinner at our hotel. We slept early as we had a morning flight from Kullu next day and we had to leave before dawn. Thus ended our short, but memorable trip to the most beautiful parts of our country.
Venkat’s travel diary – Shimla
27 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Asia, Himachal Pradesh, Himalayas, India, Kalka, Kufri, mall road, mountains, nh 22, pinjore gardens, Shimla, shiwalik, Travel and Tourism, travelogue
DAY 1:
Having completed our visit to the first planned city of India, Chandigarh(whose travelogue I have already penned down), we headed towards Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh. With our minds heavy with wonderful memories of Chandigarh and our bags heavy with the clothes and bedspreads that we bought in Chandigarh, we left for Shimla on 28th afternoon in a rickety old Indica car. Probably the only thing older than the car was our driver. It would have been more fun and picturesque if we had taken the toy train from Kalka (around thirty kilometres from Chandigarh) to Shimla, unfortunately the train was overbooked that day and we had no other option other than the road. The driver consoled us somewhat by saying that it takes more than 5 hours to reach Shimla by train and is a waste of money and time. But still we wanted to experience the scintillating beauty of Himalayas through train.
Nevertheless we started our journey to Shimla and on the way we stopped at Yadavindra gardens, a scenic garden located on the outskirts of Chandigarh in a town called Pinjore. The speciality of this garden besides its scenic beauty is the fruit chaat which is made from the fruits plucked fresh from the very same garden. We were told that this place becomes exceedingly beautiful at the evenings with its beautiful lightings and sparkling water in the fountains.
After spending an hour in Pinjore gardens, we continued to Shimla via Kalka, Dharampur and Solan. At Dharampur, we stopped to have tea at a local dhaba called Giani Da Dhaba, recommended by our driver, who by now had become exceedingly talkative and was chatting nonstop with us. After having tea accompanied by delicious vegetable pakoras, we left for Shimla. Once we crossed Solan, there was a slight change in the weather. It started getting chilly and we started feeling cold even though we were wrapped in woollens. We were slightly getting scared as the roads were getting narrower at certain places and the driver was spending more talking to us than driving. We tried to enter the one sided conversation with our driver by asking him about the climate in Shimla and he disappointed us by saying that the weather would be slightly colder than Chandigarh but it hadn’t started snowing there. One of the reasons why we planned this trip during this time was to experience snowfall or at least see snow. But unfortunately both of our wish was not going to be fulfilled at Shimla. But we were lightened when he mentioned that there would be snow 365 days a year in Manali which was also a part of our itinerary.
The road to Shimla was not too bad and not too good, but the scenery was breathtaking. One side of the road was always filled with tall pine trees and beyond which stood the mighty Himalayas. We also extended a hand of friendship to hundreds of monkeys on the way by giving them some bananas and some nuts. We reached Shimla by late evening. We had booked a room at Hotel Oberoi Cecil, a famous hotel in the outskirts of Shimla. This hotel was even more comfortable and luxurious than the hotel in Chandigarh. After keeping our luggage in the room, we immediately left to Mall road. This is the most famous road in Shimla and is home to the Municipal office, the post office, police headquarters and the Fire department. This road is just for the pedestrians and vehicles are not allowed. We had to take a lift from the bottom of the ridge on which this road is located and on reaching the top we walked along the road to the top. This road is also a shopper’s delight as it has many shops selling local items like handicrafts, shawls etc. It also has departmental stores, bakeries and restaurants. After walking for some time we reached the end of the road where a church and a Gandhi statue is located and is the main spot of attraction in mall road. We controlled our temptation to buy something from here as the products here were a touch expensive. We went back to our hotel for the dinner and it was quite excellent as expected from Oberoi. After the dinner, we tried our best to stay awake and watch TV for some time, but the warmth of the room and the thick blankets made us snuggle into them and we fell asleep immediately.
DAY 2:
Probably the only thing that would have woken us on the next day was the alarm we had set for 7 am and perhaps the thought of visiting Kufri, a scenic village located at around 15 kilometres from Shimla. But unfortunately none of them woke us up from our deep slumber and it was only after a chance telephone call from the reception informing us about the taxi they had arranged for the sightseeing, did we wake up. After getting ready quickly, we set out for Kufri along NH 22. Kufri is a beautiful hill station located at slightly higher altitude than Shimla. As a result of this, it receives more snowfall and is colder than Shimla. Kufri has a national park and a temple at a hilltop called Mahasu peak. Besides this, there is a restaurant run by the Himachal Pradesh tourist board and some shops selling local products. We started with a visit to the temple at the Mahasu peak. It is the tallest point in Kufri and there are two options to go here, first, by walking and the second, on a horse or a yak. We preferred the latter option but opted for the horse rather than the slow moving yak. But we took pictures sitting atop the bored looking yak. On reaching the top, we saw what Himachal Pradesh can actually offer. The sight from here was breathtaking and it included the infinite rivers, the imposing mountains and the panoramic valleys. We went to the temple and also saw Indo – China border through a telescope. Though we had to pay for it, the view was worth it. After climbing down from Mahasu peak, we went to the national park which is home to animals like the Hangal, Barking Deer, Musk Deer, Himalayan Bear and a rare species of Monal. After this we went to have an early lunch in café Lalit, a nearby restaurant run by tourism board of Himachal Pradesh. After having lunch which was just average, we went back to our hotel to get ready for our trip to Manali.
Chandigarh – Venkat’s travel diary
25 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: c, Chandigarh, India, Mansa devi, Nek Chand, Rock Garden, Saketri, Sukhna Lake
If you are one of those lucky few who have been to Chandigarh, you will definitely agree with me that it is one of the best places in the world to spend your life. It is for those people who never got an opportunity to visit Chandigarh and for those who never cared to include it in their travel plans, that I am writing this travelogue, to convince them to pack their bags and rendezvous with this wonderful place
I got this wonderful opportunity to visit Chandigarh during my last Christmas vacation and before this trip all I knew about Chandigarh was that it was the capital of both Punjab and Haryana and was very cold during winter season. The latter thought revolted me as I was never a great fan of cold weather.
DAY 1:
We left for Chandigarh on 26th afternoon by air. On reaching Chandigarh, two things struck me as odd, first, the weather was not as cold as I had expected and the second, the airport was extremely small to be called an airport even after considering the fact that it was mainly used for defence purposes. The arrival hall was even smaller than the cafeteria in Mumbai airport. Nevertheless we got our baggage and went out to find our driver. The hotel where we were going to stay had arranged for free pickup and drop service from the airport for us. This cannot be considered as a noble gesture by them as they were charging an exorbitant amount for one night’s stay. Soon we found our driver holding a placard containing my dad’s name. The driver, a nice guy with a weird Hindi accent, which was mostly incomprehensible, guided us to the car and helped us with our luggage. He then gestured my dad who was sitting in the front seat to wear the seat belt as we were not aware of the fact that Chandigarh was known for its stringent rules and more importantly the measures taken by the cops to impose these rules. Being used to the badly constructed roads and lack of any greenery in Mumbai, it was refreshing to see clean four lane roads which were lined with trees on both sides. Another interesting thing about Chandigarh is that after every kilometre there is a roundabout and the area between four roundabouts which is exactly one square kilometre, is called a sectorSoon we reached our hotel (Hotel Mount view) which was the only four star hotel in Chandigarh then. Now they have a strong competitor in Taj Chandigarh. As they say, the comfort level of a hotel room is inversely proportional to the time spent on sightseeing. This statement almost became true in our trip as the room was extremely cosy and comfortable and it took us all our will power to leave the hotel for sightseeing.
Since it was late in the evening we were advised by the hotel receptionist to just go for shopping in sector 17 for the day and leave remaining places for the next two days. One surprising thing about Chandigarh is the poor public transport facilities available here given the fact that it is a well planned city. The widely used mode of transport here is the cycle rickshaw. We went to a cycle rickshaw stand nearby and asked a rickshaw driver to take us to sector 17. The normal seating capacity of a cycle rickshaw is 3 people but for normal healthy people the capacity comes down to two or even one for extremely healthy people like me. Nevertheless we somehow managed in two rickshaws and reached sector 17. We were amazed to see that an entire sector was reserved for shops. It is a paradise for shoppers especially for the fabric lovers as it had a multitude of clothes shops selling every known brand and known dress type available in the market. After two hours of shopping we ate our dinner at a south Indian restaurant called Sagar Ratna which by the looks of it looked like the most preferred restaurant in sector 17 as there was a beeline of crowd waiting to enter the restaurant. Fortunately the long waiting time was compensated by the amazing south Indian food that was served to us which we relished. We went back to our hotel by 10 pm and immediately fell asleep after a long tiring day filled with travelling and shopping, to get fully charged for another long day.
DAY 2:
After a complimentary breakfast at our hotel we started our second day with a visit to the famous Rock Garden in sector 1, a sculpture garden made completely with the help of stones, rocks and waste materials like discarded plugs, broken pots and even old toilet seats. It was the brainchild of Mr. Nek Chand who created it in 1957 during his spare time. It is spread over an area of 40 hectares and contains unlimited varieties of sculptures each varying in some aspect. It also houses a room of funny mirrors and an artificial waterfall for the non art lovers. We were extremely tired by the time we finished seeing the entire garden, imagine the effort put by one person to create it.
After this tiring but interesting trip, we went to a nearby lake called as Sukhna Lake. The speciality of this lake is that it is completely man made and is the home to millions of birds during the winter season. Apart from this there was nothing special except perhaps the boating, which we avoided as it was extremely sunny even for winter season.
We had just two more places to visit in our itinerary which we kept it for the last day of our trip. They were the famous Mata Mansa Devi temple and the Shiva temple at Saketri. After the visit to Sukhna Lake we went to a nearby market called as Shastri Market in sector 22 which again was famous for clothes and foot wears available at very cheap prices. After buying some jackets and sweaters at cheap prices , we left for Mani Majra and Panchkula, our last two stops for the day. Mani Majra had the only mall in Chandigarh then, Fun Republic and Panchkula had a huge clothes supermarket known as Amartex. Having been brought up in Mumbai and having spent more than half of our lifetime in malls, we finished Fun Republic in record time and left shamelessly to Amartex for buying more clothes. It again turned out to be a haven for bedspreads and pillow covers which were available aplenty and at unbelievable prices.
We ended our day with a sumptuous dinner at hotel Kaptain’s Retreat in sector 35, the restaurant owned by Kapil Dev, the greatest all-rounder the Indian cricket team ever had. This restaurant had walls adorned with photos of great cricket players and also displayed various memorabilia that was associated with Kapil. The atmosphere had cricket written all over it and the food was delicious, thus ending our day with a sweet note.
DAY 3:
We began our last day in Chandigarh on an auspicious note by visiting the Mata Mansa Devi temple near Panchkula. This temple is a very famous temple and is visited by millions of devotees every year. It is especially crowded during Navaratra time which is considered a highly auspicious time to visit this temple. After this, we went to the Shiva temple at Saketri, which was comparatively lesser known than Mansa Devi temple. This temple is an ancient temple located at around few kilometres from Panchkula and has serene surroundings with a calm atmosphere and is a must visit for all. We came to know that this temple gets a complete changeover during the shivaratri time when the entire area adorns a festive look and is thronged by thousands of devotees on that single day.
Thus, ended our short but interesting trip to Chandigarh, which left us with sweet memories that we can take back to Mumbai. From Chandigarh, we continued our onward journey to Shimla and Kullu Manali.
12 Sivalayams of Kanyakumari
05 Feb 2011 1 Comment
in Travel Tags: Sivalaya Ottam
There are 12 Siva temples in Kanyakumari district, which are very famous for the marathon run performed by the devotees on the Sivarathri day. It is known as Sivalaya Ottam. On that day the devotees cover a distance of around 90 km by running or by walk starting early in the morning from Thirumala temple and end at Thiru Nattalam late in the night.
The temples and the order in which the devotees cover the pilgrimage are Thirumala, Tikkurichi, Tirupparappu, Kalkulam, Melankodu, Thiruvidaikkodu, Thiruvithankodu, Thiruppantrikodu and Thirunattalam.
These sacred temples (Dwadasalayam) are located near Padmanabhapuram which was one the captial of erstwhile Travancore state, now in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. On the Sivarathri day, the devotees wearing the saffron coloured robes and uttering the words “Govinda, Govinda” cover all these temples by running within 24 hours. The devotees are mostly from Kanyakumari district and also from the nearby Trivandrum district. Nowadays many devotees visit all these 12 temples by motor bikes or by car. There are package tours available at Trivandrum on Sivarathiri day.
The race of the pilgrims on Sivarathri uttering the name of Lord Vishnu is unique and substantiates the truth that Siva and Vishnu are but two manifestations of one Supreme being.
Kanniya kumari – rare photographs
05 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Kanyakumari, twin rocks
Rare photographs of Kanyakumari taken 60 years back
Kanyakumari temple Before the construction of boat jetty
Twin rocks before the construction of Vivekananda memorial and Thiruvalluvar statue
Kanyakumari now
Vivekananda & Thiruvalluvar rocks Boat Jetty
