The Travel Connection

If you don’t know what a twitcher is then, this might not interest you. No it has nothing to do with the Blair witch project or maybe it could. In the Blair witch project, there were three film makers who hiked into black hills to film the legend.  In the twitch project, three of us had journeyed through the hard roads of Karnataka, fought the potholes, and conquered the crowd to film the migratory birds. Like with all discoveries, we chanced upon Ranganthittu on our way back to Bangalore as we had taken some crossroads. Our driver tried to dissuade us from venturing into the waters claiming that the sanctuary closes by 4.00pm. But nothing can stop us “the mighty twitchers”. OK technically I am not a twitcher as I don’t walk the distance to spot the rare birds, but even the everyday birds are becoming a rare sight. So I guess the term twitcher is fine. It was a mixed crowd on the boat. As most of us were birding enthusiasts, our guide agreed to take us on a long...

Weekend day trips – Can anything be better than heading out of the city. But before heading out, one has to get over the hurdle of getting the group to agree on a place and the date. After a long time, a big group of us had managed to make plans. But on the day of the trip, from a group of 8, we were down to 4. Why don’t plans always fall in place? All days trips lead to Mysore road. This was no different.We were about 5 kms into the trip when we were stopped by the Bangalore traffic police. It was the end of the month and the cops are like werewolves on a full moon day. Is that politically incorrect? Now twihard fans know werewolves can be good too! They always look out for their loved ones. Don't you agree? So Getting back to the  honest cop. He claimed we had run a red light and without batting an eyelid, asked us to grease his palms. Grease is a very useful lubricant. It can make you dance like Travolta, let you transfer money without  IFS...

When I got to know this place is called the "Scotland of east" I was eager to holiday there once again. Considering Scotland is one of my favorite spots, Coorg had lot to keep up to. Coorg is a district in Karnataka and you can either stay in the plains by the river Cauvery or in a coffee plantation high up in the hills. Considering it is summer, I choose to go up into the hills as high as possible.  The place I wanted to unwind in was situated at foothills of the highest peak in the region - Thadiyandamol about 5700 feet above sea level. The palace estate got its name from the nearby 17th-century Nalnad Palace and is one amazing home stay in the Kakabe area of Coorg. The quaint little wooden structured rooms with the balcony overlooking the valley are a perfect place to rejuvenate. The friendly hosts, the amazing local food for breakfast, simple home cooked food for lunch and dinner made the trip to this place worthwhile. To the dismay of ...

Blast from past! What a road trip!! No, I am not saying this out of excitement but out of frustration. Unfortunately Karnataka has the worst possible roads. The drive rattles and tattles you out of your bones. You will need a holiday to recover from a holiday! This trip was supposed to be for a social event outside Bangalore. I was a little hesitant about making this trip till my family threw in the bait of visiting this place as a part of this trip. The place that I got tempted with is Halebid and Belur. For the uninitiated, Halebid and Belur is home to finest architectural examples from the Hoysala period. The temples will turn 900 years old in another 11 years!! Can you imagine that! Google gives all the information about this place but a fact that I was new to is that Hoysalas were Jains before Ramanuja converted them into Srivaishanavism. There is a Jain temple of 23rd Thirthankara Parshwanath Swami in Halebid. One can see the basic form of Hoysala architect...

I always heard this hill station being mentioned with a lot of excitement. I was very eager to reach the place and experience it first hand. But first a long 4 hour journey through hot and humid Cochin had to be made from Allepey. I waited and waited for the amazing drive I had been told about. A long drive but it all started with two amazing water falls:Cheeyapara and valara. Since I was traveling at the end of the monsoons, both the falls were at their best. With new vigor I carried on till I hit on the rolling hills with tea gardens. Behold, I had reached Munnar!! A sight for the soothing eyes. Yes the drive through tea gardens is one of the good drives one can do in India  We stayed at a home stay “Olive brook”. This place had got very good reviews on trip advisor but I felt it could have been better. The only great thing about the place  was it felt like i was  in an aviary. I could hear the constant...

Blast from past! After the fun filled day capturing Nessie, I was all set to explore rest of Edinburgh. Ok I was a little low on energy as capturing a monster is no child's play. So after a quick breakfast at the Inn I decided I would take the Hop on Hop off bus instead of walking. I walked up to its bus stop close to the Inn and caught the bus. The bus took us too holyrood which is the official residence of the British Monarchy in Scotland. I wasn't really interested in exploring the palace. Close to the palace is the hill where you can trek up to the highest point of Edinburgh. I didn't want to do that either. So I caught the bus back and just went on a full loop without getting out anywhere. On reaching the royal mile which is nothing but a road which has the Edinburgh palace on one end and the official residence on the other end, I got out of the bus. I did some window shopping till I came across a sign in big letters saying that they...