The Travel Connection

 Blast from past! The best memory i had of the last trip to this town was that I had the best Rabdi and matka doodh from the street side stalls and  unfortunately missing out on the main temple as it was closed. With this in my mind,We started from Fatehpur Sikri and to save on road tax, our driver decided to take the side roads. This resulted in one of best road trip across the rural India.  Oh! By the way,We were on the way to Mathura, the birth place of Lord krishna. What can i say more but would suggest you enjoy the sights and hopefully get a sense of rustic like we did through some of the photographs. In case you are wondering why no shots of temple , cameras and cellphones are not allowed. I missed the Main Radha Krishna temple in nick of time. We entered the temple but the grabha griha was closed. Once again the sight of krishna had eluded me. In the rush to enter the temple, I...

Blast from past! This was the third stop over of our Delhi, Agra trip. I was extremely excited about getting there. In fact i woke my friends up at 4.30 am and they were forced to have cold showers in winter because of me (Ganga Ratan employees don't think anyone is foolish to take shower at 4.30 am in winters!). My friends still haven't forgiven me for that! I was revisiting this place after 22 years. I just couldn't wait to get there. After having a quick breakfast with a big bunch of Japanese tourist, we set off. Once again!! the great road trip...the most colorful one which was intercepted with the buffalo and goat bazaar happening on the highway. Regret the quality of photographs of this trip as  it was taken from my cellphone. Remember i was in this part of country on "work". So didn't have my camera with me! So where were we getting at so early in the morning? Well you must have guessed it! It was to Fatehpur Sikri. Our first s...

Blast from past! This was the first time i was traveling with an all girls group in North India. I was a little apprehensive as i had heard a lot of stories. We managed to hire a cab known to the owner of the service apartment we stayed in. Luckily he turned out to be a good one and the bit of tension i had as i was responsible for  2 of my colleagues/friends became a little easier. Though i have a traveled extensively in India and other countries, I feel India is not the safest place for women travelers except maybe some parts of South India We had set upon a journey to Agra. The first place you hit before entering the city is Akbar's tomb at Sikander. Nothing surprising here except the herds of black bucks, egrets and langurs lounging around its grounds. This made the place feel more lively than it was. We checked in to  Hotel Ganga Ratan. I know not the most appealing names but this was recommended and we had no time to research before we set o...

Blast from past! I made umpteen number of trips to New Delhi on work in the year 2009 and 2010.But I got only one chance to get away and do some traveling and sightseeing. I have been to Delhi many a times before. This would be a pit stop for my family when we traveled around North India. But i was revisiting this part after 13-14 years. I had very little recollection of this place except what i had seen in my collection of old photographs. As this was supposed to be an official trip, we stayed at a service apartment in Gurgaon. We did the typical tourist rounds to India gate, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Connaught place, Lotus temple, Akshardham and of course to Qutb Minar. Qutb Minar complex was a love at first sight for me. It has one of best maintained grounds and they have audio guides! Audio guide in India!! I was totally impressed. I will let the photographs do the rest of talking. Words cannot describe Akshardham and unfortunately cameras are not...

Blast from past! After a 4 month sabbatical, the traveler in me is on the prowl again. I recently found the missing pictures of a holiday taken in 2009. Well, I had to put on my writing gloves after that. I bet everyone has done that, been there! So instead of the obvious, let me write about the offbeat. Goa and offbeat? Yes , there is more to Goa than the beaches! A long holiday and an itinerary in hand, i narrowed upon the first of the two places we crashed in on our holiday. A self confessed LP fan, i choose a century old heritage hotel " The Panjim Inn" in Goa's Latin quarter for the first 2 days of our holiday. The Panjim Inn has a colonial old world charm with its antique furniture, art and the building itself. I totally recommend it, if you like offbeat!  We started our holiday with a walk through Fountainhas.With its calorful old villas, some crumbling buildings, quaint little shops, it was a sight to our sour eyes and ...