All holiday travel essentials include a list of – things to do and places to dine. We compile a list based on recommendations from friends, family, blog posts and then narrow down our choices. “In Pondicherry, you should eat at the Rendezvous restaurant.” was a recommendation from family member. “Cafe des Arts is a must…
Tag: Travel
Streetscapes 🏡🚶🏻♂️…Heritage walk in Pondicherry🚶🏻♀️
The best day for a heritage walk – Sunday. Evening would be more pleasant, but our guide insisted on a morning session. Essentials – wide brimmed hat to shield from the sun and camera📸. We were meeting our guide Mr. Ashok Panda in the lobby of the hotel Palais de Mahe in White town, also…
Maison Perumal: A Memorable stay at Pondicherry
Let’s start from where we left off in the last post – at Maison Perumal, Pondicherry… We arrived in Pondicherry tired and hungry from our walk at Gingee fort. Though in the heart of the city, Maison Perumal is located in a quiet lane; we made our way through the narrow road lined by cars and…
Bangalore to Pondicherry: A scenic road trip to the east coast🏖🚙
A distance of over 300 kms; approximately a 6 hour journey; less than the Bangalore-Goa road trip we had last October. We had no stops planned in-between and so the comparatively smaller distance meant a slow start, aiming to reach Pondicherry 3:00 pm; we decided to start out by 9:00 am. (We were late, starting…
Gingee fort: Our Fort(uitous) Encounter
Gingee fort – called by the British as the “Troy of the East” is a majestic fort located in the state of Tamil Nadu. We chanced upon it on our road trip from Bangalore to Pondicherry. Setting off from Bangalore by 9:00 am, we reached the town of Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu by 1:00 pm…
Pondicherry & Mahabalipuram by road …🚙💨 the Itinerary⛱
Puja holidays are finally here 💃. Standing in Bangalore, we look around, where can we go? There is Kerala and Goa on the west coast – been there; within Karnataka there is Mysore – been there; Wayanad and Coorg – been there; hill stations of Coonnor, Ootty – been there too. It’s time to venture…
Mahabalipuram: Getting a makeover for the VIP visit…and the Chinese connection
Mahabalipuram, 55 km from Chennai, situated on the east coast of the Indian peninsula, along the shores of the Bay of Bengal; this little town is seeing an unaccustomed flurry of people – security personnel, media, landscape workers. The residents are used to the tourists, both local and foreign – it’s a weekend getaway for the…
Notes from an American trail 🌇🗽
An American sojourn; traversing the breadth of the country for nearly a month, waking up every two days in a new place, sampling and feasting on new experiences or maybe revisiting old memories. The author has previously lived in the US for a while and now visiting the country after a long hiatus; sharing a page…
The Little Book on Pondicherry 📚🌺
Last October we were on road from Bekal in Kasargode district of Kerala to Kochi. Hubs announces that we will be passing through Pondicherry on our drive. I was skeptical, Pondicherry is nowhere enroute to Kochi, it’s on the other side of the Indian peninsula, facing the Bay of Bengal and we were on the…
Flying in the Monsoon…🌧🌧
…to Kerala…in August. Anything to consider? Memory is short lived. The euphoria of going on a holiday was at forefront and every other thought was pushed aside. August 2018 was chaos in Kerala due to the unprecedented floods, but lightning never strikes (the same place) twice (guess its a saying, not to be considered literally…
Good reads for the Monsoon #3
If you live in Bangalore, you must know that its no joke to say – when it rains in Bangalore, the roads turn to rivers. There is no space for the water to run-off and the flooding slows down the traffic or worse, it brings the traffic to a grinding halt. And if you are…
Good reads for the Monsoon #2 (and a perfect getaway)
If you are residing in a concrete jungle like Bangalore, you will want to get away to some place green and serene given a long weekend to enjoy the monsoon. Where to? Where else but to charming Coorg !! In Coorg we stayed at a resort called Old Kent Estate – one word to describe…
Good reads for the Monsoon #1
Kerala is beautiful during the monsoons. The rains not only wash away dust from the leaves, the land also receives a fresh coat of green in various hues. Needless to say, I enjoy the rain from indoors and the days are perfect to indulge in some reading. I am currently in the mood for books…
Salt & Music
The strangest of bedfellows; but that is the thing about travel…!! I often wonder why people (including me) keep writing (and reading) travelogues; I am not the first person to visit a place and I won’t be the last; and most of the time, thanks to the tourist circuit, we end up seeing and saying…
Lost in a glorious City…
The first time travellers narrate all that they have seen, heard and encountered at a new place; sometimes comparing to their home state or to what they have read and heard about the place. A second journey to the same place after a significant gap results in a totally new script, comprising mostly of the…
Hope Remains
․․․ In the fall of 2013, while on an academic assignment to Warsaw, I decided to travel to the nondescript town of Oswiecim which, for those unaware, is the town closest to the site of the most gruesome Nazi horrors. As I journeyed by train from the capital city to the countryside, I marveled at…
Travails of a train traveller
Today’s post is from my Uncle; an excerpt from his many adventures. I was recently traveling by train to the hometown, in the Hyderabad-Kollam and Kollam-Punalur routes. The Hyderabad train arrived at the Kollam station behind schedule at 1744 hrs, and the onward train to Punalur was about to leave from the adjacent platform at…
D for Dosa
If you are in Kochi and looking for a good place to eat, try the Curry Tree Diner. Dosa, the south Indian vegetarian breakfast staple, is traditionally served coconut chutney and sambar. The plain dosa is made tastier with a filling of mildly spiced potatoes and becomes a masala dosa. The dosa even made an…
Art in town
Woodcut prints by Dennis Muraguri – a Kenyan artist, depicting the matatus – privately owned buses that serve as the primary mode of transportation for the people in Kenya. The buses are mass-produced, but each matatu is modified to be made special and unique; re-painted and fitted with music to attract and amuse the passengers. Hence…
Restaurants in Goa : Lazy Goose, Candolim ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a day of hurried sight-seeing ended; we once again approached our hotel staff for a good place to eat. “What’s the name of the restaurant that is situated below the road level; you have to take the steps down to get there?” asks one staff aloud, unable to recall the name. “Lazy Goose” says…
