Balestrand- Norway (Norge)

Balestrand- Fjord town

 Last summer my husband and I went to Norway, it was a well planned trip and me being the super planner /organiser I managed to find some awesome deals. Before I go any further I must mention that Norway is super expensive BUT if you dig and do your research one can manage it and stay within budget. Now summer in Norway is a busy time, flocked by tourist from all over the world finding accommodation within your budget could be a challenge (even Airbnb) and the only reason we choose Balestrand was because it was the only place we could find a decent hotel within out budget, fortunately it was a blessing in disguise, our Norway trip was spread over 10 days and Balestrand was the last leg of our trip.

We started our trip from Oslo, it took us just about 6 hours by bus from where we live the Swebus tickets were cheap and the bus comfortable. I will write about the Oslo-Bergen-Balestrand journey in another post.

If you plan to go to Balestrand by public transport that is by the Express boat and if you don't have a car it is best to buy the Norled Fjordcard, we bought the 5 days Fjordcard each costing 995 NOK ( 1250 NOK 2017 summer price) but it is an awesome way to explore the Fjord towns in Sognefjord. We bought the Fjordcard from Bergen and made full use of it. We visited  few other fjord towns and loved every part of the explore Sognefjord tour.

 Food in whole of Norway is expensive, I personally don't like burgers or Mcdonalds food but even the cheapest burger in Mcdonalds or Burger King will cost 99 NOK, so we decided to stick to normal food by paying a little extra. In Sweden I can except to have a decent meal in 100 SEK, I am not talking about donor kabab or falafel but a proper meal say a buffet in a good (not so fancy) restaurant, sometimes we can have lunch even in 65 SEK say at the small Thai-Chinese takeaway food kiosk/restaurant but in Norway that is just not possible. A decent meal will cost 200 NOK or more. So while selecting Hotel accommodation I was careful to book in hotels which included breakfast, in fact the hotel we stayed in Bergen (amazing location)  included even dinner.  So it is important to check what all are included in the price and select hotels carefully.

 Balestrand is a very picturesque town with just about 1500 inhabitants, perfect for a quite and soul searching trip. The view of snow capped mountains and the fjord was not just serene but had such a calming effect on me, the town is also know for some landmark places like the Kvikne hotel, the wooden structure with the view of the fjord I am sure will make anyone fall in love with this place.

Kvikne hotel

View from the balcony....breathtaking...oh yes

 The sunset was late and the sunrise early but when the view is as beautiful as this I was more than happy that the days are very long and nights short or rather very short. We stayed at this hotel called Mintnes and had the most amazing view from the room. The three days went so quick that I immediately regretted spending three days in Oslo. Norway just took our breath away and of all the countries I have visited I have to admit that its the most beautiful and wonderful of all. The mountain, fjord and nature everything was breathtakingly beautiful. I am a mountain girl, I feel most at peace and home in the mountains but the combination of the snow capped mountains + water made me  wishing for a trip to Norway every summer, we do plan to visit Norway as often as possible and we are yet to explore and visit more amazing places.

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A Holiday post- Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar

Sunset- View from Table Land Panchgani

I visited Panchgani with my husband few weeks back, after google searching and more google searching we decided to visit Panchgani for a short break. The view of sunset from the famous Table land and the really awesome weather makes Panchgani my current fav. holiday place in India. I used to think that I like sea and beaches more than mountains but off late I have realized that for the kind of person that I am I prefer mountains than sea. Growing up in Imphal and seeing the Mountains almost every day of my life for 17 years, mountains never fascinated me now but for a holiday destination I will choose Mountains over any other destinations because its peaceful

Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar are two  very popular holiday destination for people from Gujarat and Maharashtra but I think more popular among the Gujarati's, my husband said he has never seen so many Gujarati's at one place  in any other popular tourist places in India, which was true because almost every car and Bus had a Gujarat number. As Panchgani offers great weather, affordable accommodation and also the proximity to many district in Gujarat I guess that makes Panchgani attractive. But the reason we were attracted to Panchgani was  because it's close to Pune and I just didn't wanted to go to Lonavala or the over hyped Khandala.

Panchgani is a just a little over 100 Kms from Pune, if you travel in your own vehicle it wll take about 2.30 hrs but if you travel by one of those commercial private bus service it will easily take 4-5 hours because they will stop for lunch which will easily take 30-40 mins and also they will stop at so many places that you will easily end up travelling for at least 4 to 5 hrs. If you plan to travel by Public transport the best way is to take the MSRTC buses which is cheap and may even take lesser time. (http://www.msrtc.gov.in/msrtc_live/index-eng.html). We stayed at this really nice place which was 5 mins walk from the main market and the main Bus and Taxi stand,  Hotel Mount View Heritage ( http://www.hotelmountview.co.in/heritage.html) located on the main road and owned by a Parsi family, the property is well maintain and the owners very, very hospitable . The food was really good and the best part was almost all the tourist places were located within walking distance, including the Table Land, if you are in a mood to walk and explore the town I suggest you avoid taking taxi in Panchgani. My husband and I walked till Sidney Point and also till Table Land, which I thought was just a flat mountain top till I saw the Sun set, the view of Sun set is breath taking and I have never seen such a beautiful sunset in my life. What was really amazing was that as I was admiring and watching the sun set I realized that it sun sets very quickly but yes we did managed to take some really amazing shots.  We also visited Mahabaleshwar but it was so crowded that we happily came back to the hotel as soon as possible, the Venna Lake and even the garden next to it was beautiful but it was so crowded that I didn't had the patience to go on one of the boat rides. The Mapro garden was a total disappointment, I thought that garden will have some Strawberry garden but it was just one big overcrowded restaurant which had an empty so callled 'Chocolate Factory' on display. I advice is skip the MAPRO garden and spend some time at the Venna Lake instead.
 
Panchgani is in my list of 'Must visit' places and I plan to make that happen soon :)

Venna Lake

Europe on a budget

For the longest time I have been thinking to write this post, how to travel to Europe on a budget and by budget, let me make it very clear that I do not mean shoe string budget I mean a little over shoe string and not staying in hostels but hotels in good and accessible locations with breakfast, where to eat (cheap), tips to save money, what to buy as souvenirs and how to stay safe and out of trouble . 

Since I have traveled to many European cities alone,with friends and also with my husband I plan to cover these aspect of travel as well. Like if you are traveling with your friends, you may not mind staying in a hostel, in fact few of the hostels I have stayed were really good but having said that hostels have their own issues like the shared toilet being one of them which will be a BIG NO if you are travelling with you family, moving on as part of the Europe on a budget series I plan to cover  cities I have traveled  and enjoyed every moment of it. I will also be writing about day trips that can be done if you happen to live in a neighboring country. The following popular cities will be covered 

a) Paris

b)Barcelona

c)Lisbon & Porto

d)Belgium- Brussels, Antwerp & Brugge

e)Prague

f) Rome

g) Florence & Pisa

h) Venice

i) Netherlands- Amsterdam, Delft, Texel,Rotterdam & Den Haag ( Hague) of course

j) Geneva- Mt. Titlis, Interlaken

k) Germany- Cologne

l) Krakow & Warsaw

m) Luxembourg 

Keeping my target of writing 3 blog post a month I guess for the next 4 months this blog will be lively and I hope to write some interesting and informative post. 

Shillong again

Living Tree root bridge @ Riwai Village

I was back to being a nomad for a whole month. The journey started with a 10 day trip to home (Manipur) for few days, followed by Tripura and I finally made Shillong happen to meet my BFF Dr. AN (Phd), AN received her doctorate degree few months back from one of the best University is India (Delhi) and I am so proud of her. 

Reaching Shillong was a long way from Agartala, the Spicejet flight from Agartala to Guwahati  was very turbulent because of heavy rain and the trip from Guwahati to Shillong took 4 long hours, the roads were murky and the taxi driver was blasting all kinds of music...Hindi, English and even Spanish. AN came to pick me up and  AN not to my surprise played the perfect host as always, feeding me the best food,  a well arranged picnic and she had already bought so many things for me, from her recent trip to Delhi and few other places. I on the other hand knowing how much she loves Ilish mach, had bought 2 kgs of really good quality  Ilish mach from Battala, fried it and took it for her all the way to Shillong. AN's house  was super awesome....as her husband is an Army officer her  house was huge and what was really cool about her house was the garden, her ground floor flat has a huge garden and she had planted so much of Manipur veggies that I was super impressed with the garden and her house managing skills. 

My 3 days in Shillong went so fast but we did enjoyed a lot, the highlight of the trip was visiting the Living tree root bridge, that was just so amazing. More updates about my trip will follow.

In and around Paris

Notre Dame on a bright, sunny and beautiful day...

Yeah baby....Moulin Rouge

Eiffel Tower

Mona Lisa smile...finally saw Monu

Wish I had a lock too...

Another month and another country and this time it was France....Paris specifically. I was in Paris for the 2nd time but visited many places that I could not last time...going inside Louvre being one of them.  Last time it was Paris on foot but this time...it was Paris on Bus, all thanx to the Vannoord travels, the trip was arranged very well at super-reasonable price. I enjoyed the 3 day trip with my friends to the fullest. 

A slice of I amsterdam

My impending desire of visiting and taking pics @ the famous Museumplein, Amsterdam was fulfilled yesterday. I visited Amsterdam  after two years, the last time I was here me and my best fren 'AN' walked  the length and breadth of this very, very lively city, mainly because we were on a shoe string budget but this time me and my frens SS & CT took tram and visited Van Gogh Museum and few other tourist attractions and made full use of our Museum card (which we got made last month and never used it). To reach Museumplein we took tram no 5 from the Tram stop near the Dam Squire and go off @  Hobbemastraat station, this station is very close to the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and the Vondol Park.

Visiting Van Gogh Museum was truly a unique experience, some of the paintings were too beautiful. We spend almost 2 hrs there but I do plan to visit it again....next time on a bright sunny day.

If you are visiting Amsterdam do not miss visiting these places.

The very awesome trip to Burgge...

My trip to Brugge was not pre-planned, after my term 1 A exams got over the whole batch was travelling to every  possible place in Europe...Paris, Berlin, Switzerland, Porto, Sweden, Denmark you name it and my batchmates were there. It was a good four day break and everyone had booked tickets to everywhere,  infact I was told that the Euroline bus to Paris from Den Haag mostly had people from my batch.

I did not planned any trip thinking I've been to many places  before and I am going there next year anyways with my husband,so why spend extra money but.....but the traveler in me  couldn't  stop myself from going to Brugge when a fren from the Sr batch  mentioned about her day trip with two of her frens, so I tagged along happily after some google and wiki travel search  tips. 

The train from Den Haag HS Station was early morning @ 6.32 and we had to change train from Brussels Midi station. The whole journey was  about 3.30 hrs...once we reached at Brugge we kind of just followed the crowd and it turned out that we arrived at this beautiful part of the city which was too clean  and to put it  frankly it seemed that the whole city was just out of a postcard or something....the whole place was covered with yellow leaves which added to the beauty of the place....Brugge was clean beyond belief, don't get me wrong...I like clean cities absolutely but Brugge was unthinkably clean. The city municipality or which ever dept. is in charge of cleaning the city a double thumps up from me.

We visited many places in the town and for the first time since September behaved like a tourist i.e I took pictures, bought souvenirs, visited museum's and read a map....if you ever plan to visit Brugge or happen to be in Brugge I recommend the following for budget travelers....

 BUY A MAP- Cost abt 3 Euro but you will save a lot of money by just following the map and walking.

1) Reach early....by 10 am (atleast) and make sure you've a good breakfast....I had a huge chicken curry sandwich and cappuccino...it was really yumm and for abt 6 euros it was sure value for money.

2) Take the boat ride (6.90 Euro), its a short ride and you'll get to see the town in a short time and will also give you an idea about which place is where.

3) Visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood (Heilige Bloed Basiliek)

4)  MUST VISIT- The Beer Museum. (I don't have to tell u why)

5) Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, one of the oldest Church located at Mariastraat and also has the sculpture "Madona and the child" by Michelangelo.(Entry is free inside the church but you need to buy a ticket to see the sculpture.

6) Choco-Story Museum located at Wijnzakstraat 2 (Sint-Jansplein).( Ticket is for 7 Euro but show ur student id and you get a students discount of 1 euro)

7) Buy Belgian waffels and Chocolates.

8) Most important....walk...the whole city is very much walkable. 

9) If you get tired of walking have a Choco drink and a belgian waffels....I had the best choco drink ever in my life at this place call "Caramel" located at Wollestraat was 3 Euro and worth every cent.

The cutest pic of the trip

Brugge Station

Choco drink @ Caramel

@ The Beer Museum

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Discovering Hague....

Before coming to Hague, I tried and read as much as possible about the city esp. about the supermarkets, restaurants, transport etc etc but after living here for almost a month I realize that read up about the city did help me to some extent, so all the wikitravel and google did help me to make this new city home till the time I am here. One of my most important agenda now is to travel around Netherlands and Europe....till now I've been to Delft (twice), Rotterdam, Kinderdijk, the beach at Scheveningen (10 mins by tram) and Haarlem. We are planning a trip to others cities and esp to Amsterdam but not before buying our Museum card, the card is really awesome for 45 Euro I can visit all the Museum anywhere in Netherlands for the whole year....I really think its an awesome deal, in Hague itself their are I don't know how many Museums....their is one right next to where I live and have seen couple of them on my way to the HS station. 

We discovered some really cool places here...like the "illys Cafe" at Oude Molstraat, they serve the best Cheese fingers in the city I think...at the Scheveningen Beach we had gone to one restaurant called "zinzabar" the food was very reasonably priced compared to few other restaurants we checked.  The open market is another place I really like...and I like it more because I get to my chillies from there I bought something which is similar to "O-morok" it tastes the same but a little less hot...the Open market is one huge market selling the freshest possible vegetables, meat and sea food and also their is one Indian Store there called "India Gate" which sells all the possible Indian food....dal, rice, masala, veggies etc etc

I will try and explore Hague as much as possible while I am here and I hope anybody wanting more info about the city will find it useful. 

The Dutch Experience....in pics

Kinderdijk- UNESCO world heritage site

View from the boat...

Wooden clogs

@ Rotterdam port

Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Hagued....

Three days of living in The Hague and I must say me and my fren "CD" and "SS" are trying our level best to make it as homely as possible...the first day CD and me had "Ready to eat' packed Rajma Chawal...which was not bad but good either and I felt really bad thinking what the hell am I eating...Day 2 we had Rice, dal and scrambled eggs which made me a lil happy and Day 3 we had fish and chips for lunch and for dinner we had  my fav. mixed vegetable and Rajma curry with rice. The best part about all our kitchens is its equipped with all the item we need for cooking esp. the electronic items, pots,pans, plates etc etc. 

Food and travel wise its sure going to be one of the best years of our lives....Rome tops the list in "Must Visit Places" but a trip to IKEA store@ Delft  is what I am really lookin fwd to nxt week. Happy staying in The Hague to me .... enjoy and keep the blog alive n make it as informative as possible. 

Rediscovering Imphal n around

I am home for almost 2 months this time and have time to visit places I always wanted to visit, like the Loktak Lake, Sendra, Keibullamjao National Park (the natural inhabitant  of Sangai) and also rediscover Imphal city on foot and this happened last week when a fren of mine (V) who's a accessories designer from Kolkata had come to source traditional shawls and other textiles from Imphal, V makes lovely bags and other accessories from Naga shawls. Earlier she did some sourcing from Nagaland Emporium but seems they could not supply the quantity she required, I suggested that she shd come to Imphal and see the Ima Keithel.

V bought a lot of shawls and Phanek (Tradtional Wrap-a-round), with her I explored the market n had never explored the New Ima keithel in that way....interacting with weavers and sellers and trying to understand how the whole market functions was the most interesting part to me. I took pictures and met some interesting woman sellers who can sell Ice to an Eskimo. We also visited some wholesale dealers in the market who's main function is to supply yarn n give advance cash to artisans, the handloom sector in Manipur is highly disorganised in an organised manner.  

My fren "V"  must have bought 50 items all together and m looking fwd for all of them to be turned into a  different utility products.

Cafe with a difference- Cafe Ethnic, Zaheerabad

Cafe Ethnic- Organic Food Restaurant @ Zaheerabad, Medak Dist. AP

As a real foodie I make it a point to visit the best eating joints where I travel, I google search, read managines ask for suggestions and I have been to many eating joints- Small, Big, posh, road side dhaba's etc etc some of them were really good and some not so good. 

During my visit to Rural Andhra last month we happen to visit one restaurant which I believe is truly one of the best places I have ever visit. Started  on 26th Jan 2004 Café Ethnic is a family restaurant located at Zaheerabad town, 100 kms from Hyderabad, what was really cool and awesome about the restaurant was the menu, serving  organic, really healthy, nutritious and yummy food this restaurant is a must visit again. The  main ingredient was Millets of different kinds I never knew that in India we have Millets of atleast 5 types....all this info was written in the Menu Card and also info. posters were put up in the restaurant. The food was simple but very healthy and yummy, I had the Thali and the rotis made from different types of Millets, subzi and dal was one of the best meals I have ever had....the Kheer was just too good made with Millet and Jaggery. 

If anyone happens to be in Zaheerabad, do visit "Cafe Ethnic" its located in the Zaheerabad town main market area. The food is very reasonably priced and try the thali and "Til Laddu"  and don't forget to get a copy of the recipe booklet (given free of charge).

Twenty Eleven

Twenty Ten is over and its another brand new year Twenty Eleven....reflecting back, I feel Twenty Ten  passed so fast and it was a year full of activities in terms of my traveling, I went on some amazing and thrilling trips...visited beautiful places....went on a soul trip ( Bhutan)....a backpacking tour ( North East India)....free foreign trips( Thailand)....self discovery (Bhutan again)....surprised official trips (Arunachal and Rural Andhra) in short I traveled like a true wanderlust and enjoyed every moment....I remember starting Twenty Ten  with a trip to Imphal and ended the year with a trip to Bangalore. 

Its been nearly 3 years since I started to blog and I have stuck to topics I wanted to write about and I wrote for myself but starting from this year as few more people read my blog I will add few more things in my post :

1. I will add details of places I visited info like accommodation: Hotels/Guesthouse etc with contact details, best time to visit, must eat and buy  and also mention a "Clean Loo Guide" just like my fav. travel guide and Magazine "The Lonely Planet" .

2. Video's of my latest food/recipes and inventions/innovations will be uploaded.
3. Safety from point of travelling alone.
4. Approx Budget.

I was surprised to see that alot of people visit my blog (all thanks to google) and I wish that whoever reads my blog should feel happy about getting the right information. Twenty Eleven will be exciting as I plan to travel a lot more, learn Italian cooking, stay fit & healthy, lose weight (ah thats a priority) , blog more, stay happier, love myself a lil more and yeah I am getting married :) :). Happy New Year to me and I hope to have a Great 2011.

Field and food Trip

When we talk about Biryani is India theirs only one city we all associate Biryani with and thats Hyderabad.... the city of  Nizam, Pearls and Biryani's of course. I was on a four day tour to Hyderabad and this trip sure was one of the best field (read official trip) trip I've done on a long time. Despite the hectic schedule I still managed to shop (pearls), eat (biryani & many other AP special dish) and meet friends (AB and cutiepie her son). Talking about shopping I bought myself a really sexy pearl necklace and earings set, which is so beautiful that I fell in love with it the first time I saw, it looks so khandani that I was joking with my colleagues saying  that the Pearl set looks like "Rani Ki Beti ka haar" and I sure will look like Rani ki beti wearing that. Alot of people might not know but the pearls available in Hyderabad are mostly chinese pearl, I found out from Wikipedia that 80-90% of world's cultured pearls comes from China and m really not surprised with that...China wale kuch bhi bana sakte hai.

We had Biryani at the famous "Paradise" restaurant located in Paradise circle, Secundrabad...the biryani's of course were really good and what was really cool about the restaurant was the orders were taken not on a note pad or some piece of paper but mind you on a PDA...thats the first ever Indian Restaurant I have seen using PDA to take orders...it was damn cool...the PDA was connected with the computer in the kitchen and the order gets registered directly to the kitchen. The biryani was followed by "Khubani ka Meetha" and I must admit that was the best Khubani ka meetha I had ever had till now, it was not so sweet and the apricots just melted in my mouth....I am looking fwd to many more trips to Hyderabad to enjoy not just the biryani's but the whole lot of other yummy things the city has to offer.




Paradise Biryani @ Secunderabad



Khubani ka Meetha @ Paradise

                                               

Dilli ke sardi

It's 18 degree celsius in Delhi and I am sure not enjoying it. I like coming to Delhi for all the food, frens and shopping but not in winter....its been 7 years since I left this city and have come many times since then but I always avoid travelling to delhi in winter...it gets super cold and with the thick fog or rather smog it get's too much to take ...air travel becomes a pain with delayed flights. I remember my hostel days in delhi when  sitting for hrs in the hostel lawn on sundays was one of few things we really enjoyed....the hostel evening tea tasted a lil better n bunking the 1st morning class was guilt free.

Saardi in Dilli is sure not pleasant but its also the time when you can wear/flaunt the best winter cloths :)...   

Visual Treat- Bhutan (Druk)

Memorial Chorten- Thimphu

Changangkha Lhakhang- One of the oldest temple in Thimphu

Town Square- I guess the most happening place in Thimphu

 Thimphu Valley view from Sangaygang Cross country track.

 Taktshang Monastry - Paro..I really wanted to climb till the monastry which is located at a height of 10240 ft formally build as a Monastry in 1692 but I realized I was physically not fit to climb...after climing for 15-20 mins I started feeling dizzy and breathless...and decided not to climb up...but this has motivated me to go back again and next time I sure will climb till the top.

 Random shoot on the way to Taktshang

 Modern yet traditional Bhutanese house-I fell in love with the houses from the moment I saw it.

Visual Treat-Thailand

 The night Market at Chaing Mai...the best place to shop while in Chaing Mai.

 Chon-Buri craft center, one of the best bamboo and rattan handicraft center I have ever visited. The craftsman ship was just out of this world.

Chaing Mai riverside restaurant. Indian Consulate at Chaing Mai and the Shangri La hotel at Chaing Mai.

Soul Trip and Wanderlusting- Road Trip to Bhutan

Some of the beautiful places I visited in Bhutan

Trip Bhutan was a long and pending one,I wanted to visit Bhutan since long but for some reason or another it never worked out. It was facebook which made this trip possible,seriously  (Jai ho Facebook), I reconnected with my very good fren from college “ KC”…. we had not met since many years and I decided to visit her small and beautiful country on a soul trip.

I planned a road trip instead of going by air as it sounded much more excited and also because for some weird reason air tickets were not available for the period I wanted to travel ( I was informed later that the only flight which operates to Paro is “Drukair” with limited seats) . The journey was sure excited… I took a flight till Guwahati from Agartala…from Guwahati I took a train, the Rajdhani express till NJP (New Jalpaiguri)….travelling in Rajdhani reminded me of my college days…Rajdhani was a Luxury train for me during those days….it took only 28 hrs to reach Delhi and the food was free…unlike the other trains ( NE and the Brahmaputra Train), travelling in which was like a torture and we had to endure twice every year.  Once I reached NJP I had to rent a cab till the border town Phuntsholing, I paid Rs.2200/- from NJP , the best thing for travelers is to rent a cab from Govt. Pre-Paid Taxi Service counter located just outside the NJP Railway Station ( You can also find a lot of Thugs and middle man with taxis but the best is to avoid them) . The idea of travelling all alone from NJP to Phuntsholing was not very comforting….as I was travelling alone but still took the chance, the ride till the border town was mostly bumpy but the teas garden s on the way, were beautiful. 

It took me 5 hrs to reach the border, Jaigoan is the Indian border town and Phontsholing is the border town of Bhutan, the most interesting thing to me was the difference in these two places just across the border. Jaigoan was like any other small Indian town.…road full of potholes, dusty, super noisy, full of people and activities  everywhere….Phuntsholing on other hand was quiter, with better roads, not dusty and peaceful. Once in Phuntsholing I had to get my travel permit from the Immigration office, all thanks to KC's cousin she helped me get the permit (Indians visiting Bhutan are not required a Visa and vice versa), KC’s cousin knew the Chief Immigration Officer and that saved me from all the trouble of standing in queue. 

I stayed at Phunstholing for a night preparing myself for the 6 hrs bus ride to Thimphu, the bus started on time and as it climbed higher altitude I could feel the chill in the air. It felt really good to feel the chill , I had come prepared for winter and the thought of spending one whole wintery week in Thimphu excited me. The bus journey was not at all boring, the bus stereo was blasting Dzongkho FM, I was busy looking at the numerous waterfall…the beautifully painted houses on the mountains it was just so beautiful and I had a company…the last book in the twilight series “Breaking Dawn” I was totally hooked on to the Twilight series ever since I saw the first film.

Once I reached Thimphu, my fren “KC” was waiting at the bus depot which looked more like a mini palace to me…KC’s house looked like one of those beautiful house I saw on my way and I immediately fell in love with the Bhutanese house….they pay so much attention to outside painting and all the houses looked like it had straight come out of postcards. The locality was really clean and the outside view from her house in one simple word was “AWESOME”.

The Journey from Agartala to Thimphu though long was sure one of the best journeys I had till now.

Useful Tips:

1. Book your travel tickets much in advance and visit the Bhutan Govt. official website.

2. The best time to visit Bhutan is Autumn and Spring months.

3. Hotel accommodations can be expensive but the food is very reasonably priced.

4. Bhutanese people speak English very well.

5. Indian currency in the denomination of Rs 100 and below is widely accepted.

6. Credit card and Debit card is just a 4 inch long plastic card. Carry Cash, very few shops and hotels accept Visa Credit and Debit card.

7. Travelling alone can be expensive, plan trip in groups of 4 or more.

Bangkok- Extravaganza

Bangkok mahanagari is sure a mayanagari, Suvarnabhoomi Airport was really grand what I really liked about the airport was the way they had decorated the airport with all kinds of orchids it was sure a visual treat.

We landed at Bangkok from Chaingmai late at night and stayed at a very centrally located hotel in Bangkok, my room was at the 10th floor and the view from my window was like, that of a futuristic city in a Sc-fi movie I have never seen such tall buildings and that too so many in one place. Once in Bangkok we were at a very tourist mood I was looking fwd to all the shopping and yummy food the city had to offer. The 2nd day at Bangkok we visited Chon Buri to see a very well managed Handicraft Center which was about 2 hrs from the city, what was truly amazing about this handicraft center the fine craftsman ship the artisans of this center had. It was beyond words to express the craftsman ship the artisans had, such fine bamboo products they were making and the collection was just out of this world. I fell in love with the products and ended up buying quite many products it was expensive but worth every single bhait.

We also visited the Grand Palace and the Wat Arun, as the name suggest the Grand Palace was truly GRAND, the temples were so beautiful and very well maintained. The guide Mr. Anukool was truly kool he had so much knowledge about Northeast India that I was really impressed, first he thought I was also Thai but when I told him I am from Northeast India he immediately asked if I was from Assam. He took us around and showed the whole palace and all the temples happily explaining the history behind each temple. Thailand in olden days were very influenced by Hinduism the depiction of Ramayan on the walls of the palace was truly marvelous. Bangkok I realized was not just about shopping or massages as it’s known all over the world, after the Grand Palace we visited Wat Arun or Temple of Dawn. It was very close to the Grand Palace but we had to take a boat ride as it was located across the river, Wat Arun from a distance looked like a ruined temple but once we reached there I realized how wonderful the temple is, it was cloudy when we reached the temple giving us respite from the heat and humid weather. I ended up taking some really nice pics. Of the temple and my 2nd day at Bangkok was a day full of visual treats.