From IST to TST...Thailand-ing Day 1

I went on a 4 day trip to Thailand it was a "official" trip meaning an all expenses paid trip to visit places which is relevant to my work and missing out on all the fun places that most tourist visit. This trip came as a surprise to me, I had no idea that this trip was getting finalised I had made my own holiday plans to Bhutan during the Durga Puja Break...but for a wanderlust like me any kind of plan for travelling to a new country is always welcome.

The best part about the trip was our visit to the not so much tourist places like the OTOP craft villages and Craft Centers at Chiang Mai Province at North Thailand, I was amazed the see the kind of craftsman ship the craftsperson have at the centers and was mighty impressed. The craft villages were well maintained and the designs were just amazing, I ended up buying quite many items from the craft centers. In Thailand they have this project which was launched to support the crafts and artisans in various villages, its called "OTOP" centers, thats One Tambon One Product concept, in other words One Village One Product. It was a govt. backed programme with strong marketing networks. The finishing and craftsmanship was too good and I think artisans are given orientations in such a way that the products that they make must be world class and export quality goods. We visited OTOP centers at Saraphi District and a huge crafts village called "Ban Thawai", it was abt 50 times the size of Dilli Haat but with much better products and much, much cleaner. I was so damn impressed with the Thai people, we really can learn a great deal from them. Day 1 was spend on travelling at the OTP centers and some bit of shopping at the Anusarn Night Market, I couldn't resist buying so many items but what was really great abt Day 1 was the food we had at the Anusarn Market, it was just too good. It was a day well spent with some amazing food to end with.

More food and less travel

I haven't gone out of Tripura for almost two months now. The last time I was out was my trip to home (Imphal), it feels strange when I don't travel out of the state every month...aisa lagta hai jaise mei yahan sadiyoh se bahar nahi gayee.

Aisa nahi ke mujhe yahan accha nahi lagta but aadat se ho gayee hai travel karne ke har mahine. Since July I have been experimenting and trying to create something new in my cooking and thanfully I did managed to create some interesting recipes like a new type of Fried Chicken and Prawns with Corn flour fried in olive oil. The other day one of my cousin was going to Imphal from Agartala and mom asked me to send me fried prawns, I offered her to send some fried "Ilish Mach" also but her words " We are so bored of having Ilish" I was like okay really...maybe you are the only person bored of having Ilish.

Every year I discover something or the other in Agartala like this year I discovered "Nga-Napp" its really yummy as "Nga-nam" and I make "Nga-Nam" with a twist, I add crush garlic, thinly sliced onion and slit green chilles...the taste is heavenly. My fren "A" is so J abt the whole thing of me getting to have all kinds of yummy food wen she is subjected to eat the horrible hostel food. I am sure having a gala time in Tripura and will really miss my rendezvous with food in Tripura.

Road Trip- Leimaram

One of the best thing about staying n working in Tripura is I can travel home even for weekends...I remember going home for a day. The 40 mins flight to Imphal from Agartala is the shortest flight route I take, pata he nahi chalta ke kab flight mei baithe aur kab pahunch gayee. I plan n try goin home once almost every 2-3 months and I always look fwd to my home trip, thats the time when I can relax and not worry about work...aaj woh cluster mei kya hua...kal dusre cluster mei meeting hai...oh..I have to attend the meeting at secretriat

My trip this time was short but it was good, we travelled to Leimaram as I really wanted to see Manipur mei world famous "Leimaram Waterfall" but my dad's poor car betrayed us as it had rained the previous night, the poor old Maruti 800 couldn't climb,  I've seen only the pics of the waterfall but next time I'll ensure that we go in a bigger car. I've gone to Leimaram many times and  remember the horrible road condition from the main road till the village which is about 2 Kms, this time I was very surprised as the roads have improved and driving was not a pain anymore. The trip was like a family picnic trip and I enjoyed my road trip tp Leimaram.

On Pav Bhaji, Wada Pav n Mirchi Bhajji

Wada Pav the Indian Answer to Burger is one of the best street food most Maharastrians love to eat and for that matter anyone in Maharastra will swear on Wada Pav, Pav Bhaji and Mirchi Bhajji. I happen to enjoy all three on the same day at Joshi Wada Center in Pune, its pocket friendly and very filling. I couldn't resist having another Wada Pav and ended up eating two full Wada Pav with loads of mirchi. I am sure no one in this world can beat the Indian Street Food and I have enjoyed street food in most metros in India.

Sun n Sand

Goa happens to be "THE PLACE" in India to visit. I always wanted to go to Goa esp. after watching "Dil Chahta Hai", DCH really glorified Goa as " THE MOST HAPPENING PLACE" in India and a place to chill, enjoy and all fun things. DCH was released when I was in college and even with all my desire to go to Goa it never happened. Even when I was in Mumbai for two years it never happened but finally this time I went to Goa and fulfilled my old wish...this was not the best of time to visit Goa but who cares, it was an all expenses paid trip and I stayed at "Taj Exotica", the best thing about Taj Exotica was its private beach, I normally do not like to visit very crowded beaches and the Taj Exotica beach was almost empty, it was much better than the Leela Kovalam beach and we had option of adventure sports.

The first day itself I tried Para sailing and it was awesome, I had to pay 1000 bucks for that but it was worth every single rupee. I didn't tried the water scooter...I was too scared to drive as I do not knw swimming, I guess I shd learn swimming if I have to come to Goa next time. I really enjoyed my stay at Goa despite the hectic whole day business review meeting we had time to enjoy and I rediscovered my cycling skills. After a long time I got to wear shorts...outside my room, I bought myself this this really nice and super expensive shorts from Lifestyle-Pune to wear and Goa and I was more than happy that I bought it.

After visiting Goa I must admit..Goa rocks and its a must visit again.

Floating at Hoogly

My recent trip to Kolkata was a good weekend break. It was a work trip and not a city exploring..wanderlusting trip but never the less I really enjoyed it. The stay was arranged at "Hotel Floatel" , India's first floating hotel and it was really a floating hotel on the banks of Hoogly river, the view from my room was really beautiful (I had a river view room) and I enjoyed watching ferrys carrying people from one river bank to another. The Howrah railway station was just across the bank and Hoogly sure was a busy river.

I also visited my fav. restaurant at Kolkata "Flurys" and had a yummy black forest pastry. It was followed by some money wasting shopping trip at Vardan Market. The trip to Kolkata will never be complete without the streetfood and I gorged on Puchkas and a Kolkata style of Uttapam and Dosa...I have never had such yummy streetfood. My knowledge about Kolkata has increased lil. bit and I plan to do increase it more.

Around Guwahati- Bihu and Brahmaputra

Guwahati the gateway of North East India and a city where I have spent many, many uncomfortable and few confortable nights @ Hotels, frens places and yeah at Bus stations and Rly stations.My first memory of Guwahati dates way back to 1987, that was the year when the whole family went on a vacation together to North Delhi. I was 6 yrs old and my elder sister 9, we went to Delhi via Guwahati and what I remember about Guwahati is....the dirty Rly Platform and the Bus station when we came back from Delhi. Guwahati was my transit city to travel to Delhi when I was studying in Delhi, the bumpy bus ride from Imphal to Guwahati followed by the torturous train journey till Delhi by NE Express or Brahmaputra...the train journeys were good when we travelled by Rajdhani...but that was rare. I have been to Guwahati with many sets of people...my sister, frens,dad, mom and many time all alone.

Guwahati as a city has lot more to offer then be just a transit city, like Kolkata which is my current transit city I have always wanted to see the real Guwahati,minus the bus stations and rly station. This happened on my way back from Shillong, me and "E" had planned a day stay at Guwahati...I called up frens to ask the "Must See" places in Guwahati and sadly they had no clue...I guess I will say the same if someone ask me abt Imphal..so I used my google searching skills and found out few places...the no.1 in list was a Boat Ride at Brahmaputra River and we were at Guwahati on a very good day, it was Bihu Celebration day and the whole city State was celebrating Bihu, a fren of mine "M" had suggested us to visit the Bihu Festival ground at the "Shantilata Ground". I had never seen live Bihu celebration and seeing it for the first time was awesome though I do not understand Assamese but it was fun watching people and listening to sweet assamese songs. Bihu is like the "ThabalChongba" for Meitei everyone was having a good time and I really enjoyed my first Live Bihu experience.

The leisure boat ride at Brahmaputra was really awesome...the only mood spoiler was the boat guy cheating us with 300 bucks.I could have just bargained (which I am very good at) and refused to pay more but then the boat guy looked very shaady and weird. We had an entire boat to ourself (one way) and went upto a Shiva Temple ghat....the best thing about the river ride was the sunset view from Brahmaputra...which I think is one of the best sunset I have seen till now. The mighty Brahmaputra river has much more to offer I am sure, me and "E" wanted to visit "Majuli" the river Island in Brahmaputra but it was far from Guwahati. After a long time..tt was nice to stay at a comfortable place and explore Guwahati as a "TOURIST" and not worry about about my next train or bus.

Soul Trip and Wanderlusting- Tripura & Meghalaya

We all need a change from our daily routine and wish that we could spend some time enjoying natures beauty. I always wanted to go to Shillong, having heard so much from so many people that I really felt that being from Northeast India and not visiting Shillong...I am missing out something. My trip to Shillong happened just by chance, a fren of mine"E" wanted to see Northeast and I was more than happy to find a person to go to Shillong.I made a 6 day trip covering Tripura, Meghalaya and Guwahati, I called my frens in Shillong and Guwahati taking suggestions on "Must see places", accomodation and local travel.

We started with Tripura and visited few villages in and around Agartala, clusters I am working currently. We also visited South Tripura and Neer Mahal...the Tajmahal of Tripura. I was visiting Neermahal after abt a year, last time I visited was with my younger sis....the best part about toursit places in Tripura is...its not crowded. The boat ride from the ghat to Neermahal was awesome and the breeze which flows through the whole palace....was so refreshing and a great respite from the heat and humid weather in Tripura. The Tripura trip ended with a visit to the Lakechoumuni market.

The next destination was Shillong, we went to Guwahati first from Agartala and hired a cab till Shillong. From Guwahati airport shared cabs are available @ Rs 400/- per person till Shillong, which worked very fine with us...the temp. @ Guwahati was slightly higher then Agartala but in less then an hr...we reached Meghalaya/Assam border and it started getting pleasent...it felt so good. I had asked my fren to book us at a decent hotel and she has booked us a@ "Hotel Broadway", it was located at a very prime area, Police Bazar. The food was good, price was reasonable, bathrooms were thankfully clean and I will recommend it to everyone travelling to Shillong. Next day we went on a Shillong City tour and I was really amazed with facilities offered by the MTTDC, guided city tour bus and most tourist places was well maintained, we visited Wards Lake, Elephant Fall, Shillong Peak, Barapani and other tourist destinations in and around Shillong. The best part about the trip was the annual dance festival of the Khasi's, we were lucky to be in Shillong on that day as it was an annual festival....me and "E" also went to the local markets..which was full of betal nuts.

Shillong I am sure has much more to offer then the places we visited on the organised city tour, the city is cleaner compared to many other cities in the country and weather of course is awesome...I think I should go to Shillong every summer.

While planning this trip I had read alot on Meghalaya and places to visit, we wanted to visit Mawysaram but Cheerapunjee was a more popular destination it seems. The way to Cheerapunjee from Shillong was breathtakingly beautiful...it reminded me so much of Switzerland...the waterfalls..the clouds..mountains...the clouds & fog were so heavy that it merged with the sky...it seemed the sky has extended till earth.... ohhhh...I can't find words to express the beauty of Cherrapunjee. Some of the really nice places we visited were Nongkalekai fall...Asia's 2nd highest and World's 4th highest water fall, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Cherrapunjee was full of water falls and each waterfall was different from another, I had never seen so many waterfalls in a day. Our trip to Cherrapunjee ended with a visit to Mawsmai Cave...I was super excited to go inside a cave for the first time....I learned to go through a real narrow passage...but I will not recommend anyone else to go inside the cave. The flash light inside the cave was not done properly and I could see wires all over the cave and since water continously drips into the cave from the mountain above. The chances of electrocution is very high, I was surprised how MTTDC or whoever is in charge of the maintaince of the cave can be so careless. The trip to Cherrapunjee ended with a nice lunch at "Nanglai Krysoi restaurant", it was a very crowded restaurant, but all thanks to the tourist guide "B"....she used her personal connections with the restaurant Manager, who happened to a betal nut chewing professional Khasi women to get our food on time.

I will sure visit Meghalaya again and next time I will stay at Cherrapunjee...it has so much to offer and a day trip is just not fair to Cherrapunjee.

Trip South-Mysore

I truely believe I am a true Nomad. Its not that I always plan my trips but it just happens to me, I travel for work, to meet friends, family, leisure, adventure and to keep myself sane.My trip to Mysore just happend I had not planned it as I always do but it was planned overnite, I have been to Mysore earlier on a educational tour of various places in Karnataka....that was about 6 yrs ago and this time it was pure leisure and nothing else. I visited the famous Mysore Palace and the Indian me world famous Brindavan Garden, which I feel is the most over hyped place in India...yaar kuch bhi nahi tha dekhne layak....I really think my neighborhood garden, Nehru Park is better maintained and much more beautiful compared to the "famous" brindvan garden...but it was so crowded that I couldn't believe it...Mysore palace was much better. It was grand, beautiful, well maintained and it sure is the pride of Mysore. I was told that taking pics. inside the palace was "Strictly Prohibited" but meh like a typical indian took pics. and banggg two mamu's from some corner came and took my camera....this time I had to use all the skills of saying sorry in many ways to get my camera back but I also paid 200 bucks...those two buggers must have had chicken tangri kabab for lunch.

These two pics. are the most expensive pics.that I have ever paid for any pics.till now... hahaha..the inside view of the Grand Mysore Palace...it was beautiful. The stain glass painting roof, the chandelier, amazing mosiac tiles, carving on the walls, the hand carved stunning wooden doors....wonders human mind and hands can create.

Yaoshang @ Delhi

I celebrated yaoshang, the Meitei version of Holi after 3 yrs. Their was a time when holi was the most exciting festival and I really used to look forward for this festival the whole year....as it meant getting new cloths, going for the

"nakadheng", playing with colors,watching the yaoshang sports in the leikei club, yaosahang thabal chongba and the yaoshang chak-chanaba...which was the most exciting part abt Yaoshang...every house in our locality contribute money and organise a grand feast.

Yaoshang is not as exciting as it was earlier, I am busy with work and I prefer staying home as it means an off day for me. This time I celebrated yaoshang at JNU with my fren "A" and her frens from Germany, who have come for an exchange programme, we did yaoshang shopping together and it was sure exciting. The germans were totally into playing holi and me and "A" gave them tips to play safe holi...I stayed away from playing with the group but enjoyed every moment of it. The day I reached Delhi the Meitei students @ JNU had organised Thabal Chongba and I participated after manyyyy years....the last time I attended any thabal chongba was at the Police Grounds-North Campus in 2004. I enjoyed thobal chongba after so many years...though I am not as good as I was but it was awesome.

Breakfast at Nagamapal

Nagamapal happens to be my all time fav. place in Imphal. Its the most happening place in the whole town....most happening in terms of food, veggies, some bit of shopping and everything else. Everytime I go home I never miss going to Nagamapal, this time I went for my regular veggies shopping I had breakfast at one of the many "Hotel" as its called locally and I must say I enjoyed every bite of it. The breakfast was simple but my fav. "Ooti and tan" with one cutting chai and all that it cost me was just 11 bucks.My mom will hate me for having that food but my intestines can sure take it, digest it without me falling sick. This hotel was runned by three people, the Head lady cook and her two assistant. It was fun watching her making "tan" (Puri) and taking orders.The Nagamapal market is not only runned by women but it also shows the ability of women to be the breadwinner of the family.

Italian Khana @ Diva

My trip to Delhi this time was as usual about me going almost every places in search of good food. I had the best veg momo's from a really small corner shop @ Vasant Goan to the best of Italian khana at the upmarket GK 2. I have read and seen alot of tv shows on Italian khana and abt the restaurant Diva, famous for its Italian Food. I wanted to visit and try italian food since long and this happened last Sunday, I have almost no knowledge of Italian food except for Pizzas and spaghetti (macaroni's) and I went to Diva with a lot of expectations...I ordered a Spaghetti alla Chitarra con peperoni e salsicie (NV) Hand made "guitar string" pasta with a robust sauce of spicy sausages, peas and fennel, not knowing what Guitar String pasta in real life is nothing else but the very normal noodle...was I disappointed well not too much but yeah...I kind of cursed myself for not ordering something else. The food was not that great but ambiance was good and location of course is superb.

I will definitely visit Diva again to try some other interesting food and maybe try Anatra arrosto al miele con arancia -Honey-roasted duck with baby potatoes and aromatic herbs .

Momo's and happiness

Their was a time when having momo was = happiness, that was during my student days. The nearest and the best momo's were available only at Momo's Point, Kamala Nagar (I still love the momo's) and it was abt twice a month that I used to treat myself with momo's...well that was 10 years back and now momo's are available everywhere...every galli and almost all fastfood joints in Delhi sell momo's from Ramu, Shamu to Mainland China, Ramu and Shamu calls it Momo but Mainland China and other fancy restaurant calls it "Dimsum" but giving it a fancy name doesnt change the taste. Momo has sure changed from the exclusive and only avialable @ xyz, now its available everywhere and Ramu, Shamu se lekar sab koi momo ka business jamma diya hai...and with the new development.changes Am I happy....of yeah I am super happy....last time I was in Delhi had some really good momo's at Sarojini Nagar and this time at this really small food joint at Vasant Kunj, for 20 bucks a plate...its a loot.Mumbai and Ahmedabad were two cities where I was momo starved, thankfully in Agartala I can atleast have momo's whenever I want but its far from where I live and its expensive. I love to eat momo's and even bought the momo making container though I have never attempted making momo's but if ramu and shamu can make business from selling momo's from a galli then I should make momo's for my own happiness.

Mumbai unlimted

I love going to Mumbai, it still remains my fav city in India. I love the feeling of "alone" in a crowd...I like the train ride to VT station and chilling at Colaba, I miss sitting at Bandra Bandstand and enjoy the breeze and not minding the famous Mumbai city stink, I absolutely miss shopping for good and very affordable (read cheap)sandals at Linking road...I miss the vada pav and bhurji pav and despite the humidity and everything else I still love going back to Mumbai.I went to Mumbai after 2 and half yrs, the last time I was there was during an Alumni meet. The campus was similar and familiar, many things have changed in the past 2 and half years except for the same white washed campus roads with birds dropping a new 7 storey building has come up in the campus, the DH has become like fish market and I see students everywhere.When I was in Mumbai I had never visited the Shiddhi Vinayak Temple, this time for the first time I saw the Shiddhi Vinayak Temple and its a fav. among Bollywood stars. I saw the Bandra-World sea link also that's was cool, I took the pic. from a distance. I shopped for sandals and accessories from Linking road and missed my student days I took a cab and not bus to Linking road not because I could afford it but because I had no idea abt the bus route.I saw a crowd dancing with madness before immersion of an idol. Mumbai has alot to offer for travellers and places like Bandra, Colaba are the best place to shop. These places fits every ones budget and style, I bought a sandal which was exact copy of a sandal I had seen in Paris the difference...was the price in Paris it was priced 50 euro and here its 250 bucks...I love to shop in Linking road. I enjoyed my two day visit to Mumbai and would love to go back again.

Hyderabad - (Chinese) Pearl City

Hyderabad is known for its pearls and now country's first airport developed in PPP model. When we landed in Hyderabad I was super impressed with the airport,it reminded me of the Frankfurt Airport. It was super clean and very, very swanky . The last time I was in Hyderabad I couldn't buy pearls and was very unhappy with myself but this time I bought loads of pearls. I did a lot of google search and asked frens abt shops and places to buy pearls from, one place suggested was "Jagdamba Pearls" and few more. The Hyderabadi pearls it turns out are all from China, so technically its not Hyderabadi Pearls but Hyderabadi Chinese Pearls, I always thought AP mei people must be doing commercial farming of pearls ....only to realize that in today's time everything and anything is made in china....which includes the the India mei world famous Hyderabad pearls. The resort I stayed at Hyderabad was nice "Golkanda Spa's and Resort" the room was very spacious and well designed, food was awesome the first day I had my fav. Biryani and for 3 more days I had the most spicy south indian food, everyone else was complaning abt the food and the level of spice index but I loved the spicy sambhar, spicy rasam and spicy chicken curry. The resort was very beautiful only I couldn't find time to explore and chill, maybe some other time, I'll be back not for work but to chill and relax.

Switzerland The best of all (17th-18th July)

One word to describe my 3rd day and 2nd day of tour in Switzerland "Train" yeah all I did was travelled in train. From Gare Cornavin (Gare is Station in French) I went to Montreax and I took the Golden Panoramic express, this was a special train or to put it correctly it was a Luxury Train, between Montreax and Zweisimmen to view the breath taking view, the best part abt the train was half of the roof was in glass giving a better view. I was really happy that I decided to take this train, the view was too beautiful to express in words. I took so many pictures. I wished I was not travelling alone, Switzerland is not the place to go alone, one should go with his/her partner, its very romantic and now I know why people talk so much abt Switzerland as holiday destination, all their services are very tourist centric.Like the Golden Panoramic train, their were other trains also their was a chocolate express and more trains between beautiful locations.

The train reached Zwesimmen 45 mins late but I was not complaining and noone else was either , everyone was enjoying the beautiful view and July being a holiday season everyone on the train was in no hurry to reach aother destination. The 45 mins delay gave me time to explore the village before boarding another train to Spiez, the village was quite beautiful...for that matter everything in Switzerland was beautiful, the village cottage with flowers in each window and the scenic view of every place was just too beautiful to capture in any Camera or express in words .The train to Speiz was on time, I met alot of people in train who were travelling mostly in groups most Americans and Aseans. I was sitting next to an Australian and we generally started talking, they were surprised to know I am travelling alone and we debated on who's the greatest cricketer he knew Sachin Tendulkar and couple of other Indian cricketer. From Speiz I took another train to go to Interlaken OST, I was planning to go to Lake Thun from Interlaken but since my train got delayed for 45 mins I couldn't go till Lake Thun, next to the Interlaken OST station was a river, I ventured out for abt 30 mins and that place was too beaitiful to be true. The river was so blue that I thought maybe they have added some color to the river lol, the 30 mins I spent there was worth every second, it was a very chilled out kind of place, for a moment I thought that if Interlaken is so beautiful then how beautiful Lake Thun must be...point hai nah. If I had more then I would have definitely stayed longer, at Interlaken I had the most yummy icecream I ever had, the biggest cone and conbination of two icecream scope...yeah thast me and in my most happy mode I overeat and over spend.

I just didn't felt like leaving Interlaken but I had to head back to Geneve and took a train till Bern from Interlaken and for the first time since I landed in Frankfurt I wished for the train that was late but sadly it was not, it was dot on time. The flexi pass I had, allowed me to travel in all the trains from Bern to Geneve. The 2nd day of my tour was mostly spend in train but I had no complains...non at all. The delay of 45 mins was something I didn't mind and even though I couldn't visit Lake Thun, their's always a next time and I know that next time will come very soon... Switzerland has loads to offer for everyone and this is one country I would like to spend all my holidays and next time I will not be alone.

Switzerland -The best of all (15th-16th July)

To live a dream is what most of us want and my trip to Switzerland was one for me. Switzerland for me was a beautiful location where all our bollywood stars go to shoot songs...a place where RICH people go for honeymoon...a country of chocolates and a dream destination till 15th of July...I had got the best of deal to visit switzerland from Germany my entire return train journey was 79 euros...a deal everyone of us will dream of...I was super excited abt the trip but nearly missed the train...but thanks to the ontime departure or the tram I reached the Bielefeld Hbf just on time 3 mins before departure...the journey was Bielefeld-Mannheim-Basel-Geneve. The journey from Mannheim to Basel was long but very beautiful passing so many tunnels and the vineyards on both sides was just so beautiful and some views were truly breath taking. I reached the Geneve main station Cornovin on time, I had no clue how to buy the bus ticket so I asked an old gentleman how to buy a ticket, he was very kind and showed me how to buy and gave me 3 CHF ...I kept asking him to take euro form me but he refused....that was really sweet of him and he was Turkish he told me. AB's mom (my host at Geneve) had given be proper direction on how to reach there place. I got the information right and reached on time, the house was loacted at beautiful location with a view of Lake Geneve, I had a huge room to myself . Everything abt Switzerland was beautiful even the grass....Geneve was like any other big city of Europe but the other places I visited in Switzerland was non like the places I visited earlier.Thanks to my fren AB''s parents my trip was planned and aunty had got me these flexi passes (these passes doesn't come cheap but uncle being an Ambassador got me these passes at very very affordable price..jai ho uncle and aunty) , the best part part these flexi passes was it could be used in all the trains including the luxury trains and discounts on many more tickets. The 2nd day of visit I went to Mt. Titlis from Geneve I took a train till Luzern and from Luzren to Engelberg and from Engelberg to Mt. Titlis by cable car and the famous Roatair cable car. The train from Luzern to Engelberg was too cool, it was a mountain climbing train...I was a bit scared at the begning but after sometime I was back to my normal excited and happy self.I took so many pictures and for the first time I realize that 2 GB memory chip is very less...for meh!in my excitment I was taking so many pictures and making video clip that I forgot my camera has limited memory storage haha.From Engelberg I went till the Cable way point and bought the ticket to go till top of Mt. Titlis, thanks to my flexi passes I got 50% discount on my ticket so insteda of 82 CHF i paid only 41 CHF...that momemt I felt ke zindagi mei aur kya chahyeh..discount pe discount.

Unlike the cable car I had travelled last year here in India at Timber Trail resort, Parwano this one was smaller and climbed steeper heights, some people were tracking and from above I saw the breathtaking beautiful valley, the site was amazingly beautiful and I was more than happy that I came to Engelberg, Mt Titlis. I met a group of people of Delhi who were also travelling, infact most toursit were Indians. Once I reached Trubsee, my excitment knew no bound....that place was part of a glacier and their were show everywhere, for the first time in my life I saw real snow...hahaha...other fellow toursit went gaga over the scene...everybody was busy taking pictures and that moment I missed my fren "A" alot....I thought if we would have been travelling together then hum dono pata nahi kitna sara photo khechte...from Trubsee the Roatair cable car took us to Mt. Titlis.

I spent abt 1 hr at Mt. Titlis and bought some souvenir's like coffee mug, key ring and postcards. I saw a lot of Indian's esp. Gujju's and the best was at the restaurant they were serving Indian food, palik panner, dal, rice, chappati, papad...hahaha I was truly amazed. Even in the souvenir shop they had written in Hindi that "Hum euro coin nahi lete sirf note lete hai". Their was an Indian cafe I saw when I came down and they were selling all Indian fast food...I couldn't stop myself from having a masala chai....After I came down to Engelberg I explored the place...took some pictures and just roamed around the place. It was relaxing and refreshing....the Mt. Titlis trip turned out really cool and I enjoyed every moment and this was truly one of the best places I ever visited in life....I was sure living my dream.

La Tour Paris ( Day 2-13th July)

Day 2 in Paris was our last day in Paris, after checking out from the hostel we decided to explore the other part of city we couldn't cover the 1st day. The first place was The Invalides- Napoleon Bonaparte Tomb with its dome covered with gold, the lawns and the garden was maintained well and my fren "A" in her happy jolly mood as usual claimed Napoleon Bonaparte was her ex-lover in past and she remembers the time they both spent together in the huge garden ...yeah that was some story and me being me I made some stinking sarcastic jokes abt the whole thing...on the way we stopped to enjoy some yummy "Paris" pastries (2 euro luxury) and we clicked unlimited pictures(free happiness)...I was taking "A" pics. from my camera and she was taking mine from her camera...it was a competition who can take most in the worst of positions and situations....and I think I won in that...hahaha we had some real cheap thrills in life.... next in our list was Eiffel Tower...we could see Eiffel Tower from The Invalides...for that matter we could see Eiffel Tower from everywhere in Paris. My agenda for the day was to take the Open Tour city bus ride...it was expensive (for me) and "A" refused to take the tour...but I took the tour and it was truly awesome 29 Euro's was a lil too much for me but I was in Paris for the first time and didn't know when I'll be there again...I paid 29 euro's with a heavy heart but it was worth every cent...the bus was full (Thank gawd I was not the only one to pay 29 goddamm euros) and I enjoyed every bit of the tour...I got to see all the places starting from The Invalides, Notre Dame, Opera House, Louvre and all other places in the MUST SEE LIST...by the end of the tour I was a happy girl..."A" was waiting at Eiffel Tower and I told her how much she missed seeing all other monuments...she didn't enjoyed Paris as much as I enjoyed so m sure that didn't bothered her.The best part abt the bus tour was it was worth every cent I spent and the hop on and hop off service that the bus provided, I didn't got down at any of the stops as I had very little time but I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. When the bus reached Louvre I was super excited and took so many pics. going inside Louvre was not in my agenda but just the fact that I was there and visiting the famous Museum made me super happy. Paris had a lot to offer if I had time...two days was just not enough. What would have helped was if we knew someone in Paris who could have told us abt the places to visit and what is near what but chalo it was a great trip for me...we found an explored everything in our own and despite our shoe string budget...we shopped quite alot ...enjoyed the city and enjoyed the food in Paris......I hope I go back again ...very soon and revisit the places I visited very briefly.