travel for me is about stories, about places, people, where they have been, and how they got here. i like travel, not just for mad travelers and their envious around-the-world tales but for experiences, stories, histories. for living, in a place, that can only come from sticking, staying put. i can’t always do that! don’t have the money or time to live in another city … Continue reading why i love homestays…
the gateway of india. i have been there many times… walked by, read the carved words on the top ‘built to commemorate king george V’s trip to india’… stood under the shade as i waited for my ferry to alibaug or elephanta caves… read about it the news when a girl was molested on new years’ eve… this was remnant of the past, of another … Continue reading discovering bombay in mumbai… part 2
it was a mom-daughter trip. to sri lanka! there were multiple ways to play it.. go to colombo + kandy and then head down towards galle and mirisa. however we decided we didn’t want to meet the indian ocean (will have to go back there for that one day, as always here such rave reviews about sri lankan beaches) decided to even skip colombo! people … Continue reading sri lanka: exploring the cultural triangle…
matheran is very close to where i spent most of my growing years, but was never tempted. even been dissuaded by friends.
i went there for the first time 5 years ago, and then willingly went again last year! and i wish to make it a hat trick with one more visit in the coming months!
here are my TEN reasons why you MUST MUST MUST visit matheran!
Continue reading “10 reasons why everyone should visit matheran”
i think it was at 11. can’t remember anything before that. and this was the BIG trip! for 10 or 15 days we were out of our city. that was huge. i think we did go to nearby places, and every summer to chennai to stay with grandparents… but in those days middle class indians didn’t waste money on ‘site-seeing’ at non-native places. we plonked ourselves at our grandmothers, as all our other cousins did and it was this huge melee of people. of course that’s another story, for anything time and another place… and, middle class tams, definitely did not ‘travel’ and importantly, stay at a hotel!! there were other more ‘educational’ things to be done! right?
preference for the known non-indian exotic? but not excited by unknown indian exotic? even at the same cost?
had heard so much about chettinad cuisine over the years, but being vegetarian it never really excited me. but, then my husband and i saw pictures of some old mansions in chettinad and knew we had to visit… the old mansions looked beautiful, and there seemed to be way more to chettinad than food and saris!
first steps we had to find a nice place to stay. we chanced upon Visalam managed by CGH Earth. it seemed to have captured that old-world charm without going over-board! none of the places in karaikudi or nearby seemed nearly as good! when we reached at an early 8am, we were awed by the beauty of the house. how they had managed to renovate it! Continue reading “chettinad – love at first ‘site’!!”
i was commissioned (for a lack of any other word) to write audio tours for a company based in europe! at first i was worried. yes, of course i know my city – bombay, mumbai and all of it in between. but do i know it well enough to tell others about it? so i walked, talked, photographed and re-discovered my city!
in this series, i want to document all the little tit-bits that made me get awed, charmed, amazed, angry, delighted and interested in bombay & mumbai!
we begin at watson’s hotel!
it was my first time in rajasthan. the december of 2008. we were going to spend christmas and new years in this glorious desert state of india. i was excited. and a little cold when i landed in jaipur, a little delayed on my flight and drowsy from my long night at work – trying to wrap up everything before i escaped away for 10 days. i … Continue reading rushing into rajasthan…
merry to go around 