On the road

  Sunset in the forest The evening safari was going to begin at 3.30pm, and we were all worried about going out in the sun at this time when the temperature would be around 40 deg C! But there was a lot of excitement as well. During the morning safari, we hadn't really spotted a sloth bear, but otherwise, it had been all about the herbivores and birds. Would the evening safari be as thrilling? Spotted deer The open gypsy picked us up from the resort as usual, and took us to the Junona gate, that would take us to the core zone.  The safari started, and as we were passing through the jungle, we saw these tall, apparently ancient looking stone columns on either side. Our guide told us these were used as guiding stones for the mounted elephants in the ancient times. Once again, I was awed by the sheer amount of stuff to see and internalize in the jungle. As we made our way through the jungle, we saw many spotted deers, sambars, wild fowl and langurs. The first thrill of the safari...

Spotted deer  There was a sign board hanging right outside on of the gates through which we entered the core area of the Tadoba National Park which said something along the lines of: 'Your guide may open the jungle book for you, but if you go in with the expectation of only seeing a tiger, you'll be disappointed.' Our second safari proved this. It was day two of waking up at an an ungodly hour. The gate to the core area was several kilometres away from our resort, so we had to get an early start. We woke up at 4am, got dressed, and were gathered in the parking lot by 4.45 am.  Tadoba National Park is located in Central India, in the state of Maharashtra.It is India's oldest and largest national park, spread over an area of 625 sq. kilometres. From what we were told by our guides, we came to understand that the Park is divided into the core zone and the buffer zones. Core area is all jungle, whereas the buffer zone, as the name suggests, is the area of overlap between th...

  The Journey from Pune to Tadoba National Park via Nagpur, Night Safari   PC- Sameer Bhide. Shot on OnePlus   We went on this 3-day safari in May-June 2022, which was almost at the tail-end of the safari season. There were six of us on this trip, and we were very, very excited. For four of us, it was going to be our very first trip dedicated entirely to wildlife safaris. A dear friend of ours (and one of the six people on the trip), knew a tour operator who would plan the entire trip for us, which in itself for a strange experience for the hubster and I, as we like to do all the planning right down to the minute detail. But overall, it turned out to be a good decision. The first day started with waking up at an ungodly hour as most trips generally do. We were taking the 7am flight out of Pune to Nagpur. Travel post-COVID has become kinda dicey with the crowds at the airport being very unpredictable. We decided to err on the side of caution, and reached quite early. Four ...

 I'll be honest with you guys-- the sole reason I agreed to the Rajasthan trip of November 2019 was to spend a night under the stars in the Thar Desert. It was extremely uncharacteristic of me not to be involved in the planning process of our trip. Normally, I would research the heck of it, but this time I simply had no inclination. As a result, the hubster was the one who did all the research, booked all the hotels, planned out our rough itinerary for our Rajasthan trip. The only bit I planned was a desert safari and one night under the stars. And since Jaisalmer had to be visited last, the best bit of the trip had to be put off till the very end. Our journey towards Jaisalmer started from Jodhpur and we were using our most preferred way of travelling- by road. Our cab driver picked us up from our hotel in Jodhpur at around 8 am. We had had breakfast and hoped to reach Jaisalmer around 3 pm. We stopped for lunch at Pokhran (yes, the same Pokhran where the nuclear tests were carrie...

Kyichu Lhakhang, back to Phuentsholing via Chukha, Bagdogra and finally back to pavillion! The time to head back was almost upon us. It felt as if we would never get enough of this amazing, peaceful place that shares a border with our country, but is as different as can be. A country that not only takes pride in their unique culture, but actively works towards preserving it; a country ably led by a charismatic and humble ruler who not only thinks about the present generation, but the future generation as well; a country that is firmly traditional, but at the same time is actively incorporating the modern values where essential. Believe it or not, each of us had googled if there was any way we could become Bhutanese citizens!! (Turns out, the only practical way to do that is marry a Bhutanese 😁) FOUR HARMONIUS FRIENDS: One of the most universally seen paintings across Bhutan, with a beautiful meaning. The painting is said to symbolize environmental and social harmo...

Tiger's nest monastery The most anticipated day of the trip for me was here at last! We would be hiking up to the famous Tiger's Nest monastery today. The picture of Tiger's nest, the quintessential picture that defines Bhutan was imprinted in my mind. The cliff-hanging monastery has an edge-of-the-world feeling to it, and I've always marvelled at the how it must have been actually built. The quintessential Bhutan picture! PC: Sameer Bhide We woke up quite early, had a light breakfast, and reached the parking lot by around 7.45 am. There is a ticket counter where one has to buy tickets at Nu/Rs 500/- per head. After that was done, I also rented a sturdy bamboo stick to help me navigate the slopes (sticks available at Rs 50/-). Having done one Himalayan trek the previous year, there was some amount of apprehension as to how the hike would be. During the last trek, I was pretty unfit and had sustained an injury, which had me struggling throughout. This time howe...

Tango monastery hike, reaching Paro, Paro market! The thing about writing travel blogs is that you re-live the whole experience again and that is a bittersweet feeling! It makes one crave for the lovely place again, but also puts a smile one's face, remembering all the good and even the unpleasant experiences. I was particularly excited on this day of our road trip across Western Bhutan, as a hike to Tango monastery was on the cards! Not many tourists go here and it is an accessible, off-beat location that you can visit if you love hiking. B arrived before the scheduled time, giving us a pleasant surprise indeed! Path to Tango monastery! PC: Sameer Tango monastery is an institute for Buddhist studies that is located on the outskirts of Thimphu. The hike is a short one, about 280m (got this number from the lonely planet page), but a steep one. There are supposedly two paths, one is a paved, stone path; and the other is a trail that is steeper than the paved path. We ...

Dochula pass, Punakha dzong and Punakha suspension bridge! Are you a citizen of India, Maldives or Bangladesh? If you are, take a moment to be extremely grateful for this fact. Why do I say that? It's because it's only the passport holders of these three countries that are allowed an entry into Bhutan without a visa. In addition to visa processing fees, citizens of other countries also have a minimum compulsory daily spending of $200/250. Ergo, be extremely glad for Indian passport, which allows you to decide the budget of your Bhutan trip, plan your itinerary on your own terms, and spend as much or as little as you want. Anyway, getting back to business.. Our itinerary for today, after Thimphu was Punakha via Dochula pass. Having read marvellous things about the Punakha dzong, we were very eager to start the journey and hoped that B would arrive on time. But when he did not show up even at 9.30, the hubster and I decided to look for other options. A call was also made to...

Day 3: Thimphu! So there we were, in Bhutan's capital! A capital city of a country which has zero traffic lights. As a loather of traffic lights, this was another aspect of the country that has always fascinated me. I always used to wonder how amazing it must be to live in a place like this, and now I would get to experience it first-hand! And this is how the traffic is managed! Even the booth for the traffic police is pretty!  PC: Rashmi Patwardhan During my extensive research, there were quite a few places of interest that showed up and I really had to pick and choose so that we could visit places that we found interesting, rather than going to the most visited, touristy kind of places. After much deliberation, we decided we would visit these: - Taschhicho dzong - Buddha dordenma - Motithang Takin preserve - Folk museum - Coronation Park - National Library - Tango monastery (This would be visited on Day 5) Sums up the places we visited! Of course, I sketched i...

Day 2: Permit and reaching Thimphu Our driver, having informed us on the previous day that he wouldn't be able to accompany us further, was to introduce us to his replacement at the immigration centre. He had told us to get there by 8.30 am. We forgot to ask him if he meant Bhutan time or India time, so we made a compromise(;)) and reached the immigration centre at 8.45 Bhutan time. Immigration centre, Pheuntsholing..even the official government buildings were so pretty! Us at the immigration centre..blissfully unaware of what was to come!  From the research, we knew the process could take approximately an hour. At 9 am, the centre opened and we saw tourists being ushered in by their guides/drivers as soon as they submitted the required documents. Our driver was nowhere in sight. After calling him multiple times, he arrived around 9.20 (BT). He had conveniently forgotten to tell us that we would need a copy of the confirmed hotel bookings, in order to get a permit. Th...