Into the wild…

Last year I was a tad bit disappointed as I could not travel much. Ever since the trip to South Korea in 2007, I was traveling abroad at least once every year. I badly wanted that to continue, but 2011 did not give me a chance. 2012 arrived with a bang, and the entire year was dotted with travel. Both, international and within India. I took almost 24 flights, more than 9 train journeys, a few bus journeys and a few long road trips in the year. I won’t even add the total kilometers covered. I visited 18 places out of which almost 15 (including 8 major cities) were visited for the first time ever. All those trips were lovely and memorable, but the year ended with me going on a trip to one of the most beautiful forests of India and spending close to a week, in the lap of nature, into the wild!

We visited the Kanha National Park, and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, and in between spent a couple of days marveling at the gorgeous Marble Rocks gorge in the Narmada river basin.

It is a little bit inconvenient to reach those places from Hyderabad. While going we had to take a train to Katni (MP) and then a taxi to Bandhavgarh, and on the way back, we drove from Kanha till Nagpur and then took a train. Jabalpur, Katni, Gondia and Nagpur are the nearest railway stations that have decent connectivity to most major Indian cities.

All throughout our vacation, we stayed at various MP Tourism Hotels/Resorts/Lodges. They were not “the best” at each location, but certainly in the top 5.

Bandhavgarh was our first stop. This is one of the smaller forest reserves in MP, but with one of the largest tiger populations. There are about 60 odd tigers here, and because of the small size, the probability of spotting a tiger is much higher than that in other forest reserves in India, the highest in fact. We did two safaris, one in the evening that lasted 2 hours, and the other early in the morning that lasted 4 hours. The best times of the day to spot animals is either just after sunrise or just before sunset. Summer is even better, we were told.

The guy in the pic above was our guide, Anil Sharma… if you ever travel to Bandhavgarh, and happen to stay at MPTDC White Tiger Forest Lodge, ask for Anil Sharma’s services during the safari! He is the best safari person they have, and has been there for the last 20 years. He knows the forest inside out and will tell you amazing stories! Whether you see a tiger or not is a matter of chance, but your guide being expert enough to understand animal alert calls and track tiger footprints is a subtle key.

The next stop was Jabalpur’s Bheda Ghats, where we spent a couple of nights to take a break, and enjoy the vistas provided by the beautiful Marble Rocks gorge formed by the Narmada. From there we moved on to Kanha, the largest of the forest reserves in MP, and also the best! At Kanha, we stayed for two nights at Baghira Log Huts (Kisli), run by MPTDC and one night at Forest Safari Lodge (Mukki). The Baghira Log Huts are the only place to stay within the core area of the forest. All other resorts are either in the buffer zone, or beyond that. Being in the core area meant that the animals would come on a safari to meet us rather than us going out looking for them. Monkeys, spotted deer and sambar were constant around the huts. The nights were dotted with deer alarm calls (on seeing a tiger around). We did 2 safaris in the Kisli/Sarhi zone of Kanha, and one safari in Mukki zone. We could spot more than a handful of the 30,000 odd species of animals/birds at Kanha. And sprawling meadows gave us a chance to see herds of deer, and much more, grazing happily in the sun. Unfortunately, the best we could get to spotting a panther, was a Leopard whom we saw swiftly jumping across the road. We did not see any tiger at Kanha (Kanha is twice as big as Bandhavgarh and has lesser tigers, so the probability of spotting one is really low). Below are some pics from our trip…

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Jackal, Male Barking Deer, Male Barasingha with Spotted Deer, Female Barking Deer.

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Deer in various parts of Kanha, with a fawn, in a herd, with family and solo.

Most people go on safaris with a single intention – spot the Tiger. It was very sad to see depressed faces of groups returning from safaris without spotting a tiger. We were also one such group after our first safari, when all we could spot was a tiger pawmark. We met the Tiger during our second safari at Bandhavgarh. The first sight was from a distance, the Tiger retreating into the woods from a meadow. Sharmaji, our safari driver was quick to turn around and take us to the spot where he anticipated the Tiger would come out from on the other side of the woods. We waited and watched in awe as the majestic creature walked out – stood on the road, turned around to show us his full strength, and turned back to climb up the hills on the other side. We watched as he lifted his tail up and walked away with pride. Seeing the Tiger on the morning of 25th December was our Santa gift :) Honestly speaking, even we went out on all the 5 safaris with the hope of seeing just the Tiger, but it was many times more pleasing to see so many other beautiful animals and colourful little birds in the forest.

Monkeys were a common sight all throughout our stay in Kanha, and above are 4 snaps from the hundreds I clicked for them. They posed and acted funny too!

I am bad with remembering names of cereals, flowers and birds. But these gorgeous birds we spotted at Kanha will be remembered for a long time: In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Indian Roller (Neelkanth), gorgeous Peacock (I had never seen so many peacocks ever in my life!), Indian Pond Heron, Owl (I think Burrowing Owl, though I’m not sure).

In the pic above, clockwise from top-left: Diya, my adorable niece, Baghira Log Huts, Dhuandhar Falls, Bheda Ghat at the Narmada, Dense Bandhavgarh Forest.

And of course some usual crazy stuff from the two of us :) In the bottom left photo is my sister-in-law and her family… they had planned this amazing trip for us!

Roshnai has always wanted to go on a jungle safari, more specifically, African Safari. I, however, had never been in favour of one. Now my thoughts have changed and I would love to visit the Serengeti soon!

I spent the 31st evening at my cousin’s place in Nagpur before catching a train back to Hyderabad. We had all plans to scream “Happy New Year” and scare fellow sleeping passengers in the train, but the train arrived 2 hours later than scheduled. That meant we had to watch the fireworks in the sky waiting at the railway station and greeting each other :)

With the year ending well, we have already started planning for our 2013 vacation/vacations! The idea is the have at least 2 vacations, preferably one within India, and one abroad :)

If you plan to visit Kanha/Bandhavgarh and need more information, you know what to do :)

P.S. Please excuse me for the rather large and in-your-face Copyright Watermarks I have used in this post. Most internet users do not think twice before feeling free to lift images from blogs. Ask me and I will be happy to share them with you!

Is winter here already?

Waking up early to remove the dough from the fridge on a cold morning, is a lot of fun. Trust me. I had prepared the dough the previous night and put it in the fridge for its first rise. Today, it is 15 C in Hyderabad and I am feeling quite cold. Happy about this, honestly :) Only thing I am worried about now is that the dough is taking more time than it should for its second rise.

Looks like this is my first ever post on a Diwali day~ So while the dough takes its sweet time to rise, I thought, I’d go online and give you a few updates.

Finally, November is here! I am not very sure why I was waiting for it so long, but I am surely not complaining. The weight-loss programme is finally, over! That means, I am also back to the normal diet I had wayyyy back in 2011. Yes, that is how long it took – could have been much faster had I not traveled so much. And no, I am not getting on the weighing scale till December 1st <rule #1>.

Now talking of traveling, this is the reason why I was waiting for November, may be! I am looking forward to traveling to Kerala and Gujarat this month. If you did not know, I am one who used to collect flight tickets, boarding passes, train and bus tickets etc. Now that I do not do that, I still keep a track of every time I’ve flown. So this month, I will be on my flight numbers 21, 22, 23 and 24, visiting destinations numbered 11 and 12, and 10th new destination (all numbers for 2012 only). Also, while we are at numbers – starting yesterday, each week at work this month will be just 2-3 days long :) Fantastic, isn’t it?

Talking of winter and travel, I am really waiting for our visit to Bandhavgarh and Kanha Tiger reserves in the last week of December. Those places are known to have the highest concentration of tigers in India and thankfully, the government has lifted the ban on tourism. I am sure tourism is doing more good than harm out there! The most exciting thing should however be – camp fires! Can’t remember when was the last time I enjoyed a camp fire. I think it was back in 2004 during the first year NCC camp at Kalaikonda Air Force Base.

Okay, confession of the day is that the bread just got done, and turned out to be a disaster. I should not have used the loaf tin for baking it and should have stuck to using the pan shaped tray instead. Not the best thing to do on a Diwali morning, I say!

Alright, so it is already post noon, and much after I started writing this post today. I will continue in this pseudo present tense, though. Twitter has taken away the joy of blogging about a lot of petit and unimportant-to-everyone-else things such as facts that I just played badminton for an hour and then cooled myself off with a glass of chilled pomegranate juice! Such updates are only for the micro-blogging platform these days. Wattodo?

Anyway, the point is, winter is here, and there is so much to look forward to before we wrap up this year! I had planned to do a Q3 review of 2012 since I had planned to change a few things that did not go so well last year, and wanted to check my progress, but I will just wait and let the year get over. Wait for the photos, and if you want to spend some more time on the question I asked at the end of the last para, you may, but trust me, the answer is still, very much, 42!

We let the clouds drench our souls!

So here I am in week #3 of Cinthol’s #AliveIsAwesome campaign. First week’s gratification was quite awesome actually – an iPod shuffle, and Cinthol’s bathing kit! Makes much sense to go a bit further now :)

Pune! Yes, that is the only place that comes to mind when I think of monsoons. After graduation, I moved to Pune to join my first job. Before September 2008. I had been to Pune only once and since I was a little kid back then, I clearly do not remember anything from that trip. In Pune, I was lucky enough to get an apartment in one of the tallest apartment complexes at that time (11th floor, yey!) which was already constructed on top of a hill. The view from our apartment was awesome, especially in monsoon.

So if you do not know, Pune is situated at an altitude of 1800-2500 ft above sea level, which is also the level at which rain clouds float around. Since we were already at the higher end of that altitude in Pune, most clouds were at the same level as us, and only few were really much above us. Here in a post dated August 2008 I have captured the dance of rains over the lush green hills visible from the balcony. We would see the clouds come from over the hills, and slowly settle down into the valley just after sunrise. Within minutes, they would move through the highrise building and engulf the entire complex in a dull wet and cool mist. The feeling was almost like walking through a humidifier.

Unfortunately for us, that was just not enough and the fun of monsoons was in taking the Activa and riding it up the hills. So off we went one day to the most popular destination within Pune – Sinhagadh! This Maratha fort is one of the numerous forts in and around Pune. It is about 30 km from the city and takes a little under 2 hours thanks to the really bad roads and steep incline on the hills. We were 4 of us on 2 scooters, riding up the hilly fort in slippery rains. It was raining, and it was cold. We got drenched the moment we met the first showers. Clearly, rain coats and umbrellas are a big no-no while riding a bike, and all we had were windcheaters. Of course they did not work and we were wearing clothes as wet as those inside a washing machine!

Once on top, the clouds were thick enough to reduce the visibility to just a few meters. The feeling was awesome. We were in clouds, drenched, and cold! It almost felt like what a car would feed going through a car wash. The clouds were like loofahs around us, and the feeling was that of being one with nature! We felt alive, and as we’ve talked before – being alive is awesome :) We cooled off further having some awesome local usal with bhakri and dahi…

And that is the only reason I miss Pune in monsoons!

This post is written for Cinthol’s new Alive is Awesome marketing campaign.

Of One Million Fireflies and Water-falls

Traveling without a camera is not what I enjoy doing, but I do relish those trips just a little bit more. Looking through the camera lens does not narrow my perspective but it does narrow my perspective, you know what I mean! I visited Goa the first time ever, more than 25 years after I was born. By then more than 75% of the people I knew have been to Goa, and more than 50% of females I knew had at least one album titled  ‘Goa!!’ on Facebook! Unfortunately that was my first trip since owning a DSLR that I completed without a camera. Consequence was that I do not have a blog post on one awesome trip I’ve had. Well the reason I did not carry my DSLR was that activities planned in Goa were a little shady ;) (common, I am just being honest here) and I did not want to lose a great camera. I thought I’d never repeat the mistake, and actually I did pretty well keep up to my own expectations till the following happened.

Somewhere in the middle of last year, we were invited to join a wonderful group on a village expedition in the not-so-lofty-but-loftier-than-Lonavala Western Ghats near Kalsubai. We were on our first rural tourism itinerary for two days to a tiny village called Purushwadi in the early monsoons. Coming back to cameras, well I did not forget to carry the camera, but – wait for it – I forgot to charge the battery! Add to that the fact that I even forgot to carry the battery charger – there anyway wasn’t a charging point where we stayed.

So anyway, the whole trip was excellent. Started and ended with some most amazing views of the Sahyadris, and driving atop the hills at 3000ft above sea was awesome in itself. But the fun of the trip was the stay at Purushwadi. The trip was organized by Grassroutes, and we stayed with the locals, in tents! It was a two day trip, and the first day was spent having lunch and tea with the locals in their huts, and then going on treks, plucking fruits from the farms, and sliding in the mud! Post dinner, we all walked out into the bushes around the village, away from the people and into the wild. We were only following two things (three actually) – the darkness, and the sounds of the insects (and glows!)

Yes, the key attraction of the whole trip was sight of a million fireflies! Literally! The first time in my life, I had seen more than 2 fireflies, and now make it a million! It was an awesome sight and we just stayed there for like an hour. None of the cameras could capture the sight, and such things are best left to be seen with your own eyes than a camera’s.

The next day was fun filled. Starting with another trek and some more fruit plucking, we got a chance to plough the fields, clean some peanut pods, and eat awesome poha for breakfast. But what really got the group going, was gorging on buckets full of ripe and delicious mangoes and then – jumping into the pond of cool monsoon fresh water. I think, if the highlight of the first day was watching the fireflies, that for the second day was jumping into the pond and splashing around endlessly! The group splashed endlessly around the lazy river, and dived into the pond all afternoon. The sense of awesomeness that was created the previous evening by the fireflies, was taken to new heights by this feeling of conquering your self that jumping into a body of water gives you. The moment had suddenly come alive, and the feeling was fresh! After the mesmerizing dance of the fireflies had left us all wondering, the swims and the dives got the group alive again, and the feeling of being Alive is Awesome! The tiredness of the treks was gone, and trip was on its way to an epic conclusion.

This post is written for Cinthol’s new Alive is Awesome marketing campaign.

The above photo has been clicked by Dipna and all rights are reserved by her. Thanks Nickolai and Sunny for the photograph.

Feel alive bathing at the Strawberry Park Hot Springs in Colorado

So here I am continuing to write on the adventure bathing experiences I’ve had in the last few years. I know a few people who do not enjoy bathing, but for me it is a complete joy. Even at home I try to create varying bathing experiences each day to distance myself from the monotony. I alternate between bathing from the bucket, and using the shower. Along with that I also alternate between using a shower gel and a soap bar. That gives me almost 4 combinations to work with. What do you do to make your bath more exciting?

Coming back to adventure bathing, some of the experiences I’ve had are really unique! Those are times that are close to my heart and those that I cannot forget, ever! A not so recent experience was visiting the Strawberry Park Hot Springs, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains in the US. That road trip from Denver to Steamboat Springs, and Vail and back, was one of the most beautiful and memorable trips ever! Patrik Da, are you reading?

So what was unique and so exciting about it? Well to start with, the outside temperature was well below 0 C. Now who takes a bath in a freezing weather? Would you even remove your thermals in such? At Strawberry Hot Springs, you would not be able to resist the temptation of skinny dipping! Strawberry Hot Springs are natural mineral hot springs at an altitude of 14,000 ft above sea level. They way the whole complex is designed is that boiling water emerges from the top most rocks of the spring, and flows 7 levels down into a stream of naturally frozen river. So the stepped pools provide you a gradient of temperatures varying from sub zero at the bottom to about 80-100C at the top. You can go jumping around the pools of varying temperatures or just choose one that fits you the best and relax for hours.

But here are the best things about the springs >
There are no lights out there, and you can stay in the springs all day and all night
and you do not need to wear clothes :) so basically you may skinny dip!

I’ve never seen a more beautiful night sky ever, than from the hot springs. There was no city light to block the shiny stars. The night was dark enough to show the Milky Way too!

Bathing for hours, literally, rejuvenated me! Watching the stars up above the world so high and wondering what they are, made me feel one with the vast universe. It made me come alive. Being Alive Is Awesome and this bathing experience only affirmed that belief!

This photograph of the Strawberry Springs, Colorado has been taken from their Facebook Page and you may not use it further.

This post is written for Cinthol’s new Alive is Awesome marketing campaign.