Xthrill Zone

If Alice wanted to get lost instead of the wonderland this place will have been an option.  The hills match to Scottish outlands, the picturesque lake sleeps like mercury spilled out.  Xthrill is an adventure camp built on the high hills of lavasa.  You’ll be guided by Xthrill boards as soon as we start driving inside Lavasa. You need to drive through a patch of rough & rugged road leading to this high perched camp site. The check-in happen here at 5 PM & Check-out at 5 PM too (wondering when do they get time to prepare the rooms...er...Tents). The Camp site is really worth the trouble of driving the serpentine crumbling road. It features 2-Man, 4-Man Swiss AC tents with neatly kept toilet & bathroom with really hot water.  This place is all about nature & adventure, it’s neither a resort nor a hotel, and they call it a training institute. If you are venturing here looking for a relaxing holiday this is it where you should be then.  Get acquitted to your surroundings, your tent, the friendly crew & talking to them about how they run the place & activities. Watch the sunset over the green mountains & soon you’ll be surrounded by the cricket’s chirpings.  Night falls quickly here & its pitch black within minutes. There’s a camp fire set before the dinner & their menu is really impressive & tasty too, mostly veg.

Waking up is a task here, the morning start a bit early at 6 AM, not really an attractive option me.  Trust me the view in the morning is really stunning, wow & fresh. I woke up overlooking to a bunch of clouds passing by with lots of dew drops & mist everywhere. Philosophy is what you need with a cup of tea that’s it. No newspaper, no news of any civilization. Just you & unlimited calmness all around you. You can either been a challenger and go on a Jungle trail & climb the Castle Rock or walk like a pilgrim down towards the lake. For the rest of the day’s activities you can freaks on riding ATV’s, turn into a flying fox by Zipling, for a few dare devils you can rappel down a slippery waterfall.  You need to plan you day here & work & maintain timeline as per your schedules. I had terrific time here & wish to come back here the next time when they start Para-sailing.

Best time to be here: between June to December

Distance from Pune: 72 Kms

Clothing: Rain wear/ Warm clothes

For more about Xthrill go to: http://www.xthrill.in

Pattaya, Thailand

Travelling is fun. This is my first trip abroad & really a special one. Here’s my account:

Day 1 & 2: Bangkok- Pattaya:

We took a flight to Bangkok from Mumbai. Landed at Bangkok’s Suvranabhumi International Airport early morning. Hopped on a bus to Pattaya. Pattaya is 147kms away from the Thai Capital. The highway’s quite busy with the tourist vehicles & local transport tucks. Pattaya is a small & famous beach destination common with the travellers all over. “Good guys go to heaven & bad guys come to Pattaya” this one-liner t-shirts are found very commonly in Pataya, this is because what this place has to offer. It’s the world’s biggest red-light area & most of the Thai girls hanging around with westerners are a common sight. If you tend to take a walk on the walking street on a Friday or Saturday night you’ll realise what this place has to offer. Sin city!

Our hotel at Pattaya, A1 Royal Cruise was a good one. Safe, clean & right in middle of the busy & buzzing Road. Our next venturing was the Alcazar Show. It a cabaret performed by transvestites & transsexuals. It an hour shows with lots of music, dancing, songs, stories & really colourful sets. It’s a must visit if you are in Pattaya. We missed going to the Sanctuary of Truth. Late evening we just took a walk from Walking Street to our hotel back. Pattaya’s nightlife really makes you party hard. There are many Indian Restaurants here so you won’t miss your Dhal, Rice & Roti’s.

Next Day we jumped on a speed boat to Coral Island. Its beautiful beach & its turquoise blue clear water a really treat. Don’t miss to do the Sea walk. It’s a different world under the Water. This Sea walk will cost you 1200 baht plus 600 baht for the Video & pictures. Got back from the Island, a quick shower we headed to Nong Nooch Village. It’s actually a botanical garden & display’s Thai culture in a nutshell & the elephant show. Our Day ended with little shopping at the Soi’s nearby. Next Day morning our next destination was Bangkok, will write about Bangkok in my next post…till then Swaadeeka!

From our hotel room

Stars!

Alcazar-ing

Posing after the show

Walking Street Signage

The Famous Mocktail Vans

American breakfast

A1 Royal Cruise, Pattaya

From the boat

Pattaya's Skyliners

Coral Islands

Dish wars

Nang NOOCH!

Thai Kick Boxing

Ooooch!

Elephants

Global Village

The Cub

Thai Silk 

Highway Star!

There is always light at the end of the tunnel. This picture was an outcome of last weekend wanderings on Bombay-Pune highway.

Red & Red

This is the Mapro Garden at Mahabaleshwar. These plants reminded me of the movie The Village directed by Manoj Night Shyamalan. Try the Fresh Strawberry Cream shake & the grilled sandwich.

"Two sisters sweep the front porch of their simple home. They wear plain boots, not fancy shoes. They swirl their brooms around, light-hearted. The older sister spots something at the edge of the porch and puts her broom down. Itis a red flower. Making haste, they pluck the flower, take it some yards from their home, and bury it. They return to their chores, but are subdued. The color of the flower, red, has spooked them, for it is the bad color." - a recollection from the Movie.

Oh! 2010

I’m just back from a road trip. Pune to Bangalore & back. It was fun, adventurous & the feel of venturing into an unknown territory pushed the adrenaline high. My i10 was pretty tuned up throughout the drive. One craziness of mine costed the oil filter, I landed up on a bad patch of road & the oil filter got brushed to the ground eventually leaking out the engine oil. That was one of the highlight of this trip. Got more to say…no time to inscribe now. Here’s wishing you all a very Happy, successful & blessed 2010.

Nature's wink

This tree on the edge of lion's point at lonavla was enigmatic. The weather as before never disappoints anyone at this time of the year. With the skies dipping down and the gorges turn into ivory green i couldn't help turning poetic. Nature does wink at us at times. . .

Getaway: Girivan Resorts

16/September - Update: Just happened to go to this place few weeks back & I didn’t like it a bit. Last time I went it was raining & crowded so I believe it was different unlike this time. The security & so called dumb care takers were very arrogant & stupid. First they said to enter you need to pay Rs.250 per person in that Wilderness (includes just snacks & dinner), which obviously I denied to pay as we weren’t staying back that long, it was just a joy ride. The guy sitting failed to understand any language that we were just there for 15-20 mins & were heading back soon & had no sense to treat visitors. If that’s the way they are managing visitors, I’m afraid I seriously don’t recommend this place for anyone or anything. Some might argue that this may be a one-off case but I’m in no mood to silent to such unruly Hospilatailty ever.

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Pune & places around pune turn green & serene during the rainy season. There are many options for a weekend getaway from here. Last weekend, I tripped to this place called Girivan, a private hill station (That’s what they claim!). Got to know about this place by few friends who already made a trip there.
It’s roughly an hour’s drive from Pune towards lavasa route, instead of taking a left to lavasa from the main road you need to keep traveling straight ahead & take a right. (You’ll find a hoarding of Girivan, Keep your eyes open). After taking this diversion, you are on your own. You can see rich green fields, (Florescent green would be right!), green hillocks creamed with white foggy clouds & narrow one way traffic roads. (Lesser version of Roads). Follow your instincts & find this place on your own the drive is worth & the place is a hidden heaven during the rains. They have a small eatery at the Reception center, over looking the hills & the inter twining road below. They don’t serve Coffee so sit back & sip a hot cup of tea here. It was a short trip so can’t describe too much. I’ll write back more on this place when I really go & explore it out.




(Click on the images to enlarge! Pics from my SE K790i)

Colors of India!

Since I have spent so much of time on my site writing about traveling, going new places, exploring, I thought this is the right time to write about a site which attracts all the Travelers who want to know more about India, its Culture, History & heritage. The idea was an incredible way to market our travel industry & as far I see, it was one successful campaign. I’m talking about Incredible India, a programme which the Ministry of Tourism undertook to promote India as a preferred Travel destination. It went to many places over the couple of years & its website’s making news for all the good reasons for winning the PC world awards 2008. The site gets an approximately of over 10 lac hits in a day world over, that’s infact a huge traffic movement I would say. Its theme for internet media called “Colors of India” is really superb. Some of the images used do really reflect the colors of India, a very colorful country with a lot of vibrant colors & places, that’s the reason I was really tempted to upload few images straight from the theme. If you haven’t been dipped into these colors it’s time to get out of your cubicle & hit the road. I remember a famous quote which often does appear on Discovery Channel from St Augustine- “The world is a book & those who do not travel read only one page”.

Some other Quotes which grab my attention:

“There is no happiness for the person who does not travel. For Indra is the friend of the traveler, therefore wander!”
-Brähmann

“Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled".
-Prophet Mohammed

Don’t you think these statements from the wise are really good enough for a Headstart?

Dehradun:Step Closer to Nature

It was a dream.
After my wonderful flight from Pune to Delhi, I was on my way to Dehra Dun. I was really excited to be in Dehradun. I had an option of Flying from Delhi to Dehradun but some how wanted the travel team not to find a connecting flight from Delhi to Dehra dun, and indeed I was lucky, I had to take the road, which I loved too. It was raining hard for quite awhile but later reduced to a mere summer showers. It was 6:30 pm when we left Delhi; soon we were on the Highway.

Since we had someone to pick us up from Delhi, I felt little relieved. The Drive who said he had lived all his life on this Route, took a detour instead of the so called highway, we had to take a deviation & we were just going by a dark, isolated, narrow one way path along a canal.I believe this waterway running parallel to us was River Ganga. It was the “regular” way taken to cut down on few Kilometers. But it was quite Dangerous, I felt.

After few miles on the highway we stopped at Cheetal Grand Restaurant, a regular stop-by for the regular Delhi-Dehradun travelers. Some thing like the food malls on Pune-Mumbai Expressway.Cheetal Grand is located at Khatauli, roughly 100kms from Delhi. It’s quite unique; it has catchy message boards & great flora & fauna. I wonder how they managed to keep so many birds caged. Some, I felt were rare, I had never seen them before. I guess Maneka Gandhi yet hasn’t stopped by here:).The onion & chili Pakoda’s are quite famous here.It was already dark & I could faintly see anything except for the some dark villages (Most of them were without power) which my driver significantly pointed out were a part of Uttar Pradesh (Land of Turmoil, Hope it changes its perspective). I guess by 11:30pm were in Dehradun, little tired & damn hungry.It was just a picture perfect start; I woke up, leaned over my balcony to see lots of greenery &it was pouring, never felt so beautiful about rains. The sound of rain was so refreshing, I never paid attention to how rains sounded before. A Small Church standing at a distance. Just felt nice about the little chill hitting my body. It was one of those days were you just lazed in bed, reading sipping hot cup of coffee or sitting by the fire place & have a drink. Hmm….It felt like heaven. I never wanted to leave…



I got very little time to go around Dehradun; so near but yet far from Mussoorie. I managed to just see Mussoorie over the Mountains. (My first glimpse of the Himalayas). I remembered Ruskin Bonds. He lives in Mussoorie (Had ideas to met him too). But, was unlucky this time, was running out of time & also was advised it was unsafe to go Mussoorie after the nightfall. (If on my own, I would have driven down on my own, even if I had to spent 30mins there). Got time to see the Dehradun market, shopping area, uptown area, the Tibetan market, in & around Clock tower area, walking by. It was a Sunday evening so most of the shops were closed. Went to a sweet shop & had lots of Ras Gulas. It was really a small trip; I just couldn’t get to see much of Dehradun. Yes, I did miss visiting the landmarks- The famous Dun School &IMA.
I had and early morning flight from Dun to Delhi. Dehradun’s only airport known as Jolly Grant is situated 25kms from the main town, the drive is quite pleasant but be well in time to catch the flight, if ever stuck in a jam you can say goodbye to your flight. I’m sure you don’t want to do that as it’s the only Flight out of Dehradun. (Only AirDeccan flies to Dehradun-Delhi Sector, One in the morning & the other in the evening, basically ATR’s).



The Airport is quite small & lack basic facilities, I guess it will improve once the airport is fully built & more flights start operational. There’s just one Air Deccan counter & one foodstall with minimum staff & little Security. The Airport is nestled at the foothills of Himalayas. My dream of Dehradun was pretty much over. I’ll surely come back here for sure, hope not on a Business trip.
Trip Details:
Delhi-Dehradun: 232 Kms Apporox
My Travel Dates : 4th(Reached at 11:30pm, almost 5th), 5th, 6th, 7th April 2008
Pune to Delhi –4th April 08, Flight #SG 212 Y -04APR PNQ-DEL AK1 (1330-1525 hrs)
Dehradhun to Delhi – 7th April 08 # DN 510 Y -07APR DED-DEL (0655-0750 hrs)