If you are in a hurry read the headings and skip to the tldr; below.

The Approach & Acclimatization

The popular approach to Leh is via the Manali-Rohtang-Leh highway, but since that journey would take 2 days and we had just 6 days in total at our disposal, we decided to book a flight from Delhi to Leh. Apart from having to wake up at 3:00 AM to catch the flight at 5:00 AM, there weren’t much difficulties considering that we were flying into highly sensitive territory. The flight was an enjoyable experience. There aren’t many views from outside an aeroplane window as spectacular as the ones you get when you fly over the highest mountain range in the world – the snow covered Himalayas.

The Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport in Leh is a small one with basic but functional facilities. It is also one of the world’s highest civilian airports at an altitude of 3,256 metres above mean sea level. We took a pre-paid taxi into Leh city (5 kms away) and checked in to a guesthouse close to the main bazaar. The Ti-Sei is a family run guesthouse with modest facilities but with a cheap price tag (Rs 250 per head per night). The only problem I could find is the lack of proper quilts for such cold weather. My fellow travellers disagree though; so I would be hesitant to recommend the place to you especially during winter.

Since we jumped from an altitude of 200m to 3250m in just an hour, we ran the risk of catching altitude sickness and it was recommended that we take complete rest for 24 hours to acclimatize to the thin oxygen content in the air. So that’s what we did. We spend the entire first day in the guesthouse playing cards. Only Sanjay and I knew how to play; so the added pleasure in teaching Sony, Lishoy and Gautham the joys of ’28′. Should be useful in the future too.

In and around Leh

It was still risky to attempt higher altitudes in the beginning of the trip, so the recommendation was to travel around the vicinity of Leh. We first went to an old Buddhist monastery at Hemis some 40 km away from Leh. We were treated to our first views of the strangely beautiful landscape of Ladakh. The monastery was more or less uninteresting to me (having been to countless ones on my last trip to Sikkim) but there is a small museum in the compound which has a lot of artifacts and photographs chronicling early life in Ladakh.

Next stop was the school featured as Rancho’s school in ’3 Idiots’. This one was rebuilt after the Leh floods of 2010; with the help of contributions from the star of the film – Aamir Khan. Nothing much to do there except click a few photos. Next was the Thiksey monastery; one of the most photogenic of all the ones in Ladakh. More clicks followed and we had lunch at the monastery canteen. Food was good; but order time was way above our irritation level threshold.

We then moved on to Shey palace, the erstwhile summer capital of Ladakh. It’s constructed on a small hill on the side of the highway. Most of the palace is in ruins and what’s left of it is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India. The vista from the top is once again spectacular. Following that we went up the Shanti Stupa, a monument close to Leh town, constructed by the Japanese. Another top (double entendre, yea!) spot for landscape gazing. We then walked down the 500 odd steps back to where our car was stopped. And with that we retired back to our guesthouse.

Pangong Tso

The next day we decided to scale higher and go to the famous Pangong Tso (Tso means lake). The route passes through some very treacherous terrain and our first stop was Chang-La; supposedly the third highest motorable pass in the world. The air was super thin over here and we were advised not to stay for more than 20 minutes. The place has a small cafeteria and an Indian Army outpost (which serves free tea). 20 minutes itself felt a bit too much due to the chilly winds and we packed up from there quite quickly. The road descended down the mountains into a valley and they were in impeccable condition. It’s almost magical to imagine how those roads even came to existence in such inhospitable terrain. Kudos to BRO and their army of engineers and workers who made this happen.

The deserted barren landscape up until the lake is impossible to describe in words. It was something unlike anything I have seen before. The streams that trickle along the silent valleys; the deserted roads that alternate between winding up and down mountains and then proceeding straight as an arrow on the plains; the huge tracts of white sand as fine as talc; the occasional yak grazing on the little patches of grass around; alien flowers and vividly colored mosses trying its best to thrive amongst the thawing ice – the sight is just surreal.

Pangong Tso is a huge lake spanning 700 km2. Only about 40% of the lake is in India; you almost feel tempted to swim across to China. The lake is mostly unpolluted (our driver Dorjey says that there’s a Rs 1000 fine for even a tiny bit of plastic left on the shores) and provides an ideal hunting ground for us camera addicts. The area is uninhabited except for a few small villages further up the tourist point. There are a few shops that provide basic lunch (read Maggi noodles). I hear that during peak season there are a few places where you can stay and enjoy the morning freshness by the lake. Being just a few kilometres from the Chinese border there is an inconspicuous but strong army presence in the area – which has a medical aid post and a helipad; though I doubt if civilians have access to that.

We returned back to Leh the same day; it was a rather tiring trip with 10 hours spent in the car; but totally worth it!

Nubra Valley

Another big hit amongst Leh backpackers, the Nubra valley is just across the mountains from Leh. But since those mountains are the mighty Himalayas; the route is through one of the toughest roads in the world. First stop was off course; the highest motorable road (contentious) in the world – the Khardung-La. The Khardung pass is located at an altitude of 5359 metres above sea level. And is is the theme with all high altitude outposts; there’s a small military camp here and also a cafeteria (which claims to be the highest in the world). It was quite chilly outside with the local army guys estimating the temperature to be -5 degrees. We had some hot noodles and tea from the cafe there and rushed back down. The roads aren’t very good at this point – but the fact that there’s a road up here in itself amazing – so no complaints.

Down into the valley; we stopped at the first hamlet on the way – the village of Khardung – for our lunch. There’s just one small restaurant open there – but the food was amazing. We resumed our journey towards the town of Disket. The scenery en-route was even better than the Pangong trip. We stopped near the town of Khalsar; along the side of the river Shyok. Being winter the river wasn’t thundering down; and we could easily access the river bed – with towering mountains flanking us on both sides. Just then; like a scene in a Hollywood thriller; an army helicopter raised itself from far away in the valley and flew past us. What a spectacle that was!

We reached Disket early in the evening; but unfortunately couldn’t find a decent place to stay there (all open hotels were booked). We decided to try our luck in Hundar a further 10 kms away. We checked into the Snow Leopard; which was a beautiful little guesthouse overlooking snow capped mountains. We spent the night there; listening to stories from our driver who was a very colourful character; over a light round of drinks.

We checked out early in the morning itself and went straight to the sand dunes of Hundar. It’s a real strange concoction. Sand dunes are the last things you would associate with the Himalayas – but there they were; sand dunes sprawling acres into the valley. You could walk up to the sand dunes by foot or approach them on unique double humped Bactrian camels. We did both. Riding on a camel is a curious experience; and a bit scary especially when you feel like the camels are starting to run! We spent a few hours ‘chilling’ up on the sand dunes and started our return journey back to Leh by around noon.

It had snowed the night before on the mountains; and the roads weren’t in their best conditions – complicated by the fact that we didn’t have snow chains. A few kilometers before the Khardung La pass; we had to stop to allow a huge contingent of army trucks (possibly transporting supplies to Siachen basecamp which is just 100 kms away). While we were stopped; Nanda, Gautham and I decided to walk up and see if we could reach Khardung La on foot. I stopped short by about a few hundred meters away (not knowing that at the time) and waited for the car to reach me. Going up a few more metres just as the army camps became visible there was a second block. But this time the block wasn’t for the Army – unbelievably, I got a glimpse of a Formula 1 car in the background! The Red Bull Racing team had decided to do a promotional drive on the highest motorable pass in the world at that exact moment. Talk about serendipity! We took a few photos up there with the cars and had to leave fast (the temperature was near -10 degs and there wasn’t much parking available). We had food at another small army canteen down in South Pullu and reached back Leh before night fall.

Magnetic Hill, Zanskar Sangam and Goodbye

Sunday was the last day of our trip and being quite tired from all the travelling we decided not to go far that day. By afternoon we left on National Highway 1 for Zanskar Sangam – the confluence of the Zanskar and the Indus rivers. Nothing much to say about this place – the beautiful scenery is default for any place in Ladakh. On the way though; there is a small stretch of road aptly titled ‘Magnetic Hill’. Due to an optical illusion there, it feels as if a vehicle goes uphill when left to itself without any engine power. It fools the best of us for sure! Tough to make your brain believe that it’s an illusion and not some strange magnetic forces at work. On the way back, we also stopped at the ‘Hall of Fame’; a small army museum with exhibits showing life of the army at high altitudes. It’s just amazing how people cope up with the extreme harsh climate of the whole place.

With that we concluded all our tryst with Ladakh. Next day morning we boarded from Leh airport; back to Delhi. The security measures at the airport was the tightest I have ever experienced (understandably owing to its location in J&K state) – my bag was checked thrice; and I had to pass atleast 5 levels of security checks before boarding the plane. Treated with another grand view up above the Himalayas; we finally landed back in Delhi.

Tips

• The sun is quite harsh in Ladakh. Do carry sunscreen creams (> SPF 50) and good sunglasses with UV protection. Don’t get burned.
• A lot of places (Pangong, Nubra etc) require Inner Line Permits (ILP) for Indian citizens and Protected Area Permits (PAP) for non-Indians. This can be arranged by most travel agencies and would require a government issued ID card (driving license/PAN card/voter’s ID/passport).
• Biking is a good option rather than car if you are interested in riding and you are a skilled driver. There are plenty of places that rent out bikes in Leh. But don’t do this in October though; it gets quite chilly. No one rents out cars for self-drive though.
• If travelling by flight; acclimatization against altitude sickness is a must. Drink lots of water and rest for atleast 24 hours before attempting higher altitudes.
• October is not the greatest month to visit Ladakh; but we were quite lucky to be blessed with good weather. Being off season; things were quite cheap. A lot of shops and restaurants close by end of September and the number of tourists are low. That however also adds a different dimension to Leh; it’s like you have the mountains to yourselves. The peak season is July-August.
• Roaming is available (in entire J&K state) only for post-paid customers from a few states in North India; so if your SIM is not from these states your mobile will not work. There are telephone booths and internet cafes in Leh though. I found a net booth; even in the remote Diskit town. Only Aircel, Airtel and BSNL has connectivity in Leh as far as I know.
• During off season try to stay close to the main market in Leh; as most other shops would be closed. There are no autorikshaws in Leh.
• There are 6 ATM counters in Leh market – 2 of J&K Bank, 2 of SBI and one each of Punjab National Bank and HDFC. I didn’t see even one shop that accepted debit and credit cards. If you are travelling out of Leh, make sure you have money with you. No ATMs outside Leh.
• Good restaurants – Dreamland (Fort road), Gesmo German Bakery (Fort Road) and Happy World (Tukcha road)
• Good places to stay – Santhi Guesthouse (near Santhi Stupa), Hotel YakTail (Fort Road) and Hotel Tso-kar (Fort Road). We spent the last day in Hotel Tso-kar and it was pretty clean with room service and cheap rates (Don’t know about season rates though).
• Other places to visit – Tso-Moriri Lake (200 km), Lamayuru (110 km), Alchi (40 km), Panamik hot springs (140 km), Sonamarg (400 km)

The Route

Mumbai

My first ever visit to the grand old city of India. Though I spent just a weekend over there, I was mightily impressed. The whole enormity of the city just takes you by storm – espcially for a small town guy like me. I need to go back and explore more. But that one weekend I was there; had the fun of my life.

Vagamon, Kerala

A rather unknown destination tucked in hills of central Kerala; Vagamon is a land of rolling meadows, pine forests and tea estates. It’s natural beauty makes it worth a visit. But more than the destination itself; it’s the journey that’s even better. The silent quiet hilly roads and the scenary surrounding it makes it one of the drives in Kerala. There are plenty of routes to reach Vagamon, but the most scenic drive (from Kochi) is via Thodupuzha, Muttom, Kanjar and then into Vagamon. The route is easy to miss though, there are not many boards showing directions. If you are unsure; the alternate route (in fact the more mainstream route) is via Erattupetta – but you are going to miss out the best parts of the drive then.

At Vagamon, I had stayed at a friend’s house which was part of an old tea estate. The views from there are exceptional. You can go and visit the meadows and get inspired by the vast majestic emptiness in the mountains all around you.

Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu

Once the star amongst South Indian hillstations Kodai has lost its old charm by become way too touristy. It’s now basically a small city struggling to expand on a hill. Despite that, if you know the right places (or you have someone who knows the right places – in our case we had our Thomas) Kodai still has a few things to offer you. For instance, we had gone to this awesome orchard just a few kilometers from the city center and surrounded by peace and quiet. Nobody to disturb us for a long while. Unless you are willing to go off the beaten track like we did; I wouldn’t really recommend a visit to Kodai.

Ooty, Tamil Nadu

Just like Kodaikanal, Ooty too has dropped down from its glory days of being amongst the best hill stations in South India. The present city is a shadow of itself – I still have photos of visits to this place as a young kid; and the place has lost all its inherent beauty. The purpose of this trip for us though; was to meet up with my gang of buddies and catch up on the old times. If you stay at a decent hotel far from the city and not plan too many excursions and relax all the way; Ooty might still do the trick.

Mussorie and Dhanaulti, Uttarakhand

It was a quickly planned excursion during my short stay in Gurgaon in the beginning of this year. Mussorie is a typical British hill station; with its quaint buildings and streets. It offers a good view of the city of Dehra Dun at night. But apart from this there isn’t much to do here.

We met a guide in the city and he offered to take us to some off beat places further up the hills and we set off to Dhanaulti. En route to our pleasant surprise it was snowing there. Had a lot of fun playing around the snowed out landscape. The snow gave a peculiar look to the entire vista and it felt so displaced from the rest of the India we had just left behind.

Definitely worth a one time visit; if you are in and around Delhi. It’s just a 6-7 hour drive and if you have a weekend to spare; do give it a try.

Muzhappilangand Beach, Kerala

India’s only drive in beach. The only problem is getting your car up there. The road up from Kozhikode up to the beach is in a rather dilapidated condition, the 80 km stretch took us nearly 4 hours to complete.

If you survive that though, the beach is pretty awesome. Just the fact that you can drive into the waters makes it an amazing experience. The beach in itself is pretty clean and not very touristy. The views around are brilliant.

Muzhapilangad is on the Kannur highway from Kozhikode and is around 80 km from Kozhikode and 12 km from Kannur.

Ramakkalmedu, Kerala

Ramakkalmedu is a not so well-known hill station located in Idukki district. The views from here are amazing as usual. You can see the expanse of Tamil Nadu as you look out from the hills. The green and blue contrasts leaves a lot of options for amazing photographs. There are also unmarked trekking paths you could try if you are interested.

Ramakkalmedu is around 40km from Kumily/Thekkady on the Munnar route.

Getting there
Kolkata, Siliguri (West Bengal)

First stop was Kolkata, and I reached there by flight from Bangalore. The Kolkata airport was disappointing, a sad relic for a metro. I was to stay at the IIM hostel, arranged for me by Gayathri, Prema’s friend and my soon to be co-traveller. The way to IIM (at Jokha on the other end of the city) was filled with curious sights and sounds. Kolkata took me totally by surprise, I was expecting a modern city with fancy buildings. But what met me where old dusty streets, colonial era buildings and narrow lanes filled with cycle-rickshaws. Even though initially it felt like a city stuck in the ’60s, thinking back I guess that gave an amazing charm to the city, that was very different from the other Indian cities I’ve been to.

Next day morning, we got out from Kolkata and visited some places around the city, including the Indian Museum, the Howrah bridge and the Victoria Memorial. And we were joined by the fourth traveller in the group – Deepak. By evening, after roaming around the city on rickshaws and shared taxis we reached the Sealdah railway station to catch our train towards Siliguri.

New Jalpaiguri (the Siliguri railway station) is the starting point of the famous toy train to Darjeeling. This was initially in our plans, but reaching there we found, to our disappointment, that the toy train was closed due to torrential rains and Darjeeling was on strike due to the Gorkhaland issue. With a quick change in plans, we decided to move to Sikkim a day earlier.

The journey to Pelling
Siliguri – Melli – Pelling (Sikkim)

We met our incredible driver – Mr Anjun Rai from Darjeeling – at the railway station and he was to take us up to Sikkim on his Innova. As soon as we neared Sikkim the whole landscape changed and we were now in the vicinity of the foothills of the Himalayas. The roads that were already in difficult terrain, were damaged due to heavy rain. But our ‘Schumi’ negotiated all the curves, bumps, landslides, waterfalls(!) expertly and soon we gained his complete trust. The scenery was incredible, with the road winding around green mighty mountains all around and the Tiesta river roaring in all its full glory below us. It is a sight to behold. And I would definitely rate this as one of the best (and also among the hardest) drives in India.

Pelling is famous for its majestic views of Mt. Kangchenjunga, but unfortunately the cloudy weather and all the fog around us made us miss the view. Pelling was an interesting little town though, with lot of sight seeing opportunities. We visited a few waterfalls and a rock garden. Next day we bid adieu to Pelling and headed to our next stop – Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim.

Pelling to Gangtok
Pelling – Rabdentse – Legship – Gangtok (Sikkim)

On the way back, Schumi gave us two unsolicited stop overs – one at Pemayangste and the other at Rabdentse. Pemyangste was the first glimpse (of many) Buddhist monasteries that we would visit. It was an interesting building, which is around 300 years old. The sights and sounds of the monks praying inside (no photos allowed, but you can visit the prayer hall) is something not to be missed. The second stop – Rabdentse, was our only little trek in the whole trip. It is a moderate 2 km walk on a well laid but slippery stone path away from the main road and once there you are treated with the ruins of the old capital of Sikkim. It is well organized, peaceful and full of green. We spend sometime there and after a few customary snaps we continued our journey through the mountains to Gangtok.

We made our tea-stall stop at Legship, a small temple town on the banks the Teesta. There’s a queer little pedestrian hanging bridge with the river thundering below. Spend sometime there having chai and laddu Sikkim style, with Prema engaged in her ‘streetscaping’ experiments. That was our last stop and we reached Gangtok by nightfall.

Gangtok

Gangtok is a lovely small city set on the side of a hill. Being the state capital it has all the stuff you need including movie theaters, petrol pumps (a rarity in Sikkim) and even a Dominos. In the morning we did a small tour of the places in and around Gangtok – visiting more waterfalls, monasteries, museums and the awesome nature. The best pick of the lot was the journey on a ropeway above the city which gave a magnificent grand view of the Himalayan landscape around. Our last stop for the day was Tashi view point, from where we were supposed to see Kangchenjunga. We thought we had finally managed to catch a glimpse, and we were quite certain that the peak we saw was Kangchenjunga. But alas after consulting with the locals, we learned that the clouds had cheated us again. What we saw was no where near Kangchenjunga :(

After reaching Gangtok, we had our lunch at the delightful Tangerine restaurant, an upmarket place. After finding that I had lost my watch when we reached our hotel, Prema and I decided to walk back up to the restaurant to try our luck. We were told of a shortcut to reach the place after consulting with a traffic policeman, and to our surprise we discovered the M.G Marg. A pleasant shopping street, devoid of vehicles. We bookmarked this for later and walked up the road to hunt for my lost goods. Luckily we found it at the restaurant. On the way back we called up Deepak and Gayathri to join us on the M.G Marg, for an evening stroll around the place. Highly recommend a walk on this street anytime you visit Gangtok.

Hello China!
Gangtok – Tsomgo – NathuLa – Baba Mandir

Next day morning, after taking permits from the tourist office, we headed towards the Tsomgo lake and the Chinese border at Nathu La – treading on a part of the ancient silk route to China. This was the highest point I’ve ever been in my life – around 16000 ft high at the Nathu La trading market. On route we saw the highest telephone exchange, the highest ATM and the highest post office in India. We didn’t have permits to reach the border, and had to stop at within 3kms of it. There’s a small memorial of an Indian general there and also a cafe called the Cafe 13000 run by the Indian army. Had some delicious momos (ok, maybe delicious is a bit relative) and a hot cup of coffee up here. We were not allowed to stay for a long time, and we headed back to the Tsomgo lake. There is a small market at the lake, where we had our brunch. The noodles we got were actually transported from China just a few kilometres away :). We chitchatted with the lady over there for a bit and it was time to return back. The roads were extremely difficult, and we had to take regular breaks while the army was working fulltime clearing off roads blocked by landslides.

Back to Siliguri
Gangtok – Pekyong – Rangpo – Siliguri
The way back to Siliguri was blocked again and we had to take a round about route to come down the hills. Sikkim’s new (and first) airport is coming up on this route at a village called Pekyong. That’s definitely going to make access way easier to this amazing land. We finally bid goodbye to Sikkim and to our wonderful driver Schumi at the Siliguri station. That also ended the first leg of the trip with Deepak and Gayathri leaving back to Kolkata and Prema and I going to Bodhgaya.

Bihar!
Patna – Gaya – Bodhgaya

Bihar was all what I expected and more. It is a totally different world out there and the place does lives up to the tag of the wild wild west of India. Our train had taken us to Patna, and a Rs.70 bus ride took us to the Bodhgaya gate on the highway. It was already quite late and we had to travel 3km to reach Bodhgaya proper. We met a monk, a local and two Dutch guys there, and our queer gang managed to get a shared auto up to the city. We didn’t have bookings, but managed to find a decent hotel not far from the town center.

Bodhgaya is sort of an oasis amidst the chaos of Bihar. It was a very spiritual place, and it looked like a international meeting place of countries and cultures. Lots of monasteries and Buddhist temples belonging to countries from around the globe. We visited most of them including the ones from Thailand, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan and even Bangladesh. The main attraction though was the Mahabodhi temple, were Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. It’s a well preserved monument, and its a joy to take in all the peace and serenity surrounding it.

Our train back was at 11PM in the night, but we decided to get back to Gaya, basically because it was a bit risky to travel late on the Bihar roads. It was time to wind up the long trip, as we waited a long wait at the Gaya railway station telling each other the interesting bits of our lives :D . And as we did that, the Rajadhani Express to Delhi, rolled in to the station.. And that was it, a great 10 day experience.

The Route

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Photo Credits: Espresso and Me! :)

We were pretty punctual to start off with, planned being a 6 am start and realizing a 7 am start – pretty good for our standards. We took the Mysore road from Bangalore, knowing that it is probably 30km extra. We had a quick bite at one of the many ‘pure’ vegetarian dhabas en route and rode along. The road was excellent and the guys had a great time ripping along. We left Mysore road at Maddur towards Malavalli. That also meant pretty much the end of proper roads. The road from then on were glorified country roads at best. The traffic though was light and the scenery awesome. It was hard to believe all this was less than 100 km away from the hustle and bustle of Bangalore.

We reached the place by around 11 having taken some lavishly long breaks on the way. It was not that difficult to find as there were plenty of signs to guide us. Sivasamudram’s claim to fame is its two waterfalls and the fact that Asia’s first hyro-electric power plant is situated there. As we were not very interested in the latter, we headed straight to the first of the falls – ‘Gaganchukki’. The waterfalls were just grand! The sound, the view everything was amazing. But there were just too many people and it seemed highly commercialized even for Indian standards. We spend some time there taking snaps.

The second waterfall, the ‘Bharchukki’ even though visible quite clearly from here was actually an 18km drive away. That place looked grand again, but was more crowded and dirtier (I mean extremely dirty) than the first one. However again the view just made up for it. There is another waterfall quite close to it and you can go down and have a dip in the water if you want to. We did go down, but the water was too crowded to warrant a dip. A word of caution though – going down would seem quite easy, but bear in mind that the farther you go down, the greater the panting you’ll have to do while you climb back up ;)

Just after noon we started off back. We made a horrendous decision to take the Kanakpura road to Bangalore. The road was just about navigable at best. It took us a lot more time even though the distance was much lesser. On the way, the only notable incident was that the Splendor (our other bike) lost its headlight. So we had to guide Bachu all along back to Bangalore. It was a little bit too tiring for my liking going on a bike. Well, I am more of a car person I guess :) Anyhow it is a nice getaway if you wish to kill some time when you are in Bangalore. Its worth it, just to soak in the peace and calm of the villages despite the crowd at the destination.

Route: Bangalore – Maddur (via Mysore road SH 17) – Malavalli (SH 33) – Sivasamudram (NH 209) 134 Km
Alternate (highly not recommended) : Bangalore – Kanakapura – Malavalli – Sivasamudram (NH 209 all the way). 119 Km

The beauty of a train journey is that you observe life around you. In a bus its more like, sticking an iPod in your ear, wondering why you never get the seat next to a girl, praying that the driver stops soon rather than testing your bladder control. Don’t know why, but the whole set-up for socializing is missing in a bus journey. Train is different. You seem to feel more comfortable to strike a conversation and you get to know a lot about your co-travellers, even without a word being uttered.

On this Onam trip to Trivandrum from Bangalore, I had this very interesting but typical gang as my fellow passengers. Passenger A, was the typical mallu hero. He comes from this small town near Trivandrum, now making it big in a big-shot company in Bangalore. He likes to tell his tales, his tales of glory especially when there is a girl next to him (Aw! Sounds eeriely similar to me :D ). Very quickly he takes on the protector role of Ms. Passenger B. For a moment Ranjith (who was travelling with me) and I, thought both of them had come together, then thought maybe they were college mates, then maybe old friends, then as their conversations progressed came to know that they had first laid eyes on each other on this very train. Passenger B was smart too. She made good use of the situation. In no time, poor Mr. A was running around getting water bottles, pushing heavy luggage, ordering food etc. etc. And then they started talking about Bangalore traffic and why you don’t get train tickets and yeda yeda. So attention had to shift.

There is always one pretty girl on the train who seems to be not concerned about the world around her. We had our own Passenger C to play that role. As soon as she came and sat, she pulled out a book and started reading it with vigour as if the fate of the world hangs on whether she completes the book in time or not. The other people in the compartment are unimportant subjects when it comes to our lady, but at the same I’m pretty sure she’s well aware that the glances of all the males in the compartment tend to converge on her. At least I’m sure about my case, since she caught my glance a couple of times hehe. Alas, the queen went to her hive too soon and in the morning as I woke up from my middle berth the lady was already out. :(

Then there was Passenger D and Passenger E. Mr. D is a perfect artist interested in watching classical French films (without subtitles by the way) and is also intelligent enough not to waste a single rupee as he knows how to use torrents. Mr. E doesn’t seem to be interested, but definitely now has great knowledge of the technology behind torrents, 70mm movies and why Heath Ledger doesn’t deserve an Oscar and some obscure French guy does.

Mr. F is an ‘almost’ fresh graduate out from an engineering college in Kerala. The first people he talks to are us and we start the regular flow of questions -

and in no time it is proven that I know all his friends and he knows all mine!

Then there were two guys absolutely bored. They gossip about old college mates, discuss world matters, ponder about the future of software engineering, wonder whether Chrome can beat Firefox.. more or less putting on a show that they know what they are talking about and at the same time ensuring that others (specially the pretty girl) are noticing them. But then all of a sudden, all topics come to an end. Nothing more to do, they start to observe the people around them. And as they make fun of others, and while one is planning on how to structure his next blog on these observations, they come to know… all these things they told about everyone else, every single one of the traits they can find in either themselves or their close friends. ‘They’ are ‘us’. God sure seems to have used the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V technique a lot when he was programming our genes. Good one my Lord! A true microcosm of people I know, didn’t I say trains were cool?

Bachu, Kurian and I started off from Bangalore towards Kozhikode on a rainy night. There we were joined by Ranjith, Hazer, Anand bhai and Bose from such far away lands as Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram ;) The plan was to rent a car and drive into Wyanad and as usual do what we do best – go where the roads take us. Using the deep rooted network of Bachu (the king of Kozhikode) we managed to rent a Toyota Innova without driver at a very cheap rate.

First day we started off with the goal set to Kuruva islands, but on the way after some typical spontaneous (in)decision making, we shifted target to Chembra peak. The route to Chembra is through a private estate and you need to pay a 20 rupee gate pass to take your vehicle through. We could travel only up to the end of tea estate and from there began the long 5Km (estimated) trek. It was incidentally Bose’s birthday that day and we gave him a grand celebration he will not forget, atop a small forest guards’ watch tower on the way to the peak. Half way through the path to the peak, yours truly lost all his stamina and decided to wait, while others tried for glory. It was a big miss though, and from the photos they took the peak was an amazing place with a small reservoir on top of it! Anyway Chembra is definitely in the must-visit list for Wyanad.

By evening we left Chembra for Thirunelly. The drive through the forest in the night was fun. The major attraction in Thirunelly was an ancient Vishnu temple there, and in another first for our trips, this was the first spiritual destination in all of the 16 trips we have had. We only just had time to have a quick darshan just before the temple closed at 8PM. That night we stayed at a decent government owned lodge there costing us merely 40 bucks per head.

After visiting Lord Vishnu again the next morning, we headed down towards the Kuruva islands. En route, I managed to put the car into a small gutter resulting in some annoyed looks from the co-passengers. Shrugging off their looks I continued on and 100 metres ahead as I looked into my rear view mirror, I could see a tyre lying on the road behind us! And yeah you guessed right, it was one of ours! Shocked, my first reaction was “Oh my god! Am I driving on 3 wheels?” Well that couldn’t be.. it was only our spare tyre that somehow slipped from under the chassis. Hazer the master took to the task and in no time we had the tyre back up. It was an experience especially since all this happened right in the middle of the forest and we had seen 2 or 3 boards saying ‘Do not stop your vehicle’ and ‘Do not leave your vehicle’. ;)

We did’nt find Kuruva island that interesting, but probably because we expected more because of a lot of hype surrounding it. Anyway crossing the river by walking across it to reach the island was not that bad. We left the place by afternoon in search of a lesser known destination Meenmutty waterfalls near the Tamil Nadu border. This is one thing you should not miss! I do not know how to explain the adrenalin, the nature, the greenery in words. You have to be there to believe it. The place requires a 5KM walk of which 4KM is a treacherous climb down through non-existent paths. It was the most thrilling experience I have ever had. For every small step you take, you need to convince your brain that you are not going to die. Seriously!

It was an early start to Sunday as we headed towards the Muthanga wild life reserve. Though we were early, we were unlucky and couldn’t see too many animals except for some deers, foxes and peacocks. Hard luck! But anyway the forest experience was enjoyable indeed. By afternoon after a brief stop over at Banasurasagar dam, it was time to head back home. The journey back again was another adventure. We had to stand all the way from Kalpetta to Mysore in a KSRTC FP and just about got seats in the last non-stop bus from Mysore to B’lore, reaching home somewhere around 2AM.

It was tiring but brilliant fun! So glad that these trips keep on going.. on and on… Lesson for the day? When you need a break, go back to nature, its well worth the effort :)

The Route:

Kozhikode – Kalpetta – Meppadi – Chembra
Chembra – Meppadi – Panamaram – Thirunelly
Thirunelly – Kattikulam – Kuruvadweep
Kuruwadweep – Meenangadi – towards TN Border – Meenmutti
Meenmutti – Sultan’s Battery – Muthanga
Muthanga – Sultan’s Battery – Ambalavayal – Banasurasagar Dam
Banasurasagar Dam – Kalpatta – Sultan’s Battery – Gundalpet – Nanjancode – Mysore – Bangalore

Tips:

• Petrol pumps are few and far between, so ensure that your tanks are filled at the major towns.
• Keep your base as Kalpetta or Sulthan Bathery and then plan as it is difficult to get acco. at other places, unless you are looking at expensive resorts.
• Have some salt handy as leech attacks are possible in the forest.
• When going into the forest, do visit the nearest forest department office as they might have important information and some places do require a written permission from the department to travel into (which is free of cost).
• English is more or less understood but don’t always bet on it especially in the more remote areas, so it is always better to do your homework and plan if you do not have someone with knowledge of Malayalam with you.
• Enjoy the forest and don’t complain too much about inconveniences, because the whole point of going to the forest is that it is a Forest… away from civilization! :)

So what did I find different? The people, the attitudes, the landscape, everything is different, sometimes better, sometimes worse. The most important thing I learned is that if the attitudes are right, and everybody does what they are supposed to do, the whole setup just works. The foundations are similar and it is not impossible to make the setup work even in India, just that nobody is willing to make the change. Ok, I am not going to start preaching… And definitely not everything was perfect here and in a lot of things India has done much better, we just dont realize it.

On to the less serious matters… As you can see from the blog, I did travel a lot and had a lot of experiences. I had a lot of fun. Here I present my ‘Top 10′ (yeah, I can see some of you laughing ;) ) experiences in Europe…

1. Driving in the autobahn
2. Formula 1 at Nuerburgring
3. Ocktoberfest
4. The 5 days spent driving around Norway & Sweden
5. Venice – absolutely beautiful
6. Neuchwanstein – the fairy tale castle
7. Berlin on a rainy day
8. Vfb Stuffgart vs Wolfsburg – the football match live!
9. Trekking in Oberstdorf
10. Europa park

I was also very lucky to have a few of my close friends here with me during the whole time. Having them here, the time spent with them & the trips with them, ranks above all. What would I have done without you guys!

When this gets posted and if everything goes right, I would have already left Germany…

Auf wiedersehen, Deutschland!

Trier claims to be the oldest German city and is famous for its ancient roman architecture mostly in ruins now. It was once the capital of roman prefecture of Gaul (remember Asterix anyone?). We started off with Porta Nigra a large city gate now also standing in as the office of the Trier tourism department. It is a nice old building with a good view of the city. After exploring this old structure we walked through the Marktplatz where a friendly German lady offered us some tips and directions to the worth-seeing attractions in the area. Our first stop was Constantine Basilica adjoining the grand Trier palace. Nothing special of note here, except for the sight of some young kids showing off their skateboarding skills in the area around the church.

Our next stops really had that Roman touch. The “Roman Bath” was amazing. An underground network of tunnels which the romans supposedly used as their spas. Hmm.. Why they would ever want to have a bath in a dark spooky place like that is beyond me! Well.. the things the Romans do! ;) We did have our fun though, playing a bit of hide-and-seek & peek-a-boo like little kids and also scaring the hell out of Renu! Next after a long winding walk up some street we reached the ruins of the Amphitheater. It totally reminded me of Russel Crowe and Gladiator and they did indeed have events like that held over heremthousands of years ago. In ruins and still so magnificent! I stayed wondering, how it would have been with the crowds cheering the gladiators along… hmmm.. that would have been an experience indeed! :D We came back to Marktplatz and the whole area was filled with people now. There was another huge Christmas market here, the countless ones I have seen already, but still filled with wonder for me.

After that, we drove in Luxembourg. In 15 minutes we were in a different country! I guess this one is so small that we could have driven through all the roads in the country in a day if we wanted to! Instead we parked in a side street and walked around, seeing what we could. It was all over in an hour and a half. Well that was the shortest visit to any country I have ever done :) We drove back into Frankfurt before night fell and then had the fun of our lives finding a parking spot. Unfortunately our hostel was located right next to the busiest railway station in Germany and had no parking facilities. We drove round and round, until we found a little bit of space just enough to fit a Mercedes C220. With precise instructions from Ginu and Sandeep I somehow managed to fit in the car in that space. The proudest moment in my “parking” career especially after a gang of Germans in a smaller car taunted us shouting that we will never be able to fit the car in there.. ha.. take that!! :D

Next day we left to a quiet suburb to meet Anu in her cousins home. After a while of chit-chatting and a delicious desi-lunch, we set off with Anu to drop her off at the Frankfurt station. Dropping her and the others off there, I thought I would try my luck with finding a parking spot again. Hmmm.. Lets just say I know the surrounding area of the Frankfurt station pretty well now. Who wouldn’t after driving around the same area 5 times!!

Anyway this was my last day before my driving license became invalid in Germany and I decided to enjoy it to the last bit. We skipped the autobahn and decided to take the country roads. Oh boy! This was great… empty winding roads on a Mercedes C class… well it was a dream come true.. :)

Last but not the least the trip in which I touched my personal land speed record… 243 Km/Hr.. yeah, you have seen the videos! :)

Though they say there never is a bad time to visit Berlin, we certainly did find one :) . It was raining quite bad and we had to shorten our visit to just over a day and a half, due to both bad weather and bad planning. Anyway what we saw was pretty good. We left in the early morning on a Toyota Avensis, a big but comfy car, and managed to avoid most of the early morning traffic somehow. We reached Berlin quite early in the morning and checked in to a youth hostel in the Eastern part of the city. We began our journey from the Prenzlauer Allee railway station. Our first destination was off course Alexanderplatz. It is a very nice open area, right in the middle of the city. Some attractions around were the Fernsehturm (the TV tower) and Marienkirche. We walked around the place and along the boulevard Unter dem Linden with a lot of beautiful buildings all around.

The end of a long walk lead us to a park (I forgot the name) with two huge statues of the founders of Communism – Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Spending some time there we headed towards Bebelplatz. It was Christmas time and the place was lovely with a big Christmas market. We continued our walk through Friedrichstrasse and finally reached Checkpoint Charlie. The whole place spoke of a lot of history. This was the dividing line between East and West Berlin. It is well preserved for everyone to see, including the sandbags for the soldiers and signs warning that “You are about to enter the American Zone”. It is unbelievable that this city was divided between two countries just around 15 years ago.

Tired legs told us to take the train and we reached the most famous landmark in Berlin – The Brandenburger Tor. It is a magnificent piece of art, I must say and naturally it was time for the cameras to click! We then moved to the Reichstag – the German parliament. The sun was already fading and it was getting really cold, so we had to call it a day and went back to the comfort of our hostel.

Next day it started raining, so after a stroll through the not-so-spectacular park built by the Soviets (again my memory fails me to name it) we decided to leave Berlin. We then drove to the famous Magdeburg water bridge, we had seen only in email forwards. It was not so easy finding the place, but for once our navigation system was a great one and we did manage to reach the place, though not after getting misled several times, but I blame human error for this one :) The bridge is a great engineering marvel to say the least. Walking on it was a different experience altogether, fighting off the strong and cold gusts of wind, blowing from all directions. The town of Magdeburg was beautiful too and as Renu quipped, every street in town did have a story to tell.

Well the other highlight of the trip was off course the blitz through the autobahn on the Avensis! Another great trip despite the weather…