Gandikota - The Grand canyon of India

With the Christmas and New year nearing and I being in Bangalore made it obvious enough that I would be travelling somewhere over the long weekend. My friend and I thought about multiple places like Goa, Valparai but finally settled for Gandikota for the reason that it is closer than Valparai and assuming that it will be less rushed than Goa (Bummer!)

We wanted this trip to be an impromptu one so we didn't book any hotel to stay and didn
t plan anything except a list of things to carry. We planned to do road trip with camping so we carried our tents, sleeping bags, utensils and some basic food to cook.

Our tent 

Ruby with all her glory enjoying tea with sunset

Considering the OCD which Ruby has, I assumed we will leave at sharp 5 am but well she is on a little low with her OCD's these days and so we left only by 9 am ( Bad idea)

The roads to Gandikota are pretty good. There is a way via Anantpur which is a little long but definitely a better option compared to the state highways and AH which google showed us. Few stretches had pot holes which made driving a bit uncomfortable as well. We stopped in a small village for our lunch and OMG the poppu/pappu dal which they give in Andhra is to die for. It was so yummy that I must have taken some 7-8 servings of that dal.

Yummy Poppu

On the way

Morning breakfast

My Coffee

After our more than needed full tummies, we continued for Gandikota. Finally around 5 pm in evening , we reached Gandikota fort. There is a resort named Haritha resort which you can book on www.aptdc.gov.in. As we wanted to camp so we didn't book the room.


You can get a already fixed tent for 1500 INR in Haritha resort or outside the resort. As we had our own tent, the guy said initially that he will charge 500 INR for fixing our tent in his land. Finally they agreed for us to put our tent at the pretext that they will help us to fix our tent for 200 INR. Vinod and Shekhar helped me to put the tent which was fixed in like 10 minutes ( Thanks to my practice in Roopkund :)). We made the masala chai in the wild and left to see the Pennar river view during the sunset.

From Haritha hotel its 1/2 a km walk to the fort.You can ride or drive in the fort as well. Few bikers even offroaded a long way to rocks. From there it's a 200-300 meters walk to the view. There were many people cherishing the beautiful sunset in a pretty noisy way. Without caring for them, I moved to a beautiful spot. At the view , it was breezy though not very cold. After clicking some photos and selfies, we left back.

While coming back we realized that , you can even put your tents on the stones with help of Vinod and Shekhar. There is a water tank provided in the fort near rocks but I believe, if we stayed there on rocks, the morning ablutions would have been quite difficult.

Once we reached back to our tent, against our initial plan of cooking Maggi and salad, we ate rice and poppu dal at Haritha hotel for 90 INR rice and 60 INR dal.


Now, we were all set to get into our cosy tent and retire for the day but Alas! we see 4-5 tents coming up near our beautiful tent. Disappointed but without any choice we went in our tent for final settling around. Just when we were about to pass into the other world under starry sky, we heard blaring music of  'Bichu mere naina, badi zeherili ankh maare' and my lord this blaring music from both the sides continued till 1 am in the morning ( We went in our tent at 8:30- 9ish). Finally when I told myself no worries I still have 5-6 hours of more sleep, we started hearing live music with guitar from Harisha resort. Even though it was not as piercing as the previous music, it definitely didn't let me sleep till 3ish in the morning.

Finally my alarm rang at 4:45 am as we didn't want to miss sunrise at the Pennar river view. We went to Haritha resort brushed, took bath, got ready and left for the fort. And to our dismissal even at 5:30- 6 am in the morning, whole world was there. I finally made my peace with the noise and shouting of people and moved up in the rocks for the better view.

Sunrise

Serene view

To be honest , you don't have to wake up so early in the morning because the sun came up only by 6:45 am. I took few pictures sat there for a while admiring the beauty this universe has to offer. I closed my eyes and got that beautiful image in my head carved even though it was in the midst of the stark sounds of people laughing and talking. We left the hills at around 7:30 am. Went to the 2 temples. One of the temple didn't have any god inside and the other temple was locked. After clicking some beautiful pictures in the amazing light of morning sun, we left back for our tent. We packed our tent, had another round of masala tea, ate oats with milk as our breakfast and left for Belum caves which are around 50 km from Gandikota.

Belum caves

The road to Belum caves are not very good and it took us around 1 1/2 hour to reach the caves and there was a sea of human beings specially school kids.

The caves are really big but a major part of the caves was closed due to restoration work as rain had collapsed some part of the caves.  The map outside the caves actually tells that you can go around the complete cave and some parts are pretty low and require some flexibility in your spine ;).

There is a beautiful buddha also on the other side of the caves. Due to restoration work and too many school kids, we left from caves within half an hour though if you do the complete trip inside the cave, it might take around 2 hours.

Next we ate spicy poppu dal again in a small restaurant near caves and left for Bangalore. Apparently the route from Belum caves showed 5 hours to Bangalore. So without much break on the way, we left Caves at 12:30 pm and reached Bangalore by 5:30 pm.

One can also go to Lepakshi temple on the way. We didn't go there as we plan to go there with another friend of ours who is in town next week, so wait for updated on Lepakshi until then :)

And Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Be safe and have fun this festive season! Love! 

The Golden Triangle

Best things in life are random, unplanned. Sometimes the chaos is fun because the people with whom you are in chaos are fun to be with... That's how my trip to Golden triangle was made. My nephew and I decided to do Rajasthan trip on bikes but well as the destiny had it, the night before we were supposed to leave, my darling sister had these inhibitions surfacing which until that night came out only in the form of excitement :p...

Anyways the golden triangle in India is Delhi -Agra - Jaipur -Delhi in any order :). So we decided to do the trip from Delhi to Jaipur and then to Agra and back to Delhi.

The distance between Delhi and Jaipur is around 269 km but as we also wanted to cover Bhangarh, the most haunted place in Asia so we took a slight detour and then reached to Jaipur.

Bhangarh, Rajasthan

Bhangarh is a small village located North east of Jaipur. The place has a fort to offer which apparently is considered as most haunted fort in Asia. Due to some google maps issue, we went around in circles and finally reached Bhangarh. The sun was at its peak and we were already quite tired and covered in mud and smoke but all this didn't take away the excitement within us to go see the fort.

There is a Hanuman temple in front to keep the spirits away. The fort is open from 9 am till 5 pm in the evening. No one is allowed to stay in the fort in the night. The starting of the fort is all ruins and doesn't add to the whole wisdom of spirits that the place carries :p but finally once a door comes in you will actually start seeing the fort. We took a young kid to be our guide as it was interesting to see how much he had mugged up about the place and the stories that it carries along. The fort doesn't have any water and eating options inside though outside there is a water cooler and at the gate you will find a lady offering water for free.

What our guide told was that there are no spirits or ghosts there though there is a rock further from the fort where you can hike though its pretty steep and he told us a story about the queen becoming rock or something like that :). Well to be honest in my opinion it wasn't that great to visit Bhangarh considering Rajasthan has alot many forts to offer!

Finally we started from Bhangarh to Jaipur and reached around 7-8 in the evening.

Jaipur
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. It has many forts and stories to tell from past. The city has this historic, traditional feel to itself as even the buildings in the main market have historical essence to them.

#Food
Well if you are a foodie, Jaipur is the place to be. We were disappointed as we couldn't find good dal baati churma anywhere. Finally we went to LMB in main market. In my opinion it was not really traditional and everything was over priced there. Next day morning we went to Samrat restaurant on a parallel road to the main market and got some amazing poha, jalebi , dhokla, samosa, kachori. As I prefer tea with less milk which they couldn't make and it was without ginger so I didn't like it but everything else was top notch in this place and the prices were very reasonable.

You must definitely try lassi in any of the local shops as it's totally to die for. The kulfi and other sweets everywhere are really good as well

We also heard about choki Dhani which is located little further from the city but you can have an authentic experience of food and hospitality there as well.

#Stay
Well if you don't mind sharing rooms then in my opinion Zostel is the best option you have got out there. You can get a bed in AC room in mixed dorms for 500 INR.

There are many hotels available otherwise in the main MG road.

#Places to visit

As our aim was more of biking within 3 days hence we didn't go around much except Amer fort.

Amer fort: It's a massive fort and would require 2-3 hours if you want to explore it in detail. Though I am not sure that the stories which guides tell , are those really true or not but it definitely gives you a perspective to the place. You can find guides in different languages like french, Spanish etc.

You can take Elephant safari till the gate for 400 INR or shared jeep for 50 INR per person. Well as they only take you till the gate, hence if you are fit then you don't really need any safari though experience of walking on the trail of fort on elephant definitely might give you some royal feeling :).

The ticket to enter in the fort is 100 INR per person.

There are many other places to visit and MG road is full of traditional clothes, bags, shoes and earrings for shopping but in lieu of time we started for Agra immediately.

Other places to visit
Hawa Mahal: As its located in the heart of the city, we got a glimpse of it though we didn't really go inside

City Palace
Jantar Mantar
Jal Mahal : You can only look at Jal mahal from far as the boat service to take you to the fort is stopped now. This was an interesting fort to see as its submerged in water and still stands out there beautifully. It would be interesting to see how the floor and walls are carrying themselves with all the water around and I would consider it to be a master piece and an architectural delight if the walls and floor are not moist and wet due to the water under.
Nahargarh fort: This fort is located on the way to Amer fort but we chose not to visit this fort.

Agra

The distance between Jaipur and Agra is about 240 km. As Golden triangle is a very popular route, the roads are pretty good. We stopped multiple times on the way to have fruit, tea and such other things. I slept twice while riding as national highways in my opinion are always very boring to ride on.

50 km before Agra there is Fatehpur Sikri. This is a photographer's paradise as there are many places to see like Buland Darwaza, Jodha Bai's palace, Salim chisthi tomb etc.  As we were already late and most of us had already been to Fatehpur Sikri, we didn't detour to Fatehpur Sikri and instead continued to Agra.

Finally we reached Agra but due to festive season the market was full and busy. As my sister lives in Agra, we headed to Agra cantt. to surprise her.

#Food
Even though we ate at home. Agra has many eating joints available.

You can get very popular Panchi petha, Mathura's peda which are yum.
Also there are many popular shops which serves samosa, pani puri, kachori , tikki etc. We definitely didn't want to miss on this yummy treat and hence ordered all of this at home.

For the morning, we saved our appetite for the Sharma's burger :D...Those are the most popular burger of my family. After filling our stomach's to our brim we left for Delhi

#Places to Visit

Taj Mahal

Fateh Pur sikri
Main market

And then the plan for the day was to just ride and ride and ride and reach Delhi! Finally by evening 5 pm we reached Delhi and stopped over for a yum cup of tea in Gurgaon at my sister's place.

We reached Karol bagh, where we returned my rented bike and headed straight for home as our bum needed the softness of our mattresses after 3 days of hard seats of bullet! :)


Note:
1) Leave early and stop early. Avoid riding in night
2) Get enough sleep
3) If you plan to stay in Zostel then book online in advance
4) Generally its very hot so carry a caps, umbrellas, sun screen and drink lots of water.

New York City - The city that never sleeps

The city of skyscrapers where people are rushing in every direction almost all the time but definitely also a city where whenever I asked somebody a question they stopped  helped smiled back and left so it was an interesting crowd which was always running but still was human enough to stop by and smile.

I decided to spend my weekend at NYC before I head to Atlanta for work and I am glad that I chose to do so. I arrived at the airport and after all the immigration check when I came out , I realized I am not able to book Uber as my network had issues so I went to the information centre and booked a cab by dialing in a number for 57$ to Brooklyn that's where my hostel was located.

I had already informed my hostel that I will be arriving late so there were no hick ups around that. I checked into my room which was a small dingy room for 52$ per night but the hostel had many other amenities and I anyways knew that I am not gonna spend much of my time in the room so I was ok with the dinginess of the room.

After talking around with people, I kind of decided that I don't want to take hop on hop off buses which were available for as much as 29$ to 59$ and more based on the places covered etc. I instead bought a week pass for 10$ for metro and used it to go around.

Next day I woke up early in the morning, walked around, had my cup of coffee and started my Voyage of NYC. I generally like to do off beat stuff, go some local places and try some local stuff but for some reason I wanted to keep this trip very 'touristy'.

I downloaded the NYC train map, bought a 10$ for a week train pass and headed straight for Statue of liberty. I walked around and reached to the place to take Ferry to the statue. Now there are 2 options one is you take the free ferry to the statue and Ellis island which passes through the statue and island but don't stop there so you can't get down go around and take photos and then you have an option for private ferries for different prices.  You can get reserve, pedestal and crown. With crown you can walk all the way upto the crown of the statue but this one is booked at least 3 months in advance so I took pedestal where I could go inside the statue and to Ellis Island for 18$. In my opinion it was definitely worth it.

The Ferry to statue starts from 8:30 am till 3:00 pm. After enjoying the vastness of the status for an hour or so, I took the ferry to Ellis island. The Ellis island tells about the immigrants from all over the world to America and how different cultures have got imbibed in the heart of America. After walking around 3-4 floors of Ellis Island, I went back to the city to check out some Sky scrapers.

Practically everything is at a walk able distance so first I went to the NYC stock exchange to take the photo with the iconic bull but finally I chose to avoid it due to the mad rush of tourists around it to take photos.

I kept walking around at Wall Street, times square,  Rockefeller center building, Empire state building and kept admiring the super huge sky scrapers and then I took my tickets to the 'Broadway show'.

I would have liked to see something else but due to weekend at this time of the day only 'Aladdin' was available and because I wanted to experience the Broadway show I bought tickets for Aladdin. There are shows available at 2 pm and  7:30 pm for as much as 50$ and all the way up to 500-600$. I got mine in Mezzanine for 79$.

If the heights give you a thrill then you must experience either of Empire state building or Rockefeller center. The tickets for both of them can be bought at
https://www.rockefellercenter.com/
http://www.esbnyc.com/buy-tickets

I chose against them because I had already spent a huge amount to check out the Broadway show.

Next I headed to 9/11 memorial museum. The 9/11 memorial is free of charge and is open from 7:30 am to 9 pm.

My final destination in the touristy places was China town. Once you are in China town , you are literally in China. The place is full of Chinese food, people, language , temples and everything. There are many bakeries which serve very interesting and colorful Chinese pastries and yet again you can find exotic , colorful sea food also in the market and then continue walking further and in few minutes you are in Little Italy with restaurants serving Italian cuisine and the cafes which are very Italian.

After this I sat at a cafe in Times square and waited until my Broadway show began.  The show I must say was an out of world experience. I have seen people act and I have seen people dance but this was my first time into a musical and it was really beautiful, witty and perfect. Hats off to all those artists who put their heart and blood into it. It definitely was worth the experience.

Being a Salsera how could I not go dancing when I am in NYC! so finally I headed to Salsa mania on 34th street and well I am glad I went there. I also met a friend from India and did some on 2 and Cuban dancing. If you love salsa there are 2 places to be in NYC for salsa socials, one is salsa mania on Saturday and Candela on Friday's. For any information on salsa in NYC check out http://www.salsanewyork.com/calendar2.htm

After dancing till 1 am in the morning, I finally headed back to my hostel just to sleep for few hours because yet again I got up early and went to Central park for my morning run. What's interesting about Central park is definitely the greenery but more than that what was striking in my opinion was this mass of greenery in the middle of skyscrapers. I am sure when people look at central park from those closed windows in those tall buildings, they imagine fresh breath and a break in their daily hectic schedule. I totally loved running there also because there were so so many people running who were a motivation to me and also because, I generally run on a flat surface and Central park had many highs and lows to offer and that was a new experience for me in my running.

Next I straight headed to the Grand central station. Well being from India and knowing the condition of our railway stations, it definitely was amazing to see the central station like a five star hotel!

Finally after hogging all the veggies at Chipotle, I headed back to my hostel as I had to take a flight back Atlanta. As I had hardly slept, all through the flight I was sleeping and falling around but hopefully not snoring!