2018 Travel Calendar

2018 was the year of mini breaks: trips lasting one to three days. Low on budget and time, I found myself having to choose between no trips and micro trips. For somebody who finds 2-week trips short, I surprisingly enjoyed these bite-sized escapades. Throw in the fact that all these trips were very last minute, and improvised on the go, and it rings true that travel does teach you a lot about yourself; I never imagined travelling in a “chaotic” manner, and yet I did.

2019 is luring me with a lot of promises. I’m ready to move on from my brief romance with brief trips, but nonetheless, happy at having learnt about new ways to keep my travel spark burning.                                                                                                                                                                            

Kabini

This old favourite never disappoints, easily leaving me refreshed in just a few hours. I didn’t even have to wait until I reached Kabini for the excitement to set in…just packing my jungle clothes for the trip melted those blues like nothing else. Add in some safaris with knowledgeable naturalists, the tranquillity of the forest, and a quick digital detox, and I returned ready to dive back into routine.

Tranquebar

On my wish-list for over a decade. Finally, plans fall into place. A cyclone threat looms large. My car breaks down. I almost return home. Decide to go ahead without my car. The cyclone passes, but not before giving Tranquebar a good wash. I traipse around town with my umbrella, in the rain. Enough said.

It’s hard to believe that I had a great time in spite of all this, but that’s the charm of Tranquebar.

Mumbai

Visiting home in December—the season that’s as cold as Mumbai can ever get—I capitalised on the good weather to go on rambles and guided walks in South Bombay, or “town”, as we call it. Of course, taking the hubby to discover more Irani Cafes was on the menu, as was the hunt for the best Undhiyu, a Gujarati winter speciality that’s my favourite. We ended up deviating for some butter chicken along the way, but the fragrance of Undhiyu finally led us to culinary heaven.

Chennai

A reluctant visit to attend a family function turned into the perfect way to sign off 2018. I am slowly discovering fun and exciting facets of Chennai, and a guided walk around traditional Mylapore kick-started my first staycation. Shocking relatives by checking into a hotel instead of staying with them was just the beginning of an exciting weekend. After a room upgrade in a heritage hotel, some truly fabulous food, attentive and personalised service, and lots of ‘nothing time’, I understood why staycations have been gaining popularity.

2015 Travel Calendar

‘Short trips’ was this year’s recurring theme, making the best of my sparse holidays and sparser travel money.  If the last two years had been about discovering the joys of road-trips and solo travel, this year led me down a new path – food trips. Having always been a foodie, enjoying regional cuisine whenever I travelled, this year’s trips took this passion to new heights – trips where we ate like there was no tomorrow, hunting down the tastiest local specialities a place had to offer. I had more than enough food to savour, despite my supposed ‘drawback’ of being a vegetarian.

In between gorging on food, I photographed these delicacies, resulting in outright bad photos at first, but improving slowly by the next trip. This has made me want to better my food photography skills, something I’ve resolved to practice next year; not your glossy, studio set-up food photos, but photographing food on the streets. I love how travel brings such new challenges my way!

With a trip already planned for the first month of 2016, I sign off excitedly for this year, wishing everybody a very happy, healthy and travel-filled 2016.

                                                                                                         

Madurai

I travelled to Madurai by chance, as my husband, who spent a few years living there, wanted to visit the city to re-live his childhood memories. The trip quickly snowballed into a larger agenda, of also enjoying Madurai’s famed food. The city takes its title of 'thoonga nagaram' (the town that never sleeps) very seriously, buzzing from the wee hours of the morning, well into the night. Catering to the teeming mass of people are hole-in-the-wall eateries and road-side vendors, with a wide array of meals and tiffin items. While meals include a lot of non-vegetarian dishes, tiffin is predominantly vegetarian, and can be a meal in itself. Madurai's residents have a discerning palate, which reflects in the food they prepare, and it is almost impossible to get bad food anywhere in the city. I ate my way through Madurai tiffin, which offers a mind-boggling variety of dishes and beverages: from popular dishes like kotthu parotta and idli to unique local items like jigarthanda and thennangkuruthu. 

Kodaikanal

The best way to atone for indulging in such excesses at Madurai was to walk it off, I thought. What better way to do that than to spend a few days at nearby Kodaikanal? Kodaikanal’s crisp winter weather and laidback weekday disposition proved to be the perfect setting for rambling walks, energetic cycling around the Kodai Lake, and a sweaty hike to Dolphin’s Nose. Our determination to not focus on food, however, was thrown out of the window thanks to our gregarious home-stay hosts, who broke our resolve with every lip-smacking meal they cooked for us.  All the food sent us scrambling for more walks, and we returned to Bangalore refreshed by Kodaikanal’s charm and natural beauty.

Read about this trip: http://nomadandabag.blogspot.com/2016/08/seeking-nostalgia-in-kodaikanal.html

Kabini, Karnataka

This quick jaunt to Kabini in the monsoon was intended as a rejuvenating break after a strenuous first half of the year, and to celebrate hubby’s milestone birthday. As usual, Kabini lived up to its promise. Threatening clouds loomed, but it never rained hard enough to foil our plans. Four safaris into the forest, short walks around Kabini River Lodge’s campus, and contemplative sessions gazing at the Kabini reservoir got us fully recharged for the latter half of 2015.

Delhi

Dilli ki sardi was something my friend would often poetically rave about. I decided that it was finally time to experience it first-hand, inviting myself over to my aforesaid friend’s home. Research prior to the trip had armed me with a list of over 40 eateries to visit, many serving winter specialities, and I lost no time in dragging my friends along for the food mania. Over three days, we systematically chomped our way through the list, walking for hours through Old Delhi, seeking out nondescript push-carts and not-marked-on-any-map eateries, all serving some of the cheapest, freshest and most delicious food I have ever eaten. When we could walk no more, we took breaks at some of Delhi’s lovely monuments, catching forty winks and resting our tired legs, only to resume our mission soon after. Not for the faint-hearted, this trail!

BR Hills | Kabini | Nagarhole

                                                                         

Blue canopy above me,

Feet sliding through earthy browns.

Green swathes as far as the eye can see;

Roads leading far, far away from towns.

A flash of colour flies here, a sound so mellifluous there;

I know not where to look as wonder after wonder reveals itself.

I seek & find unbridled joy everywhere;

Surely, this place is inhabited by fairies & elves!

Never is a silence so pregnant with melody;

In this silence, a thousand sounds take birth.

It feels criminal to talk; to be the bearer of noise.

Just hear, relish and cherish the voices of the earth. 

Quick facts (BR Hills):

Distance & driving time: BR Hills (Biligiriranga Hills / BRT Wildlife sanctuary) is approx. 180 kms from South Bangalore. It’s 3.5 hrs away, with a short break.

Route: Kanakpura road (Bangalore)-Harohalli-Kanakpura-Yelandur-BR Hills. There is an alternate route via Maddur on the Bangalore-Mysore highway.

Accommodation: I stayed at Gorukana. 

Quick facts (Kabini / Nagarhole):

Distance & driving time: Kabini is approx. 230 kms from South Bangalore. It’s 5 hrs away, with a short break.

Route: NICE road (Bangalore)-Channapatna-Mandya-Srirangapatna-Mysore-Kabini. There are signboards by various resorts, once you reach Mysore’s ring road.

Accommodation: I stayed at Jungle Lodges.