Month: August 2022

Visited March 2015

We started from Old Delhi Railway Station at 5:35 PM from train Delhi Jaisalmer Express. The train schedule arrival is at 11:15am but since it was late by an hour, we reached our destination at 12:15pm.

I did pre-booking for 1 night camping in desert along with Camel Safari with “The Thar Desert Tour”, hence one of their representatives (Mr. Annu) came to pick us from the Railway Station.

Day 1: As soon our train reached the station; we got a call from Mr. Annu and in no time we boarded the cab and entered the city. Our booking was from 3pm so we decided to have lunch in the city and then proceed towards desert but since it was Holi, maximum restaurants were closed so we had no option but to head towards desert (Sam Sand Dunes) which was 40 km from city.

Finally we reached our campsite at around 1:30 pm.

Mr. Kamal (with whom I have been in touch for the bookings) accommodated us in one of the tent for the time being. Soon after adjusting our luggage we went to the canteen for lunch which was not included in our package and the same was charged at INR 250 per thali (buffet system). Lunch menu included matar paneer, bhindi fry, aloo ki sabzi with dal, chawal, roti, raayta and sponge rasgulla for sweet dish.

After having our meal we went into our tents as it was pretty hot outside. Our actual tent was ready only around 4-4:30pm as it was Holi and cleaning staff came late.

Soon we got ready for Camel Safari which was scheduled for 5pm but actually started at 5:30pm. After sitting on the back of our camel we headed towards sand dunes.

The ride was for half an hour in which we went climbing the sand dunes and coming down. Initially it was scary but gradually it was exciting.

For next one hour we did some roaming around, some photo-session and some quiet moments in desert as by the time the weather was considerably cool and nice breeze was flowing.

At around 7pm we witnessed the beautiful sunset in desert and after experiencing the same we went back to our camps where we had next activity scheduled “Cultural Event” with evening snacks.

There was a group of local people who presented folk songs popular in them “Kesariya Balam” and “Nimbooda”. We also witnessed the double flute instrument of Rajasthan “Algoza”.

Later on cultural dance and some acts (girl picking up a blade, pin from her eye lashes and girl dancing on iron pins carrying 4-5 water pots on the head).

During the event we were served with evening snacks. And after some time dinner was served (buffet) and at the end DJ was played for people to groove on 🙂

Day 2: The next morning we got up at 8am as that was the time for hot water. Our check-out time from the tent was 11am. Once again we checked-in, this time in railway retiring room of Jaisalmer as we had late night train for Ajmer the same day. The time was to explore the golden city hence we hopped-on a tempo and visited historical sites like

Gadisar lake: It is an artificial lake, built by the founder king of Jaisalmer Rawal Jaisal. We did boating in the lake and fed fish with bread.

Patwon ki haveli: It is a cluster of five large havelis in Jaisalmer. Built in 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa, it took the workers almost 55 years to complete the first haveli.

Jaisalmer Fort (Jain Temple): It is believed to be one of the very few “living forts” in the world as nearly one fourth of the old city’s population still resides within the fort. The fort was the city of Jaisalmer.

After having dinner in Jaisalmer market we proceeded back to railway retiring rooms.

Day 3: Our Ajmer train scheduled departure was of 12:55 am and we reached the city at around 12 noon. We again booked railway retiring room in Ajmer as our train to Delhi was the same night at 2:35 am. After freshening up we went to Pushkar which is around 15 km from Ajmer via cab.

Pushkar is on hills from Ajmer. We reached the place in around half an hour and proceeded towards the kund (small pond) as it is said to take a bath in holy kund before visiting temple. For visiting this ancient temple one has to climb some stairs. Once we reached the temple entry door we could see sanctum of main deity at the center surrounded by places for idol of other god and goddesses.

After darshan we had lunch in a restaurant near temple and soon after lunch we hopped on our cab and started our journey back to Ajmer city. The cab driver dropped us to one of the gates for entry into Ajmer Shariff. We walked for about 10-15 odd minutes and we were at the entry of the dargah. The place had many visitors so we went into a line and had darshan. We spent some time sitting outside the dargah. After darshan we went to Ana Saagar Lake, although it was almost night and dark but the place looked beautiful and the air was soothing.

It was time to be back in our rooms for some dinner and quick rest before our train to Delhi at around 10 am.

How to reach:

By Air: Jodhpur Airport is the closest domestic airport that is functional throughout the year. Major cities have regular flights to Jodhpur. The airport is approximately 5 to 6 hours drive from the city.

By Rail: Jaisalmer is well connected with a wide network of trains covering most of the Indian cities

By Road: There are no direct buses from Delhi to Jaisalmer as the 17-18 hour drive is too time-consuming and quite exhausting

Visited in January 2020

Kerala, a single state having so many landscapes to offer; be it mountains, tea estates, beaches & backwaters. This time my travel love took me to this charismatic state, so here I am sharing my 4 days trip report of Kerala with Kanyakumari.

Day 1: We started our journey from Delhi airport with 7am flight and reached Trivandrum around 10:30am. After collecting our bags, we went to the taxi counter which is located just outside the exit gate of the airport. AC Sedan for Kanyakumari costed us Rs. 3240 and we reached Kanyakumari around 2pm with a stop-over at interstate check point. Our pre-booking was at Hotel Sea View, so after a quick check-in & freshening-up we ordered lunch from the hotel restaurant. Since sun was very harsh at that time so we decided to rest a bit and explore the city in evening around 5pm or so.

Kanyakumari is a small city with all tourist attractions nearby.

We went to Triveni Sangam, which is confluence of three seas namely Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea & Indian Ocean. We went to Kanyakumari Temple after sangam visit as sangam is just behind the temple. It was a quick darshan as there were less people.

One can have urgent darshan by paying 20 per head. Also, gents have to remove their shirts and baniyan for entering the goddess room. Flower and prasad is available outside temple.

We went back to our hotel after darshan as it was late evening and rest of the tourist places could be visited in day time only. Had dinner again in hotel room; sitting beside huge window and enjoying lovely views of sea, Vivekananda rock memorial, Thiruvallur Statue and Kanyakumari city.

It was a full moon that night and reflection of same felt magical on sea, cold breeze added magic to the moment. We sat behind that window, gazing outside and had some chit chats till late night.

Day 2: This day hotel provided us bed tea/coffee as complimentary, so I woke up with the doorbell for tea at around 5:30am. There was also some prayer going-on (on loudspeaker) in a nearby church which waked us in the morning. Since I already had to wake-up for sunrise, so I got freshened up and went to hotel terrace for witnessing the same.

Watching sunrise is very popular or must thing to do in Kanyakumari, hence there was a huge rush around sea for watching sunrise. Luckily our hotel terrace provided that view without any extra effort. But unfortunately, we couldn’t watch sunrise at the scheduled time due to clouds, but once it came above the clouds it was beautiful.

After sunrise I came back and got ready for hotels buffet breakfast around 8am. Hotel again impressed us with the variety of breakfast spread they had. Soon we filled our belly with heavy breakfast and proceeded for the ferry ride. Here we bought ticket of Rs. 200 per head for avoiding queue at the jetty. The waiting time for ferries is very minimal due to the bigger size and lesser distance ferries have to cover. It took us to Vivekananda Rock Memorial which is in middle of sea.

Swami Vivekananda attained enlightenment on the rock, so the place is built in his honour. There is statue of Swami Vivekananda on one side and goddess Kanyakumari temple on other side. Views from this place are stunning as water is all around.

We purchased ticket of Rs.10 for visiting the memorial. Little bit climbing is required to reach these two places located in front of each other.

One wheelchair is available at this place without any additional charge. We took it for my mother.

We took the ferry again from this place to reach the jetty. There is poet “Thiruvallur” statue also next to the Vivekananda rock memorial but entry to this place is not allowed as our ferry took us back to jetty. Now was the time to go back to our hotel, pack our bags and say a final good bye to this last corner of India.

Our next stop was Poovar back waters, we reached there around 2pm as its 65 km from Kanyakumari. Here we hired a boat for backwater cruise, which took us to Golden Sand Beach while crossing through water forest. It dropped us to one of the restaurant boat anchored on the river. We had our lunch there in middle of the sea with some good music. On our return journey we saw some floating cottages also of Poovar Island Resort.

Our next stop from here was Kovalam which is just 30 min (19 km) away from Poovar. We went through two hotels here and finalized on one with sea view from balcony. From here we could watch all the activities of Hawah Beach. After resting for some time we went through Hawah Beach & light house beach which are beside each other. This entire seaside have many options for staying. We watched the sunset and went to a small rock on the beach. We came back to our rooms late evening and after some chit chats we ordered our dinner in the room itself. Meanwhile we also booked cab for our next day excursion of Kumarakom and Munnar.

I woke up early to witness the daily life of locals (my best part of the day).

Here I witnessed fisherman taking out their boats in the sea for catching fishes. Some people taking out the fishing nets from sea which they might have left in the sea previous day. Beach bed owners spreading their beds and locals, tourists jogging or walking around both the beaches. I can never get bored of beaches, whatever time I spend its always less.

But soon I winded up and went to the room for getting ready for buffet breakfast. Our cab arrived at the decided time and we checked-out from our room and proceeded towards our next destination Kumarakom. The place is around 190 km from Kovalam and we took around 5 hours to reach the destination.

Here I got a real shock as I planned a houseboat tour in backwaters of Kumarakom but after reaching the place, the ferry owners said all the houseboat are booked as cruise starts from 11am. But after lots of googling and calling finally I got a houseboat which took us to backwater tour for 2.5 hrs as no houseboats are allowed to sail in the backwaters after 6pm. This was a real saviour as I cannot imagine my Kerala trip without houseboat tour.

Our boat took us through narrow lanes of backwaters to complete bigger area where we saw some Chinese fishing nets. The boat also had two rooms with attached bathroom for staying with complete furnishing of bed, almirah, side sofa, mirror and etc.A small kitchen is also available on back side of boat from where we had our tea and snacks for the day.

This was a beautiful journey where you can spend some quiet time with your thoughts. The cold breeze adds to the comfort.

Again, we hopped in our cab and proceeded towards Munnar which is again around 170 km and took 5 hours for reaching. We took just a single stop on the way for dinner and reached Munnar at 12 in the midnight. Most of the Munnar hotels I had in my list was booked, so our driver saved us here by booking a homestay and I must say it was a good idea as the homestay was very neat and clean and most importantly it was separate as the house owner lived on first floor and gave us ground floor (3 BHK) for staying. Tea and hot water was available in the morning and restaurant for breakfast was nearby, so we checked-out and went to the restaurant through our cab which was booked till Kochi drop.

Day 3: After breakfast we went for Munnar site-seeing, tea gardens, tea museum, Mattupetty dam, Kundla dam and on the way to Kochi we saw Cheeyapara waterfall.

Its beautiful feeling to go through so much of greenery of tea gardens. The whole way looks beautiful and mesmerising.

We reached Kochi hotel around 7:30 pm. We booked this hotel near Kochi airport as we had early morning flight (6am) for next day. Since I was so tired, I just went to bed and slept in no time.

We left the hotel at 4am by a pre-booked cab and reached the airport in 5-10 min. It was a 3-hour flight and we reached Delhi around 10am. This was a complete changeover from a hot to cold weather.

Visited in September 2021

We planned Gujarat trip this time as it was a safe option, going through recent covid cases and travel norms of this state.

For travelling to Gujarat from Delhi only thermal screening was required at the airport. Also while checking through travel agents and airlines they said nothing is required but you can carry certificate if you’re both vaccination have been completed. So we just booked the tickets, packed our bags and went to explore a new place.

Day 1: It was a 2 hour early morning flight and we reached Ahmedabad at 9am. I booked the hotel from airplane itself which I selected while searching for the same online before starting the trip. It was a perfect select as I wanted a decent hotel near airport. They also sent cab for picking us up from the airport. Hotel rooms were cozy and had all required amenities specially lift which I needed the most. Hotel also had buffet breakfast included in room tariff. After enjoying varied buffet spread of poori bhaji, Idli sambhar, fruits, bread butter, juice and etc we did some rest before starting exploration of the city.

Since we had only half day with us in the city so we selected some activities quickly which we will be doing. It started with visit to Akshardham temple, then shopping in Dhalgarwad and ending of day with finger licking Gujarati thali in Sasuji. I would really recommend this place for amazing food.

Day 2: This was the day for further travel to Porbandar from Ahmedabad airport. Since the distance from Ahmedabad to Dwarka is around 440 km so with elderly parents we decided to take flight instead of road travel. It is an hour or so trip from Ahmedabad.

Porbandar Airport is a very small airport with mostly interstate flights. Here we booked auto from outside as suggested by hotel we chose to stay in.

We ordered breakfast in the room, booked cab and started getting ready as we didn’t had much time.

Around 10 am we started our trip for the day and our first stop for the day was Shri Dwarakadheesh Temple, which is around 100 km from Porbandar.

Shri Dwarakadheesh Temple is one ofchar dhamsite. The temple had old architecture made up of huge stones with idol of main deity in the middle and surrounded by other god & goddess. There were lot of devotees at the temple premises, and we just reached on time as the temple was about to get close. Wheelchair facility is available at this temple.

After having a quick darshan at the temple we went to have lunch before further travel toNageshwar Jyotirlinga, which was around 17 km ahead.     

Nageshwar Jyotirlinga is one among 12 jyotirlinga temple in all over India. The temple has an huge idol of sitting shiva. Although there was rush but we had a very nice darshan of Shivalinga here. We also managed wheelchair for my mother after lot of searches.

Our next destination was around 30 km from here.

Bet Dwarka is again an ancient temple having a deep and interesting mythological history. It was abode of Krishna during his ruling years. We firstly took a e-rikshaw from parking place and reached near sea, from where we boarded boat for visiting the temple. This wasn’t the right time for visiting the temple as temple was closed at that time and a huge line of visitor was created. But once we entered temple premises it felt peaceful.

We got late while returning from temple and due to this we had less time for our next stoppage which was a beach (Shivrajpur Beach). We witnessed almost the sunset and sat there for some time near a lighthouse as the same was soothing.

We called it a day and went back to our hotel in Porbandar, also had dinner in between.

Day 3: This was again a long day as we were also travelling back to Delhi this day and it was also my B-Day 😀

While going through coastal highway towards Somnath temple we stopped at Madhavpur beach for a quick photo-sesh as it started raining in sometime. After a good ride of 82 km we reached another Jyotirlinga which is again a site to behold.

Somnath Jyotirlinga: The temple is centrally located in large area beside a beach. Wheelchair service is available at this temple also as for old people it is a large area to walk before reaching temple.

Temple also have one lift so no need to worry about the wheelchair. After darshan I went to the beach which is again a walk as we must firstly come out of the temple premise and then again walk the same distance of temple but besides temple. There was also charge of 5-10 rupees for entering the area. It was beautiful to see temple and sea side by side just separated by a boundary wall.

We had a group pic with temple in the background as a memory for life.

Our final destination for the day was Diu Island (around 100 km).

Diu Island, a union territory. It is a small place with nice beaches and fancy café around the city and nearby sea. Decent number of people (locals & tourist) were there. After spending some time at the beach we sat at a café and ordered some snacks. We also searched for some bakery shop for a cake but found only some chocolate pastries.

Since airport was just 6-7 km from this place so we chilled here and left around 3pm for our return flight to Delhi via Mumbai.

Diu Airport is also a small airport but well maintained.

Finally, it was a time to say a final goodbye to this beautiful place and our wonderful trip.