Planned in a Jiffy …

We will live up to our promise of going out with minimum planning!! So this trip was planned in half an hour flat…call it planned if you feel like, however calling it unplanned (or slightly planned) would be more appropriate. A friend calls on Friday noon that he along with his colleagues is planning for a trip on Saturday morning, have place for couple of more people if interested finalize in half an hour! Neat!!

Canberra here we come!!

Our last trip was planned and got cancelled coz of bad weather. Weather forecast for this weekend was nice and we were in no mood to spend it indoors. So, there was no point in saying no to it, without much of thinking we said yes to our good Friend and off we were on Saturday morning to the city of Canberra, capital of Australian Capital Territory. The distance between Sydney & Canberra via the Hume Freeway is around 280 Kms and the travelling time is around 3 hours 30 min.

View Larger Map

En route via Hume Highway

We had gone with a group of extended friends who had hired a tourist bus. Travelling was an ordeal because it meant getting up at 4:00’ O clock on a COLD Saturday morning (SIGH!!!). This was the need of the hour as we had planned to cook and carry food items for the entire day and also reach Sydney Central by 7:00 am (45 min travel from where we stay). So the way calculation went was one hour for cooking, one hour for getting ready and one hour for travel time before it is 7:00’ O clock.

Most of us were on time and we were able to leave Sydney central by 7:45 am. We were 12 of us on the bus and a few (unplanned) additions of 3 firang tourists and 1 guide cum driver (Michael) who took us through our one day trip. Michael was also our proverbial guide who took us through the historical journey of Australia, Aborigines. Told us all about the wrong doings that has happened with the tribes Later on in Canberra he also showed as the tented embassies of Aborigines just opposite the old parliament house. It was interesting to know that how Sydney and Melbourne were fighting for the capital city and thus Canberra a city almost midway from Melbourne and Sydney was chosen as the capital city (LINK). According to Michael this rivalry is also visible in having Sydney and Melbourne Buildings at the commercial center or Civic (LINK) (Now, I could not find any source on net to validate this fact!!)

En route, the highway was awesome. The journey was comfortable and the  landscapes were mesmerizing and breathtaking. The hills, the lush green farms, the vineyards, the deep blue sky, the wind mills, and the rainbow everything was just perfect to add to that fairy tale effect. Sadly Michael was going too fast for us to click anything

In Canberra

The first halt that we had in Canberra was Mt. Ainslie (Link) from where we saw the old and the new parliament house at a distance and also it was like over- looking the city from the top.  The other places that we visited were The Australian war Memorial, New Parliament House, Old Parliament house, The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, The Oval Stadium, The embassy area where we also spotted our very own Indian embassy, Captain cook Memorial Jet, Floriade 2009 to name a few.

click to see more views from Mt. Ainslie

Parliament House

Canberra is home to Government, so we visited the new and the old Parliament House (LINK). See Australian parliament had 11 new members that day

New members at parliament house!!

The spectacular thing was that we could actually visit the house, learn about the legislative process from kiosks and other display materials, interestingly they also had their budget books on display. They had a parliament shop there. It was Democracy at display!! Finally we also saw the prime minister’s house (of course from the outside).

Click to see more pics of Parliament house

Just outside the old parliament house there is the aboriginal tent embassy(Link). The people who live in these tents are representatives of the aboriginal tribes of Australia. According to Michael (remember our driver guide!!) this is sad and dark part of Australia to know what have they done to the natives of the land.

Tent Embassy

After this Michael took us to Manuka Oval Stadium(Link). He told us that he use to play football here during his childhood days!! Though Oval is home to many functions, cricket and Football year round, it had a deserted look as there were only 12 spectators and the players had decided to go for fishing. This was a little disappointing but with no match ON it was supposed to be no different.

Click to see more pics

Floriade

Luckily we were in Canberra during spring and this is the time of year when Canberra hosts Floriade (LINK), which is the biggest flower festival in Australia, a spectacular celebration of spring, set in Canberra’s Commonwealth Park (LINK). The floral experience was rejuvenating and refreshing as we walked past tulip flowers in all shapes, sizes and colors ranging from pink, white, blue, and mauve, red. It was like a rainbow that had decided to come down the aisle/ horizon. It can’t be described in words; you just have to see it in pics …

Click to see spectacular Tulips

Phew!! We could just capture it

Near commonwealth park was this captain cook memorial jet huge fountain throwing water roughly to the height of 140 meter. It was awesome we had passed it couple of times on our journey to and fro in city. As it was supposed to be our last spot in Canberra I had made a mental note to spend some good time playing around to click some good pics of the jet. So, here I was near the jet at around 4pm, lo and behold! Jet was dying out … later we came to know that it only operates till 4 !! Could only click one shot of the dying jet …  so if you planning to be at jet memorial keep in mind that it operates only from 2 to 4 pm (LINK)

Just in time to capture jet!!

Back home

This was the last destination that we visited in Canberra and before we realized it was time to be on our way back. And it was non stop journey on same highway dumping us all back at Sydney Central Station at around 9:30 pm.. watch out some Random pics clicked

Random Clicks @ Canberra

view of Harbor Bridge from Blues Point Reserve

Long Time

It’s been a real long time since travel log was updated last; it’s been a while since I updated any of my other blogs too. Last one year of real life has been quiet eventful for me and for almost all my friends present in some of the (very few) trips. Yes, almost everybody got married and stepped into Life part II, and as they say became responsible citizens, dedicated husbands and employees of their organizations; busy with home, work and LIFE in general there wasn’t enough time to travel, forget updating travel log!! And obviously group, unplanned, adventurous trips transformed to personal, planned (dare I say Boring) trips which might be adventurous in their own sense

Let’s roam around again

So, today when we (more on this “we” later) sat down to start this blog again, it is worth talking about two important trips, one life changing (one to Chamba during which I met my partner in crime and companion for life and travel) and second trip to the land of Kangaroos, which gave an opportunity for further trips to explore the new land!! Good news is that these trips are still alive in our memories, pictures (which are worth thousand words: P) and yes some of these are there in written logs too… Thanks to the partner in crime (Bhavna), she actually took the pain of writing couple of them in hope that I will ONE day POST them on blog. So, here I am thousands of feet above the ground, in my flight to India trying to live up to my promise and reviving Roam around again. For the sake of comfort and memory we would be starting from our latest trip first and then randomly posting our past trips. Come along as we explore various corners of earth….

Planned Vs Unplanned trips

This debate is starting point of every trip!! Do you like to plan your trips or just head out unplanned with just destination in mind!! We try to, however as the luck would have it since our first we have only been “planning for unplanned trips” like book for a hotel in Himanchal’s Chamba while travelling to Uttranchal’s Chamba (That’s called Planning!! more on this exciting journey later). We personally like unplanned or trips with minimum planning … Planned trips are generally washed out in rain and end up as a journey for the taste buds treating ourselves with home made pizza (Link)

so watch out this space for some action …

THE NIGHT BEFORE: It was yet another weekend approaching…and b’day treats of pramod, vineet and mahinder in the offing…usual conversations started…pramod said he wanted to drink, i was as usual game…as usual sid dropped in the “outside Delhi trip thingy”…i was game but guptaji had office and bhalu had homely affairs to look after…nonetheless vineet was gung ho about the trip…so like our previous plans this too was shelved and me along wid bhalu went to pvr saket to meet sid on fri nite…bhalu’s fav. pizza hut was chosen inspite of protests from sid due to lack to nice faces arnd…I dunno whether it was destiny of the “Simplicity” [Finally, I came to realize that's THE thing I look for in THE ONE with some help from GP] of the waitress that made me and sid rethink…somehow hurriedly by midnight the plan was finalized…it was gonna be vineet, sid, me, rijju (another GOOGLER) and Ankit (sid’s spjain batchmate)…

WATTEY START!!: At sharp 845 am I left home after getting some not to pleasant comments from my parents…little did I know what awaited me at vineet’s house!! not a nice way to start a trip i thought…made me ponder why can’t our parents understand that “weekdays” we spend in office working (not true for me currently but still!!) and not in masti marooing…cos thats what they say…saara hafta to bahar tha ab weekend to ghar pe reh liya kar…parents perspective is correct too…they want to spend time with their children, share their issues/look at us for answers…want us to take responsibility…mabbe its just that transition period everyone goes through…cos we were free birds till now, and suddenly we are expected to do more than just earning…ok lemme not digress here but just wonder how we are not able to take care of only one reln which most of us have right now…they aint call handlin wife+mum together tough for nothin!!

THE JOURNEY: So after some nice wrds and nicer paranthas (Before this I thought only Punjabis knew how to make good paranthas!) prepared by Vineet’s mum we picked up Ankit, sid and rijju and started for the journey around 10 am along wid a bottle of Absolut…although we had been fooling our parents that it was only 250 km and 4-5 hour drive…we knew it would take us 6-7 hours with the eat-pee-crap [one cant discount the later wid me arnd ] breaks…So we started our journey with the effervescent Simran on Delhi’s Radio City 91.1 Whattey fun…ah if she had been 10 years younger and I 10 kgs trimmer, I would have had thoughts of having a more serious reln. wid her than listening to her everyday from 730-9 am…So with our mood upbeat we headed towards our destination Kasuali with me taking the first half of the drive (on the amazing GT Karnal Highway) and Vineet the second part (the bad Ambala-Karnal highway and the typical hilly terrain after that)…some interestings thing to notice during the road-trips are the arbit names of places on the way (Dadupur is one I can recall); a conspicous change in people you find as you change region – from typical delhites to rural part of haryana to myriad of surds as one enters Punjab…another interesting thing is the messages on the back of trucks… [UPLOAD PICS HERE]…To get back to the trip, we took a break in between at Kalka for having a typical dhaba’s lunch…amazing how these dhabas neva disappoint you – whether in terms of value for money or the taste…The weather as were started going up was getting pleasant along with the view…we stopped in between to take “orkut” pics…others tried taking pics while jumping …people werent impressed with my jumping skills but thats fine!

FUN @ KASUALI: We finally reached Kasauli by 6 pm and got a good deal for stayin (1200 for 2 rooms) after some haggling…straightaway we were out to experience the pristine surroundings of Kasauli…We went to the only market at Mall Road. We were a bit puzzled by the entry sign at the entry point …The guard there was too eager to share his thoughts on the same especially with sid and told he will repaint it the next morning…We spent around an hour in the market and strolling around generally…nothing special about the market to be candid…the only amazing feature for me was the non-commercialing of this small town…there were no sales people standing on the way and pestering with the amazing offer they had in their shop…pleasant change after seeing places like vaishnu devi and nainital…we were off to our rooms around 8 with the supply for snacks with Vodka…vineet, sid and rijju went back again to buy lowers and food, only to return back drenched and with yuck veg momos from a pretty girl…then began the typical bing, dance, overacting, puking display…sid tore apart my vest as it had a small hole and his mother told him not to ever allow someone do a sin like that…i agreed only cos my mum believed in the same!!…incidentally sania was also playing her 3rd round match and rijju managed to somehow get the TV on…i stood up, raised my hands and did anything possible to help sania, but alas she lost…nonetheless this was followed by watching Borat…Reliance didnt help me and Vineet hear Namak isssq ka from Omkara, but we kept humming the lines si si karti mein maroon with expressions to give Bips a complex…Ankit (the only guy in senses that night) would have loved the free show 4 daarubaaz had to offer and me being the one to oblige most [DONOT UPLOAD PICS HERE!!]…As with all daaru affairs someone had to puke and rijju obliged us…Vineet was busy cajoling him and I was bursting in laughter indoors, sid and ankit were asleep in another room downstairs…so we were all off to sleep around 12:30…

PRISTINE KASUALI – Unusually everyone woke up pretty early (sid might disagree on this! but watever) and we were off for breakfast at 7:40…strangely the tea waala didnt keep anything to eat and dhabawaala didnt make tea….Breakfast was expectedly alloo ka paranthas with makkhan…vineet hai some fun wid some dogs n monkeys before we started for Manki Point – the highest point Kasuali where Hanumanji had kept his left foot while carrying Sanjeevni Booti…it was a 3.5 km trek and we were treated with amazing pristine scenery, flowers …we took hundred of pics of the scenery and us to get that elusive perfect orkut pic…the views were amazing – the leapard like pattern of the corn trees’ bark, the clouds playing around with the mountains, the multiple colored flowers forcing us to climb the rocks till we found ourselves amongst them  …we stopped over at Sunrise point, though a couple of hours late but still the view couldn’t have got more breathtaking…We carried on and reached entry to Manki point – an AF station – by 10:30…As we could not carry mobiles/camera me, sid and ankit went first and the Googlers had to wait till we get back…It was a 1 km trek as told by the security person but 500m of that was very steep and it reminded me of Vaishnu Devi…we reached the top and paid homage to bajranj bali…the view from the top was even better than wat we had seen earlier…had it not been the thought of making vineet n rijju wait more, it was worth spending an hour there…after we were bak vineet and rijju left for manki point and meanwhile we three started our journey back to the hotel before taking a rest after being exhausted by the steep 1 km trek …we stopped and looked for a lift but didnt get one offering a good value proposition!…It started raining again, so we halted at sunrise point although to the consternation of a couple already thr! as it stopped raining we meandered to point we started our journey and were exhausted…we ordered for some juice and as we were about to start we saw the googlers trotting bak…we had a drink each and resisted buying Chuli ka Tel that was sold by the “Daily Needs” shop…interesting name for the shop we thought, what needs was it satisfying were our thoughts …It was noon now and we stopped over at the beautiful church before starting our journey back home…

THE WAY BACK: So after a short and sweet visit it was time to go back…this time i took the not-so-good part of the route as vineet was looking a bit tired and sleepy (not sure whether he slept or was busy last night…) It started raining again but that didnt stop me from having the amazin cholle kuche on the way back…We thought about taking the cable car at Kalka but with paucity of time and money we dropped the idea… We only took a break for lunch and crap+tea…it was the usual journey back …vineet enjoying a clash of ego with a ford fiesta only for me to quiver multiple times!…the usual zing bang at the trucks back and an amazing attempt by two surd cops to challan me for stopping for 2 secs to figure out in punjabi where to turn for ambala!

CONCLUSION (sorry cudnt find a better word!): An amazing trip as usual…but the revelation for me was the mingling of us different friends…Usually i tend to assume that one should not mix friend groups – based on an odd bad experience – but man i was wrong…its an opportunity to grow ones friend grp and mabbe find some more frndz for life…rijju and ankit welcome aboard!!

On our way …. finally wait for the second post for this blog ….

It’s been long time since I posted anything and its been really ages since I posted something from my personal life. So here is a log of a driving weekend. It’s an attempt to write a travel log. In coming years I wish to go places and share my experiences here at this offshoot of my blog. Comments, critics and additions are invited.

It was sunny lazy Saturday morning. I joined Deepak and Pramod, who came to Paharganj to treat their taste buds with Yummy and famous Choor Choor Naan (stuffed Naan soaked errr drenched in Ghee and then crushed into pieces that’s why the name choor choor). Actually this was the first step of our larger plan to leave the periphery of Delhi on weekend. Unfortunately plan was cancelled coz Sachin could not join us. So, as any other exciting day we were measuring the circumference of C.P. But this weekend we were destined to leave Delhi and after lot of discussions we decided to just do it. And lo! No plans, no bookings, no clothes, no food no itinerary nothing; just our thirst to leave the city and go out on weekend no matter what. We called and informed our parents about our unplanned plan and were on our way on

to the left side of Golden Triangle on National Highway 8, which would take us straight to pink city, Jaipur.

 

 

 

 

 

A 260 Km journey so we picked up rajma rice, poori aaloo bhaji, halwa and onion kachori from Haldiram at 42^nd Mile stone.

 

 

 

 

Our first stop was at Neemrana Fort Palace , approximately two hours drive from Delhi is this fort built in 1464 AD, on a huge plateau in Aravali ranges. Now this fort has been reconstructed into a beautiful resort with a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, yoga & meditation center, gym, recreation rooms, rejuvenation center and yeah some rooms were out of bounds only meant for private use. Deepak told that this fort was considered as wedding venue for Abhiash. Don’t know about Deepak’s news but we could not deny when Pramod gave the verdict that this place is perfect on a weekend with loved one and booked private room. Don’t know how much harm it will cause to your wallet, however if you are planning to visit like stags like us it will cost you 200 bucks.

After spending (read walking) two hours in the royal fort we were tired and hungry. We decided to leave and head for our destination. Now, it was non stop journey to the living city of monuments. Jaipur – Delhi highway is one of the finest highways in the country and ideal for the drive. To make our journey more comfortable rain god blessed us with his blessings and drizzle was enough to bring down the temperature. Deepak started an argument, which is worth mentioning here for your views, he goes like:

For raising kids, responsibilities back home and successful marriage its necessary for girl not to be career conscious, rather compromise and take up 9 to 5 job (if at all taking up job is necessary) to look after family. We had heated argument on this, I strongly disagree to this view if this view is by design and forced upon the girl, it’s different if she chooses it herself. And if at all compromise is to be made it should be by both. Okay, after some time our arguments went to mars, we discussed why Rani or Vidya Balan is perfect marriage material while some others are not.

It was 2030 hours and we were in the pink city; we realized this when smooth, broad roads of highway converged into the narrow road of city with pot holes. We were late and didn’t go the city center; rather we headed straight for some more fun and food at Chokhi Dhani. Located at Jaipur Tonk Highway approximately 18 Km from the city center, is this ethnic village resort with complete environ of Village with modern five star amenities. While you can check out these amenities and price at the above link, I will tell you about what we did. It costs 250 bucks and covers all the cultural shows, unlimited Rajasthani food and chatpata Jaljeera.

So started our journey with 2-3 glasses of Jaljeera and watching traditional Rajasthani dance performed by a young girl who was so much full of energy. A group of local guys told us that the secrete of her energy is chilly, that is she daily have 250 gm of green chilly that’s why she’s dancing so fast and energetically. Jokes apart she had really practiced hard and was dancing really well. Oh by the way to give complete village look, instead of chairs place had traditional cots all around to sit or lie down and relax in open air. Then we enjoyed the ride of giant wheel which was not operated by electric motor but mechanically by two guys; one person giving push from bottom and the other person walking inside the giant wheel to give speed to it.

Now it was time to eat so we had some chana jor garam, sugarcane juice pakoras and tea in lalu’s kullars. Let me introduce arbaaz khan aka ashu; a kiddo who tricked us with some water game where we had to drop coins in a glass kept inside a bucket full of water. Then mesmerized we saw the performance (read haath ki safai) of local magician. It was fun. It was high time to catch up with our free unlimited dinner so we headed straight for open air food being served in pattal (leaf plates). Deepak and Pramod gave up after first serving, I relished each and every morsel of food being served, and it was worth over eating that tasty food. I would have been able to enjoy more, provided I would have had anything earlier. Anyways I wasn’t able to walk, had to remove my belt and get loose!! Deepak headed for loo; me and Pramod strolled around and then were horizontal on the cot, however could not sleep coz of huge mosquitoes.

Somewhere around mid night we decided to leave, for place closes at around this time (official timings are from 1900 to 2300 hours). Now it was time to hunt for some place to spend remaining night and it wasn’t easy for we were not aware of the routes and it was late in night, good thing was that city was not as dead as Delhi, it was moving and there were people to guide us and we also managed to see some of the famous monuments in night. Not even a single bed was vacant in any of the government hotel or the youth hostel. Even the dorms were full. Private hotels were either shady or way too costly to just sleep and shit. We tried to teach them opportunity cost that its better to give room at low cost for few hours than leaving it vacant. At around 2 am we got the room, now I don’t know if he understood opportunity cost or we were too tired to explore further and idea of sleeping in car was not exciting enough. Anyways in 600 Bucks hotel Nirbana was good place to attain one night nirvana; we just hit the shack to wake up at around 0800 to start our day afresh.

0900 hours we left the place and started our journey with Rajasthani kachoris, poori, aloo paratha and tea. On road again, this time we took the service of young guy kumar nick named goli. Instead of going to school young guys like ashu and goli are working hard for their living. One earns five bucks per trick and the other 20 bucks for two hours of talking about royal families and historic monuments. Well he first took us to white temple and then to royal factory of maharani gayatri devi, where he disappeared and to be replaced by Kishore Kumar who claimed to be his father. We purchased famous Rajasthani quilt which just weigh 50gm and also a pair of Famous Kallu chacha’s famous Rajasthani shoes. Kallu Chacha is famous for two reasons one obviously for the camel leather shoes which weighs just 20gms, which is so flexible that you can fold it like a film roll. Second Kallu Chacha is famous coz of his father, who is 137 years old (Oldest man in India and as per my knowledge in world). Kallu Chacha hiself is 110 years old. I don’t know how true is the fact which our guide told us that this 137 year old guy is getting back new hair and teeth. Then we saw hawa mahal, Jal mahal from outside for reconstruction work was going on. We skipped the city palace for the paucity of time, and headed for Amber fort which was en route to Delhi. Amber fort has the biggest cannon on earth which they say was fired once and the bomb created water spring at a distance 30 km away from the cannon.

This was the last monument after which we headed straight for Delhi. We stopped at Reliance A1 Plaza, Dhaaba at reliance petrol pump. It was lunch time and we had good home like food and cutting tea. While we were having our lunch it rained again!!

From here we went non stop into the periphery of Delhi. In all it was an experience of lifetime. We have decided to take out time once a month for more such visits, so watch out this place for updates in future!!

Click here to see the snaps of the trip