Trip to Shillong- Meghalaya

So it all started towards the end of 2018, the 26th day of December. There had been not a single outing in the entire year and I did not definitely want to end the year the same way so had to plan out for something fruitful and glad that Shillong happened because I had never seen such a beautiful place before and what could be more blissful than to visit this place during the Christmas week when the entire city is decked up with Christmas lights.

Day 1 -We had afternoon flight from Delhi to Guhawti . We landed at 6.00 pm and had stayed back in Guhawti over the night since travelling to Shillong by road in night is not recommended.

Day 2- The real fun started in the afternoon en-route to Shillong and the beautiful scenery, landscape , sweet chill in the air made the 3 hrs drive worthy. The moment you enter Meghalaya, you would be surprised by the sudden transition of the plain land to mountainous terrain which are a treat to the eyes because of the thick vegetation, variety of flora and fauna. The air so pure, the environment so clean, as if an untouched beauty awaits to welcome you with open arms. We reached the the central market place of Shillong , also known as the Police bazaar at around 5 pm. It had started to get dark by now since the sun sets at 4.45 pm during the winters. The darkness of the night was illuminated by the Christmas lights and hustling streets. We checked into the hotel, freshened up and came out to explore the streets of Shillong.

Day 3-  The day started early at 8.30 am as we planned to cover Dawki river. What awaited us was a long drive for 98 km with a scenic view of beautiful green hills , grasslands, fresh air. I was awestruck by the beauty of the mainlands. I could just go on and on watching the picturesque scenery. We had heard that the river at Dawki is famous for its clear water that you can see the surface of the river bed. When we actually reach there, we were filled with awe, what was heard was actually true. It looked like a dream that a place like this could really exist.
                                           

Bangladesh border

next on the list was the living root bridge made up of the live roots of the trees followed by mawlinkong , the cleanest village in Asia. The path leads to a mysterious getaway (check the video) with the sounds of wild birds, insects. If it did not get dark so soon , I would have walked even deeper into the woods.

Pictures cannot do even half the justice to the beauty of this place. At one point you will find green mountains with betelnut ,pine, banana ,pineapple trees all on the same mountain and then suddenly the mountains transform to plain grasslands glistening with bright yellow light in the sun. Meghalaya is full of surprizes. The houses are like toy houses with home grown kitchen gardern. The vegetables are fresh from the natural farm. The local food is very plain and easy to tastebuds and stomach which displays the simplicity of the locales. This is one unexplored part of India and I feel it should remain this way ,far from the human intervention and commercial mindset.

When you have a foodie companion, all you need to do is to forget about your diet and workouts and embark on the journey filled with mouth watering gourmet and explore the Indian cuisine speciality.
That is what this blog is all about. welcome to the famous Karims nested in the busy,  narrow lanes of the old Delhi.
The beginning 

Both of us had this in our wish list to visit the Karims restaurant since a long time and this weekend being a lazy day at home, we decided to finally give it a try.  The roads were empty, blame it on the Diwali after effects which which turned out to be a blessing for us as we spent lesser time in the traffic and reached our destination in 40 minutes. But the real ordeal started here as Vicky tried to squeeze through the narrow streets of Chandni Chowk( I do not doubt his driving skills though) . It took 15 minutes to traverse a distance of 1 km, thanks to the rickshaws and other vehicles, which were like a close shave for navigation.
would not recommend anyone coming by personal vehicle to Delhi as you could get badly stuck.
Somehow managed to reach the unauthorized parking area which had another unpleasant experience waiting for us,  but nevertheless.

The lunch
We reached Karims around 1.30 PM but had to wait at the long queue for our turn.The legacy of the restaurant dates back to 1916 and till date it remains as a MUST visit place in Delhi. So we ordered for the most popular dishes from the Menu- mutton korma with roti,  tandoori chicken,  Mutton Biryani. .that was the first round and for the non satiated taste buds,  a second round was indispensable,  because you never know when the next time will come.  The must try dish here is mutton stew. It is surprising that the food is neither spicy nor oily but still tastes like a heavenly meal. Despite of eating so much,  we did not feel bloated at all.

                    Khameeri

mutton stew 👇

                        Korma



Kebabs

                   Karims entrance

Jama MAsjid

   

until we set out another food trip, bye. 

How difficult is it to live without some one who means so much to you. How would it feel when one day you realise that your most precious thing is no longer with you. Or for that matter of fact the person who you Love the most has to depart. What would you do..how would you move on..

Travelogue - Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu

So it all was a planned trip to Kodaikanal on 14 October 2017,  one month after the weekend getaway at Mandalapatti . We had it all sorted out, the time we will start from Bangalore and the time we reach there. I will keep this blog very short . So the good thing about Bangalore is that it is connected to the other Southern sisters - Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala ,it just takes an overnight drive to cross the border and enter any of these states, so if you are in Bangalore, do not miss the chance to visit the hill stations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala . More will be covered in my next blogs as and when I cover other scenic spots down South.

Kodai falls

The distance between Bangalore and Kodaikanal is approximately 460 kms and it took us around 8- 9 hrs to reach . To be precise, we started from Bangalore at around 7.30 pm and reached Kodiakanal at 3 AM early morning. Kodaikanal had a freezing temperature as it was in Ooty ( the trip that I covered last year) . An interesting fact is that Kodaikanal, Cunnoor, Ooty are all adjoining hill stations (so as I believe) and can be covered as a part of one trip . The temperature would have been between 15 degrees at the time we arrived the hill station. We took the Hosur route via Nice road and covered Kumaragiri enroute. There were many hairpin turnings as we climbed the heights , I would say one hairpin every 15 seconds, but the roads are good so it was not much of a struggle to drive and ofcourse our friends who drove are proficient to drive on hills.

Day 1 - Since we are all working on weekdays , so Saturday and Sundays are the only days which get to explore the places that we could set our foot on. After early morning breakfast, we headed towards the pine forests and Kodai lake , but not before we took few clicks in the woods .👉

 Beware of the leeches here, so advisable to wear full covering socks. After some quick snacking on the boiled chick peas and groundnuts and corn , we moved forward to enjoy the cycle ride near the Botanical garden. The riders can choose to opt for double cycles as well and go for a round around the lake. The cycling part was real exciting and adventurous, followed by suicide point which was only a view from the top. Not really recommended . It had started to rain heavily, so we halted a place known as Pillar rocks . Also covered , the Guna caves which is actually not a cave but you can find the long thick roots of the Trees that differentiates this place from others. Day 1 comes to an end. 

Pillar rocks

Guna Caves

Day 2- We intended to cover all the waterfalls in Kodai today. The first one on the list was Bear shola falls. A good place to get some random clicks. Not a very big waterfall but is peaceful and not crowded. After covering Shola falls, we moved towards the Kodai falls. These are massive falls and you can actually climb and stand on the rocks in the midst of falling water. 

The last but not the least, the fairy falls,which is my favorite because the falls look like delicate long white veil of a bride, gently flowing down with soothing sound and of course hardly any people around. (I personally like quite places that help me connect the nature). 

shola falls

Nothing beats this- Tea stall 

Fairy falls

So was the end to another episode of - "My adventures and explorations" .
My overall rating- 3.5 /5 .

We missed the Silent valley. So ensure that you take the permission of the forest department before hand so that you can gain an entry to this wild life conservation area. For those who have time can actually include Rameswaram and Kanyakumari , which is further 5-6 hrs drive from Kodai.

Watch out for more in this blog for the next trip 💛

Random Thoughts: Trip to Mandalapatti and Mallali falls

Random Thoughts: Trip to Mandalapatti and Mallali falls: A long awaited weekend trip with friends finally materialized on 19th August 2017, as we embarked on our long drive to Mandalapatti and Mal...

She wished for romance, sentimental love, flowers and smiles, candle light and wines
but it was not meant to be,
The quest never ends..
The thirst remains unquenched..
like the arid desert yearning for some rain..

Trip to Mandalapatti and Mallali falls

A long awaited weekend trip with friends finally materialized on 19th August 2017, as we embarked on our long drive to Mandalapatti and Mallalli falls in the Coorg valley. We started off from Bangalore at 2 pm on Saturday noon. The approximately 6 hours drive was filled with jokes, laughter and songs from the latest bollywood movies comprising of both party / slow romantic numbers.

My partners in the adventure trip were - Asha, Megha, Bindu and Shreehari with their cute little kid Ganavi. I bet I learnt a few Kannada words after my futile attempt of conversing with "Ganu" as I call her.

We stopped over in between at Channapatna famous for the traditional wooden toys, purchased a few wooden stuff followed by lunch at around 3.30 pm before continuing with rest of the journey.

We reached Coorg at around 7 pm in the evening. On the way we stopped at a lake for the boat ride.

Coorg welcomed us with light drizzle, misty weather and chilling temperature of 16 degrees. We spent the night at a homestay . Our next morning began at 7 am. It was still raining, misty and the mountains looked washed with the fresh green paint.

The real adventure began on the 2nd day. Since I love low temperature, drizzle, fog, clouds, Coorg presented us with the ideal climate that made me fall in love with the nature. We got ready and started for the Mandalapatti peak in Madikeri. We could not have asked for a better day for a trekking atop the hill. Since the path was rocky , we had to hire a jeep to reach Mandalapatti. Many prefer bikes over jeep. It was a short trek to reach to the hill top. The view from the hill top was breathtaking. The visibilty was less than 30 meters and we could hear the sound of the breeze howling in our ears . Here is a short video that was taken to capture the very moment ( make sure that your browser supports the videoplay , the sound should not be missed ).

The feeling at the top was an out of the world experience, overpowering breeze sweeping us against our grip , the nature at its best which can not be imitated by humans. We were completely drenched by the clouds that shed into tiny droplets of rain . I loved the feeling of chillness in the air.

After spending 15-20 min at the hill top , we made our way back to the ground . Hunger pangs were satisfied with hot maggi and omellete bread, visibility still low. We checked out of the home stay and headed towards Mallalli falls, which was further 2 hrs drive from Coorg.

What awaited us was even more magnificent, massive and inexpressible. The first look at the falls and we were awe-struck . Mallalli falls are massive, although the falls were quite distant , the roaring of the water gushing down, could reach us as if telling-this is the sound of what God creates .

I loved visiting these two places as much as I would have loved visiting any hillstation in the North.

Suggestions : Try and visit these places during rainy season . The rains will add to the beauty.

Keep watching for this blog 👆for the next adventure !! 💖💖