We started early from Bodh Gaya, hired a cab, and set out towards Nalanda. The drive is about 90 kilometres and, for the most part, quite beautiful. Long stretches of highway slowly give way to villages, fields, gentle hills, and winding roads that feel unhurried—almost preparing you mentally for what lies ahead.
Continue reading “Nalanda – Walking Through the Ashes of Knowledge”
Bodh Gaya is best known as the place where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment, under the Bodhi Tree. At the heart of the town stands the Mahabodhi Temple, and within its premises, the revered Bodhi Tree. Even today, this remains the spiritual core of Bodh Gaya.
Continue reading “Bodh Gaya: Walking through Stillness”
This Goa leg wasn’t planned as a standalone trip.
We were in Karwar to attend a wedding. And once you’re that close to Goa, not going there almost feels like a crime. So instead of heading straight back after the wedding, we decided to extend the trip and spend a couple of days in Goa.
Continue reading “Agonda Beach (Goa) – Two Days of Quiet, Sand & Purple Sunsets”
This stay was part of the same year-end break.
After spending the 30th night at Chukki Mane, we checked out on the 31st and headed towards Yoga Dhaama.
There are some places that keep popping up again and again — in Google searches, and even when you ask ChatGPT for pet-friendly, eco-friendly places around Bangalore.
Chukki Mane was one such name.
Seeing the Beguiling architecture of Orchha online, I wanted to visit this place and savour it with my own eyes.
Orcha was around 170 kms from Khajuraho, but the road was mostly highway, so one could reach in around 2 and half hours. We took a cab from Khajuraho, reached Orcha around 12pm. We covered Ram Raja Mandir, Orcha Fort, and Chatris beside Betwa River. Though we wanted to spend more time there, our 5 year old became very cranky at the end, and we had to leave in a hurry.
Continue reading “Orcha – From Khajuraho”
We stayed in Khajuraho for around 5 days to experience the temples, the dance festival and places around Khajuraho like Panna.
Continue reading “Khajuraho Stay, Khajuraho Temples”
We had booked online tickets for the safari from https://forest.mponline.gov.in/Search.aspx?park=3
Panna is known for their tigers. However, as luck might have it, we saw none. We did not see much of any animals. Some deers that’s it.
Continue reading “Panna National Park”
A Indian Classical Dance festival with the backdrop of the Khajuraho Kandarya Mahadeva Temple – was a long wish-list. Not that I was a big fan of Indian Classical dance, but the whole concept seemed very appealing to me.
Continue reading “The 50th Khajuraho Dance Festival”
Madhya Pradesh government is doing an exemplary job in highlighting their culture and heritage. The tribal museum in Khajuraho was a visual treat. I took photos of every thing I encountered.
Continue reading “Khajuraho Tribal Museum – One of a kind experience”
We went to the museum on our last day in Khajuraho. We should have been there on our first.
The museum, other than having some awesome artefacts, also had explanations on the types of statues in the temples, types of temples, etc. Hence, if you start your Khajuraho trip from here, you won’t need a guide anymore.
Continue reading “Khajuraho Trip – Khajuraho archeological museum”
Khajuraho temples and the Dance Festival had been a wish-list item for both me and Moumita since long. One day when we were showing few Kathak videos to our daughter (who has started going to Kathak classes), kathak videos from Khajuraho dance festival came up. Moumita said, let’s go to the dance festival this year. It all started from there.
Continue reading “Khajuraho Trip Stop 1 – Gwalior: The jewel of Madhya Pradesh”
We stayed for a day in Bhopal, and we filled the day with visits to Sanchi and the Tribal Museum in Bhopal. Below are the details:
Continue reading “Bhopal, and Sanchi”
This cliffy beach looked so picturesque that it had long been in my wishlist. Varkala beach is around 700 kms from Bangalore. Just about crosses the threshhold of distance that you would want to drive and go. While looking for other options, I found a train, Kanyakumari express, which overnight takes you there. Perfect!
Continue reading “Varkala – The beach on the cliff”
We had visited Wayanad almost 5-6 years back. This time when I was searching for hotels in locations between 200- 300kms from Bangalore, Wayanad showed the most number of results after I put my usual filters – Per room price of max. 6k, Pet friendly, traveller rating of 8+. And hence Wayanad got chosen as our Summer getaway choice of May 2023!
Continue reading “Wayanad – Revisited”
Mysore is a perfect weekend trip from Bangalore. Now with the Bangalore-Mysore expressway, you can reach Mysore within just a couple of hours. Of course leaving Bangalore takes another hour. Basically, you can leave Bangalore early morning on a Saturday, spend a day in Mysore and come back by Sunday evening to Bangalore.
Continue reading “Mysore: Quick getaway from Bangalore”
Bishnupur, located at a distance of around 140kms from Kolkata is one of the best weekend getaways from Kolkata. Rich in History, with its Terracotta temples, the place is a vibrant showcase of culture and history.
Continue reading “Bishnupur: The land of Terracotta Temples”
We took train to Alleppey from Bangalore. In Alleppey we travelled around mostly using autos and local buses. Autos are in plenty so did not face much issue.
Continue reading “Alleppey Trip – 2022”
Sep end, 2022 – Goa trip with family and friends
We took train from Bangalore to Goa (Vasco). Went straight to Candolim beach Marquis Beach Resort. The stretch of beach in front of the resort was quite clean and had very sparse crowd. It felt almost like a private beach. However, it was not yet season in Goa. So crowd was anyways less.
Continue reading “Goa – Candolim”
Dooars is the foothills of Himalayas, stretching from West Bengal to Assam. Though essentially plain land, the area is quite beautiful because of presence of several forests, interspersed with several mountain rivers, mainly the Teesta river.
Continue reading “North Bengal Trip – Dooars”
This was my second trip to Pondicherry, and I loved it as much as the first time. And left me wanting to go back again…
We had taken a bus which dropped us near a stop called Indira Gandhi Statue. From there we took a couple of autos to our homestay. This homestay was just opposite Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
If you want to understand what Incredible India truly means, head to Aurangabad, in central Maharashtra, around 350km from Mumbai, the city around which you have the incredible Ajanta & Ellora caves.
130 kms drive to see a temple? Not worth it, I had said. I stood corrected and humbled by the magnificent architecture.
Haridwar is one of the holiest places for Hindu religion. Situated beside Holy Ganges river, thousands of Hindus visit this place for praying and taking a holy dip in Ganges.
Hampi, in North Karnataka, around 350kms from Bangalore, presents an awesome cocktail of rivers, hills, heritage and awesome food which is irresistible to a traveller.
GugaBaba... My Travellogues... 