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Tag: travelogue

  • The Day of Plans and Decisions

    The plan was to wake up early and leave for Pachmadi… But then sleep being one of the best things to rest with, we were just not ready to get up… finally managed to leave the beds around 1100 hrs…

    Oh.. but I think before I start the story, I need to remind you of what we were doing so far…

    Read HERE, for our trip from Delhi to Kanha…

    and HERE for Kanha to Piparia…

    Ok, now back to the morning in Piparia…

    A Hair Dresser/Salon Board in Piparia 🙂

    The foot was better now, thankfully yesterday night’s sprain was not there… there was not much thinking to do today… it was just getting up and moving to Pachmadi, which was to be our bunker for the next two days with us intending to walk around the place and explore as much as we can…

    The station was not too far, and the buses/jeeps for Pachmadi were on the other side of the station… so we walked up the over-bridge and crossed to see many jeeps, one of which was to take us to our destination…

    One of the platforms at the Piparia Station

    We hired one, and had to now wait for more passengers to join the jeep before we could move…

    Meanwhile, the taxi guy suggested having some food at a nearby restaurant called Naivedya… We ordered a parantha and chole poori there, and manh were they tasty or what !!!

    I think we then ate atleast 7 plates of chole poori… paid the bill to Mr Hansmukh Jaiswal who runs and co-owns the place…

    7 Up Bottles in Naivedya

    The taxi was not still full.. rather we were the only two passengers yet… what followed was a wait of about 1.5 hours before we finally moved…

    The Wall of a Deserted Building with an Adult Movie poster near the Taxi Stand in Piparia

    People come people went… people stayed people waited and came and went in those 90 minutes… basically I don’t remember getting bored at all…

    Like I said, People were coming and going…

    And Some enjoying their smoke…

    The Tempo Gama finally moved… and about 54 kms and and another 90 minutes later we were in Pachmadi… It was interesting to see Deepak, the helper of the taxi, to use the tyre at the back of the car as his seat for these 54 kms… Infact thats where the helpers sit… there is no space for them in the taxi after a total of 14+1 passengers sit in that 8 seater vehicle…

    The Tempo Gama…

    Someone at our pitstop between Piparia and Pachmadi

    Its more or less a jungle Area between these two places… Can imagine how beautiful this would look in rains…

    The Developing Country… I see it… Do you?

    Spend about an hour roaming around with the taxi wallah to find a decent hotel for ourselves, but did not really find anything interesting… so we moved up hill to see if there was something away from the town… though the taxi guy strongly opposed the idea, we still wanted to check a few places out, which we did and after a while, we asked him to drop us and leave…

    A flower in one of the hotels in Pachmadi

    I guess me and Aro were not comfortable with the way he was trying to guide our thought process of taking up a room etc… so there we were.. about 3 kms from the main town, and looking for a place for ourselves… checked two hotels and on our way to the third, we stopped to take some rest… i was sitting on the road and i suddenly turned towards Aro and said, lets go back… I don’t like this place !!!! And Aro almost freaked out !!! he told me he would have said it in a minute, if I had not…

    And the only other photo from Pachmadi 🙂

    so a quick decision later we were laughing and moving back to the taxi stand making the next best plan… where to go now… Indore, Ujjain or Bhopal? or maybe back to Jabalpur and stay put there…

    Walked a while, took a lift from a gypsy fellow and reached the Taxi Stand… Some people recognised us from the taxi stand in Piparia, and wondered why the hell were we going back… did not have a convincing answer for them anyway 🙂 However we got talking to a few local there and made a new plan !!! the first leg of which was to reach Piparia and then take a bus to Bhopal !!!

    The drive back to Piparia was not the best of all, as there were six people in the last two seats facing each other in that Mahindra, and I almost suffocated myself to death… thanks to two people who stopped the car to puke, I was able to stand outside for a couple of minutes each !!! We finally managed Piparia and rushed to the bus stand only to realize that the last bus to Bhopal leaves at 1730 hrs, and it was already 1800 hrs…the alternative was to take a bus to Hoshangabad and then to Bhopal from there… I was not feeling too well because of the taxi ride back from Pachmadi, and Aro was kind enough to get me some limca while I got the bags loaded and found a decent seat for us !!!

    One of temples somewhere on our way to Hoshangabad…

    About 2.5 hours and loads of amazing small conversations later we were in Hoshangabad… Could have taken a bus to Bhopal right away, but decided to take a break, eat something and then go from there… There were regular buses to Bhopal till midnight anyway !!!

    So we walked out of the bus stand, roamed around a bit and saw one of the most interesting boards in a long long time !!! Ghamandi Lassi !!! this was interesting and called for a drink or two !!! So we were there after a quick steps and feasted on the lovely Lassi!!! nothing special about the brand name here, except that this was a name that was given to the Lassi some 30 odd years ago to attract customers…

    Ghamandi Lassi…

    Times had changed, and the brothers who set up the juice and lassi shop had split, but the name Ghamandi Lassi remained… The highlight of this pit stop was the Badam Milk though, something that was to be eaten and not fit for drinking… never had badam milk so full of Badam in my life !!! Calls for a celebration, and we did celebrate with 2 glasses each of the Lassi and Badam Milk each !!!!

    Don’t treat your visitors with this, else they might just stay back…

    This is where we met a few locals who suggested that we could stay back in Hoshangabad itself instead of going to Bhopal… visit a local temple there in the morning and then move to Bhopal… get down at Bhojpur to see the Shivling and then proceed to Bhopal… They even recommended a nice hotel nearby called the Vatika to eat and stay… this looked like a decent plan, and we decided to stay back !!!

    Walked to the hotel to realize that it was full ( yes… surprising) and because we were in no mood to look for hotels there, we came back to our original plan of going to Bhopal !!! Took a bus from the bus stand, and we were in Bhopal around 2330 hrs…. checked into a hotel near the railway station… moved out to have some food… Ate, came back and crash landed on the bed…

    No plans next nothing !!! knew a few places that we wanted to go to !!! but still no plans…

    Lets see what happens next morning !!! Looks like its more fun this way 🙂

    __________
    Some Information now..

    Taxi Fare : 40 bucks per person if you are ok with a total of 15 people in the taxi… if you want more space, be ready to shell out some extra money… We paid 200 bucks on our way to Pachmadi for the two of us as we practically took 4 seats ( Fat guys we are) and 40 bucks were the “you are new to this place” charge… The taxi has to earn Rs. 600 per trip, and that gets divided…

    Hotel Tariff in Piparia in Alka Lodge : Rs. 400 for an AC room… no electricity backup though…

    Hotel Tariff in Pachmadi : Anything between Rs. 350 to Rs. 2000. Try and not roam around with Taxi walas to save 50-200 bucks on your tariff… The high end hotels are outside the town, further uphill…

    Roaming around in Pachmadi : The only option is Taxis, which can be hired exclusively for about 1000 bucks a day or shared with someone… There are tickets to enter the common interest points as well, and be prepared to see a lot of honeymooners around the area…

    Piparia to Hoshangabad bus fare : Rs. 50 per head; Travel time around 2 hours…

    Hoshangabad to Bhopal bus fare : Rs. 40 per head; Travel time around 2 hours…

  • The Jungle Kilometres and back to Jabalpur….

    Me and Aro talk a li’il too much when there is no walking around to do… and that means that we sleep late… and we did… Even after more than 24 hours of non stop journey, we still had some time and energy left to argue, get into some last minute fights, plan for the next trip, the next day, and then slept away to glory around midnight….

    We had filled in the forms the previous night to enter the park so did not have much to do in the morning except wake up on time, have a quick cup of tea, and rush to the gypsy which was ready to rock and roll… Manoj was our driver, and he looked like a pretty quiet fella, and he turned out to be one lost character too… too bad, but never mind…

    Good Morning Kanha 🙂

    So we were at the Kisli Gate around 0600 hrs, the main gate had already opened, and we were let in quickly… 3 kms later was the main gate of the park, which is where a route and an essential guide is assigned to the gypsy…. Our park guide for the day was Dinesh Kumar Soni… a young but enthusiastic fella… was ok with admitting that he was in the second layer of the guides, but this enthu and nature made up more than enough for some lack of knowledge… not that we were taking notes anyway…

    The road leading inside the Kanha National Park through the Kisli Gate…

    Kanha is full of Saal Trees… and here is a small point of view about Saal..

    Sau Saal Khada
    Sau Saal Pada
    Sau Saal Sada

    Saal Tree

    Stands for 100 yrs, lies does for another 100 and takes 100 more to decay…

    This is the same tree, wood from which was used to make a base for the railway lines sometime back, which is now replaced by concrete and iron…

    Dinesh Kumar Soni, our guide on day 1

    Manoj Kumar, our Driver…


    So we moved around the park on the route number 10 looking at animals, trees, dust, listening to many birds stopping and moving and stopping and moving…

    Barahsingha and the Spotted Deer…

    Sambhar

    A Spotted deer shooing a Peacock away… A chase of its own kind… was pretty interesting…


    The Indian Gaur (Bison)

    In the center of the park (The Kanha Side) we took a break, had breakfast and also registered for the Tiger Show… At a fee of 100 rs. per head you are taken to a spot where tiger is seen, and then you climb the elephant back and go into the bushes to have a face to face with the jungle CAT….

    Shooting with straight steady hands…

    And with Steady Legs too…


    Gypsys parked inside the Park; This is where we registered for the Tiger Show… The wait at times can be a couple of hours long…

    We did too… and when I saw the tiger, I was hoping that he does not look at me, because I could sense the attitude in his eyes and I was having mixed feelings of excitement, fear, nervousness etc etc… but it was really sad to see how the Elephants were made to chase the tiger to make sure people who have paid get to see the tiger… and this poor animal only kept running around to avoid the crowd.. but then how can we step back… we are known to bully when the other person is backing off… so all the gypsy drivers, the 4 mahauts were after this poor guys life… I only wonder what would happen if the TIGER decides to charge… on second thoughts, this tiger show is generating a lot of revenue for the park which I feel is essential, and is also helping the park give employment to loads of local people around…. I feel a balance is what needs to be made though, these wild cats needs their space and independence and should not be bothered like I saw… it hurts…

    Does this one need a caption?

    People waiting for the tiger to show up… This is near the tiger show spot…

    Our Safari finished by 1200 hrs, and we were back in the resort by 1230 hrs… all covered in dust, the first thing I noticed when I entered the resort was the swimming pool… and I knew what I was going to do next… so a rushed walk to the room, and a even more rushed walk to the pool… and 45 minutes of fun… Even managed to have the hippo who walks like an elephant to take a bath in the pool… And Aro loved it too 😀

    Much needed Sprite after the Safari…

    And Tea…

    Had some real good lunch and slept but not before we planned to get up around 1600 hrs to take a hike into the jungle to a few nearby villages… but we managed to wake up only by 1530 hrs and obviously the plans to walk around were to be canceled…

    Some wild flowers inside the Jungle

    At tea, we met Mr. Pramod Singh who manages Foreign traffic to Kanha and is a active member of loads of wildlife clubs and has been an avid trekker himself… He also suggested that he could join us for the safari next morning, which did sound like a good idea…

    We had tea and got talking to a few people around the resort, one of which was a driver called Dilip, the elder brother of Manoj… Dilip had been around for a while, and that small 30 minute conversation with him was full of many interesting stories about the tigers and other wild cats making rounds of places… it was a very very interesting half hour of the trip… and then he suddenly decided to give us a night safari, and we left the resort around 1900 hrs… and kept driving around till 2130 hrs in the dark… did not see many animals but the sky was obviously wonderful, and the dark interesting…

    Were finally back and decided to eat quickly and call it a day, to wake up early and be the first in the queue. Told Mr. Singh that we would be ready by 0515 hrs…

    So next morning we indeed were ready by 0515 hrs, and left only to realized that we were a li’il too early for the gates to open… We still were the 3rd gypsy in the queue, filled the forms and managed to reach the main Kisli gate around 0545 hrs… I think the route number today was 14… Manoj was at his lost best, and the guide even though knew a lot, was put off by a few remarks made by Mr. Pramod when we started the safari…

    Mr. Pramod Singh… a very knowledgeable man and a avid trekker…

    Highlights of the day were Bisons, some spotted deer, the barking deer, and some foreigners with loads of 1Ds and L Series lenses… I think that group of 4 had 2 EOS 1D each loaded with L series lenses of different focal lengths… phew !!!

    Tall Saal Trees around the jungle…

    Barking Dear oops… Deer 😛

    Langoors eating Soil… Don’t ask me why… I did, and I was told they like it… Yes, it was Soil and not insects in it…

    The second day, Aro and me agreed was more or less of a waste in the jungle… and I guess to compensate we ate like wild animals at lunch… whoever said that eat light when you are traveling may please go to HELL 😀

    The Mahauts in the Jungle… you can see a bag with a Walky Talky used to communicate the location of the Tiger for the Tiger Show

    so a stomach full as full is, and a body not ready to move, we checked out of the Mogli Resorts and rushed to catch the 1330 hrs bus, but only to realize that it had already left… and the next bus was about an hour later…

    This bus ride was also very interesting as expected…

    A Baby Parrot called Mitthu by everyone who saw him in the bus…

    Mitthu eating some Chana out of the hands of his caretaker in the bus… he would happily sleep when the bus was moving, and make loads of noise when it stopped… Cute Kiddie he was…

    We changed the bus at Mandla again, which reach Jabalpur around 2000 hrs with one pitstop at Narainkunj…

    A quick pitstop before Mandla… interesting air blown Angithi at a Tea Shop there…

    Mandla : Local Cinema Poster Man…

    Pitstop @ Narainkunj (About 40 kms from Mandla)

    So here we were in Jabalpur, with an open plan… we could stay back in Jabalpur and go to Duandhar the next morning and then move to Piparia and to Pachmadi (where we planned to stay for the next two days) or we could go to Piparia straightaway and go to Pachmadi the next morning… we knew that Piparia was about 4 hours away by train and decided to take the Overnight express (Jabalpur to Bhopal; leaves Jabalpur @ 2300 hrs and reaches Bhopal at 0615 hrs)…

    We check the availability and then moved to the booking clerk (with the train number this time) who suggested that we could take the ticket from the counter at the station itself in about an hours time… This is when Aro realized that he had dropped his mobile and we rushed to the bus stand only to search the bus without any success… not too good an incident, but we could not really do much about it… so we let it be…

    Came back to the station, took the tickets for the overnight, and then asked one of the guys at the counter about a decent place to have dinner and he was kind enough to walk us to the restaurant… We had our food without much talking as we were pretty tired and were only waiting for the clock to strike 11…

    We finally boarded the train, and found out that the train leaves Piparia at 0230 hrs which was definitely not a convenient time to reach any new station… but the thought of doing something of that sort was exciting enough for us to change our minds anyway… and so we slept… only to be woken up by the kind hearted TC at 0130 hrs ( so about an hour and half of sleep) because the train had already reached Piparia…

    We quickly walked out of the coach thinking that the stoppage was quick there, but looks like the train reached there well before time and was only waiting to leave at its scheduled time… so we sat on the platform bench, thinking if we should sleep on the platform itself ( which honestly did NOT seem to be a bad idea) or walk around and find a hotel… after a lousy cup of tea, some odomos rubbing on the arms to avoid the killer mosquitoes, and some serious thinking later we decided to walk around the town to find a hotel for ourselves 🙂

    Chai Ki Dukaan @ Piparia Station

    It did turn out to be a very good idea because it did not take us much hardships to find a decent, rather more than decent Alka Hotel with an AC room for 400 bucks a night… its a different story that i twisted my ankle bad enough to almost scream in pain in the middle of a desert lane in a town which was sleeping silently at that hour 🙂

    Piparia Station from the Overbridge; You can also see the Overnight Express in the left

    So here we were… Piparia, Hotel Alka, Room number 203, AC on.. and a TV and we talking again.. God when would these conversations finish… I don’t know when I slept and when Aro did, or who slept first… all I remember is waking up the next morning, all fresh and happy happy…

    ……………………………………………………

    Now some travel information

    Safari Costs:
    900 per gypsy (Morning Safari; 0600 hrs to 1200 hrs)
    700 per gypsy( Evening Safari; 1600 hrs to Sunset about 2 hours usually)
    Entry per gypsy : Rs. 650 (500 entry charges + 150 guide fees)
    Gates open 0600 hrs in the morning
    Approximate per night expenditure in Kanha : Rs. 1200 per head to 1800 per head depending on the place you are staying in…
    Kanha to Mandla : Rs. 36
    Mandle to Jabalpur : Rs. 50
    Jabalpur to Piparia ( 3rd AC ) : Rs. 300 something…

    To Do:
    Carry water
    Carry Dust Brush
    Cover Your Camera to save it from the dust when you are not using it
    Enjoy the jungle and the sounds ( They are more then enough to make you fall in love with the place)
    Ask questions (thats what the guide is there for)

    Do Nots
    Avoid Changing lenses ( Carry two cameras instead)
    Avoid throwing stuff on the road or walking on the road except the designated areas
    And blah and blah and blah…

    ……………………………………………..

    What happens the day we wake up in Piparia is pretty interesting… and I am happy it happened the way it happened… so watch this page for more…

    Till then… ROAR !!!!

  • 3000 kms of India : Finally it started

    A few trips are exciting even before they start, and more often then not thats how it happens with me…

    A plan to trek, getting converted into living a few days in towns with people to everything getting canceled, my travel plans changing to go to Mumbai/Goa, to the original plan coming to life again suddenly to tatkal booking of the exit tickets from Delhi… it all happened for the last one week, which I spent away from everything and close to myself and yes Aro was around too…

    He happens to me one of my best co travelers… for reasons which are strange… We usually argue a lot when we talk, and most of the time we are not talking as we have different agendas when we travel together ( can’t really say what though)… his walk pace is very different then me and that helps with some space too… the bottom line is he is one of the best people to travel with and I can find 100 best most stupid reasons as well to prove that point…

    So back to the trip…

    We finally decided that we were going to Kanha from Delhi and thats all we knew… rest was going to Fluid… I got the tickets on Friday, and made the bookings the same day in Mogli Resorts, Kanha on Friday….

    Saturday… in the afternoon, my dear friend Aro calls me and tells me that he and Sanjit were lost in Delhi and did not know how to reach NOIDA… it was just about 90 minutes before our train was to leave… fantastic… the excitement starts a li’il earlier than expected…

    and India saw the introduction of a new GPS device that day… Prashant Bhardwaj… I was with him on the phone for about 35 odd minutes guiding the ways and turns before they finally managed to reach NOIDA…

    A quick lunch and 20 minutes to the departure, we rushed… thanks to the DND we were at the platform number 4, to catch the Gondwana Express well in time…

    now this was one long train, 20 coaches to be exact. The reason, the train splits into 2 somewhere in MP and half of it goes to Bilaspur and the rest to Jabalpur…

    Our seats 1, and 2 were in the Coach B1 which was I think third to the last coach on the looooooong train which we managed to reach after walking for a mile I guess… but we did 🙂

    The Coach B1 of Gondwana Express to Jabalpur

    Being in a train coach is a great feeling.. specially the ones in which you can sleep 🙂 After spending sometime, I was dying to be in the train in India.. and here I was… lovely… put our bags in place… and settled…

    The train moved at the right time, and we were off… yippieeeeeeeee….

    Halt just before Mathura Junction…

    Travelling in a train is no fun if you cannot stand at the door watching the world being left behind 🙂 so after about 30 minutes I was out talking to our coach attendents Vinod and Vinod and sitting on the wooden plank which was there for the attendants next to the doors…

    Vinod and Vinod…The coach attendants of B1 (there were 6 attendants who were Vinod on this train)

    I think I must have spent a good 3 hours in all on that plank in the evening, and then again in the night just staring into space and not doing anything else…

    My favorite seat in the entire coach 🙂

    Even managed some sleep on it the next morning with the early morning sunrays kissing my face, and the colder than cool breeze reminding me of the presence of the cold weather…

    The naughty friend we made, Raghav and his father enjoying the morning sun from their seats…

    As expected, conversations started and did not stop during our entire journey to Jabalpur… we got a number of tips from our co passengers on what do and when… we even tried making some amendments to our plan, but managed to stick to the original which was to go to Kanha straight after getting off the train…

    Oh and if you are traveling on that route, then instead of eating the food in the train, you can order food from Comesum @ Agra Cantt… the numbers are : 0562-3296410/11.. just call them about 30 odd minutes before you are reaching and tell them your train name, coach and seat numbers. The food would be delivered at your seat… Also make sure that you ask for the bill amount and arrange for exact change to pay because more often than not the person who comes with your packet would not come with any change, or less than what you should get back so that he can make some money…

    I woke up at 0530 hrs to realize that the train was not moving… We were at the Katni Station (The place to get down it you are going to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, which is about 40 kms away) Had some tea and an interesting conversation with the Tea wallah there… He was a PGDCA, however did not have steady job and decided to sell tea at the station instead of sitting idle at home… he also mentioned that the rest of the boys at the station were graduates with no jobs… not a happy situation, but what helps is that fact that they decided to work hard for a living instead of not doing anything else… Another interesting comment that he made was that put an idiot on the railway station for 3 months and he would transform into an Insaan ( read Smart Ass) in that time… giving his own example he said that he did not have a clue on how to survive there about 2 months back, but had matured and knew people by the sheer looks, and body language much better now…

    We reached Jabalpur around 0800 hrs Saturday.. and our agenda was now to get a ticket for our return journey (Bhopal to Delhi)… Aro filled the form and stood in the line and was thrown out of it after 35 minutes because the lady refused to give him a ticket… well because we did not know the train numbers that will go from Bhopal to Delhi, and we were supposed to know it before we ask her for a ticket… I am wondering if there are 10 trains, do I need to fill in 10 forms and then try or once she tells us that there is no space, we find a different train number and stand in the line again.. Anyway, we decided that we go the safe IRCTC way and took a rickshaw to Russel Chawk to find an internet cafe…

    A Mazaar near the Empire Cinema.. the name was interesting…

    Fresh Dosas being made for us 🙂 at Russel Chawk…

    Decided to eat first, and had some nice Idli Dosa at a roadside thela before we found an internet cafe and booked our tickets from Bhopal to Delhi for the next Saturday…

    Now the next stop was the City Bus Stop and we were to find a bus to Mandla, and then take a bus to Kanha from there…

    Mandla Bus Stand

    The distance we were to travel was about 156 kms with one change of bus… the bus left @ 1030 hrs and reached Mandla ( about 96 kms) at 1330 hrs, which is where we realized that the bus to Kanha was the bus which was coming from Jabalpur only… But this was a welcome break after sitting in the bus for about 3 hours already… so some tea, cold drinks, tea later the bus to Kanha arrived… A smaller but more comfortable bus, and was to move to Kanha at 1400 hrs… I got talking to the conductor and realised that we were still a good 2.5 hours away from Kanha… He was also kind enough to force me to eat a parantha from his lunch, and it was the yummiest thing I had eaten in the last 18 hours…

    The bus moved and thanks to a seat at the back, I was able to observe much more than our previous bus in which I was sitting on the first seat… What follows are some pictures from my seat in the bus… People standing, People sitting, people looking for a seat, and people just looking, relaxing or listening to radio… loved every bit of it…

    On one of our pit stops in Mocha ( not pronounced Moka, but Mocha like in Locha) I had tea with sugar and Salt… needless to say it tasted pretty different and nice… I am looking forward to having that again sometime… one of the reasons why Tiwariji liked to drink the sweet-salted tea is because it helped clean the throat after inhaling a lot of smoke and dust over the day on that route…

    I was both surprised and happy at the condition of the roads in MP so far, and also was glad to see a lot of boards, signs, hoardings demonstrating a lot of work happening on the ground level in the state related to employment, child education, girl education and insurance, personal sanitation (something similar to the project I clicked in Chattisgarh)…

    Many pictures, conversations, and long/short stops later, the bus managed by Mr. Srikant Tiwari reached Kanha where a gypsy from our resort picked us up…

    Tiwari ji on the right…

    Approximately 27 hours later, we were finally in a room.. a huge one and in the middle of almost nowhere… Mogli Resort is in the buffer area of Kanha and for all practical purpose, is a part of the forest itself… so I have to mention that walking around in the dark was pretty scary with all those freaky sounds… Aro somehow was enjoying my fear and was laughing his ass out for nothing !!!

    We were to leave for the safari at 0530 hrs in the morning and we finally called it a day @ 2200 hrs… pretty long and satisfying journey this was…

    The path in the Mogli Resort Lit with Bulb Lanterns in the night

    Now some objective information…
    How to Reach Kanha:
    Take a train to Jabalpur and then a bus/taxi from there to Kanha… Delhi Kanha in a train would take about 17-18 hours and a 3rd Tier AC ticket would cost about Rs. 900.
    Jabalpur station to City Bus Stand:
    Can take a Metro Bus Service ( Rs. 5 per head)
    Shared Auto ( Rs. 5 per head again)
    Cycle Rickshaw ( Rs. 15) Auto (Rs. 20)
    Jabalpur to Mandla:
    Rs. 50 per head
    Distance : 96 kms
    Time : 3 hours approx
    Mandla to Kanha:
    Rs. 38 per head
    Distance : 60 kms
    Time : 3 hours approx

    There are just about 4 buses that run between Mandla and Kanha which makes the travel time higher because they move slow and pick up as many passengers as they can…

    Another alternative is to take the fast bus from Jabalpur @ 0700 hrs which reaches Kanha @ 1330 hrs.

  • The Best Christmas EVER !!!

    I wanted to go to Rome… see a bit of Italy… bit I guess I was too lazy plus it was Christmas and I was told that getting around on the 25th would be an issue… nothing would be open, nothing would be moving so it might not be a good idea to be outside… Plus the costs of traveling around this time were kinda high so I dropped the idea… and waited for something to happen…

    The Plan B was take the road to Paris… Neha is there… she could have helped plan it, and the move on to Brussels, where Ravi is… and come back… but again… Visa required me to go to London and get the visa… did not have the time to do that… plus for some reason, Paris did not really sound like the most exciting thing I could do… had reasons… anyway…

    So Abhishek calls one day and says that he has the week of Christmas off, and what could we do? I said… lets go to Glasgow or did he say that? Don’t remember exactly, but the plan was made and he took care of the coach bookings from London to Glasgow and back… We were not sure of where we could stay rather would stay, because staying with James’ (Abhishek’s boss) parents was an option, but we were not sure… about a week before we were to travel.. he talked to James and we knew that we were staying at his parents’ place on the 24th…

    So the plan was now… Reach Glasgow on the 24th morning… rent a car, roam around… see places… stay over in Balloch with James’s parents and move up north on 25th morning to come back to Glasgow by 26th evening and take the coach back to London that night… perrfect… it took some effort to find a place to stay on the 25th night, but I managed to find a decent place called the Hotel Ballachulish near Fort William towards the west coast of Scotland…

    The Saturday before I was leaving I asked Soumitro if he wanted to join too, he and his wife were keen on joining and got their bookings done too, and were to join us in Glasgow on the 25th morning…

    Reaching Glasgow was ok… we took the Megabus, which is really mega… a double decker bus packed to capacity… I think there were many people going to Glasgow and thats why there were two double deckers going to Glasgow that night…

    Slept most of the my way through.. woke up in Glasgow around 0730 hrs… finding a bus to the airport was a no brainer, bus number 500 from the Buchanan Bus stand will take you to the Glasgow airport in about 20 minutes and its a 10 minute service… so we reach the airport, collect the papers of the car from the airport, freshen up and take the car 🙂 this is where the NICE part starts… it was a nice navy blue VolksWagon Polo… I think a 1600 cc some 100 odd bhp car which it felt like by the sound of it, and I just got too happy when I heard the music system.. it was bloody goooood… I knew it would have a CD player and had cut a cd for the trip like always, and it turned out to be the best thing…

    James had given us his SATNAV, which made driving around very very very easy… so I knew in how many yards I had to take a turn and Julie, or Chammo like we called her kept speaking all the time about which roundabout, which exit, when is the left turn, when is the right etc etc all the time… It was a li’il strange to start with, but I got used to her speaking alright in a while…

    Reached Mr. and Mrs. Campbell’s house in about 30 minutes only to meet two of the most loving and charming people I have met in the UK so far rather why only UK, in a very long time… I guess parents are always nice and warm EVERYWHERE in the world…

    It was nice house, with a breathtaking view in the front..

    The lights far away are from Glasgow… this is the view from the front of the house 🙂

    The Garam Masala finds its way to a Scottish Kitchen… nice 🙂

    We had breakfast and then after a while we left to explore the area on our own… Abhishek had been to Lomond Shores, and thats where we went too… walking around the area and kept clicking… Sun Uncle seemed to be having a good mood and came out of hiding too for a couple of hours before it got dark around 1500 hrs or so…

    A lovely couple at Lomond Shores.. very gentle very kind 🙂

    That ship is the largest paddle boat in the UK, now used as a restaurant…Lomond Shores

    Flying around Lomond Shores 🙂

    Abhishek, the guy to make most of our trip happen… Thanks Bro 🙂

    There is no fun growing up, if I cannot be a kid at times…

    and I cannot make my friends act like kids too 🙂

    Pictures, walking and talking, and we were back home by 1630 odd hours after a small drive up into the country on roads away from the main roads… it was nice… worth every second we spent… and having the car seemed like the best thing we did on this trip…

    The evening greeting through my rear view mirror… a shot thats a must on every drive that I go on 🙂

    The evening was spent at home, talking to them, hearing them tell stories, and more talking followed by some dinner and more talking… Finally call it a day around 2300 hrs… Oh and I had asked them to get us Santa Caps… they could not find them in the market but got us some very very nice Christmas Hats instead 🙂

    Pictures at home 🙂 My Best Christmas Eve… It was nice to really be with a family on the most important day of the year… something I will not forget ever…


    Also had some white wine, and could not help but remember the new year’s eve at Deepak’s place in Chennai two years ago when I just took a sip from the glass and could not take another… this Christmas eve, however I had to finish that glass of wine… Did not want to do anything that would look rude… Afterall they had been so very nice to me and Abhishek… so managed it somehow 🙂

    This decorative piece is over 30 years old… and stills finds a place on the Christmas tree every year, like many old pieces 🙂 lovely…

    Soumitro called me @ 0630 hrs in the morning the next day and told me that he had reached Glasgow and there was NOTHING open.. no buses, no shops… this was expected, however I was hoping that the bus service to the airport would be on…nope it was not.. so as planned I was to pick them up and then drive up north… Got up, got ready… had some amazing breakfast and rushed to the airport to pick them up.. they had managed to take a taxi and reach the airport…

    Picked them up from a near empty airport.. could not believe that International Airports could look like that.. I did not see more than 30 people at the entire airport that morning.. including the four of us…

    And our drive to Fort William started… I decided to go via OBAN to Fort William instead of the direct way and enjoy the drive… so we kept stopping where we felt like and parking was allowed and kept breathing in the place…

    I see this in the night, and I might not just sleep… It was spooky enough to be around something like that in the middle of nowhere 🙂

    I could not have asked for more… A lovely car to drive, just the right kind of music with amazing quality, wonderful roads and breathtaking views… Just how I like it… this is what takes me away from everything and I reach my Solace.. the state which I love and a lot of other things stop mattering or bothering me…

    This is a Pier at Loch Lomond… a place called Luss…

    Below is the Route that I took… Oban was our first major pit stop, needless to say everything except one pub was closed here too… and we had not managed any food or coffee in the entire day so far… however there was food in the car and we did have some food in the car.. it was like Picnic… total funn…

    [googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=Glasgow&daddr=Oban,+UK&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.440076,82.265625&ie=UTF8&om=1&s=AARTsJoV21UeBGkXcZhZa6rdQVL6vTxRCQ&ll=56.15414,-4.864955&spn=1.070819,2.334595&z=8&output=embed” frameborder=”0″ height=”350″ scrolling=”no” width=”425″>
    View Larger Map

    View Larger Map

    Chicks always have attitude, be in India or UK… a Sea Gull at Oban…

    So from Oban we moved to Ballachulish and reached there in about an hour only to reach the BEST hotel that I have stayed so far… beautiful place, very well kept and had that typical Age to it… loved it…

    Hotel Ballachulish for your viewing pleasure 🙂 and thats Loch Lenhe in the front…

    Had tea, just relaxed, went out for a walk, came back when it started raining… Abhishek’s hat was stolen by wind and he had run a good 100 mtrs before he could manage his hands back on it 😀 that episode was fun for sure…

    The bridge between Loch Lenhe and Loch Leven… Saw the water flowing towards Loch Leven and then back in a matter of hours while at the hotel… I guess high tides and low tides doing it.. Loch Lenhe is connected to the sea..

    The evening was spend in the lounge over a few drinks, dinner followed by some live music… Live music is always nice, irrespective of you understanding the lyrics or not…

    An Old Piano at the hotel… Missed my keyboard and did try to remember a few tunes… managed to play some too 🙂 not too well though 🙂

    The hotel decided for some reason to not charge us for the dinner, call it a Christmas Gift from them, and that saved us about 40 pounds each… that was a lovely gesture from the Manager on duty there… Thank you Ma’am !!!

    Stills from the Hotel

    Went off to sleep only at 0100 hrs and woke up around 0800… got ready and checked out of the hotel around 1100 hrs.. not before taking a walk and a few pictures outside and even managing to slipping on the stairs with wet leaves on them and hurting my back 🙂 I saved the camera though, and I am happy for it 😛

    Somewhere next to Loch Lomond… I think its the largest lake in Scotland

    The Route today was Ballachulish to Fort William to Glasgow… It kept raining the entire day on 26th, though that did not stop me from going inside this place called Inverlochy Castle and take a few pictures.. there were only a few walls standing there now, but it was beautiful nevertheless…

    Inverlochy Castle

    Drove back to Glasgow via a different route that day..

    Stopped at a few places and reached well in time for the bus…

    Somewhere on our way towards Glasgow…

    Decided to kill some time and saw “I am Legend” in Cineworld in Glasgow.., don’t ask me about the movie.. its ridiculous… waste of time !!! this is when I was not well and started feeling the fever…

    Abhishek managed to find a vending machine and got us some hot chocolate when most of the shops around we already closed for the day and that really helped beat the cold before we took the bus and got back to London…

    I drove for about 300 miles in these two days and I could not have asked for more… Loved every second of it, rather should say every mile of it… Its pretty obvious from the picture isn’t it?

    🙂