Treat for adventure lovers by Ashok Dilwali

If you're a mountain lover like myself and are in Delhi during the first week of December unlike myself, then there's a treat awaiting you.

The Himalayan Club aptly based out of the capital will be hosting an illustrated talk by noted photographer Ashok Dilwali titled 'Lens and Passion'.

In a career spanning 42 years and counting, Dilwali has dedicated himself to mountain photography. During this time, he has managed a staggering 300-plus trips to the mountains and many times to the same place.

Each image selected for this talk has a story behind it and is the artist's personal favourite. To know more about Ashok Dilwali, check out his website here.

Date: Saturday, December 7, 2013.
Time: 7pm 
Venue: Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road 

Guest post: A Goan quickie during monsoon

My husband and I like to take short holidays throughout the year. So we try not to spend too much on these quick getaways and instead indulging ourselves during our annual vacations.

Goa is one destination we can holiday on pretty much every weekend. It’s such a laidback destination and designed for lazy people like ourselves, relaxing on the beach and sipping cocktails.

Our train travail

We decided to visit Goa after a gap of a few years this July. My husband had been insisting on me experiencing the Konkan Railway route so we decided to take a trainthis time. It was monsoon at its peak; it was raining the day we left till the time we reached Goa.

In our enthusiasm to make most of the four days, we booked an early morning train from Thane, which meant that we pretty much slept all the way. Either way, the train journey turned out to be a horrible experience. Our bogey was full of families along with their non-stop crying machines, which are commonly referred to as toddlers. But who’d have known.

 

Clean and pristine Candolim beach

We got off at Madgaon station and took a cab to our guest house called D’mello’s. Our taxi dropped us off near a small lane because this property is enclosed within a wooded area and the only way to reach it is to take a short walk from the road.

Day 1: At D'mello's 

The property is sprawling and our room had the best view. We were right on Calangute beach; it was literally five steps from the sea. The owner also runs a beach shack but it was shut because of the monsoon.

The room was big and very neat and the balcony offered a remarkable view. After checking in, we went to the beach. It was high tide and empty save for some fishermen and a scattering of tourists. 

View from our room at D'Mello's

We walked to the main Calangute market and bought some essential stuff to get us through the night like late-night munchies, wine, etc. It rained like crazy and were completely drenched by the time we returned to our room, despite an umbrella.

If you're planning to stay here, you need to know a few things. There is no TV (which is okay), no mosquitoes repellents, no electric geyser (they rely on solar ones which is of no use when its cloudy) and no phone in the room. 

Because of the lack of phone in the room, we had to walk all the way to their kitchen to place our food order. And yeah, they don’t have a concept of quick room service. But then again, impatience comes very naturally to us Bombaywallahs. 

We paid Rs 1200 a day for our room. According to the owner, the rate doubles during peak season.

Day 2: South Goa 

This was when the actual fun began. We reached Baywatch Resort is a beautiful 3-star property on Serenabatim beach in South Goa. This too was right on the beach and due to off-season our room (sea-facing) was priced at Rs 2,400 per day. 

The service at the resort is great. But like most beach properties, this one too is far from the main market. Fortunately, the resort has live performances in the evening at their resto-bar.

Baywatch Resort

Most casinos are in North Goa but there's one in South at Zuri White Sands, Goa Resort & Casino. It charges Rs 1,000 per head as cover and includes unlimited food and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). They even give you tokens for roulette. 

But the casino is quite sad in terms of upkeep and the crowd. Most of them looked like serious gamblers. We played a bit of roulette and tried our luck at slot machines - most of them were not even working. But just as I was regretting our decision to come here, I won a jackpot which was 50 times the bet. So we cashed out and left because we knew it wasn't going to get better than this.

Our room at Baywatch Resort

We took our rented Activa (rented at Rs 400 per day) and went to Colva market to do a bit of shopping. We got back in time for another live performance at our hotel.

On our last afternoon in Goa, just before leaving for the station, we lunched at Martin’s Corner for old times’ sake and we couldn't leave without eating here. Although we both are vegetarians. But I've heard their crabs are to die for. 

A live performance at the hotel

And just like that, three days went by in a flash. Thankfully, our return journey on the evening train was better than our onward journey even though we couldn't really see the Konkan route. Sometimes an old woman who keeps to herself is all one needs to enjoy a train journey.

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Chhavi Dang made a dent in the exciting world of journalism with stints at The Economic Times and then CNBC Awaaz where she met her husband. 

She loves her wine and her space. If you wish to invade it or need a top-line PR consultant, you can contact her at chhavi.dang@gmail.com. 

Tourism Ministry creates 'Walking Tours' for tourists

Our tourism department is working its way slowly towards doing away with paper brochures. It recently joined hands with a mapping company start-up to create walking tours for tourists.

This product will be available on the website Wonobo.Com  which will have details regarding route map, famous eateries, monuments and parks of 12 major cities - including Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.   

  

This, it hopes, will make it easy for tourists to walk or drive through the most-visited cities in India by providing tourism-related information at one place.

The site will soon cover 54 cities in the country and will be linked to the Incredible India website. It will be available on mobile phone as well.

Wonobo actually beat Google to launch street view maps for India. It also kind of has a catchy name; names with fewer syllables are easier to remember.

The site is predictably heavy and may need to sort some cosmetic issues. Tech blogger Srinivas Kulkarni has written a detailed review of this site and is quite interesting to read. You can do that here. 

Guest post:The Loshegani sunrise

Loshegani is a dreamy hamlet in Nainital in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. In this paradise stands a spectacular little place called Villa Loshegani at 7,000 feet.

On a clear day, you can actually get a glimpse of the great Himalayan range which is almost 400 kms away. With a telescope, one can actually see the Badrinath and Kedarnath peaks from here.

My friends and I decided to holiday here a few years ago and we had the entire place to ourselves for all the five nights we were there. This included the mountains, the hamlets, its people and the serene winter that came with it. 

We spent hours walking these hills and meeting the locals, who saw us city folks as urbanised aliens. We had a great time walking around on these hills for about six hours with a stray dog for company. He just trailed alongside us as I took my time taking photographs. 

Loshegani Sunrise

The photograph above was taken at 5:30 am with the sun rising slowly behind the mountains and the day breaking dawn.

On one such trails, we met a woman from a village four kms away. She was collecting dry leaves in a sack which had swollen to twice her size by now. She does this everyday and sells them in the local market. 

We also met school kids walking to school six to eight kms away in another village. They'd walk the distance to and fro everyday five days a week!  

That place, the hills and its people had a world of their own and they were happy where they were. They personified true contentment.

Also on our agenda was a three-day music festival called 'Escape' in Naukuchiatal which is three hours south of Loshegani. 

Click here to see more pictures from the Loshegani trip. To check the villa we stayed in and book it for yourself, go here.

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This post was contributed by Bhavesh Bangdiwala, who is a budding photographer and a serious music aficionado. He spends his time travelling around the world collecting LPs of offbeat 'non-mainstream' music and indie bands. 

He likes to listen to the sounds of the world without prejudice. If it catches his ear, it becomes part of his collection. For him, it's all about giving complete attention to the artist and respecting their hard work by paying the small price they ask for to own their art. Get a peak into his world of music by signing up for his newsletter. He can be contacted at bangdiwalas@yahoo.com.

Going for Sachin's last? Hitch a free ride!

'Smaaash'ing news for Tendulkar fans!

As a tribute to the master blaster, travel website Musafir.com will be offering free cab rides to spectators attending Sachin Tendulkar's (much-hyped) farewell test match at Wankhede Stadium.

of course, there's a fair amount of economics involved. As reported earlier, Tendulkar has recently acquired a minority stake in the online travel agent (OTA). Read the story here. Tendulkar will play his 200th test match against West Indies in Mumbai from Nov 14 to Nov 18.

According to reports, Musafir.com will make available 200 TABcabs for fans free of cost during those five days. The rides will be from different junctions of the city to Wankhede Stadium. 

Fans or not, spectators looking to get a free ride will only need to show their match tickets. Still, it remains to be seen whether this will result in chaos or not. Because let's face it, distances in Mumbai are huge.

Having said that, they can be assured of good service from TABcabs. Personally, I much prefer them over Meru. And if you're planning to book one for a ride to the airport on those days, be adequately warned. 

Lonely Planet rates Sikkim as best region to visit in 2014

So now that we have a stamp from LP, we can be rest assured that Sikkim will see a spike in tourist arrivals.

It sure comes in my top 5 list, pretty close to Ladakh. Yeah, it’s that pretty! In fact, I had written a love story based in Sikkim for one of my fiction writing assignments while studying journalism. And even got an ‘A’ for it.

So in keeping with the theme of Google Trends, my next post will be on Sikkim from a guest writer. And I assure you it will be non-fictional. So look out.

According to CNN.com, Sikkim was voted the best region for "showing the way for what could be the future of India's tourism industry."

Kalimpong in Sikkim has a very British charm to it

Top three destinations on the hot-off-the-press Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2014 chart is: Brazil, Antarctica (what! really?) and Scotland.

The rationale: Brazil is hosting the World Cup. Antartica because it is the centenary of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, while Scotland's nod is mainly due to it staging the Commonwealth Games in the summer and celebrating the Year of Homecoming for overseas Scottish.

Read CNN's full coverage here.

LP's top 10 regions for 2014

1. Sikkim, India

2. Kimberly

3. Yorkshire

4. Hokuriku, Japan

5. Texas

6. Victoria Falls

7. Mallorca

8. West Coast, New Zealand

9. Hunan, China

10. Ha'apai Tonga

Guest post: Decathlon, a Disneyland for sports fanatics

I was told about Decathlon by a friend, a major sports enthusiast, about a year ago. He had come back completely impressed by the store. But honestly, I had no intention of taking the effort to go all the way to Thane to check it out. 

Besides, I was only into running at that time. For someone like me whose focus is merely to complete one marathon per year, my needs were basic so I really had no desire to invest that much time.

But it seems like it was destined. I graduated (rather lazily) to an Oxfam 100-km trail walk in Lonavala. So now, my needs for a trail walk were anything but basic. 

I needed equipment to help me through this arduous trail. That’s when another friend, who is also into sports, suggested I make a little trip to Decathlon. 

I had heard that this store was massive. But that had not prepared me for what i was about to witness.

Some stuff that I bought

This mega-store is overwhelming! I was simply awestruck and frankly a little lost. Is this in India and that too in Mumbai? It has dedicated lanes for each sport: from cycling and running to hiking, swimming and yoga. It even has a lane for mountaineering!  

The store pampered me with the number of options under every category. So I decided to take some guidance from the Decathlon staff. 

I have shopped across brands but never have I come across staff that is so well-informed about their products. In fact, the most impressive part was that they were sportspeople themselves. They looked the part too. They even had MacBooks that provided information on the inventory. So cool.

I tried my best not to go overboard. But I still managed to shop till I dropped. A fortune. I bought trekking shoes, yoga pants, LED torch, T-shirts, hiking bag and a trekking stick - all for Rs 7,000 in three hours flat. 

But no regrets though. Decathlon is THE destination for sports and my go-to for all my sporting needs. Psst... I hear their sales are awesome and totally worth it!

If you can't afford to travel to Thane, you can find Decathlon resellers in Mumbai for your convenience. Check the list here.

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This post was contributed by my friend Anjali Talreja, who is my go-to for anything regarding Bandra. If you wish to join her on the 100-km Oxfam walking trail or simply need help getting around in Bandra, you can contact her at talreja.anjali@gmail.com. She is a consultant in the financial domain and can also be spotted moonlighting as a financial wizard in academic circles.