
If you've always wanted to travel to Nepal but still aren't comfortable around crowds, check out these fun things to do in Pokhara, Nepal where you can still keep your distance from other people.
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The island of Nusa Ceningan, just off Bali’s east coast, was surprisingly peaceful and incredibly picturesque. A great start to our week in Bali. Instead of trying to cram too much into our week in Bali, we decided to spend a few days on the beach, and then spend the rest soaking up the Balinese [...]
Nothing says Hyderabad like the Charminar. The 400 year-old monument and mosque was built when Hyderabad was founded, and is still the symbol of the city today. But though it’s impressive at any time of day, we decided to try and avoid the crowds and the summer heat by going at 7:00 AM in the morning.
I recently wrote a short reader’s review on Thinnakara Island, Lakshadweep and submitted it to Lonely Planet Magazine India. I never thought they’d publish it, but they did! Of course, this isn’t a commissioned review or anything, just a reader’s contribution, but it’s still very reassuring. Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.
While the majestic Virupaksha temple, and the Vitthala temple with its massive stone chariot and musical pillars, are probably on ever visitor’s itinerary, Hampi has a lot more to offer—regardless of the weather. From riverside walkways with stairs cut into the living rock, and hidden shrines emerging from their lush sugarcane fields, to gigantic boulders in fantastic shapes, and emerald rice fields reflecting the sunrise in their motionless waters, here are some of the sights that have enchanted us over the years.
It was April in 2014, and my wife and I desperately needed a holiday. We were tired of the beach, though, and so we decided to head up into the mountains. After casting about a bit, we decided on Kalimpong in West Bengal, where we could stay as guests of the army, and where my wife could re-live some fond childhood memories. Here are six great experiences we discovered while we were in Kalimpong.
In late 2013, my wife wanted to visit Kutch in Gujarat as a sourcing trip for her fledgling ethnic gifts business, so we decided we would turn it into our annual new year's holiday. We spent close to two weeks in Bhuj and its surroundings (arguably home to India's highest concentration of high-quality textile handicraft producers), investigated lots of towns and villages, and took in India's great white salt desert, the Great Rann of Kutch.
In September 2010, after much planning and wrangling of schedules, we embarked on a well-deserved three week vacation to Australia. We had already decided early on that, rather than scramble around madly trying to do everything possible, we would instead stay in Sydney and get a feel of what life was like in Australia.
Towards the end of 2011, a friend of my wife’s proposed that we go on a combined vacation, just us two couples, and suggested the Seychelles as a destination. We were a little hesitant, because we had heard it was expensive, but its reputation as a tropical island paradise was tempting enough for us to start doing some research. A few weeks later, our friends backed out, much to our chagrin, so we decided we would go alone. Through our research, we found out that, even though our vacation would be expensive, we could save a bit if we didn’t do too much island-hopping, and stayed on Mahé island most of the time instead. So it happened that we split our eight-day vacation between Mahé and Bird Island (more on this one later), and made six amazing discoveries along the way.
In September 2015, my mom, my wife and I embarked on a month-long trip through Germany, with a few days in Belgium and the UK thrown in for good measure. On the itinerary: Wuppertal, Brussels, the Rhine, Germany’s ‘romantic road’, Munich and the Oktoberfest, Berlin, London and Cambridge. All in a month’s time. This is part six of the story, and is about our experiences in Munich and during the Oktoberfest.
Once we had soaked in enough of the medieval atmosphere of the romantic road, we headed south-east, further into Bavaria and towards the border with Austria. There, just on the border, is the tiny little village of Ainring—known mainly for its golfing and as a stepping stone to Salzburg, a quick hop across the border in Austria.
After our few days of doing nothing much in Gau-Allgesheim, it was time to hit the road again. This time, there wasn’t anyone to say ‘hi’ to, and it was about soaking in the past along the ‘romantic road’: a series of towns and villages that still retain their medieval charm from hundreds of years ago.
When we got back from Brussels, we spent a few more days in Wuppertal, and then started our road trip in earnest. The first leg was a drive down the Rhine via Leverkusen, Cologne and Koblenz to Ruedesheim (a distance of just over 200 km, roughly one-third of the length of the Rhine in Germany) to meet some old friends of my mom’s.
In September 2015, my mom, my wife and I embarked on a month-long trip through Germany, with a few days in Belgium and the UK thrown in for good measure. On the itinerary: Wuppertal, Brussels, the Rhine, Germany’s ‘Romantic Road’, Munich and the Oktoberfest, Berlin, London and Cambridge. All in a month’s time. This is part one of the story.