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Ladakh - Planning The Trip

Over 2000 Km by road, in around 10 days. Stunning landscapes, wonderful people. That sums up our Ladakh trip. But how did it actually work? How did we make it happen? Read on to find out!  Leh, the capital of Ladakh , is accessible by air and road. Flying into Leh is the easiest, and time-saving option, while the road is the time consuming one, but with the added advantage of driving past some of the most beautiful landscapes in our country. Each option has much to recommend it, and we chose the road for just one reason – altitude sickness. Altitude sickness was one of my biggest concerns, since I suffer from motion-sickness. Yes, I do travel a lot, but that is despite my condition, and, over the years, have learnt how to handle it. I struggled with it when we visited Nathu-La in Sikkim, and wondered if I would be able to manage a week at the even higher altitudes that we would encounter in Ladakh. This was the reason we stuck to a basic plan, of only 9 days in Ladakh, thoug...

Encounters with Wildlife on our Ujjain-Omkareshwar-Indore Trip

Travelling in an area which has some interesting wildlife sanctuaries, it was one of my greatest regrets that we couldn’t visit a single one on this trip, since it was primarily a pilgrimage to the two Jyotirlingams. However, we are now constantly on the lookout for birds, and make all efforts to photograph as many as possible. The only wild animals we saw on this trip were monkeys and snakes. While we weren’t able to capture the snake on camera, the monkeys posed obligingly, especially at the Sandipani Ashram, Ujjain . The Sandipani ashram would be an interesting place to visit; for we found some peacock feathers lying near a bush by the path (what was really surprising was that no one had picked them!!). Samhith was all excited, but unfortunately, the peacocks did not make an appearance. Just outside the ashram, though, we chanced upon a flock of birds which we couldn’t identify. The only one among them that I could capture on my camera was the little green bee eater (t...

Indore - The city of the Holkars

Indore is the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, known for its textile industry. For us, it was simply the station nearest to Omkareshwar, from where we could board our train to Bombay . Considering its importance as an industrial city, we expected to find accommodation easily, and it was a great surprise to us that MP tourism did not have a single hotel here! The only hotels available via online or phone booking seemed terribly expensive (about 2500- 3000 per room), so we decided not to pre-book a room, but land there and search for one within our budget. Like most places in India, an auto wallah took us to various hotels until we found Hotel Mayur, which was conveniently located ( 5 minutes drive from the station), clean, and well within our budget (Rs. 650/- for a family room, air-cooled, with 4 beds!).  Though there was no restaurant, they had a kitchen from where we could order food for room service. The food was great, though a little spicy by our standards. I had a ...

Omkareshwar Part 2 - The Parikrama

The importance of Omkareshwar lies not just in its temples, but in the island itself. The island is a hilly area, and resembles the Hindu symbol “ Om ” ( ` ) when viewed from above. This not only gives the island the name “Omkareshwar’, but this is what has drawn holy men to this site from time immemorial. Over the ages, so many temples were built on the island that at some point in time, a circumambulation of the whole island gained fame and was performed by many as an offering to the lord.   Known as the Omkareshwar Parikrama, this circumambulation covered all the temples on the island, and was considered part of the pilgrimage to Omkareshwar. With the passage of time, many of the temples collapsed and so did the Parikrama path. Now, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Department (MPTDC) has made an effort to revive the ancient Parikrama. When I first heard about the Parikrama, I was all excited about it, but there was very little information available. All I was able to find out ...