My Bundi Article

Bundi, Rajasthan

My article on Bundi is now up on Gonomad. I still remember those beautiful lotus flowers so vividly. Here are the starting passages of the article-

When my nephew Sunil and I visited the Sukh Mahal (Palace of Comfort would be the rough translation) at Bundi, the caretaker who opened the room filled with paintings told me (in Hindi), “This is where the Mowgli writer stayed.”

I told him the writer’s name was Rudyard Kipling and the book that is associated with Bundi is Kim not The Jungle Book. But he told me firmly, “It was the Mowgli man who stayed here.”

That is how Kipling is remembered in Bundi. Kipling is said to have got inspiration for writing Kim in Bundi (I have yet to read that book but it is now high on my agenda) and I can imagine why. The Phul Sagar Lake behind the Palace gets filled with lotus flowers in September. I have never seen so many lotuses at one place in my life.

Reactions to the Barog Story!

The Water Compartment at the Kalka Shimla Train

I was showing my Barog story to Brat 1 and Brat 2 and I wanted them to pay particular attention to the last photograph where Steve has written the following caption-

Mridula Dwivedi with Dilip and Sunil, also known as Brat One and Brat Two

The brats reacted, we will give Bua (aunt in Hindi) a name on our Face Book!

Then on this Barog trip we were taking a train back from Solan to Barog where we barely had standing space. Brat 2 had put his hands against the wall over me in aisle and he could so easily place it over my head. Brat 1 was standing next to Brat 2 quite close to the door.

I mean it feels only yesterday when they were knee high and just by standing in front of them I could block them effectively from taking a basket ball shot.

Then I remember the younger one standing in front of a guy who was six three with his hands raised to prevent him from taking a shot at the ring and his hands would not even reach the other player's shoulders.

And today they are polite to me and me take my shots at the ring or else they just have to stand in front of me!

PS. There is a coach on the toy trains that takes water to Shimla from other stations because there is a shortage of water at Shimla. When the train gets full people travel in the water compartment too!

The Complete Barog Story

The Beautiful Barog Railway Station on the Kalka Shimla Railway Route

My Barog (Himachal Pradesh) story is now available at GoNomad.

The Barog Tunnel is the longest tunnel (1144 meters/3752 feet) on the Kalka-Shimla route. The name of the English engineer in charge of its construction was, unsurprisingly, Barog.

However, the original tunnel built by him is at a distance of 1 km and the two ends of that tunnel didn’t meet. He was fined Rupee 1 (.02 cents or so) for this mistake and due to shame he committed suicide.

What a Capture

No, not by me. It is by one of the Gonomad bloggers Sonja Stark. The picture is so cute, you have to go and have a look. And I am not going to tell you what it is.

More Tiger Tale but this time from Mexico

I am linking to Kelly's post (from Gonomad) who was on a press trip to Mexico and guess what she got to pet a tiger! You have to go and see the tiger picture to believe it.

PS. I am taking a short break. Would be back by Monday.

Off Tomorrow and Back on Sunday

Jungle Path

I am off tomorrow to Madhya Pradesh and would be back on Sunday. Should have a lot of pictures to share when I come back. This trip has been arranged for me by Gonomad. So, this one I have a feeling would turn out to be a little different than my usual affaris.

Triund Story now at Gonomad

Souvenirs for Sale at McLeod Ganj.

My entire trip account about trekking through Triund, Snowline and beyond is now up at Gonomad. Do let me know what you think about it.

On our other treks, we hardly met anyone but this one was different. I did a lot of talking with people from Germany, Israel, Switzerland (she was in India for the third time and was staying for more than 6 months) and the US (the boy was staying in India for a year and he had already completed 10 months) and of course the shop owners and the guides.

But there is one conversation that has still stayed with me. I was talking to the groom at Snowline thinking that there were just two of us around. When he walked away I realized there was a figure in a sleeping bag inside the chai shop behind me.

He said, "God, the way you talk, ...

Chile Anyone?

Villarica, a snow-capped volcano in Chile's Lake District (photo by Patty McCrary, taken from Gonomad Website)

No, no, I am not heading there but I loved a wonderful article about cycling in Chile by Dale Fehringer on Gonomad. The pictures! One day ...

In the afternoon, we cycled along beautiful Lake Villarrica, and our guides pointed out native birds and trees while we enjoyed views of the stunning Villarrica and Lanin volcanoes.

Villarrica is an active volcano, and we could see smoke rising from its peak. That night our cozy hotel had lovely gardens and sweeping views of the lake and volcanoes.

The Oxford Story at Gonomad.com

Carfax Tower, Oxford, UK

My Oxford Story is now up at the main Gonomad site. Have a look and tell me how do you find it. Here is a small piece from the article-

Initially, due to my pathetic sense of direction I was quite scared to walk alone but I gradually realized that there are sufficient arrow marks and signposts on the street and whichever road I would take sooner or later an arrow would point me towards the city center and the Carfax Tower again.

I can assure you if I did not get lost in the city chances of anyone else getting lost are really really slim.

Saltaire- An Article for Gonomad

I was lucky to visit Saltaire, an UNESCO world heritage site on the trip to UK in October 2007. Actually, it was included in the conference program that I attended at Leeds.
I remember I was attending a session (thankfully my talk was over in the morning) when an announcement was made, "The next trip to Saltaire would leave in 10 minutes." My SLR was lying in the hotel room, I only had the smaller camera in my purse.

The Picturesque Street in Front of the Pub 'Don't Tell Titus' at Saltaire

I ran to my hotel (Park Plaza, Leeds, just 2 minuets away from the conference venue but the room was on the 15th floor) in my business suit and formal shoes and ran back to join the group with a few minutes to spare with the SLR.

Another View of Saltaire, UK

This was one of the few visits where I managed to see a place with our guides and I must say they did a wonderful job.

My detailed article about this visit to Saltaire is now up at Gonomad.

Finally, the Spiti Tale!

Magnificent Spiti

Months after I actually trekked in Spiti, my travel tale is up at the Gonomad website. I even got poked by Priyank that it was about time I wrote this tale. Here is a short excerpt from the article-

The walk from Komik to Demul was the longest. It took us 6 hours, though I met a gentleman from Austria who said he did it in 3 hours. Hats off to him, is all I can say. It was the day when I realized that when pushed a lot my back is capable of hurting like mad.

However, the route was so beautiful and the weather pleasant due to a clouded sky. At our lunch point we were visited by Yaks, who came to drink from the same source as us! But at that time, I found it difficult to eat and was lying flat on my back waiting for others to finish the lunch.

What is Humour for You?

Cindy (she is part of the Gonomad blogs) says many editors do not understand her humour. You have to take a look at her post and decide for yourself. I found her stories funny though I would *NOT* like to be caught in any of those situations!

I knocked a soft drink onto the lap of a Rabbi sitting beside me. The flight attendant cleaned up the mess, mopped down the Rabbi, then brought me a replacement drink, which I instantly knocked onto the Rabbi again. Till today I don’t know how I managed to do that. I only recall extending my hand towards my fresh drink and watched helplessly as like some plastic movie prop, it mercilessly swept the plastic cup from my tray onto his lap. The Rabbi looked at me with a stunned expression and voiced a curse

*Not inserted after reading Sanjay's comment. I of course would not like to get caught in any of those situations! Thanks for pointing it out Sanjay.

My Prashar Lake Article at Gonomad

Prashar Lake near Mandi

My Prashar Lake article is up at Gonomad now. There were two surprises for us on this trek. One, the four and a half hour trek was quite steep and I did it with some stretch. This had never happened before.

Two, the caretaker of the guest house was reluctant to give us a room as I do not 'look' married.
That too has never happened before!

So, what do you think of the article?

What do you say?

Gonomad friends have been asking me to put my picture, that is at their main page, as my blog profile picture too. Even though I know my picture is there with my name on the internet I still hesitate to put is as my blogger profile picture. What do you say?

Gonomad Travel Writers Page

Gonomad has put up travel writer pages. So, all my Gonomad articles can be seen from the writer page now (scroll down the page a bit). What I am thinking is, I have enjoyed writing each of them as much as I have enjoyed visiting those places. OK, I enjoyed visiting those places a bit more than writing about them.

But I have started enjoying writing about travel a lot more than what I ever thought was possible. But you probably guessed it already by the number of the blog posts I am churning out off late.

Sikkim Redefines Green for Me

Khang-Chen-Dzon Ga (Kanchanjunga)

A few months back I was inviting suggestions and when a colleague talked about a visit to Sikkim in December, I was intrigued but apprehensive at the same time. He assured me it would not be very cold. But cold can mean different things to different people. When folks have yet to declare winter, I already start using the room heater in my office.

I can become quite miserable if the weather is too cold, though Sesha’s (my husband) motto is, the colder the better. So, when I sounded him out for Sikkim, he was quite enthusiastic. After searching on the internet (Indiamike, in particular) I concluded that many people have already achieved the feat I was considering and there are high chances of coming back in one single piece. And I am back now to tell you the story.

....

Update
I have truncated my original post and my apologies to those who came here looking for it, particularly in response to my links at Indiamike. The original article is under consideration for publication and if everything goes well it will be available in full soon again. Once again my sincere apologies.

Update 2: My travelogue on Sikkim in December is now available in full on the Gonomad website.

Two Wonderful Articles on GoNomad: Antarctica and Israel

I read a very inspiring article by Chole Jon Paul on Gonomad. She writes "

“After life in the vastness of a vacant continent, civilization seemed disappointingly narrow, cramped, superficial, and empty.”

- Frank Hurley, photographer on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endeavor

Those words certainly ring true for me. As an older woman traveling alone to such a distant place, I knew that I would have to start planning well in advance and explore all my options before booking passage.

And where did she go? She went to Antarctica! Now that is something!

Also, I read a lot of Gonomad blog (naturally as my blog is also hosted by them) more so when the good folks started providing the update status from the main GoNomad page.

I have been reading Be Our Guest by Kent E. St. John and I was so surprised to see that he was a guest of the president of Israel (though now in news for all the wrong reasons). He has an interesting account of his trip to Israel.

Ahh! When will December come? Only then I get to travel once again.

My Kuari Pass Article on Gonomad

I Do Not Tire Sharing My Kuari Pass Trek Photos!

But this is to share with you that my Kuari Pass Trek article got published at Gonomad under the title 'Hiking India's Kuari Pass.' This is my third story with them (the other two were on Ladakh and Goa) and it still gives me a thrill to see my story published.

You can have a look at their writer's guidelines here.

I sent the link to entire gallery of Kuari Pass Trek and let Steve pick up the photos he liked best. Well, in the first photo (of the article) I am sulking so badly because it has been taken shortly after I had woken up and I have never been a morning girl.

Something is Happening to My Blog

You may see comments not reflecting on my blog properly. The reason is, this blog is trying to move to:

http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia

Please bear with me.

Any Good Budget Travel Magazines in India?

Since I am so gung-ho about travel, it came as a surprise (to me) that I do not know of any travel magazine in India apart from Outlook Traveller. And that too, I only go to their website. Well, the magazine comes in my college library, but the glossy cover and its outlandish destinations and super price tags, completely put me off. It seems like an insult to a budget traveler like me!

Now on the global scene, I know at least two good websites that devote attention to the budget travel, GoNOMAD.com and Transitions Abroad.

With GoNOMAD.com I had some luck and as many of my regular visitors know, my two stories have seen the light of the day. One is about treking in Goa with YHAI and the other about how to reach Ladakh without breaking my (OK, husband's) bank balance. Both of the stories are as budget travel as possible. And we are a double income no kid (but two nephews) household.

My feeling is that a lot of people do budget travel in India and around the globe. Can you point me out a good Indian website or magazine that devotes itself (at least acknowledges) budget traveling? If not, anyone is willing to launch such a magazine?

Going Nomad in Ladakh

View From a Bridge in Spitok, Ladakh

A few days back when I posted a few pictures from my Ladakh trip, Arun asked me: “Would you be posting some kind of a travelogue on the places you visited?” Now it is a very embarrassing question on a blog named ‘Travel Tales from India.’ It is time to set the score right. I love traveling and writing about it, in that order. For quite some time (and my archives are a proof for it) I wrote only about travel on this blog. Then, IIPM and other shit happened, one after another.

Some place I once said, "I recently started blogging and like many others initially I was not quite convinced about why on earth should I blog?" Let me say I do not have any such doubts about blogging anymore and I have found my voice and I am screaming myself hoarse. I do not think it will be ever again that I write about travel only as I do not have the energy for maintaining two blogs.

But this post is about travel and not like the fillers I wrote for the past few days and ultimately resulted in that comment by Arun. No Arun, I do not blame you, I deserved that comment and I enjoyed it.

Some of you might have noticed that I keep posting tidbits about Ladakh but never a full length post. Ladakh has been a truly memorable trip for us (that is me, my husband and a friend) and I have to go back there sometime soon, as I lost some 400 pictures through a hard disk crash and only 50 or so survive that I loaded on the webshots and on my blog.

Coming back to why I never wrote about Ladakh on my blog, well, sometimes I get ambitious. I sent my Ladakh story to GoNOMAD and it is finally published.

http://gonomad.com/transports/0511/ladakh.html

So, Arun see, I do write about travel and I love writing about travel. And it is only the second time but it gives me immense pleasure when I see my story published (the same used to be the case with research papers, but it is becoming a lost art for me that I have to revive and revive quickly).

And now let me gush about GoNOMAD. Well, they gave me a chance for the second time. But more importantly they accept unsolicited material (how do you think I got my first chance?) and they pay $25 (and that is a cool 1000 bucks for me) for each contribution apart from a few exceptions. Now I have seen so many well written travelogues on blogs that I wish to share this with you, a few of you might be interested? Read their contributor’s guideline and see.

http://gonomad.com/corp/writerguidelines.htm

Need more reason to check out my story and their site? Well, below my piece, is an article on nude hiking and no I am not kidding.

http://gonomad.com/features/0511/nude_hiking.html

Don’t ask me anymore, now hop along.

Hop Along: The Bus Station in Leh, Ladakh

I Stumbled!

When I started working in the higher education sector in India, it turned out to be a real eye opener for me. When I was studying, I either went to better places or our generation was a bit more tractable. When I started teaching, I found the first two places completely impossible. This period of gloom lasted around two years. But I will write about that some other day. I will write about one good thing that came out of it.

My husband and I have always been fond of traveling but before I was really thrown into bad jobs, traveling for me was a nice change. But now it has become a religion. In between the breaks both my husband and I, dream about the vacations we are going to take later!

Our Trek through Har-Ki-Doon, Uttrakhand

It also happened that during my bad jobs I had zero opportunity to do research. I used to feel very restless then. It was then I started trying to write either in magazines or for websites. I started with the Indian ones and most of the time I never even got replies for my queries or unsolicited manuscripts. If I sent them by post after 2 to 3 months I would get a reject card! Even with the foreign publications it usually was no reply.

Our Recent Trip to Leh

Then one day when I was browsing the net, somewhere I saw a bunch of travel websites. One of them was http://www.gonomad.com/.

If you take a look at my post:

http://traveltalesfromindia.blogspot.com/2005/09/one-tale-from-abroad-most-unusual-walk.html

It is a watered down version of what I sent to GoNOMAD.com. And to my surprise I got a reply from them within three hours! Of course they rejected it. But getting a reply that fast itself was so reassuring, after all someone was reading whatever I was trying to write.

That got me hooked, and sometime later I sent them another story (on Goa) and this time I did not get an immediate reply. That raised my hopes. I thought, if they had to reject it they would have done it immediately. Later, I got a mail where they asked me for photographs related to the story. That raised my hopes still higher. Finally, that story came on their website after nearly three months and the check came one month later after the publication. In India the foreign currency checks take more than 15 days to get cashed, and I have still not seen the money in my account. But, it has turned out to be such a thrilling experience. The story on Goa can be found at:

http://www.gonomad.com/alternatives/0508/goa.html

After this, I tried searching for other sites that pay, and though I found a few that do, but so many that do not. I tried very hard to find another website where I could send my other two stories but after my initial search proving so fruitless, I got lazy. I again sent them my two stories and they again have asked for the photos after a long time!

Before I sign off, some of the best stories that I found on GoNOMAD are listed below:

Photography Tips:

http://www.gonomad.com/traveldesk/0505/photographers_advice.html

To Drive or to be Driven?

http://www.gonomad.com/transports/0505/ireland_drive_or_bus.html

On Paris

http://www.gonomad.com/destinations/0508/paris.html

I may continue writing travel stories and looking for avenues to publish them or I may get busy with my job, but either way I am going to remember GoNOMAD for giving me the first avenue for my stories.

Goa in December with a Difference

Dudh Sagar Waterfalls, Goa

Along with my husband and two nephews, I trekked in Goa, in the month of December through http://www.yhaindia.org/ (YHAI). The above photo is of the Dudhsagar waterfalls and it is from an era when I did not have a digital camera. Goa is a fabulous place but gets too crowded for words in December. But by trekking, we avoided the crowds most of the time.

I wrote about this trip and it got published at GoNOMAD's website. You can see the story at:

http://www.gonomad.com/alternatives/0508/goa.html

This is my first published travel story and I hope I will be able to write a few more. The best part is GoNOMAD pays for every article it publishes. I am relishing my experience and I thought I would share it on my blog too.