Back to my old address

Sad though , coz i am just begging to realise how blogger is so much better than wordpress , but perhaps like my first love , I keep returning to the address where it all began.
so am back now talking about travel , movies , people , life and everything else at Conversations!
find me here theaddress.wordpress.com and let me know how your tete-a-tete was?

One Step at a time!!

My very first published travelogue ...
http://getahead.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jun/15/slide-show-1-travel-dalhousie-is-a-walkers-paradise.htm

Hope its the first one of many more to come...

A Day At Old Fort

Works not always hazardous to life . Sometimes on a sunday , work takes you to places that you always knew , existed in the city , but never really consciously visited them. Some moments captured on one such day . The sun , The Fog , An old fort and a new found enthusiasm.. all caught on my camera !

The Walker's Paradise

Long walks , breathtaking views, fresh air and lots of food. Well. there .. I ve said it. The makings of a perfect holiday. And if that comes in as a birthday gift - well then , what a way to turn an yr 'more travelled' than that!

The best thing about Dalhousie is - that no one would tell you 'ten things you must do here'. coz other than walk around and have a Coffee/Softie/Momo at the MG road there's not much to the city - that finds a top slot in a tourist itinerary. Sometimes , the biggest surprise a city holds is when you land there with no agenda what so ever. And then go ahead and live off 3 days of your life with out one.

The only time we were forced to make "Think quick , cos this would be a life changing decision" during our entire stay ( and am not counting the times when we ordered for food ) was when we landed at the Pathankot station early morning and were looking out for a cab for the 2+ hours journey into the hills-" One could head to Dharamsala too" . Thankfully , we chose 'long walks' to 'trip down spirituality'.

It takes around 2 hours of scenic sights , plush hills , lil kids waving at you - kind of road journey before you hit the army cantt area , traversing through which you land at the city. Our hotel - the oldest and right next to where the action is ( The bus stand) - was everything we had imagined and a little more. 

Old woodwork , vintage looking paintings , quaint little corners lit with lamps. The reception is right out of an old english movie and so were the Foggy views of Himalayas that you could see from the aptly named place.No wonder its rated as high as it was on tripadvisor and well , no wonder D chose this one over all others for our stay.

What's amazing about this tiny little town is , how it just starts and ends in a couple of miles. One can walk around and explore the entire city . so by the end of the day we arrived , we had cracked all possible ways to reach the MG Road from Shankar Chowk and window shopped at the old and newly revived janpath-like Tibetan markets. The obvious next thing to do was explore the 'around'.

All it took was a hilly drive and one was in The switzerland.. alrite alrite of east... supposedly, called Khaijjiar.  A picnic spot of sorts - with a lot of greenary and a lake in the middle . I wasnt too impressed , but then every one who heads to dalhousie , does check this place out if one considers the number of people who were flocking the place.

We headed to Chamba from there , another hilly journey peppered with breathtaking sights right out of some travel and living show and in some cases - the popular bollywood movies of our times . We were told 'Taal' The movie was shot here .. and as evidence we got to see the place where supposedly Ash , stayed as the village dame.Yay!

Chamba , other than a huge ground thats used for an annual city fair and some temples and a museum with some old royal left - behinds , is essentially a small town with people that you could perhaps count off on fingers. A couple of minutes on feet and you ve taken a look at most of the things the city has to offer , including a chaupati style 'chaat-lemonade' kind of stall market and a series of bakeries , sweetshops and dhabas , a nagging feeling of 'what's it like to live in a small town' that's so difficult to get rid off.

Three days of long walks , fresh air , loads of food and a loaded camera. Sigh!

One look at those pictures.. and am back being miserable again. Looks like i need another holiday!

Day Dreaming!

If it wasnt for day dreaming , some of us would just never leave the dark little corners of our dingy offices.
on that bright not , on this dull thursday morning , after spending a large portion of my last 2 working days at work brwosing travel tips to the historic athens , or the mystic turkey.. am back to the one place where i can day dream and re-live those dream like real moments that i ve spent at some of the prettiest places on earth.

The last 2 yrs , and well a lot of yrs before that - but lets just stick to the last 2 yrs coz they are more 'special' in a lot of ways- have taken me to the most scenic sights , the most awesome food , the most memorable trips to more than 10 of my must - visit- - before - you -die places on this planet. Paris , Rome , Venice , Florence , Pisa , Nice , Monaco - Monte carlo & Dubai on the foreign shores and Udaipur , Nainital , Shimla & Dalhousie , closer home.

This page started off with very clear intentions , notes to myself that turn colourful memories into everlasting with words that could be re-read. But , somehow the laziness got the better of me. or perhaps an uninspired state of mind. whatever , it was . its a thing of the past. atleast for now. :)

and its time i get back to work.

So much to see , so little time!

Day 2 : Exploring Paris

Our very first morning kicked off quite early after a typical french breakfast ( Fruit preserves , chocolate croissant .. am i still dreaming !!) . Our personal tour guide , a petite french lady with an accent to kill for appeared right on dot for our pick up in a Travera like vehicle , with another couple from Miami , began a day of beauty-over-dose!

As we toured across the city , looking through our car window and taking quick breaks for some pics listening to stories behind the breathtaking monuments , the french architecture and history. Isabella our tour guide took us through the old city routes and the new ones to really show how the architecture of the city has been a mirror of the times the city had lived through! Old buildings clearly depicted the class system followed in the earlier times - where in the top most floor used to be of the king with more elaborate windows and arcs , while the lower floors clearly had demarcation of the "the hands and legs - i.e. the people who provided services" . And as one moved to the newer city across the Seine river , multi storeyed - glass windowed sky scrappers depicting a very Urban and modern face of one of the leading economies of the world.

True to what's always said about the city , its been home to people and trends from various parts of the world - it did come across as a fusion of old and new . Where else would you find an age old museum , the Louvre, showcasing years and years of historic references with history meeting contemporary right at its entrance ( different gates as a tribute to architectural nuances of different times - the grand gate at one end and the pyramid like glass structure at the other?)

in a couple of hours , we had already seen - superficially though , but we did see them , more than what we could possibly handle. Their was The opera and Notredam , the Eiffel tower and the Hotel Ritz , The Louvre from a distance and the prison where the likes of Mary Antoinette were kept during the french revolution. The city really had a lot to offer and very slowly it was sinking in that we don't really have all the time in the world - or did we? By the time it was the lunch hour and our lunch was pre-booked at the Seine river cruise as a buffet , over looking the Eiffel tower on a cold December after noon , we were making plans of which places to see during our exploration of the city the next day.

Wow! Now that's what we call food for thought !

Picture Perfect (?)

The gorgeous work of art in white marble – the taj , is something many poets and writers of our times have written vividly about.

And it wasnt as if it was the first time I was visiting this place , to be completely awed by its pristine charm . Just that honestly , I ve never really understood why its rated as one of the most beautiful monuments of our times. I seriously and yes , I am saying that out loud , so sue me if you may- find the whole idea over rated.

I think any place or moment becomes special – only of the way you feel when you are in it , and if you can share it with some one special then more so.We thought of going a little romantic in the most unconventional sense in our snap- slightly off focus , very unprepared !

Is romance all about holding hands and acting mushy? Well we don’t think so , I think being together , can be highly romantic too.

So here we are at our romantic best @ the Taj on a foggy morning in January . Picture Perfect.. isnt it?