• Places - Sanctuaries

    The Real Land of Tiger – Tadoba

    The year 2010, hopefully augurs well for us in travel. After the good start in the new year week, one of us had a solo trip to Bangkok, while the other had a solo to Coimbatore and Kerala. But the most awaited trip of January was to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra. The planning had started in November itself. The tourism/forest department calls Tadoba the real land of tiger. Perhaps rightfully so. For the first time, we spotted the big cat. Albeit for a short while without giving us enough time for clicking. With multitudes of…

  • Places

    New Year Beginning With Star Gazing

    The year 2010 also began on a good note. After a packed last weekend of 2009, we were in Bangalore on the first weekend of 2010. Though this time, it was catching up with cousins whom we have not met for over 10 years and some friends after 5 years. That meant not much of travel. Yet, we did a little bit of star gazing – albeit a little different. We have never been to a planetarium – which most people would have visited in their school days.  The Nehru Planetarium in Bangalore was our destination on Saturday, January 2,…

  • Arts & Culture - History - Places

    Year-End Trips (2) – Mamallapuram

    Kanchipuram – Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) is barely 70 kms and is connected by good roads. Not a wise idea to combine both these places on the same day as you are unlikely to do justice to both the places. Mamallapuram is a 7th century port city built by Pallavas and is supposeed to be named after the Pallava King, Mamalla. Mamallapuram is classified as UNESCO World Heritage site. With some of the rock cut temples resembling the Buddhist/Jain architecture, it is believed that the Pallava kings bought artisans and sulptors from central India after they won over the Chalukyas. We unfortunately…

  • Arts & Culture - History - Places

    Year-End (2009) Trips – Kanchipuram

    The year 2009 ended on a good note with a packed weekend. We were back to Chennai after 5 years for a family get together. But we did manage to plug-in an active one-day travel. It is a matter of shame that we lived in Chennai for 7 years and not even once we visited Kanchipuram or Mahabalipuram. We were not in our elements then for sure. So it was Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram. We planned the timings so that we will be at Kanchipuram Saravana Bhavan for breakfast. Kanchipuram is known as the city of temples and is one of…

  • Birdwatching

    Birding at Uran

    Most often, one misses the simple pleasures and beauties near home. We knew Uran had something to offer for bird watchers, but had never ventured. So in one of our short treks to Vyagreshwar, Nature Knights decided to pack in an early morning birding. And it was worth it. Ibises, coots, whistling ducks, bee eaters and many more unnamed birds gave us company 0n a winter morning.