Friday, October 21, 2016

Evening sky watch ~ Udaipur



Udaipur has undoubtedly the most beautiful sunsets. I feel lucky to have witnessed the luxurious hues of the sky as the fiery Sun sets, cooling off the heat in the lakes. There are various points in Udaipur to enjoy the views of sunset. I captured sunset from three places; Gangaur Ghat, Deendayal Updhayay Park and Banks of Lake Pichola on two different days.  This photo blog will capture the tangy orange and sweet pink luminous colors of sunsets that I witnessed during my trip to Udaipur in October 2016.


Pink sky- Gangaur Ghat- 5:30 pm (This was Day 1)
The rest of the sunset views are Day 2 on wards-

Lake Pichola bank - Around 5 pm


View from Deen DayalPark @5:30 pm

Pastel hues. View from Deen Dayal Park@ 5:56 pm

Panoramic view from Deen Dayal Park @ 5:58pm 

Sun down,. View from Deen Dayal Park@ 5:59 pm


 JagMandir: View from Lake Pichola bank@ 6:36 pm

 JagMandir: View from Lake Pichola bank6:37 pm



                                                 

  



Jag Mandir after Sun down@ 7 pm











Thursday, October 20, 2016

Here's why Sajjangarh Zoo in Udaipur a must visit

  
As the incredible Rajasthan always welcomes with the warm “Padharo maahro desh”, we keep coming to the princely state for more History, culture, art and adventure. So here we went on exploring more of Udaipur on the second day of our trip.

We reached Sajjangarh Biological Park (sanctuary) as suggested by friends.  .
Gate on left leads to the Zoo. Gate on right is for palace entry
The entry tickets has a separate counter fifteen meters away from the main gate. 
Ticket costs Rs 30 for Indians and Rs 300 for foreigners. Still camera charges are Rs 80 and Video Camera charges are Rs 200.

Timings- 9 to 5:30 pm daily, closed on Tuesday  

Spread over a total area of 36 heactares, this park was established with the objective of conserving endangered flora and fauna and developing among visitors an empathy for wild animals. The zoo is flagged with boards on wildlife conservation and protection.

You can tour the park on foot. I do not recommend it, since its too tiring and hot under the sun right on your head. The walking paths are without shades.

Or else you can buy tickets for Golf Cart at Rs 50 each for a 90 minutes ride. The carts that accommodates 6 people in one go, are noiseless and battery operated, hence cause no pollution or disturbance for the environment.  The only limitation- The cart moves only when full. The management might convince you to pay Rs 60 in case you want to make it move early.

The third most exciting mode of travelling is bicycle. These non fancy-no gear-manual cycles can put you through a real endurance test. They charge Rs 20 per hour. One can cycle through the whole sanctuary in less than two hours. Needless to say, we chose to cycle. 

The only mistake we did - We did not cover our heads. 
Advisable- Carry a hat/stoll/cap to protect your head from direct sun, lest you should be dehydrated/get headache.  

Cycle ki sawari
The pathways are beautiful and very well maintained. Sajjangarh Zoo is a polythene free area dotted with bins and banners that discourage people from littering.



                          


It is a visual treat to see several species of animals in large allocated spaces. Meeting Ostrich was a pleasant surprise. 




                                  
Witnessing tortoises fight with each other was amusing. Who could imagine these slow timid creatures fighting? But they did! 

The most interesting enclosure was of the croc’s. The tank had glass walls for the visitors to look into the croc’s eye. However, the reptile chose to relax on the sand and not enter into the water. Huh, tough luck! 

We also saw the four legged animals which had committed suicide in front of Salman Khan’s car. The black buck.  hehe.


Black Buck


A resting tigress 
Wolf enclosure


Some treks were steep where we had to drag the cycles along. The whole cycling experience is just wonderful.

  • Wear shoes else cycling or walking would be difficult. 
  • Carry water with you. Though the zoo has water coolers at short distances, your golf cart may not stop everywhere.
  • Please maintain silence lest you should scare the animals.

The Monsson Palace, on the adjacent road is also visible from the zoo. The heat slowed us down and we kept taking short breaks under trees' shade. By the exit time, we literally fled with our cycles without looking at the animals since it was too hot! I don’t remember how many times we had refilled our water bottles. Sweating and tired we returned the cycles post two hours of adventure.

As we exited the Zoo with bagful of memories and camera full of pictures, we contemplated whether or not to visit the Monsoon Palace. To know what happened next, read here.


P.S- This trip of mine to Udaipur was in Oct 2016.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Bollywood Dandiya Raas 2016- Gurgaon



Gurgaon, 10th October 2016: The time of the year has arrived when everyone is ready to tap their
feet on the beats of famous Bollywood item numbers wearing the traditional clothes bought from
the expensive designer boutiques. It’s Navratri.





Kingdom of Dreams, which carries a great reputation of hosting some of the most talked about musical nights of Delhi – NCR, hosted a 3 days Dandiya Event - Bollywood Dandiya Raas 2016 organised by Pearl Wedding and Entertainment. Pearl group have been organising the biggest Dandiya event in Delhi – NCR from last 4 years and this year it was bigger and better than ever, they came up with loads of WOW element like live music, live dance  performances, different competitions, decorative stalls for shopping and yes lots of different gifts for the participants.



The first day of the event was a mega hit as the Punjabi and Bollywood singer, IndeepBakshi, fame from “Saturday Saturday and kala chasma from the movie “Baarbaardekho” made the crowd go mad with his high voltage performance.

The infectious chart busters from his newly released album “Bad wali Feeling” was too much for the crowd to handle. Even with a traffic struck Friday night, people came from all parts to rejoice the beats of Dandiya with the troupe from Gujarat teaching them the GarbaRaas.








The night started with a singing duo from Gujrat who sung some traditional Garba and people became a part of the dance formation.

It was a spectacular to watch people swirl in a massive circular formation. As the night progressed, the pop-star ‘IndeepBakshi’ combined the power packed Bhangra and the rhythmic beats of Danidya and the people were floored by his energy.

The second and third day witnessed some enthralling and intoxicating performances by Pinki
Maidasani and Farhad Bhiwandiwaland with people turning up in large number to cash the
weekend.


















Gujarati dance troupe along with electrifying Barqat band brought the flavour of Gujarat
to our city. Crowd also got a chance to satiate their taste buds with different cuisines from various parts of India at the very famous Cultural Gully.


  


PINKI MAIDASANI:

PinkyMaidasani is an Indian Idol 3 finalist &bollywood playback singer. She has sung for various Bollywood movies song like Kiklikaler di from Luv ShuvTey Chicken Khurana , dekh le kismat yaar from Shrafat Gayi Tel Lene. She is doing many live shows within and outside India.

FARHAD BHIWANDIWALA:

Farhad comes from a Parsi family and is a known playback singer who has sung many songs for

Bollywood. He has sung for famous Bollywood actors like Sanjay Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan.

Barqat Band

Barqat Band is one of the most famous & known bands of India. India’s got talent 2016 Finalist Afzal Ahmad and his band is among the group. This Band has done lots of live shows with many celebrities artists like Neha Thakur , Sunidhi Chauhan , Rakesh Maini , etc.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

One rainy day in Nainital




Continued from Day 2 after trip to Kilbury Forest.

It poured as returned from Kilbury. The roads started to get jam-packed because of two reasons. One rains, and two the last day of Naina Devi Mela. The plan for more local sightseeing had to be canceled. Suddenly God made her presence felt. Nanda Devi Shobha Yatra (procession) crossed our hotel. It was the last day of the Nanda Devi festival before idol immersion in late evening. The energy, the enthusiasm and love of devotees was worth watching as they pulled the rath (chariot) of Naina Devi Maa across the steep lanes amid continuous drizzle.
                         




Devotees swayed singing folk songs and praises for Devi Maa. Prasad was generously distributed to everyone on the streets. Each year the festival is celebrated with much pomp & flare and Devi Maa is given a warm farewell, promising to celebrate next year again.

As rain halted, we sneaked out on Mall road looking for something unique to eat. We enjoyed tea and soya momos. (Veg for a change. Husband please take note of this!). It drizzled again as we took shelter in a tea stall.

Spotted this attractive blue house on the street from the restaurant
We rushed back to our hotel and stayed in till dinner time. Special mention of Hotel Treebo Cloud 7 for the things they have in their rooms for guests. Super cool !! 




As soon as we stepped out around seven it started pouring again, adding to our worries for next day. It was indeed very sweet of the hotel manager to lend us his umbrella for the evening. We headed to China Town restaurant for dinner. The place is usually crowded with a queue in waiting always. The love for momos took husband there and we had a big meal at very economical price.




Don’t expect hygiene, nice ambiance or quick service in the overtly crowded eating joint. Looks like a shabby canteen where people huddle like chickens in coop. I found the food average, just like any eating joint serving Chinese. Half my appetite died looking at the poor sanitation. Back of my mind, I prayed we don’t get an upset stomach.

Shops in Nainital shut as early at 8 pm. Streets start to bear the deserted look by 9 pm. Our plan of buying an umbrella was shattered hence. We were worried for next day which we had scheduled for Bhimtal and Naukuchitaal. How will we carry our expensive camera? The thought was killing us!

Being in the travel industry and having a travel freak wife (yay), husband strategizes holiday very well. So we had premeditated the next day in sequence- a boat ride early morning, breakfast on hotel terrace, check out at eleven, visit the nearby places whole day and board Delhi bound volvo from Haldwani in evening. The success of the arrangement was totally in the hands of Rain God.


We crashed around 11 pm while rains lashed the silent streets non stop. 

Stay tuned for Day 3...


P.s - This trip was in September 2016


By the way this post made it to the top blog of the day on Indiblogger home page 



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