Vaishno Devi trip 2026

Kehte hain jab maa bulati hain to jaana hota hai. This bulava came through my yoga teacher. She asked me if I was interested in coming with her to this trip.

The best part of any trip is it's planning phase. It puts a lot of excitement in me. Things to do in Jammu and then katra apart from the mandir visit. Places nearby. Based on my initial info, this is what I planned. 

Vaishno Devi official shrine board official website - https://online.maavaishnodevi.org/#/login

First things first. Let me give you enough info which can help you plan around 75% of your trip. First, check the temperatures during day time and night time. Many of the Vaishno Devi yatra bookings can be planned sitting right inside your home, all of it through Mata Vaishno Devi shrine board official website. You first have to register online for your travel. The website starts taking bookings approx. 2 months before hand. Can you do it last minute if you want? Yes you can, but not from the website. Also you have to be lucky to get things exactly the way you want if you are doing it last minute. The shrine board physical offices can be found at Jammu airport, Jammu railway station, Katra railway station etc. Once you decide the date and register, you need an RFID card without which no entry. Even if you register online called as yatra parchi, you still have to go to one these physical places to get the RFID. Only parchi, will not give you an entry, RFID will. On Jammu airport, it is a self use kiosk. You need aadhar everywhere so keep it handy. It prints the RFID and a chord is kept there which helps you put it around your neck. Cost: Nothing 

Other things you can book on the official website are:

1. Mode of transport - 

a)You can either climb yourself to the mandir, which a distance of 13.5 km to 15km based on which route you take. No need for booking anything if your transport is your own legs but you need to finalize which route you will take. I will come back to this later.

b)Second is ponies, horses, palkhi. - You can do this on the spot. Not available online. There are official booths near the shrine entrance and some along the path to the mandir, with standard rates displayed. Pay there. The minute you enter mandir area, these horse people/palkhi guys will start chasing you to get a ride from them. Don't worry there are plenty of horses available.

c) Helicopter ride. You can book helicopter on the official website. Please do so a month or two in advance. Infact, figure out how you will reach first, booking availability and then book your train or flight to Jammu/Katra. Helicopter is so much in demand that when booking opens 2 months in advance, it gets booked in a couple of days. Cost 2.4 k per person one way. One issue is weather. If visibility drops, helicopter trips get cancelled and although you get a refund (only for this reason), you will have to have a plan B in place. Keep plan B ready for everything.

d) Battery car - Can be booked online (recommended). You can book at official website online and also at onsite booths (only if available). I think they must be keeping some quota. Please note that it only works on one part of the route and is not a full - bottom to top ride. Covers only 1/2 the road. So plan B should be ready in case you don't get a booking. Also it has fixed operating hours, not 24 hours although the mandir is open 24 hours.

e) Strollers and stroller pushers are available if you have kids with you. Standard rates apply if you book at the official booth else you bargain. Not available on website.

d) Aarti - If you want to attend aarti then you can book it from website at an approx cost of 2k. There are two aartis in a day and main mandir which is also called Bhawan is closed for 2 hours during aarti for other public. So know the timings early on in planning phase. If you reach Bhawan during these hours, you will have to wait for the 2 hour aarti the me to send.

e) There is a cave at Ardha kuwari and that too needs a pre booking. Note that if you book it on the spot, waiting times are as long a 24 hours or more and people spend the night there if they want to see those caves. So be ready for this or make last minute decision to skip. Cost: free

Tip: make two bookings - a previous day booking and current day booking. That will take care of waiting times.

d) All arties, havan, pooja, paath can be booked online.

e) Accomodation is available near the mandir and that can be booked.

Looking at all options, first you need to know some pre-requisites. 

2. Pre-requisites - Understand that the shrine is open 24 hours, so people climb even at night. The climb can take anywhere between 4-5 hours for experts and up to 7 -8 hours for beginners. So your date of entry into the shrines entry gate is your date of yatra registration. Are you entering the gates before 12 midnight or after? I am giving a map here to tell you the routes to complete the yatra and the USP of each route.

3. Routes - The main Mandir of Vaishno Devi is called Bhawan. The Trikuta mountain has 3 main visiting points. 

a) Starting point - Entry point is where they do security check and let you in. 

b) Ardha kuwari - This is the half way mark between entry and Bhawan.

c) Bhawan - the actual Vaishno Devi mandir which is in a cave. So do you travel inside a cave. No! The old cave route operates just few days a year. Everyday route is a man made entrance.

d) Bhairon baba mandir - It is above Bhawan. If you don't visit here, your yatra is considered incomplete. So I guess I did an incomplete yatra. 

Now that you know the main 4 points on the route, it is easy to explain. 

You get 2 options from starting point to Ardh Kuwari. See map. Banganga route is the old traditional route. It has a gradient so it is slightly difficult from second option route called Tarakote marg.

Banganga route - plus and minus points. 

Plus - All small mandirs are on this route eg Banganga river, mundan points, Charan paduka Mandir. This is the route Mata rani used. 

Minus - Horses, ponies and palkhis are on this route. Too crowded, smelly and the horses seem dangerous ( they are not but still...). Gradient is higher than its alternative.

Tarakote marg - 

Plus- Created for walking pilgrims. No horses etc. It's clean. Gradient is gradual. 

Minus - Does not have any mandirs etc. It is longer than Banganga route.

Till this point we have not spoken about battery cars because none exist on these routes. Time taken for each point will be given later in the form of a table.

On reaching the half way mark ie. Ardha Kuwari, again you have two paths to choose from

1. Hathi matha marg - again a traditional route which Mata raani had herself used

Pros- No pros here except that this is a traditional route and horses, palkhis use it. If you want to use a horse or palkhi this route is the only option.

Cons- It is very steep, I hear and therefore energy draining. If you have chosen to walk avoid it. Again it is a smelly route and crowded because of ponies etc. People who had chosen to walk, many get converted to horse back because it is a difficult trek. So more horses n palkhis..BTW, half way point again has official booths for horses  and palkhis. So if you had not chosen earlier you can do so here.

2. Himkoti marg - This is a new pedestrian track and it is here that you get battery cars. Most cars are already booked online and if you are lucky, you can book at the counter subject to availability. The forking happens slightly before Ardha kuwari temple but don't worry, you can still visit Ardha kuwari and use a tunnel road to join himkoti marg. If you want the car, come back to the fork and enter Himkoti marg.

Pros - Again since there are no horses, this is a clean route. Battery cars available. Strollers available for kids. Even adults sit in strollers but since that is not legal they take you only from one cctv camera to others and charge a bomb. This a gentle gradient but I won't give you false hopes. This is not gentle, it's just gentler than hathi matha marg. Hathi matha, I hear, is brutal. This route (Himkoti) is also shorter than the other.

Cons- Nothing much except that by now you are tired and it starts feeling endless.  Also, now you dent have hors option and you are stuck to walking. There are tiny snakes enroute so be careful. Monkeys are everywhere. 

A tip here: Wear shoes while climbing because horse shit has tetanus in it. An open wound or broken skin will invite major trouble. 

Dhanya hai woh log who were walking barefoot with babies. The paved blocks are so spikey that walking on it is a real test.

What did I do - I chose Banganga route because I wanted to visit temples in the first half and then chose himkoti marg. Believe me, reaching half way itself is very tiring. Collect all of your energy, take Mata ranis name and start walking the second half. It feels endless.

After Bhawan, comes Bhairon mandir. There is a ropeway option for Rs 100 per person which can be booked online. Horses, ponies palkhis are available and of course your own legs.

Now that I have given you the general info, let me talk about my experience and start my blog. Jai Mata Di. We had decided to start early like 4 am on October 1, walk up and then down. Helicopter was not available as per our plans. However, while booking ropeway to Bhairon mandir, last minute I decided to check if any helicopter was available. To my surprise, 12 noon slot was available and this changed our entire planning. So instead of starting early morning, we decided to start the previous night itself. So we actually started climbing a day earlier at 9:30 pm . Now you will understand that your planning has to be good. We took a previous day registration RFID at jammu airport. Approximately it took us 6 hours to climb and reach Bhawan gates but we thought we might need 7-8 hours.  We came out of Bhawan at around 5:45am. 

When you start walking, the first few steps itself told me that it's not going to be easy but I made up my mind and started climbing. In the first 1 km, you realise how heavy I was breathing (especially because I was wearing a mask). Horse shit can cause allergy and I wanted to avoid an allergic attack. I am allergic to a whole lot of things so this was just to be safe. At many places the gradient is 45 degrees or more but overall it is 20-35 degrees. 

Climbing at night has its pros. It is cool and you sweat less. Cons- you don't get to see any views. The night atmosphere is equally lively. Bhajans are going on at various places. Shops are on and so are restaurants. We were told there are hardly any pilgrims and yet for us it was quite crowded so I cannot imagine the crowd on special days like Navratri. 

Tip for climbers. As long as you are walking, you feel hot. As you go up, if you take a break, the cold will suddenly hit you. I guess the trick is to be a tortoise. Slow n steady. 

I liked the Charan paduka Mandir. It is nicely decorated. A major difference I saw here is that all the mandirs are less traditional. It felt more like buildings than mandirs from outside, especially the Bhawan doesn't have any mandir vibe from outside and is more like a building. No carvings, no sculpture, no traditional architecture, no use of wood. The mandir is actually inside a cave but no sign of cave from the outside. This picture is taken from the internet. Cameras are not allowed and photography via phone too is not allowed inside any temple.

When we finally reached Ardh Kuwari, we decided to take a break and have some tea. My teacher wanted to go to the garbhjoon gufa but the waitlist was 24 hours. The entire middle area  was filled with sleeping people. You get blankets on rent (or by only paying deposit, no rent). We took a break and the cold hit us. We tried to see if the person in charge, would allow us to get in with the current batch entering the cave but the main guy was not available. Picture taken from internet.

We finally decided to go ahead with the trek from Ardha Kuwari. At this point I was mulling over the horse option. Battery cars don't ply at night. A little push from my teacher and I was back on my feet, trudging along. The distance between me and ma'am had increased a lot. I was lagging behind and she had to wait for me from time to time. I used to sit on the benches provided, for a minute and continue the walk. In the middle of nowhere a guy came along asking me to sit in a stroller and he will take me up. It felt godsend but the ride lasted only for few hundred metres and he asked me to get down because of cctv. You can't use strollers for adults. He charged me a lot so I was duped. More than money, I was disappointed that I was not getting a ride up. So I was back on my feet. This was a horse free zone so I knew that there was no help coming. So every step was put with Jai Mata Di in my head, asking her to give strength. 

Finally when you see Bhawan, you feel relieved that yes, we finally made it but hold on. Inside Bhawan too there is a long walk. Nothing is allowed inside Bhawan including your phone. There are smart lockers and regular lockers with lock n key. Smart lockers were not available and other lockers needed me to climb down stairs (Oh no!) and walk a distance. We kept everything inside including shoes and then we had to walk on the worst paved roads. The pavement blocks had a broken design and many were actually broken too. It's so difficult to walk on it barefoot. Later, my hotel staff told me that the horrible design was made in such a way that during rains, horses and people don't slip. It would be a major tragedy if that happens especially on peak days. That design drains water faster.  Photo taken by me. Thats Bhawan.

The pavement blocks. Photo taken by me. This is still a better version. There were actual broken blocks too.

Picture taken from official website. Not clicked by me.

We then stood in a queue for sometime. It was 4:30 am. Suddenly someone asked us all to move faster since the mandir will close for aarti soon. Whoever enters the area near cave gets the darshan. I actually ran to get the darshan. Only God knows where I found that last bit of energy. The darshan was amazing and I was glad that I finally did it. I offered a chunari, choli and a tiny jewellery (fake of course) to the 3 idols as it is customary. I got the choli and chunari back as prasad. I had purchased prasad (food prasad) near the locker area which I didn't take inside the cave. The main shrine asks you to leave coconuts outside so I will not recommend buying a coconut but it's upto you. The helicopter also doesn't allow taking the coconut with you. My teacher had purchased the coconut. The helicopter guy broke it and drained the water out before allowing her to take it inside the helicopter. Helicopter people confiscate phones too because photography is not allowed.

Now, I wasn't keen on going ahead with the Bhairon baba mandir plan. My teacher decided to go, so I took a horse ride to the helipad and it was a wow experience. All the views I missed because of my night Trek were laid out in front of my eyes as the helicopter zoomed into the sky. One more item done on my bucket list. 10/10, I recommend.

This photo was taken from outside the helipad, standing on the road.

Tip: If you have booked a helicopter ride for say 12 noon and you are done with your darshan early, then there is no need to wait till 12. In fact, they encourage you to come early because if the weather and visibility changes, then the ride gets cancelled. You will get a refund but then you should have your plan B ready. So if visibility is good, go for it. 

I came back to the hotel, had a nice bath and some breakfast. I slept like a log. After a few hours I got up fresh and energised. The soreness in my legs was much less. Later in the evening we went shopping at the local market in Katra. Bought some dry fruits from Baniya store.

Tip: I purchased some macadamia nuts. Please check while buying. They put empty shells too. The nuts taste amazing.

Purchased some more clothes (from a JnK govt shop - nice shop) and souvenir of the cave in which Mata rani resides. There are 3 deities viz Maa Saraswati, Maa Vaishnavi (also called Sherawali and is a form is Shakti) and Maa Lakshmi. The one in the middle is Vaishnavi

The JnK government shop has many schemes for women and the guy explained it to us. Frankly, we don't need carpets, pashminas etc because it's not cold at our end. 

Day 3 - We went on a trip to Patnitop. It's a beautiful scenic road. Our first stop was at skyview by Emperean. It has a gondola ride. 

Below you have many adventure sports, of which, I did magic carpet and zipline. Well well!!! Magic carpet is nothing but a travellator with nothing to hold on to. LOL!!! It was the most stupid thing I have ever seen under the category of adventure sports. Zipline was amazing and we went from one pillar to another, a total of 9 posts. It was fun. I highly recommend it. The place is beautiful. Keep some time on hand if you want to do everything, a few hours maybe. The place is scenic and photographers will love it.

On the way to Patnitop. These are all phone pics so no zoom.

From here we started off to a a local mandir called Nag Mandir. This is a mandir where your manokamna comes true so a must visit. It is an old temple, very small but has original wooden architecture. There are some children's parks to visit if you have bacha company. We are Ramphal fruit dish. This fruit is different from the fruit in Maharashtra. It tasted somewhere between an apple and pear.

Again, photography not allowed at Nag mandir. This is from the internet.

Ramphal in Patnitop.

Ramphal in Maharashtra

Next we went to Natha top. As you climb the hills, you are amidst the clouds. The weather changes and it starts getting more scenic. We stopped at one view point and enjoyed the scene and weather. Loved it.

This is how the weather changes. Entering the clouds.

We left the place at 5:30 or so and headed back to our hotel Devi Grand in Katra. This is an ok ok hotel. 

Day 4 was our last day. We had nothing to do today. Spent a lazy day resting. At 3 pm, we said goodbye to Katra and Jammu. It was a trip well done. 

Overall in the trip, I tried their rajmash rice, a local rajma dish made in desi ghee at Jammu. I tried the kalari kulcha at a dhaba on the way to Patnitop, which is a local dish made of bread slices filled with a stuffing made from milk. It is eaten with anardana chutney. It was nice. 

Kalari Kulcha

I also tasted Ramphal. On the last day, I searched for local kashmiri cuisine restaurant in katra. BTW, you won't get non veg restaurants in katra and most veg restaurants have food without onion and garlic. I found a restaurant called lazeez nearby to my hotel which had saag and nadru on their menu but both are seasonal and I was out of luck. If you want to try kashmiri non veg you have to go to Jammu. I was not able to do that. There isn't much to Jammu. It's not even scenic,  no local architecture. Even in Katra apart from the shrine, you have nothing. So come here only if you want to go for darshan, otherwise it's not a touristy place. Patnitop is 2+ hours away from Katra. 

So overall a good trip.

Travel blogging and its use

When I started writing my travelogues, it was purely so to document my vacation, such that in future I could just go back and relive those moments, those small details which I will surely forget (because I am a forgetful person). I am so happy that so many friends of mine find them useful and every year at least one friend has used this information to plan a trip suiting their need. This year, 3 friends have used my blogs as reference and booked trips to various destinations - two to Manali and one to Europe. It really feels great when my "timepass" activity is of use to someone. Thank you so much for your response. I feel blessed.

So based on my interaction with all my friends (to solve specific queries for them to customize their travel), I have understood how people think differently while planning a trip to the same destination. There are different categories of people as below

Some of my friends take a vacation only to take rest. Sleep and relax. I totally understand them because they are extremely busy in their careers and need a break from work. They just want to break the monotony, order yummy food using their finger tips, have an occasional dip in the pool and maybe after 2-3 days of complete rest go around their destination for a day or two max. Well, you might say, then why don't you just stay at home instead of travelling somewhere HAHAHA!!! but then staying at home is really not a vacation. You still need to take care of your home, the maids, food, blah blah (and risk the temptation to open your laptop and answer that stinker mail which has popped up on your phone and upset you). Obviously such people have/like to spend money on a high end property like a resort which is full of activities so that the kids can enjoy on their own, in the security of the premises. So they choose a place which will have kids activities like a tennis court in-house. A property by the beach gives a unique advantage so that you can enjoy your evening stroll on the beach, put your feet in the water and just chillax. I suggest going to beaches in the winter vacations and choose a mountain view resort in a cool place in the summers.

Some people, like me, are outdoor people. I feel that staying inside a hotel is a complete waste of time and money. I want to be out there taking in the fresh mountain air or hiking or just go sight-seeing. I want to see the place, interact with locals, observe their life, eat local food, enjoy nature, see every interesting place there is to see and experience, smell the roses, take plenty of photos, capture every mood, light, nature and  people. I hate selfies and don't click them myself. I feel that sometimes going out and sitting in the lap of nature is a much better stress buster than just lazing around in the hotel bed. 

So people, please decide if your body is tired or is your mind tired and choose accordingly. Unless you identify your vacation needs correctly, you will not be able to beat the stress out of you. Yes! physical exhaustion needs rest but in case of mental stress, your mind needs to be emptied out and the mind needs to be filled with experiences that will release the happy hormones. If your job requires you to sit in that chair and "ande ubao" then believe me, you really don't need any physical rest. In fact its the opposite, you just need to start walking down that riverside or a beautiful mountain path or walk along the sea shore. When you come back, your mind should be rejuvenated.

There is another set of people who wish to do group travel with travel agencies. I understand these people completely. There are multiple advantages of doing so. First, you do not have to go through the headache of planning a vacation. Most tour operators ensure that you don't miss any touristy spot and although you may not get to spend time at every place but you surely do get a photo stop. Thoroughly professional operators like Kesari and Veena ensure that you don't ever need to lift your luggage throughout the trip. You can make new friends on the trip and get to play games, sing and dance. Very rarely a family (who is travelling by themselves) will sing or play dumb charades amongst themselves. Its the same family members, same problems, just a change a place. Having  professionals taking care of your entertainment needs makes a world of difference. A friend told me her reason for choosing a group tour. She has two teenage daughters. Our families became friends while on one such group tour and till date we have managed to keep in touch. Due to a traffic jam, somewhere in the mountain roads, we were way behind schedule. It was way past midnight (approx 2:30 am) when we finally reached our next destination. It was at this point that my friend said, "Anagha, imagine the tension we would have been, if it was just us, travelling at such odd hours with two teenage daughters in the middle of nowhere. Right now, we are an entire bus full of people and that gives me a sense of security. This is my primary reason why I like to travel in a group." Absolutely agree with her. Safety is one reason that beats everything.

My personal view on travelling in groups (I mean professionally managed group tours and not group of friends, please understand the difference here) - Me n my family hates the 6am wake up call, 7 am at the breakfast table. 8:30 inside the bus. Nooooooo. I don't want anyone waking me up on a vacation. I want to get up from the bed because a bird was chirping outside my window and I was not able to identify the bird. So the first thing I do, is watch the bird singing and if it allows, take a photo of that beauty. I love being in groups but I don't like being herded like a group of cattle. As I said, I love to go sight seeing so once I get out of the hotel at 9:30 or 10 post breakfast, I will come back to the hotel only to sleep which gives me almost 12 hours. Full day outdoor, full "bhatkanti". Also note that when you are on your own, you can never do as much sightseeing as planned by the tour operators but then that's ok. "Kuch na kuch to miss hone wala hai, Bunny" said Dipika to Ranbir and although I absolutely agree with this dialogue, I don't like Dipika at all HAHAHA. So for people like me, don't ever spend on a fancy expensive resort property. Secondly such properties are always away from the main action spots. So your travel time on a daily basis increases. Second reason why I don't like group tours is because you are dependant on that itinerary and God forbid, if you are unwell or having motion sickness, it becomes very difficult to handle. The bus is not going to stop for you at every instance. You don't get the option to turn around and come back and you also don't get any customised food and the restaurant, where your lunch is prebooked, may be too busy to handle a special request.

So what do you do. Get the best of both worlds. Mix and match vacations. Some vacations should be relaxed and some hectic - full on dhamaal. 

Friends, generally, enquire on phone about the budget I needed for my itinerary. Some enquire if they can mix two destinations which I have visited. Some enquire if elders can take up the same itinerary as me. Elders are actually fitter than youngsters nowadays and are more willing to walk or ready to take the local transport but based on specific situations, I have advised people not to follow my itinerary for senior citizens especially in foreign countries. The local travel, say in Europe or Singapore, is so convenient but you have to realise that not all people can walk as much we do. For example, we as a couple can walk endlessly but even our itinerary changed with a kid in tow. We eat wherever we like e.g. roadside eateries and we don't have much restrictions in our diet because we are open to tasting local food as well we eat non veg. A kid or a senior citizen may not be able to handle such food preferences. In such cases, group tour can be better where you will get your paneer, roti and pulao.

Every year some friend or the other has enquired with me regarding a location I visited and I am always happy to help. I know most of their family members personally hence i can give few personal suggestions as well because I know their likes and dislikes and physical capabilities. 

Funny incident - I had a friend who was so lazy that when his wife was asking for a vacation, he just booked a room in a 5 start hotel in the same city and went there to spend a weekend. Aisa bhi hota hai!!

Last but not the least, I urge everyone with kids to ensure that kids do not get their mobiles in hand while on vacation. I have seen kids who are watching reels etc throughout the journey and they did not once look out of the window. What happened to the curious child? A parent was excited to see a flock of birds and she asked the kids to look out and one of them said, "Don't worry. I have watched an entire documentary on Discovery." Really!!!!! Huh!!. God save this world.

Shimla Manali 2024 travelogue

 Shimla Manali 2024

This was my second trip to Manali but since hubby and kid had not seen the place, we planned for it. I had not seen Shimla so thought of adding it. What did I think of about adding Shimla....well read on to find out. We generally use Veena world tour as a guideline for planning. However, please note that their tours are solid action packed and if you want a leisurely tour then be ready to drop few or many things from it. We obviously didn't want to be rushed and we definitely didn't want anyone to give us wake up calls so we went on our own. So here it goes....

Day 1 Pune to Chandigarh 4:10 am flight. We left our house at 11:30 pm or so (and hence counting it as a day) spent the night at the airport. Btw, this was the only direct flight available to Chandigarh. All others have a stop either at Delhi or Jaipur. So its your choice on what you want - direct flight with bad timings or a 1 stop flight with suitable timings.

Day 2 - reached Chandigarh at around 6:30am (2+ hours flight), had an amazing brownie and tea at Chaiwala (that's the name of the stall) - a tea stall inside the airport arrival area and yes, it didn't cost a bomb. Our driver was waiting for us dot on time. This cab service was recommended by a friend who has used it frequently and I sincerely thank her for giving us a very reliable and safe guy to drive us around. He was acting as our guide too. We had breakfast at some highway place ahead of Parwanoo. We reached Simla by 12:30. 

My kid said that scenery enroute was similar to Sahyadris (in the monsoon) just more greener and he wasn't wrong. We had lunch at our hotel. Hotel had a beautiful view of a valley filled with deodar trees. It was quite chilly that day. Around 4pm, we went for some local sightseeing. We went up the lift to mall road and did some shopping. Missed the chance of going to Jhaku temple because the last ropeway cable car was at 5/6....yes that's the answer we got at the ticket counter (so no idea if it was 5 or 6 or somewhere in between) and we had reached that counter at 4:45. So if it's 5 then might have to come back in the same downward journey of that same cable car. Well we got similar answer on second enquiry, so didn't take a chance. Mall road is fun for shoppers. My favourite brand of winter jackets "Fuel" had it's company showroom called Knits here so I happily treated myself to an overcoat style jacket. Just FYI for my shopper friends, this company shop is available in Shimla, Nainital, Mussoorie and Dehradun and offer exquisite European style jackets. Purchased a sweater for my kid from a local shop plus a beanie. After some snacks and chai we returned to our amazing hotel, rather BnB called The Bodhi tree. Clean, neat rooms and linen, nice hot water and a view to die for. Food is also very good. We had a local dish called Rehru which I can loosely call a HImachali kadhi and it was yum. Do try. I recommend this place. Just one downside, there was nothing nearby for our driver to eat. He had to travel further away for food. However he never told this to us while in Shimla. Our driver pretty well knows the entire North India and Shimla Manali were not exception and we were dependant on him for local inputs. The hotel offers parking. The temperature in Shimla that day was close to 10 or less than 10 degrees that day. However the next day was not cold.

 

The view from our room

Day 3- Today we went to Kufri. The entire road is green. Kufri has a lot of adventure sports like zip line, rapelling etc. However we are not an adventurous family and although I am an exception, I have already done most of the adventure sports. Only remaining on my bucket list is sky diving. The driver stopped us at a place where all of this were offered but as I said we only chose what we wanted. You can book at these early places or go to that spot and then pay. Both options are available. We took a horse ride to the top which was approx. 20 min one way. On the top you can take photos sitting on yaks, with angora rabbits etc. There are lots of games for kids like rifle shooting, archery etc. Further ahead you can go to step farms and apple orchards. We didn't go there. The place has many shops mostly woolen wear and food. We had some yummy maggi and tea and started our downward horse ride. This is more of an adventure considering the road is full of pebbles and rocks, very narrow and steep. You will be advised how to weight shift so as to remain on the horse. LOL. Back to Shimla, we went to Lakkad bazaar and purchased some items for gifting. Note that Shimla is based on multiple levels of the mountain so you need to keep climbing up and down. So lakkad bazaar is located one level up and you have to climb up. There are a lot of things you can buy as gifts but my brain didn't work on the spot and in hindsight, I feel I could have purchased a lot more as gifts. The wooden containers like casseroles and dry fruit containers or masala dabba were really beautiful but then since I use a dishwasher, I now buy only dishwasher specific items but good as a gift to someone who can use because quality, finish and carving was excellent. The wind chimes were amazing and in hindsight I needed one. I feel nowadays, everyone has everything and buying gifts is a difficult thing. You can't carry bigger size things with you due to luggage restriction and small things can be unnecessary. Back at the hotel room, we saw an amazing sunset right from our bed and Eid ka chand since it was Eid time.

The horse ride at Kufri

Sunset from our room

In a nutshell - Overall there aren't many things to do in Shimla. Frankly I wasn't interested in the standard sightseeing like the church. I missed "The Ridge" somehow and dont know how much of a loss it was. You can easily skip Shimla if you like or be very specific on what exactly you are interested in. As I said earlier, in Shimla you need to walk up and down because that's how the city is located and although the corporation has a lift facility, you have to spend some extra minutes buying the ticket and for also for space in the lift. You also need to walk to the lift if your driver cannot find a place to drop you off near the lift. It is a crowded place. On the other hand, Manali is more flat. If you skip Shimla, I have another recommendation in it's place so keep reading on.

 

Day 4- Today we started for Manali. The way is filled with hair pin bends and that took a toll on my kid who has motion sickness. Somehow even the medication given before starting the journey did not work for him. I was worried because you are in the middle of nowhere and going forward is the only way out. Thankfully he felt better after few hours aani aamcha jeev bhandyat padla. If your child too has motion sickness skip Shimla and go directly to Manali because the road from Chandigarh is straighter and its a bigger highway.

On our way, we saw the Sundernagar lake and the Pandoh dam. There is so much road and tunnel work happening in Himachal that the place bears no resemblance to my memories of Manali 20 years ago. We took a chai stop at some roadside dhaba which had a river as it's backdoor neighbour. Although Shimla was so cold, our travel to Manali was a totally sunny day. It was hot.

 

Pandoh dam

We took a stop at Kullu at Vimla wools outlet. Kullu has a lot of shawl factories and you can buy some good woolen stuff here. All the things purchased here were used by us so I can say that the quality is really good. Finally, we reached Manali around 8:30 pm. We generally used to leave hotel room after breakfast which in most case was 9-9:30. It took us quite a longer time than usual because of our frequent stops due to my kids health. That is the entire reason why we didn't go with a tour operator. Our life was so much easier because we were on our own. The car was an Ertiga so its spacious. My kid could sleep in it, we could stop when we wanted and where we wanted. We made decisions on the go.

When we reached Manali at night, it was super cold unlike the hot day temperature. Our hotel was very average and not a recommendation and hence not mentioning it here. We were located on Hidimba temple road.

Day 5- Today we did local sightseeing. First stop obviously Hidimba temple and Ghatotkach temple. Here the atmosphere is quite festive. You can wear local outfits and click photos. You can click photos with angora rabbits. One Rajasthani guy was playing a traditional instrument called Ravanahatha, super melodious but I think he knew only one song "ud jaa kale Kawa..." The place was brimming with people and had a long queue for darshan. We took darshan from far. Ghatotkach mandir is an open mandir below a tree so there are no queues here, so do visit. Its just a 2 min walk from Hidimba.

 

Next stop was Club house. This is a HP government shopping plaza. Nearby you can do adventure activities like river crossing and zipline. We had an amazing lunch at German bakery just outside club house and although club house is not recommended, I totally recommend German bakery. Apart from bakery items, you get full fledged lunch menu and of course food is yummy. I repeat, Club house is a total disaster. Waste of time and energy. 

We then went to the best place in Manali..... Beas river. Wow. I loved this place 20 years back and I equally love it this time. I can spend hours by the river side with my feet soaking in the icy cold waters of the Beas. In fact I love the river side so much that I wanted to go there each day so yes its my personal favourite. The riverside has changed drastically - man made as well as by nature. There is so much "new" road work going on by the river side and secondly, last year there was so much water which came down from the mountains that the road was swept off, so the repair work adds to it. It was my son's first time and he was thoroughly enjoying playing in the water and collecting stones. Unfortunately, this time (ie 20 years later on my second visit to Manali), I found very less stones with mica. Manali has stones which contain mica, so next time you see a very shiny stone in Manali, you are looking at Mica. Rub your palm briskly and the mica will stick to your palm adding a natural shimmer on your skin. Maybe I did not look at the correct places.

The beautiful Beas

A shiny mica stone

Our next stop was Vasishta mandir. The temple has been recently renovated. I love this temple because of a personal connection with it. I belong to the same gotra, so in a way it's my ancestors temple. Luckily that evening, the temple had arranged dinner for girls belonging to this gotra who have married into another gotra. This is done on the eve of the janmadin of Guru Vasishta i.e. Chaitra shashthi (3 days after Gudhi padwa). The temple was being decorated for the occasion. It is located in such serene surroundings, beautiful snow covered mountain peaks. The carvings on the temple are awesome. Next to it is a Ram temple and Shiv temple. Also next to the temple are hot water springs.

The Vasishta temple

Beautiful snow capped peaks behind the temple

After darshan, we strolled on the street which has lots of shops and tapri restaurants. Kiddo is currently collecting state animal of every state. So went looking for a mountain leopard either in wood or metal. We found it in a tibetan shop. We then had a local dish called siddu. It was good and I will recommend it. We called it a day after this.

Day 6 - Today we planned for Solang, snow point and Atal tunnel. Solang valley is an open area with mountains surrounding it and a ropeway. Go here for paragliding. We had planned to stop here on our way back. Snow point is a place where you find snow all 12 months of the year (note - it is not fresh snow and is quite dirty). This is much before Rohtang pass. Rohtang pass is open only for a specific period of time so not many people get to go there. Atal tunnel is the latest attraction. We got ourselves suitable snow clothes and boots on rent in Manali itself. We did our bookings for ATV ride, skiing and tube ride in the same shop. There must be a 1000 shops which are govt registered who do this booking. All the mentioned sports are carried out on the other side of Atal tunnel. 

So reiterating, our plan was to stop at Solang on our way back and first stop was supposed to be Atal tunnel and the adventure sports.  There was a landslide much ahead of Solang on the way to Rohtang and hence we got caught in a major traffic jam. We reached Atal tunnel post 2 pm. The place is a must see for its natural beauty. There was fresh snowfall two days back and hence we could see white snow as against the dirty black snow before the tunnel. Once you cross the tunnel, you actually enter the Lahaul-Spiti area. It was freezing cold. We first had lunch at a cafe which was badly managed taking a lot of time for simple orders. The reason everyone was choosing this cafe was clean washrooms. Be ready for a queue. Dont underestimate the time in that queue. The place was packed with tourists. Finally we went for our adventure rides after 4pm or so. By the time we were done with it, it started raining and ice particles started hitting our face. It was like God was throwing crushed ice on us, just the orange or cola flavour was missing. Ice Gola ban jaata tha LOL. It was time to head back. It must have been past 6 pm easily but I didn't check the time. No time to check the time. I didn't even want to leave the place. There was so much left to be admired. There was rive flowing behind this adventure area, wahan to gaye bhi nahi. 

Now for my recommendation instead of Shimla. You can go to a place called Sisu lake which is located after Atal tunnel. I can only imagine it's beauty. The place we had gone was so very beautiful and I heard Sisu is way more beautiful than that. I have heard that there are hotels available to stay but please do some research before going. Remember, this is Spiti area which we are talking about and it is a high altitude place so you may have to read on that too.

Due to traffic jam even on our way back, we were left with no time to stop at Solang for paragliding. We also wanted to pick Pine cones. This is not really the season for it but we had spotted a place where we could pick them. However the rain too had become heavy and we just decided to head straight back to the hotel. Also, in Himachal, although you have a dedicated vehicle at your disposal, doesn't mean you can stop wherever you want. The roads are so narrow that when you stop, you can cause a jam.

Atal tunnel is a must visit, totally recommended. People, just because we lost a lot of time in traffic jam doesn't mean you too will encounter the same. The effort is worth it. Full marks to the natural beauty. The sports is just a side dish.

On our way back we stopped for some steaming hot momos and tea, and they were awesome. The rain was full on. As per our driver, the mountain peaks had snowfall. He mentioned that if you see the peak covered with what seems like a cloud then it is snowing there. Well you have to see it to differentiate it.

Guys, I am recommending our driver too. If you are planning for a trip to any part of North India, any state right up to Ladakh, you can hire him. He drives safely and is reliable. I can give you his contact details.

Day 7 -  The rains from yesterday had not stopped and had no signs of stopping. Today we had planned on Naggar castle, Knoi waterfall and Sajla Vishnu temple and waterfall. We dropped Sajla all together because of the rains. The Sajla waterfall is a small trek from the main road and we had no plans to walk in the rain. The way to Naggar is full of apple orchards. The plants were in full bloom making it picture perfect. This is not the apple season. We had a good time taking photographs. We saw many traditional houses on the way. It is now difficult to spot traditional architecture in Manali. Traditional houses have roofs made of slate rocks which are thinly cut. The house has a plinth which is around 2 feet tall made of stones and wooden beams. The rest of the house is made of wood or combination based on the financial strength of the person. Most of these houses store wood in one area (for fire). I did see few of these traditional houses in the Vasishta mandir area too. 

Naggar Castle

The Knoi waterfall is visible from the road itself. You can obviously go there and spend time if you want but for us it was raining heavily so we did not go near the waterfall and took a photo stop from the road itself.

 

Naggar castle houses an art gallery....bullshit. Don't fall for it, there is a tiny room which has a small village setup. If you are traveling for that, then don't go. The castle itself is a beautiful piece of traditional architecture and sculpture, very tastefully done and was /is still the residence of the king of Kullu. It now has a hotel and a fine dining restaurant. The food is really good and if you are visiting you can try it. There are lot of tiny restaurants/tapris outside the castle too so it's your choice. The view from the castle is really good. You can spend a lot time admiring the sculptures in wood and also the view from the castle. 

That stupid art gallery

Today, we only did half day sightseeing and returned to the hotel to relax and to do packing because next day was our return journey to Pune. We missed visiting Manikaran sahib gurudwara. This is in a totally different direction towards Kasol but we had put it in our plan. The road to Manikaran generally has traffic issues. There are hot springs in Manikaran too. We couldn't squeeze it in our itinerary although it was part of our initial plan because we didn't want the kid to again face motion sickness because of the winding road and secondly, we had a flight to catch and it was a risk with the traffic. Our decision proved correct since we heard there was a 4 hour jam that day.

Once we entered the border of Punjab, we took a quick stop for lassi. It was on my bucket list to have lassi in Punjab. It was good but frankly, we do get that kind of lassi even here. I don't recall where in Pune I had that lassi. Chandigarh has a defence airport but it is very tastefully done and it's huge. Also compared to Pune, there were very few travellers. So that's all folks. We enjoyed our time in Manali thoroughly. So long Manali, until next time.

Himalayas keep calling me but my kid said "No more mountains". Looks like I may have to do some solo trips :) Anyone wants to join me?

Zakir Khan live

 Attended Zakir Khan show. I was quite excited and looking forward to it because I rarely go for movies or events especially after boycotting trash Bollywood. I will first give my verdict and then get into details for whoever is interested in knowing what exactly happened. The Zakir Khan part of the show was enjoyable but overall experience of the event was totally frustrating. If I ever see Swiggy organising any show, it will be a big no from me.

First and foremost, what was announced as Zakir Khan show on bookmyshow, slowly changed to being a "comedy and gourmet experience". When I bought tickets, it was a 4 hour thing with super expensive tickets. Later bookmyshow changed the venue. After a while the 4 hour show had changed to 6 hours!!! Later more details emerged like live music, opening acts (but by God knows who).

The way this show was organised was trashy. As the date arrived, the details were as follows. Gather at 3pm, live music starts at 4. Opening acts at 5:30 and Zakir at 6:30!! Even after reaching at 3, the parking was already full. Tickets didn't have seat allocation. First come first serve basis. The Sun was hot, hot, hot overhead. Its open air. It's 4:20 now and no sign of any live music. Some recorded stuff is playing. The Sun is directly overhead and I am hiding from the Sun by sitting on the floor between two rows of chairs like so many others. The entire show seems to be a farce was my first reaction. Hard drinks were available on sale. So if you are in a group you can just sun bathe (the way they do in France with your drinks). Damn it!! We are not in France. This is Pune.

4:29 pm - The first thing the organiser ie Swiggy guy says is sorry for the Sun. Hum dhoop deliver nahi karte. Btw, the main show will be at 6:30pm!!!!!!! Till that time audience should treat to the food and beverage organised by Swiggy. The food counter area was covered and cool, however the show seating area is on first cum first serve basis so you cannot leave your chair to go there and enjoy. So one person was doing the back and forth else your seat for which you arrived from 3pm will be taken away.

4:33 pm - Please note that the farthest seat is sold for 2k. Zakir, well you are not really worth it. Well the show hasn't started yet and it's 4:30. The organisers want the audience to celebrate birthdays or get the treat out of someone who still owes you one. Yes that's what he said. I am not making this up

4:49 pm -A 20Rs colddrink is for 40 and people have no option to keep drinking something to stay hydrated under the overhead Sun. Huh!!

At 5:10 a silly compere, Rajat Sood, started the show. I am calling him a compere not a comedy guy. People started booing him, shouting bye bye but he went on.

5:49 pm - The first song was performed by a Pune lad, a rap song. This was followed by songs from Malang, the band. First song was a remix of Ranjish hi sahi. Second was penned by Zakir Khan and composed by them. The band was not bad but not worth my time and money. I have better things to do. After some more songs, finally the late Latif Zakir Khan arrived at 6:45. The show went on till 9:30. Post thanksgiving, he took another 10 minutes for his "sher" and "nazm". That part too was half hearted. Zakir itni jaldi hawa mein udne laga. Amit Tandon still rules in spite on not being a yuva anymore. 

Book review: The devotion of suspect X

Book review: The devotion of suspect X

Author: Keigo Higashimo

Rating: Unputdownable (if such a word exists but I have heard people use it)

Genre: Crime thriller 

The story revolves around a divorcee mother (and her child) and the murder of her ex husband. The story is woven fantastically and set in Japan. Every character is unique. The detective is relentless about her alibi, you feel sorry for the mother and child. However the characters of Ishigami and Yukawa, two geniuses, the former a mathematician and latter a physicist scientist have been written so well. There scientific streak plays a major role in the murder mystery. The biggest surprise is the ending. 

Highly recommended.

London diaries

 London Diaries

 

UK was never on my mind as a tourist destination. Why pay again to people who have already looted so much from us? Well! The best thing I learnt from this trip is to let go. Let bygones be bygones. We live in a different world today where our economy has given them a beating for the first time. Our choice of destination was first Rome and then we thought about Greece but then we found out that Schengen visa dates are not available at all and we won’t even get an appointment before our travel date. That's when the travel agent suggested UK. “4 din mein mil raha hai visa”, she said. When I started researching the place to finalize an itinerary (yup we didn't go through that agent, UK doesn’t need one), I realized UK is in a big mess. Inflation is sky high, veggies are being rationed (only 4 carrots per buyer, you can read the story here https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/rationing-of-fruit-veggies-in-the-uk-the-politics-and-economy-behind-it/articleshow/98233209.cms?from=mdr üôÅ), compulsory 15% service charge in restaurants (instead of customary 10%), strikes going on especially in the medical fraternity etc. Paris too btw was in dumps due to strikes (even garbage picking employees were on strike so the city was stinking it seems). This was the situation 2-3 months before my travel date when I was researching. After much back and forth and checking many more options, this seemed to be the easiest trip to plan. Air travel, hotel and 4 days for visa. Initially we wanted to do London plus Edinburgh but we made it even more easy by sticking to London. Our itinerary was flexible.

 

Day 1 - We started from Mumbai by Kuwait airways. I had seen many pics of the new interiors of Mumbai airport but it was my first time to see it in person. It's been a long time since I travelled internationally, Corona chi krupa. We had friends for company on the airport to chit chat since this friend (with his family) was travelling to US on the same night, same time. So the wait wasn't boring at all.

 

Day 2- Surprise surprise!! Our flight was to depart half an hour before schedule. So we took off at 1:45am and dinner was served at 3am. Sabko utha utha ke dinner de rahe the. Dinner was okay. Nishad was fast asleep and didn't bother to eat. Kuwait airport, at least what I saw, was ordinary. Nothing fancy. The moment we landed the azaan started. We took the connection to London after around 2+ hours. Breakfast was again okay. Typical English breakfast with scrambled eggs (my hubby definitely makes them better), sausages (beef so I skipped), juice, yoghurt, croissant, bun maska jam (now it's sounding Irani) and tea/coffee. What happened to those spices for which they made others life hell! Atleast, some black pepper. Anyway. I watched 2 movies in 10 hours. I watched "The intern" and "Thalaivi". Both movies are good. I did try sleeping but I rarely get a full sleep when I am traveling.

On landing, we took the underground from Heathrow to Earl's court. We stayed in a very basic hotel called Manor. One tip here for first timers. While researching (applicable to budget hotels only), I came across hotels where a shower was attached to the room but the toilet wasn't. Funny and stupid. I was glad to get a full bathroom attached to my room. I have been to Europe before but had never come across something like this. Thank God, I didn't miss this detail. My hotel was a stone’s throw away from the underground and secondly you have a bunch of restaurants around. So 5 stars from me on the location. A shop exactly next to the underground called “Earl's court food and wine” sells packed Indian food eg chicken curry and rice or biryani Or veg options with authentic Indian taste. So our food problem was immediately solved. We love to eat other cuisines but we knew we had a "go to" place for food. This same shop sells souvenirs and also rain cards aka pocket raincoats. I had purchased it in India and taken along.

 

Today we had planned Madame Tussauds (station Baker Street), not for the wax statues but for its Marvel 4d experience. This was on my kids list. It was good. My kid enjoyed a lot. As far as the statues are concerned, frankly there were many which I didn't like especially Deepika Padukone, Shahrukh and Katrina. My question is, did Deepika go to them for measurements and colour matching with such horrible make up or has the quality of the wax artists dropped? Shahrukh was recognisable but not an exact replica. Katrina was better amongst the three. More than a decade ago, I had visited Tussauds in Amsterdam and it was good, much better than what we saw here. 

 

Next, we saw Sherlock Holmes Museum. This was on my list of places to visit. Undeniably the most famous address in the literary world, I loved the museum especially because the lady who gave us a walkthrough had a captivating style and she brought Sherlock Holmes to life. Sherlock’s house, Dr’s equipment bag with all his surgical things in it, the letters written by Holmes, all made it seem that these two men (along with Moriarty etc) were alive. The museum is a just a tiny walk away from Tussauds.

 

Regents Park was close by so we dropped in there. Lovely park. Total greenery, serene, well-kept and I love it when a park has a water body with ducks in it. Birds chirping. It was a bright sunny day hence the Brits too were cheerful.

 

This much site seeing was enough today. We went back to the hotel totally tired and sleep deprived with jet lag as a bonus. So my take - go to Tussauds for the marvel experience but not for the statues or the history of London or other phalana. I will recommend Sherlock Holmes museum and regents park. I liked it. Btw, do you know that London has a pigeon menace. Back at the hotel, we slept like logs.

 

Day 3 - The day is quite longer and starts early too. Today we had booked a tour to Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio in the afternoon. So in the morning slot we went to Hyde Park (station Hyde Park corner). My husband and kid loved this park more than regents. It's a huge park and we could not explore it in entirety. The internal roads of the park were filled with horse poop so it was a little disgusting. However the greenery is to die for and the squirrels were so adorable. My kid had fun clicking the squirrels. Overall, London has so many huge green spaces right inside the city. Please keep contactless cards handy. The public toilet here did not take coins and my international credit card (contactless card) did not work here since ICICI has not entered into a partnership here. For the same reason, we purchased oyster cards for the metro travel. The drawback with oyster is that they charge a 7-pound fee per card. However, you can keep the card with you for life. Con of having an international contactless card is that you will pay fees per transaction since it will be considered international transaction. So find out what works best for you.

 

My first impression of London - keeping the history aside, I loved the city. Loved the houses, the huge office buildings, the carvings on them, well planned transport system and since it was start of summer - the weather too. London otherwise is a gloomy place with people who are not upbeat during those winter months. All people dress elegantly and this is something that really distinguishes Americans from the Europeans. BTW, I have never seen such wholesale long noses on people's faces. They really do have extraordinarily long noses. Women’s faces can more or less be put in 6-7 moulds but they are good looking although I found women in Paris are a notch more good looking. I also saw lots of children everywhere. The only person I spoke English with, is my son who like an angrez has stopped speaking in Marathi for some reason. I have to bring him back to becoming a Puneri. My hotel guy was Indian. The underground help desk guy was a Sikh. After entering Mc Donalds, the person at the counter exclaimed “Tumhi Marathi aahat”. He was overjoyed to hear Marathi. He was aapla Mumbai cha mulga. He was so happy that he gave few extra fries to my son. The nearby shopkeeper too knew Hindi.

Now bring in the history and I felt yeh sab humare paise se banaya hai aur yeh bakiyon ko loot ke banaya hai. Aish hai. Irrespective, from builders and architects point of view, everything is tastefully done. As for the weather, it was the start of the summer and but the wind was cold. My method of judging if the season has properly changed or not is by looking at locals. There was a sizeable number of locals who were still wearing jackets and that meant it was only early days of summer. The wind was blowing and it was quite cold.

 

Harry Potter studio - The buses are called coaches and start from the Victoria coach terminus. So you have to first reach Victoria underground station then it's a little walk to the bus stop. My son is a big fan of the books but somehow he was not drawn towards the movies. Most of the experience here is about the movie making. Kids and adults alike love Harry Potter and the craze is evident and still going strong even after so many years have passed. As the bus leaves London, you immediately see vast open green spaces suggesting that the population here is still low. If we leave Mumbai or even Pune for that matter, the urban sprawl continues for a very long time before you finally hit an open patch either agricultural or otherwise. The urban sprawl is limited. Back to Harry Potter, the studio gave good insights into film making. The sets, drapery, mechanics e.g., how the iron moves over clothes automatically and the knife chops vegetables automatically. It is good info for kids. In fact after knowing how it works, Nishad was fully relaxed in that forbidden forest. The green room is a highlight. Unfortunately, they charge you separately for filming you on the broom and the queue is  really long. We decided to skip it because my kiddo was interested in every single detail and we had limited time on hands. We could not stop at every place. Each kid gets an activity passport and you can put a stamp of every house on house on it. BTW, my kid is in Ravenclaws house. The souvenir shop is highly overpriced even by UK standards. 34 pounds for a wand is ridiculous considering half of them were just moulded plastic and quality was worth Rs150. Some had beads on them but I won't give it more than Rs 200. Anyway the hysteria associated with it makes you keep logic away and buy so many things. As for the weather, although yesterday was bright and sunny and today it was quite cold. English weather! The next day was back to being sunny.

 

Day 4 - Today we went to Greenwich Royal observatory. This was on my husband’s TODO list. You must take the tube to North Greenwich and then take the bus to Trafalgar Estate (and not Trafalgar Road, these two stops are adjacent but different). After you alight from the bus, just enter the bylane on the same foot path and keep walking till you reach a park. Enter the park and in the middle of the park, you have to climb a small hill. The observatory sits atop this hill. All in all, it is a bit of walk and a climb so do keep that in mind. A wheelchair accessible road is available but it quite a longish route. I can proudly say that quite a few of my friends have referred to my travelogues before they planned their trips and hence, I write these tips in case they have senior citizens with them. A note for senior citizens – All my trips where we have used public transport in Europe and Singapore requires a lot of walking and hence, they should consider their fitness level. Truth in today’s era is that some senior citizens are more fit than me. In my defence I have walked in the waree for 21km. LOL.

 

Anyway. Back to the topic. The park is huge and a delight for pet dogs. The observatory had a fair number of visitors, especially a school picnic although it is not a typical touristy place.  This was a must visit location for my husband who was interested in knowing all about the clocks made by John Harrison to solve the longitude problem over the sea. The clock actually went through four versions before being declared perfect and won the coveted award of 20k pounds to whoever solved this issue. My son was age appropriately interested in standing with two feet on the two sides of the meridian and making a reel.  I will recommend this place. They do have a deer enclosure somewhere but we had to skip that. Kiddo had a great time rolling on the grass. Parks across England need a special mention and accolades. They are extremely well kept and are huge in size. Most belong to the Royal family.

 

Today we also went to Wimbledon. You might ask what kind of planning is this? We had two locations on the opposite side planned in a day. Well, we had plans to do Wimbledon on the weekend but a friend with a good know-how asked us to change our plan because 1. It is overwhelmingly crowded on weekends 2. this was a long weekend and 3. you get a family ticket on weekday which is far less than the price on weekend. Remember that to go to Wimbledon, you should not go to Wimbledon station but get down at Southfields. Further we were told it's just a few minutes walk from the station but boss take my word. It's not "just a few minutes" for a Punekar although it could be for a Londoner. You better take bus 493 and get down at Gate 4, Wimbledon Stadium. The tour of the courts goes on 90 minutes which includes some fabulous history of the game, the passion of the players and staff alike, technical aspects about maintaining the grass and Rufus - the hawk. We saw multiple courts including the prestigious centre court. The place was in full action mode since the tournament is not far away. This was followed by the museum which is in the same complex. We were exhausted that day but it was a day well spent. Wimbledon was on my bucket list. However McEnroe's ghost was nowhere visible. Either I missed it or a change has happened. Please google the terms if you are not aware. We crashed on our beds that night and our eyes were closed the minute we hit the bed.

 

Day 5 - Today we decided to sleep an hour extra in the morning. Humari vaat lag chuki thi. Today was a special day for us. Windsor Castle was to be followed by a visit to my husband’s very dear friend. We took the tube to London Paddington National Rail after which you have to take the GWR rail, basically the inter-city railway as against the local metro. Your final station is Windsor and Eton. The castle is just outside the station and thank God, no walking today. Please do not miss the Royal shopping area at the station. A special mention to Hobbs. I loved every piece of apparel on display.  The castle is as expected.... Grand. The variety of weapons on display made my kid go crazy. He loves history. Swords, pistols, armours in huge numbers and very well arranged. The entrance moat and courtyard are good too. The beautifully decorated halls are a highlight. However, same cannot be said about its architecture. The halls were dimly lit artificially using lamps in spite of the beautiful sunny day outside. The King's closet was huge as expected followed by a dressing room which didn't have any mirror (maybe they had one in olden days). The next room however had two huge mirrors on the wall. They were placed next to the windows and did not help at all in bringing the natural light into the room. Secondly they were placed at such a height that the king would have hardly seen his face in it, not a full self. These were the flaws I found in one glimpse and based on common sense. The lone security guy in the funny red outfit and a hat covering his eyes was standing like a doll. What a redundant job! BTW, he is known as the royal guard.

 

The gift shops are as usual overpriced and nothing exquisite to buy. The new addition are coronation memorabilia or the Queens photo merchandise after her demise.  The castle has a chapel adjacent to it. First, excuse my lack of knowledge about difference between a church, chapel, cathedral, abbey etc. 1. They all seem same to me on the outside 2. I don't know the meaning of these words. 3. I am not going to make any attempt to find out the difference even now. Moot. After entering, we realized we were walking on graves. Most of them are in the path and all the visitors were walking on the graves because there was no choice. That was the only path to move inside the chapel. There is no other way. The place was totally crowded due to 1. Sun was out and 2. Long weekend. Only the recently expired queen and her husband’s graves are on the side. Apne ko ajeeb lagta hai woh.

 

Once done Kaustubh’s dear friend was kind enough to come all the way to Windsor to pick us up. So kind of him to do that especially because we were quite far away from his place of residence. At the friend’s house, Nishad was the happiest because he got friends of his age with the same hobby.... Reading. Also they love the same authors. Lots of catching up for the guys and as for me, I am so glad to have found such wonderful friend. Although I was meeting them for the first time, I never felt so. It was as if I knew them forever. Thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality, yum food, gifts and the gappa in their beautiful garden. I am so glad we didn’t do any walking today because my kid was actually exhausted. Our friends dropped us back to the station. Thank you for this enjoyable and memorable evening.

 

Day 6 - Today was our popat day. We had planned for a hop on hop off bus tour along with Thames river cruise. This would ensure that we cover all photo stops inside London. We reached the pick-up point and were told that due to a cycle race, the bus tour has been called off. We could either use same ticket on a different route (which I was not interested in) or we could do the tour on the next day. Next day too wasn't an option since we had already made plans with another dear friend (number 2) of ours. We cancelled the ticket. So we decided to go to the Natural History Museum. We were shocked to see the queue spilling right on to the footpath. Hai re Sun and long weekend. Also, this was unplanned so we didn't even have a ticket. We got scared of the queue. Btw, the museum is free but still you need an entry ticket. That is the museums way of controlling the numbers being let in.  So plan C kicked in and we started walking towards Harrods. Harrods was quite fun. The perfumery hall was filled with perfume smells and I was wondering if people were able to differentiate one from the other. The ladies section did have a good designer collection with a wow factor but same was not true with the men’s section. We ended Harrods with a good ice-cream.

 

Next we went to Picadilly. The entire area was closed due to the cycle race. We got to see the race. We walked along up to Trafalgar square. It took us longer than usual because road crossing was not allowed unless all the cycles passed. We were invited by friend 3 for dinner tonight but we had to cancel the plan since my kid was really exhausted. A big apology to him. The only good part was that we were supposed to eat at a restaurant so no food was wasted.

 

Day 7 - Today was yet another amazing day since we were to meet another friend of ours. He picked us up at Richmond and we travelled in his Tesla. I loved his car. The fully transparent roof was ‘ek number’. Plan was to go to the countryside. So exciting!

We first went to a model village called Bekonscot. It’s a cute little model of 6 villages complete with a working train network, stations, working railway crossings, working cable cars, lakes, windmills etc. It just gave a glimpse of country life. Later we went to Little Marlow park where we were joined by his wife, daughter and a cutie patootie doggy. Nishad was so happy to pet the dog. He is generally scared of dogs, although he does love them. This doggy made him comfortable. The rest of the day Nishad along with his new friend spent to day enjoying with the doggy. Doggy was super excited when he saw ducks and chased them right into the water. He went swimming behind them. Secondly he was sniffing away, checking for any duck eggs. We had a picnic by the lakeside. Good food, amazing company. Mast. Later we went on a long drive in the country side.  All the greenery was so therapeutic for the computer strained eyes.

 

Next stop we went to Bushy park, another royal park. You are totally one with nature here. We saw a variety of birds and lots and lots of deer. I didn’t see these many deer even in Jim Corbett. Gappa, tappa, jokes, laughter, and nature. What more do you want. Perfect. After dinner, our friend dropped us back to the hotel. Thank you, guys. We spent an amazing day with you.

 

Day 8 - Today was our last day in London. We did not have any specific itinerary today. There were many places which we had not seen, especially because we lost one day of sightseeing due to cycle race but now we did not have enough time left. We had to meet one friend (number 4) for coffee. So, before that I made a quick trip to a music shop in Kensington called Kensington Chimes. I purchased some strings for mandolin and violin for my father. We also had to check out of the hotel. Well, the checkout also was early at 11 am as compared to India. The hotel kindly agreed to our request to keep our luggage with them for few hours. So glad that we managed to meet this friend although it was a working day for him. After coffee, we had some time on hand before we head to the airport. So we took the metro to Big Ben. There wasn't much to do and not much time on hand. We grabbed some go to lunch. It was time to say goodbye.

At the airport, I got a refund on my oyster card balance. I had to take help from the staff because the machine was not dispensing cash. So the man helped me to a machine which was working and said that I should not take a refund. “You will again have to pay 7 pound fees when you come back”, he said. I just smiled. I hope that I do come back sooner for another trip and this time go to Edinburgh. Bye bye London, till we meet again.