PHOTO JOURNEY by www.Travellingcamera.com

For the past few years, I have taken to Himachali music. I first got introduced to it during my wedding, when a constant background music of women singing Himachali wedding songs, made the simple ceremony even more beautiful. Since then, I have been introduced to several Himachali songs that I have come to love. And this also gives me a great advantage - when I sing these in family gatherings, VJ's side of the family is unfailingly impressed by a non-Himachali knowing so many Himachali songs :-P.  

It had been a while (more than two years) since VJ and I had gone on a vacation together. So when an opportunity to take a vacation at a very short notice came knocking, we decided to make the most of it. We did not have enough time to plan, so we had only two options - purchase a really expensive itinerary from the likes of MakeMyTrip or head out without much planning and decide the itinerary on the go. We decided to take the second option.  We wanted to explore an area we have never explored earlier. Northeast India had been on our minds for some time so we zeroed in on Sikkim after some thought. We purchased the flight tickets (they were expensive as we booked them barely two days before the travel) and booked a reasonable homestay in Gangtok for a couple of nights. We began our vacation with no idea of what we would do after Gangtok. Details of the itinerary and how it developed will follow in another post, this series is about exploring various aspect of th

We started our journey from Shimla in a car and drove through  Jeori , Pooh,  Nako ,  Tabo , Kaza , Key ,  Kibber , Langza , Koimik,  Dhankar ,  Gue  & Kalpa, along with various smaller stops on our way. It was last day of our road trip and this post talks about the day spent around Kalpa and on the way to Shimla. And not only that, we will share how to reach Kalpa, main things to do and some of the not to miss experiences in this part of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh.  

As winter approaches North India, various wetlands start seeing thousands of Migratory Birds and Bharatpur's Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary is one of the most popular wetlands around National Capital region of India and hence sees lot of tourists from Delhi /Noida/Gurgaon region. And it's not limited to nearby tourists. Lot of serious birders visit Bharatpur during Winters from various parts of the country as well as foreigner tourists. This blog-post shares tips to plan a successful trip to Bharatpur from Delhi and what kind of things to take care while planning this birding trip. 

We booked our new car, an MG Hector (Petrol Smart), in July 2019 and owing to the high demand, received it in December 2019. After that we were driving it to and fro from office and the longest we had driven it was when we went to visit my parents in Delhi (about 45 km one way).  And after that Covid-19 stuck the world and all of us were in a lockdown. Our car stayed in the basement for several months. We would start it at times and take it around our sector to keep the battery running, but it was more or less stationary.  Then once the nation eased a little in November, we planned a two-week trip to VJ's hometown in Himachal , a tiny village called Badahin in Mandi district . This was the first time we would be driving all the way. Before this, both of us were comfortable driving a compact manual car (Hyundai i10). We had driven long distances (to Churu and back) but never on real hills. The only hill-driving experience we had was in Lonavala for a couple of hours.