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Winter Travel Destinations

Winter is just round the corner. Here is a quick compilation of some places that are ideal for a visit in the next four months.

Karnataka

hampi Hampi. The World Heritage site of Vithala Temple and the stone chariot may come to your mind. But Hampi is much more than that. It has a beautiful boulder strewn landscape spread on either side of meandering Tungabhadra River. Read A drive to Hampi, Walking in Hampi and other travelogues on hampi
badami Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal. Historians call these places as the ‘cradle of Indian architecture’. Students came here to learn from every part of the country between 6th and 8th century AD. Today, structures from those times still remain, most well known of them being the cave temples of Badami. Read travelogues on Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal and nearby places.
gokarna Gokarna. Gokarna is home to some of the finest beaches in Karnataka, perhaps in India. What makes it even more interesting is some of the beaches south of Gokarana are a few kilometers away from any villages and have even today remained secluded to some extent. Read Gokarna travelogue and walks in Gokarna.
ranganathittu Ranganathittu. Winter is the time when painted storks, openbills and many other birds start arriving at Karnataka’s most well known bird sanctuary. Read about Ranganathittu and birds in Bangalore.

Rajasthan

jaipur Jaipur. The well maintained city palace, the astronomical observatory of Jantar Mantar, facade of Hawa Mahal, the lavish fort at Amber – just some of the sights in Jaipur. Add to this the charm of the old city painted completely in pink. Read more about Jaipur and walks in Jaipur.
shekhawati Shekhawati. The open art gallery of Shekhawati is full of old Havelis with colourful paintings on its walls. The merchants of Shekhawati knew the best way to spend money. There are so many havelis, each of their wall loaded with colourful murals. Read more on Shekhawati
jodhpur Jodhpur. Like Jaipur, Jodhpur is another city where Rajasthan’s heritage and culture is showcased so well. The large Mehrangarh fort overlooks the old city where every house is painted in deel blue. Read more about Jodhpur.
jaisalmer Jaisalmer. The finest of the desert scenery is unveiled in the remote region of Jaisalmer at the edge of Desert National Park. The stories of winter sunset and camel safaris are among the most well known experiences of Rajasthan. Read Jaisalmer travelogue.
pushkar Pushkar. When the famed camel fair is over, all activity in the town shifts to the surroundings of the holy lake. Around the lake, Pushkar is like a mini Varanasi.Read Pushkar travelogue.

Kerala

wayanad Wayanad. It can be cold here in winter. But if migratory birds in the western ghats are on your mind, Wayanad is a great place to go to. Read about birding in Wayanad and about places to see in Wayanad.
kochi Kochi. The big Wembanad Lake, long bridges, beaches, backwaters, quiet lanes leading to ancient churches and synogogues, Ayurvedic Massages. There is lot to do in Kochi. Travelogue – Fort Kochi and around.

Image courtesy: driek

Himalayas

shimla Shimla. It may be cold in Shimla during the winters. But it is the nearest places from Delhi where you can see snowfall. Shimla travelogue
auli Auli. It is a long journey to get to this ski village in Uttarakhand, but it is worth it when there is enough snow. The views from here are one of the best you can get in the eastern Himalayas. Read all my stories on Auli.

Uttar Pradesh

varanasi Varanasi. The ghats of Varanasi can be overwhelming initially. But you will soon get lost in the ancientness of the old city of Varanasi. Read travelogues from Varanasi.
agra Agra. The place known for India’s most famous monument is equally well known for its notorious touts! Read about Agra and it’s touts.

Tamil Nadu

madurai Madurai. It can takes more than a day just to see the temple from end to end. There is a lot to discover in Madurai’s Meenakshi temple. Read travelogue from Madurai.
thanjavur Thanjavur. Even today, Thanjavur doesn’t seem to have any buildings that raise as high as the Brihadiswara Temple. Read Thanjavur travelogue.
kanyakumari Kanyakumari. The place where the three seas meet is windy, beautiful and charming. The Vivekananda rock tends to get crowded a bit, but there are lots of things to see on the mainland. Read my stories from Kanyakumari.

Goa

goa Goa. The beach-state is known for its huge parties during Christmas and New Year. There is more to Goa than parties, they still have pristine beaches (it takes some effort to find them though), wildlife sanctuaries and an easy pace of life. Read about my road trip from Bangalore to Goa.
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Happy Diwali

Here is wishing all readers of India Travel Blog a very happy Deepavali

A potter makes Diwali lamps in Bangalore.

diwali

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Book Review: Two in the Bush by Gerald Durrell

Gerald Durrell - Two in a Bush

Title: Two in the Bush
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publishers: Westland Books
Pages: 188

Acclaimed naturalist Gerald Durrell travelled to New Zealand, Australia and Malaya in search some rare endemic species inhabiting the region with two purposes. First, to see and learn about conservation efforts in these countries and second, to make television films on these animals for the BBC. ‘Two in the Bush’ is a memoir of his experiences during the journey.

What Durrell sees down under are some species that have chalked their own path of evolution and are much different from wildlife in the bigger continents. Some such animals are well known – like platypus, kangaroo and koalas. But he sees a lot more than that, like the royal albatross chicks that could spit at you on approach or the dancing lyre birds that can imitate many sounds including car alarms and electric saw. Some of these have exotic sounding native names like weka, kaka and tui! He tries to imagine emotions of these animals as he observes and interacts with them, making his readers get a good feel of his encounters.

Written by anyone else, this could well have become a book for serious naturalists but Durrell ensures that his readers have a lot of fun as he humurously describes what he sees. It is not just these animals that he jests at, even the people he meets and works with along the way become his targets. His sense of keen observation and sharp humour put together makes the book readable by anyone who is even remotely interested in birds and other wildlife.

But sometimes it is hard to conceive a bird or its action that is completely unheard of, no matter how well one can describe it. It happens when one reads about the features of a bird like Takehe, call of siamang primates or the dance of lyre birds. It does seem like something amazing but is never easy to bring a shape to those birds or imagine their hilarious actions in mind. I went through this feeling in the initial pages of the book, until I decided to actualise his descriptions with images and videos from the internet. It saved the effort of visualising and lead me to some amzing videos and pictures of the life that Durrell describes, like in the footage of lyre bird below.

Besides introducing the wildlife down under in a lighter and easier manner, Durrell muses considerably about the state in which they are surviving. There are many birds and animals that number just about a hundred or two. Some birds that were thought extinct were rediscovered but their strength was so low that they had to be bread in captivity to ensure their survival and procreation. Durrell makes an appeal through the book to aid and support conservation as he describes the grim future of the biodiversity in these parts and muses on the man-animal conflict.

Sometimes the book does feel shallow and not sufficiently informative as he moves swiftly from one place to another without delving deeper into the life of his subjects and not elaborating each of these birds and animals in detail. But that’s what makes this book readable to everyone – keen naturalist as well as the casual reader.