Thursday, October 30, 2008

Metal-good conductor of heat

And so they get cold quickly, even doggies know this or is it finished-painted-metal cleanliness they prefer?

or they want elevated seats amidst 8 storey buildings to ward off October-evening global-warming- heat , before Dilli ki sarrdi begins? or they feel restricted when sitting inside the car?



Doggy on car roof 1: Nap time.ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz



Doggy on car roof 2: Distrupted, “uuuuff yeah paparazzi’s


Doggy on car roof 3: “I am out of here”.

ps0 : Should have taken a video instead, Duh!

ps1 :papi-part2?

ps2 : as they say- sabar ka phal meetha hota hai.Is it?

ps3 : Lazyy I am so lazyyy etc…


Saturday, October 18, 2008

Papikondalu trip –part1





Coz girls just wanna have fun.

Places Visited : Papikondalu , Bhadrachalam.
Probable candidates : Comrade ,Drama Queen(DQ),Kiddo,Mads,Wiki,Reks ,JhansiKiRani,D,MiniY and yours truly.
DropOuts : D , Wiki ,MiniY cause of personal commitments.
Unavailable: Jhansee Ki Rani .She was in the land of bailouts-meltdowns -eco crisis during the planning period. Apologizes.
So net 6 -gang of girls went on a adventurous- hectic- semi-planned trip.

We tried our best to keep the consensus under the wraps ,as we truly believe in evil eyes and envies which in past has already waterofied our Kerala trip. But then, the khabar was leaked , raised enough eyebrows and also fueled (read motivated) Pondicherry trip for the gang of boys.:P

On 10th October evening we all boarded the Gouthami Express A/C coaches Just in time. Unfortunately our berths were distributed across the coach. Coz of the halla we made , some travelers voluntarily exchanged their seats and we finally settled in a single compartment .The next moment we noticed , a handsome young bloke was our co-passenger.DQ declared , the beauty he was travelling with was his fiancé. I object milord , I object!.It was his sister 200 % sure. we whispered ,giggled, laughed out and made him feel terrible /nervous /out of place . He was cute but not worth ankhon ke rasthe dil mein uttar jaye types and hence all the DDLJ , Jab we met train sequences were put to rest. After heavy snacking and dinner we all slept on the respective berths. DQ kept doing jagtey raho act once a while.

The next morning train reached Rajahmundry 1+ hour late .We were suppose to catch a AP-Tourism transport from somewhere to a place where the lauch/boatride to Papikondalu starts .Comrade took the charge, made some calls to ensure that the transport waited for us. After reaching somewhere we realized that the transport was a Yerra bus. To add to our misery we got the last row. With some ooohhh aahhh ouchh, the bumpy ride on the village road ended and we reached the launch site in 1.5 hr.

Our launch was a 40 seater with LCD tv, Split A/C to show off (hantee ke dath-khane ke aur, dikhaney ke aur types).I hated the very site of that dokku boat. Once again we bagged the last seats ..where in we got extra dose of vitamin D n solar energy owing to reduce shading. The marathon journey started ,6 hours upstream , 4 hours downstream .We proceeded deeper….. the zigzag Godavari amidst the hills treated us with picture perfect scenic beauty. We crossed 3 tribal villages on the banks .The cannons and handycams were put to use. Only me and Kiddo had all the enthu to pose for photo shoots. Deal was signed , we mutually modeled , photographed each other…result -> my fultoo filmy pose with parvat,pani making waves on orkut. Everything outside the launch was awesome but inside , the torture went on-> the crowd was vague , rather boring gaon wale types, high volume idiotic songs were played on the speakers. The washroom were eeeeuuuu. The weather was hot-humid, food was bad.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger “.
First three hours junta struggled to deal with the heat and later, once the bodies got adjusted ,masti started .The Pictionary game kit which consumed almost one back pack luggage space came to rescue .We played all through the upstream and became centre of attraction for all the kids. After passing by the camp site we finally reached Papikondalu and halted to visit a temple in Parentapally.Ahhh what a relief to see the land. DQ who suffers from restless leg syndrome finally found place to spring on. The very sight of the chinna waterfall elevated our spirits. While the other junta performed their religious temple visit and boarded back to the boat …we all rushed into the water ,did a chota trek till top and yipeeeee,. The halt was for approx 20 minutes .The guide gave the last calls and 6 of us rushed back to the launch ,once again last to reach (just in time) and missed the chilled cold drinks .

Downstream journey, cool evening breeze ,tired musafirs ,sunset view ,small town silence ….perfect ingredients for sleep and we all napped. Reached back to the start point , took the yerra bus ride as last benchers , took auto from there and reached the Rajahmundry Bus Depot around 10ish PM at night .

The original plan was to take a late night bus to Bhadrachalam. After reaching there we came to know that reservations are needed for night journeys. Last bus to Bhadrachalam was at 10:30 PM and was already full booked.

Climax: no bus , no prior hotel booking,6 girls alone in an unknown city, completely exhausted, sleep devoid ,hungry .What next?

To be continued………..

P.S1: DQ actually yawned and slept the next day. Can u believe ?
P.S2:The emotionally challenged Kiddo said few cheesy shayree type lines, Can u believe ?
P.S3:Comrade if ever in future u plan to be a leader , we shall vote for u.
P.S4:Mads n Rekhs remained the silent and supportive spectators .
P.S5:And thyself’s susheel kanya pose was finally captured in a pic. Comrade, ur wish is fulfilled.
P.S5: Picture abhee bakee hai mere dost.



Monday, October 13, 2008

Belated Happy Journeys-NorthEastTrip-Remaining

Pictures speaking thouasand words..........
What do u think the monkey was thinking?

Mannipal @ Sikkim:



Lama gang:



Sleeping Jackal:
Selenarctos thibetanus:


Local Dance:

Sleepy leopard:


Left,Current Butan King :

Helper trekked to top:
Clouded Leopard:
What do u think we both were talking?
P.S: So much easier to put phottus, na.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Belated Happy Journeys - NorthEast Trip

The Tiger Bridge on Teesta ,declared expired by Civil Engineers .Still going strong.


The Yak on which we sat for a while.See its still alive:

Traffic Jam at 13000 ft :
Cafe @ 14000 ft:

River path:
Rumtek Monastery:
Foggy sign board:
Changu Lake:
The Indo-China border:

Long long long ago, the author made a promise. The holiday season and so has the trip season has started. Every other day the mail box is spammed with out of office & (OOO)replies and yes we have once again stared making plans for travel from Goa ,Kerela to Egypt, Amazon (in dreams)……..50 places to visit before u die types.
All this reminds me of my last trip of which there has been only promises and no posting.

The round trip : Hyd-Delhi-Binagudi(Siliguri)-Butan -Darjeeling-Gangtok(Sikkim,Nathula pass)- Binagudi -Delhi –Hyd, Phew!
Time:-Around April 2008

The travel above and across Binagudi to * was done in a car.
All I remember is that we were just cruising round and round across the mountains with a faint fear of -one wrong move and we all end up in the valley with no left over’s.

Bhutan visit was mostly border area markets and monasteries, of where I was literally caught by a kid lama for clicking photos. I was made to delete all shoots or was asked to forgo my cannon baby.

Binagudi-Darjeeling was a peaceful ride. From plains to mountains . we were made to change the course (and missed an amazing lake on the way)cause of road -blockage- havoc caused by rains.
Places visited :-
1.Himalayan zoological park –with major attraction -endangered species like clouded leopard, red Panda.
2.Mountaineering museum.
3.The street market- full of peppy clothes n shoes , of chinky chicks n dudes , hazzar crowd on that steeply terrain skimpy route and yes , there was room for a mall as well. Our own Big Bazaar.And my “Shabji” watchman -Agam is proud of the mall at his home town.
This hill station is highly commercialized.

Darjeeling –Sikkim was a bumpy ride to the ass, but man! what an eye candy treat to the eyes. Such scenic route it is. Small villages, rain forests. Thick, plush and green is what I remember.
Places visited:-
1.Gangtok- Rumtek monastery.
2.Nathula Pass.
We moved on to an Army camp named – 5 miles to halt for our major destination –Nathula pass -14000 feet above sea level. This travel was the most dangerous and gory. On the way we saw multiple waterfalls , some of which happily took the road way like a trail of pedestrian crossing the narrow mountain road. On the way we camped at Changu lake for yak ride, hot food n tea.
Finally, we trekked to Nathula pass in the freeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzing cold.
Hurray moment!. victory flag was hoisted , border shake hands were exchanged, photos were clicked and we all felt like king and queen of the world in spite of low levels of oxygen. Breathlessness prevailed for a while .On our two legs we descended back to our four wheelers parking.Sipped hot coffee in “café coffee day” ..yes even here there was room for a cafeteria . Apparently this café site is highest in India.

Sikkim to Binagudi :The ride was across mountain alongside a river from source to almost destination.
We saw river Teesta from birth to middle age .There was some gyaan dan of jungle jadibuti and stuff on the way back owing to nauseated sickness of one of our helper. The driver , a localite stopped the SUV somewhere in the middle of the jungle to hunt for teetapatti which on rubbed smelling cured the helper.

kanchanjangha:

Some Monastery @ Darjeeling
Teetapatti, The Herb:
Mountain Beauty:


P.S1: Weekend trip to Papikondalu.
P.S2:Buri nazar wale tera mooh kala.