A drive to one of the corners of India, Dhanushkodi!

A long weekend is a very inviting option to go somewhere and 15th August, Independence day was approaching soon (not this year, last year,#StayhomeStaysafe in 2020). Bharath (The Husband) had been on a boys trip to Rameswaram and Kanyakumari the previous year and I had seen pics of Dhanushkodi and was itching to go there. So when we were looking for options in the middle of monsoon season, this popped up with him saying, “Let’s go to Dhanushkodi.. I want to eat fish (making the fish symbol with his hands)”. I am a vegetarian, so with a facepalm (and concealed excitement) we set about planning.

We had about 4 days in hand and hence decided to just visit Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi. Why these two places? The temple town of Rameswaram is situated on Pamban island connected to Indian mainland by the famous Pamban bridge. As per Ramayan, a bridge was built by Hanuman to Srilanka to rescue Sita. Rameswaram is one of the Char Dhams (holy pilgrimage sites) and the Ramanathanswamy Temple is considered to be very sacred. 30 kms from Rameswaram and the closest point to Srilanka is Dhanushkodi – an abandoned ghost town, at the tip of Pamban island, destroyed by a cyclone in 1964 post which the Govt. had declared it as un-inhabitable.

Planning this was simple –

• Transport – our little Ferrari aka VW Polo and we were the drivers
• Hotel – we scouted a few on Trivago, Booking.com etc and settled on Hyatt Place, Rameswaram. By the way, Hyatt Place and many other such hotels in Rameswaram offer only Vegetarian options since Rameswaram is a Holy place. You may want to check the cuisines offered prior to booking.

Travel is never without some surprises and unfortunately the twist came in late-July when I fell quite ill and we were advised against any form of travel. We immediately called the hotel to cancel and since it was non-refundable we were quite sure nothing could be done. Thankfully, the hotel offered us the option to move the travel to end of August/early-September at the same rate.. There are some silver linings after all!

It took me a month to recover from what I had contracted and had a number of restrictions/advisories on food and water.. Sigh! We had thought of cancelling the trip multiple times, but then felt we needed a break after all the hospital and doctor visits. So one last check with the doctor and she said the golden words.. go ahead, but be careful! Yay! #SoExcited

Day 1:

We were to leave on a Thursday morning and return Sunday night. Bangalore to Rameswaram is a 10.5 hr drive through Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Since I had been recommended only home-cooked food, that meant nothing from the myriad of restaurants on the highways.. Double Sigh! I love the food in Tamilnadu and usually look forward to the sponge like soft idlis, sambar, pongal, vada.. drool!

so plan B – call cook at 5am to make me some upma which I would consume for breakfast and lunch, packed a huge picnic basket of fruits, coconut water, biscuits and other healthy munchies and we were ready to depart by 6am. We quickly got out of Bangalore and headed towards Krishnagri – first stop breakfast (for Bharath) at Murugan Idli shop. He munched on, while I watched him with a frown. #SoJealous.

Murugan Idli’s offerings

We picked up our pace, taking turns driving, with some stops for lunch and tea, we made it to Rameswaram by 4pm in the evening. A smooth check-in, a bit of rest and then stepped out in search for sea-food for YOU KNOW WHO. He wanted to visit some places where he had eaten on his last visit, but we couldn’t find them. Chose another small restaurant and according to him, the fish was finger licking good! Content, we headed back to Hyatt Place, had dinner and settled in for the night.

Day 2:

The next morning, post breakfast, we headed first to Dhanushkodi.. One straight road, with not a hint of civilization, with sand on either side, Bay of Bengal on one and Indian Ocean on the other.. a view like never before – so serene, so un-touched. Such a beautiful drive towards the end of one of India’s corners, from where, with clear, un-polluted skies, one can see Srilanka. You know, the radio signals of stations in Srilanka are picked up at Dhanushkodi and we could hear it for the 10 km drive in the middle of the sea. Amazing! On our return, we stopped at the entrance of Dhanushkodi village, where Bharath found himself some lip-smacking fish with rice for just about 120 INR!! Whoa! #Tip: There is a lot of checking done by the local police enroute to Dhanushkodi. Ensure you have all the car documents on you at all times.

We then headed back to the city to visit some other sights. Rameswaram is also the birthplace of our ex-President Late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and this is where he grew up. His old house has been preserved and converted into a  museum of sorts to inspire generations to come and celebrate this scientific journey. A quick tour of House of Kalam and we the proceeded to the Kalam Memorial, which was built in his honor post his death. Rameswaram is fairly hot and humid and we were getting quite exhausted. Late Lunch at the hotel and a siesta later, we were ready for Sunset overlooking Pamban bridge. The rail and roadway constructed, serves as the main connection to this island. The rail-tracks laid pass through the sea and used to terminate at Dhanushkodi, until the cyclone destroyed it. Sunset overlooking the bridge is beautiful! #Tip, wait for one of the trains to pass and it calls for an Insta moment!

Day 3:

We woke up early, hoping to catch sun-rise at Dhanushkodi. We drove up-till the entrance to the town to find it closed. It turns out that Dhanushkodi closes everyday from 6 pm to 7 am due to high tide and gusty winds which cause a number of accidents. While we waited for the barricade to open, wandered around on the beach for a bit and at 7 am sharp, they opened the gate.. The vastness, the colour of the sea, the gusty winds, just adds to eeriness of this place – spooky yet serene. We did a quick drive around, captured a few photos then headed back. Rameswaram also has a number of other smaller temples and we visited a few on them in the morning saving the best for the last.

In the afternoon, hoping for lesser crowds, we visited the famous Ramanathaswamy temple. Considered as one of the holiest places for Hindus, this temple is an architectural marvel – the never-ending colourful corridors, the number of pillars providing an illusion of a curve, simply marvelous. #Tip – photography is not allowed inside the temple and one needs to leave their mobile phones outside. Hence no photos. Also dress modestly. Parking is a challenge given the small, crowded roads and that the entire periphery of the temple is a No-Parking zone. We then parked our car a little far away and walked to the temple.

We spent close to two hours marveling at the architecture, along with a darshan of the main deity and walking the entire round of the temple – its huge! It has 4 main entrances, that should tell you the size.

Post the temple visit, Bharath now wanted his last dosage of fish before we departed to Bangalore the next day. finding him his love, we crashed for the night, ready for another 10+hour drive back.

Day 4:

Madurai Meenakshi Temple

Early start to the day as we were heading back home. Got my breakfast packed by the hotel (5-star service for someone who was recovering) and we set off enjoying the sunrise across Pamban bridge. for our return journey we had planned a pit-stop at Madurai to visit the famous Meenakshi temple, a temple with a 1000 pillars. The entrance (gopuram tower) of the temple is colorful, curvy and leads into the immense temple complex where there is a small temple pool. Further is a hallway leading to the main deity goddess Meenakshi. After standing in the long queue and getting a darshan we moved to visit a few more shrines in the complex and then proceeded to see the hall with a 1000 pillars. It is definitely a sight to behold, all the pillars stand strong with intricate carvings, leaving us awestruck.

Post a quick lunch, Bharath ate, I stared at him, we then began our journey back to Bangalore.. Tired but happy faces..

India has a lot of hidden gems, Rameswaram and more particularly, Dhanushkodi is definitely one of them. The feeling of standing on a an empty stretch of road and sand, two differently colored ocean and sea on either side, the vastness all around, the sound of the wind blowing and waves crashing, you wonder.. is this really India?

Here’s to exploring more such gems of Incredible India!

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The land of Mozart! Vienna.. in 2 days

Vienna.. the land of art, culture and music. The bustling capital city of Austria is an amalgamation of various cultures – pieces from the Ottommon empire right to the Bohemian empire and ofcourse German culture and traditions. Getting around the city is easy and all the sights are at walking distance. However, I had taken the Vienna City card which gave me unlimited use of the public transport – metro, tram or bus and also some discounts on the entry tickets for the sight. I had booked an Air B&B one stop away from  Stephansplatz and it was very convenient.

As always I started off with a free walking tour ( I have decided I will do this in every city) by Good tours.. I like the little anecdotes shared by the tour guides, something you don’t get to read in all the pre-planning research that you do. The tour quickly covers all the main sights but I also had my eyes on a few I had to do which weren’t covered in the tour. St Stephans Cathedral is the most popular one, but the one that really had my eyes pop out was the Karls Kirche (Charles Church). A 80m tall church, situated quite close to the other sites, it has magnificent architecture both on the inside and the outside. There is also a lift, inside the church which takes you up to the dome to be able to see the beautiful frescoes up close! I don’t really have a fear of heights, but when I looked down at the altar my heart did stop for a second. The church also has a VR facility which takes you on a ride on top of the church.. quite cool I must say..

Vienna was ruled by the Hofsburg empire and they were quite flamboyant. This you would see in the interiors of the Schonbrunn palace and Hofsburg palace which are absolutely gorgeous. Vienna also has a lot of expansive gardens with statues erected at various points of famous people; a good place to chill for a bit. There are many more sights to see but I did have limited time here and hence picked the highlights to visit.

For my evening, I had something exciting picked out. One cannot leave the land of Mozart without attending a concert. I am a music lover; listen to any kind of music and classical music is something that I enjoy. I picked a Joanas Strauss and Mozart concert – an evening well spent listening to the sound of a lovely orchestra playing famous compositions by Mozart and Strauss with a bit of ballet, waltz and opera, all in the beautiful Kursalon Wien venue right in the heart of the city…. 

Being a vegetarian, I had figured that I will live on basic food – forms of bread, egg, fruits etc in Europe. However, I discovered, much to my delight, that Vienna has plenty of restaurants in and around Karlsplatz which are completely vegetarian. I have had some yummy burgers, salads etc here. Highly recommended for all the veggies! For the non vegetarians Vienna streets are lined with the hot dog stalls called Wien Würstel and they are supposed to be good! And ofcourse the Schnitzel (which btw isn’t Viennese) 

I was coming to the end of my Viennese adventure and had saved the best for the last….  the Sacher torte! This is a chocolate pastry with a layer of chocolate on top. Simple as it sounds, it couldn’t get better than this.. Finishing off the trip to Vienna, seated at the Sacher Hotel cafe, licking the Sacher cake and cream off my fork! #Life’sGood. 

P.S. you get the Sacher cake in many shops but the Sacher hotel is the one where it originated. 

Next up Budapest! 

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3 weeks in Europe – The Planning

The travel itchy feet syndrome is one where you cant wait to take off on another adventure and I had this for more than a year. After 2017 being the year of leg injuries I was itching to take a vacay.

Having travelled across most of SE Asia, Europe was top on my list. The Husband was unable to take leaves, yes, it gets difficult to coordinate calendars, and since I had some friends scrattered across Europe, I decided to do a somewhat SOLO trip. After a lot of additions and deletions I picked to do Central/Eastern Europe on this trip starting in Germany. What started as an ambitious plan of covering 9 cities from Brugges to Budapest was shortened to 7 cities thanks to reality and ofcourse limited number of leaves. After I received a “3 weeks holiday!” exclamation from my boss who then agreed with a Ja Simran Ja dialogue, I said a big thank you to him and started planning it.

Now when you try to do a Euro trip on your own (without using a travel agency), its almost like a full fledged project planning and execution for close to 3 months! With my birthday falling in May I chose 3 weeks around that timeline (flight ticket costs were also a factor) narrowing down on 3rd week April until 2nd week of May (I wanted to avoid the peak touristy season which is June onwards). Its really really hard to pick areas and regions to cover in Europe cuz there is so much to see! I also wanted to spend atleast 2-3 days in each city to not make it a whirlwind trip. Hence started the planning of my budget Euro somewhat solo trip.

So next.. decision points & bookings – cities to go to, route to take, booking of tickets, inter city travel tickets, accommodation, giving enough time for visa documents prep and submission (takes about 2weeks or so) and ofcourse Itinerary in each city.  Thank god for excel sheets!

1. Cities – I narrowed down basis my interest in history, culture and adventure and also basis calendar availability of my friends. I had to do some permutations & combinations to arrive at the apt duration that I would stay in these cities and the route to follow – to ensure its optimal so that it isn’t too much back and forth, it coincides with weekends for my friends and not too expensive. The final route I chose was to do a round robin.. easy peasy.. Frankfurt-Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Budapest-Salzburg-Munich-Interlaken-Frankfurt. Since I had a direct flight in and out of Frankfurt, I chose that as my entry and exit points.  Booking flights 2 months in advance helps in managing costs – point to note my lord. My friend in Frankfurt decided to join me in Berlin, another friend in Budapest and one in Munich. So weekdays were solo travel. Weekends were with friends!

2. Inter-city travel and Acco – the travel and acco have to be booked in advance as the proofs need to be given for visa application. More so if you are a solo woman traveller. That means planning or rather a birds eye view of your itinerary as well. I had started my research on this by reading up on what to do in the cities, watching Rick Steve’s Europe videos on Youtube (they are quite good) and speaking to my friends. I chose to spend an average of 2 nights in each city (some had 3 as well) basis what all I wanted to cover. Air B&B was my first option for acco and I scouted for them in each of the city. Pick the location appropriately, preferably city center as it helps in commuting/walking to all the sights. I found some great studio apartments in Prague, Vienna and Budapest. In Berlin, since we were late in booking, we had to pick a hotel. An Euro trip isn’t complete if you haven’t experienced the youth hostels. I picked those in Salzburg and Interlaken (in Swiss even Air B&Bs are expensive!) In Munich, I had a friend’s place to crash at.

I then booked my inter-city travel via trains and buses individually. My first thought was, why not Eurail pass. However, when I did the maths, it worked out to be more expensive and time consuming as connections weren’t great. Buses were booked via Flixbus, that’s the most widely used network. Trains through Go Euro. Flights – no way! Buses and trains also give you the real a feel of Europe, sitting by the window, enjoying the lush countryside and sipping on your cuppa. With the multiple iterations around the cities and their, travel I did make a mistake in my dates for one of the journeys. #panic. Thankfully realized it early on and was able to cancel and re-book the train. Phew! #Facepalm. P.S. take print outs as not all places are digital friendly.

3. Visa!! – the biggest task at hand was to collect documents for the tourist visa. Schengen visa document requirements is a big turn off! You need to provide proofs of everything – flight, stay, travel, proof of profession and income, whether you have enough money to survive the trip, covering letter with detailed itinerary, Travel Insurance, and ofcourse passport and civil status – eg: marriage certificate etc. Someone had even asked me to keep a NOC from my husband or father handy incase they ask!! Talk about gender equality!

Visa needs to be applied in the country which has the maximum stay, which was Germany in my case. I booked my appointement through the VFS site (all forms can be downloaded there) and went and submitted the docs along with biometrics. Visa came in about 2weeks time.. Yay!!

4. Shopping and Packing – I now had a lot of things to buy.. to pack for a Euro trip, one needs to be prepared for all seasons – summer, winter and rain! I had no winter clothes so that meant investing in a good jacket! I initially wanted to carry a backpack all through, but thanks to a shoulder ailment, I decided to carry a small trolley (10 kg, cabin luggage of sorts) and a medium backpack. Wondering how did I fit 3 weeks of stuff in it? Trust me, the idea is to pack light and travel with delight. You will realize this when you have to lug your luggage through cobbled streets, up and down flights of stairs, lift it over your head to store it in the train baggage compartment and of course run with it when you are late for your bus or train 🙂

I picked very light weight clothes – about 16 tops, 3 trousers, 2 shoes (most important as you need to walk a lot!) 1 slipper, 1 good jacket, light cardigan, a couple of stoles, other winter wear, toiletries (very expensive to buy there), 10 pairs of socks, towel, raincoat, umbrella, medicines, chargers & power bank and some ready to eat food since I’m vegetarian. However, I didnt really have a problem in Europe for food.

P.S. I even had some space for the knick knack shopping I wanted to do 🙂

Tip: roll your clothes while packing them in your suitcase. It saves space.

5. Itinerary – thanks to the research that I was doing I had a fair idea of what all I wanted to see. But who is going to remember all of that! That’s when I discovered Visit A City app. Its been a blessing! The app/site recommends and allows you to create 1-4 day plans of sights to visit, the opening timings of those sights, the distance between them, some tours that you may want to take etc. I also wanted to attend some music concerts in Vienna and Salzburg so I pre-booked them online. But yet, left a lot of room to get to the city and then figure out what I wanted to do.

6. Lastly, Money – I had taken some currency and a Forex card. Found the card to be very useful as most places were card friendly….

Alright! I was now all set for my first Europe adventure!

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