bengalinomad, Author at Bengali Nomad

Peak District and Monsal Trail

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:September 12, 2012
Post category:Europe 🌍travel UK 🇬🇧

🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 This was an activity packed tour. We booked 2 nights in YHA Ravenstor, Buxton. This hostel has over 70 acres of private ground and near to river Wye. The garden view from YHA is great with real log fire. Next day we left very early after breakfast. The trail is around 8.5 miles. It starts at the Topley Pike junction (in Wye Dale, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Buxton) and runs to Coombs viaduct, 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of Bakewell. It follows the valley of the River Wye. The trail passes through such places as…

Luxor: Balloon ride over Kings Valley

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:February 9, 2012
Post category:Adventure Africa 🌍City Egypt 🇪🇬travel

🇪🇬 🇪🇬 🇪🇬 Mansoor told me, “you should definitely do a balloon ride in Luxor”. I was not sure ; $150 sounded expensive. He finally convinced me. Next morning at 4 AM a mini bus came to pick us up. They collected people from various hotels and then took us outside city. The ground was huge. All companies operate from here. There were probably close to 100 balloon which were getting ready to be air-borne. We went up at the break of dawn. Weather was cold and bit foggy. It was amazing to watch first rays…

Lucerne : Mount Pilatus and Mount Titlis

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:December 21, 2011
Post category:Europe 🌍Family / Leisure Luxury / Comfort Switzerland 🇨🇭travel

🇨🇭 🇨🇭 🇨🇭 We stayed Lucerne for two days. First day was we visited mount Titlis. We took train to to Engelberg then walked down to the cable car. Engelberg - Titlis cable car goes up to Titlis with a change at Trübsee. From Trübsee the rotating gondolas "Titlis Rotor" took us to the top. The weather was not great . It was cloudy that day so view from top was not very clear. The glacier cave is only a snowball's throw from the mountain station. The glistening, blue ice tunnel leads deep down into the fascinating…

The Golden Pass Express

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:October 20, 2011
Post category:Europe 🌍Switzerland 🇨🇭travel

🇨🇭 🇨🇭 🇨🇭 Switzerland has numerous luxury trains. One of the popular one is "The Golden Pass" , from Montreux to Lucerne . We boarded it of Montreux to Interlaken and stayed 1 night at Interlaken . This section train climbs to the highest point of the entire Golden Pass line, near Saanenmöser, at 1279 and soon after it leaves French speaking part and enter the German speaking part of Switzerland. Before Interlaken it continues its way to Spiez, a town at a scenic location along Lake Thun. You can easily see the pyramid shaped Mount Niesen from here.…

Niagara falls and Thousand islands

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:September 23, 2010
Post category:North America 🌎travel USA 🇺🇸

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 This was a 2 day tour to thousand islands and Niagara falls. We left by a bus from New York very early morning. We drove to the Thousand Islands, where we took a Boat Tour of the area. The Thousand Islands is an archipelago at the Canada-U.S. border from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about 50 miles. The U.S. islands are in the state of New York and the Canadian islands are in Ontario. The smaller islands only have single residences. These boat tours of the unique and impressive Thousand…

Paris

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:March 30, 2010
Post category:Europe 🌍France 🇫🇷travel

🇫🇷 🇫🇷 🇫🇷 After coming to UK , this was my first trip outside UK. Four of us planned the trip, I, who came to work in UBS from a consulting company called Polaris, Jayesh from Infosys, Gopi and Vinay from Wipro. First step was obtaining a Schengen. Those days embassies used to deal with the Visa applications directly and typically you would get back passport end of the day or next day. Nevertheless , my visa was approved only for 7 days just enough to cover the itinerary. We took the…

Go Ape Grizedale

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:August 21, 2009
Post category:Europe 🌍travel UK 🇬🇧

🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 Last adventure in our lake district was Go Ape in Grizedale forest. We booked our slot in advance but was running late , finally somehow manged to hitchhike a ride to the forest. "Go Ape" is an outdoor adventure company . From their website "The origins of Go Ape lie in France. Back in 2001, Tris and Becs Mayhew were on holiday in the Auvergne with their six-month old baby and came across a French family swinging through the trees. From the looks on their faces, it was clear both the kids…

New York

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:August 11, 2009
Post category:North America 🌎travel USA 🇺🇸

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 I used to work as a contractor then in UBS. It was the month of September and my contract was supposed to be finished in December. I went for 8 weeks trip to New York mostly for work. Over the weekends I visited obvious places like statue of liberty. The monument itself is situated on liberty island which is accessible by regular ferry. It is possible to climb to the top but that requires a reservation of 6 months in advance. My office was on wall street . Though it was…

Helvellyn walk, The Classic Ridges of Striding and Swirral Edge

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:June 25, 2009
Post category:Europe 🌍travel Trek UK 🇬🇧

🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 This climb was part of our Lake district and Blackpool trip. We started early from Ambelside Youth hostel. It took only 20 mins from the hostel. This mythical mountain, standing at 950m, is one of the great mountains of the Lake District. Helvellyn offers walkers the chance to step back in time to rocky terrain and narrow glaciated edges. It is one of England’s four 3000 ft summits and is home of the best ridge walk in Britain – Striding Edge. We began our walk in Glenridding and made our way up…

Italy Pisa and Florence

Post author:bengalinomad
Post published:December 20, 2008
Post category:City Europe 🌍Italy 🇮🇹travel

🇮🇹 🇮🇹 🇮🇹 I left for Pisa from Naples . This was 6 hrs train journey . I walked from station to the complex which was 30 mins walk. Construction for leaning tower of Pisa began in 12 century . This was the place where Galileo conducted his famous experiment by dropping two spheres of different masses to demonstrate gravity. The tower started leaning because of defective foundation and soft soil on one side. Eventually in 1990 restoration work begin and it was stabilized by correcting tilt and further improving the foundation. Florence was 2…