Paragliding in Pokhara

๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต Paragliding in Pokhara is an amazing activity . Unlike some other adventure sports its more serene almost felt like spiritual. The Paragliding take-off height is 1592 meters in Sarangkot hills and the ending point is 593 m in Lakeside. It is fairly safe .There was an accident om 2020 Nov in which pilot died and the passenger suffered critical injuries . Though the cause was not reported in the media but local pepole told me this was due to some dare devil stuntย  (plucking a flower from cliff wall…

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Puri

Puri was on cards for a long time. So this December when I was in India , I decided to finally go for it. I started in the evening by Howrah - Puri Supefast express. In spite of booking ticket in 2nd AC 1 month in advance, I only got RAC. Nevertheless , We reached Puri hotel in the morning. I booked the hotel through OYO platform but thr hotel did not honur the booking so ended up paying it again. It took months for me to get my money back. Day…

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Annapurna base camp

๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ต Trekking in Nepal was always a dream . Nepal is a tiny country, which has 8 out of 14 8000M peaks in the world. However I was not considering trekking in Nepal.ย  My original plane was to travel in India and spend some days in Uttarakhand / Himachal , but my cheap return ticket from LOT air has been cancelled and tickets to India were very costly. So I bought a ticket to Kathmandu instead. Annapurna base camp trek is probably the only trek with all the glamour and…

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Abu Dhabi in 3 days

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช Visiting Abu Dhabi was not in cards but the offer from Etihad was tempting , they were offering free stay for 2 nightsย  in 5 star hotel. I was on my way to India anyway, so it was a good deal. I arrived at the airport around mid day . Immigration barrier was mostly automated and getting a local SIM in airport was easy. I took a bus from airport to now defunct city terminal and then took a cab to my hotel. Day 1 Today I reached the hotel and…

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Murshidabad … Beginning of colonial era for 200 years

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ The year is pretty unique in many ways . Corona , national lockdown ,travel chaos and daily changing travel rules all these make travel extremely difficult . Still on 12th Dec after lockdown was briefly lifted I decided to travel to India as planned . After spending few weeks at home and binging on biryanis , I decided to travel somewhere.ย  ย Murshidabad was a good option so I booked a ticket to from Kolkata station on a Friday morning. The journey was comfortable for about 4 hours . I…

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Khirai – Valley of flowers

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Khirai, a sleepy station next to Panskura Junction is known as Bengal Valley of flowers. Though most of flower cultivation happens few miles down near Dokanda village at lower reaches of Kansai river. A nice day-out . It was sad to see that some farmers were destroying their own corps . Spoke to one and he told me that even the cost of transportation is more then what it would fetch in wholesale market.

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Dhaka

๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ From Coxbazar we took a local flight to Dhaka. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is sprawling but very densely populated . The traffic jam is almost legendary , on the way to hotel it almost felt like getting out of the cab and walking would be lot quicker. I was staying at "Hotel Star City" near Kamalapur. We reached the hotel around evening , as with previous hotels, rooms were barely liveable. Dhaka Ramkrisna misson was nearby and we walked there to watch puja and Sandharati. Next morning we woke up…

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Rajshahi and Bogra

๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ From Dhaka Gabtoli bus station our bus station we left at 11.30. The road goes through Tangail,ย  Sirajganj,ย  Natoreย  to all the way to Rajshahi. We reached our hotel at Green City International late in the evening.ย  Next day we took a local bus to Puthia . From main road Puthia village is accessible by rickshaw, this is the largest temple complex in Bangladesh. These temples were built by hindu Zamindars of Puthia . Notable temples are Govinda Temple, Shiva Temple and there are some others in dissipated state.…

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Chitagong & Coxbazar

๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ It was a sunny and warm late December afternoon when I landed Chitagong international airport. The plan was to stay 4 days here before flying off to Dhaka. My hotel was near Chawk Bazar which was quite far from Airport. Chitagong itself is a very overcrowded and dusty (during dry season) city , but it is a great base to cover some of Chitagong hill tract districts, specially Rangamati and Bandarban. Unfortunately foreigners require special permit to visit tribal areas and I did not have time for this bureaucratic…

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Beijing in 3 days

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณMy first stop was Beijing. I landed after 1 PM. First impression of Beijing airport is , its enormous. You scan your passport and detects nationality and switch language accordingly.From airport I took a shuttle bus to the city which costs 25ยฅ . I arrived my hotel at about 3 PM . Shuttle bus stop is very conveniently located near my hotel. Language was a big issue but with the help of google translate I managed somehow. Air China flight was nice and comfortable and was bang on time.Day 1:I stayed in…

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