Gibraltar

🇬🇮 🇬🇮 🇬🇮 Day 1 I started early from Ronda. It was 9.18 train to Algeciras from Ronda. Weather was not good , it was raining incessantly from morning. At Algeciras I had to wait for sometime to catch a local bus to La - Linea. From La - Linea bus stop it was 10 min walk to the border checkpoint and then another 15 mins walk to my hotel in Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a tiny patch of land (less than 10 Sq Km) still part of British oversees territory. It has its own…

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Ajanta , Ellora & Elphanta Caves en-route to Mumbai – Ellora

🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳   There is no direct public bus to Ellora from Ajanta. I took a bus towards Aurangabad in Aurangabad - Jalgaon road and got down at Phulambri. From Phulambri I took shared trekker on Amdapur - Jenefal road towards Ellora. This took very long time. Next day I utilized fully to visit caves. Caves in Ellora are famous for sculptures. There are 34 caves which can be visited ; these consist of 12 Buddhist caves, 17 Hindu caves and  5 Jain caves. Most of these caves are monasteries or vihars that are carved…

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Sisimiut : Driving a Snowmobile

🇬🇱 🇬🇱 🇬🇱 Snowmobiles have become the modern replacement of dog sled. This was roughly 4 hour excursion from the town. Snowmobiles are pretty easy to master because there is no gear ; its just brake and throttle. We first went to the top of Solbakken. This is a vantage point with a good view across the town. We also went to Aappilattorsuaq . Overall this was pretty cool experience.

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Ajanta , Ellora & Elphanta Caves en-route to Mumbai – Ajanta

🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳   On my way to Mumbai, I decided to spend few days in Ajanta and Ellora. From Kolkata I took Gitanjali Express to Jalgaon. Ajanta caves are approximately 63 Km from Jalgaon. There are over 30 caves which were developed during Satvahana period and Vakataka period. The caves are located near horse-shoe shaped bend build by Buddhist monks during monsoon season. Nobody knows how did the artists paint so well, with such precise use of colour, in the dark recesses of these rock-carved prayer halls and monasteries.  I stayed in MTDC Ajanta T junction resort which…

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ISLAS BALLESTAS: The poor man’s Galapagos

🇵🇪 🇵🇪 🇵🇪 I left Lima at 3 AM bus to reach Paracas. I already had reservation with an agency but they did not turn up. Luckily there was another  company who were conducting boat trip for a group. So I spoke to them and they happily agreed. The boat trip from Paracas to Islas Ballestas is 24 kilometers and it took us about 30 minutes to get there. On our way we saw Paracas Candelabra, a geoglyph that sits on a hill overlooking the water. The Paracas Candelabra is 180 meters tall and it can…

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Norway: Bergen

🇳🇴 🇳🇴 🇳🇴 The weekend gateaway started on a Friday night, around 2 hour flight from London Gateweek to Bergen. Bergen is city on Norways southwestern coast and 2nd largest city in Norway. The bergen airport is quite small and faraway from city but a direct bus from airport to city center takes us directly to Radisson Blue Norge. Next day was 30th April , incidentally Fjordkraft Bergen City Marathon (FBCM) was scheduled that day . The city was brimming with people with participants from all over the world. The day started taking a…

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Chadar Trek

🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳   “Life is an adventure, it’s not a package tour.”       – Echart Tolle When bad luck strikes it takes a moment to change everything. Due to heavy snowfall mountain passes become impassable during winter and some villages in Zanskar valley remain isolated from outside world. From ancient times frozen Zanskar river is used as a trade route to connect Leh in winter. This trek starts from Leh in Ladakh, literally “the land of high passes”, lies between the Himalayas and the Kunlun mountain range at a height of more than…

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Camping in White Desert

🇪🇬 🇪🇬 🇪🇬 Shadows were getting longer. It was late afternoon; we were driving through the white desert in Egypt; afternoon sunlight on an eerie shape of wind carved sandstone resembled a lonely camel far away. We were on the second day of our desert safari. We started from El Bawati village in Bahariya oasis after breakfast. Our first stop was "Sahara Suda", Black Desert; the ground to right and left covered with black stones which are black volcanic eruptions from centuries ago. English mountain is the highest point in the black desert and…

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Egypt : Desert route from Cairo to Luxor

🇪🇬 🇪🇬 🇪🇬 Day 1 & 2 21/22- 12- 2102  Cairo - White  Desert Our desert journey started immediately after we landed at Cairo airport . The car was waiting for us to pick us up from airport , we bypassed Cairo city and proceed towards the desert. On the we saw unfinished apartment blocks illegally occupied by homeless families, these were the effort of previous regime to provide mass housing for citizens. We saw glimpse of Giza pyramids over skyscrapers before entering in Desert. Twenty two kilometers from beginning of the road  the railway from Helwan…

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