ISLAS BALLESTAS: The poor man’s Galapagos

๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ชย ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ชย ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ช I left Lima at 3 AM bus to reachย Paracas. I already had reservation with an agency but they did not turn up. Luckily there was another ย 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.ย The Paracas Candelabra is 180 meters tall and it can…

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Norway: Bergen

๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ดย ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ดย ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด 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

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณย ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณย ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณย ย  โ€œLife is an adventure, itโ€™s not a package tour.โ€ ย  ย  ย  โ€“ 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 remainย 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 โ€œthe land of high passesโ€, lies between the Himalayas and the Kunlun mountain range at a height of more than…

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Camping in White Desert

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌย ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌย ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌ 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

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌย ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌย ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌ Day 1 & 2 21/22- 12- 2102 ย Cairo - White ย 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 twoย kilometers fromย beginningย of the road ย the railway from Helwan…

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Leh: Spituk – Likir – Alchi – Basgo

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณย ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณย ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ I arrived Leh 1 day late. This was due to delay of my flight from London. Nevertheless the hotel did not charge me extra and changed the date of my booking. I was advised to take rest on the first day. Next day I rented a car by myself and went for a monastery hopping. My first stop was Basgo. Perched at the top of a hillock, it is situated nearly 40 kms away from Leh approaching to Nimmu which is on the highway of Srinagar-Kargil-Leh. The monastery was a fortress…

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Paris Again

๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท This is my second trip to Paris. Shreyashi is on the way and I just returned from Chadar trek with a broken elbow. This was a very short trip . We stayed in a very comfortable hotel near Arc de Triomphe, visited Eiffel tower , enjoyed Paris streets.                  

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Edinburgh

๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟย ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟย ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ We started in the evening from London . This was a night bus from Victoria terminus to Edinburg. We reached Edinburgh in the morning . Our first destination wasย Calton Hill , one of Edinburgh's main hills, set right in the city centre. It is unmistakable with its Athenian acropolis poking above the skyline. There are two observatories . Nelson monument is situated on top of Calton hill which was constructed to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Latter in the day we walked across…

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