Rick Steves Rolling Backpack (Reviewed: Jul 2012) Leave it to Rick Steves to combine the simplicity of backpack with the convenience of a roll a board. Roll the "Rolling Backpack" around for ease at the airport or at your hotel but shoulder it in situations where its better on your back then on the ground (crowds, nasty sidewalks etc). After sitting around for a month or two we were itching to put this to the road test. A trip to Thailand, Japan … [Read more...]
One Day in Bangkok
Yesterday Tokyo, today Bangkok, tomorrow Chennai. No rest for the weary. … [Read more...]
Researching Budget Hotels, Chennai India
Looking for budget hotels in India is always so entertaining. For $6 dollars a night we found a hotel that boasts, "bucket showers (for hot water), a "no Indian policy" and squat toilets". Really, all strong selling points??? Here's another line: "each and every single room at our hotel exotic epitomizes luxury and the grandeur of Indian culture juxtaposed with modern amenities" - this is set on a background image of some guy in a tuxedo! … [Read more...]
Lunatic Express
Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman This is a fascinating read about travel through countries with some of the world's craziest and most dangerous transportation networks. Author Hoffman's recollections of his journey are gripping, engaging, reflective and at times humorous. He travels as locals would almost always in the lowest seating class - from the insanely crowded Mumbai trains where over 4,000 are killed annually due to train related … [Read more...]
Greek Out!
What makes a trip memorable? The people? The places you visit? The events? What if everything falls into place? What if the trip is so good that it becomes your Best Trip Ever? This story takes places in sunny and beautiful Greece, in the hot summer month of August. I had received an email from one of my best friends from college who had decided to take his summer vacation a step further and get married in Greece. A few quick emails and phone … [Read more...]
Two more book reviews!
I typically review a couple of travel related books each month. THE FREEWAYS OF LOS ANGELES It is hard to review your own book and not be biased - but writing this review should theoretically be easy! The Freeways of Los Angeles highlights all the major freeways in the Los Angeles and Orange County Metropolitan Regions. Short descriptions are provided about each freeway which in part includes their common names, photographs, special … [Read more...]
Heritage Hotel Fort Khejarla
Heritage Fort Hotel - Fort Khejarla, located 80 Kms East of Jodhpur, the Sun City of India but a million miles away from the traffic congestion, horns, and heavy population! Spread across 14 acres, this splendid site is easily accessible by most tourist attractions and cities of Rajasthan. The historic structure amalgamates with the golden tint of the desert ambience and the scenic setting suns in its most vibrant shades giving it a fairy tale … [Read more...]
Kodaikanal Vacation, India
Hai! My name is Vijay and I live in Chennai. Chennai, though a very pleasant city in many other ways, gets intolerably hot in summer. This year, Chennai recorded the second highest temperature in two years! We were melting in our clothes. This is why, we shouted with joy when my father told us he was taking to Kodaikanal (a hill station) for a leisurely summer vacation. Our father booked the tickets through the Internet, for our railway … [Read more...]
India on the Rails
If life is a journey than, in India at least, it chugs along on two parallel steel lines, the railways. No reference here to the local trains of Mumbai, India's commercial capital, where citizens spend a substantial portion of their waking hours commuting increasing distances within ever expanding city-limits. This one is grand - a vast rail network criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country, spanning over plains and rivers, through … [Read more...]