Wat to do...ders hardly been any sun out today :P all cloudy n cool like in d hills! d sun only peeked out for a few minutes at around 3 or something! Imagine dat! :D
Well i just cant help d fact that m soooo mad about travelling.. Its really the thing i most love in my life.. i just cant imagine myself, my life in any other way.... :)
Wen we were very young we never had dat much luxury amounts to spend on vacations, and well that was d time to spend at home u kno..everyone had time actually :) We'd go to the parks n play wid dad n d long walks wid mom n everything n hav fun together.. And vacations were meant to b wid nana-nani, mammus n masis.... nice :)
Then as we became bit busier at school n all, the vacations meant more for us.. The very first holiday we had was at Mahabaleshwar :) So nice :)
Its not at such a high altitude but some cyclonic winds had gathered all d clouds and it was a pretty awesome time! The journey by bus during the nite time, the early morn stopover at a strawberry farm n tea for mom dad n i guess icecream for me n sis :) N d beautiful beautiful hazy hazy morn....just so dreamlike :) Then our first ever stay at a hotel, the lunches and dinners there.. Some wierd unheard songs being played out faintly in d bkgrnd n the waiters serving sweet dishes n all.. N at those times we'd b making friends werever we went..so we found a grp of kids there too... then the walks on the bazar streets, some shopping and playing games and eating out... Going for horse ride at d lake.. going for long long walks on d first day itself :P :D n of cose clicking pics of monkeys :D:D Fun!
Next was Ooty.. A bigger vacation! Longer journey... By train n then by bus n the toy train.. N all the rains there, that silly lakeside out of reach hotel :P We made one friend there too at d merry-go-round.. Then the toy train at the lake n all d heavy rains..nice:) N the rose garden, botanical garden....faint memories.. I remb d first time we were drinking tea out there :D N we did feel quite cold..sis wearing 2-3 tops of ours n 2-3 dad's shirts n all :P:D Frankly i dont remb much good things bout that vacation :P:P:D But well it was a vacation and a bigger one and good nevertheless :)
Then came a trip to Kahandala by car i guess.. N later during my 10th lots many such small beautiful trips.. Khandala, Karnala, Ekvira temple, Igatpuri, Traimbakeshwar, Alibag, Silvassa, and very later on Ganpatipule, Shirdi, recently Malshej..... All of these are really lovely :)
Then there was the bigger n more beautiful trip to Himachal Pradesh..WOW! :)
Manali, Shimla, Dalhousie n Dharamsala..... Shimla...very very overpopulated..but the mall roads fun anyways :) Manali is most pretty, very beautiful n a lot of fun :) Dharamsala has only the monastry, otherwise the hotel was yuck :P Dalhousie is a very very pretty place n has d lovely smaller-town-feel :) The train journey to Delhi was very much fun, then d drive to Shimla.. n the roadside Dhabas....mmmm...Yummy :) The mall road was good fun :)
And then Manali... pretty :) cosy hotel..beautiful scenery:) the roti and raita in d market place..the shopping at tibetan market... sis's bday :D there was dis nice camp by dad's office wale uncle..nice :) then the horse ride..first real and beautiful :) then the snow..first time in life n amazing experience :) it was wow!! skiing was silly :P And paragliding.....OOOOOH!!!! And d "Experience of Forever"- RAFTING :):):):) i cant even begin to describe these...........:) Seriously, Manali was an eye-opener experience for us newbies to travelling n ultimate fun in vacationing for firsttimers :P :)
Then we went on to Dharamsala..n later to Dalhousie..... So so so pretty :) Very comfortable n sweet.. the two things we found there which r present at all other such similar small hill stations- Gandhi Market, Subhash Chowk :P :D But really nice :) the bazar road was so nice..n der ws dis Sharma da Dhaba..lovely :) The experience of having hot bhuttas in cold, wearing sweater in summer :P:D n later giving the bhutta cover to horses...nice really :) The small sweet market place, the cosy streets to walk on forever, the peaceful sunsets, the lazy mornings...easy n nice n sweet n terribly peaceful :)
And the Uttaranchal trip...nice :)
First came Nainital..such a beautiful city by d lake :) Its a lot like Shimla but much much much better..actually Shimla's been terribly commercialised.. Nainital still retains its charm :) We had a lovely lake-view hotel :) We'd take long walks on d mall road along d lake...n then sit and chat besides d lake... Dad wud "recite" some very well known stories of their school syllabus in perfectly "textbookish" Hindi :D:D really..luvly time :) N boating in the lake...n going to Bhimatal, eating curry n drinking lichi juice:) n going up by d cable car, getting pics clicked wearing those pretty lehnga n all costumes (sis mum n dad while me, i preferred Gabbar ;) :D )....
Then there were Ranikhet n Kausani... Both pretty small town n very very homely :) Full of greenery, pretty flowers, small market wid Dhabas, wid mountains visible wid snow peaks far off... really luvly :):) We'd so often sit in the balcony or on the terrace peacefully..really nice :) There was this one place...full of tall grasses n pretty gentle slopes... U wont blieve it..we went about rolling in the grass:D:D:D:D that was soooo awesome...even mum n dad u kno:) laughing like crrrrazy :D Then there was this time that we went to watch the stars... Actually that town is sooo small n secluded that the nite sky was terribly clear..we cud see so many stars u kno...hardly u cud find a sq.cm. without stars....the whole milky way ws visible.... N for d 1st time in life i saw sooooooo many shooting stars... brilliant :)
And Jim Corbett....Its another story u kno! Camping out in the jungle next to river! WOW!!!! :) sitting besides d river for hours n hours, bouncing stones off the surface! going for lovely safari..seeing monkeys most of d time:D crossing shallow rivers, looking at tiger claw marks along the way.. looking at some movement hoping to see a tiger n realising its just a cock:D:D:D:D Mind blowing :)
