Year of Travel :)

This whole while I had been on a continuous adventure spree. Trying my best to travel every month to a new place and explore what it got for me! And I think I have done good. 

I literally worked-saved-traveled-repeated.

I tried covering all Indian sides; West, North, South, North-East and my own Eastern zone of India. I have really pushed my limits, tried new stuffs, took a little pain to see the world, challenged and surprised my own self.  I had many solo trips, one with friends group, few with sister and some organized tour. Truly the most loved ones were solo, because once you get the hang of solo-traveling and the freedom and comfort with it, there’s no looking back. I seriously got a boost of confidence like never before. I find myself as a changed person, while all these times I had been so much introverted. I still am but there’s a side of me who is wild and crazy.

I felt the beaches, I explored the mountains, I visited temples, I scuba-dived, I trekked, I went villages, I went cities, I was at archaeology sites, I went for bird-watching, I went to watch wildlife. I met folks, I let myself loose. I traveled in summer, winter and in rain. I photographed and I communicated.

Traveling had been soothing to me. Traveling had been healing to me. And traveling had been my rescue world. 

If a budget women traveler can do it, then certainly you can do even better. Don’t think of saving a lot and then going on a tour. Start now. Go out. It doesn’t take much even with all the plannings and stuff. I’d be happy to help anyone who wants to go exploring, or any information I can give out of my adventures. Specially women travelers, you can drop an e-mail for any travel-related query. 

I couldn’t give much of my time putting travel stories in the blog, but I have written all in my notebooks and this year I’ll be penning down all travel tales for you all. 

India is beautiful. Go explore.

Solo wildlife trip!

Hey everyone,

I'm back to share my second solo travel tale. The first had been Pondicherry, Tamilnadu and this is in my own State: Odisha.

I had been planning to go a new wildlife sanctuary since a long time but it never happened because of fear of remote places, no company and expenses. But finally I saved some money, got some guts, Google-d stuff online, made few calls and settled everything! The place to go was 'Kuldiha'.

I had heard good reviews of the place and seemed particular closer to Bhubaneswar i.e. my city. 

To read my more detailed trip report and pictures check the link --> Wildlife trip to Kuldiha

I have a passion for bird watching in their natural habitat and with this place I had great hopes! Two and a half days with Mr. Manaranjan Das, my tour guide (who is also a birder) went excellent! I explored a beautiful new place. A complete raw and pristine forest with a positive vibe that energizes you. Forgetting the clumsy busy world, I enjoyed this calm green! At the peak hours I enjoyed plenty of bird calls and had some amazing bird sightings like Malabar Trogan, Pale-capped Pigeon, Vernol’s hanging parrot and Heart-spotted woodpecker. One late evening I was lucky to see a cow Indian Elephant drinking water with its calf. What a peaceful sight and it fills you with a feeling of awe. How beautiful is nature and its ways!

One night we stayed in 'Kuldiha' rest house which is deep in the forests with no network and limited electricity. It rained heavily that night, and guess what! I had a tent for night stay. Exciting!! I enjoyed the gossips with the locals having black tea and snacks. The next day after rains was extremely fruitful in bird watching. I saw Indian Giant squirrels, Spotted deers and some fascinating butterflies, insects and lizards. With birding I also have an interaction with the habitat; the trees, leaves, soil; everything is a part of it. You learn nature's behavior although it's quite unpredictable and that's the fun part; it surprises you!!

I felt like I challenged myself to go solo again and accomplished it. I have more confidence in me and the ways to deal with people and places. My overall view with Kuldiha was very nice. It's safe and people are nice plus within one and half hour you're close to cities.  

***

Selfie and the view from my vehicle

Me with Mr. Manaranjan Das and his wife who also had great interest in birds!

Doggy love and the nice guest house at Panchlingeswar, Balasore

Crested Serpent Eagle

Elephant and it's calf going for a drink

Shrike

Malabar trogan

Oriental turtle dove

Indian Giant Squirrel

Peninsular rock agama

Spotted deers

My tent! How adventurous :) 

***

"I was little scared to do this solo trip in a wildlife sanctuary but with Manoj bhai's help and hospitality all my fear turned into joy. Bird watching went good and all other amenities were taken care off. You don't need to worry about food or stay. It's a good place and a lot of things like water-falls and hills are nearby to see. I'll come again for that and of course birding too. Hoping to see more Elephants and Bisons as well"


You can reach Mr. Manoranjan Das at: 9937332552
www.kuldihasafari.com  
 ***

Last day when I was dropped in the city I decided to check out a nearby beach which is quite famous. So I changed two auto-rickshaws and within one and half hour I was in Chandipur beach. It was hot but the place was nice! Beaches are always peaceful and serene. I had some fresh coconut water and came back to Balasore railway station. After 3 hours I took my train and was in home in next 3 and half more hours. :)

Chandipur beach and Great Egret birds

My solo time towards beach

Hoping for a comeback to explore more ~

An experience of Scuba Diving!

Hey, HAPPY NEW YEAR friends !!!!!

~ Pary Two ~

Hope you read the 1st part of my solo trip: Part ONE. 

My start activity at Pondicherry had been Scuba Diving. I did it with 'Temple Adventures' group, India's first and only East Coast PADI Scuba Diving Center. Yeah! I had been too stupid to be doing it but Oh My God what an thrilling experience it had been.

The experience I had was worth all my hard-earned money. I was almost broke after it. :D Neither it's too easy, nor too hard. I freaked out at first in the pool session & was sea-sick in the boat ride. But once you are through the outside wavy-sea and get the feel of the calmness inside, watch those thousands of fishes around you of various varieties, you forget everything and just enjoy. For the first timers, the trick is to breath easy and stick to your instructor. Trust your instructor. They completely take care of you. All you need to do is enjoy <3 

My instructor at pool session was Rob and Rajesh who very patiently taught me all basics of Scuba. The equipments, the sighs, breathing in-out, equalizing and stuff. My instructor at sea was Rajesh and he was super cool (only I behaved stupidly, scared from it). The mightly sea is very different to experience on the boat and going deep inside scared me like shit. I thought I'd die inside it. I thought why the hell I even thought of doing this. But  he took me inside very nicely, kept asking me if I was okay and finally showed me various colorful beautiful fishes. I saw so so so many fishes all around me. It was a  stunning sight, I'll never forget.  We went 13 mts deep inside with the help of a rope for me to hold. It was put by another diver. 

I was so proud of myself to overcome my fear and do it.

Along with my trainers there were expert divers who came for a weekend session or who were taking their courses like rescue-diving or deep-sea diving etc. They were so cool. They give you lot of confidence. I was the only one for the first time dive and they made me so comfy and encouraged me a lot. And true to their words, I thoroughly enjoyed it !!! What Fun!
.
I loved the scuba world, hoping for a more confident session again somewhere.

Find the complete details of the Scuba center 'here'

Enjoying! My all OK sigh!!!

Moi! with the beautiful fishes at background.

 

With my awesome instructor Rajesh.

Gorgeous, aren't they ...

yo!

:)

....

The place in Pondicherry.

Inside, all kind of Scuba equipments are also sold here. Cool!

Guys! they all were expert Scuba people :)

The boat taking us to the deep deep sea ...

 

Me and the shoes and my equipments

'Sikkim' Tour - Nathang Valley

Continuing from ... Sikkim tour #1

The best thing I experienced in my Sikkim birding tour with Goingwild was snow fall in 'Nathang Valley'.

On the 3rd day of our trip, we traveled to 13,500 feet to this paradise. I wasn't expecting snow at all and was I quite afraid of the cold. Yet when I saw and experienced it, I was like a kid getting excited to see my first ever snow fall :-) I was so so happy. I bought a woolen cap and hired snow boots. Yet it was super cold and at night it fell to minus degrees. We did some day time birding and night landscape photography too. It such an awesome feeling :-) 
As it wasn't a fruitful place for birding because of the snowfall, we stayed the night and left for Zuluk the next day.

Check my bird pictures here -- > Birds of Sikkim
 

> Part-2 : Nathang Valley <

   ~ Love Love Love ~

I was just too happy ! :-) Just sank in that feeling!

Snow started from here... Thambi View point :) Here a panoramic view to Mt. Kanchenjungha is visible, but snow and fog made it impossible that day. Read here.

Friends posing :)

On the way... isn't this gorgeous!

The beautiful sight around... the animal is a Yak

An old Monastery !

A local lady with her child, just after the snow fall paused :)

The view around ~Loved it.

Me :)

View from our window !!

Our little snow man! That was quite a team effort :D

Tea worked like magic there! Aren't these cups brilliant!

The stunning windows!

Cozy eating times

Returning ~