Archive for Holidays

October 17th 2009

Fosters Aoc Party!!!!

by nafisa in Bangalore, Entertainment, Events, Weekend getaway 12 Comments

Hello everyone. I am Nafisa. This is my very first post as a guest blogger on Anwin’s Blog.

Me, Anwin, Diana & Anoop went to Fosters Art of chilling Poolside party last weekend on 10 th of Oct at Lalit Ashok Bangalore city Hotel. We landed at the party on an empty stomach, so the first thing we did was attack the food. There was lot of mouth watering options for meat eaters – fresh clams, Beef steaks, Pork ribs….etc. They had arranged spray paints and a huge canvas board at one corner for the crowd to paint their thoughts; we too did a little scribbling on it

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“IndiBlogger.in Chilled here”

Afternoon started with little showers of rain, Foster’s Hat came in handy and saved us from getting drenched. After having a satisfying lunch we sat down for Beer to chill our self from hot sun, the pool looked so tempting that we all wanted to soak our body in the water, unfortunately we didn’t come prepared.

Anoop and Diana Chilling out….

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Later, Bharath & Naveen joined us with their companions. For a change there was a band playing fusion music, which was ok but didn’t blend quiet well with the atmosphere.

Squeezing to fit in the frame Indiblogger team and friends…..

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Thanks for your invitation Fosters and I would like to be there again. After having unlimited beer with awesome grilled meat who wont enjoy, I know I did!!

Thanks Diana for the pics

September 20th 2009

Beautiful Wayanad

by Anwin in India, Pics, Trip tags: Kerala, Kerala Tourism, monkey, Moth, Wayanad 17 Comments

Last week I was in Wayanad for a meeting. It was such a beautiful place that I was kicking myself all day that I had forgotten my trusted camera. Damn!

Anyway, I did manage to take some picture from my mobile which are okay I suppose. Not great, but okay.

This was a view of the Oriental School of Hotel Management from Greeshmam resorts, where I was staying for the day. The college looked like a castle from behind, hehehehe.

And the same place later in the day when the mists were rolling in. Amazingly beautiful, and not so good pics.

And finally into the below picture.

The best thing I liked about Wayanad was that even though it was misty and rainy, it was not chilly. So I could walk around normally and look around free of any extra cold weather clothing.

Some monkeys at the view point above hair pin bend 9 at Lakhidi.

View of the valley from the view point.

And an amazingly colorful dusk.

And to end the post, a picture of a bright orange moth I found sitting on the door.

In Pondicherry now, and going towards the beach for some lunch. Hopefully, I’ll get some pics here too.

August 29th 2009

A Trip To Kumarakom, Via Cochin And Kottayam

by Anwin in India, Pics, Trip tags: backwaters, Cochin, Houseboat, Kerala, Kerala Tourism, Kochi, Kottayam, Kumarakom, lagoon, Mammootty, tourism 18 Comments

So, last week I had a business trip to Kottayam and Kumarakom. Before landing there I went to Cochin for a couple of meetings. So this is my story of my trip, minus the business meetings I did.

My uncle who stays outskirts of Cochin has a dog, a nice looking brown mongrel, named Terry. So this guy loves to chase lizards and kill them. For what joy nobody knows. He doesn’t even eat them, maybe a little too buggy in taste for him. Anyways, I found this lizard the dog had killed in the house the previous night in the front yard almost completely eaten, by ants. It was about 10 in the morning and the ants where just about finishing the job.

Then, I went on to my meetings. The next day I was in Kumarakom for some meetings. I had to take a bus from Kottayam and got down at Kumarakom boat jetty stop. From there I took an auto to Eastend Lakesong resort. After that, went on to the next meeting nearby. So I ended up walking on a parallel road by the hidden but huge lagoon. And took some snaps.

Above, a canal watering the nearby farmlands and ponds. Below, a board announcing the way to the nearest Toddy shop where you can get Toddy, a local alcoholic drink taken from palmyrah (palm) trees.

A pond where fish is commercially reared for sale. It has a For Sale sign, right in the middle of the pond. Unbelievable, never thought ponds were for sale. I thought were only leased. Hmmm…

Picture of marshlands on the way back, taken from the bus. Above, a house covered on three sides by water and marshlands and coconut trees. Wow! And below, the Malayalam Film Star Mammootty’s local fun club board.

A couple of houseboats. I did not have time to go on a houseboat trip though.

The houseboats had satellite TVs and were fully equipped with most modern amenities. Oh man. Kerala Government has really spent a lot in Tourism the past few years. Kumarakom was quite new to me when I heard about it a few months ago. A very beautiful place right in our backyards. But there isn’t much to do for more than two days there.

A view of the lagoon through the trees and taken from the side of a canal. And below a couple of fishermen going for the evening fishing to the backwaters.

One thing that saddened me though was that the locals were behaving as bad as the tourists, I saw a woman dumping waste into the canal. As I was walking by I saw a lot of tourist waste like bottles, plastic, etc. That was a bit sad.

Other than that I had a very good week.

P.S: Kerala is really hot and humid, I must say.

June 19th 2009

Goa Trip 2009

by Anwin in India, Pics, Trip tags: Baga, beach, Calangute, candle, dinner, Goa, Mapusa, romantic, sunset 7 Comments

Last week I was in Goa. Why? I had some meetings lined up for myself and thought I would take the wife with me. Goa is one of my all time favorite tourist spots. The reasons are many and very simple. The beautiful beaches and beautiful countryside aside, what I like about Goa is the inherent hospitality in Goans, the laidback attitude that helps you relax, the nice and smooth long roads and, the best part, you can choose your own way to travel around Goa.

Choosing your own travel means by bike or car is the very best thing about Goa. You do not need to depend on a 3rd person to take you around Goa at all. All you need to do is find the nearest place where you can rent a motor bike (or a scooter) or a car for yourself by paying a small advance, submitting an original identity card like a PAN card or something and showing your driving license as proof that you are legally entitled to be on the road. That’s it, and quite simple. You’ve got yourself a vehicle to drive around in Goa. And Goa, especially the tourist spots, are not too far away. You can probably divide your travels between South and North Goa on different days and visit most of the places. And then you can keep a couple of days aside for some relaxing fun maybe.

So when I went to Goa my company had booked accommodation at Hotel Green Park at Mapusa. This was not really a centrally located place. But, it suited me quite well since Calangute was just 15 minutes away by bike and I had quite a lot of meetings planned around this area.

A relaxing sunset at Calangute beach. Once the sun set we set off to Baga, my favorite beach from my last visit.

Candle light dinner at Baga beach. Very romantic. Loved it.

I didn’t take too many pictures since this was a business trip with a little bit of fun. I couldn’t travel much for local sightseeing. I could go out only in the late evenings. Maybe next time we should go to Tito’s.. Hmmm…

May 25th 2009

Vandalur Zoo Chennai Trip

by Anwin in Animals, Pics, Weekend getaway tags: aviary, cassowary, chennai, chimpanzee, gaur, indian bison, monkey, peacock, tiger, Vandalur, Vandalur Zoo, Weekend getaway, white peacock, white tiger, zoo 26 Comments

A couple of weeks back Nafisa and I found ourselves at Renie’s house in Chennnai a.ka. IndiBlogger headquarters. The reason for the sudden visit was to visit my Dad who was supposed to undergo an eye operation. Finally, that didn’t happen and it got postponed to June 2nd week.

So what did that leave both of us to do? We had the Sunday off to do anything we wanted. Renie had already planned that we could visit the Vandalur Zoo which has been designed like a National Park near Chennai. And on a Sunday afternoon we put that into action.

We entered the zoo and started tripping on the animals right from the primates area. Below is a photo of a monkey, one of very first sights, probably a langur or a lion tailed macaque.

He/she was a quite bugger and quite far off to take good pictures.

The next was a big attraction near the entrance. The chimps were on an uproar and there was some kind of territory confrontation happening between two different groups of two chimps each. So there was so much shouting and stress in the chimp camp that there was a huge crowd just to witness this.

Next were the birds which Renie normally doesn’t visit. But I like to trip on the birds too, so we went looking at the birds. Some of the interesting ones below:

A white peafowl / peacock.

A Cassowary.

And then some mean looking Indian Bisons – also called Gaur.

Above, a mother and calf.

And then, the Royal Bengal Tiger. He was really far off to get a decent shot.

And then, the MAIN REASON why Renie wanted to go to Vandalur zoo, the White Tiger. Wow, this guy was a very good specimen with a majestic look. He walked around and put on a show for us, almost daring us to come inside. Damn good stuff.