The well-kept secrets of Angkor Wat
If you look beyond the smiling Buddha faces of Bayon and the towers of Angkor Wat, you might stumble upon a sleepy district lost somewhere in the shadows of its more popular neighbour Siem Reap.
Battambang, surprisingly the second largest city in Cambodia, is where I finally found the bona fide flavour of the country and which doesn’t adhere to rules laid down for its tourist-centric trail. Read more
Fresh snowfall gives Manali tourism a boost
The tourism and hospitality sectors in Himachal Pradesh is likely to get a boost after fresh snowfall enveloped the states’s Manali region this week.
Even as the weather department predicts more snow and reain in the next 24 hours, tourists have welcomed the change in weather in this picturesque locale.
Vivek Sethi, a tourist from Delhi, said he was mesmerized with the breathtaking views of the town after the snowfall. Read more
Maldives: A nation of 1,190 coral islands
It is an archipelago of 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls oriented north-south. Only 185 islands are home to the Maldivian population. The other islands are used entirely for economic purposes of which tourism and agriculture are the most dominant. Read more
Slovakia’s ode to Peeping Tom
At a misty kerbside in Bratislava, I saw a round face with a bulbous nose creeping out of a manhole, spying on a passersby. Elbowing through a gaggle of women, I squatted beside the statue for a photograph, kissing his beanie. Nowhere in the world is the Peeping Tom the object of such slobbery affection, except in the capital of Slovakia. Matej, who was escorting me around the city pointed out the signpost, ‘Man at Work,’ erected after careless motorists decapitated this busybody at least twice. Rubberneck was perhaps the city’s most popular denizen, but wasn’t its only quirky resident. Just opposite him stood a flirtatious dandy in frock tails and a top hat, the Romeo of Bratislava; and just a little ahead, a camera toting paparazzo; followed by a Napolean-esque figure leaning over a bench, propped on his arms, deep in thought, as if an unanswered question lingered in the air.
A historical interlude
Before I landed on Slovakia’s shores, I pondered over a wringer – where exactly did the country lie? Pouring over a map of Europe, I found it wedged deep in Central Europe. Slovakia’s a toddler in Europe’s atlas; having become a sovereign state just about two decades ago, after the smoothly executed Gentle Revolution severed it from the common state of Czechoslovakia.
Read full story at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/travel/Slovakias-ode-to-Peeping-Tom/articleshow/11411589.cms
Dhenkanal: Odisha’s very own hill station
When sunrays caress the face of Paniohala hills, the chiming of temple bells fill the air, monkeys chatter away busily on treetops and the fragrance of ripened plums from the plum groves float into your room through the window, you know you have woken up in the remote hamlet of Dhenkanal.
On the eastern coast of Odisha, about 1600 km from the country’s capital, Dhenkanal is a pretty hill station where the locals love to cool their heels off in the torrid summer months. Read more
Egypt brings new fusion culture package to India
The recent political turmoil in Egypt is scripting a new culture of fusion and hope, the country’s envoy said at the opening of the Egyptian Cultural Week in India.
“Now that we have put a government in place and working on a new Constitution, we have crossed the major hurdle. There is a new cultural language of the younger generation that Egypt is listening to,” ambassador Khaled El Bakly said here Monday evening.
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McLeodganj’s 152-yr-old nostalgia shop
For most Indians, colonial British India exists only in movies or Kipling’s novels. But in a 152-year-old shop in this Dharamsala suburb the British Raj continues to live on.
Located in the heart of McLeodganj, the shop takes you back to India’s colonial past by exhibiting relics of the bygone era.
Set up in 1860, Nowrojee and Sons General Store is one of the oldest shops in Himachal Pradesh. It is still working and has maintained its original grand wooden structure.
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Top 10 travel getaways of 2011
1. Goa: Goa is a veritable mix of sun, sand and psychedelia. And unlike Miami or Vegas, it has something for all ages, and just everyone has a reason to experience the ‘Goan holiday’. With an endless stretch of sand beaches bordering an azure Arabian Sea, palm-fringed sunsets, lazy strolls by the seaside, manic parties on full moon nights, free flow of Feni at a beach shack, quaint churches and warm local folks…Goa is for those who want to take a pause and let the world pass by, and even those who wish to make the most of their social life. Read more
Brazilian town with mighty waterfalls
Think Brazil and most people would be instantly transported to a land of pristine beaches, littered with stunning figures, the hedonistic carnival, samba drums, the magnificent Christ The Redeemer and perhaps the notorious favelas.
It’s what we’ve all imagined Brazil to be like, courtesy Hollywood and lately, a bunch of reality TV shows. After spending a sizable amount of time in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, I could vouch for all of the above. But underneath the glitz and funk, I was determined to find more soul, more adventure, more of the real Brazil that we don’t get to see back home. And with that firm belief in place, a number of road trips ensured. Read more