Personal Blog – Dushyant

Some lessons from my recent trip to Kodai Kanal:

1. Do not underestimate Bangalore traffic
2. RB1 is not a separate coach number – it means B1 with RAC seat – nearly missed my train because I couldn’t find the coach.
3. Railway station with the same name as the city you wish to reach may not be in the city – Kodai Kanal Road station is almost 80 km from the city
4. Do not trust google maps – shows Elephant Valley Resort right next to the Kodai Lake – its around 20 km from there.
5. Do not book a non-AC bus – just because you do not think you’ll need AC – the bus was uncomfortable as hell.

We had gone to the Kingdom of Dreams in Gurgaon. Lovely place – here are a few photos. Most clicked by Papa and Madhur:

(continue reading…)

Well – the last two days were definitely worth the trip – also they helped turn this trip from ‘hopeless’ to ‘good’. Went for a jeep safari on the first day and was able to get many great shots of rhinos, elephants, water-buffalos, hog-deers . . . . Was great fun. Of course the fun cannot always continue and had to “suffer” an afternoon of site-visits (which were supposed to be visits to tea-garden) with my friend. However on the whole – very nice. Few photos at the end.

Never again am I going to let someone else plan my trips.
The last two days have been absolutely useless. Yesterday was spent waiting for the ILP and then travelling to Tezpur (3 hour journey which took almost 6 hours) – where we were to board a night bus for Tawang (one of the oldest monasteries in India right next to the China border). It was all fine as long as there was something to look forward to. Then all hopes were dashed – there were no night buses / jeeps / bullock carts !! You can reach Tawang only by jeep and they leave only at 5.30 in the morning. Also it takes more that 12 hours to reach. So that meant wasting one day to go and one to come back – that left me with a night when I could stay there. Made no sense at all. Plan 2 was to go to an eco-camp for rafting — seems that was too expensive – no idea how much though. Plan 3 was to go to Bomdila (supposedly 3 hours from Tezpur and supposedly very beautiful). So we opted for plan 3 – little did I know it would take 5 hours to reach – 1 hour for lunch and 5 hours to come back !!!
So I ended up spending 11 hours for lunch – that ought to be a record. Finally I took matters in my hand and decided to spend my last two days in Kaziranga and stop sitting in buses / jeeps for the rest of the trip. So I'm writing this from a beautiful resort in the middle of the jungle . . . .. . . Lets see how the rest of my trip goes . . And as my school motto goes "Never Give In" – I'm not going to lose hope and discard this trip as totally hopeless.
More tomorrow . . . . . . .