Before I could even blink, I realized this month is about to pass by in a jiffy. I have been extremely busy with my travels, assignments, festivals and hordes of guests. At times I was travelling and my guests were waiting here in Mumbai. In fact they welcomed me home when I returned. Such was past one month or so. And it appears it is going to be the same till new year !
When you have guests and Indian festivals (especially Diwali) going hand in hand, wine bottles are the …

This is the fifth post in this batch of Guest-post series on this site. The contributions are from people like you and me but not necessarily from the blogging world. We see, observe and experience many mundane things in our daily life. The flavours are different but the interest is common in these posts … and that is Travel.
Over to Korak Basu.
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East Sikkim is a place of virgin beauty. Most of us are unaware of the rich flora and fauna and wildlife of this region. …

On going further up to Nathula Pass we come across these twin lakes just before the pass. They are very close to each other to be called twin lakes and when overflowing, water from upper lake travels to the lower one.

Two distinct colors.
Strangely the water in them is always of different colors. The upper lake has

2000 feet below Nathu la Pass (India-China border), and on way to it, there is a splendid blue-green water lake called Changu Lake or Tsomgo Lake. In Bhutia language it is literally known as “source of the lake”.

Beautiful view of Changu lake. It was very cloudy that day.
Just about 40 kms. away from Gangtok, this serene lake is

Warning: This is a colorful post.
Before I start writing about my recent trip of Philippines and Malaysia, I thought it better to recollect how was the year 2010 for me in terms of travel.
I think I will skip some of domestic travels since a few of them happened in a jiffy and I do not remember the details now. Also, I am not counting the local exploration of lesser known places of my town such as watching Flamingos at Sewri fort.

Flamingos enjoying their meals.
The year started with a …

Soldiers at Nathu La pass.
Irrespective of their country should not they be applauded for doing their duties without fear of sun or rain to guard their countries and countrymen ?

An Indian soldier…..
Although I chatted with him

The magical lure of Sikkim has always been attracting people from all over the world. This also brings a very common need of shared cabs and privately hired vehicles in Sikkim.

Shared taxi plying between Rangpo and Gangtok.