Picture of the moment: Golden Pheasant.
Picture of the moment is a weekly series exhibiting pictures from around the world.
The name comes from its golden crest. Males have a golden crest with a hint of red at the tip of it. While the male is so colorful & attractive, the female is very sober as generally the case is.
The Golden Pheasant is one of the most popular of all pheasant species kept in captivity. The adult male is around 100 cm in length, its long tail accounts for two-thirds of the …

Picture of the moment: Chinese New Year.
Picture of the moment is a weekly series exhibiting pictures from around the world.
This whole week Malaysia is celebrating Chinese New Year. The shops are selling red & golden colored lanterns of different shapes and designs, decorative pieces and flowers.

A street in China town, Kuala Lumpur.
Tell me, aren’t they beautiful ?
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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 …

People of Indian origin make 3rd largest group in Malaysia. Most of them are Tamil speaking. No wonder Malaysia celebrates Pongal, Thai Pusam, Deepawali and other Indian festivals with same zeal as it celebrates other festivals.

Saw this Rangoli at the entrance of Petronas, Kuala Lumpur.

And so a fulfilled trip to Malaysia and Philippines came to an end. Or should I say a fun filled trip ?
It was majorly Philippines with Malaysia serving as a landing platform both ways. To start with, we had booked our air tickets to and fro Kuala Lumpur around 2 months back and that was it. No other plans or schedule were made or thought of…. the way I prefer to travel.
Why Kuala Lumpur ? Because Air-Asia, my favourite cost effective airlines for south Asian countries, doesn’t fly directly to …

I was requested to write an article on “My trip of a lifetime” for CLAY (Club Mahindra And You) for their trip of a lifetime contest. I hurriedly penned down some experiences and the story was published on their website after our trip to Sikkim. As luck would have it, I forgot to mention about it here.
Since I am travelling right now, what better could be than to give my readers a taste of that experience.

Alor Setar railway station.
…. … Having stalked, surrounded and shoved by 8 taximen when I …

The Malaysian Government has decided to discontinue the “Visa on Arrival” or VOA as it is popularly called effective from 16th August, 2010.
VOA scheme was offered to a select group of countries, of which India was a part, in which, Malaysian Immigration would grant 7-15 days visa at the port of entry into Malaysia, whether by Air, Ship or Land, irrespective of mode of travel.
Now all travelers planning to enter Malaysia for tourism or otherwise will now have to ensure that they have proper entry permits while planning the trip.
However, …