Time has come now for me to talk about our Ski Holiday!
Remember I had once written about Mont Blanc and I had promised that I would one day write about our own little ski experience? R, who’d been in Bern longer, suggested why not go to Switzerland’s own ski resorts and suggested we go to Zermatt.
Zermatt boasts of being one of the nearest towns to Matterhorn, the highest mountain peak in Switzerland (one side of the ridge is Italy). It is a small town where you can access it by …

Come monsoons and we have a lot of outdoor activities shutting down or limping to a slower pace. A very few which remain active for at least some days is parasailing.

Getting ready on table top, Panchgani.
Enjoying parasailing in

OK, this post has jumped the queue. This one is for Rahi who wants to see his life’s first snowfall. His constraints -  He lives in Delhi and can afford only two days leave. He is keen on Simla, a hill station.
Rahi, I suggest the best place within your limitation is Kufri, 19 Kms ahead of Simla on NH22. It is at an altitude of 2,622 m.
Though in two days time you may not experience the actual snowfall but there is a high possibility of seeing some freshly …

There is a lot more to Goa than beaches, palm trees and feni (a local alcohol drink)… one of them being exciting water sports.

Going up
Goa is a paradise for adventurous water sport lovers. The long coastal area offers a wonderful opportunity to indulge in all sorts of thrilling aquatic sport activities. Surf the seas or float across the blue skies, the options of sport enjoyment are never ending in Goa.
Surfing, snorkeling, jet-skiing, boogie boarding, scuba diving, water-skiing, parasailing, windsurfing, and deep sea fishing are just some of the water sports …

There were four choices to reach Goa from my place, Mumbai.. .. by air, by cruise, by road or by train. The distance is around 600 Kms by road.
Since we had heard about the Konkan belt with all its ghats being extremely beautiful to watch, we decided against the first two options. Also, they were to take either too short or too long duration. Traveling by road was again rejected on three points.

1. It would have meant spending around 15 hours by any overnight Volvo bus taking into consideration all …

It was last weekend of July, rainy season in Maharashtra and we, a group of 11 people (extended family) went to three days trip to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani. You can read in details about that visit here, here and here. It was my second visit to these small hill stations amidst the heights of the Sahyadris mountains.
Only eighteen kms from Mahabaleshwar, the hill station of Panchgani is no lesser known to tourists. It is a frequented hill resort and is an ideal base for some good trekking, hiking, biking and …