HAR KI DOON TREK (March-April 2019)

Me and my friend Amit Burman had been talking, for quite some time, of doing some trek on our own using guides and porters (before going to some backpack trip to Europe or some other place). After discussing several options including Pawali Kanta, we zeroed down on Har Ki doon trek. In connection with our proposed backpack trip to Europe, I spoke to Balbir Singh Dasila who also showed interest in doing this trek. Accordingly, on 14thMarch 2019, which was about two weeks before the departure date, we booked our train tickets to and from Dehradoon as per the common dates suitable to all of us. At the last moment, my nephew (sister’s son) Ayush Jindal also chipped in, who travelled by bus to Dehradoon as he could not get train booking.

Day 0 : 27.03.2019 Wednesday

At about 10.50 pm, I reached New Delhi Railway station by Uber cab. Our coach was B6. Amit also reached at about 11.20 pm. But Balbir got late as his cab met with a minor accident on the way. He made it just in the nick of time and reached inside the train at about 11.45 pm.

At 11.50 pm, our train (Nanda Devi Express) started from .......

Meghalaya - Cherrapunji Dawki Darrang Mawlynnong - Shillong Trip (December 2018)

Meghalaya – the land of living root bridges, caves and waterfalls !

I had been planning to break away for a few days from the polluted environment of Delhi. So, I browsed about few places on the internet and ultimately zeroed down upon Meghalaya in the North East part of India where the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Shillong (Meghalaya’s capital) was being shown by the AirVisual mobile App around 60-70 as compared to about 300 in Delhi !

I discussed with my fiend Amit Burman and he was ready, as ever, to take this adventure cum excursion trip. So, we booked our air tickets and finalised a driver who was to pick us from Gauhati Airport and drop us back there after taking us to different places in Meghalaya wherever we wanted to, as our programme was flexible. His name was Sameer (9101438016) . He was referred to me by a friend Geeta who had done Meghalaya trip solo recently in October 2018 with him. (This about 24 year boy turned out to be very helpful and even booked accommodation for us in Cherrapunji and Dawki on our behalf).    ..................

Canada Trip (East Coast of Canada) May-June 2018

It had been my dream to see the world beyond Europe. This dream was fulfilled by my trip to Canada in end May 2018. This overseas trip was made, as far as my memory goes, in shortest time. Around 21st May, I was browsing some sites for package trip to overseas countries. I stumbled upon Thomas Cook site which was offering 5 Nights 6 days package to East Coast of Canada. I and my wife Meenu already had Canada visa available with us which was expiring on 15th June 2018. I thought of availing this opportunity. However, I was told that the group package departure date is 29th May and only 1 seat is left and thereafter the group departure date is in July. I was a little disappointed to know this and dropped the plan and got busy in my professional work. However, around 24th May, Thomas Cook people got in touch with me and told that now 2 seats are available for the 29th May group departure for said trip. Though time left was very short to complete formalities like making payment etc., we decided to take this trip. So, in a day I made the complete payment to Thomas Cook and they got down to making air / hotel bookings for me. Panic set in as the D day had arrived but the tour operator had still not forwarded the air tickets, hotel accommodation vouchers etc to me. On 27th May, I had to leave for Chandigarh for a case. After attending case there on 28th May, I returned to Delhi by about 7 pm on 28th May Monday. Fortunately, around 6 pm, the Thomas Cook people finally managed to email me the air tickets, hotel accommodation vouchers and other details of the trip to me, which gave me a huge relief .............

Family Trip to Europe : Paris, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Innsbruck (Austria) October 2017

We were very excited as after a long time, we family of four were going on an international holiday trip, that too, for the first time through a non-customised package tour. I had chosen Cox n Kings and frankly, were quite apprehensive as to how a non-customised trip would work, particularly since we were going to a different continent i.e. Europe. I had booked the package in August 2017 itself. All arrangements like Visa, air tickets, hotels accommodation, fooding (Indian buffet) etc. were done by Cox n Kings. Tickets of few events / destinations in Europe were paid by us separately, which I would point out in later part of this travelogue.

                                                                                    .........continued