Tag Archives: weekend

I Love Vienna

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I have never been to Paris, so I don’t know if Paris would score above Vienna.
Last week, I was out to visit Netherlands and Austria(locally written as Österreich) . While the trip to Netherlands was quite busy in work, where I could not visit any place of interest (and neither was I in Amsterdam), but the second trip to Vienna(also locally written as Wein) allowed me to spend a Saturday.

I had never expected to fall in love with Vienna, the rich town where you could hear music anywhere you’d go. The soul of the town touched me, right from Stephensdom to the Danube, Vienna had so much to offer, and I had so little time accept it all.

Streets filled with musicians, dancers, random performers, quartets there was always something which demanded my attention. The architecture of the town from the Opera House to the Parliament left me spell bound, and to top it all was Sacher Torte. The dessert, which is an institution in itself, a trip to Vienna is not complete if you have not tried this delicacy.

What I did do was not take any guided tours except a small Ring tram across the town for a quick overview, and then a walk from the Opera House towards the Parliament, covering each building like the Imperial Palace, Art Musuem, Museum of Natural History and the People’s Park. A useful tip was to buy the Vienna card for 18 Euros and using it for all local travel and a few discounts at various places, the underground system in Vienna is fairly straightforward and would take no effort in figuring out.


I know there is more, for the country which gave birth to Mozart and Beethoven, for the people who love spending time in kaffeehaus, life is filled with music and art. I bumped into folks dressed up as Mozart selling tickets to Mozart concerts, mime artists whisling Mozart tunes and chocolates in the name of Mozart. It was indeed a surprise to know that Mozart was from Salzberg.

I also chanced to visit the Prater and the Madame Tussauds wax museum, the first wax musuem that I’d have visited. It was indeed an impressive affair with Arnold Swachzennger (an Austrian by birth) welcoming you in!

Yes, the time was limited, and there was so much to see, but I know that this is cannot my last trip there, Vienna shall call me again, until then just follow the music…

Wayanad – A trip to God's Own Country

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I finally visited my last remaining southern Indian state “God’s own country” Kerala. A group of us six dudes went for a road trip to Wayanad. This was to be my first tryst with the Kerala, and boy it wasn’t at all disappointing.

We booked a Tata Sumo, and started around 6.15 AM on Saturday, 19 April. By the time we were done with the pickups of everyone it was already 7.30 AM. We then took the route of Bangalore-Mysore-Gudalur-Wayanad. We literally zipped all through Karnataka, and took the NH 212 to Wayanad from Gudalur(or Gundlupet).

En route to Wayanad, we had to pass through the Bandipur national park and the Mathunga national park. It was lush green and dense, however, we could only witness Elephants during our journey.

We reached Sulthan Bathery around 1.30, and were throughly surprised that it was pretty humid and wasn’t at all what we pictured it to be. So we moved ahead to Kalpetta, which is further 25 kilometers from Sulthan Bathery.

At Kalpetta we checked in to Arun Lodge. We got decent double bed rooms with a clean toilet and a TV (the bare minimum for stay) for just 440 INR.

Later in the evening we went to the Pookot lake, the images speak the rest of the story. After Pookot we went to the Banasura Dam. I guess this place is a must watch for visitors; it is the biggest earthen dam in Asia. The reservoir and the partially submerged hills tell a story.

On our return we were greeted by a sudden downpour, something which we hadn’t expected after the warm day that had been. There were moments when the visibility of low and I was perturbed by the rain. However, it all calmed down and we were back in our cosy rooms in a while.

Food in Wayanad is way cheaper than Bangalore; a typical South Indian breakfast for the 6 of us with a cup of coffee each could cost us less than a 100 bucks! I also discovered a top-notch bakery known as ‘The Walnut Cake‘. You could treat yourself at the pasteries, Jew Chips, Plum Cake, Cookies, Fresh chocolate and tarts. It was mouth watering and yum!

The next morning we checked out and visited the Soochipara Waterfalls which are around 17 kilometers from Kalpetta. The journey to this place was filled with tea gardens; shining golden under the sun light. This waterfall varies from 100 ft to 300 ft in hieght, its a great place to take a shower the way liril models do, and even try rappling. Do remember the  journey to reach the bottom of the falls itself is quite tiring because of the sun and the stairs.

On our way back up to the hill; we treated ourselves to Pineapple slices. My friends ended up buying almost the whole stock on the urchin selling them!

We now moved to the last destination of our trip to Edakkal Caves. This place is around 25 kilometers from Kalpetta. The name Edakkal means ‘Stone in between’, the main cave has a huge rock stuck between the walls forming the cieling. The cave is said to have engravings dating back to around 4000 B.C. It was discovered back in 1890 by the SP of Malabar. For more information visit: www.edakkal.com

My friends decided to venture further up from the cave to the hill top, while I decided to wait for them. Sensing the change in air, I felt it was going to rain so I came down to the base, however they were stuck there. What happened next was a huge downpour which resulted in addtional slipperiness to the pathway. They had a tough time coming down, however, they did enjoy the thrill and the risk in that!

Being the last place, we then had lunch on our way back at Sulthan Bathery, finally we reached Namma Bengaluru at around 10 PM ready for another week at our offices!

Something really special about the whole trip was the presence of a guiding angel to tell us which direction to take whenever we were confused with the route. In the middle of nowhere there would be someone present to tell us which way to take! Maybe thats why it is called God’s own country

[1] Carry extra change of clothes, and good canvas shoes for trekking.
[2] Arun Tourist Home, Kalpetta. Phone: 04936 – 202039
[3] Distance from Bangalore is around 280 kilometers. It takes around 6 hours on road to Wayanad.