It has been quite some years that I have been wishing to visit the Golden Triangle.  We were lucky to make it happen during the second week of September, 2011. There was no huge plan behind it… but a postponed trip to Kodaikanal  triggered us to think about a bigger one.

As soon as we made our mind, I made sure that we have got our leaves and started working for a plan to cover the cities. The basic plan was to travel mostly in public transport so that we can mingle with the local people and that would be less expensive. The flights got booked at the earliest as my travel is the next day of Onam. I didn’t really have a plan on how to move around and it was that time that my dad told me that the date of our journey will be on a full moon day and during full moon days the Archaeological survey of India allows night visit to Taj Mahal. So that caused the first decision. We need to be at Agra on the next day of our travel.

There are no flights operating to Agra as the airport is under the custody of the military. And the Delhi Rajasthan lobbying is so harsh that there is no proper bus service to this place. So, every tour operators that I approached was persuading to take a cab for my entire journey all the way through Delhi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Delhi which is a clean sweep of almost 20-25 grands. So I started thinking about the public transport and it was then I noticed the Bhopal -> New Delhi Satabdi express and I booked it. It is supposed to be the fastest train in India, covering the distance of ~200 KM between Delhi and Agra in 2 hours. A ticket in the train includes a meal and so that turned out to be a wise decision.

Regarding the lobbying, I must say that, I have felt Agra is nicely ignored by the officials and the government. No good transport , the public complaining of unemployment. The only interest for the city is for the tourists and for the archaeologists. There is no bus service from Agra to Jaipur too. What the lobbies have made Agra is that it is worth of a day trip. But I have found it more interesting than Jaipur and Delhi. Because it is Agra that was the capital of the Moguls. They have built enormous buildings, where Taj is just one of them.

At Agra..

We were welcomed at the railway station by my cousin who was with me for the entire day and I had hired a private guide for the entire day who had been much helpful for understanding the history of Agra. His name is Rajeev, who became a historian and guide by destiny – how strange each life is!  There was no issues in communicating with him and he has been very helpful in collecting the tickets for the moon light visit of Taj and has been helping us throughout our stay in Taj.His knowledge about the monuments and history and architecture is great and he has good analytic skills through which he has made his own versions (of history!) and they were making good sense too. ( If you need his number / email ID , please contact me – I assure that he wont disappoint you )

We first visited the Agra fort. There a statue of Chatrapati Sivaji welcomed us in this red fort. Being an enemy of Moguls ( Aurangazeb held him under prison for a few months), I wonder how that statue came there. The belief is that Delhi (Hindustan ) will be under the custody of the ruler who have the Agra fort in hand. So after Moguls, British came there and now the greater chunk is with Indian Military. The Archaeological survey of India is now successful in the case against the army and now the fort will be under them with in an year or so.

These forts are made in red sand stone and marble. It was Shah Jahan who started using marble extensively. Till that time it was the red sand stone which was being used (Agra Fort at Agra, Red Fort at Delhi, Fort at Fathepur Sikri etc).Mugals considered red as auspicious and suitable to represent their valour. Akbar used red sand stone for his forts which were also embroidered with jems and jewels just the same way Shah Jahan used gems in Taj Mahal. But red sandstone does not hold gem stones well and these were lost mostly due to natural wear & tear, than war and looting.

Deewan-e-aam and Deewan-e-khas is similar for all forts. A great chunk of the fort is in red sand stone and there are a few places where we can see the marble buildings too. Aurangazeb imprisoned Shah Jahan in one of these marvelous marble suits of the Agra fort from where he could see the Taj Mahal through the windows… & that was where I had my first look at the Taj!

From there we went to see the baby Taj. That is a wonderful building which was built by Noor Jahan in memory of her parents. Jahangir gave ~ 7.5Million Pound sterlings to this Persian lady to be his wife and it is believed that, with that money she started a ship service to Mecca and she should probably be be the first woman entrepreneur :-p

Baby Taj is considered to be a predecessor to Taj. This uses white marble instead of red sand stone which was the standard construction material for Mogul buildings till then. It used blue Persian paintings on the inside roof and is believed to have had gold filigree work intertwined with the paintings and semiprecious stones.

Then we had a view of the Taj Mahal from the other side of Yamuna river. I deliberately preferred to see Taj after all others as Taj is the most younger constructions of Agra… and the base of the architecture of Taj is adopted from all other constructions…and we wanted to see the Taj Mahal from all the different perspectives possible before we actually went in!

We rushed to the Fathehpur Sikri,which is ~40KM away from Agra City. This is again a planned city built by Akbar. The architecture there is not 100% Mogul… and it makes us think that some part of the fort was already there, which was enhanced by Akbar to a marvelous fort. The Buland darwaza and the mosque and many other pillars are quite a masterpiece of the might of the Moguls.

And from there, we went to the hotel, the Grand Hotel at Agra, to check in and we reached the hotel by 19 30 and  just checked in , the room was quite good, and spacious… and we then quickly packed our bags again to see the Taj at night… We were nervous as it was our first visit to one of the 7 wonders of the world and that too in the full moon (You get that opportunity only once a month!!).  We reached the eastern parking bay by 19 55 and rushed to the CISF station where we had to go through a security check and we were not allowed to take anything other than a camera (and ourself, ofc .. ) to the monument. There were another 20 -30 guys waiting and within 15 minutes we were taken to the electric cart which takes us to the monument which is ~ 1 KM away. They dropped us  near to the gates , and we had another round of body scan, mechanized and manual, and they even scanned my camera before letting us in. And we were asked to stop at the main gate before we were taken, with military escort, to The TAJ … The excitement mixes with nervousness… it was a nice feeling …

We were at the eastern gate and there was a few minute’s walk to the main gate and then………..there lies the Taj on to our right…. calm , and quiet … holding the history of more than 400 years … it was really an awesome sight… and in a few minutes the officials turned off the remaining light too. That then revealed the beauty of the monument in its fullest. … Since they wont allow any tripod inside, it was pretty hard for me to take a pic of the Taj at night. Some how managed to take one, after spending some 20 minutes adjusting the camera. My wife cajoled me to take a good look at TAJ night view before the 30 minutes got over.

The next day, we came to see the Taj in daylight, used the audio guide to know what is what and was simply amazed by the massiveness and the symmetry of the structure. We walked all around, taking pictures, and getting to know more about it with the help of the audio guide.

We left Agra by 11 am after buying some Agra Petha.

I have tried my best to see if I can get a train or a bus from Agra to Jaipur… but there are no reliable bus services between the two places – so to travel to Jaipur from Agra, the best way is to use a taxi, unless you are traveling early in the morning or in the evening. The travel through the most fertile land in India , the Ganges valley , you will see no place barren .. they are cultivating potatoes and onions there, then you will see a a lot of wheat fields and corn.The road in the Rajasthan is quite good, they have managed to build a 4 way between the two places and that has made the journey a smooth one.

We had left the hotel room for Taj before the break fast hours and after walking all around the Taj appreciating the beauty of it was a sumptous meal to our eyes and aesthetic appeal, but our tummy didn’t quite agree. Having left Agra by 11 am, we had started getting hungry which we had to quench by eating some chocolates and petha as there was no good restaurants on the way… And thanks to google maps to find our hotel, Krishna Palace at Jaipur, which is near to the railway station.

At Jaipur..

As soon as we checked in at Krishna Palace, we decided to visit Choki Dhani as advised by our friends and also the cab driver. We had some mixed vegetable pakoras from Krishna Palace for tea. By the time we finished our tea, the cab was ready. We spend the entire evening at Choki Dhani relishing the Rajasthan culture and the royal Rajasthan Thali.The entry to the village is free if you purchase the thali meal coupon (~Rs. 450 to 650/-) or else you need to purchase the entry fee (~ Rs 400/-).

We had a camel ride in the village. Its very difficult to maintain your balance when you are on the top of a camel! .

Then we went to have food. The food was really good and there was live instrumental music at the restaurant. They helped us by explaining the contents of each dish. there were 3 different rotis (one type was missi roti, that i remember) too. Then we just wandered around the village admiring the local Rajasthan art and dance. There was a puppet show also.

The next day we went to visit the Jantar Mantar. The one at Jaipur is the largest of the lot. It has the biggest sun dial in the world also. Adjacent to the Janthar Manthar was the City Palace. Then we went to Amer (Amber) Fort. This fort is yellow (hence the name Amber). The princess used to wear dress weighing some 4-5 kg and then along with the jewelry it would be really difficult to walk around. So she was carried in doli. The palace has pathways to carry the doli around (similar to paths for a wheel chair) instead of or along with stairs. We saw Jal Mahal and Hawa Mahal from outside, on the way. We had lunch in between. My wife had decided to have only thalis from Jaipur, because she wanted to get a feel of it from different restaurants across Jaipur. According to her, only a thali gives you a complete feel of the food of the locality in one go.

Keeping in mind the night view of Taj we wanted to enjoy the beauty of Jaipur at Night. So we searched and found a night tour of Jaipur conducted by Jaipur Tourism authorities. We booked our seats and they said they would contact us and confirm the trip by afternoon. By afternoon they had booking for 4 more seats and our night tour was confirmed. We reached there a bit early and waited in the office for some time. The night tour covered Amar Jyoithy, Jal Mahal, Hawa Mahal and dinner at Nahargarh Fort.  The night trip was value for money!

The next day early morning we left to catch our train to Delhi.

At Delhi..

Manu was very much excited to hear that there is mist in Thekkady and we were almost set for a trip to that place on last thursday. The misty lake is the only place worth visit there. Sadly, It was on that morning that AnuChettan called to tell that the mist is no longer in Thekkady and we dropped the plan.  Mandan have to wait another year to get those snaps :-S

And as usual I woke up by 9 and added some more ‘koora comments’ to cyberabode.com and then headed to Manu’s home.  He was also in a mood to go for a drive, but not sure to where.. Many places came to mind, from Thekkady to Kanyakumari… from wayanad to Siruvani Dam. It might be then that it strike to him the idea of Chimmony.

It was almost near to Chalakkudi that we stopped near a road side to have some sugar cane juice.  The street shop was just opening up , and the guy there was working on the generator to get the juicer work and I guess we were their first customer that day ..

On the way, we learnt from Tasleem that we have to deviate from the NH at Amballur, and to my surprise, Lakshmikutty knew the location . The change of terrain was quite drastic that the concrete jungles gave way to rubber estate and pineapple estates within no time . The wide and straight roads gave way to narrow and twisted roads.  And in 15 Kilometers we reached the Kerala Forest check post. We entered the name and details and bought the entry tickets. Manu was quite interested in the Butterfly Watching camp ad posted there and was enquiring about the forest guys – thank God that they have the butterfly camps only in the morn ( sshhhh ).  With the tickets we accelerated to the next point, where the road split into two and we  had to take the path towards right.

I must tell about the smoothness of the Safari after service, It was just sailing pretty cool and we had really wondered how it picked up momentum automatically on the third gear, at around 20 kmph.  Perumal is a great mechanic too

What I could see downwards was a road closed by an iron rod to block traffic, two tea shops, and a Bus waiting shed.  We parked the car on a shade and picked the camera and started to walk. Nothing to mention, both of us were heading to the second shop that the first guy called us to his shop. We were not really hungry, but we had the drive to eat some thing. We had an omelette and a coffee – Manu started becoming company with the guy in the shop, and telling the experiences of his past trip etc etc and finally when we left the shop, I had a kit with a pepsi and a few snacks.

The road was again taking us further down and I could hear the sound of water falling from heights. And in a couple of minutes, the big wall was visible and I then realised that I am standing in front of the dam ( may be a 200 meters away ) .. a huge valve on the bottom of the dam is slightly opened and it was causing the water to rush out. Like a huge horizontal fountain, it was spraying water all lover the place.  The water is collected in a pool and then directed to these estates etc. FYI, chimmony is an irrigation dam – not a HEP.

Manu hardly can take any snaps from the place we were and from that place we started to walk. And it seems to us that the walk through the road is never going end that we started to take the off road path. We found ourself climbing the hill through the ‘forest’. Finally we found some sticks to keep ourself in balance and to use as a third leg ( at times we wish we had one more leg ). And finally we reached the top of the dam and found the entry gate closed.

Having seen a guy sleeping in the building next to it, we headed to the other side of the dam, the sight waiting for us was quite wonderful and a feast for eyes. The entire catchment area was visible and the hills, the greenery , the contrast of the colours was quite awesome.. Next to us we saw a tent(or hardly a tent ), where a family is living.  There was a concrete pillar built a few meters away from that tent and we sat on that place, not because that was the dead end – but the natural laziness to walk.  It was later told to us that the tent is used by some of the tribal people who go into the jungle to collect herbals and honey etc. We met a few of them.

It was quite relaxing to spend time at that place, enjoying the wind,  looking at the water and the hills etc. We returned within an hour and reached back by 6.

We ( Or he ? )  have a lot of photos captured – I’ll upload if I am lucky to get a copy of it. Or I’ll put the link here, when he uploads the pic to his online laboratory, where he do experiments with stills, may be next year!

do come back!

It has been quite some time that we have been thinking to visit Gavi , the Eco tourism project by the Kerala Forest Department. Last week we packed our bags and started to Gavi. We left the city by 7 AM, to Kumili, to pick the tickets of the stay that we have booked. We reached kumily by 1130, picked our tickets and headed to valla kadav, which is around 20 KM away from Kumily.

Its the part of Periyar tiger reserve and the forest contains a lot of wild animals like elephants, buffaloes, leopards, tigers, bears, deers, monkeys and many other small creatures and birds. The Flora in the forest is also very rich.

We reached the Gavi Eco tourism quarters by 2 30 PM and we were welcomed by the smiling faces of the people there and as soon as we checked in, one guide was alloted to us, He lives at Gavi itself. There is only three rooms out of which we took one. After refreshing we went to the restaurant, which is at the banks of the Pamba Lake ( Yes – Pamba lake .. and the river pamba starts here ) . A beautifully build one. After a lavish lunch, we decided to cancel the boating as the sky started turning dark and headed to a treking point in the jungle.

We decided to go on the safari itself than taking their Jeep and our guide started giving us directions, and we have taken two deviations from the main road and the road is just enough for a safari to go and manu is just thrilled to drive through the jungle.. we might have passed a couple of kilometers that we found a tree fell on the road, blocking our traffic…  So, we have to ‘park’ it there and started walking.. on the way, he has shown us many animals and birds.. and foot prints of many animals, out of which that of buffaloes’ and elephants were ‘fresh’ … A major issue that we met while trekking was the leeches.. they just climb up through our feet..

we were not able to see any animals that day and we returned to our room by eve , and had a very good dinner and went to bed, promising to Varghese that we will be up by 5 30 in the morning to go to another point..

Varghese started knocking the door by 5 30,  in the morning and we got ready by 5 50 and drove towards pamba dam, through out the way we had our windows open and Varghese sat on the windows poping in entire body out of the car to search for any animals’ presence on our way.. and he was able to show us groups of 2 different type of deers.. and a group of wild buffaloes, just 50 – 75 meters away.. eventhough our main aim was to see elephants, these sigts were complimentary… seeing us these buffaloes started withdrawing themselves to the jungle, and we resumed our journey.

We might have driven another 5-8 kilometers.. and throughout the way there were signs of elephants passing through the road, so every curves were taken at the most care, expecting elephants at any time on the road. We could see the fresh dung on the road – and many bamboo leaves etc … And finally we saw a group very near to us, inside a bamboo jungle. We stopped our car and saw them for a while and drove back when they cleared the area and withdrew to jungle. And on the way back, Varghese again spotted another 3 elephants on a medow valley and took us near to them… and we got many good photographs.. We saw many deers and buffalloes again.

By 10 AM we are back to the room, had a lavish breakfast, and then headed for a boating on the lake, and headed to a waterfall nearby. It was a good one , spent some time there. And it was laler that Varghese told that this waterfall is a point where elephants come to drink water ( whoops …  we all went silent for a second and some one asked ” when they usually comes ” ? )

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Sunrise At KanyaKumari From CyberAbode.com

The last weekend was nice, me and Manu went to kanya kumari for a trip. It was a good one and long waited… the travel is awesome on safari but the traffic is quite high.

It was at hotel Samudra that we stayed – Room Number 606 … the top most room, on the south east corner … You know what ? Its the last ( or first ? )  hotel in the Indian subcontinent! Isnt that interesting ?Yea – we stayed at the southern most tip of india – at the southernmost hotel… surrounded by sea at two sides..

The room faces to Bay of Bengal and Indian ocean, and the windows opens to Vivekanda Rock and Thiruvalluvar statue.. INR 1200 per day was a cheap deal! We viewed the sunrise from the terrace of the building which is also a good sight..

My personal feeling is that the Thiruvalluvar statue is a shame (at least where it has been erected ), ofcourse, he is a great man. But the statue is standing there as a symbol of Tamilians’ selfishness or as a result of their feeling that no one should be greater than themselves. They could have erected the statue some where else, whey at kanyakumari ? just adjascent to the Vivekananda Rock ?

The sunset was a bit disappointing, sky was full of clouds… After the sunrise, we moved towards west the fishermen were busy poring their day’s catch to basket and taking them to market. ( They goes to fish at 2-3 AM and come back by sunrise )… Some others were busy picking the weeds.

By 1030 we left kanya kumari and visited  Suchindram and Padmanabhapuram palace.. Both are architectural marvels of ancient India and standing there for centuries… The stone carvings and the musical stones at suchindram were just amazing!

The Palace, its beyond explanation, it was the palace of the travancore kingdom untill the Dharmaraja shifted to Thiruvanathapuram.  ( Kowdiyar palace )

Manu took a lot of pics on his camera.. which can be viewed on his online gallery, CyberAbode.com

Nitrogen in tyres is becoming a popular replacement for standard air. Nitrogen is all around us – ~79% , but when it comes to tyre inflation, nitrogen have many advantages over normal air. With nitrogen inflation, improvements can be noticed in a vehicles handling, fuel efficiency and tyre life.  Nitrogen escapes from tyre 3-4 times slower than normal air. With nitrogen in your tyres, the proper pressure is maintained for a longer time, and also ensure that the recommended contact patch is on the road

1. The tyre inflation pressure remains more stable. Its normally recommended that tyre pressure should be checked monthly and before any long trip. With nitrogen inflation, natural pressure loss is less and the interval for adjusting pressure is considerably extended. However, its naturally, still prudent to check your tyre pressure at recommended  intervals.

2. Condensation on the inside of wheels is drastically reduced. One of the most common everyday problem we face is the corrosion of the inside of steel or alloy rims. This leads to leaking around the rim with corresponding suspicion of a slow puncture. The introduction of nitrogen inside the tyre prevents the oxidation which causes rapid aging of the tyre and corrosion inside the rim. Oxidation of wheels is another problem in many mining and truck applications. Rusting / Oxidation will happen only in the presence of water and oxygen. So theoretically, the nitrogen inflation should prevent rusting of rims as there is no water vapor or oxygen.

3. Possibility of a blow out or tyre explosion is eliminated. Nitrogen doesn’t heat up like oxygen. The tyre therefore runs cooler and thus reduces the possibility of an explosion. There can be significant advantages associated with cooler running temperatures including improved thread life.

4. Better grip on the road. Nitrogen being far more stable in respect of temperature and pressure translates  to better grip and improved vehicle handling. There are also proven reports of extended tyre life making nitrogen inflation very cost effective. In addition to the benefits for the most road users, nitrogen inflation have particular benefits for caravan and trailer users. Better pressure retention and reduction in the aging process are real benefits.

5. Reduced pressure build-up. Nitrogen inflation is very common in in tyres used for circuit racing. Running a tyre produces heat; this heated with increase the pressure inside the tyre . Since nitrogen is a cooler gas, the pressure build-up inside the tyre is very less.

Read more

http://nitrogentirefilling.com/

http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php?title=Nitrogen_in_tyres

Kerala is ranked third best Asian holiday destination (as in 2006, 2007, and 2008), long a favourite of the get-away-from-it-all crowd. Known for its verdant rice paddy fields, cool mountains clad in mist-wreathed tea estates, beaches, and welcoming, literate, head-nodding population, Kerala is one of three Indian destinations in the 2009 Top Ten. Said one voter: “After the chaos of Indian airports and the bedlam on the roads, Kerala is as a nourishing oasis of green

Read more here