Andamans - final part

Read the earlier post here...

In the last post, I had showcased images of some of the birds we could see on our trip. Continuing that in this post, I will few more images not only restricted to birds but also covering landscapes, butterflies and some generic.

Hope to have your attention :)

Also adding few notes to help the travelers out there who intend to explore the island for some birding and travel.

Notes:
> We traveled by Air from Chennai to Port Blair and return in the same way. Blr-Chennai was covered by Shatabdi express train. Taking a stopover flight from Blr-Portable would be ideal if a good airfare offer is on.

> Standard taxi fares in Port Blair (irrespective of vehicle size and make), so chose a bigger vehicle for space and flexibility. Rates are fixed for destinations and day long hires costs are also fixed, roughly about 2500/- when we went in 2013.

> We stayed at Hotel Aparupa that is a budget hotel and mind you budget hotel fares start only from about 1500+ tax for a small and simple double room. Food is extra.

> Only two (if I'm not wrong) 'vegetarian' hotels in Port Blair and are little expensive. In general, most of the decent hotels are expensive. Don't expect non-veg food to be cheap, they are equally expensive.

> Port Blair, being an island is very small and houses most of the facilities that you would need on your trip with the airport and the harbor.

> Rates compared to any other tourism places is on the higher side and you will definitely feel it if you are traveling on your own.

> Havelock Island is by far the most popular and the touristy island, renowned for its world famous Radhanagar beach, that we visited and sure is one of the best in the world.

> Havelock Island and Chidiyatapu are the locations for scuba diving, the former preferred more, but we did it in Chidiyatapu and enjoyed it. Read it here.

> Ross Island, Viper Island, Small Andamans, Neil island are some of the important islands on the tourist circuit.

> Cellular Jail in Port Blair, Caves at Ross Island, Sunset at Havelock are some of the places/activities not to be missed.

> Vikram Shil was our guide who is a localite and knows the locations very well and is the preferred person by any individual/group visiting. He is generally booked well in advance and can be reached on +91 9434262681

> Please remember, nature can play havoc anytime it wants to and could be in the form of cyclones, tsunami or dull, cloudy days. Any amount of planning or precaution may or may not work in your favor and keeping calm and having spare days on hand is ideal.

> Again, the airport / port functions if the weather is ideal, else you are 'stuck' there till the conditions turn favorable.

> Sun rises very early here and sets very early. So, at 6pm you are staring at pitch darkness and at 5am you have bright sunshine.

> Birding in general is difficult as the canopies are very high and light reaching the base is very less and in some places nil. The birding is mostly from the roads or near marshes and not many trails inside.

> You may see snakes, birds, butterflies but sighting the big mammals is very difficult considering how dense the forests are, in fact there are no big cats in the Islands.

> Narcondam Hornbill is a bird every birder would have on his wishlist, but unfortunately the island is a no-go with permissions not given to visit as it's a secured location. Nicobar islands hold many gems and again visiting them is practically difficult and permissions, very hard to obtain.

Below is a video of the nature's wrath we felt, cyclone Lehar unleashing its fury. Sadly, no news of Andaman & Nicobars is considered worth to be of national news importance and hardly shown in the mainstream media.

Below are other images that I was able to get through my visit to the islands.

(Light availability is difficult in many places)

(boundaries are only for man!)

(Andaman Tree Nymph, a very delicate butterfly that glides)

(Brown Shrike, this is a subspecies of the mainland visitor that visits this region)

(An un-id'd snake, found it crossing the road in the evening)

(Blue-tailed bee-eater, again a subspecies that visits this region)

(White-breasted Woodswallow, found only in the Havelock Island)

(Andaman Monitor Lizard, unexpected catch from the mangroves)

(Eastern Jungle Crow)

(A couple enjoying the sunset at Radhanagar beach, Havelock Island)

That's it from me folks for now :)

Andamans Scuba dive

Well, this was something I was hoping from a long time to happen and finally it had to be in Andamans, where else!

Being an adventure freak, I'm game for adventure sports and was more than eager to go scuba diving very well knowing the fact that I do not know swimming and I'm not very comfortable being under water...!

So, when my friend Kesava (http://www.birdwing.in/about-us/) started planning for the birding trip to Andamans, I pestered him to spare a day for scuba and it was booked with Infinity Scuba, Andamans (http://infinityscubandamans.com/) for a session of scuba diving at Chidiya tapu near Port Blair and not Havelock Islands, where most of the crowd tend to do it.

(en route Chidiyatapu... a pit stop for some birdwatching)

Landing at Port Blair on a fine sunny morning, we rushed to our hotel to drop off our belongings and headed straight towards Chidiyatapu for our diving session. I was a little nervous but confident enough that I would be doing it. This session (day) was solely for diving but we had to take breaks in between as the bird life kept on teasing us and Chidiyatapu is one of the hotspots for birding.

(the inviting blue green waters with the hills in the distant background)

The blue green waters, lush green hills in the very distant background, a clear blue sky were very mesmerizing, in short a perfect day for scuba diving and looked like a perfect start for our trip. After a brief introduction of what and how with the instructors, we were off in a boat, a little deeper into the sea away from the shore for our maiden dive.

(under water briefing session... stay together and be alert)

The initial fall into the water and it took a few seconds to calm my nerves and get back to reality that indeed I would be diving in just about few minutes...whoa! Our instructor was a young chap, been diving here for some years now and having loads of experience guiding and diving with people and he would be 'escorting' us down under. Yes, which meant he would be navigating us holding on to us inside and show us the life down under.

Basic set of hand signs were instructed to communicate under water to go down, go back up, ok, not ok kind of scenarios and a few basic exercises were taught for us to feel comfortable deep inside water (you need to let out air through your ears).

(looking around...)

With that, down we went hand in hand, very excited and thrilled just to be going down. Soon, a new colorful world opened up before us with a whole lot of reefs, fishes here there and everywhere... in short, a stunning spectacle  and the feeling of weightlessness makes it a truly memorable experience.

(a break in between... here with Kesava and the dive instructor)

(Scorpion fish or Lion fish)

(the guiding force... dive instructor)

Following a school of fish or seeing those multiple dazzling different species of them or the smaller organisms that inhabit the under world and those reefs in various sizes, shapes and color make it a grand spectacle altogether.

Having a want to go deeper, but had to cut short due to a blocked ear ended my maiden dive truly thrilled and excited, with a surge of emotion that just can't be described. I came out of the water with a smile, a smile that remained with me for the rest of the day... a smile of gratitude, a smile of thankfulness, a smile of good life.

(what more to say...the sign says it all!)

and yes indeed, I will be back for more :)

Note:
* I did not indulge in any underwater photography, all these were taken by a diver with a camera who was along with us.
* Respect underwater life and do not touch/harm any of them.
* Respect the laws of nature and follow what your instructor says.
* Shred the fear... go dive!

Adventure – someday… anyday!

Adventure is something I would love to experience every time I step out, it may be a ride in the rain or a long drive or on a trek or in the jungle. Any day I would prefer such a life to the plain staid bench life that we are now used to or rather forced to…

I strongly believe adventures bring out your real characters and helps you gain determination, confidence, the hunger for more, self-belief, strength, that helps you refine your personality better and perhaps change your perception of how you view life.

Adventure sport is something I have tried and yet to try, well, how do you define adventure sports…? Adventure means different to different individuals, if you feel the adrenaline rush in a sport, that’s an adventure activity for you and so it goes.

Trekking, River Rafting, Riding, Jungle treks, Safari rides are some of the adventure activities I have plunged myself into and enjoyed too, what’s life without adventure?

Someday, I wish to, I hope to try out more of the adventure sports, activities that needs you to push your limits, test your skills and basically hone your skills for survival!

Being a nature fanatic, Scuba diving / Snorkeling is something right on top of my wish list waiting to explode unless I do it not only for the adventure part but also a reason to view the underwater life that amazes me no end. Another reason hidden below the main agenda is to get rid of the water phobia completely, not that I’m scared but just that not confident enough in water.

Bungee jumping is another sport that I wanted to do someday probably from a natural ridge rather than a artificial crane. The intent again is all for the adrenaline rush and also to test the limits. I just don’t know how it feels being thrown upside down, do you? And I don’t know how I would react too, yet I’m hoping to do this someday mustering all the courage I have got.

What actually pushed me into writing this post is the new ‘Adventurer Wanted’ campaign from Woodland, the outdoor brand that many of us are so familiar with (I can instantly recall the Woodpecker ad of Woodland). Just three people will be selected and will vie for the ‘Extreme Explorer’ post and 1 lucky explorer will be taken across continents pursuing challenges and exploring adventure destinations and trying out adventure sports, wow, sounds inviting…!

To be that ‘explorer’ and for more details, don’t waste more time and zap here right away :)

Relishing Challenges!

Relishing challenges... my way!

Being of a mild frame to look at, I’ve always been the topic for jokes and inadvertently for humor amongst people; In a way, I never bothered but relished them with glee and also housed a secret wish of achieving things that I was supposed to be not fit of…

Yezdi’s, Java’s, Bullet’s are the cult bikes that I have grown up seeing and always used to look at them with amazement and I could feel my inner thump resonate with the machine’s. But alas, owing to my slender frame, I was never given an opportunity to ride these in spite of me knowing biking! The wish soon turned into a challenge and the seed of fulfilling, relishing the challenge grew over the years secluded deep in my veins.

After years of patient wait, an impulse decision and next thing was the booking of an 350cc Royal Enfield bike done and grinning at everybody. The reason of happiness was evident but none knew the background behind it. Now, I was getting a bullet all for myself, no more asking and no more being pushed around.. but I had to wait for at least 8 months to downrun all the talkers and challengers, for that 'alive is awesome moment', for more challenges that lay ahead.

The day arrived, I was all excited right through and I could feel the instant connect with the thump pounding away instantly in my heart. As I lay my hands on the bike, the grin became wider and bigger and as the beauty came to life roaring all its might, it sure would be the beginning of a new journey together relishing challenges and enjoying alive is awesome moments.

An answer to all my detractors to say so was when I successfully completed my solo ride of 1000kms on my Thunderbird in the rains, an alive is awesome moment to say the least and a ride that would not erase out of my memory soon...

Being the adventure junkie, I’m relishing challenges and looking forward for more.

Birding places around Bangalore

There are many birding spots in and around Bangalore (Bengaluru) which is worth a visit for the birdie lovers.

1. Lalbagh botanical gardens: Right in the heart of the city is the Lalbagh, which provides garden and wetland habitats. Experience: Avoid weekends and holidays and choose secluded areas away from the crowd. Plenty of bird life if you have a keen eye and lots of butterflies too and also look out for the majestic trees.

2. Madivala lake: Located near BTM layout on the peripherals (this lake has now reduced drastically in size owing to urbanization all over) is another option. Experience: A promising place with diversity of bird life but the lake gets suffocated fast!

3. Hebbal lake: Just beside the Hebbal flyover is the Hebbal lake, a nice birding place. Experience: A hotspot for Pelicans, Painted storks and other waterfowl.

4. Valley School Road: Lots of places on the Kanakapura road. One of the hot spots is the valley School road. On the Bangalore-kanakapura road, Valley School road is around 15kms from Bangalore, you need to turn right after the NICE flyover coming from Bangalore. Experience: Has become our favorite jaunt for bird watching, already have been here countless number of times, lovely place, wonderful ambiance. Do not venture alone deeper else you would get lost.

5. Manchinbele: Around 30 kms from Bangalore, just before the Tippagondanahall reservoir, on the Bangalore-Magadi main road, take the left turn at the signpost towards Manchinbele dam and subsequently Mysore road. There’s lots of greenery surrounding the hills in every direction serving as a good birding spot. Experience: Lovely place and good for a morning birding session. Access is restricted, beware.

6. Tippagondanahalli (T.G.halli): 35 Kms east of Bangalore, on the Bangalore-Magadi road, you will find T.G.Halli. Experience: Wonderful, lovely, saw many bird species out here but missed the many raptors. If monsoon fails, water levels do down drastically revealing secluded places.

7. Savandurga State Forest: Savandurga is around 60 kms from Bangalore towards the town of Magadi. Manchinbele, T.G.Halli and Savandurga are all in the same locality and can be covered in a day. Experience: Yet to go birding here...

8. Nandi hills: 50kms away from Bangalore on the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway. Experience: Visit here regularly and you wont miss being in the Western Ghats. The sightings every year outdoes the previous years, multiple visits and patience will yield and enviable list from here.

9. Devarayana Durga State Forest (DDSF): Located around 60Kms from Bangalore on the Tumkur highway, this place is quite famous for the Yellow-throated Bulbul. Another must visit place for Birders and nature lovers. Experience: Have made religious trips here, none of birding till now.

10. Bannerghatta National Park: Scrub and forest habitat especially if staying in the Jungle Lodges inside the forest area. Experience: The alley of flycatchers never disappoints. Any time, any weather you still come back with a decent list.

11. Kokkarebellur: Popular for the pelicans (strictly during the "seasons" only, otherwise its a normal village. Its 80kms southwest of Bangalore near Maddur on the way to Mysore. Experience: Had been here twice, once off season and once just the start; 2nd time around saw mostly pelicans in huge numbers and black ibis for the first time.

12. Shivanahalli: A must visit place located on the periphery of the Bannerghatta National Park. The resident swamiji at the Ramakrishna Mission encourages people to visit and offers guides and food. Experience: Seen a lot of bird life on the couple of walks done here, must go regularly.

13. Gulakamale lake: Not only the lake, a little walk around and you will be amazed with the diversity that you will see. A wonderful place a little away from the city. Experience: Mixed bag, seen a lot of raptors and land birds too. Overall, excellent.


Pack your cameras and Happy Birding!


Care for the nature and the nature cares for you!

Umbalagundi falls

Most of the people you would know who love traveling are either the 'single men' or the 'solo women' and its generally said, the freedom is lost after marriage and all the extra-curricular activities come to a halt!

Exceptionally, here is a couple who both love traveling and the amount of exploration they have done is immense, I would repeat immense and the content on their blog is priceless.

Here is the famous couple, Dheeraj Shenoy and Amrutha, rather known in the blogosphere world as Teamgsquare and they blog here at http://teamgsquare.blogspot.com

In a simplistic manner, they say "We generally started traveling, to spend our Sundays more efficiently and make it enjoyable . At that point (14th April 2009) ,we never imagined we would be traveling so many places." - this speaks the volume of travel they have undertaken in the last few years.

Read on for their post on a relatively unknown falls, Umbalagundi in Madikeri...

the hidden view...

Summer Spa-Umbalagundi Falls

The winding roads of Madikeri are always a pleasure to drive, anytime of the year and are always full of surprises. One of our old road trips led us to a beautiful waterfall, hidden amidst the green dense cover by the road side. Since it was summer this time, we expected less or no water at all at the falls. But to our surprise, when we stopped by to peep in to check the water level, it did not disappoint us! A trek down, about 30 feet takes us to the downstream of the waterfall. A short walk along the stream leads us to the water fall.

the starting point of descent...

The flow was average, which gave us a chance to explore the waterfall further. As we walked closer to the falls, we found a possible way to trek up and move on to the upstream side of the falls. After a few minutes, we were quite happy and excited to have reached the next tier!

closer look at the lowermost tier...

The view was mesmerizing, which made us more curious to explore further. A few steps ahead, we could see the next tier of the waterfall. We had to cross the stream in order to reach this tier and since we also found a great place to actually experience the force of the waterfall, we safely reached the rock over which the water fell with great force.

the second tier...

Slowly and carefully watching every step we took, we reached the slippery rock, sitting on which we enjoyed the water fall. It was an amazing feel especially during the summer!!!

the upper tier... summer spa

As we had time constraint, we had to end our exploration and return. An additional surprise while returning was the presence of a big fig tree which had borne fruit and the taste of it was delicious. It was Nature at its best.

the great wild Fig...

To read about our previous trip to Umbalagundi waterfalls, click here

FIVE years

5 years of blogging
A journey that began this week 5 years ago, a journey into the unseen virtual world, a journey of tales and tribunals, a journey to showcase the hidden splendors of the nature, journeys of joy and fun, journey of togetherness, journey of friends, journey of bonding, friendship and togetherness.

The saga of Huchchara Santhe is now at the step of completing ‘five’ years (let me clarify, this journey is only the virtual ‘web’ journey) and believe me, it’s been a fantastic ride all along.

5 years ago, a little known, shy, outspoken introvert decides to pen down his tales, his experiences, and his travels with his friends, egged upon by a like-minded friend, not aware what the virtual world has in store and thus came into existence in the virtual world, ‘Huchchara Santhe’.

A different name, something unique, something crazy… well, its all that we have done, been doing and will do ahead as well, I have received quite a few curious glances and expressions whenever I utter the name of my blog.

Blogging opened up new avenues, new dimensions, new thoughts and ideas came in and the articles started building up and after a slow beginning, the blog started having people follow and some would wait for an update! Humbled!

From only travel articles, new genre crept in with more photo blogs coming and now the blog caters to travel tales, treks, photography, wildlife, nature topics and much more.

With around 1.5 lac page views and about 100+ followers/readers on the blog and Facebook, the blog has tremendously grown much to our surprise and the ‘mouth of word’ reference has been a powerful way in this.

Heartfelt thanks to my boys, the close-knit group without whom probably I would have had no tales to even think of writing upon. Indiblogger.in has been a godsend site with a strong community of bloggers from different genre’s uniting together as a family. Networking sites are an important tool in reaching out to people and they have brought plenty of readers too.

Also, a great set of people who blog, who have fantastic blog to their credit, who have critiqued, appreciated, commented on my blog also have helped it grow tremendously.

A big ‘high-five’ to all of you and hope the support and encouragement continues. Thanks!


On this special occasion, I take privilege in hosting guest blogs of some of the best bloggers whom I’ve been following and who all have a different way of conveying their story to their audience.

Watch out folks!!!

Thanks and Keep Visiting :)

Kolli hills - the sad part!

Kolli hills – the ugly or the ‘real’ part

On a recent visit to Kolli hills (also projected as the Herbal mountain) located in Namakkal district in central Tamil Nadu, I had high hopes of going to an hill station secluded away from the world, all pristine and beautiful. Kolli hills is not yet popular as its famous counterparts, the Yelagiri hills or Yercaud but of late is slowly becoming popular with the weekend crowd and the distance from Bangalore is just lower than 300kms, a potential tourist spot in the making. Reaching there is a driver’s delight as you need to counter 70 hairpin bends to reach the small village at the top of the cliff and nevertheless to say the highway is neatly laid out and is a cruise from Bangalore.

Mid-way, while we stopped to enjoy the views (it was dry and hot being summer), a look below the walls and the scene was petrifying. Beer bottles grew on trees and the ground was plastic’d completely. Further, the next couple of stops that we did and the scenes repeated…slowly I began to realize the place been infested with plastic bottles and beer bottles!

With uncertainties and sapping in the hot sun, we reached our place of stay ‘Nallathambi Resort’ that looked quite clean and well maintained or I thought so! On the outlook, everything looked fine until I looked over the compound wall in disarray, again a plastic trash city over there. I went around different directions peeping over the walls and it was the same sight everywhere. Sooner, I realized not only this resort, other resorts/hotels too bore the same sight!


Sigh! To make mockery of the situation, the bus stand had a board stating ‘No Plastics’.

With a troubled conscience hitting me hard, I set off to the ‘touristy’ places nearby and the overall situation looked grim, far worse than I thought. We walked up and down to the Akash Ganga falls (the 1200 odd steps fatigued us no end) and it was infested with hordes of people (as expected), some bathing, some relishing and some sunbathing and yes littering was common.

Arappaleshwar temple is a favored place for many visiting Kolli malai it was not anymore surprising for me to see a huge dump yard right in front of the temple. The visit to the small falls/stream opposite to the temple yielded more signs with the stream littered with clothes/plastic/bottles. What I expected was a quiet hill station offering solace to the weekend traveler and what I saw was a notorious ‘plastic station’ infested heavily with plastics and garbage. The signs of herbal mountain turning into a garbage mountain doesn’t seem too distant.

Travel guides and tips for Indian backpackers

Travel guides and tips for Indian backpackers: A quick list

Indian backpackers face the problem of plenty. With the daunting but admirable Himalayas on the north and the scintillating backwaters in the south, the tourist is always spoilt for a choice. And then there are so many less celebrated but equally, if not more, delightful corners that even a full season won’t be enough to explore this eclectic country.

So, here are a few travel guides and tips which you will find handy...

Destinations you must visit in India: 

Even though the country’s every alley is full of wonderment and surprises, one has to narrow down the list for time and budget constraints. Some destinations which you, nevertheless, must check out include the following:

a.      Jaipur and Udaipur: If you wish to see the real tradition-laced India with all its history and culture intact, then head to the state of Rajasthan. Its two major cities Jaipur and Udaipur are gateways to the medieval era as you saunter through havelis and palaces, forts and fortresses, lakes and gardens!

b.      Agra: A short trip to Agra is strongly recommended. You cannot deprive your eyes of the magnificence of the Taj Mahal!

c.       Darjeeling: Though Shimla and Kashmir too are remarkable hill stations of the north, it is Darjeeling with its quaint poetic persona and limitless tea estates which deserves your footsteps.

d.      Goa: Move over to the west and you come to the best beaches in the country in the small state of Goa! Whether you wish to touch the sky through parasailing or whether you are looking to spam the churches, Goa is your coveted getaway!

e.      Kerala: Down south, you need to check out Kerala which is ‘God’s Own Country’ thanks to its alluring backwaters and calm oceans. Its hill station Munnar is also a heavily-trodden corner!  Opting for a Kerala tour package will be indeed a good Idea if you want to enjoy the real pleasure and nature of Kerala.

A few other friendly tips:

-          Take care of your money, jewelry and belongings

-          Do not accept food and drinks from strangers, especially male strangers

-          Bargain hard when shopping at local bazaars

-          Maintain decorum and rules while visiting temples and monuments

About Creative Writer:

Author is a traveller and adventure seeker writing about a number of Indian & International holiday destinations. Solo Travelling, playing with nature and backpacking are few more undertakings author loves to do. As a blogger she writes about travel guide and holidays packages at WeAreHolidays.