“Aatya (Aunt) aap kaha hoooo???” is the opening line thrown at me on the Sunday call with my niece. She is just 8 years old! I say “I am in Pune! why??” then she goes “then where were you before??” I am confused with this sudden cross examination because I can’t seem to remember the … Continue reading PALM TREES, OCEAN BREEZE…
Silk route diaries – O’zbekistan – Part 1
Why, Where, What, is there really a need to go there? The reaction we got was same from anyone whom we told we are going to Central Asia! Twenty-five years after the fall of Soviet Union, even Russia has warmed up to tourism but there remains an enigma about the “Stans” of central Asia. Our … Continue reading Silk route diaries – O’zbekistan – Part 1
Silk road diaries – O’zbekistan – Part 2
Read: Silk road diaries - O'zbekistan - Part 1 As the explanation on why to visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan fell on deaf ears, it was time to give another explanation. This was convincing enough. We are traveling to Kazakhstan in $1 and adding two more countries to our list of countries visited 🙂 The main … Continue reading Silk road diaries – O’zbekistan – Part 2
The Hospitable Steppe – Uzbekistan
Tashkent: Our second stop on the circuit was Tashkent. All I knew about the city, was that India’s Late PM L B Shastri passed away there while on an official visit under mysterious circumstances. Bukhara and Samarkand were vaguely familiar as ancient towns on the Silk Route. We landed in Tashkent in the afternoon and … Continue reading The Hospitable Steppe – Uzbekistan
The Hospitable Steppe – Kazakhstan
The fact that I am geographically challenged is well known within my family and friend circle as well as few of you who follow our blog. Even a year-long course in geo-politics and international relations has not helped me grasp how the world is shaped. I have even presented a research paper on Central Asia … Continue reading The Hospitable Steppe – Kazakhstan
How to see Kazakhstan in $1
One morning I woke up with a twinkle in my eye. We are going to Kazakhstan, I have found a way, I told my wife. "Sleep! you need some more sleep!" was her exasperated reply ! For the last two years I have had Kazakhstan on top of my list. Every time I started exploring … Continue reading How to see Kazakhstan in $1
“To Health, Happiness and Friendship!!”
Our love for Pasta took us to Italy and passion of Vodka took us to Russia. When your travel is dictated by the food and drink choices, you sometimes sit down in the balcony, overlooking the rainy city and reminisce the times when you had the best drinks in every country you have visited. All … Continue reading “To Health, Happiness and Friendship!!”
When henna on hand helped us call home
The year was 2011 and we were in Istanbul on our honeymoon. Those still were early days of mobile affordability and we were to rely on the calling cards to make a call home and communicate our safety. This sounds ancient but we are talking of 2011, this very decade. This still sounds a different … Continue reading When henna on hand helped us call home
Visa Chronicles: Wary Travellers
TH’s (The Husband) love for all things communist took us to Vietnam in 2017. The visa process was just as confusing as the Russian one. And we for sure need to appease the Visa Gods to straighten out our visa luck! Vietnamese visa process for Indians is crooked. One has to find an agency in … Continue reading Visa Chronicles: Wary Travellers
Visa chronicles: Schengen Shenanigans
“Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport” - Unknown And quite literally so! This story is about something that exists exactly between the pages of a passport! We now have multiple Schengen visas stamped on our passports so we made a mistake of assuming … Continue reading Visa chronicles: Schengen Shenanigans
