[UB_007]

Sorry for the late response.
@figo_united, I was actually very busy

First of all, thanks for the overwhelming responses on my wedding travelogue.

Special thanks to BHPians MCR and hemanth.anand who made a clear travel plan and frequent updates of their footsteps all the way during 3 days trip.

In parallel I created a new id for myself knowing that the old id which was created way back in 2006 was inactive. Thankyou GTO for your efforts

Most of you might be curious to know about UB and N.
UB -Born and brought up in Mangalore. Studied in MIT, Manipal. Now working in Bangalore. A Senior design Engineer- Powertrain Division of a Automotive firm.


MIT-My college


Our University

N- Born In Thrissur, Kerala. Brought up in Manipal. Studied in KMC Mangalore and KMC Manipal. Was an Asst. professor in ophthalmology dept, KMC Manipal. Now an Ophthalmologist in one of the eye hospitals in Bangalore.


KMC, manipal- N's college.

After the busy schedule and wedding formalities (read storm), a sort of calm set in after 22may. The much awaited trip with “it’s still after the weekend” feeling came so soon that we got the “hey it’s here” feeling.

Mangalore-Ernakulam-Bangalore-Kolkata-Bagdogra-Gangtok-pelling-Darjeeling-bagdogra-kolkata-Bangalore are the points on the map which were planned to be covered in next 11 days with approximately 40hrs of rest at Bangalore in between, before we flew to east India.

As the trip was supposed to be relaxed, driving was not an option at all.
I was very excited about Kerala trip and in specific the sea food specialties.

Early evening Bus on 22nd May to Ernakulum from Mangalore was good. After 10.5hrs of journey, reaching Ernakulum early in the morning was a fresh feeling.
As expected the weather was pleasant after light showers overnight. Roads are much better compared to roads in Karnataka.


A Sad thing. Work in progress.

The coastal stretch is being encroached and huge buildings coming up. The concrete jungle will shortly wipe out the beauty of Kerala coast.

Jackfruits and mangoes were the most common fruits on streets of Kerala. Though I had been through Kerala couple of times earlier, stay there was for the first time and that too a special one.

We stayed at N's granny's place.
I especially loved the place since it was amidst trees (mostly coconut).


Backyard


House amidst trees.


Drop of life...

Fish fry was very common in every place we visited.


I'm loving it...

Also would like to hint you guys that when at a place like this, do not attempt to switch on the lights at night as I did.
Little did I know that by switching on the light, I'll have the nightmare of my life (see the following picture for details)
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Nightmare-Fireflies.

I was lucky it seems, as it could have been even worse if the light wasn’t switched off quickly.
Nevertheless, N gave me what I deserved for this innocent act of mine


To be continued…

[hemanth.anand]

Nice start UB.

Some lovely pictures, especially of the truck carrying an earth mover on the sea shore.
How did you get that purplish shade to it? what were the settings?

Thanks for the lesson, I'll never switch on the lights in such places

Keep it rolling buddy.

[carfreak]

Hello UB welcome to team-bhp.sorry i could not attend the wedding as i am in Mangalore now.i thought of making it to the reception but as it was in the afternoon i could not attend!!

[figo_united]

Great start UB!
The fireflies situation really looks nightmarish! Thanks for the tip!
Looking forward to more updates about the trip and some more pics!
btw, Congratulations to both of you and wish you a happy married life!

[slicvic]

Hey UB, welcome to TBHP, looking forward to more on your upcoming Travelogue

V

[UB_007]

Thanks guys.


After a great kerala trip, we headed to Bangalore. The route was Ernakulam-thrissur- palakkad-coimbatore-salem-hosur-Bangalore and was very fine.
The Volvo with KL registration cruised smooth on NH47 from Ernakulum and connected NH7 to reach Bangalore via Hosur.
At the border near Hosur, we were moved to another bus with KA registration. For sure this has to do something with the route permit of the bus.
Luckily we were travelling with minimal luggage and transfer of baggage was easy.

Back in Bangalore, 40 hrs just went by so quickly and we were on our way to BIAL in city taxi.
I would like to add that the city taxi Driver was very friendly. We planned to leave from Electronic city at 4:00AM as the KF was scheduled to depart at 6.40AM to Kolkata.
When I called the driver at 3 Just to confirm he is on his way to pick us, I was surprised to hear that he is already waiting at our gate from 12.30AM. I was very impressed.
Thanks to the BHPian MCR for giving me the details of the driver.
I understood why he prefers this taxi person for his frequent travels.
Not wanting the driver to wait anymore we started from electronic city 30 minutes earlier than planned.
The taxi fare from EC to BIAL came up to Rs870. Rs15/km.

We had to change flights at Kolkata before reaching Bagdogra.
After a quick check-in at BIAL, 2 hrs just went by wandering at Shopper stop.
With a quick 20mins stop over at Hyderabad the kingfisher flight took off to Kolkata where we had to collect our baggage and check in to Jet airways flight to Bagdogra.
The Kolkata airport I would say is in a similar state like the old HAL airport in Bangalore.
The flight schedules were displayed on the mechanical billboards and half of it wasn’t working.
With thousands of passengers hurrying to board their flights on time, it was a chaotic situation everywhere.
A new airport is coming up adjacent to the old one and the situation would be improved soon.
Flight to Bagdogra (west Bengal) was good. As we stepped out of the plane we could feel the heat.
The temperature was 37°C. We always thought that the temperature would be much lower and were little disappointed thinking about the next days of our vacation in this condition.


@Bagdogra airport….

We were greeted by the taxi person at the airport and soon were on the way to Gangtok.
The AC taxi was a relief and was informed that the temperature in Gangtok was around 20°C.
The next 7 days tour was tailor made to suit our requirements.
Thanks to Mr.Ganesh who organized the whole thing for us perfectly.


Package Itinerary…..

The 4hrs drive from Airport to our resort in Gangtok was full of scenic views.
It was almost impossible to park the car and take photos as it was a 2lane narrow road with curves.
With few settings on my camera, I was able to capture some nature photographs. Here you go…


Neat west Bengal road with army camps on both sides.


West bengal railway


Rafting Route


Milestone…….


Architectural beauty.

If you all recollect UB and N are products of MIT/KMC, Manipal and are proud of it.
How can we miss MIT in Sikkim?
Though it was late in the evening, I managed to get some pictures of my college.


SMIT


SMIT

N was also excited to see her medical college in Sikkim. The location was mesmerizing.
She now regrets for rejecting the offer to work in KMC, Sikkim at the early stages of her career.
May be in a way its good that she rejected the offer else I had to put in a lot of effort in getting closer to N.
But I do agree the Sikkim location of MIT and KMC is remarkable.

It started getting cold as we climbed up. At 6 as planned we were at the resort.
The hotel was good though it was little away from the city centre.


Our hotel at Gangtok

It rained the whole night.
Evening was a relaxed one. I got a call from the local travel guide explaining me the plan for the next day followed by call from local transport provider to confirm the start time.

I was excited as we would be going 13200ft above MSL. Additionally, due to heavy rain the road leading to Tsomgo Lake would surely be ruined, making our drive an adventurous and memorable one……
Day one was sweet and involved much of travelling.

Here is a teaser for the next day’s drive to Tsomgo…….


To Be continued………