Dusty Roads Beckon

"The best way to live history is to stay at its heart"!! This is exactly what I had in mind when I was visiting Fort Kochi. Arranging for a place to stay is obviously one of the most vital aspect of one's travel arrangement and since I was visiting this coastal city of Kerala, which is smeared with history, I naturally wanted a place, which will let me eat, sleep and breathe history. While I don't really consider myself to be a hardcore backpacker in the true sense, yet there are a few things I prefer to do like the backpackers, for example the stay arrangements. Being a solo traveler, I have always preferred to stay in travelers hostels as that gives me enough and more opportunities to meet new people and like minded fellow travelers, who sometimes end up becoming good friends.  So, travelers' hostels have always worked fine for me whenever I have traveled out of India but during my travels within the country the thought of staying in a travelers' ho...

Fort Kochi happens to be that quaint corner of Cochin or Ernakulam, which has now become one of the busiest cities of Kerala. Wrapped in centuries of history, Fort Kochi stands there as a melting pot of various European cultures and the existing native population. This port town, which was called Muziris in the ancient times, attracted hordes of merchants and visitors from Rome, Persia, China and Arabia till it was destroyed by a devastating flood in the 14th century. Much later, in the 16th century, this trading hub, now turned in to a fishing village, was visited by the Portuguese, who built a fort by the waterfront for their own commercial purposes and thus Kochi got rechristened as Fort Kochi. However, this fort was destroyed by the Dutch invasion in 17th century and later Fort Kochi also witnessed the arrival of the British in the 18th century. The British controlled Fort Kochi till India got its independence in 1947. This place has still retained its old world charm in it...

What do you do when you get to know that your employer wants you to attend a 3 days long conference in the royal Pink City and the third day happens to be a  Saturday !!?? The wanderlust in me resurfaced as I knew that I have the  Sunday  to myself and I can postpone my return for a day after the conference gets over. The conference got over by lunch  on Saturday  and post lunch I was absolutely free to explore the city on my own. Now the challenge here was just 24 hrs to myself and how much of Jaipur City I could squeeze in this limited time. So, this is how my itinerary was planned : Jantar Mantar Post lunch, I took an Uber and set out to see this astronomical marvel   built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, which is very close to the City Palace, also known as Chandra Mahal. This place has the largest stone sundial    of the world and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. The observatory houses 19 geometric instruments...