Into The Heartland! (2)

The first monsoon showers were playing hide and seek with us. While that often gave us brilliantly clear skies for sightseeing, it also meant scorching heat and dollops of sweat. We were advised to steer clear of the afternoon Sun. But when the road lands you in Datia at 1PM, you cannot miss seeing it!

Into The Heartland! (1)

As excited as I had been about the trip to Madhya Pradesh, my glee faded a tad bit when I saw the aircraft that awaited LB and me at the Bangalore airport tarmac. It hadn’t dawned on my tired brain what a Bombardier meant, irrespective of the countless times in the past few days LB

Guilty As Charged?

“Sir, why has my handbag been detained?” asked a petite lady, dressed in a salwar suit, sensible chappals(flat sandals) and a young, fidgety kid accompanying her. I waved at him to distract him from tugging at the woman’s dupatta; instead he looked away, hiding his face, clinging onto the woman’s leg. “Yes, darling. We’ll get

Turkey! (8)

Day 8: “I have 60 camels. You have two very beautiful daughters. Would you like to exchange?” asked a man addressing my father. While my sister wanted to use the choicest of words for this Turk we came across at 8 am in Sultanahmet, I couldn’t take my eyes off his ear, which seemed surgically

Turkey! (7)

Day 7 : We’d chalked out this day for the smaller pleasures of life, for a mid-afternoon siesta, for a walk in the village. And for the royally famous, mixed origin (Roman and Turkish), communal bathing ritual of the hamam. Waking up to the view of the Pamukkale mountain, knowing that you were in no

Turkey! (5)

Day 5. The rains came and went just in time for our 6 am hot air balloon ride! And guess who were the other passengers in the basket with us? A lot of Chinese (again!) and a Turk couple from Istanbul. Barring the struggle to not photobomb anyone while they kept the shutters going at

Turkey! (4)

Day 4. Did I not tell you about undulating landscapes and fairy chimneys? Add some, actually a lot of, hot air balloons in the foreground. Well, as it happens, with the craze of Instagram, travel bloggers and better-than-ever-before cameras, most hotels in Goreme set up “Instagram worthy shot spots” on their terraces with rugs, mattresses,

Turkey! (3)

Day 3. Oh, my poor throat! I finally did step into a hospital, Haseki Hospital, at 6:30 AM, having woken up at 3 AM to a throat that refused to even swallow saliva. They say it gets better after the worst. I disagree. Bless the soul of the cabbie who offered to help us through

Turkey! (2)

Day 2. Waking up to the call of azaan for fajr, (last count put Istanbul being home to 3,000 mosques, approximately) the realisation dawned that I was starting to lose my voice – the lump in the throat on the flight couldn’t be diagnosed as misplaced nerves anymore. Turkish Kreps and their fantastic version of

Turkey! (1)

Day 1. Three months of persuasion, three months of planning and touchdown into Turkey a week after Prez Erdogan declared support for Pakistan was putting me through the jitters because to assume Indian passports would be unaffected would be naivety! A six-hour Indigo flight while revising our itinerary, recalling all the phrases in Turkish that