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A trip to Sikkim : Gangtok and Pelling

     Sikkim is the most preferable holiday destination for people of West Bengal and near by states. In the midst  the Himalayas, the state has many hill stations, where people can breathe free from their busy working schedule and relax their body and mind. Throughout the year, the temperature of these hill stations remain cool and enjoyable.     As part of our annual trip, this year we had been to Gangtok and Pelling. Gangtok, the state capital of Sikkim, is a famous hill station with all modern facilities. Though a crowded place like all other state capitals, the city life enjoyable and not so complex. Pelling is a city of Sikkim in the West Sikkim district. Both the places have near-by site seeing places and monuments. People, planning to relax, should opt for lesser travel time on the hilly roads. Though this was my 3rd trip to Gangtok in 6years, still I enjoyed each moment of it.     It was the first time, I was traveling in a large group of 30-35 people. We start
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Christmas Eve and New Year Eve Family Trips in and aound Keonjhar

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     On the eve of Christmas and New Year, I have been to my home town. It was fully a family time to enjoy, as my sisters and relatives also visited to our home. We had few small trips near my home and around Keonjhar.     Our first trip was to the Gadachandi Temple and Hadagarh Dam. The motor bike ride in the forests of Baula Mountains was an exceptional experience to cherish about. The Gadachandi Temple is situated on the foot hills of Baula Mountain, around 8KM from my home. Maa Gadachandi is the adobe of the temple. A small fountain flows in front of the temple, provides water for the temple as well as to the visitors, round the year. The source of the fountain is still unknown, most probably from the Salandi River, flowing though the rocks of the mountain. Visitors, preferably the youth, prefer climbing the rocks along side the fountain through the forest. Due to insufficient time, we could not climb for a ample amount of time. The banks of the stream is the bes
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A weekend trip to the Pink City : Jaipur, Rajasthan

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     During Dussera holidays, I have been to the Pink City, Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan. Pink color symbolizes the hospitality. In 1876, during the visit of Queen Victoria, the then king of Jaipur, Maharaja Ram Singh painted the whole city with Pink color to welcome the queen. Pink in color and pink in vibrancy, the city of Jaipur is one of most beautiful and magnetic cities of India. Jaipur is named after the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, who had established the city. He was not only a great warrior but also an astronomer. The glorious past of Jaipur comes alive in the Palaces, Forts and monuments made by the royal family. The culture, architecture, traditions, art, jewellery and textiles of Jaipur have always charmed the visitors.     Including the weekends, I had a 4 days holiday this Dussera. This was the first time, we colleagues could not plan a single trip ourselves. Few of them teamed up with their friends to enjoy the holidays and few decided not to h
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A trip to the Golden City, Jaisalmer

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     In the last week of July, we had our first tour from company side for the year. We, all the colleagues located in Greater Noida, had a trip to the Golden City, Jaisalmer of Rajasthan. The city is located in the heart of the famous Indian desert, the Thar desert. The trip arrangements were done by a local resort "Rana Villa", starting from the pick-up from railway station till dropping us back.     We started our journey in the Friday afternoon by the only train from Delhi to Jaisalmer. None of us is going to forget the train journey for coming few years, until something similar or worse happen again. Though we had our tickets booked in Sleeper class of the express train, we had to travel like in unreserved coaches, with each berth carrying more than 4 passengers and still people standing. This forced us to rebook our return tickets in the AC coach. Anyway, after 10PM, we got our seats back. The train reached Pokaran in the next morning and Jaisalmer aroun
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One day trip to Taj Mahal, Agra from New Delhi

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      I had a wish to see Taj Mahal in Agra. During my stay in Greater Noida, it was a real opportunity to visit Taj Mahal and near by places. Last week-end, along with few of my colleagues, I visited Taj Mahal, Gokul, Krishna Janma Bhoomi, Prem Mandir etc.     It was an one day trip. We booked a cab and left for Agra early Saturday morning. We booked a Camel Cart from western gate parking to go to the Taj Mahal. It was a first time experience for me to sit on a Camel Cart. We took the ticket and went inside the premises. We took some photographs and went inside Taj Mahal. We also came to know about the special products of Agra, like Leather, Bamboo, Banana products etc. We did shopping there and bought some sarees, bed sheets etc. We had our lunch in Agra and left for Mathura around 2:30pm. Panoramic View of Taj Mahal Premises     On the way to Mathura, we visited the Gokul village. Gokul is the village, where Lord Krishna brought up by Nanda and Yashoda and p
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A weekend trip to Rishikesh from New Delhi

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     We have an weekend trip to Rishikesh during mid June. I along with few of my colleagues went to Rishikesh for Camping and Rafting in the Ganga Valley.     We board the bus from New Delhi around 9PM and reached Rishikesh around 5AM in a pleasant morning. On the way to Rishikesh, we had our dinner in a road-side Dhaba. From Rishikesh, we booked auto-rickshaw to Tapovan. We had already booked for camping at Camp Roller Coaster, but the camp check-in time was at 9AM. Hence, we decided to start walking towards the camp. It took us close to 3 hours to reach the camp site, which was close to 11KM a journey with ups and downs on the road. By the time we reach there, all of us were fully tired.     The most challenging task for us at that time was to get down from the road on a sloped footpath, barely having any stair-case, to reach the camp on the river bank. I had a thrilling experience, as I was going down, my legs were trembling and still I was showing that I had s
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Using ATVM while Traveling Indian Railways

       Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) – The smart way to buy Train Tickets…     I am a frequent traveler in the South-Eastern railways. I am staying in Kolkata and my home is near to Bhadrak. I generally go home on weekends. Everyone, who travel by train know the crowd that travel in local trains and in general coaches of long distance superfast trains. There are only 2 trains in the morning to go to Bhadrak and they leave Howrah station at 6:00AM and 7:30AM respectively. Generally I wish to catch the 6:00AM train (Dhauli Superfast Express). In the morning I have to travel from my room to Howrah station and book the ticket and catch the train. At the busiest station in eastern India, it is really difficult to reach the ticket counter from the taxi stand, and then I have to wait in the queue to avail a ticket for the train. In most of the cases, I book the ticket and unable to catch the train and then I have to travel by the next train. On one such day, I asked at the enqui
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Trip to Vizag and Araku Valleys

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       It was long time since we were planning a trip to one of the southern hill stations. Last week, we, Sankalpites, had our trip to Vizag and Araku Valleys. It was a memorable trip for me and hence, I want to pen this down, so that the memories remain afresh.     We started our journey from Kolkata by train. We enjoyed the train journey by playing cards and small games. Our train reached Vizag (Visakhapatnam) in early morning and our trip planner has arranged vehicles to go to hotel. We became fresh there and started our site seeing around 10AM. The day we reached AP, the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) passed the AP division bill. The major fear that all of us had in throughout the trip that the division of AP should not impact our tour. We started our trip by visiting the Simhachalam Temple, where Narasimha avatar of Lord Vishnu is worshiped. The temple is situated amid the mountains, close to the top of a mountain. The visit to the shrine is well planned and queues
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