First timer in skiing?

Tips for first timers

Acclimatise: You have to give your body time to adjust to the low temperature, otherwise you risk serious injuries.
Get in shape: Though it might look easy, skiing needs you to maintain your balance while sliding down a mountain. This is anything but easy. So try and get into shape.
The right skis and boots: The most important thing is making sure the skis are about 30cm shorter than your height. Shorter skis are a lot easier to turn. When choosing the right boots, make sure you can move your toes.
Stay warm: Wear a thermal layer, made out of filament silk or LIFA. You also need to make sure that your outer layer is waterproof. And wear only one pair of socks. Multiple pairs will make you colder.
Don’t overdo it: After a few hours on the slopes, make it a point to call it a day and give your body a well-deserved rest.

Source: HT CITY

When you are in Kerala.......

1. Kumarakom Lake Resort- Kottayam.   

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Location.

2. Emrald Hotels- Allepey.

Images.

Location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxoLtzMlro

3. Abad Turtle Beach Resort - Allepey.

Images.

Location

4. Poovar island Resort -Thiruvananthapuram.

Images.
Location.


5. Leela Backwaters - Thiruvananthapuram.

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Location.


6. Coconut Palms, Pallana 

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Location

Equidistant from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram

30 kms from Allapuzha

3 kms from Haripad Railway station.

This is an 150 year old mansion built or renovated exactly as a typical house in Kerala. As all houses in Kerala this too is made of wood stone and tiles.It is surrounded by sacred grooves ponds and plantations of all kinds. Situated close to the backwaters. As in most parts of Southern Kerala the ground you walk on is sandy.


7. Thattekadu Bird Sanctuary. Also known as Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary.

Images.

Location.  74 kms from Kochi.

Wayanad- Wayanad comprises of four regions viz : Vythiri, Kalpetta, Sulthan Bathery and Mananthavady.

Vythiri

Distance from Kozhikode     

Kalpetta
Distance from Kozhikode

Sulthan Bathery

Sultan Bathery is about 25 kms. from Kalpetta.It is associated with Hyder Ali and Tipu Sulthan. There is a  Jain temple nearby whith interesting stone carvings. 

Sulthan Bathery can be seen on a drive from Kalpetta to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, .

Edakkal caves-12 kms from Sulthan Bathery  located at a height of 1000 mts. The caves can be accessed only by a 1Km trekking trail from Edakkal. Morning hours are the best time to visit these caves.

The new stone age pictorial writings on the walls of these natural caves at Edakkal are the evidence of the civilizations that existed in the regions in the pre-historic times. The caves can be accessed only by a 1Km trekking trail from Edakkal.  

A trek up of the Ambukuthi Hill near Ambalavayal town takes you to another interesting neolithic cave site. Etchings can be found on the walls.  

IMPORTANT TOURIST PLACES IN WAYANAD DISTRICT AND DISTANCES



Places                                               Distance from Kalpetta         Nearest Town


Wildlife Sanctuary - Muthanga          42 kms                                 Sulthan Bathery

Wildlife Sanctuary - Tholpetty           59 kms                                 Kartikulam

Chembra Peak

(Highest Peak in Wayanad)               17 kms                                  Meppadi 

Chembra Peak Trek

Neelimala View Point                        27 kms                                 Vaduvanchal

Meenmutty Falls
(Trekking)                                        29 kms.                                 Vaduvanchal

Banasura Sagar Dam                      
(Largest Earth Dam)                         24 kms.                                  Padijnarathara

Jain Temple                                      24 kms.                                  Sulthan Bathery

Ambalavayal
(Wayanad Heritage Museum)           25 kms.                                 Ambalavayal

Muniyara                                          27 kms.                                Ambalavayal

Uravu                                               12 kms                                 Muttil

Chain Tree                                        16 kms                                 Lakkidi

Pallikkunnu Church                           19 kms.                                 Kabalakkad

Korome Mosque                               47 kms                                 Padijnarathara

Pazhassi Raja's Tomb                        35 kms.                                Mananthavady

Valliyoorkav Bhagavathi Temple        24 kms                                 Mananthavady

Source: Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary

Wayanad has some of the most beautiful falls in Kerala.

Meenmutty falls is the biggest and most beautiful fall in Wayanad Kalpetta. It is a 3 tired 300 metre high fall reach the fall requires a 2 km hike through the forest from the Ooty road

The others are Kanthampuram Falls, and the Suchipara Falls. 


Eravikulam National Park - the home of Nilgiri Tahr Munnar

Distance from Munnar


Silent Valley National Park

Homestays in Wayanad
www.tropicalforest.in

Homestays in Allepey
www.nelpura.com

Walking along Mararikulam beach

Rhythm of the rain in Kerala

When you are in Tamil Nadu

1. Hogenakkal Falls- Also known as Niagara of India.

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Location: It is located in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, about 180 km from Bangalore and 46 km from Dharmapuri town.325 kms from Chennai

2. Vedanthangal Lake Bird Sanctuary-
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Location: The sanctuary is about 75 km from Chennai on the National Highway 45 (NH 45), south of Chengalpattu.


3. Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park     

The nearby railway stations are Mandapam, Rameshwaram and Tuticorn. One can travel by bus these places. Three days are needed to visit all the islands that form a part of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park. Best time to visit is from October and March. Prior permission from the following authorities is required for a visit to the Marine Park.

The Real Pearl of the South

Location.

Tiger reserves

1. Bandipur National Park, Karnataka. Location: Bandipur is located at a distance of 80 kms from Mysore and 220 kms from Bangalore and 70 kms from Ooty.

2. Dudwa Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh. Location: Delhi - Moradabad - Bareilly - Pilibhit ( or Shahjahanpur)-Khutar -Mailani - Palia-Dudhwa (430 km).

3. Annamalai Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu. Location: There are regular buses from Coimbatore to Pollachi, 44 kns, which is the nearest big town.


5. Manas National park, Assam.

6. Panna National Park, Madhya Pradesh.

7. Satpura National Park Madhya Pradesh.

Parambikulam, Kerala.

The Truth About Diving

Is scuba diving dangerous?

If you don't follow diving instructions (and restrictions ) carefully, it is dangerous. However, no one dives alone. You always dive in pairs which ensures that you're not alone in an emergency.

Is diving equipment complicated?

You need to manage three things while diving. One, ensure you don't waste your tank of air. That means breathing normally is best. Two, you need to ensure you don't exceed diving depths prescribed for you in order to avoid medical complications. That's why you learn to use a dive computer which plans your dive. Three, you need to manage your buoyancy - in other words, sink to the bottom of the ocean and come up to the surface without behaving like an underwater yo-yo. Buoyancy is controlled with the use of a weight belt, air in your diving jacket, air in your lungs, and propulsion with the use of fins.

Will the sharks attack?

Our fears have been built by myths perpetrated by popular movies. Marine life is not aggressive. Fish and other creatures attack humans only when they regard them as a threat.

Will I get lost?

Of course there are no signboards. But hang on, where are you going ? All you have to do is go up, and you'll be back where you started (or almost where you started). Divers use a compass to find their way around underwater

Times Crest

Team building at Camp Kyari

The sprawling dense jungles of the Kumaon district adjoining the Jim Corbett National Park, provided an ideal setting for our team building effort. The programme was held in the tented camps set up by Wildrift one of the many companies that specialise in out door activity.

 An interlude in the programme permitted us a foray into the jungle.  We were divided into 4 Jeeps for the Safari. Though September was not the best season to sight Tigers, we however did spot other denizens of the jungle.

A Cheetal suddenly appeared on the track that we were travelling on. As the jeep approached it, the deer with an exquisite grace of an athlete effortlessly cleared a 2 meter mound and disappeared into the dense under growth-an essential attribute to possess in the amphitheater of the jungle where the only law that prevails is the law of claw and fangs.

There are 2 types of people who come on a Safari. The alert ones say, "There! There!" the more sluggish respond with "Where? Where?" So it was that when our guide suddenly stopped the jeep and pointed  to the hollow of a tree, after many "wheres" we spotted a giant monitor lizard basking in the sun. It was so effectively camouflaged against the background  of the tree that it was impossible to spot it at first glance. How the guide manage to spot it beats me.

Next we spotted a giant owl, perched on a tree and looking away from us.On sensing our presence it turned a full 180 degrees and stared at us piercingly with unblinking eyes. It gave me quite a turn (no pun intended). It reminded me of the little girl possessed by the devil in the film, 'The Exorcist.'

Back at the Camp a canal of water one and a half meter wide and half a meter in depth flowed from the hills to the fields in a gentle gradient. Each of us were given a life jacket and made to lie face upwards in the canal afloat. The force of the current pushed us down the gradient all the down to the fields. as you float down, all you van see is the dense foliage of overhanging trees in various shades of green interspersed with the deep blue sky.

Joining up with these camps are fun. You get to do many activities that you normally cannot when you are on your own. In one of the outings we had walked in the river, knee deep, for several kilometers. When you are with the group it can be boisterously fun!

Holidaying on Treetops

A classmate of mine once  invited me to stay with him during school summer vacations in a sprawling tea estate. There it got it into our head to build a tree-house. After several days of sporadic attempts we managed a rickety platform on the tree. We were justifiably proud of our work. But it had two minor drawbacks. We both had to sit simultaneously at either end of the board to counterbalance each other. A wind of sub gale force could easily cause a major cataclysm to our tree-house. Several decades later I finally got to stay in a tree-house- as firm as a  rock of Gibraltar- as comfortable as any deluxe hotel and as spacious!

Spread over several acres, The Tree House Resort in Jaipur is located on the outskirts of Jaipur, on NH8. In a stark contrast to the surrounding area, the resort is a veritable jungle of trees and fauna.  There are over a dozen tree houses with attached washrooms and an extended balconies with easy chairs -all on tree treetops! That's what you call top level comforts!!

A dining room perched on a small hill overlooks the resort. Small canals of water wind through the place. The abundance of trees at the resort attract a variety of birds at all times of the day. Every night an owl would comes and sit on the same tree on the same branch and sureys the landscape and its occupants with the studied gravitas of a lord mayor.

Dinner is generally served alfresco, with a bonfire during winter nights.

At ground level, a large number of rabbits have been let loose. Throughout the day you could see them gamboling about with gay abandon. You need to be a little quick on the draw, if you want to catch them. A variety ducks busily strut around scraping the ground for food pausing only if you come a little close to them. 

A water hole close by is the home for frogs, almost the size of a Baseball! They would just sit under the shade of leaves with the phlegmatic nonchalance staring deep into space with bulbous eyes . No sooner you try to approach them to establish a more cordial relationship than they would, belying their size, swiftly scuttle back into the pond.

There is a mini bar nestled among the Bamboo shoots and trees for those bent on their daily rendezvous with Bacchus.

It also caters to the athletic and non athletic occupants. For the athletics there is a badminton and a tennis court, a mini golf course and a small swimming pool. For the non athletic types there are a variety of indoor games to indulge in.

It is an interesting and a unique place of entertainment. When you come away the picture that you take with you is that of dappled leaves swaying gently in the breeze as you look out from the window of your room; white balls of fur scurrying across the verdant lawn, the near continuous parleys among the avian population punctuated with occasional croaks from the pond area, as if letting you know 'Hey we are also here!'

But despite the  passage of time, like your first infatuation,  I still fondly remember my first tottering tree house in a remote tea plantation estate!

Luxury on trees

Scuba diving in Havelock Island

How many of us knew that Havelock Island in the Andaman was the diving capital of India? Or that it is rated as the top 25 diving sites in the world?

There is an abundance of marine life that one can observed- hammerheads, greytip, whitetip and leopard sharks, dolphins, sting rays, turtles, lobsters, squid, sea urchins, massive coral groupers, fusiliers, bat fish, parrot fish and many more.

The other added attraction is to view a sunken ship SS Inchekett which sank sometime around in 1952.

Read all this and more in Times Crest- Waterworld.

Salvation at Badrinath

The journey to any pilgrimage center is always difficult and some of the most beautiful places in the Himalayas pass through these very locations. Vehicles stranded bumper to bumper moved sinuously along the highway. The black granite mountains rose abruptly, dwarfing me by its sheer immensity. I was in Joshimat, traversing through a land of terrifyingly deep chasms and towering ridges. A narrow road, just broad enough to accommodate two vehicles, wound precariously upwards towards Badrinath.

As with all pilgrimage centers, Badrinath was also humming with people. It was the third day of the opening of the Badrinath temple. Though not particularly inclined to theism, I decided to visit the temple anyway. Despite the inclement weather the queue for the temple was at least a quarter of a kilometer long. Our piety notwithstanding, we find our selves falling short when it comes to observing queue etiquette  As I neared the door of the temple, the queue was in imminent danger of breaking. There was pushing, pulling and jumping - just about everything that one would experience while standing in an unruly queue.

All these activities increased in direct proportion to the proximity of the temple door. By the time I managed to reach the temple gateway, the right was with the might! Katha Upanishad, that vedic book with profound wisdom has astutely observed, “to cross over razor’s edge is difficult, so is the path to salvation.” I had no option but to exercise my might too if I had to have any chance of getting my cut of salvation!

Inside the temple, there was no let up in the pilgrims desire to be as close to the Murti as was permissible. They came with eagerness and hope, surrendering themselves completely to the Gods before them, oblivious to the shoving humanity, the noise or the heavy incense filled atmosphere. It was wrenching to see the imploring look on their faces. Will the Gods oblige them? Will He bestow his infinite benignity on them? The obeisance had to be brief. The impatient humanity behind did not allow you a longer communion with the Gods. Only when I was pushed out of the temple did I realise that I had forgotten to ask anything from my Maker. Well, God is everywhere, I consoled myself.

The next day held the exciting prospect of a four hour trek to the Vasudhara falls. No throngs of people accompanied me there. The libation done, the crowds had vanished. I walked alone at a comfortable pace along the narrow path that cut through the vast expanse of the valley towards the cascade.