Travel
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12 Days in Vietnam Cost Us 1.7L for 2 People. Say What!
It has now been five months since I’ve returned from Vietnam. But it feels like yesterday. Vietnam has that effect on you. Or maybe it’s because it was my longest vacation. Vietnam had been on my radar since 2019. That’s precisely a year after I realized what an affordable gem Southeast Asia is. So I planned hard in 2019. Read up on the history. Looked up flights and hotels. Made a cost sheet. Even had the dates finalized. But Covid put the planet on emergency brake. Vietnam got shelved. Four years later, the costs had almost doubled (not surprising) but Ha Long Bay held the same place in my heart.…
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Our Biggest Travel Mishaps | Part 2
Sometimes the best-laid plans can come undone – especially in travel. When that happens, even though it gets really stressful at that moment, it gets funnier with time. Tathagata and I are meticulous planners. We plan everything down to the T so that there are no surprises that we can’t handle. When we went to Pattaya for our honeymoon in 2018, it was our first trip abroad. So we were extra careful. We went over the entire plan a million times to make sure we weren’t missing anything. We double-checked our tickets. Virtually checked out pre-booked activities. All the transits in between were accounted for. Bags packed and re-packed. All…
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Our Biggest Travel Mishaps | Part 1
They say – The only real failures are the ones from which we learn nothing. They also said – You gotta fail at something to have a good laugh later. Actually no one said that. But you know it’s true. And we took it seriously on all our travels. In fact, we’ve jumped on the travel-mishap bandwagon way too many times than we care to remember. I put up a poll on my Insta story recently asking you guys whether you would like to read about some of these mishaps. I received a unanimously positive response. And here we are. When you are on vacation, every second becomes a story.…
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The Story of My Love Affair With Darjeeling
Sometimes I feel like going to the mountains. Spending cold afternoons under the sun. Watching people. It’s like a restoration pill for the mind. Sometimes I wish I could take my laptop there and write something. Maybe someday I will. Even today, I thought of Darjeeling. It’s the only mountain getaway I’ve been to and I’ve fallen in love. My heart belongs to the sea, but Darjeeling probably has the rest of me. A year without travel had the best of us coming up for air. So, as soon as the coronavirus cases attained a stable graph and was showing a declining trend by the end of last year, we…
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A Family Picnic by the River
Sorry I’ve been AWOL here for some time now. There has been a lot going on the last couple of weeks. Pending bank work, family medical troubles, delayed appointments and so on. You know the drill. Outstanding responsibilities, anyone? I’ve been feeling all sorts of burnouts from that. Mental exhaustion is a bugger, guys. While that’s no excuse for my absence here, I decided to temporarily switch off my low priority engagements to keep my sanity intact. Now that things are beginning to fall into place, I found this short pocket of time to write a long-pending blog post. Many of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook know…
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Sundarban – A Breather in the Mysterious Mangroves
I get asked this question a lot – what do you want to remember a year by? For the last two years, my answer thankfully, continues to be the same. Travel. Okay, so how do I count my blessings for last year? Here goes: Bali for a merry start to the year Koh Samui to ward off the summer heat Darjeeling for a Durga pujo cuppa Tajpur & Mandarmoni for a pre-Christmas jolly good time God has been kind, oh so kind. Tathagata and I had been looking forward to this year’s travel which we had planned to begin in May with bookings to commence from March. Needless to say,…
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Tajpur & Mandarmoni – Travelling With Friends
Tathagata and I have been living out of suitcases since we got married. We’ve been lucky enough to travel to more destinations than I have fingers in one hand in our almost 2 years of marriage. This video is of the last place we travelled to – Tajpur and Mandarmoni, both beach towns situated along the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal. We travelled with friends this time and it made all the difference in the world! Take a look. Thank you Arghya, Payel, Pritam and Indrani for making this trip a huge success. You are amazing!
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10 Things I Want to Remember About Darjeeling
While growing up, every year when Baba brought home the new calendar from office, a set routine was followed. The calendar used to enter the house before Baba, who stood laughing at the doorway at my enthusiasm. I used to hurriedly unroll the calendar with my cold fingers – the smell of freshly printed oily paper hitting my nostrils, the rush of excitement coursing through my veins, the glee of a to-be discovery shinning in my eyes. Paper cuts were ignored because two very, very important things needed to be checked in the calendar, so important that the fate of my entire tiny but mighty world depended on it. 1.…
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How to Get More Out of Koh Samui on a Budget – Part 6
Wait, I didn’t forget the essentials: 10. Use By-The-Kilo Launderettes Clothes pile up quickly once you are on a vacation. If you are not carrying enough clothes for every outing on your trip, you would need to get them washed. Almost every hotel provides good laundry service in Samui but at a high cost. Instead, I would suggest you to try out the coin-operated laundromats lining the streets of Samui. They are generally priced at 30 Baht per kilo. If you ask me, I’d say it’s a bargain. However, I haven’t had a first-hand experience of these launderettes so I cannot say for sure how good they are. Here’s what…
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How to Get More Out of Koh Samui on a Budget – Part 5
On to the next most important thing: 8. Shopping I have so much to say about shopping. Thailand is abuzz with charming, have-to-buy souvenirs. There’s almost nothing that you wouldn’t want to get your hands on. From beautiful wood art to jewellery and even paintings, you would want to take everything home. Sadly, you cannot. Remember luggage limit? So, you really need to be methodical about shopping. Bracelets are lovely, thoughtful gifts that do not weigh much. Try to look for the beachside vendors for buying bracelets from – they sell these for half the price of what brick-and-mortar shop owners do. There’s another thing that caught my eye on…
