Travel
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The Mystery of Angkor Wat Temple – How I Experienced it
I have a thing for ruins. I don’t quite understand why. Something about the echoes of History I think. When I see a ruin, I try to imagine what it looked like in its prime. The years of neglect fall away and in my mind’s eye, I see the place come to life. I picture people inhabiting the place, going about their daily lives, oblivious of the fact that it would one day lay barren. I think of the activities that could have taken place there, the laughter that echoed in its walls, the rage it endured, the tears it absorbed and the secrets it held. I see the sunrays…
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Our 12-Day Vietnam Itinerary: A Budget Trip for Two
Last updated: September 2026 TL;DR: Our 12-Day Vietnam Itinerary at a Glance To help you decide if you want to read the whole thing, here’s a gist of what you’ll get in this blog: We spent 12 days travelling from North to South Vietnam in April 2024. Our Vietmam itinerary route: Kolkata → Hanoi → Hoi An → Da Nang → Ho Chi Minh City → Kolkata Day Location Activity Day 1 Hanoi Walking tourThang Long Puppet showHoan Kiem lake Day 2 Halong Bay Day tour Day 3 Ninh Binh Day tour Day 4 Hanoi Ho Chi Minh MuseumTemple of LiteratureTrain Street Day 5 Hoi An Fly to Da Nang…
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Forest Stay Near Kolkata: I Stayed Three Days & Three Nights in the Neora Jungle Camp
In early 2023, I stayed with my family in the Neora Jungle Camp Resort, located deep within the Gorumara Forest near Kolkata, West Bengal for three days and three nights. Read till the end of this blog to discover my forest stay experience filled with two unexpected wild elephant encounters, hikes to the Neora river and experiences at Chapramari jungle safari. I also talk about slowing down in Nature. Please note, this is not a conventional Gorumara Forest guide. It’s my personal experience of staying at the Neora Jungle Camp Resort and how I spent my three days there. Neora Jungle Camp: Our Forest Stay Near Kolkata at a Glance…
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12 Days in Vietnam Cost Us 1.7L INR for 2 People from India. Say What!
Last Updated: September 2026 If you’ve landed in here looking for Vietnam trip cost from India for 2 people, you’re going to leave with the complete breakdown of cost from North to South Vietnam covering 4 destinations and a direction on your trip planning. We did this trip in April of 2024. Keep in mind that prices vary based on the time of the year. More on this later. 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…
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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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Darjeeling Couple Trip: The Story of My Love Affair With Darjeeling
This is not a conventional Darjeeling itinerary. This is my personal experience exploring Darjeeling as a couple. You will get to know about our quiet, slow walks and wonderful discoveries along the way. Experiencing Darjeeling as a Couple: What Made Us Fall in Love With Darjeeling This was our second visit to Darjeeling. The first time we went with family and this time, we went to Darjeeling as a couple. Since we had covered the top spots in our last visit, we weren’t interested in ticking places off a list this time. We wanted to wander, get a little lost, stop when something caught our attention and let the day…
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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!
