Vibsville

When u start planning your trip to Bhutan, the first issue you will confront is flight bookings. The Druk Air (monopoly for flights in Bhutan) has a terrible website, making it difficult to understand options. Web check in still remains a distant possibility. When flying into Bhutan it is suggested you get a window seat on the LHS and the opposite on the return, since you traverse Mount Everest on your flight and can spot it on a clear day. Flights are sporadic and if connecting from bombay you have to fly the day before to Calcutta or Delhi adding on more travel time. Daily flights to bombay are launched around mid-May so do check on the dates with your agent before you plan your travel. While May is still considered "high season, perhaps since the monsoons will hit in June/ July and August, the best months to visit if you want to see the flowers in full bloom are March and April. These months also bring the cultural festivals to Thimphu and Paro, making advance bookings a m

This trip came about since my close childhood friend, also a history buff, wanted to get a taste of ancient India on her express trip from America. We knew little to nothing about Hampi; the prospect of discovery excited us. I began my research through the usual websurfing and found http://hampi.in/ , a pretty useful resource to get aquainted with the basics. Special shout out to Ambika Vishwanathan and Karen Rodriguez for their insights as well! I will keep the length of this post short. The more obvious things about Hampi can be found online quite easily. I will focus my piece on the ‘not so obvious’ things to do/see and general tips for someone traveling from Bombay to Hampi. How should one get to Hampi? Three prime options in order of preference: 1)    Fly to Bangalore and take the Hampi Express to Hospet. Bangalore is a large hub airport and has several flights connecting easily to the city. More importantly, the train leaves Bangalore daily at 10 pm and arrives

“Masla toh ji Sarkar ka hain, logon mein to sirf pyaar hain”, summarized our Immigration officer at the Pakistani border as we inhaled our last few breaths of Pakistani air before taking the dozen odd steps to cross over back to Amritsar. We had the privilege of spending five days in Pakistan thanks to Nutshell Conferences and its CEO, Azfar Bhai who invited a delegation from the Harvard Business School Club of India to visit Pakistan – when I received the initial invite, I RSVPd instantly and instinctively – without bothering to check my calendar – both professional and personal commitments seemed to fade into insignificance when compared to the opportunity to visit this enigmatic nation (Big thank you to the HBS Clubs of India and Pakistan!). We took the Spice Jet flight to Amritsar from Bombay (the only direct flight) and spent the day there visiting family and family friends, attending the border ceremony (a 2 hour evening drama with soldiers, Bollywood music and lots of f

Africa – Kenya & Tanzania (July 29 th – August 7 th , 2012) Extraordinarily ‘Wild’ Time: First a big ‘Thank you’ to all those who assisted with itinerary planning – Shruti Mittal, Aiman Merchant, Gaurav Jain, Pooja Hada, Vasudha Mittal, Tushar Chandra, Nandini & Paresh Kapashi amongst others. Without your insights the trip would not have been so terrific! Pre-holiday- Lots of confusion about which places to visit in a week’s time. Main dilemma was whether we see Kenya only or combine 2 countries. Visiting Tanzania entailed 2 flights and a 4-5 hour road journey all packed into 1 day, making it a rather tedious. At the same time, combing a visit to a neighboring country and seeing something different is always tempting. Finally, after lots of deliberation and blog/website browsing we decided on both Kenya and Tanzania. We chose Masai Mara as our main safari destination given the density and variety of animals we could see. Also, 1 st August is when the