Digitally Exploring the world

As the new year dawned and with no long breaks last year , thought of heading down home to be with mum on her birthday and then going somewhere close to nature. Me and Mom and had backpacked across Assam in 2008 and really loved it but this time with her getting a wee bit older, thought of making it more comfortable. We hired a taxi to take us around to the various places. Nameri and Kaziranga w as covered in our earlier trip . Spent a week on the road and forests , though it wasn't me on the wheels this time for a change :) Route from Calcutta: Guwahati-Manas National Park-Nameri-Kaziranga-Guwahati NH31 and NH37 that cover most of the terrain is in top condition and I was wishing I had my sturdy black stallion with me to drive :) . Some pics  More pics here: Butterflies Animals Birds

Written a bit late( thanks to tons of work) , but nevertheless!! Last month I headed for a break to the north eastern parts of our country and yeah this time it wasn't my usual solo backpacking trip, but one with my mum. The last trip I had done with her was to Sri Lanka in 2005. It was my first trip to Assam and Meghalaya , though for my mum it was her 3rd visit since my dad was posted in the NE more than a decade back.I was busy with studies/work and never made it to the NE. The first place I wanted to visit when the thought of NE struck me was Arunachal Pradesh but with my mum having high altitude sickness I decided to do Assam and Meghalaya only and leave the Arunachal bit for my solo travels. North East is still quite green but from the people who have been living there and from what I read , it's already lost 50% of the green cover in the last 20 years. Quite a few reasons behind it the main of course being human encroachment. I found random constructions happening aroun...

Guwahati: Armed with the map of assam and no fixed plans in mind, we spent the first few days at Guwahati. It was my mum's first unplanned backpacking kind of trip with me, where we had no fixed travel plans and travel meant using the local buses, which wasn't always the most comfortable!! We were invited over for special bihu meals (had some really yummy food and sweets) by my parent's friends. The stay at Guwahati took me back to the growing up years-small towns,well planned british colonies with red cottages and huge gardens,and surrounding hills.We were staying in the Railway guest house there!! The primary reason for spending a few days at Guwahati was to visit ' Parijat Acadamey " . Parijat Academy, is a school for children of families with low income, living in Pamohi and three adjoining tribal hamlets on the outskirts of Assam's capital Guwahati. My mum had come across an article in the Outlook Mag in 2006 and we had been only,helping out financially ...