Varkala, Kerala, India

Sunset from Varkala South cliff

Ever since I moved to Bangalore in 2022, I have been hearing about Varkala as if this is the "Goa" of Bangaloreans. I started planning for a Varkala trip but due to many unavoidable circumstances, the planning didn't see light of the day until September 2023 during the Ganesh Chaturthi extended weekend. I didn't drive down to Varkala (I usually drive to any nearby holiday destination as I love driving) but took an overnight AC sleeper bus from Punchiry Travels. I'm mentioning their name as I found their bus to be very comfortable, hygienic & less rolling compared to other sleeper bus companies. For the return journey, I booked train tickets for 16525 KSR Bengaluru Express (Kanyakumari t KSR Majestic) from IRCTC. While there is still daylight, one can get to witness some spectacular Kerala landscapes form the train window.

Coming back to the trip, I wouldn't say I had a "fantastic" trip because of many factors which I will elaborate further as you continue reading this blog.

Cappadocia, Day 1 - Zelve Open Air Museum & Fairy Chimneys/Paşabağları Müze ve Örenyeri, Turkey

At Goreme Open Air Museum

After having a phenomenal sojourn in Istanbul, we flew to the historical region of central Turkey - Cappadocia/Kapadokya (in Turkish). It is famous for its unusual & exclusive historical heritage, rock formations & scenic hot air balloon rides. I had kept 2D/2N in Cappadocia. But personally I felt even 5 days is too less to properly explore the whole of Cappadocia. Hence, it is always good to decide which attractions one wants to delve into.

In front of Red Valley, Goreme

Notable sights of attraction/activities:

• Goreme Open Air Museum (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour, MUST visit)
• Zelve Open Air Museum (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour, MUST visit)
• Fairy Chimneys (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour, MUST visit)
• Devrent Seyir Terasi (for breathtaking sunsets & overall view of the terrain, Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour)
• Love Valley/Aşıklar Vadisi (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour)
• Rose Valley/Gül vadisi (Northern Cappadocia)
• Three Beauties/Üç Güzeller (Northern Cappadocia)
• Uçhisar Kalesi/Uçhisar Castle (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour)
• pottery workshops in Avanos (Red Tour)
• hot air balloon rides
• ATV tours in Rose Valley
• renowned & extensive underground cities of Derinkuyu & Kaymakli (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Pigeon Valley (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Ihlara Valley (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Selime Cathedral (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Onyx Museum & Factory (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Narlıgöl Krater (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Belisırma Vadi Girişi (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)

Zelve Open Air Museum

If one visits Fairy Chimneys with ample amount of time, it is not required to spend more time on Love Valley, Rose Valley, Three Beauties, Devrent as the rock formations, terrain, landscape are more or less very similar to one another (we actually skipped these as we took our own sweet time to explore Fairy Chimneys). Cappadocia local tours & travel agencies operate 2 types of tours viz:

1. Red Tour covering the northern locales of Cappadocia
2. Green Tour traversing the southern Cappadocia

Fairy Chimneys

It goes without saying that both the above tours CANNOT be done on the same day and many attractions are not included in the above tours. For example, either Kaymakli or Derinkuyu underground city tours are included in the Red Tour but not BOTH the underground cities. If the stay in Cappadocia is exceeding 3 days, then all the above attractions can be explored with ample time & energy without hurrying.

Istanbul, Turkey 2023

Silhouette of Istanbul from the Bosphorus

Ever since I watched the series Rise of Empires:Ottoman on Netflix amazed at how Mehmed II, popularly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, captured erstwhile Constantinople from Constantinople XI in 1453 portraying the sheer intelligence & thorough dedication of Mehmed II, I became fascinated by the whole idea of Turkey and included it in my bucket list since 2020. As is the golden rule for any international or domestic travel, it is advised to buy flight tickets minimum 3 months before the final travel date so I started planning from end of February (I was still late). I wanted to avoid the rush & crowd of tourists during summer time, which starts from end of May in Turkey and all the prices - hot air balloon rides, AirBnB, hotels become double or triple of what the prices actually are in winter season. But I also had to keep in mind to avoid the holy festival of Ramadan which ended on 21st April 2023, so I bought the tickets planning to reach Istanbul on 22nd April, i.e. the day of Eid.

Bosphorus Strait & Ayasofya Camii
in the background

Phuket, Thailand in December (Part 1)

James Bond Island

Touchdown Phuket

It has been quite a long time since I went to any long vacation. By "long vacation" I mean to say not opening the office laptop for more than 7 days consecutively 😁 As soon as the good news came when the customer themselves conveyed that there will be a lull in the operations due to Christmas & New Year holidays in the US, I started planning the vacation with different destinations categorising them on the ease of getting the visa. My 1st choice was Egypt but as I researched more on Egyptian visa, I gave it a pass & decided on Thailand because:

• the ease of getting e-Visa on Arrival or eVoA
• hotels in Thailand were surprisingly affordable even in the peak season (December)
• the photos and reels of James Bond Island on Instagram tempted me
• Maya Bay has been re-opened by the government after quite a number of years as the beach was shut down to allow nature to heal. Due to overcrowding of tourists, Maya Bay was slowly losing its original beauty so the government took a strict decision & corrective action to close it down.

Maya Bay, Krabi, Thailand

It is a well known fact that Indians have the option of Visa on Arrival in Thailand.

A li'l bit posing before kayaking

I chose to opt for eVoA or e-Visa on Arrival as I didn't want to waste my time waiting in the long queue, that too during the peak season, and miss my next connecting flight. Procedure to get eVoA for Thailand:-

• head over to Thailand eVoA, click on "Apply Now".
• one has to create a profile so that one can upload all the documents viz
• ALL hotel bookings (therefore prior bookings need to be made)
• to & fro flight tickets
• the visa type is "regular eVoA"
• visa fees = 2500 THB per person

IMPORTANT : Carry a global Forex card like Niyo Global (not an advertisement but saying from personal experience) which gives the best international exchange rates or carry enough cash in THB from India. Please DO NOT withdraw cash from ATM's in Thailand as they charge 200 THB per transaction. If you have to withdraw cash there due to unavoidable circumstances, then kindly withdraw a large amount so that the conversion & exchange rates can be somewhat balanced. We were not aware of this & we suffered some heavy losses because of this. So a friendly reminder to my readers - AVOID withdrawing cash from Thai ATM's.

Solo-trip amidst Coronavirus pandemic to Langkawi - Part 2

Sorry folks for being away a long long time. Was caught up in a lot of things simultaneously. As far as I remember, I had shared only my first day experience of solo-traveling to Langkawi. I had already started planning my second solo travel to Perhentian Islands in my head. But unfortunately too much has happened in the last 2 years, I returned to India, I was subject to prejudice & chauvinism in my previous organization which had taken a serious toll on my mental health. In this age of Gen Z, mental health is of highest magnitude for folks like us who are drowned in deadlines & project deliveries. Anyway, back to my Langkawi trip which I undertook when the whole world was in the middle of a pandemic & I am happy that I took the decision of solo-tripping.

You can read all about my 1st day at Langkawi & how to reach there here: Langkawi Part 1.

On the 2nd day I decided to travel to North, North East & Southern parts of the island. This is the reason I always opt for a self driven car - no dependencies on any third party/ies. My 1st halt was at at a wild beach adjoining the Pantai Pasir beach. I realized why the beach was called "wild" as it is completely secluded and isolated. I didn't see any traveler or tourist come to this beach & I had a wonderful me-time here. The only negative aspect of visiting this beach solo was nobody to take my photos so I had to rely on my selfie-taking skills.

Wild beach

This beach is also a classic small scale example of an estuarine system/depositional environment as one can see the picture on the right (terms which only Geologists can decipher 😛).