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The Vaishnodevi Experience 2023

My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
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Back from a monsoon break!

There is no better time to explore the Western Ghats than the monsoon, but we rarely get to go anywhere in the rains, thanks to the school schedule. This year, however, we struck lucky, with the school changing its term breaks, and giving us some bonus holidays in August! Which is why, you haven’t seen me online the last couple of weeks. Where did I go? Can you guess from this pic?




Yes folks, this is Jog Falls in Karnataka, a place which has been on top of my wish list for a long, long time!!!

With the recent happenings in our family, Shankar wasn’t able to join us, so I first thought of heading out alone, with just Samhith in tow. Then, on an impulse, I decided to drag my mother along, so, for those of you who haven’t met her yet, here she is, along with Samhith, whom most of you know well by now!



The main idea of going on this trip was to give Samhith and me a much needed break, since we aren’t really sure how much we will be able to travel this year, and it surely did that. As you can see from these pics, Samhith did have a wonderful time…


Whether it was playing on the Om beach at Gokarna…






Or making sand castles….



Travelling by passenger trains…



Or picking shells on the Varca beach at Goa…




Or soaking in the spirit of Goa….



And these were just a few of the many things we saw and did!!


This was one much needed vacation for us, and we enjoyed it to the hilt. It is now time for me to re-live all that enjoyment, sharing all of it, with all of you! So stay tuned and keep coming back! There is loads coming up, soon!!!!

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Comments

  1. Santosh BsSeptember 2, 2013 at 4:34 PM

    Quite a lot of places covered... and he's turning out to be a good poser :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaSeptember 2, 2013 at 4:38 PM

    It sounds like a good holiday. Waiting to hear more. And the water fall pics are so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RenukaSeptember 2, 2013 at 5:29 PM

    Wow! What a lovely place! I want to visit it too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. R Niranjan DasSeptember 2, 2013 at 7:15 PM

    The first photo is awesome.

    http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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