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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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Wayanad post on Thomas Cook Blog

In April this year, as I was making the last minute arrangements for my Bangalore-Mysore trip, I received an offer from Thomas Cook, to try out one of their planned trips at a concessional rate. The offer was just too good to refuse, and as I wrote about it earlier, I took up their offer of exploring Wayanad. Since I returned, you have been treated to my long series on Wayanad, and now, finally, my post is up on their blog too.... Click here to read the post. 

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