Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne is a charming city. Some people say, its not a tourist place. To an extent I agree that it doesn't have Opera house and harbour bridge - but it has everything to offer that keeps one entertained. Carnivals, events and festivals doesn't leave one's calendar empty.

Melbourne parks :
Every time I visit a garden, I find myself saying - "This is the best one", and then I visit even better one.

Docklands children park -
Living in Docklands, one can not miss visiting Docklands park. Its a small children's park with few swings. I have noticed that every place in Melbourne have something different from other - no gardens would be alike. Docklands park houses a 'Blowhole' - thats a 15 metre high wind powered sculpture. Apart from it, there are metal rings installed on the ground to give it a distinct look.

Docklands Monument park -
Newly built, a small park to sit or play around.

Flagstaff gardens -
A big green patch, just in heart of city. Very close to Queen Victoria market.

Carlton gardens -
Gardens located behind iMax and Melbourne Museum.

Royal Botanical garden - Had heard of Royal botanical garden as #4 on list of must visit places in Melbourne, but did not get chance to visit until last weekend. Planned a walk from fed square to Royal botanical garden.

#21st June 2015
Sunday was a sunny day with manageable cold in evening.We reached fed square and started walking from there. Crossing the bridge on Yarra river, entire walk (Around 1.7 km) to Botanical gardens is scenic. With Victoria gardens on left, one starts feeling that he is out of city chaos.
There are monuments and a nice water fountain on the way. We headed to Shrine of remembrance.
Shrine of Remembrance is War memorial, built to pay respect to those who served in WWI. With such a big trees on the sides, an eternal flame and silence around, the place seems paying silent salute to Martyrs. Balconies of Shrine gives spectacular view to the city and gardens.
Botanical garden is huge precisely 170 hectares, we just moved around a small patch. I would say this heaven for nature lovers - located just 10-20 mins walk from heart of the City.

Had a nice picnic with family. Next time, may plan a BBQ picnic ;)

There are still many places which I have not yet visited. Will keep updating this blog for same.

Grampians, Victoria, Australia

Travel time : 4-5-6 April, 2015

This is more of photo blog. Just want to hold memories of the places we went to.

We started from Melbourne in morning and reached Grampians around 2 pm. With not much planned to do, we took a left turn to reach a scenic lookout named One Tree hill.
The views were good and most lovable part was silence!! Some felt it scary but I loved it. Most of the places we go are generally crowded. This one was different. It had just two other fellows sitting there and having good time.

One tree hill

Our next place to go was The Pinnacle! We had not researched about the place, just saw some good photos of it and chose to visit it.

Pinnacle base

We reached here around 5.00 PM. When inquired from information center, lady there suggested not to visit Pinnacle as it will take 2.5 hrs to complete it. But we were adamant to go up there.

From the base, further path was not visible. All we knew is that trekking there was medium difficulty level. Grand canon was one of the view point which was 0.1km from base. And for Pinnacle, we had to go 2.1 km up.
We started all together. Climbed it up for 200 mtrs, but with two families comprising of three kids, half of us decided to stay at base. Four of us, including my 2 yr old daughter, decided to climb it up.
When we started moving further, I started appreciating decision taken by my friend to stay at base with her husband and two kids. With 200 mtrs itself, i felt my bag is heavy and its difficult to carry it up there and handed it to my friend to take it back to car.

It was a complete trekking place, and we moved ahead with our jackets on and just one 600ml water bottle in hand. What a mistake!

We met some people who gave up the climb. But somehow, we were motivated seeing even kids returning from the top. Time was running fast, so we decided we will start descending at 6.30 PM from wherever we reach.

Some very steep slopes and difficult to climb rocks, we finally reached there.

The Pinnacle

More places visited in Grampians are - Balconies and McKenzie falls. Want to write more, but time isn't permitting me.

Sentosa Water Park, Pune

Visit time - 25th May 2014 
Trip type - Family

Summer vacations are going on and we have relatives visiting our place.

With the scorching sun overhead, it becomes difficult to even step out. After discussing beaches, forts and hill stations, we decided to beat the heat in water park.

We stay at wakad, closest water park to our place is 'Sentosa'. Sentosa is located in Ravet area, can be easily spotted as its on Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

There are no options to commute by public transport/ no direct buses. So we booked a taxi and  traveled on our own. It takes around 1/2 hr to reach there.

The entry ticket costs ₹ 300 for adults. Entry for kids less than 2.11ft height is free, between 2.11ft to 3ft is ₹ 250 and above 3ft is charged as adult fee i.e.₹ 300

One can opt entry with lunch at an additional price of ₹ 170 per ticket ( i.e. ₹ 470 per adult). 

Park timings :  10 AM to 6 PM

Attractions -
1. Slide pool - For ones who want adventures, it have 4 slides, depth around 2-3 ft.
2. Still pool -  Connected to Kids pool, is for ones who want to enjoy swimming, depth is up to 4.5 Ft.
3. Wave pool -  Just as name suggests, waves generated as in sea
4. Kids pool - With 3 small slides, a big fish which spills water every 10-15 min like sudden shower 
5. Rain dance floor - a circular floor surrounded with water fountains. If its sunny, one can enjoy little rainbows when dancing on DJ.
6. Toddler's Play area - Some swings and slides

Services provided inside are - 
1. Lockers on rent
2. Shower rooms and toilets
3. Swim wear on rent
4. Eatables - Barf gola, pani puri-bhel puri-chats, lunch (if you have opted while entering)

Rules and regulations -
1. Food- It is not allowed to carry eatables with you, but I saw many people bringing in snacks and having it there.

Note that there was no tea/coffee :(
There is a small snack center located just outside the park, which caters vada pav, bhajji, tea, cold drinks.  But since re-entry is not allowed, we could enjoy tea only after we left the park.
You should carry some milk/baby food while going there with babies.

2. Swim wear - Entry in pool is restricted without swim wear. I went with family, and none of us wore swimming suits. We were wearing salwar-kurti/ pajama-tshirt.
Surprisingly, we were still allowed to even take rides.
My mother in law was not comfortable wearing salwar-kurti even, she was wearing sari and was allowed to enjoy wave pool (May be because she was sitting very close to shore, not sure if someone missed to point us out)

3. Shade/Chairs - There are limited chairs. Was good that we carried our own picnic mat and used the same.

Suggestions : 
Its good even if you reach there after 1 PM, post lunch. Every attraction is operational for limited time, and at a time one of the pool/attraction is operational. To enjoy the place completely, proceed to respective pool as it is announced as OPEN.

Overall a clean (Pools are clean, Washrooms are not that clean, but can take that as exception) and good place to visit, provided you don't have higher expectation set- Don't think that it is like water kingdom, but is decent enough to enjoy.

Omkareshwar - Narmada Jyanti

Omkareshwar is home to one of twelve Jyotirling's of Lord Shiv.  It is almost equidistant from Indore(Financial capital of M.P.) and Khandwa (Major Railway Junction).
Narmada river revered as 'Ma Rewa' adds to beauty of this pilgrimage.

Mahashivratri and Narmada Jyanti are two most auspicious days when the place is flooded with thousands of devotees.
On festivals and Narmada Jyanti, at sunset one can witness magnificent event - Kankda Aarti (Worship of river) followed by flowing little lamps in river - this is known as 'Deepdan'.
It creates an awesome view. When lamps twinkle while floating on waves, it gives a feeling as if thousands of stars have fallen on earth.
A must not miss event!

Exploring history : Kumbhalgarh (Rajasthan)

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Travel time : Aug 2013
Place: Kumbhalgarh Fort, Located 40 kms from Ranakpur(Rajasthan)

I have been to Ranakpur and Udaipur quite number of times. This time I wanted to explore places around them.
Randomly chose Kumbhalgarh! 
Kumbhalgarh is wild life reserve. Locals claim to see wild animals frequently. I didn't go into the Jungle, didn't had time for jungle safari, was just looking at the road sides to try my luck, but I had chance to see none. Since it was post monsoon, Jungle's beauty was at its best. Forest was covered with thick green blanket.. Even at distances I could see GREEN GREEN and only GREEN.
We reached Kumbhalgarh fort travelling through small roads and villages on the way. It was main season for Custard Apple(Sitafal), and there were many trees in that area. We came across many kids who were standing at road side, waving their hands and holding a basket full of Custard Apples. Since we did not buy any, can't tell whether those were good in taste.
We could see magnificent fort walls from very far. As we reached, we parked our vehicle near main gate and took entry tickets.
There is no guide facility provided by government and requires little bit trekking to reach atop.
We were lucky enough to meet a local guy who had visitors with him. He was telling them stories and guiding them through fort.
He allowed us joining him. If one sees from outside, the fort looks huge.
But due to NO MAINTENECE, which is common problem for most of monuments in India, the inner part of building was almost like ruins.
Guide showed us a hill where fort construction was planned initially. Story says that King Kumbha planned to construct the fort on hill top. But whatever constructed in day time use to get demolished in night. It was believed to be curse of Devi of that hill.
One of the kings trusted fellow came up with a solution. He suggested for human sacrifice and offered himself for the same. In his memory, a small temple built near the fort entrance. Only after this the fort was built.
Fort walls go around 36 KMs to encircle entire Kumbhalgarh village(read that as JUNGLE, but it’s not part of wild life reserve). Width of wall is 15 ft. In old times, when there was no email/courier services, to send important news/documents, a messenger needed to go on horse from one place to another. So the wall  is constructed to ensure that there is space for 5 horses to run on top of it while running parallel to each other. At some places the width is up to 25 ft. 
This is 2nd longest wall in the world, having its place just after the great wall of China[21,196 kms]. Of course, in India this is the first one. 
The fort consist of Birth place of Maharana Pratap, the rooms where he lived and was brought up. One of the common area had a circular structure. In old times when there was no electricity, that circular area was used to set flame (Jwala). The flame was fed with around 100 kg cotton and pure ghee. It used to make the flame so high, that not only outside the fort, it use to give light to entire village. And village farmers could continue with farming activities even after sunset. It sounded like set of halogens ;)
One part of upper fort is Rani Mahal and other Badal Mahal[King's palace]. In Rani mahal there is a special Shringar graha(Makeup room) for the queen. Around half of the rooms are closed, not sure if its done for safety or to reduce maintenance. 
The best part of fort is the Terrace of Badal Mahal!! An image of Rajasthan with sand all around gets completely vanished when you reach at top point of the fort. With wind blowing on you face, you can see entire Kubhalgarh Jungle just under your nose. Now I know why Kumbha chose this place to build his fort. One can enjoy amazing views from top of the fort.
We spent around an hour sitting there at ease.[Just to mention - Terrace is small one, with no chairs or sitting place, we were lazily sitting on the floor which had no tiles, not a good place to leave you kids unattended.]
Kumbhalgarh have a light and sound show every evening 7 PM and there is one camel ride available at the entrance itself. We didn't take either. :)
After visiting the fort, we went to Shiva temple near which light and sound show is held. That place gives a good view of entire fort.
There are many temples constructed within boundaries of Kumbhalgarh. Those were visible from top but amidst jungle on small hill tops. Though we clicked some photos with zoom lens, we felt sad that we couldn't visit those temple amidst green. Anyways those temples were locked :( .
There are around 360 temples within Kumbhalgarh, out of which 300 are Jain temples (Not even a single one open for visit). There is a Ganesh Temple, Parshwanath Jain Temple and Shiva Temple close to the fort. But since regular pooja is not done at all places, only Shiva Temple is open for public.
With sun setting behind the fort, we could see a shadow image of the fort. We went behind the shiva temple, it gave us another beautiful view of the jungle.  
I would say, it was worth visit. Unlike other forts/palaces, don't expect museums/guides/beautifully carved pillars/marble statues/paintings/gold and silver stuffs.
If you are the one looking for a relaxing trip and a dip to history, you should go there with sufficient time to be spent lazily, relaxing on the terrace of fort..and walking on top of the walls.. enjoy greenery around.