This holiday season as soon as the winter sets in celebrate the white Christmas and usher in the New Year camping luxuriously in a beautiful meadow in Uttarakhand called Dayara Bugyal. Enjoy the outdoors with the scenic beauty of the snow capped Himalayan peaks, clean air and of course crisp cold in a typical Rustik yet comfortable way of camping.
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The state of Nagaland in the North East of India is home to several tribes each of which are distinct in their language, culture and customs. The festivals are important to the tribes as these revolve around agriculture, which is a major profession in the state. The Nagas consider their festivals sacred and so participation in these festivals is essential.
To encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote cultural heritage of Nagaland, the Government of Nagaland organizes the Hornbill Festival every year in the first week of December. The festival is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird, which is displayed in folklore in most of the state’s tribes.
If you are headed to the Hornbill festivel, it’s a great opportunity to combine this trip with a stay and safari at the popular Rhino destination – Kaziranga National Park.
To make the North East experience complete a short trip to Meghalaya and its beautiful capital Shillong would just do that.
Goa with its bustling beaches along with its pristine ones is where everyone heads to when they need the beach therapy. But there’s more to Goa than the beaches. The confluence of cultures over the centuries with the arrival of the Portuguese and before that given birth to unique art & culture. The ever laid back and peaceful environment so infectious as it is reflected in the delicious local cuisine and the afternoon siestas. Goa is evergreen and has the amazing forest cover and wildlife, which is still off the usual tourist and therefore less crowded. So if you are headed to Goa, go beyond the beaches, explore the unexplored and soak in the local experience.
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And so goes the legend how Lord Vishnu in the guise of a Brahmin boy tricked Mahabali, the generous king of Kerala into relinquishing his kingdom, as the boy grew in size with his footsteps covering the entire earth.
The King requested Vishnu that he be allowed to visit his people once every year. This arrival of King Mahabali, to meet his people, is celebrated over the 10 days of Onam. It is a mythical tale, one that every child in Kerala loves to hear and one that every grandparent takes great pleasure in telling, with some exaggerations of their own.
Ella is a beautiful small backpacker-hub on the southern edge of Sri Lanka’s Hill Country. It has become to go-to town in the hill country for tourists and as a result has a reasonably well-established tourism-orientated economy. For example, there is espresso coffee and fish and chips on offer, as well as lounge/backpacker -style bars aimed solely at the visitor.
Namunukula is the name of a mountain range in Sri Lanka’s province of Uva in the Southern region. Its main peak is 2,035 metres (6,676.5 ft) high. The name means “Nine Peaks”.
The state of Nagaland in the North East of India is home to several tribes each of which are distinct in their language, culture and customs. The festivals are important to the tribes as these revolve around agriculture, which is a major profession in the state. The Nagas consider their festivals sacred and so participation in these festivals is essential.
To encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote cultural heritage of Nagaland, the Government of Nagaland organizes the Hornbill Festival every year in the first week of December. The festival is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird, which is displayed in folklore in most of the state’s tribes.
If you are headed to the Hornbill festival, it’s a great opportunity to combine this trip with a stay and safari at the popular Rhino destination – Kaziranga National Park.
This experience will allow you to do just that.
If every cloud does have a silver lining then Meghalaya or “The abode of clouds” would be raining silver heavily. This small state in the North-East region of India has abundant rainfall and sunshine around the year and is considered to be one of the richest botanical habitats in Asia. Meghalaya is subject to vagaries of the monsoon. The climate varies with altitude. The Meghalayan sky seldom remains free of clouds and the Meghalayan spirit seldom remains free of adventure.
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For a clear view of the four of the five highest peaks (Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu), what wouldn’t any trekker do? It is pretty easy, all one has to do is trek to Sandakphu or Phalut.
In recent years, this trek has gained much popularity and not because of the view to the four eight thousander peaks but for the beautiful trail that this trek entails across the forests of rhodendrons and magnolias and more.
Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world (after Mount Everest and K2), with an altitude of 8,586 metres (28,169 ft). Kangchenjunga means “The Five Treasures of Snows”, as it contains five peaks, four of them over 8,450 metres. Three of these five peaks (main, central, and south) are on the border of North Sikkim district of Sikkim, India and Taplejung District of Nepal, while the other two are completely in Taplejung District.
The Dzongri-Goecha La trek takes the trekker up-close for a spectacular view of the majestic Kanchenjunga amidst a beautiful panorama of the other lesser Himalayan giants within its range of mountains.
Assam is a multi-faceted state. Dominating the remote North-East of India with its sheer size and population, this region is home to a large variety of flora and fauna. Every year thousands of wildlife enthusiasts, conservationists and naturalist converge here to re-discover their tryst with nature. It has a wealth of rarest and highly endangered species of wildlife including Pygmy Hog, Golden Langur, Clouded Leopard, Hoolock Gibbon, White-Winged Woodduck, Tiger, Hispid Hare, Swamp Deer etc. and of course the Tiger and the unmistakable one-horned Indian Rhino.
The state is home to many national parks – Manas, Nameri and Kaziranga to name a few and that’s where our wildlife experience is going to be focused on. However, beyond the wild is the beautiful island of Majuli on Brahmaputra, Sibasagar – ancient capital of Ahom the erstwhile rulers of Assam, ancient Kamakhya temple and more.
