Your Offbeat Travel Guide

Mention Lucknow and the first thing that comes to your mind after Mayawati's elephant gardens is the delicious meat. Lucknow's Nawabs, though not known for any militaristic achievements, definitely had some fine tastes in art, architecture and food. The famous galouti kabab is said to have been invented by an enterprising cook for a grateful toothless Nawab who couldn't bite into his beloved mutton and beef. The most famous of Lucknow's eating joints is Tunday Kababi. The original Tunday Kababi is located in the narrow Phoolwali galli very close to another Lucknow institution, Rahim ki Nihari. This Tunday serves up piping hot beef kheema rolls starting at just Rs. 20. The more Insta-friendly Tunday is located in the bustling Aminabad market. Do not have any notions of hanging out with friends or having a relaxing meal. Service is fast, and you better wolf down as quick, since there is a constant line of customers waiting to occupy the tables. Decor is sparse but...

A trip to Ladakh was there on my bucket list for quite some time and finally on September 2014, the plan took shape. Our journey started on 2nd September, 2014 with a late-night flight from Kolkata to New Delhi. Our flight to Leh was scheduled for 3rd Sept early morning. All the Leh flights were early in the morning, with the last flight around 8.30 am. This is primarily because commercial flight operations are restricted in Leh airport after 12 am. The entire Leh airport comes under military lock down. Another reason for the early commercial flight operations are the heavy snow cladded mountains which reflects the sunlight making it very difficult for the pilots to fly the aircraft. The trip started on a disappointing note when next morning all the Air India flights to Leh were cancelled due to bad weather. Further to add to the disappointment the Indigo flight to Leh departed as planned. Dejected and losing one day of the trip we were highly disappointed. That day we stayed i...

After the mesmerizing trip to Dandeli, we all got busy will our work, 6 months passed just like a blink of the eye, until we decided to meet and plan for another adventurous trek! Me and my friends came up with many new places, both within Karnataka and outside Karnataka, due to the popular demand we finalized a place – The Yana Caves! Yana is a village located near the forests of Kumta, in Sirsi district. Though being a small village Yana is famous for its unique karst rock formations. Yana houses two enormous rocks composed of solid black limestone. These rocks are black in color, also the mud on the ground around these rocks is also completely black, very much unlike the ordinary brown mud. So we started at 6 am from Hubli in our car and after multiple stops during the journey to click photos , we reached Yana at 11 am. Once we reached Yana caves we were astonished by its beauty! Two huge rocks, made of crystalline limestone can be seen rising sharply above the lush gr...

Gunday is amovie with a cult following. It will never make any greatest, best of or even "quite average" lists. Yet it has a loyal fanbase. Sometimes you never know why something attains the popularity it does. Salman Khan's acting and driving skills are at par, yet he is able to deliver hits each year. None of these thoughts were running through my head on a winter Sunday in Lucknow. Having already experienced some great food, hospitality and the famed Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb we looked forward to another mustn't miss Lucknow institution that every travel blogger worth his salt has chronicled. The cooking area is not winning any awards Idris is a place you'd miss unless you're being guided by someone in the know, or Google Maps. Its a little brick structure with tin-roof extensions to the front and side. The seating area is little more than three benches arranged in the shape of a Pi that will always seat way more than they were originally built for. We w...

Even though the last visit to Mauritius was more than 5 years back but such was the beauty of this place that it has left a permanent imprint on me. This was a five day trip and accompanying me were my parents, sister and my family friends. For me, this was the perfect holiday as I love beach destinations and this trip involved exploring a lot of beautiful and pristine beaches. Apart from beaches, Mauritius also has a lot of natural beauty. After a lot of planning, we left Delhi for Mauritius by an Air Mauritius flight on the morning of May 10, 2013. We reached Mauritius on the afternoon of May 2013 and were greeted by pleasant weather which was perfectly suited for us to explore this beautiful island country. We checked into our hotel (Radisson Blu Poste Lafayette) and were lucky enough to get a room just a few metres away from the beach. The hotel was spectacular to say the least and we decided to spend the first day exploring the hotel and relaxing at the hotel beach. For dinn...

Sikkim, as they say the little princess state of Indian sub-continent, is one of the most beautiful places to visit. Nestled in the eastern Himalayan ranges Sikkim provides a perfect getaway for mountain lovers. From lush green meadows to snow cladded mountains, this little beauty houses some of the most beautiful tourist destinations across the Indian subcontinent. So, a trip to Sikkim was always on the cards. It was only a matter of time to hop in and make the plan a reality. The day finally came, 29 th April,2015. The much-awaited trip to East Sikkim began on 29 th April, 2015. It was one of the best journeys of my life. We reached New Jalpaiguri railway station on 29 th April morning; our pickup was waiting there. From New Jalpaiguri we started our journey for Rishikholar, our first stop. Rishikholar, situated at the side of Rishi River, which separates Sikkim from Bengal, was one of the tranquil locations to camp for the day. One can enjoy solitude amidst the meandering ...

I being from Hubli, had heard very much about Dandeli, but had never got a chance to visit the place. I typically research about the place before landing up there, but Dandeli, just being very near to Hubli, I didn’t find the necessity to research about it. So we, myself and 3 of my friends planned a trip to Dandeli on January-2016. Dandeli was a surprise. It was a lot wilder than I expected & wild isn’t exactly what I expected it to be either. Dandeli is a small town in the western ghats of North-West Karnataka, India. Dandeli is known as a wildlife sanctuary and has one of the tiger projects. People have also moved from across India to work in the industries in Dandeli. Dandeli is also known for its adventure activities on the River Kali. Located close to the Supa Dam on Kali, Dandeli offers options for water rafting and canoeing. Once we reached Dandeli in our own car, the first activities we did on was the Jungle Safari. Dandeli Wildlife sanctuary is very calm and peacef...