Category Archives: Travel

My travel banter here, but I assure you the photos would be halfway decent ;-)

Sunset over Siene – Paris

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I still remember fresh as paint the day we landed in Paris. We got to the hotel after a very long twenty-two hours flight with two layovers and a missed connection at Heathrow. But soon we landed at Charles de Gaulle from the time we got in the cab (that smelt beautiful of an exotic cologne) to the reception at our hotel at Quai de Grenelle, Charles Michels it felt like there was a certain sense of charm and charisma in the air. Paris had hit us with its usual charm in less than a few hours of being there. Its not in vain people say.. je t’aime Paris. We chucked our big winter luggage, donned two layers of jackets and thermals and tip-toed in the fun and frolic of the winter crispness — about 2 degrees C along the beautiful Seine. wide-eyed! Taking it all in! We’re in Paris! What a sense of joy, pride, contentment. Sensory overload in a very nice way. Walking down past the Eiffel Tower, Trocadéro… Musée de la Mode, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysées all in about few hours of having landed in this magical city. Having seen the movie — Midnight in Paris brought back all these beautiful memories afresh all over again. It really is such a magical city.
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Off to Copacabana

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Shot of the reflection of the sunset on the Copacabana beach
Sunset reflection at Copacabana

Its that time of the year when we head up to Copacabana. Yay! It sure has come around quick and thank God for it :) We may not have perfect clear blue skies but we’ll make up with lots of drinking, lots of laughter, lots of cooking, BBQ, and swim in the ocean. I took these photos last year on my then Canon EOS 40D. Sunsets at Copa are amazing! You’ve got to witness the golden hour with a cocktail or two in hand. Lifes too short. Even shorter on the wrong side of 30 I tell ya!

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Hanging Lanterns at Hoi An

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Hanging lanterns in a shop in Hoi An, Vietnam
Hanging lanterns in a shop in Hoi An, Vietnam, 2006

Good old memories of Vietnam came flooding back as I was looking through my old photos tonight. On our last day at Hoi An just before we left the cute little artsy town, we did the rounds of local crafts market. And gee there is a lot of it for a small little village it is. If only Australian Customs were relaxed we’d have bought some back with us as these are hand-stitched, threaded and made out of thin bamboo frames right off the jungle. Almost! They look so pretty. Don’t you think?

Lamington National Park Slideshow

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Little update on Lightly Toasted lovely people, I’ve had problems with my web hosting for a little while now. Long story short I’ve finally moved through two abysmal web hosting companies and found one that I like. Thanks Doug for your help. Life will get normal again… or so I hope.

Below is the start of a slide show of a few photos from our O’Reilly’s Mountain Villa retreat in the lap of nature. If the link doesn’t work in email or RSS please visit this link. Hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Lamington National Park

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Two sleeps to go before we jump on the plane and head up north to O’Reilly’s in the majestic Lamington National Park with our friends Kelly and Mark. Very excited and really looking forward to it.

We’ve been as far up into the hinterland as Mt Warning, Uki and Chillingham and parts of the Springbrook National Park on the New South Wales and Queensland border but Lamington would sure be further inland in the deep seated rain forest of lower Queensland and O’Reilly’s is known to provide a piece of heaven in the lap of the that emerald green. Eco friendly, serene, nature trail that any city lover would dream of. Can’t wait for the weekend to begin. If you’ve been to this part of the world don’t be shy to leave your comment about must dos around the area. :)

Lamington National Park
O’Reilly’s, here we come!

Canberra Road Trip

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Collector, NSW

Horse at Collector, NSW
klap, klip klap, clip clop, kopotikop — Whatcha looking at? Get that camera off my face!!

Last weekend we toddled off to Canberra for a quick break from the constant Sydney rain. Its amazing what a little break from the routine can do — and so glad we got out and about! Having heard a bit about Collector from D’s browsing, it did seem very interesting. The place certainly seems to have a lot of history attached to it. We took the turn off into Collector but to our dismay on a Saturday morning about 11:00am Collector seemed totally deserted, forlorn! Except for an old rickety petrol station turned into a café – not terribly inviting. We kept driving through the small town and turned into one of the inner roads which lead us to a corner church with a huge annexed field mostly uncultivated with some ponies and horses about! There were signs of ‘Pumpkin festival’ on a wooden doors across the church. There were cockatoos squatted just about everywhere nibbling on the cold frosty grass. I walked alongside the wire fence of the large field and waved gently at one of the horses. Acknowledging my presence it walked towards me: klap, klip klap, clip clop, kopotikop. As soon as it was at an arms length the horse stopped and lifted its upper lip and exposed its grotty pinkish gum and ugly yellow tartared teeth — then flared its nostrils at me forcefully… followed by a horsy grunt with a blow and then another! Ah that putrid smell came wafting down my clean camera. I quickly paced back with my gear. Holy Moly! Here I was thinking all things country are meant to be friendly and nice. Back in the car we tried to explore a bit more but the town seemed dead! There were road closure signs along the way too. We had little choice but got back on to the motorway to Canberra.

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Delhi to Jaipur by road

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After driving through for a few hours we stopped at a road side motel which was appropriately named Rajasthan Motel. We were almost on the border of Delhi and Rajasthan. By this stage of course we were hungry. Rakesh-ji drove us right into the car park under the shade of a nice big Banyan tree. Any shade in summer in India is God sent. We opened the car door to step out and the first thing that hit us was the gust of hot air. Just like when you open the over door after you’ve been baking for an hour! Luckily we were getting more and more used to the hot weather. There was no escaping!


Looks much more than a motel doesn’t it? Thats the entrance to the motel, through the narrow hallway it leads on to a massive big dining room all of which was non-air conditioned. Then we walked through that onto the left which had a nice sized air-conditioned room where we sat. The window to the left is where we had our lunch while the earth scorched outside.


Looking at the greenery you wouldn’t quite think it was about 46° centigrade here would you? And yes I often pondered how they keep these places green in such extreme climate! There ought to be some method to this madness other than just plain watering.


We’re seated inside in the nicely air-conditioned part of the Motel. Meals have just arrived. The garlic Nan bread was really nice even though the photo looks rather pedestrian.


The Rajasthan Motel Motif on their plates

And some more shots while we waited for our food to arrive. The food was quite good even for a roadside motel and we didn’t feel unwell or otherwise. We rushed back in the car for the rest of the journey with baited breath for Jaipur.


Yes we got snap happy as you do when you waiting for food :)

The Road to Jaipur is pitted with hardware shops almost every small town or village we passed had at least 5 to 20 Ball Bearings shops or dealers on ether side of the highway. It was later we learnt that the biggest manufacturer for Ball Bearings right from the smallest machinery to the big tanks and ships are made right here in the most arid of all places. We were passing through the Ball Bearing export area of northern India and didn’t have a clue. Had I known this at the time I surely would have taken a photo or two of the Ball Bearings shops.


You’d notice a Ball Bearings shop here, and a make shift school for kids in a village we were passing by

We had finally arrived at the pink city — Jaipur. We were going to stay at Mandawa Haveli Hotel. This is a haveli, hindi for Mansion, built in typical Jaipur architecture with lots of pillars and arches right in the heart of Jaipur City.


This was one of the water features in the Mandawa Haveli Hotel. A little bed of fountain that lit up at night along with the fountain on the marble floor.

Leaving Delhi

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Our Delhi sojourn was soon coming to an end. We had survived the 45°C plus heat and now on our 3rd day of the trip. We were acclimatising a little and had realised by this that stage that two litre of water intake was just not enough for the day! Our bags were packed as we waited at the reception to check out. When the guy at the reception asked where we were headed next — we chimed JAIPUR with excitement! He looked at us both and said it’d be about 3 to 4 degrees hotter than Delhi!! Of course in that excitement what was a mere 4degrees! We braved the biggest smile and said YES bring it on! Our Travel Inn guide who had checked us in at the Delhi hotel was there to see us off and we rolled off on our Innova with Rakesh-ji(the driver) behind the wheel. He was such an excellent driver.

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India Gate, Delhi

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India Gate, New Delhi
India Gate, New Delhi

The India Gate is the national monument of India. It is one of the largest war memorials in India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Originally known as All India War Memorial, it is a prominent landmark in Delhi and commemorates the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who lost their lives while fighting for the British Indian Empire, or more correctly the British Empire in India British Raj in World War I and the Afghan Wars. It is composed of red sand stone and granite.


Rajpath, leading up to the Presidents Estate

Soon we were passing India Gate on our way back to the Hotel. These is a lot of construction going on in Delhi at the moment due to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in October 2010. We couldn’t park and go for a stroll as the nearby parking area had been turned into a tow away zone to facilitate some make-shift construction. After a quick hurried photo we hopped back in the Innova and went up the Rajpath also known as Vijay Chowk Road towards the Presidents Estate known as Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

On the way we passed many architectural façades some of these were the building of the National Archives of India, Nirman Bhavan, Vayu Bhavan. We took a detour on Mother Teresa Crescent which circumnavigates the Presidents Estate and then left the area after we went past a few High Commissions dotted in the Chanakyapuri Enclave also known as the Diplomatic Enclave due to the number of embassies found in this particular suburb, and yes we had a little glimpse of the Australian high commission in New Delhi :)

The view towards India Gate
The view towards India Gate

The view towards India Gate
The view towards India Gate

It was a great day out, we got back to our Kingston Park Hotel(don’t fall for the name) probably about 5pm that afternoon. Still about 40 degree C. Exhausted would have been a major understatement! This was our second day in the real heat. We got home thinking we’d shower and rest up a bit and the make dinner plans… by 6:30pm we had succumbed to the exhaustion of the day. Totally! We had no energy to get out in the still nearly 40 degree heat. D plundered the snack-bar in our room. There were some Indian snacks — Masala chips!! They were yummy. We slept a solid 14 hours dead to the hustle and bustle of Karol Bag Delhi!

D in front of Kingston Park Hotel in Karol Bag, New Delhi
D in front of Kingston Park Hotel in Karol Bag, New Delhi

Attribution: India Gate, Wikipedia

Qutb Minar, Delhi

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The Qutb Minar (also spelled Qutab or Qutub, Urdu: قطب منار), a tower in Delhi, India, is at 72.5 meters (237.8 ft) the world’s tallest brick minaret. Construction commenced in 1193 under the orders of India’s first Muslim ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak, and the topmost storey of the minaret was completed in 1386 by Firuz Shah Tughluq. The Qutb Minar is notable for being one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture.

Qutb Minar, Delhi
Qutb Minar, Delhi

The Qutb Minar was our next stop after The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial at Rajghat. Unfortunately by this stage the sky was very overcast and the heat…. well lets not talk about it. This was the last stop of the day and we were quite exhausted merely out of the stifling heat. The airport must be close by or Qutb Minar must be on the flight path of most flights we could see. There were commercial planes taking off almost every 5 – 10 minutes.

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Raj Ghat, Delhi

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We were now entering Rajghat (राज घाट). Its located on the banks of river Yamuna in Delhi and right on Ring Road which is also known as Mahatma Gandhi Road. It has stone paved footpath with large green lawns all around it. And they were lush in the scorching heat. We did see some gardeners maintaining the lawns. What a job in the middle of a sizzle — but it certainly pays off. The place is practically a carpet of green as far as your eyes go. Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial was erected here on a black marble platform which marks the spot of his cremation on 31 January 1948. It is left open to the sky while an eternal flame burns perpetually at one end. A stone footpath leads to the walled enclosure that houses the memorial.

View of the Mahatma Gandhi's memorial from the walkway on top
View of the Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial from the walkway on top.

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The Emporeum experience in Delhi

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Humayun’s Tomb was really great and a good break & leisurely walk after a very filling lunch. We then wandered back through Connaught Place and stopped at an Emporium right next to the Deutsche Bank. We went in for a little wander.

Of course soon we entered the shop a smily slithery salesmen, dull as dishwater and with a monotonal voice like Meryl Streep’s stuck right onto us. I wonder if he’d ever realise that this actually upsets potential customers and this ‘in the face’, pushy, dry as dust technique doesn’t really work! Its stupid & annoying. And am sure we weren’t the only ones he has peeved off.

D of course doesn’t loose his temper at the most trying of times. I’m a whole different kettle of fish. My temperature was rising rapidly, worst of all this ‘salesman’ would neither take a hint nor accept no for an answer. He followed every pace we took, every direction we turned, every pause we paused and noted every trail of our eyes — mine and D’s as well all at the same time. I was loosing my calm exponentially. All of this in a nicely laid out air-conditioned shop where its meant to be nice and peaceful.

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Humayun’s Tomb at Nizamuddin, Delhi

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One of my favourites of the Humayun's Tomb
One of my favourites of the Humayun’s Tomb

Humayun's Tomb up close
View of Humayun’s tomb up close from the base plinth. The architecture is quite impressive even though its only a tomb. The Moghuls obviously had a huge belief system in afterlife. For a lot of northern India is dotted with their architectural influence and of their cuisines and handicraft and gardens.

It took us a while to get back out in the heat again especially after a good meal and the copious amounts of absolutely chilled beer we had had at that stage. But driving through Delhi normally isn’t that bad… you are mostly surrounded in tree lines streets and even in the middle of a hot bright day it feel very comforting driving down a little boulevard. We were at the entrance of Humayun’s Tomb. Now for a little bit of history.

Humayun’s Tomb was built by his wife Hamida Banu Begum in 1562 AD and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyath, a Persian architect. It was the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent, and is located in Nizamuddin East, Delhi, India, close to the Dina-panah citadel also known as Purana Qila, that Humayun founded in 1533. The complex was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, and since then has undergone extensive restoration work, which is still underway.

I do like Humayun’s Tomb its laid back, not overly touristy and have some Taj elements about it one major difference being this is built in Red Stone. The entrance that a sequence of three elaborate façades and the walk into the majestic site is rather peaceful even in a middle of a scorching afternoon. Its quite a green place and the trees and little shrubs are well maintained. They must use recycled water around here cause a part of the garden smelt putrid :) but hey it was green as! While walking down the paved entrance we spotted a Jacaranda tree. No one would expect to see flowers on a Jacaranda tree in summer, not in Indian summer anyway — but it had a few about. Aren’t Jacaranda trees gorgeous? I sound like an old lady :) I’d be very much at home at Grafton*.

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