Castella de Aguada/ Bandra Fort

One of the many forts in Mumbai, this one is located at the mouth of the Mithi river. Bandra fort along with the Mahim fort at the other side of river, once stood as strategic positions for the Portuguese.
Exact location is next to Taj Land's End.


I set out one Sunday morning just after sunrise with my cousin Nazeef to have a look. Photos are not that clear since they are from a cellphone.
The fort area is divided into 2 parts - the fort ruins and a garden.


I. Fort Area:


Not much of the fort remains. There is hardly any structure remaining; just an entrance, some walls and staircase.


Entire view of fort with the sea link in the background:

Kothligad Fort Trek

Also known as Kothaligad/ Peth fort. First a brief description.
Base Town: Karjat (well conected by rail/ road)
Base Village: Ambivali (150 metres)
Height: 620 metres
Difficulty level: Moderate (but somewhat dangerous in monsoon)
Time: 1 day trek (Although we took 3.5 hours for ascent and 3 hours for descent for various reason;  I think it can be accomplished totally in 5 hours)
Food: At Ambivali you can get food at Sawant's house (the first house when you take turn to get into the village). At Peth, Sawant's brother does the food arrangement. 
Accommodation: There is accomdoation available in Peth village.


Route: Vashi --> Panvel --> Karjat --> Ambivali --> Peth --> Kothaligad

1. Vashi --> Karjat was covered by State Transport bus. (about 2 hours)
2. Karjat --> Ambivali village, we hired a 6 seater (or TumTum as i colloquially used). Note that it is important to hire for entire day......as there is no means of transport available from Ambivali. He took Rs. 900 for dropping us at Ambivali and then taking us back to Karjat. (Time: 1 hour)
3. Ambivali --> Peth village is a hilly ascent; although long but is made easy bcoz of the stony path that has been laid for the villagers. (2 hours)
4. From Peth, the steep ascent begins to the mount of Kothaligad. (1.5 hours)

Panchgani Trek - Day 2

Packing up

I woke up at around 07.00 am. Sunrise had happened but the sun had not risen thanks to the surrounding mountains.



Since the water wasn't so cleaned and had large amount of silts; none had ventured into it. But in the morning Ismail couldn't resist and took a holy dip in the river Krishna.

Panchgani Trek - Day 1

Luqman uncle planned for this trek alongwith Faraz and Taha.
Started from Mumbai on Friday night to goto Pune to join my relatives for trek.

Mumbai --> Pune --> Wai --> Panchgani Ravine Hotel --> Paragliding spot --> Electricity substation --> Dhom Road

We trekked from Panchgani electricity substation to some village near Dhom along the banks of river Krishna.

We were 8 people. So using 2 cars, started at 8.00 am from Pune. Reached Panchgani at about 11.00 am.


Celebrity Nano

My uncle (Munazzir) had newly purchased a Nano. Since that car is still a novelty, I decided to travel in that.

Koraigad/ Korigad Fort Trek

Beginning the new year with a trek, how good is that !!!

How to get there?

Mumbai --> Lonavala --> Bushi Dam --> INS Shivaji --> Peth Shahpur village(2-4 kms before Amby Valley).

Once you are in Lonavala ask for the direction of Amby Valley since that village is very small and not famous. It is around 25 kms from Lonavala.

The total trek distance is quite small and you can cover it in an hour.

Best time to visit is winter. In summer, the heat will become unbearable since you have nearly a 2.5 km trail to cover on the top of fort without a single tree or any other shade. In rains, I think you will not be able to see anything at all from the top.

Caution: Depths in the photograph are greater than what they appear.
I still don't understand why hardly any of the photographs from the 4 digicams, reflect the true depths as we saw. Almost 90% of the pix have misleading depths.

The Village Trail

The trail begins near a school in the village. This part is stony and dusty and without much forest cover.

Hogenakkal Falls

Hogenakkal falls lie on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is a big gorge created by the river Cauveri.
Best time to visit is in summer; then the boat can pass from under the falls. In winter, you won't be able to go under. In rains, boating is closed.
Pravin and I started from Bangalore using public transport. Took a long time, around 4.5 hours. I would surely recommend that you hire a vehicle. That would save you around 1.5 hours and would cost you nearly the same. We want as follows showing changes of bus for entire route:
Bangalore -> Krishnagiri -> Hogenakkal -> Dharmapuri -> Bangalore


Fort in Krishnagiri

Alibaug Beach & Kolaba Fort

A wedding in Alibaug led to this planning. Although, I had planned to visit 3-4 beaches in that area, things always go wrong (Surprisingly in US, planning was damn accurate to a few minutes).

First, driver came late (9.30 am instead of planned 7 am).

Secondly, not everyone was so interested (after all it was a wedding).

Alibaug beach

Somewhat weird beach. The continental shelf is extremely flat, no noticeable slope. I think even if you go 4-5 kms from the coast, the depth won't be more than a metre.

When we reached, it was high tide and the water was nearly till the coast. We decided we'll go in water after playing for sometime.

Six Flags America

(There are many videos on this page. To view them, play them and then pause immediatley. Then allow the video to load completely and then play. If there are pauses in between, you will not like it.

Obvious I haven't taken these video excpt for a couple of them; I don't have the guts to hold the digicam in the ride.)

Six Flags America in Maryland is one of the light weight theme parks in USA. We (Sushant and I) went to this one bcoz this was the only one nearby and accessible by public transport.

But after experiencing it, I can conclude that there is nothing close to it in India. Wonder how much good the others will be.

The various rides can be grouped under:

1. Roller Coasters

2. Rotating ones

3. Water rides

4. Hurricane Harbour (like Water Kingdom) - rides in pool.

5. Looney Tunes (Children's rides).

My main aim for coming here was for Roller Costers. So we had a rather thrilling start.

I hardly clicked any photos; since you come here for thrills which can only be felt. So describing them in words.

Tour du Nord-Est USA

Tour of North Eastern USA.

Although this is a tour of Niagara Falls and 1000 Island's; it was more like touring the North - Eastern parts of US. We traveled around 2500 kms in about 56 hours. So much of the time was spent in the bus itself; I think about half of it atleast. The journey was extremely tiring even though the roads and vehicles were very smooth.

The Travel Plan:

Fairfax --> Washington DC --> New York City --> Cornell --> Niagara Falls --> 1000 Islands --> New York City --> Washington DC --> Fairfax

Independence Day in Washington DC

It's quite cold again as I am writing this blog. People here say it's nearing peak of summer. What summer @#$%; 18 degrees now.

Anyways, let's get to the topic of this blog. Went out with a CGI Banglore guy named Srikantha.

An Intro to National Mall

The "mall" is a large public garden with walking area. As shown in the map below, almost all monuments/ building/ gardens/ musuem's lie in this area.

Since, it was the 4th of July, there were huge crowds, lots of noise due to various happenings around. Last year around 6 lakhs people had been here; no idea of this year.

It was a complete mela like in India. And the drumbeats reminded me of a Ganpati day.

Only difference was the crowd. Just have to see them know it.

Many performing bands on the street like these ones:

Capitol Hill

This is their parliament. Must have seen this in many Hollywood movies. I think our parliament looks much better than this.

Some pond near Capitol Hill:

Art Garden

Various art sculptures placed in a garden. Was least interested in it. Went inside because it had nice pond where lots of people were sitting around.

Water was quite cold bcoz it's "summer" here.

Fountain keeps changing and adjusting it's strength.

Trying a weird pose.

Just showing Srikantha the powerful zoom of my digicam They were sitting right across on the other side of pond.

I swear I never wanted to capture that almost naked bikini babe. But still somehow she got in the photo.

Jefferson Memorial

The memorials here are nothing.....not at all worth visiting. I mean compare it to the memorials we have in India - Taj Mahal, Gol Gumbaz, Raigad fort; these don't stand a chance.

Just some nice views from Jefferson memorial.

Even though it looks spacious; in a few minutes, there would be no space left here.

Lincoln Memorial

As I said the memorials aren't worth visiting, so skipped this one. The pic is just a zoomed version. But not a place for keeping a step.

Washington Monument

This one memorial is somewhat ok. This was the centre of all attraction. Too huge crowds out here.

One can go to the top to have a nice view of the city. But looking at the mass of people, there was no chance.

White House

We couldn't find the front part of the White House. Anyways we had planned to see the fireworks from a park called Lafayette Square; which was right behind White house. So the views are the backyard of it.

Finally at 9.10 pm the sky was lit by brilliant fireworks. Althoug have captured them in video; I think watching it live was much more crisp and pleasant.

The video is about 6 minutes long. If you don't plan to watch the entire thing watch the final 2 minutes.