~ Travel | Fuel price comparison tool ~

If you are planning for an holiday & wish to rent a vehicle to explore the place on your own and didn't know the how much the fuel is gonna cost you. Don't worry there is a website which provides you the exactly the same information in the currency of your preference

Interesting to know that the cost of petrol / diesel in India is much cheaper compared to other nations. See the graphs below which gives you an idea where India ranks. *The price listed is in India Rupee.

Price of Petrol

Price of Diesel

Source: Petrol prices 

~ Winner of NGC Traveler Photo Contest 2013 ~

These two images stand out for me compared to the others.

Merit Winner: Portrait of an Eastern Screech Owl. Masters of disguise. The Eastern Screech Owl is seen here doing what they do best. You better have a sharp eye to spot these little birds of prey. Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia. (© Graham McGeorge )

Third Place Winner: Say Cheese. Cheetahs jumped on the vehicle of tourists in Masai Mara national park, Kenya. (© Yanai Bonneh)

View all the winners here.

~ Nomadism ~

Marty Mellway has a great set of video documentaries of his travel. Love his cinematography. Explore n Enjoy his work!

~ Weekend getaway ~

Last Friday was a hectic day. A photo shoot in the morning, packing, work, college re-union, 5 hours of sleep & then a drive of about 330kms towards western ghats.

Here are some pictures from the getaway.

~ Petrol | Food | Beer ~

The Vince brothers along with 6 others travelled 40 countries on bikes by themselves without any support. Their daily concerns were only - Petrol | Food | Beer, unless any other concerns occurred. This reminds me of the movies which I came across yesterday One crazy ride & Riding solo to the top of the world.

Hopefully, I get sometime over the weekend to watch them. Post that I can figure out which one of them is better :)

Update: 20 Oct 2012

Finished watching One Crazy Ride. As Gaurav Jani sums it up, craziness is in human mind and spirit, but not at the physical level. Once in a while we need to indulge in something that is crazy. Loved the documentary of 5 friends & their adventurous journey to the remote Eastern part of India - Arunachal Pradesh.

Update: 26 Oct 2012

Watched 'Riding solo to the top of the world'. Unlike the previous Crazy Ride, this one captures the journey of Gaurav Jani and his interaction with the nomads in Ladakh. After watching the documentary all I can say is that the hardships encountered by the Changpa nomads is much more than what we urban mortals experience. Jani takes a note of the belongings of the nomads. Their entire belongings apart from the livestock is very limited.

After watching the solo ride, don't know what to expect from the ride by Vince brothers for Petrol, Food & Beer ;)

~ 61st Independence Day ~

Of all the Independence Day's that I have celebrated, 61st Independence Day has been most satisfying & worthy. It started when Venky told me about his friend, Lokapriya's plan of afforestation on Thursday night. The plan was to plant 250 saplings in the region of Savandurga.

15 adults along with 4 children met @ 7:30hrs near Malleshwaram & ventured out to Savandurga via Mysore Road by 8:30hrs. After a brief pit-stop for breakfast in Bidadi for some special 'Tattee Idli' (a variation of Idli), we continued our journey towards Magadi.

We arrived @ Savandurga by 11:00hrs and few folks visited the Narashima Temple. Then entered the forest region of Savandurga, that's where the plot was chosen by Lokapriya for the plantation. We did ask for the school boys who were in the region to join us in our mission, but they didn't seem to be keen. 250 pits were dug couple of days prior to our arrival.

Finally, 13 of us with 3 locals started off our task of planting 250 saplings. The team was divided into groups - movers, uncoverers, planters - for better optimization. 6 movers, including me, who moved the saplings to the designated pits; 3 uncoverers, helped in uncovering the plastic bags which held the saplings; 4 planters, finally performed the last task of the plantation.

After the initial enthusiasm of moving the saplings, my forearms began to ache. The saplings had soaked in the rain from previous night, making it heavier to carry. But, that didn't deter our focus & goal, we finished planting by 15:00hrs.

Had our lunch & bhel-puri enjoying the back drop of the Savandurga. We left Savandurga @ 16:30hrs towards Bangalore en route Manchinbele reservoir (the same place where KRV/Police busted a Rave party on Friday night). The kids had good time playing in the water.

We departed Manchinbele to the city @ 18:25hrs, with another pit-stop for some hot tea & aloo bonda @ the Big Banyan Tree.

On our way home we saw two huge dish antennas near-by to the big banyan tree. Me & Venky were discussing about what project could this part of, in an isolated place off Mysore Road. We finally concluded that this could be a part of ISRO, tracking something. To my surprise in the morning it turned out to be part of ISRO for the upcoming Chandrayaan, which appeared in TOI.