Traveling Experiences

“Exploring lands and technologies.”

Born and brought up in New Delhi, I am now living in Xi’an, the ancient capital of China. I love traveling, meeting new people and organizing different kinds of events. Following are few of my travel experiences from:

INDIA

I have covered almost all of the North India and a few places in the South as well. I have been traveling since I was in high-school. So you can imagine what happened when I started getting salary; almost every other weekend, I found a new place to visit by myself. I have been to many beautiful towns in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and Punjab.
I have completed treks to Kedarnath temple and Hemkund Sahib back-to-back in just 4 days. Around 60km of difficult hiking.

BHUTAN

The fairytale kingdom where gross national happiness is considered more important than the GDP. The serene valleys of Paro can take your breath away. Bhutan is a country where people are so kindhearted and helpful that they will win your heart within few minutes. For instance, our taxi driver was so righteous that he gave us a huge discount at the end of our trip because some of the attractions on our agenda got closed. Another surprising fact about Bhutan is that there are no traffic lights in the whole country. In fact, people are so relaxed and carefree that they would happily wait for each other. Go figure!

THAILAND

I have spent one week in Thailand where I made some friends via Toastmasters community who helped me visit places like famous shopping malls in Bangkok. One of them recommended a travel agent who then booked a perfect tour for me which included lots of water sports in Pattaya.

MALAYSIA

I had my first HostelWorld experience in Kuala Lumpur where I met many fellow travelers. The dorms were a perfect place to meet new people who were interesting enough to make travel plans with. This allowed us to talk about our home countries and travel experiences as we explored KL together.

HONG KONG AND MACAU

I met a group of friends who already had their week planned. I traveled with them to a few spots and clicked lots of photographs. From the famous peak tram to the secluded Ding Ding rides, we enjoyed almost all different tastes of Hong Kong.

MAINLAND CHINA

I have explored Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Wuzhen, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongji Islands, Taiyuan, and now I’m in Xi’an. Each of these places were unique in their own way. The sunset and sunrise looked beautiful from Dongji islands. I am still exploring and would love to visit more places in future.

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TRAVEL TO OCEAN PARK HONG KONG (Guest post)

Marine life is a vast area and the variety of creatures living in it are beyond our imaginations. Hong Kong Ocean-park is a marine mammal park, also known as oceanarium, which houses more than 5000 species of fishes. The total area is spread across 91.5 acres and has over 80 rides and attractions to visit.

This magnificent structure was created in 1977, but was renovated according to new standards in 2005 and is housing over 1 million visitors every year. Being a huge park, it is divided by two big mountains: The summit and the water-land. The areas are linked together with two car cables stretching at up to 1.2 Km.

MAIN ATTRACTIONS IN OCEAN PARK HONG KONG

There are numerous attractions to indulge into in this land that includes 4 giant roller coasters, animal exhibits, Chinese sturgeon aquarium and many more. Below mentioned are some of those locations in Ocean Park that you must visit-

• Marine World

This area again have two main regions: Marine land and Headland rides. There are many habitats for marine life like seals and sea lions, where you can experience their natural living attributes. There is also an Ocean park tower which is 200 meters high and is the second largest building in Southeast Asia.

• Thrill Mountain

This section was opened in December of 2011 and is a carnival themed park with over 222,000 acres of land. You can indulge yourself into its festive season and enjoy its amazing music rhythm and incredible food stalls.

• Adventure Land

If you are a fan of roller coasters than this area is meant for you. It has some astonishing rides like mine train, raging river and space wheel. This section will fill you with joy and thrill of riding such big roller coasters.

• The Rain-forest

This came to light in June 2011 and was instantly loved by many viewers for its natural beauty and incredible collection of animal life. You can enjoy its river ride that will free your soul.

• Aqua City

This section is located in the hill side of “The Waterfront”. Opened in 2011, this area has a span of over 200 thousand square feet and is known to be the largest aquarium in the world. Its sea life carousel and the water-land plaza will give you a feeling of being a part of the marine life.

• Whiskers Harbor

Attraction like balloon in the air, clown a round, frog hopper, merry-go-round, bouncer house, animal story corner and toto the loco can be found in this particular section of Ocean park in Hong Kong.

• Polar Adventure

This area features the North pole encounter, South pole spectacular and Arctic fox den. There are also many roller coasters in this area and it houses three species of Penguins at one place.

Ocean park in Hong Kong is a complete tourist destination, which has everything for every age group and will help you create memories of a lifetime.

A Trip to Hong Kong is incomplete without a visit to the Ocean Park!

P.S.: This guest post has been shared by Siddhartha from TravelTours

Did you know that you have hosts in 190 countries?

This time the happy hours at Indiblogger introduced me to airbnb. This website is going to help you if you have plans to travel or host. The concept of renting your place on a daily basis might have been there since long, but the way airbnb has created an attractive and easy to use platform for both the hosts and travelers, is commendable. Other than the interface and beautiful images that made me think about my next trip, the website follows a process that is very secure and makes you feel safe while you are looking for a place to stay.

One can feel the seriousness with which things are being verified while completing his profile. And the best part is, you will enjoy doing so because you are given an opportunity to add more details about you from different platforms, ranging from your name to a 30 seconds video. All this information will later help you get legitimate deals both as a traveler and a host.

While browsing the website, I noticed a search box with the caption “Where are you going?”. I started off by typing in New York because it is one of the places that I would like to visit in the coming years. To my surprise, I found hundreds of listings which were within my budget and offered me a private room. And this was not just true for my first search; I started searching for other places like London, Bangkok, Seoul and Paris. For all these places there were listings below Rs. 2500. Ranging from Rs. 989 per night in Bangkok to Rs. 2410 in London, I was happy to learn that if I arrange my flight tickets, I can book my accommodation in any of these places right now; without killing my savings. Thus, I added these listings to my wish list along with some notes which I could use later.

And the best part was that there were enough images uploaded by the hosts to make me comfortable already. And images were not the only things that I found credible, the reviews posted by guests sealed the deal for me. And the reason that I could trust these reviews was that they were connected to real people having profiles at various platforms including facebook, linkedin and more importantly a verified ID (e.g. Driving License). If you consider the amount of details that are being added and verified at each step, spamming and faking any of this information seems very difficult to me. And this is the reason, that I would suggest my friends and acquaintances to try Airbnb while planning their next trip.

And for those who are willing to host and make some friends, make sure you add enough details to your listings while being as descriptive as possible. Once again, the Airbnb tips and tutorials will help you complete the submission process.

P.S.: After you sign up, don’t forget to download the mobile app.

Bhimtal’s Chota Bheem

Bhimtal is a nice hill station located near the famous tourist spot called Nainital. As the name suggests it comprises of a ‘tal’ i.e. lake  surrounded by beautiful mountains.

During a trip to this place, my parents clicked these photographs of a kid who is quite notoriously cute according to them:

 

Travelblog

I created my travel blog today.  As I am more of a traveler, I thought it will be nice to put on my traveling experiences at:

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/kushalashok/

Travel articles are always of great help. Writing about your travel experiences not only helps others but also gives you pleasure. Sharing your achievements always give you a sense of accomplishment.