the light baggage

Overview: New Zealand has always been a dream destination for me, and I got a chance to visit the country for the first time on work. As this was my first visit to any country in the southern hemisphere, I wanted to make the most of it. Our first weekend was in Auckland, and I tried to search through all the interesting places around the city, then we narrowed down on Coromandel Peninsula and Auckland city. There is an interesting connection between India and Coromandel. According to Wikipedia- The Coromandel Peninsula was named for HMS Coromandel (originally named HMS Malabar), a ship of the British Royal Navy, which stopped at Coromandel Harbour in 1820 to purchase kauri spars and was itself named for India's Coromandel Coast, which itself is named the Cholamandalam in Tamil after the Chola dynasty, literally translated as The realm of the Cholas from which the Portuguese derived the name Coromandel. We started from Auckland at 9am, and reached Coromandel region by 11:30am. T...

Overview: Vidarbha region, located in the cotton belt of Maharashtra, is home to a number of ancient temples. We had a chance to visit this magnificent Markand Deo temple near Chamorshi. Located on the banks of Wainganga river, this place is one of the 8th century marvels built by the Rashtrakutas. We were at the temple very early in the morning to avoid the crowds, and were fortunate to find just ourselves inside the premises. The temple looks like it has been assembled, though remains of several other temples could be seen inside the temple area. One thing which stands out in this temple is the wall carvings of different dieties, dancers and also some images of some visitors from places outside the region. A few images had Egyptian like features (long ears, square beard..). Markand Deo Temple Markand Deo Temple Markand Deo Temple Markand Deo Temple From Chamorshi, we came to Chandrapur and took a train to head northwards towards Nagpur. Nagpur has a lot to...