Exploring Beyond The Skyscrapers. Largest Flower Garden Of The World - Miracle Garden Dubai.

Call Phoolon ki Rani or Phoolan Devi

"The Dubai" that mesmerizes any tourist, sure has reached great heights in creating records one after other. After the  mega tall sky scraper Burj Khalifa now the "Tallest Vertical Flower Garden".  Yes. 

If all we heard about Dubai was, the haunting sky scrapers; never ending extensive  roads; the sand dunes; camels; shawarma falafels and hummus; and the beaches, then definitely we have missed the winter bloom. This breathtaking Flower Garden called "piece of eden" was announced as largest vertical flower garden by the Guinness Book of records. 

 It stuns you more as it is a challenging mega mission created in the land of sand. It is not a easy task maintaining an area of 75,000sqm with 4 km pathways, 1km height flower walls, and over 50 million flowers for a few months off summer. But Dubai has it all. 

It was thrilling to say am going to Dubai to witness the winter bloom.

Is this some fairyland or a dreamland!

Upturned car as fountain amidst floral display

The floral flight of Dubai

Marvelous symmetry 

A few pictures are still the least to describe the beauty of the flower beds. I was absolutely overwhelmed in awe by the petunia beds. If colourful heaven meant this then I wished to be the lost butterfly with a long life. An unimaginable maintenance in the gulf region. Surprisingly one would not exhaust wandering in these green plot!

A Few Key Notes:-

• The Miracle Garden is open only in winter, or to be precise is closed in the peak summer.


• There is a web site where you need to get the information about the opening time and hours. http://www.dubaimiraclegarden.com/


• There are plenty of food stalls inside the garden and also ample seating arrangements around the main gate.


• Children will not get too bored again as there are enough stuff including toys on sale which will keep them occupied.


• Glow garden and butterfly garden are other spots worth seeing.


• There is constant announcement in the loud speakers regarding the public transport facilities to and fro from garden to city. 


• Very well co-ordinated security on stroll inside and ample car parking space in the exterior.

Arabian Night Experience In Wadi Rum Desert Of Jordan

A maze of monolithic landscapes; The steep inclines of the mountains amidst the red sands; Crevice-riddled cliffs; Ever evolving light; Cozy marquee tents; Trudging camels; Few hulking red dunes; Bumpy jeep rides; Tranquility in the boundless empty spaces; Puffy clouds, inspire a unbridled awe. 

Jordan's desert is simply called the "Valley Of The moon".

The name "Rum" comes from Arabic rooted word meaning "highly elevated". To stress on Arabic pronunciation, it is often called as "Ramm". And if you want to pronounce Jordan the Arabic way it is very cute,  "Jor - dan - dan as in then-". The highest elevation in Wadi Rum is recorded to be as tall as 6000 feet plus. Exploring the canyons and the numerous "jebels" (mountains are called jebels in Arabic) is quite an experience in the jeep rides of about 4-5  hours. However few trekkers here and there are a rare scene too. 

Spotted black tents is the camp area. With well facilitated King Size rooms.

Historically renowned as UNESCO Heritage site, Wadi Rum sees remains of rock paintings, symbols, small temples and things related. Mostly inherited from Nabatean culture. Nabateans are the ancient Greek nomad tribes that inhabited the Arabian deserts.These rock art and graffiti are the testimonials of the human habitats and their cultural facts.

Getting lost in the desert is just easy. Even your echo would be lost in few seconds. You remember that tiny ant you watch in your backyard when you walk past the humongous desert alps. You are like a speck of a dot under the blue carpet and over the red, in middle of valley of granite rock. The spectacular series of mountains, the natural arches, the dramatic weather, sky scraping cliffs are evidence of the complete aesthetic values of the iconic desert. Much said is less and words cease the unique experience of my being present there in the winter days and a rainy night. 

Several hollywoord and bollywood movie shootings have been a fancy in this wadi and one of our Hindi popular being the Krish 3.

The Bedouin (The local dwellers belong to a tribe called Bedouin) walk long marathons in the desert along with their camels. Not always are the beasts burdened, but for fancy rides for the travelers. Few irregular tents set up by these locals traders in the middle of mountains will sell you exotic attar, mascara and other beauty products that are made of natural ingredients.  So a good customer also gets  the luxury of a complimentary Sulaimani Tea that you could make yourself (Arabic tea Sulaimani is strong version of our black, masala tea). Also one can get to experience trying their traditional attire or at least the keffieah (turban) and feel like an Bedouin.

A perfect "Sholay" set up of the caravan for the night camping.

PS- Here

Cozy tents which are more or less a three star facilitated one. What more would fascinate you, but even Wifi in the rainy night in the desert! Talk of food and the non vegetarians would just love the traditional food cooked in the tents that is called "Zarb". It's the Bedouin's traditional food cooked underground with meat, rice and chicken. Yes underground! A hole is dug, big enough to fit in the metal multilayered tray. Next, the natural oven is heated with fire for a while till red hot. The metallic tray decked with vegetables, meat and rice is then placed in the hole and cooked for over two hours before one can devour the delicacy. I could forget the taste of coal over my food that I barbecue in my backyard. The zarb is a amazing tongue tickler. 

Ask me, and what an jaw dropping experience it was. Winter air tickling your spine, and occasionally you give out the Govinda shakes even with your 2 inch thick jackets on. An unusual experience of feeling the rain did not let us sleep. With mixed feeling of thrill as well as new fear we laughed if we were sleeping in a fabric made cold box in middle of sand heap.

However the following morning saw one of the most beautiful dawn we could ever dream of. With blue castles of clouds dancing right over the mountains, we drove for hours in open Jeeps in the desert. Experiencing the nature's vivid colours at best. A trip worth taking that will mesmerize you with it's amazing heritage facts added to all other factors. The only non alcoholic rum made of nature that can actually intoxicate you!

Just the place for the "Kitney aadmi they" pose

Key Notes :-

1. Say absolute no to the summer (March till August) travel.


2. October and later is best time to camp in the desert.


3. Be prepared for unexpected rains in winter though.


4. Don't forget your sneakers and warm attire.


5. Arrive at Wadi Rum few hours before sunset.


6. Keep the Jeep ride desert exploring for the morning.


7. Hot air balloon rides, camels rides are offered in the camps you chose.


8. And if you do take tips from post, please link it whenever you post any travelogue or pictures of yours!

Pinnawala Sri Lanka - Elephant Orphanage And Their Poop To Paper Affair

Tea Estates En route Colombo-Nuwar Eliya

An unfathomable saga of my Sri Lanka vacation gala is still fresh in my mind and I can throb even  four years after it. Probably the encounter with the loving pachyderms, icon of Sri Lankan tourism, the elephant family was quite an experience. Or playing with the pythons made it different, or greens and sun forming myriad colours in the wide ocean. Or that, this was holiday where we did not make serious agenda. Holidays should be flexible. This one was. Especially after an affair with these elephants and knowing even that their dung was used to make paper, we got hooked onto the place.

Ocean View from balcony of Hotel Mount Lavinia

Here is the link to the old brief travelogue I had written. - A Week At Ravan's Place. Exploring Sri Lanka.

Pinnawala -Elephant Orphanage



A Place that was originally was found in 1975 for holding best disposition of ex-situ animal care. In 25 acre coconut plantation jungle, adjacent to "Maha Oya " river, elephants are bred and well taken care of. Just as name holds, the set up was founded to care for abandoned elephants. Those that strayed away, or fell in mining pits or who ended up spoiling farmers crops . A splendid encounter it is in such close quarters with these jumbos and little jumbos.

Elephant was a friend always. For me from Udupi the temple town. There was always this mammoth friend with it's fascinating trunk  in the Sri Krishna Temple premises whom I talked to as child. This brief interaction in SriLanka was a delight. Kissing another being felt like being human.

Bottle milk feeding activity to keep tourists engaged! Pinnawala mahouts feed the baby elephants less than 3 yr of age with bottle milk. Also encourage the friendly visitors too to indulge in feeding activity. As for my experience this little jumbo gulped up the bottle before we could have our camera shutter buzz. Timing maintained are for thirty minutes twice a day. 9.15A.M and 1.30 noon.

Baby elephants are left in their play pen for few hours, especially as exhibit for visitors too! With the their favorite veggies hanging on the rails the babies stay there for few hours of the morning after their bath. The lactating mothers are generally very very compassionate toward their calves and nurture them lovingly in their presence.

While most elephants march in herds to the river for their daily bathing ritual, a few are isolated. Either the wounded ones or the aggressive ones and trained with hose of water to bathe themselves. Spectators are welcomed too to view and accompany them. A few naughty ones would splash some water on you too.

Every morning bathing sessions are regimen essential. So, the jumbos stay hale and hearty. They are guided by security personnel and the mahouts and march towards river at 10 AM only to return by 12 noon. A pleasurable scene, the brown pachyderm march to the river. Alongside the street are laid those small vendors who sell souvenirs. All the types that we can expect. Clothes, caps, mugs with the jumbo picture on it.

Poop to paper -

Have you ever had any idea seeing the elephant's rear end, that it's dung could be a raw material while paper the finished product?

I was drowned in poop heap thoughts.



While millions of trees are chopped down in the world, few environmental enthusiasts have found eco-friendly solutions. The elephant dung to make paper indeed! "Fibre" is the keyword, as their diet and dung both are rich in it.

• Collecting the dung - is collected from various elephant stables. 


• The cleaning of the dung - Dung is washed thoroughly with water in large tanks. At the end, all what is left is the fibre. 


• Cooking the poo - To get the fibre ready for the next stage of pulping, it is cooked in water for over 4-5 hours with salt and then washed with hydrogen peroxide to complete the first stage of making the paper bacteria free.


• Sorting - The water is drained out and the dung is left to dry out in the sun. Once its dry, it is sorted and any non-usable fibre is removed.


• Pulping- After the fibre has been softened and sorted, it goes into the Hollander Beater, to be beaten to pulp. This process takes about 4 hours. The fibre goes through the process of being beaten into very fine pulp and also being washed again.


• Lifting Up - The pulp is then taken to cement/ wooden vats filled with water. Depending on the weight of the paper to be made, the required amount of pulp is mixed with the water. A flat sieve-like mould is used to lift a layer of pulp out of water. A sheet of paper is made.


• Moulding -The sheet is then placed on a muslin cloth by applying gentle pressure onto the mould. This process continues till there is a heap of about 100 sheets.


• Drying - The heap of interleaved sheets is then placed in a hydraulic press and compressed to drain out as much water as possible. The paper is then dried on lines, in a shady area. Direct sunlight is not good for drying the sheets unless they’re white as the colour fades under the sun.


• 
  Rolling -Paper sheets are then rolled in d to make them smoother and writable. 
  
  
  
  The sheets are then cut to the specified size, packed and sent to their required destinations.
  
  

Products range includes books, flip-flops, hand bags, picture albums, tags, gift bags, photo frames, and whole lot of funky stuff. 

You have a big range of products available on various sellers, most popular being -One of the seller on Amazon

Few called me daring, then a few called the python daring!!

At the exterior gate of the Orphanage we encountered these slithering friends. First time ever, I held this spineless yet creepy python in my hands. Bit squeamish, but overtaken by confidence of excitement.





Few Key Notes: -

1. Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is open to public on all days between 8Am to 6 PM


2. A huge place to explore, so remember to tie your shoes tight.


3. About 2 hours drive from Colombo city.  


4. Other places of interest around colombo are -Nuwar Eliya, Kandy ,The Seetha Temple, The Ramboda, Few national parks, tea estates and much more.


5. A suggested place to stay  would be Hotel Mount Lavinia in Colombo. See their website for information - http://www.mountlaviniahotel.com/


6. The Auto Rickshaws there are called "tuk tuk" and are a pleasurable rides like the ones in India!

Holiday In DDLJ (Deadly Dead Sea of Lovely Jordan)

Petra City - Jordan

Happy Birthday mom. For your birthday, we are taking you to ……

The mall? Dinner? Aqua Park?

No it’s a big surprise. 

Where? 

Jordan ………Joooorrrdan... finally!

Surprised me, my daughter. Surely it was a lovely gift. First the 99 wishes on FB and  now the hundredth being the surprise trip to my dream vacation, planned by the dad daughter duo.

My mind had begun floating, visualising  floating in the Dead Sea.

Visiting the home town of the Dead Sea was different excitement. We packed  on the 22^nd night and flew on 23^rd morning of October 2015. Like always my one year old son had thrown a chaos in the flight. We had to survive his tantrums in the four hours flight, hence we had to check in online on  Qatar Airways Web Check in  to save more time and to book my usual bassinet seat for the baby. Travel with naughty little one was big time adventure by itself. Fiddling like desert penguins, we safely landed in  Amman the capital city of Jordan.

From the crabby  taxi, where my son made friends with our tour guide to a luxurious hotel where we made friends with an Indian family from Oman. We decided to rest entire day and explore the closest malls or parks in evening. We had to sleep early for a big day, the next day. It was an hour's journey to the Dead Sea.

The dead sea was a blast. Imagine no waves in the sea. Imagine you lie down and your body does not sink but floats like a log. A log. You try to feel like a dead body in the dead sea. This sea showed what a good friend water was to my water phobic hubby. He also manged to get the dead sea mud on him which is good for skin. We had a photo shoot of each one of us floating, while, the cross eyed looks by my son from a distance alerted us to give a break to water adventure. Little children are banned entry into water as it was rich in oil

which makes it possible to reduce the gravity. Oh! You get off water and an oily you  comes out. The water park made up is for kids entertainment as alternative. After a mesmerizing day in the sea without sinking or carried away by no waves, we finally had to move on.

Petra City was next in the list. En route we did cover random places. Mount Nebo (In connection with Moses mentioned in the bible) was one. Madaba was next. Where we relished a lunch that I still cant stop polishing. A special dish called the upside down in other words it a huge stove full of Arabic Biryani with a bunch of different veggies in it.

In Madaba - Foundation of Handicrafts

Handicrafts -Madaba

After lunch we traveled some more to a beautiful place in the middle of no where. A museum / mini shopping complex, called Foundation Handicrafts. We bought a lot of dead sea products and a stoned bracelet for my daughter.

Soon, a little after sunset we checked into a five star in Petra. We woke up  to a breath taking sunrise next morning. Multicoloured mountains! Never witnessed this beauty before. 

Old City Of Petra

The five star buffet breakfast served as fuel for the tough day to a long car journey to the most awaited "Rock City". 

The tour guide had filled us completely with a lot of information, that we breathed and even burped history. 

The excavations in this city had  let to stories as old as 2000 BCand to the Romans in early 100 AD. Main religion of the inhabitant -Nabataens worshiped Arab Gods and goddesses. but not Islamic. The tombs, the water ways, the treasury, the stadium of those times. were main attraction spots. Two to three hours of walk among these rocks and then we retired in the rooms.

Wadi Rum -Desert

 That very afternoon we had check out to reach our next destination  Wadi rum . The Sands. 

It was known for its popular sunset with rocks and sands building up the sun's beauty,  but we missed it , due to heavy  rains.  However most thrilling time was the golden chance to spend the shivery night in a tent house that too with WiFi! Following morning were spent travelling across the sands in an open gypsy discovering the rock city, its sands while the clouds danced on our heads. 

Next morning we headed to  the city Amman which was a last stop and the last strip of my gift wrap. The tour in the hill city had more history to unearth. The Roman pillars of Hercules, temples and tombs, Panoramic view of the city built of white stone, museum displaying the antiques. Eye popping moment was witnessing the 6000 capacity stone stadium of the Roman times intact. She was a beauty. 

Amman City

That night ended the gift session of the Yatra (holiday). From the "present" to memories that would soon become a past a glorious past. A perfect holiday. Mesmerizing experiences. We packed and left the rainy rock city to the airport on the 28th night of October. One different vacation away from hustle bustle of city chaos. The unique experience from day 1 to  day 5 .