San Francisco is like the Bangalore of the U.S., with many techies living in the Bay Area, innovating and promoting a strong startup culture. True to the city’s character, almost all the ads on the billboards were related to AI. The Moscone Center had directions all over the city leading to it, largely because of… Read More »Around San Francisco
Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world, and aptly so, because it is one of those rare parks that has almost everything in one place: beautiful scenery, waterfalls, lakes, geysers, hot springs, wildlife, whatever you wish for. Yellowstone is huge, and you could easily spend a week covering its main attractions.… Read More »How to visit Yellowstone National Park
Realizing my phone is useless My first introduction to the city was not without hiccups. As soon as we landed, I realized that my Airtel international roaming was not working. I tried switching the phone off and on, removing the SIM, and trying on different handsets we already had within our family, but unfortunately, none… Read More »Chronicles with my phone in the US
Our typical savings from loyalty programs have been 10-20% on other trips. That is the case because either the points accumulated are not sufficient to fund the entire flight/ hotel or the redemption value is too low compared to average. US was a surprise exception. We list some tricks to get the maximum value out… Read More »How loyalty programs helped with savings of 25% of US trip cost
I have had the fortune of traveling with seniors- my parents, on many trips. They are borderline seniors edging past 60, my mom past 55 years. Due to various reasons, youngsters usually prefer traveling on their own separately and sending their parents on group tours with others in similar age groups While some trips can… Read More »The fortune of traveling with seniors
The concept of weekends did not exist when we were kids. Saturdays would be working, and Sundays would vanish by the time we woke up. My dad worked on some Sundays too! I had Sunday classes for karate, music or tuition during class 11-12 which would take away Sundays most of the time Corporate life… Read More »Weekends in a small town
CIS- Commonwealth of Independent States are countries that were formed after dissolution of USSR. There are 9 countries as members including Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Moldova. Georgia and Ukraine, erstwhile members have backed out. These countries have a heavy Russian influence from language, culture, food taking influence from the USSR… Read More »Why Uzbekistan is the perfect introduction to Central Asia
Southeast Asian countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand is typically the first set of countries Indians visit abroad. I had been to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as a part of office training. My parents had been to more than 35 countries, but never managed a trip here We decided to go together when another office conference… Read More »Kuala Lumpur overnight trip from Singapore
I had been to Singapore multiple times in the past. As a nature and wildlife lover, I kind of struggled to find the right places to visit in the city heavy landscapes of Singapore. While Singapore does have nature parks, mangroves and other islands, the scale and pictures made it less exciting to plan something… Read More »Full day at Mandai in Singapore
We have experimented with travel across different durations- from day trips, to weekend getaways, fortnight trips to 4 month extended stay. After all these experiences, we found 10-20 days as the optimum duration, and we have listed why we love short duration travel I stayed for 4 months in Europe during an exchange program from… Read More »Why we love short duration travel