Trial - Rough

It was another of the weekends during the fag end of my internship period and we surely could not have it gone without a visit. So we headed for a couple of small towns in the south of Switzerland – Lugano, and Luzern. Switzerland shares its southern boundary with Italy and hence the Italian impact on the culture, language, and architecture is evident as one moves south. Though the natural beauty is still purely Swiss! As per the usual protocol we had established by then, we reached the beautiful town of Lugano on the morning of 7th June of 2008 by train. The city of Lugano is situated on the shore of Lake Lugano similar to how most of the Swiss cities have grown around water bodies. The mountains of Monte San Salvatore on the South and Monte Bre on the Northeast frontiers of the town give it a unique charm along with splendid viewpoints for the tourists. The city center is almost only 8 km away from Italian borders and the feel of affinity to Italy can be seen across every aspect of l...

After covering the attractions in Shillong, we continued our journey towards Cherrapunji – The Wettest Place on Earth for a long time. It was an absolutely marvelous weather when we set on the road towards the next destination after a lovely time spent in Shillong. Another day in the company of gang with the day ahead full of masti had us excited. For sake of completeness it would be best if you read the first part of this excursion – the Shillong Visit at Scotland of the East amidst Abode of Clouds - Shillong .   Shillong to Cherrapunji is about 60 kilometers in distance and the hilly terrain takes it around 1 and a half hour time in general. However, it was going to be a different case with us who seemed to be determined on the saying that journey is more important than the destination. We took our own sweet time through the distance having frequent breaks for enjoying the picturesque scenery all around. Hills and valleys with clouds hovering across was simply a breathtaking view...

I guess everyone would agree that trips with friends are unforgettable, especially ones during college times. Recently flipping through the college pictures I was reminded of one such trip which left me all nostalgic. So here I am taking you on a long weekend trip to the hills in North-East of India. I would be covering this trip over two posts first of which is to Shillong.   We had been bored out of the rigors, or so to say, of the college life and were actively looking for a vent. It was then during one of our post-dinner bakars that we realized that we had been there in Guwahati for more than a year and hadn’t ventured out of the city and so were sown the seeds to the planning of this trip. Various options were explored and considerations – economic and logistic – led us to decide on a trip to Shillong and Cherrapunji. We began doing the headcount and before we began we already had in our group the usual suspects – Me, Mantri, Chadha, and Nishant. However, we knew this was not ...