Late for this post. I know. Life in maximum city, our Mumbai can be so filled with work, cannot tell you! The good part is that I have been enjoying it for the most part and I have managed some fulfilling travel adventures in the year too.

So one of the most memorable travel trips would have to be the 3 days at Varanasi! Seriously, I came back and was so in shock and maybe awe too that I wrote 3 full posts one after the other. This is quite rare for me, if you have been following my blog. Shock at the place, the ambiance or lack of it, the immense culture, the stuff to do, so much to explore…. it was all quite over whelming I must say.

Ganga Arti, Varanasi

This Varanasi trip also included a short visit to Vrindavan & Taj Mahal, Agra which were both quite spectacular as well. More on that soon…

Earlier in the year was Pushkar & Jaipur, Rajasthan. Lovely places both.

Pushkar was where I figured that I really enjoy visiting these religious centers. It prompted me to go to Varanasi later in the year. The unique thing about my Pushkar visit was that it was completely non-peak time, so much so that many restaurants were closed. I hardly saw 3 foreigners in my whole stay. Mostly the influx of local people caught my eyes. The colorful dupattas & turbans of the Rajasthani folks!

Pushkar Lake, Rajasthan

Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

Quite forgot about the weekend at Dandeli in January of 2014. This was a lovely two days where I had absolutely no network. No Tata photon for internet nor Vodafone for calling at the Jungle camp we were staying. Hardly felt the need for them anyway… I am usually so saturated with being online when I am in the city…

Enroute Dandeli… love the open spaces with fields and quaint houses dotting the landscape

Interesting landscape in the Dandeli Jungle, I think this was a quarry at some point in time…

Also did couple of short trips to Surat & Ahmedabad in Gujarat. It was great as I really met many different people – friends, relatives and business contacts. But this connect gave me a lot of insight into the place and the culture. Will be posting more on this. Gujarat is of particular interest to me as I am a Gujarati, but not spent much time there. Also, I am curious about what awesomeness has Narendra Modi managed to achieve there? Cause people are crazy about him, except they never tell what exactly he has done.

Ponk Seller, Surat

And then as I had written in this blog, I did quite a bit of Mumbai city exploration including Dharavi – Asia’s biggest and quite intriguing slum. Want to write a lot about this… will do soon.

One more interesting thing to mention is that I recently hosted a travel friend I met in Mysore. She is a young 20 yr old from Canada who is solo traveling India for many months. She stayed with me and my family for couple of days. It was very unique and lovely experience. This way parents got to meet another solo traveler girl too 🙂

And so that’s about it regarding my travels in 2014… yes, maybe a bit less than other years in travel adventures but life in general has been crazy. Entrepreneurial life has picked up and bringing a whole different adventure to life. Very taxing, but rewarding too. So Welcome 2015 – just bring me a truly wholesome and fulfilling life!

Happy New Year! 🙂