Trivia: Stamped Moments

Odisha has a lot more to offer you than the 'Golden Triangle' of Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark. If you are willing to explore a bit beyond the beaten track. If you are looking for an offbeat yet very different kind of experience, I have a few interesting things on the list for you- an exciting road trip. Here we go! You can take a flight to Jharsuguda (a small airport with limited flights) and drive down to Sambalpur for your first stop, or check out if you have a direct train to Sambalpur from wherever you are; or, you can start the other way round, take a flight to Vishakhpatnam (in Andhra Pradesh), and start your drive to Koraput to start this road trip. In this article, we will start from Sambalpur. 1. Sambalpur: Day- 1 & 2 Sambalpur is the western heartland of Odisha with a vibrant culture, scenic natural beauty- pristine forests, and beautiful rivers. Major attractions:  - Hirakud dam (15 kms from the city): Independent India's first mega engineering project, the firs

Dang, a small district in the Indian state of Gujarat, is blessed with unmatched natural beauty and unique charming landscape. It boasts of the only hill station of Gujarat. However, I am here going to share with you my experiences and memories of its people and culture. Travel interests for reasons concerning its natural beauty is a subject for another day. Dang's demography constitutes 94% tribals (aboriginals), defined by the government of India as Scheduled Tribes (STs) for administrative reasons.   Two cute school children engaged in cleaning up their own school campus It's no secret that the tribals are largely untouched by the rapid economic development witnessed elsewhere. However, they are rich in their hearts; one can feel their innocence just from their looks. Sometimes, it's difficult in the beginning to break ice with them because of the language and cultural barriers, but once you have won their hearts, they will do everything for you without asking anything

Kerala's backwaters lined with coconut groves are as picturesque as it gets. For a long time, it's on the world tourism map being highlighted by major Travel and Tourism promoting entities. I visited Kerala for the first time in 2009 for a dear friend’s wedding. And I turned that opportunity into a multi-destination trip including Cochin, Alleppey, Munnar, Kanyakumari and Trivandrum. In this post, I am sharing my experience in brief, and a few tips on how to travel across south Kerala. In another post, I have explained in great detail about my experience and the places. Please have a look at it here:   https://stampedmoments.com/5-best-places-to-visit-in-south-kerala/ Kochi (previously known as Cochin): I and Sajith  took a boat ride in the Arabian sea from fort Kochi. We tried our hands at the fascinating Chinese fishing nets- in picture above (needs a separate blog on that). Then we visited St. Francis Church, where the mortal remains of Vasco da Gama was kept for a long