Siana Springs, Masai Mara

We absolutely loved our stay at Siana Springs, Intrepids. The staff are all very helpful and efficient. When they ask about how your safari was, they truly are interested in hearing your answer, its not just a rhetorical question.

Although, the accomodation is tented, you do not want for anything. There is a WC cubicle and a shower cubicle with running hot water. We did not have any creepy crawlies inside the tent. And as long as you are conscientious about keeping the tent zipped, you will not have a problem with flying insects either.

Since they generate their own electricity, power is on for a few hours in the morning and in the evening (when you need to be awake and there isn't enough natural light) These hours were enough for us to keep our 3 cameras, 3 cell phones and 1 laptop charged daily (2 plug points in the double room)

Tents cannot be locked, so if you are carrying valuables and want to be carfeul, carry locks for your suitcases, but the place seemed very secure.

Every morning and evening, we relaxed outside our tent watching the bush deer which came right up to the tents, the vervet monkeys, who wait for an opportunity to pounce on the food of an unsuspecting victim, or to get into your tent to search for goodies, the hyrax - which is a cute tiny animal who makes the loudest sound in the middle of the night and the family of 10 Columbus monkeys on the grounds.

The food here was tastier than our other hotels in Kenya on this trip. The packed lunch on our whole day game drive was simple, but tasty. Prices for additional beverages are reasonable. I think it was around 100Kshg for a 1 liter bottle of water. Complimentary tea, coffee and hot chocolate are available throughout the day.

I'd highly recommend the Cultural talk given by the Masai every afternoon between 2:15 and 3:15pm. The masai conducting the talk speak fluent English and can really answer any questions you may have. They have an adventurers club for kids which most of the kids around seemed really happy with. This was the only place, we saw on this trip that made an extra effort to keep kids productively and interestingly occupied.

There is a massage room on site, in case the road is too bumpy and you need to ease your pains gently. Didn't try it so can't comment on how good it is.

The hot water bottles in our bed were an absolutely wonderful and extremely welcome touch at the end of the day.

The only downside is that it is a half an hour drive away from the Masai Mara reserve gate. So if you plan to do 2 game drives (morning, evening) in a day, then you spend 2 hours on a very bumpy road viewing mostly cows and goats.

Some Must Visit Blogs of fellow travellers

As you know,
I'm one of the finalists for the travel contest.

Still waiting anxiously for the results, in the meanwhile I browsed some blogs of my fellow Contestants and each one of them has some really interesting work posted. Either travel descriptions or breathtaking photographs.

So here go some links to their blogs, in no particular order.

# I've been a fan of Akshay's work since a long time. I've linked to his photo features on my Whazzupmumbai blog very often.

# Harshad runs his own trekking company & has covered a lot of Shivaji's forts around Bombay and Pune. I don't understand most of the technical specs of cameras that he talks about, but his photographs are BRILLIANT. Some of his pictures of butterflies (if you have ever tried to photograph even one, you will know how difficult it is) are going to be published in books written by naturalists Isaac Kehimkar & Krushnamegh Kunte
Browse through Harshads blogs :
Through His ViewFinder
Trek blogs of his various outings in the Sahyadris and Himalayas, along with photographs

# Sahil's picture on the site, doesn't do him justice. He hardly uses any words on his Blog : Myopic Endeavour preferring his pictures to do the talking. He's a really interesting person & so much fun to talk to.

# Mridula has been travelling & blogging about her travels since over a year. On her blog, she says "For me travel is a form of escape, from my daily routine" I think she has put so eloquently, what we all feel. She is a consistent trekker and her blog has lots of stories, tips & pictures which tell the tale. Wish I could have met her, but that will have to wait till I take a trip to Delhi.

# Altaf has a different take on life ...the way he sees it. He's currently in Kaintholi on a Global Xchange program & living like a local so he has some really interesting stories to tell.

# Sheetal blogs on Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing-wax where she blogs about the happenings in the twin cities of Hyderabad & Secunderabad. My Ex-City

# Divya blogs at Chronicus Skepticus Currently a Visual Merchandiser, who's also been a copywriter, a visualiser (at the same time), a web-designer, an editor, and a (garment) production manager.

# Rahul is the poetic soul among the finalists. Do visit his blog to read some of his original works of fiction.

# Apurv is the current editor of PaGaLGuY.com, a highly popular website most MBA aspirants would be aware of. Read his take on things at What Blog Men!

Gautam & Simona do not have blogs that I know of.

It was fun meeting 8 of the other contestants. (2 from Delhi & 1 came in later that evening) There were some excellent & passionate photographers amongst the group and when Harshad, Sahil, Akshay & Gautham spoke about lenses it was a foreign language to the rest of us. But we did share a lot of interesting stories about unusual places to travel, great photo ops, where & what to eat & a lot of other stuff like that. Most of us met each other for the first time, but we all had fun because of the kindred fellowship of travellers.

We ended with a fun lunch at Kobe's on Hill Road

Now all fingers crossed for the results. May the best man/woman win.

Ok Tata Bye Bye

I'm so excited.

I've been shortlisted for a travel contest. Which involves travelling
& Blogging. Hardly ever been selected for anything earlier :)

Check out the contest and my profile on
http://www.oktatabyebye.com
http://www.oktatabyebye.com/Krishma.asp
(Yes they have spelt my name wrong in the link, trying to get them to correct it)

The final selection is next week. I'm not sure how they will do it. But have a vague feeling that they may do so based on popularity of the contestant & ability to draw viewers.

Requesting you to please view my profile & drop me a comment, even if its just to say "All the best, Kim" or "Don't think u should go" But please comment.

Hope there's a lot of you looking for something to do on a slow Friday afternoon.

Please, please, pretty please. :)

Kim
http://kimelody.blogspot.com - the XL Blog
http://mbajobsindia.blogspot.com/
http://whazzupmumbai.blogspot.com

Photo Feature on Ratnagiri (Maharashtra)

Who hasn't heard of Ratnagiri ?

Famed for its Alphonso/Hapus Mangoes....


The drive from Mumbai (Bombay) was 8 hours long with a couple of breaks along the way, but the scenery more than made up for the long journey. I hear the train journey has some beautiful views too.


We stayed at the wonderful "Kokanes Kohinoor Samudra Resort"
Located on the Ratnagiri - Pawas Coastal Highway, its away from the city, situated on a cliff, sprawling over 2 kilometres from end-to-end, it has the most brilliant view from every room in the multiple buildings.




The town of Ratnagiri is pretty small & so easy to navigate after driving around in Mumbai.
We first headed towards the Thibaw Palace - which was built for the exiled King & Queen of Burma (now Myanmar) in 1910-11. They lived here until they died. This would be a familiar name for those who have read "Amitav Ghosh's - The Glass Palace"



It has also been partly converted into a museum. The museum is rather pitiful as it has only 4 rooms. One on the ground floor which has some old sculptures salvaged from the Ratnadurg Fort. The 3 rooms on the first floor have some old, badly damaged copper vessels, old photographs and the last room is an attempt to recreate the grandeur of the palace. The sad part of it is that, although the furniture is still solid (being made of Burma Teak) the furnishings are terrible. Synthetic bright curtains drag your attention away from the intricate light fixtures.


These 4 rooms and 2 used for offices are currently the only usable rooms in the palace. there are plans to renovate & strengthen the remaining buildings. Hopefully it will be sensibly done.

A short drive away is the scenic Thibaw Point

Do stop here for some wonderful views and to click some really outstanding pictures.

If you are already hungry, a quick drive away is Hotel Amantran which serves up the most amazing Malvani food. At approximately Rs.65/- for a Non-vegetarian thali, you can't beat the price either. The food is much better than the Mahesh's, Gajalees & Highway Gomatak's. Its that great. And the sea food is absolutely fresh & comes from relatively unpolluted waters.


Then take a slightly longer drive to the Ratnadurg Fort. Start with a visit to the Bhagwati Mandir




On the way to the Fort, if you pass throught the city you will see the Majestic Shivaji on a Rearing Horse.


The Ratnadurg Fort itself has a lot of crags, nooks & corners. There are brilliant views to be seen from certain vantage points. But be careful & look out for crumbling rocks.






You will be able to see the Lighthouse in the distance. If you are so inclined you can even travel upto it.


Another sight is the Ratnagiri Cement Factory and Jetty


If The Indian Freedom Struggle and its fighters interests you, Ratnagiri is the birthplace of both Sri Lokmanya Tilak & Veer Savarkar. Both their houses are within a few feet of each other within the city.

Sri Lokmanya Tilak's Janmasthan has been converted into a museum in his honor. It is open through the day. The house has been preserved as it is. And its a pleasure to walk barefoot on the cowdung smeared natural flooring. His topi & a few clothes are also on display within the museum.




Sri Veer Savarkar's house has been turned into a kind of library which is only open between 4 & 6 pm.




Round up the day with a nice quiet evening on the beach, Ratnagiri is famed as the "Black and White Beaches Some beaches in the area have black sand and the others have white. The tide here is quite reliable and you can bathe in these waters.


There are a lot more temples and other places to explore in Ratnagiri if you are so inclined. you can also make a lot of short excursions to nearby places like Ganapatipule, Pawas, Dapoli, Guhagar, Karde, Murud and Ladghar

I'm desicritic of the day

Hey all loyal readers. I'm desicritics "Desicritic Of The Day" today.

Read all my articles on Desicritics.org

Look out for a post on Alibagh & Murud Janjeera some time soon.