Beauty of Andaman & Nicobar Islands

An Indian Roadie fan is in Andaman & Nicobar Islands in mid - November 2016 for a professional assignment.
Inspite of her busy schedule, she has sent us this beautiful photo to describe the beauty of the island.

Toppels' Cafe, Wertheim, near Frankfurt, Germany - an unusual upside cafe

This is Toppels' Roadside Cafe in Wertheim, near Frankfurt, Germany. It's owned by a fictitious family, the Toppels, who were clearly very high when building this place. Why? Because they mixed up the ceiling and the floor of the place. Yes, you're thinking right! Their house and cafe is UPSIDE DOWN. And it's not just from the outside. It's inverted from the inside too. So once you enter the cafe from what's normally an attic window, you're in a for a really trippy experience. Everything from the windows to the ceiling lamps, the cafe counter, bedrooms, living room, is upside down.

Ottappalam, Palakkad district, Kerala road trip during monsoon

Ottappalam famous for its annual festivals is located in Palakkad district, Kerala. Lakkidi, the birth place of Kunchan Nambiar is near Ottappalam. Ottappalam in Kerala has been a favourite location for numerous Malayalam filmmakers for years, with the serenity and lush beauty of the place a major factor in luring them.



River Nila, which flows through the area, massive hills like Kizhoor and long, narrow bridges straddling meandering canals provide visually magnificent backdrops for film shooting. Numerous signs of once-vibrant Valluvanadan culture are still visible in and around Ottappalam and the imposing and architecturally elegant tharavadus like Varikkassery Mana and Olappamanna Mana provide ideal settings for films that exploit Malayali nostalgia. 102 Malayalam films have been shot in this scenic place. If other languages like Tamil, Telugu and English are also accounted for, scenes of 225 films have been shot in Ottappalam and nearby areas. A proposed film city will be catalyst for the development of film tourism in the area.



Anangamala is situated at Kizhur village near Ottappalam in Palakkad district. The hillock has an extent of 2500 acre and is under the Kerala Forest Department. One can trek to the hill.

Ottapalam and route to Kochi (Marine Drive Ground):

StayUncle and now OYO Rooms to help unmarried couples find privacy in India

While the moral police and the actual police acted as vigilantes over couples who wanted privacy in their bedrooms, StayUncle launched its services exclusively for unmarried couples who wanted a space of their own. Their tagline 'couples need a room, not a judgement' was welcomed and publicized. OYO rooms, a hotel aggregator launched their very own relationship mode hotel finding service in the light of its customers' demand. OYO rooms featured the 'No Rooms For Unmarried Couples' policy till two months ago and the shift is being hailed as a progressive step. Hotels often turn away couples without definitive proof of marital status which can turn embarrassing and many often resort to rejecting locals so as to not encourage premarital sex. By using the aggregators relationship mode on their website and the mobile app, couples can get rooms with their local identity cards and it promises to be hassle free as they get to book only those hotels that welcome them as they are. No more 24 hours booking. No more running to check out before 12 noon. StayUncle offer customers an opportunity to book one of the 10 hours slots currently available - Morning (from 10am to 7pm) and evening slot (from 9 pm to 8 am). In both cases customers pay for 10 hours tariffs.

According to Huffington Post, 'OYO says that according to a rough estimate, 60% of the 6,000 hotels in 100 cities they have tie-ups with have been found to be couple-friendly. A customer can search for a couple-friendly hotel by logging into their account, clicking on the relationship mode in search preferences and then proceed to searching. They can also search for all the hotels in a city and filter the results by selecting the OYO for Couples option. According to OYO, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Goa and Delhi have the highest number of ‘couple-friendly’ hotels. Tourist destinations such as Manali, Shimla and Mussoorie also rank high in the list. A casual search reveals that there are 146 such hotels in Bengaluru, 113 in Delhi and 217 in Goa. Surprisingly, metropolises such as Chennai (27), Kolkata (54) and Mumbai (12) have lesser couple-friendly hotels than Jaipur (170), Chandigarh (141), and Pune (73).'

Kavikrut, the Chief Growth Officer for OYO rooms said in an interview to Quint that the move was simply a logical one. A lot of their customers reached the hotel and then realised that they could not check in due to the hotel policies. It was embarrassing for them to be denied a room and to have to look for another hotel. All they did was let their customers know which hotels welcome unmarried couples. When they tie up with hotels, they know their policies, but the customers don’t, and that causes problems.

There is currently no Indian law that prohibits hotels from servicing unmarried couples or local couples that belong to the same city or area as the hotel. "We analysed guest-feedback and realized that couple-guests were likely to face last-minute inconvenience on account of hotel-policies that were not communicated to them earlier," Kavikrut said as reported by Times of India.

The rise in the demand for AirBnB, breakfast hotels, serviced apartments, hostels, room aggregators and specific ones catering only to unmarried couples like StayUncle and Bengaluru’s Nestaway are pointing towards a rising trend. People looking for a private and comfortable time sans the moralistic high ground of the self-appointed guardians of traditions have a reason to cheer as they get more options to not get caught in awkward positions.

Visit Turkey, a low cost international destination

Want to visit Europe but don’t have the budget for it? Well, Turkey is a great bet as it is one of the cheapest ways to explore Europe. Plan well and prepare in advance and the trip will not set you back by more than Rs 1 lakh – lesser if you do not include the shopping! The airfares aren’t that bad and if you bargain right, you can get great deals for rooms too! The food is pretty yumm and there are tons of options for vegetarians too. Turkey is just the place to be at to satiate that Europe craving.

Metal Man in Salvador, Brazil

Legend has it that Metal Man was burnt in a fire and now wanders Salvador, Brazil covered up in his metal costume and is only rarely seen. (Content & photo credit: Instagram @wingnz)

Scenes from a road trip to Sonepur Cattle Fair, Bihar, India

Enjoying a special smoke at Sonepur Mela (Sonepur Cattle Fair) in Bihar, India.
(Photo courtesy: Maciej Dakowicz, Street photography enthusiast) 

A street scene from Sonepur Mela in Bihar.
(Photo courtesy: Maciej Dakowicz, Street photography enthusiast)

Chott El Jerid is a huge salt lake located near Tozeur in Tunisia

An elevated causeway has been built across Chott El Jerid is a huge salt lake located near Tozeur in Tunisia with a surface area of 7,000 square kilometres. This lake is dry most of the year, so the best season to visit it is the winter season, when the rain creates beautiful mirror effects. The surface of the Chott is composed of Myriad salt crystals. An elevated causeway has been built across. South of Chott el Djerid, the Grand Erg Oriental desert begins. 

(Chott El Jerid Salt Lake, Tunisia - Colorful Desert Roses) (Courtesy: VirtualTourist.com)

Explore Kolkata - South Park Street Cemetery, also houses the grave of poet ‎Michael Madhusudan Dutt

South Park Street Cemetery is in the heart of the City of Joy, viz. Kolkata. It's near the crossing of Park Street and AJC Bose Road, opposite Assembly of God Church School. The busy road intersection is popularly known as Mullickbazar crossing. The great Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt was buried there. His statue is erected just outside the gate, where few Bengali lines from his works are written.

Chalamthang Homestay, Chalamthang, Post Office Namping, South Sikkim

Chalamthang Homestay, Chalamthang, Post Office Namping, South Sikkim is an ideal place for nature lovers, a heavenly abode of virgin beauty and infinite serenity. Experience the rural village life of Sikkim & pamper your taste buds with traditional home cooked ORGANIC delicacies. You know you are at Chalamthang when you can hear the whistling wind, chirping of birds and gurgling Teesta far down ... from the homestays famous spot "The Hanging Balcony". Bookings on Darjeelicious.com