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The Sacred Monkey Forest is in the heart of Ubud, on the Bali Island of Indonesia. Ubud features a huge scooter or motorcycle culture and the narrow roads make the traffic gnarly at all hours of the day or night. It is quite a respite to have the green, lush Monkey Forest smack dab in the center of this hubbub. The entrance is flanked by two huge statues of dragons like lions on each side and the thousands of tourists that were in the monkey forest with me that day had paid

In a small town named Saba, by the bay, in the Gianyar region of Bali, lies Indonesia’s winery named Sababay and it has quite a success story. The story starts in 2009 when the founder discovered that in the northernmost town of Singaraja in Indonesia’s Bali Island, the farmers were only getting about 3 cents per kilo of grapes that they produced. Already a businesswoman, Mulyati, the founder of Sababay, struck a deal to buy all the farmers’ grapes for between 10 to 15,000 In

Shravan month, the 5th month of the Hindu calendar, corresponds to the monsoon season in India, and falls around August to September. Hindus consider this month as holy and people fast and worship during this month. Many people consider Mondays of Shravan to be especially auspicious. A holy site in Nashik, Maharashtra is Trambakeshwar, and it is part of the 12 Jyortilingas , devotional representations of the Hindu god Shiva. Brahmagiri is a hill near Nashik and is near Tram

The Sahyadri mountain range has many forts from the period of Moghuls and Marathas. I learned about a very old fort named Dhodap and decided to go there for a hike. The drive to this area was about just over an hour, the road was in good condition. The four of us started at 5:30am. After waiting for a quick session of tea, we proceeded to the town of Dhodambe. Around 7:15am, we were in the small village, and the morning was very foggy. It was a new area to hike for all of us

I spent a month in Nashik which is in Maharastra state in India. I wanted to be with my ailing father and continue maintaining an active routine with daily exercise while there. Nashik has many holy temples in its vicinity and has Panchvati- the place where king Rama, from the epic Ramayana, spent his time in exile. The river Godavari also has its origin from a nearby place Trimbakeshwar near Nashik. There are Pandava caves and Chambhar caves situated on freestanding mountain

I was surprised to find that in 2013, LVMH setup a winery in Dindori, a town about 20km away from Nashik. It is situated in very serene surroundings a couple of miles inwards from the closest highway. The long entrance to the winery is lined with palm trees and looks pretty. There are many mountains in the area and the winery has a scenic backdrop. The area where the wine tasting is held is very elegant. Tasting can be done in the outside patio as well and the lawns outside m

One of the few forts not conquered by the Moguls is the Ramshej fort a few miles away from Nashik. We went to hike there and it is a quick half hour away from the city. The full moon was out and the mountaintop with the fort on it was shrouded in clouds. As we progressed on our walk, the fog cleared revealing the distinctive shape of the mountaintop. There were some stairs at the beginning which made for an easy climb. The steps ended soon enough and the rock face of the mou

Like most of my recent hikes, for the one to Harihargad , I started early morning at 5 AM with a few colleagues. We all traveled in one car, and it was the seven of us. The ritual of drinking tea at all hours of the day is very prevalent in India, so at 5:15 AM, we were at a small restaurant which specializes in tea. There are many such places around the whole state, and the tea supposedly is as good as "Amrut", the mythical elixir, which can bring a dead person back to life.

In the Saatmala hills of Maharashtra, there are a group of seven hills, with a moderately challenging hike ending in a big roundish cutout in the sheer rock face of the hill. The cutout is visible from long distances. Also in these seven hills is a significant pilgrimage site of goddess situated in Saptashrungi . It is nearly an hour and half drive from Nashik city to the start of the hike for Mohandari which starts in very tiny village of Mohandari. Starting at 5:30 AM we we

In Taharabad city, which is in the district of Nashik in Maharashtra, lie the ancient temples carved by monks of the Jain religion. Nashik city is about 140km away from Taharabad and we decided to do a half-day trip including the hike to the two peaks, Mangi and Tungi near Taharabad. This is also a ' Siddha Kshetra' , meaning a gateway to Nirvana in the Jain religious beliefs. Many sculptures of Tirthankaras in Padmasana , the lotus position is seen in this place. Starting

Ho Chi Minh, the president of Vietnam whose picture is on all of Vietnamese currency has a city named after him, and it was originally named as Saigon. It is almost to the southernmost part of Vietnam and at a population of close to 10 million, it is the most populous city in the country. As one walks around the city, it is hard to miss the busy, relentless traffic, mostly composed of mopeds and motorcycles. There is a fair share of cars, buses and vans. Vinfast, the car with

On a four day, 500km mini motorcycle ride across the picturesque Ha Giang region of northern Vietnam, I encountered many beautiful vistas and many kinds of road conditions. Some roads were well paved, had clearly marked lanes, medians and road markings following international standards like the one pictured above near Lung Ca, next to China border. Some roads were made of tar and were in great condition. Many roads also had guardrails on one or both sides. Sometimes the mount

Near Vietnam's northern border with China is the Đồng Văn province. It is a very beautiful, hilly region and has many UNESCO world heritage sites. Many international tourists land in Hanoi, rent a moped and ride a 1,100 km loop that includes Ha Giang. You can also take a luxury bus that takes 15 people in about 6 hours to Ha Giang and start riding from there. The bus costs only $20. It is super clean because as soon as you step on it, you are given a plastic bag to put your s

About 4 hours train ride from Taipei is the Taitung Highland. It hosts an international hot balloon festival for two months annually. To get there by the Taiwan's high speed express trains, you get down at Luye station which also show the balloon icon on the station name's board. Walking 4km or taking a 10 minute taxi ride brings you to the highland where the balloons are launched. There are two time windows of two hours each during the day for the viewing, the afternoon one

Two hours train ride on the express train from Taipei is a city called Hualien which has the Taroko Gorge National Park. The train itself is fast, clean, good looking and goes over 125kmph. The train stations are clean and also have a lot of food spots. As you get out from train station to the city, you see a nice picture spot that most cities have now a days, for people to pose and remember that they have visited that city. Next to the train station is the bus stop where al

An hour's bus ride from the Taipei main train station is the Yangmingshan national park. It has a short but moderate to challenging level hike to the Mount Cising Peak, which is at 1,120 meters (3,396 feet) representing nearly 2,000 feet elevation gain in the hike. To get there, a bus stop right across the main train station offers the bus number 260 which runs every 20 minutes. The bus is pretty clean and efficient, and the fare is only 30 NT$ which is about $1. Once at the

Before the Dubai's Burj Khalifa was completed in 2010, the Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world and is first one to cross half kilometer in height. I walked in its direction from the Taipei main railway station and it was a seven kilometer walk away. I took it as an opportunity to see the Taipei neighborhoods as I made my way to this iconic building. It was a hot day with 92F temperature but the roads were full of people. I saw a glimpse of the building from far

In many places around El Nido, one can see signs of four tours, A, B, C and D. Each is a full day trip in a boat to the open sea and includes 5 stops to some the innumerable small islands off the coast, each about half to one hour boat ride away from the other. I signed up to do Tour C which includes helicopter island. Overnight, it rained very heavily and by the morning at the pickup time, it had let up. However the coast guard had rescinded the permission for Tour C and the

The Island of Palawan, which is between Manila and Cebu on the western side of the country, is a very green island spanning about 250 km from south west to north east and has the area named El Nido at its northern tip. I rented a scooter and decided to check out the beaches on this side of the island. The first beach is the Vanilla beach towards the south side of El Nido. It has a beautiful densely wooded small island about a kilometer away. There are ziplines running from t

About two hours on a fast ferry from Cebu is the relatively big island of Bohol. It has a geological formation that is unique. From Cebu there are ferries to at least two ports of Bohol, Tagbilaran and Tubigon. The latter leaves Cebu at 7am and reaches by 9:30. About 50km from Tubigon, in a tuktuk takes you to the starting point of the geological attraction called Chocolate Hills. As soon as you enter the area, you have to pay 100 Philippine peso fee to enter. The first choco