Beautiful Northeast of India.

I always wanted to get my Master’s degree and I was determined to get it in the United States. I got my admission letter from University of Texas at Dallas in Naveen Jindal School of management. As soon as I told this news to my friends (the Musketeers), before even congratulating me they planned a trip to Sikkim and Darjeeling. We knew for sure that our pact of trip every year would pause for two years as I would not be able to make it.

The trip to North east India was a much-needed vacation for me after the hectic procedures of college applications, the visa application and all the paperwork that was necessary. India has all forms of landscapes, Sikkim and Darjeeling are in the Himalayan Mountain Range.

This was a 5-day trip and we were emotional during this trip. I had been to these places before as my father was transferred to Kolkata (where we stayed for two years), and during this stay we had visited most of these places. Back then I believe as I was young and could not fully appreciate the beauty of these places. But this time I tried to soak in nature’s beauty and enjoy every bit of it.

The places we visited in Sikkim were: MG road, Baba Mandir, Changu Lake (cable car ride to top view), Banjhakri falls, Do dhrul chorten, Cable car Gangtok.

From Sikkim we took a car ride to Darjeeling and we visited Japanese pagoda (peace pagoda), Batasia loop, Padmaja Naidu Himalayan zoology park, Himalayan mountaineering institute and Tea estate.

Believe me, I never wanted to leave that place.

I just loved this trip.

The First International trip.

The Musketeers met again to celebrate my new job; this is where the plan for our first international trip was made. This time we were travelling to Malaysia .We booked the flight even before we got visas. That day we realized together that we are very impulsive, which has turned out to be a good thing for us.

This trip was very exciting for two reasons, one since this was international trip and second, we decided to go around the country on our own using local transportation. It felt like we were real travelers, using maps and asking people for directions. This was a 4-day trip and the places we visited were KL tower, Petronas Tower, Suria Mall, Aquarium, Tugu Negara (National Monument), Thean Hou Temple, Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square), Bird Park, Bath Caves and the Dark Cave Exploration.

The Beauty in the Mountains.

One evening as we were celebrating Kavyas birthday, we realized it was almost a year since we had our Goa trip. By the end of that day our next destination was decided, and flight tickets were booked, Yeah, I know we work fast. This was one of my favorite trips as it was a hill station. 75 miles away from Pune, a well know city in India, was our destination Mahabaleshwar. This place is a treat for your eyes and soothes the mind.

We took flight from Bangalore to Pune and a Car to drive to and around Mahabaleshwar. It was a 3-day trip, which was more than enough to cover all our planned locations. This was a laid-back easy-going vacation. We weren't under any pressure to cover a lot of places.

During our stay we visited Pratapgad Fort, Lingmala Waterfall, Arthur’s Seat, Panch Ganga Temple, Elephant's Head point, Sunset points. Travelling from one place to another did take some time since Mahabaleshwar is in India's Western Ghats mountain range, with mostly windy roads

The last day on our way back to Pune we visited Mapro Gardens, which is known for their strawberry produce. And with strawberries we bid goodbye to Mahabaleshwar.

The First Trip

Every Indian friends group, especially engineering friends, the trip plan starts with “lets go to Goa”, but for some reason it never becomes a reality. But we did make it happen. Our first ever trip as independent individuals was to Goa. This was the cheapest Goa Trip ever. Since these were our first jobs, we didn't make a lot of money, and we had to plan a budget trip. We took a train to Goa from Bangalore and booked 2 scooters to travel in Goa. We went during the monsoon; we saw a different view of Goa and we could visit all the places we planned for.

It was 3-day trip, in which we covered Baga Beach, Calangute Beach, Grand Island, Dudhsagar Waterfalls, Fort Aguada, Candolim Beach, Tito's Street, Arambol Beach, Anjuna Flea Market and Chapora Fort.

Our Goa trip ended with a cruise and we boarded the bus back to Bangalore.

Introduction to Me and the Musketeers

Travel craze – it all started when I took a trip to north India with my family, to be specific Shimla, Kullu Manali and New Delhi. This trip is the first thing that comes to mind when travel is mentioned not just because this was my first ever trip but because this trip taught me about frost bite, long story may be another blog. So, the travel craze runs in my family. My father loves to travel , due to which I have travelled most of north India before I started college. In college, schedules were disrupted, and travel stopped.

During engineering is where I met my Musketeers, me, Kavya and UB the crazy trio. All three of us where crazy about travelling. We would spend hours planning our travel to the world. We couldn’t wait to graduate, get a job and earn money , so we could execute our plans.

We have broken all stereotypes on friends’ groups, we are the all-girl gang that went on trips every year.