2011 - A year of travel for me

Year 2011 has been a year of travel for me. Though most of it was not planned, it just happened that I was traveling every month except for a couple of months.

January started with the drive to Chidambaram and Pichavaram about which I have blogged earlier.

 I visited Guruvayoor in February with my husband. That trip was a little different than my usual Guruvayoor trips as the time that we went was the Arattu festival and it was a 10 day festival that was happening and it was lot of fun watching the elephant race and other activities at the temple.

My husband’s friend was getting married in March and we had that as a reason to visit Hyderabad. One day went off in roaming around with friends. This trip again was special as I was visiting Hyderabad after a span of 9 years and that was the place where I started my career, which was the place where I met my husband first. Hence it was special traveling there and getting some nostalgia. So had fun during the wedding with friends and that was March

I guess I gave a break in April, before planning my May trip for a change with my mom and brother and that was to Goa. I have blogged about Goa earlier and this is just a mention of it here.

My husband was very much keen on going on a weekend trip especially driving. So after much contemplating on a place to drive, we chose Kolli hills which was different and thought would be a different experience for us. Kolli hills is also there on my blog page.

I guess I never went anywhere in July and August 2011. The next trip was again with family in September 2011 to couple of temples. We first visited Sankarankoil and then from there drove down to Tiruchendur. Both were very beautiful and that was also a different and nice trip though pretty tiresome.

October was an unplanned one though was not much a distance to travel. We drove to Thiruvannamalai during the anniversary of my in laws. Though its a pilgrim place, this place again offers some serenity.  The best part about this trip is the Girivalam or the walk around the hills which is 14 KMS. We started very early so that we could complete the same before it gets sunny and so did we finish it in about 3 hours.

Finally for the year to end I had a well planned vacation in Mumbai and Pune. I had to visit Mumbai for a wedding and clubbed my trip to Pune as well. This trip was also special to me. My birthday I spent at Lonavala and Khandala and I was visiting Mumbai after a span of 17 years. Mumbai is my birth place and once upon a time that was the place I used to vacation almost every year visiting my grandparents and other relatives. However, post my 10^th std I never got an opportunity though it was always on my mind that I should visit Mumbai sometime or the other. This was also a fun filled trip with meeting a lot of friends and a fun filled wedding too.

Finally came the end of year for me with lots of trips to remember.