That “Yikes” moment when you forget to carry your toothpaste and/or toothbrush during a travel

Morning odour is definitely not pleasant, especially if you are to go meet people for the rest of the day. I am pedantic about oral hygiene and do not even talk with out brushing my teeth in the morning. So, imagine my plight when I forgot to carry my toothbrush and toothpaste (note the AND). Usually the hotel stay provides a dental kit when you check-in, but to my surprise they did not, and thanks to my busy work schedule and the drowsiness induced by tab. cetrizen, I hit the bed straight after work.

So, how to grapple this problem?

Google to the rescue. I felt less shameful when I saw thousands of people google the same problem. (Sick pleasure). Here are some hacks:

Scenario 1: How to clean you teeth without a toothpaste

1. If there is a store nearby your hotel, you could run and buy yourself a tooth paste. Worth the run
2. Assuming you have been using you tooth brush for more than two weeks, there are chances that your toothbrush still carries the essence of your toothpaste, inspite of cleaning it properly. So, rinse your mouth before brushing and spit out the water. This removes the particles stuck to your teeth and tongue. Then run the toothbrush under tap water, clean it and start brushing. The toothbrush will still produce some lather. Rinse your mouth throughly after the process
3. If you are carrying a mouth wash, you can rinse your mouth after brushing. Mouth wash is a saviour!

Scenario 2: How to clean your teeth without a toothbrush

1. Again, if there is a store nearby, you could still go fetch it
2. Fingers to the rescue: Forgetting the toothbrush is a better scenario than forgetting your toothpaste, according to me. Back in the time when toothbrush was not invented, people used their fingers and tree(neem,babool) barks to brush their teeth. So going back to the roots (shoots, in this case), squeeze some toothpaste on your index finger and start rubbing the paste on your teeth and gums. The finger acts like a brush and you can achieve a near to perfect brushing action and freshness after
3. Use mouthwash/ dental floss  if you are carrying them

Scenario 3: How to clean your teeth without a toothbrush and a toothpaste

This definitely is a terrible situation! Worry not. There is always a solution to every problem.

1. Check your bag to see if you are carrying oil. Oil pulling is a an old and effective Indian art of maintaining good oral hygiene. Sesame seed oil (gingelly oil) is generally used, but since most of us carry coconut oil/ olive for hair and skin during travel, they can still be used. Some oil is better than no oil. After oil pulling, use your fingers to remove the excess oil and rinse your mouth throughly. I used almond oil. No complaints!
2. If you are carrying only a mouth wash, then rinse your mouth using it and brush the teeth using your index finger
3. You could also floss if you are carrying dental floss with you
4. If you are not carrying any of the above , use your index finger and scrub away the particles or other stuff stuck to your teeth and gums and rinse your mouth throughly. Keep chewing mint flavoured gums till you get hold of a toothpaste and brush

        Once bitten, twice shy. You will never forget to pack your dental kit for the next trip after this.

A recent attempt to capture the sun rise At Besant nagar Beach - A photo blog

I finally got a much needed break on this weekend. I decided to do something productive and not sleep through the day. So, I finally picked up my camera which has been laying in my cupboard untouched ever since I reached Chennai. I asked a cousin who shares my enthusiasm in photography and we decided to go for a photo shoot of the sunrise at the nearby beach. We had been planning for this liaison for quite some time. So, at 5 in the morning we rode all the way to Besant Nagar beach on our bikes, hearts filled with excitement. It was still dark when we reached. With in minutes the first ray of the Sun fell on us and then gradually the light started scattering all through the sky in an Orangish hue. But, the ball of fire was not where to be seen. Meanwhile we tried a few portraits of the people who frequented the place for their walks and jogs. We also witnessed a band in the making practice their songs and playing their guitars.
Here are a few snaps:

We decided to turn back as we did not get to witness what we came for, the sun rise. As we were about to leave the Sun which was playing hide and seek decided not to trouble us any more and finally started to reveal itself from behind the cloud. This is how it looked. Hold your breath. I never knew the colour orange could be so beautiful.

With in a span of two minutes we got to capture more than what we anticipated. The sun rise, the light hitting off the sea waters as reflection with an Orange hue is a treat for every photographer (amateur, in my case). Here are a few clicks which I thought was worth sharing:

We also had a chance to capture a few boats carrying fishermen ready to set sail to fetch their catch.

This surely is one of the cleanest beach I have been to. Also, early morning hours gave us the advantage to get a suitable place to stand and capture. Here are a few general pictures:

I was satisfied with the shots , though not completely, and rode back home to process the pictures and write this photo blog. . Why not completely you ask? Because, there is always a scope for improvement.

Our trip to the North-2

Contd...
The next day we took a tour to the local temples. We were to visit Pehelgham but because of the snowfall, all the roads were blocked towards Srinagar and we had to stay back another day at Katra. We visited few temples like Naudeviyon ka mandir and Shiv Khori caves which was around 80 kms away from Katra. It took the entire day because of the distance and the Ghat section. The next day was the beginning of the journey to the most enthralling place called Gulamrg. Its probably the most exciting place I have ever been to so far. This place is around 300 kms from Jammu. The en route to this place is equally breathtaking. We witnessed snow capped mountains and valleys shooting down from them.

On gradually nearing Srinagar we witnessed snow on either sides of the road neatly shoveled by the Border Security Force. It paves a beautiful way. Although the snow fall was minimum in comparison to what we saw at Gulmarg, we were thrilled as it was the first time we saw snow. It looked like a scene out of a postcard.

Isnt it breathtaking? In places like this the traffic is slow moving (more like snail's pace) and it took us the whole day to reach Gulmarg. We reached a place called Tangmarg  at 2am. It was freezing outside. The temperature had dropped to minus officially now. We woke up from our disturbed slumber and exerted all our guts to get out of our car. The chillness rained down our body. Our toes and fingers almost froze inspite of our heavy clothing. Thanks to our driver's friend who owned a coat and boots rental place there, we found ourselves our fur coats and rubber boots. We then took another car whose wheels were chains with spikes so that it would not skid during the journey. We then drove for another 16km at 2:15 am to reach Gulmarg. Although we were freezing our asses off we could not stop but enjoy the beauty of mother nature in the moon light.. well, who am I kidding.. the street light. It was splendid. I am at loss of adjectives to describe the beauty. The snow here was a lot more fresh and heavy. Have a look, this was the view.

My brother and cousin decided to get their pictures clicked at 3 am in that heavy snow.We then managed to pull our luggage all together and tried to walk on the snow to reach our cottages. Some of us slipped quite a few yards. ahahha it was funny to them fall. As we were 11 people we hired a 8 bedded cottage and a fancy 1 BHK cottage. The 8 bedded cottage looked something like this.

Doesnt it remind us of Snow White and seven dwarf's hide out??? It had 8 beds with electric blankets which gave the warmth. One can get information regarding the bookings and other information from this site.

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g317095-d3185017-Reviews-JKTDC_Hut_Gulmarg-Gulmarg_Kashmir_Jammu_and_Kashmir.html

it has details  of other accommodation too.There was a primitive boiler which kept the room warm by burning firewood which had to be filled once in every 3-4 hrs.It did work well. we dried out our coats and socks and gathered around like a bonfire. Surprisingly, we dint feel like sleepy at all. We then forced ourselves to sleep as we had an amazing day to enjoy. we woke up at 8 am and were welcomed with steaming hot ginger tea by the care takers. The hospitality was really great (that was because we were the only guests at the cottage) The chief, yes thats what we called him as he liked to deliver long lectures like that of a college orientation.He then explained to us about how things operated there. we then freshened up and changed. What!! you expect us to bathe in that shitting cool temperature?? No ways!! We then put on our overly sized, humongous coats and rubber boots and set out for the local activities. every place, every object was worth clicking a picture.Me being a photography enthusiast could not hold myself from clicking multiple clicks. Although I would love to post all of the pictures, I am restricting my self to post a few here...

We walked down a few furlongs to reach Gondola, where we get to ride the cable cars to reach the higher altitudes. While the tickets were being purchased, we decided to click a few (more like 100s) of pictures.As it was not snowing, we threw snow at each other and clicked pictures. It was like we were reliving our childhood again. even the elders joined us in snow bowling. Then we took to the cable cars. These cars were French made and were introduced in 2005. There were two halts, Phase 1 and Phase 2. The elders made it only to Phase 1 and we kids (ahem ahem) went on to Phase 2. The en route again was just mind blowing. The ground was covered with at least 2 feet snow. As we gradually went saw that the huts, wells were all covered up with snow. It is been told that this forms a natural track for skiing.Our guide apparently felt that Apls was just a jest in comparison to this.well, in his defense he was right. We finally reached the Pase 1 which was about 10000 ft from the ground. 

The kids, thats us, went on further to Phase 2 which was at a height of 13500 feet from the ground.This was truly a bliss.It was after this we realized why the Pakis are bent upon capturing Kashmir. Virgin white snow, clear blue sky, I felt like I was on a shooting set up. This was the view that caught our sight when we reached Phase 2.

The clouds were below our eye level. It felt heaven. The shadows also were blue because of the reflection from the snow.it took us few minutes to actually understand that we were indeed on earth. Although, the entire place wore a blanket of snow, the sunlight at that altitude provided us great warmth. It a perfect marriage of chillness with warmth. We were basking there for hours together. Our guide was a man with great enthusiasm. He volunteered to click our pictures and was quite good at it too. We clicked hundreds of pictures again.We borrowed the poses from various Hindi movies .. here are a few:

We were told that the LOC was around 15-20 kms from here. With great regret that we had to go back, we mounted the cable cars to come down. By then, the chillness started setting in. By 4 pm it started getting dark and cold. We then decided to have decent lunch and walked 2 km to find a mediocre place. We then started placing orders like crazy as we were totally drained out from the walk and the other activities at Phase 1 and 2. We gulped down food even before he could turn around or finish serving the rest.we hogged to our capacity and took a cab ride back to the room. We then enjoyed the warmth by the fire wood back at our room.The elders decided to catch up on the serials they had missed all these days on the TV at our room. After hours and hours of talking, eating, photo sessions we finally took to rest.The next day we had to get back to Jammu to board our train back to Delhi. We all left the place with great memories and were eagerly waiting to watch the photos to relive the moment. We reached Jammu again at 2am (courtesy the snow fall) and hit the sack!! rushing to the station next day we boarded the train to Delhi. 

I personally loved Delhi. The roads were wider, the traffic was under control and the pollution was reduced to almost zilch.I was allured by the means of their transport; buses, autos running on LPGs, battery operated rickshaws and metro trains.We were very eager to take the metro trains. We then went sight seeing the next day. Inspite of the limited time we rushed to Qutub minar and went shopping at Palika bazar. I personally loved the metro train rides. The icing on the cake was the food we had.We tasted almost all the delicacies of the road side food; pani puri, paneer sandwich, vada paav etc etc. Then we rushed to "haldiraams" the official noruku theeni maker. We hogged down plates of dhoklas, khandvis, gajar halwa, jelebis, samosas, another round of pani puri, masal chat and pedas. the entire platter disappeared with in minutes.

We then finally reached the station to board "the rajdhaani express" that took us back home. All  we did (atleast balu, arvind and me) through the journey was sleep. We were sleep deprived for almost a week and hence we slept through the entire journey.Realizing this, the railway pantry attenders woke us up while serving food every time and even offered to pick up our plates from our berths. It was a total bliss. 

After 28 hours of travel we reached Bangalore safe and sound and all excited to share our experiences with others.

This so far has been the best family tour I have ever taken. With a lot of wonderful and unforgettable memories I now officially sign off.

Cheers

Our Trip to the North -1

As avid travelers, my brother and I decided we should take a trip to the North with our family as a trip had been pending for quite a few years. On consulting with my cousins we decided to plan a trip to VaishnoDevi, Katra, Pehelgham,Gulmarg,Jammu, Kashmir,Agra and Delhi.We are a family of 11 and planning a trip this long and for all the 11 members was really a Herculean task.But, the joy that we were all travelling together for the first time and to the most exciting places during the winters made us forget all the wrath of bookings and planning.

As usual a lot of people suggested that visiting these places during the month of December was not a good idea and was not safe.Well,having been brought up in places like Vijayawada, Bellary and Hyderabad where the only climates we experienced were "hot, hotter and hottest" we desperately wanted to witness snowfall and what better season to pick other than the December winter? We laid out a plan according to the train availability and connectivity. As we planned our trip one month in advance, the IRCTC website did not give us much trouble in booking tickets.(Ufff, I still cannot forget my tatkal booking days where I spent 1 hr in front of my laptop banging on the refresh button)We took the Rajdhani express to reach Delhi from where our trip began.as most of us were used to only overnight travels, a journey of almost 25 hours was a pain in the ass. But the entertainment kept us alive. The train route was well  planned connecting us to  almost every state starting from South to North. we passed through Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, UttarPradesh,Agra and finally reaching Delhi. Some of us had not visited Taj Mahal so we got down at Agra to go see our national heritage and one of the seven wonders.The weather was pretty rough because of the chill and thick fog and hence delaying our travel time.We reached Agra at about 10:00am(which should have been 8 am)It had been 2 days we had taken a bath. I never imagined in my life that I would miss bathing. so folks, if you are planning a north tour during the winter you need to be less obsessed about personal sanity.We refreshed ourselves(again not bathe), had some yummy Sandwiches, Samosas and Poha at the station.If you are a south Indian, you definitely will be struck by this question, How can people have kachoris, jelabis and samosas for break fast? Well, the answer is due to the cold weather a lot of calories gets burned for performing simple tasks and this hefty breakfast helps them through out the day.The very sight of them eating all this at 10 am filled my stomach and I just stuck to my veg sandwich which was delicious by the way.After our pethpooja we decided to start our trip to Taj Mahal. Coming to the mode of travel, there are a lot taxis available just outside the station with pre- paid meters which shuttle between Taj Mahal and the railway station. This is the best mode of transport. We had very limited time and hence visited only the Taj. Taj is only 8 kms away from the station.Agra is a small city and we could actually see other structures on our way( ofcourse, at a distance) Dad lived in Agra for a few years before his marriage and  shared with us some of the anecdotes and incidents that had taken place during his time. Apparently, every household had a facility to avail a licensed gun for self defense when they were invaded by bandits.How cool is that? I immediately sprang and asked why my Dad dint avail it. I mean wouldnt it be cool to flaunt a gun and that too a vintage one?It reminded me of the dakus(bandits) from Sholay and Gabbar's dialogue,"Kitney Aadmi the re Kalia?"Of course, there is no such facility now. Tsch. Moving on, we reached The Taj in about 15 mins.All I could witness was this when I first stepped out of the taxi.

This monument is a replica of the Taj and is situated near the ticket counter.It was about 12:30pm in the afternoon but the weather dint seem so. It was cold and foggy.We had to wait for almost an hour to actually enter the path that lead us to the Taj. There were separate lines of men,women and foreigners.After going through strict checks and frisks we finally entered the path that led us to the Taj. Its a 2 km walk but for people who dont prefer walking or for the elderly and physically impaired there were horse carts, camel carts and battery operated autos. We walked the stretch and finally reached the entrance. Lo and behold we could not spot the monument because of the thick fog.It took about 20 mins for the fog to clear & reveal the mangnificent beauty it was hiding .I was at loss of words. It really was beautiful. I could not hold myself from clicking multiple photographs.Here are a few.

These are some of the  best shots I could get despite the thick fog.We spent around 2 hours clicking family pictures with this splendid backdrop.We then visited the grave of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Another good view was the banks of river Yamuna. The still waters looked beautiful adjacent to this. We then hurried to have our lunch as we were already late for our train. We dined at this beautiful vegetarian restaurant called Swad somewhere close to the station. It was only then we found that our train was running late by three hours.we took our own sweet time and had a hefty meal as we had been eating the same old boring Rajdhani food. We officially started our parata and roti platter from that day. On reaching the station we learnt that our train was running late by 6 hours. We had to reach Delhi that night as the next train to Jammu was early in the morning next day.We were asked to board Punjab mail so that we could reach Delhi by atleast 9:00pm. This was one of the unforgettable journeys we ever had. We booked open tickets for all of us and entered the train which looked more like passenger. The train was already filled to capacity even before we boarded. We boarded the train with all our luggage and hoped to find seats to sit. Surprisingly with in 15-20 mins all of us got situated safely with our luggage. All my prayers were answered.After three hours of travelling in that completely full compartment we squeezed to get out of the cabin on reaching Delhi.We reached Delhi at 9:30 pm.It was shivering cold.It was then we got the actual feel of winter.All of us were adorning atleast 2 layers of woolen clothing, a scarf, woolen socks and shoes. We stayed over at the Railway dorm for that night as we had an early train next day.We had a good night's sleep in spite of the shivering weather outside.Again, we skipped bathing the next day because of the not so clean bathrooms(it was 3 days in a row now)and figured we would reach Katra,Jammu and bathe in peace.Again, our train was delayed by and hour and a half and we finally boarded the train. Again, if you are a frequent South Indian railway passenger you will definitely loath the North railways for their lack of sanity and passenger etiquette.One does not simply get off your so called reserved seat unless you yell at them or shoo them away. Yet, they manage to butter you up and get a small but a significant part of your berth to sit.Strategies you see. We passed through Punjab, witnessed its fields, Singh sahebs driving their tractors, dried up rivers of Jhelum,Beas and Chenab. We also tasted the famous Channe Bature and roti wo bhi makhan maarke at the Ludhiana station. The chillness gradually set in when we were approaching Jammu. There is another strange thing that happens when you enter the Jammu border. All your prepaid cellphone connections gets disconnected( I am guessing because of security reasons) So we had no phone access in our whole one week journey in and across J&K. Thanks to this we had an undisturbed and a proper vacation.On reaching Jammu we booked two taxis that took us to Katra(which is about 50 kms from jammu) for the halt. On the way we had our dinner in one of the dhabas which served the best Rajma Chawal.It really was finger licking good.On our way to the hotel we had a beautiful of Vaishno Devi hill with its well lit pathway.It was a spectacular view.We finally reached our Hotel. It was a good hotel with clean and well furnished rooms at economic rates.
http://hotel.yatra.com/hotels-india/hotel/details.htm?hotelID=TGR-00005237&ci=GYTHotel&gclid=CMyrsrzyqLwCFSQ44godFBMAbQ
While all of them were busy resting, I ran to take my bath. It had already been three days and it felt yucky!!
I ran a hot bath which brought  my joints back to life.We started early to ascend the hill to Mata Vaishno Devi's Shrine.It was a 12.50km stretch up the hill. There are various ways one can use to reach the top.
Most of them prefer walking, but there horses, ponies, palanquins and helicopters. All the information regarding booking and other details can be found on this website.
https://www.maavaishnodevi.org/
We started our walk after having hot adrak(ginger)chai. We started at around 10 am. It was pretty cold at the foot of the hill. We figured we would wear our jackets and wool wear as rain was expected(we checked the weather info of every place we were travelling on www.accuweatherinfo.com) As we were gradually walking the sun was up and we started to sweat and off went the jackets, gloves and scarves back into the bag. It was a pleasant walk. There were shops all over the hill selling water, juices, food,vegetable salds and other confectioneries.also for every stretch there were benches if one wanted to rest.

  This is the view of the path from mid way. we took a few breaks, had a few cold drinks to quench our thirst and finally reached the shrine at 3:00pm. We had to deposit our shoes at the deposit box. Man, did our feet freeze. The next one and a half hour stretch was the most difficult one, not because of the path but because of our frozen feet. all of us walked chanting the name of Mata Vaishno so that we could distract ourselves from the cold weather. The earlier cave path is now closed and a new entrance is made so that people could walk straight with out banging their heads against anything. There was another round of frisking and security check and we finally entered in to the shrine.Though it was pushy, we had a good dharshan of Mata. Unlike our idols this was quite different in appearance. It was cast in a stone with no significant feature except for the decorations.After a good dharshan we had our lunch at one of the dhabas and started to walk our way back. We started to get the pinch of tiredness and pain. It took us almost seven hours to descend the hill. The whole journey takes about 12 hours. We somehow managed to reach our hotel in single piece.All I remember was hitting my bed. The rest was blurred... 

TO BE CONTINUED...........................

Travel photographs