Travelling

One of the many things that I am grateful for Hebron is that I learnt to travel here. Whether it was travelling back home alone (sometimes all the way to Africa) or just travelling from Hebron with others. Thanks to my time here, I've been to a lot of places in India. But I'm learning that even though I can put them on my (if I had one) "list of places I've been", I'm not sure I absorbed a lot. I don't know what it is, maybe it comes with getting older but I feel that I absorb things a lot more now when I'm travelling than I did when I was travelling as a teenager. For example, I went to Mysore this weekend and though we were barely there for a day I thing I absorbed so much more from it than I had when I went there back when I was in Std. 11... We went to the palace and while I remember that it was quite impressive, I didn't remember any specifics like the gorgeous stained-glass ceiling and trust me, it is so beautiful that you ought to remember it. It ought to be etched in your memory but somehow I don't remember it... at all. Anyway, I hope that I will now. It almost killed me not to be able to take photos in there!
 
The other awesome thing about travelling while in Hebron is that you don't always have to deal with the arrangements yourself. The Travel Office (very handy!) does the bookings for you and it's almost as easy as A-B-C, whereas I remember endless "conference calls" and debating that we had to do to arrange a trip with my college-buddies! The staff-room also has this very awesome file called "The Hebron Lonely Planet" which is basically all this information written down by staff-members who have travelled in the recent past and they write down where they stayed, how they got there, recommended things to do, etc! Very cool.
 
Anyway, so while initially I was planning to stay in Ooty for the mid-term break, I figured I should take advantage of the ease of "Hebron Holiday Planning" and just GO! Also, just travelling this weekend (even though it was just to Mysore and it was a rather uncomfortable bus journey) reminded me of how much I love to travel in India. There is just so. much. to. see. Every corner that you turn is different from the last and you come back always having learnt something. Not a single moment is wasted. So while it somehow always takes me a lot of convincing to get on the journey (remember, girls? ;)) once I'm on it, I know that I will love it and so on the bus up to Ooty I said to myself, "just always say YES when it comes to travelling! Don't overthink it." So yeah, I'll be travelling this ten-day break. Details to come later! For now, enjoy a few pictures from the Mysore trip...
 
I still can't add captions but basically the group picture was taken in Ooty, just outside the Botanical Gardens while we were waiting for our bus and the one of the girl with the rucksack is Miriam, waiting on the Hebron drive for the rest to gather... The one where I'm blending into the green is shortly after we ran out into the rain while we were at our hotel! Rains in the plains are somehow so much more welcome than they are in Ooty. Here it just gets colder but it's so refreshing down on the plains! The rest were taken while Anu, Miriam and I toured the palace on Sunday morning. Oh, and there's also one of Mysore city by night...
 
p.s. turned out I had a bit of time on my hands so this is the second post I've written today! Scroll down for the other one...