Unique restaurants from round the world

 

Time to relax a bit :-P

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Petrol Price Hike and Protest over Social Media

Yesterday it was a shocker of my life, suddenly Indian Government increased the petrol prices by Rs 7.5 that is whopping 10% hike in the fuel prices. Rupee fell to all time of low of around Rs 56 against a Dollar. Thanks to new official billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s facebook and other social media site people at least crib their government, protest and make themselves heard.

Here are the some picks from various sites jokes and pictures.

1. Petroleum Minister had a sip of Thumbs Up and Said…. “aaj kuch Toofani Karte hai…>=)”

2. Petrol Pump Attendant : Kitne ka daaloon petrol ??
Aam Aadmi : 2 – 4 Rupaye ka gaadi ke upar spray kar de bhai. Aag lagani hai..

3. Petrol is now so costly Bappi Lahiri is replacing all the Gold on his body with bottles of Petrol

4. The “F” in your petrol car fuel gauge no longer means “Full”.

5. The monk who sold his ferrari probably knew about the petrol price hike (via bb)

6. Breaking News: 2 Mumbai players caught red handed accepting a 10 litre can of #Petrol to bowl a NO ball. #IPL

Pictrography

 

Congress Vote

 

Go Green

 

 

 

Still Moving

 

Don’t Quit AHIMSA

 

Petrol in Sachets

 

 

 

 

Everest in Numbers

Everest 2012: 229 Summits 9 Deaths 

A long line of climbers follow each other up Mt. Everest. Image: Ralf Dujmovits.

8,850 meters (29,029 feet): Height at the peak.

60 million years: Approximate age of Mount Everest.

$25,000: Cost of a climbing permit per person.

8,000: Height in meters (approximately 26,000 feet) at Mount Everest’s “death zone,” the low-oxygen area above the last camp and before the summit where conditions become increasingly harsh.

1953: The year Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first recorded climbers to reach Everest’s summit.

3: Number of countries visible from the summit (Tibet,India, andNepal).

11: Number of people who have died on the mountain in 2012. (till 23 May 2012)

19: Number of people who died in one year—1996, the deadliest ever on Mount Everest—during a trek chronicled by writer Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air.

30: Number of minutes before a climber dies after contracting hypothermia on Mount Everest, depending on how fast his or her body temperature drops

40: Record number of people to successfully reach Everest’s summit in one day(May 10, 1993).

200: Approximate number of total climbers who have died on the peak’s treacherous slopes.

4,000: Approximate number of people who have climbedMount Everestsince Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

13: Age of Jordan Romero, the youngest climber to reach the summit, in May 2010.

76: Age of the oldest climber to reach the summit, Min Bahadur Sherchan, in May 2008.

73: Oldest Women climber to reach the summit, Tamae Watanabe on 19th May, she broke her own record set a decade ago at the age of 63.

21: Record number of successful climbs to the summit by Apa Sherpa.

 

Indians Rewriting Everest History – Everest 2012

Four bravehearts from Maharashtra became the first Indians to summit Mt Everest this climbing season while another 80 Indian climbers are waiting on the lower slopes for their turn.

Four members of the Sagarmatha Giryarohan Expedition from Maharashtra summited the world’s highest peak, once virtually barred to private groups due to lack of funding, at 6.45 a.m. Saturday, said the team’s guide and Everest hero from Hyderabad, Shekhar Babu Bacchinepally.

“This expedition is dedicated to Ramesh Gulave,” said Shekhar, whose ascent in 2007 as an individual climber unsupported by any organisations inspired dozens of Indian Everest aspirants subsequently.

Gulave developed breathing troubles and other health complications last month after the expedition had flagged off and had to be airlifted to Kathmandu and flown to India for medical treatment. He died on April 27.

Shrihari Tapkir, a 28-year-old avid trekker and climber from Wadmukhwadi village in Pune, was one of the four summiters.

Tapkir is also one of the founders of the Sagarmatha Girayarohan Sanstha at Bhosari, which is now one of the leading adventure clubs in Pune.

Accompanying the ordnance factory employee on the 8,848 m peak were Sagar Palkar, 27, from Chinchwad, Balaji Mane, 34, from latur district, and Anand Bansode, 27, from Solapur.

Bansode also set a new Guinness World Record for playing music on the highest altitude with a concert at camp II of Mt Everest on May 6, at a height of 6,300 meters.

“It was a financial challenge,” said Shekhar. “Most of the climbers took personal loans while the rest of the money came from individual donors and a few groups.

“Most corporates shied away from offering sponsorship, thinking it would cost them Rs.3-4 million per climber.

“However, the boys did it on a shoe-strong budget of Rs.1.5 million per climber.”

Shekhar himself had been a shoe-string Everest conqueror who owned his boots to the Indian Army expedition at that time as well as weather forecast reports.

If the weather holds, the Pune boys will make another go later this week.

Also waiting in the lower camps are three institutional Indian teams: from the army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Nehru Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling.

While 62 Indian climbers are following the route from the south through Nepal, there are nearly 20 more Indian climbers pushing ahead from the Tibet side.

The Pune boys shared their feat with another record creator Saturday.

Tamae Watanabe from Japan became the oldest woman to tame the mountain.

The 73-year-old, who reached the top as leader of the Asian Trekking International Everest Expedition 2012, along with Noriyuki Muraguchi, also from Japan, recreated her own record.

Ten years ago, she had strode to the top to become the then oldest woman to stand there at 63.

India lost an opportunity for another record earlier this month with Delhi teenager Arjun Vajpai being forced to abandon his twin goal in China after developing breathing problems.

The 18-year-old, who holds the record for being the youngest Indian to summit Mt Everest, is now trying to become the first Indian to tame all 14 “Death Zone” peaks in the world towering above 8,000 meters.

He has summited Mt lhotse and Mt Manaslu besides Mt Everest but his attempts on Mt Shishapangma and Mt Cho Oyu, the 14th and sixth highest peaks in the world respectively, had to be called off.

The teen took it stoically.

“A good mountaineer is the one who is able to return back safely from the heights,” he said. “The mountains are always there, it’s not the mountains that one conquers but oneself.”

Source:IANS

 

Epic Day for Indian Mountaineering – Everest 2012

 First time in History of India Civil expeditions from India announced the success. A dozen civilian mountaineers from Pune today reached the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,848-metres. Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha and Giripremi – the two Pune groups – announced success of their respective expeditions on their Facebook pages.  However Ramesh Gulave succumb to death from Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha due to AMS.

Mr. Ramesh Gulave

Eight climbers from Giripremi, including Tekraj Adhikari and Krishna Dhokale, and four from Sagarmatha Giryarohan – Shrihari Tapkir, Sagar Palkar, Balaji Mane and Anand Bansode – reached the summit from the ‘South Col’ route, from Nepal.

This is the first time that civilian mountaineering expeditions have scaled the peak.

 

Mahindra Adventure Season 2 kicks off in June

The eagerly anticipated second edition of Mahindra Adventure will take place in June 2012

India’s leading SUV manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra’s second season of Mahindra Adventure will be held in June. This series that showcases the off-roading potential of Mahindra vehicles includes categories like Great Escape, challenges, Monastery Escape, Royal New Year Escape, besides three new adventures, viz, the 14-day Tri-Nation Escape that traverses Bhutan, India and Nepal, and the six-day Authentic Goa Escape and Wildlife Escape. Primarily designed for Mahindra vehicle owners, those who do not own one can also participate by paying a nominal fee.

The Great Escape participants can participate in an ‘Off-Roading Trophy’ later in the year.

“After the successful run of Mahindra Adventure Season 1, we are all geared to unveil the new season that promises even more thrills for the adventure seeker. The ‘Off-roading Trophy’ and international events make season 2 even more exciting and will go a long way in showcasing the tough and rugged capability of our range of vehicles,” said Vivek Nayer, Vice President, Marketing, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Mahindra Adventure has also featured in the motorsport arena. After roping in drivers Gaurav Gill and Lohitt Urs, it has also got 2012 Dakshin Dare Rally winner Sunny Sidhu on board. The team will compete in India’s most popular motorsport events including Mughal Rally, Raid de Himalaya and Desert Storm.

The company also unveiled ‘Get Lost’, India’s first online adventure magazine.

Month	Event	Zone	Date
July	Monsoon Challenge	South to West	July 19 – July 22
July – August	Monastery Escape Classic	North	July 26 – August 5
September	Spice Challenge Trination Challenge	South North to East	Sept 7 – Sept 9 Sept 15 – Sept 29
November	Wild Escape	Central	Nov 16 – Nov 21
December – January	Royal Escape Classic	North	Dec 27 – Jan 1

Great Escape Calendar

Month	Location	Zone	Date
June	Kottayam – GE 90	South	June 23
July	Mumbai – GE 91	West	July 7
August	Goa – GE 92 Chandigarh – GE 93 Saklespur – GE 94	West North South	August 11 August 18 August 25
October	Kohima – GE 95	East	October 20
November	Jaipur – GE 96	North	November 24
December	Off Road Championship	Mumbai	December 7 to December 9
January	Kolkatta Challenge – GE 97 Hyderabad Challenge – GE 98	East South	January 13 January 20
February	Coimbatore Challenge – GE 99	South	February 3

Source: http://www.mahindraadventure.com/

 

Mount Everest 2012

The Tourism Ministry has issued climbing permit to scale the Mount Everest, the world highest peak,to 32 teams consisting 337 climbers (325 foreigners) for this spring. Of the climbers who were issued the permit, 49 are female.

Mt. Everest

With the surge in the number of prospective climbers, the government’s royalty too has increased impressively. The ministry collected Rs 262.9 million in royalty from this spring’s Everest expedition. “Appreciation of the US dollar against the Nepali rupee also helped augment the royalty this year,” a report by the Kathmandu Post quoted Tilak Pandey, liaison officer at the ministry’s Industry Division.

Mountaineering is considered as high-value tourism, and the government annually collects around Rs 200 million in royalty from Everest expeditions alone. Last spring, the government collected Rs 170 million from 26 expedition teams consisting 251 foreign climbers.

The royalty for climbing Everest ranges from $15,000 to $70,000 per expedition, depending on the number of expedition members (maximum seven) and the route. For an expedition having a maximum of 15 members, a fee of $10,000 per person is charged. According to the ministry, it received the highest number of applications from the US followed by India and the UK.

This spring’s expedition is expected to start from the first week of May if the weather favours climbers. All mountaineers have left for the Khumbu region to spend time on the lower reaches of the Himalaya for acclimatisation. “Some mountaineers have reached to Everest Base Camps while some are on their way to acclimatising themselves,” said Pandey.

Over 3,000 climbers have scaled Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Sherpa in 1953, according to official data.

 

Where’s bachelor party?

Who doesn’t want some fun before entering wedlock? Traditional pre-wedding sangeet and mehndi celebrations notwithstanding, young Indian bridegrooms, inspired by movies like “Hangover” and “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”, are heading to international destinations with their gang of boys for that last fling.

Abhishek Jain, a Delhi-based businessman, took seven of his friends to an unusual destination like Tashkent (capital of Uzbekistan) prior to his wedding last year.

“I did not want to go to a usual destination like Bangkok for my bachelor’s. I wanted to go to some unheard place. I asked seven of my friends to be part of the celebration. Eventually, the six-day trip turned out to be an amazing one. The city had everything we were looking for — great pubs, even better night clubs and it was complete value for money,” Jain told IANS.

The trip cost them Rs.35,000 per person, but who was complaining?

“Besides the colourful nightlife and the ballet shows, the nearby areas of Tashkent had all that you need on a vacation. We were taken to a beautiful lake known as Charvak. We did water sports there, paragliding, go-karting and a whole lot of other things,” he added.

Sachin Awasthi, a 26-year-old IT professional, wants to let loose once before the D-day.

“Since it would perhaps be the last time to have crazy fun with my cousins and friends, I want to do something bizarre, something similar to what the guys did in the movie ‘American Pie’. But that might not be possible in our country because of legal issues and other rules. Places like Bangkok and Macau allow us to do those, and that’s quite a temptation,” said Awasthi.

Adventure, thrill, casual gambling and, sometimes, just the idea of beach, booze and belly dancers work well for men who may be as young as 24 but are ready to tie the knot.

It’s international destinations like Dubai, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Bangkok and Pattaya, which are most frequented, thanks to cheaper deals and unlimited avenues for the boys’ idea of fun.

Macau’s Cotai Strip has become a “24-hour party zone” with its recently opened Sands Cotai Central, an integrated resort, and now offers more than 10,000 hotel rooms, around 60 bars and restaurants, live entertainment, casinos, spas, 600 shops and so on.

“There are specialist party organisers in Macau ready to show you the various nightlife options,” said Natasha Tome, executive director, marketing, Sands China Ltd.

“You can have fun on almost any budget. From fine dining to fast food, including many Indian options, from palatial suites to affordable comforts in world class hotels, with great shopping options for men, we even have gondola rides and entertainers. Indian groups will find everything here,” Tome told IANS.

“You can also work in other exciting elements, such as bungee jumping, go-kart racing or helicopter rides to Hong Kong,” added Tome.

According to Kushdeep Sawhney of BonVoyage Travels, “Travelling has more or less become a hobby for people, especially in India, and 70 percent of them are young boys and girls aged 20 to 25 years.”

“The interest of people going abroad has taken an upward graph in the past two to three years due to increased awareness of tourism, affordable packages, high-level publicity of the tourism ministry of countries and states in India,” Sawhney told IANS.

He says the easy visa process to places like Thailand and Hong Kong is also an attraction for youth, apart from flight-cum-hotel packages as cheap as Rs.20,000 per person.

“Passengers travelling from India can get visa on arrival. This has promoted tourism as the person can get the tickets and hotel booked and just proceed to the airport; there is no paper work required for visa which gives a high level of mental satisfaction to the passengers,” he said.

Even those who plan their bachelors’ party within the country — there’s a lot on offer!

Special arrangements can be made for pole dancers, belly dancers and even strippers at your beck and call.

But those like 27-year-old Deepak Sinha, who is yet to find his dream girl, says he would love to go abroad. “It’s just convenient to book tickets online, pack your bags and leave…”

 

Social-travel sites to try when planning your next trip

This week, travel review giant TripAdvisor announced a new feature which highlights reviews from people in your social networks, in the hope that it can make finding the best travel advice easier and more fun.

It may boast 50 million users, but it’s by no means the first company to pursue the holy grail of using the internet to help us tap our virtual friends in a bid to travel better. Here, a look at some of the best sites out there for social travel inspiration:

Wanderfly
The latest version of Wanderfly launched last month with a new emphasis on ‘visual travel discovery’, as well as its clever mix of suggestions from tastemakers and friends from Facebook or Google contact lists.
http://www.wanderfly.com/

Trippy
Trippy has unashamedly taken a leaf out of Pinterest’s book, breaking down travel ideas into a pinboard and allowing users to repin their own favorite places.
http://www.trippy.com/

Triptrotting
With the tagline ‘not just another clueless tourist’, Triptrotting helps users scour their social networks in search of people they know to get advice, recommendations and even a bed for the night.
http://www.triptrotting.com/

Gogobot
Gogobot makes it easy to instantly see where friends have traveled to, displaying destinations, ratings and questions on a simple, Facebook-style feed for users.
http://www.gogobot.com/

Twigmore
Twigmore helps travelers to form a ‘friend-map’, connecting them to potential friends at destinations to ensure that they know people on the ground. It’s powered by Facebook.
http://www.twigmore.com/

TripAdvisor
The travel review giant’s new ‘Friends of Friends’ service automatically elevates reviews on its site which come from direct friends or people who know your friends, before allowing users to send messages to get further information if necessary.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/

Tripalong
Makemytrip forayed in social travel lets you find your friends on the flight you are on.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com, Google.com,Corporate Websites