As soon as you find the time once you've unpacked, you might find it helpful to recount your travel experiences with someone, or post any thoughts about the trip, interesting stories, funny mishaps, etc. using social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. However, realize that people won't be so excited about your trip or experience as you are because they didn't have the same experiences as you and it's fairly hard to imagine another's vacation. However, while sharing with others, take care to realize that sympathy for post-vacation blues is fairly hard to come by, owing to the fact that most people focus on the fact that you actually had a vacation, not that you feel upset upon your return.

It can be helpful to make a public page of your vacation photos so that more people can be inspired by your travels. Just be sure that any personal information revealed in photos or text is by choice, so that you keep private experiences private.

Our friends at IndiaHikes wrote a fun post about why you should have a trek-date before you get married. We think it's a fantastic idea - you really get to know what a person is made off, and as a bonus, adrenaline can increase the chances of attraction & chemistry. Who can say no to that?  But where do you go on a trek-date? Most of us only get a little time on weekends, and it's impractical to take every date on a Himalayan trek. So for the rest of us, here are some ideas closer to home: Weekend & Day-Treks Near Bangalore

Madhugiri Trek: Fancy a day-trip that's reasonably challenging? Try the trek up to Madhugiri fort in Tumkur District. It can be covered in a single day, but pick a day with milder weather. Photo Credit: k3vsn

Narasimha Parvatha & Barkana Falls, Agumbe It's hard to get forest officials' permission for this trek, but it's definitely worth trying for. Set in the heart of the ghats, Agumbe is a teaming jungle and it don't get much wilder than this. All worth the view from the top though. Photo Credit: Sharath Vishnu Weekend Treks Near Chennai

There's more to Goa than sitting on the beach and getting drunk, and there's more to Rajasthan than pampering yourself in swanky palace-hotels. That's why we're so excited to announce our brand new Gujarat-Rajasthan and Goa editions! This is in addition to the Bangalore-Karnataka and Chennai-TamilNadu editions that we launched earlier. In our new editions, you can discover trips to one of the worlds largest camel & livestock markets, the Pushkar Camel Fair, to the seasonal salt marshes of the Rann of Kutch, and a variety of adventure sports, including scuba diving and paragliding in Goa. As always, if you know of a great trip that we don't have listed, you're welcome to add it to our site - that's the benefit of our pioneering free & open model.

A few months back, we reached a point where we were no longer able to track and manage our leads via emails and calendars well. We knew this was a good problem to have, and we started looking out for some “smart”, “light weight” CRM integrations. And almost like everything else, we first looked for reccos from our network to know what works for people and what doesn't.

Thanks to the good folks at Exotel, we got to know about the wonderful product <drumroll> ‘PipeDrive’ </drumroll>. I think PipeDrive easily qualifies as one product with the least learning curve. We were soon dragging stuff between stages and across pipelines and to creating more pipelines and in no time all was setup. We integrated dropbox and managed all tasks related to a lead from the product itself which made life awesome!

And to get numbers, no more writing custom SQL queries and views. Just pull out the statistics tab and let PipeDrive take care of number crunching and making nice looking graphs which we could directly use in presentations and decks. Super neat!

Well, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. However the super nice folks at PipeDrive were ready to give us a startup plan and we were super elated.

Now that we knew PipeDrive was going to stay, I forked  https://github.com/jscott1989/python-pipedrive and with help of an amazing API documentation created an inhouse wrapper to integrate TripThirsty. And we can haz automation. Every product action created components in PipeDrive and automatically assigned to corresponding users and emails them out. Best part about PipeDrive was its support for Custom Fields, its so flexible that you can slice and dice the schema as needed and make magic work for you.

Give it a spin guys, it's a brilliant product: super light, flexible, powerful API support, statistics dashboard: It has it all. We love it, and we're sure so will you.

We launched TripThirsty.com in February, and we’ve learned a lot since then. We’ve listened to over a hundred users, in person and on the phone, and spoken with several who weren’t using us. While wishlisting has been close to our heart, we realized that we weren’t growing as fast as we needed to, in order to facilitate travel for a large number of our users. We could see that we needed to provide something of more immediate use to our users.

So we’re re-launching TripThirsty today as a one-stop directory for adventure travel. Today, if you wish to find an adventure trip to join near Bangalore, the options are spread between several meetup.com groups, a few facebook groups and many websites. You could spend all your time googling, and still not find all the amazing options - wildlife photography workshops, reptile handling, women-only camping trips, and tons more. The situation is worse in most other cities. Although companies like Tushky & PoshVine list some adventure experiences, they are really only scratching the surface of what’s available. 

We’re also doing this to promote micro-entrepreneurship in experiential travel. We repeatedly come across individuals like Joseph Lepcha (who doesn’t even have an email address) who create extraordinary experiences. They may not be for everyone, but we definitely want to help them find their audience. So when an operator lists a trip on TripThirsty, we can promote them to targeted subscribers from our 1000-strong user-base of travel enthusiasts. Our success derives from their success, and the end user’s satisfaction. We believe that we’re only at the beginnings of aggregating the wonderfully fragmented experiential travel market in India. We’re starting with our home city - Bangalore. You can help - please check us out for your next trip. If we don’t have a trip, add it yourself, or let us know and we’ll add it. Do you know of a great trip organizer? Let us know.

Planning for a trip isn't always possible at short notice, especially when a wonderful opportunity just drops by in the form of a cancelled flight and a day to spare. Exactly that's what happened with my family the other day, and we were on our way to Balur in less than 2 hours from the time we decided to go. A big thank you to Linger for the best stay option and Taxi4Sure for providing a taxi for the trip with a very friendly driver, who was at our doorstep within 45 mins of my booking, that's damn impressive. And of course a big one to TripThirsty for arranging everything with no hassle. For a change, it felt good to be at the other side of story by being a happy customer. 

The Journey:

Eight of us packed ourselves comfortably into two cars and we were on our way via NICE Route to Tumkur Road, further onto NH48 till Hassan. Smooth four lane highways(lot of tolls though!) got us to Hassan quite quickly. From Hassan, further towards Belur and Mudhigere, it is one of the best road stretches in India. Wonderful landscape all around, long winding roads, green patches, and a slight drizzle made the drive most enjoyable.

P.S: This picture is not mine. Linking to original source, I was too busy enjoying the drive :-) 

Near Mudhigere, we took a deviation towards Kottegehara (which was the only bad stretch of road) and further onwards to Balur into the lush green coffee plantation of Balur Estate (Estd. 1853, spread across 400 acres). 

The Bungalow:

An absolute beauty overlooking a valley and a hillock on the other side, a property with everything inside taking you back centuries. A nice warm coffee was all that we needed to get over the tiredness of long journey. The entire house was filled with small, interesting, old knick-nacks which added to the old world charm to this place. 

        We spent most of the evening in the living room playing Dumb Charades, Scrabble, Monopoly and simply chit-chatting.

The Plantation Walk:

We started the next day with a walk around the plantation, Rakesh the caretaker and Raja (the friendly dog) were both kind enough to accompany us all the way till the lake and to the waterfalls. All of these are well within walkable distance from the bungalow. The hike was real fun, and I was eager take a dip in the falls and the cold stream was totally refreshing.

Food, A cup of tea, sleep.. relax.. Oh food again.. sleep..  

That's what we pretty much did the rest of the day. The whole idea of a stay at Linger is "do just nothing", and we lived up-to their expectations truly. On the way back, we stopped by the famous Belur temple which I would suggest not to miss. We were back home by midnight. And special mention to Amza and Rakesh (the caretakers) and Ratnamma (the cook), the people who made our stay totally unforgettable. 

All in all it took just less than 2 hours to plan and execute, just a day to spare. But we gained a nice day's relaxation and lot of fond memories about doing nothing. 

My two cents: The next time you get a day off, don't head to a nearby mall, or multiplex. Take your car out, fill some fuel and hit the road. It will leave you absolutely rejuvenated and refreshed.

When we launched TripThirsty a few months back, we set out to help our users travel more with friends - and most importantly, with sweeter deals. Recently we crossed 3000 wishlisted places mark, so it seems our users like what we are doing!

A few weeks back, we started notifying users over our weekly email about friends who have wishlisted the same place as themselves. We were thrilled to see quite a few people starting to plan a trip right from that thread. That's when we realized the need for a simple trip planning tool. We are excited to roll out a exciting new Trip Planning feature today!

Rather than re-inventing the wheel, we turned Facebook events into a Trip Planning and discussion board. When a Facebook connected user expresses interest in one of our deals, they can invite their other TripThirsty friends to their fresh trip plan in just a click. These Trip Plans are by default visible only to friends and the user can choose to make it secret. Do give this feature a try and let us know what you think.

Time-lapse photography involves playing the video at a much higher frequency than what it was originally captured in. Tilt-shift photography, on the other hand is sort of a camera trick to achieve selective focusing which in turn simulates a miniature effect. It's becoming a trend to showcase a place/product using a mixiture of both of these technologies and make a real life scene which happens over a longer period of time look more interesting and captivating. Throw in some nice music, and you've some really eye candy stuff to watch. 

According to one of the posts on Gizmodo, "It captures essence of a place and makes you want to visit the place, if only you could shrink down to the right size."

One of the earliest such videos I came across was from Sam O'Hare, who shot a video called 'A day in the life of New York City'.

A few months back, I came across a facebook post from a friend which told about few Bangalore guys doing something called 'little Bangalore'. And very recently found a Kochi based company come up with 'Kochu Kochi', again meaning 'Little Kochi'. 

They do try and do a good job of trying to capture the essence of a city and indeed does make one want to visit and experience the life there. 

Happy Trippin'

Kolli Hills is a relatively lesser known mountain range in the Eastern Ghats. Known as Kollimalai in Tamil, this place is mentioned in ancient literature and known for some famous Siddhas.

Sandeep and I had planned this backpacking trip as a recce for visiting a couple of campsites and resorts. Instead of hiring a taxi, we decided to go the backpacker way. We caught one of those entertaining and musical TNSTC buses to Salem from Silk Board, Bangalore. We reached much earlier than we anticipated and had a good 3 hours to kill before the 4 am bus to Kolli Hills. 

We started to get panicky when there were no signs of the bus even as late as 0440, and were wondering if the bus left. Now, by chance I noticed a few labelled newspaper bundles on one of the platforms. Also spotted a guy who was doing the hard work of routing the right bundle to the right bus. We chose the 'jugaad' way and waited near the bundle labelled 'Kollimalai'. And boy! We were on the dot and very soon both of us as well as the bundles were enjoying the hair pin curves up the valley. The approach road is a bit narrow and has more than 70 hair-pin bends.

State Goverment Bus to Kolli from Salem

Around 8ish we reached the first village in Kolli stretch, the weather was very pleasant with lush greenery all around us. The bus soon slowed near a house and driver honked several times, and eventually stopped in front of the house. A lady casually came walking and got one of the papers from the driver. Yes, you heard it right. The government bus driver just morphed in to a newspaperwala and this continued as the other villages came by. It was such a hilarious sight. Casually I unlocked my mobile and found that Airtel had zero coverage in the whole region, apparently only BSNL and Aircel works.

From Seekuparai Viewpoint

The camp-site location was serene amidst tapioca and pepper plantations. After a quick breakfast, we visited Seekuparai View point and boat house. While the boating place wasn't that impressive, the view point was breathtaking. In the evening, we wanted to explore the plantations around the resort. Sandeep lead the plantation walk and was able to find pathways to walk around while all I was able to see was rocks and bushes :)

Kolli Hills Camp Site

Later we indulged in some heavy hogging, the dinner was very tasty and as homely as it can get. The caretaker Murugan took extreme care in ensuring we were full to the brim. The camp-site had no power connection and usually they run generator for 3 hours in the evening and follow it up with a nice, cozy campfire. The generator was slowly giving up and as it was becoming pitch dark, we decided it was time for some crazy long-exposure photoshoot with Sandeep's camera. We had lots of fun! 

Aagaya Gangai Waterfalls

The next day, we visited the Aagaya Gangai Waterfalls. It's located near the Arpaleswarar temple and is about 1200 steps walk to reach the base of the falls. After about 20 mins of walking down the steps, we even thought of abandoning the mission but we pushed ourselves and continued and phew finally reached. There wasn't much water in the falls, but even the small stream flowing was so cold and fresh that a dip was certainly needed. As it was early morning on a weekday, we were the only humans there accompanied by a couple of whistling (literally) birds. 

Hiking near Arpalleswarar Temple

All in all, we enjoyed the visit a lot and had a really good time relaxing and taking time off. It indeed helped as it was during weekday, the crowds were much lesser and locality very fresh and serene. As it was peak summer, it was a little hot during afternoon. But, Damu & Co from Yahoo! took our offer and went on a team outing recently. They really enjoyed the weather and thanked us for the trip. It's on my list to go and enjoy the falls in all its glory during the monsoons. 

Cherai, Athirapally, Vagamon, Thekkadi, Kottayam, Trivandrum

At TripThirsty, our job runs more like this these days: discover great places to travel, ogle at tempting images of those places, and scout for excellent offers and experiences for our users. As you can imagine, our biggest occupational hazard is tripthirstiness!

Anitha's birthday, summer vacations for Mugil, and discovering a great place to stay at Vagamon via Sandeep, and above all, an available ticket to Kochi on IRCTC provided the perfect storm. Since Anitha had earlier threatened me that our marriage hinges on me taking her to some waterfalls soon, I decided that we must go to Athirapally. My wishlist for the trip had water everywhere!

We got down at Kochi railway station and our cab driver Santhosh was waiting outside. We headed to Cherai passing by Kochi's iconic cheena valla (Chinese fishing nets) and beautiful backwaters. Cherai was crisp and clean with locals busy cleaning the beachfronts in their vicinity. Crabs were running around a fishing boat that was unloading the night's catch. We spent some time at the beach and proceeded to Athirapally.

The pre-monsoon levels were perfect for us to plunge into the river above the falls without any risk, while the sight of the falls was amazing. After a couple of hours of soaking to the bones, we started to Vagamon.

Passing through the road snaking through the green carpeted hills, we reached our resort. I have a thing for stone-faced buildings, so it was love at first sight. The large balcony was abutting a pine forest on one side and grassland on the other. We woke up early in the morning to the beautiful song of the Malabar Whistling Thrush perched close to the balcony! Red-whiskered bulbuls, Yellow-browed bulbuls and dozens of other birds were feeding voraciously on the berries in the resort. After a walk into the pine forest and a delicious breakfast buffet, we set out to Thekkady. On the way, we stopped over for a spice plantation visit where we bought some fresh black pepper.

At Thekkady, we went on an elephant safari followed by bathing the elephant. After that we went on a jeep safari to Ottagathalaimedu (Camelhead viewpoint) and other places before returning for a brilliant Kalari show. We were all dumbstruck by the awesome performance. I was happy that this ancient martial art still thrives. We then returned to the resort for a good night's sleep.

The next day, Santhosh dropped us at Kottayam station and we went to Trivandrum by train. Sandeep took us around to Shangumugam Beach in the night followed by a special dinner recommended by Sandeep's dad. The next morning we had great fun at the beautiful Kovalam beach, followed by a great seafood fare at Varnam.

Nei meen pollichathu, koonthal kanava thoran and duck biriyani were the highlights. And the bill was unbelievably low for such awesome food. We then packed up and got to the Kochuveli station grabbing some nenthiran (banana fruit) and kappa (tapioca) chips. Since Mugil loved the "pink water", Sandeep's dad had got the special pathimugam herbal mix for him.

Now that we've hand-crafted such a great trip, we want to offer this must-have experience to all TripThirsters. We can create a package for you covering any selection from these places as well as Munnar. Check out our deal. Ask Sandeep nicely and he might get you some special experience. :-)

Getaways from Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, and Coimbatore.

Summer gives a reason for everyone to travel (not that we need excuses). Sweltering heat in cities, summer vacations for kids, apt time for wildlife photography, and so on. We've pulled up a great collection of places to visit this summer so you don't have to pull your hair out.

Thirthahalli

Away from the city bustle, amidst the verdant plantation, unwind yourself. Lavish bedrooms with separate drawing room, Malenadu cuisine to invigorate your taste buds. Experience the Malenadu in a cosy estate cottage, aroma of freshness fills you with rare birds making casual appearances. More »

Ideal for families, chilling off

Offer Whole family cottages from Rs.2,899 onwards

Nainital

Fancy a vacation in an elegant heritage mansion? Wake up to sweet tweets of birds amidst an Oak forest in the Himalayas. Feel the crispy cool mountain air, marvel the flora and fauna, play golf, ride horses, or go boating. Be one with nature, at Abbotsford, Nainital. More »

Ideal for couples, solo travellers, artists and bookworms

Offer Rs.6,333 for a couple for per night

Hassan

Be prepared to get pampered in the luxurious suites with carefully designed natural settings. This resort is a perfect getaway for a family leisure holiday, with an opportunity to explore nearby historical sites. More »

Ideal for rejuvenation, games, architecture (Belur Halebidu)

Offer twin occupancy cottages for a night from Rs.6,499

Tadoba

Located right at the gates of the Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Svasara is the ultimate luxury destination offering an immersive experience of the jungle. Take the in-house naturalists for a nature walk with you. Catch tiger cubs playing in the pools. Watch the dholes, bears, and boars at the watering hole. Put your lenses to good use. Enjoy the great Varadi Cuisine of Vidarbha. Svasara is all about immersion, joy, and luxury. We're sure you'll leave the place wanting to come back. More »

Ideal for wildlife enthusiasts, kids

Offer starting from Rs.6,999 for a couple

Linger

Linger is a delightful concept in relaxed vacationing in earth-friendly properties. Whether it's the 400 acre coffee estate near Chikmagalur, the beautiful cottages in Coorg, the shacks in Gokarna, or the campsite in Devarayanadurga hills - Linger, rated 5 stars on TripAdvisor, provides a fantastic environment for those choosing to "do nothing". More »

Chikmagalur

Ideal for families, extended families, nature lovers, trekkers

Offer Rs.2,499 per day, all included, on twin sharing

Coorg

Ideal for couples, families, nature lovers, trekkers

Offer Rs.1,599 per day, all included, on twin sharing

Gokarna

Ideal for seafood lovers, beachmongers

Offer Rs.1,599 per day, all included, on twin sharing

Hidden Gem

Just 6 hours from Bangalore, we have found a hidden gem for trekkers and stargazers. An early morning walk through the pepper plantations catching glimpses of early birds, trekking to the Aaagaaya Gangai and Masilla falls, enjoying the local food over a campfire, and stargazing all night, it'll be a weekend well lived. Very well connected by NH7 and perched at 1200 m altitude. Guessed the place? Check it out!

Ideal for adventurers, trekkers, stargazers

Offer Rs.1,200 per person per day, all meals included

Wayanad

Fancy a weekend in a plantation away from all hustle bustles? Then, Wayanad it is! It’s a misty green paradise in God’s own country. Great for a quiet weekend with your valentine or an adventure trip with your friends. More »

Ideal for relaxing family vacations, plantation walks

Offer Rs.2,400 per couple per night

Puducherry

Pondicherry is a great place for a laid back vacation. Catch the sunrise, walk the streets lined with houses built in French and Franco-Tamil architecture, enjoy the beaches, savour a variety of food, gulp some beer. Just chill. More »

Ideal for seafood lovers, beachmongers, culture afficinados

Offer Luxury rooms for a couple at just Rs.1,999 for 2 nights

Andamans

Sun kissed white sandy beaches, azure-crystalline lagoons, mysterious tropical rainforests, dazzling corals, a swimming elephant and spectacular starlit skies. Enjoy scuba diving, snorkelling, trekking or a visit to a private spice island.

That's not all. We offer a serene, silent and peaceful night in an exclusive Waterhouse. An experience which has been concealed for many years and opened up now for TripThirsters. The water around the boat sparkles in the night from bioluminescence of microbes and is a sight to cherish forever. More »

Ideal for couples, divers, pisceans

Offer Get in touch for the brochure

Ever since we started building our dream product, we've been dreaming about travelling ourselves. And finally the Thirsty Crew decided to give our laptops a break and planned for a quick getaway to peaceful Puducherry. We did some amount of research on beautiful places to visit and collected all our favorite picks onto our special wishlist: Weekend Plan to Pondy 

We boarded 12255 from Yeswantpur Jn on a friday evening, the A/C coach and the clean train were indeed the perfect way to start our trip. We reached Pondy around 10 AM and quickly settled down in our wonderful small resort The Palazzo in Reddiyarpalayam. (We highly recommend this place, not just because we've a great TripThirsty offer from them.)

Thanks to FourSquare tips, our trip started on the best possible note with some amazing butter croissants and coffee from Cafe des Arts in Labourdonnais Street in the French locality of Pondicherry. The cafe gave a warm feeling about how these Europeans running the cafe, had embraced Tamil culture and decided to settle down. The cafe had a well stocked library with books about European philosophers, biographies of Indian heroes and so on.

Next we decided to head to the amazing Paradise Beach, one of the most serene and beautiful beaches in India. We decided to travel the backpacker way and decided against hiring a taxi/vehicle for commuting in Pondy. We went directly to the Pondicherry main bus stand and took a bus heading to Cuddalore, a mere Rs 5/- ticket and the bus drops you right in front of the resort entrance in Chunnambar. From the resort the best way to get to the beach side is by taking a boat ride. Beware of long queues here and plan accordingly.

After spending most of our day at the amazing beach, we were all reluctant to get up and go to any other place. And when we say fun, we really mean "head over heels" sort of fun.

And finally we got our a**es and heads out of the beach and made a move to the city and visited Aurobindo Ashram, White Town, Shiva Temple, Beach Road and ended at Le Cafe, a beach-side 24 hour coffee shop and can I say we ate to our heart's content? Just when we felt we were all exhausted after a long day, we heard some music playing from one end of the Beach Road. Curious, we walked across and realised it was a French Alternate Music band performing in connection with Bonjour-India. The soul-stirring music was the perfect way to end the day.

One of the best things about Pondicherry is the fact that one gets to experience such a huge cultural mix ranging from French culture to Hindu temples and Aurobindo ashram, all of them just a couple of buildings away from each other. It gives a very positive vibe on seeing such an amazing co-existence. The sun finally sets and we bid adieu to a wonderful place with a delighted heart and beautiful memories of having spent a wonderful day in Peaceful Puducherry. 

This is a trip we could vouch for, a few of our upcoming trips are:

North East of India | In and around Bangalore

Thirst More. Trip More! 

So, here's the big news. Ritesh Nayak has won the Linger Games contest. Overall 135 thirsty trippers created 256 wishlists. And his "Must See India" wishlist topped our leaderboard. He gets to enjoy a two night stay for two at any of Linger Guesthouses.

We had a chat with Ritesh and this is what he says.

0. Tell us a bit about yourself, your interests, and what you do...

My bio: co-fumbler at muHive. Developer, wannabe musician, wildlife enthusiast and Bangalorean. Love music and code. And the occasional getaways.

1. Congrats on winning the Linger Games Contest. How do you feel? Excited?

Of course I am bloody excited (in a British accent). Who wouldn't be excited to go on a holiday. According to me, going away to far away exotic places and exploring the people, culture and nature is the best life has to offer. 2. How did you go about creating the "Must see India" wishlist? Was that list in your mind even earlier?

Yes, I guess the list was on my mind. I might have written a blog about it, but I wouldn't have found the great images that I did to make people want to check out those places. I really do want to look at curated travel lists and some of the lists like "Bangalore getaways", "Birding places in India" etc are awesome.

3. Did you promote it among your friends? How?

I did promote my list. I remember posting my list on facebook and twitter timelines.

4. What's one place you'll sell your soul to go to?

Sell my soul eh? Hmm.. let's see, I would sell my soul for a bunch of places and attractions. My list includes: Africa to see the wildlife, New Guinea to see the birds of Paradise, Scandinavia to see the Aurora Borealis, Great Barrier reef for the obvious, Peru for Machu Pichu and the rain forests. Bora bora for the waters.

5. Which Linger location would you pick?