anukul

Srilanka (historically known as Ceylon), is an Island country in South Asia. It is separated from Indian peninsula by Gulf of Mannar. I had a long time wish to visit this country. Finally, I travelled this wonderful country on my bicycle from 2nd -26th December’24 along with my cyclist friend, Mr. PH Patil (from Karnataka).  Day-0: 2nd December’24:   Reaching Srilanka: I reached Bhandaranayeke International Airport at 9.45 pm by Srilankan Airlines, UL196) with my cycle. There were no extra charges for my oversize luggage (box size 1500x813x229 mm, 28 kg) and  immigration was also hassle free.  I withdrew some Srilankan rupees (LKR) from my forex card and taken a Srilankan mobile SIM card (Dialog) at the airport itself. My partner, Mr Patil reached at 11.45 pm from Bangaluru. We booked a Van (7700 LKR) and reached to our pre-booked hotel (Hotel Ocean Edge & suits, Marine drive, Colombo-3, 30 km from airport) at 1 am. Day-1: 3rd Dec’24: Colombo City: 25 km cycli...

I started my cycling journey on the footsteps of Lord Rama on 20 Feb’24 from Ayodhya (UP) and reached Maihar (MP) on 4 march’24 before taking a break. The details of my this journey is elaborated in part-1 & 2 of my blogs on the same subject.  For restarting my journey, I boarded Ambikapur SF Express (22408) on 15 October’24 at 11 PM from Nizamuddin railway station (Delhi) and got down at Shahdol (MP) next day at 2 PM. This time, I had lots of difficulties with my cycle transportation. In spite of timely booking,  my cycle was not loaded in the train (which I realised after reaching the station). I had to run between the parcel office and parcel van and beg to the concern persons to help me. Somehow, they loaded it at the last moment with some extra money. Had I not physically verified, my cycle would not have loaded for sure.  Next problem was at Shahdol station, my cycle could not be unloaded as parcel van was fully loaded and there was no space to remove my cycle. ...

I started my cycling yatra on 20 th February’24 from Ayodhya Dham and reached Chitrakoot Dham on 26 feb’24. The detailed descriptions of journey of first seven days are covered in Part-1 of my blog, titled “ Cycling on the footsteps of Shri Rama: Part-1: Ayodhya to Chitrakoot. ” The second part starts from Chitrakoot on 27 feb’24 as under: Day-8: 27 Feb ’24: Chitrakoot stay: 50 km cycling I stayed at  Anand dham lodge at Kamadgiri road near Ramghat, chitrakoot.  In the morning, I went to visit Janki kund (where sita used to take bath) and Sphatik Shila (Sita used the smooth glass like rock as mirror). There are many stories about these two places  where Sita and Rama spent considerable time. One such story is that Indra’s 2 sons (Mayank & Jayant) kept evil eyes on Sita Mata here. After visiting these spots  (500 meter apart) , I started cycling towards Sati Anusuiya temple. Suddenly, it started raining and I was forced to stop at a bus stop. As rain didn’t s...