The Ant Blog

Hello Folks,  An entire year has come to an end, and so has our hiatus! We begin this year with a great deal of anticipation for travel. Year 2016 will be a world of new experiences, adventure and thrill. We shall share the list for 2016 very soon, but before that let's take a look at the best trails of 2015 from the various listings on travel for 2015 and get our batteries charged!! So here goes.. Corsica Corsica is incredibly varied in it's offerings: from hiking and canyoning to working your tan, enjoying a leisurely cruise, delving into the island’s rich history and sampling local  specialties .  Though Corsica has officially been part of  France  for more than 200 years, it feels different from the mainland in everything from customs and cuisine to language and character, and that’s part of its appeal. Peru Peru is a country in South America that's home to a section of Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu, an ancient Incan city s...

Shakespeare & Company : The Old Smoky Reading Room, The Piano Man and The Erudite Cat  "Be not inhospitable to strangers Lest they be angels in disguise" Paris is known for many things- for its amazing food,for the stunning gothic architecture, the beautiful Parisian women, and as the place of origin for some of the world's finest literature. What many may not know is Paris apart from being the obvious hub of French literature has also been a congregation of some of world's most brilliant exponents of English literature , and when one talks about English literature in Paris Shakespeare and Co , the old creaky bookstore situated in the Latin Quarters serve as the center of the universe. So when we went to Paris this Autumn we also decided to make the pilgrimage for English literature lovers to the bookstore with the green door. We took the line M4 from Chatelet and got down at Cite from where Shakespeare and Co is just a short saunter away. On...

Episode 3:Day 2 In Love with Rome! Ask any ardent traveller, and they will tell you that you have only seen a place well if you have mingled with the locals and fellow travellers, tried to emulate the way they travel and/or eat. Most often than not they stay over in a new location for prolonged periods of times only for this experience. Well, I for one had a job waiting back at home 2000 miles away where I had to show my face in a few weeks. So my partner and I,  had to explore the beautiful country and feel it up, be the tourist and the traveler all at once. And when I look back I can gladly say that our Italian sojourn was nothing less of a lovely adventure!  Our trip to Naples and Pompei on Day 1 was fascinating. The kind of places we saw and the food we ate blew up our minds! To read about our time in Southern Italy check the link  , and about our Pompei day trip you may find some interesting facts in this link .       Our time in ...

Italy for travelers is like a  treasure trove! There is so much to see and absorb that time falls short. Southern Italy is known for it’s beauty- the Amalfi coast , Naples and the Island of Capri are gorgeous and cannot be missed. And in the heart of all of this, lies the 2000 year old ruins of a city named Pompei. Of course we have all heard of Pompei, of the thriving Roman city of ancient times which succumbed to the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the 79 A.D. and the city with it’s people were buried under ash and rock. This allowed for an exceptional preservation. Although the excavations are still underway, what we get to see are marvels in architecture and art. For a traveler who has planned a few days in southern Italy, Pompei would be easily accessible. All you need to do is reach the Circumvesuviana (which is a circular train line) that runs around Naples to Sorrento. It will take you there. On the other hand for travelers (like us) who have largely planne...

Episode 3:  Montezuma and Mexican Waves in beach-side Fortaleza Fortaleza is way up north of Brasil and is a good three hour flight from Sao Paulo . And of course, the next stop in our ‘ as insightful as an ant’s view of an elephant’s posterior ’ whirlwind tour of Brazil is this little beach town turned into a fast evolving economic hub. The economy of Fortaleza is fueled in large parts by tourism, given its long winding pristine beaches; but much to local disapproval, it has ended up attracting all the other add-ons of the beach bum economy (i.e. think Pattaya ). Benny, a Mexican born American citizen is in the city to study Portuguese as part of an exchange program and his dissertation for the next six months is on  the effort to clean up the tourist trade in Fortaleza. We are staying in a eighty year old Portuguese house tucked away in a quiet part of the town, with a sweet sixty five year old- Ana, her two daughters, six dogs and several Portuguese learn...

Episode 2: A shot of Chile: Futbol at the Vila El Guaton is a cute, unassuming bar tucked away in a little corner of the Vila Madalena - SamPa’s (i.e. Sao Paulo’s) most famous neighborhood. Vila Madalena is a labyrinth of winding roads that seem to slope up and down at will and is peppered with enough bars and restaurants to feed and thrill the entire population of any small European nation of your choice. If that’s not thrilling enough, take a look around you and you will notice, unless you are blind or have a terrible hang-over, that the walls are full of mind blowing graffiti and sublime street art. Bernardo tells us with no note of exaggeration that to many it is like a temple. “You go to Vila when you are down and something spiritual happens.” Grafitti at Vila Madalena So we walk to Vila from Bernardo’s place and pass two magnificent churches and even a Necropolis to boot, in search of spiritual tranquillity before the all-important Brazil-Chile match. We are...

Episode 1:   Cats, dogs and the amazing Play-man Bunny: A                            party in Sao Paulo It’s not easy traveling from India to Brazil. One could argue that this is an exaggeration, considering that all that one does is pass a sleepy immigration officer, browse through the liquor section in the duty free to plan the arrival bootlegging, board a flight, watch the most boring movie on the in-flight menu to put you to sleep, eat bland food, drink bad wine, transit through a sterile airport somewhere and do the same thing all over again. That the aforementioned One can deceive oneself with great dexterity, is the conclusion. Let me put this succinctly- you leave home at  2 am , board a flight at  4:30 am , fly for approximately 20 hours and land at your destination at  3 pm . i.e. you did all the above mentioned rubbish twice over for 20 long hours and realize that some 7 hour...