Silver Vegan Travels

Recently our Prime Minister Modiji had a telephonic conversation with the Prime Minister of Lao PDR about health and economic challenges in the post Covid world. Lao PM thanked India for the support in Lao's development programs. India is also actively participating in the Vat Phou Hindu temple complex restoration project in Laos. Vat Phou is an ancient Shiv temple dating back to the 5th or 6th century.  Actually in April, I read a news article regarding completion of the beams of Laos - China railway across the Mekong river near Luang Prabang. Since then I was thinking about how Luang Prabang will change due to this rail route and due to increasing Chinese influence. So I should surely write about how it was some years ago. What is Luang Prabang and where is it?  Luang Prabang is a picturesque town in Laos. Laos is a country which is surrounded by land and different countries on all sides. If you see the map, you will come to know that Lao PDR has Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam,...

नुकतेच आपले माननीय पंतप्रधान मोदीजी यांचे लाओ PDR च्या पंतप्रधानांबरोबर covid-19 नंतरच्या काळातील जगा समोरील आरोग्य विषयक आणि आर्थिक आव्हाने याविषयी फोनवर संभाषण झाले. त्यावेळी लाओ PDR च्या विकास कार्यक्रमात असलेल्या भारताच्या सहभागाबद्दल लाओ PDR च्या पंतप्रधानांनी भारताला धन्यवाद दिले. Vat Phou हिंदू मंदिराच्या संरक्षण प्रकल्पात देखील भारताचा सक्रीय सहभाग आहे. हे एक पाचव्या किंवा सहाव्या शतकात बांधले गेलेले पुरातन शिवमंदिर आहे. चीन आणि लाओस मधील रेल्वे मार्गाचे मेकोंग वरील लुआंग प्रबांग जवळील खांब बांधून पूर्ण झाले अशी बातमी जेव्हा एप्रिलमध्ये वाचली तेव्हापासून मला वाटायला लागले की लुआंग प्रबांग किती बदलेल या रेल्वे मार्गा मुळे आणि चीनच्या वाढत्या प्रभावामुळे! तर त्याच्या आधीच मी पूर्वी ते कसे होते त्याच्या विषयी लिहायला पाहिजे. काय आहे लुआंग प्रबांग आणि कुठे आहे? तर लुआंग प्रबांग हे लाओस मधील एक अत्यंत रमणीय असे शहर आहे. लाओस देश सर्व बाजूंनी जमिनीने आणि वेगवेगळ्या देशांना वेढला गेलेला आहे. जर का तुम्ही जगाचा नकाशा बघाल तर तुमच्या लक्षात येईल की लाओस च्या सगळ्या बाजूनी थायलंड, कंबोडि...

Have I told you in my last post that Wai’s connection to history dates back to the Mahabharat Era i.e. approximately 5100+ years ago? It is said that Wai was known as Viratnagari and was the place where Pandavas were residing during their exile. With the change of their Avatar (please note that this was not the recent Avtar app!) they were staying in King Virat’s palace. We can see that many places are named after them. There are Pandavgad and Vairatgad nearby but we had to skip both these. Although we could tap one connection. We decided to see Dhaumya Rishi Samadhi.  We will surely go to the Dhaumya Rishi S amadhi but before that I want to take you to another beautiful place - Menawali. It is 3 kms away from Wai. By now everyone knows, at least everyone in Maharashtra, knows the surname Fadanvis. Well, don’t misunderstand me. I am talking about Nana Fadanvis.  Nana Fadanvis’s surname was actually Bhanu and they were residents of Welas in Konkan. The Fadanvis family was besto...

When I was about to turn 50 ( this was long, long, ago in 2014 ), I decided that I will celebrate my birthday in the city where I took birth and with the person who gave me birth!! So here I was, in a small town called Wai, District Satara in the state of Maharashtra, India. I was coming to Wai after some decades and with faded memories. So the trip was an interesting mix of nostalgia and sightseeing. Aai - my mother, who was aged 85 at that time, was really happy to come to Wai! It was her birthplace, a place where she had stayed for the first two decades of her life, and also where her parents had stayed for a long time. She was flooded with memories and kept telling us about all the places. She kept on telling how many things have changed! Wai (other than being famous as my birthplace 😁) is famous for many beautiful temples (which are themselves wonderful pieces of architecture), seven picturesque ghats (steps built on the banks of river Krishna) and the building of ...