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This post was inspired by a comment I received for the article on Yahoo! Maps. Its about a website called RouteGuru which is aiming to do something similar to Yahoo! Maps, except that it currently has routes only for Delhi - NCR and no other cities.

To be fair to them, the website is currently in “Alpha”.

Nonetheless, I gave it a try to see what directions it gives from Connaught Place, New Delhi to Lotus Temple, New Delhi.

The results were quite good, except for the fact that there are no maps shown. It would be nice to have a map displayed just like Yahoo! Maps.

What was a plus point for them, is the fact that the driving directions can be sent as a text message to your phone.

The challenge that all such websites for Indian driving directions is going to face is to cope up with the numerous changes done to handle road traffic — one way roads, two way roads, roads completely dug up, etc!

The Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France, with a short coastline on the North Sea. This article provides information on discount hotels at Ieper. Ypres (French) or Ieper (official name in Dutch) is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium’s two largest regions are Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, with 58% of the population, and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia, inhabited by 32%.

Ieper has the title of “city of peace” these days even though war graves, both of the Allied side and the Central Powers from World War I, cover the landscape around Ieper.

If you are planning a visit to Ieper, HotelClub can provide you very good deals on Ieper Hotels.

HotelClub currently has only one hotel listed for Ieper which is a 3 star hotel. Using the HotelClub website not only can you make bookings online for the specific travel dates that you have in mind, but you get a discussion forum to discuss topics related to the places you are planning to visit or stay at. This interactive forum makes it so much easier to finalize on the accommodation if you had any doubts up front prior to making the reservation.

Using the HotelClub services is recommended strongly in my opinion.

Yahoo! Maps provides driving directions for Indian roads. This is a major accomplishment in my opinion giving the complex network of roads that we have in India.

Given below is the driving directions from the Bangalore HAL Airport to MG Road. Quite impressive I might say. Click on the image to get the Yahoo! Maps page for the same.

From Yahoo’s site:

In India, we drive a little differently. We drive on the left. Or the right, if the left is occupied. We also give directions a little differently. “Third right after the big banyan tree on your left” might leave many bemused, but is guaranteed to lead the lost, out here.

We’ll tell you directions with landmarks to watch out for while taking turns. We’ll also tell you how many turns come before the one you have to make. So, go and take this feature out for a test drive and tell us what you think. If you, like us, spend a good portion of our lives arguing with auto rickshaw drivers on the correct fare, then you’ll be pleased to see the auto fare calculation along with the driving directions. Enough said. Time for you to take a serious look at making http://in.maps.yahoo.com/Kargil%20to%20Kanyakumari, this trip. 115 steps on the map, but a journey of a lifetime.

Some slick things that you may notice:

• Directions for all of India (well, wherever we have data) and wherever US Maps works.
• Auto rickshaw fares ( A three wheeler Cab that we use to commute )
• Directions in SMS/Text ( You’ve heard that a lot of people in India have mobiles, right? )
• One search box and hence multi way points ( such as this one http://in.maps.yahoo.com/#?addr=delhi%20to%20bombay%20to%20bangalore )

I got the opportunity to travel again to Coorg this weekend. Coorg is about 230km from Bangalore and takes about 6hrs to get there if you’re traveling in a bus. By car, it shouldn’t take more than 4-5hrs in my opinion. Coorg is also known as the Scotland of India.

From Wikipedia:

Kodagu is a district of Karnataka state in southern India. It is often called by the anglicised name of Coorg. It occupies about 4,100 km in the Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka. It has a population of 548,561 as of 2001, 13.74% of which is urbanised. It is bordered by Dakshina Kannada to the northwest, Hassan District to the north, Mysore District to the east, Kannur District of Kerala state to the southwest and Wayanad district of Kerala to the south. The district headquarters is located at Madikeri.

This was an “adventure holiday” with boating, trekking, and a night drive in a jeep in pitch darkness thrown in for good measure.

We were a group of 20 and stayed at “Base Camp 1″ of Jungle Mount Adventures, close to Virajpet.

Day 1 (Saturday) was more of a chilled-out day with leisurely boating and multiple rounds of cricket played. Can you think of anyone scoring 12 runs in 6 overs (a team of 7 a-side), and defending it! Well…that’s how good we were at cricket

In the evening, we had a camp fire with drinks flowing all around. Just prior to the camp fire, we had an awesome experience of taking a drive in an open jump, standing at the back with Sagar (the owner of the camp), ripping the jeep at high speeds up the hill with all lights turned off. And yes, there were no street lights, so he was driving in pitch darkness. The was an unbelievable experience. It beat the hell out of all roller coaster rides I took at Six Flags Magic Mountain at Los Angeles.

Day 2 (Sunday), we had more boating!! We also, went to the Chelavara Waterfalls. This being the rainy season, the waterfall was a sight to see. We also did trekking up a hill for about an hour.

More photographs from this trip is available at Coorg - The Scotland of India.

Sunday evening, we packed our bags and headed back to Bangalore. This was 2 days of great fun for all.

For those planning a weekend gateway from Bangalore, visit Coorg, if you haven’t done so already. For a list of hotels in and around Coorg, visit HolidayIQ.com. If you’re interested in staying at the Jungle Mount Adventure Camp, do drop a comment below and I’ll send you the contact details.