Photo by Abhay Prasad in Vienna, Austria

If you’re in Rwanda or planning a visit there soon, then make sure to be at Kinigi, outside Volcano National Park, on June 22 when the Rwanda Development Board’s (RDB) Tourism and Conservation Department holds their annual Kwita Izina Gorilla Naming Ceremony. A dozen newborn gorilla babies will be named this year, of which one was born two days ago! It was Muganga of the Isabukuru group who has given birth to a baby of yet to be determined sex.

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If you find yourself in a hotel where there is only ethernet cable for internet and no wifi (really?!), then bring a small wifi router (costs $27), which makes it easy for smartphones/tablets and laptops to connect to their internet network.

It’s about the size of a matchbook, so takes almost no space to pack, and can eliminate a lot of frustration. No one wants to be frustrated trying to watch netflix or upload photos to flickr when on vacation!

If you’re on United Airlies’ MileagePlus frequent flyer program and have their credit card “MileagePlus Explorer” then there’s a good news for you. United announced in an email today that starting June 1, 2013, there will be no foreign transaction fees on using the card internationally.

Although this is great news, we will just have to wait and see what currency exchange rates are applicable for the transactions.

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Asiatic Loins fall under the list of endangered species. It is the Gir Forest National Park that stands alone as the abode of these big cats. Recently, the rapidly declining number of Asiatic Loins turned up as the matter of big concern. But fortunately, just at the right time a miracle at Gir brought a change in the scenario. A lioness named Laxmi gave birth to 5 cubs in a litter (group of lion cubs).

As per the wildlife experts, a lioness normally gives birth to two or three cubs at a time. Therefore, the delivery of five cubs in a litter is nothing less than a miracle that happened in Devaliya Park, Gir.

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If you love museums and are in one of the major cities in United States, then you want to download Google’s Field Trip app right now.

As we mentioned earlier this year, the location-based app shows you cool things to do while on a trip.

For a limited time, the app will also get you into 13 major US museums for free:

• Conservatory of Flowers, SF
• California Academy of Sciences, SF
• Walt Disney Family Museum, SF
• Museum of Contemporary Art, LA
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
• Adler Planetarium, Chicago
• The Field Museum, Chicago
• Museum of the city of New York, NY
• Museum of Arts and Design, NY
• National Building Museum, DC
• Portland Children’s Museum
• Portland Art Museum
• Pittock Mansion, Portland

If you are around one of the following 13 museums, you will get a Field Trip card with “Free Entry” in the title (check the ‘nearby’ tab). Show the card on your phone to the admissions staff and they’ll take care of the rest.

I took a trip to the former Ottoman Empire and now a glorious republic, Turkey, in April 2013 and here is complete information with details of my trip – pictures, insights, costs and everything in between.

Where: İstanbul, İzmir, Çeşme, Kuşadası, Ephesus, Selçuk, Şirince, Pamukkale, Bodrum, Fethiye, Ölüdeniz, Göreme, Uçhisar, Avanos, Kaymaklı, Çavuşin & Paşabağ.
Transport: Airlines, Bus, Taxi, Metro
When: April 2013, for two weeks
Who: One backpacker

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Google announced the freshly and beautifully updated Maps – with a lot of new features and better-looking-existing ones, you will want to use these maps for everything from booking your flights, hotel reservations & bookings, public transportation to directions by car, walking or bicycle. The directions are dynamic and offers all the possibilities to reach from point A to B – by car, public transport (if available), walking and/or bicycle. If you don’t have the exact addresses, you can simply click on the map to plot it out on the fly.

And there’s lot more.

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Britain on Tuesday rolled out the same-day visa for Indians, making it the first country to get a visa to visit UK within 24 hours. However, it comes with a fat price – it will cost £600 (nearly Rs 50,000) in addition to the price of the visa.

Those in Delhi and Mumbai will be able to apply for this service. The UK home ministry said the ‘super priority’ visa is the first-of-its-kind to be launched ever and there are plans to expand the scheme to Chennai in the next few weeks.

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In-flight internet connectivity company, Gogo announced that “FCC has granted the company a blanket license to operate up to 1,000 Ku-band Satellite aircraft for international and domestic service”, which simply means they will offer wifi service on transatlantic flights.

The company has not yet announced what airlines will offer the service and when; and how much it will cost. But we know it’s not gonna be cheap! Keep watching this space for updates.

November 2011. A wedding is being held on the grounds adjoining the Devi Garh Hotel in Udaipur, Rajasthan. A small group of onlookers watches in fascination as the couple circumambulates the sacred fire seven times, while a Hindu priest chants mantras. Why are they so intrigued?

Because both those marrying are clad in smart sherwanis. Both happen to be men. The wedding is an instance of the growing phenomenon of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tourism as a niche category in India. Both men were well aware that India is still a long way off from recognizing gay marriages.

In fact, they were already married, having signed on the dotted line in one of the US states where gay marriages are legal. They were in India merely for the experience of a big, fat Hindu wedding. And their entire trip was organised by the travel agency Indjapink.co.in, founded by Sanjay Malhotra in October 2008.

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Published: May 11, 2013
Link: iTunes
Cost: Free

Bang for buck: It’s free!
Ease of use:
The looks:

Last year DropBox Camera Uploads was added to its iOS app that allows you to upload your iPhone’s photos on the cloud, which you can save using their desktop app. Now Amazon introduced a similar app called ‘Cloud Drive’ that does pretty much the same, except that with Cloud Drive you can set it to automatically back up your entire camera roll or select only the photos you want for batch uploading.

Another advantage of using Cloud Drive is that the settings screen offers a “Large Uploads” feature that prevents your iPhone from locking its screen, letting you keep the phone in your pocket without worrying about running into iOS’s background uploading time limit. Unfortunately, the app will only import photos, not videos.

Amazon gives you 5 GB for free with no time limit, which should hold more photos than the 1000. Want more space? Then upgrades are reasonably priced at $10 per year for 20 GB, or $50 per year for 100 GB, which is half the price of DropBox’s 100 GB plan. Similar to DropBox, you can also access your photos through Amazon’s web interface or its free Cloud Drive desktop apps.

Send your comments if you have used this app for your travels. We’d love to hear from you!

There are more than 400 wildlife sanctuaries and 98 national parks in India. Further, recently the count of the tiger reserve increased to 42. These figures make it quite clear that India is a home to varied wildlife species that bud in prosperity at the sanctuaries, national parks and reserves. Some of the famous national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that are acknowledged for preserving the rare fauna and flora species are discussed ahead.

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SOURCE: Boston.com

Our prayers go out to friends and families of the victims of the bombings in Boston .

In the wake of the Boston Marathon tragedies, airlines and hotels are waiving cancellation and trip change fees for travelers. If you’re in Boston, or you have plans to travel to Boston, here is a list of phone numbers to call for travel changes:

[Source: HuffingtonPost.com]

AIRLINES

American Airlines: 1-800-433-7300
AirTran: Call 800-AIR-TRAN (800-247-8726)
Delta: 800-221-1212
JetBlue: 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583)
Southwest Airlines: 1-800-435-9792
United Airlines: 800-864-8331
US Airways: 800-428-4322
Virgin America: 1.877.359.8474

HOTELS

Hotels are also waiving fees for last-minute re-bookings. Here’s a list of the major hotel groups and their phone numbers:

Fairmont Hotels: 800-527-4727
Four Seasons: 800-332-3442
Hilton Hotels: 800-445-8667
Hyatt Hotels: 800-233-1234
InterContinental Hotels: 800-327-0200
Kimpton: 800-546-7866
Marriott: 800-831-1000
Preferred Hotels: 800-323-7500
Ritz-Carlton: 800-241-3333
Sheraton Hotels: 800-325-3535
W Hotels: 877-946-8357
Westin Hotels: 800-325-3535
Wyndham Hotels: 800-545-5545

The most important thing at this point is your safety.

If your travel plans are cancelled, or if you need to change your travel plans, rest assured you’ll be able to do this with ease.

After a chat over coffee with a friend on the next destination for, possibly, a long-weekend travel, I recommended visiting Cuba. “You realize that American citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba?” was the questioned remark from my friend. A lot of Americans think that Cuba is off limits for them, but that’s not true.

Obama Administration reauthorized legal educational travel to Cuba in 2011 and thousands of Americans have participated in “people-to-people” tours since the opportunity was reinstated more than two years ago.

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