travel tips | On My Canvas

Things To Do in Chile: 50 Incredible Experiences [2024]

Covid-Related Travel Update, Jan 2024: Chile is open to international tourists. Visit the Chilean government’s official website for travel-related information and regulations. Don’t forget to read the government’s rules to be followed in public spaces here. My guide to Chile visa would be helpful for Indian citizens.

My List of top things to do in Chile

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I spent six months in Chile that were spread across July 2016 to April 2017.

Here I am sipping coconut water and writing about the best things to do in Chile, but a few years ago, I didn’t know much about Chile. I just decided to travel to Chile and teach English there on an instinct.

After I had been to Chile, an artist in Pushkar told me that Chile is like a long river, flowing on the edge of the American continent. And Pablo Neruda describes Chile as a long, thin ship. Running from the Atacama desert in the North to almost into Antarctica in the West, every corner of Chile has been well-planned by nature to surprises its residents and travelers alike.

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An Unforgettable Trip to the Salt Flats of Bolivia

Uyuni salt flats is a mystifying place. You must have seen the regular mountains, rivers, glaciers, deserts, but before the Salar de Uyuni, I had never seen salt flats, at least not as gigantic as the one in Uyuni. The Uyuni Salar are the world’s largest salt flat, extending over 9,000 square km.

On top of the vastness, the Salar del Uyuni is special because it is high up near the Andes at a height of 3,600 meters above sea level.

When you stand upright in these bizarre salt flats of Bolivia, you see a salt desert billowing into the infinity and beyond. The copper mountains with the mix of an occasional snowy volcano try their best to fringe the horizon. Walking on the Salar could be the closest we can get to walking on the moon.

peruvian ladies observing local life top things to do in peru

Covid-Related Travel Update Jan 2024 – Peru is now open to international travelers. And as per Supreme Decree 130-2022-PCM in Peru’s official gazette El Peruano, Covid entry requirements and all other regulations and restrictions were lifted. You can also look at the official website of the Peru government for more information. My guide to Peru Travel Visa would …

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Covid-Related Travel Update 2024: Though every country would have its own requirements and rules, most South-American countries are now open to travel. Please check the individual country’s official government or tourism website to know the specific rules.

What does this guide to traveling in South America contain?

Covid-Related Travel Update Jan 2024 – Peru is now open to international travelers. And as per, Supreme Decree 130-2022-PCM in Peru’s official gazette El Peruano, Covid entry requirements and all other regulations and restrictions were lifted. You can also look at the official website of the Peru government for more information. My guide to tourist visa for Peru for Indians would be helpful.

An Adventure to the Manu National Park, also known as Parque Nacional Manu, in the Amazon Rainforest Peru

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My Fascination with the Amazon Rainforest and Deciding to go the National Park Manu, Peru

Amazon, the world’s most biodiverse tropical rainforest, covers nine South American countries — Brazil (60% of the Amazon), Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and the rest lies within Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

As a little girl, I used to see the Amazon forest on television. My parents and I watched the National Geographic and Discovery channel every evening for hours. During dinner we switched channels because my mother couldn’t eat while the lions and jackals devoured their dead deers. But as she took her last bite, papa would put the Discovery channel back on. And the dense jungles of Karnataka, ochre shrub lands of Rajasthan, and the most mysterious of them all — the Amazon — would spellbind us.

Suggested Read: 27 Pictures of Nature That Asks Us to Protect It

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From Bangalore to Shimoga – In search of the Belligundi waterfalls in Sharavathi Valley

The first time I came to Bengaluru in 2010, everyone told me that this tech city is the base to explore the green Karnataka state.

Back then my knowledge about Karnataka was limited to the first page of Google that showed a standard list of destinations in the state: Coorg, Hampi, Chikamagalur, Gokarna, Ooty, Mysore, etc. My batchmates from IIT Delhi who had done their third-year internship in Bengaluru had specifically told me that there are a lot of water bodies and waterfalls near Bangalore. Though the phrase water bodies had sounded strange, I was thrilled to move to Bengaluru.

To know more about the things to do and places to see in Karnataka, I browsed through its pictures online. Mighty tigers, shy leopards, sloth bears, colonial and heritage buildings such as the Bangalore Vidhan Soudha and Mysore palace, lush tea and coffee estates, tall palms and coconuts fringing the highways, sunrises from hills, caves, turquoise beaches, foreigners in groups, women in heavy traditional gold jewelry — the plethora of pictures that came up when I searched about Karnataka gave me an idea about the state.

Frankly, I was still clueless about what I was going to experience here.

My decade-long romance with Karnataka has enriched me both physically and spiritually. Now I have a long list of popular and offbeat places of Karnataka I’ve seen and experienced. But when I discover places like the Belligundi waterfall, I wonder if I would ever be able to say that I have seen enough of Karnataka.

Riding the Yangon Circular train – One of my best day trips from Yangon, Myanmar

When you search for things to do in Yangon, riding the Yangon circular train comes as one of the top activities. Pictures of travelers surrounded by sleepy Burmese people carrying overloaded bamboo baskets in the Yangon train would fill the internet feed.

Those Yangon train pictures promised to offer an insider’s look into the local life of the city. So after exploring Yangon for a day, I decided to get my piece of the train.

The little girl inside me who grew up in India riding trains suddenly sprang to life. Before heading out of my hotel, I packed a small bag with my wallet, camera, water bottle, and strode towards the Yangon Central Railway station.

Finding the train station wasn’t the easiest task. When I arrived at the Google map location for Yangon Central station, I couldn’t find the place.

A few locals gestured me to climb the bridge at the location. When I did, I could only see the railway tracks from up the bridge, but I couldn’t locate any ticket booth or platform.

Located in the Shan state of Myanmar, Inle Lake is a huge freshwater lake. It is surrounded by mountain ranges from all sides.

Measuring twenty-two(22) kilometer long by eleven(11) kilometer wide, Inle Lake seemed so big that it reminded me of Lake Titicaca that is shared between Bolivia and Peru. People inhabit both these lakes.

While I was trying to find the things to do in Inle Lake Myanmar, only a few travelers talked about visiting the Shan, Intha, Padaung, and Pa-O communities that live on, around, and above the lake in the mountains that so gloriously encircle the lake.

So what was the highlight of the Lake Inle as per most of the people?

I had seen traveler’s feed stuffed with Inle lake fishermen balancing a conical net on their one feet while the other leg rested on the stern of a long wooden canoe that is ubiquitous on the lake. In other Inle pictures, I had seen frail men maneuvering the wooden oar with one leg and their other leg perched on the stern.

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This guide to the Myanmar visa for Indians lists all the possible Myanmar tourist visa options for Indian citizens — Myanmar visa on arrival for Indians, Myanmar e visa for Indians, and the regular Myanmar travel visa from the Myanmar embassy in Delhi.

I had booked a flight to Guwahati and, then from there, I was to enter into Burma by land (always my preferable travel option) via the Moreh (Manipur)/Tamu (Myanmar) border.

But my Northeast India and overlanding into Burma plan was disheveled by the protests in Guwahati. Land travel was impossible under the given conditions, and I canceled my flight ticket and a stay in the Maujuli island, the disappearing land of the east.

As I booked a flight to Yangon, I decided to apply for a Myanmar online visa (evisa) to be assured instead of depending on a visa on arrival as the trip already seemed to be jinxed. Also, I didn’t want to wait in queue for long at the Yangon international airport.

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From Bangalore to Dandeli Jungle Camp

Our Dandeli trip started with a bus ride from Bangalore to Dharwad. Dharwad to Dandeli is about 55 km, and we booked a bus to Dharwad instead of Dandeli for we couldn’t find any direct ac and sleeper bus from Bangalore to Dandeli.

The bus journey was like any other night stay, except the desperation of the travelers for the occasional pee halts. If you ever use the sleeper buses in India, remember that you will sleep well but also remember to pee before you board the bus. And irrespective of how sleepy you are, if the bus stops in between and the conductor shouts that they are stopping for the toilet, drag yourself out of that questionable blanket and make use of the break. You never know when the bus will stop the next time.

Our bus journey was about 10-hour, and when I opened my eyes, we were approaching the Dandeli town. Now, we had to make way to the Dandeli Jungle Camp – one of the best places in Karnataka for nature lovers.

Introduction to Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and Kali Adventure Camp

Though just 100 km from Goa, Dandeli is mostly absent from the travel itineraries of Indian and foreign tourists. Whenever I ask my foreign friends about their India tour, they mention Varanasi, Hampi, Goa, Dharamshala, Amritsar, Jaipur, Spiti Valley, Kerala, but never do they speak about Dandeli wildlife sanctuary. Even most of the Indian travelers visiting South India don’t have Dandeli in their list of places to visit in Karnataka.

What is to be seen in Dandeli? What is Kali Adventure Camp?

Dandeli is a city in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India.

I have spoken in detail about the Dandeli town in my article on Dandeli Jungle Camp where I stayed deep inside the Dandeli forest. But to give you an idea, Dandeli city is located in the Western Ghats, and the entire surrounding area of Dandeli is a forest.

This 1200 square km forest is known as Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary or Dandeli National park, which is also known to be the second-largest wildlife sanctuary in Karnataka. Kali Tiger Reserve, that was previously known as Anshi National Park or Anshi Tiger Reserve, is part of the Dandeli Sanctuary. The sanctuary is now under the protection of the Karnataka government.

As Dandeli lies in the Western Ghats, you can expect the forest to be dense and hilly. From a high viewpoint in the Dandeli wildlife safari that I took later, I saw how thick the forest was.

The sunlight never reaches some parts of the forest, our guides from the Kali Adventure resort told us. I didn’t doubt them for I saw cauliflower-florets-like trees standing neck to neck fighting for space and air on all the rolling hills of Dandeli sanctuary. From that far, I didn’t see even an inch of empty ground.

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Update 2024: Malaysia reopened its international borders on 1 April 2022. Get Malaysian government’s complete rules for travelers planning to visit Malaysia on the official Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tourism website. I’ve also listed down the guidelines and compliances in this article on Kinabatangan River Wildlife Sanctuary. My guide to Malaysia visa is recommended, too.

What to do in Penang in 3 days

Introduction to Penang

After a short walk under the bright sun from the bus stand to my guesthouse in Georgetown at Lebuh Carnarvon, I put my bags in my room and went out for a stroll. For those who don’t know, Georgetown is the capital of Penang state or the Penang island.

I was famished after a long bus drive from Taman Negara, and Carnarvon street seemed like the right place to be. Little did I know that soon I was to be lost in the labyrinth of the streets of Penang flaunting exquisite art and some delicious Penang food.

The streets seemed empty, and I wondered if there were any tourists. A friend had questioned my Malaysia trip by saying that the only thing to see in Malaysia was Penang.