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SKANDAGIRI

  Well, I have just returned home from my first summer camp with a group of friends in Skandagiri, a group of hills around two hours bus ride from Bangalore. The summer camp which lasted six days was organized by a group called Inme.    OUR INSTRUCTORS   1. C.C (over-all head of Skandagiri Inme camp) 2. Tony (over-all head of our group) 3. Manju sir (our backpacking instructors) 4. Veer (Photographer) 5. Suljo   6. Appu mam (our camping teacher) 7. Goldie  8. La La 9. Nandi sir    THINGS WE DID   1. Backpacking 2. Climbing 3. Ziplining and Rifling 4. Water diving 5. Helter Skelter   1. BACKPACKING   As our instructors told us, backpacking is a mix between hiking with a backpack and camping. It was also the first activity we did at the Skandagiri. On the first evening, my group and our instructors hiked out to one of the lakeshores to watch the sunset and decide upon a name for our group. After a lot of arguing we came up with a name: Th
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LONDON DIARIES: Day 5

Saturday was a rather unplanned day. We were going to the home of 'Lawn Tennis' in the morning at 11:00 in the morning for a tour that would end at about 12:30 and then we would be able to get the best view in London by riding the London Eye, which was scheduled  for 5:00 in the evening. Between these and after the London Eye, however, we weren't doing anything.  After the morning routine, we took a metro to Wimbledon Park and walked to Wimbledon, reaching half an hour early. We entered, got a band from a receptionist showing we were part of the tour we had booked, and was told to look through the museum for a while till the tour started. We found a room with the original Wimbledon cups for singles and doubles (the winners were awarded with replicas). Then we went out for the tour.  The man guiding us on the tour started with introducing himself and then describing the history of Wimbledon. A Major Wingfield had made a grass hourglass shaped tennis court in the late 1800s a
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LONDON DIARIES: Day 4

We were planning to go to the Warner Bros studio outside London on Friday, 30th September.  The whole day in Hogwarts. I can’t tell you how excited how excited I was. We went through our normal morning routine and went to a bus stop near King’s Cross, where a bus to the studio was waiting (the starting point was not a coincidence). We arrived at the studio by 1:00 and had lunch in a hall with a giant model of the dragon from the last Harry Potter movie. We then started our tour. I had high hopes and I was not disappointed.  The dragon The tour started with a model of the Privet Drive sets and the Cupboard under the Stairs. We saw a small behind the scenes video and then the huge Hogwarts castle doors opened to reveal a giant set of the Great Hall. It had dummies of Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and of course the main trio, Harry, Ron and Hermione. The ceiling was adorned with hanging Jack O' Lanterns and the tables were filled with fake food and utensils.  The Great Hall We saw the
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LONDON DIARIES: Day 3

  Like on Wednesday, we had a slow start, lounging around till we finally got up, had a bath and had breakfast. Then, we went to the nearest metro station, grabbed something for lunch and took a metro to Baker Street to go to Madam Tussauds.  It had been founded by Marie Tussaud, a French artist who had started her career of making wax paintings in the late 18th century. Madam Tussauds  It was absolutely the best place for taking photos in London.   I took photos with Brad Pitt, Freddie Mercury, Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Rock and chatted with Spielberg, while Amma took a couple of pics with George Cloone y.   Taking a couple of pics at Madam Tussauds Amma with George Clooney Then we went on to the movies section, where they had made sculptures of characters from iconic movies, such as a giant face of Kong that had eyes that actually moved.  We went through Star Wars themed rooms, to James Bond themed rooms where me and papa took pictures with all the James Bonds, to a Marvel themed r
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LONDON DIARIES: Day 2

  We all woke up at around 7 am and lazed around for a while. At around 7:30, I had a bath, and then had cornflakes and Maggi for breakfast. We had planned to go to the Tower of London and then do a bit of sightseeing. So, after figuring out an underground route to the Tower of London, we arrived at Tower Hill. The Tower made for a beautiful view. The Tower of London Though my first thought was that it would be one Tower, it ended up being an enormous compound of 21 towers and, at a time, had had a moat. When we entered, we were led on a Yeomen Warder tour. The Yeomen Warders were the guards of the Tower who lived there and were also known as Beefeaters. The Yeomen Warder entertained us with stories of all the events that had occurred in the Tower. There were many stories about the executions and the royal feuds that had occurred here. After asking my age, to which I replied 12, the Beefeater narrated a gruesome story about the murder of a twelve-year-old prince in the late 15th centur
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LONDON DIARIES: Day 1

  Amma, Papa and I had been planning an international trip for a few months. We considered France and Italy, but settled on UK, because of its rich history. On the  26th of  September, I woke up at 11:45pm bathed, dressed and read for half an hour while Amma and Papa got ready. We had two big suitcases, one small one, and me and Papa carried a backpack each- Papa’s with all the important things such as passports and mine with books and a pack of cards (which remained in the bag for the rest of the trip).  Ready for take-off We got to the airport with about two hours to spare for take-off. More than one hour of it was spent in security and check-in, and so we boarded my first international flight since 2015 (for me at least). An epic thing about the flight was that it had television screens . I spent the rest of the four-hour flight watching Spiderman and a bit of Ocean’s Eleven. We were served breakfast, of which I had a bit. So, when we landed in Abu Dhabi, after a security check, I c
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