Travel

A friend and I recently ascended Chembra Peak. A few photos from our trek.

A view of Chembra Peak (the one in the distance) from the banks of the heart-shaped lake, half-way up the mountain. This view is deceiving because there are three mini-peaks (can’t be seen from this viewpoint) to climb up before you ascend the final peak. The real climb begins from here — most who visit Chembra Peak return back from this point.

This is my favorite shot.



I’d recommend that you watch the below photoset in full screen mode. These photos don’t justify the sheer scale of Nature out here. You have to experience it by being there.



Again from the heart-shaped lake, but looking to the left of Chembra Peak.

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Avinash, Anoop, and I recently trekked up Tadiyandamol. It’s an easy to moderate climb with breathtaking landscape all around. Pictures follow.

Where to stay near Tadiyandamol?

Kavery Estate Stay
Kolakeri Village and P.O.
Napoklu — 571214

www.kaveryestatestay.com; www.homestaykodagu.com; kaveryestatestay@yahoo.com; Tel: 08272 237270

The hospitality and warmth shown by the owners of Kavery Estate Stay is incredible. I’d give this homestay a 5-star rating.

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On a recent trip to Wayanad, we stayed at:

Hotel Haritagiri
Kalpetta, Wayanad, Kerala
Tel: +91 4936 203145/46/47/48

We checked-in at 04:30 AM on Day 1 and checked-out at 09:00 AM on Day 2 (pretty odd hours and we did cross the 24-hour mark). We asked to be billed for a single day. The person at the front desk was empowered to make this decision and he obliged. Counts as a “Wow!” experience in my books.

The hotel itself is pretty decent — clean and good enough for a night’s sleep. The food, however, isn’t up to the mark. You’re better off eating at the Woodlands nearby.

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It really wasn’t an easy task to get these beauties to pose for a picture!








Shot with my Canon PowerShot SD850IS half-way up the Shravanabelagola hillock.

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Mouth watering!

Shot with my Canon PowerShot SD850IS @ the foothills of Shravanabelagola.

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Previously, you saw me jumping around Coonoor here. That was a very self-centred post featuring me, me, and only me. The real beauty of Ooty and Coonoor follows!

The last photograph is ample evidence of The Notary’s perseverance when faced with a challenge. The challenge in this case was to take a clear photograph of the waterfall (seen in the penultimate image) by using the camera with a telescope in front! Needless to say, The Notary won hands down and I am poorer by a pizza!

Experiments in creativity:

Created using Google’s Picasa 2.



Created using Scrapblog. Give Scrapblog a spin. It’s totally wicked! This RIA (Rich Internet Application) is powered by Adobe’s Apollo platform, which seems to be unleashing a new wave in creativity.

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Source: Uluru and the Olgas

Live observations from the author:

The Lonely Planet guide asks punters not to climb Uluru, as it’s a sensitive site for aboriginals, there’s even a sign from the local aboriginal people asking that tourists respect their wishes and keep off. But oh no, try and stop Mr. Johhny Foreigner with a camera from climbing Ayers Rock and you’ve no chance. I’ve photographed the sign asking people to keep off, it couldn’t be any clearer.

But alas, the steady lines of Japanese, American, and European fat-arses never ceased from climbing over the “No Entry” signs, even past the warning about $5000 fines for climbing when the climb was shut (as it was this day due to high winds on the summit). I read this sign and realised that the aboriginal people were basically begging people not to climb, it was only closed due to high winds this day and the aboriginal sign is a request, not an order, but still the bastards went up and down. Aren’t people in general just dickheads?

Reference:

Wikipedia

Uluṟu, also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation located in the Northern Territory of central Australia. It is found in the Uluṟu – Kata Tjuṯa National Park, 335 km (208 mi) southwest of Alice Springs, 450 km (280 mi) by road. Uluṟu is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluṟu is listed as a World Heritage Site for its natural and man-made attributes.

This is one rock I wish to see in my lifetime.

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This is the Nandi Bull at Chamundi Hills, Mysore. Quite a picnic spot, some would say. Commonly seen at temples of Lord Shiva across India, it is a custom to seek Nandi’s blessings when you visit the temple.

Delightful photography @ Shruthi Geographic – My only complaint is that she doesn’t post frequently enough.

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The past one month has been wonderful – I’ve been on three trips already! It’s a wonderful feeling after an year’s hiatus. There’s nothing more rejuvenating than a great trip with your closest friends.

Here’s where I have been to recently:

• Nandi Hills
• Bandipur, Ooty, and Coonoor
• Chennai (office trip)

Unfortunately, we accidentally deleted the Nandi Hills trip photos. I did not have my camera with me in Chennai (would have loved to capture those vehicles using the footpath as a proxy road). But the Bandipur-Ooty-Coonoor trip was safely digitized. Here’s me doing some acrobatics in Coonoor.

Push-ups on a cliff face.

Reaching for the skies.

Really reaching for the skies – but Notary’s chopped me!

The next outing planned is a strenuous summer trek. Watch this space.

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This week’s theme is “Rooms – From Around The World.” The first two are pretty old – from an era when I did not have a digital camera and instead used a Nikon F65 SLR with the film being developed at GK Vale, MG Road, Bangalore. I subsequently sold the F65 and invested in an A95.

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This week’s theme is “Birds.” All photos are from my day trip to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary last March with Sh and “The Notary” and were shot on my Canon PowerShot A95.

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There’s a lot brewing over at the GEO 12.97°N 77.56°E headquarters (temporarily at Room #205). Out came the Tid.bi.ts. Next in line to flow out of the pot is Studio 95 – a weekend publication exhibiting the latest thingamajigs that dared to cross the path of my trusty Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera. Occasionally, you would get to see other thingamajigs too (Note: The G Cam doesn’t count as a thingamajig).

Thanks to Vinayak for baptising Studio 95. Without further yapping, here’s the first issue of Studio 95.

The Flower

Raatri Sugandha or The Night Fragrance flower – Shot @ Baba Amte’s Anandvan on my Canon PowerShot A95.

The Demon

Ravana – The King of Lanka – Shot @ Baba Amte’s Anandvan on Darshan’s Nikon Coolpix 5300.



From Wikipedia:

In Hindu mythology, Ravana (Devanagari: रावण, IAST Rāvaṇa; sometimes transliterated Raavana and as Ravan) is the principal antagonist of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. According to Ramayana, he was a king of Lanka many thousands of years ago. Ravana is depicted in art with up to ten heads, signifying that he had knowledge spanning all the ten directions. His ten heads also earned him the name “Dasamukha” (The ten-faced) and “Dasagriva” (The ten-headed).

Continue reading…

and The Temple

A shot of the Kollur Mookambika Temple tower – Shot @ Kollur on Goutham’s Sony DSC H2.

That brings us to the end of the first issue. Let me know what you think about Studio 95.

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Yep. After a brief hiatus, The G Cam is back – this time bringing you mesmerizing photos from the Kodachadri Mountain Range in the evergreen Western Ghats of beautiful Karnataka. Drop a comment if you like what you see. Handing over to Goutham for the rest of the post.

Images Copyright © 2006 – Infinity, Goutham.

Hidlumane falls. Is it Hitlumane or Hidlumane? The former word has a meaning, but most of them pronounced it as Hidlumane. What’s in a name after all?



A shot of the sprawling grasslands one gets to see while climbing down Kodachadri. You will miss these if you take the jeep track.



It’s always beautiful when its bare.

[Prompting someone to comment: "Goutham, you should trademark your comment! It's high time the ladies understood this."]



Sunrise from Kodachadri – this guy made us wait for almost an hour. It was 6:48 am by the time we could catch the first glimpse. Most Sunday mornings, I wouldn’t have bothered to get off my bed.



Sunset over the great Arabian Sea.



Idol of Lord Ganesha – inside a small cave – on the way to sunrise point.



Phew! Nice catch. Being drenched in sweat, I had almost ignored these beauties.



That’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Previous editions of The G Cam:

1. Mesmerizing Karnataka
2. From Kodaikanal With Love
3. Beauty and the Beast

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It happened out of frustration.

My previous and the second-time-in-my-life train journey from Mumbai to Vadodara and back was bad enough, but the 12-hour crowded-and-packed-with-cockroaches train journey from Mumbai to Wardah, followed by the 2.5-hour cramped bus-without-a-suspension journey from Wardah to Warora, was more than enough to test my patience. Reaching Warora, I decided on the spot that no force on Earth would ever make me travel by train again.

Simultaneously, I hatched a plan according to which I would endure the 2.5-hour cramped same-bus-without-a-suspension return journey from Warora to Nagpur, and then catch a flight from Nagpur to Mumbai. No way was I going to endure the planned 14-hour crowded-and-packed-with-cockroaches train journey from Nagpur to Mumbai. A quick seat-availability check on my GPRS-enabled Hutch connection and I decided to fly Indian Airlines. But what a wrong decision that turned out to be.

Now, I have written good things about Indian Airlines in the recent past. The good things, however, seem to be true only when you are in a major city. From Warora, I tried my best to book a ticket with the Indian Airlines office at Nagpur. But they persistently instructed me to go directly to the airport and try for spot fares (which magically crept higher each time I called), because they could not book a ticket over the phone with payment through a credit card. That, to me, sounds ridiculous. Here you have a passenger desperately wanting to board your flight, but hey, “Sorry dude. We can’t book your ticket on the phone and have you pay by credit card. We also can’t guarantee you a seat when you go to the airport and try for spot fares.” Worse, the Indian Airlines nation-wide toll-free number can’t be reached over a GSM connection. Eeeeeks!

Enter IndiGo.

They say that “the first impression is the best impression.” And my first impression of IndiGo was that of a no-nonsense highly professional organization.

From booking my ticket to collecting my baggage, it was a highly professional experience. IndiGo has a nation-wide toll-free number that’s reachable 24 x 7 from any type of telephone connection (just dial (0) 99 10 38 38 38). Booking my ticket using my credit card was a quick and painless 5-minute experience. The reservation staff spoke excellent English and were immaculate in their approach. I was given my PNR instantly and the same was SMSed to me in under a minute. How’s that for a “Wow CRM!!!” experience?

The airport counter staff are young, cute, and full of smiles and so are the cabin crew. IndiGo’s boarding pass design makes you go “Hoo Boy!” the moment you see it. The transport buses carry the IndiGo colors everywhere. The aircraft was spanking new and painted IndiGo. There’s a consistent marketing message at every customer touchpoint. It was also the first time I heard a pilot say “Jai Hind.” That to me made a world of difference.

I would rate my IndiGo experience as being equivalent to my earlier KingFisher experiences. There’s no food served onboard – “We’re a no-frills airline, Sir,” said the young lady at the check-in counter – but the aircraft ambiance feels so fresh you’re more than happy to forget the food. IndiGo claims to be an affordable airline. Note the difference? They’re affordable. Not low-cost. I couldn’t find a flaw to complain about.

Overall, a 5-star experience. I wholeheartedly recommend flying on IndiGo. Go Team IndiGo.

PS: IndiGo even allows you to book tickets via a GPRS connection at http://mobile.goindigo.in. I’ll definitely use this facility the next time around.

Have you IndiGoed yet?

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It pains me a lot to see animals – both big and small – trapped inside cages and put up as public exhibits. When I say cages, I include aquariums too. Nothing could be as worse for those poor fish than being trapped in a 6 ft x 4 ft x 2 ft glass enclosure, sometimes in the name of Vaastu and Feng Shui. Imagine how you would feel if you were to be trapped 24 x 7 x 365 in a four-walled enclosure with the occasional food bits being thrown at you. How would you feel, if in addition to this misery, there were cameras constantly taking your pictures? You would go wild and mad within a very short period of time. That’s exactly how caged animals feel too.

I don’t know why, but they do have caged animals at Baba Amte’s Anandvan. That for me was a big surprise. On one hand, you are giving life to one set of living beings, but on the other, you are squeezing the life out of another set of living beings. Included in the cages are, peacocks, rabbits, a couple of monkeys, and even a crocodile!

What do you think?

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One of the more positive outcomes of my recent trip to Baba Amte’s Anandvan at Warora is the treasure trove of photographs I managed to capture. Anandvan is spread over an area of about 2500-acres! Predictably, it borders the Warora – Nagpur highway. And that means you can’t keep me from venturing out regularly onto the highway for a long walk. For that matter, you can’t make me sit in one place for too long. Here’s a quick collage of my highway adventures.



Our first walk at 19:00 IST on the 24th led us to a shady Dhaba (def: stretch your imagination of a highway hotel), photographs of which I unfortunately do not have. We were brave enough to eat Omelettes and Roti with Dal – and survived to tell this story. On the way back we managed to convince a tea-stall owner who had just shut shop to make us some tea.

Our next walk at 06:30 IST on the 25th led us to the same tea-stall. Shown below is the equipment used to make tea. Don’t ask me how, but the tea that comes out is utterly delicious. It’s the equivalent of nectar. You’ve got to try it sometime.



The next item to come out of this highway-kitchen was a steaming pot of Poha. We sat there watching the steaming Poha, silently praying inside for one of us to make the move and utter the magic words. Sanj finally took the plunge and uttered, “Let’s dig in guys.” So off we went devouring the Poha with Channa.





This cute little pomeranian appeared out of nowhere and showed us a trick or two. Frisky little fella he turned out to be.





Gutkha, Gutkha everywhere. No. I didn’t try it – this time.



That completes a quick summary of what you get to see on Indian Highways. Riotous and Adventurous. I wish I had time to explore some more!

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