Birds of Yelahanka - Bangalore Air Show 2007
It was the bi-annual air show at Bangalore from 7-11 th FEB. I took from simmering heat and the added heat of the action in the air, on 10th and 11th. It cost a meagre 1250/-, meagre because of the thrill it gave!
The birds which nested at the Yelahanka airbase, about 20 kms from Bangalore were so impressive that I kept on clicking.. Though most of the snaps turned out out-of-focus, considering the speed at which these flew that was a good effort. :D
Swedish SAAB GRIPEN!
Mikoyan Gurevich-MiG 29
IAF Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (HAL Kiran Mak-3)To see all of these in action, here's my
COMPLETE ALBUM
Serendipity and some accidental art!
This is not really a travel description or photographs from one. This is instead about a few snaps I took while me and my cousin, Saju, drove to Bangalore from home.
THE OLYMPIANSince Saju was at the wheels and since I was getting a little bored I took out my camera and started clicking at anything. After it was dark, I took a picture, with my camera in automatic mode and the flash turned off. The prolonged exposure gave a picture in which the light from a vehicle in front looked as if it was dancing!
EQUESTRIAN KNIGHTS I found this interesting and started experimenting with it. Moving the camera immediately after you have opened the shutters, in circles, waves and strokes gave some great displays of light.
THE HOWRAH BRIDGESome of these pictures turned out to resemble, vaguely, my expectations about them. I wanted a cross when I took the snap below.
THE BELIEVEROnce downloaded, I have cropped them and rotated them to resemble figures which can be identified in them - often abstract. Figures which would evoke a feeling or the other.
THE HORSEMENTHE COMPLETE ALBUMThis is the complete album.. The captions would tell you what I felt about each of them.
Some old trips - Mekedatu & Chunchi falls July 2004
Cauveri flows peacefully at SangamThis is one of the first trips I made from Bangalore. I don't remember a great deal of the incidents from the trip, except the tea from the way-side teashop. They made some amazing tea and hot chilli bajjees.
Sreejithettan, who is now married and working at Singapore came with the idea of the trip, and we decided to take that on the bikes. Sreejith (Mongs) joined us and so did my cousin Jatheesh. We took off on two bikes.
we climbed almost all rocks enrouteMekedatu is about 95 kms from Bangalore on the Kanakpura route. Once reaching Sangam, one has to cross the shallow Kaveri to reach the other bank. From here one would take a locally operated, archaic, bus that took people into the jungle and to Mekedatu.
Gorgeous MekedatuWhile riding up I remember seeing a board that read "Dangerous curves. Go Slow". I ignored them and in the next curve my bike swerved so much that the understeer took me almost off the road. As soon as steadied the bike and looked up, the next board read "You have been warned!". That was quite an eye opener.
Gentlemen at ChunchiChunchi was 5 kilometers from Mekedatu, on the way back to Bangalore and it was awesome waterfall silently tucked away in a hillside. We went as close as we could to the waterfall and enjoyed the spray of water!
The way-side tea shop!See my complete snaps here: Mekedatu & Chunchi- July 2004
The Village of Pelicans and Storks!
Part a recommendation from Sidda and Jo and part the excitement of having picked up my new bike, I decided to visit
Kokkare Bellur. Sidda said this place was about 45 kms from Bangalore on the Bangalore-Mysore highway and had an unusual presence of large water birds like Pelicans and Painted Storks.
My New Set of WheelsI started early at 7.30, on SAT the 25th of Jan 07, took to the Kanakpura road and the later diversion towards Mysore road. This stretch was awesome, not yet available for mass transport and the pain was to travel at 50kmph (I'm still under speed restriction) on such a good road. It took a good 85 kilometers to reach Kokkare Bellur, having taken a left-side diversion after Tippur and before Maddur in Mandya district (I'll let Sidda explain to me what moved this place another 40 kms farther).
Between the bustle of the Bangalore city and my destination were some typical Karnataka villages. Large stretches of land, now empty after the recent harvest, some which were being prepared for the next season.
It was quite surprising to be at Kokkare Bellur. As you reach the village, quite unexpectedly, you would find the trees full on Pelicans and Painted Storks - 'kokkare' in the native language which gives the village its name. I felt like being in a Harry Potter movie at first.
Touch DownPouched bills, webbed feet and a huge wing span - you can't mistake a pelican for anything else. After a quick googling, I think that the pelicans at Kokre Bellur are 'Spot-billed Pelicans'
Wikipedia: Pelecanus philippensis which is a vulnerable species among the 8 types of pelicans in the world. These birds are great fishers and magestic fliers often doing short distance migrations. Nesting on high perches, most of these birds had young ones.
Down on the ground, in a fenced area there were two young pelicans. These were being looked after by the local kids and they were only too eager to show these off to visitors.
Painted Storks
Wikipedia:
Mycteria Leucocephala are a work of art themselves. Painted heads, strong long yellow beaks with a curve at the end, long legs - a distinct bird again. I think these outnumbered the pelicans easily and gave more aerobatic displays to me.
I expected a lake of some sort close-by that keep these water fouls happy, but found none. There was a river that flowed by and may be these birds found this enough.
The blistering heat and an increasingly large gang of kiddos forced me to turn back early. The kids started playing on my bike, ate the chocolates I had carried with me and started demanding lessons on how to use my camera.
Abhi/Abhishek was at first a curious onlooker. Later we started roaming together he told me about the village and I taught him how to take snaps. See the
complete album on Snapfish.
Some old trips - Pondicherry July 2005
There was this realization that some of the trips I made have not been written about or the photos have not been uploaded. Since I feel the need to file these pictures for my own sake as well, I would file these in quick succession.
P O N D I C H E R Y - J U L Y 2 0 0 5In July 2005 we made a trip to Pondicherry - a union territory on the eastern coast of India. The plan was born when 4 travel-mates decided to bike down to someplace - Rahul, Prakash, Sidda and myself. After Pondi was picked up we were soon joined by 3 more - Rajesh who worked with Sidda and two of Rahul's friends- Ajith and Laijo. There were some plans made before the trip like (a) we would start early and (b) arrangements for stay at Pondi.
The Gang!This is one of my favourite trips for many reasons. I enjoyed every moment on my bike. I loved the energy and like-mindedness of all of us. I enjoyed the walk through the streets in Pondi, the boating through the mangrove forests at Pichavaram, bathing in deep sea and the trip in the fishermen's fibre boats. And thank God, some of best travel snaps I took came from this trip, a real encouragement for someone who just picked up the habit of taking pictures.
En Route to PichavaramA total distance of 304 kilometers from Bangalore, beautiful and good country-side roads and a great place to hang out with friends. I have posted
the snaps here. Take a look and let me know if you just planned to visit Pondi.
Done for the day! Back to shoreLabels: bike travel friends
Lonely Traveller goes Ajanta and Ellora.
See my complete AlbumI'll shorten my blabber and I'll let the pictures talk about my journey.
In Dec 2005 my annual vacation started, on the 18th, with a trip to Nagpur with the purpose of escorting my sister till the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). One the way back I planned to visit the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora. Since I had 3 days to spare before I joined my friends on 24th Dec for my trekk in Goa, I decided to stay at the Youth Hostel at Aurangabad and see places around Aurangabad as well. I included the Elephanta caves near Mumbai also in my list, as I read somewhere that these caves were a natural succession to those in Ajanta and Ellora. That turned out to be a good decision.
I flew from Bangalore to Pune with my sister on 18th, spent an afternoon at my cousin's place in Pune and took the train in the evening to Nagpur. The whole of next day was spent at NEERI. The 'Orange City', Nagpur, is a clean and beautiful city with broad roads.
In the night I went to the railway station to catch my night train to Mandad, only to find that I had done my homework wrong. There was no such train. A kind station master alloted me a dormitory and I took the early morning train towards Mandad. I got fined in the train for not having a proper ticket, and I was an instant celebrity in the coach. A fan, was kind enough to advice me that a bus boarded from Jalgaon was my quickest way to reach Aurangabad. When I reached Aurangabad Youth Hostel it was getting dark. The warden adviced me to catch Ajanta first.
I went to Ajanta the next day to visit the oldest of the caves in my list and probably the most famous. One cannot help but appreciate the splendour and scale of artistry that was employed on the rocks there over a few centuries starting in BC.
On 22nd I went to Ellora to vitness the caves that were evidence to how Budhism became less popular and Hinduism gained deeper roots in the area. The star attraction at Ellora is the rock-cut monolith temple that had almost all the stories from the Shivite beliefs.
On the way back to the hostel I visited the Daulatabad Fort. A small fort with a whole lot of defense mechanisms. At dusk before I returned to the hostel, I visited Bibi ka Maqbara, the chota- Taj Mahal and earnest effort to replicate the famous Taj.
That night I took my train to Mumbai. Early morning from the railway station I took a taxi to the Gateway of India, from where ferries would take one to the Elephanta caves. Elephanta had only one great temple, but I was struck by the similiarity it had with the Shiva temple at Ellora. Two caves temples, one in central India and the other on an island in the Arabian sea looking similiar is no simple thing when you know it would have taken a very determined somebody at that time to replicate it in all its splendour.
I visited my uncle in Mumbai and in the afternoon for a stroll in the Juhu beach. Having recharged myself and my camera cells, I took the night's bus to Goa, where I joined my friends at the Mapusa Youth Hostel the next day.
Saying it through Pictures - Goa Dec 2005
I don't think I'll ever finish telling you the US stories... Because my narration went on and on and on.. that I got bored of it.
I have decided to shorten the narration of my trips and say it through pictures. Someday I'll talk about my US trip as well through the pictures.
We went to Goa for a beach+jungle trekk in December 2005. Here's the story and a link to the pictures.
View my albumWe planned for Goa in the last two weeks of 2005. As always, Jyothi and Sid did most of the planning and organizing while all that Prakash, Megha and myself did was to pack up and join the trip. Coming back from my trip to the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, I was to join the gang at the Youth Hostel at Mapusa, Goa on 24th Dec. That's where I met Bharani, who was new to the gang.
We did nothing but roam around in Mapusa that day and we booked our ticket for our return journey. It was Christmas the next day and we had planned to visit the fort of Aguada, the beach at Kalangute and old Goa before getting to Panaji to report for our trekk. We had hired a self-drive van for the trip. The fort at Aguada was built as a light tower and water reserve and was built on top of a hill. At the foothill was a penitentiary that faced sea - I guess being an inmate would have been fun. It was noon, the worst time, when we hit the beach at Kalangute but I was surprised that it still looked rush hour! We turned around to get to Old Goa. A magnificient town area, unlike any other in Goa it literally felt Old. The magnificent churches and a museum that narrated the story of Goa. We were in time to check in for the trekk at youth hostel Panaji.
26th, the first day of trekk was acclaimatization that prepared one for the long trekk. We packed our stuff and walked to the port of Dona Paulo. I was surprised to find in our trekking group there were more kids that grownups. The trip was short. Back at base camp we took a ride into the sea to see the dolphins.
27th, the trekk started and the destination was the beach of Bogmalo. This leg started from Dona Paulo and went through land owned by the Indian navy to reach the rocky beaches of Bogmalo. Since photography was not allowed during the stretch we kept our Cameras in the bags. Bogmalo was not a clean beach, but a rocky beach was a new experience. A beautiful sunset added to the effect.
On 28th we were to get to the beach of Benaulim, walking over 13 kilometers on a stretch that was entirely on the beach sand. We walked and the beaches got cleaner and the scenery was beautiful. We had taken off our shoes to feel the sand and the occational splash of waves on our feet. Towards the end of the stretch our feet started hurting, as the sand near the sea was firm like cement. Benaulim camp was the most beautiful of the camps we had.
On 29th the destination was the jungle camp at the base of the Dudh Sagar falls. A bus took us to the Vasco railway station. After a short train journey we started walking again. Soon were at the guard posts at the Bhagwan Mahavir National Park, the Goan stretch of the western ghat rain forests.
30th we climbed the hill to reach the middle of the Dudh Sagar falls. A portion of the Konkan railway passed through this and for a while we walked on the rails. This was the most boring leg of our walk as the trail had a dry feeling to it. Our destination was the camp at Kuveshi, a place that belonged to the state of Karnataka. The camp site beautiful. A tree stood on the bank of a shallow water body giving a scenic reflection in water. A stream ran nearby and I cannot possibly forget the refreshing bath I took.
31st we started walking to Atali, a camp site that was inside the reserved jungle area. It didn't look a jungle out there, with a few cultivated lands and men around. yet that was a memorable camp as that is where we waited till midnight to welcome the new year of 2006. We had a camp fire around a single candle, as firewood is banned inside the jungle and we sang songs till it was a few hours past the midnight. This was the last day of our trekk.
One the new year's day of 2006, we started walking back to hussle of the town. We reached Mollem and took a bus back to Panaji to get back to our base camp. We took an early exit from the camp, citing the reason that we had a bus to catch. Having walked around 40 kilometers in 5 days it took us no time to slip into a good sleep in the bus.
The photo graphs we took gives a more vivid description of our trip.
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