Travel Diary of A Wandering Mind
Published under WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge Theme: Serenity.
After a long dark rainy night it was a sunny morning in Choukori, a scenic hill station In Uttarakhand, India. As the thin veil of morning mist dissolved in the sunlight the range of snow white Himalayan Peaks were visible at a distance. The sublime view of the majestic mountain instilled a sense of hope, calm and serenity in me.
The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset. ~ Catherine Opie
Still we never stop enjoying those beautiful sunset moments and never get tired in capturing them with our lenses. We often run to hill stations and to scenic beaches to watch glorious sunsets. Well… the beauty of sunset can also be captured from anywhere as I did from our rooftop. 🙂
It’s been quite a long time since I have been to the hills of Sikkim. Have thought so many times of writing about our Namchi trip and have let it go every time, because so many things (about Namchi, Sikkim) are on my mind and I’m unable to sum it up! But then, today when I was reading this post How to Photograph a Spider’s Web on DPS it just kindled my memories.
We stayed in a cottage by the river Ringit. Ours was a beautiful small red-brick cottage that was surrounded by tall Sal (iron-wood) trees. And one fine morning I set out in the woods with my camera and captured this ‘Charlotte’s Web’ through my lenses.
This little arachnid seemed to be very smart to have woven its web high on the branch. And I only had Sony Cybershot DSC-W190 which doesn’t offer too much of optical zooming facility. 😦 Still I did as much as I could to capture this fine ‘work of art’ with my digi cam.
Hope you like it! Please don’t forget to leave your valuable comments, friend… 🙂
This is a continuation of my previous posts – Varanasi: A Visit to the Cultural Capital of India and Varanasi: A Visit to the Cultural Capital of India – Part II. Hope you enjoy reading…
The Last Day: Exploring the Ghats in Varanasi
On the next and the last day, I decided to explore the ghats on my own while my family went to Viswanath Temple for the second time. The main ghat was a 5-minute walk from the guest house. It was early morning and I roamed the ghats to ‘feel’ Varanasi for the last time. The river, the boats, the flowers in the floral shops, the sages in saffron and the people taking holy bath … all looked so different in the soft light of morning sun. I tried to capture some regular activities along the ghats.
Here are some for your eyes only… 🙂
In spite of its zigzag narrow lanes, enough to give you the feel of labyrinths; dirty overcrowded ghats, polluted water, congested roads and no traffic rule at all, Varanasi has its own charm with its age-old edifices, temples and a laid back attitude towards life. It was really a wonderful trip to the holy city in late February when the weather is pleasant. I think this is the best time to visit the place if you want to avoid both the chilling winter and the scorching summer of Northern India.
Gradually our time in Benares came to an end. I chose the Travera of the guest house for extra comfort. Pickup and drop cost us a total of Rs. 1200 which could be cut down to Rs 300-400 if we took auto rickshaws. But I don’t mind that extra bucks for the comfort and convenience of my family.
N.B: If you need to dry your laundries out in the sun don’t forget to clip them tight. Otherwise, you may lose them forever… courtesy monkeys. They have a tendency to grab anything and everything that belongs to human species… 😉 . Take care and have a nice trip!
It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. The sun was little mute outside because of the thick white clouds that were crossing its path often throughout the day. The sky was pale blue. The towering palms in our neighbor’s backyard were swaying there heads in cool breeze. The pussy cat was dozing on the window shade. My eyes were getting heavy and I thought of having a siesta. I went into my room and was about to close the window that this ‘money plant’ caught my eyes. It was looking beautiful green in faded sunlight. And I couldn’t but tried some shots with my digi-cam.
The lush green color of the leaves delighted me and also reminded me of how fast our city, Kolkata is losing its plantation. Perhaps, in future we’ll only have these indoor plants to turn to for green.
Footloose Forever 