This is your slightly different group photograph. Traditionally, group photographs are taken with the subjects facing the camera. But, in this case, the group photograph is the camera’s view of the group without the group’s intervention and hence forms a totally different perspective.
Here, fellow travel bloggers are either admiring nature’s beauty, trying to locate the Himalayan bear below or are trying to capture the moment in their lens.
I love to be on the road and hence I guess it is quite normal that I have a fascination for just plain simple ‘roads’.
The road in the picture is a winding one that leads to the Himalayan state of Sikkim in India. The fresh rains have just added to its aura.
Here is an interesting offer for those interested in photography tours to Nepal. BE ON THE ROAD readers get a special discount of 20% on the published price. Though, I would recommend that you use your own discretion in signing up. This post is just a means for photographytours.in to reach out to a wider audience.
Disclaimer: I am not related to photographytours.in or Ultimate Travels and do not have any financial stake or benefit in this travel setup. And neither do I make any financial gain in getting customers sign up for these tours. Further, I have not taken part in any photography or other tours organized by the above mentioned travel companies.
Below is the complete lowdown on these photography tours to Nepal as provided by photographytours.in. Please address all your queries directly to www.photographytours.in.
Vibrant blue skies on my first morning at Gangtok. This is what I got treated to on my first morning during my recent trip to Sikkim.
During my recent trip to Sikkim, I got the opportunity to photograph some very interesting subjects. In this case, they were the local people of Sikkim.
Buddhist Monk at Lingdum Monastery
I had recently gone on a trip to the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim in India. This short, but sweet trip was an invite by Club Mahindra. It was during this trip that I got to meet eight other fellow bloggers, most of them travel bloggers, some travel writers, most of them photographers, some birders, some social media experts and one pastry chef. I knew a couple of them before and most others through their online presence. But, this was the trip, where I put a face to a name along with some great experiences and happy memories.
I found their company to be great fun, enterprising and very interesting. I hardly realized how time flew when I was around them. These enterprising travellers are Lakshmi Sharath, Arun Bhat, Arun Nair, Vamsee Modugula, Nisha Jha, Kishi Arora, Shuchi Kapoor and Sneha Divakar. I seriously recommend that you check each one of them out.
The entire range of the Kolli Hills gets a religious importance because of the Arapaleeswarar Temple. Such is the importance of this temple that the ancient Tamil literature speaks of this temple in glorious terms.
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Are you addicted to food? Do you live to eat? If yes, then you can continue reading as I am going to talk about the best dessert that I have had in recent times and am going to help you savour the yummy experience.
The Himalayan state of Sikkim offers an unique shopping experience. Shopping primarily revolves round its predominant Buddhist culture and the cold weather.
The Thangkas (traditional paintings on cotton canvas and silk frames) is quite a rage. And so are the exquisite Choksee tables designed in Tibetan style. The traditional Tibetan and Sikkimese garments are also quite popular. While some of the tourists buy these garments, the rest wear these garments and take pictures of themselves in it.
Since Sikkim has chilly to cold weather round the year, the tourists throng for the woollen gear. The woollen blankets, carpets, sweaters, jackets, ski caps, mufflers and shawls draw a lot of attention. Most of these woven woollen carpets and blankets are embellished in unique designs and traditional Sikkimese motifs using traditional vegetable Sikkimese dyes.
The Agaya Gangai or the Akash Ganga waterfalls is one of the most stunning waterfalls I have seen in recent times. Up close, it resembles a 300 foot torrential milky shower.
Cover of Tibetan Incantations
I have heard Buddhist chants many a time before, but I first heard this chant very closely during my recent trip to Sikkim. And boy was I truly touched! This chant was playing at Club Mahindra’s Royal Demazong property near Gangtok and every second of it really appealed to me. Upon asking the hotel employees I found out that this particular Buddhist chant was sung by the music band ‘Tibetan Incantations’ and it was part of their album ‘Chants of Tibet: The Meditative Sound of Buddhist Chants’. There are three tracks in this album and the original and the alternate versions of ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ are my personal favourites.
Wikipedia says that Om Mani Padme Hum is a mantra associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara. This mantra is especially revered by the devotees of Dalai Lama. I used to see a lot of inscriptions on prayer wheels and prayer flags during my visits to Buddhist monasteries, but never did know that these inscriptions were actually ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ mantras.
Do give this song a listen here at Last.fm.
Another feature! This time on iSikkim.com. Last week I had written an article on my blog titled ‘Upcoming Travel – Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim’. This article has been featured on iSikkim.com as a ‘A Bangalore Biker in Sikkim’.
iSikkim.com is a fast evolving information directory on Sikkim. It is a great resource for anyone looking to travel to Sikkim or anyone simply looking to find the latest news on Sikkim.
Thank you Tilak Jha and the iSikkim.com team for the feature!
This is a very popular belief in most of India and especially South India where people or should I say devotees come and tie a piece of cloth, a written piece of paper or a small thread to a tree that is either near or inside a temple.
It is believed that such actions enable their wishes to come true. A lot of variations can be found in this concept, but the underlying belief is that of ‘faith’ in the almighty. For example, there are trees that are supposed to be lucky for matchmaking, while others help in education or career or bearing an offspring.
I spotted such a tree inside the Arapaleeswarar temple campus that is situated in the Kolli Hills of Tamil Nadu, India.
It has been over a year since I last visited the heavenly Himalayan state of Sikkim. In fact, that was my first visit to Sikkim and I was on my solo all India motorcycle journey.
70 continuous hairpin bends take you to Kolli Malai or ‘the mountains of death’. Riding through these hairpin bends is an exhilarating experience. The views of the plains below are beautiful and the dense green tropical forests surrounding the hairpin bends adds to the charm.
The weather, elevation and soil content of Kolli Hills is ideal for pepper cultivation and hence if you are holidaying in Kolli Hills, you are definite to lock your sights on some winding pepper climbers and their bright green seeds.
Masila Falls is your medium sized tiered waterfall that is set amidst the dense green forests of the Eastern Ghats in Kolli Hills. It is an ideal location for the holidaying family and one of Kolli Hills’ pretty spots.
This is for all those people out there who wish to live their dream, but for some reason choose not to…Hopefully, this post will charge your...
