Landscapes of Ladakh

I happened to visit Ladakh in the last week of September this year.  I had strong desire to be in the mountain ranges of Himalayas at least once in my life time.  When Nikon School of photography announced ‘Advanced Landscape Photography workshop in Ladakh’ I grabbed the opportunity to visit the place.  Though I was meddling with the basics of DSLR I decided to join the group to travel through picturesque Ladakh and pick up few tips from some of the best photographers in India working with Nikon School.

The mentors team was good and helpful.  There were four of them.  They were all friendly, helpful and enthusiastic in teaching the techniques of photography.  I did grasp few points and understood how manual settings in photography can help towards becoming a better photographer.

Here are few photographs of travel through Ladakh.

Though the greater part of journey was on well laid road

occasionally we had to travel on rough terrain

At Khardung La

This is supposed to be highest motorable road in the world

                         

Nubra valley - Cold desert with sand dunes and water bodies

formed due to melted snow

Photographers trying to capture landscapes in twilight

Shyok river

Kids waving as we are passing from a School in

Nubra valley

Maitri Budha at Diskit

Diskit Monastry

A scene in Turtuk village, the last village in India bordering Pakistan 

Pangong Tso lake

The mystic lake between India and China

Night Skies at Pangong Tso

Trying to capture morning colors

A restaurant at Pangong Tso

Clear waters of Pangong Tso

On the way from Pangong Tso to Tsomoriri

through Tsagala and Chusul

Black necked crane

The only shop seen on the way to Tsomoriri

Tractor with a flour mill at Tsomoriri

Early morning view at Tsomoriri

Tsomoriri lake in dawn

Tsomoriri village

Marmot native to mountain ranges of Himalayas

At Tsokar Lake

Photographers trying to capture Nature, Wild life and Landscapes

The person lying down is one of the mentors. 

May he wanted to capture some unique feature of horses!

Army memorial at Chusul

Last capture with NikonD on the way back to Leh

A Visit to Punjab

Chandigarh

This year All India Physicians conference was held at Ludhiana in Punjab.  As there is no direct flight to Ludhiana we had to go to Chandigarh and from there to Ludhiana.  We planned to visit places of tourist importance in Chandigarh and Ludhiana.  Friends advised, if possible, to visit Shimla.  So we added that to our travel itinerary.  Our travel was in the third week of February.  We first reached Chandigarh airport, from there by taxi landed in hotel Sun Park.  This is about 20 KM. The hotel room was just ok.  It was midday, but very cold in Chandigarh.  When we asked for hot water they said it will come, ever after 1/2hr of waiting we could not get even luke warm water.  As we wanted to go out for half a day trip, we had to take bath with that water and get ready for the tour.   Though we were told that warmers will be there in the room there wasn’t any in the room.

The hotel travel desk arranged a cab for our tour.  The driver had taken us for a trip to Sukhna Lake, Rock garden and Zakir Hussain Rose Garden.  All these were within a range of 60KM from our Hotel.  We planned for half a day tour or travel of 120KM.

Streets of Chandigarh city are wide and clean.  There are no houses or shops abutting the main roads.  Traffic can move smoothly. 

 

Sukhna lake is beautiful.  The environment is serene.  The birds swimming in the water are a pleasant site to watch.  Boating on the lake by pedaling is at own risk.  Many youngsters wearing life vests were into boat riding.  If we sit on the steps of the lake and hold something to eat the birds come and try to pick up the packets.  But there are instructions not to feed these birds.  The birds are fearless and come very close to the people sitting on the steps.  It is a picturesque place to spend a cool evening.  As tourists we could spend only an hour there.

 

 

 

Next we visited Neck Chand Rock Garden.  I think this is the best tourist attraction of Chandigarh.  It is a must visit place. 

With artifacts of demolished buildings and other structures, broken tiles and glasses and naturally occurring rocks many beautiful statues, sculptures, buildings, waterfalls and streams are created.  There is also a huge open air theatre in here.  It takes more than two hours to see this place.  I feel that this should actually be called as Rock village as we see houses and streets here.  The creation of this rock village – rock garden is human marvel.

 

 

 

Zakir Hussain Rose Garden is a fragrant place with more than 5,000 varieties of roses.  Roses are of many different colors, shades and sizes are present.  They are given different names which are difficult to remember for simpletons like me. 

We asked our cab driver if there are any places which we can see in an hour we had, he was very reluctant to answer and dropped us back at the hotel.  We asked him if he can take us to Kalka Railway Station the next morning at 4AM, he said it will cost us Rs.1300/-.   As the hotel people had said that they could arrange it for Rs.1000/- we preferred that.

While returning from Ludhiana we again came to Chandigarh airport.  The toilets here were very dirty.  At one place in the airport I read photography is prohibited in the airport.  But some kids have taken photos in the airport.  I suppressed my temptation to do so.

A Beautiful Journey

Padmapuram gardens - Entrance

Last month I happened to be in Vizag, a north Andhra district in India.  Whenever I go to a place I plan to see some nearby or important tourist places in that area.  As I heard that Araku valley and Borra caves are the most important places to be seen in Vizag I planned to visit these places. 

On the way to Araku

Araku was 115Km from Vizag.  The journey is the beautiful than the destination. The winding roads running on the hills besides dales takes more than three hours. The landscapes, coffee plantations, winding roads on the mountains, clusters of dwellings on planes in the valley, all are a visual treat.  The sunset across the hills and trees was splendid.  The changing colors in the sky are the ever ending art of Nature.

Young mother - Child with a kid at Araku

The native folk appear innocent and beautiful untouched by the city ‘culture’.  They are pleasant mannered and friendly.  The places of interest in Araku are the Padmapuram gardens and Araku Museum.  I was very much impressed by the rose garden and statues in the garden.

Araku Garden

The museum has presentation of tribal life style artifacts.  Photography in the museum is prohibited.  There few stalls here selling handicrafts of local people.  There is a swimming pool which is not well maintained.  The amphitheatre here is large enough to hold a huge gathering.

Araku Museum

The best part of Araku visit is the journey.  People who have motion sickness should take tablets to avoid giddiness and vomiting during the course of journey.  The journey though pleasant is risky, only expert driver can take safely.  Even these drivers before embarking on the task will pray at a temple on the road for safe return.

Lalbagh Garden - Bangalore

Lalbagh garden in Bangalore is one of the largest botanical gardens in India housing more than 1500 species of tress and plants.  Most of the trees here are more than hundred years old.  This garden was initially planned and started by Hyder Ali the ruler of Mysore in the year 1760.  His son Tipu Sultan has developed it in 45 acres adding many species of plants brought from different countries.  In due course the green coverage here extended to 240 acres.  The glass house which hosts annual flower show was modeled on London’s Crystal Palace was built in the late 19^th century.  It will be a jolly good picnic spot to spend entire day walking through different specified areas of the garden enjoying the cool breeze and green shades and smiling flowers.

A trolley which carries people around the garden touching showing
specific regions.  It takes about 1/2 hr.  The charge is Rs.100/-
per head now.  The driver asks you to pay Rs.10/- per head for
showing spots of special importance.
The rock behind it is very old - 3,000 million years old.
On top of it is Kempegowda tower.

Pigeon House.  The pigeons which are used as messengers
were housed here!

The Fountain.  Glass house is seen behind it.

Glass house.  Horticultural department of Karnataka hold flower show
every year.

This is more than 350 years old and is supposed to be the oldest tree in
the garden.

This is the tallest tree in the garden - 150 M
It is decorated on Christmas

Police chowk.  On Independence day and Republic day
police play their traditional band here.

This is called Japanese Garden.  The bamboos of Japan
are black unlike Indian which are green.
The water is missing in this stream!

There is a lake in the Garden.  The waters are clear.

The plants are groomed into different shapes 

The first ever Lawn clock.  Maintained by HMT(?)

The typical branching appearing as elephant head.

This is another natural creation giving the appearance
of fetus.

Horticultural department of Karnataka.  The typical branches, the entwining shapes are natures art.