Musandam, Oman photos

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A day long cruise in Musandam is worth it with unlimited food, beautiful snorkeling waters, fishing opportunities and cooking it yourself.

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Manchanabele Dam day picnic

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A weekend trip to Manchanabele which is located around 50 km from Bangalore was a sort of picnic outing. The place is known for different species of birds in that region.

This is separate from the water birds which are seen in huge numbers in Ranganthittu. There are more land birds seen in this region and the country side along with the villages just attract them more.

The once commonly seen sparrows in city were seen in abundance in this region. The cellular phone usage has ensured that these sparrows find new places for themselves.

ROUTE: We took the NICE road and then onto Mysore road, we took the right just after Rajarajeshwari Dental college. After taking a right if you hit a railway track, it means you are on the right track. The road seem to have been newly laid(as of April 26th 2010) and the drive is a pleasure. Keep driving further and you will reach the famed centuries old banyan tree. Continuing further on it you will reach a junction from where a right turn needs to be taken.

Manchanbele dam outing Bangalore

Manchanbele dam outing Bangalore

Keep going straight and you will see the reservoir at distance. On the way you will find a small village which is the last one before this dam reservoir. You can take your vehicle right near the reservoir but this last stretch of 2-3 km is little bad and bumpy ride. The people were really helpful in guiding us to the final destination. A rough idea on distance is that the dam is around 15km from Banyan tree.

A funny incident Read more about the funny incident!

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Ranganthittu delight with 30 species sighting

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An unexpected trip to Ranganthittu again on Sunday. It was a total surprise to see myself traveling to the bird sanctuary again 2 weeks in a row. This time
we started early and reached there before 7 am.

The custom boat ride for 2 hours was the best I have had till date. It provided us with the opportunity to see more than 30 species of birds in the lake and surrounding region. It was a visual treat to so many birds in a small concentrated place.

The photos will take some time to be posted but for avid birders below is the list of species we witnessed. I hope the photos are good quality for some of them.

  1. River Tern
  2. Purple Heron
  3. Blue Flyctacher
  4. Stone Plover
  5. White breasted Kingfisher
  6. Darter
  7. Snake Bird
  8. Pied Kingfisher
  9. Cattle Egret
  10. Pond Heron
  11. Baya Weaver
  12. Sparrow
  13. Little Cormorant
  14. Wagtail Largepied
  15. Night Heron
  16. Indian Cliff Swallow
  17. Eurasian Spoonbill
  18. Painted Stork
  19. Open billed pelican
  20. Spot billed pelican
  21. Black Headed Ibis
  22. Large green Barbet
  23. Indian Bulbul
  24. Yellow sunbird
  25. Common Myna
  26. Bats
  27. White throated Fantial flycatcher
  28. Common Tailor Bird
  29. Blue Flycatcher
  30. Brahminy Kite

That is a long list of birds we saw in our stay for mere 4 hours in the sanctuary. The eggs have hatched and the young ones were seen being fed by mothers.

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Mysore Ranganthittu Srirangapatana trip photos

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Mysore palace, Ranganthittu, Sriranganpatana and Mysore zoo!

There were the places we covered in the last trip and the travelogue can be found here. The image gallery is now up and live of this trip. Visit the link below to see the complete gallery in action.

CLICK TO VIEW THE GALLERY

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Mysore and Ranganthittu calling back

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A long weekend was the ideal time to spend some time with family and taking them around Mysore. My sister was visiting the historical city of Mysore for the first time and I organized a little hectic trip to cover many places in a single day.

First we headed straight to Srirangapatana for Tipu Sultan’s tomb. It is created in the typical mughal style of tomb with a circular structure on top.A short stop here with fresh coconut sip breather, we headed to the Mysore palace.

Then we went to Ranganthittu bird sanctuary reaching there by around 10 am.It was quite a busy time as many people had come over for picnic time and spending the entire day there.We tried to get an exclusive boat for 5 of us but finally had to settle for a shared one. It turned out to be decent as the sightings were very good this time.

Many different species of birds were witnessed which were missed last time.We took the boat ride for 30 minutes and then walked around the sanctuary for some time.

We decided to have lunch at Hotel Ramanashree which was a big mistake. The order took about 45 minutes to arrive. We had to shout to get our orders and the taste was really bad. For any tourists reading this entry, please stay away from Hotel Ramanashree.

The palace again had a lot of people and there seemed to be mad rush.We managed to get the tickets and submit our footwear to enter the palace. The palace was a good place to spend more than an hour admiring all the grandeur and luxury on offer.

It was hot and the sun was directly above our head before proceeding to Mysore zoo. It is supposed to be the best zoo of India. The zoo held its reputation after we roamed inside for almost 3 hours.

We were very tired by now and sun had set. We decided to head back to home which meant another 3 hours of driving. On way we stopped at Cafe Coffee day for a different than typical south Indian food the whole day.

A great day with a very good sleep anticipated.Another 2 days of the long weekend awaited with much plans and excitement.

The next blog entry should have the trip photos. Stay tuned!

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Wishing for monsoon drops

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People looking forward to monsoons! Or is it me only?

Monsoon awaited with much hopes
Click to enlarge the image

 

The heat wave is persistent for a long time now, need to cool off with artificial means in a region which was considered naturally air conditioned. This is global warming at its peak?

Could be and I was looking for moist clouds to get condensed for a much needed respite. On this weekend, while strolling in one of the up town markets, I felt some drops falling from sky, giving a hint that ray of hope is on way.

Waiting to welcome the monsoons even after the problems I know. Humans are just amazing creatures :)

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Shimla trip photos

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The trip to Simla or Shimla is a one which I absolutely loved. It was during my college days on a shoe string budget. One of our friend was from Sanjauli, a local place around 5km from Simla and all 4 of us stayed at his house in a cold winter month.

The family was very warm in welcoming us and looked after like their own kids. The stay was an absolute delight with the cottage on a hill slope with a wonderful valley view. The cottage was aptly named “Pleasant Cottage”,Sanjauli.

In our stay of 4 days, there were snow fall on 2 days. Once when we had gone to Kufri which is around 20km from Sanjauli and second time was a heavy, on our last day of journey. I think it was more than 2 feet of snow on that day.

Snow falls for tourists is a big attraction and the news spreads like wild fire. People from around 200km distance in the low lying areas just rush to play with white fur and enjoy the day making it a family/friends picnic event. From a local residents perspective, it can be difficult to manage the daily household chore. The roads are closed and only specific chained wheels vehicle can maneuver. The water supply is cut and many other routine works which are expected, go for a toss in such situations.

I have shared some photo of my trip in a gallery. Follow the link below to see the beautiful slopes of Shimla, Sanjauli and Kufri.

GALLERY LINK

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Hebbal Lake

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Hebbal Lake is en route to Bangalore International airport and offers some good variety of birds for photography. An early morning outing with like minded fellow photographers from BWS (Bangalore Weekend Shots) in a group of 10 people made a good outing meeting new people and knowing more in the field of photography.

Common crow in Hebbal lake

Common crow in Hebbal lake

Any group outing is bound to teach you something, be it tip or a trick to free the motion of flying motion. It has taught me many such small tip which i have felt are extremely helpful in field while shooting.

It is very interesting to feel the voices of different birds and then concentrate even harder to sight the bird. There have been occasions when the bird was sighted and then as I get ready to freeze the shot, the bird flies away.

It is sometimes disheartening to wait patiently for long in tracking the bird and then bird just gives you a glimpse and flies teasing away. But that is also the exciting part wherein the shooter runs around silently to photograph the bird following their voices.

Follow the link below to find the gallery for this place.

If you would like to go there, try an early morning outing when you can capture the sunrise as well behind the trees and emerging from under the lake.

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Tirupati and Tirumala

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The holy trip to Tirupati was a 2 day weekend tour from Friday night to Monday morning. We started our journey from Bangalore at 10 pm reaching Tirupati by 4 am. It was a picnic time more than a pilgrimage since we were venturing out of Bangalore for the first time. Adding to the fun was the fact that it was an all friends outing for the next 2 complete days.

Day 1:
Once we reached Tirupati early morning we had to take tickets for entering the temple which is on a hilltop. The ticket has slot timings allotted to a devotee. It is only during this time that we can visit the shrine. Also there is a limit of tickets which can be issued to prevent the temple from getting overcrowded. Lord Balaji is the second richest god after Vatican and the security in this temple is high. We purchased ticket for darshan from base and got the slot time of Sunday evening. Since we had more than a day, we were to cover all the temples at the base of hill that day. The next day we would see some more temples and then drive up the hill. After getting tickets we boarded the coach again to reach the hotel where had to stay. It was a decent room but without AC. The climate in that region was hot and humid and difficult to sustain without AC.

We managed to upgrade our rooms and slept for some time. We then got ready to visit all temples in the planned package tour itinerary. We covered 4 temples in that area whose architecture just amazed me with beautiful carving on the exterior. The temples stand tall visible from quite a distance made up of rock boulders or stones. This makes the temple floors get quite hot to walk on when the sun is in its full fury. The humidity inside the temple also increases with rising temperatures.

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