08 Aug

North Goa beaches and more in monsoon on a shoe-string budget !

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From Mira Mar I went to the Town bus-stand, and then I left by bus to a place called Calangute, about 20 kms distant, supposedly Goa’s most beautiful beach. There a Goa Govt. Hotel had dorm beds for ₹ 280 (how sweet !), and aghast with Govt. efficiency, I first strayed north towards Baga beach, but soon retraced my way and set off southwards along the beach to Aguada (where the Taj Resort has, may be ? 5000 dorm beds!) It is a good 10 kms walk on the beach, and on the way I saw a grounded ship, palm thatched resting places of fisher folk, fisher folk cleaning their nylon nets, and in an isolated stretch was brow-beaten by lashing sea winds, when a sudden storm caught up with me, drenching me to the bone. I passed beaches with picturesque names like Candolim and Sinquerim, really fishing villages. By 5pm I was in Panjim Town Bus-stop, and after keeping my bag at the Udupi dorm, I set off again with my camera for Old Goa, where the old Goan Portuguese churches are. However I got to see them only from the outside that too in failing light, and to top it off I ran out of film! Beholding these old edifices before me, I felt for the first time, that it was probably only divine glory that propels men to build such lasting edifices. I decided to attend the Sunday Mass at two of the churches, the next day at 8 in the morning. Back, at the Udupi dorm, I supped on a “sea food” thhali, with pomfret pakoras and oyster curry! The oyster was much too spicy and rubbery like an old boot! Then I chatted with the dorm inmates for an hour and went to sleep with the bloodthirsty bugs!

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दिल्ली से हाटु पीक नारकंडा की बाइक यात्रा

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हाटु पीक से करीब दो किलोमीटर पहले से ही सड़क पूरी तरह से बर्फ से ढकी हुई थी और जैसे ही हमने उसके ऊपर बाइक चलाने की कोशिश की, बाइक आगे जाने की बजाय पीछे की तरफ फिसलने लगी। हमारे पीछे कुछ फ़ीट पर खाई थी और रोकने के बावजूद बाइक पीछे की तरफ फिसल रही थी इसलिए मैंने बाइक को दाहिने हाथ के तरफ गिरा दिया जिससे बाइक का हैंडल बर्फ में धंस गया और बाइक रुक गयी।

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अंजनेरी पर्वत की पदयात्रा

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पर्वत की तलहटी वहाँ से लगभग २ किलोमीटर दूर थी. वहाँ तक का रास्ता घुमावदार, पथरीला और उबड़-खाबड़ था. उस पर चलने वाली गाड़ियाँ भयानक हिचकोले ले रहीं थी. पर पदयात्री की लिए, उस मौसम में, वह रास्ता बेहद ख़ूबसूरत नज़ारा पेश कर रहा था. मैं धरती पर नीचे उतर आये बादलों के बीच चल रहा था, पौधों और वृक्षों से हरे हो चुके पहाड़ों को निहार रहा था, कलकल बहने वाले झरनों की आवाज सुन रहा था, उन्मुक्त स्वच्छ हवा में साँसे ले रहा था. ऐसे में सड़कों का पथरीला होना क्या महत्व रखता है? तीन-चार घुमाव के बाद रास्ता समतल हो गया. अब तो प्रकृति की छटा देखते ही बनती थी. बस एक तस्वीर की कल्पना कीजिये

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Trip to Auli-Joshimath-Badrinath-Mana

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We hired a car to drop us to the ‘MANA VILLAGE’, 3 kms from badrinath then it was a walking distance of 1km to reach for ‘Vyas gufa’ where it is believed that ‘Vyas ji’ wrote ‘Mahabharata’. Walking more, made us reach a hill in the shape of a book, VYAS POTHI where ved vyas ji worked on the 17 ‘adhyaya’ and finding himself not so satisfied, created the 18th one there walking more, took us to the ‘Bheempul’ where Bheem kept a large stone on the ‘Saraswati nadi’ to help Draupadi cross the river. Saraswati river is really scary the sound of the flowing water was a roar with the help of some snacks, chilled water, our stomachs were not starving.

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Ruins Of Alamparai Fort on East Coast Highway

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We were not ready for the pathetic state the Alamparai fort was in.  As per Archaeological survey of India board it was built some time in 17th century and was a trading post during the Mughal period and changed hands many times between various powers till India got independence. What appears is that after independence the fort totally lost its significance as a trading outpost as more modern Chennai and other ports in South India gained prominence.

The fort though in a very scenic location, near a natural lagoon and the adjoining village is inhabited by fishermen.  But the fort is an example of the pathetic attitude we have towards our historical monuments.  Full of sand in a very bad shape the fort is more of ruins and a source of bricks for the locals than anything else. There was not a single guard or tourist beside us, though we saw some bikes parked near the entrance which instead of a magnificent gate like most forts was just a big gaping hole in the wall. The parapet was broken at many places and one portion of the wall was lying on the ground. The whole wall had hundreds of bushes growing on it and at many places bricks were missing. It appeared they were being regularly removed by locals to construct their homes.

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A Triad in Time – Gharapuri, Ambarnath and Pataleshwar

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The most important sculpture here is the Trimutri, 3 faces of Mahadev which have found its space on Maharashtra tourism logo as well. Nearly full length of wall, the faces are very skilfully carved. Point to note that this is not a sculpture of Trimurti – Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh but these are faces of Shiva only. There has been tradition to carve faces on Shivling as well. And based on number of faces, the shivling gets the name from Ekmukhi to Panchmukhi.
Although the common man thinks these are 3 faces, the experts have always more to add. Stella Kramrisch is one such expert in Indian iconography. She has proven that these are not 3 but 5 faces. There are distinct names to each of the face and it really represents the attribute of colorful character of Shiva. Five faces of Shiva represent five elements, Ishana (sky), Tatpurusha (wind), Aghora (fire), Vamadeva (water) and Sadjoyata (earth) and together this depiction is called as Sadashiv as per iconography. We see three faces and there is one assumed to be behind and one on top.

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Himachal – Spiti Valley – Kaza, Kibber

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At Kibber we stayed at Tashi Zom guest house which was just before the village separate from the rest of the village. It was really sunny, windy and chilly outside so most of the time we stayed indoor. I went out a little to take a walk around the guest house and inside the village. This is a proper village with a school and a game of volleyball was going on. There are other guest houses and this village witness some tourists. Here I met Mr. Anurag Jately and his assistant. He is ex-NGC, ex-Fox Traveller head of programming for them and he was shooting night sky in timelapse, phew!! I was just awestruck listening to his anecdotes and watching some of his work on his laptop.

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Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh- Central India’s only hill Station

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It was raining heavinly so we moved quickly and covered the place from different angles. To avoid rains I devised a trick and used my cowboy and raincoat hats as one person would hold the cap while second will hold the device right under it and click photos. The trick worked really nice and we managed to get good shots even in heavy downpour without any damage to our cameras.

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Himachal – Kalpa, Nako, Tabo, Dhankar

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We next stopped near Khab where Sutlej river coming from Shikpila pass towards the east meets Spiti river from north. Spiti has much cleaner water and it can be seen distinctly at the confluence. Shipkila which is a pass to Tibet/China is only around 40 km from here. One of the high peaks of Kinnaur district Reo Purgyil (6800+ mts) is also situated here.

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