Nature

Jageshwar – A Horrible New Year !!

Jageshwar – A Horrible New Year !!

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Hot food was delicious. Families were preparing for good sleep after such long and tiring journey and I was standing at the balcony watching a few people going here and there. The time was around 10 and town was sleeping, just a chai-wala still open. Then I saw New Scorpio and Skoda coming and parking behind our cars. There was loud music coming from the cars and the people in cars started coming out. They were all between age 22-30 and were talking loudly. I smiled thinking they must be some new year seekers and after not getting hotel anywhere , reached here by mistake.

We switched off the lights and went for sleep. Sleep was almost waiting for us to lie down. It was around 11 in night that we all woke up from our sleep with the loud noise. The boys had opened all doors of the scorpion and they were playing the music system at full volume. We tried to sleep but the music was so loud that it was impossible. I assured my family that soon they will be tired and would sleep after 12.

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Thames River Cruise & Much More – Day-8

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It was a two-tiered open-top boat. We, of course, went to that top deck and took the seats in the front row. The weather was quite pleasant, sunny with just the right amount of wind, so that you weren’t too cold when the boat moved. A guide was giving us little nuggets of information on the landmarks along the Thames River. Mom and I were both busy clicking pictures on our respective devices, but did manage to intake most of the info being given by our guide. We had a closer look at Westminster Abbey and the Big Ben as we sailed past. We saw Canary Wharf, the Tower of London, the retired battle-cruiser – HMS Belfast; St Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern, Tower Bridge and a lot of other bridges. It was a lot of fun going under the bridges, with mom trying to take pictures of the underside of the bridges.

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Iceland – Glaciers , Green and Blue

Iceland – Glaciers , Green and Blue

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Remember the scene of James Bond’s film Die another day, where Pierce Brosnan had a car chase in a lagoon with an ice palace in background ? Voila there we are going now to the Ice-lagoon, One of the most beautiful place on earth.

The Vatnajokull glacier, the biggest glacier in Europe is surrounded by magnificent mountains, slopes… the whole route to Ice-lagoon gives a feeling as if we are in heaven. Beautiful small villages, water-falls and meadows !!!

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Iceland – the land of waterfalls (Part 3)

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The most unique is their gait. These horse, unlike all other horses in the world, gallop without moving their backbone. It is just like toy horse. Only the legs of the horse move and upper portion (back) remains steady. All other horses in the world, when move the rider has to jump up and down with his back… but here the story is altogether different.

Click on “PLAY” button to  see the beautiful gait of Icelandic horses

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पिण्डारी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- तीसरा दिन (धाकुडी-खाती-द्वाली)

पिण्डारी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- तीसरा दिन (धाकुडी-खाती-द्वाली)

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ग्यारह बजे हम खाती गांव पहुंच जाते हैं। सुन्दरढूंगा और पिण्डारी दोनों घाटियों में खाती से आगे कोई गांव नहीं है। इसकी यही खासियत इसे एक समृद्ध गांव बनाती है। पिण्डारी, कफनी और सुन्दरढूंगा तीनों यात्रा मार्गों पर खातियों का ही वर्चस्व है। ये लोग कुमाऊं-गढवाल की परम्परा का निर्वाहन करते हुए अपने नाम के साथ गांव का नाम ‘खाती’ भी जोडते हैं। मान लो मैं खाती गांव का रहने वाला हूं तो मेरा नाम होता नीरज खाती। गांव के सभी लोग ग्लेशियर यात्रा से ही जुडे हुए हैं हालांकि आधुनिकीकरण की हवा भी चल रही है। हमारे साथ चल रहे बंगाली घुमक्कड का गाइड देवा और हमारा पॉर्टर प्रताप सिंह भी खाती के ही रहने वाले हैं। आगे रास्ते में हमें जितने भी लोकल आदमी मिलेंगे, सभी खाती निवासी ही होंगे। एक बात और बता दूं कि सुन्दरढूंगा ग्लेशियर जाने का रास्ता यही से अलग होता है। सुन्दरढूंगा जाने के लिये रहने-खाने का सामान ले जाना पडता है जो खाती में आराम से मिल जाता है।

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Iceland – (the moving continents) part 2

Iceland – (the moving continents) part 2

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The first tour is called “Golden Tour” and it consists of  pingvellir (spoken as thing – vetlir), Geysir and Gulfoss.  This Golden circle is a 5/ 6 hours journey by tourist buses, but it can actually take the whole day, if you are driving on your own, because tourist buses only stop at fixed places, but there are so many view points in the way that you need a full day to complete this circle.

So on a beautiful morning, after killing the cloud demon and freeing the Sun, we started our journey from Reykjavik and reached pingvellir… a distance of 40 Kms covered in one hour.  Pingvellir is the biggest valley in Europe and is on the banks of ping lake, again the biggest lake in Europe.

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Auli – Land of peaks, forest and flowers

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It was a clear day with sun rays warming our bodies that have gone numb due to the chill in the air. High snow clad peaks bordered with Golden oak and deodar kissing the deep blue sky above, welcomed us to Auli. A look at the place and all our tiredness of long journey through zig zag roads, landslides and pilgrims traffic is gone.

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Iceland – the forgotten heaven !!

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When Indian travelers go to Europe, the prime target is always Eiffel Tower of Paris, alpine meadows of Swiss or Rome or Venice or London or  Keukenhof at the farthest.  


Iceland is not even known to many Indians.  It came to news mainly when its volcano erupted during summer of 2010, causing major disruption in air traffic across Europe, bringing many  airlines to the brink of bankrupcy.


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A Memorable Tour to Kutch- Part 2

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Mandvi is known for its 400 year old ship building centre. The local carpenters still make ocean going Dhows in much the same way that their ancestors had done a century ago. One can go and visit the men at work, shaping the great vessels with hand tools and coaxing the seasoned timber into shape. The predecessors of these very same ships had roamed the Indian Ocean and made Kutch a maritime power. Hand made models of these Dhows can also be procured from local artisans.

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Discovering Fried Eggs at Luray Caverns

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The caves resulted from the accumulation of layers of limestone over millions of years. The caves are confined to a 100 feet thick zone. Rain water trickles, dissolving the carbon dioxide to make a mildly acidic solution of carbonic acid (secondary school chemistry, people). The acidic water percolates through the limestone, eroding layers and carving out shapes in the cave. A precipitate of lime forms, making stalactites from the ceiling and stalagmites from the ground join together to form limestone pillars. It is like witnessing a chapter out of a Geography textbook right in front of you. This is an active cave and new deposits are formed @ one cubic inch in 120 years.

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A trip to Narkanda – Sangla – Chitkul – Kalpa – Jalori Pass

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After crossing the dam towards Sangla, condition of road was not very good and it was narrow too, however it was fun driving through this chilling route along with green Baspa. My wife and son were also lost in this beautiful valley but my 13 yr daughter was alert enough to remind me to blow the horn at every blind turn which I think is advisable while driving on hills. Before reaching Sangla my kids were excited enough to peep the scenic beauty through the sunroof.

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