Monsoon has been so good this year in Delhi. Never experienced this chillness since I landed in Delhi and needless to say I am enjoying it so much. Much to my liking had to go out for couple of times around Delhi during heavy rain. You all know how it is when you go out during heavy downpour as roads will be waterlogged for most of the time with traffic snarls all over. But still it’s been a good experience travelling around the city during such a heavy down pour.
So, here are the photographs taken this season.
Travel in Auto to CP
Auto negotiating against a fiery spell of Rain
DND Flyover
Somewhere in Delhi
Usual sights during rain in Delhi
Overbridge in roads serve as a shelter for two wheelers
The climate in Delhi nowadays seems to be quite good with regular rains keeping the city cool. So, we decided to go for a monsoon weekend drive to Himalayas. Also, there was a discussion going on in my favorite travel portal BCMT and people are discussing about the possibility of spending the Independence day weekend in Himalayas. Finally after have a voting system in place, the place was decided to be ‘Chail’.
I have been there already but haven’t visited in Monsoon. So we all geared up for the trip. They have formed a 7 member team and planned to come with a Qualis and we as usual with our Zen. Another couple has plans to join us in Chandigarh as they reside there.
So, everything was setup and we started our journey to Chail by 14th of August around 6 AM. The climate was very pleasant and there was an indication that it’s about to rain anytime. The drive was quite relaxed and beautiful with less traffic. The entire road stretch was good and we reached Ambala in quick time, where we met our friends. Just had a chit chat and continued our Journey to Kalka as they headed to pick up another friend.
We started from there and headed to Kalka, and around 9.30 we reached Pinjore where we had breakfast. Very close the hotel, you can see ‘Pinjore Gardens’ and slight drizzle made the atmosphere quite beautiful. We spent an hour shooting photographs and headed towards Kalka.
We all assembled at Kalka where another family from Chandigarh joined us. Then we all headed towards Chail via Kandaghat. We planned to have lunch at Sadhuphool but then the restaurant doesn’t have sufficient food for 11, and we had no choice other than head towards Chail.
We all reached Chail at 3.30 PM straight away check out in the hotel. As everybody was hungry then, all freshened up and went to the main market to have lunch (late lunch). As usual had Onion & Aloo paranthas with curd and it tasted divine :). Once done with the lunch, everybody discussed about the next plan and after a lot of discussion, all agreed to pay a visit to ‘Kali Ka Tibba’.
I haven’t visited the temple during my earlier visit and so eagerly awaited to see. Once we reached the temple, the 360 degree it offered was fantabulous. Everyone started shooting the view around like crazy and no camera can capture the views it offered. The pictures can’t do justice to what we have encountered there. It’s an amazing place and a must visit if you are heading to Chail.
The climate changed dramatically in half an hour and the entire place was covered by mist in no time. We all feared about our return as we have to navigate through the jungle road with less visibility. But we all reached safely and retired to our rooms. After some chit chat session we all headed to have dinner to the mall road and had the same paranthas for dinner. Needless to say we were all in bed in next 10 minutes.
Morning we woke up at 5 AM and decided to visit the place again, but no one has woke up at that time and we started alone to view the place in golden hour. The place was so divine and the views around are impeccable. After couple of hours of photo shoot headed towards the hotel and joined the rest of them. Had breakfast in the hotel itself and took a small nap and by the time others got ready and they had plans to visit the Cricket ground, which is located at the highest point.
So, we all headed towards the ground and after having shot some photographs, left for the Sidh Baba temple. It’s another beautiful temple located in a quite place. Once done, we all bid good bye as the other family went to Chail palace and the other gang headed towards Delhi. We reached Delhi around 10 PM with frequent stops in between for photography.
Places of Interest:
Kali Ka Tibba (Must see)
Sidh Baba Ka Mandir
Cricket Ground
Sadhupul (between Kandaghat and Chail)
Chail Palace
Having spent around 28 yrs in South India, I am used to authentic South Indian food. Initial 15 days in Delhi was a nightmare as I couldn’t find out a good hotel to have South Indian food. Initially I was put up in a guest house located in South Extension for couple of weeks and routine was ‘parantha’ in the morning, roti + dhall & evening dinner at guest house – mostly egg briyani.
Then we moved to Kalkaji Extension and it took another week to get our things from Chennai. Till that time, we managed to find good South Indian mess in Munirka and were relieved a bit as we had dinner every night. After a month we bought our cute little car and started our hunt for South Indian restaurant. Finally managed to find a bunch of them and thought of sharing.
If you would like to have the similar cuisine served down south then you have to head Connaught Place or Green Park Market where ‘Hotel Saravana Bhavan’ and ‘Adayar Ananda Bhavan’ is located respectively. Both serve excellent food and don’t miss out ‘Mini Tiffen’ in both the places which is GVM. Other speciality dishes served are different varities of Dosas, Uttappams, Appam with Coconut Milk.
Second set of restaurants ‘Neivedyam’ in Kalkaji/Green Park, ‘Tamilnadu Tourism’ hotel in INA – Dilli Haat & ‘Sagar Ratna’ near Sarita Vihar serve South Indian food but can’t match with the taste of South. But still for a change you can have food there. I had food in ‘Sagar Ratna’ once and didn’t like the taste and never visited again and ‘Tamilnadu Tourism’ is no different from Sagar Ratna and hence not recommended for frequent visit. ‘Neivedyam’ serve food cooked with coconut oil and the taste is something different and good. Out of the dishes served ‘Tamarind Rice’, ‘Appam & Coconut Milk’ and ‘Kesari’ stand out. Don’t miss the ‘Rasam’ & ‘Papad’ served at the beginning.
Third set of restaurants server similar food as South India but it was more cheaper than the previous set of restaurants. The prices of the food were at par to the price down south with excellent taste. Most of these restaurants are located in and around Munirka. ‘Chennai Mess’, ‘Tamilnadu Mess’, ‘Kadirvel Mess’ in Munirka & ‘Chennai Briyani Center’ in R K Puram (near Delhi Tamil Sangam) to name a few. We visit all these places regularly as the serve more variety and excellent ‘Non-Veg’ food.
Last but not least, there were couple of state guest houses which serve authentic south indian food. ‘Tamil Nadu Illam’ in Chanakyapuri & ‘Andhra Bhavan Canteen’ near Ashoka Road serve good South Indian food. Don’t miss ‘Briyani’s’ in Tamilnadu Bhavan & ‘Fish Curry & Prawn Curry’ in Andhra Bhavan Canteen.
Enough details and now its time for some photographs.
Note: Most of the restaurants mentioned here are in South Delhi as I reside there. There might be more restaurants around Delhi, will update once when I pay a visit there.
This ride happened when I took a day off from office. When I was searching for a short getaway from Delhi, bumped into this destination and initial information looks interesting. Moreover, it is one of the lesser known destinations and couple of hours ride from Delhi, which pushed me towards this place.
It was hot outside and traveling in bike seemed a bit difficult as most of my travels done in my car. But then I love to ride bike that too alone and hence started without any big hesitation. The plan was simple, ride to Deeg, spend few hours and ride back to Delhi. It doesn’t look simple as I was riding on a hot and humid day and consumed couple of water bottles before reaching the destination.
To my surprise, not a single soul was around the Deeg Palace and I doubted my decision for choosing this destination. Got the entrance ticket and entered the palace. Once entered the palace, I am lost in the beautiful architecture in front of my eyes and started shooting with my hungry camera.
Few places are not maintained well and monkeys occupied most of the places near the entrance. The place was stinking so much but the views it offered are quite beautiful. Then visited couple of exhibition halls, but to my disappointment photography is not allowed inside the halls.
Then roamed around the Garden and shot some colorful trees. By the time I finished 3/4th of the palace sightseeing, legs started begging for rest. Also, felt hungry as the time was around 2 PM. Hence packed my things and started my ride back to Delhi with a short lunch break enroute.
This photographs were taken during my visit to Chennai earlier this year. I would like to roam around the city during night time and you would get a lot of photographing opportunities. Particularly if you are interested in Night Photography and test your skills on Manual settings. Here are the few click where I tested my skills and all the photographs were taken handheld and that’s the reason for minimal exposure.
Weekend travel to Almora-Kausani-Baijnath-Jageshwar-Nainital (May ’09)
This trip happened all of a sudden after my trip from New York during first week of May. One of my close friend from Chennai visited me (didn’t know it would be the last time we would be spending time together as he passed away in another few months) and we planned for a short trip. He is supposed to arrive on Friday night and we had sometime before we pick him up in airport. So we went for a tamil movie released recently in Gurgaon and went him to pick up around 10 pm. As usual the flight delayed and he arrived at 11.00 PM and we reached our residence in Faridabad at 12.00 AM.
We planned to start around 4 am, so that we wouldn’t need to rush but my friend had other plans. I brought one of his favorite drink from US and after normal chat with my family I persuaded my family members to have a nap we went to balcony and started speaking while he started having his drink. It went on till 2 am and I was feeling tired and he has no plans of sleeping that night (would never forget that night in my life). I told him to take some rest and went on to sleep for an hour. At four I woke and got ready and we all five got ready around 5 am.
We started from home around 5.15 and as I am feeling fresh started riding fast on the not so crowded roads. Road after Bareilly was not so good and couldn’t drive much faster. But negotiated that stretch and quickly caught the uphill road to Kathgodam. The first views of Himalaya peak was too good and you can see that some 7 km before Almora. Reached Kausani around 4 PM and visited Anasakthi Ashram. View of Trishul peak from the Ashram was too good. Spent some time lazing around the ashram and started to move towards Bageshwar.
At Bageshwar you would be welcomed by a group of temples called ‘Baijnath Group of Temples’. Offered our prayers to Lord Shiva and spent some quality time there watching sunset. After that went to Almora and booked an hotel on the mall road itself and retired for the day.
Next day we woke up a bit early and decided to checkout Jageshwar. The drive to Jageshwar was quite beautiful with clean roads combined with early morning freshness. Like Bageshwar, here also one will find a group of temples each consists of idols of Lord Shiva and others. It is one of the beautiful architecture and to an extend maintained well. Offered prayers and took some photographs and returned to Almora to rejoin with sleeping friends.
Then all of us got ready and had breakfast in the hotel itself and started towards Nainital our next destination. The drive from Almora to Nainital was a relaxed one and enroute we spotted a sign board indicating an waterfall just couple of kms away from the main road. We decided to checkout the place and it turned out to be a quiet and beautiful place. The waterfall was located some 100ft below the road level and the path leading towards the waterfall was quiet steep.
There was no one around except the security personal and we spent couple of hours drenching ourselves on the small waterfall with the chillness we needed at that time. We left the place with some hesitation as no one like to leave the place so early. But then we had the return Delhi the same night so took photographs and left the place and started our journey towards Nainital.
Reached Nainital around 3 PM, by the time we reached Nainital everyone felt hungry and had lunch near bus stand. Then went for a boating at Naini Lake spent some good time and started our journey towards Delhi. Rest of the journey was uneventful as we all are exhausted and reached Delhi around mid night.
In search of snow – Delhi – Mandi – Jalori pass – Ani – Narkanda – Shimla – Delhi – (Jan ’10) – Part II
As planned we managed to start at 5.50 and headed towards Jalori Pass. While nearing Jalori, we saw some drizzling, initially thought it must be rain but then realized it’s snow showers. We stopped by a qualis near Jalori and he asked us if we have some water as his radiator got boiled. We had a bottle of water then offered him After that headed towards Jalori. At jalori took few pics with the use of tripod as it was very dark.
We have no heart to leave Jalori as it just started snowing. But then we had high hopes that we might get some snow in Narkanda. So we proceeded towards Narkanda via Ani. Road till kanag was bad and then it got better and better with the distance. While nearing Narkanda there was slight drizzle, and then when we entered Narkanda it started snowing. Our prayers got answered as it just started snowing this time around it was a bit heavy. Stopped for sometime and enjoyed fresh snow and headed towards Hatu peak.
The climb to Hatu peak was steep and when travelled about some 2 km we saw snow all around. Needless to say we were pretty much excited and felt really lucky to be there. As we proceeded further we got bit worried about the conditions as we saw patches of snow on the road itself which made driving bit difficult, add to that there was not a single soul there. It was exciting as well as bit worrying.
After traveling another couple of kms we witnessed a frozen pond. It was an amazing experience to there at that time. Didn’t stop there as I thought of reaching Hatu Peak ASAP. But nature has other ideas as we traveled another km we saw snow has covered almost entire region. No visibility of roads as it was covered by heavy snow. I tried to my car little further into the snow and started feeling the car was out of my control and dropped the idea of taking risk.
Hence our search for snow ended there and we took photographs and enjoyed the snow for 15 mins and started our descend towards Narkanda. On our way back stopped at the frozen pond for small photo shoot.
Drive from Narkanda to Delhi was not that much exciting except some heavy rains near Shimla, and we reached home around 12.30 AM.
3rd Day Photographs
Day 3 – Drive from Ani to Narkanda
Day 3 – Beautiful Color
Day 3 – Drizzling at Narkanda
Day 3 – Fresh Snow at Narkanda
Day 3 – Way to Hatu Peak
Day 3 – Ascend to Hatu Peak
Day 3 – Black Carpet
Day 3 – Frozen Pond
Day 3 – Adventure stopped here – few kms before Hatu Peak
In search of snow – Delhi – Mandi – Jalori pass – Ani – Narkanda – Shimla – Delhi – (Jan ’10) – Part I
This trip was planned as we got a long weekend and the destination decided was ‘Jalori Pass’. Initially we wanted to visit Tirthan Valley but couldn’t get an accommodation and hence tried in Shringi Vatika and luckily got the accommodation. So we booked over the phone.
Unusually this time couple of my collegues wanted join us and it was decided we would be taking two cars and the total head count came to 9. As usual the day before there were lot of confusions like people backing off, joining in and again backing off and it went on till 10 PM. Finally we 5 of us decided to start.
We planned to start around 3AM but as usual got late and we were able to start only around 4.30. Early morning start means heavy fog/smog. It was a pleasant drive till Ambala. When we entered Ambala, the visibility nearly comes down to less than 5mtrs. It was difficult to drive on those conditions. But after sometime got used to it and crossed that section.
After some nonstop driving we felt hungry and stopped somewhere on the roadside Dhaba. From then onwards it was some continuous driving and we reached Aut tunnel around 4.30 PM. We took the route to Ghiyagi just before the tunnel and traveled towards Shringi Vatika. Enroute we spotted some beautiful houses located on the hill side, but due to bad light couldn’t take pictures.
We reached Ghiyagi at 5.45 where we planned to stay for the night. We were so tired and felt very cold as the temperature was below zero. Immediately we sat near the bonfire and made ourselves little bit warm and then had some delicious veg/egg pakora.
There was some discussion going on between the friends about going to Jalori by Car. Couple in Shringi Vatika advised not to travel by car as the roads are in very bad condition. Also she suggested to return by the same way and not to go via Narkanda as it was not safe. Friends who joined us for the trip got scared and tried convincing me to visit Jalori by Bus and also return via the same route. I didn’t say anything and finished our dinner and went for sleep.
The temperature was freezing cold and 3 layers of woolen doesn’t seems to be enough. Somehow managed and slept off. In the morning woke up around 6 AM and decided to checkout Jalori pass alone without telling anyone. So took the car and went to Jalori pass and the route seemed ok to me. It was not good but one has to be very careful while driving as the road was full of gravel and dangerous curves. Had to be content with first gear for some 15km as the road was very steep and curvy.
Reached Jalori in 45 mins and the views are spectacular. No one was around the place and enjoyed some quiet moments there. After five minutes one of the dhaba owner opened his shop and inquired about my travel. Then took some photographs and came down to the hotel.
It’s now time to shoot some pictures of the little beautiful waterfall just located at the back of the hotel. By the time I finished my photography, the couple inquired me where I have gone that much early. I told them that I went to Jalori and came back. He was surprised and appreciated me. Then I woke my friends up and told them we will be going to Jalori by car. Everyone got ready around 9 and we had some delicious onion/aloo parathas for breakfast. Mr. Manoharlal the owner of Shringi Vatika said he will join us for the trek and we all started at 10.15 AM and reached Jalori pass at 11.00 AM. Lazed around for sometime, took photographs and had a chit chat about the trek ahead.
We started our trek around 11.15 AM and thought it would be an easy outing. Also, we have been told its 4km one way. All 5 started the trek and within a km 2 of them including my wife stayed behind. So, the remaining 3 started walking towards the lake. The trekking route was beautiful and have some good views of the places around. We took 2.5 hrs to reach the lake and as expected the lake was frozen. We spent some 30mts around the lake taking pictures and walking a little bit above the temple to find fresh snow.
We completed the trek in 5.5 hrs in total and I am sure the trek was around 6-7km one way. Then descended to Jalori and had a small walk near the hotel. Atmosphere changed dramatically and it was freezing cold. Kept bonfire near the hotel and warmed for quite sometime and had delicious dinner once again and went for sleep. Next day was quite hectic as we had plans to visit Narkanda on our return journey to Delhi.
