Monday, October 25, 2010

Wonderful Waynad

I was bore working continuously without any break and with hectic city life. I was desperate to take a small break. My son, Adhrit is now 10 months old. So, I was in dilemma. I don’t want to be away from him, but I want to be out from the city noise and pollution for at least couple of days. So, this time we were set for a family trip including my parents. I was considering between Ooty, Masinagudi and Kerala. As none of our family members visited Kerala, so Gods Own Country won the lottery and I started to finalize the location out of Kerala.
As my primary objective was to stay outside the normal City l life (It would be better if out of the civilization) I finalized one resort at Banasura. Banasura is renowned for its largest earth lake in Asia, which is located at Waynad district of Kerala. The resort was Banasura Island Retreat. I liked the images given to their website. They have one twin cottage, one honeymoon villa and few more rooms in main building. We booked the twin cottage for 2 nights 3 days and it was not very expensive.
On the day we tried to start very early, but we were late as Adhrit was sleeping in the morning. However, he soon realized that we are getting late, so woke up quickly and helped her mom to get him ready. We started from Bangalore at 6:30 in the morning, one and half hour late from our schedule.
The road till Srirangapatna was as usual good as we took Mysore road. From Srirangapatna I did a mistake. Instead of moving towards Mysore – Sulthanbathery , I took another road via Ranganathittu in the hope that the road would be good and short. But soon all my expectation turned to frustration as the condition of the road was really bad. We took 9 long hours to reach Waynad and finally with the help of the local guys and the resorts manager we were in at around 3:30 in the afternoon. Adhrit was absolutely fine with this long journey.
The resort was picturesque as we wanted. It is in the lap of the Banasura Hills and facing to the Banasura Dam, a huge earth reservoir. The most amazing part was there was no sound except the crippling of different kind of birds and continuous sound of crickets. It was so peaceful to the ears that the location touched all of us immediately. The owner and manager of the resort were waiting for us to join the lunch. We were also badly hungry. So, immediately we rushed for lunch at their restaurant. The view of the surrounding hills and the dam was thrilling through the glass walls of the restaurant. The food served to us was excellent and we found different kind of wonderful dishes in next 2 days during our stay.
The Lake View from Resort's Resturant
The twin villa located in an excellent location. The view from the balcony was mindblowing. It started raining heavily at the time we finished our lunch. After entering to the villa we didn’t have any option except to seat idle in the balcony and watch the rain falling heavily on the lake water. It was a peaceful afternoon. The interior of the villa was excellent, decorated in Kerala style. The surrounding was astonishing, no sound except the sound of falling waters, constant rain forest birds crippling. The rest of the day went lazily and we finished our dinner early and slipped inside the blanket.

Adhrit is having lunch at Banasura Island Retreat Resort Balcony


We didn’t see the sun the next whole day. Sky was overcastted and it was raining often. I tried to capture some beauty of the lake and hill from the balcony but light was so poor that I decided to leave the camera behind and enjoy the rain fully. Post lunch the rain stopped for a while and we headed for a speed boat ride in the water of the Banasura Dam. But when we reached the spot we found a huge crowd of people waiting in the queue. So, instead of waiting in the queue we roam around the lake for few time and left to see Meenmutty Falls which was very near by. The whole area was full of mud due the rain. The path to the Meenmutty falls is surrounded by thick forest and the road ahead to the falls is very slippery and very narrow. Local people tied some rope to ascend the steep hilly path. Nobody from my family except me did a try to hike that road. It took me almost 20 minutes to reach near the falls by that jungle trail. The falls was full and dangerous. There was no such place where I can capture the falls. So, without a single click I had to come back. We had local Coffey in one road side stall while coming back. The taste of the coffey was excellent. By evening we were back to the resort and again nothing to do except relaxing in the balcony of the villa.

The Lake View from my Balcony of Banasura Island Resort
The next day morning welcome us with ray of sunlight. I was sleeping when I heard a beautiful song of some of my avian friends. I immediately came outside and saw one beautiful Green back Tit was playing around very nearby branch of the balcony. While I came back with my camera it decided to relocate itself to a far branch. I did some shooting of this beauty before it realized that somebody was peeping its private life and flew away. The morning gave me a chance to click couple of images of the dam and the surrounded hills. These were the only few images I had taken in this trip.

Banasura Island Retreat Office Building

The day was the final day at Banasura and we have been given a fantastic kerala oil body massage. I was feeling rejuvenated. We were now preparing for to come back again in our normal city life. We had our lunch and said good bye to the resort people who really had taken care of us very well.
On our way back to Bangalore we were really thrilled about our past 3 days we spent at the resort. It was god in all aspect, the location, the hospitality, the food and lastly and the most important is the peace. The resort is midst of a forest, surrounded by hills and facing a huge dam. Our ears were filled with various sounds of different tropical birds. The trip was not as great from a photographer perspective as the Rain God didn’t allow me to take my camera out most of the time but the Nature God has given all his blessing to recharge my all five senses till a next break from the polluted city life.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Travel Photo Contest @BlogAdda.com

This blog and the photographs are for the Travel Photo contest at www.blogadda.com by http://www.pringoo.com/


I am a Himalaya Lover and travel a lots in Himalaya. I would be happy to participate in this contest. Already have seen beautiful travel photos from the fellow members from all around the world. I would like to show some of my himalayan scapes both in Color and Black and White.

Pic #1
Light and Shadow in Himalaya - a black and white approach
I was travelling through Ladakh and have seen one of the most beautiful sunset in my life. Sun was playing hide and seek behind the rough mountains and an awesome light effect in the mountain and in the Indus river. I tried to capture this beauty in Black and White.

Pic#2
Panoromic View of Yumesamdam, North Sikkim
This image was made at Yumesamdam which is also called by Zero Point in North Sikkim. The chilling wind and the sky touching mountain were creating a heavenly scenary and I prefered a black and white approach for the panoroma.

Pic #3
From the Bank of Tso-MoririThis image was made at Tso-Moriri lake, Ladakh. While returning from the Lake the Korzok village was looking scenic under the vast mountain range and the blue sky. The morning sun rays were creating magic on the yellow stone of the mountain and the reflection on the water of Tso-Moriri.

Pic #4
Camping Site at Tso-Kar, Ladakh.
This image was taken from the Tso-Kar. The campsite is being seen far under the huge mountain where we stayed. The place was open, vast surrounded by high mountains. Chilling winds, rough mountains and amazing blue sky made this place truely a "Moon-Land".

Pic #5
An evening in Himalaya This was a memorable sunset when I was travelling through Ladakh. The Sun was hiding behind the mountain and a stream of rays was falling on a part of the mountain and left us speachless to see the beauty of the nature and of-coarse the Himalaya

That's all from my side...


Happy clicking...



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