Photo of the Day

Mushroom

Shot while on trek in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Tamron 28-200mm XR lens at 200m. Exposure of 1/60s @ F/5.6, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Fallen leaf

Photographed while trekking in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85 mm lens at 85 mm. Exposure of 1/30s @ F/5.6, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Setting Sun

Canon EOS 400D with Tamron 28-200mm XR lens at 200mm. Exposure of 1/4000s at F/5.6, ISO 400. A lower ISO like 100 would have sufficed in this case and resulted in better IQ, but I've gotten into the (bad) habit of shooting at ISO 400 by default as the noise is quite well controlled.

Portraits from PM Team Outing

Portraits from PM team outing on 21st October, 2009.

That's Hanuman, the great monkey god of Hinduism.

He was not a PM (although his commitments included lifting mountains, fighting wars with an army of monkeys and having his tail on fire for extended periods).

Ranajoy

Dhruv

Manoj

Rahul, the Mafia look

Kanav

Nitu

Aarthi

Suresh - eyes set on Frisbee world championship

All photographs with Canon EOS 400D and Tamron 28-200mm XR Lens.

Photo of the Day

Waterfall

Cascading mountain stream shot in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 24mm. Slow shutter of 1/5s chosen to give a "smooth" effect to water while shooting hand held (was not carrying a tripod). Exposure of 1/5s @ F/18, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Foliage

Shot during a trek in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Tamron 28-200 XR Lens. Shot at 200mm with ISO 400 and exposure of 1/250s @ F/6.3.

Photo of the Day

Sunset in Bhutan

A cloud lit by the setting sun. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 85mm exposed for 1/320s @ F/10.

Bhutan - Land of the Thunder Dragon

Photographs and trip report from my Bhutan trip from Sep 19th to 30th, 2009. I'll be posting more photographs from Bhutan over the coming weeks.

In 12 days, we visited Paro, Thimphu, Punakha, Trongsa and Bumthang. The main attractions are found around Paro/Thimphu or en route from Thimphu to Bumthang which is a quiet valley nestled amongst the clouds at around 8000ft.

For a shorter itinerary, most of the popular attractions can be visited in around 7 days with a few days reserved for the picturesque Bumthang valley. Very good accommodation can be had in Paro, Thimphu and Bumthang, the quality of "fooding" as the Bhutanese lodges call it varies widely. At least one helping of red rice and Ema Dakshi is recommend to get the flavor of Bhutan.

Indian currency is accepted in Bhutan (including INR Rs 500 at most places - officially this seems to be discouraged), change is provided in Bhutanese Ngultrum (Nu). Restaurants and lodging are not very expensive and liquor is available in pretty much all restaurants with the local brews being very inexpensive. Although Tuesday was marked as a dry day, this does not seem to be very strictly enforced. Smoking is discouraged, we saw only a few stray occurrences of people smoking in public.


We met a few interesting Bhutanese gentlemen at the resort in Bumthang who prevailed on us to try both the local beer (Red Panda - the unfiltered Weissbier brewed by a Swiss settled in Bhutan) as well as the Bhutanese Ara wine brewed from rice, wheat or barley. Of special mention was a flaming shot made by setting a concoction of Ara and eggnog on fire. I did not like the taste of the other local drink, "Suja" or butter tea that much.

Verdant forests, lush green fields, picturesque valleys and misty mountains - Bhutan is a paradise for nature lovers, trekkers or for someone who just wants to get away from the daily grind and enjoy the laid-back culture of this protected country.

On arrival at Paro International Airport. Druk Air, the official Bhutanese Airline is the only one permitted to fly to Bhutan.

Postcards for sale at a souvenir shop in Paro

This little kid was chasing pigeons around the grounds where the Thimphu Tschechu festival was being held on 29th of September, 2009 (day 2 of the festival).

A performer at the Thimphu Tschechu festival

A masked dancer at the Thimphu Tschechu festival

A lady selling trinkets near the monastery

Monks practicing for the fire dance ceremony in the monastry

School kids in traditional dress at Ura valley. Bhutanese take their national dress very seriously and most citizens can be found sporting the colorful national dress. The men wear a single piece Gho whereas the women wear the two piece Kira.

Archery is the national sport and one can find people practicing their skills in very village. The aluminum bows and arrows are tough, durable and light, one needs to be really strong to even pull the bow string to attempt a target at 150m!

The Takin is the national animal of Bhutan. According to legend, the Takin was brought to life by the Lama Drukpa Kunley (called the "Divine Madman") by combing the bones from a goat's head on a cow's body.

Masked monks light their torches in preparation for the fire dance ceremony

A fire-dancer getting ready to throw flame into the crowd. During the ceremony, around 3 - 4 masked monks holding lit torches stumble amongst the crowd in the dark field, throwing fire balls into the crowd arbitrary using some powder or other combustible material in their hands.

While not throwing fire balls at the crowd, the monk twirls his torch around

At the end of the fire dance, the green arch is set on fire and people run through the burning arch in a mad rush. The initial rush through the flaming arch led to a pile up of men, women and children with quite a few getting hurt in the process.

Bumthang valley. The valley itself is extremely beautiful, although we were disappointed by the trip to Ura valley and Mebar Tsho (Burning Lake) from Bumthang. The burning lake is actually a constricted flow of the river which is considered a holy site as Terton Pema Lingpa (a famous treasure discoverer) jumped into it with a burning lamp and came out with Guru Rimpoche's treasures with the lamp still lit in the 15th century.

The Tower of Trongsa Museum is located in the Taa Dzong which was originally constructed as a watch tower for the Trongsa Dzong.

Our main transport across Bhutan being readied for the next day. Road is the only option, there are no trains or airports (other than Paro) in Bhutan.

Thangka painting - all monasteries are richly illustrated with these with many of them highlighting the life of Buddha or the Wheel of Life.

Paro Rinpung Dzong is located at the confluence of two rivers and is the administrative seat for Paro.

A closer view of the Paro Dzong

Chillies are one of the main ingredients of Bhutanese cuisine, Ema Dakshi, a combination of chillies in cheese based gravy is a very popular accompaniment for traditional red rice which forms the staple diet.

Along with archery, the game of darts is also very popular

Watching the flight of the dart. In both archery and darts, any time the wooden target is hit, both teams join at the center and perform a nice little dance of celebration while singing a victory song.

Dochula Pass en route from Thimphu to Punakha

A car navigating the misty road up Dochula pass

The National Memorial Chorten built in 1974 to honor the late king Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, hailed as the "Father of Modern Bhutan".

Taktsang (Tiger's Nest) Monastery is located on a 3000ft cliff face at an altitude of 3000m above sea level. It is supposed to be in a cave in this monastery that Guru Rimpoche meditated after flying over the Himalayas from Tibet on a tigress and introduced Buddhism to Bhutan.

The initial stretch of the trek to Taktsang Monastery, the monastery can be seen as the white block on the middle cliff. Horses/mules can be hired if one is not inclined to do the 2 - 3 hour up hill trek to the monastery.

View of the valley below en route to Taktsang Monastery

Drukgyel Dzong located around 18 km from Paro was destroyed by fire in 1954

View from the top of Drukgyel Dzong

Paro valley under the rainbow

Pradyot arranged the Bhutan trip via Migae Adventure Travel run by Mindu Dorji. Foreigners have to spend a minimum of $250 per day on accommodation/food/travel in Bhutan, whereas for Indian Nationals there is no such minimum limit. Foreigners also have to have a visa granted based on a pre-arranged itinerary, Indians have no such restriction.

The 12D trip cost us roughly 22K INR per head (inclusive of lodging, 3 meals a day, transport and entry/permit fees) for 4 members with rooms on a twin sharing basis.

Bhutan - Trip Planning

I'm planning to visit Bhutan from 19th to 30th of Sep. Pradyot is doing all the organization, I'm just showing up!

Planned Itinerary
Day 01:/Sep 19: Arrive Paro
Day 02/Sep 20: Paro - TAKTSANG (Tiger's Nest) hike
Day 03/Sep 21: Paro / Thimphu (55 km, 2 hours)
Day 04 /Sep 22: Thimphu - Punakha. (77 km. 3 hours. 1350m)
Day 05/Sep 23: Punakha CAMPING
Day 06/Sep 24: Punakha – Trongsa. (128 km. 5 hours.2200m)
Day 07/Sep 25: Trongsa - Bumthang. (68 km. 2 hours. 2600-+m)
Day 08/Sep 26: Bumthang
Day 09/Sep 27: Excursion to URA Valley
Day 10/Sep 28: Bumthang – Thimphu
Day 11/Sep 29: Thimphu - Paro (FESTIVAL) Tschechu)
Day 12/Sep 30: Return to Kolkata

Interestingly, Bhutan measures Gross National Happiness (GNH) as opposed to GDP and as per Business Week rating in 2006, is rated as the happiest nation in Asia and the eighth happiest in the world.

Map


A very high resolution version (6 MB+) is available here.

Links

• Tourism Council of Bhutan
• Bhutan Tourism Corporation Limited
• Bhutan Excursions
  

Photo of the Day

Another one from the series that I shot from my apartment during a particularly brilliant sunset. Canon EOS 400D with EF 70-200mm F4 L IS USM Lens. I need a better JPEG converter as the PNG version of the same picture shows.

PNG version of the same picture from the original 10MP Canon EOS 400D RAW image.

Photo of the Day

Hyderabad Blues

Silhouette against evening sky in Hyderabad. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens. Quite a few JPEG/conversion artifacts, unfortunately.

PM Team Outing in Leonia

Photographs from WinSE IDC PM team outing in Leonia on May 29th 2009. It turned out to be a fun filled day with lots of games, general chit-chat and good food.

Leonia Location

Map courtesy Leonia

All photographs below were taken with the Canon EOS 400D with either the Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 or the Canon EF-S 18-85 mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.

Jimson, my co-photographer for the event

Mujtaba, our guest of honor from Redmond

RajK, the "Taboo" guy

Srini looks happy

Adieu, Vinay

Chilling out by the pool side

Dhruv had enough energy to splash around in the pool after cycling 50 KM to Leonia!

He's obviously a champion swimmer ...

I'm lovin it!

That's my relaxed from the Spa look

Time for some water sports

You can pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!

A perfect pass

Come to papa!

The cold coffee was truly yummy, or is that an ice cream float?

Anoop in a pensive mood

The PM team, all rejuvenated

Sravanabelagola, Belur Trip with JCD

We went on a team outing to Sravanabelagola, Belur & Halebid on 5th Feb 2009 with Jean-Claude Ducrocq, the intent of the trip was to showcase some of the rich cultural heritages of Karnataka to JCD. Making him walk bare-foot over hot rocks was quite unintentional and had nothing what so ever to do with the outcome of the proposed sale of GGE.

At the end of the steep climb (500 steps) up to Sravanabelagola

Statue of Gomateswara, 50ft high and carved off a single block of granite

Details of the intricate stone work at Belur

Standing L to R: Ambresh, Gangji, Jean-Claude, Sendhil, Pradeep, Venkat

View of the temple gopura from within

The GGE SolDel BSP-MM team with JCD. L to R: Sendhil, Benson, Pradeep, Gangji, Vipul, Ambresh, Venkat, JCD (holding the wood carving we had gifted him) & me. The only team member missing is Naveen, who was elsewhere making history of his own.

Photo of the Day

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM at 85mm. Exposure of 1/60s @ F5.6, ISO 400.

Happy New Year!

Murals on Wall

Shot in Tende, France with Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM.

Photo of the Day

Sunset at Shanghumugham beach, Kerala

Photo of the Day

Returning fishermen in Kumarakom

Photo of the Day

Patterns in the water

A water strider and its shadow taken during Kemmangundi trek with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. Exposure of 1/160s @ F/7.1 with ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 85mm. Exposure of 1/500s @ F/13, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Friendly neighborhood spider

Shot during Kemmangundi trek near a stream. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.

Photo of the Day

Springside ferns

Trekking in Western Ghats is mostly through grasslands, but occasionally one has to cross verdant forest patches that spring up around small water bodies. There are lush with life - plant and animal.

Trek Report: Mullayangiri, Kemmangundi & Baba Budangiri

Photographs from a trek in Baba Budan hill range covering Mullayangiri, Baba Budangiri andother peaks close to Kemmangundi on 8th and 9th November, 2008. Kemmangundi is around 260 KM from Bangalore in Chikmangalore district of Karnataka and was the summer retreat of Krishnaraje Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The trek was led by Deepak & Prasanna, it was so amazing to see them trek casually through the rough terrain in slippers/flip-flops!

Mullayangiri is the tallest peak in Karnataka at over 6000 ft in height. We trekked in Mullayangiri & Baba Budangiri ranges on Saturday and Kemmangundi on Sunday. There are caves a little way down from the top of Mullayangiri, we also spent some time exploring them. Inside the caves it was narrow & damp, we had to bend and crawl through to cross several sections.

At night we stayed near Baba Budan's shrine, a cave considered holy by both Hindus and Muslims.

Water points are not plentiful along the way, typically small streams run through the forested regions along the way. Deepak was our guide and he was well aware of the water points having done the route multiple times.

We planned on trekking to Kalathi Falls also on Sunday, however dropped the plan when we realized that we were running behind schedule.

Majority of the trek route is composed of grasslands

Think forest patches dot the grasslands

Lush vegetation can be found within the forests around the springs

The trail with people ascending. In some sections the trail is well marked, in other sections it is not. So it is always preferable to take a guide along who knows the route well.

A ruined structure atop one of the peaks

All photographs with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. I will be uploading a few more photographs from the trek as individual posts over the next few weeks.

Photo of the Day

Raindrops

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens at 64mm. Exposure of 1/125s @ F/8, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Red Vented Bulbul

 

Thanks to Ravi for helping me identify this bird. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens & Tamron 1.4X TC.

Photo of the Day

Music Band Member at Lal Bagh

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens @ 80mm. 1/500s @ F/5.6, ISO 400.