Travel is on the cards this weekend… *rolls tummy*… my tummy says it would be down south from Sydney into the victorian wineries… hmmm sounds lovely…
Archive for the 'Travel ✈' Category
Before I embark on writing another personal anecdotal sojourn I had better warned my readers that this might well be yet another unfinished write up… given the fact there are only twenty four measly hours of which I usually sleep seven, work eight, travel two, eat, rest and mac-about… there is not enough time to do much. I’m lagging behind in keeping up my site looking pretty and posting photos I’ve recently shot in Viêtnam and Brunei.
Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi tunnels, the Cham Museum, Marble Mountain and China Beach en route the delightful fishing town of Hoi An, exploring its narrow streets filled with historic buildings, tailors and inviting restaurants, historic Hue for its splendid tombs, ornate pagodas and the remains of a once magnificent Imperial Citadel, overnight cruise on the scenic Halong Bay also known as the Jewel of the Bay, dotted with thousands of limestone islands and hidden grottos, Hanoi’s Old Quarter, the Temple of Literature, the History Museum and Ngoc Son temple oh I can barely contain my excitement, a few weeks from now, we’re headed to Vietnam for two weeks.
Youth Ambassador, Ruth Gould, a great friend and colleague has just returned after successful completion of her nine month long development program in Cambodia. Ruth was working at the Women’s Media Centre(WMC) and helping women expand their computer skills, creating Video, Radio databases and Web Site development with in-house software updates. She spend a few years of her childhood in PNG (Papau New Guinea) where she grew up following which her family moved to Australia. She spent a good amount of time backpacking through Europe following her Bachelor of Art Hons from the University of Sydney. The adjoining picture is of Ruth and Hean climbing 100+ steps to temples at Phnom Chisor, Takeo Province.
I got back from my three weeks long holiday in the US yesterday and God I loved it so much. Would go back there in a flip! In a nut shell, I went through San Francisco, Washington Dulles, the triangle of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Pollocksville, Maysville, New Bern, Kinston, Chicago, Memphis, Austin(Texas), flew over the Grand Canyon, onto Las Vegas, Death Valley, Ridgecrest, Fresno, Bakersfield, Oakhurst, meandering criss-crosses on the Merced river a bit of the High Sierra of the Southern Sequoia National Park, Wowona, Yosemite, the Tolumne grooves onto Manteca, Tracy and then the gorgeous San Francisco. Normal life will resume soon and I hope to put up some images and snippets of my travel soon-ish. In the 19 days I travelled through 7 states. No jetlag going in or coming back. Not bad huh? Not to mention the lovely people I met during my travel.
Too much work and no play is making me dull and boring… well, not exactly… work has been busy and yet another travel plan is brewing… so hold your horses I will write soon. But until then here are 2 photos from around Mosman.
Sunset from Middle-head, Chowder Bay, Mosman
We have had an awesome holiday in Tasmania during Christmas and New Year. I have shot about 6 GB worth of images in the 10 days! Can’t wait to put some of them up on my site. I am also going to develop a small website with the images and some information on Tasmania. Hopefully it would be ready by the end of the month. Little did we know we’d travel 2,760 Kms there in such a short time. Its amazing how a good holiday can rejuvinate our spirit within!
I am not exactly sure how long Trippermap has been in existance but I came across it today and it blew my socks away. Love the simple and clever and very importantly ‘down to earth’ realistic idea of showing map alongside geotagged photos. Brilliant!!
Since I am using a demo account It will scan through only 200 geotagged photo and 50 unique locations only. 
But it still shows you the potential of this wonderful awesome tool and how very effective this is in showing casing travel or galleries for the visual mind. I love it.
Time flies by way too quick when you’re having fun. And that would precisely explain what I’ve been up to lately. Loads of fun. I also had a great opportunity to visit mum and dad during the Diwali — the festival of light and spend some quality time in India with them. Though it was a relatively short visit and time flew by so quick, the few days in India sure were a trip down my memory lane of familiar smells, tastes, sounds and everything in-between.
We arrived this morning at 6:30 am at Heathrow. Its winter and 6°C 
. The flight from Sydney to Bangkok and then onward to UK was really nice. We watched The Darjeeling Limited, a documentary on Paris which was very informative and perfect for getting us in the mood and then a few other odds and ends like Run Fat boy Run)… time went by too quick. I just did my first ever 21 hours flying with a short break of course. Nine to Bangkok and then another twelve to the UK.
For some time now I have been wanting to make a set of iPhone and iPod touch Wallpapers from a collection of my travel photos. And what better time than the present. If you have an iPhone or an iPodTouch do download them and give it a whirl. Here on I’ll try to release a Friday Wallpaper for your iPhone/iPod touch. If you like them do leave a comment.
Download the zip (size: 236 kb)
This was taken at Port Douglas (map), in far north tropical Queensland. We were walking down the mall and came across this shop that had a million different striking colour stone necklaces hanging of a makeshift bamboo strut. I took the shot from an angle keeping the background in bokeh. Pretty pleased with the result.
Our room is on the 3rd floor of the Hotel. The outside temperature was 37°C still close to midnight. Of course we didn’t much feel the heat as we were mostly in air-conditioning, until we got to our room of course. It felt like we had entered a baking room! Luckily the air conditioning cooled it down to a decent temperature in no time. And after a quick shower we were dead to the world.
In Delhi Intrepid Travel operates through Travel Inn. We have found Travel Inn very helpful, rather courteous and punctual even just in the first two day. We had initially kept this as a free day just in case we were tired or unwell from the long flight or if we took time to adjust coming into the nearly 40 degree heat. But as it turns out we were only too keen to go out and not waste even a single day. We called Travel Inn and D spoke to a lady who in the next half hour arranged a taxi for the day. Earlier that morning we went down and had our very indian breakfast — Puri with sabzi and a cup of tea. It was yummy. D liked it too. This was his first time having an all traditional indian breakfast. Little did I know at this stage he’d be pining for more.
Continue reading ‘Day 2 – New Delhi’
By now it would be clear as day that I’m a blogger of some description who enjoys sharing. Blogging makes it an enjoyable & satisfying experience for me. I started relatively early on the MovableType bandwagon ages back & found my way to WordPress. My archives speak of silent times & times when I’ve written gushing stories. The tempo never seems to teem any sort of consistency much like life itself. And even though I do spend a bit of time online I do manage to pull away from it to do things that are just as exciting in the offline world…. travel for one, photography and generally enjoying life with friends and family and loved ones.
I generally keep politics and religion at bay. My views expressed here are clearly and entirely mine. Having said that, since I do this for recreation & relief its only fair to say there is no set topic or genre that I write on.
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I cannot even begin to tell you how excited we are for our upcoming travel. If you aren’t sure what I am talking about here is a little recap to Bonjour Paris! We are anxiously counting down the days till we take off. Its not going to be a short flight, but having travelled Sydney to San Francisco to Washington DC to Raleigh all in one day with no stopovers… I’m imagining this Sydney to Paris, Charles de Gaulle International Airport via Bangkok and London isn’t going to be too far from my American Adventure.
Silhouettes on Paris
I just got mail and am all too excited to share it with you…
…we have seen some amazing monuments from mosques and Hindu and Jain temples to the unforgettable Taj Mahal as well as the narrow alleys of old Delhi including a spice market. Tomorrow we head to a national park to try to spot some tigers — apparently quite rare to see…
D had found this amazingly cute place when we were doing our research on India and particularly Delhi, Its called The Delhi Manor. Its looked gorgeous from the website. We tried our level best to stay there when in Delhi but for some reason Intrepid Travel or probably Travel Inn their Indian counterpart wanted us to stay in Kingston Park in Karol Baug, Delhi! Well all was not lost yet D and I found that The Delhi Manor also had an outstanding restaurant called — ‘Indian Accent‘. This place has won a good few awards and also featured in the Qantas in-flight magazine. I had made a booking for us at the Indian Accent for tonight.
Indian Accent which is the Restaurant of The Manor is cocooned in a very leafy part of Friends Colony in South Delhi. Rakesh-ji took us there on time and we so felt like home the moment we stepped in. This place is just gorgeous! It is so secluded by a thick belt of tropical trees and tree lined streets and lane ways all along… and far-far away from the hustle and bustle of the Delhi streets. It is a sanctuary in the bliss of emerald green. Very unassuming from outside but soon the gate opens and the guard throws in a big salute to you, all you notice is a big carpet of green, the soft glow of diffused lighting, flower petals strewn along your pathway, blossoms of Marigold and Frangipani in ornate bowls and a very plush elegant inside sporting a cozy bar and an rather intimate restaurant overlooking the green.
Today we decided to go down to the Jenolan Caves a beautiful spot with myriads of limestone caves along the Great Dividing Range approximately 164 Kms away from Sydney. The history of the place is fascinating and the geology absolutely astounding.
Continue reading ‘Jenolan Caves – another exciting weekend away’
After a good week of Christmas and Boxing day jubilations I embarked on a short journey to India. It was on New Years Day. Who’d *ever* want to travel on New Years Day! Yes, well I did — and you’d be surprised the first leg of the flight from Sydney to Singapore was totally booked. So there I was at six in the morning catching a flight! Waking up the whole neighbourhood at five and troubling D, running through immigration kiosk, dashing toward the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme) to claim my brand new Lens. Ah all that was easy and soon was strapped in my window seat waiting to disappear in the oblivion of blue. I stuck my nose in Judith Lucy’s ‘The Lucy Family Alphabets’ what a great book… Thanks D. Before long we’re descending into Singapore of what seemed a very pleasant flight.
My first visit to Tasmania was ages back… nearly 8 years now and I still remember going crazy with my camera at every bend of the road. Its such a picturesque little island and though so close to the mainland of Australia it is very unique. There is tremendous love for good food and pride in fresh produce and they sure know how to be one with nature! The photos below are from my visit ages back with my first ever digital EOS camera. This was when I moved onto Canon from Olympus EOS film camera. Feels like a lifetime ago!
Would so love to travel to Tasmania again, we did have a great time in Hobart in August 2008. Oh and it was such a pleasure to stay at the Henry Jones Art Hotel. Here are some photos with links and some text to explain where they were shot. Enjoy Tasmania!
The view of ‘The Nut’ at Stanley, Tasmania. Stanley is the last major township on the north-west coast of Tasmania. The Nut, discovered by Bass and Flinders in 1798, rises abruptly 143m from the sea to a flattish top and is the stump of an old volcano. It was named after Lord Stanley, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies in the 1840s.
It was the 3rd of March 2006, the day of my travel to America. I was all packed and ready to go to a land of new experiences, new adventure. I was about to embark on a journey that would take me coast to coast, southern to the northern Hemisphere, over the great wide pacific, the international date line, and meet many amazing people. David had taken half day off from work to take me to the airport. On reaching the airport my heart raced faster. I was leaving Australia, soon I would walk past the immigration line. Oh I can be a worry wart sometimes(only very rarely), in this I do justice to my dad. We had a nice Oporto meal and soon enough it was time to part – excited, yet sad, nervous yet happy. I checked in, I could see David wave me goodbye. The lady checking me in asked if I’d packed my bags myself, Of-course i didn’t. I never do. LOL. soon I got 3 boarding passes. Sydney to San Francisco was the first one… Wait for the rest.. . It was time to go through the immigration now.
It was time to board soon and I walked in as seating area 2 was called. David had booked lovely aisle seats for long flights. The walk through the first class, business and then onto Economy is really a tease! In a while I saw a couple come up and stood infront of me. Mary, had a lovely soft and peaceful smile. Our eyes met… I kind of gestured: Are these your seats? Mary softly replied: I’m afraid so! Soon we were taxing for take-off and we were air-borne. It was noisy! But Mary and I got chatting and much before we knew… we were cruising over Fiji at thirty-four thousand feet, very close to sunset as I noticed through the small window next to Chuck, Mary’s husband. Sunset hues over relatively unpolluted almost pristine air is breath-taking. These are things a photographer craves to capture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t shoot any picture during my flight but I wasn’t very keen either!
Our Delhi sojourn was soon coming to an end. We had survived the 45°C plus heat and now on our 3rd day of the trip. We were acclimatising a little and had realised by this that stage that two litre of water intake was just not enough for the day! Our bags were packed as we waited at the reception to check out. When the guy at the reception asked where we were headed next — we chimed JAIPUR with excitement! He looked at us both and said it’d be about 3 to 4 degrees hotter than Delhi!! Of course in that excitement what was a mere 4degrees! We braved the biggest smile and said YES bring it on! Our Travel Inn guide who had checked us in at the Delhi hotel was there to see us off and we rolled off on our Innova with Rakesh-ji(the driver) behind the wheel. He was such an excellent driver.
It took almost an hour and half just to get out of Delhi. Probably because we headed out at 9am and on a Monday morning. We took a road that goes via Gurgoan and pretty wide and in great condition, except with little sense of sticking to their own lanes. About forty minutes later we came to a grinding halt. There were 18 lanes on one side of the road all leaving out of Delhi. I did count them there was not much else to do. In the meantime someone came and dropped off a copy of the local magazine (like our MX in Sydney) through the car window on to our driver. He passed it on to us. The first write up was about dealing with ‘Homophobia in Schools and with your peers’ I sank back into my seat reading a bit of that goss thinking to myself whatever happened to the so called sexually repressed orthodox society! My! Things HAVE changed in the 12 years I haven’t been around! Rest of the magazine was interesting too but just one of those flick and go kinds. You wouldn’t miss a beat if you didn’t read it. I remember D having a quick glance at it but he was more keen to see what was going on outside, taking it all in. We were truly leaving Delhi. We had seen the throng of the old pulsating Delhi, the energy and the maze of colours and the narrow lanes where you get poked and prodded to buy handicraft, you think of the sights and smells and the sights of an incredibly old city and yet in just half hour away here we are sitting in a bumper to bumper traffic jam of mostly four-wheel drives, a lot of air-conditioned cars, heading towards the toll booth where one side of the motorway can handle 18 lanes in a go! Did I say India is a land of contrasts? Huge contrasts!
I craned my neck up to see if I could count the number of incoming lanes on the other side of the Motorway. Alas in vain. It was a massive w-i-d-e road. Nothing I’ve seen anywhere else, not yet anyway! We crawled — bumper to bumper till we got to the toll booth. Just before we made it to the tool both we noticed a huge signboard telling us who exactly qualifies an exemption. The list was long and dare I say — hilarious!! We had a giggle and then D said: “Well the President and Prime Minister of India are Exempt too. Well I sure would hope so ” Do they really need to put that on a giant billboard?
We were racing through scorching hot earth. If the warm colours in the photo is anything to go by. The air-conditioning in the car was running at full throttle and we were still a bit sweaty. The landscape was parched and partly burnt, we were going through small patches of heat tornadoes. The burnt yellow dry soil and sand from the fields would form a mini-tornado and gyrate going over the piles of hay-stack on the fields and toss everything around… these were little localised heat waves. Great to watch from the comfort of zooming air-conditioned car. There was a constant haze of hot air and if you looked up ahead in the distance you could see the shimmering vehicle registrations numbers rising in a curve as we sat in anticipation thinking what was to come next. It felt a bit like we were travelling through a tunnel of fire and everything around us was a bit burnt and brown. Beautiful yet very unique and somewhat unnerving. Passing though miles of empty space at times with not a soul in sight and yet with 5 solid bars of signal on our iPhones. Vodafone seemed to look after India well.
The flight from Sydney to Delhi was great. It really was but I got frisked at the Sydney Airport. Ha Ha! Bambini Trust has a new outlet in the Airport. Our feet naturally wandered that way. Ten in the morning was a bit early for a wine (though I had 4 glasses of red wine between Sydney and Singapore alone, yes OMG I know!) so we settled in for a toasted banana bread and coffee both of which were rather nice. Soon we boarded the aircraft and were airborne. We’re really going to India and while very excited were also getting more and more conscious of the 44°C heat.
We landed early in Singapore and while making a transit from T3 to T2 saw a whole lot of passengers grounded sleeping on the floor… with all flights cancelled to Europe due to the volcanic eruptions in Iceland. After a little browsing around the shops in T2 we were boarding the aircraft for New Delhi. Excited as ever! The real journey begins now We had a new Singapore Airbus, nice new carpet, bigger screens and friendlier staff. The meals were yummy – a gorgeous butter chicken! Soon we were descending into Delhi.
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