Sunset Over Cairo

This was taken from a plane while departing from Cairo. You can't see the Pyramids when the plane takes off as the Giza Plateau is quite far from the airport.

Another beautiful sight is when the plane flies over the Sinai peninsula and the Red Sea. Yummy is one word that comes to my mind!

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Tulips at Pier 39

Taken during a display of tulips at Pier 39, San Francisco.

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Snowstorm in New Jersey and New York

Guest blogger, San. Currently snowed under in New Jersey, thanks to the big snowstorm in the NE coast.

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Rhine Falls: Zurich

This photo was taken at Rhine Falls in the Rhine Forest area near Zurich.

We had rented a Volkswagen Beetle at Sion in the Valais region, and drove to Zurich in it. After coming to Zurich, we headed out to the Rhine Falls, a popular tourist destination.

Thanks to the excellent roads, I consistently drove in excess of 150 kmph :~) It was also a very picturesque drive with loads of greenery and I enjoyed every moment of it.

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Sunset from our bedroom

I'm not kidding, this really is a view from our bedroom.

How's everyone? Sorry I've been late in posting the last few days - I am really caught up with work. Oh and I don't know if you can see that small smudge on the image. I have to give my camera for repair as well.

Posted by shruthi at 11:28 AM | Comments (6)

En route to Jungfrau

I want to retire in that house.

This one was taken en route to Jungfrau, on the little cog-wheel train. The train goes through these small villages up the hill and you just feel like jumping out of the train, get a job there and settle down.

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Aletsch Glacier: Jungfrau - Top Of Europe

That's the Jungfrau mountain in the background. This photo was taken in the summertime in one of Switzerland's most popular and beautiful destination, the Grindenwald region. From this point, you can burn a lot of calories by taking the Aletsch Glacier walk - a 21 kilometer hike in the snow (which we could not do because of lack of time). Can't wait to get back there! :-D

Jungfraujoch is the highest railway station in Europe, at more than 11,000 feet. From the observatory here, you can even see Germany, France and Italy on a clear day. Pity it wasn't that good when we went there.

We had been to Bollywood Restaurant there, an Indian restaurant that offers buffet meals for CHF 29 a piece. Both veg and non-veg foods are served; you also get rice and rasam.

Posted by shruthi at 10:21 PM | Comments (1)

Red Hot Chili Peppers

This one's from Manvar - another beautiful place in the Thar - a village in Rajasthan. This place is situated in the middle of the Thar desert between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

We stayed at the Manvar desert camp. They also have a resort 7 km from the desert camp. A very well maintained and a lovely resort, I must add. During dinner, there is a Rajasthani folk dance and excellent folk music at breakfast. There is also a similar desert camp in Jaisalmer, Sam Sand Dune's desert camp.

I must say it's worth the stay in these desert camps. The tents they have in these desert camps are Swiss tents and are excellent. Spacious, and they also have a small bathroom (with decent bathroom fittings) attached with every tent.

They take you to a desert safari, in a four wheel drive jeep. This picture is from the desert safari :). I drove the jeep in the desert convincing the driver to let me drive it.

The chilies looked very tasty, but I didn't dare try them!

Posted by shruthi at 9:21 PM | Comments (9)

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre (Italy), or "five villages," is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Consisting of the villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, the walk through Cinque Terre takes you through many breath-taking views like this one.

There are two paths one can take to cover the five villages: a high-path and a low-path. The low-path, which is the one we took due to lack of time, is shorter and can be covered in three hours max. The high-path takes almost a day.

Many people had camped next to the pathway, so it really depends on whether you have time or not!

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A view from the window of our chalet in Veysonnaz

We stayed for a couple of days in Veysonnaz, at author Christian Lation's chalet.

Veysonnaz is a charming little village up on the hills near Sion, which is known for its vineyards. It's a pity we couldn't visit the vineyards due to lack of time.

The place is apparently packed in winter, when the 4-Valley Ski Resort opens. It's just a stone's throw away from where we stayed.

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On the way to JUNGFRAU: Top of Europe

This is what you encounter en route to Jungfrau: Top of Europe.

Sitting in a little cog-wheel train (more on that later), chilled to the bone, I was wishing for some hot Schokolade.

Posted by shruthi at 10:04 PM | Comments (7)

Photo Friday: Green

This one's on the way to Mahabalipuram from Bangalore, on the Bangalore-Chennai highway, several months back. This trip is one of my most memorable ones.

We went past this place very recently (about two weeks back), and it reminded me so much of the time I spent driving around the place in a car... Sigh.

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Sunrise

Words fail me.

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Photo Friday: Hot

This was taken on our way to Pune from Bangalore last December.

Needless to say, we had to cool off with a lot of water and fruit juices.

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Photo Friday: Obsession

Obsession is like a rose.

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Cold Morning

Getting away from Bangalore for a breath of fresh air - oh the joy! I like crisp mornings like these.

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Mahabalipuram

I had been to Mahabalipuram a few weeks before the Tsunami struck. This was taken from a beach restaurant. I wonder if it's still there :-(

It's not too late to donate to the Tsunami relief fund.

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Hiking at Matheran

This photo is from Matheran, a hill station quite close to Mumbai (and Pune). A quaint, clean little town, this. Plastic is banned here, which is why you can see such clean pathways. In other places, there would be so much garbage around that I literally pick up the stuff and throw it in the dust bins.

We even spent New Year's eve at Matheran, and it was very nice.

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Sunset

Captured the Sunset one evening near my house. It hasn't come out very well, has it? :(

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Twins

It was about 11:00 AM in the morning, when we decided to head out from Tirupathi and see places nearby. It was a gloomy day (it had rained earlier in the morning).

Which was when I managed to grab a picture of the twins with the mountain in the background.

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Kabini River

This one's from a few days back when I had been to Kabini. Stayed at the Kabini River Lodge owned by Jungle Lodges and Resorts. There were not too many wild animals around here. But fortunately beautiful scenery like this almost made up for it.

As usual, no post-processing was done to this image, except for re-sizing :)

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Panorama II

I like this more than the previous one. For the bigger version, click here.

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Experiments with Panorama

Just testing out the PhotoStitcher software that came with my Canon PowerShot A75 camera. For a bigger version, click here.

This was taken a few days back when I went for a trek near Bandipur. One part of the mountains had rains and the other part was dry, but I had to crop out the rainy part as it had not come out as well as the other parts.

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Hide 'N Seek

It seems as though the Sun is trying to hide behind the clouds.
This was taken in the evening, and no modification was done to the image.

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Come to me

This lonely tree in a field was calling out "Come to me!" I like the way the clouds seem to be spreading out from beyond the horizon.

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Sunflower

I'm speechless.

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Stranded

It was raining cats and dogs this weekend in Bangalore. The owner of this bicycle must have left in a hurry. Lucky I was driving in my car :)

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Peace

The greenery was just... something! It never seemed to end.

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Serenity defined

Another photo of the river. The only sound was that of a bird which was making the most stupid sound one can imagine.

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By the river

A walk along Geoffrey Muthanna's coffee estate in Dubare (Coorg) brought us to this river.

Posted by shruthi at 10:45 PM | Comments (1)