Below is a copy of India Travel Blog Newsletter that was mailed out on May 02.
The India Travel Blog newsletter dispatch is sporadic and infrequent, but I try to send it out once a month. Last newsletter was circulated in March. To get this occasional newsletter, which announces important happenings in India Travel Blog and also summarizes the recent content, subscribe to it by keying in your email id on the box at the top-right corner
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Hello,
Thank you for subscribing to India Travel Blog Newsletter. Feel free to forward this to anyone who would be interested.
The desktop wallpaper calendar for May 2007 is now online and can be downloaded here
It has been two months since the last newsletter was mailed, and plenty of content has been added on India Travel Blog since then.
1. The North East Diary is ongoing since last 2 months and is continuing in good pace. There are many posts that cover about travelling infrastructure in north east, conservation and environment in the region, and about Guwahati. Topic currently being written is about birding in Eaglenest National Park. Read the last post on it – Journal Entry on Eaglenest National Park. See links to previous posts on North East on the sidebar.
2. Added trip report of some old and recent journeys in Karnataka’s western ghats. a) Swimming in Kempu Hole and b) Climbing Thadiyandamol
3. Two book reviews have been added. a)Elephas Maximus by Stephen Alter and b) Chasing the monsoons by Alexander Frater
In the coming days, I have much to write about North East, including Tawang, Kaziranga, Nameri, Shillong and Cherrapunjee. I am planning a 2 week long trip to Himachal in about 4 weeks time, and hopefully all about Himachal will be the next thing on India Travel Blog after the North East Diaries.
Happy travelling and happy reading!
– from India Travel Blog
Desktop wallpaper Calendar for the month of May 07 is ready. This is an image of strands of a waterfall with the major flow of the fall seen in the blurry background. I am in double mind about whether the image is suitable for being a desktop calendar though. A browser resized version looked ugly and pixellated on my computer, so I advice seeing the full sized image. Click on the picture to get the image in 1024×768
About the Image
This image was made at a place called Muthyala Maduvu, or Muthyala Madu near Bangalore, occasionally also called as ‘Pearl Valley’. It is a small fall with not much water going down, but when you look up from the bottom of the fall, the drops of water look as though it is pearls falling down(and hence the name). I was with my friend, photographing the fall and was unhappy about the result and told my friend – “The fall is like a poetry, but the images are like snapshots.” This was the picture I made immediately after I said this to him.
I have been thinking of travelling to Himachal Pradesh some time in the last week of May or first week of June. I have around three weeks of time, and haven’t exactly planned anything about the trip yet. Since it is my first visit to the mountain state, would also want to cover some popular places that are normally called tourist traps. A 3-5 day high altitude trek also would be a nice add on. I am yet to start my research, but do pour in your suggestion if there is something unmissable. Roughly, I am contemplating on starting at Manali, hire a bike there and go around some beautiful places accessible by road in the bike(Spiti/Sangla/Rohtang..?) and also cover a few of the towns like Kullu, Dharmashala and Shimla. I hope to spend some time photographing Himachal’s beauty on the days I am on bike. After 7-8 days of biking, relax for a day or two and head for good multi-day trek in the mountains. This is just things I am thinking of today and might give a shape to a plan after doing some research. I am open to changes and will be looking for inputs.
If anyone would be interested to join me for part of the journey or full, do let me know.