Since the days I saw McCurry’s photos of Angkor a year ago, I have been dreaming of Siem Reap. And there have been other dreams of Indo-China – to visit Vietnam along with Combodia, and may be a little bit of Malaysia too. I made a home work for this as far back as four years ago, but never really got around to kick myself up to travel that way. Reading about Angkor in a few blogs recently, the temptations are back again. But right now, a journey to these parts of the world is not visible anywhere in the horizon. Reasons are many. First, I hardly have any holidays with me and I end up spending them as quickly as they accumulate. Second, whenever I do find time, it gets spent travelling somewhere within India. Let’s admit it, there are few places as magnanimous as Angkor anywhere in India or rest of the world, but for some unknown reasons, it is India that I prefer. And I somehow don’t feel like burning my money overseas either. I know IndoChina is cheap and I can afford it, but just can’t make up my mind on it. Wish I had some sponsors!! 😀
I sat down, planning to write about some my favourite places to travel to. There were infact so many of them that I had to resort to writing about them one by one.
Mt. Nanda Devi as seen from Auli during sunset
Auli is a place I love for two many reasons – its scenery of magnanimous scale encompassing some of the mighty mountains of Garhwal like Nande Devi, Dronagiri, Trishul. The beautiful forests and meadows in its backyard – the Gorsau top and higher, and its pine forests and snowy slopes – are great places to walk around.
Skiing in Auli
But the primary reason to be in Auli is its ski slopes which are great fun. The first time I went there, I came back with a mission – to get there every year. I indeed went back the next year, though it did not happen the year after. But plans are already shaping up for the coming year!
Read more about my visits to Auli, and see photographs from the place.
Most of the time when I meet any India Travel Blog reader offline, there is something similar I get to hear. Most people would have built an image of me based on my online persona. But surprisingly, every one seems to have different thoughts in their mind. Some people have said I am just like they assumed I am. Some people imagined me to be an elderly person and there are others who thought I am very young. And then there are a few who were just curious but did not have a very concrete image. I was quite surprised to realize that these opinions are diverse.
Over time, as I am meeting more and more readers of India Travel Blog offline, I thought I might as well add a little more personal touch online too. And then there were many queries to me about people searching all over paintedstork.com for my photo and not finding one. And so, I am finally adding a photo on India Travel Blog.
It might surprise you, in the vast collection of images in my hard disk, this is one and only picture of mine that I have! And even this was shot on a sleepy morning without even taking trouble to make myself look good. But then, I am too lazy to setup another shot and take one more picture..