About today around 3 years ago on 7th July 2018; a short trek to top of Madhoorpara mountain/temple nearby Trivandrum, Kerala. Had to take a bridge made of bamboo to reach the top. The weather was comfortable with good winds blowing and the creaks of the bamboo bridge could also be heard.
A small Roman Catholic church nestled among the hills and tea gardens, which is in a secluded place just 10 mins walking from the Attukad Waterfall in the small village named Pallivasal in Idukki district of Kerela.
During my visit I could just find one person who is from the same village; his name was Jo. Wasn't that great in his English but however I could make out he was saying been visiting this church for 11 years now daily twice, once early morning and his second visit is around late evening when actually we both were there at the church at the same time 5.30 pm.
Visited this 100-year-old institute in Dehradun, Forest Research Institute in Uttarakhand in 2015.
Which is a treasure, buildings made up of limestone and sandstone. Lush green trees and gardens. Must visit during early morning or late evenings for an experience of its own.
The Lush Green Feilds and Clean well Pitched Roads
Two Day stay at Scientist's Hostel inside FRI Campus
Paro Takstang also popularly known as Tigers Nest is located near upper Paro Valley in Bhutan.
Started the journey at around 9.00 am in the morning. The sky was looking good with cloud's playing hide and seek with the sun; chillness in the air and overall weather was conducive for the trek.
The starting of the trek is from Ramthankha after driving 10-12 kms from Paro town.
At the starting of the trek there is horse station where one can hire a horse and complete 2/3rd part of the trek since the last part has stairs to decent and the climb up to reach the Taktsang temple.
Initially there is a mud stone track for about 200 meters and I entered the forest area with dense group of Conifers trees.
The cool shaded with gentle slope uphill is ideal for trekking.
I took my first rest for few minutes at the small shrines where one can hear sound of water and the bells which is due to the water flowing.
By the end of the video after some easy gradient so far, I brace up for some steep slopes.
This is the ‘Fourth’ of 'Five' series Time-lapse video of drive to Paro from Phuntsholing, Bhutan
Start of Time-lapse: Chuzom Bridge, Paro Gewog, Paro - Thimpu Highway
End of Time-lapse: Paro Town, Paro Gewog, Paro - Thimpu Highway
Date of Journey - 15.August.2018
Duration of video - 02:19
We started after a short pit stop break from the Chuzom Bridge at around 3:00 in the afternoon.
The sun rays were directly falling on the windshield giving a good view of the distant mountains graded out in heavy greyish colour clouds.
As we cross the 00:50 sec mark in the video the outskirts of Paro and traditional style houses, SUV foreign vehicles, small & big road side shops and buildings are started to be seen.
Airport of Bhutan is also situated at Paro just 5 kms before the city and one of the passenger did get down at north of Paro airport. The rest of the two passengers got down at in the main Paro Town near the taxi stand.
Pema; the driver enquired from the locals near the Bharat Petroleum Pump about my location of homestay. After some enquiry he came to know that the homestay / lodge is on the Taktsang Road, which is another 8 kms away from the Paro city.
Strangely this homestay (View Point Lodge), which I had booked via Airbnb didn’t had this properly listed on Google Maps.
Background Score Credits: Tibet - HOVATOFF
This is the ‘Third’ of 'Five' series Time-lapse video of drive to Paro from Phuntsholing, Bhutan
Start of Time-lapse: Sirupa Chu (River) - River Bridge, Bunakha, Chukha District, Phuntsholing - Thimpu Highway
End of Time-lapse: Chuzom Bridge, Paro Gewog, Paro - Thimpu Highway
Date of Journey - 15.August.2018
Duration of video - 02:13
I kept moving closer to my destination and the sunshine was a good omen to things to come in the next couple of days; with my Taktsang Monastery (Tiger Nest Trek) planned for the next day on 16th August 2018.
As the driver continued to drive very skilfully tackling each of the curves as he have taken millions of trips on this road at normal speed of 40-50 km/hr; I started initiate talks with the driver and my fellow co-passengers, till that time they were speaking in their local language ‘Dzongkha’.
The drivers name was Puma Wangchuk who was a native of Phuntsholing town who told me he generally stays in Paro overnight and next day he would again take passengers from the taxi stand of Paro and return
back by evening to his home. Usually makes 3 - 4 such trips in a week.
The general charge for one way trip is 650/- ngultrum per passenger and in a trip he can take 4 total passengers as per the allowed limit.
The other three passengers who were sitting in the back seat were also Bhutanese; one of them with whom I had pretty interesting discussions who was working in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Bhutan Government. He did ask me if the videos which I am making; will I put them on YouTube?
As we continued talking in mix of English, Hindi and Nepalese; we crossed Chukha Dzongkhag (District) and entered into Paro Gewog traveling via - Bunakha, Chapcha and taking the next stop at Chuzom, at which three roads divert. (This part of the video ends)
The straight road goes to Thimpu, capital of Bhutan which is 30 kms. Crossing the bridge and taking left would take us to Haa (another beautiful valley of Bhutan) 78 kms from the bridge. Paro was on to the right and driving the vehicle towards Paro; we stopped our vehicle on my request to capture some photographs and rejuvenate my old memories at this mystical place.
In the next part of the video we reach Paro Town which is just 25 kms from Chuzom Bridge. It takes 45 minutes generally to cover however in my time-lapse video we will cover that trip in 02:18 mins.
Background Score Credits: Vacation Uke - ALBIS
This is the 'Second' of 'Five' series Time-lapse video of drive to Paro from Phuntsholing, Bhutan
Start of Time-lapse: Doejung Paksam Hotel, Gedu, Chukha District
End of Time-lapse: Sirupa Chu (River) - River Bridge, Bunakha, Chukha District, Phuntsholing - Thimpu Highway
Date of Journey - 15.August.2018
Duration of video - 05:11
At around 02.00pm we start from our first pit-stop which was at the Doejun Paksam Hotel where the driver and we, the co-passengers had our lunch.
The video starts with the majestic view of the small Gedu town and then the expansive view of the college of the Royal University of Bhutan i.e., Gaedu College of Business Studies comes at 00:11 second of the broadcast.
This is the most longest video of the five series Time-lapse of drive to Paro from Phuntsholing but also the most interesting part of the five - six hour long drive from Phuntsholing to Paro.
As we drive through some intense rain and cross quite a few foggy patches in the hill; we had to take our next short pit-shop at Chukha Thegchen Zam (Bridge) where the immigration papers are checked again.
The drive gets more interesting and pleasant after crossing the Chukha Thegchen Zam (Bridge) inagurated on 22nd October 1982 with clear sky and good road conditions to cross the most highest point of the Phuntsholing - Thimpu Highway (between Chukha and Bunakha).
The last bit of the recording is between Chukha and Bunakha where the soil is loose & rocky and this zone is also frequent landslide prone area. What’s more a few road side waterfalls visible gives an incredible end to the video.
In the next part of the series we complete the travel in Chukha Dzongkhag (District) and cross over into Paro Gewog (Block or group of villages as called in Bhutan) traveling via - Bunakha, Chapcha and ending the video at Chuzom (Confluence of Paro Chu and Thimpu Chu to form Wang Chu).
Background Score Credits: Let's go Home - Jeremy Blake
This is a 'First' of 'Five' series Time-lapse video of drive to Paro from Phuntsholing, Bhutan
Start of Time-lapse: Just after crossing the check-post at the outskirts of Phuntsholing town on Phuntsholing - Thimpu Highway
End of Time-lapse: Doejung Paksam Hotel, Gedu, Chukha District (In thumbnail)
Date of Journey - 15.August.2018
Duration of video - 03:56
Phuntsholing is the border town in southern Bhutan of Chukha district sharing the border of India with Jaigaon, Alipurduar district.
The drive to Gedu town which also falls under Chukha district is around 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes depending the road conditions.
Timelapsed the drive after crossing the check-post of Phuntsholing
(where immigration papers are checked) till Doejung Paksam Hotel, Gedu; in just less than 4 minutes.
Gedu's economy is growing very quickly largely due to the to the Tala Hydroelectric Project Authority (THPA) program which started in 1998 and which has drawn substantial migration to Gedu, with thousands of workers looking for jobs.
Also it is the location of one of the college of the Royal University of Bhutan i.e., Gaedu College of Business Studies (which will be visible in the next part of the video).
Background Score Credits: Marrionette - Letter Box
Anjanisain is a small village tucked away in the Tehri Garwal hills of Uttarkhand. It is around 350 kms from Delhi and can be reached by via New Tehri or Devprayag. It the perfect place for retreat or soul searching.
Six things to do have been listed while one can do while at Anjanisain:
1. Visit Devprayag 2. Stay at SBM Ashram 3. Trekking from Ashram to Chandrabadani Temple 4. Visits to adjacent villages 5. Enjoy the scenic views from Ashram 6. Indulge with the beauty of Tehri Dam
All of you have to be awakened with an alarm clock including me. So in order to do away with mechanic alarm clock you have to learn how to make use of your ‘inner alarm clock.’
The ‘inner alarm clock’ ticked by and took me through a worthwhile experience atop mountains.
Each sunrise was a deeply moving experience, seeing the village lights gradually getting dimmer as the sunrise grew over distant mountains. Going past by through maze of roads below, the cars, trucks were tiny dots creeping along the green highways. The clouds have a race with us, sometimes overtaking us and engulfing us into its chillness. We continued moving ahead leaving behind all the clouds and going uphill. It's easy to hear a distinct "accent" when you "ascend" to the mountains.
Then comes the style of living there, which could not get much more basic than this. People getting up early, eat, go downhill to their respective fields, get tired by afternoon, after returning back have ‘Roxy’ complete the dinner and go off to sleep. Most of them follow this simple life with no telephone connectivity, irregular electricity and still they don’t have any complains.
And then again during the evening you can see the evening clouds getting heavy with moisture and talking a more threatening shade of grayish sky. Driving the car through these conditions filled me with a sudden thrill. Then again I could almost see the thunder lightening right before me and a sinking feeling comes in. I suppose this would make your mind to rush and take you in the same situation and go through the experience.
Mountains, clouds & water are the three majestic powers of the earth and sky. It seems they confront each other in dramatic fashion like armies lined up to the battle and what spectacle when they do.
Power of Mountains, Clouds & Water
Do visit this place and see it yourself: Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh
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