Best of Spiti – In Pictures

The inviting roads, the terrain, the landscapes and topography…….

Making up our minds for doing the 11 days road trip with a little baby was not easy at all. It was the first time ever that we were so anxious about our ‘Travel’ plans!! Post baby, the lifestyle changed every bit and traveling together (particularly the adventure trips) were difficult to fathom. However, our zeal for road trips couldn’t keep us away for a very long time and after an occasional break of a year we decided to pack our bags and set out on a road trip along with our 11 months old little love to the revered Spiti Valley, the Land of Lamas in India. Interestingly, we discovered our baby boy shares the love for Travel 🙂 This trip wasn’t his first though, he had been on few short trips already before Spiti.

Spiti is as stunning as it name sounds!! Lahaul–Spiti lies in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Spiti is predominantly occupied by Tibetan refugees and hence the region has pretty much feel of Tibet.

We covered the region via Shimla. It was thrilling as well as challenging to drive on these roads. We were bracing ourselves for the drive on one of the most treacherous and deadliest roads of the world. This time it was the thrill of NH-22 and Hindustan-Tibet road. The hairpin bends, the narrow dimensions, encountering natural waterfalls, close encounters with trucks and buses, the frequent bad patches made us  feel ecstatic and sometimes insane. Take a virtual tour of the roads here.

The region is heaven for photography enthusiasts, to hone skills and experiment with different styles, today I’m sharing the essence of the ‘Spiti Valley’ captured in pictures, a random compilation of awe-inspiring sightings. This is going to be a series of posts and I hope you travel along 🙂

This is a landscape view of village – Dhankar. Dhankar stands tall at an altitude of 12,774 feet. Dhang/dang means cliff, and kar/khar means fort. Hence, the fort on a cliff is popularly known as ‘Dhankar’. The confluence of Spiti & Pin Rivers from this height is incredible!!!

Dhankar houses a 16th century old fort monastery; however one can see the new monastery now in the tiny village of Shichilling. The old monastery complex is also known as Lha-O-pa Gompa; it has five different halls and includes a number of multi-storied buildings. The highlight of the monastery is the a statue of Vairochana or Dhayan Buddha with 4 figures seated back to back. The monastery is associated with Gelukpa order of Tibetan Buddhism and has around 150 lamas residing in it.

Read more about Dhankar

The natural settings are so beautiful here that we were compelled to take breaks and soak in the beauty, this capture is a humble attempt to share the beauty with the world.

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Of Windows and Travel!

This week’s WPC theme is – Windows!!

I have been reminiscing about this for a long time and was about to do a post. So, I’m glad that it is the theme for the week 🙂 where I can share my pictures reflecting the world through windows, the world that keeps changing. The only constant in these pictures is the ‘Window’ 🙂

The first picture here was shot in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The beautiful city is a visual treat with it’s shimmering lakes against the backdrop of Aravali Hills, formidable palaces showcasing heritage and enticing structures with distinctive artwork. I believe my regular readers would also remember a post I recently did on the city.

The Pink Evening at Sangla!

The second one captures the essence of ‘Sangla’, a quaint town located in Kinnaur in Himachal region of India. The sky that evening turned pink and looked beyond beautiful. This shot captures the calm mountains overlooking apple orchards.

We covered ‘Sangla’ on our 11 days road trip to Spiti Valley, Read – ‘An epic road trip to Spiti Valley , the Land of Lamas in India’

Feel the Royalty at Jaisalmer!

This is a capture of the ‘Jaisalmer Fort’ from a restaurant’s dining area. We stayed here for two days and I would recommend to definitely cover Jaisalmer if you’re are exploring Rajasthan.

Jaisalmer is popularly known as the The Golden City, situated amidst Thar Desert, close to Pakistan border; over powered by the Jaisalmer Fort (Sonar Quila) the city with glorious past offers an action packed experience to travelers. Not just the architecture, the whole city oozes different feel tiny gallis (narrow lanes), all the houses constructed from golden bricks, puppet shows and people singing folk songs at all the unexpected locations, its awesome !!!

The Morning at Dal Lake!

Dal Lake is fondly known as Srinagar’s jewel. Dal Lake is the second largest lake in the state; it is a major tourist attraction as well as source for commercial activities such as fishing and water plant harvesting.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir has always sustained the limelight mostly for infamous reasons. Srinagar, truly is paradise and treat for your soul. You can actually plan long vacation to Srinagar and surrounding areas.

For more pictures of Dal Lake read – Hues of Dal Lake

Windows – What do you see through yours?

‘I see beautiful surroundings, that create magic

lit up my eyes

and make me smile!!

Happy Exploring!!

Special Feature – The Portraits

Portrait Photography is one of my favorite forms, it has so much potential for experimentation and the way it adds personality to a picture is just incredible. I’m glad to share some of the charmingly endearing ‘Portraits’ from the family 🙂

Beginning with the newest, dearest and cutest !

 

It seems like yesterday, we were blessed with ‘Aayaansh’, at that moment we never knew what we will we call him or what kind of bond he’ll share with us, we were spellbound when we first saw him and from that moment to this we have been falling in love with our little Love every single day 🙂 It’s indescribable!!

These innocent sparkling eyes is all I need to begin my day 🙂

Experimenting with the ‘White Balance’!

Hello there!!

Today, I’m sharing two gorgeous pictures taken at one of the most beautiful cities in India  – Udaipur! These ones are special, both of them were clicked with DSLR (Nikon D3300) and in the evening, the only major difference being the ‘White Balance’. The ISO, Exposure etc. vary for both the pictures but the vital one is White Balance.

Reflecting Reality or Creating a New One!

This week’s theme has no boundaries, the reflections mirror what we want to see 🙂 I’m sharing beautiful interpretations from our travels here

This one captured on Dal Lake while enjoying our Shikara Ride, the reflection seems to have created two shops 🙂

Republic Day (2017) celebrations at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi

The Golden wires in water culminating in a beautiful shape, seems like those colors were used to paint a picture 🙂 This one was captured at Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Reflecting

A blue evening at Ambrai Ghat, Udaipur

Earlier, we shared pictures captured in the night from the ‘Ambrai Ghat’. This post is sort of continuation of that post and here we are sharing the pictures of one beautiful blue evening at Ambrai. Ambrai Ghat is one place where you can enjoy unforgettable sunrise ans sunsets at Udaipur.

The blue tinge added by the ferry looks so unusual and beautiful! #Udaipur #AmbraiGhat

This is the picture captured right after sunset. You can observe the difference in the color of sky in both the pictures, to witness it live was an amazing experience!!

The rising ‘Moon’!!

Moon has risen at Tabo tonight!!

Tabo (Ta- pho) village is situated at a wobbly altitude of 3050 meters (approx 10,600 ft) in the eastern region of Spiti Valley. The tiny divine village will catch your fancy for all the right reasons. It was Day 6 of our epic road trip to Spiti Valley.

The rocky mountains were striking beautiful, carved aesthetically by nature. Huge expanse of land adorned only by nature was so appealing that you would want it to never end. The roads are mostly well maintained with bad patches here and there. For us, it was very crucial to sustain a particular speed for two big reasons – with the baby we could not drive for a long time, it was just tough for Aayansh and secondly since Ashish himself was driving throughout, our objective was to reach some place safe before 5.00 pm. So that we could select a hotel, enjoy the stay and get prepared for the next day. From Kalpa to Tabo in one single stretch was something!!!

We reached Tabo in the evening, the strong chilly winds pushed us in our hotel room right away. However, there is not much to do in the night here.

So, while we were having dinner, the beautiful and bright moon enticed us. We decided to check out the night sky and stepped outside, ‘Oh God, the chilly winds were difficult to cope up with for sure’.  We headed to the terrace – the star studded sky against the backdrop of huge rocky mountain looked stunning and the superstar of the night was ‘Moon’ gazing at us from the corner of the mountain. We wanted to capture this moment and here is the attempt 🙂

The Moon rising at Tabo village in Spiti Valley. I wish we had the Tripod as the chilly winds at a temperature of -2 C and an altitude of 10,000 plus feet made Ashish’s hands little shaky but still the picture has come out well. 🙂

The next morning we had a memorable experience at the Tabo Gompa, check out – Totally Tabo-ed!!

The best part about the ‘Road Trip to Spiti Valley‘ is that the surrounding views change in every few minutes leaving you with a feeling of surprise and appreciation for nature.

Happy Exploring!!

Night glory at Ambrai Ghat, Udaipur (I)

When the Sun sets in the West; Radiance emerges all over!!

Ambrai Ghat in Udaipur is a beautiful and most popular ghat offering uninterrupted view of the Lal Ghat and the City Palace. The strategic location makes it a must visit !!

The illuminated City Palace gives a feel of a absorbing painting enriched with dark background. We are delighted to share the beauty of this place via pictures, Ashish took these stunning shots, take a look – 🙂

Will soon be sharing the beauty of Udaipur at dawn!! Till then feel free to check out the other popular posts on Udaipur here – The New You, Beauty is all around You!!, Conceptual Photography.

Little Haze in Kaze!!

Kaze / Kaza is the sub-divisional headquarters of Spiti Valley. It also is the largest township in Lahaul & Spiti Valley. This place gives a more town like feeling unlike other places in Spiti like Dhankar, Gue and Tabo (which you can relate to villages). Nevertheless, the chocolate colored mountains dipped in vanilla-like icing will tempt you to say ‘Awesome’!!

At Peace, Nako Village

This absorbing shot was captured near a monastery in Nako Village, Kinnaur while returning from a 10 days road trip to Spiti Valley.