Since I’m done with my recenttravelogues, I decided to go back through my photo collection and share my older travel experiences. I’ve traveled quite a bit down and around South India, and though I may not be able to recount my experience exactly, I’ll try my best to re-trace the steps.
I’m starting off with Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement in Karnataka state and around 3hrs drive from Bangalore city. I’ve been to Bylakuppe twice — first, in 2008, en route to Coorg and the second time, with AOL India’s Shutterbugs group.
First visit to Bylakuppe (October 2008)
It’s kind of weird to be traveling for an hour or two through Karnataka’s smaller towns, seeing the locals and sign boards in Kannada and then suddenly seeing a lot of Tibetans and Buddhist monks in one large piece of land off Mysore road.
We were en route to Coorg and had heard of Bylakuppe from friends, so we decided to make it the lunch stop in our journey. It was noon by the time we arrived and we decided to quickly check out the Namdroling Monastery – also known as the Golden Temple – before having lunch.
I don’t remember which day it exactly was but when we arrived at the Golden Temple, the monks were on a break (I guess) as few were seen inside the temples and halls.
From inside the Golden Temple:
A few from just outside the Golden Temple…
… before lunch.
I forgot the name of the restaurant we had lunch from but it was a garden restaurant on the road that leads to the Golden Temple. Don’t expect anything fancy in Bylakuppe, most restaurants (and there are only a few) serve simple Tibetan dishes. You do get South Indian food just outside the Golden Temple and the standard “fried rice” fare is available at some restaurants. But don’t go asking around for Chinese food! Tibetans hate them!
If you are wondering what we had, it was thukpa (noodle soup; veg & beef) and tingmo (steamed rice bread).
It was shocking how cheap it all was. Three of us ate all that for less than Rs. 100!
On the way out, we checked out the other places of interest in Bylakuppe (or at least the places that looked interesting to us)
After this, we headed back to the highway for Coorg.
Second visit to Bylakuppe (March 2009)
My second visit to Bylakuppe was with my office photography club called Shutterbugs. It was a weekend trip, leaving on a Saturday morning, spending the night at Kushal Nagar and heading back the next day. Fortunately, this time, we arrived at the Golden Temple when prayers were in full force.
Since we had all day to spend in Bylakuppe, I got a chance to go around the whole vicinity this time around and explore the place better.
As the day darkened, we headed to Kushal Nagar which is pretty much the largest town in the area and took rooms at a cheap lodge. We set out again the next day, rather early, for Nisargadhama which was fairly close by.
After Nisargadhama, we headed back on to Mysore Road for Bangalore, stopping for lunch at Hotel Mayura River View in Srirangapatna — a very nice (& affordable) restaurant by the river banks.
As I sat there by the river, the setting oddly got me thinking about ‘Jungle Book’.
Two weekends ago, I went to the district of Wayanad in the state of Kerala. It was with mostly friends from work who are part of AOL India’s photography club Shutterbugs.
We left one Friday night from work and was joined by a colleague Yazid who would come with us until Wayanad and who would then, from there leave for Calicut, his home. I’ve always wanted to go on a photo expedition with Yazid since he’s one guy who was always open to teaching me more on photography.
Since he wasn’t going be with us for long, I used any opportunity to take advantage of his time. And we got some when we stopped for some time near the Karnataka-Kerala border.
Yazid taught me and another friend, Ramesh, how to use the Bulb mode in a camera. I had it as a mode in my Canon 7D but didn’t know exactly what it was for. Essentially, the Bulb mode was for giving the photographer full manual control over timed exposure. As in, you can hold the shutter open for as long as you can hold the button down.
Another cool example was shooting off the flash for a second and then holding on to the open shutter to create cool effects like this.
Ramesh stood in front of the jeep when the flash was shot off, then moved away while the shutter was still held and the result is what you see above.
We tried another shot using the same technique. Here’s a shot of Ramesh and Yazid with the shutter release lasting as long as the flash just goes off.
Now here’s the same pose but with the flash going off and then both moving away while the shutter is still held open by me for nearly 10 seconds.
The long exposure helps you get the stars as well.
We tried the same with shadows. Shot off the flash which obviously captures our shadows but then move away while still holding the button down so the open shutters captures as much of the background as possible.
We tried some more shots…
… before Ramesh and I felt we had learned enough.
We set off from there and by the time we reached Bandipur, the sun had slowly started to show up.
By 7am, we had reached Wayanad. The taxi had to stop at the check post for the standard paper work which gave us the opportunity to start our photography.
I didn’t take many photos as I was feeling sleepy given I was up the whole night making sure our driver didn’t doze off like the passengers did. Breakfast was just hot tea.
It took our driver nearly an hour to get back from the customs police. And when he did, we realized we had a puncture too! More time was wasted as the driver slowly replaced it. Annoying as it were, we finally moved past the check post and stopped again soon after. Nidhin (the guy who organized this whole trip) told us the first thing on our itinerary was a safari ride through Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary. We paid up for five, our guide and got into our jeep.
Now, the thing with any safari is that, the chances of one actually ever seeing anything exciting are rare. Plus timing is important too. Early mornings are often said to be best as a lot of animals prefer to stay in the shade once the sun is out in full force. Plus, it helps if the vehicle you are in wouldn’t make such a racket giving a loud heads-up to every creature signaling tourists are on the way!
I was only carrying my wide-angle and 50mm lens, so there was little I could capture as far as exotic animals and birds are concerned. Nidhin had a 300mm lens so he managed to get some rather good close-ups of the creatures we came across.
So bear with me… here are some trees!
After driving through the forest, we hit the tarred road and the driver took us to a nearby “waterfall”.
Turned out to be nothing more than a river stream with a lot of sand dumped on its banks — which looked suspicious as it surely didn’t look like it belong there.
After nearly nearly 2 hours, we were back to where we started. Our safari ride was over. Was it worth it? I guess it varies. If we had spotted tigers, then I would have said ‘yes’. Otherwise, if deers and small wild animals aren’t your thing, it’s a waste of money.
It was nearing noon so we decided to head for our resort which was still a bit away. But once we hit Sultan Batheri (the big town in Wayanad) our taxi suffered another puncture! Since the spare tyre was also bust, we had no choice but to wait for it to get fixed.
So I decided to take in the local sights.
After an hour, we were back on our way. And then… another puncture! That too the same tyre! We got fed up at this point, so we told our driver to get it sorted and we took an autorickshaw to our resort.
I don’t remember the name of the resort and honestly, I wouldn’t even recommend it for the price (Rs. 1750 per night). Getting there is pain by itself and the amenities or for that matter, the views, really aren’t worth the price.
After finally brushing our teeth and having something to eat, we rested for a bit. It was already past 4pm at this point and we really didn’t want to waste daylight, so we set off for our next stop — Banasura Sagar dam.
We hired a jeep as by the time our taxi driver got the tyre fixed and reached our resort, we decided its best he eat and rest. Also mostly because we were scared of the tyre going bust again.
There is an entrance fee at Banasura Sagar dam, the largest earthen dam in India and apparently the second largest in Asia. Open to visitors, the place offers a children’s park and even boat rides.
It was very sunny when we arrived and I regretted not carrying my sunglasses.
The tickets for the boat rides are separate from the entrance fees and none of us were interested in going for it either. So after spending an hour there, we headed back.
After sunset, we just enjoyed drinks and food over a campfire… ‘cos there was little else to do. There is absolutely nothing around the resort besides trees and shrubs.
Most of us called it an early night (especially me) since we barely slept properly in the past 24 hours. The plan was to wake up early the next day and set off by 5:30am.
But that never happened.
I got up a 5:30am and tried calling up the others — but in vain. And since it was freezing cold and misty outside, I went back to bed. We eventually did get up but by the time we left the resort, it was past 9am.
We drove through Kalpetta, picked up a local friend of Nidhin’s and made our way to Kuruva island.
Kuruva is not an “island” you’d imagine. It’s just a piece of forest land surrounded by a river stream (River Kabini) thus earning the title of “island”. We weren’t planning on getting on to the actual island itself so we went with our local guide through the side and the paddy fields you have to cross to get to the banks.
There is an entrance fee to enter Kuruva island and if you pay, this is how you actually get to the island.
But we just sat by the bank for some photography.
By 1pm, we were bored and decided to head back to town. Nidhin’s friend showed us one last thing before heading back to town.
An old teak bungalow used by the British during colonial times.
The bungalow was on a secluded piece of land surrounded by trees making it one heck of a vacation home.
Now all that’s left are markings by vandals professing their love for someone and other messages inscribed on the wood. The house is decades old but I was surprised how good the wood still was.
It was very sunny so we quickly headed back to our taxi, drove to town and cooled off during lunch. After that, it was back to Bangalore.
Fortunately, we didn’t suffer any further punctures and the only time we stopped (and probably the most exciting moment of this trip) was when we saw young elephants by the road side in Bandipur.
We did end up stopping at Mysore for dinner. (Actually, we stopped at Mysore because Nidhin’s friend said there was this dosa and beef curry joint in town but trying to find it was a pain and Nidhin’s state didn’t help either so we just ate at a regular vegetarian joint.)
Just as the clocked neared 12am, I was back home. The trip really wasn’t one of my best given the expenses and the resulting photography.
That’s how much I wrote about my 10 days in Thailand. I don’t know how much of it you read but I had a lot to write about.
Editing nearly 400 photos out of 1,100 taken wasn’t easy but having gone through them all, I’m very happy with the picture quality the Canon 7D is capable of producing.
How much did I spend?
Excluding the camera equipment expenses, close to Rs. 55,000 (approx. $1,200).
Rs. 55k for 10 days might seem like a lot to some experienced backpackers – or – expensive to those who are used to traveling by package tours but had my tripod not broken or had I not taken those two flights, I could have done it for around Rs. 40,000. It’s okay, I now know where to stay and how much to spend on just about everything. Lesson learned.
I fell in love with these bikes the moment I saw them on Bangkok’s streets. On day 1, I dreamt of renting one and driving along the coast when I head down to South Thailand. I guess it’s something I have to keep for next time.
Places I planned on seeing but still couldn’t:
– Phang Nga Bay
– climb the 1200 steps up to Tiger Cave Temple ( Wat Tham Suea)
– Floating market
Things I want to do next time:
– attend the Full-Moon party and stay at Koh Tao
– capture/photograph the drive to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai
– visit Trang and some other new place
– take the train and see the country side
– be in Chiang Mai for the lantern festival
– explore Old Bangkok and the Chinatown
– be better equipped to take HD videos
– avoid mishaps by being more careful
– make the vacation a month-long one 🙂
Besides not being able to do the trip as per plan, another factor that hampered my vacation was the lack of sleep or just how tired I would be with all the rushing around. Will take it a lot more easy the next time around.
Closing thoughts on Thailand:
Thailand’s global reputation isn’t a good one. Let’s just be honest about it. From its night life to people claiming it to be one of the most dangerous destinations in Asia, most descriptions about safety in Thailand when doing my research painted a not-so-rosy picture. I even watched every episode of this British show called Big Trouble in Thailand (on YouTube) which highlights the kind of problems one can expect in Thailand. A bit over-dramatized but a lot of the scams are often genuine. (Worth a watch as a travel advisory)
So did I feel scared traveling all alone in Thailand? No.
In fact, I felt very safe. Safer than I feel traveling in India! (Yes, even for women.) I’m not saying nothing bad will ever happen. I’m just saying, if you do your research, take precautions and avoid shitty places with shitty people — you’re good.
And the people… most Thais are extremely nice people! Of course, being a tourist, you may end up getting ripped off occasionally but tell me one place you’ve visited where that hasn’t happened. There are many poor (or lets just say lower income) folks in Thailand, just as there are in India, but understand that they’re trying to make a living too.
Another thing I realized (& one that bothers me) is how much we overpay for just about everything in India. I mean in Thailand, the infrastructure is much better, fuel prices are more or less the same, even the long distance buses are better there — and yet, you get more for your money in tourist Thailand than in India. I hate that! After visiting South Thailand, I’ve decided that I’ll never spend too much money in Goa — India’s much revered coastal destination. The price of good (safe) food, the beautiful beaches, and the way you are treated is far superior in Thailand than in tourist hot spots such as Goa or Pondicherry.
And Thailand’s governance isn’t any better than India. Political scandals are a daily affair and corruption is rampant. Like Bangalore, even they have squabbles over the older smaller airport being allowed to stay open for domestic carriers as supposed to forcing them to use the newer, bigger international airport. So trust me, things aren’t that different — but you’re still going to enjoy the quality of life you get with more or less the money you spend here for the same.
So my word to anyone going to Thailand — there’s a lot more to the place than you think, and it won’t cost you a bomb to enjoy it. And please, respect the people there. They’re not all low-lifes.
Until my next Thailand trip.
P.S: I didn’t end up going to Goa for Sunburn (Dec 25th to 27th 2009) after I got back on Dec 22nd night. Mostly because :
– I was tired
– I had lots to write and photos to edit
– I didn’t feel like spending anymore money
– What I spent in 5 days in Thailand, I would have had to shell out in 3 days in Goa during peak season