Dont punish Intelligence

galveston seal

old buildings,statues cover this small island which is inhabited by about 60,000 people.

its a port from where most of the caribbean cruise ship sail.

people come here early morning & spend their whole day fishing.some modern towers are coming up here,one of it is the moody tower.it houses museums & lot other stuff.they also have a titanic tour these days.

The duck bus is a real fun,u can cruise arround the island in this…& its an amphibian bus…it takes u in water too!!

the guide of this bus speaks so fast that u could rarely make meaning out of it,but still its woth a ride.

galveston duck

due to its proximity to the gulf of mexico,galveston hosts the Offshore technology Center.

Oil Rig Derrick

this is a offshore jackup rig derrick,now i m n ot going to start teaching this.

just for my readers info.

they say “Everything is big in Texas”,i agree

overall a nice place with good people.enjoy!!!

Konark,India

Loacted on the east coast of india,konark is world famous for sun temple.Built in arround 13th century its today a UN world heritage site.

Sun temple

this temple was basically a school of indian astrology at that time & continued till 17th century.

the temple is carved in a way,that it looks like to be carried by a chariot with 7 wheels.

one of the 7 wheels

konark is a small village with a population of arrond 15,000.its arround 65 kms from capital city of bhubaneshwar.

and yes dont foget to taste cheap coconut water…its damn good.

Amarnath, Kashmir (obiviously India)

last year i was at amarnath…the most memorable tour i ever made.could’nt have asked for more.located arround 125 kms north east of shrinagar,amarnath cave is at 4200m above sea level.

view from amarnath

the baltal route for amarnath is a relatively shorter than pehalgam,but it takes a real man’s heart to trek from there especially when its raining.

but the fear of heights is overtaken by the beauty of valley that this path unfolds before u as u trek.

on the foothills

 the mountain curves itself like a snake does while crawling.

imagine snowfall & rain on this path

 climate at high altitude changes drastically.there were some incidents on route to baltal from shrinagar.

a guy was killed by army,whom they claimed as a terrorist,while villagers protested.

death in valley

villagers then blocked vechiles on the road in protest of the killing,pelted stones,but everything returned to normalcy after a day.

now i understand why people go in mountains to meditate,i mean everybody wants a break from 9-6 life,what could be better, than trip to amarnath or a trip to know the real u….

Mahabalipuram,Tamil nadu,India

a 7th-8th century coastal town situated near chennai(~70kms),also called as mamallapuram,after the pallava king mamalla who founded this town.

it is famous for the Shore temple,which is now a UN world heritage.

many of the rock carvings are said to be discovered after the recent tsunami in 2004.

the sea here is quite rough.

best way to reach here is thru chennai.just catch the ECR(East coast road) & head south.

other alternatives are state run buses from adyar bus-stand in chennai.bus no 568,588 have a good frequency from here.

Pondicherry,India

this small beautiful union territory near chennai,was ruled by french.still carries the fresh french auroma within its road & buildings.

Pondi

pondi is famous for its clean beaches & aurbindo ashram.

also one can visit the aluwarpet beach arround 8-10kms from main podi city.it has clear water & very clean beach.

overall worth a visit to this former french colony.

Kodaikanal,Tamil Nadu

The travel spree continues & this time it took me to Kodaikanal a serene hill station in Tamil nadu.though people rarely go to hill stations in winter I was lucky enough to visit at this time of year. High at an altitude of 2300m above sea level Kodaikanal brings you the freshness of eucalyptus (nilgiri) aroma.

The place is most of the time covered in clouds, even while going up the hill you can see the bus going thru clouds.
Kodaikanal is situated around 400 kms to south of Chennai, you can easily reach here by bus, by train u need to again take a bus for going up the hill.

Kodaikanal gets its name from the Kodai Lake, I m good at boating!!!

also went to madurai,the temple city of south india.visited madurai meenakshi temple.
i am a kinda amazed to see the art here, I mean as time goes on we go on progressing, but in case of art,our skills are going down. The kind of architecture that our forefathers could build, why are we not able to even replicate it??

Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari,Tamil Nadu
updating after long time…
had been to rameshwaram & kanyakumari on this extended weekend.
with this i have seen almost all of india from kashmir to kaniyakumari & from gujrat to west bengal.
also i have covered the 4 “dhams” as establishd by adi shankaracharya & described in hindu vedas.to begin with both rameshwaram & kanyakumari are at the tip of india…one touching sri-lanka & other lies on brink of indian ocean.
reaching here is quite easy…both are connected by train from chennai & madurai…also by bus.
i started from chennai & took arround 12 hrs to reach rameshwaram by road.
had the darshan there…one thing that i liked @ rameshwaram is that before taking darshan , need to take bath 22 times …wow!!
also visited danushkoti…its the place where lord rama…started to build the bridge towards lanka to bring sita back…then from here i went to kanyakumari…15 hours ride from rameshwaram by road..it is more like a tourist spot here…with sunrise & sunset points…

just before sunrise

Sunrise at Kanyakumari

thats the statue behiend me & its huge

also it is home to swami vivekananda temple …popularly called as rock temple & a big statue(133 feet) of saint Thiruvallavur