| Elephants get a wash |
[Aug. 20th, 2008|08:09 pm] |
A Wash: the temple elephant gets a wash; Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu.
Entering the western gate of the temple and walking along the long corridors got us to the elephant enclosure. The temple elephant was using the stem of a plant to scratch its legs when we heard a roar from the corridor: the baby elephant was running towards the enclosure and as soon as the few people who were there saw this, they ran and hid in whatever places they could find! As the elephant keepers swept the enclosure, a pipe was being connected to spray water. Commands in Tamil had both the mother and the kid lying on their sides and while one person sprayed water on the elephants two more brushed vigorously. Another command and both of them were folding their legs to give better access for cleaning and then another command and they exchanged places and lay down on their other sides for a complete wash; a lucky thing we got to watch at Rameshwaram.
( more photos... )
Tamil Nadu East Coast, July, 2008 |
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| Velankanni |
[Aug. 13th, 2008|06:52 pm] |
Basilica: Roman Catholic shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Good Health; Velankanni, Tamil Nadu.
A religious place combined with shopping, entertainment, food and a beach can be the ultimate tourist destination for the young and old alike and Velankanni is exactly such a place.
( read on with a few more photos... )
Tamil Nadu East Coast, July, 2008 |
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| Tea and Coonoor |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|06:04 pm] |
Tree, Tea : as the sun started to disappear behind the mountains, this lone tree stood out in the tea gardens, as if trying to catch the last of the rays; Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.
( read on with more photos... ) |
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| A ride to Hogenakkal |
[Dec. 14th, 2007|02:31 pm] |
Boatman, Boat: the boatman carrying his round-boat/coracle, taking it along with him to the next point where he was going to take us along; Hogenakkal, Tamil Nadu
The boatmen with their coracles, with mutual understanding among themselves to not fight for customers, carrying around their coracles from one place to another, waiting for the passengers to roam around and come back before continuing and later ending the ride with a customary swirl in their round baots. Then there is the market, always busy, with fish being caught in the river, and cooked in black pans by the pathway, sliced and fried right there, pulling people in with the sight and the smell. And this is in July, when the water level is high, the falls gushing down from every rock and there are no kids jumping off the cliffs into the water to earn a few bucks.
The were two routes to Hogenekkal, "Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Hoganekkal" being mostly along the main road which was the route we took while going there and then there is the backroad route "Bangalore-Hosur-Rayakottai-Palacode-Pannagram-Hogenakkal" which we took while coming back and was much better in terms of the scenery, both of them being 150-170kms.
( 12 more photos ) |
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| Valparai |
[Jun. 8th, 2007|05:39 pm] |
Cross-processed?: No. Photo of tea gardens taken through the tinted glass of the car; Valparai, Tamil Nadu.
Valparai is tea country: hill after hill covered with tea gardens, looks pleasing to the eye, but these hills would have been thick forests before.
Being close to 500kms from Bangalore, and a few of us not able to take a day off on Monday, we decided to do the trip in a hired vehicle last weekend. The 40 bends spread over quite a few kilometers after the Aliyar dam take you to Valparai. We stayed in a bungalow in a tea estate(which ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cyberscorpion had found out about), doing nothing but a bit of walking/cycling/reading/relaxing.
( 9 more images ) |
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