This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge is Reflections, a topic that can be captured in a multitude of ways i.e. via landscapes, in people’s expressions, in the mirror etc etc. But for my post I close this picture that I had taken in Venice, Italy.
One of the canals in Venice, Italy
Our second day in Matterhorn was like opening a big gift hamper where we just didn’t know what was in it and every time we pulled a gift out, it seemed to be even better than the previous gift. So after an eventful morning of playing in the snow and walking in a Glacier Palace, we went out to finally see the panoramic Alpine views from Little Matterhorn.
Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
Mumbai has some interesting and unique nooks & corners, one of them being our local Chor Bazaar. “Chor” in Hindi means “thieves” and “Bazaar” means a “market”, hence literally translated “Chor Bazaar” means “Thieves Market”. Per Wikipedia this market is one of the largest flea markets in India and has a fascinating history. Apparently this market was originally called Shor Bazaar, meaning “noisy market”, but with British mispronunciation “shor” became “chor” and the name stuck. Eventually stolen goods started finding their way here and hence this market started living upto its name. These days Chor Bazaar is famous for all kinds of antique / vintage products and other interesting things ranging from clocks, all kinds of instruments, furniture, glassware, brassware, lamps, ceramics, Bollywood posters, ceramics, coins, miniature cars, etc etc. Basically its possible to find anything here from cute to bizarre to the regular. 🙂
All kinds of knick knacks
Just like a dream, I was recently invited by Swiss Tourism, Maison de Voyage and Rock-On Holidays by Thomas Cook India to experience Switzerland in a unique way. While enough has been said and written about the romantic / family vacations of Switzerland our idea was to leave out all the famous / touristy activities and instead explore this country through a new lens i.e. through the eyes and activities of a single budget traveler. Hence our itinerary included all kinds of adventure sports, walks and many new experiences that people normally don’t associate with Switzerland. And I continue my tales from where I left it in my previous post.
Typical Swiss wooden houses, enroute to Zermatt, Switzerland
This week’s photo challenge is to post a pic on “Community” which means a social unit of any size that shares a common belief or values. Per wikipedia, the word “community” is derived from an Old French word – communité which is derived from the Latin communitas that means – com, “with/together” + munus, “gift”, a broad term for fellowship or organized society. And for this challenge the Mumbaiker in me had to post a pic of the Ganesh Festival that binds entire Mumbai into one large community.
Bringing Lord Ganesh to the pandal for the festival
This week’s weekly photo challenge is to share an image of something “Grand”. But the idea is to not just share an image of a large object / scene, but have a special element or a “wow factor” that makes the picture truly stunning. And for this topic, I decided to share pictures of the majestic “Matterhorn” that we visited from Zermatt in Switzerland. The Matterhorn is one of highest and the most photographed peaks in Europe and a spectacular sight. We saw it from many points and I am sharing some of these sights with you –
From Gornergrat
This week’s weekly photo challenge is “Layers” and my image for the same is this flower, whose name I earlier didn’t know. But after this post went live last night, I received numerous responses from my blogging world friends who identified this flower for me, and it’s the Passiflora – the Blue Passion Fruit flower. I would like to thank everyone who commented on this post and helped me identify this flower. 🙂 Super thanks everyone.
I saw this flower on one of the 5 islands of Cinque Terre in Italy and instantly loved its colors and numerous layers. This was growing like a creeper all around these islands, but surprisingly I dint see them anywhere else in Italy (i.e. wherever I traveled).
Passiflora or the passion fruit flower 🙂
My visit to Kaas had everything that a good trip should have – I saw a surreal land, some beautiful and unique flowers, ticked another to do place from my list, met some amazing people and saw my first 2 varieties of insectivorous flowers. As a kid I had always read about insectivorous flowers but had never seen one and was always fascinated by them. In fact when I finally did see them in Kaas, I just couldn’t believe that these seemingly innocent flowers can actually trap an insect and eat it. Since seeing these flowers was an important part of my list, I kept this topic for my last post on Kaas.
Utricularia / Seeta’s Tears, Kaas
Its Diwali time and for me somehow Diwali celebrations are always associated with colors – colorful clothes, crackers, lights, decorations, rangoli, sweets, etc etc. There is a riot of colors in pretty much everything around and as far as the eye can see. Though I missed taking my camera out this year to capture the Diwali celebrations (have been busy with quite a few things of late), I still wanted to post something as colorful on the blog today. And then I thought to myself, what better way to post on colors than 10 different flowers of Kaas in 10 different colors and shades. So do read on and share some of the colors of Kaas via its unique flowers.
Elephant’s Trunk, Kaas
Kaas is Western’s Ghat’s smaller and cheat’s answer to visit and experience a Valley of Flowers. There are no arduous treks or long journeys involved and all you need to do is just undertake a long drive. While I haven’t seen the actual Valley of Flowers in Uttaranchal, I got a chance to visit Kaas in September this year and loved every thing about this beautiful plateau. Kaas comes alive during monsoons with numerous flowers flowering in a riot of colors, such that it gives an impression of being amidst multi colored bands. There are all kinds of flowers here, including some endemic, some rare and some insectivorous too. Along with flowers, there are other smaller life forms that are found around here such as birds, bees, beetles, etc. Overall a must visit for every nature lover.
Colors of Kaas
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