[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by sen2009

I have GIMP, never explored it though! Let me try it. Will ask for help if don't figure it out.

BTW, do you have anything to bring back out of focus stuff?

Actually, for slightly OOF Unsharp mask can work(in some cases),

As for dust spots, try using healing tool
3.11.*Heal

[jaysmokesleaves]

So u managed to click PINTU's daily needs shop too! I still think of it. Very nice pics.

[sen2009]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

You have something like this. Don't know how it is actually. Never tried it.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Actually, for slightly OOF Unsharp mask can work(in some cases),

As for dust spots, try using healing tool
3.11.*Heal

Thanks for the inputs.
I'll try them out in the evening, I have loads of OOF stuff thanks to shooting from windshield.

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

So u managed to click PINTU's daily needs shop too! I still think of it. Very nice pics.

The PINTUs is quite a shop. Small but very well stocked.
One would wonder what could be the source of such econominc hustle bustle at an otherwise sleepy little hill town!

[amip]

Sen - great read - following with interest. You were lucky to see vultures - very rare to spot them now. I'm surprised to hear that you hadn't seen them at close quarters before - there were hundreds of them in most schools when i was growing up - but like many other things - have disappeared over the years.

[jaysmokesleaves]

Originally Posted by amip

Sen - great read - following with interest. You were lucky to see vultures - very rare to spot them now. I'm surprised to hear that you hadn't seen them at close quarters before - there were hundreds of them in most schools when i was growing up - but like many other things - have disappeared over the years.

For us city people seeing a vulture in an open natural habitat is somewhat akin to seeing an extinct creature come alive. We only see crows & pigeons in the city with a few other birds have have somehow lost their gps coordinates and landed in the city.

When I saw the vultures on my trip.. I thought that they had all moved residence from Doongarwadi(Bombay) to Lahaul, Kinnaur, and believe me they looked quite healthy as you can see in the pics above.

[sen2009]

After food, we proceeded towards the Rampur Bazar. We would ask directions for the Palace there.

A little down the road, we spotted this large statue of Hanuman, this too open air.
The vibrant color and great workmanship marked the statue. Unlike the Lord Shiva statue we saw earlier, this one was serious stuff.



In the same compound, there was a temple too - probably a Durga Temple. We did not get down there - feeling too lazy after stomach full of salt.



We reached near Rampur Bazar in another 15 minutes. Now we had to get out.



The palace was right at the middle of the main bazar area. Parking was quite a hassle, but I figured they don't have equipment to tow out this 2.5 tonner. Even if they had something, they wouldn't try afterr seeing the luggage.



A colorfull bunch of flowers welcomed us to the palace garden.



Before reaching the main compound, one needs to pass thru a smallish ante-garden. Here we saw the palace annex building, which probably is the servent's quarter kind of thing.



We had to pass thru a small gate and entered the palace garden from the right.



The Garden has a large enclosure for the fountain. It was not fountaining when we went. People said that this palace was still private property and they run the fountain when the Kings family come here in the summer. This also means that we couldn't see the inside of the palace.



The view of the palace was quite amazing, with it's elaboate minars,



and the nice contrast of the dark brown woodwork against the green hill behind.


We spent some 15-20 minutes in the garden and came out.
Rampur Bazar was crowded. It was the time of school "chutti", and so dozens of hilly kids doing hilly-billy on the roads.




We filled diesel from a pump just outside Rampur and proceeded to Sarahan via Jeori.


The journey was quite uneventful. The scenary was nice all through but we were getting used to it. Reached Sarahan around 5:30 PM and checked into the Snow View Hotel. The hotel was okayish but the room rent was slightly on the higher side – Rs. 1000/-.

Took a warm bath, looked around the place a little. Decided to explore the Bheemakali temple the following morning. Came back to room and ordered a cup of tea. The ladies were in the other room discussing the dinner menu.

My tea arrived, I took a deep sip. It was so refreshing after the long day and ambient cold. By the time I got myself to take the next sip, suddenly a riot broke out. I got startled but couldn’t figure out anything from my room.

Peeked outside and saw many people, many of them ladies running and shouting. I could faintly make out what they were saying but couldn’t co-relate those to so much of panic. It was something about something Hot, incredibly HOT!

I saw the waiter who served my tea walking down the corridor towards my room. I grabbed him and nervously asked -
"What happened? Has China attacked us? Is the mountain erupting into a Volcano? What happened?"
He gave me a funny look and scurried ahead without replying.

I got very scared. I rushed to the next room and asked the ladies to hide under the bed while I start the car. I told them to run downstairs after five minutes no matter what and board the car, we are LEAVING. NOW!

I rushed back to my room, grabbed the car keys and ran out. I might have spent a couple of seconds trying to lock the room, but thankfully I realized it was fruitless! I went running down the stairs.

In front of the hotel there were many vehicles, probably two three MUVs (Sumo/Qualis/ Innova/ Tavera .... I don’t know!), few tempo travellers and many many people. All shouting, running up and down the stairs.

I felt someone said something in Bengali. I snapped towards the person and breathlessly asked...

“Ki Hoyeche dada?" (what happened?)

He looked at me and asked back...

“Ki Hobe?”(What is to happen?).

I kinds felt stupid, but I asked back...

“Eto holla kiser?... Pahar fete Gyache?!!” (What’s all this riot about? Has the hill burst?)

He looked at me strangely, and then reassuringly.

Said he...

“Na Na dada, amader boro group toh, oneke snaner jol pai ni, tai ektu mismanagement hocche.”. (No, No, don’t worry. We’ve arrived in a large group, many among us didn’t get hot water for bath, hence this mismanagement!).


Sigh! Now I know what people mean when they say “West Bengal Had Invaded.”
I returned back upstairs to face the giggles from my co-passengers.
The rest of the night passes peacefully at 500 dB.

[sen2009]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

A very interesting term - "packalogue"!

Sen, I am surprised your boss still approves your leave requests, even more surprised that you have some leaves left!!! LOL!!!

Nice photos of the stuffed Safari! It is times like these you are thankful that the spare wheels are not accessed thru the rear floor.

With that said, please continue with this travelogue. All eyes on this one.

Hey Suresh! How could I miss your post.

See, this is the thing with my boss:

We are sales people, and habitually treat everyone at the office like they owe their lives to us.
We had a corporate training sometimes back - "Internal Customers". It tought us that office people are also human beings and we need to treat them as internal customers.
So I identified my boss as my first internal customer. And I chipkaoed him the idea of burn out and vacation.
Not only he signed off my leave, he took one for himself too.

Now I just hope that he isn't a Bhpian!

Originally Posted by amip

Sen - great read - following with interest. You were lucky to see vultures - very rare to spot them now. I'm surprised to hear that you hadn't seen them at close quarters before - there were hundreds of them in most schools when i was growing up - but like many other things - have disappeared over the years.

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

For us city people seeing a vulture in an open natural habitat is somewhat akin to seeing an extinct creature come alive. We only see crows & pigeons in the city with a few other birds have have somehow lost their gps coordinates and landed in the city.

When I saw the vultures on my trip.. I thought that they had all moved residence from Doongarwadi(Bombay) to Lahaul, Kinnaur, and believe me they looked quite healthy as you can see in the pics above.

I never had seen vultures from so close.
You know the injection - oxitocine probably, they inject to the cows for increasing milk. The vultures die if theye eat the carcass of such cows.
Since when I can remember, cows were given injections... so no wonder!
It's a great feeling to see such magnificient birds from close. May GOD keep Himachal in short supply of oxitocine (if that's the thing).

[adc]

Sen, great narration with enough humour thrown in. Good to see Hatu peak pics again - surely a place not to be missed staying overnight.

Great travel story building up and do continue fast!!

[iceman7]

Originally Posted by sen2009

Hey Suresh! How could I miss your post.

See, this is the thing with my boss:

We are sales people, and habitually treat everyone at the office like they owe their lives to us.
We had a corporate training sometimes back - "Internal Customers". It tought us that office people are also human beings and we need to treat them as internal customers.
So I identified my boss as my first internal customer. And I chipkaoed him the idea of burn out and vacation.
Not only he signed off my leave, he took one for himself too.

Now I just hope that he isn't a Bhpian!

Super! This idea is going in for implementation with my boss right away.

Nice travelogue. How's the Safari holding up on the journey?

<--- post # 222 (I have nothing better to do today)

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by sen2009

Now I know what people mean when they say “West Bengal Had Invaded.”
The rest of the night passes peacefully at 500 dB.

ROFL. There are Bongs, there are probashi Bongs, and there are porjotok Bongs. How many monkey caps did you count in that group?
Disclaimer: I'm Bong...

[hvkumar]

When we were in Kinnaur in September, the onset of the Puja holidays meant the Valley was overrun by Bengalis. We stayed in a Bengali-owned hotel in Sangla, ate dinner cooked the Bengali way and saw only Bengali tourists in Chitkul the next day. Each region has its own holiday season. For instance, if you go in early April, the entire North Indian region is swamped with Maharashtrian tourists, the Diwali week it is the turn of the Gujarathis and so on.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by sen2009

I saw the waiter who served my tea walking down the corridor towards my room. I grabbed him and nervously asked -
"What happened? Has China attacked us? Is the mountain erupting into a Volcano? What happened?"
He gave me a funny look and scurried ahead without replying.

I got very scared. I rushed to the next room and asked the ladies to hide under the bed while I start the car. I told them to run downstairs after five minutes no matter what and board the car, we are LEAVING. NOW!

I rushed back to my room, grabbed the car keys and ran out. I might have spent a couple of seconds trying to lock the room, but thankfully I realized it was fruitless! I went running down the stairs.

In front of the hotel there were many vehicles, probably two three MUVs (Sumo/Qualis/ Innova/ Tavera .... I don’t know!), few tempo travellers and many many people. All shouting, running up and down the stairs.

I felt someone said something in Bengali. I snapped towards the person and breathlessly asked...

“Ki Hoyeche dada?" (what happened?)

He looked at me and asked back...

“Ki Hobe?”(What is to happen?).

I kinds felt stupid, but I asked back...

“Eto holla kiser?... Pahar fete Gyache?!!” (What’s all this riot about? Has the hill burst?)

He looked at me strangely, and then reassuringly.

Said he...

“Na Na dada, amader boro group toh, oneke snaner jol pai ni, tai ektu mismanagement hocche.”. (No, No, don’t worry. We’ve arrived in a large group, many among us didn’t get hot water for bath, hence this mismanagement!).


Sigh! Now I know what people mean when they say “West Bengal Had Invaded.”
I returned back upstairs to face the giggles from my co-passengers.
The rest of the night passes peacefully at 500 dB.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

ROFL. There are Bongs, there are probashi Bongs, and there are porjotok Bongs. How many monkey caps did you count in that group?

Originally Posted by hvkumar

When we were in Kinnaur in September, the onset of the Puja holidays meant the Valley was overrun by Bengalis. We stayed in a Bengali-owned hotel in Sangla, ate dinner cooked the Bengali way and saw only Bengali tourists in Chitkul the next day. Each region has its own holiday season. For instance, if you go in early April, the entire North Indian region is swamped with Maharashtrian tourists, the Diwali week it is the turn of the Gujarathis and so on.

ROFL Actually I coined this expression after my May Rohtang Trip. I think the number of Bengalis at Rohtang then exceeded the number of Bengalis in Kolkotta

Originally Posted by hvkumar

When we were in Kinnaur in September, the onset of the Puja holidays meant the Valley was overrun by Bengalis. We stayed in a Bengali-owned hotel in Sangla, ate dinner cooked the Bengali way and saw only Bengali tourists in Chitkul the next day. Each region has its own holiday season. For instance, if you go in early April, the entire North Indian region is swamped with Maharashtrian tourists, the Diwali week it is the turn of the Gujarathis and so on.

You are correct. This time on Diwali weekend there were lots of GJ number plated Tempo-Travellers and private cars up there. All of them with trademark vertical yellow stripe on the headlights

[jaysmokesleaves]

When I first saw that statue of Hanuman @ Rampur, I wondered and am still wondering, "Why dos he need so much barricade protection?" It would be certainly nice to get a pic right with the Indian original superman/supergod!!

Nice narration & bucket loads of humor buddy.

[sen2009]

Today our plan is to leisurely visit the temple, check out the bird thingy and then go to Chitkul via Karcham and Sangla. We’ve planned two nights stay at Chitkul, so everyone’s happy and relaxed.
Yesterday when we arrived here, it was almost Sundown and there were plenty of clouds too.So we did not get to see much views. Today when I woke up, the majestic Shrikhand peak was gleaming with all its beauty. Had my tea looking at it.



After freshning up, we walked down to the temple. From far it kind of looks like a top heavy structure.



One needs to cover his/ her head while entering the main temple complex. Kind of weird requirement! However, they supply free topis, so no problem. One needs to watch out for lice though.




The temple has quite a bit of history associated with it – (Refer to Wikipedia ). The entry door had two statues of starving Lions.


We entered the temple complex and went up the stairs. After making some rounds of the labyrinth, we reached the main seat of the goddess. Arti was on in full swing, a large Tibetan style two piece metal percussion instrument was being played. The sound was LOUD and not so sweet, but it created an ambience nevertheless. After hanging around the arti proceedings for a little while, we came down to the courtyard.

The courtyeard has few more structures. One of them had great Golden "Kalas" mounted on top of it.


From outside I carefully saw the woodworks - very nice, but Hatu Mata will win here.


Behind this temple lies the older temple which got partially wrecked by earthquake.


The old temple top has more character.



The temple courtyard was full of beautiful flowers,



Among which a large rose caught special attention.


Another temple towards the backside of the courtyeard also ctaches attention, especially with it's "Kalas".




After a satisfactory tour of the temple complex, it was time for satisfying the burning belly. So much walking around had made it wanting a refill. The temple guest house has a small canteen like place at one corner of courtyard which offers very nice puri chole.




We filled ourselves with a good dose of that and came back to hotel.

[rkbharat]

good going dada, beautiful pics