Dal Lake - Srinagar - Oct 2009, originally uploaded by righthalf.
Oct 2009:
Oh let the sun beat down upon my face
With stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space
To be where I have been
My shangri-la beneath the summer moon
I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June
While movin' through Kashmir
-Led Zeppelin
Jan 2009: Ants can lift weights many times their own weight, equivalent to a human lifting an elephant. What seems like an anthill to us is a mountain to them, a mountain that they built.
May 2008: Signs of life and vegetation at high altitudes always amaze me. These wild berries were spotted on our way from Tengboche to Dingboche along the Everest Base Camp hike.
May 2008: Shruti and my Everest Base Camp adventure ended prematurely when I fell altitude sick at Dingboche (4,350m and 14,800 ft), could not recover or acclimatize for 2 days and decided to turn back forcing Shruti to do the same.
What did me in (I think!) was a case of the Khumbu cough. Lack of adequate prevention by way of warm cover over the throat and upper body on the day of the hike to Dingboche and dusty trails with no breathing mask coupled with my chronic allergic cough due to dust; were the key reasons for aggravating the Khumbu cough. An aggravated cough results in insufficient breathing, the quickest way to accelerate the symptoms of AMS. 48 hours of Diamox showed no improvement, following which there was no option but to turn back. A $5 mask would have been a worthy investment.
May 2008: The Swayambhunath temple in Kathmandu is guarded by two bright Buddha statues where the 365 steps begin. This is one of them.
May 2008: Sublime trees, monkey temple, the temple with 365 steps, or the temple with a view. Swambhunath Buddhist temple in Kathmandu is above all and all of the above.
Mar 2008: A "Do not spit" board in a popular tourist point in Mahabaleshwar falls to the ground just like its subject, the spit. In the meantime, people discuss the gravity of the situation.
Image purposely rotated 90 degree left.
May 2008: Lungta-style prayer flags adorn the high Himalayas. Here is the cheat-sheet to decode the flag colors: blue (sky/space), white (air/wind), red (fire), green (water), yellow (earth). Here they are flying atop a Stupa. The circular discs and crescent are two essential constituents of a stupa, besides a square base, hemispherical dome, and conical spire.
Mar 2008: Through the eye of the ruby rail, you can see Arthur's Seat of Mahabaleshwar, a popular point for tourists.
Mar 2008: Yes, I made this post just to make that pun. This is also a search experiment. Drunk geeks on steroids would search Google for "Rails on Ruby" and find this.
