Just About Everything

                                 Baphuon temple Angkor, Cambodia                                                               After  the fascinating and beautiful Bayon temple , our next and last stop on day three was Baphuon  temple and the terrace of elephants. Built in the mid-11th century, Buphuon is quite a unique temple. Dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva, with  three levels, and walls full of carvings, this temple must have been incredibly beautiful.  Even with quite a few portions of the temple gone now,  it is still so impressive!  The temple was a bit unstable from the beginning owing to the fact that it was built on a land which was full of sand. Portions of the temple started collapsing eventually since it co...

                                                   Sundarbans Reserve Forest Continued from my last post  Sundarbans Reserve Forest: the largest continuous mangrove forest in the world Day 2 : We checked out of our hotel at 8 in the morning and got into our launch for our 2 nd and last day at Sundarbans (yes, a very short trip:) Breakfast was prepared and served in the launch. Hot luchis (fried refined flour bread), aloo sabji (potato curry with gravy), and tea was the menu, and exactly what we needed to start the day with :) Our first stop was Sajnekhali and this is the place where a permit is obtained to get into the reserve forest area. Sajnekhali has watch towers which provides  a good view of the mangrove forest a. We saw monkeys and river terrapins during our stop here. With the permit done, our launch  ride continu...

                                   Sundarbans Reserve Forest West Bengal, India Finally went out for a short trip with the family after almost two years! What a relief to be able to start travelling  again:) We chose Sundarbans because of the short time it takes to reach Sundarbans from Kolkata. It was not my first visit but i like visiting Sundarbans anyway:). If you are in Kolkata, Sundarbans must be in your list of places to visit, especially if you like nature. It will take you approx. three hours by road from Kolkata to reach the closest point from where the launch journey to Sundarbans begins. Day 1 : We started around 9.30 am, and by the time we got  dropped off at Godkhali, it was almost 12.30 pm.  Godkhali is one of the points from where you can get into a launch that will take you into the reserve forest. You can also reach Sundarbans from Canning. For us, Godkh...

Durga Puja 2021 It was Nabami and Durga puja was almost over....I wanted to make the most of the festive spirit and take a  look at some of the puja pandals nearby. Pandal hopping by maintaining social distance is not really feasible! Somewhat possible in Salt lake though. And the best way to go pandal hopping is to walk and see the puja pandals.  So off I went and it felt so normal (although wearing a mask was not normal but I am assuming that will stay for sometime) to go pandal hopping. The festive spirit can be so uplifting.  Here are some pictures from my Nabami walk. The Durga pandals are from the GD, HA  and HC blocks in Salt Lake, and nearby ones.  

                               Durga puja 2021 Durga pujas have always been special to me. 2021 Durga pujas were even more so because I went out to see some pandals after a long time! I did not see any in 2020. Not that I could see too many this time, I saw very few since I had to restrict myself given that the pandemic is still at large.The few pandals that I did mange to see were beautiful, creative, and had  a theme and message. It was a short tour of three hours. We started very early in the morning and ended our tour by indulging in piping hot and super delicious luchi and dal (Bengali style) from a sweet shop for breakfast. Pujas are incomplete without food...all Bengalis will agree with that for sure:) Below are pics of  Durga puja pandals I saw in South Kolkata. As usual I was floored by these beautiful and creative idols and pandals.  I hope next year things will be back to normal and...