Hiking through Andean hills

May 18, 2012 | No Comments yet

Thimphu's memorial chorten, built in 1974 to honour the 3rd King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, is a prominent landmark in the city with its golden spires and bells. The best time to visit here is in the morning when devotees arrive to offer respects and pray. ...
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May 11, 2012 | 1 Comment

Downtown area of Detroit is quite interesting, with well kept buildings right next to a lot that's empty or being torn down. Back in the day, this automobile capital of USA had a bustling downtown. The city is slowly emerging from decay and I hope it regains its charm in the next decade or so....
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May 5, 2012 | No Comments yet

A bus from Baños to Quito was about to depart and this bus would be dropping me off in Latacunga, but I was being aggressively tempted by some other attractions. Sugarcane juice for example. I told the driver it will take five minutes to grab a glass of jugo de caña and since nobody is paranoid about punctuality, he helped himself to a glass of the drink and held the bus. For me. I thought I was special but then he did this for several other passengers on the way, much to my annoyance and delay....
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May 4, 2012 | 1 Comment

It seems that in Russian train there are these industrial water heating units called Samovar (Самовар / समोवर) in each compartment. As soon as my train departed Moscow, everyone, young and old, grabbed their mugs and lined up at the samovar for some hot water. It was very interesting to watch this!...
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April 28, 2012 | 2 Comments

Like most travellers typically do, I check a few adventure sport agencies to choose what activity I would prefer to do. Without much deliberations, I rent a bicycle for $5 a day from one of the bike stores and decide to embark upon an ambitious journey beginning in hills of Baños ending all the way to the Amazon basin some 62km east. Well, not quite ambitious, since this is a standard bicycling route called “Ruta de las Cascadas,” or route of the waterfalls...
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April 21, 2012 | 3 Comments

I liked Baños instantly, mostly because the bus stand is flanked by a row of atleast a dozen sugarcane juice stalls. It had been three years since I had sugarcane juice in India, and it’s my absolute favourite. I excitedly went to a seller and asked for a glass of juice. As I held up the glass, my eyes got a bit moist, it reminded me of my hometown and my childhood...
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April 20, 2012 | No Comments yet

The purpose of these depressions is uncertain, but their depth and orientation with respect to wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15 °C between the top and bottom. This large temperature difference was possibly used by the Inca to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops...
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