Para gliding at Panchgani. Two of the parachutes in the frame are my friends. I went up in another parachute later.

That's me taking off. I had to literally run down the cliff to get the Parachute to inflate.

Soaring away.

Birds in the sky.

Taking off during para-gliding. The experience is indescribable.

Took a long night-walk in Panchgani. Tried to capture the Moon, the star, the tree and the hill in one shot. Could have done better with a tripod.

Walking around in Panchgani.

That's a place I could live in!

Lunch at Panchgani's Millenium Hotel. The Hotel was cramped, the management inefficient but the food was really good.

Mahabaleshwar strawberry. Very luscious. Very juicy.

Snowclad mountains

Random pics around Redmond

Driving around in Redmond

Drive to Snoqualmie

In front of the ski resort

Giant buddha statue in Namdroling monastery. This status is at least 15-20 metres high!!


Tibetan murals on the monastery walls.


Side view of the monastery. The whole building was glittering like gold in the mid-afternoon sun.

 

Another picture of the elephant park.


Dew drops caught on a spider web, glistening in the morning sun.


The whole place was covered with these flowers. Lots of bees on these flowers, seems like the source of the famous Coorg honey. This pic was taken in Macro mode (very close to the flower).



Reflecting on one's life in the tranquil surroundings.
 

Found this tree during a mini-trek in the mountains. The whole tree is covered with some green fern/moss like growth. This trek turned out to be pretty harrowing in the end because we ended up soaking wet and every one of us got bitten by leeches ... eewww.



Raja's seat in Madikeri. This is a park with a supposedly fantastic view. We couldn't catch the view becuase a cloud had hit the mountains but I got to click some nice pictures in the fog.


Early morning drive.


Elephant park in Coorg. Here the elephants are being given a bath in the river by their handlers.
 

Coorg: The MS gang took a trip to Coorg during Dussehra (and Gandhi Jayanti) holidays. The trip was hectic, loads of travelling by road getting tickets and hotels during peak season but in the end it was well worth it.

We travelled from Hyderabad to Bangalore by Volvo during the night. Next day we arranged for a smaller 12 seater vehicle from Bangalore. The picture above is taken during the trip from Bangalore to Mysore. This road is now part of the gloden quardilateral and is an excellent road to drive on.

We reacehed Madikeri town in the evening. A picture of the evening sky there.

We stayed with a family in Madikeri who rents out rooms to tourists. This is the Aishwarya, the landlord's daughter.

Taken during a drive away from Madikeri. Notice the cloud topped mountains and the sun-lit farmland. Coorg has a highly unpredictable weather during this time of the year. It would rain ten times a day and without any warnings. 

A nocturnal visitor in my Balcony. The spider was spinning its web at about eye-level when I walked out on it. Its about 3 inches lengthwise and was pretty mean looking up close. 

Natural rock formations and rock sculptures in Shilparamam. 

Ducks in the lake.

An ensemble of horses. 

Another village scene.