A Journey called LIFE....

Boys can cook: Duck and Amarone!

2012-01-29T18:03:00.001+09:00

Amarone .... when it comes to wine, it surely doesn't feature on the top of the popularity list. And that's the reason many of you have probably not heard about it. But if you do get a chance to experience it ....don't give it up. Its complexity and character is simply extraordinary! I have been planning to open it for sometime and a free Sunday seemed the perfect opportunity. Too tired to go out birding on a cold morning, I decided to spend the Sunday cooking duck and enjoying it with this Italian wine.

It starts with sliced duck. I wanted to buy a whole duck but that'd be too much for one me to eat and avoid the trouble of jointing it. This is a perfect recipe for winter with all its rich and warm flavors

Nutmeg ... the nut for which battles were fought and countless lives were lost. It imparts a warm inviting aroma to sauces and I used a generous amount of grated nutmeg for the sauce. Along with it were cloves, bay leaves and mandarin.

The whole setup

Here is the full list of ingredients:
Duck (whole or in parts ... like slices that I used)
Mandarin
Nutmeg
Cloves
Bay leaves
Thyme
Onion
Baby diced carrots
Red wine (I used a part of the Amarone itself) for sauce
A shot of brandy for flaming

I also had a slice of blue cheese (Gorgonzola in this case) as dessert with the wine.
As always, there is no fixed recipe. I cook in a way to bring out the natural flavors of the ingredients and let them combine by themselves. That is my cooking strategy ... I let the food cook by itself .... and most times the result is pleasantly surprising. The duck slices were browned in butter

... and then flamed with warm brandy ...

Flaming duck slices with brandy

Cover it up and allow it to cook in low heat for about 30mins.
As the duck is cooking, a sauce is prepared by poaching zest of the mandarin in the wine along with cloves, grated nutmeg, thyme and bay leaves. Some chopped onions and diced carrot is softened in olive oil and the wine sauce is added to it along with some mandarin juice. The sauce is allowed to simmer at low heat to reduce its volume by half.
When the duck slices are almost cooked, they are seasoned with salt and pepper, the residual fat is drained and the slices are transferred briefly to the sauce. After stirring for a couple of minutes the slices are transferred to a plate, the sauce reduced and poured over the duck slices. But the most surprising result came from half a mandarin that I was left with. I decided to saute it in the leftover duck fat and brandy mix.

Half a mandarin sauteing in duck fat and flamed brandy

The end result is simply divine! The outer surface is crusty with flavor of the duck fat ... with a hint of the taste of brandy and the core is like sweet candy. Some of the best culinary discoveries that I've had are by accident and this was no exception. Its worth buying duck fat just to do this!!!

The end result. The sliced duck had a flavor that I haven't had in a long long time ... liver! Those of you who have tried it would know what I mean ... a rich, slightly bitter taste with a smooth velvety finish. Though the meat was a bit dried out by the time I finished eating, the start was quite ok. But the star of the show was the sauteed mandarin ... it was absolutely delicious ... and so was the wine. If you ever come across an Amarone ... give it a try .... it might require a bit of decanting if its young but you won't be disappointed!

The case against buying a car!

2012-01-15T01:22:00.001+09:00

When photographing birds in some remote location in Korea, I often consider the comfort and range, a sturdy car would offer. However, that feeling vanishes the moment I come back to 'civilization'. This is especially true when I'm traveling on a express bus along a dedicated lane, while millions of cars are inching forward at snails pace on the highway connecting Suwon to Seoul! So I decided to open this years blog entry with a post arguing the benefits of 'not having a car' ... both from a personal perspective and also considering the wider consequences (though some of you might consider it an attempt to rationalize).
Before, attempting to argue against it, let me point out the obvious advantages that a car affords. The first and foremost is the freedom of traveling to any location and at any time. Those of you, who have had some experience photographing birds, will acknowledge the enormous advantages - the range and the ease of approach being the most obvious ones. A lot of people have mentioned the fact that driving actually makes them feel in control! From a wider perspective, consumers buying cars drives the automobile industry, creating jobs both in manufacturing sector and the allied services like financing, insurance, maintenance etc. The gasoline/diesel that runs the car is another enormous industry .... anyway enough talk about the benefits. The whole point behind writing this post is to discourage the reader from buying a car and to use public transport more often in case you have one (or a garage full).
The first argument against buying a car and using public transport, is the luxury of napping while traveling. Unless, you 'sleep-drive' (and still alive), you'll appreciate the frustration of having to wait in the traffic after a hard day at work. The next obvious advantage is not having to worry about driving after a few drinks ... for example the sheer pleasure of enjoying a chilled beer while traveling on a hot summer day or returning home on a snowy New Year's day after endless rounds of champagne! These are just individual advantages ... so looking at the 'greater good', the first thing that comes to mind is less traffic congestion. For example, the bus that I used to reach Seoul today accommodates 34 passengers. If all the passengers had used cars, then on a 5 lane highway, there would have been a 7 car column. Assuming that each car takes about 15 secs to clear the toll-gates, it'd mean that each of them would have had to spend an extra 210 secs or 3.5 minutes (a row of 7 cars, 15 secs each and 2 toll gates = 210 secs). For a journey that takes 45 mins by bus, it means savings of about 8% time. But the benefits doesn't just end there. There was considerable savings on gasoline and a lot less pollution as a result of the use of the bus. Though I'm not conversant with the numbers associated with fuel consumption of cars and buses, even a child can figure out that in terms of consumption, the bus would win hands down when compared to 34 cars. Here, I'll resist the temptation of using analytics to come up with an exact savings percentage.
From a still wider perspective, people might argue that forsaking cars would kill the automobile industry. Yes, probably! But it would create jobs related to public transportation. The resultant reduction in pollution might reduce the threat of global warming ... and saving millions if not billions of people living in the poorest regions of the world, who'd be adversely affected by climate change and rising sea levels. The list of arguments and counter-arguments is probably infinite but the whole point of this post is to put our actions in wider perspective when we make a decision (like buying a car).

P.S. Though I express my opinion in this post, I've increasingly come to realize that (even at the most fundamental levels) there is nothing called right or wrong. Its all a matter of the position or the perspective from which we look at the world.

At the heart of the migration trail: Day 6 and 7 in Kenya!

2011-10-22T22:45:00.002+09:00

I lay in bed, looking out across the Talek river as the rays of the early morning sun touched the high branches of the trees on the opposite bank. There was no early morning game drive today. Instead, we'd be deep inside the migration trail for the whole of the day starting after breakfast.

The stealth hunter in action ...
Since dinner was usually over at 8pm, I was starving when it was 7am. So inspite of the temptation of staying in the warm bed, I decided to brave the morning chill and have an early breakfast. I waved at the guy at the restaurant and told him that I'd have a stroll along the river bank before I come back for breakfast. I had barely walked 10 steps, when I saw a leopard on the bank river bank with a baby impala in its grip! And what more, it was less than 20m away!! By the time I removed the lens cover and switced on the camera, it had disappeared into a bush. The guy at the restaurant came running to me ... smiling, "You're one lucky guy!" I smiled back, focussing the lens on the bush. Interestingly, another drama was unfolding on the opposite bank. Two hyenas were stalking the leopard to snatch its prey. In the end, the hyenas succeeded and the stealthy hunter fled back into the shawdows. But not before I'd managed to get 2 shots of it, as it darted across a gap in the bush. The 1st one was a bit out of focus; however, for the 2nd one, I managed to get it in focus and capture its pugilistic physique in full glory ...

There is nothing great about this picture ... but everytime I look, it gives me enormous pleasure. Perhaps, it is because of the fact that it was the first time in my life I'd spotted an illusive animal and was witness to the drama that unfolded. It was by far the most exciting 2 minutes of the whole trip ... yeah, its last for just 2 minutes!

One of the hyenas, walking out with the leopard's kill!

.... to add to the experience, there was wonderful ripe mangoes in the fruit platter! By that time, other guests were walking in for their breakfast as well and were informed of the leopard sighting. Many of them came over to look at my pics .... I was enjoying the gentle warm of the sun, the scrambled eggs ... and the attention :) Even the General Manager of Basecamp came over .... "You saw a leopard before breakfast and Simon told me that you'll be heading out to the Mara (river) for the day ... you luck boy!!"

A Spectacled Weaver bobbing around the breakfast table

Warm shower under the sky ...
Perhaps, the most luxurious feature of my tent, was the open air warm shower overlooking a crocodile infested river ... very few hotels in the world can match that! I decided to enjoy it before heading out for the game drive that day. I still had about an hour ...
There were birds and baboons in the trees but there was something else that caught my attention. Standing under the shower, I didn't have my glasses on so couldn't figure out what was looking at me!! Still dripping wet, I put on the bathrobe and my glasses and came back with the cam.

Extra friendly neighbor staring at you while you're having a shower :P

It turned out to be a cheery looking hyrax sunbathing and staring at me! This is the only wildlife photo I've taken while having shower .... and probably the only one I'll take in my life :)

Into the heart of Mara
Masai Mara gets its name from the Mara river that flows through it. Mara, along with the Grumeti in Tanzania are the most formidable barriers to the migrating game herds. After the shower, I set out with Simon, into the very heart of this migration trail. The aim was to try and find cheetahs and some river crossing (by the wildebeest as they start heading back into Serengeti). We failed on both counts! We did come across wildebeests ... or rather a staggering number of wildebeests ... well exceeding a 100 thousand animals in all but no river crossing. And not a single cheetah sighting ... even in the famed Mara Triangle. There was a film crew trying to get some tight frames of wildebeest. Because the animals are dispersed while grazing, at least 3 other vehicles were trying to concentrate them into a narrow corridor, while a number of cameras mounted on other vehicles were shooting them from multiple angles.

The film crew funneling the animals into a narrow corridor to create a sense of density

Waiting for the river crossing that never came

The film crew surrounding the wildebeests and concentrating them into an open area before driving them into the corridor in the bushes (probably place for lions) ... perhaps they were trying to trigger a hunt sequence

There were times when we'd stop the vehicle and there would be wildebeests all around us .... stretching as far as eyes could see.

Flat Tyre
With no cheetah sightings, it was and the planes littered with wildebeests, zebras and topis. The only incident of note was the flat tyre we had next to a lioness and her 4 cubs. So while Simon replaced the tyre, I kept a lookout for any hostile approach. With elephant silhouettes appearing on the horizon, I was getting excited but in the end, it turned out to be just another maintainance stop!

Elephants on the horizon as Simon replaced the tyre

The lioness and her cubs didn't even bother to turn their heads to look at me standing about 50m from them :(

The power of touch: We approached them once the tyre was repaired.

Portrait of the pampered prince!

The above clip was taken with the phone while Simon replaced the tyre. I was hoping to capture a lion charge!
The hotel had packed a picnic lunch for me. I had casually mentioned during breakfast how much I love mangoes and for lunch they gave a wonderful fruit salad with lots of mangoes. I particularly like this attention to detail.

The last lunch .... under a tree on the banks of Mara ... with mangoes and mozzarella!

After lunch, we started driving back towards the hotel. It was a long way and it was the hour of the lions. By the time I flew out of Mara next morning, we saw 3 different prides of lions.

The Alpha!

Licking her prize!

That evening, I had dinner with the general manager of the hotel as she outlined the community initiatives of the hotel and how they are involving the local people in creating a more sustained environment. She also narrated her experience working at the legendary Il Moran camp and what made her come to Basecamp. As we progressed into the entree, the focus shifted to how many years ago, she had ventured out of New Zealand as a 17 year old girl, in her quest to seek for answers and how she'd come to love and live in Africa.

Bidding farewell to Mara
The last morning in Mara, I went for a short game drive at dawn. There was no wind and the not a cloud in the sky. As the rays of the sun hit the dew soaked blades of grass, the wildebeests marched on towards the Serengeti. As far as eyes could stretch, there was a sombre procession of herbivores trudging across the places. There were other poignant sights as well, like the lion who couldn't find anything to eat despite being surrounded by prey

Looking down upon the defeated King!

Or the alpha male displaying every bit of grandeur that nature has bestowed upon him.

... Lion King!

As the plane took off from the airstrip, I looked down on the endless grasslands. Many years ago, sitting by a window on a sunny autumn afternoon I read a story that fired my imagination. It took me 15 years to turn it into reality. People may think that after such a long wait, I must have been overwhelmed with emotion when it did actually happen. Not really! The more I stayed there, the more I realized that .... a journey like this never ends. You may live in Africa all your life and yet one moring you'll wake up and be totally surprised by something you've never seen or experience before. Thats the beauty of life itself ... a journey called Life!

It was worth waiting for 15 years: Day 5 in Kenya

2011-10-18T21:36:00.000+09:00

The playful calf curiously stared at us .... but its mom was in no mood for playfulness! I looked at the Masai warrior who accompanied me. He was visibly tensed, gripping his spear and observing the elephant intently while whispering me not to make brisk movements.
Trrrrrrrrring .... trrrrrrrrrrrring!! The alarm woke me up :)

The Walk!
Only a net separated me from the African bush. The moon was about to set and the horizon was lighting up. Beyond the Talek river, the rolling plains stretched hundreds of miles towards Tanzania and I could see it all even before I stepped out of my bed!
I set out with Steve, the naturalist and 2 Masai warriors as the first rays of the sun hit the tree-tops. The vehicle dropped us close to a herd of grazing Topis and from then onwards, we were all by ourselves ... and most importantly ... on foot! Watching lions from a open land cruiser may be the classic safari experience but for me, walking in the bush epitomize the true charm of Africa. Though nothing dramatic happened during the course of the walk but this day would rank alongside the experience of looking at the East face of Kanchenjunga and the epic trek across the Tengger caldera, as 3 of the most memorable days in my life. Steve gave some wonderful demonstration of symbiotic relationships in the natural world, taught me how to identify footprints. The closest we came to anything that can be remotely called 'dangerous' was a group of 3 hyenas eating a wildebeest. But since there were 4 of us (me, Steve and the 2 Masai warriors), it was hardly a fair match. The hyenas fleed at first sight. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience to be able to approach animals and birds on foot (my normal birding style in Korea).

Grey crowned cranes

Spotted Hyena with a full stomach running away from us.

The wildebeest were a bit more edgy than usual.

Even with so many animals around, this Brown headed Kingfisher provided some nice photo opportunities.

Topi

Processing of giants ... these are Masai giraffes ... different from the ones I encountered in Nakuru

Even though there was no dangerous ecounter (yeah, I was a bit more relieved than I'd like to admit! :P) what I missed most during the walk was .... background music!!! As some wise person had rightfully pointed out that the greatest tragedy of real-life is the absence of background music! 4 men walking towards the rising sun on the horizon, the wind blowing against them, the animals grazing all around ... watching it on TV with background music would've given me goosebumps. But I WAS one of those men now ... and alas, the only background music was a lark calling!

The Masai warriors who accompanied me and Steve (who clicked this)

Remains of the wildebeest that the hyenas were feeing on. The rest of the wildebeest are grazing in the distance. The very faint blue hill on the horizon is in Tanzania.

Birding from my balcony
After a sumptuous breakfast, I went back to birdwatching from my balcony and walking around the gardens of Basecamp in between.

Took this from my lunch table as I was waiting for the main course. The wildebeests were grazing just across the Talek river. The camp has no barriers on 3 sides and the river acts as a natural barrier.

Setup for the shoot!

African white backed vulture photographed while having breakfast.

Little bee-eater. It came right in front of me while I was reading a book in the balcony. Initially I didn't want to put the lens on the camera but after about 5 mins when the birds still lingered around, I mounted the lens and took a series of pics. In other places, you have to approach birds for pics. Here the birds approached you and posed for pics!

My lunch table .... with a killer view!

The afternoon game drive ...
This time, it was just Simon, his 3 year old son in the front seat and me. But the freedom that traveling solo offers is not the reason why this drive was special. The light was perfect, there was a short spell of rain and the photo opportunities that I encountered during those 2 hours were probably the best I'd ever come across in my life. When I read the story 15 years ago that inspired me to come to Kenya, I never imagined that I'd experience something like this. I witnessed one of the most intimate and touching relationships of the living world ... the bond between a mother and her children! It was something every photographer (be it a professional or an inexperienced amateur like me) waits for a lifetime to come along. Did I succeed in capturing the moment?
I leave it to you to judge that ...

The calf on the left is too young to effectively use its trunk. It takes about 5 years to fully develop all the muscles of the trunk and use it to delicately pick leaves from a shrub. Till then the only option is to use your teeth.

In the company of mom and elder sister.

We came across this herd of elephants that had two mom-kid pair and about 5 more elephants ... mostly juveniles. There was nobody else around and I observed them for close to 20 mins. Since I specifically told Simon to stop the vehicle far from the animals, this time I got the whole animal in the frame and even play with composition. The elephants slowly approached the vehicle and at one point were so close that I could even see their eye lashes with my bare eyes! Especially interesting was to note the behavior of the two young calfs. They were just adorable. After they had passed, I noticed the thunderclouds forming in the distance.
This was followed by a lull in action. There were some scattered wildebeests, antelopes and buffalos ... plenty of birds (OK ... won't put up more bird pics) but it was a lot less interesting than what was about to come. And then suddenly Simon stopped the vehicle and started scanning a series of bushes. Lions ... and this time there were no other vehicles around!

At first I saw just the lioness but then suddenly the cub popped up in front!

There were 3 cubs and just like the elephant calf, they were adorable. We spent close to 40 mins parked right next to the group as the cubs played and mom looked out for signs of danger. Then it started raining. Drizzle at first and then pouring. The light was quite good and the rain added a magical touch.

The cubs in action!

We are a family ... the second cub is hiding behind mom ... the light drizzle adds an artistic touch


Be it the rain or the pain ... all she can do is stoically withstand for the sake of her cubs!

Throughout the period, the rain waxed and waned ... we had to pull down the pop up roof of the vehicle. I just poked the lens out of the half open window and kept on clicking. The sheer range of emotions and actions on display was amazing. It was the kind of opportunity that a good professional photographer would have turned into career defining shots. I was just a beginner, totally overwhelmed by what I saw. Only when I look back, do I realize what an amazing opportunity I've had!

Add caption

It was close to 6pm and the rain was renewing with greater fury. We still had a long drive back to the camp, so Simon started the engine. Rain on the open savannah is a sight to behold. And there was a double rainbow. Not just an arc but the whole semi-circle stretching across the horizon. I can't remember the last time I saw a complete rainbow.

Portals into another world
Buddhists believe that rainbows are portals into another world. I don't know how true this is but with no other vehicle around for miles and totally surrounded by animals, was surely an other worldly experience. The rain had stopped and the light was amazing. I asked Simon to stop ... I didn't care if we had to drive in the dark through the mashes, this chance was too good to miss.

I wish I had a smaller focal length L series lens for this. The herd of wildebeest in the foreground and the rainbow behind. And then I saw a male Impala grazing ... and I knew what shot I was looking for.

There were 2 problems though ... firstly it was grazing, so it had its head down and moving constantly. And secondly, it was a bit too close. It is one of those times in life, you regret not having a zoom lens. Ideally I'd have wanted a smaller focal length to make the rainbow more distinct and pass in between the horns. But as I realized, that you can't bargain with nature. You just take what comes along!

Stats for Day 5:
Nah .... this day was too special. Some days can't be quantified .. for all other days, there is a number :)

Masai Mara: Day 4 in Kenya

2011-10-15T20:24:00.001+09:00

The Prelude
It all started with a story I read when I was in primary school (or elementary school as some of you might call it). It outlined the adventure of the protagonist in the open grasslands of East Africa and for the first time it challenged my conception of a luxury hotel. As a child, my idea of a luxury hotel was an ornate building with a pool, fancy restaurants and business center. The fact that in the African Bush, a top end hotel may actually be a tented camp set on the banks of a river, challenged my preconcieved notion of hotels. In those days, the world was a much bigger place and Africa seemed so so far. As I grew up, I became more familiar with the wildlife of East Africa in general and the Serengeti-Masai Mara migration in particular.
I'm sure most of you have seen the spectacle of the Migration on TV from the comforts of your living room, sometimes wondering how it'd be like to see it unfold right in front of your eyes. Every year, the wildebeest travel close to a thousand miles in search of fresh grass. Ever since the day I had finished reading that story, I had promised myself that one day I'd stand in the savanah amongst the wildebeest. It took me 15 years to keep the promise ...

... Basecamp Masai Mara
The vultures were circling ... below us .... as the plane banked and aligned itself with the runway of the Ol-Kiombo airstrip.

Masai Mara from the air

After a lot of research, I found a hotel in Masai Mara that appeared to be almost perfectly suitable for my tastes. Every source I referred to, extolled Basecamp Masai Mara as an excellent eco-friendly hotel. During the course of my research, I came across a few prominent names of places to stay in the Mara ... The Serena, Keerorok, Cottar's and Governer's Camp. Out of this the sheer sizes of Serena and Keerorok made me eliminate the idea. With more than 50 rooms (or tents/cottages) they'd be too big and crowded. I realized in Nakuru lodge just how annoying that can be! Cottar's and Governer's camp had almost everything perfect ... located bang in the center of the migration trails, with very small number of tents that'd guarantee exclusiveness and voted year after year as the most magestic places to stay in the Mara. But there were two problems ... firstly, these places were a bit too exclusive (preferred by elderly couples and honeymooners .... I'd find myself in a weird position!) and secondly, the very names conjured up 'colonial' references, which I so so despise!! In the end, I chose Basecamp because it was the best fit (and with a former guest list that includes Barack Obama) but the more I stayed at the place, the more I realized how brilliantly they had implemented the idea of sustainable eco-tourism. More about that on day 6 when I had dinner with the general manager of the hotel, during which she outlined their community outreach and conservation programs. Lets have a look at the Basecamp in a few pictures

A friendly reminder to the guest .... :)

My tent ... set on the banks of the Talek river facing west, with a group of baboons and a leopard being the most prominent neighbors on the opposite bank.

The balcony ... I'd spend the hottest part of the day sitting on the hammock watching birds.

The luxury of being able to watch impalas and wildebeest even from the bed :)

But the best part was the open air warm shower! Since it was a tent, their were no doors, just zips. With baboons around, the reception manager told me to 'lock' the door when I went out. I replied back, "You mean zip the door ... right?" :)

Even though it was mid-day, the temperature was pleasant enough. The call of birds all around, wildebeests and impalas grazing in the distance and a cold Tusker beer was the perfect way to start my first meal in Mara. The very setting would have made the lunch a grand affair but even the food was surprisingly good. And this was one of the few occasions when I actually enjoyed fish as the main course. One of my favorite items on the table was the bread basket ... handmade from reeds, with Masai beads on the rim, I just loved the simple yet elegant construction. In the end it turned out to be the only souvenior I got for myself from Masai-Mara (and ofcourse the memories and pictures!) After a hearty meal, I went back to my balcony ... just sit around doing nothing. At first it felt weird but after sometime, I felt remarkably at peace. There were birds all around ... mousebirds, woodpeckers, cordon-blues, weavers, saw-wings, kingfishers ... the list goes on. I set up my binoculars on the tripod and would take a look throuh it from time to time.

My observation deck!

After 3 days on intensive birding in the Rift, most of the species were familiar ones. But I did spot a few that I hadn't seen before ... for example, a Black-backed Puffback which occur only south of the Equator and has some subtle differences from its northern cousin ... the Northern Puffback. There were also quite a few African Paradise Flycatcher ... these birds in breeding plumage are absolutely gorgeous but even in non-breeding plumage, they are very beautiful indeed. I saw quite a few of them in the garden of Basecamp

African Paradise Flycatcher ... have a closer look at the beautiful blue eye ring.

The Afternoon Game-drive
At 4pm, we were supposed to set out for the first proper game drive in Mara. But just as I was zipping the door, I saw a huge hornbill fly by the balcony. I knew that this was a species I had not seen before and ran out looking for it. Even though spotting a new species is always interesting, this one was special in the sense that this turned out to be the 200th species of bird I'd spot in Kenya

A female Black and White Casqued Hornbill just behind my tent ... the 200th species of bird I saw in Kenya.

Simon was ready with the Land Cruiser at the reception. I joined a few other guests of the hotel for that afternoon's game drive (from next day onwards, I'd have the whole vehicle to myself and apart from spotting animals, we'd also spend some time looking for birds). While flying to Mara (as with every other occasion in Kenya), almost the whole plane was filled with retired people! However, on this game drive my co-travellers were young people ... a Dutch couple staying in the next tent and 3 British ladies who were Mara veterans. This was something unique about Basecamp. The average age of its guests were far less than the other hotels in Mara of similar standard. And the fact that more young people chose to forgo the white linen and marble bath-tub luxury of the other camps and stay at a place renowned for its eco-tourism credentials greatly pleased me. Its not that Basecamp falls short of luxury but it offers luxury in a more subtle way. Maybe, people of my generation are becoming more concious of the need for sustainable tourism practices and hopefully places like Basecamp would become the norm rather than exception in near future. Well enough talking ....
The vehicle had an open top and I spent most of my time standing inside and scaning the horizon big cats and the skies for raptors. There were plenty of wildebeests, zebras, impalas, gazelles and topis. We also spotted a large herd of elephants. Since the vehicle was parked quite close to the animals (for others to take pictures) I had a chance to take some 'close-up' shots.

The veteran matriarch

There were rainclouds in the distance and we could even see the rainfall silhoutted against the sky. The light was not particularly good that day so I couldn't take the images I was looking for. Next we came across 3 cheetah brothers who were so full after a meal that they could barely move. To see the fastest land animal in this condition was rather disappointing!

My fellow travellers in the vehicle told me that they saw the cheetahs eating a wildebeest that morning and pointed out their full stomach. After about 20mins we came across a large pride of lions .... at least 20 vehicles were parked around them but most of the lionesses and cubs were resting inside some scrub bushes. The alpha male was sleeping and another young male who was also sleeping close to the king didn't consider us worthy enough to look at!!! Most people were happy just to have a glimpse of a lion (or more correctly their bottoms!) but I was waiting for the alpha to wake up and look at us. Since that didn't happen I didn't even bring out my cam.

Tusker in the bottle ... tusker in the bush
We reached an flat open section of the plain with miles of visibility on all sides when Simon stopped the car and asked us, "Care for a drink ... ladies and gentlemen?" We got out of the vehicle and walked around exchanging stories and sipping Tusker as the wildebeest looked at us. In the distance we also saw some elephant silhouttes which made me comment, "Wow ... now this is what we live for ... Tusker in the bottle (raising my beer) and tusker in the push (pointing it towards the elephant)!"

FREEDOM!

Then suddenly a thought crossed my mind. I asked Simon if I could go on a walking safari next morning. He said it was possible if it didn't rain too much that night. I looked at the rain in the distance and hoped that it'd stop soon. The clouds and the setting sun did offer some nice landscapes.

Rain on the savannah!

Rain curtain and the Tree of Life!

Wildebeest silhouttes against the setting sun

Stats for Day 4
Species of birds spotted so far: 206
Best experience: Beer on the savannah
Most disappointing experience: The lion pride!!
Estimated number of wildebeest spotted: ~15000! (that number would go up as the days progress and I venture deeper into the heart of the migration trail)
Cutest animal of the day: A reedbuck peeping out of the bush!

Coming up on day 5: Walking with Masai warriors, birding in Basecamp, an amazingly intimate encounter with a lioness and 3 cubs in the rain, a full double rainbow stretching across the skies and a brilliant sunset.

Exploring Nakuru: Day 3 in Kenya

2011-10-07T21:05:00.000+09:00

The first 2 days in Kenya was exclusively set aside for birds. Even though some birds like eagles and vultures can be huge, most birds are rather small. As a result, they don't get the kind of attention a mammal or a croc would get. So when you come across a situation when there is a brilliant Grey-headed Helmet Shrike in a tree and a bunch of Impalas grazing on the grass below it, the Impalas get all the attention and nobody even bothers to look at the bird. Some might say that the shrike is very small in comparison but I have seen people totally oblivious of the presence of a Bataleur Eagle on a tree when a buffalo is grazing below. Now in comparison to a shrike, the Bataleur is enormous ... I don't understand, how can you NOT notice such a bird?

Lake Nakuru National Park
I was more than happy to leave Nakuru Lodge and head out into the park for the day. There was nothing wrong with the lodge, in terms of facilties and service but it had kind of a colonial and sometimes rather 'formal' feel that I didn't appreciate. I went to Kenya expecting a rustic charm but Nakuru Lodge was a lot more chic in comparison. I'm sure most of its guests enjoyed their stay in a nice, secure and comfortable place but that very sense of predictability made it somewhat less attractive to me. Anyways, this post is not about reviewing a hotel but about the National Park itself. There were reasonable number of animals .... buffalos, impalas, hyena, zebra, gazelles and other antelopes, plenty of rhinos. I also came across a juvenile leopard and a lone lioness, along with plenty of interesting birds but the whole day lacked any spectacular moment that would stand out. However, this day was different in the sense that it introduced big game into the menu! Lake Nakuru's prime attraction are its Flamingos and Pelicans, which congregate in enormous numbers. But their numbers seems to be greatly reduced during my visit. In fact, there were probably more pelicans than flamingos. Francis told me that they were probably in Lake Bogoria after the recent rains (Bogoria is another lake in the Baringo region ... with hotsprings and possibilties of viewing the beautiful Greater Kudu antelope) or in their breeding grounds in Lake Natron (Rudolf) is Tanzania. Some shots from early morning

Long-crested Eagle

Even though this is big game country, the eagle was just too beautiful too miss! I have a particular fascination for raptors (birds of prey), so was rather pleased to get a good shot in the soft light of the morning. There were plenty of buffalos grazing in the dew laden grass but none of them were particularly striking. There were also a lot of zebras but they also looked a bit sedate. Eventually, it was a group of Elands (the largest of antelopes) that provided the first shots of mammals (other than the hippos of Baringo).

Eland ... the largest antelope

For the next 3 hours, we just moved about the acacia forest in the southern sections of the park. There were plenty of White Rhinos and Nakuru's famous Rothschild Giraffes (an endangered species).

The endangered Rothschild Giraffe

A White Rhino .... she had a calf and hence was rather vigilant. Other rhinos didn't even consider us worthy of sparing a look, let alone some detailed examination! (Just a fact - Rhinos rely more on a sense of smell than sight)

As with the eagle, the problem of too big and too close always surfaced as my biggest worry. So George would stop the car about 20~30m from a large mammal for photography. But sometimes a curious rhino would approach the vehicle till even its face won't fit in a picture frame! Then I'd stop photographing and just watch them.

Some other shots from the day

Thomson's Gazelle

An Augur Buzzard staring down at us!

A solitary male buffalo with a red-billed oxpecker on its head.

Ostriches about to indulge in naughty things ;)!!

African Hawk Eagle

A large herd of female Impalas .... maybe having an antelope version of a kitty party.

Male bonding in Impala society!

Flamingos .... where ARE they?
We stopped for a break on the southern edge of the park where there is a waterfall. It meant getting out of the vehicle ... stretching .... and posing for a few pics! (this time I had about 19 pics of myself ... which is a record ... during the Indonesia trip I just had 3 :P)

We then drove to the lake's edge but the number of flamingos were rather limited (maybe just a few thousand as compared to a 'decent average' count of a few hundred thousands). In fact there were more pelicans than flamingos, along with decent numbers of grey headed gulls, cormorants and storks.

A Pink backed Pelican landing amongst a crowd of Great White pelicans

More Pelicans in company of long-tailed cormorants, grey headed gulls, Marabou and yellow billed storks

A pleasant surprise
The only high point of the day was spotting a juvenile leopard while going towards the Baboon cliff for lunch.

As expected there was quite a crowd around (about 5 vehicles). It was a bit dark under the trees, so I had to use ISO3200 and the leopard was lazing out on a branch which was a bit far by normal camera standards. For my 400mm on a 1.6 crop camera, it was at a perfect distance to have a bit of background as well for composition. Now a very funny thing happened during this time. There were also plenty of birds around and in particular, my attention was drawn to a White-browed Robin Chat in a nearby bush.

White-browed robin chat

As I pointed my lens away from the leopard and onto the bird, a singularly rotund gentleman in a car behind ours, asked me, "Is there another leopard there?" When I showed him the bird, at first he thought I was joking. People in another vehicle saw us and pointed there cameras towards that bush (maybe with hopes of seeing a live dinosaur or something!) Even after their guides explained them that I was 'birding', they looked rather skeptical! It was fun to watch their disbelief .... how can you photograph something so insignificant in presence of the most secretive of the big cats. I didn't answer ... just smiled at them as we drove away.

We had lunch on top of the Baboon cliffs, in the company of some cute rock hyraxes, agama lizards and cliff chats.

HDR shot of Lake Nakuru from top of Baboon cliff

Male Agama Lizard basking in the sun

2nd HDR shot of Nakuru and the acacia forest

While we were coming out, we spotted a magnificient Martial Eagle on the ground (which took the eagle species count to 6)

Martial Eagle

Thus my official 'birding' trip ended. I bid farewell to Francis and George ... repacked my bags ... shaved (after 4days) ... had an early dinner and went to bed as the calls of a colony of Sacred Ibis nesting in the trees behind my room filtered through. As I set the alarm for 6:30 the following morning, I smiled! I had nurtured a dream for close to 15years ... and when I take off for the Migrations trails of Masai-Mara the next morning, it'd come true! I had to wait for 10 more hours.

Stats for Day 3
First bird of the day: An African Firefinch in the garden
Last bird of the day: The Martial Eagle
First animal of the day: A pair of buffalos outside the restaurant (during breakfast)
Total number of bird species spotted in 3 days (confirmed ID): 196!!! (It took me close to 5 months in the Korean mainland to spot 100 species .... my current count in Korea stands somewhere around 130 after almost a year! ... probably I should add a few more exclamation marks ;))

Coming up on Day 4: Masai-Mara, the migration trails, cheetahs, elephants, a beautiful tented room on the banks of Talek river with your own viewing platform and an open air warm shower!!!

Tale of Eagles and manicured lawns: Day 2 in Kenya

2011-09-29T23:19:00.002+09:00

The Ultimate Wakeup Call
At first I thought it was a dream but it persisted for a couple of minutes even with my eyes open! It took me a couple of minutes more to get accustomed to the pitch darkness of the room and realize that the grunting sounds that woke me up were coming from hippos grazing just outside my door. I checked my watch ... it was about 2:30am. My wakeup call had come 3hrs too soon!
My plan for that day was to take a boat ride on Lake Baringo at dawn and then go for the cliffs after breakfast. I met up with Francis at 6:15am and set off on a small boat with an outboard motor. Under a cloudless blue sky, on a calm morning, it was 2hrs of intensive birding. Francis grew up around this region, so he knows each and every bush, tree and reed-bed around the lake. He also has a lot of experience working with professional researchers on behaviour and nesting habits of Weavers, so it was fascinating to see him in action in his home turf. I was hoping to spot an African Skimmer but Francis told me that he hadn't spotted one in last 3 months and after rains, its really difficult to spot one this south. A detailed account of this day wouldn't interest most of you unless you really like bird-watching. We spotted a lot of Kingfishers, Weavers, Herons, birds that live in reed beds along the shore of the lake and of course the legendary fish eagles. Some pictures from near the shore.

A Goliath Heron. The name is indicative of its size

Close up views of a female Pied Kingfisher. Notice the unfinished black collar. Males have 2 complete collars.

A Giant Kingfisher.

A Cardinal Woodpecker. Its quite difficult to capture small birds in flight. This is one of my favorite pics.

A Jackson's Golden backed weaver.

A Northern Red Bishop. It is found only in the Baringo-Bogoria region. After illuding us for sometime, it gave prolonged and good views.

The Eagles
The soft light of dawn and no wind was perfect for photography. As we headed towards the islands in the center of the lake, we spotted at least 4 fish-eagles. Francis set up a fish bait for one of the eagles. These eagles are used to people and quite eager to have a free meal. But as it turned out that the eagle was too big and we were too near to get the full eagle in frame. What I managed to get was this

I thought of trying one more time from a greater distance but somehow, my 'photographer ethic' compelled me to resist this temptation of using a 'setup' to capture such an iconic image (a raptor snatching a fish from the surface of the water). Nah ... I thought ... I'd rather wait for a 'natural opportunity' ... even if it might take many many years! There were few other boats feeding the eagles and it was an absolute pleasure to watch them in action. I tried out some shots from sidewise angle to capture the 'fingers on the wings' (or more technically the outer primaries). Here is one example.

The Island
Francis told me a lot of stories about the islands in the lake and his life as a child growing up on the shores of Baringo. On the island itself, we spotted a lot a different species like

this cute little Green winged Pytilia ...

A couple of Senegal Thick-knees

While returning from the islands, I realized that so far I don't have a single photograph of mine, so asked the guy operating the motor to snap one of Francis and me with my phone.

Francis has an amazing eye for birds and being similar in age with me .... was a great fun to travel with!

The Baringo Cliffs
By the time I finshed my breakfast, it was quite hot. At around 9:30am when we hit the trail, it was blazing under a cloudless equitorial sky. I was hoping to find the Hemprich's Hornbill and the Verraux's Eagle but given the rising temperatures, I knew the chances were slim. Compared to the beautifully soft light of dawn, this time the light was almost useless for any 'aesthetically pleasing' photography. But there were plenty of other kinds of birds including 3 different species of cuckoos, batises, warblers, barbets and lots more. We even saw a Verraux's Eagle but unfortunately it was more 500m away and we could barely make out the colors on the underside of its wings to ID the bird. Now just to give a demonstration of how well Francis knows the area and how good his eyesight is ... lets have a look at the picture below.

There is an owl somewhere in this picture, try to find it out. The picture is taken with a 400mm lens on a 1.6crop sensor camera. Speaking in plain terms, in a point and shoot camera, it amounts to a 13X. I took me close to 10minutes to finally catch a glimpse of the barn owl hiding in one of the cracks in the center of the photo

Now it becomes pretty clear when you look inside the white box. Try comparing it with the picture above!

After lunch, we set out for Nakuru. It rained on the way and we only stopped to see some cisticolas and larks. As we entered the Nakuru National Park, I spotted a big herd of buffalos at a distance. I was entering big game country ... with big expectations. After the blissful and rustic desolation of Lake Baringo Club, the Nakuru Lodge was a shocker! Plush cottages set in manicured gardens set on top of a hill overlooking the lake and the dining area had a dress code!!!!! With average age of most other guests 2.5 times mine, I felt completely out of place. The only people younger than them were honeymooners. Dissapointed, I walked up to the bar overlooking the pool and in the dying light of the day spotted a pair of Hyenas and a magnificient Southern ground hornbill. That night when I went to bed, I realized that I was entering the 'classic safari zone'.

A group of black and white colobus monkeys inside Nakuru N.P.

From next day onwards, even though I'd seek out birds, big game would become more and more dominant. And 2 days later when I finally fly to the migration trails of Mara, they'd take the center stage.

Stats of the day 2
Approximate number of new species spotted: 45~50
First bird of the day: African Pied Kingfisher
Last bird of the day: Southern Ground Hornbill
Happiest time: Baringo boat ride.
Mood in Nakuru Lodge's dining hall: :( !!
Most intimate encounter: A croc in Baringo, close enough to pat its nose! ;)

Coming up: Day3 ... first foray into big game country .... Rhinos, Buffalos and the most illusive of big cats posing for pictures!

Hopping Oceans in search of Birds: Day 1 in Kenya

2011-09-25T19:50:00.000+09:00

"Journey of a thousand miles, start with a single photograph!"
It started pretty modestly for me. The picture was a portrait of a Cinereous Vulture and the initial journey was barely a hundred miles long. But that was winter 2009! I had grossly underestimated the magnitude of the obsession that birds would turn out to be for me. Over the last year, I had made multiple forays into local birding grounds in Korea but now it was time to bring out the big guns and hop on a plane to another continent to initiate a new phase of birding. The East African Rift Valley ... the cradle of mankind and home of the legendary Serengiti-Masai Mara system that has been popularized through innumerable wildlife programs. But the Rift is also teeming with birds and the first phase of my Kenya trip was dedicated exclusively, to witness its winged denizens.

From Nairobi to Baringo
On the recommendation of fellow birders, I decided to go for a customized birding trip arranged by Ben's Ecological Safaris. Accompanying me was George and Francis - who, being a resident of the Baringo region was a specialist in that area. We started on a rainy morning from Nairobi, just after breakfast. Thankfully, by the time we started our descent into the Rift, the rain was gone. We stopped for a while in one of the viewpoints but it was not until we had reached the first floor of the valley, that the birds began to appear in hordes. In Korea, it had taken me close to 5 months to spot 100 distinct species on the mainland. In the Rift, it took me about a day and a half!! The richness and diversity is just unimaginable.

I have a particular fascination for and extremely bad luck with raptors, birds of prey. So when I spotted this Augur Buzzard (Kenya's most common raptor after the ubiqitous Black Kite), I was more than happy to dedicate multiple shots to it. As we drove along, I spotted more raptors including a glimpse of a magnificient Tawny Eagle but the true diversity of Kenyan avifauna began to emerge when we started scanning the bushes along the road. There were a large number of such sudden stops to scan a bush or a tree in search of something most casual onlookers could not even see.

George suddenly stopped the car when he saw this African Grey Hornbill for me to take pictures. The same tree had 2 distinct species of weavers, and Francis, thanks to his expertise with Ploceus Weavers, began to illustrate the morphology, habits and nest structure of these birds.

It was fascinating to hear him speak about these Speke's Weavers. Being in the same age group as I am and gifted with abundant energy and enthusiasm, it was an absolute pleasure to travel with him. But since we had to reach the Lake Baringo Club for lunch, Georgre started the engine promising me that there will be more stops along the way. As we left Nakuru behind, we entered the drier parts of the Rift system but a recent spell of heavy rains had given rise to temporary marshes. So inspite of the prospect of missing lunch, we stopped at one of those places. I joked to Francis, that if I was given the option of choosing between bird and bread (food or lunch), most of the time I'd choose the former! (I later learnt that almost all birders were retired people from Europe or the USA for whom birding on empty stomach was highly unpleasant. I belong to a totally different camp! :))

We spotted a group of White-faced Whistlting ducks flying by. Apart from that we spotted a whole lot of other birds including Red-knobbed Coots, Spur-winged Geese, Egyptian Geese, Pelicans, Storks, Hamerkops.

There were also an extraordinary variety of birds in the bushes itself like this female Black Cuckoo-shrike ...

... a brilliant Malachite Kingfisher. They move with great speed, which makes it particularly tricky to photograph them ...

... Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu ...

... a colony of Black-headed or Village Weavers (this particular bird belongs to a sub-species P.c.bohndorffi, which is a western race of the species) ...

... and a beautiful Grey Wren Warbler. I'm greatly fascinated by this family of birds, that inhabbit in bushed which makes it particularly difficult to spot. The Korean islands on the Yellow Sea host a number of migrating warblers but very few of them make it to the mainland, where I do the bulk of my birding. In this paticular stop that lasted for about 20mins, we spotted more species of birds than I'd spot in a whole day of productive birding in Korea!

Lake Baringo Club
Cottages set on a lawn next to the lake ... 3 out of 23 cottages occupied ... extra-friendly birds who happily pose for photos and keep you company as you have lunch - Lake Baringo Club's cottages were blissfully peaceful and paradise for birders. The staff are immaculately dressed and friendly, and being a bit off the main safari trail, is not crowded. It only attracts peace-lovers and serious birders ... and is cheaper than other places of similar quality elsewhere in Kenya. Even from my lunch table, I could photograph a wide variety of birds like ...

... this Red-billed Hornbill. Most of the time the problem was that the birds were too close to be photographed. My 400mm lens can only focus objects at a minimum distance of 3.5m. This turned out to be a recurring problem in Kenya, when the birds and animals were too close to me!

On the hot afternoon, as I enjoyed a glass of cold Tusker and warm bread-rolls, waiting for my lunch, I clicked a sequence of a Beautiful sunbird, right next to the restaurant. After lunch, I walked around the hotel's premised and on the shores of the lake for more surprises like

This Woodland Kingfisher

Ruppell's Long tailed Starling

Extra-friendly crocs

African Darter drying its feathers after a fishing trip

and the Lake's most famous residents, the Fish Eagles

Late in the afternoon, we went out in search of nocturnal birds in the dry scrubland. Littered with acacia bushes, whose thorns grew upto 3 inches long after the rains, it turned out to be quite tricky to navigate. As a result when I came back at the end of the day, I had multiple cuts, including a set of almost inch deep thorn pricks on the back. However, the sheer number of birds made it worth it :)

In search of Nocturnals
We were looking for the Heuglin's Courser, Nightjars and Owls. But when a group of beautiful Grey-headed Helmet shrikes poses for you, its difficult to let go of the chance to photograph them

Then there was the Nubian Woodpecker, that almost made us miss the Courser.

We chased the Courser for close to 20mins, through the scrub ... sometimes crawling. But finally, we managed to find it sitting down and gave ample opportunities for photos.

The leaves in the front was blocking my view, so I decided to try it from the frontal angle.

The frontal view showing its beautiful breast plumage.

There was a Gabar Goshawk, showing its characterisitc orange cere, legs and barred tail.
I had never spotted a nightjar before, so was very eager to see one and Francis promised me at least one species that afternoon.

Try spotting the bird ... if you can't, I won't blame you ... it is one of the best camoflage artists of the living world!

It completely merges with the surrounding landscape and would stay absolutely still even when you venture with 5 feet of it!

The Slender-tailed Nightjar ... hopefully, you can see it now! :)

As sunset drew closer, the bushes was bursting with birds darting around. At one point, Francis would point out as many as 7 different species in a single bush barely 4 feet high! Later we managed to see 3 different species of owl ...

A White faced Scops Owl

A Pearl spotted Owlet

And a remarkably close views of a Spotted Eagle-Owl

Stats for Day1:
Total number of species of birds spotted - 88!
First species - African Pied Wagtail (within 5 minutes of stepping out of the airport)
Last bird of the day - Green Wood Hoopoe
Number of times almost stepping on a croc while looking at birds - 2! (just kidding .. the crocs were still a few meters away when I spotted them or they slid away into the water)

Boys can cook: Seafood Sunday

2011-08-28T18:11:00.000+09:00

"If its meat, it can't be bad!", commented a friend of mine when I asked him how was his lunch. For a vast majority of people (at least who are non-vegeterian), this is true. Part of the reason is that anybody with very basic cooking skills can cook meat reasonably well. Meat is remarkably robust to a wide range of 'tortures' and is yet capable of being edible when it lands on you plate. When I'm trying to play safe or lacking in imgination, I usually cook meat. A good sirloin steak or a robust chicken/beef/pork/lamb curry essentially cooks by itself after some basic initial preparation.
Fish or seafood on the other hand is completely different matter. For years I've been afraid of cooking them owing to their 'delicate' nature. It is only recently that I've able to summon enough courage to experiment with 'creatures of the water'. On a brilliant Sunday morning, when its too hot to photograph outdoors, I decided to channel some creative energy towards culinary pursuits. A few days ago while browsing through Wall Street Journal, I found an article in its lifestyle section about Cioppino. A robust fish stew sounded perfect for a Sunday lunch! Being 9am on a Sunday morning, the crowds were yet to descend on the market which alllowed me to browse in leisure. One interesting thing about Korea being a small country is that a majority of agricultural products are imported. When the shopping trip ended, I realized that the ingredients of a humble seafood stew, came from 3 different continents - trout from Chile, tiger prawns from India, local clams, tomatoes from the USA. Lunch would be a truly global affair!
Though the idea of the stew came from Cioppino, there was no fixed recipe. I used whatever I found close to my hands and with a bit of chemistry as always. The stew had trout, prawns, clams, onion, garlic, tomatoes, ground coriander, cloves, turmeric, green onions, dried basil and thyme. The pictures will do the rest of the talking.

The raw ingredients

Most recipes start with the traditional sprinkling of salt and pepper. However, I usually refrain from adding salt in the beginning. Salt tends to bring out water from the fish and makes a mess. Instead I used white pepper, turmeric and clove powder for the trout and prawn, and black pepper only for the clam. A bit of olive oil was used for all the 3.

The fish was warmed in a fry pan (low heat). I love the way the color changes. This process is done till one third of the fish changes color. The residual heat will be enough for rest of the fish.

I was quite liberal with tomatoes. Cutting them into half and warming them on the fry pan causes caramalization which adds color to the final stew.

Onion, garlic is sauted in a pot. Ground coriander and thyme is added. The tomatoes and green onions go in after that. The whole setup is covered and left to cook slowly in its own juices. When they are reasonaly done, some warm water or wine is poured in and slow cooked for about 20 minutes.

Once the fish and clams are added, the heat is reduced further. After about 5~7 minutes, the stew is ready.

The density of the stew can be changed according to choice. Personally, I favor reasonably thick ones, so I don't add any extra water after the initial phases. Also, the pot is covered to reduce excessive water loss and prevent it from drying out.
A complete and healthy meal in itself, it can be served with bread and if you're planning to be a bit more fancy, with wine. A chilled glass of Chardonnay should go well with it. But wine being a highly personalized drink, anything would go as long as you like it - be it Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Noir!
Bon apetit.

Anna and Munna!!

2011-08-19T23:28:00.000+09:00

A curious mix of circumstances has made the Jan Lokpal movement an unprecedented outpour of public frustration against corruption. Led by a septuagenarian social activist and supported by millions of ordinary citizens from all walks of life - it is turning out to be the ultimate showdown between the government and the people who elected it. I cannot help but recall a line from the movie, V for Vendetta - "People should not be afraid of their government. The government should be afraid of their people!" And certainly the govt finds itself on the backfoot right now. When the current government came to power defying all odds, I wrote a piece extolling the virtues of democracy in India, with the hope that the man at the helm of it ... a wise, learned man with impecable integrity would lead India to new heights. And it was not just my hope ... the entire nation looked upto him to lead the country with distinction. But over the years that hope has faded, being replaced by firstly apathy, then frustration and now outright anger. I still have immense respect for the prime minister as an academic and economist but seeing him helpless atop a government with miserable track record on corruption, headed by a party which makes mockery of democratic ideals and composed of ... for the lack of a better (or stronger word) ... mostly 'lesser' individuals, the only feeling that I have is anger!
Though I don't favor the idea of an individual or a group 'pressurizing' the government to yield to its demands, given the circumstances, I believe what we are seeing today is a reflection of earliest forms of democracy that prevailed in antiquity. The Greek city states relied on the direct participation of its citizens in the framing of laws. With increase in population, democratic institutions become multi-layered ones. People elected representatives to frame laws on their behalf. This resurrection of the old-school can be attributed to a number of causes. The Arab Spring has demonstrated the might of the 'common man' in his struggle against ineffective and corrupt governance. Social networks have made the flow of information much faster. The near disastrous organization of the Commonwealth Games (as opposed to the spectacular Beijing Olympics). Embezzlement of public funds in scales even difficult to concieve and the involvement of ministers and elected representatives in these acts. One of the most striking aspects of this 'mass uprising' has been the large scale participation of the middle-class, who have had a traditional disdain for the democratic process. Previous mass gatherings were mostly populated by less fortunate people (well for the sake of political correctness) driven by desparation. But this time its different. People from all walks of life has partipated in it with great enthusiasm. And social networks has expanded the support base across the globe. Another important aspect has been the presence of a very 'visible' leadership. Anna Hazare, donning his white cap and resorting to peaceful means of protest has become symbolic of the 'Gandhian' way of doing things.
However, there is a curious difference between the 'Gandhian' movements of pre-independence days and what we are witnessening today, which is more appropriately called 'Gandhigiri'! And the missing piece has been the influence of Bollywood. Yes, we have all heard the comparison between Anna and Munna but this isn't just about symbolisim. Once again to quote from V for Vendetta - "A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world." Obviously nobody is blowing up buildings here but the analogy of symoblism being powered by people is too good to miss. The very word 'Gandhigiri' has come to our vocabulary only recently. And Bollywood has made it 'cool'! I wonder how the concept of Gandhian way of protest would have been received by young Indians had the film, Lage Raho Munnabhai, not been made. To be honest, an average young Indian idolizes a successful business leader or sportsperson over Gandhi. And yet we find that Gandhian ideals have struck a deep chord with the young 'social networked' Indian. It is difficult to predict the course of future but without this 'cool appeal' that Gandhigiri exudes, people may have resorted to violence to vent their frustration against corruption. And we just saw what a violent group of young people is capable of unleashing in Britain. Bollywood may be one of the strongest arsenals in India's soft power but in my opinion, Bollywood in general (along with Rajkumar Hirani and the Lage Raho crew in particular) is one of the key ingredients behind the response of the Jan Lokpal movement.
I don't know which side will finally prevail in this struggle but this event should serve as a warning to future governments of the dangers of ignoring the will of the people. A Lokpal won't erase corruption by itself. It can only be defeated if we change our attitude towards corruption. I DO NOT support mass movements as means of solving the problems the beset India but I support the fact that this would create fear in the minds of potentially corrupt people that it won't be as easy as it used to be. And fear can sometimes fundamentally change who you are!

Google getting into handsets: A paradigm shift!!

2011-08-15T23:10:00.000+09:00

Amidst all the drama over sovereign debt crisis in Europe and S&P downgrade, the world's focus is fixed on stock markets, commodity prices and bond yields. However, another news of epic proportions has just hit the net - Google acquiring Motorola Mobility! So whats so special about one company acquiring another? It happens all the time! But this is not just another corporate acquisition. In an industry that is growing at a blistering pace aided by social networking, this single event can have epic consequences on the smartphone and mobile computing business. The traditional rivalry for dominance between Apple and the Android juggernaut will be divided along different lines now.
Google is no longer the platform provider that stays behind the scenes, as an army of Android powered devices takes on Apple, Nokia and Microsoft. It has ... finally ... joined the war! The news came as a great surprise to me ... and I'm sure to a lot of other people. And it directly affects our business relation with Google. From being an ally, Google has become a competitor in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow morning, when the world comes to terms with this news, the mood at work would be very different. And as someone directly associated with business of mobile computing and technology, I can only imagine the complexities that this move would bring in to the industry.
In the past when such epoch making events took place in the industry, I was too small to understand the consquences. Even when the world was thrown into turmoil after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, I watched the events from the sidelines. From the relative safety of University, I saw a world come back from the brink ... but only just! But for me personally, things are different now. In the battle that is about intensify in the mobile industry after this acquisition, I'm a soldier! The days of watching it as an outsider is gone. I have a feeling that this would be the first big challenge of my professional career.

Boys can cook: Salmon saga!

2011-07-29T23:05:00.000+09:00

There is a saying in Sanskrit - "Ghranena ardhabhojanam!" It translates to ... flavor is half the eating experience. I've always been fascinated by smells and they form the most important aspect of my cooking. I'm quite liberal with the use of aromatic spices like cloves, cinnamon and saffron when in the kitchen. But all of them are what has been classified as 'warm aromas', taking meat dishes, rice or desserts to a new level. However, due to the weather these days (rain and heat), I have almost lost my apetite for warm flavors. On top of that, it was a grueling week at work, lack of sleep and pain on the right foot due to overpronation. My mood and spirit has hit an all time low ... so I decided to do something creative. Cooking provided the perfect answer. And the weather provided the answer to what to cook. Fish with herbs and veggies. Me being the ruthless carnivore, my mother always tells me balance my diet with greens and fish. So it was also a dish that would make mom proud and happy!
For me, cooking is all about chemistry. All the greatest cooks in the world are masters of chemistry, whether they know it or not. The greatest experiments in chemistry are not performed in labs wearing a gas mask but in the kitchen where the flavors of the food permeate the atmosphere and drives your neighbors crazy! Since I was tired and a bit depressed, I decided to be really really simple. Steamed salmon with herbs providing the flavor. But it would be a flavor that is suitable for summer. So I chose rosemary and basil with some liberal use of lemon. I also opened a bottle of California Reisling, which unfortunately was not quite good. As a result, I used a significant quantity of it to provide the steaming medium.
STEAMED SALMON
Ingredients:
1. Salmon fillet
2. Onions
3. Ginger
4. Lemon
5. Peppers
6. Herbs (I used rosemary, basil and coriander but there is not fixed rule!)
7. Salt and olive oil

It all starts with the fish itself. The fillet was drizzled with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

The rosemary and basil provides the aroma. There are thin veins of fat running between the flesh. Covering up the fish, forces the fat to absorb the delicate flavors of the herbs, infusing the fish (which is warm orange in color) with cool, green aromas!

To add a bit of color and crunchiness, I used peppers of 3 colors, lemon and fresh coriander leaves. The fish is covered up with the herbs for about 20 mins. Any longer than this and the acid in the lemon juice will start breaking down the protein in the flesh! (chemisty once again ... amino acid hydorlysis by a stronger acid! ;))

For steaming, the fish is placed over a bed on onion and lemon. I also poured in a liberal quantity of wine for the steaming process but warm water could have been used just as well.

I'm almost paranoid about 'loosing the aroma', so I usually cover up the steam vent opening. That way, the flavors are further locked in and when you take off the lid, you're in for a pleansant and aromatic surprise.

It is very important to cook it in low heat. High heat will melt the fat in between the layers of flesh and half the flavor will be gone. Secondly, the protein in flesh would start curling up (the 3D structure of amino acids!) making the fish rough and fiberous. Thirdly, low heat allows the fat to just melt, absorb in more flavor and the soft flesh just slides over the layer of fat. The result is that the fish just melts in your mouth bursting with flavor!

The finished product! Takes less than 30mins to cook (including the marination).Requires very little effort, smells great (well, sometimes I'd like to brag a bit! :)), tastes reasonably well and is very healthy!
Cooking is increasingly becoming a lost art. Its neither difficult not tiring. Instead, I believe that cooking is a great stress reliever, a good way to impress your friends and at the same time an opportunity to do something creative.
Bon apetit!

Battle on the Han!!

2011-07-16T23:56:00.000+09:00

No, its not a battle with tanks, guns and fighter jets ... but it's a battle for survival nonetheless. It unfolded right in front of our eyes on brilliant spring evening, as people were going about their daily business. But for almost everybody, it was too insignificant to notice. Not for me!! I always love battles where the odds are heavily against the protagonist. A battle where he/she puts up a brave fight but eventually gets defeated in the end by the sheer number of adversaries. No wonder, I admire movies like The Last Samurai, 300 and Border. However, it was not a fight involving humans trying to expand an empire .... it was a battle for food!
A battle between one of the most magnificient birds in the world (well, at least in my opinion) - the Steller's Sea Eagle and a band of about 20 sea-gulls. And it were the first pictures I took with the 400mm lens. It was 1st March and I had just bought the lens less than an hour ago. Since the light was in perfect condition, I decided to test it on the Han river. I took a test shot of a bird almost 250m away and was checking the grains in the image, when I suddenly realised that there's only one raptor with white shoulder and tail found in this part of the world! I'd spent the previous couple of months searching for this elusive eagle and it was right in front of me (umm ... after 2 months of search, 250m is almost as good as standing face to face)

The Eagle at the bottom of the frame with the sea-gull juggernaut pursuing it over a fish

For the next couple of minutes, I just stared at wonder at the eagle as it manuevered with a fish almost a quarter of its body weight, and managed to stay clear of the gulls! The inital band of about 12 gulls, was soon joined by others and the strength of the troop on its tail had swelled to more than 20. It was almost like watching a WWII style dog-fight. Eventually the tired eagle lost its grip on the fish and it plunged into the river. Hungry and exhausted, the eagle flew up river to its nesting ground in one the hills in the northern suburbs of Soeul. Even though it lost the fish, those few minutes filled me with admiration.You haven't fought a battle, unless you've fought against unsurmountable odds. And even if you loose, you go back (or die) with your head held high! A few more pictures from the struggle

The fish can still be clearly seen in the eagle's talons

The eagle dives and banks in a desparate attempt to shake off its pursuers but in vain. The odds against it was almost impossible. It lost the fish right after this manuever!

Acqua di vita ...

2011-06-12T22:17:00.000+09:00

Water ... the elixir of life. We often take water for granted until we face its wrath or its life giving force. During the course of birding, I often come face to face with this reality of water. Anywhere there is water, there is a possibility of finding birds in action. After toying with some alternative photographing techniques last week, this morning at dawn I went to my closest birding site in Uiwang. Ever since I got the 400mm lens, that is the only lens I carry on birding trips. I realized that inspite of having visited Uiwang for close to 6 months now, I don't have even a single non-bird picture of the place. With the reservoir sitting in the center and surrounded by hillocks and lush green fields, it is a delightful place just to go for a walk. Lets have a look at Uiwang itself first


Sun rises over the railway tracks. One of the rice fields that surround the reservoir. This particular field has yielded a rich harvest of birds for me in the past, including Siberian Stonechats, Black-crowned Night heron, Great Snipes amongst others.


The reservoir itself. Greatly drained to feed the adjoining rice fields, the water level is particularly low right now exposing the mud bars and reed beds. Very rich in birds, including herons, cormorants, a plethora of ducks including my first Great Crested Grebe. In winter, when the surface is frozen, it supports several hundred Greater White Fronted and Bean Geese.

This post is about capturing the life and death struggle that goes on in the bird and animal kingdom around water, while we go about our daily business. They may not be on a scale as grand as what you see on TV from the comfort of your living room. But I have increasingly come to realize that often, what is portrayed as a titanic struggle is a lot about the reductive power of television and the effects of narration. You don't have to be a wildlife expert and venture into the wilderness to see them take place. It happens right under your nose and we are often too busy to notice them. When you're alone with a camera, looking for shots, its much easier to appreciate this fact. Some examples

Not all struggle is about a lioness killing zebras in the Serengeti to feed her cubs. Raising a brood of 5 ducklings, I'm sure is as much of a challenge for this Spot Billed Duck.

Interaction between birds is often one of the most interesting subjects to photograph. Seen here are two little egrets squabbling over fishing territory. This being the breeding season, probably each of them has hungry chicks to feed and hence tempers flare quite easily.

Nailed it ... one of the little egrets in the picture above, managed to drive off the other. Now its filling itself up with some fresh fishy breakfast.

The Last Second ... frozen in time. Notice the small fish being tossed out of the water by the egret. The egret caught it mid air and swallowed it. The water that gives life to the fish can also turn deadly in presence of predators like the birds. But at the same time, without the fish, the egrest will perish. Life around water hangs in balance ...

A Great Egret, returing to its nest with a catch to feed its chick. Maybe the fish itself had young ones, to whom he/she'll never return to. But it'll nourish the egret chick. In the battle for survival, ethics is not just a word .... its a perspective - a lens through which we look at the world.

Sometimes, its worth stopping trying to figure out the complexities and just soak in the beauty of the scene. Watch closely, the claws the Little Egret skimming the suface of the stream as its about to land.

Life and Death stand side by side .... the Straited Heron looks at the dead fish. Its too big for it but maybe its thinking of the fragility of life and contemplating its own fate.

Hey buddy ... 'm here to catch some fish .... what a coincidence ... me too. The heron looks intruiged looking at its own reflection!

A few weeks back, I was complaining that there are not enough birds these days and I need to find an alternative subject to photograph but today's session firmed my resolve to stick to bird photography. With time, I've learnt a lot about birds and see some 120 species already. But its not just looking at the birds or even capturing a nice image that is the most important aspect of birding. Its witnessing their struggle for existence and the hardships they undertake, that is the most valuable and sobering bit of experience. In my quest for birds, I have travelled thousands of miles through unforgiving weather conditions, sometimes just to catch a fleeing glimpse. But what I've seen unfold in front of my eyes, very few of you'll see. I can't say that it has changed my life but it has brought me a little closer to understanding the immense divesity of the natural world!

The Fortress in time-lapse ...

2011-06-08T23:36:00.000+09:00

The Hwaseong Fortress is Suwon's most important landmark. Well, being a UNESCO World Heritage site, at least culturally and historically it is. However, economically, the most important landmark of this city south of Seoul are the Samsung "Two Towers". These two glass and steel monoliths churn out a substantial part of South Korea's economic output. I spend most of my time in one of them, in order to earn my rice-n-khimchi (Korean version of bread-n-butter)!! So on a particularly nice Sunday, under a cloudless blue sky (very rare this summer), I decided to try out something new with my camera. Ever since I bought it about 7 months back, it has been almost exclusively used to photograph birds. So after about 15,000 shots, I finally decided its time to diversify and use the other wonderful functions the camera is equipped with. On the menu were 2 new techniques - HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Time-Lapse. Equipped with multi-shot bracketed exposure, shooting the raw images for HDR was quite easy. The post processing was much more painful. I have almost no experience with post-processing. The only post processing I do for bird pics is cropping. So I just combined the 3 raw shots and did some minor tone enhancement to generate some 'pseudo-HDR' shots. Some of them are on the Facebook Album. However, the real mission was to compose a few time-lapse sequences.
To automate the process of taking the shots for time-lapse, I was also carrying my laptop. What I did not anticipate was the kind of attention the setup would draw.

Setup for shooting the first time lapse sequence. The camera is remotely programmed to take a shot every 5 seconds to get the raw images for composing the time lapse.

It was quite hot outside, so I settled down inside the pavillion and sketched random scenes in front of me. The whole sequence was programmed to last for about 40minutes but within about 10mins, there was quite a crown around the setup. Kids were especially curious but the parents weren't far behind. I had to do the usual PR stuff. Sometimes parents filmed their kids speaking to me in English. When the English faltered, we changed over to Korean, which led to more people gathering around. So after 30 minutes, I decided that I've had enough shots for the first sequence and bidding the kids (and their parents) goodbye, headed out in search of a new location (and making a mental note to buy an automated intervalometer which would allow me to shoot time lapse without my computer).
After about 20mins of searching, I found another suitable place on a raised section of the fortress wall overlooking the archery range.

Here also there were curious onlookers but at least I was able to spend more time monitoring the pictures.

In the end after about 1 hour of shooting , I had enough raw material for 4 separate sequences totaling about 60 seconds worth of footage at 30fps. Two of them were tolerable.
The first sequence shot from the pavillion, under the watchful eyes of a CCTV camera. The main aim to was to capture the shadows moving as the sun approached the horizon.

The second sequence was manually shot to bring out the artifical lights on the gate coming up as night falls.

Miles to go before I click ... (that perfect shot)!!!

2011-05-27T01:00:00.000+09:00

Weather-wise this spring in Korea seems to be particularly bad. Most of the last 2 months have been cloudy with occassional sunny spells but thats mostly during the week. During the weekend, its almost always cloudy or raining. Though that doesn't stop me from birding (got completely drenched in a thunderstorm a few weeks back), photographing birds in bad weather is a totally different ball game. Since I don't earn my bread-n-butter (or I guess rice-n-khimchi is more appropriate here!) by photographing, I can't take off with my cam whenever its sunny. So when the weather does turn nice, I try to make most of it. It often involves travelling from many hours to get to the sites, having to go without food for almost the whole day, having to explain people passing by and sometimes even soldiers (patrolling certain sensitive locations near the DMZ) what am I doing there!
During the initial days of birding, I was grateful to have a bird in the frame. I could barely differentiate one species from another and almost all the images were blurred. But 7 months of effort has lead to some improvement. Identification has become easier and number of species spotted has recently crossed 3 figures (including some very rare species indeed). But now, just getting birds in the frame is no longer enough. Aesthetics have become more important. At the same time, with more and more use, I'm beginning to comprehend the pros and cons of the equipment that I use and pushing them to the limits of their performance. This post is about my evolution as a bird watcher and increasingly as a bird photographer.

This is one of the first bird photos that I took during my first trip to the Junam reservoir. Its out of focus and I couldn't even figure out which species it was (its a male-female pair of Common Pochard). I was cold, hungry and tired after a night without sleep and in sub-zero temperatures with bitterly cold wind. I was using a lens meant for close-up photography and not for clicking birds many hundreds of feet away.
But over the next few months, I got used to the cold and almost murderously windy conditions. I acquired better equipment, suitable clothing and figured out efficient ways to getting to these places at times when the light conditions are optimal. As a result, the photos have somewhat improved in quality and now I don't unleash a high speed burst mode on seeing a spot billed duck (the most common water bird found here). I spend more time just looking at birds, identifying their morphology and studying their behavior.

Tricky landing! These birds - the black-faced spoonbills (BFS for short) are endemic to East Asia and are classified as 'vulnerable'. According to the latest counts, just 1800 of them survive. In a lagoon, right next to the Songdo International Business district in Incheon. there is a lagoon that is the nesting ground of BFS. On a particular Saturday, I counted 32 (about 2% of the world population) there. They share a small artificial island in the middle of the lake with Mongolian gulls and Cormorants.
The landing sequence of a Little Tern on the mud flats of the Sorae estuary in the same neighborhood

BFS flying right over my head!

An incredibly inquisitive juvenile Saunder's gull kept encircling me and checking out my lens.

Soft landing.

Dominique Strauss Kahn and a conspiracy of epic proportions!!

2011-05-22T12:00:00.000+09:00

Warning: This is a completely hypothetical post about an incident that took place recently. It is not targeted to any individual, organization or nation and the material in the following lines describe a completely fictional scenario.

Last Sundat evening (Korean time: GMT + 9hrs), I was returning from a photography trip when I got a message from a friend regarding the Dominique Strauss Kahn's alleged sexual assault of a hotel chambermaid in NYC. The message ended with "Sarkozy will have better chances now!"
At first glance, I was quite baffled but as I took the train back home, I could not help but wonder how it might affect the world as a whole and not just the French presidential elections next year. Last year, before the Seoul G20 Summit, I was a part of a youth forum discussion the role and implications of G20 in the post financial crisis world. The participants were mostly Korean students but there were people from other countries as well, including the ones that had to face the Asian financial crisis of '97. There was widespread resentmet towards the IMF and its harsh conditions. Even during the actual discussions, the group representing the IMF were viciously attacked for their past actions. My sympathy completely goes with the alleged victim but at the same time, unless proved guilty by the court, it would be unfair to call DSK a criminal. The most popular conspiracy theories going around this incident often focuses on France's domestic affairs and the upcoming Presidential election, where DSK was seen a favorite. But what if something more sinister is at work? What if it was a trap targetted at the IMF itself with designs were grander that just one European country.
Europe is in a mess now, with multiple countries in horrible fiscal situation and a number of them lined up for possible financial collapse. The IMF has been an organization that has traditionally had a European managing director and as the head of IMF, DSK was instrumental in tackling a problem of epic proportions. In recent times, with the resurgence of the emerging economies, there has been calls for their greater representation and even their representative heading the IMF. What if DSK was targetted by a group who despised the IMF for their handling of the 1997 crisis? What if it was done to DSK to disguise it as a trap set by his French opponents?
Consider this: With DSK gone, the post of IMF MD falls vacant with many possible candidates vying for it. Lets call the plotters as group X. X wants a non-European to head the IMF in time when Europe is in dire need of its assistance. If X manages to have a non-European head, then the crisis in Europe would be viewed less sympathetically by the new MD. With powerful allies, she/he might even come down upon Europe for the indulgences of the past. With countries like Greece already nose deep in water, giants like Spain or even Italy would find it difficult to stay afloat. Inspite of great efforts from countries like Germany and institutions like ECB, one of the bigger European countries, does go under. It'd be a crisis of epic proportions. Stock markets around the world would collapse and so would the Euro. X would have shorted stocks and EUR/USD exchange rates and would reap staggering profits in matter of seconds. The cracks in the European Union, that were just faint lines till now will widen. Eventually, the EU might even collapse and one of the world's most traded currencies, the Euro, would cease to exist. What would happen in a world like that is very difficult to envisage.But it'd be nothing like the world that we have now.

P.S. This is too radical a scenario imagine but if there is even a small percentage of truth in it, and if a group like X exists, then I'm in big trouble! Who knows, I might disappear someday. For the sake of the world and my own safety, I hope that this is not true.

Urban Explorations: Seoul ... old and new!!

2011-05-06T23:51:00.000+09:00

A long time ago (last year), I used to live in Seoul and the most happening places in the city were barely a subway ride away. But now I've grown older and have to earn my 'rice-n-khimchi' (as in bread-n-butter) ... so I live in a small city called Suwon, south of Seoul. During the week, I spend my time staring at a computer screen trying to discern pattern amist a stream of mathematical data (try to imagine Matrix and the Beautiful Mind ... unfortunately I'm not as cool as Neo or as smart as Nash!!) and during the weekend I photograph birds whenever the weather permits (and sometimes even when it doesn't). The last time I photographed something other than birds, it was almost 3 months ago and I was standing in front of one of the most iconic structures of the world ... the Taj Mahal. Last Sunday, I convinced myself that I need to spend time with something else just in order to preserve my sanity ... and with the help of a new friend, I decided to venture once again into urban photography.
We were focussing on the old back alleys of Seoul, north of the Gyeongbokgung palace. There were about 5 other photographers and somebeody remarked that we were gonna explore the part of Seoul that Koreans tried to conceal ... the old back alleys that sparked the memories of an era gone by. So we ventured out from the subway station and into a non-descript bylane in search of a perfect shot. Not having photographed anything other than birds for sometime, I was struggling to fing something interesting to click. But then I began to notice things that were quite unique. For example, a traditional building featuring a 18th century desinged door and a very 21st century electronic lock. Or the glass and steel structure of downtown Seoul over an old tiled roof. Some shots from that I clicked ... no processing

Just to give it a more vintage feel, I decided to go black-n-white.

Touch-me-not ... the wire was swining in the wind and I was using manual focus ... the trick was to press the shutter as soon as it came into focus.

The houses has potted plants lined on their outer walls

As I was walking along, an elderly gentleman asked me if I was lost? I smiled and told him that I was looking for something intersting to photograph. He smiled back and told me, "Maybe I can help! Follow me." As I walked along with him, I found out that he was a landscape architect and talked about some general stuff till I saw a flight of stairs that captured my fancy. He smiled at me looking at the stairs and said, "So you've found what you're looking for?"

I spent the next 40mins just walking through a labyrinth of narrow streets ... with walls of houses hugging each other. Sometime I could see the high rises of downtown Seoul several miles away

That day I also went to the City Hall area where as Labot protest was going on. Its quite amazing that it barely takes about 20mins to walk from the old back alleys of Seoul north of the Gyeongbokgung palace to the Plaza outside City Hall, just behind the iconic Westin Chosun hotel, where the protests were taking place.
There was an enormous number of people and police ... a lot of them!! There were some awesome potrait shots to be taken but unfortunately I was not equipped to take them. All I had was the super-telephoto prime lens that I was using to photograph birds at sunrise and the shitty 18-55 kit lens. A few shots from the Gwanghwamun plaza and City Hall protests

Dragging the umbrella along the stream of history

Some things withstand the test of time ... others disappear within a few seconds.

The twins ...

Spring is the air

The warriors!!

And they lived happily ever after ... or did they?

2011-04-29T22:48:00.000+09:00

The Royal wedding seems to attracting billions of viewers ... from co-workers to the saleperson in the wine store ... everybody seems to be glued to their TVs for the live telecast of William and 'Waity Katie' getting married!! I FAIL TO UNDERSTAND WHY? Or maybe I'm the only one!!!
I believe, in their hearts, people mature or not, are still the kid who used to admire Fairytales that ended in 'And they lived happily ever after!' and 'Cinderella finding her prince charming'. For them, the story always ends on a happy note ... for anything other than that would be a let down. But what I still cannot grasp is that with so many gloomy and dismal things going around, how can people focus on the royal wedding? The crisis in Libya and Middle East shows no signs of receding. The countries that has been spared of the revolution are being razed by inflation. The dollar is plunging, a number of European countries are on the brink of monumental financial crisis, Japan is yet to recover from its nightmare, South-east Asia is witnessing cross border conflicts. With so much bad going around, how can people focus on London? Or are they just hiding behind an imaginary veil, hoping that the tough times will pass and a new day shall dawn?
Call me a loser, call me a spoilsport or a cynic, I'll always stand with the people who are suffering. I'll always write about the women being raped by Gaddafi's soldiers in Libya or by the parents in a poor corner of Asia/africa who cannot provide a square meal to their children because food prices are so high. I left behind the fairytales and embarked upon the hard road to reality long time back. And after having seen how the poor struggle to find their way in the world, or how the man in Cambodia having lost his limbs to landmine, has to struggle to feed his family, I refuse to believe in 'and they lived happily ever after'. May be I'm alone on this harsh road of reality or maybe most of you feel it this way but are afraid of being ridiculed .... I don't know. Though many of you may remember 2011 as the year William and Kate got married, I'll always remember it as the year when a devastating earthquake hit Japan and easy money in the West caused inflation in Asia that made billions of people poorer. Cheer as much as you want to over the events of the Westminster Abbey this evening .... I cannot and .... will not cease to watch out for the things that really ... really matter!!

The Birdman!!

2011-04-28T22:50:00.000+09:00

During the week I normally wake up at 06:30 ... work an average of about 8~9hrs, sometimes longer. During the weekends, I usually wake up at 5am ... and work from dawn to dusk. Sometimes, I spend the nights and evenings traveling to and from my 'place of work'. During the weekdays, I have breakfast and lunch at the office cafeteria and on many occassions dinner as well. On the weekends, I'd be lucky to find a warm meal!! During the week, I'm a research engineer. During the weekend, I'm the Birdman!
They say that journey of a thousand miles, start with a single photograph. Well, I've covered many thousands of miles within a country thats about 500miles from north to south in search of birds. Most people cannot comphrehend why I'd take so much trouble for such a 'trivial thing'. I make no effort to explain ... insanity and obsession has a very thin line in between and it shifts widely depending on how you look at it :)
Even though I travel solo on all my birding trips, I often meet locals who, like most other people are unable to comprehend why would someone take so much trouble to watch birds. Sometimes I get invited by completely random people to have coffee! Sometimes, they'd give me a lot of useful information about the local topography and where I might birds. But inspite of these interesting encounters, nothing matches the feeling of spotting a species of bird I've not seen before or managing to capture a good image. With the onset of spring, I could leave behind my gloves and enjoy the flexibility of photography with bare hands. Some images and the stories associated with them.

Many months ago, at the beginning of my birding days, I stumbled upon a nameless creek in the rice fields bordering the Yellow Sea. Many a trips later, I made the 3.5hr journey and went back to what I've come to call my 'secret shooting grounds' in search of waders. The weather was amazing and inspite of the chilly winds, it was an absolute pleasure to photograph under such idyllic conditions. Though began my search for the birds scanning the coastline, I finally found the first of them in that nameless creek. For a long time I observed a group of 3 Common Redshanks from behind a reed bed. This shot was taken when one of them took off. The full resolution of the picture shows the drops of water flying off from the legs of the bird.

Surprise is one of the best feelings associated with birding. On the same day, as the sun was sinking towards the horizon, I walked along the beach exposed by the low tide. I was approaching another group of shorebirds busy picking insects from the exposed wet sand. I was looking through the view finder of the camera when a bright orange 'thing' appeared from behind some rocks. The setting sun intensifies the saturation of warm colors and the beak of this Oystercatcher was absolutely mindblowing.

I found this Tristram's Bunting in the woodlands of the Nakdong estuary in Busan. I was sitting in a sandbag lined pit in the woods searching for passerines. The trees around me showed tremendous activity with birds darting all around. I found this bunting feeding on seeds on the forest floor. Unlike other buntings that are spooked easily, I found this to be remarkably tolerant and allowed me to get within about 10m from it.

A shot from the same woodland of Nakdong estuary. A Japanese Pygmie woodpecker taking off. Because small birds are so agile and stay concealed in vegetation, it is extremely difficult to get a pic of them in action. Of the 7000 or so photos that I've taken so far, only about 10 are of small birds in flight. It takes some patience and a lot of luck!!

This one shows a Siberian Stonechat in a place called Uiwang. Its the closest birding spot to my home in Suwon. I found a pair of them nesting in a orchard close to the Uiwang reservoir. I've spotted them on multiple occassions and they always oblige me with some decent shots :)

Bar-tailed Godwits ... no other bird fills me with such admiration. They have nothing remarkable in appearance, except perhaps for their slightly upturend beaks. But what they lack in appearance, more than makes up in their endurance. They can fly non-stop for as long as 7000miles .... yes, 7000miles without stopping!! An average airplane can make about 6000 miles without refeuling (apart from the ultra-long haul ones like 747 or A380). I found a group them feeding on the beaches of the western coast of Korea.

How long will Facebook last?

2011-04-06T22:14:00.000+09:00

How long do you spend on a social networking site like Facebook everyday? Do you Twitter regularly? If you do, have you ever wondered what prompted you to do so? Why would you want others to know what you're doing or how was your coffee on Twitter or show off how you enjoyed an evening with a group of friends through your facebook album or status message?
Studies have found that an average person spends about 7hrs per month on Facebook. However, this is based on a report in early 2010. I'm sure the hours of usage has grealy expanded by now! This brings us to the question ... whats IS Facebook? Is it just a social networking site? For a vast majority of people it might be the only answer but have you ever wondered why is it free? Almost all serives in this world comes at a price and most times at quite a hefty price. So why is Facebook for free? With more than 500million users, it takes astronomical resources to store and transmit all the information that you take for granted. Well, the simple answer is that Facebook is NOT a simple social networking site as much as Google is NOT simply a search engine! What they are in reality (at least in terms of money) are vast pool of information about millions if not billions of people and how they use the internet. Since time immemorial, information has been power - it has helped generals win battles and has shaped the course of history but in our times, it is also a source of immense revenue. So next time you post a picture or stattus message on Facebook or Tweet, consider the fact that a significant amount of money is chaning hands in the apparently simple process.
This brings us to the question, what is the lifespan of such a business? In the beginning of the 21st century, the term 'social networking' didn't even exist in our regular voculabury but now it almost defines our lives. In the past few years, there has been many social networking sites - Orkut, MySpace and now Facebook and Twitter. But even amidst this 'social networking revolution', I regularly come across other forms of social networking that are being termed as the 'next generation'! This leads me to wonder, how long will FB or Twitter last? Each of them already has billions of dollars of business interests vested in them. But if the past exeprience is any indication, then these businesses indeed have a very short lifespan. But has FB and Twitter crossed the threshold, where they cease to be just 'tools' that we use in our daily interactions or have they become so significant that they dictate the way we lead our lives online?
How long do you think Facebook will survive? Will it turn out to the Google or Microsoft of Social Networking? If this is the case, I'm sure most people who use FB still cannot comprehend the paradigm shift that we'll encounter in the days to come! Or will they be replaced by other, more sophisticated or unexpected forms of social networking?

The Taj in black and white!!

2011-02-27T22:55:00.000+09:00

It is the most iconic monument of India, one of the most recognized and photographed structures on earth, an eternal monument dedicated to the most human of emotions - Love! It has been called "A teardrop on the cheek of eternity". Some indeed cry on seeing it for the first time ... others are awstruck by its beauty and majesty. My first reaction on seeing it from the south gate entrance was, "Color or Black and White?" But technically it was not the first time I was seeing the Taj. The previous evening, I had gone on a recon visit to the Agra fort and saw it from a couple of miles away but nothing prepares are you for the view up close framed by the arches of the south gate. By the time I'd walked across the portal and entered the complex, I knew that I had to photograph it in black and white.

The afternoon before
We arrived at Agra at around 3:30pm. The initial plan was that my brother and I would together to Agra fort for a recon of the area and use the golden hours of the evening. But as it turned out the staying awake the previous night and the rigors of Mathura had taken a toll on junior, who could barely keep his eyes open. So while he decided to take a shower and nap, I went ahead by myself to the fort. One thing I found out was just how bright the Taj appears. Even with a polarizer on the lens, I had to underexpose by as much as 1 and 2/3rd stop to get the details of the structure! The place has an unusually high number of black kites and they were circling the skies above.

Panorama of the Taj complex from the Agra Fort

The first light of the day
The next morning, we reached the gates of Taj as the sun was coming up. The thin veil of fog, the sunlight filtering through it and the white marble renders an almost unearthly view. The crowds were yet to turn up, so it was peaceful all around. I thought, "Sh**, I should have got better lenses for this!" But standing there as the first rays of sun hit the dome and turned it one side of it golden orange, I realized that no matter what lens you have, it'll never be enough! Some things cannot be captured in a digital image. I spent the next couple of hours searching for good enough angles as the sun climbed higher. For someone used to photographing birds, where on an active day I may shoot as many as 400 images in a couple of hours, I found it really strange to see that I had shot just about 40 odd images in that whole duration! Though the Taj looks very close from the gates, its many hundreds of meters away. Its almost like a mirage that you never reach! Enough talking ...


Though I hardly use post processing in my pictures, I couldn't resist the temptation of doing a bit of work on this one. A bit of arsty touch ain't bad!! :)

Birding with renewed energy!!

2011-02-21T23:49:00.000+09:00

The mini ice age seems to have been finally over. Korea is emerging from the deep freeze and with temperatures going above zero after a few months, I was encouraged to start birding with renewed enthusiasm. My last successful stint of birding was the extended Junam-Suncheon trip in December. After that the mercury went into free fall and without the luxury of a car (which most serious birders use during winter to get some protection from the merciless winds), I was totally exposed to the elements. Because most gloves restrict the movement of fingers, I had to use thin gloves or took them off entirely when clicking. Add this to the fact that most of the best birding shots are obtianed at dawn, when the temperature is at its lowest. Fingers loose warmth very quickly from gripping the metal body of the telephoto lens and the metal tripod. Its both painful and it temperatures of as low as -18C, there are real risks of frostbite. So when the temperatures finally began rising and the waterbodies began to thaw, I was overjoyed.
For many months now, I've been reading about a bird called the Steller's Sea Eagle, which happens to be the heaviest of the eagles and one of the rarest (being endemic to East Asia). South Korea has three known wintering sites of this magnificient bird and one of them happens to be in a place called Paldang, which is connected to Seoul via sub-urban commuter railways. So on the pre-dawn hours of a fine Saturday morning, I set out for Paldang. For the first time, since my first trip to Junam in November, I could get rid of my gloves. Though the conditions were excellent, my luck with the eagle was not. Not only did I not find the Steller's but not a single raptor (birds of prey), which was quite unusual! I spent close to 8hrs searching for the eagles in vain.
Though I had failed to find the eagles, which can weigh upto 9kgs, the trip was not a complete failure. I did my first definitive work on Passerines (small perching birds). Its almost ironical that though I had planned to photograph one of the largest known flighted birds, I ended up photographing one of the smallest ones! One of the biggest challenges of photographing them is the fact that they mostly stay concealed in bushes and are extremely agile. There are two options - one is to use a huge telephoto lens and click them from a distance without alarming them. But because they are so small, its usually very difficult to even spot them unless they are moving in the open. Most expert birders track them from their calls and guide there lenses by sound but I've just a beginner to whom all the sounds sound more or less alike! So I had to resort to the second option of getting close with a relatively small and light lens (Canon 70-200mm f2.8) and try out your luck. And this time, I had more luck. That day I found at least 8 different species of Passerines, along with a large number of waterfowls on the Han river. Amongst them, the most interesting was the mating display of a pair of ducks called the Common Goldeneye.
I even went out on Sunday afternoon to a place close to Suwon, called Uiwang for more passerines. That day also within a couple of hours, I found about 6 species of passerines and a possible hybrid goose (amongst a crowd of several hundred bean geese on the part frozen reservoir). A very productive weekend of birding indeed. Some snapshots.

Mating display of a male Common Goldeneye (left) ... the female is half submerged on the right.

Frontal view of a Great Tit! (;))

Back plumage of March Tit.

Long tailed Tit airborne in the tangle!

Rustic Bunting

Marsh Tit airborne


Long tailed Tit landing

Vinous Throated Parrotbill ... these little ones are ludicrously agile ... almost impossible to get a clear shot.

Bull headed Shrike

Naumann's Thrush

All the images were taken with a Canon 7D and a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens (non-IS) with manual ISO, exposure and aperture (autofocus). The images have no post processing except for cropping.

All it takes is 5000won!!

2011-02-15T20:56:00.000+09:00

During my student days, I used to blog for the Presidential Council for National Branding in Korea. Most of these blogs were about my travel experiences and sometimes critical analysis of current events. When I look at my archieves, I find that almost all the entries over the last year has been related to travel, photography or as it increasingly happens these days - my new found passion for birds. But amidst all these I often tend of ignore what happens to me on a daily basis. Though temperature in Suwon are yet to reach positive, the cold is much less these days as compared to say a month ago, so I usually walk home from office ever since I returned from my India vacation. On the way, sometimes there is a lady selling roasted chicken from the back of her truck. A couple of months back, I bought a roasted chicken one night while coming back after an excrutiating long day at office. It was a bitterly cold evening (chilly winds and temperatures of double digit negative) and probably because of that reason her business was down. As a result she didn't have any 1000won bills (about 80cents) and I only had 10,000won bills. A roasted chicken costs 5000won and because she didn't have enough change and partly it was so bitterly cold, I told her that she could give me the change some other time.
I had completely forgotten about that incident but while walking home today, I decided to get one. She recognized me and reminded me of the change! I recalled the incident and remembered it but tried to act as if I don't remember (maybe it was just to test her ... sometimes I resort to things like this to test human character). But she wouldn't accept money from me, saying that she perfectly remembered that she 'owed me 5000won'. In the end I gave up and said, "Wow, you have a great memory!!"
As I walked away with the chicken, I smiled. She is a poor lady for whom 5000won means a lot. I hardly care about the money but it takes gestures like these to have your faith restored in humanity! During the course of my travels, I've been to a lot of places and met many different kinds of people. And most of the times, my interaction with these people have been a pleasant one. There has been occassion when people have tried to cheat me or even times, when my life was in danger but I don't regret for having putting myself in those kinds of situation. We often judge a person by what's one the surface but hardly ever make an effort to go deeper and seek the reason why he/she might act in a particular way.
I travel to a lot of remote places and places that many would term as 'dangerous'. One of the first advice that I receive from my 'well-wishers' is not to trust anybody. But on the whole, I've found that I've had more positive outcomes from trusting than negative ones. Yes, there have been situations where people have tried to swindle me or times when I doubted if I'd manage to stay alive till morning but then there was the bus driver who helped me find accommodation in the outskirts of Rome (without whose help I'd have had to spend the night on a bench in the bus-station), the Yak herder of the edge of Tibetan plateau who gave me his blanket because I was so cold or the guy in the gas station in Jeju who helped me fix my flat tyre in Jeju Island amidst the torrential rain and many more.
I'd had a tough day at work and was quite stressed but that gesture completely changed my mood. There is still a lot of good left in this world and its worth living for. Do good to others!!

Smeared foreheads: Faces of Mathura

2011-02-10T22:40:00.000+09:00

The city of Mathura in northern India is famous for being the birthplace of lord Krishna. It is a revered city, visited by thousands of pilgrims, who brave the crowded narrow streets to offer their prayers in one or many or all of the temples in the city! In my first visit to India in more than a year, I visited Mathura on the insistence of my mother. I generally dislike going to religious places unless they offer some architectural or archaelogical wonder and the ones in Mathura offered none of them. Almost all of India's 'aesthetically pleasing' temples are situated in South of India and I was not eager to get into the ones in Mathura. My younger brother shares my dislike for tout infested bylanes leading to the temples and my enthusiasm for photography. So, while mom was offering her prayers inside the temple, we volunteered to stay outside and guard her shoes (yes, you have to enter barefoot). The street leading to one of the more famous temple was swarming with people, which provided perfect oppotunity for portrait photography. Both my brother and me decided to shoot sadhus (holy men/ascetics), who with their smeared foreheads and vermillion/white robes, were the most interesting subjects in a place overflowing with people. What better to shoot in a holy city than holy men! In all, we had about 30mins to capture the images. Though I had a much better camera and exploited my high speed burst mode at times, junior is a true connoisseur of the art and always used his lenses on manual focus. I had not met junior for more than a year and it was the first time that we had gone clicking together. It was by far the best time that I spent during my stay in India. He has an uncanny ability to approach the subjects inconspicuously and because he refrains from using autofocus and burst modes, he is almost invisible in a crowd. This allows him to approach the subject at very close quarters and take really intimate shots, which are so important in portraits. We were both using similar 50mm lenses but becuase he got closer to the people he was photographing, junior managed to click a couple of stellar shots, even though most of the remaining shots were out of focus or overexposed due to the use of complete manual control (including focus). I had the luxury of using a very good polariser, so I got slightly better saturation in the morning light. Some sample shots:
from senior's cam:


The red sandstone walls, the soft light of the morning, the polariser ... quite good saturation but kinda lacks in the composition department.


What are you lookin' at? Loved the piercing gaze

from junior's cam:

Junior sneeking up from behind ... his subject is completely oblivious of the fact that he is being photographed.

Perfect capture ... the light reflecting off the smoke and the beard, the smeared face and the hooked nose is terrific. Before this trip, I doubted junior's skills. This picture made me shut up!!

None of the images has any post-processing except for cropping. They were taking as JPEGs with complete manual controls in case of junior. I had to use auto-focus due to the additional adjustment required for the polariser, which attaches to the focusing ring of the lens itself (rest were all manual)
The complete collection can be found in my Facebook album

Experimenting with beef tenderloin!!!

2011-01-02T01:53:00.000+09:00

I decided to open this year's blog entries with a post on cooking ... yes cooking!! Cooking happens to be one of my 'hobbies' and me being the 'Jack of all trades', am good at nothing particular but still cooking helps me add some diversity of my life. One a certain Friday after work, I decided to go creative and got myself some nice beef tenderloin. My inital plan was to make Beef Wellington but since its a bit time consuming and involves making a pate, I finally decided to cook something that could be done faster. That was also the day I shopped for some nice wine. One of them was an easy drinking Pinot Noir from New Zealand. Personally I'm not a big fan of French Bordeaux which supposedly goes best with red meat. Part of the reason is because they are often ridiculously expensive and partly because I still cannot appreciate their 'complexity' Coming back to the food, I decided to apply some basic knowledge of food chemistry.
Tenderloin is a very lean cut of meat and as the name suggests is very delicate. It lacks in the fat content of a rib or sirloin, so its more sensitive to the cooking process. Usually the norm is to wrap it up in something fatty like bacon and I decided to stick to this classic rule. I searched in vain for some fresh rosemary in the supermarket. Fortunately, my kitchen is well stocked in a wide range of dried herbs and spices, that though not as effective as a the fresh ones, is a lot better than a bland steak. Fat is an excellent absorber of aroma, so I decided to cook a simple herb coated tenderloin wrapped in bacon. The dried herbs would go in between the meat and the bacon. That way the fat in the bacon would retain most of the aroma, part of it would also seep into the meat and the rest would be absorbed by the broccoli that I was planning to saute in the fat that comes out of the bacon. To add a bit of zing, I also decided to use a bit of honey, Dijon mustard and some garlic in the cooking process. Here's a list of ingredients:
1. Fresh beef tenderloin
2. Bacon slices to wrap up the meat
3. Herbs - Rosemary, Oregano and Basil (fresh is ideal but dried is also fine)
4. Salt and coarse black pepper
5. A dash of honey and a bit of Dijon mustard
6. Fresh broccoli
7. Lemon juice
8. Garlic
9. Olive oil

The first step is to put a bit of honey on the surface of the meat. This does two things - firstly it helps caramalize thus adding a bit of color to the meat surface and secondly brings in a very subtle hint of sweetness to the meat.

Next comes the mustard and the garlic slices that goes in the natural seams of the meat. The surface is sprinkled with salt, pepper, oregano and basil along with a drizzle of olive oil and allowed to rest for about 20 mins. While the meat was soaking in the flavor, I opened the wine. It turned out to be an excellent and easy drinking wine. The aroma was excellent and the texture was velvety, perfect for a novice wine drinker like me.

The dried rosemary goes in between the bottom surface of the meat and the bacon. To consolidate the whole package, I used strings to tie up the bacon wrapped meat.

After that its a matter of cooking the meat to your personal taste.Tenderloin being so delicate would be destroyed by overcooking, so I decided to go rare. A couple of mins of searing on each side in a smoking hot pan is enough to make the outside crisp while preserving the tender juiciness of the inside.

In the meantime, the broccoli was chopped up into bite sized pieces, drizzled with lemong juice, salt and basil, after which it was cooked in the microwave for 2.5mins. The lemon juice renders it a very vivid green color. The broccoli is then pan sauteed in the fat leftover from the bacon to absorb any of the remaining herbal aroma.

Its better to let the meat rest for a min before actually eating it.

Bon Apetit!! :)

Living my dream ... photographing cranes in Junam and Suncheon!!

2010-12-18T03:18:00.000+09:00

Do you like watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel or Nat Geo? Ever wondered how they are filmed? For many people, being a Nat Geo photographer is a dream-job ... but do you ever consider what kind of hardships they have to face in order to capture a fleeting fraction of a second on film and bring it to us in the comfort of our living rooms?
I've always been aware of the fact that making a documentary on animals or birds takes enormous patience and single minded dedication. But the rewards that come at the end of it ... in words of many professionals, whose accounts have insipired and impressed me, is without a parallel! I have often wondered how it would be to spend a few days in their shoes? Finally last weekend I made up my mind and decided to spend the weekend in 'wildlife photographer' mode. Luckily Korea happens to be in the path that many migratory birds follow on their journeys from the arctic Tundra towards the warmer regions of Asia. Most of them camp for the winter in the wetlands, which are pretty easily accessible by public transportation. So after about 4 weeks of research and preparation I was ready to go 'into the wild'. The following are the summary of the trip:
Locations: Junam Reservoir, near Changwon, Gyeongsangnam province
Suncheon Bay Ecological Park, Suncheon, Jeollanam province
Prime targets: White Naped Cranes and Eurasian Spoonbills at Junam Reservoir
Hooded Cranes in Suncheon Bay
Total duration of trip: 49hrs (Friday night to Sunday night)
Total time spent photographing: 14hrs
Best time to see the birds: Sunrise to about 9am and from 3:30pm to Sunset (5:30pm)

These places are well connected with bigger cities and watching these birds spending the winter in Korea, having journeyed thousands of miles during their winter migration is indeed a sight to behold. Changwon, is connected by frequent bus service to Seoul (taking about 4hrs) and Suncheon is connected with Yongsan station in Seoul (travelling time in train is about 5hrs). The actual birding sites are located with 20kms of these respective cities and served by village buses that takes about 30mins. If you are prepared to brave cold, it can be an extremely enjoyable and educating weekend trip with your family, friends or even just by yourself. If you're planning to photograph the birds, early morning is the best time (as the birds are fresh from the nights rest and very active) but you must be well prepared to brave very windy conditions and extreme cold. If you want more comfortable settings, its better to go after lunch and spend the afternoon at these locations. Be sure exercise restraint during your visit, so as to not disturb the birds, which are heavily threatened by loss of habitat. Well, enough of talking! As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and because this trip was solely for the purpose of photography, I clicked a LOT of pictures. Most of them turned out to be quite bad! :( (still only a beginner in this field)
A selection of photos from a handfull of decent ones

I reached Junam reservoir at around 7:15am. Even though the sun had not come up yet, the birds were already up and feeding. There must have been at least a thousand of them near the banks of the lake. Of them about 200 were Whooper Swams, two of which are shown below.

Just like an aeroplane picks up speed on the runway before taking-off, the swans also run (noisily and clumsily) on the surface of water before taking off. An entire sequence is shown below.

The first run!

Picking up speed ...

Finally 'take-off' and withdraw the 'landing gear'!!
Though the playful swans provided ample photo opportunities, they were not my primary target. Without anyone else on the embankment, the birds were playing right next to the banks and one of the swans flew within 10m from me. There were so many birds around and being early morning they were extermely mobile, which made counting particularly difficult. But after searching for about 30mins, I finally found what I had gone there for ...

Even though it was more than 200m away, in the soft light of the early morning sun, the color of its wings was unmistakable! The solitary white naped crane in the center of the picture. I zoomed in with the modest lens that I was carrying and confirmed that it was indeed a white naped but I was surprised to find it alone.

Very soon, it was joined by 2 other companions and they got busy drinking and feeding themselves.

In the meantime, the group of spoonbills that have been sleeping till now woke up and took off simultaneously. After a warm up run around the reservoir, they settled down on the easten side. Though most of them went back to sleep, a few of them lazily tried to find food but eventually gave up.

There was also a group of cormorants right next to the spoonbills but unlike their laxy-ass neighbors, they were quite active and noisy. In the meantime, the population of white naped had soared to around 50! I spotted a group of about 40 of them in the rice fields on the eastern side of the lake. But they tend to spook easily and flew away, as soon as I approached to within 50m.

At this time, my gaze was drawn a bird circling above. During the course of my research, I had come across the news of a juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle that was seen around the reservoir. Later analyzing the photos I realized that it was indeed that bird.

I also spotted Common Krestel as it struggled to fly against the wind. Standing on the embankment, it was almost at my eye-level.

Later coming back to the southern bank of the lake, I found this spoonbill was finally awake and busy feeding. A group of Smews were playing in the foreground.

An Egret swallowing a fish (notice the throat!)

Can't find no fish man ... what am I gonna eat?

At around 1pm, I decided that I've had enough of Junam and headed towards Suncheon, which was about 200kms away from there and would take me about 4hrs to reach.
Suncheon Bay is famous for Hooded cranes but its virtually impossible to spot them from the busy walkways on the reedbeds, swarming with people. So I decided to walk along the west coast of the river and keep an eye on the rice-fields. In the dying light of the day, I couldn't find them easily but their calls, though faint, was quite distinct. I zoomed in the direction of the call and there they were ...

I knew where to start my search the next morning. The morning was cloudy and the wind was merciless. Even though I proper clothing to withstand murderous conditions, I couldn't wear thick gloves as that'd limit the mobility of my fingers and affect the photos. On top of that gale force wind meant that I had to grip the tripod with my left hand and click with my right. My fingers went numb within minutes and then there was that familiar sensation of pain on the fingertips. But watching at least 120 cranes play right in front of your eyes, is like being a part of a wild-life documentary. I was living my dream!!!

Apart from the cranes, I also spotted a Peregrine Falcon on an electric post ....

and a Northern Lapwing, along the reedbeds.

Later, at 1:40pm, I took a boat cruise down the river and into the mouth of the bay, to have closer look at the cranes as they were feeing in the shallow waters.

Urban Exploration: Details from the Cheonggye stream

2010-11-29T23:20:00.002+09:00

With the winter migration reaching its peak, I often find myself in desolate windswept wetlands searching for birds. However, this Saturday, I decided to take it easy and sleep till noon! Ever since I bought my camera, I have been taking pictures only during the day and never really got to test the high ISO performance. So I decided to go to one of my favorite spots in Seoul - the Cheonggye stream. I got off at Jonggak subway station on line 1 and came out of exit 13 ... the stream is just a short walk away. The advantage of starting from this point is that it gives you some distance till the origin of the stream in between Euljiro and Gwanghwamun ... and as a result more chances of getting some interesting shots.
I had a tripod and inspite of being very windy and cold, I managed to test both the high ISO and long exposures. Some sample images from that evening.
I was using a Macro lens (28-200mm) that evening which was ideal for the purpose. All the images were taken in raw and then some pre-processing was done (mostly white balance and curve adjustments). The lights next to the stream provided both interesting subject and nice illumination.

A pseudo 3D display projetced from the other bank of the stream (did some contrast stretching here to make it more vivid).
The final few images are from the stream bed itself. Those who know me or have seen me photograph, know what effect flowing water has on me. Everytime I see it, I'm fascinated as if it was the first time I'm clicking it. But this time, it served another purpose. It was an ideal test of both ISO (sensitivity of the image sensor to light) and long exposures. Some sample images at different settings ... observe how the water looks depending on how the picture was taken

Give me Fire .... Give me Water: Long exposure at low ISO

The Wave : Low exposure at ultra high ISO (probably 6400). And still the grains in the image are almost invisible (try cropping it to 100%)

The Swirling Torrent: Medium exposure at medium ISO (800)

Furnace or Galaxy? ..... some 5 seconds of open shutter at ISO100 ... the scene become almost unrecognizable.

Flights of Fantasy: Migratory birds at the Junam Reservoir

2010-11-23T00:36:00.002+09:00

It was 12:40am on a Saturday morning when the bus rolled out of the Express Terminal of Seoul ... I've had a 12hr work day and had barely slept the whole week but I was too excited to sleep then! My destination was a city in the South of Korea ... Changwon. Whats so special about it? Nothing ... my actual desitnation was a lake outside the city which is the camping ground for winter migratory birds ... its called the Junam Reservoir. It took me about 7hrs to reach the lake from my home in Suwon in the pre-dawn hours. The ground was frozen and the fog was so heavy that I could barely see things a few feet in front of me! But I could hear the birds calling and I knew that they were all around me.

Though I had a heavy duty snow jacket, I was wearing a pair of sneakers and my feet was so cold that I was afraid that they might be frost bitten. I had to wait for about 3.5hrs in that bitter cold for the sun to clear the fog. But when the veil did lift, it was a glorious morning.

First proper shot of the day was an enormous Oriental White Stork circling just a few meters away. I could hear it calling for the last hour or so but seeing it so close was a great beginning indeed.
There were a lot of birds all around and I was just pointing the camera at any random direction and shooting

Probably a Redstart ... don't know for sure.

A pair of male and female Eurasian Wigeon.
While I was walking along the reeds, I met a guy from LA who gave me some nice tips of finding cranes in the rice fields nearby. He was carrying a monster super-telephoto lens (a 500mm f4 to be more precise) and as we were talking about other possibilites, we heard faint wing flapping at a distance. A formation of Tundra Swans were approaching us.

Very soon the crowds arrived and scared off the birds to the center of the lake where they were beyond the range of my modest 200mm lens. So I went away from the 'observation post' to more secluded spots for a lucky break.

And I was lucky indeed to find this Daurian Redstart sitting on top of a light post.
I was also able to capture the 'landing sequence' of a pair of Tundra Swans as they touch down on the water surface and use the resistance of the water to brake.

They were quite far away and I wished I had a bigger lens.
As the day progressed, the light was too bright for decent shots and the birds were mostly inactive. So I went into the rice fields in search of the white naped cranes. I came back dejected to the lake after searching them for aboout 2hrs. I had not eaten anything for almost 17hrs, so treated myself to delicious roasted duck. A solo traveller surprised the restaurant owner but I was too hungry to notice the many pairs of eyes observing me with bewilderment!
Only later while browsing through the photos I realized that I had indeed seen a flock of flying white naped cranes over the rice fields but didn't realize that I was looking at them. Here is a few snapshots of that formation.

White naped are some of the rarest cranes on earth and are endangered species.
It was about 4:30pm when I came back to the observation post to take the full benefits of the excellent lighting conditions. There was a crowd of professionals equipped with full format cameras and monsterous super-telephoto lenses. Even though I had a good camera, I felt awkward with a puny 200mm lens!

So while the professionals were busy clicking the swans playing at the center of the lake almost 200m away, I had to stay content by just clicking Mallards flying overhead. I was pissed at the people for scaring off the birds beyond the range of my lens when one of the assistants of the professionals cried out that a Eurasian Spoonbill was approaching.

It was my hour of glory!!! All the professionals had massive lenses that were utterly useless when it comes to mobiltiy at close quaters in the dying light of the day. My lens may have been a humble 200mm but my camera was as fast as any of the full-formats. I unleashed the full power of the high speed burst mode of my 7D. The whole action lasted less than 5 seconds as the Spoonbill banked and flew away. Within that duration, I had clicked 29 images out of which 4 are displayed above. The pros shot frustrated looks at me. I just smiled back!
I also used the high speed burst mode to capture the landing of a Great Erget but this time the pros were lucky as well beacuse it was at eye level and all the 15 or so cameras were shooting at high the speed burst mode. The combined sound was an amazing symphony of optics and electronics!

It was getting dark and the moon was coming. It was time to change over from telephoto to wide-angle equipped with a polriser.

Flights of Fantasy indeed.
By the time it was sunset, I had not slept for about 36hrs and had been photographing for close to 8hrs after spending 7hrs travelling (after a 12hr workday). As the sun moved below the mountains and the a chilly wind picked up, I just felt like falling asleep on one of the wooden benches on the dyke. I came home to my apartment in Suwon at around 1am. And it was my birthday :)

2010-11-11T02:34:00.000+09:00

In search of peace: Jirisan

A few months back, I used to take pride in the fact that my time management was quite good and I could multitask a number of critical things at the same time. But 2 months in the professional world and I have begun to realize that it ain't so true anymore! But somehow I managed to find out that a certain Monday was holiday and my first thought was ... wow, an opportunity to go for a trip. Where? ummm .... maybe Istanbul!! Then I calculated the timing and realized that even if I take an extra day off, it won't be enough and as a result settled for a much modest target - Jirisan or Jiri mountains in the southernmost province of the Korean mainland. For me it was a chance to witness the colors of fall which were predicted to hit a peak in the south this weekend.
Most of the time when I go hiking or on a trip for more than a few days, I usually thoroughly research the place. This allows me to travel without advance reservations since there is always a plan B ... and a plan C and so on. However, this time, it was slightly different! There was no reservations as usual but to add a bit more spice, there was no research as well. So the situation was such that when we were buying tickets for the train, I randomly picked a name of the station in that region and hoped that we could find transport to the trailhead.
To make matters more intersting 2 of the members of our group dropped out on the last moment. One of them because of too much Sushi and the other one due to too much dedication for work! A third one almost missed the trip because he overslept. Anyway, we reached our destination at close to dusk and found our way to the trailhead, when the sun was almost beginning to go behind the mountains. The map said that the trail to the mountain shelter just beneath the peak would take about 4hrs to reach. With just a couple of hours of sunlight left, we started walking at a leisurely pace which was greatly slowed down by the constant activity of my new camera!
We managed to reach the shelter long after it was dark. It was very windy, the temperature was in the negative and we found the mountain shelter to be full. The manager told us that we could sleep in the lobby after 9pm and it was free of cost. All the people who come without prior reservation, carry sleeping bags but me being me didn't even bother to think of one. The over-confidence acquired from my previous trips made me believe that I could fix any situation. So there I was carrying a fancy camera, in designer eye glasses and no sleeping bag! I've been in worse trouble and this didn't particularly bother me. People who know me from my undergraduate days would remember what a Spartan life I used to live back then. But that was 3 years ago and it ain't Sparta baby! The reality hit me hard when I realized that even though I had a snow jacket to protect my torso from the cold, my legs were totally vulnerable. There was just a regular running sock and a Columbia hiking cargo, which has excellent sweat ventilation but totally useless for insulation. But even those who had the comfort of a sleeping bag, could barely sleep because as a friend of mine put it very aptly, "What the f***? .... are we in a zoo!" There was a snoring contest going on all around us and the 'king of the ring' was like a blaring loudspeaker. However, inspite of the high decibel atmosphere, the nightlife was quite sedate because everybody was so tired. I was the only person without a sleeping bag, so in the end I decided to use a bit of reourcefulness, emptied my backpack and put my legs inside it. That way the part of my legs till the knees was warm and for the rest, the towel was enough. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours till someone left the door open and then even the ones with sleeping bags had their bodyparts shriking in the cold!
I didn't mind. I've had such nights before - in the dilapidated cottage in Moley, the thunderstorm in Dzongri and I was eagerly waiting for the sunrise to set the slopes ablaze in the in the colors of fall. But when the sun did come out, there weren't any colors to appreciate other than a drab shade of brown and the rough evergreens! The colors only materialzed when we got down into the valley on beyond the ridge. Inspite of being termed as 'remote', Jirisan attracts an enourmous number of hikers in all shapes and sizes - from Ms Dunkin Donuts to the Korean version of Reinhold Messner! And we had to wait to queues to get through the narrower sections of the trail. But nonetheless it was a welcome change from staring at a computer screen and keeping track of the deadlines. The very process of walking amidst nature with brightly colored leaves all around is enough to energize you.
But our adventure was not over. During the return trip, there was no seats left in the train, so we were deliberating what to do. Whether we should go to the nearest big city and get KTX or spend one more night, when there was the announcment of the arrival of the train. We decided to brave the nearly 5hr journey without a seat. Sitting on the floor just outside the reserved compartment, we chttaed about the events of the previous day. Koreans who boarded from subsequent stations, were greeted to a curious sight of a group of foreigners sitting on the floor next to the door. Some of them looked at us with pity but most of them stared at us in wide eyed wonder! We either ignored their stares or smiled back at them.
The primary objective of my trip was to get some nice pictures and test my new camera. A few shots that were not totally ruined by a lousy lens!

Flowing water has a magical effect on me. I'm mesemerized by it everytime I see it. So much so that if I was given a last wish to photograph one last thing before I die, I'll choose flowing water without a second thought. During this trip, I came across a few instances of flowing water.

The pictures of the stream below was taken at very low apertures to allow long exposures to bring out the ribbon effect of flowing water. Without a tripod it is usually difficult to take such a shot but with the help of an IS lens and some practice, I was able to take the shots with a full 1s exposure by balancing the camera on my knees and folloing the basic instruction for snipers - squeeze the button, don't press it!

2010-10-25T23:12:00.000+09:00

One Fine Autumn Sunday ...

Returning to blogosphere after a long time ... partly because of a new phase in my life (after bidding goodbye to school days) and partly because my previous camera broke amidst the sulphur fumes of Kawah Ijen in Indonesia. For the last month or so I've been actively searching a camera that can replace my trusted old friend and accommodate my current needs. I decided to settle for Canon 7D, which was the best I could lay my hands upon (outside full formats ones which are ridiculously espensive). However, owing to my schedule during the weekdays, I can barely manage to be out of office during the day and weekends are usually occupied by other social commitments. So this Sunday, I decided to spend the afternoon at Hwaseong fortress with my 'new toy'. The weather was perfect and gave me a chance to test some aspects of the camera. Since I had gone right after lunch, the light was still too bright to produce decent landscapes but it gave me a nice opportunity to explore low exposure shots (somewhat compensating for the slow kit lens). Initially I had only planned to stay there for about 3 hours but ended up spending close 6hrs and covering certain sections of the fortress wall and the nearby area more than once under different light conditions. Dressed for the afternoon in a T-shirt, I had to withstand single digit temperatures to get some night shots but overall, it was time well spent. Some shots from that day

Flags
It was pretty windy and the fluttering flags provided a good chance of testing the continuous shooting mode. The aim was to get the character on the flag fully displayed

Last winter I went to a place called Cheorwan, near the North Korean border to see migratory cranes. I really missed a fast camera then to capture them in flight (the best I could get is the header of this blog!). But the shot below convinced me that this time, I'll be well prepared

There's nothing great about this picture but when you consider that average human reaction time is about 200ms and the bird was flying at about 25kmph, you get an idea of how fast the camera reacts!

Flowing water and reflections are one of my favorites :)

Some fall .... other withers ... but a few hang on!!!

Perfect fall weather ...

Kids - one of my favorites

The day comes to an end ...

By this time I was beginning to feel really cold and keeping the camera steady for long exposures without a tripod was quite a challenge. After some blurred shots, managed to get this at 0.3sec under windy conditions.

2010-09-25T15:58:00.000+09:00

Learning to appreciate little things again: Foray into Baekje heartland

This is my first post about Korea in a long time. July-August were crazy months. 2 weeks in Java, writing a paper and coordinating the Y20 Working Groups from internet cafes in Indonesia, graduation, visa work, starting a new job. After those days of action, my life suddenly seems to have become sedentary! This year the Korean Thanksgiving holidays were perfectly placed during the middle of the week and provided a chance to enjoy a really long holiday. I was tempted to go back to Indonesia and explore the islands beyong Bali or even travel to Istanbul and Syria. But somehow I controlled my temptation and decided to stay home. For the first 2 days of Chuseok, it was raining but on the 3rd morning the weather was perfect and I decided to check out the Baekje Festival in Gongju. However, this post is not about Gongju or the festival. Its about an old man whom we met near the Festival Arena.
We were looking for ways to reach a fortress from the Arena and asked this gentleman. He pointed us to a few buses waiting at some distance and told us that they were shuttle buses that go to various points of interest in the city. We thanked him and went for the buses. One of the buses turned out to be an Airpot Limousine bus and the other didn't have any markings. It didn't have a driver and we were wondering if this was the shuttle bus when the old man came running. It turned out that the bus was headed in some other direction. He apologised for mistakingly giving us the wrong information. I was surprised and felt sorry that he had to run quite a long distance in the mid-day sun for this. I told him that it was ok and I would have asked the driver anyway before boarding the bus but he was insistent that he should find us the correct bus. He actually waited with us, stopped a bus to ask if it was going in that direction and put us on it! It all happened quite fast and all I could say was quick thank you. We were moved by this gesture of his. And this is not an isolated incident. Whenever I've travelled inside Korea on my own or with non-Koreans, I've been helped by complete strangers - be it the old gentleman in Guinsa, the coast guard in Gomun-do or the car mechanic in Jeju. These are the little things in life that we often ignore or overlook but it is often these gestures of kindness and help that makes an otherwise ordinary trip memorable and restores your faith in humanity!
I went on this trip without my camera which had finally stopped working after the Ijen crater after 3 years of faithful service. So I had to resort to my phone camera to get a few shots. The lighting was perfect and would have yielded some killer shots with even an ordinary camera. A few snapshots with my phone camera

A lampost inside the fortress

The view of Gongju across the Keumgang river from the fortress wall

The human model shaped paper lanterns on the river from the top of the fortress

Balloons displaying a banner of the Baekje Festival

We saw 3 paragliders flying over the pontoon bridge on the river. They were probably from the police conducting ariel patrolling during the festival. Nice job :)

The day comes to an end.

2010-09-17T00:06:00.000+09:00

The Supermen of the Kawah Ijen

When I was researching about places in East Java before my Indonesia trip, a name kept popping up with adjectives like 'remote', 'inaccessible', 'surreal beauty' describing it. Those who know me well are aware of the effects these adjectives have on me! I was still debating as to whether to give it a try or not when the following words for Lonely Planet sealed its fate

'The fabled Ijen Plateau is a vast volcanic region dominated by the three cones of Ijen .... Access roads to the plateau are poor, and perhaps because of this visitor numbers are low .... a great base for a few days up in the clouds far from the crowds'

Though remote and inaccessible by western standards, for someone who learnt about mountains in the Himalayas, a bumpy ride in an air-conditioned 4WD is almost a first class service! After spending the night is the beautiful Arabika Resort (which itself is the plantation for the best Javanese Arabica), we set out for Ijen in the pre-dawn hours amidst a continuous drizzle.
Though Bromo-Semeru along with Borobodur were my primary objectives of going to Java, I realized that I had been aware of Kawah Ijen long before I had heard of the other wonders of Indonesia. While scouting the net for information on Ijen, I had faint recollections of a Discovery Channel program in my school days that captured my imagination. 2 men emerging out of yellow smoke carrying huge loads of sulphur on their backs - the legendary sulphur miners of Ijen! And I encountered them pretty soon on the steep uphill hike to the crater. Like many other people in Indonesia, they initally mistook me for a local and greeted me 'Salamat pagi' (good morning in Bahasa Indonesian) when I smiled at them. When I told them that I was from India, their grins grew wider and words like 'Hindustan' and 'Shah Rukh Khan' emerged. These guys have superhuman strength, effortlessly carrying anything upto 85kg of sulphur in wicker baskets on their backs while we struggled with our ergonomically designed backpacks!
The uphill walk was quite steep at places and the drizzle had turned the trail muddy, so it took a little more time than what it should have under perfect weather conditions. The lower portions of the mountain were compeletely engulfed in clouds but it cleared as I approached the crater rim. The slopes were covered in lush vegetation and the green was even more saturated by the moisture. The clouds thinned out as I approaced the crater rim and on actually reaching the rim, there is a dramatic transformation in terms of vegetation

The lush vegetation of the slopes vanishes dramatically as soon as one approaches the rim of Ijen crater.
After the marathon day in the Tengger caldera, my blistered feet was greatful to have made it to the rim and I was eager to rest them for sometime before the return hike downwards. But when I looked into the crater ...

Unfortunately, by this time, my camera lens had almost ceased to function after years of torture and the scene captured here is quite drab as comapred to the vivid colors and smells in the real situation. Anyway, the net effect was that I decided to go down into what has been described as a 'sulphury hell'. The rich turquoise blue of Kawah Ijen was unearthly and even though the blisters on my feet were rubbing against the gravel accumulated in my socks, I decided to take the treacherous path into the lake. I tried to remove the gravel and sand in my wet socks in vain ... and just to get a feel of the sensation, try rubbing sandpaper on a blister!

The sign says 'Visitors are strictly forbidden to go into the crater' and I think acts a sort of deliberate challenge to all those who visit this place. Afterall when you see the miners haul impossible loads on their backs up the slope, no self respecting person can turn back from here! Moreover, the sight made me forget the pain in my feet.

I took a break next to this rock as the miners hauled their loads up the slope. A few hundred meters below me, the vents of Ijen were fuming furiously and the smell of sulphur was growing with every step.

In the company of supermen. Next to the vents, the smell is overpowering and I had to cover my nose to prevent myself from blacking out. At one point I got too close to the vents and was engulfed by the fumes. Within seconds my eyes started watering and my lungs were burning from the acid forming inside them. I had no idea as to which direction to move, when a miner appeard out of nowhere and led me to safety. I thanked him for his help. He smiled back at me and saying 'Careful near smoke!', disappeared into the smoke to dig up the sulphur blocks. These men spend many hours each day mining sulphur in these toxic environment and have an avergage lifespan of around 40yrs. However, they appeared remarkably cheerful inspite of knowing their fate. In a place like this, the human spirit triumphs above everything else!

Finally, after about half an hour, I was approaching the fuming turquoise lake that I had seen from the top. It is impossible to describe this place in picture, words or video. I recalled the video that I saw as a school kid of the men emerging from the smoke as I walked into the thin veil of smoke that enveloped the lake.

Right next to the lake, the land is stained yellow by sulphur deposits and the whole place smells like a chemisty lab!

But all of a sudden my right foot went numb! This was followed by a horrible burning sensations. It took me a few seconds to realize what had just happened. Kawah Ijen has a few channels flowing into/out of the main lake into the crate wall. Most of these channels are covered by sand and I accidently dipped my feet into one of these hidden channels. If the blisters didn't hurt bad enough, the water of the lake (which is actually chemically equivalent to warm sulphuric acid) almost felt my ripping my skin off. I feared that the skin might come off due to burning. I took off my shoe, threw away my socks, gradually poured all the drinking water I had to wash off the acid and then emptied my toothpaste tube on the burnt areas to allow the menthol to soothe the burns (which is actually a very effective treatment for burns in emergency situations). I sat on the banks admiring how incredibly beautiful and yet how dangerous the lake was.
(To recover from the rigors of Ijen, the hike in Bromo and the resulting damage that it had done to my body and particularly my feet, I had to shell out significant amount of money and spend a day at the spa of Ritz Carlton Jakarta on my way back. It offers quiet good value for money when compared to international prices)
As I was preparing to come up I spotted the other guys in my group coming down the crater wall

Lucas staring at the fuming vents (perhaps deliberating whether to go in or not)
After Ijen, my lens motor stopped working and I was reduced to taking pictures with my mobile phone camera and had to cancel my trip to the remote Ujung Kulon National park. Without a camera, it'd have been a wasted effort.
A few more pics from the Ijen trip

Ijen from the porch of the cottage at the Arabika Resort when we reached there in the evening.

The sulphur loads at the miner's rest house. Each of these baskets weight at least 65kgs. The maximum that I had seen was 90kgs. The miners walk for more than 5km on a steep slope with this load. To get a fraction of feel, try doing a 90kg squat after running for a few miles. We were panting with our 5kg backpacks!

The striking contrast between the green and the yellow is just amazing.

The cottage where I stayed in Arabika Resort. It was after almost a week that I had a decent bed and a warm shower.

Hauling up a very heavy load up a treacherours path. These miners get paid about 6/7$ per day for their work that kills them off within 40yrs.

The paraphernelia of the miners.

Superman .... the fabled sulpur miners of Ijen!

Once back on the rim of crater, I rested my burnt feet for sometime, when the clouds parted and revealed this col on the other side of the rim.

An early start ensured that I got to experience this awesome place in all is desolation and isolation, before the crowds arrived and spoilt the mood.
This concludes my Indonesian dairy. I did go to a few other amazing places after this trip but without a camera my mood was quite down :(
A few snapshots of the last part of the trip from my mobile camera.

A shot from the departure gate of Surabaya airport. Take a look at the full version of the pic to see the 2 volcanic cones emerging from the clouds is the distant. They provide an awe inspiring sight when the flight takes off and banks!

To escape the crowds of Jakarta, I went to a beach called Carita on the Sunda straits (which also houses the notorious volcano of Krakatoa). Since it was weekday, the whole place was deserted except for a few locals, like these 2 kids fishing for crabs.

View of the National Monument (Monas) from my hotel room in Jakarta. I saw it from the traint station on my second night in Indonesia while waiting for a train to Yogja.

The Last Supper. (er Lunch!) During the entire trip, because of strange urge, I had stayed away from alcohol but broke this during my last meal in Indonesia. I had a late lunch before leaving for the airport. Its an incredibly atmospheric restaurant/lounge called Samarra with a striking decor mixing traditional Indonesian/Middle Eastern/North African. I ended up ordering a Margharita as a sort of appertif and enjoyed it with an endless chain of Gudam Garam till my lunch arrived - a delicately spiced lamb curry with fragrant rice, followed by a tropical fruit dessert. Yum yum!

2010-09-14T00:21:00.000+09:00

The Bromo Sip: Best drink I've ever had ... !!!

The above words usually conjure up images of memorable cocktails or champagne on some special occassion or even a great fruit shake made by mom on a hot summer afternoon. Well, I've had my share of extravagant drinks but superlatives are often reserved for something unprecedented or life-changing. In my case, it was rain water ... yes, humble rain water. It happened in Indonesia in a place called the Bromo national park - a massive caldera with a couple of active volcanoes and an unearthly setting. To know why was the rain water so special, read on ...

Stars of the southern sky
The Bromo national park is situated in the eastern province of the island of Java in Indonesia and was one of the primary motives behind going to that country. Ever since I learnt about volcanoes in school, I've wanted to be able to look into one from its rim and Bromo provides the perfect opportunity to do this safely. The main entrance to the park is through a village called Cemero Lawang situated on the rim of the Tengger caldera. Mostly free from the lights of the big cities, the night in a village like this is a sight ot behold. The southern sky opens up its bounty of amazing vistas

After waiting for almost a decade, I had a chance to look into the Saggittarius Arm of the Milky Way from the Southern hemisphere. After some random shots of the sky till about 11pm, I went to bed with the alarm set for 2:30am. The next day was going to be a long one and I eagerly looking forward to it. The rest of the post is from the diary entry at the end of day ...

12/8 (Thursday) Bromo Nat'l Park
What a day! It started at 3:30am. Set out for Penanjakan viewpoint 2 at 4am. Pretty easy walk, even in complete darkness with the aid of my new flashlight. Reached the VP at around 5am as the horizon was starting to glow orange

There was Bromo down in the caldera belching white sulphurous fumes.

Even though the whole Tengger caldera along with Semeru (the tallest cone) was visible, the sight was less grand than I had expected. Perhaps because compared to Himalayan dimensions they didn't seem large enough or ominous enough!

Also, Semeru was not smoking but still made most of the available scene with the help of the tripod that I had hauled all the way from Seoul, just for the sunrise shots that morning.

However, clouds rolled in pretty fast and smeared the view. I waited for an hour to catch a glimpse of Semeru's ash fumes but that never came. So much for the smoking guns. Huh! On the way down the Tenggerese villages was a delightful sight.

Life goes on in these villages even under the shadows of an active volcano.
During breakfast, I bid farewell to the French guys and wished them luck for their further travels to Ijen and Bali. Maria was staying at Yoschi's and was probably having breakfast elsewhere. They had been delightful travel companions and I'll miss them on the next league of the journey. Especially Phillipe and Charlotte changed my opinion about the French!

At the base of the caldera after getting down a steep muddy path right behind the hotel.

The path was concealed somewhere behind the trees and I took the pic to remember the location for the return journey.

I set out into the caldera at around 8am and reached Bromo's rim at around 9am. The flat open area around the cones with its scrub vegetation brought back memories of Serious Sam in Sierra de Chiapas.

The Paton temple at the base of Mt Batok.

Effects of water erosion on volcanic sands.

The 250 or so steps that leads to the rim of Bromo. Once on the rim, visibility was reduced to a few meters due to the clouds. With no one in sight I started moving anticlockwise along the rim.

My initial plan was to just go ahead along the rim for a few meters before coming down and heading towards Ranu Pani. But somehow I kept moving along. Due to the clouds I had no sense of scale or where on the rim I was. In the beginning the trail was reasonably good but after about 50m became flakey and narrow

There was a strong wind and occassionally I could see the base of the crater from where the fumes emerged. After some distance I saw first signs of vegetation on Bromo's outer rim which eventually turned into a lush scrub growth as I approached the ridge connecting Bromo's rim to the next crater (which was actually a mini-caldera in itself).

I moved on to that ridge with hopes of descending from the other side of it and continuing to Ranu Pani. The cloud cover was somewhat lifted by now and I could see the other end of the smaller caldera but couldn't figure out an exit. Still I gave it a try and began to move across its rim

Unlike Bromo, this cone had vegetation cover and very soon the undergrowth of scrubs and razor sharp grass reached my armpits. The ridge was about a foot wide with steep drops on each side.

I gave up the idea of descending along its outer rim when I lost the trail under vegetation. It was risk not worth taking. I retraced my steps back to the junction of the two craters. By now the cloud cover was almost gone and I saw that I was directly opposite to the observation platform on the rim. The forward trail was steep, crumbling and exposed but I could see a platform inside the cone much closer to the fumes and a trail leading down from the rim!

The ramp into the crater runs from somwhere in the middle of the upward incline. I decided to give it a try fully aware that one wrong step would end things for me.My body would be consumed by the sulphur cauldrom boiling below and would never be found! Nobody knew that I was here and even if they did, by the time any rescue team comes, I'd be part of the magma in the volcanoes bowels. But suddenly I spotted another group of hikers approaching and decided to go down the crumbling, barely a foot wide and exposed ramp. The ramp was about 100m long and ended on a platform directly over the crack at the bottom of the cone from where the smoke emerged

A relatively better section of the ramp leading down into the crater.
The stench of sulphur was overpowering but the view was unparalleled. I stared direclty at the ravines carved by lava flow at the bottom of the cone and the yellow green sulphur deposits along its wall. A significant part of the inner cone was white - a possible of sulphur dioxide bleaching. My black Columbia hiking pants were already stained by the dust and so was every other part of my body. I decided to climb back to the rim and complete the circumnavigation. The last 20% of the rim was actually quite dangerous - exposed on either sides, less than a foot wide and crumbling. The inner walls of the crater almost plunged 70degrees into its smoky guts. The outer side formed ravines that ran hundreds of feet towards Batok. This section I actually used my hands. Better safe than sorry. The group behind me followed suit!

It was about 11:30 when I got down from Bromo onto the sea of sand and staretd walking towards the other end of the Tengger caldera. The sight all around was simply stupendous. Miles of volcanic sands with a plethora of geological structures beyond which there was scrub vegetation ending in the lush green plunging slopes of the outer caldera.

The walk was delightful and I enjoyed every bit of this solitary existence. An occassional bike would pass me but I was alone for most parts. I skirted round the cone of Bromo and the Kursi caldera. The sea of sand gave away to scrub vegetation and by mid-day the heat was rising. At one point I had to take off my T-shirt. I met a family of 4 crossing the caldera from Ngadas side and also a young couple. I was well poised to reach Ranu Pani on time even though my initial plan was to reach it by noon. I calculated that it'd take me about 2.5hrs to come back to CL from Ranu Pani on foot but there was a problem. My water supply was almost zero and in this landscape, water was nowhere to be found. There was also no guarantee that there would be any drinking water in Ranu Pani. I was beginning to feel the first effects of dehydration and my lips were parched. I desperately tried to resist drinking the last of my water.

In my desperation to reach Jemplang village I made a wrong choice. Instead of following the jeep track, I took a trail through the scrubs. The trail was barely noticable and the sharp scrubs cut into my exposed arm. It was getting steeper with every step and after climbing for around 200m, I was no closer to the rim of the crater. I could see the caldera floow from high above and recalled how Sam would scale slopes for recon and then come back. Things appear so easy on computer!
It was 1:45 and I realized that I had to make a choice. With around 3.5hrs of daylight remaining, I couldn't afford to get anything wrong. The caldera would plunge into darkness as soon as the sun moved below its rim and in the ending vastness, it'd be virtually impossible to get my bearings correct and head back to CL if the clouds moved in. Spending the night on the open caldera floor with no water would be suicidal. Coming down the slope was trickier that I thought and took me about 15mins. I'd been walking for close to 10hrs now and for almost 4hrs without a break. Without water, I could feel the veinws around my lips and temple throbbing. I decided to rest under the shade of the only tree that was there for miles around. I drank the last sip of water that I had (about 50ml) and decided to head back to CL. A wrong decision at this stage could prove very costly, so I abandoned my plan for Ranu Pani and decided to tread back on the familiar trail. My fluid supply was the last of about 50ml of Gatorade and there was still about 15kms to cover.

On my way from Bromo, the walk was enjoyable but now my tired legs and dehydrated body refused to move. Every step was a struggle but I knew that was my only chance of reaching CL or at least the Paton temple as fast as possible, where I could have found water. For the first hour, the sun was relentless but I allowed myself a small sip when I reached the base of Mt Kursi. I promised myself another sip when I reached the sea of sand and spot the communication towers of CL. Luckily for the next 40mins or so, the heat was less and a gentle breeze made walking slightly easier. When I finally spotted CL at a distance of about 7kms, it began to drizzle. I had the last sip of Gatorade and stared at the empty bottle. The rain was too mild to be of any use. I started walking across the volcanic sands. All of a sudden it started raining heavily. It was a refreshing respite and I tried to collect rainwater inside my umbrella (which was the cleanest waterproof surface I had). I was so thirsty that I actually licked the drops accumulating on the surface. Even though very small in amount, it soothed my lips momentarily.
Rain on this desolate lunar landscape is a sight to behold. But suddenly a chill ran down my spine. There was clouds all around me and visibility was down to a few meters. I had no idea which direction I was supposed to head! I stood there helpless, as the rain and wind battered me with tremendous fury. I must have stood like that for 10 mins when luckily I could spot the green flanks of Batok through a break in the clouds. This gave me a general idea of direction and I breathed a sigh of relief. By this time enough rainwater had accumulated inside my umbrella for me to have a drink.
And it was the best drink I've EVER had!

A shot after the rain had subsided. The umbrella almost saved my life!
The water almost had an instantenous effect. Suddenly my mind began to think clearly and I recognized the ravine that I had crossed earlier. Finally I was on the right track, even though I couldn't see CL. I continued to walk and collect rainwater inside my umbrella. I reconized another isolated scrub from the morning. Gradually, the rain came to an end and the cloud cover partially lifted. And there it was - CL about 3kms away. I thought I'd made it! But there was another nasty surprise in store. The trail that I had taken to come down in the morning was difficult to spot. Eventually, I found it after some searching. It was so slippery that I had to abandon it after a few meters. With my shoes wet and hands mired in mud, I decided to find the loner jeep road and take it instead. It was more than a km away and by this point my hamstrings were like stretched guitar wires. Slowly I moved up the jeep road, which was itself covered in horse dung. Finally when I reached the hotel, I was looking like a complete ruffian but I didn't care. I had finally made it.
Nature had been a formidable adversary but a fair one nonetheless. It had thrown me unexpected challenges but also helped me in times of dire need (rain water :)) After todat, I probably won't take anything for granted. And maybe everytime I drink a glass of water, I'll remember my parched lips in the Tengger caldera. No matter how prepared you go, there is always that sudden surprise that can throw all your plans into a jeopardy. Its then that your survival instincts kick in and you do things you'd never imagine on an ordinary day.

At dawn, I was disappointed that Bromo-Semeru had turned out to be so much less than I had expected but by the end of the day it had thrown me enough challenges, for me to remember 12th August 2010 for the rest of my life!

2010-09-04T18:22:00.000+09:00

The 2 Bs : Batik and Borobodur

Rediscovering my lost skills
Yogya made me feel remarkably at home. I could have easily stayed there for a month and not get bored. Everytime I pass the streets, there would be some familiar faces and they greet me as if I'm one of their own. I'd heard of the batik artists of Indonesia and there were a lot of 'tourist batik courses' on offer but somehow I found a way to steer clear of them. Firstly because, well, its touristy and secondly because I didn't really want to do a 'course' where they just teach you how to draw a few lines and make grass or butterfly patterns. Though I've almost given up painting now, even before I graduated high school, I had more than a decade of experience under my belt in various forms of painting and certain skills, though faded with the passage of time, can come out strongly under the right circumstances. A touristy course was definitely not the right circumstance. So after a bit of searching and bargaining, I found a place where the deal was I'd spend the day with actual batik painters in there studio working alongside them on my own picture. They would offer me assistance with only the technical parts of the process and the theme would be of my choice.

On a bright and sunny morning, Rudy (the guy who organized this for me) drove me to the studio after a fragrant Javanese kretek and 2 cups of jasmine tea. The studio was named 'Kalpika' and was located in one of the charming bylanes in the old part of the city close to the 'Waterkasteel'.

Rudy posing in front of some of the paintings in the studio.

The master at work. The piece that he was working on was about 4m by 1.5m and he claims to have been working on it for 3 days now. It was only about 25% complete. Anyway, I decided to stick to more modest dimensions for my first batik and had a few more of the kreteks to 'fire up my imagination'. After a bit of thought and some rough sketches on paper (and maybe under the effect of the 'special' fags), I decided to go bold and paint this!

The first step was the outline and covering the lines with wax.

The next step is applying the base layer and wax coating it to cover it from the subsequent layers. Batiks can be extremely time consuming, depending on the number of layers you have. Owing to the limited time I had, I decided to go with just 3 layers.

With the second layer applied for the sky, it was time to fix the colors.

Fixing consists of bathing the picture in chemicals like nitre and caustic soda. That is when the colors being to emerge. In its current form, the clouds and the orange tinted sky at sunset is beginning to show up. As the layers were left to dry in the sun, I went out to have a look at the neighborhood.

Band of boys sitting on the roof. After wandering for about half an hour, I came back to apply the next layers.

This was the penultimate layer to add a deep red color to the sea.

In the final stage, there is some washing, more fixing and finally boiling to get rid of the wax, when the actual picture emerges.

The final result was quite decent and especially after more than 2yrs of staying away from a paint brush.
The day was not only about painting but also talking to the people who live around the studio. More used to seeing European tourists around, an Indian tourist travelling alone, seemed to have attracted quite a crowd! Most of them were interested to know about Shahrukh Khan (SRK) - popularly known in India as 'King Khan'. They seemed to know managable English and asked a lot about things ranging from yoga and ayurveda, to 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' (an SRK starrer Bollywood blockbuster during my high school years). They also were aware of Bollywood gossip and knew that SRK's wife Gauri was Hindu.

Borobodur
I've been waiting to see Borobodur for years, ever since I saw 'Around the World in 80 Treasures' many years back. It would also mark the completion of the trio of - Vatican, Angkor and Borobodur, my list of top 3 in the eastern hemisphere. Borobodur happens to be the largest Buddhist monument in the world and the largest religious structure in the southern hemisphere. With 9 layers signifying the attainment of Nirvana and surviving for more than a millennia under the shadows of an active volcano, it has one of the most fascinating settings of all the monuments in the world. We left Yogya one morning before dawn and encountered the smoking cone of Merapi (below) as the eastern horixon brightened up.

Merapi is supposedly Java's one of the most active volcanoes. I wished I could find some time to climb and stand on the edges of one the vents spewing smoke and lava, but right now I was just staring at its unearthly beauty from the confines of an airconditioned SUV with constant German chattering right behind my ears!
We reached the gates of Borobodur at around 6am and had about 2 hrs to explore it before breakfast. Most people got templed out within about 40 minutes and hence from about 7am onwards, I virtually had certain levels of the temple to myself. The lighting conditions were almost perfect but my salt encrusted lens could not really capture the gentle hues of the early morning light. During those 2 hrs, I was virtually alone, with an occassional group of tourists passing me. They say that a single picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll leave it to the pictures to do most of the talking. They may not be as good as I'd have liked them to be but is ok for the purpose of illustration and maybe inspire you to go to Borobodur in search of inner peace and tranquility ... or just to marvel the carvings the adorn its walls.

The scenary around the temple is incredibly beautiful.

The first rays of the sun lighting up the hundreds of Buddha statues on the various levels.

Finally the top level and there were less than 20 people around. Loved the tranquility of the place.

Notice the butterfly on the top part of this picture. I didn't notice it while taking the picture and it only became visible after I had applied a graduated tint filter to darken the sky.

On the walls of a nearby temple called Mendut.

Flowers and bees.

2010-08-31T15:10:00.000+09:00

The flute-maker and the stories on stone

Enter Yogyakarta. I fell in love with this place at first sight! Especially the narrow alleys right next to the train station is a world apart from similar regions anywhere else. Impeccably clean stone streets, with fragrant jasmine or some potted plant on every balcony, parrots, tastefully and yet simply decorated porches - the whole place is an embodiment of a simple yet highly cultured community. It doesn't take too long to figure you why Yogya has earned the title of the 'cultural capital'. May be this charming welcome and the sound of the pancake man helped me keep awake as I searched for an accommodation. People were waking up and sweeping their porches or feeding their birds, as I dragged my sleep deprived body and my backpack through the narrow alleys, in the gentle warmth of the morning sun. Since it was still early morning, all the places recommended by LP was full and they could not give me a clear answer as to whether there would be place at noon (check-out time). Suddenly a cheerly looking man appeared from nowhere and asked me where was I from. Upon listening to my answer, he exclaimed, "India ... oh, I have a friend there! His name is Mithun Chakravarty" and we both started laughing. Mithun is a famous Indian actor of the yesteryears and happens to hail from my hometown - Kolkata. Looking at my backpack, he asked me if I've found a place to stay. He then led me to a couple of places and soon I found one that had room.
There I met a British man who was checking out. He turned out to be a flute maker who spent the last 2 months in Bali, perfecting his craft under the guidance of a master. He was a carpenter by profession but gave it up to pursue flute making as a full time profession. He was also hauling a load of flute grade bamboo from Bali and was leaving for Jakarta that morning. He seems to be exuding an inner peace and tranquility that I've only seen previously in monks. Though he mentioned that 'living his dream' has casued him a lot of financial hardships, he seemed remarkably content and happy with his life. After he left I realized how dramatically the priorities in my own life has changed over the past 48 hours. No contact with the people I know, no phone calls, no worrying about having to check my e-mail - my priorities were to find a place to sleep, food to eat and just enjoy the moment. Though I knew that sooner or later, I'd have to leave behind this blissful existence and open my inbox, where my 'real life' is awating me, I tried not to think about it! Room turned out to only slightly larger than the bed and the 'bathroom' was barely wider than my shoulder but I didn't complain - I was too tired to think of luxuries. I went to sleep after a shower. I woke up at noon and felt remarkably refreshed. After a lunch of Ayam Goreng, I decided to head off to Prambanan.
It is interesting to note that in Indonesia - a country with a 90% Muslim population, the most iconic architectural structures are Buddhist (Borobodur) and Hindu (Prambanan). Right across the street from Prambanan, there is a moque, whose moon topped minaret can be clearly seen from the temple complex. Coming from a country with a 80% Hindu population and the land of the Taj Mahal (a distinctly Muslim structure), this fact seemed to reflect the diversity of these two countries and yet the underlying similarity of co-existence of multiple religion and cultures. I spent the late afternoon and sunset in the temple complex, enthralled by the stories carved on the stones. Nothing much to write about that and will let the pictures do all the talking.

On the way to Prambanan on a TransJogya bus (on the driver's cap) and also have a look at his shirt (Batik print)

Unlike the human powered rickshaws of India, these in SE Asia has the passenger seat in front of the driver.

Candi (pronounced Chandi) Prambanan ... first view.

From inside the temple complex

Stories on stone. Here it goes:

Brahma ... the creater .. notice the 3 heads. There is also a 4th one behind.

Reinforcing the temples after the 2006 Yogya earthquake. As a result the central temple of the complex is off bounds.

The headless Yogi in front of the temple. Its painful to witness what vandalism and greed has done to these exquisite structures. The head of this statue is probably sitting in the private collection of some wealthy western collector!

Bye bye Prambanan ...

2010-08-29T01:55:00.000+09:00

Urban Explorer: TransJakarta

So far the Urban Explorer series was confined to just Korea but this time, it travels 3000 miles to Indonesia ... or to its capital Jakarta to be more specific. Lonely Planet (LP) portrays Jakarta as a city difficult to love - a crowded, polluted megalopolis with a decadant nightlife, unlimited shopping malls and hotels that offer great value for money. Yes, Jakarta is all that but also infinitely more! To westerners, Indonesia is an exotic country. Jakarta with its multitude of high end shopping malls brandishing Chanel and Louis Vuitton, co-existing with obscene poverty in its slums is a concept difficult grasp. And if this sheer contrast doesn't disorient them, then there is the crowded roads, the noise and the pollution! But being an Indian, I can see through all this haze, smoke and glaring contrast, into the heart of a city that is in many ways similar to the cities in my own country. To an average westerner, this assault on taste numbs the subtle sensations and most of them observe the city through the tinted windows of their air-conditioned taxis. The ones that are adventerous enough to take to the streets or the public transport, are constantly bombarded by hawkers offering to sell something, people trying to practice speaking english or just people curious about where he/she comes from. Being an Indian, my faculties are trained fully to withstand this assault on senses and spot the similarities and differences that exist between Indonesia and India. And unless I start speaking, it is almost impossible for an average person on the street to recognize that I'm an outsider and hence most of the time, I'm spared from the attention that is showered on the 'white man'. For someone, who is keen to observe the subtleties of the place he's travelling to; this is the best thing that can happen and during this trip, I used this 'cover' to a great extent.
I arrived in Jakarta late in the evening and the whole process of immigration took quite some time. By that time, I had not slept for close to 40 hours, so I decided to take the safe route of pre-booking a Blue Bird taxi to the guesthouse. On my way, from beind the tinted glass of the cab, I just saw the glowing lights on the highrises of 'affluent' Jakarta. After a light meal, I dragged my tired body to the musty, spartan room and went to sleep. Next morning, I went to the train station to get ticket for Surabaya, which is about a 10hr journey by the fastest train. Even though I'd been assured by others that getting a ticket is not a problem, at the counter I discovered that all the tickets for that night's train - both the good ones and not so good ones, had run out. My initial plan was to travel as far east as Surabaya and then return west in a leisurely pace. But standing at the counter, I realized the first advantage of travelling alone. Within the few seconds that the lady at the counter took to look up from the computer screen, I'd made up my mind to reverse my plan - it'd be an open ended eastern push. I'd travel as far east as possible before my time ran out. It was risky but still worth the try. So I asked if there was a ticket for Yogyakarta. She was a bit taken aback by the sudden change at plans - both the cities themselves being separated by almost 5hrs of train ride. But I came out of the station with a ticket for the 'luxury' night train to Yogya and the need to replan the logistics of the entire trip from scratch! The planning was taken care of by the time my lunch had arrived in front of me in a nearby restaurant. I still had about 7hrs to spare before my train and decided to don the hat of urban explorer.

Walking the streets, I saw these guys on push carts carrying some kind of food-stuff. To take a closer look, I decided to walk alongside them on the footpath. It turned out to fired banana fritters and other munchies. Incidentally, this is also the first picture I took in Indonesia. Due the haze and mid-day sun killing all the saturation, I decided to go B/W for a few shots.

Its called the 'Farmer's statue' and used it as a landmark to turn towards the train station.. However, the man looks more like a soldier than a farmer.
I decided to go to the Chinese neighborhood of Jakarta near the docks. LP descirbes this place with all the romance that is due for an 'exotic place'. For westerners, the narrow streets, the burning incense and the smell would be exotic enough but I had to look a bit deeper to extract the exoticness. The traditional market called Petak Sembilan is concealed from the main roads by an almost infinite number of motorbikes parked at its gates. At first sight, it was not very different from the usual rough neigborhoods of any Indian city - narrow streets, rough looks, sweltering heat, artists painting on the sidewalk. So I ventured into the narrower streets in search of exotic stuff and there it was - skinned frogs along with unskinned ones, lying next to a murky tank housing tortoises of various sizes. I walked past shops selling incense, spices or porcelean and the place smells absolutely amazing. As I came out on one of the bigger streets, I saw a man selling hamsters. A little girl along with her grandma, bought one of the little creatures. The man was also selling small green shelled tortoises. As I was coming out of the market, I ran into a woman, whom I had asked for directions to the place. Though I couldn't understand what she was telling me, I realized from her gesture that she was asking me if I'd found what I was looking for. I smiled, nodded and waved her good bye as she rode into the unending column of bikes plying on the road.
While returning, I decided to take the Transjakarta bus that LP so highly praised for its relative efficiency and comfort. On the bus, a middle aged gentleman sitting next to me figured out that I'm a tourist as soon as I took out my LP. For people used to seeing western tourists, its a bit difficult to explain what a solo Indian student is doing in Indonesia. I continued talking to him and with still 4hrs to spare, I decided to stay on the bus till its terminus. It brought me to Blok M is southern Jakarta. The bus terminal had an underground shopping arcade and more upmarket malls and department stores within walking distance. I wandered through the labyrinth of underground market, savoring its sights, sounds, smells and tastes. As I emerged from the cavernous interiors to the Blok M square, I found some sort of open air talent show in progress.

It consisted of basketball stunts and was wildly cheered by the crowds. This was followed by more traditional performances. This was a part of the Blok M music festival, organized to mark the 65 Independence Day of Indonesia which is on 17th of August.

The two picures above shows a gamelan orchestra in progress. Its deep, resonating and deeply mysterious sound was quite releaving after the noise of a city on the move.

Though I'de hear a lot more of gamelan in the days to come and of much higher quality, the first exposure to this deep and mysteriously sonorous sound left a favorable impression on me.

Another group of kids delivering traditional musical performance.
In another courtyard around the mall, other shows were running, including a cycling stunt with riding in tight turns around coke bottles placed about 2 feet apart.
As I was watching the cyclists, I met this guy who studies economics in a university in Jakarta. He asked me the reason for travelling alone. I told him some lame story that came up in my mind!! Though it had been drizzling for sometime, at around 5:30pm, it started pouring. I headed back to the bus terminal, to get back to the guesthouse to collect my backpack, have dinner and catch the train. While navigating the maze of the underground market to reach the ticket counter of Transjakarta bus, I noticed something interesting. In the world's largest Muslim country, there's a mall called Ramayana Mall which offered huge discounts on the occassion of the Ramadan. You can spot the irony of the situation only if you're Indian or well-versed with Indian mythology and culture! After a dinner of chicken sate, I went to the train station and waited for the train to arrive. The Monas soared above the tree covered avenues behind the station and the gold on its pinnacle was shining in all its resplendent glory.

As I stared at it, I didn't realize that I'd look at it at the end of my journey from my hotel room. In a few minutes, I left Jakarta behind and rolled out of the city to whatever lay beyond!

2010-08-21T16:25:00.000+09:00

The Gulls of Dokdo

This post was long due but for the last 2 weeks I was exploring the fascinating natural and historical vistas of Indonesia. Continuing in the style of the previous post, I'll do a simple photo-essay of the trip to Dokdo, which is one of the major causes of dispute between Korea and Japan (which makes territorial claims over it). I'm sure somebody else (of the 22 bloggers who were there on the trip) has already written about the history and geo-politics of Dokdo and if not, the net is littered with information. I'll not bore you with information or the chronological account of the journey. This post is about the sea-gulls of Dokdo, the beautiful East Sea and a person who hates the air-conditioned confines of the ship cabin and prefers traveling on the deck (pirate style :P) with the salty spray hitting his face under a fierce summer sun. Here we go:

Looking back at Ulleung-do port from out ship to Dokdo. The mayor of Ulleung-do and a KBS filming team was also traveling with us on the ship.

The comfortable confines of the air-conditioned cabin of the ship is not where I like to stay. So inspite of the warnings and the security, I managed to find my way on the deck. I believe that if you travel on a ship, travel pirate style :P

A view of the waves from the upper deck right outside the captain's cabin.

A view from under the railings of the deck where I was sitting. The staff and secutiry personnel of the ship were quite pissed off with my disobedience but I didn't care. I got my own private view!!!

I'd travelled most of the onward journey on the open deck. As a result, I was almost soaked in sea water coming from the spray. The result is also visible on my camera lens.

Land Ahoy!!! The first sights of Dokdo. By this time, my whole body was covered with salt from the spray and I was getting cooked under the fierce summer sun ... salted meat :)

First encounter with the gulls of Dokdo. Have a closer look at the picture to see the gull droppings staining the black volcanic rock white.

Rising from the deep. The islands of Dokdo are actually towerheads that rises from the sea floor miles beneath. The seas around Dokdo are incredibly deep and has strong currents which makes docking of ships a very tricky task.

The rockscape looks like the one from the Pirates of the Caribbean. The flying gull is a bonus!

While others were busy clicking pictures of the pretty gals on board, I could not resist the opportunity of clicking the gulls that were floating around in abundance and provided terrific shots against the background of the island.

One of the first clear and stand alone shot of the sea gull.

Looks like a submarine rising from the depths of the ocean! Here also, the gulls have left their 'imprints' on the top of the rock.

A gull elegantly banks as our ship encircles the island. Loved the graceful move.

Flights of fantasy!
By this time, I'd observed the behavior of the birds and could predict their flight path. I realized that the bird closest in this shot would fly directly over me and decided to shoot a whole sequence of shots. Here is the sequence:

By this time, my camera lens was beginning to show toruble due to the sustained exposure to salt water. However, I managed to squeeze out a few more shots.

Bidding farewell to Dokdo and the wonderful sea-gulls that live on and around it.