November Newsletter

India Travel Blog Newsletter is sent approximately once a month (sometimes less frequently), summarizing the previous month’s activity and giving a glimpse of the coming month on the website. Subscribe to the newsletter by keying in your email address in the box on the top of the sidebar. Here is a copy of this month’s newsletter, dispatched today.

Hello!

Here is the November edition of India Travel Blog Newsletter. I hope this is coming to you at a time when you are making plenty of travel plans for the coming holiday season, or already travelling! Here is a quick summary of travel content on the India Travel Blog in the last one month.

November 2010 Calendar. The desktop calendar for November is an image of travellers gazing at the beautiful sunset from Hemakoota Hill in Hampi.

Photo Essays. We have had four photo-essays published in October, listed below. In future, photo essays will become more frequent and will contribute significantly to the content of India Travel Blog, but without any compromise in stories that I regularly post.

1. Flowers of Sikkim
2. Skiing in the Himalayas
3. Wild Dogs of Kanha National Park
4. Chandradrona’s Fog – An attempt to capture the foggy monsoon landscapes of Chikmagalur, Karnataka

With a recent change to India Travel Blog, you can now access all the photo essays ever published on the blog in last five years using one single link. There are more than forty of them at the moment. See them all the photo essays

Stories from Ladakh. There are two stories from the long series of posts on Ladakh – one on falling into a tourist trap at the villages of Dha-Hanu and another one on a quick visit to Tso Kar Lake.

Other stories

1. Mysore Palace – A short visit to Mysore Palace with images of its exteriors and description of its elegant interiors.
2. The travel photography story published in November is on photographing landscapes. Winters are a great time to shoot beautiful landscapes. Read this post before you head out with a camera.
3. Not packing light. I always hear advices about the virtues of packing light. I have never managed to be one of those people who travel with very little baggage. I end up carrying a lot of stuff wherever I go. Here is my case about not packing light during my journeys.

In November, you will be seeing more photo essays on the blog and stories from Sikkim and Ladakh. Look out for some avian images from Bharatpur and landscapes from Corbett National Park. Happy travels!


Categories: calendar

November 2010 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

The desktop calendar wallpaper for November 2010 is an image of sunset over Hemakoota Hill in Hampi. Download 1280×800 or 1024×768.

November 2010 wallpaper

Prints of all the images available. Request for prints.


Changu Lake / Tsomgo Lake, Sikkim

Changu Lake was one of the places that I was eager to see during my recent trip to Sikkim. But when I got there, somehow I wasn’t charmed by it as I hoped for. It could be all the touristy construction and army bunkers around it or it could just be me. Indian Army has a considerable presence near Changu Lake, thanks to our friendly neighbours across the border who love our land so much that they get possessive about it.

My attempt to get good pictures of the lake failed miserably, but I did not give up completely on it. It did not help that I spent very little time next to the lake. What did help a bit is a magic formula that the mountain people in the Himalayas use for making anything and everything pretty. The fluttering prayer flags along the shore brought alive the lake that otherwise lacked luster.

A few pictures here, they definitely could’ve been better.

changu lake, sikkim

changu lake, Sikkim

changu lake, sikkim

About Changu Lake

Changu Lake is located on the Gangtok-Nathula road at an altitude of 12,400 feet. Although it is only 40km from Gangtok, the mountain roads ensure that it is a whole day’s trip to visit the lake and get back to the town. Visit to the lake requires an inner line permit, which has to be obtained at Gangtok at least a day earlier. Most people normally combine the visit to Changu with Nathula, about 10km ahead on the same road.

There are basic tourist facilities next to the lake, where you can savour some momos and shop for souvenirs from Sikkim.