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Improving my photography is one of the main goals that inspired me to go "onwalkabout". Spending the time to focus on this hobby is something I'd most likely not normally take the time to do. However, setting out on the road, with hundreds of new sights to capture, I'm setting off to find inspiration, and improve my skills both behind the lens and with photography software.
These galleries are a chronicle of this time I've taken, what I've seen on the road and my attempts to capture the beauty of what I've seen. If you want to take a shortcut, here are my favorite photos from the trip.
| 47. Rajasthan 2003-12-26 | |
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(28 photos) - The last place on my goals list I take a short tour into Rajasthan and just start to get a feel for this exquisite state. The photos are from the road and Alwar where I stop for the last break of the trip. Related Journal Entries:2003-12-30 - Alwar - Delhi (Day 261) I ride off into the blue towards the last stop. 2003-12-29 - Alwar (Day 260) The luxury of hot water, clean sheets and food end the trip. 2003-12-27 / 12-28 - Alwar (Day 258-259) Indian bureaucracy and I am chased out of the Bala Quila fort. 2003-12-26 - Deeg - Alwar (Day 257) Praying the horns will stop and the Deeg Palace. 2003-12-25 - Agra - Keoladeo Ghana Park - Deeg (Day 256) My Christmas in the park and Tom Cruise's life. 2003-12-23 / 12-24 - Agra (Day 254-255) Site uploads, world news, chatting with friends and Christmas traditions. |
| 46. Ochha 2003-12-25 | |
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(27 photos) - An off the beaten track faded capital on the border
with Rajasthan, Ochha is filled with fascinating ruins of palaces
and temples. Mostly overgrown with weeds springing up everywhere,
the crumbling ruins just draw one back to the days of the Arabian
Nights - Indian style of course. Here are some of my pictures of
this enchanting place and the palace that I stayed in. |
| 45. Khujaraho 2003-12-17 | |
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(60 photos) - The little oasis in the desert of Khujaraho and its
famous ethereal temples was the perfect way to start the end of
the trip and the ride back to Delhi. The temples were one of the
most moving monuments I have ever seen in their depiction of the
common things of life and those that arouse our passion and love
as being the stairways to God. As a way to look at God, the temples
took the passion of humanity to open the mind to the goodness of
life before transcending it to look beyond Earthly things. Khujaraho was not at all what I expected and turned out to be not only the most beautifully maintained and comfortable park I've seen in India but also one of the more relaxing and lovely places of the trip. Related Journal Entries: |
| 44. Varanasi 2003-12-12 | |
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(54 photos) - The holy city of Varanasi is known as the gateway to Nirvana by the Hindus as this is the most auspicious place to die and thought to allow the soul direct entry into Nirvana. Bathing in the Ganges is also believed to wash away all sins. The city is a place of pilgrimage and worship with the whole atmosphere of the old city and near the ghats (steps) along the Ganges is that of an open-air cathedral. Here are some views of life along the river. Related Journal Entries: |
| 43. Calcutta 2003-12-04 | |
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(19 photos) - Calcutta (Kolkata) was boxed in with a smog so thick that one could cut it with a knife and which made everything in the city appear black, sinister and old. However, I got a glimpse of the care and heart of the city at the Missionaries of Charity and a bit of the feeling that has left Calcutta with the nickname City of Joy. Related Journal Entries: |
| 42. Bangladesh 2003-11-30 | |
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(26 photos) - About the size of Wisconsin or England and Wales combined, Bangladesh was a wonderfully exotic country to visit in that there were none of the conveniences of places where other tourists have made a well used path for you to follow in. Everywhere I went I was so unusual as to be almost an animal in the zoo with every stop leaving me surrounded by 30-40 people watching me eat and orange or drink a coke. Unfortunately for me, the main roads of the country were almost entirely under construction leading to a quarter inch coating of dust on everything I own and dust embedded deep in my teeth, but in my ride across the country there was still quite a lot to see. |
| 41. Road to Bangladesh 2003-11-21 | |
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(52 photos) - I set out from Katmandu to cross the second half of Nepal on the East-West Highway toward Darjeeling on the eastern border with India then work my way through to Assam on the Far East of India completing the drive all the way across India from Amritsar to Assam. Then down through the 'Scotland of the East' Shillong and to the northeast border of Bangladesh. The drive takes me from the high Himalayas, back down to the sea level Nepal highway and across some of the worst roads India has. I find myself rushing into a burning building to get photos of a fire in Cooch Bihar and then driving through kilometer after kilometer of the Assam tea plantations. |
| 40. Thanka Gallery 2003-11-20 | |
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(16 photos) - Thankas, Tibetan Buddhist religious paintings, are a popular tourist item in Katmandu and Ladakh. Depicting gods, the wheel of life, stupa layouts or other religious icons, the paintings are beautiful and amazingly detailed. The paintings usually are hung as a scroll with silk borders and have a silk cover to cover the gods and protect the paintings |