Surreal Sunset from a hidden location in the Sahyadri Mountains

6 consecutive ranges of mountains with mist settling fast on them, various hues and shades of orange and red right above it, a lovely waterfall surrounded by dense forest and a cliff edge view point. That was my sunset view from a stunning location in the Sahyadri mountains.



This view point is not known in the tourist circles and therein lies its charm and beauty. Only locals of the Jajjigudde village and nearabouts know of this view point and that is how I got to know about it. In fact, it was the owner of the Tavarumane homestay, where I was staying, who recommended a short evening hike to this view point in the Western Ghats of Uttara Kannada region in Karnataka.

After treating ourselves to some fresh filter coffee and some traditional snacks, we drove through forests, plantations and a few houses before we parked our car and began and uphill and then a downhill walk to this view point. The terrain is steep and raw and it is best to exercise caution. May be, carry a torch and a bottle of water with you in case you wish to stay there till it gets dark.

At the view point, you literally are standing at a cliff’s edge and you are surrounded by pristine forests of the Western Ghats. You can often see and/or hear hornbills here. Straight in front of you lies the Bilihole falls, a jungle waterfall that you can also trek to provided you get permissions from the forest department. And beyond the waterfall lies a wave of mountains. My homestay owner told me that there are 8 mountain peaks and ranges one behind the other, but I could only count up to 6. May be, it was the mist that blocked my view. But, of whatever I saw, I was simply left astounded.



The entire sunset package was surreal and I hoped that the view continued for a few more minutes, but darkness set in and I was forced to make my way back to my homestay, but the sunset memories remain and I hope that I can return to this sunset view point yet again and hopefully see some great hornbills fly while I watch the sun set over the maze of Sahyadri mountains.

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Travel Photo: Sunset at Pakse, Laos

After exploring the Bolavan plateau on a motorcycle for 2 days, I returned to Pakse only to find that most of the budget guest houses were either full or below par for that price. Hence, I started scouring the main street (Route 13) of Pakse. It was during this walk that I saw the beautiful orange red sun set in front of me.


The sight was so beautiful that I could not help, but take my camera out and capture this surreal moment. This was a different sunset for me as I was on the road (east side) and buildings on north and south. This was one of those rare moments that I felt the beauty of the sun over its warmth (The summer in Laos is getting better and all you can feel is the heat constantly).

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Sunset Moment from Ban Kantiang Bay, Ko Lanta, Thailand

When you are on a tropical island, it is a given that you will see beautiful sunrises and sunsets. But, that was not the case to be for me when I was at Ko Lanta, one of Thailand’s best beach destination. The reason was simple. The 9 days that I was at Ko Lanta, the days were more or less cloudy all throughout with heavy winds. And since most of the accommodation was on the west side of the island, I had to ride 15 kilometers in the early hours of the morning and I was simply not prepared to do that.


Hence, I had to chase my sunset moments. One evening, I was at the national park located at the southern most end of the island. Here, I felt that that evening might give me an outside chance at a decent sunset. Hence, I left the national park as the sun starting setting in the horizon. When I do sunsets, I have a certain thumb rule. The best sky, colors and the glow happens about 30 minutes after the sunset, give or take a few minutes. Thus, keeping this thumb rule in mind, I kept watching the sunset and rode north towards the beaches. But, since it was cloudy, my thumb rule fell short by 10 minutes and I had to make a mad dash to the nearest Ban Kantiang bay beach and this is where I got this sunset. Personally, I like it in spite of the clouds spoiling the colors from it. What is your opinion?

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A Mountain Sunset from Ko Phi Phi Island

Watching a beautiful sunset is in itself a peaceful moment, but if you have a beach, ocean and mountains in your sunset then it becomes even more special. I watched such an amazing sunset in the Ko Phi Phi island of Thailand.


I was walking from the Long beach and onto the Ton Sai Bay when I noticed that the sun was right above the mountain and going to disappear behind them. Now the amazing part here is that the mountains are just next to the ocean and I was standing on the Ton Sai bay’s rocky beach.


I was lucky to watch the entire sunset over the mountains and it was great in spite of it being a bit cloudy. I loved the silhouette it formed of the mountains in my frame and when the sun had disappeared behind the hills, I was also able to get silhouettes of the mountains in the background and the long tail fishing boats in the foreground, making it a very special sunset experience for me.

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Sunset from Maasai Mara

I was there at Maasai Mara to see Africa’s greatest wildlife spectacle and I did get to see that. However, I get a bonus in terms of fantastic sunsets.


This is one such sunset over the savannahs of Maasai Mara in East Africa.

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Evening Skyscapes over the Thamarabarani River at Kallidaikurichi

Every monsoon, I go to my hometown, Kallidaikurichi, which is a small town situated at the foot of the western ghats in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. And when I am there, I end up visiting all the waterfalls around it, which are usually in full flow. Typically, a monsoon visit would mean taking a bath under each waterfall (Manimuthar, New and Old Courtrallam, Agastyar, Vana Theertham and Five Falls) after a good oil massage, followed by a sumptuous meal and divine sleep on the swing (unjal in Tamil) in my grandmother’s house.


In fact, this is like tradition to me. But, this year, the rain gods forced me to break my tradition. As no rains meant no water in the waterfall. Thus when I was there a couple of weeks back, I had to resort to other pastimes. And that is when I decided that I would spend an evening sitting on the banks of the Thamarabarani river that flows a kilometer behind my grandmother’s house.


The pictures in this post are of the Thamarabarani river against the Western Ghats in the background, the mountain range as seen from the Kallidaikurichi town as I was walking from my grandmother’s house to the river and the skyscapes that I saw around sunset time.


And all this was possible because of the lack of rains. Else, there would have been no blue visible in the sky and I would have not got to see such beautiful skyscapes.

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Sunset from Tawang’s War Memorial

Sunsets bring a certain change in our moods. This one is no different. The mood is of joy and may be sorrow in some cases, but always with an awe factor in it. This is one such moment where we see nature’s raw beauty and power.


It was such a moody sunset that I got to see from Tawang’s war memorial in Western Arunachal Pradesh in North East India.

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Sunset Moments from Leh Town

A cold evening at Leh saw me and my friends climb up Shanti Stupa as part of our acclimatization program. The short, but steep climb is a great way to get adjusted to the high altitude. This was the idea when we climbed, but when we reached the top, we were pleasantly stunned by the aerial beauty that was on offer.


The entire town of Leh with its barren tree cover could be seen from the top of Shanti Stupa. The Himalayan mountains surrounding it added to the aura. And as the evening set in, the rays of the setting sun dressed these views in splendid gold making for some fantastic sunset moments from Leh.

 
The barren Western Himalayas, the Leh town and the army camps below, each seemed to shine in the golden light making for some treasured views of the Leh town. These beautiful views more than made up for the puffing climb to the top of Shanti Stupa that included climbing over a steep flight of 200 to 250 plus steps.


A word of caution though; Don’t get confused by these bright scenes, which give a feeling of warmth. In reality, it was a good 15 degrees below zero or even lower when we saw these spectacular sunset moments.

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Sunset Silhouette Moments from Belur Channakeshava Temple

It was a typical monsoon day and all I could see was dark clouds and gloomy weather. I knew this type of bad lighting was not ideal for architectural photography and was hoping that the sun would come out and bless us with some golden evening light.

 
And it was one of those days when hope turned into reality. In fact, the day made a complete turnaround from grey skies to brilliantly blue skies with golden evening rays of the sun. It was right at this opportune time that I found myself at the Belur Channakeshava temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the pride of the Hoysala empire.

 
The light became so good that I decided to indulge in some silhouette photography keeping the temple architecture in the foreground and the designer clouds, blue skies and the setting sun in the background.

 
Personally, I don’t know how to categorize these photographs. Should I club them as landscape photography or skyscape photography. Or should I categorize them as silhouette photography, if there is such a category. These photographs seems to have all the right combination of elements and hence the dilemma.

 
What is your opinion? I am more leaning towards silhouette photography!

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Sunset Moment: South West Coast of Sri Lanka

It was early evening and I was driving from Thangalle to Galle on the South Western coastal highway of Sri Lanka. Somewhere during this drive, we took a pit stop to stretch our legs and enjoy the gentle coastal breeze. The sun was casting its soft golden glow on the sea making it a very pleasant sight.

 
It was during this time that I spotted this fisherman preparing himself for his evening fishing expedition. Since the lighting was still strong, I decided to capture the silhouette of the fisherman against the golden seas by underexposing my photo. Personally, I like this composition a lot as it visually depicts an important coastal activity and also brings out the picturesque waterscape. What do you think?

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Sunset Moments from Agonda Beach, South Goa

Agonda Beach is a beautiful beach that is located close to Palolem beach, but it is no way close to Palolem in terms of infrastructure development, facilities and tourism. Instead, it offers a very laid back holiday to the beach vacationer.


Unlike the Palolem Beach, Agonda Beach doesn’t have a lot of beach shacks. May be a couple here and there, but the speciality of Agonda is its row of houses that run parallel to the beach. These row houses give the tourist the ideal opportunity to soak in the pristine beach and Goan sun for a very reasonable cost.


The other thing special about Agonda is the river that joins the sea at one end of the beach. This estuary is a fabulous place for an evening walk with plenty of mangrove forests dotting the banks. This estuary is also a happening place during early morning and late evening for the fishermen.


The sunset at Agonda is also very scenic as it offers variety in landscape. At some places, it is just open beach and blue waters. At other places, it is a river and its estuary. Then, at one corner is a small hill.


Thus, if you take an evening walk across Agonda Beach, you are bound to see the sunset in various shades and forms. Each mood and is surrounding landscape is pretty in its own way.


The sunset views at Agonda are as great as any other beach of South Goa! But, the experience is unique and very special. I recommend that you try it out.

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Sunset Moments from Agumbe

One can never get bored of a Agumbe Sunset. It is quite a special sight. Tourists from all over visit this small village just to catch a good glimpse of its famous sunset from the 14th mile point.


Here are some of those pristine sunset moments that makes this place special.

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Surya Namaskar

One goes to Agumbe to see rustic life and greenery at its very best, but what one can also see here is the deep-rooted culture that has existed here for centuries.


To cite an example, one can see well dressed (in traditional attire) elderly ladies and gentlemen chant hymns and offer their prayers to the sun as part of their ‘Surya Namaskar’ ritual every Friday at the famous sunset point of Agumbe. They believe that the more beautiful the sunset, the better the effect of their prayers.


When I saw these events unfold in front of me, I was left totally stunned as this was the first instance that I saw people offering prayers to the sun at a famous tourist spot. Coming from a Brahmin family, Surya Namaskarams and reciting the Gayatri mantra three times a day is quite normal for me.


What was quite refreshing for me to see was that each hymn (read Surya Namaskarams) was sung in the right way and annotations. And such was the energy in their recitals that other locals and tourists alike joined them in their prayer making it a mass event.



I thoroughly enjoyed these cultural moments. I was so engrossed in it that I missed to capture these moments in either a video or through a large set of photographs. Luckily for me, I took a couple of photographs that depict this scene at a high level.


Seeing this cultural exhibition unfold along side a fabulous sunset is an amazing experience. You should definitely try and experience it at least once in your lifetime.

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Inquisitive Kid: Some Portraits

While me and my friends were busy taking shots of the sunset from Agumbe’s famous sunset point, I noticed through the corner of my eye that a kid was looking very inquisitively at us.


At first, I let it go. Then, I again noticed him intently staring at  us and our camera lenses. May be, he had nothing better to do as all the adults were blocking his view of the sunset.


But, then I really liked the innocence in this inquisitive look of his and hence decided to frame it. He is what I would call innocence personified. What do you think?

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Famous Sunset of Agumbe

The locals say that Agumbe is world famous for its sunset. In fact, even the information board at this sunset point claims this. Now, there are a lot of sunrise and sunset points all over the country. But, frankly, only a few of them are really noteworthy. But, Agumbe is very special!!

 
According to me, the Agumbe sunset figures right in the top. In fact, it is only a close second behind the sunset I saw over the Indian Ocean at Lakshadweep Islands. Kanyakumari and other places take a back seat in front of Agumbe.


The Sunset point is located about 2 kilometres outside of Agumbe at what is known as the 14th mile. A platform has been created for the tourists to enjoy the pristine view. For those who are adventurous enough to climb a steep flight of stairs, an even higher view point waits for them.

 
The sight of the setting sun against the open horizon and surrounded by the Western Ghats is so good that it can actually give you goose bumps. It is said that on a clear day, you can actually see the Arabian Sea from here. And the Arabian Sea, my friends, is more than 40 kilometres away as the crow flies. Now, ain’t that something!!

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Sunset Colours outside Lingdum Monastery, Sikkim, India

It was a great sunset that I got to see from the Lingdum Monastery in Sikkim. Since, it was pretty late in the evening, I did not get to see the actual sunset, but the sunset’s effect on the sky. Here are some photos from those colourful few minutes.

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