In November 2016, our trip to Kerala was a wonderful distraction from a series of major events that took place that month — we were witness to the initial chaos caused by demonetisation that had just been announced in India, were asked to comment on the “surprising” U.S. election results (that were announced on the same day as demonetisation), and experienced first hand Delhi’s deteriorating air quality amidst the worst air pollution in its history caused by burning of crops in neighboring states.

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Empty Agra Expressway and toll booth in the initial days of demonetisation — I have never seen an empty road in India…let alone a highway that connects the Capital to one of the seven wonders of the world!

Kerala was a wonderful experience — we visited Munnar and its beautiful tea plantations, took an elephant ride and tour of the spice gardens, enjoyed a Kathakali classical dance performance, cruised on the famed backwaters of Kumarakom, lay on hammocks to catch the beautiful dawns and dusks, and swam in clear, meandering pools to shake off the heat.

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My favorite part of the trip was a jeep safari to the top of a mountain in Munnar, that only my husband and I went on, to catch the sunrise over the tea plantations. The best (and the worst) events in life are rarely planned – they mostly catch you unawares. And so my husband and I sat in the jeep at 4am to start our 1.5 hour journey towards Kolukkumalai, the highest tea estate in the world, not knowing that there was practically no road, and it would be a 1.5 hours of rickety, bum and back shattering ride to the top!

But we made it, and watching the sun come up above the horizon, over the tea plantation, above cloud level, remains one of the most beautiful travel experiences of my life.

We spent a good amount of time on top of the tea estate clicking pictures and were about to head back, when we ran into a group of young folks, probably in their twenties, heading over with their guide/driver from the other side of the mountain. They urged us excitedly to head in the direction they had come from and to not miss seeing the tiger’s head before we left. So we told our guide that we wanted to see it too. He took us there but wasn’t too thrilled about this idea and we could soon see why. Viewing the “tiger’s head” , essentially a rock carved as the head of a tiger, involved dangerous navigation through narrow ledges and steep rocks and the actual tiger’s head, while gorgeous, was a straight fall down the mountain incase of any mishap.

We made it back safely, and were glad to experience this beautiful sight, but in hindsight I feel that the walk to see the tiger’s head was an unnecessary risk that we took — just the gorgeous sunrise over the tea estate was sufficiently worth our early morning tortuous ride.

Alaska’s Inside Passage is lined with stunning glaciers and fjords, and lush scenery. My family and I took a Princess cruise along the Inside Passage, starting in Vancouver in August 2011 as part of our Alaska travel itinerary with two very young kids. It was one of the most magnificent (and expensive) trips we had taken till then.

In Alaska, there are beautiful, pristine landscapes waiting to be captured as far as the eye can stretch, but two of my fondest memories are of daily sunrises/sunsets over the blue waters of the Pacific, and my first whale watching tour in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, and one of our ports of call during the cruise.

While I had been on cruises before, there must have been something about the Inside Passage that caused me to just sit and stare at the blue sky and water while cruising on our ship. I was mesmerized, so much so that, at night, I would leave the door of our balcony cabin open to feel the breeze and hear the sound of waves in the ocean.

And then there were the simple sunrises and sunsets. They can only be experienced, not described.

It was a sunny 72° F when our ship halted in Juneau. According to our ship crew, this was the best weather they had seen in Juneau all season that year. We had two excursions planned at this port – a whale watching tour and a visit to the Mendenhall glacier.

Having never done a whale watching tour before, I didn’t know what to expect. It ended up being one of the highlights of our vacation, and enabled me to click one of my most successful stock photos. We were booked on a small private boat with another couple for company.

Our boat captain, an experienced sailor, told us that it was against the rules for a boat to approach whales at a distance closer than 30 feet; however, there were no rules if the whales decided to approach us! And it did happen! While I was expecting to see maybe a whale or two, that day we saw dozens of humpbacks playing in the ocean around our boat! There were so many whales nearby that, had they wanted to, they could have in unison easily toppled our small boat, and made a nice meal out of us. In between their playtime, the whales called out to each other, and the sounds they emitted reverberated like cosmic booms across the ocean. We learnt that humpback whales emit a tall spray before they surface — by the end of our tour we had become experts in spotting whales.

And a couple came so close to us , that I could only capture their fins with my telephoto lens 🙂

Iceland is one of the most beautiful countries I have visited. From the vast glaciers, stunning waterfalls, volcanic hinterland, natural hot water springs, interesting wildlife, and idyllic wilderness landscapes — everywhere your eyes look there is beautiful scenery waiting to be captured!

My family and I toured Iceland end of May – beginning of June in 2017 as soon as summer vacations began for my kids. Having read reams about the different Icelandic seasons, it was clear to us that we would not be able to see Aurora Borealis or The Northern Lights during our trip. For that, a winter sojourn to Iceland is required. We were prepared to witness almost 24 hour daylight during our trip.

Top: Monochrome Image of Akureyri, Iceland’s fourth largest city ; Bottom: A Heart Shaped Red Light at a Traffic Signal in Akureyri

So it was with a pleasant surprise that the following incident occurred during our third night in Iceland. After driving along the Ring Road from the western part of Iceland, we reached our cottage in Akureyri, Iceland’s fourth largest city at approximately 11pm. Because of the long daylight hours, it is possible to sightsee in Iceland during spring / summer till pretty late. Exhausted, the kids ate quickly and checked into bed. The curtains were drawn in the bedrooms to simulate night time. Just out of curiosity, my husband and I peeped out of one of the curtains and were stunned to see a blood-red sky! We were witness to a spectacular midnight sunset.

I quickly grabbed my tripod and camera, and drove to an open parking lot nearby to capture this magical spectacle at 12 am. So glad that I did, because the next morning , as we were leaving Akureyri, the weather had reverted to default Iceland weather of gray, stormy skies with not a clue left of the magnificence of the previous night!

I have seen many monkeys in my life so far – in zoos, at wildlife safaris, and forests. In India and on the island of Bali in Indonesia, they are considered sacred by Hindus who consider them as representatives of God Hanuman on earth. Therefore, they, along with cows, have immunity from being confined to a space, and roam freely across the land. They are known to visit even homes on the sly, open refrigerators and help themselves to food etc. 🙂 . In their lifetime, I guarantee that a good number of people in tropical countries have been picked on by monkeys and have had all sorts of stuff like food, and other personal items, snatched from them 😉

The first such incident happened to me in Bali. I was visiting the famous Uluwatu temple at sunset, when this bugger quietly approached from a nearby roof and grabbed my sunglasses off my head. I shrieked while all the other tourists and my family watched in amusement and were busy clicking pictures 🙂 The temple priest had to be called and the ape had to be bribed with a treat before returning those back! I was glad to get those back — many are not so lucky, including my husband, who was once deprived of his scientific calculator after his engineering exam when he was resting under a tree in Delhi 😀

Monkey with my Sunglasses

In one of the numerous cab rides in Singapore, our Singaporean cab driver, upon determining that we were of Indian origin, proudly narrated to us that he had served as a butler to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad, former President of India , scientist and Bharat Ratna, when the latter was on an official visit to Singapore.  Our driver, who had an opportunity to converse with India’s President, was full of praise for President Kalam saying that he was such a famous scientist and knowledgeable person, yet such a humble human being who didn’t speak like a politician at all. Upon leaving Singapore, Dr. Kalam gifted him with a tie on behalf of India. Our driver said it was one of his prized possessions. It made me very happy to hear praise for someone who so richly deserves it. Through his friendly act, Dr. Kalam fostered a legacy of goodwill between people of different nations.

It happened, completely by chance, that my family and I made two consecutive international vacation trips in 2019 – Spain in March 2019 during kids’ spring break, and Peru in May-June 2019 at the start of kids’ summer vacation. Both ended up being amazing trips, but it was not till we landed in Lima that I realized that we had visited the colonial power, and were visiting one of its former colonies within a span of few months.

While touring Spain was an amazing experience, certain historical facts about Spain stood out for me, especially details regarding the Spanish Inquisition and how Queen Isabel of Spain sought to make Spain a Catholic country through promotion and imposition of Catholicism; this diktat was extended to all its colonies as well.

As we toured Peru, and visited site after site of Inca “ruins”, it became more and more clear what such policies entailed, not just for Peru, but for so many “third world” countries that were, once upon a time, colonies of European colonial powers. The crimes of colonialism are many — the looting of people’s wealth and resources, impoverishing an entire society, but most of all branding a far superior civilization as “savages”, destroying their indigenous culture and architecture to impose your way of life on them, advancing yourself at their expense – such intolerance!

The impacts of those policies carry on to this day. Spanish cities are beautiful! The Catholic churches, cathedrals, basilicas and monasteries are ornate and rich and extravagant. The source of most of these riches can be traced back to colonial loot. In the Inca capital at Cusco, rooms full of gold and silver were carted off to Spain from just one sacred temple — Coricancha – the Temple of the Sun — which was stripped bare by the colonials.

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First Image: Coricancha – Sacred Temple of the Incas in Cusco – now it is the Church and Convent of Santo Domingo; Second Image: 3 such rooms filled with gold and 1 room of silver were initially giifted to the colonialists thinking that they would then leave the Inca empire alone… ; Third Image: The Moon Temple Inside Coricancha – the bare alcoves show the empty spots where centuries ago idols of the deities of the Incas used to reside. These walls were painted white with the Catholic imagery by the Spanish (white colored paint remnants can be seen throughout) but a few years ago the paint was washed away because of a storm and the Peruvians realized what was underneath!

Today, parts of Lima, the capital of Peru, look like an urban slum. Peru struggles with corruption and unstable governments. With the Spanish inquisition, the vast majority of Peru’s population capitulated and converted to Catholicism. Yet, according to our guide in Cusco, many have a hard time being 100% Catholic, especially in the highlands of Peru in the Andes. “I haven’t completely accepted it”, said our guide, “I kind of follow a mix between what I have inherited from the Spanish and what my ancestors used to follow – worshipping Mother Earth – Pachamama and other deities from the Inca and pre-Inca times.”

And so it is with all aspects of life in Peru these days – things can be suppressed for only so long – there is a cultural renaissance / nationalistic revival as people are going back to their roots. Increasing emphasis is being placed on learning and speaking local languages (such as Quechua) vs. Spanish and there is a deep desire to rediscover their heritage and traditions. According to our guide in Lima, “so much of this stuff was hidden from us, so much has been suppressed…the history that we learnt as kids about Peru and our ancient civilizations was a completely different history.”

These observations have struck a chord with me because I see many parallels between Peru and India. In many ways, India was worse off having faced repeated barbaric invasions from Islamic invaders and having suffered over 500 years of Mughal and British colonial rule. Yet, it is a proud testament to the forbearance and resistance offered by our ancestors that these invaders and rulers, while having successfully destroyed indigenous civilizations across many lands, hit a wall in India and were never able to eliminate Hindu civilization. More on this some other time. Adios for now.