Composed Volcano

a blog on travel, food and living…

Category Archives: Guest Posts

Ladakh (final part)

A herd of yak grazing on a patch of pale grass spotted during a drive to Taklang La


Farming community using horses for tilling their fields and sowing wheat

A monastery that stood atop a small hill in the shadow of a large mountain


Diskit Monastery is the oldest and the largest Buddhist monastery in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh. Close to the Diskit monastery on the opposite side one can see a 32 m tall statue of Maitreya Buddha on a hill. One thing unique about this statue is that it’s a statue of Buddha depicting him sitting on a chair and not on the ground with his legs crossed.

Ladakh (Part 2)

Leh Palace

Overlooking the Ladakhi Himalayan town of Leh, Leh Palace once accommodated the royal family. In ruins now, restoration work is undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India. With its majestic setting Leh Palace is a tourist puller.

Leh Palace

Pangong Lake / Tso

People swear by the sheer beauty of this place. A lake that reflects various shades of blue, as the day progressed. Pangong Lake freezes during the winter lake despite it being salty.

Pangong Lake

 

 

Shanti Stupa

Ladakh

Open the gates to your soul, for now you are in Ladakh. Well, that’s what Ladakh has in store for you if not more – tranquility, oneness with the supreme power and your inner self.

I thank Deepak Gulati for letting me use photographs from his trip to Ladakh. Deepak is a computer programmer currently based out of Amsterdam. He loves traveling, photography and reading. He regularly blogs at Sanctuary of Random Keystrokes.

Bangkok and Phuket (Final part)

Having filled our bags with bargains, we left for Phuket the same day. On landing in Phuket, we booked the PhiPhi Island tour for the next day. It is highly recommended that one book such a tour because of two reasons. Firstly, PhiPhi Island is accessible only by ferries and travellers who are not a part of such packages are charged more. Secondly, passengers who book a tour at the airport are given a free shuttle to their hotels. Public transport is nonexistent and taxis are very expensive. Our hotel, Ibis Kata was an hour’s drive from the airport. Had we not booked the tour for about 1000 baht, we would have spent 800 baht just for the taxi back to the hotel! Click for details on Ibis Kata

Bangkok and Phuket (Part 2)

The temple tour and more…..

Our very first stop was the Reclining Buddha Temple which has the longest statue of Buddha. The statue is 46m long and is gold plated.

Reclining Buddha Temple Pic credit: Supriya Kurpad

Next we visited the Marble Temple which is locally known as Wat Benchamabophit, meaning Temple of the fifth king.

Marble Temple Pic Credit: Supriya Kurpad

The temple complex has many statues of Buddha in various poses – walking, sitting, meditating, preaching etc!

Buddha in various poses Pic credit : Supriya Kurpad

Bangkok and Phuket (Part 1)

Guilty as charged, I have been out of loop lately. Everyone told me rather warned me of how little time I would I have for myself let alone blogging after the little ones’ arrival. But, frankly it was more due to health reasons that I could not devote time to writing travelogues or recipes on my other blog site – Akshayapatram, as much as I wanted to. Anyways, am back albeit I will still take it slow.

Today am going to share with you a travelogue about Bangkok and Phuket written by a young traveller Supriya Kurpad, who shares with us her excitement, anxiety and inhibitions, centred on this trip…

Travel to Switzerland

Flag of Switzerland

Beautiful Switzerland

One look at the pictures below and you would know why Switzerland has been one of the favorite destinations not only for the vacationing tourists but the biggest film industry in the world – Bollywood!

Where Berne, the capital city is known for its old town, Zurich the largest city is the centre for banking industry. Geneve, the second biggest city in Switzerland houses many governmental and non governmental organisations. Basel, Laussane, Lucerne and Lugano are other cities each holding its own attractions.

About France

Good food, great wine, beautiful beaches, enchanting mountains, chic fashion, bizarre fashion, invigorating art and culture, great monuments, clean roads, few people :) well that’s France for you.

France can either intimidate you or embrace you depending on how you take it. People here are friendly unlike many contradictory beliefs. A fact that many of us don’t know but was revealed to me by a local during my visit to France was, in his very own words “ Not that we are snooty and don’t want to help the tourists by speaking in English; its just that we feel our English isn’t good enough and we are anxious that we might misguide the tourist”!! Now that gives a whole new perspective to the belief; doesn’t it?    I had a ball in France be it be Montpellier, Bourg St Maurice, Nice, Paris, Mt Ventoux, Lyon…etc. Btw Monaco and Andorra which border France are also worth a visit.

San Francisco Attractions

Pictures speak a million words.  Going by that thought going forward I plan to include photo travel blogs on Composed Volcano. If the shutterbug in you is urging you to send me your travel pics, please do :)

RishiMenon, a brilliant photographer (by hobby)and Suchi, his beautiful wife have many a tales to share from their innumerable travels.  Here are few snapshots from San Francisco,California taken by Rishi.

San Francisco, the city by the bay is a popular international tourist destination

1.    San Francisco is a well known cultural icon and engineering marvel

Montana’s Dino Dig Adventure Vacations

Have you ever wanted to be able to be part of a dinosaur archeology dig and live like a Paleontologist for a day?  If you’d like to find out what it’s like to go back in time and uncover exciting fossils, well then here is your chance to combine your vacation with an adventurous day in the dirt.

Every year from June to July, the Paleo World Research Foundation sponsors a Dinosaur Exhibition that allows the average joe to take part in an actual archeology dig.  Unlike professional paleontologists, people of all ages and backgrounds can participate in a hands-on dig site expedition.  This is not so much a tour as it is an opportunity to see what its like to apply actual field techniques in uncovering 65 year old fossilized dinosaur specimens.