Cuzco, Peru For those who are interested in Cuzco’s history, geography, landscape, architecture, culture, handicrafts, folklore etc. I would rather refer to more authentic sources like the link below: http://www.cusco-peru.org/ For others, I am giving my own impressions for what it is worth. (Worth maybe about 50 clicks on the blog.) Cuzco, variously spelled as Qusqu, Qosqo, Cusco etc. means ‘The Navel’ or The Center’. This is a sort of euphemism, because Spaniards literally translated its original name Akamama as ‘Chicha’s [View Full Entry]

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Machu Picchu I was so utterly exhausted by the altitude of Cuzco that I would have refused to go to Machu Picchu if it were any higher. However, I was assured by our travel agents that contrary to the popular conception, Machu Picchu is a good deal LOWER than Cuzco. For dry details, of the history, geography etc. of Machu Picchu, please follow the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu This ‘Lost City of the Incas’ is the cause of the tourist influx of Peru. I have never heard of a tourist who did NOT visit Machu Picchu while in Peru, after [View Full Entry]

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Sacred Valley Tour In a country, where there is hardly any level ground and where hills and dales abound, why this particular valley alone should be sacred? The answer leaps to the eye. This is not a valley but a vale, broad and fertile with special climatic conditions. It also controls the route to the Amazon jungles. No wonder that it was thought to be sacred, and was heavily fortified against the incursions of the jungle tribes. In fact, the massive fortifications of Ollantaytambo are a mute witness to the might of Incas that was concentrated here. The Incas were [View Full Entry]

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Beautiful Puno, Peru No, my dear Puneites, there are more interesting and more beautiful cities than Pune on this earth. Yes, you guessed right. I am not a Punekar. I am a Mumbaikar but aspiring to become a Punekar when the real estate prices stabilize in Pune. Actually, I would have loved to become a Punokar. Situated on the shore of Lake Titicaca, Puno has a wonderful backdrop of the beautiful, huge lake. However, two things are against my becoming a Punokar. Firstly, I am not a Peruvian citizen and secondly, Puno is at a height of 3860 meters which [View Full Entry]

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Arequipa Arequipa is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It felt even more beautiful to me because we had descended to 7500 feet from 12600+ feet and consequently, my breathlessness had lessened. Arequipa is situated in a broad valley, surrounded by three active volcanoes. You look anywhere towards horizon, you will see the brooding bulk of one of the volcanoes - El Misti, Chachani or Picchu Picchu. Picchu is ‘peak’ in Quechua language. Picchu Picchu means plural ‘peaks’. The reason is clear when you see the silhouette of the mountain against the sky. I [View Full Entry]

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My Hong Kong Croakery, A satire (Psatire?) I call it croakery, because it croaked. Hong Kong was our first trip together after a long time, and so I suppose, we enjoyed it maximum. We did the usual touristy things, visited Victoria Peak, Museums, Kowloon Promenade, Chinese temples. The grade at Victoria Peak is so steep that as you are going up, all the buildings look as though they are leaning crazily, worse than the Tower of Pisa. The view from the top is as good as the Mumbai’s view from the Hanging Gardens. One particular building keeps on changing the [View Full Entry]

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Thailand - Part II Ayutthaya I was researching the Net during the lunch-hour and came across the famous photo of the “Buddha head in a Bo tree” at Ayutthaya. I was highly intrigued. How this was at all possible? Stone idols do not grow on the trees after all. I called my junior colleague over. “Dev, Just look at this, How this sort of thing came about, I can’t imagine” I said, showing him the photo. He also could not imagine how a stone Buddha head can appear in the trunk of a ‘Bo’ tree. It looked more like a [View Full Entry]

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Bangkok - Part I I really do not like the name Bangkok, but I definitely am not going to use its official name, which is: “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”. Mind you, this is the full name of the city, and even its short form “Krung Thep’ (City of Angels) is not as easy as Bangkok. (Village of wild plums) Bangkok also means “A hat made of finely woven straw.” [View Full Entry]

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Serendipity in Sri Lanka (2004)-Part II Ratnapura I went to Ratnapura alone on a bus, and at the bus-stand, hired an auto rickshaw for the half day that I was going to spend there, visiting the gems shops and the gems mines and an authentic National Gem Museum (This last is actually a Government-owned scientific museum, not a shop masquerading as one.) Ratnapura is a very lovely village, surrounded by lovely blue hills, and dark, green forests. The gem-mine that I visited looked like our own coconut groves, in the midst of which was the dry pit. The wate [View Full Entry]

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Serendipity in Sri Lanka (2004)-Part I This is not a thesis about Serendipity in Physics, Chemistry or Biology or any other science, but a blog about how I found THE star sapphire in Sri Lanka, which I was searching for in Nepal. Please refer to my blog Kathmandu Nostalgia, and my misconceptions about the ‘Polarization Effect In Star Sapphire”. Well, I owed it to Bunny. I had to buy a star sapphire for her now (And, of course for Bambi also) or bust, and I DID go bust in buying the start sapphire, believe me. We went to Sri Lanka [View Full Entry]

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