At the zoo: San Diego

Someone told me / It's all happening at the zoo.

 


Copyright © Natasha Mhatre If you're reading this without attribution to me anywhere other than at my blog Talking Pictures, its probably being plagiarized.

Hampi

I took a break this weekend and went to Hampi. I shot things that weren't alive! The first is the Kadlekalu Ganesha temple on Hemakuta hill by night. The other the pretty stepped tank. The third shot is the Virupaksha tower at dusk.

I even shot pictures of human beings.

And I even managed to wake up early in the morning!

OK, just for those people who want to go at some point. We got a lot of help from the internets, so heres some in return. We took a train, the Hampi Express to Hospet from Bangalore and were there at 6:10ish in the morning. Walked to Hospet bus stand which is about a 10 mins walk away and got a bus to Hampi almost instantly. When we got to Hampi, we were instantly accosted by folks pushing their lodges. We'd heard of Padmas lodge which is just a minute away, she had a decent room and roof which overlooks Hemakuta hill, so we took it. Theres water all day long, but no hot water. If you want that you have to ask for it. But even in October its hot so you don't really need it. Got a Kinetic for about Rs. 150, took 1.5l of fuel which was too much, about 1l should be enough, unless you're going to drive to the Vithalla temple which is a 12 km drive or a 2 km walk, guess which one we did? If you have the time, consider a cycle, it might be more fun.

Spend a couple of days if possible, the ruins are quite spread out and anything less than 3 days is a rush. We had to. I won't tell you too much about this, there are websites you can look stuff up on and decide what you want to see. Try and catch the sunrise from Matanga hill especially if you love rocky terrain. Its very beautiful and you will feel very virtuous for having gotten up early, at least I did. The climbs interesting and you'll meet the monkeys along the way, who seemed quite harmless to us, so don't worry about them.

Try and eat at least once at the Mango tree restaurant which is by the river. The foods faux European for the firangs and slow-train-coming & for-the-firangs Indian but the locations lovely. Be warned, food in general was slow in coming, its a good practice to ask what'll be quick if you're in a hurry. And when they say 10 mins, it might mean 10 mins to 30 mins!

On the way back we caught a bus out of Hampi at 18:00 and were in Hospet by 18:30, the last one out is at 7:00. Theres a Yatri Niwas on the way to the station which looked decent in which you could eat. We took the Garib Nawaj train at 20:20, which unfortunately runs only on Tuesdays. Unfortunate because it gets to B'lore at a very timely 6:00. The returning Hampi gets here at some ungodly 4 or 5!

C'est tout.

PS: the boy says my timings are way off, and add anywhere from 15 mins to 30 mins to all my durations! The last picture is of the town, yup, thats all of it!

Spot billed pelicans

Most of the pictures on my website and on my blog here are from IISc. But I do go out you know. Well ok only very rarely and then with some coaxing...I'm lazy ok? I spent some time last winter going to this lake on the outskirts of Bangalore in a village called Medhalli. A few hundred Spot billed Pelicans were over-wintering there. Neato birds which by the way are endangered according to the Red list.



There were, off course, also fisherman on the same lake. And they didnt like the Pelicans since the birds ate up a lot of fish. They would try all kinds of tricks to keep the birds away, firework rockets, noise etc. With limited success. The birds stayed there all winter long, didnt fish too close to the banks and the fishing hut except early in the morning.

Here are some pictures, the first in the mid-afternoon, extremely contrasty and stopped down to get that nice blue of the water. The pictures of the fishermen in their coracles, the circular cane boat was shot before dawn.

And the Pelican picture next was shot after dawn early in the day when the light was overcast and soft. (which for some reason reminds me of this Stieglitz shot of his wife, the painter Georgia O'Keefe. I guess just the upraised 'arms'.)

The last one off course was at day's end, I love those warm colours mixing up with a blue mixed in into the ripples. The pelicans are there just for weight yeah? :)