SOUTH AMERICA : 1 YEAR

One year of South America tour.

Many destinations, many smiles accomplished. On this day me and my most steady travel friend Jorge finished our 3 months tour in South America.

 Everytime the little spanish I spoke to explain that I am from India. The immediate reaction would be "Dios!! Otro Mundo". It means, "God!! The other world".
The idea was to travel in all the countries falling under the equator line. We went all the 8 out of 9 countries. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia, Equador and Columbia. The only one we could not go is Paraguay and that is because we were short of time and also my visas issues.

This day last year, I was excited to board a 4 day flight to my country, India. Yes not some hours or a day, it was a journey of 4 days. 

I left behind the other part of the world which I miss so much.

Today in India, I miss something a lot i.e the Otro Mundo(The other world). 

BHUBANESWAR ROAD :)

This is the street which is my favourite in my city Bhubaneswar. Love it for its beauty, the bottle neck palm trees and the circle by governor's house.

Today while I had to be at this very road for nearly two hours, I had no difficulty to kill time. While I was waiting for a family friend, I decided to make pictures of the street. Certainly being at one spot is not my thing. Hence, I took few rounds in this road to make pictures. 

They are laid below from afternoon to evening. 

Architecture travels too :)

Here is a piece of stunning information. 

At the governor house square in Bhubaneswar in Orissa, India I was going through a page of Incredible Earth for the fact they bring beautiful pictures around the globe. 

But I was stunned to see a photo of a Hindu Temple in Cairo, Egypt. I did not believe it and was almost going to leave a note on the page : Its not true, are you sure ? 

Instead I allowed the adrenaline rush in my body in right direction and googled "Hindu temple in Cairo". 

The result left me stunned, there is this structure very much existing in a suburban district of Cairo. One more reason for me to visit Egypt.

A belgian enterpreneur called Baron Empain arrived in Cairo in the 1904 to rescue his wife's project. They lost the project but instead stayed there to create wonder. He found Cairo electric railways and more. This allowed the city of Cairo to grow in the north east direction in the desert. This new city developed in the first decade of 18th century is called Heliopolis. 

But what a story, his mansion is designed by a French architect named Alxander Marcel. He combined the style of Angkor wat in Cambodia and temples of Orissa, India to product the Baron Empain Mansion. 

This is what happens when architects travel. If architecture travels then what does not.

Seriously!! what does not travel in this world. 

Picture courtesy: Wikipedia and online sources. 

SELFIE # 1

Here is a selfie from the lunch to start Oriya new year.

We all gathered for a sumptuous lunch at Leesa's house and a selfie was unavoidable. 

Happy New Year !!

No its not again January so soon. It is not even end of December.

It is 15th of April!

But in Orissa, the new year start with Pana Shankranti. It is considered auspicious for Oriya people to start the day visiting temples to offer Pana(a drink made of dry fruits, fruits, sugar, milk, curd, jaggery and sweet condensed milk) to the Linga of Lord Shiva and auspicious plant.

In the evening this delicious drink is shared between families, relatives, friends and communities. Not that it is mandatory but adding Bhang(a paste made out of Marijuana leaves) to this drink is also a big raise for the adults in the family. 

Every year, my family makes this drink to share happiness in our entire village of Bomikhal. We youngsters take the charge of preparing this drink. Like every year we peeled and cut the fruits to add into a huge bowl of milk. The bowl is as big as to serve 200-300 people in make. Thats not all we also added sweet condensed milk, grated coconuts,  jaggery, curd, sugar. 

Ofcourse there was a separate counter to add Marijuana if one wishes to. This was a great way to start the new year. 

Shankranti = Songran

Songkran is the new year in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. The south east asian countries celebrates one of its biggest festival of the year. Everyone puts the white chalk like powder and throws water on others to wish Happy New Year :)

The concept of the festival is like Holi in India minus the colours. 

Sankranti is the Oriya and Bengali new year which is mostly towards mid April. In Orissa it is also known as Maha Vishu Sankranti for the religious people offer Pana(a delious drink made of Fruits, dry fruits, condensed sweet milk, curd and may be Marijuana) to the auspicious Basil plant, the Linga of Lord shiva. This drink is also celebrated by sharing between family, relatives and community. 

As both Songkran and Shankranti is the start of the year in South east asia and East India, hence Songkran = Shankranti 

IDENTICAL TWIN BROTHERS SEPARATED AT BIRTH

It is same same but different.

Today there is something to share here in my blog which surprised me this morning.

Its been twice in the last one and half year that we celebrated Bali Jatra(Voyage to Bali) in my blog. 

Just to refresh, Bali Jatra is an annual festival celebrated in my region Orissa, India to remember the ancient maritime days of trade between the east coast of India and the Islands of Java, Sumatra and Bali. 

I have travelled in Indonesia and been to the Island of Bali twice. In my journeys I have found many similarities betwen the Bali and Orissa. Walking in the markets I have always felt that we have the same range of products. 

So coming back to my surprise, I came across one of the pictures of the Instagrammer I follow and it got me all excited. Her page in Instagram is called Ecogypsy and she shares beautiful pictures from her travel. Currently its about Indonesia and she had shared the famous Ikat & batik fabrics of Bali Island. I  was surprised that these fabrics are also very famous in Orissa and primarily hand made in the city of Sambalpur. 

Its very popular and happens often in Bollywood cinemas, where one fine two identical persons meet to realize they are twins who got separated at birth. 

So for the similarity like two identical twins these hand made & tie-dye fabrics must have originated in Orissa and gone to Bali for the exchange of trade or visa versa. 

As its same same but only from different places of the world. 

Sometimes our world turns out to be very small place. 

http://instagram.com/p/lywS79SOJJ/

I EMBRACE BUDDHA # 2

BUDDHA LOVE ❤️

In the ancient city of Ayutthaya, I walked miles, adored the ruins, explore the beauty of the long lost time and between all there was a calmness dwelling in the air. 

All I thought of is Buddha, the time he lived and his greatness. Sometimes its incredible that while we are traveling, we travel virtually in another age/time for what we see. 

COLOURS!!

So here is my travel plan for Holi.
I would be out on a bike tour with my friend. Its not a big one. We do a road trip of 65 kms to the beach city Puri. The new 4 - lane highway is almost ready and we start around 3 PM to make some stops for picture, for some chai, for fueling the bike tank etc.

There is a pre-Holi party. We drop the bags at my best friend Joe's house and go to the Party. Tomorrow would be real fun. The colours would be out, so would be the smiling faces. There would be sweets, drinks, snacks etc.

Guess where is the real colour party? Its the beach. But for that I need colours.
So friends, which colour shall I pick for you ?

Its been 4 years, I played Holi and I can not wait for tomorrow.

But for now, I can not wait to hit the road :)

MISSING PARIS!!

It was 2012, I had my first little steps to Europe. To begin with Paris was my first stop. One of the most beautiful cities of the world.

From that day till date, the city always lived in my memories. Today when I went to pick up a cake for a family gathering to COOKIES, I saw what is below.

A collage of the beautiful monuments of PARIS on one of the walls. In a flick of the second, like a bullet train I ran through my memories in this grande destination. The CDG(Charles de Gaulles Airport), the walk around in the city, the extravagant Champs- Elysees, Arc the Triomph, Sacre Seour by night. The strongest was the Effiel Tower with the glitterati sharp at 9 PM.

 Excuse-me Sir! Sir !

Sirrrrr!!
Please pay the 650 ruppees.
It was in a dream at the counter with open eyes. I woke up from my day dream and got down the bullet train.
 
PARIS, I miss you!!