Patnitop-The hill station enroute to Srinagar

If one finds travel to Srinagar a risky affair and yet wants to have a whiff of the valley then a alternative could be Patnitop or Patni Top-a beautiful hill top tourist spot located on the Udhampur - Srinagar route.

On cancellation of our helicopter service to the shrine at Vaisno devi due to bad weather (Lucky to get the tickets the next day), we took this journey to Patnitop from Katra, a journey in the lower Himalayan ranges with picture postcard images all along.

A better way explore and bask in the atmosphere here would be to spend at least a day at the many resorts in the the vicinity. On our short visit we could only enjoy the beautiful valley for some time in biting cold on a summer day.

The Winding road to the top

The Beautiful meadows with the tall Pine trees

Cute Little cottages painted green

Pani-puri  on the meadows

Octroi Post-Indo-Pak Border

Pakistan- I hope all thats between us would be solved ot atleast take a back seat and we could live as neighbours should live. Will the day dawn when we could walk down one such border post into Pakistan, go to the Indus valley sites of Mohenjodaro?

I hope it happens.

Never the less we are at the Octroi border, near the Suchet Garh village. A very short distance from Jammu. This post is devoid of all the glamour associated with the Wagha Border and is a silent place, with farmers grazing the land on both sides and the birds chirping (yes from both sides -they know no border)

 

The  milestone says Sialkot 11 km (someone remarked- this is where Sania Mirza lives now)

Entry through the above gate brings to this last point

AMBARAN-An ancient buddist site

It was  ecstatic  to learn of Ambaran- an ancient Buddhist ruins of Kushans and Gupta dynasties. Located a few kilometers away from Akhnoor on the banks of the Chenab. Excavations suggests  four different periods of existance-the pre kushans period (second century BC), The Kushans period, the Gupta and the post kushans period.

The site at Ambaran-excavated at different levels

Many a terracotta heads and a gold casket containing the relics of the Buddha were unearthed here and are exhibited in various museums of the world.

Some coins, terracotta beads and other articles of Kaniska- the great Kushan Emperor unearthed her are exhibited in a small room along with some photographs of the excavation.

For some one with deep routed interest in archeology, a visit to this virgin site (I call it so because the excavation are on and fear, one fine day they may construct or recreate-this I feel is sacrilegious) is enthralling.

The base of the Stupa covered by tarpaulin sheets to save it from the vagaries of the weather. Hope the rain does not disintegrate the structure

Akhnoor- Glow of the Eye

When I did my  research for ancient sites around Jammu, I stumble upon Akhnoor and to my surprise I learn Sites concerning Indus valley civilisation are at Akhnoor, and then  the romantic epic of Sohni-Mahiwal was said to have taken place here ( with both drowning in the Chenab).

A Strategic located place, just about 40 kms from Jammu, along the might Chenab, used to be the Mogul route  Srinagar.  It takes little more than a hour from Jammu, mainly because of the many barricades and check point put up by the Army. Because of the close proximity to the Pak-border, security in this area is quite intense.
Emperor Jahangir-passionately in love with Kashmir died on the way to Srinagar near here. We were told stories of Pandav's serving their Agayat Vas here, the presence of King  Virat's palace. Previously called Virat nagar, the change to Akhnoor (glow of the eye) is attributed to the Mogul Queen being cured of a eye ailment by a priest here .

The Imposing fort built on  the hilltop is said to be on a previous terrace of the Harrapan civilisation. Excavation in the fort are purported to support this, Unfortunately there were no guides to explain this. A walk down the fort leads to the Pandav Guha-the cave where the pandavs hid.

Panoramic View of the fort across the river Chenab


The interiors of the fort

A priest cooks his lunch of cabbage in one of the temples- he is the one who narrates most of history to us

The Steps of the Gurudwara leads to the Chenab

Jammu_The Temple Town

Jammu is called the temple towns for the umpteen number of temple seen every where. This town serves as the base camp for devotees to Vaishno Devi, Tourists and locals to Srinagar and Leh, Ladakh and off course our Troops-who are dispatched all over the valley from here.
In this process not many view Jammu from the tourist angle. We too couldn't see the Bahu Fort (I have seen the photographs they are amazing), An ancient Shiva temple nearby, 'coz we had kept it for the last and then finally missed it.
With Jammu as base we visited lots of interesting places: The Octroi Border, Aaknoor, Vaishno Devi, Patni Top etc.

The Raghunath Mandir in the heart of the town-is a  sprawling temple complex surrounded by the markets full of shops selling dry fruits, carpets, Rajma, Pasmina shawls ets.

Raghunath Mandir                                                                               Pasmina stole on dispaly

The revolving restaurant (KC residency) nearby gives a very good view of the whole city , and serves good non-vegetarian food too.

The one place not to miss, is the war recently constructed war memorial. Constructed atop a hill top- A dagger like structure, surrounded by sprawling gardens and sand stone columns with the names of the Martyrs in the various wars fought by India engraved on them . Come to the Kargill war section and one can see the many familiar names of soldiers. The atmosphere here is very sacred, with patriotic songs in the background-leaves one with goose pimples and a lump in the throat.

An evening view of the War Memorial

Moret-sur-Loing

When our local contact who lives in Moret-sur-Loing offered  to take us  to his village, many local french suggested us to take this, calling it a beautiful place, an abode of painters, especially Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley. I neither knew impressionist painting nor Alfred Sisley, though later, I could see his works on the net.

Moret-sur-Loing is only few miles away from Fontainebleau, A fairy tale like place so beautiful, words fail to describe. No wonder why Alfred would have chosen to spend his life here. It looks as if time has stopped, Its medieval structure, the cobbled stone pathways, the enchanting river gushing through the place. Wow, I am waiting to spend a couple of days here.
The delicacy of this place is a candy called Sucre d'Orge, a triangular shaped peppermint similar in shape and appearance to our vicks drops, but sweet in taste. I recall having tasted similar peppermint in my schooldays with a hint of coconut in it. The recipe is closely guarded for about 160 years now and the factory also boast of a museum for tourists to see the history of Sucre d'Orge.

Medieval buildings such as this and beautiful statues adorn the Town all along

 

La maison Raccolet a house of tourist attraction

An ancient facade probably called Façade François Ier

12th-century towers which takes to the river

Panoramic view of the right bank

The beautiful Right bank

Château de Fontainebleau

My penchant for history takes me to Fontainebleau a small town just 60 kms away form Paris.  Surrounded by dense forest and famous for the Château de Fontainebleau- the palace with history embedded in every corner of the huge palace. You get to see the place Pope Pius VII was imprisoned by Napoleon and then, at this very palace Napoleon signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, by the virtue of which he was exiled to Elba. Its another matter he returned back to face defeat at Waterloo.

The Palace is surrounded by huge gardens, rich with fountains of all type, beautiful sculptures spread out in the entire complex, a huge lake, White peacock dancing along - makes all this a enchanting place.

The Imposing Palace gates

Front View of the Château

 An Interesting Fountain

A collage of sculptures in the Château and out in the gardens

Collage of the bedroom, assembly hall, paintings and the stained glass in side the Château

Country side in the Suburbs of Paris

Its always worth while  moving away from places which are filled with the regular tourists,  limiting ourself to the city of lights-Paris, is a mistake most of us the make. A short distance from the main centre of attraction will take you to many places, which could turn out to be a beautiful experience.

Starting with the French countryside, I wanted to see how the rural ordinary people live, there life style etc. But after seeing much of the areas, I realised that in a Developed Nation, If I was trying to find the sort of poverty that exist in rural India, It is not to be. Having spent 16 years in Kerala, I suddenly realised, Kerala too is miles ahead in terms of Hygiene, cleanliness, standard of living etc. All this only due to the higher literacy rates.

A small village

Horse breeding farms

History stares at you in many locations, 


Old mansions....

Forts

A brook, very much like in a Enid Blyton story

This is beautiful-an ancient water wheel, in working condition

Parenting- A job indeed for birds too

For those of us who have undergone the travails of parenting would agree the great joy and at times the pain involved in parenting. I have always believed that we are as old as our kids as a parent.

Well Parenting is a task for all living beings. Have we not being chased by a ferocious dogs when we approach their litter, or a violent hen ready to peck, when the chick are approached. But what we have not seen is probably how the birds take pains to hygienically feed their young ones, just like we would sterilise the bowls, spoons, bottles etc. of our young ones

A mother River tern with her chicks patiently waiting for her mate to come with lunch.

One of the chick is a little docile may be because its younger, but the older one is quite brave and ventures out exploring the surrounding.

Pop Arrives with lunch, but the feed being big, the chick nibbles at it and in this process the feed is dropped

Guess what, Pop picks up the feed, flies to the stream, dips in the water to wash fish                          
                                                     

It now comes back with the feed, unfortunately the feed is big and again gets dropped, Pop dutifully carries the same drill of washing the feed

Meanwhile the daring kid ventures out further, and is now dangerously perched near the water. Pop comes and starts feeding his baby, probably unaware of the proximity of the water.

But alas, in the process our daring young one tumbles into the stream and the parents starts wailing and screaming.











 
well, no further photographs...........
 
 

There was a happy end though. We decided to intervene,  rightly or not we do not know? We rescued the chick to its parents. Nature  has its owns  laws should we intervene in the ways of nature ? Can we be a mute spectator? I know not. Rescuing seemed the right option. but then, people has other opinion too. 

The whole saga took about 20 minutes and was more of a delight  to watch than to photograph.

Ranganathittu_Revisited

Ranganathittu is  a birders and photographers paradise, and is a pleasure to keep visiting again and again. The park is full of bird in the seasom from December to March. You will find birds zipping around, Birds nesting, their full throated cry, fetching nesting material, food for their young ones ... my nest, sorry next post will bring in the story of parenting, which is just as important for birds too.

Painted Stork - aptly named in all its glory

An Egret with its babies

 Open bill Storks

The mud swallows- builds their nest in crevices of the rock above the water, and are extremely swift