Travel Bug – Page 19 – Spice of Life!

20/05/201521/07/2020

Amazing Ladakh

The airline industry upheaval in India in 2012 affected me personally not because I hold stocks of airline companies but because the shutdown of Kingfisher Airlines sabotaged my trip to Leh. Hence my trepidation when booking our visit this year. As luck would have it, our journey was turbulence-free and here I am … ready with a snapshot of the most amazing place on earth… Leh. A place that takes your breath away- almost literally!

Situated at an elevation of 11300 feet AMSL, a visit to Leh needs thorough preparation. The air is rarer than in the plains so the first thumb rule is do everything SLOWLY!

The region is remote, austere, awesome and humbling. Accessible by roads (that are open in summers) and air (ex-Delhi) this is an ideal summer destination for those who love nature. Be sure to read up about birds because you will find several winged friends just waiting to be spotted. With a lot of help from Foliage Outdoors we spotted Black Billed Magpie, Black Redstart, Red Billed Chough, Yellow Billed Chough, Horned Lark, Chukar, Brahmini Ducks, Tibetan Partidge, Red Crested Pochard, Brown Headed Gull (at Pangong).

Sorry folks, bird photography is not my forte so head to these sites for some basic images and info…

Black Billed Magpie

Dont let the bare mountains fool you. There is plenty of wildlife out there you just need the right perspective to see it! The lucky ones can spot the Marmots, Wild Hare, Blue Sheep, Red Fox, Tibetan Wild Ass (also called Kiang), Yaks, Double humped Camels. Coloured in shades of brown, yellow, white, black, most of these perfectly merge with their surroundings, so do pat yourself on the back if you do notice any of these friends!

Double Humped Camel- zoom in to see his pierced right ear!

The Hall of Fame museum in Leh should be on every visitors’ must-see list. Do drop into the Siachen Gallery and learn first hand what our troops on the northern borders have to deal! They battle harsh weather and inhospitable conditions even in peace times just to keep us safe. Salute to their indomitable spirit.

The Last Post

While distances to Pangong Tso or the Nubra Valley are not very large, numerically speaking, the drive does take a while due to the difficult terrain. The mountains change their personality as the elevation increases. The melting snow along the roadside forms constantly changing ice sculptures! Icicles formed by the frozen water droplets sparkle in the sun forcing you to pull out your camera… Rocks and sand coexist with snow and the gurgling streams rush down to eagerly to join up and form mighty rivers. The bare sandy rocky soil suddenly changes into green bogs near the river banks and this must be a riot of colours in the (relatively) warmer months!

Sindhu Zanskar Sangam

Ladakh has interesting flora as the plants have to adapt to snow, biting winds for most parts of the year. Apricots are said to be indigenous to this region as is the Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides aka Leh Berry).

Apricot Blossoms

Some more images to take your breath away..

Along the River Shayok

Zoom in to see the snow sculptures

Pangong Tso

Here is an interesting article from The Better India entitled The At-Z of Leh! Obviously there would be many more posts on this blogs about this amazing, awesome, forbidding, humbling place! Watch out!

But wait, the reality is that No photo can do justice to Nature’s palette and No camera can capture the colours of the Himalayas…

A week without cell phone or Internet connectivity, makes no difference to the quality my life. It changes ideas about luxury, beauty. Leh forces you to introspect. Who are you? What is your goal in life?

Julley!

19/05/201521/07/2020

The Sun Rises at Pangong Tso (Wordless Wednesdays)

27/04/201521/07/2020

X is for eXtreme, eXcellent, eXtraordinary

We are almost at the end of the April 2015 AtoZ Blogging Challenge and the letter X is almost always eXtra challenging!! I am writing about gardens in Pune and I think the tedkis (hills) of Pune some of which have reserve forests on the top are truly unique to this city.
These tekdis offer all of the adjectives in the title of this post:

eXtraordinary: Pune is blessed with two rivers and importantly also has many hills located right inside the city limits. They can justly be called as the lungs of the city! We have the Vetal Tekdi (which is the highest), Hanuman Tekdi (which has the Gokhale Smarak Stambh), Parvati temple which is atop the Parvati hill, the Parvati Pachgaon forest area, the Tukai Tekdi and Durga Tekdi. The changing landscape over the seasons is a visual treat!

Poster

eXcellent: the hills are excellent places to exercise – for a walk, jog or even train for long treks in the Himalayas. In fact, March and April are months when one commonly sees many walking up and down the hills with huge backpacks, as they gear up for their outings in June or July… The tekdis are also home to some indigenous tree species that are either uncommon or are simply not seen in the city. Some of the trees are Ganer (Cochlospermum religiosum ), Bartondi (Morinda pubescens), Salai (Boswellia serrata), many species of the Capparis Genus. Regular walkers very commonly sight Peacocks on their morning walks on the Vetal tekdi as also a variety of birds… What bliss…

Acacia sp

Alangium salvifolium

Gardenia turgida

Dichrostachys cinerea

Dolichondrone falcata

Evolvulus alsinoides

Flower of Watakaka volubilis

eXtreme: They are an example of extremes of human intervention. Some hillocks have been almost flattened as they have been razed to make way for buildings and concrete jungles all under the name of development. Simultaneously, other hills have been ‘saved’ by peoples movements and resistance to the same ‘development’. There are umpteen examples of organisations who have taken up ‘greening’ of the hills or who spend their Sunday mornings cleaning up the waste or folks who daily take up some water to water new plantations!

Morning walkers fill up such bottles and carry them up to water saplings to help them survive the harsh summer heat

The most surprising part of these tekdis is that despite their obvious presence, a large number of people are simply unaware of this wonderful natural beauty. I know of people who have lived over five decades in Pune and still have not gone to any of the our tekdis…

The tekdis should be a must-visit place in the itinerary of every nature lover visiting Pune.
Cheers!

PS: Location Map here.

24/03/201521/07/2020

Lunch (Wordless Wednesdays)

09/03/201521/07/2020

Alice Garden

Pune has many famous gardens (i.e. famous in Pune) but I had never heard of Alice Garden. Being a tree lover, I took it as a personal affront at not knowing where it was located. To add insult to injury, I learnt that the Alice Garden was located inside the premises of the erstwhile Pune University now called the Savitribai Phule Pune Uniiversity which was a place that I had visited often.

When I did finally go there, I would not be wrong in describing the Alice Garden as an urban forest! It did have a proper gate, one ‘proper’ lawn, some dirt tracks to walk around and some swings for kids to play but I am not really sure how many kids come there, located as it is amid an institution of higher studies. I guess children from the staff quarters must be using it….

The main attraction is its huge trees. Easily at a height of five storeys, one can only guess the species based on leaves, fruit, flowers, twigs that had fallen on the ground. However we must thank some one for having thoughtfully labelled the trees which makes the subsequent process easier! The pretty foliage Filicium decipiens (Fern leaf tree) welcomes you and the path immediately splits into two. Choose any and walk around, enjoy the bird sounds and enjoy the earthy smell. I have always visited in the morning or evening but I doubt much sunlight reaches the floor through the thick tree canopy. We spot the Joannesia princeps (Arara Nut tree – indigenous to Brazil) and the Bauhinia vahlii. The joy is doubled as these are not labelled! There is a massive Sapindus emarginatus (Reetha), Caesalpinia coriaria (Divi divi), Guazuma ulimfolia (West Indian Elm) and and Tabebuia species.

There is small pond – an extremely peaceful spot provided one is lathered oneself with mosquito repellants! That is to be expected, really, considering one is amid thick greenery. Possibly a birders delight!

I am told that the Alice Garden is a treasure for those keen to study spiders. In fact, a recently organised Spider Walk at this place was a huge hit!

I notice a few dedicated walkers in this park who had shunned the tarred roads outside for their morning exercise. Other than them, there is some staff in a plant nursery which did not seem to be selling the plants. No other humans are visible.

The University itself is from the period when the British were present in Pune so I guess the garden is about two hundred years old. It is named after Alice Richmans. The Alice Garden has an interesting legend as well. According to some reports, the garden is haunted. Follow this link to read more about these anecdotes.

I leave you to decide.
🙂

03/03/201521/07/2020

Black and Gold (Wordless Wednesdays)

27/01/201521/07/2020

Visual Feast (Wordless Wednesdays)

Beautifully laid table at Orange County Resort in Coorg

13/01/201521/07/2020

Glittering (Wordless Wednesdays)

Raindrops

03/01/201521/07/2020

From Fruit to Kernel

Cashews are coveted as dry fruits and are commonly added to gravies and sweets in Indian cuisine. I did know that the nuts grow outside the fruit but beyond that I had given no deep thought about its journey from the farm to the table. It is quite an arduous route, one that I recently witnessed.

Any guesses? That’s right, at a cashew factory!

The cashew tree is Anacardium occidentale that belongs to the Anacardiaceae (Mango) family. Its fruit is an accessory fruit (or false fruit) that has a pear shaped structure called cashew apple and at its end is a kidney shaped drupe. The drupe contains one seed which is the cashew. The apple is used to make Feni and the drupe is processed to make the cashews we know.
There was a pile of drupes at the Kamat Cashew Factory at Sawantwadi. They were creamy yellow coloured and the shell was quite hard to touch. The proprietor was enthusiastic and gladly guided us through his establishment with a running explanation.

First roasting

So does one simply break open the shell to get the nuts? No.. Far from it. These drupes undergo their first roasting over steam to mark the start of processing.

Following first roasting

The drupes are put into special machines that cut open the hard outer shell. Earlier, the cutting was done manually which did horrible things to the hands of the ladies doing this delicate job. The machine we saw, picked up one drupe at a time, split the cover and the broken cover and kernel were ejected out. This shell has toxic substances (which cause terrible reactions when in contact with skin) and our guide cautioned us against touching them.

Machine to cut the shell open

The machine ‘ingests’ and cuts one drupe at a time

Shells and kernels

Shells are
sold to paint making companies and the kernels are roasted for a second
time. The resultant product is covered in a dry thin brown skin which may be
removed by further processing. Some kernels are sold with these brown
skins itself.

The kernels are now ready for sorting. This process is done by skilled hands and eyes that segregate the nuts based on their size and colour. I witnessed one lady who sat at a ‘console’ (see image below) and went about deftly throwing cashews in separate containers without even looking up from the pile in front of her.

What Aim! There was no scope for mistakes.

The kernels on the table are put into the tins around it based on their size, shape

Separated and Packed

Grading cashew kernels is important as the bigger ones are priced higher. The broken pieces are sold as such and are ideal for adding to cakes or sauces. At a cashew shop one finds them graded asW150, W180. W210, W240 and so on. W refers to whole (B will stand for broken; S for split etc) and the digits are number of kernels per pound. So W150 means there would be 150 kernels per pound. There is a category called SW which means Scorched Wholes where the kernels are scorched or marginally darkened due to excessive roasting. Here is a link with some info about cashew grades.

At the sales counter

The entire process may take a week or more. I was told that despite widespread cultivation of cashews in the coastal regions, many factories process nuts imported from South America (they are cheaper despite travelling across the oceans) compared to the local produce. Ironic isn’t it?

Other factories may have different processing methods but the general idea is to dry, crack open the drupes, roast and then segregate them. Some are further processed into salted cashews or flavoured with other spices.

Here another two images from the factory.