A guide to India 2007 (Delhi, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra)

[binbeto]

zoosh: Sound like u realy wanted a D200.. haa haa Can be done one lah.. Just saved a bit here and there loh. Saving the $$ for travel is a good idea too. Just remember to share with us after ur trip.. haa haa

phantasia, SilentWave: Thanks for the compliments. Glad you all like it. All four of us have fun even though we have different photographic needs during the trip. Somehow, we managed to not fight or quarrel during these 9 days.. hee hee

Lotus: R got tell me he passed some to you. Should have passed my to you also.. Such a waste to not finish it.

For those that don't have time to read all the rumbling.. Here's the link to the pics..



Click on the pic to go to the link.

 

[raven]

Hats off to the 4 of you.

Have been travelling to Delhi for work related matters and had been to the Taj and thats about it. No time ( either never made time or no guts to leave the airport to hotel path)

1) Great Photos, paints the picture well.
2) Great write-up, conveys the feelings and mood well

Saw 3 locals, one at least with Nikon boarding SIA flight back to Singapore in 2nd week of Feb together with a whole company of Artillery guys. They too looked like they made a similar journey.

 

[binbeto]

Thanks raven.. Maybe u should try it sometimes.

 

[GOMUS]

excellent! well done..... i enjoy read through this thread!

 

[asterixsg]

Bro,
Excellent writeup and lovely photos :thumbsup: .
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Want to see more :bsmilie:
Its always good to see India through the eyes of a fellow photographer.

 

[binbeto]

GOMUS: Thanks. One of my friend told me my lousy grammar give him a headache after reading.. hee hee.. Hope you didn't suffer the same fate.

Srini: No more already.. Process and post all. Maybe next time if I can find time and money to go again.. haa haa.

 

[benjaminteo]

Hey binbeto,

That was a great series of travel shots. What's nice is that you included descriptions to your photos, which brings viewers of your photographs to your P.O.V, whilst you're in India (not only technical information), which I felt is lacking of from most travel photographers' works in Clubsnap. Though some photos may be perfect with just a little tweak on the cropping, it's always easy for to judge/ comment sitting in front of a computer, as I'm not there with you guys.

Great job. Really liked your work.

Oh yeah, would you be so kind to share your rough itinerary with the brothers out here so that we too can follow your footsteps if we happen to drop by India one day?

Thanks a lot, and all the best.

 

[binbeto]

benjaminteo: Thanks.

As for the iternary, here it goes:
Day 1 (AM): Sin-Delhi (Del)
Day 1 (PM): Del - Allahabad (Ahd)
Day 2 : Ahd
Day 3: Ahd
Day 4 (AM):Ahd - Varanasi (Var)
Day 5: Var
Day 6 (PM): Var - Agra (Aga)
Day 7: Aga
Day 8: Aga
Day 9 (AM): Aga - Del
Day 9 (PM): Del - Sin

Might be a bit rush for some but this is the best our group could came up with. We only plan the place we wanna go and leave the number of days stay open. Cos everyone keep telling us, transportation can be unpredictable.

Hoep u find this useful.

 

[LOTUSfairy]

Hope the embassy or tourism of India can sponsor us the next time round...:bsmilie:
I can the blurrest - yet the cutest photographer for them..

 

[Culés]

Hope you dont mind, but I loved the boatman pic so much that I recomposed it! what do you think?

noelleong: Thanks. Glad you like this series.. I used flash on pic for post #29 and and #31 (except superman). Used maximum aperture and hight ISO (mainly 800/1600) for the rest to get reasonable shutter speed. Proper holding technique helps too..

Continue...
As the night goes on, the temperature dips further.. By 4am, the group was exhausted and the cold is too much to bear..

Small fire was started by the pilgrms there and we can't help but move closer.. Not so much for picture but for the warmth of it.. haa haa. Even the law enforcer joined us.. (Look top left)

Finally, daybreak!! We moved back to where the boat is to find ourselves a ferry... When we reached the ghat, the policemen seem to restrict people from taking the ferry.. After some sign language and guessing, we realised that only eVIP are allowed to take the ferry.. What a spoiler!!

Maybe seeing that we are foreigner, the policmen let us be at the ghat while the local are being directed away from the ghat.. We tried asking some boatman hanging around teh ghat if we could take a ferry out but most of them are wary of the policemen. No boats will ferry us..

We just stood there. No knowing what to do.. Afterall, the MEGA bath at 4.30am is what we travel all the way from Singapore is for.. Sianz... R is the one that is most persistent.. He kept asking all the boatman if any of them will ferry us out to where the action is..

Finally, his hard works paid off.. A boatman decided to risk it.. But at a high price of 700 rupee.. Being a good Singapore, we bargain though we have practically no other option.. haa haa.. A final price of 600 rupee was settled.. a 500% increase from the initial 120 rupee.. Just take it as midnight charge.., I guess

The boatman who is 600 rupee richer..

Well.. here it goes.. the 600 rupee view.. hee hee

 

[binbeto]

Hope you dont mind, but I loved the boatman pic so much that I recomposed it! what do you think?

No worries.. I think you did a good job...

Maybe it's becos I started with film.. So, I tried to have minimal crop if I can. Unless I already knew that the way I want to crop when I took it.. Or, I want to try alternative format like square or panaromic crop.

 

[binbeto]

Found this cute fellow while looking thru my compact camera files recently.. Shot in Taj Mahal compound. They really roam freely and we have chance to get real close.

Think the saturations might be a bit too strong but will just leav it as it is.

 

[LOTUSfairy]

yah man...i remember seeing many of the locals staring at us..must be thinking..

"wah lao, there 4 weirdos chasing and taking photos of the squirrels all over the trees at the Taj Mahal compound, shouldnt they be taking pics of Taj Mahal instead,
where are they from, hanasaiyo!!???".

and the most funniest thing, we even resort to climb up the stone ledge just to reach for the cute squirrels somemore..:bsmilie:

 

[binbeto]

Found this pic that I really wanna share.

Took this at Varanasi where they have this ritual, worshipping their God.. Should be Loard Shiva if my memory doesn't failed me.

There is this small group of "candle" seller.. They seem to be siblings.. An elder sister , a younger brother and an even younger sister. They tried their best to paddle me to buy one for 20 ruppee.. But I am not really in a mood to buy any..

The younger brother seem to click with me quite well.. He seem more interested to hang around me than selling the candle.. haa haa
After taking some shot, I just stand around to "absorb" the atmosphere... Out of nowhere, the young boy came back with a cup of hot "chai".. I hesitated whether to accept or not for a while but I don't wanna appear rude to the small guy.. I accepted his kind offer and enjoy the hot tea while watching his siblings "harassing" another tourist to buy their candle..

I remembered the older sister passed R their candle earlier R was not aware that the offering is not free and set the candle to float on the river... When the older sister asked for a fee for it.. R is only willing to pay 10 ruppee..Must say that the sister has back-bone, she firmly rejected the offer. Either 20 rupee or nothing... haa haa In teh end, R don't wanna give in too (Maybe, R only have 10 rupee as small changes.. Not too sure)... The innocent youngest sister was not aware of this and happily accepted R's 10 rupee when R give the money to her later.. Not wanting a free ride..

When the older sister found out that the youngest sister accepted the money, she was angry (or appeared so) and asked the youngest sister to return R the money..

We are quite puzzled over this but we are also quite amuse by it..

P.s. Out of an ear-shot, we heard them charging local 3 ruppee for 1 offering.. well....

Seem like my account with CS has expired..

Will upate again when I got a new place to host my pic..

 

[binbeto]

Finally uploaded all my pic to a new webspace.

Click on the pic to see the whole collection.




P.s. Too lazy to relink all the pic..

 

[LOTUSfairy]

I missed INDIA...:cry:

 

[Ramius75]

I missed INDIA...:cry:

me too, im going again in the near future, to Jaipur this time.

 

[zoossh]

i'm thinking sikkim next year for one of the masked dance festival

 

[Ramius75]

i'm thinking sikkim next year for one of the masked dance festival

sikkim ?? eastern india ?? looks dangerous leh... but i dont mind, can go from there to tibet ??

 

[zoossh]

sikkim ?? eastern india ?? looks dangerous leh... but i dont mind, can go from there to tibet ??

nope. china invaded india before after invasion of tibet, so there is bad blood at the borders. in general, northern sikkim is out of bounds, but sikkim and tibet have similar culture, which is why i intended this place when bhutan is out of budget and arunachal pradesh being far from calcutta. other than that, it is considered very safe as compared to the states around assam, also less lengthy bus travelling compared to that.

i have not fixed my dates, but it would be after march next year. route i may consider calcutta-deejarling-sikkim as a route.