The Spars Lodge at Simla

On my recent visit to the Spiti valley I stayed for two days in Simla at the very comfortable Spars Lodge, located near the Museum and above the Hotel Oberoi Cecil. The lodge was built by Arindam Joshi in 1996 and has eight  bright and sunny rooms with a  beautiful view of the Simla hills and the valley below. The lodge is extremely quiet but yet not far from the heart of Simla. The very pleasant walk from the lodge to the Simla Mall would take around twenty minutes.

The dining and sitting area of the lodge 

Arindam is a gourmet cook himself and his menu has all sorts of delicacies which are usually not available at a hill station. We had poached trout for dinner, deliciously cooked with apple pie and ice cream for dessert!

Arindam Joshi who runs the Spars Lodge in Simla

Rooms start at Rs 700 for singles and go upto Rs 2200 for large suites.
For a stay at Spars please do contact Arindam Joshi at joshiarindam@yahoo.com or 0177-2657908 /98163-72323.
Highly recommended folks!

The Yarchagumba Murders at Nar, Nepal

In 2009, seven Nepalese villagers died mysteriously while foraging for a fungal aphrodisiac worth its weight in gold.  Read  the story in Outside Online September 2011 issue:

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/out-of-bounds/The-Killing-Fields.html

The New Tibetans

A fine photo essay on the Tibetans of Dharamsala by Sumit Dayal

http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/05/the-new-tibetans/?iid=lb-late1#7

Photograph Copyright Sumit Dayal

The Mountains of the Everest Region: Part II

Everest and Nuptse from the plateau below Kala Pattar

Ama Dablam and Dingboche village

The trail from Dingboche to Dugla

Cholatse from Dugla 

Kwangde at dawn from Namche Bazar

Thamserku as seen from near Kyanjuma

The Skeleton Dancer of Enchey

 Today's Kolkata newspapers showed photographs of a young lama looking at his devastated home in Enchey monastery Gangtok. We hope that no major damage has been caused to the monastery. I photographed in Enchey on a number of occasions and the newspaper reports brought back memories of an event there many years ago.
Enchey monastery is located on a hilltop above the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok. I was standing on the first floor balcony of the monastery looking down at the courtyard. There was an interlude between the dances. A lama wearing a clown mask was trying his best to terrorize the children in the front rows who ran away from him at full speed screaming with merriment! In the field behind the courtyard, momos were being sold and eaten with rapid speed by the local population! Two stag dancers went around trying their best to collect a monastery donation from the crowd. It was late afternoon and the festivities were almost at a close. On the opposite hill the sun glinted off the roof of Rumtek, the premier monastery of the Kagyupa sect of Buddhism and home of the Karmapa. Suddenly, I spotted a skeleton dancer entering the arena with tremendous speed. He ran, galloped, and jumped with amazing dexterity. The crowd stared with amazement as he pirouetted around the  courtyard a number of times.  Jolted out of my reverie, I shot  a few photographs before he vanished as suddenly as he had come into the monastery!

Pang Lhabsol

Today is Pang Lhabsol: one of the important festivals in Sikkim. I was fortunate to experience the festival at Tsulakhang, the Palace Monastery in Gangtok many years ago. These are some of the photographs of the festival. 

Nikon lenses and VR technology

Photo Copyright Nikon 

A useful discussion by Nikon on VR technology and how it works
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/concept/vr/index.htm

Sankar Sridhar: Journey with the Gaddi

Delhi based mountain photographer Sankar Sridhar's essay : "Journey with the Gaddi" has won the Special Mention at the Banff Mountain Photography Competition 2011. For a look at these outstanding photographs please do visit:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/competitions/photo/2011/#panel-8
You can see more of Sridhar's work at www.sankarsridhar.com