Travel and Leisure

Precious Time Spent in the Glow of Monaco

Grace Kelly, the princess of Monaco, left her bright career in Hollywood and moved to Monaco to live a fulfilling life with her prince. When she was offered a role to play in another Hollywood movie, she refused the offer because of her devotion to saving the tiny Principality of Monaco. A fasci Read More

Porto: A UNESCO World Heritage Site

Towering cathedrals, a vibrant cityscape, a spectacular wine region to the East, and, a collaboration of old, dilapidated, and new architecture create possibly the best city in Portugal, Porto. This large Portuguese city of Porto (second in size after Lisbon) straddles the Douro River Read More

The Birds of Yosemite

The songs of the Yosemite winds and waterfalls are delightfully enriched with bird song, especially in the nesting time of spring and early summer. The most familiar and best known of all is the common robin, who may be seen every day, hopping about briskly on the meadows and uttering his cheery, en Read More

Trip to the Eastern Himalayas

Trip to the Eastern Himalayas - Part I (Aritar, Zuluk, Nathula, Gangtok, Lachen, Gurudongmar, Lachung, Yumthung, yumesamdong, Darjeeling)The journey started from Chennai to Bagdogra (the nearest Airport) Siliguri and NJP are the nearest stations. Then from there, nearly a 5 hour drive on the lower H Read More

Portugal's Fragas de São Simão

The character-filled cities of Portugal are great, but sometimes you need a more tranquil and serene scene embraced in crags, mountains streams, and waterfalls. If you desire a place that evokes feelings of a youthful nature adventure, you will want to venture to Fragas de São Simão. F Read More

Siguniang Mountain: a Sacred Place for Tibetans and Paradise for Climbers

I drank hot water from my thermos. First, the hot water could warm my body. Second, my body needed a lot of water at an altitude where I'm not used to living, above 3300 m of the sea level. I was in the valley of Siguniang Mountain, China, one of the sacred places for Tibetan people and a paradi Read More