India

Photos from India 2019

In 2019 I took a 3-week holiday in India to visit the places where my mother was brought up, where she went to school and to see some of the wildlife, more especially the tiger.

Wildlife

The following are some of the wildlife photos that I took - you will notice no obvious tiger!
Please note that when you click on the square photo it opens as the full size image, and at the foot of the window there is an i in a circle which enables you to see where the photo was taken by selecting 'Open GPS location'

My wildlife photos in India

Places

Agra

Taj Mahal

Baby Taj Mahal

Darjeeling

New Delhi

Fatehpur

Kolkata (Calcutta)

Calcutta was everything I had expected in India! The flower market was really colourful and the Jain Temple was superb. We also visited the Victoria Memorial, with an enormous statue of Queen Victoria on the throne in her later years outside the building and a statue of the young Queen Victoria inside beneath the dome, which had a series of murals depicting her life around the inside of the dome. We were also taken to the South Park Street Cemetery, an 18th century Christian graveyard with large picturesque tombstones. We also had to go to the home and tomb of Mother Teresa.

Mysore

Mysore was not on our plan to visit originally, but Mysore Palace was superb and the son-et-lumiere at the Palace was magnificent.

Nahargarh Palace

This Palace is where we stayed while we visited Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. As can be seen from the aerial view of the Palace, it is a vast complex with six courtyards in a line East to West with others on the North and South sides. It is certainly very opulent, the food was excellent, the surroundings magnificent and the staff very helpful.

Ootacamund (Ooty)

The Nazareth Convent, Ooty was where my mother was sent to school in the 1930-40's. The first photo shows her in a photo at the convent and the ninth photo shows the same place in 2019. The convent is still running and we were given a tour when we arrived out of the blue. At an altitude of about 2400 metres above sea-level climbing up Doughertys Lane to the convent had me stopping for a breather half way up! We took the train from Ooty to Coonoor throught the Nilgiri Hills with some magnificent view over tea plantations.

Ranthambore Tiger Reserve

We had 6 LandRover safaris over 3 days into the Tiger Reserve; unfortunately we only caught a very distant view of a tiger in the undergrowth. There were certainly some superb landscape views within the park and some interesting animals and birds were seen.

Visakhapatnam (Vizag)

VIzag is where my mother lived with her parents. Her father was a dredging captain at at the port of Vizag and then the port pilot. The port was opened to ocean traffic in 1933 with arrival of 1st ship SS Jaladurga. Her father had the house called 'Shiva Prasad' (meaning - Given by Lord Shiva) built and I was surprised to be able to find it still standing, if slightly changed, in 2019.

Somanathapura Keshava Hindu Temple

Chennakeshava Temple, Somanathapura on the banks of the river Kaveri, Karnataka, India. This temple is in remarkable condition considering it was consecrated in 1258 CE (AD). Really intricate carvings and incredible massive stone columns which have obviously been turned on a lathe of some sort, also some rather explicit carvings!