If you have only one place to visit in India and yet you want to have the full intensity of an Indian experience, go to Varanasi where faith meets filth and your life would change forever.
Varanasi, or Benares, or Kashi is the place where I took this candid photo. Apart from being a very holy city for the Hindus, Varanasi is also a very photographable place. I would highly recommend the city to photography enthusiasts visiting India as is a very good place to boost photography confidence, as it did with my confidence.
Please check out my Varanasi album to see the photos I took there. Four of my 10 most popular shots, including my top and second, were taken in the city where faith meets filth.
Thank you very much for all the views, faves and comments on my stream of “Beauty in Simplicity” photos where through timing, framing and settings, I try to make everyday life everywhere look beautiful.
Touching lives through photography… That is what it is all about.
ps: As usual, forever and ever plugging my one You Tube video.
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… was shot at McLeod Ganj, home of Dalai Lama.
I first came here in the middle of 2009, about four weeks after I left Varanasi where I endured a month of heat. In fact, every day I was there, the high for the temperature was above 45°C. I kept staying because, “If 1.5 million Indians who stay here can handle this heat, so could I.”
I am from Malaysia where the temperature would never go over 38°C but I’m just a stubborn person who chooses what to give up and running away from Varanasi wasn’t one of them.
When I was in Varanasi, I saw and felt the Hindu faith. I wanted to feel faith again and that was what that brought me to McLeod Ganj, to see and feel the faith of Tibetan Buddhism.
I didn’t stay at McLeod Ganj but a village about 2.5 kilometres away called Bhagsu. Why? Higher altitude and a lot cheaper.
I thought I would stay there for about a month and move on to see other parts of India but I ended up staying 3.5 months there and used up my Indian visa.
I have been there 4 more times spending about 18 months there in total. But, on my last trip there in 2016, when I left, I told myself that I would never come back.
When I first started travelling in 2008, I met a seasoned traveler who told me he would never go again to a place I wanted to visit. When I asked why, his response was, “Because I wanted to remember the place the way it was.”
Same case for me with Bhagsu and quite a few other places in other countries.
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I first went to Pokhara in 2011 and I have been there 4 more times since with the last time being 2018. In fact, I was there during the earthquake of 2015, arriving from Kathmandu the day before. Had I been in Kathmandu during the earthquake, I think that I would have died. Phew…
The photo was taken at Northside part of Lake Phewa and I tremendously enjoyed my daily walks next to the lake.
Out of the places I have been to, Pokhara which is in Nepal is my #1 favourite place. I have spent nearly a year there in total and I hope to spend more time there in the future.
ps: As usual, forever and ever plugging my You Tube video.
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Sunrise at Angkor Wat Cambodia
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This time, an emaciated dog in Varanasi.
ps: If you click 'fauna' on my tags, you would be able to see my other animan shots.
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