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Travel

Chasing the sun in Tromsø

On my first full day in Norway, seeing the sun became an important mission because of the long night. So I hiked up the nearest mountain.

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Travel

Surviving the Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps offer not just breathtaking beauty, but also danger of a domestic kind???

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Travel

The Ride to Moni

My vacation was ending in just a few days and I was heading to my last stop: a volcano named Kelimutu. I had wanted to see the three famous crater lakes that were reputed for their distinct, striking colours. It was 4PM and I was about fifty kilometres from my destination, a village named Moni […]

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Travel

Mountains of western Mongolia

After my trip to the Gobi desert, I went to western Mongolia to trek in the mountains. The flight from Ulaanbaatar to Ulgii (Ölgii) takes 3 ½ hours by propeller plane. That’s quite a while, given that you’re barely flying halfway through Mongolia. I saw very barren-looking land, with hardly a village showing up through […]

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Travel

Eagle hunter

Eagle hunting is not the art of hunting eagles – rather that of hunting with eagles. I was in western Mongolia to meet the rare group of people who killed animals with the help of eagles. After a couple of days of travelling, I arrived at the eagle hunter’s hut with my driver and cook. […]

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Travel

Ascent of Adam’s Peak

There are plenty of scenic treks up and along hills in Sri Lanka. 2243m high Adam’s Peak is one of them, Adam being the biblical progenitor of humanity. The Sinhala name of the hill is Sri Pada (sacred foot / footprint). At the peak is what appears to be a footprint on a rock. Locals of various religions claimed the print for their own: Buddhists regard it as The Buddha’s, Muslims and Christians as Adam’s, some Christians as that of St. Thomas and Hindus as that of Shiva […]