Kumbh Mela Photo Gallery

My full photo gallery from my trip to the magnificent, spiritual Hindu pilgrimage, the Kumbh Mela is now live on my website: http://www.imagetheearth.co.uk

After photographing the Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in 2007, I just had to be at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Haridwar in February 2010. The Maha Kumbh Mela which only ever happens every 12 years and is attended by around 60 million people. Held in Haridwar, Northern India it is the largest gathering anywhere in the world.

Any feedback is as always very welcomed! Please have a look: http://www.imagetheearth.co.uk

Thanks
Mark

The Backpacking Years Photo Gallery - Part Two

The Backpacking Years: View the complete gallery

Firstly, a massive thank you to everyone who has expressed their positive feedback on the new gallery of photos from the archive, "The Backpacking Years". While the photos are a trip down memory lane for me, for many of you they are photos you are seeing for the first time, taken a good 4-5 years ago.

Below is photos 5-8 with a description/background on each of the shots.

As this elderly chap was not the only one, it seems that sleeping through the mid-afternoon sun atop of a temple in Durbar Square is very much the thing to do in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Stretching for miles, the most majestic of drives in New Zealand's south island during the winter months between Mount Cook and Lake Tekapu. This photo was a winner in a Lonely Planet competition back in 2005.

There was a never ending line of novice monks wanting their photos taken so they could admire themselves on the LCD screen - the power of Digital camera - at Lavrin Sum temple in Erdene Zuu Khiid, Mongolia.

A young girl who collects recyclable rubbish at Angkor Wat, takes a break from her odious job in the late afternoon sunshine, Cambodia.

The Backpacking Years: View the complete gallery

The Backpacking Years Photo Gallery - Part One

The Backpacking Years: View the complete gallery

Could it be a case of itchy feet yet again?
I've recently found myself looking through some of my earlier photography taken on my first couple of backpacking/Round the world trips back in 2004 and 2005.

I have picked a selection of shots from the archive, some you may have seen before and others for the first time. Some of the photos were taken with film prior to the digital world catching hold of my imagination.
For your viewing pleasure, I have put 28 photos together to form a new gallery on my website, titled "The Backpacking Years".

Grouped into sets of four, I will give a little background on each photo. Please do add your comments below or feel free to email me your thoughts/feedback.
On a cycle ride into the remote countryside around Yangshou, Southern China we passed a group of dumbstruck kids who look as if they've never seen Westerners before.

This Memorial stupa on the outskirts of Phnom Penh is a gruesome reminder of Cambodia's brutal past at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. The stupa contains over 8000 skulls exhumed from mass graves.

Breakdancers at New York's 42nd Street subway station entertain the crowds with an excellent performance. I have video clips that I will upload and add to the blog in due course!

A Hindhu man's morning bathing ritual on the steps of the Ghats on the the holy river Ganges in Varanasi, India.

The Backpacking Years: View the complete gallery

Jaipur bombings kill 63 people

Indian authorities imposed a daylong curfew in the historic city of Jaipur on Wednesday, the day after serial bombs tore through the pink-walled center of this western Indian city, killing 63 people and wounding more than 100.

Police officers and civic leaders shooed people off the streets in hopes of avoiding any Hindu-Muslim tension, and foreign tourists were restricted to their hotel rooms.

It was the first terrorist attack in many months. There were no further leads on who may have been responsible for the Tuesday evening bombings, eight explosions in all, according to A. S. Gill, director general of police for Rajasthan state, of which Jaipur is the capital.

“The intention obviously was to create communal disturbances,” he said, adding that nothing of the sort had yet materialized. “It’s totally peaceful.”

The police were interrogating several people, Mr. Gill said. The explosives had been attached to bicycles, the mangled ruins of which were found at the site.

India has already blamed “foreign terrorists" for the bombings, a phrase that usually refers to neighbor and nuclear rival Pakistan. Pakistan, however, has offered swift condemnation.

The blasts stand to test the peace process under way between the two countries, particularly under the stewardship of Pakistan’s newly elected government. The Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is due to visit Islamabad, the Pakistan capital, next week.

The bombs targeted the dense warrens of the 18th century walled city. One bomb went off in front of a temple to the Hindu god, Hanuman, which is particularly crowded with worshippers on Tuesdays. Others exploded within minutes of each other at busy intersections and in markets thronged with shoppers, including the popular Johri Bazaar, lined with jewelers. The dead and wounded included both Hindus and Muslims.

The police said nearly 40 funerals were expected to take place on Monday, and the curfew was intended to prevent inflaming communal passions.

In the pink stucco bazaar of the walled city on Wednesday morning, shops that normally peddle sweets, gold, and curled Rajasthani slippers were all shuttered. Onlookers wandered through the lanes to ogle at the bloody remains, only to be chased away when the curfew took effect.

“Hey brothers, why are you crowding around?” Ram Babu Agarwal, the member of a peace committee shouted.

“There is no communal thinking, only human sympathy,” declared Anwar Shah, a burly member of the Johri Bazaar mosque committee, as he patrolled the streets of this neighborhood hectoring people to stay inside.

The Indian federal government dispatched explosives experts Tuesday night, and put several major cities on alert, including New Delhi.

Although Jaipur, known as the pink city, is a popular tourist destination, mid-May, the peak of the Indian summer, is not a busy season, and no foreigners were killed or injured in the blast, according to police and hospital officials here.

Jitender Narwani, 31, had been offering prayers at the temple, when one of the bombs went off. Shrapnel punctured his legs.

Shahid, 16, a candle maker, had gone for a sip of water from a public tap in an area called Tripolia market when there was another blast.

Subhana Khan, 4, was shopping with her mother and two aunts in Johri Bazaar; they were all about to board a rickshaw at the time of another explosion. All but the little girl were killed.

The last major bombing in India was in August, when a pair of bombs went off in an outdoor auditorium and restaurant in the southern city of Hyderabad, killing more than 40.

Two years ago, serial blasts along the commuter train line in Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, killed nearly 200.

Similar terrorist attacks aimed at religious sites in recent years have not succeeded in setting off sectarian violence. The Hindu holy city of Varanasi was struck by a pair of bombings in March 2006, killing 14. More than two dozen people were killed in September 2006 in a series of explosions in and near the largest mosque in Malegaon, and a blast killed two worshipers in one of the holiest Muslim shrines in Ajmer, also in Rajasthan, last September.

The curfew in Jaipur kept foreign tourists off the streets. A Spanish tour group was instructed to spend the day inside the Le Meridien Hotel on the edge of town before being taken by bus to another hotel in the evening for dinner.

David Manzanares, a tour leader, said his 104 people in his charge had been taking the events in stride. “We are Spanish people, we are used to having these kind of events,” he said. “Enjoy the pool. Have a samosa, See what happens.”

No sooner had he rattled off those instructions than a dust storm came swirling in from the Rajasthan desert, clearing the poolside and felling tall trees on the road.

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In the beginning....

I've always rejected the idea of having a blog, so I'm starting off small... unwilling even, and see how I get on. Don't expect massive enchanting novels, for that you can point the finger of blame at my time spent at Kris Akabusi High School in West London.

Unsurprisingly, the foremost of thoughts at present are pretty much in getting everything in place to tackle the Rickshaw Run 2008. With less then two weeks before we hit India and start racing the length of the country in the equivalent of a lawn mower, things are slowly coming together.

So far its a case of:
Nepalese Visa, tick.
International Drivers Permit, tick.
Indian (and now Nepalese) flag bought on ebay for 96 pence, tick.
Map from Waterstones, tick.
Extra batteries and memory cards, tick.

I'm slowly working my way through the 6 hours of the highly recommended DVD "The Story of India" by Michael Wood. You may have seen the series on BBC2 a few months back, if not you can pick it up on Amazon. It throws up potential places of interest to pass through that even we haven't thought of. Watching it only makes you realise that you could spend years backpacking/travelling India and still only scratch the surface.

All this does is further ignite the desire to spend a few years in the Indian Sub-Continent to do it justice. With its size, clamour, sensual overload and diversity, India is the most intriging, facinating country on earth, where you quickly develop an abiding passion for it.

Lots on the agenda before Christmas. I eagerly await the delivery of a new (bloody expensive) camera lens, yet another day of pushing and shoving at the Indian embassy and trying to gain a bit more sponsorship.

Posted 16th December 2007