reflections

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The cherry blossoms - reason for the whole trip

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Previous post in this series is here..

It was 3PM when we came out of the Shinkansen to Osaka station. We were seeing on social media that we were already a week late and the Cherry Blossoms were already on their way to falling off. By the time we reached Kyoto and Tokyo, there would be no blossoms. So if we wanted to see them in Osaka, there was one place on the hill to go see them. The Katsuoji temple!

It was an hour by car and they closed on the dot. We decided to grab two taxis again and just made a dash to the temple. An hour later we were dropped off outside the temple. There was a line for tickets. Yet again, Jr. came to the rescue by buying the tickets from her phone as we were going to the place. We went straight in with the “web tickets”. The temple is just beautiful. The cherry blossoms were still there. The whole place was surreal and immaculate. There were cute mini versions of the shinto gods everywhere.. placed on rocks, trees, in the water..

There were six locations which had stamps in different colors. You got a card at the entrance. If you put all stamps on them, you got a nice composite picture with the stamps. We made it to all the spots in the map, got the stamps and were literally the last visitors to be kicked out of the temple complex. We were all tired but happy. It was nice and cool in the hill. There were still a few taxis waiting. So we were lucky to get two taxis to go to our next destination.

Way too many photos post edit. Have created two galleries..

Portrait gallery

The final image after we stamped the card in all six locations.. The best one is mine as I used multiple alignment marks like a real integration engineer would!

Here is a short video of Katsuoji temple visit..

We were all happy at the end of the entire trip that we decided to go up to this temple even after an all day Hiroshima visit. We never saw Cherry blossoms like this after that day in Kyoto or Tokyo.

Our day was not over. The temple closes at 5:15 sharp. We got out at 5:14 PM. There was an hour plus drive back towards busy streets. Will pick it up in the next post..

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Sunrise at Angkor Wat - a meh experience

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The previous post in this trip series is here..

The previous night we had crashed early but not before telling our hotel to pack us breakfast (it was included). They know folks go for sunrise and pack you a breakfast! We left the hotel shortly before 4:30 and drove to the temple complex. It was pitch dark in the area. There were still the ticket checkers working diligently with flashlights. The tickets have our photographs in them. We walked to a nice spot where a few hundred others were waiting.

Our driver warned us already that March 21 and Sept 21 are best times for sunrise viewing. In late November the sun goes to the side and is rising from the forest behind the fog. You see the light but not the sun for some time.

I had setup the iphone for a timelapse.. or so I thought. it was between my shoes on the steps.. must have had butterfingers and I turned it on and off right away! Realized it only after the sun came out and there was a photo instead of a timelapse video! It was a big missed opportunity. Next time, going to get a gorilla tripod so this doesn’t repeat. Did get some shots over the one hour we waited there. Once it became light, we took some shots of me doing yoga in front of Angkor Wat.

Our driver said at this point the entire crowd was going to visit the temple. We should go to Bayon temple instead and get great photos where there is no crowd and then come back to this temple. Given this one has shade and Bayon has none, he said that is a better plan.

We trusted Sarak given our entire previous day with him. Off we went..

A very short video reel..

Next time if at all we visit this place, should go in September. It will still be hit or miss because it rains during that time! One has to be lucky to get sunrise at this place.. There is always photoshop…

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Emerald Pools - a little extra to wrap up Zion

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The previous post in this series is here..

I was craving hot cocoa, but the Zion lodge cafe did not have any. Ate some Parle G, lemon rice and chips to more than make up for it. Then we decided to go to Emerald pools. Our knees were shaky to start with but all of us decided to go.

We made it to the waterfall area, but there was not much water. We walked behind the falls in red slushy mud and the ladies decided to call it a day. They wanted to go make tik tok reels in the lawns of the lodge. A brave man decided to be their reels photographer while two of us decided to go all the way to the Upper Emerald pool. Our local trail guides aka ladies said “it is only another 0.3 miles.. you two should be back in another 30 minutes”. Turned out it was much more than that and the last part was pretty steep. We slowed down and kept talking about random things and made it to the lower, middle and upper pools and took photos.

An unruly crowd greeted us again. So we stayed for maybe 5 mins tops at the upper pool and made our way back. The pools may not have a lot of water now but the reflections are still beautiful!

After making our way back we took the shuttle to the visitor center, and then drove back to our cabin. We were going to have some chai and biscuits in the porch. Then we changed and found dinner. There was a place called Thai Sapa which the ladies had an eye on… what with the big Ganesha greeting them… so we went there. Given my allergies I usually don’t go anywhere near Thai places and ended up eating a Pizza there.

Was still craving a hot cocoa and we finally found it in the Zion General store. Spent some time walking around with the group and made it back to the cabin. It was time to pack and get ready for an early morning drive to our next stop..

A short highlight video…

If you have a good two to two and a half hours to spare after doing Angels landing, definitely recommend the hike to the Upper Emerland pool. Take it nice and slow and enjoy the breathtaking scenery on the way.

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.