More about Nainital

This is another photo from the trip that I made to Saataal, near Nainital. Saataal means seven lakes. The photo is from when I was boating on the lake. The lake is not very big, it takes around 1 hour to go around the whole lake in a paddle boat. But the setting is incredibly beautiful. It is nestled in a natural valley between some relatively unspoiled mountains. Even to get to this lake is a 2 hour trip, so there is a lot of natual beauty left in this place. The other side of this story is that the lake is pretty famous as a good tourist destination, so there is a pretty decent road upto the lake, and hence the number of people reaching the lake will just keep on increasing.
The lake essentially is a 5 cornered lake, and these 5 are named separately after some mythological characters. The other 2 lakes are found elsewhere.
It is said that this lake is fairly deep, and that seems to be believable as the lake is essentially filling up the valley nestled between the mountains and the valley could be fairly deep.

This is from a forest camp located in a place called Saataal near Nainital. The camp is basic, they have some basic electricity using a generator to supply a few common areas. Other than that, for lighting at night, we used oil based lamps. However, the camp is a good compromise between having some amenities and roughing it out. You get a sleepable bed, bath and restroom facilities as well as food. There are nature trails, a lake nearby plus being able to do some amount of guided rock climbing. Not a bad place at all to relax, ideal when in a decent sized group.
We were there for around 1 day + night, and it being away from comfortable civilization was not as bad as I thought it would be. Can go there again some time later.

A lot of beautiful flowers

I don't even remember as to where I took this photo, except that it was in some relative's house. It was getting around 11 AM in summer, and the outside light was getting to be fairly strong, but not yet blinding. These are not very special flowers, but are fairly colourful and look very good in a big bunch. I took a few photos, but this was the only one that turned out to be somewhat good. These are locally called 'Gainda' in India.

Church along creek, Kerala

This is a small church located at the shore of an inland waterway. The state of Kerala in India has a large network of creeks which are used for extensive inland transportation. They also serve to service a large number of tourists who like to take boat / houseboat rides along these waterways. I was in a similar houseboat enjoying 1 day along these waterways. Many times the pleasure of spending a day [one whole day in this busy world :-) ] just having a leisurely cruise is fun. At such a time when I was watching the world slowly move along, I saw this small church. It looked like a place of solemnity without being very showy. I didn't stop, just saw it coming and then slowly receding as I moved on.