Good morning travel lovers!
It’s been a while since I did a blog post, my apologies, I have been quite busy with my wildlife work (www.clementwild.com) and so this fell off a bit, BUT! Am back and with a bang!
India! Who watched the movie “Slum Dog Millionaire “ and then wondered why this country was called incredible India? My hand is high up. Before I visited India, my perception was that of many of us, it was what we saw in the movie. Not a place you would dream of travelling to right? However, I come from a country where the only images shown are those of slums, desperation, hunger and piles of filth, so I didn’t judge India so quickly, I felt there was something more to it.
Mid this year, I got a contract to go and shoot the Tigers of India for ClementWild, I therefore decided to take this chance to travel a week ahead of the assignment to see India for myself. As I always do, I started my research of places, cities, monuments, etc. I wanted to visit, I put down a list, printed out a map – India is BIG country – and laid down plans for what was going to be an epic journey. I packed up my gear and flew about 10hrs across the world – Dubai stop over (story for another blog). I was so excited looking down from my aeroplane window the Red Sea below me as we fast approached New Delhi International airport. And there was that fire in my belly I always feel whenever adventure presents itself.
Here is a rough draft of what my adventure looked like. Land in New Delhi, take a 5 hour road trip to the city of Agra, spend a few nights, after Agra we would go to the Pink City – Jaipur, spend a few more nights. Then take an overnight train the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh in the scenic Bandhavgarh National Park – do my assignment for a few more days, take another overnight train back to New Delhi for some chill time in the City. Sounds hectic huh? Actually it wasn’t.
We landed safely and were picked up – not in a maruti but a very nice sedan with wifi, cold drinks, back pillows and when we started driving around, I started to see it, India IS incredible. Rich with history, culture, food and beautiful places. It was and still is fascinating that hundreds and some even thousands of years ago, people built, forts and palaces that still stand to date.
For the first part of my blog, I will dedicate it to the Taj Mahal, this piece of architecture that was top of my list, I simply can’t explain the feeling, here I was standing on it, feeling its marble and looking at it in awe! – A testament of one of the greatest love stories of our modern world. A wonder of the World. Still Majestic 359 years after it was built.
In my notes, I had prepped to photograph this monument from all angles. Here are some of the images I was able to capture. Enjoy.
Look out for the next part of India through my Lens.
Remember, never stop exploring! Till next time.
Clement.
