Nal Sarovar, Gujarat, India

As part of a trip to Gujarat in December 2017, to attend a friend's wedding in Ahmedabad, some friends and I decided to see bits of the rest of the state. If you live in Bangalore, travelling to Gujarat just for an occasion or just for the tourism is probably not worth it.

This is part 1 of n, where n TBD.

We were at Nal Sarovar early in the morning and very few people were around at the time. We didn't see any flamingoes either. That is not a comprehensive list of what we didn't see.

Birds, Except Seagulls

Let's get this out of the way first.

Naalsarovar has a lot of birds. You'd think that's expected of a place which has Bird Sanctuary at the end of it's name but how many tigers do you reckon people see at Jim Corbett? How many chips do you get from your packet of? How much ganja does Kunal have? Is Eden a hazard? Does Danny drink water? Whom does Kyle walk? Will Ashley still be young at 60? What did Luke do to make Ryan cross? What did Danny rise from? Have I made my point yet?

In spite of that, wildlife sanctuaries are like going to a museum. Unless you're really into it, you'll feel a moment of excitement when your eyes fall upon something which looks interesting, you'll pay some attention to some of the details, miss out most of them because neither you nor your companions know anything about it, maybe take a picture, linger for a few seconds before you move away ( or the animal / museum display moves away and you don't give chase; all motion is relative so it doesn't matter, ) and then forget whatever little you picked up.

Also, if it wasn't challenging enough taking pictures of birds, try taking them from a moving boat.

Bird 1
 If we are pushing ahead with GMOs, may I suggest modifying all animals so that their cry is the same as their name?
It will save us the embarrassment of asking questions like whether anybody knows how to tell a stork from a crane.

Faking it as a Data Scientist

In case this doesn't load well on phones, or if you generally prefer reading from source, here you go.

Agumbe, Karnataka, India - 2

There is a Part 1. Hence the 2 in the title.

Kavaledurga

The remains of this fort are wrapped around a hill which makes for a nice, short trek up to the temple at the peak. There are a couple of spots midway where it looks like the trail ends but it doesn't. Don't let your unfit or pansy friends convince you otherwise.

I think there were five doorways on the way.
When you cross the third one, you can send this to the others who didn't make it.
Expect to receive of a few of these in return.

Agumbe, Karnataka, India - 1

Part 2 covers the Kavaledurga fort and a detour to Kaup Beach.

Agumbe, also known as the Cherrapunji of the South, is a small village about 3 hours in a bus from Mangalore. It's the sort of place where you could sit by yourself at a town square not doing anything, waiting for someone to join you, or plotting world destruction when suddenly, if the nickname is justified, it rains 15 cms and you catch a cold and are in bed for two weeks.