All these pictures won't do justice to what you actually see while travelling by the train.
The train takes you through picturesque snow capped mountains as you go higher.
The story of the Klondike Gold Rush is embedded in the ride.
The Seattle Post said "Gold Gold Gold." The newspaper reported that "sixty eight rich men on the steamer Portland arrived in Seattle with stacks of Yellow metal"
The news spread like wildfire in the middle of the depression and the country went gold crazy.
Imagine the difficulty they faced about 100 years ago when trying to cross the Chilkoot trail.
Or the conditions in which they built this bridge.
With temperatures as low as -40 and the wind speed as high as 80 miles per hour, with precious few hours of daylight available, and hanging on this bridge by rope, they had to rotate every 45 minutes in and out of warmth to stay alive. This bridge is part of the reason why the White Pass was designated as an international historic civil engineering landmark.
It is an honour that the White Pass shares with other engineering marvels like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel tower and the Panama Canal.
The conductors look sharp in their smart uniform.
The tour guides kept updating us on the important points as we passed them like the black cross.
In August 1898 a blasting accident buried two railroad workers under a 500 ton granite stone. The black cross marks their resting place.
While on the train, you can see other meter gauge trains running on similar routes far away (seeing them in the video gives a better effect of motion)
The bridge which you see in the picture below was in use till 1969 and was considered the tallest cantilever bridge in the world at that time.
We had four stops while on the cruise. Had written about Endicott Arm in the previous blog
Managed to get a picture of a whale near Endicott Arm (in Alaska) and that too just the tail and the back.
This could be a Grey whale or Minke whale.
Minke whales are seen in Alaskan waters throughout the year but mostly from May to September. These smaller whales are known for their curious and playful behavior, often approaching boats to investigate.
Endicott Arm is a stunning 30 mile long fjord in Alaska
Being close to the glaciers is an exhilarating experience. You can see chunks of them in different shapes floating away from the main glacier.
It is an additional bonus to see Seals and sea lions sunbathing and having a free ride on these chunks of ice.
I was lucky to get three of them in one frame.
The waterline in the one below has changed, probably because one side of the chunk melted more causing the Cg to shift. You can see part of the captain's bridge (port side)
The water flowing on the glacier looks clear and good enough to be tasted.
Glaciers can erode and carve rocks giving the mountains a different look. Here is a close up of one.
All these pictures were clicked from the deck of the ship.
View of the snow capped mountains with a part of the captain's bridge (starboard side)
Here is another glacier (Mendenhall glacier) about 12 miles from Juneau downtown. This is situated about 50 miles northwest of Endicott Arm.
Juneau is the capital of Alaska. More on Juneau in the next blog.
Driving into the rising Sun is a wonderful experience and the additional advantage is that the roads are empty.
The highlight is stopping for breakfast especially when it is hot and freshly made. I enjoyed this kantha poha (flattened rice)
We drove down from Surat to Udaipur and it was a pleasant ride as the roads were good.
We reached Udaipur in time to see the sunset at Lake Pichola.
We were lucky to get a good guide (Mr Kanwar Keer) who gave us some concise information about the place.
Like, I did not know about Jag Mandir where Shah Jehan stayed (during his rebellion with his father) and was inspired to build the Taj Mahal later.
The video gives more information about the place as I have left the guide's voice as it is. It is interesting to know how the Dhood talai got its name. Here is a picture of Dhoodh Talai.
I clicked one more picture of the same place but before clicking I increased the contrast extensively by which it gives a night time effect.
The actual difference between both the above pictures is just 15 seconds.
A good example of how to play with the light using your camera.
In the next blog, I hope to write about the trip from Pune to Surat where we had a stopover at Udwada.
These statues caught my eye in the maritime museum in Melaka (Malacca) in Malaysia
This room held prisoners of war of all ethnicities, slaves and sailors who committed crimes. Cramped against each other in a dark and congested room, the prisoners had no hope for freedom. Normally ballast was placed in the belly of the ship to act as a stabilizer. However this diorama was put together to re-enact the conditions in the ship (Flor De La Mar)
The original ship still lies undiscovered in the sea bed. We spent the evening in Malacca listening to some music and taking in the sunset.
Happy to see that the common sparrow and the mourning Dove is common in Kuala Lumpur too (got both of them in one frame)
Earlier we had been to the Batu caves in Kuala Lumpur (more for the challenge of climbing the 272 steps that lead to the Lord Murugan temple.)
The climb was not as difficult as we thought, but it is good to be a little cautious of the monkeys. The Grab driver who ferried us was very jovial and informative too. (Grab is similar to Uber cabs) He was talking of things in general and I found that whatever he said made sense.
As the sun went down, clicked this picture from the windshield.
While in Malaysia, we visited Kuching in Sarawak (situated in the island of Borneo) A wonderful place, the island and the people. Very warm and helpful, things move at a leisurely pace over here. Borneo is owned by three countries. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
We flew in from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching and headed straight to the Sarawak cultural village by road. The roads were well marked and lush with greenery.
We got to see the traditional dance by the different tribes. I was taken in by the skill and accuracy of the boy with the blowpipe.
The world rainforest music festival is held here every year and many renowned musicians converge over here to perform.
Many of them are so much in awe of the place that they leave their instruments behind as a mark of reverence and respect for the simple minded people.
The highlight of the Malaysia trip was the visit to the Semenggoh wildlife sanctuary where we could see Orangutans.
We were lucky to spot six of them, four adults and two young ones.While watching them at close quarters I noticed that many of their movements and actions were very similar to that of humans (except that we can't eat with our feet)
