Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara, Gujarat, India

Laxmi Vilas Palace is one place that I have been hearing so much about all the while growing up as a kid in this beautiful cultural city called VADODARA in a prosperous state of GUJARAT in the most divine and amazing country INDIA.

I lived in Vadodara all my childhood but never went to this humongous but beautiful palace. It was only when I was away from my hometown, I got inspired and curious to go and see what this palace is about. To go and see why it is so much talked about. To go and see why it so near and dear to all the Barodian’s (Vadodara was known as Baroda before and people living here are referred as Barodian’s).

I am glad that I ended up visiting Laxmi Vilas Palace. Visiting this palace made me wonder how brilliant the architects back then and how skilled the laborers were. This masterpiece building has been unaffected for decades. The view from the balconies and the main rooms are amazing. The details put in the interior designs are mind blowing.

The interiors show how much did the kings and the royal families enjoyed Fine arts and how much it was valued back then. The lush green golf ground in the front takes this palace to the next league of royalty.

Please take a look at few of the clicks I was able to capture during my visit to this magnificent palace in the culture city of India.

Seattle - Tulips Festival

One of the memorable trips I have had in USA has been the trip to Seattle, WA. I had always wanted to go to a colorful place and wanted to see fields of tulips for photography.I had read on one of the websites that the best tulip fields in USA which can come little close to the ones in Europe, are in Seattle (Washington State).

So I decided to visit Skagit Valley which is known for its tulip festival that usually falls during first/second week of April. So here comes my first trip purely out of passion for photography. I took a week off from work and reached Seattle. I decided to go during the week in order to avoid the crowd on weekends.

The first day when I landed in Seattle, it rained heavily and looked like it wouldn't be a great week to go out in the fields with a camera. So that evening, I decided to just drive around the city and checkout local restaurants. Luckily I came across this great pizza place called Can-AM Pizza (http://canampizza.com/). I loved the pizza here.

Next day, surprisingly against weather predictions, the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day with perfect temperatures in high 50s and 60s (of course in Fahrenheit). So, I couldn't wait to go out in the tulip fields. It was an amazing experience, indeed! I was dumbfounded to see the beauty of simple flowers and fields and how wonderful they looked.
The fields were all wet, muddy, challenging enough to promise one thing - "Your pants and shoes are going to be spoilt". Hence, I went to the nearest Walmart and bought the cheapest pair of jeans as well as shoes on sale, and dared to go in the mud. Although it rained on the previous day, I must say that I got really lucky to experience the beautiful and sunny weather during my trip in the fields. Please checkout the pictures below and relive my experience with tulip fields.

Feel free to leave comments/feedback and write about your experience if you end up going to tulip fields in Seattle.

Fall Colors on a foggy morning !!

It was a beautiful morning, stars and moon was visible from the ground and weather was just perfect.
So, I hopped into my car and decided to go for sunrise during peak fall colors. Little did I know that nature had different plans. I reach the mountains which is around little less than 2 hours drive from where I live, and the dark clouds started to appear, fog starts building up and becomes so thick that I could hardly see anything beyond few feet.

This made me quite sad because not only did I miss sunrise but also will not be able to enjoy the fall colors / foliage. But as it is said, its never the end if it is not good, I was able to get a drive where it feels like heaven and felt as if I was driving in clouds and made me feel very very excited.

At one of the stretches in the skyline drive, there was some better visibility and I could see at least till about 50 meters. So, I got down the car and started taking pictures of fall colors and the beautiful curves of the road in front and back and was totally into photography. I was so excited that I was behaving like a small kid who is given more than what is asked for. Suddenly I hear some noise of leaves moving and getting crushed and I wondered what it could be.

I was thinking that there was no one a few seconds ago then how come this noise now ?

When I turned around, I saw a black bear standing and staring at me from around 70-80 feet away from me. I was scared and excited at the same time. Thankfully my excitement took over my fear and I was able to get couple pictures (please see below) before the bear disappeared.

Some more pictures from the beautiful enriching drive.