Just close your eyes and see the beauty of this wonderful Earth!

Watched GRAVITY last Sunday. Amazing experience. However, with that kind of a fall, no one can really enjoy the earth's beauty. Here are some breath taking satellite images of the earth. Just close your eyes and think you are high up in the sky,  flying and looking below the wonderful world. Here is your dream come true.............. 


I am sure each of us has dreamt sometime or the other about flying in the clear sky and looking below the wonderful world. Here is your dream come true.............. 

14 Most Amazing Satellite Pictures You'll Ever See

1 – Ground Zero, New York City – Sept 12, 2001

This one-meter resolution satellite image of Manhattan, New York was collected at 11:43 a.m. EDT on Sept. 12, 2001 by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite. The image shows an area of white and gray-colored dust and smoke at the location where the 1,350-foot towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Since all airplanes were grounded over the U.S. after the attack, IKONOS was the only commercial high-resolution camera that could take an overhead image at the time.

2 – Fritzler Corn Maze, Colorado

Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite took this image of the patriotic Fritzler Corn Maze near Greeley, Colorado, September 18, 2004. The design depicts the U.S. Marines raising the American Flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

3 – Niagara Falls

The image shows the Niagara River that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, snaking around Goat Island, in the lower left of the full image. Most of the river's water plummets over the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls, but some diverted water spills over American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls downstream. Every second, more than two million liters of water plunges over the Horseshoe Falls segment of Niagara Falls creating one of the world's largest waterfalls as well as eating away as much as two meters of rock per year. The image was acquired August 2, 2004. 

4 – Hawaiian Islands

A silver swath of sunlight surrounds half of the Hawaiian Islands in this true-color Terra MODIS image acquired on May 27, 2003. Sunlight reveals turbulence in the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. In this scene, the winds ruffling the water surface around the Hawaiian Islands create varying patterns, leaving some areas calmer than others. From lower right to upper left, the Big Island (Hawaii), Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau islands all make up the state of Hawaii, which lies more than 2,000 miles from any other part of the United States. The small red dot on the Big Island's southeastern side marks a hot spot on Kilauea Volcano's southern flank

5 – Palm Island, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This IKONOS satellite image was collected on July 16, 2004. The image shows this man-made island that lies off the coast of Dubai in the Persian Gulf. The island is being built from 80 million cubic meters of land dredged from the approach channel to the Emirate's Jebel Ali Port. When complete, this resort will have approximately 1,200 single-family and 600 multi-family residences, an aquatic theme park, shopping centers, cinemas and more.

6 – The Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt

This featured image is a 61-centimeter pan-sharpened image of the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, collected by Quick Bird on February 2, 2002. The Great Pyramid is estimated to have been built circa 2650 B.C., and was erected as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty. Upon the completion of its construction, the Great Pyramid stood 145.75 meters (481 feet) high, and over the millennia has lost approximately 10 meters (30 feet) off the top. It stood as the tallest structure on Earth for more than 43 centuries.

7 – Ayers Rock (Uluru), Australia

This IKONOS satellite image of Ayers Rock was collected Jan. 17, 2004. Ayers Rock is located in Kata Tjuta National Park, 280 miles (450km) southwest of Alice Springs, Australia. It is the world's largest monolith, an Aboriginal sacred site and Australia's most famous natural landmark

8 – Earth"s City Lights

This image of Earth's city lights, captured on October 19, 2000, was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.

9 – Tsunami strikes the coast of Sri Lanka

This is a natural color, 60-centimeter (2-foot) high-resolution QuickBird satellite image featuring the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Imagery was collected on December 26, 2004 at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact.

10 – Mount St. Helens, Washington

On a Space Station expedition, astronauts observed and captured this detailed image of the volcano's summit caldera. In the center of the crater sits a lava dome that is 876 feet above the crater floor and is about 3,500 feet in diameter. The dome began to form after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. After the eruption, there was not any dome building eruptions for more than a decade. Afternoon lighting accents the flow features in the volcanic and debris flows and the steep valleys eroded into the loosely consolidated material near the summit. This picture was taken on October 25, 2002.

11 – The Nile River

This image of the northern portion of the Nile River was captured by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer's (MISR's) nadir camera on January 30, 2001. Against the barren desert of northeastern Africa, the fertile valley of the Nile River runs northward through Egypt. The city of Cairo can be seen as a gray smudge right where the river widens into its broad fan-shaped delta. Other cities are dotted across the green landscape, giving it a speckled appearance. Where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea (top) the waters are swirling with color, likely a mixture of sediment, organic matter, and possibly marine plant life. Farther west, the bright blue color of the water is likely less-organically rich sediment, perhaps sand

12 – Malosmadulu Atolls, Maldives

North and South Malosmadulu Atolls are in the Maldives, an island republic in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The Maldives are made up of a chain of 1,192 small coral islands, which are grouped into clusters of atolls. It has a total area of 298 square kilometers and a population of about 330,000. The capital and largest city is Male, with a population of about 80,000. Arguably the lowest-lying country in the world, the average elevation is just 1 meter above sea level. The natural-color ASTER image of the Malosmadulu Atolls was acquired on December 22, 2002, and is centered near 5.3 degrees North latitude, 73.9 degrees West longitude

13 – Grand Canyon

Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon are captured in this pair of Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) images from December 31, 2000. The above image is a true color view from the nadir (vertical) camera. In addition to the Grand Canyon itself, which is visible in the western (lower) half of the images, other landmarks include Lake Powell, on the left, and Humphreys Peak and Sunset Crater National Monument on the right. Meteor Crater appears as a small dark depression with a brighter rim, and is just visible along the upper right-hand edge.

14 – Noah˜s Ark Site?

Is it or isn't it? Satellite images of Mt. Ararat, Turkey have pointed to a possible sighting of Noah's Ark. Decide for yourself! Compare this image taken by Digital Globe on September 10, 2003 with Shamrock — The Trinity Corporation's image (enlarge). Also, note their image is flippe.

This came as a post to me on yahoo mail and loved the email due to the pictures, so just reproduced as it is.

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Cauvery River View SRIRANGAPATANAM

 2^nd and 3^rd October 2010 being holidays, Vilas planned for an outing. We wanted something close to the city yet a quiet place. He booked an a/c double cottage at the Mayura River View KSTDC Hotel through net for a day. (The charges were somewhere around Rs.2000/- per day but the value for money we got was really high, we realised this during our stay.)

           We normally prefer driving on our own and started around 8.30 am in the morning, from Bannerghatta road. We took the nice road to get on to the Mysore road and had our first stop over at Bidadi (some 40 Kms away) for steaming hot tatte idlis, our favourite breakfast.

          After the breakfast we headed towards Channapatna. Here we bargained for some wooden artefacts and pushed ahead on the same road for sometime.

          Maddur Tiffney’s is another favourite. Few friends who are proper Bangalorites had recently informed us that the original Maddur Tiffney’s is on the left side of the road while heading towards Mysore; here we had the taste of original bisi bisi Maddur vade.

         With 3 short stop over’s we finally decided to stop only upon reaching our final destination as the day was getting hot with the bright sun. 

          Mayura River View KSTDC is on the out skirts of the Srirangapatnam town, after passing through the town area, one sees a petrol bunk on the left and just after this is a small lane where one needs to take a left.

           As we entered the place, we had a serene and calm and cool feeling within us, much to our likings. The cottages are newly built and in an excellent condition. The décor within was unmatched and everything seemed really clean and tide.

            After some rest we walked around the place. The garden and the kids play area was well maintained, everything was lush green, with the river flowing just next to the garden. We climbed down the steps towards the river and were enjoying the scenery.

           We spotted trails of birds flying in V shape in the sky. The kingfisher flying and humming on the spot and then within a fraction of a second dipping into the river to get its priced catch. Lots of such wonderful experiences we had.

           We boarded a rubber boat with life jackets on and 1 oar in hand. We had a life time experience of mixed feelings- fear, fun, scenic beauty and so on.

          Mayura hotels have restaurants and hence we decided to have lunch in the river side open tent shape restaurant. While having our food we spotted Indian Roller or Neelkanth. We could not have expected more than this….

           Later in the evening we went back to the town of Srirangapatanam and saw some popular tourist attractions of Tipu Sultan. We saw the Captain Bailey’s Dungeon, Tipu’s palace, his place of death and the Sriranganatha Temple. This dungeon was a prison during Tipu’s era, where he kept British prisoner under arrest. This placed is named so, as Captain Bailey a British breath his last while in the prison. The palace is in ruins and one can understand only by reading the display board which gives a fair idea about it. When Tipu was fatally attacked, he ran a distance and he fell on the ground, this place is marked and is protected. However, surprisingly the temple though is 1200 years old is still in an excellent condition. The courtyard is huge and is maintained well.

            Next day the chirping birds were a wake up call for us. We strolled around and recorded the mixed sounds. We went by the river side and sat for sometime watching the birds, the sound of water flow and much more.

           Later we drove upwards to the Rangantithu Bird Sanctuary which is again beside the Cauvery River, with greenery all over the driveway it was a refreshing day.

At the sanctuary we spotted various species of cranes, some were black billed, some yellow, some were small in size and some big, all with subtle differences. This is the hatching season and nourishing their young’s ones and when they are ready to fly back all the birds fly back to long distances.

          We explored all the inners spots while on a boat and the boatman giving us a running commentary.

          We spotted few crocodiles afloat and some resting just below the hatching places, to gulp the poor babies of the birds who fell down while practicing to fly.

            One and more all such tiny experiences made us relate more to the basics. On the way back we explore some green farms and fields. One was a farm which was growing vegetables. We plucked the fresh lady’s fingers and the cucumber and enjoyed freshness.

            It was time to return back home. We had lunch at Kamaths’ Lok Ruchi and could feel the start of the city life being extremely crowded.

            However, we brought back home wonderful memories of this trip which fully recharged ourselves and motivated me to document my trips and travels.

                                                                                                                                                                            -Adv.Vandana Vaidya.

We The Explorers!

I always enjoyed travelling a lot. I had an explorer within me. I was always curious about everything and was lost many a times in my childhood due to this curious nature.

My earlier travels were restricted to short distances, though it was fun each time.

I truly believe in the famous quote, 'We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.' by Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru.

My father worked with the central government and one of benefits this job provided was the 'leave travel concession'. My interests grew more as I traveled with him during my high school days.

He took us across the country. Though the route and destinations were planned, the journey wasn't. To see the in between places within the destination, we took whatever transport was available, which added a lot of spice to our trips.

After marriage, I found out my husband too had a similar interest. We both are great food lovers, so we love to try different food joints. We both are basically quite adventurous and love travelling a lot. We both are independent and can travel alone, though we love to spend time together on any travel.

Photography was one hobby, I picked up from my earlier travel days. So has my husband. Though our busy life from the past few years and our growing responsibilities at home has restricted long distance travel however we never failed to travel a destination even if it was a short distance.

We have documented most of the travel memories by photography but with many other important things on our mind our memory gave way to the small intricate pleasures we enjoyed while on these travel destinations.


Writing this blog may help us relive those small pleasures on are way to various destinations in future.

And truly believing in ' Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.' by Anatole France; we pledge to continue our life journey.



Vandana Vilas Vaidya