VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

 

Gujarat Tourism sponsored around a hundred influencers and bloggers from all over India, between 1st and 7th December 2021. They bloggers and influencers were flown in and out of Gujarat and provided complete hospitality and transportation. This was an incredibly smart move by Gujarat tourism. The bloggers got a glimpse of the amazing Gujarat landscape, its heritage, flora and fauna. The visit to the Kutch, the Tent City at Dhordo and old Ahmedabad were the highlights of this trip. Hats off to Gujarat Tourism, we are truly impressed with the red carpet the unfolded and the meticulous planning they did to make the visit a truly memorable experience. Thank you #GujaratTourism you have a new set of fans. #incredibleindia #gujarattourism #kutch #dhodra #WildAssSanctuary #discovergujarat #ExploreGujarat #dekhogujarat #Roadtoremember #travelgujara #gujarattourism

The Rann of Kutch  is a vast white landscape in Kutch District of Gujarat. Nearby is the Dhordo Tent City which is an extraordinary tourist facility, in which one can easily forget that we are in the midst of a once inhospitable, empty, marshy area. Watching the sun go down on the stark horizon is a near mystic experience.

  JAYSHREE HATANGADI collects catalogues during our travels with great patience and joy. She is today traveling in Varanasi and Sarnath making new memories. I know she will miss these catalogues and maps, but I have her OK to let them go. When we travel we collect a kilogram or two of printed matter. Maps, leaflets, tokens, flyers, mementos and stuff. We keep them carefully for several years as a link of joy to remind us of our holidays. But eventually when they start taking up too much space in our filing cabinet, we must think of removing them.

  Memento, souvenirs, little things that make being a tourist fun.

  This video shows some sample signage from Australia & New Zealand. This is a part of my videos related to the tourism industry.

  Toilets for tourists in Australia & New Zealand

  This video shows some good examples of Information Centers and Kiosks, catalogue stands and displays relating to the tourism industry. Photos are all mine. If you want to get a better look pause the image. Need help? Contact me at sohan.hatangadi@gmail.com

  Jayshree and Sohan Hatangadi's Kashmir Holiday. This state is a green beautiful paradise. People are hospitable and costs are reasonable. Contrary to common belief it is safe.

  Bhutan Trip, 18-26 July 2012. This is an enchanting country. Visa on arrival and not too far for Indians to visit. Highly recommended.

  Hi, here is a short video slide show of our holiday in North India

  On 1st October 2014, Jaya and I stopped for a bit of paragliding on the way to the 13,497 ft high Rohtang Pass. It is much safer than it appears. A "pilot" is perched just behind the glider pulling all the right ropes. Still ... as you can see from my clasped fingers and mortified expression, I was barely able to keep calm. The feeling of running off the Himalayan slopes and gliding through the rare atmosphere is exhilarating. Highly recommended.

  Bondi beach, Australia, fun to hang out

  On the Bay of Bengal coast, to the south of the Bhimunipatnam ridge, is an area comprising deeply gullied red sand dunes. You can look it up in Google Earth at (17 52.078' N, 083 25.845 E). This area is referred in Telugu as "Erra Matti Dibbalu" which translates to Red Sand Hills. They are unique because of the rarity of such gullied red dunes formations of which only three remain in South East Asia. The Erra Matti Dibbalu was formed over thousands of years. Nature, the great artist has gifted us these sublimely beautiful formations and it must be enjoyed with care. The threats to these dunes are from irresponsible tourism. Visitors scramble all over the dunes and erode them at an unnatural rate. The area is filling up with litter left behind by picnickers. Builders eye the empty land with hopes of building on it and government departments want to use it for some official construction or other. If the formations are to be saved, urgent action must be taken to safegu...

  Jayshree Hatangadi Heritage Narrator's theme was "180 degrees six stories"

  Vizag has much to offer for those diving for pleasure and adventure

  VANJANGI - CHOKING ON RUBBISH Vanjangi, near Paderu, was a spot of incredible beauty. Low temperatures and the charm of being among the clouds was a novelty. Now with unrestrained and irresponsible "tourism" it has become choked with rubbish. Hearing of the accummulated rubbish, Satish and his team went there in February 2021 to clean up the place. What they found there was shocking. So much garbage and increasing by the day. It will need an army type operation to clean up. And unless waste management is implimented and incoming visitors are restricted, it will keep getting worse. If you are going to Vanjangi, please carry some garbage bags. Bring back whatever plastics and bottles you carry there and also bring some additional rubbish. Once in the plains either take it back to your home town or drop it in the first large garbage bin you see. This is also an appeal to ITDA, Paderu to restrict footfall in the area and organise a clean-up campaign there. A waste management ...

  Letting go! Jayshree Hatangadi collects catalogues with joy as we travel. She is the one who keeps a record of where we go and what we experience. So when we were doing a clean up operation of our house, I enquired of her if we should continue to hold on to these paper memories. She agreed that it was time to let them go. Coincidentally, today as I get rid of the literature, she is traveling in Varanasi and Sarnath making fresh memories.

  "TWO JABS DONE" CAKE Palki Hatangadi ordered a concept cake that commemorates completion of both vaccine jabs. Notice the Virus with spikes and all, on it exhorting "GO CORONA GO", a hand sanitizer bottle sits on the cake and you can see a green face mask alongside. We cut it today with my dada Chandan witnessed by my daughter and grandson. Thanks to the concept by Palki Hatangadi and design and production by Sirisha and Kalyaan of Bake my Wish at Lawson's Bay colonyy Modi ji can ask all of India to do this on next TV broadcast.

  Watch out for the equipment voltage. Remember USA, EU and UK plugs are different. Along with step-down transformers we will need plug adapters to plug into Indian power sockets. Better prepare in time.

  Bees saal baad! After 20 years GVMC gets an electric crematorium. This is only a start, we need 10 more.

Come take a walk along Vizag's premium beach at Sagarnagar, see how we have been engulfed by rubbish

With a threat looming over the remains of our ancient heritage site with the remains of a 300 BCE Buddhist Monastery it was imperitive to be on the site and discuss its future

This is a 14 min video, watching till the end will help us understand the situation better A GO No. 21 dated 12 Feb 2021 proposes to keep aside around 120 acres of Thotlakonda as a protected area and "de-notify" 3,000 acres of the hill for other use. This video discusses the danger of going ahead with this move.

Stopping unauthorised film shooting at Erra Matti Dibbalu

Mining in our hills - a disaster waiting to happen?

Plastics waste needs to be handled with an iron fist not later but NOW

Mi Robot Vacuum Mop.

TRAFFIC JAM AT LAMBASINGHI JN ON 26 DEC 2020 Unbelievable but true

Before 2016 our Vizag beach road had no ramps for the differently abled citizens of Vizag. When the World Tourism Day (WTD) theme was announced for that year as "Tourism for ALL" I took that as an opportunity to request then GVMC Commissioner and Collector to get ramps put on our beach road before celebrating World Tourism Day. I enumerated the ramps required and later commented on the works in progress. Thanks to a great push from the administration it was done before WTD and on 27 Sep 2016 our collector Pravin Kumar and others pushed wheel chairs from RK beach to YMCA. The campaign was a success, Later at a tourism meeting the collector announced that Vizag had the longest (2.5km) wheelchair friendly pavement in India. I made this video in 2016 with reference to WTD but today I am putting it on YouTube as a reminder that we must keep our public places accessible to those who use wheelchairs or prams. Please share this video.

Lambasinghi, in the Eastern Ghats, near Vizag, is famous for its beautiful scenery and low temperatures in winter. But it is attracting too many irresponsible "tourists" from nearby towns. They camp out in the open fields and leave huge volumes of litter behind. Lambasinghi is being overwhelmed by plastics. The ITDA and the Panchayats must act immediately to save the situation. Civil society must highlight this issue. The ghats are our natural heritage and needs our protection. Please share this message.

Every winter the media is full of gushing news about the beauty and cool temperature of Lambasinghi. But there is a dark side to it that needs to be addressed.

Last week spotted three Blue Mormon butterflies going through an elaborate ritual

On 25th October a group of heritage enthusiasts visited the Erra Matti Dibbalu (Red Sand Dunes) near Bheemili, on the Vizag Bheemili Beach Road

At the foothills of the Simhachalam Temple, a passionate group of persons create a forest in a space of just 1875 square meters. This is a demonstration. Imagine what can be done if these forests come up everywhere in the city. More about this soon

OUR SEA IS DYING! While we deal with issues percieved as priority, our greatest asset, our beloved sea, is DYING. We are killing it ourselves. Please read the attached Marine Health news report n the Times of India today. Vizagites, if we want to save our sea we must take up the issue with our administration. We must turn away from the inane subjects that distract us and turn our  focus on the more important issues. One of them is the damage we are doing to our sea.

Recently in the hills near Vizag, a Blue Mormon butterfly feasted on the nectar of hibiscus. It flitted from flower to flower drinking for an hour or so. The Hibiscus gave the butterfly its nectar and in return the butterfly carried out its pollination duties diligently. It drank so much I wondered how it could still fly. I was hoping I had a bigger camera at hand but I did not. The sight was so pretty that I had to record it. I gave it a go with my phone camera and it seems to have come out all right. Thankfully the butterfly was quite focused on its task and did not bother to fly away even when I crept closer. As I left, I contemplated whether I would see this fluttering nectar guzzler again the next morning. What was its life span, as a butterfly, I wondered. Anyway I was overjoyed to watch this elegant little creature and am glad to share this little footage with you. SOHAN HATANGADI VIZAG

Just had some fun as I sat in a verandah observing nature unfolding

Faith is important and celebrating festivals is a tradition that we all enjoy. We will certainly miss the atmosphere and beauty of decorated outdoor pandals this Ganesh Chaturthi because of COVID-19. #WHATWEWILLNOTMISS is the profusion of synthetic, lead based paint coated, plaster of Paris (POP) idols that will be dumped in our sea and water bodies. We will not miss the thousands of plastic bags and assorted rubbish washed up on our beach after the immersions. Too bad the idol crafting workers are still using POP. Too bad they use dangerous synthetic enamel paints. Too bad they did not shift to clay based idols and natural colours. Too bad that our local administration are not paying them a stipend to exit this highly polluting activity or encouraging migrating to clay. And worse still is the misplaced sympathy that the print press displays for these workers every year. Don't you have any sympathy for our local ecosystem, our beautiful beach and sea and for plane...