The Darjeeling toy train was back in the news with 'Parineeta'. Though not as memorable as his mother’s 'mere sapno ki rani' picturisation, nonetheless, Saif Ali’s 'yeh hawayein gun ganaye' has all the dewy freshness of a Vidhu Vinod Chopra song sequence.
Boarding the train transports you into a time warp. Cheerfully billowing smoke, the toy train chugs along gently, in no hurry whatsoever, allowing its passengers the freedom to hop off, saunter along a mossy trail, even pick up a few dandelions and then hop back, as it wheezes up the steep slopes. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the second railway to have been accorded the status of a World Heritage site, the first being the Semmering Railway in Austria.
The mountain toy trains were built by the British to cut down on time (and costs). Anyway who has traveled on the Nilgiri Mountain Rail might be tempted to laugh aloud at the idea of the train being a time saving mode of transport. It’s speed rarely exceeds 10 kms an hour. The narrow-gauge track of the Nilgiri's toy-train twists up through lush green coffee and tea-plantations of the Nilgiri Hills, crossing around 250 bridges, and taking close to five hours to cover the 45 kms from Mettupalayam to Ootacamund (Ooty). Also included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, the quaint old lady turned glamorous when Mani Ratnam decided to shoot Shahrukh Khan and Malaika Arora on it and the 'chaiyan chaiyan' became the best choreographed dance sequence, ever shot, atop a moving train.
The Matheran toy train that travels from Neral (on the Mumbai – Pune rail route) to Matheran, a hill resort just 110km away from Mumbai, is being touted by the Government as being a contender for the World Heritage site status. A narrow gauge train, it meanders up the gently undulating slopes of the Western Ghats, treating tourists to a breathtaking view of thick shady forests and an occasional waterfall, as it passes through tunnels with unusual names like the ‘One Kiss Tunnel’. Mr. Hugh Poyntz Malet, the then Collector of Thane, discovered Matheran (meaning "forest on the top") in May 1850.
The most spectacular road from Vienna into the south of Austria, to the “magic mountain” Semmering, is via the Semmering Rail, built way back in the 1840s. It was the first railway to have been accorded the World Heritage status and is regarded as one of the greatest feats of civil engineering, having been constructed over a 1000 meter mountain pass, at a time when rail roads were still in its nascent stage of development. With the rail being built, Semmering became accessible to many affluent Vienese who built vacation houses on a grand scale. Tourism became a booming industry with health and winter sports resorts being developed amidst the pine-forested mountains.
The Vredefort dome in South Africa is the oldest and largest meteorite impact site in the world and has been included in the World Heritage site list this year. Formed an estimated 2000 million years ago when a gigantic meteorite (asteroid) crashed to form a crater that is about 40 km in diameter, it is so called because of the small hills that are arranged in a large dome shape with beautiful valleys lying in between. The ring of hills we see now are the eroded remains of a dome created by the rebound of the rock below the impact site after the asteroid hit. The Vredefort structure is currently regarded the biggest and oldest clearly visible impact structure on Earth.
Geirangerfjord, set in West Norway are among the worldङs longest and deepest fjords and probably one of the most spectacular landscapes found anywhere on this planet. Its narrow, steep crystalline wall with cascading waterfalls, thick deciduous and coniferous forests with rivers flowing through it, and magnificent glacial lakes, make it च्the best unspoiled travel destination in the worldछ (National Geographic, २००४). Seals and porpoises swim the fjords, while eagles and other birds soar the skies above. The fjords are truly a Garden of Eden with apples and apricots growing in abundance.
In addition to its eerie landscape of peculiarly shaped wind and water carved rock sculptures, that seem straight out of a lunar mission movie, Dinosaur Provincial Park - located at the heart of the province of Alberta's badlands, in Canada - contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the 'Age of Reptiles'. Found here are about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years, the reason for its being in the World Heritage list. More than 300 museum-quality specimens have been removed and are exhibited in museums around the world. Each summer, paleontologists from around the world converge on the park for an intense period of digging that starts in late June and lasts for approximately 10 weeks.
An archetypal Chinese garden, the Summer Palace in Beijing is ranked amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. Originally called "Qingyi Garden" (Garden of Clear Ripples), the Summer Palace consists of over 3000 pavilions, towers, bridges, and temples, set amidst hills and an enormous clear water lake. One of its most well known attractions is the Marble Boat. Among its other attractions are the Long Gallery which houses over 8000 paintings and the Garden of Harmonious Interests with its waterfall, bamboo grove and lotus garden. The garden makes it to the World Heritage list for being a perfect example of a harmonious blend of man-made landscaping with nature.
Half -built, half-carved into the rock, and surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges, Petra will be instantly recalled by any Indiana Jones fan as the Holy Grail’s resting place in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' . Hidden for thousands of years until discovered by Swiss explorer Johan Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812, the entire city is carved out of sandstone cliffs, giving it the name “rose red city”. It was famous around the time of Christ for being the only way through those mountains for traders bringing back silk from China to Europe. It is one of the most famous archeological sites in the world, qualifying it as a World Heritage site.
Boarding the train transports you into a time warp. Cheerfully billowing smoke, the toy train chugs along gently, in no hurry whatsoever, allowing its passengers the freedom to hop off, saunter along a mossy trail, even pick up a few dandelions and then hop back, as it wheezes up the steep slopes. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the second railway to have been accorded the status of a World Heritage site, the first being the Semmering Railway in Austria.
The mountain toy trains were built by the British to cut down on time (and costs). Anyway who has traveled on the Nilgiri Mountain Rail might be tempted to laugh aloud at the idea of the train being a time saving mode of transport. It’s speed rarely exceeds 10 kms an hour. The narrow-gauge track of the Nilgiri's toy-train twists up through lush green coffee and tea-plantations of the Nilgiri Hills, crossing around 250 bridges, and taking close to five hours to cover the 45 kms from Mettupalayam to Ootacamund (Ooty). Also included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, the quaint old lady turned glamorous when Mani Ratnam decided to shoot Shahrukh Khan and Malaika Arora on it and the 'chaiyan chaiyan' became the best choreographed dance sequence, ever shot, atop a moving train.
The Matheran toy train that travels from Neral (on the Mumbai – Pune rail route) to Matheran, a hill resort just 110km away from Mumbai, is being touted by the Government as being a contender for the World Heritage site status. A narrow gauge train, it meanders up the gently undulating slopes of the Western Ghats, treating tourists to a breathtaking view of thick shady forests and an occasional waterfall, as it passes through tunnels with unusual names like the ‘One Kiss Tunnel’. Mr. Hugh Poyntz Malet, the then Collector of Thane, discovered Matheran (meaning "forest on the top") in May 1850.
The most spectacular road from Vienna into the south of Austria, to the “magic mountain” Semmering, is via the Semmering Rail, built way back in the 1840s. It was the first railway to have been accorded the World Heritage status and is regarded as one of the greatest feats of civil engineering, having been constructed over a 1000 meter mountain pass, at a time when rail roads were still in its nascent stage of development. With the rail being built, Semmering became accessible to many affluent Vienese who built vacation houses on a grand scale. Tourism became a booming industry with health and winter sports resorts being developed amidst the pine-forested mountains.
The Vredefort dome in South Africa is the oldest and largest meteorite impact site in the world and has been included in the World Heritage site list this year. Formed an estimated 2000 million years ago when a gigantic meteorite (asteroid) crashed to form a crater that is about 40 km in diameter, it is so called because of the small hills that are arranged in a large dome shape with beautiful valleys lying in between. The ring of hills we see now are the eroded remains of a dome created by the rebound of the rock below the impact site after the asteroid hit. The Vredefort structure is currently regarded the biggest and oldest clearly visible impact structure on Earth.
Geirangerfjord, set in West Norway are among the worldङs longest and deepest fjords and probably one of the most spectacular landscapes found anywhere on this planet. Its narrow, steep crystalline wall with cascading waterfalls, thick deciduous and coniferous forests with rivers flowing through it, and magnificent glacial lakes, make it च्the best unspoiled travel destination in the worldछ (National Geographic, २००४). Seals and porpoises swim the fjords, while eagles and other birds soar the skies above. The fjords are truly a Garden of Eden with apples and apricots growing in abundance.
In addition to its eerie landscape of peculiarly shaped wind and water carved rock sculptures, that seem straight out of a lunar mission movie, Dinosaur Provincial Park - located at the heart of the province of Alberta's badlands, in Canada - contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the 'Age of Reptiles'. Found here are about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years, the reason for its being in the World Heritage list. More than 300 museum-quality specimens have been removed and are exhibited in museums around the world. Each summer, paleontologists from around the world converge on the park for an intense period of digging that starts in late June and lasts for approximately 10 weeks.
An archetypal Chinese garden, the Summer Palace in Beijing is ranked amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. Originally called "Qingyi Garden" (Garden of Clear Ripples), the Summer Palace consists of over 3000 pavilions, towers, bridges, and temples, set amidst hills and an enormous clear water lake. One of its most well known attractions is the Marble Boat. Among its other attractions are the Long Gallery which houses over 8000 paintings and the Garden of Harmonious Interests with its waterfall, bamboo grove and lotus garden. The garden makes it to the World Heritage list for being a perfect example of a harmonious blend of man-made landscaping with nature.
Half -built, half-carved into the rock, and surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges, Petra will be instantly recalled by any Indiana Jones fan as the Holy Grail’s resting place in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' . Hidden for thousands of years until discovered by Swiss explorer Johan Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812, the entire city is carved out of sandstone cliffs, giving it the name “rose red city”. It was famous around the time of Christ for being the only way through those mountains for traders bringing back silk from China to Europe. It is one of the most famous archeological sites in the world, qualifying it as a World Heritage site.