Sensory Overload in Chennai, India

On April 19, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn India, Photo Challenge2 Comments

It is hard to describe to people the overall sensation of what it was like when we arrived in Chennai during our visit to India several years ago. With that many people living in one place, around 8.5 million people, the city is a always in constant motion with cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, trucks, and people seemingly going everywhere. It is also a city filled with colorful buildings and ornate temples, making it visually stunning to see. There is no escaping the constant noise of the city, most specifically the constant honking that can be heard 24 hours a day. Drivers in Chennai don’t honk out of frustration or anger with other drivers, but it is a form of communication to let other drivers know that they are passing, turning, or moving over. Since they don’t stay in the lanes of the roads, it is a hectic dance where they beep horns and swerve in and out of lanes as they make their way through the intense traffic. Another thing that hits you immediately as you exit the airport is the intense confluence of smells that fills the air. With all of the strong spices used in the cooking of Indian food, the combination of animals and people roaming the streets, and the lack of sanitation, it is an overwhelming experience.

It is definitely something that truly can’t be described unless you have been exposed to someplace similar yourself. It took us two full days before the constant din, motion, aromas, and sense of truly being a outsider in a strange place reached a sense of normalcy. In many ways, it is amazing the way the mind is able to adapt itself under what would seem to be extreme changes in surroundings. We have been to many large cities around the world, but there is nothing that compares to the time that we spent in Chennai. To be clear, it is still one of our favorite places that we have visited, partially because it was so different than any place else. It is hard to imagine what it must be like for the citizens that live in that environment with such a prolific sensory experience on a daily basis and not just for a few short weeks.

Travel is not Always Easy

On March 15, 2018March 15, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Germany, Photo Challenge18 Comments

We, like many of you, spend a lot of our time thinking about and planning our next trip. Unfortunately, here in the United States, it isn’t as easy to get to places as it is in some other parts of the world. It is even worse when you live in the middle of the country as we do because we can’t even jump in a car and head to another state without it taking at least eight hours. It certainly isn’t the same as our time living in Frankfurt when we could decide to go someplace on Wednesday and spend three or four days visiting another country with a short two or three hour train or plane ride. As we finalize arrangement for our next trip, it is likely that we will spend around twenty hours in the air before we reach our destination. Taking that amount of time just to reach a destination makes it hard to explore as much as we would like. Obviously, just being in Europe doesn’t mean that suddenly you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, but it does make it a little easier. We have been reminiscing a lot lately about our time in Frankfurt and there are days when we miss it terribly.

Looking down the River Main in Frankfurt

Apartment Buildings on Our Street in Frankfurt

Creating a Photo Diary

On March 8, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge, South America, Travel Tips16 Comments

Almost everyone takes photographs when they are traveling, but there is a difference between taking photographs at each location that you visit and capturing the experience as a whole. If you take photographs as you walk around a city and capture the entire experience, it almost becomes its own visual diary. You can look back at those pictures and literally remember walking from one site to another. For example, when we were in Lima, Peru, we were so amazed by some of the architecture that we took photos as we walked the streets and as we look back now, we can almost relive that afternoon. You can almost feel the warmth of the sun, feel the nervousness as we passed by the police with riot gear, or hear the children laughing as they played in the plaza by the fountain. We also take videos occasionally to capture the sights and sounds, but we don’t always go back and look at them as we often do with our photographs. Do you create a photo diary that documents the moments of your entire trip or do you just take photos at each of the important places that you visit?