ajanta caves india

The Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE.The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales.The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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skaftafell ice cave

Ice caves are temporary structures that appear at the edge of glaciers. They look amazingly beautiful from the inside. This particular cave is located on the frozen lagoon of the Svínafellsjökull glacier in Skaftafell, Iceland. The centuries old ice coming down the slopes of Öræfajökull via Svínafellsjökull glacier has metamorphosed into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains almost no air bubbles. The lack of air means that it absorbs almost all visible light, apart from the blue fraction which is then visible to the naked eye. However, this blue ice can be seen only under certain circumstances. It can be seen in winter after long periods of rain when the surface layer of the glacier has been washed away. It can be seen in ice-caves like this one and on floating icebergs that have recently rolled over.

Salar de Uyuni : One of the World’s Largest Mirrors, Bolivia

Believe it or not, this dreamy landscape that seems to have come out of a sci-fi movie actually exists. It’s called Salar de Uyuni or the Uyuni Salt flats located in the dry desert region of Southern Bolivia. On regular sunny days it’s just a vast stretch of pure white nothingness. But just a little rainfall turns this place into the largest mirror in the world that seems to go on to infinity.

Salar de Uyuni is the larger one of the two salt flats that remained when the giant prehistoric Lake Minchin dried up. Known as the world’s largest salt flat, it stretches up to 10,582 square kilometers in size. It’s also located very near the peak of the Andes at 3,650 kilometers in altitude, which means that it’s actually in the sky as much as it is an extension of it. Crazy awesome.

Wisteria Flower Tunnel in Japan

Kawachi Fuji Gardens in Kitakyushu, Japan ( 5 hours from Tokyo, if you take the Nozomi high speed train) is where you will find this pastel-colored fairytale tunnel. The gardens are home to about 150 Wisteria flowering plants spanning 20 different species (white, blue, purple, violet-blue and pink). This is the reason why the Wisteria tunnel is so colorful and graceful.

Best time to visit is from late April to mid May (depends on the weather each year). The peak is normally at end of April to the Golden Week. Not every year wisteria blooms so magnificently. To get to the garden from JR Yahata station, take Nishitetsu bus #56 and get off at Kawachi Elementary School. Then walk 10-15 min to the garden. It is difficult to imagine Kawachi Fuji Garden any other way but in full bloom, yet according to Atlas Obscura, visiting the place outside the mentioned time period will lead you to a “disheartening mass of lifeless, twisted branches”. If you had the chance to walk along this flower-covered pathway, feel free to drop a line and tell us how it felt!

Bamboo Forest, Japan

Sagano Bamboo Forest is located in Arashiyama, a district on the west outskirts of Kyoto,  Japan.
Sagano Bamboo Forest is one of the most amazing natural sites in Japan.

If you’ve been planning a trip to Kyoto, you’ve probably seen pictures of the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove – along with the torii tunnels of Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine and Kinkaku-ji Temple, it’s one of the most photographed sights in the city. But no picture can capture the feeling of standing in the midst of this sprawling bamboo grove – the whole thing has a palpable sense of otherness that is quite unlike that of any normal forest we know of.

Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong

Tian Tan Buddha is one of the top must-go destinations for visitors to Hong Kong. This statue, also known as the Big Buddha, is the world’s largest Buddha statue, by using bronze, it’s 34 metres tall and weighs 250 tonnes, completed in December 1993. It is a major centre of Buddhism in Hong Kong.