It was golf during the last US visit. Now, it is skiing..yet another interesting sport. What made it more exciting is the $2 per hour lesson from an amicable skiing teacher. She generously extended the class for 4 hours heaping on our interest. First, it was balancing on skis and stopping at will. Then, it was the left and right turns which you maneuver through your toes. As one can imagine, walking up the slope for skiing down is the toughest part. Skiing down takes a few seconds, but every ascent takes 5-10 minutes. Thanks to the heavy boots and the long skis.
If you pass these lessons, then she diligently takes you to the bunny hill – a practice hill for amateurs! The ascent too is quick here. You just hold onto a running rope that pulls you forward. So, by catching the rope and balancing your skis.. you are at top of the hill in few seconds!
It was 5 hours of thorough fun with toppling & tumbling! The heaviness of your mind and the ski boots disappears as you start gliding in the snow!!
Showing posts with label Trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trips. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Loooooooong Drive
Yes, it was indeed a very long drive from Greenville, South Carolina to San Diego, CA covering 
close to 2236 Miles rather 3598 Kms and 10+ states. No doubt that this is one of the best year-end vacations I had!
We were at Houston on Christmas Eve, traveled and chilled at San Diego beach, walked on Rodeo Drive at Los Angeles, gained/lost a few dollars in MGM Casino at Las Vegas, saw the last Sunset of
2008 at Grand Canyon. It’s quite exhilarating just to recap it now! We did watch the beautiful sunrise of 2009 at Grand Canyon too.
The other exciting feature of this trip is I got an opportunity rather privilege to join an amiable Chinese group. I may have missed some instant jokes, as I did not follow Mandarin/Chinese. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every moment..its jus that it would have been more if I had known Chinese.
Two things you gain on a drive like this
- Budget, it was far less from what I had planned/expected!
- Countryside views are breathtaking and they slurp you without any mercy!
Other highlight of this trip is the perfect planning by my Chinese friends! Every hotel, show and tickets were booked in advance.
Not a minute was wasted on deciding what to see! Infact, the plan was more sophisticated than a multiphase project plan with percentages of fun, travel and hotel stay marked for entire trip! The photos were consolidated at the end, written into DVDs ad were distributed.
Phew..they are simply superb! One of my friends cautioned and asked me to think twice before I go for this!
The reason being that the group is new and I need to get engaged with them for almost 2 weeks.
On quick retrospection, guess I would have missed a lovely expedition by not joining them !!
close to 2236 Miles rather 3598 Kms and 10+ states. No doubt that this is one of the best year-end vacations I had!We were at Houston on Christmas Eve, traveled and chilled at San Diego beach, walked on Rodeo Drive at Los Angeles, gained/lost a few dollars in MGM Casino at Las Vegas, saw the last Sunset of
2008 at Grand Canyon. It’s quite exhilarating just to recap it now! We did watch the beautiful sunrise of 2009 at Grand Canyon too.The other exciting feature of this trip is I got an opportunity rather privilege to join an amiable Chinese group. I may have missed some instant jokes, as I did not follow Mandarin/Chinese. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every moment..its jus that it would have been more if I had known Chinese.
Two things you gain on a drive like this- Budget, it was far less from what I had planned/expected!
- Countryside views are breathtaking and they slurp you without any mercy!
Other highlight of this trip is the perfect planning by my Chinese friends! Every hotel, show and tickets were booked in advance.
Not a minute was wasted on deciding what to see! Infact, the plan was more sophisticated than a multiphase project plan with percentages of fun, travel and hotel stay marked for entire trip! The photos were consolidated at the end, written into DVDs ad were distributed.
Phew..they are simply superb! One of my friends cautioned and asked me to think twice before I go for this!The reason being that the group is new and I need to get engaged with them for almost 2 weeks.
On quick retrospection, guess I would have missed a lovely expedition by not joining them !!
Monday, July 27, 2009
US Visit
Recollection of places I have been...
· Atlanta GA (This was done very often even if one in the group needs to get groceries). Visited the Aquarium, Coca cola factory, Indian groceries, Hindu Temples (Balaji and Swaminarayana) "n" number of times
· Greensboro NC. One of my colleagues’ friend stayed here. This also had many weekend visits with "Cherry picking" as the highlight!
· Grandfather Mountain NC
· Smoky Mountain, Gatlinburg TN. The visit during falls here was amazing!
· Drive to west coast trip from Greenville, SC. This covered many states inbetween with "stop-visits" at Houston, Galveston TX, San Diego CA, Los Angeles CA, Las Vegas NV and Grand Canyon AZ More at http://trudgingthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/loooooooong-drive-yes-it-was-indeed.html
· Erie PA.This had amazing beaches!
· Niagara Falls, both from US and Canada sides
· Charleston SC
· Cincinnati OH
· Myrtle Beach SC
· Disney World at Florida
· Near by places from Greenville SC like Ashville, Ceaser's head, Table Rock, Chimney Rock and Cherokee hills
· Atlanta GA (This was done very often even if one in the group needs to get groceries). Visited the Aquarium, Coca cola factory, Indian groceries, Hindu Temples (Balaji and Swaminarayana) "n" number of times
· Greensboro NC. One of my colleagues’ friend stayed here. This also had many weekend visits with "Cherry picking" as the highlight!
· Grandfather Mountain NC
· Smoky Mountain, Gatlinburg TN. The visit during falls here was amazing!
· Drive to west coast trip from Greenville, SC. This covered many states inbetween with "stop-visits" at Houston, Galveston TX, San Diego CA, Los Angeles CA, Las Vegas NV and Grand Canyon AZ More at http://trudgingthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/loooooooong-drive-yes-it-was-indeed.html
· Erie PA.This had amazing beaches!
· Niagara Falls, both from US and Canada sides
· Charleston SC
· Cincinnati OH
· Myrtle Beach SC
· Disney World at Florida
· Near by places from Greenville SC like Ashville, Ceaser's head, Table Rock, Chimney Rock and Cherokee hills
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Variety at Valpaarai
Last weekend, we went to this Tea country called Valpaarai. The place was amazing with lush green tea estates, waterfalls, elegant temples and churches! The idea came in when one of my cousins was actually looking for contacts at Valpaarai for accommodation. I was enquiring about it to certain folks there and suddenly it flashed that my friends and I as well can use the upcoming long weekend to visit the place.
It turned out to be a rewarding decision. Check out the snaps here http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shrilatha.puthi/Vaalparai as evidence for the good time that we had! There are around 40 hairpin bends (20 up and 20 down) to traverse before reaching the place. The drive was incredible. There were very few decent hotels, as the place is not yet commercially exploited.
Main highlights include tasty tea for 2 Rs., second largest dam in Asia, chat with naive school children, friendly neighbor Kiruthika, recreation/crèche centers for estate employees, dance drama/procession in a temple, coffee bar attached to a bakery shop, attending mid night mass at a church, plucking Tea leaves with special bowl-attached-scissors, Hospital Waterfalls (a hospital named ‘Waterfalls’) and getting famous by shopping black bangles! Well, it was a happening town!
Other feature is the mountain there called “Pul Medu” (Grass land) on the top. The British had a practice of burning the grass periodically to ensure its growth that would be the fodder for the cattle there. There are roads constructed till top to get the burnt grass down to the town. It looked like we need special permission to go there as it crosses the forest range. We also went to a place called Top Slip. This is a wild life sanctuary - we really could not spot any splendid wild life except for black monkeys, elephants and few birds like Kingfisher!
Full credit goes to the confident driver and the informative guide who made this trip a more memorable one!
It turned out to be a rewarding decision. Check out the snaps here http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shrilatha.puthi/Vaalparai as evidence for the good time that we had! There are around 40 hairpin bends (20 up and 20 down) to traverse before reaching the place. The drive was incredible. There were very few decent hotels, as the place is not yet commercially exploited.
Main highlights include tasty tea for 2 Rs., second largest dam in Asia, chat with naive school children, friendly neighbor Kiruthika, recreation/crèche centers for estate employees, dance drama/procession in a temple, coffee bar attached to a bakery shop, attending mid night mass at a church, plucking Tea leaves with special bowl-attached-scissors, Hospital Waterfalls (a hospital named ‘Waterfalls’) and getting famous by shopping black bangles! Well, it was a happening town!
Other feature is the mountain there called “Pul Medu” (Grass land) on the top. The British had a practice of burning the grass periodically to ensure its growth that would be the fodder for the cattle there. There are roads constructed till top to get the burnt grass down to the town. It looked like we need special permission to go there as it crosses the forest range. We also went to a place called Top Slip. This is a wild life sanctuary - we really could not spot any splendid wild life except for black monkeys, elephants and few birds like Kingfisher!
Full credit goes to the confident driver and the informative guide who made this trip a more memorable one!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Woes of ‘flying cheaper’
We were heading to Kathmandu, Nepal. The Kathmandu flight was from Delhi at 11:45AM. The day started at around 6:00AM to catch a connecting flight from Bangalore to Delhi. Known to the uncertainties of cheaper airlines, we still hoped that we don’t get delayed. The hope was almost satisfied or that’s what we thought, cos we boarded the plane and got seated on time.
Then, something went wrong..It looked like AC was not working and we really did not mind that initially. Then came an announcement saying AC unit was not working and the plane cannot take off. The next question was for how long we need to wait and the irony is none of them had an answer! As we started feeling hot inside, all passengers disembarked the plane. It was a hot sunny day and we squatted in the shade of the plane. Time was running and people became furious. Another dismaying fact is that having fault on their side, the airline authorities did not bother to display any tinge of courtesy. Didn’t they go to any airline academy for training in dealing with the customers? It needs no further explanation to emulate the distress experienced by senior citizens/children without food and water
Apparently the AC unit got repaired and then it was realized that there was no fuel. Help from HAL was not at all timely due to internal politics with this specific airline.
It was 2-3 hours of wait in runway watching other planes landing and taking off-experience of my lifetime I should say!
The problem got fixed and we reached Delhi in time to know that we had missed our flight to Kathmandu!!! There was a “no show” for us on that flight and we could not even cancel the tickets.
Our journey continued on another flight, but will there be a “stop” to such traumatic experiences?
Then, something went wrong..It looked like AC was not working and we really did not mind that initially. Then came an announcement saying AC unit was not working and the plane cannot take off. The next question was for how long we need to wait and the irony is none of them had an answer! As we started feeling hot inside, all passengers disembarked the plane. It was a hot sunny day and we squatted in the shade of the plane. Time was running and people became furious. Another dismaying fact is that having fault on their side, the airline authorities did not bother to display any tinge of courtesy. Didn’t they go to any airline academy for training in dealing with the customers? It needs no further explanation to emulate the distress experienced by senior citizens/children without food and water
Apparently the AC unit got repaired and then it was realized that there was no fuel. Help from HAL was not at all timely due to internal politics with this specific airline.
It was 2-3 hours of wait in runway watching other planes landing and taking off-experience of my lifetime I should say!
The problem got fixed and we reached Delhi in time to know that we had missed our flight to Kathmandu!!! There was a “no show” for us on that flight and we could not even cancel the tickets.
Our journey continued on another flight, but will there be a “stop” to such traumatic experiences?
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monkey's Message
Soft little fingers clutching my shoulders, a small and delicate body touching my back…yes it took a while for me to realize that it was a Monkey. Thoughts raced my mind on what this monkey would want from me?? I immediately felt a strong pull of my wallet, which at the moment was neatly concealed in my armpit!!
I let out a shout, as any other normal person would do which stopped some of the passerby-turned onlookers. Well, it did not stop the Monkey that was keen on snatching the purse away from me. After a short tussle, I gave it up to avoid any harm. I must admit that the Monkey was very decent and smart – It got what it want without much hue and cry!! It took the purse and rested on the pavement. Money was less, I was just concerned about my credit card cos I was in a foreign land and was not quite sure about blocking my card quickly.
By then there was a crowd behind me watching all the drama…me and my friend were just patiently waiting and hoping that the Monkey would soon get disinterested with the purse and leave it off. It pulled all the cash and threw it out attaching “no value” to it! It also tried to chew up some cards without caring a damn about the spectators and being the center of attraction.
After 2-3 minutes of this ordeal, it just left the purse and went off. It was a small incident but had a very “deep” effect and made me to realize something!!
What it was – I leave that up to your imagination!!
Note : This was written just within a few hours of the event fresh from the mind, I just got to post it here today without editing it.
Event Place/Date : Kathmandu, Nepal / 28, May 2007
I let out a shout, as any other normal person would do which stopped some of the passerby-turned onlookers. Well, it did not stop the Monkey that was keen on snatching the purse away from me. After a short tussle, I gave it up to avoid any harm. I must admit that the Monkey was very decent and smart – It got what it want without much hue and cry!! It took the purse and rested on the pavement. Money was less, I was just concerned about my credit card cos I was in a foreign land and was not quite sure about blocking my card quickly.
By then there was a crowd behind me watching all the drama…me and my friend were just patiently waiting and hoping that the Monkey would soon get disinterested with the purse and leave it off. It pulled all the cash and threw it out attaching “no value” to it! It also tried to chew up some cards without caring a damn about the spectators and being the center of attraction.
After 2-3 minutes of this ordeal, it just left the purse and went off. It was a small incident but had a very “deep” effect and made me to realize something!!
What it was – I leave that up to your imagination!!
Note : This was written just within a few hours of the event fresh from the mind, I just got to post it here today without editing it.
Event Place/Date : Kathmandu, Nepal / 28, May 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Luxury Trip
The trip was to Muthathi, Bheemeshwari, Shivanasamudra falls (Baru chukki/Gagana Chukki) and Somnathpura. It was a feast to all my five senses. Cos the trip was accompanied by my pals U and R and their baggage(s) of snacks!!
There was a slight starting trouble due to a long wait for the car..looked like the driver decided to extend his sleep a little for no reason! But soon we were all set, everything was fantastic-the drive, the car, the weather, the songs played in the car and the driver too (though he was late)! Lot of prior preparation by U and R as they bought lot of goodies to eat on the way that had varieties of biscuits, chocolates, you name it and we can find that in the bag. Even the lunch was prepared. Thanks to R for cutting cucumber to ornate the veg sandwich! It was a unique experience for me as I don advocate the idea of carrying so much food on trips/treks. Well, I must say I relished the uniqueness of it.
Wonderful lunch on Cauvery banks!!
Coming to the essence of the trip, we stopped the car in the Cauvery banks near Muthathi where there were no tourists to be with nature for some time. Saw a big boy-tusker as U would call it on the way. Then we went to the Shivanasamudra falls. The water levels were less, but the force was enormous. The strange thing in the place was you can find a waterfall in every nook and corner..it was so much that actually we got tired of the falls that day. Even here, we managed to trek to a secluded spot just to get lost with the nature’s beauty. Timely comments from R and U added more flavor and fervor. After a quick discussion with the driver, we had a not so smooth drive to Somnathpura. The place was amazing as it reflected the Hoysala architure. We studied it for sometime, it had all the avatars carved out adeptly. We lingered around long enough to invite the security who asked us to leave the premises. From here we headed back to Bangalore that included a small stint of staying in the stationary car for an hour as it broke down without prior notice. Lot of photo sessions with poses to distract someone far ;-) was another highlight of the day!!
There was a slight starting trouble due to a long wait for the car..looked like the driver decided to extend his sleep a little for no reason! But soon we were all set, everything was fantastic-the drive, the car, the weather, the songs played in the car and the driver too (though he was late)! Lot of prior preparation by U and R as they bought lot of goodies to eat on the way that had varieties of biscuits, chocolates, you name it and we can find that in the bag. Even the lunch was prepared. Thanks to R for cutting cucumber to ornate the veg sandwich! It was a unique experience for me as I don advocate the idea of carrying so much food on trips/treks. Well, I must say I relished the uniqueness of it.
Wonderful lunch on Cauvery banks!!
Coming to the essence of the trip, we stopped the car in the Cauvery banks near Muthathi where there were no tourists to be with nature for some time. Saw a big boy-tusker as U would call it on the way. Then we went to the Shivanasamudra falls. The water levels were less, but the force was enormous. The strange thing in the place was you can find a waterfall in every nook and corner..it was so much that actually we got tired of the falls that day. Even here, we managed to trek to a secluded spot just to get lost with the nature’s beauty. Timely comments from R and U added more flavor and fervor. After a quick discussion with the driver, we had a not so smooth drive to Somnathpura. The place was amazing as it reflected the Hoysala architure. We studied it for sometime, it had all the avatars carved out adeptly. We lingered around long enough to invite the security who asked us to leave the premises. From here we headed back to Bangalore that included a small stint of staying in the stationary car for an hour as it broke down without prior notice. Lot of photo sessions with poses to distract someone far ;-) was another highlight of the day!!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
What a Sunday!?
This time it was a casual question “what’s the weekend plan?” that turned out as a trip to Shriranagapattana(SR Pattana in short). U and myself were working on Saturday, which left only Sunday in our precious weekend. U was keen on going to SR Pattana to enquire her favorite deity. I joined her with the intention of covering a few places near by after the enquiry! After a debate we decided on 6:30 AM as our start time – very very early to be awake on a Sunday. We boarded a bus to Mysore at Majestic and set off to our destination. The ride on the Mysore road was amazing – the best companion that we had on that day was the weather – it was perfect for travel. After a quick breakfast at Mandya, we continued our journey. We felt that our bus was very slow as every other object on the road that was coming from the back zoomed ahead of us. It was almost three hours and we reminded the driver about our stop. After some time, the window at the back of the driver opened and he saw us – we decoded that as our call to get down.
The bus left us on a main road – we entered the SR Pattana bus stand and enquired about the temple. We got into a rick to traverse a distance of 1km to reach the temple. While traveling we also struck a good deal with the rick guy to go around places over there. Contented with our deal and the plan for the day, we entered an old temple that had a similar architecture of temples at Tamil Nadu. To our surprise, the crowd was manageable. It was an awesome sight to the see the smiling face of the Lord. We lost ourselves for a few minutes, got back and visited other deities around. After a couple of photo sessions in the Mandaps and with “Aannais” , we left the temple. Then we were off to discern the history of the place. It looked like Tipu Sultan had a lot of association with this place – we visted his Palace, Durgas, Masjid and Gumbaz. The museum had a very good collection of coins, ornaments, dresses and furniture that were used during 1700s.One observation made by U – all portraits and paintings of the lineal dynasty has been created by the white men. The expressions in the eyes of the Sultans were so real and sparkling! My friend liked the fifth son of Tipu as he was looking smart! After the stint in refreshing our minds with little history – we went to the next place “Triveni Sangam”. This place is the culmination of three rivers – our hunt for a place to sit and watch the river peacefully went in vain. I would only say that the beauty of the place has been defiled. We tried to capture the far away river in the camera, which quenched our thirst of drowning in the serenity of the place to a certain extent.
Our next stop was Ranganthittu – the bird sanctuary. According to the rick guy this was the right season to visit the place. So with the hope of spotting a variety of birds we went to the haven. There was a slight drizzle and it increased the splendor of the place. We took a boat ride in the river to get a close glimpse of the birds. We spotted Open beak Stork, Painted Stork, White Ivis and other brids whose names were not known to us. An astonishing thing is we could always spot a group of birds and we assumed them to be of same variety that turned wrong when we realized that one group actually has a variety of birds. We could see huge nests and some birds were fast asleep. My friend thanked me for the opportunity to exploit her photography skills – she managed a couple of good shots of the flying birds too. It was very nice to watch the flora and fauna around us.
After a quick snack cum lunch at 4:00PM, we headed towards Bangalore. We really still could not believe the way we spent that superb Sunday!
The bus left us on a main road – we entered the SR Pattana bus stand and enquired about the temple. We got into a rick to traverse a distance of 1km to reach the temple. While traveling we also struck a good deal with the rick guy to go around places over there. Contented with our deal and the plan for the day, we entered an old temple that had a similar architecture of temples at Tamil Nadu. To our surprise, the crowd was manageable. It was an awesome sight to the see the smiling face of the Lord. We lost ourselves for a few minutes, got back and visited other deities around. After a couple of photo sessions in the Mandaps and with “Aannais” , we left the temple. Then we were off to discern the history of the place. It looked like Tipu Sultan had a lot of association with this place – we visted his Palace, Durgas, Masjid and Gumbaz. The museum had a very good collection of coins, ornaments, dresses and furniture that were used during 1700s.One observation made by U – all portraits and paintings of the lineal dynasty has been created by the white men. The expressions in the eyes of the Sultans were so real and sparkling! My friend liked the fifth son of Tipu as he was looking smart! After the stint in refreshing our minds with little history – we went to the next place “Triveni Sangam”. This place is the culmination of three rivers – our hunt for a place to sit and watch the river peacefully went in vain. I would only say that the beauty of the place has been defiled. We tried to capture the far away river in the camera, which quenched our thirst of drowning in the serenity of the place to a certain extent.
Our next stop was Ranganthittu – the bird sanctuary. According to the rick guy this was the right season to visit the place. So with the hope of spotting a variety of birds we went to the haven. There was a slight drizzle and it increased the splendor of the place. We took a boat ride in the river to get a close glimpse of the birds. We spotted Open beak Stork, Painted Stork, White Ivis and other brids whose names were not known to us. An astonishing thing is we could always spot a group of birds and we assumed them to be of same variety that turned wrong when we realized that one group actually has a variety of birds. We could see huge nests and some birds were fast asleep. My friend thanked me for the opportunity to exploit her photography skills – she managed a couple of good shots of the flying birds too. It was very nice to watch the flora and fauna around us.
After a quick snack cum lunch at 4:00PM, we headed towards Bangalore. We really still could not believe the way we spent that superb Sunday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)