Book 'Nehru'

I just finished reading the book 'Nehru' by Shashi Tharoor. He is one of my favourite authors (sometimes I wish he authored my history text books back in school!).It is probably the most comprehensive book on how 'socialism', and in turn Nehru, shaped the fate of India after he took over as the first Prime Minister of free India.

At a time, after WWII, when there were two currents dividing the world, Nehru chose the Russian(then USSR) way! Much of India's history has turned the way one person wanted it to, and that was Nehru. His countless number of days in prison, his fight against secularism and casteism( probably the only one of his kind in that age) and his charisma of a well groomed politician, a face of India which grew fans from all over the world(J.F. Kennedy was one of them!), only makes me look up to him. Yet, his policies have been the most detrimental to India's growth in the country's first 15 years.

During his lifetime, Nehru was surrounded by people who were against many of his ideas. India probably had to the slowest development rate among the Asian countries after WWII, and even then, there weren't politicians who rose up to the occasion. They were blinded by idol worship and, only another Nehru offspring could satisfy the Indian people. They believed Indira Gandhi would fill the void created by her father. There were many instances, quoted in the book, when Nehru came very close to resigning. At once the Congress members would convene and appease with him! May be people should have realized that it was OK to respect one person and at the same time be unsupportive of the person's ideas and stand against him!

We believe in the theory of ONE great leader, ONE great actor, ONE great musician etc. I wonder if it all starts right from when you are a kid at school looking up to ONE topper in school! May be that's where we should start to look for a change!

It's the Tropics!

The town of Airlie Beach was our first introduction to the state of Queensland territory. The Proserpine airport functions primarily for tourists visiting the southern part of the GBR. Shute Harbor is one of the major launch harbors for the reef cruises and Airlie beach is only 20mts away from there. We bought tickets on the Whitsunday coach transit that picks people from the airport and drops them at their hotels. It was a comfortable ride all the way. It was green everywhere, and it was hot - ofcourse we were in the Tropics!

I have to mention about the town of Airlie beach. It seemed to us that it was built around tourists and functioned like a well-oiled machine. There are buses that take you to and from the town to the airport, and there is a bus that waits to pick people and drop them off at their hotels after the cruise, cruises operate on a tight schedule and are very punctual, and not to mention the ever cheerful bus drivers!

We took an apartment close to the city of Airlie beach. The apartment was basic, comfortable and had a great view of the Airlie beach harbor. It felt like home. I remember the first thing M and I decided as soon as we landed - to spend a day doing nothing! And that's what we did the first day at Airlie beach.

Out of the innumerable options cruise companies were offering to see the GBR, we chose to go on a full day cruise operated by Fantasea Cruises. We left at 7:15 took the shuttle bus to Shute Harbor, to catch the ferry that leaves at 8:00. It was a great day to be out, bright, sunny and calm water conditions. Fantasea had a very friendly crew onboard. It took us an hour and 45mts to reach the Reef. It was one of the best days to be on a cruise, if I can quote the captain, and that's how it seemed for the first hour of the ride. After a smooth ride the first hour, we were rudely struck by surprise when we got to the open seas with no land on sight! It was hard not to notice all the ship shaking! The waters were extremely choppy, and the crew was doing everything they could to keep us distract us. I remember looking one time to the sides of the ship and I remember the ship literally rocking in the swells of the water! We were told that conditions would get a lot better when we get near the shallow waters of the reef and we were thankful it did!




Fantasea had a pontoon docked permanently on the reef which had facilities for a lot of water activities. While M decided to snorkel, I went on the semi-submersible boat to watch the corals up close. The corals were of so many colors, shapes and sizes. . Its hard to imagine the corals as any one shape or color, and that's probably what makes it special. The corals which are actually living polyps have been forming under water for so many thousands of years, and the reason why it is only found here is because of two elements - sunlight and shallow waters. This part of the Pacific is the most expansive area of the ocean waters which are shallow (about 25-30ft) and have abundant sunlight. This is a true natural wonder and the only one of its kind visible from space!

The next day we went on another full day cruise with a half day stopover at Hamilton Island and the second half of the day in Whiteaven beach. Hamilton Island is the only resort island among the 74 Whitsunday Islands. A perfect destination for resort lovers. It had facilities for squash, bowling, pool tables, golf, tennis and even a secluded beach with beach chairs all available for use for all visitors. It is exactly the kind of place you want to stay if you want to pamper yourself and relax! After a half a day stop at the Island we boarded our cruise, treated ourselves to a hearty lunch served on board, and we were on our way to Whitehaven beach.

Going from Hamilton, Whitehaven beach is on the Whitsunday Island,the biggest island in the archipelago. To get to the beach, the ship has to go through a narrow passage between two small islands, and to get through this, wind conditions would have to be just right. Luckily the wind direction turned out in our favour, and soon after the ship crossed the passage we could se the beautiful blue waters of Whitehaven right in front of us. The captain docked about 25ft from the beach and we were transported to the beach on a small pontoon. Other than the beach, the rest of the Whitsunday Island is a tropical rainforest. There is no human activity on the island. There are only day visitors to the beach and these are people visiting, like we did, on cruises from the mainland, and on private boats. We were among a few dozen people on this 8-mile strectch of sand, and I must say we are some lucky beings to experience this unspoilt beauty!

We were leaving Airlie Beach to Brisbane the next day, and to Sydney the following. The trip had worked out better than we had imagined. If it was one thing that we were certain about in our minds, it is that we had to come back to this beautiful country yet another time! When we do, we hope to do the rail trip on the Indian Pacific, aptly so because it connects from Perth, city on the Indian Ocean, to Sydney, the city on the Pacific. That, I imagine would be one of the nicest ways to see the 'nothingness' of the West!

Small town Tasmania!

There was still 2 more hrs. of sunlight when we landed in Hobart. We knew Hobart is a much smaller city and public transport is not as well connected as Sydney. So we had booked for a rental car prior to our arrival. It was a smooth drive to our hotel, inspite of having to get used to driving on the left.

For folks familiar with cricket, David Boon is the first person that comes to mind when you say Tasmania. I used to think he looks a little different from the rest of the Australians and now I know why. Tasmanian's are a little different in the way they look. They look more rugged, yet friendly and believe in big moustaches. A perfect Texan would feel right at home if you leave him there. Get the picture?

It was a Saturday and the Salamanca market is the most happening event in Hobart on a Saturday morning. The market sold dresses, hats, local food, candies, fruits and many more. It was scorching hot that day(~36C) and I remember the first thing we bought ourselves while at the market - a cap, and a big scoop of icecream.

Mt. Wellington was the next on our itinerary. The mountain is at a height of 3000ft. and on a clear day you can watch the whole city of Hobart and the Derwent river running in the middle of the city. We drove all the way up. It had some good views of the city and a lot of trail heads all along the drive. We didn't particularly go on a hike but stopped at various places to catch some good sights. We drove back late evening and headed straight to the harbor area also called the Salamanca square. The harbor area is the place to be on a Saturday night and it has a big array of bars and restaurants minutes walk from the water.

After a day in Hobart we planned to drive out the next day to a small town by the sea called Bicheno. It is a 2 hr. drive NE from Hobart. Before we drove upto Bicheno we wanted to go on a scenic drive south of Hobart and then make the trip all the way north. The drive had access to trails along the route. One such was the Snug Falls trailhead. The hike ends at the Falls, and at this time of the year, the falls was merely a small stream of water flowing from above. It was still worth all the fresh air and the feeling of being amidst trees in a forest!

Going further south from here we stopped at a small town called Hounville, well known locally for its apple orchards, before proceeding to Bicheno out final destination for the day. We roughly spotted about 10 cars on the entire road trip from Hobart to Bicheno and that's when you know you are in countryside! Towns were few and far between, and every now and we would see signs for a beach, a ranch or a berry farm. The beaches here are untouched and beautiful! We stopped at one called the....beach and I can't forget the sight of the straight lines of waves coming at you for miles and miles ! It was exactly how you would picture a beach and not to mention we were the only ones on the beach!

We had booked a cabin at Bicheno and the cabin and the one we stayed in had the 'sea-view'. It was perfect! There were trails which would lead to the waters of the bay that we had views of. Here we learnt about the 'blow-hole'. This is created when the waters hit the rocks and the gap between the rocks creates a base sound similar to that of a base drum. It was mind blowing the first time we heard it and we would wait for a big one to crash on the rocks and there goes again...! It was also spectacular to see the water splash all over the rocks with such force.

The next morning we left to a town called Coles Bay, which is the entry town to the Freycinet National Park. One of Freycinet's popular hike is the 'Wine Glass Bay Lookout' hike. This hike had about 600 steps all the way up and we could see the Bay shaped like a wine glass and the spectacular blue waters of the bay. We heard later that the beach itself is voted one of the Top 10 beaches in the world by Condenast!

Tasmania is known for its harsh weather, severe weather conditions and gusty winds blowing from the Antartic. The Tasman sea is also one of the roughest here. What else could you expect in a city that's the closest to Antartica in the Australian continent? It was particularly windy on the day we went on the hike. The waters were so rough, the trees were literally shaking, and we couldn't miss the hissing sound of the wind around us. By the time we got back in the evening we heard reports of gale wind advisory for our area and the surround and we could feel the mighty winds from inside the cabin. The other danger in Australia with heavy winds and dry summers were the bush fires! We were about 90 kms away from the closest bushfire. I remember sleeping with the radio on to get frequent updates on the weather! That's how unpredicatable weather can be in Tasmania. It was quite an experience!

Tasmania is a nature lover's paradise. It has endless hikes and untouched beaches all along its eastern coast. There is nothing urban about this state, and that's the reason it is so popular among local tourists. There is one major two lane highway connecting the big towns of Hobart, Davenport and Launceston. While on the road, you can see cattle, sheeps, goats grazing on the vast empty lands on the sides of the highway. I was particularly excited when I spotted a wallabie cross the road. I wished we could have stopped, but at 70km/hr, it was long gone before we could stop and catch a picture of it.

We had quite a bit of a travel to do before we would settle in Airlie Beach and get started on the third leg of our vacation - the Great Barrier Reef! We flew from Tasmania to Brisbane, and the following day we had a flight from Brisbane to Proserpine. The town of Airlie Beach is a 40mts bus trip from the airport and is the gateway town to the Whitsunday Islands.

Contd..in my next post.

Sights of Sydney....

It was bright and sunny the next day we landed. Circular Quay, the main ferry, train and bus terminus would be our starting destination to anywhere in Sydney for the next 7 days. One can imagine how busy this place would be on anyday!

Watson's bay was our first stop. It takes about 20mts by ferry. Around the bay is the beach, the famous "Doyle's" restaurant and some trail walks along the bay. We went on the trail walk that led us to a lighthouse known as the 'Hornsby Lighthouse'. It was a good walk all the way up and had good views of the southern suburbs of Sydney. After a good afternoon at Watson's bay, we decided to go to Manly in the evening.

Manly is a popular suburb of Sydney and is well known for its surf-able beaches and its eclectic shops. The beach is clean and has a paved path running along the beach -perfect for an evening jog. Opera house would be our final destination for the day. It is an excellent idea to sit around the Opera Bar and people watch. I would recommend it to anyone!

Sydney is well connected by public transport. Buses are the best within the city and the suburbs are well connected by ferries and trains. Just walking the streets of Sydney is a good way to spend time in the city. George street is the favorite among tourists and locals alike. The city ceases to sleep around this area.

Unlike New York, Sydney is not popular for its museums. Nevethless we visited the 'Australian Museum' in our eagerness to learn more about this continent so far away from anywhere in the world and yet ranks among the top 10 economies of the world. Much to our surprise there was no material on how Australia's histroy but most of it was devoted to exhibits of dinosaurs and animals found in Australia. It felt like they could've done better on that front!

We also visited the Royal Botanical Garden. Australians are very true about their allegiance to the Queen, and the word 'Royal' is a common prefix to their universities, and public buildings. The garden was not 'royal' in anyway but was a good one for an evening stroll.

The harbor city is all about its water. Its wharfs are plenty and they are flooded with businesses hoping to make most use of views. One of them is the Cockle Bay Wharf. It hosts some of the cities elite seafood restaurants, steakhouses and bars. It is beautiful around here and perfect for an special evening on town!

Taronga Zoo is the perfect place to be on a perfectly sunny day. It is a 10 mt ferry ride from downtown. The zoo is located on a hill opposite the Sydney skyline only separated by water. A cable car takes you from one side of the zoo to the other and is a fun way to watch the animals. The zoo's attractions are the marsupials ONLY found in Australia. We spotted koala's hugging trees, kangaroos holding its joey in its pouch, wombats that looks like a big sized mongoose and sleeps in a hole that it digs 2/3rds of its life, echidnas, platypus and the Tasmanian devil, known for its devlish red ears! The bird show was one of the highlights of the zoo trip. I never thought you could train a bird to fly the way you want it to and get back when you wanted to and make noises when you asked them to. Australia is home to so many unique birds that can only be found "down under". You can also find baby penguins in Australia. That's when you know you're in a place that's closer to Antartica than any other continent!

We were visiting in the middle of the 'Ashes' series and Australians take cricket seriously. You especially know it when there every test match is screened in front of a lawn on a big screen in the middle of the city! Being cricket deprived here in the US, we took to the lawn many afternoons for a break from our touristy explorations.

There are so many walks in Sydney, and one of them that tops the list is the walk along the Sydney harbor with the botanical gardens to one side and water on the other. This park is huge and is a great place for an evening run. A great spot to watch the setting sun and wind down for the day.

Think beach in Sydney and the first thing that comes to mind is Bondi beach! It appeals to most tourists because of it 'family friendly' feel. The walk from here to Bronte beach is exceptional. It is a paved foreshore walk for about 3 miles. Bronte is the less crowded and smaller of the two. Bondi is about 15 mts from the city centre. Wouldn't it be fun to go to the beach for a lunch or an evening on a weekday?

A day out of Syndey would take you to the Blue Mountains! It is a comfortable 2 hr train ride from the Sydney Central. The blue color of the mountains is from the oil from the eucalyptus trees suspended in the air which gives it a blue hue! It is an incredibe sight catching the first glance of the mountains from the train. We got down at 'Katoomba' the closest city that aso offers day tours to and from the mountains. We hiked a good part to see the 3 peaks called 'three sisters' named after an aboriginal story. The trip to the moutains is a one day activity and is well worth it.

The entire week in Sydney has been a city vacation except for the trip to the moutains and we knew it was all going to be different from now on. Hobart was our next destination. The flight reached Hobart at 7:00 in the evening......................contd. in my next post.

Wonder of Oz!

It's December. Where is it summer, where people speak English and it takes only one flight from SFO? The solution to this puzzle - Australia! That's how our 3 week vacation "down under" started. I did the routine tour book reads and found out Australia is a 'BIG' country much like the US and it can take days driving from one city to the other. Sydney, and the Great Barrier Reef were the only things we HAD to do, anywhere else was just a bonus. With this in idea, we booked our tickets for 21 days - with 7 days in Sydney, 4 days in Tasmania(our bonus leg) and Brisbane(this was the closest big city to the Reef from Sydney). It was exciting to think it'll 7 days of city life, 4 days of wilderness, and another 4 days of beach vacation - all in one! We wanted to keep the whole trip as flexible as we could without planning everything to the last detail. We decided to book only the first 4 days of our stay in downtown Sydney and then take it as it goes.

Our flight was for the 29th of Nov , a 13.5 hrs non stop from SFO. We reached on the 1st of Dec. losing 30th Nov. from our calendars somewhere mid air. Our Qantas (short for Queensland and Northern territory airline service!) flight service was exceptional - loved their spacious toilets, video on demand and frequent supply of snacks, fruits, drinks etc etc. It felt like the airline bug hadn't hit them and made us feel air travel is still a luxury in some parts of the world.

We had a good start, and the flight landed in Sydney at 8 in the morning. Immigration was a breeze and we picked up our luggage and walked out of the airport to smell the city. To me it seemed like we had landed in Chennai on a 'not too hot' sunny day! We bought our tickets to a shuttle that would take us to our hotel. We waited and waited and waited until the driver thought it was enough people in the van (with 2 of them squeezed with him in the front) and thus began our 25mts drive to our hotel. At first glance it seemed like I had landed in a place somewhere between the UK, US and India. The roads were narrow, the houses were small and intimate and the cars were big and small, of every make and model from the ubiquitous Toyota's, to the Hyundai's and Peugeot's! We reached our Apartment hotel, gave them our bags for storage (since we were to early for check in) and took to the Sydney streets. M took out of his favorite pocket map (He esp. loves the compass in it...I don't complain given my direction sense!). We headed down straight to Darling Harbour. It was a lively place, lots of people for a Tuesday afternoon. This place had everything - theatres, restaurants, an aquarium cum wildlife exhibition of some sort, a ferry station, bars and coffee houses and all by the water . After all this it didn't seem like our 14 hr flight journey would go in vain!

We took in the sights for a while, got a caffeine fix and walked back to our hotel. On our way back we stopped over at the Queen Victoria Building. This one was a mall that rose upto 4 floors and had the exquisite collection of shops, so exquisite that I couldn't read most of the shop names. That's when you know two things - you don't have to bother getting into any of these shops and also feel good about window shopping because you are in a majority. They had a Christmas tree going up through al the floors and it was studded with real Swarovski crystals(~10,000 of them or some crazy number like that!). After this star studded spectacle we decided to walk back to our hotel. We rested a while in our room, made some quick observations on how things are different from where we came like..... M and I had had a discussion about how water drains in the counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and I was not going to beleive it until I saw it. When I did, I couldn't notice the water draining in any one particular direction. After some screening on snopes.com, I found out that it's a very popular myth...but the myth is busted!

We spent the evening by the Opera House. It is an imposing structure on the water with a great view of the Harbour bridge. It's structure as is believed by a lot of folks is based on the sails of a sail boat is not really true - courtesy of the book "Down Under" by Bill Bryson. This is one entertaining and hilarious book about his experiences in Australia.

Rest of Sydney continues in my next post....

Singing at concord..

My first performance and a 'peek' into the music circle in the Bay area - I had an opportunity to perform at the Concord temple for the Krishna Jayanthi celebrations! I sang 'Balagopala' in the ragam 'Bhairavi' and the very popular 'Enna Thavam Seidhanai'. We were 4 of us who performed and all of us were accompanied by Violin and Mridangam, which instantly gave it a 'kutcheri' feel! The audience was a small crowd of about 30 people, most of them friends and family of performers. It was a nice experience, got to take my sarees out of the box and get on stage after a long time!

Tour De Peninsula!

It feels good to challenge the self physically and that's what we did Sunday, on the 'Tour De Peninsula'. This tour happens every year and has been going on for the last 13yrs, we heard! With the sole focus of working our muscles out, we signed up for this event.

The entire tour itself was a 33 mile loop, with shortcuts at 17mile and 21miles. Ever since I bought my new cycle this summer, we have become regular bikers doing the 14-mile Los Gatos Creek Trail every weekend.

So we, the amateur biker enthusiasts, got ourselves organized on the ride day morning and drove down to Sequoia High School in Redwood City. When we reached there, we noticed the wide gamut of people taking this trip, from seasoned bikers who looked and dressed like them, to weekend warriors and outdoor enthusiasts eager for anything exciting and also people who had just come there to have fun with friends and family. This gave the tour a very warm feel especially for first timers like us! The tour seemed very well organized, especially when you have to manage about 3500 participants.

We got our bibs at the registeration counter, pinned it on to the back of our jerseys, so it would be visible all through the ride.The excitement was kicking in, and more so was the anticipation of what the course might be. M was very clear since the beginning that we wouldn't both stick together just so that we both give it a 100%, else one might sag the other and I agreed, secretly hoping that I would be the one ahead! We decided that our meeting point would be at the first rest stop which is at about 7 miles from the start.

So, the tour started and we waited in batches with a few thousand people around us, and once at the gate, took off. The start was easy, riding on level, tree lined, residential roads, and was like this for the first 10mts. Soon after we were faced with small hills every now and then, which is something we are used to, living in California. I was keeping up good pace and was ahead of more than half of the people with whom I started.

45mts into the tour, I looked at the road ahead of me. I took notice of an uphill but couldn't look any beyond. Hoping it would be a slope on the other side I pedalled hard and started lowering my gears from 1-4, and kept lowering it until it was 1-1 and couldn't do any beyond. I thought I has reached the 'top of the hill' but noticed there was no downhill or level road as I expected, but an upward gradient all way on Ralston Avenue. Huffing and puffing and in my own pace, I reached the half way mark of 'Mt. Neverest'.

By now, I had totally lost sight of M. The only thing that kept me going was the rest stop at the top of the hill! It was comforting to see some bikers who decided they would be better off walking the hill than cycling it, but I chose not to. I couldn't compromise on the frequent breaks and I wasn't going to hurry. After all this was not a race! Almost 75% near the top, it got a little better and I could feel it in my muscles. The rest stop was in sight and there were volunteers cheering the weary souls and I had finally made it to the top of Ralston! M had already reached about 10mts earlier and he had made the hill non-stop. The rest stop itself was scenic and had beautiful views of the bay from there, and after all it was totally worth it for the view!

The break did me some good. We decided to stick to the 17miles shortcut. The diversion to this was only half a mile away, and it was a lot of downhill from there. I put my gears at the max. and free wheeled, felt more like getting a massage soon after a waxing session! From there on it was mostly level roads and then one big uphill. At Edgewood, we only had to keep our feet on the pedal and the road would do the rest for you. That was the most exciting free wheeling moment I have ever experienced. We were now close to the finish and was now looking forward, to collecting my T-shirt, called officially the 'dirty shirt' and a goodie bag. I didn't imagine the tour to be the way it was, and I was glad I was able to do it and do it well. At the end of it I had biked for 115 mts, approximately about 7 minutes a mile.

I thought the tour was very well organized. Most of the roads were closed for auto traffic for the couple of hours this tour was going on. There were a lot of volunters ,warning us of any diversions, stop signs and red lights. They had Power Bars and water and even dried fruits in the second rest stop. The lanes on the roads were "coned" all the way. They had cycle maintenance crews and also a sag van, to pick up people who couldn't make it. At the school, where the tour started and finished there were expo booths, freebies, food and music! What more would you need? I know what you're thinking,... a free massage!May be not!

Loved it overall, and we hope to make it every year!

Keywords: Tour De Peninsula, Redwood city, Biking Event, Bay area

Camping essentials!

While I was writing about my beach cum camping vacation in my last blog, I came up with an idea for this one...camping essentials! In the last couple of years M and I have camped many times in and around Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana and now in California. Everytime on such vacations, we commend ourselves for buying the 'right' camping gear, esp. the 'pocket rocket'! Believe it or not, it is quicker to make pasta on this one than making it at home. So, here's a list of our favourites along with links to their pictures:

- REI Half dome tent - This one sleeps two, and is the one of most popular tents around! We have the '03 model.

- Petzl Headlamp - M loves this one!! It's the ease of not having to carry a torch or lamp around in the night and the fact that its white light, makes this our favourite.
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=32354328&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1

- MSR Pocket Rocket Stove - this one is ultra sleek. It is compact yet powerful. It amazes us everytime we use this one! The name 'PocketRocket' says it all! The fuel is MSRIsoPro that needs to be bought separately. REI stocks this(and many more!).
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=14104244&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1

- Coleman Rechargeable Twin-Tube Fluorescent Lantern - the one that I especially like on this one it is rechargeable from household current and 12V sources...which means you can even charge it from the car! Cool... right?
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=633&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1

- Thermarest -This camp mattress is a good buy.
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=39064992&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1

- Open Country Backpack Cookset - the separate clamp handle can be used with all the pans that come in this cookset is a nice feature. You don't have to worry about 'handling' your pans!
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=13886&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1

If you are an online shopper, campmor.com is a good site to shop. We found some good deals on this. rei-outlet.com is another one.

Toast....to all you campers out there!

Beach Vacation!

From one beach to another...that 's all we did July4th long weekend! The biggest attraction in the Central Coast of California are the beaches and that's where we headed. Since we didn't find accomodation in the hotels that we wanted, we decided to make it a camping cum beach holiday.

I found a KOA campground about 40mts from the beaches in a city called Santa Margarita. We drove on scenic highway 1 on our way there, and was it beautiful or what! The highway runs through a mountain and so it is winding all the way. Other than the pleasure of driving these roads, you are treated to a vast expanse of water, the Pacific, on one side and the mountains on the other. All along this route are some national forests, state beaches and vista points. We stopped at a couple of beaches. We found 'Garapatto Beach' very exciting for its white sands and pure blue waters. The 200 mile journey took us about 6 hours, and we reached our camping ground around 6. We pitched our tent, and made some quick dinner on our 'pocket rocket' stove, and sat out until the moonlight was the only light around.The best part of camping are the early morning hours, when the sun is not totally out but it is bright enough to wake you up from inside the tent and when you can hear the birds chirping loud and clear. I love it!

The first day we went to Avila beach, It was a family friendly beach and it was fun watching the kids mudskate and surf. Fishing seemed popular too on the pier. The next day we did Grover beach. We found the waters a li'l warmer than Avila and also less crowded. Because of its proximity to Pismo, which attracts HUGE number of visitors, this is a much quieter beach.

It was so much fun to get back to camping once again, our first in California! KOA campgrounds is a good option if you are looking to stay for a couple of nights especially(or may be only)while on road trips. Most KOA campgrounds also have cabins, which is another great option for people who don't want to carry all the camping gear!

Not a sporty sport!

Intrigued by the Zidane incident, I am starting to wonder if the word 'sporty' needs to be redefined in the Dictionary! What was sporty about two 'sportsmen' heckling each other until one of them got the better of the other and sent him out of the game.

Nothing more to add....I am thinking may be I am better off watching golf or tennis where it more about the game and the player itself than these team sports where there is no sense of gentlemanly behaviour.

Comparing ourselves to our previous generations, person to person interaction is getting slimmer and our trust circles are getting smaller and smaller...as we say for most things the world comes around..I hope it does soon and we start to being like our ancestors in this regard!

Situation..Situation.!!

Before the CNN crew tracks this blog...let me tell you there is NOTHING going on here! For people who are familiar with CNN, I am talking about ' The Situation Room'.

Since when has news become a show than the real thing? Why is it that we need advertisement for a news show? I say this because I hear reporters on that show say things like - 'CNN - your Hurricane headquarters'. I kind of get the feeling that people here are waiting for things to happen! Though nothing against CNN itself, they do seem to be the 'World Leader in News'. Firstly, do we need anything like a news channel? Aren't we all just satisfied with the evening news for an hour, which summarizes everything that happens around the world? Why do we have to know EVERYTHING that happens around the world every single minute?

This, in my opinion has just led to an information overflow and partly responsible for people being scared and over precautious about things that they normally wouldn't have, only because they heard about a rare incident happen to someone somewhere in the world!

I know, I might differ from people who think information is key and it is the 'Information Age' which has driven this world into globalization. And that is why you have the Internet! For people who really need all the news, there is CNN.com, which has enough and more news than anyone would possibly desire! Why have a TV show with anchors trying to impress people so they can make a career out of it? Isn't this what happened with Anderson Cooper? He literally had a TV show, filming himself and his thoughts during the Katrina crisis and now he has a book, exactly during hurricane season this year! As much as I beleived he did a good job about being there and covering the story, wait a minute.... he has just made business out of it!

We do need journalists and I respect what they are doing when it comes to covering stories at places you and I wouldn't want to be. But are they doing it because they want the publicity, or because they really like what they are doing? A musician myself, I would think journalism is more like music, more like an art....something for which you need a passion to do. But there is a fine line that journalists have to tread when it comes to covering stories, because they deal with stories about real people and it is very hard to see them do business with it! I miss Peter Jenings for this. He was a journalist too, a news anchor, but there were no frills around him - no Situation Room, or PeterJennings Live, or PJ tonight! Yet, he remains one of the respected journalists in the country.

Like one of them aptly said on the radio about the hurricane season, reporters are just waiting for one storm to leave the coast of Africa, and you can see reporters rushing into Florida already talking about a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic! That's how much they are waiting for 'things to happen'!

Tartlets!

Here is a recipe that I tried last week. It came out real well. I hadn't even heard 'Tartlets' until I saw Giada from the Food Network do it on her show.

Here's the link for the recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_30222,00.html

Trust me, it is really simple and easy to do. I made 2 batches of the phyllo cups, one with just enough butter, and the other one with a little less butter(just so I don't feel as much guilty while eating it!), and found quite a difference. Lesser the butter, the layers don't stick to each other that well, and the phyllo cups tend to flake. A great party dessert! Quick n' easy!

'Mission' accomplished!

Last Sunday was like a dream come true! I have been wanting to hike up Mission Peak in Fremont, ever since I moved to California and I finally did it last weekend. I know of a lot of friends who do this regularly, but I always used to think of this as an ultimate body fitness challenge! The first time I did this about a year back, I hardly could make it beyond the 1/3 mark, but I should say it wasn't what I expected. As much as I had heard about this one, didnt really imagine this to be like a mountain climb!

The second time I knew exactly what I was getting into. I kept telling myself, that this time I'll probably return at the half way mark, but I think that's what kept me going. It was more challenging getting down and you had to watch every step as the body tends to run at that incline, while you are trying to hard to control yourself from going that fast.

I always beleived strenuous hikes are more of a mental challenge, rather than physical. Any normal person should be able to do it as long as you have the perseverance and most of all enjoy what you're doing. I guess it is true for most things in life!

There are not really any excellent views on your way up, and you are only thinking of reaching up the top! On your way down, if it not a foggy day, you can see excellent views of the Bay area, Dumbarton Bridge, SanMateo Bridge, SFO skyline and clearly the valley. It took us about 2 hrs. to go up and an hr and 15mts to come down.

I already feel like doing it another time!

Rockies!

Just back after a trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park! Was it beautiful or what! We had an incredible time 'up' there. We landed on a Saturday evening in Denver and drove to Estes Park the next morning. This is a small town on the East side of RoMo park. This town itself is at an elevation of about 7,000 ft, with views of the Rockies any side you look.

The first day we did a hike to Chasm falls. The hike is about 2 miles round trip, with a gain in elevation upto 500ft. The falls at the end of the hike is worth every bit of calorie you spend to get up there. We had lunch at the Endovalley picnic area and headed back to simple trails for the rest of the day. This was the really nice part of this park. There are hikes for people of all kinds. You could choose from a easy trail with absolutely no elevation around lakes, to others that climb up in elevation so fast, even before you know you are up 1000ft from where you started! Whatever may be your choice you are never disappointed. We experienced some really breathtaking views of the Rockies!

The second day we wanted to take the road called the 'Old Ridge Trail' that is the highest paved road in the US that goes upto 12,100ft. It is a 48 miles two-way road which run across the E-W, W-E sides of the park. This road is open only during the summer months and luckily for us, the road was opened about 2 days before Memorial day this year. All along this road are some fine vista points which offer some of the best shots for photography!

As the road climbed up we could clearly see the tree line. At about 11,500 ft. trees stop growing because of the extreme climate and you could clearly notice the tree line! At one point we were looking down on the trees, and looking at the mountains eye to eye. The day before, it had snowed in the mountains and the snow had been cleared off the road but the sides of the roads were still filled them and it added to the experience! We stopped by at several places to get a different perspective of how things are when you look from 'up' there!



We saw glaciers along our way and the headwaters of the river 'La Poudre'. The river Thompson starts in the rockies and so does the grand Colorado! I wish I could retake geography lessons that I took back in school, now that I have a better visual idea! I have read about Alpine(also Tundra region) - but now I know exactly. The only other places that you could experience this is Alaska and Siberia! Isn't that chilling ;) The Subalpine area of the park was the green belt and that's mainly the meadows and the forests. One of the popular points of intest was the Continental Divide - the rivers that originate to the east of this flow into the Atlantic and those to the west flow into the Pacific, the natural physical barriers running N-S! It was a great feeling to be standing ON the Continental Divide, and oh ya....we took pictures of it!

The third day we did 2 hikes. We started at the Bear Lake trailhead on the West side of the park. This one has a lot of trailheads starting from there. We took the one to Dream Lake, but we had to stop soon after Nymph Lake b'cos the trail after a point was totally filled in ice, and we weren't prepared for it. Nymph Lake at a height of about 10,500 was picture perfect, exacty like the ones you would imagine when you think of lakes in a lush green forest. Surrounded by tall trees , the snow from the mountains feed the lake and the water is clear with water lilies and barks of trees floating on it. The perfect place to unwind!

Since we couldn't go up to Dream Lake and we had most of the day still left, we took the hike to Mills Lake. This was a 3 mile one way, with an elevation gain of upto 750ft. At 10000 ft, the air is thinner, the clouds seem to move much faster and the sound of aeroplanes is so much louder! It is a totally different world out there! It took us about 3hrs for this hike. En route to Mills Lake is Alberta Falls. This is a nice place to sit on the rocks, relax, and watch the falls. It gets tougher after this upto Mills Lake. We reached Bear Lake(close to the trailhead from where we started), which is yet another beautiful lake.

We drove back to Denver that evening. Hung around Denver downtown, in and around Larimer and Writer Square, treated ourselves after all the 'hard work' to dinner at a modern Mexican restaurant, Tamayo! If you happen to be there, check this one out. Though they didn't have too many veg. options, their menu didn't seem anything like the Mexican restaurants that I have been before...its not the regular Enchilada, Quesadilla, Fajita, kinda Mexican restaurant...so different, that I don't even remember the name of the dish that I had! We took the next day early morning flight to SFO. This trip felt like a quick trip to the Tundra and back...like M calls it...'a shot of Tundra'!

And yes, we saw some wildlife too...bighorn sheep and elk. We also spotted a coyote with its cubs on binoculars that were set up by rangers at the meadows.



Tip: If you are looking at flying to Colorado try Frontier - We got a really good deal on our tickets. 200/person - round trip! Check it out!

Cruising on my Navigator!

This is the most exciting thing that happened to me in the last week. I bought a Trek 'Navigator 100' bicycle. This whole buying process was so painful, and I did not think buying a cycle was this hard! As is the practice of the educated, I did the research, and found out that there is not really a bike that I can read on the Internet and go buy....it's all about the comfort and feel it when you ride it...... and that's why most shops let you take a test ride(mind it its not a car, not even a motorbike, a cycle....but that's the way it works here!).

So, it took me 3 days and 3 shops before I bought my Navigator. It is a comfort bike, which is most suited for the road, but can also do a li'l bit of trail riding. It fits my requirements perfect.
Living in California, I think its a good deal. I get to do so many things in one.....take in the weather, get some job done while also getting some exercise and ya....save some gas and be good to the environment!

My longest trip on the Navigator has been a 14mile loop on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. We did the strectch from Campbell to Los Gatos. This entire strectch was fully paved, the most suited for the kinda tires I have. This trail runs through 3 parks and goes all the way upto Santacruz. It tooks us about 2 hours round trip.

Waiting to cruise more this summer!

Some of my experiences while in India

It has been about 3 weeks here back in the US and here are some of my experiences in the last 6 months. I quite naturally looked at many things in India with a Western eye only because most of my independent thinking has been influenced by my exposure to the world out of India.

To start of...here's the story of my trip to London from Bangalore...

It was February and I was looking forward to my trip to London to meet my husband who was flying from the US and was really excited about meeting him midway and the entire vacation itself. Since my flight was landing earlier than his, the initial plan was I meet him in London at our hotel room! So my flight was from Bangalore to London via Delhi.

At the Bangalore airport they told me my luggage was through check-in, which the way I understood was that I worry about my luggage only when I get to my destination – but no you’re wrong! It means you would have to collect your luggage in Delhi…. get to the International Airport in a bus which travels approximately 30mts, pass Customs and recheck in at Delhi again! Since I got this straight in Bangalore itself, I had 2.5 hrs to let this sink in and prepare myself for this. So once I was in Delhi, I went straight to the baggage claim, picked up my luggage, and wrote down my name on a book waiting for one of the guards to yell out my name loud. After waiting for about 20mts, the bus finally arrived, and I boarded it. It took the bus (app. 20mts for the 5kms between the airports) and here I am at the entrance of the International airport.

Now at the Delhi airport I looked around for a trolley for my suitcases when I see the crowd around me getting all excited suddenly. While I browse around to see what's going on I realize this….If you need a trolley at the Delhi airport you have to first position yourself very close to the place from where they bring these trolleys and when you see that guy at a distance, you have to get on your feet and literally “snatch” a trolley for yourself, which is what I did too!

So, now I had about 4 hrs for my flight to London and I had to clear immigration, customs before I get to my gate. I decided to get past these quick so I can get to the gate soon and may be even get a couple of hours of sleep before I board the flight. I finished all the formalities and was waiting to get to the gate, and I notice this huge crowd of people of nearly 500 standing in line. Unmindful of them, I looked at the monitors, figured my Gate No. and was trying to get a sneak peek of my gate, which is when I realize the 500 odd people were actually waiting to get inside the gates as well! I was extremely frustrated and it was 12:30 in the morning ! The rest of the people in the line shared the same frustration, but what can you do? Only rumble and mumble about it!!

To digress a li'l.....I find this interesting every time I am at a public service office where things are almost all the time inefficient, and you are getting frustrated by the way things happen. But you notice when you get to the counter, that you seem like an idiot, posing all practical and stern and rude because you are unhappy about the way things are going on, but the clerk (who almost always likes to give you the look that your life is in his hands) in his/her own casual way totally unmindful of the line that he/she sees in front of her, is busy chatting with his/her colleague about something utterly important other than work that he has being paid to do!

Anyway....getting back to the airport scene, I successfully get through the gate and into the flight. The flight was just about ready to take off, when the pilot announces that the fog is starting to settle and the flight will not take off until the fog clears about 500 mts(I think), which is recommended. Though fog in February is a li'l unusual, it is very prevalent in Delhi and we all read about it every winter season. So, I wait there thinking it’ll only be a couple of hours – after all being in India you’ve to be optimistic – talking to my husband every now and then giving him updates. We were served dinner and most of us went to sleep. I woke up around 6am in the morning, hoping to be half way towards London, but the flight hadn’t taken off and there I was still in Delhi. The fog had got worse and none of the flights had left. My scare now was the fiasco that would happen at the airport if passengers from all these flights were put in hotels and rescheduled on a later flight – and of course the fact that you wouldn’t want to be thinking about all this when you are going on a vacation!

Anyway, we were told that the condition would be reassessed by around 11:00 am and a decision would then be made on whether the flight would be rescheduled or not. Fortunately near about 9:30, the fog cleared and we were at last going to be in air! Those were the longest 8hrs I have ever experienced! The Jet Airways cabin crew definitely needs a mention here. Hat's off to their wonderful service, and for really feeling apologetic for the way things had worked out, for no reason of theirs. The only shining star at the end of all this chaos..... I got to meet my husband at the airport itself, who had no idea what had happened to my flight, because from the last update I had given him just before his flight took off was that my flight could be cancelled, so be prepared for it!

All’s well that end’s well….but now, the reason behind all this confusion – lack of expertise among Indian pilots to take off and land when it is dense fog. This requires using some very expensive apparatus, which apparently the Airport Authority of India has bought but has left rusting because of lack of interest in airline carriers to train pilots becasue it involved huge amounts of money. It agree that it is impractical to spend money to the tune of 12 lakhs to train all pilots hired, but I believe that the Indian Govt. should relax rules so as to encourage pilots to qualify for the ILS(instrument landing system) training. With India on the globalization road, and with immense number of people travelling nowadays, I think the Govt. needs to take a second look. It makes sense if this was a problem even 6-7 yrs. back, and I would have resigned to accepting that that's the way things happen in India. But we need to change fast and move with the times especially when the whole world is eyeing India as their next biggest investment opportunity.

The IT industry has done a lot of good to the Indian middle class, and if this boom goes on for a while, who knows it might even help expand the middle class cannabalizing on the poor, which is a good sign for a developing country. The Govt. is doing the right things in policies in attracting foreign investments, but I am not sure they understand they need to do a lot more to retain them, or may I should say, atleast not in action.

Get into my space!

For all of you out there...While I am still figuring out what I want to do with this space....you all have fun OK!

See you later!