Bars in Goa

I am in Goa for a day on work (yeah..I know its a bad time to come here on work while half of the world comes to Goa this time of the year to party party..but lets get to that issue). On my drive from the airport one can't miss the hundreds of bars that line up the main road.

There are fancy bars (with lovely sit outs under coconut trees), average bars (which have some amount of food on the menu), mom & pop bars (with the owners house right behind the bar), cheap bars (the only food they serve is chips), wine shop bars (the retail sale of liquor is as good as that in the bar), grocery store bars (you can pick up biscuits, detergent etc. while you finish your drink) and god knows how many other types.

You will also spot numerous wine shops peppered along the road in addition to these bars. Going by sheer numbers its amusing to see how much liquor can help in generating employment and income for people not to forget the incentive to spend and get intoxicated.

Will try & drink to that later tonight. Cheers!

Train Travel

As children, train travel was always the most crucial aspect of our holidays. Thanks to Dad's LTA we would be nestled into the, long gone, first class coupes. My brother & me would enjoy ourselves thoroughly, playing cards being the main feature.

During Engg college, boarding the Sidheshwar Exp was a ritual we followed once every month in our first year and gradually once in the entire term towards the final year. Downing a couple of drinks before boarding at Solapur was a ritual we followed in the last 2 years.

My most memorable journey was in the 3rd AC compartment of the Kurla Bangalore Exp, sometime in Feb 96, for a site visit while working for Batliboi. In a journey that lasted 24 hours, I slept for 19. Pure bliss.

AC travel is the least stressful and most enjoyable as it forces you to relax. Look out of the window, read a bit, get tempted with the hordes of food vendors, fall for some of the temptations (I never miss the Soup) and the best of all... Sleep!

A ride on the Rajdhani is enough to convince you on the pleasures of train travel. A friend has highly recomended that I try the 1st AC on the Rajdhani. We plan to do so in Feb when we are hoping to visit the Mughal Gardens.

This is the first time I have blogged on the train. Remembering some of these train journey was indeed quite nostalgic.

KSRTC

Travel in and around Kumta usually happens in my father in laws Maruti 800. So went to Karwar for some amazing fish at Hotel Ankur and then to Gokarn to meet my aunt in the 800 with my father in law at the wheel.

So when I had to go to Shirali & Bailur, I decided to get there alone by bus. Shirali is where our Muth is located which houses our community's spiritual leader. It is about 50 kms from Kumta. My main purpose of going there was to meet my Dad's aunt who was very fond of me. She is 93 and lives in an old age home run by the Muth. The tears in her eyes upon seeing me, made my trip worth every bit.

From there I headed to Bailur where my mother's family temple Laxmi Narayan is located. I met my uncle, attended the puja and had an amazing lunch after which I headed back to Kumta.

Bailur is a lush green town nestled away from the highway and the approach road is dry and arid making the town a welcome change as the approach road end.

And this brings me to the subject of this post, KSRTC. I depended on the KSRTC buses to get me to & from Shirali. And eventhough they are rickety and all that (they are called Lal Dabbas in Maharashtra) but they run frightfully on time. The conductors are equipped with handhelds which dish out tickets printed on thermal paper. This must be an amazing efficieny move. Along with having a control on the money, it must be giving vital data to analyze traffic movements to add/remove buses on key routes.

Ironically I boarded the same bus both ways & was greeted by the conductor with a smile when I boarded the bus from Shirali.

So in all it was a nice trip. We ended the day with a stroll on Hedbunder beach with a few friends and had dinner at Kumta's only open air garden restaurant. I have never had such thick & juicy Surmai in a long time.

Holiday Woes

The week long break to Kumta started on a bad (disastrous) note. I forgot my laptop in the train while getting down at Kumta at 4 in the morning. I realised only after I woke up at 9 in the morning.

All efforts to get it back were in vain. My cousin even went to Mangalore station to see if anything could be done. And the loss was not only of the laptop. My haversack had my wallet with my driving licence, my credit cards and cash and my digital camera too.

Though I was a bit nervous initially but I cooled down after a while since there was nothing much we could do. Fortunately my office folks should be able to claim the insurance since we managed to file a FIR at the local police station.

My brother managed to block all my cards. So next week is going to be co-ordination & getting back to normalcy week.

Till then I am going to relax and try and make the best of the holiday. Thanks to my new phone and a blazing GPRS connection I am connected!

More later

Raipur Again!

Just a day's stopover at Raipur for some work. The city is just the same. You get a feel of an upmarket rural town. The only construction you see here is a few malls that are coming up. Quite a difference from cities where every available piece of real estate is being converted into a township or a housing complex.

Guess Raipur is a few years away from all of that.

My blogging has been lethargic. I am yet to update the Kerala travel.

We leave for Kumta on Saturday for a well deserved break. Snehal will stay back for a week more. AM really looking forward for some reading, walking and yeah eating some yummy fish!

Kerala Ahoy

So I leave for Kerala in a few hours. 4 days of fun & frolic. Agenda is some great kerala food, grog, a wedding, a day on the boat in the backwaters, sea food & REST. Will see if I can update the blog.

Indore

Did a overnight trip to Indore last week. After a late night at work we hit a local dhaba for some rustic food and a couple of drinks. Dhaba food is amazing. Its lip smacking good, cooked fresh and down right cheap. Most dhaba's have a wine shop right next door, where you are supposed to buy your own booze. So its as we call it "paisa vasool".

The last time I had dhaba food was in Raipur and it was great.

Must try and do this in the smaller cities I visit.

Nagpur

Was in Nagpur a few weeks back to check out our new site which should go live by the year end. There were 2 highlights of the trip. The first being hopeless flight timings leaving all my energies sapped and other was some excellent albeit late lunch. Lunch was our usual guest house food but we had ordered kheema kaleji & mutton rassa cooked in authentic "saoji style". Now if you want to eat saoji food, which is a cuisine Nagpur is popular for, you better be ready with some heavy duty fire dousers such as chilled water, curd or plain rice. Because the food is spicy as hell and not to mention finger licking good.

Don't ever miss it if you are in Nagpur, even if it means you miss your flight

Tunday Kababs

When I visited Lucknow in 1999, my friend recommended I have a  meal at Tundays in Aminabad, Lucknow. And I did. That meal left quite a lasting impression and I vowed that I would visit Tundays next time I land in Lucknow.

On Wednesday as soon as I landed I made plans to ensure we get to Tundays for lunch. Considering it was Ramzaan, the place was a hub of activity for during lunch time. Outside the hotel there are 3 main areas. One that is grilling tandoori chicken, one which makes beef kababs & the other mutton kababs.

We order kababs & parathas. Tunday parathas are somewhere midway between a roomali & roti. Freshly chopped onions & lime wedges are the only accompaniments which make this meal frugal yet delicious. The kababs are so soft, that you don't have to use your teeth to eat them. This is the main speciality of Tundays.

The place was a notch better than when I last saw it. It has a wide basement seating area whose walls have blown up photos of the 3rd generation owner & film stars. Anil Kapoor has posed in a ridiculous bathrobe.

4 of us gobble 5 plates of kababs & parathas. we also try the mutton biryani (average) and wash the meal with chilled Pepsi. One of the best meals I've had in the last few months.

Local Train Travel

The fact that local trains in Mumbai are its lifeline is very well known. The sheer volume of people that commute is mind boggling. I have myself used the trains to get to work for a large part of my working life. Its only about 4 years back that I started to drive to work, and mind you its a long drive, 31 kms one way to be precise.

I love driving but the evening drive back turns out to be quite a pain albeit a necessary evil too. If you choose to drive to work, well you gotta drive back. So when your car goes into the service centre and stays there for more than 2 days for some major overhauls, more on that later, you have no choice but to get on to the trains.

Peak hour traffic is quite another thing. I got on to the 8:30 train to CST and man was I elbowed out before I fought back and got inside the train. Sure signs of aging and even solid signs that driving, even though boring & painful, beats the stress of train travel hands down. But once inside, the train gets you to your destination faster than road and suddenly the train sounds a better option. So I guess the key is to pick a time where you can get into the train without a push or a shove.

When I used to travel by train to work, we had a standard up-down practise. Basically go up to Thane in the train which eventually will move down to CST. It guarantees you a seat, a window if you are agile & lucky. But such luxuries are ill afforded these days so picking the right time is the key to a comfortable train travel.

I am planning to attempt to pick the right time and use the train to get to work for a few days next month. This is primarily for a change since I am really fed up of driving. So lets see how it works out.

Final Day

The fact that we would return later in the evening made it difficult to wake up in the morning. Over some amazing bread from the local bakery for breakfast we made plans to take a walk and visit the vermicultre pit which is used to recycle organic waste.

The pit is made of 5 compartments. Each one has the compost which is in a different stage of development. Once the compartment is filled with the waste, there are special earthworms which are mixed along with the waste and covered with dry grass or hay and left for a long time. The resulting mixture is used as manure for agricultural purposes.

We got back home for the afternoon puja & aarti which was follwed by lunch. We then got down to packing our stuff and readied ourselves to leave for the station.

Fortunately the train was ontime and we were upgraded from 3rd AC to 2nd AC due to overbooking. We had some good dinner on the train. Though we got side berths in 2nd AC, it was less noisier than 3rd AC but the AC was quite low. It got a bit better as the night wore on.

We reached Kalyan at 5:15 in the morning and were home by 6. I started for work at 8:30 and was dreading the fact of having to go through 500 odd emails.

Why is that you want a holiday just when you finshed one?

Ganapati Bappa Morya

Since the idol would be brought home only by around 11 am, we decided to drive down to see Gokak Falls. We took the new Swift and drove about 10 kms.

Though there was quite a bit of water, the falls were far from full. Most photos of the falls are quite amazing but I guess they are during monsoon season. We walked on the suspension bridge which is maintained by Forbes Gokak. Its quite a joy to walk on the bridge, especially when there are quite a few on it. It shakes & moves as you walk. Our guide was Dhruv, who lives in Gokak and is related to Snehal. He gave us a lot of information as we drove & walked and was good fun to be with.

We got back well in time for the Ganapati Puja. The Ganapati puja was followed by a "gana hom" which is a fairly long puja.

The entire hospital staff is invited for lunch on Ganapati day, which is a really nice gesture by Snehal's uncle/cousin. The lunch spread was amazing and there was no alternative but to catch about 80 winks. Snehal finshed her lunch much after me and grabbed a short nap.

There was evening aarti which was good fun. Snehal's niece Anoushka, was great company all through the holiday and was quite excited during the aarti and was a volunteer for the music accompaniments for the aarti, along with her brother Rahul.

We ended the day with a light dinner

Gauri Puja

The day before Ganapati is celebrated as Gauri Puja or "Tayi" in amchi lingo. This is the day Gauri (Ganapati's mother) arrives home. The married ladies of the house also offer "vayn" which is then offered to elderly married ladies. Quite a lady affair I say.

As per tradition, the first "vayn" for the lady is at her parents place or wherever her parents celebrate Ganapati. Since Gokak is where Snehal's folks come every year, we followed suit.

Snehal & me performed the puja and later Snehal offered the "vayn". The first "vayn" is offered to Gauri, the next to the panditji & the third to the husband followed by elder ladies. And needless to say, the new bride gets gifts in return for the first "vayn"

We had a sumptuous lunch which was followed by a nice long siesta.

I spent the later half of the evening taking a walk on the terrace and having some lovely tea, which is sourced from Bangalore. I must try and get some of that.

Gokak City

After an uneventful train journey, most of which we spent sleeping, we reached Ghataprabha Station at 8:45 am. After a 30 min drive we reached at Snehal's uncle's palatial house.

The house is a small part in a sprawling campus. The entire family is full of doctors & they have been running a very successful hospital since the past 30 years. On the facade stands a very modern hospital which specializes in Laparoscopic Surgery.


Along with this hospital, there are 2 huge bungalows, 2 gardens, lots of walkways and the old/original hospital which has been functional since 30 years. It is quite amazing to see the number of people employed & the goodwill they have in the entire village. I guess being well known in a small village has its own advantages.

After a lovely lunch & a short siesta, we were invited by Snehal's cousin to see a Hysterectomy operation. It was my first experience inside the Operation Theatre and we were asked to wear a cap, a mask, a gown & OT shoes. To say I was overwhelmed is an understatement. He gave us an overview of the operation and was kind enough to explain some of the key elements of the operation. Laparoscopic surgery is quite a skill and requires quite a bit of patience & concentration.

We were inside the Operation Theatre for about an hour after which we shared a cup of tea with the Doc who answered some more questions which we were itching to ask. I think this is an experience I will never forget.

The rest of the evening was full of Ganapati preparations with more family members arriving and joining in the preparations.

I am using BSNL broadband to blog & the speeds here in Gokak are blazing. It really beats the shit out my Hathway connection in Mumbai. Excellent Internet & a good mobile phone coverage is all you need to be working for any organization in any part of the world. Maybe someday!

Gokak

We leave for Gokak in the evening. We are hoping to go & see the Gokak Falls along with enjoying some great food during Ganapati. Its Snehal's first after marriage, so she will be the centre of attractions. Also read more gifts for her :)

Gokak City has a pretty cool website. Impressive!

Details later

Mishti Doi

Picked up some amazing Mishti Doi from Kolkata. I happened to be there twice last month in consecutive weeks. Once I picked up a kullad for us & the other time for my uncle on special request.

I love it!

Pune & Back

We did a 2 day trip to Pune with a tight agenda.

I had to finish some office work, we had to meet my close friend Nandan & his family, stay at Snehal's uncle's place & attend Meenu (Snehal's close friend)'s wedding.

Since we had quite a bit to cover, we decided to drive down and boy is it fun to drive on the expressway. Its probably one of the few drives where you can push your car to the maximum. The greenery all along makes the drive even more enjoyable. And of course not to be missed are the pit stops to down a hot cuppa chai with hot vada pavs.

We first stopped over at Nandan's house and some amazing idlis with sambar & chutney and some lip smacking mutton curry with bread. Roopali was amazing with the food which she had cooked and given the conditions of their new house, it was nothing short of a miracle. I drove to finish my work while Snehal got her hair straightened. We met Nandan in the evening and after a few drinks & some amazing time with Roma we reached Aundh for the night.

We attended a pucca Maratha wedding and watched all the proceedings at close proximity. The bride was more shy & smiling from ear to ear all through. After a fantastic lunch, we started back for Mumbai wishing & hoping we could sleep for atleast an hour, a wish that remained unfulfilled but got us to Mumbai before sunset.

Bye Bye Goa

A huge breakfast & a long siesta pretty much ate away the first half of the day. My brother & his family left for the airport at @ 12 and we left an hour later.

We were 2 hours early for the flight thanks to the unavailability of the airport drop. We hung around in the Jet lounge, grabbed a bite and some 50 winks before we boarded the flight. Thankfully no glitches on the way back.

We reached home tired, sleepy with our minds still wandering on the beaches of Goa. We will heading back to Goa in Oct for 3 days but that will be a religious trip. But this holiday has ensured that we will take such holidays twice a year.

Goa Day 3

Day 3 was even more relaxed. I caught up on Harry Potter (not the 7th but the 5th) Shreyas headed to the pool and we joined them later. We played pool volleyball with a few folks. We also got a lovely massage, compliments of the resort, which heightened the holiday spirit. The beer, lunch & siesta routine followed.
Late evening we hit the beach again and hung around till it was dark. Cloudy skies welcomed us and it was very pleasant when we strolled in the water.

We ended the day with some decent dinner and amazing desserts. The thought of leaving back to Bombay the next day was quite a miserable one.

Goa Day 2

We were woken up at 9 in the morning by Shreyas's wakeup calls. He loves standing outside the door & screaming "bappa" (Uncle in Konkani) on the top of his voice. We had a lovely breakfast and headed to the beach with Shreyas's beach set & our frisbee in tow.

My brother & me had a ball with the frisbee. It was great fun playing with the frisbee after ages. Shreyas enjoyed himself but got a bit cranky since it was getting quite sunny. Back in our rooms we resumed the schedule of beer, lunch & siesta. We played a lovely game of Table Tennis in the evening and relaxed with a few drinks.

One of the highlights of this holiday was that we did nothing. No travel, no sightseeing, nothing. As they say only Khaana, Peena & Sona

Goa Ahoy!

So after all the confusion we reached The Beach at nearly 4:30 pm. We managed to pick up some booze enroute and had the sense to also take along a few chilled beers. A beer & some snacks later we hit the pool with Shreyas.

Shreyas is quite a water baby. He loves being in water. We were in the pool for a few hours. Had dinner & crashed into bed

Travelling with Infants

Inspite of having confirmed tickets & beating a huge traffic jam to make it in time to catch the Jetlite flight, we were bumped off the flight because the infant travelling with us was the 7th infant on board and the aircraft had only 6 infant jackets. Sounded ridiculous but the Jetlite staff was saved of our wrath since they were already bogged down with some 30 passengers breathing down their throats for a delayed flight to Delhi. We actually felt sorry for them.

So they moved us to SpiceJet flight which turned out be an infant special only since there were more than 20 infants on board. It was crazy with all the cachophany. Either SpiceJet has more than 20 life jackets for infants or they don't give a damn.

We missed on the snacks on Jetlite, the lunch at the resort & had to make do with some sandwiches in the Jetlite lounge, which were pretty average. We reached Goa famished and were dying to get to the hotel.

Kerala Ahoy

Well now we have another destination to cover in November. My Man Friday at office is getting hitched in Kerala on November 12th. And since we are in Kumta for Diwali, we will most likely stretch the holiday and make a 2 day trip to Kerala. I am hoping to take Snehal for a one day ride on an authentic Kerala house boat in the serene backwaters of Allepy

Travel Plans

Looks like we will be traveling for a few days every month in the coming months. We plan to end this year with a month long holiday to Sydney. This year is turning out to be quite a travel year. :)

The plan ahead

Aug - 4 days in Goa
Sept - 4 days in Gokak for Ganpati
Oct - 3 days in Manor with cousins
Oct - 3 days in Goa with family
Nov - 3 days in Kumta for Diwali
Nov - 2 days in Kerala for a wedding
Dec - 25 days in Sydney (hopefully!)

Whoa!

Mumbai Skyline

Driving back home the other day, I turned on the Eastern Express Highway towards Powai, which is the normal route home, and I saw a wonderful skyline with a burst of orange all over. I pulled over & clicked a few snaps. Couldn't resist clicking the snaps

Another Blog

Damn, Another blog?
I know, but since I am going to try and restrict my travel related posts on this blog, I've revived by old defunct blogspot address, Musings My Dear!. So for all those taking the trouble of reading the blog, or for those who accidentaly stumbled in here and have some more free time on their hands, can stop by at my other blog which has this & that & blah blah blah.

Airport Woes

Went to Jaipur for a day yesterday. Was met with the longest queue I've ever seen at Terminal 1A. It took me nearly 30 mins after the checkin to get past the security gate.

An interesting thing happened. While I was in queue one of the security guys came & handed me a small scissor and asked me keep it in my pocket. He wanted to check if his guys were doing his job well. And guess what, the guard who frisked me missed the scissor. So I came out of the frisking area and handed the scissor to the supervisor and that was the start of a very lousy day for that guard. He got a verbal bashing like I've never heard before. All in all quite an event making the long wait to board the plane, a bit amusing. The flight was delayed by 40 mins only because passengers couldn't board the plane due to the serpentine queues.

Its really getting quite frustrating to travel by these low cost airlines for business. Its a different thing if you are on a holiday. The return flight was on Jet, and it was a breeze traveling. Jet is such a well oiled machine, all it needs is good maintenance. Having said that, I spotted a no smoking sign, right next to an ashtray in the loo. The ashtray is bigger than the signage.

Windows Live Writer

Truly something new I am trying. Checking out remote posting from Window Live Writer. Should be a good idea to blog when I am not connected to the Internet

Bye Bye

It was Deja Vu in the morning and after hitting the snooze button a few times, we put the alarm off and postponed the early morning beach trip to our next trip to Kumta. Since we would be leaving in the afternoon back to Bombay, we thought its better to laze around a bit more.

Roamed around the fields a bit more and lazed around for a while before we got down to packing up our things since we had a train to catch at 2. Holiday Special trains are usually late and so was this one. So instead of its scheduled departure at 2 pm, it finally left at 3:30.

The journey back was nice. Me, Mom & Snehal were chatting for quite a while and looking at the lovely views the Konkan Railway offers. Tea, Tapioca wafers, biscuits, Appy & Tomato Soup were consumed, not at once, but at regular intervals.

We played Kaleidoscope for a while and then got bored. The rain was a few hours late and I had to rush for office within a hour of reaching home.

Getting back to work after a holiday is always boring and more so if you have a mountain of emails to clear. :)

Chicken, Shell fish, Gadbad & Gotisoda

We were home all day long yesterday. There was a puja in the morning, an amazing spread for lunch which was promptly followed by a quick nap and then there was a tea party in the evening for close family & friends around town who were curious to meet the newly married couple, us :)

Woke up quite late and had a lazy breakfast and walked in the fields & gardens in the backyard looking at the various fruit trees around. There are close to 400 coconut trees and various other trees of mangoes, cashew, chickoo and many more. With 8 acres of fields around the house, it is a herculean task to look after the entire area. With 2 wells, one which is potable water & the other for irrigation, the water supply is self sufficient for the entire household.

We were invited for lunch at a family friends place. There was some great chicken curry, shell fish, and some other vegeterian dishes & we were quite focussed on the chicken. We overate a bit, actually Shenal pushed the envelope quite a bit (for which she paid a price in the night) and we were compelled to take a nap for a while.

After some tea we roamed around Kumta market area which is quite a hotbed of activity. We grabbed some "gadbad" and "goti-soda" at Shimla Cold Drinks. The gadbad was great and so was the goti-soda. The goti soda is an old way of bottling soda. A marble keeps the gas in place and uncorking the bottle means pushing the marble down to let the soda be poured. We also picked up liquid jaggery which goes very well with chapati & dosas.

We drove to another beach which was deserted and had a beautiful stretch of sand with huge waves coming in. We spent some time and were forced to rush towards the car as we saw a huge wall of rain approaching towards us from a distance.

After chatting till pretty late we slept hoping we would be able to wake up early to get to the beach once again.

Temple Visits

But upset stomach it was in the morning and I would be relegated to a diet to recover. We drove to Snehal's anscesteral village "Masur" where we visited a temple and offered prayers and then visited a few people who had houses at locations one would kill for. Overlooking the Agnashini river the house offered a spectacular view and tempted us to just sit by and look at the river flow gently.

We stopped by at the "Shambu Lingeshwar" temple perched on a hill top where it was windy as hell. It must have been quite a feat to build the temple at such a height and it seems to have a huge following in the surrounding areas. Lunch was buttermilk and curd rice followed by a 2 hour nap and some numerous visits to the loo.

We drove to the Kumta beach in the evening. The beach and the views around it were amazing. We strolled in the waters and admired the simple yet tough lives led by the fisherfolk who live along the beachside. We managed to capture some nice snaps and got back home after about an hour. Dinner was 3 cups of buttermilk and I was feeling optimistic that tomorrow morning would a better day for my tummy. Amen

Kumta House

The Kumta House is quite a palace of sorts. Nested at the mouth of a large plot, it has all the makings of a beautiful breakaway resort.

The main facade looks lovely with a nice sit out. Old chairs give it a quaint look and you can sit here and look into the gardens or peek into the road that goes along the boundary which carries all the thin traffic that goes by.

The plot has over 400 coconut trees and various other fruit trees of mango, chickoo and so many other that I have forgotten. It has 2 wells, 2 small outhouses and a large rice field which has not been tilled for a few months.

Barely could manage to move around the entire plot. Have earmarked a few things I need to do when I go there next. Its fun to explore

Gokarn

The plan was to go to Gokarn to pick up Mom.

Gokarn is about a 30 mins drive from Kumta. We managed to leave at about 1 pm, post a wonderful sleep and an even better breakfast. We arrived just in time for lunch at my aunts place. There was fish, 'bendi' and a whole lot of good food and dessert was "kaiholge" (similar to puranpoli but with a coconut filling). A siesta was just plan necessary and sleep we did.

Our drive back was was wonderful, thanks to some torrential rain. The salt pans near Gokarn looked like they would be swept away any moment. Driving through rains is always a wonderful experience. The rains always leave a lovely fragrance of wet soil and the fragrance was with us till the time we reached back home.

Dinner was good and I gobbled up nearly 2 mangoes, all home grown. So all in all the day was all about eating and traveling. But I went to bed suspecting I would wake up with a bad tummy the next day. I hoped & prayed that I wouldn't.

Kumta Calling

A train journey, especially in an AC compartment in the summer, is a great way to catch up on sleep. I slept like a log for 5 hours straight and was woken up by the TC. By the time I woke up, it was dinner time & I made do with a highly reccomended "omlette parotha", which did live up to its expectation and a pepsi.

Since my destination would arrive at 2 in the morning, I ended up sleeping in parts. Unfortunately the train was running 2 hours behind schedule, which meant I needed to fight harder to stay awake. Finally the train arrived at Kumta at 4:15 am and there's nothing more welcoming than your wife's warm smile and a hug to make you forget the journey. Snehal barely slept in the night, anxious that she might oversleep and was smiling from ear to ear, a sight that makes me overjoyed, the minute she saw me.

We drove past sleepy lanes and empty crossings and reached home after a 15 min drive. Old style homes have a warmth which city homes don't and I settled in quite easily. After a brief chat with my in-laws we crashed into bed, dying to catch up some sleep.

While at it, here's a bit about Kumta

Bombay Traffic

I travel about 30 kms one way to office each day. So to say that I am used to Bombay traffic would be a fair assumption. But take away the comfort of your own car, the music system and of course the AC and Bombay traffic seems like a different animal. But taking public transport on Sunday is way better than week days.

Raipur

We made a overnight trip to Raipur. You can't do a day trip coz there's only one flight which goes there and the same one comes back.

Raipur borders on a rural city moving to a urban mindset. Ours is the first mall that is coming up in Raipur and everyone is very excited to see it operational. Almost like the 8th wonder of the world was being built. People are expected to come from 50 to 60 kms to "experience" the mall culture. OMG!

Quite a laid back city with bad roads and zero traffic rules. Spotted more buffaloes on the road than people. At one point we had to stop the car since the road was blocked by some 12 buffaloes. Also spotted a medical stores with neon signage & loads of lights.

The heat was terrible. It gets to about 45 degrees in peak summer. We were spared by it , thanks to some rainfall overnight. Overall a very dull place and we are really hoping that the crowds will come out to watch movies and embrace the mall culture, else we'll sitting there getting roasted in the middle of the desert.

On the move again

I've been able to hold back my official travel for a while. So as Snehal leaves for Kumta for a holiday (I will be joining her next week, more posts from Kumta later) I resume my travel with a 2 day trip to Raipur and a day stop to Kolkata.

Back to those boring queues at the airport in the mornings :(

Bryan Adams Live

As I mentioned earlier, the concert was quite good. Snehal was thrilled to bits seeing Adams in flesh & blood. Here's a clip I recorded on my camera. YouTube Rocks

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower
Originally uploaded by basrya.

The Eiffel Tower has to be the most clicked monument during our trip. This was clicked during our 2nd visit to the tower to catch the illumination, which was amazing.

This is a test post from Flickr

Home Again

Nevermind that we took off from Schiphol when it was 6 degrees & landed in Mumbai where it is 29 degrees at 11 pm, but it feels great to be back home. I am really looking forward to eat some home cooked food.

Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

Anxious that we would get late for our flight, we woke up at 3:45 and left the hostel at 4:30 & reached the airport at 5 am, well ahead of the scheduled check in time of 5:15 am.

After the check in, we headed for some shopping. Schiphol airport is really huge and quite a maze. We picked up some perfumes & a couple of good single malts along with kiddie stuff for my nephew.

We were able to catch a spectacular sunrise from the airport and proceeded to board the flight to Milan to catch a connection to Mumbai.

Alitalia is a no great shakes airline. The food is average & so is the attitude of the crew. The only thing remotely nice is probably the white wine. But one thing Alitalia is good at is getting you early to your destination. Atleast both times our flight was ahead of schedule.

Though they screened Pursuit of Happyness & Casino Royale, we had to see the movies on silent mode since the headphones refused to work for many people. God Bless those Alitalia souls. They should take a lesson or two from our Jet Airways.

Keukenhof Gardens

One of the main reasons we included Amsterdam in our schedule was to go and see the Keukenhof Gardens, which are only open 2 months in a year. Well we couldn't have asked for a better destination to end our holiday than Keukenhof.

The Keukenhof Gardens are the best we've ever seen. Its a treat to the eye to see the well manicured gardens, beautifully landscaped with ponds and lovely arrangements of tulips & flowers in every shape, size & colour. Any view is a riot of colours and every flower arrangement is bounnd to leave you stunned and is guaranteed to leave your digital camera screaming for more space.

There are myraid varities of flowers with combinations that will make you wonder at the marvels of nature. You'll find the same flower in multiple colours & different petal designs. Since we took a pre-booked bus to the gardens, we got to spend only about 4 hours which are woefully inadequate. You need atleast a day to cover the gardens. Snehal also got to enjoy fresh strawberries & cream which she wanted to eat at Wimbledon.

With a heavy heart we rushed back to the bus happy to have enjoyed every moment at the garden & sad that we couldn't spend more time.

We caught up on some shopping for rest of the evening and decided to have dinner at the Hostel since we had to finish our packing before our flight early next morning.

So this is it. Tomorrow we head for the airport back to India. This is the longest holiday either of us has ever done and without doubt has been the best. Its hard to imagine a holiday that will be better than this one.

Delft & Madurodam

We had planned to meet my pal PJ who is based in Eindhoven and spend the day with him & his wife. We decided to go to Hague since he said it would be a better option than Amsterdam.

The Den Haag station is about an hour away from Amsterdam Central. The unique thing we encountered is that the railways charge an additional euro if you purchase a ticket from an agent. We queued up for 20 mins and still had to pay an extra euro. Damn!

It is indeed a great feeling to meet old friends after a long gap. Recalling old times, especially the Engg College days, is great fun. We chatted for a while and decided we could spend all day doing it & we were better off moving our asses while we chatted.

We took the train again to go to Delft which is the origin of blue ceramic pottery which Holland is famous for. We moved about in the factory to see the process of making hand painted ceramic vases, plates, tiles etc. There are entire paintings (Ex: Rembrant's Night Watch) which have been copied onto a huge collage of tiles. The entire process right from the moulding, casting, painting, firing & cooling is quite a time consuming process. Hand painted Delftware is very expensive, infact horribly expensive.

We had a lazy & longish lunch where we spoke more than we ate :)

From there we headed back to Den Haag to go to Madurodam which has a beautiful landscape which showcases the best of Holland in a miniature size. We spent nearly 3 hours looking around and it was fun. They have the world largest miniature railway which runs across the entire landscape. Most of the miniatures look exactly like the originals and its good fun to spot some of the landmarks, especially if you have already been to the original one.

After a long day we parted ways and wished we had more hours to spend. Once we got to Amsterdam, we sat down for what would be our first actual "candle light" dinner. We had wine, roast chicken/steak & ice cream. With just a day left before our holiday would end, the ambience was apt for us to relax, chat and recount the fun moments of the holiday.

Rijksmuseum & Anne Frank Huis

Fortunately the Rijksmuseum was a walking distance from the hostel and we mad a beeline for it after a heavy breakfast. Talking of which we were pleasantly surpised with the variety & quality of breakfast.

We were expecting a modest spread since this was a hostel. Instead it was lavish. There were cold cuts, 3 types of bread, waffles, jams & chocolate paste, fruits, cornflakes/museli, juice & tea/coffee. We stuffed ourselves well :)

The Rijksmuseum is under renovation and therefore only a aprt of it is open to the public. Amongst the many artefacts displayed, the main attraction is the "Nightwatch" painted by Rembrant. Its indeed spectacular. Some of the porcelain crockery kept is quite exquisite. The entire tour took us a few hours, after which we sat around in the park gobbling raisin muffins. The park which also includes the Van Ghogh museum was filled with picknikers having a gala time lazing in the grass absorbing all the sun.

Snehal was keen to visiting the Anne Frank House & hence we made our way there pasing through the tiny streets with a pit stop to purchase some tangerines & try out a glass of Guinnes. Didn't enjoy it too much. Guess its quite an acquired taste.

The Anne Frank House is quite a marvel even if you haven't read the Diary of Anne Frank. And for those who have its a tryst with the imagination you've read in the book. The entire house is so well maintained that it leaves you intrigued as to how life would have been when the Jews were hiding from the Nazis. The secret home inside the home is as it was in Anne Frank's time.

After grabbing a coffee, we headed to check out the famous "red light" district. Its quite a area in its own sense. The women sit at the windows dressed very provocatively. The windows are mostly bordered with neon lights to attract your attention. Along with these multiple windows, there are a couple of joints which have shows & other attractions, but the business at both places seemed very bleak since there were hardly any people around.

The entire district has a certain air of professionalism to it, unlike it is here in India, and since its is legal it is run pretty much like any other business. Walking around was quite an experience.

Amsterdam

We lost more than half a day by the time we got to our place of stay in Amsterdam, thanks to the time difference & a long journey from Schipol airport to Amsterdam via the train and tram.

We had booked ourselves at Stayokay, Vondelpark which is close to the heart of the city. Its a youth hostel and very well managed only by the youth. Somehow the working youth across Europe come across as very honest & serious about their work and they always seem to be enjoying their work. That's very heartening to see.

We chose Stayokay to get a hostel experience and we were glad. Its quite a laid back environment compared to a hotel.

We opted to go for a canal cruise across Amsterdam. It was good fun. The cruise took us through small canals showing us quite a few important landmarks before taking us into the harbor which is quite a hotbed of trading activity.

We had Falafel for dinner at a joint called Maoz. You take a Falafel and they throw in an unlimited salad for free. Mostly run by punjabi's with hindi muisic in the background, Maoz really packs in quite a bang for the buck.

We strolled in the streets of Amsterdam with ice cream and were amazed at the night life the city exudes. The city is filled with bars, pubs, cafes (which sell coffee) and cafes (which sell drugs).

We hit the bed tired of walking the streets. We seem to be walking less but getting tired early. Signs that we are at the fag end of our trip.

Change of guards, Diana Memorial Fountain, Tower Bridge, Tower of London

We made a dash from the Green Park tube station to make it in time for the change of guards at the Buckingham Palace. But since we were late, we barely managed to get a good position to watch the change of guards.But we did see the entire ceremony and though it was nice, both of us found it pretty average.

From here we got to the Hyde Park to look at the Diana Memorial Fountain. This again was a damp squib. The walk was quite a bit so we slept for a while at the memorial. The memorial is a large heart shaped structure of the ground, through which water flows. Since there is no fountain really, it left us a bit dissapointed.

We reached the Tower of London after some confusing detours since a few lines of the London Tube were shut. Lunch was Fish & chips. It was quite good. The tower of London and the tower bridge (usually referred as the London bridge) was a great watch. I never knew there was so much history associated with the tower. The crown jewels are amazing to look at though the Kohinoor doesn't stand out as much as you would think it should. Each of the exhibit screams of wealth & royalty and to view them at such close proximity is quite an experience.The tour inside the engine room of the tower bridge was like a rerun of hydraulics we learnt in Engg College. The old system of opening the bridge is a technical marvel and some of the fundaes were still hazy. Damn, I am quite a bad engineer. :-(

We strolled into a quaint English pub and had some pretty good roast chicken and a draught beer. The chicken was served with Yorkshire pudding (not even remotely sweet & nothing close to any sort of dessert) and roast potatoes. Our journey back got delayed since we had to take the replacement bus service as the main trains were shut. These guys have an amazing system of replacement bus services whenever the train services are down. They have the timetable worked out to the minute and published months in advance. Very impressive.

We got back late and wrapped up packing by 12 and went to bed feeling sad that we would be leaving London next morning.

Wimbledon & Madame Tussads

To be able to see something in real life, which you've admired for ages on TV is a dream come true.

The Wimbledon tour was exhilirating to say the least, for the both of us. We were not allowed access to Centre court due to the work on some hi-tech roof (due to launch in 2009) but we were taken to the players area, the members area, the brodcasters area, the open lawns, views of the multiple courts and finally to Court no. 1. The entire court is protected by electric fences to keep wolves, dogs & pigeons from straying.

Just being there is such a thrill, I can imagine what it must be during the championships. The entire campus feels elite and I am sure its a joy spending time here during Wimbledon.

We spotted the Rolex clocks which had just arrived. These will be put up on the main courts. A lot of equipment was at the gates and preparations are picking up steam.

From Wimbledon we made our way back into the city at Baker Street, which has a Sherlock Homes statue for his address of 21 Baker Street, to get to Madame Tussads.

Madame Tussads is quite interesting. Some of the wax models are really quite good. Julia Roberts, Morgan Freeman, Queen Elizabeth are some which are as good as real. Amongst the Indians represented, Gandhi is barely close to the real thing. Shah Rukh, Amitabh and Aishwarya are pretty average replicas.

They have a pretty good set from Pirates of the Carribean and Johnny Depp looks cool. The spirit of London is a pretty nice train ride within the complex.

Kensington Palace & Lion King

The visit to Kengsington was pretty average. The palace is pretty and its gardens even more prettier. Other than a few rooms which reek of royalty, the rest of the rooms are average.

We were expecting some additional memorablia of Lady Diana but there isn't anything.

We started the day planning to visit Madame Tussads but we spotted tickets for a special afternoon show of Lion King - The Musical and decided to grab them. Hence we opted to check out Kengsington before we headed for the musical.

Lion King - The Musical is truly spectacular. I have never seen a better stage performance so larger than life combined with brilliant music and a whole array of colours. Its a complete adaptation of the movie and if you've seen the movie, then the story is no different. But the stage adaptation makes you forget that you ever watched the movie before. They have enacted elephants, giraffes and other animals so brilliantly that it leaves you stunned. It got a spectacular ovation especially during the final bows by the actors and left a memory which we will cherish forever.

Don't miss this if you ever get a chance.

Windsor

Its actually surprising that on a day when we planned a couple of things, we managed only one. I think the travel in London & our holiday fatigue is getting to us.

Windsor is a very fine palace. Some of the rooms, especially one which has all order of knights place over the walls and the roof. The chapel is also very quaint and had a very English fell to it. It has the flags representing knights who are still alive giving it a royal touch.

By the time we finished admiring the castle, we had consumed nearly 3 hours and were running a bit late for the river cruise on the Thames.

Inspite of making a dash for it, we reached Embankment station 10 mins past 5 and in the bargain, missed the cruise. Infact the offices had shut down and it felt like we were a few hours late.

We managed to grab a mini dinner of the quintessential English jacket potatoes topped with tuna & cheese. With our stomachs satisfied we reached home and continued the hogging witha great dinner of sambar, rice, sabzi and pickle.

London Eye, Trafalgar Square

On our first outing in London was its most modern landmark, the London Eye. It is indeed an engineering marvel.The whole ride takes about 30 mins and the views are breathtaking. By the time the "flight" ends, you wish you could take one more round of the worlds biggest "merry-go-round".

We had lunch at Las Iguanas, a mexican joint, where Snehal's cousin works. Over beer, nachos, enchilladas, chimichangas and what not we chatted up till early evening.

We strolled into Trafalgar Square for a while and also picked up fish & chicken for dinner. The square was pretty crowded but most were desi tourists have a ball clicking photos in every pose possible.Since the cousins were meeting after a long time, the gossiping continued till late after a good dinner. The neighbours must have thought that there were riots going on since we were way above the average decibels at that hour of the night.

Woburn Safari Park

Wobrun Safari Park is the biggest managed safari I have ever been to.

It was about 45 mins drive from home and we reached the place at 11:15 and took almost 30 mins to get in thanks to some long queues.

You have to drive around in your car and move along a defined path and go along spotting the animals. It was a wonderful experience and we spotted quite a few animals enroute. The tigers & the giraffes were the most amazing.

After that we went to the walking safari where you walk around the place and come in close contact with animals. We spent quite a bit of time with the Kangaroos. After lunch and some more walking around, we queued up to see the Sea Lion show. It was real good fun to know more about the sealions and to see them perform various stunts.

We got back home after encountering real bad traffic jams. My cousin, who was driving was complaining about the slow pace of the traffi And we were moving at 60 kmph during most phases and were bumper to bumper only at some points. :-)

Lazy Easter Sunday

Probably the first day of our trip where we did nothing but stay indoors all day. We slept like logs and had some amazing home cooked food which was a welcome change for our appetite.

Welwyn Garden City is a lovely residential place with a lot of greenery around. But like most European places we have found, it is deserted. When we took a walk at 6 in the evening on a Sunday, there was not a soul on the road.

Ironically some holidays, Easter being one of them, is taken very seriously in England. Everything was shut. Huge departmental stores, small mom n pop stores, most eating joints and even public transport. It was eerie to an extent.

A relaxed day felt like a holiday after weeks of non stop working. We cooled our heels and it was decided that we would head to a Safari the next day.

Incommunicado

Well its been 3 days since my phone konked off. Will resume my blogging now.

Its been a good thing without the phone but a little scary since we needed the phone miserably when we were delayed at Paris enroute to London.

Anyway here we go!

Paris Airport Blues

To be sitting inside the airport, till late in the night, for nearly 5 hours waiting to take a flight that barely lasts 50 mins, is probably one of my worst experience in flight delays.

We reached London at 1.30 in the night, 3 hours behind schedule. We survived on some horrible food since there was barely anything available at that hour in the night.

Easyjet gave us food worth 5 euros each and we just about got one bottle of water, a sandwich & a bag of chips. We also had a frustrating experience using a credit card phone to keep in touch with our relatives who were waiting for our arrival.

My wife's cousin had pre booked a cab which was a saviour in that hour of the night. We reached home at 2.30 and had a quick dinner and immediately crashed into bed.

Invalides, Notre Dame Cathedral

Napoleans Tomb is quite and intersting place to go to. The main area where he is buried is quite a structure. Its grandeur and size tell you a lot about how much he would have been respected during his times.

The rest of the Hotel de Invalides is not very exciting. It houses an army museum which was party shut due to some renovation. So after covering most of the area, we settled down on the lawns to finish a bag of chips, fruits, beer & wine which we had to consume since we were leaving Paris the same night.

After lazing around a bit more, we made our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The queues were long but we managed to slip in, in true desi style, the only time we've broken a queue.

The cathedral has a lovely facade but the interiors were dark and the place was crowded since it was a weekend. Its a nice place with lovely stained glass windows on all sides.

We got out quickly, caught a bite and headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.

Chateau Versailles, Siene tour

It took us a little over an hour to get to Versailles.

The grandeur of the Chateau is stunning. The size of it just amazing. The tour takes you through all the different types of rooms, each of which has a different theme. The walls, the ceiling, the paintings on the walls & the furniture are all different in every room.

To think that so much wealth was spent for personal use, gives you a hint as to why people would have been frustrated at that time. Frustration was one of the cornerstones for the French Revolution.

The Versailles Gardens are about 5 times bigger than the Chateau. They spread over a huge area and in some directions go on till the horizon.

Since it was a bit late, we decided to head to Effiel Tower to catch the lighting up at 9 pm. we had some spare time so we took a lovley crusie on the river Siene. The hour long cruise takes you around many tourist attractions, all of which are conveniently located along the riverside.

The lighting up of Eiffel at 9 & 10 pm is something one should never miss. It gives a wonderful touch to the tower and it looks like one huge blinking Christmas tree.

We made dinner out of a real nice & juicy hotdog and a chicken n cheese crepe. This joint is right below the tower on the opposite road and seemed like a family run place. I have never had a better hotdog anywhere else. Period. We also got conned into making a potrait which didn't turn out quite well as per wifey since I am made out to be a trifle serious in the potrait.

We were so dead tired that we crashed into bed without a change of clothes and woke up in the middle of the night to change.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Paris. Boo Hoo

Louvre, Arc D'Triomphe & Champs Elyeses

If you take a few football fields and keep many an artifacts, you would probably get the Louvre.

Louvre is the worlds biggest museum. It seems if you were to spend one minute in front of every piece in the museum, it would take 4 months to see everything inside the Louvre.

Though the main attraction is the Mona Lisa, frankly it pales in comparison with some of the other paintings. Infact the painting kept right opposite the Mona Lisa is much better but its glory is dwarfed by the Mona Lisa hype.

Though we walked for hours and browsed through with some specific atrefacts in mind, we fell short miserably in covering even 30% of what the Louvre has to offer. Since the rooms begin to close at 5.30, we decided to hang around the pyramid and then head to the Arc D'Triomphe.

The location of the Arc is mind blowing. The central island has 12 roads leading into it & apparently making it the worlds busiest roundabout. We climed on top of the Arc to get a superb 360 deg view of the round about.

The best view is of the Champs Elyses which is the main road leading to the Arc and is Paris's best destination for "hanging out" and ofcourse "shopping". The road is lined with trees, wide footpaths and open air cafes giving it a very romantic touch.

After strolling around aimlessly for a bit, checking out a Virgin Megastore & window shopping we finally got back to the hotel. Enroute we packed some hot Chinese dinner which we ate in the room with Hieneken beer and wine.

Ah Paris!

The flight from Nice to Paris was just about an hour and since it was an early morning flight, we just slept through it.

My cousin had told me that the Paris Metro is pretty good. But when you actually end up using it, you find it truly amazing to find the many routes that take you from one point to the other. It was a breeze to get to Daumesnil, where our hotel was, from Paris Orly airport.

The hotel was actually 10 steps from the Metro station and the room was pretty small but very nice & cute. Surprisingly check in was at 2 pm so we just hung around, shopped for some groceries at the supermarket, had lunch and then checked in.

After resting for a bit, we headed to see the Eiffel Tower. The metro takes you 5 mins from the tower.

The queue was horribly long and it took us nearly 2.5 hours to get to the main lift. Every lift which went up or down had a minimum 30 min waiting time.

But every minute of waiting time is worth it. The experience just leaves you spell bound. We were lucky to get to the 2nd floor in daylight and the top floor during the night. It was freezing cold all along but we had loads of fun.

We must have taken countless photos since every view is spectcular. The view from the top is amazing and you can pretty much see all of Paris.

We were dead tired when we got back to the hotel, 6 hours after we started & 5 of which we were standing. We opted for sleep instead of dinner, which was a pretty good idea.

Day one is Paris was very tiring and exhilirating as well.

Monte Carlo

Visited Monte Carlo and enjoyed ogling at the luxuries of the rich and famous.



We strolled into the grand Monte Carlo Casino and heck we even made 7 Euros at our first attempt at gambling. These earning were immediately eroded by a small lunch of tuna salad and a glass of beer.



Outside the main entrace of the Casino you can spot many a expensive cars. We spotted 2 Ferraris and some really cool Mercs.



We also visited the Royal Palace and stolled in the palace ground which give a stunning view of the sea.



We got back to Nice and got on to the hop on hop off tour of Nice which was really nice. We sat on the upper deck and enjoyed ourselves.



The tour takes you through the entire city with explainations of the major landmarks. We missed out paying a visit to Old Nice which was highly recommended by my cousin.



We ended the day with superb palak sabzi, paneer sabzi, hot rotis, rice and my favourite yellow daal.



We wrapped up the packing in about and hour and went to bed excited about our departure to Paris the next morning.

Eze Village

Thanks to some convoluted bus schedules from Nice, we had to postpone our plans to get to Monte Carlo.



But a 30 min bus ride fro Nice is this quiet little town called Eze Village. The entire village is probably a few kms wide but since its on a hill it feels large.



The walk through the village is uphill but beautiful. It has tiny streets with cobblepaths and you can get a superb view of the sea from many spots.



We spent quite a bit of time in a tiny shop that sells home made liqueur, brandy, vinegar & oils. We also ended up shopping for a few things here. The best was Fig liqueur and garlic flavoured olive oil.



We wandered around aimlessly and loved every bit of it. We were told that most hotels shut between 3 to 7 and since it was already 5, we had to make do with sandwiches for lunch. I also tried a beer called 1664 which was pretty good.



We got back by 6.30 and had to struggle with the automated entry system and were glad that someone came from inside the building and we got in just before the door closed.



After a small rest at home we headed to the Promenade D'anglais which is like Marine Drive. It has a wide footpath where you spot quite a few folks cycling, skating or jogging. The view is brilliant and you can sit on the benches and look at planes landing and taking off.



We also walked down to the beach. Its the first time I saw a beach shore with pebbles and practically no sand. The water was very clean and a far cry from the Mumbai beaches.



Dinner was home made idlis, sambar, chutney, rice and pickle. Bliss!

Fragonard Perfumery

While at Eze village, we took a free guided tour of one of France's leading perfume company, Fragonard.

We were explained the entire process of perfume manufacturing right from the flower/fruit sourcing to the distillation and the conversion to various forms of perfurme.

But since they also make pure essences, their perfumes are a bit expensive. It seems they also sell their essences to other famous brands such as Chanel, YSL etc.

One thing for sure, after the tour and a visit to their factory outlet, it sure does leave your nose confused and your body smelling good.

Pisa

The drive from Firenze to Pisa took about an hour & a half. There is nothing to see in Pisa other than the Leaning Tower and the adjoining Duomo & the lovely lawns.

The tickets to enter the leaning tower were available for entry 5 hours from the time we reached there so we passed it.

The tower looks spectacular to say the least. And unilke other tourist attractions the leaning tower leaves a lot to be admired from a distance rather from up close. The inclination is more vivid from a distance and you cannot but marvel at this man made mistake.

After spending a few hours. Moving around the place, bargaining for a few fake watches (I got a decent Omega) & clicking quite a few snaps, we settled down for a nice picnic lunch of besan rotis, cookies, cashewnuts and tangerines.

Everyone slept during the drive back and so it felt like we reached Nice pretty early. We stopped at the border for some good Italian coffee and made it to Nice just in time for dinner.

We plan to visit Monte Carlo tom.

Firenze

We loitered all day in this lazy little town and enjoyed every bit of it.

Firenze or Florence as it is known in English, is a beautiful city. Most of the buildings look similar with terracota tiled roofs & mostly yellow walls.

After moving through the streets, stopping by for gelato, our first destination was the Duomo. Its a wonderful cathedral with a stunning facade. The exterior is in pink, green and white and though some colours are faded, the entire facade looks stunning.

Right opposite the main entrance is another building which has an entire door of 3D carvings made of gold.

We climbed up the Cupola, which is about 500 steps and takes you right on the main dome of the Duomo. From here you get the most spectacular view of the Firenze city. Sine you can actually go around, you get a 360 deg birds eye view. We spent about 30 mins there and it was beautiful.

On our way down we stopped by tp admire the frescoes which adorn the inside walls of the roof. The hemispherical roof has some of the most amazing frescoes. The fact that someone can paint such huge ceilings with such beauty is unfathomable.

From here we strolled to the Arno canal which is a serene spot where we spotted enthusiastic kids practising rowing. There are 2 bridges over this canal which are full of jewellery shops and tiny bistros.

Over a hot bowl of soup and other italian food, we had a chilled out lunch. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the city. We also got a nice caricature done of the both of us.

On our way to dinner, we entered a square where there were some amazing musicians strumming up lovely jazz tunes. It was so nice, we could have spent hours there. But my cousins kids were getting restless and so we hurried for dinner.

The kids were well behaved all through the day and crashed right into bed the minute we hit the hotel. Well so did we :-)

Drive from Nice to Florence

Driving past the Italian countryside at over 100 kmph is a pleasure. More so if you are not driving.

The route is all along the coast and is very scenic.

As usual I am fighting to stay awake in spurts. My cousin also owns a GPS device which is total kick ass. It tracks your progress on the road real time with suggestions to take turns as and when required. Cool!

Another 2.5 hours to go.

Nice

Inspite of waking up in the wee hours of the morning and racing against time to stick to the dangerously punctual schedule, we were quite fresh as soon as we landed in Nice.

The first thing that attracts your attention is the beautiful coast that runs through the city. Its a beautiful view as you land.

We were glad to see my cousin who was there to receive us. And thankfully we were fed some really good Indian food for lunch. Man the sight of yellow daal made me a trifle homesick.

Now that we are stuffed, we will be leaving in some time for Florence and will be visiting Pisa on our way back. Its going to be a 5 hour drive and sounds like fun.

Blogging in Trenitalia

Most of the blogging in Rome has been thanks to a lovely 55 min train ride from Valle Aurelia to Bracciano. The entire journey is through lush green landscapes peppered with cute grazing sheep.

The journey is filled with beautiful scenes from the Italian country side. I am glad we stayed in Bracciano, with home cooked Italian food as the biggest bonus. Not to forget the wine. :-)

Villa Borghese & the Spanish steps

We left this yesterday to make it to the Vatican. So we headed out this morning, lazily, to Spagna. The spanish steps a lazy piazza where people just hang around....ummm...lazily. It has a lovely atmosphere and one can sit around just watching people go by. We had a gelato and a coffee and sat for a while.

From there we headed to Villa Borghese, strongly reccomended by our friend. And we were glad to get there.

It is one... Well actually the best parks/gardens I have ever visited. It looks right out of a dream sequence with lush lawns, tiny pathways, lovely trees of different shapes & colours and wide cobble paths which run across the park. Time seems to pass in slow motion when you are here.

We walked around, sat on benches, and sat to admire a vagabond singer, who was singing "wish you were here" so well that I walked up and told him, gave him an euro and struck a conversation. He also had a CD of some cover versions sung by him and he said I could pick it up for any price. I loved his attitude and bought the CD for 5 euros.

Finding a loo in such a big park is like finding a fat thick needle in a hay stack. Snehal's timing was right when we were the farthest from the loo. But we made a dash for it, only to be welcomed by a queue. A few mis later relief was felt by wifey. Thank Heavens.

We spent the next hour wandering around the lush green lawns and caught some ten winks on a bench. The walk around these gardens was very much like the movies and to have such a big park right in the middle of the city shows how history has been beautifully preserved in this city, running with mordern times.

So that ends our romance with Rome as we head to Nice early tomorrow morning.

Ciao Ciao Roma

Bryan Adams Live in Rome

To be able to see Bryan Adams live is one thing but to see your loved one go crazy over her dream come true is a different high altogether.

Though I wanted it to be a surprise but my inability to comprehend Italian forced me to involve Snehals friend and ergo Snehal too.

And ironically the cheaper tickets get you right in the front since the expensive ones are seats around the stadium. Never knew people watched concerts seated. Hardly an experience of a concert.

It was a first indoor concert experience for me and a first ever concert experience for Snehal. The fact that we were quite close to the stage was all thanks to the limited people who opted for the cheapo tickets.


Adams played most of the popular numbers and came on stage in his trademark black T shirt & jeans. The stage was simple and the start of the concert was lukewarm. But he instantly connected with the crowd by speaking in Italian and boy did he turn on the steam.

he frenzy was at its peak when he pulled up a young girl from the crowds to sing "Baby when you're gone". The concert ended with 4 songs rendered in an "unplugged" fashion. Just Adams & his guitar. It was a 2 hour concert which left us wanting more.

The walk back to the metro station was cold and all the sweat from the concert madness evaporated mins after we hit the road.

Watching Bryan Adams in Rome will be an experience which will stay with us for a long time.

The Vatican Museums & St. Peters Basillica

What started out as a day to visit the Spanish steps and Villa Borghese, it turned out to be a day at the Vatican City.

We got news about the Vatican being closed on Thursday and were advised to go visit the Vatican so as not to miss it. So off we went. And boy were we lucky!

Wednesdays, the Pope gives a public appearance for the 10 am service. We were lucky to see him albeit from far. But the congrgation of people is another sight altogether. The aura around St. Peters square is mesmerising.

After lingering around for a while, we queued up for entering the Vatican Museums. It was quite a long queue but worth the wait. We picked up an audio guide which does more justice than a real guide letting you hear as per your interests. To say that you can cover the museum in 1 day would be a joke. In fact for most things in Rome, any amount of time spent seems less.

The museum hold artifacts which have a rich history and exhibit the quality of the artisans in full glory. Amongst rooms full of sculptures, paintings, frescoes and myraid items, the epitome has to be the Sistine Chapel. This is Michealangelos piece de resistance. To think one could paint such a huge ceiling at a young age of 33, is mindblowing.

The St. Peters Basillica takes grandeur to a totally different level. The size of the sculptures that adorn the walls of the basillica, from the inside and the outside, are bound to leave you awestruck. I have never been left as dumbfounded as I was during the visit to the basillica.

To be able to live within the walls of the Vatican city must be so redeeming since everything is so full of history & spirituality.