London Trip

Friday:
London was a trip that Geeta and I were wanting to make since quite a while now. It was the reason we cut our honeymoon short and save those holidays for this trip. But there were so many problems before we finally managed to make the journey, like my passport not being accepted, and then going through all that trouble to re-apply for it and then apply for the visa - it was quite an ordeal. Finally when we reached the airport at about mid-night, we had another scare there coz Geeta's tickets were not available. I had a tough time making the flight bookings as Cleartrip was not able to process online and I was talking to them over phone while traveling between places to get this done - so suddenly, I was worried whether something went wrong with the ticketing process.
We breathed again after the guy at the Air India counter gave us the ticket print. Then we checked in through the long snaking lines of the international airport and finally sat near our gate. Geeta resumed her work that she couldn't complete during the day. We both worked from home this day, but worked like crazy coz there was just too much to finish. So much so that we started packing only at 9p.m when the cab was to come by 10. It was one mad rush.
Then the flight itself was another mess. Air India as usual had to screw up someplace and our entertainment systems were the only ones not working on the flight. I tried changing our seats, but Geeta didn't want to move and so I stuck to reading Arvind Adiga.
Air India really is all that people claim it to be - one terrible flight. Its partly because only Indians fly it and like typical Indians, we make a total mess of the flight. While we were walking out, there were bottles, blankets, all sorts of things strewn around the flight. But the crew don't make things any easier either. Some of the food comes serves real cold. And since we were sitting on the last seats, they ran out of non-veg food for us. And of course, the biggest crib would be the way the crew treats us - absolutely nonchalant.
Anyway, we just tried to catch up on some sleep and get through the journey.

Saturday:
Naan was there to pick us up at the airport when we landed at 8a.m UK time. We had a SIM card that G's parents used during their trip 2 months back and coordinated with Naan through this. We walked to his car - Vauxhall Astra, which was quite a neat looking hatchback. I had a feeling that this was a GM car (equivalent to the Opel in India because of the similar name) and some googling on Naan's iPhone and this was confirmed.
The journey from the airport to Naan's house in Tooting Bec was awesome. As usual the first things you notice are the super clean and wide roads, the neat cars that never repeat, and a voice that directs you at every turn. Then there are sights typical only of London - the bulb shaped London Taxi's, the double decker red buses, and loads of people on cycles. During the days that followed, sights of people in tubes wearing a corporate dress with trainers became banal. There seem to be a lot of people cycling or walking to work here, and dressing up for it the right way.
Upon reaching Naan's house, we were super impressed with the big clean apartment he and his malu roommate (who was from Kottayam!) stayed - it was way too neat for 2 guys to be living in! The biggest surprise of all was the food Naan had cooked for us. He actually made Chicken curry and Prawn Fry for us - and it almost tasted as good as what mom makes in Bombay!
We quickly washed up and sat down with Carlsberg for brunch and planned out our next few days. We decided to go travel to Cranfield - Naan's college on Sunday, do some local sightseeing on Monday and Tuesday, meet Shalini on Tuesday evening, go to the theatre on Wednesday evening, Scotland on Thursday and Friday, and finally, for Saturday, our last day in London, and my Birthday, we couldn't make any plans yet, so decided to play it by the ear.
After the scrumptious meal, we grabbed some sleep, woke up and got ready to go out for dinner. We went to a place called Kenza in Central London, which was a Lebanese restaurant that had belly dancers performing. Naan had called some of his friends, his roommate AJ, Munna Sunna who was AJ's girlfriend (or not - nobody was sure!) from Jordan, and another couple that we hardly got to talk to. I called Praty who came with his girlfriend Urvashi, and 9 of us sat to have a very nice meal - the Ramadan feast, as Ramadan was on and the Muslims - AJ from our table, were on fast during the day. For lack of any clues on what I wanted for a drink - I ordered a regular Jack and Coke. This became my fall-back drink during most of the trip. But as soon as I ordered it, Praty asks me to order the most expensive drink on the menu as it would be his gift for the wedding. I ordered a whiskey called Glenmorangie, and had it on the rocks. We had a good time chatting about school and did a lot of catching up with Praty. Geeta and Urvashi seemed a bit bugged as we went on and on about it. The meal was really good too - proper 3 course, starting with Hummus and Pita and Falafal, on to Biryani, which Munna insisted was not Biryani, but meat skewers just laced with rice. Well there was definitely more meat that rice on the plate, but looked very much like Biryani to me. Then finally came the deserts. Somewhere in the middle of all this, the belly dancers came on. I was hardly through my first drink when this happened and was definitely not high enough to join them in the dance. But one of the dancers pretty much pulled me out to the dance, and I began to shake it just like her. I called Geeta up too and asked her to learn some moves for later on. Then another dancer began dancing with Naan on the other side of the table. This was even more hilarious, as Naan was showing of his moves and actually teaching her to dance!
All in all, really good evening and amazing way to start the London trip.

Sunday:
After the big party the previous night, it took a while before all of us woke up and got ready for the long drive that was planned for today. We were to drive to Naan's college, Cranfield, and then head to Cambridge, both about 60 miles from South London where we were. We began at 11, after G and I made quite a mess of the kitchen that we weren't too familiar handling, yet attempted to prepare breakfast in. But somehow the final product - plain omlettes, toast and coffee seemed to impress Naan.
We began our journey in the Vauxhall, after setting the GPS and choosing a nice female voice to guide us. But 5 mins into it, and we were stuck in a crazy traffic jam. Naan almost gave up on the trip and said we'd rather just check something in London out. But G egged him to carry on, and the journey turned out to be truly worth it.
Cranfield was a neat looking college. We took some pictures there, met one of Naan's batchmates, Budhi, who still stays there and had lunch at his place - good old Daal and Rice. Then went to Cambridge, which was really stunning - seemed right out of the Harry Potter Novels. There is an activity here called punting, which Naan kept insisting we must do - and that was the absolute highlight of the day. It was a row boat where there is one guy at the end rowing with a long oar that reaches the bottom of the river bed - sort of looks like the Kerala boats coupled with the setting of Venice. We had the option of doing this on our own for £60 or going on a share boat for £45 (15 per person). We chose the share, which is actually much better, coz a professional punter comes along with us, and narrates the stories of all the colleges of Cambridge as we pass them by. On our own, it seemed fun in the beginning, maybe even chances of falling over if we weren't too careful, but definitely looked tiring to do.
We got to hear about the various colleges - Trinity, Josephs, many others, and took tons of photos.
The punting ended with our punter crashing in between 2 boats to park his boat, and the guy on shore who was mooring our boat tells the punter "TT doesn't look for a place to park the boat, TT makes the place. I would love to see what you do with the car". Man, these English do have a witty sense of humour.
Once we got out, we took a walk to a place where we decided to chill and have a beer. We ordered Becks this time, and I wanted to try out the national dish here - fish and chips. Soon we were sitting by the riverlet, sipping our beer and having the fish which was quite different from what we normally have, but tasty in a certain way nevertheless. The fish by itself was bland, and the accompaniments were honey and ketchup and avocado. Somehow made a delectable combination, and we were quite enjoying it. Naan not being too big a fan of fish ordered crab cakes, which were quite delicious too.
We then walked around, tried to find the Botanical garden where the apple tree that Newton sat under still stands, but couldn't find the place and we too tired to continue walking, so bid adieu to Cambridge.
On the way back, G just crashed out and Naan and I were having a nice long chat about life in general till we hit the London bridge. It was a really nice feeling to be crossing the famous bridge that we sang about as kids.
We got home by 10p.m after stopping over at a Tesco - my first visit into this big retailer, and picked up some drinks and munchies. I was so thrilled that a bottle of JD, on conversion was just 800 bucks! That is just so stunning when the damn thing is so expensive in India with all the import tax and things. Came home, finished the leftover of Naan's food with the drinks and hit the sack by mid-night.

Monday:
Naan took us to Wimbledon today, which was fairly close to his place, and a really posh area in London, as this is where many of the tennis players stay and even own houses - with Wimbledon being one of the best tennis grand slams and all. We had brunch here at a place called Dog and Fox. It was quite empty when we were there, but apparently the place is one of the 'it' places during matches at Wimbledon. I ordered a Guiness here which came freshly brewed. Quite a different taste this beer and Naan and G didn't like it too much - so we never ordered this again the rest of the trip.
After a good Enlish breakfast - full with bacon and eggs and toast, we drove to Windsor castle. Went on the audio guided tour here, around the high walled brown castle, peppered with the English guards with their big hats, that people came and stood next to to take photos and they just wouldn't budge. We even got to see a small change of guard show when they marched past us which was really interesting. After a bit of English history, through all the kings and queens chambers et al, we headed back to London. Stopped at a park on the way at a place near Putney - another posh part of London, and took some more photos as this park that oversaw a lake.
Then as we drove, we took an impromptu call to head to a famous burger joint called GBK - Gourmet Burger King and had a famous dish here called Habonera which was one heck of a spicy burger - and this is for 3 Indians to say coz I believe we have some of the most spiciest foods. This burger was drenched in a red chilly sauce that began burning my lips by the second bite. But it was still somewhat tasty, and we gobbled it all up. People here were having the burgers with fork and knife - again very neatly English. But I was having it the way I think a burger was made to be had - all messy and falling all over the place.
Downed the burgers with a beer called Steinlager beer that was from New Zealand! And really needed it to pipe down the burning skin on my face.
Once we got back home, we were too tired and crashed fairly early.

Tuesday:
G and I originally planned to wake up early and prepare breakfast for Naan who was going to work on this day after spending the last 3 days with us. But we were just so lazy, that by the time we got out - 8a.m, Naan was almost on his way out. G was quite upset that we couldn't prepare anything for him, and this mood got worse when we removed the clothes from the washer to find that they had all turned pink because one of G's new shirts ran colour. 2 of my nice shirts were now pink and totally un-wearable. Then we got ready to go out and in the hassle of trying to lock the door, I dropped Naan's key which had a glass keychain, and that broke. Then when we were on our way to see some places of London, we realized that the camera was out of charge in spite of me putting it for a few hours in the morning. Basically, it was one terrible start to the day. Now we were at the Victorias Square outside Buckhingham palace, and had an option to either head to Hard Rock which was fairly close by and charge the camera, or head back home and charge it and also take Naan's camera to be on the safe side. G insisted we go back and try and re-start the day. So we got back, finished all of Naan's food from Saturday, I had JD from the bottle we bought from Tesco, charged the cameras and began London once again. The rest of the day went quite fast. We saw Trafalgar Square, went into the Tower Hill near the London Bridge where the Kohinoor was kept, went to Westminister to see the Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and the original 10 Downing Street (and not the club that we've frequented the last 2 years in Chennai) and finally got into the London Eye across the River Thames where even Naan joined us. So quite a bit of London covered on a day, that was really quite eventful. We then had strawberry toppled waffles across the River Thames and got back to Tooting Bec where Shalini was waiting for us at the station.
Shalini was looking fairly English - with a skirt, black stockings and heels. Seemed like London grew on her, especially since she already has a UK passport. We went home with her, got ready and headed out to a club in Wimbledon where Naan used to go occasionally to salsa. It was competition night, and everybody there, except Shalini, G and me were not dancing. Naan went about dancing with lots of girls there. But the overall experience was really amazing. Shalini left shortly as she had a long way to go back. Three of us hung out for a while having beer and more JD and coke. Then headed back home, stopping a place where we bought Pakistani Biryani (really tasty) along with some chicken starter.

Wednesday:
Second day in London when G and I were on our own. As usual we hit the station, charged our travel cards with the day pass and headed out to Central London. Today's agenda was to shop. We went to H&M, M&S and lots of other stores, where G kept seeing stuff she liked, but refused to buy any. Finally she bought 2 shoes from an Indian store there as they were reasonably cheap. London is nowhere close to being a frugal city to stay in. Everything here is expensive, and the shopping followed suit. So we were still converting while looking at stuff and just didn't feel like picking up anything. We spent some money on gifts for people back in India, but that was all we bought, apart from the shoes G picked up. We then went to a steakhouse called Angus and we only ordered one Chicken dish and a Stella Artois beer here, as I was still converting, and this was more expensive that a top class hotel for me, and we were only at a way-side hotel just now. So I didn't want to order too much and the waiter made a bit of an issue with only one dish being ordered. But we were prepared to tell him thanks and leave in case there was a problem, but he said its fine and "allowed" us to order just the one dish. Man, here was some of that snooty English behaviour that you hear about!
After the meal, we met Naan at the Victoria station where we went to the Apollo theatre to catch the very famous show - Wicked (not yet made into a movie, and hence still a little less known outside of UK) and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. It was a proper English musical theatre with loads of effects and quick changing props. Was a real treat to watch this. I was very tired and sleepy and found it difficult to stay awake the entire time. But loved the bits I managed to see.
Way back we bought some dinner from a place near the Tootic Bec station itself and headed back home.

Thursday:
It was time to head outside of London today, and we flew to Aberdeen in Scotland to meet Harsh. Now Aberdeen is just a commercial city with a lot of oil mining companies. There is pretty much nothing for a tourist to see here apart from the grey coloured and uniformly shaped buildings. Naan, G and I reached Harsh's house by about 9a.m, after driving to the Luton airport in London (really far from Naan's place) and taking an Easy Jet flight (equivalent to the Spicejets of India). Harsh played some songs for us on his electric guitar and we started off on our rented Vauxhall (again, but this time it was a black beauty of a sedan called Insignia). We stopped at a place called Marshals farm which was a country side barn house that served some English breakfast. We had the usual bacon and eggs and toast here. G ordered pancakes as this was too much meat for her to digest (literally) and began our journey to the West Coast. The idea was to reach a place called Gairloch which was completely on the other coast (Aberdeen being on the East) and pass some highlight points on the way - the first of which was the Glenfiddich distillery. This was a really nice experience. It was stunning to know that all of Glenfiddich around the world is prepared right here. The commercially available ones are 12, 15 and 18 year olds. But only at this place, there is a 14 and a 19year old available. So I bought the 14year old and Naan and Harsh picked some bottles of their choice. We watched a film about the distillery and also had a bit of whiskey tasting which was served and explained to us by a Scottish lady in a proper Scot accent.
Our next stop was to be the Loch Ness near the city Inverness. The Loch Ness is now a lake, and the monster we are familiar with is just an Urban Legend. Well, cant say anything more coz we didn't really visit the place as we were running out of time, stopping at a lot of places and clicking photos amidst the absolute beauty of the Scottish highlands. We finally made it to the west coast and hit a place called the Kyle of Lochalsh where we grabbed a bite. From this point, things started going awry. Naan and G were not happy with the way Harsh was driving. He was actually a bit too fast on absolute blind turns in these parts. He slowed down a bit after I spoke to him, but then he insisted on going through a different route, which not only made the journey longer, but more precarious because the roads got thinner and more circuitous. Also, we reached a place called Applecross which was a really nice place that we should have ideally come straight to for lunch rather than stopping at Kyle of Lochalsh. We couldn't really enjoy this place much as we had to get on with the journey as the sun was setting and we didn't have a place to stay. At Applecross we made a few calls from the Inn there to all the neighbourhood Bed and Breakfast places, and they were all booked out. Now I had asked Harsh to make reservations for us, but he insisted that it would be easily available. Now this was not the case as it was season time and all places were booked out.
We continued on the journey and passed quite a few B&B's, and although people were really helpful, it was of no use, as we just weren't finding the place. The sun had almost set and we didn't even have water to drink with us. Things were getting quite tense till we finally found a place called Keissimull in a town called Sheldaig, which was still an hour away from Gairloch where we initially planned to go, and decided to book the place there. That's when we realized we didn't have money either and these places only take cash. So we had to go to a pub where they were sweet enough to let us swipe our card for a few drinks and return some extra money. We managed to pay the B&B caretaker with this and found us a place to spend the night. By this time, Naan and G were totally out of it and just wanted to crash. I was quite upset that the trip turned sour towards the end, but anyways decided to head out to the pub with Harsh where we made some friends and Harsh played some songs with a violin player there and the two of them sounded really good together. We had a combination of drinks - Glenmorangie, McCullum and Tenets beer. Finally called it a night well past mid night.

Friday:
The day began with Breakfast at Keissimul - more bacon and eggs and toast, and we headed to Gairloch - our original destination. Took photos here, bought Tenets beer from a local shop and continued our journey. There was a really nice spot in Gairloch where we stopped and spent quite a bit of time. Because of this, we had to give Lock Ness a skip on the way back too. However, we kept stopping at places where we could take good photos and when we were about 3 hours from Aberdeen, G suddenly cries out saying her ring is missing. We stopped and searched the whole car, but couldn't find it. So we carried on our journey, and nobody spoke till we reached a place called Aberlour 2 hours away from Aberdeen where we decided to lunch. As soon as we stopped, we started looking for her ring again. Harsh and Naan yanked the back seat out and Naan found the ring below the seat there. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief after it was found. We could finally resume enjoying the Scottish drive. At Aberlour I had a sirloin steak, my first steak in UK, along with a whiskey called Aberlour, the local brew, which was really tasty. We carried on till we reached Aberdeen airport well in time for the flight and checked in and waited to take off.
We landed at 11p.m and were home before mid-night. I was to turn 29 in a few minutes, and all of us quickly changed and went to the kitchen to cut a tiramisu cake that was there in Naan's fridge, along with a candle and Gentleman Jack that we bought from the Aberdeen duty free. We started of being a bit tired with the entire journey, but Gentleman Jack got us back in good spirits and we had quite a few swigs while watching Beerfest on TV and finally burned out the lights at 2a.m.

Saturday:
So it was birthday number 29 and I was in London. Just back from a trip to the Scottish hinterlands and having seen a fair amount of London. Only thing left to do today was shop! We had initially planned on catching the cricket match at Oval on this day or the Arsenal Liverpool match which was happening in the city. But decided against both of them as it was a bit pricey. So we went out and spend this money on shopping, and I must say, this was the most expensive shopping I have ever been part of. So we only spent about 4 hours and bought a few clothes, but it all still cost a whopping 280 pounds! The shopping experience was however pretty good. Like in the Armani store, there was a DJ playing music, a really hot chick tending to us, and a ton of awesome cool clothes to try out. Bought a few clothes here that just about fit the wallet and felt pretty good about it. Zara, Gap and few others covered the remainder of the shopping.
After the shopping, we decided to go to Hard Rock, which was the only thing left on my list of things to do in London, but there was actually a queue outside the pub - and they were all tourists. Guess HRC No. 1 really is as famous as its touted to be. We checked the waiting time and it was about 1 hour and that was really a bit much given how tired we were with all the shopping. So we decided to go to a place called Gaucho which was on Naan's list of things to show us in London. It was an Argentinian Steakhouse and the place was really one awesome experience. The entire place had real dim lighting, and the walls were covered with what looked like the outside of a cow. This place was really going all out with the steak concept. The food didn't disappoint either. I ordered the rib-eye steak this time as I already tried out the sirloin steak in Aberlour and thoroughly enjoyed that, and I must say, the rib-eye totally beat the pants (or maybe the coat, the fur coat, in this case) of the sirloin steak. Naan ordered the sirloin, and the rib-eye was better than this as well. Now I have a fave steak anytime I go out. We also ordered drinks and I asked for the JW Gold Label as Naan kept saying it was a good drink, but thankfully checked out the price for it and it was actually 75pounds! I cant imagine a single drink costing that much! So I switched to Famous Grouse which was on the other end - at 7 pounds the cheapest drink on the house and ordered 2 of that.
After a really enjoyable meal, we walked towards our tube station - Oxford Circus, and this was absolutely the central of central London, and right outside the station, all sort of things were happening. People playing music, dancing, and tons of chicks dressed super hot walking all around. G had a hard time keeping my eyes on the ground ahead, and after clicking a few photos of our last memories of London, we bid farewell to the UK.
That brought us to the end of a neat UK experience. Until the next time your majesty..

South East Asia

Friday:
Mom, Jeetu and I began our 9 day long trip to South East Asia at 7p.m. Plan was to spend 3 days each in 3 different countries. So we got loaded with Matrix SIM cards for each country, and took US Dollars to convert them to Bhat, Rupiah and Ringitts as and when required. Left Chennai airport at 9:00p.m, and it was a long trip to Pattaya..

Saturday:
Right at the beginning itself mom started complaining about our travel agent in Chennai - Dexter, coz we had a really long stopover at Colombo that we hadn’t planned for, and sat shivering at the airport, unable to sleep properly, all the way from 10p.m when our flight landed in from Chennai, upto 7a.m when the flight to Bangkok was to take off. I managed to get some sleep, as I’m quite capable of sleeping anywhere at all, but both of them were having a real tough time. We finally made it to Bangkok by 1p.m and took a coach straight away to Pattaya. By the time we checked in, it was nearly 4p.m, 20 full hours since we left home in Chennai!
Anyway, checked in to our hotel - Golden Beach, which was a bit of a confusion, as I first thought GOlden Beach was just a beach, and we were to be staying at a hotel on that beach. So I kept asking our travel agent in Thailand - Anucha from Welcome Travels which hotel we were to be staying, and she kept saying "Golden Beach"!
Anyway, the cab guy assured us he would take us straight to the hotel. So we got there, relaxed a bit, had our first Thai meal – which I totally made worth it, by trying out some Crocodile! Yup, actually had Crocodile meat, and it tasted pretty good. Sort of like pork with egg I would say! Sis and mom were totally getting grossed out by what I was doing, but I just love experimenting with food, and was gorging the dish, downing it with some Singha! We then went for the famous Alcazar show, which was a really good watch, and called it a night after one horrible pastry from the hotel that we thought of having for dinner, as our lunch was quite late today, and the Crocodile was not yet digested!

Sunday:
Began our Pattaya tour early morning, after one minor hicupp where the cab that came to pick us started driving us to the Bus stop coz he thought we were on our way back to Bangkok. We had to tell him that we barely got to see Pattaya still and had an entire days tour left. So he turned back and we cleared up the confusion with friendly Ms. Anucha from, who then put us in a cab with 5 other Indians – 3 Sardars in their 50’s, who turned out to be a lot of fun, and one newly married couple – Ashish and Neha who were from Delhi and currently settled in Bangalore. So much talking ensued.
We first went Parasailing, which was just really awesome coz it was the first time I was doing it over water. The last time was on land in Kashid. The initial take off was the best part, and then somewhere in the middle, the driver slows down till you just about hit the water, and then takes off again – that was again a really awesome feeling. Our second adventure was Undersea walk. This again only me and Jeetu did and we left all our stuff with mom to hold and went under water with a big tub on our heads. The initial drop up to the water bed was painful as there is huge pressure difference and our ears totally pop. But once you get used to it, it becomes a lot of fun. The experience was so much like snorkeling in Andaman, only this time, I was not at the surface, but amongst the fish in the sea. I was once again thinking of Avatar, and the experience was more awesome this time, because I actually saw a plant that was just like the one in the movie, where it just closes shut the moment you touch it – sort of like a prettier and quicker Mimosa Pudica (commonly known as touch-me-not - I’m showing off my Bio here!).
After these 2, we went to Coral island where there were more adventures – Jet sky, water scooter, banana boat. I just went with Jeetu on the scooter, sitting behind her and called it a day. Too much adventure for one day. Bought my Singha and sat sipping watching the beach. Jeetu joined me with a Magnum that I kept insisting she try out, and mom found some Guava from somewhere and started lecturing both of us on how we are missing out on all the Vitamin C that she is consuming! Moms!!
Soon we got back to Pattaya mainland and went to an Indian place for lunch. I was so pissd with this! All the way to Bangkok and eating bludy rice and daal! But guess Anucha didn’t want to experiment, what with so many Indians and all. Ashwin and Neha were veggies to top it! The Sardars were gorging on whatever was there. They were a really friendly bunch. In the boat ride on the way back from Coral island, they were giving me advice on what all I should do in Bangkok. Of course, they said that my fun is supremely limited coz I’ve come with family, but gave me good shopping advice all the same.
After lunch, we headed back to Bankok. We missed the red shirt protest that was happening in Bangkok today, and got to our Hotel just after the melee. Read all about it in the Bangkok post at night at our Hotel Princeton, which was in some place called Din Daeng, and far from Sukhamvit where most other hotels are, and far from MBK and other shopping malls as well. But at least it was a fine hotel with a nice swimming pool that Jeetu was enjoying in while I went to buy food from out. Bought different things from different places so all of us could experiment, downed it with Chang beer this time and watched MI3 on the sole English channel that was available and called it a night.

Monday
This was the last day in Bangkok and the itinerary was half day tour of the city. Half day tour became just a few hours, coz by 10, all Jeetu wanted to do was start shopping, like as if the world was coming to an end, and our guide, Mr. Bobby was only too happy to let us go to some jewelry store where he was probably getting commission for brining guests, and he just scooted after that. So we, along with Ashwin and Neha, who we bumped into again, and who were on their last day of their 9 day sojourn, went to Pantip Plaza and began our shopping, or rather what I’d like to call – the day Jeetu and Mom plundered Bangkok! They went totally ballistic shopping. At Pantip, Jeetu was beginning to lose it coz she wasn’t seeing any clothes and bags and slippers and whatever else she wanted to pick up. So we quickly bought the camera she wanted, and I finally picked my 1TB HDD which I contemplated so much the last time I was here and skipped and then scooted to MBK. We bid adieu to Ashwin Neha when we entered Pantip itself, coz they just wanted to browse, having already spent enough on their trip, and I knew Jeetu is going to go crazy here. Once we went to MBK, it was a sight to watch. The bags just kept piling. Finally, by 6 in the evening, just when I thought we were done and should head back, Jeetu starts asking for “street shopping”. I had to tell her that Bangkok is not like Bombay where we can find a Linking Road, and MBK is probably the best place to shop. But she still wanted to go ask a Tuk Tuk guy. So we did that, and he told us that such places would all be closed. Then he says he will take us to a suit store en route to our hotel. These Tuk Tuk guys are notorious for doing this and this was our second time today. We tried denying, but it was of no use and said we’ll step in for 5 mins. The place the idiot took us was a suit-tailor where only made to order deals were made. The guy realized we had just unwillingly come with some Tuk Tuk guy, so asked us to not waste either of our times, and we went back to the Tuk Tuk. The guy drives us out of there, and in 5 mins, stops at some remote place and starts yelling at us, saying we were supposed to be inside for 5 minutes. We yelled back saying the shop itself was not willing to keep us there and there was nothing we could do. But the guy doesn’t stop yelling and asks us to get off and continues to shout while leaving, saying he hates Indians! Man, what a mess! I quickly got mom and sis out on to a main road and we stopped another Tuk Tuk who was charging 150 Bhat to our hotel. I was ok with paying for it, coz I wanted to get out of there fast. But then we felt it was too much, and didn’t want to get into any more mess with these people, and stopped a nice fluorescent pink Corolla Taxi that drove us back in the comfort of it’s a/c for just 100 Bhat. That was a good deal! Reached our hotel, freshened up, had a head and shoulder massage which was my first ever Thai massage, and I was seriously wondering how such a thin girl could dig her fingers so deep into my back! I could hear mom and sis keep telling their masseuse to go easy as these people were giving a sort of massage that we weren’t used to! Anyway, it definitely felt relaxing, and then we ended the day with a last Thai meal – Pork, Duck and Prawns, to the sound of a live band playing at Prineceton.

Tuesday:
Woke up at 3:30, with barely 5 hours of sleep to catch the flight to Bali. The moment we checked out, the cab was waiting for us. Welcome Tours have not faltered this far! Got to the airport and a long flight to Bali in Air Asia. Managed to catch some sleep in it, and reached Bali by 9:30IST, 12noon Bali time. The person who was to meet us was waiting out, in spite of us not calling and informing him of our arrival, which was something we were supposed to do as per the itinerary worked out by Dexter. He introduced himself as Sandy, which I later got to know was spelled Cendy. I almost told him that some people call me by that name too!
Half hour drive to Diwangkara Holiday Villa, and the entire journey I was staring out of the window, just short of a dog with its neck sticking out! Bali must by far be one of the prettiest places I’ve seen. The entire city is brown and woody, with lots of trees and pretty looking buildings. Really loved the whole place. The crowd was not as hot or stylish as Bangkok though, which was something I noticed when I traveled to Bintan as well last year. Anyway, we checked into our room and had lunch – our first Indonesian meal! Proper Nasi Goreng and a Malaysian noodles I cannot pronounce. I was really enjoying the food, but Jeetu only had one piece of chicken and mom also ate very little.
Then we toured around the hotel property and took tons of photos, and caught a small nap and then left to Kuta Beach, supposedly the best beach of Bali. We were to catch the sunset there, but mom kept asking ‘where is the sun?’. It was far too cloudy, and the beach was way too crowded for us to enjoy it. However, an archer conned me into buying a bow and arrow (I have absolutely no clue what I plan to do with that thing) and sis got a funky hairstyle thing done at the beach. After that, we got back to our hotel and took a walk to catch dinner outside. The whole of Kuta beach left along with us, it seemed, coz nobody stays outside after sunset! Anyway, for dinner, Jeetu and mom wanted to try some food outside the hotel. They didn’t mind Indonesian again, but just not at the hotel. But after the place where we had dinner, a shack called Watering Hole, I don’t think they will ever have Indonesian food again. Once again, I was the only one enjoying the chicken and fish, mom and sis were totally bugged with the food. So much so, that towards the end, mom was having plain rice with sauce!

Wednesday:

Today was a full day tour of Bali plan. More of the wood and stone carvings, temples, paintings, and of course, more shopping!
We first went to a song and dance show called the Barong dance. It was based on a famous mythological story of Indonesia – war between Rangdha - a tiger monster and Sadheva, some good lady. Was a pretty good watch. After that we went to a temple called Thirth Amur which literally translates to Water Bubbling, and the temple is basically built around a spring which keeps bubbling out of the water. Was a really good sight to catch. The temple itself was really beautiful. Cendy was explaining how this was one of the few temples where outsiders were allowed all through the outer corridor, middle corridor, up to the inner corridor. The entire thing was in open air, and the rituals included placing an offering at the end of a pond where people stand in line and take a bath. There were men and women all together, quite an unusual sight. Here we did some shopping, which I must say was one of the most frugal in Bali this far. Following this we headed to an active volcano sight. Had lunch at a place which overlooked Mount Batur, Lake Batur, and another active volcanic mountain – Mount Angudha. Really beautiful place. Tons of food, which for a change both mom and Jeetu liked, and tons of photos later, we headed to Ubud. Our last stop before heading back. This was a temple palace where the royal family still stayed. So certain portions of the place was cordoned off for visitors. There was one section where little girls were learning to dance. The same dance form that was there in the Barong dance earlier in the day. Mom went on saying Bharatnatyam is better! Even during shopping, she would keeping saying, ‘you can get this at Cauvery Emporium for lesser’, ‘you can get better things in Bangalore’, and so on.. Very typical Indian mentality I think. Anyway, the day ended with mom going in for an Indonesian massage, and Jeetu taking the Foot Reflexology thingy, and me going for a much needed jog after all this food I’ve been eating!

Thursday:
Today was our last day in Bali as we had an early morning flight once again the next day to KL. First half was free and Cendy was going to meet us only at 2p.m. for a half day tour.
While mom and Jeetu chilled out in our very beautiful room at Hotel Diwankara, I decided to go out, use the net and also get a massage done. Boy, this was one massage that I would never forget! For one, the guy giving the massage was pressing so hard, that later on in the day, my legs were hurting, almost as if I'd worked them out in the gym! Never knew a massage could induce such a feeling. Also, he was trying to make conversation in the broken English that most people, save Cendy, spoke here. I remember so clearly the things he asked:
"How old are you?"
27
"Oh, you dont look 27 at all!"
Thanks
"How are the girls in India?"
Pretty good
"You like girls in Bali?"
Yeah, I guess (was really hoping his next question wouldnt be, 'would you want one?')
"You have a lot of hair"
(Didnt anticipate this question) Hehe, yea I do
"We Balinese dont have this much hair at all!"
"Are you married?"
No
"Do you have kids?"
(what!!) No..
"Do you want it stronger?"
(you can actually massage stronger!!??) No, please..
This went on for a bit and the massage turned out to be quite unlike any other I've ever got!
Cendy picked us up at 2 sharp and we headed out to the famous temple Tanah Lot. En route, we stopped at one monkey forest where there were more monkeys, and even flying foxes than I've ever seen anywhere else. Mom Jeetu kept squealing every time a monkey passed by, and they just wanted to get out asap. Tanah Lot was really pretty. At certain angles, and in high tide, the temple seems to be floating in water. Tanah Lot translates to floating temple. Tons of photos, and a bit of shopping later, headed back to our Hotel. During the entire 3 days, Cendy kept talking to us and giving us a lot of information on Bali. He made the entire tour so much more interesting. I would completely recommend going on a guided tour here. Bangkok and KL one can manage on your own, but Bali, definitely needs to be done with a guide. Some of the reasons I can think of:
1) Not too many people speak English in Indonesia, so it makes sense to have a guide translate for you
2) There are so many places to visit and things to do, its better to have it all organized, so that you make the most of your time spent there
3) There is so much history and culture in Bali, that on your own, you would never get to know things like the caste system in Bali (very similar to our own), the architecture, the Kings that ruled Bali and gave its current appeal..
Cendy really made the whole Bali experience worthwhile. A very good thing about him was, he never helped us bargain when we shopped. He wanted his people to have a good business without him spoiling it for them. I found that commendable. Tipped him 100,000 Rupiah when we left, but it was nothing compared to what a phenomenal tour guide he was. Always ask for Panaroma Travels, and Cendy from there, during a visit to Bali.

Friday:
Left early morning and reached KL by 10a.m. Got to our Hotel - Grand Continental (which I soon learnt had absolutely nothing 'grand' about it), by 11a.m. and realized that check-in time is only at 2 and we had 3 full hours to kill! Hotel guys 'obliged' to have our room ready by 1, and we went roaming around wondering what to do. Found an Indian hotel where mom ordered tea and was heaving such a sigh of relief saying it was the first cup of proper tea she's had in a whole week. There were so many times in Thailand and Bali that I had to go hunting for a cup of tea of this tea-addict mom of mine, and she just never liked any of them! Finally she seemed satiated, and after some 'Thosai' and 'Maggi Goreng' later, went into our room. Our half day KL tour was to start by 1:30 itself! What organizing!
This half day tour was total gibberish. We first saw the Petronas, from some garden 2kms away from the tower, which the tour guide said was 'Photo point'. What shit! We had an equally good view from our hotel itself. Then went to a Buddhist temple and the Kings Palace which we again only saw from the outside, and then went to some chocolate factory and an artifact store! Its so irritating that these tour guides take us to such nonsense places where they make their commission, and we get a totally shitty tour. We were completely dissapointed with the KL package so far. After the "tour", asked the guide to drop us off at Bukit Bintang where we could do some shopping, and Jeetu was totally cursing me for having made her spend so much in Bangkok coz she was liking the shopping here so much more. What was actually working for us was the conversion in Ringitts. Lot better than the Bhat conversion. Mom and she once again went about testing my mathematics skills by asking me to convert everything they picked in rupees, and then going on to buy so many things. Mom was getting terrified as the time got closer to 9, as she felt it was unsafe to be out this long, and Jeetu just didnt feel like leaving as she felt like a kid in a candy store! But we had to get out, bought some food from a Chinese restaurant outside the Sung Wei mall and went home and had it with some Carlsberg this time. Had 2 full bottles! Guess iSt was the Friday evening effect.

Saturday:
Genting full day tour today. Became 3 hours tour. Coz although we left at 9a.m, we stopped at Baku Caves that was a good sight, but also stopped at a watch factory that was once again extremely uneccessary. Then there was bad traffic as it was a holiday - May1, and finally the long queue for the cable car at Genting, and ended up reaching the resort only at 2p.m. Only to be told that we need to leave at 5! We just caught 2 rides. Each had a waiting time of more than an hour, and we tried optimizing by eating while watiting in the line itself. But still barely managed to see the resort, and really felt the entire KL planning was messed up. We were actually supposed to be given one night stay at Genting. That would have made so much more sense as we could have spent more time and enjoyed more rides. This was just so rushed and no fun at all!

Sunday:
The whole day was to ourselves, and we decided to go up the Petronas. Reached the place by 8:30 and realized that tickets were already sold out! This was my second time here and once again couldnt get to go up! THen we checked out of the hotel, as we had to do that by noon, even though our flight was only at 9 in the night and shuttle was coming only by 5. How much could Dexter screw up KL for us!
Went shopping in Chinatown which was loaded with fakes, but Jeetu just wasnt enjoying it as she wanted to go back to her candystore in Bukit Bintang. So we went back there and I was completely drained out by then. But these 2 ladies never seem to tire when it comes to shopping and they went on and on. I had to convert cash twice to satisfy them as I kept running out of our "budget". Anyway, we finally left the place by 3:30, did a bit of shopping at 7/11 where we bought some local chips and chocaltes and finally got to the KL airport by 6. So freakishly early as the shuttle would only ply at that time. So waited it out and just couldnt wait to get back to India now.

Overall, some tips would be:
Bangkok:
1) Packaged tour is fine, as there are only a standard set of things to do in Thailand.
2) Convert only USD's here as Rupees conversion to Bhat kills you!
3) Dont take the elderely to Pattaya. I did try to avoid this, but the travel agent kept selling it to us and we went ahead.
4) Shop till you drop at MBK!
Bali:
1) Definitely go on a packaged tour.
2) Stay in Diwangkara, or anywhere in Sunnur beach. Its close to most of the interesting places.
3) Only convert USD's again. Rupees, or even Bhat's kills you here.
KL:
1) Avoid packaged tour in KL at all cost. The place is so small, with so few things to see, and an extremely well organized train network and taxi guys that behave just like the ones back home, it all can be easily done without a travel guide.
2) MBK in Bangkok and Bukit Bintang can be close shopping rivals!
3) If you want to go up the Petronas, get there not later than 7a.m!

Most important tip can be: Avoid Dexter travel agents. They were decent in parts, and that too because their counterparts in the SEA countries made up for their goofups, but Dexter on their own - very shitty.

Some highlights of the trip was:
Bangkok:
1) First time parasailing and under sea walk for me - brilliant experience
2) Alcazar show in Pattaya is a must watch
3) MBK mall - so many things you feel like buying here
4) Trying out Crocodile meat!
Bali:
1) Prettiest place I've ever travelled to
2) Watching surfers in real at Kuta beach
3) Most insane massage ever!
KL:
1) Shopping at Bukit Bintang
2) Longest cable car journey up to Genting - 3.4kms long

Basically it was a good trip. Think I'm completely done and dusted with South East Asia now! Mom has had enough of her "foreign trip". Dont think she'll ever want to go again. Although I'm really glad she went now itself and not any later. She would have hated it so much more later. Jeetu has had her share of shopping! Although I'm quite sure she would loved to stay back and do some more. Next time around, she will just chuck all the sight seeing, and stick only to shopping!

Andamans

Feb 9:

Woke up at 3 in the morning to head to Andamans. This was the only market that I would be going to by flight, and it was booked at this unearthly hour. Got to Port Blair by 6 and the day pretty much began then itself. Went to the depot there - Jadwet. Spent a lot of time understanding everything - from the history of Andamans to the history of Jadwet, from the proprietor of the depot - Mr. Mohammad Jadwet, who we soon got to know was a complete rockstar of a guy.
We were booked at a hotel called Fortune, where the rooms overlooked the water, and it was simply beautiful. Had lunch there, did some work on our laptops and then went for the RS meet that got over only at 11. It was indeed a very long day.
However, in between lunch and the RS meet, we squeezed a small visit to a beach called Wandoor for about 2 hours, and it was the most unexpected and amazing things we experienced.
The beach itself was white sand with felled trees because of the tsunami. Then we took a speed boat to a spot where another boat waited. This second boat had a glass floor so that we could see the sea bed, and this was the amazing part of the impromptu visit.
The corals and plants we saw were really awesome. All three of us kept staring at this. Then we spent a short while at an island there, the name I forget coz Murugesan was calling it something very complex.
Murugesan here was a complete laugh riot. He keeps saying the funniest things. He saw something in the water, and suddenly went running behind it saying "catch catch". It was such a funny sight. Then we went and saw what it was, and it was a Sting Ray. We had to tell him that it was one of those that even killed Steve Irwin! He left the poor thing alone after that, but not after managing to take a good photo with it. Murugesan and the camera are one deadly combination. He just goes ballistic taking photos with it. Especially those of his boss Bishakh. He shoots Bishakh staring at the water, staring at the sky, just about every last thing that Bishakh does! At one point, he was even shooting his footsteps in the sand! Murugesan even took some photos of mine, only they were my backside. Quite a few of them actually. Dunnno what his fetish for that was.
Bishakh wrote a "BB" in the sand and took a photo of it. Murugesan doesn't understand what it was, and asked him if it meant "bad boy"! Bishakh had to remind him that its his name, Bishakh Balakrishnan. Murugesan even came up with a name for photos against the sun, which typically shows only the sillhuettes of the people in the photo. He called them "blackie"!
He also has a tendancy to add "The' before everything. So its "THe Blackie photo", "The Bishakh".. So much, that we started calling him "The Murugesan". There can be only one of his kind!
After satiating ourselves with photos here, we got back to Port Blair for the RS meet. This was something everyone really enjoyed, as never have people from mainland come to acknowledge the work people at Andamans do for HUL, and it was indeed a very big market for us. So we told them how important they were to us, gave them awards, and had a nice dinner with all of them. It was a very nice experience, but a really tiring day. First day in Andamans, and worked 18 hours!



Feb 10:

Visited the biggest RS in Andamans - Vincent Traders, and realized the RS was in the worst shape one could find an RS! Salesmen being doubled as delivery boys, horrible godown, bad beat plans.. Spent a lot of time explaining things and tyring to get some corrections in place. Then visited an outlet of another RS - CCS, and saw more stock pressure of some of our products like Red Label and Squash, than anything I've ever seen in Chennai! It was stunning to see things like this here.
We had to wrap up the day by lunch, coz post that there was a ferry that was taking us to Havelock. Had lunch at a place called Lighthouse Residency, and though it was really small place, it served some of the best food we had. The fish was out of the world! Gobbled a lot of food there, and then boarded a ferry called Bambooka.
It was a regular ferry, but the only one at this time, as the more popular "Makruzz" ferry, co-owned by our very own Jadwet was plying only in the morning. However, we had the best seats in Bombooka, as an entire VIP lounge was booked for us, while the rest of the junta sat in the cattle class of over 100 seats. We enjoyed this trip. Stood out on the deck as well for some time, and Bishakh and I were just checking out these 2 really good looking firang chicks, and all of a sudden, they start making out!
Reached Havelock and there was a car waiting for us which took us to a beach called Radha Nagar beach where we were told to catch the sunset. This was by far the best beach I have ever seen. I would rate this right up with the vast white sand beaches of Karwar. The water was a brilliant colour, and it was so soft and inviting. It just dissappeared in the distance, merging perfectly with the sky. I just couldnt resist taking my clothes off and getting into the water. It was probably the best swim in a beach I've ever had. One could easily confuse it for just a big clean swimming pool!

After the sunset at the beach, we went to check in at Siver Sands resort. The place was really expensive, so three of us decided to share one singe cottage, as it was anyway big enough to house even five people in all! After checking in, we went to this hotel called Wild Orchid which is famous for its food, and had Red Snappers and Chicken. Really good food. I was having my usual whiskey and coke and Seema was having her usual Vodka and Organge juice. Since we both really wanted Bishakh to drink, and since he only has wine, and since Wild Orchid only serves wine in full bottles, we bought an entire bottle and did bottoms up on exquisite wine towards the end to wrap up dinner soon.
We had to wrap up soon coz first of all, 9 was the last order at Wild Orchid. Whole of Andamans is just on a different time zone. Lunch closes by 1, dinner by 9. It all goes with the sunrise at 5a.m and sunset at 5p.m. But more importantly, we had to close dinner soon as when I walked out to make a phone call, a couple on a bike asked me where a place called Coconut Groove was, coz there was a party happening there. So I went back and told Bishakh and Seema to wrap up soon so that we could go for the party. But by the time we went to Coconut Groove, it was 10, and too late for a party to be going on in Andamans! What a place.
So we just got back to our resort, and on the way, we were laughing at how we hadn't paid for anything at all. Ever since we came to Havelock, everything was taken care of, and we only needed to pay once we got back to Port Blair, at the offices these places had in Port Blair. In fact, the waiter at Wild Orchid even came and asked us if we need any cash, coz he was told that we only have cards, and may not have money for anything here. Too crazy! We were of course going to pay for everything booked for us here, even if it was a VIP lounge on the ferry that we normally may not have booked for ourselves, but to be taken such good care, that they'd even give us money to enjoy ourselves was a bit much.
Back at Silver Sands, we bought some bottles of beer, went and sat by the beach, drank and cracked jokes till way past midnight. We called it a night by around 1, coz we had to wake up and go snorkeling the next day.

Feb 11:

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Focus. Can't breathe through the nose. Focus. Have to force the breathe out of the mouth. Inhale. Shit, water in my mouth. Surface, surface. Take the tube out. Spit out the water. Open the goggles. Eye hurts. Salt water. Wipe my eyes, blow my nose, put the goggles back on. Put the tube into the mouth. Bite it. That's the technique. Alright, ready to do this again..
Man, I never thought snorkeling could be this tough! Woke up this morning with a splitting headache, took a bath, had a tea, and once the rock music quietened down in the head, went out and had breakfast. Then a small jeep ride to a beach adjacent to Silver Sands resort, and a long boat ride to a beach called Elephant beach. We kept wondering why we had to come so far, and the beach was so sad, with so many tourists. We were just not appreciating any of this snorkeling that we decided to do today.
To top it, I decided to go snorkel on my own. Told the guy I know how to swim. So he gave me a really uncomfortable life jacket and I was attempting this thing I was doing for the first time, and just not liking any of it. Gulping salt water, eyes burning. It was painful!
Just then, a fish swims right in front of me. It looked just like Nemo's friend. Wow! I just follow the sight of the fish, and suddenly, corals! Tons of them. Sea weeds, Water mushrooms, they were all sprouting in front of me. I was just cribbing this whole time, and suddenly, I was awestruck! This was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It was straight out of an NGC underwater expedition episode, only this time, right in front of my eyes. I forgot the ordeal the equipment was causing me and kept staring at the water bed. I resurfaced numerous times - to either adjust my life jacket, or spit out the salt water, or pour out the water that entered the goggles. But I kept at it, coz what I was witnessing was worth it and so much more. Our boat guy who was helping Bishakh and Seema came for me, and exchanged my life jacket with a water tube. He said it would be much more comfortable, which I soon completely agreed with, and also pointed me towards the place where the water bed became more astounding than ever. I snorkled for quite some time, and just before heading back, decided to try something adventurous. Let go of the water tube, dive to the bed, and pick a souvenir! Needed a lot of guts to do it. I am not that great a swimmer to manage myself back to shore without the tube. But I just had to do it.
So I did it. Took of my mouthpiece and made my way down. Grabbed the first coral I could get my hands on and came back up. The water tube had gone quite a distance away from me. I swam quickly towards it and caught it before I start to panic. Managed to do it, and then tried repeating the stunt and picking two morefor Bishakh and Seema, But I just didnt have the energy or probably even the balls to try it again. So I just swam back to shore, and realized this was quite painful. Used up pretty much my last reserves of energy to get back, and was thankful I didnt attempt the second round of coral picking.
The moment I got back, I walked towards the other two to tell them my valiant efforts of stealing a coral, and that's when Bishakh tells me that I was indeed stealing it, as its not allowed to take anything from the water bed here. In fact, the boat guy even took it and kept it aside as there were some officials on the beach and he said we'd get into trouble if he sees it with me. One official even came and spoke to us just 5 minutes later when we were changing, asking us how is life and telling us to conserve the place. He didnt notice the coral, but I decided to just drop it back in the water after all that. Managed to take one photo with it though - my big accomplishment in Havelock!
The boat journey back was quite painful. For one, I was really tired and was trying to sleep, and two, the boat kept rocking crazy this time, and water kept splashing on me. After getting back on shore, Bishakh tells us that he was contributing to the waves in splashing water on us, and neither Seema nor I noticed coz we were trying so hard to sleep. What a crazy guy! Ended up getting all my clothes wet, and I was as it carrying so few.
Back on shore, we got back to our rooms, took a much needed shower to get rid of all the grime that finds itself in strange places when you spend too much time in a beach, checked out, and had lunch at Silver Sands itself, as Wild Orchid closes at 1:30p.m for lunch. What a crazy place this is. Last night our last order for dinner was at 9p.m and today this! This place is just 2 hours hours ahead of the rest of the world!
Silver Sands lunch was really disappointing. The place is really nice, and the guy at the reception told us it is the biggest property on Havelock, but they have a long way to go with the food.
After lunch, we drove to an outlet of the RS CCS, and was shocked to see it. The kiosks at Radhanagar which were not under our coverage was so much better stocked with our products than this place. Worst part, he gets serviced only once a month and was carrying expired stocks!

After the brief market visit, went to the port and took the Makruzz - best ferry in Port Blair, so claim hoards of billboards all across Port Blair. Once again, we were given the best seats in the house. There was Delux, Premium and Royale! We get Royale. There are just 8 of them, in the 200 odd seater Makruzz. Jadwet really arranged all of this in style for us.
Got off at Port Blair to Murugesan and Jadwet waiting for us, and headed to Fortune to check in once again. Watched a sound and light show at the Cellular Jail and took a walk around the park next to it. All of it gave us a brief preview of the history of Andamans and it was good witnessing all of that. Then went to a hotel called Sinclairs which had a beautiful view of the beach. It overlooked a very famous beach in Port Blair called Corbyn's Cove. Dinner at Sinclairs was a mixed bag. Terrible starters, but awesome main course. Murugesan provided the entertained here as well. Started talking about all his girlfriends. His exact line was "once I was a playboy. I had one girlfriend doing pharmacy, one in arts, and one in science". What a guy! And he's telling all of this not to Bishakh or me, but to Seema! "The Murugesan" rocks.

Feb 12:
Flight out of Andamans was at noon, and we had a ton of things to do before that. Visit both the RS again, pay for all our expenses at Havelock, buy some souvenirs.. Thanks to everything in Port Blair being 5 minutes away from each other, we managed to complete everything well in time. In fact, we even had enough time to grab a bite at the airport hotel. We just had to have fish once again, and thankfully they were serving it there. The fish didnt disappoint, just like everything else at Andamans. The place, the hospitable people, the numerous things to see and do - Andamans is really one hell of a holiday destination. If only there were more than just a KF and IC flight, plying between more than just the Chennai and Kolkatta sector, at prices lesser than the 12k minimum they operate on, this place could really be a fabulous holiday destination - maybe even the best in India!

New Year 2010

I was at home in Kerala three days before New years, trying to figure out what to do on December 31. Kept thinking about the previous year and how much of a disaster it was! I was in Silvassa last year, and traveled to Bombay on the 31, just so that I could spend the night with my friends there. I did manage to meet Bangdu and Amit, but we went to a house party at Dev's and pretty much waited till the wee hours of the 1st morning for the party to even begin! Abhi and some others were out clubbing, and I ditched them thinking I could save some money and go for a simple house party itself, and also get to hang with Bangdu, Amit and Dev. Anyway, just didn't want a disaster this New Years as well. But the way things were going, it really did seem like this New Years too would be nothing short of a messed up one.
I actually wanted to try and ensure that this New Years went well, coz 2009 was really not one of my better years. There were some really big highlights, like finally going abroad - twice that too, getting the job I wanted, and so on.. But there was some real catastrophes in 2009. And they seemed to just be pouring down on me, especially in the last few months of the year. Only for that, I was really looking forward to starting off 2010 well and hoping that the rest of the year goes ok.
So Jeetu, Poonam and I decide to take a train on 30th and reach Bangalore on 31st. We got there by the afternoon. I made plans with all my friends there. Geeta had come down from Chennai and was staying with one of her friends Bobby in Bangalore. We all decided to catch up at night. I made a few calls, but realized places were too expensive (as usual) to party. So once again, we decided on a house party. Only difference was, this time, it was my own house. So I could try and ensure things go better. I met up with Geeta and Bobby in town around 8, and we went to Le Rock. Hung around there doing the Bangalore - rock music and beer, till about 10, after which the two of them went to church. Gopal and China joined me at Le Rock and we got pretty high.. By 11, we left the place, which was totally packed and happening by then! Never knew Le Rock to take that shape! Picked up Geeta Bobby from St. Patrick's and drove home. Now this drive was hilarious. China was at the wheel and scaring the daylights out of everyone with his already bad driving. Can't believe I'm saying that, considering I was the one who taught the nut to drive! And Gopal was in the back seat shouting for Kadlekai! Geeta and Bobby must have been completely scandalized by these two drunk goons. But I was trying my best to placate the situation and keep it fun.
We got home, and Pali and Munda were waiting there for us, along with all of Jeetu's friends. It was just 5 mins to midnight. only people missing were Sony, Asha and Sunil. Otherwise, the usual suspects were all there, and had a really nice time welcoming 2010 when it did. After that, I just showed the house to Geeta and Bobby, made drinks for everyone, gave Geeta the gift I'd bought for her with Jeetu's and Poonam's help in Thekkadi, and just had a nice time with everyone.
Geeta and Bobby left just after mid night, and I continued all the way till nearly 4 with the boys. Hari joined us around 2, and all of us stood in the balcony chatting away. It was really nice to be hanging with 5 of my school friends, 3 who are currently in the US in fact, and had come down on holiday.
We were ragging Pali solid as he had pierced both his ears. China gets ragged anyways! Hari was trying hard to behave American with his in-between accents. Gopal was the regular idiot he is. And Munda was the star, coming up with all sort of funny stuff. We were just thinking that this year is going to be quite a life changer for many of us. Good chance that Munda and Gopal, and maybe even China could get married. If things work out for Pali, even he might just tie the knot. I know Hari and I have a little way to go, but in many ways, this might as well have been the last time all 6 of us met up, just like the school buddies we've always been..
Anyway, we went for a drive at 4, dropped everyone off. Hari stayed over. Slept for an hour, and he went back to his place as well. I woke up around 8, got ready and went to see Arun's twins - Yohan and Izaac. It was really sweet that he's had twins. They were just 1 week old and looked adorable. Then from there, I met up with Geeta and Bobby and we drove to Chickmanglur. I'd been to this place in 2003 with Shiv, Praveen, Mukund and Tunu. We'd gone to Shiv's estates there, gorged on so much food, and had such a good time then. It was the only trip I had gone with that gang, apart from the Munnar trip we did with the entire college junta. I remember us planning so much to go on another trip, but it just never happened. And now, Mukund and Vikram are married, and Shiv is in the US and Praveen in Rajasthan. The gang's completely split. So much like my school friends. Its like all of us grew in Bangalore, and then just exploded to every other place on the planet. There's hardly anybody left in Bangalore, and that's why I hardly ever feel like going there anymore..
So the three of us drove to Chikmanglur. It was a very nice drive. With me doing the last 200 of the 300 kilometers - which almost seemed like it would never end, coz the roads just became really bad, the sun had gone down, and we'd taken a supposedly shorter route that showed us no milestones and we had no clue how far we were from the destination. We finally made it around 9. Checked into the hotel, which turned out to be a big disaster in itself, and went out for dinner at the CCD next to the hotel. CCD was just to refresh ourselves a bit. But the sandwich we had here was pretty much the dinner for the day. Coz we drove to the Taj after this, but the place was so expensive, and food so bad, that we wasted the lamb chilli that we ordered, and just had 2 shots of rum instead. In CCD, Bobby nicely messes up the new shirt I was wearing that Geeta gifted me, by trying to compete with me on who would pour the sauce out of the sachet on to her plate first, and the boy ended up squeezing it straight on to my shirt!

Spent some 20 minutes trying to get it out so that it doesn't stain the shirt, and after that, borrowed his sweater as I hadn't brought a change of clothes, and then, lived in that sweater till we got back to Bangalore, coz it was that comfortable!
Taj was a beautiful place we drove to. There was one particular section there, where we could see the Chikmanglur skyline, and it was a full moon night to add to the beauty of the place. It was really sweet hanging out there. But the dinner being disappointing killed it for us.. We got back around 2 and crashed out. Just before I slept, I noticed an SMS from Jeetu asking me to call her. I'd kept my phone off as it was running out of battery, and since I came up with nothing, even the charger was left behind. But I didn't reply to her thinking it was too late and thought I'd just call her in the morning. I'd diverted my calls anyway to Geeta's phone and knew that if it was urgent, they could call me, and get through. And call me they did, at 5a.m, when I was just planning to wake up, as we'd decided to getting up early and catching the sunrise. Sony was the one who called and said she, Jeetu and Sanu were in Chikmanglur! I obviously thought they were kidding at first, but the way she spoke, and given how nutty those 3 can be, I did believe they were there. So I washed up and drove to the bus stand which was really close to the hotel we stayed, and actually picked the three of them from there. Jeetu was talking of how they were so bored and didn't want to do nothing in Bangalore, and just went to the bus stop in the hopes of taking a bus to Pondicherry, and when they saw a Chikmanglur bus, and the conductor started telling them that it was the last bus out of there, they just hoped on and landed in Chikmanglur. Wat nuts!
Anyway, I was really glad they were there. Coz the previous night, I was actually supposed to meet up with them as Sony missed out on the New Year night party and we thought of catching up on the 1st. But then I had to leave with Geeta and Bobby on this trip, as this was pretty much the main reason Geeta had come down to Bangalore. But now, everyone was together, and we actually ended up having such an amazing time on the 2nd of Jan. It almost seemed like the New Years party was still just going on, and it was like the longest party we've been in!

The 6 of us took a drive, decided to go to Kemungundi, which was about 50kms away, but in terms of time, ended up taking us nearly 3 hours, thanks to the supremely bad roads. Bobby and Geeta could just never get the name of the place right. They called it everything from Kannangudi to even Kammanahalli! But never Kemungundi!
We reached Kemungundi completely worn out by about 1. Jeetu had done most of the ghat section driving and Bobby and I managed to grab our 40 winks. The entire journey we kept stopping and taking hazaar photos. There was one section where the view of the mountains was just unbelievable. It was so windy there that our clothes were flying all over the place. Then there was another spot where there was a lake and one single tree with beautiful red leaves in the middle of it. Then a waterfall place which was the crappiest waterfall we've ever seen, but the place made some of the best paratha and eggs we've ever had!
Overall, the journey to Kemungundi was the real highlight. Kemungundi itself was fairly quite boring. It was just one big garden kind of place. We just had lunch. Bisi Belle Bath! True Digga style! Then started off to Bangalore.

Just before leaving Kemungundi, all of us went in a line to the loo there. Bobby and I went first and we came out and told the rest, its not 'Pay and Use', its 'Pray and Use'! The place was just a small shed like structure. Geeta was trying to sound local and called it Sheddi! Bobby and I cracked up like crazy when she said that! We had to explain to her what it meant in Mallu. Geeta was a complete laugh riot actually. Bobby and I kept teaching her mallu words and told her things like Kaladhe means angel! But the funniest part was, she could just never say Kaladhe properly. She kept saying Kadale and things like that. Somewhere I think she even mixed up Kaladhe and Kemungundi!!
The journey back was once again quite tiring with me doing the last leg, coz Bangalore gets really crowded. We thought we'd reach by 7 itself, but instead got to Bobby's place only by 9. That was in spite of Jeetu's Michelle Schumacher driving that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. She did make good time, but we wasted it with a break we took at a highway CCD.
At Bobby's place, Geeta and I went and bought KFC for everyone, and we sat eating it with some alcohol. All 6 of us were so tired and just contemplating on our trip, and except for me and Sony, the rest pretty much looked like they were going to crash any minute. But we both really wanted to play Pictionary. So we started a conversation saying 'hey, look, there's a game here' 'wow, you know how to play?' 'cool, lets start'.. The rest required a bit of convincing, but thankfully they agreed, coz the next 2 hours was just too much fun. Pictionary can actually turn out awesome fun at times. So Bobby and my two sisters were in one team. Geeta, Sanu and me were in the other. We initially started kicking their ass, but Bobby and Jeetu soon figured the game, and being the competitive people they are, they got into it pretty strong. We came back towards the end, because Sanu also started actually contributing to the game and guessing and drawing right. But we were tied at the last point, and just like that, Bobby and his two women pulled the game away. The game was such good fun, and best part were all those hundreds of jokes in between, just like the way things were even during the trip.
The next day we just chilled out, and Geeta and I had a train to take to get back to Chennai. While sitting in the train, we were just thinking what a random, yet awesome this New Year turned out to be. And probably, the party is finally over only now. Coz we need to wake up, and go to office!

bala and duma's excellent US adventure

"Dude, we're actually going?"
"Dude, we're actually going."
"It's finally happening"
"Finally"
That was me and Bala on the Emirates from Chennai, headed towards our BEST trip, ever..
So many "bests" actually come to mind when I think of the last two weeks..
Best City - New York, Manhattan - without doubt!
Best Bar - Jekyll and Hyde in Manhattan
Best Eye-Candy Spot - Disneyland!
Best View - Iguano Point, Grand Canyon
Best Money Spent - Emirates A380!
Best Dish - Steak at Toro's, the Tapas Bar in Boston
Best Drink - Pirates Rum at Hobsons, New York
Best Laugh - @Suzanne's playing the 'Lost' Game
Best last minute decision - Philly
Best 2 weeks ever - Read on..

May1
The way this trip fell into its scheme of things was a story in itself. It was way back in January, when the thought struck me, and I made a call to Bal who was in Jharkhand at that time, and I was in a small village called Khanvel in a forgotten Union Territory of India called Dadra and Nagar Haveli! Yea, big surprise that that call even went through. But not only did it go through, but it was also the first of many calls that got things rolling. Soon I was rushing to Chennai for my Visa interview, straight from my Singapore trip. I boarded my flight in Singapore on a Friday evening, and by the Monday morning, I had to meet Bala in Chennai with all my papers ready. The interview itself was a funny incident, coz none of the papers I carried came of any use at all. My interviewer just saw my application and started cracking jokes about me being a soap seller at HUL and in 2 minutes, stamped my form and asked me to collect the passport the next day! It was that simple! To think I had so much tension about this one interview!
Between the interview date and the date we actually flew, I was supremely busy at office. Just having joined full time work after completing my training, I was loaded with a hectic Handover schedule from my predecessor. Thankfully my holidays were already approved, otherwise I wonder if I'd have even got permission for it. But even making it to the airport in time was so painful. I was loaded with work the day I was supposed to fly. In fact, I was constantly traveling - Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bombay.. I just flew back from Bombay, and in four hours, had to check in for the flight to US. I barely had any time to pack, and didn't even convert any cash for myself! It was all so haphazard. But somehow, Bala and I made it to the airport on time, checked everything in - including all of Tunu's and Hari's luggage, which was actually the bulk of the luggage we were carrying, and waited for take-off.
The Emirates flight was simply awesome. The one from Chennai to Dubai was like any Full Cost Carrier of India, but the one from Dubai to JFL was mind-blowing. It was an A380, the new double-decker dream liner from Airbus. It was the most spacious, comfortable plane, with the best in-flight entertainment and the best service, I have ever witnessed. Absolutely loved that journey. Watched so many movies: revolutionary road, confessions of a shopaholic, transporter 3, max payne.. Drank a scotch called Famous Grousse which I later got to know is actually a pretty premium drink. Got nicely buzzed on that and didn't even realize when JFK came. In spite of the 13 hour flight, we felt completely relaxed and almost sad in a way that the flight was coming to an end! The only disappointing part of the journey was that I couldn't get to go to the upper-deck as it was cordoned off from the lowly Economy passengers. I tried my best to convince an air-host, but he very sweetly denied, and offered me another Famous Grousse to shut to me up!
It was the evening of May 1 itself that we landed in NYC - thanks to the time difference. But had to wait 4 hours at the terminal 4 coz of all days, Tunu gets late on this day to pick us up! Bala got completely acquainted with Terminal 4 and started calling himself the king of that terminal! I exchanged some of my Sing Dollars that I was carrying since the Singapore trip, and made some calls with that change to Tunu from those telephone booths that rarely connected the call right. And every time we spoke to Tunu, he kept saying he will arrive in half an hour more. Bala and I finally got bored and hit a Bar at the airport called Bar Avion. The drinks were so expensive, but that was coz I was converting. I later realized that 8 Dollars for a drink is pretty much the norm everywhere! So we were sipping on our drink, when Tunu finally arrives. It was really good to see him and Archana. He looked a bit fairer though - probably due to the weather. But unlike the rest of the, as Bala terms it, Fat B*stards of America, Tunu seemed to have become thinner than he was in India! We left immediately as we were tired of waiting at the airport and got into Tunu's Nissan Altima. This was a culture shock now - sitting shot gun in the car and sitting to the right - which is driving for us, and then being guided by a female voice out of a GPS. Never seen anything like this before!

We drove straight to Times Square, and this was a mind-f*ck! Never seen a place like this.. I mean, we've all seen it hundreds of times on TV, but the real thing is something else. So much light, so many people, and just so much energy! All sorts of things happening on the streets, people and cool cars buzzing through all around. We were totally in awe of the place. It was part of the plan actually - for Tunu to take us straight to Times Square and give us an over-dose of NYC the moment we land. We went to the Planet Hollywood there, then the Hard Rock - original after the one in London. Then we went to a typical New York Irish bar called Caravas, which had this friendly Irish lady serving drinks. The four of us sat on the bar stools, drinking and chatting. I was consuming quite a bit of alcohol. It was the first time I was drinking heavy in almost 2 months, thanks to Lent. Then we hit another bar, our 4th for the day and had some food. We experimented with Octopuss here! I was still in a mood to drink. So we decided to go back to Caravas and drink some more. We have drinks called Jeger bombs and Irish bombs. Jeger bombs were made from Jeger-Master, a drink whose launch party I was at in Bangalore and I saw so many people smashed out solid at the end of the party and decided I was never gonna have this drink as it was way too potent. And it was exactly the opposite I was doing here at Caravas, downing drink after another of this Jeger bomb! Finally, when it was time to leave, we decided to ask for a drink on the house. The lady obliged and I requested for the strongest drink she's got. She pours me an 87% vodka, enough to knock out a horse, and then puts it on a flame. I was just gonna consume the strongest Vodka ever - on a babooshka!! Man, I have no idea how I did it. But not only did I do it, but I also managed to keep it inside me! I was on a roll. So much so that a big burly Black dude sitting next to us actually gave me respect for downing that drink! I just caught on to that, and started giving respect to everything on the street on our way back, including a garbage truck and even a cop car! Well, the trucks in US look really cool, so I was pretty impressed with this one, and didn't really know it was out collecting garbage. And the cop car, it looked straight out of NFS. I was not only giving it respect, but also wanted to photograph it. But Tunu and Archana dragged me off saying those things tend to "shoot back".
The night still seemed young, so we decided to hit our 5th bar for the night. This was the highlight - at least for the others, coz apparently I was coming on to the waitress way too much. I know I wouldn't do that. Probably I was just being too happy and too friendly with everyone and these guys decided to rag me for it. Anyway, the waitress here was called Suzannes, and we begin calling the place itself that as we had no idea what the name of the bar really was. Anyway, we had a total blast here, drinking Jack and Cokes and cracking up about everything. We finally called it a night around 4 a.m. when we went to a house of Tunu's friends in a place called West Village which is where all the cool bars of NYC were (Suzzannes was about 20 meters from this place) and which was barely 2 miles from Times Square even. Imagine getting to stay bang in the heart of Manhattan on our first ever night in NYC. All kudos to Tunu and his connections for that!


May2

Bala actually woke up before the rest of us and even went out to get breakfast - no idea what that was all about. But guess the lazy monster in him was left behind in India! Anyway, we get ready and visit Wall Street. Spent the whole day walking all around the place, seeing the museum there, listening to a really nice band playing at the park near the ferry terminal to the Statue of Liberty, having some ugly looking but awesome tasting Romanian Burgers, doing some shopping at the flea market, taking photos next to the Wall Street Bull, it was a really neat New York experience. Bala and I were really falling in love with the place. We then went to a Little Italy place and had wine and beer. Since I don't have wine, I ordered a beer suggested by Tunu called Red Stripe. It was a Jamaican beer that tasted awesome! We walked around the entire day, checking out ground zero, the church next to it where all memoirs of the heroes of 9/11 were placed. We also had coffee at our first Starbucks in the US, and finally by the evening, decided to take the subway to Central Park. Central Park is actually a park by the way, not a cafe as we all seem to know it (from Friends), and so I was pretty disappointed when I saw the park, and went in only to throw up! Yup, no idea why I was throwing up.. Maybe it was a late effect of last nights drinking, or maybe it was those Romanian burgers we had in the morning, or maybe just the fact that we didn't eat the entire day and were just walking all around - having only coffee for lunch! But whatever it was, I threw up royally, and we decided to head back to place in West Village so that these guys could drop me off and carry on with their plans for the evening. I seemed pretty out of it. But during the taxi journey on the way back, even the rest were beginning to feel nauseous. So thankfully I wasn't alone. So all of us decided to back to the room and just relax for a bit. Once we got there, I hit the bed and the rest left me with a phone there and carried on to hit some more bars in NYC. I was just trying to get some shut eye and get out of this messed up stomach feeling, but just couldn't bear the thought of being in Manhattan and then sleeping like a dick. So no sooner had these guys left, I made a call and told them I'm gonna join them!
We went to a bar called Jekyl and Hyde first. It was a really neat place. It was a pub in the centre of a theatre. So there were these characters moving all around and these funky things all around the bar like a coffin that opens out and a skeleton falling, or a creature that talks like Marlon Brando, or even a big section of the roof falling down and Frankenstein waking out of it! It was an awesome place - one of the most creatively designed one I have ever seen! I only had French Onion Soup here, given my rumbling stomach. The rest were having their drinks. One of the characters here even commented on my soup saying no one is gonna come close to my now coz I'm having Onion Soup! Anyway, after this place, we went to the bar just next to it where a Jazz band was playing. It was good fun listening to them for sometime. Prashanth joined us here and we were chatting with him. Then we went to our third bar for the evening - Fat Cat, which was a sports bar. It actually had a tonne of sport that we could play inside it - from chess and checkers on the table we sit in, to Pool, Foozball and even an interesting sliding game! We tried out everything and finally by around 2, once again decided to hit Suzannes. One of Archanas friends - Neem also joined us here. I was pretty out if it by this time and even Tunu seemed really tired. But Bala and Archana seemed all set to go on and Prashant and Neem seemed pretty neutral to all plans. So we decided to spend a bit of time anyway at Suzannes, and this was a decision none of us will ever regret. We were just generally chatting about TV Shows and stuff and 'Lost' came up, and then we were talking of the game that Sawyer plays with this girl called "I have never.." where each of them take turns to make a statement and to whomever the statement is false, they should have a sip of their drink. So it’s something like, I say I have never used a flavoured condom and I take a sip of the drink and anyone else on the table who has also used a flavoured condom should take a sip too! This was in fact the same example I gave even while explaining the game, because for some reason, Flavoured condoms seemed to be the talk sometime back on the table. The game managed to catch on quite well, with each of us saying all sorts of interesting stuff and people either taking sips or sheepishly looking around. Tunu and Archana were the most fun here. For example, it was Neem's turn, and she says, "I have never done it in the office..", Bala, Prashant, me, all of us take our sips, and Tunu and Archana look at each other for confirmation and then they do a "cheeers" and drink. Omg, that was just so funny! Then Prashanth on his turn said "I have never done it in a car" and took a sip, once again everyone took their sips and this time, Tunu tells me it was in my car!!! Oh man, I was screaming out loud at both of them for desecrating my poor car that way! On Archana's turn, she said "I have never done it with Tunu".. This was the icing on the cake, coz nobody was obviously having their sips, but Tunu has one and we all burst out laughing watching him do that, coz 4 out of 7 days in a week the poor guy has to travel and is not with Archana, so has no option but to do himself!!! Oh man, we cracked up like crazy at this.. Anyway, overall the entire time here was just awesome. Suzzanne was our waitress again and she was talking quite normally to me. That's when I knew these guys were just unnecessarily taking my case the previous day. After a lot of laughs, we called it a night at 5a.m

May3
Our sleeping situation a bit tight actually, coz Tunu's friends place was a simple studio apartment. Of course, that too was really awesome as it was in the centre of Manhattan, but 6 of us sleeping there was pretty tight. Bala slept on the floor. Prashant, Tunu and me on the only bed there was there, and Archana and Neem on the sofa. It was really funny to see the two girls cuddle up on the sofa, all of us guys kept leching at them!
Anyway, all of this ensured we woke up pretty early. Bala and Neem still seemed high from the previous nights drinking, but we anyway decided to go out for breakfast. We ate at this typical American breakfast joint and ordered omelets, bacon and toast! After gorging ourselves, we realized we had no money. Thankfully Neem was carrying some cash and paid for me and Bal. After that, we dropped her off to a subway station and we got ready to go to the Statue of Liberty. Tunu and Archana were not joining us as they have seen this place many times before, and also had to head back to Syracuse. So Tunu booked a room at the Hilton for us for the night and Bala and I were on our way to see the statue. Tunu booking the Hilton was really awesome. He apparently has all these points from staying in these hotels because of his work, and had earned enough points to put us up for the night as well.
Statue of Liberty was pretty nice. The ferry ride till there was a pain though as it was freezing cold on the Hudson River. The one good thing we did on the ride was pick up this neat looking photo frame for Tunu that we decided to give him as a gift.
I couldn't really enjoy watching the statue that much. Bala had only got tickets that provided us with audio sets describing the entire place and did not let us go inside the statue, so we stranded outside and it was freakishly cold. We anyway walked around the entire island and decided to grab a bite and head to Jersey where the Hotel was booked. While buying lunch here, Bala tells me, "dude, get me big pork!". So I buy him this huge pork sandwich. 5 minutes later, Bala says "dude, no more pork!". HeHe! Then while he was eating, I kept looking at our ferry and telling him that it might leave, but the boy just doesn't budge, and then suddenly the ferry makes a noise and he suddenly makes a run for it! Was such a funny sight. He was really providing the laughs the entire trip!

So we had taken a ferry from Manhattan to the Liberty island, and then we took another ferry from the island to Jersey. The moment we reached Jersey, we felt like we were in a totally different place altogether. I mean, we were just across the Hudson river, still Jersey and New York are miles apart in the way they look. No wonder people call Jersey the arm-pit of the US! But apart from it being so deserted, I didn't really have too much of a problem with the place. Bal kept calling it a shit-hole for no reason at all. Sort of like Noel claiming to have a problem with the Jews for absolutely no reason at all!
Anyway, we had to struggle a bit to find our way to the Hilton, but there were some really nice and helpful people who guided us there - especially this elderly black bus driver who actually got out of the bus and explained to us on a map how exactly we could get to Hilton. That was really sweet of him. By the time we reached the Hilton, my system was completely shutting down. I had pushed it yesterday night itself by venturing out in spite of being a bit sick and throwing up earlier, and again today going to the statue in freezing weather really pushed me over the edge. So as soon as we entered our room, I covered myself up and went to sleep. Bala went out checking out Jersey and cold me nice hot chicken soup for dinner. I had that, along with some medicines that he bought and Tunu had given, and went to sleep really praying that I get better soon.

May4
I slept 12 hours straight. Really needed that. Felt a whole lot better once I woke up. There was a Macy's close by and decided to go there and buy myself a muffler. I felt that would really help coz my neck was the sensitive part and it was always left uncovered in this cold. So I went there, and ended up buying quite a few other things, including a Coffee Maker for Sin, that I never ended up giving to her, coz I later realized it was a 110v device and wouldn't work in India, and had Sanjeev return the device. Anyway, managed to get my muffler - a pretty neat looking thing too, and both of us headed to New York to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was actually the plan on May 2 itself when we went to Central Park, but the subway journey was so slow (because of some construction) that we ended up getting really late, and then I threw up and stuff, so we couldn't make it then. Funny thing was, we couldn't make it even today, coz by the time we reached Manhattan and went to a club called Lace, it was time for me to meet Sanjeev and go to his place.
I was really excited to meet Sanjeev, so didn't want to delay on that at all. Bal got pretty pissed that I was leaving early, but I really couldn't help it! Also, we got to Lace from the subway station by a Tonga, and Bal commented that we had actually done all the modes of public transport available in the US - taxi, subway, ferry, bus and now Tonga!
I met Sanjeev outside Macy's on Time Square and he looked so much like he did way back in Bangalore (it was nearly 8 years since I had last seen him) except for a bit of weight age had added on to him. We went together all the way to Jersey and Bhavana came to pick us up along with the kids. It was the first time I was meeting the younger one - Sanvi. She looked just like Khushi when I had first met her in Delhi. It was so much fun meeting the kids and chatting with Sanjeev and Bhavana. We were up quite some time in the night talking. Also, we had to wait for Bala to return, as he had gone for a Broadway show after Lace, spent a 100dollars on its entry, and finally reached Jersey only by 11p.m. Thankfully not too late also, and we picked him and once he finished Bhavana's home cooked dinner, we slept in the guest room of Sanjeev's beautiful big house.

May5
Left Sanjeev's plc saying bye to everyone to leave to NYC and finally check out the MET, catch the game and then head to Syracuse so that we can leave tomo to Niagra. But last minute, Bala and I decided to go to Philly instead and this changed all plans.. We took the train from the opposite station, and instead of going to NYC, went to Philly. Philly now is not entirely a safe place and we got to know that we should go to a place called the Comcast centre straight from the station. So once we got off, I asked a Security Guard where Comcast was, and he just could understand what I was saying. Finally he says, "Oh Khaham-Khahast??". And I went, "Yea, Khaham-Khahast!!". Dam their English! Anyway, he directed me to get there, and Philly Comcast center was really awesome. It was almost what we probably expected Wall St to look like. Tall Tall buildings, long straight roads, lots of people looking like their straight out of the 'Apprentice' show.. it was really cool. We went looking for a place to catch the soccer game that Bala really wanted to watch as Man U was playing, and found a pretty neat bar which showed the game, but apart from Bala, me and one totally loser looking guy next to Bala, nobody else was watching it. Pretty sad that way.
Anyway, after the match, we went to Comcast, bought our first Crab cakes in the US which was simply delicious and headed out to check out Philly. We first went to the City Center, and I was filming the entire place wearing my new muffler around my face to cover my nose from the cold, and a cop comes and stops me asking what I'm doing. I had to assure him I was just a tourist coz he felt I looked suspicious with the muffler around my nose and filming the entire place! That was a funny experience.. Then the two of us went to the Art Museum of Philly as this was where Rocky ran up the flight of stairs. It was awesome the way we found the place. Bala asks a dude how to get there, and he doesn't understand what Bala is saying and then Bala sings the Rocky tune and the dude gets it then! So he directs us to get there and we enter a cab explaining the directions to him. No sooner than we did, he says "oh, you've come to see the stairs Rocky climbs?" He was telling us that people all over the world come here just to see the Rocky stairs. And it was actually true. Coz when we got there, we were witness to a 100 kids coming out of 2 big buses and doing the exact thing that Rocky does in the movie. That was some sight. Actually got the whole thing on my camera and even planning to post it to Sly Stallone. I'm sure he'd love to see people do the same thing even after all these years! Bala also did the same act - twice! coz the first time, I did not start recording although the camera was on, and Bala had to do the whole thing again!
Overall, the Philly trip was really neat. So glad we decided to make it there. Only thing was, we had to spend one more night at Sanjeev's, in spite of saying bye to everyone, as there was no time for us to get to Syracuse this late.
That's exactly what we did. Sanjeev was really nice to be waiting at the station along with Bhavana for us as he was also returning from his work the same time we left Philly. Then all of us went back to his place, had some more home cooked food, which we really couldn’t stomach too much off as just before leaving Philly, we went to this Chinese restaurant called City Garden and had Sakei (an awesome rice drink that gets you instantly high!) and Peking duck that tasted awesome! Anyway, one more awesome day ending with sound sleep.

May6
Said bye to everyone at Sanjeev's again and finally managed to go to the MET. It was really neat watching paintings of greats like Monet and Picasso. Although I didn't know as much about these paintings as Bala did, just looking at some of them and knowing it was by some of the greatest painters of all time was a killer feeling. After that, we went to the Empire state building as we realized we hadn't done that yet, and then went to a bar called Jack Damsey, a typical Irish bar right next to Empire state and watched the second semi final game between Chelsea and Barca. We couldn’t watch too much of the game, although we really felt like coz the energy at this place was so much better than the one in Philly. But we had to leave early to catch our bus to Syracuse. Getting the bus was such a mess. We got to the ticket counter and he says we need to print the ticket first and pointed us to an Internet parlour where we could do it from. So we go there, and I unknowingly insert a 20 dollar note, and Bala clicks OK on the machine and the dam thing swallows the entire note without giving us any change in return and offers 120 minutes of time on the internet, when we needed not more than 5 to just download Tunu's mail and print! That was just so irritating. But nothing we could do about it. Then things turn worse when the mail wouldn't open. Somehow attachments were blocked at this place. We somehow managed to work around it and then realized there was no printer here! Man, everything seemed to be conspiring against us. I just got totally ticked off and went back to the counter and explained our situation to him. Thankfully he was nice enough and told me to calm down and gave me the boarding pass.. I was so irritated when I saw that and was wondering why the hell did he just not give it in the first place and ended up insisting on us printing the ticket! Dam.. anyway, I was getting the boarding pass for a bus that not only cost a lot, but was also leaving in 5 minutes, so decided against making a ruckus and just took the boarding passes and left.
On the long bus ride to Syracuse, Bala and I split our expenses for the last few days, and caught a few winks before reaching Syracuse. On getting there, we realized Tunu is stuck up and can't pick us, so we took a taxi and somehow found his place. Hung out with Archana till he came and got an intro to his place and his drunk roommate who was apparently getting paid 800 dollars a month as unemployment benefits as he couldn't find a job! US of A is really crazy with its laws!
Anyway, once Tunu came, we went to a bar called Chucks which was a student bar where shots of Jack were just 2 dollars. That was cheaper than even the conversion price in India! So we kept downing them, had a blast at the place where the energy was the highest we've seen in any bar, not to mention the superbly hot teenage chicks! Called it a night after going back home and having some awesome Puliyogre that Archana made..

May7
I barely slept the previous night as I went about checking my mail and there was a tonne of them from office. So I wasn't feeling much like going out for breakfast, but glad I did coz we went to ihop - International House of Pancakes and had an awesome breakfast of steak, shrimp nuggets, bacon and their signature pancakes! Then we got back home, quickly changed and hit a mini golf course that was probably the most fun sport I have ever played. We had an absolute blast there! Bala still seemed high on the Mojito he was drinking the previous day and was getting hole in ones after another. He got 4 in the entire 18 hole game!

After that, we ate at a place called Tully's and then drove to Niagra. Niagra falls was really awesome. It was almost breathtaking to see the huge waterfall! Just opposite the falls was Toronto, Canada. Couldn't believe the place was so close! We spent some time there, went to the Hard Rock at Niagra and finally got back to Syracuse by about 2a.m.


May8
Left to Boston today - lot later than we expected. but still made it there by evening. Checked in to Marriott wit Tunu's points. Awesome how he does that, and even more awesome hotel, especially since I got Puff Daddy on film when I was doing some arbit filming out of the window!
By evening we went drinking and we came across a pub called Cheers! Bala and I were so excited to see this place, more so coz it looked just like the one in the TV show. The best part was, we got to know that this bar had come first and the show later - that was just some news! We couldn't believe we were at the original Cheers! After grabbing some drinks here, we went to a hotel called Toro's which was a Tapa's bar like Zaras in Chennai and had to wait a really long time to get a seat. But the wait was worth it as the dishes we had were simply awesome. Each one better than the previous. The one that totally won the night was this steak kind of a dish which was this super soft veal meat and so scrumptious once put in the mouth!
After that, we went back and Archana was too sleepy, so Tunu went to drop her off and Bala and me went to a bar called Shamrock. Bala wasn't in much of a drinking mood - which was really silly coz he was drinking every night till this day and of all places, decides to take a break in Boston - the Irish and drinking capital of the US! Anyway, he was getting too bored and he also left. I stayed back coz Tunu said he would be coming back and he did so with Archana too. No wonder how she managed to wake up. But glad they came, as we went to this typical Irish bar where just as we were entering, there was a band playing "shipping off to Boston" with violins! It was just unbelievably awesome to watch them play that song the way they were. Then Tunu, Archana and I were having a long talk about all sorts of things and finally called it a night once again way past mid-night.

May9
Went playing paintball in the morning today - awesome game! With mini golf and this one, we pretty much covered all the games we wanted to try our hand out in. The one thing we missed which we would have probably liked would have been baseball batting, but never had a chance for it the entire trip. Paintball was awesome fun though. Archana kept shooting people from her own team even! But we had a good time running all over the place, taking aim and shooting at people!
Then we went to Harvard, then checked out MIT and finally by 6, started our long journey back to Syracuse. On the way, we came across something called a Flash rain which was a really scary experience. We were peacefully driving and suddenly it looked like some water from the road opposite just splashed on our windshield - it was that sudden! But then, it wasn't just water, but a sudden huge quantity of rain just coming down like crazy. Cars on the road came skidding to a halt as they were caught unawares and also had zero visibility of the road. Tunu also almost stopped the car, but he noticed a big truck behind him and couldn't really do that. He had to somehow maneuver his way to safety at the side till the rain simmered down - which it did just as suddenly as it had started in about 5 minutes!
Anyway, the rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and I even caught up on some sleep. On reaching Syracuse we went to a place called Al's for some drinks and a very funny incident happened here. We were just sitting on the bar stools watching Al do all his cool tricks while serving - which was the main reason for so many people visiting the place, and suddenly there's this girl who pretty much falls over me, then smiles and says hi. She kept smiling and all I did was just smile back coz the rest of these guys were sniggering from behind. Anyway, I just decided to move from there and went and stood with these guys who just couldn't stop laughing! After spending some time at Al's, we went to another place which was playing a lot of Desi songs! Hung around here for a bit and finally got back to Tunu's around 4a.m. We decided to stay awake for an hour and then head out to see his college and then get to the airport to begin our journey of the West Coast.

May 10
So we stayed awake till 5:00 a.m and then decided to head out to the airport and on the way, check out Tunu's college - Syracuse University. It was a really nice campus and the best part was, later that day, the students were gonna have their graduation walk, and Joe Bidden was supposed to confer them their certificates. That was just so cool, the Vice-President visiting a college for this purpose! So there were a lot of preparations and stuff laid out for his visit. We saw all of that and when we were just nearing the airport, Bala remembers that we haven't taken Hari's luggage! We just carried our handbags and forgot that one. It was way too late for us to go back, so Tunu suggests he drop us off and then he would head back and bring the luggage. So we get to the airport, complete out check-in and then try and talk to the authorities about our bag that is on the way, and they suggested one of us go in and convince the staff of our flight - Delta to keep the gates open and one of us wait outside for the luggage. So Bala goes in and I kept waiting outside - frantically pacing up and down. Our flight was to leave at 6:10 a.m and Tunu finally zoomed in to the airport parking lot at 5:45 only. I was already past the half hour time limit for boarding and still had check-in this luggage. So I start running with the bag, all the way to the check-in counter, there the cop scans the bag three times till he has removed all the deos and everything else important to us, and only then let me go. I didn't care to see what all he has removed, coz I just wanted to make it to the flight. The moment he cleared me, I picked the open bag and ran all the way to the gate and all the way to my seat in the flight! It was just too insane. The moment I got into the flight, I realized it was 6:05! Barely 5 minutes for the flight to take off, and everybody in the plane was staring at us, coz the entire flight waited just for the 2 of us. I was only glad that Bala managed to talk the staff to keep the flight on hold for us, and more glad that Hari would now be getting all those things his mom had cooked for him!
Anyway, we at least made the flight, and tried to catch some sleep on the flight as we hadn't slept a wink last night. Reached JFK by 9 and then took the connecting flight to LAX which got there by noon, which was 3:00 p.m Western Time. Once we landed, Bala called his cousin and Kavita came and picked us up shortly and we had a nice long drive to Rancho Cuccamungo - which is a place about 1 hour from LA (close to San Bernadino where Dhanya stays) and a really neat place. Very similar to where Sanjeev stays, except for a slightly more tropical climate. Bala met his relatives and this was when we realized all the plans between his family and Hari were majorly clashing - coz Hari had planned Vegas on Wednesday and bookings could not be changed as he had already paid for the hotel and even Gopal was flying in to Vegas on that day. But Ashwin, Bala's cousin also planned Vegas for us on the Monday and Tuesday itself. So things were looking a total mess and it was all because Bala completely avoided talking to his relatives the last few days when they tried contacting him. So I had to take over and talk it out to Hari and then his relatives and finally figure out a plan that Kavita very neatly even put down on a piece of paper for us.
We spent the rest of the day chilling, and towards the evening, headed out to Ontario Mall, which is the third biggest mall in the US and the biggest in the West Coast and watched Wolverine at the 16-screen multiplex there. We got back and decided to crash out early for once, as NYC was not too offering in terms of sleep as we always had so much to do there! So had aunty's Indian food once again for dinner also and called it a night.
May 11
Woke up feeling much better as the LA weather was so much more comforting compared to the sub 10degrees on the East Coast all the time. Had omelets for breakfast and then drove with aunty in here Toyota Highlander to LA to meet Ashwin. We chilled out there in his apartment and then took his car - Toyota Camry and drove around LA. We went to Hollywood Boulevard - checked out the Wax Museum and the Guinness Book of Records Showroom there. Then walked along the Boulevard, checking out the Chinese theatre where all famous stars had their hand and footprints in the cement blocks, then we saw the Kodak theatre and all along the way, there were tones of entertainers doing all sorts of stuff on the road. There was a woman dressed like super-girl, some really hot chicks wearing skimpy police-women outfits and even people singing and playing instruments. It was awesome to see the energy on this street. For lunch, we went to a place called U-Wink, which was this awesome concept restaurant where there are screens on every table through which you can place your orders and also play games with each other while the food arrives. Really neat! We played this 'taboo' kind of a game in this place and the four of us decided to team up and play it. So Bala and Ashwin, sitting facing each other decided to be on one team, and me and aunty on the other. Both Bala and Ashwin were easily describing the words to one another, but aunty and me were having a pretty tough time! For example, I couldn’t get the word 'Cure'. Kept saying 'Heal', and 'Recuperate' and 'Rejenuvate' and all those things when aunty was trying to describe what happens when you come out of a hospital. And when it was my turn to describe a word to her, it was even more hilarious. I had to describe 'Governor' to her, and we had just walked out of the Wax Museum where we were talking about Schwarzenegger being the governor now and stuff. So I tell her 'Schwarzenegger is a..' and she replies 'Actor'. I kept trying to work around it and it was of no use, so I used another approach and tried to make her guess the word 'Government'. She said everything from Barrack Obama to Parliament to Senate, but not Government. It was so much fun. We continued the game for some more time till our lunch arrived. Post that we took a drive around one of the world's most expensive retail areas - Beverly Hills, and boy, was it a sight! Took a bunch of photos of all the cool houses there and also went to a place called the Mulholand drive (there was a movie of this name) where we saw a beautiful view of LA from the top. Then we drove to UCLA where Ashwin and Kavita studied and the campus was really big and beautiful. Bala and I felt we still like Princeton campus in New Jersey more as it had this very old school English feel to it, but UCLA was still pretty neat. After all the walking and driving around LA, we finally hit a Mexican restaurant called El Cholo where we met up with Kavita and Mala and had dinner. Fairly good food. Bala and I had couple of Margarita’s too, which was the only drink available at this place and the first time we were drinking in two days now! After that, we got to Ashwin's place and decided to play some games on his Xbox. I wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or simply the time difference between NYC and LA, but by midnight in LA when we were just about making plans to play some games, I crashed out. Apparently Kavita had come to Ashwin's place and they all chatted and played and I didn't notice any of it in spite of sleeping in the hall itself!

May 12
Woke up early for Disneyland today, but just like every other day, in spite of waking up around 7, we finally leave home only by about 11. So we did that here also, and finally got to Disneyland only by noon. On the way, Bala and I picked up KFC chicken just to figure out how different it was from the Indian version. I definitely felt the Indian KFC was a bit more spicy, but didn't find the KFC here too bad either! Bala didn't like it at all though. Anyway, the moment we hit Disneyland and walked into the gates, I couldn't help but break into a smile. The place is taglined 'Happiest place on earth', and it actually is.. Coz I was just so happy the moment I entered the place. Funny thing was, we never initially planned on going to Disneyland at all, but we were really wondering why that was, coz Disneyland should have been on our list, considering all of us have grown up watching their cartoons and at some point of time or the other in life, we would have definitely thought of visiting this place!

Anyway, we were really glad we came here and the moment we got in, we started hitting the rides. Ashwin has been to Disneyland over 20 times and knows the place in and out. So we never needed to refer to any maps for moving around or look at the catalogue to figure out which rides we'd wanna go. The whole thing was handled by Ashwin. Glad it was that way, coz we managed to cover 12 of the best rides and even did one of them twice before we hit the ESPNZone in Disneyland for the Lakers Rockets NBA Playoffs at 7p.m.
We started off with the Indiana Jones ride which is sort of like a roller coaster inside a mountain on a rattling jalopy. Then went to the Pirates of the Carribean ride, which probably was the best ride in Disneyland - purely for the engineering marvel in bringing the movie alive inside an indoor set which you are watching as you go around slowly in a boat that moves on its own. The whole thing was designed simply fabulous. Then we went on a Toy Story ride, where you are given guns and have to shoot moving "Z's" around you as you move around in a small capsule. At the end, you are given a score as to how many "Z's" you managed to hit. Poor Bala had the lowest score coz he couldn't see the "Z's" bobbing about. Ashwin, the pro, managed some whopping 5 digit score when all of us were only in 4 digits. Then we took a Churro break - which is a Mexican sweet dish, and the counter had a line of people waiting to buy Churros. Pretty interesting dish actually, but coming from a land of sweets, it wasn't anything too great! We then continued our rides which included a 4D show called "Honey, I shrunk the audience" and a Star Wars ride where we are in a big box that doesn't really move, but gives us an impression of moving by virtue of a big screen in front and your seats going all over the place - another version of the 4D show itself. One ride that we absolutely loved was Space-Mountain, which had the longest lines and we still went on it twice, coz its this exhilarating roller coaster that you do in complete darkness. Its almost a crazy feeling when you are thrown all over the place without knowing which direction you are headed next. We finally finished it off with some Kiddy rides like "Its a Small World" which was probably the most popular rides among kids and something really nice for them to go through as it takes them through all the different cultures of the world, and a mini roller coaster where I even managed to film the entire ride.
We then went to the ESPNZone, but Kavita and Mala didn't feel like watching the match and went for a movie in the multiplex next door. Not sure what the saw, but they didn't look too happy about it when they came back to join us after the match. ESPNZone was a really interesting place. Sort of like the Sports Bars in India multiplied by 10! Coz you not only have multiple screens, but also this really big screen plasma screen which shows pictures in awesome clarity. The best part of the place were these small screens kept around the place giving statistics of all the games going on. It really is a sports buff's paradise. There were so many games going on there simultaneously. USA is after all a major sporting nation - although their 4 biggest sports are played only within US, between different State teams - Basketball, Football, Ice-Hockey and Baseball. We watched Lakers totally beat Rockets, and during this time, Chalam also joined us. We planned to meet Chalam over the weekend in LA actually, but he came over to give us his GPS that Hari asked for to aid us during our trip to Vegas. It was really good to meet Chalam. He hasn't changed one bit, except for the fact that he's started drinking like he's recovered from Diabetes! Well, after a really heavy day, we got back to Ashwin's and this time I stayed awake with the Xbox! We were playing tennis and I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Then Ashwin and I team up against Bala and the computer and we play a game. The first set was a washout with Bala beating us 6-0 as Ashwin really couldn't cover me so much. But by the second game, I figured life and started playing and we went up to tie break, but Bala just about managed to beat us here. I was trash-talking him during the game and he got totally ticked off. Quite strange coz that's what he always does during games. But I guess I did overdo it and we later resolved things over a smoke outside at 4a.m!

May13
Not really much to do today as the only plan was to meet Hari in the afternoon and head out to Vegas. The original plan was to leave by latest 3p.m, but that became 6p.m because of.. well, in one word - Hari! Bala and I finished loafing with Ashwin, checking out Santa Monica where there even was a photo shoot with a really hot babe going on, then taking a walk on the pier and everything, and reaching Hari's place by 3p.m. But Hari was not to be found. He had gone to collect a car for us. We kept waiting and waiting, and in the meantime kept cracking jokes about Hari to Ashwin, and although it was getting quite late for Ashwin, he still insisted on waiting with us coz he really wanted to meet Hari after all the trash-talking Bala and I had just done about him! Hari finally arrives at 4:30p.m, that too with a Camry, which by the way is awesome high standards for India, but in the US, for the same price as that Camry, we could have got a Mustang - how cool and totally American would that have been! But Hari-berry hardly knows anything about cars, and even getting just this one got him so delayed, that we didn't say anything and just wanted to hit the road. That's when Hari says he's really hungry and HAS to eat. Man, I was remembering that time in Pune when we were all ready and set to leave somewhere out, and Hari would just not get off the breakfast table till he was completely satisfied. He had Jeetu's mom and sis running back and forth from the table to the kitchen to keep the paratha's rolling and the boy just went on and on. We had to wait such a long time right at the door till he finished and got his act on. So, pretty much the same thing here too! Nothing seems to have changed from that Pune trip in 2001 to this! So Hari is eating his home cooked chapathi-curry and we are waiting for him near the door. He finally wraps it up and we leave to VEGAS!!!
The journey to Vegas was really nice. It was scary in bits because of Hari's rickety driving, but we somehow got to Vegas before mid-night. On the way, we took a slight detour into a town called Bakers, and it was like this typical Drive-in town where Truckers and Bikers come to rest and re-fuel.
It was pretty late in the night too, so we didn't want to stay out too long. However, Bala noticed this funky energy drink at the store near the Gas station that contained alcohol and we decided to give it a shot. So we bought it, put it in a paper bag coz its not ok to be seen drinking in public, and like the homeless people of America, we were drinking out of a paper bag! The drink was really awesome too. No idea what it was called, and we never managed to find it anywhere else after that, but whatever it was - it packed a punch!
So we hit Vegas by around 11, and it took us nearly half an hour to park the car. Not because parking was full or anything (there were hardly that many people in Vegas given the recession and all), but because the combination of Hari at the wheel and Bala on the GPS was not doing anyone any good! I was fast asleep in the last leg of the journey and could only faintly make out how much the two of them were screwing around going in circles, missing turns and doing just about everything not right to finally park in a slot that Hari felt was not the right place to park and had to move it to another one that he strangely seemed convinced about. Bala and I just couldn't make out the difference between the two parking slots - but then, its Hari!
Then we go to our hotel - Luxor, which in my opinion at least was one of the best hotels to stay in the Strip, and met up with Gopal who was patiently waiting there for almost 3 hours as his flight from Seattle reached quite some time back. Then after all the formalities, we got into our room and from our window, we could see the Vegas strip and also a part of the airport. Couldn't help but remember the movies 21 and the Ocean's series! Bala couldn't stop shouting VEGAS. He was in fact doing it all through the journey as well. Just before Vegas shows up on the highway, there are a bunch of mini/fake Vegas that come up. Each time, Bala thought we had actually already reached Vegas and kept shouting VEGAS VEGAS, but finally when we did reach Vegas, there was no doubting the place. The skylight of Luxor, the unmistakable casinos of New York New York and MGM Grand - it was just the awesomest feeling entering Vegas - the party place of the world!
After checking in and checking out our hotel room for about 5 minutes, we were ready to hit the Strip. We walked around a bit, I tried my hand at some Video Poker and other automated Casino games and lost some dollars really fast and decided to just chill out and buy a beer. Gopal was busy on one particular machine and Bala was looking around for a Poker table he could go and try his hand on. Finally after ambling around a bit, we decided to call it a night as it was already around 2 and there was nothing much we could really do. Oh, how wrong we were! Coz the night after this was so awesome that we almost felt like spending another day in Vegas. But if that had happened, we would have missed out on a place that was probably better than Vegas even - the Grand Canyon. But I'm getting ahead of myself! So we got kinda bored and decided to head to the room and have some of the booze we bought from LA as we heard it would be more expensive in Vegas. I could hardly drink any as it was way too late in the night and I was pretty bored and sleepy by then. So I crashed out..

May14
.. next thing I remember waking up and finding only Hari in the other bed and Bala and Gopal missing. The time was 8a.m. I was just wondering if these guys went out after drinking last night, and that's when the two of them come back. They looked completely smashed and were hollering about losing 200 dollars each and seemed mighty pleased about it! Bala kept calling Hari and me wanks, saying we are a total waste in Vegas. Then he takes Hari's Oakley's to prepare himself for some Poker and decides to head out. So he brushes his teeth with Hari's shades and his cap on - which was a really funny sight btw, and then just goes to lie on the bed. I washed up in the loo during this time, and the moment I came out, I saw Gopal completely crashed out as he didn't seem in any state to do anything since the moment he entered the room, and lo and behold, the man all prepared for the Poker tournament and belting me and Hari just moments ago was totally passed out on his bed - shades, cap and slippers still on him! We tried waking him, but all we got were some grunts! So Hari and I decided to head out and check out beautiful Vegas - and boy was it beautiful. I'm sure Gopal and Bala must have had a blast the previous night, and I was feeling quite bad for missing out all that action coz after all, Vegas is THE place for gambling. It makes no sense actually to say you went to Vegas and didn't gamble away your life savings! But what they ended up missing out on was Vegas during the day, as this was really a treat. Hari and I walked the entire strip, from Luxor which was almost at one end to Wynn which is one of the best Casino's as of now in Vegas, at the other end. We walked in and out of all the big Casino's on the way, checking out the malls, the shops, the brilliant architecture, the hot waitresses, the slot machines, the cafes, the absolute unending energy in every street we walked in! Vegas was simply brilliant. We checked out New York New York, Excalibur, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, Mirage, Ballagio, Paris, Venetian and Wynn. Each was more breathtaking than the previous. Wynn might have been the classiest place we have ever seen, but I would say my favorite would be Venetian. The place was made to look entire like Venice, with people dressed just like they did in Venice about a century ago strolling around, and even a canal going all around the place with boats oared by Men singing songs! The place even had a false roof which pretty much looked like the real thing, but constant and streamlined! It was simply mind-blowing. I have never seen a place like this. For that matter, none of these places were like anything I have ever seen. The sheer amount of thought, engineering and creativity that has gone into every single inch of every single casino was just mind-numbing! We grabbed a bite at a Panda Express and Chipotle, and then had ice-cream from a Ghirardelli - which was the first time I was hearing of this place, headquartered in San Fran, a place we decided to drop in our itinerary of the West Coast due to lack of time, and I instantly became a complete fan of this place. The ice-cream I had there was probably the best I have ever had. I almost can't wait to go to another Ghirardelli and have their ice-cream! By around 4 in the evening, Bala and Gopal were up. We met them in Excalibur where they had finished their lunch, and then all of us headed to Mandalay Bay - a pub there which had alcohol bottles stacked to the roof and had lighting that slowly kept changing. The pub seriously had some of the fanciest interiors I have seen. We had some beers here and then went to Coyote Ugly just to check out the place. Had some more drinks here, and Bala went out to a Poker tournament that he's been dying to do every since we go here, and the rest of us went to catch a show called Crazy Horse in MGM grand, which is known to be a very famous show in Vegas. We got tickets for half price as well - part of all the discounts being dished out at Vegas due to lack of visitors lately because of the recession. I actually haven't really noticed the effects of recession much, as all the casinos looked reasonably full with people splurging quite a bit of cash. But yea, it could have been a whole lot more crowded! Anyway, we watched the show. I was in a super good mood by this time - probably with all the alcohol I had at Mandalay Bay, Coyote Ugly and even a beer in the room when Hari and went for a quick change, and probably also because of beginning to enjoy Vegas so much, that I bought Hari and Gopal drinks while we watched the show - and damn, the show was something only dreams are made of! I can't even begin describing how amazing all those naked women looked, doing all those absolutely amazing things. It was seriously worth every dollar spent - not just on the tickets here, but even on making the entire trip to this place!
After the show, we went back to Coyote Ugly. Bala joined us here, and by this time, the place was packed, the girls were on the tables, and free alcohol was being dished out. They kept calling people in front to give them some of the free liquor and I was desperately standing in front trying to get their attention. Finally Hari goes behind and tells the MC about us and next moment she announces "Oh, we have people all the way from India here" and me and Gopal got our free drinks. This must have definitely sounded desperate, but I'm not complaining - I loved the entire Coyote Ugly experience. Not to mention I loved the movie as well! After this, we headed out to a Club and partied till the wee hours of the night. We were all so high and so happy by the time we came back to our rooms that we almost felt like staying back in Vegas for one more day and getting some more of the night life here - which was a decision we thankfully did not go through with, coz the next day, we did the Grand Canyon!

May15
So after a short rest, we tried getting ready soon and leaving. But like every other day, by the time we parceled breakfast and got into the car, it was past noon. The walk to the car was by the swimming pool of Luxor and this didn't help our time at all, as I just had to get some of the awesome hot bods on my camera - it was almost as if I was in the middle of Beverly Hills 90210 crossed with Baywatch when I was checking out the chicks here! Anyway, we soon hit the road. Went to Hoover Dam which was seriously a marvel of a structure. Took the tour around and photographed a dozed things including a new road that was being built across the Dam that almost seemed an impossible case of engineering. Then we continued driving and entered our 7th and last state of US we visited - Nevada. Vegas was in Arizona and LA in California. Grand Canyon was quite a drive. We had to drive quite a bit on the Nevada free-way and then quite another bit on the off roads of Nevada. It was really painful, rickety and dusty. But we finally made it to the Canyon by 4. We bought tickets for the bus ride, which was super expensive - 40 dollars, plus another 30 for the sky-walk which we just had to do after having come all this way. So we made the purchase and went on our way in the bus. Our first stop was a point called Eagles Point as it was a place where the rock formation was like that of an eagle. This was also the place where we caught our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon, and it really took our breath away. Vast emptiness of nothing but rocks all around us. Far below the Colorado river. Helicopters flying occasionally taking below to the bottom of the canyon, and the place where we were standing, it was a mile long drop from 2 feet away! It was just brilliant standing at the edge of the cliff on the Grand Canyon and taking a ton of photos.

Our next stop was the skywalk. This was just a structure built jutting out into the crevice of the canyon with the entire walk made up of glass so that you can see the entire drop. It was simply brilliant walking on this. Gopal was completely freaking out here because of his fear of heights. We were guessing it was probably because he was tall, giving him an extended perception of vertigo when he looks at the drop below! The four of us were having such a good time at this place. Cracking all silly jokes, and Gopal was seriously at his funniest best. I don't think I have ever seen Gopal this crazy!

Our third and final stop was Iguana point. Iguano means bat droppings and it was mined from this place to be used as fertilizers. This was also the highest point on the Canyon and we seriously felt like kings here. We trekked till the top most rock to get the best view, and spend quite a bit of time here. It was just so peaceful and so airy. Really felt like a place you would want to come and meditate - cut away from the rest of the world for miles and miles. All four of us were having a blast. Just like in being back in school. Talking in Kannada, pulling each others legs, forgetting all those years between the last time we hung out till now, and behaving like the boys we will probably always be! It was seriously awesome. It was at this point that I felt so happy for actually deciding to come here, especially with 3 of my best friends, rather than stay back in Vegas for one more night.

May16
It was a long drive from Grand Canyon till LA. Our only 2 stops were once in Vegas for dinner when we went to Hooters and got completely disappointed with the food they offered, and second time to refill at a place just outside California as the fuel prices were cheaper. We finally reached San Bernadino in LA around 4 in the morning and met Dan at her campus. I decided to drive the Camry here a bit, and totally scared people with my driving. I was finding it way too easy to drive and the car was so powerful that I just decided to test it. But anyway, it wasn't a very long ride also to freak people out too long. But I was enjoying myself. Then we checked out Dan's room, and then Hari drove all the way back to his place. We finally got there by 5 and decided to get a bit of sleep. Had to wake up early though for Universal Studios. But as always, it got delayed too, coz Hari had to drop the car off and all of us had to get ready. We finally got to Universal only by 2 and the place was closing by 6. So barely got to see many of the rides. We missed Simpson’s and the Water world, which were two rides we really wanted to see. But managed to catch quite a few others - Jurassic Park, The Mummy, Universal Studio Tour, Shrek 4D, another show called Backdraft based on the movie which showed real pyro-techniques that were really awesome.. Mummy was probably the best ride. It was so good that as soon as it got over, Bala and I ran all around for a second time, running faster than all the kids there, coz we wanted to make it for the second time before they shut it - it was almost 6 by this time! We then left to Hollywood Boulevard where we waited for Chalam to join us and then all of us headed out to a Bar. Man, this was when he got to know Hari's, Dan's and Chalam's absolute uselessness, coz they didn't know a single place to drink in all of Hollywood!! Just how was that possible! Anyway, after a lot of walking around, we spotted a place called 'Happy Ending' Very aptly named as this was our penultimate night in the US. I was too tired of all the walking and just decided to walk in no matter what. This turned out to be the best decision for the night, as the place was really nice. We all had such a good time drinking and chatting like the old times. I got totally pissed drunk and even remember puking out of Chalams car while on the way back to Hari's. That was pretty much all I could remember actually..

May17
Yesterday was pretty much my last official day in the US, as all I did today was rest at Hari's place. I didn't even feel like really going out anywhere. Felt like I had done quite a bit for two weeks - covering 7 states and pretty much seeing every major thing that there is to see in the US, I was quite tired. Just wanted to chill out and get some rest before hitting India and getting back to work full flow. Towards the evening we anyway headed out. Went to the observatory in LA. Probably the only place in all of LA apart from his own college USC, did Hari know his way around things. He took us through the entire observatory, we even caught the last Planetarium show. The best part of the observatory was the brilliant view of LA from there. Chalam unfortunately couldn't join us because of some work. Pretty disappointing actually - as the only time we did meet him was at 'Happy Ending' the previous day, and all I did was puke out of his car! He didn't even come with us to Grand Canyon. Guess he must have been extremely busy, but this is probably the only time Bala and I would ever be making such a trip to the US. But anyway, Hari and Tunu were more than accommodating and hospitable. They made so many arrangements for us and pretty much planned out every thing for us. I probably cannot even thank them enough. Even Archana and Dan for partying along, Gopal for making it all the way from Seattle and providing all those laughs, and Chalam for hanging out with us in ESPNZone of Disney and then at Hollywood Boulevard. Thanks to all of you guys, especially Hari and Tunu. I don't even know how much to thank you guys for probably the best trip I have ever been on, the most fun I have had since school days, and probably the best money I have ever spent!


May18

Today was just all travel. Left early in the morning from LA. Flew to NYC. Took a train to Times Square, met Sanjeev, collected our stuff. Had one last meal of crab cakes and beer at a hotel near the Path Station. Then headed back to JFK, took the Emirates to Dubai. Watched lots of movies the entire journey. Short stopover at Dubai and finally after 45 hours of being in airports and flying across continents, we reached good old Chennai in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, with both Bala and me singing Tuesday's gone, coz we completely missed Tuesday having flown out of US on a Monday evening and getting into Chennai on a Wednesday morning. But what a trip it was. Got home, woke Harsh up, told him of our exploits, had a shot of Jameson, one of the best drinks ever, and Bal's absolute favourite, and only then called it a night, or was it day! No clue, but I knew its all work from now on, and no play. But its ok, had a real real blast, and moments that I will just never forget..