Sheetal & Phani's world

Jaipur

2008-07-20T22:26:00.001+05:30

We stopped at Jaipur on our way back from Ranthambhore. Having heard so much about the Pink city, we had a fair bit of expectations around it. It lived up to most but disappointed on some. Photos.

In Jaipur, we were put up at Hotel Umaid Mahal. We had done our bookings through Travelguru, and faced no problems at any point. The rooms were clean and tastefully decorated, ambience was great, and their rooftop restaurant was really good. We had some time to kill on the last day as our flight was a few hours after the check out time, so the restaurant was a real blessing.

Onto the sight seeing first. We enjoyed Jantar Mantar the most - the skill and precision of the equipment and the sheer scale was inspiring and educational at the same time. Amer fort was also a great experience with its sheesh mahal, royal chambers, diwan-e-aam and diwan-e-khaas. We had watched the entirely forgettable 'Jodha Akbar' a few weeks earlier, so it was even more fun mapping the movies sets to the real structures and ruins. Jaigadh fort has a huge cannon (largest in world?) but nothing much beyond that. We visited Nahargad fort as well on hearing about its great view of the city, but didn't find it that interesting - give it a skip. Hawa Mahal looks much better in photos than reality - we were surprised about how thin and unimposing the structure actually is. The City Palace was again on the average side, the only interesting points for us being some stuff in the arms room and the museum displaying clothes of the kings - one really has to see the clothes to believe how huge those kings. I had heard tales about the king being on the wrong side of the weight scales, but this was beyond words as some pajamas were a good 6 feet across at the waist!

Shopping was at the top of Sheetal's agenda, and rightfully so. There is so much to shop for at such good rates, I couldn't but join Sheetal in letting the flood gates open ;). Hand printed textiles were good (especially the bagru prints) -from saris and dresses for Sheetal and Ilisa to bed sheets and razai. We found some of the precious stones (and jewellery made using) them also tempting, and rates were very competitive when compared to Hyderabad. I found some good leather chappals as well (camel) for myself as well. Apart from the government showroom (Rajsthali), we visited Bapu bazaar and Ganpati Plaza in hunt of the goodies :)

Eating was at the top of my agenda :). We made it a point to visit the famous 'Choki Dhani' and had more than our fill as we did full justice to the very reasonable entry fees. Our dinner was made more interesting by some tourists from South Africa next to us, who were really trying hard to figure out stuff and were looking to us for some help. We also picked up very good ghewar, onion kachori and malpua from Rawat on the way from hotel to the airport.

Some aspects of the city were disappointing though. I found the city fairly dirty and filthy, this coming from someone living in Hyderabad is a damning indictment. You get a sense of a well oiled machinery out to squeeze the last penny from the tourists, but perhaps that is to be expected given the dependence of tourism. But above all, I was taken aback by lack of polish and finish amongst the staff all over the tourist places and even in some shops - most came across as indifferent, while some were outright rude :(. This was surprising given the overall hype about the importance of tourists etc! And finally, the airport is a huge letdown in several aspects- the mannerism of the officials manning the security check and otherwise, the airlines staff, the toilets - everything was very disappointing :(.

-Phani

Tigers of Ranthambhore

2008-07-20T22:05:00.009+05:30

Sheetal and I made a much awaited visit to Rajasthan in April. Our primary objective was to visit the Ranthambhore National Park, hoping to watch some Royal Bengal tigers at their home and maybe even get lucky and capture some good photos on our D80. And did we meet it or what- we had a wonderful time spotting tigers in their kingdom and got better photos than I ever hoped to get.

First up, special mentions for the people who enabled us to have a great time in Ranthambhore. While doing research on ideal iternaries and places to stay, Sheetal came across The Ranthambhore Bagh. It is a lovely resort run in a very homely manner by its owner Aditya Singh. The entire establishment of the "bagh" has a tremendous passion for tigers - after all Aditya setup the place so that he can be close to the tigers. This passion, and his deep interest in photography meant that overall the place is full of genuine tiger lovers and more often than not professional nature photographers. We sent them an email indicating our interests in watching tigers, our itch to capture them on a photo albeit as beginners and finally our duration of stay. They were very helpful. Not only did they suggest a great iternary, Aditya sent out a very detailed mail to help me come up to speed on photographing wild animals. He suggested camera settings, filter settings, equivalent practice objects etc. In short, if you like any of the photos, the credit is as much his as it is for the camera itself. We opted for their "Big Cat Prowl" package, but changed from the default canters to open jeeps and opted for the Swiss tents.

We reached Ranthambhore from Jaipur by taxi around 2 p.m., giving us enough time for a lunch and a nap before the adventures being. We were not in time to catch an evening safari, so we set out to watch the Ranthambhore fort in a shared jeep instead with another family from the same resort. Having lived our life in cities, spotting a peacock on the roads before we even entered the national park premises was enough to get us excited, but the nonchalance with which the locals were treating them and other wildlife immediately registered that things are going to get better once we are in. As we were driving towards the fort, our driver suddenly stopped the jeep and asked us to keep quiet. Suddenly, a tiger appeared walking down the road towards our jeep. It briefly looked at us before deciding that it can ignore us and settled down in a puddle of water right next to our jeep. Unfortunately, this was not one of the open jeeps used for safaris, so our photography options were very restricted, but we got a good ten minutes to watch the majestic cat in action - drink water, lick itself, repeat - before it decided to head into the foliage. It was just amazing :)! Having started off with a bonus sighting, we then continued our way to the fort with a big smile and a racing heart. The fort itself was very beautiful, and we could have spent a lot of time up there but for timing restrictions of closing at 5 p.m. :(. It gives a great view of the entire national park with its water bodies and ruins and an interesting mix of fauna and flora (with special mentions to parrots and monkeys). And of course, lots and lots of peacocks - I doubt I have as many crows near our home in Hyderabad as they have peacocks- sitting on the walls, sitting on the trees, walking on the road - you spot them wherever you turn your head :)

We had a relaxing evening after getting back to the resort - chilling out in their spacious garden with a cup of tea and watching some kids chase hares. Soon it was dinner time with a cultural program where some artists were performing folksongs dressed up in the traditional attire accompanies by the haunting music from their Ravanhatta. They had a tandoor as well - the flames going up into the clear sky added something special to the ambience. The only thing spoiling the fun of watching countless stars was the buzz of mosquitoes - there are armies of them waiting around for an unsuspecting victim, so make sure you carry a mosquito lotion to supplement the coils provided there.

The next morning we headed for our first safari before sunrise in an open safari jeep. It was a little chilly going to the park at that time, but the temperature became more pleasant once the sun came out. At the park entrance we were told that the park is split into several zones, and only 4 jeeps are allowed into each zone. There is a lottery at the park entrance to decide who gets which zone, and our jeep got zone 4. While the numbers meant nothing to us, we had a couple of professional photographers for company in the same jeep who told us that this is zone that one is the most likely to spot a tiger in and also one where we tend to get the best photos. Wow!

Sure enough, within ten minutes of entering the park, we spotted a tiger lazing under a tree almost as if it was waiting for the sun. After waiting unsuccessfully for any signs of movement from it for a while, we left it alone and drove around the rest of the zone trying to see if we can spot any other tigers. Sheetal and I were busy enjoying the nature around us while the driver and the guide were doing the hard work of spotting a tiger. Just as we were about to turn back to our original spot, we spotted a tiger crossing a lake in the distance along a causeway. It was too far out for us to even get a close look but our photographer friends with their huge lenses managed to even take some photos! But we were not to be denied as the lazing tiger decided to get up close and personal when we got back to it. It was a breathtaking experience as the tiger got up from its lazing ground and majestically walked towards and past us. At its closest, it was no more than 2 feet from me and the experience of staring his majesty in the eyes from that close is an experience we will carry for the rest of our life. I must confess that there was a tinge of fear to go with the pulse raising excitement on such a close encounter, for we were just one angry claw away from a certain death at his hands! Pure unadulterated adrenalin rush.

We kept watching the tiger till it decided to move beyond us and into the foliage, but not before I started worrying about running out of memory on my camera as it was almost impossible to take my hands off the shutter release button :). Every nuance of its movement - shrugs, angry stares, don't care looks - every single one of them oozed of class, of knowing that it is the master of all that it sees before it, and being completely at ease with that fact. It could be that the tigers are used to humans and hence don't react to them, but it was almost as if the tiger knows no fear of anyone or anything else in the park.

We did a few more rounds of the zone looking for more tigers, and finally settled down at a vantage point where we were watching the same tiger take rest in an abandoned mosque. Every once in a while it would raise its head to make sure its audience is still waiting for it, and then go back to sleep. After an interesting 30 minutes or so of this hide and seek, it finally decided to make a move and walked along the road to its next resting place. We were lucky to be the first jeep behind the tiger, and watched it stride majestically along the road like a king, with half a dozen vehicle full of people as the followers. The tiger would stop here and there as if on whims and fancies, completely unperturbed that there are creatures behind it who might need the way :). As it finally went off the road into the thicket, we drove past the gates of the park to conclude our morning safari - our energies completely drained from non stop thrills and excitement. Wow, the best morning of our lives?

It took a good 3-4 hours of rest and a filling breakfast + lunch before we returned to normalcy levels, but then it was time for the afternoon safari! I had used the resort computer to download all the photos from my camera onto an external hard drive, so I was all set to refill my memory cards as we headed out back to the park in the same jeep with the same company. We drew zone 4 again. This time round we spotted a tiger sleeping blissfully under a tree across the river, and given that it showed no inclination to get up, spent some time chasing birds and other animals around the zone. We were back just in time to watch him get up and walk back to the mosque from the morning safari, and yet again we got to lead the followers of the tiger. But the games had just started. From the mosque the tiger spotted a herd of deer grazing, and it was time for hunting! Over the next half an hour, it was a breathtaking experience as the tiger slowly and steadily progressed towards the deer, while the deer kept moving back sensing possible danger. I was holding my breath in anticipation as the tiger got down to a crouching position where it was on its legs yet the whole body was along the ground, and then walk closer in that position to the deer. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the deer), it wasn't good enough and the deer fled as they sensed the tiger, and the entire effort was fruitless from the tigers view point. After that, the tiger went into a hiding in the thick undergrowth and we were unable to spot it for over half an hour even though we were not more than 100 feet from it - camouflage? The waiting time was still an exceptional experience, as we were relaxing in the shade of a wonderful tree and as the cool breeze and countless birds singing their lullabies almost put us to sleep. We were awaken from our stupor as someone spotted the tiger (or its tail to be more precise) eventually, but it showed no inclination to step out of hiding and the closing hours of the park were upon us.

A relaxing tea and dinner under the stars brought a very eventful day to an end. It had been a very satisfying day, and we were pleased as a punch with our fortune with the tigers, photos and overall felt good about life. Over dinner, we exchanged notes with other guests at the resort, each having their own tales about their tigers to tell. We also met an interesting French Indian couple who gave some very useful tips on how to ensure Ilisa is comfortable in multiple languages right from her childhood. Their kid was speaking Bengali and French apart from English and Hindi, so we had data to prove that Ilisa can in fact learn Marathi and Telugu without any issues :)

We had already got our moneys worth, so next morning safari was almost a bonus. We were hoping to get some other zone, so that we get to see more of the park. And it was fulfilled - this time it was Zone 1. Zone 4 was along the water bodies and hence had lots of vegetation. Zone 1 on the other hand was more in keeping with the season, and its barren trees in the rugged juggle terrain served us a timely reminder that this is summer time in one of the driest states of India. It was an incredible experience as we rode along the rough terrain, looking for tiger paw prints in the soil, listening for bird cries or deer cries to suggest the presence of a tiger. There was a mother tiger with 2 cubs spotted in the zone the previous day, so the guide and driver were optimistic of getting lucky. Not that Sheetal and I were too bothered as we were busy taking in the scenery around us - grazing deer, naked trees, colorful birds, flying peacocks, sunshine filtering through the hills, more grazing deer and a sense of contentment :). We didn't spot a tiger during this safari, but did get some wonderful sightings of peacocks with wings spread out, antelopes and some kingfishers.

After breakfast, it was time to head back to Jaipur. It had been a wonderful 48 hours in Ranthambhore. Both of us knew we had to come back here again - perhaps with Ilisa when she was old enough to enjoy the place, perhaps in some other season to see the forest at its best. But for now, we already had a lifetime of memories with us and a lot of good photos too ;). Till next time...

PS: Special mention must also be made for the guides and drivers of Ranthambhore. They are very well informed about the tigers, and have great instincts for its movements etc. They are also keen students of photography, and would always know where to stop the jeep to ensure that we get the best possible angle and backdrop for the photo. And one thing that left a huge impression on me - all the drivers and guides we met would credit Aditya Singh for this, stating how he has always shared his knowledge with them and guided them right through. We even saw a few forest officials coming to his office for advise on the health of the trails and development work! We know where we will be staying next time round :).

-Phani

Can we improve Hyderabad traffic?

2008-02-23T16:45:00.008+05:30

Hyderabad is a great place to live in, and both Sheetal and I are reasonably fond of the place. However, every place has its share of problems, and Hyderabad's bane is its traffic. It is an experience (rather frustrating at times) to drive in Hyderabad, especially if you are amongst the minority that follows the rule book. Consider the following scenarios, all of which are almost accepted as normal practice in Hyderabad traffic, that drive me nuts:

The best lane to take a U turn or right turn is the left most lane as it gives the maximum turning radius!
If the lanes going in one direction are stuck in a jam, go ahead and drive down the opposite lanes till both sides are deadlocked!
If the divided road doesn't have a break in the divider for the next kilometer, go down the opposite lane till you reach your destination. So what if you are driving a truck!

A few weeks back, Tata Motors announced their plans for a Rs 1,00,000 car to hit the Indian roads later in the year. This announcement led to a rather peculiar set of mails on one of our company mailing lists. Some gentlemen expressed concerns that this would increase the number of cars on the roads, and should therefore be banned or taxed heavily! Naturally, and quite rightly, people moved in quickly to point out the inherently elitist and hypocritical nature of such statements, where people driving cars to office themselves are cribbing that less privileged members of the society are getting to drive cars as well. In the end, the thread degenerated into a bitching session about the traffic, roads, politicians, India etc.

Anyway, those mails provoked a remarkable mail from one colleague, who took exception to people cribbing about the Hyderabad traffic but themselves break the traffic rules given the smallest opportunity. He called out that things each one of us could follow to make sure we are doing our bit to help ease the traffic problem, basically asking folks to drive the way they want others to do, in the hope that at least a few hundred cars following the rules everyday might have a small impact:

Respect signals. STOP if it is yellow.
- Yes, you have to wait for your green signal. Yes, Even if the other side made you wait for 20 seconds of your green.
- Don’t take a steep right ‘U’ turn from the extreme left. The traffic pushed you there, tough luck – go take the next U turn.
Give way to pedestrians on road junctions. We don’t have zebra’s everywhere in hyd. But at the same time, don’t jump into the roads everywhere. Go to the next junction – people usually slow down here – and they are expecting interruption.
Give way to ambulances. I know many of the fools driving ambulances think it is cool to run flashy flashy – but this could save lives.
Honk less :)
If you are in a accident, get to the left and fight it out to your heart’s content – don’t do it in the mid of the road. Same if your car is stalled – get help to move it to the left asap.
Don’t drive on the wrong side. If the U turn is 500 metres away, tough luck. Next time find a house with a nice two way road in front – but for now, go for the U turn. Yes, even your teeny weenie TVS 50 has to follow this. ffs, even cycles do.
Respect lanes wherever possible.
- No, You cannot straddle the lanes to figure out which one moves faster. If you end up on the slower lane, next time don’t choose to follow that 32 wheel truck. There is a relation between speed and size – go figure.
- Yes the lorry drivers driving on the right are idiots. But I guess they can’t do it on the left lane because that is all taken by all the other idiots who feel that they have a right to park anywhere to ask directions / take cell phone calls.
  - No you can’t speak on your cell phone while driving. If you are in a signal fine – but don’t do it when you are moving.
  - No, Don’t ask for directions from the main road itself. Don’t do it by maintaining equal speed with a 16 tonne truck and chatting up the driver either – park on the side and ask.
Drive slow. You are not going to die if you miss the opening sequence of the 500th episode of saas bhi…
Be friendly – give way to people. Let the lone person from the left lane go if your vehicle queue is 250 metres long – someday he will do the same for others and the world will be a better place.

I found the mail a good reminder and moral support to continue to follow the rules. It is difficult to follow the traffic rules at most times- we get honked and yelled at for stopping the car when the light is yellow/red or because a disabled/elderly person wants to cross the road. It is tempting to get down and give a piece of your mind to the honking person, but I gave up on that and other forms of road rage once I realized that the only person who gets affected is me :(. So while I don't try to correct anyone, his mail reinforced the belief that at least I should not stop following the rules.

Unfortunately, in a sign of things to come perhaps, the responses to that mail were along the lines of "It’s extremely tough to maintain lane discipline when none does it" or "It is impossible to lead by example with people who don’t even realize that someone is following the rules." or even better "I’m already disappointed a lot from attempting this for XYZ years and I almost have stopped doing it (correcting others in the roads) and if you are attempting it these days, good luck and I hope to see you joining me soon"!

It is a tough road ahead by the look of things!

-Phani

Hunting for a Digital SLR

2008-02-23T14:25:00.007+05:30

The new year resurfaced an old itch of mine- to own a Digital SLR. I spent a few days going from "I don't really need a DSLR as I have a film SLR and a good digital camera" to "which would be the better DSLR to buy". I put the idea to Sheetal, confident that she will throw the proposal out of the window given that it is easily costs 35K+ (INR). But she pulled a fast one on me by readily agreeing to it, setting the ball rolling on a month of research, ego trips, guilt and finally joy!

I primarily enjoy taking these photos:

Photos of Ilisa, my 20 month old daughter in her various moods and activities- close ups, portraits, whatever I can get. Some of these are from up close, while a fair number are from far away so that I don't spoil the moment :P
Nature photos, especially landscapes with lots of blue sky
Creatures of flight- birds, butterflies...
All delicacies prepared by Sheetal

Based on the above, I came with the following requirements:

Telephoto lens for 1 and 3, with image stabilization to minimize shake
Wide-angle lens for 2
Excellent colour reproduction in outdoor shots
Good low light capability to ensure good portraits at home under fluorescent/ incandescent lighting
Good depth of field and sufficient control over aperture etc for 4.

Being a victim of brand loyalty, I restricted my research to Nikon (we own a 35mm Nikon SLR N75 and two Nikkor lenses) and Canon (we own a Canon Powershot G2 and iXUS 850IS). I shortlisted 3 cameras - Nikon D40x, Canon XTi and Nikon D80 (in ascending order of cost), all of which met my requirements quite easily and are known to produce pictures of high quality. The differentiating factor between them for me would either be cost, or advanced features I am only likely to use sometime in the future (as and when I follow up my age old plans to learn photography).

Nikon D40x. This lower end DSLR from Nikon received good reviews for its fit and finish and its picture quality. However, it does not contain an auto focus motor in the body, requiring us to buy lenses with in built motors for auto focus. Since I am not yet into manual focus for every photo, this ruled out the usage of my N75 lenses (which turned out to a moot point eventually). It also makes all prime lenses unusable on the camera. The lack of a LCD panel on the top also meant that we need to use the LCD monitor even for setting up the photo (and subsequently reduces battery life). And finally, it doesn't feature a depth of field preview, making it more difficult to understand apertures while taking the photos. Reviews: @dpreview @dcresource

Canon Digital Rebel XTi /EOS 400D. This is the default choice for anyone buying a DSLR and justifiably so. It is very well featured, is smaller and lighter than the two Nikon models (good for a small and relatively frail person like me) and comes at a very good price point. The inbuilt dust removal system is also a great feature for people like me who might get messy when changing lenses. The negatives I could find were a lack of spot metering support, poor kit lens, CF memory card as against SD I use in my other camera, not so great battery life and an inferior fit & finish and viewfinder to the Nikon models. Reviews: @dpreview @dcresource

Nikon D80. This is a top of the list for entry level DSLRs for most reviewers, and the only negative keeping it from the default choice is the price point- it costs a good 300$ more than the XTi. In terms of features, it has a reputation for great usability, excellent photo quality, brilliant view finder, solid fit and finish and body construction, instant power on time & on to shot time, very fast autofocus even in low light, excellent continuous shooting mode, very short viewfinder blackout when clicking, great LCD screen to go with the backlit LCD info display, SD support, great battery life and all the advanced controls I would ever need. Reviews: @dpreview @dcresource

As expected, the list of negatives keep getting shorter as the price goes up. Given that this is not a purchase I am likely to make every few years, it came down to a straight fight between the XTi and the D80. I took the fact that I had Nikon lenses already out of the equation once I realized that it would be difficult to sell the N75 without lenses, and also that it is perhaps better to buy newer lenses designed for the digital cameras.

The XTi vs the D80 seems to be a common dilemma for a lot of people and the conclusion was more or less the same across the board - D80 is better, XTi is cheaper, both are good but buy D80 if you can afford it. We found the review at Cnet particularly useful. I was initially inclined towards the following XTi configuration as it offers the best value for money in my perspective:

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi/ EOS400D ($600.60 for 1+2)
EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM lens (the default kit lens). I considered the new IS variant of the same lens, but dropped it considering the effective 100$ additional cost as the new lens is not yet available as a kit. ($0)
EF-S 50 f/1.8 lens ($70.75)
EF-S 55-200 f/4.5-5.6 USM lens. I was initially considering the EF-S 75-300 f/4-5.6 lens, but then thought that the coverage of 55-75 is more likely to get used than the telephoto from 200-300. ($209.90)

However, Sheetal intervened here and put her foot down to make me realize that once we are spending so much, value for money is not really in the picture. This is a splurge, and might as well splurge on the thing you like the most. It is just not worth the risk of having the thought at the back of the mind that you bought a "compromise" camera after paying 35K!

So it was that I finally listened to my heart/ego over my mind and ordered the following:

Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens ($869.88)
2) Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom Nikkor Lens ($219.95)

I got my D80 in hand last week, and I can testify that it is an awesome camera. I am enjoying every photo I take, and fully agree with the reviewers on all the good things that they have called out about the D80. I have already forgotten the cost differential as well- so the decision taken seems right in hindsight too :).

-Phani

What is maturity?

2008-02-23T10:42:00.003+05:30

I have never been sure about the words maturity and growing up in terms of a person's behaviour. There are times when these terms appear to be inherently subjective interpretations, where behaviour conforming to the observers expectation is considered mature and anything contrary to it is considered childish/immature. Is it really that simple? And perhaps more important than a 3rd person perspective, how do we evaluate our own maturity?

Back in high school days, I used to drive a two wheeler. I had once given a lift to a friend who was riding pillion behind me for the first time. He remarked as soon as we started that the jerk as we put the vehicle in motion was more than expected, and wondered if it was a case of the bike being more powerful than it looked or a simple driver error throttling too much too soon. I had replied without blinking an eyelid that the bike was powerful :P!

Fast forward to the present day. I had given a lift to a colleague in my car. We got stuck in a traffic jam going uphill and could feel occasional jerks in the car as it crawled up. My colleague remarked that perhaps my car needs servicing as the vibrations were noticeable. And what was my instant response this time? "The jerks are because of my bad driving and not the car. I tend to release the clutch a little too late when driving uphill in stop and start traffic, in the fear of stalling the car if I release too early. Perhaps this results in the gears not being completely engaged at times, resulting in the jerky movement for a second or two."

Is this a sign of maturity?

-Phani

The power of an apology

2008-02-23T10:39:00.002+05:30

A few weeks back, I re-learnt an important lesson we were taught as children- it is never too late to apologize for a mistake and make it up with someone you have hurt.

I had taken Ilisa down for a walk around midnight as she was in a cranky mood. She refused to let me carry her and insisted on walking across the parking lot by herself. Obviously, I was walking next to her to ensure her safety. I noticed a car coming along and we both were moving to the side. The car driver slowed down on noticing us, but then honked out of the blue. Maybe it was the shrillness of the horn at night, or perhaps just exhaustion of putting up with Ilisa's crankiness that day, I lost my cool and screamed at the guy for honking! Things quickly went downhill from there, and ended with abuses being hurled and a near fist fight. I went home convinced (as usual) that I was right, he was wrong and the whole world sucks.

The incident left a bad taste and almost ruined the weekend. Instead of letting things be or sitting back and analyzing what went wrong the next day, I was thinking about worse expletives I should have used! But fortunately for me, another night of sleep cleaned up the wiring mess in my head and I could get down to understanding the other person.

Perhaps, the guy had sounded the horn as a precautionary measure to ensure that someone is paying attention to a 20 month old seeming roaming around the parking lot by herself. Even though I was walking next to her, it was possible that he saw her before me as there was a pillar in the way. A calmer mind was able to realize that his face initially showed concern (and not anger) till things turned bad. And Eureka, the moment of truth- I had made a mistake and screwed up the weekend for him and me :(.

Now that I was convinced I was at fault, I wrote an apology note and placed it under his car wiper (I didn't know his name or flat, so I just searched for his car in the parking lot). I felt much better just knowing that I had at least let him know that I have realized my mistake. And the world was beautiful all over again in the evening, when he called up and apologized as well for perhaps over reacting! No bitter feelings, no frustrations swept under the carpet- it was all over! And all it required was a genuine apology from me.

-Phani

Sri Lanka

2008-02-11T20:44:00.000+05:30

We visited Sri Lanka in November 2007 with Ilisa. It was our first time there, and was also the first entry in Ilisa's passport :). It was a short trip (4 days and 3 nights) organized by Sri Lankan Airlines itself as part of their holiday packages. Our travel route was Airport - Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage - Kandy (1 night stay and local sight seeing) - Colombo (2 night stay and local sight seeing)- Negombo beach - Airport. The package included hotels as well as a dedicated taxi for transfers. (Photos)

Sight seeing

Kandy is a beautiful hill station which used to be the capital of the erstwhile kings of Sri Lanka. It is a very green city built around an artificial lake, with numerous gardens within and around the city. Our primary attraction was the temple of the Tooth Relic that is housed within the royal palace. As we landed up on a full moon day, it was particularly crowded and it took us around 3 hours to tour the temple complex. The upside was that we got a good feel for the people of the land. There was a wide spectrum of devotees, from school going teenagers to retired elders and from brightly coloured clothes to white prayer robes. Something that struck me pretty vividly in the temple was the feeling of absolute peace and tranquility in spite of a very large crowd.

After the temple visit, we chose to skip the gardens and headed to Colombo. We halted at one of the spice gardens on the way, which was also an Ayurvedic medicinal centre. It was late in the evening by the time we got there, so we just decided to roam around the area where our hotel Grand Oriental was located. The next morning was spent visiting the landmarks of Colombo. We were particularly interested in the Ganga Ramya and Seema Malakaya temple complex. These were impressive, especially the latter which is located in the middle of an artificial lake. After cooling off in the afternoon, we headed out for the promenade late in the evening. It is a rocky sea front, and we didn't venture near the water.

We headed for Negombo the next morning. Negombo is a small town with good beaches close to the airport, so we decided to spend some time there before catching our afternoon flight back to Hyderabad. We planted ourselves at one of the numerous beach side restaurants that gave us an opportunity to intertwine playing on the beach and finishing off our lunch. The beaches were very clean, but there was high tide that day and we were advised against getting into the water. We ended up just wetting our feet and basically running after Ilisa.

Shop

Sri Lanka produces great tea and great textiles. We picked up some tea, clothes and souvenirs at good rates from Lakmudra in Colombo. We found some great quality T-Shirts at New Silk Garden at Kandy (on the way to Colombo) at prices much lower than in India. We bought up some Ayurvedic medicines for Sheetal's parents from Genuine Lanka Spice on the Kandy-Colombo road, but the jury is still out on their effectiveness.

Eat

Self confessed seafood junkies that we are, we had high expectations on the culinary front. It was overall a little disappointing to our taste buds (personal opinion) except for the restaurant in Hotel Galle Face Green that served great food in an even better ambience. While we could have just chanced upon not so great restaurants during transit as we were halting on things that were on the way at most time, even the planned visits weren't satisfactory. The restaurant at Hotel Taj Samudra was particularly a let down as we went a long way just to have food there that turned out to be not so great.

We enjoyed eating fresh fruits a lot though- they are there in amazing variety and are very affordable. In fact, one of the tastiest dinner we had was purely made up of fruits- small bananas, lemon sized oranges, mangoes (in November!) and red coconuts with seemingly infinite water in them!

Epilogue

There are lots of things we liked about Sri Lanka. The place is very beautiful and green and is very easy to like. The striking similarities to Kerala gave us a feeling that we were still in India at some times :).

The people are amazing- very soft spoken and cultured, incredibly disciplined and apparently at peace with themselves. We had our apprehensions about the prolonged violence happening around them, but they seem to have taken it in their stride and go about their daily life as if nothing is wrong with the world. There were heavily armed soldiers at every nook and corner frequently asking us for our documents, but at no point did we sense the tension or edginess that I was expecting. If anything, the soldiers were even more friendly, greeting us with a pleasant smile and "You are from India!" once they see the passports.

One disappointment from a tourist point of view is the lack of infrastructure for travelling across the country. The travel times for Kandy are excruciatingly high as a result of narrow roads that get clogged around all towns, and we were told it is even more difficult in other areas. We had a tough time with Ilisa on the Kandy-Colombo leg as the 6 hour+ drive got to her. The train network is even slower, so there is no real option except to go by road.

The other disappointment was lack of regular restaurants, especially in Colombo. We had budgeted for simple not-too-fancy restaurants providing good food, but ended up having to eat in upmarket restaurants within hotels and thereby digging heavily into our reserves.

The Pinnewala elephant orphanage was also rather disappointing (and expensive if I may add). It was no fun seeing so many elephants chained up, and personally I have found the elephants in zoos looking happier.

-Phani

Venkatesh, a star and a gentleman

2008-02-11T19:38:00.000+05:30

Folks familiar with South Indian movies, especially Telugu movies, would know Venkatesh. He is a big star with a considerable fan following out here in Andhra Pradesh. He has been working as a hero in movies for more than 20 years now in various genres of movies from action movies to comedies, most of which have been popular hits.

We chanced into him when visiting a local bookstore near home the other day. I must confess that both Sheetal and I are reasonably star struck, and here we saw a "superstar" right across the aisle. The was no security or assistants- just the man all by himself. He looked just like the rough and tough characters he portrays in movies- brazen look, rolled up sleeves and no nonsense look on his face. After hesitating for a good minute or so, I mustered up enough courage to walk down to him and ask him for an autograph, literally looking up to his solid 6 feet+ frame from my frail 5 feet+ frame.

But the guy was an absolute gem and a thorough gentleman. He gave me a warm smile when I asked him for an autograph, spoke very nicely to me and gave me an autograph. Having crossed the first hurdle, I chanced my luck and asked him for a photograph. He readily agreed and posed for one, with only a passing concern about how he is looking like a "duck".

All in all, it was a memorable encounter. He came across as a soft spoken and almost shy person. He spoke very good English and Telugu, and was an amazing contrast to his onscreen persona and appearance. I came out of the encounter being further impressed in his abilities as an actor, as I can only imagine the difficulty he would have in getting into on screen personalities so contradicting to his real life one.

-Phani

Trip to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

2007-10-28T15:48:00.000+05:30

We made our first overseas vacation in May 2007. We started small with the tried and tested South East Asia routine of easily accessible (and not so expensive) places at Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore- Bangkok, Pattaya, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. We have put up some snaps from the trip here.

Our unanimous stack ranking for these places was Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Pattaya and Singapore. This incidentally is exactly opposite to what the hype machinery and marketing propaganda led us to expect. Bangkok and KL surprised us with the charm of the city, and we really enjoyed traveling around both the cities, interacting with the locals and just hanging around some of the markets. Pattaya was along the expected lines of a tourist place. But Singapore was very disappointing- the city doesn't really have a soul in our opinion and almost works as an automaton. And all the so called attraction we pure hype with very little substance.

Prologue

We didn't want to go through a conducted tour, but wanted the peace of mind of having someone do all our travel arrangements at the same time. After a lot of phone calls and surfing, we decided to get our tour organized by Kesari Tours. They gave pretty competitive rates, and they are well reputed in Pune-Bombay area. The downside of this though was that we had to fly out of Bombay instead of Hyderabad.

The last part turned out to be much more than we had bargained for, as my Singapore visa was initially rejected for not having a leave letter from my company of all things! Net effect was that our passports and air tickets were still in Bombay at the Kesari office on the day of the journey :-0. It was a pretty disconcerting feeling to set out on an "international" vacation with neither passport nor tickets and to top it all no foreign exchange (as you need the first two to get the third :(). The Kesari guy landed up outside the Bombay domestic airport terminal, but the tricky part was the we couldn't leave the airport premises if we wanted to avail the internal shuttle to the international airport. I managed to sweet talk the security guy manning the gate to make an exception for me to go outside the premises and come back. The shuttle service was pretty good and uneventful. However, being forced to take foreign exchange at the international airport (only one option- Thomas Cook) was no fun as the rates were much worse than the ones I was getting at their Hyderabad office :(. Anyway, now that all the prerequisites for embarking on our journey were finally met, we tried to put all these hiccups in the "lessons to be learnt" section of our minds and focus on the good times ahead.

PS: On a side note, I caused some chaos at the conveyer belt by dropping our suitcase on none other than Aruna Irani herself!

Day 1: Bangkok

The first leg of the journey from Bombay to Bangkok by Thai Airways was pretty good - no delays, window and aisle (2 seats only in the side sections), decent food and pleasant crew. Sheetal picked up Sawadee from the crew big time, and would utter the word countless times over the next several weeks. The flight to Bangkok lasted around 3.5 hours. The Suvarnabhoomi airport at Bangkok is pretty impressive, especially on the size and looks front. Unfortunately, the immigration process was less than ideal. I had somehow managed in my sleep to tell the air hostess that I do not need to fill the arrival/departure form. So, when I landed up at the immigration counter, I was asked to get those forms and fill them up. Fair enough- but they were out of stock with the forms at that terminal, and I was asked to go to the next. And from there to the next... It was a pretty frustrating experience- I was running around for a good 20 minutes from one terminal to another and from one official to another before I was given two forms. And to rub it in, the queue was a good 200m long by the time I got back, so that took care of another 40 minutes of our time. Luckily, we had applied for the Thailand visa in Bombay itself, else that would have added another half an hour easily. The saving grace though were the pleasant immigration officials sitting at the counter.

We found a local tour operator waiting with a plaque having our names on it at the arrival lounge, giving us the first confirmation that the trip planning was indeed completed in spite of the issues with the visas. The lady accompanied us to Hotel Ambassador that is located in Sukhumvit, making the journey interesting for us as we spent all our energy in trying to decipher her English! The hotel was very well located with a BTS train station (Nana) less that 5 minutes walk away. There was a 7/11 across the road (we had been advised by friends to buy lots of water from the nearest 7/11 and carry the required amount wherever we go, and this was one tip that stood us in good stead right through the trip).

After freshening up, we took a BTS train to MBK Mall (Siam station is connected to the mall via sky bridge). The mall was way too big for us to even aspire to cover the whole of it, and we ended up doing only about 2 levels. Apart from decent lunch at the top level, the other noteworthy place was a toy store in one of the lower levels that had a great collection of innovate toys. They were almost entirely unbranded, but were really good and inexpensive (200-300 baht). After tiring ourselves with around 3 hours of roaming, we headed back to the hotel. One unfortunate side effect of getting so tired was that we didn't have the energy to make it to Wat Arun that evening, nor were we in a position to start early the next morning to be able to make it to the flower market. Dinner was street food for me, and an (over priced!) Indian dinner for Sheetal.

Day 2: Bangkok

We headed out for a conducted half day city tour, which focused (expectedly) on some very beautiful Buddhist temples- Golden Buddha (Wat Traimit), Reclining Buddha and Marble Temple. One common aspect to all these temples was the remarkable calmness in the temple, in spite of having hundreds of tourists buzzing around you. The reclining Buddha was much larger than I anticipated it to be, and it was good fun trying to capture its length on camera. Our favorite though was the Marble Temple- totally devoid of tourists, tranquil peace and an interesting collection of Buddha statues from various parts of Asia and from various time periods. We had a very good tour guide as well who patiently sat and explained the nuances and significance of each of the statues, from the posture of their hands to the length and curve of the ears. We went to the Grand Palace as well hoping to see the Emerald Buddha, but the temple was closed for the day as the Thai Princess was apparently praying there that day.

After our share of temples, we made the obligatory (and in our case thoroughly boring) visit to a Gems showroom before heading out on our own to the insanely dense and crowded Chatuchak weekend market. We must have spent a good 4 hours or so roaming around alley after alley of shops, containing stuff ranging from artifacts and showpieces to furniture and clothes. The shoppers were almost entirely locals, perhaps suggesting that it is the right place to be buying stuff for tourists as well:). As if we hadn't had our share of shopping for the day, we headed to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar from there :D (catching a MRT subway from Chatuchak Park to Lumphini). This was a more upmarket bazaar, and we could actually roam around the whole place in a couple of hours without ever getting lost or feeling claustrophobic. We ended up picking more stuff as well- traditional Chinese dresses for Ilisa and an imitation Rolex being the highlights. One salient feature of shopping at these night bazaars is the bargaining- almost everything was given at 30%-50% of the quoted price (at least that is all that we could manage). We had dinner at the bazaar itself, feasting on not too expensive seafood while live music was being played out on stage, before catching a train back to the hotel (MRT to Sukhumvit, walk to Asok and take a BTS to Nana).

Day 3: Pattaya

We headed for Pattaya after breakfast. It took us 2 hours to get there, most of which was spent catching up on some sleep. Our booking was at Hotel Pattaya Center, which was located just off the beach :). The rooms were decent, there was a 7/11 less than 100m down the road and we had a great view of the beach and the sea from our rooms on the 13th floor!

We grabbed a quick lunch before heading to Mini Siam, a collection of miniature replicas of famous structures from around the world. It is about 20 minutes drive from the hotel, and we ventured out in a Tuk-Tuk! We were not sure of what to expect at Mini Siam and were planning to be back in an hour or so. However, the place was pretty good and most of the replicas were very well done. After spending a good 3 hours there in hot sun, we were exhausted and in desperate need of a shower before the Alcazar show in the evening. Getting back to the hotel from Mini Siam proved to be a challenge though, as all the cabs there were charging exorbitant rates, and none of the Tuk-Tuk drivers could understand what we were saying. We tried our luck with a few bus drivers as well and were dreading the thought of walking back all the way. Luckily one of the Tuk Tuk drivers took a lot of pain to understand where we were going, and dropped us near a changing point for catching a second Tuk Tuk to the hotel.

So with a good hour of anxiety and heartburn behind us, we just about reached the hotel in time to freshen up and hit the road again for the Alcazar show. The show organizers had a pick up and drop facility, but it was a pretty crappy service where they picked up guests from all sorts of places, and to top it off dropped us at the venue a good 45 minutes before the show. Luckily, there was a shopping mall round the corner with a Toys 'R' Us to boot.

The Alcazar show itself was pretty good- and I swear I wouldn't have been able to make out the artists weren't really girls from the distance if I wasn't told beforehand. Some of the songs they danced to were particularly catchy- I even managed to grab some clips on my camcorder. After the show, the artistes were mixing with the crowds near the exit, and people were clicking photos with them. Sheetal joined them thinking that it was some sort of a complimentary service, but there was a pimp right around the corner harassing us to give us money since we clicked photos with the artist. I chose to delete the photo instead, not because of the money, but because the up close interaction with them changed the mood from admiring their beauty to wincing at their behavior. If you have ever had the 'pleasure' of encountering a group of eunuchs on Indian Railways, you know what I am talking about.

After the show, we headed back to the mall for some dinner and walked back to the hotel through some rather dicey looking 'clubs'. Till then I had only heard of Pattaya being a busy center for the flesh trade- the way hundreds of these pretty damsels go around the roads conducting their business in such a casual and matter of fact manner is truly remarkable.

Day 4: Pattaya

The mornings agenda was to have fun on the water as part of a group package. It was a very frustrating start, as we were the first of 4 or 5 groups to be picked up for the trip. We waited for almost 45 minutes at all sorts of hotels for other people to get in before finally reaching the starting point for the boats that was, hold your breath, across the road from our hotel! I vented my frustration at the driver only to get a blank look suggesting that his English skills were at par with my Thai skills :(.

The sea and islands are decent and clean, but paled in comparison to the sights we had a few months earlier in Andaman islands. You could see that the unwritten theme at all the activity joints was "fleece the tourist", but this is no different from all the haggling associated with any tourist center in India. I didn't go for the water scooters or speed boats, but opted for parasailing which was good fun (400 baht). Sheetal and I then went for the "underwater walk" (1200 baht pp), which was disappointing to say the least. The walk is limited in its reach as the oxygen supply is through pipes fixed to the docking station, and we ended up getting a show and tell session of intentionally placed urchins etc. instead of the peek into natural habitat that we expected. They put some bread crumbs on our hands (with netted gloves) in order to attract fish, but even those turned out to be of just one kind (rather boring looking to boot :(). And to top it all, I forgot to remove my watch before stepping into water and it...

On our way back, we found out that the sea was not as clean as I imagined it to be. The boat stopped around 50m from land, and we were asked to walk the rest of the way as the water was very shallow in low tide. This turned out to be a nightmare as the sea floor was full of garbage, including some broken glass pieces that left some of the tourists with deep cuts on their feet. We both were lucky to come through unhurt.

After lunch we braved yet another visit to a gem factory. This one turned out to be much more interesting than the Bangkok visit though, with a toy train that goes through a tunnel in which they have props describing the various activities involved in mining precious stones. The rest of the day was spent roaming around the streets and malls of Pattaya. They have cute shoes and great clothes for baby girls in one of the stores at TESCO Lotus mall. We tried out Cool House, one of the more popular restaurants for dinner, where I treated myself to a Red Snapper for a heavy but delicious (and cheap) dinner to conclude our visit to Thailand!

Day 5: Kuala Lumpur

We started very early the next morning in order to catch a morning flight to Kuala Lumpur, just about catching a great view of Suvarnabhoomi airport at sunrise before dozing off in the plane. KLIA is another great airport and the visa & immigration process was smooth as well. We had opted to go for a visa on arrival, which cost 100RM per head. The airport is way out of town and it was a good hour's drive to the city. But the drive was very pleasant- smooth roads, lots of greenery and very interesting townships on and off. We were put up at Hotel Grand Continental on Jalan Belia/ Jalan Raja Laut. Once again this turned out to be a well located hotel, within walking distance of two stations (Sultan Ismail for LRT and Medan Tunku for Monorail) and a 7/11 round the corner.

Our first halt in KL was at Berjaya Times Square, where we were supposed to find some great toy shops. We caught a Monorail train from Medan Tunku to Imbi station, which is almost within the mall. The mall was large and even had a roller coaster inside it, but was surprisingly sparse on the shops front. We didn't find anything interesting in terms of toys or otherwise. One pleasant surprise was food though, and we got confirmation over the next 30 odd hours that food in KL has some very endearing properties: it is cheap, it is tasty and they serve very generous helpings of chicken.

Disappointed with the mall where had hoped to buy lots of goodies, we went to a mall where we hoped not to buy anything- Suria KLCC mall (Monorail from Imbi to Bukit Nanas, LRT from Dang Wangi to KLCC). This mall at the base of the Petronas Towers is a window shoppers paradise full of obscenely priced designer label shops. However, there were some very notable exceptions- a stall selling beautiful porcelain dolls, a store containing hundreds of Japanese jigsaw puzzles of beautiful paintings and a Bata showroom of all things!

Day 6: Kuala Lumpur

The next morning saw us join a rather disappointing conducted city tour. We landed up at Petronas tower with hopes of going up to the sky bridge connecting the two towers, only to be told that we need to come on our own a couple of hours earlier and stand in a queue if we want to get passes for the sky bridge. So we had to satisfy ourselves by looking at the towers from across the road :(. After that, the tour went to a Batik factory where they demonstrated the handicraft process. The attached outlet was on the expensive side, so we just stuck to a token dress for Ilisa. The King's Palace was a joke, as all one gets to do is click photos with the guards and see the palace from the gates! Around this time we lost interest in the tour, and decided to hop off it when they stopped at the National museum.

We walked down to KL Sentral train station from the museum and decided to go down to Sepang and visit the Formula 1 circuit. We caught the rather expensive KL Ekspres to KLIA. It was a great journey, zipping at high speed through the lush green scenery that we had encountered the previous day. We had an extremely delicious lunch at KLIA itself on the 2nd level, and still rate the Nasi Briyani we had there as amongst the best meals we have ever had. And yes, food is cheap even at the airport!

BTW, Ekspres, Sentral etc are not typos- they have done a great job of simplifying English in Malaysia as they spell words the way they pronounce them. They even use the English alphabet as the script for the local languages.

Getting to Sepang from KLIA was a non trivial task as public transport to the area is only available during race weekends. We ended up renting a taxi to take us to the track, wait for us while we look around and finally drop us off at Nilai station (KTM Komuter). I was afraid the security guy might turn us away as the track was closed, but the driver spoke to him and he let us in after keeping my license as ID proof. The F1 experience was awesome despite the circuit being empty and the afternoon sun roasting us, so I can only imagine how much fun attending a live race would have been. We walked around for an hour or so getting a good feel for the grandstand before grudgingly heading back towards the taxi. The souvenir shop was closed for lunch, so we couldn't get back any memorabilia apart from the great memory.

The return train journey from Nilai to KL Sentral was a total contrast to the onward journey, winding lazily through small villages and some less populated parts of KL and was a nice way to relax after the exertions of the afternoon. We were sufficiently recharged after that to head out to Menara KL, a high rise TV Tower in close vicinity of the Petronas towers. We took a monorail from KL Sentral to Bukit Nanas, the only issue being that the monorail station at Sentral was at a different location from the other stations. The walk from Bukit Nanas to Menara KL was remarkably steep and difficult, and left us both out of breath by the time we reached the entrance of the tower. The entry pass to the tower was a little bit on the expensive side. We got good views of the Petronas towers and KL as a whole from the top, and could even spot some of the more prominent builds of the distant Genting Highlands. The only put off was a rather noisy group of tourists from amchi Mumbai.

We took a cab back to the hotel from there as the walk back to the station looked too daunting. Even catching the cab turned out to be an embarrassing experience as we tried to flag them on the roadside. The cabs only stop at designated cab stations where you have to wait in a queue for your turn to hire a cab! We learnt this the hard way, when a gentleman angrily ticked us away for trying to break a queue we didn't realize existed in the first place :(. After taking some badly needed rest, we wound up our Malaysian leg with a particularly tasty Malaysian cuisine pizza at Pizza Hut round the corner.

Day 7: Singapore

We flew down to Singapore next morning, instead of the default but more boring train/road options. Changi airport lived up to our expectations of being amongst the worlds best airports, and everything was breeze from getting tourist information to immigration to baggage clearance. I think it took all of 15 minutes from disembarking the plane to finding ourselves in the cab. How I wish the rest of our Singapore visit was as good!

We were put up at Hotel Golden Landmark on Arab street, which probably has the most pathetic reception I have seen. The guy kept us waiting for 2 hours before handing us our room keys, and there was no place to even freshen up till then :(. Sheetal was worried all along about this hotel as all the reviews cribbed about the reception, but gave good ratings for the rooms. Luckily the second aspect held true for us too, as the room was pretty good. And it was well located again, within walking distance of a train station (Bugis Junction), eateries and 7/11 :D.

We set out for the Night Safari at Singapore zoo after grabbing quick lunch at one of the roadside eateries. The train route is pretty convoluted, having to catch a train from Bugis to Jurong East (MRT East West Line), and from there to Choa Chu Kang (MRT North South Line) before catching a bus (927) to the Zoo. While train tickets were easy to buy, the bus tickets were a pain as we need to carry the exact fare :(. We had some time to kill before the Night Safari, which was spent buying cute animal soft toys at the Zoo store.

The 'safari' was disappointing (to put it mildly) as almost all the 'interesting' animals were in in captivity (either enclosures or dug outs). It was more a bus ride around the zoo in the dark than a safari. The saving grace was the "Creatures of the Night" show, which was well conducted and very entertaining.

The first day gave us a rather unpleasant taste of Singapore - extremely expensive to the point of fleecing and high on hype but low in content. Trains are expensive, people are not really friendly and food is expensive. Even McDonald's was expensive!

Day 8: Singapore

We headed out first to the Orchid Garden contained within the National Botanical Gardens, getting there using a combination of train and cab. While the gardens were calm and not crowded, the same cannot be said of the orchid garden within it. The orchid collection was great and drew lots of visitors, most of them photographers with foot long camera lenses and other equipment that made me eye them with pure jealousy :). We tried our hand at capturing some of the orchids with our poor little iXUS as well, just in case they thought they have a monopoly :P. It was good value for money, and even the store outside the orchid gardens had some nice stuff including a good collection of silk umbrellas and Singaporean dolls.

The weather was hot, and the humidity within the garden was particularly high, so we were pretty tired after a couple of hours of walking around. And it got more tiring as we exited the Botanical gardens onto one of the side roads with no hint of a taxi :(. It was a good kilometer and half of walking before we could see traffic and a taxi. We took a cab to Mount Faber in order to catch a cable car ride to Sentosa Island. The "mountain" tag was a bit of an exaggeration, and it was more of a hillock. At the cable car station, we were subject to a couple of marketing gimmicks:

Click and tempt. There is a tendency to click your pictures everywhere, and then they present the pictures on all sorts of things to tempt you into buying exorbitantly priced photos. We survived this in Thailand and Malaysia, but would eventually succumb the next day :(.

Packages. They offer packages for buying passes to multiple places at the same time. So, in this case, they offered a "deal" for the cable car ride, Sentosa Island and some of the activities within Sentosa. I got suckered by this and took it up, only to find that this "deal" was in fact marginally more expensive than buying all those tickets separately! The only (tiny) saving grace for me was that I didn't have to wait in ticketing queues at other places.

The cable car ride was worth doing once, though not necessarily in the value for money category. Within Sentosa, we had a fixed set of activities we wanted to try out. First noteworthy activity was a visit to the Butterfly Park. This was a reasonably good experience, and we saw some beautiful specimens. One put off though was the extremely noisy crowd that did a good job of scaring away the butterflies as soon as they settled in a position near the walking path :(. The other fun activity was a visit to the Dolphin Lagoon, where they have 3 pink trained dolphins perform all sorts of tricks. It was the first time we had seen dolphins, so we enjoyed the experience in spite of the searing heat and having to make do with a take away lunch. We didn't enjoy the aquarium visit (Underwater world) that much as the place was over crowded with noisy and rather poor tourists. We also good a good look from the outside of the Merlion at Sentosa. Travel within the island was facilitated by buses that were run by the Island authorities, and the AC in the buses was often the only respite from the heat. All in all, we both were disappointed with Sentosa island and felt it was over hyped. And we couldn't think of anything to do beyond 3-4 hours, and even dropped the evening light and sound show as we were tired of the place.

On the way back, we got down from the cable car at HarbourFront station itself and caught a train to Farrer Park station- the mission being to explore Mustafa's, Singapore's famous mall. It turned out to be a very big departmental store with the primary attractions being a well stocked watches section and cheap chocolates :). The electronics were cheaper than in India, but only marginally so. I found the car accessories section pretty well stocked too, but wasn't keen on lugging any of this stuff all the way back to Hyderabad. After a couple of hours spent in roaming the alleys and a heated argument with a very ill behaved native, we had dinner at one of the Indian restaurants across the road (in the company of a couple of girls from Pune working in Singapore). While we were aware all along that there are a lot of Indians in Singapore (primarily from Tamil Nadu), the number of Bangladeshis there took us by surprise.

Day 9: Singapore

The Singapore halt was beginning to feel long by now. We set out early in the morning to reach Singapore Zoo in time for the so called "Jungle Breakfast" which promised an up close encounter with some of the wildlife. It was a pricey breakfast that turned out to be huge rip-off consisting of nothing more than sitting and watching a trained orangutan and cobra pose for the cameras on cue from their trainers. And it got worse when we succumbed finally to the click and tempt phenomenon for the snaps they clicked :(.

The Zoo itself was average with only the facilities standing out, but almost everything had to be paid for on top of the entrance fees. To make it worse, there was a huge downpour that made things very uncomfortable. I was delighted to see they were giving out raincoats and was all set to ask for one when the inevitable overpriced tag came out. We planned to wait for the rain to stop, but our patience eventually ran out and we shelled out the cash, only for the rain gods to relent 2 minutes after we bought the coats :(.

Fed up with the Zoo, we left for the upmarket Orchard Road (Choa Chu Kang to Orchard station on the NS MRT). It was a huge exhibition of wealth, with one highlight being a hotel with an attractive parking lot having quite a few Lamborghini's, Ferrari's and even a Alfa Romeo. The BMW's and Mercedes's next to them were looking so pedestrian by comparison :D. It was a pretty strange experience, sitting on the road side and watching these designer cars zoom from signal to signal, each out doing the other in terms of looks, speed, noise and price :).

Having completed our share of day dreaming with the cars, we headed to Merlion Park (Raffles Place station). This has the original Merlion status that is almost the symbol of Singapore now. We spent some time watching the statue, the river and the people before strolling back to the station along the Singapore riverfront. We unexpectedly ran into the 'The First Generation' statue of boys leaping in for a swim as well on the way.

Day 10: Singapore

The only agenda of the last day of our vacation was a visit to the Jurong Bird Park (EW MRT to Boon Lay station, and a connecting bus from there). It turned out to be the best part of the Singapore leg and we thoroughly enjoyed the 7 hours or so that we spent roaming around the park. While it was as expensive as the other places we had been so far, it was much more value for money and the crowds were lesser too. The highlights for us were penguins, the 'Birds & Buddies' show, herons, Waterfall Aviary and Lory Loft. The Waterfall Aviary contains an artificial waterfall (called, you guessed it right, Jurong Falls) within a large enclosure and were particularly pleasant- we spent more than an hour looking at all sorts of colorful birds and butterflies. Lory Loft had some very beautiful parrots, and there is even an option of feeding the birds (at a price naturally). We took a train ticket that helped us in some of the travel, but it was overall an exhausting experience and we headed right back to the hotel after the park closed at 5PM. We had some unplanned action too as I left my camera bag at one of the enclosures and only remembered a good 2 hours later! Luckily for us, it was picked up by one of the staff members and was waiting for us at the reception :).

Epilogue

The next morning saw us bid a none too emotional farewell to Singapore and head back to Hyderabad via Mumbai. While the first two legs on Thai Airlines (Singapore-Bangkok, Bangkok-Mumbai) were alright, the last leg by Air India flight got delayed significantly (and excruciatingly considering it was past midnight) after we boarded the plane. However, all in all it was an uneventful end to a great vacation.

We couldn't resist stack ranking the places we had visited in the weeks following the trip, and our rating by complete consensus was Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Pattaya and Singapore. I don't know if we will get a chance to visit these countries again, but if we do:

Bangkok is a place we would gladly go again. Perhaps even stay for a week and go through all the temples at leisure and try and make it to Phuket. And of course, shop a lot :D!

Malaysia is a beautiful and lovable country. Langkawi and Penang are high on our wish list, and maybe even catch a race at Sepang. And yes, eat lots of chicken and Nasi Briyani:).

Singapore begins and ends at Changi airport :P.

-Phani

Trip to Nagarjuna Sagar

2007-09-29T11:10:00.000+05:30

Sheetal and I made our first road trip with Ilisa in August 2007. Sheetal's parents also joined us on the trip. Nagarjuna Sagar is a weekend destination about 160KM away from Hyderabad. It is famous for a large dam and some historical ruins of a Buddhist monastery from 3-4 century AD at Nagarjuna Konda, an island in the dam's reservoir. We have put up some photos here.

Planning:
The journey from Hyderabad to Nagarjuna Sagar takes between 3 and 4 hours depending on the time of the day, almost half of the time being spent in getting out of the city. You can do the trip in a single day, but we preferred an overnight trip to ensure it doesn't get too hectic.

We booked rooms (A/C standard, 1500/- for double occupancy) at 'Vijay Vihar'. The hotel is run by AP Tourism and we did the bookings through their Yatri Nivas office near Paradise. It is a decent hotel with clean rooms, clean bathrooms and an excellent location right on the banks of the reservoir. Our rooms had balconies with a great view of the same. The lunch is typically South Indian buffet only- decent enough to survive for a few days. For dinner, food needs to be preordered as there aren't too many guests. We ordered North Indian curries and phulkas, and they were pretty tasty. Breakfast is included as part of the package- standard South Indian fare which is decent as well. They serve milk in flasks- so that took care of Ilisa's requirements in our case.

I topped the fuel tank on the eve of the journey, which would be enough for me to get back home without needing a refill. We also bought lots of snacks and biscuits to keep us busy during the journey and made sure we carry enough water for 4 adults for the journey. We also packed sufficient stuff that Ilisa could consume including milk and water to last us for about 5 hours. And yes, we burnt enough music CDs to make sure things don't get monotonous during the journey.

Journey:
We started at 1000 in the morning, giving ourselves and Ilisa enough sleep and allowing us to get ready at leisure. It took a good hour and a half to reach the outskirts of the city itself. The route we took out of the city from our home in Srinagar Colony was via Banajara Hills Road No. 1, Masab Tank, Lakdi Ka Pul, Abids, Koti, Chaderghat, Malakpet, Dilsukh Nagar and finally LB Nagar. At LB Nagar we hit a cross road where we took a right to go towards Nagarjuna Sagar (straight here would take us to Ramoji Film City). The tricky part is to not miss the left turn as soon as we take the right- it is a pretty nondescript road that just comes up out of the blue and is easy to miss.

Things are a breeze once you make the turn though- no turnings all the way to Nagarjuna Sagar :). One of the cool things we found was a small airfield on the right around ten minutes after taking the turn, when a couple of small planes whizzed right over our heads! The road itself is great to drive on with a smooth surface at most places. It passes through open fields most of the time, but hits small villages every now and then. And yes, there are countless number of sheep all over the road. It was bizarre to just stop in the middle of what appeared to be an empty road a few moments back when hundreds of sheep would just pop up on the road from nowhere. There was a huge upside to these 'sheep'ish appearances- Ilisa going "baa baa" with a 1000W smile on her face!

While it is an undivided road, I didn't find the road unsafe at any place except one village an hour into the journey. Here the road curved to the left as it elevated but there was no banking. Predictably it is an accident zone, and there is a large board to warn you of the same. The bright side though is that once you make the turn you are on an elevated road with lush green fields below you on the left and a large water body on the left.

The weather was cool and pleasant throughout the journey, but changed dramatically once we reached within a few kilometers of Nagarjuna Sagar when it became warm and humid! We reached the hotel (which comes before you reach the dam) at about 1330.

We headed for the dam after lunch, under the false impression that the gates were open. The dam itself is about 10 minutes drive from the hotel. We cannot drive over the dam as such, and can only go near the power station at the base of the dam on the left bank. Look out for a road going to the right just before the bridge to cross the river. There was a security guy stopping us from going down saying only official vehicles are allowed :(. We were a little disappointed but it turned out this was just the guy's way of asking for 'chai-pani' to let us go down. I grudgingly parted with a 50/- note and found myself at the gate of the power station. While the gates to that were really closed, we got a good look at the dam from the gate itself. It was not as overwhelming as I thought it would be, but is an impressive structure like any other dam on a big river. There is a board saying photography is prohibited, but everyone was clicking and the security guys didn't look too bothered- so I did the same. After some time ogling at the dam and having some refreshments (Mosambi juice for 5/- was pretty good), we visited a temple a few meters up the road to get our feet wet in the river water at its bathing ghat. It was good fun trying to convince Ilisa to put her feet in water- she spent the first half of our time there refusing to put her feet in water, and spent the other half cribbing about us taking her out of the water :). There is a broken bridge next to the temple that goes till around midway to the river (and is by definition attractive to walk upon), but the entrance was fenced off to prevent accidents.

We then headed towards Ethipothala falls, and ran into a family of monkeys as soon as we crossed the bridge. Sheetal was surprisingly adventurous in trying to click them with her window rolled down, but two steps from a mother monkey towards the car were enough to roll the windows back up and restore things to normalcy (read screams of "Mummy!" and "Phani!"). The road to the falls goes through some isolated stretches that felt lonely even at 1600 when we were going towards the falls, so I made up my mind that I would not be waiting for a sound and light show at the falls that starts at 1900 or so. The road was also pretty narrow, especially once we took a left turn off the main road to reach the falls. There is a toll both at the turning (15/-) as the area is a reserved forest.

The falls are very beautiful. You can either view them from a hill opposite to them after paying an entrance fees (15/-), or choose to go down the hill to the base of the falls. We stuck to the former as we were with Ilisa, but even otherwise I was discouraged from going down by several friends as the route is dirty and slippery. The viewing point is a small park, so apart from getting a good look (and photos) of the falls, we also got a chance to let Ilisa run loose. She picked up a fancy for bottle caps of all things and demonstrated amazing tenacity in holding two fistfuls of them even as she was climbing steps that would need her to use her hands for support :). We headed back at around 1730 to ensure a smooth journey, but faced a few cars in the other direction suggesting most people find the sound and light attractive.

We had a pleasant surprise on the way back- 6 of the dams 26 gates were open! So we got some snaps of the water rushing out as well, and managed to get to the power station this time round without any 'obstacles'. We returned to the hotel after half an hour to get some rest after a fairly long day. We really felt close to nature even within the hotel compound- pitch dark in all directions, continuous sounds of crickets and all sorts of insects and zillions of mosquitoes baying for your blood. Thankfully the AC and the mosquito repellant in the room were doing a great job, so we got some good sleep.

Next morning, we headed out to catch the ferry to Nagarjuna Konda after breakfast at 0830. The drive is along the same route as the falls to some point, but there is a turn to the right around 3 KM after the bridge. The leg after the turn is pretty amazing as the road looks straight into the dam at several places! The river turns left right after the dam, so this road along the right bank is very close to the base of the dam. We got some great pictures before continuing for the launch station to catch the ferry. We were asked to reach the station at 0900 in order to catch the first ferry, but it turned out there was no boat till 1030! So it was 1.5 hours of near boredom waiting in a queue for the booking counter to open. And when they finally opened the counter, it was total chaos as folks jumped the queue from everywhere. I somehow managed to struggle my way through it all and bought the tickets (60/- per adult for the ferry, and 7/- for the museum and ruins on the island). Worse was yet to come, as the ferry didn't have fixed seats but loose chairs that could be dragged around to suit your convenience. So we had everyone trying to nudge everyone else to the side so that they could sit next to the railing on the upper deck and get an unrestricted view! On top of it there are no life jackets whatsoever on the boat, so we technically took a big risk by going on it considering none of us know swimming and that the reservoir is supposed to contain crocodiles.

The people factor and the inevitable noise generated aside, the ride was smooth and pretty scenic. It takes about an hour to reach the island, after which you get an hour to see around and then an hours ride back. Unfortunately, an hour is too less to see all the stuff on the island as the landing point, museum and the ruins are spread across a fairly large area. It took us almost 10 minutes to reach the museum, and the ruins were a further 15-30 minutes ahead depending on how many you want to see and how fast you can walk. The museum is small but good with lots of stuff from 4-5th century and some from the 1st century as well. Almost all the content is artifacts from various Buddhist monasteries and the Stupa that existed at the area. The ruins were pretty interesting too, but we couldn't make it to all of them as carrying Ilisa in the warm and humid weather was pretty tiring. There are restrooms and snack bars on the island, and they sell water and soft drinks on the boat as well. The ride back was uneventful, as we decided to take a inside seat rather than jostle with people for the 'window' seat. Ilisa provided all the entertainment though with amazing attempts to compete with Sheetal's mom in drinking Frooti with a straw.

Once back safely on dry land, we drove to hotel to grab some lunch and then started for Hyderabad around 1400. The was some rain on the way, but it didn't affect us in any way other than perhaps bringing the speed down from 80 to 60. Ilisa slept through the journey as we reached LB Nagar around 1600. The last 20 kilometers from there to home was excruciating though, as my driving fatigue finally showed up in the chaos of Hyderabad's traffic. It was almost 1800 by the time we got home.

All in all it was a great road trip, the first one we did with Ilisa (not counting the ones we did while she was traveling inside Sheetal ;-) ). Nagarjuna Sagar is definitely worth a visit. I would even say the place is a great weekend getaway for people living in Hyderabad, especially relaxing second time onwards when you don't need to fit Nagarjuna Konda in to the plan.

-Phani

Ilisa

2007-09-03T19:56:00.000+05:30

Here are a few lines I had written for my daughter Ilisa (Sanskrit for "Queen of the Earth") the day she was born:

The circle of life beckons,
This new dad and old friend of yours;
Here and now is born my heart reckons,
The queen who shall rule this world of ours!

Tired is my body, yet sleep eludes me;
Moist are my eyes, yet tears elude me.
If I can do anything about it my dear,
This day is the last you'll cry coz of me.

Over the hills and through the clouds did I rush
To be the first sight your eyes will lock upon,
Yet, despair shall I not for this one moment lost,
Together shall every moment hence last a joyous aeon.

-Phani

Why "Little Xanadu"?

2007-09-03T19:42:00.000+05:30

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea...

We have been haunted by the vision of Xanadu that Coleridge dreamt up ever since we read Kubla Khan for the very first time. The image that comes to our mind is what we both would associate with heaven on earth. So, when it came to naming a website through which we hope to provide a window to our little world, we couldn't go beyond Xanadu.

-Sheetal & Phani

The inhabitants of Little Xanadu

2007-09-03T19:28:00.000+05:30

From left to right: Sheetal, Ilisa and Phani