tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263530922024-03-07T23:57:39.730+05:30Zingara GirlSharing my travel adventures and mis-adventures with others.....!Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.comBlogger120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-8361009701780101752012-04-07T05:17:00.000+05:302012-04-07T05:17:25.290+05:30The Big Cross Continent Move!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought it only fit to start penning my "return to the US" adventure on this blog, after all it was my </span><a href="http://zingaragirl.blogspot.com/2006/04/new-beginning.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"return to India" move</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> that started me on the whole blog thing way back in 2006!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wanted to post daily, but things have been so hectic and crazy I am going to have to club the past week into one post....and trust me, it will read like a soap opera. It has trauma, horror, drama, excitement...and finally a happy ending.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">THE BIG MOVE: MARCH 30TH TO APRIL 6TH</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">March 30th - Hyderabad to Bangalore by road.</span></b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Normally this is about an 8 hr road trip, but I'm starting to realize that when it comes to travel - by road, air or sea - "normal" and I don't work well together.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bus/van we had booked arrived at 6am, perfect timing, so far so good. But then we realized that they hadn't removed the last 2 rows of seats/6 seats like we had requested. They had only removed 2. Aaarrrggghh! I was gnashing my teeth. How were we going to fit in 4 gigantic suitcases, 4 smaller ones, assorted hand baggages, a cooler with food and drinks, 2 dog crates, 2 dogs and 4 humans???? We forced the driver to get his toolbox out and remove 2 more so very reluctantly he did.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlrFucTX0OMb209PtsYl-buDmPJfPDR5kHPhONfxdaijNIj76SYMjoShBaueeg-59432AntkUMG_laRfe9bZRcLyUqcx9D_n9Ss1_h1Mrv8tVuvTPHXJ-YGPdv_3BQspnAKVI/s1600/IMG_8852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlrFucTX0OMb209PtsYl-buDmPJfPDR5kHPhONfxdaijNIj76SYMjoShBaueeg-59432AntkUMG_laRfe9bZRcLyUqcx9D_n9Ss1_h1Mrv8tVuvTPHXJ-YGPdv_3BQspnAKVI/s640/IMG_8852.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We started the loading process......my goodness, you'd think we were going on a 6 month trek to the outback or something!! I have never seen so much luggage! The crates of course took priority and then everything else came after that.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBZIoLgnnqkCKuyVqfrZQnq3Z2uSOCG24Hj5Jjp82dhNmNi8tOGawCzEB3Ha_D_zExoevnPnk8OuLCU1R3um_fIyLc0QGc8J-8T-EkUC2Sp_SNenMGkvv4e0bRMqmfECHNIcG/s1600/IMG_8853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBZIoLgnnqkCKuyVqfrZQnq3Z2uSOCG24Hj5Jjp82dhNmNi8tOGawCzEB3Ha_D_zExoevnPnk8OuLCU1R3um_fIyLc0QGc8J-8T-EkUC2Sp_SNenMGkvv4e0bRMqmfECHNIcG/s640/IMG_8853.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Junglee was fascinated and poked around trying to find the best seat in the house.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PpFpUctXD0P-v9vf_tigZpSZ6aOqLmVdivaem-vzLkVdCtvvO1u768XvNuwJ8AfbjVreiCsc0v8QRabYW3Ov0DPwfUSZcPEeuim3hhEjj4vL8wlXgJ8YdULJc6bNwMlOkwZF/s1600/IMG_8854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PpFpUctXD0P-v9vf_tigZpSZ6aOqLmVdivaem-vzLkVdCtvvO1u768XvNuwJ8AfbjVreiCsc0v8QRabYW3Ov0DPwfUSZcPEeuim3hhEjj4vL8wlXgJ8YdULJc6bNwMlOkwZF/s640/IMG_8854.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Little by little it all went in.....</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxmSlJ3qFr2-ACBWUmlICHfUsBJuL1bszq25IYUHBtJg_KLoyIVxwhwgNHbwRwbY2zoMVV0rbnBUBe87sY3BppcsMQbfUIrWNSdmQDaZPt5-9z37-a83AVU63SYP56wL0j5S0E/s1600/IMG_8858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxmSlJ3qFr2-ACBWUmlICHfUsBJuL1bszq25IYUHBtJg_KLoyIVxwhwgNHbwRwbY2zoMVV0rbnBUBe87sY3BppcsMQbfUIrWNSdmQDaZPt5-9z37-a83AVU63SYP56wL0j5S0E/s640/IMG_8858.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Suitcases - check: food bag - check: cooler - check...and so on.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIByfJubAiFSML6heNqqj6BA77Ah98rwjppc5Ji1EzpLmXxwj4XqnN27Frt2vH4EvDGfaseiU6WEGAJf_bgwaklHWpGPjF6ppqKkgvv5Q0JJ8SHLmvF2nXKeh_tMXrcbpinUG/s1600/IMG_8859.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIByfJubAiFSML6heNqqj6BA77Ah98rwjppc5Ji1EzpLmXxwj4XqnN27Frt2vH4EvDGfaseiU6WEGAJf_bgwaklHWpGPjF6ppqKkgvv5Q0JJ8SHLmvF2nXKeh_tMXrcbpinUG/s640/IMG_8859.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The dogs were ready. You'd think by looking at this picture they were excited to go, but they were absolute beasts on the trip. Look at those innocent faces......</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8q7m5xfFbflJch1kKhkLCPrR452Ne5EAnQwm0wVYfo5V90jUqjtb-ciG5NKqaPybs3w5ucDsP7kCl2rjDKWkmjkw9XXvLSH_RDIGbc-VVruDOy85PDmpa9LWTWGpeWSJ9zBNp/s1600/IMG_8862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8q7m5xfFbflJch1kKhkLCPrR452Ne5EAnQwm0wVYfo5V90jUqjtb-ciG5NKqaPybs3w5ucDsP7kCl2rjDKWkmjkw9XXvLSH_RDIGbc-VVruDOy85PDmpa9LWTWGpeWSJ9zBNp/s640/IMG_8862.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a round of tearful bye byes and a bit of a delay we got on the road at 8.45. We got out of the city fairly soon and were feeling pretty good. The weather was decent, a bit cool, the dogs were all googly eyed at the action on the roads, we all had good seats....yay. Then at about 11am we saw a traffic jam ahead and thought - Uh oh! And we were right in thinking Uh-oh! It was a road block protesting the Telengana movement......I won't bore you readers with the details but its a political thing thats been going on in our state for many years. Suffice to say its a waste of time, energy, resources and a damn nuisance!!!!! We cooled our heels (I say "cooled" figuratively, it was close to 90 degrees in the van) and then finally left an hour later. We stopped an hour later at a drive in restaurant for lunch...well more a place to make our lunch cos we had packed everything we needed to make sandwiches. Using the crate as a table my mom went to work.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMIrhSVlJVd9-98DRAcs2jMVNzaheIPtNIAHlT-M6OoBzjKHkmMpCXstZyjF1pONIU8ZMCEuv4VW6s5vCGirortwm-YSzmIzsV-koq-dR3puIVoSRcWiZlhs9oovvh76TVcZs8/s1600/IMG_8870.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMIrhSVlJVd9-98DRAcs2jMVNzaheIPtNIAHlT-M6OoBzjKHkmMpCXstZyjF1pONIU8ZMCEuv4VW6s5vCGirortwm-YSzmIzsV-koq-dR3puIVoSRcWiZlhs9oovvh76TVcZs8/s640/IMG_8870.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Raga and my dad entertained the dogs. Not sure why Raga has his head in his hands in this pic??</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-v9icYOnDVQwAQHz0MnHlAFN59X5aHabRgIN4PjexZORPwxvivEwKBRImj8LPQawIpJH1JP1XZvqNrhQQizjizo2X3dB0DZXDeplZdQjfcbfaPJq4Y31D2Idwir7Z0KG1Pf5/s1600/IMG_8872.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-v9icYOnDVQwAQHz0MnHlAFN59X5aHabRgIN4PjexZORPwxvivEwKBRImj8LPQawIpJH1JP1XZvqNrhQQizjizo2X3dB0DZXDeplZdQjfcbfaPJq4Y31D2Idwir7Z0KG1Pf5/s640/IMG_8872.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By now the dogs had realized this bus journey was not as much fun as they had anticipated. They hated being put in their crates which were lolling around, they hated being out of it cos they had to be pinned down on one of our laps....they hated the driver...in short, they were unhappy. They whined and barked and whimpered in turns in between short bouts of napping. My nerves were zapped!</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLk8uDXcMVE5BhkJUiuXXxMyHdteX6GaJRomPDI-4duKiLmGcoi8zisoJsWCde-CorcgkDz9HBYKTNlsoaVhOHyYIpLms1rbOASpvSQOuIgjG-JwP1WH-B4zA4KUeuPuaWxiCF/s1600/IMG_8874.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLk8uDXcMVE5BhkJUiuXXxMyHdteX6GaJRomPDI-4duKiLmGcoi8zisoJsWCde-CorcgkDz9HBYKTNlsoaVhOHyYIpLms1rbOASpvSQOuIgjG-JwP1WH-B4zA4KUeuPuaWxiCF/s640/IMG_8874.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lunch all done and feeling a bit better, we head on.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5pm - the driver starts tinkering with the gears as he is driving. Then he stops by the side of the road and tinkers even more - pulling it this way, then that way, up, down, sideways......clearly there is a problem but he refuses to admit it. (This is an Indian phenomenon for you non-Indian readers, we have a hard time admitting there is a problem)! We take the dogs out of the van, so we can all stretch our legs while the gear movement continues in a frenzy. Driver gets out of the bus and disappears under it. We observe a temple on a hill by the side of the road and a statue next to it. At least we think its a statue....we all looked at it for 5 minutes and it didn't move, so yes, it was a saffron statue. Dogs are a major attraction....bikers, motorcyclists all slow down to observe these 2 creatures, one brown, one black, 8 inches high and about 4 feet long...they have never seen anything like this and are fascinated. The dogs in return are fed up! they want to get off the leash and run up the mountain! Finally Mr. Driver admits there is a problem. NO! Really???? So....what to do now?? We are 100 kms from our destination, on a mad highway with trucks speeding, no sign of civilization for miles around, except for a hill with a temple and a statue and the light is slowly fading.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As luck would have it, a motorbike stops by to admire the pooches, 2 dhoti clad guys sitting astride, utterly fascinated by J and L. They ask dog related questions and then realize we are stranded. By now the statue has also come down the hill - you guessed right, it was no statue, it was a real live swamiji and a minute ago out of the corner of my eye I had seen something orange come sliding down the hill. And then in true Indian fashion the bike guys tell Raga to hop on the bike, they'll take him to a village 5 kms away, he can rent a couple of cabs and come back! So off Raga goes with them, sitting in the middle with these 2 guys! If I wasn't so stressed and hysterical by then, I would have seen the fun in it all and taken some pics! I so so regret it now! By now Swamiji had clucked and sympathized and had offered us his temple as sanctuary for the night. And as if to entertain us he told us his life story ending with the fact that he had no money, just the land his temple was built on and what good was that???? So my dad gave him some cash and off he went, swinging his incense burner pot back and forth....into the setting sun!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Raga called to say he had reached the village and was making arrangements for a couple of cabs. But before that he and his accomplices were caught by a cop for riding "triples" on a motorbike, and after a Bollywood like chase through the paddy fields of the village, they managed to throw the cop off their trail. At 6.45 or so he returned with a large SUV and a mechanic to help get the van fixed. It took us quite a while to transfer all our stuff from one van to the other, but finally amidst a lot of noise, confusion, chaos, dog barking and dim lighting, we managed. We had had enough of the van, so we paid the guy what was due till then, said adieu to him and took off for Bangalore all tightly packed like sardines in the SUV.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We zipped along for the first 60kms or so and then we hit Bangalore city like a brick wall. The city's traffic is rotten! (It never was like that but has become so in recent times). The roads are all dug up to make way for the metro, existing roads are narrow, there is no sidewalk to speak of...add to all this unruly drivers and ineffectual cops and you have a total mess. We plodded along the remaining 30-40 kms and after a lot of phone calling and meandering arrived at our </span><a href="http://geesehaven.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">homestay</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> at 10.30pm - 14 hours after we left Hyderabad!! WHEW!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The villa was wonderful.....gorgeously landscaped, beautifully lit lawns, nice big rooms and a dining table all laid out with dinner for us. We freshened up, and then sat down for dinner....laughing at our adventure for the day and being grateful for inquisitive passers by. I was still a bit stressed, but the nice meal helped a lot. The dogs were ravenous and scarfed their dinner down. Poor guys - little did they know this was just a prelude to their BIG plane adventure coming up soon.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">March 31st, April 1st: Chilling at the Farm:</span></b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next 2 days were spent at the homestay/farm, gearing up both mentally and physically for the flight to Seattle. Raga spent his time alternating between the laptop and the hammock, drinking inordinate amounts of fresh coconut water and then eating tender coconut meat, provided by the ever obliging manservant around, Rajender.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBWeTch5no_LGo4vBd8o_c3xEhoEpeAxq0fc-clATEVbdNoj99inU2Uzhp3pFzTUJh3Sjr2k_352Xwzf3X2dFucXZESLPWKXMC0FpbmI6DkLjarC2v9Y0L2RGGbZdsh3G7uef/s1600/IMG_8885.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBWeTch5no_LGo4vBd8o_c3xEhoEpeAxq0fc-clATEVbdNoj99inU2Uzhp3pFzTUJh3Sjr2k_352Xwzf3X2dFucXZESLPWKXMC0FpbmI6DkLjarC2v9Y0L2RGGbZdsh3G7uef/s640/IMG_8885.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My dad took long walks around the farm and then napped on the hammock to reenergize himself.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jMmyUQKRbH0o-JuUlbYUMhTpSaCKN6ITCU0CzvwSx7fe_LwcdYGlcWWfn6MyD-6ONowToiwvbJu_Yish0q0vXuA05t_yxzHTzhG4Y9jXa2VlBJqjYInGzbxO-VqXk0O-2y-U/s1600/IMG_8901.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jMmyUQKRbH0o-JuUlbYUMhTpSaCKN6ITCU0CzvwSx7fe_LwcdYGlcWWfn6MyD-6ONowToiwvbJu_Yish0q0vXuA05t_yxzHTzhG4Y9jXa2VlBJqjYInGzbxO-VqXk0O-2y-U/s640/IMG_8901.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM0oHI1KpCZR_-zDrbZWV7HcSDY4ZJJhRrFowdirbaR7vm0vqfj1EvSqWBL-dHhF83vWbkOiIREh6oSA-iIf0bmOY2KwmzhWA7E3pdYAFdi9BcTWr2p8npmiM3_mZdtPAEDCHF/s1600/IMG_8903.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM0oHI1KpCZR_-zDrbZWV7HcSDY4ZJJhRrFowdirbaR7vm0vqfj1EvSqWBL-dHhF83vWbkOiIREh6oSA-iIf0bmOY2KwmzhWA7E3pdYAFdi9BcTWr2p8npmiM3_mZdtPAEDCHF/s640/IMG_8903.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a restful 2 days, one that my nerves badly needed after the harrowing road trip. My mom and I spent time admiring the flora and fauna, chatting with the folks there and just hanging out.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT335hOVMKSL5I5kiJ7hCgY7mbZrsFn7oW0Sgl-oZHxJwdxxvRD4ETR-BRLprugZjnIXhMgFNHqkuL0Gxm0ZVRfuQnnD2PxJGb0TwxwrY2ln9zhf2KJpna3htpKwrRR4MCIyBf/s1600/IMG_8899.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT335hOVMKSL5I5kiJ7hCgY7mbZrsFn7oW0Sgl-oZHxJwdxxvRD4ETR-BRLprugZjnIXhMgFNHqkuL0Gxm0ZVRfuQnnD2PxJGb0TwxwrY2ln9zhf2KJpna3htpKwrRR4MCIyBf/s640/IMG_8899.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQ3pYTejRLBm68-bpampSDa30SbdAF6uA9tmu4aE9weyuvdwevuvgPj6hZrfdVYA3zClZz7fTaHk-eW1oC1IQeF1P0LjokXWW5PidnBQIVCdpOn2tzi4p5BaqCE92f8QvLtwq/s1600/IMG_8900.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQ3pYTejRLBm68-bpampSDa30SbdAF6uA9tmu4aE9weyuvdwevuvgPj6hZrfdVYA3zClZz7fTaHk-eW1oC1IQeF1P0LjokXWW5PidnBQIVCdpOn2tzi4p5BaqCE92f8QvLtwq/s640/IMG_8900.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Sunday evening, we got our things ready and left for the airport at 8pm, for our 2.30 flight. Why so early?? Well, 2 reasons. One is the legendary Bangalore traffic and there was no telling how long it would take. Opinions ranged from 1 to 3 hours and we were not about to take a chance. Second, we had the dogs and didn't know exactly how long the checking in process would be for them. Sure enough it took us about 2 hours to get there.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a very sad goodbye to my parents, Raga and I went in with the dogs. we wanted to delay putting them in their crates for as long as we could, but once we entered the airport, there was no choice. They were not happy and barked their heads off. It sounded deafening to me but when I looked around no one seemed really bothered. After a lot of checking this and that, and a lot of stickers getting stuck on their crates - weight, name, priority labels, addresses etc - the ticketing guy told Raga their crates had to be scanned. So R took them to another area and I waited for him to bring them back so I could say my byes to them. But he came back about 20 minutes later and said they had been whisked away... :-(</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was devastated!!! I had not got a chance to kiss them and say my byes. It took me a good 10 minutes to get over that and I dragged myself to our own security process.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we finally boarded at 2am, I handed the flight attendants a box of chocolates, along with a pic of the dogs and a letter telling them our dogs were on board and to please let me know when they were boarded. The reason we flew Lufthansa was because I had heard repeatedly that they were great with pets, and they did not disappoint. They told me when they were loaded, they kept us updated on the cargo cabin temp, and reassured me they would be fine.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So all I could do was trust them and try to relax over the next 2 legs! Easier said than done!</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">April 2nd: Bangalore - Frankfurt - Seattle:</span></span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How ironic is it that the first time I get to fly business class I am too worried to enjoy one bit of it??? Yes, that's exactly the case.......seats that reclined all the way back flat, an awesome entertainment system, gourmet food, unending drinks in crystal cut glass, personal attention...all were utterly wasted on me. I was too freaked out and depressed about the dogs being on the cargo hold. No amount of updates by the cabin crew and friendly reassurance would help....I hardly ate or drank anything and I just could not concentrate enough to watch a movie. I alternated between some vague music channels and news shows trying to get my mind off of them. I imagined every possible wretched scenario....dogs not getting loaded at Frankfurt and being left behind, them freezing in the cold below, crates rolling about in the turbulence and their getting hurt. I wondered if they thought we had abandoned them??? The last I remember was looking at them through the crate opening...Lucy, all wide eyed in wonder and bewilderment, Junglee's eyes sad and teary??? Basically, I was a basket case. Raga I know was equally worried, but he would not show it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our flight landed in Frankfurt a bit late, so instead of a 1 1/2 hr layover, it was 1hr 10 minutes and that did nothing to help the situation. We raced to the gate, and even with that it took us a good 20 minutes. I refused to board till I knew for sure the dogs had been transferred on to this plane. After a lot of calls the ticketing agent said yes, they had. So we got on the bus that took us to the plane. There we noticed a cargo guy hanging around and Raga accosted him and got confirmation from him too. Then we did the same chocolates, letter routine with the crew on this flight and we got FINAL confirmation that they had been loaded. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next 10 hours was a blur. Every minute seemed an eternity. And then at 11.30am, after flying over the magnificent Cascade Mountains, we landed! I almost screamed in relief! </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Yd9F3XVKV2xF4jUlvafz_ekPdrBaVRUDQm_-dqK-xkDrJBHWkf1eUprWEbAX_kpIT8ILdtPack7ekMF1xa9SYmidA4Lxhwp0CFsHDgKeXO3DpkPI7fqITBO-jdmBbhIHA5cv/s1600/IMG_8911.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Yd9F3XVKV2xF4jUlvafz_ekPdrBaVRUDQm_-dqK-xkDrJBHWkf1eUprWEbAX_kpIT8ILdtPack7ekMF1xa9SYmidA4Lxhwp0CFsHDgKeXO3DpkPI7fqITBO-jdmBbhIHA5cv/s640/IMG_8911.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The immigration process took less than 5 minutes, clearing the doggie paperwork another 5 minutes and then we got our baggage. That took a while and in the meantime we were notified that J and L would be at the domestic belt carousel for us to collect. My son and SIL were there at that terminal so I called and told them to watch out for them. Fortunately they were delivered just after we collected our baggage. I was expecting to see them all sad and curled up wondering what was going on....but they emerged tails wagging and barking with joy at seeing us. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a great reunion, a lot of barking, hugging, kissing, yelping, and I cried again! Yes, i did a lot of crying on this trip.....</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6xu-yKAh9lZC4R7zXJ_BnEW1C2cbnM7rJUbIr7XBbomYwALp1dk6Gtn7uVraqTmnSApQn6a5qOstnHWcLI8vZYrKy7jxqA3VuADge9Oq_zL8_wEp2Gb5s_e8mdYXdGxLi85kx/s1600/IMG_8912.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6xu-yKAh9lZC4R7zXJ_BnEW1C2cbnM7rJUbIr7XBbomYwALp1dk6Gtn7uVraqTmnSApQn6a5qOstnHWcLI8vZYrKy7jxqA3VuADge9Oq_zL8_wEp2Gb5s_e8mdYXdGxLi85kx/s640/IMG_8912.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM5W_wiPiDuj7bl6P6Agcthd2jl0WFeIkiUSH_Fim4hP3GiH6d1hj47ElzKQvtG_AkR6S7xHoI3UyWS10HoRhOrz5zRmt1bkhtdpwWYG5Hb32o4ldsdHsp5_rzBP6uBJScmcQs/s1600/IMG_8914.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM5W_wiPiDuj7bl6P6Agcthd2jl0WFeIkiUSH_Fim4hP3GiH6d1hj47ElzKQvtG_AkR6S7xHoI3UyWS10HoRhOrz5zRmt1bkhtdpwWYG5Hb32o4ldsdHsp5_rzBP6uBJScmcQs/s640/IMG_8914.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIzNgHgktB1mPCj8wxdBHMhhzEWl39Q4uJxrwIAKGMHCetunAPxv52aEy8SMlmhf67TrDU89ZgvBbHa3NoDfoac5qTn9YxLTxxnqZTBHGL2s8twnMXBMYU_CikdYhLMyiEJ0r/s1600/IMG_8915.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIzNgHgktB1mPCj8wxdBHMhhzEWl39Q4uJxrwIAKGMHCetunAPxv52aEy8SMlmhf67TrDU89ZgvBbHa3NoDfoac5qTn9YxLTxxnqZTBHGL2s8twnMXBMYU_CikdYhLMyiEJ0r/s640/IMG_8915.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> And after another session of loading our mountains of luggage into the rental van, we headed home.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">April 3rd to April 6th: Settling in at Alki:</span></b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since we got here we have been busy settling into our new temporary rental home. </span><a href="http://saffronandsilk.blogspot.com/2010/09/fabulous-2-week-wedding-blur.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gautam and Andy </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">were here for 3 days and that was a huge help. They dog-sat while we ran around getting stuff done. Its a small 2 br/1 ba cottage sort of thing on Alki Ave. Alki is a beach community cos its right on the water.....and is a popular place for Seattleites when the weather gets nice and warm. You'll see a million dogs being walked, a lot of folks skating and roller blading, and a ton of joggers and walkers. We used to live just </span><a href="http://gb73.blogspot.com/2010/06/home-tour-kaminis-home-in-seattle.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">about a 1/2 mile from this place</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> a few years ago, so we know the area well. A 2 minute walk will take you to some of the best restaurants in town.....and Starbucks is a minute away. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The dogs are in culture shock. They're saying "Its too damn cold, you cannot just bark indiscriminately at people going by, this house is too small, where is our doggie door for us to go in and out, what's up with these sterile sidewalks and why do we have to wear our collars all the time, why is my mistress picking up our poop instead of Krishna the watchman????? But we do like our master and mistress taking us for walks instead of him" :-)</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The front of the house</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnFLcC06_8XQC3ibKiotoAHy2DxmQ5DPNP803Ma43ymEDev-h15Sev9UZwlNdKD41ru8ugIJ6yVS9ol83NOOOuXplHLXFHm8dNgrAhyLdC7MAiEoFgV0IO1RSwJSyIo6L5VVS/s1600/IMG_8917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnFLcC06_8XQC3ibKiotoAHy2DxmQ5DPNP803Ma43ymEDev-h15Sev9UZwlNdKD41ru8ugIJ6yVS9ol83NOOOuXplHLXFHm8dNgrAhyLdC7MAiEoFgV0IO1RSwJSyIo6L5VVS/s640/IMG_8917.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTP98mR5Ai458h52Lp94Bm2xbT_1mBsWYEm4U83o2J52YJ1HEAlZ5huHWhd0muqzwDPHQLrcW0AqwWr0Cg5VPwzGau8SpCEsyl1_VJRrviBpksKakV5KUkD0JddCwV6S5yhGo5/s1600/IMG_8918.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTP98mR5Ai458h52Lp94Bm2xbT_1mBsWYEm4U83o2J52YJ1HEAlZ5huHWhd0muqzwDPHQLrcW0AqwWr0Cg5VPwzGau8SpCEsyl1_VJRrviBpksKakV5KUkD0JddCwV6S5yhGo5/s640/IMG_8918.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The magnolia tree in our neighbor's place</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOGbQzNb7BsWFuvDirsS5-WSyQegubmMAmmIcX5Nk7imHLXyMfPWLMO-sPvc5ZpY3Xo5F07Wg_nXiGyryqrxOrtzCCTlq5ksO0SN_u7nI-nB5WJU8IdWxuREnRGkOQmy_NXtd/s1600/IMG_8919.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOGbQzNb7BsWFuvDirsS5-WSyQegubmMAmmIcX5Nk7imHLXyMfPWLMO-sPvc5ZpY3Xo5F07Wg_nXiGyryqrxOrtzCCTlq5ksO0SN_u7nI-nB5WJU8IdWxuREnRGkOQmy_NXtd/s640/IMG_8919.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I know what Junglee is thinking...."finally a sunny day after that nasty cold and wind"</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvedook6hr79mBa6QL9-kInvSbW5KzhMxQ2njx0rXeD-hEBtL4ijqJpRLD-6Mnf7xuRcWtrGqmoj4y2oNv8YMsF8nfr4uO6lzvro-o6CgXRTVaVbxtMiqW2ymoEfWJLs0SbH_x/s1600/IMG_8920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvedook6hr79mBa6QL9-kInvSbW5KzhMxQ2njx0rXeD-hEBtL4ijqJpRLD-6Mnf7xuRcWtrGqmoj4y2oNv8YMsF8nfr4uO6lzvro-o6CgXRTVaVbxtMiqW2ymoEfWJLs0SbH_x/s640/IMG_8920.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Where the dogs hang out watching people walk by</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmusNnZJBDg8IbwueZ6uM8zF6mNfi6kOSRD-5XbOuZ7Vl00kGp2seLSRsZXCrOfVa91xDuSBHlYzKpv_tnYgtLtg_213VXqQpLxDxYGfBqabrElIlbMFePQm_8DH54TcdQsjQx/s1600/IMG_8922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmusNnZJBDg8IbwueZ6uM8zF6mNfi6kOSRD-5XbOuZ7Vl00kGp2seLSRsZXCrOfVa91xDuSBHlYzKpv_tnYgtLtg_213VXqQpLxDxYGfBqabrElIlbMFePQm_8DH54TcdQsjQx/s640/IMG_8922.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> A tiny little office area</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDl2BSUsDCkcTsYpLL8kG8-WvJjnisp0NdfFA48fEoorLcBCZKze7h7BJgvrP2WU1wvc_a2UXvKIhpWWEBYv_rJafBdBBgyGae0gOX1Dz160CPkiM8ZD6FbxgNJzzvUOy3Dul/s1600/IMG_8923.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDl2BSUsDCkcTsYpLL8kG8-WvJjnisp0NdfFA48fEoorLcBCZKze7h7BJgvrP2WU1wvc_a2UXvKIhpWWEBYv_rJafBdBBgyGae0gOX1Dz160CPkiM8ZD6FbxgNJzzvUOy3Dul/s640/IMG_8923.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Shabby chic meets Seattle coastal</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeUQJftXX1D0xnoc4JpdjXTP9-ERZiZsTT7jOwVghS_sf_YvJSrT6cqGKugOvSNM8jJjM7d9cP1zcSEIAfR66ZGiOoYox5cX79r_7iEdHfbha-QW5r1_VTC5tkV2fOEClWMwZ3/s1600/IMG_8924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeUQJftXX1D0xnoc4JpdjXTP9-ERZiZsTT7jOwVghS_sf_YvJSrT6cqGKugOvSNM8jJjM7d9cP1zcSEIAfR66ZGiOoYox5cX79r_7iEdHfbha-QW5r1_VTC5tkV2fOEClWMwZ3/s640/IMG_8924.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ATxEKAEhyphenhyphenMuMEcdIeHz82HOc7lfvbqYhsPN0XLT_L76VFGc8gl82tvyF4HbKScJFJQdN4KdhZpmmDZmRNj0h9R6gl2q2cxId2lTBq0QI7kntAJeC8yktT_UQwPMdwR6fcefE/s1600/IMG_8925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ATxEKAEhyphenhyphenMuMEcdIeHz82HOc7lfvbqYhsPN0XLT_L76VFGc8gl82tvyF4HbKScJFJQdN4KdhZpmmDZmRNj0h9R6gl2q2cxId2lTBq0QI7kntAJeC8yktT_UQwPMdwR6fcefE/s640/IMG_8925.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Cottage kitchen</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JkmYnDEBf_UBSzxn6DDCPS2Ryqa_kL8EvlSKk5DM6IOHegswOPm-BOZQ4c9CfF9TTcuUrI6BM_GuZDCK2DHSHrP2s4gR3j9e-4FJ9ki9nDPLjvp5s1EoOKf16pl5wr9ul9dj/s1600/IMG_8926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JkmYnDEBf_UBSzxn6DDCPS2Ryqa_kL8EvlSKk5DM6IOHegswOPm-BOZQ4c9CfF9TTcuUrI6BM_GuZDCK2DHSHrP2s4gR3j9e-4FJ9ki9nDPLjvp5s1EoOKf16pl5wr9ul9dj/s640/IMG_8926.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Kitchen with laundry room beyond</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QSZs1dcQ57GVP0o6-9iy2FgV3j2xLY-c8tlxE7W2WweWlDDK4OushEVaxgXlrjmBwJCCT5VDUcpKfrxuwVouIJyneACqmEjP1D_r2_8gZCMOIrK1jkopjobkiKGKggu1oxMX/s1600/IMG_8927.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9QSZs1dcQ57GVP0o6-9iy2FgV3j2xLY-c8tlxE7W2WweWlDDK4OushEVaxgXlrjmBwJCCT5VDUcpKfrxuwVouIJyneACqmEjP1D_r2_8gZCMOIrK1jkopjobkiKGKggu1oxMX/s640/IMG_8927.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Its definitely not my style of decor, but a furnished house which allowed pets was hard to find. Plus we know the area well, so we didn't protest too much. This will be our home for the next couple of months. I've stocked up the kitchen and am looking forward to cooking with all those fabulous organic veggies available here. I've signed up for Zumba and yoga. Raga has a brand new car and has started work. Another week of fooling around for me and then I go back to blogging for </span><a href="http://www.saffronmarigold.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saffron Marigold</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> after my 3 month break. Thank goodness because I need something to do. And of course </span><a href="http://www.saffronandsilk.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saffron and Silk </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">will be up and running again. </span><br />
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</div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-59470068239077215142011-12-04T10:50:00.000+05:302011-12-04T10:50:02.657+05:30Seattle to Atlanta<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">25th October to 4th November<br />
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The travel gods are still mad at us.......<br />
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So after a brief introductory visit to Seattle, we head off to Atlanta and our flight was delayed - again - by 3 hrs. But by now we've learned to take these things in our stride, so we just relaxed, people watched, played "what do you think this man/woman does for a living" airport game, and boarded 3 hrs later.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv4A9ALNC_zH7LLIdMpUrPlzpnyV4rHvmV-5qEPyynxqgPAPqVawU1Y4aRaVRJbynnr3SaZHNpUMK73515325D7n28ux0DwhYAbot2kZcJ6cOuTNhLt-s8aMUbv2SecDcx-0v4/s1600/IMG_8052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv4A9ALNC_zH7LLIdMpUrPlzpnyV4rHvmV-5qEPyynxqgPAPqVawU1Y4aRaVRJbynnr3SaZHNpUMK73515325D7n28ux0DwhYAbot2kZcJ6cOuTNhLt-s8aMUbv2SecDcx-0v4/s640/IMG_8052.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>{<i>A brief side note here - Some of you may not know but Atlanta was the very first city we moved to in the US in 1984. My husband came to do his PhD at the Univ. of Georgia, and I tagged along - a young sort-of-blushing bride with a 2 yr old!!! My memories of Atlanta are pretty dim cos after 9 months there we moved to Seattle......so all I remember was being terribly homesick, astounded that I had to do all the house cleaning myself, and our outings were basically limited to the apartment - campus - KMart triangle!!!!</i>}<br />
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So I really didn't know what to expect, but I was certainly not expecting a city full of gorgeous Southern brick and stone homes a la Tara from Gone with the Wind, wide open roads lined with fall colored trees, people bursting with happiness and cheer, 70 degree weather in November and some good old fashioned jazz and blues wafting out from taverns and restaurants serving up good old fashioned Southern fare! I loved it!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI59oHAZX_sQ8ecRECjEVQtzh9VwOSbkkmBPxMuff8g3Bg-QejReVKIqPqf74nzX41WayL5Phgkjenr2hzWgDYKyq5XFQWW8Y8OaXo52mIVDO0VzWTt-5MzLVtQueON59xgdav/s1600/IMG_8106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI59oHAZX_sQ8ecRECjEVQtzh9VwOSbkkmBPxMuff8g3Bg-QejReVKIqPqf74nzX41WayL5Phgkjenr2hzWgDYKyq5XFQWW8Y8OaXo52mIVDO0VzWTt-5MzLVtQueON59xgdav/s640/IMG_8106.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>Over the next few days with my brother-in-law and his wife, we toured the<a href="http://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/"> Coke museum,</a> got high on at least a 100 different caffeinated drinks, toured the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/tour/">CNN studio</a> where I was really hoping for an Anderson Cooper sighting, took the funicular up Stone Mountain, ate good food and spent some great family time together. My favorite was an evening of jazz at <a href="http://www.cafe290atlanta.com/">this tavern</a> listenening to jazz master Reggie Hines mesmerize us with the saxophone! We four were the only non African Americans but we were so warmly welcomed and everyone was just having so much unfettered foot tapping fun, we felt right at home!<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQBPi9aRk2ANUXT_QIyDTsnXbhR9Mjfum6zG9pC001arnNzXxb1snExMley4VqitrP336OBNd4su5UJsg0DcTxVrqTW5za_Z-8FuLwDfLsJ35bstcToLNaTJ4rIIH1x44fZPC/s1600/IMG_8136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQBPi9aRk2ANUXT_QIyDTsnXbhR9Mjfum6zG9pC001arnNzXxb1snExMley4VqitrP336OBNd4su5UJsg0DcTxVrqTW5za_Z-8FuLwDfLsJ35bstcToLNaTJ4rIIH1x44fZPC/s640/IMG_8136.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH1tHuwAJLHEMMa6OpFKiEnSif8ybx4Axq1llzZzsnMf14EvgOLuY3T_G6Vkb75Gey2CbsIYJO2Bqdpw0mVutYiQUDF991G7hJDaB5Is3FnqK-H32P7n1a1TPqb3bbEK4lNT3U/s1600/IMG_8093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH1tHuwAJLHEMMa6OpFKiEnSif8ybx4Axq1llzZzsnMf14EvgOLuY3T_G6Vkb75Gey2CbsIYJO2Bqdpw0mVutYiQUDF991G7hJDaB5Is3FnqK-H32P7n1a1TPqb3bbEK4lNT3U/s640/IMG_8093.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>On my last day I took some pics of my SIL's townhome.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfzXdPC5Ru1aqO96qTzbrowPJZwi_4a6W5EVu5Efz_lsWyNPAzilCFmz7Z8TnNd73dLLAPSb8Uyvgm0-jN70ERH51nk9SQwOW61V5hn1xBNcXt8GD9QZKLliURo5syd27B0qB/s1600/IMG_8119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfzXdPC5Ru1aqO96qTzbrowPJZwi_4a6W5EVu5Efz_lsWyNPAzilCFmz7Z8TnNd73dLLAPSb8Uyvgm0-jN70ERH51nk9SQwOW61V5hn1xBNcXt8GD9QZKLliURo5syd27B0qB/s640/IMG_8119.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjXB1GNAyEL7kC8vHr9y36dVmDLQZ4ee6XZxLJ3BDVmYxPnX5GkWOY4ahO-1lrrl61WI5CAITBBMKPFvohio6jLSw0T4tyRt93HI8yQe3GkolhpGV1qtzxV_Q9OpESVoYyD2Qf/s1600/IMG_8143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjXB1GNAyEL7kC8vHr9y36dVmDLQZ4ee6XZxLJ3BDVmYxPnX5GkWOY4ahO-1lrrl61WI5CAITBBMKPFvohio6jLSw0T4tyRt93HI8yQe3GkolhpGV1qtzxV_Q9OpESVoYyD2Qf/s400/IMG_8143.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Some gorgeous art work done by my SIL's sister-in-law - <a href="http://rangdecor.blogspot.com/">Archana of Rang Decor</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZJqqkSDEdH2H0RKVfNjpeXQaPOcbgFRQTnG0WksSwqgxepXG20XUjsr38B7MaFUtBLoHZIO1L2WBfNb2hY1311fgteoROZGntPbiit3QU7ABuAcnh3Zyk5yQjIb5MThrubA7/s1600/IMG_8147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZJqqkSDEdH2H0RKVfNjpeXQaPOcbgFRQTnG0WksSwqgxepXG20XUjsr38B7MaFUtBLoHZIO1L2WBfNb2hY1311fgteoROZGntPbiit3QU7ABuAcnh3Zyk5yQjIb5MThrubA7/s400/IMG_8147.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_D0IhyphenhyphenC9tHfaN65ZC7PoFqqknLtNCPuG3YzWGeWSPydqfeLe6bVZHOCcZ8EkNE3PQwoZWOrlbqasNdqnoRYp-toUxVLOdR4IHuCDCKP0wtYsilWmjUHZp58DQZJUr6G-rsU6/s1600/IMG_8148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_D0IhyphenhyphenC9tHfaN65ZC7PoFqqknLtNCPuG3YzWGeWSPydqfeLe6bVZHOCcZ8EkNE3PQwoZWOrlbqasNdqnoRYp-toUxVLOdR4IHuCDCKP0wtYsilWmjUHZp58DQZJUr6G-rsU6/s400/IMG_8148.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">On the wall behind the sofa is artwork done by by SIL's sister-in-law.....moi! :-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTLwzmLJ2bP5vL_520TssUFBy5_jh1jSN2dQeHI6Hj06QwcmMnKPDuUEPPZmVkqvMao0QtWyEedEurHXwra2xmS75NvyJGGbeTiDJx3mjaZRv2ocrusYwG47QRMOcR0nlKlWY/s1600/IMG_8153.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTLwzmLJ2bP5vL_520TssUFBy5_jh1jSN2dQeHI6Hj06QwcmMnKPDuUEPPZmVkqvMao0QtWyEedEurHXwra2xmS75NvyJGGbeTiDJx3mjaZRv2ocrusYwG47QRMOcR0nlKlWY/s400/IMG_8153.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGuIWY2SCftSLkAiqnKBKS22-52eVo3X6E5lXZd_TperbEnQ6hm-mCmYFlb17qkLAgb41dcK7CzKCY3vrk4ZFddLPA5CFl2pqKIKCnyH-0HdJbuAPACMKc1GlH9vWN9gsUGM5-/s1600/IMG_8155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGuIWY2SCftSLkAiqnKBKS22-52eVo3X6E5lXZd_TperbEnQ6hm-mCmYFlb17qkLAgb41dcK7CzKCY3vrk4ZFddLPA5CFl2pqKIKCnyH-0HdJbuAPACMKc1GlH9vWN9gsUGM5-/s640/IMG_8155.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So that was our 10 day stay in Atlanta. I have decided its my next fav city after Seattle and DC! I have also decided Anderson Cooper is not as cool as I thought cos I discovered he is now hosting a daytime Jerry Springer like talk show which I happened to catch a bit of!!! I am so disappointed!</div><br />
</div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-57586647875941427442011-10-26T19:18:00.002+05:302011-10-26T19:25:35.408+05:30Autumn in Seattle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">21st October to 24th October, 2011:<br />
<br />
I love Seattle! Its cold, its wet and rainy....but this city has just grown on me.<br />
<br />
The last 4 days we spent getting reacquainted with this city, like catching up with an old friend. Its freeway system, its quirky weather (rain one minute, brilliant sun the next), its gazillion parks, the floating bridge, the fall colors at the Arboretum, Husky stadium....were all there waiting for us.<br />
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Seattle does not have fall colors like the East Coast, but I saw some gorgeous splashes of red and orange colors I had to take pictures of.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We met up with lots of friends, ate good food and exchanged news from the past years. I went to Trader Joes and oohed and aahed like an Indian tourist....even though I had shopped there so many times in the past.</div><br />
In other words, I had a lot of fun. We'll be back here in Seattle in about 3 weeks time, I have still so many things to do and friends to visit. </div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-86442184564391247072011-10-25T04:54:00.002+05:302011-10-26T19:19:24.514+05:30First stop Seattle!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">20th October, 2011: India to US!</span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Murphy's Law: "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". </span></span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Smart man this </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project who said this. He must have known a thing or two about British Airways!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So our vacation got off to a brilliantly nerve racking start. After umpteen bye byes and a million kisses to my doggies, we left home at 3am for a 6.45am flight. About a half mile from home I hesitantly asked Raga if he had all the necessary paperwork, passports, visas etc. (I say "hesitantly" cos you know how defensive and belligerent these men folk get when you question their ability to remember important stuff like that.....) Well, in this case it was a good thing cos he checked his bag and realized he had forgotten our old US passports which has our Indian visa stamped on it and which we will forever have to carry with us like 2 extra appendages!!!! 3 years ago we forgot to take it with us and were almost denied entry back into India and got threatened with deportation. I am not joking. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Well, back we went. The gate had been locked, my mother had cajoled the pooches back into the house....and here we were ringing the bell again! Doggies came running and all excited, they have no idea of time and thought we were back from vacation... :-( So after another round of byes and kisses, off we went to the airport. We got there around 4am and as we approached the BA counter were kindly handed a note saying the flight had been delayed an hour and 15 minutes! Huzzah!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">The kind but inefficient man behind the counter told us we would be missing our connecting flight at Heathrow. NO, really???? So they would be re-routing us via Denver. Hyderabad - Heathrow - Denver - Seattle. We didn't argue...I mean, if that's the only choice we have how can we? We really should have paid close attention to the timings but we didn't. (You'll understand why later). So after the ritual of checking in and security we went to the departure lounge. BA folks - kind people - had told us we could use our boarding passes for free breakfast at Indian Paradise! Yippee. So dutifully we went and stood in line...a long twisty line. For a brief moment I felt like Oliver Twist.....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Well, we got our breakfast. A plasticky tray thingy with 2 idlis, a vada, some chutney and sambar. For those new to Indian cuisine, this is a very typical South Indian breakfast. In normal circumstances very delicious and satisfying. But at 6am with slightly frayed nerves and the thought of an impending long "3 more flights to go" journey ahead...it was neither. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidTLCW93blPTAfJf5b5TLAuYQg7DNYClW8nhrrKhEC8Cc1xiomG21D4tyMWHS8tlf2AlKMOjN1NZqd58dXtgGCbHesaPiuuGW03fInFe__VvkIyhOInCuNDMD27Q-ypocwDi6J/s1600/IMG_8038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidTLCW93blPTAfJf5b5TLAuYQg7DNYClW8nhrrKhEC8Cc1xiomG21D4tyMWHS8tlf2AlKMOjN1NZqd58dXtgGCbHesaPiuuGW03fInFe__VvkIyhOInCuNDMD27Q-ypocwDi6J/s400/IMG_8038.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Then we headed off to wait for the flight, boarded at 7.30 or so and soon were airborne! The flight to Heathrow was nothing great. I mean I know no flight is, but this was even more uninteresting. The entertainment system was down till about 4 hrs into the flight, the plane rattled with every turbulent thermal bounce, Raga didn't understand a word the British attendants spoke so I kept translating. Our vegan food requests somehow became vegetarian food requests...so we pecked at it. The only saving grace was that it was only a half full flight, so we had plenty of room to stretch out and snooze which I promptly did. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Fast forward 10 hours...we land at Heathrow. Its now almost 2pm London time. We get off and look for our Heathrow Denver boarding passes....ummm...not finding them. We look again, in the bags, coat pockets, we go back into the flight...maybe its in the front seat....we look everywhere...nothing! So after a "you had them"..."no, you had them" dialogue, we go to the BA counter and get new ones. But, we have plenty of time. Its 2.30pm, flight is at 4pm. So we hang around biding time and we hear the boarding call for the LHR Seattle flight WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON!!!! DAMN! Too late for that now I figured cursing British Airways. So to calm myself I got a Starbucks Soy Caramel Macchiatto. Whatever Howard Schulz envisioned his coffee drinks to do, one thing they can do is soothe a frazzled nerve! Ahhh....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">We board our next flight on time....Newer plane, only half full so plenty of room, entertainment system working, food smelling good...all seems well! But when food time finally rolls around we realize that not only has our vegan food request not been conveyed, even the vegetarian options are slim pickings!! We even get offered a chicken caesar sandwich.....huh? So once again we pick and peck at the meals and nibble at the peripherals.....enough to keep body and soul together. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipArC4NqtCk5fxsCEemOmxSEH3UQxVXd1XOkISsJQbAiKhyphenhyphenFK7120PqHWRc56YsXMqfwYWxmwyLoOhZuZkkDCAqBygrT87_SPgPHfYEYPa_fEwelHqlpZPdpvcu9pcvgEUPjy/s1600/IMG_8039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipArC4NqtCk5fxsCEemOmxSEH3UQxVXd1XOkISsJQbAiKhyphenhyphenFK7120PqHWRc56YsXMqfwYWxmwyLoOhZuZkkDCAqBygrT87_SPgPHfYEYPa_fEwelHqlpZPdpvcu9pcvgEUPjy/s400/IMG_8039.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So between bouts of sleeping and movie watching the 10 hours roll by. As we get ready to land at Denver I realize the flight is half hour late and instead of landing at 6.30pm we are now landing at 7pm. Our connecting flight is at 7.40pm - you do the math. In 40 minutes we have to disembark, get the baggage, clear immigration and customs, go to the US airways counter, check in and board! Even my 2 doggies can figure out that is not going to happen! So I ask the head flight attendant if they can get us out of the plane first, I've seen that being done before. He declines. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">British Airways fail!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So we get off as usual, 33 rows after the rest, and head off to immigration. Again I ask stern customs official if he can expedite matters for us. I've been told they look stern but they are actually teddy bears. That, my friends, is not true, cos he gave me the glinty eye and told me to wait my turn!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So we get thru immigration. Time - 7.25pm...all I hear is tick tick tick, this deafening sound in my head. Off we go to baggage and get our bags at 7.40. We clear customs - time is 7.45pm. Seattle flight bye bye! We head on up to the 6th floor to the ticketing counters to see what our options are and happen to see on one monitor that the Seattle flight is 15 mins late and is leaving at 8pm. We race to the US airways counter and plead with counter man. He does not budge and tells us to go to the Continental counter and get on the 9.30 flight. By now I am hopping mad so I say go to hell, and head off to the BA counter to whine and complain! Its pretty sleepy all around but we catch a lady there...and I vituperate! I rant and complain about everything and insist BA needs to put us up for the night cos I am not going to go knock on my friends door at 1am in the morning, so how about they give us a nice hotel room and put us on a morning flight to Seattle....she listens and nods and tsk tsks sympathetically and then hands me gift vouchers for 50% off at Marriot!!! Ok, so when is the Continental flight leaving???? 9.30pm? OK.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">So back we go to the Cont. counter, I make sure they do not charge us for baggage which should have gone straight thru to Seattle - by now word has spread - there is a raving Indian lunatic woman at Denver airport!!!! While waiting to board I call my Seattle friend and tell her we'll be there in the wee hours of the morning. Then I call our car rental agency to make sure they hold the car for us....they tell me I should get there by 11pm, cos thats when they shut down. I say not possible....flight only landing at 11.30pm. Maybe it was something in my deranged voice or my tone cos she hurriedly said they would transfer our rental to 24hrs open Hertz!!! Whew!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">After all this the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I slept thru the entire 3 hr flight, we landed, picked up our baggage, collected the car and drove to my friend's place and got there at 1am.!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">The good news is things can only get better from now on!!! <strike>Pics of unappetizing meals to follow soon.....</strike></span></span></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-18187587061407649782011-04-13T12:23:00.002+05:302011-04-13T14:09:32.261+05:30Australian Autumn - day 8,9,10<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b><i>April 10th, 11th and 12th:</i></b><br />
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You know this whole business of blogging while vacationing is not a good idea I realize! After a busy day of sightseeing and eating, the last thing one wants to do is come back and write about it.....so in the interest of time, I am consolidating the last 3 days into one post! If a day warrants an entire post devoted to it, then I will do so.<br />
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So where did I leave off? Oh yup, my birthday. Let's move on......<br />
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<b><i>April 10th:</i></b><br />
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Sunday the 10th dawned bright and beautiful so the 4 of us adults drove to the beach a couple of minutes away and went for a walk. A long 2 hour lovely walk along the coast, watching planes swoop in and out of the airport (which is a km away from home), cockatoos screeching in the sky and flying in droves and landing on trees, joggers, runners, walkers, dogs....the usual things one sees along a beach walk. We oohed and aahed at the gorgeous homes along the waterfront. The 2 hrs went by so quick. Then a little shopping stint at an Asian market where my SIL stocked up n all kinds of goodies and then back home. After a quick brunchie thing we headed to the Sydney Wildlife World per my niece's request. She said we simply had to see the world's biggest croc in captivity! So off we went. Parked downtown and took the monorail to the SWW. It was lovely weather...mid 70's, sunny, warm. Place was full of kids all squealing in delight at the animals.<br />
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When we exited the building 2 hrs later it was cold, rainy and windy!!! What happened? We abandoned some other plans we had and scouted around for a good place for lunch. Then headed home and did some sundry things the rest of the day.....watched an Australian classic movie called 'The Castle". Funny stuff!<br />
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<b><i>11th April:</i></b><br />
<br />
Today Raga and I decided to take the train into downtown and check out the area. Got dropped at the Rockdale station, a very helpful ticket agent helped us figure out what tickets we needed to buy - a RT ticket to the museum and back. Got into downtown at the Museum around 10.30. Raga wants me to mention the cool seats on the train which can be slid forward or backwards depending on which way you want to face...his engineer brain loved the idea!!!<br />
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First stop was the <a href="http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/memorials/nsw.html">Anzac Memorial at Sydney</a>. Then a bit further the <a href="http://australianmuseum.net.au/">Australian Museum</a>, a fascinating place to learn the history of this country. What has happened to the indigenous Aborigines is terrible...being deprived of land that is so rightfully theirs in addition to other injustices! Then we went into the St Mary's Cathedral and sat inside in awed silence while a service was going on.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqR0Ft-zghz5IW3C7JTd9oy6chnD3gynQ24hgf5J-h2SOt5NnL_t9lRirW9dBRKtqSD1Ew0i1cTKtiK4i4QbRh4Q2Qm1S17hqxRkM2Hans6qys344nnEgRO_LLw4dOaB9BkWH/s1600/IMG_6923.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqR0Ft-zghz5IW3C7JTd9oy6chnD3gynQ24hgf5J-h2SOt5NnL_t9lRirW9dBRKtqSD1Ew0i1cTKtiK4i4QbRh4Q2Qm1S17hqxRkM2Hans6qys344nnEgRO_LLw4dOaB9BkWH/s400/IMG_6923.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJxb9HEp_bz6pfX6SyXhO31EUiiFTHTMBp_EjEPPqrsDpl1YMKtzXONZuK-zCviE5CskmqC2cYGzi4-72O0GXx6m5Rcf9iAx1NPgYEkbRfIm7hbdmA3prpNnahyphenhyphennqwlPH7pa4/s1600/IMG_6926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJxb9HEp_bz6pfX6SyXhO31EUiiFTHTMBp_EjEPPqrsDpl1YMKtzXONZuK-zCviE5CskmqC2cYGzi4-72O0GXx6m5Rcf9iAx1NPgYEkbRfIm7hbdmA3prpNnahyphenhyphennqwlPH7pa4/s400/IMG_6926.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPv92IOEPGLzWQcR-S8NXKB8k3P3PvPOpA_1mLpxtIRcAUUeg-Eq3w49AiyRSgOF8-KwiWZru7hN1pCcsJeqQLJvCdImQQNUGcCA7X3wT8EqVMdTzZOLdt3R7n9R9RYrY1EgMd/s1600/IMG_6927.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPv92IOEPGLzWQcR-S8NXKB8k3P3PvPOpA_1mLpxtIRcAUUeg-Eq3w49AiyRSgOF8-KwiWZru7hN1pCcsJeqQLJvCdImQQNUGcCA7X3wT8EqVMdTzZOLdt3R7n9R9RYrY1EgMd/s400/IMG_6927.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>After that we walked towards the Opera House stopping here and there along the way of something caught our fancy......the Parliament, The Botanical gardens, the State Library. At one point we saw a native Australian walking ahead of us and Raga stopped him to talk to him and let him know how much he empathized with him and his people. The man - Dan, native name Japadanga - was a bit startled at first, but I think when he realized we meant it, he warmed up and even let us take a pic with him and walked along a bit with us quite chattily.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6pVyYWjybZEzJf9xXP7GJwxXFCXWLXwihq6bpzusHw58_wkQOo7BZAfe3-Vo6WN7Gls-tqhYkOpBitdho6Ms_BPfj8DvoY77OpPEflkk07jvVW2BMndBn_niW9NnuPbFpAy9/s1600/IMG_6929.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6pVyYWjybZEzJf9xXP7GJwxXFCXWLXwihq6bpzusHw58_wkQOo7BZAfe3-Vo6WN7Gls-tqhYkOpBitdho6Ms_BPfj8DvoY77OpPEflkk07jvVW2BMndBn_niW9NnuPbFpAy9/s400/IMG_6929.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJr8Sz3sR6uzUgaqgpBvbb9R375j3xgUPps6xNDV1fiEmwMTOAWtpKs6ELgJb8-Ff3QlBjgtNJpvnjw4pI_8zzVZJ4hB7Svx4UzV8iEW8yrXY7msJbAMLVWkgxqAgQtxYjvUPH/s1600/IMG_6931.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJr8Sz3sR6uzUgaqgpBvbb9R375j3xgUPps6xNDV1fiEmwMTOAWtpKs6ELgJb8-Ff3QlBjgtNJpvnjw4pI_8zzVZJ4hB7Svx4UzV8iEW8yrXY7msJbAMLVWkgxqAgQtxYjvUPH/s400/IMG_6931.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CcPdieARE7RL7DI2MwXQtMmuJDP20-MIte22IED8WNk4Axc6QRqFBV_DrpWggURlL_N4guY89OyP0xMKc1RcRpXlA10zJhMvYPsH6vY1folUG1YNdXfmcdazzRVdph6cNsmP/s1600/IMG_6934.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CcPdieARE7RL7DI2MwXQtMmuJDP20-MIte22IED8WNk4Axc6QRqFBV_DrpWggURlL_N4guY89OyP0xMKc1RcRpXlA10zJhMvYPsH6vY1folUG1YNdXfmcdazzRVdph6cNsmP/s400/IMG_6934.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Then we headed on to the Sydney Opera House......</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-PXc28ERm73PMqWTRKiXhDJURJXIG_cHkRK67SDJED7hDT8rGi7pDqLwpfdpk3Bs6A5vo0Hk0ll7SqcLkRBbwnMml-ENDCvXC0h1hUVrgtgOcSCJJQGHDQzUWKiO2mG8NUHdN/s1600/IMG_6935.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-PXc28ERm73PMqWTRKiXhDJURJXIG_cHkRK67SDJED7hDT8rGi7pDqLwpfdpk3Bs6A5vo0Hk0ll7SqcLkRBbwnMml-ENDCvXC0h1hUVrgtgOcSCJJQGHDQzUWKiO2mG8NUHdN/s400/IMG_6935.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">....browsed around, checked out the galleries along the waterfront, stopped at a cafe in front of the gardens on the way back for lunch.......</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStT9nM9hQEd7gbf30dnLIK90Plb3nnrMfHoH4eFUY9siBFDPOdJbQ5jwbf5m5tyxPkiBRMldY-FKqzrCtlO1N2XiHqJ_yZYZuviThGX2mwQa5kTpNTb40dAqGS5wCPDWFRoFG/s1600/IMG_6937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStT9nM9hQEd7gbf30dnLIK90Plb3nnrMfHoH4eFUY9siBFDPOdJbQ5jwbf5m5tyxPkiBRMldY-FKqzrCtlO1N2XiHqJ_yZYZuviThGX2mwQa5kTpNTb40dAqGS5wCPDWFRoFG/s400/IMG_6937.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQhRGUBLJ0ASMPMcqYV1iJ_rlPlYVaAYzIX2u9cnAsjm4bEz4W05XTyvcV-0btohuEUKZ_u7NczEryIjqMPsSEAG7parVb2T_83qhyphenhyphen7helMd-EAuvA9HqvkTer1K9C1bPBWQCR/s1600/IMG_6939.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQhRGUBLJ0ASMPMcqYV1iJ_rlPlYVaAYzIX2u9cnAsjm4bEz4W05XTyvcV-0btohuEUKZ_u7NczEryIjqMPsSEAG7parVb2T_83qhyphenhyphen7helMd-EAuvA9HqvkTer1K9C1bPBWQCR/s400/IMG_6939.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">rubbed the nose of a boar called <a href="http://www.publicartaroundtheworld.com/Il_Porcellino.html">Il Porcellino</a> which is supposed to bring good luck,.....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgEMIWVNhvWaSn7xG8yiBkQc84-53M79WRbLyQA5agF6sOqBT8djEJPS2eUt6nIxgxe8XfQMSku1Qsk4cl1b9pvgMow791pbCrf1mAQuRaAauFUbp7052qOhbR18eUNtt4dJwW/s1600/IMG_6940.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgEMIWVNhvWaSn7xG8yiBkQc84-53M79WRbLyQA5agF6sOqBT8djEJPS2eUt6nIxgxe8XfQMSku1Qsk4cl1b9pvgMow791pbCrf1mAQuRaAauFUbp7052qOhbR18eUNtt4dJwW/s400/IMG_6940.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">and took the train and headed home!</div><br />
<i><b>12th April:</b></i><br />
<br />
Was a very laid back day today. Hubby went off to the bank to find out some stuff, I tagged along. Then came home, had a leisurely lunch and headed to Bunnings to buy some seeds and garden stuff for our garden back home. In the evening we got dolled up and went to see the Madame Butterfly ballet at the <a href="http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/">Sydney Opera House</a>! What can I say? It was beautiful.....a sad poignant story with incredible music and some fabulous ballet dancers!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GCxYkwn3Iv1aVjG_7_i71kdPl9ga_hZxWu2t3W_kaSlJvMHe9Ompgn2uO39EnjKzuNoKIrd5Tl70wd8lh-ambD2RiGQJvVi7-iKop9LcEULFiiW3USCmbiCUdhyphenhyphenP6G-KNd5L/s1600/mb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4GCxYkwn3Iv1aVjG_7_i71kdPl9ga_hZxWu2t3W_kaSlJvMHe9Ompgn2uO39EnjKzuNoKIrd5Tl70wd8lh-ambD2RiGQJvVi7-iKop9LcEULFiiW3USCmbiCUdhyphenhyphenP6G-KNd5L/s400/mb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshWI7pXk5ro9iLprXzT8y8P_ChR5NHHLQy9MXA3Vt4cWezIUHfsdz4DLYImRTWo04r8A3xW_82nlLscf8gePijmJtIIGxxZKdF4vZFsMAHiikysrV6dsp4zjfNa69EZLWnT6F/s1600/mb2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshWI7pXk5ro9iLprXzT8y8P_ChR5NHHLQy9MXA3Vt4cWezIUHfsdz4DLYImRTWo04r8A3xW_82nlLscf8gePijmJtIIGxxZKdF4vZFsMAHiikysrV6dsp4zjfNa69EZLWnT6F/s400/mb2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Then as if this wasn't enough, we topped it off with an elegant dinner at <a href="http://www.guillaumeatbennelong.com.au/home.html">this restaurant!</a> Sigh....I love Sydney!</div><br />
</div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-70564786613804923632011-04-11T15:15:00.000+05:302011-04-11T15:15:53.274+05:30Australian Autumn - day 7<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">9th April: My 50th birthday!!!<br />
<br />
Its official! I am half a century old today. :-(<br />
My sis-in-law keeps saying 50 is the new 35, but I don't know about that! So how did the day go? It was as the Aussies say "brilliant, just brilliant!". We started by going to <a href="http://www.lepainquotidien.com.au/">this place</a> for breakfast, a wonderfully cosy but stylish organic cafe. I was so tempted to order something creamy and decadent, but I figured turning 50 was all the more reason to eat healthy, so while my nephew got the Belgian sugar waffle, my niece the Almond Croissant and my BIL the Banana bread, I opted for the homemade organic multigrain granola which was delicious but gave my jaws a good solid workout for half an hour!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9DbJYUZ7ZzMNHX8KKEXP6XU8y700feXNzqvxasJsSt7GTDc-inWCwmcDhqv8xVxTuL7WnAOfGBQhfsjAJn6fy4INMOTu-_0ojp9h1JF1DX-zYJPrAGOv0UZA53n8i7KTYLsJ/s1600/IMG_6823.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9DbJYUZ7ZzMNHX8KKEXP6XU8y700feXNzqvxasJsSt7GTDc-inWCwmcDhqv8xVxTuL7WnAOfGBQhfsjAJn6fy4INMOTu-_0ojp9h1JF1DX-zYJPrAGOv0UZA53n8i7KTYLsJ/s400/IMG_6823.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7h34tUrkGaTPvl6vvk-5ZEtmVqNY65NWGJvqhVqxiKrqaPCKk75bt3GI2KmZVtUUAQFORrgY74kO1g3wx9Vw66IFau6-Fs-MsgKyVN21wlW-GxKjLhR_S0k3qGoaJaLkvFkHf/s1600/IMG_6825.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7h34tUrkGaTPvl6vvk-5ZEtmVqNY65NWGJvqhVqxiKrqaPCKk75bt3GI2KmZVtUUAQFORrgY74kO1g3wx9Vw66IFau6-Fs-MsgKyVN21wlW-GxKjLhR_S0k3qGoaJaLkvFkHf/s400/IMG_6825.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBISSTY9haTHa0eyF747Jj5uM_2tDJVaMdfLVDAYlmKhlr7Y9x3mvWCV7jwQ5ovNfjLPqyTjNtvGjvfT8Ci-IgD5L3OmYGfF-4XBMcF4h7btuLrquG7839WjhWrI4W4lQqI8Lf/s1600/IMG_6828.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBISSTY9haTHa0eyF747Jj5uM_2tDJVaMdfLVDAYlmKhlr7Y9x3mvWCV7jwQ5ovNfjLPqyTjNtvGjvfT8Ci-IgD5L3OmYGfF-4XBMcF4h7btuLrquG7839WjhWrI4W4lQqI8Lf/s400/IMG_6828.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After that a quick run to the grocery store to stock up on all essentials for lunch. A quick side note here - my SIL is a fabulous cook. Not only does she make some incredible dips - hummus, pesto, guacamole - she does amazing things with veggies. Salads, stir fries, simple veggie dishes.....all fabulous. So when she kindly asked me what I wanted as a birthday lunch my answer was of course - salad. So we bought assorted char grilled veggies at the deli - peppers, artichokes, fat plump olives, feta cheese, squash, baby beets, asparagus - I knew I was in for a treat at lunch time. She would not let me near the kitchen to help, kept shooing me away and then 2 hrs later produced this magnificent lunch.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSHOCyoJeoQiLea7N2WYKqdai1yqAgAjIV01vWHHg5P680hb51lCJtEc8LF92gF3jkS5xIuAc2_m3gcwJzuvkwi3zcxIOmNnTnmG1_CvmxjFl_ApKnS_DhMJHJRoZg3inRZ7Pf/s1600/IMG_6839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSHOCyoJeoQiLea7N2WYKqdai1yqAgAjIV01vWHHg5P680hb51lCJtEc8LF92gF3jkS5xIuAc2_m3gcwJzuvkwi3zcxIOmNnTnmG1_CvmxjFl_ApKnS_DhMJHJRoZg3inRZ7Pf/s400/IMG_6839.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnEA8onZ1kPejRyTem1HHpHfnMzzx1-3eHcwLlSvqtrtc7C88PPKhwkJ6IlnBfBtIsjxIUGacf3Pf43rVCayzcP082M3-T6-asUjoTiGVXLNoZx2qyBD3AEGlYlMfp6xs_Fu2e/s1600/IMG_6856.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnEA8onZ1kPejRyTem1HHpHfnMzzx1-3eHcwLlSvqtrtc7C88PPKhwkJ6IlnBfBtIsjxIUGacf3Pf43rVCayzcP082M3-T6-asUjoTiGVXLNoZx2qyBD3AEGlYlMfp6xs_Fu2e/s400/IMG_6856.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXKXRmeJ8bEsvA-oCAK5BjfdHGF9atdr5EA-x8CaaErQpngD8SLW-uqgACVAgULFB15KqQ77ViV3aNubXtSiT67vhln4KBzGndpLtLgJYU0C4TcQge_5Btqe852xxwmCjoJA5K/s1600/IMG_6852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXKXRmeJ8bEsvA-oCAK5BjfdHGF9atdr5EA-x8CaaErQpngD8SLW-uqgACVAgULFB15KqQ77ViV3aNubXtSiT67vhln4KBzGndpLtLgJYU0C4TcQge_5Btqe852xxwmCjoJA5K/s640/IMG_6852.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I meant just one, but she went all out and made 5 salads...roasted mushrooms and asparagus; a marinated tofu salad, roasted baby beets, squash and feta, mixed greens with garbanzos and assorted veggies and a romaine lettuce with olives, tomatoes and avocado. I was in salad heaven! I stuffed myself with all this food while sitting out in the balcony looking at the wonderful view.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxnSZFmo3eD-29CqbF8jYEgqmVBPEfKbhdExJd7s2Mn7ZmbRpczQ4B901t5WgIt1M60hwCvov3LmDIWxF3Bu4itD-_6iOhPpnRnO1f9EXB0VJ_C2Y3YSiFY342Skg-bY8_6LQJ/s1600/IMG_6847.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxnSZFmo3eD-29CqbF8jYEgqmVBPEfKbhdExJd7s2Mn7ZmbRpczQ4B901t5WgIt1M60hwCvov3LmDIWxF3Bu4itD-_6iOhPpnRnO1f9EXB0VJ_C2Y3YSiFY342Skg-bY8_6LQJ/s400/IMG_6847.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Post lunch was a fun afternoon......skyping with folks back home, talking to a gazillion people who called to wish me, chatting, laughing and just being lazy. No sooner had my lunch digested than we were heading out to dinner at a <a href="http://www.sahrabytheriver.com.au/">Lebanese restaurant</a>. Lovely place, great food, wonderful ambience and some seriously fabulous belly dancing. The girl roped in my nephew who joined in like a good sport, imitating all her wiggly moves and sexy hip swinging! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR6yAswD85eWfp5_WO5BGMNKjYW_o-M_osKLc3ZDZPiataqoKKK8qKnzG_vNy7xjcrWa6uBZpLrUNysIGyeWSWWU5BhhH6GwDfPgDtAE2PCErfLweDHqE9CCN5zfgij70oHUQX/s1600/IMG_6862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR6yAswD85eWfp5_WO5BGMNKjYW_o-M_osKLc3ZDZPiataqoKKK8qKnzG_vNy7xjcrWa6uBZpLrUNysIGyeWSWWU5BhhH6GwDfPgDtAE2PCErfLweDHqE9CCN5zfgij70oHUQX/s400/IMG_6862.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0MENXAxrwmNtrivlHwOqybL-wXNXWG6YoGgTd_swrmRsw-bIeCUhshjnlUtj1u2nEIJjwQQvglmAvxAJjPwx-8QPWT2-Dvk3CImeRrges6h_Mr9thVipPxllUgnEVh-3UWcS/s1600/IMG_6870.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0MENXAxrwmNtrivlHwOqybL-wXNXWG6YoGgTd_swrmRsw-bIeCUhshjnlUtj1u2nEIJjwQQvglmAvxAJjPwx-8QPWT2-Dvk3CImeRrges6h_Mr9thVipPxllUgnEVh-3UWcS/s400/IMG_6870.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Back home, the eating wasn't done yet! All insisted we get a cake, so the food frenzied birthday was capped by some oozingly delicious carrot cake! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8aaGI-Vr_jnMuubf3eqlZH9cRILZ_rv8kXOsXrrznjrAuxmpxkqHVIfrmC5vtLXnKKu1q0kVrQ7I0ws411xrWgo3jALQzjwO9naOJfsLWcO24vft_OyG_1cDdUgYFBGL3-CnI/s1600/IMG_6876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8aaGI-Vr_jnMuubf3eqlZH9cRILZ_rv8kXOsXrrznjrAuxmpxkqHVIfrmC5vtLXnKKu1q0kVrQ7I0ws411xrWgo3jALQzjwO9naOJfsLWcO24vft_OyG_1cDdUgYFBGL3-CnI/s320/IMG_6876.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">What a day it was! Granted, I ate way way more than I usually do, but it was all so good I could not resist! And other than the carrot cake, it wasn't too unhealthy, right?</div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-820278769647365062011-04-11T12:37:00.000+05:302011-04-11T12:37:12.424+05:30Australian Autumn - day 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>8th April:<br />
<br />
Today was travel day. Took the train from Melbourne to Sydney. We decided against the night train cos we wanted to see the countryside...but it turned out to be really boring....miles and miles or rather kms and kms of grassy rolling land with fat wooly sheep and brush fires almost the entire way. Slept, read, looked out....then slept, read, looked out.....for 12 hrs. Got into Sydney at 8.45pm, picked up by bro-in-law and family and headed out for dinner at Mother Chu's Taiwanese restaurant. Had tofu and gluten in various permutations and combinations...interesting food.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqAK9coPDX5azyXhCigz89VAUhjKF8XqkDMgZ8ROD_WNbOP3y57PLjFzDU05Q1vPPAGwv_nH9-V4cuMQU4tE3R2nhpDuAC4How_0PRbJRxhZEVfI_ejRoMC9hsCd8RWicLP-IS/s1600/IMG_6819.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqAK9coPDX5azyXhCigz89VAUhjKF8XqkDMgZ8ROD_WNbOP3y57PLjFzDU05Q1vPPAGwv_nH9-V4cuMQU4tE3R2nhpDuAC4How_0PRbJRxhZEVfI_ejRoMC9hsCd8RWicLP-IS/s400/IMG_6819.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Came home very late and crashed!</div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-65210405769780594872011-04-10T15:09:00.001+05:302011-04-11T03:53:42.503+05:30Australian Autumn - day 5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">7th April:</span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Our last day in Melbourne. To market to market. Melbourne has a number of markets on weekends, but we were lucky that the <a href="http://www.qvm.com.au/">Victoria Market</a> operated on Tuesday and Thursdays as well. Besides, it was right behind our hotel. So fortified with a good breakfast and with an empty backpack, we headed on over there. As soon we entered the covered market area, I knew we were in trouble. All kinds of lovely goodies and local arts and crafts all over the place. Great food, awesome organic produce - it was like a farmers market, a flea market, a crafts bazaar and a huge garage sale all rolled into one. Aboriginal craft products jostled with Australian kangaroo belt buckles, lavender and ylang ylang soaps with hot massage pads and leather goods! It was a great place to wrap up all of our gift shopping. I bought some lovely carved aboriginal dolls and a painting, Raga bought a similarly carved painted boomerang. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHbZ9hlBoJaqf0FFLablkkUMiTudvCyBjdhYErrXc6HIthOvPLzkUITy3qX6QIVmEZ531ptCuxMbEEUlYBohYMeEThExo-VoP7iI5YZVZG8Pw9DWkLwS_UNYv1Aqz_AKBD9nd/s1600/IMG_6749.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHbZ9hlBoJaqf0FFLablkkUMiTudvCyBjdhYErrXc6HIthOvPLzkUITy3qX6QIVmEZ531ptCuxMbEEUlYBohYMeEThExo-VoP7iI5YZVZG8Pw9DWkLwS_UNYv1Aqz_AKBD9nd/s400/IMG_6749.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Some more knick knacks and after about 2 hrs there we came back to the hotel, deposited our purchases and took off for the <a href="http://www.eurekaskydeck.com.au/">Eureka skydeck,</a> the highest viewpoint in the southern hemisphere. To get there, we had to walk a bit along the Yarra river. It was a lovely afternoon and all of Melbourne was there eating lunch on the grass by the riverside. The skydeck on the 88th floor is not unlike the Seattle Space needle or the Auckland tower. Its a great place to get a fabulous view of the city and beyond. There was a little glass cube jutting out of the tower where for a price you can go and get a heart attack, cos you are out there, meters above the ground totally surrounded by glass including a glass floor! I didn’t go anywhere near it. Took some nice panoramic shots, wandered around a bit more and left.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvif1XK6jIXZZun0soSG_Rhqrb-bxCIiMCYT0csZI5mxnresNMR6mzk8PeRVTHka24ezrFU5iDZBMOG3BT6-D-N7703wK-s8WbqQN6zNK8aUYtqmMg_eM8Wu58NBxA7fBCkIC/s1600/IMG_6758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvif1XK6jIXZZun0soSG_Rhqrb-bxCIiMCYT0csZI5mxnresNMR6mzk8PeRVTHka24ezrFU5iDZBMOG3BT6-D-N7703wK-s8WbqQN6zNK8aUYtqmMg_eM8Wu58NBxA7fBCkIC/s400/IMG_6758.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCLTYrvzecd_LjtvsMwLMExzMLp65OHzgGmKzW4PxSwYehkTqH03N-E_eTITZUUsBP4BICAalwa6XXGd7hUZgaQVN_o2lSNHseMsrdWGWYp_XMgyVrYIucHqEwBF1tpGptVcNx/s1600/IMG_6766.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCLTYrvzecd_LjtvsMwLMExzMLp65OHzgGmKzW4PxSwYehkTqH03N-E_eTITZUUsBP4BICAalwa6XXGd7hUZgaQVN_o2lSNHseMsrdWGWYp_XMgyVrYIucHqEwBF1tpGptVcNx/s400/IMG_6766.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Outside we bought some falafel wraps and joined the lunch eating crowd by the river. Then a long leisurely stroll all along the Yarra river for an hour till we hopped on the bus to get back. On the way our tram stopped at a light across the Parliament building, so on a whim we hoped off and decided to see if they offered tours. We asked the guard outside and he said “Sorry, no tours today, Parliament is in session. But if you want you can go into the gallery and watch the proceedings”. Wow! What a stroke of luck! So we went thru security etc and went into a gallery overlooking the floor below where the Premier was talking. The Premier was accusing the Opposition of making political capital and there was a lot of noise and ruckus! Not too many were really paying attention, some were sleeping, some text messaging, a lady was filing her nails and so on. One very loud and vociferous guy kept making comments and got 2 warnings from the Speaker. Finally he got thrown out, at which he bowed gracefully, and left, still muttering to himself. If a civilized state like Victoria could have such a rambunctious Parliament session, I can understand why they throw shoes and chairs in India!!!!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNqQqIaF9_SWoj7lTOOvD_kSVtuRorl7bG02y5NywfHGa2dWNNXbEIataSEi3ke-5-mIU_Qrbt_ccZntxHkKTPmSTQg_KGhHwoLJDactzsCNYwa48rM2pS5soa6fEKUY9Dk0l/s1600/IMG_6777.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNqQqIaF9_SWoj7lTOOvD_kSVtuRorl7bG02y5NywfHGa2dWNNXbEIataSEi3ke-5-mIU_Qrbt_ccZntxHkKTPmSTQg_KGhHwoLJDactzsCNYwa48rM2pS5soa6fEKUY9Dk0l/s400/IMG_6777.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbosF_08fWOH-92irtdJO6fGyYEWB_zcJHpYpNxdEaykCVO4LySpLazcs8WCZVZA9HhWAYqGKPe8MvqkYl7_xEQI-74KSxQQZ1XjcTvovYLfdpM9BpLqvafvZ9alF_hwlLN4lY/s1600/IMG_6776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbosF_08fWOH-92irtdJO6fGyYEWB_zcJHpYpNxdEaykCVO4LySpLazcs8WCZVZA9HhWAYqGKPe8MvqkYl7_xEQI-74KSxQQZ1XjcTvovYLfdpM9BpLqvafvZ9alF_hwlLN4lY/s400/IMG_6776.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It lasted about 20 minutes, after which we got on the tram, headed back to the hotel for an afternoon siesta!</div></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At 6.30 pm we left again to go to <a href="http://www.fedsquare.com/">Federation Square</a>, the happening place in Melbourne, for an evening free outdoor musical concert. We decided to walk the 10 or so blocks to get there while I snapped some shots of Melbourne in the evening....</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZbhNiixl9EPnxaHxDL-mvcywCgF0tQex-6WSZNPwyjzH5CZQYHAk2akTgnlzYIeC5A4k6IPvQqiqA-RBdV91sb-DOn42QpMo7XYi6Ug8jaQ-yZq7kapUYEIZqmeip1qwJl0WI/s1600/IMG_6798.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZbhNiixl9EPnxaHxDL-mvcywCgF0tQex-6WSZNPwyjzH5CZQYHAk2akTgnlzYIeC5A4k6IPvQqiqA-RBdV91sb-DOn42QpMo7XYi6Ug8jaQ-yZq7kapUYEIZqmeip1qwJl0WI/s400/IMG_6798.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC-KmsbzDs4z_1rbDx7b2bviPAgVV1Mle_LDGSKOsZjw_Jy_U7RzlQRsM5nKjLfsalTRs70igoSFpiMyQA51-pyMOpgEe-lRLXL1jl1W5MPcsfsL9mwgrrwKZxyqKWHh_hl3-g/s1600/IMG_6804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC-KmsbzDs4z_1rbDx7b2bviPAgVV1Mle_LDGSKOsZjw_Jy_U7RzlQRsM5nKjLfsalTRs70igoSFpiMyQA51-pyMOpgEe-lRLXL1jl1W5MPcsfsL9mwgrrwKZxyqKWHh_hl3-g/s400/IMG_6804.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>and found the music show in full swing. Not our style...too much rapping and heavy metal stuff, but we hung around, people watched, had some bubble tea and ambled towards dinner. Thought we would give Indonesian a try today, but when we went in, it didn’t look too appetizing...so guess where we went??? You're right...Your Thai! But it was as enjoyable as ever.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTlT7o4PQ4AOVgsSSqBH5xiJOr7c_ZqV5m7_ev6t2b3CLsEQX1cR1OStHmWAww9R8VBUJUSG1bLl1jTqeinoidkUzp7RZRO5AHEpRH4gfHXMJz0d0yF4F_ApX70E4XhUd7IFq/s1600/IMG_6811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTlT7o4PQ4AOVgsSSqBH5xiJOr7c_ZqV5m7_ev6t2b3CLsEQX1cR1OStHmWAww9R8VBUJUSG1bLl1jTqeinoidkUzp7RZRO5AHEpRH4gfHXMJz0d0yF4F_ApX70E4XhUd7IFq/s400/IMG_6811.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Back to hotel at 8.30 to pack for the next day. </div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-33812835815787653532011-04-10T14:45:00.000+05:302011-04-10T14:45:56.393+05:30Australian Autumn - day 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">6th April:</span><br />
<div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Today was the day we were heading out to <a href="http://www.penguins.org.au/">Philip Island</a> to see penguins. The bus was picking us up at 12.20 so we had a couple of hours to kill in the am. And I needed shoes. A good sturdy comfy pair of walking shoes. What I had bought only last week in Hyderabad were no good, so the first thing I did was go out and get a pair of shoes. A bit pricey, but hopefully they will last me a long time. A bit more wandering around central Melbourne and we came back and waited for the bus.</span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Once we got on the bus we went all around town picking up other folks too from various pick up points, and finally about 1.20 or so we started out for Philip Island. Our bus driver was a chatty burly jolly guy called Shane, who talked non stop to the passengers all along the way. Many fell asleep.....Our first stop was a cattle farm in Koo Wee Rup, where we got to feed carrots to Walley and Stewart the wombats, saw wallabees and emus, and fed kangaroos. These sweet creatures would come jumping up to us and eat alfalfa out of our hands. We were told not to pet them or get too friendly cos they could kick, but the few we were brave enough to pet, were quite happy. Then some scones and coffee at the cafe - which were so rich and creamy we could not eat them - and then Raga went back for a second round of kangaroo feeding. But by then they were so satiated with all the food they had been fed, they didn’t even get up. They lay on the ground and made some feeble attempts to eat out of Raga’s hand!! We gave up!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DOM-1ZA87CvutFuwEkiberXBnygaucpUK1zadzcYznepseWrvvRb3XTXM3yUCrqqZ58pN-m9xs6CIwqCBFdcjj1OnJP7IjvSr1ZNVIGOMgFAZGv7vigiECRkZqdq9jbR3biZ/s1600/IMG_6689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DOM-1ZA87CvutFuwEkiberXBnygaucpUK1zadzcYznepseWrvvRb3XTXM3yUCrqqZ58pN-m9xs6CIwqCBFdcjj1OnJP7IjvSr1ZNVIGOMgFAZGv7vigiECRkZqdq9jbR3biZ/s400/IMG_6689.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnuX53mr17NH1jYlM7c8Q2kY6r_HQ6F4sdl8rahdxHad6DQNC2j35Tfa-JpcyxdXZe_NU7GnUw-C55ial4hyRhfhgsql8Fuhey0YO1x2eljKrPdSIqRFHejezsADL0-_oddI6/s1600/IMG_6696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnuX53mr17NH1jYlM7c8Q2kY6r_HQ6F4sdl8rahdxHad6DQNC2j35Tfa-JpcyxdXZe_NU7GnUw-C55ial4hyRhfhgsql8Fuhey0YO1x2eljKrPdSIqRFHejezsADL0-_oddI6/s400/IMG_6696.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Next was a Koala Conservation Center where we saw these furry little guys and gals all living up high on the branches of eucalyptus, or as they call then here, gum trees. Its wonderful to see these animals being allowed to love in their natural habitat as opposed to cages in zoos. Of course we had to be respectful of that and not try to coerce the to come down from their perches, or shout out to them. Koalas live on gum leaves which have no nutrients to speak of, so they have no energy to speak of. They do not move around too much, their digestive systems are very slow and they try to conserve all their energy. Fascinating!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0KvTIdkIKkSZfIAWLOMmhqMrIJiq0agD1SrnrhluwPzGzXSPkZG86_TUvhDOYhiTKNYxAIMghFd7_lSvhW9JnWTaX4gk5sSqNreBFQguszIGe9KBHFrQ4KAHELAaZ3NtzCIK/s1600/IMG_6722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0KvTIdkIKkSZfIAWLOMmhqMrIJiq0agD1SrnrhluwPzGzXSPkZG86_TUvhDOYhiTKNYxAIMghFd7_lSvhW9JnWTaX4gk5sSqNreBFQguszIGe9KBHFrQ4KAHELAaZ3NtzCIK/s640/IMG_6722.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBktx44rWT4yKjigr98vtvuFVLHQhl5Xfq_B6F-3CvNQWFLRP9dPfKoaulQEnxut9teBRA9F7C1IH2oKS6aEcFPHmsGbumv7Rn4Oa9octRNhRh8pSSMiZ9IqngfHBQQrSimE3/s1600/IMG_6723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBktx44rWT4yKjigr98vtvuFVLHQhl5Xfq_B6F-3CvNQWFLRP9dPfKoaulQEnxut9teBRA9F7C1IH2oKS6aEcFPHmsGbumv7Rn4Oa9octRNhRh8pSSMiZ9IqngfHBQQrSimE3/s640/IMG_6723.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinbFbPd3PL5BV1Zwp4srSQ18QdjKT-igdrNmRyygScwsK85La9ZoQEZzcmS25vW2aR-7e9RA_vgEk7o7zpadcEJ6LzAkJMm8-qtgIiyypwUXHysmNNxKdI0ce2NBjS5iAkgSXT/s1600/IMG_6724.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinbFbPd3PL5BV1Zwp4srSQ18QdjKT-igdrNmRyygScwsK85La9ZoQEZzcmS25vW2aR-7e9RA_vgEk7o7zpadcEJ6LzAkJMm8-qtgIiyypwUXHysmNNxKdI0ce2NBjS5iAkgSXT/s400/IMG_6724.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>By now it was close to 5pm and we wanted to get to Philip Island by 6 pm so we could get to our viewing places by 6.30. We had been told given the time conditions (Australia just moved their clocks back on the 3rd for daylight savings) the birds would come ashore starting 6.45, when the sky turned dark.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisM_Q7RzRNuE9e532G1Tkf4taO9am_3aQz5bzLitK6ptDQvBdtyQLJnTz_BHzJTOmmDS8anUie5xHliMNen2InYzdImblK1sQ1Fe2j969mE7NZWjsA-WU1o0ZR9JDWsQBUGWIH/s1600/IMG_6735.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisM_Q7RzRNuE9e532G1Tkf4taO9am_3aQz5bzLitK6ptDQvBdtyQLJnTz_BHzJTOmmDS8anUie5xHliMNen2InYzdImblK1sQ1Fe2j969mE7NZWjsA-WU1o0ZR9JDWsQBUGWIH/s400/IMG_6735.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>A little explanation before I move on. This island is home to thousands of little penguins, the world’s smallest penguin standing tall at 13” high. This is their natural home, we humans have to get behind a barricade to see them. They leave their little burrows of clumps of grass and sand to swim out to sea, in the morning before the sun comes up. Then they stay out there all day, sometimes swimming as far out as 50 kms in a day, to eat fish. This they then bring back to their family to regurgitate and feed. They have a dangerous life....sharks and dolphins can eat them in the water, birds and hawks get them on shore. Which is why they prefer to do all their work in the dark. Their return home is now an amazing spectacle that has been made available for us humans to watch.</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So we walked along a 1/2 km long boardwalk and got to the viewing platform, a tiered deck of sorts, corralled by rope and sat down. There was a sand dune that led down to the water from the deck. It was bitterly cold, the wind was blowing but thankfully we were well prepared. The sky was darkening and we were all looking out to sea. Kids were chattering excitedly pointing to this and that...a lot of false calls. Then suddenly at about 6.35 we heard a sound...ack ack ack. Then more. And then out of nowhere on the rocks down by the shore, we saw a blur of white. It was dark, the sun had set, so it was a little hard to tell what it was. But it was a line of white....and we realized the first set of penguins had jumped out of the water onto the rocks their puffy white chests all against the dark dusky water. It must have been a group of 10-12. They waited a minute or so then started their slow waddle up the dune towards us. There were strict rules about being quiet so we all sat silently till we saw their heads bobbing above the clumpy grass a few feet ahead of us. It was thrilling. Then they all appeared....huffing and puffing from the uphill climb and rested right there...in front of the platform, hardly 20 feet from us. By now the second batch had appeared on the rocks..it was like a relay...and had started their climb uphill. I was reminded of the Danskin triathlon....jogging, swimming and biking. These little birds were doing the same thing - fishing, swimming and then walking in their black and white leotards!!!</span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This group was a bigger group and a noisier bunch. They ack acked their way up chattering about the day I suppose...what did you catch? I caught a big fish...was it cold? etc etc....By now the first group had sort of dispersed and were making their way up the grassy slopes all around us to their individual homes. Batch 2 was coming uphill faster and furiouser and they too reached the top and rested a while. About 15 of them. By now batch 3 had come onto the rocks....and so it continued this little production line of penguins..walking uphill, taking a pause, then wandering off to their homes all around us, many walking alongside the boardwalk, and some almost 1 km to their home. By now people had left the platform and were following groups of penguins on their journey home. We did the same...we watched this third group of about 20 and walked along with them, they were on the ground and we on the roped boardwalk above and alongside, we could have reached out and touched them, they were that close to the rope. On either side of us we could see penguins that had reached home, burrowing into the holes, happy to meet their families. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQEb6y3Yf7oyq75ou2xU2aIZ3MvSF4Qr8KD6jSBkfdVJp6WIk8ODr67VJ2c6z0sM7jnlL2b7sB0H19SD1IJoVDvUlewCCrvdl5jPxPf8QtZ7wj6wBPXLGTBBjF_qZ8TDyP9AU/s1600/sunset+penguins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQEb6y3Yf7oyq75ou2xU2aIZ3MvSF4Qr8KD6jSBkfdVJp6WIk8ODr67VJ2c6z0sM7jnlL2b7sB0H19SD1IJoVDvUlewCCrvdl5jPxPf8QtZ7wj6wBPXLGTBBjF_qZ8TDyP9AU/s640/sunset+penguins.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDKAMfxh13uVqPMV2roFTyKwCzPipxR84PAQmURWnQyT1tKJjIxsVS99tR_jZ4eUTFKapUqBAMSLwJ7WcW2Jw5omDFxVYvLtPQO_iMe8KLjOrgpEb4cZo4D9GX_FDg5Yr4mjXu/s1600/penguin+parade+penguins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDKAMfxh13uVqPMV2roFTyKwCzPipxR84PAQmURWnQyT1tKJjIxsVS99tR_jZ4eUTFKapUqBAMSLwJ7WcW2Jw5omDFxVYvLtPQO_iMe8KLjOrgpEb4cZo4D9GX_FDg5Yr4mjXu/s400/penguin+parade+penguins.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Raga and I have travelled a lot, seen many places and many exciting things, but this has got to be the most thrilling spectacle we have ever seen. I have a whole new respect for these birds. They are amazing!</div></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The bus ride home was long, 2 hrs long so we slept. We got dropped off at Chinatown and searched for another place for dinner. We had done Chinese and Thai, thought we would give Vietnamese a go. But the menu was not at all veg friendly, so we went back to Your Thai! Again, some lip smacking food, we were happy. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxFDmPncgbWTMCpteRkOLAPJpBkFRhRFmUh24Z_3swSXot_xGDUuqf5vUYMZM1eDlnSXTtmfP97zg7biLuzLTFNFu7fFyUCSUgPEYAQcAsBIuiBx2b7F5jqJ8mhpajcUDtndlK/s1600/IMG_6813.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxFDmPncgbWTMCpteRkOLAPJpBkFRhRFmUh24Z_3swSXot_xGDUuqf5vUYMZM1eDlnSXTtmfP97zg7biLuzLTFNFu7fFyUCSUgPEYAQcAsBIuiBx2b7F5jqJ8mhpajcUDtndlK/s400/IMG_6813.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQulszfdcV1RjBiWgglVRiBfy8Qji4lQXxMfFxSXnhr_RMb_A1yVdeL0129ecSzuCGgHnhimc3xulSUzyY0UZUu3MyPjx6XgSBpBbBcOXJtPnAW63lMEK3PrHqHdEYNZ2ksWG6/s1600/IMG_6812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQulszfdcV1RjBiWgglVRiBfy8Qji4lQXxMfFxSXnhr_RMb_A1yVdeL0129ecSzuCGgHnhimc3xulSUzyY0UZUu3MyPjx6XgSBpBbBcOXJtPnAW63lMEK3PrHqHdEYNZ2ksWG6/s400/IMG_6812.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Walked back to hotel, went to bed at midnight still talking about penguins!!</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-77350368653706431902011-04-09T18:58:00.000+05:302011-04-09T18:58:12.313+05:30Australian Autumn - day 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">April 5th:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Whew! I was way too exhausted last night to blog. It was an absolutely lovely day, mid 70's, sunny with a little breeze, too warm for a long sleeve T-shirt and too cool for a short sleeve....you know how it is. So all day we kept taking off and on our light jackets. Its all about layering.....</span><br />
<div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">First order of business was the <a href="http://www.oldmelbournegaol.com.au/">Old Melbourne Gaol</a>! (pronounced "gail"). A spartan, cold, stern 19th century jail built of stone, as harsh on the inside as it appears outside. They make you play a sort of hokey make believe game by giving each of the visitors a charge sheet, as if we were real criminals being locked up. I was Edith and I was being held for stalking, Raga was Rob, his charge was driving under the influence of alcohol. Like I said all pretty hokey but fun! We spent a good hour or more there, alternately fascinated and horrified at the smallness of the prison cells, the eerie display of the death masks of each prisoner who was housed in each cell, the model of the scaffolding or guillotine, the long gory descriptive stories of each prisoner and then of course the life of the notorious Australian gangster Ned Kelly. The graffiti inscribed on the walls and doors are original, by the hundreds of prisoners who were kept there, and it was colorful to say the least. Then a stint of shopping at the gift store - you notice how we always have to exit thru the gift store to get out of any of these touristy things? Of course Raga had to buy real handcuffs!!! I won't even go into that.....</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpe1TW4W3r6rDvtg10WP_6grK-_DGvCnSND7Hlble3CnpYUQ-GdzvvPmIINbcOK9fv4zLlhOj1BLyHTtiDT2_ZyaOhtrI6IuwvCDAHxeJkg36UkxgjvQ-LEhpmxAzsRfP2-oLC/s1600/IMG_6651.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpe1TW4W3r6rDvtg10WP_6grK-_DGvCnSND7Hlble3CnpYUQ-GdzvvPmIINbcOK9fv4zLlhOj1BLyHTtiDT2_ZyaOhtrI6IuwvCDAHxeJkg36UkxgjvQ-LEhpmxAzsRfP2-oLC/s400/IMG_6651.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3E-qOBAJ_PmeeOM_8shKXbLrfMpQNd_45p5G9LBvyLQOEFlt9MDEz0Gl6ikafa0gdeK0LqLU6rXPZXjZEOAxHJ6tIYeQ9biDa-9-XUYz_IbMYhlogX59WQaO1Nx6bfXyI-1ub/s1600/IMG_6654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3E-qOBAJ_PmeeOM_8shKXbLrfMpQNd_45p5G9LBvyLQOEFlt9MDEz0Gl6ikafa0gdeK0LqLU6rXPZXjZEOAxHJ6tIYeQ9biDa-9-XUYz_IbMYhlogX59WQaO1Nx6bfXyI-1ub/s400/IMG_6654.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7AblB9YDXLJWy-6NacREZlBByV-CzO7Cp095PnaX8PEQ-GYNRAL-C9_i7FHYdzGvtGQC3Ol9uq_z0um7pWD-Vke4_B_9P2KwWtAuFRSk-WWdKewCnq4IFgP9EHHXkz-TVJKAM/s1600/IMG_6655.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7AblB9YDXLJWy-6NacREZlBByV-CzO7Cp095PnaX8PEQ-GYNRAL-C9_i7FHYdzGvtGQC3Ol9uq_z0um7pWD-Vke4_B_9P2KwWtAuFRSk-WWdKewCnq4IFgP9EHHXkz-TVJKAM/s400/IMG_6655.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Then we took the tram to<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1904229274"> </a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.fedsquare.com/">Federation Square</a></span>, and walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens. And we walked, and we walked, and walked and finally got there. Each time we stopped to look at the map, it seemed like all we had was another few hundred feet....but oh, that map was so misleading! The gardens were beautiful, reminded us a lot of the Olympic Rain Forests in Washington State. Lush foliage, huge leaved trees, all kinds of interesting herbs and flowers...we must have walked around the entire gardens for 2 hours. At one time Raga accosted a groundskeeper and grilled him on composting methods and earthworms, what they did etc etc. After a leisurely afternoon there we walked back to Flinders Street Station, grabbed a quick bite, then back to the hotel.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAiy-lt2KrXqQdv8SMZQ_mHZtCV6BUstc9jc8Zw5itvO6JalRuEb_mgy9tU5UctYtMZ-aQQNUQ-BmMClClbGXoIghlC4m7etjABx8MLtyEGQ1uSmU4hZcaM8Hk1T6QWbVKTijZ/s1600/IMG_6666.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAiy-lt2KrXqQdv8SMZQ_mHZtCV6BUstc9jc8Zw5itvO6JalRuEb_mgy9tU5UctYtMZ-aQQNUQ-BmMClClbGXoIghlC4m7etjABx8MLtyEGQ1uSmU4hZcaM8Hk1T6QWbVKTijZ/s400/IMG_6666.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A short nap to revive our poor tired feet and we were ready to head out again. We did a spot of grocery shopping at Woolworths - a few snacks, fruits etc for our day trip to Penguin Island the next day, had dinner - some really good Thai food at “Your Thai”, and then some big time shopping at an Asian supermarket. What, you might ask, would we want to buy at an Asian market? Well....the answer to that is, all the ingredients needed to make bubble tea/pearl tea/boba at home. Those in India may not know what that is, but its a popular drink in most US cities where there are many Asians living. Seattle and DC have the best bubble tea. Its pearl sized tapioca, that has been soaked in sugar syrup till it swells up nice and big and juicy, topped with milk tea flavored with your favorite flavor. That could be fruit based, or taro, or green tea or coconut - you name it, they have it - then you drink it all thru this fat straw and the bubble or soaked tapioca is sucked thru the straw.... I know the whole thing sounds terrible, but its fabulous and ever since we came back to India we have been looking for it, but no such luck! So we have decided to make our own!!! I told Raga he was crazy but he persevered and got everything we need. We went back to the hotel happy and looking forward now to bubble tea in Hyderabad!</div></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-8397364463599897132011-04-04T18:10:00.002+05:302011-04-04T18:46:59.001+05:30Australian Autumn - day 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Melbourne - love it! Clean, cosmopolitan, friendly, beautiful. This was our first official day in Mel. We woke up after a surprisingly un-jet lagged night, sleeping for almost 7 hrs straight. It looked a bit yucky outside, looking out the window I saw folks with umbrellas....there was a light drizzle. Darn! We'd come prepared for cold weather, not rain. So we sort of stalled around, had a solid breakfast to keep us going for along time. Typically when we travel and are staying at hotels, we really load up on the breakfast which keeps us going till the evening, we steal some whole fruit to have as a light snack later in the day, then have a good dinner. It works for us. That way we don't have to break in between a busy sightseeing day for lunch or whatever. We just keep going!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After chalking out a tentative plan, we caught the </span><a href="http://goaustralia.about.com/od/melbournevictoria/ss/citycircletram.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Melbourne City Circle</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, a fantastic tram service that runs a route encircling all the spots visitors usually see. We got on right across the street from our hotel and then got off at the Melbourne Aqaurium. We figured we should do some indoorsy stuff today, and leave the outdoor stuff till for the rest of the week when the weather is supposed to get much better.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I won't go into too much details of the Aquarium. It is probably like most other aquariums we have been to - Seattle, LA, etc...BUT THEY HAD PENGUINS! Lots of penguins! Little waddly guys, big waddly guys, walking funny, honking funny and staring at you with their little round beady eyes. Oh they were so cute. We must have spent a half hour just watching them walk around and swim in the water tank, They were so human I almost feel they were right before us in the evolutionary chain and not apes. And they seem so intelligent it seems wrong to hold them in captivity like this....</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCdpUS43NzIFHNTGYYUeS_AS-tjnqetWwmlcQC1Io7z4pVQ8xAhyphenhyphenFziJOIePtYMeKXGZofNFYqWCq0OEuhuZ9BNGK4ny1Lb3YeiX0sowS753gd7934BI-qGdmMrlTMiamXMcL/s1600/IMG_6564.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCdpUS43NzIFHNTGYYUeS_AS-tjnqetWwmlcQC1Io7z4pVQ8xAhyphenhyphenFziJOIePtYMeKXGZofNFYqWCq0OEuhuZ9BNGK4ny1Lb3YeiX0sowS753gd7934BI-qGdmMrlTMiamXMcL/s400/IMG_6564.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWdBgONQp1THNN9DmZwoupObY7uuZz05EytKT6_f96Q5qUvB0ZD0LbGVxHbZLJIsorqfs92hO6d245fBnt1BZVam2JshMGn065pBqRC1oIlYqp5TAIFQEWnKl4LIVQY7kFODrf/s1600/IMG_6563.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWdBgONQp1THNN9DmZwoupObY7uuZz05EytKT6_f96Q5qUvB0ZD0LbGVxHbZLJIsorqfs92hO6d245fBnt1BZVam2JshMGn065pBqRC1oIlYqp5TAIFQEWnKl4LIVQY7kFODrf/s320/IMG_6563.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then we saw coral reefs, sharks, weird fishies, green leaf dragons, sea horses, turtles and so on. The place was swarming with little school kids all shrieking and yelling and hoarse voiced teachers yelling after them.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2ysX5_QZZl4U1SrRif4benrjQPmTczwx7lclXBRZL7YVbwhi3Fh0K7nFGTt7tu1WOa0GuV0a3NdnDaZpWNRT9ygm9qg4foSOtm8fC5bk7Js9pcAXYCpMrRYySbHZSddmNm4g/s1600/IMG_6586.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2ysX5_QZZl4U1SrRif4benrjQPmTczwx7lclXBRZL7YVbwhi3Fh0K7nFGTt7tu1WOa0GuV0a3NdnDaZpWNRT9ygm9qg4foSOtm8fC5bk7Js9pcAXYCpMrRYySbHZSddmNm4g/s320/IMG_6586.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJoMfL5aH6gNS-3TZ8VLAayegqFP9ePX411SsNapsaDNxN9c_80BoOB_Hw2qkWysgtrmYyzH4xGI_1GvqHxp8j5YjshLlV7H_Pn_Y_30hjpzcam0-WjmpVAjffECLVYOgS3LPu/s1600/IMG_6588.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJoMfL5aH6gNS-3TZ8VLAayegqFP9ePX411SsNapsaDNxN9c_80BoOB_Hw2qkWysgtrmYyzH4xGI_1GvqHxp8j5YjshLlV7H_Pn_Y_30hjpzcam0-WjmpVAjffECLVYOgS3LPu/s400/IMG_6588.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next stop was </span><a href="http://thatsmelbourne.com.au/PlacesToGo/CooksCottage/Pages/Cookscottage.aspx"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cook's Cottage.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> No, nothing to do with cooking, but Captain James Cook. His cottage he loved in was bought by some rich guy who moved it from England to Melbourne. It's a lovely old Tudor home, ivy covered and charming.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhraBCuJbczZGwoN7B1t7q7Dguk9lGKDFtzsYl5Coe6c0NhD1mpmfcmNo1W6DvP610mdID2A6bj17pQ5G9qLQGnYUBWljpFV1bbySktCCTQ1lVWerInW1pPFLWGHa6QycSOuhDk/s1600/IMG_6615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhraBCuJbczZGwoN7B1t7q7Dguk9lGKDFtzsYl5Coe6c0NhD1mpmfcmNo1W6DvP610mdID2A6bj17pQ5G9qLQGnYUBWljpFV1bbySktCCTQ1lVWerInW1pPFLWGHa6QycSOuhDk/s320/IMG_6615.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzU88nW1aP_G9GhtdvjzhwNh_G6mEC1D2aKmyHFFY1ut8_4FHKNevyQPqOq5xiK0ObI1yMitLc19fr_EFGzuz4BNN85424hc8Adq6j4ch6kxlHJq8S9lqznIp8KIWYOjO4UaZ/s1600/IMG_6597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzU88nW1aP_G9GhtdvjzhwNh_G6mEC1D2aKmyHFFY1ut8_4FHKNevyQPqOq5xiK0ObI1yMitLc19fr_EFGzuz4BNN85424hc8Adq6j4ch6kxlHJq8S9lqznIp8KIWYOjO4UaZ/s320/IMG_6597.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">bought some seeds at the gardening shop and then walked from there to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. We hadn't really planned on going to the MCG, but the recent win has put back the cricket fire in us, we had to. We signed up for a one hour tour by a 60 plus something lady guide, Carol, who was like the Energizer Bunny. She took us up and down the stairs, the changing rooms the dining rooms, the private viewing galleries, the training rooms, the batting cages and we were really pushing to keep up with her! Amazing lady.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAHZCVnkaZkzRvl7viXxeg2L-p37xXRTXaXOS_76oLu97DvmrAnFCewV300IW0jrIpZPeYy-niKW8gq7TC9d7nayrUQeth-S_83-YBOzxoO_CaOvqcGy_koy41ffscIXnoOdIj/s1600/IMG_6618.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAHZCVnkaZkzRvl7viXxeg2L-p37xXRTXaXOS_76oLu97DvmrAnFCewV300IW0jrIpZPeYy-niKW8gq7TC9d7nayrUQeth-S_83-YBOzxoO_CaOvqcGy_koy41ffscIXnoOdIj/s320/IMG_6618.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryHngzHYN4ZdQ90RpHMvD8qLxBqbJ3VyN3rxy5liqnJcO8IePvtSdtjl1_g5UIDW-nP_y3YgdSk6pHvroFJaECg2ogNqseIWJupbkXvol6X2qEOSmd0H-72-ymS87AxGNEayN/s1600/IMG_6623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryHngzHYN4ZdQ90RpHMvD8qLxBqbJ3VyN3rxy5liqnJcO8IePvtSdtjl1_g5UIDW-nP_y3YgdSk6pHvroFJaECg2ogNqseIWJupbkXvol6X2qEOSmd0H-72-ymS87AxGNEayN/s320/IMG_6623.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best part was a photograph the MCG has of legendary Australian batsman Donald Bradman along with Sachin Tendulkar taken on DB's 90th birthday. Apparently he shies away from all publicity and for this photo he wanted only 2 cricketeers he thought were worthy of this picture...Sachin and Shane Warne. Totally 3 photos were taken - the one with Sachin, one pic with Shane Warne which is in another room at the MCG, and the photo with all 3 of them which is in his home. Then he had all the negatives destroyed so they wouldn't fall in the hands of the public. What a guy!</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixTptR1Qz1bgUZU7gplfp6XoZrS9My0HD4FWzehPQt1Ggh1xsdgjG43mxyIBjHjDq3WqdXpn77bV2yRw65Hklx5cnUrxuM8qxEfJDnmSQFeKkVDu3jMpguWK_2utT7NxFVrsV/s1600/IMG_6626.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixTptR1Qz1bgUZU7gplfp6XoZrS9My0HD4FWzehPQt1Ggh1xsdgjG43mxyIBjHjDq3WqdXpn77bV2yRw65Hklx5cnUrxuM8qxEfJDnmSQFeKkVDu3jMpguWK_2utT7NxFVrsV/s400/IMG_6626.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After MCG, by then it was about 4.30pm, jet lag was starting to kick in. So we came back to the hotel, crashed for about 2 hrs and then headed off to Chinatown for dinner. Given the extremely large Asian population here and we thought we would get really good Chinese food and we were right. We stopped at Kun Ming - the menu posted outside had a lot of choices for vegheads like us. Had a super dinner with Singapore noodles, stir fried veggies, Chinese tea for me and Australian beer for Raga. It was so yummy.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeRo-WN7P9ogM-MssrI-gmnftOKSL8fAB1Oz2qj3tAEf6pCdACGvXpp8BPykEXjMEU4NOWVh3y585H9nZK8BXyNzzsTAbEk77-xEE4NuW8km9Zil1e8peJpa1OK6nvXlyXMw8m/s1600/IMG_6637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeRo-WN7P9ogM-MssrI-gmnftOKSL8fAB1Oz2qj3tAEf6pCdACGvXpp8BPykEXjMEU4NOWVh3y585H9nZK8BXyNzzsTAbEk77-xEE4NuW8km9Zil1e8peJpa1OK6nvXlyXMw8m/s320/IMG_6637.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After dinner, we walked around that part of town. It reminded us a lot of Spain....open squares where people meet and mingle and have fun. Lots of restaurants, shops, people, noise, laughter....all in a clean, safe and secure environment. A very European concept. Took a long leisurely walk back to the hotel, breathing in the cool crisp night air. Am loving it.</span></div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-7875933241198100432011-04-03T18:35:00.001+05:302011-04-04T18:11:11.301+05:30Australian Autumn - day 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Phoenix has risen again. Yes, its this blog. It dies a slow death every few months only to be resurrected again when I travel. Not that I don’t travel more often than once a year, but I don’t really blog when I’m making small 3-4 day trips. Its only when I make an overseas trip which involves seeing new places and trying out new experiences that I feel the urge to write about it and share those stories.</span><br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So, here we are. Its 10.48am IST and I am in the plane, somewhere between Bangkok and Australia on my way to Melbourne. But, let me start at the beginning.....</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2nd April 2011, 8.30pm.....</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The match is on. The finals of the World Cup in cricket, where India is playing Sri Lanka and the way things are looking, India will lose. Srilanka won the bungled toss, chose to bat and thrashed out 275 runs, so we need to beat that score in 50 overs to win. Now we are batting, and ball 2 of the game Sehwag is out!! NOT GOOD! Another few more balls and our second player India’s fav Sachin Tendulkar in out. (Now some might say this was a good thing cos every game that Tendy got out early we won! But c’mon, this is the finals, we need him!) Earlier in the day we were bummed at having to leave for the airport right when the match would be getting to be exciting, but now we’re thinking....hmmm..maybe missing the match won’t be so bad after all? We won’t have to see our team get beaten!</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So 8.30 we bid our adieus, I kiss the dogs a million times cos I won’t be seeing them for 16 days and off we go. No radio commentary in the cab so we are in the dark about the game till we get to the airport. Then the usual...standing in line to check in, trying to see which one is moving the quickest and adjusting our positions accordingly (something which by the way I have found NEVER works, its always best to pick a line and stick with it, but the better half does not agree). So we sidle up to the counter, now sort of in a hurry to get past security cos we keep hearing shouts and claps coming from the other side. Clearly our cricket guys are doing well, so we don’t want to miss any action. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Almost done, then the Thai Airways guy throws a zinger at us...</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">TA guy - </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Ummm, can I have your ETA please”? </span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Us - </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Huh? ETA? What”s that”? </span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">TA - </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Oh you need that to get into Australia”. </span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">US - </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“No, no silly man...we’re US citizens you see, we don’t need that” </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(pointing proudly to our precious US passports laying there on the table) And no, I didn’t really say ‘silly man”. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">TA - “</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">No maam/sir, all visitors to Oz need it”.</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So this back and forth went on for a few minutes, TA guy telling us politely we had goofed, and us insisting we didn’t need no damn ETA! Now I’m slowly starting to worry. Thoughts of catching a cab back home and forgetting about this trip </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">also</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> flash thru my head. (For those who wonder at the “also”, we had to cancel our tickets to go to Japan, cos of the tsunami etc. Australia was second choice!!!) I was doomed to spend my 50th birthday at home, eating vegan food and inhaling toxic fumes from outside.....</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Well, turns out TA guy was right. But the good news was that its a simple thing you just fill out online, then you print out the copy and you’re good to go. So his very helpful buddy Mr. Rupesh Kumar, took us to a computer, we did the needful, then back to check in and finally we were done. (Note to self: send e mail to Rupesh’s boss letting him know Rupesh is the man). By now its 9.55pm. In the meantime a couple of calls to my dad as well as whoops of joy from the area beyond security confirmed that our desi guys were slowly and steadily hammering away at runs and doing well...in fact if they maintained this run rate, we could actually win.....93 runs in 92 balls needed. We hurried thru security and when we got to our gate everyone there was watching the match. We quickly found 2 seats in front of one of the TV’s.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1Ql6avoc9UKFnN4vdq5VhUcBwe34x28-xDQLqNzQhAYBhDzK588GMVNYaHB8cvVUPB-T6WMo3GCV2uj3cUKo9ZXXPeqJLzjGuztA7X9s5AX1yvC3qf5A5pbyW77oqi4AjC1I4g/s1600/IMG_6549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1Ql6avoc9UKFnN4vdq5VhUcBwe34x28-xDQLqNzQhAYBhDzK588GMVNYaHB8cvVUPB-T6WMo3GCV2uj3cUKo9ZXXPeqJLzjGuztA7X9s5AX1yvC3qf5A5pbyW77oqi4AjC1I4g/s400/IMG_6549.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div>By then it was 32 runs needed in 30 balls. Then they called it time for power play! Dhoni and Yuvraj were batting. And they hit. A four! Another four! The crowd was erupting. Every eye was watching the game. Newspaper vendors, food stall vendors had all abandoned their shops and had joined in watching! 20 runs from 24 balls. Another 4! And Dhoni hit again......finally it came down to 4 runs needed in 11 balls. He hit!!! Whooooooosh went the ball! You could hear a pin drop. It was a sixer! We had won!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZ6IiasIkm8NsvecMfmOE6sJzOQO1GSHLi9nBk2pIH7ok8GiuhFc_pnz4f0LKSIlu7k3E7xoTans7E3mF432h_mS9Z8enIiYN1bSYxDogs8NIoa9qxIG45maWkOq0Zw7fZsJf/s1600/IMG_6550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZ6IiasIkm8NsvecMfmOE6sJzOQO1GSHLi9nBk2pIH7ok8GiuhFc_pnz4f0LKSIlu7k3E7xoTans7E3mF432h_mS9Z8enIiYN1bSYxDogs8NIoa9qxIG45maWkOq0Zw7fZsJf/s400/IMG_6550.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>THE PLACE WENT MAD! I mean MAD! People shouted and cheered and chanted India won, India won! Squeaky noise making things were squeaked. Clapping, cheering, hollering...it went on for a good 10 minutes. It was really something and what a fabulous way to start our trip. </div></div></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Finally exhilarated and happy we boarded the plane at about 11.30pm. It was 45 minutes late but who cared? </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The trip from Hyd to Bangkok was a 4 1/2 hr blur! All I remember was boarding, then a meal a bit later of which I only remember some fruits that I either ate or was force fed, and then we were landing at Suvarnabhoomi airport. We had almost 2 1/2 hrs to kill, so we found our gate, a row of seats and slept! Two things I know - Bangkok airport is HUGE and I don’t understand a word the Thai people say!! No, I don’t mean the Thai they speak..of course I won’t understand that. But their English. So far I have not understood a word! Maybe it will get easier....?</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So here I am on the plane, I think we have another 3 hrs to go. I watched Black Swan and am still not sure if I loved it or hated it. But Portman was good, really good! Then again a bit of dozing, more food and more movie watching. Finally we landed at 8pm, went thru the immigration and customs with no problems. We were a bit nervous having heard about how strict the Aussies were on bringing in food, plants, etc so we had nothing on us. Except my Icebreaker mints for which I got the stern eye! One poor Indian uncle-ji was nabbed cos his suitcase was full of Indian mithai. I felt bad for him :-(</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8bkK31Rg3vaUZ9ZgyiV0ChBCtR3ngrpbSoVE2GuCmRohN0exYar-bWxFfwxfOZ_xSGhxsA41u2uGJ3q17mCYXIq4bBI0gaVZNPsqy7YozJjvP6kt41FGPAigXS76TR6wpSywJ/s1600/IMG_6555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8bkK31Rg3vaUZ9ZgyiV0ChBCtR3ngrpbSoVE2GuCmRohN0exYar-bWxFfwxfOZ_xSGhxsA41u2uGJ3q17mCYXIq4bBI0gaVZNPsqy7YozJjvP6kt41FGPAigXS76TR6wpSywJ/s400/IMG_6555.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Took a shuttle to the hotel, ordered some room service - soup and bread, and am now going to chalk out our plan for the next 4 days here in Melbourne! Stay tuned.....! Oh I love travelling....</span></div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-91521495077941191192010-04-03T06:53:00.001+05:302010-04-03T06:56:57.728+05:30And some more cherry blossoms.....Exhausting day today.....woke up at 6.30 to get the apartment all cleaned out and ready for the carpet cleaners. At about 8 or so, Andy, Raghavan, Penny and I headed to Starbucks for breakfast and then to the dog park. After some time there we went to Safeway, did some grocery shopping and then got home by 10 am or so but the carpets were still so wet, we headed out to the rooftop for another hour. At 11.30 we left to meet Gautam at the Newseum, the wedding venue, to taste some more vegetarian options and finalise the menu. We tasted Mushroom risotto, Mediterranean Panzanella salad, Vegetable tempura with dipping sauce and potato croquettes! We picked 2 out of the 4 and added them to what had been picked previously. Then after a walk through the space and picking out table linen choices we headed back home and took a quick break before heading out again to <a href="http://www.gardens.si.edu/horticulture/gardens/Haupt/hpt_home.htm">Enid Haupt Gardens for</a> a photo shoot with the wedding photographer at 4pm. This is easily one of the most beautiful gardens I have seen, in some ways better than the Tidal Basin! Parking is atrocious in DC and especially now in the tourist season.....so as usual we had to walk almost a mile from the car to the park. But it ended up being a gorgeous afternoon as you can see in these pics.<br />
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This is the storefront of a Mexican restaurant on the way, I just had to get a picture <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPO355Zv2xrhjFCzR-IRG4rUd4DIppsiFa6SGW4rsDQ0o4mJ1GeSp4Y86bi7rifQ08GEAZmtQ2Y8A7NNrPzoDrjeUrp3TtiGvBPEkAFb-2g71uXhdxnqwibFT6hkPNGRsUDg8/s1600/IMG_3803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPO355Zv2xrhjFCzR-IRG4rUd4DIppsiFa6SGW4rsDQ0o4mJ1GeSp4Y86bi7rifQ08GEAZmtQ2Y8A7NNrPzoDrjeUrp3TtiGvBPEkAFb-2g71uXhdxnqwibFT6hkPNGRsUDg8/s400/IMG_3803.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh570_UVTiSxP0M3iS3YPQ1jIXuNVbV9fc_03i63VY8U0GHIxDPgxwbbC24CaH4jI1asvA79zkNXlmktRM5FghyphenhyphenStiaNSS3HPbXM1FjskVyCgOuQBKhtC41jT1upYOqelskrg52/s1600/IMG_3807.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh570_UVTiSxP0M3iS3YPQ1jIXuNVbV9fc_03i63VY8U0GHIxDPgxwbbC24CaH4jI1asvA79zkNXlmktRM5FghyphenhyphenStiaNSS3HPbXM1FjskVyCgOuQBKhtC41jT1upYOqelskrg52/s400/IMG_3807.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD84Ee28lA9iuvEvuCh0ADbk5q-8rEY7pZLezaR6GH5zo-IgR0ITtRRzEg5T2RxPad9tRoSm3P-HReCe9JzuOmtSGfcN19I0NYNf-I0q72wY5pyDcbCrtv5mfofOGJ_FeU-jEo/s1600/IMG_3806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD84Ee28lA9iuvEvuCh0ADbk5q-8rEY7pZLezaR6GH5zo-IgR0ITtRRzEg5T2RxPad9tRoSm3P-HReCe9JzuOmtSGfcN19I0NYNf-I0q72wY5pyDcbCrtv5mfofOGJ_FeU-jEo/s400/IMG_3806.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxONQvnF9G7zSWUqQQtCHv92vWgWDxYV-Ujwys3SeHiw_KaM0F0xiJNBe0R4lGmCv03L2fLwz3Nz7e3YQWxz9I1LdSBqeIU1mIFer7Oekkam7ev1Doxu6Btm-FM8uulW2B5bIf/s1600/IMG_3812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxONQvnF9G7zSWUqQQtCHv92vWgWDxYV-Ujwys3SeHiw_KaM0F0xiJNBe0R4lGmCv03L2fLwz3Nz7e3YQWxz9I1LdSBqeIU1mIFer7Oekkam7ev1Doxu6Btm-FM8uulW2B5bIf/s400/IMG_3812.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVrlsiYPnOown_rv4rTDKdgeJKwEChCMk_tEEAVEJMTV2wtMzktcGkIWP9SgFkZag7mf7QL3PuVZUzNyPmmmQeXqNK18GqH0doWdzivgBY_2bbpmoaj647m4x-wCbj4vl45IBz/s1600/IMG_3813.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVrlsiYPnOown_rv4rTDKdgeJKwEChCMk_tEEAVEJMTV2wtMzktcGkIWP9SgFkZag7mf7QL3PuVZUzNyPmmmQeXqNK18GqH0doWdzivgBY_2bbpmoaj647m4x-wCbj4vl45IBz/s400/IMG_3813.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-5302846080758560072010-04-02T01:53:00.010+05:302010-04-02T02:26:44.399+05:30DC cherry blossoms April 1st, 2010<br />
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Today was an absolutely picture perfect day in DC. It was sunny with temps in the mid 70's. The peak bloom date for the cherry blossoms had been moved up to today, so I was so excited to finally see them. Even though the city is studded with cherry blossom trees lining avenues and roads, the PLACE to really see the was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_Basin_%28District_of_Columbia%29">Tidal Basin</a>. We took the metro green line at the U St station to Les Enfant and then the orange line to the Smithsonian station. It was a good mile and a half to the Tidal Basin but oh, so worth it. We had initially thought we would take a 90 min river cruise along the Potomac which would have given us a great view of the cherry blossoms as well as the monuments, but I think half the fun is to walk along and amidst the trees and see them and touch the petals and smell them. After that we stepped into the Jefferson Memorial for a few minutes. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaminiraghavan/sets/72157623749252224/show/">Click here for a slideshow</a>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-26465578669851947652010-03-29T18:36:00.001+05:302010-03-29T18:36:20.155+05:30DC day 3 March 28th, 2010<br />
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Sunday dawned cold and cloudy as forecast. We lazed around till 11am at which time Venkat and family joined us. Then we dropped Penny off at Doggy Day Care and headed to Eastern Market for the Sunday market to see my friend Param's booth. Param is an architect/artist and we worked together at Callison in Seattle. The market was like any outdoor Farmers Market - locally made products, jewelry, ceramics, clothes, fresh flowers and fruits, scones, doughnuts, jams, jellies......! We shuffled around for a couple of hours - I say "shuffled" cos it was so cold and windy we had to huddle together to stay warm! I met up with Param after 10 years or so...he has some great artwork. Check out his artwork at <a href="http://www.parambedi.com/">www.parambedi.com</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_4J_8eJogIwhvzKV9M19uTfYn5PMSXF4_b9hymOiTZI9pItFxzNBbRs8zVc28a3VeNPB1d5WaQxjktu6eRa8bwQNOMJAvz4LDf9V190VCxhFHof_J6eH7xL2ditH-75aNGXED/s1600/IMG_3751.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_4J_8eJogIwhvzKV9M19uTfYn5PMSXF4_b9hymOiTZI9pItFxzNBbRs8zVc28a3VeNPB1d5WaQxjktu6eRa8bwQNOMJAvz4LDf9V190VCxhFHof_J6eH7xL2ditH-75aNGXED/s320/IMG_3751.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkC71FfqYGi1-ODUucIcznT51aogQhCFvUF7LtX5GK89RYD2tdERLUApUeqriZzt0fjSVACbyL0WdcoWMAgOCHJW8HYFvPOH1nOTixNaHhLE8AP765_kORAq9MnRk8TQocYk_T/s1600/IMG_3753.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkC71FfqYGi1-ODUucIcznT51aogQhCFvUF7LtX5GK89RYD2tdERLUApUeqriZzt0fjSVACbyL0WdcoWMAgOCHJW8HYFvPOH1nOTixNaHhLE8AP765_kORAq9MnRk8TQocYk_T/s400/IMG_3753.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vsqvAHqAT6z50QH2kE2rqlHHU4bZqSR1pjxfK-BqtUMKd3xJT-gZvKsOFIc-ogdReELZdMJxWd_Z5fH1y3TKVOJ2mhdLcxkTZzTswXMma-C3WTufqVZ-sov5qyzS5UipYl18/s1600/IMG_3756.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vsqvAHqAT6z50QH2kE2rqlHHU4bZqSR1pjxfK-BqtUMKd3xJT-gZvKsOFIc-ogdReELZdMJxWd_Z5fH1y3TKVOJ2mhdLcxkTZzTswXMma-C3WTufqVZ-sov5qyzS5UipYl18/s400/IMG_3756.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZEYGSUQux1080phCB-e5qmJlZh05Q6W6BGqSnYNP_Ytbyr8SSKw-NXTeqfvZNjPO6u3g3GOnZ9Ig5o8flghy_DDwmF4HKX99qU2VENnuonSmHgxZQrqIPaudvkve2UlkKhjvc/s1600/IMG_3760.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZEYGSUQux1080phCB-e5qmJlZh05Q6W6BGqSnYNP_Ytbyr8SSKw-NXTeqfvZNjPO6u3g3GOnZ9Ig5o8flghy_DDwmF4HKX99qU2VENnuonSmHgxZQrqIPaudvkve2UlkKhjvc/s640/IMG_3760.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
We then hooked up with Manu, my nephew, who had spent the last couple of days with friends at John Hopkins and then all headed out to lunch at<a href="http://www.stickyricedc.com/"> Sticky Rice</a> in the H Street corridor, near Capitol Hill. Funky, fusion Pan Asian cuisine. Had some interesting dishes while being startled every now and then by this huge metal gong - everytime someone downs a sake shot, the gong is whacked and if you don't see it coming, the deafening sound will knock you off your seat as happened with me. Here are some pics of what we ate.....<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79v9zmeiT-ZnW0uG9cWgAMPOQyRrnmP7t5pp9i62m1cxegGn0DSxom0cCJ3SZongJnNwXZdKZTk_BoZWBl1QtZoADb_GnCHE8d28vGzEmub-x84qvtvpp1fqEyKdL5IwQK-0M/s1600/IMG_3761.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79v9zmeiT-ZnW0uG9cWgAMPOQyRrnmP7t5pp9i62m1cxegGn0DSxom0cCJ3SZongJnNwXZdKZTk_BoZWBl1QtZoADb_GnCHE8d28vGzEmub-x84qvtvpp1fqEyKdL5IwQK-0M/s320/IMG_3761.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC3c46IgazLlrnnTvffd1zO8RGCiV_aSY0_MvMaFpCxoPRbNe7l9xcR5adW3rkbsdPT6048MeVBFOVmKEA9vX1gp3lJhbKRzFeyJgvAIWC7TpFbHNG4bAr2w5FAaZW2KrXXasS/s1600/IMG_3762.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC3c46IgazLlrnnTvffd1zO8RGCiV_aSY0_MvMaFpCxoPRbNe7l9xcR5adW3rkbsdPT6048MeVBFOVmKEA9vX1gp3lJhbKRzFeyJgvAIWC7TpFbHNG4bAr2w5FAaZW2KrXXasS/s640/IMG_3762.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
After lunch we headed home for a short break, then Indu and I headed to our favorite store IKEA. Always fun to see whats new there and it never fails to disappoint. Fabulous new items in kitchenware, bed and bath and really hard to resist piling up your cart. Came back, had our usual lively discussions, large quantities of wine and beer were imbibed.....and then Thai dinner again. By 10.30 or so Venkat and family left.......end of another fun day! <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQAvyHpdTtXbHPvE-syIHMh3nPPIn_np7Qz9VKR3uJbQoTPYqLjw8KNmYmMRduirNl8Gl8Oux6hrgCpIEubszumMh2c78k_vUaeULC4s_yz-r0gYVuikkOIobxea4pAPjN7cx6/s1600/IMG_3763.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQAvyHpdTtXbHPvE-syIHMh3nPPIn_np7Qz9VKR3uJbQoTPYqLjw8KNmYmMRduirNl8Gl8Oux6hrgCpIEubszumMh2c78k_vUaeULC4s_yz-r0gYVuikkOIobxea4pAPjN7cx6/s640/IMG_3763.JPG" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqT4Adnu24vauMCMNF_fGep5M07Ys9ZyON92DlW8An905OoUy-YHOGpDH-jOzYCjmFcBlHFrYras_ArvVV9uxmZETzealD9MUlx29SMmBN_dOa7dcQsF9MGPVmKllhJL-j3P-/s1600/IMG_3764.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqT4Adnu24vauMCMNF_fGep5M07Ys9ZyON92DlW8An905OoUy-YHOGpDH-jOzYCjmFcBlHFrYras_ArvVV9uxmZETzealD9MUlx29SMmBN_dOa7dcQsF9MGPVmKllhJL-j3P-/s640/IMG_3764.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-8502803962172941972010-03-29T18:36:00.000+05:302010-03-29T18:36:04.846+05:30Day 1 and 2 in DC 26th March 2010<br />
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Arrived into DC last evening after an easy 5 hr flight to Doha and a "not so easy" 14 hr flight from Doha to DC. Fortunately Qatar has a great entertainment system so it was easy to stay busy and forget you were cramped into a 2' x 2' space...i watched 4 movies. The Blind Side - good, MJ's "This is it" for the second time and enjoyed it as much as the first time, and 2 chick flicks...I don't even remember the names!!!! Anyways, flight got into DC an hour early at 4pm, but spent 30 minutes in a holding pattern waiting to land. Got home around 6pm.....lazed around catching up with Gautam and Andy, had a delicious Thai dinner and then luckily went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 6am!<br />
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27th March 2010<br />
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This morning we went to T Joes and stocked up on food and groceries for the next week. Then we ordered a take out lunch at DC noodles, came home, had pho noodles, garden spring rolls and leftover Thai for lunch. Left home at 1pm, went to the Smithsonian Mall and spent the afternoon at the DC kite festival. It was a beautiful day, sunny but cold, temps in the high 30's/low 40's F! Quite a change for us Hyderabadi folks who left Hyd at 40 deg C weather! The cherry blossoms are reaching their peak and right now many trees are in full bloom and many are half way there. Colors range from pure milky white to deep pink with all shades in between. It looked like half of DC was out there....! Then we took Penny to the dog park where she frolicked with about 20 other dogs in varying breeds and sizes, came home about 4pm, jet lag hit us and we keeled over and slept. Had to really make an effort to get up at 6pm.<br />
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Venkat and family dropped by around 7pm or so. They stopped at DC on their way back to Princeton from N Carolina where they had gone on a college tour of Duke so Nikki could check it out. As always we had a great time with heated discussions on everything from politics to health to food to economy etc. Gautam ordered some delicious pizza and thanks to that along with large quantities of beer and wine we all started slowing down around 10pm or so. They left for their hotel and we are again planning to get together tomorrow...the weather forecast for tomorrow is crappy so we are not sure what our plans are......whatever they are we will have a good time I know!<br />
Check out <a href="http://www.saffronandsilk.blogspot.com/">my other blog</a> for some close up gorgeous views of the cherry blossoms! <br />
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Raghavan and I went to Istanbul last June, we were there the 7th thru the 12th. Unfortunately I did not blog during the trip so this is way way later so it will not have the same impact, but nonetheless I hope you enjoy it. <br />
Istanbul - it conjures up images of minarets and mosques against blue skies, muezzins calling for prayer, bazaars selling lanterns and spices, rose flavored Turkish halva, baklava filled with honey and nuts and a city oozing history from every pore ……well I am here to tell you it’s all that and much much more! <br />
Raghavan and I finally got to visit Turkey last month. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus strait and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn in the Northwest of the country. It extends both on the European as well as the Asian side of the Bosphorus and as such has the distinction of being the only city in the world built on two continents. <br />
We landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on a perfect summer day around 2pm on the 7th of June and our cab drive from the airport to the hotel in Sultanahmet district took us along the Marmara coast. It was a Sunday afternoon and the entire coastline was dotted with families enjoying a day out and picnicking with hammocks strung up between trees and barbecues fired up. It looked like all of Istanbul was out there! The first thing that struck us was how little traffic there was on the roads. The second thing I noticed was the abundance of roses everywhere. They were predominantly red roses..…growing profusely along the roadside and spilling brazenly from boxes on windowsills, on terrace gardens, outside stores in containers….everywhere! With blue skies and the heady perfume of roses in the air and I knew I would love Istanbul!<br />
We checked into our hotel in Sultanahmet at around 3pm. This is in the heart of historic Old Istanbul. If you’re looking for a neighborhood close to ALL major sights in Istanbul then this neighborhood is the best base. Of course some might argue that being so close to the sights you tend to miss out on the “off the beaten path” delights…..but all the same being close to the sights definitely has its advantages. We would typically head out after breakfast and come back to the hotel after lunch for a short siesta, and then head out again after 4pm or so and stay out till past dinner time. Our Hotel Dersaadet was a charming comfortable hotel with an incredible view from the rooftop terrace of white sailboats against the blue Marmara Sea.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgX7QOytIBzMnkpegY6AlWsmU6gyvNXfGzTgqW03MLL6gh3_HcWhdK1rz6rjsoLDz0iOAEKu-Aof58UJMDWawnkSutYUTPQlZKyPgxaG7qddxW-Cc_0IV7g7zbn2vzKERrzBDY/s1600/Baklavacci.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgX7QOytIBzMnkpegY6AlWsmU6gyvNXfGzTgqW03MLL6gh3_HcWhdK1rz6rjsoLDz0iOAEKu-Aof58UJMDWawnkSutYUTPQlZKyPgxaG7qddxW-Cc_0IV7g7zbn2vzKERrzBDY/s400/Baklavacci.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>My husband and I are firm believers of ‘when in Rome do as the Romans do”! We try as much as possible to stay away from cabs and fancy restaurants, instead we experiment with street food and eat where the locals eat, walk wherever possible or if it is too far to walk, use public transportation. And in Istanbul where everything seemed to be a 5-10 minute walk away and the Bus Rapid Transit is cheap, efficient and comfortable and every street corner has vendors selling goodies like simit, which is a circular Turkish bread with sesame seeds, misir or steamed corn, baklavas, dondurma or Turkish ice cream, grilled koftas and dolmas, to do as the Turks do was easy.<br />
Since we didn’t feel too jet lagged we decided to start discovering our surroundings right away. We stopped at a café round the corner for some lip smacking gooey baklava and a cappuccino and then headed off to the Blue Mosque, a mere 5 minute walk from the hotel. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS66xb3GZ23rG4nCZEdc_8MjqLPQG8Qdy4vou15hyanPo-J8l0v99Tdf5UWJfidYUj8Av-om5r4ayuoLdlRHBGu3Sj-sF21L_N3Ne8G4l4NDVA-XNl5ynIrV4RBjTBQdtIfT_g/s1600/BlueMosque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS66xb3GZ23rG4nCZEdc_8MjqLPQG8Qdy4vou15hyanPo-J8l0v99Tdf5UWJfidYUj8Av-om5r4ayuoLdlRHBGu3Sj-sF21L_N3Ne8G4l4NDVA-XNl5ynIrV4RBjTBQdtIfT_g/s400/BlueMosque.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>The mosque is built on the site of palace of the Byzantine emperors and faces the Hagia Sofia. Per custom we removed our footwear as well as socks to go inside. The interior is lined with more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles giving it the name Blue Mosque. A bit of interesting trivia here – after the mosque was completed and the 6 minarets revealed, the Sultan was heavily criticized for being so presumptuous, since it was, at that time, the same number of minarets as the Kaaba in Mecca! The Sultan overcame this problem by paying for a seventh minaret at Mecca! The mosque still calls people to prayer 5 times a day. The only difference is the muezzin has been replaced by a public address system which woke us up every morning echoed by other mosques in the city. Turks and tourists gather at sunset in the park facing the mosque to hear the call to evening prayers, as the sun sets and the mosque is brilliantly illuminated by colored floodlights.<br />
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Our next stop was the Underground Basilica cisterns thought to have been built after the Nika revolt in 532 AD. After the conquest of the city by the Ottoman Turks, it was forgotten and nobody knew that it existed. Re-discovered in 1545, it was used to water the gardens of Topkapi Palace. Today it has a rather eerie and mystical ambiance. What you see is a huge tank containing 336 columns and about 12 inches of water on the floor. One of the most famous sights within the cistern is the pedestal with the two Medusa heads carved into it. One head is on its side, the other inverted.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Ml2JsJtCS4hqqeVwDQ3YCReGB5c4WnwPPnTYe6XcD2INLcNbnRn13UaDtjGZ2vQ8Qc3w1ijL7P2hjIB8VSV-Nc6YeZBNFDp59_C9U_oFQz_nFONjiTKrd-bM3Kq-giTX0kZx/s1600/Mezze.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Ml2JsJtCS4hqqeVwDQ3YCReGB5c4WnwPPnTYe6XcD2INLcNbnRn13UaDtjGZ2vQ8Qc3w1ijL7P2hjIB8VSV-Nc6YeZBNFDp59_C9U_oFQz_nFONjiTKrd-bM3Kq-giTX0kZx/s400/Mezze.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>By now it was well past our Hyderabad bed time and jet lag was starting to hit us. We stopped for dinner at a roadside café and ordered their mezze platter. Mezze, or small appetizer-style dishes, are important in every Middle Eastern cuisine, so this part of the menu is extensive and varied. It included six appetizers, each one beautifully prepared, each in its own section of a large plate. There were familiar dishes like white creamy hummus and baba ghanoush with less familiar dishes such as pilaki, which is pinto beans and other vegetables in a light tomato sauce as well as a combination of cubes of eggplant and potatoes. There was a cheese mezze and then finally a mound of thick creamy garlicky dill flavored yogurt in the middle all smothered with olive oil. This was accompanied by a kind of gigantic puffy bread which the waiter called pouf bread. It is sort of a cross between the Indian poori and naan! No meal in Istanbul is complete without the mandatory flavored teas and apple tea seems to be the most common, probably because it is the tastiest! It is like hot apple cider really! It was all so exciting and exotic and little did we know then that for vegetarians like us, mezze platters would become our mainstay and the eggplant our good friend!<br />
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Breakfast at the hotel had the usual array of continental choices….toast, rolls, scrambled eggs, cereal etc but in addition there were bowls of olives, raisins, apricots, dates, sliced cheeses, thick yogurt and jars of exotic jams including the mandatory rose jam and various flavored honeys. My favorite soon became a heaping bowl of yogurt topped with apricots and raisins and drizzled with spoonfuls of honey. Fortified for the day, or at least till lunchtime, we hit the Topkapi palace. The Topkapi palace was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years from 1453. When the Sultans moved to the Dolmabache Palace in 1853 the palace lost its royal importance and started to deteriorate. After 50 years of continuous restoration, it was converted into a museum in 1924 at Ataturk’s request. Situated on the Acropolis, the site of the first settlement in Istanbul, it commands an impressive view of the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgF5IwCZi8xy8veADS9IIFebhCSCpJrAspQZ1gKo4-ynR1gwcRi1dJALOQfKt_2MLtVqWGGheZq2kwgItftG3HPrFsfPRIN0wdn1yp4HLW45Y4tVATIw4p6VyEwirjoRFdP9C/s1600/Hotelrooftop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgF5IwCZi8xy8veADS9IIFebhCSCpJrAspQZ1gKo4-ynR1gwcRi1dJALOQfKt_2MLtVqWGGheZq2kwgItftG3HPrFsfPRIN0wdn1yp4HLW45Y4tVATIw4p6VyEwirjoRFdP9C/s400/Hotelrooftop.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>Our next stop was the Archaeological Museum which is housed in three buildings just inside the first court of Topkapi Palace and includes the Museum of the Ancient Orient. The museum has an excellent collection of Greek and Roman artifacts, including finds from Ephesus and Troy. The sarcophagi collection included that of Alexander the Great which my husband got a big thrill out of seeing. Another huge surprise for us was seeing the Peacock Throne of Shah Jehan in the Museum. How had it ended up here? The story goes that when Nadir Shah planned to extend his territory into Turkey, Sultan Mahmud of Turkey who had been badly defeated by him in Armenia offered him a peace treaty. Nadir Shah surprisingly accepted and to celebrate both parties agreed to a diplomatic exchange of gifts. Among the valuable gifts which Nadir Shah selected to be sent to his counterpart in Turkey, Sultan Mahmud, was the divan-like Peacock Throne, which he had brought down from Delhi during his Indian campaign. There is still some doubt as to whether it is the real Peacock throne or a copy of the original!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlteG_oCtMR1RF90N5BwubvCrGX-zLorrGDR1ZVRs8JhsoF4DzicOmYB7YERdZAasXOmSguZ2kclcfHeypsoc1RZdY5wRGrR6bHI-_vpHcKEiWxSw4561GIbaA5OdvnbG2v0ic/s1600/Whirlingdervish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlteG_oCtMR1RF90N5BwubvCrGX-zLorrGDR1ZVRs8JhsoF4DzicOmYB7YERdZAasXOmSguZ2kclcfHeypsoc1RZdY5wRGrR6bHI-_vpHcKEiWxSw4561GIbaA5OdvnbG2v0ic/s400/Whirlingdervish.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>Our evening dinner included a ceremony by a whirling dervish. We had been planning to go see a popular touristy one hour show at the Sirkeci train station the next day, so we thought this would be a good preview of what was in store for us the next day.<br />
The Mevlevi Order, or the Mevlevilik are a Sufi order founded in Konya by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet. They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; the whirling itself is known as the Sema and the participants are properly known as semazens. They spin on their right foot and additionally, they have their right palm facing upwards towards Heaven and their left hand pointing at the ground. The music that accompanies the whirling from beginning to end ranges from somber to rhapsodical. Lulled into a soporific state by the good food, watching the dervish spinning and the mesmerizing music, we headed back for a good night’s rest and decided to skip the show we had planned to see the next evening.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6_qOO4eI32ACmWCtg8gKcAfaLNhyIzAQee-IiAzVnU6vzG47prRTxsIEl2MWkX8Av3_4OzeuKJu2LCHidHGQDBmsgNTrKtzgK4OanVwsjIAVBzat85Sew4gvKEwEhaeXg2W9/s1600/Hagiasofia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6_qOO4eI32ACmWCtg8gKcAfaLNhyIzAQee-IiAzVnU6vzG47prRTxsIEl2MWkX8Av3_4OzeuKJu2LCHidHGQDBmsgNTrKtzgK4OanVwsjIAVBzat85Sew4gvKEwEhaeXg2W9/s400/Hagiasofia.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>Day 3 started at the St. Sophia, better known as the Hagia Sofia. I have seen incredible basilicas in Rome, Spain and Portugal, but nothing prepared me for the size and scale of the Hagia. At 184 feet, it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years until the completion of the Seville cathedral in 1520. It was the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for almost 10 decades till it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and converted into a mosque. The bells, altar and sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over, signs of which are still evident. The Islamic features — such as the mihrab, the minbar, and the four minarets outside — were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans. It remained as a mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a museum by the Republic of Turkey. The cathedral took us a good part of the morning.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>After lunch my husband, ice cream connoiseur that he is, decided to try some “dondurmas”, the Turkish equivalent of ice cream. It turned out to be nothing like the ice cream we are familiar with. It is thicker, chewier and gelatinous and when inverted on the spoon, does not fall! We found out later that it is made with goats milk to which mastic resin is added as a thickening agents. No wonder then that it never melted in the afternoon sun!<br />
After this gastronomic experiment gone awry, determined to fill my one almost empty suitcase with Turkish souveneirs, we headed to the famous Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world with 60 streets and 5000 shops. A labyrinthine maze selling everything from perfumes, spices and silks to carpets, ceramics, copperware, water pipes and jewellry, it is a shopaholic’s dream come true. Fortunately my 3 years in Hyderabad and shopping expeditions to Charminar have fine tuned my haggling skills so we were able to walk away with some awesome – or so we think – deals! We bought rose flavored Turkish delight, apple teas, handmade ceramics and soft fluffy Turkish towels for half the price quoted and kilims for a third of the price. The trick is to walk away – no, really walk away – if they don’t meet your price! After a leisurely afternoon spent exploring the bazaar, getting lost countless times and feeling quite smug with our purchases we headed back to the hotel, tired but satisfied. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7tL2TJ9mjwmVc8YQT38ROQqLkes6to3eNeDKJtOsFNEzbuRqaGuUQe2jjbrkk1pPsT5vtdQxuOC83JfbGMedcMUBZJtKqX7BwzqCyajmlQPDbTonv6a2G2GkYl3JXr2OreDt/s1600/Spicemkt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7tL2TJ9mjwmVc8YQT38ROQqLkes6to3eNeDKJtOsFNEzbuRqaGuUQe2jjbrkk1pPsT5vtdQxuOC83JfbGMedcMUBZJtKqX7BwzqCyajmlQPDbTonv6a2G2GkYl3JXr2OreDt/s400/Spicemkt.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>Our original plan was to drive to Troy the next day but when we realized we would spend 8 out of the 12 hours in the car getting to and fro, we decided to do the Bosphorus cruise instead. We took the traditional ferryboat that left from Eminonu up the Bosphorus including stops at several villages along the way. The cruise took 1 ½ hours to Sariyer district on the European side of the Bosphorus. Since it was too early for lunch we climbed up the Rumeli Hisari or Rumelian castle, a fortress built by Sultan Mehmet II before he conquered Constantinople. It looked like an innocently easy climb from down below, but after the last 10 minutes in 80 degree temperatures up a 60 degree incline under the hot sky, we got to the top ravenous and thirsty! After a quick walk around, some gorgeous pictures against the blue sea and some ice cold beer and lemonade, we walked back down to the village.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCY2fxxnIhoIauYrRi6HIJFwRcsTDk_7Zn5W0Tc-8cUmAmT41Drq6CNlTF0SFOklYZ471jOdgPyIat8yzDan3RRQ4lPQftri2AJ1oxfd435_4JgU1DoyEfbz94_31S1Tm5NTv_/s1600/Bosphcruise.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCY2fxxnIhoIauYrRi6HIJFwRcsTDk_7Zn5W0Tc-8cUmAmT41Drq6CNlTF0SFOklYZ471jOdgPyIat8yzDan3RRQ4lPQftri2AJ1oxfd435_4JgU1DoyEfbz94_31S1Tm5NTv_/s400/Bosphcruise.JPG" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div>After a nice lunch at one of the waterside cafes, we took the ferry back to Eminonu. On our second day we had inadvertently stumbled upon a fabulous bazaar behind our hotel, Arasta Bazaar, so we decided to go browse the shops there. At dinner time, my husband, determined to sample the local brew, ordered some Raki. This is an anise flavored spirit, often compared to Goan feni or Greek ouzo and is partly mixed with chilled water which causes it to turn a milky white color. Almost as disastrous as the dondurmas, it ended up being way too strong for his liking, after which he decided to stop experimenting and stick to the tried and tested eggplant mezze and apple tea.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXnf5lfVqqhz63_G_F4MhBX1ARxahOsVGrbp9N6q9ioMPwDKDwrPISvrZaLDgxV0wsJ7Ayp9gWLF_jy3S9AsKoxAtdt0N9E-qpfwHgOtxVWFKRWR0ko4nBMrtmzaWLt_lDq8ZL/s1600/Rumelifortress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXnf5lfVqqhz63_G_F4MhBX1ARxahOsVGrbp9N6q9ioMPwDKDwrPISvrZaLDgxV0wsJ7Ayp9gWLF_jy3S9AsKoxAtdt0N9E-qpfwHgOtxVWFKRWR0ko4nBMrtmzaWLt_lDq8ZL/s400/Rumelifortress.JPG" width="400" wt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Day 5 took us back to the Grand Bazaar for a second bout of shopping and haggling. It was followed by a quick visit to the Suleymaniye Mosque, built on the order of Sultan Suleiman who was credited with the complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. For this he was known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East as the Lawgiver. This mosque is his final resting place. After this we took the 1 ½ hour guided city bus tour on a double decker bus which showed us the highlights of Istanbul. The rest of the day was spent wandering through the city and re-visiting some of our favorite shops and cafes. In the evening just like the locals, we sat on benches in between the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, drinking in the view of these 2 magnificent buildings against the backdrop of the setting sun, drinking apple tea and chatting with two scruffy but adorable schoolchildren selling postcards and souveneirs to earn some extra money. When darkness fell we reluctantly returned to the hotel to start packing and getting ready for our flight the next morning.</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYBJai68voUwCLLOe-xkExiy4Mz9YiWMoPCwReXffnNHiAuNgYN8qlT1KvlBfqDMx67vYl35TW8CO4KNRv9Sga_GI2BNjJKSlq53UKDR92-yscBfA8AzrfgDWMQ4br_R3rVGff/s1600/Pottery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYBJai68voUwCLLOe-xkExiy4Mz9YiWMoPCwReXffnNHiAuNgYN8qlT1KvlBfqDMx67vYl35TW8CO4KNRv9Sga_GI2BNjJKSlq53UKDR92-yscBfA8AzrfgDWMQ4br_R3rVGff/s200/Pottery.jpg" width="200" wt="true" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin11A5EHhOxD4R4S2DBq59PPmZFMjS8S-PjFLQa9W0N9eYkGEw0ZpsTRkl1bgumy_xXKjP76k7oMp7cvWNtZVS8_Yp2ivhRYYca5xlW314lNdzlt3gcm-uJauHjEBZX1Awm3xW/s1600/Streetkids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin11A5EHhOxD4R4S2DBq59PPmZFMjS8S-PjFLQa9W0N9eYkGEw0ZpsTRkl1bgumy_xXKjP76k7oMp7cvWNtZVS8_Yp2ivhRYYca5xlW314lNdzlt3gcm-uJauHjEBZX1Awm3xW/s200/Streetkids.jpg" width="200" wt="true" /></a>Our 5 day stay went by way too quickly. If I had to do it again, I would allow for a week just to see Istanbul and then another 3-4 days to visit Cappadochia, Troy and Anatolia. I would also make the time to have a Turkish Hammam bath of which we had heard such wonderful things. The Turks are wonderful people, friendly and curious. The food is delicious and exotic. The weather in June is picture perfect. The city is steeped in culture and history. Istanbul is a harmonious blend of the east and the west, the modern and the traditional, the old and the new. We left with 2 resolutions – the first to be sure to vist again in our lifetime, the second to stay away from eggplant for a long time!!!!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div>Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-88467529861023922912007-04-17T10:22:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:38:24.171+05:30April 10th - day 2 in Barcelona<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Did the usual breakfast thing and headed out to see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_familia">Sagrada Familia</a>. We headed to a metro station much closer, the reason we hadn't been going there was cos it involved changing lines a coupls of times, and sometimes that could take a much longer time to get to our destination. But after all the walking the day before, we were in no mood to walk the distance to Sants. We got to Sagrada soon and spent a couple of hours gazing at this bizarre Art Nouveau wonder by Antonio Gaudi! I had studied it in 20th century architecture in BCC, and was keen to see it, but was totally unprepared for how weird and fascinatingly bizarre it was. Sinewy columns, organic flowing interiors, flowery grape bunchy things here and there......quite grotesque. But when we looked clsoe it was amazing they had managed to build something like this at that time, without all the construction methods and engineering skills we have today. Gaudi died before it was completed and work is still continuing till today to finish it the way he had envisioned. What was more fascinating, was watching all the workers and craftsmen inside the building.<br />
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Then we left for the metro again intending to take a ride on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular_de_Montju%C3%AFc">Montjuic Funicular</a>, so we could get a panoramic view of the city. We exited the metro station at Montjuic, only to find the access to the funicular was tied in to the metro system and we could have boarded within the station. So we had to buy tickets again...drats! So back we went and took the funicular to the top of the hill. We got some amazing views from there, walked around the gardens a bit and then decided to come back to the hotel, take a siesta and go back to our fav place, La Rambla, in the evening. We stopped at a supermarket on the way back, I bought some Spanish dog chews for the pooches ( which they just sniff at...they don't seem to like them too much :-( ), had <a href="http://spanishfood.about.com/od/tapas/r/patatasbravas.htm">Patatas Bravas</a>, marinated olives, bread and beer for lunch, stopped at an Internet cafe for the mandatory e mailing session and came back at 3.15pm. We left again at 5pm, walked to Sants, took the metro to Liceu/La Rambla and this time walked along the southern part. Since we were planning on seeing the flamenco show at Los Tarantos at Plaza Reial, we browsed that area, watched 2 amazing street guitar players, bought their CD, then some souvenier shopping including a gorgeous ceramic sangria pitcher. We had seen a veg restaurant called Maoz, the day before, so we had falafels and patatas flamencas (french fries) for dinner. It was huge and an effort to eat it all...but we managed alright. </div>
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Finally we got to Los Tarantos, went in and grabbed front row seats. It was only a half hour show and it began right on time at 8.3opm. All of us there got settled with a pitcher of sangria...thats the thing to drink in Spain, very good and very addictive. It started with 4 guys, one on guitar, one on drums and 2 taking turns singing loudly and lustily. We kept waiting for the flamenco dancer to show up but there was no sign of her. At about 8.45 or so, the front door to the bar opened and slammed, and a guy rushed backstage with a garment bag sort of thing. Ah ha....he's brought her flamenco outfit we thought. Good...so she should be out soon. A few minutes later, the same guy came onto stage in his flamenco suit. Turns out there was no female flamenco dancer that night, only this guy! But what a fabulous dancer he turned out to be. All us viewers were disappointed there was no woman in her flouncy flamenco skirt, but this guy was awesome. The show went on past 9pm, probably to make up for the delay....all in all it was amazing. Came back pretty tired at 10pm.</div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/barc%202/?albumview=slideshow">More pics of day 2 in Barcelona...</a></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-79928202557503718742007-04-16T09:55:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:38:08.451+05:309th April - Granada to Barcelona<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yay! Its my birthday....i turned 47! Mom and Dad called to wish me @ 6am. I had told them to call early cos we had to leave at 7am for the airport. We went down for breakfast at 6.30am and were surprised to see the door to the restaurant was closed, but the light was on and we could see a guy puttering around in the back kitchen. So R pushed the door and went in and asked him if b'fast was ready and he said it started only at 7am. Again, just like room numbers, we had gotten all the start times mixed up. But nice guy Mamoon, knew we were leaving for the airport - cos he was the one who woke us up at 5am for our wake up call - and brought out some cereal, some OJ, milk and toast. Finished in 10 mins and headed to the front desk to check out - it was Mamoon again! Looks like he was wake up man, cook, receptionist...all rolled in one. We found out he was from Morocco and chatted about our Tangier trip. He kept talking and delaying our departure. All the while I could hear some hissing and sputtering from the next room and was wondering what it was. Suddenly he darted into the room, I realized it was the kitchen. In all his enthusiasm and talking, he had boiled the milk over!!!! FINALLY he got us all checked out and told us our taxi had arrived. Guess who our doorman and luggage handler was - yup, Mamoon again! Got to the airport well ahead of time.<br />
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We had a great flight to Barcelona. It left early and arrived 15 mins early, tho the last few minutes had been very turbulent! Baggage arrived immediately and we took the metro to Barcelona Sants station. From our metro map it looked like the hotel was quite a distance from the station, so we took a cab and got there at 11.30am! Usual procedure - we dumped our stuff and went looking for lunch. Had pizza and a great mediterranean salad at Pizzeria Genova! Came back and napped till 2.30pm.</div>
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We wanted to go to La Rambla, a famous marketplace as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barri_G%C3%B2tic">Barri Gotic</a>, the oldest part of the city, so decided if we left at 3.30, we could walk to Sants, take the metro and do it all in one shot, and come back only after dinner. That was the plan anyway, so we would not have to come back after seeing one, and then walk to the metro station again. So we left as planned, walked to Sants, it was about a 15-20 minute walk, much further away than our other hotels had been from the metro. On the way we stopped at an Internet cafe and sent off some e mails. We had to buy our train tickets to Madrid on the 11th, so when we arrived at Sants, we went to the ticket counter. We didn't have to wait as long as we did at Madrid station, but when we finally got to the counter - shocker!!! The one way train ticket on second class per person was 102 euros...thats about $160 dollars!!!!! We sort of mulled it over while the ticket agent drummed her fingers...and then decided to go back to the Internet cafe and check out airfares. So back again we went to the same place. I quickly got onto Expedia and we found fares for $75 one way! Yippee...but wait....we didn't have our credit cards to buy it there, so back to the hotel we went!!!</div>
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As soon as we got there, I signed onto the Internet for a 15 minute session, got onto Expedia while R hurried to the room to get the c card. Soon after he came and while processing our request, it asked for passport info. So R ran up again, only by then it was almost timed out, so when i asked at the front desk for a 15 minute extension, they said i had to sign out of this one and sign on again!!!!! Unbelievable!!!! So it timed out. By then R got back and we started all over again! After a heart thumping, nerve racking 15 minutes we were all done! $160 for both as agaist $320 by train! feeling mighty thrilled, we had some coffee and back we walked to Sants. Of course by now it was way past 5pm, so all we did was go to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rambla,_Barcelona">La Rambla</a> marketplace. </div>
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La Rambla was a fascinating place. It is a long stretch of road, actually a paved road inbetween 2 roads full of shops...souveniers, flowers, knick knacks, seed shops, birds and small pets, food items and street magicians and performers. See the pic of the guy with wind blown hair and his skewed tie in the slideshow....he actually stood like that for 15 minutes...the tie is sort of glued to stay like that! We walked along the stretch north of the metro station we had gotten off at. The best thing was that we FINALLY got <a href="http://www.localharvest.org/store/item.jsp?id=8259">Padron pepper </a>seeds. Padron peppers are these small peppers about 2 inches long, a cross between bell peppers and chile peppers and mild tasting with a tiny kick - see pic above. They are served broiled or fried in olive oil with sea salt and a favorite vegetarian tapas with drinks. Ever since we tasted them at the Meson De La Guitarra in Madrid, we have been on the lookout for these seeds to plant back home (sshhhhh...don't tell the customs guys)!!!! Then we went to Mercat De La Boqueria, a farmers market and oohed and aahed over all the fresh produce and interesting fruits including Cherimoyas (custard apple) and something called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitahaya">Pitahayas</a>. A few more purchases including a st. steel coffee percolator and some gifts for others, a quick bite of padron peppers, or better known as Pimientos de Padron, we headed to a local bar called Los Tarantos for a 8.30pm flamenco show. Really Madrid is the place for flamenco, but we never made it, so R had promised me a show for my birthday! On our way, we were handed a flyer for a Spanish classical music guitar performance by a duo at the Basilica close by starting at 9pm. Hmmmm.....it sounded really good and R's eyes were glistening with excitement and we could always see the flamenco show the next day, so thats what we did. We had time, so on Gautam's insistence that I MUST have these, we stopped at a chocolateria and R had choc ice cream and I had chocolate con churros - again see pic. Then we headed to the Basilica. It was an amazing concert.....the lighting in the Basilica, the stained glass windows, the architecture all combined with some amazing classical music...fantastic! We were not allowed to take pics even tho the guy next to us did! We took the metro back late and this is when we had our second encounter with pickpockets!!!</div>
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When we got to our metro station - Sants - we were at the end of the train and so among the last to leave it. 2 guys had boarded 2 stations ago and were sitting across us. Both R and I felt (even tho we didn't say anything at that time to each other) that they were a bit shady! They got off at our station and sort of kept lingering ahead as if to try and get behind us. They stopped to ask directions from people, they stopped to look at poster maps...they tried everything to try and get behind us. And every time they stopped, we did too and pretended like we too were lost. Finally we got to an escalator. One of the guys ran up and came down immediately on the other side and succeeded in getting behind us. The other guy was still in front of us as we were heading up the esc. As we reached the top to get off, he dropped his cigarette case and bent down to get it, forcing us to have to wait and so the guy behind came up close to R and groped his pockets. But by now, R who was FULLY convinced they were crooks, not only had both his hands in his pockets, he kicked the guy ahead who was bent down in the butt. They scooted down the esc. on the other side once they knew we were on to them!!! I forgot to mention that R had bought a new wallet in Granada and had stuffed his old wallet with used metro tickets (with words like idiot, jerk, moron written on them) hoping someone would steal it. But he did admit that the temptation to kick the guy overcame the urge to let them pick his old wallet! So that was that! Came back to the room and kept talking about the b-----y pickpockets!</div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/barc%201/?albumview=slideshow">More pics of La Rambla</a></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-19286068766504951802007-04-15T10:27:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:37:56.913+05:308th April - Alhambra, Granada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_ZB-odrnyDHOzx5nUHjD_fgmpjSQh3sgVeAtFOhSLDIZvObU_qccCA1hTQC6XE4504g3pVBrQZYDEv97kz60dDcsk9XBHz90EvOa3BIGVrOAAJmLWckODIAM3wx6EGNdGwIy/s1600-h/IMG_1524.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_ZB-odrnyDHOzx5nUHjD_fgmpjSQh3sgVeAtFOhSLDIZvObU_qccCA1hTQC6XE4504g3pVBrQZYDEv97kz60dDcsk9XBHz90EvOa3BIGVrOAAJmLWckODIAM3wx6EGNdGwIy/s320/IMG_1524.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192679772253548658" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rFb3ZKOm4yjJmKPxhahpUpZW3zJsXjTMVhlkvYlKQmHWevjf4w4iAtWTco5vin6Xo-1SWcX19KvN006pd9lh7c5FzgntnIuKJE19w2a5Bj9fZfZdXNf2izZqD-RhJiUr0Xxj/s1600-h/IMG_1529.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rFb3ZKOm4yjJmKPxhahpUpZW3zJsXjTMVhlkvYlKQmHWevjf4w4iAtWTco5vin6Xo-1SWcX19KvN006pd9lh7c5FzgntnIuKJE19w2a5Bj9fZfZdXNf2izZqD-RhJiUr0Xxj/s320/IMG_1529.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192679639109562466" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkWJXBdRvU5gUJtrG8h9RHy7dpyvTcZ35T7EmZUS1AW-iNTjXdL6ujX6gdTwblYneNMAxmr8yB3GXyG3ku4EXAB47mKLzBO6XXGq1o37lE98ogn58VN-nbPOWQ2HEsz77k4eo/s1600-h/IMG_1517.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkWJXBdRvU5gUJtrG8h9RHy7dpyvTcZ35T7EmZUS1AW-iNTjXdL6ujX6gdTwblYneNMAxmr8yB3GXyG3ku4EXAB47mKLzBO6XXGq1o37lE98ogn58VN-nbPOWQ2HEsz77k4eo/s320/IMG_1517.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192679896807600258" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUNeO909x_INosc4QqcEsIzPrMck0afvfhNNoc-8iwri7c8cV_I6GmxjQfzWa3v1-wTEv8X-CIrmrhvJpmv_KUoZ_4ABNWVSDpkoGqYZQJCeHArs9gP74S9f3q-Sdw2sYT1j65/s320/IMG_1542.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192679518850478162" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIazzjlr0yrNxPiXXdTBstFvXM__2AqVfGRnslaMplKK8s3rCo6JVgfg0tBMVcd0MUV79SCPOZytTS98ROLGuKoSyIz-S_DuIdL53xuVwJCHx0xlLYbchHzm7WooMgQW5ezoVq/s1600-h/IMG_1549.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIazzjlr0yrNxPiXXdTBstFvXM__2AqVfGRnslaMplKK8s3rCo6JVgfg0tBMVcd0MUV79SCPOZytTS98ROLGuKoSyIz-S_DuIdL53xuVwJCHx0xlLYbchHzm7WooMgQW5ezoVq/s320/IMG_1549.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192679381411524674" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a>What a day!! There were no windows in our tiny room and with all drapes closed we had no idea of time, so when we woke up it was 8.55am!!! We had requested our hotel almost 2 months ago to get us tickets to see the <a href="http://www.alhambra.org/eng/index.asp?secc=/inicio&popup=1">Alhambra</a>. Apparently they get sold out very quickly and our guide book as well as Indu and Venkat (who had been there last spring) told us to be smart and get them earlier, so the hotel folks had got us tickets for 11am. We had to be there an hour earlier to exchange our voucher for the tickets or they could get cancelled, so we had planned accordingly to leave at 9am, and here it was almost 9am when we woke up!!! We dashed around madly and believe it or not, were down at breakfast at 9.20am! We got done in 10 minutes and took a cab to Alhambra and were there by 9.50am! Whew! We stood in line which was fortunately a lot shorter than the line standing to get tickets. When we got to the counter the lady asked for our credit card to make sure it was the same number mentioned on the voucher. Bummer! We didn't have any cc. We usually leave all our passports, cards etc in the room safe! Then she asked for some ID!! Bummer again! No ID on us. Irritated at us she shooed us out of there and told us to get in the line for tickets!!! Darn darn darn! I quickly got in line while R stood there scratching his head wondering what to do. Suddenly we ( or rather "I") had this idea. The hotel had given us a sort of ID card, it didn't have a picture but it had our names and confirmed we were staying at the hotel. R fished it out, went back to the counter, he sort of cut in, and I guess the lady was so busy, she abstractedly gave him the tickets!!! That was close!<br />
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We spent about 4 1/2 hours at Alhambra, left at 2pm and took the bus back to our street. By now it was raining and not such great walking weather. We stopped at a Middle Eastern place for lunch and had spinach sambusek and veg lentil soup with beer and the mint tea which had become a real hit with us. We fell for this drink so much we bought a tea set - a sliver plated tea pot with 6 glass cups - so we could recreate this back home. We got back to our oom, browsed the Internet for a while, had a bath since we had skipped one in the morning, packed a little and left to go shopping for souveniers at 5pm.</div>
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We went looking for a dagger...R had been wanting one for a while but everytime he found one, he would ask the shopkeeper for some history on it...whether it was a Spanish dagger, how old, what do the motifs on it mean etc etc. Not one of them knew anything. so off we went again! We got everything but a dagger...had dinner at Kasbah restaurant - veg cous cous and soup- and came back at 8.30pm. </div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/alhambra/?albumview=slideshow">More Alhambra pics.....</a></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-7505206443271550052007-04-14T09:52:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:37:42.569+05:307th April - Tangier to Granada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Not to make the same mistake twice, we grabbed seats in the main cabin to get ahead in line for passport checking. But wouldn't you know it....there was nothing this time!!!! We reached Tarifa port at 12.20pm local time (the ferry ride took 35 minutes but Spain is 2 hours ahead...). By the time we got to Algeciras port it was 1.10 pm and we had just missed the 12.15 train to Granada!!!! The next train was only at 4pm and got to Granada at 8.50pm, so we had a quick lunch at the same restaurant and decided to take the bus which was not only leaving at 2pm but also reaching Granada a good 2 hours earlier at 6pm. The fare was about the same - 19 euros each! The weather was yuk! Rainy and a bit cold but since we were in the bus it didn't matter so much. It was an absolutely beautiful drive all along the Costa Del Sol coast via Marbella and Malaga! The bus was fabulous....very long, spacious, air conditioned with reclining seats! We passed some great scenery and saw olive groves all along the way. We got to Granada a bit early at 5.45pm, took a taxi to the hotel, <a href="http://www.room-matehotels.com/eng/granadahotel/migueleteshotel/migueletesgaleria.php">Casa De La Migueletes,</a> and got there by 6.30pm. Its a beautiful hotel, a 14th century restored building, with a courtyard, wood beams and rafters and handmade wood furniture in all rooms! The room itself was tiny though, but beautifully done. </div>
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We left our luggage and went to Calle De Elvira, a well known shopping street. It was a blend of Spanish, Moorish and Arabic shops selling mint teas, lamps, tapestries, rugs, jewellry, brass ware and occasionally Indian kurtas!!! After walking around for more than an hour, we stepped into a restaurantm Cafe La Orientale, from where we could hear the sounds of Spanish guitar. There was a guy in the bar upstairs playing music on the Classic guitar, so we got a table and listened for an hour or so while sipping mint/rose tea! He was excellent! All these guitar playing guys have long hair and R has been saying he wants to learn how to play the Spanish guitar, but for that he will have to grow his hair and the nail on his little thumb long!!!!</div>
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After this we browsed shops some more and then had dinner at Samarcanda - hummus, hammara, falafel, red wine and some fab dessert the waiter recommended. Came back to hotel by 10.30pm. Usually this is when we watch some CNN to catch up on all the news, but the Tv wasn't working so the guy at the front desk was nice enought o get us another one, tho by the time it happened it was close to midnight, so we just crashed!!!</div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/granada%201/?albumview=slideshow">More pics of Granada.....</a></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-52327107039479555332007-04-13T11:23:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:37:28.153+05:306th April - day in Tangier<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxnMaerhBx_5TvPz1uwh1BCVV4fvOAq4NXBhC5jCvejFxUlBVQgOcos_HBkVgS0naMPfB09aDJcSlv6ZiglaEAw47RjJFqBHKESZYcNe9dTbAVGuCaXSHN7TM7rkRC08OqsZF/s1600-h/IMG_1478.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxnMaerhBx_5TvPz1uwh1BCVV4fvOAq4NXBhC5jCvejFxUlBVQgOcos_HBkVgS0naMPfB09aDJcSlv6ZiglaEAw47RjJFqBHKESZYcNe9dTbAVGuCaXSHN7TM7rkRC08OqsZF/s320/IMG_1478.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192325338667380690" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1UKvM4madotoh8ZTrQ7HTyNgudIF8wg4s_nZXDYJ8DYEGzaprlxCBeUeB8-bqhGw6tJDJne3PI0h3CO0et90lc8KWubFl8wgI7NsuVmfzFigUCoQZMsHoss7D6negb6SHTxv/s1600-h/IMG_1476.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1UKvM4madotoh8ZTrQ7HTyNgudIF8wg4s_nZXDYJ8DYEGzaprlxCBeUeB8-bqhGw6tJDJne3PI0h3CO0et90lc8KWubFl8wgI7NsuVmfzFigUCoQZMsHoss7D6negb6SHTxv/s320/IMG_1476.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192325218408296386" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAng942ge55O07_dWpFPTwNE3UJ1StBsahszoDaqdymlxBYkr8auNyQnS7DVy2ERRBLDgnJPm7CZVPuG5v2VU__GSebWRjtz4MApy14xWivAJfNQwNiPxcNX7_a7z8i8L7ZVex/s1600-h/IMG_1462.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAng942ge55O07_dWpFPTwNE3UJ1StBsahszoDaqdymlxBYkr8auNyQnS7DVy2ERRBLDgnJPm7CZVPuG5v2VU__GSebWRjtz4MApy14xWivAJfNQwNiPxcNX7_a7z8i8L7ZVex/s320/IMG_1462.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192324965005225890" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLkuxr4GrGxYSQisdWK_uH4VdqwvNgAyAChp_xXi7teNM8fiKB3T1Ph65NmREdslHHbuZeO-AD-EB0GVd2oKrnY6RgH3CkUP4ZEiXQasqniOUMfooqcGka01sOQnTJpO_F2-K/s1600-h/IMG_1463.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLkuxr4GrGxYSQisdWK_uH4VdqwvNgAyAChp_xXi7teNM8fiKB3T1Ph65NmREdslHHbuZeO-AD-EB0GVd2oKrnY6RgH3CkUP4ZEiXQasqniOUMfooqcGka01sOQnTJpO_F2-K/s320/IMG_1463.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192325106739146674" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtvVIIhsTXTNgLi6Hy0RbRYiBkcn5QY2nb5kO3PUTvyzqNRkTWE5WU32nTL1LfMUU7FzpDq87ul3PTlvxFSqfgZL2fpzrb3LvY1aDFODVTj2lRIgZ79szQm_SZ96Qf7dK1ek5/s1600-h/IMG_1448.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtvVIIhsTXTNgLi6Hy0RbRYiBkcn5QY2nb5kO3PUTvyzqNRkTWE5WU32nTL1LfMUU7FzpDq87ul3PTlvxFSqfgZL2fpzrb3LvY1aDFODVTj2lRIgZ79szQm_SZ96Qf7dK1ek5/s320/IMG_1448.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192324690127318914" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzb5Gq3kewMQ5ydtnFVOMB_iHzo4kQRO5PMzrwcCj0iJNqyQV7qZeDKsUd4iImIaaN6OTS2YRLiRS9fi10jQHaX_J9cI_zOh3GKl3VmVallM6u7mf-UkwTuAayoneqK94OGoc-/s1600-h/IMG_1461.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzb5Gq3kewMQ5ydtnFVOMB_iHzo4kQRO5PMzrwcCj0iJNqyQV7qZeDKsUd4iImIaaN6OTS2YRLiRS9fi10jQHaX_J9cI_zOh3GKl3VmVallM6u7mf-UkwTuAayoneqK94OGoc-/s320/IMG_1461.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192324831861239698" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a> Woke up at 6 am after a very restless night. Like in Madrid and Lisbon, the hotels have not yet turned on their A/C's as it is still cool and spring like, so with the windows closed its too warm and with them open its too noisy. And here in Tangier, esp being on the beach, it was noisy till way past midnight. And starting about 4 am you could hear street sweepers and garbage collectors clanking around...so all in all sleepless night!!! Had a very interesting breakfast.....strange looking items. There were those paratha sort of breads like we had had the evening before, there was something that was a cross between pancakes, dosas and crepes with a jar of honey next to it, a huge silver pot of mint tea, a hundred varieties of sweet rolls, baklava.....! Since we were up early and it being a Sunday we were told nothing would open before 11am, we decided to walk to the beach and dip our feet in the Mediterranean! Interestingly, there were a lot of men and young boys playing football, not a woman in sight! I looked extremely out of place and since we had to dodge football playing guys to get to the water, I chickened out. So R went ahead and did the mandatory foot dipping and came back.<br />
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Since we were sort of sleepy and still had time, we took a quick one hour nap and then headed to the bazaar. </div>
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Our first purchase was a duffel bag for 6 euros since we were short on space for all the things we had planned to buy.Then we went to a bazaar we had seen the previous evening and I bought a pair of Moroccan shoes for my mom. I had taken the outline of her foot and it seemed right, but as it turns out when I got to the room and tried them against my foot, they fit me perfectly and ended up being too big for her! The next store had some beautiful thin cotton floor rugs but language was still a problem, so with great difficulty and sign language, she agreed - or so we thought - to selling a 10 dirham rug for 5 dirhams. When we gave her the 5 dirhams, she almost threw it back at us. It turned out she dropped the price from 100 to 50!!!! All we knew was that there was a 5 somewhere in there! She glared at us and we scooted! </div>
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We went back to the casbah and the maze of narrow streets and bought a bunch of stuff. I bought a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagine">tagine</a> at the old market for 4 euros (which was a great deal cos I found out later that the new modern souvenier shops sell them for as much as 10!!) , a prayer rug for mom. We checked out an interesting vegetable market and I really wanted a picture of the women vendors with their old wrinkled faces, but they kept covering their face every time I tried to take a pic! Not wanting to offend them, I gave up. R bought a leather pouf ( a low moodah sort of thing you sit on, which can be stuffed with old clothes etc) for his dad and a t-shirt and some odd knick knacks. It was 1pm by now and we had pretty much exhausted all of the old city and Medina. So we bought some exotic fruits - mangos and cherimoya, sort of like custard apple, and some dates - for lunch and came back to our room and ate them. </div>
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After a 2 hour siesta and some time on the Internet, we headed out towards the new part of town by the beach. Again I was fascinated to see mostly men on the beach. We happened to catch some fishermen bringing in their haul for the day like they do in Kerala. Very cool! We walked all along the waterfront, saw a very Moroccan looking McD. There was nothing more left to see in Tangier, we had walked the entire city so we stopped at a supermarket and bought some packaged dates to take back and then for dinner at AliBaba again! I tried the tabbouleh salad and R stuck to tried and tested falafels. The owner had given us finger chips free w/dinner the night before, but our waiter this time didn't, so I asked him and he said he would bring it. We waited and waited and actually finished dinner before he came by and apologized for having forgotten. To make up for it, he offered us free mint tea...we weren't sure exactly what it would be like, but we accepted! Well.....believe it or not, he forgot that too and after a while came back and apologized again and offered us free cake for forgetting the mint tea which was for forgetting the chips!!! Poor guy returned soon after with both mint tea and some sort of orange cake...both were fabulous! He said this was his last working day for the week and he was excited at seeing his family after so long and was distracted! </div>
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Walked back to the hotel, packed up for our early departure the next morning!</div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/tangier%202/?albumview=slideshow">More pics of Morocco.....</a></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-61865300817993590612007-04-12T09:30:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:37:17.969+05:305th April - Madrid to Tangier via Algeciras<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IH2WWMptm3W1uTR9KhD_7RopYsbzyFxeeSQ6VQ7ULOPWvVS8qODUD0Lz9quHW22K_gs59C6WrjjSlNYotFlOPE1f32RyIcvJPpLqUFMcb8vRM6Tvsd0Uu8MQ2WkLqB8kLoam/s320/IMG_1382.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191928329070407410" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></div>
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Left our hotel at 7am, went looking for a breakfast cafe on the way to the station, found nothing suitable. So we ended up having a criossant and coffee at one of the many station cafes. Sounds simple but in actuality a very complicated process. By the time you describe to the lady what you want from the array of sweet rolls in the case, then tell her how many and if you want it heated or not, then coffee with or without milk, then trying to figure out all the coin denominations to pay her...all this can take a good 10 minutes! Then went up to the first floor, waited for a while and boarded the train at 8.35am. What a lovely train and train ride through Cordoba and Ronda to Algeciras. As we were nearing Algeciras we saw all these birds' nests on top of electric poles. Some had birds sitting in them and from what we could make out they looked like some sort of cranes. Got to Alg. at 2.10 and found we had just missed the 1.45 bus to Tarifa port. Note - even tho Alg. is a port, one has to go to Tarifa port, a half hour drive away to board the ferry to Tangier. Anyway, it gave us time to have a quick delicious veg sandwich lunch outside the station, then we walked 15 minutes to Alg. port to catch the bus to Tarifa port. There were about 8 buses at the terminal and not one of them had any signs to where they were going. We asked a few people for help trying to figure out which bus we should take but they spoke either French, Arabic or Spanish! Then as luck would have it a Moroccon who spoke English came by to help. The bus arrived, then left to fill gas, came back and left again at 4pm. The conductor on the bus kept asking us something...he tried in all 3 languages and when he realized we spoke only English, he shook his head as if to say....what dumb people, going to Morocco and they don't speak the language!!!! We reached Tarifa at 4.30. We hurried to get in line for the passport control authorities and were in second place or so. The others were all standing in line to buy tickets. We had already bought ours at the train station. Cool we thought. We're so smart! Then as more and more people got in line behind us, we noticed they had some sort of boarding cards. By the time we realized we had had to exchange our tickets for boarding cards, almost everyone was behind us in line. So I stood in place while R rushed back to the ticket counter. Any minute now the passport guys would start checking and I would have to give up my place and move to the very end!!!! In about 15 minutes, just as the counter opened R came back! whew!<br />
Went thru all formalities and boarded ferry at 5.15pm. It was supposed to leave at 5pm by finally left at 5.30pm. Once on board we grabbed the front seats with a nice view outside. There was a constant stream of announcements on the loudspeaker but we could not follow anything. Every now and then we could make out the word "passport". Some time later, we noticed the cabin was almost empty. We figured people had gone to get food or something. R decided to see what was happening and found in the main cabin a long line.......we had to get our passports stamped again by Moroccan authorites on board!! Thats what the announcements were about!!So R was back at the end of the line. The 35 minute ferry crossing took almost an hour and just as the ferry docked at Tangier, R was done. Fortunately Tangier is 2 hours behind Spain so it was still only 4.30pm. We had to go thru more passport formalities. Even tho our hotel was 500 meters from port, we got persuaded by a glib cab driver and paid 5 euros to get to the hotel. FABULOUS five star hotel on the beach! We got checked in by 2 giggly girls who told us how they loved Indain movies and blushed when I asked them their fav hero....SRK of course!! Followed by Big B!! FDumped our luggage in the beautiful room and left for the old city and Medina. </div>
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Tangier reminded us a lot of India....lots of people, noise, traffic, children...but NO animals and cleaner! The shops and stores were noisy and as we walked by spice shops and markets, the heady smell of herbs assailed us. We went in search of the Casbah or bazaar....bought some fresh plump dates on the way. We were not having much luck finding the actual casbah but knew we were in the vicinity according to the map. We must have looked lost, cos suddenly a guy appeared with his son, and told us he would show us the way. We said we didn't need him and he kept saying he was not a guide and didn't want money etc etc. Anyway, he walked us thru the casbah, gave us a history lesson and finally asked for 5 euros!!! </div>
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On our way back thru the tiny colorful alleys we stopped and had a paratha sort of thing from a street vendor....a flaky layered bread smothered in honey. It was soooooo yummy!Passed by many souvenier shops selling brassware, pottery, tagines, rugs, hookahs, lanterns, dates. Then later we had an amazing falafel dinner at Ali Baba restaurant for all of 40 dirhams/4 euros/6 dollars!!!! </div>
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Came back to the hotel and tried to open our room door with a key but it wouldn't open. It took us a moment to realize we were trying to get into room 516, instaed of 408. All these days of staying at different hotels and the room numbers were all blurring together. Before anyone thought we were trying to break in, we scooted back to the 4th floor!! </div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/morocco/?albumview=slideshow">More pics taken while wandering around looking for casbah....</a></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-51535049539391841472007-04-11T08:31:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:37:08.613+05:304th April - Lisbon to Madrid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We had to catch our flight to Madrid this morning much against our will. We really loved Lisbon and were wishing we had planned a longer stay here. After our usual breakfast, we checked out and took the Aerobus to the airport. Then the usual check in procedure etc etc and boarded the flight at 10.10am and got into Madrid at 12.15pm. From the AP we took the metro to Atocha Renfe station, one of Madrid's main train stations and where we had to buy the train tickets for our next day trip to Algeciras, a small port town next to Gibralter, on the southern border of Spain. After much asking around we got to the ticket counter. There were hordes of people around and we found we had to pick a number from those machine things. Our number was 434 or so and they were still serving number 200 something. So we were in for a long wait!!!! Unfortunately it was something we could have done during our previous 3 day stay but we kept putting it off. Serves us right!!! Finally at about 3pm they got to us and we bought our tickets.....very expensive tickets. They were 61 euros/90 dollars each, one way.....!! Much more than our guide book said they would be, about 35 euros!! Even tho it is a 2006 guide book I didnt think prices would go up so much!!! We then walked to Hotel Carlton which was close by, not the same cramped place we had stayed at before, but a much larger better roomed one. Left our baggage and headed out for lunch cos we were both starving after our 7am breakfast! We decided to go back to our favorite Pinicchio Trattoria for salad and pizza. Found a long line for outdoor seating - locals eat lunch very late - so went inside. After a 10 min wait we got seated and found to our dismay that our fav Mediterranean salad which we had had just 4 days ago had been scratched off the menu!!!!! I guess there isn't much demand for a veg salad!! So we ordered a grilled veg platter and a pizza, fruit juice and beer. The drinks were taking very long and the owner was rushing around with a frazzled look on his face. We stopped him while he was dashing by to remind him of our drinks and soon after, in about 30 seconds they appeared. Wow! That was quick! Then about 10 minutes later the same frazzled owner stopped by with another set of drinks, saw we had already been served and went to the kitchen in a huff and poured it down the drain. I know cos from where I was sitting i could see all the frenzied activity in the kitchen. Soon after the food appeared. A quick note about food in Spain - everything is swimming in olive oil! So even tho grilled veggies may sound very healthy, I am not sure it really was. It tasted good, no doubt, but there was enough EVOO left on the plate for Jharna (our cook) to cook us a decent meal!<br />
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By the time we were one it was close to 4.30pm, so our second attempt, no, actually 3rd attempt to see Palacio Real failed since it closes at 5pm. Not really having enought time to do any significant sightseeing, we opted to do some Madrid souvenier shopping. So we walked back to the hotel, napped for an hour and left at 6.30pm or so. We bought some keychains, magnets, T-shirts, postcards...the usual. We were saving our serious shopping for the very end of our trip so as not to have to lug everything around. Didn't take any pictures at all today!!! Since we had had such a late lunch we bought some fruits and ice cream for dinner and came back to the room. All in all a pretty dull day! Our train was at 8.45 am the next morning, so we had to check out by 7am, walk to the station and have some breakfast there before boarding.</div>
Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26353092.post-28538822778647926262007-04-10T11:54:00.000+05:302015-02-24T07:36:54.719+05:303rd April - walking tour in Lisbon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We woke up to screeching sound of cars and breaking glass.....right outside our window, down on the street below there was an accident. We couldn't really see everything cos it was obscured by some trees, but there were police sirens and a lot of chaos. After our usual shower and solid breakfast, we headed to Roosio square to meet our guide for our 3 hour walking tour of Lisbon. We figured since we only had a day left and so much to see, this was a good way of covering it all. We got to the square by 9.30 or so and had a half hour wait. We could see other tourists also hanging around for the guide. He showed up exactly at 10am, a Purtugese chap called Edgar. There were about 8 of us, a fun couple from Calgary, a jolly guy fcalled Alejandro from Mexico, another couple from Australia and a very quiet guy from Germany. We hit it off with the Calgary couple - Sandy and Grainger - right away esp R and Grainger who worked for the Canadian Oil and Gas Co. Our guide Edgar introduced himself, gave us a brief run down of Portugese history and was soon joined by his asst. Calea. The walking tour took us thru some very interesting parts of Lisbon, a few places R and I had already been to including the Alfama area. On the way, the guide stopped at a liquer store and introduced us to a very potent Portugese liquer called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginjinha">Ginginha</a>. The tour was supposed to end with a tram ride to the top of one of the 7 hills of Lisbon, but as luck would have it, the street power was off so we all had to trudge up....it was quite a hike but probably more interesting than the tram ride cos we walked thru some narrow residential areas of the city and got a good look at how people live. Finally it was done by about 2pm. The Canadian couple and R and I visited the nearby <a href="http://www.destination360.com/europe/portugal/castelo-de-sao-jorge.php">Castelo De Sao Jorge</a>, spent some time there and then went our separate ways. R and I hunted for a restaurant called Resto De Chapito near the castle that Gautam had recomended for lunch and we stopped there for a great pasta lunch and a magnificent view of the city. </span></div>
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<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/Kaminiandraga/lisbon%20walk/?albumview=slideshow"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More pics taken during our walk...</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We walked back to Rossio square, stopped at an Internet cafe for an hour or so, met the Canadian couple there again, bought some strawberries and candy, picked up our clean clothes from the laundromat and went back to the hotel. We slept for a while, woke up at 5pm and decided to just hang out at the hotel itself for the rest of the evening. </span></div>
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Kaminihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986320387981369338noreply@blogger.com0