Wayanad

Just came back from a 3-day trip to Wayanad, Kalpetta to be precise. I and Richa had gone with Shyam and Gayatri, although we did offer a free ride to Alistair also. Unfortunately for him, he was holed up in Hyderabad :-).

Some not-so-funny and funny incidents -

On the Mysore highway, a black swift was trying to overtake me from the left. Now, Mysore highway is a 2-lane (each side of median) road, with many U-turns, speed breakers, and umpteen no of interruptions. Some of them nobdoy can even anticipate - such as - ladies plucking flowers from the flowerbeds on the median, cows, bullock-carts and tractors travelling on the wrong side of the road and coming in opposite direction, and people going for a stroll right next to the median. One has to very watchful on this road. Anyways, the black swift driver was probably asleep in the wee hours and in his endeavour to overtake me, rammed straight into the backside of a mini-bus. I could see in my RVM, the bonet of his car crumbling. He was at a decent speed (around 50+). Just hope he is not dead.

In Wayanad, I and Shyam wanted some booze. We did not like the bar at the hotel, so decided to procure it from outside. Now, I did not know at all that in a communist state like Kerala, the govt controls even the sale of booze. We had to go to KSBC shop to get booze. We realized what we were getting into only after we reached that place. Dont even ask how pathetic that experience was. Had it not been for Shyam, I would have abandoned this idea completely.

The good thing about Kerala is its natural beauty - its greenery. It is quite refreshing to see so many trees and forests while driving. You actually dont feel tired at all. 

Will post some snaps soon.

The Bizzare and The Amazing

On my recent trip to Australia, I had the opportunity to experience some really weird and amazing things. Please note that I am not being critical here. My intention is to just report things in a factual manner :-).

I was surprised to find that bathrooms there do not have a latch. One needs to call out before he pays a visit to the bathroom. Otherwise... Moreover, none of the internal doors have latches. Moreover, many a times, half of the internal door is made up of ground-glass (translucent one). This holds true even in 4-star hotels in Australia.

When I was hunting for a rental accommodation in Bangalore, one person showed us a 2BHK house with attached bathrooms. When I inspected the house, it had a single bathroom attached to 2 bedrooms. This kind of architecture is unacceptable in India, and I was baffled to say the least. What if you forget to latch one of the doors of the bathroom? In Australia, such an architecture is very common place. In addition, you have to keep in mind that none of the doors have latches. 

Lets move on to some amazing things now. 

You can actually cycle down to your office. Cycles are allowed in trains and trams. Pretty easy, isn't it. Somehow, the bicycle still holds me spellbound. I don't quite know why, but I do like it very much.

When I was visiting the blue-mountains, I went to a shop called "Josephans". This shop serves some of the world's best chocolates, and undoubtedly the world's best hot-chocolate. The hot-chocolate that I drank after lunch was pure chocolate. No milk. No sugar. Nothing but beautiful dark chocolate. Of course, you have to love the slightly bitter taste of dark-chocolate to appreciate the hot dark-chocolate. Truly amazing.

Australia trip 2008

It was  a trip that I, Richa and my parents had been planning for quite some time. We all wanted to go there to attend my sister Apeksha's convocation ceremony. Unfortunately, Richa had to drop out because she could not get any leave. She had just joined a new company.

One thing I will admit here is that Richa was quite magnanimous in allowing me to go to Australia, knowing fully well that she will be all alone in India and will miss all the fun. I kept telling her that I will have a half-full/half-empty feeling there all the time, but she kept telling me to enjoy as much as possible in her absence. Richa, tussi great ho :-)

We took a Singapore Airlines flight to Melbourne from Bangalore. The flight was good, except that my mom and dad felt the lack of leg-space quite bothersome. At Melbourne airport, the customs clearance took a long time because Australia is quite strict about quarantine, and we Indians like to take our spices everywhere we go. 

I was quite impressed with Melbourne city. Lots of cyclists, very impressive train network, lots of trams, lots of buses and not too many people. There is a certain charm about trams. I don't quite know what it is. The fact that one ticket works for bus, tram and train makes it all the more convenient. We enjoyed the trip to Yarra river, Melbourne Sky Deck, the Salaam-Namaste bridge, and the trip to the Queen Victoria Market. We also went on the Great-Ocean-Drive to see the 12 Apostles, basically 12 pillars carved out by the Antarctic ocean from the rocky cliffs on the shore. Also took a helicopter ride around the 12 Apostles.

From Melbourne, we all went to Goldcoast - specifically - the Surfer's Paradise. Lots of girls in very skimpy clothes, the beach, the sun, the surf, the wind - this place is special. Add to it a lot of roadside eateries dishing out an international cuisine and you have really come to paradise. I specifically enjoyed the omelettes at the Mediterranean cafes - full of spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives. Yummy. You have one, and you don't feel like eating anything till evening. The trip to SeaWorld was special - the dolphins being the star-attraction.

From Goldcoast, we flew to Sydney. Sydney is a bustling city, much more crowded than Melbourne. The ferry rides from Circular Quay (key) to Darling Harbour, and on the the Paramatta river were wonderful. I always thought that the Opera House was white in colour, but it turned out to be off-white in colour. Although we could not see much of Blue Mountains due the mist, the trip down to the rain forest in a Gondola and trip back up in a reversing train were pretty exciting. Incidentally, the train climb is one of the steepest train climbs in the world, if not the steepest. 

I enjoyed myself quite a lot in Australia, although I did miss Richa quite a lot. I must take her there sometime ...

Well - you all can see the snaps here.