Paris is a city of the arts and the artists. We explored this beautiful city today. We started off with a city tour, in which the famous buildings were revisited by daylight. Paris is a romantic city and the romance continues onto the day with the Champs Elysees being lit up during day time as well. Each building in this city has its own character and effervescence amongst the Parisians. Paris can have a maximum of 9 storey buildings and nothing modern to preserve the sanctity of this historical town and its landmarks. However, one of the buildings was built in a modern way with dark glasses on the outer edge. The Parisians are so disturbed by this development that they wanted it to be brought down. The guide was so upset that the gentle French guy started an emotional outburst, terming the building as ugly and a huge mistake and a black mark on the city. It was funny at first, but behind the words, I could sense a deep pain inflicted by their passion being hurt. The guide was so proud that Paris has become a clean city in the last decade due to some government initiatives that he just repeated it a mere 25 times in 5 minutes. Again, the pride of the French was in ample display. Paris actually has a network of underground sewers that cleanse the city of the waste.
Paris is really a city of the arts, with more than 100 museums. The biggest and most famous museum is the Louvre, which can rival any Indian palace for its size and structure. It houses the famous smiling beauty Mona Lisa, which catapulted the imagination of millions worldwide. I couldn’t believe my eyes or eyes when I heard that all the big queues outside buildings were for some art exhibition by a Polish painter, some theatrical by a French group and a comedy by another French group. I have only seen such lines in India when Rajni film opens or in Singapore when they are giving away some goodie bags. They even have a museum for the sewers and they charge an entrance fee due to the high demand. They say that your lifetime is not enough to go through all that is on display in these museums, which does say a lot.
Paris is a very vibrant city with a lot of traffic, about 10 million people and a lovely atmosphere. It has a beauty and symmetry in its designs and structures that I have not seen elsewhere. An example is the Arc de Triumph, which Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to be built so that he can ride into the city through it when he won a war, and ironically did not live long enough to do so. However, the arch was completed and he stands proud looking at the Champs Elysees all day long. The building is majestic and stands tall at one end of the biggest road in town. The Champs Elysees itself derives its name from the palace on that road which houses the French president. 12 roads lead to the Arc de Triumph making it look like a brilliant star when looking from above.
We had lunch in a Chinese restaurant after which we took a few photos of the Eiffel Tower by daylight. I should confess that I was not all that pleased with the big piece of metal that reached out to the clouds as compared to its glittering beauty at night. In fact, I heard that the Parisians had termed this tower built for an exhibition by Gustaf Eiffel ugly at first, but later it became a symbol of the city. Another interesting fact was that he actually lived on the Eiffel tower for 4 years after its completion before he died there, possibly due to walking up and down the 1700+ steps everyday.
Then we proceeded to the Chateau di Versailles, or the palace of Versailles, which was built by Louis XIV and home to two subsequent kings. The magnificence and grandeur of the palace cannot be described by words, but can only be witnessed in person. Photos cannot fully replicate the splendor of the palace built by the sun king. We had to wait in a long queue for about an hour to get into it in the biting cold winter, which tells you how popular this place is with locals and tourists alike. Starting with the gate adorned in gold, Louis XIV ensured that the entire palace can place anyone in awe. He had so many rooms, each one dedicated to a specific thing like welcoming visitors, rooms for the royal family, king and queen, the guardroom, the library, the study room, the hunting trophy room, the war strategy room and so on. Each room was decorated appropriately with full size portraits, the ceilings covered with beautiful drawings with some dedicated to the Roman gods and others from scenes in the bible. The long hall of mirrors with fantastic chandeliers, sculptors and paintings was meant to intimidate any visitor before he is allowed to see the king. He had corridors full of sculptures of his knights, kings, gods and intellectuals. The gardens outside the palace were as beautiful as the palace itself and spread far and wide, with symmetrical greenery and lakes. This palace really takes an entire day to explore, but we had to rush everything in 2 hours, which was a bit sad.
Once the palace tour was done, we went to the Galeries Lafayette, which is for shopaholics. We went into it thinking of buying some cheap leather bags, but it turned out to be worse than Takashimaya in Singapore, with prices in 3 or 4 digits. We did a bit of window shopping before going out to hunt out some food outlets to have dinner in. We had crepes, fries (frites) and cappuccino for dinner before coming back to the store to find our tour mates carrying numerous bags of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Lacoste. Some of them were so much of a shopping freak that they skipped Versailles to start shopping! I heard from the husbands and boyfriends that its more of a peer pressure that drives these women to procure these status symbols.
We would be starting for London tomorrow, but I felt that of all the cities I have been to this tour, Paris is the city that seems to have so much more that I haven’t touched upon. I don’t know if it’s the lure of passion and art or the mystique around the history of this city or the romance in the air, but I definitely want to be coming back to this place again to explore more of the city. Bonsoir Paris!
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Europe Day 10 – Brussels and Paris
I woke up to the after effect of being in Europe for 10 days now. My skin was extremely dry and it has become red in places where I was tempted to scratch. Even loads of moisturizing cream don’t seem to help. We had a nice breakfast and with people high on energy after the day out yesterday, we started off on the 3 hour trip to Brussels in Belgium. We arrived in Brussels around 11.45am amidst moderate rainfall. We walked around with an umbrella to a Chinese restaurant for a quick lunch. It is almost a standard set of items that we get everywhere, with cabbage, broccoli and some greens. The Sichuan chilli was quite hot, and the Chinese vegetarian girl next to me was quite surprised by the amount of chilli I had. I boasted saying that Indians are used to lots of spice and chilli, and nothing would happen. It might probably be good to clear out my running nose, I added.
Once the food went in, I started noticing more about this new country. Belgium is a small country of a million souls sandwiched between France and Holland, and notably has a nice mix of both cultures here, although I heard there is a bit of a tension between the two groups. All the road signs, street names etc are mentioned in both French and Dutch. Looking at these, I was more at ease as I know a bit of French (Je parlez francais cava). Brussels is a pretty old city, although it houses key EU departments, and it is used for conferences. The walkways are lined with bricks while the roads are not perfect. The ambience of the streets was more like India, with puddles of water and homeless people shivering on the streets. This was the first time in Europe that I have seen such a thing, and it was quite sad on this otherwise wonderful trip. As with other small cities on this trip, Brussels contains a nice big square with cathedrals, city hall, museum and a few commercial places. The streets lining up the square contains shops, and we got some nice Belgian chocolates and truffles from one of those shops at a very competitive price.
Belgium contains a curious story of the entire Belgian army being inspired by a little boy pissing on the French occupied territory, that they fought against the French to regain their land. The little boy probably just did what he had to do, but the consequences meant that his act is the celebrated Manneken pis, with a small statue dedicated to him near the square, and lot of watery mementos lining up the shops. Brussels was quite cold, although the temperature was about 9 degrees, maybe due to the rain. We also went to the Atomium, which is a wonderful 60s structure, mimicking a giant atomic structure, which looks like a tilted cube. It was very impressive with its size, and it houses a museum and science galleries. It was used earlier for some multinational symposiums. Brussels had its own character, but nothing really stood out as great or wonderful in my opinion.
Once we were done with Brussels, we took a long 5 hour journey to Paris, the city of romance. On entering the city, the tour manager promptly took us to the Seine river cruise, which is a fantastic way to see the famous landmarks and buildings of the city that line up on the edge of this river. The Eiffel tower was in all its glory, and later I learnt that it changes its color every hour. We started on the cruise and went past countless bridges and historical buildings, including castles, forts, the unfinished Notre Dame cathedral, and host of public buildings, museums and parks. Unlike the Amsterdam cruise, this was very open and the buildings were all majestic and huge, but each one different from the other in style, era and purpose. I just got a few glimpses of Eiffel Tower today; just enough to take a few photos, but the memories will always remain. What a wonderful structure and with the splendid lighting, it appeared to be a diamond necklace tapering down from the sky. I played around with my favorite D5K camera to capture as much as I could of the different hues, trying to match the projected color of the tower and those of the skies above. I don’t know if it was the city or the atmosphere or the slight chill in the air that made us enjoy it so much, but the 1.5 hour river cruise was really one of a kind and something we will treasure forever.
We kept turning to look at the Eiffel tower as we went to the bus walking in the middle of the road, oblivious to the few buses and cars crawling behind us. It is illegal to horn in Paris from the time of Charles de Gaulle, but maybe someone did honk at him when we was walking down the river to make him so pissed as to change the rulebook When we got onto the bus, we did see so many other couples do the same thing walking in the middle of the road holding hand in hand without a care in this world, so I guess its just the magic of this city that makes people want to fall in love all over again. As Mettalica screams, “Nothing else matters”.
We had Thai food for dinner late in the evening, in the old town past the opera house and the famous luxury Café de la paix. I heard space is an issue in this popular place, but then it was a 20 sq m shop trying to cater for 40 people in the group and it was crazy. When we reached there and squeezed in to take our seats, the waiter realized that they forgot to prepare some vegetarian food for us, so we waited for 20 mins while the others finished their dinner, and then we got our share of fried rice, some vegetables and a jasmine jelly. With half a stomach full, it was time to walk out into the Paris night again and onto the hotel. I realized the potency of the Sichuan chilli immediately after I reached the hotel and it took me 1 hour to get rid of it from my system.
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Once the food went in, I started noticing more about this new country. Belgium is a small country of a million souls sandwiched between France and Holland, and notably has a nice mix of both cultures here, although I heard there is a bit of a tension between the two groups. All the road signs, street names etc are mentioned in both French and Dutch. Looking at these, I was more at ease as I know a bit of French (Je parlez francais cava). Brussels is a pretty old city, although it houses key EU departments, and it is used for conferences. The walkways are lined with bricks while the roads are not perfect. The ambience of the streets was more like India, with puddles of water and homeless people shivering on the streets. This was the first time in Europe that I have seen such a thing, and it was quite sad on this otherwise wonderful trip. As with other small cities on this trip, Brussels contains a nice big square with cathedrals, city hall, museum and a few commercial places. The streets lining up the square contains shops, and we got some nice Belgian chocolates and truffles from one of those shops at a very competitive price.
Belgium contains a curious story of the entire Belgian army being inspired by a little boy pissing on the French occupied territory, that they fought against the French to regain their land. The little boy probably just did what he had to do, but the consequences meant that his act is the celebrated Manneken pis, with a small statue dedicated to him near the square, and lot of watery mementos lining up the shops. Brussels was quite cold, although the temperature was about 9 degrees, maybe due to the rain. We also went to the Atomium, which is a wonderful 60s structure, mimicking a giant atomic structure, which looks like a tilted cube. It was very impressive with its size, and it houses a museum and science galleries. It was used earlier for some multinational symposiums. Brussels had its own character, but nothing really stood out as great or wonderful in my opinion.
Once we were done with Brussels, we took a long 5 hour journey to Paris, the city of romance. On entering the city, the tour manager promptly took us to the Seine river cruise, which is a fantastic way to see the famous landmarks and buildings of the city that line up on the edge of this river. The Eiffel tower was in all its glory, and later I learnt that it changes its color every hour. We started on the cruise and went past countless bridges and historical buildings, including castles, forts, the unfinished Notre Dame cathedral, and host of public buildings, museums and parks. Unlike the Amsterdam cruise, this was very open and the buildings were all majestic and huge, but each one different from the other in style, era and purpose. I just got a few glimpses of Eiffel Tower today; just enough to take a few photos, but the memories will always remain. What a wonderful structure and with the splendid lighting, it appeared to be a diamond necklace tapering down from the sky. I played around with my favorite D5K camera to capture as much as I could of the different hues, trying to match the projected color of the tower and those of the skies above. I don’t know if it was the city or the atmosphere or the slight chill in the air that made us enjoy it so much, but the 1.5 hour river cruise was really one of a kind and something we will treasure forever.
We kept turning to look at the Eiffel tower as we went to the bus walking in the middle of the road, oblivious to the few buses and cars crawling behind us. It is illegal to horn in Paris from the time of Charles de Gaulle, but maybe someone did honk at him when we was walking down the river to make him so pissed as to change the rulebook When we got onto the bus, we did see so many other couples do the same thing walking in the middle of the road holding hand in hand without a care in this world, so I guess its just the magic of this city that makes people want to fall in love all over again. As Mettalica screams, “Nothing else matters”.
We had Thai food for dinner late in the evening, in the old town past the opera house and the famous luxury Café de la paix. I heard space is an issue in this popular place, but then it was a 20 sq m shop trying to cater for 40 people in the group and it was crazy. When we reached there and squeezed in to take our seats, the waiter realized that they forgot to prepare some vegetarian food for us, so we waited for 20 mins while the others finished their dinner, and then we got our share of fried rice, some vegetables and a jasmine jelly. With half a stomach full, it was time to walk out into the Paris night again and onto the hotel. I realized the potency of the Sichuan chilli immediately after I reached the hotel and it took me 1 hour to get rid of it from my system.
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Europe Day 9 – Amsterdam
The breakfast at the Crowne Plaza hotel was one of the best of the tour so far. With a full stomach, we started off on the tour of the Dutch capital and surrounding areas. The chill wind couldn’t dampen our spirits today as everyone was looking forward to the day with the least travel. The Dutch are a very enterprising lot. Starting with preserving the Herring fish for over a year, the Dutch had made a name for themselves as very shrewd traders. They were one of the first European countries to be unified, possibly the first European republic, started the first limited company through issue of shares, started the first modern stock market, gave rise to the first bank (Bank of Amsterdam) a hundred years before the Bank of England was established, and started the multinational company called the Dutch East Indian Company. It was one of the great powers between the 14th and 18th centuries.
The city tour started off with a visit to the cheese farm on the outskirts, which was filled with a beautiful spread of blue in the sky, green on the ground, and white on the frozen lakes that feed the wind mills. The Dutch are very famous at using wind mills, and it’s a very ingenious idea in using what they have (water) to make up for the lack of natural resources. After all these days of snow and cathedrals amongst the great mountains, the spread of colors over the flat countryside was very pleasing to the eye. We went to see a demonstration of cheese making, where I was surprised to see how hard a two year old cheese can be. After sifting around in the souvenir shops and walking around the beautiful landscape, we got on the bus for a short trip to Volendam.
The streets in Netherlands are really small, with cars, buses, trams and cyclists all sharing the same space, except in the city centre where they have separate cycle tracks. In took us longer to find a parking space than to travel to Volendam. Volendam is a beautiful little village on the shores of Holland, with a few parallel lanes of houses lining up the shores. The famous dykes of Holland save the houses from the power of the North sea, but they are hardly a few meters high. We can fully appreciate the danger posed by global warming in places like Holland, where 60% of the land is below sea level. Volendam has a great stretch for shopping, with souvenir items being much cheaper than at the other places. We also had our lunch here in one of the food outlets, including vegetable salad, fries and tomato soup. I realized how careful you need to be with your words in Europe when I got a big stare on ordering French fries. Most of Europe has been fighting amongst themselves for hundreds of years, so you have to be careful with associating something with the country. The houses in this part of the world are beautifully decorated, and most of the windows are not drawn, giving the keen onlooker a wonderful view of the beauty of the halls and rooms. Porcelain items and paintings are a big draw here, along with lace curtains.
After lunch in Volendam, we went for the Amsterdam river cruise through which we got to know the true blue Amsterdam. It was like the modern Venice, with an intricate network of canals and locks to keep the height of water in check. The buildings of Amsterdam that line up the shoreline are distinctive with its lack of gaps between the walls of buildings. Due to the lack of space, the Amsterdam dwellers are charged by the width of their houses, so they build houses which are narrow and deep. We heard that the stairs are quite narrow as well, so they shift their stuff mostly through the windows. Most of the houses are three windows wide, which open up to move stuff in and out. The canals themselves are home to many, similar to the Ton Le Sap River in Cambodia. House boats line up the canals here, but are strictly regulated with no new house boats possible due to lack of space. These boats can cost from 200 to 500k Euros, which is a pretty costly affair if you want to be floating around in Amsterdam. The low level bridges and the locks are pretty cool. I could even touch those bridges when we were going below them. There are more than 88 beautiful canals in Amsterdam, connecting the city. Outside, the phenomenal Delta project run by the government ensures that the city can run efficiently below the sea level. There are a phenomenally large number of cycles around the streets of Amsterdam, and the parking lot is extremely jam packed, with each stand holding upto 4000 bicycles. God knows how they manage to even find their cycle from the stand.
We went to Gassan diamond factory at the end of the cruise, where there was a demonstration of how they make diamonds. We got stuck there for a while and then had dinner in a Chinese restaurant nearby, before heading to the hotel. It was a glorious day with bright sunshine, temperature of about 5 degrees and a nice tour of the famous city, so all in all, a very nice day.
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The city tour started off with a visit to the cheese farm on the outskirts, which was filled with a beautiful spread of blue in the sky, green on the ground, and white on the frozen lakes that feed the wind mills. The Dutch are very famous at using wind mills, and it’s a very ingenious idea in using what they have (water) to make up for the lack of natural resources. After all these days of snow and cathedrals amongst the great mountains, the spread of colors over the flat countryside was very pleasing to the eye. We went to see a demonstration of cheese making, where I was surprised to see how hard a two year old cheese can be. After sifting around in the souvenir shops and walking around the beautiful landscape, we got on the bus for a short trip to Volendam.
The streets in Netherlands are really small, with cars, buses, trams and cyclists all sharing the same space, except in the city centre where they have separate cycle tracks. In took us longer to find a parking space than to travel to Volendam. Volendam is a beautiful little village on the shores of Holland, with a few parallel lanes of houses lining up the shores. The famous dykes of Holland save the houses from the power of the North sea, but they are hardly a few meters high. We can fully appreciate the danger posed by global warming in places like Holland, where 60% of the land is below sea level. Volendam has a great stretch for shopping, with souvenir items being much cheaper than at the other places. We also had our lunch here in one of the food outlets, including vegetable salad, fries and tomato soup. I realized how careful you need to be with your words in Europe when I got a big stare on ordering French fries. Most of Europe has been fighting amongst themselves for hundreds of years, so you have to be careful with associating something with the country. The houses in this part of the world are beautifully decorated, and most of the windows are not drawn, giving the keen onlooker a wonderful view of the beauty of the halls and rooms. Porcelain items and paintings are a big draw here, along with lace curtains.
After lunch in Volendam, we went for the Amsterdam river cruise through which we got to know the true blue Amsterdam. It was like the modern Venice, with an intricate network of canals and locks to keep the height of water in check. The buildings of Amsterdam that line up the shoreline are distinctive with its lack of gaps between the walls of buildings. Due to the lack of space, the Amsterdam dwellers are charged by the width of their houses, so they build houses which are narrow and deep. We heard that the stairs are quite narrow as well, so they shift their stuff mostly through the windows. Most of the houses are three windows wide, which open up to move stuff in and out. The canals themselves are home to many, similar to the Ton Le Sap River in Cambodia. House boats line up the canals here, but are strictly regulated with no new house boats possible due to lack of space. These boats can cost from 200 to 500k Euros, which is a pretty costly affair if you want to be floating around in Amsterdam. The low level bridges and the locks are pretty cool. I could even touch those bridges when we were going below them. There are more than 88 beautiful canals in Amsterdam, connecting the city. Outside, the phenomenal Delta project run by the government ensures that the city can run efficiently below the sea level. There are a phenomenally large number of cycles around the streets of Amsterdam, and the parking lot is extremely jam packed, with each stand holding upto 4000 bicycles. God knows how they manage to even find their cycle from the stand.
We went to Gassan diamond factory at the end of the cruise, where there was a demonstration of how they make diamonds. We got stuck there for a while and then had dinner in a Chinese restaurant nearby, before heading to the hotel. It was a glorious day with bright sunshine, temperature of about 5 degrees and a nice tour of the famous city, so all in all, a very nice day.
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Europe Day 8 – Rhine Cruise, Cologne and Amsterdam
We traveled further along the Rhine this morning to commence a cruise down the river. Germany is known to be quite strict with its numerous regulations, and this stretch of the Rhine river bordered by old castles have been regulated as well, to keep with the old traditions. The dawn sky looked fabulous on the way to the Rhine. A nice hour long cruise was started amidst light snowfall which was very pleasant. I took a cup of Denmark ice cream to complement the chill weather outside. The ice cream with nuts and whipped cream was a treat, and nothing like anything I ever tasted before. The dairy products over here in Europe are so pure and creamy and it just melts in your mouth. There are quite a few castles over the Rhine, built to protect the kings and knights against the invading armies. We leant about the ways how they built the fortresses, how they lived inside and how the invading armies usually go about destroying it. There are some nice stories surrounding the castles themselves and the forests nearby. The river itself was greenish in keeping with the surrounding rocks. The Rhine seems to be the heart line of goods transport in this area with many cargo liners going past us during our short trip.
Once we were done with the cruise, we took a 2 hour trip to Cologne, to visit the famous Cathedral, which has been classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO. This cathedral took over 600 years to complete and houses the relic of the 3 kings who offered geese to Jesus. The cathedral is huge with the dome rising more than 160 meters. It has a very flimsy look, but from inside it is quite sturdy. The 10000 sq m of stained glasses that adorn this cathedral inspires awe. The clarity of the paintings on glass is astonishing. We looked around the cathedral, which is based on the trinity concept of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. The relic itself is placed in a golden casket at the altar. We had a quick lunch at McDonalds. There were a few Chinese staff, which was no surprise now. However, they couldn’t understand simple English like “no meat”, and I struggled to explain to them that I am a vegetarian and I needed something to eat. Finally, her German superior made sense out of it, and I got myself a burger and salad. In Europe, we need to pay extra for the sauce, and I got a couple of chilli sauce packets to go with it. In keeping with the quality of food in Europe, both items tasted fresh and delicious and very different from what I am used to in Singapore.
It was a long 4 hour drive to Amsterdam, so I slept most of the way. We stopped for a quick halt along the highway inside Holland. Netherlands is a very liberal country and it was no surprise finding porn magazines on the shelf, which guys were very eager to browse through while their wives, girlfriends and moms were desperate to drag them away. What was funny though was to see a teen guy beg his mom to get a copy of playboy. You can travel in your parents’ company and get them to pay for your trip, but at least you need to have some money in your pocket to buy what you want: P Of course the poor guy never got what he wanted. The Singaporean customs officials won’t be too liberal even if he had managed to convince his mom! We went to the city centre in Amsterdam where there were a few restaurants, including Indian and Chinese. While waiting for our seats in the crowded Chinese restaurant, we had a glimpse into the equally packed Indian restaurant next door and a souvenir shop. Most of the souvenirs made it obvious the city’s status as the sex capital of the world. There should be something in the air, as adult jokes were in free flow all of a sudden amongst the guys. Once the food was ready though, the priority changed and we gobbled up the not so great Chinese vegetarian dinner before heading back to the hotel near the airport. Tomorrow, we will get to know what this city is all about.
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The search has just begun !!!
Once we were done with the cruise, we took a 2 hour trip to Cologne, to visit the famous Cathedral, which has been classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO. This cathedral took over 600 years to complete and houses the relic of the 3 kings who offered geese to Jesus. The cathedral is huge with the dome rising more than 160 meters. It has a very flimsy look, but from inside it is quite sturdy. The 10000 sq m of stained glasses that adorn this cathedral inspires awe. The clarity of the paintings on glass is astonishing. We looked around the cathedral, which is based on the trinity concept of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. The relic itself is placed in a golden casket at the altar. We had a quick lunch at McDonalds. There were a few Chinese staff, which was no surprise now. However, they couldn’t understand simple English like “no meat”, and I struggled to explain to them that I am a vegetarian and I needed something to eat. Finally, her German superior made sense out of it, and I got myself a burger and salad. In Europe, we need to pay extra for the sauce, and I got a couple of chilli sauce packets to go with it. In keeping with the quality of food in Europe, both items tasted fresh and delicious and very different from what I am used to in Singapore.
It was a long 4 hour drive to Amsterdam, so I slept most of the way. We stopped for a quick halt along the highway inside Holland. Netherlands is a very liberal country and it was no surprise finding porn magazines on the shelf, which guys were very eager to browse through while their wives, girlfriends and moms were desperate to drag them away. What was funny though was to see a teen guy beg his mom to get a copy of playboy. You can travel in your parents’ company and get them to pay for your trip, but at least you need to have some money in your pocket to buy what you want: P Of course the poor guy never got what he wanted. The Singaporean customs officials won’t be too liberal even if he had managed to convince his mom! We went to the city centre in Amsterdam where there were a few restaurants, including Indian and Chinese. While waiting for our seats in the crowded Chinese restaurant, we had a glimpse into the equally packed Indian restaurant next door and a souvenir shop. Most of the souvenirs made it obvious the city’s status as the sex capital of the world. There should be something in the air, as adult jokes were in free flow all of a sudden amongst the guys. Once the food was ready though, the priority changed and we gobbled up the not so great Chinese vegetarian dinner before heading back to the hotel near the airport. Tomorrow, we will get to know what this city is all about.
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The search has just begun !!!
Europe Day 7 – Rhine Falls, Titisee and Heidelberg
The day started brightly with a lot of sun. We started off on time for the 2 hour drive towards Rhine falls in Schauffhausen canton of Switzerland. More of the beautiful scenery was outside, but everyone was tired from the high altitude stresses yesterday, so most of the trip there was slept off. When we arrived at the Rhine, the sun was shining so brightly that I did not get perturbed by the 0 degrees temperature and ventured outside with just a jacket. One thing about Europe in winter is to not be swayed away by the apparent brightness of the sun. The temperature and the wind by the falls made it bitterly cold to stay out without any gloves or cap. I thought Rhine falls was in Germany and so I put all my Swiss francs in my suitcase, which was a mistake as we lost out on a desperately needed hot cup of coffee. The Rhine falls is the largest falls in Europe, which pours 160000 liters of water per second from 23 meters up. The scenery around the Rhine was spectacular, with a castle, a wide river and some old factories lining up the shores. Even spotted a Siemens office there, so if anyone is working there and want to go onsite, you know what place to choose We took some photos and off we went again.
The drive from Rhineland to Titisee was one of the most beautiful drives we have had on this tour, with slippery and winding mountain roads with numerous hairpins. The drive also took us past the border into Germany. With heavy snowfall, the ride through the famous Black forest was irony very white. The landscape as far as the eye could see was filled with snow. I didn’t expect Germany to have more snow than Switzerland, but that’s the way it was here. I was surprised to hear that it takes 3 generations to harvest the fig trees that are abundant in this place. This temperate rainforest is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. The bus had to take detour a couple of times as the usual roads were too slippery for the driver’s comfort. When we finally reached Titisee, with a population of 30000, the guard there had already seen more than 30000 tourists today even in this cold wintry morning.
Lake Titisee is wide 2 sq km lake, which is 480m above sea level with a beautiful backdrop of the black forest. We walked along the brick road to the lake, which was frozen! This was the first time in my life that I had seen a frozen lake Titisee is famous for its marvelous cuckoo clocks, and we went for a short demonstration on the clock making. The clock parts are got from different villages and assembled together. We hurried for a special black forest lunch which contained the local specialties of pork knuckle and a lovely black forest cake. The vegetarian meal contained a very nice mashed vegetarian patty, looking similar to hash browns. The lunch was surprisingly very filling and very nice to taste. During the meal, I could sense the German obsession with timing. Every second of delay with us finishing an item made them really restless, as if the world would collapse the next moment. The German sophistication was also on display with the numerous beer glasses being dried using a centrifuge in a matter of a few seconds. Now, who would imagine that!
After lunch, we went to the frozen lake, where some ducks were trying their best to keep a small puddle of water from freezing by furiously flapping themselves. Some local kids tried to help by breaking the ice. The water was not very cold to touch, compared to the surrounding. The other thing about this place was the obsession with dogs. Almost everyone had dogs and some of the smaller ones were dressed in down jackets, which made them look very cute. Some of the bigger dogs were really BIG and scary. The snow in this place was rock hard and more like ice than the powdery ones that we found on top of Mt Titlis, which wasn’t to my liking. But it was nice to touch and feel the chill run up your hand and numb it in seconds.
The next part of the day was the long 4 hour drive from Titisee to Heidelberg. The snows disappeared from the landscapes and became more flat as we went along. Our photographic hearts sank along with the snow and we tried to sleep most of our way, except for a short break in between. When we reached Heidelberg, it was dark and cold. Heidelberg is a scenic small town on the banks of the river Neckar, famous for its centuries old bridge, castle fort and nice town square. We went to a Chinese restaurant in the town and took some pictures along the bridge. We also spotted a Taj Tandoori restaurant in this place. Wind usually blows over these rivers giving rise to the intense chill. With all our warm clothes on, it was still freezing. Chemical hand warmers are very useful in these places. Today was filled with travel, and marked the halfway point of our trip, which I am sure will be an unforgettable experience.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
The drive from Rhineland to Titisee was one of the most beautiful drives we have had on this tour, with slippery and winding mountain roads with numerous hairpins. The drive also took us past the border into Germany. With heavy snowfall, the ride through the famous Black forest was irony very white. The landscape as far as the eye could see was filled with snow. I didn’t expect Germany to have more snow than Switzerland, but that’s the way it was here. I was surprised to hear that it takes 3 generations to harvest the fig trees that are abundant in this place. This temperate rainforest is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. The bus had to take detour a couple of times as the usual roads were too slippery for the driver’s comfort. When we finally reached Titisee, with a population of 30000, the guard there had already seen more than 30000 tourists today even in this cold wintry morning.
Lake Titisee is wide 2 sq km lake, which is 480m above sea level with a beautiful backdrop of the black forest. We walked along the brick road to the lake, which was frozen! This was the first time in my life that I had seen a frozen lake Titisee is famous for its marvelous cuckoo clocks, and we went for a short demonstration on the clock making. The clock parts are got from different villages and assembled together. We hurried for a special black forest lunch which contained the local specialties of pork knuckle and a lovely black forest cake. The vegetarian meal contained a very nice mashed vegetarian patty, looking similar to hash browns. The lunch was surprisingly very filling and very nice to taste. During the meal, I could sense the German obsession with timing. Every second of delay with us finishing an item made them really restless, as if the world would collapse the next moment. The German sophistication was also on display with the numerous beer glasses being dried using a centrifuge in a matter of a few seconds. Now, who would imagine that!
After lunch, we went to the frozen lake, where some ducks were trying their best to keep a small puddle of water from freezing by furiously flapping themselves. Some local kids tried to help by breaking the ice. The water was not very cold to touch, compared to the surrounding. The other thing about this place was the obsession with dogs. Almost everyone had dogs and some of the smaller ones were dressed in down jackets, which made them look very cute. Some of the bigger dogs were really BIG and scary. The snow in this place was rock hard and more like ice than the powdery ones that we found on top of Mt Titlis, which wasn’t to my liking. But it was nice to touch and feel the chill run up your hand and numb it in seconds.
The next part of the day was the long 4 hour drive from Titisee to Heidelberg. The snows disappeared from the landscapes and became more flat as we went along. Our photographic hearts sank along with the snow and we tried to sleep most of our way, except for a short break in between. When we reached Heidelberg, it was dark and cold. Heidelberg is a scenic small town on the banks of the river Neckar, famous for its centuries old bridge, castle fort and nice town square. We went to a Chinese restaurant in the town and took some pictures along the bridge. We also spotted a Taj Tandoori restaurant in this place. Wind usually blows over these rivers giving rise to the intense chill. With all our warm clothes on, it was still freezing. Chemical hand warmers are very useful in these places. Today was filled with travel, and marked the halfway point of our trip, which I am sure will be an unforgettable experience.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Europe Day 6 – Lucerne
A thing I noted in the last 3 days in Austria and Switzerland is that there are many Chinese people around, and I reasoned that it might due to the increased number of Chinese tourists who cannot speak English. And they do bring new ideas and use their connections to get more travel agencies to tie up with their place of work, like hotels and shopping complexes. And based on the small talk this morning, I confirmed that Chinese were good businessmen. The guys were chatting about how they get their Rolexes from here on heavy discount and go back home and sell them for a huge profit. On the other hand, I felt that doing business on travel makes them enjoy the travel a bit lesser and give more importance to the associated shopping.
I came on this European trip primarily for this day. This day started off beautifully, with overnight rain clearing up the sky. The roads were deserted as today was Christmas day, except for a few buses, in which almost everyone carries their pet dogs as well. I did spare a thought for all those people in the Service sectors, who need to do their job and wouldn’t be able to spend Christmas with their families, like our coach captain who has a lovely 3 year old daughter. We went to the Lion Monument, the symbol of the Swiss guard and took a few pictures. The sad looking lion is a symbol of faith and loyalty until the last breath. The tour manager told an elaborate story around this monument, but I was too busy using my camera to bother much. We even spotted an Indian restaurant Kanchi nearby, but as with everything else, it was closed.
Next up was my favorite part of the tour, the climb up Mount Titlis. We had seen a few pictures prior to booking the tour and it looked awesome. We went in the bus till the base and took a series of 3 cable cars to reach the top, the last of which is the first rotating cable car in the world. The view was simply stunning during the journey with the snow covered slopes forming the core of the spectacular scenery. Given that this was the main activity of today, we had more than 3 hours at the top, which was great. We were cursing a lack of snowfall during the trip, but on the top, it was snowing constantly. We could admire the beautiful structure of the snow flakes as they dropped onto our hands. We were covered with all the warm clothes we had, but we were a bit skeptical about the sports shoes that we had, which might get wet. So, we wore two pairs of woolen socks each, and it turned out to be a wise decision as our feet did not become too cold.
The top of Mt Titlis stands at 10000 feet and it recorded a temperature of -10 degrees Celsius today. That itself wouldn’t have been too bad, but for the strong wind at the top around 30 kmph. The first time we went out in the snow, it was too cold for me to bear, although I had myself covered from head to toe. We had a bit of an experience in the snowy conditions, but had to return back into the roof within 10 minutes. I was so freezing cold that I felt numb especially in my hands and face. I was guilty of trying to act smart and make a snow ball with my bare hands. I had also lost the feeling in my nose and it was more like a squishy lobe when I touched it. I couldn’t see my nose, but I could see my wife’s had turned all black. I have seen a lot of Discovery serials about people being caught out on the snow and Mt Everest treks and so on, but this was the real deal. What a first experience with snow. We then went for a hot lunch. We heard about an Indian restaurant up here, but that seemed to have closed this winter, so we had to make do with some French fries, salad, spaghetti and cappuccino/ shocolade. But I was sick of the constant spaghetti bash in my stomach, so I acted a bit rashly by overdoing the fries, which I had to waste. Switzerland costs a bomb and a simple lunch cost us around Fr 60, which is close to Rs 3000. I had a gulp when I realized that I was sorely running out of Swiss francs and our dinner was at stake.
Having a hot lunch (and it was searing hot) in my stomach and having had a taste of snow, literally, made us better prepared next time around. We had taken a plastic cover which enabled us to slide around in the snow easily, given us an exhilarating experience. The snow was so soft and powdery, and it spits in your face and just melts away seamlessly. It is not like rain which keeps dripping, but it just disappears without a trace once you are in warmer weather, leaving you a bit cold though. We had great fun throwing snow bombs, making snow man and playing around in the abundant snow. The brain reacts a bit slower in these conditions. Before I could comprehend what my wife said, the plastic cover she handed over to me just flew off, and off it went with the wind. I realized it a second later and gave chase, but the wind was just too strong, and it just flew away. Having given up on the precious plastic, we started trekking to the other end of the cliff. It was probably a kilometer long, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trek. In the far reaches of the peak, the snow was so soft that my leg went in almost knee deep. And like it happened with the glove yesterday, God sure didn’t want to disappoint us during this trip. I saw the plastic cover fluttering on the guard rails at the far end like a caged butterfly. I lifted it carefully and presented the trophy to my wife, who couldn’t be bothered less. But what a view we got at that point, with cliffs hanging around precariously. We stayed there for a few minutes before I felt my hands starting to get numb. Knowing that we had a long trek back, I turned around and realized to my shock that we could see not more than a few meters ahead, with thick fog eclipsing everything else. I thought I will feature in the next episode of “I shouldn’t be alive”, if I were to make it out of here :P We carefully mapped the path we had taken earlier and retraced the same path, trying to stay away from the guard poles along the way. We were surprised to see a few skiers starting to ski down slope just as we were coming back in that thick fog, but they would be more used to these conditions than we were. It was such a relief when we finally made it into the roof, and within a couple of minutes, I was back to normal again. We took a quick break and couldn’t resist a couple of other minor excursions out into the wild snowy peak. The snow shower became thicker, but our hearts melted away faster than the snow flakes at this experience.
We went to a photo shop below and were made to wear a traditional Swiss dress and pose with a yoodle. While collecting the framed photo, I was surprised to see Virender Sehwag and Nana Patekar staring at us there, from similar photos. Arghhh, if Sehwag can do it, so can I! We went down through the cable cars, but I began to miss the mountain already. Our perky single tour manager proudly announced that he had SMS-ed his ex-girl friend whom he claims is unhappily married. “Wishing you a Merry Christmas from 10000 feet above in Mt Titlis and wishing you were here with me.”
Having come down from the highs of the mountains around 4.30pm, we went for a walk around this small town. We had glimpses of the beautiful swan lake, a bridge built in 1333 and numerous buildings with distinctive architectures. The shops above the ground were all closed, but the weather was much better than yesterday, so it was pleasant walking around. A 5 minute walk from the hotel lies the railway station, which was bustling compared to the rest of the town which was aghast today. We found quite a few Indians wandering about, who might have been here on-site from one of the numerous Indian IT companies with Swiss clientele. I was impressed with an inter-city train departing Lucerne every 2 minutes. The sleeping coaches are single deckers while the seating coaches were double deckers. It was nostalgic for my wife who had spent the better part of this decade traveling between Chennai and Bangalore. We did find that all the shops in the railway station were functioning as normal, including supermarkets, shops and eateries. We did a quick roundup and found packed Bombay pulav in the supermarket and Indian vegetarian fried rice in an eatery run by Indians, which we promptly had for dinner.
Mount Titlis was indeed a truly wonderful Christmas present for everyone on this tour, especially for us who had never felt snow in our hands before. Good things never last, but then how many people were doing better things this Christmas? Off to a different country tomorrow after a good night’s sleep, knowing that I had a truly wonderful experience today. And that I didn’t run out of Swiss francs and compromise my dinner.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
I came on this European trip primarily for this day. This day started off beautifully, with overnight rain clearing up the sky. The roads were deserted as today was Christmas day, except for a few buses, in which almost everyone carries their pet dogs as well. I did spare a thought for all those people in the Service sectors, who need to do their job and wouldn’t be able to spend Christmas with their families, like our coach captain who has a lovely 3 year old daughter. We went to the Lion Monument, the symbol of the Swiss guard and took a few pictures. The sad looking lion is a symbol of faith and loyalty until the last breath. The tour manager told an elaborate story around this monument, but I was too busy using my camera to bother much. We even spotted an Indian restaurant Kanchi nearby, but as with everything else, it was closed.
Next up was my favorite part of the tour, the climb up Mount Titlis. We had seen a few pictures prior to booking the tour and it looked awesome. We went in the bus till the base and took a series of 3 cable cars to reach the top, the last of which is the first rotating cable car in the world. The view was simply stunning during the journey with the snow covered slopes forming the core of the spectacular scenery. Given that this was the main activity of today, we had more than 3 hours at the top, which was great. We were cursing a lack of snowfall during the trip, but on the top, it was snowing constantly. We could admire the beautiful structure of the snow flakes as they dropped onto our hands. We were covered with all the warm clothes we had, but we were a bit skeptical about the sports shoes that we had, which might get wet. So, we wore two pairs of woolen socks each, and it turned out to be a wise decision as our feet did not become too cold.
The top of Mt Titlis stands at 10000 feet and it recorded a temperature of -10 degrees Celsius today. That itself wouldn’t have been too bad, but for the strong wind at the top around 30 kmph. The first time we went out in the snow, it was too cold for me to bear, although I had myself covered from head to toe. We had a bit of an experience in the snowy conditions, but had to return back into the roof within 10 minutes. I was so freezing cold that I felt numb especially in my hands and face. I was guilty of trying to act smart and make a snow ball with my bare hands. I had also lost the feeling in my nose and it was more like a squishy lobe when I touched it. I couldn’t see my nose, but I could see my wife’s had turned all black. I have seen a lot of Discovery serials about people being caught out on the snow and Mt Everest treks and so on, but this was the real deal. What a first experience with snow. We then went for a hot lunch. We heard about an Indian restaurant up here, but that seemed to have closed this winter, so we had to make do with some French fries, salad, spaghetti and cappuccino/ shocolade. But I was sick of the constant spaghetti bash in my stomach, so I acted a bit rashly by overdoing the fries, which I had to waste. Switzerland costs a bomb and a simple lunch cost us around Fr 60, which is close to Rs 3000. I had a gulp when I realized that I was sorely running out of Swiss francs and our dinner was at stake.
Having a hot lunch (and it was searing hot) in my stomach and having had a taste of snow, literally, made us better prepared next time around. We had taken a plastic cover which enabled us to slide around in the snow easily, given us an exhilarating experience. The snow was so soft and powdery, and it spits in your face and just melts away seamlessly. It is not like rain which keeps dripping, but it just disappears without a trace once you are in warmer weather, leaving you a bit cold though. We had great fun throwing snow bombs, making snow man and playing around in the abundant snow. The brain reacts a bit slower in these conditions. Before I could comprehend what my wife said, the plastic cover she handed over to me just flew off, and off it went with the wind. I realized it a second later and gave chase, but the wind was just too strong, and it just flew away. Having given up on the precious plastic, we started trekking to the other end of the cliff. It was probably a kilometer long, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trek. In the far reaches of the peak, the snow was so soft that my leg went in almost knee deep. And like it happened with the glove yesterday, God sure didn’t want to disappoint us during this trip. I saw the plastic cover fluttering on the guard rails at the far end like a caged butterfly. I lifted it carefully and presented the trophy to my wife, who couldn’t be bothered less. But what a view we got at that point, with cliffs hanging around precariously. We stayed there for a few minutes before I felt my hands starting to get numb. Knowing that we had a long trek back, I turned around and realized to my shock that we could see not more than a few meters ahead, with thick fog eclipsing everything else. I thought I will feature in the next episode of “I shouldn’t be alive”, if I were to make it out of here :P We carefully mapped the path we had taken earlier and retraced the same path, trying to stay away from the guard poles along the way. We were surprised to see a few skiers starting to ski down slope just as we were coming back in that thick fog, but they would be more used to these conditions than we were. It was such a relief when we finally made it into the roof, and within a couple of minutes, I was back to normal again. We took a quick break and couldn’t resist a couple of other minor excursions out into the wild snowy peak. The snow shower became thicker, but our hearts melted away faster than the snow flakes at this experience.
We went to a photo shop below and were made to wear a traditional Swiss dress and pose with a yoodle. While collecting the framed photo, I was surprised to see Virender Sehwag and Nana Patekar staring at us there, from similar photos. Arghhh, if Sehwag can do it, so can I! We went down through the cable cars, but I began to miss the mountain already. Our perky single tour manager proudly announced that he had SMS-ed his ex-girl friend whom he claims is unhappily married. “Wishing you a Merry Christmas from 10000 feet above in Mt Titlis and wishing you were here with me.”
Having come down from the highs of the mountains around 4.30pm, we went for a walk around this small town. We had glimpses of the beautiful swan lake, a bridge built in 1333 and numerous buildings with distinctive architectures. The shops above the ground were all closed, but the weather was much better than yesterday, so it was pleasant walking around. A 5 minute walk from the hotel lies the railway station, which was bustling compared to the rest of the town which was aghast today. We found quite a few Indians wandering about, who might have been here on-site from one of the numerous Indian IT companies with Swiss clientele. I was impressed with an inter-city train departing Lucerne every 2 minutes. The sleeping coaches are single deckers while the seating coaches were double deckers. It was nostalgic for my wife who had spent the better part of this decade traveling between Chennai and Bangalore. We did find that all the shops in the railway station were functioning as normal, including supermarkets, shops and eateries. We did a quick roundup and found packed Bombay pulav in the supermarket and Indian vegetarian fried rice in an eatery run by Indians, which we promptly had for dinner.
Mount Titlis was indeed a truly wonderful Christmas present for everyone on this tour, especially for us who had never felt snow in our hands before. Good things never last, but then how many people were doing better things this Christmas? Off to a different country tomorrow after a good night’s sleep, knowing that I had a truly wonderful experience today. And that I didn’t run out of Swiss francs and compromise my dinner.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Europe Day 5 – Innsbruck and Lucerne
The breakfast at Salzburg was pretty good, especially the cake was yummy. Yoghurt seems to feature in the breakfast in Europe, at least in Italy and Austria so far, and I loved it along with the fruits on offer. We kicked off quite early in the morning having only one aim; to reach Lucerne in time for some shopping and dinner. We heard that the shops close there by 4pm with some shops open till 6pm, so it was a rush against time from the start.
We went to Innsbruck first, stopping briefly at Auto Grill for some hot chocolate (Shocolade in these parts). Innsbruck is a small town in Austria with a population of about 150k, named after the Inns river that flows through the town with a fabulous background of the Austrian Alps. Innsbruck immediately struck me as a more commercial town than Salzburg, with buses and trams, residential apartments and a very lively Christmas atmosphere. The small streets had been decorated very well by the residents, with various life-size dolls hanging alongside the houses. It was very different and an exciting experience.
The world famous crystal shop Swarovski is based out of Innsbruck with a factory nearby. It was a very rushed, but very enjoyable experience looking through their impressive collection. Once we were done with a flower and bird at Swarovski, we were on the road again towards Switzerland. The mountain ranges were whiter, with more snow capped mountains filling up my camera. I have taken more than a thousand pictures so far under 5 days, and it can only get bigger. Suddenly, I realized that I haven’t changed the time zone on my camera, ensuring that the pictures were embossed with the date as of Singapore, rendering all photos taken after 5pm to be the next date. I had realized this when I was at the Singapore airport, but then I totally misjudged my memory power, leading to this pathetic mistake.
By this time, the tour manager had established a rapport with the traveling party, and started rambling with his life story interlaced with humor and wit. He smartly injects his meaningless talks with points of note, history, geography, philosophy, art and music. I have a feeling that he might be worried about his customers being bored, but with a scenery as abound as the one outside, that’s the last thing to happen even on 6-7 hr journey between places. The Alps has countless tunnels, and some of it is quite long. Sometimes, it acts as a distraction to a photo shoot, but usually offers some breather between spectacular views, where we can try to doze off. Invariably the eyes open once the sun comes out of the other end. I couldn’t help admiring the hard work that should have gone into building these highways in these places.
We passed through into Switzerland at about 2.30pm, a new country and a new currency for the next two days. Liechtenstein is a small principality of about 160 sq km, which we passed within 10 minutes. Next up was the highway to Luzern, which is the German form of Lucerne. I have read a lot about this wonderful place, which is a 20 mins walk end to end and is the tourist capital of Switzerland, as three of the famous mountains are accessible from here, and it has a beautiful lake nicknamed the Swan Lake, which is full of, guess what, swans. Switzerland is not all snow as people expect. It is a very nice mix of green hillsides, snow capped mountains and beautiful lakes all blended into one. Unity in diversity also applies to its languages and religion, with German, French and Italian all widely spoken. We arrived at 3.30pm and were supposed to buy whatever we can by 6pm.
We went to Bucharer, which is the largest retailer of watches and jeweler in Switzerland, famous for its premium Rolex. Pressed for time, we threw in whatever we could get our hands on, and not shockingly raked up a huge bill. We then went out to find out a pitch dark sky at 4.10pm and the wind blowing extremely cold. We went to the next shop that was open and shopped around a bit more, and then got some bread to munch for dinner. We spotted a couple of Indian honeymooners shopping around as well. People were running here and there to find an open shop without much luck. Having not had lunch and exposed to an extreme cold, I was running a mild headache and desperately wanted to eat something. We went to the nearby McDonalds to hear that they have closed. I came back to the central square by the lake only to find that one of my gloves had disappeared. The cold weather took over and made my hands numb within a few minutes. Never underestimate the cold, never. I was shaking all over at 5pm. Dropping all the bags in the bus, I went back in search of the missing glove. I traced back a couple of shops we had gone into, but the people here are least interested in entertaining people after their closure time, even if the person is desperately searching for his glove without which he is certain to freeze to death :P With fervent prayers in my lips, I ran around to McDonalds when a guy came out. I went around to check on my glove and caught him just as he was about to throw the glove into the bin. God does exist in cold dark high corners of the world at 6pm! What an experience today was. Tomorrow is the highlight of my trip, going on top of a 10000 feet high snowy mountain. Can’t wait to get started, with my gloves on :)
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
We went to Innsbruck first, stopping briefly at Auto Grill for some hot chocolate (Shocolade in these parts). Innsbruck is a small town in Austria with a population of about 150k, named after the Inns river that flows through the town with a fabulous background of the Austrian Alps. Innsbruck immediately struck me as a more commercial town than Salzburg, with buses and trams, residential apartments and a very lively Christmas atmosphere. The small streets had been decorated very well by the residents, with various life-size dolls hanging alongside the houses. It was very different and an exciting experience.
The world famous crystal shop Swarovski is based out of Innsbruck with a factory nearby. It was a very rushed, but very enjoyable experience looking through their impressive collection. Once we were done with a flower and bird at Swarovski, we were on the road again towards Switzerland. The mountain ranges were whiter, with more snow capped mountains filling up my camera. I have taken more than a thousand pictures so far under 5 days, and it can only get bigger. Suddenly, I realized that I haven’t changed the time zone on my camera, ensuring that the pictures were embossed with the date as of Singapore, rendering all photos taken after 5pm to be the next date. I had realized this when I was at the Singapore airport, but then I totally misjudged my memory power, leading to this pathetic mistake.
By this time, the tour manager had established a rapport with the traveling party, and started rambling with his life story interlaced with humor and wit. He smartly injects his meaningless talks with points of note, history, geography, philosophy, art and music. I have a feeling that he might be worried about his customers being bored, but with a scenery as abound as the one outside, that’s the last thing to happen even on 6-7 hr journey between places. The Alps has countless tunnels, and some of it is quite long. Sometimes, it acts as a distraction to a photo shoot, but usually offers some breather between spectacular views, where we can try to doze off. Invariably the eyes open once the sun comes out of the other end. I couldn’t help admiring the hard work that should have gone into building these highways in these places.
We passed through into Switzerland at about 2.30pm, a new country and a new currency for the next two days. Liechtenstein is a small principality of about 160 sq km, which we passed within 10 minutes. Next up was the highway to Luzern, which is the German form of Lucerne. I have read a lot about this wonderful place, which is a 20 mins walk end to end and is the tourist capital of Switzerland, as three of the famous mountains are accessible from here, and it has a beautiful lake nicknamed the Swan Lake, which is full of, guess what, swans. Switzerland is not all snow as people expect. It is a very nice mix of green hillsides, snow capped mountains and beautiful lakes all blended into one. Unity in diversity also applies to its languages and religion, with German, French and Italian all widely spoken. We arrived at 3.30pm and were supposed to buy whatever we can by 6pm.
We went to Bucharer, which is the largest retailer of watches and jeweler in Switzerland, famous for its premium Rolex. Pressed for time, we threw in whatever we could get our hands on, and not shockingly raked up a huge bill. We then went out to find out a pitch dark sky at 4.10pm and the wind blowing extremely cold. We went to the next shop that was open and shopped around a bit more, and then got some bread to munch for dinner. We spotted a couple of Indian honeymooners shopping around as well. People were running here and there to find an open shop without much luck. Having not had lunch and exposed to an extreme cold, I was running a mild headache and desperately wanted to eat something. We went to the nearby McDonalds to hear that they have closed. I came back to the central square by the lake only to find that one of my gloves had disappeared. The cold weather took over and made my hands numb within a few minutes. Never underestimate the cold, never. I was shaking all over at 5pm. Dropping all the bags in the bus, I went back in search of the missing glove. I traced back a couple of shops we had gone into, but the people here are least interested in entertaining people after their closure time, even if the person is desperately searching for his glove without which he is certain to freeze to death :P With fervent prayers in my lips, I ran around to McDonalds when a guy came out. I went around to check on my glove and caught him just as he was about to throw the glove into the bin. God does exist in cold dark high corners of the world at 6pm! What an experience today was. Tomorrow is the highlight of my trip, going on top of a 10000 feet high snowy mountain. Can’t wait to get started, with my gloves on :)
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Europe Day 4 – Salzburg
Looks like everyone’s heart was fluttering as we got rid of the SAD (seasonally afflicted disorder) syndrome to get ready an hour in advance! However, rules are not meant to be broken here, and we had to wait for the clock to strike 8.45am to start off. Bonjourno (good morning in Italian) to the captain and off we went. The climate was fantastic with a very pleasant 5 degrees. I was freezing in Rome at 9 degrees with all the winter clothes on a couple of days back, and I was just in my sweater today enjoying the weather. Yes, that’s how fast the body adapts! I still had my moisturizing cream and lip balm on, not to take any chances.
The journey today was through the Italian and Austrian alps, and was thoroughly memorable. They say life is measured by the moments that take your breath away, and we had plenty of those today during the transit. “Wow” came out involuntarily out of me, and by the time we passed the Austrian border, I was smiling so broadly that my neighbor said I wouldn’t want to leave this place. I didn’t, actually! What breathtaking views were bestowed upon us today. I was thanking God profusely to just feast my eyes on the natural beauty. My camera was hyperactive, but soon I realized it was fruitless. The camera is still not as powerful as the human eye, and it can only capture so much of the beauty. And compared to what I saw in front of me and what I saw on the screen, it was such a shame that I felt like deleting the picture immediately. Capturing the photo was almost like blemishing the dreamy landscapes all around me. Bliss is a state of mind where nothing else matters, and I was in pure bliss for the entire 7 hours. I did prefer the snow capped mountains of the Austrian Alps more, though! I could not believe both the world wars begun in such a serene country!
We stopped on the highway for lunch in the best location I have ever had my lunch in. What a view on offer. The Austrian food was another highlight. We have to pick whatever you want and pay according to the size of the plate. The garden salads came from the opposite slope! Rice, potatoes and vegetables were cooked in Austrian style, which was very different but equally nice. I thoroughly enjoyed the food and was smiling even broader than when I had come in. Much better than the grilled Italian eggplants! “Piatti Stupendo”. I did notice that the Austrian people were more stoic and composed than the emotional Italians. Most of them speak German, although they would hate you for life if you called them one. Italians are very fashionable people, with attention to the finer details of dressing, where you can pick any male or female to be a model. Austrians on the other hand are very serene people who are happy doing what they are doing. The Austrian gals seemed to have more natural beauty, possibly due to the low make up. They did not seem to be obsessed with the way they look, and came across as more homely. I just muttered “Danke” (Thank you) on my way out, and I would tell that they were pleased with that.
The emotional torture continued with more fabulous landscapes all along the way to Salzburg. We also caught a glimpse of quite a few cable cars and skiers on some of the gentle slopes. I would love to race down the slopes one day, but I knew it won’t happen on this trip, so was content with looking out of the window. We reached Salzburg just as the sun was going down at 4pm. Having walked through the famous Mirabell garden park, we crossed the river to catch a glimpse of the old castle that protected the great Austrian-Hungarian empire a few hundred years back. We also walked past the birthplace of Mozart and the various statues that adorn the place.
The beautiful Salzburg city was full on with Christmas celebrations with the town centre lit up and the old town church area full of Christmas stalls. The whole area had a very festive ambience, and we couldn’t help but be drawn in by the feelings. We roamed about the numerous stalls selling everything from Christmas tree decorations to artwork and winter wear, taking our time with each. We got a few mementoes and were frantically searching for the winter shoes that are waterproof. This was our last chance, as Swiss shops in Lucerne would be shut down during Christmas and we will be left out in the cold, literally. Just as we spotted the shop and the shoes we were looking for, we noticed that the shop has closed! Most of the shops here close by 6pm, so unfortunately, we were a bit too late. The shop keepers are least interested in going that extra minute for a potential customer, and that is how it is in this part of the world, even in a tourist town like Salzburg. We realized a lot of other tourists also got caught out by this timing issue.
We had our dinner at Restaurant Yuan, a Chinese restaurant with a decent ambience and dinner. But after yesterday’s gourmet meal, we were left a little disappointed, although we weren’t too hungry due to the late lunch. Having checked into the hotel quite early in preparation for a long day tomorrow, I caught up with my yesterday’s backlog to keep my tour diary up-to-date. Austria seems quite relaxed in terms of sexual content, with porn magazines on display in highway stops and erotic channels available on TV. With a lovely wife beside me, I did not dare take advantage of either: P
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
The journey today was through the Italian and Austrian alps, and was thoroughly memorable. They say life is measured by the moments that take your breath away, and we had plenty of those today during the transit. “Wow” came out involuntarily out of me, and by the time we passed the Austrian border, I was smiling so broadly that my neighbor said I wouldn’t want to leave this place. I didn’t, actually! What breathtaking views were bestowed upon us today. I was thanking God profusely to just feast my eyes on the natural beauty. My camera was hyperactive, but soon I realized it was fruitless. The camera is still not as powerful as the human eye, and it can only capture so much of the beauty. And compared to what I saw in front of me and what I saw on the screen, it was such a shame that I felt like deleting the picture immediately. Capturing the photo was almost like blemishing the dreamy landscapes all around me. Bliss is a state of mind where nothing else matters, and I was in pure bliss for the entire 7 hours. I did prefer the snow capped mountains of the Austrian Alps more, though! I could not believe both the world wars begun in such a serene country!
We stopped on the highway for lunch in the best location I have ever had my lunch in. What a view on offer. The Austrian food was another highlight. We have to pick whatever you want and pay according to the size of the plate. The garden salads came from the opposite slope! Rice, potatoes and vegetables were cooked in Austrian style, which was very different but equally nice. I thoroughly enjoyed the food and was smiling even broader than when I had come in. Much better than the grilled Italian eggplants! “Piatti Stupendo”. I did notice that the Austrian people were more stoic and composed than the emotional Italians. Most of them speak German, although they would hate you for life if you called them one. Italians are very fashionable people, with attention to the finer details of dressing, where you can pick any male or female to be a model. Austrians on the other hand are very serene people who are happy doing what they are doing. The Austrian gals seemed to have more natural beauty, possibly due to the low make up. They did not seem to be obsessed with the way they look, and came across as more homely. I just muttered “Danke” (Thank you) on my way out, and I would tell that they were pleased with that.
The emotional torture continued with more fabulous landscapes all along the way to Salzburg. We also caught a glimpse of quite a few cable cars and skiers on some of the gentle slopes. I would love to race down the slopes one day, but I knew it won’t happen on this trip, so was content with looking out of the window. We reached Salzburg just as the sun was going down at 4pm. Having walked through the famous Mirabell garden park, we crossed the river to catch a glimpse of the old castle that protected the great Austrian-Hungarian empire a few hundred years back. We also walked past the birthplace of Mozart and the various statues that adorn the place.
The beautiful Salzburg city was full on with Christmas celebrations with the town centre lit up and the old town church area full of Christmas stalls. The whole area had a very festive ambience, and we couldn’t help but be drawn in by the feelings. We roamed about the numerous stalls selling everything from Christmas tree decorations to artwork and winter wear, taking our time with each. We got a few mementoes and were frantically searching for the winter shoes that are waterproof. This was our last chance, as Swiss shops in Lucerne would be shut down during Christmas and we will be left out in the cold, literally. Just as we spotted the shop and the shoes we were looking for, we noticed that the shop has closed! Most of the shops here close by 6pm, so unfortunately, we were a bit too late. The shop keepers are least interested in going that extra minute for a potential customer, and that is how it is in this part of the world, even in a tourist town like Salzburg. We realized a lot of other tourists also got caught out by this timing issue.
We had our dinner at Restaurant Yuan, a Chinese restaurant with a decent ambience and dinner. But after yesterday’s gourmet meal, we were left a little disappointed, although we weren’t too hungry due to the late lunch. Having checked into the hotel quite early in preparation for a long day tomorrow, I caught up with my yesterday’s backlog to keep my tour diary up-to-date. Austria seems quite relaxed in terms of sexual content, with porn magazines on display in highway stops and erotic channels available on TV. With a lovely wife beside me, I did not dare take advantage of either: P
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Europe Day 3 – Venice
The day started off with a stern warning from the tour leader to not mess with the tiny little string in the bathroom, which seems to invoke emergency help. The irony is that it’s so close to the shower that it can be triggered quite accidentally. The travel from Florence to Venice itself was something to remember. European drivers have a strict regulation on travel and rest times, and so we could only start by 8.45am due to the late night yesterday. We were on routine travel on the highway, and had a hot cappuccino along the way, ignorant that our first taste of winter travel awaited us. As it happened, one stretch of the road was snowed in, and there was a huge jam for a few miles. We had a long wait for about 2 hours, during which time some of us had the pleasure of relieving ourselves in the snow with a backdrop of the Alps. As the guide said its part of the experience! Lunch stop was a bit of a hassle as we did not know what vegetarian items are available. After a long fruitless scan of the menu, we decided to trust our eyes and spotted some pizzas. I realized by observation that the folks there do not understand English. My preparation of the European dictionary came in handy as I proudly blurted out “Avetti Piatti Vegetariano Pizza” (Do you have vegetarian food/ pizza?). Then it happened. The waiter talked for about half a minute in Italian at the end of which I had no idea what to say. With my wife threatening me not to make any fatal mistake, I did not know how to respond. Thankfully, the next guy in line helped with the translation. So, we settled down with a pizza margarita, which means tomatoes and cheese. It was very soft and creamy and by far the best pizza I have had in my life.
The Italian Alps offered very nice picturesque scenes, keeping the camera in constant action along the way. We finally reached Venice at around 3.30pm, along with a double decker train that pulled up into the railway station. Venice has captured the imagination of the world in more than one way over the years. It is supposed to be a very romantic place, and Shakespeare glorified it in his Merchant of Venice novel. Discovery channel has, in more than one occasion, classified this sinking city as a primary target of global warming. Venezia as the Italians call it is really a unique city, with its own culture and art. It is essentially some 116 islands interlinked through canals and numerous bridges. Mussolini’s smart-ass minister threw in a few industries to impress his general, thereby adding some carbon footprint to the otherwise green city. In fact, Venice is one of the eco-friendly cities of the world, with most of the travel through foot and gondolas.
We took a water taxi from the pier to St Marks square, from where we took in the breathtaking sights of the square and the cathedral. Venice’s cathedrals are classic, with different eras contributing different architectures to them. Surrounding St Marks, you can see gothic, neo-classical, renaissance and Roman Catholic architectures, each with its own distinctive features. It was drizzling when we reached it, so we had to use the umbrellas to get around. We were a bit lucky that it was low tide and so we boarded one of the gondolas to take a 45 min trip around the streets of Venice, pun intended.
The Venetians are quite laid back and know how to enjoy life. The gondolas are amazing things. Very narrow, very buoyant and very stylish just like the Italians themselves, they made sharp turns with the slightest twist of the one-sided paddle. Venetians are decreasing in number, with only about 60k people still left, which is quite obvious from the numerous dark alleys and ghost buildings. It’s such a shame to leave such a historic and unique city. However, life goes on with Christmas preparations in full swing, adding color to the vibrant city on water. Numerous tiny bridges connect buildings, making libraries and shops accessible by foot. A lot of houses and restaurants are just an inch above the high water mark, leaving me wondering the immense damage that is posed by rising water levels to this city.
We went to the original Murano glass factory, whose business is no less affected, with only two families still in this business. We had a short demonstration of glass blowing, which is a dying art in itself. The artist was fabulous and well known throughout the world. I had seen him on Discovery before, but to meet him in person and seeing his skills was exhilarating. We did get a couple of beautiful red and blue Murano glasses with our names engraved on it for posterity. Venetian red is unique, just like the city itself, so any article with that color is usually about 20% costlier than the other colors.
There was an hour to roam about after that, and we went helter skelter through the numerous zigzagging roads and bridges in search of a toilet. WC is the acronym for that, although I am yet to figure out what that stands for. After 15 mins of frantic searching through every corner with an arrow, we were about to give up and possibly burst out before we traced it. Euro 1.5 later, we were satisfied with our finished business and walked back through the alleys. Guys are generally good at directions while gals are pathetic, and Venice is a nice place to prove that theory correct!
We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and stuffed ourselves with the best meal on the tour so far. No grilled eggplants and lots of Sichuan chilli that reminded me of my mother’s molaga podi (chilli powder)! It was a fantastic 9 course vegetarian meal, and I couldn’t have enough. I would have eaten all night long if the tour leader hadn’t dragged us into the bus to get to Hotel Antony before our rival group. The effort was worthwhile as we got the best room of the tour so far! I was so impressed by Venice that I started to write the day’s account when the computer battery died and my droopy eyes won over the excited heart. But I knew that the tour is just getting into the fabulous part of Austria and Switzerland where our experiences can only get better!
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
The Italian Alps offered very nice picturesque scenes, keeping the camera in constant action along the way. We finally reached Venice at around 3.30pm, along with a double decker train that pulled up into the railway station. Venice has captured the imagination of the world in more than one way over the years. It is supposed to be a very romantic place, and Shakespeare glorified it in his Merchant of Venice novel. Discovery channel has, in more than one occasion, classified this sinking city as a primary target of global warming. Venezia as the Italians call it is really a unique city, with its own culture and art. It is essentially some 116 islands interlinked through canals and numerous bridges. Mussolini’s smart-ass minister threw in a few industries to impress his general, thereby adding some carbon footprint to the otherwise green city. In fact, Venice is one of the eco-friendly cities of the world, with most of the travel through foot and gondolas.
We took a water taxi from the pier to St Marks square, from where we took in the breathtaking sights of the square and the cathedral. Venice’s cathedrals are classic, with different eras contributing different architectures to them. Surrounding St Marks, you can see gothic, neo-classical, renaissance and Roman Catholic architectures, each with its own distinctive features. It was drizzling when we reached it, so we had to use the umbrellas to get around. We were a bit lucky that it was low tide and so we boarded one of the gondolas to take a 45 min trip around the streets of Venice, pun intended.
The Venetians are quite laid back and know how to enjoy life. The gondolas are amazing things. Very narrow, very buoyant and very stylish just like the Italians themselves, they made sharp turns with the slightest twist of the one-sided paddle. Venetians are decreasing in number, with only about 60k people still left, which is quite obvious from the numerous dark alleys and ghost buildings. It’s such a shame to leave such a historic and unique city. However, life goes on with Christmas preparations in full swing, adding color to the vibrant city on water. Numerous tiny bridges connect buildings, making libraries and shops accessible by foot. A lot of houses and restaurants are just an inch above the high water mark, leaving me wondering the immense damage that is posed by rising water levels to this city.
We went to the original Murano glass factory, whose business is no less affected, with only two families still in this business. We had a short demonstration of glass blowing, which is a dying art in itself. The artist was fabulous and well known throughout the world. I had seen him on Discovery before, but to meet him in person and seeing his skills was exhilarating. We did get a couple of beautiful red and blue Murano glasses with our names engraved on it for posterity. Venetian red is unique, just like the city itself, so any article with that color is usually about 20% costlier than the other colors.
There was an hour to roam about after that, and we went helter skelter through the numerous zigzagging roads and bridges in search of a toilet. WC is the acronym for that, although I am yet to figure out what that stands for. After 15 mins of frantic searching through every corner with an arrow, we were about to give up and possibly burst out before we traced it. Euro 1.5 later, we were satisfied with our finished business and walked back through the alleys. Guys are generally good at directions while gals are pathetic, and Venice is a nice place to prove that theory correct!
We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and stuffed ourselves with the best meal on the tour so far. No grilled eggplants and lots of Sichuan chilli that reminded me of my mother’s molaga podi (chilli powder)! It was a fantastic 9 course vegetarian meal, and I couldn’t have enough. I would have eaten all night long if the tour leader hadn’t dragged us into the bus to get to Hotel Antony before our rival group. The effort was worthwhile as we got the best room of the tour so far! I was so impressed by Venice that I started to write the day’s account when the computer battery died and my droopy eyes won over the excited heart. But I knew that the tour is just getting into the fabulous part of Austria and Switzerland where our experiences can only get better!
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Europe Day 2 – Pisa and Florence
Having crossed 7 time zones and roamed about Rome, we were quickly off to sleep in the hotel on the outskirts. Early morning, we took one of the highways that connected Rome to Pisa. As they say, all roads lead to Rome, and it indeed true going by the traffic in and out of the city. We started off in bright sunshine and a couple of hours into the journey, it was all snowy landscapes. It was enchanting and dreamy to say the least. We did a halt in one of the expressway petrol stations, which doubles up as a food outlet. We have to exit through a shop selling chocolates, biscuits and the like, and are so enticing to buy. This we heard is the norm in Italy. We did get some chocolates to munch along the remainder of the journey to Pisa. The whole journey was a solid 5 hrs, but we did not mind.
We had to take the public bus to get to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I was surprised to see a few blacks touting in Pisa with imitation goods like umbrellas and leather bags. We were forewarned about things to watch out for, including pick pockets, gypsies trying to mug you, as well as tout at popular tourist places. Since we were behind schedule, the plan was to have lunch first, followed by the tower itself. However, there was some issue with the place that the tour manager arranged, so we ended up at an ala-carte Italian restaurant nearby. We did spot Indian and Chinese restaurants as well near the Tower for those who are planning a trip there. We were three vegetarians in the group, so we ordered a pizza each. By the time the huge pizza turned up, it was too late to cancel. We could each eat only half the pizza in the allotted time before we had to rush to capture some hurried pictures of the leaning tower of Pisa.
The leaning tower of Pisa is a bell tower to a cathedral that is inclined at the 6 degree angle. The government banned tourists in 1990 once they realized it could topple over. They then used lead blocks as well as digging out some earth to stabilize it by 0.5 degrees. We heard that it was on the top of this leaning tower that Galileo used his telescope for his studies, before proposing to the church that earth orbits the sun and getting himself killed. But what’s more interesting is that the leaning tower of Pisa started leaning while it was built itself, with only 3 out of 8 stories having been completed! I was inspired that the ancient Romans never gave up.
Once Pisa was done with, we took a 2 hour trip to Florence, which was an ultra successful commercial hub built by Lorenzo the magnificent. Florence has a very rich culture detailing the innovative ideas executed by Lorenzo, including the introduction of the first Italian currency called Florin, trading in gold, establishing the working middle class with workers being employed by corporate rather than the church. This magnificent city also contains the biggest church in Italy outside the Vatican, has the first stock exchange and has a dedicated square for banks. This city was the 500 year old Wall Street and much more. The city itself derives its name from a flower, which is omnipresent here and still remains the symbol of pride. Lorenzo also developed key ties with other city states as it was the financial hub, helping him in times of war. He is said to have defeated Pisa and Venice. A big river Alba divides the city into two, which was used to separate the quiet residential and happening commercial parts. Bridges help connect the two parts for easy access. Work hard and play hard seems to have been the moto of this city.
We had a long walk by the river in the biting cold night, which was an experience in itself. We went for a stake dinner at La Casa, being entertained by classical Italian songs while we had our dinner. The dinner was the usual three course meal with Spaghetti with tomato sauce, grilled eggplant and desert. I was sick and tired of eggplant on Day 2 itself. By the time we reached hotel it was almost 10. It is no big deal back in Singapore, but here we were just dog tired and all we wanted was to get some valuable sleep.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
We had to take the public bus to get to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I was surprised to see a few blacks touting in Pisa with imitation goods like umbrellas and leather bags. We were forewarned about things to watch out for, including pick pockets, gypsies trying to mug you, as well as tout at popular tourist places. Since we were behind schedule, the plan was to have lunch first, followed by the tower itself. However, there was some issue with the place that the tour manager arranged, so we ended up at an ala-carte Italian restaurant nearby. We did spot Indian and Chinese restaurants as well near the Tower for those who are planning a trip there. We were three vegetarians in the group, so we ordered a pizza each. By the time the huge pizza turned up, it was too late to cancel. We could each eat only half the pizza in the allotted time before we had to rush to capture some hurried pictures of the leaning tower of Pisa.
The leaning tower of Pisa is a bell tower to a cathedral that is inclined at the 6 degree angle. The government banned tourists in 1990 once they realized it could topple over. They then used lead blocks as well as digging out some earth to stabilize it by 0.5 degrees. We heard that it was on the top of this leaning tower that Galileo used his telescope for his studies, before proposing to the church that earth orbits the sun and getting himself killed. But what’s more interesting is that the leaning tower of Pisa started leaning while it was built itself, with only 3 out of 8 stories having been completed! I was inspired that the ancient Romans never gave up.
Once Pisa was done with, we took a 2 hour trip to Florence, which was an ultra successful commercial hub built by Lorenzo the magnificent. Florence has a very rich culture detailing the innovative ideas executed by Lorenzo, including the introduction of the first Italian currency called Florin, trading in gold, establishing the working middle class with workers being employed by corporate rather than the church. This magnificent city also contains the biggest church in Italy outside the Vatican, has the first stock exchange and has a dedicated square for banks. This city was the 500 year old Wall Street and much more. The city itself derives its name from a flower, which is omnipresent here and still remains the symbol of pride. Lorenzo also developed key ties with other city states as it was the financial hub, helping him in times of war. He is said to have defeated Pisa and Venice. A big river Alba divides the city into two, which was used to separate the quiet residential and happening commercial parts. Bridges help connect the two parts for easy access. Work hard and play hard seems to have been the moto of this city.
We had a long walk by the river in the biting cold night, which was an experience in itself. We went for a stake dinner at La Casa, being entertained by classical Italian songs while we had our dinner. The dinner was the usual three course meal with Spaghetti with tomato sauce, grilled eggplant and desert. I was sick and tired of eggplant on Day 2 itself. By the time we reached hotel it was almost 10. It is no big deal back in Singapore, but here we were just dog tired and all we wanted was to get some valuable sleep.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Kingdom - Day 2
The first thought of the day was that it would be tough to match Day 1 in excitement. So, I was bracing myself for a less than spectacular day. Yesterday started with the awe and splendour of Angkor Wat and the rest of the day just flew by. Today, we started off with Tonle Sap lake, a good 45 mins drive in a car that was "flying" at 30kmph. And it was the fastest object on the roads by a long way!
The drive gave me a glimpse of a normal Cambodian lifestyle. Houses were raised on columns of wood to prevent flooding during monsoon (May-Oct). The high-rise roads had seafood restaurants along the way, with all having karoake, although none of the locals are interested. It is to please the tourists, many of whom are Koreans. I am glad to bee in a place where I could spot only 3 other Indians in a day apart from my family. All the houses have a small spirit house at the front, where people offer their morning prayers to bring good luck to people and businesses. Depending on the status, it could range from some form of house made out of flattened coke cans, or could be mini houses in themselves. Almost all the houses (whether fixed or floating) has a swing made of cloth, where people take a nap whenever they can. The average Cambodian travel in mopeds or a cheaper version of a tuk tuk, which can carry 10-12 pax to the markets once a week for about $1. They have their own wood houses, a small rice field, a fruit garden and possibly a cow. They earn just enough to lead a life and never have enough to even travel to the next province. They eat at home everyday and are mostly self-sufficient. Only the extremely rich get to travel abroad. The people say they are poor with a tinge of sadness but they never crib or cringe. There are hardly any beggars around. I think Cambodians are rich in their captivating smile, amazing service attitude and their positiveness radiates everywhere in this country. It was a humbling experience having interacted with about 20-30 people in these 2 days.
Coming back to the first attraction of the day, the Tonle Sap lake is the largest (man-made) lake in Cambodia and links to the capital Phnom Penh. The travel is about 5-6 hrs only during rainy season. A manmade river links the mainland to the lake. A trip in a boat costs $20 a head, but its well worth it. Its not a lake, but almost a village in the middle of a sea, complete with floating residents, school, hospital, church, mosque and environmental organisation. The last one was a misfit as there was more environment than men at this place. The fresh air hustling your face makes one forget everything else and immerse in the surroundings. The climate was hot, but the heat hardly mattered. Floating shop boats touted for business, but we bought our souvenirs from a floating restaurant-cum-fish/crocodile farm. It was awesome to see a Vietnamese christians and Cambodian muslims float alongside each other yet have distinctive features. The Vietnamese fishermen have funded a floating orphanage school when they scarcely manage to eek out a living themselves. Top that for social responsibility! When the rains come down, everyone moves inland to avoid the high waves. It was a great trip and an eye-opener, showcasing how people adapt to their harsh surroundings and co-exist.
After the lake, we had a trip to Ta Phrom temple. It was another wreck characterised by hugh trees encroaching the walls, which have buckled under the immense pressure. Big blocks of rock were everywhere, like in the other temples. I again wondered how these temples were torn apart, but it looks as if large boulders were thrown from the top to create this crazy mess! The temple itself was dedicated by King Jayavarman VII (hailed the greatest) to his mother, and was used in times of victory to celebrate. All these temples were in fact walled cities, with thousands occupying each. Cambodia was landmined heavily, and people who have been injured by the landmines have formed a musical troupe. You can see these groups in every temple. They play on whenever the visitors are in sight. They have their own CDs and their placards request you to buy the CDs, but their shoulders never droop, even if we ask them for a photo without dropping a single note. The people here have real character. I did get a musical instrument as a souvenir from a tout outside.
Next up was lunch at the roadside Khmer Family Restaurant. The food and the service were good. Then, we made a longish trip to Bantray Srei temple in the outskirts. It translates into temple for women, but there were sannadis for Garuda and Hanuman, apart from the many unknowns. The temple was remarkably intact, with only a few broken blocks. It has definitely stood the test of time. Our next stop was Preah Khan, which is the translation for Jayasri, the original Sanskrit name bestowed upon it. It was huge, second only to Angkor Wat, with 7 concentric squares (prahara). This was also a walled city and a palace dedicated to Jayavarman's father. It has a dedicated dancing hall and demarcated areas for Apsara dancers. The innermost square contains a Siva Linga and a stupa. We all felt like explorers, navigating our way through endless blocks of rock. It is for this reason that we declined tourist guides in a couple of temples. We took our time at each nook and corner which interested us, went our own way, even got lost and had to get help to get out, but it was immense fun this way.
After numerous temples, it was time to try something different. On the suggestion of our taxi driver, we skipped the National Museum containing 1000 Buddhas and relics for a trip to the Cambodian Cultural Village. This is a one-stop to see the evolution of the Khmer culture, the different sections of people and their traditions and get a closer look at their living style. We watched a couple of dance shows, which were simple and elegant. Coming from a place renouned for its complexity and diversity, I did get bored of them quickly. The park inside was huge and had replicas of the important landmarks around the country. It was worthwhile browsing through.
The final stop for the day was the market and souvenir shop. Our driver mistook our needs and took us to a posh Indian souvenir shop trading Indian items. These were the last thing we wanted from Cambodia, and after a quick cursory glance, we were off. Dinner was great as usual, I told them as much and they were pleased.
As the trip came to an end, I was really happy with the way everything went on this trip. Everyone was equally pleased, which was a bit strange, but was much better than I anticipated. The Kingdom, especially the ruins of Angkor, is definitely a must-see for anyone worth their USD. No Riels please :)
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
The drive gave me a glimpse of a normal Cambodian lifestyle. Houses were raised on columns of wood to prevent flooding during monsoon (May-Oct). The high-rise roads had seafood restaurants along the way, with all having karoake, although none of the locals are interested. It is to please the tourists, many of whom are Koreans. I am glad to bee in a place where I could spot only 3 other Indians in a day apart from my family. All the houses have a small spirit house at the front, where people offer their morning prayers to bring good luck to people and businesses. Depending on the status, it could range from some form of house made out of flattened coke cans, or could be mini houses in themselves. Almost all the houses (whether fixed or floating) has a swing made of cloth, where people take a nap whenever they can. The average Cambodian travel in mopeds or a cheaper version of a tuk tuk, which can carry 10-12 pax to the markets once a week for about $1. They have their own wood houses, a small rice field, a fruit garden and possibly a cow. They earn just enough to lead a life and never have enough to even travel to the next province. They eat at home everyday and are mostly self-sufficient. Only the extremely rich get to travel abroad. The people say they are poor with a tinge of sadness but they never crib or cringe. There are hardly any beggars around. I think Cambodians are rich in their captivating smile, amazing service attitude and their positiveness radiates everywhere in this country. It was a humbling experience having interacted with about 20-30 people in these 2 days.
Coming back to the first attraction of the day, the Tonle Sap lake is the largest (man-made) lake in Cambodia and links to the capital Phnom Penh. The travel is about 5-6 hrs only during rainy season. A manmade river links the mainland to the lake. A trip in a boat costs $20 a head, but its well worth it. Its not a lake, but almost a village in the middle of a sea, complete with floating residents, school, hospital, church, mosque and environmental organisation. The last one was a misfit as there was more environment than men at this place. The fresh air hustling your face makes one forget everything else and immerse in the surroundings. The climate was hot, but the heat hardly mattered. Floating shop boats touted for business, but we bought our souvenirs from a floating restaurant-cum-fish/crocodile farm. It was awesome to see a Vietnamese christians and Cambodian muslims float alongside each other yet have distinctive features. The Vietnamese fishermen have funded a floating orphanage school when they scarcely manage to eek out a living themselves. Top that for social responsibility! When the rains come down, everyone moves inland to avoid the high waves. It was a great trip and an eye-opener, showcasing how people adapt to their harsh surroundings and co-exist.
After the lake, we had a trip to Ta Phrom temple. It was another wreck characterised by hugh trees encroaching the walls, which have buckled under the immense pressure. Big blocks of rock were everywhere, like in the other temples. I again wondered how these temples were torn apart, but it looks as if large boulders were thrown from the top to create this crazy mess! The temple itself was dedicated by King Jayavarman VII (hailed the greatest) to his mother, and was used in times of victory to celebrate. All these temples were in fact walled cities, with thousands occupying each. Cambodia was landmined heavily, and people who have been injured by the landmines have formed a musical troupe. You can see these groups in every temple. They play on whenever the visitors are in sight. They have their own CDs and their placards request you to buy the CDs, but their shoulders never droop, even if we ask them for a photo without dropping a single note. The people here have real character. I did get a musical instrument as a souvenir from a tout outside.
Next up was lunch at the roadside Khmer Family Restaurant. The food and the service were good. Then, we made a longish trip to Bantray Srei temple in the outskirts. It translates into temple for women, but there were sannadis for Garuda and Hanuman, apart from the many unknowns. The temple was remarkably intact, with only a few broken blocks. It has definitely stood the test of time. Our next stop was Preah Khan, which is the translation for Jayasri, the original Sanskrit name bestowed upon it. It was huge, second only to Angkor Wat, with 7 concentric squares (prahara). This was also a walled city and a palace dedicated to Jayavarman's father. It has a dedicated dancing hall and demarcated areas for Apsara dancers. The innermost square contains a Siva Linga and a stupa. We all felt like explorers, navigating our way through endless blocks of rock. It is for this reason that we declined tourist guides in a couple of temples. We took our time at each nook and corner which interested us, went our own way, even got lost and had to get help to get out, but it was immense fun this way.
After numerous temples, it was time to try something different. On the suggestion of our taxi driver, we skipped the National Museum containing 1000 Buddhas and relics for a trip to the Cambodian Cultural Village. This is a one-stop to see the evolution of the Khmer culture, the different sections of people and their traditions and get a closer look at their living style. We watched a couple of dance shows, which were simple and elegant. Coming from a place renouned for its complexity and diversity, I did get bored of them quickly. The park inside was huge and had replicas of the important landmarks around the country. It was worthwhile browsing through.
The final stop for the day was the market and souvenir shop. Our driver mistook our needs and took us to a posh Indian souvenir shop trading Indian items. These were the last thing we wanted from Cambodia, and after a quick cursory glance, we were off. Dinner was great as usual, I told them as much and they were pleased.
As the trip came to an end, I was really happy with the way everything went on this trip. Everyone was equally pleased, which was a bit strange, but was much better than I anticipated. The Kingdom, especially the ruins of Angkor, is definitely a must-see for anyone worth their USD. No Riels please :)
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The Kingdom - Day 1
There are 3 kingdoms that I really want to visit. Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal. I am happy that I have made it to 2 out of 3 so far. When I boarded my flight, I tried desperately not to think of my last visit to The Kingdom - Cambodia. It was a business trip that gave me the creeps. All 3 days I was there with my Singaporean boss, we were being escorted by Z-grade security! People say its cool until they hear that I was in a meeting trying to negotiate with a big Don who owns a corporate with 10 guys with guns standing around us. The meeting was a real win-win, the guy got what he wanted and we still were alive!
Back to the present, I couldnt help but admire the nature along the flight path en route Vietnam into Cambodia. The mountains, valleys and meandering rivers gave me a sense of inner peace, especially the last one. Its been so long since I saw one. It has a sense of nonchalance, where time almost stands still and senses are forced to admire its beauty. A sense of calm prevailed, a calm not found in bustling cities like Chennai, Singapore or Hong Kong. Right from landing in Siem Reap, two things has stood out. The first is a lack of crowd, which naturally took me a bit of time to get used to. The second was a distinctive architecture, where everything has to have a pointed end.
As soon as I landed, I committed a big blunder. I had changed from SGD to USD, but I wasnt quite sure how prevalent USD was. So, I changed 100 USD into Cambodian Riel, but had to stuff 380,000 in my purse. The next girl changed SGD 10 and immediately I realised my folly. Outside the airport, it was pretty obvious. Everything was sold in USD, and if you wanted to transact in Riel, you will be so royally screwed that you wouldnt think twice to go to your friendly neighbourhood robber aka money changer. I was shocked at first that a foreign currency is preferred to local currency. Then the taxi driver explained that the locals do use the Riel and get "real Riel" rates. Who would cry over getting paid in USD? So, the USD rulez in tourist spots.
As a true blue Chennai-ite,I got an instant aversion to the taxi driver when he started driving at 20 kmph and touting for a 2-day sightseeing trip. I tried to bargain just for the fun of it with no intention of hiring his services (just like we have fun with autos back home) but he seemed strangely earnest. Then he pointed to the standard day-trip rates and feedback telephone number for complaints. The pangs burst and turned into pity and I gave into his demands (by stopping the negotiation at standard rates - $5 :P). Not often do you get praised from your family for your bargaining skills, but I actually felt sad for those $5. Anyway, I hired him for our stay here, and he was all eager to start straightaway.
It was a hectic day with Angkor Wat, 3 temples in Angkor Thom and a trek on a mountain for sunset. Not withstanding the fact that everything was broken, the sheer enormity of the structures and that all this was achieved 1000 yrs ago was breathtaking. Angkor Wat was first, but it really is THE place to visit. What a glorious reminiscence of the past millenia! The 200m moat surrounding the temple, the huge grounds inside, broken structures said to be libraries and army commands were all awesome. A blend of south-indian and Khmer architecture and huge (I mean HUGE) walls depicting scenes of Ramayana and Mahabharata were strange to be found in a remote nation. Yeah yeah, I know history and all that, but in a place like this, heart rules over mind. And I dont mind it in a place like this one bit. For the uninitiated and non-wiki geeks, the long and short of the history is in Wiki!
Back to the present, I couldnt help but admire the nature along the flight path en route Vietnam into Cambodia. The mountains, valleys and meandering rivers gave me a sense of inner peace, especially the last one. Its been so long since I saw one. It has a sense of nonchalance, where time almost stands still and senses are forced to admire its beauty. A sense of calm prevailed, a calm not found in bustling cities like Chennai, Singapore or Hong Kong. Right from landing in Siem Reap, two things has stood out. The first is a lack of crowd, which naturally took me a bit of time to get used to. The second was a distinctive architecture, where everything has to have a pointed end.
As soon as I landed, I committed a big blunder. I had changed from SGD to USD, but I wasnt quite sure how prevalent USD was. So, I changed 100 USD into Cambodian Riel, but had to stuff 380,000 in my purse. The next girl changed SGD 10 and immediately I realised my folly. Outside the airport, it was pretty obvious. Everything was sold in USD, and if you wanted to transact in Riel, you will be so royally screwed that you wouldnt think twice to go to your friendly neighbourhood robber aka money changer. I was shocked at first that a foreign currency is preferred to local currency. Then the taxi driver explained that the locals do use the Riel and get "real Riel" rates. Who would cry over getting paid in USD? So, the USD rulez in tourist spots.
As a true blue Chennai-ite,I got an instant aversion to the taxi driver when he started driving at 20 kmph and touting for a 2-day sightseeing trip. I tried to bargain just for the fun of it with no intention of hiring his services (just like we have fun with autos back home) but he seemed strangely earnest. Then he pointed to the standard day-trip rates and feedback telephone number for complaints. The pangs burst and turned into pity and I gave into his demands (by stopping the negotiation at standard rates - $5 :P). Not often do you get praised from your family for your bargaining skills, but I actually felt sad for those $5. Anyway, I hired him for our stay here, and he was all eager to start straightaway.
It was a hectic day with Angkor Wat, 3 temples in Angkor Thom and a trek on a mountain for sunset. Not withstanding the fact that everything was broken, the sheer enormity of the structures and that all this was achieved 1000 yrs ago was breathtaking. Angkor Wat was first, but it really is THE place to visit. What a glorious reminiscence of the past millenia! The 200m moat surrounding the temple, the huge grounds inside, broken structures said to be libraries and army commands were all awesome. A blend of south-indian and Khmer architecture and huge (I mean HUGE) walls depicting scenes of Ramayana and Mahabharata were strange to be found in a remote nation. Yeah yeah, I know history and all that, but in a place like this, heart rules over mind. And I dont mind it in a place like this one bit. For the uninitiated and non-wiki geeks, the long and short of the history is in Wiki!
The second stop was a bit further north in Angkor Thom, a region with a group of temples close together. It is here that I realised a trend. The temples were built out of 1m cubes of rock, assembled by hand or a not-so-accurate crane. But one thing baffled me. The steps were so damn small and steep that we can only place the foot sideways and need to reach the next step by hand in some places. You cant imagine it until you see it. Its tough for the oldies. But thoroughly enjoyable as its unique to this place. Bayon temple had faces as gopuras. But it is amazingly steep, with long dark corridors and stone-strewn outdoors. It was so surreal that I was thinking the temples were either bombarded by big boulders during a war or was deliberate sabotage of the highest magnitude or the workers were so frustrated that they left the job incomplete. Strangely, all but a very few heads of statues were missing in all temples. Whatever the actual reason, it does not seem to be nature's act. Its definitely a treat to watch though, in this war-torn country.
The last stop was a hill-top Phnom Bakheang, which has a spectacular sunset view on top of a, guess what, another temple. This has the steepest steps of the lot. The oldies missed out on the fun and sunset. It has a great view from the top of atleast a 100 miles. I could better appreciate the topology of the Angkor landscape from there. The legs became a bit weary after all the walking and trekking, so we came back to the hotel. The dinner was the best I have had outside India and Singapore. Every item was just perfect for everyone, a hard one for an Indian veggie family.
So, at the close of Day 1, it was just great and I am really looking forward to the stuff lined up tomorrow.
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Sunday, April 19, 2009
No frills cricket
Having unsuccessfully waded off my passion towards all things cricket, I subscribed to the IPL for the second year running. It comes with its own sort of entertainment that viewers back home sorely miss. So, I wanted to write a note on this. I have listed down the top three reasons why I am so glad to have subscribed outside India..
1. No advertisements
For the ordinary Indian in me, cant exphasise how pleased I am with this aspect! This is purely no-frills cricket. We get live feed all the time, without any advertisement (well, almost). This means that the overs still has 6 balls, and we can see which batsmen talk a lot, and which batsmen are content with just having a glove-smack.. And how the fielding captain arranges the field for the next over.
2. Camaraderie
We can get to see surprising camaraderie between players who are made out to be enemies by the media. Hayden-Flintoff focussing on the match at hand, Hayden-Harbajan having a laugh together.. Guys from various countries practicing and joking with each other.. It was encouraging that there is a sportsman at the heart of the increasingly commercial venture called cricket.
3. Inside stuff
We do get the inside story of the commentators and their thoughts and preparations. We get live audio feed too, which means a Richie Benaud pre-pitch report preparation, a Ravi Shastri banter, a Geoffery Boycott sigh, everything is spied on by the unsuspected mic left on. The other funny thing is that we can see every move of the umpires as they leisurely stroll the pitch and outfield in any rain delayed games, like the one today. Usually there is one Indian and one international umpire. The funny thing is that the Indian umpire behaves like a small kid who wouldnt go more than a foot away from the mother. This is in total contrast to the way they behave in local cricket leagues, as if they are God's representative, and everyone should comply to their whim and fancy.
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1. No advertisements
For the ordinary Indian in me, cant exphasise how pleased I am with this aspect! This is purely no-frills cricket. We get live feed all the time, without any advertisement (well, almost). This means that the overs still has 6 balls, and we can see which batsmen talk a lot, and which batsmen are content with just having a glove-smack.. And how the fielding captain arranges the field for the next over.
2. Camaraderie
We can get to see surprising camaraderie between players who are made out to be enemies by the media. Hayden-Flintoff focussing on the match at hand, Hayden-Harbajan having a laugh together.. Guys from various countries practicing and joking with each other.. It was encouraging that there is a sportsman at the heart of the increasingly commercial venture called cricket.
3. Inside stuff
We do get the inside story of the commentators and their thoughts and preparations. We get live audio feed too, which means a Richie Benaud pre-pitch report preparation, a Ravi Shastri banter, a Geoffery Boycott sigh, everything is spied on by the unsuspected mic left on. The other funny thing is that we can see every move of the umpires as they leisurely stroll the pitch and outfield in any rain delayed games, like the one today. Usually there is one Indian and one international umpire. The funny thing is that the Indian umpire behaves like a small kid who wouldnt go more than a foot away from the mother. This is in total contrast to the way they behave in local cricket leagues, as if they are God's representative, and everyone should comply to their whim and fancy.
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Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Sehwag - The Phenomenon !
A cricketer who is better described as a known unknown...
10 random things about this random guy...
1. Has an average of 30+ in ODIs, but has a maturity beyond what might come to mind with comparisons against Jayasuriya and Afridi
2. Has a strike rate of 100+ in over 200 ODI innings, and he did have 100+ strike rate in the recent test series..
3. Has crossed 150 the last 11 times he has crossed 100. He crosses 100 once in 7 innings, with an average of 50, comparable to his idol, Sachin Tendulkar.
4. Gets voted Wisden Leading Cricketer - 2009 and part of World XI
5. Gets voted #1 in The Confectionary Stall's unpredictable XI
6. Hits a 100 in his maiden test innings in South Africa on a bouncy track.
7. Hits a 201* out of team 302, playing the unplayable Ajantha Mendis in his maiden test series, which duly gets voted best innings of 2008.
8. Nobody knows what he will do next ball, including himself.
9. Has a simple philosophy - Hit every ball out of the ground.
10. The only guy to have brought up a 100 with a six, 200 with a six, and 300 with a six.
11. Looks like Inzi but he runs singles like a mad bull..
12. Amazing temperment for a guy whose instinct is to make every ball disappear
13. Has the audacity to feel pity for the bowlers bowling against him in a press conference..
14. Never plays without a helmet, just like his idol..
15. Has an amazing hand-eye coordination - while batting or slip-fielding. He has the best hands in slips after Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
16. The only guy I have seen hit the first 3 balls he has faced into the stands.. never mind it was the first ball of the first match of a series.
Yeah, I said 10, but hes Sehwag, and the numbers shud be a bit unpredictable at the least...
This guy has just been everywhere where cricket has been mentioned this year.. Go viru go - for a six, what else! IPL is worth subscribing, just for this guy...
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Friday, April 03, 2009
MILK
I love kids.
I love being with kids.
I love playing with kids
I love being one of them
I love being treated as one of them
I love when they scold me
I love when they threaten me
I love when they play with me
I love kids who are playful and naughty
I love kids who are quiet and observant
I love kids who are ummmmm..
I love kids who blare for everything
I love to adore kids
I love buying them things.. if they ask for 1, i wanna give them 5.. i usually give them 10.. and the next time they want 100 :)
I love it when they speak
I love their slang
I love their touch
I love their spontaneous embrace
I love it when they run off when u wanna embrace
I love it when they have their way with me
I love to do whatever they want
I love to do whatever it takes
I love to enjoy with them
I love everything about them..
I miss kids a lot...
Mainly, I love kids.
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I love being with kids.
I love playing with kids
I love being one of them
I love being treated as one of them
I love when they scold me
I love when they threaten me
I love when they play with me
I love kids who are playful and naughty
I love kids who are quiet and observant
I love kids who are ummmmm..
I love kids who blare for everything
I love to adore kids
I love buying them things.. if they ask for 1, i wanna give them 5.. i usually give them 10.. and the next time they want 100 :)
I love it when they speak
I love their slang
I love their touch
I love their spontaneous embrace
I love it when they run off when u wanna embrace
I love it when they have their way with me
I love to do whatever they want
I love to do whatever it takes
I love to enjoy with them
I love everything about them..
I miss kids a lot...
Mainly, I love kids.
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Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Class of 2009
Here is a round up of the class of 2009..
Massa - Fiery latino deserves it, but will he get the support?
Kimi - Iceman has done it, has the speed, but wouldn't care less if its F1 or bullock cart racing. Will he have the fire?
Hamilton - Arrogant guy who everyone wants to beat just for the sake of beating. But hes in a McLaren and hes got the luck!
Kovalainen - Talkative Finn who's got nothing working for him.
Kubica - Great driver who would win some silverware for sure. Championship - lets see. I like him.
Heidfeld - Vexed ever since Merdeces ditched him.
Alonso - The champ who will try hard in a not-so-good car.
Nelson Piquet Jr - Father's money hasnt got him too far.
Trulli - Good but not great. Counting down his time in F1.
Timo Glock - Action packed. A bit like Massa in a Sauber.
Bourdais - Torro Rosso seems to hire only if your first name is Sebastian, so hes in luck.
Buemi - Impressed by his debut. Lets see...
Mark Webber - Steady, perennial under-achiever (from teams' perspective). Personally he just makes up the numbers.
Vettel - The champ in the making.. Comparison with Schumi are not too far-fetched.
Nico Rosberg - Good driver in under-achieving car. Needs his team to buck up if he should not be in a McLaren next year.
Kazuki Nakajima - Vying with his father to be the guy who crashed the most...
Adrian Sutil - Does well in circuits that suit him, I guess he has a lot of spare cash.
Fisichella - My fav gentle Italian whos better suited to fashion shows. Drives well in the wet. Farewell year I guess.
Jenson Button - The spark when he stepped into a Williams is back.. The question is will he achieve when the going gets tough?
Rubens Barrichello - Plays the foil the best, hes seen it all, done it all.. A good rear-guard. But I still remember Germany 2000.. Boy-o-boy, what a drive in the wet...
Bottomline is that the class of 2009 is 80% class, 15% lousy and 5% wicked. My guess is its definitely gonna be a class of its own!
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Massa - Fiery latino deserves it, but will he get the support?
Kimi - Iceman has done it, has the speed, but wouldn't care less if its F1 or bullock cart racing. Will he have the fire?
Hamilton - Arrogant guy who everyone wants to beat just for the sake of beating. But hes in a McLaren and hes got the luck!
Kovalainen - Talkative Finn who's got nothing working for him.
Kubica - Great driver who would win some silverware for sure. Championship - lets see. I like him.
Heidfeld - Vexed ever since Merdeces ditched him.
Alonso - The champ who will try hard in a not-so-good car.
Nelson Piquet Jr - Father's money hasnt got him too far.
Trulli - Good but not great. Counting down his time in F1.
Timo Glock - Action packed. A bit like Massa in a Sauber.
Bourdais - Torro Rosso seems to hire only if your first name is Sebastian, so hes in luck.
Buemi - Impressed by his debut. Lets see...
Mark Webber - Steady, perennial under-achiever (from teams' perspective). Personally he just makes up the numbers.
Vettel - The champ in the making.. Comparison with Schumi are not too far-fetched.
Nico Rosberg - Good driver in under-achieving car. Needs his team to buck up if he should not be in a McLaren next year.
Kazuki Nakajima - Vying with his father to be the guy who crashed the most...
Adrian Sutil - Does well in circuits that suit him, I guess he has a lot of spare cash.
Fisichella - My fav gentle Italian whos better suited to fashion shows. Drives well in the wet. Farewell year I guess.
Jenson Button - The spark when he stepped into a Williams is back.. The question is will he achieve when the going gets tough?
Rubens Barrichello - Plays the foil the best, hes seen it all, done it all.. A good rear-guard. But I still remember Germany 2000.. Boy-o-boy, what a drive in the wet...
Bottomline is that the class of 2009 is 80% class, 15% lousy and 5% wicked. My guess is its definitely gonna be a class of its own!
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The New Age is in!!!
When was the last time we saw a conviction and guts of a team owner to take it from a verge of closure to a resounding win? Never.
When was the last time we saw a 1-2 from a debutant team? Fangio in 1954 at French GP.
When was the last time we saw a guy race from last to 4th position based on pure luck? Cant remember.
When was the last time we saw the second and third take themselves out with 2 laps to go? Never, although it did happen with Senna-Prost for 1-2 in Japan 1988.
When was the last time the race finished under a safety car? Schumi in Britain 1998.
When was the last time a rookie in a end-of-the-line car scored points? Mark Webber in Australia 2002.
Definitely, the new age for F1 has begun! Australia was always a very dramatic season opener with things happening, so it cant be the benchmark, but it seems like F1 has got a fresh breath of air. I haven't got so excited by a race, and blogged about it minutes after the race ever since Schumi retired.
People like Sebastian Buemi and Timo Glock provided more overtakings then seasoned ppl like Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica provided steady runs on different strategies to the podium till their spectacular run-in with 2 laps to go. And to think both of them thought they had got away with it until a couple of corners later.. haha.. Giancarlo Fisichella, my favorite under-achiever, provided steady block using his extensive experience and kept Force India in contention until their pit-stop screw up. Jarno Trulli found just the right time to overtake Lewis Hamilton to get onto the podium (reminds me of Brazil 2003 when Fisi boy overtook Kimi to take the 1st place on what happened to be the final lap).
I am really glad about this season as it trully represents the new age, with plenty of young guys worth their weight in gold put themselves in the driving seat for million dollar salaries. And to think of it that no one wants to settle for second place - I wonder what would have happened if FIA hasnt reversed their decision on the "gold-winner" strategy.
Well, I am all smiles.. As Ross said at the end, "Go get it boy!"
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Perceptions
The glass is half-full or half-empty ..
The door is half-open or half closed ..
I have seen all kinds of people in my short life so far, and its amazing to see the perception of work among those.. What is great for one is a torture for another, whats needed for one is a wretch for another, whats important for one is disdain for another..and both go along with it to their own sublime ends..
I tried to reason out a logic behind the "chaos" in this world. Why are things so much amazingly different...in the body and in the mind? Five fingers are not the same..but then, whats the benefit, even if they are? Opposite tend to attract each other, promoting even more diversity through mix and match. Scientifically it offers more flexibility and balance and better chance of survival if things are different. Learn to acknowledge and appreciate diversity in life, and then you will see life in a different style, leading to a change in ur lifestyle..
I have seen a trend in the perceptions.. People who are positive in their mind tend to be positive in their words and actions, they even tend to subconsciously put positive words before negative ones when they use both in the same sentence. And vice-versa. Knowing a bit of astrology and numerology, I believe positive vibes are very important at a micro and macro level for a person's well being. And its easy to identify, but very difficult to acknowledge..
What [good] have I done today? What [good] am I gonna do tomorrow? How [good] am I? If something positive is being used in the question, chances are you will get a positive response from your mind. I have fancied counting the number of good or bad things people say or do in one day and present it to them. But then I reckon the positive ones would take the feedback as positive and do things more positively, while the negative ones would take the feedback negatively and shout at you for projecting things negatively. Do you get the point? Most things are easy to change.. Hobbies are less easier to change, Habits are tougher to change, Characteristics are the toughest to change. But then, positiveness is well worth changing for.
Think positive. Be positive. Do positive.
And to leave you with one that struck me as I left office today:
You either work, or you work-around..
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Did you see the positives? As National Geographic says, Think again!
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The door is half-open or half closed ..
I have seen all kinds of people in my short life so far, and its amazing to see the perception of work among those.. What is great for one is a torture for another, whats needed for one is a wretch for another, whats important for one is disdain for another..and both go along with it to their own sublime ends..
I tried to reason out a logic behind the "chaos" in this world. Why are things so much amazingly different...in the body and in the mind? Five fingers are not the same..but then, whats the benefit, even if they are? Opposite tend to attract each other, promoting even more diversity through mix and match. Scientifically it offers more flexibility and balance and better chance of survival if things are different. Learn to acknowledge and appreciate diversity in life, and then you will see life in a different style, leading to a change in ur lifestyle..
I have seen a trend in the perceptions.. People who are positive in their mind tend to be positive in their words and actions, they even tend to subconsciously put positive words before negative ones when they use both in the same sentence. And vice-versa. Knowing a bit of astrology and numerology, I believe positive vibes are very important at a micro and macro level for a person's well being. And its easy to identify, but very difficult to acknowledge..
What [good] have I done today? What [good] am I gonna do tomorrow? How [good] am I? If something positive is being used in the question, chances are you will get a positive response from your mind. I have fancied counting the number of good or bad things people say or do in one day and present it to them. But then I reckon the positive ones would take the feedback as positive and do things more positively, while the negative ones would take the feedback negatively and shout at you for projecting things negatively. Do you get the point? Most things are easy to change.. Hobbies are less easier to change, Habits are tougher to change, Characteristics are the toughest to change. But then, positiveness is well worth changing for.
Think positive. Be positive. Do positive.
And to leave you with one that struck me as I left office today:
You either work, or you work-around..
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE END
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Did you see the positives? As National Geographic says, Think again!
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The search has just begun !!!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Whats in a color?
Who gave this world mauve, beige, purple, rose and pink? Is is treason if someone looks at the same colors and identifies them as yellow, green, blue and "light" colors?
This has been my most hated topic, and I have refrained from this in the past 4.5 yrs that I have been blogging. But Microsoft powerpoint pushed me off the cliff, just like Warren Buffet describes America right now. The 2007 version of it is aweful for special people like me, who appreciate the simple world full of colors, but not the world that is obsessed with identifying each one of them correctly.
It all started quite young, 2nd standard admissions to be precise. My parents knew I was their special child, one who could give you black and blue anytime with ease, but who couldnt quite make out red from green 9 out of 10 times. And the one time would be due to the arbitrary god of luck smiling on me! Having boasted enuf of my abilities, back to topic. My parents were admittedly very worried about getting me into a top school. I aced the exams, but the interview gave them jitters. Not for the As and Bs, birds and bees, but red and green. My mom was fervently praying my fraility shouldnt be exposed by a short bespectacles stubborn headmistress. I stepped into the room, and I saw 4 objects of different colors. 2 I knew for sure, the other two were two different colors which I couldnt quite make out. The colors came, but only 2 were asked and 2 were answered correctly. *Sigh*.
Still below 10, I was an object of ridicule among family and friends alike. My cousins used to taunt me day in and day out, not to hurt me but just that they found it unbelievable that I couldnt make out some weird colors off their jaded clothes. So they used to ask me colors - again and again and again and yet again till they got bored of the fun. Needless to say, my favorite childhood game was "the crocodile", where we need to cross a river holding the right colors, unless u want to become the next croc :P
I have always been confident of my abilities, and that somehow I could work out solutions for problems has been my forte. Every color teachers taught me got embalmed in my mind - if I dont forget them, I do not need to identify them again! So, leaves have always been green in my dictionary, although they might "appear" rotten brown for others.
In my teens, physics and chemistry wasnt that much of a mystery, theoritically. Colors were an integral part of it, so I needed to upgrade my skills to deal with the menace. I used to thank god for the guy who invented multi meter cos he was my saviour through secondary school Physics - I didnt need to figure out a single color from a resistance. Chemistry was a bit more of a challenge, but once u know the test cases and test results by heart, its just a matter of a bit of practice to get things right. I was very good at theory and manipulation to get "realistic results" that I didnt really have to "do" an experiment to write my logs anywayz!
My worst moment with colors came after my Std X. I have always wanted to be a fighter pilot, and was on my way to become one. But unfortunately, I couldnt get past a medical - they said special kids shud stay away from aeroplanes, chemicals and mining. A nightmarish looking circular color book in a local hospital gave me the full picture. I sweated like never before, the nurse looked at me as if I was from Mars, and I wasn't even half way through when she gave up on me. She dragged me to the doctor to complain about my inability to identify colors in their full glory. I protested, I can identify colors, but only that what looks like green to the doctor looks like red to me! Add to that the slight discomfort in seperating out similar looking colors or to identify hidden alphabets and numbers within a myraid of colors. And I just need a bit more contrast between colors to differentiate. I can definitely differentiate something dark blue and something in the red-green-brown range. Fine - I am human, whats the big deal!
Most of my twenties has passed without much of an incident with colors, except for corporate presentations when everyone is amazed by the full-color display. And that drags me back onto Powerpoint. Someone tell Microsoft to make things a bit more accessible to special people like me. For a start, the name of colors in brackets (at least for the common colors) on mouse hover would go a long way.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
This has been my most hated topic, and I have refrained from this in the past 4.5 yrs that I have been blogging. But Microsoft powerpoint pushed me off the cliff, just like Warren Buffet describes America right now. The 2007 version of it is aweful for special people like me, who appreciate the simple world full of colors, but not the world that is obsessed with identifying each one of them correctly.
It all started quite young, 2nd standard admissions to be precise. My parents knew I was their special child, one who could give you black and blue anytime with ease, but who couldnt quite make out red from green 9 out of 10 times. And the one time would be due to the arbitrary god of luck smiling on me! Having boasted enuf of my abilities, back to topic. My parents were admittedly very worried about getting me into a top school. I aced the exams, but the interview gave them jitters. Not for the As and Bs, birds and bees, but red and green. My mom was fervently praying my fraility shouldnt be exposed by a short bespectacles stubborn headmistress. I stepped into the room, and I saw 4 objects of different colors. 2 I knew for sure, the other two were two different colors which I couldnt quite make out. The colors came, but only 2 were asked and 2 were answered correctly. *Sigh*.
Still below 10, I was an object of ridicule among family and friends alike. My cousins used to taunt me day in and day out, not to hurt me but just that they found it unbelievable that I couldnt make out some weird colors off their jaded clothes. So they used to ask me colors - again and again and again and yet again till they got bored of the fun. Needless to say, my favorite childhood game was "the crocodile", where we need to cross a river holding the right colors, unless u want to become the next croc :P
I have always been confident of my abilities, and that somehow I could work out solutions for problems has been my forte. Every color teachers taught me got embalmed in my mind - if I dont forget them, I do not need to identify them again! So, leaves have always been green in my dictionary, although they might "appear" rotten brown for others.
In my teens, physics and chemistry wasnt that much of a mystery, theoritically. Colors were an integral part of it, so I needed to upgrade my skills to deal with the menace. I used to thank god for the guy who invented multi meter cos he was my saviour through secondary school Physics - I didnt need to figure out a single color from a resistance. Chemistry was a bit more of a challenge, but once u know the test cases and test results by heart, its just a matter of a bit of practice to get things right. I was very good at theory and manipulation to get "realistic results" that I didnt really have to "do" an experiment to write my logs anywayz!
My worst moment with colors came after my Std X. I have always wanted to be a fighter pilot, and was on my way to become one. But unfortunately, I couldnt get past a medical - they said special kids shud stay away from aeroplanes, chemicals and mining. A nightmarish looking circular color book in a local hospital gave me the full picture. I sweated like never before, the nurse looked at me as if I was from Mars, and I wasn't even half way through when she gave up on me. She dragged me to the doctor to complain about my inability to identify colors in their full glory. I protested, I can identify colors, but only that what looks like green to the doctor looks like red to me! Add to that the slight discomfort in seperating out similar looking colors or to identify hidden alphabets and numbers within a myraid of colors. And I just need a bit more contrast between colors to differentiate. I can definitely differentiate something dark blue and something in the red-green-brown range. Fine - I am human, whats the big deal!
Most of my twenties has passed without much of an incident with colors, except for corporate presentations when everyone is amazed by the full-color display. And that drags me back onto Powerpoint. Someone tell Microsoft to make things a bit more accessible to special people like me. For a start, the name of colors in brackets (at least for the common colors) on mouse hover would go a long way.
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Monday, March 02, 2009
Heart broken!
Unashamedly positive Not many times in my life have I had to say the above, but it aches till it breaks when my friends leave, just like that...
My top two bloggers.. My top two poets.. My two damsels.. out... just like that..
Its not treason, knowing the person
But without reason, I reason
It wasnt just another one, but THE one
One more aint fun, its Victorian arson
God maketh thee thus pure lifeth joy
God maketh thee thus pure death decoy
God maketh thee thus pure crieth soul
God maketh thee thus pure liketh fowl
Life goes on, but life aint the same
A maiden love lost or a friend lost is a shame
Cos its as much to do with you as with the other name
A life unfair, a casino where all is lost in the name of game...
Random Access
The search has just begun !!! (for my lost friends)
PS: Bloggers should have a family song to sing in distress to locate runaway souls..
My top two bloggers.. My top two poets.. My two damsels.. out... just like that..
Its not treason, knowing the person
But without reason, I reason
It wasnt just another one, but THE one
One more aint fun, its Victorian arson
God maketh thee thus pure lifeth joy
God maketh thee thus pure death decoy
God maketh thee thus pure crieth soul
God maketh thee thus pure liketh fowl
Life goes on, but life aint the same
A maiden love lost or a friend lost is a shame
Cos its as much to do with you as with the other name
A life unfair, a casino where all is lost in the name of game...
Random Access
The search has just begun !!! (for my lost friends)
PS: Bloggers should have a family song to sing in distress to locate runaway souls..
The joy of a few words
Ever thought of a person, and wanted to mail them, but never actually got to type out a few words to say hello? Ever thought I will mail them tomorrow, when I have a bit more time, a bit more content, a bit more context?
Everyone goes through the pain of procastination, especially if you really really want to, but never get to do something.
I spent a year and half saying tomorrow I will definitely do it, regretting every single following day. Every time I desperately wanted to type in that precious email, I didnt have a damn computer in front of me. How unfortunate. I have often thought I will draft an email once I reach office, send it to my personal id and just fwd on, but every time I thought so I would be in a train reaching office, and once in office, immersed in official work.
My memory isnt that great and I did forget quite a few names after I got hit on the head with a cricket ball, my office doesnt allow me to connect to my personal email, family life comes with a lot of responsibility, I spend a fraction of time online as I once used to, I dont even feel like switching on a computer after being in front of one all day, but all this is just a plain old excuse, which I knew in my heart, but tried to defend with my brain. How sick and vain!
Today that I DID get to do it, it was a huge huge thing off my heart. The satisfaction of that make me jump all over my place like a bunny. I felt so light I could have flown. Thats one heck of a feeling. And whats more, I got a reply from the person 5 mins later. After a year and a half, nothing like the joy of a few words to a dear friend.
Back to flying...
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Everyone goes through the pain of procastination, especially if you really really want to, but never get to do something.
I spent a year and half saying tomorrow I will definitely do it, regretting every single following day. Every time I desperately wanted to type in that precious email, I didnt have a damn computer in front of me. How unfortunate. I have often thought I will draft an email once I reach office, send it to my personal id and just fwd on, but every time I thought so I would be in a train reaching office, and once in office, immersed in official work.
My memory isnt that great and I did forget quite a few names after I got hit on the head with a cricket ball, my office doesnt allow me to connect to my personal email, family life comes with a lot of responsibility, I spend a fraction of time online as I once used to, I dont even feel like switching on a computer after being in front of one all day, but all this is just a plain old excuse, which I knew in my heart, but tried to defend with my brain. How sick and vain!
Today that I DID get to do it, it was a huge huge thing off my heart. The satisfaction of that make me jump all over my place like a bunny. I felt so light I could have flown. Thats one heck of a feeling. And whats more, I got a reply from the person 5 mins later. After a year and a half, nothing like the joy of a few words to a dear friend.
Back to flying...
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Disgusting!
Is the word that first came to my mind when I saw cricinfo today. Being from a country where billion is a common number to calibrate fans, where fans break across barriers of sex, religion and race, the ads in this popular website makes me wonder whether I am searching for cricket news or software cracks.
Cultural context is very important in some stuff, and advertising is one of them.. There are much better ways to make money guys..
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Cultural context is very important in some stuff, and advertising is one of them.. There are much better ways to make money guys..
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
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