Calilfornia - Off to the glamorous West coast!

In April 2007 Div finished his first year of MBA. He secured a very good summer internship offer in New York and thus we could spend 3 months of summer together. But before he started his internship he had a couple of weeks off. And we decided to visit my brother in San Diego and thus see some parts of California too.
We landed in San Diego seperately- I came in from New York in the afternoon & Div came in directly from Detroit in the evening. We spent the evening relaxing & planning out the trip with my brother. Since the weekend was just starting, my brother could join us for a couple of days and we decided to go see the Death Valley National Park.

It was a six hour drive from San Diego to Death Valley and we undertook this journey in my brother's second-hand Toyota Camry. I must admit that none of us had much confidence that this car would be able to go through this pressure test. But due to lack of options we decided to go ahead with the Camry. We started early morning around 6'o clock - first went to bro's office to print out Google Map directions & get some coffee and drove for couple of hours till we reached the outskirts of San Diego then stopped at a fast food joint for breakfast.
Then Div took over and drove for the rest of the way. It was amazing to slowly see the terrain change from city to open greenery to arid desserts. As we drew closer and closer to the national park, we were passing absolutely arid & dry mountains and sand dunes with no trace of life anywhere.But I must say driving here was a pleasure- smooth straight roads all to yourself...the Camry was excitedly going at 90 miles an hour.

As we entered the National park, we bought our tickets and self-service machines. Now unlike most parks there are no gates here or boundaries, its just a vast dessert landscape spread out in front of you. The first most curious thing of course was why the name 'Death valley'- we soon figured out that during the gold-rush in California, a group of non-native americans decided to take this route as a shortcut to California. They were stuck here for weeks and even though only one of them died, it gave the valley its name.

So we ventured further and came to the first 'tourist spot'- Zabriskie Point. It was amazing to see this landscape which is formed from the sediments of the Furnace Creek Lake. The terrain is reffered to as 'badlands' because of the difficult terrain. I was almost sure that it was used a movie set whenever they had to show Moon surface or Mars.
By now it was almost 12.oo in the afternoon and the sun was right above our heads. The heat in this place is unbearable. Infact the average temperature here in peak summer season is close to 120 degree Farenhiet OR 50 degree Celcius!! So we went ahead to the Furnace Creek Ranch- the main visitor centre is based here. It is an oasis in this dessert with a small lake, some greenery, restaurants, shops & hotels. After a quick lunch with beer, we rented out a room at the Furnace Creek Inn. We were so tired with the driving & heat that we couldnt resist a nap. After resting for couple of hours we set out again.
We first arrived at the Titus Canyon but we had a problem- there were only two ways of going in either with a 'four-wheel drive' or by walk. Now our Camry was definitely not a four-wheel drive so we could have walked but it was 2-3 miles. So we stood there wondering what we should do and we said lets check out the other sites :)

By now the sun was setting and the temperatures cooling down. Next we reached the Sand Dunes and this was beautiful. Mounds and mounds of sand with the beautiful pattern that wind makes on them. It reminded me of the pictures of Rajasthan I have seen and I made a mental note that I need to see Rajasthan at the next available opportunity.

It was very interesting to read how wind creates these ripple-like patterns in the sand. And how some of these dessert plants can have roots which go upto 50 mts to tap into the water table.

Next we went to see an old Borax mine. Borax is very important in the history of this place. It was the reason why in the late 18th century, the first Europeans came to this place and set up thier mines to extract & export Borax. Infact, Borax was referred to as 'White Gold' in these periods. What was interesting to know was that this Borax was transported from the mine to the railroad in what was known as the 20 mule team. This is wagon pulled by 18 mules & 2 horses and covered 165 miles in this sweltering heat! They went at an average of 3 miles an hour and thus took almost a month to complete a round trip! This wagon is still preserved for our viewing.

By now the sun had completely set and we decided to call it day. We headed back to our hotel room, freshned up, ate some dinner and were soon fast asleep.

Next day morning we woke up and set out early to see the main attraction- Badwater. It is the lowest point in North America, 282 feet below sea level. This is actually a salt basin, where the salt eroding from the sorrounding mountains during rainfall, gets collected. The place was huge and there was salt as far as your eyes could go. At one point I doubted that it was salt and tasted it too :p.... it sure was salt! Due to drying up the salt formed these interesting looking patterns.

After this interesting site, we went to see 'Artists Palette'- this is the face of a mountain which has rocks of several colours. I guess we were expecting something really dramatic, colourful, almost like a rainbow and thus were pretty disappointed with this one. There were definitely some shades of green, red & brown if you looked carefully but it was nowhere close to what I had imagined it to be.From here, we headed towards Golden Canyon. We parked our car and walked through the canyon. The geographical formations of the rocks were very intriguing. Though the walk through the canyon is actually quite long, we went half way through and came back....laziness I guess. Our last stop, before we headed back to civilization was the Dante's peak. And it was fitting end as this place is 5,500 feet above sea level and provides you with sweeping views of the park. It was especially fun to see the Badwater basin which is the lowest point from so far above.

On Day 2, we headed out to the famous San Diego Sea World. We had some discounted tickets from my brothers office. So we reached there around 9.00 am when the park opens. And the first thing we did was go see the star of the park 'Shamu'- the whale. This is a show that happens where the whale 'Shamu' does several water tricks along with thier trainers. I could believe my eyes the kind of stuff they would make a whale do and also the relationship between the trainer & the whale is unbelievable. We were sitting in the first few rows which are reffered to as soak zones for obvious reasons! But you get these 'raincoats' to wear so that you wont get too soaked. Next we got to see and touch some dolphins. I think Dolphins are the cutest animals. In the Dolphin pool, you could feed them fish & give them a quick pat. Then we enjoyed a ride called the Shipwreck rapids, its a very common water park ride. Since we stil had our 'raincoats' from the Shamu performance, we managed not to get too soaked. It was afternoon, so we quickly took a lunch break.

Next we got to see some starfish, I never knew they came in so many colours. And we could actually hold them in our hands. Its a very eriee feeling, I kept thinking its gonna bite me or something. We then went to the aquarium, it was a wonderful experience. I have never seen such colourful & different varities of fish and sea creatures. We saw stone fish (they actually look like stones), sea horse, cat fish, lion fish, snail fish and many more interesting looking sea animals. But I think the best was Octopus, which spread out all its 8 legs and looked majestic.We then saw beautiful sea-turtles, its amazing how lazy they look. Then we saw fiery red flamingoes, they sleep on one-leg while resting the other.

We also got to see Seal & Sea-Lions, the tourists are allowed to feed fish to them. And as a result these animals try to grab your attention by screaming their lungs out.From there we proceeded towards the Shark adventures, we got to see several different species of Sharks including the Killer Shark. We got to know tit bits like an average shark gets 30,000 teeth in one lifetime!! There is also a shark encounter program where you are lowered into the shark tank in a cage and get to see these amazing animals up-close. But you need to reserve this in advance so we couldnt go for it.We were so impressed with the 'Shamu'-the whale show, that we next went to the Dolphin encounter. And it was a complete delight. I am still amazed how they manage to train animals which dont speak. The dolphins jumped, swirled, danced in tandem with thier trainers.
The SeaWorld also carries out some animal rescue operations and they had currently housed a few rescued Manitees.

Someother interesting animals we got to see were Walrus, Bottlenose whales, penguins, Nemo fish, Jelly fish and many more.

There are very few rides here but the couple that are there are great fun- especially the 'Lost city of Atlantis'!

At the end of the exciting day, we met my brother had dinner and then went to Mt. Soledad. This is actually a war memorial but the views of the San Diego city from here is beautiful.

Day 3 started a little late as we were really tired with all the walking we had done yesterday. We slept in till late and finally rolled out of bed around 10.00 am. We got ready and went to meet Div's cousin for lunch. We were having lunch in a place very close to Carlsbad. Now Carlsbad is famous for its flower fields (like the ones you see Amitabh & Rekha running around in Silsila:). We were slightly late for the peak blooming season but it was still stunningly beautiful. Rows and rows of flowers in different colours spread over a 50 acre area. If you dont want to walk then you can take a spin in farm tractor ! After enjoying the flowers, we decided to go see the Cabrillo National Monument but by the time we reached there the 'visiting hours' were over and we had to turn back. We were driving by the sea, so we stopped for a while and watched the sun go down. Then we met my brother, had dinner and called it a day.

The next day, we decided to check out San Diego Downtown & Old town. We parked our car near Santa Fe, took the train and headed towards downtown. We started with some breakfast at a quaint french cafe. Walked around a little but most places were still slowly opening up. So we took another train and reached the Old Town. As soon as you enter the Old Town, you feel like you have been transported in time to an Old mexican city. There are a beautiful shops selling cigars, curios, china, personal care items etc. There are also some very interesting restaurants here. You could get a guided tour from guides dressed up like old-time mexicans. We should have actually visited this place in the evening when there is more crowd and street performances too. But I think it was fun in the day time too.

From here we headed back to the downtown by train, picked up our car and went beach hoping. The weather was still a little chilly thus entering the water was not much of an option. First we went to the Pacific beach- a beautiful stretch of sand. We relaxed there for a while, watching a few surfers riding the waves. Next we headed towards the famous La Jolla Cove. At La Jolla, they have nice little parks with benches to sit and enjoy the sun, sand & sea in front of you. We sat there for a couple of hours, generally chatting, watching the surfers and enjoying a beautiful sunset.
We ended the day & the trip with a few beers and playing some pool at a pub in San Diego downtown. The next day morning we headed back to New York city.

New York- The Big Apple!

Div left for US in Aug'06 and with some effort & pushing I too managed a job transfer and reached US in Nov'06. I straight landed in Ann Arbor, Michigan where Div stays. After spending two weeks with him - getting used to US and the killing sub zero temperatures, I came to New York- one of the biggest & best cities in the world.
I had temprory corporate housing provided to me on the upper east side of Manhattan. My first opinion about the city was that it is cold & intimidating. But soon I realized, like Mumbai this city slowly grows on you. Slowly and steadily you fall in love with the city and very soon you will find yourself defending it from any accusations. It took me a month or so to settle down with the new place & also staying alone (Div went back to Michigan). Then came Dec- the month of christmas, fun, vaccations, family visits, shopping spree and festivities. The city somehow magically changes-there are lights everywhere, people are generally in holiday mood & thus a lot happier, every store has a Christmas super sale going on and all this at some level gets to you too.
Div had a couple of weeks vaccation for Christmas, so he came down to New York. And I also invited my brother who stays in San Diego to spend the Christmas with us.
We used these two weeks to do all the conventional New York tourist sites. I am listing them down one by one-

Empire State Building - This is actually a must do but if you are going here in the winter months, then I advice you to go during the day time when it is less cold. This is actually a 102 storey commercial building with offices and is situated at 5th ave & 34th street. Its the tallest building in New York after the unfortunate fall of the WTC. It has an observation deck at its 86th floor, which provides panoramic view of the bustling New York City. If you are new to the city or a tourist then I strongly recommend getting yourself an Audio tour, which is basically a pre-recorded tour telling you the name and some history of the buildings & other landmarks that you can see from the top. We did this on a cold Dec night - even though the view was pretty, all I could think of was to run inside for some warmth.
Ground Zero : This is essentially the site where the twin towers of World Trade Centre once stood before they were destroyed by terrorists on Sept 11th, 2001. There isnt much to see here since the entire area is cordoned off and heavy re-contruction taking place at full swing. But you suddenly realize the enormity of the destruction that took place here and you feel part of an infamous historical event. There are also maps and other information about the new building that is coming up there which would be called the Freedom Towers.

Times Square : Its said that if you stand at a crossing at Times Square for an hour, you would be able to hear almost every language in the world ! Times Square has an iconic status in New York, especially with the New Year festivities. Every New Year eve thousands of people gather here for the countdown to the new year and watch the Crystal ball drop from 1, Times Square. We went a couple of days before New Year and the place was equally festive. The neon lights and the ads are enchanting.

Grand Central Terminal : What I like most about these landmarks in US, is that most of them are functional buildings and not just monuments. Grand Central is one such case in point, a bustling train station where approximately 500,000 passengers/ tourists come everyday. Its architecturally beautiful building with the most notable features being the 4 faced opal clock & the celestial ceiling.

Statue of Liberty : The most known and visible landmark of New York- the Statue of Liberty. To reach here you need to take a ferry from Battery park to Liberty Island. Though the monument per se was not very exciting except for its colossal size. The history behind it was quite intriguing & entertaining. What most people dont know is that this monument is actually a gift from the French people to the people of United States as gesture of friendship. And at one point, due to lack of funds money was raised from the French public to complete this project.

Wall Street : As the name suggests, this is a street in the downtown Manhattan. Its claim to fame is the first New York Stock Exchange. Following which a lot of other financial institutions had their office arround this place. Today, many major finacial institutions have moved out their offices from here but Wall Street continues to be a sort of pilgrimage for the 'corporate american'. And thus Div definitely wanted us to pay our respects there :) Apart from the historical importance of this place in the development of the American free market economy, there is not much to see. A picture with the Bull is a must, this represents the sentiment of Wall Street. And during Christmas time the decorations were beautiful like in the rest of the city.

Rockefeller Centre : This is also a set of commercial building named after its builder John D. Rockefeller. I dont know if this is a tourist attraction in other seasons but during the month of December the Rockefeller Christmas Tree is must see. This tree is usually 75 to 90 feet tall and beautifully adorned with thousands of light. I have never seen such a beautiful Christmas tree ever before. The place was a little too crowded for my liking but its still fun. There is also a skating ring but we were a little too late to get in.

Metropolitan Museum of Art : Also referred to as the 'The Met', is one of the worlds largest and best museums. We had heard about it before and Div being the history buff, this was a must see for us. The first thing that strikes you is the festivity around this place, there are people relaxing on the steps, street artists performing, small time artists selling their works etc. But the moment we stepped inside the grand hall took my breath away. We were smart to get a couple of the audio tours between the 3 of us. The museum is actually huge so any plans of seeing it at one visit is far-fetched. We managed to see the Egyptian, African & American arts sections. Though we saw a lot of beautiful art pieces & some fascinating historical facts, the one exhibit that I will remember for ever is the 'Temple of Dendur'. The temple per se is pretty but not extra-ordinary, what fascinated me was the way it had been preserved. This temple was a gift from the Egyptian goverment to the Met and they had now exhibited it in its orginal format- a reflecting pool in front of it and a sloping wall behind it, which represents the Nile & the slopes in its orginial location. It also made me sad to think how we waste away so many historical marvels in India. Many of our smaller lesser known temples are actually prettier than this egyptian temple I saw. But unfortunately we are from a developing country and we still struggle to feed our ever-growing population, thus spending behind monuments is the not one of our priorities.

Broadway show - Broadway is the most advanced professional theatre in US, where plays are performed as musicals. Div & I had been pretty regular at watching plays at the famed Prithvi theatre in Bombay. So when we came to US, we had decided that we have to see atleast one musical at Broadway. In Aug'07 we went for a musical called 'The Rent', which is a tony award & pulitzer prize winner. The performance was actually quite energetic, singing was fabulous and the entire experience pretty good. But thier was one problem- we could not quite follow the accented english singing! So we kept missing out on words/ sentences and thus not quite following the story. As a result when the 10 min break happened after Act 1, we thought that the play is over and left!! Its only after coming home, that I read the entire story on internet that I realized our mistake.

Bronx Zoo - I had been to the Delhi Zoo when I was 3 yrs old and thus have no memories of the same. Thus, when I heard great reviews about the Bronx Zoo, I coaxed Div to take me there. It was a hot Sunday afternoon when we reached there but the zoo was awesome. Apart from the huge variety of animals from butterflies to lions, giraffes, rats, deers, okapi, leopard, elephants etc etc...what was most impressive was the natural-like habitat in which these animals were kept. Of all the animals we saw, the Gorilla was the most photogenic :)

Central park - This is a large urban park (843 acres) in the centre of Manhattan. It is a beautifully landscaped park with natural looking ponds & lakes, walking tracks, ice-skating rink, a small zoo, outdoor amphitheatre, garden & loads of wooded area. This park is I guess the only open green area in the whole of Manhattan and thus on weekends its usually full of families -who can let thier children run around, runners- who can now run without worrying about traffic, sunbathers- who dont have a terrace & cannot go to a beach right now, street performers and everyone else who needs some space. It is actually a very popular picnic spot too- so get yourself a picnic basket, a book or music to enjoy and something to sit on and you are all set. We walked around the park for a while then settled at a spot and proceeded to enjoy a afternoon nap.

We actually wanted to watch 'Shakspeare in the Park'- a very popular play, that is performed using the park as its stage. The performance starts at 8.00 pm and the ticket sales open at 1.00 pm. So, we were there at sharp 1.00 pm, to find a long queue already there. So, we proceeded to take our position at the end of the line. But we soon discovered that the tickets were long sold-out and this line was for people on 'standby'-that is IF someone cancels, then you would get a ticket !! And to know whether you are getting a ticket or not, you need to stand in line from 1.00 pm tp 8.00 pm !! Most people in the line were aware of this and had come prepared with thier picnic baskets and settled down in the line. But Div & I decided we need to come back better prepared some other time.

The Indian Street- I found this street when we went to this Indian restaurant recommended by a friend. We were at Lexington Avenue & 27th street and suddenly I felt I could be standing in a street in Bombay or Delhi. All the restaurants around you are Indian , Pakistani or Bangladeshi. There are stores which sell Indian groceries, there are music stores which have all the latest bollywood stuff, clothing stores with latest designs in sarees etc etc. Over the course of last one year, we have tried very many restaurants here like Chinese Mirch for Indian Chinese, Naimat Kada for good & cheap non-veg, Chennai garden for south indian etc.

There are also Little Italy & China town in new york like in most other major cities in the world. I actually love Little Italy, it has some wonderful street side restaurants where you can not only enjoy good wine & food but also do some quality people-watching :)

Goa- the paradise

We had been happily settled in Bombay for two years, living the regular office & home routine. Sometime towards the end of 2005, Div decided that he wanted to pursue higher studies. After serious thought of the future implications of this decision I decided to flow with it. In Dec'05, Div gave his GMAT and got an outstanding score of 780. Next couple of months were spent writting & rewritting applications for each of the schools that Div was applying to. By March we learnt that Div got through to Univ. of Michigan. Now that the main hurdle was resolved, we suddenly realised that we had many more questions to answer- will Div get a VISA? How will we finance his studies? How do I relocate to US? What happens to my career? What if he goes and I dont get a VISA? Eitherways, we decided that we need to celebrate Div's getting through one of the best universities & also our first marriage anniversary was just round the corner!
So mid- March, we packed our bags and headed to Goa for 5 days!

We took a flight from Bombay to Goa to save time and with the advent of so many airlines thankfully the air-tickets were cheap too. From the airport we took a cab to my office guest house, which I had booked in advance. Our guest house was pretty centrally located in Betim on the banks of enchanting Mandovi river. We were greeted by a grumpy caretaker, who did not look very happy at our arrival. Our room was pretty basic with no great view to boast of too. But we had to keep to reminding ourselves that for just Rs. 20 per day we should not expect any better facilities. After settling our luggage we ventured out to explore Goa.

To start with we took a ferry across the Mandovi river to Panjim. We walked around Panjim a little, we settled down for some sea food lunch at a riverside restaurant. Then we hired a bike and headed towards Miramar beach. Miramar beach was quite pretty but extremely crowded. So we sat there watched the sun go down and headed back to the guest house.

On our way back, we were stopped by the police. Apparently, there was a new rule that all the rented bikes should have a registered yellow number plate (like commercial vehicles) & thus pay commercial taxes. But the bike-renters were obviously not doing this to save tax money. So as soon as the police stopped and asked who the bike belonged to, Div told them truthfully that the bike was rented. The police man told us to return the bike immediately and tell him where we rented from. We did as we were asked and escaped!
Next, we went to another dealer who promised us a bike with yellow number plate next day morning and gave us another bike with a white one for the night.

We rested for a while at the guest house and then headed out to check the famed Goa night life. We reached the famous Tito's nightclub at Baga beach. I must say Goa is not just about beaches, its got a vibrant night life. We danced for quite some time and bumped into some other friends who were hanging out there. Later we had dinner at a nearby shack and went for a moonlight stroll on the Baga beach... completely romantic !!
On our way back to the guest house, we had another encounter with the police. We were stopped again and questioned about the vehicle. Div actually argued with the police on why they were harassing us tourists and not directly catching the vendors who were giving out these illegal bikes. And surprisingly the policemen saw sense in what he said and let us go. We reached guest house safely and decided that we need to get a yellow number plate first thing tommorrow morning.

So next morning, we first drove to Panjim and got ourselves a bike with a yellow number plate. And then we set out to see the Anjuna Beach. We stopped enroute and had breakfast at beach-side restaurant. Check out the view from where we were sitting, this is what I call paradise :)


We then reached Anjuna Beach and I must admit this is the most beautiful stretch of sand I had seen (till then). We spent most of our day there frollicking in water, relaxing, enjoying beer and sea food. The beach was not very crowded and had a few of foriegn tourists enjoying the sun, sand & sea. But I now reaize that the Indian beaches are not meant for sunbathing. While the poor firang babes were busy getting themselves a tan in thier bikinis, we had these groups of indian boys & men walk by shamelessly staring at them. Now I must confess that even I looked at these foriegners admiring them for thier fab bodies, beautiful bikinis & the subtle art of keeping everything in place but I would like to believe I did this with some discretion. But these men who stared at them, did it almost as if it was thier birth right !!!

Anyways, after some lunch at a nearby shack we lounged some more.

Then Div got himself a massage from a local masseur on the beach, while I looked on. By evening, we decided to head back to our guest house but we did make a quick stop at the Vagator beach where we enjoyed the sunset.



The next day we started early and decided to bike all the way to North Goa to find a more secluded peaceful beaches.
We started our day with a quick tour of the Aguada fort, which frankly did not impress me much, the Diu Fort is much more majestic than this. And soon we were on our way heading north. We stopped mid-way for some lunch and finally halted when we reached Arambol beach. Now this is actually one of the northernmost beaches and thus hardly visited by regular tourist. There are a few shacks lined on the beach as usual. We found ourselves this little hotel right on the beach, which rented out small shacks/ huts like hotel rooms.

We quickly got ourselves a cute little shack, dumped our luggage, ate some food and headed for the beach. There were hardly ten-fifteen people on the beach and that too mostly foriegners. Infact a large part of the population looked like the hippy, doped-out, bindaas variety. Anyways, we chilled out on the beach either in the water or outside with some beer or champagne.

I have now realised that watching sunsets on the beach is one of my favourite things to do. I am sure sunrise is also equally beautiful but getting up in the morning to watch it is not exaclty my thing. In the afternoon, when it became too hot we went back to our shack for a nap. In the evening we stepped out for a stroll on beach and Div & I sat and planned our future in financial terms on the sand :)

We had dinner at one of the beach side restaurants, which served awesome fresh sea-food. Infact, they first show you what they are going to cook! And you sit right on the beach watching the water shine in moonlight and have delicious sea food.
Night at the shack was fun with a lot of the tourists getting together for some singing & dancing. We spent the next half day at the Arambol beach too before heading back to our guest house at Betim.

After resting the night at Betim, we headed for Panjim in the morning and returned the bike. Then we took a taxi and headed for the airport. Soon we were back in Mumbai, getting ready for a completely new journey in life- USA!