Toronto Diaries – Boxing week shopping

Ever since I landed in Toronto I have been asking people about things to buy from here. Also where to buy from. People told me to wait for the Boxing Day. I did. But finding Toronto quite expensive as compared to India, I had my doubts about Boxing Day sales. Also as the Boxing Day came nearer I didn’t see many flyers or excitement in people around.

My route to and from office everyday includes going through Eaton Centre – the largest mall in downtown Toronto. As the Boxing Day neared discount boards started coming up on stores. I and my roommate Yogesh waited on for Boxing Day expecting increased discounts. While browsing through the banners every day we figured there’s something called a boxing week sales where-in the sales start and end before Christmas. And then there’s sale on Boxing Day again. Also we found that in case of electronic items there is an online sale starting the night of Dec-24. The weekend before Christmas we decided to do some shopping as some of the deals looked good to us.

On 24^th when we talked to our office mates they said that during Boxing Day there are huge lines and that people start queuing up from as early as 2-3 AM. None of the folks we spoke to were actually interested in Boxing Day sales and kind of scared us. We were undecided as to what we should do.

It was 25^th – Christmas. We found the roads almost empty. Surprisingly almost all the shops were closed. We were told this is what is going to happen on Christmas; but knowing Christmas is the biggest festival here we expected something. It was a dampener. We had coffee at one of the few opened outlets and came home little disappointed. I started checking online deals. I wanted to buy Xbox 360 and found the Boxing Day in-store deal online. I showed it to Yogesh as well. We browsed the site(s) and found that delivery was within a day or 2. So we decided to order online. As I finished ordering online he changed his mind. He said he would buy it the next day in store.

On Boxing Day Yogesh woke me up at 6 AM. We went to BestBuy and he bought Xbox 360 there. Then we came back home to drop it; and wen t back shopping. There was hardly any crowd and we walked down the road. We were surprised and wondering if this is what queuing up is all about. We went to Eaton Centre and started visiting the stores looking for things we could buy. As noon approached the crowd started increasing. We checked out many stores and Yogesh did most of his shopping; while I didn’t do much. We decided to pack lunch and go home. We would have our lunch at home, drop the packets and come back for more.

When we came back the place was fully crowded. It won’t be wrong to say that this was the biggest crowd I had seen in my entire stay in Toronto; in fact I hadn’t seen half a crowd before in Toronto. Almost all big shops had queues outside. Some of the stores had pretty long queues. We didn’t enter any of those shops, but we saw what Boxing Day sales meant to people here. We did some more shopping – this I did most of the shopping. There was a huge queue for billing as well. It was nice to see people standing in queues patiently waiting for their turn. Almost everyone had some packets containing stuff they had already bought. We were exhausted by then; legs were paining as if refusing to stand or walk. We decided it was enough for today and returned home around 6 PM after having another coffee.

More than 10 hours of shopping totally exhausted us. At Eaton Centre people were sitting on floors, benches, stairs, anywhere they could find a place; everyone having several bags with them. We had our share of bags as well. Overall it was a wonderful experience being part of the Boxing Day shopping. The body is yearning for sleep as tomorrow it is back to office…

Toronto diaries – Trip to the Niagara Falls

The first outing in Toronto outside of Toronto was to Niagara Falls. I guess the name says it all J. It indeed is a wonderful place – amazing sight. More on it later. First the journey.

I, Yogesh, Shashin and Ankur rented a car for the trip. Only Ankur and I had our driving licenses; so Ankur was the designated driver and I was to be a backup if required. We are not used to the left-hand drive and expected some trouble; and trouble it was in the initial part of the journey. It took Ankur some time to get used to the brakes and the seat belts came into good use (yeah me and Yogesh were wearing seat-belts sitting on the back seat). Also he was having trouble deciding which lane to drive in as here it is completely opposite to India. Add to it his confusion in ‘left’ and ‘right’. And to make matters worse he was dealing with 3 side seat drivers. We had one hell of a ride. Although I must say once he got hang of the car and we stopped giving directions he drove pretty well.

Niagara Falls is some 120 kms from Toronto and we reached there in less than 3 hours. The moment we got out of the car we could feel the chill. It was cold and windy. The temperature was touching 0 and it felt like about -3. We parked the car and walked towards the falls. As we reached near the falls came into view. They seemed small compared to what I had heard (and imagined) but never the less they were beautiful. As we reached near the railing I found that they were not the actual falls; the actual falls were a little further. As it came into view all I could do was stare at it (and exclaim WOW). I am sure trying to describe it will be a waste of time. I will let the photos do the talking.

It was freezing out there. We had a coffee spend some more time there and then started back. On our way back we went to a couple of vineyards. One was an unknown entity – a new setup which wasn’t yet in market. The wines were pretty good. Tasted ice-wine for the first time and it was pretty good. The second winery that we visited was a well-known brand – the setup was too commercialized for my liking. On our way back we stopped near Lake Ontario. It was so cold out there that within a couple of minutes I couldn’t feel my ears. Got back in the car and went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. I can’t believe we waited for around 50 mins for vegetarian food (yeah it’s true).

Overall it was a wonderful day and a wonderful visit. Thanks to Ankur for driving all the way despite our comments, and thanks to Yogesh and Shashin for making the trip wonderful. And finally to Niagara Falls for being so breathtaking.

Toronto diaries – the first week

It’s been a week in Toronto and it feels like I have been here quite long. It’s been a strange city so far. Sometimes I feel like going back home and sometimes I feel as if it is a nice place to settle in – yeah settling here has crossed my mind. Haven’t been able to explore much as office has kept me busy. But got some flavor of the place from my colleagues who have been here for some time.

I am staying in a corporate apartment provided by my company. It’s a 2-bedroom apartment which I am sharing with a colleague who has come with me. The apartment is nice and has almost everything. There is a microwave, an oven, burner, washing machine & drier, fridge, dishwasher, utensils, TV, toaster, juicer etc. in short almost all the essentials that you need are provided which makes the stay easier. Thermostat keeps the apartment warm and cozy.

My roommate has brought lots of ready to eats so food isn't a worry as well. Although its nothing compared to home cooked food, it is quite comfortable not having to cook or eating all meals outside. Lunch we are having outside but breakfast and dinner we make in room. A couple of dinner invitations from people already staying here haven’t been bad either. Automatic Washing machine reduces the effort of washing clothes. Dishwasher takes care of the dishes. I guess it has been a comfortable stay thus far.

About Toronto, well it seems a nice place. Our apartment is in downtown, so there are lots of people around. The office is 20 mins walk. The weather is amazing – amazingly cold I should say. The temperature has stated touching 0 and expected to go to -2 next week. Moreover for the past 2 days wind has been blowing continuously making it feel even colder. But I am kind of enjoying it. And I got a glimpse of snow fall although it can hardly be called a snowfall. Can’t wait for the actual snowfall J. Toronto has a nice subway which prevents you from walking outside in the cold; you only have to go few blocks in between in the open. Traffic rules are pretty good. People around seem well as well.

The food here is pretty bland. I won’t be wrong if I say I hardly enjoyed any food so far. There are almost no spices and taste is nowhere compared to India. Even the vegetables seem to lack their own taste. Maybe soon I will have to start cooking, but that might not make much difference :P. Also the place seems to be on the costlier side; at least by Indian standards. Another thing I have seen so far is they don’t seem to have a concept of small. All food items seem to come in large packets/sizes. Plus most of the eatables are towards sweet here I have hardly found anything spicy so far.

I believe that’s it for now. More posts to follow soon.

Bangalore diaries – taking a break

It’s time for a break. I will be heading home tomorrow morning on a week’s vacation. And I can’t wait being at home, enjoy food cooked by Mom. I have already told her what I would like to eat. I can already see the table set.

I have been in here for quite some time now. The initial few days were very difficult. I was feeling home-sick all the time. The work wasn’t too good then; the team members were not familiar; and the area was totally alien. But slowly things started getting better. And now if I look back at the time spent here, I would say it was a time well spent. In fact I have enjoyed the trip.

I have visited some places around which were pretty good. Made new friends here. Got familiarized with the teammates and it is actually fun to be in office with them. Work has also increased but it is good; a lot of learning and I am enjoying it. And in between all this won 4 titles in the Bangalore Sports meet – TT and Badminton, men’s doubles and mixed doubles in both. That felt really good.

But the best part about Bangalore was my friend. When you have good friends around, anything can turn enjoyable. I never thought it could be so much fun. So thanks to my dear friend, I actually enjoyed the Bangalore stay.

I will be back in Bangalore in first week of January. Till then it is time for home sweet home.

Bangalore diaries – Shivanasamudra + PlanetX

One of my friends here in Bangalore suggested I visit Shivanasamudra. It is a place known for its waterfalls. Shivanasamudra is some 150 kms from Bangalore and around 30 kms from Mysore. So we planned to go to Shivanasamudra in the afternoon, visit Talkad and then go to PlanetX, Mysore. Talkad is again a lake. PlanetX is a place where you have stuff like bowling, karting, pool, gaming zone, mini golf course, restaurant, etc. So far the places that I had visited around Bangalore, it was just me and my friend. This time though we had a friend of her’s for company – Rajesh. Rajesh knew the places well and so it was a welcome addition.

We picked Rajesh and then Rajesh took the driving task – a welcome relief for me having driven on all the previous trips. We followed the Mysore road. We stopped at a place for breakfast. I had ‘Plate Idly’ there. The size of the idly was bigger than any I had seen or eaten before. It was almost as big as a chapati (roti). It was served with sambhar and chutni. I had a tea to top it up – a nice breakfast.

We proceeded towards our destination. The road was pretty good and we were having a nice smooth drive. Then we had a take a diversion from the Mysore road. The road wasn’t as good as before. And my friend decided to do the driving. Soon she got bored with driving and it was my turn. As soon as I started driving the road again became good. Perfect timing – I must say.

We reached one of the falls. We wanted to go in the falls but it wasn’t allowed there. We could only have a distant view of the falls. But it was beautiful. We spend some time there capturing and enjoying the amazing view.

Then we proceeded towards another falls called the Bharachukki falls. As we reached there we could see people going towards the falls with towels and clothes which suggested we could actually get in the water. It was way down and we had to make our way through a long chain of stairs. As we climbed down we were expecting the effort it would take to climb those stairs on our way back. We made it down in good time and headed towards the waters. We had to cross a small stream. The rocks were very slippery and I almost fell down once. But we managed to cross it and reach the falls. There were lots of people there who were enjoying themselves in the water. Some had brought bathing clothes with them while some had entered the waters with clothes on. It was a sight in itself to see so many people enjoying the water together.

She was all set to enter the water while Rajesh didn’t want to enter water. I was undecided as always. She went to the falls and came back. She was enjoying it. She asked me join her. I finally agreed. I went into the water. Stood under the falls. The water came crashing on me. It wasn’t hard; instead it was pleasant and refreshing. Entering water with your shirt and jeans on isn’t something you do everyday. As I came out of water for a break the wet jeans made it difficult to walk. But I was feeling good. So was she. Rajesh meanwhile had found a stone to sit on. He was sitting there probably watching the view and keeping an eye on us. We asked Rajesh to join us but he didn’t. So the two of us went back. This time we went further into water. We didn’t like the crowd there and so came back to our original place. We enjoyed a few more rounds of shower in the falls and came back.

The way back included climbing the stairs. It was a long and hard task. We took breaks before finally reaching the top; breathing heavily. We had cucumber with chilly paste – a bad combination we soon found out. I changed my clothes and we headed towards Planet X. The road wasn’t good, just okay. We stopped near Talkad to visit some temples (I have forgotten the names). Rajesh told us the story behind the place – Due to a curse the entire place was covered in sand. The site that we were seeing was actually dug out of the sand. Every year the place gets covered with sand; and the structures are dug out.

The sand there certainly looked out of place. And one isn’t supposed to doubt the stories. There were three main temples. We had to walk on sand to see them. We would have been on a round trip of more than a km to visit the three temples and come back to the car. We then headed towards Mysore skipping Talkad.

We reached Mysore in another couple of hours and headed for PlanetX. The place looked good. We had around 4 hours to spend there before the place got closed. We started with eating as everyone was hungry. We ordered sandwiches coupled with beer/breezer. I had cranberry breezer which I liked. Then we headed towards bowling. There was an hour’s wait for bowling. So we went for pool to pass time. Since we were three, it was Rajesh versus the two of us. Rajesh was playing well and won easily the first game. He would have won the next 2 games as well but he didn’t say the pocket once and pocketed the cue ball the second time. Soon he was back to winning ways. We enjoyed pool for an hour and then went to bowling. Bowling was fun. Here I was playing really well for a change and won easily. Once the game got over, she wanted to have another round of bowling. We had another round of bowling, this time I was bowling left-handed as my wrist was paining. This time though I lost badly.

After bowling we decided to go for Hookah. I hadn’t tried it before so was looking forward to it. It was disappointing. It was just flavored hookah and I didn’t quite like it. But the other two seemed to like it. We had some snacks for company and headed back for Bangalore.

As we reached the car we remembered that we were almost out of petrol. It was quite late and most of the petrol pumps were already closed. The tank had come on reserve. It was definitely not good. We stopped and asked for directions. We continually kept looking for an open petrol pump. We passed 5-6 petrol pumps but all were closed. It was getting scary now. The idea of spending the night in car wasn’t pleasing at all. Luckily we found a petrol pump soon. We got the tank full. It was my turn to drive now. I think we reached Bangalore in two hours flat. We dropped Rajesh first. Then as we headed further we managed to lose our way after reaching quite close. A few u-turns later I dropped my friend and came to my hotel.

A fun-filled but tiring day had come to an end. Monday morning office was looking at us with anticipation while all we could think of was a good sleep.

Bangalore diaries - a trip to Mysore

Come to Bangalore and not going to Mysore doesn’t make sense. Does it? I was debating with my friend on this. My friend didn’t want to go to Mysore while I really wanted to go. I was pretty interested in visiting Vrindavan Gardens having heard a lot about it. After a long discussion we started for Mysore. We had to take the Mysore road and keep following it.

The plan was to visit Mysore Palace and then Vrindavan Garden. We thought we could spend quite some time in Mysore Palace and then in the evening go and visit Vrindavan Gardens to see the musical fountains. On the way we had an argument and the duration of our trip lengthened. We spent almost half the way without speaking to each other.

We reached Mysore Palace and were pretty hungry. We tried Bhel Puri, Pani Puri but they weren’t any good. We proceeded towards the Palace. My friend had been here some 15 years ago but found the place changed quite a bit. That was kind of expected I guess.

We entered the palace. No cameras were allowed. My friend acted as the guide. We went across the palace going over paintings, artifacts and antiques (if I can call them so). Some of the things were pretty good and some pretty ordinary. Overall it wasn’t as good as I had expected it to be. But then it was still good.

Then we proceeded towards Vrindavan Garden. Vrindavan Garden was a nice place. Well maintained to start with. It covers a huge area. One can take a walk or sit anywhere and relax. Of course if you looking for some activities, you will have to create them on their own. There’s a lake where you could go for a boat ride. We didn’t go for it. Instead we took the long walk towards the musical fountain. The place was filling up fast. We found a place on top row of the stairs – the perfect place to be. Soon the musical fountains started. It started off well. There was some creativity initially but soon it became monotonous. It was fun though; especially for the nice company.

We started our journey back to Bangalore. Although the palace and the Vrindavan Garden were not as good as I had expected them to be, the experience was still good. Actually just being there felt so good. I am not sure how it would feel the second time; but I sure won’t mind going there again.

Bangalore diaries - Hogenakkal trip

This Sunday I went to Hogenakkal with my friend. We had been planning an outstation day trip for some time and all of sudden zeroed in on Hogenakkal. We did some research on the probable places of visit but what made us select this destination were the following lines –

“Hogenakkal Waterfalls, known as the 'Niagara' falls of India, are not a single waterfall but a series of falls and they offer a promising holiday destination for nature lovers from within and outside the country.” (courtesy http://www.mustseeindia.com/Hogenakkal)

We found three routes to reach Hogenakkal. The shortest one was about 120 kms but included a hilly patch. The longest was around 180 kms but the road was awesome as per the site – a 4 lane highway. We decided to take the longest route which was Bangalore => Hosur => Krishnagiri => Dharmapuri => Pennagaram => Hogenakkal.

We started around 4 AM to avoid the city traffic as well as the crowd at Hogenakkal. My friend was driving while I was giving directions. After about half an hour and a wrong turn later my friend got irritated by my directions and handed over the driving seat to me. I had never driven this long before so it was going to be a new experience for me. As we drove the sun began to rise. The view was excellent. Cool breeze was blowing and the weather was fantastic. A slight drizzle on and off added to the beauty. The drive was simply amazing. We were chit-chatting all the way, enjoying the surroundings. We had halt at McDonalds for pre-breakfast and continued on. The road was 4-lane and brilliant and we had done well to choose this route. After Dharmapuri we had to take a diversion. Although it was a 2 lane road with no divider, the condition of the road was pretty good. And we reached Hogenakkal around 8.

The crowd wasn’t much at that time. We proceeded towards the main falls and had a nice walk watching the falls. The falls were pretty good. We even crossed a small stream on our way. We had a quick coracle (circular basket boat) ride. My friend wanted to have a bath in the falls while I was trying to avoid it. While we were still deciding on what to do, my friend decided to go for a head and body massage. I was left alone waiting. I decided to go for a head massage. The worst decision I took on the trip. I specifically told the guy that I wouldn’t be taking a bath, so that he can massage accordingly. And what he did was pour the entire packet of oil on my head in three turns. The massage was ok, nothing special. When he ended I had a feeling he had put too much oil. And soon the oil started dripping from my head. I had no option but to take a bath; ruing all the time my decision to go for the head massage. Anyways I took bath in the falls. No matter how much I hated it the bath was actually refreshing. After that we had a cup of tea and headed back.

On our way back we took the same route enjoying the same view in broad daylight now. We were having a nice conversation. We stopped for lunch and continued our journey back. I couldn’t believe I had driven so long, roughly 370 kms. I should have been a little more careful at a few places; but overall I believe I drove well. (Rest I will leave my friend to comment J).

All in all it was an amazing day. A beautiful place, a wonderful company and an amazing drive.

Bangalore diaries - Passing time

Its been sometime now in Bangalore and I think I am getting used to the life here. The one thing that prevents me from going all out in settling here is the fact that I know it is temporary. I will be going back to my home soon. And so it doesn't drive me to go out explore the locale for day to day needs, to know the neighbourhood, to make friends around. In short it doesn't drive me to know Bangalore as a place to stay but just a place for temporary station.

Lets see what all I can do here. Apart from office work I think I can do absolutely anything. I mean I can literally do anything I want to. There are no restrictions to follow, no routines to carry, no one to answer to. I have always thought about the things I would do if I ever get into such a scenario. And not that I am actually in that scenario I have no clue what to do. I mean there are things I would like to do but I something is stopping me from doing them. Some I fear I will not be able to do, some I am sure I won't be able to do, some I don't think is the right thing to do and some I somehow don't feel like doing. So I guess it leaves just one thing to do - do nothing. And if I somehow manage to do nothing then what will I do. Sounds confusing? Doesn't it? Well that's exactly where I am stuck. I want to do absolutely nothing but need something to pass time. Thinking about it would lead me to something called a cyclic dependency which is heading towards a deadlock.

Does it mean a routine life a better than this life? Does that mean having restrictions is better than having no restrictions? Does that mean it is good to have someone answerable? I am not sure if I could answer them in boolean i.e. plain yes and no. It is probably human tendency to want things they don't have and when they get those they don't want it. And I am no different. There are actually a few things I definitely want to do. And I have everything to do them. But somehow I don't feel like doing it. Nothings preventing me from doing it, yet something is preventing me from doing to it.

I don't think I will be able to figure out what is preventing me. The options left to me are either I drop the idea, or I do it no matter what, or I take some more time to think about it. The third option seems to be the easiest thing to do which is what I am going to choose most likely, at least for now. Wait and watch. Keep thinking about what to do and pass the time. I am sure the mind will be fed up with all this and decide the course of action. I just hope I have more patience that my mind...

Bangalore diaries - the first weekend

My first weekend in Bangalore turned out to be quite good. After the not so good first 4 days here I was looking at the weekend with a lot of hope. Things didn’t start too well as my friends here had other plans and I was to spend the day with me with nothing to do. I didn’t want to spend the entire day in hotel so I decided to explore the nearby areas. I asked the hotel staff for some nearby place that I could visit and he told me to go to Forum mall. He gave me the directions to reach the mall. I had to change a bus at Kundalahalli Gate (might still have got the spelling wrong) to reach the mall. I had already been to the mall for lunch twice and wasn’t too excited but still decided to go there as it also had a movie hall. I wanted to watch Rockstar but that was planned with a friend for Sunday. So I bought the tickets for the next available movie which turned out to be Immortals. It was a decent movie. After the movie spent some time in the mall and came back to the hotel following the same route. I didn’t want to have dinner at the hotel but there wasn’t another option. I switched on the TV, logged in to the internet browsing some sites. Then my friend called asking about my dinner plans. Since I hadn’t had my dinner my friend came to pick me up and we went to my friend’s house. It was the first time I had a cup of home made tea – it was wonderful. Then had Palak Dal for dinner and luckily it was my favourite dal. We spoke about certain things and it was time well spent. I also came to know that my friend had already watched Rockstar with someone else ditching me. We decided to meet the next day for breakfast and go some place.

Sunday morning started as expected. I called my friend who was still asleep and said wouldn’t be joining for breakfast, but would meet around noon. We met around 12:30 and proceeded towards my friend’s friend’s house. It was around 30-40 mins drive and I was asked to drive. The car being new it took a little time to get used to the car. But I must say driving in Bangalore is not fun at all. As soon as the car picks up speed a speed-breaker greets you. We reached the friend’s place and had a wonderful lunch. Then when my friend enquired about the places to visit in Bangalore we got the response as “There are no places to visit in Bangalore. But there are lots of places around Bangalore.” That came as a shock as I expected Bangalore to have some decent places to visit. We finally decided to go to Lal Bagh. It was a nice place to spend time with friends although it had nothing spectacular about it. The drive to Lal Bagh was awesome though thanks to GPS and blocked roads.

While returning from Lal Bagh my friend wanted to have momos and samosa – a deadly combo. No one knew a place where they could get samosas but they knew a place where we could get momos. We reached the place only to find that momos were out of stock. Awesome. We had a cup of tea and some pakoras instead. We then headed to my firend’s friend’s home. On the way they found a place where they got samosas which pleased my friend. We had a game of Monopoly. The international monopoly was quite different from the game I had played in my childhood. I ended up having the most number of cards, the least amount of money and the highest rent payer. We had soupy noodles for dinner and bid goodbye to my new friends. I and my friend drove back and thankfully I wasn’t driving this time. We had a decent discussion on the way and to continue it further went to my friend’s house. We had ice tea and a long discussion.

Overall it turned out to be a decent weekend and the first time I actually liked Bangalore in my entire time here.

Bangalore diaries - the first 4 days

It’s been 4 days now in Bangalore. I am staying in a hotel in the outskirts of the city. The place really looks like a village. I haven’t been anywhere except for office and hotel and a mall for lunch. And on the way (via car) I didn’t find any place to visit. To summarize I haven’t got the slightest idea about the place and what I am going to do this weekend.

The office mates are pretty busy with work. I have a few folks from my previous project with whom I have spent some time in office which has been good for the otherwise boring days. The only saving grace has been a friend of mine who has been giving me company for lunch in 3 of the 4 days. Apparently that has been the best time spent here so far.

The weather hasn’t been too good either. Coming from Delhi at this time of the year, the Bangalore weather seems hot to me. Weather was supposed to be a plus point here but even that hasn’t been helpful. I haven’t felt charged up for one moment since leaving the airport.

This seems to be going on to being a pretty depressing blog. This shouldn’t have been this way but unfortunately this is this way and all I have stated so far is what I have felt. Maybe staying alone so far from home is taking its toll. Or maybe I am still struggling to get used to things here. Or maybe something else is wrong somewhere. After all being in a new place should make you enthusiastic at least in the initial days. In fact I was all charged up for this trip but somewhere something has gone missing.

I think I should stop writing now as it isn’t making things better. Hoping that the weekend will get things going in the right direction.

The Laddakh Trip

The long awaited Laddakh trip finally happened. It started on late night of the 24th of June and concluded on 5th of July. There were 4 people including me. It was a road trip and covered more than 3000 kms. Following were the participants in the trip -

The Car

The car was Zen. The car has the experience of being on similar terrains before and has done well.

The People

Name: Vijesh

Role: Pilot, Guide and Car Mechanic

He drove for the entire trip, even when everyone else was sleeping. I must say he has tremendous capacity of driving for long hours as well as on the kind of roads we traveled.

Name: Minakshi

Role: Organizer and Decision-maker

She was the one who organized the trip in the first place. And when it came to deciding the place to stay or bargaining she was the one who made the final call.

Name: Kannan

Role: Guest and Tyre changer

He had come all the way from Kerala just for this trip. There were several times when the tyre got puncture; he was the one who was changing the tyres.

Name: Pradyumna

Role: Guest and Aide

Got the opportunity and grabbed it. Was helping others whenever required.

During the trip our car got stuck in water and mud, there were numerous punctures - twice the stepney was also punctured, the car had to be serviced and a few parts replaced, the roads were as good as non-existent at some places, and many more similar things. We didn't know where we would be spending the next night and twice we slept in the car. Despite all that, the trip was wonderful; Laddakh and Srinagar are really really beautiful and if anyone gets a chance to visit these places then it shouldn't be missed.

The details of the trip are comming soon :)

Trip to Palampur – Day 2 & 3 - Triund & Palampur

Its been a long time since I wrote the last post. I got pretty busy and didn’t want to write on anything else till I finished this post :).

We woke up next morning everyone covered from head to toe in the blanket for the fear of the wasps. Ashish woke up the earliest followed by me and Manas. Vikas was the last to wake up. When he removed his blanket we found a wasp sleeping inside his blanket (they would have had good fun the whole night). We packed our bags, had our breakfast and got ready to go. We checked-out from the hotel and reached Macleodgunj. We decided to park the car there and start out trek. We would decide where and how to spend the night once we are back. We just took one bag which Vikas carried. We reached Dharamkot which was about 4 kms from Macleodgunj and the base for the trek to Triund.
The four of us started together. We had walked some distance before I wanted to rest for a while. We rested for sometime. Soon we started again. There was a normal path and then there were supposed short cuts (these were the steep climbs in the mountain ). I and Manas decided to take one such shortcut while Ashish and Vikas decided against it. It turned out to be a mistake on our part. We ended up going backwards rather than forward while Ashish and Vikas had moved ahead. We got separated – I and Manas the two relatively inexperienced people together while Vikas and Ashish the experienced people together. Having taken the so called shortcut I and Manas thought that we were way ahead of the others but soon we realized that we were in fact way behind. The network was also not clear and we couldn’t get in touch with the others. So we kept walking assuming the others would do the same and we would meet at the top.
After walking for sometime I realized that trekking is not my cup of tea but still I kept going. We managed to reach a place where there were a few shops. That seemed to be the last point till which one could drive as stationed there were a few cars and two wheelers. We moved ahead from there and soon met a few foreigners. There was a German among them with whom Manas began talking. He even clicked a photograph of me and Manas. Soon we moved ahead leaving them behind. And we got tired sooner so we decided to rest. The foreigners soon overtook us. We kept meeting each other quite a no of times in the route. We found a large rock and lied there for some time. We proceeded again and soon came across another set of shops. We had Litchi juice and biscuits there. Then Manas said we should cover the rest of the distance non-stop. I said ok. We resumed our trip ad were going at a good pace. But then I got tired and after that started moving with small breaks every few minutes. Manas started getting frustrated.
I said “I can walk this way only. You may go ahead if you wish to”.
Manas replied “If we had to trek alone why did we come in a group”
We had begun one of our usual fights until we both sat down. I was resting while Manas was eating a chocolate. Of course he did offer me but I didn’t want to eat anything till we reached the top. Manas though finished the chocolate. We were almost at the top – about 10-15 minutes were left. But we kept sitting there each wanting the other to start first. We spent some 20 mins there sitting and doing nothing. Finally Manas stood up started walking. (I had won the small battle but knew well that had Manas decided to go ahead alone it would have taken much longer for me to reach the top; and I never told this to Manas). So we reached the top finally.

It was a breathtaking view – the snow clad Himalayas seemed inches away, valley on all sides, everything looked small; everything around seemed as beautiful as anything I had seen only in movies. The climb was worth all the trouble. We had completed the around 9 km trek in about 4 hours (not bad for a novice I guess :)).
Vikas wanted to spend the night there but we hadn’t made any arrangement for that. There was a guest house but they said all bookings are done at Macleodgunj and he couldn’t do anything. But he asked us to wait till 5PM after which no one would be coming and so if any room was vacant we could get that. That was a risk which I and Ashish didn’t want to take as we wanted to get down before dark; while Vikas and Manas wanted the risk. But there was one thing for which we all agreed – food. We ordered daal chawal (Manas & Ashish), Bread Omlete and Maggi (I and Vikas) and tea. I really liked the tea especially the quantity – a full glass. Once done with the food we decided to go a little further to see some snow. We found some soon – my first experience with snow. Soon we started snow fight and it was fun. Vikas and Manas wanted to go further up while I and Ashish wanted to take some rest. So they went further up while we rested there. We had a great time recalling the good old days and old friends.
It was more than 2 hours since Manas and Vikas had gone and it would soon get dark. We decided to begin our trek down in 15 mins even the two of them didn’t return. As we decided to begin our climb down we saw the two of them coming down. They had no respect for time and took there time getting down clicking pictures all the way down. As soon as they reached us I said “We are going down” to which Manas replied “I thought you would have already left”. While Vikas said “Let me speak again to someone regarding staying there”. I and Ashish said firmly “We are going down; you do whatever you want”. And that was the start of our descent.
It was getting dark and so we were moving quickly. But we were late – by the time we reached halfway it was completely dark. There we found someone who was waiting for his group. He was alone and didn’t have a cell phone. We convinced him to come down with us and wait instead of waiting alone there in the dark. We were 5 now and it was totally dark. I had brought my torch along and that came in to help us. I and Ashish used it to climb down slowly while Manas’s phone had a torch; so he and the guy walked together. Vikas seemed like an owl and was walking alone leading the way with no light at all. That’s what is called being brought up in the mountains and he gets all my respect for that. We somehow managed to reach Dharamkot in the dark – Ashish got hurt twice on the way. It was another 4 kms to Macleodgunj and it meant further torture. We somehow managed to reach Macleodgunj.
But alas! The misery didn’t seem to end. There was no place available to stay and it was past 10 PM at night. We didn’t even get anything proper to eat (mainly because of me as I wanted good non-veg food but everything seemed over everywhere). We bought some chocolates and biscuit/namkeens from a store a couple of bottles of juice just in case we couldn’t anything else. We had to decide on our next steps. We could go back to Dharamshala but we didn’t want to. Another option was to go to Palampur but it was 30kms and only Manas knew how to drive. And he was hurt as well (in his and Vikas’s near death experience when they had gone high up at Triund). Manas being Manas decided to drive all the way to Palampur. We were going towards Palampur – driving in the hilly roads and complete darkness at a speed of 60+ kms/hr, all totally exhausted from the day’s trekking. And we were on a fun trip – well it looks fun now as I look back.
We reached Palampur at about 11:30 PM and we found the entire city sleeping. The hotels were all closed – some had even closed all there lights as if to indicate they don’t exist. The reason for this was that all hotels were completely occupied as the city was to host the IIT exam the next morning. We were loosing all hopes of finding a place to sleep. Everything suggested by Vikas’s friends were even coming to nothing. We almost ended up sleeping in our cars as we parked our car in the Bus Terminus. But we came to know about one more hotel which was our last hope and this time we weren’t disappointed. We got a room – finally. We ate whatever we had bought at the grocery store and that was our dinner. We played card for a couple of hours before we fell asleep.
We were finally in Palampur – the original destination of our trip. I was pretty happy at being there but it looked like just another city until we went visiting the city the next morning. We went to Neugal café – it was an exquisite place. I could spend the whole day there doing nothing. We spent some time there and decided to head back to Delhi. On the way we stopped at a tea garden and enjoyed the tea garden. I wanted to buy Kangra tea but didn’t manage to find a single shop selling it. We headed back to Delhi stopping on the way at Nitin’s house.

On our way back I told Manas to stop at a place where we could have great non-veg food. It was past 4 and we hadn’t had our lunch because we couldn’t find a decent restaurant. Manas stopped at a restaurant finally. Whatever I ordered wasn’t there and I got frustrated. Others also didn’t eat there as I couldn’t find anything of my liking. I shouted at Manas “What kind of place have you stopped. You know my tastes and still you can’t find a proper place”. Manas shouted back “Next time you tell me where to stop” We sat back in the car and he started driving back. Everything was quiet for quite some time – no one spoke anything. Then Manas stopped at a dhaba and said “Whosoever wants to eat eat here as we won’t be stopping after this” Everyone got down as everyone was hungry. We ate rice, roti with paneer, daal, rajma and curry. This is where everyone began speaking again and the atmosphere was back to normal. (For those who don’t know I and Manas have this regular habit of arguing but at the end of the day we are back to normal :P). We drove from there to Chandigarh stopping only for a cup of tea. We reached Chandigarh around 11 PM. We stopped there for a break and to eat our dinner.
There we went to Moti Mahal restaurant and we had wonderful food though a bit expensive. Manas had finally taken us to a wonderful restaurant something he couldn’t do in the afternoon :). We had a wonderful dinner and were the last ones to leave the restaurant. Then we had ice-cream on our way home. The three wonderful days of fun away from the routine life were over but the memories remain.

Trip to Palampur – Day 1 - Dharamshala

The trip began with we planning to meet at Madhuban Chowk at around 10 PM. Manas’s flight got delayed and he reached home after 9PM so he said he couldn’t reach before 11. Vikas had to leave his office by the 8 PM bus but he got stuck with his TL and missed the bus (Vikas had in fact not told his TL that he had to leave early and due to that he got delayed). I and Ashish were the only ones ready to reach on time. I and Vikas had planned to meet at ISBT and go together thereafter but being fed up with his 10 mins I decided to go alone. Manas said he wouldn’t reach before 11:30. Ashish said he would be reaching sooner so that I don’t have to wait alone. I reached at around 10:30 PM. Ashish joined soon. Manas came around 11:20 and finally Vikas reached around 11:30. I was the common point between the 4 of us so I introduced everyone to each other. We were going to a hill-station and Manas and Vikas had come without sweaters. Manas was in a T-shirt and a red lower which I began to call as ‘lal nikkar’. Finally we started our journey with Manas at driver’s seat, Vikas in front while me and Ashish at the back. Vikas was given the front seat as he knew the way and was our designated guide for the entire trip.

I and Vikas hadn’t had our dinner so I suggested we stop at Murthal for dinner. Everyone agreed to it but Manas seemed to have other ideas as he stopped somewhere before Murthal and we had our dinner there. We ordered parathas. The parathas were brought with a good amount of white butter on it. I don’t like the butter so I scrapped the butter as much as I could and gave it to Vikas who ate it happily. While ordering the next paratha I asked the guy not to put butter on my paratha. After finishing the dinner we started towards our destination (the initial destination was Palampur but now it had somehow changed to Dharamshala).

We were to go via Panipat, Chandigarh, Ropad, Una and Chamba. I slept soon after we had started after dinner and kept on alternating being falling asleep and waking up. Manas drove non-stop the entire night while Vikas gave him company.
It was pretty cold and Manas refused to close the window. I asked him numerous times to close it but he refused many a times before finally closing it; but opening it at every toll booth. So I was forced to take out my jacket to keep me warm. I gave the other sweater I had brought to Vikas.

We reached Una at around 6 AM. We had a cup of tea and proceeded further. We reached Dharamshala at around 10 AM. We were to look for a hotel to stay. As we entered the city we took a wrong turn and had to come back the whole narrow hilly road which was around 4-5 kms or more. We started looking for a decent hotel to stay in and reached hotel Pong View. We liked the room and we made the hotel guy put 2 extra beds in the room. We settled in there and did the morning chores. Then we ordered breakfast. I wanted it in the room while Vikas wanted to sit outside in the sun. We went with Vikas and sat outside and had our breakfast. Vikas called up Nitin – his college friend – who lived nearby. We finished our breakfast and started playing cards as we waited for Nitin. We were playing Seep Manas and Vikas were partners while I and Ashish were partners. The game was great fun. Manas & Vikas were leading when Nitin arrived. We postponed the game and got ready to visit some places.

Nitin took us to Macleodganj. There we went to Bhagsunath temple. I and Manas didn’t go inside as we hadn’t bathed while the others went in. Then we proceeded towards a waterfall which was an attraction there. First we went down where the water was flowing. We sat there for sometime enjoying the view and having the snacks and drinks we had brought with us. Then we went to the waterfall. It was a nice view where people were clicking snaps. We too clicked snaps. We were all hungry so we ordered magi. It was the worst magi I have had for a very long time. While other s managed to finish theirs I and Vikas left ours. Then we came down to Macleodganj. There we had some food (mine was lunch while others had some snacks :)) at an Italian restaurant.
Then we went to visit a mela. It was the first time I was visiting such a mela (I have been to Kumbh though). It was so crowded I can’t tell you; it felt like we were in the crowd of something like a house full in an India-Pakistan match. The others had the enthusiasm to take a ride (jhula) while I just stood there thinking of when we would leave. Finally we left the mela in sometime. Nitin had met his other friends and stayed back while the four of us came back.

We decided to have dinner before we went back to the hotel. We chose a place for dinner and ordered our drinks and then the main course. The restaurant looked good but the service was pathetic. It took them close to 2 hours to serve us our dinner that too after we threatened to leave. The food was good though but we had enough of that place. And in between we had an argument with regards to the next day’s plans. I wanted to finalise a tentative plan as to where we would put up in the night. I was in the mood of going to Palampur after we returned from trekking so that we could spend more time in Palampur (which was the place where I wanted to come) but considering that Manas would have to drive after doing the trekking I suggested we might stay in Macleodganj as well. Vikas wanted to stay atop in Triund at night; his plans were to have a drink at night and wake up early to enjoy the sunrise. Manas said he cannot finalize anything and that things would be decided on the spot. Ashish refrained from saying anything. Things were heating up slightly between Manas and me but it was usual between us :).
Finally we came back to our hotel. We decided to continue the card game we had left in the middle. Vikas protested as he wanted to sleep but we forced him to play. He seemed to be sleeping as we played. As we played we saw a wasp flying in the room. There was a tubelight outside; so we decided to open the door and close the light so that the wasp goes out. We managed to get rid of it. We resumed playing. Suddenly we saw that there were 3 wasps flying now and the light outside was switched off. One of the wasps came towards me and I jumped of the bed. As I leaped off the bed my foot got hit to the side of the bed. It pained a little but my focus was on the wasps. We thought of killing them but decided against it as we feared there might be more wasps. So we decided to cover up in blankets, close the lights and sleep as we had to go trekking the next morning. And we fell asleep.

Trip to Palampur - Summary

A couple of weeks back I went to Dharamshala, Macleodgunj and Palampur with Manas, Ashish and Vikas. Before I start saying anything I can't help but praise Manas for his non-stop driving (the total distance covered was well above 1000kms), Vikas for his trekking abilities (he easily trekked down in absolute darkness where I was uncomfortable even with torch) and Ashish for his immense patience (being with guys like me and Manas for 3 days without complaining).

One blog would be quite long - so I will break it and post them separately. This blog would summarise the entire trip and the subsequent ones will give details.

We started on Thursday night. We had decided to go by car and Manas would be driving. We met at around 11:30 PM and started our journey to Dharamshala. Vikas is from Himachal (Bilaspur to be precise) and he was our designated guide. Manas and I had gone out several times but this was my first time with Ashish and Vikas. So we set out on our journey.

Our route included Ambala, Chandigarh, Una, Ropad and Kangra. We stopped for dinner on the way and then drove non-stop to Una where we had a cup of tea and then continued. We reached Dharamshala around 10:30 AM and checked-in a hotel.

We had a little rest and breakfast. Then Vikas's friend Nitin arrived and he took us to Bhagsunath temple. We visited the temple and then went ahead to see a waterfall. We spent quite sometime there enjoying the view and having something to eat. Then we went to a mela. For the first time I had seen a mela and I guess it might be the last time - it was over crowded and the crowd wasn't to my liking. We came back to the hotel from the mela and went out for dinner. Had a good meal but the service was very slow. Came back to the room and rested.

Next morning we checked-out of the hotel and went to Macleodgunj. We parked the car there and strated our trek. We had some 4km to Dharamkot and then some 8 kms to Triund which was our destination. Soon after we started I and Manas took shortcut (read long cut) and got separated from Ashish and Vikas. I had a hard time trekking as I am not used to so much workout while others found it pretty easy. Despite the odds I did manage to reach the top within 4 hours. Manas did get impatient a lot for my being too slow and resting often but he still stayed with me. Finally as we reached the top it was worth the effort. We had our lunch there and stayed there for quite some time. Manas and Vikas went further up while I and Ashish stayed there. We didnot manage to get any accomodation there so we began our trek down just before sunset. By the time we reached midway it had become dark. Luckily I had brought a torch along and Manas's cell (Nokia 1100) had a torch which helped us climb down. When we finally reached Macleodgunj we didnot find a proper place to eat nor could we find a hotel to stay. We decided to go to Palampur which was some 35 kms away. Despite being tired Manas drove all the way to Palampur. There was an IIT exam there so all the hotels were booked and we almost decided to sleep in the car. But we tried our luck one last time and managed to find a room in a hotel. We checked-in at 12 midnight. We had bought juices on our way and that was our dinner. We woke up around 8 AM the next morning, had our breakfast and checked-out of the hotel. We began exploring Palampur. We went to Neugal Cafe and then spent some time in a tea garden. Then we started our journey back to Delhi after having stopped at Nitin's place. We had our lunch at around 5 PM and then drove continuously till we reached Chandigarh at around 11:30 PM. There we had dinner and reached Delhi early morning on Monday.

Three days full of fun (with some arguements/disagreements/fights) away from the routine life - it was a welcome break.

PS: The details of each day would follow soon.