My wheels go round and round

A Saturday trip to California Academy of Sciences

2010-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

On a dull foggy Saturday morning, we set out on a drive towards San Francisco downtown. Our agenda had a few things, but we had decided to see as much as we can, and would not rush ourselves. The first place to visit was the California Academy of Sciences. We got there at about 12.00 noon and ended up spending the whole day there.

It was crowded, but not as much as it could be on some days.. As we entered, we were welcomed by a large dinosaur skeleton, as you would expect in any scientific place :).

There was an area where interactive programs were going on... 'The Mad science show' was on when we entered and we skipped it. Later we watched the show about reptiles and were thrilled that they brought in live snakes, including a python to show us. Srihari (my almost 3 yr old son), was absolutely excited and he was imitating the snakes by moving his tongue in and out.

Our first stop was the aquarium area. There were a few exhibits that we could see from above, unlike the regular through the glass view. We saw large bat rays and many other colourful fishes.

Then, we visited the regular aquarium area. It was pretty, but nothing special after seeing so many aquariums in the US. Colourful tropical fishes, jelly fishes, sea horses, varieties of sea dragons, sea anemones and other interesting sea/ water creatures adorned the water behind the glass walls. We got to see a pretty big octopus which was moving a lot, unlike the still ones I have seen before. No photography of the octopus though!!! There was also a touch pool and the staff patiently explained about all the sea creatures in there.

Then we got into the planetarium to see the show 'Life: A Cosmic story', about the beginning of life on earth. I loved the 90 foot diameter dome screen and their projection technology, but did not enjoy the story-line of this show as much. They kind of touched upon everything and did not explain anything... May be that was all the time they had. They could have chosen a topic that was smaller and easier to explain. I felt, I have seen better planetarium stories - the ones in Brila planetarium, that I saw as a kid in Chennai were far more interesting. Also, the dome theater at San Jose Tech Museum is larger and better. Read our experience here.

After having lunch at the extremely priced (as expected) academy cafe, we went to the rain forest area. This was a multi-tire building, each tire focusing on a particular part of the world. They had free flying birds and butterflies which were very pretty, still looked artificial in the steel and glass building. They had altered the temperature and humidity to suit the rain forest environment. It was hot and humid here!!!

The different kinds of pitcher plants that they had on display, transported me back to the school days, when we learnt about these amazing carnivorous plants :)

They also had colourful geckos, lizards, snakes and frogs in their exhibits. The rain forest experience was something different and I have never seen anything like this in any of the museums / science centers I have visited till now.

The living roof

'The living roof' is like a roof garden... There is little to see, yet a lot to learn. They had boards explaining the advantage of the living roof and how it can help keep the planet green.

They had a few exhibits on 'green energy'. The one that grabbed my attention was the solar powered stoves used in a village in Rajastan, India. It is an initiative of an Indian scientist

Solar powered stoves being used in Rajastan villages in India

The young explorer's cove is meant for kids under 5 years and has books, puppets, play area and a boat!! Our little one could run around and play as we relaxed and watched him.

They also had a naturalist lab, which we did not visit. Outside, they had a raindeer exhibit with a couple of reindeers (probably, a holiday attraction) and thoughtful people who were really interested in answering questions.

It was closing time and it fogged up again, bringing out beautiful colours of sunset.

Overall, the experience was good. There is a vast diversity and many things to see. One can easily spend an afternoon here, without getting bored. The entrance fee of $30 per person seemed a bit expensive.

The Big Island - Big Experience

2010-12-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Hawaii

Visiting Hawaii has been on my dream list from the time I came to US and it came true over this Thanksgiving weekend. It all started when Murali's friend Kapil brought up the topic of visiting Hawaii over Thanksgiving while we were at Kings Canyon on the Memorial day weekend. Murali and I were totally game and started discussing the dates and deciding which island to visit etc.. But later, Kapil had to drop out of the plan. My sister was getting married soon, and she and her husband were interested in joining us. So, the two families set out on our discovery of the Big island of Hawaii.

Before writing about how our trip was, I'd like to point out a few things... These might be useful, in case you like to visit Big Island.

Big Island is BIG (that's why the name). If you want to immerse yourself into its varied 11 climatic zones (out of 13 in the whole world), it is wise to spend at least 10 days there (Don't hop Island if you have a week's vacation. Just stay in one and enjoy it completely). We did not have enough time.... I could have easily spent another 2 weeks there!!! yes I loved this place.

Be prepared to drive. All roads (except the saddle road, which connects Kona and Hilo) are along the coast. So it can take a lot of driving to get to one part of the island from another.

Get yourself a 4WD. If you want to visit the green sand beach or have a secluded beach all to yourself, you need one!!

Look for the guidebook "Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook" by Andrew Doughty in your local library. If you find it, grab it immediately. Consider buying one if you can't find it in a library. It is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G book!! It can lead you to the best kept secrets of Big Island, some of which even the locals may not know.

Rent a vacation home with a full kitchen. It works out cheaper than hotels or resorts and you also save by cooking your own food.

Now that you know the 'Points-to-remember' let me write about how we spent 'those 5 glorious days' (should I say 7??? - The travel to and back took 2 whole days)

On the Thanksgiving day (25th Nov), we flew out of Oakland to Kona, Big Island, Hawaii by Hawaiian Airlines with a stopover at Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. The travel time (with the stop) was about 7 1/2 hours.

Kona Airport

The Kona airport by itself looks like a resort with small wooden huts. No sophisticated buildings or gates. Just get out of your flight using stairs, into the runway and walk up to baggage claim. I loved the place, the minute we landed, not to mention the warm weather was a great break from the cold back home. We rented a Jeep 4X4 at National car rental and drove away to get some food. Being vegetarians, the eat-out options are limited. Our decision to cook our food worked out to our advantage. We ate garden burgers, fries and onion rings at Denny's in Kona downtown. We picked up grocery from the nearby Safeway and drove to our vacation home.

Our vacation rental

We had rented a two bedroom + a loft (with 365° view) vacation home near Naalehu (The southern part of the island) which is a little over an hour's drive from Kona. It was a beautiful house, elegantly furnished with full kitchen. The property sat on a 22 acre land with trees full of bananas, guavas, macadamia nuts, avocados, grape fruits, oranges etc. There were a few tame sheep grazing on the hillside. With free Wi-Fi, computer and full strength cell phone signal, we were completely connected with the world, and yet sweetly secluded.

We had cup noodles for dinner. I made Channa masala to pack lunch the next day and we hit our beds looking forward to the coming days. I forgot to mention.... The stars are very clearly visible here, away from the blaring artificial city lights. We enjoyed star gazing through the skylight in our bedroom, while luxuriating the comforts of our bed!

Off to snorkeling

Next morning, we woke up early, had coffee and a toast for breakfast . I made oatmeal with banana for Srihari (my 21/2 yr old son). We packed channa masala rice, yogurt rice, pickles, chips and juice and started our drive towards kona. We were going to snorkel with Fair Winds II in the Kealakekua Bay along Kohala coast. Unlike most companies, they let my little one come on board for about $30. They served breakfast during our 45 minutes boat ride. They also distributed snorkeling gear and flippers. The entire crew was very friendly and helpful.

Fair Winds II

When we got to the spot, we were given a briefing about how to snorkel and safety for all. They had various flotation devices for us to use. Yes! You don't need to know any swimming!! and still have fun. Srihari has been uncomfortable in large water bodies. He cries when we took him to swimming pools. To our surprise, he enjoyed the experience a lot!! We put a baby life jacket on him and made him sit on one of those comfortable baby floats. They had view boxes through which he could see all that we could see through goggles, without getting his face/ head wet! He loved it, which in turn means, we loved it too. They served a burger, chips and salad lunch on board. I was glad that they had veggie burgers too! After lunch another 45 minutes of exploration. The colourful marine life over the shallow coral reef was awe-inspiring. We got to see striped and spotted fishes, sea urchins, sea anemones, long trumpetfish, spiny puffers and even eels!!! (I am not mentioning all the fish names here... I guess it would be boring). We saw many schools of dolphins, swimming and jumping in the distance, through out the trip. Fair Winds you ROCK!!! Then it was time to get back on the boat and go back to shore.

Queen's bath

We spent rest of the evening in Kona and southern Kohala. Using the guide book I mentioned earlier, we visited 'The Queen's bath' - the almost empty black rock and gravel beach.

Anaeho'omalu bay beach

Anaeho'omalu bay beach was our next and final stop for the day. The shallow low surf water was perfect for swimming. We ate an early dinner watching Sunset and having fun.

Sunset over Anaeho'omalu bay

This was the windiest beach I have ever visited... Everything including our bags, beach mat, towels were flying... Still, this was the best beach experience of our trip!! Big Island beaches are supposed to be not as good as those on other islands. If the 'so-so' beaches are so pretty, I wonder how the others would be!!


Kailuea Crater

The next day, it was time to visit the volcanoes. We drove up to the Volcano National park, which is about 45 minutes from where we stayed. Many roads within the park were closed due to higher levels of Sulphur-di-oxide emissions. We could drive up to the Jagger museum on the Crater Rim Drive to see the smoking Kailuea Crater. The rest of the road was closed.

Pele' - Hawaiian Volcano Goddess - Portrait at Jagger Museum

We drove back down to see steam vents. Then, we parked at the visitor center and went on our rain forest hike along Halema‘uma‘u Trail (covered just a part of it).

Moss

Fern

Unique Hawaiian fern

The trail was covered with greenery - ferns, moss and everything green... Not much sunlight hits the forest floor.

Entrance of Thurston Lava tube

Next, we explored the 'Thurston Lava tube'. The small first part of the tube is lit. Then there is this huge unlit, dark part of the tube which can be explored only with flash lights. We had bought a couple of flash lights at the visitor center and used them here. The darkness and solitude was a different experience in itself!!

Holei sea arch

Once out of the lava tube, we drove down the 'Chain of Craters' road and stopped to look at craters on each side. The road is closed near the Holei sea arch. Between here and Kalapana road (137) is the current active lava flow.

Hike to Petroglyphs at sunset

After seeing the sea arch and clicking a few pictures, we drove back up the chain of craters road. We started the hike to the Petroglyphs (rock art by first Hawaiian natives) at sunset over the cooled lava bed. It was after sunset, when we could return back to our lone jeep at the trail head parking lot! We hiked back in the darkness guided by the approximate direction and occasional carins (A heap-like stone structure, used to mark trails). We did this having a 21/2 year old with us!! I think you are wise enough not to try this!! After an exciting day, we got back home, ate Maggi noodles and went to bed.

South point - Southernmost point of US

On day 3, we relaxed all morning, had lunch and left home around noon. We drove (about 20 minutes) to south point which is the southernmost point of US. With Crystal clear waters and colourful marine life, this place is a gem by itself. It is a great spot for snorkeling.

4WD road to Green sand beach

From the south point, a 21/2 mile hike (one way) on a 4WD only road leads to the real gem of Ka'u district - the Green Sand Beach (one of the two in the whole world). We drove our Jeep up the road, giving all of us, especially Murali - the driver, the experience of a lifetime!!!

It took us a solid 45 minutes to get there. Then we had to climb down the steep cliff to access the small sandy beach.

Green sand

The sand is a muddy black-green in colour, the mineral olivine constituting the green. There is a sign warning the visitors not to take the sand and there will be a fine of $500 if they do so!!! The beach was very pretty and the waves were in high surf. We enjoyed there for about an hour and started back on the same 4WD road. Unfortunately, our Jeep got stuck on a small rock with 3 of its wheels in air. With just one wheel providing traction, the jeep refused to move. We all got down and added a few rocks below the other two wheels and Murali tried to drive away. After multiple attempts, we were off... We breathed a sigh of relief.

The road to Kalapana (137) was open (closed the previous day) that day (or at least that's what the recorded message on the toll free number said), from where we might be able to see lava flow (or the huge steam caused by lava meeting the ocean). So we decided to drive there and give it a shot. It was a long 80 mile drive along highway 11 and then 137. When we got there, they said the road had to be closed after around 4.00 PM as the wind directions changed and there was way more Sulphur-di-oxide than the safe limits. Oh!! What a bummer!! We decided to call it a day.

The wetter Hilo Coast - covered with rain forests

Day 4 was dedicated to the wetter Hilo side of the Island. A drive of about 2 hours got us to 'The world Botanical gardens', where, my sister and I zipped at Zip Isles.

Me zipping through....

This is a 7-line zip and the lines were very mellow and designed for pre-beginners, I'd say. I wish they had 1 or 2 of their lines a little more challenging for some adrenalin rush. Murali, Siva and Srihari were walking along while we zipped through.

Uma'Uma Falls

After lunch, we visited the famous 3-tire uma'uma falls. It was picture perfect and we stood there gazing at its beauty.

Akaka Falls

Our next stop was Akaka falls, the tallest waterfall in the Big Island. Murali, Srihari and I took the 15-20 minutes rain forest walk (guided by the book) which includes the view of another falls. The sheer 70 foot drop of the Akaka falls is mesmerizing.

Nature's beauty captured at the botanical garden

While returning, we stopped at a local farm to drink fresh coconut water and eat a local pineapple. The coconut was huge and had about a gallon of water! The price was exorbitant too! $10 for just one coconut!!! We were already running late for our lava boat tour and hence missed the other beautiful falls (Rainbow falls, boiling pots, Peh'peh falls etc) on the Hilo side.

'Lava falls'

We drove to Hilo to pick up the boarding pass and then along highway 132 to the boat dock. When we called in for the booking, they said that Srihari is too young to be on the boat and I decided to stay with him on the shore. Murali, Radhi (my sis) and Siva (her hubby) went to see live active lava up close. Srihari and I walked around, played for a while and then we met the boat owner. I explained to him the reason, Srihari and I had to stay behind... and to my surprise, he told that he takes young kids on his boats and wondered why we did not ask him!!! When I told him that we asked when we did the booking, he said no one checked with him!!! Lesson learnt... Ask and keep asking, may be someone might let you go! No harm asking, right?? May be, it was good we didn't go... May be Goddess Pele' (Hawaiian Volcano Goddess) knew the little one might not be able to take her wrath.

New land formed, when hot lava flows into the ocean and cools down.

Those who went had an amazing experience - one of a lifetime. They saw hot lava flowing like a waterfall, meeting the sea and new land being formed about 5 to 7 feet in front of them... I could feel the power of nature even by just thinking through it... After that we drove back stopping in Hilo to re-stock grocery. I found few items to be cheaper than my local California grocery stores!! Overall, Hilo seems to be cheaper than Kona.

Pu'nalu'lu Black sand beach

Day 5, technically our last day of vacation, started off with a visit to the famous Punalu'lu black sand beach which is just 10-15 minutes drive from where we stayed. It was a beautiful beach with jet black sand.

Green sea turtle at Black sand beach

We got to see green sea turtles up-close that come to feed here.

Backwater lake at black sand beach

There is also a small picturesque backwater lake with water lilies and ducks. As the day got warmer, the black sand got un-stepably hot!! We could have stayed longer, but we were heading back to Kona to spend the rest of the day.

Jet Skiing near Kona downtown

Radhi and Saravanan went jet skiing while the rest of us spent the warm humid afternoon in the beach next to the pier. After their adventurous jet skiing experience (Radhi fell into the ocean during one of Siva's show-off maneuvers), we went on 'The Atlantis' submarine ride.

The Atlantis submarine ride

We read great reviews and heard good things about this experience from our friends, but, unfortunately, this was our least favourite activity. We were really underwhelmed by the clarity and variety of marine life we could see. We loved the snorkeling experience better. Just the fact that we were sitting in a submarine, for the first time, 100 feet under water was the only thing different... I felt it was not worth the $80. May be, if we had not done the snorkeling, we might have liked it.

The rest of the evening we went shopping. Yippee!!! We bought roasted macadamia nuts, chocolate covered macadamia nuts, some jewelery, a Hawaiian dress and a hat which had "Hawaii" embroidered on it.

We ate that night at "The Big Island Grill" Among all that they served us there, I loved their papaya seed salad dressing. funny ha ha!!

We missed a couple of beautiful white sand beaches along the Kona and Kohala coast due to lack of time.

Next morning, we flew back to Mainland all tanned after a wonderful vacation sulking about the cold that faced us.

Long-haul flight with a child

2009-12-25T00:03:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking of writing this for a while... somehow got delayed. Every time I sit to write, something would come up and I'd not be able to continue. This post has been written over a period of several days...

Traveling with children is always a challenge. If you have a toddler, it is a bigger challenge. If you are traveling by air with your toddler, it becomes a challenging challenge - especially because, you cannot take breaks when you want to. We have flown to India 2 times with our son till now- when he was 4 months old and recently when he was 1 1/2 years old. Last time we traveled by Singapore Airlines, this time it was Cathy Pacific. We liked Singapore Airlines better in both food and service.

We told our pediatrician about our travel during our son's 18 month check-up. She gave us a checklist with all the shots required and the general over the counter medicines that we can carry. We wanted to give him H1N1 vaccine before we left, but it never became available until our travel. She also advised us to keep children's Benadryl with us during the travel, in case our little one got travel sick. She also warned us that, about 2% of kids get hyper-active and asked us to try it in advance. I was kind of sure my son would not eat much of the flight food and so, packed up few chapathis smeared liberally with ghee, 6 pack yobaby yogurt, one sipper cup with milk, lots of dry snacks and pieces of his favourite fruits. We also carried few books and toys (Doodle pro, an ABC toy and a small key chain with LED lights - he likes it) in our hand baggage to entertain him in the flight.

The liquid allowance rule is still in place, but when you travel with kids, you are allowed to carry up to a liter of liquid as long as it fits in a gallon size zip-top bag. The yogurt and milk went into the gallon size bag. Apart from that we had some travel size toiletries and medicines in a quart size zip-top bag. When we boarded the flight, I gave the milk, fruits and yogurt to the flight attendant to be kept in the airplane cooler. We had requested for Indian vegetarian meal for us and Indian vegetarian child meal for the kid. The food was average compared to our previous experiences. The child meal was pathetic and I'm sure no child will like it. It had egg in almost every meal and when we told them that we had asked for a vegetarian meal, their explanation was that, eggs were diary!!! I know eggs are sold in the dairy section in the grocery store, but it is not dairy for sure... For child meal breakfast, they served a sandwich with dry hard ciabatta roll with one huge piece of tofu in the center... They call this kids meal!!! Even an adult would not enjoy this....

The first leg from San Francisco to Hongkong was about 13 hours nonstop (late night flight). This leg was the toughest. Even though our son was not 2 years old yet, we decided to buy a seat for him, as he would not fit into the bassinet they provide. We carried his car seat and fixed it in his flight seat. We could strap him in it when he slept, this way, we were hands free and he was comfortable. The only hassle was carrying the big toddler car seat around in the airports... For us, the trip started with a bad note. My son kicked a passenger's apple juice cup spilling the juice all over him when I was carrying him for a diaper change. The passenger was totally annoyed and unhappy and I felt guilty even though it was an accident. After that, kiddo slept for few hours. When he woke up, he ate some snacks and yogurt. Later he became unhappy about sitting in one place. He wanted to run around and also was a little cranky - not unmanageable though. Finally, after what seemed like a long time, we landed in Hongkong.

We had a 16 hour layover in HongKong. We went out sight seeing for about 5-6 hours (about that, later). Our next leg from Hongkong to Chennai was a 5 1/2 hour flight at about 10 PM local time. The flight was delayed by an hour. All 3 of us were so exhausted that we slept the whole leg. We reached Chennai at around 1.30 AM local time. A long tiring journey came to an end and we were excited to be with our families again :)

An eventful trip to Thirukadaiyur

2009-12-09T03:38:00.000-08:00

Thirukadaiyur is a village near Mayavaram in Tamilnadu, India. It is the land of the Amritaghateswarar - Abirami temple. This is the place where Lord Shiva protected Markandeya from Yama (Lord of Death) when he was about to take the boy's life. Hence, this temple is supposed to give long life to couples beyond 60 or 80. A ceremony called Sashtiaptha poorthi is celebrated when the husband reaches 60 and Sadhabishegam when he reaches 80. Read more about the history and leagends of the temple here.

My dad turned 60 this November and we planned for the wedding ceremony in Thirukadaiyur temple. My dad had arranged for conducting the ceremony in the temple and stay at a hotel nearby through his friend Mr. Subramaniam whose native place is Mayavaram. These arrangements need to be done atleast 5-6 months in advance as the temple is quite busy all the time. We were a group of 27 people who travelled from Chennai to Thirukadayur. My dad had arranged a 30 seater bus for the 7 hour travel. We had convinced my grandparents (Mom's mom and dad's parents) to accompany us and give their blessings. All 3 of them are 70+ years old and not in their great healths. My parents were worried and hoped they would be fine with all the travel and stay outside. Mom visited few local temples and prayed for our safe journey.

On the travel day, we started at 7.30 AM from my dad's place and picked up other folks on the way. Unfortunately, my grandma (dad's mom) was not feeling well within an hour into the journey. She was feeling very dizzy, probably because her blood sugar level dropped and was not willing to eat/ drink anything to make her feel better. After about an hour, we somehow made her eat breakfast, but she was not feeling any better. My aunt (Dad's sister) is a doctor herself and was monitoring grandma regularly. We halted in Chidambaram to take her to the hospital. She could not even get down from the bus. My husband, uncle and dad had to literally lift her out from the bus into an auto. They went to Annamalai university hospital to test her blood sugar level, pressure and ECG. Her pressure was not very stable, but everything else was fine. The doctors thought she could be suffering from motion sickness. After a bottle of saline and some medicines, she was discharged.

In the mean-time, we folks who were waiting in the bus were getting worried and anxious. We kept calling the cell phone of the folks in the hospital to know the status. I wondered, how would have such a situation been some 10 -15 years ago, when cell phones were not commonplace. It felt hot inside the bus and we waited outside. Then it started drizzling and we had to get into the bus again. Luckily, Mr. Subramaniam had a relative in Chidambaram. We went to their house to use the restroom. They made tea for all of us, milk for the kids and juice for my grandma. It was very kind of them to help us in need. Finally grandma came back to the bus and we proceeded with our journey. We reached our hotel at Thirukadaiyur at 8.30 PM as opposed to 4.00 PM (per plan). A homam was to be held in the temple that evening. Since we were so late, my parents quickly changed and rushed to the temple. Then the rest of us freshened up and joined my parents in the temple after 9.00 PM. We were the last family to get there. Since we were in a hurry, none of my grandparents came to the temple that night. During the homam, various dried herbs were passed around in small cups and dropped in the flame. The smoke emitted when these herbs burn is supposed to be good for health and cure various diseases.

After the pre-wedding ceremony, we ate dinner at the near-by Krishna mess. We were so late that they had only dosa and onion oothappam, both of which were pretty small and costed Rs. 15 each (pretty expensive for a village mess, I'd say). We went back to our rooms to catch some sleep. We were to assemble in the temple entrance (Gopura vasal) at 5.30 AM, which means we need to get up at 4.00 AM. We got about 4 hours of sleep that night.

Next morning was the wedding day. My grandma was still sick and stayed in the room. Grandpa and the other grandma walked to the temple with lot of difficulty and sat in one place through out the ceremony. We reached the temple, placed fruits, coconut, flowers, garlands and new saree, dhothi (varusai saman) in huge plates and carried them in. The priest then explained the significance of the temple and conducting the wedding ceremony. More pooja was done and then we went out for Go pooja (worshiping cow and its calf). Next we got blessings from the temple elephant. We went back to the temple and another small homam was conducted. Next the ceremony of 24 namaskaras (drop down, pray and get up) - 16 for Lord Shiva and 8 for Goddess Abhirami was done by all of us. What an exercise!!! Then the priest gave each of us a kalash. He gave me and Murali the biggest ones. Man, it was heavy! We walked around the temple with them in hand. Another great exercise!! If I did things like this everyday, I'd lose all my exess weight in no time!!! A man carried a huge umbrella for my parents as we walked around.

The priest asked us to pour the water from the kalash onto my parent's heads. After that my parents changed to new clothes, and the clothes they were wearing before has to be donated. My parents stayed in the temple premisis and we went to eat breakfast in the restaurant of hotel Sathabishegam. We got back to the temple for the mangal sutra ceremony (tying the sacred knot). My parents got blessings from folks older than them, and blessed all of us and gave us our gifts :) Then we got darshan of Lord Amritaghateswarar and Goddess Abhirami. We had lunch at the same place as our breakfast, packed our stuff and started back to Chennai. The return journey went on eventlessly. Most of us slept on our way back as we were very tiered.

I was amazed by the scale of the weddings happening at the temple. On a given day, there can be as many as 100 weddings happening simultaneously!!! The time sharing among the priests, cow, elephant, umbrella man, the musicians (melam and nathaswaram) is done so well that no one is waiting for anyone. I feel that this whole setup can prove to be a good MBA case study.

Nomad??!!*?!

2009-11-14T03:25:00.000-08:00

I am writing this from Hong Kong international airport!! We are traveling to India and have a long layover at Hong Kong. They have free Wifi at the airport and I decided to put it to some real use!!! We are in the middle of yet another pack and move session. This will be my 8th move in the past 3-1/2 years of stay in US and the first 7 were withing the first 1-1/2 years. But this time, I don't know my new home yet!!! I wondered what should be my home address in travel forms I fill out and I ended up filling my old home address. "Old home" because we no longer live there!!!

It all started in the month of June when we were planning our vacation to India. The occasion was my dad's 60th birthday in the end of November, which is celebrated by the couple renewing their marriage wows. A complete religious wedding ceremony will take place including retying the mangal sutra (sacred nuptial thread). Then, my bil's wedding was to be held in the end of January. We are in for double celebration, so close to each other, which lead us into taking a 2-1/2 months long vacation. My husband does not have so many vacation days and will be working from Bangalore. Since we were going to be away for so long, my husband started to convince me into packing all our belongings and storing them in a storage before leaving to India. It would not only save on rent, but will also let us get a lower rent when we are back, as the going rates are at least $100 lower per month than what we are paying now. He tried this trick during our last vacation to India too and I outrightly rejected it because, at that time, I was having a 3 month old baby and recovering from a C-Section. But this time, he succeeded!!! We compared the various storage options and zeroed in on 'Moshes' mobile storage. We were to leave on Thursday and we asked the container to be delivered on Sunday morning. Murali (My husband - somehow never mentioned his name till now) spoke to the city to obtain permit to have the storage container parked in our street. We could park without a fee for 72 hours.

On Saturday morning, I cooked food for the week. Check out my cooking expedition at my food blog here. I had already completed all my vacation shopping and had piled them in a corner of our 2nd bedroom. Later in the afternoon, we pulled out our big bags and started packing for the vacation. Since Murali will be working most of our vacation, we had to pack almost all his clothes. I had to pack up all my salwars and sarees. Also, I had to pack up all my son's clothes, as he would outgrow most of them pretty quickly. I also packed lots of diapers and snacks for him. As we were packing and weighing (two 50 pound bags allowed per person) our bags, we realized we will need 2 more big bags for check-in. We bought 2 huge duffel bags as they are lighter which means, we get few more pounds to stuff in :) End of Saturday, we had not even completed packing bags leave alone packing up the entire home.

On Sunday morning, the storage container was delivered at 8 AM. We continued packing bags and finally completed in the evening. Then, we started packing and loading the storage container. We packed up books and bedding first and loaded the container. On monday, we packed up my kitchen except for a few essentials which we would use till the last day and leave in the car. On Tuesday night, we finally packed up everything and loaded up the container. On Wednesday morning, our container was taken for storage. All that left in the apartment would either go to India with us or stay in our cars. Wednesday, I started the cleaning. Murali was working till the last day and he did his best to help. On Thursday, we finished up the cleaning, rest of the packing, parked the cars at other firend's apartments and gave our apartment keys to our neighbours to be handed over to the landlord. Our friend Bharath picked us up in his minivan and dropped us in the airport around 9.30 PM to begin our long 32 hour journey (including this layover).

A day at San Jose Tech Museum

2009-10-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

'The Tech' in San Jose downtown is a sophisticated building that houses hours of scientific exploration for kids and adults alike. Shweta and her husband Nikhil persuaded us into going there. The ticket costed us $10 a person which included a documentary movie in the IMAX theater (IMAX tickets cost $5, if bought separately). Our kids, who were less than 5 years got in free. The museum is pretty small, spread across 2 floors and can be browsed through in about 3 hours. We went there around 2.00 PM and were done by 5.00 PM. If you spend time in building any of the projects, you would end up staying longer. They have some cool projects and games like 'Build your own turbine', 'Build your own tracks and coasters', 'Craft session', 'Shoot the target in moon', 'Virtual hand wrestling', 'Virtual race on a wheel chair', 'Grow your own glowing bacteria by inserting jellyfish DNA' etc. Shweta and I did grow our own 'glowing' bacteria :) and it was fun...

Our kids were too young to actually have fun here. Kids above 5th or 6th grade would have loads of fun and you could easily spend a whole day. For us, the highlight was the IMAX movie. The theater has a huge dome shaped screen which gives a 3D kind of experience. This has been the best IMAX experience till now. We watched the 45 - minute movie 'Under the sea' and I found it very interesting. The best part was my 17 month old son enjoyed it so much. He pointed at the screen and called out aloud 'Fishy', exclaimed 'WOW!!!' and clapped his hands in glee many times... At the end, when the title was displayed with a background song, he started stomping and dancing until the song was over. Seeing our son having so much fun, made our day!!

Rangoli - A colourful Indian art

2009-10-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

Rangoli is a traditional Indian art used to decorate the entrance of homes and worship areas. It is believed that Goddess Lakshmi (the Goddess of prosperity) would visit your home and bring prosperity when decorated with rangoli. It is either made with plain rice flour or with colours. Intricate patterns are drawn and coloured brightly especially on festival and celebration days. The logic behind using rice flour is that, it will serve as food for the ants, birds and other small forms of life.

Back home, group for 3-4 ladies and kids would get together and make huge colourful rangoli at the entrance of our home on festival days and everyday during the whole month of Margazhi (Tamil month from mid December to mid January). We would either start making it late night (around 12.00 AM) or wake up early morning (around 5.00 AM) and decorate the floor in the dark with mere not so bright street lamp (sometimes just torches or porch light). First, we would sprinkle water on the ground (tar or mud) and sweep it. Sweeping will remove stones and other large particles of sand. Water will help the pattern to stick to the ground and not be blown away easily. Then, the 'expert' lady would draw the pattern outline with Kolam flour (coarse powder of a particular kind of limestone) or coarse rice flour. Drawing patterns with a powder using fingers is an art by itself and takes a lot of practice to master. Then we would mix rangoli colours (very fine colour powder) with the kolam powder in coconut shells to make it coarse and be able to fill the pattern with fingers. Once the filling is done, the 'expert' would again take charge and border the pattern with white kolam powder to make the design stand out.

This is how I learnt to make rangoli as a kid, but never got to become the 'expert'. I participated in few rangoli competitions during college days, which helped me learn a few techniques like using a tea filter, using masks, shading, gradient etc. Still, never got to become the expert. Even though, I did not win anything (except the 3rd place in our college inter-department competition) worth mentioning, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every experience.

We made this rangoli (in picture) at our apartment entrance on Diwali day. This is the first time we made rangoli here in the US. I bought coloured craft sand instead of rongoli powder as it did not involve any kind of mixing and is easier to handle. First I decided on the design and practiced it a few times on paper with pencil and crayons to get the right colour combination. On Diwali day, I sweeped the floor and wiped it with a wet towel. I drew the outline of my design with white chalk and then filled it with the craft sand. Then I placed a small lit bronze oil lamp in the center. I was pretty happy with the outcome and clicked a few pictures as usual. After a few hours, I remembered what a good exercise making rangoli is from my aching thigh, glute and calf muscles.

A trip to the Indian Consulate in San Francisco with my son - An interesting experience

2009-10-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

My friend, Rose, had to go to San Francisco to get a visitor visa for Singapore and she told me that she was going to take her 16 month old son along with her in public transport. Since I had to get my passport renewed, I thought, why not go with her and submit my passport for renewal. I would take my 18 month old son along and anyways the kids are friends too. Rose and I had to be in our respective consulates by 12.00 noon. We carefully planned our trip and we had close transfers to make to get there on time. The plan was to take Caltrain from Sunnyvale to Milbrae, then transfer to BART and go up to Montgomery station. Her destination was there, but I had to take the local bus and go 3 more miles (which takes about 20 - 25 minutes). I had once taken Caltrain with my husband (long before my son was born) to San Francisco. Other than that, I have never traveled in public transport in bay area leave alone with a kid.

We met at the Caltrain station at 9.15 AM, bought the tickets, got to the platform and in few minutes our train was there. We did not realize that Caltrain has steps to get into the train (while BART does not), until the train arrived at the station and the doors opened. We had to quickly get the kids out of the stroller, close the stroller, carry the kids, stroller and bag and board the train all in the matter of few seconds. We did pull the feat together successfully. Kids loved the train ride and we moms got to talk a bit. We got out at Milbrae and the first BART connection was in the next 2 minutes (according to our plan). Before we could get out, strap the kids in the stroller and buy the tickets, the train was gone. We took the next train which put us about 20 minutes behind schedule. We could keep the kids in the stroller in this train and both of them dozed off. We got off at Montgomery and Market and Rose helped me get onto my bus and my son woke up when I took him out of the stroller. I took the normal bus at 11.20 AM. Limited bus would have been faster as did not stop at every stop which is almost at every block in the downtown. Three wheel chairs got in and 2 got out on the way and I was getting delayed. I was counting every second and was hoping that I would make it on time. I got out of the bus at 11.57 and it was about a couple of minutes walk to get to the Indian Consulate. I was there at 11.59 and saw that the 'Closed' board was already up.

I walked up to the security lady and asked her if she would let me in as I arrived there just before 12.00. She first said no, but then she said I can go but the baby can't go. Like a crazy mad woman, I asked the ladies waiting outside if anyone would watch my kid when I go in. I was in such a hurry that I don't know what I was thinking and was willing to leave my kid with strangers. I thought it would be a 5 -10 minutes work and did not expect it to take 1 1/2 hours. Then she let me take my kid in, but did not let me take the bag nor the stroller and she strictly said "No baby bottles or food". I left the stroller and bag outside without anyone to take care of them, took my purse and my papers and went in. When I got in she said, if the baby cries or screams, I should go out with him. I was the last one in line. I got all my documents and somehow managed to keep my kid from shouting and crying without any entertainment, food or water for the next 1 1/2 hours. I had to change my son's diaper in the ladies room as he had done potty(poo poo). The payment line was longer than the counselor line. I waited for more than half an hour to make payment

Finally, I got out, walked to the bus stop, got into a crowded bus with stroller hanging from one shoulder, bag on the other and kid in the arms. Someone was generous enough to lend me a seat and I met Rose at the BART station. The return was pretty un-eventful and we were discussing our experiences of the day and entertaining the kids by singing nursery rhymes and reading books to them. We did have little difficulty in stations since there were stairs and escalators, but no elevators and our kids were strapped to the stroller. Then we walked back home from Sunnyvale station and it was almost 5.00 PM when I reached home. One whole eventful crazy day spent on submitting passport for renewal!!!

Utah's wonders - Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

2009-09-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

Can you see me shouting "Hurray" in the picture? Where am I? I am standing under the famous "Delicate Arch" in Arches National park, Utah. It did take quite a bit of hike to get there, but it was all worth it. We visited Salt Lake city, Arches and Canyonlands National parks this labor day weekend.

We flew into Salt Lake city on Friday evening. We rented a car at the airport and drove around. First, we visited the Mormon temple in temple square in Salt Lake city. The buildings were huge and beautiful with lots of flowers and fountains. My son wanted to play in the water for ever. We had dinner in SLC and drove to Moab - about 250 miles from SLC. We had rented a single bed room vacation condo. It was furnished and had a full kitchen and worked out cheaper than a hotel room.

Next morning (Saturday), we visited Arches National park (about 5 miles from Moab). The day was mostly cloudy and we did not feel the heat that much. But, we could not click those great pictures of rocks glowing in sunlight. We hiked the park avenue trail and saw the balanced rock and then, had lunch. We packed our lunch as these parks do not have cafes or stores. Then we hiked to the Double Arch and then the "Windows" section. We saw the "North Window", "South Window" and "Turret Arch". These hikes were easy. I have to mention one thing here, my husband carried our 17 month old son in a backpack carrier and I carried the water and food. Then we hiked to the "Delicate Arch" upper viewpoint. It is a short hike involving some climbing. The last hike of the day was the hike to the "Delicate Arch" itself. It is about 3 miles with no shade and parts of the trail being steep. This hike is a sunset favorite, but the clouds covered the sunset that evening. After clicking many pictures we turned back. My husband made Maggi noodles with lots of veggies for dinner (advantage of having a kitchen).

Sunday morning was a hot clear day, which meant great photos, but tired us!! We drove to Canyonlands National park, Island in the sky district (33 miles from Moab). This is the most accessible and most visited part of Canyonlands. We did not have time to visit the Needles district, which is supposed to be beautiful too. The Maze district (the last one) is true wilderness with primitive conditions. It can be reached by ATV only and is the least visited. The first thing we did at island of the sky was to hike up to "Upheval Dome" on a moderate trail. "Upheval Dome" is a huge crater formed by either displaced salt beds or a meteor invasion (still a mystery as to how it got there) eons ago. We hiked to both the first and second view points. The hike to the second viewpoint was a little difficult and did not give any better view than the first viewpoint (so, a little waste of time, I'd say).

Then we saw whale rock, a red slickrock shaped like a huge whale, from the parking lot. There is a moderate trail to go to top of the rock. We did not have the time to hike up there. Next stop was Aztec's butte for few pictures. Then we drove to the most beautiful "Grand view point" overlook. The canyon has been carved by the Colorado river and a bit similar to the Grand Canyon. The red canyon glowing in the background mesmerized me. I stood there staring into the wilderness and did not want to leave. We clicked many pictures and went to our next stop - Mesa Arch. A simple hike to the beautiful yellow arch. My son (17 months old) hiked all the way up there by himself and had a lot of fun. Our last stop of the day was "Green river overlook" at sunset. We clicked some pictures and drank the beauty of sunset over the canyon and drove back to Moab. We ate at the Schezwan Chinese restaurant in Main Street. The food tasted good, but was a bit too oily.

Day 3 (Monday) we visited Arches again. At the visitor center, we watched a 15 minute video about Arches and Canyonlands which I liked very much. We drove up to the Devil's garden trail head to hike up to the famous Landscape arch, which is also the longest. Short and easy side trails lead to Tunnel and Pine arches. The trail is easy up to Landscape Arch and then it becomes steep leading to the "Double O" arch and then to a single darker rock named "Dark Angel". Steep side trails lead to Partition Arch and Navajo arch. There is also a challenging primitive loop leading to more arches. We could not go further than Landscape arch due to lack of time. After lunch, we took a short easy hike to skyline arch.

Then it was time to go on the ranger lead Fiery Furnace hike. Fiery Furnace is a group of tall chimney shaped, warm deep red rocks which glow at sunset. This hike can either be done with a ranger or you need to get a hiking permit. We had paid $10 per person and booked the ranger hike in advance on Saturday and it was really worth it. We got to crawl through small spaces, walk on narrow ledges, jump across rocks, chimney through narrow openings, see some great views and understand and appreciate the desert landscape better. It was close to sunset when the hike was over and I clicked some more pictures of the glowing fiery furnace. I really could not stop clicking but, we still had two more arches to visit. A short walk in the red sand lead us to Sand dune arch which our son loved. We started towards broken arch and returned without seeing it as it had gotten dark.

We drove back to the visitor center to freshen up and change and then drove back to Moab for dinner in "Baja Grill" on Main street. Food was delicious. We had to drive back to SLC to take our early morning flight. We started from Moab around 11.00 PM and reached SLC around 3.00 AM. We returned the rental car and waited in the airport for the next 3 hours to take our flight back home. We were totally exhausted, but the trip was a lot of fun and will be remembered for ever.

I was told by some fellow tourists that "Dead Horse Point State park" carved by the Colarado river, which is close to Canyonlands is also supposed to be very beautiful. We missed it due to lack of time.

See more pictures of our trip at: http://picasaweb.google.com/srihari.kutti/LabourDay2009TripSLCArchesAndCanyonlands?authkey=Gv1sRgCKv7uuvQ4oH_9AE#

Photo Legend:
Pic1: Delicate Arch, Arches National park
Pic2: Monument basin from Grand View point overlook, Canyonlands National park
Pic3: Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National park
Pic4: Landscape Arch, Arches National park
Pic5: Fiery Furnace, Arches National park

Yosemite - Nature's Sanctury

2009-08-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

Living in the San Francisco bay area for the past 3 years, we have visited Yosemite National Park 4 times ( 2 times with our son - when he was 2-1/2 months and 1 year old) till now, in all seasons except fall. First time it was just me and my husband. We spent a night in the park and did some serious hiking. All other times it was just day trips with friends / folks visiting from back home. I enjoyed every single time and the place never felt the same! This post is to an attempt to consolidate all the 4 trips.

Yosemite National park is located in the high sierras about 4 1/2 hours drive from bay area. The drive by itself is very scenic and beautiful. There are beautiful falls, high dark granite mountains, lots of water, seasonal though, tall green trees and interesting native-Indian legends. The best season to visit is spring when the water flow is maximum and the days are sunny, cool and crisp. Summers are good too, but can get really hot some days (It was 107F on the mid June day we went the 3rd time). In fall, days are pretty warm and the water flow goes down and in winter most falls are dry.

There are 5 main water falls apart from many smaller ones. The Bridal veil falls and Lower Yosemite falls are accessible by a short walk from the parking lot (strollers can be pushed most of the way). The Vernal, Nevada falls and Upper Yosemite falls are hidden away by beautiful but moderate to strenuous hikes.

Our first visit was in early spring. My husband and I stayed in a pre-made canvas tent at the curry village. Being a bear country, we had to store food and all kinds of toiletries in bear lockers. We did hear bears in the night. We also heard a ranger scaring a bear away. In the morning, we saw bear paw print on one of the cars in the parking lot.

After breakfast in the near-by cafe, we took the first shuttle to Happy Isles where the trail to Vernal and Nevada falls start. We took the mist trail which is steep but very beautiful up and came down via John Muir trail which is more gentle, but does not have great views. The whole trek took about 6 hours round trip. The mist trail runs along the Merced river and is pretty easy until it reaches the base of Vernal falls. There is a bridge to cross the river from which the falls can be viewed. From here the trail becomes a little steep and turns into steps just beside the falls. The shower from the falls makes the steps pretty slippery and can soak you wet. We saw many rainbows all the way up and it was beautiful. Very soon, we reached the top of Vernal falls and sat down and relaxed a bit.

We then hiked up further to the top of Nevada falls crossing the "Emerald pool" and "Silver Apron". Part of this hike is pretty strenuous. For quite some time there was no sign of water and then we got a great sneak peak of Nevada falls. The sight from the top of Nevada falls was awesome. We could see the whole Yosemite valley below us. I had packed lemon rice and chips for lunch. We sat beside the fall and ate it. It was one of the most beautiful lunches I have ever had and can never forget it.

Nevada falls is almost half way to the legendary "Half Dome", which is still on my list of "must do" hikes. It is one of the most difficult hikes in US and the last 100 feet needs to be climbed with help of chains. You need quite a bit of upper body strength to pull yourself up, which I completely lack. My husband and I started training for it (after this trip) and then came to know I was pregnant and dropped the plan. Hope I will be able to do it some day!! Time to turn back, On the way back down John Muir trail, we got some beautiful views of Nevada falls and then, it was all trees and rocks. Our knees started hurting half way down and were really thankful when we reached back down.

The bridal veil falls (reduces down to a trickle in winter) and lower Yosemite falls (no water in winter) are not missed by any one. The are easy to get to, even while pushing a stroller. The upper Yosemite fall is another 6-8 hour hike which we have not done yet. Apart from these, there is a short, easy, beautiful hike called the "Mirror Lake". You can see the Half Dome towering just behind the lake.

The free half an hour movie about Yosemite, shown in the theater near visitor center is great too. The best point to take a picture of the Half Dome is the Sentinel Bridge. Out of all the picnic areas, I love those in Sentinel beach because of the shallow waters and sandy beaches where the kids can play.

Photo legend:
1. Yosemite valley with Upper and Lower Yosemite falls
2. Vernal Falls from Mist Trail
3. Nevada Falls from John Muir Trail
4. Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge

Surprise, Surprise!!! Fort Bragg California

2009-08-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

Fort Bragg California - A slow and sleepy, but beautiful town in the coast of northern California (Mendocino county). This is one trip that I will never forget because I managed to get my husband truly surprised for the first time!!

It was our first anniversary and we had not planned anything much for it yet. Thanks to my friend Smita for suggesting this place. I looked up online and found it interesting and decided to surprise my husband.

Our anniversary was on a Friday and I thought it would be nice to spend the weekend at Fort Bragg. I read a forum on www.tripadvisor.com which lead me to this beautiful single room cottage surrounded by 60 acres of tall trees and beside the ocean cliff. I quickly called them and booked it for our anniversary weekend.

On Friday, I asked my husband to come home early from work around 2.00 PM so that we can have a small celebration. I had taken the day off. When my husband left to work, I did the packing and loaded the car. When he came home, we had lunch and asked him to take me on a drive. He started driving and then I told him that we will be driving for the next 4 hours and I'll navigate. We drove north on US 101 and got delayed a lot in traffic. The 4 hour drive ended up being around 6 hours and we finally reached Fort Bragg!!!

By this time my husband had (of course) figured that I had planned a trip for the weekend, but thought we would be staying in a hotel / motel. Until then, we had never stayed in a vacation home or private cottage. We drove past all the motels and I asked him to turn into a small alley. He was a little skeptical and thought I was asking him to take a wrong road. He asked me "Are you sure?" and I confidently said "Yes I am". Then I asked him to turn into another small road. He said "This road says private property!!!". I said "Don't worry. Go on". Then we saw a huge closed gate. He said "There is a gate and it is closed". I said "Don't worry I have the code". We punched in the code and drove past the gate.

We drove a little more and the road took a sharp bend. At the bend, we saw the ocean - sparkling in the setting sun. The glimpse was totally breathtaking. We drove a little bit further and saw the small, beautiful wooden cottage that we were going to stay in. We were totally thrilled and I could see the surprise in my hubby's eyes... for the first time!!!

This property was just beside the ocean cliff. It was beautifully furnished and we loved it. There was a fire ring just beside the cliff and the view from there was awesome. We unloaded the car and settled in. When the sun started setting slowly bringing out the beautiful colors of dusk, we sat around a small fire in the ring drinking the beauty of the setting sun.

The next morning was crisp and air was a little chill. After breakfast, we walked around the property and then took a small trail to the ocean. The whole scenery was wonderful. Then we went "Glass beach". This place used to be a dump station for glass appliances many years ago. Then the area was closed for clean up. Over the next several decades the pounding waves cleansed the beach, wearing down the discarded glass into the small, smooth, colored trinkets that cover the beach today. It was pretty nice to see how nature can reclaim itself - but it does take a long time. I did collect a few glass pieces as souvenir. Then we roamed around in the small dainty downtown for a while, ate in one of the restaurants and called in for the day.

Next morning, it was slightly drizzling. I woke up, but my husband was fast asleep. I walked out into the patio. The fog had not lifted completely yet and it looked so calm and beautiful. I walked out with my camera to capture the beauty of all that I saw for eternity. I took a walk around the property taking pictures of everything I saw, the ocean, leaves, flowers and even the spider web with small droplets of water.

And then, it was time to vacate the property. After brunch, we visited the botanical garden. Being a lover of flowers and plants, I enjoyed a lot! In the vegetable garden, I tasted "Chocolate Mint", a variety of mint plant and loved it. It had the fresh mint flavor and a wonderful chocolate aroma. I have never ever tasted or smelt a leaf as great as that... We also hiked a small trail along the ocean cliff and enjoyed the breathtaking views. Then we drove back home happy and contended. A lazy romantic weekend beatifully spent :)