The Highlander

Well it really has been a while since I wrote about my travels and it is that time of the year once again when I write away describing a place that most of you have not seen. The good thing about this is that I am sure that whatever you write and this goes for the vast majority of you would be better than what I can pen. But since I am going first I do have the liberty to jabber away without worrying about what you might have described for the same place J.

The title of this piece is the car that was the mode of transport. The car(actually an SUV) was a Toyota Highlander and I could go on about this V6 4 WD monster. It made the trip even more special. Now down to the details.

I left here at around 10 pm on Wednesday (22/11/2006) and drove down to LA. That night I met up with the two other members of this trip, Barathi and Nandini. We randomly drove around the PCH( Pacific Coastal Highway) and this really twisty road in the mountains next to LA called Topanga( correct me if I got the name incorrect). After doing some random roaming around I got to eat at a Denny’s and crashed at night.

The next morning due to my music collection being insufficient the two girls decided that we needed to take a detour to Thousand Oaks and then head to our destination. We had the most amazing badam payasam at her friend’s place and one could smell the sambar. One was so tempted to chuck all the plans of going wherever and just eat. But then we our stomachs stopped doing the thinking and we were off. LA traffic was not that bad for a change and we were on our way to the canyon. First stop however was Hoover dam. By the time we left Thousand Oaks it was 10 am. The deal with thanksgiving in the US is that everyone is on the road and by everyone I mean every last person in LA has a plan to go somewhere. It is so many cars less on the road and on the highway that that weekend you get parking in LA. This was to my benefit at night but during the day the highway to Hoover was common with the highway to Las Vegas and every one seemed to be headed to Vegas. The highway was packed and we seemed to crawl on. So at one of these points we took a stop at a SHELL bunk and filled up GAS. We then went on to the Hoover dam.

The Hoover dam is a place that I have seen more on TV than any other structure or monument. Be it the construction or the design everything about that dam is just amazing. In real life it is quite simply magnificent. Imagine this at the bottom which is about 750 ft below the width of the Hoover is 660 ft. That is the length of 2 football fields. It was breathtaking the sight and as the American would have it they had lit the place up for everyone to see. So even though we came there at about sunset we could just stand and look at one of the wonders of the modern world. I really wished at this time that they would do this for some of the dams in India. Make them a tourist attraction. Gone are the days when you could take photos and that would be the only indication of the existence of a structure. Nowadays with Google Earth one does not need to take pictures to tell a person where a structure is. So all those claims of national security are a lot of bull crap.

I just stood there for a while in awe of what had been achieved at that place in just five years. Compare this to Bhakra Nangal dam which is only marginally higher than the Hoover and took all of 15 year to complete. It gives you an idea of the engineering that went into the dams’ construction.

We then decided to drive back to Las Vegas just to have a look at what the place looks like. I do even now have a policy against gambling so did not bother entering the casinos. The do look splendid from the outside though. Each of the casinos seems to have a theme to them. The road on which they are all located is called the ‘Strip’ or Las Vegas Boulevard. There were miniatures of the Eiffel, of the Statue of Liberty and various other such attractions along the road. The MGM grand the Bellagio , the Stratosphere they were all on this road which seemed to leave LA’s night life look like the roadside. The night sky was just lit with the advertisement hoardings that were on both sides. Each one trying to outdo the other. This is one place that you want to visit at night and no other time.

We picked up dinner at this road side place and drove on at night to Bellemont, Arizona where we were booked. We had to drive by the Hoover once again. The approach to Hoover on the Arizona side is better than the Nevada side, so got to see that view as well and thanks to them lighting the whole place up the time of the night was not an issue. We drove on that night into Arizona and to the hotel. The motel was this ‘chotu’ place along the highway. We landed there at midnight Pacific Time after driving some 1 046km for the day. That is now my new record for the maximum that I have driven in a day. It smashed my previous best of 712 km (Hyderabad – Bombay). This one however looks like being intact for a while now.

Day 2 we drove to this tiny place called Willams. This place has a small section of the Route 66 (Movie – CARS). It is one of the many Arizona small towns that only survive on tourism. There we found out that we could go to Sedona for a day and then go to this place called Sedona for a day and then see the Grand Canyon the following day. We decided to do just that.

Source some random website J

“Just 110 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona, Sedona has become a central resting stop for visitors of Northern Arizona who wish to explore the scenic Verde River, the 1.8 million-acre Coconino National Forest, or the winding road through Oak Creek Canyon. The number of things to do in Sedona is countless. Relax atop shaded boulders that litter the 16-mile gorge of Oak Creek Canyon, take a rugged Jeep tour through the authentic Indian ruins or scale a monolith that penetrates the crystal blue sky.

On the other hand, some visitors to Sedona choose to do very little at all...like sitting back and marveling at the reflection of the sun at dusk that seems to make the Red Rocks appear an even richer and more vibrant hue, as if they glowed from within. There is a strong belief that Sedona is home to several vortexes, or specific focal points of the earth's energy and they travel many miles just to feel the renewal of energy in their own life. Whatever the case, Sedona has a way of taking your breath away and reminding us that there aren't many places on earth quite as spectacular as Sedona. In fact, Sedona, Arizona was named The Most Beautiful Place in America in USA Weekend's Annual Travel Report. Whether you come to Sedona for adventure or for relaxation, you will leave this beautiful rocky fortress revitalized. So before you pack your bags, browse our Sedona visitor guide for everything you need to know when visiting Sedona.”

It was just this beautiful. We stopped at this view point just before Sedona to get a view of the valley below. One could see the roads curving down the valley. At the time we were getting a view of the valley a few Harleys drove by. The sound of the Harleys driving through the valley is going to echo in my ears for a long time. It was one of the many things that I am never going to forget. When a car goes by one does not hear enough of a road. The Harleys leave a long lasting impression on you J

We had lunch at this family managed hotel on the roadside. There was no dress code (unlike the KFC’s and the Taco Bells). I had a warm spiced Cider for a drink. Try this out sometime. I don’t think you can really make a mess of this drink J.

We then drove down to Sedona itself and walked as close to the red rock itself. Went to about three different view points. Each of them giving us a view of a different rock. One of them called Snoopy(cause it seemed to look like dog with two ears coming out). We went to this place where we could sit by this small river with the rocks just behind and that place seems to be a popular place for people to get married. For pics please give me some time. I am still trying to find a place cheap to process them. They are more expensive here than in Delaware, and I refuse to pay Rs. 1800 to develop and print 36 snaps. Mind you I have about 80 snaps with me. Please do the math. The thought is killing me.

We then went to a GAP outlet. It was after all the day after thanksgiving which means every store is on sale J. Got myself a jacket and a pair of gloves for a lot less than they would have cost me on a normal day. I also bought a T shirt with the message

“If a man speaks in a desert where no woman can hear is he still wrong?”

I just had to buy that T-shirt so did just that. It was one of the Sedona souvenir T-shirts.

We then went to Sedona and had grub at a small coffee place. It was nice to see all the usual California brands missing. No star bucks, no taco bell. None of that stuff. The night sky from Sedona is another view that I will remember. Never tell a kid in California that there are a billion stars in the sky. He won’t buy that. You need to get him to this place to make that statement. We drove back to the motel at night and planned an early rise to see the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is deceptive. I remember a kid when I went to Mount Abu and to the Jain temples. From the outside it looked like a badly maintained temple and I was really wondering what the fuss was all about. It was when u stepped in that you realized what they were really talking about. We managed to get about 5 viewing points into the trip. A lot of the roads in the GC are for the access of a free bus service only and that means you need to rely on them to get around. Thanksgiving weekend seems to be the perfect time for the whole Indian population in the region to land up there. I could bet that 1 in 4 there were Indians and 3/4^th of these people were tams. Sometimes I wondered which country we were in and if we really are the tourist. Well the Grand Canyon luckily for us was Fog free and the view was clear. I am not sure the pictures that I took or any photographer has taken do justice to this magnificent creation. I do intend to get back here more than once. The first of these times to do the trek down to the base either on a mule back or on foot. Spend the night there by the Colorado and get back the next day. Another time I shall spend a lot more cash and do the flight through the canyon. And a third time I shall approach the canyon from the north rim which is supposed to be an even more beautiful sight. The sunset from the Canyon was viewed by every person at the canyon from one of the points specified by the tour. It was perfect how the sun shone on parts and was moving away from others. It was also remarkable as to how quickly once the sun went down it got cold and to temperatures that I have never experienced in the past.

We then moved to the city where at this IMAX theatre we saw the Grand Canyon Movie (by the way Prasads is better in terms of its seating so HYD u have something to cheer about).

After the screening we went to the Lovell observatory at Flagstaff. This is the place where the ‘planet’ Pluto was discovered. The controversy apart they had 5 telescopes for us to view through. Each of them set to a different star cluster. One to Andromeda and one after the Orion rose to the nebula inside the Orion at the tip of the sword. There are incidentally 4 stars inside this Nebula. The guy who was showing us the various constellations had this really powerful laser which almost seemed to spot out the star that he wanted to talk about. Have to get my hands on one of these J just for the kicks. Yes this is a dangerous bit of equipment.

We then went to a local restaurant where we had dinner. Unlike the usual pizza places this place had a grill which was coal operated (bhatti) to make the pizzas. The food tasted really good again after all the Pizza Hut/ brother associations where the food tastes the same each time you walk in this place had its own flavor. We had the 6 cheese pizza and the Mediterranean pizza. And once again I had my spiced warm cider which was perfect for the weather.

An idea of how cold it was at Arizona was given by the way the cars had ice on them each morning. There was no snow. It was the dew freezing onto the car. So each morning I would have to leave the car on for about 15 min just to defrost the wind screens. I think I was lucky that the road itself did not have this thin film. As a friend of mine would know that can make driving rather dangerous even if you do have ABS.

We left on Sunday morning for LA and spent a good 2 hours in a place on the way looking for an Indian restaurant. The food at the end was totally worth it. But this 2 hour detour cost us another 2 hours through LA traffic which was at its worst when we entered the city. We crawled through finally making it back at 6pm. I then drove to LA to make a deadline at the car rentals place. They would have been really happy to charge me another $75 for coming in late.

At the end I had single handedly driven 1900 miles in 4 days. I was dog tired but was thrilled with myself for taking the time off from what has been a grueling academic schedule. It got so bad at a point that one of my Profs asked me not to show up at the lab for the duration of the thanksgiving break. I was not grumbling. It was the best bit of news that I could have got before the trip. I shall in a while hopefully upload my pics from the trip as well. But for now me got end sems from the next week and I need to study for them. So more from me later.

And thus it begins :)

The following are mails written on various dates during my trips that I have decided to convert to blogs :) So here goes me blogging away..

Date : - May 10th 2004 Bombay Poona Expressway Rocks :D

Ok i was in Bombay for the last four days was too busy to even check mail. Sorry about that people really sorry.. Drove down there and trust me it was one pleasure cruise. Had loads of fun with all my relatives pampering me to the core :):). I am off to the states on the 14th.. SriLankan Airways was not the best airline i guess but now they are offering me a sight seeing at colombo for the 12 odd hours that I am stuck in a country where they would kill me if they
found out i am TAM. Anyways need to find out how that goes... Mihir just update me as to who got into which IIM if u could and if u know about pradosh please mail me about that as well... I am going to try and be a bit more reagular than this once i get there. At least that is the hope..
Hey Paddu found this guy in Delaware who has a collection of around 300 DVD's so i am definetely going to watch a few :). My first task when i get there is to ask the prof for a vaction. Now i know this sounds really funny but then again there is the need to. So how to go about it advice is really welcome here.


May 15th 2004 In Washington

Another in the Ak series of group mails coming up i guess...

Finally I am here in the US of A. Nice country by the way. Went sight seeing in Washington. the usual stuff. the capitol the white house. Smitsonian was closed though will make it the next time i guess.

let me start from the begining. Departed from HYd on the morning of the 14th . Landed up in Colombo in the afty. Stayed to whole afty in a five star taj hotel :):) cause that is what they offered me acco in. I love SRILANKAN AIRWAYS. Went a bit of sightseeing on my on in Lanka. Its another CALCUTTA humid hot and rains whenever u do not want it.
Anyways flew out to Heathrow the same night at 2 35 am horrid time. they tried giving us Breakfast at 4 am can u beat that i felt like smashing someone in the head. Landed in Heathrow at 8 am local somewhere there not sure was in a daze when i landed not due to the free liquor but i guess jet lag... or was it the 11 hour non stop whichever it was.
Heathrow woke me up... That is an airport... there was a traffic jam of planes never thought i would see that ever :D We just were parked for 20 min with nowhere to go. the place is huge. It just has some 55 departure bays. and takes 10min by bus to go from one terminal to another...

Phey i almost got lost...

Then the final flight to Washinghton.. Virgin Atlantic has a much better in cabin entertainment than Srilankan so watched 2 movies and it was a fun time. (they were serving white wine / red wine for those who wanted )
ulimited... decliced was not in a mood..ya i know this is heartbreak but it was the middle of the day.

I lost a baggage (Pratap i know how u felt) at the end of it all so will have to see where it is colombo or london cause i saw it board the plane at HYD.. they promised me that it will be here by tomorrow otherwise the absconding pradeep shall help me claim money :)))

Forgot to mention immigration check took the life out of all of us 1 hour in the queue damn it was a pain...

After that was nice went to all these monuments and came to a father friends house so that is where i am at the moment. Ok remember my last mail about the Bombay Poona expressway .... the roads here are better by a factor of 10 at the least and all the roads are like that....

Got my self an international license the other day so well could take the car out for a spin ;)

May 17th 2004 In Delaware

I am in Delware now ... landed here yesterday from washington...hmmm... nice place this one..
gave my dad a huge lecture as to how jet lag has not affected me and saw myself crash asleep at 6 pm so that was really stupid. Got up at 3 am and well there was no point so just went back to bed..

anways about my day... there is a shuttle bus service here which goes from where i live to the univ... how i wish there was one to pan loop would not have to cycle every day and could have blamed the buses for our delays to the class..

met the prof finally.. he is from PATEL and one gets the feeling he would have been a misfit there :). he got me introduced to the system at large and gave me some stuff to start off on... lots of paper work to go..which means running around and on foot no cycle even...

I also got to know that i am going to miss the whole of Euro 2004 :((((((
cause this country does not care about soccer. i am going to try and see what i can do about that but for the moment its a big big no no for soccer... still something good came out of all this there are guys from england and africa who play here so plan to join them from friday when they
play... they will be more regular once their vacation starts so lets see if i can fit in there..

my timings here are flexible and i have been given the keys to a whole lot of places to work...

by the time i get back i think i just might be good at what i do finally or might just have to apply for a change of guide cause JNB is going to kill me so well the choice is firmly mine..

i am quite sure i am going to go to California for the memorial day weekend which is the end of May :):) the prof told me that there was no problemo taking the time off.. he said as long as you compensate for it else where its fine with me.. read as long as u slog ur sorry ass u can go anywhere...
and i guess he really meant it..

forgot to mention... i am working on a P4 laptop with a wireless net connection lets just say it rocks

May 21st 2004 I cooked and did not burn the food :)

been a not so great couple of days.. lots of work to do to impress this prof and he demands work... so need to do it i guess.. went galawanting yesterday evening... went to a place called APNA BAZZAR.. it is an indian store nice place u can get all the stuff that u get back in india for a price say three times what u get back in India... there is also a memorobilia store here where u get the official stuff of the college.. nice way to make money.. i guess this college is sponsored by coke in a big way so well just about everything that the official teams wear has the badge of
coke on it.. they also get to monopolize the cafetiria.. not a bad deal... there is also an indoor swimming pool here with it there are a whole line of raquet courts and squah courts.. plus there is a rock climbing wall with all the equipment... there is also a indoor soccer facility will find out if anyone plays at all...
ys almost forgot to mention... this place is semi bright till 8 45 and this is not the limit yet cause we are not yet in July.. ya it also gets bright enough in the morning well before 5 cause i am yet to see anything before that in the morning... crazy.. feeling u thinks its 6 and then u see the
watch and u get the rude shock that well its 8... ya me certainly going to California next week if i can manage to get to Philadelphia airport... need to figure out how to do that...
almost forgot i cooked yesterday under the guidance of one of my room mates here.. it was the basic bhindi ki subzi.. came out quite well... :):) this weekend the kitchen is mine and i am expected to cook one of the meals all on my own.. poor roomates i have no idea how they are going to manage on my food.. oh ya poor me as well...

anyways that is all for now more later about my cooking surely will be there in subsequent mails...
advice to guys give it a shot its fun...

May 28th 2004 In California

Well me in california and having the time of my life.. let me start from the begining... left Newark at around 12 30 for a place called Wilmington in the same state.. took a train from there to Philadelphia Airport.. that took abut an hour or so..by the way this airport has four railway stations that serve it one for each terminal .. makes travelling quite cheap..
was in the airport at roughly 4 pm... checked in.. united airways has amazing food but useless in flight entertainment in the domestic sector.. anyways got home here in califonia at around 10 pm ...San fransico aport has only about 85 odd docking bays for planes .... and has a 5 storeyed paking lot ... indian airport have major catching up to do...

day 1 proper.. we went to a red wood sanctuary.. the place was really cold for start and was beautiful.. these trees are like huge things the largest in the park is about 300 ft tall and well measures about 17 ft in dia... most of the trees grow in such a way that u can't quite see the
top of the trees.. this one being no different.. they are also quite old..
there was a bark cut out which was about 2000 years old.. wow they are old tall and thick at that..
after that we went over to santa cruz where i touched the pacific which let me put it was freezing cold.. and in all that there were people surfing.. not the best show for the viewers cause they were no surfs for them to surf on but it was facinating and they tried to put on a show.... had some thing called falfal which is some kind of vada put in a sandwich pretty nice stuff happens to be syrian food or some where in the middle east i was told and also had baklava which had some amazing pista filling and walnut filling two different favours for desert...

Ok the day finsihed with SHREK 2.. and it was just as good as the first.. please do look out for the digs that they have taken at a lot of other movies and things in this movie.. it was total entertainment.. went with my two kid cousins for this one and they also seemed to like the whole thing...


May 29th 2004 Day 2 California

day 2 california was far less hectic than the first day but enjoable never the less.. went to my kid cousin's base ball game in the morning. u'd be amazed how far these tiny 8 year olds can hit a ball... had me stuned and also the fact that there was this really small kid who seemed to be able to put the ball much further than all the kids.. cousin did quite well actually so he really had a ball of a time... the place is like a family weekend out as all the kids family is there either cheering or playing base ball in one league or the other.. then the after noon we went to STANFORD UNIV... wow the place is amazing..... could go on and on
about the place... has a really nice church and well has a few libraries.. and a museum as well all in the campus... my uncle is an alumnus so he told me stuff about the place... and took us all on a guided tour..
after that we went to this place where my chotu cousins were at a party... ended up meeting an iit kgp alumus among others... we got talking and it really was a fun time there... by the way all the people there were from some iit or the other.. and each of them was sento about his or her iit.. u really had all the wives cribbing about that for sure... guess we are all going to be in trouble sooner or later....

after that we went to this malaysian food joint.. the food was really nice had a variety of food there and well we are back home now...
the high point of today was surely stanford it was just stunning... will go and visit berkley on monday probably... lets see..
as for tomorrow no concrete plans another cousin of mine has come over from LA we might go for an air show near by... for those who know about airshows the thunderbirds are performing... they are the best in the business...


May 30th 2004 Day 2 the day of "THE THUNDERBIRDS"

day 3 was special in a lot of ways.. ok i shall get to the amazing part a little later.. we went to palo alto and sunnyvale.. for those of you who are a little less informed this is where the silicon valley began.. and well you look left and right on the road and you see all the big names Cisco, HP, Yahoo, Juniper, they are all here .. if u exanded the radius a little more guess what both AMD and intel are have their head quaters here...it was like going through the who's who of the computer industry..

we actually left for the air show.. and i happened to see all these companies it was just amazing.. coming to the air show..and as of now i think the highlight of the trip.. saw all these planes from up close stuff if they were in india u would not be left to within a mile of.. then came the various displays...
"The THNUDERBIRDS" ok this is an elite group of 6 pilots who do stunts using the F-16 aircraft.. they were stunning and to give u an idea of the kind of stuff they do.. well they fly at about 400 miles per hour and in a diamond formation with about 18 inches between two planes... just give this a thought .. and ya they do loop the loops and all sorts of stunts keeping
roughly the same distance.. some where in all this there is one guy who hits u with a sonic boom.. wow that was something.. one advice to one and all.. if u get a chance to see these guys perform don't miss it for anything..
cause to be amazed at what these guys do u do not have to be a fan of the planes like some of us .. u will be amazed at what they do just by looking at them.. i still cannot forget that display and i for sure am if i get an opportunity visit this show again... i could go on and on but i shall stop
about this now..

after this me and my kid cousin went to an entertainment park in santa cruz... the place on the coast of the pacific.. went on my first roller coaster.... went on a few more rides after that and called it a day...

i am going to remember this trip for sure for the air display that the thunderbirds put on and yes for tomorrow when i see the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE... in San Fransisco... the mail about the final day will probably
reach ur desk a little later..

still in awe of the thunderbirds..


Jun 1, 2004 Day 4 The Final Day

ok the final day's report of my trip to california coming up here..

ok day began with us driving down to sanfransisco...drove down the bay bridge.. this is a half suspension half truss bridge..with an island in the middle.. from this island it calls treasure island...u get a fantastic view of the golden gate bridge from here..


we then drive to down to Univ of california, Berkley.. this like stanford has a well defined campus.. has a beautiful tower called campanille.. the top of this tower has a set of bells that can be played with a set of levers from the bottom.. someone when we went there was acually practicing it sounded really good...

i would say that berkley looks better cause its greener.. and quite a bit smaller.. and is set on a mountain... i am almost selling this place..
ok after that we had lunch and went to the most important attraction in san fransisco.. the Golden Gate Bridge.. it is as beautiful in reality as in all the pictures.. took a lot of pics of it.. lets see how it comes.. after that we went to the coit tower nice place donated by this lasy way
back in the 1933.. after that we went to pier 39 this place is about 25 years old and has a colony of sea lions on it all through the years.. also those that u see in the pic are super lazy cause at this time of the year
they are supposed to migrate...

finally... we went on the famous sanfransisco cable car .. basically these run with a really cool machanism.. will explain it when i get back..

that is all from me.. i am back in delaware :( and worse back to acads...
:((

well will go to NY sometime in the third week of june till then well all i am going to write about is acads...


June 4th 2004 one more in the chain of mails...

i sometimes seem to want to write mails even when there is not much to write or for that matter mention in my current state.. i have no idea what u call this but i shall go ahead and write this mail.. well my prof is much happier with me now than the beginning .. well so happy that he actually gave me his cycle for the first time i actually liked riding a cycle.. by the way the
bike is a nice 10 gear cycle.. don't believe i have come to a state where i am actually appreciating a cycle.. but it does in a place like this gives amazing convinience... anyways just got hold of it today.. by the way a few people have been comenting on both my writing style and its content.. well one of my old teacher who happened to read this mail had this to say about my mails " they are good cause they have a narrative style at the same time they have your personal thoughts in it as well." and yes let me mention that this was told by an english teacher of mine..:-):-):-). i was so happy which is half the reason i am writing this mail... i am still wondering whether or not to go for Harry Potter.. if some one could please watch it and tell me if its worth watching that will may be save me some money here... hey mishra another review would be nice.. please do me a favour just tell me whether to watch it or not.. stuff on the story well keep it for
later..
that's all for the normal junta so all the best..

ooh yes the remainder of this mail is just for soccer fans or someone who just wants to read on i am not going to stop u..:) hmm just one more thing to write about i found out just today that to watch the Euro 2004 i need to pay per match a fee and watch the tournament.. can u believe that.. ooh yes i also forgot to mention.. this fees could be quite high as much as 30 dollars depening on the match :(((((.. i have been trying to find people to watch matches ever since.. i guess for start i can watch the england france game cause its on a saturday or sunday so that is good apart from that i guess i miss most of the first round big games so well i am hoping that one
of u guys as in rito or shayak or mihir those who are going to be lucky to watch the matches can mail me..about how the matches were.... i almost feel like crying.. anyways that is all from me for now..

June 7th 2004 An attempt at watching a HINDI MOVIE :)

well even when i voluntarily land up at a cinema theatre and want to watch a hindi movie something seems to go wrong.. this happened with the movie HUM TUM... At the theatre the movie started and volla 1 hour 15 minutes later it was over.. amazing for a hindi movie.. not when u paid all of 8 dollars for it.. guess what they showed us only the second half :) which i must admit was pretty good.. so end of the day they had little choice but to refund us our money.. i wish they had shown us the first part after the second... we would have still got the refund and well i would have seen the whole movie... sounds better i guess.. anyways that was that.. will watch harry potter with the money i saved.. And yes am waiting for that god movie which releases on the 11th which features my favorite cat. yes the one and only GARFIELD...

that's all from me for now...

guess that is as short as my mails are going to come...

June 25th 2004 I drove in the USA

I felt like a guy who was driving a formula 1 race car for the first time.. then the nerves settled before i knew it i was in command.. my feelings when i got behind the wheels of a FORD TAURUS.. It was fantastic.. Well folks i am New York for the weekend.. Rented a car thanks to my room mate really.. cause i did not have the necessary documents to rent a car by myself.. the drive from Newark to Jersey City taking me a little over 2hours and 15 min i guess.. and it was one amazing experience.. i drove at an average speed of almost 65 miles an hour and man guess what i was driving on the slowest lane. abviously every other guy was breaking the speed limit as if it was his or her baap ka raj..:) I did not want to do anything stupid not when i am a beginner.. but the whole way was fantastic.. it was an absolute pleasure to drive.. To make my experience even more memorable the weather intervined and it rained all the way from when i left to when i got down from the car.. and then it cleared up:) hopefully when i am sightseeing i will have the clear blue skies and the weather god will be by my side..

This my best day in America yet after the thunderbirds :) .. the day i sat behind the wheels in the USA:):)

still can't stop beaming :D

June 28th 2004 To Ny and back

Well i am back from my adventure called NY... Let me tell u what i think of NY... Its Bombay part 2 that is all and ya its a lot more expensive i guess apart from that... on day 1 it took us the better part of 1 hour to find parking. guess why cause some movie maker had cordended off this entire block and allowed only passage and no parking.. i mean that is so india like.. We just went to the usual places time square ampire state building..(phey its huge) adn when u are driving around in a convertible it really rocks :) oh yes did i mention that it was a BMW.. yes folks a BMW convertible.. man it was awesome.. the wind in your hair.. now i know what the feels like... west drove around NY aimlessly.. as my cousin told me what place i was in.. lovely.. by the way we have only temples in the middle of the road right.. well NY has the wholeof Grand central terminus there and to top that there is also a another huge building.. (originally the PANAM

building now some other company ) its right there in the middle of the road.. the road has to bend all around it.. that was so stupid... ANyway on the first day we went for this movie called Farenheit 9-11.. well its about how stupid George Bush is and well why he did what he did.. including facts that he let the whole of the bin laden family leave us 2 days after 9 11 and stuff.. it was so funny the whole documentry was a democrats campaign for the upcomoing election.. at the end of the show the whole audience had an ovation for the documnetry.. i guess we were lucky to get tickets on sat night cause most of the country its house full which is kind of rare in this country as such...
anyways onto day 2 where it was time to visit the Statue of Liberty.. On the way we dropped off at ellis island.. now this place is where the imigrants landed back in the late 19th century and all the way till 1924.. unfortunately after they passed a stupid law which prevented all of us walking into US and not getting a US passport.. they had a 2% reject rate now that is amazing right... lucky guys who made it before that :) its a museum of Immagration that is what that place is. we then went to the Statue of Liberty.. nice place .. the view of manhattan from the boat is an absoulte worth see..

after that we went to grab a bite at the indian area.. i mean that place has it all... patel video rental.. to arun driving school to the hyderabad cafe.. i mean between those two street lights its a mini india.. only the cars are a bit better and well no one really follows any of the traffic law there and well i do not think the police really care too much anyways..:)

then it was time to leave for home.. well the drive back was amazing.. classic rock stations to keep my company all the way till i reached back...+ a traffic jam for no forseable reason.. on the highway.. it took me a lot longer to get back..

oh ya forgot the appartment where i was staying as in my cousins place has this awesome home theatre system.. with a 53 inch TV.. it was amazing listening to music on that one.. aaah what pleasure not to mention the 15 mintues of the england swi game that i saw a rerun of on high definition TV.. it rocked...

Anyway i guess this is my last travelouge unless i decide to roam around Washington... lets see about that... that will however be just before i leave for india say 14th of the next month if at all i do it :) until then its going to be the stupid mails :)