Am in India now spending 4 months at home. Me,bro,dad and mom in one place after what seems like a decade. My mom decided we should make use of the LTC and go some place for a week !! Initially, the plan was to go to Sikkim and Darjeeling but the state declared a band the day before our scheduled departure! So with lots of gruts and financial losses, we rebooked our flights to Rajasthan. I should say that is a decision we dont repent about now! Its a lovely state with beautiful culture and wonderful people ( dressed in bright colors of red, blue, yellow etc etc). The colors might look gaudy in chennai but they looked stunning in that state (strange??). The forts , palaces were decorated in gold and silver (looks like the kings those days were filthy rich).. We started at Jaipur and then followed our route to Jodhpur, jaisalmer and then bikaneer. There are a few events in the trip that i can never forget. One of them being the Jain temple we saw at Bikaneer. The architecture was stunning. The fine carvings on sandstone look like the ones done on wood, they were so precise!! Ofcourse, the sand dunes in Jaisalmer shimmered like gold in the sunset ( a view that you have to see for yourself. no amount of words or photos can match the beauty). The awfully painful camel ride to the desert made it worth even more :D
The weirdest memory is of this temple we visited on our way. My parents walked straight to the interior of the temple while me and my bro were taking baby steps absorbing the beautiful carvings on the temple walls. For some reason i stared down to find millions of rats running in all directions on the temple floor. I was schoked , frightened, terrified ... i yanked my bro and ran out!! A few enquiries outside revealed that the god in the temple was a rat and hence they breed these rodunts there! No amount of persuasion made me get back in there. People around were offended. The story behind it is interesting though. The king of that place had been captured when his son's marriage was about to happen. The queen desperate to have her husband out prayed to the local goddess who took form of a rat and freed the king!! Hence the strong belief in these creatures!!
Luxury hotels, a comfortable car, yummy food ( parathas, nans, rotis with all kinds of side dishes) completed the last minute yet splendid tour of rajasthan!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Trip to Seattle
At Penn, winters are dreadful. It snows all day long, biting cold outside. Days are dull and gloomy as there is nothing much one can do other than go to the university and work, but who wants to do that in the winter break especially after a very painful sem of hard work!!So i decided i would land up in Seattle and trouble my friends there for a couple of days.
For all who are not aware of the place, it rains in seattle in winter and is generally pleasant. doesnt snow much there. But not this time. I ended up there on the night before Christmas and the roads were blocked. Cabs were hesitating to take people from airports to their places!! It snowed like crazy my first week there.
Well then, it cleared a bit and i had the chance to see Lake Washington, Eliott bay, Space needle(from a distance)!! Pleasant for 2 to 3 days, all was well and then the rain god decided i had too much fun!! It has never rained this hard in seattle in the past nor had it snowed that much. What are the odds??!!!
Spent the new year at a friends house playing UNO. I won a lot of games, beginners luck ??
Though the weather didnt treat me nice, i had the chance to meet really nice people!! Laughed my ass out with them and the best of all, AMAZING FOOD!! I had idly sambar after like a decade :) and rock band - man it rocks. its a game on xbox and it was freaking awesum!!
And then when the rain stopped after a day or two, i got to go to a waterfront in Kirkland( a place near where i stayed). it had this really beautiful bridge across the banks of a lake (i think) with ducks and swans quacking their way near the waters!! it was calm and serene!! Quite a romantic place to spend some time sitting and chatting...
I also went to the flight museum , got to learn a large chunk of history about flights, men on moon etc etc. I should say, i enjoyed it. I got to see different flight models :) , it was COOL!!
It was a memorable trip and surely one i enjoyed to the core!!
For all who are not aware of the place, it rains in seattle in winter and is generally pleasant. doesnt snow much there. But not this time. I ended up there on the night before Christmas and the roads were blocked. Cabs were hesitating to take people from airports to their places!! It snowed like crazy my first week there.
Well then, it cleared a bit and i had the chance to see Lake Washington, Eliott bay, Space needle(from a distance)!! Pleasant for 2 to 3 days, all was well and then the rain god decided i had too much fun!! It has never rained this hard in seattle in the past nor had it snowed that much. What are the odds??!!!
Spent the new year at a friends house playing UNO. I won a lot of games, beginners luck ??
Though the weather didnt treat me nice, i had the chance to meet really nice people!! Laughed my ass out with them and the best of all, AMAZING FOOD!! I had idly sambar after like a decade :) and rock band - man it rocks. its a game on xbox and it was freaking awesum!!
And then when the rain stopped after a day or two, i got to go to a waterfront in Kirkland( a place near where i stayed). it had this really beautiful bridge across the banks of a lake (i think) with ducks and swans quacking their way near the waters!! it was calm and serene!! Quite a romantic place to spend some time sitting and chatting...
I also went to the flight museum , got to learn a large chunk of history about flights, men on moon etc etc. I should say, i enjoyed it. I got to see different flight models :) , it was COOL!!
It was a memorable trip and surely one i enjoyed to the core!!
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