Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI

Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

 

In my previous post, I gave you a virtual tour of Melbourne. We now proceed to the next part of our Australia sojourn. Sydney is to Australia what New York is to the US – a vibrant city with a charge that’s electric, and a tingle that lingers long after. With its fantastic ocean-side setting, stellar beaches, fabulously beautiful people, breathtaking views and remarkable architecture, Sydney is truly a visitor’s dream. Sydney is as dynamic as Melbourne is reserved. It has all the vigour of a world-class, multi-cultural city, which opens its arms to people from all around the world.

We landed in Sydney on a Sunday afternoon and decided to start our tour by paying a tribute to one of the world’s greatest harbours – the splendid Sydney Harbour.

This harbour is the pulse of the city and the people of Sydney are proud of the polyglottal, multi-cultural melting pot that has grown up around this blue-green shimmering central organ. The harbour offers a magnificent view of the sea, and its jagged jaws are filled with a flotilla of racing yachts, ferries and cabin cruisers.

The U-shaped pier, called Circular Quay, extends around 2 km on each side, with the iconic Sydney Opera House on one end and Sydney Harbour Bridge on the other.
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I’ve never believed in filling up contest forms, for the simple reason that I feel it’s almost impossible to win among the lakhs of entries. Did you hear me say ‘almost’? Well, yes, because once in a lifetime, fate may spring a pleasant surprise on you. As it did for me! It was this fate that made me fill up a lucky draw contest form at Inox movie theatre when I went to watch the Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Chak De India’ in 2007. Call it karma, destiny or plain luck – I landed up being the sole winner of the contest! And the prize was an all-expense paid trip for two to Melbourne! So with great excitement, my husband and I ventured Down Under in April 2008 with a free Melbourne stay under our belt and a not-so-free trip to Sydney thrown in at our own expense.

Though Melbourne doesn’t have any iconic claim to fame, its ‘liveability’ is one of its greatest attractions. It’s a laid-back city with an endearing mix of old and new-world charm… an easy-going, yet sophisticated style. It’s not a place where you need to do something to feel you’re experiencing the city. So you needn’t wander around Melbourne just to tick off ‘must-see’ items on your list!

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Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI

Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

 

In my previous post, I gave you a virtual tour of Sin City, Las Vegas. We now move on to celebrity paradise, Los Angeles. LA, the pulse of Southern California, conjures up countless images, from palm trees and Beverly Hills, to Hollywood and Disneyland. Here, nothing is as it seems. In fact, illusion and misdirection are intrinsic to LA.

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Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI
Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

What do you get when you combine Sin City with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood? Well, you get a chance to embark on a wild ride through time and space, into the recesses of your personal fantasy world! It’s a world where fabulous fakes, dancing waters, blazing infernos and world-class entertainers combine with magical theme parks, mind-blowing animatronics and celluloid dreams. You got it, baby! Welcome to viva Las Vegas and star-struck Los Angeles!

A trip to these two cities is a must if you’re visiting the west coast of USA. From hip-hop Gen Y to grey-haired grannies, from the rich and famous to everyday citizens, there’s something for everyone in Vegas and LA. But first things first – those of you who think Sin City is just a gamblers’ paradise, think again. Apart from the lure of the lucre, there are a number of wondrous sights to be seen here, and many of them, surprisingly, do not involve semi-clad women!

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Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI

Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” This quote by the great African-American botanist and humanitarian, George Washington Carver, never ceases to inspire me whenever I’m travelling. So much so that my one-month long trip to the US seemed incomplete without a visit to two of the most spectacular natural wonders – the Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.

Even though they’re both completely different works of nature and are situated on opposite coasts of the country, they strike a common cord due to their sheer enormity, beauty and the overwhelming experience they provide to visitors. And being intrepid explorers, neither my husband nor I wanted to miss either of these attractions.

NIAGARA FALLS: CASCADING BEAUTY

We touched down on the east coast of USA in the first week of October. Niagara Falls was first on our list because we were told that around end-October, some of the attractions are closed to the public as the water over the Falls starts freezing. Eager to make the most of our journey, we decided to take an overnight Greyhound bus from Penn Station (New Jersey) to Buffalo, from where we switched buses to reach Niagara. Beautiful green countryside, wide roads lined by picturesque cottages and pleasant weather greeted us as we disembarked at the bus-stop and hailed a cab to take us to our hotel.

To our pleasant surprise, our cabbie turned out to be an Indian by the name of Anil Jain. “But you can call me John,” he told us warmly, as we started chatting about life in the US versus India. John’s rags-to-riches story had me hooked – he had come to the US 30 years ago with just $220 in his pocket and was now a multi-millionaire who owned a taxi service company, but continued to drive his own cab! He said he toured various parts of the world with his family every year and even offered us tips for a Caribbean cruise. Wow! This cabbie was really in the big league!

We had booked our stay at Day’s Inn hotel at Niagara Boulevard, thinking it would be close to the Falls. But when we reached our destination, we discovered to our dismay that our ‘hotel’ was actually a motel on the highway, which was miles away from the Falls! On enquiry, we found there’s another Day’s Inn hotel close to the Falls, but because of the similar name, many tourists land up here at this smaller motel at Niagara Boulevard, thinking it’s the same one at Niagara Falls. More so since this motel offered rooms at half the price!

Anyway, our desi connection didn’t end with the cabbie; the motel owner turned out to be an Indian too – who else, but another one of those ubiquitous Gujaratis who have revolutionalised Uncle Sam’s motel business! True Gujarati that he was, Ricky (aka Rakesh) Patel was at his hospitable best and assured us we would have no dietary problems due to our vegetarian food habits, since his mother herself was a vegetarian! On Patel bhai’s recommendation, we booked a ‘Bedore Tour’ for the afternoon, which would take us to the Falls. Our bus driver-cum-tour guide, Ivan, promptly arrived to pick us up and we set off to view the thundering falls that have lured lovers, poets and adventurers for centuries…

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Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI

Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

 

If you’re on a one-month travel extravaganza, it doesn’t get any bigger than the Big Apple. One of the most vibrant and significant metropolises on the globe, New York is an adrenaline-charged, history-laden place that holds immense appeal for all visitors. At the same time, it’s the most beguiling city in the world – it’s got its fair share of the poor and homeless, along with world-class museums, big statues, even bigger buildings, outrageous excess and a whole lot of bling-bling!

But let’s start at the beginning. We got an idea about how big a deal NY really is even before we left aamchi Mumbai! We had anticipated long, serpentine queues and tight security at the airport, but we certainly weren’t prepared for an identity crisis! Well, the thing is, I had carried both my old and new passports, and the Continental Airlines staff just couldn’t recognise me as per my old passport photo, since it was taken 15 years ago! I tried reasoning with them that they should check my new passport instead, since that carried my latest photo, but to no avail. After much deliberation and questioning – during which two staffers alternately stared at me and my passport for 15 minutes – I was identified by the infamous cut on my right eyebrow and ‘cleared’ to depart for the US of A!

Finally, we boarded our non-stop flight to Newark Liberty International Airport, hoping to be pampered for the next 16 hours. In retrospect, that seems wishful thinking. Leave alone pampering, we weren’t even served a glass of water for the first two hours, despite repeated pleas! It seemed the air-hostesses just couldn’t be bothered with lesser mortals (read ‘desis’) like us, when they had more important customers to attend to in business class. To make matters worse, the in-flight entertainment system was faulty. As a result, we saw a three-hour Bollywood blockbuster in one hour flat, because it was shown in fast-forward mode! The only service we got was during meal times, which was punctuated by repeated requests from an old Gujarati lady seated beside me. Since she didn’t know a word of English or Hindi, I had to continuously act as an interpreter between her and the air-hostess, enquiring about her food, wheel-chair and immigration requirements. By the time we landed, the old lady had adopted me as her daughter and bestowed me with enough blessings to last a lifetime! And so it was that our first trip to the US got off to an eventful start…

We were staying with my sister-in-law’s family in Jersey City, just one station away from New York City. It was a cosy apartment overlooking the Hudson river, with a fantastic view of the Manhattan skyline.

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Few cities capture the spirit of romance like Venice. Enchanting and quaint, the city is a work of art in itself.

Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI

Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

It was love at first sight. It was everything we had imagined and more… Boarding our private water taxi outside Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo and gazing for the first time at the Venetian skyline is a memory that will stay with us forever. The buzz of the place, sparkling water, numerous boats, quaint buildings – all combined to create an image like nothing we had seen before. Venice is enchanting, romantic and iconic, bustling with life yet crumbling and ghostly. Everywhere we looked, it seemed like we were inside a painting or a film set arranged around picturesque canals.

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One can never forget the simple grandeur of the holiest Sikh shrine, the silent valour of Jallianwala Bagh and Wagah’s patriotic fervour

Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI
Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

What do you get when you combine a Great Indian Sikh Wedding with a visit to the holiest of Sikh shrines? You get a Punjabi tadka with a spiritual touch… and that’s exactly what we experienced when we went to Chandigarh one weekend in October 2008 to attend a friend’s wedding, followed by a whirlwind trip to Amritsar. We reached Amritsar at around noon after a five-hour road journey from Chandigarh. Since we just had half a day to cover the entire city, we immediately proceeded to the Golden Temple, which was just a stone’s throw away from our hotel, CJ International.

Amritsaris the epicentre of the Sikh faith, but it is not only Sikhs who come here. Despite its sacred status, the Golden Temple draws people from all faiths and countries. And we got ample proof of this when we saw hordes of Indian and foreign tourists as well as devotees making their way to what can be termed the most tangibly spiritual place in the country.

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