Traveling is good
Lugano is a Swiss town some 80 kms away from Milan. Parco Civico means Civil Park. It was a gorgeous park with well laid out grass, trees and plenty of flowers. This is the summer time here and flowers in bloom. Lot of locals and tourists had also come to the park resting on benches, walking or jogging. The tranquility in the air was amazing. The lake itself seemed quite huge with hills rising from its banks.
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Gaddis are basically a nomadic tribe who mainly lead a pastoral life depending on their cattle for their livelihood and wander in the high altitude alpine meadows for green and protein rich grass for their cattle and the nectar like pure water. These gaddis seem to be the happiest souls in the world without any worry cheering and living life happily in the lap of mother nature enjoying her eternal and purest beauty to the fullest. You envy at their life for a moment and then wish if you were born a gaddi, maybe in your next life…:)
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I happened to visit Milan for a technical conference for 4 days. When I heard of the impending visit, I was amused that of…
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We visited Tulip festival first time in April 2002, and after that it was a yearly to do event. I didn’t knew about Tulip festival till my friend Amit asked me if we are interesting to go there coming weekend. I said yes, I was having office provided rental car that time, and pretty excited for a long drive. But my friend shattred my dream saying that he will take his car as I am not not an experienced driver in United States, I argued for some time without any luck. Anyway, it was a sunny day, not very common in Seattle, we took I-5 North towards Vancouver, I-5 connects West side of Canada and Mexico, passing through Washington, Oregon and California states. We were 3 families and it took about 2 hours of drive as I-5 is crowded, seems that everybody was driving towards Tulips. We took Exit 231 for Tulips, and I think it was wrong exit or it was much closer to Tulip fields.
Prasad, one of the other friend, took the charge as guide as he was supposed to be knowledgable about different Tulip fields. There are multiple Tulip fields, and you can see different colors of Tulip flowers like red, yellow, orange, white, magenta, some mixed color Tulips. We entered the first field, and it was the WOW moment, a Kodak moment, “Dekha 1 khwab to ye silsile…” moment. As it was a sunny day, place was crowded, everybody was taking pictures, we also settled ourselv and took few pictures. I didn’t had a any camera that time, so I was completely dependent on my friends.
Like Delhi, Rome is also circular and even has a ring road (called Autostrada) that is about 56 kms long. So travelling from one place to another takes a maximum of an hour in regular traffic. Cab fares begin from 4 Euros and for a single hop should not exceed 30.
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After swimming, evening walk, pictures, ladies dressed in nice costumes, we took a shuttle from our hotel to Disney hotel for the dinner. Disney hotel is built on Disney theme and it is beautiful, from outside and inside as well. Dinner was in “Enchanted Garden” Restaurant, it’s a very up-scale restaurant with a huge variety of food items in the buffet. It’s a multi-cuisine buffet, Asian, Italian, continental, European and on top of that Indian food – “aur kya chahiye desi ko”. Huge variety of Meat items, variety of sea food, poultry, must say that it’s a fiesta for meat lovers, vegetarians can also find lots of variety but not comparable to non-vegetarian items, Indian food too had Lamb, Chicken and Dal, but it was well prepared. During the dinner, all Disney Characters were visiting each and every table, kids as well as adults were super excited meeting Mickey, Mini, Goofy, Pluto and having photographed with them. We enjoyed a lot there for about 2 hours, good food, nice ambiance and on top of that Dinner with Mickey, Mini and others and came back to our hotel with unforgettable memories.
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Santiago de Guayaquil, largest and most populous city of Ecuador is on the banks of the river called “Guayasâ€. It’s about 155 Miles away from Quito. The best part I liked about Guayaquil airport is that there is a Wi fi connection and its FREE. Most of the airports in the world charge for wi fi (McCarran in Vegas is also free). The worst part for me , being a smoker, was that we could not smoke at the airport. They have not catered for smoking at all unless you have money you want to just blow up.
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It all happened in a jiffy. Our daughter, Shaguna, who was doing a project along with three of her colleagues at Geneva, called my…
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I’ve always had a fascination for volcanoes. The sheer power exuded by nature in it’s form kept me awed and humbled whenever I watched volcanoes erupting on TV channels. Living in Seattle provided a wonderful opportunity to explore the volcanic mountains of the Pacific North West (like Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, and Mount St. Helens). The most interesting amongst these is Mount St. Helens that last erupted in 1980 (5.1 on Richter scale), scooping off the head of the mountain in the process and making it “the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.â€As quoted in the wikipedia, “The volcano is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes. This volcano is well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows.â€
You can visit either the north face of the Helens or the South face (you can’t do both in a day). I have been told that the north face has the best view of the crater (and is closer to Seattle as well). The southern face has interesting points like Ape Caves, but I am yet to visit it.
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This was my main reason of visiting Portugal. The sheer beauty of it is amazing. Of the very little time I spent in Portugal, I experienced a little bit of everything. It is like eating a fancy buffet, where you get to taste everything you have wanted to eat. Coastal Portugal has some of the most amazing sights of the Atlantic Ocean. The little fishing villages, the churches, the bell towers, and the winding streets were a welcome relief from the predictable big cities and the monotonous freeways of America. There is history written all over Portugal. There is a great balance of city beauty coupled with rustic country beauty. There are beautiful churches, castles and palaces. The view of the bay from Lisbon is amazing. If you can endure the heat, the weather is awesome. Portugal is easily one of the most beautiful countries I have visited.
Travel tip: The westernmost point of continental Europe is located in Portugal, and is must see.
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By Devasmita Chakraverty Once the conference was over, we had a few days to explore Puerto Rico. The first day, we decided to explore…
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Driving in Puerto Rico is not for the faint-hearted. You get used to it of course. As I started to drive somewhat nervously, I realized that not only were the signs in Spanish, but the driving somewhat resembled the aggressive driving in India. Some of the bylanes were filled with potholes and without lane demarcations. Pedestrians just flagged you down trying to cross busy streets, something you never get used to unless you have driven in India. The roads close to the hostel were tiny compared to mainland US standards, often the car from the opposite would have to stop to let you pass, and I would have to find parallel parking on the street, something I am not very good at. When I parallel parked my car, half my car was hoisted up the pavement, just like every other car before and after mine. I said a silent prayer as I prepped myself for five days of driving around the island and parking. The next day, I was kicking ass, innocuously breaking a few driving rules, cruising through the potholes, and navigating my way with a confidence as if I have always driven here. It is amazing how fast your brain gets used to doing things. Some of the Spanish words I learned while driving were “Pare†(to stop) and “Salida†(an exit).
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