Astitva.... The Fountainhead

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Where have I been #3

This post has been on the wait list for a very long time. I have realized that at this pace of blogging it would be a very long time before I can catch up with the present. Hence this post will be summary of events till date. I am sure there are people waiting to know abt what happened in Scotland, Sorry folks but a summary is absolutely necessary else catching up will take a long time. I had to pick up my travel journal to look up the details as my memory fails me on the events in England and Scotland.

Places visited in England-
  • All of London tourist places. I spent 12 hours in Central London for a few days which ensured that I knew the entire city inside out. It came to the point that I was giving directions to a lot of people who looked like tourists. Places include Trafalgar Square, London Art museum, Queens palace, Tower Bridge(yes I saw it opening and closing while a ship pass by), Hyde Park, Green park, Piccadilly, Leicester, Marble Arch, Nottinghill, Kensington Gardens, Kings Cross, Madame Tussauds, London Eye and many many more.
  • Oxford – Fascinating, looks like you have traveled back in time.
  • Greenwich – Awesome, It is surprising how a place as small as this can make such a big impact on the world.
  • Southall – It’s as Indian as it gets. It’s a north Indian version of Serangoon.
  • Windsor Castle – They do display all they took from Tipu Sultan. Apparently it was all presented to the queen.

Scotland Trip – 7 days in Scotland. Refer to Map to get clear picture.
Day 1 – London to Edinburgh. Dinner in town with drinks and time spent chatting with Kiwis, Aussies and Canadians. The castle was just next door and looks great in the night.

Day 2 – Edinburgh to Oban – William Wallace Monument, Rob Roy’s grave, Kilchourn Castle, Rare Breeds Farm and reaching Oban by 6 pm. Evening started with lot of beer, followed by some burgers and chips and then a hell lot of beer and fun. Given you are travelling with 22 people out of which there are 6 guys… hmmm. It was mainly Kiwi, Aussie and US crowd with me being the loner Asian.

Day 3 – Oban to Isle of Skye. GlenCoe (nature at its best), Eilean Donan Castle, Kyleakin and the awesome Isle of Skye (north-west end of Scotland which is simply one place not missing when u are in Scotland). Early evening starting with lots of beer followed by an excellent serving of some vegetable curry and ended with a lot more Beer. Late night was spent in the cosy lounge with a roaring fire and a lot of games. Some ladies get drunk and went out of control.

Day 4 –Travelling within Isle of Skye –Sligichan Burn river, Glen Siaden, Quiirang, Scotch Brewery(which did involve tasting 12 year old scotch), Saucy Mary(bar). Evening involved noodles, Vodka, Scotch and lots of Beer again. Kicked a lot of local ass at Pool

Day 5 - Isle of Skye to Pitlockry. Kintail(5 mountain range), Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, Glen Affric, Iverness(had the best Pasta I have ever had), Indian Dinner and an early night. Did I forget to mention pool and Beer.

Day 6 - Pitlockry to Edinburgh. River Tay, some waterfalls, Dunkleld cathedral, running stags, skirmish with the rocks on the waterfall, Hermitage and then to good old Edinburgh. Evening was good food, gals teasing waiters, lots of wine, more vodka, seeing aussie gals finish 2 bottles of wine in an hour(wow), lotsa dancing, bar hopping with my usual crowd and a very late night… hmmm

Day 7 – EdinBurgh to London. Slow and sad drive back… not much done.. exchanged contacts…

That’s ends my UK trip. Off from London to Houston. Then to LA and then Singapore. Missed flights and lost baggage at LA. Courtesy Continental Airlines.

Since then Till Date-

  • Visited Philippines on work
  • Visited Malaysia on work. Met Bhai there, he was there on work too. Talk about coincidence.
  • Holiday in Desaru – canoe overturned in the sea twice – not a good experience.
Thats all for now.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Where have I been #2

1 week in Houston things did not look that bad. The next 5 weekdays were spent mainly on work. Early evenings (by Singapore work standards) was not much of help considering there was not much to do after work. One great discovery was that Main Street had many great bars that were good places to visit. Most of them served good food and good drinks. Given that there were not many (read “none”) restaurants in that area that could be found open in the evenings, the bars ended up being my dinner hangouts for the next few days. One of those nights was St Peter’s night which got all the entire main Street lit up. I had not seen as much security on any other day in those 2 weeks. Cowboy dressed policemen on huge 7 feet tall horses was a worthwhile sight in itself. It was quite surprising that all clubs/discs have to close by 2:00AM. This was way worse that Singapore where we bitch about discs closing at 4:00 AM. Drinking almost each night in Houston was just a start. I never imagined what the next few days would have in store for me.

I left Houston on Saturday for my holiday to UK. It was my first big holiday in the past 2 years and it had to be a blast. Sis and Jiju were at the Gatwick airport in the wee hours of 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning. How I wish I had gotten a flight to Heathrow instead, Gatwick was too far from their place and comparatively Heathrow was next door. God knows they would have gotten up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport in time. Had a great breakfast cooked by Sis and Jiju. Their place is a very cosy house in the town Maidenhead. Maidenhead is just 40 minutes of train ride from London, its like living in NTU in Singapore if Orchard is the equivalent of London. The concept of small towns is extremely prevalent in UK. A few thousand people get together and that would make a Town. Take some of these Towns and you have a County. Some English may blame me of oversimplifying their great country but that’s how I perceive of it and wouldn’t give a penny’s worth about it.
Thee are many great things to talk about UK, its very green, has some great castles which people tend to preserve and has a lot of historical reference to any place that one may visit. The next 5 days spent in Britain have a lot to be mentioned. Look out for the next post

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Where have I been #1

It has been 2 months since my last post. Those who meet me often know what have I been up to but those who don't must be wondering that where have I been. So here is the inside story.
6th March was a day that started a series of events that would leave a lifelong impression.

I would start from were I left, The LA airport. One act that I forgot to mention in my last post was almost losing Anshul's Camera. I was waiting at the check-in counter at the LA airport for my Houston flight when I kept the Bag containing Anshul's camera on one of the seats I was setting beside. I happily checked in for the flight, went passed security.... bought myself a starbucks coffee and was waiting at the Boarding area when I started having an uneasy feeling about forgetting something. That feeling lasted precisely 20 seconds when I realised what it was. Somehow explained to the security of what had happened and went outside in the check-in area. Lucky me that the security did not realise this bag had been at the seat for the last 30 minutes. Talk about security at the airport, the same security that asks you to remove your shoes and put it through X-ray, remove your laptop from the laptop bag and what not.

The Continental flight from LA to Houston was ok apart from realising the sad part that they do not server veg food on domestic flight even though my flight booking shows a meal preference of Vegetarian. Reaching Houston at 11:45 PM is not the best times. The airport was pretty much deserted, got a cab to the Hotel downtown which took some 40 USD (my first realisation that US can be somewhat expensive).

The next one week was spent mainly on work. The office being walking distance from the hotel was an advantage, though the sad part was that only thing in Downtown Houston were few Hotels and many Offices. Apart from that it was pretty empty. No markets, malls or any places to eat..... There were some pubs along Main Street that were great places to be on Weekends. They turned out to be my dinner destination for the 2 weeks of my stay in Houston.
I only had one weekend to spend in Houston so I made good use of it by visting many places in Houston, the Museum District being the first one....There are many Art museums.... both Contemporary and Classic.... Even visited the Holocast Museum which turned out to be quite good. After I had visited enough Museums to last me for the year, I decided to take a stroll down Rice University. That was one beautiful University with great buildings and a sense of peace about it... After having studied in a university in Singapore you seem to forget what old universities are like and why people take pride in studying there... Visiting Rice was a recollection of that feeling.

The evening was spent at the Flying Saucer pub drinking "Around the World" Beer set. This place has one of the largest beer collections of beer that I have ever seen. Trying beer from 5 different countries without having to go to either one of them lessens the taste though it does tell you something about how far we have come.

The next day was the day for NASA. Long had I waited to visit this place, to see made it what it is known for. Expecting too much can be a regret at times. In this case it was a BIG regret. I will go no further to tell you why I did not like it but I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more had I gone there 10 years ago. The place has been made for kids.
One interesting fact about NASA centre in Houston is that most of the land that it is built on has been leased to them by Rice University at a handsome sum of $1 per year.

(I gotta head out for lunch for now. Will continue in my next post)...