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Eventful trip to India

After my return from a fabulous trip to India, I find myself in doldrums. I had a great time during my sister's marriage (in India)... Though two weeks is too short a trip for this joyous occassion, I still had a blast. The only stuff I did during my trip (Sep 27 - Oct 12) was to eat, have fun, and sleep. Good times~

Check out my Sister's website for updates on her wedding photos, and the rest.

Refreshing trip to San Jose

Just the day before the long weekend, Karthik and I decided to visit San-Jose and San-Fransisco. On arrival, we met my friend Vinoth who lives there at San-Jose. We stayed there for a couple of days, went around the Silicon Valley and had a lot of fun. Just the three of us, it was like what you see in "Dil Chahta Hai".

On Friday (July 4), we had a walk on the Golden Gate Bridge at SF. The view was beautiful, weather was chill, and it never felt like summer. The next day, we visited the Napa-Valley Vineyards during the day, and 'Half Moon Bay' beach in the evening. Running the car through the cool breeze of misty-mountains to the beach was among the best rides I had.



We returned home on Sunday afternoon (July 6) to end a refreshing trip!

Eventful trip to India

Having got a decent deal with Lufthansa airlines, I purchased the flight tickets just a week before my departure to India. On April 17, I boarded the flight to India from Dallas. After 21 hours of travel boredom, I got down the plane at Chennai Intl airport, and felt the breeze of India. Warm and comfy... and it was midnight!

I got done with the routine procedure at the immigration, and had to wait for the baggages to arrive. Lucky me... Both my baggages arrived without wearing out. I then rushed out to meet my loved ones outside the airport. I saw my dad and mom waiting right at the door. We exchanged hugs and kisses, and soon reached home. My sis, grandparents, uncle, aunt, and cousins were all awake to see me come home. We talked for a couple of hours before we all slept for the night.

During my trip to India, my family along with my uncle's family had a 9-day trip to a couple of hill-stations Coorg and Munnar. We quickly visited Mysore and Madurai that were on our way. I'll write more about these places in a separate post. We returned home on May 3.

The next day (on May 4), I was invited as a guest-of-honor at the Rotary club of Vadapalani, where I spoke about "Entrepreneurship and Ethics". I borrowed most of my speech content from this very own blog. After my speech, the president of Rotary club presented me with a memento and a book.

It was my mom's birthday on May 5. My sis and I wished my mom on her birthday, and we gifted her a silver-plated MOM-frame. Also, we got a groom for my sister on this day. In the evening, we all went to celebrate and dine at a nearby restaurant. The next 1 week of my stay in India is filled with shopping, temple-tour and quality time with my family. Packed with lot of memories, I reached US on May 12. In brief, this trip has been very eventful and pleasurable.

A weekend drive to OSU on Mustang

Y'day, I made a day long trip to Oklahoma State University (OSU) to meet a friend of mine. I got the flight from Dallas and OK City, and then drove 1.5 hrs to reach the university. At the airport, I rented a Ford Mustang Coupe and a GPS device to make my trip a lot more fun.

OSU is located in Stillwater, a town close to Oklahoma City. My friend guided me to a quick university tour. I should say OSU is pretty big, especially compared to UTD. The buildings are old like any other univ, and new constructions are in progress. This town reminded me of CollegeStation where Texas A&M univ is located.

I liked the comfort of Ford Mustang'07 as it is similar to my own VW Jetta'06. I however disliked a couple of aspects in Mustang. It gets thirsty often, and craves for gas (i.e. low MPG). I don't complain becoz I knew it before I rented it.

I was surprised at the absence of an Electric Power Steering (EPS). As a result of it, the steering wheel is very sensitive to touch even at high speeds. Thats not safe! Anyways... At end of the day, I had a nice drive on the Mustang, but I always love my own VW Jetta.

Fantastic trip to India

I had a fabulous trip to India for 3 weeks (May 26 - June 19). It was a great feeling to be in the midst of family, relatives & friends with lots of hugs and kisses. I probably gained a few extra pounds from my mom's tasty home food. No matter what amount of traffic, pollution, and hot weather, I loved my stay in my homeland. Time just vanished...

Canada Trip

Downhill Skiing rocks! I've been to Calgary (Canada) on Dec 26, and returned to Dallas on Dec 30. I experienced Downhill skiing, driving a car on snow-filled roads, and a delayed stay due to detour & flight-cancellations. I was accompanied by my friend.

Raft & Rail @ Smoky Moutains

We started our road-trip on Friday evening (26th May) at 9:00 pm, after having a mild dinner at Taco Bell. We are 9 of us seated in 2 vehicles (Dodge Stratus & Crysler Pacifica). This is a trip similar to the one we had to Arkansas last summer. Many of us took turns to drive the car, and sleep in the back seat. On Saturday (27th May), we reached Knoxville, where we stayed for the day, and visited "Lost sea" cavern in the evening.



On Sunday (28th May), we had a raft & rail adventure at Smoky mountains. First, we boarded the train that drove us through the moutains' beatific spots, and to a higher altitude. We then took-up rafting on the wild waters of Nantahala river. Its a 8 mile, 2 hour guide-assisted raft trip down the river. I felt very adventurous, as it was my first time rafting experience. On reaching the valley, we got off the rafting boats, had a shower and a late-lunch buffet.

Our next stop was the near-by city named Gatlinburg, which had a few attractions to its credit. Without wasting much time, we went to a chinese restaurant for 160-variety buffet dinner, and started our way back home at 9:00 pm.

It was Monday noon (29th May) when we reached home... all tired and sleepy. The trip was overall very exciting, adventurous, and a good break from daily life. My photos are coming soon...

Update: Click here to view my trip photos.

Trip to Smoky Mountains

My friends and I are planning a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina for this long weekend (May 29, 2006). It will be a 3 day fun-filled road-adventure, packed with lots to see & experience... Click here for an indepth info on this beautiful vacation spot. Shall let you know more after I get back from the trip...

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Timestamp: 2006-05-27 2006-05-29

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Exploring California

Had a trip to the most expensive state in USA (California) on Dec 24, 2005 to Jan 2, 2006. BTW, Charan lives in Irvine... and this place happened to be the center-spot for all the cities we wished to visit. So, I along with my friends Charan and Pradeep shuttled between Irvine and all the other cities once in 2 days. The places include SanFransisco, LosAngeles, SanDiego and SanJose. We spent the NewYear Eve at LasVegas. The celebrations were grand... and the fireworks were worth watching.

My itenerary included:

San Diego
A visit to the beaches on Coronado Peninsula
Balboa Park – museums, park and zoo
Main shopping district in downtown centers around the architecturally unique Horton Plaza Shopping Center and the Gas Lamp Quarter

Los Angeles
Santa Monica beach
Hollywood Wax Museum
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Walk of Fame
Kodak Theater
Universal Studios
Mystery spot
Beverly Hills
Rodeo Drive
Mulholland Drive: the best view of Los Angeles.
Hollywood Sign
Sunset Strip

San Fransisco
Golden Gate Bridge
Chinatown
Coit Tower & Lombard Street – world’s most crocked street
Golden Gate Park & Japanese Tea Garden
A boat excursion around the harbor & under the bridge

Las Vegas
All Casinos on LasVegas Blvd.

Irvine
Charan's office
Indian Restaurants
Culver Plaza near Charan's house

Thats it... and this gave me a nice break from my routine.

A WEEKEND FULL OF ADVENTURE

Well... This summer is turning out to be a great one. Last weekend (June 11 & 12), my friends and I had an adventure trip to Arkansas. Hey! This state is famous for its outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, trekking, boating, etc. We had every kind of fun here...

On Friday night at 10:00 pm, we started our drive to the best known and largest cave in Arkansas (Blanchard spring caverns). It takes nearly nearly 8 hours of non-stop road drive from Dallas. Then, we visited Hotsprings on our way back to Dallas.

The highways of Arkansas are fenced by huge and dense trees. I found greenery everywhere... The Nature beautic scenes gave a feast for my eyes. A lot of hiking and trekking were done in this trip. We were six of us, and the fun we had was infinite.

It was a great experience in exploring the interiors of the forests, driving on the clean & green highways, climbing up the steep rocks, and getting closer to the waterfalls. We had a grand finale to the trip... Guess what? We had a ride on the ski jet (water scooter). It was a thrilling first-time experience involving a small portion of fear-factor too.

We came back home at 10:00 pm on Sunday. We had an awesome and a memorable trip that weekend.

MY SUMMER TOUR - VEGAS AND GRAND CANYON

One Evening, Naveen and I were having our usual useless talk... and there was a mention about a tour to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. But at that moment, not much thought was given to it. However the next day, both of us started getting ambitious to make this plan work out. We spoke to our room-mate Satyajit, and he at once agreed to join us. Now, we are three of us ready for the trip... but it was very hard for us to find a fourth guy. No one was ready to spend some bucks on a jolly trip to Vegas. After lot of pains, Naveen atlast got hold of Pulkit, convinced him, and we all started off for the yatra on May 7th, 2005. This day is very special to Naveen, as he had his Graduation Ceremony on this day. Naveen is no more a student from now onwards :-)

We rented out a mid-sized car (Dodge Stratus) for 6 days. The car is very spacious for 4 guys, with enough leg-room for the back-seaters. Though the road-trip to Vegas takes nearly 19 hours from Dallas, we were feeling comfortable in the car at any given point of time. We crossed Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and reached Las Vegas located in Nevada. The drive across New Mexico and Arizona was uninteresting due to their barren lands and deserted roads, and not much of living force exists.

May 8, 2005

We reached Vegas at around 10:00 am local time, and had a drive through "Las Vegas Blvd". I was peeping out of the window, gazing at the architecture of the buildings and replication of various monuments. We then drove straight to the hotel where we had our room reserved, moved in our luggage, and got refreshed. At around 3:00 pm, we left the hotel, and started exploring every casino located at "Las Vegas Blvd". At the end of the day, we had covered half of them in Vegas. Some of the casinos visited on this day include... Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, Wynn, Tropicana, Paris, etc.

May 9, 2005

Rrrrrnnnngggg... The cell phone alarm rang early in the morning. We got ready to visit the Hover Dam, which is just 1/2 hr drive from Vegas. It is one of the most beautiful dams in United States. The Dam is built between the walls of the Canyon in 1932. It was built within the budget constraints during the years of depression, and was completed well before its due date. This dam is well know for its architecture and the technologies that were used to build it.

Here are some statistics...
726.4 feet high (221m)
1,244 feet wide (379 m)
660 feet (203 m) thick at the base
45 feet (13 m) thick at the top
$165 million dollars to build
4.5 years to build
4.4 million yards of concrete used for construction
March 1931 building began
Lake Mead serves as its Reservoir
September 30, 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the completed dam

In the afternoon, we went ahead exploring the remaining Casinos in Vegas. They include... Excaliber, MGM Grand, Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Stratosphere, New York, Luxor, Aladdin, and many others.

May 10, 2005

We had our breakfast in the morning, and vacated the city at 10:00 am. A four-hour drive took us to Williams (a small village located near Grand Canyon). We had our room reserved in one of the hotels here. In the evening, we visited Grand Canyon to see the sunset. At my first sight, I was surprised by the vastness and depth of the canyon, and the splendid colors reflected by the layered walls. This canyon was formed by the erosion created by the Colorado river for millions years.

We had a 3-mile walk in the chill weather, admiring at the canyon. After gazing at the canyon for more than 1/2 hr, I was reminded of the fact that nothing is permanent on earth. Its all pure materialism that we go after... instead we should also go insearch of Divinity. The materialistic pleasures should go hand in hand with our search for the TRUTH.

We waited patiently in the cold weather to view the sunset over the canyon. Lot of pics were taken in my digi-cam ofcourse. At around 7:30 pm, we had a chance to see the IMAX film on Grand Canyon that was on our way back to the hotel.

May 11, 2005

We explored the country side stuff at Williams... tasted freshly made sandwiches, spoke to hand-full of people who were living there, watched the "Wild West Show" and the Steam Engine, and visited the museum. For the first time, I've been to the country-side life at US. One thing that surprised me is the tidyness of the village. The roads are very clean and people care very much for their place. The people here are very friendly, and are willing to spend time talking to strangers. This is unlikely the case in urban cities of USA. Anyways, we left the village at 12:00 noon local time. We fortunately visited a Meteor Crator on our way to Dallas.

We reached home at 6:40 am on May 12, 2005. It is indeed a very memorable trip !

STARTED OUR WAY BACK TO DALLAS

We started leaving South Padre in the late-morn, stopping by Subway for brunch. As South Padre is located at the border of Mexico and US, the security personnels checked our passports on our way back to Dallas. Driving is always a pleasure on the higways... and it was a nice weekend road trip we had !

ROAD TRIP TO SOUTH-PADRE

Started on an instantly planned week-end road-trip to South Padre, which is located at the border of US-Mexico. I was accompanied by Vijay and Sushil, and 2 friends of Sushil. We rented a Honda Civic (almost a new one with just 3000 miles driven so far). We all left home in the midnight at around 1:15 am.

MEMORABLE TRIP TO INDIA

I had a splendid trip to India in 7th Dec 2004 to 17 Jan 2005. My 40 days of stay in my homeland seemed to have vanished like a period of 40 minutes. I had many memorable moments with my family during my stay. I visited several temples, had a trip to Tirupathi and Nellore, bought new clothes, etc... I had such emotional attachments with my parents, sis and relatives that I never felt like returning back to USA. However... I had to realize my goals !

TOUR TO SOUTH TEXAS

I along with my friends(Naveen, Vinodh, Satya, Siddharth) had a road trip to South Texas for the weekend. We started off on July 2nd at 4:30pm in Mitsubishi Lancer. Our plan was to visit College Station and go around Texas A&M univ on Friday... Houston & Galveston on Saturday... and San Antonio on Sunday. We were able to execute our plans as we intended to.

On friday (July 2nd), we rented a Mitsubishi Lancer for the same price of a Toyoto Echo at Enterprise Cars. Wow! Its a great DEAL~ We soon started off for a 3.5 hours drive to College Station. Our cameras were put to use at the highway and we had fun taking pics of the flyovers, road-side ranch and the highway traffic at the circuitous roads. I had my laptop with me for some entertainment in the car - play good music, watch video songs and browse the articles that I have in my laptop.

We reached TAMU (Texas A&M univ) at 8:00 pm with ease. We then had a short gossip with Ajit and his room-mates, had our dinner at Cici's and finally, we went around Texas A&M univ along with Ajit. The univ is almost 10 times the size of UTD. Oh my god ! No wonder, it is the biggest univ in Texas. Infact, we could only go around and explore half the university in a duration of 2 hours. Ajit accompanied us during our entire stay in College Station. May be at around 2:00 in the midnight, we had a good nap at his residence.

We got ready for our trip to Houston on Saturday morn at 9:00am and reached NASA at 12:00 noon on July 3rd. We spent nearly 5 hours inside NASA. We had guided tram-tours to International Space Station (ISS) where Astronauts are trained, and to the Machine-Control-Room. These 2 guided tours snatched away most of our time. We also watched a few documentary films and played with simulation stuff. Several facts were told about what it needs to be an astronaut, purpose and performance of Mars Rover, short history & achievements of NASA, and ongoing projects. I then realized the heights in technology that a man could reach with determination. Here, they have a custom to plant an Oak tree for every astronaut who gives away his life for the mission. During the guided tours, we paused at those oak trees for a moment to maintain silence and remember those brave souls.

Galveston was the place of our immediate destiny from Nasa as it was just a 45 minute drive away from there. We had a Domino's pizza at the Galveston Beach for our late-lunch and then, we got into the sea and played with water... though the water is turbid in nature. We played with sand, watched the sea-gulls, had a running race in seawater, and clicked at a few good pics. At 9:30pm, we had our way to San-Antonio.

We started looking out for a good motel when we reached San Antonio at 2:00am. Our search efforts were in vain when we failed to get accomodation in any of them. So, we stopped our car at H.E.B's parking lot and slept in the car that night. At 6:00am on July 4th, we got up from sleep, refreshed ourselves, and had our way to visit the "Tower of Americas". This tower is 750ft high and it has a revolving restaurant at its apex. We could get a view of the entire city from the tower. There were water-fountains, flowers and greenery all around the tower and its a good hang-out spot for the youth. We then had a stroll along the river-walk and enjoyed our way by window-shopping at the shops and admiring the greenery. We had our lunch (sorry... its brunch) at "What-a-Burger" and entered into 'Seaworld'.

At Seaworld in San Antonio, our first show was "The Shamu Adventure". This show gave us the opportunity to witness the beauty of the park's biggest star "Shamu, the killer whale". We got the front few seats hoping to get completely drench in the splash. But, Shamu splashed water at people in several other places around the pool than what we had thought of. So... we came out not getting drenched. However... at the show, the camera man had captured us onto the big screen that was on display for the viewers. The whale performed few good stunts such as flying out of the water, carrying men on its back, and posing infront of the audience. Then, we went to few more shows: Rockin ski party that demonstrates various ski stunts, 'Viva'- White whale and dolphin show, 'Fools with tools'- seals and sealions show, and Riptide- athletic and fast paced show. All the shows were very exclusive, unique and admirable.

We also experienced various water rides such as Texas Splashdown and Water lagoon. At 9:30pm, we watched at some spectacular fireworks to celebrate the Independence Day of America and finally, we watched a special 4D film at the seaworld theatre. Hmmm! Guessing what could be a 4D film. Its too good ~ Its all about experiencing the effects of a 3D film with a water splasher, a blower and a vibrator attached to every seat in the theatre. For some special effects such as a water splash in the movie, water will really be directed onto your face by a water sprinkler attached to your seat. Likewise, air will be blown or vibration will be given at appropriate times while watching the movie. Well! Its something new and fascinating.

At 11:00pm, we had our dinner on our way back to Dallas and we reached home on July 5th, at 5:30am in the morning. Its a great trip... and infact, its my first road trip in US.

TRIP TO INNER SPACE

I had a nice trip today with Rajesh anna's family to 'Inner-Space' (A cavern near Austin). On our way to the cavern, we visited JFK Assasination spot at Dallas Downtown, and had our lunch at the rest-area on the highway (I-35). The highway (I-35) runs north-south leading to most of the important cities in Texas. It took nearly 2.5 hours to reach the cavern named 'INNER SPACE'which is located 20 miles away from Austin. Let me quote a few words about Inner Space from its official website.

"Before its discovery, Inner Space cavern has been hidden for several thousand of years. Then in 1963, a construction crew from the Texas Highway Department found a large system of caves directly beneath the site of Texas' first Interstate Highway (I-35). Members of the crew were the first to enter into the unknown". The first captured photos are available here.

At the Innerspace, a guide came along with us and we all went in a group of nearly 12-15 persons. The cave is very well maintained and its an awesome sight. The limestone dripping from the ceiling and the big mass of snow-white crystal flowstone that covered the walls/ceiling looked splendid. We were not allowed to touch any of them except at 2 specific spots. Some areas had the stickiest kind of mud that u can ever imagine. However, we did not step on that.

It was 6:00 pm when we got into our car. We had our way straight to Starbucks to have coffee, and then to an outlet mall where I got myself a pair of Nike shoes. Then, we went to a mexican restaurant and I had a veggi-burrito. It tasted too good... I reached home at 10:30 pm and I at once switched on my laptop to update my blogsite. Well... thats all for now and I had a grt time for the day.

PICNIC TO FOSSIL RIM

I had a great time today with Rajesh anna's family at Fossil Rim. Its an Animal Safari located far away from the city (nearly 1 and 1/2 hr travel from my univ). The animals were left free to move in a forest-like environment and we could get into the safari in our own wagon. There were no lions and tigers ofcourse~ We fed the animals and lots of photos were taken.... A nice fun at the end. Thanks to anna...