Vintage Pics-3 Bryce Canyon Utah

Pics from Bryce Canyon.

Outdoors in Indore

This is the best season at Indore with rains, and greenery. Also a great time to go out. So we did. Joined by a friend from Vizag, we took a short road trip to Mandu, by a road less travelled.

Circumnavigating the U.S.

Actually it was a road trip, that we first undertook in 1986 as students, and went across the U.S. from the East Coast to the West and back. On the way, we stayed with friends in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas.

Some places on the way that were significant, were the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. This (Petrified Forest) has logs of wood that have turned into multicoloured stone logs due to embedded minerals. Later, I discovered similar petrified logs in India in Mandu, near Indore (in a badly maintained park). Here is a pic from Mandu.

There was also a meteorite crater in Arizona that we went to. After a visit to the Lonar crater lake in Buldana district many years later., I realised this (Lonar) was more impressive. In Los Angeles, we went to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and NBC studios where The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was shot every day of the week. Also saw Hollywood (nothing much to see), Beverly Hills where the stars live, and the Star Walk (they have their names carved in the walkway). It was a great experience, with Kiran, a friend, as our local guide.

Of Jaisalmer and Rajasthan

We drove, a group of six, to Jaisalmer to visit the sand dunes. So now, we can claim to have "dune" it! Or, the dudes who dune it, in Americanese.

We stuck to the highways, except where it was inevitable. Advice from  faculty colleague from Rajasthan helped us select the best routes (via close to Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, and back via Jodhpur, Udaipur) and some of the highways were fantastic. Reminded me of the long circular drives where we went to around 20 US states each time (we did that twice)-Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon and South Dakota's Mount Rushmore remain etched in memory. Roads have a spinoff effect, and can take the country ahead. So does the metro railway, and Mumbai has developed due to its famed local trains more than anything else. Commuters like a predictable journey time.

Anyway, back to Jaisalmer. Dunes are fun, and every park should have a sand dune in my view. Camel rides are fun too, though some camels look starved. They should be fed well. We also did the dune thing, that is, stayed in a tent for the night, and listened to Rajasthani folk sing their thing and dance their tunes out in the dunes. Ok, I am almost dun with the dunes. For now. More later, with pics.

Munnar Musings

Going to God's own Country, Kerala, makes you susceptible to musings. Atal Behari Vajpayee mused when in Kumarakom. So did I, between bouts of Golf in Munnar. We drove from Coimbatore there, but you can also drive from Aluva or Kochi in Kerala, the nearest points of entry by air (known to me)-about 4 hours by road. Trichy or Madurai too, a little longer I guess-5-6 hours, maybe. We saw a lot of windmills turning out power on the drive from Coimbatore. Chinnakalan is actually where we stayed (at Sterling Resorts, pic below), about 20 kms. away from the golf course which is close to the town. It is a town that reminded me of Coonoor, or Kotagiri

.

The quiet greenery only turns boisterous in the town centre, with lots of taxis (jeeps are ubiquitous), autos and tourists jostling for space. The wannabe guides are many, wanting to show you around. Since we were focused on golf, we did not use their services.

Half the town is owned by the Kannan Devan plantations of the Tata group, and another quarter by the Harrisons Malayalam group, both into growing tea. The Malayali tea shops were in good numbers all over, and so were the shops selling fresh crop from the plantations, along with spices, oils and home-made chocolates. It rained in the afternoons, but we managed a good game thanks to the friendly staff, in the mornings.

My major musings were that-

1. We make too much of a fuss about the small things, while the big ones remain unattended.
2. It takes (a lot of) practice to get good at anything.
3. It is great fun to go on road trips with a bunch of guys you know well.

And no, we did not take a selfie! Nor did we eat Muesli while we mused.