Visiting US after 2 years

I went for a one week business trip to US (San Jose) during the second week of June. It was almost 2 years ago, I returned from US after a good long stay. And it was my first trip to the west coast.

I flew by Lufthansa. Not the greatest of the experience, but not bad. At least better than Northwest and Air India. I had flown by Lufthansa before when I returned to US after my marriage. The travel time was less with direct flight from Bangalore to Frankfurt and then to San Francisco. There was only 1 hr 40 min gap at Frankfurt.

I reached SFO (San Francisco Airport) on time at 12:15pm. Since I was told that the best way to get to San Jose was by taxi, I hired one. Taxi was pretty costly. There are other modes which are cheaper and more interesting (like the local train). I would have rather rented a car which would have been cheaper and convenient. But I was not sure if I can drive in US after the gap of 2 years. That was proved wrong when I ultimately decided to rent a car during the end of my trip.

I was staying in Staybridge Suite. Not a big brand, but it had pretty good facilities. It was a kind of full service Suite with complementary breakfast, dinner, laundry, Internet with all other amenities one would expect. The complementary dinner is something I have not seen anywhere else. The hotel is walkable from Cisco campus building 24.

It was spring time in US and the evenings were long. The Milpitas Ranch area was near to the hotel and it had all those shops I used to visit when I was in US. I went to Walmart, Ross, Best Buy, Micheals and refreshed my memories. It is true that in this part of the world every city looks same and very little difference I could feel between Charleston and San Jose when it comes to shopping and restaurants. Did some purchases and also had Chalupa (one of my favorites on the road) at Tacobell. I did not get chance to eat outside since the hotel was serving dinner and we had business dinners the other days.

By Friday when the business meetings were over, I rented a car with Hertz. I booked a compact (to be environment friendly) but they gave me a mini van. After a brief familiarization drive within the city, I drove to San Francisco. The car had "Hertz never lost" GPS system. It is the first time I am using one and it turned out to be a very good experience. It had voice prompting and is very precise in giving directions. It made the trip like a cake walk. Indeed you would never get lost with such a facility. I went to the Bay area and visited Pier 39. The Bay bridge was good. City was less crowded compared to what I had expected it to be. It was very cold there, bit different from San Jose. I wondered how the climate could change so much in 60 miles. The climate was dull and not a good day to take photographs.

On Saturday, I drove the car to SFO airport and caught the flight back home. It was good to be back home.

Hogenakkal Trip

We had a three day holiday due to Ugadi and decided to go out some where. Since Hogenakkal was in news for all the wrong reasons these days, we decided to go there. We started out in the morning in our car around 8:45am and reached Hosur by 9:15 am. Hoganekkal is around 150km from Bangalore.

There are three ways you can go to Hogenakkal from there. First Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Pennagaram and second via Roayakkottai-Palakkod-Pennagaram and third via Denkanikottai. The third route is suppose to be very scenic and the shortest, but the roads are very bad. We were advised not to take that route on our Maruti 800.

We took the Dharmapuri route. Once you get to Krishnagiri, take the flyover and continue. There is a toll road in between we payed Rs.25. The road were good till Krishnagiri and beyond that lot of construction work going on. Still not bad to drive though there are many detours on the way.

Once you reach Dharmapuri junction, turn right to the road going to Hoganekkal. The route will cross Pennagaram 15km before Hogenakkal. On the way you can see many beautiful Ayyanaar statues. We stopped by to take some pictures. Every village in this area has an Ayyanaar statue. We found many en route. The colorful and artistic statues are a treat to look at.

Once we passed Pennagaram, the road goes around mountains with a good view of the forest. It is around 2-3 km before we reached Hogenakkal. On the way we had to cross the forest check post where they noted down the vehicle number and got signature in their register. Also there is an entrance fee of Rs.20 collected here.

Once we reached Hogenakkal, we parked the car in Hotel Tamilnadu parking area towards the end of the road. Parking charge was Rs.10. Before we reached there, near the bus stand there are people selling parking tickets. Do not buy parking tickets from them. Also there is an entrance fees of Rs.20 collected here. After parking, when we got down, there were lot of guys with blue color shirts coming behind us offering to take us on boat ride. They were asking for Rs.400 for a to and fro ride. There are many road side shops selling fried fish. In fact, these shops are there everywhere inside the water fall area.

We went inside the waterfalls area through a row of shops. At many points there are people with tickets for proceeding further. On the way there are many fried fish shops and people were taking oil massage. There is a government notice board displaying the price for boat, massage etc. Also warning visitors about verifying the credentials of the boatmen before hiring them. We reached the hanging bridge where we saw the mini falls. The hanging bridge got its name from the fact that it is hanging on iron ropes tied from one end to the other. Here is a photo from the hanging bridge showing the mini falls.

After crossing the bridge, you get into a rocky area before you cross the water to get into the main falls area. There is a observation tower when we can see the falls from away. But the real treat is to get into the boat and get near the falls. One of the guys who approached us near the parking lot was following us. We asked him for a deal. He agreed to take us for Rs.200.

We got into the boat. The water, we were told, is 100ft deep at this place. During summer, the water will come down to a depth of 50ft. During rainy seasons (around August), you cannot go by boat here as the water will be very violent.

The boat here is a circular one made of bamboo sheets and covered with plastic sheets and tar. They look very fragile but were suppose to be safe. The boatman took us near the main water falls. It was not very big considering it is an off season. August is suppose to be when the water falls is at it's peak. But then you don't get to see it near by the boat. Then we took a small stride on the water. We found shops in the water on boat selling all kinds of eatables. They can take you for an 1 hour ride to a nearby sand island. We decided not to do that as we have to return.

The view of the rocks and water fall is fantastic. The water flows between the high rocks for almost a kilometer. The boatman dropped us near the parking place on return.

When we were in the water, we found boys on top of the rock jumping into the river. They will jump for you if you offer them money. I did not find it very amusing. This could be child exploitation. If you look at them, they will jump and swim near your boat and ask for money.

We started back in the evening. There were lot of monkeys on the road through the mountains. Many are very small and it is very nice to see them. We reached Bangalore in the night. While returning, we took the Palakkod-Royakkottai route. The road was not very good, but a lot shorter. It took around 3.5 hrs to come back. Overall, it was a nice trip after a long time.

Kothagiri Visit

We went to Kothagiri over the weekend to attend my friend Vanith's marriage. Took my M800 and drove from Bangalore. Sathyamoorthy was also there who shared the driving. We took the Mysore-Ooty-Kothagiri route while going. This is one of the most beautiful long drives I have done. The route went through Bandipur forest and continued with ride to the top of Ooty hills. There was 34 hairpin bends which were really sharp. My car some how climbed up the top. I was wondering how much powerful is a Mariti 800.

Since our agenda was purely marriage, we didn't spend much time in sight seeing. Plan was to return to Bangalore the next day. We reached Kothagiri in the night. Vanith had arranged lodging for us. Next day morning we went to his marriage. It was in a temple on top of the hill. After the marriage and lunch, we started back.

While returning we came through Mettupalayam- Sathyamangalam-Chamarajnagar-Kollegal route. The descent to Mettupalayam was good. Since it is a bus route, the roads were wide and the curves where not as sharp compared to the one on on the Bandipur side. This route was one of the most remote routes with no human habitation for most of the route. It doesn't seems to be safe to drive through this route in the night. On the way, at Bellari, just before we enter into thick forest, there is a temple which was worshipped by Veerappan. It is said that the travelers used to pray to the God here so that they could be safe during the passage through the forest.

The road through the forest was very good and wide. We managed to cross the forest before dark. Beyond that, the roads were not very good. It passes through many villages before we reached Bangalore. Really nice and some what adventurous trip.

Elephenta Cave, Mumbai

Writing after a long time. In between lot of things happened while I am in India. Some what settled down and accustomed to Indian way of living with traffic and rush and so on. Currently in Mumbai on a project in CMC. First time in Mumbai. It is a big city and good too. Better maintained than Chennai.

During a weekend between my work at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, we went to Elephanta Island. You can reach here by going to Gateway of India and catching a boat to the island. It costs Rs.100 for a return trip. There are boats plying every hour between the two points. Once you get to the island, you need to walk up the hill to reach the Cave. There are lot of small shops selling collectibles on either side of the steps.

Once you get up to the top, you see a huge temple carved out of the rock. There is a huge Thrimurthi carving on the wall of the main hall. There are small temples inside. The Shiva temple being a huge. Doesn't look like any pooja is being held there. Lot of monkeys around there. This temple should have been famous during old days. Now it is under Archeological Survey of India. There is a small museum related to the history of the cave.

It is also the first time, I have seen the gateway of India. Bombay is beautiful. I could understand now why many of my Mumbai friends boast of the city like anything.