India Return Trip 2010 - Part 2

Washington Dulles International Airport:
We reach Washington Dulles around 1:40 pm in the afternoon.  Soon we get transported to a mobile lounge to be taken to the International Arrivals Building.  There all the wheelchairs are waiting for its passengers.  The person takes us to the 1st floor where our customs will be cleared.  There are actually 2 lines from here.  One is for the citizens and one is for the non-citizens.  The line for non-citizens must be 3 times longer than the line for the citizens.  Since my dad was in wheelchair, we passed through that line and went straight to the officer's counter.  The officer asked us couple of questions like "why did we go to India?", "What did we buy?", and "roughly how much do we think the items are worth in total?", etc. and then stamped our passports and we were off to the baggage claim.  I got to tell you that since last time I was at Washington Dulles airport, this building has been remodeled because from what I remember, the place was very small that everyone would be bumping into each other.  But this time, it's big and very spacious.  In fact, they have new baggage claim conveyor belts that are longer and the space is enough to handle all the passengers from 2-3 international flights at the same time.

I swore last time I was at Washington Dulles that I will not fly though here again but the remodeling of the place has changed my opinion.  Last time, our baggage came almost after 2 hours and this time, almost all the bags had already arrived before we even got there, only to find one bag in complete surprise.  One of the bags was in such a bad condition that its chain and lock were completely broken and things were falling out of the small space.  Thankfully, due to the tag/string that they put in the middle of the bag in Ahmedabad held the bag together otherwise we would have nothing left in the bag.  Also we had tied the belts inside the bag which held things in place but still it was not enough as there was a possibility of things falling out when they transfer the bags.  Unsure on what to do, we took the bag in whatever condition it was in and headed to the transfer desk.  Unfortunately, we had nothing with us that we could use to tie the bag with.  We went to the transfer area where we needed to transfer our bags for the connecting flight.  I asked the agent who was going to screen the bags before transferring if he would be able to tape the bag or tie the bag somehow to prevent things from inside falling out.  He assured me that they can take care of it and told me to just leave the bags.

It was a bit of relief to get an assurance from the agent who said they will be able to take care of it once the bag is screened.  We leave our bags and head to the next flight gate.  All of this process must have taken us anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours.  And I was worried that we might miss our flight if we keep the connecting flight at 5:30 pm.  It turns out that we were done by 3:30 pm and it would have been nice if I had kept the flight at 5:30 pm, BUT I did not.  Instead I had assigned our flight times to be at 9:50 pm at night which would get us home after 12 am :(.  Well I had decided late flight simply from my last experience at Washington Dulles.  Who knew that they are going to remodel the place to make it better and faster for the passengers?  Well, we had no choice but to wait till our flight.  We were all so tired that we were falling asleep on the seats near the gate but at least one of us had to stay up since we had 3 carry-on bags, 1 purse, 1 hand bag, and a computer bag with us.

From Washington Dulles, we had to catch the United Airlines, so we were in Terminal C.  Now, this terminal is pretty small compared to Terminal A and B, and it can get very congested near a gate close to a flight departure.  I was just waiting for the time to fly and ready to go home.  Finally, we boarded around 9:20 pm, and flight took off on time.  We reach Denver earlier than scheduled and head to get our bags.  Thankfully, all the bags come back in one piece and in good condition except the one that was ripped apart from Washington Dulles itself.  The agent who told me that he will take care of the bag by taping it somehow to keep it together did not do anything!!!  The bag was as it is we received in Dulles airport and he didn't do anything to keep it together.  It was late and I didn't have energy to get mad.  And who am I going to get mad at?  It was just some agent at the Dulles airport, not a particular employee of United Airlines or Qatar airways.  We gathered our bags and headed to pick up area where one of our family friends came to pick us up.  We got home around 1 am and I was wide awake :P.  I wasn't sleepy at all, but had to force myself to sleep to avoid jet-lag.

About the damaged bag, I had to follow up on it with Qatar airways and that can be a separate post in itself :).  Till then, See ya.  I will post the details on the damaged bag soon.

Tata!

India Return Trip 2010 - Part 1

Although we were in India for 3 weeks, it feels like those 3 weeks just passed by in a blink of an eye.  It's very short time especially when you go for someone's wedding because most of your time is involved in the wedding which doesn't give you enough time to explore other places.  But I have no complains....the wedding was fabulous and loved and enjoyed every moment of it.  Now about the returning journey which was just as interesting as the arriving journey, maybe little less hassle or not.

We had a flight back to US from Ahmedabad on Dec. 4th early morning around 5:20 am.  We all got to the airport around 1:30 am with my relatives.  Apparently, in the international airport, once you go in with your bags and once you get your boarding passes, you can not come back outside to meet your family and friends.  So just hang out outside with your family until you are ready to go in.  We said our goodbyes and started to go in around 2 am.  Before you stand in the line for Qatar airways, or any other airlines, you need to get your bags screened at the airport where they tie a tag/string in the middle of each of your bags that you are going to check in.  I think we arrived at the airport at the right time because it got really crowded just after we finished screening our bags.  We got in the line to check-in, gave our bags, and got the boarding passes for all the way to the final destination.  I don't understand one thing.  If Qatar airways is able to give us boarding passes for United airlines flight, then why wasn't United Airlines able to give us boarding passes for Qatar Airways flights?  Anyways, the process was pretty quick.  The agent requested that we put one or two of our hand baggage also in the checked baggage at no cost which we will get directly in US with our other checked baggage because they did not have enough room in the plane.  Now, I didn't tell you guys, but when we were coming from Doha to Ahmedabad, the agent said the same thing on the bus and they didn't even give us an option but just took our hand baggage to give it to us directly at Ahmedabad airport.  When we boarded the airplane, it turns out there is plenty of room for hand luggage to fit.  So this time when the agent asked us to volunteer and put 1-2 hand bags in the checked baggage, I just gave them 1 bag since I knew there was going to be space on the plane and I was right.  There was plenty of room.

We got a wheelchair for my dad and headed to the security screening.  Surprisingly, the person assisting my dad's wheelchair was the same guy who asked my dad $50 to get through custom clearance when we landed in Ahmedabad.  But he didn't demand anything this time.  He took us to the 2nd floor for Qatar Airways gate area.  The airport is pretty big, really nice, and decent.  But one thing that is lacking big time is the notification aspect of the airport.  The airport has big monitor screens where they list the upcoming 3 or 4 flights with their departure time, but no gate information, no info on whether the flight is on time, or delayed, and the agents won't have an idea either.  Just an hour before our flight, couple of ground staff workers came and got the wheelchair people to take to another gate.  Apparently, the gate must have changed for the Qatar airways, but there was no way for the travelers to know about it.  They told me and my mom to stay behind and come with the rest of the people since they were just taking the wheelchair people.  After a while, all the ground staff comes back to get the rest of the Qatar airways flight travelers by shouting "Qatar", "Qatar Airways"..., so people for Qatar airways flight can follow them to the new gate.  It was just going down the stairs to 1st level and wait for the bus to transport us to the plane.  As far as I can remember, we fell asleep as soon as we got in our seats.  We woke up when the food came but I was so tired that I didn't really care for the food.  This time, the food was OK, nothing special and not even that tasty.  I also noticed that they were playing Anjaana Anjaani but wasn't interested in seeing that movie either.  Our flight left Ahmedabad on time and we reached Doha around 6:15 am.

Doha Airport:
We were still really tired but had to catch the next flight to Washington Dulles at 8:05 am.  As we reached Doha, the wheelchair people had to wait until everyone got off.  It turns out that within the 3 weeks we were in India, they must have made a new rule that only 1 person can accompany the wheelchair person.  Well, they didn't announce this at the beginning and now when my mom and I were going with my dad, they said "Sorry, only one person can go with him!  The other person need to go with the rest of the people".  The bus that transports people from plane to the terminal had already left and they wanted 3 or 4 people to wait until the bus came back.  I was little mad and demanded that I will only go with my dad since they didn't announce this at the beginning.  Along with me, 2 other families were mad since they told us this on last moment.  They didn't have a choice but to take us with the wheelchair people.  Unlike last time, this time it took us about 10 minutes to be transported to the main terminal from where we had landed.  We got to the main terminal and to the wheelchair waiting area.  The airport was pretty crowded for the morning flights and there was quite long line for the security screening as well.  I had the same problem with another agent who insisted that only 1 person accompany my dad and the other person should go through the regular security screening.  I left my mom with my dad and went in the main security line.  I knew he would be transported faster this time since our flight was in an hour and luckily I was through the security screening within 15 minutes I think.  Again, I didn't have to take off my shoes or jacket to go through the screen so that was faster.  Soon my parents came through the security screening and the man assisting my dad's wheelchair took us to our next flight gate on 2nd floor.

It turns out that for all US flights, there is a secondary security screening before you can get transported to the plane.  This time due to wheelchair, we got to cut the line and go straight to security screening otherwise it would have taken us another 15-20 minutes because it was pretty crowded.  During this screening, we had to take off our shoes and jackets and put them through the screening.  Once you get your belongings, you get transported back to the 1st floor to get on the bus which takes you to the plane.  Since our flight was just in 1.5 hours, we didn't really have any time in-between to relax and look around.  We mainly just got transported from one plane to another.

From Doha to Washington Dulles International Airport:
We got situated in our small seats on Qatar flight for another 13 hours of journey.  This time, we were lucky with the neighbors where they were not loud at all.  For entertainment, they had couple of different movies from the previous list on Bollywood movie list.  I watched the movie "Dabangg" but honestly, I think I kept falling asleep in between so I don't really remember the story anymore.  Food wise, we got lunch and snacks.  Surprisingly, we got the same lunch that we had on the flight from Ahmedabad to Doha which kind of surprised me.  I ate very little since it wasn't as tasty and who would want to eat the same thing again!!  For the snacks, they gave us veggie sandwiches which were very delicious.  It was more like subway sandwich but with less items.  It contained tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, green peppers, and other things.  They had these sandwiches at every station if anyone wanted more of them.  I think all 3 of us slept a lot on this flight due to lack of sleep from couple of days.  Ohh, on the plane, the staff gave us custom clearance forms for everyone to fill out.  Between sleeping and watching movies, we reached Washington Dulles around 1:40 pm on Dec. 4th.

Not to bore you with all the details in one post, my next post will describe the experience of baggage claim at Washington Dulles, and the last leg of the journey to our home state :).

India Trip Highlights

Once we landed in India, there were a lot of things I wanted to do in the first week including, most importantly, shopping :).  In the first week, my first priority was to get all my dresses for the wedding ceremonies (sangeet, wedding, and reception).  The reason I say first week is because even though the wedding was after 2 weeks, the ceremonies were going to start from a week before, starting with the "Bethak" which starts from a week before.  "Bethak" is kind of like a get-together every night where all the family members come to meet at night, chit-chat, have snacks and fun time! 

Let me start by the "Sangeet" for the wedding.  My cousin had hired a choreographer to teach all the cousins, his friends, all the aunts/uncles the dance for the actual ceremony.  You can't imagine the chaos to get everyone together for practice all at once....but believe me...it was crazy!  We didn't have all the steps done, or all the dances done until the day before the ceremony.  This leaves no time for practicing on the actual stage.  But somehow things always work out and the ceremony was fabulous.  I was supposed to get the dress for Sangeet a week before and must have gone to zillion shops, I have lost a count now, to find a dress that I like for the Sangeet ceremony, but no luck.  There were only 2 days left and I still did not have a dress.  Finally, I find the ONE dress I was looking for just 2 days before the ceremony, and hope that the blouse comes back stitched fine.  Next day, I find out that the blouse is stitched wrong with just a day to go and have to give back for stitching on the day of the sangeet.  I am going nuts but I was also relieved because my cousin was supervising the stitching and making sure we get the clothes in time.  Finally, I get everything back and sorted just 2 hours before the sangeet and start getting ready.  I will be lying if I say I wasn't worried...because I was!  If I didn't have that dress in time, I think it would have been a complete disaster.  For the dance, I was part of a medley which included songs "Main albeli" from Zubaida, "Gunji angana mein shehnai" from life partner, and "O bekhabar" from Action Replay.  I also did a dance with my 2 cousins on a rajasthani song "Ghoomar", beautiful song.  A lot of my cousin's friends danced on latest songs from golmaal 3, action replay, I hate luv stories, Aisha, etc.

We had a day break after sangeet and before the wedding.  On the wedding day, all the ladies, meaning my mom, mom's sisters, and all the other aunts had to be at the groom's place at 4:45 am in the morning for one of the rituals which is to put "Haldi (turmeric)" on my cousin brother's face :).  This is kind of hard to explain but let me give it a shot.  Basically "Haldi" ceremony is celebrated on both sides of the families in their homes where haldi paste is applied to the bride and the groom which includes turmeric, other herbs, mixed with milk.  Its been followed for ages and haldi is supposed to be good for your complexion :).  Following this ceremony was the actual wedding.  Before the wedding is taking the "Barat" to the wedding venue.  For "Barat", we all got together at my cousin's place with the band people and did tons of dancing at the front yard of the home.  Then we all drove to 1 mile before the actual wedding venue, got out of the cars, and danced our way to the wedding place.  We were from the groom's side,so we could demand whatever we want before the groom goes in.  We demanded for them to bring the bride out before my cousin goes in, and they did.  She came out and she was looking gorgeous.  The fun was unlimited.  The wedding took place for 1-2 hours and then we sat down to eat lunch with the bride and the groom.  Then comes the "Bidaai" part which is kind of sad.  "Bidaai" is basically where the bride's family is giving their daughter to the groom's family and sending her off to the groom's house.  This gets kind of emotional since everyone starts crying from the bride's family.  Controlling our emotions, we get everyone in car and then get to the groom's home where the couple of remaining rituals take place.  Finally my cousin and his newly bride gets to take a moment to breath, they need to get ready for another ceremony!  It's actually a wedding anniversary of my uncle and aunt (my cousin's parents) and they have invited the entire family for dinner, so they don't get to sit and relax.  I didn't get to sit and relax since I was with them the whole time, but freshened up, changed and got ready for the party!  The wedding was fantastic.  I just love weddings, where everyone is so happy, dancing, and the entire atmosphere is very joyful.

We get another day off before the reception takes place.  But this time, it wasn't too much of a hassle since there was no dancing or preparation involved.  We just had to get ready and get to the reception, take bunch of pictures with the newly wed couple and enjoy the magnificent menu my uncle had decided on.  I sat down to eat with my cousin and at that time they served everything from starter soup to the main course dinner.  But honestly, there were so many dishes that before the main course dinner came, I was completely full.  I told the waiter to put just one spoon of everything to taste but other than that, I had no room for anything else, not even the delicious ice cream they had for desert :(.

With reception coming to an end, we only had about 3 days left before we head back to US.  Now in these 3 days, I still had shopping left, plus all the remaining relatives invited us for either breakfast, lunch, and dinner which booked the 3 days completely.  So on Dec. 1, 2, and 3, we were booked for breakfast at 8:30 am at someone's place, then lunch at another family's place around 1 pm and then dinner at night around 8 pm.  I was just worried we were going to get sick eating around the clock non-stop.  But no one was willing to take a "No" for an answer :P.  My parents' wedding anniversary was on Dec. 2nd, so we celebrated it with my mom's side family at a nice restaurant with dinner and a yummy chocolate cake.  It was a lot of fun.

In between the celebrations, I met couple of my school friends after many many years.  Got to spend some quality time with them over dinner and catch up on all these years on what they have been doing.

Also after the reception was done, my mom's side family (around 40-45 people) decided to go watch a movie together.  Basically it was a small theater that they reserved for the entire family (with about 80 seats) so it was just for us :).  The problem is that they picked the wrong movie to see....Break ke baad starring Imran khan and Deepika padukone.  A bad bad choice.  It was complete waste of time, well, not complete waste because it was fun listening to the commentary by the family members during the movie.  I can't believe Imran signed that movie.  There was no story, no concept, Nothing at all.  I was waiting and waiting for the story to start or for the movie to make sense...but nothing!  Well I wasn't the only one that was disappointed with the movie...  I wished we had instead gone to see "Guzarish" and I know it wouldn't have been this disappointing but oh well.

Ahmedabad has changed a lot in all these years but one thing I don't think has changed and will never change is the traffic sense.  The reason why roads are so packed with vehicles is because everyone wants to make their own way and no one wants to follow the rules.  I was so scared to sit in the front seat in car with my cousin since he always drove bumper to bumper at the same time when 4 vehicles from 4 different directions wants to crunch in that same space!  However, I love to sit on bikes, scooters, and travel in rickshaws, and I fulfilled this wish by traveling in all those 3 vehicles :D.

That's all I can remember for the trip highlights.  If I remember something else that I haven't mentioned here, I will update this post again :).  Till then, See ya!!! :D

India Trip 2010 - Part 3

At the Ahmedabad International Airport:
So after almost 28 hours of journey, we get to Ahmedabad 45 minutes late compare to our original arrival time.  We get off the plane and get transported to a bus to be taken to the terminal which is like less than a minute away and honestly in walking distance but who would want to walk after a hectic journey?  Since there wasn't much walking involved, my dad didn't take the wheelchair and we headed for immigration line.  It turns out there is a huge line where we could end up waiting a long time.  It might have been better if we had kept my dad's wheelchair to get passed the whole line, but luckily we got hold of a person who was assisting a wheelchair person.  The guy was nice and got us out of the line to take us directly to the immigration counter.  We got our passports stamped in no time and headed to the baggage claim area.  Here is where the worker must have mentioned to my dad that "Give me $50 and you will be cleared through all the way"......Well he did mention 50 dollars and not rupees.  My dad did not give him any attention and he thought that he might not have any good chance at getting the money, so went to the first wheelchair person whom he was assisting.

So the new ahmedabad airport is big and very spacious.  It has 5 new baggage conveyor belts which are pretty long for all the bags to fit.  Our bags came very quick within 10-15 minutes.  Thankfully, there was a flight just before our flight whose baggage had been cleared so it didn't take long for our bags to come.  The real challenge now was to actually get through the security where we need to screen our bags.  There was HUGE crowd lined up and there were only 2 security screenings.  Apparently there were 5 lines which somehow end up being 2 lines and you can imagine all the pushing, and cutting in line when it actually comes to screening the bags.  While in line, I remember that there was another wheelchair person behind me and a worker who was assisting that wheelchair, who was asking for money to get them through.  But I guess the lady wasn't backing down and wasn't really going to give out any money.  I think no matter how much they ask you for the money, you have to stay strong at your decision.

About putting the bags through actual screening, it was piece of cake.  I put the bags from one side and my dad took it from the other side and we were done in less than 3 minutes.  We didn't have that much electronics with us except in my bag where I had my phone, camera, jewellery, and an IPad.  But they didn't ask anything for any of the bags.  Sweet!!

We could see all the family members through a see-through glass, smiling and waving at us :).  We rushed outside and met them all....there was a joy!!! :).  I must say though that it was really hot for a November weather.  We got in the car, stacked our bags, and headed to my aunt's home.  Home sweet home!

Well that's it for the travel part of the journey.  In my next post, I will tell you about all the exciting things we did for the wedding!!

Till then, see ya!

India Trip 2010 - Part 2

OK...so ready to hear about the 2nd leg of the journey from Washington Dulles to Doha and 3rd leg of journey from Doha to Ahmedabad on Qatar airways??

Qatar Airways:
Our flight was at 9:50 pm but it left little late around 10:30 pm.  Once boarding started, we got to our seats first and faster with my dad's wheelchair.  I got to say that I had expected the seats to be better and spacious compare to what we get on United Airlines flight since this was going to be a straight 12 hours flight....but I was disappointed since the seat space was very little :(.  Well, what can we do now??  Do we have a choice??  NO.  So we got situated in our little seats.

I must say that their service is pretty nice right from when you get in the airplane.  Once everyone got seated, first they brought out was basket full of candies for you to just grab some.  Then they bring out hot towels.  After a while they served the dinner which was very delicious.  We chose to have Asian Vegetarian Meal.
 
Food:
The dinner included rice, dal, mixed vegetable, moong dal chat, one bun, butter, water, one chocolate, and one gulab jamun.
The breakfast included chana, one small paratha, one small kachori, one bagel and cream cheese, fruit yogurt, and orange juice.

Entertainment:
For entertainment, they did not have very many choices for bollywood movies, but a lot of choices for hollywood movies + dramas, plus some other indian shows.  They even have video games with a controller/remote for you to play with which was fun.

Neighbors:
Now, let's talk about neighbors.  When you have a looooooong flight like the one we had, you would hope that you get good neighbors, more like quiet neighbors :P, to make your journey peaceful.  But things don't always go as you plan.  Btw, I had the window seat.  Right behind our 3 seats, we had 3 sisters sitting together who just loved to talk...too much talk.  This wasn't it.  Once the flight took off, they took off their shoes and socks, and made themselves feel like home by placing their feet on the back of my seat handle and even on the window!  Can you believe it??  I wouldn't have minded the feet on the handle BUT their feet were honestly stinking the entire row :(.  To give her little signal about her feet on my handle, I tried to cover the entire handle by placing my hand on it and started pushing her feet back with my elbow but I guess the sister was not backing down!!  Instead she pushed her feet towards my elbow to signal me to remove my hand so she can sit comfortably in her seat!!  I guess I had no option but to start the fan right above me to get rid of the smell.  Oh wait, there is more!  Every time I fell asleep, the lady behind me would torture the video screen such that it will shake the entire seat.  Now, aren't they some neighbors!

Well, that was just one side neighbors, on the other side, there was a neighbor who had a non-stop crying kid :(.  But honestly, I don't have any complains for that kid because on a long flight like this one, even I was exhausted so I can't blame the kid.  That's it for the neighbors.

Qatar airways has one good thing at every station which is that they keep small snacks and drinks if anyone wants to get up and grab something to eat.  And they have plenty of those to make sure they have enough for everyone.  I think their service was pretty good and vegetarian food was good as well.

Doha Airport:
Between watching movies, sleeping, playing few games, and then sleeping again, we got to Doha around 10:40 pm at night (Nov. 12).  Once we landed, they announced that if you have a wheelchair, stay in your seats until everyone is gone.  So all the people gets to get off the plane first and be boarded on to the bus to be taken to the terminal.  We waited for about 15-20 minutes until everyone was boarded off the plane and then they transferred the wheelchair people on to the bus.  From where we had landed, it only took like 2-3 minutes to get to the terminal.  Once we got to the airport terminal, they had separate area for wheelchair people to wait until their next flight.  If you are not on wheelchair, you can either follow the sign for "Transfer" or "Immigration" once you get to the terminal.  Basically, they take the wheelchair people prioritizing based on their boarding time.  The people who are boarding first gets taken to the gate first.  Apparently, when we landed, a lot of flights must have landed at the same time and it got really crowded, both in the security line and in the wheelchair area.

There was couple of hours before our next flight so we were just waiting in the waiting area and got some time to freshen up.  We waited for like an hour and 15 minutes before they transferred my dad's wheelchair from one waiting area to another one which was just like 2 minutes away :P.  We went through security which was pretty quick because you don't have to take off your jacket, or shoes to go through security and I even had an IPad in my handbag which I didn't have to take out.  So it moved pretty quickly.

The Doha airport is not too big with only 2 floors.  The first floor has bunch of duty-free shops with few boarding gates and the 2nd floor has alot of seating area, free wi-fi area, and the remaining boarding gates.  The airport seems clean.

At the 2nd wheelchair waiting area, we waited like 2-3 hours.  When it was close our flight time, they transferred us to the bus and then to the plane.  Throughout the transfer process, they kept checking our boarding passes until we got to the plane.

From Doha to Ahmedabad:
Again, Qatar brought us candies and hot towel as soon as we got settled in our seats.  We even got nice meal on the plane.  Apperently, there were few pessangers who were transferring from another flight which was delayed and that's why our flight to Ahmedabad was delayed by 45 minutes or so.  But at that point I didn't really care since we didn't have to make any more connections.  The staff gave us the immigration forms on the plane for each person to fill out.  And then 3 hours of journey to relax and sleep.

Next post will be telling you about the experience at the new Ahmedabad International Airport.  I had heard terrible stories of what people had experienced in terms of going through customs, baggage coming very late, and workers asking for bribe...but will be giving you the latest update on it.  So stay tuned!

Tata for now :)

India Trip 2010 - Part 1

India trip was sort of decided on last minute and certainly we did shopping till last minute...I mean literally we were shopping until the day before the flight.  Just little background on the trip.  We decided to go to India from Nov. 11th to Dec. 4th for my cousin's wedding.  Since the ticket was decided on the last moment, there weren't that many choices of airlines since the tickets were kind of expensive.  One option that came up was flying with United Airlines/Qatar Airways.  My first answer to this option was NO....because 1) the flight was going straight to Ahmedabad and not via Mumbai, and 2) we had no idea how the airline was.  Not knowing how the airline is, how the travel might be, we didn't really have an option and went ahead and booked the tickets.  The journey goes something like this:
Denver - Washington Dulles (IAD)
Washington Dulles(IAD) - Doha (straight 12 hours flight)
Doha - Ahmedabad

If you read my last India Trip travel posts, I am sure you will recall that I swore not to travel through Washington Dulles airport again, but this time I had no choice since we didn't have many options with the airlines.  Also my opinion has changed a little bit since Dulles airport seems to have re-modeled to make it bigger and better.  I will explain that when I get to my return flight experience.

I will give details on the airline and the airport experiences because I know I always look for these info before traveling with a new airline :), so I hope this info helps out someone else.

On Nov. 11th, excited like never before, we got ready and left home around 9 am for a 12:45 pm flight.  Got to the DIA around 9:45 am to find no rush or no crowd whatsoever, even our turn came pretty fast while standing in line.  Since 3 of us were going, it was kind of difficult to get 6 big bags, 2 carry-ons, 1 purse, 1 handbag (not purse), and 1 laptop bag all the way to the agent when our turn came.  Luckily, one of the United agents saw us pushing the bags and suggested that we just leave the bags near the end of the counter and then when our turn comes, we can just drag them...but the dragging was kind of difficult too.  The funny thing was that I was pushing the bags mostly, my dad was standing where all the bags were and my mom was in the line, one of the agent asks..."How many of you are going?"...haha...he must have thought I am travelling with all the bags :P.  We quickly got our bags tagged and got our boarding passes to Washington Dulles.

Note: Even though Qatar and United are partnered together, you will not get Qatar boarding passes from United airlines even though the customer service agents (when you call them) tell you that you will get them in Denver.  Well there is no need to worry, because you can get your onward boarding passes for Qatar from the gate itself.

Moving on, we got done pretty quickly with giving our baggage to the agent in like 15 minutes.  Next, we had assigned a wheelchair for my dad and so we had to go to the wheelchair section to get his assigned wheelchair.  We waited for like 15 minutes before the wheelchair person arrives.  One good thing about this was that we didn't have to wait in security line at all, we got to skip the line and go straight to the agent to get to the screening.  But as I said, there was no rush that day at all that even if we had to wait in line, I bet we would have been cleared in 10-15 minutes.  Now DIA already has the full body scanning machines, but I think they only make some people go through that machine and not everyone because we didn't have to go through those.  We just went through the normal screening system and got done very quickly and then off to the gate.  I think by the time we got to the gate, it must be 10:45 am or 11 am.  After that, I had all the time to relax & eat & watch all the wonderful planes come and go :).

United Airlines:
Our first leg of the journey was with United airlines from Denver to IAD which was about 3-4 hours flight.  We started boarding around 12:15 pm and the plane started taking off sharp at 12:44 pm.  And after that I don't remember much since I fell asleep right away.  I might have woken up for a glass of orange juice in between but then went back to sleep :P.  No matter how uncomfortable the seats are, no matter how little space there is, but when you are sleepy, you don't really care and even though your head hurts, you just keep on sleeping...Haha.

Washington Dulles International Airport:
We reached Washington Dulles International airport on time around 5:55 pm.  My dad's wheelchair was already waiting outside and then we headed to look for the Qatar airways gate.  We got off at one of the C gates and I knew Qatar was not on either C or D gates, so the first monitor I encountered I checked the Qatar flight gate which showed to be at one of the A gates.  See, the way Dulles airport has their gates is that C and D is in one terminal and A and B are in another terminal but to get from either A/B to C/D, you have to take the aerotrain.  Well, we headed for the aerotrain.  I am glad that we got wheelchair for my dad because there is a lot of walking even before we get to the aerotrain.  The train comes like every 1-2 minutes, so don't worry if you miss one.  It stops at A, B, C, D, and Z gates.  We got off near A gates and when we get to the gate, guess what?  There is no one there!  There is no agent, no monitors showing the flight info, nothing!  Well, the wheelchair person was nice and suggested we look at the monitors located in A gates since he knew that the Qatar airways have been changing their gates between A and B concourses and confirm the gate number.  Good thinking....well it turns out that the Qatar flight is taking off from one of the B gates.  Ha!  Luckily, we didn't have to change terminals since A and B are on the same terminal.  Now comparing the terminals, I think A and B terminal is very nice, big, spacious, and clean whereas C and D terminal seems very small and always crowded.  Even with my dad's wheelchair, it must have taken us anywhere between 25-30 minutes to get to the Qatar airways gate.

Thankfully, there was an agent present and the monitors were showing the right flight info :).  Within few minutes, agent opened up the booths and we got in the line to get our onward journey boarding passes from IAD-Doha and Doha-Ahmedabad.  Then, again, all the time was there for us to just relax before the boarding.

To make sure I don't make the posts lengthy, I will write the experiences in separate parts.  So stay tuned for the second leg of the journey experience with Qatar airways and the rest of the experience at the Ahmedabad's new international airport.

Tata :)

Where to start? Am I on track?

I always seem to come across this question before I start on any new project, or a new research, or starting to learn something new - "Where do I start?".  From my past experiences, for the topics that I absolutely have no idea about, whether it's learning a new programming language, thinking of an idea for the project for a class I am not too confident with, or just picking a new topic and wanting to learn about it, I find myself having hard time to give the initial push to start.

I Google the topic, research to find the best books for the topic, find online articles, comments by other readers, and much more, but that turns out to be very time consuming and at the end, it turns out to be a bad start because when you have too many things on your hand, you get even more confused on what to pick from the resources to start your work!  All I need is that "One" resource (book/website) that can get me started on the beginner level.  Is there any "one" book out there that has everything I need to know?  Is there a website that has exactly what I am looking for?  The answer is Yes and No.  There are a lot of resources out there and it's just matter of time for you to find them.  But, there is not going to be just one resource to give you the guide...you need to collaborate the resources that you have to build a bridge of knowledge for your project.

For all my projects, it's taken me some time to start but after a lot of research, a focused mind, and definitely a lot of patience, I have found the right start.  But the struggle does not end there.  You find the right start and are very excited to get the work going, and then hit another roadblock.  My programming projects have always required implementations of the new technologies that I have never worked with before.  So I have hit many roadblocks like not having the right configuration, compatibility between 2 technologies, major design differences in older and newer versions of the software which gets you nowhere, and many more.  But these kind of problems don't give me heart attack because I know that I am not the only one facing these problems.  I know that someone out there would have come across the same situation as me and all I need to do is find out how they solved it!  Here is where the online forums help in a big way.  Just google up the error and you will have ray of solutions ...obviously, not all of them will be correct and working, but again you need to keep looking and have lots and lots of "Patience" :).

Another thing that gets me paranoid is that the progress of the project.  Some of the questions I keep asking myself are "Am I on track?", "Would I finish on time?", "Am I working on the right material?".  During the day when I sit down to work on the project, I feel good about it.  At the end of the work I feel a sense of achievement, but there is also a part of me which gets sidetracked with other things happening in life and loose focus from the work for a while.  That is almost like taking 2 steps forward and then 1 step backward.....and this is fine as long as this pace is continued.  I would hate to see the work just getting delayed and the steps are only backwards and work is not progressing to anything.  But it's just a fear of mind that comes along when I am starting a new project.  At the end of the work, I know that all the hard work and time put into that work has paid off!!  Success at last :).

That's just my side of the story.  How do you handle such situations?  Do you also have random thoughts running through your mind when you start on a new project?  Lots of ideas but hard to find the right direction?  I had a lot running through my mind this morning so I decided to just write it out on this post and that also helped me realize that I have handled these kinds of situations before and the end product has been very successful :).  So there is nothing to fear about...just stay focused and you will be fine!

Tu hi haqeeqat

I simply love this song and can't get enough of it.  I think this is one of the best renditions and such a romantic song with flawless lyrics :).  The song is Tu Hi Haqeeqat from the movie "Tum Mile" picturized on emraan hashmi and soha ali khan.  Here are the song lyrics:

Tu hi haqeeqat khwaab tu
Dariya tu hi pyaas tu
Tu hi dil ki bekarari
Tu sukoon tu sukoon
Jaoon main ab jab jiss jagah
Paoon main tujhko uss jagah
Saath hoke na ho tu hai
Rubaroo rubaroo

Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera
Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera

Aa tujhe inn baahon mein bhar ke
Aur bhi kar loon main kareeb
Tu juda ho toh lage hai
Aata jaata har pal ajeeb
Iss jahaan mein hai aur na hoga
Mujhsa koi bhi khush naseeb
Tune mujhko dil diya hai
Main hoon tere sabse kareeb
Main hi toh tere dil mein hoon
Main hi toh saanson mein basoon
Tere dil ki dhadkanon mein
Main hi hoon main hi hoon

Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera
Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera

Kab bhala ab ye waqt guzre
Kuch pata chalta hi nahi
Jabse mujhko tu mila hai
Hosh kuch bhi apna nahi
Uff ye teri palken ghani si
Chaanv inki hai dilnasheen
Ab kise dar dhoop ka hai
Kyunki hain ye mujhpe bicchi
Tere bina na saans loon
Tere bina na main jiyun
Tere bina na ek pal bhi
Reh sakoon reh sakoon

Tu hi haqeeqat khwaab tu
Dariya tu hi pyaas tu
Tu hi dil ki bekarari
Tu sukoon tu sukoon
Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera
Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera
Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera
Tu humsafar tu humkadam tu humnawah mera

New Mexico Weekend Trip

I think this is the fastest decision I have ever taken for a trip.  We celebrated rakhshabandhan with my cousins on Thursday.  My cousin mentioned that she was leaving to NM for one of her really good friend's wedding whom I also knew.  She was driving and going by herself, so she invited me along with her.  She called up her friend and confirmed if it was ok to bring me along and she said not a problem.  Now it was up to me if I wanted to go.  I was really tempted to go but I wasn't sure since I was covering for someone at work on Friday :(.  Well I managed to arrange something and was off to pack my bag for the trip :).

I stayed at my cousin's place overnight and the next day we were on the road at 9 am.  After 400+ miles and 6.5 hours of driving, we were in Albuquerque, NM.  My cousin drove all the way with only half an hour break.  Two of the things are very popular in NM that are adobe homes and chilles.  Adobe homes were very different and unique compared to the wooden homes that you see everywhere in US and it also reminded me of homes in India since they seem very similar.  We got to hotel and rested for while and then went to see the bride and the groom.  It waas nice of my cousin's friend to let me be part of their celebration.  After saying hello to the bride and her families, we went back to the room and ordered pizza.  We were both very tired, so we called it a night early that day.

Next morning, we got ready by 8:30 am and headed to see some volcanoes that had been erupted 100,000+ years ago and now has become one of the sight seeing places in Petroglyph national park.  There were hiking trails where you can hike to the top of the volcanoes and see the scenic view of the entire city.  The hike was moderate and duable.  There were 3 volcanoes in a row but we hiked to the first 2 and decided to skip the 3rd one since we assumed it was going to be the same as the first two :P.  The 3rd one was a bit too far and looking at it, it wasn't going to be any different from the ones we already saw.  The two volcanoes we did hike were JA Volcano and Black Volcano.  As we got to the top, we saw more and more black volcano rocks which were pretty unique.  Also on our way of hike, we encounted numerous variety of bugs that I have never seen in my life.  Thankfully, no spiders though!  After a 1 hour hike, we headed to go to Boca Negra Canyon where we saw the polygraphs along the 3 self-guided hiking trail where one of the hikes was pretty steep.  And we are sure we heard chirping of a rattle snake on the way.  Obviously, we didn't peak back to see what it was but instead started running towards the other side of the chirping :D.  There were hundreds of carvings on the lava rocks that must have been made thousands of years ago by American Indians.  Unfortunately, they didn't have much info on this, so I can't tell you much either.  But overall, the whole experience was pretty neat.

After almost 3 hours of sight seeing and a lot of hiking, we were tired.  Since the wedding was in the evening, we got back to the hotel in the afternoon, rested and started getting ready.

About the wedding: Location - fabulous, ceremony - fabulous, weather - perfect, people - too nice, and dancing - can't complain.  In short, a beautiful wedding!  The wedding was held outside on a golf course with the backdrop of beautiful mountains and sun shining high to welcome the bride and the groom.  The family and friends of the bride and the groom were all so nice and so happy for both of them.  Check out the view!

After the wedding, we headed to the reception, mingled with other friends, and then hit the dance floor hard!  To be honest, there was a lot of alcohol flowing and a lot of people got drunk.  We had to take the shuttle back to the hotel so took the final shuttle at 11:30 pm and I assure you that besides me, my cousin and the driver, everyone else was drunk!  I even remember that one of my cosin's friend said out loud to the driver "Mr. human delivery man, please turn the car around" since he forgot to pick up the bride's sister :P.  It was hillarious!  She is awesome!  We got back to our room and I immediately went to sleep.

Woke up next day and packed our bags.  Met the bride and her family and said our good byes and started heading home around 11 am.  On the way, we saw some beautiful scneary, miles and miles of mountains completely covered with green trees.  But it kind of gets boring once we pass the Las vegas, NM until we come to Trinidad.  Anyways, in the last hour of our trip, we hit the horrible traffic :(.  Finally we get home around 6 pm.  Home sweet home!

The trip was great and the wedding was fantastic.  I don't mind road trips, but it gets very tiring when you have to sit through in traffic.  Thanks to my cousin and my cousin's friend for inviting me and taking me to the wedding.  It was great celebration and weekend well spent in New Mexico.

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 7

July 10th was my last day in Washington state as I was leaving on early morning flight on Sunday, and it was the best day spent with my friend.  My friend's friend had a group of 8-9 friends going to Bridal Veil Falls on Saturday so I was going with them also.  The place is about 1 to 1.5 hours away from Redmond and includes a 2 mile hike to the top to get to the falls.  I walk a lot but I have never hiked before so this was something new for me to try out.  It took us about 1.5 hours going up with very rocky, hard, straight, down, steep, and narrow paths.  In fact, the last half mile was extremely steep with stairs and rocky formations.  We finally got to the falls and once I reached near the falls, the hike was completely worth it!  It was an amazing view of the mountains from the top and the falls itself was a sight to see.

 

After spending an hour or so near the falls, we started to head down.  I think hiking down is faster than hiking up, but it's much harder in a sense that hiking down puts more pressure on your knees and you have to keep control on your speed.  Four of us out of 11 who went to the top got down first in an hour and then the rest of them followed one by one within 15-20 minutes.  I was really tired after that 4 mile hike, but couldn't really tell if my legs were aching until I had to go up the stairs to the gate of the apartment complex :P.  I could feel the pain in every muscle as I was walking up...haha...I guess it was a bit tough start for a newcomer hiker ;).  

 

We got home and I took quick shower.  Then went out to a restaurant for a nice evening dinner with my friend before I leave Washington.  It didn't feel like the last day but unfortunately I had to leave the next day :(.  Me and my friend came home, I packed my bags and then instead of going to sleep, we played the game of "gloom".  That was the first time I was playing and I won :).  Finally headed to bed around 12:30 am setting an alarm for 5 am.  I wasn't going to get much sleep but I was planning to sleep on the 2.5 hours of flight anyway.

This was a great trip and a lot of fun.  Taking lots of memories with me and a big Thanks to my dear friend for making this vacation really fun and enjoyable.

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 5 & 6

Day 5:

My friend dropped me off at Redmond before going to work and I fell asleep again once getting to my friend's place.  Remember, my plan today was doing nothing but relaxing and sleeping.  I really needed the sleep and a break since we were roaming around for the past 4 days.  The day kind of progressed as I got ready, ate lunch, watched Chak de! India again....

In the evening, I went with my friend to dinner in downtown, had an ice cream afterwards, went to Golden Garden park and finally to Gas Works park.  The Seattle downtown view is so spectacular from Gas Works park that my friend literally made me close my eyes, held my hand and made me walk up the hill, down the hill until we go to the top of the park for the entire view and then she made me open my eyes.  The view was indeed breathtaking.  It was the midnight beauty of Seattle and highly recommend to everyone who is in Seattle to take the time out to experience the beauty of the view!  I tried to take a shot of the entire skyline but could only capture a bit of it and that too is just an example.  The picture hasn't turned out as good as the view itself was.  We went home around 12:45 am and that was end of Day 5.  It seems short compared to other days, but I was happy getting my sleep and doing almost nothing all day.

Day 6:
 

Again woke up really late and got ready kind of late as well.  My friend had taken a day off so we both were being lazy :P.  Finally we pushed ourselves to get ready and went to Japanese Garden around 4 pm.  Due to the crazy nature of Seattle traffic, we got stuck in the traffic for a while.  Honestly, I can't imagine driving on the Seattle roads and we got lucky the first 4 days since we were able to take the express lane with 3 people or more in the car.  The place was nice and pretty, but kind of small.  They had a small pond in the center and different trails that you can walk through within the garden.

In the evening, I met one of my cousins at Microsoft where she works and then we went to the Bainbridge island and from there we went to a small town called Poulsbo with an Italian theme shops, and it has a nice walk by the lake side.  The island is surrounded by Puget Sound.  It got really late coming back so I went to her place and stayed there overnight.  Came back to my friend's place in the morning.  So two days of relaxation with little bit of site-seeing :).

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 4

Today, we wanted to cover the last 2 attractions of the CityPass which are Woodland park zoo and museum of flight.  Plus we had a tight schedule to cover these 2 since my brother was leaving today in 6:50 pm flight.

The day started with beautiful and sunny weather and initially we had planned to leave by 8:30 am but couldn't leave until 9:45.  This was a minor set-back.  We reached the zoo and explored the entire zoo in 3 hours.  Unfortunately some of the animals were either sleeping or not visible, so that kind of made our trip quicker.  We left the zoo around 1:30 to get a quick lunch at the subway and tried to leave right away for the Museum of flight.  Keep in mind that my brother's flight was at 6:50 and we needed to be at the airport by 5:30 pm (I wish I was aware of the traffic at that time), we kept out trip moving forward to the museum.  We got lost in the way but somehow made it to the museum by 3:20 pm.

I think this was one of the best museums I have seen so far.  It was  amazing to see all kinds of planes from century old styles to new fighter planes.  Also they have Airpark hours where you can go in and see inside the Air force one airplane including some other ones like british airways, etc.  This was one attraction I wish we had more time for.  We could only spend an hour due to time constraint but if you are planning to go, then I would advice taking out at least 2-3 hours to see the entire museum.  We actually couldn't see one of the exhibitions on the 2nd floor but that's ok.

Rushing out from the airpark around 4:30 pm, we planned to pick up my friend around 5 pm from her work and get to the airport by 5:30 pm.  Good plan, right?  Well the plan kind of went down the drain when we were stuck in traffic itself for an hour and got to my friend's office at 5:40 pm.  The only thought rushing through my mind was that how are we going to get these 2 boys to the airport in time!  Now it's not like the rush hour was going to be any less going the other way to the airport, but tension was high and I was freaking out....you can ask my friend :P.  Finally we get my brother and my friend's brother to the airport at 6:20pm for a 6:50 flight....Thankfully it was Wednesday and the Seattle-Tacoma airport security screenings are not too bad.  They made it to their flight and their flight took off just 3 mins after they got on.  This tells me only one thing that they were the last two to be boarded on the plane...phew!  That was very close call :-o.  I was really tired by then but I was relieved that they were on plane :).

Now for the evening plan, I was going to meet one of my school friends after 10 years.  I knew she was in Seattle so called her up since I was going to come.  We decided to meet up for dinner.  I got freshen up and she picked me up to go to the restaurant.  She hasn't changed a bit and according to her I haven't changed a bit :).  It was great to see her and meet her husband who is just as nice as her and fun person.  We had dinner in an indian restaurant and great chat over all the school stories, friends, teachers, who is doing what and not....there wasn't enough time for us to catch up, so she asked me to spend the night at her place.  I didn't really have any plan for the next day so I thought why not?  On the way to her place, I heard her and her husband's college stories, surprise engagement party (yea, you read it right...it was a surprise engagement for her husband :P, I still can't stop laughing), and their wedding plans and preparation timeline.  It was all fun.  We got home and our chat was still not over.  Me and my friend talked about our school, her college, our friends and much more, so don't really know what time we fell asleep.  That concludes the end of Day 4 :).

Honestly, these 4 days have been really tiring, so that's why I had not planned anything for July 8th and wanted to just relax and sleep all day.  I still went to some places with friends but it was relaxing instead of continuous site-seeing.  Next you will get the updates of Day 5 and 6 together since there is not much going on.

Tata!

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 3

As much as I love to sleep in, I had to get up at 7 am because of 2 reasons.  One, we had a solid plan to cover all 4 attractions in Seattle downtown if we left home on time and two, I had to make the sandwiches for lunch :).  Made the sandwiches, all 3 of us got ready, and headed to catch the bus to downtown.  My friend was working that day so it was going to be me, my brother, and my friend's brother.  Now before going to Seattle, I had decided to take the Seattle CityPass which covers 6 attractions for 1 low price of $59!  I think it's a great deal if you want to enjoy the hot spots of Seattle.  Since my brother was going to be in the city for only 4 days, we got the CityPass, but there is even a better deal called "Go Seattle Card" which covers about 35 attractions for around $130 which you can use over 7 days.  We didn't have that much time, so we decided to go with CityPass.  The 6 attractions were Argosy 1 hour harbor cruise, 2 visits to space needle, admission to Seattle aquarium, admission to Pacific science center with one 2D/3D imax movie, admission to Woodland park zoo, and admission to Museum of flight.  Now that's one good deal!

Our first stop was argosy 1 hour harbor cruise.  Now we got there an hour earlier than the cruise was scheduled, so we just waited around the shore.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, so we waited until 10:30 and then got first in the line for 11 o'clock cruise.  Now here is a tip for all of you....take the first cruise of the day because it'll be less crowded and you can get the seats on the top deck for the best view.  The tour started at 11 am and we had a great view of the Seattle skyline/downtown, mountain ranges, and the best view of the Mount Rainer.  Here is one of the good shots of Mount Rainer.  Our tour guide was also nice and knowledgeable, so it made the tour more interesting.  We came back from the tour in an hour and had our lunch. 

Next stop on the agenda was Seattle aquarium.  Argosy cruises and the aquarium are so close to each other, we had less than 5 minute walk to get there.  We spent about 35-40 minutes tops at the aquarium and saw big octopus, sea otters, jelly fish, etc.  Overall the aquarium was ok...if you don't have kids and going by yourself, you can cover the aquarium in 45 minutes max, not more than that.

After the aquarium, we started heading to Pacific science center which was about 1.2 miles from the aquarium.  The weather was great and we were not tired so we decided to walk.  Plus the walk is right by the waterfront so you have a great view as well.  It took us approx. 25-30 mins to get to pacific science center.  Since we had citypass, it included an imax ticket (40 min movie) for one of their discovery movies, so we got the tickets for "The Living Sea".  Overall was a good experience and fun time that we were there for almost 3 hours.

The final stop of the day was the Space needle visit.  Space needle was extremely close to the pacific science center with less than 5 minute walk.  With CityPass, you get 2 visits to the observation deck, and once you go on the top,  you can stay there until they close.  We went to the top, took pics, and chilled for a while.  I could spend hours there just overlooking the downtown and beautiful sunshine from a big height.  I wanted to also see the night view from space needle, but since the sunset was pretty much late around 10 pm, we left the needle to go to dinner.  We met up with my friend, had some great and spicy indian food at Kabab house and then went to Kerry Park for night view of the space needle and downtown from some distance.  It was gorgeous!

It was already night and I wanted to go back to space needle for a night view of the city, so went back and enjoyed the breathtaking view.  Here is a snap of night view, but let me be honest that my camera does not do the justice to the view that I saw and what was captured.

We got back around 11:30 and we were dead tired.  I don't know about others but I was already falling asleep but somehow managed to get up and change and then go back to sleep :D.  End of Day 3.  More fun to come in the zoo and Museum of flight on Day 4.  Oh and also my brother and my friend's brother leaving the next day in the evening flight, so got a tight schedule.

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 2

After a hectic 4th of July, we all somehow managed to get ready by 11:30 am on July 5th to keep our plan for Olympic game farm.  We grabbed a lunch to go and were on our way to the safari.  First on the clock was the ride to the Kingston via ferry where you can go on the ferry with your car.....30 minute ferry ride gave us time to eat on the boat :).  Once we got to the Kingston, our drive included scenic views, mountain ranges, greenery all around, lots of trees, and finally to the stop of Safari (Olympic game farm).

We spent an hour in safari which included the close ups of yak, deer, elk, Bison, Brown and black bears, llamas, tiger & lion (those two were in cages and sleeping), and some other animals.  The best part was when any of the animals came close to the car, the two brothers will try to show off by pulling down the windows in the back and my friend and I freaking out and my friend screaming out of scared horizon (if that's a real word :D).  And I am not joking, I have a proof on my camcorder :P.  At one point, our car was surrounded by all the bison which looked like they were being flirtatious with her car.  They left their dirt mark on the car on both sides :P.  It was fun!

After the safari, we went to a nearby STIP in Kingston which was beautiful.  Here is a glimpse at the shore.  We took pictures and stayed there for a while.  The good thing was that there was no crowd...there might have been maybe 2 or 3 other people besides 4 of us, so it was nice and peaceful.

After the photo session at the STIP (I think that's what it was called), we started heading back to catch the ferry.  On our way, there was already a display from a mile before which read that the ferry will have approximately 2 hour wait!  Seriously, they don't kid around when they said 2 hour wait.  We had rediculous over 2 hour wait before we could go on the ferry and then add another 30 minutes on the ferry.

After we got off the ferry, it was still day light.  Let me tell you first that the sun rises in Seattle around 5 AM and does not go down until 10 PM.  You have the longest day ever!  We all went to the Fremont troll afterwards.  If you want to go to fremont troll and don't know the proper directions, you might want to know the exact directions b/c otherwise you will get on the wrong side of the highway.  It takes a while before you can turn back to get on the other side.  The thing is really hard to find since it's under the bridge, but once you get under the bridge, you can not miss it.

After taking some snaps, we stopped by at subway before heading home.  By this time, we all were completely out of energy since we have been doing non-stop sightseeing.  Our next day was going to be covering 4 attractions in seattle downtown from our CityPass (which I will explain in next day), so I wanted to prepare lunch ahead of time so we can save time by not going to restaurant and waiting forever.  I prepared the potato stuffing for the sandwich and went to bed around 12:30 am.  Sunday and Monday have been great days but they were little chilly, so I was kind of excited for tuesday since it was going to be sunny and warm.  More excitement to come.....Watch out!

Seattle Trip 2010 - Day 1

On July 3rd, we reached Redmond around 11:15 pm and slept around 1:30 am....That was late! Well at least Denver time, it was around 2:30 pm.  We were all tired, and very ready to call it a night.

On July 4th, we had initially planned something else and ended up doing something else.  First of all, we all woke up really late.  Got ready around 12:30 pm.  Our initial plan was to go to Olympic game farm which was around 2-3 hours away from Redmond and leave the house around 10 am to reach there in time to see everything.  Getting ready at 12:30 was kind of a sign that we shouldn't even try to go that direction since it'll be late by the time we get there and they'll be closing.  We did not have our lunch so we had to do a quick stop at a restaurant so that included another 30 minutes.  The Olympic game farm closes around 5 pm and the last entry they allow is at 4 pm, to go to the place, we had to take a ferry which was around 40 minute ride, and plus since even my friend was going for the first time, we had approximate estimate of 2.5 hours....in short, when you add up the time, there was no way for us to reach there in time!

First, we stopped by at the nearest paratha place from my friend's place and packed up some lunch and went to Snoqualmie falls.  It was nice place and they had picnic tables so first thing we did was eat our lunch there.  There used to be a hike where you can walk all the way down close to the falls, but unfortunately they closed the path due to construction which will again open in 2012 or 2013.  Looked around the falls, took pictures and came back to the car.  On the way back, we played taboo in the car, and somehow we decided to go watch a movie.  Initially the only choice to watch a movie was "The last airbender", not for its story but JUST to see the special affects!


We were so decided on that movie, but somewhere in the conversation my brother mentioned that we can instead watch "Knight and day".  Well then we were in dilemma and started the debate on who's in for which movie.  Everyone was up for either of the movie but still wanted to watch both movies except me.  We got to the theater, and after about 15-20 minute debate, we just blindly decided on Knight and day, because otherwise we were going to be there all night long w/o any decision.  We buy the tickets and my brother says "Wait!  I want to watch the the last airbender".....supporting him in the decision was my friend's brother in line and then my friend and then me and all of a sudden my brother says "Wait...I don't know ....I want to watch both movies"....What!  I just took my ticket and started walking towards the theater for Knight and day hoping they would do the same.  They did and finally we were in theater 10 mins before the movie started.  I enjoyed the movie, there was action and there was comedy, so it worked out well.

The fun day is not over yet!  Since it was July 4th, we had to see the fireworks!  My friend said that the Gas Works Park fireworks is really good.  But before going to fireworks, we went back home and ate.  We were all tired and was having hard time deciding whether we should go or not.  Again after much debate, we just decided to go, park the car somewhere and take the bus to the Gas Works Park.  Even after we took the bus, we walked down the street about 10-15 minutes to get as close to the park as we can.  The place was packed down the entire street, and the fireworks had already started when we got there around 10:15 pm.  We were lucky to catch the entire fireworks and I think it was fantastic!  But let me tell you this, whenever you go for fireworks at night, do not expect to take the bus back home!!!!  We came to our stop to catch the bus to go back to our car around 10:55 pm.  Our bus was scheduled for 11:10 pm, but there was no sign of it until 11:25 pm.  We finally see a bus but it did not move past a single traffic light in another half an hour!!!!  Finally frustrated, exhausted, and tired, we decided to walk to where the car was parked! HA!  No, it was not close by.  No, it was not the right time to just decide to take a walk.  And No, we didn't know of the neighborhood! But what we did know is that even if we waited for the bus, it would have still not moved past a single traffic light in the next half an hour.

I don't know what it was but as soon as fireworks ended, there were millions of cars which came out of nowhere...well it was definitely the fireworks traffic, but it was CRAZY!  The walk at the midnight that we decided to take was 2 miles within the neighborhood we were unaware of!  Hoping for the best, and chanting prayer (especially me), we got to our car after an hour of walk and soared legs...phew!  It was like a real mission accomplished to get home safe and sound.  Everyone got hungry again and ate Meggie except me.  This was another long day and we slept around 2 am.  I don't know how we're going to get up tomorrow to go to Olympic game farm in the morning.  Until then, stay tuned for Day 2!

Seattle Trip Begins...

Dear blog readers,

I am writing after long time but a lot has happened in the last two weeks.  2 weeks ago I had really rough week including a visit to an ER, visit to a dental clinic, and visit to an auto shop to fix my car damage after I cracked the windshield washer fluid :(.  Well I could write a completely separate blog on that but right now I want to first tell you about my Seattle trip before I forget or get lazy about writing it.

One of my close college friends have moved to Seattle, well Redmond to be specific, for work and she had been pursuing me to come there since past 2 years.  Finally I decided to take out a week from my vacation to go there.  My brother and my friend's brother also accompanied me but they were only coming for 4 days and I was going to be there for the whole week.  Booked my tickets for July 3rd to July 11th.  I am going to write a post for each of the days I was there and that way I can write about my experience in detail :).  Either it's going to bore you to death or get you really involved in the reading about the trip.

All 3 of us got to Seattle on July 3rd.  Now since my flight was earlier from my brother's, I had to wait for him for another hour on the airport and just told my friend to come late.  I went from Colorado with 91 degrees and came to Seattle where the temperatures were in 60s.  I kind of expected it but didn't think I would have to use my jacket right away as I land in Seattle :P.  We got home around 11:15 pm or so and then had delicious butter paneer masala made by my friend.  Since Washington state is on pacific time zone, it was already midnight in denver but we were not sleepy.  We stayed up, chatted, watched couple of episodes of "How I met your mother" and then went to bed around 1:30 am or so.  Our main trip starts from next day, so watch out for my next posts!

Enjoy!

My New Drawing - Taj Mahal

I finally got time to draw something after a decade.  Last one I drew was Eiffle Tower which turned out to be great and this time I attempted to draw Taj Mahal.  It hasn't turned out that good...but I am just happy to have drawn something after such a long time.  Other than that, you be the judge!

My Name Is Khan - Movie and Music Review

The much awaited movie of the year is here and before it even releases, it was surrounded by controversies results being that the movie was banned to be played in many states including Mumbai unfortunately.  I won't go into details of the controversy but all I can say is that something that Shahrukh khan said was made a big deal when it was nothing and political party of shiv sena took the step of banning the film to be played until Shahrukh khan apologized.  Honestly they made something big out of nothing and at the end the audience and the entire Bollywood film fraternity was with  SRK supporting him.

I got to watch the movie last night and I enjoyed it.  Before I go into anything let me tell you that this was a pure Karan Johar film with completely different approach from all his other movies, bringing together Shahrukh khan and Kajol together after long time ...after Kabhi khushi kabhi gham.  First of all, I enjoyed the movie because its SRK movie :).  This is a completely different role that SRK has portrayed who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and different movie from what Karan Johar normally makes.  Kajol is looking gorgeous.  SRK has played the character with such innocence and in many places, it's very cute.  All the light moments between SRK and kajol were cute and romantic.  I think the two messages that the movie brings out is right at the beginning where SRK says "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist" and second where Rizwan's mother says "There are only two kinds of people in this world, good people and bad people" and that's the only difference, and there is no other difference between people even though if they are from different religious background, different nationality...etc.

I wouldn't want to spoil the movie for you, so DON'T READ FURTHER if you don't want to know the movie plot.

As much as I enjoyed the first half of the movie which was not so melodramatic and  went at the right pace with cute moments between SRK and kajol,  I mostly cried in the 2nd half of the movie, starting with the incident that happens with Kajol's son.  That was the heartbreaking scene and Kajol trying to cope with her son's death was so touching and emotional.  Another one is the scene between SRK and Kajol, where she blames him for her son's death because his surname was Khan.  When they get separated and kajol tells him to leave her, very innocently SRK asks "When do I come back?" was a good scene.  Another one of the touching scenes was between Jimmy shergil and SRK when Jimmy asks his brother to come inside the house and he turns away (Jimmy said that there won't be any relationship if he marries Kajol but then something happens with Jimmy's wife and Kajol comes to meet her but SRK doesn't come inside the house).  In short, I cried in every scene where they mentioned the kid's death and the scene between SRK and Kajol.

Now being said that, I also have some comments on the scenes which were dragged and completely unnecessary.
First on the list is the journey of SRK to go meet Mr. President.  He starts with San Francisco, then goes around to Georgia and then somehow comes back to LA ...keeping in mind that he didn't have much cash to start with and at one point he ran out of money with only $2 and some change.  So that was little confusing but if you're not really paying attention to the states you don't really care of where he goes and how he ends up in the state that he is in.

Second, the entire scene where he goes back to Georgia after hearing that a Hurricane has hit the state and there have been devastation.  Now on his journey he goes to state Georgia and meets this lady who gives him shelter and food for a day and that's how he gets attached to her.  When he goes out of Georgia, and hears in the news that Georgia was hit hard in hurricane he goes back to the state....It's not like Georgia is next door...I don't know how he got there so quick and with what transportation.  When he goes back he finds the entire neighborhood in water and all the community members gathered in one church where they're trying to survive and he helps them out.  Well honestly, living in US I know this much that there is no way that rescue teams didn't reach there to help those people get out of the chaos and they were still there after the hurricane hit the place.  This entire Georgia sequence was unnecessary when SRK goes there the second time.

So I guess these two scenes were added as the bollywood masala to wrap up the movie.  Being said this, I still enjoyed the movie and I think it was different from Karan Johar's typical bollywood style romantic, dramatic movies.  Jimmy Shergil has a small role as SRK's brother but has acted well and also the girl who plays his wife is good.

Music Review:
Now for the music of the film, my two favorite tracks are "Tere naina" and "Noor-E-Khuda".  Tere naina is the first song and will stay in your mid until the end because they have the line "Tere naina" playing throughout the movie as background music here and there.  Noor-E-Khuda is a beautiful track sung by Shankar Mahadevan, Adnan Sami and Shreya Ghoshal.  This will also leave a mark in your mind once you hear it.

That's it for the movie and music review folks...I enjoyed the movie and loved SRK and whether you're an SRK fan or not, I am sure you'll find the movie to be different....but I guess you will have to see it yourself to know it and feel the difference :).

Take care...

Calm before the storm!

Hey friends,

The time has come again for the schools to start and the only way I can define it is by saying that it's going to be a big storm this semester.  The moments right now are just the calm before the actual storm hits :p.  Well I was enjoying my one month break and going back to classes just seems ....somewhat hard...specially knowing that I will be taking 3 courses this semester including my masters project that too with full time work...Yikes!  Yes, yes...I know I am little crazy but I am almost done people.  If I finish these 3 things with good grades, I will be graduating with my masters degree this May 2010.  When I started my masters, I didn't know when and how I was going to finish it, I didn't even know if I was going to continue after the first 2 semesters assuming I wouldn't be really into going back to school.  But believe me, time has flown by and I'm into my 5th semester...I can't imagine how fast all these semesters have gone by.  Once I started classes in Spring 2007, I realized how much I missed the college...the classroom environment...meeting new people and making new friends....No..I didn't miss the homeworks, exams, quizes...etc.  But I loved going back and that's what made these 4 semesters fun and exciting with my friends whom I met from my first 2 semesters.  I just need to get through these 4 months now and I will be like a free bird :)...sorta.

So I have taken somewhat advantage of this 1 month break from school.  I watched Avatar in 3D, great movie, great experience.  This movie makes you realize how humans torture and destroy the mother nature for their own selfishness.  If you haven't seen it, go ahead and experience it yourself.  I also watched 3 idiots in the same weekend with my brother....great movie, great laughter, even better performances and for more read my entry on 3 idiots movie and music review.  My dear friend had come from Seattle so  got some time to catch up with her and we went to see Sherlock Holmes.  Another good movie, Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor and really funny.  I haven't seen any of his other movies but I am sure he's just as fantastic and sarcastic as he seems in this one....he seems very natural and specially got to love the way he moves when he talks....I think I am getting carried away...but do catch him in Sherlock Holmes when you get the chance.  Ohh and btw, he won the best actor award at Golden Globe Awards on Sunday Jan. 17th where his speech was amazingly funny so you don't want to miss that.

Um...what else?  The season 8 of 24 (last season) started on Sunday too....well I was switching back and forth between the 24 and golden globe awards...I hate it when they have two things you want to watch at the same time ...grrr.  Well I managed to catch both of them...or at least 24 for sure and caught the right parts of golden globe :p.  24 this time has the plot in New York for a change and it's def. got a different feel to it.  Anil Kapoor is playing the President of Middle East and was looking dashing as President Omar Hassan.  Jack Bauer is back in action.  I'm not liking the new team of CTU specially the head of CTU who has done nothing but made wrong decisions that has merely killed people...luckily Chloe is there to save the day.  Renae is brought back to run an undercover operation and she has seem to taken the role of Jack for being ruthless agent who would go to any limits to torture the suspect.  I am sensing that if the team of CTU is not up to their marks, Chloe, Jack and Renae are enough to take over and run their way.  Sorry folks if you are not into 24, the last paragraph might sound like a foreign language to you, but I'm into this show and I have seen all of its seasons and I also am anxiously awaiting for the movie that will basically close the 24 show.  But let's not go there!

That's it for now.  I will keep you posted on how the classes go and how my days are with ups and downs of new classes.  Take care and keep reading :).