Los Angeles

First Monday of September is observed as Labor Day in US. This long weekend gave us a opportunity to visit the Entertainment Capital of America, Los Angeles, California. Well known for Hollywood, its artists and beautiful beaches along the west coast of America. Our travel plan was simple, reach LA by evening of 29^th August, next day visit Universal Studios, LA city tour on Sunday and return to Houston by 1^st September. We used a travel website to book our flights, hotel and rental car to get a good deal. And deal is what we got, for 830 bucks per head we got flight tickets, 3 nights stay in Shearaton Gateway and a rental car for 3 days.

Universal Studios is one of the biggest and the oldest movie productions houses in Hollywood. Its located some 30 miles from the Los Angeles airport along the Hollywood Freeway. The Studio opens for general public at 9 in the morning and is open till 9 in the evening, so we reached the studio by around 8.30. We had a red carpet welcome to the studio.

First stop in the studio was the House of Horrors. This is a collection of all the characters, costumes and some live characters from all of Universal's classic horrors movies. Its a dark maze to be navigated and screemed. One of the live character came to catch hold of me, and I said a "Hi" and tried to shake hands, after this failed attempt the artist went back to the his hiding place, making everybody in the vicinity burst into laughter. Felt bad for being a spoilsport later. Continuing further, we went to meet Shrek on his way to rescue his princess from Lord Farquaad's men. In the movie the characters come out of the screen and onto your lap! Its a 4-D presentation, the 4^th dimension being the physical effects, were the seats rock, when the character is riding a horse or water is sprayed when the someone spits or throws-up! One princess Fiona was rescued we went to take the 45 minutes guide tour of the whole studio. This tour takes us in the live sets and previously used sets to depict how a movie is shot.

This location is used to shot many flooding sequences in Hollywood movies. Most of the King Kong movie's sea shots were shot in this small pond!

War of the Worlds' famous airplane crash scene was shot in this location. Steven Spielberg, brought an actual Boeing 777 and dismantled it to create this set at a cost of 2 Millions US Dollars!

After the tour we headed to meet the Animal stars of Hollywood. Animals have always had a great part in Hollywood movies. Next we went to get some "Travel Books" and also to meet Anna Scott. But to much to our despair, the book store was closed!

It was noon already, pacifying the bandicoots in the tummy became a priority than searching the Dinosaurs at the Jurassic Park ride! Next it was time to fight "The Mummy". Pyrotechnics has always played a huge part in Hollywood movies, Backdraft is one such movie which uses pyrotechnics to a great extent. The set used to shoot the climax sequence is preserved for public viewing with a live performance. SFX or Special Effects is another great technique used extensively by Hollywood movies. We visited the SFX lab to get a first hand experience of this technique. It was closing time by the time we were done seeing everything. Quick stop at the Souvenir store and we were on our way back to the hotel.

We began our second day early, we had the pickup for Los Angeles City tour at 8am. First stop on the tour was Hollywood Bowl. A Amphitheater with a seating capacity of 17000 plus!

Next we took a walk on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I managed to capture Donald Duck's Star next to Mickey Mouse's leg!

Grauman's Chinese theatre, home to many movie premieres is also located on Hollywood walk of fame. Next to the Chinese theatre is the Kodak Theatre, Oscar awards are present here. This is The Sunset Boulevard, a famous road with many landmark locations which gave Hollywood many of its artist from its numerous comedy clubs, music lounges.

From Los Angeles city we entered the city of...

Beverly Hills is the home to the stars of the Hollywood, home to Million dollar houses! Universal studios is located just outside the city limits of Beverly Hills. No wonder people want to be in Beverly Hills.

After going around the Beverly Hills downtown we returned to downtown Los Angeles to visit one of the oldest house called the Avila Adobe

We had lunch at the Farmers Market, a famous meeting place in Los Angeles. "When Walt Disney was preparing his early designs for a place called Disneyland, he did some of his work while dining on Farmers Market patios. Elements of the Market’s unique design are incorporated into his original drawings." Next we saw La Brea Tar Pits, where tar seeps from the ground to form a pool.

Along with Tar, Methane is also liberated in the surrounding areas, hence all the houses in this area have methane monitors, and if the methane reaches a certain level, "drastic actions" are taken to avert a disaster. Someone lighting a smoke better be careful in this area! Next the tour took us back into Beverly Hills to show the houses of Hollywood actors, we ended up seeing only the compounds of famous actors and actresses!

San Antonio Part II

A bright sunny morning greeted us as we prepared to continue on our San Antonio trip. Today's destination was SeaWorld, its a famous water amusement park. We had booked our entry tickets the previous day itself. We expected a huge crowd since it was a long weekend, so we started early to beat the crowd and it was around 30 miles from where we stayed. It took a 30 minute cab ride to reach the water park. Almost a quarter mile long queue of cars had already formed around 10.30. We rented a locker to keep our personal things and headed towards our first section, "The Lost Lagoon", a wave pool and cluster of other smaller rides. Our timing to enter the pool was perfect as the waves were about to start and before crowd could fill up we found ourselves a nice spot (although it doesn't really matter :-P). After floating around in the waves we moved on to water slide. First we went to the tube slide later the same run without tubes called "Body slide". And trust me the Body slide was better than the tube slide.

Dolphins show called the "Viva!" was our next stop. Its a 30 minutes artistic performance by Pacific White-sided Dolphins. The main attraction of this show was a dolphin jumping out of the water and hitting a ball suspended above 10-15 feet from the water surface. After meeting the Dolphins, it was time for some high octane adrenaline rush filled ride the "Steel Eel" the famous roller coaster ride. Its 3700 feet long and the ride last for about 2 minutes from start to finish and has a 15 story drop!. And you don't have to describe roller coaster rides they are always awesome no matter what!

Photographs taken during the ride are sold outside, we got one each for ourselves before we continued on to "The Great White". This is Texas' first steel roller coaster ride. In this ride your foot will be dangling in the air as you flip around in loops, like in one of the soft drink commercials (although we didn't carry any such thing on the ride). This ride is again around 2500 feet long and takes close to two minutes from start to end. By the end of this ride we were quite hungry, so we made a quick dash to the nearest food court and had our lunch. After lunch to went to "Pirate - 4D", its a 3D movie with water sprinklers, under the seat vibrations and other special effects. It was a nice time pass and kids really enjoyed this. We went on to meet "Shamu", a giant killer whale. Highlight of this show was water splashing by the whale, which can reach up to 16 rows! A half-an-hour presentation featuring various acrobatic maneuvers. Then we took a plunge in the "Atlantis". Half roller coaster half water ride, in this ride we climb 100 feet in a small boat and then we splash into the water!

Our last stop for the day was "Castaway crusin'" a long stream of water where you can swim, walk or float along and rest your body from the day long activities. After couple of round of this stream we went straight to the wave pool to catch the last wave of the day. Nice 20 minutes in the water and we headed back to our locker and made our way out as it was closing time. We were in no mood to wait for a cab and to our luck an empty cab was waiting and we approached the cab driver and asked if it was free. That cab driver said, "No, the cab is engaged, but people who called the cab don't seem to be insight. You guys wait for a couple of minutes and then if they don't come I will take you." We were more than happy to wait. We waited for few minutes and when we were about to leave the group that has actually called the cab turned up. But the cab driver was not amused by there delay so he agreed to drive us instead of them! Cab driver guessed from our looks that we were Indians and was telling about his close family friend being a Indian, the local Indian restaurants anything and everything related to India in San Antonio. He also felt that India is taking over the world from all the "Science" education that we have in India. At this point to re-assure him I had to quote Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's words that, "For 2,500 years India has never invaded anybody" and added my own words, that it has no plans to invade in the future too. We continued on with our discussion, then the cab driver said he had to refuel and we pulled into a gas station a.k.a petrol pump, this station happens to have an Burger King outlet too, so we packed our dinner and took off heading towards our hotel. After munching down our burgers and cola we decided to call it a day.

Next day was our last day at San Antonio and we had a hectic plan ahead of us. First stop Natural Bridge Caverns. These are naturally occurring caves formed due to underground rivers which have spectacular limestone structures. This place is a 30 minutes drive from our hotel. Since we had lot to cover we started a bit early. There are two kinds of tours, one is a guided tour and another one is a self guided tour. We chose the self guided tour called the "Discovery Tour". Along the route you will have guides giving you details about the important locations inside the cave. The cave formations are just mesmerizing.

The tallest formation is 32 feet tall.

And if you let your imagination run wild, you will "Discover" many interesting formations like this one, the King's throne

The white spot on the photo is just a tiny droplet on the camera lens and not a moon! The deepest point of the tour is 180 feet below ground level. The ground can get quite slippery. We had spent more than 2 hours exploring and taking pictures and we didn't realize the time pass by. After a quarter mile trip down the cavern we emerged at the other side of the natural bridge. Next pit stop for the day was the famous and historical, The Alamo. A mission converted to a fortress in which approximately 187 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis tried resisting 6000 strong Mexican army led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. This fortress has been converted to an museum to stand testimony for the brave men who laid their lives defending Texas on 6^th March 1836.

The main entrance leads us to a big hall which houses the memorial, a scale model of the original structure of Alamo with the positions taken by the soldiers. As we exit the hall there is a park and a library. Near library is this pool. Go ahead toss a coin into the pool and make a wish!

At the back of the complex we have the medical center used during the war. It was time for lunch and head to the bus station. We had some more time before bus departed so we decided to take a stroll along the River Walk. And finally the long weekend was drawing to an end and our San Antonio trip. We covered all the places that we thought of covering and a bit more too.

A Bike Ride To Mahabalipuram

On a cloudy winter morning in Chennai, Sun was playing hide and seek as I embarked on my first ever Bike Ride to Mahabalipuram. I chose to start a bit early for two prime reasons, firstly to reach before the crowd starts pouring onto this small shore town, and secondly to avoid being caught by the Chennai Traffic police! Nobody wants to get caught by traffic cops, especially if your coming from the rival state Karnataka and rival metro Bangalore! Keeping all these in mind I kick started my ride at around 8.30 in the morning. I had the Bay of Bengal to accompany me all through the 56 kilometres of the journey. After 45 minutes along the Beach Road into the journey I reached East Coast Road or ECR as it is popularly known as.

Take my word its not just Scenic as the hoarding proudly announces, but it is Breathtaking and Picturesque. People with the Shutter Bug syndrome, beware of this road, because you will find yourself bitten by the Shutter Bug every other 5 to 10 minutes! ECR is Pay and Use road, but Bikes are exempted. ECR is a bikers paradise, Most part of the road is usually straight and flat. The roads are very well laid out. One can find vehicles zip past you at speeds over 100 Kph, but the legal speed limit is 80 kph.

Bay of Bengal accompanies us all along the journey, but it's not in sight because of the urban jungle. After you cross the ECR Toll Plaza, you can get a glimpse of the sea for the first time, you get an uninhibited view of the Sea for the rest of the journey from this point onwards.

Further along the journey we cross the back waters of the sea. Here Boating enthusiasts can have a boat ride. Since I was travelling alone, I decided to continue with my journey.

All along the journey Mother Nature keeps treating us with many more picturesque sites, as I warned earlier Shutter Bug keeps biting, take my word its hard to resist such a bite! Finally after one and a half hour ride with ample stopovers I made it to Mamallapuram town! Mahabalipuram famous for its temples is also famous for its Sculptures. Every 5 - 10 metres we can find artisans busy working with their trademark rhythmic sound of chiselling.

I found this beautiful sculpture of Lord Ganapathi on my way to the first visiting point “The Shore Temple”.

All the tourist spots in Mahabalipuram are part of United Nations' World Heritage Monuments. Archaeological Survey of India (or ASI) has taken up the maintenance of all the sites here, hence we get to see well maintained monuments. We have a one time entry fee of Rs. 10, for the Shore temple and the “Five Rathas” monuments.

The main deity here and other places in Mahabalipuram is Lord Shiva, as the rulers of Pallava dynasty, founders of this town worshipped Lord Shiva.

As the name suggests the Shore Temple is located very close to the sea shore. A 5 foot tall boundary wall separates the temple from the deep sea.

The Shore Temple and most of the other monuments here are made of Sand Stone, which is easily disintegrated by the rough sea and salt laden winds. Most of the carvings on the temple are spoilt as a result of this. ASI has taken special measures to arrest the erosion of the sculptures.

Adding to the ambient atmosphere is the pleasant sound of the waves hitting the shore right next to the temple along with a cool breeze. Just the sight of this place makes the whole journey worthwhile. I was lucky enough to get drenched in a fine drizzle of rain. Though the rain did not last more than a few minutes, I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Next stop in my journey was Cave temples. This group of caves is just a 5 minutes walk from the Shore Temple. The cave temples are a collection of 13 cave carvings.

Along with the cave carvings, we also find the Old Lighthouse built by the Pallava kings. No one is allowed to climb to the top of the Lighthouse, but we can get a fair view of this town from the foot of this ancient sea marker.

After visiting all the cave temples, I headed to the last stop of my journey the “Five Rathas”. This is another 5 minutes walk from the Cave temples. As the name hints this is a collection of five monuments each named after Draupadi and Pancha Pandavas. Each of these Rathas or Chariots are sculpted using different forms of Indian Architecture.

From left to right the chariots are named after Draupadi, Arjuna, Bhima, Dharmaraja and Nakula Sahadeva. Apart from the five major structures, we also find a Bull, a Lion and an Elephant. Due to the Salt laden winds even these sculptures have eroded over a period of time.

By the time I was done with visiting these monuments it was afternoon and I was hungry. Guided by the localities I found a nice eatery. After finishing my lunch, I started my return journey to Chennai with all my batteries charged! 32 kilometres on the ECR and finally a hoarding announced the end of ECR.

At this point I was engulfed by multiple feelings, joy of a memorable journey and sorrow of the end of ECR and its beauty. At the end, no words and pictures can explain it completely, one has to experience it to feel it!

Jog – A piece of heaven

After a very long time all five of our engineering gang was meeting, and its been almost two and a half years since all of us went together for a trip. A much awaited break for all of us from our routine life. All of us had so much to catch up on each others lives. So finally at around 11 on a cold Friday night we started our journey of 400 kilometers from Bangalore to Jog. The ride was filled with pranks, pulling each others legs, remembering the good old days of our college life. By the time we thought of taking a nap we were more than half way through our journey. Our heated arguments, discussions and fun had probably enraged the car I believe it overheated! So we had to break for about an hour before we started moving. As the saying goes “Alls well that ends well”. This one hour break in our journey ensured that we reached Jog at a perfect time in the morning.

Six in the morning still quite a distance from Jog we were surrounded by the enchanting and picturesque beauty of the Western ghats. Frequent spells of fine spray of rain had made the curvy roads look even more beautiful, this made me jealous of the driver. To add to this we had lush greenery on both sides of the road. Me and my friend started clicking pictures of this timeless beauty.

Finally we reached Sagara, a small place 30 kilometers from Jog. This was the last place before most mobiles went silent due lack of network. After a quick break we started the final segment of our journey. The first place we stopped over was a bridge across the river Sharavati just a few minutes from the waterfall. Everyone jumped out of the car to enjoy the pleasant weather and view. Even at eight in the morning fog was taking its time to clear on this little hill station. Due to the dense fog we couldn't see things 100 metres away let alone the waterfalls.

After clicking few photos we headed to the main waterfall. As soon as the car came to a halt we literally ran to get a glimpse of the waterfall. Much to our dismay we could just hear the roaring of the waterfall and nothing much was visible due to heavy fog and thick cloud cover. But we had a pleasant surprise waiting for us, courtesy Mother Nature. Cloud cover just started to clear bit by bit to showcase the true beauty of Jog. All of us were jumping in joy to see “Raja”, first of the four waterfalls. Then “Rani” showed up quickly, followed by “Rocket”. But to see “Roarer” we had a wait a little more. Finally all four waterfalls were visible and we were totally bowled over by Mother Nature. We were jumping in joy, clapping hands. It took us awhile before we could even talk. I just cant express the euphoria in words. Quickly we decided to pack our breakfast head down towards the bottom of the falls and have it there.

A rocky decent of about 1500 steps. All the cementing of the steps were washed away due to recent heavy rains. As we were making our way downhill, the view and roar of the waterfalls was getting better. Half way through we were completely taken by the shear beauty of Jog. Its just then we started to get the feeling that “This is indeed a piece of Paradise of Earth”. No one can express the beauty of this place in words or in pictures, one has to see this place to enjoy its beauty. The rocky path gave us ample opportunity to enjoy Nature's beauty. The Shutter Bug wont allow you to take more than 10 or 15 steps before you feel like clicking another one!

3/4th the way down we were greeted by the fine spray from the waterfalls. With every step it was increasing. Still further down the fine spray was now like heavy drizzle. More closer to the falls we decided that the cameras and mobile are best inside the bag than outside, as no one had the patience to click pictures and the waterfall spray was really heavy. At the very bottom of our decent we were literally running towards the falls. Mother Nature had lot more surprises than we could ever imagine. All of a sudden the water flow increased and it was accompanied by gust of wind making the waterfall spray look like a heavy rain. We couldn't open our eyes even though we a good 100 metres from the falls. Since we were early to start the decent we had very few people near the falls, so we had all of Jog just for ourself!

We were so completely taken in by the beauty we were out of words and we were just screaming at the top of our voice to express our excitement and complete surrender to Mother Nature's beauty. Our trek downhill and the jumping and howling had drained our energy and we started feeling hungry. The gust of water was so heavy we had to find a rock to hide behind it and open our food packets. Everyone were so hungry and wanted to dance in this artificial rain, we ate in no time! And we headed straight to the waterfall. We could mange to go only to about 50 meters from the bottom of the fall as water was gushing with immense force and the water spray was too heavy. All of us just stood with an outstretched hand to enjoy the artificial rain. No one was ready to leave this place just yet. And Nature didn't leave us empty handed. Just as we were drenching ourselves Sun joined us in the party. Sun was hidden behind the hill had slowly started raising above the horizon. Sun cast its spell slowly by adding a tinge of golden yellow to each of the four water paths one by one . We again thanked Mother Nature and started our accent half heartedly. On our way uphill we took little breaks to rest and enjoy this timeless beauty.

Now that we had seen the bottom of the fall, now we were headed towards “Raja Spot” from where we can see the waterfalls from the top. It was already nearing noon when we reached up. We were completely exhausted by the climb so we decided to rest up a bit. After about an hours rest we started our 5 minutes drive to Raja Spot or now popularly called “Mungaru Male Spot”, as this place was used in shooting of a recent hit Kannada movie by the same name. Bottom of the falls gave us pure pleasure due to rain formed by the falls spray and the this gave us adrenaline rush. The view from the top is just breathtaking. You can see both the calm looking water and its power as it plummets to bottom. The depth of the falls is good enough to set your pulse raising, adding to that we have the roaring of the water. One can see the rocks carved out by the fury of gushing water. I couldn't stop myself from imagining how it would have been when the dams were opened due to the recent heavy rains. That would have been the sight of a lifetime, this was no less though! We have two places from were we can see the waterfalls. First one is a man-made structure from where we get to see the falls and its power. Next is from over the rocks just from where water path “Raja” falls. The view is just amazing. And soon one realizes that the later is the best choice to view as its much more closer to the falls.

From here you can experience the pure power of water, the gushing roar speaks for itself. We took turns to see the waterfall. By the time we reached Raja spot we had a lot of people, so we missed the peace and tranquility what we had at the bottom. After the high adrenaline pumping experience we took some time to enjoy the valley created by the river, its greenery on both sides of the valley. We were caught in two minds to leave this place or not. Ruthless Mind said we are running out of time and Heart said stay back, finally we decided to listen to the mind and now I regret that decision after returning from Jog!