Our trip to the beautiful Uttarakhand - Part II(Corbett & Mussoorie)

So after Nainital our next stop point was Corbett. Luckily it was just 3-4 hours from Nainital.. Yes the Jim Corbett National Park is very much located here in Corbett. This time our stay was at Tiger Camps Resort, Corbett. We reached at around 9.30 am. They welcomed us with a drink extracted from the branches of a kind of trees ah! can't remember the name and a gori applied red tikka before we entered. The ambiance of the resort was lovely. Had we known this place was so beautiful we would have compromised our stay at Mussoorie for Corbett. In Tiger Camps Resort the rooms where individual cottages. The resort self sufficed for various activities. Food was served at "Gol Ghar" their in-house full-fledged restaurant and the food was awesome with different set of cuisines served..
After lunch we played a round of TT(Table Tennis) with expert commentary from Hubby. The round was Professional v/s Newbie :P We also went to the Kosi river running alongside the resort, literally the water was crystal clear.
We had to leave for our Jungle Safari in the wee hours of morning. We had booked for the safari well in advance since we wanted to tour the Bijrani zone of the national park where the chances of an encounter with Sambar, Chital and Tigers etc are high. Later did we realize, Elephant safaris are much more adventurous and chances to have close encounters are more... The Jeep picked us up from the Resort.

Corbett was much more colder than Nainital and in wee hours of morning after wearing our sweater, jacket and gloves. We where freezing like hell.
At the national park every jeep is accompanied by a jungle guide. Their goal is to help us encounter a Tiger, only then do they get their hefty tip. We tried to follow the pug marks, though we couldn't see any of them. He took us through various routes in and out. Though the excitement and the nervousness expecting to encounter a Tiger was a killing experience. Strange but the guides keep telling they can here and understand all sorts of calls made by the animals and would ask us to concentrate and try to listen. I was so cold and numb, I couldn't concentrate to hear one. Also they say the monkeys and deers are friends. They help each other to save themselves from the wild ones. Sounded Quite Interesting... We were happy that the experience was really good although we didn't see a Tiger but at least could catch a glimpse of the other animals. Later in the day we checked out and proceeded to Mussoorie. Now Corbett to Mussoorie was another 6-7 hrs of travel. By this time we had got so bored and tired of travelling by road for long hours.

Well visit Mussoorie only if you want to relax. There is no place of interests as such or rather I didn't find anything interesting. The hotels there are not that great at least were not equivalent to the ones we have always stayed in. Nevertheless the weather was even more chillier than Corbett (5-6 degrees). Probably the coldest of all the three places. The climb to the top had so many blind turns, felt like it would never end. Above all we had started to feel hungry and it was getting dark. It also becomes difficult to drive especially with so many turns in a mountain when it gets dark. We had a 3-day stay here and were so bored. I would never recommend Mussoorie as a tourist spot. So commercialized yet no place to see. The best part of the stay in Mussoorie was we found a South Indian Restaurant which served our favorite dosas. Else the only food you get in North for breakfast, lunch and dinner are the Parathas.
After 3 long boring days and a happy new year we were now all excited to get back home. The 9 hour journey from Mussoorie to Delhi Airport was tiring though en-route the scenic beauty was pleasant. Thankfully reached the airport on time. The driver was more tensed to drop us on time, since he had started getting calls from his family :P Also after 6 pm the Delhi traffic sets in..
Its been almost a year and half since our visit to North. And our next planned trip was to Wayanad,Kerala. Probably the almighty wanted us to now travel abroad :) and before we could visit Wayanad, Kerala. We landed at Singapore...

Our trip to the beautiful Uttarakhand - Part I(Nainital )

My wish to see snow and to experience the coldest winter actualized in our trip  to North India during December and the bookings where made around Christmas to New Year. This was my first ever trip to North India. I know the temperatures will be at its low during that time. The places we were covering were Nainital, Corbett and Mussoorie. Point to be noted is since these places are not directly accessible, travel by road was the only option from Delhi. Each place is some 7-8 hours journey from the airport.
As always vacations come with their part of experience and excitement, also some patience awaiting for it.
So on the 24th of December,2009 we had an early morning flight to Delhi. We could feel the change in temperatures when we disembarked the flight in Delhi (19 degrees ). Like a child I was excited to see my frozen breath in the air. Wore my sweater, gloves and a woolen stole(bought by Jo from Austria) and walked towards the car.

Our first point of stop was Nainital and it was a good long 7-hr journey by road. The first surprise that came our way was when the driver said some one else will be driving us to Nainital and asked us to let him go for his stupid reasons sigh! And the new driver came in. True to say we weren't very comfy with the Northie drivers, sadly we had no other option but go with it.

So the trip begins and mid-way we halted for our lunch at a dhaba. The food was good and the bill as well, the second surprise. ;)  We proceed there on sleeping and chatting all the way. It had already started to get dark at 5.30pm and we wanted to reach the hotel before it is completely dark. The Hotel Chevron Fairhavens was situated close to the Naini lake. It was a heritage hotel, a british time YWCA converted to hotel. The interiors was still maintained in  british style. The weather  was quite chilly at night around 9-10 degrees. The rooms had no fans and air-conditioners (not required though)and thankfully they had warmers in the room. Since it was X'Mas eve, they had bonfire and a buffet party...
The next day we went to Naini lake for a boat ride. The best part of Nainital is this boat ride. There is also a zoo that we had visited which was at the peak. The road to the zoo was very steep only the jeeps can take us up there. The jeeps drop us close to the zoo. I didn't find the zoo to be that great after our visit to the Singapore Zoo. Though we could see a variety of Deers,monkeys,  Cheetah & Leopard.

There was also a cable car ride to the Top station. I always thought every hill station has a Top Station, a Sunset point and a Suicide point at least in India but surprisingly we also found one Top Station in Langkawi, Malaysia. Once we reached the Top Station, there was another Top point which gives a view of the snow peaked mountains of the Himalayas. The View was charismatic and breath-taking (pun intended). We had some piping hot tea(which turned cold in a minute or two) and some hot bhajiyas..

These places have been so much commercialised, you can find shops, road-side stalls and hotels almost everywhere more than the places of interest.

Call it Passion or Craze..

1. Mitsubishi Trium: This was my very first Mobile. Gifted to my parents by my maternal uncle and they didn’t really feel any need for using it. Only thing they did was to put a prepaid sim and we had a mobile number to say.
I used to take it to my super strict college during my graduation years, hidden in my bag and in a silent mode.. And to make any urgent phone calls would go to the washroom and speak as low as possible. The phone was heavy with an antenna and initially I didn’t know what features it had and I don’t remember if I ever bothered to explore it.. Looks weren’t great but yes felt proud to roam around saying I have a mobile phone..
2. Nokia 3315: After M-trium, my eye was on a better phone. Since I wasn’t earning then.. I asked dad with a lot of background study for convincing answers, whether I could get a Nokia 3315. That was the beginning for the craze I guess.
And he promised to get me one on my Birthday. I was happy, happy and very happy.. The first buy from over eBay. Had a couple of talks with the dealer if he could work-out a trade-in for the M-Trium, which he finally agreed. The trade-in amount was quite good although we didn’t expect much going by it’s looks..  It was delivered my B’day(2003)
I was in top of the world. Probably the best gift I ever wanted. I was so excited that I didn’t leave any feature of the phone unchecked.. From ringtones to sms templates etc.. Low on words to express the happiness it gave.. Soon after it arrived I also changed the body case to a Reddish Pink which came along in the kit. I just loved the color.. After Nokia 3315 I patiently waited to complete my Masters and then get one on my own.
During this period my sis also got a Nokia 3315. So now Murali family had two mobiles..
3. Nokia 6100: I had completed my Masters and was placed in a good Organization. Now I yearned for a colour phone and the search had already begun. With permission from my parents to get something from my First Salary I went ahead and bought Nokia 6100. This had 1.3 MP camera, FM, GPRS and most of all it was a colour phone.. Sleek and small.. My first gadget that I bought.. I realized this craze is not gonna end soon..
4. Nokia 6600: Not sure how long Nokia 6100 lasted probably some 6 months. Now I had changed my job and was in the field of Mobile Development. Felt like I was destined to be in this field looking at my increasing craze for mobiles and gadgets. So now it goes without saying I had to get my next mobile which was Nokia 6600.. I wasn’t so impressed with the design but there were good reviews of the phone.
5. Nokia 6101: 2-3 months down the line I was bored with Nokia 6600 and bought Nokia 6101. Bored of candy bar phones I wanted to use a clamshell. Performance and features weren’t as good as 6600 but for the sake of clamshell I bought it.. This one lasted for another 3-4 months..

6. Motorola w650: This phone was the next buy from eBay. It was a very cute and small phone, would be well hidden in our fist. This purchase was Mom’s gift to Dad. But he wasn’t keen on using it in the fear that he would lose it. So it came over to me.. I used for a while then sis.. Somehow we weren’t very comfortable with the phone. Dad started using it after lot of compulsion and like his fear came true it got lost.. He was so tensed he stopped using a mobile phone.

7. Nokia 6670: This phone had spent the shortest time with me. I didn’t do much of curious exploring on the phone and it gave way to the next one.
8. Nokia N70: N70 lasted almost for a year and half. I had bought this phone as soon as I joined Web18. The phone bills were taken care-of, the best thing any mobile developer would want.. Fully functional with edge and development tests on the go. This phone was at it’s best everytime. The very point that my colleague had a N71 triggered the thought of owning NSeries phones.. And this was the start..
9. Nokia N73: Past 1.5 yrs in Web18. With the line of events happening in my life like marriage, moving to a new house, quitting the current job etc..  I moved over to Nokia N73. This time since there was one more person in my life.. His go-ahead nod was also required. It was important for me that he knows about this crazy passion of mine for gadgets..
From the day I joined Web18 and companies there on, every mobile of mine has passed through various ordeals.. They were put to use in the best possible way.
N73 has a very good camera. This phone came to our rescue when our digital camera conked off right at the beginning of our honeymoon trip. And also a lovely music phone.. Rest of the features were as good as any other NSeries phones then..
10. HTC Touch: This was the first phone I bought after marriage. Since my hubby isn’t much into gadget. I had to persuade and convince before I bought this. The first and last windows phone I ever owned.. I wasn’t very comfortable with the screen sensitivity. Soon after I bought this phone I received some freelancing offers. Realized this phone wouldn’t be of much help unless I developed a touch screen version of every app. So had to necessarily move over to the next one.
11. Nokia N81: I bought this phone right after HTC Touch. This one was classy. A little heavy but had great looks.. The music version had inbuilt 8GB HD. Put it to use for some of my work. On a trip to my native place, I exchanged this phone with my maternal uncle for a Nokia E63.
12. Nokia E63: Used this phone for quite some time and is till with me.. The phone which made me acquainted with QWERTY keyboards. Sleek and smart phone.. Camera ain’t that good. But rarely do I use phone cameras to take photos.
Android was the next OS I had laid my hands on at work. And this firm had its own set of handsets for the development tests..  So I could actually get to try the phones before I thought about the next buy.
13. HTC Hero: One of the best phones in 2009 was HTC Hero with Android 1.6 which was later updated to 2.1. No updates after 2.1.  Android had just set it in and I was already pulled into it. I wasn’t so much of an Apple fan although I use one now. But Android got me my bread and butter So no pushing it aside.. Well this phone was my hubby’s gift for our wedding anniversary from Singapore.. One could say as a compensation for the number of long trips he made to Singapore then.. Little did we know we would land here in an year’s time.. This phone’s still with me and recently upgraded it to 2.3. Yep, Installed a Custom ROM(CyanogenMod 7). Initially was  a bit nervous, but the entire process of Rooting and Flashing a new ROM was smooth and exciting.
14: iPhone 4: We had just landed in Singapore and everywhere I see is Apple Products.. Every person owns an iPhone. I was so pissed off and irritated that I also ended up owning an iPhone 4 em.. call it jealousy :P . But people, I am still an Android fan. iPhone is just for the sake of owning one.. I agree it makes people completely dependent. And giving a break is absolutely important or else it becomes difficult to make a shift..
Although Mom & Dad & now my Hubby ask me to keep a cap on my purchase for mobiles.. It’s been irresistible and bought them by convincing all of them by putting across the specs, feature or whatever be it..
I have always loved and miss my phones with every purchase. My most loved ones were 3315, N70, N73 and the three phones that I still have. The phones I still own are HTC Hero, E63 and iPhone 4.
Call it passion or craze, for the gadgets especially mobiles still holds strong..Though now I have learnt to patiently await with all the excitement for the next one …

Runaway trip to Langkawi!

We were planning for our first vacation from Singapore and after a round of confusions and discussions ended up deciding Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia.
We had planned a weekend trip to Langkawi. After some research and suggestions from friends we decided to stay at Berjaya Resorts. Well we went through their website and checked out the types of rooms available and booked for the Rainforest Chalet. It takes a lot of patience awaiting the vacation especially after a hectic schedule at work for over 2-3 weeks. Although a short one but we were full of excitement. Our flight was at 11 and reached Changi well on time. I love Changi Airport. The immigration was done in a jiffy and after an hour or so we were ready to board the flight. The best part of the journey to Langkawi was the view en route SG to Langkawi.
The view was just mind-blowing and breath-taking. The ships at the harbor looked like fishes, the beautiful horizon, the blue waters.. literally for some one who loves blue, they wouldn’t have wished for anything more. There were all shades of it.
The scenic one hour journey came to an end and we landed at Langkawi airport. It was a small airport. The security was quite stringent and it took a while for the immigrations to get over and once done we drove off to Berjaya Resorts..
The next inimitable thing was the resort. Amidst the rainforest spread over acres of land was this resort. To our luck they had upgraded our room to a Family Suite. The Berjaya beach was just a stone’s throw away from the resort.
A shuttle drove us to our chalet. The room was luxurious with a view to the beach, I didn’t want to get out of the room. The chalet by itself looked splendid.
We also managed to find some vegetarian food out of their list of mostly the other kind. The resort had a Beach restaurant which served Indian food though limited variety to select from. After coming to Singapore probably that was the first place the food actually tasted Indian more to say North-Indian Vegetarian Food. It had a wonderful ambiance, artists were singing and playing some soothing music. I wished they would come to our table and sing for us and they did the very next day.. Finding veggie food wasn’t much of an issue thankfully.
The only important place of interest for me was the enchanting Sky Bridge (Yea, the same one from the Movie DON where the last scene was shot). It is located 700 meters (2,300 ft) above sea level at the peak of Gunung Mat Enchanting on Pulau Langkawi. The Cable Car is the only way to get to this bridge.. People who have acrophobia think twice before you take the cable car. The ride from the base to the top station is very scenic and also quite scary. There were also plenty of duty-free shops around the place. The experience to feel the cool breeze in the cloudy weather at that height cannot be put in words. Just awesome.
It feels so nice traveling to such beautiful places.
Well this was about my trip Langkawi. The next best place I will miss after Corbett

Majulah Singapura!

I will be completing 1 year in Singapore in a week’s time. And time just flew off, I still remember the day I landed here and hubby drove me to our new rented home.I was so mesmerized with view of the house.. We were the first tenants for our landlord and so to say the house was brand new or at least looked like one..
The initial six months were quick. Lots of shopping and eagerness to be called a Singapore return when I go to India for my sis’s wedding.. And to be honest this is the best place any woman would want to be for all the shopping corners it has.
I love the colorful Singapore. The place is so beautiful at night and in the day I am reminded of my native place which makes it even more beautiful, Contrast ain’t it. I was surprised to see the people follow rules like hell.. even at the signals.. No honking horns.. and lots of patience.. The public transport is awesome. Most of all senior citizens are given utmost care.
People do crib the system is pretty much predictable and monotonous. No variety and chaos like in India. But I say it’s so well organized that’s why it is predictive and the reason for it’s progress..
Well all said and done.. I do miss India for my people and the festivals and occasions.. Sigh!
So let’s see how long I am gonna be here and I write a post++ every year I complete..