Kannan's Blog

Destination Thailand

4^th January 2007:

Dinner at Bombay Post on Airport Road, then finished telecons and got to the airport for 12:30 Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.. Flight was boarded very swiftly – much quicker than a train.. not much of announcements or row-wise boarding etc.. Before even we got settled, it was taxing on its way out.. Thai Airways seem to be more efficient and quicker than we really thought.. Dinner or some snack was served.. Then we caught up on some sleep for an hour and half and we were in Bangkok – 3 and half hours.. That is, 5:30 AM..

5^th January 2007:

It was visa on arrival, so we had to get our dollars exchanged to Baht at the airport and paid 1000 baht for the visa fee along with a photograph and we were on our way out.. Picket up luggage and got out of the Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok.. We were heading to Pattaya and our hunt for taxi started right from airport pre-paid.. which was 2600 baht.. then we finally got taxi for the 2 hour drive via Chon Buri freeway for 1200 baht, outside the airport.. So lot can be bargained at Thailand and we were right on it.. But, we realized on the return that it was 900 baht – the actual price but we were close.

We were on the taxi to our hotel at Pattaya.. driver seemed very tired.. spoke very little English.. Made couple of stops.. we were amazed by the infrastructure – expressways, tall rise buildings.. superb airport.. Then we had some coffee at a café.. there are lots of 7 Eleven, Star bucks, Sub Way, Pizza huts.. all the US majors are here.. We reached the hotel by 9 AM.. though there was lot of debate if hotel will allow early check-in, at our A-One Hotel (Boat hotel) facing the ocean on Beach Road, North Pattaya, there was no problems at all.. We had a very good family room with some additional baht for extra bed.. but it was perfect.. awesome hotel.

After some quick phone calls – trying with the airtel pre-paid cards which we had purchased at the airport and Thailand numbers did not work.. we were on our way for breakfast.. We went to a different hotel for the continental buffet breakfast (bread toasts, omelet, cereal, juice, coffee) which was 150 baht whereas hotel was 300 baht since it was 4-star.

Right after breakfast, we jumped to action.. Rented a speed boat for 2800 baht to goto coral islands.. It was a small boat for 3 of us with a good driven.. Bon was his name.. He took us really fast.. it was a real bumpy ride.. given the speed and the roughness of the sea. First we went for Para-sailing, then for under the sea walking and then to the corel islands.. We enjoyed ourselves in the white sands, clear and clean waters..

Once we got back, we returned to hotel for taking bath, got fresh.. headed straight for lunch.. though it was late.. 4:30 PM already.. we found Pizza hut.. for pizza and beer.. behind our hotel.. which is a parallel road to beach road.

We got back to the beach.. hired one of the lazy chairs facing the beach and settled with more beer.

Evening we headed for a walk through the Pattaya streets to see the night life… city was actually waking up at 8 PM, and true to what we had read.. city stays fully alive till 2 AM. After some walking, we ventured into the Tuk-Tuk for a drive towards the South Pattaya… Had dinner at the Indian restaurant.. on beach road.. a Sardar friend.

Then we got out and continued our walking on the Walking Street.. thinking our next action.. It was already pretty late… took Tuk-Tuk back to hotel for relaxing.. But, guys were hungry again with all the action.. sure enough Sub-way was open.. so we had sandwiches.. then headed to room to call it a day of ACTIONJ

6^th January 2007:

Got up late by 9 AM, then went to another hotel right across the small road opposite our hotel, for a better continental breakfast with omelet etc.. for 50 baht each.. We also tried out their waffle..

Then we were off for foot massage at Zen.. on beach road.. close to our hotel.. It was an amazing one hour experience of foot massage.. Very pleasant and soothing.. never thought anyone could massage the foot or leg so well.. Thai folks seem to know each and every nerve and have the perfect synchronization.. its just amazing.

Afternoon was time to say hai to Tigers at the Sri Racha Tiger zoo.. We had made the bookings through the travel agent across the hotel.. Zoo van picked us up at the hotel in the afternoon.. saw the tigers?? They were all together with pigs / piglets.. was a little annoyed to see such a family.. Then tiger show, crocodile show, elephant show, photo with the Scorpion lady, sovereign shop.. Was interesting, but we were little too stunned to know that they eat crocodiles and at this zoo they had a huge breeding ground of around 10,000 crocodiles – seems like a big business..

Then we returned and went to Pizza hut for lunch and then did our booking for taxi for next day to airport.. Since our flight from Bangkok to Phuket on AirAsia was at 10:50, we had to leave by 7 AM and it was tough to find someone willing to come so early.. we finally found and made the bookings.

Then we went to watch the Thai fantasy show.. similar to New York broadway.. but by Lady boys.. it was an extravagant show of 1:15 minutes with amazing setups of various part of the world.. including the traditional Thailand setup with dance, song, lighting, costumes, settings changed for each song, it was time and money well spent for 1500 bath each.

Then we went to continue exploring the night life and then went for oil massage.. This was again, traditional Thai oil massage.. very relaxing.. certainly Thai is the place for massages.

Dinner was at another Indian restaurant near Walking street (South Pattaya). We could find our King Fisher beer though, but it was still a good late dinner with we being the only customers at the hotel at 12 PM.. Returned to hotel to catch up on sleeeeeeeep.

7^th January 2007:

Got ready and checked out early and headed to Bangkok again via Chon Buri by taxi.. this time the taxi driver was just way toooooooo silent.. We reached the airport early.. so checked in with Air Asia and then had breakfast at the restaurant in the airport, which was crazily expensive. Air Asia was yet another no frills low cost airline.. no seat numbers.. no nothing.. just get into your seats and keep going.. seems pretty good and what we wanted as well for the price. We landed at Phuket international airport within 1 and half hours. Then we took the taxi to our Patong Premier hotel near Patong beach. This time the taxi driver seems to be more fit to be on the race track.. He had all kinds of instruments fitted to his Lancer and it really made enough noise like a race car.. Driver also tried driving it like being on a race track but it was cloudy and windy roads though the mountainous regions. Phuket was a much much different place than Pattaya, it was more like hill station on the beach. Once again our hotel was close to the beach, around 5-10 minutes walk and close to the beach road.

We checked in and headed for lunch.. We wanted to try some authentic Thai food, so we went to a Thai restaurant.. got some good vegetable bajjis (thought some gravy and ordered and ended up as bajjis.. went very well with our Beer) then we had pizza, fried rice.. all too good.

After lunch, we were all set for action.. Bungy jumping (1900 baht for jump, certificate and T-Shirt).. and we also booked for the next day trip to Phi Phi island… all at the Patong premier hotel travel agent there.. He / she quoted 2900 baht for the the island day tour.. we negotiated for 1400 baht and it was done deal along with bungy though which we did not get any discount..

Evening we headed back on the beach road for a walk.. We headed to Bangla road..

Then we got back to beach road, made phone calls.. 10 baht per minute to India. had dinner.. quick sandwich at Subway and then went for foot massage after lot of walking.. which was around 250 baht. Then retired for the day.

8^th January 2007:

We got ready early, tour pickup from hotel was at 8 AM, so we finished our breakfast – again continental breakfast at the hotel and went for the tour. It was tour operated by XXXXX.. There were many such tour operators.. We reached the place to see that there were many people around 50.. They divided us into 2 boats and we started by 9:30 AM.. This boat was really fast with 3 Honda engines.. 225 cc each.. With its sheer power.. it tore the sea and cruised along to reach the Phi Phi islands within 45 minutes.. Here activities were, Snorkeling, visit / seeing Viking bay, monkey island (photographs with them).. lunch at one of the islands (part of the tour package).. this was the island which was totally ravaged by Tsunami and is now re-built with one hotel.. Then we went to another coral island.. sea got pretty rough.. so we headed back.. We were back to hotel by 5 PM.

Since the Thai food was too good, we went there for beer and some more hogging after a tiring tour day.. Then we headed to beach road.. went to beer bar, had foot massage done and then went to Banana – one of the pubs on beach road.. near Bangla street. In between it was shopping time to buy some sovereigns.. Thai hand bags, Thai silk scarf’s / duppattas etc.

9^th January 2007:

We checked out early and took the taxi to Phuket airport since our Air Asia return flight to Bangkok was at 9 AM. Checked in with Air Asia and then had breakfast at Dunkin Doughnuts and burger king at the airport. But the flight was delayed by an hour and half, so we relaxed at the airport with no other choice.. then reached Bangkok by 12:15.

We had till 5 PM to checkout Bangkok since our return flight was at 7:15. We checked at the airport information and found a place to store our bags for 100 baht per bag within the airport. We also found that Siam paragon is a place which we can see given the time we had. We took a taxi to the Siam Paragon at the center of the city.. Once again we were amazed with the neat roads and awesome infrastructure they had.. it was all too neat. We reach Siam paragon and we were once again amazed at how big and neat this shopping mall was. We went to Siam Water world which had the best collection of all the stuff in the ocean in one place. We were short of time, so we quickly went around.. took pictures.. Saw all the sharks.. we also heard that we could swim with the sharks.. Scuba diving.. but we didn’t have the time.. so we saw others swimming.. We then came back to the biggest collection of food court I have ever seen.. Too much variety of food, had lunch.. deserts and then went to all the floors of this shopping mall and it was time to head back.. Took the taxi back to airport.. Paid 500 baht each as the airport taxi / exit fee and we were on our way back to reality.

Travel Tips:

How to reach: By air is the best.. You save on time.. Both Bangkok and Phuket are international airports.

Hotel: Check for hotels on beach road

Best time: Dec, Jan and Feb.

Bargain / negotiate.. start at 50%.. its part of the deal at Thai

Most of the massage parlors, tour operators, hotels etc… ask for 4% or 5% credit card service charge.. Watch out / Negotiate

Activities: Snorkeling, Para sailing, Under sea walking, Scuba diving, Bungy jumping, Submarine

Goa in Monsoon

Boizs and Goa in Monsoon

June 30^th 2006

Met at the airport for 1:50 PM Jet Airways flight to Goa. Flight was on time, reached Goa airport with partly cloudy skies.. but no rain.. by 3 PM. Varca Palms beach resort hotel person was waiting for us.. arrival drink of mineral water bottle and orange juice!!!! Ride to the hotel in South Goa was around 45 minutes. Hotel as usual was not as cool and awesome as we saw in the photos / pictures online.. In any case we checked-in, but Shashi was immediately like lets try and checkout from here and go find some other hotel in North Goa (the happening place). But, we realized we will NOT get any reimbursement so settled in the rooms.. Started checking out the place.. went to the beach with KF (large).. Beach was awesome, but sea was really swollen.. lot of water (muddy), but it was awesome.. Had some short eats.. more beer.. since he did not have KF pint.. we tried Kings pint.. which was like water… Then we returned to the room and immediately headed to the swimming pool. It was cool to hit the pool after couple of quick beer..

Deal at hotel was including buffet dinner, lunch / breakfast.. So we had more beer and dinner and then settled in the room for quarterfinals.. Football.. First match was England versus Portugal.. We had all cool matches lined up.. Brazil vs. France.. Enjoyed football and cricket also..

July 1^st 2006

Had breakfast and we were again caught up as to what next since this hotel was good for honeymooners… We decided to take a taxi to North goa and go around more beaches and have fun.. There was also a cruise from the hotel on the Mandovi river which we decided to join in the evening. We got a Maruthi van.. and 3 in the back was tough with all of us grown horizontally.. also the driver was very slow.. in any case we reached Panjim and then North goa.. Fort Aguada.. This is the place where they shot Dil Chatha Hai.. We had similar photo.. By now we had become pretty comfortable with Goa in monsoon.. Sudden rain for 5-10 minutes.. (more like peeing).. We took some more pictures and left the fort. On the way all along.. my friends were like this place was so crowded last time.. we had lunch here.. this food is good here… etc.. seemed like a happening places / hotels compared to serene and quite / calm beaches in South Goa.. We went to Vagator, Anjuna, Baga and Calangute beaches. Had lunch at Lobos in Calangute.. Veg Briyani was really awesome here.. Then we came back to Baga beach.. to “Say Hello” to Helen aunty, Twinkle.. Then we headed to the cruise.. It was good to chill out in the boat.. had more beer, Old Monk.. and beer.. 100 pipers.. goan wine.. dinner.. Was a good day of fun:)-

July 2^nd 2006

One of my friend had to head back because he had some urgent office work on Monday… But, his flight was in the evening 5:30 KingFisher.. So we went to Kolva beach with our driver friend now. Kolva is close 30 minutes from Varca.. We found Kerela Ayurvedic massage center. Had full body massage.. beer and then lunch and beer.. chillout in our hotel beach and then dinner.. They had a live music.. with old Hindi songs.. was fun to sing along with them.. memories.. Then returned to the hotel for more 100 pipers.. football… cricket.. F1.. Tennis and music with my travel dock.. Total lazy boizs and chillout night..

July 3^rd 2006

We decided to go have another massage.. so we went to Kolva beach and had Royal massage (which was sandlewood powder and oil).. We had our Kingfisher flight to BLR at 3:30.. So we checked out of hotel and the headed to the airport by 1:15 PM.. there was some minor confusion with taxi strike and the hotel arranged Toyota wouldn’t wait for us to finish lunch at hotel.. anyways.. we reach airport by 2.. flight was delayed to 4.. so we had lunch at the airport and more beer and then headed HOME… fly me home..

Boston in Winter & Skiing experience

Boston or any place on the east coast is probably best if avoided during winter unless you enjoy the snow and cold weather or if you are like me on business travel and cannot avoid it anyways. I came into Boston airport to be welcomed by snow as I drew from airport to the hotel.. There were new flurries of snow falling and I was trying to slow down on the freeway, but didn’t seem like a problem to others.. probably they don’t care until it is like more than 5 inches… But driving it MA seemed a little different compared to my other states experience.. signs were odd, and there were no turns at the end of each exit and you would see “Do Not Enter” or Wrong Way signs as you are getting out of the exit but it is for the other side.. which you have no way of getting to due to the road median.. Exits on freeways are not paced one for each mile.. But it was a different experience driving, plus you have the white cover with ponds or lakes all frozen or covered with snow.. all the trees around you with no leaves.. or are mostly those typical trees you would see in Kashmir..

Typical mornings with cars covered with snow / ice

January 27^th 2007: Trip to Harvard

Got the tips from office / colleagues that best way to go is by train.. Figured driving plus parking around Harvard or this central downtown area is way tooooooo difficult and expensive.. So dumped the car at Alewife train station and took the Red line (train) to Harvard which was just 3 stops.. Got out of the train and as I came out of the station.. I was right out at the Harvard square. There was the information center.. but as I got out, I realized it was again a cold day.. though it was not snowing… with the wind blowing it made it even colder.. Went to the information center.. but for my bad luck.. it was closed, though they are open every Saturday.. this Saturday they were closed, maybe they knew I was comingJ Still got some maps / typical information charts.. plus stayed inside to get warmer for sometime.. Then got out and went to Harvard Yard.. place for pictures.. Then went to Peabody museum and Harvard museum of Natural History.

February 4^th 2007: Trip to Mt Wachusett for Skiing..

Some new knowledge for me.. though they might be trivia..

Snow in this ski resort is artificially made with the help of blowers which blow make snow and blow it out.. So all you need is the below zero or cold temperatures to keep the snow from melting.. You need to buy tickets to access the lifts.. Basically these lifts take you up and then you ski down.. get back to the lift..

My collegue at Juniper came in by 8:30 AM to my hotel to pick me up. I had reserved for one day ski lessons online which included rental equipment and some passes to the lifts (basic lifts). It was about 45 minutes drive to the resort.. Then we had buses from the parking lot to the main entrance.. Trust me the buses are very much needed given that it was cold (7 degree F) with cold wind blowing.. probably (0 or below in F). We got in and rented the boots, ski boards and the sticks or handles.. Those boots are so heavy.. you really need both hands.. You need your height, weight apart from the foot length to setup with the right equipment..

Once you are set with your gear.. you report to the training area.. I walked up to the first time skier place.. there were 12 kids and 7 adults.. I also felt like a kid.. but guess not.. First lesson is to the walk up sideways.. which in itself is very tricky because major problem is you keep slipping down.. you need to take tiny steps sideways ofcourse and keep going up.. Once you are up a little slope.. instructor asked each one of us to ski down.. My first was a straight down.. took a straight line.. easiest and fastest way down and I was also down.. Next trick is to get up.. which I realized wasn’t possible with the ski board on.. Instructor then told me to remove one of the ski board.. then getup and then put the other one on.. Ok.. I was back up again.. Now the next lesson I learnt was to make ‘S’ marks.. that is turn making those S marks.. Smaller the S.. faster you are coming down.. my first was a straight line.. So.. But to make these S marks.. you need to learn how to turn.. To turn right.. tilt your left knee and the ski board and control or slow down.. then again another S and you keep doing that.. To slow down or stop you have to get both your legs / ski boards together I guess..

Biggest of the lessons is.. remember car driving.. You are driving with your front wheels.. Similarly, you need to keep your knees bent and lean forward and not backward.. But, as your instincts and gravity has so far taught you to lean backwards as soon as you gain some speed and feel that you might fall with your head on.. you lean backwards and fall or slide.. which I did couple of time.. Ya.. many times..

Okay.. enough of lessons now.. some more pictures of me skiing.. I was exhausted and tired and dehydrated.. though it was cold.. was too much gear.. activity than I was ever used to probably.. but it was fun:)-

Other tourist places or places of interest are:

Boston duck tour
Freedom trail (walk)
Six Flags in New England, Springfield

I couldn’t do these since these are seasonal and cannot be done during winter

Adventure at Kali River

Around 40 engineers from our team took off on 2nd Nov to Kali Wilderness & Adventure Camp located on the banks of River Kali, destination for River rafting and cave / trekking adventure.

Journey started with quick introductions with a twist, everyone had to share one secret. Though few shared voluntarily secrets about themselves, people were more eager to share others secrets. This was followed by Antakshari, dumb charades until we reached A1 Plaza for dinner. Journey was resumed with more Antakshari and dance but quickly most wanted to retire and catch-up with sleep (maybe they had already worked too hard). Enthusiastic event management team had also done elaborate preparation of some fun games with a questionnaire to vote for various types of personalities in FMS – some of them being Miss Team, Mr Team, Best Smile etc…, share snippets about each other, songs / dances.

We reached Jungle Lodges, Dandeli after a tiring 16 hours drive by around 10 AM. Everyone looked tired but hungry as well, so we quickly assembled at Gol Ghar for breakfast. This was followed by Coracle ride.

Since we landed late by more than 2 hours, we had to do some replan and go ahead with Coracle ride after breakfast. With the breakfast, the team had regained its energy and groups got together quickly for some cricket, volleyball, football, caroms, table tennis etc.

Trek_to_the_Cave — **TREK TO THE KAVALA CAVE**

This was followed by sumptuous lunch. Next on our plan was Safari and trek to Kavala caves. Drive to the caves through the thick green forest was awesome. We had to trek for couple of kilometers and climb down some steps to get to the cave. As per the Jungle lodges guide these caves were formed due to volcanic eruption some ages ago, it was pitch dark inside the cave, so we all got instructions and candles before we entered the cave. We had to remove our shoes since cave was also a temple with Lord Shivaling. With candles and our head bent we ventured into the cave.

As we went in, we had to crawl through and ensure that we are in almost sitting posture to keep our heads intact. We also had instructions not to take a right inside the cave, which we were told leads to deeper part of the cave with lots of bats. Got out through the other side (loop) and we were all soaked with sweat. Then it was time for some group pictures and we had to now climb the steps, which is when lot of them counted the exact number of steps as 375!! to climb up and then trek back to get to our jeeps.

Enroute back to lodges on open jeep with clear fresh air and darkness just setting in, with full moon day was perfect setting for some antakshari and fun. After quickly refreshing, it was time for dinner with camp fire, music and dance. We had good party music and everyone got an opportunity to shake their legs and dance. This included some scintillating performance by Santosh for Kajrare song. Post this there was an extended session of dumb charades. This Dumb charades session exhibited the hidden creativity of some of the members in the team, when a few Tamil speaking guys were given tough Hindi movie titles to depict, some of them did it amazingly by enacting them in Tamil given that they did not even know the meaning of the Hindi words!!!

Day 2 began with good breakfast and plan was to go for River Rafting. But first we got to know damn Supa dam officials weren’t going to release water and our rating plans were going to be cancelled and we had to switch to plan, which was trek to Syntheri rocks and swim in the kali river. But, with couple of phone calls and some luck, water was released from Supa dam and we were ON with our main event Rafting. We reached the starting point of our rafting (Ganeshgudi) in jeeps and then got detailed briefing, life jackets, helmets and paddles. Everyone got decked up with all this gear on and were ready for the plunge. With some more safety tips and basic paddling instructions, we set sail for our 9 kms of rafting through multiple rapids. The best part was keeping your eyes open and looking up at the cameraman (who was hired to take pictures of our adventure through the rapids). We got to know about some of the river side trees and plants. All of us dived into the water for sometime and was pulled up by our guides into the raft after some time. We also thouroughly enjoyed splashing water on each others’ rafts using our paddles, that’s a skill in itself and our guides did a good job teaching that.

Everyone got back tired from 4 hours of rafting by 2:30 PM, some had reserve energy left to have bath before lunch, but most headed straight for lunch. After lunch and relaxing / shopping at the store for T-Shirts and other souvenirs, team was all ready to head back. We started off earlier than planned by 4:30. Our enthusiastic event management team had summarized and announced the winners and runners-up for various FMS personalities and also read the snippets people had written for each other. Then it was break for tea and then dinner, one last group photo with the bus. On the return journey, energy levels were lesser, looked like most wanted to head straight back home and share all their adventurous experiences and spend time with their families and relive the memorable moments. The bus entered Bangalore in the wee hours of Sunday morning. After exchanging a few sleepy byes everyone was on the way to the get back to the normal lives.

Fact file:

Getting there: By Rail – Hubli, 85 kms from Dandeli, By Road – 481 Kms from Bangalore

Accommodation: Good tents and rooms at Jungle lodges

Best time to visit: September to November

Rating: *****

VietNam – City of Love and Peace

Vietnam which was only resonating with war stories and movies offered a complete contrast- Peace and Love!!! Reasonable progressive Asian city – Hanoi was very vibrant, colourful and very hard working people. Communists seem to have their way of keeping things organised and progressive.

My soujourn in Vietnam offered much needed break from daily hustle and bustle of Bangalore, pollution, traffic, construction mess and all the stress. Lush greenery with several pristine lakes and clean city of Hanoi reminded me of Bangalore 25+ years ago.

Hanoi offered several Tennis courts to play and it was easy to book a court and play right from the first day as we checked in. It was a different experience to see Vietnamese enjoy regular evening Tennis after work for recreation and relaxation. They were also very accommodative to have us play with them and offered all the warmth and comfort even though most of them could not speak English. Cigarettes seem like an integral part of Vietnamese and they enjoy them with Beer, food and pretty much everywhere.

Hanoi was divided as old town and new with several lakes and pristine views. Tropical and very humid climate kept us very thirsty most of the time. City seemed very safe and people were very honest and helpful. Even though French had invaded and colonised Vietnam for several years, French / English or any other foreign language has really stayed foreign. Vast majority only spoke Vietnamese but we managed to get around with very few English speaking helpful people. Younger population seems to be very keen on learning English. We had a very interesting experience with 2 English students. One was 25 year old graduate and another was probably 13 year old lad. Both of them came to us just to converse and learn English. They spoke well, but very slowly with a series of questions about us and they also helped us know more about Vietnam culture, work, government, history and economy. They confirmed that Vietnam is predominantly agricultural oriented economy but slowly moving towards manufacturing and industrialisation. They were also very welcoming and accommodating of us (completely rare Indian tourists).

We took the city tour by bike and this turned out to be a unique enriching experience. We were picked up from out hotel and met with one more Manilan solo traveler from Dubai. We set out on 3 bikes on our adventure ride to see the city of Hanoi. We passed through the old town and then some small streets and were taken to a typical Vietnamese lunch place (Darshini). Street had many such small food jaunts and our guides ordered food for us and also taught us how to eat with their small bowls, sauce / soup and chopsticks. I tried using chopsticks for half of my lunch and my fingers were aching. One of the tour guide read my mind and offered me a spoon:)- Thanks to our tour guide and pre-request for Vegetarian food.. We had rolls filled with green (mint and some other spinach) followed by sweet potato fries, fried eggs (similar to waffles), boiled vegetables including spinach and more rolls. As we finished lunch, we headed to see acres of banana plantations through Vietnamese country-side and small villages (close to Hanoi). We then came to the famous and the oldest bridge of Hanoi, built by French. This bridge is known as the “Paul Doumer” Bridge in memory of the former Governor of Vietnam, and was the first one in steel (same as the one used for Eiffel Tower) crossing the Red River. Then we drove past extremely narrow alleys (2 feet) and came to US B52 bomber wreckage lake (Huu Tiep). Lake still has remnants of B52 bomber and this small lake surroundings has morphed into a tourist destination. We had cold green tea, pineapple, some other fruit (similar to raw mango) with a powder (similar to our Chutney powder). Our guides engaged us in knowledge of Vietnam war and we spent some more time with general talk / exchanging views on war. We then headed to Trấn Quốc Pagoda, the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi. This is located on a small island near the Hanoi’s largest Lake. We understood that Pagoda was Vietnamese place of worship (saying thanks to their ancestors / elders who helped built the village / city). We also realized most of Vietnamese are atheists though we see and hear about Buddhism and Buddha idols in many places. After visiting the Pagoda and offering our prayers and taking pictures across the lake / Pagoda.. we headed to see the Ho Chi Min Masoleum, presidential palace and along we saw various embassies. After more pictures and history of Vietnam, we headed to drink famous egg coffee. This means the egg and cheese go in the coffee. Egg coffee has been a way of life and a livelihood for Tri Hoa Nguyen and his family since shortly after 1946, when Tri’s father Nguyen Giang founded Café Giang and invented the first cup of egg coffee in Hanoi. Post egg coffee and some more pictures and general banter with our guide and other tourists we were dropped back at our respective hotels in the night.

Hanoi old town and surrounding lake changes everyday. Fri / Sat and Sunday Traffic around the lake and city center is blocked. This allows kids to play, live music and street night market, making it vibrant and full of life. It was great to see people relaxing, enjoying dinner, playing with kids, shopping and small live music bands playing local Vietanamese tunes. Idyllic yet vibrant, calm, peaceful, green and full of life are some of the thoughts I carry away from Hanoi.

My Travel Escapades

Travel is not about the destination, but memories created along the way!!
Kannan Ramamurthy

I think traveling is the best way to learn new things.. Life’s most valuable lessons. I have learnt about different cultures, cuisines, languages, customs, traditions, history through my 2.5 decades of traveling around.