Journey alone - Part 1

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Originally uploaded by krishnakumar_cs.

I was thinking about a trip alone for quite a long time. That was part of my new set of resolutions to overcome my inhibitions. Well, the timing of the trip was just perfect and neither my friends nor my brother could join me for the trip. So I packed light and started on my YBX. This was my first bike, now almost 7 years old, and maintained well by my brother now. I never had a problem with this bike and I still love the instant pick-up.

Well, that's about my companion. Now about the place. That was already decided - Vagamon in Idukki district. This place is around 160 km from my place. The road goes via Angamaly, Perumbavoor, Moovattupuzha, Pala, Erattupetta & then to Vagamon. After the first 50 km, the terrain changes slowly to hilly, and after words the road became steeper. That's when I really started loving my bike. It was really fun riding this one - I could comfortably ride in 3rd & 4th gear when I see others struggle to negotiate the steep climbs.

Since the travel was in the middle of the monsoon, most of the time it was raining heavily. I should have started early from home so that I could reach there by afternoon. But I started by 12 noon, & reached Vagamon by 5 in the evening, with lot of stops in between.

Am I looking cute?

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Originally uploaded by krishnakumar_cs.

Wondering who is this? Well, she is Vishnu Priya, my sweet daughter. She is just 10 months old now. Already started talking in her own language, loves to travel a lot and hates to take medicines.

Kodaikanal Trip

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Originally uploaded by krishnakumar_cs.

We (the AiDA project team) used to go for shoprt trips (to be precise, till Subu moved out of AiDA). However, there was no trips in the recent past. So to bring the good old days back we decided to go for a trip. "Kodaikanal" was the only option - Thanks to Renga. Nobody dared even to suggest another place and thus the trip finally took shape.
The trip was fun filled, and all of us enjoyed every moment of it. We have decided to write a 'formal' travelogue for this episode and hopefully we'll finish it by this weekend.
Since the newbie travellers got the taste of it, I hope to see many more trips in the future ;)

Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary

Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary
Originally uploaded by waideas.

It's long time since we went for a trip. Dhanya was the one who tried to pull the lazy guys. Being the real lazy guys, nobody bothered to reply for that mail! Finally last week we realized that we have nothing else to do on the coming long weekend. After a few mail exchanges, zoomed in on 'Mudumalai', and this quick trip is planned. However, only the place is decided - what to do there is still an open issue. Let's see the how the chaotic planning work this time ;) Will write about this experience once we are back on Tuesday.

Check out the description Mudumalai@Outlook Traveller if you are intersted to know more about this beautiful National Park

Sachin ki Kahani

Some of you might know this guy. One of my oldest friends (ya, he is a chronic bachelor too), right from the college days. For some unknown reason, he started a blog. You know, we used to get a lot of junk emails from him, and instead of hurting his feelings most of us ignore these mails. Some how he got to know this - for he used a very nice strategy to announce his blog. Send an e-mail to all announcing his new blog, and recall the mail immediately. When we got the recall message, obviously everybody was curious and checked out the blog. Nice strategy, Sachin.

I now have to dig his posts to understand his real self! Life was much easier before, when he used to talk over a couple of, you know what, ........... soda ;)

PS: He is a no-nonsense guy usually (!) & and the junk filter story is my contribution ;) Btw, he really has a blog called 'Meri Kahani'.

Reflections

Photo taken by Arul at Munich Zoo (click to enlarge)

 

O N A M

Anizham pookalam
Originally uploaded by Suresh C Nair.

I was feeling very nostalgic today. For the first time, I am celebrating onam alone. Still I cannot stay away from the sweet memories from the past, and making a perfect (virtual) 'pookkalam'. Thanks to Suresh for the photo ;)

Weekend Trip to Salzburg & Prien am Chiemsee

I am now at Munich, Germany for a training. In fact I came to Berlin three weeks back and here, on friday evening.

Was planning for a 2 day trip to Salzburg hoping to cover 'Sound of Music Tour', Ice caves & salt mines. However, the trip was cut short to one day which covered a walk around Salzburg & the 'Sound of Music Trip'. It was raining all the day (not too heavy), which made the scenery a little dull and reduced our mobility. Still, it was very nice trip, except that we didn't get too many photos ;(( Dhanya's camera which I was carrying went on strike, thanks to the cold climate.

For the next day, we made great plans in the night. By the time we got up in the moring, it was already half past 7 O' clock. Rushed through the morning formalities, reached the station by 9, 7 obviously missed the 8:48 train too. Got the next train by 9:42 and reached Prien by 10:50. The small narrow gage train took us to the harbour, and reached the island in the next boat.

It was a short trip which lasted around 15 mts (?, sorry I really don't remember the time ;) ) . It was raining on and off, and three of us shared two umbrellas. It was cold & windy, and I was the only one in the whole island who didn't have a jacket ;((( I was almost freezed, still went around the island. We roamed around till 4 in the evening. As you can see in the photos ( check my Flickr photos), it was lush green around. The clowdy atmos & the light drizzle added a great charm to that. & That's when you realise how pathetic the point-and-shoots with slow lenses really are (I did'nt mean your digicam, CM. Even I have a slower, stupider digicam now - Nikon coolpix L3).

Hello Word

Guess a "Hello World" program is mandatory in all programming books. Then why not in a personal blog? So here is my "Hello" to the "World".

Hope I can update my silent zone often ...