The “under” covered wanderer

I love unplanned trips and treks. They add that much more excitement and thrill to this whole travelling thing. There was one such trip to Lake Tahoe and Reno. The trip was amazing but I also realised the pitfalls of unplanned trips. Always check the weather of the place you are heading to. Tahoe being only 2 hours away from here, where the temperature was about 20 degrees ; I ventured to Tahoe in Bermudas and a cotton T-shirt only to be greeted by lots of snow, skiing enthusiasts and kids on their tobbogans (reminds me of Calvin). Venturing out in this weather underclothed leads to what is known as a “----“ freeze situation , a term probably the gang is familiar with or can guess. This term was coined by Juanma (A Spanish friend) and myself one cold Swedish evening when we ventured outside “under”covered so to speak. Then I was unleashed on the American freeways for the first time. Nice experience, drove above 100 kmph for the first time in my life.

Also went to Saravana Bhavan in San Jose. Was greeted by a huge queue. Looked like most of the Indians in the US had turned up there that night. I don’t ever remember standing in a queue at the Saravana Bhavan in Chennai. Well, the wait was worth it. The food was true Saravana Bhavan style. First real good meal in 3 weeks. Last week also visited a place called Samosa Garden. What a name to give for a restaurant. And the owner had tried his level best to give it an Indian look i.e. kinda like the roadside chaat stall look. The aloo tikki we ordered was distinctly pink in colour. I have absolutely no clue as to how one can actually obtain such a colour in your food. Suffices to say that there will be no more adventures in the Samosa garden.

That’s it, my dear friends. That’s all I have for this week. Time to cook some Puliyogare now.

In a small town far far away..

Hmm..US has many time zones but I am perplexed about this zone called Mountain Time. It could have been given a different name. Does that mean the guy living on mountain is ahead in time than the guy living at the foothills?? I live on the 3rd floor. Maybe my time is 5 minutes faster than the guy on the first floor. The Mountain Time zone seems to give a literal meaning to the expression “Time flies”. I guess I have a lot of time these days to come up with crap like this.

Anyway past 2 weeks in this land called California have been very quiet compared to good ol’ Bangalore. My exploits continued with me getting hold of a crappy car called Kia Rio. A verbal duel with the Hertz guy ensued for a week before I got hold of a Chevy Classic. Cool car. Unfortunately, I need someone by my side to prevent me from turning/driving in the wrong direction. The weekend was real good. The traveller in me was unleashed. Went on a long drive along the Pacific Coast Highway with 2 colleagues. The beaches were awesome and at most of them we were the only lonely crusaders (I love using this expression whenever I can) on the beach. Then a drive to San Francisco followed. The Golden Gate looks great in the night and the Coit Tower gives a great view of the skyline and of course the infamous Alcatraz. Not to mention the crooked street on Lombard which is nearly a vertical street and shaped like a snake.

Sigh!! Anyway miss home and the people there. Would have been truly fun had they been here. The presence of the gang is sorely missed. Only one particular member of the gang in this part of the world but he is too busy mooing away on the other side of this country. Meanwhile, hoping that the Devil’s eye gets ok soon. Inder has made squash a sport nearly as dangerous as being a pillion rider when Rajneesh is driving a bike (If that should ever happen!!!). Chilli’s latest blog is on one of his favourite topics. He probably has unleashed a controversy already. The Actor aka Dhimant is as usual talking abstract stuff in his blogs.

The exploits of the intrepid hero in distant lands

My first trip to the land of Uncle Sam and it’s already been very eventful. To begin with the journey itself, I literally had to travel halfway around the world with the exact path being Bangalore to Chennai to Singapore to Tokyo to Los Angeles to Sacramento to Folsom aka the destination. To say the least, this ordeal lasted about 48 hours.

First things first, when on a journey through the Far East inform your airline well in advance that you will eat only vegetarian food. Else you will get 2 choices, the international cuisine or the Japanese one. International cuisine will give you some sort of unknown fish and some sausages in the main course. Me being the adventurous one or the intrepid hero went in for the Japanese cuisine. This particular meal as I found out after tasting to be unfit for human consumption at best. The menu being Japanese rice (tasteless) with some chicken and other things in it (I don’t know what the other things were and I don’t want to know). Not to mention the raw prawns as a part of the salad. The fact that I did not eat for the rest of the journey goes without saying.

I had a 12 hour stop in LA for my connecting flight, so the fearless explorer decided to explore LA on his own on what was known as the BIG BLUE BUS which also takes one through some scary neighbourhoods especially at night. The first stop was at Santa Monica shopping district where I roamed in the malls and the various streets listening to some good music being played by the roadside. Here, I also became a photographer to 2 couples sitting outside a restaurant. I was told by these rather good looking women that it was my lucky day to be singled out of the crowd for taking their photograph. Then followed a long walk to the pier along the beach, where suddenly a girl just came out of nowhere, did some sort of a dance around me, gave a big villainous smile and left. Was a strange incident this one....people sure are weirdos. The beach was an amazing sight. Too bad I was alone; I was possibly the only lonely crusader on the beach, with my heavy laptop lugged on my back. It was getting dark and I returned back on the blue bus which had some rather shady and huge looking characters travelling in it. I was tired by the end of this trip. But what made my day was another Indian passenger sitting next to me in the plane. Upon landing in Sacramento and after a welcome to Sacramento announcement by the pilot, this dude asks the airhostess if the town was Sacramento. The airhostess did not understand the question as our friend could hardly speak English. Then he asks me in Punjabi if this was Sacramento. Then in Hindi….to which I just show him the welcome to Sacramento sign. That incident just made my day. I laughed like a crazy guy. Maybe 46 hrs of travel and waiting does this to a guy.

Still got to catch on my sleep. I am waking up at 3 am these days. So off to bed now. Will be back with more adventures next week.