Thanksgiving Weekend at Vancouver, BC

Canadian thanksgiving is more than a month earlier than that of the US. But decades ago US and Canada celebrated Thanksgiving in October - yet another brilliant marketing strategy to cash in on the holiday season. Our choice of Vancouver was natural. Firstly it was the fall season and Calgarian Fall is not as exquisite as the rest of Canada. Secondly Sharan had his US Visa but I didn’t and the earliest date available in the Calgary US Embassy was mid-Nov. We got an appointment with the Vancouver US Embassy on the day after Thanksgiving. Lastly, we had heard so much about my Grand Uncle and Aunt staying just off Vancouver, in a town called Langley, we wanted to visit their country-side home. So we fixed the trip for 10-13 Oct'09.

After our customary research, able advice from my brother and grand uncle, we froze on our itinerary but kept it open to juggle it around:
DAY 1:
We spent the entire day with my Grand Uncle and Grand Aunt at Langley. We got a good perspective of how to lead retired life – keeping oneself busy, meaningful and yet enjoy luxuries of life.
DAY 2:
We visited North Vancouver – to see the top tourist spots of Vancouver: Capilano Bridge and Grouse Mountain. Capilano Bridge is a suspension bridge built 230 FT above the Capilano River. Longer than but like the India Laxman Jhulla, this bridge sways as people walk on it. One can approach Grouse Mountain using a Gondola (Sky Train/Cable Car) from its base – a bit over-rated. Of course the joys will be completely different if someone hiked to or from Grouse Mountain. Oh but we did “sight” 2 grizzly bears in a large enclosure which also had a pond. Once we returned to downtown, we walked around China Town (yes, it has to be there in every city) and Gastown of Old Vancouver – a lovely area with cobble stone paths, old buildings, great shops and popular restaurants.
DAY 3:
It was thanksgiving on this day. We visited the Vancouver Aquarium, Granville Island and generally walked around Vancouver. The highlights of the aquarium were the beluga whales, otters and spotting a raccoon which DIDN’T belong to the aquarium.

Granville Island is a MUST VISIT for all. It’s mostly known for the Public Market – a farmers’ market where you’ll find the freshest, choicest and most exclusive farm produce. Mind you its not just limited to fruits, vegetables and meat – you get spices, home made chocolates, jams, confectionaries, etc.

We then headed to English Bay Beach – you have a lovely view of the mountains, Pacific Ocean and some yachts. An Inukshuk also stands tall on the beach – a stone landmark made popular by native Indians of the Tundra region.
DAY 4:
After spending 4 hrs at the US Embassy, we quickly visited the Capilano Fishery before heading to Stanley Park. This is a HUGE park (5 mile circumference) bang in the heart of Vancouver. It’s a fantastic place to walk around, picnic and also see the park’s attractions like the Totem Poles, Lighthouse, lakes, etc. We spent the entire afternoon soaking in the striking fall colors. We then quickly visited Gastown and Granville Island once again (worth it) before heading to the airport.

The Vancouver Public Transport requires a special mention. We wanted to experience this as this city has traffic and commuting challenges like reducing commute time on the curvaceous mainland with a lot of water inlets and accessibility to smaller islands which are bustling with business. We were always in awe of London Underground (“mind the gap”) but Vancouver has taken Public Transport to newer levels. Public and tourists have the following options to travel: Rental cars, Taxi, regular Bus, electric Bus, Sky train (metro), Sea Bus (literally) and last but not the least Sea Taxi (small boats converted to taxis carrying up to 10 people at a time). All options are really affordable – obviously, it’s used by common man. Else it would become moot.

Vancouver is a place for foodies or we would like to think so. Most of the places we tried had lip smacking food. Some of the eateries worth recommending are:
~ The Boathouse (West End, English Bay Beach) – one of the best places for sea food
~ Steam Works Brewery Pub/Restaurant (Gastown) – A good place to wind down after a long day of hectic tourist activities. Try one of the BC brewed beer – they are refreshing.
~ House of Dosas (Junction of Kingsway and Kings Street) – For all those Indians living outside starving for good dosas, Indian tourists missing home food and anyone else who love good south Indian food. This is the place to go. Chennai dosas are waiting for you.
~ Tomahawk (Philip AVE, N Vancouver): A family run barbeque restaurant.
~ Templeton (Granville ST) – Most popular diner in downtown Vancouver known for its Sunday Brunches.
~ Trees Café (Granville ST) – Acclaimed to have the best cheesecakes in Vancouver – and we can second that without trying other cheesecakes - a sinful bliss.
~ Granville Island Brewery (Granville Island) – a good place to try variety of local beer

We loved Vancouver as we found it to be a cosmopolitan city – vibrant and cheerful despite perennial rains. We got to interact with locals – really friendly when compared to Calgary. We could see the excitement building up for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Feb’10 as well. Never know – we might return to the city for that once in a life time experience of watching a Olympic event

As always here is a link to our album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akshatakaranth/ThanksgivingLongWeekendAtVancouverBC1013Oct09#

A different usual – Ooty/ Coonoor

We had a long weekend for Ugadi (Hindu New Year) and didn't want to be in Bangalore (27-30 Mar '09). Sharan, in addition, was keen to get back to his photography practice. Ooty and Coonoor – the twin hill stations in the Nilgiri range of the Western Ghats seemed to be the ideal choice given the distance by road and (more importantly) fine weather. On one hand I was skeptical - Ooty had gotten too commercialized over the past years and wasn't a "get-away" in the real sense. On the other hand it was around 9 years since I had been there last. Additionally we had never been to Coonoor. Since we decided and booked in the last minute we got accommodation in 3 different places for the 3N-4D vacation. No cribbing on this one as each place was unique in its own way - First at Destiny's Farm (Avalanche Valley, 30 kms off Ooty), next at King’s Cliff (in Ooty) and lastly at Taj Gateway Hotel (Coonoor).

Note: Destiny Farm and King’s Cliff are part of Little Earth Group (http://www.littlearth.in/)

Fact File:
Distance: Ooty by Road - Coimbatore (80Kms), Bangalore (275 Kms).
Getting there: There are ample of buses and trains from either of the cities. Nearest Airport is Coimbatore.
Best season: February through May, September-October
Know more from:http://www.nilgiris.tn.gov.in/OOTY.HTM or http://www.nilgiris.tn.gov.in/Coonoor.htm

In and around Ooty:
We didn’t go to ANY of the typical tourist attractions (Botanical garden, Centenary Rose Park, Ooty Lake, Doddabetta, etc) as we had been here earlier. Instead we visited the not so popular tourist destinations like the Bee Museum and Green Shop of Keystone foundation. Keystone Foundation is known as an organisation concerned with honey management and marketing for communities (Kurumba and Toda tribes in Nilgiris for e.g.,) without compromising the sustainability of bee's community itself. (http://keystone-foundation.net/web/).

We also visited the Wax World – a private wax museum that has been the poor man's Indian Madame Tussades for years. We had never heard or seen it before. The museum included statues of usual and famous Indian personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, J. Nehru, Mother Teresa, Shivaji, Subhas Chandra Bose among others. Some of the wax statues were hilarious, some terrible and a few were very creative.

We drove around Red Hills and Avalanche Valley – very picturesque hill ranges with acres and acres of tea estates (literally till you can see the horizon) and many unspoiled lakes and ponds all around. But its very disheartening to see that forest area has been cut down for these tea estates.

We tried a couple of very popular restaurants which came recommended – Earl’s Secret at King’s Cliff on Havelock Road (Continental – Very good) and Shinkhow on Commissioner's Road (Chinese – disappointing, may be we didn't order right)

In and around Coonoor:
Acres Wild – is a 22 acre, family-run organic and (homemade) cheese making farm. Their goal is to shape an eco-friendly, holistic and self-sustaining life style for themselves and share this experience with others in hope that others adopt it too. (http://www.acres-wild.com/). This place is run Mansoor Khan and family. His wife, Tina, excitedly explains the process of cheese making. She said she started this only because of her love for Cheese. Cheese can be bought from outlets in Ooty or Coonoor. Mansoor, an avid environmentalist, not only passionately shows around his environment-friendly farm but also keeps you gripped with his views on the global warming phenomenon. Rhea, the darling pet around, is as enthusiastic as Mansoor to show the place.

We never realized that it was Mansoor Khan who was the director of popular Bollywood movies like QSQT, JJWS, AHAT (all with Aamir Khan), Josh (with SRK) and co-producer of Jaane Tu Ya Jane Na (with Imran Khan). Apparently he is Aamir Khan's cousin and Imran Khan's uncle. Shows how much of Bollywood we know. Mansoor moved to Coonoor from Mumbai after being fed up with city life.

We shopped at NeedleCraft (in Singara Tea Estate) - known for its exquisitely hand-embroidered pillowcases, cushion covers, bedspreads, bedsheets and handkerchiefs. Though they are steeply priced, Naaz (the owner) insists that she is just selling on behalf of various local women's welfare organizations and proceeds go to their betterment.

We went to some typical touristy places since it was our first time in Coonoor:
- Railway Station: A quaint little station famous for the Niligiri Mountain Railway. The toy train runs between Ooty-Coonoor-Mettupalyam through the pristine Nilgiri mountain range.
- SIM'S Park: Botanical Garden in Upper Coonoor with trees as old as 150 years and haven for bird watchers
- Laws Falls: 7kms towards Mettupalayam, worth a skip
- Dolphin’s nose view point: 10kms, has a panoramic view of Catherine Falls
- Lamb's rock view point: 8kms, on the way to Dolphin’s
- Droog Fort: 17 kms, Old Tipu Fort of which only a couple of Walls are remaining, drive to Nonsuch Tea Estate and walk 4 kms through it

Note: Take your vehicle to Droog Fort only if it’s an SUV as the roads quite bad. It’s a beautiful 1 hour walk (one way) for those who prefer it.

Unlike Ooty, there aren’t any restaurants in Coonoor. You may land up eating in the resort/hotel you are staying at. But we did ask some locals around for some typical Tamil food and they directed us to a no-frill restaurant called “Hotel Sri Lakshmi Veg” (off Coonoor Bus Stand). As assured by these locals, we had typical and very delicious Tamil Thaalis. It was a welcome break from days of North Indian, Continental and Chinese food we had during the trip.

So the usual destinations turned out to be a good decision afterall. We saw parts of Ooty never seen before and Coonoor turned out to be a "must return to" place. There are too many in that list already and another much much longer list of "must visit before Armegaddon"... Wonder when and how we'll ever cover everything... *SIGH*.

Here is a link to our photo album:http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/sredir?uname=akshatakaranth&target=ALBUM&id=5319718423183780881&authkey=Gv1sRgCIeExsyxmc2EQw&invite=COW4rtoF&feat=email

Chronicles from Wayanad Trip – Part I

Sharan’s cousin Gummi (Rama) asked us both to organize a trip as it was more than 2 years since the last one (Hampi, March’07). We chose beautiful Wayanad for its close promixity and beauty at the onset of Monsoon. The usual suspects (Gummi, Vishnu, Rohit, Ramya, Sachin, Shruthi, Sharan and I) immediately agreed as half of them hadn’t been to the place.

We set off early morning of 30/June, a Saturday. Though we initially thought of taking only 2 cars since we were 8 of us, all the “boys” wanted drive so we landed up taking 3 of them (waste of natural resources, I pointed out in vain). We agreed breakfast would be in Mysore though there were options in abundance énroute.

This was supposed to be the only breakfast destination but hunger and nature’s call landed us in “Café Coffee Day”, just off Maddur on Mysore Road. It’s an ideal place to visit while travelling early in the morning. Steaming hot and fresh coffee coupled with the fact that they have clean toilets (flipside of road trips otherwise) are the appealing when you think of a “CCD” on the highway. But Sharan and I love this place ever since they started serving fresh breakfast, thanks to the competition around them. Choose from Nano idlis with Chutney and thick Tamil Sambar or Masala Dosas or Aloo Paratas or Omelets apart their usual menu of sandwiches, muffins, etc

We reached our “original” and 2nd breakfast destination around 9:00am hoping that we won’t be turned down for being late at this small but busy hotel. We have been told by numerous travelers that Hotel Mylari Original in Mysore is THE place to eat authentic Mysore Masala Dosa. It turned out to be good advice after all. Story goes that this is where it all originated but I haven’t got it cross-verified though.

The dosa here is crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Generous amount of Chutney (Indian coconut sauce) is served along side and the size of the dosa is small enough to order another oneJ. Additionally, the Idli-Chutney (rice dumpling with coconut sauce) available there is equally mouth watering. People who know me know that Idli is by far my most favorite breakfast item. I end up eating Idli at most restaurants whether in Bangalore or Karnataka or South India. After having tasted Idlis in numerous joints, I must admit I haven’t tasted any idli which is as soft as the ones available at Mylari (not Brahmins or Veena Stores in Bangalore). With such finger licking good breakfast, one will end up feeling sad for their stomach getting filled up so fast.

Address: Hotel Original Mylari, #79, Nazarbad Main Road, Mysore – 570010.

With enough binging for the morning, we then headed towards Wayanad all excited at the thought of a remote possibility of sighting one of the wild cats while passing through Bandipur.

Madhya Pradesh's scrumptious staple food

The most memorable Poha (flattened rice dish) I had was at Swad Bhandar, Bhopal.

As we approached this popular shop, aroma of hot Poha sifted through the dirty Chattori Galli. Served on “desi” disposable plate of newspaper and plaintain leaf, the bright yellow poha against the 'green plate' only made it more tempting.

One bite and the perfectly cooked poha just melted in the mouth. Garnished with generous amounts of coriander leaves, the freshly made Poha had spiciness, tanginess and sweetness finely blended. A ‘chaat-like’ masala powder seemed to be the special ingrediant.

The lip-smacking Poha made the visit worthwhile.