Monday, 27 April 2009

smoke in the water ... Niagara Falls

This weekend we (Myself, Alfred, Sasi) went for a trip to Thousand Island, Toronto and Niagara Falls. First time in my life i opted for packaged tour instead of planning on myself. Not becoz i have become lazy (though i have become in someway) but becoz of money crunch ...

We started on Saturday Morning around 7:30 AM from place de Armes along with 55 other passengers all from almost all part of the world. Entire tour was organized by two ladies Huo, the tour guide and Diana the driver. I am very happy to see how these ladies organized and kept the harmony of the entire passengers which i feel it is missing back at my home. I will really love to see this kind of scene in India.

Among the passengers there was group of girls of Indian, African American and European Origins. It was a great to see them together. During the entire trip we kept seeing them, and in fact took few pictures of them without their permission and finally when i went and requested a picture of all four of them together the Indian who seemed to be the group leader denied it. And i liked it so much. Though i felt a bit bad, but i liked it. A bit sad that she might have misunderstood my intentions. Though my main intention was to get a picture where i could clearly show a unity in diversity. Any way we had pictures of them but could not get them all together. :(

May be if my lines cross hers any time i would be really happy to make my intention on that day clear to her. Hope we meet ...

Thousand Island
So we set our journey towards Thousand Island a place which is around 2 hrs from Montreal. It was one of a very beautiful place i have seen. We took a ferry to see the islands. Entire place is full of island from as small as 1 sqm or so big ones. Those islands belong to both US and Canada. And there are people who owns islands in both countries.

Interesting Facts
And one of the CEO of GE bought an island in canada and built a home. He felt it is little small so he decided to buy another island that was near to this and he bought it and built a small buridge of 9m between them. And that belonged to US. So it is the shorted bridge between two countries ... Interesting isn't it ...

Toronto
From there we went to kingston and had our lunch in a chinese restaurant which was very good with lots of desert items (the best part) and they had few good vegetarian items too (surprising but true ... ) Then we set forward towards Toronto. The city is easily identified by huge huge traffic and huge huge buildings.

We first went to the City Hall and took few good pictures in front of old and new city hall. The new city hall is in the shape of an eye. It was good. Then what we expected not to happen happened :) (Proving the Murphy's law once again). There was only 60% chance of rain and it was sunny afternoon. But out of the blue the climate changed completely and started raining with heavy wind.

Then a couple in the bus did not return to bus in time we waited for sometime and went to Parliment building. There first time we saw few people protesting (for what - who cares) by being nude. But becoz of rain we could not get down and see (damn rain .... ). Cursing our fate we went to CN Towers, with mind thinking about the parliment building :)

CN Towers is truly amazing. We went to the top and it was a great sight ... There was a glass floor from where we could see below ... truly amazing ... In there we met an indian Tamil coimbatore family ... It was very nice talking to them .... where ever we go we can find an Indian.

Niagara

From there we set about towards Niagara. We reached there around 9 PM and it was pouring. So we went to hotel after having a glimpse of it from the Bus. I was very unhappy that i could not spend more time there. Then we had our dinner in Dominoes then slept off. At around 3:30 AM i woke up. I did not set any alarm but could get up and went out to see Niagara at night. I was totally alone in the streets. But here and there could see few pairs coming out of casino and bar. Then i saw Niagara in night. Though it was not clear but i could see it a bit. It was awesome and the sound it is too good. I stayed there for around 1/2 an hour and set towards hotel. I lost my way and roamed here and there for about 1 hr. Luckily i met an indian who was working as a security guard he guided me to the hotel. Then reached hotel around 6 and the alarm was about to start which we have set so as to get ready to go to skylon tower.

After getting fresh and having break fast then we went to skylon towers, but unfortunately there was huge mist and from the tower we could not see anything. Cursing our fate once again we came down. Many were curing the tourist guide as they took there early than at afternoon. I felt sorry for Huo. Then we went to see Niagara but there was huge mist we could barely see it. Still now luck was not on our side. Even the girls rejected taking photos of them. :(

Then we saw the 4D movie. It was good. First time having the experience. Everyone loved it. Then we set towards ferry Mist of the Maid to takes near to Niagara. By the time we reach ferry the mist was cleared from american falls. Slowly clearing from the Horshoe falls of canada also. We had a really good time in ferry and after that. Though we had very less time spent with niagara, it was great.

Then pushed by Huo to go to the bus, reluctantly we reached bus and set forth towards Montreal. From then on i decided never to go on for the packaged trip. I am not blaming them for anything. With ours we always have the luxury of changing the plans based on what we want to see. We could have stayed longer in Niagara and left late. Alls well ends well. It ended well and we could see Niagara very well.

I would like to visit once again by staying there for couple of days. Enjoying every bit of the city, the night life, and niagara. I would also like to visit during winter to see how it looks. May be i am asking for too much to be for a single life time. :)

Monday, 20 April 2009

Day out in Montreal

April 18th 2009

This weekend myself, three of my collegues went out to have a look around in montreal. The weather was extremely pleasing for travellers than it used to be. We also noticed a slight drizzle in the morning. After having our regular meal of bread and doughnut with honey, milk, and muffins and a cup of cornflakes ( which we are having for past 7 days without any change in the menu ) we set out towards Old city of Montreal.

We walked our way to the bus terminal in Dorval (near our Travelodge where we stay) from where we took a bus 211 towards a place called lyonel Groulx. The journey was quiet good and mostly it was good becoz the bus was driven by a young beautiful lady with a dark glass driving at a speed of 160 km/hour. She was very good.

After getting down there we got into metro and after changing couple of trains we reached our metro station PIE IX. We saw first time the Big O, the olympic stadium. I was really impressed the architecture of it. I could not believe it was constructed in 1976.


The slanting tower nearby it is too too good. We took the cable car to the top of it. The city looked simply beautiful. Later after reaching our hotel back i read about the history of the slanting tower i was shocked to hear that it has fell twice :) and it was rebuilt.



Neary by that there was a biodome which used to be the olympic stadium i suppose. It had many species of monkeys, birds, trees, fishes. The one thing which i was very happy to see was penguin. As a Linux user i am every where connected to use penguin in my wallpaper, icons .... but for the first time i saw penguin. I loved it so so much ... But bad thing was it was on water. After seeing these penguin in water i would love to see it on ice. what a sight it would be ...

From there we went to Basilica of Notre Dame, one of the very beautiful church in the city. It had a very nice interiors. A place worth visiting.

After leaving the church we went roaming, there we find a guy doing some tricks in the center of the road. He said he is doing it for past 15 years. The tricks were pretty common ones but how he markets himself and how makes jokes out of everyone and maintains crowds, is simple amazing. May be this what is the difference between Indians doing street tricks and canadiens doing it.

From there we went to a place called Peel and McGill for shopping. The place was very very costly. I am not an exception for the ongoing recession. So we just did window shopping :)

Next we went to Mont Royal and just roamed around for 1 hour and then finally returned back to hotel. Overall it was very nice to see the old montreal.

April 19 2009

After having the same food for the 8 th or 9 th time and expecting 21 more days of similar food, we set again towards old montreal to do some shopping. Montreal has a very good underground city. So went there hoping as the place is sub ground level the price will also be a level less. On seeing the price our hopes got shattered. Be it above the ground or below the ground the price is just the same. So another 3 hrs of window shopping :) hoping to find something cheap.

Next we went to the St.Joseph Oratory and saw it. It was spectacular in size. Though its interiors was not that great but it was amazingly large is size built on the rocks.

After that we scrambled through the map to find china town and finally with some help from a chinese guy we went there but as it was sunday afternoon almost all shops were closed. So on the way we finally bought some curd and Sprite that is what we could buy :). Then we rode back to hotel


Overall the two days was very good and we had very good feel of old Montreal. The only thing i missed in old montreal was snow. I really would like to see the entire city again place by place during winter time. I think it would be really really good. Hope my company calls me to Montreal during December :)

Thursday, 16 April 2009

My First US Trip

I got an opportunity with my company . I was sent to US for a month ... With lots of plans (like visiting niagara, grand canyon , etc etc ) i landed in California, the so called silicon valley.

For the whole period we worked like anything ... no time for even go out and enjoy the weather ...

On top of that we got fired :) on Feb 13th ... Then we were promised a lot about being paid for the work we do in US and got cheated terribly (May be this is called business acumen by the CEOs) .

Hurried back to india ... Not even a glimpse of even Golden Gate Bridge in California ... Leave alone grand canyon and niagara ... May be some day i will see it ...

Such a horrifying experience i dont wanna go for work there ... yack ... its not my fruit ...

Thursday, 28 August 2008

One Life One Dream ... How it all started ...

It all started 4 years back in small common TV Room of Pearl Hostel in National Institute of Technology where my friend pandari and myself seeing the olympics. While we were seeing Isynbayova making olympic record in pole vault we talked that we should be seeing olympics in our life time. With no job or money in hand the thought might seem that of a college guys who says what ever they like but it was a dream for us.

And I forgot about this totally for the next 3 years. A year before when beijing olympics news start to hit the papers, pandari was the first to give life to our dream by calling me and another friend parthi. He tried several others but may be it was only us who had the same dream. We stuck together and we continued till the end.

The motto of olympics was “ One World One Dream”. Ours was “One Life One Dream”. All of the efforts to get event tickests was from pandari and parthi. We could not believe even when we were on the plane to beijing we could still not believe that we have made it.

Our enjoyment had no bounds. We were on cloud nine when we saw India winning olympic gold. We also saw isynbayova breaking her own olympic record in front of us, the record which she kept four years before which we saw in TV in our hostel.

The Dream Team who shared the vision of “One Life One Dream”

  1. Pandarinathan (pan)

  2. Parthiban (ban)

  3. me (Ram)

Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Do you think we are crazy !!!

When we three friends (pan, ban & me) told our friends and family that we are going to china to see olympics the first comment we got was "you guys are crazy". The comment is unique across all age groups right from my parents to my brother and my friends and colleagues. May be we are crazy.

When i look back our trip and see that we planned to go to a country where we don't know their language a bit and still we did not get a dictionary and went just like that i think we are crazy ones.

In such a country we planned to stay in railway station for couple of days during transit without booking a hotel for those nights ... i think we are really crazy ...

We planned to buy black tickets and sell our unwanted tickets in black even though we knew from news that the government is coming hard on black ticket buyers and sellers and did that amidst police guys ... And fighting and ignoring the local guys who threatened us to handover to police if we dont give money ... we are really really crazy ...

But when we met a girl who came from India like us but alone then we thought we are not that crazy ...

But when we knew that the girl's first flight is the flight to china then we thought we are not crazy but may be little fools ...

But when we knew the girl bought and sold black tickets and lived alone ... I think we are sane ...

When we knew that the girl booked a house and she went to police for registering as per china procedure ... We are really really sane ...

Not crazy at all ... Tell me are we crazy or the girl ...

Thursday, 14 August 2008

My shots of Abhinav Bindra at the Grand Finale



These are some of the photos of Abhinav Bindra when he created history at Beijing. This also includes his score card during the Grand Finale 



Monday, 11 August 2008

Isn't it worth an effort ???

August 10, 2008

The day started as usual with me and my friend getting up late and having breakfast at McDonald's an usual routine with me having only French Fries and Milkshake. Slowly we moved towards the stadium where our favourite event is in progress. Though we did not have any tickets we thought we would get one, as some people will not be able to make it for the event. As we reached the stadium and started to wait for the tickets. To our frustration we could not find not even one. We waited more than 4 hrs outside the stadium hoping to find tickets even though the event has started by the time we reach the stadium. We were so crazy that we wanted to see atleast half the event and to have the glimpse of our sporting heroes.

At the end of this frustrating day we deviced a plan (a so called plan) where we will go to the ground early and find tickets either from people who genuinely want to sell due to some personal reasons or from guys who sell in black. Hoping to find two such tickets.

August 11, 2008

As per plan we got up very early around 6 AM in the morning even though we slept around around 2 AM only. We got ready and took train to the venue and reached the venue around 8 AM.
Since we are not that familiar with the native language of the place we had diffculty in asking people for tickets. Because there were lots of people who want ticket.

Time : 08:30 Hrs

With frustration slowly creeping as we failed to get tickets and the localites being proficient in the language got the tickets easliy. So we decided to cut time in asking people for tickets, so went to one of the Volunteer who works for Red Cross and asked her to write “We want Tickets” in native language. The preliminary one event starts at 9 AM and Final at 12 AM. And prelims of another event starts at 12 AM and goes till end of day.

Time : 09:00 Hrs

With that board in hand we approached people showing this. We could see lot of people who sell tickets in black (there was couple of females too). But none of them had the tickets for final. And there was only few who had the tickets for final and the price was 30 times more than the original. It was too too high for us. Cursing the people who pay such high price for the ticket we continued to look for the tickets for final. There were guys who buy at 5 times the price and sell at 10 times or more.

Time: 09:30 Hrs

We could see a lot of prelims tickets so we decided to buy those so that we could see atleast prelims. But even that price was very very High. We continued to look for the tickets cursing the people who sell like this and being oppurtunists without conscience. We thought how could a country does not even have a good guy who is genuinely want to sell it not for profit. We cursed the government not taking steps to prevent this.

Then we saw a man with his little cute daughter coming through the guys who were ready to pay high price such as 10 times or 20 times the original. With us standing last who could max offer twice that too for the trouble the buyer would had in purchasing the ticket and nothing more than that.

He waited seeing all the guys and what they are doing and came directly to us and gave the tickets and just walked away. We ran after him and gave the original cost but he declined to take the money. He smiled and said something in native and moved away. We were awe stuck. How could people give a ticket for free, if they were offered 20 times more money than the original buying prices. Hats off to that gentleman. If i would have been in his place i would have atleast got the original, definitely not for free. This is a revolutionary thought. I am glad i could meet such a gentleman.

Seeing us having the ticket in hand we were offered 5 times its price by guys who sell black tickets. But we did not want to sell it for any price. We wanted to respect the old mans's confidence in giving the tickets to us.

The ticket he gave to us is for the preliminary event. But we wanted finals. So we continued to search for the finals ticket. We decided if we did not get any finals ticket one of us will go for the prelims of the other events and another will go home :(


Time: 10:00

Still we could not get any ticket for final with the original price. At that time we could see a husband and wife rushing in looking for tickets of prelims where one of girl from their village is participating in the event. So they wanted to see the prelims event. So we thought since the ticket that ole gentleman gave us is of no use as we dont want to see the prelims we gave the ticket for free to them. They were surprised at this. I think we gave right respect to the old man's generours act.

We were totally frustrated and dejected. But still we continued to look for tickets.

Time: 10:30

Out of the blue a guy came to us and gave the ticket for the finals and refused to take money. We tried offering him the original cost but he told all are like brothers and stuffs like that and he went in to see the event, without even stopping.

We were deeply surprised to see such kind of guys that too twice in the same day. But we needed two tickets. We became highly confident to get another ticket too.

Time: 11:00

No success for another ticket. At that time a rich gentleman came to us with his wife and offered us a very very huge price. If we would have paid the guy who gave the ticket we would have sold the ticket at that huge price and we would very happily sold the ticket without any regret.

Since the ticket was for free we were morally bound not to sell it. So we politely declined his offer.

As the event was getting near i took the ticket and moved in to see the event. And my friend waited outside looking for tickets.
Time: 11:15

I entered the stadium and took a seat and i turned back to see my friend standing behind me with ticket in hand. He told me that he bought the ticket from the guy who genuinely want to sell it. He has paid double the price.


Rejoicing the success of our efforts and very moved by personalities of couple of guys we were seeing the finals. If we sold the tickets for the high price offered by the rich gentleman or gave up effort for searching the tickets we would have missed the red letter day in Indian Sporting History. We would have missed Ahinav Bindra winning his and country's first Gold medal in the Olympic History. After 28 Long years Indian National Anthem was played in Olympics. A moment which we could cherish rest of our life.

Bravo Abihnav Bindra ... Bravo India ...

Isn't it worth an effort ???


Photos

Abhinav Bindra on the podium




Indian Flag soaring high ...