Aloha!

Posted on March 23, 2008 by Chirag Bindal

Our 2nd wedding anniversary getaway turned out to be Hawaii. The trip was planned just a few weeks in advance, and that too not really planned but decided within a few minutes on an end of December midnight. We took off from Seattle on Friday afternoon on a 5 hour direct NWA flight heading south-west to Honolulu, the capital city of the Hawaiian islands. The flight somehow felt longer than it was but we also gained a couple of hours. Honolulu airport was different than all the other airports in US, in the sense that it had open air areas connecting different concourses and gates. The baggage took really long to arrive, and one of my brain cells was busy counting the bags as they appeared on the conveyer belt – ours was eightieth to show up. The signs at the Honolulu airport were not very intuitive and took us a while to figure out where the Hertz rental car counter was located. The drive from the airport to Waikiki was 20 minutes on H1 eastbound, and we spent as much time locating the Queen Kaplioni Hotel after tunneling through the happening and brightly lit lanes of Waikiki downtown.

Hungry as we were, soon after checking into the hotel room, we were back on the streets searching for food. Fate had by two minutes put up for us a closed sign at the IHOP, and we settled for Domino’s garlic bread and Hawaiian pizza with pineapple toppings. Returned to the hotel with tired feet and immediately retired to bed, to wake up to the winter Hawaiian morning, which by our Seattle standards was nice warm and sunny. Lots of calls poured in from all over the world (read India and mainland US) to wish us on our 2nd wedding anniversary. However my phone was not working very well and forced everyone who called to leave a voice mail. Soon after Rikti got up, we walked down to the beach 2 blocks away from our hotel, just to get a feel of Hawaii by day. Acted touristy, clicked a few pictures (including a few with a rainbow backdrop) and spent some time checking out the local stuff which was being sold by local businesses at a small fair near the beach. Grabbed a sub from the Subway which was our brunch consumed sitting by the pacific ocean.

Our plan was to spend most of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center in the north eastern parts of Oahu. Drove for around an hour until we reached the destination, bought tickets and started the exploration with a canoe ride. On the canoe we met a Canadian couple who were Hawaii loyalists and had vacationed here every year for the last 17 years. I also tried my hand on the ukulele, which I later learnt was pronounced as ookoolili and not as youkoolaylay. We were already hungry when we got off the boat and so fueled up on some cheesy chips and fresh fruit, not the most common combo. The PCC is in a way similar to places like Chowki Dhani and Sanskruti in India. Lots of activities and local culture to see and learn about. We saw a 30 minute show which told all about the Hawaiian music and dance, right from advent of the Hawaiian guitar to the Hula dance techniques. Rikti even learnt how to do the Hula dance, and at another show, both of us tried our hip shaking dancing skills trying to imitate the dwelling tribes of Tahiti. We also went on the Bili Bili which is a raft made of 3 flat logs of bamboo. Explored some of the other Polynesian life in form of their huts, living, and then decided to sneak out of the center for a while to check out the attraction at Laie, where a tsunami had drilled a hole into a rock thousands of years ago. Bhaiya and Bhabhi had suggested that we carry a book called Oahu revealed, which we had issued from KCLS, and this is the book from where we learnt about the Laie Point. We returned to the PCC, roamed around and then went in for the dance show which was scheduled for the evening. It was a splendid show which showcased dances from all seven Polynesian islands. We agreed that our favorite was the hip shaking dance from Tahiti. After having an ice cream topped with Hawaiian fruits, we came back to our hotel, transferred the pictures onto the laptop, enjoyed them and went off to sleep. I also picked up the pineapple souvenir from PCC which is now displayed in our den.

 Pearl Harbor was the morning destination for day 2. I should have known from the Oahu Revealed book not to trust the road signs in Hawaii, as the roads are very complicated and signs all the less intuitive. So it took me an additional hour to reach Pearl Harbor than what it should have ideally taken. At the harbor, we ferried over to the USS Missouri memorial which was built over the sunken ship. Also checked out their museum and for the first time in our lives, we went inside of a real submarine, while it was not sub marine obviously.

Somehow I had been in a mood for adventure even before we started for this trip from Seattle, so our next stop for the day was the Dillingham Air Field after a drive up north across the whole of Oahu island. 2 sky diving companies operated from there, one of which had higher ratings than the other in the local tourist guides. We were late for the one with higher ratings as it had already operated its last flight for the day, so we went to check out the other one. I was pretty sure I would do it, hundreds of others do it and I would too, but I gradually changed my mind after watching the sky diving videos that were playing there and after reading the series of disclaimers on their paperwork. The probability of the risk was extremely low but severity extremely high, so I decided that the risk was just not worth the chance, and chickened out with no regrets. We drove back to Waikiki. Rikti found an Indian restaurant using my IE mobile, where we ended up landing for a bite. It turned out to be a South Indian restaurant with Malay flavor, and also turned out to be a place we would never revisit our whole lives. Following that avoidable dinner, we parked our car in the hotel parking lot, and spent the evening at the Waikiki beach where a local band was performing. Tourists were also enjoying Hula dance performances at the other end. When the sun set, we walked along the Waikiki downtown where torches were lit up on both sides of the road, making it look really fascinating. The place was very happening indeed. We also went to the International Marketplace where Rikti broke a shell and we bought the pearl that came out of it.

The next morning was Martin Luther King’s day and a parade was going on near the beach itself. We had another sub for brunch as we watched the parade comprising of everything from past Miss Hawaiis to Isckon Krishna group. The plan for this day was to go to Hanauma Bay, on the south east coast of Oahu. This was recommended to Rikti by Sonia and the place lived up to the recommendation. The travel book we were carrying very knowledgeably warned about the lack of parking spots at the bay. We did not pay heed and reached there to be disappointed by a full parking lot. So we drove further along and enjoyed the various other sites. When we were driving back, the parking lot was open and we immediately took advantage of the situation. We were showed a mandatory movie to preserve the corals, then a bus ferried us down to the bay. I rented some snorkeling equipment and snorkeled for the first time in my life. Hanuama Bay is considered to the best snorkeling location in the world. With shallow waters and calm waves, it is sprung with enormous amounts of corals. I was prepared with an underwater camera so clicked away several underwater pictures of colorful fishes. We played around on the beach a bit, then took our showers and returned to the Waikiki area. Did some last minute tourist kind of shopping and left for the airport. Rikti bought me a ukulele at the airport, which is also hung up on our den wall now.

It was a short and lovely trip to Oahu and the Hawaii islands will certainly call us again, the next destination would most likely be Maui.

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What I can do with a Paint application on the Treo

Posted on February 17, 2008 by Chirag Bindal

Here is a picture of an amazing landscape I created using the Paint application on my Treo. I always like to scribble so this application comes in handy when I am forced to be otherwise idle. It’s a different story that the Treo has stopped booting up as of yesterday morning and it seems like I am going to lose all my contact information ‘cos I never really took the time or effort to ever back it up in the first place. It’s going to require what is known as a hard reset that will bring it back to the original factory settings. Bah!

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Goddess Aishwarya

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Chirag Bindal

I clicked the picture below at Mayuri Indian Grocery store in Redmond sometime in 2007. Amongst the mighty Gods and Goddesses from Indian mythology figures none other than one super heroine from modern India – Aishwarya Rai! I will dedicate the picture below to my friend Kush.

Kush, drop me a line if you happen to see this.

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Toll on 520 and I-90

Posted on January 17, 2008 by Chirag Bindal

94.9 FM KUOW NPR is a good radio channel. I like it. It plays less of music and more of news, debates and discussions. How the Argentina Socks industry is doing, what Obama said to the Kenyan President, how a fisherman in Whidbey island has resolved to reduce his carbon footprint, what people feel about tolling the 520 and I-90 bridges that connect Eastside and Seattle. This last topic was being discussed in a dial-in program last week and there were a variety of interesting views.

Yes, it should be tolled – if you use it, pay for it. No, because the state needs to manage its budget better and maintain the bridge which is part of the road network. Someone said if the toll is $3 per use, it would mean higher %age of use tax for a carpenter with low income as compared to a tech professional, so it will be an unfair deal. A caller from Bainbridge was in favor of the toll – if the people dwelling on the islands can pay hefty sums of money for using the state ferries everyday to cross a body of water, why should not people pay for using a bridge which also helps to cross a body of water. Another caller said imposing the toll would mean people will take alternate routes which will lead to bigger problems like traffic congestions, more fuel burnt and more pollution. A counter argument to the point – ‘you use it, you pay for it’ was that everybody benefits from the bridge even if they don’t travel on the bridge, they make use of services and products that are shipped over the bridge. Also if roads are built in one corner of the state, then do the people living only in that corner pay for those roads? No, so why should this rule apply just because it’s a bridge.

Overall a very interesting exchange of ideas and an array of viewpoints!

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Obama versus Clinton – New Hampshire primaries

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Chirag Bindal
The 2008 US presidential race has caught my interest as it must have of many people who are witnessing the heated debates among the candidates, and the analysis on news channels like CSPAN & CNN that takes place thereafter and therebefore. After Obama’s glorious victory in Iowa, and Clinton’s equally inglorious 3rd place finish behind Edwards, it seems Clinton’s campaign was determined to deploy any tactics to make her win New Hampshire. Here is what I see as the reasons for Clinton’s NH victory, some of which are also being discussed by the media:
 
1. The emotional diner moment – I would hesitate to believe that it was a natural display of Hillary’s emotions. I think it was a deliberate ploy suggested by her campaign which she manoeuvred rather convincingly to show her true self. "Since when did experience become a deterrent". Now I am sure that Hillary is a true American and not a traitor, but I dont think she would be as strong a president as her husband was.
 
2. The likeability question by ABC’s NH Political Director – though this is not something which has been attributed as a reason for her NH victory by the media, I think this was another opportunity that Hillary got to show her emotional side to the American people. The question asked of Hillary was – what do you have to say to the voters who are in agreement with her stand on issues, thinks she will be a good president, but likeability is a concern. Hillary responded, ‘that hurts my feelings’ and Obama went on to say, ‘you are likeable enough’. Overall this tilted the electorate in her favor.
 
3. The abortion related procession during Obama’s campaign speech on the eve of NH primaries – this is also something which has not been at all discussed much in the media. Obama had just started off with his speech when a group of people on whom the cameras never focussed, started making a noise against Obama’s views on abortion. Did Obama handle that situation very effectively? I would say no. He just walked off on one side of the stage and though he tried to silence that mob, his response was not the most effective one. I wonder if the mob was placed there by Clinton’s campaign!
 
4. Bill Clinton’s comments on the morning of NH primaries – where he called Obama’s campaign a fairy tale and questioned his track record. This certainly would have impacted a lot of voters’ perceptions against Obama.
 
These were all the events which took place very close to the NH primaries and were the reasons why the opinion polls that projected Obama as the winner ended up being proved wrong.
 
So overall its a very exciting race and has even led me to blog about it. Until I had heard Obama or Clinton, I had thought that Clinton would make the best possible choice and I think she gets a lot of branding benefit from her husband. On the other hand Obama needs to work on creating and increasing his brand value based on what he stands for – CHANGE. And it is so amusing that all the candidates on both democratic and republican sides are now all talking about change. Hillary has changed her campaign slogan from ‘Ready to Lead’ to ‘Ready for Change – Ready to Lead’
 
There have also been some very exciting exchanges in the debates. One of my favorites was when Clinton commented that however beautiful words may be, they are not action, referencing to the rosy speeches made by Obama. After this she went on to talk about her experience, then the discussion went on with the moderator making some comments followed by a commerical break. When the debate resumed, Edwards spoke for 2 minutes on something. Then it was Obama’s turn and he also expressed his views on the issue being discussed. However, then he started off by responding to Hillary’s ‘words are not actions statement’. He said – the truth is words do inspire, words do bring people together, words do… I think that was an awesome response and one of the highlights of the NH debates. It also showcased what a smart man Obama is.
 
If I had the privilege to vote for the next American President, as of today my preferences would be as below along with reasons:
1. Barack Obama (D) – comes across as a real leader and can change America for the better
2. Ron Paul (R) – talks the truth and is a fundamental economist
3. John Edwards (D) – another genuine candidate though is more domestically focused
4. Hillary Clinton (D) – I would not mind her being the President either
 
Remains to be seen how America votes. The good news is that the next President would certainly be better than the current one.
 
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Niagara Falls

Posted on November 10, 2007 by Chirag Bindal
Southwest Airlines Reward Program made me earn a free round trip within US after I completed 8 roundtrips with them in 2 years. To utilize my free ticket to the fullest, we decided to head for a holiday to somewhere in East Coast, and the chosen destination turned out to be Niagara Falls. Took one day off from work, and left for Buffalo on Friday the 13th, the luckiest day on my calendar. At the Seatac airport marketplace we had Qdoba’s new and unique Egg Quesadillas for breakfast after which we hopped on to the flight to Chicago. Sunny a day as it was, I clicked some nice pictures of Seattle golf courses and freeways as the plane ascended into the partly clouded sky.
 
As it is with Southwest flights most of the times, our plane landed into Chicago 30 minutes before time though it had taken off slightly late from Seattle. This gave us around 3 hours of break until our Bufallo flight was supposed to take off. Good for us, as we decided to make a surprise sneak trip into the city to meet up with Bhaiya and Bhabhi. So we called up Bhabhi to give her a heads up, hailed a cab and reached Chicago GSB. Spotted Bhabhi coming towards us in her new look with straight hair. She gave a call to Bhaiya and told him that some of her friends had come over, so he should come to meet them. As we were waiting at the GSB reception, Bhaiya appeared from behind and must have surely been surprised to see Rikti and me. I think we were meeting after almost 1 year and he kept commenting on my modest weight increase – "CP, mota ho gaya hai". As Bhaiya’s MBA was coming to end, they had parties and get-togethers every Friday and one such party was going on in the atrium. We got to wear paper bands on our wrists and grabbed some stuff to eat. After spending an hour of quality time together, catching up, sharing pictures of our new house and clicking some more, it was time for us to rush to the airport. The departure attempt from GSB turned out to be a little adventurous in itself as we kept running around trying to hail a cab. Finally we got on a bus to Lake Shore drive from where we cabbed our way to the airport safely on time. Bhaiya and Bhabhi had plans for some evening Broadway/Opera kind of show which they must have enjoyed while we completed the second leg of our journey to Niagara. So the Chicago halt turned out to be a bonus trip en-route Niagara.
 
I would rate Bufallo airport as better than most US airports. We took our pre-booked GPS-enabled rental car from Hertz and started driving towards the hotel we had booked in Canada – The Inn at Lundy’s Lane. In fact we had meant to stay at a hotel on the American side but did not realize until too late that we had booked the room in a Canadian hotel. Before crossing over the border, we decided to go to the Niagara Falls State Park on the American side. The midnight stroll in the park was amazingly refreshing as we walked along the boisterous rapids that would in moments graduate to status of American Falls. Red, white, green, yellow and blue beams of light projected from the Canadian side illuminated the falls and we clicked a few pictures. After a while we got into the car and crossed the border into Canada, checked into our hotel, but soon stepped out to savour a delicious margarita pizza at a joint across the street. It was the best pizza Rikti had in over a year and I would tend to agree. 
 
Next morning after checking out from the hotel, we had breakfast at Denny’s and then started for the majestic Niagara falls which was just a few miles away. The touristy area around Niagara Falls is sometimes also described as mini Vegas with flashy buildings and a few casinos. As we approached our primary destination for this trip, we got a breathtaking view of American Falls which we initially confused to be NF. It was fairly easy to find a parking spot and then we had nothing to do other than walk the Niagara Falls Way and enjoy the supposedly breathtaking views of Niagara. Quite honestly, my breath wasn’t taken away with the initial views of the falls until a little later when we got on the Maid of the Mist (MOTM) ride. Whenever you see pictures of people visiting Niagara falls or some travel program on TV, you can’t miss the blue and yellow raincoats that tourists are made to wear. The blue ones are worn on the MOTM, and the yellow ones are provided for the Journey Behind the Falls (JBTF) tour. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the moments when the MOTM boat slowly turns around in front of the Niagara Falls and all you can see is the majestic wall of water all around you. The JBTF tour was also nice and it was pretty interesting to see how the caves had been carved in the cliff behind the falls.
 
After treating ourselves to a buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant, we started to head nortwhards to Dundas, Ontario to meet Mickey didi and Mukesh Jijaji. The plan was to stay over at their place for the night and return to US the next day. We arrived at their house early evening and nibbled on some snacks. Jijaji took me for a walk on the trail behind their house. There was an old rusty windmill in their neigbours backyard. Their own backyard had a pond with lots of orange fish. I learnt that asements are a default feature in all houses in Canada. All of us including the kids Parth and Saransh went for a hike to the Sherman and Websters falls, just two of the scores of falls in that region. In the evening I had a fun guitar session with Parth. Didi made some wonderful golgappas and aaloo tikkis for dinner, after which we sat through first 10 minutes of a Saif Ali Khan movie, and then went off to sleep. The next morning Jijaji and Didi took us to Toronto where we went up the CN Tower and also walked by Lake Ontario. We had our lunch at Gerrard Street Indian Bazaar which was an Indian community market very similar to Devon street in Chicago. After returning back home to Dundas, we took our leave, waved goodbyes to the Jain family and returned to US. Early next morning was the flight from Buffalo to Seattle which we slept through.
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Snoqualmie Pass

Posted on February 24, 2007 by Chirag Bindal
The nearest you can hit snow driving east from Seattle is at Snoqualmie Pass (hereafter referred to as SP) which is a 3000 ft high range in the southern parts of Mt. Baker National Park. Its’ a major winter and summer recreational area in the midst of beautiful mountains and pristine national forests.  Within the state of WA, this pass is the largest skiing area. When Rikti’s friend Reins was visiting us last weekend, we drove out to play in the snow at SP, which is another 20 miles east of Snoqualmie Falls. The roads at Mt. Rainier were closed due to flooding that took place in Nov of 2006, and Mt. Baker had received heavy snow that morning causing the roads to be blocked. Anyways, when we got closer to SP, I realized it was not my first time there. I vaguely remembered that back in 2004, I had visited this place along with Deepak & family. We spent a couple of hours snow frolicking and enjoying the sights of the skiers who would get up on a trolley, go to the top of the mountain and zoom down on their skis. They just went going round in this circular loop forever.
 
The first time I saw snow in my life was when I was 5 years old. We had gone to Kashmir and stayed at a snow clad resort in the city of Gulmarg. We had gone up a mountain to play in the snow where mummy lost one of her shoes. I came back down on a sledge with a local sledge driver who sped the wooden board down the snowy slopes – what an experience that was! Bhaiya had noted that the roads in J&K (on the plains at least) were very straight and did not turn until after many kilometers. At that time I remember being so much impressed with this observation of his. Flashback over.
 
Snoqualmie: People of the Moon
Elevation: 3022 feet at the Summit
Bi-County Community of 250 full time residents
Major industry: Outdoor Recreation, Down hill and Cross Country skiing, Backpacking and Hiking
Four major Ski Areas: Alpental, Summit West, Summit Central, Summit East
 
Some links:
Snoqualmie Pass site: http://www.snoqualmiepass.com/
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Victoria, BC

Posted on January 27, 2007 by Chirag Bindal
Jan 19th 2007 was mine and Rikti’s first wedding anniversary. Originally we had planned to be at  the Riverwalk at San Antonio, TX followed by a drive to Austin, but we ended up cancelling those bookings in lieu of our second plan of visiting Vancouver. Then Manjul visited from Japan on 1/13 and we met up with his friends Junejas here who over dinner advised that Whistler or Victoria would be great destinations. Whistler, a world class ski resort, was classifed as an adventure destination and Victora as a romantic one. Being the kind of milestone we were going to celebrate, Victoria turned out to be the obvious choice.
 
Our mild celebrations started with a Chinese dinner at InChin’s in Redmond on the eve of our anniversary. Next morning we were to board the Victoria Clipper crusie ship to Victoria BC from Pier 69 at Seattle Waterfront. I already had a mulitple entry Canadian visa and we got Rikti hers just earlier in the week. On the day of the trip we reached Seattle downtown at 7 AM and it was raining. After parking the car in the lot recommended by the Victoria Clipper website, we started to head towards the pier with a suitcase and an umbrella that sadly could not withstand the downtown winds long enough.  Finally we checked in the luggage and were the first passengers to get aboard the majestic Victoria Clipper IV. The ship had free seating and we changed our seats 2 times before settling down peacefully on the upper deck.
 
The journey started dot on time at 8 AM, and soon we were served the Champagne Breakfast which was part of our tour package. Wow what fun! A Friday mini cruise from Seattle through Puget Sound into the strait of Juan de Fuca, and finally arriving at the Victoria Inner Harbour. And a bottle of Champagne to top it all along with decent breakfast portions. The ship showed the GPS route on monitors and that taught me a bit of Puget Sound geography. Olympic mountains stretched on our west right up to the northwest end of WA. There was a small town called Port Townsend which its founders had ambitioulsy desired to be the main port of this area, but since railroad companies decided to set up shop near Seattle, Port Townsend has remained just that – a small town. On the east we sailed by Whidbey Island. The ship covered 71 miles in a little over 2 hours, averaging 35mph on a very comfortable and smooth ride over the ocean waters.
 
After going through the Canada immigration formalities at Victoria port, we were out in the streets with our suitcase that has now since long had squeaky wheels. The sky was overcast and it indeed looked like a nice small town – a perfect getaway for a relaxing weekend. Instead of taking a cab, we walked towards the Empress Hotel as it was pretty close by, and checked into a suite on the 5th floor. Our plan was to stretch a little, and then go out for lunch, which is precisely what we did. On Fort St, we found an Indian restaurant by the name of Indian Curry House, which served us decent Shahi Paneer and Nans.
 
While strolling the downtown streets, we landed up in a shop called Tony’s Photo Studio that had a lot of different props and dresses in which you could get your picture clicked. To capture our first anniversary into a special photograph, we got ourselves into Victorian outfits for a very Victorian wedding picture! Mr. Tony clicked around 20 pictures and we finally selected one in which both of us looked fab. Tony was an old man in his 50s, and he had this sticker put up on his shop – "Get even – live long enough to become a problem for your kid." Tony and his wife wanted repeat business and they said that they hoped we will be back next year with our little one! 🙂
 
We then headed back for the streets and spotted Miniature World, which was actually housed in our hotel building itself. There were lot of different miniature exhibits showcased, but the one that awed me the most was the very first exhibit of space in Future World. It showed a view of the solar system from Jupiter in 2035 or so. As it is I am a little inclined towards space and aliens these days, and that particular exhibit appealed a lot to me. Other exhibits were kind of mundane showcasing different cities, wars, events, or tales. After this, we spent another hour or so in the streets clicking pictures of ourselves with backdrops of Empress, the coveted Legislative Building that glows with 3,333 bulbs, the harbour, and so on. Then we attempted to retire into the hotel room with tired feet, but they were inspiration enough to again walk down to the spa and immerse ourselves into the heavenly jacuzzi of the Empress Hotel. I am still not sure how, but the hotel somehow knew it was our anniversary and upon our return, we found in our room a beautiful greeting card along with chocolates and a box of famous Empress tea. In the evening, we dined at the same lunch restaurant, took a late night stroll back to the hotel with some more pictures on the way.
 
Our plan for the next morning was to visit Butchart Gardens. So we rented a car, got a free upgrade since we had stayed at the Empress, and drove northwards on the freeway till we reached the gardens. Being winter season, it was obviously not the best time to visit this place as there were no flowers but only greenery, which was also not too bad. The gardens had 5-6 different sections including the Sunken Garden, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, Italian Garden etc where we strolled around and snapped a few pictures but all without flowers. 🙁 So as to not disappoint the few ignorant visitors like us who had little sense of best seasons to visit the gardens, they even had an indoor display of flowers known as Spring Prelude. Anyways, I guess our next trip to Victoria wont be in winters and the Butchart Gardens will deserve another trip from us when there is bloom. In the afternoon we drove further up north to the small touristy town of Sidney from where we grabbed some fruits (for me) and donuts (for Rikti, hehe) at Safeway. Drove around a bit and on the way back to Victoria downtown, Rikti made me park the car in a public parking for an afternoon car nap in the sun – pure bliss! Our last stop in Victoria would be the Craigdarroch Castle, which at 4 storeys was the tallest building in Victoria a hundred years ago. For the first time in my life, I saw what a castle can be like from the inside, and it certainly was a delightful and a little enriching experience, if you will.
 
Finally we returned the rental car, got back on the Victoria Clipper IV, and upon reaching Seattle we had the pleasure of having dinner with Arun, Jagat, Sonia and Ashish at Inchin’s, and completed the whole round trip with the Chinese meal and fortune cookie.  
 
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Disney World

Posted on December 3, 2006 by Chirag Bindal
Day 0– Thanksgiving weekend of 2006 took me and Rikti to the other corner of United States i.e. from Seattle WA to Orlando FL. It was a long long hopping flight via Chicago where we had pizza for lunch. Finally our Southwest plane landed into Orlando and we rented a GPS enabled car from Hertz to check into the Legacy Grand hotel. Our holiday had begun and feeling fresh after a hot shower, we went to check out Downtown Disney. The place was full of life with music and lights, with many pubs at the Pleasure Island which was a part of the downtown. We got back to the hotel buying yet another pizza (this time Dominos) on the way and finally retired for the day.
 
Day 1 – The plan was to get up early next morning but the 3 hour jet lag was not in our favor. We got up at 9 which was 6 AM biologically since the body unlike the mind did not probably know we had moved from PST to EST timezone. By 10 AM we had collected our will-call tickets and were in the long queue of vacationers who were trying to enter Animal Kingdom. We started off our day by entering the roots of majestic Tree of Life to watch a 3D movie titled Its Tough to be a Bug. Then we left Discovery Island, walked about and spotted an Indian Chai Shop which I thought was really impressive in the way that the designers of this park had recreated a Chai stall from India. I was most excited to see that the red brick floor was made wet by pouring water over it, which gave it a typical Indian dhaba look. There was also a Sunil Shetty poster on the wall. After clicking a few pictures we walked towards the Mount Everest ride, a roller coaster encounter with the Yeti that we did not get on due to lack of motiviation caused by the 120 minute estimated wait in the queue. This was Asian part of the park. The African side had a few more adventures in the form of Kilimanjaro Safari and Kali River Rapids, the latter especially being very adventurous and thrilling. It was a recreation of a river rafting journey where you would definitely get wet, and you might get soaked! Kali River was actually a part of Asia and not Africa, just for the record before anyone sues me for this misinformation.
 
It was afternoon already and our next destination would be the MGM Studios to where we took a Disney bus, and I think it would have been a better idea to have driven as it was again a long wait. Anyways, this next Disney park was symbloized by a giant blue colored wizard hat. After grabbing a quick Chinese bite and checking out the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playset for kids, we headed for the Backlot Tour where they showed us round Pearl Harbor shooting sets and also a Grand Canyon set among other interesting movie things. The next show on the cards was The Extreme Stunt Show, which enthralled a 25000+ audience with well nothing but exterme car and bike stunts. The cars and bikes were flying all around and sharp-shooters falling from 4 floor high buildings. A very well coordinated and practised show on that large a scale I must say. The next ride was going to be the dreaded Tower of Terror, a scary random free fall ride owing to the horror story they weaved around it. We were ushered into a library room at the 100 year old Hollywood Hotel, followed by a vertical and horizontal elevator ride that was made to fall from the 13th floor not once or twice but several times in a random fashion. Quite thrilling and we were alive after the ride was over. Fantasmic, a light and sound show featuring Mickey and friends was the next stop. This show had again drawn a 25000+ (my estimate) audience into the open air amphitheater. It was a spectaular show with water fountains, fireworks, lasers, choregraphy and special effects amidst all of which Mickey Mouse heroically defeated the dragon who was trying to control his imagination. We then briefly checked out the avoidable Sylvania light show and took another bus to Epcot just in time to witness a spectacular display of fireworks and lasers in a show called IllumiNations: Reflections of the World.
 
Day 2: Another lousy morning when we left the hotel at 10 AM and still not having slept to our heart’s content. The day had to start with Epcot which later decisively figured out as our favorite amongst the 4 theme parks at Disney. Marked by a huge globe that symbolized it, Epcot was about science, technology and future. We started the exploration by getting on the Spaceship Earth ride, a slow moving ride that would take us into a journey of communications over time in a train vehicle that maneuvered its way around the internal sphere of the globe. The next ride was Mission Mars, a ride which for some reason Rikti dreaded the most and all my attemtpts to convince her otherwise were futile. You could be part of the green team or orange team on this ride. The orange ride would be more intense and give you a feel of up to 3G during the lift off – many people are not able to take it well and I did not want to take a chance either so I went with the green team, even the wait was much shorter and that acted as an incentive. When I returned from Mars, we took a fast pass for the Test Track ride which we did not later return to. Instead we went to Soarin, another one of the most popular rides at Epcot that had us in the queue for 80 minutes, but worth every minute of the wait. This ride was a flight simulation over California and was indeed quite exhilarating though it must have lasted a little over 5 minutes. We then got into a show called Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which was preceded by a long, cheap, forced advertising movie by Kodak. This was a 3D show where a snake was about to swallow us and it was quite an avoidable expereince to my unpleasant surprise. It had a gross ending where they made a dog sneeze onto the audience and sprinkled water from somewhere to make it appear lifelike. All these shows and rides were part of the Future World at Epcot, the other division being World Showcase, a reincarnation of 11 countries of the world. We went to Mexico, Norway, China to start with. Norway even had a ride called the Maelstrom, a doable ride that took you on a Viking voyage. Other countries around the lake were Germany, France, USA, Japan, Canada, Russia and a couple more. I wish they had India too as it would definitely have been a more exciting experience for the visitors where they could have been given an old Delhi rickshaw ride or a Mumbai local train ride!
 
The sun was about to set and we decided to have late lunch or early dinner at an Indian restaurant a few miles away that the GPS helped us to find. The food was okay but we did not want to waste a lot of time eating and headed straight off to the majestic Magic Kingdom. Marked by a huge color changing castle, this place was really a dream come true for every child. We hopped on to the Disney Train for a 270 degree round of the park. We checked out the town where Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and all these funny folks lived, though we only spotted Donald Duck being celebrated by a long queue of young kids for an autograph and a picture taken along with them. Splash Mountain at Frontier Land was a ride we did not get on but derived almost equal amount of fun watching. Then there was the coveted Disney Parade all with lights and sound that commenced at Main Street USA and went through all the streets of the entire Magic Kingdom. We then admirably watched the dazzling Wishes fireworks show over the Cindrella Castle. The best part was a fairy that they made to jump out from a window on the top floor of the castle and she flied all the way across to the other end of the park. Following this we went to TomorrowLand and boarded their Transit Authority tram for a tour of the whole mini-town. We also went car racing on the Indy Speedway and it was really not easy to steer that car. Finally after strolling around a bit and having a Rainbow Magic flavor ice cream, we left Magic Kingdom on a boat that took us to the bus station from where we caught a bus to the Epcot parking lot where our car was parked. The magical trip had come to an end and next afternoon we would head back into our normal world.
 
Day 3: It was an uneventful day. We checked out from the hotel at 11 AM and went to have an early lunch at the same India Palace restaurant where we had been to the previous evening. Most of the day was spent traveling and Seattle welcomed us late night with 2-3 inches of snow on our car that was parked at Seatac Parking. Finally we reached home safely and dreamt of nothing that night but all the spectacular fun rides, so much of them had got into our minds!
 
Some nice pictures from our Disney World trip are in the Disney World album here.
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Intelligent Design

Posted on December 2, 2006 by Chirag Bindal
Just a day after I had written the previous blog about the atomic thingy, I stumbled upon this book called Intelligent Design which demystifies all existence and life. Written by Rael who is a self-proclaimed and increasingly celebrated prophet of our times (similar to Jesus 2 millenniums ago or so he claims), the book narrates Rael’s encounter with ETs back in 1973 and the message they want to pass on to humans. I have never been so astonished to see how all the dots comprising of God, religions, purpose of life, are so well joined by this theory of intelligent design. The books are available for free download at www.rael.org, and are a good read even if you don’t wish to subscribe to the theory.
 
If it is true, then we will know in 2033 when Rael claims the aliens that we mistake as gods will land on earth at the embassy that Rael’s organization is building for them. If it is just his imagination, then I would like to give Rael credit for being so creative in weaving this story. After reading the book I did some more research on UFO religions – these are religions that believe that life on earth was not created by our perceived God, but by an advanced civilization from outer space who used earth as their laboratory for DNA cloning. So, until the Elohim arrive, lets get back to our lives and not be too much dismayed by the illusionary or real external forces. But who knows? Enjoy the book.
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