Cardiff Central (Mar 9, 2009)

I am so excited to be on the First Grand Western train from Cardiff to Bath Spa. I have heard so much about the European Trains and even though this may not be the Eurorail or the Eurostar, this still is Europe and I am on the train.

Last two days were mainly spent at home with my cousin and the kids. The weather was mostly dark and gloomy and although it never got dark till after 5, it still was not weather where you could go out in. On Sunday after church we did go to Cardiff Bay for a while. Ate lunch at Nando’s – a fairly popular chain where there was some good chicken.

On the way here we saw the Mormon/Norman Church, and also the new Assembly Center which was pretty nice. It had its ceiling made of wood, and it was a rather modern looking building. At most of these places we clicked a few photos, but could not spend any time as it was damp and rainy. Also saw the Millennium Stadium which was mighty cool and the Cardiff (Cardydd in Welsh) Castle.

Basically the weekend was rather laidback, in preparation for the hectic weekdays.

Today starts my actual visit to the various places with Bath the first on my list. This is a city with roman baths and is supposed to be a must see in UK. The rail tickets are rather cheap to get here from Cardiff – 16 GBP. I woke up in the morning around 7 and caught the local bus at 8ish. From my place at Cardiff to Cardiff Central it took me around 40 minutes. The bus was pretty full and I am pretty sure that unlike the US people prefer to take the public transport here. It was full of students and also a pretty professional crowd.

Here I am now around 9.30 in the train all excited. The train has already started to move…and wow it’s an amazing feeling.

I will post more on the way back. Till then its time to visit the Roman baths in England.

London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Mar 7, 2009)

Ok…I am back again in London, but unlike the last time around in December where I tried to cover the city in 6 hours, this is a longer and hopefully relaxed trip.

The flight was uneventful, and although we left 30 minutes late, we reached Heathrow 10 minutes early, because of some good tail wind. Getting in was easy too, the immigration dude just asked me two questions and I did not have to show any extra documentation. The moment I reached baggage claim I found my bag.

Now the three most important things to do once you are out, at least for me:

Get some pounds: I had called up my bank before I left for the UK to inform them that I would be transacting in the UK. This is because most of the banks block your transactions as they may be fraudulent. So before leaving make sure that your bank is notified.

I inserted my card in and entered my PIN. Again, a word of caution – Most European and Indian banks take 4 digit PINs. My BoA card has five. So I changed it to four to fit the accepted norm. The conversion rate was pretty decent – 300 USD for 200 GBP. I got the money and step 1 was done.

Buy a sim card. The ATM machine is right next to arrivals, while the Vodafone showroom is on the departures floor. If you have an unlocked cell, it is very easy. The sim costs 5GBP, and to my luck that day they started a scheme of giving 5GBP top up free. Even if this scheme was not there you should be able to make calls easily in the UK by spending 10 GBP.

The last step was to head to the coach station where my cousin Anu had booked tickets. The National Express stop is right outside the arrivals in Terminal 5 from gate 12 to 16. A simple matter of getting there and boarding the coach. This cost her around 40GBP and my destination was Cardiff.

To get into London (I did this the previous time) there are 3 ways to travel from Heathrow. The Heathrow Express takes 15 minutes from Heathrow to Paddington, from where you can easily catch the tube. This is expensive and I suppose it costs around 25-30GBP roundtrip. Next is the Heathrow Connect which runs on the same track as the Express except that it has many more stops. But this is the best deal as it costs only 13-15GBP roundtrip and takes 25 minutes. This is not so well known, but it is a good way to travel and my pick.

The last option is the tube from Heathrow. It is pretty cheap, 5GBP one way I suppose, but the issue is that this could get delayed easily. It takes 40 minutes to proper London. So if you don’t mind the time taken and want to explore the tube system this is ideal.

That’s it for now. It will take me around 3 and half hours to reach Cardiff – time to get some shut eye.

Epilogue – I know there are a lot of Indians here, but seriously, there are a LOT.

New York JFK Airport (Mar 6, 2009)

Time for another country, and as you guys who have been following my blog (all zero of them) would know that next up is UK. My main destination is Cardiff where my cousin stays, and I mostly will be spending family time. In between, I will try to cover as much of UK (and mainly Wales) as I can.

I am taking the flight from New York as I was getting cheaper tickets and thought it will be better to travel from here. Now I realize that this is not worth it. Getting from Boston to New York is quite cheap; I got a roundtrip for 25USD. The main hassle though is the commute.

I left at 1430 thinking I will get to NYC by 1900 and as my flight was at 2230, I would have enough time to make it.

But damn it all, I landed up in NYC Penn Station at 8.15pm. I literally had to scurry to catch the LIRR train to Jamaica. This costs around 7USD, and from here the JFK AirTrain at 5USD takes you to all the terminals. From Penn to Terminal 7 it should take you about 35-40 minutes, which is pretty decent.

The only issue is if you are running late like me. Luckily, I was not too late and made it by 9:15pm. There was absolutely no crowd at the check in desk and I went in dropped my bag and breezed through security.

Here I am now finally, all excited to get into the UK. Also, this flight will make me a silver member on British Airways. I am hoping that they upgrade me, like they did last time I flew to Bangalore. Business Class Rocks!!!

Boski Mascarenhas (Jul 7, 1998 – Mar 2, 2009)

It is with a heavy heart and a sad face that I bid goodbye to my best friend and sister of 10+ years – Boski.

I never wondered what she meant to me, I knew it. She was there during the best part of my life, she saw me largely through my ups, but also was there for me when no one was. It is hard when you lose someone you love – you are at a loss for words. I cried such a lot today, for a friend who made me laugh so much – from refusing to eat anything remotely vegetarian, to sitting in front of me with the most saddest look on her face when she wanted my food, which was every time.

I tell everyone this, but this is a story which I will forever remember:

I tried my hand at cooking once, and I decided to do something very easy – Cook an omlette. So I took two eggs and some oil. The first time I poured too little oil, and then poured the beaten egg. It burnt to a crisp. So I thought – more oil. Poured in a lot more oil and the second omlette came out all watery. I was so upset, that I myself couldn’t even eat my own cooking.

But there she was below looking at me with her eyes. So I said – You want it? She just looked up. I put one in my plate, put the other in hers and both of us ate heartily.

True friends are like this, they don’t give a damn if you are ugly as hell or cook like an idiot. They still are there for you to make you feel good.

Boski, I will forever miss you. Jatin feat. Fat Boski (my favorite rap band) will be no more, but I know that you will still love to hear me sing as you have done for so many years.

Mickey Rourke gave his best performance in ‘The Wrestler’ and dedicated the golden globe to his baby Loki. I have not won any globes or Oscars, but just for making me what I am today – I celebrate my baby Boski.

PS: They have really good chicken in heaven, but you will miss my omlettes.

Boston Apartment (Feb 28, 2009)

I was on the phone with Sarah, and she got me started on this idea about the concepts which I employ on these travels. This was brought about by an ideology called as NR (New Rich).

This is a concept I read about in a book titled: ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’, which Ben had given me a few days back. The concept states that you don’t have to be rich to enjoy your life (It just makes it wayyy more easier!). Instead of spending your life making money to spend on a final great vacation, why not have something called as mini-vacations. This gets you refreshed often, and also you get to see a lot more and enjoy a lot more in your daily life, as compared to waiting for it.

Ok…so you might be asking me – You still need to be rich to take these mini–vacations. My answer is no, you need not. To put it in a nutshell, as one of the greatest movie roles played by any actor would say: “It’s all part of the plan” (Heath Ledger deserved the Oscars, and I am so glad he won it).

I will elaborate on this concept in my future blogs about the NRT (New Rich Traveler).

To get this topic started one of the main concepts is – Plan Early.

There are many types of travel, one is the unplanned travel. This according to me is the best sort, where you and your friends just decided to go somewhere on a whim, and end up doing it. But, for a backpacker or a lone traveler like myself, or even for a family, this is tough. You need to plan, if not everything atleast the dates, the places you want to visit, and so on. Here is my way, which may not be right, but this is my blog!

Take for example 2009. I plan of visiting UK. I see that I need atleast a week of vacation. First step, apply for it. I have found it very helpful to inform your company or project about your plans way in advance. It gets your dates confirmed, and makes it harder to reject as you have given advance information. There is no harm in applying say for April. If you ultimately don’t end up going, you can just cancel the vacation.

Also, what this makes you do is take action. Now you have applied for leave in April. You have a milestone set, which believe it or not helps a lot.

More of this boring lecture in future posts.

Boston Apartment (Feb 14, 2009)

This post is again late, the reason being I was sick all through this week. I landed in Boston Monday night and from then on have had a bad cold which still is with me. Memories from this Texas trip, I suppose.

Also, what better day to write than on Valentine’s Day, which shows how single I am :D. But no worries, I am enjoying this life and my blog I hope - reflects this.

Okay, rewind back to Monday morning where I woke up early in my Austin hotel bed, had breakfast and set off at 8 in the morning to San Antonio. I fuelled my car, and I couldn’t believe it was so cheap. I paid around 11 USD to fill from something less than half tank to a full tank. The same - one year ago would have cost me 40 USD. (I should know…I paid that much on my Florida trip).

The drive was uneventful except for pockets of traffic in Downtown Austin and San Antonio, which was expected as it was a Monday morning. I saw a bit of Texas country on the drive, and I have heard it is good to go on a long drive with nothing but the long country roads in front of you.

My first stop was the Alamo, which I totally missed as the directions were wrong, but I didn’t mind too much as I had seen it Saturday. So I headed off to my next stop: Mission Concepcion. This is called as the Mission Drive, which covers five Missions set up by the Spanish to teach the Indians the Catholic culture. It starts from Mission San Antonio de Valero, also called the Alamo to the final Mission - Mission Espada with Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose and Mission San Juan in the middle.

This is a must do in San Antonio irrespective of whether you are religious or not as it is a very peaceful drive and you can see some of the most beautiful Spanish architecture with Indian and other influences. It took me approximately 4 hours to do this with me doing four missions. San Jose is the biggest and pretty much intact, but I loved Mission Concepcion.

Once this was done, I drove back to downtown, and came to my final stop – The Spanish Governor’s Palace. This is right opposite the Town Hall of San Antonio, and a very mall place with a nominal 2 USD fee, but worth a look.

Finally I decided to have lunch at a place close by called Market Street or Market Place or something along those lines. When I went back to my car I had a parking ticket. To top my trip – my first US parking ticket, Nice!

I drove back to the Dollar rental to return the car and headed back to the airport to catch my NorthWest flight back to Boston.

I enjoyed my stay in Texas, and it was a beautiful and fun filled stay. I would love to do this again sometime, and I would recommend these two cities to anyone as you could find a lot to do.

This finishes my trips for February.

March opens up new horizons as I land up in UK to visit my sister in Cardiff, Wales. I am planning this now, and hopefully you would be reading my posts in March to see how I fare.

Till then have a Happy V day, and remember: love is not only for one day, it is forever (Hope this makes sense).

Adios!

San Antonio Airport (Feb 9, 2009)

I am running way behind in writing this, but I barely have had time to update on the hour. So this blog for now is lagging behind a couple of days J

I reached Austin Saturday night, and checked into the Fairfield on Renili St. It was a nice place to sleep, but I knew I wouldn’t be spending too much time in it anyway.

Immediately got ready and decided to go to 6th St, which is supposed to be the happening spot for the nightlife in Austin. The lady at the desk advised me to not take my car as parking could be a problem, but instead to take a cab. Being the cheapass that I am, I decided one better – Let’s catch the bus (I never learn!). And luckily there was a stop half a mile from my place. The bus was the 10 to red river street, which is perpendicular to 6th, and it was a good bus – On time, and one of the few buses were the crowd seemed not to have poor people who had just come in from the streets.

6th street is a very popular place – it was crowded by 9.45 when I reached, and by 11 they had stopped traffic and people were running all over. A sight for sore eyes ;)

Yelp had given a dance club called Plush, a high rating and I landed up at this place. There was no cover, and the rum and coke cost me a whole 2USD (I hate Boston – 6 USD!!!). Sadly, it didn’t pick up at all and so I made my exit at 11. Roamed around staring at the sights, and went into a lounge called Hi-Lo. It was a so-so place – White Russian for 5, still affordable, but again less to no crowd. By midnight I was desperate to dance, and made my way to Vice, which was a proper dance club, with a pretty young crowd. It was fun, and I could dance a bit. My night was done by 2+, and I returned back to the hotel in a cab which again was quite inexpensive.

I was tired, and I suppose after covering 3 cities in a day, you have a right to immediately fall on the bed.

Sunday morning I set off around 10, and landed up again around 6th street. The places I saw were the State Capitol, a huge building with brilliant architecture, and quite prominent in Downtown Austin. It is supposed to be bigger than even the Washington Capitol. The highlight of the tour – A framed photo of Governor George Bush on the wall: D

Before this I walked up to the Renaissance Market, a place for budding local artists close to the University Of Texas, but there was no crowd, and few shops. Either I was too early, or Sunday is not the day to be here.

After the capitol, I drove to a place called Barton Springs which is not too far from downtown. These springs are in a huge park called Zilker Park which forms part of Town Lake Park. It has a beautiful view of downtown Austin with the Frost Tower at the background, and if you can walk a few miles, the photo op is good. Also, if you are here for more than a day, and love the outdoors you can do some canoeing, swimming, picknicking, et al.

Spent some good time there and then headed off to Mt Bonnell, which is a few miles drive from Austin. A short hike to the summit gives you a good view of Austin and also the lake. It’s a lovely place to sit and contemplate.

These were my main spots to cover and I headed down to downtown again to get some time on 6th and maybe a couple more photos. The lady at the hotel desk was wrong about parking though – Parking is much easier in Austin, than say Miami or Boston. A little searching off the main roads will get you some parking spot or other during nights and weekends. So it is not much of a hassle.

I walked up 6th and then Congress where the Frost building is located. Also, the bridge on Congress supposedly has bats under it, which fly out between April and August, and are supposed to be an awesome sight. I couldn’t get a glimpse of them, but I did walk under the bridge.

The walk on congress has a couple of statues of guitars, painted in all weird colors. Again a snap clicked!

I headed back home after this as I was so tired I could barely walk. Slept from 5 to 7pm, and then headed back again to…you guessed right...6th street, but this time in my rental.

Sunday is much quieter than Saturday, and the walk was peaceful. I ended up at a club called Elysium, which was playing 80s-90s tracks. This must be the first time I danced in the US waving my hands and trying to do the Moonwalk, and it was so much fun, when compared to the grind and bump of most dance clubs.

Left early but happy at 2 am, as I had more driving to do, and visit Churches in San Antonio early the same day. If I didn’t get some sleep I am sure I would fall asleep while driving there.