A hike every month: November 2013: Cowles Mountain

The Mister and I hike a bit. We have managed to do a few around and beyond the area we live in. We like to think that we are good at it but after the first ten steps, we are just too unhealthy, gasping along the trail and praying for the finish line.

Have I mentioned before that I have a Mister? Well, the Mister has been as supportive a partner can be over the past one and something years of married life. And he likes to say that he was extremely active before I happened! I say he has turned sanguine!

Coming back to the purpose of this post; I have been meaning to document all the hikes we do but as can be witnessed, been terrible at it. This one is a beginning.

Cowles Mountain is a trail belonging to the Mission Trails Regional Park (http://www.mtrp.org/directions.asp?idno=2) with a 3 mile loop. At 1591ft elevation, it is an easy to moderate hike used by some for running as well.

• This is an extremely busy trail. Start early to beat the crowd
• Since it is so thronged, the trail can get a bit unclean. When you step on something liquid in nature, you know it may not be just water!
• Dogs are allowed on this trail. Be prepared to meet a lot of them as well enroute :)
• While the dogs are absolutely ok, unattended dog poop on the ground is not. Yes, that is available in plenty too!



Otay Mountain and beyond



Lake Murray and beyond

What makes the hike worth your while is the view. A 360 degree view of San Diego county can be nothing but breathtaking. Lake Murray, Downtown, Coronado bridge, Point Loma, Tijuana and beyond on one side and flanked by mountains on the other.

We finished the hike in an hour and a half. A little too much only because we spent some time idling away on the peak ogling at what this place I now call home has to offer.

The photos are a bit shifty. Pliss to excuse!

Wonderla

Before the writer in me dies, here is a post that was submitted to TripAdvisor. Forgive my language but I am creatively constipated at the moment which means this blog has to make do with my travel review from another site! However, enjoy maadi because I definitely enjoyed the place and want to visit again!

I belong to Bangalore and had been planning a visit to Wonderla forever. When I did go on 18th June, I must say I had the time of my life! My first theme park visit in India was the best and will remain so until someone outclasses Wonderla.

Elegantly maintained, extremely clean with very friendly but assertive staff, the amusement park is a treat from the time you step in. 30kms away from Bangalore city, this place is best enjoyed when you have your own transport if you do not mind spending a little more. Priced at Rs680 per adult on weekends, the rides and experience are worth the money. While the dry rides have everything from those that cater to kids to high thrill rides, water rides are possibly the ones that garner most willing participants. My friend and I made it to the water before it got too crowded and thus were able to laze around a bit. There are a lot of options for food, restaurants commendable for cleanliness and order even on weekends.

Go on a weekday if you are in a group of 15 or more else you might not be able to go on all rides as they require a minimum number of people to operate. If you go on a weekend, avoid getting into the water when it is too crowded as one never knows what people are upto :). The place also offers changing rooms, shower areas and lockers for a refundable deposit and non-refundable charge. Reach the place around 10:30am, complete the dry rides, lunch and water rides in that order. You will be done by 5pm. Have a very light breakfast and try not to fill your stomach with too much food while going for the high thrill rides.

All in all, Wonderla is a wonderful place to spend a day out of Bangalore and destress :)

Kashmir-Delhi-Agra trip - Day 3

Day 3 – 1-Feb-2010

Every morning I loved to wake up to the loud chirps of the birds around the hospital. And (once every two days) to the relieving thought that I needn’t bathe that day! :D I hate bathing on holidays. In Kashmir, a bath every two or three days sufficed :D. Added to these pleasures was the blanketing silence. And the cold. And the snuggling into all the warm woolens. I cannot describe the deep calm joy that gave me!
So the plan for day three was to drive around Anantnag. In Bangalore we had planned to visit Sonmarg on day three. But the place was closed due to heavy snowfall. So off we went on our Tavera, first to Achabal – Mughal Gardens. The name is self explanatory. The pictures would’ve given you the idea. Green captivates my senses. The sound of trickling water was also quite new to my ears. I would’ve loved to laze on the grass with a yummy book to read, to ponder, and to take a small nap :P

But alas! The mood of the travelers was quite the contrary. I had a headache – courtesy the early morning outdoor photography without a cap covering my head. My fellow-women mumbled about feeling low and mildly depressed. I too began to believe that I too was depressed. Reason? Not sure… the cold maybe, or affected female hormones or (in my case) home sickness. Fayaaz’s songs were adding fuel to the fire. Man! Melancholic men and women, howling and sobbing about their departed lovers!

The next destination was Kokernag, where we believed was where the river Jhelum originated. We first lunched at the gardens. Walked around. At one end we observed a thin stream that appeared to originate there. My! Such a tiny stream gave rise to the Jhelum?! Where did the water come from? Must be from those micro bubbles we could see towards the center of a puddle. Anyway… we moved on, wondering about the mysteries of nature.

A couple of Kashmiri women who were cleaning fish drew us into conversation. As was the norm, they invited us to tea at their home . We preferred to take snaps with their kids; there was an apple amongst them! The poor kid was struggling between his desire to pose and mingle with us and his mooku-chali (running nose).

Then back in the Tavera, we moved towards Verinag. By now we girls were a little restless. L warned that if the songs continued, it was very likely that we three would commit suicide that evening. We conveyed this to Fayaaz who promptly came to our rescue, like a chivalrous knight in shining armour that he was, by switching off the songs :D.
Verinag had some mildly warm sunlight. Traces of snow from a previous snowfall were melting. And at the gardens we received enlightenment from the locals :P. *This* place was the source of the Jhelum river! And how our imaginations had taken a walk in Kokernag!
The source spring was beautiful! The highlight of the day! The water had a rare deep blue hue. It was transparent and had several fish in it. The spring was 54 feet (or was it meters?) deep, having 3 levels of 18 units each. It was surrounded by a low wall, quite well architectured and had a couple of Shiva Lingams. Wonder how they came there.

On the way back home, we made a couple of halts. First for a break at a chai shop to drink noon chai (salt tea). That’s where we met a person called something-something-something-Bhat. Bhat it seems is a Kashmiri caste. He was a totally talkative guy. It seems the noon chai helped to energize. It was ok-ok. I liked kahwah which is a sweetish tea with almonds etc. The chai uncle refused to accept money, but then we convinced him to. Bhat invited us to return to Kashmir again, that we could stay at his place, that he considered us like his sisters and requested us to talk good about Kashmir and its people. Not all of us are militants he said. That touched me. But S told me later that he also said something like – we’re all Indians – and his countenance suddenly changed.
I somehow find it tough to believe that all the courtesy and kindness that we received by random Kashmiris wasn’t true. That it was all tourism based. That behind those smiles, they didn’t really like us.
Anyway the next stop was at a cloth store. The guy made about Rs.3000 worth business :). I bought myself a sozni work salwar set for Rs.380 which I thought was a great bargain. I wasn’t very fascinated with the Ari work salwars. Unlike me the others had siblings etc to shop for. I suppose an advantage of being an only child and having non-demanding friends. Disadvantage? Sigh!
That night had something in store for us. We went down to the hospital. And we met half-a-dozen newborns! The women were all excited to see us. They even wanted us to name the babies! Hehe no such risk-taking ever!

Kashmir-Delhi-Agra trip - Day 2

Day 2 – 31 Jan 2010
So on Sunday we were off to Pahalgam in a hired Tavera. I was happy. Because absolutely no puke sensations. I was asked to take avomin an hour before breakfast and it worked! (Whether the pill worked physically or whether it worked on my mind, I don’t know :)) What more could I desire? Health, a blank head, happy co-travellers, a full stomach, a smooth-sailing Tavera and the freezing cold. I love the cold. Yeah even when the bed was chill and when I trembled and shivered during baths, I still enjoyed it.
Anyway off we were, but without L, who wanted to go to church.
The roads in Kashmir were pretty decent. Yeah often you do find filth or slush or jerky roads, but still I would overall rate them good. Whenever we traveled on road the scenes would comprise brown fields, the snow covered Himalayas in the far background, brownish-reddish bricked houses (I think they don’t paint their buildings at all) with slanting (erm.. what are they technically termed?) metal roofs, totally leafless apple and willow trees (cricket bats are made out of the willow wood), firan clad locals and other vehicles. Praise the Lord, there were hardly any other tourists.
Women are found moving freely too. No burqas or anything. They don’t seem to be too restricted. We even saw many going to college in the mornings. My! Kashmiri women are beautiful. Flawless fair skin, apple cheeks, rosy lips and firan-clad. Maybe a salwar kameez beneath it and a scarf round the head. Of course not everyone is beautiful, but many could give actresses or models a run for their money. Remember not a touch of make-up was used.
Men aren’t far behind either. Athletic, mountainous looks, chiseled faces. Very striking features sometimes… the eyes, nose, cheek bones. Our driver Fayaaz too was quite charismatic. I generally addressed them (shopkeepers, strangers etc) as bhaiyya and I regret it now :P.
Kids. Indescribably cute. Whenever any of us saw a lass or kid with red cheeks, he or she would exclaim “There! Apples!”; it was our code word ;). I wanted to take a snap with a dashing handsome, a beautiful one and a cutie. But I missed doing the first two though I had several opportunities.
Yeah so back to our road to Pahalgam. Enroute we saw glimpses of snow, scattered a little here and a little there. And then it grew more. And more. And more. Until all we could see was either white or green (from the fir and pine trees which also had snow sprinkled over them beautifully). A thin stream flowed by the side of the road that approached Pahalgam. The pebble-shaped rocks had layers of snow so artistically seated on them. Snow, snow everywhere.

That was my first glimpse of snow in my life. Again, isn’t that some sort of turning point in one’s life? :P I did not jump up in joy or scream in excitement or anything of that sort. In fact I felt a tad disappointed that I didn’t feel ecstatic. Throughout the trip, especially amidst snow, whenever I introspected a little, I did feel calm within. But it was also like there was an invisible layer between me and the external beauty and I felt like an observer. (Any opinions here?) I think I’m growing old :D
Anyway we did some walking around, some driving and again hopping into the snow, a few times. On the way we came across a few Kashmiri men relaxing under a tree. V decided to smoke with them and I wanted a snap with them. That’s where I came sliding down the tree’s roots because I couldn’t get a foothold.
There was one particularly smart, dashing, stylish man among them. And V told me I resemble him vaguely. I love V!! This is where I took in my first (and only) puff from a cigarette. Ah nothing worth mentioning about the ‘experience’.
So somewhere around here was Lidder Valley. I actually don’t know which place exactly was Lidder Valley ‘cause I didn’t ask :P. I won’t go into describing the places anymore. I’m struggling for words, pictures will give people a better idea (even our pictures don’t do justice, that’s when I decided it’s high time I improve my photography).
In between we began getting haunted by pony-wallahs. For more than half an hour, we were constantly pursued by two. Even when we had tea at a shop (the tea guy had such a sharp nose, handsome chap!) they didn’t give up. Finally we gave in. Rs.250 for a ride on a pony for about 2 hours. We went round the Pahalgam village and hutment area first. Somewhere here I decided to make a quick snowman :D. I haven’t got any appreciation for it so far :). But I don’t care! That’s what I could do with numb red fingers!

There was a ski area there, but we had decided we would ski at Gulmarg. My pony-wallah was a nice talkative man. So when queried he would tell me about their lifestyle. His children go to school; most people there earned their livelihood through ponies or shops. Since Pahalgam also falls in the route of the Amarnath Yatra, it receives a lot of pilgrims too. And many use ponies to travel to the cave. I think he said it took 3 days by pony and 5 days by foot to Amarnath and back from Pahalgam. Below the slopes, rice was cultivated. They have electricity, water and everything needed for day-to-day living. And the place was not very prone to militant attacks.
Our next stop was at the Shiva temple where pilgrims began the pilgrimage to Amarnath. Only Lord Shiva was there in his temple which too was snow-layered. We saw some monkeys around there. The poor things were red-faced, plumpy and huddling their limbs together.
Then we trotted back to the starting point. The problem is even after paying for whatever service you use, they ask for extra bakshish. Anyway we were invited to their homes too but we politely declined. We must’ve accepted it. It would’ve been nice to see a Kashmiri household.
We then happily devoured our packed lunch, washed our plates in an open pipe. ‘Normal’ water (which is not heated) is freezing cold and can hardly be touched. It turns the fingers almost numb, red and with a weird pain. Anyway we started back to Anantnag after that.
Very close to home was a place called Mattan where there was a Gurdwara. We just fed the fish in the tank there. Plumpy fellows. And then proceeded home.

Kashmir-Delhi-Agra trip - Day 1

Sigh! So it’s been three days (when I wrote this :) ) since I returned to my immediate society. During the last 4-5 days of the trip I longed to be back home. I yearned to be around my mother and talk to her. I wanted to feel at home (what ever paradise you may be in, I suppose home is still where you want to go back to). Remember, this was my longest period away from parents (nine days :) ).
But the very first day of my return I wanted to go back to Kashmir! The distinct light-headedness that I felt till then, I could sense it getting slowly replaced. My personal and professional lives are largely not strenuous or stressful at all. So why was the light-headedness disappearing slowly? Maybe it was because I had nothing to think about at Kashmir, no list to tick off and here even though nothing is stressful work, it still involves thought.
But still I wanted to go back. To nature, away from all the technology surrounding me here. To the simple people, who look at me, who smile at me, who lead leisurely lives. Away from the people here with masks. Away from western sophistication. Away from the sickening jeans to the refreshing firans. I began having serious thoughts if I’m meant for the rural life rather than this meaningless game!
Today, I think I’ve gotten adjusted to my regular surroundings. But these thoughts still do hover in my head.
So I’ll do a flashback write-up of each day of the trip. In detail, because I’m a detail person. And these articles are largely for my sake, I do not want to lose my experiences to a human mind that easily gets caught up in the overwhelming present, thereby slowly losing the past. Of course what I experienced then cannot be exactly experienced ever again! These articles are also for my close friends with whom I would like to share the whole holiday. And if it helps any stranger on the Net to plan his travel, well and good.
Day 1 – 30th Jan 2010
I woke up at 4 am with a clearly felt tinge in my heart. I didn’t want to leave home. Probably also because this was a little jump away from my comfort zone – a frog-in-the-well status. Anyway, I got ready and my friends (2 girls – S and L, a guy – V) came in the taxi to pick me up. Appa wasn’t in station so only mummy was there to bid me bye.
The flight route was – Bangalore -> Delhi -> Srinagar.
I’m quite new to airplane travel (before this trip I had flown on a plane only twice). The whole check-in process confuses me. So during the four flights of this trip I’ve tried to understand it (I still have many questions :D). But for sure, BIAL needs to change the design of their trolleys. Why would anyone make it necessary to hold the ‘brakes’ constantly for moving the trolley?!
We met Sri. Kadri Gopalnath at the airport. He conversed with us kindly and gave us an autograph.
Then off we went to Delhi. Flight take-off excites me, gives me a high, makes me want to be a pilot. Now that excitement too is getting replaced by getting-used-to-it-ness.
Then the flight from Delhi to Srinagar. Initially the views were all like Google Maps images. And then they began appearing. Snow capped peaks rising above the clouds – parts of the Himalayas (erm any mountain in the northern most part of my country will be termed so by me). They were below the plane and so were medium sized. You’re ‘supposed’ to be awe-struck, and your heart is ‘supposed’ to skip a beat, and you’re ‘supposed’ to gasp at such a sight, right? Nothing of that sort happened to me! Why? Any answers?

But they absorbed all my attention. Then at a distance we could see a very wide circle of cottony fluffy clouds. The plane actually descended into that white cotton candy, to arrive at Srinagar.
But we weren’t allowed to de-plane! “Please remain seated. Please remain calm. We will keep you updated about the situation” announced our pilot. Many army and other security personnel arrived near the plane. Wow! We hadn’t even set foot on land and the security issues had already begun, we wondered. After a few minutes we de-planed. A fellow passenger supposedly appeared suspicious, as he was using some device on the plane, and hence the crew had issued a warning. He was whisked away by the cops before we de-planed.
Srinagar was largely brown and green. Alighting from the plane, the temperature was fine. Yes, chill, with vapour from every open mouth. “Huh! People had warned me for THIS cold!” I smirked. And then it slowly began. I first put on my gloves. Later a scarf. Then a huge coat which L’s mom had sent for us luckily. Within the next 2-3 hours I was shivering, my teeth were chattering, in spite of the clothing.
The next couple of hours we spent at Srinagar before we proceeded to Anantnag. L’s dad had come to pick us up at the airport. We drove to some shops, Lal Chowk (where the recent attack had taken place) and round the Dal Lake. By then my struggle with my travel sickness began. Vomited twice. I saw nothing on the way to Anantnag as I was rolled up trying to sleep, regretting the trip, worried as to how I would survive the next 8 days!

At the shops one finds the usual stuff, shawls, Ari work on salwars or kurtas, dry fruits, saffron, firans (it’s like a large kurta made of some warmth infusing fabric, full-sleeved and a little above the ankle, men and women (kids too!) wear them above their regular clothes, the arms can be within the sleeves or withdrawn inside to keep warm). Here we also got acquainted with the kaangdi, a small basket with a pot in it that contains mildly burning charcoal, again to keep warm. People carry the kaangdi wherever they go and even hold it within their firan!

So then we reached Anantnag. L’s mom is a gynecologist at a century-old hospital in Anantnag and so we could stay at their guest-house. Throughout the trip I’ve received a lot of kindness and help from many people – the first being L’s parents. They have been uncommonly kind to us throughout our stay. We had a “Welcome to Kashmir” board awaiting us at their home. Uncle used to bring us tea on time, regularly, at the guest-house and ensure every minute comfort was provided. They cooked every meal for us during those 5 days. Even packed lunch for us whenever we were away traveling. And this was no ordinary cooking. Onions and garlic were avoided totally because S prefers such food. Non-veg dishes for V and L. Custards, sweets, fried gobi etc. I’ve put on 1 kg during the travel period... so I bet you get a nice idea. And all this hospitality with a genuine smile on the face and not a single scorned look. This comes easily only to rare people and I’m sure I’m not one of them.
The rest of the day was spent huddling near the gas heater, chatting and eating.

Lepakshi - The Saturday that finally happened!

Rehashing a one day weekend trip to Lepakshi was meant to be our first post. So, here goes...

What
A quaint little village, Lepakshi is important historically and archaeologically for shrines dedicated to Vishnu, Veerabhadra and Shiva in the same sanctuary. The temple boasts of architecture unique to the artisans of Vijayanagara.

Where
120kms from Bengaluru and 15kms from Hindupur, one can get to Lepakshi using the Hyderabad highway NH7.

How
Buses ply frequently between Bengaluru and Hindupur. Reaching your destination from there is not arduous as the locations are well connected by local buses. This is the most economic mode of travel for those who do not own a four wheeler or have the tenacity to ride a two wheeler. Renting a cab (without splitting costs) is for those who do not know what to do with their money.

Why
To exalt in architectural brilliance, to see a wide repository of sublime mural paintings, to wonder at the biggest monolithic Nandi and, mainly because, you can!

One can also cover Vidhurashwatha, while travelling back home. The below picture talks about what you can expect to see.