Paris !!! I am back

Who would have thought !! It was Paris all over again (Nov 3-10, 2014). It is not many times that someone gets to visit Paris twice in one year. God’s grace, I was lucky enough to get the privilege to visit the beautiful city again. Who would have thought !! I would be travelling all by myself in beautiful land of Europe. I have longed for long to go on a trip all alone. And who would have thought that there would be random strangers in a room discussing the most intense topic of Openstack testing !! Yes it was indeed the Openstack summit in Paris from Nov 3-5 that I visited and had an amazing time learning new things. It was unbelievable to see how people from different companies, different country, different cultures collaborate on an industry wide opensource initiative called Openstack which is the framework for Cloud Orchestration. There are thousands of developers and yet the effort is opensource.

The trip started fairly well with an immediate upgrade to economy plus. Thanks to United Silver membership. I landed in Paris and almost felt like a local as I knew how things work. I intentionally opted to travel by the metro train instead of the taxi. I was reliving Paris all over again. I quickly bought my week long pass and hurried onto the metro towards the city. A quick transfer in between at the famous Saint Michel station to hop onto the other train and in no time I was at my Hotel D’Orsay. I checked in and immediately left for the Openstack event as it had already started and I arrived a couple hours late. I sat through the sessions of my choice. There were several insightful sessions and it was hard to keep up with all the tracks. Soon it was evening and I had a quick dinner with colleagues and retired the day as I was jet lagged. My biggest issue in Paris is lack of vegetarian food. I could not eat much last night hence I woke up hungry! With not much time in hand I left the hotel without coffee or breakfast. Again a quick exciting ride of the metro. People hustling all around you. Transfers and connections had become a part of life for the duration of the trip. I got the venue and grabbed my “Pain au Chocolat” – Chocolate Croissant and coffee. A full day worth of great information and sessions but no vegetarian food. It was time for the headache to kick in and was time to get another coffee for the evening. During the day I realized that a company participating in the summit had sponsored a party at the night and they were offering a Short bus tour of Paris. I was tired and irritated due to lack of food so I was not keen on going. However as soon as I step out of the convention center (Palais De Congres) I see a person with the board for the short tour “Paris by the Night”. It was tempting and I could not resist. I step into the bus alone toured Paris by the night in the bus. It took us through the Arc De Triumph , Champs Elysees and many more streets before it ended up on the Eiffel Tower. Nice and bright, fully lit up, standing tall and beautiful. It’s hard to not stare at it for a while. Post Eiffel Tower the bus went on its ride through the beautifully lit streets of Paris. The pretty looking building lit in yellow lights were a scene to remember.

 All along river Seine we reached our last destination, which I was not aware that it was the last destination, called "Pavillons de Bercy". It is one of the most unique places. It has left a very distinct memory. Unfortunately I could not take good pictures of the place as it was a little dark. But here are a few from google images. 

There was music, there were performers, there were games and food. The environment was just so lively that for a moment I forgot that I was here in Paris to attend a conference. Very lively, refreshing and relaxing. Love it. The party was still on but it was time for me to go. Me being me did not opt for the return bus, I instead opted for the metro train. Just love the metro commute. Back to the hotel and off to bed.

Next morning ! Same routine. Café au lait and Pain au Chocolat. Openstack sessions and lots of learning. But more than the day I was looking forward to the night as I was going to PARC DE PRINCES ! For the Paris St. Germain CHAMPIONS LEAGUE game. This was my first soccer game ever and the excitement was high. I met my colleague near the metro station. He bought me this souvenir, which I thought was very kind of him and I am thankful to him to give me this memory of watching a Champions League game in Paris ! Who would have thought ! The music of Champions league is something I have been hearing since my childhood and it was a sheer bliss to hear it live with the kids flapping the logo in the middle of the field. A moment to remember. 

The ride back home after the game in the metro reminded me of Mumbai local train. Too many people, too little space. Reached back to the hotel, pretty late and retired the day.

It was the Customer meeting day and a little relaxed day as well. My colleague picked me up from my hotel and we drove around Paris for about half an hour to reach the customer site. It was beautiful to see the roads and for a change Paris by the DAY ! We pass through Champs Elysees and it did not look the same that it looks in the night but still beautiful. It was my first time presenting to a customer in France and I was not wearing a coat. It was a little awkward moment when my colleague wore the coat and I did not. I guess I was still operating on Silicon Valley standards. But in the end it worked out great as I could convey the point to the customer even without the coat :). But will take care next time as every culture is different and there is respect for all. After a good discussion my colleague dropped me at the metro and I took an evening break at the Champs Elysees. I spent sometime walking around, window shopping and enjoyed the most famous street in Paris. Reitred the day a little early that day because of the heavy schedule on the next day.

In no time it was the 5th day of the trip and it was time to head to Antwerp, Belgium for another customer meeting. I started really early in the morning as I had to take the train from Paris to Antwerp at 8:25AM. In order to reach the station Gare Du Nord the start point of the train I had to change two metro's and hence the early start. I was travelling by Thalys, the high speed train. I was excited because this was my first time in Thalys.

I reached the station a little early. It was very fascinating to see the age old train indicator board that flipped every time there was an update. It is hard to explain in words. May be you have seen that in movies. I am glad they have preserved it and not made it into a fancy LED board. I met a stranger from Korea admiring the same board that I was and we had a quick stranger chat. A quick intro and we were talking. He was a student in Korea on a visit to Europe. A quick onboarding to Thalys and off I was, soon in the middle of Europe amongst the green pastures beautiful country side, pretty houses and windmills. The geek in me was reading a fat book called Systems Performance ! The book went well with the occasion but not the kind of book I was reading.

I reach Antwerp in 2 hrs. The centraal station was really beautiful. Much superior in terms of architecture than Gare du Nord in Paris. Infact it is the best station I have seen when I compare it to even Amsterdam Central.

 I met another colleague and we walked our way to the customer site. Very convenient. Had a great discussion. Post meeting we had lunch and I was on my own for a few hours enjoying Antwerp. Walking on random streets enjoying the moment and the feel to be in Belgium, alone, walking on a street that I don’t know and most importantly heading no where. It was a classic piece of aimless wandering. And I enjoyed it. I walked a lot. Antwerp is beautiful. Soon it was time for me to head back to Antwerp Centraal for my return train to Paris. The train arrives on time and I am back to Paris. The train travels really fast so it made me feel very sleepy. Don’t know if I was just tired or it was the motion of the train. Irrespective I slept a lot. I reached Gare du Nord. I was hungry and deprived of good vegetarian food, so I decided to goto Saravana Bhavan near Gare du Nord. It was amazing that I had to wait in line and the restaurant was native French resident and it was amazing to see them love the food. I saw the lady on the next table got so excited looking at Dosa that she started clapping. Good memory. Retired the day post dinner.

Again an early morning time to leave Paris for the last time this trip. It was destination Amsterdam!. Same routine. Two trains changed. Reached Gare du Nord. Checked the train and the platform details on that pretty indicator board. Found some time for the coffee and chocolate bread. Time to leave and the train departs. This time the scene is same but with a twist. It was raining. Beautiful !

 In 3+ hours I reached Amsterdam. I had booked a convenient hotel right next to Amsterdam central. The first thing I notice in the short distance to the hotel was the bike stand ! Very fascinating. I check in to the hotel and I immediately leave. I had researched where they would show the game Liverpool vs Chelsea live in Amsterdam. I found myself at O-Rielly's, an Irish restaurant, watching Liverpool- Chelsea with a bunch of Liverpool fans in Amsterdam. Who would have thought ! That is indeed a fond memory that I will have. Spent the rest of the day walking around Dam Square. 

The following day was nice and bright. I had planned a lot of activities. Firstly I bought the day pass for the tram. I wanted to bike around the city but it was too cold for me to bike. Tram worked out just fine. I went on to the tram and the first stop was the Rijksmuseum. Beautiful museum. Loved it. Worth a watch. Just do the 90 min quick tour and you can cover the museum. I took the classic picture in front of the "I AMSTERDAM" sign. More of a check box item.

Returned back after a few hours to Dam square. Had lunch and then went on to the canal cruise. It was a good one. I liked it more than the Seine cruise because it is a small setup. The buildings and architecture is much more close to you. The 3rd stop was Anne Frank House. Had to wait in line but it was a good spot. My last stop was a stroll in the red light district. I was skeptical but I was also told that it was a tourist spot ! And It indeed was. I was comfortable walking around as I saw a lot of tourist walking on that street and also there were families. It was very safe. I retired the same with some good veggie meal in an Indian restaurant. On a tiring day and being a vegetarian you don’t want to mess with your last mean. Just go for what you know that will fill your stomach. Back to hotel and that was the end of the day's play and end of the trip as well. Following morning took the train to the airport and back to San Francisco.

Who would have thought I would goto Paris for the second time this year, travel alone in Europe, watch a football game in Paris, goto a party in Paris, train travel in Thalys, live life of a local travelling in metro, aimless wandering in Antwerp and explore the beautiful land of Amsterdam. God's grace. Please keep me blessed and give me opportunity for many more trips like this one. 

Hand of God ?

There are times in life when certain incidences have a lasting impression and you sit back and think what did just happen and why did it happen. These are not the things that are significantly big and blatantly obvious to one. These incidences are subtle and not very obvious. You meet a long lost friend at a place you never imagined and that is destiny and an obvious to be tagged as "small world". You meet the friend and you talk about it and may be you forget it. You feel very happy for a while and it is still special. However, the subtle things and the not so obvious experiences are the ones that happen in life with strangers or nature and they have a lasting impact on your life. Very recently I had an incidence in my life and I am certainly having a lasting memory and impact to the point where I am writing this article.

Recently I committed a sin and I feel sorry about it. The word sin tends to get interpreted as per convenience by humans. I cannot call it a mistake as I knew I was not doing the right thing so I believe sin is the right word for it. I went to an Indian Diwali celebration where I walked into the event without purchasing the entry fee. Somewhere deep down I did feel that I was making an ethical error.  But somewhere  deep down inside the devil won over the angel and I decided to walk in with out the ticket. I was successful but it was playing on my mind that I have not done the right thing. Even before I could look around and forget what I had done, a small kid walks up to me with Bhagwat Gita (A Hindu holy book) in hand. He started talking to me . My frame of mind was full of guilt. I believe that was the reason why the things that kid told me did not clearly register into me. All that I heard was "I want to give you Bhagwat Gita and you can have it for free or donate anything that comes from your heart". I immediately gave him a few dollars and he gave me the holy book. Soon his father approaches and requests me for a picture of me with his kid and the holy book. He takes the picture and they thank me and disappear.

This incidence played on my mind for the rest of the evening and even today when I sit back I wonder if it was the Hand of God teaching me to do the right thing. The money that I possibly saved, I ended up donating for the holy book that will teach me to do the right thing. I had written an article called "Money over Ethics?". I clearly did not live up to my own thoughts. Some people may be skeptical about the integrity of the kid and may think that this is just one of those donation and money raising attempt. I choose to think otherwise. I take it as a hand of God that gave me the holy book and made me realize my mistake and taught me to do the right thing in life.  

Pit Stop at Paris

There is an inherent benefit when you are living in the USA and your hometown is in India. The benefit is that you get to make pit stop trips to the cities where you get flight connections to India. My final destination was Mumbai but I found a wonderful route via Paris. The flight was SFO - Paris - Mumbai (March 2014). It was a quick 3 1/2 days trip to Paris. My wife and I landed in Paris around noon. It took a long time for our bags to come in at the baggage claim. Finally they arrived and off we go. Firstly I exchanged my US dollars to Euros at the airport. Per our research the train service from the airport to the city is very straight forward so we were very keen on taking the train to the city. We looked up the signage started walking towards the train. It was a long walk. We finally reach the ticket counter and I picked up 2 train passes for 3 days. We took the train to Gare du Nord. Our hotel was near Gare de L'Est. So we had to change the train and hop onto the local metro. This is when we realized that we made a mistake to be adventurous with 4 bags in hand in a new crowded city changing train. We got off Gare du Nord and could not really figure out where to go. It was dark and crowded in the subway and we were with a lot of baggage. From the research I had done for the city we were warned of the thieves that operate on the stations. So it was very very uncomfortable. Finally a gentleman helped us out but pointing towards the direction as he could not speak English and we could not speak French beyond "Bonjour" and "Merci" :). We crossed over to the local metro . We were supposed to go further down the staircase to get to the metro that would take us to Gare de L'Est. We had 4 bags and there was no elevator or escalator. I picked up the 2 big bags and my wife picked up the 2 small bags and in a classic touristy fashion in stress and confusion we reached the at the right platform. We took the train to Gare de L'Est. Once we got off the episode repeated and we found ourselves again lifting the bags this time climbing up the stairs. Somehow we managed to get out of the subway to breath some fresh air on the road. Thankfully the hotel was right there. We checked in to the hotel. The trip did not start in ideal scenario but still I find it very adventurous today when I write this article. It is definitely a memory to remember.  I cannot explain the sigh of relief  we felt after we checked in to the hotel. It was the smallest room that I have ever stayed in. Untill Paris it was New York City that held the baton. Now its Paris. It was dark, gloomy and small. We did not care much as we knew that we are not going to spend much time in the hotel anyways.

A quick nap and a shower got us ready for the city. Despite of the uncomfortable arrival to Paris, the excitement was still at its peak to explore the beautiful city of Paris. We picked up the travel guide and metro train map from the hotel and we took off to Notre Dame. It was not to far from the hotel. Just a few stops away. This time the train ride was very smooth since we did not have any bags with us. We got off the station and quickly walked up to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was a very beautiful structure. There were a lot of people outside as well as inside who were mainly tourists. The structure is covered with La Seine river on both sides. The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and among the largest and most well-known church in the world. The art and the architecture takes you in the past and makes you feel how it must have been. We almost spent an hour at the cathedral. The most memorable visual of the cathedral in my mind were the staint glasses that I have added a picture of here.

After the cathedral we walked around in the area. We were hungry so we were on the look for some food. That hunt took us to the Saint Michel area which is very close to Notre Dame. We walked around the area. Saint Michel was buzzing with performers on the street, restaurants, tourists and great scene with La Seine in the background. 

We found a great roadside option to eat. When in Paris what better to eat but a roadside Crepe !  It was delicious. We spend some more time in the area. We made a quick trip to Champs-Elysees which is a boulevard near Arc de Triomphe. It is famous for its theatres, cafes and luxury shops and we were keen to see it. We walked around for very little time as we knew we had a plan to come back and spend more time here on the 3rd day of the trip. We were awed by the size and the buzz of the street. We tried to get tickets for the famous Moulin Rouge show but everything was sold out. We realized that we should have planned and purchased earlier for the show. We took off fairly soon as it was the first day and we were tired and hungry. We took the train back to Saint Michel and had dinner in the latin area of Paris in Arr #5. It was a very authentic place and it gave us a first hand feel of a French restaurant. Thankfully I found my vegetarian meal at the restaurant. We were at the restaurant for a long time. We enjoyed the ambience. Post dinner we retired the day. Took the train back to the hotel.

It was the next morning. It was really hard to wake up due to the heavy first day with all the action with the trains and baggage plus the jet lag set in as well. But the action packed second day motivated us and we were up and running again. We grabbed our Starbucks and chocolate croissant at Gare de L'Est and were ready to go. The destination for the first half of the day was Palace of Versailles. Versailles is a suburb of Paris and has a lot of history associated with it. The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France. It was a hunting cottage for King Louis. Eventually after several rebuilds King Louis XIV expanded it to be one of the largest palace in the world. 

It was an hour plus long journey to Versailles. It surprisingly got very cold but no rain. We did not have the tickets. So we had to stand in a really long line first to take the tickets and then to get into the Chateau. These lines took away a lot of our time but there is no other choice but stand. Finally we get in to the most amazing palace that I have ever visited. The grandeur, the show, the shine was simply too good to be real even after soo many years of development. The palace seemed endless as there were rooms one after the other and each room better than the other. Every room had a history. We tried to keep up with the radio commentary. There were huge gardens surrounding the palace. A place not to miss !! 

It got very tiring at the end of it as the jet lag played its role in it.  We wrapped up our final photographs at the site and started the walk back to the train station. By this time we were very comfortable with the metro and the route. We changed the metro's and the connections very smoothly. The train network in Paris is amazing. We grabbed something eat on the way and headed back to the hotel. 

We took a quick nap and we were ready for our next activity. We headed to the La Seine night cruise. It was a 9PM cruise. It was a very good experience. The city looked beautiful in the night. The highlight was the close look at the Eiffel Tower that was fully lit. It was shining bright and tall. The view was really good from the cruise. We had dinner after the cruise and retired for the day.

We woke up early next morning as our destination was The Eiffel Tower. We had decided to go early since the lines can get significantly long. We reached the site by 8:30 AM. The line was long but not too long so we were in a good shape. We purchased the tickets to go all the way to the top of the tower. Standing in the line with people from various parts of the world, gave me a very good feel that I am actually at the Eiffel tower. One of the wonders of the world. We went up one level and then the other. We were on top of Pairs at the peak of the tower. I made atleast 3 complete rounds at the top. The weather was good too. No rain, nice and bright. The views were spectacular. We did not want to get down. Following were the pictures in all four directions from the top of Eiffel Tower.

Finally we get off the tower, a few final pictures and we were out of there with very fond memories of the Eiffel tower. We grabbed quick lunch at one of the restaurant near the tower.After Eiffel tower we headed straight out to the Louvre museum. It is one of the largest museum in the world. It has a various collections of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, African, European arts, paintings and sculptures. I am not a big fan of museum but I covered the two most important art that I wanted to see. I saw Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting and Michelangelo's Dying Slave.  

We spent a few hours at the Louvre and finally went to the final destination of the trip Champs Elysees. We walked the entire street. It was lit up in the evening. Went into a few stores to only realize that we cannot afford anything here :) But it was still a great experience to walk around . Buzzing with great restaurants, music, young people. We dinned at a fine restaurant on Champs Elysees to get a feel of the place. It was wonderful. We retired the day and headed back to the hotel for the last night.

I had requested for a taxi to return to the airport. Learnt a lot from my arrival. DO NOT TRAVEL IN PARIS METROS WITH BAGS. Next morning the taxi driver same in early we were extremely tired but were ready to go and it was time to say goodbye to the wonderful city of Paris. We might have missed a lot of places but I thought with 3 days in hand we did cover a lot and we had a lot of fun. 

Alaska – You Beauty !

The only impression of Alaska in my mind was that picture in my Geography text book where there were two Eskimos who lived in an Igloo. Being in the hot lands of Mumbai where the only beauty appreciated were the torrential rains, I never imagined that there will be a day when I will actually land in Alaska to see what a beautiful place it is. 

My wife and I decided very late to join our friends onto this trip. It was the most un-prepared trip that I have made to so far. I was scrambling to make my last bit of bookings in Alaska a few hours ahead of my flight to Anchorage. However in the end it all worked out and it almost felt that I was destined to visit the Great land – Alaska (Alyeska, the "great land"). I never felt excited about this trip and hence the build up was very low. I had no interest in getting my bookings done and left all of it till the end. My work was heavy too so that played a role as well in the delay for the bookings. If you have not been to Alaksa and not read about it the first thing you think of is snow, 21 hours of darkness and lack of food. When you start booking *in summer* and do your research you will find it to be completely opposite. We wrapped up our plans and schedule with all the bookings and we were ready to go.

Friday evening 6:30pm flight to Seattle and then a connection to Anchorage was the route. Twist in the tail was Delta Airlines did not let me do the online checkin. Hence that made me very nervous and had to go all the way to the check in gate to get my seats assigned. This delay was very discomforting as I had all my bookings done but no flight seats assigned. I kind of laugh at it now as Delta has this cheap policy of reserving the seats until the end. I know the reasons why but will refrain from writing it here. Finally we get the seats assigned at the gate and off we goto Seattle. Same story repeats, no seats assigned for the next flight and I am scrambling at Seattle. Eventually we get our seats and I got a sigh of relief and could start dreaming of Anchorage. We landed in Anchorage past midnight. Tired and exhausted due to a heavy work week assisted by Delta airline. My friends had reserved a rental car at the airport and we were all very happy that soon we will be at the hotel and can rest for the night. We walk up to the rental car office and to add to the complication the rental car lady took surprisingly long time to process our car. It was adding to the frustration then but seems very exciting to me now. She assigned us a Dodge Avenger. We get into the car and my friend started it. It made a sound on start up and made an even bigger sound on braking. It was hilarious. We were all smiling out of frustration if that even makes sense. We go back up park the car and rush back to the counter. They had no cars for us to exchange. After a lot of back and forth and arguments the only car they had to offer us was a truck. Being of Indian origin we prefer smaller cars and now the lady offered us big bad beast Ford F150. It is a pick up truck and none of us had driven it before. We were skeptical but had no choice. We took it. Dumped our luggage and I drove it away. Much to my delight I loved driving the truck. In the middle of the night in Anchorage Alaska there were 5 tiny Indians in an American authentic Ford pick up truck. Can’t get any more funny. We reached our hotel at 2AM.

Technically a lot of excitement happened even before the first day of the trip in Alaska. The adrenaline rush due to the flight and the rental car was actually very exciting and gave us a kickstart to the trip. It was Saturday morning we are all up by 6:30 AM and ready for a quick breakfast. We had to drive up north east for about 2 hours for our first day activity. We drove up to Matanuska for our Glacier hike ! The drive up to Matanuska was one of the most serene drives. Snow clad mountains with greenery all around and a perfect road with no bumps. I was impressed with the roads in Alaska. We reached our activity point in our Ford F150 J. Our group was assigned to Phil as the guide for the glacier hike. We were very excited. We were all mandated to take bag packs, water and layers of clothes since we were going to HIKE THE GLACIER !

An interesting thing was that we were given special hike shoes and clamp-on. These clamp ons are like metal paws that you can wear around your shoes. Never understood the point until I got to use them. We drove in their van to the glacier point with helmets on. We could see the Matanuska glacier and could not wait to get up there. Phil started our journey immediately. One of the first things he said is that the land on which we are standing is the Marine that is settled on top of the glacier. So essentially there was all ice under the land. This was a wow moment. We walked further up and got a proof point of what he was saying. There was water bubbling up from the land. The land had become like spung and the water would bubble up. Phil explained that it is the ice underneath that is melting and escaping in the form of bubbles. We walked further up and saw black ice. It was very slippery and that was the time to wear the clamp-on the metal paw on the shoes. I got the point later that it was only because of that I could have done the glacier hike. A glacier is nothing but high pressured ice and hence very slippery. We began out hike onto the glacier. Beautiful landscape with ice all around. We explored the Matanuska glacier and asked Phil for more adventurous routes. So we went a little higher and steeper. It was just so exciting. We ended up in a back drop that looked like the following picture. I have seen these type of places only in movies.

In no time we realized we have spent 3+ hours and it was time to head back. As usual the return trips are not that fun but the awe of the place and the disbelief of seeing something like the picture above superseded everything. We drove back in their van to the office where our F150 “yeah baby” was parked. We drove back to Anchorage to our hotel . We were dead tired and it was almost 4:30PM. We took a quick nap since we did not sleep well in the night. We took off again at 7pm. Drove around Anchorage for a little time. Not much to do there. We were all hungry and to our surprise we found an Indian restaurant called Bombay Deluxe where we ate authentic Indian food. Considering it was in Alaska they had decent food and we could all eat well. We were tired but the next day we had to travel and it was going to rain and hence we had to give up our F150 and get a covered trunk car. So we retuned back to the rental car office and exchanged the car for an SUV. We retired the day as the beginning of next day was early as well.

It was day 2 on Sunday we woke up early, had a good breakfast. It was the cruising day. We were booked for the cruise in Prince William Sound. The timeline was critical. The cruise was starting from Whittier which is about 1 ½ hours away from Anchorage. There is a tunnel that we have to cross to reach Whittier. The tunnel is tricky since it is only a one lane one way tunnel. So we had to time our travel to perfection. The tunnel would open only at half hours like 10:30, 11:30… Our cruise reporting time was at 12 and we had to take the 11:30 tunnel. If we would have missed the 11:30 tunnel we would have missed our cruise. Thankfully we made it in time to the tunnel by 11:30. The drive from Anchorage to Whittier is the best drive that I have taken in my life. It was raining. Land, sea, mountains, snow, greenery, cars and train all in one sight ! If I said Matanuska drive was serene, this drive was something more than serene if at all there is something like that. We had spend a lot of time in deciding which cruise to take. We had a couple of options the one in Kenai Fjords and the one here in Prince William Sound. The difference between the two was more sea wild life in Kenai vs more Glaciers and Calving in Prince William. After a lot of thought we picked more glaciers and calving in Prince Williams. We hopped onto the cruise post noon. It was another beautiful day. The cloud were almost at ground level or may be the ground was at the cloud level. Don’t know what was true there but you get the point that there were mountains, ocean, snow, cloud, cruise and glaciers ! 

We departed on time and headed deep into the waters. Due to the landscape we were surrounded by beautiful mountains on both sides. We went deep and our captain spotted a couple of whales. We stopped there and everyone was out on the deck to get a glimpse of the whales. It was a breathtaking moment. If you have seen National Geographic and have seen the tail of the whale going down into the water, you can relate to what we saw. We waited for a long time to keep watching the whales. Eventually we had to move on. We cruised further along and finally we knew we were getting closer to the Blackstone glacier when we started seeing ice floating in the water. Remember Titanic iceberg? Well these were not icebergs but similar looking ice blobs floating around in the water. We soon reached the glacier and we waited there to see a calving. We were lucky enough to see a very big calving. It was unbelievably beautiful. Never seen before moment. 

We spent a lot of time cruising and eventually turned back to base as we had to catch the 6PM tunnel back out of Whittier.  We made it out of Whittier in time to catch the tunnel and drove off 2+ hours to Seward. The entire stretch from Anchorage to Seward gives you the best driving experience. It was heavenly. We reached Seward and ate awesome Thai food at Woody’s. We stayed the night in Seward. The scene from the room was something to die for. Snow clad mountain range right in front of the window all the way from left to right till your eye sight can reach. The clouds hanging half way down the mountain, cruise liners parked at the port. Wanted to enjoy the scene since it was bright and sunny even at 10:30pm but next day was going to be another beautiful day and had to wake up early for that too.

It was day 3 and we wake up to the beautiful Seward morning. We are all set to head out for breakfast and head to the exit glacier hike. We reached exit glacier early and did a not so long hike. It was raining and we were hiking. It was a great experience. I would do that any day any time once again J It was beautiful and it reminded my of my Puerto Rico trip where we had a similar hike done there in the rain forest to reach the water fall. This time it was uphill to the base of the glacier. Once we reached the glacier it was very beautiful but since we had done Matanuska and Whittier we were not as impressed as it was made sound by our research. May be they did not visit Matanuska or Whittier. Still a view not to miss. Still recommend going there as the who experience with the hike is worth it and you don’t want to miss it. We returned back by noon. Now it was the long drive time. 2 + hours back to anchorage followed by another 2 hours to a town called Talkeetna. We head out of Seward, take a late lunch break at Anchorage and reach Talkeetna by 5:30PM. We straight goto Talkeetna Air Taxi office. We did not have bookings but we still wanted to do this activity of glacier landing. We go to their office and explore their packages. Unfortunately due to the weather condition we could not take the longer ride but it kind of worked out for us since we could save up a lot on the shorter ride and still get the best of it since we got free glacier landing as we were on their last tour of the day at 6:30PM. It was a small little flight very similar to the one I flew some months ago. Our pilot was Brian who flew us up high. In no time we reached the mountain ranges and all of sudden the landscape changed. There was snow all around. There were multiple glaciers and I could not figure out if this was real or hoax. I kept taking pictures as if I probably will never ever experience something like this again. Brian did a smooth glacier landing of the plane and what an experience it was. Hard to believe that you are actually landing on a glacier. One thought in my mind was what if the glacier cracks J. But I had similar uncomfortable thoughts of parachute not opening while sky diving, the zipline breaking off and the rock puncturing the raft while we white water raft J. Anyways we landed there and I could not stop starring at the sight. It looked something like this.

We did not want to return but all good things come to an end and so was this activity. We flew back after a very memorable experience. We drove into the Talkeetna town and ate some hot pizza there. We retired the day as the next day again was very heavy with lots of travel.

It was day 4 and we were ready by 6:30AM, a quick breakfast and we departed on a 2 ½ hour journey to Denali national park. By this day we felt completely satisfied and accomplished with what we had seen and done. My friend and I almost did not care much on how the 4th day went. I guess we were still awe struck with Matanuska, Blackstone Glacier and the Glacier landing experience. Anyways we drove up to Denali. It was a long drive and it did not match up to the Seward drive. So it was a bit frustrating. If we would have driven to Denali ahead of Seward we would have enjoyed and loved the drive because it was still so beautiful. We reached Denali where were had a 10Am bus to catch. It was a 8 hour long tour in the Denali National Park. We departed sharp at 10 into the park with the hope to see the beautiful landscape and some good wild life. We saw almost 14 grizzly bears, moose, reindeers, etc. The road was very beautiful in patches. It got very pretty on the way to Eilseen.

 It was a decent experience. Not as exciting as the other activities though. May be that’s just me. I like to do more activity rather than sit in the bus and stare at the nature. Still a great experience. We returned back and had to rush a bit since we had to drive about 2 hours to Fairbanks that same day. We reached Fairbanks and again had some Thai food. Options tend to get limited when you are a vegetarian and hence sometimes you have to repeat the cuisine. But hey no complains it was great to find good food in Alaska. We finished a good dinner, returned our rental car at the Fairbanks airport and flew out to Seattle and back to San Francisco in an over night journey. Back in town at 9AM and ready to get to work J.

It is hard to say which was that one thing that I really liked. I know Exit glacier and Denali will be the last two but between glacier hike, glacier calving and glacier landing I just don’t know which one is rated higher. May be it is glacier landing, glacier calving and then glacier hike for me. Overall a great express trip with lots of nature, lots of wilderness, lots of adventure and lots of travel. Alaska – You Beauty !

Ambition without Focus

It is that phase of my life where my ambition and determination are being covered up by the dark cloud of lack of focus. It is that phase of my life where I find myself juggling too many balls with constant fear of dropping them. The biggest dilemma is to give up on a few things and it is hard to decide which aspect to give up on. I find myself taking up unnecessary projects for myself. Has it ever happened to you? I am not sure if I am looking too much into the future and losing out on my present. Just when I am working on a project, I am also thinking about the next one. I am making plans for my fitness but at the same time I am thinking about wisely investing. I am trying to book my vacation at the same time I am looking for an educational class to pursue. It gets worse. I awaited the super bowl day for so long and what I do is go buy a car on the super bowl day !! Has it ever happened to you? I am in early realization phase that I am losing focus and need to course correct my life. May be what I need is a timetable for each day, week and month on what I want to achieve in these days. I guess this is what is called balancing your life and I am not getting it J. I need to work on it because ambition without focus will lead you to failure making you look smart all the way untill you fail :)

Being Eagle for an hour

Thanks to my wonderful wife I was gifted an experience of a life time. My wife gifted me a chance to fly an airplane. It took a long time to sink in as to what the gift meant until January 11, 2013 when my wife and I went up to AeroDynamic Aviation in San Jose.

We entered the small office where we were greeted with the words “Welcome !! Are you ready for some acrobats”. I would have loved to do that but since this was my first time we had taken the scenic bay tour which did not have acrobats. We were quickly checked in and were introduced to our instructor Mark. This office reminded me of the little office where I went for sky diving. However this time strangely there was no paperwork signed on the risk to life and the company has nothing to do with it if I die J. Yes my hand had shivered while signing the paper work last time. This time there was nothing like that. We were handed the headphones with mike and just one questions ! “Are you ready to fly over San Francisco !!”. These words thrilled us a lot since we were not expecting to fly over San Francisco. We were only expecting some lowly San Jose flight. It was very exciting. From the back door we entered the mini airport where we took this picture.

My nerves started talking after looking at the airplane. It was for the first time that it actually sunk in that yes I will be flying a plane. All the good memories of sky diving came back alive. The chills of jumping out of the air plane took over the moment when you are risking your life again becomes a reality. Mark and I pushed out the airplane out of the parking lot. It was that light. It was a 3 seater. It has tiny wheels, probably as small as a kids scooter. That was not very comforting. Mark did all the checks on the system. Gas, mechanics, air pressure etc all checked off. We are ready to go. Mark gave an instruction demo for a while. He went over all the controls and then I got a reality check. He asked me to step into the pilot’s seat !! All this while I was expecting to take the co-pilots seat. That’s when I realized that I am indeed going to be flying that airplane. I stepped in. I could barely get in. Not sure if I had put on weight or the plane was actually small. I choose to believe the later. I could barely squeeze in. Pooja was on the back seat. She was excited too and was clicking pictures. Mark got into the plane and sat down next to me. See this picture and you know how small the plane was.

Mark instructed me to push the throttle and few more buttons which I honestly don’t remember now. The fan starts off, the vibrations kicks in, the headset was on and it was real !!. Final checks with the control room and we had a green light to move. What they show in movies about the pilot talking to the control room was all so real. Mark was doing the talking as I would not get their language and lingo. The plane was in motion and I was finding it hard to keep it straight J The handle in front that looks like a video game joy stick is what I kept moving as anyone who is a car driver would. The funny part was that the left and right direction was given to the airplane but what would be a brake and an accelerator on a car. That did not go well with me J I kept using the control handle vs the foot paddles. Slowly I got the hang of it as the runway was a little far and I had to drive the plane till the runway. Then came the real moment. Full throttle in, the control lever pulled to the fullest in 10 seconds we are in air !! On top of San Jose. It was a moment I will never forget. I took off an airplane. I could see San Jose beneath. Instructions came in from the control room to keep at flight low at 2000 feet until we cross San Jose international airport. It was hard to maintain the altitude. Hence there were sudden drops and rise. The ride was very bumpy initially as it took me sometime to get adjusted. We crossed San Jose international and crossed over to Palo Alto region. I could recognize all the areas. Mountain View, Palo Alto, the NASA airbase, all the bridges over the bay and San Francisco at the far end. I finally felt a bit comfortable and starting  gliding the plane. I had got the hang of the foot paddles. All of sudden we were on top of Palo Alto and were given instructions to change course as the weather in San Francisco had gotten turbulent due to clouds and rain. Mark asked me what I wanted and without any hesitation I told him that I wanted to go to Santa Cruz. He asked me to take a U-turn. This was the best part of the flight. A U-Turn. I pulled the control handle along with the foot paddle and off we went. Almost like a fighter jet. Take a look at the following picture which shows how mu flight looked like while taking a U-turn. 

Once I did that I felt more comfortable and did this same thing over and over. It was fun. The ride to Santa Cruz was very scenic. Green Mountains, blue sky and my airplane. Felt like an eagle for the hour. I was gliding over clear skies on top of the bay area. I was heading towards the mountains  which we had to cross over to reach Santa Cruz. It got me a bit nervous. I always thought we were going to hit the tip of the mountain but Mark insisted that our altitude was fine and I should not worry. Ofcourse he was right but my heart skip a beat when we actually were on top of the mountain and the trees were very close and clouds passing by. I cannot put it in words anymore J As we crossed the dense mountains I could see the shoreline and the Santa Cruz boardwalk. I cruised through the distance as I was very comfortable flying the plane. I was enjoying every bit of the moment. This is what I saw at the Santa Cruz coast. 

After flying around the coast it was time for another acrobat and a U-Turn and it was time to head back. The journey back was interesting too. This time I was heading towards the mountain and I was certainly not high enough. I told Mark that I should go higher but he asked me to go all the way to the mountain and take a left turn into the small valley. That seemed a bit tricky but also exciting at the same time. There was a small hill followed by a larger hill with a valley in between. Mark wanted me to cross the smaller hill and then fly through the valley. It was a moment of lifetime. I did that and as soon as I flew through the valley I could see San Jose again and in no time the throttle was half way down. I realized  the journey was almost over. I was wondering if I was the one who was going to do the landing. But thankfully not. I flew and directed the plane but Mark did all the hard work coordinating with the control room and made me do a few things but I know he played a big role in landing. We landed back to reality and took sometime to taxi the plane. Mark made me give the instruction to the control room which was quite an experience as he made me rehearse the instruction 3 times before getting onto the control room and I still got it wrong.. haha. I guess I was still flying in my mind like an eagle and the hour was still not over for me. I thank my wife for this wonderful experience.