26th July 2005 – wondering what’s so special about this day? Might not be as popular as a Sep 11 or Dec 6 but it is one of the most unforgettable days of my life.
Before I narrate that event I ought to mention a few words about the memorable Mumbai. I got transferred from TCS Chennai to Bombay in 2005. That was the first time I was stepping out of Chennai in pursuit of a career. I had been to Mumbai for vacations during my school / college days. Since then I always had the strong desire to stay in Mumbai at least for a year, for the simple reason of the city being the commercial hub of India and there is so much spoken about it always. I was in raptures when I received the call from the corporate office for a transfer. Firstly it was a big sign of recognition and secondly the anxiousness of facing a new world all alone.
On the first day, just after stepping down at the Church gate station, the scurry of crowd from the age of seventeen to seventy rushing to work, made me feel that every man should experience this at least once in life. Culturally diverse, vivaciously energetic, equal mixture of the most affluent and deprived, both good and bad things ubiquitously available for you to choose, great network of public transport – I don’t think you can ask for anything more from a metro. On the flip side it is crowded and too expensive. But let’s look at the reality, which other metro city is uncongested. One would find it very difficult to leave Mumbai once you get used to its culture even though you are not a native Mumbaikar.
I consider this incident as one of the most unique in my life. It was a soggy day and we were busy at work oblivious of the news that the city was recording the maximum rainfall in the last 100 years. By around 4 pm, we got to hear that all local trains have stopped running. A few ‘native’ colleagues warned us to leave office as early as possible. Nonchalantly I approached my boss for a lift in his car till Dadar West (its 13 kms from my work place – Nariman point). Unfortunately he had a different schedule; hence I decided to step down the drenched streets with slim hope of finding some way to reach home. After stepping into Church gate station, I stood aghast at the sight of all the trains being stationed in the platforms as if they were kept in the yard. There was no sign of departure. The railway station was so appallingly crowded. Since there was absolutely no space on the platforms, people were sitting inside the trains in pitch dark. Never have I seen such a picture of a railway station all my life. I immediately stepped out with a hope to find a bus and after 15 minutes of grueling wait in the rain I finally found one which could take me to Dadar east (half an hour walk from my house). After 20 minutes of standing, I found that the bus had budged 15 yards with great difficulty amidst an execrable traffic. I thought the poor driver should be given an award for his patience. I knew, at my pace I would have covered at least half a kilometer by walking. So I stepped out of the crawling bus. Since I didn't know the route to Dadar, I confidently decided to walk through the railway track. I had to walk through 7-8 stations to reach Dadar west (forgive me if the count is incorrect, it has been 4 years now :-)). Roughly about thousand people were walking ahead of me and following me as well. Slowly the water level was swelling from ankle to waist high. A group of social workers were alerting the “track walkers” about pot holes and bridges in between the railway track. Just before the lower Parel station, we were redirected toward the road. I could see that the water level would be more that 6 feet high and the railway platform (Lower Parel) was barely visible. I then understood why those trains were stationed at Church Gate. Once I reached the road, I witnessed a scene which I had seen only in movies. As far as I could see, the three lane road was blocked with vehicles standing still with just an inch gap between them. I was wondering how one could step out of the car even if they want to.
Mobile lines were down but luckily I got a faint signal in between and passed on a message to my folks in Chennai that I was safe. They were worried but I am sure not a single soul in Chennai would have had any idea about the intensity of the situation. My friend KS had called me to inform that GJ had lost his way somewhere near Dadar and was trying to reach me for a shelter at my place for that night. GJ had no battery life in his mobile and was arbitrarily looking out for me in Dadar west. Luckily or should I say miraculously, he met me outside a restaurant about half a kilometer from my house. He stood still without uttering a word; his expressions said it all. I was able to see the relief on his face. It was dreadful to imagine GJ’s plight had he not found me. He must have spent the whole night on the streets of Praba Devi. Looks like a movie climax but such things happen in real life too.
It was such an ordeal journey from Nariman point to Prabha Devi and it was one of the most adventurous days of my life. Two days later when all of us met at our work place each one of them had a different story of how they reached home. One had to swim, one took shelter in a temple, and one had walked for 30kms, etc. etc. etc.. Great reminiscence!!
Despite all the infrastructural tribulation and an ineffective Government, Mumbai still goes on with the same pace brushing aside the past with a hope to build a bigger future for the city. Mumbai is truly broad minded and spirit of Mumbai never dies.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Inexorable Ritual called "Marriage"
Marriage - I would call it one event which brings changes in every soul be it good/bad.
I haven’t attended much of Non-Hindu marriages so let me restrict this topic to Hindu marriages. Since my college days I have always preached that spending on a marriage is as bad as throwing currency notes in the mantelpiece albeit most elders would disagree to it straight away. My sister also had the same opinion and in-fact much stronger that mine. Both of us never thought that it would happen to us one day and when reality started hitting us it definitely took a toll. Poor thing she got married 3 months before me as a result of which she had much deeper impact. Going through that episode I learnt that I cannot escape these and prepared myself mentally to a large extent for mine. Not only me but most of friends agree with me whenever we have discussed these which has inspired me to write this.
Marriages nowadays extend for 2 days (assuming they have all the elements - Janvasam, nichyathartham, murhutham, reception, nalangu and the stupidest of all "santhi muhurtham"). Agreed, it’s once in a lifetime, but does somebody care whether a 25 yr grown up undergoing all these is happy about it? You may call it a social obligation!. Agreed but at what cost. To my knowledge even a “simple marriage” these days would cost around 4-5 lacs. My blood pressure shoots up particularly when I hear people borrow money to splurge on these. Not just the money, the efforts, stress, obligation to answer copious unrelated personalities who just create clatter to show their presence, listen to assiduous sarcasm from visitors and most of all the trauma that the bride / groom undergo (when this drama is forced upon them).
Why don’t people realize you that you don’t have to call a 2 day function to proclaim to the world that you are getting your son / daughter married? Are you claiming that you are following a 100 year old tradition religiously? Give me a break; not a single soul on earth would follow any tradition that existed 50 years back. With all the advancements in technology, communication, education and the standard of living, one must understand that traditions transform with generations.
Are you trying to show the society that you are capable of hosting a 2 day show like this or are you insecure that the society might disregard you as one who has not performed his /her social obligation or is it just the peer pressure from family members who has hosted such similar functions? I still cannot think of a good reason for taking all the pain when you know that there is no benefit out of these.
I always found it very hard to understand the true psychology behind this. Whenever I have tried to argue on this, conversation is snapped by saying “you are kid so you do not know anything and therefore listen to what we say” or “you will follow the same when it comes to your son / daughter’s marriage”. It makes you chuckle when someone expects to be a father / mother next year but still do not allow you to voice your opinion today. I have never found anyone giving rational justifications for these functions. It just has to be followed because people in their earlier generations followed it. Sometimes you feel like blaring at society that conditions existed 20-30 years are totally different from the current day scenario. I tend to become livid when people use the name of “tradition and culture” at their convenience and needs. Not surprisingly the IT world has brought in customization in to the traditions as well and I don’t understand why do people call it blasphemous whenever they are not able adapt to it. Narrow mindedness, obduracy, insecurity – that’s all I could think of from my mediocre vocabulary to justify this ‘sastharam and sambrathayam’.
I understand that you have to do certain things though you don’t believe in it, to co-exist in the society. Every second person cannot be a revolutionist trying to reform the society. But the level of compromise and money involved makes the issues bigger. Though I was mentally prepared to undergo most it in my wedding, I had to undergo a lot of anxiety to escape two of the most dumb rituals which I never wanted to happen to me even in the wildest of my dreams. Big thanks to my parents for helping me to get rid of that swiftly. I have derided at these in every single wedding that I have attended. Finally when it was my turn I found it really hard to digest.
I am not concluding that spending money and effort on these is a crime. It hurts when you believe that it is not worthy and still you want to do it for sake of the society. Its even more exacerbating when the bride/groom is totally disinterested in all these and above all you borrow money to do that. It is definitely justified to do these functions when all the above factors are favorable. Of course you cannot accuse people of doing things in their own way (after all every one has their choice of life). But when it is thrusted upon someone to satisfy your self-esteem, I feel it is unfair. If a day comes when not a single soul present in the marriage hall comments “what stupidity is it to follow all this” or passes sporadic remarks on "things to do and things not to do” I would definitely stop arguing against these lavish ceremonies. Until then lets learn to live with all these, but when its my turn I hope to make a difference.
I haven’t attended much of Non-Hindu marriages so let me restrict this topic to Hindu marriages. Since my college days I have always preached that spending on a marriage is as bad as throwing currency notes in the mantelpiece albeit most elders would disagree to it straight away. My sister also had the same opinion and in-fact much stronger that mine. Both of us never thought that it would happen to us one day and when reality started hitting us it definitely took a toll. Poor thing she got married 3 months before me as a result of which she had much deeper impact. Going through that episode I learnt that I cannot escape these and prepared myself mentally to a large extent for mine. Not only me but most of friends agree with me whenever we have discussed these which has inspired me to write this.
Marriages nowadays extend for 2 days (assuming they have all the elements - Janvasam, nichyathartham, murhutham, reception, nalangu and the stupidest of all "santhi muhurtham"). Agreed, it’s once in a lifetime, but does somebody care whether a 25 yr grown up undergoing all these is happy about it? You may call it a social obligation!. Agreed but at what cost. To my knowledge even a “simple marriage” these days would cost around 4-5 lacs. My blood pressure shoots up particularly when I hear people borrow money to splurge on these. Not just the money, the efforts, stress, obligation to answer copious unrelated personalities who just create clatter to show their presence, listen to assiduous sarcasm from visitors and most of all the trauma that the bride / groom undergo (when this drama is forced upon them).
Why don’t people realize you that you don’t have to call a 2 day function to proclaim to the world that you are getting your son / daughter married? Are you claiming that you are following a 100 year old tradition religiously? Give me a break; not a single soul on earth would follow any tradition that existed 50 years back. With all the advancements in technology, communication, education and the standard of living, one must understand that traditions transform with generations.
Are you trying to show the society that you are capable of hosting a 2 day show like this or are you insecure that the society might disregard you as one who has not performed his /her social obligation or is it just the peer pressure from family members who has hosted such similar functions? I still cannot think of a good reason for taking all the pain when you know that there is no benefit out of these.
I always found it very hard to understand the true psychology behind this. Whenever I have tried to argue on this, conversation is snapped by saying “you are kid so you do not know anything and therefore listen to what we say” or “you will follow the same when it comes to your son / daughter’s marriage”. It makes you chuckle when someone expects to be a father / mother next year but still do not allow you to voice your opinion today. I have never found anyone giving rational justifications for these functions. It just has to be followed because people in their earlier generations followed it. Sometimes you feel like blaring at society that conditions existed 20-30 years are totally different from the current day scenario. I tend to become livid when people use the name of “tradition and culture” at their convenience and needs. Not surprisingly the IT world has brought in customization in to the traditions as well and I don’t understand why do people call it blasphemous whenever they are not able adapt to it. Narrow mindedness, obduracy, insecurity – that’s all I could think of from my mediocre vocabulary to justify this ‘sastharam and sambrathayam’.
I understand that you have to do certain things though you don’t believe in it, to co-exist in the society. Every second person cannot be a revolutionist trying to reform the society. But the level of compromise and money involved makes the issues bigger. Though I was mentally prepared to undergo most it in my wedding, I had to undergo a lot of anxiety to escape two of the most dumb rituals which I never wanted to happen to me even in the wildest of my dreams. Big thanks to my parents for helping me to get rid of that swiftly. I have derided at these in every single wedding that I have attended. Finally when it was my turn I found it really hard to digest.
I am not concluding that spending money and effort on these is a crime. It hurts when you believe that it is not worthy and still you want to do it for sake of the society. Its even more exacerbating when the bride/groom is totally disinterested in all these and above all you borrow money to do that. It is definitely justified to do these functions when all the above factors are favorable. Of course you cannot accuse people of doing things in their own way (after all every one has their choice of life). But when it is thrusted upon someone to satisfy your self-esteem, I feel it is unfair. If a day comes when not a single soul present in the marriage hall comments “what stupidity is it to follow all this” or passes sporadic remarks on "things to do and things not to do” I would definitely stop arguing against these lavish ceremonies. Until then lets learn to live with all these, but when its my turn I hope to make a difference.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Europe Vacation
I always thought blogging is meant only for people who don’t have anything else to do but now when I begin to write I just realize it’s totally untrue. I must admit that I was impressed and inspired by the blogs of SN and SS.
Just back after a wonderful trip to Europe for 10 days. That has stimulated me to write this travel diary to keep the memories alive.
This trip was a dream since the day I got married and am so thankful to God that it happened so soon.
Day 1 – We started off from home at 4 in the morning for the 7 am flight to Paris. Though we had the luxury of a personalized screen in the flight, I feel the flight journeys are always wretched. We reached Paris at around 2pm local time. Knowing that taxis from airport are extremely expensive, we found a bus that took us to door steps of our hotel in ard 45 mins (a good study about the place before your travel really helps).
I had invested a lot of time during the fortnight before travel in research. I had chosen the hotel which is bang opposite to Railway station in Paris from which TGV trains start (thanks to VB for giving that tip). I studied a lot about the places to visit in Paris and metro system. I had booked a 2 day Paris pass through a website and had it delivered to Holiday Inn before I arrived there. Paris has got 10 city lines of metro apart from 3 suburban lines (one of which connects the airport). Unbelievable network and great convenience! The Paris pass gives unlimited access to metros and quick entrance to all the museums.
The adrenaline to see Eiffel tower was so much that we just dropped our baggage at Holiday Inn – Gare de L’est and rushed down to the metro station.
Got down the train and just followed the crowd and found ourselves in front of the EIFFEL tower. That was the moment … Both were awe stuck by the beauty of the structure and stood still for 5 mins just gazing at it.
That was the first time both of us were in front of a “wonder of the world” (though I have been to Taj mahal once when I was a toddler). We realized that it was truly a wonder. The Paris pass doesn’t work in Eiffel tower so we spent about an hour standing in the queue to go up the tower. We went right up to the top of the tower. Though we had our jackets with us, the breeze was icy. By the time we came down we were weary. So we instantly decided to look for some place to eat. Luckily, there was an Indian restaurant in about 10 mins walk from our hotel where we had ‘roti and chaval’.
Day 2 – We started off at ard 8.30-9 in the morning and headed straight to Louvre museum. I got to know about that museum only when I read the book Da-Vinci code in 2006. I couldn’t believe that I was right in front of it in 2009. The façade of the building definitely reveals that it’s the world’s biggest museum. You need more than a day to fully cover it. Paris pass was a real savior in avoiding the long queues to purchase entrance tickets. We rushed straight to the famous Monolisa Painting. The painting was a given a full separate wall and was crowded with easterners (chinkis). After clicking few snaps out there we went to Napoleon’s palace in the museum. The best part of the museum was the glass pyramid, in front of which the last scene of Da-Vinci code movie was shot.
Our next stop was at Saint Chappell which was a 15-20 min walk from the Louvre. The Church was famous for its unique high stained glasses made in the 13th century fully carved with paintings.
We then proceeded to the Notre Dame Church. I initially thought that “it was just a church”, but when I went inside I had the same contentment of visiting some big temple in kumbakonam. It definitely has a lot of history albeit we remember very little of it.
It was time for a break and we decided to go back to that Indian restaurant and take a short nap after lunch.
By around 4 we proceeded to Champ Elysees street. I had read so much about this famous street in the internet and was quite keen on visiting that. Both sides of the road were packed with pubs, coffee shops and pizza joints. The aura of fashion and charm was something special and different. Without realizing you instantly fall in love with the place. Best place on earth to sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee.
The road leads to Arc de triomphe. The structure of the arch was something similar to India gate. There was no elevator and hence we walked up some 300-400 steps to reach the top of the arch. The view of the city was spectacular.
We got down and decided to take the siene river cruise. We realized that it was around 8pm and there was no sign of sunset for the next 2 hours; though the weather was around 21 C. I don’t understand why the nature is so partial to Europe. All along we were so used to going to bed 4-5 hours after the sunset. You don’t feel that you nearing the end of the day when you have such sunshine at 8pm.
Just before cruise, right below the Eiffel tower, SS met R. SS&R were college mates and they were meeting up after 4 years. SS was so exciteded and spent some 30 mins with R while I was running around enquiring the cruise timings. It was Friday evening; weekend in Paris; dance, drinks and party on the banks of river. This city has such an open culture…(You can see public display of affection every 10 yards )...
By the time we returned to the hotel, it was 11pm after which we realized we were hungry. Frantically searched for ½ hour for some veggie and we finally found a pizza take away joint.
Day 3 - The next day morning it was time to leave though we were in no mood. The only consolation was our next destination “Switzerland”. So we decided not to think about Paris. I had booked a bullet train (TGV) which reaches Basel in around 3 ½ hrs time.
I had researched a lot for Swiss as well, to find out the areas to be covered each day. I planned my stay for 3 nights in Grindelwald, 1 night at Lucerne and 3 nights at Interlaken. Grindelwald is only 30 minutes from Interlaken. I had planned to stay in Grindelwald first, then proceed to Luzern and come back to Interlaken. I also had the print outs of train schedules to each and every destination in Swiss which SS did not even know about.
I had taken an 8 day swiss saver pass which gives you unlimited travel inside Swiss. However, thankfully I went through the instructions during the train journey from Paris. The pass needs to be validated at the first railway station in Swiss at the ticket counter before we start using it. Therefore we had to miss the connecting train to Interlaken which was in 5 minutes. SS was fighting with me to enter the train without validating it and explain the TTE we are new to the town. I had to scream at her to make her understand that this was not India.
We took the train to Interlaken in the next 30 minutes and proceeded to Grindelwald from there. Grindelwald is a small hill town. Our hotel room windows faced the Eiger mountain which was partially covered with snow. The view was stunning. Since it was already 5 pm and everything in Swiss (unlike Paris) shuts down by 6pm, we decided to amble around the hill station.
Day 4 – We proceeded straight to Jungfraough. This is the most famous mountain in Switzerland with its highest peak that can be reached in Europe (11500 ft). Therefore I had that first in my itinerary. A cog wheel train took us to klene Shedegge from where we took another cog wheel train to the top of the mountain through a tunnel. I knew that we need to purchase tickets for mountain tops at 50% rate with our swiss pass. We initially had an idea of around 30-40 francs but I got a jolt when I heard 80 francs across the counter. For a moment I realized quality comes with a price. That was the first time I saw snow in my life. Never imagined this would happen in Switzerland! Breath taking beauty of mountain covered with snow all around made us go crazy. We went on shooting (pics and movies) with our new camera trying hard to stop it somewhere. Jungfrauogh also had couple of adjoining peaks which can be reached by an elevator. It had all the facilities that one cannot think of at such altitude. There was a restaurant by the name of “Bollywood” (which was as usual over crowded), one European restaurant and neatly maintained lavatories. We went to the adjacent peak and played in the snow for some time. It was around 2pm, we had something to brunch in the coffee shop there and returned back to Grindelwald. That evening we decided to have an early dinner and tried out the swiss famous cheese fondues. It was over-dosage of cheese and little over dosage of bill as well .
Day 5 – I had Zermatt in my itinerary though SS was as usual confused whether to go there. It is in the southern part of Swiss and takes 3 hours from Grindelwald. We decided to cover that and started off at 8 in the morning. We got a schedule for the trains from Grindelwald to top of the mountain called Gornergrat in Zermatt. It had 3 changes of trains and finally a cable car. All of these had a 3-4 minute gap in between and it works exactly as per the time schedule given to us. It made us feel the precision with which this country works. I knew that this it was the first open air cog wheel train of Swiss. This was different from Jungfraough as we were able to see snow on both sides as you travel up the mountain. We got a luscious tomato soup and veg pizza at the top of the mountain which made our lunch. We clicked few snaps in front of Matterhorn mountain which can be seen from Gornergrat. Unlike Jungfraough this is not so widely publicized and hence the ride to the mountain top was only around 30-40 francs. We reached back at around 7.30 and went straight to dinner. I requested for for some rice and the courteous steward promised us to even cook some special Indian sabzi. We were very impressed with the hospitality. The steward told us that the chef was a German and he loves cooking Indian food. Trust me, the sabzi (aloo-mutter masala) was much better than what you can get in any Indian restaurant.
Day 6 – Our plan was to go to Luzern, drop the baggage at Quality Hotel Central and proceed to Mount Pilatus. In Grindelwald station, I had picket up a brochure on Aareschult which looked very attractive. The moment SS espied that, her mind instantly changed to drop Pilatus and visit Aareschult. This time I accorded her and got down at Interlaken and went on enquiring how to reach that place. It’s a glacier gorge and one benevolent elderly railway TTE told us it’s really beautiful and we must visit that. We locked up our luggage at the Interlaken railway station and took the next train to Merigen which is 30 mins away. From thereon there is another connecting mini train which takes you to Aareschult. We got dropped by the river side and the sound of water made us feel the calm air. It was a 10 min walk to the gorge. This was the least crowded place so far in our trip. It was a 45 min walk on a wooden plank between 2 huge rocks with the river rushing below you feet. SS was extremely excited but scared at the same time. We had coffee at the end of the walk on the hill top. We had to walk through the grass lands and cross the river to reach the nearest train station.
We went back to Interlaken to pick our bags from the train station and headed to Lucern. The hotel at Lucerne was conveniently located near the station. It was drizzling and the picture of the town was eye catching. It was around 3 pm and SS had a strong desire to visit Zurich once, which was just 1 hour from Lucerne. We immediately dropped our bags at the hotel and hopped on the next train to Zurich. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and we could not do much of city touring in Zurich. We had a 5 -10 minute walk around the streets near the station and took the train back to Luzern. We had dinner at Mcdonalds on our way back to hotel.
Day 7 – Titlis was our agenda for the day. We had to go to Engelberg which was one hour from Luzern from where 3 cable cars take you to the top of the mountain. VB had warned us that Titlis would be full of Indian crowd. Nevertheless we wanted to see that once being the most famous place in Swiss amongst Indians. We walked down the street across the river to the cable car station. To our shock we saw around 15 tour buses parked next to each other. As we went up the mountain it was appallingly crowded and cacophonous. With due respect to mother land, the crowd and ambience was flabbergasting. I must mention that the scenery was unique and beautiful, which was different from other mountains we visited earlier. No surprises on seeing the restaurant on the mountain serving chaval, veg sabzi, soup, veg pizza, etc.
We returned to Luzern around 4 pm and went to Chappell bridge which was 10 mins walk from station. Chappell Bridge was one of the oldest bridges of Swiss which separates old town and new town. It was one the famous historical sites of swiss and nothing spectacular about it.
We headed to Interlaken and checked into Lindner Grand Beau Rivage at around 7 pm. We were quite excited about this hotel since this was the only 5 star that we had booked. Thankfully it did not fall below our expectations. I went for swimming after which we both took a steam bath in the spa. We confirmed before hand that we can get veg pizza in the bar up to 11pm. Tired and hungry we went to the bar at around 9.30 pm. Icing on the cake the Champions league final was screened live on a big LCD screen in the bar. Though it was disappointing to see Man Utd losing it was great pleasure to see football in a big screen in a bar.
Day 8 – We had Schilthorn in our itinerary– famous for James Bond movie ‘Golden Eye’. We reached Muren where we saw that the mountain was covered with mist in the live video in the cable car station. So we decided come to go trummelbach glacier falls which was a 30-40 min walk from gimmelwald. We came down to gimmelwald from Muren through a cable car. We got 2 packets of potato chips and started walking towards trummelbach. This was the best 30 minutes of our trip. There are no words to describe the splendor of fast flowing river on one side, green pastures just below the mountain on the other and absolutely no soul around. The serenity was tranquilizing.
Finally we reached the falls. It really made us wonder on how they have a made a path way deep inside the mountain with 20,000 litres of water flowing per second right next to you. The noise of water was deafening. The pathway, force and noise of water and depth of the mountain made us spell bound. On our way back we had pumpkin soup in that village and returned back to Interlaken to do our shopping. We bought souvenirs for our folks and had dinner in an Indian restaurant near our hotel.
We received free entry tickets and a drink in a Casino in Interlaken as a welcome gift from the hotel. So we decided to spend the rest of evening in the Casino. After pondering over Black jack and few video games we found American Roullette to be the easiest to understand and hence we made a bet of 10 francs on it. We doubled it in the first round. We should have come back but we wanted to make more, so we put in all our money back on the roulette and lost it completely. Unwilling to give up we put in 20 francs more and lost it again. Finally we decided that’s it and pulled ourselves out before losing anything more. Believe me it was so difficult to control the temptation to play again. Just realize how one easily can gets addicted to these.
The Penultimate day – This was effectively our last day on the trip.
NB had mentioned that Thun Cruise was a must see. The specialty of the lake was the turquoise blue water. From there we proceeded to a place called Stockhorn. The pamphlet showed that there is lake in half way of the summit. A cable takes you up the first level and you can choose to trek to the next mountain or take the next cable car to Schilthorn. It also said that there are paragliding and other adventure activities. We decided to go to Schilthorn top first. At the counter we were told that there are no paragliding on that day. That was little disappointing for us as we were eager to explore that as well. At the top of the mountain it was fully covered with mist. We did not spend much time and quickly descended to the mountain below. As we got near the lake our eyes widened and the thought of an ‘unsuccessful day’ so far completely vanished from our mind. The lake encircled by mountains, absolute silence and fresh cold air would bliss out any human being. There was only one European family fishing in the lake and few old ladies trekking up the mountain. We wanted to spend as much time as possible and give up the pending shopping to be done in Interlaken. We walked around the lake for some time and decided to move on. We would have clicked around 40-50 snaps of that place.
We retuned to Interlaken at around 6, finished the remaining shopping and had dinner at the same Indian restaurant.
After dinner had a stroll by the side of Lake Thun which had one its stream right beside our hotel.
Last Day – We had to take the first train from Interlaken if we were to reach the Geneva airport on time. Our flight was at 11.10 Am. We had to take the first train at 5.21am, one change in Bern and the train goes to directly to Geneva airport. For the first time in life I reached an airport by train. All we had to do is to get down the train and take the escalator up to the airport.
Swiss is all about incredible hospitality, precision and to top it all the natural beauty. No wonder they are the best.
It takes great pride and satisfaction when you plan such a big trip on your own and it works out with no hassles. Thanks to God once again.
Just back after a wonderful trip to Europe for 10 days. That has stimulated me to write this travel diary to keep the memories alive.
This trip was a dream since the day I got married and am so thankful to God that it happened so soon.
Day 1 – We started off from home at 4 in the morning for the 7 am flight to Paris. Though we had the luxury of a personalized screen in the flight, I feel the flight journeys are always wretched. We reached Paris at around 2pm local time. Knowing that taxis from airport are extremely expensive, we found a bus that took us to door steps of our hotel in ard 45 mins (a good study about the place before your travel really helps).
I had invested a lot of time during the fortnight before travel in research. I had chosen the hotel which is bang opposite to Railway station in Paris from which TGV trains start (thanks to VB for giving that tip). I studied a lot about the places to visit in Paris and metro system. I had booked a 2 day Paris pass through a website and had it delivered to Holiday Inn before I arrived there. Paris has got 10 city lines of metro apart from 3 suburban lines (one of which connects the airport). Unbelievable network and great convenience! The Paris pass gives unlimited access to metros and quick entrance to all the museums.
The adrenaline to see Eiffel tower was so much that we just dropped our baggage at Holiday Inn – Gare de L’est and rushed down to the metro station.
Got down the train and just followed the crowd and found ourselves in front of the EIFFEL tower. That was the moment … Both were awe stuck by the beauty of the structure and stood still for 5 mins just gazing at it.
That was the first time both of us were in front of a “wonder of the world” (though I have been to Taj mahal once when I was a toddler). We realized that it was truly a wonder. The Paris pass doesn’t work in Eiffel tower so we spent about an hour standing in the queue to go up the tower. We went right up to the top of the tower. Though we had our jackets with us, the breeze was icy. By the time we came down we were weary. So we instantly decided to look for some place to eat. Luckily, there was an Indian restaurant in about 10 mins walk from our hotel where we had ‘roti and chaval’.
Day 2 – We started off at ard 8.30-9 in the morning and headed straight to Louvre museum. I got to know about that museum only when I read the book Da-Vinci code in 2006. I couldn’t believe that I was right in front of it in 2009. The façade of the building definitely reveals that it’s the world’s biggest museum. You need more than a day to fully cover it. Paris pass was a real savior in avoiding the long queues to purchase entrance tickets. We rushed straight to the famous Monolisa Painting. The painting was a given a full separate wall and was crowded with easterners (chinkis). After clicking few snaps out there we went to Napoleon’s palace in the museum. The best part of the museum was the glass pyramid, in front of which the last scene of Da-Vinci code movie was shot.
Our next stop was at Saint Chappell which was a 15-20 min walk from the Louvre. The Church was famous for its unique high stained glasses made in the 13th century fully carved with paintings.
We then proceeded to the Notre Dame Church. I initially thought that “it was just a church”, but when I went inside I had the same contentment of visiting some big temple in kumbakonam. It definitely has a lot of history albeit we remember very little of it.
It was time for a break and we decided to go back to that Indian restaurant and take a short nap after lunch.
By around 4 we proceeded to Champ Elysees street. I had read so much about this famous street in the internet and was quite keen on visiting that. Both sides of the road were packed with pubs, coffee shops and pizza joints. The aura of fashion and charm was something special and different. Without realizing you instantly fall in love with the place. Best place on earth to sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee.
The road leads to Arc de triomphe. The structure of the arch was something similar to India gate. There was no elevator and hence we walked up some 300-400 steps to reach the top of the arch. The view of the city was spectacular.
We got down and decided to take the siene river cruise. We realized that it was around 8pm and there was no sign of sunset for the next 2 hours; though the weather was around 21 C. I don’t understand why the nature is so partial to Europe. All along we were so used to going to bed 4-5 hours after the sunset. You don’t feel that you nearing the end of the day when you have such sunshine at 8pm.
Just before cruise, right below the Eiffel tower, SS met R. SS&R were college mates and they were meeting up after 4 years. SS was so exciteded and spent some 30 mins with R while I was running around enquiring the cruise timings. It was Friday evening; weekend in Paris; dance, drinks and party on the banks of river. This city has such an open culture…(You can see public display of affection every 10 yards )...
By the time we returned to the hotel, it was 11pm after which we realized we were hungry. Frantically searched for ½ hour for some veggie and we finally found a pizza take away joint.
Day 3 - The next day morning it was time to leave though we were in no mood. The only consolation was our next destination “Switzerland”. So we decided not to think about Paris. I had booked a bullet train (TGV) which reaches Basel in around 3 ½ hrs time.
I had researched a lot for Swiss as well, to find out the areas to be covered each day. I planned my stay for 3 nights in Grindelwald, 1 night at Lucerne and 3 nights at Interlaken. Grindelwald is only 30 minutes from Interlaken. I had planned to stay in Grindelwald first, then proceed to Luzern and come back to Interlaken. I also had the print outs of train schedules to each and every destination in Swiss which SS did not even know about.
I had taken an 8 day swiss saver pass which gives you unlimited travel inside Swiss. However, thankfully I went through the instructions during the train journey from Paris. The pass needs to be validated at the first railway station in Swiss at the ticket counter before we start using it. Therefore we had to miss the connecting train to Interlaken which was in 5 minutes. SS was fighting with me to enter the train without validating it and explain the TTE we are new to the town. I had to scream at her to make her understand that this was not India.
We took the train to Interlaken in the next 30 minutes and proceeded to Grindelwald from there. Grindelwald is a small hill town. Our hotel room windows faced the Eiger mountain which was partially covered with snow. The view was stunning. Since it was already 5 pm and everything in Swiss (unlike Paris) shuts down by 6pm, we decided to amble around the hill station.
Day 4 – We proceeded straight to Jungfraough. This is the most famous mountain in Switzerland with its highest peak that can be reached in Europe (11500 ft). Therefore I had that first in my itinerary. A cog wheel train took us to klene Shedegge from where we took another cog wheel train to the top of the mountain through a tunnel. I knew that we need to purchase tickets for mountain tops at 50% rate with our swiss pass. We initially had an idea of around 30-40 francs but I got a jolt when I heard 80 francs across the counter. For a moment I realized quality comes with a price. That was the first time I saw snow in my life. Never imagined this would happen in Switzerland! Breath taking beauty of mountain covered with snow all around made us go crazy. We went on shooting (pics and movies) with our new camera trying hard to stop it somewhere. Jungfrauogh also had couple of adjoining peaks which can be reached by an elevator. It had all the facilities that one cannot think of at such altitude. There was a restaurant by the name of “Bollywood” (which was as usual over crowded), one European restaurant and neatly maintained lavatories. We went to the adjacent peak and played in the snow for some time. It was around 2pm, we had something to brunch in the coffee shop there and returned back to Grindelwald. That evening we decided to have an early dinner and tried out the swiss famous cheese fondues. It was over-dosage of cheese and little over dosage of bill as well .
Day 5 – I had Zermatt in my itinerary though SS was as usual confused whether to go there. It is in the southern part of Swiss and takes 3 hours from Grindelwald. We decided to cover that and started off at 8 in the morning. We got a schedule for the trains from Grindelwald to top of the mountain called Gornergrat in Zermatt. It had 3 changes of trains and finally a cable car. All of these had a 3-4 minute gap in between and it works exactly as per the time schedule given to us. It made us feel the precision with which this country works. I knew that this it was the first open air cog wheel train of Swiss. This was different from Jungfraough as we were able to see snow on both sides as you travel up the mountain. We got a luscious tomato soup and veg pizza at the top of the mountain which made our lunch. We clicked few snaps in front of Matterhorn mountain which can be seen from Gornergrat. Unlike Jungfraough this is not so widely publicized and hence the ride to the mountain top was only around 30-40 francs. We reached back at around 7.30 and went straight to dinner. I requested for for some rice and the courteous steward promised us to even cook some special Indian sabzi. We were very impressed with the hospitality. The steward told us that the chef was a German and he loves cooking Indian food. Trust me, the sabzi (aloo-mutter masala) was much better than what you can get in any Indian restaurant.
Day 6 – Our plan was to go to Luzern, drop the baggage at Quality Hotel Central and proceed to Mount Pilatus. In Grindelwald station, I had picket up a brochure on Aareschult which looked very attractive. The moment SS espied that, her mind instantly changed to drop Pilatus and visit Aareschult. This time I accorded her and got down at Interlaken and went on enquiring how to reach that place. It’s a glacier gorge and one benevolent elderly railway TTE told us it’s really beautiful and we must visit that. We locked up our luggage at the Interlaken railway station and took the next train to Merigen which is 30 mins away. From thereon there is another connecting mini train which takes you to Aareschult. We got dropped by the river side and the sound of water made us feel the calm air. It was a 10 min walk to the gorge. This was the least crowded place so far in our trip. It was a 45 min walk on a wooden plank between 2 huge rocks with the river rushing below you feet. SS was extremely excited but scared at the same time. We had coffee at the end of the walk on the hill top. We had to walk through the grass lands and cross the river to reach the nearest train station.
We went back to Interlaken to pick our bags from the train station and headed to Lucern. The hotel at Lucerne was conveniently located near the station. It was drizzling and the picture of the town was eye catching. It was around 3 pm and SS had a strong desire to visit Zurich once, which was just 1 hour from Lucerne. We immediately dropped our bags at the hotel and hopped on the next train to Zurich. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and we could not do much of city touring in Zurich. We had a 5 -10 minute walk around the streets near the station and took the train back to Luzern. We had dinner at Mcdonalds on our way back to hotel.
Day 7 – Titlis was our agenda for the day. We had to go to Engelberg which was one hour from Luzern from where 3 cable cars take you to the top of the mountain. VB had warned us that Titlis would be full of Indian crowd. Nevertheless we wanted to see that once being the most famous place in Swiss amongst Indians. We walked down the street across the river to the cable car station. To our shock we saw around 15 tour buses parked next to each other. As we went up the mountain it was appallingly crowded and cacophonous. With due respect to mother land, the crowd and ambience was flabbergasting. I must mention that the scenery was unique and beautiful, which was different from other mountains we visited earlier. No surprises on seeing the restaurant on the mountain serving chaval, veg sabzi, soup, veg pizza, etc.
We returned to Luzern around 4 pm and went to Chappell bridge which was 10 mins walk from station. Chappell Bridge was one of the oldest bridges of Swiss which separates old town and new town. It was one the famous historical sites of swiss and nothing spectacular about it.
We headed to Interlaken and checked into Lindner Grand Beau Rivage at around 7 pm. We were quite excited about this hotel since this was the only 5 star that we had booked. Thankfully it did not fall below our expectations. I went for swimming after which we both took a steam bath in the spa. We confirmed before hand that we can get veg pizza in the bar up to 11pm. Tired and hungry we went to the bar at around 9.30 pm. Icing on the cake the Champions league final was screened live on a big LCD screen in the bar. Though it was disappointing to see Man Utd losing it was great pleasure to see football in a big screen in a bar.
Day 8 – We had Schilthorn in our itinerary– famous for James Bond movie ‘Golden Eye’. We reached Muren where we saw that the mountain was covered with mist in the live video in the cable car station. So we decided come to go trummelbach glacier falls which was a 30-40 min walk from gimmelwald. We came down to gimmelwald from Muren through a cable car. We got 2 packets of potato chips and started walking towards trummelbach. This was the best 30 minutes of our trip. There are no words to describe the splendor of fast flowing river on one side, green pastures just below the mountain on the other and absolutely no soul around. The serenity was tranquilizing.
Finally we reached the falls. It really made us wonder on how they have a made a path way deep inside the mountain with 20,000 litres of water flowing per second right next to you. The noise of water was deafening. The pathway, force and noise of water and depth of the mountain made us spell bound. On our way back we had pumpkin soup in that village and returned back to Interlaken to do our shopping. We bought souvenirs for our folks and had dinner in an Indian restaurant near our hotel.
We received free entry tickets and a drink in a Casino in Interlaken as a welcome gift from the hotel. So we decided to spend the rest of evening in the Casino. After pondering over Black jack and few video games we found American Roullette to be the easiest to understand and hence we made a bet of 10 francs on it. We doubled it in the first round. We should have come back but we wanted to make more, so we put in all our money back on the roulette and lost it completely. Unwilling to give up we put in 20 francs more and lost it again. Finally we decided that’s it and pulled ourselves out before losing anything more. Believe me it was so difficult to control the temptation to play again. Just realize how one easily can gets addicted to these.
The Penultimate day – This was effectively our last day on the trip.
NB had mentioned that Thun Cruise was a must see. The specialty of the lake was the turquoise blue water. From there we proceeded to a place called Stockhorn. The pamphlet showed that there is lake in half way of the summit. A cable takes you up the first level and you can choose to trek to the next mountain or take the next cable car to Schilthorn. It also said that there are paragliding and other adventure activities. We decided to go to Schilthorn top first. At the counter we were told that there are no paragliding on that day. That was little disappointing for us as we were eager to explore that as well. At the top of the mountain it was fully covered with mist. We did not spend much time and quickly descended to the mountain below. As we got near the lake our eyes widened and the thought of an ‘unsuccessful day’ so far completely vanished from our mind. The lake encircled by mountains, absolute silence and fresh cold air would bliss out any human being. There was only one European family fishing in the lake and few old ladies trekking up the mountain. We wanted to spend as much time as possible and give up the pending shopping to be done in Interlaken. We walked around the lake for some time and decided to move on. We would have clicked around 40-50 snaps of that place.
We retuned to Interlaken at around 6, finished the remaining shopping and had dinner at the same Indian restaurant.
After dinner had a stroll by the side of Lake Thun which had one its stream right beside our hotel.
Last Day – We had to take the first train from Interlaken if we were to reach the Geneva airport on time. Our flight was at 11.10 Am. We had to take the first train at 5.21am, one change in Bern and the train goes to directly to Geneva airport. For the first time in life I reached an airport by train. All we had to do is to get down the train and take the escalator up to the airport.
Swiss is all about incredible hospitality, precision and to top it all the natural beauty. No wonder they are the best.
It takes great pride and satisfaction when you plan such a big trip on your own and it works out with no hassles. Thanks to God once again.
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