First visit to London

16th Feb We left Reading at 9:30 by train and reached London Paddington station in half an hour flat. Journey seemed much shorter as I admired the pictureque countryside fly by.

Paddington station is majestic and impresses a first time visitor with its historic antique view. From there, we went down the elevator to minus 2 level to catch a Tube to Waterloo station. Underground Tubes are excellent means of public transport, you just need a map in hand to know which tube to get into. No chance of getting lost!

Just out of this station, we were greeted by the huge 'London Eye'. It has 32 capsules and houses upto 25 people in each capsule. One complete round in this giant wheel takes around 30 min. yawwnnn....avoided it.. have already seen the aeriel view from the plane!

We headed directly to the river cruise. The weather was cold, but not unbearable. Listening to a good and sometimes hilarious commentary on almost all of the buildings on either side of the river Thames- the parliament house, the Big Ben, etc, the river cruise ended at the famous Tower bridge. We walked down couple of streets in the hope of getting a Mc Donalds veg burger for lunch...instead, grabbed a Subway sandwich and spent quite a good time at the Tower Bridge , basking in the world famous tourist spot.

By the way, the "London Bridge" is not as shown in this picture to the right..yes, it is a misnomer....this is "Tower Bridge". The actual London Bridge is just a PJ bridge...nothing special about it!
Upon entering inside the towers of the tower bridge, we were shown 2 documentaries on how the bridge came into existance, how many designs were rejected before this one was finalized, the amount of work and effort by the people and the working mechanism of the bridge. Also, how deep sea divers toiled to lay the foundation. It was very interesting.

Walking on the bridge's pavement, observing the cars race by and appreciating the wonderful view of London around, I also noticed the separator cleavage on the bridge road. This is where the bridge splits into two, when huge ships have to cross across the bridge.
Next, we visited the engine room where the working mechanism of how the bridge splits into two is explained very clearly in a easy to understand and impressive manner.

Reached Madame Tussauds museum at 4:30 and a huge queue greeted us. Realising that we will not be successfull in getting a detailed view inside before the closing time, we headed for Buckingham palace. Pretty, but you wont be impressed if u have already seen the wonderful Mysore palace!

Well, this was all that we could see in a day. There are so many other tourist attractions and interesting places to visit in London, we require alteast 2 more days to get a glimpse of all.

Waiting eagerly for our next visit...

Trip to UK

Journey(12th Jan 2008)
Whenever the flight takes off from B’lore, I always realize that I underestimate the city’s size. It seems never-endingly huge and a very pretty sight from above.
As we were traveling on a weekend, we could not get the desired direct flight to London. It was Kingfisher to Delhi and then Virgin atlantic to Heathrow. In my excitement, I had stuffed our baggages with every possible thing that I could think of, exceeding the weight limit well beyond. Of course, we paid for the extra baggage(reimbursable-np ;)) and not only that, had to sadly part with rice, dal, some spices and clothes to the airport sweeper at Delhi to reduce the baggage’s weight. Someone was pleased afterall – the airport sweeper, who silently wished we had carried some more luggage!

The 10+ hour journey was not really boring. For one thing, there was my hubby’s company, then watching movies from the never ending list, sleeping and eagerly waiting like a kid for the food served :) …time just flies!

Heathrow airport is not all impressive, I must say. No way comparable to my all time favorite Dubai airport or even Nice airport. Had to pass through a really long immigration queue and also an equally long medical checkup queue! Majorly bugged. Anyways, we smartly skipped the medical checkup queue, since we had undergone the same thing in India recently. Phew. Noticed many Indians around, even the security officials at the airport were Indians! We Indians have marked e.v.e.r.y place in the world!
From there, we went to Newbury in a taxi-just 40 min drive and reached our oh-so-posh, warm and comfy service apartment at 10:40 pm. At that hour, we hardly noticed any ppl on the streets. Every single shop was closed, totally opposite to what we had seen in Dubai.
Of course, Dubai never sleeps, but UK sleeps at 8pm! That’s when all the shops and malls are closed.

Newbury
During winter in UK, the sun starts setting at 4:30 pm. Days are shorter. People follow early to bed and early to rise routine. The city sleeps at 9:30pm on an average! Man…that’s the time we are just back from our offices in Blore…or maybe not!

Newbury-not a big town, cannot see many ppl on the street, not even in the town centre. The scene on the streets anytime can be compared to a curfew scene in Blore ! We spotted just a handful Indians during our 12 day stay in this town, but there are couple of Indian restaurants here and there. No Indian grocery stores, though…was tough for us to manage with Basmati rice and channa dal for sambar/rasam!! No spices too…anyways, that was just 12 days, not bad.

The town as such is very green and pretty, excellent train connectivity to Reading, London or other places. Train station was just a 5 min walk from our place. Newbury is known as ‘Home of Vodafone’. That’s the only big company out there as far as I know. I hardly got a chance to walk much around our house due to the very cold weather..just used to go out only to ‘Sainsbury’ for grocery shopping – that’s a mall chain in UK..say like our Big Bazaar. It is very interesting just to walk around and stare at those different vegetables from different places/countries. We wouldn’t have had heard or seen some of the appliances/vegetables back in India.. Time just flies in grocery shopping…was never so interesting before!


Day 2, Sunday: Just enjoyed the stay and facilities in the apartment. Watched ‘taare zameen par’ on the 42 inch+ lcd home theatre system. Gud one, but very senti and sad :(.
Food- no issues. Kitchen was readily stuffed with all convenient things before our arrival. Friendly service, unlike our experience at Nice!!

Unlimited wireless internet access and thorough online info helped me in finding out and shortlisting rented houses in Reading. Information is so organized that house hunting can be almost 90% finalized just through internet. Area details, proximity to railway/bus stations and town centre, etc and also pictures of houses, both external and internal are accessible online. No hassle. And yes, internet info for everything –finding an Indian grocery store nearby or a route map to some place. It is perfect , in place and up to date. No need to ask anyone. Easy access to you-name-it at the click of a mouse. Totally impressive.

House hunting was a pleasant and interesting experience. We shorlisted on 4 houses and I made quick calls to respective letting agents, fixed appointments for property-visits – 4 houses in half a day, with an hour gap for consecutive house visits.
On the day of the appointment, we went by train to Reading and armed with direction maps of the houses in hand, quickly finished viewing all the 4 houses in half a day. Smooth. Very smooth and damn quick. Finalized on one too! With access to every possible info on internet and our specifications and requirements clear in mind, our house hunting was done in an absolutely no–regret and satisfactory manner.

Weather
Cold, rainy and cloudy. That’s what u should expect here. Ppl say it is not so in summer….well, lets see. Anyways, in the past 15 days, there were many sunny days too. Its really not that bad. But of course, theres no comparison in the world to Blore’s weather. It’s the best. (Maybe theres California?? Don know for sure.) So, if one has landed in UK from Bangalore, it is a tough time initially to walk around anywhere. Thermals+normal clothing+sweater+jacket+gloves+cap=no use. Still chilly. But ppl who are already used to cold weather like in Delhi, find it easy. After 10 days of inertia, now it is pretty much easier and enjoyable for me to walk around. No chilly issues :)

Monies
Yes, that’s the usage here…not money, but m.o.n.i.e.s …and its enjoyable when pronounced with a long mouth :)
Everything is , yes, needless to say, expensive. Especially house rents-crazy. That’s the most money cruncher. Next comes transport. The percentage of monies spent from our monthly salary to rent and travel is much greater than in India or even US. Something has to be cheap…and that’s broadband connection, phone and TV. Also electricity, gas and water. These are, well, cheap not in absolute terms of course, but the percentage of it spent is lesser when compared to again, India and US.
It takes atleast one week to get broadband internet+tv+phone connectivity….thats a long wait :(. But yes, almost every house has a broadband internet connection since the above three is installed as a package!

Accent and communication
As a novice Indian listener-victim, if I am targeted upon even one sentence in Brit accent, all I can apprehend are a few words here and there and depending on that, I take a wild guess on what the person is trying to say!! Well, so far, my guesses haven’t deviated too much from the point, anyways :) .
Takes some time to get used to this accent for sure for a first time Indian. Coz this is not like US accent, which is a piece of cake.

Reading(read -'Redding')
Am glad we found a house in Reading in a nice area situated though in the heart of the city, but with natural ambience and greenery around. A river stream flows next to our home, with huge snow white swans and ducks swimming occasionally! Just love it.

Reading is a bigger town and is the main connecting hub to London from lots of other places. London is just 40 min by train from here. Public transport system is amazing. If one is living in the city centre near the train station/bus station, I don’t see a need for a private vehicle. We once traveled 20 miles (Reading to Newbury) in 18 minutes flat by train!! The city centre keeps buzzing with people and activities. With lots of malls, Reading is known to be a shopping hub. Lotsa Indians and Bengalooreans around too.

Typical UK styled usually-not-so-broad roads outlined with brick buildings that have a slant roof…pretty sight. Houses here are prettier..similar styled and colured houses lined together, lots of greenery around, it looks like a fairy land. Sometimes its like, ‘Is this a painting or is this real?’
Another common feature that I have noticed in UK towns and French town, Chamonix is that there is usually a huge church right at the town centre and many not-very-broad roads branching from it and lined with restaurants and shopping places on either sides. This is a place where you can find people buzzing around with activities.
Also, the entire stretch, ie the town centre is made traffic free. These roads are covered with coloured tiles too instead of tar. It is nice to spend time here just walking around everywhere.

In Reading, there are lots of Indian grocery stores around too.. Thats a relief! And that brings sudden enthu to try out and experiment on lots of yummy new dishes!

We did lots of shopping in ‘Argos’ yday….microwave, airer, iron box, etc. This is a place to look for electronic items. Reasonable price and a great shopping experience. There are lots of free copies of huge fat books just at the entrance for customers which lists all the items available and their price range with snaps. Very convenient and again, no need to hunt for anyone to ask for any info. Theres also a machine, which displays the number of items available upon entering the id of the article. Cool.. No intrusive sales ppl too!
Another option of course is online shopping usually for couch potatoes or busy bees. Click, order and there it is at our door step.

During the later part of the day, we wanted to explore ‘Oxford street’. Walked and walked down the never ending stretch of Oxford street until our legs ached...Well, that’s where many Indians and Africans live. We didn’t like the area much but one advantage of staying in a house on this road/sidelanes is the proximity to many Indian grocery stores and restaurants. Seems we get Alu puri/samosa/pani puri and such chaats here! Hmmm.
Unluckily, yday these chaat shops were closed L dono why.

Anyways, shopping and grocery shopping too is a lively entertainment which we are enthused to do it here !
Since distance to town centre is walkable, that’s what we do…be it any shopping. Walk and walk around everywhere.. Like never before. Feels good for a change, that’s maybe coz of zero pollution and noise and organized traffic..And maybe we have even lost a couple of pounds! Oops…cant afford to do that here! Read it as weight ;)

Trip to France

I managed to get a 15 day off from office to visit France in August 2005. It was more than definitely worth the not-so-smooth flying experience and not-so-easy talk that I had to do with my manager at work for the leave!!

Journey
I was flying alone from Bangalore to join my hubby who was working in Nice, France at that time. It was my first international flying experience and was exciting. I had to fly to Dubai first and from there to Nice in Emirates. Bangalore to Dubai flight got very much delayed due to a sick passenger onboard and that meant my connecting flight was getting delayed too. Was not a tension-free start of course. Luckily I landed in Dubai to catch the Emirates flight just in time when passengers were boarding the flight. It was damn close! I remember running on and on the never ending, huge ,marvelous, splendid , etc etc Dubai airport determined to reach my gate and catch the flight. Dubai airport is an amazing piece of art and I was bowled over when I saw it for the first time.

Journey in Emirates was luxurious with individual televisions to ,good number of channels to select and a menu card to choose food. Reached the impressive Nice airport and walked as slowly as a tortoise until I was the last person walking to the baggage collection section, quite opposite to my tensed pace in Dubai airport where I almost shoved people for way. While waiting for the baggage, tried to pull a trolley but it wouldn’t come unless one Euro was inserted and yes, I didn’t have the change! No one in sight to ask for change as everyone had left, i walked all the way till the end of the huge airport till I found an airways office, got the change, walked back and waited and waited for my baggage. No one in sight too. Where the hell did my baggage go?? Fine….walked again all the way till the exit, approached the aiways’office and got to know that baggage was delayed and it would come in the next flight, that would be 2 days later! Damn. But they gave me some goodies to pacify me like an emergency kit and they would bear my expenses for the 2 days. Good. At the exit, I found my real tensed hubby who had tried all possible means to trace me by then since I was very much delayed in the luggage confusion!

He was staying in Nice for almost 3 months, before I joined him there.

Nice
Nice is a very famous and expensive holiday destination in France.

I cannot forget the view from the plane window as we were descending to Nice airport – the picturesque scene of the runway of the airport which is just beside the Mediterranean sea is very beautiful.

Out from the airport and into a car and on the way to our apartment in Nice, my hubby drove along the Mediterranean sea. That was a terrific view. I observed Nice without batting an eyelid. It is an amazing city, very beautiful with the Mediterranean sea outlining the entire city. It is clean and calm and like a huge marvellous resort. The colour of the Mediterranean water especially is what I call as 'breathtaking blue'.

The apartment was a good one. We then relaxed for a while, ate and I spent some time looking out of the huge window, which overlooked hills and beautiful greenery over the distance, while Sumanth went back to work. Then had a good siesta.

In the eve, we went to the beach. The Mediterranean blue was captivating. Spent time there till it was dark, then back to the apartment.

Trip to Paris
Next day morning, all geared up and in full enthu, we started off to Paris. Was a 2 hour journey by flight. After getting out of the plane, we walked into a "Tube" to reach our hotel.

Tubes are long trains very efficient public transport system in Paris. It connects every nook and corner of the city and one need not wait for more than 2 or 3 minutes to get into a tube! Very smartly designed. I really hope Namma Bengalooru will have such a fine means of public transport one day!

Got down at some point and had some tough time locating our hotel walking from the metro station to our hotel with our huge luggages.

In the evening, we went on a cruise on the river Siene, appreciating the world famous city known for its romantic beauty.

Next day, took the sight seeing buses and went around the city - u can hop on and off anywhere and any number of times with a pass. Visited the Louvre museum, then Eiffel tower . Neither of us have much interest in art, so we didn’t appreciate Louvre as much as it deserved J. But of course, it was very exciting to see all those larger than life size paintings, the Mona Lisa painting, the huge glass pyramid and everything else in the museum. I had read a few chapters of the “ Da Vinci Code” before this trip and was very exciting to relate whatever I had read to what I was seeing in Paris and the museum in particular. This urged me to complete reading the book as soon as possible.

The view from the top of Eiffel tower was splendid. Though we had to wait in a long queue to get to the top of the Eiffel tower, we weren’t complaining. Different country, different people, tourists from all over the world…was interesting to see everything. Siene looked amazing from the top and so did the beautiful city of Paris.

Then Arc de triomphe. Splendid view from here too. Roads of Paris spread out from here like the rays of the sun in all directions, all around it. From Arc De Triomphe, the Eiffel tower looked simply awesome when it was all lit up and with the occasional dancing lights!

Next day, we visited the Disney land. Had real great fun and some real scary rides! One day is just not enough to have a heart full of Disneyland!

Another day was spent at Versailles palace. This is a lovely palace with a HUGE and well maintained garden around it. Not to be missed when on a visit to Paris.

Chamonix
Next, our most memorable drive- drive to Chamonix, a second heaven. The drive was very exciting and interesting. Me, the navigator was armed with clear maps and my hubby-cum-driver enjoyed every minute of drive along the amazing highways with a picture perfect scenery on both sides. We once overlooked a direction and went inside Turin city (Torino) . People there were helpful and tried their best to communicate to us even in sign-language (all of them we met didn’t know English) to get back to the highway.

We passed through countless tunnels and bridges, but the best one was the Montblanc tunnel, which runs for 11 km!!! There is an exact speed limit which we have to adhere to strictly, neither more, nor less. Another thing is that there are blue flashing lights installed every few yards on either walls of the tunnel. At any point of time, a driver has to ensure that he is exactly one blue light behind the driver in front of him.

This amazing tunnel is built through the highest peak in Europe ie the world famous MontBlanc meaning White mountain in French. One end of the tunnel opens in France and the other end in Italy!!

Recently on National Geographic channel, we had watched an episode of a fire accident in this same tunnel that happened 20 years back which was very dreadful. So, driving through the same tunnel now for us was little scary but more exciting nevertheless.

The Chamonix town is just like a fairyland, with huge bunch of flowers decorating every window of all buildings and the pavements too!! Huge cement pots and even hanging pots from a pole are placed on the pavements every few yards which enhances the beauty of the place.

We went to the highest point in France, the Mont Blanc, in a ropeway from chamonix town. Montblanc is completely covered with dense snow. Spent a memorable time there.

On the way back to Nice from Chamonix, we spent some time at a glacier.

Return journey
This is another episode. My flight (Emirates )was delayed in Nice. After waiting for 8 hours, I had to spend a whole night at hotel Ritz . There was a problem with one of the engines of the plane and all the passengers were asked to stay at Ritz hotel, which is one of the posh hotel in Nice with rooms overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean sea. All my connecting flights had to be rescheduled and was one big experience for me!

Ultimately, reached safely to India!

More learnings about Dubai

In Dubai, the al-Maktoums hold all key positions in the city-state’s government, their decisions are largely popular, because they have overseen a period of prosperity. Seems this is typical of ruling families in the Gulf, where men take up to four wives and regularly count their offspring in double figures!

No political parties exist in UAE!! Life is, almost pretty comfortable and people need not pay income tax (Wha?? Yes!)

According to Economist.com, UAE nationals account for just one-fifth of the country’s 4.5 million inhabitants. Come to think of it, our Bengalooru has around 6.5 million! Phew! Expatriates make up at least 80% of Dubai’s population, and consist mainly of Indians, Pakistanis and Filipinos, who take the emirate’s low-wage jobs.

Westerners are mainly employed in white collared jobs. But Dubai’s high standard of living tends to mitigate radicalism

Present ruler is Sheikh Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum,( I love these tongue twister names!) is in his early 50’s and was married in 2004. Seems he was largely responsible for developing the modern Dubai, and as anyone can see, he has done a superb job!

Also as we have observed, the local press is cautious and rarely says anything against the rulers and their decisions!
Construction is happening at a dramatically huge speed here as anyone can see. There are 3 man made islands in the shape of palm trees. And it seems one is as huge as Manhattan! Wow.

Also, the world’s largest skyscraper, Burj-Dubai is under construction. And so is the world’s largest theme park –Dubailand, aimed to be twice the size of Disneyworld in Florida.

It is definitely surprising to know that this small city has 30 shopping malls (!!!) and 300 hotels as of now. Wow. Not sure if our all time favourites like Saravanabhavan, Chappan Bhog, etc come in the list ;)

It is very hard to believe that just thirty years ago, yes 30, there was nothing in Dubai but a creek, a sheikh's palace and a dodgy reputation as the smuggling capital of the Arabian Gulf.

Dubai has over 600 gold shops, the densest concentration in the world. Dubai's Gold Souk has 275-plus shops in a half a square km area! Designs in gold are splendid and matchless.

My experiences in Dubai!

I had an oppotunity to stay in one of the most richest and stylish cities in the world- Dubai, for a luxurious period of 5 months. As a tourist, these were some of the eye catching things/events in Dubai...

First, the airport- As soon as I landed in Dubai, this was the first amazing thing. It has one of the most grand and beautiful airports with cool interiors. The huge artificial palm trees lined near the waiting lounge, rows of artificially lit torches near the ceiling, arab houses and windows lining the ceiling…too good. And yes, the entire airport is wireless enabled so that passengers can use the internet being seated anywhere. Cool. No boredom of waiting for delayed flights. And yes, theres a massage centre, spa and a beauty parlour too! And time just flies when u visit the duty-free shops there, which are stuffed with exquisite collection of Arabic stuff..the hookah, etc.

The long sparkling white dress that Arab men wear gives them a kind of majestic look though I wonder how they don’t feel uncomfortable wearing that throughout the day!
Local women here are clad in burkha, but most young women don’t cover their face and they are very fashion conscious, contrary to my earlier belief! They are up-to-date in fashion and learnt that they are shopaholics! Hmm..not bad!
In fact, far as we have observed, there are more women drivers than men, who drive those macho looking SUVs! Clad in their burkha, they drive comfortably and confidently..and this is a very common scene on the roads…how cool is that! This is quite contrary to the kind of impression I used to have.

Dubai city never sleeps. Shops open till 12 in the night, people and traffic very much alive well past midnight...We usually used to get back home at 11:30 /12 in the night almost everyday , either from grocery shopping or just roaming in the malls/beach. And many times we have seen families –a couple and a kid taking a leisure stroll, sometimes 2 ladies returning home from work crossing the street without any tension of safety even at that late hour.

‘Sheikh Zayed’ road is like the main artery of Dubai with amazing and artistic skyscrapers lined throughout on both sides of the road. First time I went on this road, it was thrilling to see how the vehicles zoom and zip past us in the 5 lane road. wow. But inside the car, you cannot feel the real speed. One day, we were walking on the sidelanes of this road near the foot of those grand skyscrapers to get a sip of the coffee in the Starbucks coffee shop which was nearby and this was when that I actually felt the real speed of the zooming vehicles! It is more thrilling to just stand by the side and watch the zooming vehicles than actually be on the road..Just too fast for the eye!
Of course it goes without saying that there are maximum number of accidents on this road, roughly atleast 2 accidents on this road everyday!

From this road, we get a view of the to-be world’s tallest building , which is under construction. Seems it will be twice as tall as Burj Al Arab!!

Next. My fav-Burj Al Arab. This is a 7 star hotel and is the main icon of Dubai. It is a master piece of art in construction . Love at first sight to anyone.

Beaches in Dubai- One big feast to the eye. We had been to Jumeirah beach. The white sand , the light blue sea and lighter blue sky with the grand and magnificent Burj Al Arab on one side and the Jumeirah on the other side –ah! I just stood staring at this silently for a long time.
The beaches are so clean and the snow white sand gives a cleaner look to them. From one of the beaches, we get a full view of all the sheikh zayed road buildings at once-the Emirates towers, the Al burj, Etisalat tower, all o them. Feast to the camera’s eye.

One day we were driving on Sheikh Zayed road and there happened to be an unusual traffic jam at an odd hour. We suspected an accident somewhere nearby…it was true. A car was badly defaced. We watched in amazement when a huge helicopter came within seconds and landed right on the center of the road! This was a police chopper and picked up the injured so that they could reach the hospital within minutes! Perfect system!!