Glimpses of Chicago, Milan and Chantilly

In April and May this year, I had a couple of very short work trips to some new cities. As is usual with work trips, I did not get much time to explore a lot. But here's putting down what little I saw during those times:).

Chicago

Chicago

I was in Chicago for a couple of days in spring this year. Given I had never been there before, I decided to head out a day earlier and explore it. So I landed at 11am on a Sunday morning, after a long flight from London. Even though it was a business class flight, I was still pretty tired. Am just not a fan of American Airlines I think. And of American politeness for that matter:-). The rudeness hits you the moment you land at the airport. I asked the taxi woman how far the hotel was, and for the next two days never asked a question of a stranger ;-).

Skyline from Grant Park

After quickly checking in into the W hotel, with a map in hand, I left to explore the downtown area. I first walked towards Grant Park just next to Lake Superior. Surprisingly, it was a sunny and warm day at 23 degrees Celsius even though the next day it snowed! But still it felt cold, because of the winds. Windy City, eh? :-). There were all high-rises around, the typical New York concrete jungle look. I found it too dry and drab for my liking.

Lake Michigan

I walked a bit along the park, taking in the sights of the skyline behind and Lake Michigan on the other. Then I took a detour along the Chicago river and walked towards the city. The walk was very pretty, and scenic in a different way than European cities.

Chicago river walk

There were a couple of boat trips available for tourists. But when I checked, it looked like they only show you the buildings around, talking about their architecture. So I gave it a miss. During my walk, I had already seen most of the buildings around and it did not interest me anymore. I did see a Trump building right in front which is good to know the history about, given the presidential elections coming up;-)! And there were a couple of other old buildings and concrete bridges which made for a pretty picture. Especially the twinkling lights at night were brilliant.

But by then, I got so bored, that I walked into a Macys and shopped a bit:). I could have walked towards the Willis Tower for a view of the city or the Navy Pier but by then I had lost all hopes from Chicago:). Chicago is also famous for its deep dish pizza - which is a cheese filled heavy pizza. Its a must try, though not the most healthiest of options;-).

It looks like the city has mostly buildings and architecture to appreciate, and even though they were definitely impressive, honestly, I found it one of the most boring cities I have ever visited. Maybe less than Orlando, but that's not the right comparison anyways:-). In my view, totally missable if you are a tourist.

Details of the walk




Milan

I was in Milan much longer that usual, for about 5 days. Again given it was a new city, I flew in a day earlier and saw a bit of the city, as when you start work, it never really happens!

Milan Duomo

The downtown of Milan is centred around the Duomo - the huge cathedral in white was constructed over 600 years and hence is quite central to the city. It has a huge square next to it where loads of tourists hang around. We had a view of the cathedral even from our office, so saw a lot of it during the trip:).

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele

I walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele shopping mall towards the Brera area of town. I walked past a statue of Leonardo da Vinci, a couple of small squares to come to Brera. It was a nice hangout place with small roads and loads of small cafes. The restaurant I picked up though wasn’t as great!

View of Duomo from office 

And that's most of what I got to see of Milan during the time I was there. I did explore a lot of restaurants though. The Obika Mozzarella Bar had a beautiful open seating next to the Duomo and many varieties of mozzarella to choose from (!). The Asola was on the top floor of a hotel and had a good view of the city. The Enoteca Ronchi was a small find again next to the Duomo with very tasty food. And the manager was shocked when I and another foreigner asked for butter, olive oil and vinegar for our food! It was a hilarious situation we totally enjoyed. The Osteria de Brera I ate in Brera on the first day was definitely forgettable.

Roman columns

The last dinner, we went to Osteria Delbinari which was located in the canal district of Milan. That was nice too, in the open. While coming back, my colleague took us through some of the sight seeing spots of the city - the place next to the canal where the rich used to wash their clothes, the canal that was built to transfer material for the Duomo, the remnants of a Roman temple columns, Colonne di San Lorenzo from the 2nd century AD, the pillar erected at the place where a doctor was killed because of his suspected involvement in spreading the plague (which he was trying to cure it), and the students district where all the leftists hangout.

It was a good introduction to the cultural and historical aspect of the city even though we were tired at the end of the day and not fully awake:-). But overall, as I said, I did not explore the city much, just got a glimpse of it. The rest for maybe some other time:). (I just realised that the Last Supper is in Milan and I missed it!)


Chantilly Chateau, France

Chateau at Chantilly

I did a short one day training at the Chantilly Chateau, and was impressed. It is located about an hour or so from Paris, in the rural part of France. I have stayed at many old English houses but never a French one. It was definitely different! Again I got no time to explore it but could see it had great grounds around and some fun activities to do. As I said, for sometime later maybe :-).

The Taj city : Agra

I have been to Agra once before in 1995, much before the digicams came. So funnily enough, we took all of 3 photos of the Taj Mahal:)! And at that time, I did not know much of Mughal history in detail either. So I could not appreciate many of the sites I had visited then. Since then, for many years I had been planning to visit it again and the opportunity finally arose this year.

I with two of my girlfriends from college decided to go there for a weekend road trip, driving from Delhi. We started early on a Sunday with me driving, and were there within 3 hours. The new Yamuna expressway from Delhi to Agra is impressive. Its a great road where you can drive very fast.  We were mostly driving above 100 which was fun. The landscape around was quite boring though, it felt all dried up when we drove. That's the thing with highways na, so bland and without character!

On the way, there are enough services to stop at, for food etc.. We had an interesting experience at the petrol station though. The guy said he had filled the amount we had asked for which was incorrect. Then when he started refilling, he did not start the meter from 0. But asked up to pay the total of both the amounts!! We were quite insistent that he did not start from 0, so we should not and he finally agreed. But I learnt later that this is a standard way the petrol station workers fool customers!

We stayed in Agra for two days, visiting the Agra fort and Taj Mahal the first day and then Fatehpur Sikri the second. The Agra fort is a beautiful complex with many buildings of marble and red sandstone still standing. Apparently a lot is there no more, but what is left is mesmerising too! It felt a lot smaller now though from what it would have initially been.

Mosque in Agra fort

There were many different mahals and gardens to explore. The mosque, diwan-i-khas and the location of the peacock throne were some of the key spots. The other highlight of the fort is that you can see the Taj Mahal from there, especially from the mahal Shah Jahan was kept prisoner in, for the last few years of his life. And the first view of Taj is as fascinating as all the later views.

Diwan-i-Khas in Agra fort

First view of the Taj from Agra fort

Another view of the Taj from Agra fort

After the fort we went towards the Taj Mahal and got lost in the Agra galiyan. We followed directions to the East gate which took us through the narrow roads of Agra. It was quite a nightmare to drive there and I am very proud that I was able to:). There was two-way traffic with barely enough space for one car to pass!

Finally we got out of that maze and went through the North gate. You need to drop your car outside in the parking space, and then take an electric tuk-tuk to the ticket office. Tickets are quite cheap, about Rs. 20 for Indian citizens. You will need to show your ID though before getting the tickets. We took a guide to show us around and spent about 2 hours just admiring the beauty and intricacy of the Taj.

First view from entrance gate

Second view when inside
the entrance gate

The Taj Mahal

The Taj complex is not just the Taj. It starts with the grand entrance followed by the first peek at the beautiful mausoleum. And then you see the well laid gardens and fountains in front, the seat where celebrities get their photos taken:), the Taj with its four minarets built on a raised floor, and the identical mosque and rest house next to it. As you come close to the Taj, you start to notice the exquisite handiwork in the stones.

Images of the Taj

And then you realise, the flower patterns, the urdu ayats written on the walls and the geometrical designs are not painted! The shapes were carved into the building, coloured stones were cut to shape and fitted into those gaps, giving it the perfect illusion of being painted! As the guide took us around, he also showed some of the illusions built into the Taj - the size of the urdu verses is bigger on top than the bottom, to make the text appear as the same size; some of the geometrical designs were crafted so as to give it a 3-D feeling even when it wasn't and so on.

Images of the Taj

The minarets were being renovated when we were there. But even with that, the place looked fascinating, especially during sunset. We went inside the Taj for a tour, but it was a bit dark and crowded, so we did not spend much time there. We did see both Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal's tombs inside, next to each other with an exquisite lamp above it and intricate carvings all around. And then I suddenly remembered an interesting saying I had read sometime - 'all you need when you die is enough space to bury you. And what a joke life played on Shah Jahan. Even after being an emperor in life, he didn't even get his own burial space! He was buried in what space was left next to his wife's tomb!'

Images of the Taj

I don't have any words which can describe the Taj's beauty and what you feel when you see it. The whole experience was so surreal, we were all lost in the place for long. It was very tough for me to leave it. The fact that it was closing made me;-). Otherwise I could have sat there for hours, just lost in its beauty and perfection! It's said that during full moon nights, the Taj looks even more magnificient. And watching the Taj during sunset from the garden across Yamuna is also an experience to be had. Maybe for next time:) (as I am sure there will be more visits!).

Images of the Taj

View from Sheraton's Taj-e-Jharokha

After this surreal experience, we checked in to the ITC Sheraton hotel located nearby. It was quite a foreigner focused hotel, grand but did not feel too authentic. We crashed after the long day but the next morning we realised, there is a terrace there called the Taj-e-jharokha from where you can see the Taj far off - a gleaming white against the chaos of the city in between. It left quite a lasting impression on me- the gardens of the hotel juxtaposed onto the chaos of the city, crowned by the Taj. Will always remember this view...

Buland Darwaza

After checking out from the hotel, we went to Fatehpur Sikri, again through small lanes of Agra where driving was an interesting experience. The place felt quite out of Agra, with its own small little town next to it. The palace complex is on a raised ground and split into two parts. The first is the Buland Darwaza and Salim Chisti's mosque. The second is the royal palace.

Poetry in red sandstone

We first went to the Buland Darwaza which as the name suggests, is grand. Inside, it is a beautiful square complex made of red sandstone and beautiful paintings and carvings adorning the walls and roofs. In the centre was Salim Chisti's white marble dargah, a poetry in white again. The whole area was very fascinating - the coolness inside the red sandstone structures, the light playing games with the carvings and so on.

Salim Chisti's dargah

But the whole experience was marred byall the ruckus created by people all around. There were too many people picnicing around, eating food, throwing stuff around and so on. The whole area was very dirty and not maintained at all. Maybe because it was free? I really wish it was better maintained, you could see the potential for it to be a place of such calm and peace; it felt the opposite of that when we went there!

Fatehpur Sikri

The palace complex next to the Buland Darwaza felt relatively small. There were a couple of mahals here - Jodha Mahal (the harem and not Jodha's mahal), King's mahal, the stage where Tansen performed, set amongst fountains, the multi-layered bhavan for watching dance performances, the kitchen, the Portuguese wife's mahal, the diwan-i-khas and the diwan-i-aam. All the places were pretty but it was too hot and we couldn't enjoy for long:(. We did enjoy reading up on all the stories though.

Fatehpur Sikri - Tansen's stage

Our drive back was a bit off the Yamuna expressway which in hindsight was not a great idea. We drove through Mathura and Bharatpur, through some quite narrow roads (Google Maps still has some way to go in India) and then we were back from the Mughal town to the hustle and bustle in Gurugram.

Other than the places we visited, I'timād-ud-Daulah's mousaleum, known as Mini-Taj is also worth visiting. And the park across the Yamuna overlooking the Taj, where Shah Jahan was planning to build another Taj in black marble. The platform where it was supposed to be built still exists and provides a good view of the Taj. The Yamuna, though a major river felt very lacklustre in Agra. It didn't have much water to be considered a full river even.

Overall, the tourist arrangements were convenient in Agra, and it was easy to visit these places. Traffic as expected was random. But everytime we would drive through the Cantonment areas, the road got fun to drive on. The only irritant in the whole trip though was the constant harassment by the guides. Young children and adults alike kept paining us to get them as a guide, even for as less at Rs. 10! And I don't think they are taught to accept no, they just go on pestering you. This is something that the authorities really need to sort.

Other than this, I absolutely loved the trip - spending time with old friends and visiting a place of beauty and history. And all for 80 pounds:). Given how much we spend on vacations in Europe, this felt unreal and more than value for money!

Dubai, the desert jewel

Dubai is one of those destinations that is very common on most travellers' lists. Just because you would have heard about it forever, there is a high likelihood that you would have visited it sometime or the other. But surprisingly, I had never visited it till now. It was midway on my way from London to India, so I always thought I would stop there on some trip to/from India. And that took more than 10 years to happen:).

It happened this spring - a couple of my friends were planning to get together in Dubai. But even though the plan fell through, I still got a chance to visit and explore this desert jewel. I stayed there for about two and a half days and was very impressed with what the Sheikh of Dubai had built.

It is not that Dubai is an amazingly touristy place - in many ways, it is pretty average. But its more about the vision that you see in the city which impresses you. Building this huge and luxurious residential, entertainment and commercial hub right in the middle of the desert is not easy.

The whole Dubai experience started for me with my Emirates flight. Its definitely one of the better airlines around and you can see luxury the moment you are on it. The seats are better than even the business class of British Airways when you fly within Europe. And this luxurious experience continued all the way during my trip.

While landing, there was a lot of fog, which felt weird to me, but apparently this is normal because of the mixture of desert sand with the cold temperature in the morning. From the air, I could see all the houses spread far, with a yellow hue all around. Maybe they were reflecting the colours of the desert?

JBR 3D painting

Once in Dubai, I was met by my friend who stays in Dubai and she showed me around the city in her BMW;-). The first day, we visited two places. In the morning, we went to JBR or Jumeirah Beach Resort - a touristy area next to the beach. It has lots of high rise apartments also located there and apparently most of the expats stay here. Maybe because JBR has a very European feel to it, or maybe its the reverse reason:).

JBR 3D painting

JBR is full of shops and hotels and things for tourists to do. You can see everyone walking around lazily in the sun, exploring the area and clicking pictures. While I was there, there was a street artist display of 3D paintings on the road which we saw. And then had a burger lunch sitting outside. The best part of being there for me though was the sun, especially given this year spring was very very cold in London. I just loved sitting outside, with the sun on my face, enjoying the heat and doing nothing else.

In the evening, we went for a desert safari to the Al Madam desert (in Sharjah). The desert safaris are standard tourism tours offered by many different agents. It starts with them taking you out of Dubai into the desert in their Land Rovers (I think). I did not even realise we had driven into Sharjah by the time we were in the desert! The landscape very quickly changes from the glitz of Dubai to the barren yellow of the desert. On the way the guide showed us many different parts of the city - the location for an artificial indoors lagoon that is being built, the race course for horses and one for camels. We of course did not see the race but would have been fun nevertheless :).

The desert experience starts with dune-bashing, where the guides drive you very fast through the sand dunes. They go up and down very fast and it requires very skillful driving, so that you know where you can take the car on the edge and where not. It was fun (and very scary!!) for the first 5 mins, but then my head started spinning. I don't think I was able to enjoy the whole half an hour they did that, as did a couple of other fellow travellers in the car. But it is an experience to be had at least once. You wouldn't think it is possible to drive on the edges and go up and down the dunes, the way those guides do.

We stopped after that crazy drive in the middle of the desert to take some touristy photos. To be honest, having seen many deserts before, I wasn't too impressed. It was not a desert till where your eyes can see either. Right in front you could see a rock mining location, so wasn't as much in the wilderness as it should be.

Desert safari camp

Sheesha corner

After the dune bashing, we were taken to a desert safari camp for the rest of the evening. It was a huge area with lots of tents set up and different activities happening all around. There was a henna corner; some food stuff; a sheesha corner; desert scooters to drive on the dunes; Arabian carpets being sold; photoshoots dressed up in Arabs costumes and so on to spend time. You have about an hour to experience it all, before the show starts. We got some henna done and then tried some sheesha. My head was too dazed from the dune bashing to try out the desert scooters. But am sure they are fun. Maybe for next time:).

Around 7pm or so, the dance show started. It included about 7-8 different belly dances, by about 5 or so dancers. To be honest, the dancing wasn't really out of this world. The music though I loved. The Arabian tunes all have this mystic and mast feeling about them which I really enjoy.

Dance in trance

The last dance of the day was the most impressive one in my view. It was performed by three men and involved almost being lost in the dance, with the dervishes turns (not sure if that's what its called). The men's costume had lights on it which switched off and on sometimes and they kept on turning and performing for at least half an hour if not more. There was a mystical quality about it which is very difficult to explain. All the dancers seemed to be pretty lost in the moment. And so were the guests all around.

The dinner was quite tasty, with lots of variety in terms of Italian, English and Arabic food. I was very impressed with the overall quality of the whole safari plus the hospitality of the guide and everyone else. And it was amazing being out in the desert at night. The sand felt very soft and cool. The sky was clear and twinkling with the stars. And there was a cool wind blowing, making the temperatures drop to a comfortable level. I really enjoyed this desert safari evening, even though the desert was nothing new for me. A relaxed, calm and cool evening with nothing much to do other than enjoy the sights around is surely welcome:).

One thing I noticed that day and later was that all the people who were working were Indians or Pakistanis - the guides, the henna women and all the other workers. Apparently Dubai has been built by people from the sub-continent. They all come there, work, earn and then go back to their country when they can't as no one can become a citizen in the UAE. The whole Emirates has been built by them, while the locals have it easy and enjoy its results;-).

The second day again we visited two places. First, we drove to the Palm. We've all seen and read about it before - an artificial island created by Dubai in the shape of a palm tree. The central trunk has all the apartments while the semi-circular fronds of the palm are full of independent luxury villas, each with private access to the beach! And the outer crescent has the hotels.

Driving around in the Palm, I saw what opulence and luxury can be about. And splurging money:). The whole area felt so rich - an entire island carved out of water artificially to provide apartments and pretty villas to the moneyed of the world! By this time I had already got used to the opulence of Dubai, so nothing surprised me anymore.

Atlantis on the Palm

We spent the morning at the Atlantis resort, which was right in the middle of the crescent of the Palm. It is a huge resort, similar to its namesakes elsewhere in the world. And is full of shops and restaurants, aquariums and water park (also offering swimming with the dolphins), and beaches and spas and many more things to do. I heard that some people who visit Dubai never get out of the Atlantis, they just spend their entire vacation there:).

Dubai skyline

We sat outside in the sun at the Nassimi beach cafe for some time, admiring the Dubai skyline across the sea. I loved it and couldn't have enough of the sun:). There was plenty of it around! And then we drove around the crescent, with the car top open!! It was fun standing up in the sun with the cool breeze blowing, the sea on one side and the hotels and skyline of Dubai on the other. What a moment!

Burj elevator

In the evening, I visited the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It is 830 meters high and has 154 floors. I bought tickets for 'At the top' which is a tour allowing you to go up to the 124/125th floors which have observation decks for tourists. The whole experience has been made very touristic, which start with posters detailing the making of the Burj. There is lot of history in the story of how the building came about and that is shared with all. Then you take the elevator which takes you up the 124th floor in just 60 seconds! The lift has also been designed to wow tourists, with lighting and music inside, climaxing when you reach the 124th floor.

Dubai fountains from above

Once there, you can spend time walking around and taking in the views of Dubai. There are two floors open for tourists - 124th with an open observation deck and 125th with glass walls all around. From both floors, you get a 360 degree view of the lights of the city, the city scrapers, and the desert beyond. And this is where you see what Dubai is, like a sparkling oasis with the yellow desert around. I spent almost an hour up there, admiring the views and later on, the sunset. While up there, I also saw the Dubai fountains from above, which run every half an hour after 7pm. I think they looked prettier from above than below :).

Day view from Burj Khalifa

Night view from Burj Khalifa

Dubai mall

The Burj is built on top of Dubai mall, again the biggest mall in the world. I walked around in the mall, which goes on forever. It has all brands possible and tourists from across the world. It also has a huge aquarium and a huge waterfall inside the mall! Once down, I saw the fountains again from ground level and realised they are not really synced with the music. Its like they are flowing independently. We then had dinner at PF Changs and ran into Chunky Pandey:).

Burj al Arab

Thereafter, we went to Kite beach for a walk on the sand after dinner. It was quite isolated and fun to walk on the cool sand, have juice on the beach and enjoy the stars above. You can also see the Burj al Arab from there, twinkling at night signifying all Dubai has built in the last few years. Apparently Dubai is very safe at night too, even for women, which is always welcome.

The third and last day, I had a couple of hours before flying to Delhi, so me and my friend drove towards the Gold Souk in old Dubai but we never made it. The old city is so crowded that we got stuck in traffic, so went to Bastakiya instead which is an art village. We explored it a bit though it wasn't much to see. Driving in old Dubai also made me realise that Dubai is not all high rises. Those are just the touristy and expat parts of town. The rest are like any other - small and not so shiny places.

With my trip over, I had seen most of what was there. The whole of Dubai has only this to offer which can be seen in two days. Other than these places, the Dubai Creek, Spice Souk, Gold Souk, Butterfly garden and Miracle gardens are also supposedly worth visiting. But not necessary. Unless of course you love shopping, because then there is no end!

For me, learning about life in Dubai was more fascinating than the touristic stuff. It seems like a comfortable and convenient place to stay. There are loads of high rises and villas spread out providing plenty of accomodation to everyone. Then there are gardens, parks and green belts all around the city - kept green by drip irrigation system. It feels so unreal given that its a desert and two miles out, nothing grows at all. The infrastructure there is totally amazing. The roads are well maintained. And lot of money is spent on improving the city. Recently, the Metro was completed. And now they are building a canal all along the main road - Shaikh Zayed Road - a la European style cities.

Inside the Atlantis

Hotels abound in Dubai and they all follow the maxim of grandness and luxury. The Atlantis I already mentioned. And we passed through a Le Meridien - its the biggest and most expansive Le Meridien I have ever seen! There were so many garden restaurants and pools sprawled across the campus. We got lost inside the hotel while returning from the desert safari! Space is definitely not a constraint in Dubai. You can just convert some more of the desert into part of the city. And of course, the Burj al-Arab is the most famous of the hotels in Dubai. It looks pretty from outside. We didn't get a chance to go in, as you need a restaurant booking to even go inside!

Aquarium inside Dubai mall

There are malls everywhere to shop. In terms of staying, lot of areas like Emirates Living and Dubai Marina have come up where expats are allowed to buy houses. The villas are the huge independent houses with gardens, which are mostly outside the main city centre, while there are more apartments in the city centre. Earlier only locals could buy most of the villas, but that is changing now and getting much needed cash into the economy (given current oil prices).

You need a car to get from one place to another, as there is limited public transport. Cheap local oil always helps:). The roads are good, though traffic is pretty bad. It takes forever to get anywhere at all. And people don't follow the traffic rules much either. Houses are good. Jobs quite adequate. Help available too. Apparently Dubai also has Sharia law, thought its quite lax especially given the expat community.

There are loads of events always going on in Dubai, some festivals, some conferences and so on. They have an indoor ice rink and are building two new islands - another Palm and the World islands. So lots of money still to spare:). Is definitely a good place to settle, except its too small. And sometimes artificial.

The Indian community is one of the biggest in Dubai, with a separate area where most of the Indians stay. Bollywood stars are also big here given the number of billboards with them on it. You can hear Hindi very often all around. But of course, as I mentioned, they can never become citizens of Dubai. They will always remain foreign workers, which I think is sad.

Dubai's rise has been stellar from a port town based on slave trading to an entertainment, business and tourist centre for the world. Of all the Emirates, Dubai was the only one to transform itself and move so fast to modernise itself. Its truly amazing. I feel that this city is an ode to what the human mind is capable of. And can be a case study on how to make a tourist destination out of nothing:).

Californian winter

This winter, I spent two vacation weeks in San Jose, in the Bay Area of California. To be honest, I thought it would be sunny and warm, as you expect California to always be. However, I realised its actually cold there in the winters:). The temperatures were only marginally better than London, plus it was rainy the first week. The weather did improve later on though and it turned out to be a fun and relaxing two weeks.

Of the two weeks I was there, I mostly spent time with family and a couple of old friends; shopped (a lot of time actually!) and rest of the time relaxed. We did travel a bit too, went skiing in Lake Tahoe, and took quick day trips to the seaside resort towns of Sausalito and Carmel. But most of the time was spent in and around San Jose itself. I also got a taste of life in the Bay Area, and now think it can be another place other than London that I can think of settling in.

Bay Area

I found the Bay Area very relaxing as expected. The whole area is quite open and spread out, and there are apparently 101 cities with about 8 million people living there. This is good on the one hand but then has a bit of a disadvantage too. One, given how distributed it is, you end up needing a car to go anywhere. Second, there is not that much to do in the smaller cities other than shop. There are no parks like in London, or options to just walk to someplace. There are many malls all around but they are also all spread out and you need to drive to get anywhere.

So we ended up shopping a lot, mostly in the nearby mall of Valley Fair (at least 3 trips in two weeks if not more!) plus two trips to the Gilroy outlet mall which is about 45 mins drive from San Jose. The trips were totally worth it as prices in US are much lower than in UK. But it does get boring after a while seeing the same brands everywhere all the time.

Stanford University

One of the afternoons, we made a quick trip to Stanford University and walked around the area. The University is located in Palo Alto, the same area as Facebook is in:). It was a pretty campus, with huge green grounds everywhere. The main building, the Church and the clock tower were impressive (though not as much as Oxford or Cambridge). It felt like such a calm world within the busy urban landscape outside. Would be fun to study there for sure. The area around Palo Alto was nice to drive in too, lots of beautiful houses in the area.

One of the days, I did a Tesla test ride on the P90D too and I must say I loved it! Its also the first time I have ever test ridden a car:). What I loved about it was two things - one, the Ludicrous mode which allows you to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph within 2.9 secs. It feels like you are in one of those sci-fi movies where the rocket is moving ahead very fast. I would definitely recommend everyone to try it. The second of course was how quiet the car was. It almost felt surreal, how can a car not make a lot of noise? The Tesla is designed very well, its very spacious, has two boots and very easy-to-drive controls. Tesla now has an auto-pilot mode too which I did not get a chance to test, but I think is a definite must-do for the next time.

San Jose Gurudwara

The last day of the trip, we visited the Gurudwara of San Jose. Its located on a hill, with a great view of San Jose. We spent some time in the Gurudwara, which was very calming and then had langar there, which was tasty as expected.

Langar

One thing which I found disturbing was this board right in the middle of the langar. Its very clear what philosophy they are propagating - an anti-India feeling. And the fact that a foreigner is behind this quote is not a surprise at all! To be honest, I felt like walking out from there but then thought that its a God's place, and the issue I had was with the people who put up the board, not God. So decided against it.

We drove around a lot in the Bay Area and I was always impressed with the picturesque sunsets every evening. With the sea, the mountains, the clouds, the clear blues of the sky - it always made for mesmerising moments. While driving along the highway, I also saw names of so many companies and startups, whose apps I have used - Avaya, Evernote and so on. The whole startup scene felt so much more real and alive when I saw all those company boards.

House prices in the whole Bay Area have been going up crazily in the last few years, apparently they are now close to London prices! Which is surprising given there is so much empty land all around. Its all the startup and IPO money talking I guess. Plus all the houses there look like they are made of cardboard (because it is an earthquake prone area). I wonder why they are so expensive then?

The traffic here is not too good either as people break the rules all the time. Also service is quite bad everywhere. People talk too much and don't work efficiently. Plus feel much more rude than people in UK. Was an interesting experience to note these differences nevertheless:).

Lake Tahoe

We spent a weekend skiing in Lake Tahoe, though the intial plan was to be there for 4 days. One day was lost when there was a snowstorm there (was good for the snow though) and the other day was lost because of terrible traffic. Even though Lake Tahoe supposedly is 3.5 hours from San Jose, it took us almost 6 hours to reach there. There was just so much traffic on the way, with snow chains and moving very slowly, it took us 3 hours to cover a 40 mins distance! The scenery during this time was pretty to look at - white hills and valleys with snow on the trees all around.

Ski run

There are many ski resorts in the area. We went to Heavenly which is in South Lake Tahoe city. It is a nice little village providing access to multiple slopes. The first day since we reached at 2pm, we just spent some time eating and walking around. It was so cold (-10 degrees) that we were not in the mood for any more walking and promptly checked-in into our accommodation:). We had booked a house very conveniently located about 0.6 miles from the resort. It was shaped round like an igloo and was very cosy and well decorated.

Lake Tahoe from the top

The next two days we skied along the various slopes of the resort. I took lessons on the first day and realised that the slope markings are different and easier than the ones in Europe. The blues here are the second level of slopes but still easier than the blues in Europe which are the lowest level there. Overall the skiing was relatively smooth and easy and there were very few moghuls which is always welcome:). The slopes were fun - lots of easy blues all around, with magnificent views of the lake and I particularly loved the Stagecoach, Ridge Run and the Galaxy run.

This year the snow was good, and a lot of people mentioned that last few years they had not got a lot of snow. It was very cold on the top, almost -18 degrees Celcius with wind chill. The views from the runs were amazing - both of the lake below, as well as all the hills around. All the trees were covered with snow, it was like the white christmas trees we all used to draw on our christmas cards. Lot of times while skiing, I would stop and just admire the view.

You can go up the runs by taking the main gondola from the Heavenly village. One the way up, there is a viewpoint where you can get a birds eye view of the lake. Apparently the ticket till the view point and back costs $65, while the all day ski pass costs about $135 a day. And there are many other lifts going up to other points, the highest of which was about 10k feet high. The food on the top is very expensive, so I would suggest you eat in the village before you go up. We also saw loads of Indians on the top of the gondola, who were not skiing, just clicking photos and leaving back via the gondola:).

Snow covered trees

There are a couple of villages that you can ski down to. So you dont always have to take the gondola down to the Heavenly Village. But it is the biggest of the lot with lots of restaurants around.

We took a package on the first day which was quite reasonable. It costs $175 per day and includes day lift ticket, one 2.5 hour class and ski rental for the day. While if you try to get only a class, it costs about $115 for one day. The service at the Heavenly ski rentals was below par though - they have so many different processes, it took us about 1.5 hours to get our ski rentals!

I have been to Lake Tahoe once before in the summer, it was so different and beautiful then. The lake was blue and the weather warm. Its nice (and rare) to have such a place so closeby which offers both hiking and water activities in summer, and then skiing in winter. Lake Tahoe is definitely a plus for the Bay Area

We ate lunch at Kalani's and dinner at Pizza base camp on day one, and dinner at Fire and Ice on the second day, all in Heavenly village. All were decent places and the food tasted amazing after a long day of skiing. And while coming back to San Jose, we ate Indian dinner in Sacramento at Bombay bar and grill - that was definitely amazing.

Carmel

Carmel high street

We drove to Carmel one day when we were shopping in Gilroy and the weather changed from rain to sun:). Its a nice little seaside town to the South of the Bay Area and has a very European feel to it. We spent a nice afternoon there browsing through some of its (expensive) shops and boutiques, and had a quick lunch at Mediterranean. Then we took a walk next to the sea in the setting sun. It would be very pretty in the summer when its warm. Now though, it was tough to stay out for long. Of course you can never go into the sea as its always cold water (apparently even in summers)!

Carmel beach

Sausalito

Sausalito beachfront

Sausalito is another little seaside resort town north of San Francisco, where we went on the 31st of December. It has a similar European feel like Carmel, with lots of boutiques and galleries and beachfront houses next to the sea. We ate at a small little Italian place and then just walked around checking out all the painting galleries. There was one by Daniel Merriam which was quite interesting and I loved this painting. Too expensive to buy it though!

United Airlines

I flew United Airways to and from SF and I must say they are one of the worst airlines I have flown. The seat did not recline, the food was barely filling or edible, and the blanket or better still, piece of cloth they gave was like something donated for earthquake victims which they passed on to the customers!! They have automated check-in kiosks which dont work most of the time, and then limited staff to deal with the passengers for whom it doesn't. So lots of things to complain about. The only thing that made up for it was the friendly and talkative flight staff, but without them it was a terrible experience.

Overall I loved the trip and look forward to working there sometime. Lets see...