Devi Mandir, Napa Valley

My visit to Shree Maa’s Devi Mandir at Napa Valley, California was a long awaited one. Finally it was in June 2011 that I called up Maa when she asked me to come in and spend a weekend in the Ashram. A 90 minute bus journey from San Francisco Intl. Airport through the city, hills, coastline and countryside brought me to the Napa Valley bus stop. I loved the journey… and for a moment it felt as though I was in some city in India… the streets, the houses, the architecture and the vegetation everything looked so familiar. And all along the way I kept thinking how wonderful it would be to meet Maa after about 10 years or so.

Weekend at Siddapur

A short weekend trip to Siddapur [Karnataka] was a perfect retreat from the busy life that we have got so used to being in a city like Bangalore. Krishna, my friend and colleague, calls Siddapur his hometown. It was his idea to spend the weekend there. After having known me and my preferences of spending time in peace, he was quite sure that I would find his place and the stay quite interesting. I couldn’t have agreed any less. The time spent was not only relaxing but a lot rewarding as well… Krishna’s parents are true gems and I was glad that I was able to know more about them.

Stay at Dharamkot, Dharamshala

An overnight bus from ISBT Delhi was the start of our short trip to Dharamshala, McLeodgunj, Bagsu, and Dharamkot. We tried to catch up small naps now and then which might be a good idea considering the fact that early in the morning there would be amazing sights to see prior to reaching Dharamshala. The bus took us through rivulets, valleys, mountains and bridges. A few mountain tops were lost in the clouds –this was just the beginning of what we were to see in the rest of the week.

In and Around Minneapolis

You can guesstimate the number of lakes you’ll find in Minnesota when the car registration number plate says –“Minnesota, Land of 10000 Lakes”. Yes, Lakes are something that you absolutely cannot miss if you come to the state capital –Minneapolis. Quite prominent among all the lakes are the Chain of Lakes consisting of Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles. Out of these four, Lake Calhoun falls on an important bus route 6 which connects the suburb of Edina to downtown Minneapolis via Uptown station. And due to the same reason, attracts a lot of people during the summers. Apart from the Lakes, you’ve got a couple of important shopping arenas in the form of The Great Mall of America and Albert Lea which calls Minneapolis home. The weather in this part of the country hovers from one extreme to the other… during summers we have almost 35 degrees centigrade which goes down to -35 degrees in the winters... and when it rains, its as if the world is coming to an end. However having stayed in Minneapolis, I've got fond memories of the place. I'd like to write a little bit about what I've been through in the 18 months that I've spent in this wonderful city.

Trek to Triund

Having stayed in Dharamkot, Dharamashala for a day though was not enough to acclimatize me with 1800 meters of altitude (having arrived from zero MSL) but that was the most I could have afforded in the short vacation that I was able to squeeze out from my routine job.

Triund is about 2875 meters above MSL and 9 kms from Bagsu. This is the site from where the Dhauladhar Range of the Himalayas is visible –provided the weather allows. This is an important piece of advice I’d have for anyone who has plans of visiting Triund –please do not visit during the monsoon, you would be just wasting your efforts, time and money. The best time is October when the trek is comfortable and you find no fogs or clouds to block the sight. I’ve heard from people that the sight of the range is so majestic and so huge from Triund that you would sometimes feel that it’s so close you can almost touch it.

The Jump!

Those of us who know me well know how crazy I am about flying and the closest I’ve ever come [apart from the regular travel via airplanes] is the paragliding experience in 2008 at Interlaken, Switzerland. And well ever since then I’ve always nurtured a secret desire of jumping off an airplane –of course in tandem and with an extra parachute. So it was no surprise when I readily agreed to skydive when Nupur informed me of a chance to do so not very far away from where I stayed.

South Dakota Trip

A few weeks before the Memorial Day weekend we had a couple of travel plans laid out in front of us. The one that we finalized was to visit Mt. Rushmore, Badlands National Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, Devil’s Tower, Needles and Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park… not in the above sequence though.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota is one of those unique landscapes that still exists and date back to about 75 million years! We’re not talk about centuries but million years… Apparently as per geologists (mentioned in the Badlands National Park information guide) the earth’s climate at that time was warmer than it is now and a shallow sea abundant with life covered the region we call the Great Plains -stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and from western Iowa to western Wyoming.

Needles Highway and Wildlife Loop, Black Hills

Located along SD-87 as part as of Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway, Needles Highway is a 14 mi driveway through pine and spruce forest with sharp bends, tunnels and granite structures in the form of “Needles”. Please do not visit this route if you want to speed your way all along. With more than a dozen pullover sights, the Highway offers enough to the visitors to capture the beauty of the place in their cameras. We were fortunate enough to see two rock climbers trying to scale the heights of these structures. The tunnels were so narrow that only one car could pass through it. This trail took us about 90 odd minutes with the halts and photo shoot outs.

Crazy Horse, Black Hills

While you are in the Black Hills, South Dakota, Crazy Horse is one memorial which offers a lot of cultural insight to the lives of the native Americans. Do visit the museum.

As you enter the Visitor’s Center there’s a nice 15-20 minute video which gives a history of how and why the Crazy Horse Memorial is being created… apparently to honor one of the greatest Native American –Crazy Horse. The monument is that of a Native American Lakota warrior [Thašúŋke Witkó] riding a horse and pointing to a distant land which he called his –“My lands are where my dead lie buried”.

Devil’s Tower, Black Hills

Devil’s Tower is a little less than a couple of hours drive away from Rapid City, SD, USA. The route is through the Black Hills National Forest and as picturesque as can be… plain grasslands on either side of the road I-90; something like the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. We left the Interstate at exit 199 for County Road 86 [instead of exit 185 as being suggested by the GPS] which promised to be scenic and longer.

Lake Superior and nearby places

We rented out a Mitsubishi Gallant for our 150 minutes drive to Duluth from Minneapolis via I-35. The weather was warm and sunny and every second or third automobile on the freeway had a trailer or speed boats hiked on the rear. The route for anyone who’s driven along I-35 is nothing remarkable… I do not remember having seen something of worth. Our plan was to visit Lake Superior, Split Rock lighthouse and wrap it with a hiking trail along Gooseberry Falls. Nature had one more addition to make to the list.

I'm Learning to Fly...

Well I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
The town lit up the world got still

I’m learning to fly but I ain’t got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

In and Around Zürich

There are a few places in Zürich that I found interesting from an outdoor activity point of view… and it doesn't take more than half a day for each of these. When you’re in Zurich you cannot miss the Lake. It’s the single largest attraction of the City… and I’ve covered my tryst with the Lake in another blog of mine, except for the cycling part that I will cover in this small write-up.

To start with, about an hour or so from Zürich Hauptbahnhof via rail is Rheinfall –the largest waterfall in Europe. I do not remember the route we took but if I remember correctly, we took a train to Winterthur and from there we hopped onto another one for Schaffhausen. The Rheinfall is about a few minutes from there along a zigzag pathway near the shoreline. In fact as soon as you get out of the train you can hear the mighty Rheinfall… and when I saw it for the first time… it was incredible, tons of water just kept flowing and there’s just one thing I could think of… no wonders it’s the largest in Europe. You simply have to be there to realize the magnitude of power that the waterfall yields.

Chateau de Chillon

A visit to Montreux[near the southern border of Switzerland] is incomplete without a walk along Lake Geneva and a tour of Chillon Castle a.k.a. Chateau de Chillon. The castle stands on a rocky extension in the lake from the eastern edge. Surrounded by a moat –with the water from the lake, Chateau de Chillon would pass as an impregnable enclosure which has stood the test of time having several centuries of different construction and alterations. In fact the excavations carried out indicate that the site of Chillon has been occupied since the Bronze Age.

Montreux Trip

A weekend stretched in both the sides to include a Thursday and a Monday and just two weeks into client location, that too in a place like Switzerland. I had a whole new country to explore and had already started pushing my boss to find a place to holiday at. Any place was fine as long as it was outside Zurich. With very less planners in the panel, it was not too difficult to zero in to the destination: Montreux.

Lake Zurich

One of the major attractions of the city of Zurich is the vast lake that lies at the south eastern part of the city and the best time to visit the lake would be when the sun is out and the weather is warmer. In the last one month or so I’ve visited the lake thrice… Once when it was cold and drizzling and next time when though it was not cold, the wind made it so. The third day was sunny and people were seen picnicking near the lake.

Zurich, The first impression

True to the subject line, I’ll only mention about the first few things that had hit me about this place.

The temperature difference inside a building and out in the open can be huge depending on how cold it’s outside. Believe me inside the bus, tram, train, shopping malls, office and houses the temperatures are maintained at a healthy 20 degree celsius. It’s only when we’re out… either walking on the pavement or waiting for the bus, train, tram in an open stand [you also have closed glass entrapments where commuters can wait with controlled heating] that you’d feel cold. Obviously the time in the year when you arrive into this part of the world also matters, for me it was early March.

Weekend trip to Mullayangiri Hills

It was quite sometime now that we were planning for a trek out side but near Bangalore. A bit of web-search and we zeroed in to Mullayangiri hills. In fact Mullayangiri was on our radar for quite sometime; this time, we finally agreed to make it. Mullayangiri Hills best suited our requirements: overnight from Bangalore, great scenery and treks galore. Mullayangiri, the highest peak of Karnataka, is one among the range of hills around the scenic Chikmangalur district. The town is about 220 Kilometers from Bangalore. The foothills of Mullayangiri have dense coffee plantations with little human activity. The peak is a little over 1800 meters above sea level, with a small, thousand year old ancient Shiva temple at the top. The temple has a fort-like surrounding wall, which we guessed could be due to the harsh winds near the peak. The hill sports a lush-green outlook with rocks barely visible.