Beautiful ... Mountain Views

View from a farm ...



Returning to India ... View from the airport



Lovely mountains at dusk...



Rolling hills leading to the majestic mountains :-)

 

Only in Nepal ...

... do you see a traffic policeman, and another cop armed with a rifle helping push a broken-down minibus away from the traffic on a narrow road. Ok, maybe you can see this elsewhere too ... Whoever can, helps! Right? And, whoever can't, takes a picture :-/

 

I got you, babe!

Here's the toughest lookin' babe in the world ... yup, that's right. Babe lookin' @ toughest

This is my newest niece ... she's just 2 months old, so she won't mind me violating her sense of privacy, and releasing her identity on the internets...



Oh wait, did you do a doodoo ? Fine, fine ... won't reveal your identity. But I'll still say this -- baby in a tent!!

 

Zoom zoom ...

Aren't you thoroughly impressed, and moreover, overwhelmed by the zooming capability in my simple point-n-click Canon ? Well, don't be. I didn't really zoom in on these houses from all the way up in the hills ...



But hey, here's a glimpse of ... (can't be bothered to type it out ... you know what it is!!)

 

Drivin' up to the top... ok, nearly the top!

This is a pretty cool ride to be driving up the winding roads up along the hills. Going round, and round, and round, and round ...



Until someone decides to feel queasy :-S ... and we gotta turn back! Yup, this is me .. backing that thang up.



But hey, while we're up here, I might as well take a couple of nice pictures ... of the view ... from the top :p



Yup, that's Kathmandu ... looking quite serene from way up here.

 

Day out wid da cuzs

Hey, what makes you think that this should be without incident? Yes, that's right! For some reason -- I fail to recall which exactly -- there was widespread revolting going on in Kathmandu this morning. In the usual fashion. Yup, burn those tyres on the streets!!



Had to drive around in circles in one section of KTM looking for a way out ... into another section. But those fires died, and no one seemed to think to recreate them. And I was free to begin my day out wid da cuzs ... There's me, lookin' quite contented, if I may say so myself.



Oh right, we went to this place near Budhanilkantha called Park Village Resort. It's up there right next to the surrounding hills on the Northern side of Kathmandu valley. While the view was very nice, there is much to be said about the timeliness and quality of their [food &] service.

 

Bhai tika...

Yup, the grand finale of Tihar ... Bhai Tika , and yes, that's me in da orange ... me be representin' Bangalore ;-) ... oh, and it also goes well wid da garland !!



And lookie @ all da goodies I get ... ok ok, I lie ... not all of these are mine :-/

But still, the entire NW section is mine, yeah baby ... So, just fyi the dealio is: I get dem goodies from my sis/cuz, and I gots to give her $$$s or other gifts. Kinda like a barter system ... but lookie at all da tings I get !!!

 

Happy Tihar, Diwali, Deepawali!

Went home for Tihar... It's also called Diwali / Deepawali ... means: Festival of Lights. Good stuff! Check out my cuzn's creation -- a pretty funky rangoli art.



And there are groups of people that go to houses to play deusi and bhailo ... basically, they sing and dance, or perform otherwise, and in general make for a good time :-) ... oh, you're supposed to pay them for their efforts .. in cash, or goodly Tihar foods.

Here's an up & coming rock band ...



And some good ol' fashioned folk dancerz

BLR driving directions ...

yayy buckleski, love yer howfarisitometer

This is my daily route to work: http://tinyurl.com/gzs3u




And yikes, lookie at the return trip: http://tinyurl.com/kzda2

Veni, vidi, Bangalore!

Knock knock?
- Who's there?

Ben.
- Ben, who?

Bengalore which is shut down for the day ... there's a Bandh, a state-wide strike!

.
.
.

Which means, there're no cabs at the airport. Oh, woe unto me! No friggin' cabs, and I'm stuck at the airport in this new, strange place. Oh wait, there's this strange feeling of deja vu all over again ... Not too long ago I was in a similar (if reversed) predicament...

• <=18AUG06: Increasing shortage of petrol in Kathmandu, and correspondingly increasing lines at the petrol pumps...
• 18AUG06: The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC, govt. regulated) decides on an instant increase in petrol prices by 25% ... Rs. 67 --> Rs. 83
• 19AUG06: Revolts in Kathmandu -- another Bandh -- tyres burning everywhere, bricks & rocks strewn about on city streets, no street traffic is safe!
• 20AUG06: City-wide revolts continue. But hey, I'm going to fly to Delhi today. Yayy, me!

Obviously, I'm not going to drive / be driven to the airport. The public isn't going to look lightly at people driving around when they're all so upset w/ the petrol prices. Ok, I'm gonna ride to the airport then ... yup, ride a bicycle.



Someone's gotta bring the bike back, so he's gonna sit in the back ... yayy, double-loading, like in the good ol' daze. Oh right, and I'm balancing my small suitcase on the handle-bars ... neat, eh? Should be a circus acrobat or something!!

So, I set off ... oh, I so shoulda taken pix! After 10-15mins, I see a cab, did some negotiating -- he wanted Rs 1,000, but settled for Rs 800 for a one-way ride to the airport. Phew, boy, am I glad I don't have to bike all the way to the aiport!


We hit the streets ... erm ... it's starting to get a bit scary now ... there are very, very few vehicles on the road. People are walking all over the streets ... a lot of them are staring at the cab, and me. Crap!! I just lay low, and not look out the window. The driver's got the blinkers on .. and he's going as fast as he can. Still I can hear a few guys yelling out in our direction: तँलाई आज taxi चड््नु परेको ? And I agree with them, did I really need to be in a cab that day ?? Anyway, we made it to the airport that day w/o incident, the driver going as fast as he could navigating around groups of people on the street, avoiding all the major roads, going through all possible alleyways, stopping and asking every so often if there were groups of protesters ahead... Wow, glad to have made it to the airport alive ... and, really dumb of me to venture out on a day like that!!

In da plane .. plane #5

Phew, another plane. This one's not gonna be that long either ... DEL-BLR is about 2:30hrs, and the flight is almost empty... good news for me -- I can stretch out on an entire row of seats :)

Stewardess brings around some drinks... one looks like pineapple juice, mmm. It's called French Lime ... hey, this is very nice! Lime juice w/ masala, yummy. Spicy veggie food early in the A.M. ... ah, so is life in India. Better start getting used to it...

Sleepless in Delhi

Ok, this is the first airport where I'm actually expected to stay in transit overnight. Been thru' Indira Gandhi International Airport recently, so I sorta knew what to do, and where to go. Got my bag OK, and sat down at one of those chairs to try catch some Zzzs. Alas, not so comfortable.

Hmm, so there's an actual transit lounge w/ decent leather couches (sorry, no pix). Hurrah for my pillow. I ♥ my pillow!! Took the inter-terminal bus to the domestic terminal... quite a ride, driving a packed bus through the airport, racing against a taxiing jetplane :)

Uneventful wait in the Jet airways terminal at the domestic airport ... Bangalore, here I come!

In da plane .. plane #4

I got my ba-ags, I can wear my clo-othes, No more travelin' clothes, RNAC got my sh*t back!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the bags in question are now safe and sound in my own custody. Ok, bags are back, I'm all set to travel to BLR, phew. Day #2 of dashain, lookin' all fancy schmancy, and gelled up too ... yup, i'm a gellin', like a felon (or a villain, you pick). A few more places to visit, a whole lotta more food to eat, and makin' my way back to the airport.

Actually, me in da plane KTM-DEL right now... the ariel view of KTM city at night is spectacular, like before. Too bad my camera can't capture this image properly.

Here's something that you'll find totally unbelievable, NOT!!! ... this flight too is delayed.. but this time, it works out in my favour ... well, somewhat. It did mean that I could spend more time in KTM... but then, it sux for me in DEL, coz I probably don't have sufficient time to go out to visit R&S&SM&DM ... instead, I'll be shuttlin' meself between the DEL domestic and international terminals, and sittin' there all night, and flyin' out to BLR early in the AM. Yup, life is beautiful .. oh wait, make that unfair!! Peace out .. no more updates from me until after I get to BLR.

Dashain aayo, mero baggage aayena

Ok, it's already Monday in KTM, yayy, happy dashain ... dashain aayo, khaaula piula .. oh wait, that's actually in reference to eating a whole lotta khasi boka which I definitely don't do! But whatever, it's tradition, and fun. Here's an aspect of the dark side, hehe... Here's dem poor बोकाहरु :

 

And here's poor me, with dashain टीका & जमरा

 

Oh, and this is a wonderful view of the Kashtamandap mandir ... I spent many an afternoon in my younger days looking out from my rooftop at this mandir and all the people walking around...

 

Ok, so no more about dashain up in here ... I believe that as we grow older, there's an ever-increasing opportunity for more social interactions with family members & relatives, close or not... and this is a Good Thing (TM). I love this opportunity that dashain affords ... iz really kewl to meet and get to know people better. Oh, and the food, Oh lawd, have ye some mercy! This is some mighty good (wholesome too ... umm ... whole lotta kerbz) food that people really want you to eat, hehe.

Another update on my bags: another RNAC flight has come in from BKK... arrived pretty late again. Can't get thru' to the airport. can't find out if me bags iz here. We try tomorrow.

A.L.S.S.

Oh oh, Sunday ... sweet Sunday, oh beautiful Sunday, what a day, Sunday. I had a busy-ness meeting with ALSS downtown this afternoon. It went quite well, I'm inclined to believe. Here's to more such cordial interactions in the future, and perhaps a partnership of either of a variety of possible levels, lol!

My bags are still nowhere to be found ... and still, no one knows where it is, I mean no one! We just called the RNAC station manager for BKK, hopefully he'll have an update, and hence my bags in KTM before I have to leave for BLR on Tuesday ...