Back in VA

Tarun and Myself are back in Virginia after a little more than 2 years. Well, we did make a trip here last May but now we are here to stay, at-least that's what we say.

What's surprising is that nothing seems to be calling me this time. Since we landed on Dec 17th, I haven't been excited at all. I am actually not feeling anything, I am numb. This seems like any other place to me now...the place I earlier thought could be home.

It has been good catching up with family and friends here but I haven't been super excited like I used to be back in time. 

May be I have matured or may be it will all change...we'll see.

Ananda in the Himalayas

Myself and Tarun made a trip to Ananda early October for 2 nights and 3 days. It was for his birthday and I had made the bookings before leaving for Japan. We decided to take the Shatabdi from Delhi to Haridwar and had Ananda arrange a pick up for us from the train station. The journey was comfortable. When we reached Haridwar and got out of the train station there was our cab driver waiting for us with a placard. We were so disappointed when we reached the car, we had expected a clean well kept car to come pick us up, but that one was, I guess a car used for bringing supplies to the resort from the nearby town, it had some metal bars inside to safeguard stuff. Anyway, we were disappointed and our expectation of Ananda hit its bottom right there.

We reached the resort after a 1.5 hour car ride and were greeted with an aarti by the staff. We were made comfortable in the living area of the palace where we were served a welcome drink made of lemon and ginger (quite refreshing!). Our room keys were handed to us in a short while and a golf cart was arranged to show us the property and take us to our room.

As our driver showed us the property I admired how well it was kept and how lush green it was. Upon reaching our room, we were told that the resort provides white Kurta Pajamas for the guests in their size for the them to wear during their stay. I thought, that was pretty cool and we both ordered our sizes (well they didn't have mine, so I took the smallest they had).

Our room was quite nice and had a nice view of the greens and the valley; only if the sky was clear we would have seen the valley but we still enjoyed the greens!

We relaxed in the resort all 3 days, pampered ourselves with some great massages and caught up on our reading. I highly recommend the Abhyanga massage which is done by two therapist. I believe that is the best massage i've had!

We enjoyed all our meals, the food was simple but tastefully cooked.

The property is well kept and serene and the sight of the guests walking around the property, clad in white Kurta Pajamas makes everything look so pure and simple, which I loved.

The staff is genuinely nice and helpful. On our checkout, we were asked to fill the feedback form and we gave an honest feedback, which means we told them we didn't like our pick up car and guess what, they were extra nice while dropping us to the train station in Haridwar, not only did the driver do all he could to make us reach the train station on time (we started late from the resort, some last minute ticket drama), he also waited to see we board the train. (We didn't know he was waiting till he came to us when the train arrived). We thought that was very nice and then a day or two later we received an email from the resort manager, apologizing for the car at our pickup. This surely impressed us and it showed he cared.

A short quiet trip was exactly what we needed after our vacation in Japan. I had a very relaxing time and Tarun said he quite liked it too, so I was happy he enjoyed his b'day weekend that I had planned for him!

Japan: Day 9: Tokyo

Today is our last day in Japan, we head back to India tomorrow morning and we wanted to make the most of it. So, we started off by hitting the Tsukiji fish market again but this time not for fish watching but for eating some fresh sushi at Edogin, acclaimed to be one of the best sushi bars in the area. It definitely stayed up to its reputation.

After having some great sushi, I went looking for some Japanese tea and bought some packs of Sencha and Matcha varieties. I also bought a Japanese engraved knife, which I consider my best purchase of the trip!

We later headed to Ginza where we relaxed in a tea room while drinking some hot Japanese tea and then took the train to Shibuya. O boy, was it crowded there! I had never seen so many people cross the road at the same time. Shibuya's four way crossing is said to be the busiest in the world. At one light change, there are hundreds of people trying to reach the other side. It was quite intimidating at first but later I got used to it.

Also, the area is known to be the shopping destination for teenagers and young adults, so that was one reason I wanted to go check it out, but I guess I am old now, coz I didn't like a thing...yes, not even one thing! Since, there wasn't much to do in Shibuya, we decided to spend the rest of the evening at Omotesando. Here, we strolled, talked, people watched and later dined at the Anniversaire cafe and had a nice dinner...our last one in Tokyo...at-least till we come back!

Arigato gozaimas Japan, for a wonderful stay....and here we bow to you. :)

Japan: Day 8: Tokyo

Today, we went to Roppongi Hills, the most prestigious area in the city, where the Japanese hot shots and the expats live. It has a huge shopping mall, where getting lost is easy. For all the hype it has, I didn't quite like it. I find Omotesando and Ginza way more lively and better areas to shop and stroll.
We had a nice big lunch at Azabu Kyutoku, in Roppongi Hills, which I quite liked...and that's me eating my share. :)After lunch, we headed back to Ginza, where we did some people watching, strolling and some shopping too!
For dinner, we took some food to go and ate in our room at the hotel...it was nice.

Japan: Day 7: Tokyo

We got up at 5 in the morning today to check out the Tsukiji fish market, known to be the biggest wholesale fish market in the world! It was such an action packed place and for a fish market, it was really clean and not so stinky either.
We saw so many varieties and sizes of fish and some other seafood too.

After touring around the fish market, we had Maguro-donburi (raw slices of fresh tuna over rice, garnished with seaweed, ginger and some wasabi) for breakfast at Segawa, a much acclaimed, little counter restaurant by the fish market itself. It was delicious!

We spent the rest of the day roaming around Ginza and in the evening had sushi for my b'day dinner at Kyubei. It was the best sushi I've ever had!
And that's us at Kyubei! :) Tarun has a big piece of sushi in his mouth.Thanks to Tarun, I had a lovely day overall! :)

Japan: Day 6: Tokyo

We started our day at the Meiji-Jingu shrine where we happened to see a Japanese wedding procession!We spent the rest of the day at Omote-sando which harbors local and international fashion stores along with boutique shops and O so yummy looking cafes that it is hard to resist walking into at least one of them and enjoying a hot cup of coffee with a short piece of cake!
Among other things in the area, we noticed a FREE TIBET rally and cute Japanese girls giving away some free samples.

Japan: Day 5: Kyoto

Our day started with a visit to the Tenryu-ji temple which is laced with trails and has some nice zen gardens.

Walking along the trails, we reached the bamboo grove, one of the famous sites of Kyoto, more so because the movie, The Crouching tiger and the Hidden dragon had some scenes shot here.

We later made our way to the Kodaiji temple, stopping at the sites that caught our attention, like the Choin-in temple which has the biggest temple gate in all of Japan!

Kodai ji, again is a temple with massive grounds 
having beautifully landscaped gardens with bridges.Later, we strolled in the streets of Gion and visited some art galleries and antique stores and then made our way back to Tokyo in a three hour train ride!

Japan: Day 4: Kyoto

Today we did the much recommended South Higashiyama walking tour. The tour started with a visit to the Kiyomizu-dera temple, where we walked inside Tainai Meguri, a cave  with TOTAL darkness (I had never been in this much darkness before and I was almost scared), symbolizing buddha's belly and then coming out in the light, symbolizing rebirth! After the visit to the temple, we made our way to some of the prettiest streets of Kyoto with traditional Japanese houses, restaurants, inns, tea rooms and souvenir shops.

We walked in rain under our umbrellas almost all the distance, expect for an hour when it started to rain very heavily. This was when we stopped at a tea room and sipped some hot coffee!

We were lucky to sight Maikos too, this was a really exciting moment for me! :)

A traditional Japanese dinner, Kaiseki marked the end of our tour!

Japan: Day 3: Kyoto

Today, we got up early and caught the 9:30 A.M. train to Kyoto. It was a 3 hr. ride in the bullet train, I slept almost all the way. :)

After reaching Kyoto, we checked into our hotel, which is above the Kyoto station, (The train stations in Japan are amazing, they are a marketplace in themselves, having high end hotels, eating joints, department stores and fresh food stores). Since we were early, (the check-in time in the hotels in Japan is 3.00 P.M.), the hotel staff kept our luggage and asked us to return after the check-in time. We headed to have some lunch. We went to the 11th floor of the station and ate in a chinese restaurant, which we initially thought was Japanese! :) Everything was written in Japanese, so we couldn't really make out what it said. I only knew it was chinese when I saw the pictures in the menu. We both had shrimp wonton noodle soup, which was very nice and filling (We had been hungry, since we skipped the b'fast to catch the train).

After lunch, we decided to checkout some famous shrines and zen gardens in the area. We took bus 5 from the Tokyo station to Nanzen-ji Eikan-do-michi stop. It took us 45 minutes to get there. After getting down at the bus stop, we asked some school kids where the shrine was and they were nice enough to lead us to it.

We started off with Eikan-Do. This is a large temple which was founded in 855 and was renamed to Eikan-Do in the 11th century. The temple is beautiful, the work of art is quite ornamental here and the architecture quite varied. It has some beautiful gardens too. The top of the temple gives a nice view of the city.

After spending about 1.5 hours in the temple, we headed to Nanzen-ji, about 15 mins. walks from Eikan-do. Nanzen-ji is again a temple, it has various sub temples too and some beautiful zen gardens. Since, we were running short of time (the temples here close at 5.00 P.M. and it was already 4.00), we concentrated on the zen gardens. The zen gardens are a work of art, it's unbelievable, how well manicured they are!

Prompt at 5.00, the staff came to close the gates of the temple/gardens. I spent some time taking pictures from outside after it was closed and then we took the bus back to our hotel.

Tarun had really been wanting to eat Udon, since we have reached Japan, so today, I looked for a restaurant that serves Udon and after a lot of looking around, I finally found one. Tarun had an Unagi combo with udon and I had udon with shrimp tempura. We took a nice walk after our dinner and enjoyed a nice pudding cake in the hotel lounge before coming back to our room.

Earlier, the plan was to go to Osaka tomorrow, but we both like Kyoto so much, that we have decided to skip Osaka and do some more site seeing here, tomorrow as well!

Japan: Day 2: Tokyo

So, the early morning breakfast never happened today, for those who know both me and Tarun, know how much we both love to sleep till late :). Today, we got up past 10 in the morning and headed to the Tokyo station, after getting ready, where we had sushi for lunch at Kaiten-zushi, this is an automatic sushi place!! The sushi here is served on the conveyor belt that runs along the counter! I never knew something like this existed so I was quite excited to see it. So, here, you just grab whatever takes your fancy and you are charged by the number of plates of sushi you eat. The plates are color coded and the the cost is written either on the wall or on the plate itslef. The sushi here, I would say was just okay but the experience was quite unique and I enjoyed it!

After lunch, we took the JR train to Akihabara, Tokyo's electronic town. We spent about 5 hrs here and then headed to Harajuku, where we did some shopping and had an amazing dinner at Fujimamas, a Japanese fusion restaurant. This restaurant not just serves fusion food but employs staff from various ethnicities and so is its clientele!

After dinner, was us back at the hotel!

It has been mostly raining in Tokyo, since we have reached, I really hope to see some sun tomorrow in Kyoto, where we are headed in the morning!

Japan: Day 1: Tokyo

Myself and Tarun managed to get our visa for Japan just in time to make it to our flight y'day. We flew Air India and had an uneventful flight to Tokyo. The airline was not fully booked, so the staff was nice enough to offer passengers with the option of taking 3 seats so as to comfortably stretch and sleep!

We landed at the Narita International airport at 8:20 A.M. JST and got free from immigration and customs in an hour. Guess what our cell fones don't work here, (Japan only supports the fones with the 3G technology!), but one can rent cell fones here, so we rented one and went looking for the Narita Train station to get to Tokyo. The people at the airport were quite helpful and were able to direct us to the station, where we exchanged our rail passes (which we got from India) for the tickets. We boarded the Narita express train which was exactly on time (here they say, you can set the time of your watch by the train time, that's something, isn't it?!) and reached the Tokyo station in an hour.

You have to see the Tokyo station to believe what I am saying here, I haven't seen a station like this anywhere, it's beautifully constructed and is full of lovely looking restaurants and flower shops, the city impressed me right there!

It's a huge station covered on various levels, it was hard for us to locate where the exit for the cabs was, so we asked the locals working at the station, they were so nice that they escorted us till the cab! (now that's what I call a country which is a good host to travelers). And now I noticed something really cool, the cab doors here open and close by themselves, well I mean that the driver pushes a button form his seat and the door opens for the passenger!
Anyway, we got a cab and reached our hotel, although the check-in time here is 3.00 P.M, the hotel staff did let us check-in early. We got to our room and it was tiny but tastefully done!

After this we got ready and were really craving for some food. We went out and noticed a nice looking restaurant from the outside and guess what, we walked in! Now, the host made us sit in an informal room and showed us the menu, the first thing he told us was the price, it was an expensive restaurant serving pre-fix menu of 7 courses. We decided to try it and were escorted to the dining room, which was very formal. We enjoyed the lunch, portions were small and the food was good.

Later in the afternoon, we explored the city. Tokyo is quite charming, during the day it reminds me of San Francisco in more ways than one, with restaurant and coffee shops scattered everywhere and designer stores adding their glow to it, yet, it is less crowded and is free from homeless people! At night it seems more like Times Square, with flashing neon sign boards and cabs and cars lined up in a jam!

We were in Chuo dori, the main shopping street in Tokyo. The first stop was the Apple store, since Tarun forgot to bring the power adapter, so we bought one (now we have four power adapters b/w 2 macbooks and I hope this was the last one we bought :)). The apple store here is on 5 levels, even the store in NYC isn't spread over these many levels! In any case, then we headed to the House of Shiseido, which is a museum of Shiseido and guess what Shiseido is really big here, it has a restaurant and a tea room and then of-course there is the Shiseido store. After exploring the shopping district a little, where we saw may be a handful women dressed in kimonos (they look lovely), we had Oden (fish cakes, fish eggs, veggies, tofu etc. simmered in a flavored broth) for dinner, it was light and tasty.

It's only been 2 hrs since we had our dinner and Tarun is hungry again! I guess we will go for an early morning breakfast tomorrow! :)

Photography, my newly discovered passion!

Although I have always enjoyed taking pictures and am popular with my husband for always carrying my camera when we go outdoors, photography has only recently become my passion!

I just happened to take a 10 day intensive course in photography, in June at the School of Fototechnik,Patel Nagar. It was a consecutive 10 day course, meaning having to sacrifice 2 weekends (which, initially didn't seem like a great idea and was making me lean towards not signing up for the course). After some back-and-forth on the idea, I decided to sign up, more so because, the intensive program is held only once a year, at the School of Fototechnik and the other option that remained with me was a regular 6 months program, which to me seemed a difficult and a longer commitment to make and fulfill. Thinking in those terms, sacrificing weekends eventually, didn't seem that bad!

At that time, I possessed, "Sony cybershot", a point and shoot camera, which, is what I took to my class the first day. Anyhow, the photography schools and professional photographers don't have a high opinion about digital point and shoot cameras with respect to their ability to take good pictures, so I borrowed a DSLR (the recommended camera) from a close friend, for my shoots during the course.

The course was a good introduction to technicalities like depth of field, exposure, aperture, shutter speed etc. along with a nice introduction to handling a DSLR. I enjoyed all my classes especially the ones in which we were shooting! :)

So, now my latest possession is a "Nikon D80" with an 18-200 lens and I took it for it's first shoot today, to Humayun's Tomb!

Though I was born and brought up in Delhi, I had never visited Humayun's tomb before, which I must say is a beautiful site for photography. I guess with my newly found passion, I will be discovering the city all over again!

Review:Oh! Calcutta 4.5/5

Oh! Calcutta, is the ultimate destination for bengali food lovers as well as seafood lovers! The menu is quite elaborate and has lot of seafood options. After having dined here 4 times in 6 months and loving the food every time, I had to write a review!

The food is simple and tastefully cooked. Although I have enjoyed almost all my selections here so far, my favorites are Pomfret kalimirch in the appetizers and Bekti fish in mustard marination along with Aloo dum and luchi in the main course. 

The serving size is large, I would recommend sharing the dishes. 

The server brings a tray with the dessert selection at the end of the main course, which is unique and definitely very tempting. Simply love the mishti doi and the maal pua!

The ambience is simple and yet very welcoming, with the walls adorned with calcutta sketches!

Food: 5

Cleanliness: 5

Service: 4

Pricing: 4

Moderate

Location/Information:

Park Roya Hotel, Nehru Place

011-41223344

Hours:

11:00 A.M. to 11:00 P.M.

Review:Naivedyam (Hauz Khas Village) 3.9/5

 

Food - 3.5
Naivedyam, a south indian restaurant at the Hauz Khas Village was my last weekend's pick. The restaurant serves "Rasam" as a complemetary drink after the guests are seated and it's definitely to die for, just perfectly spiced and flavorful.

Tarun ordered the south indian Upma along with Curd Rice and I orderd the special "Maharaja Sajjige Masala Dosa". The Upma was part sweet and part salty, very different
from what we've had before. The special Dosa was made of the rava batter with the filling of mixed vegetables and it tasted great. I was surprised to taste Sambhar, which was just not upto the mark.
The sweet pan served at the end of the meal is very mouth freshening.

Cleanliness: 4.0
The tables were thoroughly cleaned before being reset for the next guest. The glassware and the tablware were spotless.

Service: 4.0
Attentive.

Pricing: 4.0
Moderate.

Location/Information:
1 Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi
26960426, 26236364

Hours:
11:00 A.M. - 11:00 P.M.

Trip to Amritsar

I was in Amritsar last week with my family, to attend a cousin's wedding. The wedding was on April 11th, and we were supposed to head to Jullundhar the next day to meet some relatives but decided to checkout the city a little bit before starting our journey for Jullundhar.

On April 12th. the day after the wedding, we decided to skip the b'fast at the guest house and eat at "Bharawan Da Dhaba" a much recommended restaurant in Amritsar famous for its Amritsari Naan.

We reached there past noon and ordered the speciality thalis with their famous naans along with sweet lassi (without malai, of-course :)). After having all the yummy food, we decided to head to the Golden temple, a truly magnificent house of god built in the middle of a lake.

The sublime peacefulness of the place was contrasting with the heavy traffic outside. I was amazed to see the number of people in line, standing in sun, to say their prayers. 

Baisakhi (the harvest festival of Punjab), was the following day and it was adding to the crowd at the temple. People came a day before and sat in the corridors to say their prayers the next day. It was amazing to see the willingness and the faith amongst people.

We took a round, around the lake where the temple is built, said our prayers and returned. So glad we checked it out, definitely one of my favorite sacred places now!

Review:Masala Art

I dined at Masala Art, an upscale Indian restaurant at Taj Palace, last week with a friend who was visiting from SF. I wanted to take him out to a restaurant where he could enjoy good indian food, always something I wanted to do when I visited from US.

We started off with Kingfisher beer and left the menu selection on the server. Sidd, my friend wanted to stay away from chicken (fearing bird flu!), so we decided to have lamb instead. The server recommended the chef's special lamb and Shahi Paneer. We ordered Okra on the side ourselves.  The lamb was really good!

If you order plain roti/chapati, they make the tava roti for you at your table, which is very unique and welcoming especially if you are visiting from abroad where you are used to eating frozen chapatis :)

The food overall was quite good whereas the service was average.

Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A book recommended to me by amazon based on my past reads. A very intriguing story set in Afganistan about the lives of two women Mariam and Laila since their childhoods.

It's about how Mariam and Laila stayed in the same neighborhood but never interacted and were one day married to the same guy, Rasheed, a shoe maker. There is hatred between Mariam and Laila initially, but as the story moves along, the hatred grows into love. They take the beatings of Rasheed together and save each other whenever they can.

The book travels through the life in Afganistan before and during Taliban. The brutality faced by the people living there especially, the women, even in the 2000s was a shock to me. There was so much I didn't know about how it was during Taliban, that I learned from this book.

The are sections in the book that are horrifying and will give you a shiver, like the one on child birth and the impositions of Taliban on the residents.

A very grippping story that captures the interest from the beginning, it's hard to put it down in the middle.

Before i finished this book, I went to the book store to pick The Kite Runner, Khaled's first novel coz i had to read his other work and am reading it currently!

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a great read and comes highly recommended!

Kerala - a paradise!

I recently did a trip to Kerala with my husband for our fourth wedding anniversary. An amazingly beautiful place! I couldn't believe i was there, a place i had always wanted to visit. We spent our first day at the backwaters in a houseboat, which was an amazing experience, just water and lush green trees as far as you can see! Pictures don't do justice to its beauty, but i'll still add one for you to check out.
The next day, made a stop at the Varkala beach on our way to Kovalam. Reached Kovalam late afternoon where we checked into Leela, a beautiful resort. I could spend all the time there, doing nothing, just being at the pool, taking a dip and reading my book, but we decided to checkout the "Vivekanada rock" at Kanyakumari, the next day. I would say, skip it and just chill at The Leela! :)

Sushi!

My first post and that too about food, who would have guessed :) Let's talk sushi, my favorite food! Coming from San Francisco, where i lived for a little over an year and had some of the best sushi, i was sad i am gonna have to keep craving for it while i am in India as i wasn't hoping to find good sushi here, but to my surprise, i found Sakura, a Japanese restaurant, at the Metropolitan Hotel in Cannaught Place!

A very casual place with good food! Salmon was the freshest of all, i would suggest trying Sashimi first , to get an idea of what fish is fresh and then placing the rest of the order. Really happy to have found it, will surely visit again! A must go for sushi lovers, comes at a price, but definitely worth it!