A trip to Tucson

 It was during the holiday season in December 2022 and what could be more fun than meeting the old college friends. Planned a humble trip to Tucson after the birthday parties in Phoenix, Tucson is a beautiful city with a lively downtown lined with lots of eateries and restaurants. For dinner stepped into a Mexican restaurant that had a cozy environment with live music. Since it was the holiday season, the roads are lit up with colorful and vibrant lights everywhere, of course, a good spot for selfie clicks.

Mexican restaurant in downtown

Selfie Time during Christmas decorations

Since it is a one-day trip to Tucson, we planned to keep it simple without stressing too much and added Colossal cave and Pima Air & space Museum. We planned for these two places one after breakfast and one after lunch. The combination of these two places is very interesting, in the Colossal Cave we can get mesmerized by nature on its natural formations and in the Pima Air Museum, we can witness the technological heights human has reached over time.

In the Colossal Cave, we can even enjoy playing music on the rocks, we can tap the rock with small wooden blocks and can hear beautiful music.

Lantern light tour in Colossal Cave

In a few aircraft even we can get inside a take-a-peek view of it, the museum also houses a few video games which all age groups can enjoy, a souvenir shop, and more. They have guided tours as well in tram vehicles every 30 mins or 1 hour which would be more informative as the guide will be explaining the history of each of the aircraft.

Inside the Fighter aircraft

Guided tour vehicle

If looking for a nice Indian restaurant nearby then definitely Sher-e-Punjab is a place to try. It has a wide variety of options and has a very good Indian flavor of spices and masala

First three months in Denver

Landed in the United States on the 03rd of September 2022 and in 3 months, there are a lot of cultural learning, getting used to the people, finding new friends, and much more. And in this post, am sharing some of my experiences and they might help other newcomers like me.

Leaving from India

Some of the pre-plan that we should have before arriving are where we stay, how to carry money from India for expenses, and being connected with the family. If looking for a budget hotel with an option for self-cooking then Extended Stay America, is an excellent choice. It provides an excellent deal of up to 67$ per night if the booking is done for more than 7 nights. Next is having a safe and flexible way to carry US dollars and a good option is to buy a Forex card in India with an easy option to reload it online. The last and most important preparation is always being connected with the family and we can get the US prepaid SIM when we are in India itself at a very affordable plan that includes data as well; actually, I have seen the plan cost is more competitive than the US mobile network providers.

Arriving in the US really means, the immigration officer in the port of entry should be satisfied with all the documents we produce and then issue an electronic i94 document. The i94 document will contain important information like when we arrived and how long we are authorized to stay etc and it can be retrieved from https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/recent-search. In some rare cases, the details in i94 may be entered wrongly and it can be corrected later by filing a ticket at https://help.cbp.gov/s/questions?language=en_US. After this, you are officially in the US and welcome. 

Denver Tech Centre

Beautiful landscape on the side of the road

Public park and waterfronts

After a good night sleep after a long hauling journey, be prepared for the next set of tasks that need to be finished sooner, like vising the SSN office, taking an appointment with a bank, and opening a bank account. One thing that I noticed is everything goes by appointment only and there is no drop in service (including the hair salon! which I will give details about below), so where ever we go, it is advised to take an appointment over the phone and then visit.

When in India, look at the city map and get used to the county and area names. This will help in starting conversations with new people in the city and also will help in shortlisting the location for a long stay either in an apartment or an individual home. Some of the shortlisting criteria are what is the ratings to the school in the county and can be found by looking at https://www.greatschools.org/ other criteria would be the neighborhood like whether it is accessible by the light rail, what supermarkets are nearby, whether it has hospitals closeby etc.  Some of the websites that can help in finding the right home is https://www.apartments.com/ and https://www.zillow.com/. Again, it is advisable to take an appointment with the leasing office for an apartment tour and then visit. One good thing with housing in the US is that as soon as you are moved in, at the same moment you can start cooking the food because by default it comes up with a stove including the electric or a gas connection, and refrigerator.

Moving into the apartment

Coming to the commutations in Denver is a little average if depending only on public transport, however uber and Lyft will be available round the clock. The public transport is managed by RTD and it operated both light rail and the bus, actually if we are well prepared and planned then public transport works in ease and very very cost-effective. During summer, bicycle ride would make the ride pleasant and also saves fossil fuel.

Lots of Indian restaurants and eateries are available and can be easily ordered and get it delivered to our door via https://grubhub.com, https://www.doordash.com/, https://www.ubereats.com/. If wanted to try something outside of Indian cuisine, then Mexican and Mediterranean would be a good try and some of the well-known food chains are https://www.chipotle.com/, https://eatfelfel.com/. 

After moving into an apartment or home, then the next thing would be to fill up the home, and obviously  https://amazon.com/, https://www.walmart.com/ etc are starters to get a fair idea and price ranges. But you can go out to showrooms and get the real feel of it like visiting the mattress showroom and trying it out, visiting a furniture shop etc. Also, there are malls where we can peek into multiple different showrooms and get the experience https://www.parkmeadows.com/. In the US, there is no concept of MRP, so the same product might have different prices in a different showroom, so we have to be careful and compare and buy the right deal one.  If you can wait and the time for the BlackFriday sale is not too far, then it is really worth a wait than buying immediately. As heard all the products segment will go on an offer sale and definitely will get the best price of the year. One big difference you would see with India is that all products need to be self-assembled by ourselves if want to save money, the human labor is very expensive and it might cost more than the product cost itself sometimes!!

DIY projects

Assembling furniture

In my first three months, I witnessed three different seasons of the year like the summer, the fall, and the winter. When I came it was so sunny, and the days are lengthy gradually the fall came and enjoyed the view of what it really means a fall color by looking at the different colors of the leaf over the period of 2 weeks. And then the winter started in November with the year's first snow.

Fall Color

Road, Car covered with snow

Definitely, after a few weeks, we need to go to a hair salon and one option is https://www.greatclips.com/ which provides services to men, women, and kids. As mentioned earlier, take an appointment and then visit. Sometimes during the Black Friday sale, they sell coupons at a discounted price which can be used during the rest of the year. 

If you are an avid reader and a book lover then you are covered, each county has a library with a very good collection of books for all ages, the subscription is free and we can borrow books and return them. Also, it houses beautiful reading rooms with great ambiance etc. More details about the library where I have a subscription https://www.dcl.org/

Gokarna - a budding tourist spot

 It was during the 2021 Diwali holidays and the covid situation was within the control; the initial thought was to go to Goa but it will be overcrowded during the Nov and Dec month and when thought about the alternative we decided to go to Gokarna.

Gokarna beach view from one
of the restaurant in Kudlu beach road

Once Gokarna was mainly the place for workship and performing last rites but in recent few years, it started attracting tourists who like adventures, trekking, water activities, a weekend stay apart from the pilgrimage visit. Gokarna has numerous beaches and each has its own beauty, history, purpose; for example, the main Gokarna beach is used as a pilgrimage site for performing pooja and taking a spiritual bath, the Kudle beach is used for water sport activities, the paradise, and Halfmoon beach hosts tent stay.

Tent stays in Paradise beach

Halfmoon beach where we took bath

All the beaches are well maintained but accessibility wise except Gokarna beach all others require a trek or a boat to reach. The water on the beaches is so clear and transparent, in almost all beaches they have a warning sign of sea vortex. However, than the vortex, the real danger we experienced is by the jellyfishes. It is good to see and observe the jellyfish when we are in the boat but it is really very dangerous when they hit us. Even the slightest touch by the jellyfish will cause skin allergy and will cause pain for a minimum of 30 mins. 

Ferry from Kumta to Gokarna

Jellyfish seen from the ferry

Now coming to the stay, the Kumta is known for lots of private beach resorts and is located 30 km from Gokarna. One such resort is the Silver Sand Beach resort and we stayed there, it is located on the beach so anytime we can go to the beach and take bath, play. If looking to stay closer to Gokarna then there are lots of good stays available on the Kudlu beach road.

The water activities include Banana rides, bumper rides, kayaking, JetSki. There is only one organizer Mystic Gokarna and the prices are a little expensive. Since there is no competitor, bargaining doesn't help. On their website, they mentioned lots of activities but most of them are not available or will be under maintenance. Also, we noticed there was a lack of coordination between the booking counter and the ride conductor. We can take bath on any of the beaches, the beaches like Halfmoon, paradise will be less crowded whereas Om beach and Kudlu beach will be very crowded. The Om beach got its name because of the shape of the beach resembling the Sanskrit Om. 

Water activities in Kudlu beach

Apart from water activities, Gokarna is famous for trekking. It has lots of trekking sites and caves. It has one such cave called Gogarbha and history says that it contains a tunnel to reach Kashi.

Definitely, we should not miss the Maha Ganapati and Mahabaleswar temple; I have never seen a standing Ganapati so far, and here is the first time I saw Ganapati in a standing position in Maha Ganapati temple. Just a few steps away is the famous Mahabaleswar Shiva temple and the temple complex has a shrine for Athmalinga, Devi, and other Gods. There is a strict dress code for men and women to enter the Mahabaleswar temple.

If traveling to Gokarna from Bangalore via road then a short diversion to Jog falls is something not to miss and plan to spend at least 2-3 hours in the Jog to enjoy the complete view and to connect with nature.

The shortcomings of Gokarna are, it is not a mature tourist-friendly place. Getting food of choice is very limited and tastes average, accessibility from one place to another is not so easy. Not all local people are friendly enough for approaching.

Manacherry dam - One of the dam in Kaveri river

The saying 'We do not know the value when something is close to us' is absolutely true and the lockdown and travel restrictions makes us explore local places and helped us understand the value of nearby places. 

Recently went to these two places without any expectation and to our surprise, we enjoyed ourselves a lot and spent more time than we planned. 

1. Manacherry dam - https://goo.gl/maps/xrsNdAB2Wuw4QvWt8
2. Shri Akaasa Vinayakar Temple -  https://goo.gl/maps/ptiYZpNmXZqggTCy8

Sir C.V.Raman told Water is the elixir of life and the rivers are the main reason for civilization, both these places I mentioned above are special for the same reason as it is water abundant place. 

It is in Jul-Aug time of the year and dams are opened irrigation so we can witness the full flow of water in the Kaveri river. When it comes to visiting the Kaveri river dams, we always think of KRS Dam, Kabini Dam, Mettur Dam, Kallanai, of course, all these dams are infrastructural marvels that stand strong for hundreds and hundreds of years and some stands thousands of years like Kallanai. We rarely think of the numerous number of small dams that control the flow of water and hardly visit them. 

One such small dam is the Manacherry dam in Kumbakonam, it is a beautiful place where the Kaveri river divides into Kaveri and Veeracholan rivers. The place is very well maintained and the footsteps in the river bank are clean, we could see a group of children enjoying their day playing in the river water and the other side group of youngsters trying their luck in fishing. As I mentioned the river getting divided, we can go to the land dividing two rivers via the dam structure. 

Some activities we can do are, get down into the river and play with the water, take bath, take nice photos, enjoy nature sights, have some lite snacks or lunch under the tree. There is a temple between the two rivers and we can do meditation as there is no other sound except the sound of water flow!

Its a nostalgic moment for me as I visited this place when I was in school (1999) and visited it again in the year 2021. This visit taught me the below lessons

1. Value of a tree

Its hot summer but when we sit under a tree which is branched out very well near the river bank, we will not feel the hotness of the sun.  

2. Value of a not so famous place

During the covid restriction, it is not encouraged to visit famous attractions. And local places like these are good as it hardly have crowds and we don't have to travel so far.

3. Value of time

It was all like just yesterday I finished school but when I look back, it be already 20 years passed from the time I completed my high-school.

Below are some of the snaps taken in this place

Stream of water from the dam

In the park between the two rivers

Playing in the water stream

Beautiful view of river from the dam

Dam Structure

Temple situated between the two rivers

In the next post I will write about the Shri Akaasa Vinayakar Temple

Trip to Tharangambadi during unlock 4.0

 It is the time where the whole world is facing a challenge against the Covid-19 virus and almost all countries went into the lockdown period from the beginning of 2020 and gradually unlock started. As we all know that unlock is for the economy to boost and not that we are free of Covid-19. As a citizen, we all have followed the lockdown restriction imposed by the government by staying at the home and avoiding any unnecessary travel including travel to a destination, exploration, visiting public places etc., 

 Humans are a social animal and it is very difficult to lock ourselves from the outside world for a very long time without any recreation. At the same time, we should behave responsibly during the unlock period by following the social distancing, wearing a mask, cleaning the hands often etc. With this in mind, we planned for a very short day trip to Tharangambadi as we heard this beach will be less crowded than its counterpart Karaikal beach. 

About Tharangambadi

The history dates back to 17th century when Danish came to India for trading, they built a fort for housing governers, merchants etc. To date, the fort is maintained very well and today it contains lots of old artifacts. It has a good beach with a park, restaurants nearby. 

Reaching Tharandambadi

We started from Kumbakonam and we wanted to enjoy the journey itself and not just the beach in Tharangambadi.  There are multiple different directions to reach the place from Kumbakonam but we chose the direction via Aduthurai - Porayar Rd https://goo.gl/maps/d3pcog4kqX5PxdEw9 . The nice thing about the road is that 45 km out of 58 km will be road next to the riverbank making the journey more pleasant and joyful. To our advantage this year the Cauvery catchment had huge rainfall and all the dams were overflowing and all through our journey we were seeing the full flow of water and kids were playing in the group along the side of steps in the riverbank.

Museum in the fort complex

Behind is the river

Baniyan tree on the river bank

In the beach

Fort

Dandeli - an Experience not to miss

When we hear about the name Dandeli, the immediate thought we get will be the river rafting experience. In India the number of places we have the river rafting is very limited and in the Southern part of India, this is the most famous place for rafting.  The actual Dandeli is a small town in northern Karnataka and the real fun is in the mountain ranges and places near the Supa Dam reservoir.  

It is preferable to stay at least two nights as it will provide a pleasant stay in a jungle resort and will give time for water activities and sightseeing.  There are plenty of homestay, resorts, and hotels in all budgets. Most of the stay will quote including the water activities package as it is the main attracting there and they have tie-ups with the conducting agencies. In Dandeli, the water activities won't be there all over the year, it depends on the flow of water from the dam. If it is too huge then water activities are too dangerous and will be canceled, so it is advisable to check in advance and plan the trip.

The climate in Dandeli is modest, not too hot or too cold but at night it will be very cold. The mobile network is not so good, only in some places, we get the network and in some places, we will not. We stayed in a stay called 'Greenland Junglestay', it is run by Joshi, a friendly guy help to plan the itineraries well to cover most of the places. Also, speak to him and you will get a good deal for your stay. This stay is having its own farmland where they cultivate pepper, betel nuts. Near to that, we have water stream flows all through the day.

Greenland Junglestay

Betel nuts 

Sunrise in the jungle

Water stream near the stay

Apart from water activities, we have places like the honey park, Supa Dam viewpoint, Syntheri rock, nature walk etc.,

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