Las Vegas

Dates: 19-21st dec, 2008
Car : toyota corolla
Distance traveled: 1100miles.
People: Me, avati, guru (drove in car from fremont), Ramesh Baskar (houston), vijeth (boston).
Stayed in : Stratosphere hotel.

It was overall fun trip. Been to David Copperfield's magic show (in MGM Grand).

Been on Roller Coaster ride in NewYork NewYork. Saw fountain of Bellagio. Also visited, ceasers palace, paris, sahara, mirage, treasure island, venetian. Over all a ':O' about the grand ness of that place.

Also while driving, mountains around were full of snow, and it was such a pleasant drive. Drove 500miles continously.

The Phantom of the Opera

People: Guru, Avati and /me

Date : 17th Dec, 2008

Went to SF in BART, roamed around in downtown a bit. Made use of Avati's G-Phone to find SHN Theatres.. "The Phantom of the Opera" was running in Orpheum Theatre. It was my first broadway show, and I liked it.

Fresno

Been to Fresno yesterday (Dec 13th), for Metallica concert. Me, avati and Prasad went there around 4pm, concert started at 7pm, and ended around 11:30pm.. Fresno is around 180miles from our place, so took around 3+3 hrs drive overall. Prasad drove all of it. A nice trip..

Thanks giving weekend trip

people: me, avati, guru, prasad, subhash, javeen
distance: 1310miles
map: check here

View Larger Map
days: 4days (26-30th nov)
cars: mazda3, acura 35G
places covered: LA, SanDiego, Santa Barbara.

A nice trip, will write in detail later. Visited Universal studios Hollywood. other than that, most of the time was spent driving around and visiting beaches. Overall a good trip

Austin - TX

Had been to Austin on 18th Nov, and Came back on 20th Nov. Attended Supercomputing (SC08) conference. It was fun.

LA

Went to LA (los Angeles) today. Went early in the morning, took flight from Oakland airport. Visited Imageworks, had lunch in Japanese Restaurant. Back to home by evening. Went with AB.

zion, page and grand gulch, photos

Had forgotten to share the photographs of september long weekend trip.

Click on the image to view all the photos.

kayaking

Had been to kayaking yesterday with Prasad. The event was organised by one of the Meetup groups. We were inside Kayaks over the sea for more than 2hrs and happen to see lot of sea lions, and seals. Also many birds like cormorants. Did see a big Jelly fish.

Event details here: Monterey bay kayaking

Shoreline Park - Mountain View

Went to Sunnyvale to pick Kiran, and from there went to Shoreline Park Mountain View. It was supposedly a send off breakfast party to Schunder Chitrapu. Went for photographing Pelicans and Cormorants. I didn't stay for breakfast as I had to leave to play volleyball later.

People: Me, Kiran, Sudarshan, Pranav, Schunder

SFO

Went to SFO with Hitesh and Tanishka, to visit California Academy of Science at Golden Gate Park. But it was very much crowded, hence we took MUNI buses to FisherMen'sWharf. Watched Seals there. It was so windy so had to buy a jacket there itself. Tried out Bread Bowl Soup, was very good.

Chicago

Went to Chicago in morning with Hitesh, AB, Brian. It was a visit to meet one of our potential customer. Didn't had much time explore the city/place. Got back in the night. First time flew from Oakland Airport.

zion, page and more

On september long weekend been to zion national park and areas around Page. more info in another blog.

Date: Aug 30th, 31st and Sept 1st.
People : 8 (Kiran, Nadeem, Schunder, Sudarshan, Shilpa, Mayuresh Baji, Pranav and me)

halfdome - yosemite

went to hike halfdome @ yosemite national park yesterday. more info in other blog.

people: me, kiran, sudarshan, schunder, shilpa, lakshmi

grand canyon and lasvegas

been to transcanyon hiking. went to lasvegas, flagstaff, and later to southrim. more info on other blog.


Dates: 20th June - 23rd June
People: me, achalesh, kiran, nadeem, ashpujith.

Houston - Texas

Been to Houston for 4 days. Met Robert, visited some customer's offices. Ate like Texan (but not red meat). Went there with Hitesh and AB.

Los Angeles

Been to Los Angeles yesterday with AB and Hitesh. Visited one of the possible customer's office at Beverley Hills area. Stayed there for a day. Went in flight to Burbank from SanJose Int' Airport.

skydiving

went to skydiving today near sacramento (on CA 99). more info on my other blog.

after that visited oakland port to see a ship which was used in worldwar II.

People: me, achalesh, kiran, sudarshan

skiing @ Lake Tahoe

I had seen it in TV, I had imagined it in dreams, and I had thought that I may not get chance to try this out at all. Just a week since I entered USA, I got a invitation for skiing from Madan. I agreed. After another week, we were out to skiing. We were 5ppl. Chaitanya (aka, chena), Madan (aka micromysore), Manushree, Raghavendra (aka Gunda) and me (aka bulde :p) It was ~4hrs drive from Fremont. We went to Lake Tahoe (ie, south of lake tahoe, called "skiing at sierra tahoe"). I went to beginners class before lunch, and after lunch tried it myself. I fell many times, but It was fun too.., a new experience, a new feeling. Never tried to go fast, as i didn't had control.
Over all it was a fun weekend. Came back on the same day. And no break taken while coming back.

shortest trip to mysore

Total time: 7hr30mins.

We (me, avati and gowda) left B'lore at ~12:45pm in Gowda's car. Reached Mysore at 3:30pm, met Kris, went to Avati's place. Left to B'lore at ~5pm. Reached B'lore at 8pm.

Overall, we were in Mysore for less than 2hrs. This trip is one of my shortest visit to Mysore.

mysore - on bike

Mysore is the default destination if you want to travel/drive/ride, and you don't have any place in mind. It happened to me too.. I just wanted to ride the bike, as I was bored of riding it slowly, in lower gears in the city traffic.

Pramod told he wants to accompany me, hence we left Bengaluru around 7.50AM. Didn't give any coffee/food break inbetween. Weather was good, little cold. Hence I rode continuously till Mysore. Reached there around 10.10am, Had coffee in CCD. Just roamed around in Mysore till evening. Went to Avati's place, had coffee. Left Mysore around 8pm.

Gowda also came with us, hence Pramod shifted to his car. We came bit slowly taking breaks as we pleased. Went to Maddur CCD. had some coffee. Reached home at 11.40PM.

Total distance covered : 328kms.
I rode whole of it, and more than 170kms alone

Andaman Trip

It was a long trip after a long time. I was in Andaman for 8 complete days. Been to many places there. It was a over all a great trip. Places I covered are: * Corban's Cove: Port Blair's Only Beach * Cellular Jail (attended Light and Sound show too) * North Bay or Coral Reef (Did snorkeling there for more than 2 hrs) * Ross Island * Chidiyatapu Beach * Wandur Beach (Went to a nearby Island, and did snorkeling). * Went through Jarawa Reserve Forest. Got a chance to watch them. (Jarawas are one of the tribe present in only Andaman Islands) * Active Mud Volcano @ kadamtala * Kalipur Beach and Guest House (in Digalipur forest range) * Kalpong Dam * Ross & Smith Island * Maya bunder Beach (its a small town too) * Rangath (a small town) * Lime Stone cave (near Baratang), went in fast boat inside mangrove forest. * Anthropology museum. I was went there with Guru, Harsha, Pramod and Prasad. Both ways traveled in flight.

travel dairy of 2007

2 oh oh 7! yet another year passed with few +ve and few -ve points when i consider my traveling.

+ve:
* First foreign trip.
* Bike trips

-ve:
* Quite a less activity regarding trek.
* Most of the weekends spent in Bengaluru.
* More work, hence less traveling.

List of Places visited in the year:
* Paris, France (CDG Airport only, for transit)
* Venezuela
o Caracas
- Bellas Artes (art museum)
- Park de central
- Trek to Mount Avila
- USB (Universidad Simon Bolivar)
- Went most of the malls in Caracas (El Recreo, Igaunca Mall, Sambil)
o Merida
- La culata
- Treks in the hills of La culata, also in hills near El Valle.
- Trek to Pan de Azucar. Reached to its peak. Visited Lagoonas. A great experiance.
- Visit to Pico Espejo on Cable car (12kms in length, goes to hight of 4800mts).
- Some Dance parties.

* Maasina GuDi/OOty (with mensa friends)
* Delhi (AB's marriage)
* Kanyakumari (bike trip)
o Kanyakumari rocks.
o Ottakottayam fort.
o Tirparappu water falls.
o Satyamangalam.
* Maravante (bike)
* Kollur (bike)
* Pondicherry (bike)
* Mamallapuram (Mahabali Puram) (on bike)
* Chennai (1 time on car, 1 time on bus)
* Mysore + Karanji Lake + Kaveri NisargaDama

Details of all these trips are given in details in respective posts.