Some of the other cool things that we consumed were Mustani, Wada Pav, Kokam Juice, Aam Ras, Poori+Shrikand and Poha. We also picked up a box full of juicy Ratnagiri(?) Aphonso Mangoes, on the way back to the airport.

Places we visited :
Ram and me biked up to National Defence Academy, on his new Thunderbird.

Ramana and gang drove us to Kadak Vasala, where we watched a beautiful sunset.

The IndiGo airlines staff badly need training on how to handle passengers queries. By default, Customer Experience in India sucks and IndiGo Airlines is a perfect example for that.

On a ligher note, read Jammy’s funnie take on flying Kingfisher Airlines.

We plan to visit Nashik and Shirdi too. Man, am i not dying to eat those yummy “vada-pavs” (also known as mini indian burgers).

Reached my all time high speed, 160 Km/hr

Its been a while since i went for a long-drive. Made an impulsive decision to take off to Chennai by road to spend time with my folks on the occassion of Tamil New Years day and Vishu.

Left Bangalore at 6:45 am on Saturday, clocked 345 kms under 5 hours to Chennai.

Hosur : At 7:45 am stopped over at Saravana Bhavan for some yummy Pongal and Vada. Even though this is not the original Saravana Bhavan, the breakfast here was pretty yummy. I usually stop over here, on route to Chennai. The real highway began from there and so i stepped on the gas and hit my all time high speed at 160Kms/hours and managed to maintain this kinda speed for a while. Not bad for a Santro eh?

Ambur: Ambur is well know for its mouthwatering legpiecious Briyani. I never had one there though. Now Ambur is a kinda place one needs to watch out for. You’d notice bikes coming head-on to you. So i tend to slowdown and let ‘em pass by. People, often cattle cross the road, out of the blue. I was telling Ramya that a Qualis that zoomed past us like a bullet, was heading for trouble and it did. And then there was this Ford car which overtook us near Ambur. I again told Ramya that it was heading for trouble and we did notice this one parked a few Kms down the road a lil battered with dents. Next i saw another car, but this time kept my mouth shut.

Another Qualis started swinging right, left and centre, but the driver kinda manouvered it really well and ensured that it did hit the median. We later realized that it suffered a puncture at high speeds.

Kanchipuram : Impulsively took a diversion at Kanchipuram, in order to reach South Chennai a lil quickly. Turned out to be a bad decision. Realized that the Kanchipuram road was way to narrow (could do only 60Kms/hour) and so found a way back to the highway. I always thought that i had a spiritual connection with the Kanchipuram city… ( In my previous janmaa/avataaram, i was one of the kings who build very many temples in Kanchipuram, including the one displayed below)

Did you know that there are 4 toll gates on route to Chennai and the 5th one is coming up soon?
To be continued >>

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

ROUTE MAP : Bangalore > Bay Area > New Jersey > New York > Baltimore > Orlando-Florida > Washintong DC and back to Bangalore.

NJ > NY
After completing official work, I flew into New Jersey and delivered some home-made pickle to an expectant couple, who were nice enough to drop me at Rajesh’s place. Jet-lagged Wifey, SIL and her hubby picked me up from there.

We then drove down to downtown New York. Visited Ground-Zero, Times Square, Hard Rock Cafe, Empire State building, walked down thorugh Fifth Avenue etc., Dunno about others who didnt get a high at Times Square but I was literally awestruck! The place was full of josh and energy and was bubbling with scintillating advertisements!

We also had South Indian Tamilian meals at Saravana Bhavan at New Jersey. The taste did marginally differ from the original ones from Chennai. And as luck would have it, our digital camera got zonked and so we picked up a disposable camera. ( havent yet processed the philim) Will upload NY photos soon. Thankfully, the weather was just perfect.

The next day the weather played truant again but luckily it didnt snow. We started shivering inspite of wearing all those thermal wear, gloves and woolen headcaps.

Visited Statue of Liberty, had tolerably bad veggie burger, fries and fruit salad for lunch and then drove down Interstate 95. Reached Baltimore within 3 hours, thanks to a really cool GPS gadget. Also listened to S Ve Sekar’s tamil dramas on route.

Meanwhile, we did loadsa shopping, ( or rather my wifey did loooadsa shopping ). Will write in- detail about my shopping experiences and observations in the american malls later.