Ajit Kulkarni - My Life

Half Dome Hike

2011-07-19T01:47:00.000-07:00

Our group of 8 friends went to Yosemite National Park last weekend to hike the Half Dome. Half Dome is a very challenging day hike with a gain of 5000 feet in elevation and a total distance of around 16 miles. We had driven the previous night and stayed in a hotel just outside the park.

We got up early, got ready and drove to the park in the morning. We were about 30 min away from it. We reached the trail head parking lot at around 645AM. The actual trail head was half a mile away. Taking a deep breath we started the hike. We were at the trail head at 7AM. The initial part of the hike was moderately steep but helped to warm us up. We then reached a bridge over the Merced river giving us a view of Vernal Falls. The fall was looking very beautiful from far away. The trail went towards the falls and later around it. We saw some spectacular views of the falls. There were a series of steps and we were being sprayed by the water from the falls as we were climbing up. It was difficult even to get pictures from the camera. The trail got steeper as we went ahead. The rocks were wet and slippery and we had to go over them. The trail kept going and we reached the top of Vernal Falls. It looked very different from the top. We saw a great view of the valley as well.

The next stop was Nevada Falls. The trail continues through the jungle and we could see Nevada falls from far away. After about a mile , we were climbing over rocks and following a path with many switchbacks. The trail was very steep here and it brought out our best. We finally reached the top of Nevada Falls at around 9AM. We didn't have a nice vista point here to admire the falls. But we would get that chance later in the day on our way back. We took a break here removing our backpacks and having some energy bars and Gatorade. They were going to be our lifeline that day.

The next 2 miles were comparatively simple with us hiking on a level trail through the little Yosemite Valley. It was very scenic and there was also a campground there. This was the only reprieve we would have that day. Later the trail started ascending again through dense forests. We were just trying to take it slow and not give up. Having enough fluids and food was important. It was getting steeper. At one point I saw a deer on the trail ahead of me. It was pretty scared as well so it ran away. We kept motoring along at a slow but steady pace and finally reached the base called as the sub dome. I took another break here. There was a ranger with the NPS who was checking the permits which people had.

After getting the permit checked and recharging ourselves, we started to hike the sub dome. It is a trail of steps mainly over rocks. It goes in a zigzag manner and takes you to the base of half dome. This part is above treeline and you are directly exposed to the sun. It is very steep indeed and I was out of breath by the time I got to the top of the sub dome. We had another break here. The view was definitely worth the climb. We could see the quarter dome, another smaller feature similar to the half dome. There were also snow capped peaks on one side. We could see many granite cliffs.
The fun and most challenging part was just starting. We now had to go up the cables. I had heard about this before but trying it was going to be the challenge. There was a long line of people ahead of me. I just tried the technique the guy ahead of me was trying. To go one step at a time, pull yourself with your arms and go one step at a time. The key was to not look down. As we went higher it got steeper and consequently scarier. We were just waiting for it to end. Finally after 40 min of what seemed like eternity I managed to reached the top of Half Dome. It was a great feeling. I took few minutes again to catch my breath. There was surprisingly full network coverage. I made a few phone calls boasting about my feat and sent a tweet from the summit. That was an ego boost :P

I walked around on the summit and took some amazing pictures. I waited for the rest of the group to get there. We then spent a lot of time walking around and taking pictures. We also went to this particular ledge where I had seen many of my friends take pictures. There was a 5000 feet drop from that ledge and it was very scary to go there. I somehow managed to look down and it was scary.It was a dizzying height. My friend took pictures of me trying different stunts from there. We then walked around and saw the amazing views. We could see the entire Yosemite Valley with the Yosemite falls as well.
After having a bread and jam lunch we decided to head back. Climbing down the cables was the biggest challenge. Its much harder going down. You don't have the choice of not looking down now. I tried the technique of using both hands and placing my feet sideways. That worked for me. I kept my camera inside so that there would be no distractions. It took us about 40 min to get down. When we had done that we let out a sigh of relief . The hard part had been done.

We then started back on the trail making our way back. It felt like a long walk. It had been a long and tiring day and there was still some time left. We had started from the sub dome at around 4PM and reached the Yosemite Valley around 6. After taking a break we started hiking again and reached the Nevada Falls at around 7PM. We decided to take the John Muir trail back instead of the Mist trail as it was less dangerous. It would avoid us going through the slippery rocks and would be easier on the knees as it was less steep. It was getting very difficult now. Our feet, ankles, knees , calves and many other muscles were hurting. It was starting to play on the mind too. We just wanted to get this over with.
Finally 2 of us made it to the parking lot at 830PM. It had been a long 13:45 min hiking day. We were really tired but were very happy that we had accomplished something special.

Most food places had closed. We had stuff like chips and bananas and decided to suck it up and drive back to San Jose. We reached at 2AM. Since it had been a long tiring day with no proper breakfast, lunch or dinner I decided to treat myself at Denny's. One of the best meals I ever had. :)
NPS video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l_D5zouojSY

Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100392907586903.2725563.6239868

Camping at Channel Islands National Park

2011-06-10T00:54:00.000-07:00

I had been camping over the weekend to Channel Islands. Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Santa Barbara and are a popular National Park . They are a protected reserve and there are no commercial establishments on them. We had camped on Santa Cruz island which is the largest one among them.
It took us an hour long catamaran ride to get to Santa Cruz island. We had booked a campground there.
Day 1:
We took a short 3 mile hike to potato harbor. It offers some stunning views of the island shore. The Pacific was looking very blue and beautiful indeed. We got back late in the evening and had the dehydrated food packs. You pour boiling hot water in the pack and have the food after 15 min. The first day this was good but I knew I was going to be sick of it 2 days later. We retired pretty early as we had a long day tomorrow. We also watched the documentary about restoration of some of the species on the islands. That was very informative. Grazing and livestock had endangered some of the plant and animal species like the island fox and bald eagles. The NPS had worked hard to restore them back to the island. No wonder the islands are called Galapagos of North America.

Day 2
We went on a kayaking trip through the sea caves on Santa Cruz island. I was on a 2 person kayak with my friend. We didn't do that splendid a job and fell of the kayak about 3 times. This messed up the kayaking company's average of utmost 2 kayaks turning over in a trip. We went inside many caves and it got very exciting at times. In one particular case the cave entrance closes when a tide comes in. You have to get out when the wave has subsided and before the next one comes in. That was pretty exciting. We went on either sides of the harbor through many caves. Before going to the final cave , we had to brave the surf. Most of our trip so far had been in the calm water of the shore. The last part made us go against the waves in the main sea current. This was not easy and we had to row much faster to go against the tide. We did manage to do it and the cave at the end of it was worth the effort.
In the afternoon we went for a short 1 mile hike as we were really tired from the workout during the day. Dinner was again the same , dehydrated food, was tired of it by now :)

Day 3:
We took a longer 5 miles round trip hike to Scorpion beach. It was a nice hike to the other side of the island.We could get a great view of Anacapa island from there. We saw some breathtaking views on the hike and also from the destination.
After getting back we had lunch and headed back to the Scorpion Cove to head back to mainland and civilization. It had been a fun weekend

Some pictures below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kulkarniajitv/ChannelIslandCamping

Snow Shoeing in Yosemite

2011-04-09T02:03:00.000-07:00

I and 4 of my friends had the lucky fortune of visiting the Yosemite National Park and doing snow shoeing there . This was my first experience with the sport. Its like skiing but instead of a ski you have a snow shoe below your feet which makes walking on snow easier. The apparatus basically distributes your weight over a larger area and avoids your feet from sinking into the snow.

Our day started pretty early. I picked up my friend at 6AM and we all met at the Danville BART station at around 715AM. From there we carpooled to Yosemite in my friends' awesome Land Rover. Its a 3-3.5 hour drive. As we neared the park entrance the road got steeper and narrower. A lot of snow had fallen the night before so there were a lot of precautions to be taken. We didn't need chains on our tires as we were in an SUV but we saw others doing so. Some sections of Yosemite like the Tioga Pass and the Glacier point were closed in this season.

We continued driving at the speed of 25 mph. We passed some popular vista points on our way. These are popular tourist attractions and always have many people taking pictures. One of these is the view where you see the waterfall amongst cliffs on both sides. The second one is the one with the El Capitan on the Left and he Half Dome in the center.

We did the normal touristy stuff taking pictures here but then we left for the snow shoe trail which was the highlight of our trip.

The Trail:

We parked our car at the trailhead and started. It was about a 4 mile trail. We put on our gear. Wearing a snowshoe is like wearing giant sandals. They are made of metal and give you a great grip in the snow. You also need hiking/ skiing poles which give you a hold when you move forward. The start of the hike was pretty steep but later it turned into a leisurely walk. We were chatting, playing with the snow, throwing snow on each other and enjoying ourselves. We would pass conifers and would try to shake off the snow that had accumulated on their branches. We would pass cross country skiers as well. It was turning out to be a fun experience. We kept walking through the snow for about one and a half hours.

The Snow Fight and lunch

Everyone was starting to feel hungry by now so we decided to take a break. We started hiking downwards towards the frozen river bed. The snow here was much softer and powdery. We were worried that we didn't want to fall into the river itself. We unloaded our backpacks. Then began the snow fight. No one was spared. Everyone was targeted individually and pelted with a lot of snow. We took a video of the same. The snow feels really cold when it gets into your jacket. When I see the pictures now , I see how happy everyone was. The smile on everyone's face is very genuine indeed.

We found a clearing of snow near the river bed and sat down for lunch. There was no insulation available to sit on so it was going to be a chilling experience. Our friends were kind enough to pack lunch boxes for us. They had prepared individual boxes with Indian Chhole (like Garbanzo beans) and rotis. This is one of the most interesting lunches I have ever had. We were sitting in the middle of nowhere on white snow and having lunch. The sky was clearing and and being overcast in alternation. It even snowed at a point. The food seemed even more delicious. We joked around after finishing lunch about how numb our backside was becoming.

The Hike part 2

We continued our hike after lunch. We now decided to get off the beaten road. So we tried things like walking on fresh snow parallel to the trail. This meant going up and down slopes. This was definitely more interesting than following the trail. Our expert guide who has done this many times suggested to create your own trail by walking on the snow and not follow an existing rail. This would be more fun as your feet would sink in the snow. I somehow got philosophical at that point thinking isn't that true in other aspects of life as well. If you create your own path and not follow others you would have more fun. You would sink initially, won't be on solid ground but would eventually rise up. I didn't share it with my friends though. Now I think I should have. :)

We decided to head back after talking to some cross country skiers who said that the trail ended about a mile later. It was more of the same terrain so we headed back. We now decided to go near the river bed and walk along side it. This was more adventurous being in the powdery snow. We took a different course going uphill and downhill alternately and walking through the snow. We had a second round of the snowball fight and this was much more fun. We even nearly buried one of the guys into the snow completely. He must have been freezing then. That was one of the memorable events among many that day. We then climbed uphill and took a break to catch the view. Since we were much higher up we could see the treetops. We even built a small snowman. It was a great job considering we made her (sorry it was a snow woman :)) in under 15 min.

We hiked back and reached the trailhead around 430PM. Everyone was tired now so we started driving back.

Bridal Veil Falls

On our way back we decided to stop at the popular Bridal Veil falls. This is one of the most popular attractions at Yosemite. It was starting to get cold now. There is a small walk to the falls and as we got nearer it kept getting colder. If you come here in the summer there is a big spray of water that greets you. Today it was different. There was snow everywhere and we were greeted by a shower of big snowflakes. It was unlike anything I had experienced before. There was a continuous shower of snowflakes on our faces. The waterfall itself was pretty high . There was a lot of snow settled on the vegetation near the water fall. My camera was also getting a shower. It was a pretty incredible experience which we all savored.

Curry Village

It lies in the heart of Yosemite valley. We took a break there, bought some food and juices at a grocery store and just walked around. We got some great views of the mountains all around us , the waterfalls and also the Half Dome.It was around 530PM now and people were getting ready to leave.

Tulomne Grove of Giant Sequoias

This is my highlight of the trip. I have had great experiences the whole day, the lunch, the snow shoeing, the snow fights but this took the cake.

I was expecting us to leave for home as it was dusk and everyone looked pretty tired. My friend suggested that we take a short trail called the Tulomne grove trail which takes you to Sequoia trees. I was a bit apprehensive as it would be getting dark soon but decided to try it.

It was a 2.5 mile trail which meant it would definitely be dark when we got back. We started our descent. We were a bit tired of the snowshoes by now so decided to just go in our hiking boots. We were chatting and descending down the trail . By the time we reached the first Sequoia tree we had gone down a fair bit and there was very little sunlight. I was just blown away by the size of the tree. I don't have a measure or analogy of the height, lets just say it was very tall, and very wide too. When three of us stood end to end hands outstretched, the chain formed by us approximated the breadth of the tree. That was a moment of awe for me looking at the size.

I was thinking the hike was done and we would be heading back. Was I wrong again :). We decided to continue to the second Sequoia tree which was affectionately called the Tunnel tree. It was this big dead tree which was so big that a tunnel had been cut into it so that people could walk through. This one was much bigger than the previous one.

We continued on our trail. We were passing by big Sequoia trees on both sides now. It had started with a baby and now we were nearing the Mommy and Daddy Sequoias. We passed an enormous fallen Sequoia tree. It was nearly 100 metres long. I maybe wrong on the number but that is my closest approximation.

We walked along its length and reached its base. We could see its roots. There was a small tunnel in there which I was tempted to enter but it was really late now. The base was pretty wide, it was equivalent to atleast 2 people standing end to end hands outstretched.

The Adventure

This was the most fun part of the day for all of us. It was night time by now. The only light we had was that of the moon which was surprisingly a lot. We decided to head back. We did have flashlights but we didnt use them. We didn't have a map. We were supposed to follow a loop which got us to the first Sequoia tree and after that it was the standard trail. We kept on going. At some points we felt we had taken a wrong turn. We corrected ourselves and moved along. This being dark made things more difficult and interesting. After walking for what seemed like eternity we reached the first Sequoia tree. I let out a sigh of relief. We then started hiking back up the trail. There was only the moonlight guiding us.

Most of the signs and directions had been buried by the snow. Someone thought it would be a good idea to share ghost stories. This was getting much more fun. We exchanged a few stories. The idea was to keep talking and stay together so that we don't spook ourselves. It was about 815 PM now. We kept on going. The trail seemed to take eternity. I was worried about wild animals. We had seen a coyote at very close range in the afternoon. That was however from the comfort of our SUV. We didn't want to see anything now. Also this was bear country. But then this is winter so those bears are supposed to be hibernating. I don't think I will be that tasty anyway. I felt like my hero Bear Grylls from the Discovery Channel show 'Man vs Wild'

After about an hour we reached a fork. We could see lights on our left so we decided to take it. We reached come wooden cottages. I let out a sigh of relief as we had reached civilization. But we hadn't seen them on our way down. One of my friends suggested that we should have taken the right at the fork. So what do we do now? This seemed like private property. We suggested the lady in our group to knock on the door. She did and it was greeted by a 'Come in'. She knocked again. This time many kids shouted the same. This relaxed me. There seemed to be a family inside. We opened the door and told the group inside that we were lost. They were a similar group from the bay area visiting Yosemite. A man named Jose told us that we took the wrong turn and the fork and suggested us to just find their parking lot and then walk along the road to the trail head. Joe was a real nice guy. He even walked out ,pointed us to the right way and followed us to make sure we were on the right track. I don't do this often but I actually prayed for Joe then.

We reached our trail head where we saw our car waiting for us. The adventure had come to a successful end. The forest ranger greeted us and suggested to be slow as there was some black ice on the road. We packed up and drove back. This had been one of those most amazing days.

Pictures and videos here

https://picasaweb.google.com/kulkarniajitv/YosemiteSnowShoeing#

Shantanu Narayan- Adobe CEO at Asia Business Conference 2011 in Berkeley

2011-04-02T01:24:00.000-07:00

I and my friend attended the Asia Business Conference in Berkeley today. This was a pretty historic day as the Indian cricket team had won the World Cup. We had stayed up all night and watched the event. We were really tired but decided to go to the conference as Mr. Shantanu Narayen the CEO of Adobe was speaking.

The Dean of the Haas School of Business interviewed Mr. Narayen . Here are some of Mr.Narayen's thoughts. Unfortunately I don't remember all the questions which generated these responses.

Mr. Narayen feels that mobility, the cloud and social are the 3 important areas in technology today. This is where Adobe is focusing its attention as well. Publishing in the US is declining but its increasing in other places are India. The phone and tablet market is very ripe in India. These devices can be subsidized by advertising. The desire to learn and consume there is very high. Many generations of technology like the desktop and the laptop are being leapfrogged .

There is dramatic acceleration of innovation.

Where should a company do its R&D?

It should be near the customer. It should also be geographically dispersed. There are a lot of patents filed outside the US nowadays. Many hi tech companies are not just doing maintenance of existing software but developing new products outside as well in places like India.

P&L and Marketing is also done in India now. This geographical dispersion becomes a challenge in times of a recession for big companies like Adobe.

He has also observed that China has more PhDs while India has more application developers. Developing the middle management is a challenge for his organization.

What are business risks for working in Asia or a particular country in Asia ?

How to protect IP? Compliance issues. What is acceptable ethically ? How to take a global product and tailor it for a local market. How do you look at the explosion in the mobile market and make use of it ?

Is mobile market a qualitative (disruptive) or a quantitative (acceleration) case?

Because of the browser and apps , tablets are becoming popular. There is far more experimentation possible with localized products.

Where will the innovation come from ?

The innovation needed now is business model innovation. e.g: Software now is a perpetual license. Once you buy it, its yours. The next would be a worldwide subscription. (e.g. monthly access with lower subscription cost)

Since media will move to the internet there will be a need for demographic based advertising.

another example for innovation is the following

In India there are less credit card based transactions. How do you deal with that.

Cellphone plans are very cheap in India. Incoming calls are free. There are Dual SIM phones which is another innovation.

Managers should celebrate failure so that people take risks. But they should not fail on the same thing repeatedly.

Has the US / Silicon valley lost its edge ? How does it get it back?

It hasn't lost its edge. Access to capital is easy in the US. Innovation will continue to happen but it won't be the exclusive source. It is still the largest market in the world.

Global branding is a challenge for Adobe. They are known by its products like Acrobat , Photoshop and Flash but not as Adobe.

Flash on Apple devices:

Its on the debate of a closed vs open ecosystem. Google and RIMM have allowed Flash on Android and RIMM Playbook respectively.

What will leaders in Asia need ? What qualities should they have ?

This is the business of innovation. They should have a vision of where to go, be able to get a team in place, take initiative , take ownership of both the issues and outcomes.

Advice for founders:

Constantly reinvent yourself and allow others to do the same. Hire people smarter than you. Ask questions like how would you like to impact the company and take direct feedback.

Mr. Narayan's words were pretty inspiring. He is a smart guy,No wonder Adobe is doing well. :)

Attending TEDxBerkeley 2011

2011-02-21T00:11:00.000-08:00

I had the great opportunity of attending TEDxBerkeley this last Saturday at UC Berkeley. I had attended it last year and was hence looking forward to attending it a second time. I always find myself opening up to a whole new world when I visit this conference. There are some really smart people who are trying to make a change in this world. Their stories are very inspiring and this year was no different. I had written a summary of the event last year on this same blog mainly as a personal reference and it was pretty well received. Hence I would like to repeat that this year as well. I hope it is helpful to anyone who wants to get a gist of what the conference was about.

The TEDxBerkeley website is http://tedxberkeley.org/

The theme this year was 'Engaging the World.' The talks were grouped into 3 sessions reach of which focussed on a 'Dream' , 'Pioneer' and 'Connect' required to engage the world. Before we get started I would like to add that my favorite talk was the one given by Erin Ganju about her 'Room to Read' organization. I was very much inspired and motivated by her and the work she has done. It represented the success story of an organization which flourished and grew to scale. Two other talks I liked were by Robert Fuller about human beings having respecting Dignity one by Gopi Kallayil about finding your inner mindfulness.

I jotted down some notes while listening to the talks and have tried to best to present this in a way that makes sense. I would also frankly say that there were some talks which my limited IQ couldn't grasp completely so they aren't described in detail here.

So please excuse me and let me know if there is something in these summaries which is incorrect, I shall do my best to correct it.

The first talk was by Jason Atwood about the Ethiopia ConnectED an eduction initiative where low powered computer systems are setup in schools in Africa. Many kids started using these computers and took an instant liking to them. These computers use EduBuntu, an education oriented operating system. He showed some heart rending videos of kids having their first experience with a computer and the joy on their faces when they started using it and learning from it. He mentioned that his organization had kept a condition that there would ne no adults in the room and no supervision by teachers when the kids initially started using the computers. I thought this was unconventional but it worked so that the kids had their first experience as an unbiased one. Mr. Atwood spoke of a very simple equation in the end which was pretty inspiring.

Privilege + Opportunity = Responsibility.

We all have an obligation. We don't have to change but just engage the world. He ended his talk with a simple thought, what would you do with the knowledge of today to change the world of tomorrow ?

David Rose spoke next suggesting that the future of computing is enchantment. We would be adding 'enchantment' to many objects around us. He spoke of 5 different areas and gave examples. This reminded me of a class called 'Embodied Interaction' that I had taken in Grad school 3 years ago. These were the areas that Rose thought of

1> Omniscience- Desire to know everything. Technology would be used so that humans can be helped with preattentive processing.

2> Communication: Use devices to spread information around us.

3> Protection: We can augument devices to protect us as well. A funny example is to add hidden cameras to toys to spy on babysitters.

4> Healthcare: This is what Mr. Rose's company works on. Technology that ensures that you take your meds. He showed results of the Glowcaps product of his company which looks at medication adherence. There was a funny example here as well of a pepper projector which takes pictures of food on the table , mines this data and projects onto the food the calorific value of every dish.

5. Transportation. An example given was of a bus pole which a mile away from the actual bus stop and tells you how long for the actual bus to arrive which tells you if you have to rush to get it or you can walk leisurely and maybe even get a coffee.

6> Expression:

Examples of using embedded robots which use added information about objects which will lead to and having a better interface, glancability and more success for business.

The next talk shown was the following video. It speaks of a very simple but powerful idea. http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html

It talks about the importance of teh first follower of any movement who gives the leader his credibility.

Robert Fuller: He talked about rankism and how it can get difficult to live with Dignity in this world. Predators are those who pick on the weak. The school is one place where we see this. Students armor themselves so that they aren't teased. He quoted a poem 'Nobody' by Emily Dickinson http://www.beyondbooks.com/lit71/1f.asp. where he talks about being an outsider.

Mr. Fuller than talked about the Dignity Movement. It is where you accept my place and I accept yours. It is against humiliation and rankism which is a degrading assertion of power. He mentioned that rankism is seen within the same groups as well. e.g. between women or people of a particular race. He mentioned that it takes 6 generations for an 'ism' like sexism, racism to go giving an example of his own family.

These ism's have been prevalent as excluding people makes it easy for you to progresss. But that should change now. Rankism is a residue of predation. In the end he ended suggesting the audience to protect other's degree as you would defend yours. This was one of my favorite talks of the conference.

Mart Spiegelman

She spoke about human and global consciousness. She spoke of her trips around the world meeting many indigenous populations and seeing how aware they are of their consciousness. She suggested that intelligence is just streaming all around us trying to get our attention. We need to just tap into it. She spoke of some of the ideas she had learnt

Pacha State of being there

Ayni- Reciprocity

Munay- accept unconditionally

Aylla- return to collective

She also spoke of relational awareness. We need to feel and not think. For this we should go to nature and the wilderness where this will be expedited.

The afternoon session started with the following talks

David Silverman

He was an animator on the Simpsons. He spoke at length about the Tuba instrument, its history and evolution. He also spoke a little about the history of the Simpsons and how Lisa came to play the saxophone. It had apparentlt happened as he had brought his idea and passion of playing the Tuba to the meeting for Simpsons show. He suggested to always bring your idea out to the fore, you never know when it maybe used. He was one of the most funny speakers that day.

Erin Ganju

As I mentioned this was my favorite talk. Ms. Ganju opened with a line from the Dr. Seuss classic and talked about her 'Room To Read' project aimed a creating libraries all around the world's schools. She opened with the statistic that 759 million people all over the world cannot read or write. She mentioned 5 points to follow if you want to make your dream of making a difference a success.

1. Find an idea that changes the world.

For her the key to develop solutions is an educated population. She mentioned a Nelson Mandela quote'Education is the most powerful weapon you cn use to change the world'

2. Turn that idea into reality.

3.Learn from setbacks and take risks

She spoke of how having a beginner's mind helped her and she had a fresh unbiased approach. This included taking risks such as walking into the office of the education minister of an African country without an appointment. Today they have over eleven thousand libraries.

4. take it to scale

5. remain open to refine the vision

Walter Hood then talked about the Green Print project. A hill was created many years ago in the city of Pittsburgh. This hill was created after dirt and mud was dumped there many years ago when digging for coal. As part of the project 'hills' and 'woods' we created on the hill. To counter the public opinion that the hill should be removed, Mr. Wood had to explain the people that green is not scary. You can now walk through the woods about a mile from downtown Pittsburgh and enter the 'village'. The project has 3 areas namely the 'woods', the 'village' and the conveyance system.

In addition there is a 'Curtain Call' which has pictures of people who have lived or have had experiences with the hill.

Lopa Brunjes spoke about Biochar which is product created when charcoal is added to soil. She started her talk with a great quote frm Khalil Gibran 'Work is love made visible'. According to Ms. Brunjes, climate change is an interconnectivity issue and the solution lies within the problem. Carbon dioxide is adding carbon to the atmosphere so the solution is taking it back from the atmosphere and adding it to the soil. That is what biochar does.

Biomass + heat + oxygen produces biochar with a process called pyrolysis.Biomass is bio waste left over after making processed food. e.g. shells of nuts or wood chips. Adding charcoal to the soil makes it fertile. Biochar is used like compost. It seen that food and vegetables created with soil having biochar is much bigger and better. She gave a nice thought saying that the earth with 6 inches of topsoil and rains is the only reason why humans exist.

It takes 1000 years to build 1-4 inches of topsoil and 30-40 years of agriculture to destroy it.

The reasons biochar does such a great job is that its very porous and microbes stay there. It absorbs water and nutrients like a sponge.

But why should we care about biochar

Currently the cycle is as follows

Oxygen is given by plants -> air while carbon dioxide is given by air -> plants

By adding biochar to this process

Plants -> pyrolysis -> energy -> CO2 -> plants

1 ton of biochar can take out 3 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Hence both can help climate change. Biochar can help with issues like energy, food security, soil fertility or erosion and desertification. She ended her talk with another memorable quote ,'if you don't change courses, you will end up where you are headed.'

Bryan Alvarez talks about a project where he wants to build something similar to Google Earth for the human body. In an orchestra you are part of a whole. Our body is also similar to a symphony where we are only 10% of it, 90% is occupied by other species and we have to work in concert with them. He then talked about the human atlas project. Its about creating a 3D immersive environment where you can look at organs like atoms. You would be able to look at different species living in your body. You would be able to imagine healing and also adaptation and plasticity. He mentioned that Google and XVivo are working together on a project like this using animation. He also ended with a nice quote, 'If you as a body can work together with thousands of species, why can't humans work together being just one species'

Gopi Kallayil talked about connecting the internet and the inner- net. We are a very connected society. Technology has leveled the field for everyone. The brain is equally available for everyone. For peak performance it needs some quiet time. These are the ways to do it.

1. Focus of essential

2. Do one thing at a time

3. A minute of mindfulness (do something for 1 minute every day )

4. Appointments for mindfulness (these should not be deleted or skipped)

5. Friend yourself

He ended his talk encouraging the crowd by asking what would they commit to today?

Anat Baniel talked about brain plasticity where the brain cannot change his behavior. So can we change its behavior ? Can the brain be reprogrammed? She had a very unconventional idea where she asked the audience to perform some exercises. She summarized her suggestions for programming the brain using physical exercises as follows

- Movement with attention

- Slow down

- Use less force

- variation

- have flexible goals

our muscles are built to contract and not stretch.

Eric Barlow , a video was shown http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Feric_berlow_how_complexity_leads_to_simplicity.html&ei=Gi5qTZm0LI28sAO95cWmBA&usg=AFQjCNFQkhPRV2XOJQmS8AbqnR4u73sjfA&sig2=XXDIxLvdkZdn6vwq6pztJw

Chip Conley talked about creating joy at his company. He talked about some psychological principles like the 'Hierarchy of Needs' pyramid. There are 100 suicides per day in the US which

is more than homicides. He talked about some very good equations which he calls as emotional equations.

Despair = suffering - meaning

here suffering is constant but meaning is variable

Happiness = wanting what you have / having what you want

= gratitude / gratification

= practice / pursuit

workaholism = what you are running from / what you are living for

calling = pleasure / pain

anxiety = uncertainty * powerlessness

uncertainity -> what you dont know

powerlessness -> what you can't control

curiosity = wonder + awe

wonder -> present in childhood, awe ->what you have in old age

Daniel Goleman

He talked about emotional intelligence. 2/3 rd of business leadership is emotional intelligence. In his company when performance evaluations are done by evaluating results vs relationships. He used a nice play on words to say you don't have to be superhuman but a super human.

Shore Slocum spoke about evolution of consciousness. Most of us go through life asleep. Awareness preceeds change. The Buddha had consciousness and is 'awake'. If you don't wake up life will be 'reactive' and not 'proactive'.

The evolution of consciousness has 4 stages

1> TO ME : Life is happening to me

2> BY ME: You can do something and get a different result

3> THROUGH ME: Something is moving through you. Things happen to you hence less effort is required as compared to the BY ME stage.

4> AS ME: We are all connected

To go from TO ME to BY ME stage you have to give you blame and take responsibility.

BY ME to THROUGH ME: Give up control

THROUGH ME to AS ME: Give up a sense of seperation.

He ended with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world' which he modified as 'You must BECOME the change you wish to see in this world' saying its an ongoing and continuous process.

Overall I had a great experience at the conference and was pretty inspired by some of the talks.

Hike to Angel Island, San Francisco

2010-09-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

I went with my friends to the beautiful Angel Island in the San Francisco bay. Its a 20 min ferry ride away from Pier 39 and is a great place to spend the day. It has a 5 mile hiking loop which goes around the island and gives you some great views of the bay. The interesting thing is that you get views from all 4 sides so you can see the SF skyline, the Bya Bridge, Oakland and also the Richmod San Rafael bridge. The hike is not that strenuous either.

On a clear day you get some great views of the San Francisco skyline. There is a small visitor's center which explains the history of the island. It is a place where migrants had to check in when they arrived in the US, very much like Ellis Island in New York. The history is also pretty fascinating.

Backpacking Trip to Havasupai - Day 3

2010-09-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

We woke up really early around 430AM. We had a small breakfast and packed our stuff. Packing the tent and the sleeping bag was a pain as it had to be compressed and fit into a small bag. We finally started at around 6AM. It took us an hour to go the first 2 mile and get to the village. This is because it there were portions of the trail which were steep.

A welcome surprise greeted us at the village. There were helicopter services available. For $20 they would transport your backpack to the hilltop. Most people were on board and gave their backpacks (which weigh around 30 lbs) or transferred their heavy luggage into their friends' backpacks. Though I was pretty idealistic initially I gave in later. The day was going to get just too hot.

After this the hiking was comparatively easier. I was hiking back with my roommate. We decided to avoid a break as much as possible and try to maintain a good pace. I think we did pretty well. It took us 2 hrs and 15 min to cover the almost 5 miles to the base of the canyon from where final ascent began. We were walking in the shade for most of the first hour. Later when the sun rise higher into the sky things started getting difficult. We tried to drink as much water as we could.

The Final Ascent

There were 3 of us hiking together for the last stretch. It was a very steep climb. We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The sun was up and it was making it very difficult. However we successfully completed it in about an hour. As we reached the top we took pictures of ourselves. The exhaustion on the faces was pretty noticeable.

After everyone was back at the hilltop we drove back to Vegas. Now time for committing some sins in the sin city. :) However everyone was really tired so there weren't many sins committed. :)

Conclusion

Its an amazing place and everyone should go there given a chance. The waterfalls more than make up for the hike. There are other options like mules and helicopters as well. However it tastes more sweet if you do the whole hike.

For myself and few of my friends this was a challenge. We have been very impressed by our new found hero, Bear Grylls from Man vs Wild on Discovery Channel. Ok we didn't do anything as crazy as him but we just wanted to see how that life would be like. Camping and backpacking are activities which bring you very close to nature. You learn to live without the pleasures and comforts of life. Just like how primal man used to live. That is why its a challenge for us who are very used to an easy city life. You learn how important a resource like water is which you take for granted. You appreciate the importance of carrying lightweight materials so that your backpack is lighter.

Ok, that's enough, now time to enjoy my soft bed :) and my TV show

Backpacking to Havasupai - Day 2

2010-09-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

We had planned to wake up early and go to 2 falls today. Mooney Falls and Beaver Falls. But we didn't get up early enough so we had time for Mooney Falls only. Beaver Falls was 2 miles away and finishing both falls and the 4 miles of hiking would have been tight.

Mooney Falls

Mooney Falls is just 0.5 miles away from the campground. However getting there involves climbing down a very steep rock face. You have to be very careful getting down and not slip. There are some small tunnels you have to go through and finally climb down a ladder to get there. But in the end its worth the work.

Mooney falls is more spectacular than Havasu Falls. It felt it was bigger. You again have the turquoise water and a very strong current. We tried the same histrionics here, trying to go as far back as we could, diving from a nearby stream and trying to look at the falls directly.

Cave with Buddha

We spent time taking pictures and playing in the water. Later we decide to explore the area and started walking down the bed of the stream. It was a fun adventure. As we moved ahead we came across a cave on a rock face. To our great surprise there was a drawing of Lord Buddha inside it. This was the last thing we expected to see in America in an Indian reservation. All of us took turns climbing into the cave and taking pictures. This was a photo no one wanted to miss.

We had to climb back up from Mooney falls. It wasn't easy but wasn't as hard as we had expected.

Jumping from Waterfall

On our first day I had seen a guy jumping off a small waterfall. I suggested this to the group that we should try it later. Two of them agreed so we decided to give it a shot. It was a long 1 mile hike so the others didn't come with us. We hiked for a mile and reached the waterfall. Now we started getting second thoughts. It looks scary when you are at the top looking down. We were unsure whether the water was deep enough. If it wasn't it could be dangerous. But since we had seen someone do it the previous day it was decided to go ahead. I went first. It was scary. You feel the most fear when you are about to jump. After you do it , the fear goes away. Luckily the water was deep enough :) else I wouldn't be writing this. 2 of my friends also dived after me. We decided to try it again and so I and my friend jumped again. This time we did a nice photo session.

Video Link:

We got back our heads high back to the campground. We had the packaged dinner again, some card games and went to sleep pretty early after the final packing. We had to leave early tomorrow. It was a long hike back.

Backpacking Trip to Havasupai - Day 1

2010-09-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

I along with a group of friends decided to go to Havasupai Village this Labor day weekend. This is a small village located in the Grand canyon in the Indian reservation of the Hualapai tribe.

We had planned to fly to Las Vegas and then drive down to the town of Peach Springs in Arizona. The next day we planned to drive to the trailhead which is called the Hualapai Hilltop and then hike 8 miles through the Grand Canyon to the Havasu Village and later to the campground.

We planned to stay there for 2 days and check out the different waterfalls there and just enjoy the place. On the last day we were going to hike back 8 miles to the trail head and then drive back to Las Vegas and fly back home the next day.

The Previous evening

All of us got to Las Vegas in the evening. We had rented a car to drive to Peach Springs. The drive was around 3 hours from Nevada to Arizona which meant we passed the Hoover Dam. This was my second experience seeing the Hoover Dam. It is indeed an amazing feat of engineering.

We got to peach springs pretty late and went to sleep immediately as there was a very long day ahead of us.

Day 1 : The Hike

We planned to start hiking at around 6AM. This is because it gets really hot in Arizona and especially at the base of the Grand Canyon. Temperatures can go up to 120 deg F. However we had a navigation error and lost a fair bit of time getting to the trail head.

The trail head is this place called Hualapai Hilltop. It comes under the Indian reservation of the Hualapai tribe. We effectively started at around 830AM. This meant that we would have to endure the hot Sun.

The first 1 mile of the trail is a 1000+ feet drip down the Grand Canyon. That is followed by a 7 mile trail through the Grand canyon and mostly through the bed of the river that once flowed there. The 1 mile hike down was pretty easy. But we realized that the climb back up 2 days later would be very hard. Everyone was enjoying the spectacular views of the Grand Canyon. We reached the base in about 45 min and then started walking down the trail.

The trail progressively went deeper and through the river bed of the extinct river. This had created some very peculiar rock shapes. As we went deeper the rocks got redder. There was obviously a lot of iron in them. We would mostly be walking through the river bed except sometimes there was an easier way around it which involved climbing up and down some rocks. It started to get hotter after 11AM. This slowed down our progress and we started taking breaks. The landscape kept changing after every 15-20 min when we crossed a section. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Some pictures below show how nice it looked and also give an indication of the size of the rocks and the structures as compared to a human being.

We met many people hiking with us , some going in the opposite way. You need very good hiking gear which includes a good hat, a lot of water , good hiking shoes which protect your ankles and appropriate clothing which is light and doesn't get very wet when you sweat.

We had spent a lot of time and money getting the gear which includes a tent, backpack, hiking shoes and a lot of other stuff. Anyway the hike got more and more scenic as we progressed.

Progress got really slow as we weer hiking in early afternoon and it was getting really hot. A while later I heard a stream of water nearby and freshened myself up. The cool water felt really good in the hot sun. After 2 more miles of hiking we reached the Havasu Village. This is the central location of the tribe and had schools, houses , ranches, cafes and also a church.

We mostly saw native Americans living there and we could see mainly kids when we were there.

There was a camping office where everyone had to register and we were given a wrist band which each of us had to wear for the rest of our stay there. After freshening up again there we headed to the campground which was still 2 miles away. This was the hard part as everyone was really tired. After about another hour of hiking we reached the campground. Everyone was done for the day. :)

The Setup

However retiring for the day wasn't an option. We set up our tents. Since it was a first hiking experience for many the tent setup proved to be challenging but we got through in the end. Next up , lunch. We had purchased these gas stoves called 'JetBoil' which boil water using gas. We had brought a lot of food packets used by hikers for our food for the next 3 days. So you boil the water and pour it in these packets and have the food after 15 min. There were a lot of food choices with different cuisines available. This included Indian, Thai, Pasta and Mexican food. The water was another issue. We had brought iodine tablets with us. You put them in a gallon of water and keep it so for 30 min. Then you add another chemical which clears the water and makes it potable. We tried that out as well. The water was pretty good indeed. Later we realized that there was a spring of drinking water which all campers could use. That reduced our enthusiasm about the water purification tablets. :)

The lunch was pretty good. It wasn't restaurant food but was solving the need. We relaxed for some time and then headed to Havasu Falls which were near the campground itself.

Havasu Falls:

This was our prize for having a very long and tiring day. The water was very cold but felt perfect after the furnace that we had been in. We went into the water to right at the bottom of the falls.

We played around in the falls and took some great pictures. We tried to go as close to the waterfall as we could but the force of the water was so strong that it kept pushing us away. We were also concerned of a sudden change in depth as we got closer. We tried a lot of stunts when there as well. This included going under water, trying to look at the falls in the face and splashing others silly. We then went to another area which was much shallow and was basically a continuing stream of the falls. Many of us tried diving into the water there. It was fun indeed.

This went on till about 7PM. We had the perfect evening which had relaxed us after the tiring day hike.

The night:

We had the same exercise again of boiling the water and having dinner from the food packets. We played some cards after that. That was a great way to just relax and get to know each other better. We finally went to sleep at around 930PM. Getting sleep wasn't easy. The sky was pretty clear and some started star gazing.

Native Phone apps vs Web Apps and websites

2010-05-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

I thought about this issue when I had a few problems with some of the installed applications on my iPhone. One day after updating, my linkedin app stopped working. It just crashed. The same thing happened with my Cricinfo Mobicast app which I use for cricket news. The alternatives which were the corresponding mobile versions of the websites worked pretty well. This is why I am thinking as to what is a better alternative , a native app or a web app.

Let me explain what these are just to make things clear.

A native app is what you install on your smartphone. I am speaking from personal experiences with the iPhone but this applies to all.

A web app is a much smaller app where just a shortcut is put on your phone screen. The app actually talks to the internet. An example is the Google Buzz web app for the iPhone.

The mobile version of the website is the third alternative where you just open the link in your browser.

The Google app is a native app but it internally opens all applications in browsers so its kind of a hybrid of the three.

Here are some considerations as to which one is better or you

Technical Considerations

- Speed

A native app is installed on your phone so it uses the phone's hardware resources as opposed to a web app which would use your internet connection predominantly. So in cases where you need some answers fast and for which the internet is not required (e.g. a calculator) the phone would be faster.

However say you want to lookup wikipedia. Both the native app and the webapp would ultimately send a message to Wikipedia over the internet so speed wouldn't matter then. You would save some disk space using a webapp. In some cases however the native app would cache entries on the phone so that may give you results faster.

If you want to watch a movie then using the native app would be obviously faster than using a web app as it would download the file. Even if both versions are streaming / downloading a file I would suspect the native version to be better as it would some hardware properties of the device.

- Offline access

A webapp wont work if you don't have internet access. A native app which connects to the internet won't work either. However native apps which don't need internet access would work. e.g. a calculator app.

- Caching

As I briefly mentioned in point 1 , some apps cache your history and details on the phone. That proves to be helpful when you do the same action again later. e.g. search. However a webapp won't cache you details on the phone unless its allowed to do so (using cookies) by the manufacturer. If you download music, photos , videos on your phone a native app can store them efficiently on the phone. A Webapp won't be able to store data on the phone as far as I know.

- Reliability

This is where a webapp or a website would trump the native app. I have faced the problem twice now that after updating the app, it stops working. There was obviously a bug introduced by the developer of the app. In a web app however the client is a much stripped down one and most of the functionality is on the server.

The webapp I suspect doesn't change much as its only a thin client for sending messages to the server. The native app won't work until the problem is fixed and the update is downloaded again by all users. Also when the native app stops working, depending on how bad the bug introduced by the developer is, it may negatively affect your phone as well. But I suspect Apple and other platform owners have taken care of this already.

-GUI and User Experience

The native app would have a much sleeker and better GUI. This is because it can use the hardware resources of the phone. The webapp generally has a thin GUI as its main function is to call functions on the server. However new innovations in webpage design for phones are making the GUI much better there too.

Apple and other manufacturers encourage companies to make native apps. This is because the native app does indeed give a much better user experience. You can look at the New York Times iPhone app as an excellent example and compare it with the mobile website.

-Platform dependence

The webapp is ideally platform independent as its just a shortcut of functionalities available on the server. The native app has to be developed for every different mobile operating system.

- OS Improvements

A related point to the platform is that a webapp won't be able to take advantage of the improvements in the platform. e.g. iPhone OS 4.o shall have multitasking. A webapp won't be able to use that.

Business Considerations

-Control of platform owner

We all have heard about how Apple controls apps in the app store. A web app is a shortcut downloaded from the website on the phone. It does not go through the Apple app store and the approval process. So developers who think their content could be rejected by the app store are better of making a webapp or a website instead and concentrate on making it really good.

- Monetizing

Paid naive apps are purchased through the app store. That is what generates money for developers. A webapp would be great if your functionality is going to be free. But if you have premium content to offer then a native app would be easier. If you still want to use a webapp , you would need a free version with a link to a paid version which you can buy by entering payment information.

- History

When you download an app from the app store, Apple keeps a record. They have all information of all your downloaded apps. Since webapps are downloaded over the internet from the browser, it bypasses the app store. Now it depends if you want your history to be saved. e.g. the Genius feature of the app store recommends you apps to download. You won't have that with webapps.

Conclusion

I think when your app has to deal with multimedia like movies, games, audio etc a native app is better as you can use the hardware resources of the phone. If the app is transactional like search, airline reservation, a webapp maybe more apt. A webapp may be a nice way when you want to bypass the app store.

Attending TEDx Berkeley

2010-04-05T01:16:00.000-07:00

I had the great fortune of attending the TEDx Berkeley conference on Saturday. TEDx is an independently organized event which has been granted the TED brand name. This is the first time it was held in Berkeley and was a huge success. The organizers had indeed done a great job.

All the talks were pretty interesting. The first talk was by Dacher Keltner. He was making an evolutionary study of compassion in human beings. He was saying that human beings are inherently compassionate. This compassion can be judged from senses like sight, sound and touch. He started with a heart wrenching story in a Nazi death camp where dead bodies were being removed and the Nazi officers found a 16 year old boy who was alive. They reached out to the boy, gave him food and water and tried to hide him. Thus their compassion was seen even though it was against their ideals. Unfortunately this was found out by their commander who shot the boy.

Mr. Keltner also talked about the hormone Oxytocin. He talked of studies where its observed that this hormone is secreted when a human being becomes compassionate. If someone is shown a picture of distress or suffering increased levels of this hormone were seen. So can this hormone be used to make us more compassionate by giving it to people? That is an interesting idea indeed. I also think what would happen if the area of the brain producing this hormone gets damaged. Will it avoid that person from being compassionate and make him cold and heartless? I asked this to Mr. Keltner later and he did think that would be pretty bad if done.

The second talk was a video talk by Diane Benscoter. You can find it here.

I found it very interesting to know how cults can rewire the brain. She talks about it being an infection and very scary in that it spreads fast. People who are emotionally vulnerable are more susceptible to it.

Amit Deutsch talked about the Arab Israeli conflict. He talked about this trip which he took with some Palestinians to the Balkans and met people from different groups who were fighting even though they lived right next to each other. He was then comparing it with his own struggles. He classifies his life into 3 stages. Before this trip, the trip and after it. He says how his opinion about the conflict changed after the trip and how that lead to a personal struggle where he felt he was not being true to his people.

The 3 ideas that he gave to the audience were pretty interesting in the end.

- Take in all narratives from all perspectives.

- Take a good look at your own narrative.

- Use this information to make your life better and attain a state of happiness.

Daniel Kraft talked about the latest innovations in medical technology. It was a presentation which WOWed everyone. He said that the innovation was growing exponentially and it was happening in the following ways

- Faster

Due to the power of fast computers and electronics

- Smaller

Due to size of technology becoming smaller. Wearable computing was an example. Nanotechnology was also being used to make things smaller.

- Cheaper

Costs were reducing over time

- Better

There were many new technologies available to diagnose and treat.

He also talked about Gene analysis and personalized medicine. The idea that the doctor would look at your genetic makeup and then treat you based on that. There won't be a general drug which is given to everyone but personalized care depending on your genetic structure.

Your genetics , your environment and your lifestyle would be used to find the cause of the problem which would then be treated.He also talked about technology to convert healthy cells to stem cells which could then be harvested to create different types of cells and possibly new organs.

The Provost of UC Berkeley spoke later saying how excited he was that TEDx was being held there. He gave 2 examples of how a difference is being made at Berkeley. He talked about a course to eliminate poverty which was suggested. Every year the size of attendance is increasing but the number of applicants has been much higher than the increasing capacity. This tells how passionate students are to change the world. The second example was of a new technology developed where a microscope is integrated with a mobile phone. This can be used in remote areas where technology cannot be easily sent and analysis can be done by sending data from the phone. That was truly remarkable.

The afternoon session started with a presentation of Eric Cheng who talked about his work as an underwater ocean photographer. He talked about his encounters with sperm wales and large squids. This presentation was just awesome. The pictures he showed were stunning. Luckily he has uploaded it here

Fred Dust then talked about the the importance of good design. He said that there is a shortage of good designers in this world but all of us can be designers. It is something which we all can do easily. He gave 3 examples for good design and what he learnt from them

The first was of a female Vice President at Bestbuy. She was given the task to find out how Bestbuy products can be made more appealing to women. The first suggestion she made was to include women on teams which went all over the world to try to find out how sales can be increased. What Fred learnt from this was to know your constraints.

The second example was that of the mayor of Bogota Colombia. There were many accidents and hence fatalities there due to traffic accidents. He devised an idea where mimes would come and hold signs saying 'Incorrecto' (its incorrect) to people who committed these accidents and broke rules. This led to people being ashamed and feel insulted by the mimes which actually led to reduction in the number of accidents and fatalities. Be Empthetic is what Fred learnt from this.

The third example was that of a doctor in NY who doesn't sit in a clinic but visits people's homes. You make an appointment using his Google calendar and use paypal for payment. Follow up visits done using online chat / video conferencing. This bypassed the healthcare system and was much faster. The message from this example was to prototype everything.

Next was a talk by Gever Tully and his tinkering school. You can find it here . They showed a video first and then he was actually on stage for a followup presentation which was very interesting. His idea was to let kids do this experiments. If they succeed they will know how it is to be successful and enjoy it. They will learn to take big risks and also understand what happens if they fail when they take these risks.

There was a presentation by Eric Gradman. He has developed this application on a large screen 'mirror' where you see yourself. The software recognizes your face and pulls out stuff from the internet about you from facebook, twitter , blogs etc. You have to sign up for it. It was very interesting and I admit slightly scary. He has named it DirtDB appropriately.

There was a presentation about the SETI organization and how we all can be a part of finding out if we are alone in this universe. The speaker said how difficult its is considering the distances involved. She said that if the ocean is the universe so far we have looked at only a glass full of water of it. That was pretty inspiring.

My favorite talk of the entire day was from Bradley Voytek (http://darb.ketyov.com/). He said that he wants to find out who we are but in terms of our mind. What we do depends on a concert from different areas of our brain which are responsible for different things. Patients who have seizures have brain damage or lesions on their brain. So if that part is removed you can study how that part affects them and what it is responsible for. He talked about a case where a patient's brain was swelling after a shot to the head. When the brain swells it expands onto the skull or down onto the brain stem. Expanding onto the brain stem is very serious as it controls hearbeat, respiration etc. So they removed part of the skull for that patient. They then put in electric probes and studied how the patient responded to different questions and recorded which part of the brain is responsible for different actions.

He talked about the 2 ways in which the brain responds to stimuli.

- The bottom up approach is kind of a reflex action to something

- The top down approach is where you fill in information about something from memory and past experiences.

It turns out that though some part of the brain is responsible for a particular action, the brain is so advanced that over time a different part of the brain tries to compensate for a damaged part of the brain to support those actions. So for a blind person the visual cortex may eventually be used for something else. Mr. Voytek is trying to find out how brain lesions cause large changes in personality.

In the interval between the second and third session Bradley Voytek had brought some human brains and was showing them to the audience. He was being asked all sorts of questions by people who were very interested in the topic.

David Ewing Duncan started the evening session by this talk about the Experimental Man project. He is using himself as an experiment to find out probable causes of diseases. He says that one's health depends on the environment, your brain, your body and your genes. He then gave examples for each of these 4 factors from his personal life seeing how his health was affected.

Eric Rodriguez talked about how he helped design a course at UC Berkeley where students would analyze non profits and would decide in the end which one would get a grant of $10k. He talked about what different things the students would consider. In the end he had a nice message for everyone. The time after your work ends is a chance to do something spectacular. So one should use it and go ahead and do something to change this world.

Ross Evans talked about his Xtracycle project and how he went about doing it. I found his talk very inspiring indeed. Like me many people want to do something to make a difference in this world. But we don't know how to go about it. He said that find the intersection of 3 sets.

Set 1 : Things you are passionate about

Set 2 : What purpose you have

Set 3: Things that would make a contribution

He talked about his experience considering the 3 sets above and how it helped. He said that we should offer something to the world and the world would offer something back.

Rick Smolan talked about his passion for photography and how it led to the 'A day in the life of' book series. He also talked about the American 24x7 project about a book depicting pictures of Americans over a week. He then talked about the Obama Time Capsule book and how he went about doing it. It was very interesting indeed.

This was a great experience and I hope I go again next year.

Seeing Sachin Tendulkar

2010-03-28T23:07:00.001-07:00

Well this event happened about 3 months ago but I have finally gotten to writing about it now. I wasn't sure if this what important enough to write but then I decided it is, as it was an important event for me.

I have grown up watching the great master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. He has been a role model and an idol for me and almost everyone from my generation. Sachin has given us innumerable joy and happiness. However in all these years I didn't get a chance to watch him bat live. I simply didn't get a chance to go to a stadium and watch him play. This last winter when I went to India I finally had my chance.

India was playing Sri Lanka in the Brabourne stadium. I got the tickets to watch play on Day 3 when India was batting. I got there by lunch time. Sehwag was on the verge of getting 300 but he got out in the morning before achieving the feat. Tendulkar and Laxman were at the crease.

There was a huge cheer in the stadium when the batsmen came out . And there he was. A short guy, about 5 foot 6 walking confidently to the pitch. He looked just like how he looks on TV. The batting stance and the strokes were similar too. I am not much of a technical guy wrt cricket but it was a joy to see him play. There was a different energy on the ground. There was a different energy among the crowd as well. There is a sense of relief that there is always a chance as long as he is there. There are always very high expectations from him. This is because everyone believes he can achieve it.

When you watch on TV you get a sense of how hard the ball is hit and how loud the cheer is.

It was deafening when he hit a boundary. And this was a test match and the ground wasn't even full. Sachin got to a 50 later. There was a huge cheer and I was among the guys standing up and clapping so hard that my palms ached.

Unfortunately he got out later. But the day had been made. In fact you can say my whole India trip was made that day. Later that day Laxman got a 50 and Dhoni got a fast 100. That was definitely exciting but watching Sachin bat was the highlight of that day for me.

India ended up winning that match and it was our 100th test win. It was the first time a test match was played at the Brabourne after many years. So It was a historical match. I felt glad for being part of this history. :)

Now that I look back I realize how lucky I was As we all know the Indian cricket team travels a lot and along with that the players have other commitments in leagues like the IPL. I work in the US where you will not likely see an Indian cricket team play. I was in Mumbai that day , they were in Mumbai and I could get a ticket :D. India won the match, history was made and I was there to witness it. :)

As I said earlier , watching Sachin bat was the highlight of my trip. But I was wrong again. On my way back to the US a very cool thing happened at Mumbai International airport. I was filling up my immigration form and chatting with an old college friend whom I had met by chance there. Suddenly I heard a large commotion from the crowd. I saw a few police commandos walking past me. I guessed that maybe some big shot politician must be passing through. Instead I saw a lady walking past with her luggage. It didn't take me long to realize that it was Mrs. Anjali Tendulkar, Sachin's wife. I thought, wow cool she must be going somewhere. Then my slow processor responded that its likely that Sachin would also be with her.

I then spotted him among all the commandos. There was a white unformed Indian customs officer walking with him. Sachin looked very different without being in his cricket gear. He looked very thin and fit. He was in great shape even at the age of 36. He was pretty fair and had curly hair. He was obliging people with autographs. He obviously didn't have to wait in any line and his immigration was done in a flash. People were waving to him and shaking hands.

Normally I would have been a bit pissed to see someone getting preferential treatment. If this had been anyone else, an actor, a politician , a businessman or even any other cricketer I would have thought that it isn't fair. But for Sachin it is. He has given so much for our country and sacrificed so much that he deserves this treatment. Agreed he has become almost uncountably rich doing so. But if money was the motivation he would have given this up years ago when he just a billionaire. Sachin Tendulkar is indeed a role model for us , the ultimate rags to riches story , the one true success story of a middle class kid reaching the pinnacle of success.

Arun Sarin Keynote - UC Berkeley Asia Conference

2010-02-22T02:42:00.000-08:00

I was blown away by Mr. Arun Sarin's keynote. I took a lot of notes so decided to have a separate post for it. Mr. Sarin is a great speaker and is a very charismatic personality. A short bio of him is here http://berkeleyabc.org/2010/keynotes.html

Excerpts from his keynote speech.

The center of gravity of the world economy has been changing since the last 5-10 years. So if you want to work/invest/start a business in Asia that is a great idea. However Asia is so diverse that you have to pick an option. Other questions are?

How do I look at the risk in a country?

Ok so Asia is where the action is. So what ? What do I do ?

China:

From Mr. Sarin's experience all leaders in China have great vision. They want China to have 1/3rd of the world's GDP. That is the vision they have. Most leaders come from an engineering background and hence have an analytical approach. China also has a lot of assets and a great labor force. It produces half a million new engineers per year as compared to India 200K and the US 75K.

Another thing to note is that the US has always been very PC centric. Since computers are expensive China and India have been very mobile centric. This has bypassed the Wintel (Windows + Intel) monopoly. Telecom prices are much lower than the US. Also base stations , towers and spectrum are very different in Asia and cost different as well. An example he gave with Vodafone in India was the following. The electronics used by Vodafone said that the electronics at the base station were to be at 30deg F. However they saw that the equipment also operated efficiently at 45deg F. This led to a substantial reduction in electricity costs.

This Vodafone example showed how innovation is done in China and India and then the feedback is given back to the headquarters in the West. Another advantage in China and India is that there is no incumbent industry leaning on you. He gave an example of how SMSs were used for money transfer in India. This innovative idea was later deployed in Africa as well. This would not have been possible in the US due to existence of regulators like the FDIC and other institutional barriers. There barriers are less in China and India.

The other question: Asia is the center of gravity. So what?

Mr Sarin advised to be involved in Asia. Invest, travel , work. Also suspend judgement of how things work here v/s how they work in Asia. However when you suspend judgement you don't suspend your values. With respect to Vodafone he said that he always held a super set of values which he holds as core. e.g Respect for people , doing the right thing etc.

Check Asian models and then try them in the US. The US is now in a difficult position where they should try to keep smart people and prevent them from going to Asia.

One can keep living his standard of living by innovating. If you are in the US that is pretty great too. The US still has the best in the world. If you are in the US lock horns with the people here.

English is a world language and knowing it helps you in Africa, Europe, India and now even China. When you visit India and China try to enjoy the BUZZ at these places as always something is going on.

He also said that if a large multinational corporation is not having a presence in India and China it is doing something wrong as you are missing a big market. They should learn in these countries and apply their lessons in all centers over the world. They can get into India and China by buying a company, having a joint venture , getting a majority or minority stake.

He also spoke about Vodafone's stake in China telecom(CHL). 87% of CHL is owned by the Chinese govt, 10% by the public and 3% by Vodafone. They bought that for $2.5 million and is now valued at $8 billion. He thinks that Vodafone was very fortunate to get that stake.

Regarding a service provider like Vodafone getting into new markets he said

If you see an opportunity early and you get a license from the government, its much easier. However if you enter a market late and you can't get a license, the only way out is a joint venture or getting a stake in the company. So in most cases govt. regulations lead to these decisions.

In India the model is that the equipment vendor deploys a network and others lease it as opposed to service providers buying and setting up a network themselves in the US. This itself was an innovative idea created in India.

He also said that the success of China and India depends on how they conduct themselves on the world stage. If you want to innovate in large company like Vodafone, the innovation is easier to get done in China and India and then taking it to the parent company rather than going to the parent company itself directly.

There was a very interesting audience question in the end to which the answer was equally interesting.

Qs: How different is it setting up business relations in the US vs China?

Ans: In the US its a direct approach, setup a meeting, discuss ideas and a concrete plan is ready soon. Planning and setup is very fast. In China its different. You visit the other party a few times. You make visible overtures. You build up a relationship. Then you start working with them.

You require more patience in China. Things happen very fast in the US. Not in China. The process involves many people in the government. You must have patience.

However in execution China is very fast. This is because of the immense capital and labor force they have. Also the execution is flawless. The US while being fast on decision making is slow on execution and China is otherwise.

Some notes from the UC Berkeley Asia Business Conference

2010-02-22T00:48:00.000-08:00

I had great pleasure of attending the UC berkeley Asia Business Conference last Sunday. This was the first time I was attending the conference. A friend had suggested it to me . I attended some very interesting keynotes and panel discussions and met some very interesting people.

These are notes from some of the talks and panel discussions I attended. These are ideas of the panelists and the speakers. I am representing them and adding my comments/ opinions wherever appropriate.

You can get more information about the conference at http://berkeleyabc2010-efbnen.eventbrite.com/

The first talk I attended was from Scott Matlock who is the Chairman of Asia M&A at Morgan Stanley. The main idea of his talk was that the M&A activity, growth and investment in China and would be more inward focused. India on the other hand would be more balanced and would have more M&A with external companies as well. The example he gave was of TATA buying Jaguar and Land Rover. TATA wants to expand these brands globally and use them in India as well. China on the other hand would have more M&A mainly focused for its domestic market.

Clean Tech Panel:

http://berkeleyabc.org/2010/p_ctech.html

This was a completely new area for me and hence I was very interested in knowing about it. The hypothesis was that China would lead the world economy in Clean Tech.

Some very impressive statistics were given out. China has around 69% of the global Cleantech IPOs while the US has 26%. China leads in patent filings in this area. East Asia has 93% of the world resources in rare earth materials used in making certain clean tech products.

Another thing I learnt was that China has less processes and hence road blocks wen it goes about development in the clean tech (among others) industry. In the next 20 years (not sure about the number) 50 new nuclear reactors are planned to be built in China as opposed to 20 by the rest of the world. There was a lot of talk about solar technologies like Solar PV and a company First Solar.

A lot of innovation centres are being setup for Clean tech in China. The most interesting idea from this panel discussion for me was that while the motivation for Clean tech in the US replacement of conventional energy sources , it is the demand for urbanization in China which is why its much faster there. Conventional energy sources just won't be able to keep up with China's urbanization.

Since China has a lot of capital it can do projects much quicker. It is also good at deploying and scaling proven clean tech. The time from where a project goes from the stages of lab work to commercial is very fast in China.

In response to a question about smart grids one of the panelists said that they have already been deployed in China. Once the international community agree on standards in smart grids the development will accelerate.

Seed funding for Clean tech projects is not that easy to get in the US. if the time to commercialize can be reduced then investment can increase.

The business model that the panelists were suggesting was to innovate in Silicon valley and deploy the technology in China as its much faster and cheaper. Its very easy to get cheap loans in China. On asked on how to be a successful entrepreneur in China it was suggested to have good connections or do joint ventures.

Keynote by Joi Ito:

he talked about Japan mainly about its feasibility as a business destination. I felt he had a very bleak outlook of Japan as a long term destination. A majority of the Japanese population is aging right now. He felt that its not a great destination for a long term investment but a definite yes for a short term one. Most of the innovation is seeded by large companies who seed internal projects. Its is more difficult for a small company to start innovation itself. he talked about the bureaucracy in Japan and the risk averse nature of the people. The big companies and the people in the government have this tendency for low risk and high return which isn't good for the country. These are some of the ideas that came out and how I interpreted them.

Technology Panel:

This was a very interesting panel discussion for me being from the technology industry.

http://berkeleyabc.org/2010/p_tech.html

The main idea of the panel discussion was to discuss the hotspots for technology and innovation in Asia.

Some of the key notes I got from this discussion were

In the future US companies will develop specific products for the Asian markets. You cannot simply take a product successful in the US and apply it in Asia with modifications. Another thing I learnt was that there is a great shortage of good product managers in India. Most of the working population in the technology sector in India falls in 2 categories, Engineers who are in their mid 20s and directors who are in their early 40s. There are very less people who are in their 30s and doing well. There were many good examples given like one of the Google Mapmaker and how it helped build up maps of countries where not enough data was available.

I was very impressed by all panelists especially by Mr. Deep Nishar. Since I didn't get a seat I couldn't take down many notes. :)

Remarks by Laura Tyson:

Dr. Tyson is part of the economic advisory team to President Obama. She spoke for a few minutes and introduced the next speaker. She talked briefly about the term 'LUV recovery' coined by someone else. It talks about the economic recovery after the 2009 recession in different countries.

L- That is the shape of the recovery or lack of it in Europe and Japan.

U - That is the shape the recovery in the US has taken

V- recovery in China and India , they have shot back to their previous positions.

Keynote by Mr. Guan :

Mr. Guan is the Group President of the Govt. of Singapore Investment Corporation. He is a policy maker in the Singapore govt. He says that this is a defining decade for Asia. He talked about Singapore being a leading business city in Asia and also being the center of Asia. He also talked about it being a place for innovation and entrepreneurship.

He also said that it depends on how the rest of the world looks at Asia now. A threat or an opportunity. One should look at it as an opportunity and benefit from it. He said that many Chinese govt officials were visiting Singapore and trying to learn from it. These officials were very insightful and had a vision for their country and were determined to fix things. This is a sign of how China is improving and how it will change in the next years. He talked about the fact that 500 years ago China and India were 1/3rd of the world economy. This has been true on all times of history except the last 100 years and that China is determined to change that.

About Singapore he said that its characterized y 3 things right now which should be considered for starting a business.

- Aging population

- Urbanization

- Rising affluence.

India Forum:

http://berkeleyabc.org/2010/india.html

This was a very interesting forum focused on India and how its changing from an outsourcing destination to a place fostering innovation. There were some very good panelists.

One famous quote from one of the panelists was the following.

In 1807 the place to be was London, in 1907 it was New York. In 2007 it is Asia.

Sabeer Bhatia talked about his current projects.

He owns a company Sabse Tech which is working on projects like video conferencing and free mobile to mobile telephony ala Skype. Another product he is working on is a MS Office type product for the browser or desktop using Adobe Flex. He also has a real estate project in India in Haryana of about 10K acres. He is working on a project for a $10K home.

Another interesting tidbit was that in the US the average age to start a company is around 40 years. This trend is starting to catch up in India. Another advice to entrepreneurs was that people in India won't buy a brand from someone they don't trust hence having a good distribution network is important. Indian entrepreneurs should mainly develop products for the Indian market. This product can then be sold in other places like Africa, South east Asia and the middle east.

A point was that US companies don't talk about their R&D centers in India so as to not invite the attention of people in the US.

When asked if one should be an entrepreneur one of the panelists (Kanwal Rekhi) said that less than 10% of the working population become entrepreneurs. If you decide to take the leap and quit your job, your chances have already improved by 10%.

At the end some very interesting questions were posed to the panel. I shall repeat them here.

- Should a young professional go back to India now?

All panelists said yes. Mr. Bhatia said that since costs are low in India, you can take more risks. Another thing to understand is that western models don't work in India. You have to adapt. he gave an example of virtual cash project for that. Others advised to travel abroad and get experience in emerging markets. Try for opportunities where one can get experience in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Which sector or industry in India should one consider?

Consider something which addresses a large portion of the market. try to have lower costs as India is a very price sensitive market. Apply technology to improve any daily activity of the people. Example of projects like delivering bus tickets to home or replacing kerosene with solar lamps were given.

Why Google Buzz will be more fast and personal than facebook

2010-02-11T00:57:00.001-08:00

This is my first technology piece in a mainly travel blog so please be easy on me. After using Google Buzz for 1 day and being a facebook and twitter user for sufficient time I think that Buzz will somehow be more fast and personal than facebook to get responses to updates one puts on it.

The assumptions I have made for this claim are as follows

- You have default settings in Buzz and Facebook, i.e. all friends see all your status updates. Everyone sees your pictures etc.

- You have a gmail window open for most part of the day, a facebook window as well.

When you start using Buzz it only adds the people you chat/IM/email the most using Google services. So you can assume that these are the people who are part of your immediate social circle. So this shouldn't include someone whom you just met somewhere , or a distant cousin. It should also not include your boss, unless you use gmail at work (which no one does) or your boss is a really cool person with whom you share non work related stuff.

So when you post something on Buzz, these group of x people with whom you already converse a lot are more likely to comment on it/ like it or even criticize it. On the other hand on facebook , your post has a wider audience. It includes some family members, people from work and also this subset connected to you on Buzz. if you look carefully most of the comments on your facebook status updates must have come from the people who you are connected to you on Buzz.

The scary thing about Buzz is that its public and searchable on Google. So be careful of what you put there as you don't want something bad coming up when your name is searched. As far as I know, facebook posts are not searchable and are not indexed by search engines.

So what will happen as facebook , twitter and Buzz battle for the attention for the consumer.

I think that if you have something personal to share with only a few friends , you will use Buzz and send it only to chat contacts. The public option is closer to facebook.If it is not that personal but some general news about you then its facebook. If its something very general and its very short then it would be twitter.

The next question would be if there is 1 place where you put your update and it gets reflected everywhere else. Right now there is a way to do it. Post it on twitter. Use the twitter application on facebook which puts it on facebook. Also add twitter as a source on Buzz which would reflect it on Buzz. However comments on them would have to be followed on those specific websites.

This is because right now you cannot write to facebook or twitter from Buzz. I wonder if they would allow this functionality as then a user would just use 1 gmail window for everything. They obviously want people to visit their websites.

But then assuming your most contacted friends are online simultaneously on all 3 sites, I think they would respond first on Buzz as its easier as it comes along with email. The Buzz tab with unread buzzes is similar to the Inbox tab and somehow psychologically you may go to it rather than facebook . The people whom you are friends with but those who don't stay that much in touch would comment on facebook if they find the matter very interesting. Twitter is not that amenable to comments.

Google Buzz somehow makes commenting much easier for blogs as well. For e.g. if I receive comments on this blog post, I predict they would be on Buzz rather than on the actual blog itself. This is because when A comments , he expects some other B and C to comment and get a conversation going. This is much more easier on Buzz than on the blog page.

In the mobile world, I think twitter and facebook lead the way as Buzz doesn't have native apps on most hardware like the iPhone. Buzz has web apps but it will take time for them to mature and be accepted. Frankly the Buzz app on the iPhone has been pretty awful so far. I just see that the page is being refreshed nothing else.

But these are interesting times in the social networking world. A new player has entered. Should be fun , the competition just makes it great for us consumers.

Superbowl ads

2010-02-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

The Superbowl is the most watched TV event in the US. Its the day when most people watch their TVs for the football and most of them for the ads.

Many Americans who don't have an interest in Football do watch some part of the Superbowl. Some watch it just for the ads. Being a foreigner (ok i have been here for 3.5 yrs) its an interesting cultural experience being part of the Superbowl audience.

The Google ad:

The Google superbowl as was my favorite. I must confess I have watched it many times over. The first few times I have just watched it for the content , emotion and also the music . It gets you at some point. I spent some time today searching about the ad on Google :) and reading people's opinions about it. It was among the top 2 on most charts. Many reporters said it did bring a tear to their eyes. I does bring out the emotion in any hopeless romantic. I was smitten like all the others.

Later when I tried to watch the ad putting my technologist's hat on , do i see how masterfully its been done.

No celebrities, no talking animals , no sex or sleaze , no loud music. It s a simple screen showing the logo and the search bar. They show features of search, translate feature, maps , airline details and in the process narrate a beautiful love story in 50 sec.

The ad has been in circulation for few months on youtube and was produced by the company's Japan team. Great job. As one reporter said, whatever field Google gets into, it kills. This was their first major TV ad (other than the Chrome OS ads) and they emerged at the top.

Great job !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU&feature=pyv&ad=3910817963&kw=google%20paris

Btw great ads also from Audi, KGB, Doritos, Bud Light, Dodge Charger, Letterman show and many others.

Also the Tiger Woods spoof on the Google ad is great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcZ-arbR0EE

Alcazar Cabaret Show Pattaya

2009-12-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

We went to the Alcazar Cabaret Show today. It is one of the popular shows in Pattaya. It is also called as a 'ladyboy show' meaning that the performers are all actually guys. I found that pretty hard to believe. Some of the performers were very pretty indeed.

The show went on for about an hour and they showcased many different dances. There were Thai, Chinese, Indian, British and French dances. The costumes were the highlight of the show. They were in different colours with different styles.

After the show there was a big rush of people anting to take pictures with the performers. Even when I watched them up close from a few feet away I could not think that they were men in any way.

Sriracha Tiger Zoo Pattaya

2009-12-28T02:04:00.000-08:00

I had heard prior to my Thailand trip that there is this zoo somewhere in Thailand where you can hold a baby tiger. When I heard that i decided that if I go to Thailand I would visit the place. I later found out that since we had time and we were in the same city, I would see the tiger zoo.

We went there in the afternoon by about noon. It was a lot like Sea World in San Diego. We were told that there are particular shows which we shouldn't miss and then other attractions which you can go and visit anytime.

We first went to the tiger zoo. It was a typical tiger show which we used to see in circuses in India when we were kids. The master commands the tiger to do certain things. This includes jumping onto a stool, playing dead, rolling over , joining hands to say hello, walking on 2 legs and others. Then they also made the tigers jump through rings of fire. Though this was entertaining I felt really sorry for the tigers. They were being exploited. I wonder if they are given decent food.

After the show they made one tiger stand near the audience and invited people to feed him pieces of meat for a small fee of course. People really enjoyed it.

We next went to a crocodle show. Here the trainers were doing some very daring stuff. They were doing tricks with crocodiles. The most daring among these was one where the guy runs and slides towards a crocodile with an open mouth. He placs his head in the crocodile's mounth. Luckily the crocodile doesn't snap its jaws. A lady trainer later repeats the feat. This is indeed commendable as crocodiles don't have a brain as well developed as a tiger. The audience was very happy with this and they offered money to the trainer to do more tricks.

We then made our way to this small building which had baby tigers. They were kept in cages and yo could feed them milk for a small fee. We got one bottle and started feeding the tigers. There were about 10 -12 cages with 2 tigers in each one. Some of them were sleeping while others were very active. We fed a few tigers and it was a great feeling watching them drink milk out of my bottle.

We then went into the neighboring room. One could take pictures there holding a baby tiger (again for a small fee , nothing is free in this world :) )

I and my parents took a familypictire with the tiger. We were feeding milk to it as well. That distracts it so that you can get a picture with it. :)

The next building we went into was a pig sty. They had 2 special acts. One was a pig race. That was pretty entertaining. They made about 7-8 pigs race from one end to another. The second act was that of a ping doing basic math. The host asks the pig what is 2 + 3 and the pig goes out and picks a card with number 5. That was cool to watch.

We then went to a tiger enclosure where they had baby tigers cubs.We took pictures with them. This was the highlight of my 8 day trip . The tiger cub which my Dad was holding was pretty restless. It was making a lot of noise and shaking his arms around. This excited my tiger cub as well and he started making a noise. This was very entertaining for us . After playing with the tiger for a few min we went to the next cage.

Here they had a big fully grown tiger. You can go into his cage and take pictures with it. Yes that sounds very scary. There were about 5 people in the cage. I had to site at the back side of the tiger and hold its tail and pat it on the back. The men distract the tiger holding pieces of meat in its face. Meanwhile one of them takes pictures with your camera. It was very apprehensive at the start but went ahead anyway. The tiger was purring. Somewhere in the middle of the photo shoot he half stood up. That scared me. The men though put more meat in front of him and managed to distract him again. I got many pictures taken form this endeavor. I can now boast around that I was in a cage with a fully grown tiger. :)

We then went to a Orangutan's place. He was sitting on a bench with an attendant. Orangutans are the smartest primates after humans. Their DNA is 99% the same as that of humans. I shook his hand. His eyes were very bright and I felt something fter looking into them. He was playing with the female attendant.

On our way out we stopped by a tiger enclosure. There were cleaners cleaning the enclosure when the tigers were in there. Then men wore dresses resembling tiger skin with yellow and black stripes. Maybe it was so that the tigers won't be alarmed. They also played along with the tigers, splashing water on them.

we saw 3 other enclosures on our way out. One of them had a large pig nursing tiger cubs and piglets. She was acting as a surrogate. The second one was even more interesting. It had a tigress and 2 piglets. They were living with her and she wasn't harming them in any way.

The third enclosure had a tiger , a dog and a pig living together. They had been living together since birth and now the tiger doesn't harm them, on the contrary it plays with them

I was really looking forward to visit the tiger zoo and I had thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mini Siam Pattaya

2009-12-27T19:03:00.000-08:00

In the evening we went to Mini Siam. There they have created miniatures of famous monuments in Thailand and around the world. I didn't know many monuments in Thailand but it as indeed very interesting to see the miniatures. I loved seeing the miniatures of different monuments around the world.

My favorite one was a castle/ cathedral in Cologne and The Abu Simbel Temple in Egypt. There were many Italian buildings like the Colosseum and the leaning tower of Pisa. I was very enamored by the replica of the 'Pieta', the sculpture of Mother Mary holding Jesus. Michealangelo has created it. I hope I get to go to Rome one day to see the original.

We spent a good 3 hrs there admiring the different replicas and made our way back in a Tuk-Tuk which is a Thai version of a rickshaw.

Coral Island Pattaya

2009-12-27T18:48:00.000-08:00

We landed in Pattaya in the wee hours of the morning. We had some sleep and then went on another day trip . Coral Island in Pattaya.

We started from Pattaya beach. Pattaya is much more commerical than Phuket. There were 5 star hotels one could see at the beach. Infact everything is commercialized in Pattaya. Our travel agent put us in motorboats headed for Coral island. We stopped at a small man made small island in between. There was parasailing available there. We didn't try it as we had already done it in Phuket. Here it was much cheaper and was a smaller round. I was surprising to see the speed at which they were working. It was like a machine. People were tying parachutes , motorboats were then starting off, they went in a round around the island and later the people were quickly removed from the parachutes. It was working with great efficiency. That is why I said Pattaya is more commercial. It operates like a market.

We got to Coral Islands half an hour later. We were to spend few hours at the beach with Chinese lunch thrown in. The beach was beautiful. Clear sand and blue water. However since we had been to Phuket and Phi-Phi and Khai islands this didn't seem that big a deal. It was a very good beach though.

We met an Indian tour group, Kesari Travels. They had brought many people here. I recognized one person who is a celebrity in Mumbai. He works in Marathi TV shows and movies. My Dad was very excited to meet him. Typically most Indian package tours include Bangkok and Pattaya. Phuket is out of the way so they drop it. These 2 cities are good for a toursit with less time. These tours normally do a South east asia tour with Bangkok, Pattaya , Singapore and Malaysia. Adding Phuket would be difficult. Maybe that is why Bangkok and Pattaya are so commercialized.

We were at the beach till 4PM. On our way back we got into a glass bottom boat. This boat went over the coral reefs and we could see corals from the glass.

Overall Coral island wasn't that great. But I have this opinion as I have been to Phuket. If you are doing only Bangkok and Pattaya , you should see Coral Island.

Bangkok to Pattaya

2009-12-27T18:38:00.000-08:00

We left for Bangkok by flight on the night of 26th. We landed in Bangkok and then took a taxi to Pattaya. Pattaya is about 120 km from Bangkok. We took this highway 7 called the Bangkok Chon Buri motorway. I am writing this post just to praise this highway. :)

The Bangkok Chon Buri motorway is a long highway between Bangkok ands Chon Buri. It is a 4 lanes on either sides and has a max speed of 120kmph. That is a driver's dream. I could see all the fast cars buzzing past our taxi. The other thing I liked was that it was lighted with tall high powered street lights. Imagine that for around 80 km. It must have been a very expensive highway to make. I have mostly seen roads in India and the US. Similar highways would exist in major US cities. The stretch from LA to Long Beach comes to mind. But never have I seen such a long stretch of 80 km completely lighted and with 8 lanes total. The road was very good as well. I cannot recall any comparable highway / freeway. The second highway to Pattaya after exiting highway 7 was also a very broad highway with a good speed limit.

Thailand has scored a big point here. They have very good tourism infrastructure. The roads are great. The network of travel agents and how they book the different tours is also pretty interesting. At all the cruises we went to, the infrastructure for the boats , ships , food for tourists was excellent.

One would also love the infrastructure and road network around Bangkok airport. There are many multi lane roads coming from different places. I give a 5 star to Bangkok's road network.

Khai Islands Phuket

2009-12-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

We were leaving to bangkok tonite and had the day to ourselves. I decided to pack in a half day tour of Khai islands. Little did i know that this would be the hidden gem of this trip.

Khai islands is a group of 3 islands. Khai Nok , Khai Nai and Khai Nui. They are famous of snorkeling and beautiful beaches. We first went to Khai Nok island. This place had white sandy beaches and clear blue water. The first thing which I noticed was that there were a lot of small fishes and they were coming very near to the people. Since the water was clear blue you could easily seen them.

Some people were throwing pieces of bread into the water which was atracting the fishes in hoards. That was indeed fun to watch. Parents were making kids feed the fishes with bread. It was nice to see the smiles on the faces of the kids then.

My parents tried using the snorkeling mask and looking at the fishes underwater. They didn't do much of the snorkeling part though. I did so snorkeling and went away from the beach. As I went inside I saw some very beautiful fishes of different colors and sizes. Its indeed such a great gift that we all have been blessed with. We don't get to see the world inside the sea normally but it is a very beautiful one. I had not paid any special attention to speeches on global warming, oil spills and things like saving coral reefs. But when I actually saw these corals I now understand how important it is and why.

The beach at Khai Nok was very beautiful. White sand , blue water and the rainbow colored beach umbrellas made it a perfect picture. Next we went to Khai Nai island. We didn't actually go to the island but our boat anchored a bit away from it. It is a small island and doesn't have a beach. However it has some spectacular corals. The water here was green and deep. There were large corals inside it. It was the biggest and most elaborate corals I had seen till then. There were many beautiful fish as well. I saw the type of fish shown in the movie 'Finding Nemo' , orange with white stripes. We did snorkeling there for sometime.

The third island was the smallest one. Khai Nui was very similar to Khai Nok. It had beaches and snorkeling. We spent some time there and then headed back home. The motorboat ride was fun as usual. We got back to the hotel in the evening. Khai Islands had been my best experience in Phuket, better than the more popular Phi Phi islands.

Phuket City

2009-12-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

We took a half day Phuket City Tour today. It wasn't that great frankly. They took us to this point to the south of Phuket which gives a great view of the city. It gives a very good view of Kata and Karon beaches. These are the other 2 popular beaches in Phuket other than Patong beach. After that we were taken to this place where they have many shows and rides. It is a typical tourist trap :). We didn't take the elephant ride but did go to the monkey show. They had monkeys doing different tricks like pushups , lifting weights , doing slam dunks etc. There was an interesting one where you tell the monkey a number and he guesses it from a pile of wooden pieces with numbers written on them. That is pretty smart. Another trick was a monkey dropping down coconuts from a tree. This was followed by the toursity stuff of taking pictures with monkeys and feeding them bananas. I didn't get in to that :).

We had another visit to a gemstone place after which we ended our half day tour at Patong beach. We spent the rest of the day at the beach. My parents tried parasailing and they enjoyed it. They were a bit scared of it initially but liked it in the end.

Patong Beach nightlife

In the evening after dinner we walked along Bangla Street in Patong Beach which is famous or rather infamous for its nightlife. There was some crazy stuff going on there. Girls were dancing in bars trying to attract people to them. Gentleman's clubs are called GO-GO bars in Thailand and there were a few of them. Prostitution is officially illegal in Thailand but we could see a few prosititutes on the street. I wonder how tourists with families feel when they come to such places. They want to see what this stuff is about but its bound to get very awkward with the kids. I was finding it pretty awkward as well being with my parents. Anyway most travel websites had said that have a look at this stuff with an open mind. That was what we did.

Food:

We had some good food in Phuket. I had tried Thai food before but my parents hadn't. They tried the Green and red curries and liked it. They also tried American food one day. Since we are open to non veg food and different types of cuisine we didn't have a problem with food in Thailand.

Also it was Christmas day and the city was decorated for it.

Phuket - James Bond Island

2009-12-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

On our 2nd day in Phuket we went on a 1 day tour to this place called James Bond Island. It is a group of islands much similar to Phi Phi. The Bond movie 'The man with the Golden Gun' and some parts of 'Dr. No' were shot here.

We first visited a cave temple on our way where there was a reclining Buddha statue. It was nice to visit that temple, some of the statues inside were prety realistic.

Our boat this time was a much smaller and slower one. We went in a long tailed boat to the island. We went through a lot of mangroves. Later the familiar large rocks in the sea landscape started appearing before us. There were these large cliffs in very peculiar sizes representing different parts of the human anatomy. At one point our female guide said, 'Look at those 2 islands,don't they look like breasts, we called them breast islands'. That was hilarious. After 45 min of being in the boat we reached James Bond island. It was an island with a small beach and one large rock protruding from the sea. That was the actual James Bond island. There were many people taking photos. There were some caves and a very large slanted rock face. People took photos showing as if they were hanging from the rock face.

I hiked around a bit and went to the other side of the island. It also had peculiar rocks of different shapes. I later recalled seeing them in movies. We were there on the island for an hour and then we left for lunch.

James Bond island wasn't as hyped as Phi Phi and frankly it wasn't as good. But it has its own feel and did make a good tourist's experience.

On way way we saw some caves in the large rocks and at a point our boat made its way through a cave which was fun.

We had lunch in a Muslim fishing village. The food was mostly seafood. It was something very new to try and was interesting. We headed back home with a 1 hr boat ride followed by a drop to our hotel later. On our way back we saw some locals of a Thai boat racing team. They were practicing for the tournament. As usual every tour had its stops at gemstone emporiums, Thai artifact places , gem and thai food showrooms which we conveniently ignored.

Phuket- Phi Phi Islands

2009-12-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

We came to Phuket from Bangkok on the 22nd. We rested on the 22nd and went on this 1 day tour to Phi Phi islands today. When I was researching for this trip, Phi Phi islands is what I heard the most. It is the most popular attraction in Phuket and possibly in Thailand.

It is a group of 2 islands Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Lei. Phi Phi Lei has no hotels or places to stay. They are special as they have these huge rocks right in the middle of the ocean. That is something unique I see in Thailand. The mass of land just comes out from the blue Andaman sea. There are tall rocks. It is a very popular toursit attraction.

There were many backpackers who stay at Phi Phi Don overnight. They got out from our boat first when we reached there. Then our motorboat made its way to Phi Phi Lei. It was indeed very beautiful. The sunlight was shining over the blue water making it ever so beautiful. We didn't put anchor at Phi Phi Lei but our boat did sto briefly there. The beach was very beautiful. We could see many tourists there. I would like to go there the next time.

We took a complete round of Phi Phi Lei and then headed back to Phi Phi Don. On our way back we stopped for snorkeling. I did it and my Dad tried it as well. However he hadn't swam in many years so we couldn't do it successfully. The corals were simply beautiful. I also saw some very nice fishes of different colors and sizes. After about an hour of snorkeling we made our way back.

We had lunch on Phi Phi Don island. I spoke to some tourists from other countries and had some interesting conversations. After lunch I roamed around on the beach for an hour. At around 245PM we headed back. The ride back was also very interesting. The Andaman sea is a beautiful site and it the speedboat made it a nice ride.

Phi Phi Islands is remembered by many as the island where the movie 'The Beach' was shot. Many Bollywood movies including 'Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai' have been shot there.

Phi Phi Islands and most of Phuket were devastated during the Tsunami. As many as 50,000 locals and tourists had perished. Its nice to see that things are almost back at normal now.

The anticipated highlight of my tour hadn't disappointed me in the end.

Bangkok - Day 1

2009-12-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

We reached Bangkok at 6AM. We had booked a hotel near the airport and were to stay that day. We booked a Bangkok City tour from a travel agent at the airport and made our way to the hotel Our tour was to start in the afternoon.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport is very big. It is very beautiful as well. It was opened only about 3 years ago. They have a lot of facilities at the airport. The exterior of the airport is also very beautiful. It is all glass and looks like a gem.

In the afternoon our tour started. We were to cover 3 temples. We started at the Reclining Buddha temple. It is one of the famous landmarks in bangkok. There were many tourists with us. We actual statue is quite big. The expression on the face of the Buddha is one of calmness as he is resting. We made our way around it. The feet of the statue have a lot of carvings depicting a story. We later walked around the temple complex looking at other temples. Some temples had tall statues of guards. They were also made in different styles. Some guards were Chinese while others were Thai. This temple complex also has the first university where Thai massages were taught. We looked around the place.

We went to 2 other temples later. One was the standing Buddha temple. It featured a long standing Buddha statue. We could see many people praying. They had a lotus and incense sticks. That is what is used to Thai people to pray and give offerings to the Buddha.

After seeing the temples we were taken to a gemstone shop. All tours in Thailand have this. They take you to a store so that you can buy stuff. Mos tourists aren't interested but this is something one has to face.

Anyway the gemstone factory has these statues outside of smiling kids ,pigs and other animals. They say in Chinese culture having such smiling statues outside your home or shop brings prosperity. The gemstone shop could use all the prosperity it can get :).

In the evening we went to 'Siam Niramit' a Thai culture show displaying the culture and history of Thailand. It was a very nice show. There were nice stories and plots shown. Thailand's festivals were showcased. The music was great and in the end an elephant came on the screen. That was a lot of fun. The performers came in the audience as well.

We made our way back to the hotel after this as we had to catch an early morning flight to Phuket.

To Bangkok - Indian Airlines and Mumbai Airport

2009-12-21T16:33:00.000-08:00

My parents and I started for an 8 day trip to Bangkok today. We flew by Indian Airlines. So this is my opinion about Indian Airlines and Mumbai airport.

It is the country's only state owned carrier. I had a good experience overall with them.

Mumbai Airport

We started from Mumbai Airport. I was quite astonished as to how Mumbai Airport has changed over the past few years. The facilities inside are quite remarkable. There are big food courts, good duty free shops and many passenger conveniences. The different gates and the departure procedure is also very good. The first thing a foreigner sees when he visits a country is its airport which creates the first impression. Mumbai airport had all the stars so far. Of course I am speaking as a Mumbai citizen. Then one thing spoiled it. Our flight was at gate 15. We had reached quite early. Sometime later I noticed that the TV screen at the gate showed a Malaysian airlines flight. I went to see the gate information. My flight didn't have a gate at all while Malaysian airlines showed 15. I thought that is ok for now as my flight flew later. After some time they announced that Malaysian Airlines will leave from gate 9. So I saw people running towards gate 9. My flight was still without a gate. Te TV screen still showed gate 15 for Malaysian. Then I saw this Indian lady with a British accent looking quite hysterical. She wanted to board Malaysian but couldn't find the gate. She went to the attendant who didn't know either. She was shouting saying that the flight is boarding, The TV monitor says gate15 but I don't see anything there. She was quite panicky. Someone finally told her that her flight was leaving from gate 9. Then she said something which disappointed me a lot. 'You people are unbelievable'. I did take it as an insult being an Indian. It was not racist though and there was no bad language.

Its a pretty simple thing, The monitor should have the gate number of the flight which departs. if the gate changes you change the display. Such a small thing can save a lot of headache for many passengers. My flight did leave from the same gate in the end. What pains me is that this lady will have this negative impression of Mumbai and India which will overshadow everything else she must have seen on her trip. She will tell this to her friends and they all will think that airports in India are like this. This covers all the great things that have happened at Mumbai Airport. I hope the Airport can fix such issues.

Indian Airlines

They had a small personal TV for every passenger. It had about 6 channels. 3 of them had Hindi movies,1 had a Bollywood show , one a Michael Jackson tribute and the other a US sitcom. Though it is a short flight they should improve this. My Cathay pacific flight had a wonderful collection of movies. The air hostesses (or flight attendants for Americans) were ladies much older than one would normally expect. This is another thing you notice on Indian Airlines and Air India only. :) The age limit is not that strict. I am not going to comment on this and invite the ire of anyone , lets just say its a change one is not used to :)

However I have to compliment Indian Airlines, the food was very good and the portion sizes were larger than what one normally gets on airlines. They were very generous with the drinks as well. What matters is that the flight was on time and we landed safely in Bangkok.

Good Luck to Indian Airlines ! :)

Transit Trip to Hong Kong

2009-11-27T15:31:00.000-08:00

On our way to Mumbai from San Francisco we had a 7 hr stopover in Hong Kong. Myself and my roommate decided to go out and see Hong Kong in this time. The fact that Indians don't require a visa for Hong Kong made this much easier. I had done the same thing about 4 years ago once when I was returning to India from my client in Taiwan.

HongKong airport is huge. Its also very beautiful too. It exists in an island far from the actual city. It has a lot of traffic and one can see aircrafts from the major airlines there. We took the Airport Express to Hong Kong City.

Downtown Hong kong is this sprawling mass of tall skyscrapers. There is a financial center which has office of most big banks. We were going to 'The Peak' which is the hill in HK from where you can get a great view of the city, the skyline and the harbour.

After reaching there we started on this small hike around the hill which is supposed to show you all views. There was a big group of school children who were on a field trip. We being foreigners were interesting for them. They started reciting popular nursery rhymes to get out attention. I tried to join in but I didn't remember most of them. :)

The way they spoke was also very different. It didn't sound like the Chinese I have heard my colleagues speak. Some one had told me that the language is different and is / similar to Cantonese. Its apparantly more difficult that Chinese and Chinese people find it very difficult to learn.

Anyway we were assuming that the trail was the attraction of the trip. It was about at hour long and we didn't have that much time. So we started our way back. We crossed quite a few joggers. Most people spoke English with a British accent. This must be as HK was a ruled by the UK for a 100 years. When we got back to the trailhead we noticed a big 3-4 storey steel building. It was a new mall that had been opened. At the terrace was a nice observation deck from where one can see a great view of the skyline. If we had known this at the start the trail wouldn't have been necessary. Anyway we went to the top. It was a great view and we could see all of HK harbour. We did the customary touristy thing and took pictures from all angles. We also saw the famous 'Peak Tram'. It is a tram which takes you from the base to the peak. It has a very steep path and at points has a gradient of about > 45degrees.

We made our way back with the tram. When it was going along the steep gradient it was pretty exciting as one could not even stand easily. Some passengers couldn't hold onto their bags which hurled to the lower end of the train. We got back to base after an interesting ride.

There was a Madame Tussaud's museum and we saw a statue of Jackie Chan at the door. He is undoubtedly HK's most famous citizen.

We walked back to the train terminal by passing through the financial district and made our way back to the airport. It was a pretty short but fun filled transit visit.

Fleet Week in San Francisco

2009-10-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

I visited SF today for th Fleet Week. Its an annual event where there is an Air show. The Blue Angels (US Navy Jets) put on a show. It was a foggy day but the show was simply awesome.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/FleetWeek2009SanFrancisco#

Puerto Rico - Bio Bay

2009-10-06T03:59:00.000-07:00

The highlight of my Puerto Rico trip was the Bio Bay.

So there are these bacteria which emit some light when they are agitated. In PR they are present in very high concentration in 3 places. Vieques Island, Fajardo and another place which I can't remember. So if you go into these water bodies on a clear moonless night and agitate the water you see a fluorescent light in the water. If you put your hand in the water and take it out, your hand starts sparkling as come bacteria are on it. If you sprinkle some water on your feet , it feels like you are sprinkling light on yourself. It is the most amazing experience. There is no way to capture it. Flash photography doesn't get the light. A normal camera can't get it. That is why it is such a interesting experience compounded by the fact that you can't capture it.

My colleagues had told me not to miss it as it was their favorite experience in PR. Our group met somewhere outside of Fajardo. We got into kayaks with 2 people each. We were to kayak our way through the mangroves and make our way into the bay. There wasn't any moon while we were there so we had the best part of the tour.

On our way through the mangroves, we reached an area where the mangroves were very dense overhead blocking out almost all light. Our guide suggested us to play with the water . It was the most amazing sight. The water next to the oars had a fluorescent light. I dipped my hand in the water and took it out. There were a few sparkles on it for a few moments. I splashed the water around and it lighted up. It was a beautiful sight. Later we went out into the bay where the guide explained what caused the phenomenon. He said the pollution and encroachment by humans is a big threat to the Bio Bay hence the authorities are taking steps to preserve it.

These bacteria are present on most oceans / seas on earth but they have a very high concentration here, about 1 million per gallon which enables us to notice the light. We played around in the bay observing how the light is. It was a great experience. I would encourage anyone visiting Puerto Rico to not miss this attraction.

That was the highlight with which my trip to Puerto Rico ended. I flew back the next day and was lucky to fly through Miami Airport in the afternoon. During takeoff I got to see some spectacular views of Miami beach and the South beach area. That was a nice end to a memorable trip.

More information can be found here

http://www.elyunque.com/biolbay.html

Puerto Rico - El Morro Fort and Bacardi Rum factory

2009-10-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

Today I visited the El Morro Fort in Old San Juan. It had been built by the Spanish many years ago to protect the San Juan harbour. Now I wouldn't want to repeat the history for the readers. You can read about the history here at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_San_Felipe_del_Morro

It is a very massive structure with 6 different levels. Level 1 is not open to the public. It is a national historic landmark. They have done a very good job of preserving it and they give your good information as well. It was a very strategic point as it controlled entry to the San Juan Harbour and hence indirectly to the Caribbean. It has seen many wars and many attempts on it. The oldest part of the fort is still accessible to public and it was built way back in the 16th century.

You get some stunning views of San Juan from this fort. I spent quite a lot of time there.

Across the fort one can see a strip of land. It also has some structures which were firing locations for counter attack on ships which attacked the fort. There is also a small building on this strip of land where leprosy patients were banished. That was a policy many years ago where lepers were segregated and kept there. The history of the fort is indeed extremely interesting.

Old San Juan:

Old San Juan is the older part of the city and has distinctively Spanish architecture. Small narrow streets, building and balconies on either side. Streets are made using cobblestone. There are a few churches as well. You feel as if you are in Madrid or a Spanish city. It has this distinct old town feel to it. I had never been to such a place before hence this was really interesting.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/PuertoRicoDay5ElMorroFort#

Bacardi Rum Factory:

Bacardi Rum is produced in PR and 85% of the world's rum comes from here. They have a huge factory outside of San Juan and also a museum. They have a 45 min tour which describes the rum making process. I attended this tour and it was very interesting. They gave a brief history of rum making and showed how they make rum in their factory. They also showed how to make popular drinks like the 'Mojito' and the 'Daiquiri'. They have a sprawling campus with lots of security. The tour is very informative and the free drinks at the end are delicious :).

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/PuertoRicoDay5BacardiRumFactory#

Puerto Rico - Beaches

2009-10-05T03:33:00.000-07:00

Since Puerto Rico is a tropical island its obvious that the beaches here would be a major attraction. I went to to popular beaches today. They were the Ocean Park beach in Condado and the Lu Quillo beach.

Oean Park beach was a city beach with brown sand. The water was light blue. It was a pretty sight. There were people hanging around, reading books and playing with their dogs. There were some hotels , resorts and private condos lining the beach. It is one of the popular beaches where the people of San Juan go.

The second beach I went to was the Lu Quillo beach. Its one of the famous beaches in PR. It is a family beach and has a 1 mile long crescent coastline. It has white sand and the water isn't too deep. It is ideal for families do that kids can swim safely in the water. It is called a 'Balneario' or a public beach and is maintained by the government. It wasn't that crowded as I had gone on a weekday. I did spot a few locals playing volleyball and enjoying local music on the beach.

It was a stark contrast to the Ocean Park beach, there were no high rises dotting the skyline here. It reminded me a lot of Kovalam beach in the state of Kerala in India.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/PuertoRicoDay4Beaches#

Puerto Rico - Old San Juan

2009-10-04T03:21:00.000-07:00

We spent the day doing some basic siteseeing at Old San Juan. Its the center of the city and has the Felipe El Morro Fort. It was built by the Spanish colonizers for protecting the San Juan bay. My friends had to leave that evening so we didn't spend a lot of time there.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/PuertoRicoDay3OldSanJuan#

Puerto Rico - Snorkeling

2009-10-03T02:46:00.000-07:00

On the second day we went on a Snorkeling tour to Fajardo. It is a coastal town which is about a hour long drive from San Juan. We had taken this trip on a sailboat where there were 14 of us and another group of around 12-15 people. They were locals from PR.

Since we were celebrating our friend getting married soon we all had put on identical red T shirts. We looked quite a interesting group in that. The boat took us into the Atlantic to a small island. There we got into the water to try Snorkeling. It was the first time most of us were doing this. It was pretty interesting. The apparatus you were seals your nose and you have to start breathing from your mouth. The plastic pipe enables you to breathe. So you have to train your brain to put your face in the water and not panic. That is followed by learning to breathe with your mouth. It was a bit disconcerting at the start but later we got a hang of it. I did see some fishes swimming around , it was a very pretty sight.

After having lunch on the boat we went to the actual coral reef. We were going to get into the water and snorkel. We all had floats on now, they didn't want us to go in without them.

What I saw for the next 90 min is not very easy to describe in words. It was extremely beautiful. There were so many different types of fishes below. Different colours, different sizes. They were swimming about the coral reef. There was some vegetation as well which they were feeding on. My favorite was the small fish which was a blue in colour and had black fins.

I had read a lot bout coral reefs and more recently about efforts for their preservation. I hadn't paid much attention to it though. However now after actually seeing it I can understand why there is such a concern about their preservation. These reefs harbour some very beautiful marine life and it is imperative that we preserve it.

We swam around admiring the marine life and made our way back. It was party time on our way back to the shore. The captain put on some local music and the other party started dancing to it. We also joined in and it was a carnival like atmosphere. They passed around musical instruments and we played along with the music. It was also a new experience for the locals. I bet they had never seen so many Indian guys together before. :)

The pics below are mostly of us hanging around on the boat. We couldn't get any of the fishes as we didn't have any waterproof cameras.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/PuertoRicoDay2Snorkeling#

Puerto Rico - El Yunque Rainforest

2009-10-02T02:41:00.000-07:00

This is one of the popular attractions in PR. It is a preserved area which is most probably a National Park. It is a rainforest with lots of varieties of flora and fauna.

It rains heavily there , almost daily which has provided it with the unique weather. We took a small 1 mile hike and went to a waterfall there . We got into the water and had a fun time. There are some birds there called the 'Coqui' which are called so for the sound they make.

It was the first time any of us had been to a rainforest hence it was very interesting. There wasn't a botanist amongst us else he would have enjoyed it even more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajitvkulkarni/PuertoRicoDay1ElYunque#

Puerto Rico !

2009-10-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

I took a week long break and went with my friends to Puerto Rico. It was a pretty memorable trip. There were 14 of us who would be there from Oct 1-4 for the weekend. I was however staying back for 3 more days by myself. The trip turned out to be a lot of fun.

Puerto Rico is a long flight away. Atleast for people on the west coast of the US. It is at least 9 hrs. Its pretty convenient as a weekend getaway for people on the east coast. There are direct flights form NY.

Fist Impressions:

The first thing that greeted me when I reached PR was the heat and humidity. I was instantly reminded of my home , Mumbai . It had tropical weather and it was hot and sweaty. After a couple of hours in the sun your shirt will get soaked. That is how the entire Caribbean must be.

The roads in PR were much narrower than mainland USA. That reminded me of Mumbai as well. I was getting nostalgic now. Many other things seemed similar. Things like people following traffic rules to a lesser degree, stray dogs on the road, liberal honking by cars, lush greenery everywhere and even electric /phone lines running parallel to the road. However the second day we saw the most conspicuous similarity. The waterfront of San Juan (capital of PR , where we stayed) had a nice coastline which was dotted with many bug 5 star resorts and hotels. There were high rises fighting each other to get a great view of the sea. This is what you see a plenty in areas of Mumbai like Colaba, Bandra and Andheri. Since quite a few of my friends actually live at these places, it was a nice experience for them.

Puerto Rico has a Spanish speaking population. So all road signs are in Spanish. This gave me an opportunity to learn some. Few months ago I had resolved to learn Spanish using an app on my iPhone but had never gotten to do it. Now was my chance :).

It started with road signs . Exit (Salida), Exit Only (Solo Salida) and reduce speed (Reductor Velocidad). The geek in me comes out and praises the Spanish language as its more technically correct. You reduce your velocity and not just the speed.Anyway I learned some more Spanish on this trip.

We stayed at a very beautiful villa. This reminded me much of Pune as that is how houses in most parts of Pune are. The weather is also similar. When we went to the different beaches an did stuff like snorkeling/ kayaking etc I was very much reminded me of Goa ,the popular tourist attraction in India. PR is very much similar to Goa.

I was here for 5 whole days . So the posts that follow will give a brief description of the places we went to.

Day 1- El Yunque rainforest

Day 2- Snorkeling

Day 3- Old San Juan

Day 4- Ocean Park and Lu Quillo beach

Day 5 - El Morro Fort, Bacardi Rum factory

Day 5 - Biobay Kayak tour

Hiking in WIndy Hill Open Space Preserve

2009-09-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

I went hiking with my friends to the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. It was a short day hike , about 8 miles. It was in the Los Altos Hills. It was a nice scenic hike and provided some great views of the bay.

Hike to Mt. Langley - Day 3

2009-09-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

The third day of our trip was pretty low key as compared to the first 2. We woke up late after a long night's sleep. We packed up and dis-assembled our tent for the last time. The final bear proofing was done. We still had to hike back 5.6 miles to get back to the trailhead. We picked up our big camping backpacks and started back. They were much lighter as we had finished most of the food. We were mostly walking back on a level trail with some steep upslope at some points. It took us about 2.5 hrs to get back to the trailhead.

After that it was doing the final packing and driving back home. We had to take a detour on our way back and we got to see the city of Fresno as well. It looked much bigger than Bakersfield.

Thus concluded our 2 night 3 day camping trip. It was a challenge but we managed to overcome it. 14ers are an endurance test, you do them to challenge yourself. There are times when it gets too much and you want to give up, you should just take a break , take a deep breath (literally and figuratively) and start again.

This may sound cheesy but, according to the latest Miley Cyrus hit song :), its not about the destination but the climb .

pics: http://cid-62080fead7682843.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Second%2014er%20Hike%20%20to%20Mt.%20Langley

Hike to Mt. Langley - Day 2

2009-09-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today was our D day. We had to hike around 4 miles to the summit which was at 14000 feet. Our current camp site was at 10500 feet. We woke up at 930 AM after sleeping for around 4 hrs. 2 of our friends bailed out. They were still sore from the night hike yesterday. They didn't want to aggravate their sprains. In hindsight after completing the hike , I think they did the right thing

Since we were out in the wilderness there were no bathrooms and showers. In all we went without a shower for 3 days. Its not something to declare so try to keep it to yourself. :)

We packed our bags. The bags now were smaller , we lovingly called them 'summit bags' . We mainly carried water, gatorade, trailmix (mix of dryfruits), trail bars (aka energy bars) and a flash light. The aim was to be carrying as less as possible.

The 5 of us left at around 1130AM. We hiked up a small slope and reached the Cottenwood lakes area. There were many small lakes here. The water was crystal clear. The place was unpolluted and I hope it stays that way. We met many people who came for small hikes just to see these lakes. The lakes were very serene and I was tempted to stay there longerbut our destination was still far away.

We had to climb up something called as the 'Old Army Pass'. It was basically a tall exposed rock face of a mountain. We had to climb through the different rocks through a small and narrow trail. It was also very risky as one small mis step meant slipping to your doom through the sharp rocks down to the valley below. It was pretty tiring but our slow and steady pace helped us to overcome the pass in about 1.5 hrs. We also came across some snow on our climb.

When we reached the top of the pass a sign greeted is welcoming us to Sequoia National Park. The peak and the rest of our journey would be through the park. There was however nothing 'park' like about our journey. We had reached at an height where trees cannot grow productively. So the landscape was mostly barren with th exception of some bushes and shrubs. We had completed around 1.5 miles of our hike so we were pretty upbeat. We thought this should be pretty easy.

I have never been so WRONG :(

What followed was arguably the most physically challenging test of our lives. It was a barren landscape and it started getting steeper. We couldn't see the peak so there was no final destination in sight. We kept climbing and our speed started reducing as we progressed. We met people on their way back. They seemed cheerful and were encouraging us. They kept saying 'You are almost there'. I later realized how wrong they were.

We made it up a long steep stretch. We thought we were there but there was another tall stretch ahead of us. Many of us started struggling now. The less oxygen gives you a very bad headache. The altitude plays games with your mind as well. We kept on going slowly and reached what we had always thought of as our destination.

To our utmost shock we saw a big hill of rocks with no proper defined trail. We had to scramble up the rocks for the final part. There was a narrow sandy trail and some places. I was really pissed by now. I had had enough. There was a person there waiting for someone. One of my friends suggested that he may have quit. When I saw him I gathered myself deciding that since I had come so far I was going to finish this , come what may.

We started scrambing up the rocks and walking up the narrow sandy trail. This was the longest hour of our lives. We kept on going.

Did it !

We finally reached our destination at around 430PM. It had taken 5 long , painful hours. There was a small diary in a metal box at the summit. We wrote our names and a small message. The view from the top was amazing. It was the deep valley on one side and other peaks of the Sierra on another. We could see Mt. Whitney, the more famous peak in this area. The landscape looked like being out of a western. It was barren , rocky cliffs and mountains.

There was a sign of the US Geological survey detailing the place. We were having a really bad headache atthis height. I hadn't felt this when I had been to White Mountain. I think I actually spotted White Mountain from the summit. We took a few pictures and started on our wayback.

The return

The way back was pretty easy. It was just downhill and we could just slide through the sandy trail in the steep part. We had to climb down rocks and try to to fall when we descended through the rocks. Since the Old Army pass was potentially unsafe on our way down we decided to finish it during our daytime. We made good progres and reached it at around 630PM.

We started our way down the pass slowly. It was important to be very careful. We negotiated it successfully and were back at our camp at around 730 PM.

Our 2 friends who hadn't joined us had a pleasant surprise ready for us . They had prepared dinner,not just any dinner , it was proper Indian food :)

It was rotis and potato. We ate it up quickly. We were really tired. Nearly all of us had a very bad headache and weren't feeling too good. We had an aspirin and went to sleep. I didnt care about bear proofing any more :) . I just kept my whole bag along with the canisters. It didn't matter if i lost it. I jsut took out my iPhone . :D

C'mon that is the most important thing to have.

We went to sleep at around 8PM.

pics: http://cid-62080fead7682843.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Second%2014er%20Hike%20%20to%20Mt.%20Langley

Hike to Mt. Langley - Day 1

2009-09-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

I, along with a group of friends went on a 2 day hike to Mt . Langley on this labor day weekend. Mt. Langley is one of the 14er's (peaks with height greater than 14000 feet) in Northern California. Its near the Sequoia National Park and also near its more famous cousin Mt. Whitney.Its one of the peaks in the California Sierra mountain range and is 14026 feet tall.

Mt. Langley is a class 2 14er which means its steeper and more difficult to climb as compared to Mt. Whitney which is a class 1.

Details can be found here. http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=150246

We started driving at around 8 AM from San Jose. The way through Yosemite and Tioga pass was closed due to a fear of forest fires. So we took the long route going south to Bakersfield and then back up north. This was my first chance to see Bakersfield.

Its a small city in Southern CA. I had expected it to be pretty big but I was surprised to not see any high rise buildings and a typical 'downtown' there. We then went on the CA 14 , followe by CA 395 which were some of the most empty roads I have been on. The landscape on both sides of the roads was simply amazing. We passed through the north of the Mojave desert and this was evident by the 100 degrees temparature outside. The landscape changed after every 15 min and it was indeed pretty breathtaking. We saw tall cliffs , rocks and big mountains on both sides of the road.

We reached our desination, the town of Lone Pine at around 330PM. We stopped at a hostel for freshening up. There were many hikers there as this was a popular base for people to freshen up before leaving on the hike or get back to normal life after completeing a strenuous one. There were many hikers to Mt. Whitney as well heer as this town was the starting point for that hike as well.

We got back in our cars later and drove to the trailhead which was about an hour away. Thetrailhad was at an height of around 10000feet. We reached there at around 5PM. The plan was tto sleep till around 10PM, have dinner later and begin our hike. Since we were at an high altitude our bodies needed to get adjusted to the low oxygen there.

We had brought tents and other camping gear. This was the second time for me and it was fun setting it all up. It wasn't easy sleeping in the tent. We didn't have the comfort of our beds and teh sleeping bag felt hard on the jungle floor. My friend complained that I was snoring :) , I explained myself saying it was due to the low oxygen.

We woke up late , aroudn 11PM and no one had the patience to set up the stove and cook. We just had some pre cooked fodo which one of our friends had brought. It was Paav Bhaji and was it delicious. :) . We removed the tent and packed everything up.

Bears and Bear Canisters:

There is a difference between general camping and camping in an active bear area. Its more interesting when bears are around :). You also have to take special precautions. You cannot keep any food / waste out in the open. Anything that has an odour must be kept in a bear canister. Though it sounds fun initially it can turn into an irritating chore later. You have to 'bear proof' your camp site before going to sleep or leaving it to go hiking. We had around 3 bear canisters.

So anyway, we packed up all our food , bear canisters and tents and were ready to go. Then came the next unpleasabt shock. Our camping bags weighing 50 lbs each with all the extra weight of tents , canisters , water etc.

The total hike is around 10 miles 1 way to the summit. The first 5.6 miles is 'fairly' even and not too steep. That gets you to a place called 'Cottenwood lakes'. The remainder of the trail is fairly steep and cannot generally be done on the same day. Our plan was to finish the first 5.6 miles at night and do the remaining the next day.

The hike in the night started off wonderfully. It was 7 of us walking in a single file carrying these huge backpacks. It was a full moon night and teh moonlight was enough to guide us. It felt pretty adventurous going out into the unknown at taht time. It felt like being in an Hollywood movie.

The first 3 miles were pretty even and we walked at a pretty good pace. I also thought as to what would happen if we came across a bear. I remembered the joke a friend cracked, he said try to be the at least second slowest when you run away. :)

Then the trail started to get pretty steep. We would not have had much of a problem with it if we didn't have these huge backpacks. But that really slowed us down. Shoulders, backs and hips started to hurt. We started taking breaks at short durations. We almost felt like giving up and camping somewhere nearby but then decided its better to get to our target location.

We soemhow navigated teh steep part of ur trail. The last 2 miles were on pretty even ground, it was an open field next to a lake. But all of us were really tired so progress there became slow as well. We finally reached our destination at 5AM. That was 4.5 hrs of hiking 5.6 miles. Everyone was too tired so we just had some energy bars and dryfruits before goin to sleep. Incidentally the day just started to break when we were going to sleep.

We had top setup tents, bear proof the place and stock away our food. Thsi is why I said , its an irritating chore, when youhave to do it at 5AM when you are dead tired.

Our shoulders, feet, backs and hips were hurting but we were determined to do this.

http://cid-

62080fead7682843.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Second%2014er%20Hike%20%20to%20Mt.%20Langley

My First 14er, Scaling a peak 14000 feet high

2009-07-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

I went along with friends to a hike to White Mountain in Northern California today. White Mountain is a peak over 14000 feet in height and is hence one of the many '14ers 'in the US. Climbing up a 14er is a big challenge and is a test of your physical and more importantly , mental endurance. My hiking experience prior to this hike was that of 6-8 mile hikes in National and state parks around the bay area.

White Mountain is in the Inyo National Forest about a 3 hr drive from Yosemite national Park. Some info here
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150221/white-mountain-peak.html
http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/WhiteMountainPeak_0000.asp

One cannot undertake these hikes without careful planning. Generally you get to the base camp a day before and camp there. This is so that you can get acclimititized to the height and the less oxygen at these high altitudes. Our camp was at a height of 8000 feet. We got there after a very long drive on Saturday evening. This drive involved a crazy race against time to obtain a campfire permit from Yosemite. The place closes at 330PM and we got there are 335PM. But some polite insistence did get us the permit.

We prepared a nice dinner. We started off with some soup. The highlight was the 'Khichdi' which my friend Mrunal took the lead in making. This is the first instance of the Indian dish of 'Khichdi' being prepared at a campfire. :). We did the whole thing. Cut vegetables, onions and boiled rice. It was a great experience.

We had setup out tent before dinner.The sky was amazingly clear and we could spot some constellations. Considering the relatively less collective knowledge we had about stars and constellations, the Orion was the only thing we could identify.We setup our sleeping bags and went to sleep at around 11PM.

We woke up early at around 530 AM and left for the hike at around an hour later. The trailhead was about 1 hour away and the road to it was a dirt road. This took sometime and we finally started our hike at around 740AM.

The incline was gradual but steep nonetheless. Only 1 among our group was a seasoned hiker with 4 14ers under his belt. The rest just tried to keep with the group's pace. After 2 miles of hiking we reached a laboratory. the University of California system operates many labs here. The major research done here is to study the effect of height on animals. There were many chipmunks and sheep present there.
A freaky thing we noticed there was a bulldozer with a mannequin siting at the wheel. We all were wondering what she was doing there. She even had a name 'Amelia'.
This is where I saw my first look of White Mountain. It looked tall and imposing. I cursed out loud, 'How the **** are we going to get there ?'. My friends smiled but we all knew that we were going to this today.
The hike started getting steeper after this point. After a brief ascent we saw the trail descending. Our seasoned friend told us that we would descend 1000 feet followed by the final ascent of around 3000 feet. We started feeling shortness of breath when there was a long continuous ascent.
We saw some spectacular views of the landscape from here. Since we were at a great height , the land was barren with only rocks. There were a few bushed scattered.
We took a short cut over the land to reduce about a mile of walking.
The trail then got into its final ascent. Now things got difficult. We were refueling ourselves with energy bars and gatorade. We reached the base of the mountain and saw the winding trail leading to the top. Since we were pretty confident we decided to walk up vertically bisecting the trail and using our hands to climb over rocks. It worked but it wasn't easy. We also saw snow at close hand as went higher.

This went on for another 2 hrs and we finally made to the top of White Mountain. It was a feeling of relief and pride. We had done it! The view from the top was amazing.
We could get a 360 degree view and could see the valley below. It was beautiful. There was a small home at the top which was a house and lab for scientists. There were many instruments and daily necessities.

We stayed at the summit for about an hour and headed back. Most of the descent was supposed to be easy as it was all downhill but there were some patches where we were actually climbing up. While returning as well we cut across the trail coming downhill vertically instead of going along the criss-cross trail. This was risky as you could slip and fall if you aren't careful.

I was walking back alone in the end and it was difficult. There wasn't much to do but to just keep walking. The mind keeps racing thinking of all sorts of things. The legs were cramping and there was fatigue. All of us faced this but we just went along. I reached back at the trailhead at around 4PM. For me the ascent was 4 hrs 10 min while the descent was 2 hrs 45 min. I am pretty happy with that. The achievement was just finishing the hike.

Now that I look back at the photos and recollect the experience, I can't help but wonder how mountaineers scale peaks like Mt. Everest. That is a great feat indeed.

We had dinner in the nearby town of Bishop and drove back to San Jose that night. It had been a tiring day, but it was worth it :), for the experience and definitely for the pictures.

http://cid-62080fead7682843.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/My%20first%2014er%20peak,%20Hiking%20to%2014000%20feet

Seattle - Memorial Day weekend , Day 2-3, Olympia National Park

2009-05-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend - Seattle , Day 1 Mt. Rainier national Park

2009-05-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Seattle , Memorial Day weekend 2009 , Day 1 : Mt. Rainier

White water Rafting in Yosemite !

2009-04-26T01:38:00.000-07:00

White Water Rafting Yosemite

Weekend in Yosemite !

2009-04-25T01:37:00.000-07:00

Yosemite Trip

A hike to Point Reyes national Seashore

2009-04-12T01:36:00.000-07:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/cnganesh/PointReyes02?authkey=Gv1sRgCOW1rfqK6OSeRA&feat=directlink

A Trip to Texas , Houston , Day 2

2009-01-11T01:35:00.000-08:00

A trip to Texas. Day 2 Houston

A trip to Texas, Dallas Day 1

2009-01-10T01:34:00.000-08:00

I started my weekend trip to Texas in Dallas. I had always wanted to visit Texas and this was my chance. The first thing you notice about Dallas is its airport. It is HUGE ! I can recall about 4-5 terminals. We reached late on Friday night. On Saturday we left to see Dallas.

Dallas and its neighboriing suburban cities of Fort Forth, Plano and Richardson are cities spread our on a vast expanse of land. You will notice that the on ramps and off ramps in Dallas are pretty long. There is no scarcity of space in Texas.

You will notice that everything is big. Highways, ramps, cars, trucks and even food portions. The first thing that struck me about Dallas was the name of teh freeway connecting the city and the airport. It was 'President George Bush Freeway'. It was the Senior President Bush but in Texas the Bush family is very much loved and revered.

Anyway we went to Dallas downtown and to this famous tower. It was unfortunately closed for renovation. That was our first attraction in Dallas which was closed. Later in the day we would understand that many of the attractions were closed.

We wanted to go to a Rodeo show but those didnt start till mid Jan.

We had lunch at this place which has 'Tex Mex'cuisine. Tex mex as a unique style of cuisine which has Mexican food with Texas spices an Chili. It was delicious. Then came th second welcome shock. Food is very cheap in Texas, atleast as compared to California.

Another thing I noticed was that you won't see that many cars in Texas . You will mainly see SUVs and trucks. In Texas, bigger is better. I did see sedans but not many of them.

We passed some pretty large overpasses and freeways. I noticed another interesting thing there. The beams and pillars of these overpasses had the Lone Star, the symbol of Texas.

The symbol was on prominent display at many locations in Texas.

We did a geocache search in a park in Dallas. If you don't know what that is look it up , it sa very interesting game to play, its like a modern treasure hunt, a nice adventure to have.

After seeing some of the attractions in Dallas we called it a night. We had to leave early to Houston the next day.

A trip to Texas - Day 1 Dallas

New Year , Las Vegas !

2009-01-01T01:31:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas - New Year 2009

Thanksgiving week - The City of Angels

2008-11-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

The last day of our trip was in Los Angeles. We went to many landmarks in the city like Santa Monica beach and Hollywood. We took a tour of the Kodak theter in Hollywood. That is the place where the Academy awards are held every year. We also drove near to the Hollywood sign and Beverly Hills.

I hadn't seen much of LA before but it is indeed a great place to visit.

My drive back was also pretty interesting. I was driving on a foggy I-5 at night with very poor visibility. It was a lot of fun though, an interesting challenge.

Album:

Los Angeles with Pratik

Thanksgiving week - Channel Islands National Park

2008-11-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

We went today to Channel Islands which is a protected national park off the coast of Santa Barbara. It is a group of 5 islands. The islands are completely protected and there is no human commercialization seen. We took a half day cruise to the Santa Cruz islands. Little did we know what treat we were in for.

The boat ride is about an hour long and they show you interesting flora and fauna along the way if they sight any. Did we sight something? Oh ya

As our boat was going high speed in the water it was generating waves in the ocean. This excited dolphins in the water and they joined us jumping around in the waves created. They were very playful and we were told that they really like such waves so they enjoy swimming and jumping in them. It was the first time I had seen dolphins at such close distances who were not in captivity. Previously I had seen them in Sea World.

We really enjoyed being with the dolphins but something even more spectacular awaited us.

The crew sighted killer whales at a distance and the boat went towards them. We saw 2 groups of killer whales. One was a group of 3 and the othera group of 4.

The group of 3 had a large female and 2 calves. The group of 4 had a large male whose dorsal fin was about 6 feet tall. They were below water most of the time and came up about once every 45 sec to get fresh air by blowing air from their spout and getting fresh air. I had seen Shamu in Sea World but this was the first time I saw killer whales or Orcas as they are known not in captivity.

This was easily the highlight of our trip.

We asked the crew , how frequently they see whales. One person said that he had been working there for 3 years and this was the third time he had seen them. We were indeed very lucky.

We then went to the island and did a long 5 mile hike. We went to a point called Potato harbor overlook. It provided some breathtaking views. This island was indeed a wonderful place, great for camping.

We came back to the mainland by 6PM and it was pretty dark by then. We got to see a rare alignment in the sky as Venus , a crescent moon and Jupiter were seen together.

We made a 2 hour drive to Los Angeles after our trip.

Album:

Channel Islands National park with Pratik and Aanjo

Thanksgiving week - Monterey, Big Sur and Highway 1

2008-11-28T23:50:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the place Northern CA is the most famous for. Big Sur and Highway 1. We started the day going to the coastal towns of Monterey and Carmel-By-the-Sea. These are beautiful coastal towns , home of some very beautiful houses and extremely affluent people.

In Monterey we took the 17 mile drive which providesa nice drive through the area and has some great points.

It goes through a golf course along the coast and has passes through a beach called Pebble beach. It is extremely beautiful and you can see sun, sand. seagulls , green lands and of course the blue Pacific. It also has Cypress trees with white barks which were mistaken for ghosts by sailors who landed here many years ago.

We then went to Big Sur which is the highlight of Highway 1. It provides some spectacular views of the Pacific. You have to go through a long winding road through green hills with the hills on one side and the blue Pacific on the other. It has been an inspiration to many writers and poets.

We saw the sunset at Big Sur and it was a treat to the eyes.

We then kept driving along the winding Highway 1 in the dark and reached the town of Ventura in the evening The drive was pretty challenging, driving along winding roads in the dark , at high altitudes with the sea on one side. It was a day to remember.

If someone still can't picture it, we went to the actual place shown in the Pacific Highway track of the popular game Roadrash.

Album:

Monterey Big Sur with Pratik and Aanjo

Thanksgiving Day - San Francisco

2008-11-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

My friend Aanjo joined us for our thanksgiving tip and we went to San Francisco city today. I have been there many times but still don't get bored with it. It is indeed one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We went to all the major landmarks and my friends enjoyed alot

San Francisco with Pratik and Aanjo

Thanksgiving week - Point Reyes National Seashore

2008-11-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

We went to this new place today, a national park called Point Reyes national seashore. It was a cludy and overcast day so wasn't the best day to go there. But we did see some great sights which just took our breadth away.

The park is along the coast and is a protected area. We saw 2 main points there. One was Tomales Point Elk reserve and the other was a lighthouse point.

The Tomales point had an elk reserve and we did manage to see some elk. Both points provided a beautiful panorama where there was blue see on 3 sides. The lighthouse point also had a beautiful beach. We also saw some deer up close at the lighthouse point.

It is a place I could recommend to everyone coming to the bay area.

Thanksgiving week - Mystery Spot - Santa Cruz

2008-11-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

We went to the Mystery spot in Santa Cruz. It is a very interesting place to visit as in a limited area there the laws of physics and gravity behave differently. Everything is at an angle to the ground. People, houses, trees , everything. Many theories have been proposed but the mystery continues to exist today.

You can have a lot of fun when gravity behaves differently. We tried out the different stunts like in 'The Matrix' and enjoyed a lot. Walking did feel heavy sometimes though.

The scientist in me does want to crack the mystery though.

Album :

Pratik Trip Day 2 : Mystery Spot

Thanksgiving week - Muir Woods

2008-11-22T17:28:00.000-08:00

My very good friend and former roommate Pratik came to my place for the Thanksgiving weekend. We went to many places.
Today we went to SF city and Muir woods. Muir woods is a park which has very big an ddense redwood forests. Its a great place to go for a hike and be amongst the wonders of nature.

Album is here

Pratik Trip Day 1: Muir Woords and San Francisco

Halloween !

2008-10-31T23:18:00.000-07:00

I celebrated Halloween for the first time today. Halloween is an American "festival" or more rather an event when people dress up to look really scary and kids go out and get candy form homes.
We had gone to a place in San Francisco where a Halloween party was on. It was a lot of fun. I was dressed up (or was I) as a mental patient with an evil parasitic twin on his shoulder. The costume was liked a lot and people did ask about it. Some people also took pictures with me . I did feel like a movie star for a while. It was a lot of fun overall.

Oktoberfest !

2008-10-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

We went to celebrate the German festival of Oktoberfest today in San Francisco.
http://www.oktoberfestbythebay.com/

Oktoberfest is a festival celebrated in Germany in October and is a lot of fun. People basically drink a lot, eat traditional German food and black forest cake, dance and have fun. The German community of San Francisco had organized it and had done a pretty good job.
Many had turned up in their traditional German clothing and danced to their traditional songs. There was a big presence of German football as well.

okt

My Skydiving Video

2008-09-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

Skydiving!

2008-09-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

I went skydiving today . I head from many of my friends that it is a very unique experience and has to be tried at least once in your life. They were right. It was truly a very exhilarating experience. It is pretty difficult to describe it in words.

I had heard about 'Adrenaline Rush' before and have experienced it a few times with other adventure sports but this was just amazing.

We went to this place , 'The Parachute Center' in Northern California about 100 miles from San Jose.

http://www.parachutecenter.com/index.htm

It is a very popular place as they have lower rates as compared to others and they actually jump from a higher altitude. I did this thing called a tandem jump where there is a professional skydiver with me and I am tied to him. He does the hard part- jumping, pulling the parachute and landing.

We went up to 13000 feet in the airplane. It had a glass door the back. They opened it and then we started jumping out in turns. I was given many instructions. After jumping I am supposed to keep my hands on the harness, keep my feet close together and bent toward the skydiver's butt. My body should be in an arched position and later when the skydiver signals me I am supposed to spread my hands wide.

The Jump and Free fall:

This 1 minute was one of the most memorable ones of my life. It was our turn , we stepped up to the door at the end of the plane. At the count of 3 we jumped. My mind just blanked. The feeling I felt then is very difficult to describe in words. I had never done something like this ever. It is like forgetting all consequences and just doing something because it gives you a all conquering feeling. But let me not deny that I was really scared at that point. After all I had jumped from a plane. I remember shouting loudly. We were going in circles and in all different directions. I had selected the video skydive package so there was a cameraman videotaping my jump. He came up to me and I started waving. My mouth was open throughout the entire jump which in hindsight is pretty embarassing. I can recall seeing the blue horizon and the earth's curvature. There was this big wind coming up from the below me. The air was dry and kinda salty. My heart was pumping and I was having 'A RUSH' as they say in the movies. We were just going down at a very high speed but it seemed that we were floating. Now matter how hard at try it is indeed close to impossible to explain what I felt then in words.

I tried all sort so of hand movements like giving a thumbs up sign, a victory sign and the sign rock music lovers give :). But my mind was not functioning properly at all then :).

This went on for a minute after which the skydiver pulled the main parachute.

After the main parachute was pulled we were pushed upward and I let out a big groan as a sign of relief. :) There was a sudden acceleration in the opposite direction. Then we started descending slowly. My skydiver let me pull on the parachute toggles. Pulling the left one sends you on a rolling leftward spiral downward and similarly with the right one.

Since this part of the dive was comparatively laid back I try to get a sense of where I was . I tried to admire the scene around me. I could see fields, houses, roads and even a very busy highway. I was hoping that I didn't end up on it. My skydiver then explained me the technique we would use when we land. After he shouts a command I am supposed to stretch my legs wide in front of me. This enables me to land by sliding on my backside not hurting my legs. i did just that and had a very smooth landing.

This was a very memorable experience and I would encourage everyone to try it. Skydiving is not a cheap sport but you should try it at least once. If you are a' ADRENALINE JUNKIE' then this is for you.

I have posted the video in the next blog post.

Labor Day Weekend at Crater Lake, Oregon

2008-09-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Eight of us went to Crater lake in Oregon for the long weekend. It is one of
the most beautiful sites I have seen. There used to exist a volcano called
Mount Masama at that location. It exploded a few thousands of years ago. It
was a very popular explosion and resulted in a huge void at the base of the
volcano after it spewed all its contents. As a result the volcano imploded
onto itself and this created a huge depression which in geological terms is
called a Caldera. After many years as snow accumulated and rain fell on this
void, it created a lake which is today called Crater Lake. There is some
American Indian history and mythology also associated with the Lake. The
lake is breathtaking to look at and is a perfect candidate for a desktop
wallpaper picture.In winter it snows a lot there and the lake looks even better. We also did
some boating on the lake and had a view of the lake from all directions.
There are many landmarks on the lake including Phantom ship which is a rock
in the lake which resembles a ship and devil's backbone which is a unique
rock formation which resembles a backbone. There also exists Wizard Island
which was formed by a previous volcano and is part of a cruise where people
can walk onto that island and have the lake's water on all sides.
On the first day we hiked to the Watchman's point which is a 0.7mile hike
and gives a great view of the lake. It was a very steep hike but the view
was worth it.
This was also the first time I visited Oregon. It is a very beautiful state,
much like Virginia. It was very cold there which was refreshing compared to
the hot weather of San Jose.

The pictures of the trip can be found here

and here

17 Mile Drive, Monterey CA

2008-07-12T02:54:00.000-07:00

I went along with my friend to the 17 mile drive in Monterey CA. It is a
very picturesque drive is a popular tourist attraction. Some part of the
drive was along the beautiful beach called 'Pebble Beach'. It also houses the Pebble
Beach golf course. There are also Cypress trees which are mainly found in
that area. Monterey and Carmel are beautiful seaside towns and are popular
tourist attractions. The pictures speak for themselves. There is another
popular attraction called BigSur which is south of Monterey. We didn't go
there but I wish to go there soon.

The pictures of this trip can be found here

Hoover Dam

2008-06-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

On our way to and from the Canyon we saw the magnificent Hoover Dam. It is
one of the highest dams in the world and is a sight to behold. It is an
engineering marvel. It was built during difficult economic times and workers
came to work here as the wage was much higher than anywhere else. There were
not many jobs available then as well. That is why the dam was completed in
record time. It is present at the Nevada-Arizona border.

Grand Canyon

2008-06-05T04:37:00.000-07:00

We took a 1 day tour of the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. The south rim is
the more famous tour but it is much longer where you leave at around 7AM and
return at 1030PM to Las vegas. We visited 2-3 points on this tour and some
of us which included me and my family took the helicoptor ride. In this ride
you take helicoptor which takes you to the base of the Canyon by taking a
dive through it. You then do a 15 min boat ride through the Colorado river
and thus actually go through the depths of the Canyon. Both of these were
amazing experinces. The return back is again by helicoptor. We then went to
the Eagle and Gwanu points. Gwanu point has the famous Skybridge. The
Skybridge is a semicircular bridge suspended over the edge of the canyon.
There is glass below hence it appears as if you are standing on thin air. It
is a popular tourist attraction. Nearby there were performances displaying
American Indian culture and also their houses and tools.
On our way back we saw Joshua trees which are actually Cactii. They appear
like stunted bushes or even small trees. This was a completely different
experience as I had never seen lanscapes like these before. The classic
Western movies and others like Mackenna's Gold had these landscapes.

Viva Las Vegas !!

2008-06-04T04:35:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas is truly different from the rest of America. It is a world in
itself. It appears as it follows different rules and is just different. The
first thing you will notice is that it is bright. The first night there we
were just blinded by all the light. The casino Tropicana where we were
staying had just the most amazing lobby. There were blacjack,poker tables
and slot machines scattered everywhere.
Daybreak was at about 445 in the morning and dusk was at around 9PM. It gets
really hot at even 8AM and feels like its afternoon. The best time to see
Vegas is at night when you see all the lights. There are plenty of things to
do even if you don't gamble. We visited many casinos and were just overawed
by the decor and interiors of them. My favorite was The Venetian. It is
modeled on the city of venice and has actual gondolas and waterways inside.
There are big fountains and its just beautiful. Caesar's Palace is also
wonderful. The lobby has many statues of Roman gods and goddesses. There are
many halls and each one has a distinct flavor which reminds you of ancient
Rome. Every casino has its own theme. Luxor has an Egyptian theme, MGM Grand
has its movie theme, New York New York tries to create a feel of Manhattan
etc. Its definitely a very interesting city to visit and you might just get
lucky while gambling. Vegas has many shows as well and you can enjoy them
too.

San Diego

2008-06-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

We visited Pacific beach , a typical southern California beach and then went
to La Jolla coves which has these caves made in the water. They are some of
San Diego's famous attractions.

San Diego - Seaworld

2008-06-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

We went to Sea World today. My parents really loved the place. It is a great
theme park and has something for everyone regardless of their age. The Shamu
show, the dolphin show and the Clyde and Seamore show are my favorites.

San Francisco - Day 2

2008-05-30T04:33:00.000-07:00