Beyond Here

I had some friends come over for dinner last night. And one of them brought for me this huge tray full of the most lovely flowers - Orchids. It took me quite a while to snip and snap the stems and arrange the flowers in the different vases ( I was able to fill up 6 bud vases in all) and even after that I had a small tray of flowers left over. But once it was all done, they made a pretty sight. And I went "Oh!" for Orchids. P.S. Love the flowers - thanks Rosalyn.

As I mentioned in my last post, JTNP is the location where 2 different desert ecosystems come together, the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert. While the Mojave Desert is at higher elevations (above 3000ft) and is characterized by the Joshua Trees, the lower elevations (less than 3000 ft) is part of the Colorado Desert and home to some very interesting cactii species. The Pinto Basin We entered the part from the North Entrance (Twentynine Palms) and very soon we were surrounded by the vastness of the Colorado Desert. As we drove along, and took mini-trails to capture the scenes into our camera, we realized that the camera was not doing justice to the views. The panoramic views of the Pinto basin, for example, as captured by the camera were not half as good as the actual views themselves. Now that may be our camera (we have a point and shoot and not a digital SLR and I have been making a case to my husband to buy a DSLR) or it maybe the fact that the field of vision of the human ey...

This weekend we travelled to the Joshua Tree National Park. It was my idea. And my husband just played along. I had gotten a book recently from Barnes and Noble on the National Parks of US and while going through it, I realized that we were just a 2.5 hour drive from this park. So I waited eagerly for the right weather and some free time, and off we went. From San Diego, we started early in the morning and reached the north entrance visitor centre at about 11 in the morning. To be honest, there was not much I expected - from the pictures in the book it was not a typical desert with sand dunes and unlike Rajasthan back in India, it did not even have forts to offer. It was more out of curiosity - after all the most scenic spots in US are preserved as National Parks. When we finally entered the park and drove through the place, what greeted us totally took us by surprise. I am sure my husband shared my feelings - he mentioned he was glad to come to the Park after every 20-30 minutes. As I...

When I started off this post, I wanted to write about this wonderful restaurant Sunit and I went to over the weekend - Bertrand at Mister A's. And the even better view the place afforded of downtown San Diego at night. But as I looked at the post closer, it looked more like a best restaurant guide for San Diego. So I went ahead and changed the title. Remember, I am a vegetarian so most of the recommendations are based on the vegetarian fare these places afford. Plus I have a sweet tooth - so sumptuous desserts are a must for any place that I must like. Bertrand at Mr A's - We went to celebrate a special occasion. A pretty formal place where most people (including those waiting upon you) are dressed in suits. We started off with a Cream of Artichoke soup which quite frankly was the best part of the meal for me. They have an extensive wine list which was difficult to sift through. But their veggie tempuras were pretty much like the pakoras in India. And the white and dark chocola...

One thing we regretted during our visit to the Amer Fort was not taking a guide outside. We were convinced we would find one inside at a lower rate. As luck would have it, we did not find one inside. So as we moved from one part of the fort to the other we had no idea of what it was we were actually looking at or what the stories behind the walls were. My husband and brother-in-law, however, resorted to a sneaky way of getting the information. In order to catch snippets of guide talk, they would walk close to the guides who were with other people and try to eavesdrop on their stories. And it is through this channel that we found that the chambers we had been marvelling at the most were those of the "Sheesh Mahal" - some sort of victory hall. While there is no more information I have on these halls, I really did like 2 particular sections - one was the mirror inlaid walls and ceiling and the other one was the wall with the painted blue and yellow vases. What would be really go...

After having a hefty breakfast at our hotel, on our very first morning in Jaipur, we left for Amer fort. It is about 12kms from Jaipur. And if I remember correctly, was built by Raja Man Singh. Our first glimpse of the fort and its imposing walls - And we all sat up in our seats eagerly awaiting for what was in store. There are 2 ways to approach the main fort - first is on elephant back and up the ramps along the fort walls and second is to drive your vehicle right upto the main entrance and then climb the stairs to the main door of the fort. Since our little one (Kuhu) was also travelling with us, we took the less adventurous route and decided to drive upto the main entrance (Mind you, that was not less exciting to say the least. The road is very narrow and steep at times and carves its way right through the village and up the hill. And if you are not careful enough, you will miss the turn from the village to the fort road atleast once if not more - we managed to miss that turn twice...

I was sifting through last year's pictures, sorting them and archiving them, when I realized that there is loads of blogging of my travels that I actually never got around to doing. So my resolution for this year (I know, I am already a month late) is to blog all my last year's travels. (Lets see how far I keep up to it) I am going to start right off with my latest trip - a trip to India. A lot many highlights of the trip - a trip to Jaipur, meeting my cousins and their children, attending a friend's wedding and eating loads of moong dal halwa. But the high point of the trip was definitely getting to meet my niece for the first time. She was 3 months old when I landed and a complete bundle of cuteness with all her stares and tantrums. Made sure every one catered to her every whim and need. And we all did, after all this was the first little one in our family. So while details of our trip to Jaipur will follow in later posts, this one is for my niece - Kuhu.