The grand Grand Canyon

Sree had driven to the Canyon thrice already, once everytime in his US trip. He always said to me that he would like to take me there atleast once; but the chances of our trip coinciding was rare. Thanks to the circumstances and our decision of taking a break, we are doing some great trips together.

After spending a day (more of night) at Vegas, we headed to Grand Canyon. The first sight of the Canyon gives goosebumps. An amazing natural wonder of deep ravine carved by the Colorado river; the views are breathtaking. The river has cut through the channels layer by layer on the rocks, leaving patterns so overwhelming. A trek on the rim gives wonderful vistas.



We took the famous hike trail, Bright Angel trail in the South rim for around 2-3 miles one way.
Even though we spent only a day at the Canyon, it was awesome to sit and watch it; specially during the evening watching the sunlight shift from layer to layer before it set.

They say the great experience would be to hike down, camp in the canyon at the river level and then hike back up. Visiting the Canyon from all the directions would be another awesome experience. After this short visit to the Canyon and the short trek, we now await for an opportunity to experience the camping.

Las Vegas - The Sin City, The Entertainment Capital of World

Sree has been here twice; wanted us to be there again, this time experiencing it together, both to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. The idea was to reach Vegas in the late evening, to enjoy and get struck of all the welcoming glitters, glams and scintillations. Of course everyone has heard of this. The experience...it leaves you gaping.

It was an 8+ hours of driving from SFO to Vegas, but the sight of the gleams made all our tiredness vanish. We just wanted to freshen up and hit the road. And that's what we did. Dropped our luggages in the hotel room, a quick shower and off to begone in the shines of the Las Vegas Strip. Strip is the 4 mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, where all the attractions, Hotels, Casinos and the entire glam is visible & accessible. When you start to walk up the Strip, one wouldn't realize it's a 6.5 km hike. And here begins your experience of less is more and more is less.

You will realize why it's called 'The Entertainment Capital of the World'. It's unbelievable that such structures and water bodies are built on a desert! The only place where you can walk around enjoying any of your drinks. Casinos that drag your souls, street shows captivating you and the beauty of architectural themes of the hotels engulfing.



Many of the hotel ceilings have the sky look & feel - Caesar's Palace, The Venetian, The Paris - it's a strangely pleasant feeling. The Venetian has a river body inside the hotel. We can take a Gondola ride and the sailor sings a song, makes it very romantic. The Paris has a 55 storeys high Eiffel Tower, on which we can go up and watch the entire city from that height. The famous, Bellagio offers the spectacular dancing water fountain show in their lake. You can witness water dance to some popular tunes. Luxor has a pyramid that throws a beam of light into the sky. This light is visible from all corners of the city. In fact, they say that this light is visible from the Moon! Stratosphere is the tallest tower, 1149 feet high. You get to go on some thrill rides at the top of the tower. Insanity, the ride @ Stratosphere tower, throws you out away from the tower edge and gives a good spin, for the people who need more adrenaline rush. Phew!


While night is the life at Vegas, there are a bunch of things to do during the day too. Most of the shows happen at nights, so during the day you could visit the hotels and casinos. Each Hotel has its theme and offers a lot of variety to enjoy. Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden at The Mirage hosts a pack of wildlife. They have Dolphin habitat, Alpacas, White Lions and White Tigers. It's amazing to see how they created a habitat, truly a mirage in the desert. The Mirage also has some exquisite water bodies - falls, fountains, gardens, etc. Circus Circus is good for family with kids. They have circus shows and many thrill rides inside the hotel.


These have been only a few of the amazing attractions mentioned in here. If you are on a short trip, do not miss these. There is sinfully a lot more Vegas offers. There is no limit to the number of days you could be spending in this Sin City, the number of hours spent in Casinos gambling. It's a once in a lifetime experience in Las Vegas, leaves you enthralled and wanting more.

Lake Louise - The frozen lake

First destination we hit as we reached Banff was Lake Louise. April, and the lake is still completely frozen. We did sight a few frozen lakes enroute to Banff, however Lake Louise is the renowned one. Least had we known that we could walk on the frozen lake. The sight of the lake being fully frozen was itself mesmeric.

Eventhough we could see so many people moving on the lake, to take the first few steps on it was edgy. At most places the ice was thick and in some it looked like fresh snow settled down.

It's an astounding experience to have been there. When we checked the website for Lake Louise, apparently, there is a totally different facet of it in Summer.

Banff

Its close to 850kms from Vancouver. Well, we could drive. It would take may be more than 10 hours, with a few refreshment stops. With kids it might be tough to have them tied down for that long at a stretch. Breaking it down to a one-stop journey seemed a good option. In that case we could start a day early, drive half the way, rest and continue from there the next morning.

That's how we decided we would stay in Salmon Arm and then continue to Banff the next day. The drive was aesthetically scenic and beautiful. It's called the Avalanche Country 'cos you see avalanches everywhere and driving through those snow filled rocky mountains was amazing.



Almost all the lakes that we passed were frozen. It was very sightly to see each one of them. In few the ice had started to melt, on few we could see layers of ice floating and creeks had thick side layers of ice & streams flowing in between.



They say that we should visit Banff once in winter and once in summer. The winter visit was a great go, I'm eagerly waiting for the summer visit.

December in Munnar

2008 was surely an year of lot of fun filled travel arounds for us. We were looking for a relaxing holiday for quite some time, apart from the short, adventurous, weekend & drive get-aways we had. With club memberships its one thing that we need to plan and book it well before. And that is a bit difficult for us, we being bit of dynamic doers. I somehow followed up day after day and finally got us a 3 day booking to the almost-always-booked destination, Munnar. Of the 3 days, we only had confirmation for 2 days and we took a chance of getting it extended for another day. Booked the train tickets and we set off in mid December.

The train booking was to Maduria. We got off at Madurai, took an auto to the famous Murugan Idli kadai. The place is a 10-15 seater restaurant, which is a small one for its fame, but Breakfast was grand. Though it says Idli kadai, they do serve Dosas, Pongal, Vada, etc. We then took a bus from Madurai to Theni and then Theni to Munnar. We reached the resort only at about 2. We were very hungry and headed straight to the resort restaurant even before we stopped to enjoy the tranquil, scenic views.

Coincidentally both of our holiday destinations with Club Mahindra, since our membership with them, has been to Kerala. We truly have experienced why it is called as God's own country.

Munnar is surely known for its serenity and heartsease & the location of the resort gave us the complete dose of it. The place has an aura of romance and so also known to be honeymooners' paradise. It was 8 degrees temperature in mid December. It gets misty during mornings and evenings, sometimes throughout the day. And sometimes it was cloudy and showered too.
There are quite a few holiday activities to engage ourselves in - Trekking, Overnight camping, Tea plantation and spice garden tour, boating, indoor games (for kids too), etc. We opted for Overnight camping this time. It being the first time experience of night camping, we were quite excited. Together, there were 3 couples, one of them were newlywed. And we thought, what an adventure of night camping for a honeymooner! The place where they camp is near a 40-45 year old bungalow in the forest. They take us on a night trek, then camp fire, dinner and off to the tent. It was pretty cold and misty. Nothing after 50 mts distance from was visible, it gets that misty. Inside the tent is warm and cozy. You could hear the noise of winds hitting the tent all night. Sleep was not as disturbing as we thought it would be.The next morning, we were dropped off at the resort for beakfast. We took a cab and went around the place visiting Periyakanal Falls, Lockhart View Point, Mattupatti Dam, a botanical garden and Echo Point. Miles and miles of tea plantations and it was a beautiful experience of drive on those winding roads.The resort staff were very helpful and could extend our stay for another day. It sure was a short holiday but a much needed and relaxing one for all the peace and solacement we earned.