Vienna to Innsbruck on Rails

We had a short get away the past weekend to Innsbruck. We had decided to board a train from Vienna to Innsbruck after we landed by plane in Vienna. I had looked up the prices and found it to be reasonable.

We reached from the airport to the railway station on time and had to buy the tickets from the vending machine. The tickets cost me about 58 per person. We hoped on the Rail Jet train, in second class and found the cabins to be almost full. I and Reshma managed to get hold of a seat which was made for children. There was a small screen in front of us where all the animation movies were run. So time flew ! We watched clips of Donald, Mickey, Goofy, UP! including others.

The train stopped at St Polten, Linz, Salzburg to reach Innsbruck. It would be too less if I were to describe the scenic beauty of this route. Mountains on the left and right with luscious green fields, cattle and watch dogs, trees matriculately placed all cut and clean. What a view ! A breath taking treat to the eyes. The houses were all so beautifully placed as though a great painter had portrayed his dreams.

If you are plan to go to Vienna try this route ! You won't be sad.

Trip To Kerala

It took me more than a year to find some time to go to my home place. The wait was worth it. I managed to enjoy the Monsoons to the fullest extend, spend quality time with my Mom and Dad, visit Kumarakom with Friends and meet up some NITC batchmates. At the end, 2 weeks was not enough time.

The next time around I will go for more than 3 weeks. :)

Learning Start

I flew from Bangalore to Berlin on the 1st of March, the day my Visa starts. The weather was cold and gloomy. But I met some Mallus on the way and had some socializing. I asked them about the eating habits, where I could save money and stuff.

It took me 17 hours to reach Tegel, Berlin. After that I took a cab and went to the work place. A great bunch of people greeted me and gave me the laptop and other stuff. I stayed with John for some days before he left for his vacation. John even got me a sim that I have on my phone now !

I managed to get some paper works done. I have got my insurance and Burgeramt as of now. I am waiting for the Work Visa approval, apartment for rent, bank account etc ..

Anna took me to a small bar where they played music and the people who came in sand and played instruments. A bunch of people did a lot of YoYo tricks as well ...

Something like this one

Im at Gregory's apartment for now and am looking out for a place to stay before Reshma comes.\


Rails Dev is going great too ... I learned a lot of stuff too ...

Some of them are

Rspec
Rvm
guard
simplecov
factorygirl
pow and powder
gem based coding and development
databasecleaner
forgery
airbrake
relic
scalarium
activeadmin
devise
vagrant
markdown

Most of them I knew before and understood more ....

Exciting times !!!!

Pune Post

I went for a short trip to Pune this friday. To meet up with Amit and Gitesh and to see how Pune was.

I was startled to find Pune to be developing. I had thought that it would be some what like Noida, but it was not. They say the people in Pune are generally lazy and traffic is all haywire. The roads are being made and water rises when theres rain. There are places where you see malls and greenery but otherwise its all dust and the locals. IT is the main source of income for the people there I would suppose.

Dark Side and the Bright Side - Goa

This was my first time in Goa. Expectations were high. We expected it to be hot and humid. We expected lots of tourists and desis. What we saw met our expectations. We had lots of fun and a genuinely great time. I dont want to talk about the great stuff that you see in Goa. Everybody talks about those stuff. Im going to talk about the stuff that I thought to be BAD.

Goa is projected as a tourist destination. These tourists come and lay on the beach reading or just getting a tan. Theres bound to be some sort of extortion. It was holi there and I saw a bunch of kids, may be 5 or 6 years old, smearing a foreigner with the traditional colors and then asking him for money. The amount that they ask starts from a hundred. They ask him five hundred. The foreigner is not let to go unless he pays and he succumbs and gives the kid a hundred rupees. I never saw any kid asking an Indian that amount of money. They dont ask coz they know they wont get it. It would be a waste of their time and the money they spent on the color.

Normally the bike that we get for rent in Goa costs about 200 rupees. They hike the prices to a thousand we they see that there is demand. We reached late on a saturday and a person asked for 800 rupees under the condition that the bike had to be returned @ 9 pm that same day.

They also provide roof less Maruti Gypsies for people. These Gypsies are not allowed in Goa. They dont tell this tiny detail. The police wait for these Gypsies and once they get one extort money from the tourists. The tourists are made to pay the whole amount upfront and complaining on return of the vehicle doesnt matter.

We got into a bus when we started from Baga to Calagute. We were told by the owner of the place we stayed that the fare was 5 rupees. The conductor of the bus asked us for 10 rupees. He doubled the price. We told him that we knew the fare was 5 and that he was trying to trick us. He argued for a while but took the 5 per person after we said we would complain.

We got down at Margao to go to the railway station to catch the train. A bus was parked in a petrol pump and the conductor told us to get in after asking us the destination. We got in and sat. Just then another guy came from the bus stand and told us that the bus wont go. We didnt get out then. The conductor then came in and asked for the fare and we gave him a hundred. He went upfront after taking the money. Then the bus started and went inside the bus stand and stood there for more than 10 minutes. When asked why he didnt tell us that the bus wont go now, the conductor said that the bus would go in some time !

Dont ever go on the beach without foot wear. You would only get you foot split by broken glass. Get sun tan lotion or you will burn to death. You will have to buy water. No one, not even when you dine in a small shack, will you get some drinking water. The most time wasted will be for food as the shacks there take 3 hours to serve a single meal. Take some light food along if you intend to roam about in Goa.

The Return

I had a 10 day vacation. Off to my home place. Its been 4 months since I went home and this time I had to attend 2 weddings. Stoney AKA Achayan got married on the 12th of January and Vineesh got married on the 20th. I flew to Chennai for the first time by Deccan. This lousy flight had all things that an average flight must not have. The engines gave so much sound that I thought I was inside a car. The stewardess were not what I call 'GREAT'. The pilot was a foreigner and therefore did a good job in handling the plane. Unni was waiting at the airport to receive and to lead me to his flat. The weather in Chennai was okay. It was after I reached the flat that I understood that Ranjith was to leave for Australia again the next day( the day on which we were supposed to start to Kottayam). After having some chit chat with Balu, Unni and Ranjith we went to sleep.

The next day after having a late lunch ?(at 4:30 courtesy Ranjith) we left to Kottayam on a train after me and my good friend Sajith had a beer. In the morning we reached Kottayam and then started our onward journey to Achayans. At about 11 am we reached the place only to be received by Anish and Mithlesh. Jayasurian and Pradeep were also there. After spending some time with Achayan, going to Pala with him I had a sleep. I was awakened by Bimal who with his uncanny tone of voice and deeply theoretical dialogs amazed me. Man .. was this guy messed up. After arguing about pre marital activities and co habitation we went on to have some good time talking about normal stuff. In the night we had 8PM Dry and went to sleep.

The next day after buying the present we went to the church to see our batch mate get married. After the wedding the rest of the gang came. The lunch was extravagant. Lots of stuff to eat. I have been only to those Christian weddings a few times and I tend to like the non vegetarian items served. After the lunch and very hour of chit chat we started our journey. This time the guys were intent on going to Kumarakom. Kumarakom, a famous tourist attraction, was quite far away and we took about 3 to 4 hours to reach our destination. The boat hiring prices were high and we felt that the guys offered much less for that amount of money. We then left the place and went back to Cherthala were we slept on just 4 mattresses.

Early the next morning I felt to my Sis's were Mom and Dad came. After watching the mallu movie 'Kadha Parayumbol' and after enduring the riots that my baby niece made inside the theater, I slept at my Sis's. We even witnessed a minor accident. A bus, without any provocation, crashed into a Maruti denting it's side seat.

The next week was silent for me. Just home cooked food, nice TV programs, movies on the mallu channels. Lots of fun, the 'Everybody loves Raymond' style. I had my return flight from Cochin to Delhi via Bangalore.

Earlier when ever I went to the bus stand, I would see someone I knew. Even when getting on a train I would find some one or the other. But now times have changed. I managed to see 3 people I knew when I was waiting at the terminal lounge. I even saw Meera Jasmine, the famous south Indian actress. To say the least I did not expect a plump woman with full of make up. She was better looking on screen. I also heard that Mohanlal was also there. I reached home after taking a cab at about 1 in the night. And now I am back to work (or rather back to blogging).

The Manali Trip : Redux

After posting the previous post I had it put in my Yahoo IM. To my surprise, I got some comments and even some personal messages about it. The first thing my good friend Srinath asked was 'Haven't you blogged about the Manali Trip?'. Thats when I realized that I forgot to blog on something that was one of the best things that happened to me. Why do we go out and enjoy for a while ? Escape from the normal life, seeing new places, exploring new horizons, meeting new people, making more friends, and understanding that even though we have a hectic schedule we are capable of enjoying those simple things in life. Thats what this trip gave me. The chance to look life from a whole different perspective. And I like the new me.

I do not intend to write but to point out some things that made this trip great.

• It was damn cold there and I practically froze my a** .
• All the people (7 of them excluding me) were great and I tried to connect to them. Sharing ideas, laughs, displeasures and all those kind of feelings actually made us close. And for once I felt I was NOT a non Hindi speaker.
• Those people in those skis fell so much times that after some time it stopped being funny.
• We up to the topmost point of a mountain. My feel got numb, when coming down my hands and budd got numb too. But it was a great feat. We (Me Arora and Vineet) pissed on top of the hill and had some solid OLD MONK.
• Manikaran changed my perspective towards Sikhs. I loved the place. Not because it had hot springs. But because the service that they do to the people who come there and have food. The idea of you also a part of this and you are entitled to play your part in it by serving the people who come there. I also appreciate Swati to be doing the Seva. Gitesh and me helped those people move some huge jars and that felt great !
• For those cold nights and the comfortable Rajai.
• Dumb Cherades. It was crazy stuff from my team (Sardar, Swati, Arora) , but was great in a wierd kind of way.
• The park trekking, crossing the river, stepping on shit .. the list continues

But the feeling of being in a group is something that you will not get unless and until you participate. Thanks and enjoy the pics posted in Google Picasa. A slide show will be on your left hand side.