Let the Aero-Force come in !!!!

Yeah the Boston boys are in Namma Bengaloooru....and the blue army is gonna take over the palace grounds on the 2nd of june ....and i surely dont wanna miss a thing !!!!

Indian hospitality at its best ..The band will be served some authentic desi grub .. i just hope they dont overdo and have some stomach disorder tommorow...

And then we have the rains ... which are expected to hit this part of the globe tommorow . Damn What's with the day ??? We gotta get more rain-novative !!!


Ohhh gowd did you hear the latest ...Accenture has come up with an initiative targeted at recruiting potential employees and retaining existing employees, during the Aerosmith rock show to be held in Bangalore on 2 June ...hope they dont lure the boston boys to join em !! alternative careers they say !







Trivia about the band


In 1970, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Tom Hamilton decided to start a band in Boston.Although many people see Aerosmith as a Boston band, none of the band members are actually from that city.
The band was formed when Steven Tyler met Joe Perry in an ice cream parlor.



Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" won an Academy Award for best soundtrack from the movie "Armagedden... Steven Tyler's daughter, Liv, starred in the movie."

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were known as "The Toxic Twins", because of their notorious abuse of drugs on and off the stage.

Their fanbase is known as the Blue Army...

They are the second best-selling American rock band of all time, after The Eagles.

In Zaghi and Out goes Gerard's dreams !

"Gimme Red " shouts Inzaghi !!!!!


Despite all the energy ...Liverpool gets knocked out at Athens as Pipoo avenges the 2005's epic defeat at Istanbul.. First it was Bayern , then Man uni and finally Liverpool , AC MILAN does it with ELAN


Despite plenty of ball possesion , the reds failed to deliver the same magic that they did in Istanbul in 2005.. When Inzaghi doubled his score, it looked like the game was over then came Dirk Kuyt's header which could have changed things for Liverpool but it was tooo late !!!


Kudos to Inzaghi and Kaka !!! and Milan for a sooper come back !

of rivers and waterfalls... of quaint villages and beautiful people Sikkim Trip Part II...

They say when in Rome, be a Roman . Staying at an army mess did instill some kinda discipline in some of us... we were up and ready and we assembled at the dining hall in true fauji style for Breakfast ..and guess what despite getting up early , we cdnt manage leaving the mess early enough.What a mess I tell ya !!!!!!

We had an awesome dude for a driver called Dawa and his assistant Vishnu....Dawa stopped every now and then for us to take pictures and he had little funny stories to narrate .....

We stopped at the Tashi view point to catch the glimpse of Kanchenjunga .. as usual Kanchenjunga was playing hide and seek ..We managed a decent look and then we took off to Chungthang which was about 95 plus kms from Gangtok.





The drive was gorgeous ...Teesta had become our permanent companion ... gave us company all the way through ....she looked absolutely stunning...




Some of the highlights of the drive...

Our strange Hen-counter ... Every time we passed a little village , we would encounter hens who would time themselves to cross the road.... You run over a hen and u pay Rs 500 and guess what , you don't even get to keep, eat or admire them.. what a teaser I tell you !felt like a scam ...

We reached Chungthang by late afternoon after halting midway for lunch. Lunch wasn't very exciting. We had oil curry which had a few pieces of chicken and some daal- chawal.

At Chungthang, we stopped for chai and then carried on.The road then bifurcated into 2 - one going to Lachung and the other one to Lachen .. The names sounded like some Franco-Chinese cocktail..Ce'st Lachen Ce'st Lachung and Ce'st Lavie ! hehehe






We reached Lachen after sunset.. and the driver took us to a hotel which looked shady yeah like one of those patli gali types....We tried to talk ourselves into adjusting but yeh dil maaengey more took over .. We managed to coax the guys to take us to another hotel and as we walked through the narrow, dark, dingy, dilapidated galli, we were getting more and more convinced that it wasn't happening.





LACHEN STREET

We reached the second hotel which looked like one of the fairy tale buildings ... could almost visualise Rapunzel with long hair at the window . New building ... new beds .. new quilts .. wowzie .. what more cd one ask for??? We parked ourselves there.. Subu had bought some local beer called Danzberg and Hit . After the beer tasting ceremony, we went down for Dinner. Grub was decent and Lachen was frigging cold and thankfully I had retained my several layers of clothing..
Post dinner, we slept. Had an early morning drive to Gurudongmar. As usual we got out late and Dawa was pissed !! He gave us a piece of his mind.We were getting used to being labelled recalcitrant...

The drive to Gurudongmar was surreal.We passed a number of Army posts and also the Border Road Organisation (BRO)kept us entertained with their peppy innovative patriotic writings ...





We stopped en route at Thangu . A beautiful quaint village... We had steamed bread and jam with hot tea at this little shack .The people there were really sweet. We chitchatted for a bit and took off.



AT Thangu Village


We were kinda late and Dawa had a point. The road was rocky and quite deserted and it would be quite a situation if one got stranded in the middle of nowhere . There wasn't any sign of civilization let alone any flora or fauna !! Dessert-ed in the true sense !!
To our utter dismay and to add to the drama, the vehicle stopped ! Our man quickly got under the SUV and fixed it temporarily.

We resumed and made it finally.

Yes, this is what they call Heaven... The lake looked so still and calm .. hues of blues and green with certain portions frozen.
I was stunned by the beauty of the place .It was freezing there.. Damn we were 17100 ft above sea level...




I got myself a spot .. i lied down by the lake on the stones and just stared .. Speechless!!!!!!!!!!
We were forewarned by Dawa and we had deadlines to keep. But as usual we were late and this time the dude lost it and we felt like school kids who were being reprimanded by a teacher......hehehe

We went past the Chopta valley back to Thangu on our way to Lachen. One more halt at Thangu. We went back to the same shack ...more hot tea ..we also got a taste of the local fermented bamboo beer called Chang which is served in a traditional bamboo container and is to be consumed with a bamboo straw....they should rename it as straw- beer(y) . While some of us stayed put in the shack socialising with the locals, Subu decided to try out some gully cricket with the kids . Well, he wasn't allowed to go beyond bowling but he sure had a "ball" literally .. heheh .

We had a quick lunch at Lachen and then we were back on the road. Our next stop was Lachung which meant back to Chungthang and we had to take the other road at the fork.

We reached Lachung by late evening. We got ourselves shelter in a homestay.The place was construcetd of wood .. one kick and it would fall apart .. every time anyone moved , the squeak would scare the shit out of us. It was quite an adventure .


Dinner followed by Uno and it was sleep time. Woah What a day that was !

Imagine.......

siesta time, originally uploaded by Unsung Traveller.

You may say I'm a dreamer...................
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us.....................
And the world will live as one

Searching the world.....

Butterfly, originally uploaded by Unsung Traveller.

BUTTERFLY
TAKE A STEP OUTSIDE YOUR SHELL
TO DRINK THE SECRETS OF THE WELL
NO LONGER WILL YOU FIT INSIDE
THERE'S NO MORE NEED TO RUN AND HIDE
IT'S EASY NOW TO BE YOURSELF
AND SET YOUR FEARS UPON A SHELF
TO CLOSE YOUR EYES FOR JUST A THOUGHT
AND RECONSIDER ALL YOU'RE TAUGHT
WISHES MADE WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG
CAPTURED IN THE SONGS YOU SUNG
FREED YOUR HEART TO LAUGH AND PLAY
REMINDERS OF A FORMER DAY
SO NOW YOU LOOK THROUGH OPEN EYES
TO ASK THE HOWS, THE WHENS, THE WHYS
TO SEARCH THE WORLD TO FIND YOUR PART
AND FREE THE DREAMS WITHIN YOUR HEART

Seek-him or else someone will .....

Sikkim originates from "Sukhim" meaning new house.. New house or old house , we definately felt welcomed!
The journey began at Bengaluru . We boarded the much dreaded and feared Air deccan . We werent too worried as our connecting bus was much later in the evening so we had plenty of time even if our kind pilot decided to taxi for a few hours...
We landed at Dum Dum Airport and coutesy Subbu got a fundo orientation of the city of Joy(s) and Mukherjees.... Took a taxi to Flurry's where we caught up with one of our travel buddies for a what i call a perfect "Breakfast" .
Post breakfast ,we headed to Paligunj which is where we stayed.

We ventured a bit during the day to taste some LO-KOL cuisine (puns are flowing today ).. fish in mustard sauce and poori aalloo. hmmmmmm.. we shall talk about food later....
And late in the evening, went to new sharma hotel to have some yum safron tea served in an earthy kullad..

Fought the Kol traffic to make it to the Bus stand where we boarded the bus to Siliguri and whatta a ride that was. I seemed to be the only one in the bus safar-ing!! Cdnt sleep a wink and to add to my woes, we were stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere for three hours .. we were mobbed by trucks and buses on all sides and yes i was awake despite the snores and the roars... almost seemed like the bus was in coma !!!!!!aaaahhhhh Finally, it moved... yeah seemed like a baby in a mother's womb... yes it moved... it kicked off and seemed like it was a neverending bus journey...

We were 7 hours late !!! Got off at siliguri and without wasting time fixed ourselves a taxi to Gangtok. Quickly grabbed a bite and and we were ready to burn some serious rubber..

Siesta time for few ..and teesta time for few..... while i was busy fighting for the window seat ..teesta was flowing peacefully on one side .. all i cd catch glimpses of, were heads of my fellow mates .. arrggghhhhh .. the table turned after a few hours and i did manage some breathtaking views. AMy recent Canon S3IS acquision was about to bear fruits .. aahhh life seemed exciting all over again.....

With a few Pee-it stops , we made it to Gangtok by late evening. Got ourselves 2 rooms in the Army mess ..

Gangtok

The capital city of Sikkim, Gangtok in the local language means " the town on a hilltop". This commercialised urban town is an ideal hop stop for most of the travels across the state.

Gangtok is more of a sightseing destination with the typical touristy flavor such as the usual view points, temples, ropeways and gardens.However...... Its a perfect hub to plan adventerous activities around the state.


What did we do ?? We researched .. yeah !

Early morning took off to Nathula : Nathula is 60 kms from Gangtok and is situated at a height of 14450 ft at the border of India and China. The border had a barbed wire saparating us from China...If Amitabh and Tabu were there , they would have screamed Cheeni ( here we) Come ..... hehehe
Also, we found out that the pass is open only on Wed, Thurs, Saturday and Sunday and a special permit is needed.Thanks to one of our friends who had Army liason , we managed a pass without any difficulty.
Nathula was part of the famous silk route ...Hey btw one quick trivia .. did you know Marco Polo, the italian explorer took Pasta from China to Italy ?????? the reason why I mentioned his name is for 2 reasons. He traveled extensively on the silk route and also little did we know that pasta is of chinese origin..




Our next stop was the Baba Mandir : Built by the soldiers, in the memory of a sepoy named Harbhajan Singh. Legend has it that he appeared in someone's dream a few days after he went missing while patrolling and expressed a desire that a monument be built in his memory and the same was built which has over the years acquired the status of a pilgrim center.There is a cafe and an ATM here. The cafe is maintained by the Indian Army . its called cafre 13000. wonder y ??? heheh !!!


Finally , it was Tsongo Lake or Chongo lake.. About 35 kms from Gangtok on the way to nathula, at an altitude of 12400 ft,this is a must do and requires a special permit..What's interesting is that this lake remains completely frozen during the winter months... when else would it freeze ???????????

The place was totally mesmerising. The lake looked placid and very tranquill.Around the lake, there are a few souvinier shops and restaurants which obviously ruin the beauty of the place but since they serve hot tea and momos, i will not complain. Those interested in Yak rides can hop on the yukky yaks too.





By the time we got back it was kind off late ... we crashed as we had to leave for Lachen early morning.


On this note .. lemme crash too .. i gotta hit the gym early morning..... :P .. watch this space to find out .. if we actually woke up early enough ...