Photography and Food

Photography and Food


Pictures and food dominate my travel. And lots of hot coffee.
Well, before you turn the page, there is some logic to it. Rather, my perspective of it.
We travel to please our senses. Completely different input to our brains is refreshing. Our senses i.e. sight, sound, smell, taste, touch – are used to the daily mundane routine and the brain is tuned into monotony. The creation of ideas/thoughts in the brain gets into the same routine and eventually we feel that life is just, stuck.
Most people need recreation. “Re creation” of their selves. A nice movie & a dinner or some beer-over-football would generally do, but over longer periods of time, we need a bigger break. The senses need radically different inputs to recreate the brain and its impressions.

Getting my point? Yes, that is the reason people take big vacations and go out to explore places, cities, hills, seas and forests.
They go out and absorb the new sights and sounds and feel refreshed. But sights & sounds only satisfy the eyes and ears. Capture those moments on still and video cameras. Even after 5 years you will actually feel the place when you watch those pictures/videos.

The same thing goes with the tongue. Taste the local food, don’t compare it with your native cuisine. Just enjoy the food as it is. Remember those tastes, find out those recipes. Come back home and try out those recipes after 2 years. Those lovely memories will surely be rekindled when you stoke your taste buds.

It is like recording on tape. Your sensory organs record the images in your brain and play them for you. Use this mechanism intelligently and you’ll find new ways of recreation !

Package Tours

For me, travel always meant planning, budgeting, last minute arrangements and a little bit of chilling out. Until I discovered the joys of package tours.
My earliest memory of a package tour was the Delhi-Agra tour which I went when I was about 6 years old. I remember we were horded around like programmed robots - "Get-down-at-Yamuna-and-have-a-dip", "30-mins-at-Qutb-Minar", "If-you-miss-the-bus-at-Taj-Mahal-then-catch-us-at-xyz-place" etc. Somehow I was under the impression that package tours don't give you enough freedom to explore things on your own and have your own privacy.
Well, I realised only in 2004 that common sense was not my sole birthright. People in the tourism business have given some thought to this over the years and the process has matured to a point where we now have "tour guide" as a career.
Take a look at Haggis Adventures
This is a tourism company started in Scotland by people with passion for tourism (and Scotland). During Easter 2004, being a desi bachelor in the UK with lot of desire for travel, but no company, I blindly booked a package for 269 pounds at Haggis Adventures. I had my own concerns about the kind of people who would travel with me and how I could gel with them.

I did not regret it. Not a bit.

Will write more about my Haggis Adventure (yes, I will explain what is Haggis too !) later.. But for now, I am convinced that package tours are the best.

So my next holidays did not involve "Planning, budgeting, last minute arrangements and a little bit of chilling out".
I now do only two things: 1. Research a little bit and identify a great tour operator 2. CHILL OUT !

The primary concern for many people is the costs involved in buying a package.. "Wouldn't it be cheaper to do-it-yourself ?", "Will I really be interested in all the places those guys show us?", "Will I get enough time for my leisure shopping ?"..

Believe me, all those are things of the past. You do get packages to suit every pocket. And the little premium you pay is WORTH it since you don't really have to haggle with taxis, you don't have to handle conmen or waste time in hunting for accomodation, food or directions.

If you don't want to see every single spot in the city, you could always opt out.

I've tried the group tour at Haggis Adventures and also a customised private 7-day tour which I bought from Orbit World for my honeymoon trip to Shimla-Kulu-Manali. It was pretty good.

Fun does come in packages.

Me

 

Bangalore to Hyderabad

Bangalore Hyderabad trips are part of thousands of Telugu software engineers.
A whole section of the transport industry thrives on this chunk of population who work in Bangalore but have strong ties back home.

My favourite mode of transport has been the Bangalore-Hyderabad Express inspite of the inconvenient timings.
Being a 'true blue' engineer, too lazy to walk over to the reservation counter, I always got a kick from booking tickets online at www.irctc.co.in. Every single time I booked an online ticket, I felt so happy being an Indian with access to lightning service from the largest railway company in the world.

The train used to leave Bangalore City at 5 pm, but most of us used to prefer the pretty Cantonment station.
With just two platforms and conveniently located at the heart of the city, the Cantonment station is heritage Bangalore at its best - clean, small, quiet and convenient. I used to leave office at 4.30, haggle with those auto drivers and finally reach the Cantt station.
Buy a magazine, grab a cup of coffee, look around to see if anyone I know is travelling too..

At 5.20-ish I am settling down into my seat, looking around for some good company (if I have not already met a friend/colleague/ex-colleague).. I don't know why but I always used to get those typical families who have a son working in Bangalore and a daughter settled in the US (80% chance that she is in San Jose).

In my early days as a s/w engineer I used to participate in those discussions of how high we are paid, how late we work etc.. "Your generation don't exercise enough. You sit all day with your computers and don't use your brains." - says the old man next to the window seat.
I stopped bothering about giving my opinions on such mundane stuff and preferring keeping to myself.

The guy next to me is reading Outlook Money to get the latest dope on hot stocks and investment avenues. He happens to work for - TCS, Infy, Wipro, IBM, HCL, TI, Intel - or some other company at Whitefield.
After the routine chat on Java, SAP, Peoplesoft, Onsite salaries & Indian salaries, we end up discussing common friends. The Indian software industry is well connected and if you are a graduate from a decent college, there are good chances that you know someone who knows someone who inturn knows your friend's brother !

We've crossed Yelahanka now and by then we'd have had a good look at the booming real estate and the Hebbal Flyover. Little stations zoom past us. Let me remember: Bangalore East, Bayyappannahalli, Doddaballapur.. not bad.. Yelahanka has a stop.

Slowly you find everyone quite cheerful and before you wonder why, you know why. Its the sunset.
It was always a pleasure watching the sunset as the train sped away through the hills.

Hindupur is the first station after the train enters Andhra.
And the sequence is:
Dharmavaram - Get down, have omlette, buy water, go back and goto sleep. Its 9.30-10.00 pm
Gooty
Kurnool
Mahbubnagar
Kacheguda - 5.30 am

There is a definite sequence of things you eat/drink on this train:
- Chai, coffee
- Alu Bonda/masala vada
- Tomato Soup (with two crusty pieces of bread)
- Meal from the Pantry
- Omlettes at Dharmavaram

Get down at Kacheguda at 5.30 and wake up to harsh realities : Hyderabadi Auto Drivers :-)