To Tokyo With Paris

Well, don't confuse with the names. Tokyo is a Japanese restaurant in Beaumont and Paris is a student from one University that we are having a collaboration with on a certain project.

So when Paris was to bid us a bye before his last day in our lab, our guide decided to take our group and him on dinner. And Tokyo was the place.

In US I normally like eating at home so I was kind of skeptical about eating out. But it was a pleasure being out with everyone. On the way, our guide's car's one tire gave up. And changing the tire added to the adventure in the middle of highway on that dark night. Nevertheless, thanks to the sturdy guys the job was done in less than half an hour and we were back to move.

The thing I liked most about the place was its ambiance. And next was the service. The best part was they cook the dishes on the table top (covered with metal) right in front of your eyes while you are comfortably sitting and having the starters. Yes, that's the beauty. I've never been to any restaurant like that before. This part about the restaurant appealed to me a lot.

And then the biggest part was food. Being a veggie and not eating at many places comes out with certain amount of disadvantage. I had ordered veg mushroom fried rice and veg rolls as starter both minus eggs (here egg is veg).

I thought the veg roll would be something like the one we have them back in India (the spring rolls with noodles in samosa like patties). Instead, here they have raw cucumber and raw yellow and red bell peppers (Shimla Mirch) covered with white boiled rice which is covered with sea weed. Sea weed tastes almost like raw fish and that gave a real hard time for me to eat it.

After it came the mushroom fried rice which was boiled white rice cooked in soya sauce and topped with mushrooms and cucumbers. That's it. May be my taste buds are not accustomed to eat food like this so I was a bit disappointed but then I managed to eat something in the two dishes. Kudos! :)

It was a bit embarrassing though because my plate was barely empty compared to my guide who was sitting on one side of me with sushi (rice covered by raw fish) and Paris who was seated on the other side with Tokyo special and both completely emptied their plates. So in the end everyone concluded that I eat like a sparrow so I look like one :D (well, that's not a fact).

And then was time for the big boss "Icecream". That came in thanks to one of my sweetest friend in the group who was also concerned about the flirting that was going on amidst the food fiesta. I could see something burning ;)

Well jokes apart. It had been a nice evening. I enjoyed a lot :)...to Tokyo with Paris and my lab mates.

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is the most planned and I can say the cleanest city in India. You have fines for litering on the roads and this state follows it religiously. The capital of Punjab, Haryana and a Union Territory in itself, it has 47 sectors of which sector 13 is missing.





Roads of Chandigarh: Aren't they spec clean and beautiful? The entire avenue has trees on both sides that gives such a soothing feeling to drive in between the roads.





























Rock Garden: Man made garden by Mr Nek Chand. For those interested in knowing about this place in detail you may visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nek_Chand.





























Buildings: The houses here have symmetry about their size. Throughout the same sector you will find them all with same colors and can easily confuse a new comer with number if he fails to get the wing under a particular sector that he intends to enter. Nevertheless, the buildings look awesome with brick work visibly carved on almost 80% of the structures.















Sukhna lake: It is Chandigarh's place of weekend visit the way Juhu beach is for Mumbai. It's a nice tranquil place where you will find enough stretch of road for strolling and eating chat :)
At this place there are some great painters that draw your pencil sketch just by looking at your face. That's something very unusual, right?
The romantic lake with ducks and swans that ride in it is a wonderful place to spend your time with someone you love :)












Rose Garden: Chandigarh is a house for ample of gardens of which this is perhaps the largest and occupies a land of 30 acre. Since I had visited this place in scorched summer I barely got to see a few varieties of roses intact. Otherwise there are around 1600 varieties of roses in this garden. It reminded me of Aarey Garden in Mumbai.














Sector 17: The cute little squrrel was literally running on the the roads of sector 17 of Chandigarh which is the biggest market of the city. Below is a glimpse of the market in the evening. Every sector has it's own small market but this one is the biggest. Just kind of an open mall area.





























Pinjore Garden: It's the most beautiful of gardens that you can ever visit. It falls on the route to Shimla from Chandigarh and definitely a must see.

History of the garden -

Entrance of the garden -

The side view of pinjore garden.

Jal Mahal inside the garden -

- The outside of Pinjore garden: The structure is fortlike and was our last stop on Chandigarh ride. I hope you enjoyed visiting some parts of North India through these pics :)

Amritsar

Amritsar means "Lake of Holy Nectar". It's one of the oldest cities in Punjab and has a proximity to Pakistan. You can see acres of land irrigated for farming. The land is prolific with abundance of air, water, wealth, health and willingness of people to work. The mesmerizing view of Golden Temple and the Wagha Border parade are the few instances which give Amritsar an opportunity to take pride in itself.


The Golden Temple :


A night view of Golden Temple (or Harimandir Sahib) which is a home to Guru Grant Sahib which is the last guru of Sikhs. The shrine is the most fascinating one as for its history as well as its present. The entire top portion of the temple and its fencing are made up of pure gold, the work of which was accomplished under the great Maharaja Ranjit Singh.








This is the interior view of the temple at night. Worth watching and admiring. Everyone is supposed to cover their head while going in. Though I could not understand the significance of it but i guess that is to mark a respect to the guru. Well, I must not forget to mention that the delicious prasad here is made up of absolutely pure ghee and is too very tasty. Infact, you get it at every spot of small temples within the shrine. After having prasads at 2 such temples we were completely full and had no place in stomach to eat it at the third one :)











We had taken this snap at around night 11 o ck when the ceremony of shifting the holy Grant Sahib to adjacent building was taking place after prayers. You can see the shining thing at the centre? Well that is actually a 'palkhi' through which the Grant Sahib gets carried. The whole night the actual place of the book in the Golden Temple gets cleaned by various people from Sikh community (it's a form of their Kar Seva, a nice concept...i feel every religion should have something like this) and the Holy Granth is restored at around 4 am with prayers.










This is the Golden Temple at day time. During day time people have a bath in the waters of the shrine. You know something surprising. This water when tested for bacteria content shows it as nil. It is that pure even when people have a bath. Well, the reason is these fishes in the waters (on the left). Nice pets. :)











The Jallianwala Bagh:



This is a famous spot where peaceful protesters were mercilessly massacred in 1919 under British Office order of Gen. Dyer. More than 1500 people were injured with close to 500 killed in the casualty.










This is the narrow lane through which the armed battalion of Britisher soilders went in to fire the protesters.















This is the place from where the firing took place. Your blood really boils when you stand here. Well, one reason could also be 'coz it was scorching 43 deg there!

















Summer Palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh - This is the entrance and perhaps the only remains of the palace now.




















Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama Museum - The museum displays the entire life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh who was a brave, powerful, wise, kind, committed and intelligent king of his time. He owned the famous Kohinoor diamond which he put on his throne and the Britishers din't dare to invade his territory till the time he was alive. A very admirable man who assumed the throne and began his ventures to capturing the enemies right since 15th year of his age.










Wagha Border :







Do I need to say anything about this spot? Its the border between India and Pakistan. Every evening there is a co-ordinated parade that takes place between the two countries. Worth watching parade where both the commanders look very aggressive, perform superb and carry the dignity of their countries with equal pride.











The time when both the country men are right in front of each others open gates. They salute each other with stamping feet and move on. A heart warming scene. The crowd on the other end belongs to Pak. A lots of seats are still empty. What made me further annoyed was that there were barely a few ladies to watch the show. You could even count them. Yes, they were only 5. A very disappointing number. Isn't it? Perhaps they need a ladies reservation bill more badly :(













And have a look at this one. This is the crowd on Indian side. Jam packed. While the parade was going on, there were comparees on both sides. The one on Indian side would scream, "Hindustan" and we replied in "Zindabaad" while the one on Pak side screamed, "Jio Jio" and they replied in "Pakistan". The patriotic feeling grew very stong at the very spot.








India, no man's land and Pakistan - The land on this side belongs to India and on other side to Pak farmers. While the one in between is that of no one. They could grow some good plants in between but weeds enjoy on the area as it belongs to no one. The fencing is shorted with High Voltage Power to avoid border crossing. Surprising that nothing can tame the air that crosses the borders. It's a strange, sad but true feeling.













Attari Station- The famous station from where Samzhauta Express to Pak departs and arrives. This was our last stop. And now we were off to our last destination, Chandigarh.

Dharamshala

Dharamshala is the capital of Kangra District. Kangra Valley and hence Dharamshala was supposed to be the Summer Capital of India during British times, but in 1905 an earthquake here killed approx 20,000 people hence the Summer Capital was shifted to Shimla. Dharamshala has religious importance to Buddhists (especially the ones from Tibet) as it is the home to 14th Dalai Lama who took refugee in India in 1959 after being exiled from Tibet.









Route to Dharamshala: Pleasant mountains which looked folded due to buildup of roads was visible on our path to Dharamshala. A pleasant sight against river Beas flowing by.













Tea Gardens: These were located on the route. Around 22 acres of land is occupied by the gardens. The tea leaves from here are purchased by brand companies and blended with other tea leaves (mainly that of Darjeeling).













Kangra Valley: A view of the beautiful valley in day time.


















Sunset: An evening view of the valley from my window.

























Old Buddhist Temple and Stupa: Currently under renovation it is mainly known for its prayer wheels.


















Namgyal Monastery: This is The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso's personal monastery. It is especially privileged and honored to perform annually the sacred rites and rituals established by the successive Dalai Lama for the temporal and spiritual benefits and prosperity of Tibet and its people, and for world peace in general.

The monastery has nearly two hundred monks and younger monks are engaged in study of the major texts of Buddhist Sutras and Tantras while at the same time pursuing the modern studies of both Tibetan and English Language. Their curriculum includes the study of Sutra and Tantra texts, Buddhist Philosophy, practicing debate as well as making butter sculptures, torma offerings, sand mandalas, playing various ritual musical instruments, ritual chanting, and dances.









The "Om Mani Padma Hum" wheel: "Om Mani Padma Hum" literally means "Jewel in Lotus". The wheels have this Mantra written on them and rotating them equals humming the mantra itself. It means that in dependence on the practice which is in indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.









Dal Lake: This was our last destination at Dharamshala. It has a beautiful sight surrounded by long deodar trees. You will find a lot of crowd in the evenings for boating.

Manali

"Ye Haseen Wadiya, Ye Khula Aasman..." reminds us of one of the most beautiful valleys with snow clad mountains - Manali. Located at an average height of 8600ft, Manali took up prominently as a vacation spot after militancy became rampant in Kashmir.

To experience its beauty you should once be there. Till that time you can enjoy the below intimate escapes with Manali.








Bhakra Dam - It falls on the route to Manali via Shimla. It is one of the major suppliers of water and electricity to Himachal.












Beas River - The sight of the river is beautiful and soothing to the eye. It rises in Rohtang Pass at the Himalayas and then joins the Satluj river in Punjab. It mainly carries water which is molten ice from the Himalayas.
Rarely do you see yourself moving parallel to a cool river flowing by your side. But Beas gives you that experience throughout your route to Manali.













Tibetan Monastery - It is very close to Manali market area. It has several small monasteries and a main one which depicts tankha paintings on the life of Lord Buddha. It is also a home to a 20ft Buddha Statue.













Rohtang Paas - In Persian Rohtang means "Pyre of Dead Bodies". It got its name due to numerous vehicle accidents while passing through this route that moves forward towards Leh-Ladhak. It is open for visitors between May - Nov. We couldn't actually land up at the paas as it was closed during the time that we had been there, but the pics are of a place called Gulaba which is on the route to the paas. This stretch is one place where all round the year there is snowfall and you will always see the mountains ice cream topped with snow.












Rahala Waterfalls - Located around 27km from Manali on the route to Rohtang Paas and at a total height of 2500m this beautiful waterfalls has been made kind of a picnic spot amidst the snow.













Solang Valley - This place is a main attraction during winters for skiing and during summers for paragliding , horse riding and zorbing (its a big ball where 2 people can fit in and take a whole round 200m from a height at Solang) . You can have a beautiful view of glaciers and snow from this spot. I captured these trees at Solang Valley that looked maple red in color due to drying in summer but they indeed looked very romantic.











Vashisht Temple - This temple located in Vashisht area (named behind a local sage) is mainly known for the hot water sulphur springs that flow through this area. It is supposed to have healing properties.
You can find better hot water springs at Manikaran which is about 86km from Manali. It is well known for the cold water running near by simultaneously with the hot springs. The main attraction there is free kar seva done at the langar close by Manikaran. We skipped the spot after having hot spring darshan at Vashist.












Guess what may this be?
A waterfall?
A Spring?
A gush of water?
No... This is a gutter... Now aren't you surprised? Even the gutters in Himalayas are so clean. Perhaps BMC should learn something. :)










Hadimba Temple - It is the most ancient temple built in 16th century as a worship to Hadima Devi (wife of Bhim). It is declared as a heritage structure by HP govt. This four storeyed pagoda made up of wood and stone rests quietly amidst long trees of deodar. It is also a spot of daily bread for people with Yaks, Lambs and Rabbits waiting for you to take pics with them.










Manu Temple - This too is a very old temple built in memory of Manu Rishi.












Van Vihar - The last spot of our journey to Manali. This is a deliberately maintained area by HP govt to conserve trees. One is located just close to the market area of Manali and one is located next to Hadimba temple we had seen above. Each of the Van Vihar has more than 2500 Deodar trees and all above the height of 20ft.
The sun that can be seen from here in the pic felt so friendly due to protective trees. We could barely feel the sunrays but for sure the weather in the vihar made us enjoy the cool breeze and pleasant air.
You would experience ultimate bliss sitting in the vihar. It might just remind you of the poem by Rober Frost..
"These woods are lovely dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep ....."