The Big Island Hawaii We sighted Hilo through heavy rains and the captain of our ship decided not to dock at Hilo. The weather was too rough. The ship started moving along the coast towards Kona. “Hey, we are supposed to go south and we are going towards north. Will you please tell the captain to move the ship around and go in the opposite direction? We won’t see any lava otherwise” I said to my husband in panic. He was least bothered. “The captain knows best what he is doing, dear” he said, “so, chill and eat your ice cream.” [View Full Entry]

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Maui, the Valley Isle We spent three days on Maui, just one day on the Big Island, one day on Oahu, two days on Kauai and were wholly satisfied with our choice. Maui has a lot to give and is generous with her gifts. Each island of Hawaii is predominantly associated with a particular activity. The Big Island is synonymous with Kilauea volcano; Kauai evokes an image of canyons and rainforest while Oahu gets identified with Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head overlooking the Waikiki beach. Each island has a ‘leeward’ side and a ‘windward’ side, and consequently, s [View Full Entry]

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Hawaii Alias Air Mother We boarded the ship ‘Pride of Aloha’ on 25th February 2006 and sailed the same day from Maui Alias Mawshi (Maternal Aunt) towards Kaui alias Kaku -Ai (Paternal aunt). Lahanai (Younger Mother) and Molokai (Elder Mother ) were left on our wake. I have always felt a kinship towards the Polynesian. No, not ALL Polynesians, but only the ‘good’ ones. There were Polynesians, who were cannibals. There were Polynesians who regarded shrunken heads of their enemies as highly desirable trophies to decorate their homes with and there were Polynesians wh [View Full Entry]

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Merry time in maritime Oslo Norway is synonymous with fjords and fjords conjure up a vision of Vikings setting out in their long ships to raid England, or Nansen and Amundsen setting out in their ships on their conquests of the north and the south poles respectively or Thor Heyerdahl setting out in his ship on an expedition in Pacific on his frail balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki. (Thor Heyerdahl actually went to South America on an airplane at the start of the expedition.) I had read his book ‘Kon-Tiki’ about the expedition while in school. Some of the greatest navigators [View Full Entry]

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Mountain waterfall and river cruise in a day Whosoever heads for Black Forest of Germany, generally visits Triberg to see Germany’s tallest and easily accessible waterfall and buy a cuckoo clock. I am proud to declare that we could withstand the temptation and did not buy a cuckoo clock. We were not always immune to Temptation. Once upon a time, long ago, we HAD succumbed and bought two cuckoo clocks, but what they say is true : The best way to conquer Temptation is to succumb to it. So, this time we won. Triberg has a lot of facilities for outdoor [View Full Entry]

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Baden Baden alias Baths When my husband was nominated for an international award, both of us were overjoyed. Apart from the honor and the glory it brought, it also gave us a chance to visit our married daughter in Dusseldorf. We immediately phoned her. “Hello Bunny, we are coming to Dusseldorf on Tuesday and will be with you for a whole week. Won’t it be wonderful?” “Oh, mom, I will be working in Paris throughout the week and Ingo will be in Munich. What will you people do in Dusseldorf when we are not there? Who will pick you up? Can [View Full Entry]

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Megalomania in the Bavarian Alps Neuschwanstein castle, Herrenchimsee castle and Linderhof is a trilogy, the ‘mad’ king LudvigII wrote in stone. (I do not mean he carved the stone edicts like our Ashok, but he built these three stone monuments to his own ego in the Bavarian Alpine region.) We spent a day in summer of 2005 touring Ludvig’s castles. It is well nigh impossible to write about Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchimsee without mentioning king LudvigII . He was a poet and a dreamer and his Linderhof (supposedly a ‘hunting lodge’) is [View Full Entry]

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