America- 2

Vegas-Niagara
The evening in Vegas was to catch up on the shows we had missed a couple of days earlier. Bellagio fountain dancing to uptown funk(one of the songs of flavor at our home right now. so yay!) After a long walk up n down the stairs, across kilometers within the casinos in this made-up world we stopped for a much needed sugar break at Hershey's. The super good marketing in this store had us at wall of chocolates.

Car return drama at Vegas was one of the crisis moments in our trip. Prash is a God-level driver and I almost never get roads mixed up. But that night with our car running low on fuel and running an hour behind our planned schedule... we just lost it.Not sure how one thing led to another and we were panicking and only by a stroke of pure luck made it on time to catch the flight to Buffalo.The most dramatic plane chase was followed by a car rental mix up at Buffalo.Now we had planned it all meticulously or so we thought.  A date confusion that arose because we were always reaching the next destination on the same day we started. Blame it on the constant time zone changing or plain oversight, we had booked the car to be picked up a day earlier. It dint cause more grief than loosing a couple of hours  and off we went with a different car paying a bit more than we had the pre-booked one for.

The borders across counties have never felt so inconsequential as between the US and Canada .. just a bridge and passport control away. Was interesting to note. Much like Johar Bahru and Singapore. Germany and France...Wonder how the air would smell alongside the borders between India and any of the other countries connected via land. I guess its more than just an imaginary line of division in that case. Why this complication when some other countries have it simplified. (I will have to stop thinking of India! for today atleast).We did a heli ride over Niagara. The most wonderful n most expensive 10 min ride of our trip.The gorgeousness and the size of the wall of falls could only be seen from that height like a bird, in comparison with the buildings and other landscapes around. We later did a boat ride to go upclose. In that sweltering heat, the rainfall splashing mist that drenched us wet even with a poncho on was an experience. This is what probably heaven is all about:) I was super stumped they dint provide life vests. Like what? why?

I cant recollect what we ate for most of the meals. The body clock was so messed up.. not sure when we felt hungry and what we ended up eating. The subways and taco bells at exits and Starbucks coffee and gallons of water.I was mostly only thirsty dont remember feeling hungry or craving sugar like I normally do while on the road.

We decided to drive down to Prash's friend M's house even though we'd reach by only 10 in the night. There was no way Prash was going let long-drive-in-a-fatigued-state get in the way of catching up with M.Lots of windmills n beautiful and slow country side drive. Towns named java 8/6( lol wat?).Most shops had this weird (to us atleast) No shoes, no service policy. Prash goes barefeet everywhere in Auckland summer. Here, in one store though he got yelled at n thrown out! i was only glad he dint get shot at given the anger the man behind the counter displayed and the fact that guns are like grocery in this country.Rattle snake hunt for recreation. Lol what again? :D The creative ways to pass time in the rural towns! We saw the sun go down and paint the sky pink over huge mountains: some red, some green and some brown. The vastness of the landscape felt like I was holding a magnifying glass.

New York New York

The skyline with its Lego columns n shiny lights that are never ending was just the beginning of my impression of this big Apple.It's crying out loud and displaying man's engineering capacity. .

We felt confused, overwhelmed, fascinated, exhausted, happy, delighted and awed. All in a matter of a few hours walking in New York summer. The super crowded port authority bus station in central city is where started our day long elbow-arming-to-make-way walk.We walked up and down the streets and avenues, marveling at the tall buildings, the things they displayed and the dreams they sold to millions. Museum of Modern art ! ya like y? I dont know go ask someone else ;) but we spent a good 2 hours reveling in joy that our lil artist sat n made notes on art. Prash was in only for the air conditioned indoors I could tell and I was only looking for a kick-ass coffee as I have a theory that artists derive inspiration from food and coffee.So if a place tries to draw in ppl for art they need to bundle it with decent coffee.By dusk we made it to the top of the Rockefeller center. I was jaw dropping wowed at the view of the empire state side. Prash having seen it from other taller/better viewpoint stayed twisted-lipped the whole time.We wanted to wait till was dark and to keep k busy came up with spot the plane game. Funny how this is what i remember.. 12 planes at once in the bluey pink sky.Walking back and along awesome times square, we came home close to midnight and sleep eluded us may bcoz of being over-tired or over-awed.Everything was big..the shopping malls, the meals, the drinks. 

The next morning was for saying hello to Ms.Liberty. Driving in new york traffic was not going to be easy. We had sort of gathered it by now.But despite leaving 5 min earlier than the time GPS suggested we were about 10 min late in arriving to board the ferry to liberty island.The desolate parking lot and total lack of any directions on where to board the ferry from was so not what i expected.This country is not tourism focused. Of course when the contribution to GDP is around 2% as opposed to 16% in NZ(very rough #s from google) such differences are probably the norm but quite unexpected for me.The globe telling the migrant stories on Ellis Island enroute to liberty island was very nice.Ms.Liberty in all her grandeuer and true form. With hope in her eyes and a step forward ..we liked how they let the color be natural almost as if to let the spirit of let-everyone-be-who-they-are. There is no need to polish and shine. There is no need to fix them kinda message.Funny how we loved that idea on a statue but in our persons try to correct, suggest and fix each other!

After eating the longest dosa ever in near-shivajinagar like place in new jersey I went off on my own to indulge the shopper in me.I had 3 destinations on my mind and around 8 hours. I managed to do justice to half of one of the places.Such underestimations are a total first in my planning !Shopping deserves a highlight. My experience left me over-awed in terms of varieties and styles.The shop assistants though! were probably too few and too impersonal.They were cordial and polite but I much like the way I am genuinely treated nicely back in NZ. At one shop the superficial afro-american sing-song conversations the shop assistants were having made k n I giggle.Thought that happened in movies alone :)

Washington DC.

It was during this drive it occurred to me that all these roads and infrastructure have been around for donkey's years. All turnpikes are expensive n old. The toll amounts in ridiculous cents..could probably just make it simpler by collecting from the car rental place or charge the cc or whatever but then may be that is a legacy they want to keep! Driving in rain has always been fun, but the thunderstorms on that freeway that evening! + crazy drivers combination ended making me wish we reached our destination safe and soon.

The highlight of the trip was the people we caught up with.How genuinely happy we felt after talking to every single of one of our friends and cousins and aunts and uncles.Most of our trips are not about people and even in this one meeting ppl was just a small part of it ...or so we thought till we realised how happy we felt after that day!Its always lovely to catch up with friends. Its amazing how time freezes when it comes to bonding of that nature. It was brilliant to forget that we had the other moved-on/grown-up lives to go back to :)

The effort that my cousins and their family put in to make us comfortable in their homes. How Prash's friend S took a train from BWI to Charlottesville and then in a couple of hours after dinner drove back with us the whole distance. Some may call it crazy but for those few hours I reveled in the impish joy that  was plastered on Prash's face while they relived days of college and all night drives just to catch up for the weekend. The way K settled in and felt at home in L and V's home in Gaithersburg is something Prash and I cant stop talking about. My cousin S and her adorable daughters in Irvine. Not sure if any of the lil girls will remember anything of the days they spent together but it sure was a jolly good time for us parents to watch and play along.

All these connections.. these threads in the fabric of life that we miss out catching up frequently with and yet feel so good when we meet, ended up feeling incredibly thankful n happy!

The next day was to see the museums and walk on the streets of DC. Loved the city! so nicely spread out. Not too many high rises and everything exuding a sense of power and royalty. Natural history museum with it's stuffed animals and diamonds was all consuming. We got lost in that world for a few hours. After watching buskers in front of white house we walked over to the Washington memorial. The windy and hail-stormy rain left us soaking wet. We just gave up trying to find shade in that huge open space and walked in the puddles on hazy roads. was much fun! 

Charlottesville

The cute city at the base of the aptly named blue ridge mountains. So calm and peaceful with fireflies under full moon light and the sound of deer barking in the night.We made a short trip to the wineries at Croset :Kings family vineyards... Cheese n crackers , crose wine.. stables...and catching up on stories with S and family.

Luray caverns

Driving along and into the boondocks aka the American countryside , the first pleasant drive with open windows and beautiful country homes lined up by the road. Inside the caverns we surprised nicely by the mirror lakes, castle like formations, sunny side up formations and all things that looked like cake batter settling into, dripping into shapes and forms.

Irvine

Such a neatly organised and nicely spread out city. Palm trees are generally sign of shade but here they were ornamental mostly ;) Mega size stores and an abundance of both good n bad sort of test one's mental resolve to not-buy things u dont need. It was a pleasant few days here and for the first time I actually got behind the wheels and drove the huge monster car even if it was just a mile on roads that had no traffic ;)

Disney

For the 2 days in Disneyland, we were kids just like our lil one and enjoyed being in the truly happy place.We felt this was also the right age for khushi to remember a few things from the land of magic and fairy tales.

Notes on the rides we did:
Pinocchio: The first one we hopped onto. The story was told too quick but the idea of ride and story was impressive.

Star tours: The near VR experience was awesome.

Pirates of the Caribbean: So well thoughout and detailed. The drop through the falls was so good!

When it ended we wished it dint.

Buzz lightyear:Shooting away random targets for glory. always fun!

Dumbo elephant: K n I went on this for her and her only.

Finding Nemo submarine:  was a claustrophobic ride. sitting in an non-ventilated super cramped 

space with sweaty tired torurists. Not one of my fave rides.

Sleeping beauty: for the love of Aurora and they lived happily ever after... Can anyone get enough of these fairy tales?I think of what my lil one will find once she grows up. A part of the practical mother in me wants to tell her princess/charming prince and their dreams always come true only in fairy tales, real life is well hard knock life! but for now and for a few more years I am just going to indulge her and her ideas of castle-life and pretty dresses:)

Peter pan's flight: We went in because there were a lot of ppl waiting in queue. Ya we use such brilliant judgments 'so many of them are waiting , it must be awesome'. But it was! it did feel like a flight though K n I were interested in finding other flights and kept saying hey look there is another one while prash thoroughly enjoyed captain hook's antics.

Roger rabbit and Mr.Toad: forgotten already

Go coaster: The actual roller coaster of the whole lot. Funny how u shout out loud at the drop and twist even if u r a 34 year old adult that has a belt tied around u for safety.

Beautiful world boat ride: The festive cheer and puppet dolls. Songs and merry that makes one think of christmas.I was happy to be in the cold air conditioned indoors but got to give credit to the set up too.

Soundsesational parade: A brilliant parade of song and dance. So much orchestration and effort. applause!

Meeting Mickey: the longest we stood in line for and even the die-hard mickey fan that I was as a child tried to tell me it was worth it, i just have to accept the mickey I drew  in my childhood room was way cooler.K though was chuffed at greeting Mickey :D

Musical magical map: These live performance always evoke a sense of admiration from us. was nicely done too.

Disneyland band and non-stop cheerful music kept us going through the hot day.
Night parade: bringing the night to life as if to compete with the sun that torched down the light and heat , the parade was so loaded with LEDs and gymnastics. loved it! i just could not stop humming and clapping hands up in the air to 'when can we do it again' in an endless loop.

The next day was take it easy day and we reached the parks only late afternoon post lunch.We caught up Prash's  friend and his family .The tear-jerking Broadway premiere of Frozen was mesmerizing. Both K and I cried holding hands and we both ended up loving Anna more than Elsa in the end.Seriously live performances have such intensity in them! I love how my lil one expresses herself and gets totally involved in some things.

Bug land and a few other kiddie rides later we did the most awesome cars ride. Brilliantly recreated grand canyon and the theme fit in so well.Loved it and was an awesome ride to end the Disneyland adventures.We went home having lived a day with the characters that we knew so far only from reading books to k.

San Diego

Gorgeous views of the Pacific ocean! Only realised how much we missed it as soon as we saw the sea.

Kids n us screaming our lungs away.. singing off tune songs on this easy breezy drive:)
Only kids can come up with such lines that make u crack up!

K :Do u want to taste my tasteless donut. :DD

Prash was explaining that manta ray rides very fast to find Nemo and hence the ride here is also v fast.
K: but the ones in the pool weren't really fast or anything.. they were just moving

We did a few rides, some more than once:Elmo ride, Sea lion n otter show, tumble ride.,Tea cup. saw Shamu.,Dolphins,Cirque de la Mar, did net climbing and trampoline jumping to stay indoors for a bit.Manta ride, Ice cream n coffee.Watching fishes pout dreamily and getting lost in their world of water.

One of the evenings we left K be at my cousin's, went and saw the Santa Monica boulevard playing this in loop.Felt amazing to just walk in the cool breeze of the ocean spray along the pier and of course the usual drama of a crowded place was clearly growing us.I found it hard to believe that the other end of the Pacific is where my home is. Its the beach walk up and down every single day.

So near yet so far :)

General WTFs

Potholed roads at DC n NYC

Subway in NYC : nearly threw up.

Some unfriendly shop assistants.

Country under construction. Roads being repaired, buildings getting painted and madeover. Enough already!

Sub standard radio options.. Same songs in a loop.

Hiring carts at the airport. This was a serious WTF in a developed country. come one ppl dont come to big airports without luggage.The expensive airfares that already looked unreasonable now made no sense what so ever. Probably the first time we have had to pay for carts..I nearly cried at having to pay for this luxury... prash just shook his head and said it was not how he remembered it to be.

Unclear signs at airport.

Chaotic traffic in LA and drivers that switch lanes without indicating.

Charlottesville was the closest we felt to being in NZ. Funny how u look-for/miss what u dont have at that moment..trying to find a Bangalore in Auckland, trying to find an NZ in America.Life is always about this isnt it...longing for that ephemeral green grass on the other side! and of course of burgundy denims with chambray shirts, branded perfumes,organic make up, spinach salads, judgmental notes and this quasi-intellectual quest for self enrichment through travel!!

Concluding thoughts

As we drove back to LA from Irvine, the tears just would not stop rolling down my eyes. Prash kept trying to convince that the physical exhaustion has finally gotten to me but I think it was the overwhelming of all the emotions. The fact that the trip is actually over. That we made a very ambitious plan and it all worked out so perfectly.That it was not a tantalizing dream anymore but a version of it that has unfolded itself as a brilliant reality.
As I come to the end of this travelogue, I think of y I started writing this down... ..not sure if I will ever come back to read, but if I do I want to re-live the trip through this. So I have this desire to catalog all that is in one's mind as humanely possible . ...I want to add a thousand pictures, I want to infuse the smells of the places, I want the expressions of distraught and joy on our faces in those places, without all of those things, this is an incomplete description of the experience that America was for me.Prash thinks I have taken the saying ' a picture is worth a 1000 words' literally and instead of posting a few pics of the trip for the travelogue ended up  with this massive write up. I though, keep wondering how do we know which of these memories that we are making today are the ones that we need to treasure and will remember in the decades to come? oh well! time will tell.

For now, happy to have seen a bit of what America is, happy to be back home :)
Lets start thinking of that next holiday, shall we?

Americ-aah

If writing a travelogue for this trip can make one feel over-tired, imagine the number of things we did, the places we saw, the people we met and the kilometers we covered:). It was not an easy trip but sure was an amazing journey. We will live out these memories very dearly for years to come am sure. For now though, I have this epic compilation of parts of the whole experience that our holiday was. 

First things:

So we are going to visit a country I have read and heard a lot about. As v plan and build our expectations on the places and people we'll visit, am super anxious.I think of the awkward introductions..Dad's cousins n their children ! Ppl who I know exist because my mom says so;) n now I will go n stay in their home for a day with my family... As crazy as it sounds to me, it's not unnatural to the parents at all ... I tried to convince the parent tribe that this is not the most spectacular idea.Dad says it's going to be socially awkward for him when he will meet them end of this year if I don’t stay with them while in America, well that awkwardness is what Prash is going to wear on his round face in a few weeks time.

Planning:

The planning for the 3 week long vacation started atleast 3 months prior. The fun part of dreaming, sketching out the details, coordinating with all and sundry and a general cheerful festive mood at home was just the beginning.Educating the little traveler on the geography of the new country we were to see was fun.We talked at length about hemispheres, varying seasons, equator etc. Also on why we needed visa while she actually dint. The visa application process and the anticipation of an interview was daunting. U know the probability of a disappointment not because of anything u r today but because of a country u were born in and hence happen to hold a passport of a nation that they hold a grudge against.Makes one think of the depth of the bias, the effect of the action of some ppl at some point in history. The unwarranted sense of achievement or rather a feeling of relief at having obtained a visa was interesting. It also reinforced the convenience of holding an NZ passport and hence yet another chance for prash to rub it into my face that if not for my jingoistic patriotism, we would have been NZ citizens 4 years ago. Oh well! it takes time to let the emotional go and let pragmatism take over even in matters of changing one's passport-identified-nationality. I'll let that rant be the subject of a different story. Now with Visa, tickets and approved leaves at work we were unstoppable.I, of course brought in a collective ban on all shopping...nothing other than groceries was to be brought into the house. Not even the needs- replacement type trivial items...because of course we'll shop for it in the USA! The details started getting clearer to us as days progressed. Everything was in place, the internal flights, the places to stay at, places to eat at, address of car rental pickups, transfers to and from every point.I had already traveled through the country virtually in my head and with google earth.Twice over actually, before we even boarded the plane :)

Packing:

When we started packing, the idea was to take empty suitcases and bring em back filled. But the real deal was well... not quite empty suitcases. We packed in enough for a family to live on the moon for a month. From carseat to medicines to sunhats to nail clipper to ear buds everything was going in. Prash tried to reason at some point saying u know we are going to a country that is much more developed than the one we live in. So probably we can do away with say ear buds. Err what no ear buds... how do u expect to deal with that emergency we will have at midnight without an ear bud. He tried some more ...if its an emergency its highly unlikely that ear buds are going to come to rescue + we will always be able to find a 24 hour pharmacy.. both Prash and k start laughing at which point I empty all the 100 ear buds on the bathroom floor and we collectively spend the next 10 min of our lives putting them all back together. I still think it made sense to carry non-weight adding, non-space consuming ear buds over say the steamer that prash was keen to pack. Like really while on a holiday in LA or NYC v r going to steam beetroot, sweet potato or broccoli. Can we be reasonable?? such fun and travails of packing with my family I tell u! 

Finally the anticipation was over and show time was on us!

Planes and transit:

The time of day when we fly, the duration and transits. Up until now we had not bothered much

about any of these. Its been typically the cheapest option on the date of travel we want. But with k, there was a huge amount of emphasis on keeping her engaged and happy during the flights. This was quite a dreadful thing since she is averse to watching TV. To our joy though she actually watched an entire movie on the last leg of the flight. The rest of time she found an audio book and some music to listen to all by herself. The transit in Fiji was spent  playing uno cards, meditative coloring-in and making loom-band bracelets for the entire population in the waiting lounge etc. 5 hours went by in a jiffy and I had only just started reading a book i bought thinking I will be bored on the 11 hour flight to LA.The immigration at LA was a thing I had feared. I was expecting to be asked a few more questions, but zilch! he was actually smiling and making a conversation ...err what? u r an immigration officer.. ur kind does not smile! 

It Starts :

The horror of heat, traffic and chaos as soon as we stepped out of the airport in LA was shocking in a bad way.What else did i expect I dont know...but we were wearing turtle neck full arm sweaters coming from peak winter and had luggage towered on our trolleys obstructing eyesight.. yes we are the typical Indian travelers. We even carried idli sambar onto the flight to avoid eating synthetic flight food. Though the food on Fiji airways was Indianised and actually tasty, I could taste class 2 preservatives .Prash on the other hand just rolled his eyes and ate my share happily. And so when we stepped out in LA, the limos dint stop for pedestrians! we dint have any signs indicating where the car rental buses are going to pick us up from. The problem of having lived in NZ started at that point. Stepping out in Auckland is always pleasant. There are pedestrian crossings where the buses patiently wait for u to cross the road and a sign (make that 1 in every direction) telling u where u will need to be.Prash started out laughing at me 'ha ha halli hudgi welcome to America' but in 5 minutes he was swearing at everything in his way and we finally got onto the right bus to be ferried to the nearest car rental place which was a 15 min bus ride. hmm?? thats the time it took for us to get home from airport in welli. The size of the cities started to sink in.So we got to choose our own car from a few of them parked in a row. That was a new experience.We got a shiny red car and off we started ...but no gmaps, no gps no signs! where to now?? So much for choosing to not stay inline to get a new sim card in the airport. Like y ?? yes we r like that when it comes to waiting in queues for anything. Should have started loving the crowd ! too late now.So we just started off in a general go-south-on-some-interstate mode because on gmaps Irvine was lower than LA airport and lets take the first exit to shops, surely its not hard to find ATnT or T-mobile or whichever shop.Prash's confused look, khushi's exasperation at heat and my near-freaked-out state as we entered the first highway definitely was not a good sign... so we kept going till we all reconciled and got back to our senses. The first exit that we were supposed to take came and went atleast 10 miles ago and then when we did manage to take an exit with all the hope and courage, got lucky and sorted ourselves out with an ATnT sim card. The fact that he dint even ask for my ID was surprising.... I volunteered to produce every piece of paper confirming my name, identity and existence but he dint want it! We got down to business as soon as we got home. That business of order being shopping! till 11 PM. My joy knew no bounds... coming from a city where everyone shuts shop at 5 PM, I had started to feel like Alice in wonderland already. The choices nearly unlimited and sale prices jaw dropping.Prash tried his best to make it clear to me that USD and NZD have a conversion rate around 1.5 but he had to choose if blue or white was a better color on me!.

The next day my cousin S and dodamma packed lunch and snacks for the road. Its really humbling to have someone do that for us! As we started driving to Vegas, I was still getting to terms with driving on the wrong other side of the road.Somewhere in the middle desert, in a desolate place was a set of outlet stores as big as a town. One had to stop and shop u see. Like this is the last shop on earth and everything's up for grabs. The shopping did not disappoint us. The options overwhelmed us and choices confused us but that was the experience one wanted so no complaints there. U know how it makes u wonder if we really need to use so much time and mental energy to buy things that we will only own temporarily. Anyhoo hours later, wallets feeling much lighter, shopping bags fuller, we came back to the oven that our car had transformed itself into. For the very first time in my entire life I wished I was in some place cold. I who wont say no to a blanket in a sauna wanted to go to some place where winter was!Prash dint faint hearing that because he was more shocked tasting the cooked apple that we left in the car-oven. The rest of the drive from LA to Vegas:

Huge Cacti by the roads, monster size trucks whizzing by,crazy sun at 7pm.

Zzyzx road:like a town planner gave up and said 'name it abc I dont care' n the clerk incharge said y abc lets use xyz and randomly made this up. Zzyzx road! lol

Hot sweltry desert ...we needed coffee but were almost scared to take any exit...so few people in such a massive desert.Beautiful view of desert roads: shadow play of clouds on rocks. Fish bone shaped clouds, crawling baby shaped clouds. K n I found this very amusing, Prash of course had to keep his eyes on the hand and hands upon the wheel. The rich colors of a desert sunset: blue with strokes of pink, purple n red was calming.After sunset,  emerged the light stringed roads..  it looked like a roller coaster undulating in a straight long line. 2 strips of light, 1 red 1 golden from the cars on the highway of course! .. 

As we entered Vegas, the dramatic emergence of glitter in the Nevada desert was nothing short of spectacular. It was just as I had imagined it to be.

Vegas: Everything was soo staged and even real life felt like a drama. As if we were

willingly or unwillingly part of the circus. I realized the smell of cigarette and alcohol can be intoxicating at times when fresh but can be so repulsive if the carpets reek of that smell! (When i said this - Prash had that da-fuck expression his face I can never forget :) fresh smell of cigarette and alcohol anthe! ). Back to the fabulous casinos ...So many worlds marvelously recreated, but one needs to wonder where the fantasy transcends into reality looking at people willing to do almost anything for money. We, of course danced on the roads and walked till heels hurt, got caricatures drawn, raised a toast to all the beautiful things in this life n we 3 slept at 3 like one is supposed to while in Vegas-night-of-lights. It was also not a place we felt comfortable taking K to may be because v dint want to answer a lot of her questions. Found the city confusing.

Vegas to Grand Canyon

 After spending sometime at Circus circus casino park on carousels and dashing cars we headed off to Grand canyon. Drove past this aptly named boulder city that was surrounded by gargantuan hills.Natural n man made wonders seemed to compete with one another at Hoover dam across Lake Mead - largest manmade lake. The walk across the bridge between 2 states, 2 timezones was a new thing.Word games,strawberries, kodbales n Mysore pak n laughing at all silly kid-jokes.Glancing through windows at vast expanses of table mountains we saw that sunset! the one in every trip which makes u go awww.

K:  in that exasparated tone of hers 'of course I have seen it 6000  times now' when asked if she saw the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious sunset.

Grand canyon

Such a namesake this truly grand canyon was! The vastness of it all.... the canyons twisting , turning and colored in hues of burnt orange, red and brown and white, we were wowed by the sunrise at the various view points that dotted our drive from the south to the north rim. Yaki point, Moran point, Grand view point to name a few that we stopped at and stared in wonder at these multi layered colorful pyramid cakes for as long as the eye could see .

Neither photos nor words can truly capture the magnificence of this place.People look so tiny against the backdrop of these spectacularly stacked-pancake rocks.

That morning we had checked out at 4.30 am. I was groggy eyed and still clueless why I needed a perfume bottle at 4 am but i just took it in my hand and it slipped! All the yummy smelling 100 ml of my new bottle of perfume spilt! I needed to see that beautiful sunrise to get back in the groove after that loss. What we saw before sunsrise was a bunch of deer on the way at Tusayan .surprise! surprise! moving gently across the road on a pedestrian crossing. The deer i expected was spotted-short-doe-a-deer type of deer. But these with their big antlers and spotless brown hairy bodies were so not the deer I knew.I first thought it was statue placed aesthetically in front of the lodging huts. but they m o v e d ! v jumped with joy!

Antelope canyon : Upper canyon tour.

We had booked to be on a tour at 10.30 am so we could get to see the best angles of the sunlight making its way into the slot canyons. We stopped at so many places to see the grand canyon that now we were racing against time to make it  in time for the upper canyon tour. The heat on that day! in that place! it has to be the worst things ever to feel. Sand and hot air  blasting on to our faces while we drove in an open jeep .. it must definitely feel like that to be on a flame grill i bet! Funny these first world problems of mine.. too hot, too cold, suncreen, sunhat, hand cream, lip balm type crisis! The various shades of brown and red and burnt texture and color in the canyon was wonderful. The sandstone carved slot canyons and sunlight throwing in beams was a sight to behold.

I thought the name was because of the shape and color of the antelope's horns/antlers but the Navajo story had a different one to tell. The pronghorn antelopes grazed in this area 100s of years ago giving it the name.K was upset she lost her sunhat to the desert wind, I was only glad she dint melt away herself.The stay that night was the one we had high hopes on and guess what...as with every damn thing with high expectations, it turned out to be the most disappointing one. Glamping for the convenience of a shower and a bed is what we had hoped for... an oasis of comfort in the middle of Arizona desert in Navajo land, what we were offered was a badly pitched tent with sand blowing in with wind and a meager 1 bucket per person rationed water and the most unfriendly host to boot.  We were sleep deprived and all we needed was the comfort of a bed and ironically that was the day we had the worst of it all.The seats in the car seemed a luxury so we gave in and slept like logs for a couple of hours before heading out to see the sunset at horse shoe bend.

Horse Shoe bend.

I swear this is the place where fear was born...out of the depths of the slowly snaking, heavy, unforgiving river.The steep rock cliffs, the way the forces of wind and water have carved the horse shoe out..as if to parade along this path. By God this was the place where the heart stopped and that eerie feeling lasted for as long as we were there. It was a combination of the time of the day + the lack of a barricade around this whole place.So open yet so concealed till u just pop ur head down! We stood there for the longest time to just soak in the fact that nature is truly most the powerful one and can zip ur mouth up with such surprises. If we were to pick a single place that would draw us back, it would definitely have to be the horse shoe bend. The desire to trek down and reach the bottom of it and look up. In a few years we will do exactly that.

Page

Street full of churches for a city that size seemed crazy.Life without cellphone signal is revealing. I have no idea how we managed before mobile phones/GPS took over life. Though we tried not to spend too much time on it while on holiday, it was essential for a few basic things and lack of it made us feel helpless in a way that only the truly addicted will understand.

Wahweap- Glen canyon:We walked down to see yet another breath taking view of the canyons. A lone hawk n it's shadow circling over the same creepy deep Colorado river provided some movement in that otherwise breath-stopping kind of stillness and silence.

The drive from Page to Vegas was iconic. In some ways we were acclimatized to the weather, got some sleep and were generally better prepared on what to expect. The rock formations and colors were nature's own art display.Like a natural Hampi at every turn. Like carvings on the temple walls of Belur.Ship shapes, dog faces, lion faces.. We saw many things on those red glacial rocks n mountains and were only limited by our imagination. Prash was now using paper napkin to stop sweaty fingers slipping on steering wheels :D. Rest of the drive to Vegas:

Monochromatic buildings blending with the rocks.

Small sand tornado somewhere on the sideroads in Arizona.

Virgin River canyon and Hurricane valley view.: looked Milford-sound-isque 

Long trains carrying more than 150 bogis of cargo against the backdrop of the mountains was so cool to look at.Highways with lot of space between the 2 sides n greenery to divide the 2 sides were so neatly done I thought.

The canyons alone needed not 2 days but atleast 2 weeks...to kayak along the river, to raft in the rapids, to mountain climb, to rappel down the crevices and actually soak in what's on offer. What we saw felt like a trailer of a brilliant movie

(more to come)