Kitchen-Kollections

Oct 11 2007

Travel Tales

Published by saroja

nov 10 2008
Its been quite a while since I posted in this section. Since july…I have visited quite a few places but could’t get time to update this section.
In august..we went all the way to kentucky and on the way we stopped in cinncinati. Ohio is a beautiful city..but there is one peculiar thing about it. Everything is flat over there!! As soon as we cross into ohio, first is the beautiful bridge which comes..its really breathtaking..second thing to note is that the state is full of vast fields….may be because ohio is dominated by agicultural community….third thing one will notice is the speed limit!!!! In any other state..the general speed limit is 70..but in ohio its 55!! Its weird but thats the truth…and belive it or not..the mamas lurk around the border..and they wud catch u just in time!! so watch out for them
anyhow..cincinnati is sooo beautiful…roads are curvy..they go up and down up and down…rich in vegetation. I think every state in eastern US looks amazingly colorful during summer time..its only in winter..when everything is covered with snow,things turn grey! Well..after staying overnight at relatives place..we drove to kentucky – mammoth caves. We did not realise that the eastern time changes into central time!! We had an extra one hour so we trekked for sometime..it was just serene..green and beautiful. Mammoth cave is the biggest underground cave system in the world..its really really huge!! We took a 2 hr tour..and trust me its not a nice feeling when you are stepping on stairs which just go down and down and down. It was a stomach churning feeling which i got…whenever i looked up to see how below I am. it was quite humbling. Earth is huge whether u like it or not. After the mammoth caves tour..we were so hungry….fortunately..we had amazing vanghi bath….we gorged on it and then continued on to the next cave..We saw Diamond Caverns too…another smaller cave system but a real beautiful one. This cave was discoverd by a small boy who mistook the calcium deposits for a diamond. Well..no diamonds were found but the name stuck!! we have a habit of snapping up photos almost eveyr minute..so after the trip was over..we had over 300 pics. i will update the slideshow..soon…

28th july 2008

We went all the way to Toronto to meet my hubby cousins. We had already gone there once, but we had goneto see niagara falls from canadian side. We also saw CN tower..thats one of the tallest structures inthe world. I think it also has the fastest lift. Well…the moment we came down from that lift..we were so hungry that we were searching for some indian restaurant. Toronto is quite famous for indian restaurants.. And one of the peculiar things about toronto is..you wont find any crowd on streets on sunday!! Its somehow completely reverse of what we see in india..in india…almost everybody is out of their cocoons on sunday!! So..even though we knew that there are loads of indian restaurants…we couldn’t find even one (we were on a wrong street haha) so we came back without much roaming around..

This time..the story was different..because of two reasons..our cousins home was right in the downtown area and secondly..we just wanted to explore toronto in and out!! As we were approacing the downtown area in the night, it was looking just superd with all the lights..and tall buildings..Our last impression was quite bad so this was all thrilling for us. It was just out of our imagination!! Our cousins stay in one of the tallest appartment complexes..strange thing or call it utter convenience, if you are in a mood for shopping just go down the stairs and thats it..you enter a huge shopping mall!! or if you are in no mood of shopping (thats a rarity) and want to roam around a bit..go down even further and catch a train!!! How convienient is that? This whole thing struck me big time..i never imagined that it would be that easy!!

I was also stumped by the amazing fashion sense of toronto people. Only 20% of the population are canadian born citizens..so rest of them are from different countries..so there is a lot of mix of cultures and traditions which gives out a vibrant color as a whole. I also felt the subtle differences between the fashion sense of US and canada!!Here in US, i saw more and more people dressed in slacks..or same design tops..but in toronto..i could hardly pinpoint anything which was not fashionable!!

I have another toronto trip coming up..so i will write more soon!!
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Latest places I visited..was Sri Venkeshwara Temple at pittsburgh, PA. One of the most amazing temple in US..i guess its the top one because of its construction and the ambience. Its almost gives an impression of our good old south india..It had a calming influence on me. I have been there thrice already in 1 1/2 year and everytime i go there, it feels the same!! I love the Prasadam served there..i must say that its worth the trip! Three times i have gone there and everytime, the taste of the sambhar rice has been ditto same! And what to talk about the good old pongal. Its the tastiest pongal I have ever eaten. And hot hot upma loaded with cashewnuts..its really divine! God bless the cooks! lol

Sri Venkeshwara temple at Pittsburgh.

http://www.svtemple.org/temple/index.shtml

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In the last one yr I have been to so many places that I have lost track! I have been to northernmost tip of US to the southermost tip of the US. One can do most of the travelling in summer months..that is fromy april to october because thats what we did. The entire summer, we did not spend even one weekend at home..every weekend either on a road trip or a flight to some location. Back to my list….starting from the beginning..