Tour de France

Followed the Tour de France for the 6th year, I picked the habit of watching this when I was
lonely in China. Well Coming to Tour de France, It is an amazing feat of human endurance cycling for 2 and 1/2 tousand kms in about 2 weeks at av speed of 40 Kms over mountains and
cities. It also showcases the beautiful France.
I really enjoyed when Armstrong was fighting Ulrich and Basso. Fun is watching the breakaway
fighting to avoid the Peleton catching up and the most exciting of course the sprint to the finish. The team work is good to watch, the way other riders support, protect their leading man especially the discovery team.
2 years have been disappointing mainly because of doping. Saving grace is Rabobank had the courage to withdraw yellow jersey holder when he was sure of winning the tour and because he lied. Really appreciate the courage shown, 2 other team Astana and Cofidis withdrew their teams. Contrast Landis is still fighting a failed test on technicality.
Other obervation, it is predominately (or is it only) white, never seen a black african or Asian. Well Hunter is from Africa but white. Heard commentator mention development is being
done in Ethiopia, Eriteria. Surprised that Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are not there yet.
Guess is matter of few years that Africans and Asians will join the tour.
Spain has 6 of the 10 people, just amazing.

iPod Nano

I asked my sis returning from US to get me an iPod nano. Though I did not own any apple product, I have been tracking them all. I told her to get me a black one, she said for 2 MB that was not available and brought a white one. I had had not seen one earlier.

When she opened that after she came, everybody at home was stunned by it sexy looks. Though nobody knew what it exactly it was they loved its sleek looks. Even my colleagues who knew about iPod were mightily impressed by the design (good looks) and size. For me, I fell I for its looks, I had expected it to be smaller that it was, because its photos always came in a white man's large hands.

It is a very fine piece of engineering, that the reason I was willing to pay the premium over other players. It is so easy and instinctive to use you don’t need a manual to use it including the click wheel. No wonder there is no bulky manual that comes with it. Apple's user manual is slimer as its player :-). I just connected the iPod to laptop and charged it. Copied all the songs to iPod, but when I tried using the player, I could not songs. Then I realized I needed iTunes. OK, but wasn’t iTunes a online shop for buying songs? So I called my friends, Sridhar said iPod requires iTunes software and I have to buy songs. What the hell, I had read on Apple web site that it plays mp3, now the f*$#!@ does not play it. I was wondering how to sell it. I could not afford to pay 99c for a each song. But back of my mind I knew this could not be possible. I checked the apple site in detail, I realized that iTunes was a software that I had to download. I downloaded it the 36 MB s/w, took me about 4 hours using the dial up connection. Next day I explored the s/w, it was pretty user friendly, I realized that I had to convert the mp3 or any other format to AAF format using iTunes. I also found organizing it into the folders was a problem had to do it using the itunes by naming each song based on its details. Had to give details of each song. It is pretty painful, but the originals did not have these details. The sync up worked very well.

Coming to the quality of music it really beautiful, it would have been better if equalizers are given. But the given the simplicity of design it made sense not to complicate usage. I can easily make up the quality of recording of each song. One big problem with ear phone it is designed for a bigger western ear. The bass is on top of left ear phone, when I normally plug it into my ear, the bass is muffled. I have to place it at an odd angle, which is bit uncomfortable.

One thing that I see is the total lack of features. It needs a FM player atleast. Whenever I see the recording feature from FM on other players, I really envy. Apple probably did this to sell more songs which was a win win for apple and record companies which made sense.

Overall, I don’t regret its lack of features, it makes up with its looks and simplicity. You need a comp to use, download or upload music. But looks like it may not last for long because the mobiles with mp3 feature is going to overrun it. Very few people would like to carry 2 gadgets. Well apple it seems has already lined up iPhone nano, cant wait to lay my hands on it. What happens to my iPod nano. I will live with nano for sometime.

Trip to Kodagu - Kushalanagar

We reached Kushalanagar at about 1 PM. We took an auto to the Veerabhoomi resort. The auto driver charged us Rs 25. Unfortunately for us, at about 50 meters from the entrance there was so much slush from previous day rains, we could not even walk. A bus had got stuck. We paid another 20 and went around and landed in the resort.

It is a very nice resort at the foot of a hill, with manicured garden with some cottages which looked like huts. It had a wall built around like a fort with some carts and cannon in between. It is a picturesque place. Nice warm welcome from the people there. The waiters are dressed like the old soldiers.

But the standard room we took was a disappointment. It was not maintained well. No cable and telephone when we entered, it was repaired it for us after escalation.

We hired an auto; we negotiated Rs 200 for a trip to Golden temple and Nisarga dhama. At Rs 50 per hour looked reasonable.

The golden temple was very good. It is situated in a nice place at the centre of lush green fields. We entered the gates we saw lots and lots of monks. There were lot of kid monks, they seems to be no different from the kids I see everywhere playing, fighting, etc. Was wondering how it is to be a monk.

Entering the temple was a very new experience. I knew the Buddha were big did not really expect it to be that big. The main statue was a usual peaceful looking statue other 2 were looked totally different from what Buddha was to me. In fact I though one of them was a devil, Rishica was actually scared. I realized that it was a Buddha after reading it. My experience in china and Hong Kong had not made me wiser about forms of Buddha. Took lots of photos and then went to Nisargadhama.

We went around the island formed by Cauvery River. The river was full and flowing swiftly. It's a nice place full of bamboo trees, with rabbit and deer park. Children enjoyed playing with rabbits. We literally had to drag them away. But there was no elephant ride that day spent about 2 hours there. By the time we came out it had started drizzling children were tired and started acting cranky, it made us tired and angry. We went back to the resort. We were told that we may not be let into Harangi dam so we decided to skip it. We decided we were going to relax the next day without visiting Dubare elephant camp.

Evening there was a culture show by artists in Veerabhoomi. Initially I was skeptical on how it would be. But they were pros. They kept us entertained for 2 hours. Infact tourists staying in other places came to the resort to see the performance. It was a mixture of song, dance magic show, jokes. There was a fire dance by one of the guys for the Rajkumar song from the movie Ashwamedha. It was really good. It was the first time I saw anybody fire eating and spitting kerosene on a torch, it was an amazing sight. Kids also had there share of fun.

I and kids joined the dance party at the end. Rishica really enjoyed dancing.

We had dinner, food was descent. We did not risk trying out anything new; we had akki and normal roti with dal fry.

Next morning, we had a good bath had breakfast and let kids play in play area. We showed the artist the video recording of their performance they were mighty happy. We had a early lunch and left Kushalnagar.

Took the KSRTC volvo bus at 1 Pm. we reached Bangalore at 6 PM inspite having 4 breaks.

Trip to Kodagu in Madikeri - 1

I initially planned to go to Kodaikanal for my 5th anniversary. I cancelled it because it started raining. Handling kids in a 10 hr bus ride was going to be tough for 2 of us.

We decided to go be closer home viz Kodagu.

We planned to stay a day in Madikeri and a day in Kushalnagar. We booked for a day in Kaushalnagar on Veerbhoomi resorts and a day in homestay in madekari. I searched for homestays on need. They looked pretty expensive. One of my colleagues had noted down a number when he was in Madikeri gave me. The guy whom i called Nanda promised me I will thank him for making him stay in a house. It was a single bedroom house close to Raja's seat costing Rs 750 per day in including breakfast.

Decided not drive in my M800 car, took a Volvo bus. It reached madekari sharp 1 PM. The homestay owner Prithivi took me to his place in an auto. It was raining pretty heavily in Madikeri. Packed out lunches and went to homestay. The homestay was located about 500 mts from Raja seat on a hillock. It had a beautiful view of Madikeri. It was nice cozy single bedroom house, just enough for us and 2 kids with option for making coffee.

We had out lunch and planned to go Abbi falls, Omkareshwara temple and Raja's seat. Prithivi aranged for an auto and bargained for Rs 180. The rains very lashing and there was no power in Madikeri since previous night. The auto had adequate cover to protect us from getting wet.

We reached Abbi falls, luckily for us the it was just drizzling. It was a small trek down in a plantation to reach the falls. Luckliy the kids decided to walk down.

The sight of falls was awesome, the rains had made the river full (is it Cauvery?). It was very nice sight. Last time when I had gone there, we could get into the water. Now there was no question of it. There is a hanging bridge for people to stand and relish the spray of the falls. Took photos and recorded in handy cam. Best part was getting wet in the spray, spent an hour or so. While coming back it was a climb we had to carry the kids and the bag. It was a bit tiring.

Then we went to the Omkareshwara temple, this is inside Madikeri. The temple kalyani was overflowing and water had flooded the entrance. The auto driver Jayram took us round to another entrance which was on higher ground. It was a nice temple. me and Kids stayed at the entrance watching the overflowing kalyani. Prathibha finished her prayers and came back.

We then went Raja's seat. It is a very small park with a very beautiful view. Last time when I had visited I was rather disappointed. Now the park is well maintained.

We took the toy train, charge for it was Rs 5 but there had to be min 20 people. We were about 10 people we paid 10 per head asked the driver to run it. The kids atleast enjoyed the ride.

We rested for the rest of the evening. We requested the homestay guy to send us dinner as it had started raining and there was no power in Madikeri. He sent us so much food, lot of food went waste. We had a candle light dinner. It was not a romantic dinner, with Rishabh touching the lantern and starting to wail. Putting the kids to sleep was a big achievement and we were glad to sleep.

Next morning we decided not to go out any where. Morning was Madikari was covered with mist. It was a beautiful sight from the hilltop home, spent time filming and relaxing. Had a loooong bath. Luckily a gas heater was installed. Ate a nice break fast prepared by Prithivi's household. I actually liked the idlis (not exactly my favorite).

Prithivi dropped us of to bus stop, we took the local bus to Kushalnagara.