In San francisco, have you ever paid less than half of the taxi fare for a ride from Bay area to City ? Are you saying 'Nah, that is impossible!'? Wait till you read this incident below.

Our friend lands from India on a Saturday night for a week long meeting starting Monday. Obviously he wants to spend the Sunday usefully by visiting San francisco city. He collected all the details to go from Hyatt Summerfield suites to Pier 39. His plan was to take a taxi till Belmont and take the train, blah blah. He called for a taxi to go to Belmont. The driver asked him about why he wanted to get dropped at Belmont (Am sure that till date he is regretting asking the question :)).

Our friend tells him the need for doing this. The rest of the conversation is as follows:

Driver: Why dont I take you to the city. You can pay me 5-10$ less than the meter.
Our friend: How much will it cost?
Driver: around 80$
Our friend: No, no, I cant pay that much. my budget is very less
Driver: How much can you pay?
Our friend: Not anything more than 40$
Driver: Pay me 60 $. I will take you
Our friend: No, no... I cant
Driver: Will you pay 50$?
Our friend: Last and final, I can only pay 45$
Driver: Ok.. I will take you.

They reached the destination. Our friend gives the driver a 50$.

Driver: How much should I pay you back?
Our friend: 5$

Poor fellow! He gives the change, curses himself for offering a ride to our friend and goes away.

Is it hard to digest? I know, I know, I felt the same way when I heard it the first time.

And the story doesnot end here - Our friend comes back to the hotel and we all met for dinner. The other colleague who was with him narrated the whole incident to us and while we were all looking at him with total disbelief, this guy says "haan yaar, The driver made me spend 45$ while I would have done this trip for less. Thats why I did not give him a tip". Hah!

Are you asking me if our friend is a Gujju? You are absolutely right. Who else can manage such a thing in a foreign land???

Chennai Trip

Over the weekend, we drove down to Chennai in the year old Ford fiesta. Took the bangalore-chennai highway vira Hosur, Krishnagiri, Vellore. Roads are as good as (sometimes better) the bombay-pune expressway. Around 350 Kms, but did that in 5 hours with 30 mts break in between including the city drive times. Took a breakfast break at Hotel Tamilnadu, Krishnagiri - This has become the whole family's habit on any drive that crosses Krishnagiri. Food here is awesome.

While going, we started early at around 5:30 in the morning and did beat all the weekend traffic. Had a peaceful drive. Even I got to drive for 30-40 mts. There are four tolls - 25-35-45-30 rupees respectively for cars. After every toll, you can even find restrooms -well maintained ones. So far, I've always been forced to search for a decent hotel and have some snacks on such occasions. One big relief that you dont have to do that!

Coming back, we started in the afternoon at three and when we were out of Kathipara junction it was almost 4:15, and sun was hitting right on our face till sunset. Reached home by 8:30 with a Hotel tamilnadu break at around 6:15 in the evening at Krishnagiri. My advice is that never enter this hotel at this time of the day! While you are eating, you are eaten my mosquitoes. Such big and nasty ones and you are scratching all over yourself in no time.

The only problem in the whole drive is our country men/vehicles/herd of cows in the numerous towns and villages that you happen to pass by before you reach chennai. They dont realise the speed of the vehicle and happily cross at their own sweet pace. They even drive as if they are in US - all in the wrong side! They dont care a damn about their lives. Real scary as if you hit them, you are the one who will be repenting your whole life if something happens to them.

Anyways, that doesnot bother you too much as there is lots of good if you leave this out. Enjoy the drive.

We had an impromptu holiday last month. My dad's sixtieth birthday celebrations got cancelled because of a death in the family and that happened on the day we were about to leave from here. We had plans of visiting Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Thirukkadaiyur, Thirukkarugavur, Sembangudi and Nallicheri. And all those got cancelled. Since we had prepared also so much for this absence at office and Amma and appa were so upset, we decided that we will drive down somewhere and have a holiday.

So I chose Mudumalai from three options - Chikmagalur, Mudumalai and Karwar. Since he will be driving, I did not want it to be anything long which ruled out Karwar. Since we decided that we will leave my parents back in Mettur, and Mudumalai will be closer from both ends, we started our journey on Tuesday morning(Nov 20th) 5:40 am from Bangalore. Stopped at Kamath for breakfast. It was a 224 Kms drive via Ramnagara, Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya, Srirangapatna, Mysore, Najungad, Gundelpet, and Bandipur. Till Mysore the road was great. From Mysore to Gundlepet, it was a bumpy drive. Once we enter the forest area, we were back on good roads.

Monkeys and deers were the only wild animals we managed to see in the trip. We took the van safari. As the review in Outlook 32 weekend getaways suggested, it was a bumpy ride and was not worth the money as we did not see any elephant. We did see one, a tamed one in the wild. Kimaya paid attention to the hen that was hanging around the elephant while we were trying hard to show her the 'real' elephant. It was really funny! That apart, it was a great holiday.

We stayed at blue valley resorts at Bokkapuram. (www.bluevalleyresort.com). We were the only ones staying there as it was during weekdays in off-season. Food was made after ordering. Even though the choices were limited, it was good and fresh. There was no TV, phones were not reachable (only BSNL works!). We were surrounded by fresh air and blue mountains. We went for walks, drives, ate, slept, played with Kimaya in the children's play area and played monopoly for hours before sleeping.

Initial plan was to drive straight from there to Mettur via Sathyamangalam on Saturday morning. We realised that Ooty is just 30 kms from Mudumalai and when my mom showed some enthu to see ooty, plans got changed. We checked out from the resort on Friday morning and drove down to Ooty via Kalhatti. There is another route from Theppakkadu (Mudumalali) via Gudalur, but as people adviced that this road is good, we took this even though I was skeptical about the 36 hair pin bends I read about in the week end getaways review. But I was glad that we took that road. It was an excellent drive. Car stopped at two places because he tried to take it in second gear when it was fully loaded. From experience, our advice is stick to 1st gear on the bends. They are pretty steep, but safe as long as you follow the rules.

We visited the botanical gardens and boat house - took the customary walk and the motor boat ride and left from there at 4:30 pm. Had to take a diversion to Kothagiri as the Coonoor road was blocked. Reached Mettur at 9:30 pm taking the Mettupalayam, Annur, Perundhurai, Bhavani route. There were bad patches but overall, it was a comfortable drive.

After staying Mettur for a day, we started early in the morning on Sunday at around 5:30 and reached Bangalore at 10 (Madivala) with a 30 mt breakfast break. It was excellent road all along and we just cruised through.

So all good things (Sigh!) ended and was back to office on Monday!!!!