London on toes...

I made a week's trip to London, during May 2007. Based on that, here is a list suggestions...

Within London

• Buckingham Palace – Don’t miss the change of guards. Happens as far as I remember twice a day. I think one must be at 11 30 AM and the other in the evening.
  
  

• St Pauls Cathedral – This is just awesome. Make sure you go to the full top. It very very tall..and the view is awesome from above. You can see whole London.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Tower Bridge – I am sure u will not miss this. Many think the tower bridge is the London Bridge. But this is the bridge with the two towers. And you can go up also and see the working of the tower bridge. It awesome to see. There is one bridge purely for walking. Go in the middle of the bridge and you get the most awesome view of the tower bridge from there. If it is rainy at that time then thank your stars..because..rain just makes it even more beautiful.
  
  
• Tower of London – This has the famous Kohinoor. At least for that you need to see it.
  
  
• Big Ben – This is the clock tower. Of course you cant go in. But this is very conspicuous and you cant miss it
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The London Eye – Go for the ride.
  
  
• Westminster Abbey – One more awesome church. Huge and artistic
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Westminster – The parliament. I actually attended two sessions. One in the House of Commons and one in the House of Lords. This is free and fun to watch. J Also, don’t miss the way the house of commons has a board called Visitors’ Gallery. While the House of Lords calls the same gallery as Strangers’ Gallery. This is a funny thing I cant forget.
  
  
• Shakespear's Globe Theatre – During mornings there is a tour around the theatre. During afternoon and evening there will be plays. Make sure you will go to one play atleast. I could not make it for a Shakespearen Play – Othello. But book alteast 2 days before and you will get a chance to see it.
  
  
• Tate Modern – This is museum near globe theatre is for art lovers. But I was bored of this
  
  
• 21 Baker Street (Sherlock Homes house) – Never ever miss this. This is the Sherlock Holmes house. They have created everything according to how it is in the novel. Make sure u will read the letters to Sherlock holmes from kids all over. Also sign your name in the register. Also, the steward here is just tailor-made for the background. That is why I requested her to sit and took a snap. Just don’t miss this place.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wimbledon – Never miss this if you are a tennis fan. It awesome. Moreover they have opened the center court for visitors.
  
  
• Chelsea – If you are a football fan, you will enjoy the tour. But if you are not then ditch it.
  
  
• Keningston Palace – This is also good. But you can become tired here.
  
  
• British Museum – You can spend alteast a month seeing this once. So you can easily be bored. But some parts are good.
  
  
• 10 Downing Street – Just for kicks. This was the Tony Blair residence.
  
  
• Hyde Park – It’s the best place to relax. There a very nice lake at the center.

Country Side

• Bath Spa – From what I remember I think this is around 100 kms from London. I went here in a train (left London at 11 30) and came back by train in the evening. You have quite a few places in this place to see. Specially the Roman Bath, an Abbey, a beautiful river side bank with a super aesthetic view of the country houses. There is also an arch of Rich men’s houses.Instead of train, if you go by bus you will be able to see the Stoneheng which is a world heritage site. I could not go there. I was late and had to take the train.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The other place I wanted to go but could not is Shakespears birth place and house. I heard its awesome and kept intact. But I could not go.
  
  
• Also for other country side options Oxford is one more super option. But I did not have time.

Apart from these…other things that I did :-)

• The tube experience – its just awesome. I took a six day tube pass. The tube pass holds good for train as well as buses.
  
  
• Cruise on Thames – One during the day. One during evening. Both were awesome.
  
  
• Window Shop Entire London - Take the bus just to see London city. This is the best part. You will sit on the top of a double decker bus and just go around the city. Generally, I was free during the evenings. Since anyway I had the pass, I used to climb some bus (making sure its double decker) go take a window seat and do a window shopping of whole of London ;-). The city is beautiful during the evenings.
  
  
• River Side Walk - If time permits, during one late evening take a River Side walk. It is just awesome.
  
  
• Platform 9 ¾ - If you are a Potter fan, go to the Harry Potter spot at the Kings Cross Station.
  
  
• For food there was no problem at all, although I am veg. There are hundreds of Indian restaurants.

All in all, this was by far a unique one among all my travels. The reason being, I did it all alone. Having kept all the big luggages in the airport, the whole trip was made on toes...and on a shoestring... ;-) I have also developed a rare fascination for this place and would want to stay here for a longer period of time going ahead...

Bangalore International Airport....a reason to be proud of..

I was waiting for a chance to see the new airport of which I had heard so much. Finally this weekend, I got a chance to fly to Mangalore and back.

As the taxi neared the airport, the control tower started to appear. Then finally the airport. It was a great feeling to see the huge airport. The roads into and outside the airport are well planned. I did not find much of a jam at the place where we got down. Compare this will the perennially jammed old airport. Then, there is a nice and spacious waiting place even outside the airport, with some good eat-outs. After some small snacks we entered the airport building, and a sense of pride swept through me as I saw the open spaced, glossy floored huge building. The freshness of the new building was very much rampant. Then to the first floor for the security check, and then to the gate lounge. All this was again very much comparable to the ones I had seen outside India. Also, I wont be doing justice if I dont mention the clean toilets compared to the ones in the old airport.

On my return, one other thing that gave me the greatest relief was the baggage claim. I always associated this aspect as the worst thing in our old airport, but here it was just state of the art.
Firstly there are around 8 to 10 conveyor belt lanes. Compare this with 2 at the old airport. Second, its well planned and there is no scope for baggage jam like in the previous one. And then when you come out with the baggage, you will again see the different lanes. One is the pick-up and drop lane. The other is for the taxis. And then for the city bus.

Having heard about "Vaayu Vajra" so much, I decided I will try that instead of a taxi. Fortunately there was one just ready to leave, towards my route. With 150 Rupees, I was dropped to the end of road of where I stay (Basaveshwarnagar). I had never expected so much of connectivity through this bus service. Also, its a super comfortable bus, better than any taxi. For those of you who would want to work, there are laptop switches as well. But I sat there for about an hour just listening to music and feeling good about the new airport.

A state of the art airport is what Bangalore badly wanted at this point of time. And we could not have asked for more. And I think we should pardon the inconvinience caused because of it is remote location, as this is the case with most international airports, be it Heathrow or JFK. When the airport had just opened I had only heard about people's complaints. I think the industry leaders who complained so much ought to acknowledge the facilities once everything is in place. Its sad why nobody writes about the positives after a few months and stop at the wrong note. Anyways for me it was something that made me totally proud as a Bangalorean.