Los Angeles- The Firing Range

There are things you can do in the US that you can probably not do legally anywhere else in the world. One of them is firing guns. My housemate Piyush and me went for a beginners class and shooting live ammunition at the http://www.firingline.net/ today. My class of 5 was taken through a 90 minute session on handguns - revolver, semi-automatic and a 45 minute session of shooting practice at the range with about 40 rounds on the semi-automatic. Fantastic and I am thinking of doing this frequently. The last time I fired a gun was at school for the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and that was with a WW II era .303 rifle. One key takeaway for me was that guns are extremely dangerous.

S.E Asia Diary: The Missing Swim Trunks

Realized I had left my swimming trunks at home. If its not on the check-list, it does not go with you. Anyways, have got everything else ready in time before I board the midnight flight from Chennai to Singapore. This is the start of a one of a kind trip across Thailand, Cambodia & Laos. Hoping all goes well.

California Diary: Hollywood

After resting from our Saturday roadtrip, we had a late lunch on Sunday and stepped out for a 15 minute drive to Hollywood. Yep! I stay just a stone's throw away from Beverly Hills. :-) But Hollywood is just another place by me. I guess it depends on who you know around here. If you know somebody hep, you can probably attend some of the parties that happen around here and brush shoulders with the stars.

But to the rest of us, we can take in some regular touristy stuff. We started with the Wax Museum and I did see a very good look likeness of Samuel L Jackson, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie among others. Then we went to the local mall and hung around before we went to the Chinese theater which had the hand, foot prints and signature of the stars like Sidney Poitier embossed in concrete. It was a slow evening. But me thinks, Hollywood is just another place. Its home to the stars, but I can always see them on screen wherever I am. :-)

California Diary: Sunnyvale

So, after San Francisco, I was on my way to Sunnyvale, a cool 75 Kms away. And I was really happy. Not because I was going to eat authentic spicy S.Indian non-vegetarian food at 'Muniyandi Vilas'. But because when the plan initially came up, I had realized that one of my best school friends actually lived there (I had spoken to him a week earlier and we had given up on meeting).

In fact Karthick lived hardly 10 mts away from the restaurant. The restaurant happened to be inside this big Indian supermarket. The food was awesome and it was so damn spicy. I got the feeling that the chefs were trying too hard to make a point about this being authentic Indian food in America. My friend and me made good conversation over dosa and spicy chettinad chicken curry.

It was good catching up with a friend whom I had grown up with and played cricket on the streets near his home. We had about an hour there and then we had to leave on our 7 hour drive back home. But with Dinesh driving at a steady 90 miles/hr we made it back in 4.5 hours and it was wonderful turning in after being on the road non-stop for 27 hours.

California Trip: San Francisco

And so we were on our way to Sunnyvale, when someone had this bright idea- Why don't we visit San Francisco. After all its just 45mts away from Sunnyvale. There was no opposition to the idea and once we reset the destination on the GPS, we were on our way.

After a 6 hour journey, we entered San Francisco. The city is beautiful. The road to the pier can stop you short by its sheer fall. It just drops! We made our way to the Golden Gate bridge. Since its by the sea, its pretty cold here. But a little more chilly up there on the bridge. We strolled up and down the bridge. I believe it took 19 years to build and is a beautiful engineering marvel.

From the bridge, you also have a view of the island of Alcatraz. Made famous by the movie 'The Rock' starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery, the island is a former housing for the most dangerous convicts. One of its most famous occupants being the mobster, Al Capone. The story goes that the convicts were fed well and were not spared any exercise. They thus became fat and the possibility of escaping by swimming across to the mainland became extremely remote. :-)

Well! We just had an hour there. And I wished I could have spent more time in this city. But I guess you really cannot have too much of a good thing. So we got back on the van and we were off to Sunnyvale!

California Diary: Yosemite National Park

And so the seven of us started off at 1 AM on Saturday. I had a tough time keeping awake and drifted in and out of the land of oz. We had estimated that we would reach by 7. But we made it by 6 and so we killed time at a local Mc Donald's as we freshened up and had breakfast. We drove into Yosemite by 7.30 AM.

Once in we drove to various view points and did little treks. The giant sequoia trees were an amzing sight to see. Did you know that these trees are more or less resistant to old age and fire and pests. Some of them are a thousand or more years old. What makes them die is the shallow roots and that results in them toppling over.

There were supposed to be some beautiful waterfalls. But I guess its the wrong time of the year and so we were left looking at unimpressive no shows. Anyways the views were awesome. These pictures would testify to that. It would have been nice to stay over, like camping and all. But that would mean a bit of preparation and time and consensus. Maybe later on in life.

Anyways we were done by 1 PM and we were on our way out of the park. It was hot and since we didn't plan to finish this early, the boys were planning to drive about 6 hrs to Sunnyvale famous for its authentic Indian cuisine. Yep! I know what you are thinking. 6 hrs or 700 Kms to eat Dosa or have a chicken biriyani at Saravana Bhavan or Muniyandi Vilas. :-) these guys are crazy! Well I am glad somebody had that crazy idea.

California Diary: What a weekend!

I never imagined I will be able to do so much this week-end. But I did. I was actually keen on going to Las Vegas. But, on learning that I don't smoke, drink, gamble and I wasn't interested in visiting any strip clubs either 'just for the experience', my colleagues kinda said it would be good to give it a miss. The extravagant shows would be worth a visit, but it also meant a lot of dough. But things kinda clicked and I learnt that plans were made and a mini-van (GPS enabled and rented at a dirt cheap price) had been rented for a drive to Yosemite National Park. That was the only plan then. But things kinda changed after we finished the tour at the park and before I knew it, I had reached back home and I had ended up travelling 1600 Kms in a space of 27 hrs (20 hrs on the road) and I had also seen downtown San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and had an authentic S.Indian non-veg dinner with one of my best child-hood school friends in Sunnyvale. And thats not all. Today, after a good sleep-in and a late lunch, I also saw Hollywood. Yep! What a week-end! Hallelujah! I am so happy that I am getting to do so much, especially when I had started out thinking that I would be left high & dry without a car and without friends in this part of the country.The next four posts will detail my experiences. Have a nice read.