The Golden pavilion or Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto

The previous post in this series is here..

After leaving Nara, we came back to Kyoto and I had three places to see in Kyoto mainly from a photographic interest. One was an ancient street which was supposed to be captured at golden hour, the other was the Golden pavilion and the third was downtown Kyotos main shopping street.

The cloud were everywhere and it was drizzling and there was going to be no golden hour. So historic preserved street wasn’t going to happen. We had to go back to the shopping area in the evening anyways.

so that left the Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji temple. It is a gold covered Buddha temple in the middle of a lake on a hill.

We took two cabs and went straight from the station to the temple, stood in line and got tickets. Then it started pouring. There was a large crowd there to see the temple and every umbrella was dripping on to other peoples feet. There should be a minimum umbrella distance maintained and it was not to be. With wet shoes we were walking around the lake still trying to take pictures and joking around. It was a memorable experience although not a great one. As a group we generated fun. That is the best way to put it. Then again we could be in a gulag and still generate fun. We were just happy traveling together.

This temple is absolutely breathtaking. Even in that rain. Here are the photos.. from all sides of the lake that we were allowed to see!

We walked around the lake, took pictures and walked down the hill to a restaurant scouted by Jr. It was supposed to be a popular vegan place. Yet again, as her luck would have it, it was closed! So we found another place a block away which had vegetarian options in the menu. I ate a plain brown rice noodle (it was just unflavored sevai) while the rest of the group had soup, salad and noodles. We got an Uber XL and stopped at the shopping district. It was early evening already, but the group had at least had something to eat and we were done with sight seeing on a schedule.

A short video highlight of our Kinkaku-ji temple visit.

The next post is definitely a social study..

Red Tail trail to Arastradero Lake

This weekend we hiked to a place that we have missed all these years. Right here in Palo Alto there is the Enid Pearson Arastradero Preserve with 10+ miles of trails and a cute and beautiful lake in the middle of it.

We also happened to pick a beautiful morning to hike here. The skies were just lit yesterday!! The sunbeams and purple clouds were a treat to the eyes!

There were lots of benches in the park..

that is probably our most beautiful “bench photo” to date ! The rest from this trail are here.. including a few cheesy ones of us making a heart. I was upset with San on the way to the park.. so our friends were giving me a hard time for being so finicky.. At times my OCD tendencies get the better of me. She is my world and I cannot stay mad at her for more than 3 minutes tops. At this point I am pretty much her pet dog or something like that.. <vent>still one needs to fold all other fingers in when making the heart and it has to be presented parallel to the plane of the camera.. </vent"> (that should be a legit html tag!)

Not possible to be angry with this one..

A few vertical shots of this lake..

A gallery of pictures of the beautiful skies and landscapes from the days hike.. We hiked only 6 miles as I had to do some unplanned last minute singing with the local Smule group! It was a packed day of activities for a regular saturday!

Surprisingly did not take any videoclips on this hike!

We will definitely revisit this place and cover the few trails that we missed within this park. The bay area is just amazing. There are still a lot of trails we haven’t hiked, given we hike new trails all the time.

Every year there is a well planned long grand hike. Last years highlight was the grand canyon! Hoping this years grand hike will be something to write about!

Nature trip in Arizona Part 4: Antelope canyon boat tour

The previous post in this series is here..

While eating the tamarind rice and choking on it, I asked San "arent we supposed to be on a boat tour today as well?" and she goes "In the interest of time I did not book it!".. a few tears and sentimental dialogues that would seriously make Sivaji Ganesan hand over his Chevalier award to me, we called the tour operator and were confirmed for the 5PM (last) boat tour of Antelope Canyon. We were asked to be at the dock 15 minutes before and the dock was 15 minutes from our hotel. 

We decided to take a power nap for an hour and head out..  

it was Antelope canyon day.. a tour all morning, a tour all afternoon and now for the evening a boat tour.

We realized while entering the dock that the boat tour fees did NOT include the entry to the dock which was part of the National park service. If you don't have a National park pass, you have to pay 30 $.. if you do enjoy national parks, strongly recommend you get the annual pass for 80 bucks.  It is always a good thing to support our national parks!

Seeing natural wonders gives me more goosebumps than visiting any temple. Keep telling my family that if you want to realize god, go to a National park and take a look from any vista point!  Or look at the smiling face of your spouse or children.. while the second option makes you mentally happy, you don't get the exercise.. so go to the parks!

The boat tour was great! we got waterbottles on the boat and a tourguide who was local and gave us a personalized tour as we spent an hour on a boat going through the canyon on water! 

Loved it through and through!

a photo gallery of the nature pics..

Once done, we decided to go find dinner in Page. The first mexican place we went to had a 45 minute wait. So we went to the second one and were promptly seated. The food was amazing as was the service. 

my models did not disappoint!

Video highlights reel of the boat tour and back..

The next morning was going to be an all day drive back to Phoenix after a few stops. So we decided to hit the one big super Walmart in the area before going to bed. Have not seen a store this big in my life! Stocked up on some yogurt, bottled water etc. for the return trip and made it back to the hotel.

Day 2 of the trip was done!