Tokyo Day 5- Ueno park

The previous post in this series is here..

After Senso-Ji temple, we took a cab that dropped us off at Ueno Park. We walked in expecting some Cherry Blossoms. There were none on the path. Then we (I) heard someone talking about a walk path to the left. No one was going there. So we turned right and down to the lake area and saw another temple from the outside and took photos.

By the time we climbed back up, it was cold and chilly. The sun had also set. So we walked back to the entrance. I was going through a temporary brain fade and thinking we should come back to see that road in day light. So the group tried to calm me down from my man-opause and said “okay okay.. we will try to make time and visit this place again during the day tomorrow”.

We also assumed that given it was late evening, we could go back by train. Our memories of doing this in Osaka were nice. Tokyo was different. We saw the first train and got spooked. We had to take the second one having come down to the station. So we crammed ourselves into the next one with the kids being in the middle.

Once out on the other side, we walked back to the Monday Apart hotel.

We made Chai, cooked up Poha, semiya upma and other instant food packets and sat together and ate it !

It was a meal that will stay with me for a long time. It is not like we have not had food together as families before at each others place. This was special. The rest of the families, especially the ladies who would otherwise not eat that much were finishing things off.. for us.. so we could buy stuff of equal weight at Uniqlo ..

that sacrifice is sincerely appreciated!

The first photo below was taken in a cramped elevator in the Akasukabashi train station when we were coming out..

A video highlight including the train after we got off it. It was two stops but we literally had to squeeze ourselves in. Office train traffic in Tokyo was something else!

We did go back to Ueno park again.. Will write about it later.. for now the blog will take a break as we are back to work days. Will pick this up later this week..

Del Valle Regional Park

It has been a busy 10 days. A quarter of my pre-molar broke off. An attempted filling by a backup dentist saw me eat the filling within a few hours of it being done.

Then a gum infection that has threatened the existence of two teeth, pain, pus, antibiotics, repeated visits to the dentist and staring at gum surgery in the near future.

In spite of all this and pulling out of a conference that I really looked forward to going since November, the last 10 days had their moments. Did manage to finish a 60 day challenge just before all this happened. There was a lot of music in my life, thanks to SIFA and Paadarivom Padipparivom. To add a highlight to this, yesterday the hiking group pulled me into an almost 9 mile hike.

Had a bad cold the previous night but was giving a lot of support from the group and they said “you have hiked with us in worse condition. So this is not an acceptable excuse!”.

We left Cupertino at 2 and reached Livermore a little after 3 PM. Started hiking right away. We finished and came back down by 7PM. We did have a 15 minute Chai, Cookie and Vazhapoo Vadai break at the top.

It was nice and sunny and the sun was beating down on us. There is no tree cover for this hike.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially it was a struggle for me with the stuffy nose, but once it cleared off, enjoyed the East Shore trail.

Here are the pictures..

and here is a highlights video reel..

We will most likely to on another trail in this same park next winter..

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - a meh experience

The previous post in this trip series is here..

The previous night we had crashed early but not before telling our hotel to pack us breakfast (it was included). They know folks go for sunrise and pack you a breakfast! We left the hotel shortly before 4:30 and drove to the temple complex. It was pitch dark in the area. There were still the ticket checkers working diligently with flashlights. The tickets have our photographs in them. We walked to a nice spot where a few hundred others were waiting.

Our driver warned us already that March 21 and Sept 21 are best times for sunrise viewing. In late November the sun goes to the side and is rising from the forest behind the fog. You see the light but not the sun for some time.

I had setup the iphone for a timelapse.. or so I thought. it was between my shoes on the steps.. must have had butterfingers and I turned it on and off right away! Realized it only after the sun came out and there was a photo instead of a timelapse video! It was a big missed opportunity. Next time, going to get a gorilla tripod so this doesn’t repeat. Did get some shots over the one hour we waited there. Once it became light, we took some shots of me doing yoga in front of Angkor Wat.

Our driver said at this point the entire crowd was going to visit the temple. We should go to Bayon temple instead and get great photos where there is no crowd and then come back to this temple. Given this one has shade and Bayon has none, he said that is a better plan.

We trusted Sarak given our entire previous day with him. Off we went..

A very short video reel..

Next time if at all we visit this place, should go in September. It will still be hit or miss because it rains during that time! One has to be lucky to get sunrise at this place.. There is always photoshop…