An interesting start to a grand hike

The last weekend, we hiked the south rim of the grand canyon! This was in the plan for months. Four ladies from the hiking group had been doing the planning with lots of meetings, zoom calls, excel spreadsheets, training hikes, etc.. while the four men watched in silence for the most part. 

There was a reunion of my undergrad classmates that was moved to this weekend. They were all meeting in Istanbul for three days. My heart was in two places the day before traveling as there were posts from classmates sharing their experience in Turkey. A commitment is a commitment.. this weekend was already taken.. so I had to sit Instanbul out..

A month ago, another brave soul decided to join in as well. He knew most of the folks in this group and was naive enough to put up with the craziness that is our hiking group.

Did I mention T-shirts were already purchased to celebrate post hike. The ladies had that kind of confidence that everyone will finish. I was not so sure at the start. 

We all took Friday off from work and flew to Phoenix early in the morning. I was still sleeping in the car to the airport, at the airport and through the flight. This was because of making tea and sandwiches at 3:45 AM after going to bed at close to midnight.

We spent 90 minutes to get our rental van and car. It was decided that the guys will be in the van and the ladies will drive the car. We stopped for lunch at a vegan mexican food place. It was good food and great service!

Then came the drive to Yavapai lodge via Sedona and Flagstaff. We stopped in Sedona at a few vista points to take photos.. 

took these shots from a puddle of hopefully rain water (given it was next to a porta potty.. one never knows!)

the soil was all red and the reflection had the red tint to it.. so made a black and white version..

Then we stopped at Flagstaff to get water and other food items for the hike.

For some reason, the ladies used Apple maps and were sent on route 64. The men used Google maps and were sent on route 180. We got a call from the ladies to stop at some exit number for gas that did not make any sense. Then we figured out what had happened. Then things took a turn for the worse. It started snowing heavily. There was no talk of snow in the forecast!

these are color photos.. 

taken through the van's rear window..

We decided to go to the lodge anyways no matter what. The ladies were making a steady pace. We got stuck in thick snow and almost skidded off the freeway at one point. Got to hear myself scream in fear on this trip. Was in the last seat in the back and all the backpacks came flying at me when the van went out of control. Luckily our driver, who was being given 20 conflicting directions on what to and what not to do managed to just take his hands and feet off everything and the van skid to a halt. 

That is when our brave joiner who had experience driving in Pittsburgh snow took the wheel and drove at 10 miph for a good 30 minutes and eventually we got to a lower altitude and made good time to catch up with the ladies at the park entrance. We were an hour late but were happy to be alive!

When we parked at the lodge was just happy to see Sangeetha. She hates driving in rain. Somehow she managed to drive in that weather.

Given the snow the whole hike was a toss up. We sat together to drink tea and have dinner together in the room. The plan was to get ready in the morning at 5AM and take a shuttle to the trailhead and take it from there, as long as it was not going to be snowing in the morning.

The next morning, there was no new snow and the hike was on.. 

This is the preamble post.. the hiking post follows..

Mumbai fun

The last post in this series is here..

We went from Cochin to Mumbai and had two full days in Mumbai before our return flight to the US.

Having visited so many temples every day in Tamilnadu and Kerala, why stop. While San was busy trying to get blouses stitched urgently, MIL and me went out to visit local temples. We visited 3 that morning.

Later went with San to another local temple and visited what is probably the worlds best one stop beauty store. (you can see it in the video).. 

We managed to eat out a few times..

watch three movies in two days.. the movie theater is the building next to in-laws apartment. We can just walk down and go see movies!

Here are two lapata ladies at lapata ladies..

Then we spent an evening at Ambani center. It was a stark contrast to the other shopping we did. The stores and complex was grand but there were no people in the stores! 

We walked around, took pictures and drove back in time to get some rest before flying out the next morning.

A video highlight..

The return flight was not direct. It was Mumbai to B'lore and then to SFO. The airport in Bengaluru was nice. We actually enjoyed the two hour wait.

Then there was a disaster of a return trip where the tail section of the flight had no power! 

No way to charge phone/laptop, call the air hostess, or watch anything. It was a horrible 16 hours in a plane with a local power cut. They werent even apologetic. We were to get some money back as token compensation for this horrible trip and it has been 6 months plus and we still don't have anything from Air India. There has been 20 + emails back and forth and a check leaf was wasted. That was about it. They have bought all these used planes from Delta airlines and are flying it BLR to SFO. Ratan Tata must be sad now that he can see what is going on from wherever he is!

The trip on the whole though was a happy one. Checked all the items that were in the plan. Did so much in 10 days! 

Now that I have finally finished posting about the India trip in Feb/March, can get back to otehr things that have happened since!

Tanjavoor to Guruvayoor

The previous post in this series is here..

We boarded the train at Tanjavoor close to a 7PM and it was to reach Thrissur in Kerala at 4AM. The train was 40 minutes late. FIL had booked a hotel room right next to the train station just so we could go, take a shower, change to dhotis and get going. We did get okay rest in the train given people kept changing at every station and kept waking us up. 

We reached the hotel at 5 AM, had some dip tea, and all four of us got ready in record time and were at the Sree Vadakkumnathan Temple before sunrise. The sun was just coming up when we came out of the temple. 

Then we went to the Thiruvambady Krishna temple which was just 5 or 10 minutes away.

After this we had a long car ride to Guruvayoor. We stopped for a quick bite to eat.. idly sambar and vadai at a local place (this is not related to HSB.. but the food is better!)

There was a ticket for an appointment with Guruvayoorappan at 9AM. However there was an utsavam and we found out that we should not have been sold those tickets. The temple staff said sorry and told us we will get the money back! Money or not, we wanted to see the deity before leaving. So we stood in line for 2 hours almost and got to go only so far to see the deity from 20 feet away for a few seconds before being pushed out. 

It was an interesting experience. Kerala temple crowds are really agressive. Especially the old ladies! 

The lines to keep your cell phone and footwear s a mile long! We still had fun at this temple. There was a person singing who we mistook for Yesudas first before walking to the area (you can see in video clip).. the stores on either side were cute and the ladies bought Onam sarees! 

Then we went to a shiva vishnu temple in Mamiyoor which was the last stop. It is a beautiful temple!

There was a plan to visit Chottanikkarai baghavathy amman temple which was an hours drive from there, but given we saw baghavathi in Guruvayoor, we decided to skip.

My MIL's close friend stayed in Cochin on the way to the airport. So we went to visit Kamala aunty and her husband for an evening chai visit and then head to the airport.

We saw elephants on this day. At the temples and on the roads. A land with elephants is a happy land!

a land with bananas galore is definitely a happy land..

We stopped by a place for lunch. It was awesome!

It was great to talk to them and spend a few hours. As I write this, Uncle is no more. He passed away recently. An extremely nice person. We were all glad we got to spend time with him. 

A video highlight of the Kerala leg of the trip

Then we were off to Cochin airport and flew to Mumbai. 

We had almost two days in Mumbai before our return trip to the US. That last post later..