Crocodile park

Went to the Crocodile park in Chennai (on East Coast Road). Spent 2 hours there. Saw enough crocodiles for a lifetime! The snakes from the Guindy snake park (which I have visited many times as a kid) have also been moved to this location.

At the entrance, there was this cute tortoise and turtle exhibit.

Here is a map of the worlds croc's. I didnt know that crocodiles were there in all these places!

The adults are almost my age !!

There were three different huge areas with at least 30 or so crocs in each tank.

They practically had a sample of every type of crocodile in this place (alligators and gharials too)!

The sample above covers asia, south america, north america and africa !!

For the grand finale, there was this Dinosaur !!

Note the two little dinosaurs watching the big one!


We also visited the snakes..

Here they are, up close and personal..




There are 4-5 snakes in every one of those pots and the guys keep milking venom every two minutes.

Me: Sir, enakku oru doubtu saar ! (I have a doubt!)
Cool snake venom milking dude (we will abreviate this to dude) : Sollunga Saar (tell me)
Me : how come you dont wear any gloves ?
Dude : we tried gloves. But then the snakes slip through and bite us. Bare hands is better!
Me : do you guys get bit ?
Dude : yes. sometimes.
Me : what then ?
Dude : depending on the snake we have anywhere between 2 hours to 24 to get to a hospital!
Me : you are kidding.
Dude : No Saar. Really. We have a vehicle standing by in case we get bit.

Luckily dude didnt give me a demo of getting bit! But, it was awesome. The whole park is nice. Top notch quality for any animal park! Loved it. Dont miss it if you are visiting Chennai, and do take the kids. I thought Jr. would be scared, but she actually enjoyed it!

Dizzee World !!!

We went to Dizzee World for an afternoon. No.. not Disney in LA, Dizzee in Chennai on our recent trip to India. With the kids that was more than we hoped to pull off on a hot weekday.

This place is relatively expensive by Indian standards. I have only visited VGP amusement park in the past in Chennai, that too in 1993!! Now there are almost 15 of these parks on the East coast road! This is the first time, I have actually made time to visit one of the parks.

We were greeted at the entrance by a mickey look alike.. lets call him Mikcey !


I really dont know if MGM (the Metro Goldwyn Meyer) owns or has a stake in Dizzee world.

We went on the giant wheel first. It was really nice. Jr., who is supposed to be Dora's next avatar, was actually scared of the giant wheel..

but baby!!! what a surprise! She really enjoyed it. Everytime we all got butterflies in our stomach, she let out peals of laughter and was giggling away.

Here are some views from the top of the giant wheel..






Then of course were the little harmless rides which Jr. went for with her mom. These are the same standard (looks, maintenance, everything) to rides in our local parks here in the Bay area (Bonfante gardens or Kelley Park!)


The themes and decorations were cute. Here is Jr. taking a break between rides .

They had a whole section of games where you toss rings around bottles and win prizes , etc. etc. But the people who man those booths were all missing. Gone for lunch!! A two hour lunch (we just gave away those coupons to the doorman while exiting).

Then, we had Jr. go on some really kid safe rides, like the carousel and Cinderella rides..




It was a weekday and the place was almost empty. Then a bunch of school kids came out of nowhere. Must have been a school excursion or picnic. Jr. suddenly found herself josling for a place on some rides. She was a natural "jostler"!

After the school crowd left, we once again were left to enjoy the empty rides. She got an unlimited ride! on the train and played in the video arcade to her hearts content. Only 50% of the machines worked. The rest had a notice on them which said "I am sick"!! But we had plenty of machines to play with and had them all to ourselves. Incidentally the arcade was the only air conditioned building in the park. So we enjoyed the break from the sun.

Then there were the rides from hell. I avoided all those rides. My brother came out of one and described his experience as one similar to an ant who has just come out of a mixer!

Just when we were about to exit the amusement park, San spotted the mother of all rides. She tried to get me on the ride. Mr. Chicken promptly refused and she insisted on going alone!

They couldnt have a solo rider, so the operator went and found one of his buddies to balance San on the other side of the ride. Then things got worse. The ride went on and on and it didnt look like it was going to stop. San started screaming from the top. We started screaming from the bottom. I suspected some foul play and my brother went rushing to the top. The belt had broken!! They had to switch off the mains and let the thing come to a stop on its own. San must have set the record for the longest ride on the swing chairs. She couldnt walk properly for some time.

I avoid these rides for a reason. At the end of the day, they are not safe! In my first 4 years in California we had seen two accidents. One in the Great America Park where a kid flew out of the "drop zone" (the very next day after we had gone on the same ride !) and another kid flew out of the Jurassic Park ride in Universal studios!! I was really getting knots in my stomach when I realized that something was wrong and was just glad that they knew how to locate the main switch!!

On the whole Dizzee was a good experience, except for that one ride. The kids and the adults had a great time..

Bom Jesus Basilica - Goa

On our first day in Goa, we visited the Bom Jesus Basilica, a 500 year old church which also has the mummified remains of St. Xavier.

It was an amazing place. You walk through two giant trees which look to be 500 years old and the gas lights remind you of another age!

Calm and quiet with so many passing through the church and praying. The side of the building and some of the inside pillars are going through a renovation of sorts..

The inner sanctum..










After we visited this church we crossed the road to go to the St. Francis of Assisi Church, which also houses a museum.




But it was an extremely hot day (as is seen by the state of the street dogs at 11 AM!)

So we decided do take some pictures of Jr. and baby on the benches, and went on to buy them some hats and drink some "elaneer" (fresh coconut water)!

I could not help but wonder how this place managed to stay unchanged for so many years. Also thought of how in the US of A, historic places average anywhere between 100 to 250 years old, but the way they are publicized, facilitized and "touristized" for lack of a better word contrasts with the "yeah, it is 1000 years old! so ?" style in India.

On one hand, it is great that these places are not "commercialized" the same way as in western countries (They find out that some former president or Indian chief pissed on a stone and before you know it there is a nice highway with an exit right near the "monument", with a visitor center that sells everything from keychains to digital camera accessories, brochures, a few restaurants, not to mention a nice set of toilets with diaper changing stations!). One almost gets the same feel when you enter any of these touristy locations. I guess this is one way to create history as you grow older.

On the other hand it is also sad to see such a great resource (anything this nice and this old like the Basilica) that is under utilized (for starters, think of all the parking ticket money the local government could collect!). But it makes for a much more relaxing and natural vacation as opposed to a mechanical "visit" to a place where you almost have the trip standardized. There are pros and cons with both approaches and I am glad that I do get to go places in both countries.

We had a great time visiting the Churches. After this we went on to see a few temples which were once again very old, but that is a story for another day..

Just a thought..

Part of getting back the routine, involves watching serials on Sun TV, every time I pass through the living room..

It is true that I know what is going on with the story, more than the two people who sit glued to the screen on the couch! But that is purely because of my good memory and attentiveness. Seriously!!

That said, I happened to pass by at least 4 times during one evening last week and couldn't help notice that the guys wear T-shirts which say things like "Los Angeles, CA", or "Hollywood" or "I love NY"(the one with the I, heart, NY placed like a box), etc. etc.

Most of these T-shirts are (were ?) 3 for 10$ or 15$ depending on the quality, in the streetside (a.k.a. platform) shops in Hollywood. I myself have bought two sets of three on separate trips to Los Angeles.

They are usually made in India or Sri Lanka. Recently of course we see the Made in China ones as well. They are of good quality and last you at least a year and do withstand machine wash.

On my recent trip to Bombay, I got T-shirts with a collar and a pocket for 170 rupees ($3.75). Judging by that, these Hollywood T-shirts are selling for a premium simply because of the nice designer prints on the front. Do not know who does the graphic design for these shirts (maybe done in USA ? India ? China ?).

We did a lot more traveling on this recent trip than on any other trip in the last 8 years. The one thing that I noticed this time in all the tourist locations was the potential for selling soveniers in India. I am not in business, but I think there will be a good market for T-shirts which say "Chennai", "Mumbai", "Goa" or "India" with appropriate designer prints of some local tourist spot. Two years ago, I saw a bunch of Mera Bharat Mahan T-shirts and the Sachin Tendulkar Cricket shirts which said "India" on one side. A lot of them made it to the USA! Save for these two, haven't spotted good T's.

I wouldn't mind buying one! Or 3 for 10 or 15$ for that matter..

Not to mention everything from refridgerator magnets, shot glasses, posters or 100 piece Jigsaw puzzles with popular landmarks! (business people, please take note from a future customer)!

ps. It is possible that these already exist, and are just not sold at the obvious locations! Any pointers to where I can buy some on our next trip are appreciated..

Goa beaches..

We spent three days in Goa. Except for San, the rest of us are seeing Goa for the first time..

Words usually fail to describe anything this beautiful.. so I will stick to the pictures.

Culva beach

The dolphin sighting boat rides at Coco Beach

Jr. meets Fanta for the first time, in her India trip. She loved her!

Calangute beach..

Baga beach. (after a long time I saw a bunch of Brits, Desis and West Indians play cricket together, last time was in a field in Philadelphia!)

Vagator beach (I liked this one the most).

Lived it.. loved it!!