Providence

There is surely a God out there...........or you may wish to call it fate/destiny.

Last month, my friend Smita and I went to Hampi which is in North Karnataka. 3 days prior to this trip, I was in Delhi attending a conference and was so busy that I failed to keep up with the news. As it so happened, there was a freak rainfall in the North Karnataka region which ended up flooding the entire region causing damage to crops, cattle, humans and villages. We were oblivious to the situation and happily boarded our flight from Bombay. On landing, we realised that things did not look too good. Of course the Airport Manager at Hubli (nearest airport) warned us that our journey would take 2 hours longer as the original road had been washed away in the floods and rain. We decided that since we had come so far, we would proceed on the trip. As it turned out, to our good fortune, it had stopped raining only in the Hampi area. We were blessed with perfect weather and could carry out the trip as planned, the only inconvenience being the detour in the car journey between Hubli and Hampi.

This weekend, I was supposed to visit Jaipur and the Pushkar mela. However, there were several stumbling blocks even before leaving for Jaipur. For one, every single of my friends who wanted to come, backed out at the last minute for various reasons. Then I read that the Pushkar lake itself had dried up!! Despite that I was still keen on going.......finally at the last minute I just changed my mind. And guess what?! Am glad I did because the Indian Oil refinery near Jaipur caught fire and the heat was felt all over Jaipur. Hostels were evacuated, the Chowkidani resorts were evacuated and the highway between Jaipur and Kota was jammed.

Is this Providence or what?!

Last evening at The Blue Ginger

Floyd (my brother) and I happened to be in Delhi on work at the same time. He invited me to stay back so that he could treat me to the new Vietnamese restaurant - The Blue Ginger - at the Taj Palace. The foodie that I am, of course I took up the offer and am glad that I did.

For one, it is always good to spend time with your loved ones especially nowadays when life is so hectic. And secondly, it is always good to try a different cuisine and one can never go wrong with the Taj!

The ambiance was great. The ceiling is a replica of a Buddhist temple. Besides there is a dramatic waterfall of light from a fibre optic chandelier.

The food - everything looked interesting and we could not quite make up our minds what to order. Finally we settled on crabmeat on sugarcane batons and shrimp rolls as starters, grilled fish Hanoi style, sticky rice with chicken and mushrooms and lamb shanks in oyster sauce for the mains. Everything was to die for except the sticky rice which we could have skipped! And for dessert we had the lemon grass tiramisu which was unusual!

The drinks - Floyd had the Belgian beer and I had a mocktail. But honestly, the signature drinks listed were very tempting.

Overall it was a great experience and you should try it out.

Just to get started...............

Writing a blog has been on my agenda for a very long time. Today I decided to get started and so here I am.

I intend writing about my travels (which have been quite extensive), my future travel plans (which I love doing all the time) and everyday thoughts and occurrences that I find interesting and hopefully others too.

I intend writing one blog a day and hope to stick to the plan. Let's see if I am successful! :)

Looking forward to a successful and interesting journey through blogging.