Back to Birding spree!

Being back from US now, I am back to bird watching and on a traveling spree! We have an amazing collection of birds in an around Whitefield area. Look what I got on my morning outing to Dodsworth layout.

Will be back soon to post the names of these birds!

Tuesday @ Moe's

Dec 07th'10:
We woke up and got ready a bit too early than our regular timings and we were accompanied by 2 more colleagues in the cab so it was packed and we reached office early by 9 as walked past the Old Post Office in the chilling winds cutting us through.I had some good enough work on storage end as we left for lunch by around 1pm and Amit took us a popular American joint "5 Guys" which served primarily beef and bacon stuffed burgers.This place is called Eat @ National Place which was a food court that features a wide variety of low cost dining options and different cuisines.Vijesh didn't opt for 5Guys since it had the typical burgers, hence took a walk around and checked out all the mouth watering options.I settled for the Mexican Moe's SouthWestern Grill and had the burrito with hot spicy sauce and it was yummy.Vijesh chose the Grill Kabob and went for chicken kababs with rice and naan.The mall was great place for amazing variety of dining options to choose.We left this place satisfied and Amit took us to a nearby shopping store
Filene's Basement which had very good deals on Tommy Hilfiger and other major brands, this place was big and lots for shopping. Left back to work place and reached room, we are approaching closer to our final time here in US.

Last Week in DC

Dec 06th'10:
This would be the last monday i would be working to work in Carlyle DC office.We got to work pretty late because of the metro which took an hour to reach and its frustrating to sit in the train which gets delayed, but they say this happens once in a while here. We got most of our work done during the first half of the day and had room prepared lunch together in the cafe. I finally got my camera D3100 with Telephoto 55-300 mm lens and thanks to Sai for his help in getting this done.With the Tripod and lens, i looked like a pro as others kept teasing me ;), I handed the cash to Sai and left to Duhn Lohring with Kusuma as we were invited for dinner by her, we got picked up by her husband from the metro and We had Rahul, Elina and Priya joining us for the dinner.Kusuma turned out to be a great host as she prepared Tea and dinner within an hour and it was a 5 course menu,this showed Women power and her dexterous ability.Rahul and company landed in DC from Blore and were freezing in this cold weather.We all left dinner and it turned out to be a good get together.

Big Freeze Sunday

Dec 05th'10:
Well the freeze continued and Vijesh had lost interest for DC as it had more of historical monuments, after convincing him and finishing breakfast we left room at 12pm and we wanted to save on cab hence used the metro bus. We were waiting @ the Jerman town closer to Wendy's and initially stood on the wrong side, we stood in the freezing winds blowing across our face and the bus was the least preferred mode of transport in this county and one of the Nepali guy was waiting at the bus stop and was sweet enough of to call the help line and let us know the right bus, so grateful to him we boarded the cosy bus and got a direct bus 1C to drop us at Duhn Lorring Metro.Once at metro, we reached DC office had lunch and walked to the National Air and Space museum which was massive with largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It had lot of space explaining exhibits with simple explanation of how planes fly and children loved it, it was so huge that we couldn't even finish watching the ground floor.We were asked to leave by 5.30pm and we walked back to return some other weekday.We then walked to the Washington Monument which was the world's tallest obelisk , again walking in the open -5 Deg chilling wind took toll on us and we got glimpse of it shining in the night.We took the metro and managed to get our bus to reach back home safe :) Our last weekend of this memorable US trip comes to and end.

Freezing Weekend

Dec 04th'10:
With work following me around the corner i was more than the happy to get some SAN work done on the weekend, after getting work done we left office by around 10 and walked to the nearest Capitol Hill, in b/w clicking snaps at FBI office and Old Post Office.It was 0 deg and we walked in breezy windy weather till cold hit us, we reached the Capitol Hill in about 45 mins way beyond the time we thought considering the distance from office. Capitol hill is the parliament of US and its among the most architecturally impressive and symbolically one of the most important building in the world.We just saw the front portions of the building and then walked past the Smithsonian castle and our destination was Washington Monument but cold winds struck us badly and we had retire to our favorite Carlyle office which is walking distance.After warming ourselves up and eating lunch brought from room prepared last night we now walked into the closest Madam Tussuad's wax museum and felt paying 21$ for standing next to Celebrity wax models was no fun hence we chose the International Spy museum.This museum was exciting by name and we ended as yawning ducks finding our best to exit it. It had collections from the past on spying fundas and it did bring in any interest.A 1965 James Bond Aston Martin was the only thing of any interest.We left the museum after 3 hours of boredom and strolled across the DC downtown market. We came back to office warmed ourselves and picked my laptop to proceed towards Georgetown Washington.We got down at Foggy Bottom (like that name) and walked towards Georgetown area,which is home to Georgetown University, Old Stone house and its more like commercial street with the M street having lots of shops and food joints. I could not resist the Georgetown Cup cake shop and waited in queue for 20mins to get my Chocolate square cake and it tasted heavenly.Walking back i had the chocolate flavored haagen dazs cone ice cream and it was worth every penny.Vijesh couldn't take the cold anymore so we skipped the harbor and reached home to be in the cosy feeling, still love this cold amazing :)

Friday, the Rasika charm

Dec 3rd'10:
Its Friday and the weekend has approached but we were more excited for the lunch. This was our turn to take Amit Vyas for lunch and after getting our work done in the morning, we went for lunch after 12pm. We gave Amit the option for deciding and we knew he would choose Rasika,this is a luxurious modern indian restaurant serving indian food and french wine, Eastern spicing and Western presentation,style and substance.We started with mango lassi and it was thick, luscious and yummy, i chose the famous Palak Chat which was tangy, main course for me Tandoor Salmon ( a weird combi) it was so filling and unfinished, Vijesh started with Sheek Kabab and ended up with Chicken makhani ( i have never heard tht in india) and bread, Amit chose the paneer palak with rice and bread to go along, food was divine rich but not spicy it was more 5 Star hotel kind of food served by a foreigner and eaten by foreigners as well ;) Dessert was still on the menu and we chose Gulab jamun with ice cream.As most of food items is mild the ice cream was less sweeter and more of Kulfi kinds and same with Gulab jamun on less sweeter side.Rasika lived upto its name and for once we found menu the least confusing part.Amit shared more of his experiences as he treated us to American Chai.The chai tasted as if its made from goats' milk and tea added was for flavour :(. An exciting weekend lay in store for us.

A nothing Thursday

Dec 02'10:
We went through the usual rigmaroles and got our office work done. This time for a change we got lunch prepared from our room and savored it sitting with Kusuma and sharing different stories in the Carlyle cafeteria.Left office a bit late and Vijesh had to sacrifice his seat in the metro as the rush hour begins after 6pm and on reaching room i snuggled into the cosy bed to prepare dinner later and hit bed...Nothing exciting about this day :)