Death Valley

Does the name scare you?? It's not as scary as it sounds!!
On the way back from Vegas we decided to touch Death Valley and then head back home. This valley is situated in the middle of nowhere, with huge mountains all around you and the cold winds nipping at your body. The first point which has an amazing view of the surrounding mountains is the 'Zibriskie point', named after Zabriskie himself. The entire death valley national park is quite famous cause it takes us to almost 282 feet below sea level, at Badwater basin, and an astonishing 11,00 feet above sea level. Badwater Basin is recognized as the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottest places on earth as well.

The National park has lotsa places worth making a visit, from the 20-mule road to the Borax works and the Ghost towns. Apart from all these places, there are lotsa hiking trails which would need a week to explore even! The entire valley has something to offer and every turn gives a breathtaking view of nature's beauty! A good place to camp out for a few days and be close to nature forgetting the world.(mobiles don't work here!!). It's worth the long drive and the hike!

Sin City

Las Vegas is aptly named as "Sin City" with it's casinos and clubs! Had a bit of good fun (we call it GCDF) in Vegas for 3 days!. Aj, Naga, Sujit and I started on our 4x4 across the deserts and hills and finally reached the sin city in around 6 hrs - after stopping for breakfast and quick leaks at a place called Rasor Road. This town is next to Area 51 and has a 'huge' population of 12 people! Must be quite a crowd when the mayor gives his speech!

The drive was more or less bland with the desert on either side, till the casinos and the hotels came into picture. Then started the fun. The City of Vegas, situated in Nevada, sleeps almost throughout the day and the activity starts late in the evening and goes on till early in the morning! The entire city is buzzing with activity all through the night and the casinos are packed with eager gamblers, who end up losing almost their entire fortune. There are the slot machines which gulp down your quarter (or dollar,etc...) as you would finish a cup of Tea , and in no time you end up broke! (if you are not a clever gambler!) The poker tables are even more tougher as the ante is higher and you obviously have a higher percentage of losing.

Apart from the 'casinos, we have the variety shows which range from the tame to the exotic and stretches even to science fiction. But the shows are worth it - whether you like it for the actual show or the skimpy outfits is your choice!
The entire Vegas strip, where you find most of the high flying casinos, looks bright and amazing at night with all it's glittering lights and thrill rides. One thing you can never run short off in Vegas is - skin! Yes. On the sidewalk, where you normally find newspapers and other magazines, you can get porn magazines, and almost the entire sidewalk is full of pictures, strewn around and playing card kinda pictures with phone numbers. All this makes Vegas the "sin city"! But, On the whole, it's fun out there!!A place not to be missed!!

Well...That was Vegas in a nutshell. If I start talking about all out adventures, I might need to sit up all night and type! - The city is waiting out there...Bye bye...

Shev is the man.

AC Milan romped home with an easy 4-0 win over Fenerbahce to give them 3 valuable points in the Champions League. If scoring 4 goals against a good opposition is one thing, the same striker bagging it is totally another issue. You need to be the best on the field, and your finishing must be top notch! Well...That's how Shevchenko was today! He kept firing them in till the scoreline was 4-0! Everybody thought he was gonna slow down once he got his hat-trick, but no thats not Sheva, he kept going on and he got his and Milan's fourth soon enough!
After watching today's game, Milan look like the force they really are!!

Forward March

Leeds united's impressive run continues in the Championship. Their 2-0 win against Burnley keeps them in fourth place with a game in hand. If they can continue their current form, Elland road will be on the Premiership map next season. Way to go!!
Let's show them we are still the "Mighty Whites"!!!

Keano...

Robbo’s view on Keane’s sudden exit and the interest of other clubs…I found this part quite funny.

…One is Aston Villa, but that's always the case, if my old mum advertised her wheelchair on eBay there'd be interest from Villa. The other even more needy recipient is Everton, a team that itself should be put on eBay tomorrow...: 

Rocking in Denver

Phew! What a week it was...Party, Party, Party all the time. The moment we left our office, it was just plain fun, going all over town and visiting all the clubs and joints! Denver Rocks! And our gang was a lively one, led by the local guys who knew every inch of the town. Hopping from one place to another was the rule:- Have fun, get tired, move over to another place. In between this "tight schedule" we managed to squeeze in an NBA game as well, at the Pepsi Center - the Nuggets versus the Kings. And just to point out, Nuggets won by a good margin in the end. By the end of the week, was so tired that I kinda dozed off in the plane back to San Jose.
Anyway, now back to work :(

A walk in the woods.

Last weekend, Sujit and I decided to go for a trek and finally chose the Castle Rock state Park, with it's many trails giving it the edge over the others. After a good drive through a winding road, with the occasional Aprilia or Ducati screaming past us, we arrived at our destination - Castle Rock State Park...it was the parking lot, to be exact!Then we geared up - armed with some juice and water bottles to keep us fresh - and selected the trail on our map. The trail took us through the forests with it's big trees and the small creeks, and then the huge rock -a.k.a Castle Rock - loomed large and reached high into the sky. I still don't know why the call it the "castle rock", because I can't seem to find any resemblance to a castle! Anyway, keeping all that aside, we had a good time exploring the rock, which was full of small caves, and then started on another trail which was supposed to lead us to the Castle rock falls. This took us again through some wonderful forest,complete with huge trees uprooted due to the storms. The falls was nothing more than a small creek falling to the forest floor over a cliff. Though the falls was not exactly a huge waterfall, the view from the embankment was quite impressive.

The next trail on our map was the one which led to Goat Rock, and after seeing Castle Rock, I did not expect it to look like a goat...Not even close to it. Goat Rock was situated higher than the others so it needed a little more tougher trek into the woods and across the mountains. At one point in the trail, there was this big boulder right on the trail and after climbing we had to carefully move over to the other side, and a false step could be disastrous! To add to it, there were supposed to be mountain lions, though unfortunately (fortunately??!) we did not come cross any. Goat Rock was much more impressive than the Castle Rock, mainly due to the fact that the view from it was simply breathtaking. If the trees were visible from Castle Rock, the tree tops were visible from Goat Rock! The entire valley was in front of us, with all it's green trees and rocky mountains here and there. The spectacular view presented to us, was outta this world! After some quiet moments here at Goat Rock, we started our trek back to the parking lot, as we had to return before the gate closed.

The Trek made us a bit tired, but refreshing in a way as well. And soon, it was time to hit the sack after a good dinner!

Hearst Castle

This was another fine weekend. AJ and I started again, in his BMW, to a castle known as Hearst Castle. There were two distinct routes to the Castle but we took 1, as it was supposed to be a beautiful drive. After having a good breakfast, off we started on our long journey, with the hope of seeing some of mother nature's beauty. After driving for almost 30 mins, all we saw was block houses on either side of the road with the occasional glimpse at the woods. But soon, the entire landscape changed, and the ocean with its dark blue colour came in sight. The water lashing against the rocks, made a sound which was somehow nice on the ears and the view was absolutely stunning. With the tall mountains on one side and the deep wide ocean on the other, this was going to be one heck of a drive. As far as you can see, it was just blue, blue and dark blue till the mighty pacific looked like it merged with the heavens. In fact when the sun coated the ocean with it's beams it gave out a variety of colours - which cannot be explained in words!. It was sight to behold! And once in a while the rocks would break apart to form sunny white beaches with huge dunes of sand. At this time of the year, you can even see whales breaking the surface every now and then. Going further down this fantastic road, we came across more wooded forests which formed a kinda tunnel with trees, only to emerge on the other end and see the ocean again. We continued our drive, and soon enough - though it was a long drive - we saw the castle on top of a hill! How the heck are we gonna get there?

By the time we reached the Castle, it was late in the afternoon, but we hoped to have a good time and then get back home soon enough to get some shut eye before the week started again. We entered the gates expecting a few people here and there, but to our horror saw a packed parking lot and lotsa people everywhere. Was this place a national monument or something?? There were huge groups waiting to get into the mall like "visiting center" (don't ask me- that's what it's called!). Then we realized we had to buy tickets and get on the tour bus which takes us to the top of the mountain and to the castle. But as luck would have it, we missed the last bus by a couple of minutes :( Cursing our luck, we moved over to the theatre (yes, the have one in the 'Visiting Center'!) to watch a movie about the castle, and that went on for a hour. It took us through Hearst's life from a little boy with a big dream, to an old man partying with his friends in the castle.

This Hearst fellow, as a boy traveled to different places in Europe and loved all the ancient architecture and wanted to build something really grand - like no other castle - and there stands the result, in the middle of San Simeon! This Castle had everything you ever wanted - right from tennis courts to a big roman swimming pool. Why, it even had a Zoo! -That should answer all the questions! After the movie was over, we grabbed something to eat - there were lots of cafe's there - saw the castle from a distance, and then stared on our journey again, but this time through a shorter, bland route. This took us through some wineries, where you can taste for free, and some towns where selling wines must have been the major business. Soon, after a rather bland drive, we reached Campbell and had a quick dinner and then hit the sack - waiting for another tiring week at work!