Tell Tales - 3

It is my second last day of holiday and tomorrow I am going to fly back to Troon. And thats why I am trying to finish this post as soon as I can, since I won't have the connection to the net anymore for indefinite time.

So where were we?

Day 2 of the Dachstein trip:

The day before I slept like never before. The beds was comfortable enough and to top it up, I was extremely tired. SO........ I managed to persuade Mrs. Ganser to sleep in a different room, just by snoring. Of course I found out only in the morning when I enquired about her where abouts, since she was missing from her bed. And her husband said that she moved beds because I was snoring far too loud for her. I had no doubts about his claim. I knew it was true.

:)

Well well, what can I do?

We all got up quickly and were ready for the climb within an hour. The nature was waiting for us. And this is what we were going to gain access on. The day's or lets say the morning's aim was to climb this rock. It does look like a rock, doesn't it. Trust me it looked like a monster to me that morning. almost 1000 m higher than where I was standing, So not really justa rock. I was not looking forward to climb it. Yet I went for it. It said on the markers that it would take one and half hours to reach on top of the mountain. So we started the walk. :) Following the path markers, marked with the austrian flag, on the way. I was pretty excited about it, since it was one of the rare occasions when I was climbing a mountain without any restrictions from the law or parents. It was tiring, but FUN. You can't see the left side of the mountain in the above photo, therefore let me tell you that it was deep enough to freeze my balls with anticipation of falling. Not all the rocks were stead fast in the earth, and an occasional one would release itself from the ground into my hand, specially when I would be trying to raise myself a bit with help of this rock. Thankfully there were a few metal ropes fixed at couple of steep climbs, which made it easier for me to feel like Tarzan. But in the end it was all worth. We did not rush yet we made it 15 mins before the prescribed time. We had started at 8:45 a.m. and we reached up at 10:00 O'clock. That was impressive, I thought to myself.

Here I am taking my last few steps towards the end of the journey

You can see how big this monster must be in real just by comparing the human form in the above photo

(that is Mrs. ganser)

At the Cross on the top

(you will find an entry in the visitor's book with my name on it)

Once on top, we relaxed a bit. Ate some mandarin and admired the scenery, glacier etc. etc. With Nothing else to do, I had to do some thing. So I took a photo with the normal digital camera and a binocular. You got it I improvised binoculars for the lens. Look at the following 2 photos: the first one has Simonyhut in it as it looked to us with normal eyes; and the second one has the Simonyhut as it looked from the Binoculars.

Can you find Simony Hut

And this is through the Binoculars

All the dramas done, its time to go back down. Now, thats scary. You know why? Because while coming up I didn't have to see down and hence was, most of the times unaware of the fall behind me. But now the conditions had changed and I was pissing in my pants. praying to God to give me strength. Nevertheless, we started our decent.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, except for one thing.

FOSSILS

You heard it right, Fossils. As I wrote in the previous post that these mountains were formed more than 200 million years ago. At that time these 'now' mountains were under the sea and were 'not' mountains. It took millions of years for the this mountain range to become what it is now. And for millions of years, the carbon-dioxide enriched water in the region, seeped through the soil and travelled underground. Dissolving the limestone rocks, it formed the karrens, sink holes and the caves.

Well these could be found on any mountain range. Can't they? Well I am not sure because I haven't seen many mountain ranges. But what captivated me about this particular mountain range is the availability of numerous fossil prints in their natural state, in the plain site. Obviously when the seas receded or the earth rose; the sea creatures got trapped in the soil and became fossils over the time.

All my life I have treated fossils as some kind of Celebrity, whom you read about in the books or you see in the television or on the big screen but never in real life. Hence, the reason for my surprise and pleasure and EXCITEMENT were these fossils that follow.

These are just a few distinguishable ones. the rocks were full of different shapes and designs.

Do you see what I see?

This is the most amazing one: there is no doubt about what it is.

And this is the rock on which we found them, just beneath our feet

And so the excitement finished. Back at the hut for lunch. tired ......tired.....tired.

Its not finished yet. we still had to trek two and half hours to the cable car. BOOOOOhoooooo.

"Five Fingers" as they are called. Five ramps hanging on the void with a breath taking view under your feet through a glass.

Smiling on the outside and shivering inside thinking about the void beneath the feet

And then we came down to the town, after changing 3 Seilbahn (cable cars) of course. Then went to the nearby town/village called Hallstatte . There we visited the Catholic Church. Everything as normal with a very beautiful graveyard (flowers growing on each and every grave). And then again something to amaze me.

A ROOM full of painted Human skulls and human bones. I was like "Man! What on Earth is This room?"

Apparently, its an old local tradition to take out the skeleton of their ancestors and paint their Skull beautifully and then keep it. ???? Well there are weird traditions all over the world. I just did not expect something like this here.

See it for yourself:

Following are the photographs of the main square of the town. A nice little colourful town of Hallstatt. A beautiful place in the middle of the mountains. A place where you have to take a boat to go to the Railway Station, because its just on the other side of the lake.

This is where my journey in the mountains finished for this years visit to Austria.

If anyone wants to know more useful information about how to get to these mountains: you can visit:

www.dachsteinwelterbe.at

Tel: 0043-61315310

I hope you enjoyed my trip in wonderland.

Now I must go back to my bread and butter, back to work in two days time.

Will be back here after a break, till then

ASTA LA VISTA baby.

Tell Tales - 2

I guess my biggest weakness is that I let others persuade me to do things which I would normally not do. And at times the same weakness becomes my strength as well. Or at least thats how I see it.

Letting people make me do things have made me experience the things that I thought were possible only inside a television screen, or were done by only others and not me. And I did the same again a few days back in Austria. Even though it was just a trip up a mountain range; it was not something I would have done voluntarily. Yet i have to admit that I was excited as well as stressed by it. The things I saw made me amaze, the strength and grandeur of Mother Nature can make anyone feel humble.

Well, so it began on tuesday (6th October, 2009). We got up early in the morning at about 5 a.m. and were on the road by 6:30 a.m. After a drive of about 3 hours we arrived at Obertraun, A small town on the lake Hallstättersee. where we went straight to the "talstaion Krippenstein", that is the base station of the cable car aka "seilbahn" in german.

"Herr (Mr.) Ganser" had an itenerary according to which we were supposed to sleep that night on a hut called "Simonyhütte" at the height of 2203 m. But we found out that this perticular hut was closed, but another hut, not far from this one was open. Hence we did not have to change our plans of sleeping in the mountains. Encouraged with the information we bought the tickets for the onwards and return travel on the "seilbahn" for all four of us.

Our first destination that day was : MAMUTTEHÖHLE (Mamoth Cave)

Even though it does not sound very interesting as it is, but the story behind the formation of these caves is astonishing. This cave features the difference of altitude of 1,199 m between the highest located entrance and the lowest ever reached point.At present about 60 km of the cave has been explored and of which 1km can be visited on the guided tours. Obviously the shear size of the cave is the reason behind its name.

Photo: courtesy Dachstein Welterbe Website.

But thats not all, the more amazing reality is that this whole "inside the mountain" space was once under the sea. Yes, Now high up in the sky, all this was formed 200 million years ago. The space we see today in the cave, was once filled with water.

Amazing is the only word that come to my lips.

The Next destination: RIESENEISHÖHLE (The Giant Ice Cave)

A similar cave to the previous one. With the difference that this one is full of Ice. and not just a bit of ice, but big ice bergs. at this time of the year, the whole cave was not full of ice, yet there was enough ice to open your eyes. words and photos don't do justice to the feeling that you get when you are present in nature's studio. Yet I present some of the photos I took during the trip.

Stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the cave.

(these are the smallest ones though)

This one made me smile thinking that if it was in India

somewhere, they would already be lining up to worship it. :)

So forth and so on. The trip inside the cave lasted for about 45 mins.

Once outside, we made our way to the cable car to go further up and deeper into the mountains. One more change of the cable car and we were ready to do the exploring ourselves.

From where we left the "seilbahn", it was a 3 hours trek to this "Simonyhütte" and 2.5 hours to the "Weiseberghutte" where we were supposed to stay for the night. Knowing that the Simony hut is closed, we still decided to go to it. Just for the sake of it, even when it meant an hour and half of extra trekking.

Nothing exciting happened during the walking up and down the mountains, except the excruciating pain in the muscles of the legs. :)

But, once there, feeling of achievement is good. This Simony hut is situated at 2203 m above sea level. I know it doesn't feel very high, when you read it like this. But trust me it feels high enough when you looks around and see only the tops of the mountains for miles & miles and a glacier at your eye level; Just in your reach. Yet far enough.

Simony hut is a tiny dot next to the glacier (don't try to locate it, even I can't see it from here; But I know it's there)

Simony Hut, almost there; yet far (think about the muscles in the legs)

At last at the "Simony Hütte" as its called in german

The DachStein Glacier

Now starts an hour decent to the "Wieseberg Hut". Which we shall reach by 7 O'clock in the evening.

Wieseberg Hut

And that was the end of the day

The tell tales will continue after a break, giving you the break to read and enjoy.

There is more to the second day of the trip, which might be exciting for some.

Tell Tales

I try and try again, Since this morning I have been sitting in front of my computer for the sole purpose of writing the tale of my adventure that i had in the last two days. And since this morning i have been unsuccessful in doing so.

Everytime I do something out of the ordinary, I think about the blog. And every time I am at loss of words to do the justification to the grandeur of the Nature i have been a witness to.

So i have just written this entry to make me feel a bit better and the account of the travel will follow shortly.............................

A new life

Tomorrow the nomads leave for their new home, hopefully for the start of a New Era the cycle called life.

After the gap of almost 4 months, I'll be working again soon. And thats the reason I'll be going to Scotland tomorrow, leaving London behind forever (for now).  Fingers crossed, expectations high, here I go ......... to Scotland West Coast.

Angels and Demons

I went to watch the movie "angels and Demon" not with much expectations. As I had been disappointed by its prequel "Da vince Code", which was an absolute waste of my time. Prequel did not deliver what the book did so brilliantly. 

I can not say the same for the second installment from the makers. There may have been reviews criticising  the movie for what it is. As for me I liked it for it was fast faced and more understandable than its predecessor and more enjoyable as a film than the previous one.

But I would anytime prefer the books to the films ...... anytime. 

Once told by a pilot .........

This was narrated by a pilot to students during a Seminar on Human Relations:

"Arvind describes how his gesture of booking an air ticket for his father, his maiden flight, brought forth a rush of emotions and made him (Arvind) realize that how much we all take for granted when it comes to our parents.

My parents left for our native place on Thursday and we went to the airport to see them off. In fact, my father had never traveled by air before, so I just took this opportunity to make him experience the same. In spite of being asked to book tickets by train, I got them tickets on Jet Airways. The moment I handed over the tickets to him, he was surprised to see that I had booked them by air. The excitement was very apparent on his face, waiting for the time of travel.
Just like a school boy, he was preparing himself on that day and we all went to the airport, right from using the trolley for his luggage, the baggage check-in and asking for a window seat and waiting restlessly for the security check-in to happen. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and I, too, was overcome with joy watching him experience all these things.
As they were about to go in for the security check-in, he walked up to me with tears in his eyes and thanked me. He became very emotional and it was not as if I had done something great but the fact that this meant a great deal to him.

When he said thanks, I told him there was no need to thank me. But later, thinking about the entire incident, I looked back at my life. As a child, how many dreams our parents have made come true. Without understanding the financial situation, we ask for cricket bats, dresses, toys, outings, etc. Irrespective of their affordability, they have catered to all our needs. Did we ever think about the sacrifices they had to make to accommodate many of our wishes? Did we ever say thanks for all that they have done for us? Same way, today when it comes to our children, we always think that we should put them in a good school. Regardless of the amount of donation, we will ensure that we will have to give the child the best, theme parks, toys, etc. But we tend to forget that our parents have sacrificed a lot for our sake to see us happy, so it is our responsibility to ensure that their dreams are realized and what they failed to see when they were young. It is our responsibility to ensure that they experience all those and their life is complete.

Many times, when my parents had asked me some questions, I have actually answered back without patience. When my daughter asks me something, I have been very polite in answering. Now I realize how they would have felt at those moments.

Let us realize that old age is a second childhood and just as we take care of our children, the same attention and same care needs to be given to our parents and elders. Rather than my dad saying thank you to me, I would want to say sorry for making him wait so long for this small dream. I do realize how much he has sacrificed for my sake and I will do my best to give the best possible attention to all their wishes.

Just because they are old does not mean that they will have to give up everything and keep sacrificing for their grandchildren also. They have wishes, too.

Take care of your parents. THEY ARE PRECIOUS."



I hope you enjoyed it and will learn something from it.

Love

Thoughts again......

Getting up at 9/9:30 every day, going to bed at 1/1:30 every night ........... sleeping during the day.
There is not much I can complain about these days. today is a similar morning with exception of the english newspaper instead of hindi. and going through mails, job search websites and reading the blogs which I try to read on a regular basis.
And one thought got triggered while reading the latest post at Chai ki Dukaan by "OM".
It was an indirect mental link formed by the mention of old delhi/crowded .......which in turn turned my thoughts towards the ever increasing population of India.
It was just an interesting observation on part of my girlfriend (who is not Indian). She was amazed to she so many kids everywhere. which made me think in a different light .. that it IS true. almost every family I see has a toddler. Reason for which is the ages old traditional thinking process that everyone has to have children in order to fulfill their different religious and personal responsibilities.
Result being nuclear fission of population.

That will be it as I am in no mood to press any opinion at the moment.

my love to all

Abhishek

End of an ERA

As I looked through my window, amazed and thinking to myself if it was true what I saw, all i could see the small bright glowing dots that were the lights of the town. Spread as far as I could see. Far in the horizon there was a hint of orange glow which was spreading rapidly. and I was excited yet nervous. It was a big day for me. it was the Day of the Firsts. First time that I did alot of things. And it was that day that i was going to start a completely new life which I was oblivious to ........ yet.

Date: 26th November 2002
Time: 08Hrs 15Mins
British Airways flight from New Delhi to London made its way towards Heathrow turning and twisting in order to get in line with the runway; and in turn making me feel as if the pilot was giving me a tour of London.


London the city I had always heard of and was an important part of my undefined memories, the memories which I myself had no idea where they came from. London, an extremely familiar word yet so unfamiliar. and today I was about to embark on a journey which would build up my relationship with this city. The city of dreams. And reality

One of the first photos I took of Big Ben with my phone

About an hour and half later I was out of the arrivals and was introduced to the "Tube".

First Time I flew...........
First time I left my country.........
First time i travelled in an underground rail............
First time I saw London.

The Day of Firsts.

Five days later I was at the Mandarin Oriental. My employer, who brought me here. 

And my life in London started.

its been Six Years since then and I have lived a lifetime in these six years. 

I have been Happy, 

I have been Sad .............. 

Nervous ...........

Excited ............. 

Surprised .........

Awed ................

Critical .............

Dreamy ............

Realistic ...........

Dead .......

and  Alive.

I grew up

and I Grew Down.


I changed and evolved. I lost my hair and I found friends who don't care about hair :) 

I came closer to a lot of people and I went far from a lot. 

I found the new meaning of life and I compared it with the old one. I weighed it up, and I criticized it.

I fell in Love and then I fell deeply in love. 

I experienced what i never knew existed.

I broke down and got up again, with difficulty and support.

I travelled to places in search of something.

And I roamed around on the streets and parks of London oblivious to even myself.

I have been drowned and rescued. 

I have been sure and I have been confused.  

I learned and I unlearned.

I became the Master and the Student.

The life never gives you a break, you have to take it. And thats what I did a few days back. I took that break from something that was my life in London; My work. I finished my life in London

Date: 30th January 2009

Time: 1830

with countless memories which will be with me forever. Good and Bad, they will all be with me.

I am indebted to people who stood by me in my time of crisis and I am thankful to the people who put me in that crisis because they helped me develop into better being. Or atleast thats what I think of myself.

Thank you all .............. Thank you London. I shall always remember you and I  shall always miss YOU.