Travel Description of my tours & travails to Scotland

• Brief description of my travels & travails to Bristol & the Scottish Highlands:
  
  This is a true, unedited version of my travel log – the only censorship applied by me has been to leave out instances that are Adult in content or are likely to hurt people’s feelings
  
  Mar 22nd:
  § The day has finally arrived & I am eager to go to UK to meet Deepti, my sweet wife after 70 days of wait.
  § The usually unreliable car hire operator Sherekar has again given the slip, thus confirming his reliable unreliability – also tried to con us by sending the higher priced Qualis over the pre-ordered Indica. Then my father (and my mother, who was surprisingly wide awake at 11:30 PM) dropped me to the Check Naka from where I took a cab for the airport
  § Being 5 hours early for my flight (the early bird catches the worm and also loses sleep at airports!), I bought a Jeffrey Archer (yes, the jailbird & famous author) novel to kill time. But what better way to pass time than to observe the interesting happenings at the airport
  o A ‘first-time’ traveler running (as if in the Marathon) at 2:00 AM & being kicked around like a football by the courteous airport authorities since he did not know which counter to go to
  o Half-asleep international travelers trying to wake up, see the time & go back to sleep again
  
  Mar 23rd:
  § I check in & find a place to sleep on one of the reclining seats in the departure area where I find it difficult to sleep given the snoring of a burly passenger & the constant aerial attacks by a couple of enterprising mosquitoes
  § AI 125 is announced for boarding – finally! (my novel is almost over – what a waste of money)
  § I climb the flight & get myself introduced to Ms.AS, my Mama’s reference (who promises to upgrade me to First Class – whipeeeeee). But requests me to sit in my current seat for some time.
  § To my surprise, my seat is already taken by a member of a 4-member all Ladies Gujarati family. The issue is that their seats were not allotted together by Air India and the family has decided to do the re-allocation themselves – how easy! I protest & finally get my own seat. Since I am now a criminal in their eyes, they start their torture – the Granny starts passing khakras to her grand-daughter (who had to move to the other side of the aisle because of me), then water is passed, then another round of bhel (all this at 6:35 AM in the morning). Finally Ms. S comes like an angel & upgrades me
  § I am lucky to leave the Economy class by this time since various battle lines have been drawn already:
  o Passenger vs. passenger: The issues on hand are luggage compartments, seat reclination etc.
  o Passengers vs. Staff: The key issue seems to be the mosquitoes on the flight & the passengers are insisting that they have not paid for the mosquitoes but only for the seats!
  § As I walk into the First class, all eyes are on me, as if saying,” Here comes the Freebie Guy” – but I am nonchalant about it all & take my seat – its my birthright after all.
  § Then I go to sleep on the reclining seats till lunch (which is a yummy lobsters and red wine), have a long chat with Ms.S about Air India, her kid and life in general. She offers to take me to the cock-pit (smth which has been offered to me several times but just does not materialize – ever) and I happily accede. She checks with the pilot who says,”Ok, but after lunch”.
  § By then, it is already time to land & my cock-pit wish continues to remain a dream. Meanwhile, I am already several liquids (of the non-alcoholic variety) down and feeling fresh to take on Her Majesty’s forces.
  § After landing, I am constantly watching my shoulder for Her Majesty’s agents who might try to catch me for carrying some liquor into London (a city, which incidentally has 33,500 pubs in the central district itself)
  § Other incidents:
  o An Indian, who claimed to be from Vashi, and has an export-import business in London borrowed my phone to make a missed call to his wife, who was waiting outside for him at the airport, so as to signal her. The missed call went on for 2 mins!
  o Heathrow Airport looked like the melting pot of global culture with so many different types of people there. One can of course, identify people by just observing their activities
  § The Brits, always looking tense, as if the EU integration issue is burning on their minds
  § The care-free Yankees with super-size McBurgers and Diet Coke (to cut down on the calories)
  § Mao’s armies (the Chinese never travel in groups of less than 8 – is there a bulk discount for which the Communist coffers are used to subsidize international travel)
  § The Japanese photographers who are trying to catch everything from the airport tower to the loo on their Sony camera
  § The Indians – wont say anything for fear of being branded unpatriotic
  § Once out of the airport, I take the National Express coach from Heathrow to Bristol (where my sweet wife is waiting for me) – the bus departs sharply at 12:45 PM (the bus service in UK is a pleasure with the efficiency & punctuality et all)
  § At Bristol, I hug my wife & take a cab to Chantry Court, her residence where a delicious snack of hot poha and coffee is waiting for me.
  § After a long nap, we go to the Students Union Building for Deepti’s Annual Telethon (place where she works part-time to raise donations for the University of Bristol) Prize Distribution & party. The party has pizzas and more pizzas and still more pizzas on the menu (with alcohol of course!). Deepti does not like the pizza and hits on the alcohol (which gets her on a high immediately)
  o Deepti was the star of the evening since she won 4 prizes – Best caller of the Term (most prestigious award), maximum nos. of calls made, outstanding commitment & Best Caller of the Week (for 1 particular week); everybody was congratulating her for the terrific work done by her. And to think that this was the same girl who, until 6 months back was so under-confident & depressed since she could not get a single donation – people improve under the right circumstances and life changes for the better. This was a great lesson for me.
  § We also visit Amar & Rohan (Deepti’s friends) for dinner (and drinks of course! Especially since Deepti had won a wine bottle as one of her 4 prizes) & head-back home at 2 AM for sleep.
  
  Mar 24th:
  § The day began a bit late with Deepti’s hangover – so there was no new preparation for breakfast. Had poha and coffee.
  § Went to South Indian Hotel, Krishna for lunch & over-ordered. So had to pack 2 potato wadas and 2 medu wadas back home.
  § In the evening, Joan, Rohini & Jamal (Deepti’s friends) came over to meet us. The dinner party also included Deepti’s neighbour Paige. So it was a truly multi-national party – Rohini (Singapore), Jamal (Pakistan), Joan (Barbados), Paige (US) and the 2 Indians (Deeps & yours truly).
  · It was truly refreshing to talk to Jamal about Indo-Pak relations and to find out that people on the other side of the border also are tired of the war/conflict and want peace. Alas, if only the politicians would listen!
  · Deeps had prepared mouthwatering tomato rice & raita for us – her hand has magic & it tasted delicious
  § Slept at 12 AM after packing for our much-awaited Scotland vacation, which was planned by Deepti with assistance from Abhijit Agate (native of Glasgow for last 1 yr thanks to Mahindra-BT)
  
  Mar 25th:
  § The day of reckoning finally is here – I have been forced to get up at 5:30 AM, which is not too pleasant a feeling on a leisure vacation, while my wife sleeps on. With a hot bath etc & the morning ablutions done, we take a taxi to the Bristol Airport. The driver gives us an early morning discount of 3 pounds (every penny saved is a bonus for me – ha ha ha).
  § Easy Jet check-in is like Air Deccan – a loooooong queue. The gruff lady begins her Inquisition – What do u have in the bag? Did anybody else help u to pack it? Do u have liquids in the bag?
  § Post the check-in, we settle down at the Caffe to sip a hot coffee & butter croissant.
  § Finally at 9:00 AM, we take off for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland which a 1 hr journey. On landing at Edinburgh Airport, we take a shuttle to St.Andrews Bus Station (where we will be depositing our luggage for the day before our evening bus to Fort Williams – interesting system in which for 3 pounds, u can book a locker for 1 day)
  § The moment one enters Edinburgh City centre, u feel like being transported back in time, 200 years atleast. Everything in the city is from 1600s, 1700s and 1800s – there are beautiful monuments in the Victorian style, houses where literary greats lived like Robert Burns, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson etc and current heroes like Sean Connery. Edinburgh also has the Holyrood Palace (Queen’s residence when she comes here), the Scottish Parliament (which is aptly build on a site that earlier had a brewery) and dozens of pubs. The reason that all these historic buildings still stand is that Hitler wanted to make Edinburgh his capital after the conquest of England – hence he did not bomb Edinburgh unlike London (or maybe he just fell in love with Scottish malts & whiskies)
  § Scotland also has a history of bloody murders – the 2 husbands of Mary Queen of Scots, William Hare and Burke (these gentlemen murdered people for their bodies which they sold to hospitals/scientific laboratories for research purposes since bodies were in short supply), a family full of cannibals (whose name I cant remember) – we bought a book on these murders to discover the ‘other side’ of human nature
  § We took a 0.5 day tour of Edinburgh city – the most beautiful thing we visited was a place called Dynamic Earth, that contains the Earth’s history from the Big Bang and traces the evolution of life on our planet.
  § The weather was so cold that I was freezing inspite of 2 sweaters, thermals & 1 muffler – thankfully there was no rain.
  § Lunch was in a classy Italian restaurant – the pizza and bruschetta were yummy. After this, we went to the bus station to leave for Fort Williams, our next stop.
  § The journey to Fort Williams was a scenic one through ‘lochs and glens’ (or lakes & forests) and the greenery was just amazing. The cows grazing, the streams flowing – it almost felt like stepping into a beautiful painting or a scene from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge
  § We reached Fort Williams at 9:30 PM (~5 hrs journey) and had a good meal at an Indian restaurant (yes, there are 3 of these even in Fort Williams), post which we took a taxi to the Youth Hostel, which was to be our halt for 2 nights.
  § The hostel had a lot of trekkers from various countries, all there to climb Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in Scotland. We could see Ben Nevis from just outside our hostel – snowclad, scenic and yet hospitable, like all the Scotsmen we had met.
  § One key lesson that we learned in tour planning is not to book a cheap accommodation away from the City Centre since one has to come to the city centre for all things (especially in smaller towns) & the travel costs nullify the accommodation differential – one has to use a TCO (total cost of ownership) calculation
  
  Mar 26th:
  § After an early morning breakfast at the village inn (consisting of egg rolls and coffee while Deeps had a vegetarian one), we hired mountain bicycles from Offbeat Bikes, the main bicycle shop in Fort Williams. Incidentally, a good bicycle costs ~500 pounds to buy while a second hand car costs ~300-500 pounds – strange that these high-tech bicycles should cost so much. Luckily, we only had to hire them for a day and not buy them.
  § Then we started on our ‘ambitious’ journey to Gairlochy on the Great Glenn Canal route (smth which should take us ~4 hrs as per the bicycle shop guy). Our first stop point was Banavis, a small village that was supposed to be the ‘start’ of the mountain trail – reaching Banavis for us was like the mid-point of our stamina (and to think both of us were National level sportsmen as well as avid fitness freaks). By this time, our butts were paining like crazy and we realized why bicycling is an intense exercise.
  § Anyway, the scenery was so beautiful – the canals of Scotland on one side and the farm-houses on the other. We met with several cyclists going to Gairlochy and also trekkers. We were also learning the use of the gears of the bicycles since we had never driven these cycles ever (and ordinary ones for the last 15 years atleast!)
  § We did the journey at our own pace – stopping to catch our breath as well as to observe the beauty of Nature, we were thinking,
  · “The face of Scotland, a sight to beholdAnd let Mother Nature’s secret unfoldOne so lovely, pretty & fair,That Time itself should just stop & stare”
  § We really hoped that Time would stand still & we could savour each other’s company (for we are separated by ~7500 kms as Deeps studies in Bristol) as well as the fresh air – after all, that is one claim that Mumbai can never hope to have.
  § We never managed to reached Gairlochy – we turned back when ~2 miles from the place since we were running out of time on our bicycles – if the shop closed before we returned, my driving licence would be with them (and we had a 6:45 AM bus the next morning – my wife is really making sure that I get up really early each day – Revenge is a dish best served cold & the mornings are really, really cold)
  § We had lunch on the way at a pub – potatoes, hot soup & omlette – tasty but too heavy. And we cycled back slowly, taking lots of pictures, and came back to the shop
  § Having returned the bicycles, we strolled in the market place & bought takeaway dinner (since we desperately wanted to go back & sleep) – we returned to the hostel at around 6:00 PM, had coffee and relaxed for a while.
  § We had an early dinner & turned it since the next day was again an early starter.
  § Key lesson – mountain cycling is a terrific way to maintain fitness & enhance the love between partners; I would highly recommend this to couples who are game for a vigorous vacation (outdoors one, obviously!)
• 
  Mar 27th:
  § We got up at 5:30 AM & reached the bus station for catching a bus to Inverness from which we would be taking a train to Culrain for Carbisdale Castle (our final destination)
  § It was so cold waiting for the bus in the morning that:
  · “My teeth chattered and my limbs quaked,My mouth let out smoke,Father Winter had me grounded,How I wished for the Mumbai heat – relax, this is only a joke!
  § We had breakfast at the Inverness Rail Station and proceeded by train to Culrain. On reaching Culrain at ~12:30 PM, we trekked to Carbisdale Castle. This was like a fairy tale come true – the castle stands on top of a hill & has been converted into a Youth Hostel. It was donated by the generous Lord Salvesen to the Scottish Youth Hostel in the 1960s.
  § The insides of the castle are truly breath-taking – chandeliers, paintings, library, the statues. The cafeteria serves great food & we had paninis for lunch. Our room was on the ground floor itself & after lunch we immediately set out for a tour of the castle. There is also a ghost room in the castle where several varities of ghosts (old ladies, beheaded Knight etc.) have been sighted but Deeps never let us venture anywhere close by.
  § In the afternoon, we took a walk in the forest – although we had a map & there were sign posts at most places in the forest, we still managed to get lost – yet the objective of the walk was never to reach a particular destination but to seep in the atmosphere & the feeling of togetherness
  · Key lesson: Sometimes we focus so much on the end that we never realize that the journey is over. That’s what life is – a beautiful journey – so lets enjoy it fully since we live only once
  § At coffee time, we found all about the new coffee machine bought by the hostel – the coffee was great & we savoured the aroma/taste for quite a while.
  · Key lesson: The joy of coffee is sometimes unmatched – there is nothing like sipping a latte with chocolate & cinnamon in a castle surrounded by coniferous trees. On the other hand, a hot Madrasi coffee (from Mani’s at Matunga, can also give one the same joy)
  § After a beautiful walk in the forest, we returned by dinner time – Deepti has a simple funda of life – “Khau Piu Zindabad” – that is why she also loves Anubhav travels & Kesari travels which ensure a constant supply of delicious food to the tourists.The kind cook, Tommy, gave us stir-fried vegetables (since Deepti did not like the vegetarian food on offering & I was not hungry anyway). We also interacted a lot with Patrick & Coletted (staff) who were staying in the castle for the last 3 years. Patrick is a divorcee who is not having a relationship with Colette – both enjoy outdoor activities & often do mountaineering, surfing, cycling etc. together across Scotland, Their job at the Castle also enables them to pursue their hobbies/passion for the outdoors
  · Key lesson: Often we separate work and pleasure as distinct activities – how can we find that vocation which is both a pleasure & work at the same time? Life would be so interesting then since we will never have to work a single day!
  § The library was amazing – the books were English classics – I took the Perfect Murder (HRF Keating) to read and did so for ~2 hrs till it was bed-time. Deeps studied her Financial Statement Analysis & I helped her out occasionally.
  
  Mar 28th:
  § We got up at 8:30 since breakfast closes at 9:00 AM – had our breakfast and then went back to bed again – all Deeps’s fault – after all, I had specifically told her to wake me up in 15 mins from my meditation!
  § We got up at around 12:00 PM and again hired bicycles to head out for Bonar Birch ( ~9 kms from the Castle) – the counter guy Alex, started laughing when he heard where we were going for our bicycle tour, reason being that he stays at Bonar Birch and cycles everyday to work at the castle. However, we knew our ‘cycling limits’ & decided not to be more adventurous.
  § The ride to Bonar Birch was very beautiful again – past farmhouses, cows, sheep, yaks (yes!) and river streams. Of course, we stopped 2-3 times for resting & reached Ard Gay (the main village) where we saw Scottish school children, village square etc. Then onwards we went to Bonar Birch and looked out for a place to have lunch. We settled on a Café based on the menu that contained vegetarian food. We had soup, garlic bread & mushroom omlette with lemonade.
  § After taking some snaps at the bridge, we started on our tour back to the castle, again stopping to rest & watch the surroundings.
  § The Scottish Highlands are so peaceful & fresh that the experience is almost like a trance – there are so many shades of green that Nature has created that it is not possible to capture them on canvass. Also, the cows & sheep seem so blissful, that I wonder, why cant Man be so? Why is it that only we have tensions & stress?
  § We return to the Castle for coffee & then continue our Library reading/studies till dinner. Dinner is ok-ok – macaroni cheese for Deeps & chicken noodles for me but the dessert (don’t know its name) was excellent
  § Again, we retired early for bed – u guessed it right, we had a 6:30 AM train back to Culrain the next day
• 
  Mar 29th:
  § We wake up at 5:30 AM & head back to Culrain & catch our train back to Inverness. Culrain, being a small station has no ticket windows etc – one has to take out the ticket inside the train using the ticket collector’s hand-held device – amazing what technology can do to replace people
  § At Inverness, we have our breakfast & catch our bus back to Edinburgh
  · I am somewhat saddened to have to pay 20 pence for using the toilet at Inverness station – this is a common practice in developed countries, something I have to still come to terms with given my upbringing. To top it all, the ladies toilet was free since the turnstile was broken – to talk of gender equality!
  § The route back to Edinburgh was even more scenic as we traveled through snow-clad mountains – wish we had our own car so that we could have stopped for more time amongst the mountains.
  § We reach Edinburgh at around 1:00 PM and deposit our luggage back in the lockers of St.Andrews Station & head back as per Deeps’ Travel Principle No.1 – “Live to Eat”. So we go back to the same Italian restaurant & have the same pizza but take a different soup.
  § Then we take another tour of Edinburgh – this time on a different route. Again we are amazed at the historical monuments that we see – Edinburgh is a place no historian can afford to miss.
  § After the tour is complete, we do some window shopping for most of our time & some real shopping (which is mostly books) & head back to Edinburgh airport.
  § On the shuttle back to the airport, seated opposite to us were 2 scary Scottishmen
  · One was scar-face who tried to make conversation with us – he looked so dangerous that Deeps & I felt scared talking to him
  · The other was Mr.Hulk – tall & hefty but spoke nothing
  · Thank God nothing untoward happened – maybe nothing would ever have happened but we imagined so much that it was no funny. That’s also the thing with life – we are always prejudiced – a scarface means a thug and a tall, hefty person will always try to bully us. Unfortunately, the people whom we should be concerned about are all around us, decked in coats & ties and maybe khadis & khakis
  § Anyway, we had coffee at the airport & did some shopping – Deeps bought 2 watches (2 for 1 offer) and we boarded our flight back to Bristol
  § On landing at Bristol, we did not know how to take a taxi back – there was a looooooong queue at the stand & the taxi system was quite weird – you would have to share a cab with somebody going to the same location and you would not get a cab till you have found somebody to share it with (the system automatically paired people going to the same destination). Finally, tired of the wait, we decided to take the bus back & headed home for a late night sleep. Also, we had Maggi noodles for dinner and watched Karamchand & CID episodes (site: http://www.indiaforum.com/) before finally falling asleep.
  
  Mar 30th:
  § Today was for relaxation & unwinding after the hectic Scotland tour – we got up quite late & had to ditch our earlier plans for having poha as breakfast & settled on coffee & Indian namkeen snacks.
  § Then we went out for lunch to Beijing Bistro, a good Chinese joint frequented by students. Post lunch, we went to the Odeon multiplex to watch Mr.Bean’s Holiday (a bad decision since the movie is funny only in parts & one cannot watch Mr. Bean’s same routines & laugh for hours on end – gets boring at times); incidentally in Bristol, a 2:15 PM movie actually starts only at 2:45 PM – there are 30 mins of advertisement/trailers – this is clearly one aspect in which Indian theatres are a lot better
  § After the movie, we went to the National Express Coach station & got our tickets to London. Then we went to Borders to buy a few more books (and also use the gift voucher received by Deepti as her prize)
  § In the evening, Deepti’s friends Purva, Tushar, Samyukta & Ankita had come over for dinner. Deepti had prepared Alu Parathas & raita. Paige (Deepti’s flatmate who is doing her M.Sc in Garden History, which can also be a very interesting subject as I found out during my conversations with her) made chocolate cookies for all of us. We also had Chinese dumpling, thanx to Sheffie (girlfriend of another of Deepti’s flat-mate, Leo)
  
  Mar 31st:
  § Today morning, Samyukta had come to prepare South-Indian upma for Deeps & me – upma was yummy & spicy. Then we left for London on the coach – we are staying at Lavin Kotian’s place (Lavin is a college friend of mine & works in an IT company which requires him to travel all over the globe; he has also just got engaged to his school crush & is planning to get married next year)
  § We arrived in London, Victoria at 12:30 PM and then navigated through the various rail lines (Piccadily, Northern, Jubilee etc.) & reached Lavin’s apartment at Borough – it was an excellent flat with all the required amenities.
  § We went for lunch at a nearby Indian joint & then left to visit another friend of mine, Vikram Soni, whose wife was in hospital – the earlier plan was also to visit the London Dungeon but on seeing the long queue there, we gave up the plan completely. We finished our hospital visit by 7:00 PM (btw, the hospital at Stanmore was more like a vast township & full of greenery –really good atmosphere for treatment & rehabilitation)
  § Next we landed at Leister Squaure, the hot-bed of movies, theatres & restaurants. The earlier plan was to see a movie but Deeps was not feeling too well & hence we decided to tuck in for dinner (especially since we had not had our afternoon snacks/coffee) – dinner was Italian pasta & prawns with red wine (interestingly, this Italian place did not serve pizzas at all)
  § Post dinner, we returned home for the night & talked for a couple of hours on life – the past, the future & something else
  
  April 1st:
  § We got up at around 9:00 AM – Lavin made excellent omlettes for us (he does have an alternative career in cooking, I must say)
  § Deepti & I decided to take a walk to see the London Bridge, which is quite close from Lavin’s place. The weather was sunny & windy – hence I was feeling extremely cold while Deeps was very comfortable, not even wearing her thermals
  § The Bridge was beautiful (though I had seen it several times before, I was again amazed to see its splendour) – we clicked several snaps of me, Deeps & us together at various vantage points & returned home
  § Lavin’s friend Dhiraj Asrani (working for TCS) also joined us for lunch (he moved in with Lavin that morning for the next 3-4 days before his return to India). Lavin had cooked egg curry & fried chicken for lunch & got nan & dal from outside. I was again feeling a bit groggy & did not eat much though Lavin’s chicken was very authentic Manglorean style.
  § By this time, it was already 1PM and time for me to leave for the airport – the team did an analysis of several options & finally concluded that the best option is for me to take a coach from Victoria Station to Heathrow. The key criteria used for decision-making were time taken, no. of changes needed, amount of walking needed for the change-overs and obviously, the cost of the options.
  § The target was to take the 2:30 PM coach from Victoria and we barely made it in time – I was the last person on the coach; the sad part was that I did not even get to say a proper good-bye to Deeps (whom I will probably see only in June, unless some miracle happens – yes, I do believe in miracles)
  § On arriving at Heathrow & finding my way to Terminal 3 for my Air India flight, I was shocked to see a very looooooooooong queue for the check-in. It was the longest check-in queue I have ever stood in during the last 12 years of my international traveling career. So I took out my Agatha Christie novel and finished 2 stories by the time I came for check-in. But it was definitely more interesting to watch the various passer-bys express their shock/surprise/disgust/admiration etc etc at the loooooong queue. The obviously, there were the ‘smarts’ who tried to break the queue under one pretext or the other and were put in place by the London airport staff.
  § After checking-in, I had coffee again at Costa Coffee, purchased some souvenirs for friends in India and was strolling in the Duty Free shops area. I had overheard that my flight was delayed by 1 hr & hence felt that I had plenty of time. Suddenly, I get jolted by the call of Final Closing of my flight gate – I had to rush to the gate & barely made it in time.
  § Again, thanx to Mama, I was introduced to Mr.UD & Mr.V (flight crew), who upgraded me & ensured that I have a safe journey home. My stomach was a bit upset & hence I could not savour the various delicacies of the flight but restricted myself to fruits & juices
  § I kept praying for a long time since my luggage took ages to come – this is India not Heathrow where luggage comes in 10 mins of arrival – Welcome Home!
  § Getting into my taxi, I called all my relatives to announce my home-coming and started thinking of the road ahead
  
  Adios Amigos & Good Bye!