Dreaming of an Ideal World!!!

I’m just back from a business trip.  I had to be in 5 different timezones in the last 2 months.  The most annoying thing was to change timezones in each of my desktop and web applications.  For eg.

• Google Calendar
• Google Voice (Funny that these two are still not integrated)
• Gizmo VoIP  
• Desktop applications
• System Date and Time
• GroupWise
• Thunderbird lightning

Why can’t they all read my primary timezone from my desktop and give my an option to set it accordingly. I wish HTML5 has an option for webservices to read your local time and set if required.

Melkote is one of the sacred places in Karnataka.  It has been in our wish list to visit this place  some time.  I read a pretty detailed trip report before starting to this place yesterday.   You can see the process of  jaggery making towards the end of this report.  We visited that place too…  The fresh jaggery melts in your mouth!!!

My plan was to reach this place in 90 minutes from our house on Kanakapura road, close to NICE intersection.  I took a full 2hrs to reach here.

You can see the details of above track here.

Here are some photographs from the top of the hill.

This the view of the gopuram from one side of the hill.

No temples are complete without our friends!!!  Ignore the picture quality… This is the best I could manage with my N96 with the low light and and a bright background.

The weather was very pleasant this evening.  One thing I liked about this place is that, Melkote is still not commercialized like other temple towns.  The place is neat and not that crowded.

Fui uno de los Presidentes del Club de Novell calificador de este año. Tres de nosotros fueron seleccionados de Novell Bangalore. El premio se celebró en función de Cancún, Mexico en una exótica playa.  The resort, Fairmont Mayacoba was one of the finest in this region.

Novell took care of everything for us, including the ticket booking, travel arrangements, airport pickup and drop and a very comfortable stay at the resort.  The program was for 5 days, 12th Feb to 17th.  Krish and ourselves were in the same flight from Bangalore and to Bangalore. 

We reached Cancun by 7:30Pm on first day.  We missed the social event on that evening since it was too late by the time we were allotted room and we got some time to freshen up.   Next day started with breakfast and address by executives.   There was a discussion panel lead by John Dragoon after that.  We did a community project before lunch.  Afternoon was free for us and we explored the resort a little bit.

Saturday was again free after breakfast.  We decided to go around the resort in the morning.  Everybody was planning to go to Playa De Carmen (the nearest town) in the evening for the valentine day dinner.  Krish, Anu and ourselves went to a  restaurant which they claimed as vegetarian (100% Naturale).  There was a sponsored activity on Sunday.  We had chosen to go to Maya ruins and a snorkel trip.  Though the trip was organized well, the place itself was not that exotic. (We have seen much richer culture and beaches in India).   The Award Gala was on Sunday evening and it was arranged in a farm house nearby.  There were a lot of drinks, horse show and other fascinating programs.

Next day, we visited XCaret, one of the echo theme park in Cancun.  You need one full day to cover this entire park.  The cultural show in the evening was really good.  Then, everything was over suddenly.  Its Tuesday, and one more wonderful vacation is coming to and end.  We left Mexico with some wonderful memories.

Here are some pictures from this trip

It has been a while we went out for an outing.   It was too stressful at work and we had been working over weekend for the last couple of months. We were looking for a quick get away from city. I remembered Jaladhama Resorts close to Talakkadu. 

Our get away places are forests normally.  This place is different as it is on the banks of River Cauveri and three sides are covered with water.  You have to park your car on one side of the river and go by a motor boat to this resort.  This itself is an interesting  experience.

This place is well maintained with lots of open space. They usually conduct corporate programs.  HCL was having their day  picnic on the day we arrived.  The place was so crowded and for a moment, we thought we are in a wrong place. 

Stay

They do have cottages that can accommodate family of two with 1-2 kids and large families with 6-8 members.  Rooms are clean and spacious.  We had taken two small cottages which were very comfortable.  For those do not want to miss their “sas bahu”, all rooms are equipped with DishTV.

There are ample space in the resort for kids to play around and it appears to be very safe.

Activities

One good thing I noticed is number of activities that they offer. They do have facilities for all sports (shuttle, volleyball, cricket, basketball etc.) and are  well maintained.  They do have a spacious swimming pool.  In addition to this, being an island, they do offer a variety of boating options such as canoe, pedal boat and motor scooter (extra payment).

Food

Food is average.  Though the rooms are clean, restaurant area is not that hygienic.   It was over crowded when we reached here due to another day picnic team. 

Fact File:

Resort: I would always recommend Jungle Lodges if you are ready to spend this kind of money.  More over, the service is not professional here.
Distance: 120KMs from Bangalore.  It is better to take Mysore road and take a deviation from Maddur.  Road from Maddur to this resort is pathetic right now.
Contact: Refer to their website.
Here is my photogallery.