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While Moorthy walked to the National Car rental counter, Rakesh got a phone call. And Raghav and I were busy collecting brochures and pamphlets about Alaska stacked in little bookshelves. We picked a copy of everything – it would come in handy for planning!

Choice?

Moorthy felt the prices being quoted were higher than what Rakesh and he had seen the previous night online. The guy at the counter said, “Check online to see if it shows a better price. The prices fluctuate.”
After a while, we discovered that the online rates had also gone up. 
“Can we check at the other counter?” we asked, looking at the 3 other rental company outlets nearby. 
“Oh, we are all together.”
So this was an interesting setup – these were 4 different rental companies, but they had some sort of tie-up, or perhaps they were all owned by the same entity! Gives you an illusion of choice.

There were a couple of other rental counters on the other side of the escalator, but Rakesh said that he was seeing the price of those show higher online. So we stayed at the same counter.
“Who is the primary driver?” the staff asked.
We went with Rakesh.
“You’d have to add whoever else will drive the car as a secondary.”
We opted for Moorthy – there is an extra charge for adding more folks as drivers. 
“Would you like to add insurance?”
Our initial thought was that it wasn’t required.
“Is basic insurance part of the rental?”
“No – there’s nothing. You have to add-on.” And then he showed a list of add-ons – every add-on was extra money. 
The staff mentioned, “Some credit cards also provide insurance. So you can check that.”
Rakesh said, “Mine doesn’t.”
“Just check the offers on your card. Many have some level of coverage.”
His was a basic Bank of America card, and he tried searching online to find what was covered. The staff also started searching to help us out. 
“Yeah, this doesn’t have.”
And then Moorthy pulled out his card – he had a premium United one in hand while he had left a few others at home, one of which he was sure had insurance coverage. And so began the search online to see what services were provided as part of his card. He also mentioned that he had a Costco visa anywhere card, and when the staff heard that, he said, “Oh, you have Costco. Then you should book it online from Costco, and you’ll get offers.”

Costco is a large retailer in the US where you need to be a member to make purchases – and all purchases are made in large quantities; think of them like a wholesale shop that sells to retail customers – so if you are buying toothpaste, you can’t buy a single piece and instead will have to buy a pack of 6 tubes. Many people would go there once a month to stock up on supplies. 
“But I don’t know if it has coverage.”
“I have a Costco, and it has.” But the card the staff flashed was different from the one Moorthy had; we tried searching online again for the services included in this one.
“You should know all the services offered in your cards,” the staff said. “Costco will have insurance. In fact, you’ll also get to add a 2nd driver for free if you book from Costco.”

And so, Moorthy tried to book from the Costco site using guidance from the staff since he didn’t know that you could make rental bookings via Costco and get offers.
Finally, the booking went through, and the staff said he got the online order. And it did include some freebies, thanks to Costco. 
“It’s worth spending time knowing your card.”
Definitely some homework for Rakesh and Moorthy!
In India, I know a few folks who use various cards for the sake of getting discounts on purchases or hotel or airline bookings. But many of us don’t spend the time to look at what all is offered. 

The maze

After picking up our car, which was a Toyota RAV4 (a common SUV in NC that everyone seemed to have) from the rental agency lot, we passed a petrol bunk installed inside the building and went upwards on a ramp that led us to the open terrace of the building were there were more cars parked. Out in the distance, we could see the snow-capped mountain scenery. Any outdoor view from the airport would have mountains in the picture!

There seemed to be two ways to get out, though there were no directions for the exit. We took the first one and came down the other side of the petrol bunk! That wasn’t the one, but we noticed another pathway leading somewhere else – it was again a circular ramp, and Moorthy took the car on it. After one circle, we came to a dead end where there was an access-restricted gate! This was an awkward spot because Moorthy had to come down the circular ramp in reverse gear (there was no space to U-turn). Moorthy managed this while the three of us kept a watch for any vehicles coming in the opposite direction up the ramp.

We were back near the petrol bunk – the problem was that the place was deserted, and there was no one in sight anywhere. Fortunately, a few minutes later, there was a lady who came in a car, and Raghav asked her for directions – she asked us to follow her car and took us past another gate that said restricted access but opened for her to take us into some other rental car lot; once here, there was a direction to the exit – up another ramp, we went to get out on to the street. We had spent 20 minutes inside that deserted rental lot, struggling to get out!

Our first stop was lunch – and we found a restaurant called “Taste of India” that was just a 5-minute drive away. Looking at the map of Anchorage, it felt like the places we wanted to go to today were all within a short radius of the airport. Even downtown Anchorage was only about 7 miles away (15 minutes drive). The restaurant was situated in a shopping plaza (in the US, they call these strip malls since you have a strip of stores, one beside the other). The weather was super pleasant – clear skies and temperature almost 20 degrees Celsius. Inside the restaurant, there were a couple of groups dining, while Indian film songs were playing on the TV. We left the ordering to Raghav and Rakesh – we started with pakoras, which was a little disappointing because they weren’t the small crispy pieces that we were used to. But everything else was pretty good – especially the paneer, which was super soft. We didn’t have desserts but ended our meal with their masala chai. 

Our flight was at 9:45 am; Moorthy received a message in the morning saying the wifi on the flight wouldn’t work. We thought it may take close to an hour and a half to get to JFK airport, but the Uber managed to zip through in 50 minutes – barely any traffic on this Saturday morning. Alaksan airlines was from Terminal 7, and unlike the usual expectation of heavy rush in the security line, this one was breezy – terminal 7 had many carriers that I hadn’t heard about, and they were all domestic.

What’s a cortado?

Moorthy advised us to download audiobooks, podcasts, or movies so we would not feel bored during the flight. The flight duration was an estimated 8 hours, but we’d reach Anchorage at 1:30 pm local time – start at 10 am and reach at 1 pm with the whole day left to spare is a bonus in travel. New York is in the Eastern time zone, while Alaska is in the Alaskan time zone. So 8:30 am in New York is 4:30 am in Anchorage. I later found that the state of Alaska itself has 2 time zones – but as part of our trip, we’d never get so far out west to enter their 2nd time zone. Alaska is the biggest US state.

Since there was time for boarding, we went around the terminal searching for food options – there were a few eateries clustered in one section where we also ordered sandwiches and coffee. Rakesh ordered a cortado – this is something that he found in New Jersey where the size of a cortado would be a lot less compared to other coffees – cortados were served in small cups. After billing, when we went to the area where the coffee was being prepared, the Indian lady at the counter asked, “Do you know what is a cortado?” He replied affirmatively. And then she said, “Many people don’t know what it is. Do you know?” she asked again, and he replied that he did and that it’s made with less milk. Cortado has an equal amount of milk and espresso. But what Rakesh got was definitely not cortado – it was served in a large cup and way more milkier than he was expecting; it was like a latte.
“She obviously doesn’t know what a cortado is!”

After wrapping our breakfast, we headed to the boarding gate; there was a board that explained the practice of overbooking on flights; guess it was better to do an online check-in just to ensure you have a seat and don’t have a surprise in the airport. We thought the flight may not be full since how many people would there be travelling to Alaska, and that too on this one flight that was so long and non-stop. We were wrong – the flight was almost packed. 
But what was nice about the flight was that the seats in economy were better than economy seats on other flights – I had enough legroom that my knee wasn’t pressing against the seat in front. There was a USB charging port and a small latch at the back of every seat that could support a handheld device if you wanted to watch a movie.

It was only after the flight started moving that Raghav noticed the safety card, which said this was a Boeing 737 Max – and that was when I realized that this happened to be the same airline where there was the recent incident of the door falling off when the flight was in the air; and Boeing’s 737 Max had a couple of fatal crashes a few years earlier that brought it in the limelight. Well, it was truly too late for us to make any changes to our decision now!

During the flight, the air hostess came around 3 times, serving drinks and a couple of biscuits – nothing fancy here, but they did have a separate menu for a few more items that you could pay and buy – Moorthy tried one which was a type of cheese platter. We sort of assumed that alcohol would be charged (at least that’s what it seemed to indicate in the inflight menu) while other drinks like soda and fruit juice were free; Rakesh asked for an alcoholic beverage, and the hostess gave a small glass bottle and water and didn’t ask for any payment. Perhaps one drink was free. Since I had asked for water more than a couple of times, the air hostess gave me a 1-litre cardboard water bottle instead of pouring out cups each time I asked! 

It was in the second half of the flight while reading the flight booklet, that I discovered they had a streaming entertainment service – wifi was charged extra (and maybe the message they sent earlier in the day was about the paid wifi not being available), but their inflight entertainment was available; you could use your own device to access it. They had a bunch of movies and some TV shows. “Freud’s Last Session” caught my eye – because of the actor playing Freud and the premise of Sigmund Freud meeting author CS Lewis to debate the existence of God. I could only get through half the movie since I started this late. The second half would have to wait.

We knew when the flight was above Alaska because you could see snow-capped mountains and glaciers from the flight itself. It looked pretty from above. We had a smooth landing, and even from within the airport, when you looked outside through the windows, you could see the snow-capped mountains at a distance.

The Ted Stevens Anchorage airport felt a little more homely than most other airports – maybe because of the way it was decorated inside or the lighting inside, or maybe just the unique artefacts you found on the floor or ceilings. 

As we followed the directions to the rental cars section, Raghav exclaimed, “There’s the first bear – the polar bear.” A life-size statue of a white polar bear stood on its legs, ready to pounce.
The white bears also look cute, but apparently they are the most dangerous and largest in size! 
We went down a long pathway with posters and artefacts about Alaska on both walls and finally came into a bright area with many rental counters. 

We had booked the evening train from Boston South Station to NJ Penn Station – there are Acela trains, which are the faster ones but slightly more expensive; we had opted for the normal Amtrak, which was an hour after the Acela – but in the afternoon we discovered that the Acela was cancelled due to some power issue in the New York station. 

Today was the day when the Boston Celtics, a basketball team that won the NBA finals just earlier this week, was doing a victory parade through the city. There were huge crowds in Boston, and from our office, we could get a peek at the train station, which also seemed crowded. 

Our colleagues and friends were surprised that we were going to vacation in Alaska and even more surprised when we told them that we hadn’t yet planned/booked anything. A couple of folks who had been there in the past did ask us to book for the main events because otherwise, we may not get seats – but in the last few days, we hadn’t managed to get to do the research or the bookings. We did hear a few interesting and scary stories – everything involving bears. 

Bear encounters

“If it’s brown, lay down dead; if it’s black, then fight back,” they said. We learnt there are brown bears and black bears, and grizzly bears are a type of brown bear.
“There was this time when we had a group of tourists go hiking. We told everyone what to do on seeing a bear, and everyone had bear spray cans. There was this trio of young Indians in the group, and along the path they took, they happened to encounter a black bear – they were frightened and ran. Two of them made it back, but the 3rd one was missing; we retraced their path and found that the 3rd person was killed by the bear.”

Since bears are large, you think you can outrun them. But seems like there is no chance of outrunning a bear – they apparently run faster than us!

“If it’s a black bear, just band up together and make yourselves look large. Hold your hands together, stand on your toes, raise your arms wide, and make sounds and faces. It should feel that you are big, and then it will go away without wanting to mess with you.”
We heard another story later from the same colleague, “I was out with my friends in the woods. We all had guns. And there at a distance of about 10 meters, we spotted a black bear. Just the distance from here to that pillar there.”
“We crouched behind some logs lying around to avoid being spotted. But we noticed that a small black bear was coming towards us. The mother was keeping an eye on the cub. As it came closer, we kept whispering to the bear to go away, go away. After taking a few steps towards us, it turned away. We were ready with our guns in case of an encounter.”
Well, we definitely weren’t going to be armed with guns – so that wasn’t a fallback option for us.

“Recently, there was a news story about a guy in the forest who didn’t manage to use the bear spray can in the panic. He turned around, holding the can in the air near his shoulder. The bear came to bite him but bit on the can, which exploded. This saved the guy. Miraculous escape.”
Bear spray cans are like cockroach or pesticide spray cans that are supposed to be effective in deterring a bear from advancing towards you.
“As soon as you land in Anchorage, there’s a Walmart nearby where you can pick a bear spray can,” he advised us.
Another person asked us, “What bear would you like to see?”
And Rakesh replied, “A teddy bear!”

We had to drag our large suitcases (the ones you check-in at the airport) to the station. We got in through the back entrance, bringing you straight to the train tracks. Moorthy came in from Merrimack and entered through the main station entrance. We met just outside our train – it had arrived and was on time. 

The Amtrak train had seats that were like flight seats but were much more comfortable and had more legroom. The train also had plenty of space above for luggage – we could easily stow our suitcases on top. There was no assigned seat on the ticket, and we took an empty row – each row had 2 seats on either side of the walkway. The train had wifi, and Moorthy logged in to do some work; Raghav and I started researching Alaska – we still didn’t have any plan in place, and the plan was to plan in the train. The net wasn’t great, but it was ok. 
As the train moved, the announcer made repeated announcements saying the train was fully booked, and so, if something doesn’t move then stow it on top! Basically, she didn’t want luggage taking up seat space.

The conductor came around to check the tickets and placed a little stub above the seats where she had verified the tickets. After an hour or so, Raghav was hungry, and so we walked past coaches to get to the end, where there was a cafeteria – the setup was nice in that there was a small canteen and one coach with tables set up like a restaurant. These were all occupied – was a comfortable place to sit and work since you had large tables, unlike the small ones attached to the back of seats in the other coaches.
A railway staff was handling billing and delivery – not too many items, but if you are looking for a quick snack, you can manage with what they had. The best option, like in India, is to buy something before boarding the train.

Midway through the journey, the train had a long halt in a station – the announcer said they were waiting for connecting passengers coming in from another train that was delayed. This led to our train getting more delayed, but since the train was comfortable, you didn’t feel too bad.

We reached NJ Penn Station past 11 pm – lugged our suitcases up the escalator, and dragged them to the station exit. As we stepped out, a couple of cranky folks came uncomfortably close to us. But there were plenty of cops nearby, so we felt safe. The cops were animatedly chit-chatting like it was daytime – not sure if so many cops at night in the station was a common occurrence here. We hopped into an Uber and reached Rakesh’s place at midnight, where we had dinner. We also had to do some packing to just carry the essentials needed for the Alaska trip and leave behind everything else. And we also had to book a place to stay in Anchorage – that was one thing that we knew for sure because the day we reached Alaska by flight, we didn’t want to make any other travel plans. Rakesh and Moorthy searched for places and finally agreed on one that looked nice.

On TV, we streamed videos of Alaska and bears! The bears look cuddly and cute even though they are large – would be nice to pat them like we patted Maggie (one of our colleague’s Alaskan Malamute)!

Boating rules

We tried fishing for 10 minutes and didn’t catch anything; since time was running out, we decided to move on. Each of us took turns driving the boat – it takes a while to get a feel of steering the boat – because you would have turned the steering wheel, but the impact of that in the direction is only seen after many seconds – turning the steering wheel turns the engine direction (the response lag was more noticeable in slower speeds). We munched on some of the healthy snacks we had brought on board – the musk melons were yummy – a little chill and juicy; the trail nuts created quite a mess on all our hands since they contained chocolate bits that melted instantly in this weather.

As we neared an island, Rob told us about the lane rules – there were green and red cans floating around at periodic distances – not too close to each other but spaced out.
“When going in, stay closer to the red, and when coming out, stay close to the green.”
The red cans were on the right side, and the green cans were on the left.
As we took turns on the wheel, he warned us, “Don’t go too close to those cans. They are solid metal.” 
When you see them, you’d think they are harmless inflatable balloons, but when we neared one, I realized it was deceptive from a distance!

The boat had a Garmin navigation system along with something like an intercom that could be used in an emergency. The display showed how many feet above water we were – comes in handy when you want to know whether you are too close to land – because, say, the boat is just a few feet above water, and you stopped at that place; if the seas went into a low tide, then we’d end up with the boat being on land and that would become a problem – you’d end up having to wait for the high tide again to drive it or if you are not caught fully on land, would have to push the boat back to the waters!

Anchoring

When we came close to boat traffic, Rob took to the helm to manoeuvre the boat – he decided on a place near a small island for anchoring and getting to the island. There was another larger boat beside us struggling a bit to get their anchoring right. Our boat’s anchors (two of them) were tucked inside a small enclosure – one in the front and one at the back. Everything on the boat was neatly organized – nothing was out of place. 
To anchor the boat, you take out the large heavy metallic anchor and toss it away from the boat (one end of the rope is tied to the anchor while the other end you’d fasten on a hinge provided on the boat) – the danger of using just one anchor is that your boat would still sway a lot. 
The problem with anchoring near these small islands is that you need to watch out for other anchored boats – if you get too close, you could have your boat’s propellor cut or get entangled in the other boat’s anchor line. 

Because the boat next to us was struggling after we dropped the anchor, we were worried their boat was drifting our way. So Rob, like an action hero, removed his t-shirt and just dove into the water to retrieve our anchor and save the boat so that we could anchor a little further away. I don’t know how Rob plunged in because the water was extremely cold – it is deceiving because judging by the sunlight with the sun blazing, you’d expect the water to be warm. 

Ice water plunge!

After securing our boat, we headed to the island. The water level was only about hip deep – sitting on the edge of the boat near the engine, I dipped my feet in the water and felt the biting cold. I would have been happy to just sit there, but when you are in a group, and the others have ventured into the freezing water, you don’t have a choice! I was the last to step in, and my whole leg was stinging. It was a weird sensation – cold, pain, pricking feeling, and some numbness. After 2 or 3 minutes, I reached the shore. Since Rob had already done the plunge, Biju went straight down the water for a few seconds, and then Raghav did the same. Rakesh and I were happy to watch the spectacle from the shore. 

There were quite a few people on the little island. We sat briefly and then waded through the waters to hop into our boat. Rob lifted the anchors, and we pulled them in and stowed them inside their little compartments. We motored along at high speed, and for a while, our boat’s bow (the front) seemed way higher than the stern (the rear) – so for the two of us sitting in the back, we were looking up into the sky. Rob later adjusted the height of the motor, and that brought the bow down – still a little inclined, but not a lot. At high speeds, you can feel the boat bouncing up and down the waves – a nice rocking motion taking us forward. 

When we were on the last stretch, Rob let me take a shot at parking the boat and guided me to navigate the boat towards his buoy. When I got the boat really close, he tied the boat to the buoy and then switched off the battery inside the boat (the panel was hidden behind a small door at the rear). We then waited for the passenger taxi boat to get us back to land. Rather than buying a boat, there is also the option of renting out boats in these places – that way, you needn’t worry about maintenance. The water taxi parked in a dock, and the parking felt very much like how you park a car in a parking slot. 

Rob had timed this trip well by scheduling for us to start in the morning; at 1 pm, when we came to drop off some stuff in the car, we noticed that the whole parking lot was full, and cars were going around in circles hoping that someone will be pulling out their vehicle. 

We had lunch at about 1:30 pm in the Mill Wharf restaurant; there were no seats available, but we noticed that outdoors, it was empty – we picked a table, though it was pretty hot outside. Felt a bit like the Chennai heat (humid heat)! 3 folks had a little shade while the other 2 were facing the sun. We ordered tacos, fries, and onion rings. 

The next stop was Nona’s homemade ice cream, which Rob said was good. There were already folks inside, and we joined the line. What I liked was that they not only had a small, medium, and large portion size but also a kiddie version. The kiddie version was perfect for me – a single scoop. They were priced lower than Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which we had tried in Boston.

By the time we were back in Boston, it was a little too late to make it for squash in Rhode Island, so we made a short trip to Merrimack to wind up our fun day. 

Today was Juneteenth, a new US holiday that came into place recently to commemorate the ending of slavery in the US.

We had an early morning start – taking an Uber to a boat station to catch a boat. In Boston, there is the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), which runs the public transit system – also known as the ’T’ – and provides rail, bus, and ferry services. The Uber driver took a slightly different route from what Uber suggested, and I wondered if he was heading in the right direction. He stopped just past a signal and told us the station was across the footpath. When going to new locations, you tend to have this fear when the cab takes a different route – my fear was us missing the boat! Unfounded fear, it turned out to be.

The boat was already there waiting, almost ready to go in a couple of minutes, and the staff standing on the ramp asked us for our tickets – they told us the MBTA app could be used, or we could get tickets from the counter. But since I already had the app for my train rides, I got 3 tickets for the ferry. The app allows you to buy the ticket in advance but activate it during your ride.

It was a pleasant 30-minute ride – motoring along the Massachusetts Bay southwards (this bay is part of the Atlantic Ocean). I haven’t done boat rides on the ocean, so this was fun – an endless stretch of water. We reached the Hingham Terminal, and just like a car parking facility, this was an area for parking boats – there were plenty of private boats (Hingham is a town in the state of Massachusetts). We picked some snacks from a supermarket for our boat ride – a few cut fruits (muskmelons) and trail nuts – yeah, all healthy items, and since we were travelling with Rob, it was apt. We then drove via another town called Cohasset to Scituate. 

Boat parking

Rob had a boat that was parked in a facility over here. There are multiple such facilities in these seaport towns that have parking spots for a fee. You have a couple of options – you can get a dock, which is sort of a proper structure beside the coast where you leave your boat, or you pick a mooring which is not near the coast but a buoy a little further out in the waters to which you anchor your boat. Each has pros and cons – cost, convenience of easily getting out into the waters, parking etc. And it’s not easy getting a spot since there is a lot of demand for it.

The drawback of a mooring is that since it is further out in the waters, you need to get a ride on another boat to take you to your boat. There is typically a service provided in these facilities for that – sort of like a short ride-sharing boat taxi service – we hopped into one, and the lady manning the boat took us to Rob’s boat after dropping off a couple of other folks in their boats on the way. Pretty fascinating watching how this whole setup operates – I’ve never seen one back home.

We soon reached our boat – a Grady-White boat; Rob briefed us about the company and said that their boats are designed such that even if the water came on the deck, the boat wouldn’t sink. Depending on their size, different boats have different motors/engines for propelling the boat; each engine has propellers at the bottom. Rob’s boat had a single Yamaha engine. Our boat was like a convertible – since it was a hot sunny day, we opened out the convertible shade to provide us with some sunshade. When the boat is not in motion (i.e., docked), the engine is lifted so that the propellor stays above the water to avoid the effect of salt water damaging the engine. When driving, we lower the engine so the propeller is in the water and start the boat.

If you are curious to learn about these boats, the Grady-White company has some boat tutorials: https://www.gradywhite.com/explore/the-grady-life/videos/?filter=9720

After putting up the shade, Rob explained a few other things about the boat. It was fascinating that they had found a way to construct a restroom inside – you wouldn’t even guess there was one even after stepping on the boat. But there it was, in what seemed like a small door to a cabinet – but instead of a cabinet, it was a little restroom down below.
There were seats to sit just next to the driver(driver’s seat was sort of in the middle on the right side), as well as behind the driver (the back is called the ‘stern’). Also, in front (the area called the ‘bow’ of the boat), there were seats available. Six people could comfortably fit on the boat without feeling congested. 

The calm in the ocean

We were soon zipping away with the boat rocking along small waves on the ocean. Rob went on top speed and then shut off the engine at a point when he asked if we wanted to go fishing. He showed us the equipment used for fishing – the rod, the fishing line, the hook, the sinker dead weight and the fishing reel to let the line go further down in the water or to reel the line back in. The dead weight at the end of the line makes it easy for us to launch the fishing line in a particular direction and also helps take the line into the water. The hooks are pretty sharp in differing sizes, and Rob warned us to be careful when handling them. 

There is something about sitting in the middle of the ocean with the engines turned off – the noise you hear is just that of the water, and the sights you see are just small waves all around you and the sky on top – occasionally, there may be another boat passing by, but most of the time, there’s no one else around. Seemed like a nice getaway from the city – come to the middle of the ocean, read a book, listen to music or just do nothing but watch the waters.

We first headed to our colleague’s home in Yardley, Philadelphia, about an hour and a half away (NJ borders Philadelphia on one side, and the two have the Delaware River running in between, which we crossed). Raghav was fast asleep at the back – he did have this habit of catching up on sleep during drives!

Driving in the city

Rakesh was forced to drive within city roads – and here, these were just two-lane roads on each side, but one lane was taken up for car parking; so effectively, it became a 1-lane road on either side, and the divider is just the solid double yellow line painted on the road. In the US, the lines determine some traffic rules – a solid line means you can’t cut across the lane, and a dotted line means you can switch to the other lane.

We found ourselves stuck on the wrong side of a solid double yellow line while the shop we had to go to was on the other side of the road. In India, we would just see if there was incoming traffic and make the turn – but here, Rakesh struggled to find someplace where it was ok to cut across. The same struggle happened when we had to exit the complex to get to the other side of the road. 
Even in India, we have a similar road marking system, but on many roads, the lines have disappeared, and in other areas where they exist, barely anyone follows them. 

Finally, we got to our colleague’s home, where we were welcomed by his pet, an Alaskan Malamute – they look like Huskies and are large, like a little wolf! It was pretty playful and, I guess, excited seeing 3 visitors in its abode. There are strict rules on taking dogs outside in the US – you can’t let them loose and have to keep them on a leash; Maggie was an attraction outside, and in the short while that we spent outdoors, a little kid came up asking if he could pet it – with so much fur, it’s hard to resist giving it a little rub. They also shed a lot of fur when they shake their bodies. We enjoyed some juice and cheesecakes in our colleague’s home before leaving. 

The grand temple

It was about an hour’s drive to Akshardham – as we approached the destination, we noticed a board that said that on weekends, a reservation was needed for entry. The last time Rakesh was here, he didn’t make any bookings – we wondered if this had become so popular that they were issuing entrance tickets. Anyway, since we had come all the way, we decided to check it out – the worst case was that we’d be turned back. There were so many vehicles around, and people still driving in, though it was mid-afternoon. 

We did have to sign up online to make a reservation and get entry – Rakesh did so; I guess they were building a database of all visitors – for some reason, this was only for the weekends. 

The name of the place is BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham (eternal abode); we’d been to this temple in New Delhi a few years ago, and it is quite impressive; I had heard that the one in the US is even more grand and was curious to see this. You are welcomed by a massive statute of the teenage yogi Neelkanth Varni (this was Swaminarayan’s childhood name) standing on one leg – he is said to have done so for about 2 months and started his spiritual journey at the age of 11. There was a large water body with fountains that we crossed to get into the queue to enter the temple; it moved quickly – and we were soon inside the first hall; it was the reception area that could match the reception of any 5-star hotel – impressive decorations, artwork on the ceiling and pillars, there was an information centre, an orientation centre, small theatres on the sides, drinking water taps etc. The reception area was quite crowded. Dhotis were available for visitors to wear in case they came in shorts; we stepped past it and into the outdoors from where we could see the main temple – it was a sunny day, and the temple looked grand and impressive from the outside.

Inside, there was a place to remove our footwear before entering the main area of the temple in the centre. Because of the crowd in the temple, you stood in a line, and the line was asked to keep moving – so you couldn’t really sit inside the temple. There were many sculptures inside, within their dedicated enclosures – everything was made of white marble; intricate designs on the pillars that probably depicted a story – but we could not spend much time inside since we were asked to keep moving.

Based on what Rakesh said, this was how it was on his first visit here too, and I had heard the same from another person earlier. Maybe weekdays are better? I just wished we could have spent more time inside the temple. Photography inside the temple, just like in most temples, is prohibited. There are signs saying not to touch the marble pillars and carvings – so they have one small area where they’ve kept the marble used in the temple for touching. Some photos/videos of the temple’s interior are available on the official BAPS group website. And some of the Wiki pics I’ve given for reference just so that you get a sense of the grandeur – the place is an incredible sight to behold, just like the one in New Delhi, which is also very impressive.

This temple is among the largest in the world, slightly larger than the famous temple in Trichy (India). Topping the list in size is Angkor Wat in Cambodia. 
As we exited the temple, we saw images taken during the construction. 

There were visitors of various nationalities here – this was sort of like a tourist site that I guess many had on their to-see list. If you were into religion and spirituality, you’d probably be interested in learning about the group and their philosophy; if you weren’t interested in that, you’d still enjoy the architecture. I’ve found that when you see large Buddha statues, there is a sense of awe that overcomes you; similar is the case when you look at temples that have so many intricate designs from the base to the dome – it’s not just the resultant structure that inspires – you can sense the amount of care and effort that must have gone into making it perfect; that also inspires.

Since we hadn’t had lunch, we headed to the Shanoya cafe inside the temple complex – an all-veggie cafe. On the way, we saw a gift and book shop too – that was also quite crowded; they did seem to have some nice items for sale but we didn’t stop there. The cafe was also a bit crowded, though we were well past lunch hour – they had live counters, boxes that you could pick, a lot of snacks, as well as meals and desserts. Their cafe sales were probably better than what many full-fledged restaurants would make – the food was decent; some items were good, and some were ok – since there were 3 of us, we tried several dishes.

As we headed out, there were still plenty of visitors pouring in.

The good thing about New York in the summer is that even at 8 pm, there was still daylight. Sunset was to be at around 8:20 pm! Most restaurants and cafes we passed by were filled with people – inside and outside. We had been curious to try out a Michelin-star restaurant – these generally tend to be very expensive; the more the stars, the more expensive; even the 1-star restaurants are pricier than usual. The other problem is getting veg food – Raghav and Rakesh were veggies. New York has a few options, and we had read about a South Indian Michelin 1-star restaurant called ‘Semma’. It was about 8 pm when we reached the place – fortunately, we didn’t need a booking; inside was crowded, but they did have outdoor seating.

The menu had fancy cocktail names  – named after Tamil movies like Chandramukhi Milk Punch. They also had a couple of non-alcoholic cocktails (I didn’t know that these are called zero-proof cocktails) and some beers. Rakesh opted for a beer called Unapologetic UN1, and Raghav went for the Manjal saaru (the literal meaning is turmeric essence/juice).  The beer can said it was made using Basmati rice – guess that’s why this restaurant had it.

A Western waitress came over to explain the food menu to us – we pretty much knew what most of the dishes meant but she explained all of them as she must’ve been trained to do so. We asked her for recommendations and selected one appetizer – the paniyaram. This is a South Indian lentil dumpling – it tasted good. But Rakesh and I are very familiar with this dish, so we didn’t find it special – the decoration was unique. 

They grouped their items as small, medium and large in terms of quantity. The small section was the appetizers. We picked the Mangalore huukosu (sort of like what we call a Gobi-65; a form of fried cauliflower) and nathai pirattal, and a mirchi ka salan.
I ordered the Nathai pirattal just to try out one non-veg dish – this was a stir fried dish of snails in an Indian curry paste. It came along with a couple of small kal dosas (a spongy type of Indian pancake but made with a different batter containing lentils and rice). Again, the decoration was unique – the whole thing was arranged on a bed of shells.

The mirchi ka salan is a green pepper based curry – had it with a bowl of coconut rice. It was good – all the items were nice, but since all three of us were used to Indian food, we wouldn’t say it was extraordinary apart from the decoration and presentation of the dishes.
The cost of the meal, if you came as one person, would be expensive, but since we ordered only a little and shared everything, it was ok. 

Their current menu you will find here: https://www.semma.nyc/

Maybe we should have tried a different cuisine instead of Indian! We walked along towards Times Square, and on the way, Raghav was tempted by an Italian desserts shop that we saw – it was 10 pm, and we were just in time before the shop closed; Raghav asked the staff for recommendation, and he reeled out a couple of them and we picked both – but the Tiramisu and the cream bun were more pleasing to look at than was their taste – unfortunately they were large servings as well. 

15th June (Saturday) – Our plan was for Rakesh to take a rental car from New Jersey and drive to Boston on Sunday – it would be his first long drive in the US. On Friday night, he had done a lot of online searches trying to book a rental car, which we could pick somewhere nearby in New Jersey and drop in Boston – there’s generally an extra cost for doing this when you drop in a different city. But with many of the traditional rental agencies, we struggled with their websites – it was so hard to search, and each time you went down a few pages, the search criteria would get messed up. Everywhere, it said there was no Sunday return or that return counters were closed early evening itself. Eventually, we found that there was a rental car agency called Sixt – had never heard of this name before, but they had an outlet in the New Jersey mall near our hotel.
 
So early in the morning, we landed there, and two employees were at the counter. Rakesh was looking for a midsize car since this would be his first long drive in the US, and we also had to spend Saturday driving on the city roads. But the staff at Sixt said he’d get the best for Rakesh and came up with a large vehicle where he gave a price discount as well – it was like those large 7-seater vans! He said there were no small ones available, but there was a particular BMW that Rakesh wanted that was available, but the guy said it would cost $60 more per day. Oh well, his best deal for Rakesh likely was based on the fact that they were running short of smaller vehicles and were trying to let out the large ones!
He repeated, “It’s a brand new one. Only the best for you, sir.”
The Chrysler Pacifica vehicle was surely new but huge – classified as a minivan. Rakesh practiced within the car parking area to get a sense of the corners of the vehicles, and off we went. Being a little slow in exiting the mall, the car driver behind us honked – a reminder that we were in New Jersey! 

We walked to Raj’s home, which was 10 minutes away, and hopped into his car along with Ravi. This was going to be Raj’s first long drive in his Mercedes. As a backup, we had Ravi just in case someone had to take over.
When we said we were heading to a beach, most folks asked if it was the Wilmington one or the Outer Banks. But our destination was further south of Wilmington Beach – Bald Head Island. This was a recommendation from a Nepali colleague who said this was his getaway place, and since most folks staying in Raleigh didn’t seem to know about this place, we decided to check it out.

It was a 3.5-hour drive; we stopped in a Starbucks on the way to grab something to eat for breakfast. We picked some pastry and a sandwich, but strangely, the menu barely had any hot coffee on it – it was loaded with cold coffee and frappe-type drinks, probably because it was the summer. 

Around 11:30, we reached the Bald Head Ferry terminal – you have to take a ferry from here to get to the island. What surprised us was that the parking lot was packed with vehicles – were all these people on the island? Parking cost was about $12 and not charged by the hour. 
We parked the car, and Ravi carried his laptop – he had a production issue to attend to yesterday night and stayed up the whole night. “When I go out somewhere only there will be a production issue,” he said, bringing his laptop. 
The terminal building was pretty cool – there was a restaurant, restrooms, the ticket counter where you bought return tickets (about $20 per adult); ferries were there every 30 minutes – in the summer, they start from 6 am or so and run till late at night. The terminal felt a bit like a little airport.
We took the ferry at 12 – this was a fairly large ferry. We sat on the top, in the open, enjoying the ride. As we entered the dock, we saw a couple of folks holding boards welcoming their friend or a family member who had returned from rehab.

Motoring on the island

My colleague had said that you could rent cycles and go around the island, but we also spotted golf carts for rent and decided to take that since 4 of us could go in one vehicle. On Bald Head Island, there are no other vehicles that you’d see – it’s bicycles and golf carts. For the golf cart, they charge you for the day – so you don’t need to worry about timings; about $90 for the 4-seater one we picked. But we did see more luxurious types, like fully closed six-seaters, which would cost more.

We had a map of Bald Head Island for reference. No real plans or ideas on where to go to – off we went with Raj motoring along. Fairly simple to use – just accelerate and break, and there was the ability to switch into reverse gear using a button below. Raghav, eager to drive, took over from Raj and drove as fast as possible – but there’s only so fast you can drive the cart! There was a main road with trees on either side that made for a pleasant drive and branches off the main road, but we just stayed on the main road – planned to reach one end of the island, which was marked on the map as ‘Point of Cape Fear’ where there was public beach access. There were a lot of pretty houses near this spot – especially the ones just by the waters. Seemed like a really good place for a vacation – not sure if there were Airbnbs here but this would be a perfect getaway from the city.

We parked our cart on one side of the road, beside a few others, to get to the beach. We had to walk across a really long boardwalk from the road towards the beach – finally, we saw a bit of a crowd, but since the area was large, it didn’t feel crowded. The beach was clean, and the water was a clear blue – there was a smaller beach a little off the main beach – maybe it was a slightly high tide that led to parts of the low-lying land connecting the two beaches getting submerged. We crossed over to the other beach by wading through the waters – I wasn’t in shorts but waded through in my pants. We spent about an hour on the beach – clean sand, the vast ocean in front of us and the pleasant sound of waves. Couples and families were enjoying the beach. Something unique here was that you could see waves coming from two different directions converging at the edge of the beach – there was even a slight difference that you’d notice in the colour of the water coming from either side. 

“Walk towards that side, and you’ll get to Spain. Walk that way and can go to London,” Raghav said.
We were on the edge of Bald Head Island and on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean – just endless blue above and below. Quite a sight – clean beaches are always a lovely setting to simply soak in the atmosphere.

As we walked back towards the road, my pants dried up – it was that sunny! And Ravi got a call about some issue that was running. Fortunately, he didn’t have to log in; he just needed to be on the call. With so many golf carts parked, figuring out ours took a while! 

We headed to a restaurant in the central part of the island. Raghav noticed a board that said pizza, and being a fan of Italian cuisine, he wanted to get one. But the staff said the board was for another joint further down the road. Since we were already running late, we decided to stay in the same place – Raghav was a veggie, and at times, that can be a bit of a challenge – over here, he found a cheese sandwich in the kids’ section of the menu. We enjoyed a typical Western lunch with sandwiches, burgers and fries – we tried a dessert, but that was a massive slice of cake that was a little too sweet for all of us.
For those coming here, if you have restrictions on food, not a bad idea to bring some food to the island. There are a few other restaurants on the island, but we didn’t check them out. 

After lunch, we motored along the other main road – there are just two main roads which pretty much cover the circumference of the whole island. Because it would take us 30 minutes on the ferry and another 3 hours to return home, we decided to take the 3:30pm ferry. You can easily spend another 2 or 3 hours on the island – there was a lighthouse that we spotted, there were a couple of other places for food as per the map and possibly a few more things to do – public beach access is there in multiple points around the island – the one we went to is just one of them.

Though there is a large Indian community in Raleigh, we didn’t see any today – neither on the ferry nor on the island. The island is a little far from the city but a really good getaway to take a break from the daily routine – and not having any other motorized vehicles added to the island’s charm.

You tend to see a lot more SUVs and larger vehicles in the US than in India; same was the case in this parking lot – and Raj’s C300 Mercedes looked tiny since it was flanked by a Toyota and Mercedes SUVs. We saw a notice board nearby that read, ‘There may be alligators in the area.’

I ended the day having a home-cooked Andhra dinner at a friend’s place – it was a feast since they had cooked quite a lot.

Map of the island: https://media.scurto.net/1033/Uploads/Locator%20Map.pdf
Official site: https://www.baldheadisland.com/

Continuing up Pilot Mountain

All this while, just like us walking upwards on the ledge, an elderly Japanese couple was hiking the same trail as well – they were definitely better prepared than us with hiking poles and better shoes. Initially, they asked us to go ahead because they had slowed down and didn’t want to slow us down, but after a while, we slowed down and asked them to go ahead. We must have kept exchanging places some 4 or 5 times. 

After a while, we came across a board that said rock climbing ends. After this, we faced steep stone steps – you’d think that having a clear step would help, but because of the height, it was tiring. We kept going up the flight of stairs and taking breaks periodically.

I noticed that each trail had a colour on the map – and at certain junctures, we had the same colour sticker on a tree – indicating which trail you were on and also gave you comfort in the fact that you were not lost! We finally reached a point beyond which the path seemed to go down – we thought we could scale the mountain up, but there surely was no clear path. Just then, we saw a person coming from the opposite side, and we asked, “Can we get to the top?”
He wondered if the side path went up, but we told him it was a dead end.
“You go down, and there’s a trail that takes you close,” he said, pointing to the direction from which he came. 

We went down and saw that this was the Pilot Knob trail – red colour, 0.8 miles and marked ‘moderate’. After doing a strenuous one, this one was a breeze. This is the highest part of the mountain that you can get to. The part we were walking around is the distinctive dome shape of the mountain that you see from below – since it’s pretty much rock walls up to the top filled with vegetation, there is no accessible path to take you to the peak. We did the Knob trail and headed back down to the parking lot.

A bundle of energy

We spent about 2 hours on Pilot Mountain – not a bad way to spend an afternoon, though it is better to be here early in the morning than in the peak heat and ensure you come in the right shoes – because you need to walk on rough surfaces and rocks. 
We wondered if our wedding anniversary couple would have enjoyed this trip on their day out. 
“Making them walk in the hot sun on their anniversary – they will be cursing us.”
“Instead of taking them to a beach we took them hiking!”
“Not our fault though.” That was true – another friend had made us switch plans across Saturday and Sunday and in the end he didn’t turn up for today’s trip as well!

Looking at Dileep returning from the trail carrying a tote bag, a tired walk made worse by a haggard look and matted hair, none of us wanted to ask him the question. But surprisingly, behind the dad came his little daughter bustling with energy and speeding past her dad. She seemed ready to go on another trail! The family did the grindstone trail.

Meal in the vineyard

The website said we needed to book in advance, but when we called, we only reached the voicemail where we dropped our contact info. We never got a return call, but since the place was in the neighbourhood, we headed over – it was 5:20pm when we reached Jolo Vineyards – this was recommended by a colleague for good Italian food. They had a board which said no kids allowed – on enquiring, it seemed like if it was just one kid, they may have permitted, but since there were 2 in the group, they politely said they couldn’t have kids. Not sure why the rule but we relayed the info back to our other group that was still in Pilot Mountain. 

“Can we get a table?”

The staff looked at a sheet and nodded. But we noticed they also had a wine tasting option and Kiran and Raj took up the offer – $35 per person; sort of a bar setup indoors where they serve, in ascending order of price, 7 wines – after each wine, you sip a little water to ensure the last wine’s taste is eliminated before you try the next one. From Kiran’s facial expression, we could guess his opinion of each wine. The last couple of wines are what Kiran and Raj liked.

We took a table outdoor and ordered food but started off as is our tradition with a dessert – the Key Lime cake. And that was really good – so we tried the other dessert, the Lemon Cello cake, and that too was good. We ended up doing another round of desserts again at the end! As I expected, Raghav ordered the Pomme Frites (the French name for french fries), and we repeated that as well! The ravioli and risotto were nice – but the best dishes, we thought, were the desserts.

Only while leaving did we discover that there is a walking tour of the vineyard too – but we were running out of time and had to head back.

At night, we made a trip to Walmart at 10 pm because I wanted to buy a few items, but what ended up happening was that Raghav went on an impulsive shopping spree and filled his cart! Eventful end to the day.

In case you are planning a trip; website with details of the mountain: https://www.pilotmountainnc.org/

It was our friend Dileep’s wedding anniversary; so he wanted to start the day at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Raleigh. Today also happened to be an auspicious day, and so the place was packed with cars – so much so that there were a few black American staff having to guide vehicles to vacant spots. The staff did seem to be enjoying their work; they were on headsets swaying to the sound of music as they directed vehicles.
After prayers, we bumped into a couple more office colleagues and then saw the food stall counter inside, where we picked up food parcels – sales were brisk. We also bought a lot of stuff since others were joining us on the trip as well. 

(Note: You can click on images to see the full view)

Pilot Mountain is about a 1.5-hour drive from the city – we were in two cars. Raghav and I were in Kiran’s car and were impressed by the navigation app that announced things like ‘obstacle on the road’, ‘speed sensor ahead’ and so on. Kiran also narrated a few sad stories of people he knew struggling in a tough job market – the market was good for folks with work experience but hard for freshers to get a breakthrough.

The best view of Pilot Mountain you get from the road – the distinct shape of the mountain. I didn’t ask Kiran to stop the car to take a shot, but Wiki has a nice image (snap above). 

Typically, things go away from the schedule when you have more people in the group. And we were really off schedule because we were in the park only at noon – not good on a sunny summer day! We stopped our car in the first parking lot within the park and read through trail details on the notice board. But then, we got a call from the other vehicle – they were in a different parking lot.

And so we headed on a 10-minute drive towards that – but there was no sign of them. All we saw was a well constructed spacious cabin toilet with a western-style toilet whose outlet just seemed to go on endlessly deep into the ground. A board near by described the trail and we saw an American family exiting the ‘Corridor trail’ with a large dog by their side. This was a 6-mile trail classified as ‘strenuous’; unlikely that our other group would have picked this one. It’s a good thing to know beforehand what trail you are getting into – the maps describe the trail route, difficulty and distance, and a colour code for the trail.

We got a call again and learnt that they had actually gone further up from where we had originally stopped. And so we went back again – from the first parking lot proceeded uphill to the second parking lot. 
“I guess we’ve done the hike in the car!” Kiran commented. 
“But we still aren’t at the top of the mountain.” The first thing that strikes you as unique about this mountain is the distinct pinnacle, and we certainly were nowhere near that.

Inspiration

In the parking lot, Kiran just took off after a round of intros. He was the fittest in our group and said, “We should start early so that we can finish early.” He was worried that we might all end up sitting on the lovely park benches, eating the food we brought and converting this trip into a family picnic! The two families in the group did stop at the benches, and since they had kids, we didn’t know if they wanted to hike. Raghav and I followed Kiran, and off we went without knowing what trail we were on.

The crowd slowly thinned out as we progressed. 
“Look at the dedication,” Kiran said.
Ahead of us was a middle-aged lady navigating the rocky terrain with a baby sitting in a sling that went across her shoulders. A man, a boy, and a dog were part of the group that followed her. As we went on what seemed to be a downward slope, we wondered, “Are we going down to the base? How do we get to the top?”

We saw an elderly man with hiking poles struggle upwards in the opposite direction but determined to keep continuing. You feel inspired seeing fellow hikers around you. This trail that started out easy wasn’t all that easy since you have to go through some bumpy terrain – not hard, but we did wonder if the 2 families with kids would continue on this trail.

The climb

We reached a notice board where a map said we were on the ‘grindstone trail’ – 3.5 miles and tagged strenuous. But there was a detour to another trail called ‘Ledge Spring Trail’ that seemed like a shortcut (1 mile) but was tagged ‘strenuous’ as well, with an added warning that the trail was steep. No second thoughts in all of our minds – we thought steep was good since we wanted to get to the top of the mountain!

As the name said, this was like walking on a ledge on the mountain’s periphery. After a short distance, there were signs saying ‘rock climbing’, and we soon encountered small groups of rock climbers. They were trying to scale up the side of the mountain – it did seem risky but seemed like a good place for intermediate-level rock climbing – not too high, and you did have a ledge below to give you some feeling of safety.

We paused a moment to see them – the climbers had someone drop a harness from a point above the mountain for safety (so in case you did slip, you’d not crash on the ledge below; looking at the safety harness, we wondered how the harness gripped onto the rocky surface). The folks took their time – no rush with any of the safety gear and slowly made the ascent. People below suggested what the place climber could use to keep their foot or hands in – a little rock sticking out, a crevice that could barely accommodate a toe or let you sneak in a finger to help get a grip to climb up. In some places, they only had one hand and one leg on the mountain. The strength you’d need in your core to keep you balanced is insane. 

One group asked if we wanted to try it, and we politely declined.