Ever since I saw the Heritage village, Bur Dubai on the sodium lamps, I fell in love with that place. Surprisingly I haven't visited that place during my last stay in UAE for 2 1/2 years, but this time I accidentally dropped in there along with Radhakrishnan sometimes back. So some words about that place for you all. This place is significant by the fact that it housed the royal dynasty of Dubai rulers few decades back, when Dubai was just a pearl harvester's hamlet. Now with Dubai prominently placed on the world map, this place is gracefully converted into a museum with nostalgias of the period then. Here you can get the glimpses of Dubai's amazing transformation into a Global Trade Center from a modest seam hamlet. In that aspect I just laud the Tourism department of Dubai for beautifully maintaining this heritage site.

I have been visiting the temple complex in Meena Bazaar, Dubai for a long time, but I never had written about it till date. It is the only Hindu temple available for the whole of UAE and houses two temples - Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva. UAE is quite tolerant to other religions provided they doen't involve in conversion and propagating their religion into UAE. This temple complex was approved by the late Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Shamefully I didn't collect the details about the history of it, but somewhere I was made to understand that it was started around the year 2000 -2001. Will collect more details about it when I go there next weekend. This place is located in Bur Dubai, near to the creek. In this place you never feel that you aer away from India and heartening to see that people haven't forgot their roots and customs even after coming here.

I have told many times that Coimbatore is my most favourite place in my life, then What comes the next?... Nagercoil. Even though I have been to Nagercoil many times earlier, the geography is still an amazon jungle to me even today. But it is so close to my heart because I have two little darlings there - Viggi and Vini. I am going there since year 2000, but all the time I just end up staying ONLY in their house at Parambai. All these years the kids were too young that I couldn't loiter outside with them, but last time I really wanted to take them out to Thirparappu falls, but couldn't. When I decided to spend the long weekend of Independence Day, I chose Nagercoil over Coimbatore with one condition - I will take the kids to Thirparappu falls. As proposed I enjoyed four full days with those kids visiting some interesting places like Thottippalayam, Thirparappu falls, Padmanabhapuram palace and Kanyakumari. So this trip is overwhelming, memorable and above all blissful. I am just sharing few photos of this happy journey. The photos are seggregated under the tabs on the name of the places visited.

After a gap of three months I went to our Silver beach in Cuddalore. It was called as the second largest beach in Tamilnadu after the Marina beach. Thats why the beach was called as 'Silver Beach', a sort of next to 'Golden Beach' in Chennai. But now it cannot claim that title because the ravages of Tsunami & the following rehabiliation activities had definitely altered the landscape of the beach. Previously the beach used to span right from the Periyar arts college and used to go about 750 mtrs to tough the shores. But due to commercialisation & concretisation, the length of the beach is now reduced to anywhere between 350 - 400 mtrs. The beach had lost its sheen now, thanks to encroachment and pollution.

Pondicherry - Where time takes a break.. That was the caption of Tourism and to an extent it is true also. Pondicherry still retains the soul of French Colony and makes an excellent combination of past and present. As a resident of Cuddalore, I had to travel to Pondicherry for a better shopping, till I moved to Chennai. Today after a very long time I managed to visit Pondicherry beach and the Parks at the right time - in twilight. There were some major changes to the beach and the parks. There were four parks in arc forms that completed a circle. And in the middle part was the French structure that is in the official emblems of Pondicherry Government.

{mosimage}One of the interesting things of a train journey is the way stranger kids playing near the rails greet you with a 'ta-ta' and you unconsciously reciprocate it with a smile. For a moment we all lose our inhibitions and become a child by stooping to their levels. Atleast I felt the same when I went to Coimbatore recently. Thanks to IRCTC I had my tickets booked well ahead in mid June itself and Vaithy's call at the minute I settled down at the train ensured a happy mindset. In the back of the mind I knew that this going to be a memorable jouney as I was all enthused to go to Coimbatore after a gap of 9 months. The smooth transition of barren lads to lush green landscapes as the train moved from Tiruppur to Coimbatore kept me glued to the window since I woke up from slumber. Heart leapt out of its place when I saw the board of "Singanallur", which means I am going to be in the city in next few minutes.