Chocolate Haven in the Blue Mountains

Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Time: Early April

The morning has all the ingredients for a terrific excursion. Winter is setting in slowly – the air is cool and the sun is shining, nice and bright. Perfect holiday weather! We are driving down to the Blue Mountains.

Really looking forward to this walk in the Australian bush! There are various treks here. Each of them is marked with a sign indicating the difficulty level and time taken to complete it.

One thing that is very evident about this place is the way it is kept up. Steps are provided where ever there is an especially steep gradient. Railings are positioned, albeit very unobtrusively, on narrow sections. But in spite of all these safety measures the overall foresty feel of the trail is not lost.

This place is not just a visual treat but also a treat for the lungs. Purest of pure air – oxygen therapy!

Our walk is fun. We go down a valley. The view is fabulous. We come across some crystal clear brooks on the way. There is something very typical, very uniquely “Australian” about the undergrowth of this place.

A small drive away from the trekking area is an amazing sight – the Three Sisters.

Three Sisters: a natural formation

There is a beautifully calming quality to the Blue Mountains. The kind that makes me feel like I want to build a log cabin and stay on for ever… Too much wishful thinking! “Maybe I should camp here overnight?” Good idea! I’ll do it in my next visit…Surely!

The Blue Mountains appear blue from a distance, therefore the name! There is a scientific reason behind this phenomenon. The terrain is covered with eucalyptus trees. The oil from the trees forms a misty layer in the surrounding atmosphere causing sunlight to refract and hence giving the mountains a blue tinge.

Hey, the Indian name for Eucalyptus is Nilgiri. (Sanskrit: Nil – Blue; Giri – Mountain) Just figured out why!! And there is the Nilgiri Mountain in the south of India.

We’ve walked around so much. Am I tired? Not in the least? Hungry? Yes, has anyone realized we are very close to lunch-time!?

A little further is an outfit called (chocoholics beware!) – The Chocolate Factory. What a place!! They manufacture and sell chocolates here, in this cosy dwelling nestled among mountains. Isn’t this the stuff dreams are made of!?

You see the process of making chocolate here. Needless to say, the place smells divine. Well, the olfactory and visual senses are targeted and the mind has stopped thinking. Doesn’t chocolate evoke the most primal emotions?

Well, it is from this place, in the fantastic backdrop of the Blue Mountains, that my first chili chocolate came from! This one is rich dark on the outside with a truffle centre. It has a “hand-made” look as if it’s rough and dented and rolled in cocoa.

We get the usual favourites packed – rum n’ raisin, plain dark, etc. and decide to sample the chili. At first bite it almost tastes like the regular dark and then slowly the warm spike of chili emerges on you. It is a complete explosion of flavors. Amazing!!

Hats off to the person who discovered chili chocolate! I mean cocoa is regular condiment of Mexican cuisine – like if I were to think of a parallel, akin to how Indian cuisine uses turmeric – but this is different! To most people today ‘chili chocolate’ is an outright oxymoron. To bring these diverse flavors together a person would need a mind that is OPEN. So much for philosophy!

Cheesecake at the Blue Mountains Chocolate Factory Cafe

We leave the place delighted at our discovery. We’re going to catch lunch… It’s going to be steak at a steakhouse back in Sydney – medium rare. Maybe today I’ll try it rare… surely… discuss it some other day.

P.S. A special thanks to my blogger buddy Prasan for motivating this post.

The Philadelphia Post

This was my first time to the city of Philadelphia. The usual research that I had done before going to there spoke about the role of the city in shaping American History. Sites like the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall topping the ‘things to see’ list! And then there were the museums, the Betsy Ross house and of course, the Eastern State Penitentiary (refer to previous post).

Independence Hall

Philadelphia City Hall

And... its mirror image

Statue of William Penn atop the City Hall

There is always so much more to a city, any city than the regular things to do or see lists, isn't it?

In the case of Philadelphia, it is nicknamed ‘The city of Brotherly Love’ (Greek: philos – love; adelphos – brother). Many Asian countries believe in the effects that one’s name can have on an individual. The holder of the name, it is said, imbibes its qualities. I may dismiss it generally, but it couldn’t be truer where this place is concerned. Because Philly, in my experience, is one friendly city!

Friendship Arch in Chinatown, a gift to the city of Philadelphia, crafted by artisans of Tianjin, China (A sister city)

The city is very global with people of so many different races and nationalities living here… people, who are warm, sociable, accommodating and smile easily. This, in my opinion is one of the prime things that makes a vacation worth being taken.

We walked a lot in Philly. The air was cool and it would drizzle of and on, so it made venturing out on foot so much fun! Pritam and I stayed at a friend’s which is in a residential neighborhood about 15-minutes walking distance from the Independence Hall. There is something very distinctive about the residential architecture here. Homes are typically quaint row houses, mostly with red-brick façades. A lot of them have windows bordered with pretty, flowering plants.

Apart from its historical significance, one aspect that strikes me about this city is its murals. Wonderful, eye-catching pieces of art that cover walls of buildings! They give Philly a unique, artistic identity. They depict various themes and some of them are really huge.

Philly, as I understand, has an extensive mural arts program. It was started with a view to counter the huge graffiti problem that the city faced. As part of the program graffiti vandals gained guidance from professional artists thereby helping them channel their creativity.

Today, there are over 2,500 murals in the city and more are created regularly, giving Philly its uniquely artistic identity!

Another characteristic of this city is its parks and squares

I have come to the last day of my vacation. We’ve been indulging in diverse cuisines – Turkish, French, Japanese… but have yet to try the Philly cheesesteak. “No Worries!” Our host and dost (Hindi: dost – friend) Ravi takes us to Pat’s at the Italian Market. Philly cheesesteaks are available all over the city but here is where we get the real McCoy. No other meal of the day being feasible, it’s got to be breakfast. So, we head for ‘Pat’s – King of Steaks’.

The time is about 11 a.m. There is a queue of four or five people before us. “This place is packed at night. Come here after midnight and you’ll have to wait for ages” Ravi says. And if I remember correctly, Pat's is open 24-hours.

Across the road is Geno’s, another cheesesteak spot and competition to Pat’s. Both places are supposed to have some really die-hard patrons!

The cheesesteak is divine. I’m not one for hearty breakfasts but can’t resist something so good! It is a plump bread roll stuffed with strips of steak and crunchy fried onions. Loaded with cheese - melting and gooey! If only there was a can of chilled Budweiser to go with it! Heard of champagne brunches (haven’t tried yet!) but beer breakfast… ahem!

I eat it all and feel very guilty later. Why are all good things in life illegal, immoral or fattening? Never mind…

Beer reminds me of an apt proverb I’d read flipping through a book of Ben Franklin proverbs at the Franklin Institute. ‘Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.’ Couldn’t agree more!

Statue of Benjamin Franklin at the Franklin Institute

Eastern State Penitentiary: the prison for repentance?

pen·i·tence – (noun) the state of being penitent; regret for one's wrongdoing or sinning; contrition; repentance

It is a cloudy morning in Philly, the second of my four-day sojourn. It has been drizzling intermittently but it has stopped raining now as we step out. Perfect weather to visit the Eastern state penitentiary - dry enough to walk around and grey enough for that aura of mystery!

Penitentiary, to put it simply, is a jail with a fundamental difference. The idea is not to punish but to invoke in the confined individual, a sense of atonement or “penitence”. It is not operational prison any longer but it’s a historical site, open for public viewing.

We walk from the bus stop to the penitentiary. Nearby houses are pretty with well-decorated doorways painted in vibrant colors – mauve, maroon, red, bottle green, yellow, even a shade close to electric blue!

The enormous wall and guard towers of the Eastern state penitentiary tower among the town houses. The structure is visible from a distance. It seems silently stony and forbidding, almost ominous and brings to my mind what I read on the internet – some cells of the penitentiary are haunted! My heart begins to race. There are hundreds of thousands of little wild flowers surrounding the wall that I notice on getting a little closer. They help bring about a diversion in mood, a bit of courage and a lot of cheer.

Once inside, an I-pod of sorts with headphones serves as our electronic tour guide. The narrative apart from regular commentary actually has the ex-staff – some assistants, cooks, jailors and other officials along with some ex-prisoners giving an account of life within these walls.

It is a weekday and there aren’t many visitors. I am secretly thankful for some human company in the guise of other visitors and the uniformed penitentiary staff around me, off and on in this damp and humungous place!

Eastern State was built in the nineteenth century outside the city of Philadelphia, today stands in the heart of the city. The structure of the place is such that there are long corridors (basically cellblocks) with individual cells that connect to a centre giving it an asterix-like or wagon-wheel shape.

The historical account playing on the head-phone is complete with music and sound effects for that extra zing, “In the initial ‘penitentiary’ system, each cell was designed for a single inmate. The cells were centrally-heated, had running water and a flush toilet. All this in an age when the president of the United States had no running water and the White House was heated with coal stoves!

However, there was to be minimal almost zero contact with another person, including officials on duty till the term of the sentence was completed. Except a Bible, no books or writing material was allowed. All that one heard there was the sound of silence. This environment was created in order to make the prisoner spiritually reflect on his life, change and thereby invoke penitence.

It may seem ideal, but this Eastern state system was not without drawbacks. It is supposed to have given rise to mental illnesses among inmates, driven some men mad! The notable novelist Charles Dickens, who paid a visit to the penitentiary, denounced it strongly. Then in early twentieth century, this system was abandoned and Eastern state became a regular prison"

Rather ironical I feel was the erection of the “death row” at Eastern state sometime in the 1950s. The dreaded, final sentence at the place called the ‘penitentiary’. I must admit I am relieved to leave this ill-omened section.

There used to be a family of stray cats that made this place their home when it was abandoned and fell into ruins. Walking along the dimly lit corridors today, there are white sculptures of these cats that can be found hiding in the unlikeliest of places. So unlikely that spotting them can actually get pretty exciting! Are they called ghost cats? I think so!

Talking of cats, Eastern state has seen a very unusual inmate. The governor of Philadelphia gave a life sentence to a dog named ‘Pep’ for allegedly murdering his wife’s cat. A photograph with a soulful expression on his face and a prison inmate number round his neck hangs in a cell. Of course the imprisonment of this “cat-murdering” dog was much debated at that time!

Al “Scarface” Capone was one of the prison’s notoriously infamous inmates. His cell has been maintained the way it was when he used it – with luxuries like a carpet, a four poster bed, a polished desk, paintings on walls with suffused lighting and strains of a waltz playing in the background!

This is an unpredictable tour, thrilling and edgy. Scary at times making me feel foolish, stepping out in broad daylight. Towards the end of this self-guided, electronically assisted tour, I finally gather some courage and step inside one of the cells which is supposed to be haunted. It is empty and doesn’t seem any different from the other cells. However, a chill runs down my spine and I constantly look over my shoulder. Why? I do not know but I don’t want to find out…

http://www.easternstate.org/

The Crystal Caves of Bermuda

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Over a hundred years ago one afternoon in Bermuda, a group of boys were playing cricket. One of them whacked the ball so hard that it went away flying and disappeared in a hollow in the ground. One of them tried to retrieve the ball but fell into the chasm. He didn’t find the ball but discovered a cavern with dripstone and flowstone instead. This was later named as the Crystal caves.

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Pictures capture its beauty... not completely

I had set off on an excursion to the Crystal caves with the basic information that it’s a cavern covered with stalactites and stalagmites – just a phenomenon that I had studied at school. No big deal! I came out of the cave marveling at Mother Nature’s creation.

It is a guided tour and one enters the narrow entrance in a group headed by a guide. We leave daylight behind as we climb down inside the dimly lit cavern. A large drop of water falls right on my face. I gasp, startled. “You’re gonna have a happy day!” says the guide. The number of drops falling on a person will be equal the number of happy days, he elaborates. Wow, I’m waiting for some more drops to fall.

An amazing sight awaits us as we climb down the steps - a tranquil pool of crystal clear water roofed by icicle-shaped stalactites. They are thin and long inverted cones, a few almost touching the surface of the water. A glow seems to emanate from them, almost making them look like they are made of like mother-of-pearl.

Stalagmites rise up from beneath the water. They are a stubbier version of the stalactites. Our guide points to a column – a structure formed when a stalactite meets a stalagmite. The process of formation is ongoing and we are cautioned against touching these structures. Human touch can hamper the growth which is very slow – just about an inch in a hundred years.

I walk down the wooden pathway in a bit of a daze. This is like nothing I’ve ever seen – every inch of it pristine and precious and has taken the earth millions of years to make. There is an intrinsic silence ingrained into this place. The kind that makes us keep our voices low.

We reach the end of the walkway and come to a sort of vantage point. The scene makes me feel like I am in some other ethereal world. “Hey, that looks like a dragon!” I exclaim. More play of light and shadows creates an illusion of a graveyard. That’s spooky! It would be really scary being alone in here! A little further stands the Manhattan skyline. Much better!

The underground tour has come to a close. I blink as I step into the real world. There is exhilaration in my heart. Is this how Alibaba felt when he came out of the cave of the forty thieves? That was fantasy. But I admit, after seeing what I just saw, the line dividing fact and fiction just got thinner.

http://www.bermuda4u.com/

http://www.bermudatourism.com/index.aspx