hyderabad zoo

A visit to a prison that was! It was as close as I’d get to a prison – and it wasn’t as easy as I’d expected it to be. No, am not talking about the boat ride or the island itself. I am talking about the experience there. If you listen (mind you, ‘listen’ not ‘hear’) to the audio tour, you will definitely carry away bits ‘n pieces of the narration.

Alcatraz – the prison and the lighthouse (among other things), is now a tourist attraction – one of the oh-so-typical places to see when you are in San Francisco. I did feel bad for the inmates at times – to be able to see the free world and not be there – it’s worse than not seeing the free world at all! I walked around like an intruder – taking pictures like I was stepping into someone’s personal space.

Karnataka

April 28-May 2
After the great time at Sentosa, we returned to the airport, walked around the huge Changi airport and boarded the plane close to 6 in the evening. We were so tired, we fell asleep as soon as the plane was taxiing. I had no clue when the plane took off or when dinner was served – I was fast asleep! I got up only when the air hostess woke me up saying “good morning!” I had slept a good 12 hours And, it was evening at San Francisco, not morning. After a wash and ‘breakfast’ on the place, we got off at 7:45pm local time.

We got out and waited for the bus to get us to San Jose Hilton, about an hour away. At 8 pm, it was windy and cold! And this was supposed to be summer!! Thankfully, we had been told about the chilly evenings, and had warm clothes with us.

After a bit of delay in getting the bus, we reached the hotel at 11pm, ordered dinner minutes before 12 and finished dinner at 1am. By the time we got to sleep, it was close to 3am. Thanks to a call to the wrong room, I got up at 630am. The rest of the week flew by – with days occupied by work and meetings, evenings spent by walks in the cold streets No wonder I got quite a few pictures of the San Jose neighbourhood.

Friday evening, I moved to Mountain View – to the apartment – where I’d be staying for the rest of my visit here.