August Long Weekend - Day 1

The long awaited long weekend.. 3 days break in August - the best period for travelling..
So, heading to - any Guesses ?
Here were the places that crossed our minds ( and finally - only our minds :-( )
Italy - Schengen visa required
Switzerland - No visa required - but will 3 days be sufficient for seeing swiss
Scotland - Not even flight required...
and with the project coming to an abrupt end, we were not sure who will be where in a couple of weeks.
So, whats going to happen on the 3 day weekend ?
The words of the great philosopher Sethunanda predicted
'Italy-kku poga vendiya ellorum Eastham-la okkandhu idly sappitikittu irukka porom!!'
Thats what precisely happened..
We were sitting in Tunbridge Wells on the day before the long weekend started.
And then the sleeping tourist in all our hearts woke up - and said,
'No problem if we are not going for an international tour.
Lets atleast ensure that we cover the places surrounding London fully - we should leave no stone unturned'.
So, it was decided that we will go to the long pending places and for the first time - an Event
Day 1 - Oxford University and Naesdan Temple
Day 2 - Notting Hill Carnival - the biggest carnival in Europe.

Day 1 - As always, the first day of any tour, you happen to be rearing to go..
We ran to the railway station and we had only the ticket counter standing between us and the train..
And finally, the ticket counter won and we missed the train and had to wait for another half an hour in the tunbridge wells station.
We finally reached London at around 10:00am and went to paddington to catch the train to Oxford.
We got the train to Oxford at around 11:15am - just missing the 11 am walking tour.
We got the walking tour's map and then started following our own path.
With the great map reader Officer @ Prabu Anand, we had no difficulty in finding our way around Oxford.
And the duties of the 2 cameras ( Sethu's and mine ) were cut out.
Sethu's camera to be used one and only for Sethu's Mappillai photos ;-) and my camera for group photos.
We started our walk and we came across a bull statue in front of Oxford station. There was a big crowd of Japanese tourists in front of it and taking photographs..
The japanese ppl are excellent role models - so, follow suit blindly ;-) ( only in taking photograph ! ).
We also took photos there in front of the bull and then started moving to the city.
Against popular belief, if you are travelling to oxford, you cannot visit oxford university.
Because, there is no specific building for the university ( based on the oor-suthifying that we had done !)
Oxford university has lots of colleges affiliated to it and we saw some of the colleges.
Including the Trinity College...
And then, we entered some college - for seeing how the college looks..
And later on, when we watched Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Ghum, we realized that the college in which Sharukh studies is the same college that we visited :-)
And then to the most interesting portion of the day's visit - a visit to Science Museum
There, we saw the blackboard in which Einstein had written during his visit to Oxford, the first differential machine that charles babbage created and many more artifacts ( Some from tamilnadu also :-) )
We started from Oxford and caught the train to London.
Again, as usual, delays due to missing the train within minutes. :-(
The next place was Naesdan Temple. We got down at the station suggested by the temple authorities and started walking, walking , walking..... and finally reached the temple. The temple was a huge one - and later on, we came to realize that it was the largest temple outside India
That brings an interesting question. Which is the largest temple in India ? ( I dont have the answer !)
And only one lesson there - I saw a tortoise in front of Lingam.
( Actually, in between Lord Shiva and Nandhi ! )
And the explanation was - Just like tortoise can pull its 4 legs and 1 head ( 5 parts ) inside its shell, if a human can control his 5 senses, then he can attain the blessings of god !
Interesting correlation....
Then, from Naesdan, we caught the bus back to railway station and went to Southall.
Our first visit to Southall - The Mini-Punjab :-)
When you get out of the train, the first thing that strikes you is - the station name will be written in Punjabi and English :-))
When you start walking out of the station, you will notice lots of Jelabi shops, Gurudhvar, Merc convertibles racing with 'balle ! balle' blarring - the punjabi version of UK.
And walk straight ahead and you will reach the market.
You will somehow feel that you are in Ranganathan Street of Punjab.. There will be so many platform shops - but with hindi cassettes and vcds instead of tamil in Ranganathan Street...
You will feel that you are in Punjab - one or two british people will pass you - you can consider them as tourists ;-)
Chat corners ! Hot Jelabis ! Hindi Dvds ! Indian vegetables - you name it, you will get it..
Thats southall for you...
There were shops named Chandini Chowk, Paalika Bazar :-)
We had our dinner in Chandini Chowk - I wouldnt rate this restauarant as Superb - but I would also not deem it as a total failure. It was good food !
Tandoori chicken was very good - it told us that the supposed tandoori chicken that we make at home is only a poor imitation of the real tandoori chicken :-(.. No problems. we will improve the process :-)
And then, only after some time, v realized that we were running out of time.
The last train to Tunbridge wells will be at 11:30 and we were standing in southall at 10pm only to realize that we had again missed the train by a whisker and that the next train will be only at 10:30pm..
we had to reach tube stations and then reach charing cross.
Thankfully, we reached the station and reached Tunbridge wells at half past midnight !!
I can already sense that there will be drop-outs on the next day outing...