Destination Salem

After San Francisco my next stop was Singapore. I boarded the Singapore airlines flight Sq001 at 00:05 hours to Singapore from SFO. It was a full flight and I ended up sitting at the rear end of the flight. It was the longest flight I have ever been on it took 14hrs and 50 min to reach Hong Kong where it stopped for a hour and a half, which gave enough time for me to grab a “short” café latte. After 3 and a half hours of flying the flight finally landed in Singapore. The Changi Airport is arguably the best airport for transit. It has everything that a passenger in transit would want. I found a nice place to have a welcome shower ($1.60 US) and stowed away my carry on luggage in a locker. I then went on a 2 hour colonial tour of Singapore. I would strongly recommend anyone with more than 6 hours of transit in Singapore to take one of the tours (colonial or cultural). The colonial tour takes you around the colonial Singapore and also has a ferry ride along the Esplanade theatre (whose architect also happens to be an Indian). On the trip I learnt a lot about the history of Singapore (including the foundation of the INA). I also learnt that the first president of Singapore was of Indian origin and the sixth and current president of Singapore is also Indian. I did not find the 8 hour transit tiring at all because of all this and boarded the flight to India in the best of my spirits.
I slept through most of the flight and woke up when the flight was about to land in Chennai. Chennai from the air, especially at night is a sight to see. My aunts were waiting anxiously for me to come out of the airport and were relieved to see me coming out unscathed. I stayed for two days in Chennai and left for my place of birth…

SALEM

I set out with my two of my aunts and and an uncle to the city of steel and mangoes. It took us 8 hours to reach there as the roads were completely devastated because of the cyclonic rains. We were terribly exhausted when we reached there. It was the night of the 21st and the children from the village had gathered around to practice dancing and singing for my grandmothers 80th birthday celebrations. Celebration was in the air… we were all dancing and singing for the next three days as we celebrated my grandmother’s birthday in grand style. Almost the whole family had gathered around for this wonderful occasion. I had never seen my grandmother happier. After the celebrations things started to calm down a bit and I had my private time with all my aunts, uncles and relatives. I went to Yercaud and had molaga bajji and keera bonda my favorites and played volleyball with my cousins. The best part of my stay in Salem was getting back with my sweet dogs… Geno, Choco and Candy.
Geno is the fawn colored Labrador his son Choco is the chocolate colored dog and Candy is the Dalmatian. I took a lot of pictures of my favorite dogs. Choco was 3 months old when I left him. He is a well trained dog and can do a number of tricks, he won awards in numerous dog shows and Candy recently won the award for the best breed. We have always had dogs at home and life around dogs is always exciting…
I am getting nostalgic now… I will let you all drool over these beautiful dogs while I retreat into my dreamland.