I don't know if I should give credit to the ambiance or the food. The fact is that both were equally good.
Yesterday we went to Mallu Stories, a great place for Malayali cuisine. I ordered a fish meal while wifey ordered Pothi chor (rice and curry wrapped in a banana leaf).
All the items on the plate were tasty, especially the Sambhar. The fish curry was a bit spicy (for me) but then that is how fish curry is supposed to be. The Cheera thoran was just yummy. Had pappadam after a long time. Along with the food we were served semiya payasam. We were told that on sadhya dates, they serve paal payasam or parippu payasam. (Sadhya dates are announced through their instagram posts) I liked the illustrations on each page of the menu card.
But better than that, the illustrations on the walls speak for themselves.
The twirled moustache of Innocent says that it is from the movie Mithunam where he acts as a tough brother in law. Those who have watched Malayalam movies would relate better as most of the famous dialogues from the movies are put up there. Like this lady Philomena who is famous for using crass language in almost all her movies
Below is one of the famous dialogues between Mohanlal and Srivisan in the movie Nadodi kattu"Etra Manoharamaya nadakatta swapnam"
Harishree Ashokan's dialogue in Punjabi House "Chappatti nahi, Chor Chor"
In the same frame above you can see the Genzee's heart throb Fahadh Faasil with his dialogue "Eda Mone"
A typical scene from a rural part of Kerala where a KSRTC bus arrives while the elderly sit under a tree reading newspaper and engaging in discussions on current topiics.
I was a bit disappointed with the pazham pori (banana fritters) . Usually nicely ripe bananas are used for preparing this. What we got was a bit on the raw side.
I heard that there is a lot of wait time involved, but we got a table quickly as it was a weekday. A special mention should be made about the pocket friendly prices. Our total bill came to Rs 620/- for two (about $7) after having a sumptuous meal.
The location is D P Road in Pune. As a typical Mallu I would reiterate what Ashokan said "Chapati nahim nahim'
Clicked some leaves against the sunlight in this rainforest.
The suspension bridge at Capilano is in this rainforest and it is one of the tourist attractions of Vancouver.
The video gives you an idea about the height of the bridge from the river bed. If you are prone to motion sickness or have fear of heights, then be warned that it can sway quite a bit with a crowd on the bridge.
The bridge was originally made of hemp ropes and cedar planks. Some of the tools used in those days to put up the bridge.
There are more smaller bridges connecting the treetops.
There is a Cliffwalk which is the latest addition around the place.
Noticed a tree while walking on the cliff walk. The angle that it has taken while growing.
Nature has its own way to find the sunlight especially in a rainforest where trees are dense.
I spotted a solitary owl on one of the tall trees and took some snaps. It being noon, the lighting was not favourable and it cast some sinister shadows on the owl's face.
It was our first experience traveling by Alaska Airlines to Vancouver and found the airline pretty good.
Talking of Vancouver port, it is considered to be one of the most beautiful ports in the world. Some of the old and the new co-exist on Burrard St. at Downtown.
Saw some trolley buses on the way from the airport. I remember this was in use in the late 60s in Bombay (now Mumbai)
Not far from Burrard St is the "Canada Place" conamed as "Komagata Maru Place" in honour of an incident when the Komagata Maru steamship (also known as Guru Nanak Jahaz) brought 376 Punjabis (337 Sikhs, 27 Muslims 12 Hindus) to Vancouver, most of whom were denied entry, detained for two months with lack of medical aid, food or water and then forced to return to India where many were killed by British authorities.
There are other pictures about the history of the place, displayed along the harbour, like how they cleared the big trees:
Saw some seaplanes (used for sightseeing) landing at the same location.
All these pictures won't do justice to what you actually see while travelling by the train.
The train takes you through picturesque snow capped mountains as you go higher.
The story of the Klondike Gold Rush is embedded in the ride.
The Seattle Post said "Gold Gold Gold." The newspaper reported that "sixty eight rich men on the steamer Portland arrived in Seattle with stacks of Yellow metal"
The news spread like wildfire in the middle of the depression and the country went gold crazy.
Imagine the difficulty they faced about 100 years ago when trying to cross the Chilkoot trail.
Or the conditions in which they built this bridge.
With temperatures as low as -40 and the wind speed as high as 80 miles per hour, with precious few hours of daylight available, and hanging on this bridge by rope, they had to rotate every 45 minutes in and out of warmth to stay alive. This bridge is part of the reason why the White Pass was designated as an international historic civil engineering landmark.
It is an honour that the White Pass shares with other engineering marvels like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel tower and the Panama Canal.
The conductors look sharp in their smart uniform.
The tour guides kept updating us on the important points as we passed them like the black cross.
In August 1898 a blasting accident buried two railroad workers under a 500 ton granite stone. The black cross marks their resting place.
While on the train, you can see other meter gauge trains running on similar routes far away (seeing them in the video gives a better effect of motion)
The bridge which you see in the picture below was in use till 1969 and was considered the tallest cantilever bridge in the world at that time.
We had four stops while on the cruise. Had written about Endicott Arm in the previous blog
