wpRaghav – Page 5 – White Rabbit Peaks

San Francisco. USA

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav North America

San Fransisco. USA

The Golden City of Opportunity and Red Santa’s.

Captains Log Day 11 – 15/12/14 2:20pm. SFO Airport

This recollection of events breaks the norm, it has been has to be typed prematurely (unlike other things in my life). My God Damn flight has been cancelled. Hopefully the first and last of vessel cancellations along our journey. I wait along the new larger entourage of Wing Commander Nand and Super-intendant Dave. “Oh wait is that Monica from Friends? is that her? OMG yes it is! Excuse me Mrs Courtney, i am Captain Raggie…”

Ok give me a moment… #starstruck… Yup now we’re good.

San Fran Sisqo. After a mega nap, filled with heaps of drooling we arrive in the state of California. The Wing Commander and Captain had been suffering some serious War wounds, the last night in Washington had taken its toll. In my unconscious state the wing commander had made allies with some locals who are visiting San Fran. They had come for the Annual Public Santa Convention. More on which later in this log. We arrive and head straight to the baggage claim to get our checked baggages. Both of us are excited, a comrade from Melbourne who had moved to Vancouver had made an amazing move to defy the odds and join us here in San Fransisco, and continue the voyage with us to Los Angeles. The latest addition the crew, Super Intendant Dave. Anxious to meet him we started googling when flights from Vancouver would arrive. NEKKMINUTE I GET SPREAR HUGGED FROM BEHIND! It’s super intendant DAVE!!! He found us!. After about 10 minutes of hugs and happiness. Seeing him after a year or more it was amazing to be reunited with our close comrade.

The Captain and the Wing Commander were honoured to be staying at the Captains Cousins Barracks. The captains cousin had moved to San Fransisco about a year ago from Melbourne to look after the America Division. Base Captain Rishabh’s Barracks was located in an optimal location in the city of San Fransisco. After a few Uber hiccups we finally were on our way to the base camp.

We arrived to a entourage of guests, it seemed like base captain Rishabh had had a soirée the night before and the a few of the militia remained. After a sweet embrace with la familia and some introductions we were on our way to a Brunch that and been preplanned. Still a bit dazed from the flight and the hangover we joined in the activities and called in Super intendant Dave to join. We were soon sitting in a french restaurant having croque monsieur. Names flying left right and centre, we had met 10 people in a span of 20 minutes. a belly full of brunch, we headed back to the barracks to start the day and plan activities. We recouped, and relaxed for about an hour before the Base Captain and his best mate and housemate General Jeevs were arriving with some Brewskis. Rest time was over.

We started drinking and ordered some indian food, despite some protests for ‘Medium’ Base Captain had already requested ‘Hot’, what ensued was a very painful dinner. Burning our mouths and causing our stomachs to churn, the only way to relieve the burns was with large gulps of beer. Soon another comrade from Melbourne joined us – Spech Ops Smit. Smit was given the task to lead the force to show us around on the town. Feeling intoxicated by both the many beers and the intense chilli from dinner, it was time venture on forth. In a blink of an eye, we had entered the street full of bars, hitting up one after the other, it seemed like time just slept through the cracks. From one bar to another we went, beers, shots and even Jelly shots being consumed. Feeling tipsy and light headed our rendezvous with the Base captain was imminent. The remainder of the night was dedicated to us stumbling around he city to see some magnificent sights such as the Bay Bridge and the Pier.

Day 2 – So before I start the second day in San Fran let me recap on the bit i had failed to mention previously – 13th December was SantaCon in San Francisco. To those wondering what is Santacon – here is an expert from the wikipedia page “SantaCon is an annual costume party, mass gathering and pub crawl of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters parading in several cities around the world, principally in New York City. It has been variously also known as Santarchy, Santa Rampage, the Red Menace, and Santapalooza.”…Basically a gathering of people dressed as Santa drinking on the streets and partying. Nothing is sacred if you are in a santa costume. We had made it to San Fran Just at the right time.

We were lucky enough that Super intendant Dave had bought our costume for us from Canada, we were prepared for the day that lay ahead. The morning started with us developing our alert call. Basically a noise we released if we got lost or if we needed each others attention during the day, This almost like a distress call, this was vital for our survival. The call we came up with was based on Kanye’s – Blood on the Leaves, it was simply a auto-tuned version of the word “Leaves”.

As 10 am struck we emerged to the lounge room dressed in our elaborate Santa costumes to find the Base Captain making Pancakes with Whisky and coffee with cafe patron. After a quick breakfast General Jeeves moved the dinner table to the living room and lined up some red cups for a game of beer pong. Let the beer pong championships begin!!… and finish no long later with a 5/0 loss to the away team as well as a casualty of the Wing Commander chundering after a sculling his beer and Rum mix. 12 pm and we already had some regurgitation in the sink. The foreigners were already on fire!

The Beer olympics had come to an end and in our Santa red attire we boarded our sleigh and headed in to town. What we found was Thousands of Santa’s. looking left, right and centre, everywhere there was Santa’s! Santa con was in full swing. Starting off at Kels Bar what ensued was a heap more drinking and dancing. A few dance off’s and a drinks later we were on the streets and it had seemed like the santa population had grown exponentially. We stumbled around going from one bar to another, losing each other at times, entering restaurants under false pretences and using the bathroom, drinking on the street , having some AMAZING tasting chips that no one had ever tasted including several members of the public. We walked around absorbing Santacon.

At one point both Wing Commander and I just stopped and sat on the sidewalk and appreciated Alcatraz in the distance – loosing the group and talking to the randoms as they swerved around us.

When we met up with Base Captain we headed to the next bar in which we concealed our drinks and entered. When leaving the Bouncer was not impressed with Base Captain Rishabh as he saw the beer in his hand and realised that the bar does not even sell that beer. Confiscated. Most of this night was a blur with a heap of elements just missing

Santacon finally ended when it was about 8PM and we headed home. We took off our Santa costumes off and put on a movie. The first to drop out was Wing Commander at around 10PM with Base captain not long after at around 11, the Captain, Base Captain and Super Intendant passed out around 12. A truly memorable day with a heap missing.

Day 3 – We woke up from our hangovers, wondering what happened the night before and why there is so much red fluff on our cloths. Base Captain Rish suggested on hiring a car and volunteers to show us all the sights that San Fran has to offer. Based on this offer we get up and head to rental place to pick up our car for the day – which happens to be a large Nissan Ultimo. Good Times. Captaining this vessel, Base Captain takes up around and shows us every site, including the Fishermans wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Marin City, Golden Gate park, the Five ladies, Delores Park, Twin Peaks as well as the birthplace of hippies’ – Haight. An adventure i would never forget and thank Base Captain Rish for. After 6 hours of driving, once again my father had come through and pushed no a colleague from university that he has asked me to catch up with. The only issue was that he was 1 hour away, in Sunnyvale – close to San Jose.

After initially refusing to go meet this mysterious family friend, we decided since we had the car, that it would be a good idea go and check it out. Picking up General Jeeves we started our road trip down Silicon valley, we passed, amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and the mighty Google. Despite all my begging we were not allowed to stop 🙁 we arrived at sunnyvale. Due to a strict timeline set by Captain Rish – We calibrated watches and went in to eat. What ensued was an amazingly delicious dinner, we had been pampered and well looked after. Since i had adhered to the timeline of the base captain – i was rewarded. On the way back to San Fransisco he detoured to Google. At this point I can say to you I was in heaven. I think I was leaking fluids from all over! It was like a dream. We drove around the complex, me wailing like a schoolgirl that had just seen Justin Bieber.

After an exciting and jam packed day, San Fran had been ticked off the list. Base Captain Rish and General Jeeves had helped us cover off our first city in California in almost VIP style (Missing Strippers and Coke) but brilliant in every other way. Our last sleep was like a hypnotic sleep. Waking up early and once agin to some delicious breakfast of Pancakes and Sausages it was time to leave. Saying our goodbyes and reminiscing at the fantastic city that San Fransisco is Wing Commander, Super intendant and myself, headed to the airport only to find our flight cancelled, the rest is history..

San Fransisco: The golden city of opportunity and red santa’s.

Los Angeles. USA

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav North America

Los Angeles. USA

The City of a million stories.

Captains Log Day 18 – 23/12/14 12:20am. Maingate Resort and Spa

After a long hiatus of log entries, this recollection of events commences immediately after departing from San Fransisco, as the captain and his comrades take on the City of Dreams.

The journey to LA began just as any trip to the Hollywood city should, with the sighting of an A list Celebrity – Waiting at the airport as the vessel we were to travel on was cancelled, out came Courtney Cox, followed by a man who looked like Freddy Kruger. Although we are unsure about the Freddy part the Captain and the team of Super intendent Dave and Wing Commander Nand were lucky enough to use some of their Aussie charm to manage a selfie with Courtney Cox.

After a bit of a delay to our flight, was finally on its way and it didn’t take Wing Commander Nand long into our decent to realise L.A was a monster of a city. Departing the airport we discussed our plans for the night and called our first Uber into the city, which got cancelled, and then called another which once again got cancelled. Waiting about 45 minutes at the airport tensions were mounting, it seemed like no one wanted to pick the cross atlantic crew up. Finally after a substantial time waiting, along came our transportation saviour.

A few minutes into the conversation we discovered that our Uber driver was a full time actor, he had been on T.V shows such as Greys anatomy, Dial M for murder and was currently working alongside Jack Nicholson in a movie. He gave us a card and recommended his services if we required actors. At this point, thoughts crossed my mind about motion picturing the captains log and having him play his character. After dropping Super intendant Dave to his Banana republic Hostel we made for our abode, agreeing to meet up with super intendant for the nights activities.

We had not eaten since Master Chef and Base Captain Rish had fed us Pancakes and sausages earlier in the day, so we quickly prepared our materials and headed out to the Banana Republic – chanting “Leeves” as we walked. We rendezvous with Super Intendant Dave and headed to Roscoes Chicken and Waffles. Roscoes was a suggestion that was made by Wing Commander Nand – as he had seen it multiple times on Fresh Prince of Belair. This place had to be sampled. The food was both Delicious as well as a heart attack waiting to happen. It crossed the boundaries of segregation between sweet and savoury and delivered fried chicken and waffles. It took our minds a few minutes to process what we were eating, and our bellies a lot longer to digest it.

Belly’s full and minds confused the squadron of three headed to Hollywood boulevard to check out the ‘Stars’ of the strip. To our surprise there was thousands of these, 2000 plus to be more precise. Stars upon stars, many of these unknown and nestled amongst a heap of known personalities. Walking for about 3 hours we saw the strip and returned home exhausted.

At this point had been hit with an illness – i could only describe this illness as Santa Flu. Since the onslaught that was Santacon i had started to feel a deterioration in my health. This started with a itchy throat and developed into a cough, finally mutating into a severe chest pain. Not to hinder Super intendant or the wing commander I carried on, pushing the limits to the extreme, also leaving large deposits of phlegm and saliva everywhere I went. The health was getting bad and my party could feel my failings.

Day 2 in L.A began with the squadron of three meeting up in the morning and walking towards the strip, trying to figure out what the best run of actions would be for the day. As we headed towards the strip, a odd looking gentleman approached us and discussed if we would like to go on a bus tour to see LA landmarks, at first a little confused we heard his reasoning and the prices and decided – why not. Some time was remaining for the tour to start and our bellies were making some type of growling noise, we thought it was best to go and feed. As a recommendation of Super Intendant Dave we headed for a Mexican chain called Chipotle. We ordered and what came can be described a burrito the size of a small baby (not a foetus but a Baby) not only was the size of this meal amazing so was the taste. Guzzling our Burrito babies we headed back to the tour area and met with the Odd looking fellow. Upon Arrival he started speaking to us, it seemed a slurred speech and required some concentration, soon he revealed that he had been shot in the head a few months in the past and was on the road to recovery. He has been smashing doctors initial diagnosis of full speech recovery sitting only at 1%, he was now at 80% speech capacity.

We boarded the bus just in time for a storm, and to add to the adventure the bus didn’t really have much of a top. Getting drenched, we drove past places such as Rodeo Drive, The Hollywood sign and Micheal Jacksons house. Having a semi deaf driver did not accommodate our request for him to speak louder. Possibly the worst tour have ever done. Moral of the story – don’t trust a street seller that has been shot in the head.

Drenched and exhausted from the tour we walked up to the Chinese theatre to see fit our hands in those of our celebrity heroes. As walking up the strip we were once again approached by a random person – this time with no dents on his head. He approached us and stated that he had some open spots for the shooting of “The Price is Right” with Drew Carey, for the next day. At first we walked past thinking this cant be true, then we walked to him and he advised it was! Not only that but they choose contestants from the crowd. We were advised of the early start and agreed to the conditions. We were going to be on the Price is Right! To celebrate we bought some beers and a bottle of Vodka and headed back tot he hotel, listening to some Rap music we polished off the bottle and were flying high and after a few hours we decided to grab late night snack and call it a night – we had a mega day ahead of us. Santa Flu was getting worse.

Waking up at 7am after polishing a bottle of Vodka off really sucks. Another life lesson learnt on this trip. Scurrying we headed to CBS studios, stopping by the Banana republic to grab Super Intendant Dave. The wait was insane, lines upon lines – all up waiting time was well over 3 hours. Although i can not disclose much of the shooting (NDA) i will say that we did not get called down 🙁 despite our epic photographs and our charismatic interviews). On the bright side we are surely on the screen multiple times cheering and a carrying on like we have parts of our brains missing (we maybe do). The set and the shooting was very entertaining with Drew Carry and George (the MC) making a heap of jokes. Also in the first time in Price is Right History the producers revealed the WRONG showcase! This had to be re shot and the executive producer came out to apologise to the crowd and the contestants. The show will be aired on the 10th of March 2015, so the wearing of my Santa hat was not allowed 🙁

Following an eventful session at the CBS studios Wing Commander and I departed ways with Super Intendant Dave. Dave headed back to Banana republic and we headed to Warner Brothers Studios to see the sets and the homes of our favourite TV shows and Movies. Once again we faced Uber issues as the Driver ended up taking us the wrong direction and straight to universal studios, upon seeing Jurassic park, both Wing commander and I knew we were at the wrong spot. The Uber Driver apologised profusely and voided the charges. Inside Warner Brothers, Wing Commander and i Marvelled at Batman and Harry Potter props, including original costumes and artwork. we walked around the dessert in Terminator and the Lake in Dexter. We had been given sneak peak into how the industry does it, the so called ‘Movie Magic’.

Concluding the tour we dialled D for Dave and planned a meet up in Santa Monica Pier. Our new Formula one Mexican uber driver made us reach in no time – beating Dave by a full half an hour. We strolled up and down the pier crossing Bubba Gumps restaurant, the Pier theme park and other novelty places including a semi raving santa. We reached the end of the pier we watched a Seal steal the bait off fisherman and laughed. it was pretty random. Catching up with Dave we walked down to view the famous Venice beach, strolling up and down before decided to head back towards our hotels for a well earned dinner. To fit right into the shoes of a true tourist – dinner was to be at Hardrock Cafe. In my deathly sickness everything had started tasting like mush and the service was nothing to admire, like a snooty frenchman we complained and managed to get a 12% discount. Disappointed in dinner but satisfied with a full day the Captain and the Crew headed back to base for a well earn rest. At this point my health had reached its worst point. I went straight to bed hurting inside – i was worried that it would jeopardise my tour of Vegas.

Since this was the end of LA journey, it was time for D man Dave to end his service and return home. A very sad moment in our trip as we gave Dave a big hug and promised him a visit to the beautiful city of Vancouver. Sadness filled our minds as we fell asleep.

We awoke exhausted from the previous day, and also realised we had already begun to run late. Our bus was to leave shortly and we had not even gotten ready – in a mad Dash we got ready and caught an Uber towards the Bus stand – Today was the day we were leaving for Vegas! Sin City! we rushed and made it to the bus stand 2 minutes before the bus was to depart, once again being the last ones to board. Thus ending our L.A adventure and heading North east towards the Sins that awaited us.

Los Angeles The City of a million stories.

Las Vegas. USA

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav North America

Las Vegas. USA

The city where ‘nothing’ happens.

Captains Log Day 24 – 29/12/14 1:24pm. Brooklyn New York

Days and weeks have passed from the last entry in this journal. My memory is starting to fade like the paint on a old desert shack.

The reasons for the faint recollection could be self induced. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – except herpes that stuff stays with you for life. With that advise and Segway let’s start a filtered view of what was Las Vegas.

We boarded the Vegas bound bus with 2 minutes to spare. In LA we had been warned by locals that taking the bus was not the best of ideas. So here’s an Interesting fact.. in the States the only people that take interstate busses are Hobos and Drifters. Perfect crowd i would say. The bus was very ghetto a swell as being full. Since Wing commander and I arrived late we were separated, sitting with randoms. The Captain was sitting next to some random person that happened to be mega overweight and decided its best to sit with his legs spread and eat Dorrito’s. I was hoping I could use him as a pillow and let my saliva do the talking. The bus also had a distinct smell but more importantly it also had wifi 🙂

Wing commander had managed to catch the attention of his fellow traveller and had begun a deep philosophical discussion, they discussed poetry and the drifter life just as I closed my eyes for a nap.

Upon the horizon the sinister glow of the city could be seen. A aurora of lights, glowing with sin written all over the desert that we had been traveling. We got closer to the strip and the sheer size of Casinos and hotels baffled us. One of which was the Luxor, the hotel which was to give shelter to the wing commander and the captain and any other sea maidens that were to join us over the course of the next few days. The Luxor hotel is the enormous pyramid shaped hotel on the strip, complete with a sphinx up the front. Excited by the lights we put our bags in our oversized hotel room and headed for the strip. The Santa flu had not departed and I continued to suffer the constant chest pains, phlegm regurgitation and the coughing. The day was spent jumping from one casino to another, finding our bearings and navigating the strip. The bright lights began doing things to our heads, a hunger to gamble grew in our minds and hunger for food in our bellies. As we walked around we had been approached by performers, tour guides, bums the whole kit and caboodle. One person in particular interested us, we found them and went and spoke to them, not long after booked our tickets to visit a giant hole in the ground for the next day. Hungry now and not having eaten since we left L.A we searched these colossal structures for good food. Craving a nice meal we came across Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant. Wing commander and I looked at each other and with a nod we entered with grins on our faces. Dinner was to be Gordon Ramseys burgers and an epic Oreo thick-shake that the wing commander swears is one of the best he had ever had. As an addition to our celebrity count Katie from season 13 of hells kitchen was cooking our meals.

Full from our meals and dreading the 630am pick up for the Canyon tour we headed home and embraced sleep.

The blaring alarm woke us at 6 am and we scurried to make our Grand Canyon bus tour. The ticket salesman had promised us a nap on the bus and the excitement of this was peaking. We boarded and headed for our seats getting comfortable for our 6 hour journey. Instantly the bus host announced that there will be no sleeping! This guy felt like he had downed a bottle of vodka and a small bucket of cocaine. He started his commentary. A 6 hour documentary of the Grand Canyon and Hoover dam. We made a quick stop off at the Hoover dam and we marvelled by its entirety. The man made structure was humongous! After some photos and more Dam facts we continued or journey forward, reaching the canyon in the promised 6 hours.

When we were getting off the bus, the cocaine induced driver proposed that the more fit people in the group could hike 4 miles to the next pick up point, warning us that the altitude was high and breathing may be an issue, he also warned that if we did not reach the point in time the bus would have go leave without them. I consulted a worried wing commander.

We made the choice that no one else on our bus did. We are to hike the Grand Canyon. Despite my aching lungs from the non dying santa flu veering put under more stress from the lack of oxygen we started our journey. What followed was an sensational song of breath taking views. It was unimaginable. No photos can do it justice. It was so big that our depth perception suffered. Interesting fact: From one end to the other its 29 km (city to Springvale), It runs for 429 km (halfway to Sydney), It is 1.6 km deep (Flinders street station to Melbourne central). It was mind blowing and despite the snow and high altitude both wing commander and i were in shock. We completed the hike with 45 minutes to spare. Exhausted we hoped the bus ride back to Vegas would factor in a nap. Unfortunately as we were hiking the driver managed another bucket of coke and was ready to keep us on our toes. Sigh.

We got back to the hotel exhausted after a 14 hour day. Although we felt like death we could hear the bottle of Vodka we had bought calling to us. To relax a bit we started drinking. With some bits missing it was 12 am and we were on the strip and hopping bar to bar. There are recollections of me painting the sidewalk with food once again. Pre drinks are a very intense thing. Blinded by the flashing lights we some how managed to get into a club at Planet Hollywood called Koi and we ended up on the dance floor till we felt our legs were going to fall off. Limp we ended day 2 in Vegas crawling back to our hotel room.

Waking up hungover and swollen from the day before the Captain heard water calling and headed for the outdoor pool. I can personally tell you its a different feeling going swimming outdoors whilst its 2 degrees outside. Exhilarating. My wing commander stuck to base and rested, the night was our last and it happened to be a Saturday. The refreshing swim and spa session had my batteries recharged, the captain arrived back at the room with a brewskii. Soon we poured the vodka and the predrinking ritual started. Half a bottle down we ventured out on to the strip looking for the next venue.

Since this night was our last in Vegas we decided to go all out and headed to the Venetian hotel which housed the best club in Vegas – Tao. Despite our casual shoes we managed to charm our way in. This place was like no other club I have been to. Huge. Packed. Body to body. Full of the most beautiful people I have seen. Music pumping and drinks flowing like the Niagara Falls, we started dancing to the Vegas beat. Soon after we met some beautiful people visiting for a hens night. At this point I claim “what happens in Vegas stays there” We danced till 5 in the am and made some life long friends. The night was insane. Bidding farewell to our new courted friends we headed to our pyramid. We decided that we couldn’t physically check it at 12 pm since it was already 6am. We went to concierge and booked another night, they asked us to move to another room, at which point we felt disappointed since we were so exhausted. We expressed this and in the nature of US hospitality they upgraded our room for the night to a suite. Luggage moved we now had a even larger room for the night.

We KO’ed like a boxer hit in the head, waking up hung over and feeling like garbage. My wing commander had to try ‘in and out’ so as a first mission we stumbled to have the world famous burgers. They were everything we had heard. Juicy and delicious. We composed ourselves and headed to the old Vegas Strip.

Ladies and gentleman this is the actual Vegas. The neon lights the liveliness, even the smoking neon cowboy. This was what we had imagined Vegas to be! It was great. We walked up n down dancing to the random street performers and looking at all the stalls. The place was what we wanted from vegas. We visited the golden nugget and then went to a all you can eat buffet (the best in old Vegas) serving up 218 different dishes. To kill or hangover we ate like kings on a Victory feast. Trying everything. Our grazing session was complete it felt like we needed to be rolled out. We took a taxi and headed to the hotel. It was 9 and our flight was to depart at 11pm. Once again we rushed.

Leaving Las Vegas. The city where ‘nothing’ happens.

Orlando. USA

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav North America

Orlando. USA

A city of happiness and a childhood of memories.

Captains Log Day 26 – 31/12/14 5:10pm. Queens, New York

At the dawn of 2015 I sit and recollect the most magical time i have experienced in my life. Orlando, Florida. The home of Universal Studios and more importantly the Most happy and Magical place in the world. Disney World.

It was only suitable that we leave the city of Sin and emerge ourselves in a more family oriented pleasure, and what better way than by visiting the exact opposite from where we had just been. Reflecting now, Orlando Florida had been the highlight that both Wing Commander and I had been looking forward to. As a reflection of this we had scheduled maximum intensity for this portion of the trip.

We left Vegas at 11:15pm flying to Atlanta and then to our final destination of Orlando. Factoring in the cross country time difference, after leaving at 11:15pm we landed at our destination at 8:55am. Catching some shut eye when we could, we had managed a whole 3 hours of sleep.

The first thing we noticed when getting out of the Airport was that it was Warm! The temperature gauge on our phones told us it was 65 Fahrenheit ~ 18 Degrees Celsius. We shredded our thermal wear and continued to the bus stop.

Taking the chance and not wanting to waste any time both the Wing Commander and I Headed straight to Universal Studios – Adventure Island Theme park. At this point we had all our luggage with us. With 2 days to go before christmas – it seemed to be everyones ideal time to visit the parks. Departing our bus we were like 2 small fish in a SWARM of people. Let me correct myself we were 2 small fish with 2 large suitcases and 2 carry on bags in a sea of trout. Hands full we took on the crowds and walked into the park looking for the first lockers or place we could deposit our valuables. This was not easy – the parks did not expect edger beavers like us to rock up with large bags – all the lockers were too small. We were directed to the lost and found area where finally after a long struggle we had been given a space to deposit our items. A mixture of exhaustion from the lack of sleep and adrenaline from excitement was building up.

Map in hand we started our tour of the first park in Universal Studios. When driving in we could see a gigantic green track looping around the park. It was large enough to be seen from miles outside the park. As a first venture on our discovery route we came across this green tracked ride aptly named ‘The Hulk Smash Ride’. Nervous and scared we approached the point at which the line was to start, only to find out that the ride was not running. At this point both Wing commander and I let out a sigh of relief. We continued on to the Next ride – The wait at which was 70 Minutes. We were soon to find this was the usual during this period, in some cases wait times could exceed 120 minutes. Leaving the first ride we came face to face with the Hulk Smash coaster again and the attendants told us it was now open and the wait time was less than 20 minutes. Butterflies in our stomachs the Wing Commander and Captain were up for the challenge. With nervous Smiles we boarded and went off.. 2 minutes of the wildest spinning ride ever (thats what she said).

Getting off the coaster both of us felt light headed and a bit disoriented, but most of all we felt proud that we had conquered the scariest ride first up. Following this we went on every ride in the park, waiting hours for some and minutes for others. The final part of the park we embarked on the Harry potter section. A section dedicated to the young wizard. What waited us was another very hectic roller coaster called the Dragon Challenge. Loops and drops we left the ride dizzier than the Hulk ride. Another brilliant ride in the Harry potter section was this fantastic 3D roller coaster, which really blew us away in terms of visuals and sounds. We strolled around the Wing commander, an avid fan of Harry was blown away by the detail and the reflection of the world of Harry Potter. Although we had forgotten the exhaustion that came about the day, timed crept us up on and it was almost time to leave. We Grabbed a glass of Butter Beer (Yes this exists and they have it and it is delicious!) and headed to pick up our bags and to leave to the resort. The time was 10PM and the realisation hit us that we had been in the park for 12 hours.

We reached the resort and checked in. Wing Commander and I both commended the choice of accommodation, both of us agreeing that the resort was fantastic, housing 4 pools, spa’s laundry etc. Exactly a type of resort you would imagine for a place that has such a tropical climate. Leaving our luggage in our rooms we headed for the resort restaurant for our first proper meal in over 24 hours. Greeted by friendly service we ate. The entertainment was provided as we had an extremely drunk British girl creating a very entertaining scene. We ate our meals and retreated to our abode. On the Way we saw a friend – a little Lizard hanging out on the walls, using my lizard tongue I communicated with the Lizard instructing him to attack Wing Commander, by pushing forward to his Shoe. After a bit of convincing the lizard made a dash for Wing Commander Nand! Having no idea what happened WC Nand just jumped up. I laughed, not knowing nature had already planned its karmic revenge.

After hitting the room i headed outside to explore the resort, lazy to wear shoes i decided to walk around barefoot, as i was walking around a FROG jumped and landed 2 cms from my foot. I jostled and rushed back to the room. Seems like the Captained found himself in Jungle territory.

The Second day was dedicated to the second and final park of the Universal studios, home to places like Simpsons land, MIB ride, Despicable Me and a whole heap of others. We were excited to begin our day. At reception we found out that there is a chance that the shuttle that was to be going to the park may already be booked out, and the best way to get there otherwise was via a Cab. Distressed Wing Commander and I started discussing the options to get to the park. Just then another squadron of two asian girls were discussing the same thing. Switching on the Charm and having a chat with them, soon all Four of us were on our way to universal studio. The 2 girl squadron was visiting universal for the break, they both studied in the states and were from China. New friends made we discussed a possible meet up time so that we could share a taxi back to the resort with them.

Starting again at the park we identified the biggest roller coaster. Boy was this BIG. A 90 degree vertical climb up 14 stories and then a drop. I think i had just seen the scariest roller coaster in my life.

“The Rock It” roller coaster. It sent you vertically up and then a drop down, followed by a few loops and a few more drops. This Red tracked beast looked like it could eat the Hulk Coaster as a Snack. Nervous smiles reappearing we got in line. When in the line we were advised to choose a song from a list, this song was to be played whilst you were on the coaster. After some discussion both wing commander and I selected ‘Stronger’ by Kanye. We sat in the coaster and the music started playing in our ears. we started singing, yelling,.. ‘that don’t kill us only makes us STRONGER!!‘ were the first drop over the horizon. We got off the coaster disoriented and light headed. One could say it was a very exhilarating start to the day. We carried on, once again attempting every ride we could fins, spending up to 90 minutes waiting our turns, including some mentionable raised such as the Mummy ride and the Disaster ride. A highlight for us was reaching the Simpsons Land section of the park. A miniature springfield, including a Krusty land and a Sideshow Bob Ride!

Childhood and Youth all mixed up in a TV show both of us lived by, we were in heaven. Once done exploring and shopping at the Kwik-e-Mart we headed to Moes Tavern and had a Flaming Moe, followed by Krusty burger. The novelty didn’t wear off even after we had been there an hour. Since we had a load to explore we continued on, finally rendezvousing with our asian friends, who had bought us gifts! The 2 nicest girls. We shared a cab and headed home exhausted – seemed like another 12 hour day was coming to an end as well as the Universal studios portion of the trip. we bid farewell to our friends and went to the hotel room. Starving we managed to order some take our Asian food for dinner and we ate whilst we did laundry in the bath tub.

The Third Day – Christmas Eve. The day we had been dreaming of ever since we had been kids. Disney World. Today was the day we visited the happiest place on earth. For those that don’t know Disney world has 5 Theme Parks, each requiring a day at least each. We only had 2 days dedicated to disney world and therefore had to chose 2 parks to visit. The first being Magical Kingdom and the second being Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As the day we chose was Christmas Eve our emotions had been on overdrive. Despite it not being a white Christmas (due to the tropical Orlando Weather) we made a decision to visit Magical Kingdom first. We headed in and reached the park, the excitement was border lining insanity, as we took the ferry into Magical Kingdom. As we entered we were instantly overwhelmed by the disney castle staring at our. The The beauty of which had us awestruck, as well as the number of people present in the park. Body to Body we walked. We had managed to come on one of the busiest days of the year. However what myself and Wing Commander did have was time. The park was to close at 1am that night and from what we had experienced in the other universal parks was that kids have bedtime, around 9pm the lines dissolve. Still we managed to walk the park and hit up every rids, as well as take some photos with the likes of Aladdin and Jasmine, yet another lifelong achievement unlocked. We walked and and lined up for rides, in one case waiting 120 minutes for a ride.

Hungry for food we saw locals eating a Turkey legs. A giant drumstick. It seemed like that was the thing to do when in Disney world. So we headed to the food stand and both Wing Commander and I decided to get one. Note these things are as big as my head! we took one bite and were disgusted at how awful these things tasted both of us confused at how people could eat this. As an analogy Wing Commander compared the Turkey leg to Off ham. The thing was putrid and due to the high price we had paid for them we struggled and managed to take 3 more bites before throwing the atrocious thing out.

Finishing up our first round of the Park we got to the castle to watch the fireworks display, only to find that all the spots were full and the closest we could be was at the other end/ entrance of the park. Both disappointed at the crappy view we started pushing forward to see if we could manage a better view. Just then as if the Gods had heard us, a Downpour started, a huge storm came about and the crowd of thousands started to dissolve. Armed with Ponchos and an undying will we pushed forward and some how – ended up in the front, right next to the Stage! The rain did not stop.. and got heavier. everyone was fleeing but not us. We had travelled too far to see this. Once again as if driven by a divine power the rain stopped 5 minutes before the Fireworks/ Disney show was to start. What followed was a childhood. was an emotional breakdown for the Captain. the most beautiful memories coming back as Walk Disney took me back to everything I loved being a kid. I wept and was just blown away by the display that ensued. it was truly amazing. No works i can say can describe the fireworks on christmas eve at Disney world.

Once the fireworks were complete the park felt deserted. The lines had vanished. this only meant one thing, Another round of the Park! They say an average visit to Disney requires you to walk 10 miles. We did the park twice, spending over 15 hours till closing time absorbing where we were, making sure nothing was missed. At 1 AM as the park closed we hailed a cab and headed back to the resort. It felt like everything we had come for had been accomplished.

Christmas Day, the last day in Orlando and the Final Park – Hollywood Studios. Feeling a bit numb from all the emotion form the previous day we walked Hollywood studios, visiting a few rides and meeting a few of our favourite characters, Buzz lightyear, Goofy etc. This park was a heap smaller then those that we had visited previously, however the lines were still very unrelenting. we walked the park and did the essentials. The last thing on our list and one of the most important was finally meeting Mickey. We had saved this for last. as the crowds slowly dissolved we went to find Mickey getting him just before leaving the park. it was fantastic. Such a joyful place. Happiness all round (except on the wallet). Finishing up we headed back to the hotel and packed our bags.

We had an early morning flight headed to New York. An Amazing Adventure Awaited.

Orlando A city of happiness and a childhood of memories.

New York. USA

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav North America

New York. USA

The City that does Sleep.

Captains Log Day 27 – 1/1/15 2:56 am. China Airlines, Somewhere over Alaska.

Hungover and exhausted from one of the most spectacular new years i have ever experienced, and on board one of the longest journeys i have been on, flying from the USA to Koh Sumui Thailand. I set out to document the events and experiences of my Wing Commander and I in the Big Apple. New York City.

Luggage in hand we arrive at JFK Airport and conveniently catch an Ueber Ride to our first set of accommodation in Flatbush, Brooklyn – A step up from our initial plans to stay in Bedstuy, which happened to be the location of the two police officers that were murdered (Dec 2014).

Arriving at our lodging and having a slight crisis of the door not opening n our Air BnB place, we finally got into our abode. Seemed that the Wing Commander had been overcharged, a quick fb complaint later, the reimbursement was satisfied.

We did not have much time to loose as our first adventure was to be heading to New York State i.e. out of the city to a town known as Poughkeepsie. Why you may ask were we venturing 2 hours out of the city to such a place? The wanes is simple, a very close friend of both the wing commander and I had gotten married and moved there. To add to this she had given birth to an Adorable set of twins. With Converse sneakers and Polos in our hands we took the local subway to Central Station. We took some time to marvel at this beautiful piece of architecture and engineering. Our first sense of New York Fever set in, a hint of realisation was creeping up that we had made it to the epitome of the United states. We took for the Suburban metro and headed up the Hudson River, finally making it you our destination. Here we were graced by some food and replenishments as well as seeing our friend after years of missing status. We also got to meet one of the two trouble makers. Adorable just doesn’t cut it.

Time constraints creeping in we made a dash for our train back to the city. Saying goodbyes with the uncertainty of when we will meet was tough. We returned to Grand Central at about 12 am and decided rather then heading back, we would see if this City ever sleeps. Walking trough Manhattan was like a child in a chocolate factory. We were marvelling at every building, gasping and letting out ooo’s and Ahh’s at every turn. Times Square was the first of these locations to blow our little minds. Huge, Bright, Busy, are the first words that come to mind, once again he photos cannot do this justice. New York, New York. A stroll around the city as time crept to 3 am we realised that the City that does not sleep actually does take a Nap. With most places closed we walked the streets looking for some food to have. Finally finding an overpriced Pizza joint at Times Square. Our first lesson was there is only a small area in Manhattan that is open all the time, aside from the little food stands. The first night was getting used to the sirens outside the windows, with one going off at least every hour. It was clear that were staying in a rough neighbourhood.

Day 2 Started with a Pizza slice for breakfast at a local pizza shop, as it was late already we headed straight for the Rockafellar centre, we had to see this giant tree and head up to the observatory to see NY. Arriving in the city was madness, People everywhere, packed streets, body to body we crept to the building. We Purchased a Tour ticket and decided to get lost in the City until our 10 pm tour time came up. First up we checked out the Lego Store, followed by the Nintendo store – now that the novelty was complete we started walking and looking for a place to eat. We passed places such as Radio City Building and the Late show studios. Just as we were exhausted and sitting with our phones Googling where to eat, we over hear a few tourists calking about the Jerry Seinfeld Soup Nazi Place. Wing commander and i let out an audible GASP and high fived. with our stealth modes initiated we crept up with them looking for this place following home a block we saw the ORIGINAL SOUP MAN sign. This was it! We both ran to the door, only to find that it shuts at 8PM and the time at the moment was 8:03 – we had missed it by 3 minutes. Vowing to come the next day we took some snaps and headed back towards the Rockafellar. As a Novelty and an experience we saw Applebees and thought this would be the best place to eat. Since the venue was over run by people the wait time was 20 – 30 minutes, which we decided to take in and head to the bar. We slammed our drinks and feeling pretty intoxicated, ate our overpriced meals and left.

The tour time had come – we were heading up to the top of the Rock to check out the New York Skyline! It did not fail to impress. A sea of lights and buildings. This view is something to be seen. Man made beauty at its finest.

Intoxicated and still hungry we stumbled towards the station, only to see a garage of people, massive lines all leading to a food stall. When asking someone in line what is this – they responded “The Halal Guys” – the best street food place you will find in NY! With a quick glance at each other both the Wing Commander and I sailed to the start of the line. After about 45 minutes, in our hands was a platter of Meat Rice and Salad. Sitting on the side walk we guzzled our newly discovered meals with delicious haste. IT was amazing. Heading home we had started getting used to NYPD and the sirens in the background throughout the night. We also had become accustomed to the random Hissing noises that came out of the heaters in the building at all times.

Day 3 The Wolves came out to play. Wall street was our first destination. Walking alongside the great financial powerhouses we could visualise the power deals that were made here every day. Money Money Money. Absorbing the mecca of finance we said goodbye to the Wall Street Bull and headed for one of the saddest places i have been to. The 9/11 Memorial. I can tell you arriving at this venue our smiles had gone. a creepy eeriness filled our bodies. We walked along the foundations of the twin towers feeling and imagining the pain. Both Wing commander and I felt a heaviness take over. After leaving this place we both discussed the feeling that we were having walking around it. To cheer us up we headed down to SOHO for some shopping. We walked up and down the strip of boutique shops stopping at places to check out the variety. Both Wing commander and I were shocked that the prices were very similar to what we have back home. Not much was bought – except a ton of Mac make up products for some special requesters. Some bags in hand, we were exhausted. At 7PM we head to the Soup Kitchen to try our luck, only to find that on Sundays the Soup Kitchen closes at 7, we missed out this time by 2 minutes – It was looking like “No Soup for You” yet again. As a consolation it would be Amit and Raggie go to White castle, venturing the city we found one. Happy and exhausted we reached and ate the extremely sad tasting burgers. To consolidate our sad meals we then went to a Pub for some proper grub. Calling it an early night we headed back to Brooklyn.

Day 4 Liberty Calls and we awnser. Leaving early the first destination was liberty island to meet the fine lady of liberty. We reached Battery park to catch the ferry, only to find thousands of others had the same idea. A line that went for about a kilometre, we went to the end, being advised it would take 3 hours to get a ticket. Whilst in line a poacher came over and suggested taking the ferry that doesn’t get you off onto the island but rather does a lap of the statue for a better view. We choose this option, and the wait was only an hour before the captain was on the seas! Despite the hard winds and cold weather, we could not asked for a more beautiful day. Saying hello as we sailed by, we took some photos and marvelled at the lady of beauty, soon we were back on mainland.

We headed straight to the Soup kitchen to try our luck for the third time. As they say threes a Charm! Viola! Staring at us in the face was the Argentinian Staff of the Soup Kitchen! To maximise our Soup’age we split and got 4 different soups, one of which was the AMAZING and famous Lobster Bisque. Served with bread, chocolate and a piece of fruit, we got the Chicken Rice, Chicken Dumpling and Italian Wedding soups. I can tell you that the soups were divine, with the crown for the best taken by the lobster bisque.

After this Point the Wing Commander and the Captain had to split ways for the first time in the trip. The Captain had to go and visit his relatives in Jackson Heights and Wing Commander was to head to the Rockafellar for the morning view. Unfortunately due to a mix up Wing Commander could only few this on another day. As I was gone and having a chance to meet my beautiful relatives, Wing commander had allocated the task to himself to find tickets to a broadway show. Wing Commander was visiting the box offices of each show seeing if he could manage to get seats to anything, after a few failed attempts the Box office advised that he can enter a raffle to get a ticket to the show. After inquiring how this worked he put his name in to see if he could “win” tickets to the show.

With 30 seats and over 200 people entering he awaited the raffle to commence. One by one Names were called and winners of the tickets announced. The nerves were kicking in. with only 6 positions left. “AMIT” the name echoes as the wing commander is in Shock! Jumping with Joy he runs up to pick up 2 Tickets to the Idina Menzei (Frozen, Glee) Musical “If/ Then”. The tickets are for the Second row! He messages me as I am leaving the dinner to head back. The news is overwhelming. We organise a rendezvous point and in the middle of times square and do a little dance to celebrate this huge victory. People are looking as us if we are looney, but little do they know that in the Wing Commanders Pocket are 2 second row tickets to a Broadway Show. We had some Food Stall Kaati Rolls (indian Meat rolls) and then headed to the theatre. The Show is fantastic. A story of 2 scenarios and what would happen if either of them materialised. A truly brilliant show. We both agreed that we would go again in a heart beat. To watch it on Broadway was another feeling altogether.
The show finished late, we quickly headed to Five Guys Burgers so that the wing commander could get another fast food chain off the list and then headed home, the last day to hear the sirens and the gunshots.

Day 5 Moving Day – for the last few days of our stay in NY we decided to move closer to the City, moving from Brooklyn to Sunny Side, Queens. A much nicer and better suburb, with a much nicer apartment. Moving with haste we got the apartment, left our luggage and headed to Central park. Today was the day we clocked the Central park end to end walk. Arriving in central park the first activity was to Ice Skate. Both wing Commander and I had never done this before. After some difficulty putting on the skates and some weird ice cleaning times, we approached the rink with newly cleaned Ice. After a few minutes, The captain had picked up how to ice skate, however the wing commander was severely struggling with the task. Not able to find the balance he needed it was tough, he persisted holding the railing and moving along with the crowd. The Wing Commander was doing a fantastic job until the second round in which he fell and laughed as he went down. No real injury except a bruising on his leg. No harm done but a heap of fun. An activity we would both like to do again.

Leaving the Rink the sun was setting and we had the whole Walk to do moving from Manhattan to Harlem. We changed our shoes and started the epic walk across. 5.8 Miles is the distance from one end of the park to the other. To brave the forces halfway through the park the sun had set it was dark and we were walking towards Harlem. We walked admiring all that Central park had to offer, watching the sunset over NYC. The walk in the end was a breeze. Our legs had become accustomed to this and this was a “Walk in the Park” .

The first thing to visit was Toms restaurant – A Seinfeld fans dream. The cafe they always ate at. To add to the nostalgia both Wing Commander and I ate tuna Sandwich and a Chicken Sandwich in memory of the show, even though the inside looked nothing like the TV show.

Once this was complete we headed to Centre 21 a Shopping centre. This is where the Captain went a bit crazy and bought a heap of cloths. Unlike Soho the prices in Century 21 were remarkable. All brand names at low prices (low for Aus standards). The captain went ahead and bought shirts, tees and everything under the sun. Unknowing that his bag is already full and reaching weight limits fast. Grunting YOLO, we headed to our last and final destination for dinner and drinks – The Meat Packing District. Our Air BnB host – Nina had decided to meet us for a couple of drinks. She had suggested the best bar in the District – the Tripler. What started as a couple turned into a very VERY messy night. Starting with some cocktails before Nina arrived, moving to high strength beers and finally a few round of good old huge American shots. Vodka and Fireball was on the menu. At some point the Wing Commander and i separated, whilst i was getting fed shots by a group of randoms, Wing commander was getting to know Nina. without any recollection why it was time to go. Nina had disappeared as if she had just thrown up in the bathrooms. We left, with a book taken from the bar and the Captain vomiting at every step. The evidence shows 8 times, however the wing commander insisted that it was more. At this point i don’t remember how i got home, although I hear stories and see incriminating photos, including me passed out on the NY subway.

Day 6 NYE – Waking up Extremely hungover with a heap of phone calls and texts, it seemed that the rest f the wold had moved into the new year, somewhere between my third bottle of water and going to the bathroom to pee. The end of the year was nigh. i switched my phone on silent and went back to bed. Finally waking up to a headache there was a heap to be done before we had to restart celebrations for New Year. The captain and Wing Commander got dressed, listening to New your state of mind on repeat. Today we both had different missions, the captain was to head to New Jersey to visit the Jay and Silent Bob Comic book store and Wing Commander to the Rockafellar for a daytime view of the city. With not much to report form our journeys, except meeting some interesting people on the 2 hour train trip and walking across the Washington bridge, we were both successful and met back in the Apartment where a bottle of Grey goose had been kept in the freezer, thanks to the wing commander, we were to be drinking in style. Kicking off pre drinks we put on our favourite shirts and discussed our plan of attack. Our dreams have been to watch the Ball Drop at times square but we had been advised by many residents that the amount of people is crazy and we would have to line up from about 4pm and stand there in order to see it. The time was already 8. We decided what the hell lets just go and try our luck. Arriving at grand central station both wing commander and i had to use the bathroom very badly, after asking people to no avail both of us decided to walk int o a closed off area of the station. We walked around and in a empty and pretty obviously closed area found some open toilets. We were both 100% sure we were not meant to be there.

Leaving the station we found that 2 blocks surrounding times square had been barricaded by police – the place had reached capacity. Both of us disappointed that we would not be able to see the ball drop or even be near to times square, we thought of an idea. We approached the police and told them that we were staying in a hotel close to time square (It took wing commander 5 seconds to google the name of a times square hotel) When asked for our key cards we said we have not checked in yet and we are from Australia. Barricade after barricade, cop after cop “sir we need to check into the hotel, please let us through” we had been let through. No questions asked. We had just walked into times square. Busting once again we went a bar which had a private party going on. Requesting the bouncer to use the toilet and pay him $10 to do so, he let us in and escorted us to the bathroom. Whilst in line he said “ hay dude you want to stay here and drink unlimited?” I said YES! he said “how much you gonna give me for this unlimited drinks band” i said “$50” he is like sweet man lets do it without people seeing. BANG! We were in a bar in times square with unlimited drinks, including spirits, drinking with a whole heap of Aussie tourists. We had made it!!! Drink after drink overwhelmed with were we had come. At 11:50 the bar moved outside and within minutes Both the Wing Commander and I in our intoxicated states ventured outside to find the building with the Ball right next to us. We did the count down and at 12 am once again Danced! HAPPY NEW YEAR. We had just witnessed the New York Ball DROP. Dancing till 2 am! The bar closed we got some food from a food cart and then somehow managed to train it home. We had Achieved our dreams of watching the New York Ball Drop. Lifelong achievement Unlocked.

Day 7 The NY hangover setting in, we packed our luggage – it was to be our last day in New York. We then headed out to see the Flatiron building. A train ride into the city, followed by some photos and back home. We were exhausted and hungover, we also had the longest flight from NYC to Taipei waiting for us. Hungover we grabbed all our things, re packed our bags for Thailand and took an ueber to JFK, discussing with the driver why it is not legal to Hunt Kangaroos in Australia and why we cant kill and eat crocodiles from the wild.

Our American adventure was complete. We had conquered NYC. Our Dreams of seeing the NY Ball Drop had been accomplished.

New York The City that does Sleep.

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Doha. Qatar

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav Asia

Doha. Qatar

A Modern oasis stuck in the midst of a baron desert, passenger movement fees not included.

Captains Log Day 2 – 25/12/15 8:29am. Qatar Air.

Christmas bells are ringing, carols they are signing, us finally leaving Doha is absolutely winning!

Another year and off to another international adventure – this time taking up the ranks as a companion is Admiral Akbar. An inaugurate journey for the new recruit who has risen up as a trusted friend and partner. She (Yes, you read correctly, a person from the opposite sex) has has agreed to join me through the turmoil and ‘situations’ arising in my travels.
Godspeed young Padawan. Amsterdam, Morrocco, Portugal and India await you.

First stop Amsterdam.
The journey begins as eventful as ever, commencing with some complementary Gin Shots at the airport, soon after which the admiral has rushed to the bathroom. My initial instincts telling me that the Gin ‘didn’t sit right’ – this however turns out to be a misconception as the admiral returns from the bathroom to inform me that she might have a case of Gastro (have I mentioned that we have not even left the country yet?). With an onset of stress, and stomach cramping for the admiral we decide to wait and see what happens, hoping that what ever ails Akbar goes away.

Patiently waiting to board our 14 hour flight we notice some blood on the admirals hands – this often is a call for concern for me. After some fast debugging we realise that this is coming from the nose of my co captain. At this point my thoughts are of concern as well as ‘What have I done?!’. Once again we follow my doctrine of ‘lets wait and see’. Shortly after the blood stops and the cramps subside – seems like the hypothesis worked and we have the team operational at 100%

14 hours later we arrive in our first stopover destination Doha, Qatar, our next flight is due to depart in 2 hours.

14 hours is a long flight. Not one that I have Not done before, but even then, every time I wonder ‘why do I do this to myself’. A few movies and naps later we are landing. The ecstasy of simply walking around is bliss. I mentioned that the team was 100%, however this is not quite true, as soon onto the flight the captain had an onset of a migraine. Struggling with nausea and the symptoms that walk alongside migraines, team made it to the closest airport pharmacy upon landing. The Captains medical needs are addressed and some supplies, such as water and gummy lollies have been acquired.

In a casual pace we walk to our gate for our next flight to Amsterdam. 50 meters from the gate we decide to brush our teeth and freshen up. As we are doing so the over head announcements advise us that the gates close 20 minutes prior to departure. 15 minutes are left till our flight departs. In a frantic rush we throw down the tooth brushes, and still frothing at the mouth, we run to the gate arriving 12 minutes prior to departure.

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Here we are advised “Sorry, the Gate is closed, you can not get on this flight, your luggage has been off boarded”. What pursued was a mix of shock, anger and angst. When we argued that there was no announcement for final call etc. we were advised that “Doha Airport is a silent airport” and the fine print on our boarding passes stated this. Pleading and and begging did not get us far, exhausted we were asked to make our way to the sales desks.

“The next flight is tomorrow” as advised by our friendly sales representative – with other options being flying to another European country and then connecting with a carrier to Amsterdam. This seemed great, and after hours of researching where we could fly to we decided on London, then fly out to Amsterdam from there. Seconds before this was confirmed our flight from Doha to London, we noticed a discrepancy in our search query on our connecting flight from London to Amsterdam – the dates. Turns out a lot of people want to travel on x-mas eve, hiking the prices for a usual $64 dollar flight to $478.
The financial implications in mind we had to revert back to staying in Doha for the night.

Commence Doha adventure – receiving assistance from our friendly representative, we were able to secure some accommodation and transport for the night, we ended up paying some hefty “missed flight fees” (~$700), which included fees for things like ‘Passenger movement fees’. We took our transport to our hotel, checking in and resting after our 24 hour travel ordeal

With a renewed purpose both the Captain and Admiral set out to explore the desert city, walking around, admiring the beauty the city had to offer, walking along the water overlooking the modern business district comprising of buildings that would make London jealous. We soon hit up Souk Waqif, a middle eastern themed marketplace with hidden laneways that sold everything. To demonstrate the extent of ‘everything’, the Admiral and I found ourselves in the laneway of Birds and animals. Here amongst the Rabbits wearing Tutus, hundreds of bird species and massive Parrots, the Admiral decided to take hold of a oversized Parrot which immediately expressed interests in the admiral’s chest region. Escaping borderline animal rape, we fled to find ourselves some food.
Soon after a debate with a tourist Indian family over a table at an established eatery, we secured our seats, enjoyed our meals of meat, bread and salad, and finished our night off smoking some Grape Mint Shisha, reminiscing and planning our next escapade.

Amsterdam Approaching.

Doha, Qatar, A Modern oasis stuck in the midst of a baron desert, passenger movement fees not included.

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Marrakesh. Morrocco

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav Africa

Marrakesh. Morrocco

The real life Agrahbah, with surreal beauty, hospitality and a little bit of magic, that will stay with you a lifetime.

Captains Log Day 7 – 30/12/15 1:54pm. Royal Air Maroc.

Aboard our flying carpet (AirBus 737) we depart one of the most enchanting and magical places that we have ever been to. Minds filled with color, beauty, history and an experience of a land like no other, we depart with a whispering au revoiur and shukriyan to Morroco.

Rewind back 3 nights to our arrival into Marrakesh and those would not be our sentiments. Arriving from Amsterdam, a frontier in technology and ways of living, to Marrakesh; a city with an unchanged lifestyle flowing from centuries in the past, the culture shock was immense.
Our flight went from Amsterdam to Casablanca, with a 40-minute stopover and then onto Marrakesh. With our first leg delayed, what occurred in Casablanca was chaos and a heap of running and arguing with officials. The Admiral was on point, doing all that was necessary, ensuring that we were getting on to that flight, and the captain can say (with delayed relief) we had made our flight to Marrakesh.

We landed in Marrakesh at 10pm, to a baron airport, dark and dingy, the stereotype was real. Exchanging some money, we huddled into a cab and set destination to Medina – Old town Marrakesh. The captain and admiral had previously decided if we were going to do this, we needed to do this right.
Reaching the medina our taxi driver advised that the Riyad (What is this you ask? Keep reading – I will explain later) we were staying in was a 100 meter walk into some alleyway, unloading our luggage the team started trekking. The alleyway was narrow – about 2 meters wide, it was dark, and baron, with hardly any people, the ground was cobblestone, the whole thing resembling something that was built in the 14th century (it was). As we walked in the dark, 2 strangers decide to join us and start leading us to our Riyad. I can honestly say I was scared they were going to take us somewhere and mug us, we later found out this was a means of earning money, walking people through the alleyways and asking some money for their efforts. This had turned out to be a blessing as the alleyways got narrower, the places darker and the surroundings started to blur, after what seemed like a long walk we reached our Riyad, to be greeted by a lovely man named Suleiman, the Riyad manager.

We paid our guides (thanking god secretly that we had not been stabbed) and joined Mr Suileman as he walked us to our Riyad courtyard.
Now would be a great time to explain what a Riyad is. A Riyad is a hotel of sorts with a shared courtyard/ terrace, where guest can gather in to have communal dinners and socialize. The courtyard is surrounded by rooms in which guests stay. Think of it as a common lounge room with bedrooms surrounding it.

Mr Suileman (who himself struggled to speak English), introduced us to a lovely French family staying at the Riyad as we sat, enjoyed tea and some fantastic conversation. We all sat like a family and talked, the social nature of the country was coming out. The time was ticking however and the captain was starving. Finally after about an hour of chit chat with some really nice people we went to our room. We stayed on the top Terrace room, a beautiful Moroccan themed bedroom. The challenge was getting up to the third floor via steps that were barely a meter wide, a task that would challenge the strongest person, let alone one with a snapped finger (Captain ingeniously broke his finger previous to flying). Mission accomplished we had checked in and the baggage had reached our room.

The next mission was to find something to eat. Mr Suleiman (with profuse use of his hands) described where we could get some food at 12am, turns out we were only 5 minutes walk from the infamous Marrakesh Market square Jemaa el-Fnaa.
Using the captain’s navigational prowess, we made it to the square. I think they got it wrong when they said New York is the city that doesn’t sleep, they clearly have not been to Marrakesh. The square was full of hustle and bustle with people coming over to ask about food and showing us the menus and offering the best food in Marrakesh. Another funny moment occurred when a shriek came from behind me, turning around I noticed it was from The admiral. She has almost slipped on a squashed tomato that was laying on the floor. With no damage done except to her ego continued to walk. The admiral was approached by a street seller that promised her “No Diarrhea” and with that I guess he was the winner. Seemed Legit if you ask me.

This seller has meat and everything laying on a slab of ice and out in the open, hesitant at first but assured we wouldn’t get sick, we both decided to live on the wild side. With the philosophy ’ when in Morocco’ Meat sticks and Couscous it was. Delicious! Tummy full we prayed on the way back that food poisoning was not an outcome of the gluttony.
A much needed sleep later, struggled to get up at 6 am for our 7am pickup. Destination Sahara Desert. Sleepy eyed we were loaded into a mini van along side several other Cadets from around the world. Little did we know at the time that what was to form from this 8 hour journey to the desert would be some very beautiful friendships.

Chugging along in a van, in which the Captain could not even fit his legs (yup, comfort levels were at rock bottom) we ventured through the breathtaking Atlas mountains. Winding roads, an overly erratic driver and a congested transport was a sure shot recipe for travel sickness, the admiral as well as 3 other Cadets as victims, bracing themselves for a regurgitation festival. Traveling (often facing death due to the speed and the rash driving) 300 km over 7 hours, through the steepest, highest (~2200 meters above sea level) and most winding roads was an experience we would not ever forget.

We stopped along the way, at times to pee, at times to eat (bonding with our fellow cadets) and most of all to explore and take in some of the sights. One of these sights was a beautiful Berber (native Moroccan) village, and our berber tour guide had all the girls (old and young) smitten I wouldn’t blame them, the guy spoke 7 languages but had never been to school and had mesmorising green eyes. The village was also a set for some famous hollywood blockbusters such as Game of thrones and gladiator, with the locals often acting as extras.

We finally arrive at Zagora, the entrance into the Sahara. The sun has started to set and the cold is creeping in. From Zagora we need to take camels into the Desert to our campsite. At first the camels seem like a novelty. A guide points me to my camel – i get the angry camel that’s losing it as it walks and the Admiral gets a normal one that is closely followed by one that is frothing at the mouth.

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The admiral is constantly trying to avoid the saliva of the rabid camel, which coincidently liked the admirals bright blue jacket and was constantly trying to lick it.

After what seemed like a long journey and our bums sore as if we had been part of a dominatrix exercise we thankfully had reached our campsite. Relieved at the ability to use our own two feet we walked around and although it was dark, we admired the Sahara.
Shortly after we were called to have Tea and then treated to a lovely Moroccan dinner of lentil soup, turkey tagine and some fresh local fruits. The conversation with our friends was a highlight worth pointing out, as each person came with a story and from different parts of the world. Topics included the likeness of our countries as well as the differences. Satisfied with conversation and bellies full we headed outside again, where the temperature had dropped. It was Freezing, our multiple layers and down jackets couldn’t protect us from the freezing desert temperatures (desert y u so cold?!) We huddled around a campfire and shortly after were treated to some traditional singing and folk music underneath the desert stars. It was surreal. I can say that amongst all the countries I have travelled this was one of the most magical moments in my life.

We then moved to our tents, we were given 2 thick blankets each, even in which were cold, the captain shortly fell asleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night to see the admiral shivering “I have not slept all night”. The cold has beaten the Admiral. At dawn approaching we headed outside to an empty campsite and watched the sun rise. No words can describe this.
Once the sun was shining everyone was awake, enjoying some tea and breakfast before we set back on the camels, and back on our long journey home, chatting along the way with our new friends. We exchanged facebook’s and opened our homes if any of us were to visit in the future.

Once we reached Marrakech, we headed back to our riyad and were met with Mr Suleiman, who we sat with and described our adventures. Even with the least bit of common language our pictures could paint our journey. We headed back into the market to mark what things we wanted to buy from the bazaars. At this point I want to explain how lovely the Moroccan hospitality is; Mr Suleiman, the shop keepers, everyone wanting to help. At first it can be overwhelming, but once you realize it’s from the heart it’s warming and comforting, this is something I have never experienced anywhere. The people speak fluent French and Arabic and look as if they were grown from the earth; rugged, strong and strangely beautiful, their hands mirroring this sentiment.

We woke on our last full day in Marrakesh to an epic breakfast which had been prepared by the Riyad’s lovely maid. We sat and devoured this on the roof terrace overlooking the Marrakesh Medina and planning what we wanted to see.

Done with Brekky we set out, with our stars pinned and maps loaded, we visited palaces, gardens, mosques and even some tombs walking around for over 8 hours (most of this time the admiral spent taking pictures with doors) to see everything the ancient city had to offer. The beauty of the city is indescribable and what we could we captured in our photos, even those could not do the city justice.
At this point the admiral’s itch to shop was getting the better of her, we rushed to the market and went a little crazy. The Market fit every stereotype, a real life Agrahbah, snake charmers, dwarf people playing the violin, dragon shaped eggs being sold, hecklers, beggars, bargaining, spices from around the world, tarot readers, singers and performers. It was Magical! I can close my eyes and see them as I write this log. Arms full of bags we headed back, getting back to the room and showing Mr Suleiman all our spoils, the last few hours dedicated to fitting these into our suitcases.

Waking up early, we were treated to another lovely breakfast, absorbing all of it, we lowered our overflowing bags and set off for the airport. When checking, the passport control officer referred to the Captain by a name he has never been called: “Tarzan Tandon” – No this is not one that will stick.

We leave Morocco full of admiration, experience and a little bit of magic. We leave morocco with a little piece of Marrakesh in us. We leave Morocco on our jet plane, our eyes and minds full of wonder and our hearts full of Moroccan beauty.

Morroco, the real life Agrahbah, with surreal beauty, hospitality and a little bit of magic, that will stay with you a lifetime.
Captains Log Day 11 – 03/01/15 4:24pm. Emirates

Goodbye Portugal and Thank you for the party, a party hard to forget even harder to remember. Well Played, Abrigato.

India awaits as we leave the city of Lisbon, flying to Dubai for a quick layover, only to be stranded with delayed connecting flights. This wouldn’t be the first time, on these travels that the captain and admiral have landed themselves in the waiting areas of middle eastern airports. A fantastic time to slow down this rollercoaster and reflect on (try to remember and piece together) what has happened over the last few days.

Happy New Year. 2016 was off to a good start with a cadet being spear tackled to the ground by security, ending up with cuts and grazes on his elbow, all for 6 Euro – more on this later.

Landing in Lisbon from Morocco was a restructure of our minds, not knowing what to expect we had been transported from one ancient city to another, however between the two, the age was the only thing in common.

Departing the airport our taxi driver was an angry man, barely speaking a word to us during our 20-minute commute into town, although having enough to say to other drivers as he weaved past them hurling abuse. A little scared, both Admiral and myself enjoyed the contrasting architecture of the city.
An Air BnB would be our castle for the following 4 nights, and once again we arrived to find… 3 stories of stairs. Our Host had been waiting and due to the delay we had made it to our resting spot by sun down, a lovely apartment located in the city of Lisbon, in the hear of Baro Alto – the bar district of Lisbon. I would say this was an apt spot for the captain and the admiral. With great difficulty and assistance of our host, we hoisted our luggage.

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Lisbon. Portugal

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav Europe

Lisbon. Portugal

The City of History, Mystery, Hashish and Tarts.

Captains Log Day 11 – 03/01/16 4:24pm. Emirates

Goodbye Portugal and thank you for the party. A party hard to forget even harder to remember. Well Played, Abrigado.

Happy New Year. 2016 was off to a good start with a cadet being spear tackled to the ground by security, ending up with cuts and grazes on his elbow, all for 6 Euro – more on this later.

Landing in Lisbon from Morocco was a restructure of our minds, not knowing what to expect we had been transported from one ancient city to another. However between the two cities, the age was the only common factor.

Departing the airport our taxi driver was an angry angry man, barely speaking a word to us during our 20-minute commute into town. However, he did have enough to say to other drivers as he weaved past them hurling abuse. A little scared, both Admiral and myself enjoyed the contrasting architecture of the city.
An Air BnB would be our castle for the following 4 nights, and once again we arrived to find… 3 stories of stairs. Our Host had been waiting and due to the delay we had made it to our resting spot by sun down, a lovely apartment located in the city of Lisbon, in the heart of Bairro Alto – the bar district of Lisbon. I would say this was an apt spot for the captain and the admiral. With great difficulty and assistance of our host, we hoisted our luggage up to the room.

Exhausted and hungry we set out to explore Lisbon, walking along the town hunting some dinner. Walking out of our apartment we noticed that we were located in the heart of the Lisbon tourist district, this will no doubt come in handy.

Turning the first corner we noticed a long line outside a bright store, curiosity getting the best of us we shuffled our way in. The store sold Portuguese Custard Tarts and well .. that’s it.
Admiral Akbar had heard of these tarts before, as her comrade had previously told her that these were the Portuguese specialities. With Curiosity getting the best of us we worked our way to the counter and ordered ‘one’ tart to try, the girl at the counter astonished and responding with confusion “one!?”. I replied “yes one, we just want to try these” she looked at me, smiled ad said “These are like heaven”. We were advised that “ the locals sprinkle theirs with Sugar and Cinnamon” to which we followed suit. Quickly exiting the store, wondering what heaven tasted like, i had a bite into the pastry… THESE WERE THE MOST DELICIOUS THINGS EVER!!! i lost my mind as i passed them to the Admiral to try, soon after she too was mind blown at how yummy these tarts were.
We left the shop ecstatic and vowing to grab another 2 after our return from our walks we moved on (little did we know that during our 4 day stay we will end up devouring 13 of these tarts) – see * for Tart counter

Walking 50 meters down the road our fist Gyspy approached ushering “Hashish, Marajuana, cocaine” as he walked past, startled both the admiral and i kept our heads down and kept walking. we turned to each other a few meters down and validated what we had heard. Continuing along the hustle and bustling city, another gypsy approached stating the same cause. We declined and continued. What followed in the space of a kilometre was several other of these tradesman approaching us, some even showing us the goods and saying that “its legal to consume in Portugal” we politely declined and made a note to google this back at home. Exploring, we walked past the Oldest bookshop in the world (random). Our first meal was some Portuguese grill done badly at a ‘tourist trap’ restaurant, without being disheartened as we knew the heaven tarts awaited. *(+2 = 3 Total)

NYE. things were going to get heavy. Following lessons learnt, the hydration started early, with both the admiral and the captain competing with our Moroccan camel friends in terms of water consumption and retention. Recovering from the constant jet lag, a sleep in was well earned. We started off by booking our night’s festivities, ensuring we had planned our destruction of Lisbon to bring in the new year. We were to represent ourselves in a Lisbon Pub Crawl. Once the night was sorted we booked a walking tour of Lisbon.

As we had time to kill before the walking tour, firstly we grabbed our tarts *(+2 = 5 Total) we headed out to see the church of Sao Roque, which is the richest church in the world after the vatican. As we arrived we had been advised by security that we cannot enter until after the Mass, which both he Admiral and I requested to attend (not realising the entire thing was to be in Portuguese) we were allowed to join. Walking into the church our mind was blown – the whole thing was GOLD. These words cant give it justice – please refer to the photos and see the Sao Roque in all its glory. Shiney eyed and holified we left to join the Walking tour.

The group was assembling on Hashish Square (The square lovingly named by us, where we had been approached by the aforementioned gypsies the previous night) we joined the tour, which comprised of people from all across the globe and a fantastic tour guide. Walking along the 7 hills of Lisbon both were astonished at the history and stories of ‘The oldest city in western Europe’.
I would like to share one of the learnings that astonished us.

Captain’s Quick History Lesson: Did You Know “In 1755 Lisbon had an earthquake that measured in at 9.0 on the richter scale. The earthquake destroyed the city, it went for 10 minutes!! The survivors ran towards the sea and saw a path opening in the water, they believed god was opening the sea for them. This however was a tsunami, that destroyed whatever was not left in the city. Since this happened on Saint’s day at 9:30 am most people were in Church… when in church you have candles, this means fire, and that’s what happened, a 4 day fire that killed everything that the earthquake and tsunami had spared. In fact more people died from the fire than the earthquake and tsunami combined. The people that survived were the Sailors, Prostitutes and criminals as they were in Bars and establishments far away from the city.”

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Enough History for today – On the tour coincidently we met a couple from Melbourne, the Cadet after some time getting acquainted asks if I went to RMIT, to which i said yes, he then asked if i did Business information Systems, to which I was shocked and said yes. Turns out we were a few years apart doing the same degree, in the same campus. we exchange details and realise we have 10 mutual friends and a hellovalot in common. The world keeps getting Smaller. Mind full of history and mystery we leave the tour and hunt for some sustenance – 2016 is around the corner. *(+2 = 7 Total)

Pepped up and ready for the Pub Crawl, patrons await us at Hashish Square – we join the group, which seems like a heap of small groups which are not mingling at all. This has the admiral a bit worried, however i assure her that as the night goes on – these things only get more and more messy.
Bar 1 and things start to get loose. 1 hour of unlimited beer and sangria could only spell disaster. We meet some new fellow Cadets – one from Brisbane and another from Sydney. Drinking and socialising we come up with a genius idea to go and see the fireworks and join the pub-crawl later. We are warned by the Pub Crawl master that, there are too many people and you will never find the group. The cadets have decided – we don’t want to spend our NYE in a bar or club. Our 2 new friends by our side and 2 beers each in our hand at 11:42 the squadron moves, rushing, drinking and trying not to get lost as we make it toward the Lisbon Pier to watch the fireworks. Things are getting hazy as we join the crowds of thousands of people rushing to see the fireworks. We make it. The countdown is spectacular, the fireworks amazing and the street festivities manic. We dance, we drink, we laugh amongst thousands of people all celebrating. NYE experience like no other.

Time to join the pub-crawl group again, the 4 cadets, drunk and happy with life as well as booze, we make a pitstop at a bar to hydrate and to pee. We grab a beer, chat and then decide its time to go, sneaking out the beer glasses as we move. Public drinking with pint glasses is a great experience. Exhilarating. Stumbling bar to bar we are unable to find the pubcrawl. We enter one bar, and as the bar tender is busy one of our newly found cadets takes it upon himself to rush behind the bar and top up his glass – without anyone noticing #legend. we still cant locate our pub-crawl – so we go to another bar and request a vodka lemonade, which is half vodka and a dash of lemonade. These guys know how to drink.
In our lapse of concentration we loose one of our cadets, we look and look and he is just missing. With no sign of the pub-crawl we decide to walk to the final venue – The Beach club, the best club in Lisbon.

Prancing along the streets toward the final destination, I hear a yell. Mr Cadet (the only one left with us) has found the pub-crawl group! They were walking down to the club themselves! happy times, everyone is laughing as we walk down, asking about our adventures. Things were not all fun and games when one of the girls has a domestic with her partner and one other girls has lost her phone and is crying #drama. in our drunken splendour we walk to the club socialising with our worldly counterparts.

We arrive at Beach club to find our lost cadet is also there! he said he lost us so he walked to the club and aside from getting knocked back a few times had been waiting for us. The group re-united we enter the club and boy is it epic. Upon entering we get our Drink card – the club operates with a system that; every time you buy a drink they swipe the card and charge it – at the end of the night you pay a bill. Everyone gets a card as they enter.

To cut back to the epicness of the club I’ll summarise it as such: dancing, tour guides, Akbar chundering in the toilet, Captain chundering in the line for the toilet, heap of vodkas and blur blur blur. One part I do want to highlight and possibly the funniest part of the night is when Mr Cadet decides ‘I am not going to pay for the booze’ – when exiting the bouncer asks us for our cards which we pay for (well kind of – i am short of cash and a knight in shining armour in the generosity of his heart covers me). Mr Cadet however only has 1 beer on his card worth a measly 6 Euro, he decides to Run for it! he makes a dash past the bouncer and as he is running, he trips and three bouncers jump on him! Spear tackled to the ground! Grazed and with cuts and wounds he pays the bill and joins us. We stumble back to our apartment, picking up randoms as we walk. We finally farewell our new found friends and I drop the admiral to the apartment. I then head off for a last drink at 5 am as the sun is rising – i don’t need to look far to find a bar, and as I buy my last drink as it starts to rain, I realise that the Admiral has no keys, rushing back beer in hand, I open the door. Enter the house and pass out.
<end nye carnage.>

The next day waking up at 1 pm we rush for our next walking tour, but not without having a few more tarts *(+2 = 9 Total). Both captain and Admiral wounded with a terrible hangover and feeling like death we walk around the Alfama area, struggling hard as we look at the castle and try the local liqueur Ginginha (sour cherry liqueur) doing our best not to throw up on our tour guide. Feeling like death we go home immediately after, cancelling our fancy dinner plans and trading them in for some sleep and terrible thai food.

Our last day in Portugal, we decide to spend it in the city of Sintra, a town that is 40 minutes by train from Lisbon City. we grab our supplies *(+2 = 11 total) Sintra is a beautiful region filled with beautiful castles and plenty of secret passageways. We walk around, observing the castles and the scenic beauty of the region,both of us can clearly say that the aftermath of NYE has not left us yet. Sentra’s history and its gardens could not be captured in the photos, yet we try, taking selfies and artistic shots.

Rushing back we grab some lunch at a burger joint and pack our bags, followed by a large exercise of lowering these from the 3rd floor. Our flight is to leave soon, but not without our final dosage of tarts *(+2 = 13 Total) we load our luggage in and depart to the airport, saying goodbye, mesmerised by the history and beauty Lisbon has to offer.

Portugal you have been beautiful, Abrigado

The Motherland is Calling

Lisbon the City of History, Mystery, Hashish and Tarts.

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Delhi & Agra. India

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav Asia

Delhi & Agra. India

A motherland I can not leave behind, a country full of love, hospitality and a heap of traffic.

Captains Log Day 16 – 10/01/16 1:44pm. Qantas

Just like that the Captain is completing his travels once again, leaving his final destination, a special one at that. His Motherland. This one wasn’t going to be an easy one conquer.

The Admiral and Captain waited about 2 hours in the confines of the Airport waiting room in Dubai international Airport, surrounded by a vast population of travelers. The overpopulated waiting room was only signs of what awaited us after our 4 hour flight.

4 hours so we thought. After our 2-hour wait, we were boarded onto a transport bus that took about 20 minutes to reach the plane, at points I had started believing that we were going to be driving from Dubai to India. Unfortunately, as interesting as that story would have been – that was not the case. Although more excitement was to come, as once we boarded the flight, we had not been given permission to take of, leading to another hour, this time in a much more confined space.

Finally, we were up in the air. Indian Standard Time. We sored high over the desert once again. I wrote my blog about the Portuguese adventures and tarts.. oh heaven.

We landed in New Delhi not too much later, seemed that we had waited the same amount of time as the flight took. We gathered our bags and headed off to look for a cab. With ease we reached our destination – said to be Close to the airport it was 25 minutes away, which reflects the size of the nations capital.

The captain was lucky, he had a comrade in Australia, General T who had allowed the captain and the admiral stay at his barracks in Delhi. We arrived and left our bags in the place, soon after the captain’s cousin and his family arrived to great the admiral and I.
The Captains cousin, who happens to be a real Colonel in the Indian Army, decided its best to take the captain and Admiral to his place, for dinner and drinks. The night concluded to a quiet one (even though both the Captain and Admiral felt pretty tipsy at the end of it) as we caught up and had a few drinks and a lovely dinner with cousins, nieces and the Admiral.

The second day commenced with us waking up much later than expected, we had a few things planned for the day. The captain had to go on some family duties and visit his grandmother, as the Admiral went to Cousin Colonels office to spend the day. Both these activities went pretty uneventful, aside from the bucket loads of Delhi Traffic. I had a successful rendezvous with my lovely grandmother and my little cousins – who are not that little anymore. After visiting m grandmother, I stopped by General T’s place and organized a Maid to come in and do some dusting, since nobody was living there the place had given into the Delhi dust storms and accumulated a bit of dust.

Cleaning completed and time slipping past, I met up with the Admiral and we decided to head to the shopping city of Delhi – Connaught place and do some shopping, taking the Metro (train) we embarked our journey, only arriving an hour later (did I mention the sheer size of Delhi)- we had an hour and we used it wisely, grabbing 2 jeans, a pair of chinos and having the famous Depauls Iced coffee, our mini escapade was complete. Our hour journey back was entertaining as we discussed all the shopping we could have done if we had more time. Exhausted we had a feat awaiting us at the colonel’s place, with a delectable chicken curry served with whiskey – feeling pampered and once again tipsy we hit the sack. Our friends were to arrive tomorrow – Our good friends, all the way from Strayaa!.. Lieutenant Arthur and Second Lieutenant Alisha. This could only mean trouble.

Waking up to a message that the Lieutenant’s flights were delayed was a relief, without realizing it, the captain had consumed a few too many the night before. The extra 2 hours sleep was well accepted, but it only mean that the days activities had to be condensed into less time.

Grabbing the team from the airport and we were off, pleasantries and some stories shared in the cab, first up we went to Akshardham, a hindu temple established by a Gujrati hindu sect. unfortunately the cameras and phones were taken off us so we couldn’t take photos, an interesting story happened to admiral in the temple, however it is not to share in this forum. The next few hours we walked admiring the temples beauty, we watched a live show on its history and went on a boat ride exploring India and its achievements. The plan was to push the admiral into the water in the boat ride, however she strategically positioned herself away from the edges, plan foiled. Quickly hustling the next destination (but not too quickly as the Lieutenant and I were amazed by 2 weasels we saw running around.. WEASELS ARE COOL) which was the Baha’I Lotus temple – a temple shaped like a lotus. When we arrived, this was shut. We did however take some photos of it from outside.

Once again with time slipping by it was time to eat, what better place to enjoy Delhi then to head to the ancient, overpopulated and “real” Delhi area of Chandi Chowk – Wikipedia defines Chandni Chowk as “Chandni Chowk is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi, India”. Arriving to this place was a culture shock to the Admiral and the squad. One word to describe this would be “hectic”. People hustling everywhere, with something triggering every sense.
To get to the desired destination, the famous Kabab place Karims (featured in Time Magazine, as one of the most famous and oldest places in Asia), we had to take a mode of transport other than car, as a car could not fit the narrow streets of the neighborhood.
We hailed a transport that I had not seen before – it looked like an offspring of an Auto (TukTuk) and a Rikshaw, we nicknamed it ‘the machine’. The Machine took on the traffic as it weaved through the traffic in confidence, the passengers however fearing for their lives at every point of the journey. The Driver along the way was throwing insults as well as receiving them, one entertaining and less vulgar one being “you drive like a corpse”.

We reached the infamous Karims and were NOT disappointed, devouring servings upon servings of the famous kebabs, our life threatening journey had been worthwhile. Next up the Famous Chandi Chowk desert, the Falooda. We found another “Machine” like transport and were on our way, this time a little more eventful, as we had a few accidents on the way, our driver managed to hit a scooter, another machine, a ricksaw and to top it off a kid on a cycle. Abuses were hurled but the show went on, as if hitting each other was a norm in this crazy place. Safely arriving at the Famous desert place, both the Lieutenant shyed away as it contained Ice and Milk, whist the brave Admiral and I devoured one falooda, it was just as good as I remember as a kid – delicious, no wonder the place is over 100 years old. Bellies full and the Delhi initiation complete we ventured back to the Car.

The last destination for the night was a club that a friend of mine partly owned in one of the clubbing districts of Delhi. Without having enough time to head back home and get ready we decided to just get changed in the car and head straight to the club. Knowing Delhi distances going home and heading back would take forever.

Ready we entered the busy part of the clubbing district, I was to meet my friend at the time, however he had to fly urgently to china, unfortunately I missed him. He is a bit like my idol so I was a little sad. He helped remove that sadness by opening up the VIP area for us at his Club “Moonshine”. We walked in thinking its Tuesday – the place will be empty, however to our surprise the place was PUMPING! Crowded and with an awesome DJ we navigated our way to our private area, which had its own bar and table service. This was going to be a bug night.. 2 long island ice teas and 5 large Grey Goose and Sodas later the night was getting to be a blurr. We left as the cops rocked up to shut the place down – it was past curfew, which meant it was LATE. As we walked to the car a group of guys were singing OZZY OZZY OI we joined in – turns our 2 of them were from Sydney.. we danced with them on the street drunkenly for a while before we decided we needed to get home

It was 2 am – we had to leave Delhi for Agra at 7 – we were very very drunk.
Silently we drove to General T’s Place. Stumbling in, we showered, packed everything, although the night is a blur I do remember the admiral falling asleep in her suitcase to which I said “What are you doing” – passed out only to be woken 3 hours later, extremely hungover/ drunk we boarded our luggage into the car. We got ready for our 3-hour journey to Agra this was going to be #painful.

Painful is an understatement, the Captain drew the short straw and had to sit in front. The three from the squad falling asleep in the back. Dozing in and out of sleep myself I woke to see that the driver was having a MICRO NAP! Freaked out I woke up the admiral and we started talking to him – he said he wasn’t sleeping. From this point it was the Captians duty to stay awake and guard.

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In the journey I caught the driver twice more, before I instructed him to stop, fed him, made him have tea and called his boss to complain. Awkwardly the boss told me “He said he wasn’t sleeping” to which all I could say was “ok” although the squad has seen him sleeping.Not any sooner could Agra arrive, and due to our lost time for stops and lunch we rushed to the Taj and Red Fort. One other of the captain’s cousin is a senior Cyber Security expert in the Agra Police, since he heard I was going to the Taj, he had organized a police escort to lead us the whole way. Shortly after entering Agra a police officer called me and asked me to come to the station to meet, from there he let us to the Taj in a Shuttle service, right up to the gates. From there we took a tour guide and explored one of the 7 wonders of the world.

The tour of Taj was beautiful, the incomparable insignia that the mad made marvel left on our brain was forever to be remembered. Taj glimmering and the history lesson complete, we headed off to the second best offering of history – the Red fort, here we learnt of the Mughal rulings of India, ancient warfare and the mindset of ‘no expense spared’. The Lieutenant and captain were more interested in the 352 mistresses the king had and the royal fun times. Completing these marvels, we headed to the hotel to check in.

The accommodation organized was a nice hotel in the center of Agra city, it was clean and newly constructed. Just as we checked in my cousin dropped in and swopped the admiral and myself and took us on a tour to meet my scattered family around Agra – it was phenomenal. The love and caring I felt, it was as if I had never left India, I really miss the Tandon Clan. Full of gratitude and love we got dropped back at the hotel, where we had a beer, grabbed some dinner and called it a early night as the second part of the historical tour awaited the next day, although the drama continued into the night as the Admiral had been struck by the Delhi belly, the night was full of vomiting and queasiness for the Admiral.

The next morning we headed for an older relic than the Red Fort Fatehpur Sikri – Wikipedia time again – “Fatehpur Sikri is a city in the Agra District of Uttar Pradesh, founded in1569 by the Emperor, Akbar, and served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585. After his military After victories over Chittor and Ranthambore, Akbar decided to shift his capital from Agra to a new location 23 miles (37 km) W.S.W on the Sikri ridge, to honour the Sufi saint Salim Chishti”. This beautiful historic monument was also the home to Salim Chisti Mosque, famous for making wishes come true “It is believed that by offering prayers at this mazar whatever one wishes will be fulfilled. There is also a ritual of tying a thread at the marble windows of this Dargah in order to have one’s wishes fulfilled.”

We arrived and started being hassled by beggers for tours etc. we declined saying Nahin Nahin and which from the admiral mouth sounded like a horse NAW NAW! We jumped in a Auto (TukTuk) and headed up to the palace – surprisingly and from nowhere a beggar jumped on too! Begging as he was hanging from the side of the Auto… I was a bit “WTF!!!”
We toured the beautiful palace and visited the Salim Chisti mosque in which we made our wishes. It was a very spiritual experience we all felt a little overwhelmed, finally we were taken and sat besides some Sufi singers as they sang religious songs to Allah. Once again the experience was overwhelming

We left a little bit of us behind as we left Fathepur Sikri and headed back to Agra to see the last piece of our historical voyage – Sikandra, The Tomb of Akbar the Great. Taking another tour guide we witnessed where the great Mughal emperor had been buried and we paid our respects. Finishing up we headed to the grba some missed western food at Pizza Hut and then to the hotel, were we rested for a while before getting ready for dinner with my family.

The last night in Agra, We visited a much loved temple and then went to my family home in Agra for a huge feast that my cousin’s wife had prepared. To build up an appetite I took the squad of a tour of my mother house – it comprises of about 32 bedrooms (not a typo 32 is correct) a mansion in all rights. The squad shocked by the place. Finally, we sat with my loving family and ate and talked. Honestly a huge experience for me as I had not seen them in 8 years. It Was lovely and the hospitality just like family. It felt like home. After only scratching the surface of the meal, having a fantastic conversation with my niece and hearing my other talented nephew play an amazing solo on the piano we had to bid farewell. Hugs and love to all.

Next morning it was time to head back to Delhi, and in particular to meet my very good friends in Gurgoan. It was also to be our last night in India. After having some breakfast at the hotel we left, nice and early to miss the traffic, this time our driver well rested we imagined on reaching on time. There however was a heap of FOG. Not the normal kid you see here, but A LOT of fog – you could not see further than 10 meters in front in the car.
Slowly driving we got to the toll point were a huge line had formed – turns out the road was closed as there had been a 7 car accident which left 25 people dead. We waited patiently and, it was an hour later that traffic started moving again. Along the way we saw 7 more accidents on the side of the road. The fog had set – visibility lower than ever.

Arriving at Gurgaon the Lieutenant was exhausted and vowed not to get back into the car. We met with w of my very good friends, one of which I had not seen in over 6 years, she had not changed and was as lovely as ever. It was fantastic to meet both of them as we went to a steak hose to have lunch – chosen by the lieutenant as he saw beef on the menu. Turned out to be buffalo. The conversation was extremely engaging we spoke about work, life, travels and how different things were now. It was heartwarming to see both of them, and once again it felt like I was always in India.

It was time to split ways with my friends, as the Admiral and Captain had to venture back into Delhi to pick up the last bag and to return General T’s Keys to his relative. Leaving the lieutenants behind with one of my friends we headed off to tackle the traffic.

Without boring you with our boring journey through Delhi, we returned the keys and headed back to Gurgoan, as our final night would be spent with a friend.
Completing 12 hours cooped up in the car we finally got back and unloaded our bags into my friend’s fathers BEAUTIFUL house, I also got to meet my friends husband for the fist time, who turned out to be as lovely as her and a total champ.

Dumping our bags and changing into something more comfortable, we got ready as the night was not over. My Friend had organized an dinner and drinks at a bar for us, we headed over and were treated to an fantastic meal and once again great conversation. I also introduce the lieutenant to Old Monk Rum, which went down a treat. Chowing down till our bellies went into overtime, the night was complete.
We headed home, where we sat and went over the wedding albums (a wedding I shamefully missed) we spoke till late night. Once again the hospitality was one to admire.

Saying goodbye and waking up early were both very tough. As the lieutenant’s flight left before mine he awoke before me and before he left he gave me a big hug! It will be the last time I see them, for a while as they is embark on a London adventure. Our alarm went off an hour earlier and I went and woke up the Admiral – she acknowledged and little to my knowledge fell asleep again. I went to bed only realizing 10 minutes later that she had fallen asleep. I awoke again startling her by saying “we will miss our flight” – in a mad rush we got ready and after a cup of tea with uncle got into a cab, destination airport.

The flight back was fun, with one leg covered by just watching the movie Jodha Akbar, which covered all the historical places we had covered. Both the admiral and I decided not to sleep and tried to cram as much viewing in as possible. Landing in Melbourne RedEyed.

India, a motherland I can not leave behind, a country full of love, hospitality and a heap of traffic.

At the end of epic adventure, I have learnt more then one can imagine, about history, people, life and different lands. I Have learn about Myself and I have learnt about my travel companion, the Admiral. I have grown as a person, with thousands more experiences and unforgettable memories. Aside form the craziness and epic adventures this trip like my others have been a life changing experience.

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well preserved body; but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a ride!’”
– Hunter S. Thompson

Signing out until my next adventure – Captain

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Brussels. Belgium

May 22, 2025

by wpRaghav Europe

Brussels. Belgium

The Silent Mecca of EDM music. City of beer, dreams, love, music, peace and unity.

Captains Log Day 4 – 26/07/16 1:26 am. SNCF Railways.

The first shadows of a new era beset upon our feet. The faithful Co-Captain Avi was getting ready to set an anchor in his life, he was soon to be married. History has shown us, that to welcome a new milestone the mind, body and soul has to transform. Grow. Learn. However, we were not going to let this metamorphosis happen without an ode to the times. A big hoorah. A celebration to cast a shade on any other celebration in our lives. Welcome to the logs of #avisbuxx

This was not going to be any adventure; this would be a pilgrimage to honor the man. The Captain set off gathering the crew, the brave men that would dedicate mind body and soul to the cause. This mission was only for the prepared. The selected troops were the Captain, Co-Captain Avi and the newly promoted Rebel leader Amit.
The journey to the first destination was long, but we had managed to entertain ourselves by playing chicken games on an iPad for 13 hours. A stopover in Abu Dhabi consisted of a quick replenishment meal as we boarded our remaining 8-hour flight to the country of Belgium. Once again sleep was not our friend, barely catching an hour or two the whole journey.

Red eyed at 9am we arrived in the city of Brussels, and not long after we made it to our hotel only to be advised that the room would not be ready for another 3 hours. This only meant one thing. Engage tourist mode. Within minutes (after getting lost for a bit) we were off out of the city to explore sites like the Atomniom (an alien like giant structure) and Mini Europe (self-explanatory). A quick snack of the local delicacy of Fritz (chips with mayo) and we decided to continue our sight-seeing adventures, as we headed 2 hours away to, a university town, and visit the Herge museum (think TinTin). 42 hours after leaving Melbourne we finally reached our hotel for a warm shower a rest, although just as the micro sleep fairies started hovering over our heads it was to go out again.

Legs shivering from the lack of sleep, exhaustion peaking and the mind full of the adrenaline of adventure we wander around, searching for a place to eat. Captain suggests a beer to kick off the night and relax the nerves, at first the co-captain refuses saying we should have dinner first, however democracy is called when the Rebel leader agrees with the idea. The request is the large pint, the drinks start flowing when democracy is called again when the co-captain suggest one round each before we eat….. a pub hop ensues, a beer at a live music bar, this then turns into a stumble to see the Pissing Boy (a landmark of the city). As Rebel leader and Captain took photos of this monument, the Co-Captain had found his next bar. It seemed the there was a party going on, people yelling and singing in French, this seemed like an apt place. Not long after the Co-Captain was being cheered as he sculled a beer, then being invited to dance to a chant – which involved a lot of yelling “TIKI TAKA TIKI TAKA“ on the streets. Absolutely on a different planet we left the club only to realize that we had not had anything to eat and the time was 1 am – stumbling once again we ended up at Fritzland, a place that we had starred on our map as it had the best Fritz in the country, they also served beer. Smashing down some fritz with samurai sauce the Captain lead the crew to the next bar, the Brazilian variety.

Not long after we lost the Rebel leader – with no contact, the co-captain and captain scoured the streets and bars of Brussels looking for him only to return home at 4:30 am to find him fast asleep in his bed.
The day had arrived. The Pilgrimage was to peak. The main reason we were in this beautiful country. Tomorrowland! Those that don’t know what Tomorrowland is, I can summarise it, however I cannot do it justice. No words, no graphical explanations, no level of detail, no images can convey what Tomorrowland is. Tommorowland is a Dance Music Festival which hosts the biggest DJs in the world in a Disneyworld like theme park. 160,000 people. 16 stages. A place of Love, Peace. Music. This is the Mecca of EDM music. This is a pilgrimage that anyone that loves this genre of music must attend. This is the holiest ground for EDM music..
Hungover, armed with our masks, water bottles, spare phone batteries, the squadron caught an uber, goosebumps as we rode to war, this was a battle we had dreamed of fighting for years. The time had come. The giganticness of the festival, the beauty of the stages cannot be described here, and the photos and videos you see cannot convey the emotion you feel on this ground. We headed to the main stage, just to be blown away. We were lucky enough to rendezvous with some other Pirates that joined our squadron. Reverend Raj and Prince Patel, veterans, of Tomorrowland Brasil, our tour guides on this mind-blowing trip. The company was well appreciated our team had formed and we fought hand in hand. We went and saw, Ferry Corsten, FTampa, Dada Life, Don Diablo, GTA, RaveCave, Steve Aoki, Steve Angello, Yellow Claw ending it with Martin Garrix, and Like Mike and Demitri Vegas.
We left, with withdrawals of the night to ensue. Even as I write this log I feel my heart skip a beat. This was the BEST Night of Our lives – nothing can ever come close to what we felt. The Fellowship was broken as we departed a land of dreams and music. Broken we ended up back home after 12 hours of non-stop dancing at 6am, having the inability to sleep due to the blood rushing though our body and thoughts unable to let go of what we had experienced we finally slept at 7:30am. We were later to find, that one of our companions had to be hospitalized due to the exhaustion that came with 3 days of heaven
Waking up a few hours later we still could not stop thinking about the night that was. After speaking about the night before we finally arose and continued our sight-seeing across the city, visiting all the remaining places. The beauty of the city is unfathomable. Once again the grandeur is not doing justice by image, we strolled to the grand place. We went to a few chocolate shops and indulged in some of the finest chocolate in the world. Joining the locals we bought some beers and sat in front of the grand structures and contemplated our nights activities. Since it was the last night we thought a pub crawl was the right thing to do.
Once again we got home and 20 minutes later we are out and about to join the pubcrawl.
Meeting new people commenced. It was time for the Aussie battalion to take control, introducing the people to the drinking games, getting everyone involved, time accelerated as people started dropping like flies. BUFFELO. Jumping from bar to bar, we once again had a huge night, returning home at 4 am with high concentrations of liquids in our systems.
Sleep was once again not our friend, the squadron awaking a few hours later, and spending the last few hours of our stay watching Tomorrowland videos, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME4sx9UEJPM – scroll to 17.45 and see if you recognize someone. Spending enough time on the videos, we left the hotel in the last minute only to reach our train to Amsterdam 2 minutes prior to its departure.
To sign off this log, I need to say that, going to Tomorrowland just proves that Dreams are only dreams when you sleep; when you are awake, you have the chance to make them a reality.