Noulakaz — 2011 April

by Avinash Meetoo on 29 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment

New York, New York…

Start spreading the news
I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York

These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York

We reached New York, the busiest city on the planet, on 24 April and, initially, we didn’t like it. You see, New York, is very dense and, consequently, is not very clean. Additionally, people tend not to be too friendly in New York (as compared to the other US cities at least).

When we reached there, we immediately went on Broadway (but we didn’t watch any show there). Anya and Kyan were amazed to be at the center of the (occidental) universe.

After some time, we talked towards Times Square. This is something which is tough to explain with pictures or words: you really need to see it yourself to decide whether it’s worth its hype or not.

Personally, I liked the atmosphere there. But, to be frank, I was not overly impressed by the signs. Sure, they looked great, but I’m not a lot into absolute consumerism.

The next day, we left our hotel early situated a few meters from the New York Times…

We witnessed something unheard of in Mauritius: parking lifts for cars. New York is so cramped that some parking lots are on multiple levels and you get to see the cars moving up and down!

When we didn’t have time to eat in nice restaurants, we just got hot dogs from one of the hundred of vendors on the streets of New York. Personally, I prefer some nice Mauritian boulettes…

We went to the Rockerfeller Center next with my uncle Navin and his wife Kavita and we had a great time there. We didn’t climb on top of the skyscraper (as we knew we were going to be on the Empire State Building next) but we (tried to) visit the shops nearby.

One thing which is interesting in New York is the fact that most people walk or take taxis. Only a few New Yorkers actually own a car.

We then walked towards Central Park and came across THE definitive Apple Store.

To be fair, I was not overly impressed. This Apple Store, known all over the world, was just one big fancy fair. Nothing as I would have expected with a tranquil and relaxed atmosphere. Naturally, I was happy to see some Geniuses but, once again, nothing much to talk about.

We reached Central Park a few minutes later. We decided not to visit the Central Park zoo as we had already seen quite a view zoos before. We decided just to relax… surrounded by some of the tallest skyscrapers in the world!

The next day, we woke up early and took the ferry to Staten Island. This ferry is free and passes just in front of the Statue of Liberty. This was an amazing sight for Kyan, Anya, Christina and myself. Of course, it would have been better to climb the statue but our time in New York was limited and this ferry was the next best thing to do.

To be fair, photos cannot really do justice to the Statue of Liberty. I believe one should really be there in person to understand how great that experience can be. Sure, it’s just a statue but it’s also the most recognisable feature of New York City.

From Staten Island, we took the ferry back to Manhattan.

We then walked through the New York financial district reaching Wall Street a few minutes later.

Of course, we had to go to Ground Zero, the place where the World Trade Center was before 11 September 2001. My feeling there: deep sadness.

As we had purchased tickets to the Empire State Building, we decided to see New York from above. We reached there around sunset.

Being on the 86th level (which we reached using a one minute lift ride!!!), there was quite a bit of wind.

But, wind or not, this is what we saw when the sun decided to set. Once again, photos cannot convey the feeling we had. New York is marvelous from above.

Today, we left New York and have just landed safely in Paris. We’ll definitely visit the USA again in some years now that (1) we have our 10-year visa and (2) we have realised that we like the country… including New York of course :-)

Filed Under: News, Photography, Travel, Web

by Avinash Meetoo on 22 Apr 2011 6 Comments

Having a great time in Washington DC

Washington DC is a beautiful city, as beautiful as an European city in fact as it was originally designed by a Frenchman.

The first thing we did on reaching there was to get as close to Barack Obama as possible.

We were delighted to have our picture taken in front of the White House.

Naturally, security was tight. We witnessed a great scene. The security guards had told everyone to stand still because one car (with some dignitary) was moving out of the premises. A man, who presumably didn’t hear the summon, kept walking. A secret service guy promptly told him: “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Hilariously, the man’s wife told him: “You’re on your own now.”

The next day, we went to the Washington DC monument which is huge yet beautiful.

And, of course, visited the Capitol. The guided tour was interesting as was the overall atmosphere. Being close to where the Senators and Representatives are is a great feeling.

We then passed in front of the US Supreme Court.

One thing which is interesting in the US is the sheer variety of restaurants that exist. It seems to us that Americans do not cook. They (mostly) always eat outside. So restaurants are plentiful, relatively cheap and varied. We ate salad in a French restaurant the next day and, as you can see, everyone was happy.

Yesterday, we visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Kyan and I were delighted to renact part of Top Gun, next to a glorious F-14D Tomcat.

We were amazed to see the real Enterprise space shuttle. It’s immense and, like the Washington DC monument, beautiful!

We also saw numerous historical airplanes, most notably Enola Gay, which was the first airplane to drop a nuclear bomb over Japan during the Second World War.

Finally, just before reaching our home base, Christina and I both bought ourselves an Amazon Kindle. It’s a great device for reading books (and for lite browsing) and it’s cheap!

We’re having a great time in Washington DC.

Filed Under: News, Photography, Travel

by Avinash Meetoo on 18 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment

Visiting Los Angeles and Hollywood

During our stay in Los Angeles, we opted for a hotel in Hollywood for obvious reasons.

We are all movie buffs and we were delighted to be at Hollywood, the world capital of (occidental) actors, directors, producers and studios. Speaking of studios, we couldn’t prevent ourselves from spending the whole of two days at Universal Studios Theme Park.

The kids (as well as ourselves) were amazed to be able to take pictures with all their favourite comic characters…

… from the inoffensive (?) Bart and Homer to the more lethal (yet friendly) Bumblebee.

Anya, 8, and Kyan, 6, are, of course, huge fans of Scooby-Doo and they were ecstatic to have their pictures taken with Scooby, Daphne and Samy. Naturally, we were ecstatic too.

Universal Studios, being the home ground of Steven Speilberg, naturally features a quite magnificent Jurassic Park ride through rivers infested with dangerous dinosaurs.

After the dinosaurs, we got glimpses of Iron Man, Terminator as well as a very friendly Superman on Hollywood Boulevard.

And, last but not least, we paid respect to the King of Pop Music, Michael Jackson, on Hollywood Boulevard.

Filed Under: Movies, Music, News, Travel

by Avinash Meetoo on 16 Apr 2011 6 Comments

Living in the Silicon Valley

Since I was a (geek) kid, I wanted to come to the Silicon Valley and see what it looks like.

Now that I’ve been there, I would like to share some thoughts about what I’ve seen and what I’ve felt there. Incidentally, I’ll also (try to) relate those to what is happening in Mauritius.

First of all, from a geographical perspective, the Silicon Valley is what is around the San Francisco bay. On the map, you can see San Mateo, Stanford, Mountain View up to San Jose on the left of the bay and San Leandro, Fremont, Sunnyvale up to San Jose again on the right. Everything falls within the Silicon Valley. In other words, the Silicon Valley is big.

Secondly, some very well known companies have their headquarters in the Silicon Valley: Adobe, AMD, Apple, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Intel, Nvidia, Oracle and Yahoo. A few years ago, I wrote about the reasons why the Mauritian Cybercity will (most probably) never become a (mini) Silicon Valley and I think the post is still relevant.

One of the first things I’ve realised is that it’s about people. People invent, people innovate and people create wealth. What is essential is that people have the opportunity to network and exchange ideas with others.

We were lucky to spend a few days with Audrey, the woman in the middle. She’s from Singapore, lives in San Carlos and is one of the co-founders of PlayMoolah. We spoke a lot and we found out that most people creating startups in the Silicon Valley are not doing it for money. Rather, they (simply) want to change the world.

Sun, the woman on the left, is the founder of LittleLives, a social networking platform for children and she also wants to change the world.

I feel the same thing about Knowledge Seven. Of course, the company is a training company but, at the same time, I work on side projects like Infos.mu and Elections.mu. When I return to Mauritius, I will start working on my grand project to transform the education landscape in Mauritius. My dream is to allow every single Mauritian to learn whatever he/she wants from the comfort of his/her home using technology.

The second thing I’ve realised is that it’s also about technology.

People in the Silicon Valley all use smartphones (the iPhone rules but I’ve seen quite a lot of Android and Blackberry devices too), laptops and (sometimes) tablets.

The Internet is pervasive here. Everything can be found online: spots to visit, places to eat, museums to discover, etc. I am actually amazed by e-commerce here. 99% of the places we’ve been allowed us to buy tickets online.

Allowing people to do everything online gives them the opportunity to devote more of their time to change the world. Maybe that’s why the Silicon Valley is so unique: people concentrate more.

Filed Under: Education, Knowledge7, Mauritius, News, Politics, Technology, Travel, Web

by Avinash Meetoo on 11 Apr 2011 7 Comments

San Francisco: what a great place to be!

Kyan, Anya and myself reached San Francisco on Friday. Christina came to meet us at the airport. We went directly to the city center and spent the first night in a good hotel near the largest Chinatown in the world.

The next day, we woke up early and went to Union Square, took the Cable Car to Fisherman’s Wharf where we visited the Musée Mécanique, a small yet beautiful museum full of antique toys and games including the earliest video game, Pong.

We slept at San Carlos at Alam’s place and, the next day, Nawaaz, his wife and two kids, came to pick us to show us how San Francisco looks like. The streets of San Francisco look like, well, The Streets of San Francisco.

and, after once again being rerouted by the GPS, reached the San Francisco Golden Gate.

The Golden Gate is a magnificent bridge. We loved the colours as well as the feeling when walking on it. It’s a suspension bridge and, therefore, you feel all vibrations when cars pass by.

We had lunch in a very nice Thai restaurant with Nawaaz and his family.

After lunch, we went to the Explanatorium, the Palace of Fine Arts and, finally, the Golden Gate Park where the kids were happy to run and run and run…