06
Feb
10

Costa Rica Diary: Streets of San Jose

By Guest Writer: Gurkhahere

Avenida Central in San Jose

Speaking of time, I had plenty on Sunday. The orientation wasn’t until Monday. So I decided to walk the streets of San Jose. I also needed a camera since I hadn’t brought one. I consulted my host sister for advice on where to go to find a camera. Turns out I had to visit another town, albeit close, to find a big electronic store. The plan was to first go to Zapote to buy a camera and then head to downtown San Jose. Then out I went with a mindset of being a tourist/traveler. I wanted to see what the city was like, what the people were like and what it was that made them unique in Central America. Costa Rica is arguably the most developed country in Central America besides being the most politically stable. The crime rate is very low. Btw, Ingrid had told me that presidential elections were to occur in February for which I could already see the spirits raised with rallies and people carrying flags and pictures of their favorite candidates. In recent years Ticos have made ecotourism their tool for development and economic development. They have taken great strides in conservation of some of the most amazing biodiversity on planet. While export of coffee and banana was the primary source of income for Costa Rica for a long time, income through eco-tourism has taken over in the last few years. Their adventure tours such as canopy tours, whitewater rafting, which I also plan to do, are some of the best in the world.

Avenida Central in San Jose

I caught a local bus at the bus station after a 10 minute walk from the house. After being on the bus for about 20 minutes I saw this really happening area and figured it would be the mall area where I was supposed to buy camera. I got off the bus and walked around. Turns out I was in downtown San Jose- in Central Avenue. After talking to a man, I found out I had taken the bus in the other direction. But whatever, I was where I wanted to be, just a little early. The Central Avenue and the surrounding area are vibrant. I was surprised to see that many people and that many shops open on a Sunday. People were just hanging out at the park, feeding the birds, watching street shows, selling DVDs, and just enjoying the nice weather. I took a stroll around the city’s core area. The city along with the neighborhood I was living in so reminded me of home. People look very much like Nepalis, which is why whenever I wanted to have any conversation people spoke to me like I was one of them, just another Tico. The streets are narrow, shops are very similar to those in Nepal in that you have to ask for what you want to see/buy. Unlike many big stores in the US, you can’t just look around, pick up stuff and take to the counter. Some other reminders of Nepal were trash just lying open on the roadside, although not as huge a pile nor as stinky as back home. Street dogs, open sewer lines and sudden holes on the pavement as you are walking were common sights.

National Theater in San Jose

However, San Jose has more developed infrastructures than Kathmandu. The roads are very decent, even in the neighborhoods. Eighteen wheelers frequent the freeways. Many households in San Jose and San Pedro have cars. Traffic lights are in great working condition and drivers and pedestrians mostly follow the traffic rules. The funniest thing is the green light for pedestrians whistles like parrots and with much speed before it goes red. I spent the evening in a bar again (c 4000 for 3 Imperials) as I couldn’t find a coffee shop in San Pedro. Seriously I didn’t…..

To be continued…….

01
Feb
10

Costa Rica Diary: Here I Come

On the Journey is very pleased to announce Gurkhahere as its first ever guest writer. In this post, and the series that will follow (hopefully :D ), Gurkhahere will share with us the memories of his recent trip to Costa Rica.  

How often can you have a great bar night with a bunch of people, all with varying accents, in a place where very few people speak English. Not often, right?- at least that hasn’t happened with me before. 

It is fresh. It is different. The refreshing air nicely complements the magnificent weather. People are speaking Spanish everywhere which makes me realize that I really am in Costa Rica. I’ve just escaped the cold DC weather and the daily hustle to be in Costa Rica and the first day (January 16, 2010) has treated me well.    

 

Just up the street from my house

 Costa Rica has exceeded my expectations of being a developing country. At times, it reminds me of back home while at others it makes me wish my home was like this. The streets are well paved, the mercado is well organized, cars are decent and of course the bars are superb. There is a freeway here, although without shoulder but only a few high rises. Streets are fairly clean and there are neighborhood guards to patrol the streets at night, who greet you, every time you walk by with a simple buenas noches.

The street I walked everyday

 At the San Juan Airport, I got picked by Ingrid, a very nice woman who spoke no English. I am proud to say that we had a nice conversation on the way to the “home.” Go me! Seems like my attempt and the desire to learn Spanish finally paid off. We drove along the freeway, through downtown San Jose and into San Pedro to get to the “home.” She showed me a few landmarks along the way, including Hospital Mexico, which is apparently the biggest hospital in Costa Rica (hun?). We also drove by the Universidad de Costa Rica, a huge and the most renowned university in Costa Rica. Ingrid mentioned that the university is very competitive. She showed me a couple of parks where people just hang out, play futbol, basketbol, and bicicleta, and basically just hang out with families on Sundays. Downtown San Jose was pretty lively with people just hanging out on the streets. The stores were closed but bars were open. Seems like the Ticos have their priorities figured out.   Continue reading ‘Costa Rica Diary: Here I Come’

25
Jan
10

DSLR 101

First of all, this post is not for the professionals, or even the advanced level photographers. This post is primarily for those people who are sitting on the fence on upgrading to a Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera (DSLR), or to those who want to buy a camera but not sure if they are ready to jump straight to a DSLR.  Also, don’t expect this post to be very technical, this post is based mainly on my experience of using DSLR for past three years.

If you are thinking of buying an advanced (high-end) compact camera, and if the portability (size) is not an issue for you, then you should go ahead and buy a lower end DSLR. If you can afford, then you can even shoot for a higher end DSLR . The camera I have now, Nikon D40, costs around $400 -$500, with kit lens.  A higher end compact camera will easily cost you from $350 -$500.  I understand, it’s not always advisable and possible to carry a bulky camera around, but for those “Kodak moments” you always have your cell phone camera. The camera’s in the cellphone, today, are far better than my very first 2MP HP digital camera :)

The biggest secret of a DSLR taking great pictures, even when a novice is operating it in an Auto Mode, has to do with it’s larger sensor designs. These sensors can capture more light, even in darker conditions, hence producing crisp images with reduced noise.  Compared to compact cameras, DSLR normally focuses faster and shoots fast without the shutter delay. Think of the times you wanted to take a picture of some event, when you finally clicked your compact camera, and that event has passed. Also, you can take very fast continuous shots of an object. These qualities alone will make Geoff Boycott say “Even my mom could take better picture with a DSLR”.  

Unlike the compact cameras, with DSLR you can change the lens based on your requirements. For starters, let say choosing from your kit lens of 18-55mm to take pictures inside a room (closer objects) or choosing 55-200mm to take pictures of birds (farther objects) on the field. The sky is the limit, when you think  about the type of lenses for different occasions, the more you know about them, less you feel you have known. If you want to learn more, check this site to see some of the DSLR lesnes.

Now let me talk about my experience with DSLR. Like some of the available texts recommends, and based on my own knowledge, never fall for the megapixel trap. Paying more money to get higher megapixel camera is no longer worth it. My six megapixel Nikon D40 can easily produce excellent16×20” pictures, now why would you want to pay more for higher megapixel camera (unless you often require very BIG prints)?

Continue reading ‘DSLR 101′

06
Jan
10

Do I need it?


For past couple of weeks, I was feverishly following the development of Nexus One, the “Google Phone”. I have to say, I am very impressed with what they have come up with. The phone is pretty fast and powerful, one of the Google’s official stated that it is better than what his laptop used to be four years ago. But, one thing to keep in mind is that this doesn’t end here, the products hereon will keep getting better with time.

I don’t blame anyone for wanting this phone, I do too :D   But are you willing to purchase another one, with even better features (surely) within a year? Unless you have a big chunk of money to spend on these gadgets, I am absolutely certain that it would be overwhelming and very hard to keep up with the new technologies. I feel that how you want to proceed in these technological advancements basically boils down to two questions: 1. Do I have the best possible phone? or 2. Does my phone do everything I need it to do?

People have different opinions; but, personally, I will be asking myself the second question before thinking about any possible upgrades :) As much as I am impressed with this phone, I don’t have any immediate plans for purchasing it :(

Please check the following links for some more information, and early reviews on Nexus One: Link 1, Link2, & Link 3, or simply go to the Official Page to play with it.

28
Dec
09

Greetings and wishes

 

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that’s the burden of a year.

By: Ella Wheeler Wilcox     

11
Dec
09

Winter

One of my friends said; one burns 200 calories*  just to get out of the bed, in a wintry morning, to get to the work. I say it’s more like 400 calories; 200 on bed itself while you are just thinking about waking up, and 200 to actually get up. Though some might argue that’s a fantastic way to burn calories, trust me it’s no fun to wake up at 5-6 am every weekday, in these chilling condition.

Hope ya’ll are staying warm and cozy; wherever you are, except down under (Australia). Below, a recent picture taken from my window. And,  a choreographed picture of a flower on snow; to make things brighter, even in gloom :)

* Note: just for the sake of talking, not a fact

03
Dec
09

The festive atmosphere

One of the bitter part of  celebrating  festivals (like Dashain) in a foreign country is that you don’t have any holiday atmosphere to go along with your rituals. As soon as you get out of your or your friend/relative’s house, it is business as usual. There is no festive environment, forget the holidays; it is like celebrating the festival in isolation and in patches. If I have to remember Dashain in Nepal at this moment, I would say: rituals for ghatasthapana, flying kites, fifteen days or month-long holiday, empty streets of Kathmandu, good food, my parents always buying the exact same cloths for me and my brother, fulpati rituals, astami, nawami, tika and blessing from elders, etc. Things that we took for granted or overlooked in Nepal are sorely missed here; the religious and cultural significance of a certain festivities is not complete without the festive atmosphere that precedes them.

As I mentioned in one of my previous post, we not only celebrate our own festivals here but are also culturally involved in the local festivals. We do get holidays for those, but the festive atmosphere encourages us to enjoy the culture even more. For example in Christmas, for weeks, there would be lighting and christmas carol everywhere you go, people everywhere seem happy and cheerful.  Regardless of your religion, creed, or faith; I believe all the religious holidays are meant to be celebrated among families and friends. People everywhere sparing some time to get together and have fun. I tend to celebrate them all, as a means of getting together with friends and family, even if that’s not always economically viable ;)

Merry christmas to all of you.

Following are the few pictures I took around my neighborhood (you can click on them to enlarge).

12
Nov
09

Jiffy Lube, Dentist, and Sai Baba

If you are raising your eyebrow after reading the heading, I don’t blame you. This post is listed under my “I love to drink” blog category, so those who are regular to my blog can pretty much expect what’s coming up. As most of you might know how my loss of appetite for liquor has hurt that particular blog category, but I still find a way to get around it. Today I’m writing this post under the influence, not the liquor but general anesthesia :D Continue reading ‘Jiffy Lube, Dentist, and Sai Baba’

05
Nov
09

The colors

Following are the few of my recent pictures, taken within the 5 mile radius of my apartment. These pictures are more about what nature has to offer, than the camera tricks or editing; they are straight out of my camera. Enjoy :D

Colors 017_final

Colors 036_final Continue reading ‘The colors’

20
Oct
09

What to do in Baltimore?

It’s been a little more than a year that I moved to Baltimore, and I still struggle to chaperon my visitors for the city and it’s vicinities tour. If someone is in Baltimore area for a very short visit, then it’s a piece of cake, I take them to the Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor has it all; the aquarium, the science center, lot’s of chain restaurants, boat rides, and tons of other potential spots and scenes to capture for their Facebook :D There is also Fort McHenry close by to wrap up the combo Harbor trip.

If it’s slightly longer than a day visit, then it spells trouble for me. Not all want to go to the zoo, not all want to go for a hike in the trails, and going to a museum is an absolute no. Interests and time limits (enough for the harbor visit, but not for hours of hike) makes the above choices more difficult. I don’t know if its because that Nepal is blessed with so many natural wonders, we Nepalese want to see more physical structures. For any natural phenomenon to catch our attention, it has to be of a big magnitude, like Niagara Falls or Grand Canyon. Washington DC (less than an hour drive to my west) is always there to bail me out, but after multiple visits through the same routes has made it a very dull place for me. Even when it is extremely fascinating for the new visitors, I only go there if I am made to :P Continue reading ‘What to do in Baltimore?’