Tree Of Life

Thats the "Tree Of Life". It can be seen from all over Animal Kingdom. Narrow passages all around the Tree and you get to see animals in small enclosures along the paths. It feels as if you are adventuring somewhee in Africa. It would have been a better experience if the tree had actually been real. Its basically made of concrete and plastic.

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Thats the line at the entrance of Animal Kingdom. We already had our e-tickets so we just had to collect our passes from the counter. Saved us quite some time. Also due to the recession the crowds were extremely less. We had to wait a maximum of 50 minutes for a ride that too only for 1 or 2 rides. Apparently the usual waiting time is far greater than that. We never found any need to use the Fast-Pass.

MardiGras

MardiGras at Universal Studios that starts in the evening. We would have stayed but our shuttle was to come at 7:00. Noway were we going to miss the shuttle. The taxis cost the sky here (and everywhere else). But we did get a preview of what it had in store.

Fantasy Resorts, Orlando,FL 7-3-09

Leaving our Villa the very first morning and headed for Universal Studios. The Villa was awesome. There was fully equiped kitchen, two bedrooms on the second floor, two bathrooms, a laundry machine and television with cable in every room. All we had paid for the whole trip was $350 per head ( excluding park tickets) and we were three people. In case you are wondering, this is Fantasy Resorts and we booked through travelocity.com. 

HERE WE GO !!!

 I am a travel afficiando.No doubt about it . I love to visit new places, eat different kinds of foods, having new experiences and the lot that comes with globe trotting. The only problem is that I have never really been "out travelling" per say. Yeah sure  have been to the ocasional hillstation near home, been to Darjeeling once. But these never turned out to be a great source of the "nouvelle experience" that I expected out of these.

    So when my father suggested that I accompany him on his visit to his US head office whose regional business in India he handles, I was more than happy to agree. Not that I expected the trip to be great one owing to my father being "handicapped" on the subject of "having fun". Its really sad and my heart feels for him but all my attempts to heal him have met with sharp cynicism on his part. I still hold on to hope. Anyways I knew I would still have fun on my own. So our travel plans were made. Seats on the delta flight leaving at 12.30 on the 3rd of february of 2009 from Mumbai International Airportwere booked. On our trip we were being accompanied by one of my father's colleagues and family friend, Chande.