Category Archives: Travel

Lisbon, Portugal

I spent 2 days in Lisbon in January before heading on a road trip towards the atlantic ocean . It was 15-20 degrees C, sunny and surprisingly uncrowded for it was their winter – I couldn’t complain.

Loved seeing the yellow trams chugging along narrow cobbled streets.

Quaint plazas with sharp shadows

Pastel colors on buildings along pretty alleys

Sun gleaming like it was summer, squares empty as if it was winter

Calm cafes to rest my feet and consume coffee!

Sleepy vibe along the hilly areas

Spectacular panoramas

Sagres and the Atlantic

Recently I made a trip to Portugal. While I landed in Lisbon, after a couple of days I was tempted to go see the Atlantic ocean, and so I ended up renting a car and driving about 750kms in 2 days, all the way to the south-westernmost point and along the Atlantic coast of Portugal.

The main subject on my agenda was to see the coastal cliffs in the town called Sagres. The views brought back memories of Etretat in France, with the biggest difference being the splashing sounds of furious ocean waves.

Standing alone on a secluded beach was such a delight

I drove a little further to see the spectacular sunset from the light house

As the light waned, I made a reservation in a nearby hotel, where I woke up to spectacular blues – both in sight and in mood for I didn’t want to leave that place.

Now I look back, dream of the day I drive along this road again, back to those blues.

45 hours

Thats the number of hours I spent last week around airports and airplanes while I made a short impromptu trip to India. This brings it to a total of about 160 hours spent around these things. The irony of long duration flights for me is that towards the end, I am both thoroughly exhausted and at the same time incredibly mentally relaxed.

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Up and away

Places like Airports never cease to fill me with this familiar feeling of total awareness of surroundings so full of people going somewhere, drowned in their world of unsettling emotions, excited anticipations and wishful retrospections, as they wait to enter this portal called the airplane which after hours of solitude in the crowded discomfort and unfulfilling meals – would leave them in a whole different reality.

Today I fly back to Shanghai, to the familiar hard and exciting reality of life in China; with hopes of returning in a month for good, to this romantic beauty of a city that Amsterdam is, which forever will stay in my heart right beside my first love San Francisco