India travel via London Heathrow in british airways

We are traveling to Bangalore via London Heathrow airport using British Airways.  Please be noted that you need to go through security check even if the connecting flight is on the same Terminal and Gate.  As soon as you exit the flight there will be a flight display board with all the flight details. Check your terminal and gate. It was observed that if the connecting flight within next one to two  hour then when you exit the flight from US there will be a person waiting to take you directly to next flight.  For the Security Check normally you need to take train to Terminal 5 A Gates. As soon as depart from the flight into gate, there will be a elevator, takes you down to catch a train. Then go through Border security then security check. If you have kids or special needs then there is special board security queue which is quicker. Normally security check queue is longer and very strict. Security check process will land you in Terminal 5 A Gates. Check with BA staff for actual gate for your flight as normally gate will be announced very late. It could be B or C gates as well. If you gate is B or C, you can take a elevator down, then take a train to B/C gates.

You can find Terminal 5 Map at http://www.heathrowairport.com/static/Heathrow/Downloads/PDF/Heathrow_T5_Map.pdf

US Visa interview at Chennai: Hotel/Commute/plan

I wanted to pen down something different this time covering my experience with US visa interview in Chennai. I thought this may help people travelling to Chennai for this purpose.

Travel to/from Chennai/Bengaluru:
By car: I would recommend the option using car with a driver.  In this way, you have a car to go around including Embassy and OFC center if that is feasible for you. But plan to book your interview in the afternoons so that you can start the travel early morning, finish OFC interview, stay for a night, next day finish the visa interview, you will be back in Bengaluru by night.
By Train: We have traveled by double decker express to Chennai, I would not prefer this train. Not clean and not good. I would recommend to have interviews in the afternoons, go by shatabdi in the early morning then return next day evening by shatabdi.
By Flight: I don't think this would a better option considering to/from airport travel time.

I had decided to travel by train. Since I had an appointment at 10:30AM for both days for OFC and visa interview, traveled by double deck express to Chennai, so that I can reach there by evening and be ready for next day interview. Since having a family with me, better to have extra time to get settled and ready for these interviews.

Hotel:
We stayed in Hotel Savera in Dr Radhakrishnan road/Cathedreal road. Dr Radhakrishnan road is close to US Embassy and OFC center. Hotels on this road must be a good option if you are travelling for visa interview. There are quite few other hotels like Wood lands etc in the same road. Our experience in Hotel Savera is not that bad, considering that good restaurants within the hotels. Hotel staff allocated us a wrong room so called Business Standard!.  It was unclean and bathrooms are hard to use. Highly congested for family. In fact I had booked Deluxe room, negligence of the staff (or me!) made us stay in business standard for a day. Next day, after my inquiry, they have apologized and promised to allocate a club room.
To my surprise, after few calls, sent us key but this time, I asked about the type of room allocated but the key is for deluxe room not a club room. I called again, but informed to wait for another 30 mins for club room. So any hotel, please make sure that you get what you have booked for!

Do's/Dont's:
Any place in Chennai where tourists or outsiders visit/stay, you can find set of people with auto rickshaws or taxis, waiting outside to grab money out of you as much as possible. If you need a taxi, one option is to call a "call taxi  Golden": Number is : +914426580055. In the railway station, try to opt for pre-paid taxi just outside the station. If you want to pick a auto, please walk little away from auto's waiting outside the hotel or Embassy or any tourist spot, if you find an auto going empty on the road wave hand and tell them
the place. They will start the meter without asking any money in most cases as they are not aware you are new to city or not. This logic works well.  In case if they ask money without a meter, you should know how it might be for the destination. Below are some information on the same as of this date of the blog.
From your Hotel on Dr. Radhakrishnan Road/Cathreal road  to OFC center i Auto is 30-35 rupees. Maximum you can give is 50 rupees in case of no meter.
To Embassy, minimum charge: 25 rupees with Meter. Maximum should 35-45 rupees in case of no meter. (Auto Charge)
To T Nagar, if you wish to go for shopping, meter would be 60-70 rupees. Maximum should be 80 rupees.
Central Railway station to Dr Radhkrishna Road  for Taxi is : 150 rupees if metered using Golden call taxi. Maximum you can pay is 200 rupees not more than that.
If you know the rates you can negotiate in case if no meters or you end up such situation.

Great Smoky Mountain

We have visited Smoky mountain twice. We always planned to stay there for 2 to 3 nights by booking vacation rentals. Visiting Smoky during fall colors is really a great experience. On our first visit, we stayed in Maggie Valley, NC by booking an vacation house. This was during fall colors. All you need to do is just get into Blue Ridge Parkway.  From the main road there are many places where you can enter into Blue Ridge Parkway. This entire road across the Smoky is made reveal the beauty of fall color in the Smoky.

We visited smoky one more time, but this time we stayed in Gatlinburg, TN. We can have booked vacation house (Timber top Properties) and stayed for 3-4 days. We visited Parrot Mountain (http://www.parrotmountainandgardens.com). It is a nice place to go when you have kids. There are so many varieties of Parrots in this place.  Also kids can hold them and take photos. You can also go up to Smoky mountain and visit places. Gatinburg town is also beautiful.

Camping at Bay view Park Washington(WA)

We have gone to camping in Bay view state park summer of 2012. This camp ground has small ground where kids can play. There is a beach but only for the purpose sitting and relaxing, not much place for the kids to play. Camp sites are good, there is a small beach volleyball court if you have net and ball.  I would not recommend this place for camping with kids unless all other camping places are booked.

Camping at Deception Park Washington(WA)

Deception Park is the best place to Camp. But camp sites are always getting booked pretty early. If you have plans to go there better you book the camp sites early. You can always cancel it if choose not to go.  If you are going for camping with kids then this place would be best as it has a lake called Cranberry Lake. This lake has swim area for kids. another side of the lake is a sea. I would highly recommend this park for camping.

Yellowstone National Park

We made a plan to visit Yellowstone National Park on Memorial day week on 26th May to 30th May 2012 for 5 days. Plan was to drive from Bellevue WA and Yellowstone National Park. It was a 2 days drive for round trip and site seeing for 3 days. It worked out well except scary weather report. We also planned to visit Yellowstone bear world (http://www.yellowstonebearworld.com/). If you are going with family you should not miss it. It is close to 2 hours drive from Yellowstone national park.   
Initial plan was to stay in Gardiner for a day then stay in west Yellowstone for remaining 3 days. Since weather on the first day was bad, we planned to stay in Dillon for day then go to RexBurg to see bearworld next day which worked out very well

Yellowstone Bear World:
 This has variety of animals, but one of bear attacked our car :)

Bearworld-Attack on car

Bear World

Bear fight

In front of the car in bear world

Bear world needs just half a day or 2 hours. There are some raids for kids as well. After finishing the Yellowstone Bear World, we drove to West Yellowstone and drove to Old Faithful Geyser. We stayed in West Yellow stone for remaining day of our trip.
Yellowstone National Park:
First day we finished Bear world and Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone.  Old Faithful is the one not to miss. There will always a prediction when it will erupt. It will be +-15 mins from predicted time frame. Normally it will be every hour.
Old Faithful/Grand Prismatic Spring:

Old Faithful

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Madison River

West Thumb

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS

CANYON VILLAGE

Close to Norris

Near CANYON VILLAGE

West Thumb

Grand Prismatic Spring

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS

CANYON VILLAGE and Mud Volcano

Close to Madison River

On the way Old Faithful there are quite a few geysers. Some of them are Upper, Lower and Midway geyser for which you can give visit. One place which you should never miss is: Grand Prismatic Spring! That is real wonderful place but not much hype is given. You can go close to location and enjoy the beauty of nature. But never miss an opportunity to watch this wonder from the view with a little bit of hiking. After visiting the Grand Prismatic Spring, drive towards Old Faithful probably close a mile. Watch right side and you can find a parking lot just next river and walking/biking trail with a small bride. It is not far way, you can go with small kids as well. Just walk little bit, when you reach close to Grand Prismatic Spring, left side there is an hiking trail. Just take that and go up, you will really the beauty of nature with top view of Grand Prismatic Spring.
Old Faithful is predicted Geyser. You can visit any visitor center and get to know about the timing then plan accordingly.
When returning back from the park between West Yellowstone and Madison, you can find Madison river  We spotted a Grizzly bear waiting for us some nice photo shots. It stayed there pretty long to give every body a fair chance to see and take photos.
NORRIS GEYSER BASIN:
This could be another chunk of Geysers but eruption is hard to predict. It is not as big as Old Faithful but nice to see quite a few of them. We also noticed fox while returning on this road.
MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS:
NORRIS GEYSER BASIN to MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, you could stop by to sheepeater cliff, Roaring mountain and obsidian cliff not so important if time does not permit. Roaring mountain is the better one. But never ever miss MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. There are quite places to see but do not miss any. It is wonderful and I really relished and enjoyed natural wonder. I could not believe myself watching it.
CANYON VILLAGE:
This is one more place you should not miss. It is better to cover both upper falls and lower falls. But if time does not permit then at least go to upper falls. It really has wonderful view points.
Drive down towards lake village at least up to Mud Volcano and visit also Sulphur Caldron. They are very different and worth visiting once. Also along this road could spot wild animals, bears, fox and many more. We get to see few of them. But it should be evening time and lucky enough.
WEST THUMB GEYSER BASIN:
It is one more place where you could find varieties of geysers.

Grand Canyan