Friday, September 13, 2013

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone national park is one of the geological wonders that exist in earth.  Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2)

Seattle to Yellowstone (12 hours by car)



The park engulfs the Yellowstone Lake. We were traveling from Seattle to Yellowstone. So we crossed the states of Idaho and Montana and stayed at Wyoming, Montana which is a border township of Wyoming Montana border. We spent almost two days at the Yellowstone national park. The park had got several entrances. This one is the west entrance. First day we covered the Grand Canyon, Lamar Valley, Lower and Upper falls, Great fountain Geyser, Old faithful etc. The park consists of Bison's and several other wild animals.Second day mainly focused on visiting the volcanic activity basins. Norris Geyser Basin, Biscuit basin etc. Finally we exited thru the North entrance after visiting the Mammoth Hot Springs.

This would be the one among the must visit places if you are coming to north america for a visit. 

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Lulu mall, Kochi, Kerala, India



Lulu mall,  Kochi is one of the largest malls in India. The mall contains general shopping area with most of the renowned brands having outlets in it, a children's play area, a ice skating rink, a small bowling alley and a food court. The sheer size of the mall is astounding. Lulu itself runs general grocery store, electronic item store, clothing , jewelry store etc. Its a one stop shop for all your purchasing needs. The Parking area is large enough to accommodate the crowd.

Key factor which differentiates Lulu mall is the children's play area. A large portion is left out for this. Most malls don't have as many play items in the play area like Lulu has. Lulu general store is also one of a kind and you get lot of variety for general grocery merchandise.

But I doubt if its the largest in India or Asia as some people claim. May be there is some criteria in which its treated as no 1. You could easily find several bigger malls than this around the world. Other issue is with the
infrastructure in an around the mall. If you are going on a rainy day , roads surrounding are pathetic, full of pot holes and water logging. So you need to account for that and give enough lead time to visit the mall.