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Showing posts from August, 2014

The epic land cruiser- a brief history

The production of the first Land Cruiser was in 1951. During this period there were 40 different series. The Land Cruiser comes with an option off hardtop, convertible, station wagon, multi utility truck. According to reports, in 1941 Philippines was occupied by the Japanese military. Here the Japanese found an old Bantam Mk II jeep, and promptly brought it back to Japan. The Japanese military authorities commanded Toyota to make a similar vehicle, but to not model the appearance on the American Jeep. The prototype was called the Model AK and was formally adopted by The Japanese Imperial Army as the Yon-Shiki Kogata Kamotsu-Sha type aa(4 compact cargo-truck). Its main rivals were Pajero, Land Rover Discovery, Nissan Patrol and Jeep. Till date there has been 55editions. The land cruiser I like is the series 70 it has a 4.5LVD-FTV turbo diesel V8.

My Trip to Hampi

I visited Hampi in the month of July, 2013. Hampi was a famous city during the rule of king Krishnadevaraya.  We drove to Hampi with my uncle, aunt, and cousin Sahana. It is a six hour drive to Hospet from Bangalore. You have to stay in Hospet, as there are no hotels in Hampi, as it is a small historic town 10-15 minutes away from Hospet. We stayed in a hotel called Malligi. It is a three star hotel and is a really good place to stay in. We visited a bear sanctuary called Daroji National Park, on the same day we arrived in Hospet. The road leading us to the view point at the National Park involved a bit of off- roading. We waited for a long time to spot a sloth bear and finally my cousin sister spotted one! They take a lot of time to come out of their caves. Now   we know why they are called sloth bears! The next day we went to the Virupaksha temple. From the temple, we walked through the Hampi Market. We went on a coracle ride across the river Tungabhadra. The boat man who too

My trip to Crater Lake

We visited Crater Lake,  in the month of May 2014 our way back from Seattle. After a long drive (actually Deepak Uncle was driving and I was enjoying back seat driving with on and off cat naps), we decided to take a break in Roseburg town in the state of Oregon . The place where we stayed allowed pets as well. For a moment I was surprised and it took some time for me to realize that even human beings are allowed to stay with their pets!  We also happened to interact with a Harley biker who was moving from Portland to somewhere close to Roseburg.  The drive to Crater Lake was just mind blowing! As we started our drive, we were informed by a local store owner that the North entrance to the Lake was closed.  The winding roads to Crater Lake took us through many waterfalls. We stopped over at  the Tokette and the Watson falls. To view these falls, we had to hike up a few miles. But let me tell you it is worth the effort (I have pictures of these falls for you).  The mobile signals we

My visit to Point Reyes

Point Reyes is a light house located in northern California, in Marin County in the United States of America. It is named after a sea farer,  Sir Francis Drake whose ship called Golden Hinde  landed  here in 1579.  Point Reyes  lends its name to the town of Point Reyes Station, California.It was built in early 1900. During the construction of the  light house several rocks had to be blasted.  The light house proved a saviour to many ships travelling around this coast, as it is one of the windiest and foggiest parts of the West Coast of United States.  Originally the  lamp at the light house used to be run on  lard oil (oil extracted from animal fat).Earlier, there used to be at least two men to turn on the light. Authorities then  changed it to an electric light. At present, the light is automated and it is a Light Emitting Diodes (LED). The range of this light is nearly 20 miles (40 km). It is extremely windy around Point Reyes Light house and the highest wind speed is said to be 130