3Bs Trip - Part 1

You might still be wondering as to what are the 3Bs I'm mentioning. Its Birmingham, Bristol & Bath. The 's' is for Stonehenge.

Well, we reached Digbeth coach station, Birmingham well before the said arrival time, at 11 AM, where we thought Sowmya (henceforth Soms) would be too loaded with food stuffs that she couldn't even shake hands with us. Phew ! All our assumptions were turned down by her as she had got only one small mini bag for herself! Our starvation continued.

Soms had already enquired about going to Balaji temple of Birmingham and we religiously followed the way shown by her. We reached the temple close to mid noon, where it was mediumly drizzling. The temple was located in a serene landscape, far from sky rising buildings and crowded markets. Ganesh and Subramanya temples on either side and the main Balaji temple in centre. No brits around, all devout devotees around, the same rush to see Gods, nobody speaking in English, the temple architecture, ambience, chanting of 'Govinda Govinda' and the Stotras, prasad distributed, laddus, all made me feel that I was actually in India. I felt desis behave more properly in temples abroad rather than at home place.

We came out of the temple and went near the main entrance of the temple just to avoid the rains when suddenly we saw someone carrying a food plate. We enquired people over there and got to know that food was being served in the nearby tent. Sigh ! What a releif for hungry guys ! We went there and had the prasad food - authentic payasa, sambhar-rice, cabbage sabji and pappadum.. what more we wanted ! After having the sumptuous lunch, we were so tired that we couldn't even walk properly. Well, but had to.. We came back to the bus stop and caught a bus to city centre.

We alighted at the city centre, but the rain didn't seem to stop. We were just hanging around the City council, museum, open restaurants, when we came across a funny event being conducted by BBC - simulated beach ball. We took part in that, represented Birmingham and beleive me, it was too much fun ! Didn't mind getting drenched in the rain, for it was too interesting. Then we came back near the water body and took a snap of the city council. Here's what we got to see..

Then went around here and there, and made sure that we reached the coach station before 6:30 PM. We didn't want another round of exercise for the day ! But, the bus got delayed and we only started at 7:10 from Birmingham to Bristol. All along the journey had great laughs and we reached Bristol by 9:30 PM. Took a cab to Soms place where another round of delicious dinner was awaiting us, made by her house mates Amogh & Thiru. Belted it and then me and Soms went for a walk to receive her another set of friends - Anita and Shashi. And after long discussions about plans for the next day, decided that we are getting up early and leaving for Bath at 7 AM, as the only train available was at 7:40 ! By the time we slept, it was already 12:30 !

Good night for now.. More in Part 2. Watch out this space tomorrow !