Texas Renaissance Festival

23rd Oct 2011

It was one of the rare beautiful weekends that we had in houston in long time and as they say here in houston you should enjoy the good weather while it lasts as you blink your eyes and it might be gone! So we decided it was perfect timing for us to visit the "Texas Renaissance Festival", one of the most coveted event in houston, almost as much as Rodeo if not more. And what more it was a Pirates Theme weekend which is supposed to be one of the best one. People dressed in cute and sexy pirate dresses can't go wrong, can they?

Texas Renaissance festival is the European style festival where people from all around the world gather at the place near Plantsville TX, around 50 miles from houston creating the atmosphere of ancient European countries. There are lots and lots of shows for the audience to enjoy. Some of which includes puppet, dance, music, free style, ballet and lots more. It runs from second weekend of October till the Thanks giving weekend and It only runs on the weekend. I wonder what they do during the weekdays. Thousands of performers around the wold come here and create a small town for almost two months. There are lots and lots of things to do besides the shows, like face painting, henna, tattoo parlor, unique hands in wax, rock climbing, paint ball, shooting, darts and children activities also like pony rides, elephant and camel rides, petting zoo and lots of games for the kids. You have to pay each of these activities of course, but its surely a day full of fun and enjoyment. We had a very nice time together as a family.

There is of course food, yumm. I always wanted to try that turkey leg from the day I saw it on Rodeo, though I didn't get a chance to eat there, I made sure my desire gets satisfied here. Its a full leg of turkey barbecued on charcoal grill with some spices and its delicious for a meal. We also tried Greek Gyros that was pretty good too. There are hundreds of eateries all around with different kind of food and one can eat whatever he wants.

Important thing here is though to reach there early. It opens at 9:00 am but if you really want to avoid traffic try to reach there much before that! We had a really hard time on one stretch as it is just a single lane, as you would expect in a small town of mangolia and it was one of the worst slow moving traffic I have ever seen. Also  while coming back, one can not leave early without missing excellent night fire and laser show which ofcourse happens after the dusk. So one will anyways have to get stuck while coming back.

Tickets are not that cheap 25$ if you buy at the gate. Though it makes sense to buy it at your local HEB grocery store for 20$. Food is not that expensive inside the village, and most rides and games are 4-5$ each. So we should make sure to have some cash. Though there are enough ATMs inside the village, if one doesn't mind paying those "extra" fees. We are surely the ones who mind it !

Overall a great way to spend a day on a weekend, if possible one can even do the camping at night and spend a full weekend . I'll surely go back next year!

In a war ridden country

In the spring of 2011, we were on our once in a two year trip to India. This time we had decided that we'll travel via Dubai and Iraq. In Iraq specifically for the pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Karbala and Najaf. Karbala is the resting place of Shia Imam Hussain (AS) and his 72 martyrs. And Najaf is the resting place of Ali (AS), the most important figure for Shia muslims after the Prophet(SA) and  Father of Imam Hasan and Hussain.

Shrines

For the breif history of Ali (AS) and Hussain (AS), and to know their importance in the Shia muslim's life, please visit  Ali and Hussain.

But I am writing this post specifically of my impressions of the war ridden country for a small one week that I stayed, most of the time was spent in pilgrimage but I had got good enough time to observe the lives of Iraqi people. What I understood though was that Baghdad is the most affected place and you can't really compare Karbala and Najaf, the places I visited, to see the real effects, and I humbly agree. And that's exactly my point here that watching CNN and those discussion, you can't really generalize that whole country is in the highest trauma.

While traveling around different places, first thing you notice is people, they are as calm and collected as in most places in the world. All the routine business is as usual, businesses look like thriving. Country is surely coming back on its feet. I see the rail tracks being laid everywhere, there are quite a few broken buildings, of course because of wars and missiles, but much more construction work in progress. The country is very much like sub-continent, dusty, and full of people and energy. People are truthful and trustful. Though they don't like Indian tourist much, as they do lots of bargaining. 

work in progress, shoppers and road side assistance

Some places directly accept the US$. So I didn't try to get the exchange much. But while shopping at the local vendor for Tasbeeh, (after doing some bargaining!) when I gave the $, he didn't accept it and he wanted IQD, so I asked him that I will put the my items back, which he had already packed and will get the exchange and come back, he instantly told me to take the things with me and get the money. All this communication happened, via sign language of course, as I don't know Arabic or Persian and he doesn't know English. Just thinking about this, I don't think I will see this kind of trust in the most places, I was one of the thousands tourist and he might never see me in his life. Though I agree that what I purchased was not much but then also it was touching.

Oh btw, foreign exchange is pretty different, as Iraqi deenars are quite low in value and you will pay around 1200 IQD for a bottle of water, which is less than a Dollar.


Look at those school bags, surely the pictures there reminds of their version of Dora and Cindrella!

One night, while waiting for my wife, outside the shrine of Abbas Ali (AS), with my daughter who was sleeping, one boy, may be around 17, came and started talking in broken english. He introduced himself and his younger sister, I sadly forgot their names. He was wearing Barcelona FC shirt, and I asked him, is he fan of  Messi, and he replies he is Real Madrid's fan. He told me he was from Iraq and I just thought he spoke Iran. He immediately aggressively replied no IRAN, Iraq. Still these neighbors have bitter emotions. But boy was really sweet, he welcomed me in his country, gave compliments on my daughter and  he told me he's coming from some 10 hours away, in the south of Iraq and he and his family visit this shrine regularly.

Another thing I noticed is, dresses for women. Though you can't see anything as women are wearing "Burkhas", I noticed that the shops, which were selling these clothes, were very much western. Jeans, T-shirts, short, tight and mini(!) dresses and lots of  different types of stockings . So inside their burkhas, these women wear all the modern dresses. Iraqi and Irani women were insanely beautiful btw, oh you can see faces as they wear burkhas but don't cover faces!

Though don't think that I didn't see anything unusual. There are thousands of check posts everywhere, the distance between Najaf and Karbala is hardly 15-20 miles, but it takes more than 2 hours if you are lucky because of lots of check posts. They don't normally ask you to get down of your vehicles and drivers just shows them the Iraqi Visa. K-9s will be moved around your vehicles to check that things are fine.  There are few posts near both the shrines, you are not allowed to take cameras, phone or any electronic devices inside the shrines and they properly frisk you before allowing to enter the shrine.And you see armed military personnel everywhere. In some sensitive area near shrines they have even high tech guns, kind of which comes as a part of tank. I even noticed some quarrel in the market.

On the streets there are hundreds of street vendors selling the Chinese made consumer items like we see in India, Chandni chawk at Delhi or Churchgate at Mumbai. They just sit on the roads and sell the things during the day and till late nights.

One thing I missed though was eating the local street food, as my body was still getting used to the new environment, I had an upset stomach. Though I made sure buying some sweets at the local sweet shop and took it with me to India to enjoy later. They were quite awesome. But no worries I am sure, God willing, I will visit these places again.