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Old 7th September 2008, 11:15   #1
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Flashback to Miami(beautiful machines & beautiful bodies) & glimpses of Chicago

This is a travelogue which has been delayed by quite a bit, you may wonder delayed by how much? Well it is delayed by a couple of years. The reason for this is that I was not part of Team BHP when I made this trip to the US. But having interacted with so many people after joining Team BHP, I thought it was only correct in sharing my experience during this visit to Chicago & Miami. I was supposed to be in Chicago for
5 days & in Miami for 25 days.

So this trip starts off in April 2006 with a delayed Air India flight from Mumbai to Chicago via Frankfurt. I reach Chicago in the evening local time after what has been over 20 hours of flight time. Though it was April, there was quite a chill in the air as I made my exit from the airport to the Hilton Garden Inn. Since this was an office trip, this hotel made sense since it was walking distance from my office in Rosemont. The next day being a Sunday, I took a full-day pass costing $5 for the metro rail service. My idea was to head to Chicago downtown as that is where you get the buzz of the city.

I reached Chicago downtown in about an hour's time. Sharing some pics here from the downtown area, with more to come
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Old 7th September 2008, 12:35   #2
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I was feeling hungry by that time & someone recommended Giordano's pizza joint in this area. The pizza was great & the place had great ambience.

I returned to the hotel after spending 2 more hours in the downtown area. Next day, in office I met one of my US office counterparts who was a car freak. His name was Martin. Martin had a couple of sports cars himself & had a mini Suzuki sportsbike for his son. He had got his Corvette to office that day & asked me to come down with him so that he could show it to me. When I went down to the parking area, he pointed out his beauty of a car from a distance. I was immediately taken back by the sublime figure of his ride even from that distance. Correct me if I got the car name wrong(since it was 2 years ago) but I think it was a Corvette.

Martin took me for a spin in his car & boy oh boy, the experience was just unforgettable for me. His car had all the gizmos on it with GPS, night vision, traffic data analyser, etc etc. It was as good as a James Bond car except for the lack of weapons on board:-). What's more, it was a convertible!!! Martin took the top off the car & settled it in the boot. As we got onto the freeway(American for high-way), he just pushed the pedal & I could almost sense the G-force acting on me as I was immediately thrust back into my seat.Almost felt like an airplane taking off on a runway. With no roof on top, my head was exposed to the strong head-winds with the rapidly increasing car speed not helping things. The feeling at that time can best be compared to jutting your head out of the cockpit of a fighter jet when the fighter jet is at Mach speeds(not that I have done this before.....just trying to create the right picture in your minds......) I also have some videos of this awesome ride but could not find a way of uploading them here. This car also had an amazing ICE setup & Martin put on some great hip-hop music which made the ride even more enjoyable. We could just see the cars alongside whizzing past us in the blink of an eye. I guess he was going way past the permissible speed limit & I had to cool him down saying that I did not want to be deported back to India for being with someone who was driving beyond speed limits. He had a laugh on that & came down to saner speed levels. When we returned to office the receptionist, looking at my hair standing on straight, asked me if I had been with Martin. I replied in affirmative & was then able to understand the impression that Martin carried at office - a speed freak!! Later, Martin told me that I would find the most amazing bodies in Miami, both mechanical & human bodies that is. He said that Miami had people who were absolute car & bike fanatics & they cared for their cars like they were part of their family. With these thoughts in mind, I was waiting for my next part of the journey to Miami.Uploading some snaps of Martin's beauty & my colleague Martin posing in one of the snaps.

More to come......
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Last edited by Rehaan : 8th September 2008 at 01:08. Reason: 2 smileys per post max. Please re-read the TBHP rules.
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Old 7th September 2008, 13:10   #3
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Nice pics, Sidz. To me, all downtown areas of US cities look alike. I've seen SFO and LA, and both share a similar trait as Chicago.
I am surprised that you got a full day rail pass for $5. In SFO a round trip to SFO downtown from Dublin, CA, costed around $9.60 in 2005 by their local train, BART.
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Old 7th September 2008, 13:12   #4
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hey man,
you lied,
you started with miami in title and started pics of chicago.
now , pour pics of miami bodies and if possible, other pics.
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Old 7th September 2008, 15:03   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD View Post
hey man,
you lied,
you started with miami in title and started pics of chicago.
now , pour pics of miami bodies and if possible, other pics.
@ashish - I am waiting for the mods to approve my posts. Will appreciate your patience & I am sure you will not be disappointed once I am finished with all my posts

Quote:
Originally Posted by vnabhi View Post
Nice pics, Sidz. To me, all downtown areas of US cities look alike. I've seen SFO and LA, and both share a similar trait as Chicago.
I am surprised that you got a full day rail pass for $5. In SFO a round trip to SFO downtown from Dublin, CA, costed around $9.60 in 2005 by their local train, BART.
Yea, the full day CTA pass was just $5. This was in Apr-06

Last edited by Rehaan : 8th September 2008 at 01:06. Reason: Posts merged. Please use the MULTIQUOTE button instead of making consecutive posts.
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Old 7th September 2008, 15:13   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidz
I am waiting for the mods to approve my posts
hey sidz,
after 50th post, you are officially bhpian.
now onwards, your posts appear directly without permission from mods.
but post with caution so that mods do not mind.

Last edited by aah78 : 11th September 2008 at 01:03. Reason: Quote fixed.
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Old 7th September 2008, 22:22   #7
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Nice pics and write Sidz. Come out with the most amazing bodies asap. We are all waiting.
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Old 8th September 2008, 08:31   #8
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The South Beach experience

Sorry guys, was having some broadband connection issues & hence uploading this post a bit late



After a week's stay in Chicago, I boarded a United flight to Miami. As we approached Miami international airport, the plane had to take a deft right turn which made it fly over the Miami beach & then inland towards the airport. This experience was simply exhilarating because you are flying over the sea at one point & then suddenly the plane loses altitude & you see the several beach-homes near the beach. It was a really neat sight!! Miami did not disappoint me at it's first impression. I took a cab from the airport to the hotel. The cabbie was a Pakistani who started an unnecessary deabate over which cricket team is better - Indian or Pakistani!! This goes to show that you can take people out of the sub-continent but you cannot take the sub-continent out of the people. Luckily for me, the taxi ride was just 30 mins from the airport & I did not have to debate too much with the Pakistani. The Hilton Airport hotel was huge but was a disappointment in terms of feel & ambience as compared to the Hilton Garden Inn in Chicago. In the evening, I took a walk down several blocks from the hotel & somehow I immediately felt at home in the surroundings. The reason for this maybe that Miami has a more multi-cultural feel to it with a whole lot of South Americans & Asians around whereas Chicago comes across as a typical white-American city. The climate was also warmer as compared to Chicago & this was one more reason to feel at home. Picked up some dinner at a McDonald's outlet close-by. The spicest dish that they had was something called as "spicy chicken" & still it was nowhere close to our mildest of Indian spiced dishes.
After a week of office-work, the weekend was finally approaching & I was really looking forward to it. On Saturday morning, I hitched a cab & sounded South Beach as my destination to the driver. South Beach is the place to visit if you are in Miami. Each city has it's own special locality which captures the essence of the place & this is what South Beach is to Miami. During this drive to South Beach we passed along some cruise ships on the way which were taking onboard holiday makers.

After about an hour's drive, I landed at South Beach & the sound of the waves beckoned me. The first thing that I noticed about the beach was that it was amazingly clean even though there were several hundred people at the beach at that time. The second thing that I noticed was that it was a topless beach!! I could see small children playing around in the sand with hot bodies lying totally oblivious to their affairs. Since I was alone, I placed a small mat that I was carrying on a section of the beach & was soaking in the beautiful atmosphere. I could see that people all around were really having a great time & they took their holidays seriously. If this was India you could probably see half the people over their cell-phones still talking business/work even though they might be on vacation.

After spending close to an hour on the beach, I decided to take a walk & took the lane running parallel to the beach. This lane had a whole lot of small eateries which offered almost all types of world cuisine to it's customers. At some distance, I could see a beach party in progress in a temporary enclosure(I assume to avoid onlookers from seeing what is going on inside). I was able to catch a glimpse & could make out that it was an "MTV grind" kind of party where people just kept dancing in a daze with some good techno music playing. One thing which stood out during this walk(as pointed out by Martin earlier) was that Miami was the place to be if you wanted to see some fine cars & bikes, not to mention some of the most beautiful people. I clicked a hell lot of snaps of amazing cars that you usually see only in hip Hollywood movies. I had to eventually delete several snaps of cars & bikes because I was running out of memory. Attached below are some sights from this part of Miami.


More to follow.....!!
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Old 8th September 2008, 08:37   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snaronikar View Post
Nice pics and write Sidz. Come out with the most amazing bodies asap. We are all waiting.
@snaronikar & all - Would love to upload the snaps of the other "bodies" but the mods would kill me for it. After all this is a car lovers site, rite

Just watch my next post & you will get an idea of what I was referring to.That's just the trailer though, can't upload the full movie!!
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Old 8th September 2008, 11:15   #10
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Wow very nice pics,lucky you to have a glimps of the other-side of the world,truely beautiful
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Old 8th September 2008, 13:18   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidz View Post
Just watch my next post & you will get an idea of what I was referring to.That's just the trailer though, can't upload the full movie!!
where is trailer?
now a days, trailer is as long as movie.

Last edited by aah78 : 11th September 2008 at 01:07. Reason: Quote fixed.
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Old 8th September 2008, 13:32   #12
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Visit to Coconot Grove

On Sunday, I thought of exploring Coconot Grove part of Miami which is considered to be the hot-spot for social events in Miami. Once I landed at Coconut Grove, I could immediately see that this place had a small harbour where a lot of private yatches & boats were anchored. I could see a lot of family crowd in these boats who were having a good time on their boat rides. It was a very picturesque sight. Check the snaps for yourself
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Old 8th September 2008, 14:03   #13
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The Titanic museum

I then embarked on what would turn out to be a long walk & chanced upon a museum on the way. This museum had a Titanic special display so I went inside to check it out. It seems that when the Titanic sank a whole lot of rescued people landed at Miami & they made Miami their home. This museum also had some original Titanic artefacts & an audio-visual presentation on several events related to the Titanic tragedy. I came out of the museum with a more informed background about the entire Titanic tragedy. Check some of the snaps from this place
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Old 8th September 2008, 14:11   #14
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Excellent picts Sidz, but only saw "boats" in the post expected with "bodies".

I hope there is no confusion due to the similarity in phonotics.
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Old 8th September 2008, 15:04   #15
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The Hooters experience

During the following week, my office mates took me to lunch at Hooter's restaurant. People who have been to the U.S. will know what Hooters actually refers to but for the knowledge of others --> this was a chain of restaurants where beautiful ladies served some of the best chicken based snacks in the U.S.

When I landed at this place, I could see that there was a lot of female dominance over this place what with ladies as order takers, servers & cashiers. However, with a constant smile on their beautiful faces & efficient service none of the guys were complaining. I tried out chicken wings here for the first time in my life & believe me they are much tastier than they sound. Below are some snaps from this place.cheers:
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Flashback to Miami(beautiful machines & beautiful bodies) & glimpses of Chicago-dscn0456.jpg  

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