payallal

50 cents

A 10-years-old boy visited a soda shop, climbed on to a stool and asked the Waitress, “What does an ice cream sundae cost?”

“50 cents,” answered the Waitress.

The youngster reached deep in his pockets and pulled out an assortment of change, counting it carefully as the waitress grew impatient. She had ‘bigger’ customers to wait on.

“Well, how much would just plain ice cream be?” the boy asked.

The waitress responded with noticeable irritation in her voice, “35 cents.”

Again, the boy slowly counted his money. “May I have some plain ice cream, please?” He gave the waitress the correct amount, and she brought him the ice cream.

Later, the waitress returned to clear the boy’s dish and when she picked it up, she felt a lump in her throat.
There on the counter the boy had 15 cents.

She realized that the boy had enough money for the sundae, but sacrificed it so that he could leave her a tip.

The boy had learnt how to be selfless and caring. Most people today barely understand what it takes to be those things.

Little acts of Selflessness and Kindness make our world Bigger and Brighter, and more importantly, HAPPIER.
In a world that tell us “go get it all”, it’s also nice to GIVE ALL WE CAN.

The Old Lady and the Cab Driver

For those of you who haven’t read the story of the old lady and the cab driver, here it is. It is one of the most touching ones I have ever come across. Enjoy!

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Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living.
I pulled up at 2:30 a.m. in front of the building from where I was supposed to pick up a passenger. It was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away.

But, I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked. “Just a minute”, answered a frail, elderly voice.
I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80’s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase.

The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. “Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said.

I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing”, I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated”. “Oh, you’re such a good boy”, she said.
When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?” “It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly. “Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospital”. I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I don’t have very long.”

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
“What route would you like me to take?” I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city.
She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.
We drove through the neighbourhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.” We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door.
The woman was already seated in a wheelchair. “How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching into her purse.

“Nothing,” I said. “You have to make a living,” she answered. “There are other passengers,” I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.” I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light.
Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away? On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.

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We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

You won’t get any big surprise in 10 days if you share this with ten people. But, you might help make the world a little kinder and more compassionate place.

New York City

The favourite city of the world-NYC!

We spent about a day and a half there, because of which we could only do about half of what we really wanted to. We were with my mom’s side of the family this time.

Some of the places we went to were the WTC, Wall street, UN headquarters, Times square, Empire State Building, Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum.

The first day we took a hop on hop off bus, which took us all over the place. They also pointed out a lot of places to us on the way. But given a chance, I wouldn’t go on one of those again. To begin with, the guides on the bus talked way too much. It was irritating after about 5 minutes of being on the bus. Secondly, I saw people who were on a bicycle tour. So they were actually biking around the city, which sounds so much more fun.

Residential Apartments in Manhattan

One of the famous NY News Reels

Tiles put up by children in memory of victims of 9/11

The Empire State Building stands high

The World Trade Center AKA Ground Zero was pretty impressive, considering their rebuilding of the WTC was going pretty fast. They also had a museum which was set up as a tribute to those who died in 9/11. It was pretty sad to see all of that and to once again be reminded of the thousands who died.

The rebuilding of the WTC

Everyone crowds in front of a picture of what the WTC will look like once it’s complete

Paper Cranes at the 9/11 museum: A japanese tradition of prayer which after the Hiroshima attacks came to be recognized as a symbol of peace

One of the very touching signs at the 9/11 Museum

Wall Street wasn’t too great. I thought that it’ll be something more, but it was just like any other commercial office complex. But then again, it is one of the most influential places of the world!

United Nations Headquarters was soo great. It’s one of the best places i’ve ever been to- and one of the most powerful. Unlike the rest of the buildings in NYC, this particular building did not belong to any one country. It belonged to 192. We managed to see the General Assembly and the Security Council. The whole place seemed so influential. It probably is.

The UN security council

The General Assembly

My cousin and I next to Ban-ki-moon, UN secretary general

They also had this gallery, where they had put up stuff about what various agencies (UNESCO, UNICEF) of the UN do. It was the best thing ever.

Next we went to Times Square. We didn’t stay there too long, but we stayed long enough to see all the advertisement boards, and the lights and everything else. It would be a great place to hang out.

My cousin and I at Times Square

The Empire State Building was amazing! Although we had to wait in line for almost 2 hours, it was worth the wait. We went at night, since it was open till late and it anyway would have been better at night, with the lights of the city and everything. The city from up there looked like it had been built out of lego. Everything looked so tiny. And the lights added to it’s beauty. Up there, I couldn’t stop thinking of the number of people who live in the city.

The view of the city from Empire State Building

On our 2nd day in New York, we went to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum.
The Ripley’s museum had all kind of crazy things.

Johny Eck’s torso ended where his hips should have begun

Grace Mcdaniel, better known as the ugliest woman in the world

Prisoners found guilty of heresy were subjected to the embrace of the ‘iron maiden’ which was designed carefully to pierce the eyes, throat and heart.

Liars in China 1200 BC were slowly roasted

A portrait of Obama made with beads

The central park was beautiful! Too bad we only had little time that we could spend there. But you could spend a entire day there! It was HUGE. And there was so much activity going on there. There were yoga classes, artists, joggers, cyclists, people on a picnickers. Whats more, we even saw a wedding going on there!

Picnickers in Central Park

The family in front of the lake at central park

The metropolitan Museum was too big to be seen. It was incredible to see that so many artifacts can be contained in one museum.

A painting of a view of Oyster bay

Long Necked Bottles from the embalming cache of King Tutankhamun

A statue of Goddess Sakhmet

At the end of our New York trip, I kept wishing we had more time to see the rest of the places there. But we did manage to see all the good ones!
New York reminds me of New Delhi and Mumbai 5 years from now. It has the same city bustle and car honks! The best part of NYC is that no one cares what you’re up to!
At the end of the day, I was glad to have been able to see what people call ‘the greatest city in the world’

Niagara Falls, Canada

The water, the mist and most importantly the falls = HAUNTINGLY HEAVENLY!

Not only did we get to see the falls from the Canada side, which gives a better view than the American side, but we also got to go on the maid of the mist, which was a boat which took us really close to the falls. It’s at that point of time that one realizes how incredibly big the falls are.

We reached on Friday evening, just in time to catch the last maid of the mist of the day.

The maid of the mist

Inside the maid of the mist-wearing protective rain coats to keep us from getting wet as we get closer to the waters

The American part of Niagara Falls

The Canadian Part of the Falls

Even though we were wearing raincoats while we were on the maid of the mist we still got pretty soaked. The mist which is formed due to the falling of water from such a height causes it to continuously rain near the falls!

Later in the night, we went to this great Chinese restaurant for dinner called Mandarin. It was the best place i have ever been to. It had a fake sky ( I thought only hotels with lots of money to waste have those). And it had this HUGE buffet (which we did not go to since our family was vegetarian and we kids were the only non vegetarians:most of the buffet was non vegetarian). But the food was great too, so we had a great deal of fun. We also had a very funny waiter, which always make it better!!!!

The Fake Sky at Mandarin

A fish pond, treated more as a wishing well in Mandarin

My uncle drinks Chinese tea!

..while my cousin, brother and i fool around!

After dinner we also went to this place near our hotel which was a little complex in itself. It was walking distance from our hotel and had a casino, some restaurants, a mall and lots of fountains-and off course, a view of the falls!
We walked towards the falls to see the lights. They had this set up there of laser lights (i think they were laser lights) reflecting on the falls, making it seem like the water is coloured. Basically they had it all super-commercialized!

A fountain in the complex near our hotel

Another fountain nearby!

A water fountain shaped as a wine making factory!

Niagara at night

The next morning before heading back to US, we went to the falls again. This time we saw the part of the falls where the water was falling down. It was amazing! The kind of things that your eyes don’t believe.
The water was so forceful! It would take anything with it. It was apparently pretty deep too.

The water goes over the edge and joins the falls of niagara

On the way back we stopped by a friend’s place, who lives in Buffalo, New York. He happened to be the president of the state university there, so he showed us around!!

At Buffalo: Stating the obvious

My cousin entertains everyone at a friend’s place

My cousin once again comes to the rescue by managing to get everyone in the picture at Buffalo University

That was the end of our trip to Niagara, not only did we have to leave Niagara, but we also had to say good bye to our family, who we spent the last 10 days with. That was the saddest part.
Missing them a lot already!

We now head towards NJ, from where we will also take frequent trips to NY. Hope the coming week (and the last one in US) is as good as the previous one.

State College, Pennsylvania

After 10 days of nomadic travelling, it was time for us to go to our relative’s place in State College. They had been with us in Washington, but we still had lots of catching up to do!

We expected a quiet time at State College with family! But there was an incredible lot to do there. And since we were with them, it was so much more fun than last week had been.

Our relative’s place in state college

We spent about 4 days there, which rushed by. I would have done anything to stop time!

We reached there on Sunday night, and were big time impressed to see such a big and beautiful house. And it was so cozy too!
On top of that, my aunt was an amazing cook! She gave us different cuisines to eat each night.

My aunt Nilima, a 5 star chef!

On Monday, we went for a picnic to a lake nearby called Spring Creek and later got a guided tour of the penn state university by my uncle, who is a professor there. We just keep getting luckier and luckier!

Picnic at Spring Creek

My mom and aunt stand next to the lake

One of the classrooms at Penn State University

My cousin and I laze around at Smeal Business School, Penn State University

A classroom at the Smeal Business School

My dad and uncle in his office at the University

The Nittany Lion Shrine at Penn State University, which happens to be the University’s mascot

Our 2nd day, tuesday, was spent shopping. My aunt was a pro at shopping and knew the right places to take us, so we managed to get some really amazing stuff! Later we went to a Chinese Restaurant for dinner. This was the first time we ate at a Chinese place in the US. It was really different from what we get in India, and pretty good too!

A shopping break: Lunch at Dino’s:An ENORMOUS PIZZA

Dinner at a Chinese Restaurant

On Wednesday, we went to Penn’s Caves. We went into the caves in a boat, since the caves weren’t dry. It was pretty amazing. We saw all the kind of rocks which grew inside. The tour guide also showed us the kind of shapes and images that the rocks formed-like one of them looked like the statue of liberty, another looked like a chinese doll!
These caves also had a mythical tale behind them about Princess Nittany and her lover, who was trapped inside the caves by her seven brothers when they learnt about the two’s affair and their plans to elope.

Our fourth and last day was more relaxed, we spent our time gadget shopping and bought an i-pad 2 and a kindle.

I loved staying at Penn State! It was such a cute town, a place where you really can live. And being with family was so much fun too! We met our cousin after a really long time, which made it even more fun.

The best part is, that they’re travelling with us to Niagra Falls for the next 2-3 days. So although this was the end of Penn State, we still have them for a little longer!!

The Rich and the Poor

One day a father and his rich family took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son,

“How was the trip?” Very good, Dad!” “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Yeah!” “And what did you learn?

The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon. When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.

His son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!”

Isn’t it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you’ve got everything!You can’t buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

Source : http://www.onesmartclick.com/entertainment/inspirational-stories.html

The Human Camera

Stephen Wiltshire was found to be an autistic child at the age of 3.

He uttered his first words at the age of 5- “I want Pencil and Paper.”

At the age of 8, he started drawing cityscapes.

Now, as a 27 year old, Stephen Wiltshire has drawn sketches of cities to the smallest of details, with just one look at them. Even the windows on each of the buildings in his paintings match the real ones in the city.

Among the cities drawn are Tokyo, Rome, London, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai and Jeruselam.
Each of them are drawn on giant canvases.

Take a look

Washington DC – All of monuments and museums!

The Capital of the Country-where all the power lies-Washington DC!!!!

The capital of USA- where all the power lies-Washington DC!!!

Our 2 days at Washington DC consisted of nothing but monuments and Museums. And pretty good ones too!
I visited more of these in 2 days than i had ever visited in my entire life!

We went to the Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Monument, The Air and Space Museum, The National Gallery of Art, The Natural History Museum, The White House and the Newseum!
Lots of commas, isn’t it?!

The Lincoln Memorial was a memorial of Abraham Lincoln, one of the presidents of USA. His role play in the civil war (that of an anti-slavery figure) led to his assassination.
Apart from a HUGE statue in the center of the memorial, there was also two of his famous speeches, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Speech inscribed on the walls.

Statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial

The World War 2 memorial is a memorial dedicated to the people who sacrificed or lost their lives in the war. It contains 56 pillars (which had the name of the then 48 states and other american provinces inscribed on the them) and a pair of arches (which had the Atlantic and the Pacific inscribed on it).

A view of some of the pillars and one of the arches circling a fountain at Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument was a tall pillar built in honor of George Washington, the first president of USA, and a very active military and political leader in the American Revolution.

The Washington Monument, the tallest monument in Washington (555 feet) and also the tallest in the world until the Eiffel Tower was built 5 years later

The Air and Space Museum was as the name suggests, an astronaut’s and pilot’s paradise. It contained models of space crafts and air crafts and their history.

A model of an aircraft carrier-a ship used as a runway for planes

Next to the Wright Brothers

Inside a space ship

A spacecraft whose fate was to stay on earth-The Eagle

An Armillary Sphere-used by astronomers for centuries in olden times to study the sky

The National Gallery of Art was an art museum with all kinds of paintings and sculptures-portraits, landscapes, statues, head sculptures. But it was so big that we couldn’t see much of it. There were a couple of paintings I could catch though.

The Dancing Couple, by Jan Steen
Picture interpreted as one of the wedding of a mismatched couple, a well dressed girl and a country lad.

Daniel in the Lion’s Den by Sir Peter Paul Rubins
Based on story of Daniel, who was unfairly driven to a cave of lions

The Museum of Natural History was the biggest museum I’ve ever seen. It had so many sections. There were sections like evolution, the ocean life, the different continents, other species(just to name a few). But again we couldn’t spend much time there. So although we couldn’t see all the sections, we spent a whole lot of time in the ones we could.

A silver tree

An optically illusions house. Changes shape and dimensions depending on the angle you see it from.

Handprints on the caves of early man

My aunt and uncle sit in front of a statue of a hard working Neanderthal (ancestors of homo sapiens) while another little visitor of the museum decides to pose for the picture!!

This family is not afraid of being run over by elephants!

In the African section- a peace of their tradition

The Burial of a Neanderthal (notice the body lying over the brown fur on the ground)

By the time we finished these places the day was close to an end, so we left the White House and the Newseum to the next day.

The White House was beautiful . But I was partly dissapointed having gone expecting something much grander. But one thing that i really liked was that there were people who were standing in front of the white house with signs like ‘peace’ and ‘we don’t want terrorism’. Although there were just like 3 people besides the signs, they still meant a lot!

White and Simple- the White House

If there’s a photo being taken, we’re right here!

A citizen asks for peace in front of the white house

We find cycle rikshaws nearby-*suddenly homesick!*

The Newseum, which was the most recent museum of washington DC, was awesome. I could have spent all month there. It was based on famous news headlines over the past years and journalism in general. There was also a lot about media.

Part of the Berlin Wall (The Newseum had a part of the same as an exhibit)

Touching the Berlin Wall

My brother poses with journalist detectives

An old fashioned printer! The TYPEWRITER!

The first issue of time magazine in 1923

A piece of the antenna of the twin towers which suffered on 9/11

A view of the Capital hill from the terrace of the Newseum

Another great thing at the newseum was this thing called ‘Be a TV Reporter’. They had sets there, and we could choose to report a story of our choice! Here is my video!!

//www.youtube.com/get_player

With that, the Washington sightseeing came to an end. I never thought that there could be so much to see in Washington. And we hadn’t even seen everything, we had only seen a part of it.

The Newseum was undoubtedly my favourite part.

Well now its time to head to the next city!! Goodbye Washington DC!

Universal Studios, Orlando

Universal Studios is what I call the real AMAZING deal. If hollywood had wings, Orlando is where it would be.

Entering the big gates!

Not only was it perfectly accurate in terms if all the sets and studios, but they had all these shows there, which gave us the feel of being in a real studio. For a minute I was actually confused whether this was just an amusement park built for us visitors or a place where professional real shooting takes place.

We couldn’t go for everything, but here are a few things that we did go for.

First was the Shrek 4D show. So we sat in a 4D theater which meant 3D + Sensing. So it was like each time donkey sneezed and his wife (the dragon) blew fire out of her nose, we’d find ourselves sprayed with water. It was really fun!
So the story of the whole show was of the guy who was the king in the first movie returning as a ghost and trying to get Fiona to die so that she would join him up there as a ghost too.
But we all know how all fairytales (and shrek) always end.

Heading to Shrek 4D

The second place we went to was the Horror make Up Show. So that was basically about all the make up that artists use in horror movies to make humans look like other creatures or monsters. There were two hosts of the show who actually showed us some of the techniques of horror make up using a volunteer (or more like pull out) from the audience!

The 2 hosts fool around, one with a knife pierced into his chest and blood flowing out!

Dr Make Up gets ready to get the volunteer’s arm. The trick is that there’s a whole in the knife around the edge, which fits perfectly around one’s arm!

My brother with a new arm

There were a few other tricks they showed us, but that is for you to see with your own unblinking eyes!

After the horror show, we went for FFL AKA, Fear Factor Live. Now as everyone probably already knows, Fear Factor is just what it’s name suggests. Basically a bunch of crazy unimaginable tasks that celebrities perform and compete in to win! So in this case, they had the whole set done up as if they were really shooting. But the difference was that instead of celebrities, it was the visitors of the park who could participate. All they had to do is reach an hour early before the show. And they were made to do the same things people do in fear factor.

The sets of FFL

Hosts getting busy

The 6 contestants stand ready for their first task

The first task-to hold on to the bars above their heads for as long as possible

After 2 contestants get eliminated, volunteers are called from the audience to spin the wheel

The wheel decides that a scorpion must go on the head of the person doing the task-another member picked out from the audience.

The 4 contestants on their next task-they must pair up and as a team aim to collect as many fish in the basket. One has to throw and the other catches.

Another commercial break-4 members of the audience get to have a drink of crushed worms-the fastest ones win!

The last task between 2 competitors-Rob and Nathan-an obstacle course through which they have to collect flags asap.

Nathan takes the lead in the obstacle course (yes, the car in the air is a part of the obstacle course)

By the end of it, I had made up my mind to go home and find some episodes of Fear Factor on the internet!
Well next came the Simpson’s ride. It was plain fun. They took us on a virtual reality ride wherein this one guy was destroying stuff all over town while the simpsons stumbled around..and so did we!

The famous clown

and ofcourse, the Simpsons!

After the Simpsons, we went for this show called “Animal actors on location”. So they showed us how they trained animals for the movies.

A chimpanzee creates a fool of his intructor

The instructor tells the bird to fly across to the lady in the audience who was asked to stand up with a $1 not in her hand, and fly back with the dollar note, which the bird did!

A pig who kept annoying the instructors by coming up on stage to grunt around

A dog obeys instructions

A girl from the audience is asked to instruct the dog

It was nice to see all these animals putting up something so amazing, but at the same time i felt sad to see them held captive like that and put in front of audiences 5 times every day.

Our next stop was this amazing rock n roll show! It was more like a monster rock n roll show. It was a concert by people dressed as all kinds of fictitious people. But at the end of it, it was amazing! And so much fun!

The heart and soul of the show!

Here comes the band!

Frankenstein sings and dances

We went to the disaster studios next. It was this show where they showed us how they make disaster movies. They picked up some people from the audience and they made them do stuff like scream or pretend to be falling in slow motion, or jump around or just wave. They recorded all of this and then they edited it and showed us a disaster movie with those very people in it. It was incredibly funny! I loved it!

After the disaster studios we went for Jaws. It was this slow boat ride on the sets of jaws, and every now and then a shark would crop up from nowhere near the boat and freak us out.

We aint afraid!

The last ride we went on was the revenge of the mummy. That was the best roller coaster i’ve ever been on. The effects were incredible!

A statue for sale-wonder who would buy it?

So that was our last day at Orlando. And a perfect way to spend it.

It was a fun week. I am going to miss Orlando-all its happiness!

Bye bye universal!

And one more thing..I am definitely coming back to Florida!!!!!!

Epcot – A truly diverse world

From Europe to Asia to the Americas, Epcot has about everything covered and fitted into 300 acres of land.

You could see how all the cultures add up to make such a beautiful and perfect planet! The best thing was that in each pavilion, every little detail had been looked after. You couldn’t find a single thing that hadn’t been altered according to the culture of the pavilion. Even the people working in the pavilions were natives of that country!

There was also a lot of other stuff there, like Future World and The Land.

We started with Future World.

In Future World we went to Spaceship Earth, Universe of energy and Test Track.
Spaceship Earth was a slow ride where you could invent your own future. The showed us some history and development of technology in the beginning and then they zoomed into the future. There were screens in front of us and we were given options, such as ‘where we would like to live?’ and ‘what mode of transportation do we prefer?’ And then once we answered all their questions, they created our future and showed it to us.

Spaceship Earth

Universe of Energy was this show of Ellen Degeneres on dinosaurs and energy! It started with her going to sleep and having a nightmare of being beaten by her childhood frenemy in Jeopardy. So along with Bill, AKA science guy who happened to be her neighbour she went on a journey to the land of dinosaurs and to discover different forms of energy. They showed us all about stuff like solar energy, wind energy and the extraction of petroleum and oil.

Test Track was a thriller ride, in which we went on a bumpy and rash car ride, as we helped test newly built cars in rough conditions.

We went to the Pavilions next. These were of different countries. Pretty nice ones too. Managed to bring in the entire country’s culture into such a tiny piece of land!

The first pavilion we went to was Mexico.

Pavilion of Mexico

Traditional Mexican Musicians play in a festival like atmosphere in the Mexican Pavilion

Mexican Hats AKA Sombreros!

Apart from that the Mexico Pavilion also had a boat ride which took you through a kind of an exhibition of Mexican Culture.

Next came Norway.

The Norway Pavilion

My brother tries to copy a viking’s pose using an umbrella as the ax and a map of Epcot as the shield

Scary, isnt it?

Viking at peace!

Apart from window displays like these, there wasn’t anything else to see here.

So we moved on to the next pavilion, that was Italy. (We kinda skipped China and Germany!)

There were mostly eating places and fountains and shops here.

L’Italia

One of the restaurants in the Italian Pavilion

A fountain of Italy

Standing on a bridge in front of the Italian Pavilion

Next we went to The American Adventure. They had a lot of activity there. They had this band marching and playing the national anthem and a museum and shows. Although we didn’t see much there apart from the bad which happened to be playing at that time, it was still quite interesting.

Drum roll!

Singing the national anthem!

After America we moved to Japan.
Japan was beautiful! It didn’t have much apart from restaurants and stores, but it was so beautifully built, that we spent our maximum time there. There was a shop there with Japanese Handicrafts. It had all kind of things from accessories to clothes to stationary to art!

The Japanese Pavilion

Shopping area of Japan!

A japanese statue

Japanese art work at one of the stores

After Japan we passed through Morocco to go to France. Now although we didn’t intend to go to the Morocco Pavilion, it was so amazing that we couldn’t help it.

The Moroccan Pavilion

A band plays Arabic songs

My brother with Moroccans working in the Pavilion’s store

A Moroccan fountain

We site Beauty and the Beast near the Moroccan pavilion!

Morocco also had all these really great stores where they had so spectacular jewelery. I am so going to visit Morocco some day!

Then came along France. Apart from stores full of perfumes and restaurants full of wines, there was a show called Impressions de France (which I did not see- i think it was about the French Revolution and the history of france)

The French Pavilion

Les Vins de France

Lets not forget the art..

…or the food!

My mom next to a woman in a traditional French costume

Sleeping Beauty AKA Princess Aurora

After France we passed through the pavilion of UK to go to Canada. There wasn’t anything there apart from stores and restaurants, and those weren’t anything great either.

A store at UK

English houses

And of course the old fashioned houses

Canada was really good. They had a waterfall which I’m guessing was to remind us that they have a part the Niagra Falls and a hell lotta greenery and culture. There was a show too which i did not see.

The Canadian Pavilion

Believe it or not-it’s a photo booth!

Mini-Niagra

A garden in the Canadian Pavilion

With Canada we finished with all the country’s pavilions. Since we still had some time left before the fireworks and laser show at 9 pm, we went to ‘The Land’ which included Soarin (a ride gave you the feeling and view of flying over California), Living with the Land ( a boat ride through a built in greenhouse and fish farm) and the Circle of Life (an environmental fable featuring the characters of Lion King)

We couldn’t go for Soarin’ (which happened to be top priority) because of the 90 minute wait time in the queue.

Living with the Land was pretty good. They showed us their huge greenhouse and fish farms.

Fish Farming

The greenhouse of epcot

Growing watermelons

and nine pound lemons!

We also went to watch The Circle of Life. It began with some Lion King Characters wanting to stop a river and build a resort in its place. Then Simba (The Lion) started telling the story of humans, how their never ending greed for luxury destroyed the earth and the home of 1000s of species and how they now move towards restoring it.

At the end of the day, we saw the laser and fireworks show, which was really beautiful! They also had this revolving earth structure in the middle, which they projected images and laser lights on. It was only 15 minutes long but it was incredible. And it was so well coordinated with the music in the background. Some of the fireworks were of the kinds I had never seen before.

Having seen about 10 countries in one day and with all the rides and shows and not to forget, the fireworks and laser show to top it off, theres not much left to say!