It is said that December is not a good time to visit Ottawa, the Capital of Canada, but you cannot help it if your official business tour is planned in the month of December..........................Yeah I had a fabulous experience of visiting Ottawa in the month of December..................can you imagine the temperature..............from +30 C of Chennai I had to face -30 C of Ottawa.............I am still alive (see the snap on my profile):)))..............
Reaching There...
If you are going from Chennai, or any part of India, there are couple of routes you can take to Ottawa, I took it via Frankfurt, Germany. So, from Chennai to Frankfurt by Luftansa airlines and Frankfurt to Montreal by Air Canada and finally Montreal to Ottawa by a local aircraft...............finally reached there after a long 24 hours of journey........
And the leather blazors and fur coats I was carrying proved to be useless over there, while boarding the local aircraft at Montreal, from the airport gate to the aircraft, I had to walk some 50 metre......and while walking that 50 metre, with every breath I was breathing, my nostrils were freezing, I had to struggle to breath, I was required to clear my nostrils after every breath ..............
Staying There
One good thing about the place is that all the buildings, all the cars are kept warm by heaters, so you don’t have to worry while inside a car or a building, only worry is to board the car from the door/gate, you got to run fast.............
My stay was arranged in Aristocrat Suite Hotel (there are only suites in this hotel). The suite was luxurious with a bedroom, a drawing room, a kitchen (equipped with all amenities), and was providing a nice sight from the window........
There are lots of good hotels over there, it being the capital city........
Conveyance
There is a good network of taxis...........You can call over the phone and thats it.......the taxi service is good, the drivers are honest or should I say, they gotta be honest coz if the customer notes the taxi number and complains, life becomes miserable for them........
The Atmosphere
It was December and the whole thing was freezing.................minus 20 to minus 30 degree celcius was the wind chill...............you gotta walk on snow, at some places the snow is very slippery and you gotta be extremely careful................after going there I realised that Chennai is much better in this regard, coz if it rains, atleast you can go out and do your work, but if it snows heavily, all the roads get blocked and you cannot go out of your place at all !!!
Yeah, I was forutnate or unfortunate to face one of the worst snow storms over there.............and the life was hell..................even the taxis couldn’t come............and I had to walk to some distance from my hotel to find a taxi..........and when I found one, most of the roads were blocked, but the driver was an expert in his job and through some other route he carried me to my destination and then what!!! I could not recognise the office where I had to get down (I was visiting the same building for last 3 days) coz the whole place was heavily covered with snow................it was quite an effort to get to work on that day..........
One thing worth mentioning over here, the Government is doing a great job in clearing the snow after such worst snow storms, the snow in the whole city is cleared within hours and they have mobile boilers to melt the snow.......they say that if such snowfall occurs in New York, it takes them a week to clear the snow......so that way the system is well in place in Canada.........
The Clothing
Buddy, nothing taken from here works over there, you got to purchase the blazor and shoes and gloves over there ( you do not get that quality over here). So very first day, I had to go a shopping mall and purchase some stuff for myself..........was a must for my survival............
Places to Visit
This city is a heaven of Architecture. At many places you feel like as if you are in a dream land or a toy land...........the buildings look like as if its a disneyland..........then there are lots of museums and galleries and theatres and night clubs...............natural wonders............people are friendly..............could not visit many places as I was on an official tour................but did go to Indian restaurants over there (u can find Indian restaurant in any part of the world)..........and I enjoyed ’Masala Dosa’ and ’Rassam’ in Ottawa !!!
Shopping
Maple syrup - never forget to buy this if you are in Canada. This is a syrup extracted from maple tree. I bet everyone reading this must have seen maple leaves...........the maple leaf is there on the flag of Canada and you all must have seen it in the movie ’Mohabattein’..............The maple syrup is used like honey............it is highly nutritious and available only in Canada.............
It was a good 8 days experience in Ottawa, something to cherish for the rest of my life................