Alanis Morisette, Traffic jams and a Ganga Aarathi to remember

The previous post in this series is here..

We left Haridwar and reached Rishikesh. MIL was exhausted and said she will stay in the car and drink tea at a local tea stall. The driver told us he will stop and help her. The three of us were given instructions to walk from the main Lakshmanjula road towards the river and once there, walk along the river and see some bridges, see the Ganga Aarathi and then come back.

We walked as instructed, saw the crowd, saw the entire Ganga Aarathi, which was a great experience. Then we walked back with a ganna juice stop for San.

MIL looked refreshed after her rest and chai. Our driver suggested that we go to the hotel after our return, drop luggage before we make it to the end of the road to go cross the lighted Janki Setu bridge and visit temples on the other side. We should have listened to him. We told him we were all tired and would rather be done with all the temple visits before coming back.

We parked in a parking lot near the entrance to the Janki sethu (bridge) and walked across it. Then on the other side we visited two temples where we met our recent friends and family! It was great to catch up again.

We walked back to the car and our driver said the road was jammed and will take one hour to clear at least. The local restaurants had no seating. Everything was full. We left MIL in the car and the three of us walked back to the hotel in crazy jammed traffic. But our luggage was still in the car. My jacket was left loose in the trunk with my passport in the jacket pocket. I was tense and worried that if they open to take out stuff, my jacket and passport fall down. Luckily when the driver showed up with MIL and the luggage the jacket was still on top.

Alanis for some reason came to mind.. had listened to her albums as a grad student a long time ago when her album hit.. raining, traffic jam when your’e already late, India, a few neurons connected and gave me memories of Philadelphia in early 90’s, while at Rishikesh. The brain does funny things..

We were all exhausted after that experience. our hotel was a new hotel and it was fantastic. Sadly we were too late and the restaurant had closed for dinner. Ate an energy bar and went to sleep. The other three had taken some Lassi earlier at the parking lot. Everyone just crashed.

In the morning we had a really nice breakfast at the hotel including idli, vadai etc. The food and service was fantastic.

After the breakfast we got our luggage down and were all set to drive to the Dehradun airport. We met the same family at the airport again. At this point my FIL was going back to Chennai and San/me went with MIL to Mumbai. I had one evening and one day in Mumbai to repack before flying out to the US. Given all the helicopter delay scares, was happy to know that I will make it to Mumbai.

Here are the photos from our Rishikesh leg and back to Dehradun airport. We saw some interesting things in the airport including a Flybrary. You can see it in the pictures and the video.

Photos..

Video highlight reel..

Rishikesh is a vegetarian city. That in itself was an amazing experience. The food was just amazing.

We made it back to Mumbai without event.. Will write about it before I close this series!

One last morning in Tokyo

The previous post in this series is here.

We came back from Shinjuku and packed for a good hour.

The next morning we were planning to relax, go around the malls near the Tokyo Dome Hotel, then take an Uber to another Indian restaurant for one big meal before making it to Narita.

We got quite a scare when checking out. My friends son was walking right next to me, all happy that we were going back home that day. I made the mistake of letting him walk ahead for two seconds only to see the elevator door close before I could get in. The Tokyo dome hotel does elevators do not show which floors they are stopping at! So we had no idea where the kid got off. After some frantic searching, we were finally back together as a group. I kept kicking myself for a few hours for that mistake. Apple maps should also automatically have a feature to track which floor a person is in with the Find Me app. Showing everyone standing on top of each other in same location doesn’t help!

After checking out and leaving our luggage at the hotel, we had a nice breakfast at a bakery right below the hotel. Then we walked to a local mall and shopped some more! Then we made it to this Jain restaurant which was cramped but had great food. We were the only ones that early at the restaurant and we ended up talking to the employees for some time and heard their life stories.

It was then time to get an Uber back to the Tokyo dome and make our way to the train station. Had to take 3 trains (we got on a wrong train first!) and eventually made it with plenty of time to spare at the airport.

That helped because we all had extra Yen left in the SUICA App we had loaded just that morning to help with the wrong train situation! We could have listened to Jr. and done it on day 1.

There is a store in the Narita airport that accepts Suica cards. So we shopped that the store to account for every last Yen on that app which ended up being a fun exercise. here are a few photos from day 8

The entire trip was a great experience! Only wished the little one could have joined us. We will get her on our next family trip!

8 days in Japan, a good three months to blog about it!

Yogagraphy and portraits in Bora Bora lagoon

The previous post in this series is here..

We did spend time in the morning before breakfast taking photos in the lagoon with me doing yoga poses and later in the evening before dinner. This time we came a good hour before sunset time and got some amazing pics. It was not raining and that was a big plus! Will strongly recommend the Royal Hotel in Bora Bora. Fantastic setup, fantastic people!

Earlier in the morning.. or I should say way earlier than sunrise, the roosters that kept us up, ended up right outside our sliding door. I got to drink tea watching them and this cat that wandered around the premises.

The place was full of trees, especially Badam trees.. Told the family they were Badam and they did not believe me. Later we saw a sign naming the trees and was vindicated! The other tree was a “fish poison” tree that is actually toxic to humans. Good they label trees so we learned something.

Here are the photos..

This is a small subset. Had so many good photos did not know which ones to pick..

You can give your camera to any random stranger and get a click and it is frame worthy in this place !!

A video highlights reel..

We had a great dinner after taking pictures. The service was fast on the day after Christmas because they had more staff on hand. We went back to our rooms and went to bed. We had done our exercise for the day in the water..or at least that is how I consoled myself after that heavy dinner and dessert!