Wedding vibes in Phuket

The previous post in this series is here..

Day 8 of our trip saw us say bye to Chiang Mai and go to Phuket.

Air Asia was interesting. The lines were long but moving along. When it was our turn we found the one checked bag was 4 kg overweight. The lady at the counter said we would have to pay 40 bucks anyways, so might as well adjust and check in the carry on bags for that price. So we checked everything. This was a direct flight and we were hoping that our bags show up with us when we get to Phuket.

We got picked up at the airport and had an almost 2 hour drive to the JW Marriott Khao Lak resort and spa.

After checking in we realized it was already time to join the Mehendi party.. so we cleaned up, took some pictures and walked to the beach where I was treated to smiling familiar beautiful faces. The whole gang was there and we were just so happy to be there! Accidentally ended up twinning with my buddy, the grooms dad! He keeps his social media profile at near zero levels.. but at least I get to post one photo! We were also so happy to see the bride and groom! These two kids made us so happy with the way they kept it cool for all of us!

There was a fire show and dinner and we called it a night when it got a little chilly. We had our first argument on the trip after 8 days when the smell of the mehendi shut down my nose and lungs and San refused to wash it off before coming to bed citing that the redness of the mehendi had a higher priority over my lungs.

One evening back with her friends and my lungs went down on the priority list.

Had to resort to a vicks inhaler to just breathe again and sleep. The next morning she was very happy with the end result and given she was smiling from ear to ear, I temporarily let go of the animal cruelty..

Many of my friends from Cupertino also told me to put my camera away and just enjoy the wedding.. so I took a few photos with my iPhone and that was it.

Here is a video highlight reel..

My screen time for this week is through the roof.. but it looks like I will finish writing about the Thanksgiving trip before Christmas and that is a good thing!

A night cruise on the Bosphorus strait - Istanbul

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting the Topkapi place on our second afternoon in Istanbul, we got back to the hotel to catch up with the little one who was busy studying. Did a quick shower, change into nicer clothes and off we went on an Uber to the docks. We had booked a Viator cruise on the Bosphorus strait which included a vegetarian dinner and live entertainment.

We were flanked on either side by a group of desi boys who had all started working recently after graduating and a family from Germany with two little kids. We were chit chatting and before we knew it, there was some really good entertainment. We even got a visual of the swirling dervishes. Not posting pictures as it is all in the video.

Between the food and entertainment, we went out to the deck to get pictures. The iconic golden gate looking bridge that shows up in every Turkish serial that San watches was there in front of us! It is really as beautiful to see the coastline as it is in the serials!

There was a photographer who took shots of all of us and obviously sold the nice pictures to us at the end of the cruise. It was more of a memorabilia for me. My girls are always pretty in my eyes, but to see them from another persons lens made me smile.

The gallery of lights as seen from the cruise..

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A few other pictures from this cruise and on our way back to the hotel.. where the mosques light up the place.

A video highlights reel of the cruise and the entertainment..

Strongly recommend this cruise if you visit Istanbul. Given my allergies and food restrictions, they gave me enough to eat to keep me going for the two plus hours on the cruise. We found a nice driver called Mustafa who took us from the hotel to the place and he told us “god willing, I will get to take you back when you return as my house is close to your hotel”.. and sure enough, god willed for him. We hailed for an Uber in the crowd and Mustafa shows up!

We had a really great time as a family on this cruise. It was chilly when we got out. We were going to wake up and go for one last interesting experience the following morning before leaving the city.. god willing, will write that post tonight.

An evening in Baixa

The previous post in this series is here..

After our guide dropped us off in Baixa, our first stop was the Elevator. San told me that standing in line to go up that elevator was not worth it. So we walked up the steps to the streets above and got pictures.. when we walked back down it was early evening and there was an intense craving for chai and desi food. We did not get a good read of the map. So we ate at the first indian food we could find. It was decent food but we simply could not sit inside the restaurant as it had a weird smell. Later we learned that there are places with nicer seating and less smoke.

Then we decided to walk all the way to the other end of the main road to the water front. I had a tough time catching up to my wife as she was running everywhere and my ability to follow was limited by the number of butter naans that had been consumed. It was an amazing evening with the sky putting on a show for us at the waterfront.

After spending an hour or so taking pictures and watching the street performers, we walked back to our hotel.

A video highlight reel ..

We were going on an all day packaged tour the following day. So we went to sleep early. My local tourguide had already visited two of the three places we were going to see and had already started describing it to me!

Our first day in Portugal was a hit !