Take nothing for granted

This blog usually sees only happy posts for the most part. Occasionally a sad or nostalgic/ raw post. The last month has not been easy.

The Japan trip blog series writeup was going along swimmingly well. Then there was a biz trip for a few days and my plan was to come back and finish writing about the last three days of the trip.

There was International day of Yoga and a multilingual class that we thoroughly enjoyed. Monday through Wednesday I had planned a rather hectic trip to cover multiple things. Every day there were two flights with 2-3 hour gap between flights just to be safe. In spite of that 5 of the 6 flights were 2+ hours late. The only flight on time was the last one.

Somewhere in the middle of visiting airport restrooms and plane restrooms, I had picked up my first UTI ever and did not know it. As fate would have it, my last but one flight started 2 hours late and landed 2 hours late as well. The next flight home was on time and had boarded. The last hour of the flight was extremely turbulent and we were not allowed to use the restroom. The pretzel bag and water did not make it easier. When we were about to land, the air hostess announced that four passengers could actually made their connections if we would run to the next flight that was boarding. We were in A12. Two of us had to run to A1. A mom and daughter had to run to A6. Rest of them were rebooked as they had luggage. I was traveling with a backpack. After running 12 gates and making it to the flight, I was huffing and puffing. The flight attendant in the next flight promptly handed me a water bottle and said “sir please take your seat. we were waiting for you two. we have to taxi right away”. I went to my seat and told the other air hostess “ I have been holding from going to the restroom for the last 90 minutes. I have to go. It is urgent”. She said “please just hang on for another 10 minutes. once we are airborne you can go. if you get up, we cannot taxi. Already everyone has been waiting for you. “

So I waited. Then the turbulence was back on as soon as we took off.. the seat belt sign didn’t come off for another hour and 10 minutes. By that time I thought my bladder was going to rupture. Finally they let me go. Then there was another lady two seats ahead with a baby that desperately needed a diaper change. She was also constantly pressing the button. Out of goodwill I held it for another 5 minutes. When I finally tried to pee in that plane, pain hit me like never before to the point I was crying. Came back, sat down and was glad that I was going to be home soon. It was late in the night and the advice nurse told me to take Tylenol and rest and come see the doctor in the morning. if anything changed run to ER.

Woke up at 6AM and was peeing blood. The next 10 days has been a blur. In and out of hospital, getting to ER, Urgent care, back to ER, getting admitted, being tested constantly, round after round of antibiotics after they found that the infection had spread all the way to my kidneys. The whole family was in shock. After sometime at the hospital, they agreed to discharge me on condition that someone at home will do the medicine infusion. San said she will get trained but her hands were shaking and she freaked out. Luckily the kids were both bold enough and volunteered to do the infusion at home.

A word of praise to Kaiser. They did an outstanding job of taking care of me, sending medicine home on time for the infusions with a proper kit, meticulous follow ups, the nurses who took care of me as well as the ER doctors, not to mention my PCP who spotted right away that something was off after the first round of antibiotics. Lost 6-7lbs in the 10 days, my vocal volume and reduced mobility on my left hand thanks to the IV.

A “thoo” for Delta airlines. Understand turbulence is not in their control, but not a single flight was on time during that trip except the last one. They have a “we are like this only!” attitude that really made me sad. The flight attendents were sympathetic and said “very sorry” after they saw me come out with tears in my eyes, but that doesn’t help.

My colleagues at work were extremely supportive as were my professional connections. I was supposed to chair two sessions at a conference. Had a lot of expectations from that experience but could not even make it. The doctor told me “you can’t afford to get another infection right after this. Avoid crowds, especially where folks have traveled from far and wide for a conference”. Had to excuse myself. Could only work a few days with my phone and one hand. Was only able to listen in to some meetings.

My angels and my friends came to cheer me up in the hospital. Now that I am. normal they are all calling me an idiot and I am getting eye rolls from everyone for being stupid. All said and done, I should be more careful and not do stupid stuff like this anymore.

The last 5 days has seen me catch up with things at work, talk with my usual volume and also try Yoga again. There are still a few tests to check no lasting damage but as of now I have passed everything with flying colors. Just have to rebuild the good bacteria in my system.

Never take anything for granted !! One minute you are smiling and next thing you know, being delirious with a 103 fever blabbering nonsense in your sleep. I have never seen San so worried in recent times. Gave the family and friends a big scare.

The middle photo was from last evening when Jr. came running to tell me that the sky was putting on a show. So we went to the front door to take photos.

This morning I took a selfie to send to my mom after doing Bodhayana Amavasai tharpanam. Need to eat some more and get back to normal.

Wanted to write a post on International Yoga day as well after that biz trip and that never happened. So sharing a few photos from that day here..

Have been out of blogging, social media for almost three weeks now. Wrote this as a cautionary tale for folks and to get back to blogging. No one cleans airport restrooms or plane toilets anymore given every plane is late and airports are under staffed with mostly disgruntled employees who are all now contract workers with no benefits. Take your own toilet paper when you travel. Avoid plane and airport toilets where possible. At the risk of losing a flight, take that damn pee break. Finding alternate flights is easier than finding alternate kidneys! Not worth it!!

Will try to slowly finish blogging about that Japan trip from Spring!

Japaaaaan, love in Tokyo! Japan trip Day 5

The previous post in this series is here..

While in Kyoto we decided to move up our schedule to Tokyo. An extra day in Tokyo at this point was better.

Jr. found that we could move our Shinkansen tickets once without any fees and promptly moved it. Now we called the Tokyo dome hotel to book another day and were in for a rude shock.

BTS, a band that needs no introduction was performing two shows at the Tokyo dome and that meant every room was sold out. So the planners (not me) searched for another hotel and found a wonderful apartment style hotel called Monday Apart. Two rooms with 3 beds each with a kitchen and laundry(there is a reason for mentioning the laundry.. it will come up in a later post). This hotel was in Asakusabashi in the Akihabara suburb of Tokyo. We would stay there for one night and then go to the Tokyo dome. This way we got another full day in Tokyo. We got our luggage packed (after stuffing all the shoes in) and decided that all the packaged instant foods had to be consumed soon. Good thing the room had a kitchen!

The Shinkansen was crowded this time unlike the trip to Hiroshima from Osaka. Kyoto to Tokyo at breakneck speed with amazing views of Mt. Fuji on the way. We did have an interesting experience going to the hotel. We ended up in Tokyo station, took our luggage and made it to the Akihabara station, then switched to another train for just two stops to Asakusabashi station. The hotel was supposed to be a 7 minute walk from the station. My friend who insisted on contributing to the GPS assisted walking (to relieve Jr.) took us on a 20 minute walk and we ended up missing a road, and finally came to the Monday Apart hotel. We were like “at least we got to the hotel even if it took an extra 10 minutes”.

It was in Akasusabashi, but it was the wrong one! Apparently there are two of these, one in West area and one in center. Fortunately our hotel was only a 10 minute walk away and closer to where we had started. Walking on old Japanese streets is good as long as you are not lugging suitcases and carry ons. We did joke around and laugh all the way back to the apartment. The rooms and facilities were really good.

We checked in and decided to hit Tokyo station for Lunch at Erick South. A south Indian restaurant entirely run by Japanese folks that got rave reviews from a friend on her recent trip. So off we went searching for Erick South. We got out of the train station and kept walking on the street around the block. We could literally smell the food on the street. Then we met a south Indian family and asked them where it was and the answer was “oh, ,it is actually below us .. in the train station. Not above in the high rise”. We went down again and there was a long line of mostly Japanese folks waiting to get a south Indian thali. It is like a bar and you get seated wherever they can. San and me got seated first and the food and chai was just amazing. Just plain amazing.

Have never left a plate this clean! The entire group was happy for a long time after that fulfilling lunch! After this we walked around the block and decided to go to our next sightseeing stop by Uber. . .

A short video.

By now we had figured our where to go by train and when to use Uber XL.

The next stop in another post..

Saying bye to Tahiti

The previous post in this series is here..

We were still thinking and talking of the SCUBA diving experience. Turns out the family did not know that Scuba was an acronym. They were impressed when I explained it to them.

Was telling them about how my brother and me would be glued to the TV screen watching Jacques Costeau and the Underwater Adventure series on Doordarshan. Never thought I would actually be wearing an oxygen tank and fins and jump into the water from a boat.

We came back early to the dinner table, ordered and while our food was being prepared, came and took more photos at golden hour. The colors were different this time given the rain clouds.. a little more ominous looking skies.

Then we went back to bed knowing the next day was going to be an all travel day.

I simply could not sleep the entire night. The wall of fishes kept popping up in my head. Wanted to go back and try diving again. So we called the diving place as soon as they opened at 7 and asked if I could go back. Our ride from hotel to boat was only at 2 PM. The lady said “no diving if you are flying same day. Come back again and you can dive with us on your next trip!”. So I decided to just go spend another hour in the water. It was nice and there was a chilly breeze but the water was warm. Dunked the iPhone in water and tried taking a few pictures. Went back to the room and as soon as I came out of the shower, it rained heavily. We couldn’t even cross the hotel area to go to the lobby to check out. (You can see it in the video). After checking out at 11, we had to spend 3 hours in the restaurant area for our ride to the boat. So we just sat there eating lunch, then fries, then drinking hot chocolate.. and walked up and down and just chatted. It was nice.

Then we went by boat to the Bora Bora airport. There was more drama. The flight to Raiatea was 1 hour late. That meant we would not make it back to Tahiti that night. Our flight to SFO was at 7AM the next morning. We panicked. The guys at the counter said “you have only one option. Cancel your ticket to Raiatea. Instead book a new ticket from Bora Bora to Papette in Tahiti that leaves in an hour”. Poor San scrambled, we shelled out a lot of money for that last minute ticket and oddly, that flight stopped at Raiatea for 20 mintues before going to Papette anyways!! This whole thing with inter island flights is a borderline scam. In any case we had no choice so we went with it.

Once we reached Papette and got out of the airport, we could see the Tahiti Airport Motel directly in front of us on the hill facing the airport. There were no taxis. We waited for 10 minutes and decided to walk to the hotel. Maps said it was s 6 min walk with a 100 ft climb. We walked up to find the gate closed. Then the hotel guy says we needed to walk all around the side street up a hill and then come down to the hotel. We were tired after all that travel and had to walk a good 20 minutes dragging our luggage up a hill. The guy at the reception said “very sorry.. we close the gate because thieves come and steal from the store below the hotel”. That was not very comforting. He was nice though and booked us a taxi to go to the food trucks nearby.

There was no vegetarian option on the food trucks except plain rice. Luckily for us there was a chain called WSK right near the trucks. The lady there spoke some English and agreed to make a veggie burger and veggie noodles. I ate plain rice and drank water which was as good as it was going to get for me.

We waited for a return taxi. We asked for the taxi from the hotel at 7:40 and waited for a long time. When he finally came and dropped us at the hotel he asked for double fare citing it was 8:06 and after 8 the fare was double. We told him all we had was the money for the return taxi. Finally he agreed and took the money. The hotel reception person was puzzled by this and was shaking his head when we told him what happened.

Clearly Pullaiyaar was on vacation again. We woke up at 4:30 the next morning and caught the taxi that had been booked to take us literally across the street to the airport. It was good we had a taxi as it was raining heavily. We got breakfast at the airport and were told the flight would be delayed by an hour.

Finally when we took off, we were two hours late again. French Bee seems to have no idea of punctuality. Two flights and both 2 hours late! Eventually we made it back home after 8PM. There was power, the garage door opened and we were greeted by the smell of wet yoga clothes and towels that had been left in the laundry room for 5 days!

Home sweet home, we said and started unpacking!

At the end of the trip, we collectively thought it was still great. We had travel delays and flight issues everywhere. (we had taken 9 flights in 10 days on the south east Asia trip during Thanksgiving and every flight was on time!. so our expectation was different). Cancelations to booked adventures.. but we had all snorkeled as a family, San and me had a life changing experience with diving and we had great pictures. Also we got to laugh and kid around with just the four of us. We had also met some nice people from the bay area all the way in Tahiti.

A video highlight of us just doing nothing on the last day..

Would definitely recommend a visit, the snorkeling, the scuba diving, the Royal Hotel in Bora Bora .. just book tickets with enough layover time, direct to the location if possible and know the flight routes. If possible book Air Tahiti as they have a larger presence there for inter island flights. If you mix and match between Air Moana and Air Tahiti you will be in trouble with late flights and bad weather.

Here is a timelapse video of the entire flight from Bora Bora to Raiatea. Glad we did not have to get down again at Raiatea.. the kids had had enough of that airport on the way in. We need to start flights like this along the California coast so the little one can come on a 20 minute flight from Santa Barbara to San Jose. Decided to hold the camera at the window for the entire flight.. have held it longer to catch sunsets and sunrises .. so why not?!

Given I was in two minds about this trip and all the things that came our way, the fact that we were all together through this experience made it all the more interesting and memorable!