A day in Mumbai and I move same time as Jupiter

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back to Mumbai from Dehradun, we did a repack. Suitcases to and from US are 23kg, suitcases on domestic flights are 15kg. So my in-laws got our stuff to various points.

We reweighed stuff, went to the tailor for some “blouse stitching” for San. She was going to come here a week after I came back. Then we had a nice dinner with San’s uncle at an interesting place. The food was some kind of fusion food but I still had stuff to eat there. Mozarella sticks or an Indian equivalent.

Then we got some rest. The next morning we got up very early, went to Siddhi Vinayak, Mahalakshmi and then to Babul Nath temple. This was my first time visiting this temple. It was a wonderful experience. We ate a nice breakfast outside Siddhi Vinayak. We had lunch which my MIL made. Then we went shopping for tea and good quality jaggery to bring back. They fulfilled my last minute wish to eat at Sadhguru. So had an early dinner and got some sleep.

When I went to Mumbai airport in the morning, they told me my flight to Dubai had left. They had notified my cell but I did not turn on an international data plan. Emirates told me that I was not the only one who had this issue and all of us who thought we were on time but late were rebooked in the next flight to Dubai and will spend a day in Dubai. I almost cried. I had meetings to attend here Monday morning. Told them to get me on the last flight that day to Dubai to minimize my time there. It was not that far out. I just wanted to go hug San. So after some help from Emirates staff who had to check me out of the airport with the updated boarding pass, took an Uber and came back to Chembur. Just crashed. Then got to take a photo of MIL’s helper who always asks me nicely how I am doing on every trip. The smile on her face when I showed her the portrait, priceless! Ended up eating what was left and took a nap for a short time and returned to the airport.

Jupiter had moved I guess and he was taking me to a “new level”. Had left SFO with two suitcases and a carry on. When I came back to Emirates counter they said 2 suitcases and laptop bag was it. No carry on. Had to pay 85 $ to get the weight moved into the suitcases, stuff the laptop bag into the carry on to make it one piece in front of an audience. It was interesting.

Finally got to Dubai. They had no airport hotel, no chance to leave. They said lot of passengers stranded because of the flight timing changes. There were people sleeping at the gates. One nice lady said for 100 bucks I could rent a sleeping pod and sleep there with a blanket and pillow and use the restrooms and get water all included. So I rented the pod. It was nice but not quiet. The sound of 20 snorers was there. The looked at me and said “free earplugs”. Slept for a good 6 hours only to be woken by San who screamed “go to gate now. Just got a message saying your flight is boarding”. I pankicked. Not again!! So grabbed everything and ran to the gate. Lucikly Dubai was an hour ahead of Chennai. So I still had an hour. Missed using that restroom and water, tea etc. They obviously weren’t letting me back in as I checked out. Walked around the gate for an hour and finally realized why all these flight time changes.

There was war out there! The flight took the weirdest route to get to SFO. Not sure why they couldn’t have just gone via China to SFO. Went straight up and took a left and came all across the US to come down to SFO. it was a long long flight.

After coming home and unpacking felt a sigh of relief. Could get back to my normal routine at work. That tea and jaggery ended up being a lot more expensive than what I could have paid for at the local Indian store. A new lesson learned.

It was an interesting trip. I did get a chance to meet all four of my aunts in Chennai and my local cousins. Also got to meet my music teacher at his house and meet his family. Made a flying visit to Paadarivom Padipparivom and got to hug Nagubhai, the man who has made my life a lot better since COVID thanks to the music initiative he pioneered and kept running through really tough times.

Somehow after coming back, I lost my voice and motivation to sing. Just kept focusing on work. That helped. Now things are slowly changing. Jupiter is still playing tricks with my body and mind or maybe it is my dad doing funny stuff to my head behind the scenes. Won’t know. Have started singing again though!

Just wish things get back to how they were in March.

Here are the last few photos that make a cut for this post..

While I was on that long flight back, Kuwait airport got bombed and one died and 60+ were injured. In a way maybe things turned out good and I made it back home in one piece, sleeping in pods or not!

There is no travel in the near future given my health condition. Will be glad to write about music and hopefully sing more regularly. Need to get out of my current predicament with the knee and start squatting, walking, do yoga and get back to my old self! One can only pray for a quick recovery!

Saying bye to Cambodia after two more temple visits

The previous post in this series is here..

We saw an amazing sunrise and came back to the hotel. It was almost 7 AM when we got back. It was time to go pack, check out, have breakfast (eat it like brunch given we have been up since ~4) and load the luggage into the car . Then it was two more must see temples en route to the airport.

The hotel staff bid us adieu as though they were sending a newly married bride off after an Indian wedding. They were all nice kids. We thanked them for their hospitality. Seriously, Cambodia folks redefine hospitality. The best in this trip. Amazing kind hearted genuinely sweet people!

We visited two more temples.

The Bakong temple which was one of the first temples to be built here in the late 9th century. The domes looked like Angkor Wat.. we thought they practiced here before building the big temple. This one was a monster. We had to climb a few hundred stairs to get to the top. We told our driver that given our cold the fact that the sun was up and beating down on our heads, we had no plans to climb up. We were going to walk around the base and take pictures and that was it. So we were 30 minutes early on our plan.

The second one , Preah Ko temple, we walked around. It was relatively flat..This area on the way to the airport used to be an earlier capital of the kings. There were many nandi’s that were stil intact in this temple.

After this, we drove to the airport. On the way a 7 foot cobra crossed the road. Saruk barely managed to avoid it and had to brake real hard. We were happy he did not run over the snake but a couple of ladies driving a moped on the other side of the street were not lucky. They freaked out and may have it the snake. Did manage to catch it on camera even if it is a grainy video..

We took selfies with our driver who was just fantastic and said goodbye! We would recommend him to anyone trying to do a compressed schedule.

A video highlights reel..

The Siem Reap airport is brand new (Chinese are taking over Cambodian infrastructure building). The airport was empty when we went there. There was a lounge which had flat seats. I took a two hour nap. When I got up was still feeling slightly feverish.. but it was time to board our flight to Bangkok and and then on to Chiang Mai. Funny thing is that this plane was a small propeller plane. So all luggage had to be checked in and directly to Chiang Mai. We were told that the passport stamping will be in Bangkok but we will be diverted in Chiang Mai to the international baggage claim by airport reps to collect our suitcases. We were praying they reach.. We had carefully distributed clothes so that there will always be something to wear at the wedding. The thought of having all our bags checked was worrying. Luckily they all made it to Chiang Mai.

We had a three plus hour layover in Bangkok airport and went to another lounge where they had 15 minute complimentary massages. Majority of this day went just in traveling from Siem Reap to Chiang Mai. The massage lady told San “your husband is definitely having a fever. Give him medicine”. Given all the adventures, I had brushed aside any feeling of heat. So went and grabbed some tylenol. By the time we landed in Chiang Mai, was feeling better already!

Our guide and driver came with his wife to pick us up from the airport. They are a really nice couple Joy and Goy. Joy spoke English but Goy only understood and needed an occasional translation from her husband. They dropped us off and said we start at 7AM. Be ready! Our hotel room had a decorated bed with mosquito nets. We were not sure if that was for mosquitos or for decoration! We had arrived at 8PM and the restaurants were all a drive away. Our hotel was off from the busy area and we did not have the “Grab” app which doubles up for Uber, Doordash and everything else in Thailand. . We walked to the local 7-11 to get some bananas and yoghurt but they would not accept USD! They also had a minimum charge for credit cards which we did not meet. If they tell you folks in Thailand accept USD everywhere, it is not true. In Cambodia everyone took USD and spoke English. In Thailand it was not the same experience.

The hotel manager, was a nice guy and understood our plight. He loaned us 350 local currency, got on the phone with a local Indian restaurant and got us some Nan, daal, rice and yoghurt., paid them and got it delivered to our room. It was not what we expected but some food was better than no food and we ate what we could. The rice and yoghurt was at least a safe bet. We were also told that the hotel resaurant was closed for renovation the entire month of December and there will be no breakfast but if we pick from a menu they will have it delivered to our door at 6:30AM. The options were not what we were used to. This was going to be tricky the next few days.

We ordered a breakfast list hoping at least some items would be okay for me to eat and went to bed.

Staying at a cave hotel, missed chances and saying bye to Turkey

The previous post in this series is here..

After a quick dinner at the Indian place in the village, when Jr. and me walked back up to our cave room, we were given the news that the little one will not be joining us for the balloon ride in the morning. She will be resting and hydrating and will not be up before the sun. There was to be no negotiation and given my history of saying things like “we have come all this way and we may not come here again.. etc.” there was a family restraining order of me speaking anything within ear shot of the litle one. Gave her a hug, asked her to sleep and we all crashed. It had been a long day. All day tours can be fun but draining. Too much information for the brain and a lot of walking without realizing it.. with the potential to end up dehydrated.

The hotel was told that we will be three people going for the balloon ride. We woke up at 5AM and made it to the hotel entrance where a bus picked us up. After picking up a lot more people we ended up driving to the balloon launch point. There were a 1000+ people waiting around trucks with the balloons and every company had a breakfast table setup with croissants and coffee.

Unfortunately, after an hour of waiting, our ride was cancelled. The winds were too heavy and the air traffic control did not give a green signal. Our guides said “no more waiting, we go back. we will drop you off and you will get full refund”. An hour later we were back in the hotel with only a few photos of us at sunrise to show for it. The little one was still fast asleep. When we went to breakfast later and told her we never went up on the ballooons, she just rolled her eyes and was happy she slept in. Good news was she was back to her normal self. Given our morning was a wash, we just packed, ate breakfast late (almost made it a brunch) and told the kids that we were going down to the village.

The balloon refund came in local currency. It was 120 dollars per person and what were we to do with so much in local currency when we were leaving Turkey same evening? San was determined to exchange it to Euro or USD and we walked an hour and a half to every travel agent, a Western union, local post office, etc. etc. in the Goreme village, with no luck.. Finally one of the travel offices agreed to change it. We lost some in the transaction but it was still better than airport exchange rates. When we walked back to the hotel, the girls were ready to leave.

We took some pictures in the verandah of the hotel. We have to say that this was a unique experience staying in a cave. The Kelebek Cave Hotel was excellent. The food was great. The rooms were good. The service was excellent. It is on top of the hill so everytime you walk down, you get quite a workout walking back up. All said and done, if you are a fit person, this is an amazing place to stay. Strongly recommend it.

A video of the special cave hotel experience…

It was time for the ride back to Nevshehir airport in the shared van. This time it was in broad daylight and the driver was good.

We flew back to Istanbul, then after a two hour wait at the airport and a lot of walking within the airport, flew out to Naples. Was reminded of my Turkish friend again as we flew past

The kids had combined the Amalfi coast with this trip as a “fair” compromise. All of us enjoyed all places at the end. So it worked out. Just before leaving the Kelebek hotel, I was informed that given our flight timings and train timings, we had two choices. Pay 250 USD for a one way Uber from Naples airport to Sorrento or rent a car for all three days which would be the same 250 USD. Six eyes were looking at me.. and I said fine. Will drive. That turned out to be a disguised blessing.

Will continue this series from Naples later today..