We slept early after the long gruelling hike. Woke up in the morning and after having Chai in our room we were all ready to go to the Vista point on our way back to Phoenix.
All nine of us had matching T-shirts to wear. It was great to spend almost an hour taking photos at the vista point.
We were delayed by an extra 30 minutes with the "photoshoot" and raced towards Phoenix.
There was a 30 mintue stop for lunch in Flagstaff at a nice Indian place. It was really good food, great ambience, quick service! If we ever visit Flagstaff, will definitely go back to this place!
We made it 20 minutes before boarding time to the gate!
It took me two days to be able to walk normally again and be able to sit down and stand up. Was mostly standing and walking all of Monday and Tuesday. Did yoga last two days and finally able to do squats again.
All said and done, it was a memorable trip. Will I go back to the south rim again. Definitely not.
This was one of the most challenging hikes we have done to date. Enjoyed the trip and most of the hiking except for the last three miles!
We went from Cochin to Mumbai and had two full days in Mumbai before our return flight to the US.
Having visited so many temples every day in Tamilnadu and Kerala, why stop. While San was busy trying to get blouses stitched urgently, MIL and me went out to visit local temples. We visited 3 that morning.
Later went with San to another local temple and visited what is probably the worlds best one stop beauty store. (you can see it in the video)..
We managed to eat out a few times..
watch three movies in two days.. the movie theater is the building next to in-laws apartment. We can just walk down and go see movies!
Here are two lapata ladies at lapata ladies..
Then we spent an evening at Ambani center. It was a stark contrast to the other shopping we did. The stores and complex was grand but there were no people in the stores!
We walked around, took pictures and drove back in time to get some rest before flying out the next morning.
A video highlight..
The return flight was not direct. It was Mumbai to B'lore and then to SFO. The airport in Bengaluru was nice. We actually enjoyed the two hour wait.
Then there was a disaster of a return trip where the tail section of the flight had no power!
No way to charge phone/laptop, call the air hostess, or watch anything. It was a horrible 16 hours in a plane with a local power cut. They werent even apologetic. We were to get some money back as token compensation for this horrible trip and it has been 6 months plus and we still don't have anything from Air India. There has been 20 + emails back and forth and a check leaf was wasted. That was about it. They have bought all these used planes from Delta airlines and are flying it BLR to SFO. Ratan Tata must be sad now that he can see what is going on from wherever he is!
The trip on the whole though was a happy one. Checked all the items that were in the plan. Did so much in 10 days!
Now that I have finally finished posting about the India trip in Feb/March, can get back to otehr things that have happened since!
We boarded the train at Tanjavoor close to a 7PM and it was to reach Thrissur in Kerala at 4AM. The train was 40 minutes late. FIL had booked a hotel room right next to the train station just so we could go, take a shower, change to dhotis and get going. We did get okay rest in the train given people kept changing at every station and kept waking us up.
We reached the hotel at 5 AM, had some dip tea, and all four of us got ready in record time and were at the Sree Vadakkumnathan Temple before sunrise. The sun was just coming up when we came out of the temple.
Then we went to the Thiruvambady Krishna temple which was just 5 or 10 minutes away.
After this we had a long car ride to Guruvayoor. We stopped for a quick bite to eat.. idly sambar and vadai at a local place (this is not related to HSB.. but the food is better!)
There was a ticket for an appointment with Guruvayoorappan at 9AM. However there was an utsavam and we found out that we should not have been sold those tickets. The temple staff said sorry and told us we will get the money back! Money or not, we wanted to see the deity before leaving. So we stood in line for 2 hours almost and got to go only so far to see the deity from 20 feet away for a few seconds before being pushed out.
It was an interesting experience. Kerala temple crowds are really agressive. Especially the old ladies!
The lines to keep your cell phone and footwear s a mile long! We still had fun at this temple. There was a person singing who we mistook for Yesudas first before walking to the area (you can see in video clip).. the stores on either side were cute and the ladies bought Onam sarees!
Then we went to a shiva vishnu temple in Mamiyoor which was the last stop. It is a beautiful temple!
There was a plan to visit Chottanikkarai baghavathy amman temple which was an hours drive from there, but given we saw baghavathi in Guruvayoor, we decided to skip.
My MIL's close friend stayed in Cochin on the way to the airport. So we went to visit Kamala aunty and her husband for an evening chai visit and then head to the airport.
We saw elephants on this day. At the temples and on the roads. A land with elephants is a happy land!
a land with bananas galore is definitely a happy land..
We stopped by a place for lunch. It was awesome!
It was great to talk to them and spend a few hours. As I write this, Uncle is no more. He passed away recently. An extremely nice person. We were all glad we got to spend time with him.
A video highlight of the Kerala leg of the trip
Then we were off to Cochin airport and flew to Mumbai.
We had almost two days in Mumbai before our return trip to the US. That last post later..
