Maui,Hawaii

Hawaii- Its a name that used to fill me with excitement just by the sound of it. Not because I had any connection to it or I had any memories there, but the simple reason being, it always meant a place where I can run away from my busy life or at least that is what I thought. My perception toward Hawaii was always fueled by the travel blogs and news articles I had read on the amazing scenery this place has to offer and the relaxing vacation a person can have in this beautiful place. 

At last this spring I got a chance to enjoy the beauty of Hawaii when I traveled to Maui with my family for a 5-day vacation. We planned this vacation to relax and rejuvenate unlike many of our other vacations where we tire ourselves to death exploring the city. Life has been pretty hectic for the last 1 year and this was our first chance to get some of the energy back.

Our trip:

San Jose, CA to Kahului, Maui - Alaska Airlines

Stay at Westin Maui Resort and Spa, Ka'anapalli for 5 nights

Kahului, Maui to San Jose, CA - Hawaiian Airlines

It was our first flight with Alaska Airlines and I was impressed by the airplane, the seat space and the general service provided by the airline. Lately, it has been very hard to appreciate anything about air travel as seats have shrunk, service has gone from good to bad to poor, in-flight entertainment is non-existent or terrible on most routes and its scary reading about the recent mishaps that has questioned Superman's own assurance. After a long 5.5 hour flight we landed safe and sound in Maui.

We picked up our car from Avis that we booked in advance and started driving to our hotel which was a further 45 minute drive from the airport. Then, I encountered the worst traffic jam ever of my life, something that I never expected to see in Maui. With the baby getting anxious after a long flight, every minute felt like eternity and we were stuck in it for almost an hour and half. By the time we reached the hotel, we had already been traveling for almost 12 hours including the 2.5 hours our plane was delayed at San Jose airport.  That day, we had been awake since 4 am to catch the morning flight and prepare baby food for travel that it seemed like an unending journey.

It is only after we reached the hotel, that we could come in our natural state of calmness. The check-in was smooth and the hotel lobby provided a good place for a kid to watch ducks, flamingos and fishes. But for that evening we decided to recluse ourselves to our hotel room and winded down with some food and sleep.

Our room overlooked the resort garden on one side and a distant ocean on the other. It was so refreshing to wake up to the birds chirp every morning and sit in the balcony having breakfast and coffee and watching birds scour their own food. The sound of the ocean waves provided a soothing music to the ears day and night and made the experience even more wonderful.

The next 4 days were amazing and all we did was relax, something we really needed. The resort provided a gateway to the beach which was pretty cool since we went there everyday to breath in the fresh air. There is something peaceful to just look at the vast ocean and absorb the energy it provides you in the sound of its waves and freshness of its air. My kiddo did have a hard time adjusting to the beach/ocean initially since she was scared of water and always maintained a distance from the waves hitting the beach. She did enjoy herself feeding the fishes at the hotel pool, watching the red-beaked duck and flamingos and running on beach trails. 

Places we visited there:

Whaler's Village - This was our main destination for dining and to grab something quick for the day. It is a small shopping mall with places to eat and shop and provides some commercial activity in this beach town.

Lahaina's Historic Town - This is the old town of Lahaina which is only 2-3 miles from Ka'anapalli. It is a small quaint place and provides some historic background about this place. Here you can also make reservations for dinner cruises and whale watching tours. It has abundant restaurants to dine at and small shops where you can buy souvenirs and local art.

Maui's Beach House - This was our designated place for shaved ice cream. The shaved ice with 3 fruity flavors on it and ice cream at the bottom and sugary cream at the top was the best thing I had in a long time. Even my kiddo enjoyed it so much so that she forgot she does not like cold things.

Road to Hana - We wanted to do it but just could not due to its distance from our resort. From the reviews and videos, it seemed like one of the roads to drive on and experience natural beauty at its best with waterfalls and beaches along the way. May be next time.

There are numerous activities like surfing, whale watching, scuba diving, hiking etc. that you can do here but we had a different kind of vacation in mind this time and skipped these activities.

Alas, it was the day of return and we said goodbye to a very beautiful experience of our life. We flew Hawaiian airlines back home to San Jose and it was not fun at all. They reminded me why its so painful to fly now-a-days and then lost our luggage too. Eventually, they did find it in San Francisco and returned to us a day later but it left a dent in an otherwise perfect vacation. 

I do hope to visit another island of Hawaii sometime in the future and make more memories.

The second day in the Sin City

So where did I leave last night ...Oh yeah we just had a nap...I think, I forgot to mention the two interesting talks that came up on the first night. When we were having our late dinner and early breakfast (at the same time) at IHOP, there was this pair of Desi couples that I saw. And as usual, going on my nature it was obvious for me to fall for the beautiful girls among those couples. Now who cares if somebody is married or not. If you people watch movies, you must know that love knows no bounds and then I am a person who is always throwing his heart away :) :) :) ....Basically, whenever I see a useless desi guy with a gorgeous gal, I just can't hate him enough. So when I called him a monkey, it made me feel a little better. Although I was surprised when our dear Robo came back on me with this statement "we are also monkeys". Mark that, it was his words not mine. I still hate almost all Desi's excluding myself of-course but then people like Robo, just can't stopping hating themselves being Desi. Poor him!!!

And then the second interesting thing or should I say, "the theory" as we ended up calling it finally. Ok lets, forget it. I think in the due course of my detailed overview of all the things, you will come to develop your own theories about this theory. And may you will agree that although I never came up with anything useful in my Masters, I have at least come out of my shell of speaking only good things in public. :)

So the next day started with the curious waiting for our most curious mate and the enthu god, the girl charmer, the true american, the idealist desi etc. etc. Yeah, that is Kurse, Manish Kurse. I had planned not to tell him the room number and do a treasure hunt on his own but then I forgot that we had a traitor among us. Traitor for us but a "hard-core" fan of Kurse. Yeah.. you guessed it right. Venky..who else?? Well lets put the curtains down on all this stupid "milne-milane ke chakkar ko".

Now the real thing started i.e. Las Vegas tour. But, that day was one of the hottest day I have ever had in my life. It really made me think that LV is in the heart of a desert. I can still survive extreme weather but then people like Venky and Kurse will run for cover even if they see the SUN coming outside. So basically the first thing that we do is to buy sunscreen. I just wish it just had been a little more exotic, nothing else.

For a good amount of time, we could not figure out what should be do in that hot afternoon. We walked a lot, had our lunch, spent a good amount of time talking useless sh** etc. etc. and then finally decided to come back to our hotel room and think over what is to be done. Anybody can guess the kind of confused people we are. All we did I guess that evening was to get a "Fremont Street" experience, which is quite a marvel in itself. The biggest screen in US and then bands/music being played on that screen just makes you feel so great about that place. People are moving all around you but everybody is just looking up and is mesmerized by that great visual experience. I think that one thing made our whole day and may be more of Kurse's then anybody's else. Oh yeah, he got to pose with that one "artificial" half nude angel for a photograph and that also just for $2. From my view, that one photo can be used for extortion after he gets married. :P :)

So the day ended, with all of us extremely tired of walking all day around the place. We just came back to our hotel rooms and crashed in our beds but not without talking some useless sh**, paining everybody with senseless humor and making fun of everybody who-so-ever came to our dirty minds.

Arrival at Las Vegas

For almost 2 months I have had this in mind and I made every effort to make it possible. As much as it sounds it was not supposed to be so difficult but then it was the first time I had made an effort to convince other people to do something. Now its not something unusual or extraordinary that I asked, it was just a vacation plan that I was working on. Now most of the people would jump on the idea of going to Las Vegas (yeah that was where I was going) but then there are always exceptions :) :). I would say I achieved a victory when we were finally able to put a fixed plan for the trip. Then onwards, we made all the necessary arrangements for the stay and other parts of our trip. I would have to confess, till the last day, I was afraid that if somebody doesn't turn up or decided not to come, what a disaster it would be. Finally, the long awaited moment arrived and I landed in Las Vegas for a long weekend vacation with some of my good friends. On the face, it was the Las Vegas but more than that it was the get together feeling that propelled my enthusiasm.

As I landed on the airport, my eyes started searching for a serious looking fellow with some serious email checking issues but I was relieved when I finally met him. The face had a completely different portrayal of a man at peace with a lot more going in the mind than that was reflected on the face. Yes, I met my first to be partner in crime in the Sin City, ROBO.

Then it was just a long wait, before the second person would arrive. Somebody who had really serious issues with life itself and happens to be an easy target for girls (in variuos ways which I may or may not discuss in my further description of this journey). In the mean time, I at least got to know that why ROBO had ignored all my email communications or may be marked them as spams. Poor soul was always on a cross country trips to earn that extra $10-$20 tip. I have to sympathize with him on that. At last at 2 am in the morning, the God arrived and made our trip worthy. All the evil forces tried to stop him, delayed his plane, even delayed the taxing of his plane, but he came through it. Thats why we call him God. Thats VENKY, the second to be partner in Crime.

Most of the world have their last meal of the day at dinner time more or less before 9-10pm or they have their breakfast at the earliest at 6 am. But then this was Vegas and I would say people here just don't look at their watches ever. Everything is open almost 24x7 and thus we had our first meal in Las Vegas at 3 am after checking in at our hotel and locating an IHOP next door. My first experience at Ihop was more than I expected, it was good food and then there was just one thing that we could have done after that, and that was...yes a nice, comfortable nap in the hotel room as we also had to gear up for our next day in Vegas.

Continued.....

BBQ 2008 @Marvell

My idea of job has never included just work in the equation rather blends a mix of fun, time-pass and work together. After I joined my job, I was starting to get the impression that either the people here don't know anything other than work or they have so much fun at their home that it doesn't show at office place. Anyways, I was proved wrong when this barbeque thing showed up unexpectedly. Still, when I asked other people about their views on it, none of the opinions were good. I think they had horrible barbeques earlier...may be..may be not. I was still enthusiastic about this exercise, atleast I was getting some food to eat and all paid by the company.

The place for the BBQ was also not bad rather it was very good. Just to make my point here is something about it:
Central Park / Lake Elizabeth was named "Best Park" of the Tri-Cities area by the Argus newspaper for 2004
And actually I was so enthu about getting there early enough that we reached even before the food came :P ..But we made the most of our time by doing some bird-watching and also some duck-watching..hehe..Sunday can be really beautiful and I came to know only on that day..haha

By definition BBQ doesn't really include any veggie food and all, but then you put together 10 Indians together and believe me you will have more vegetarian food then the non-veggie stuff. Very similar to that happened and we ended up eating more than we expected and even taking some of it home (nice na! I even had my dinner packed ..i like when I don't pay for my food).

Best part was not really the eating or going out to have a BBQ, but to play soccer and football with the colleagues and managers. I never thought I will tire myself out in one day and still come short of stamina in front of my aged managers. But then, it happens :) :) .The good thing is people become friendly while playing and give everybody a chance to bond well and for long.

Anyways, after reaching home, I did nothing that day but just sleep. Still the whole day was worth it and it was real fun.

My trip to NewPort

This was my first outing after coming to Boston for my internship....Oh before I delve into any details, I want you to visit this link for the pictures that I took. This is a beautiful place in Rhode Islands. The best thing this place offers you is a calm, serene and a beautiful place to enjoy your holiday. The grandeur of this place is due many expensive mansions built here during the 18th century and before. Each mansion has its own flair and decorations are also very particular to each one of them. Some of them have French architecture, others have Italian, Greek and so on. We visited two of these and were surprised to see the countless number of rooms in these mansions. Although you can not compare these with the palaces you will find in India or may be some other Asian countries but in themselves they were very grand and the material used in the construction was also very costly. Adding to it, this place is surrounded by sea and thus the cost skyrockets.

Other than just visiting these boring mansions, we also visited this Tennis Hall of Fame where they have put all the mementos and souvenir's of a lot many great tennis players. My favorite of them being Pete Samprass, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and Leander Paes. Paes won his only title at this ground. Even today these people organize tournaments at this courts where all the upcoming youngsters come and display their potential.

In the evening we also took a stroll along the beach and clicked some pics. There was some old light house also which was not as big as we expected but the location was good. The beach was very clear and the breeze was also very soothing.

In all this was the best place I could have gone after coming to Boston. A perfect start to a long internship. A long way to go man....Wait for my next posts...I will surely be having much more fun.

My second day at Chicago

It was Christmas, the great day. But the irony is that everything (includes all restaurants, hotels, tourist places etc.) is closed on a Christmas Day. So it is one bad boring day for an outsider in a new city with no relatives to celebrate with. Before starting our random walks again we went out in search of a place to eat and luckily in that abandoned streets of Chicago, we found one store opened by Lord's grace. Lord bless that store keeper for keeping us alive. To thank the God for his grace (I don't think that anybody will buy it), we decided to make the most out of that day by visiting a Hindu Temple at Aurora, a suburb outside Chicago.
We set on our journey to visit the temple by a train. It was supposed to take more than an hour to reach there, so everybody took a nap to cover up their lack of sleep the previous night (don't get any wrong ideas). After reaching there, to our extreme surprise we found that the buses are not running on the day of Christmas (message is if you get stuck somewhere, celebrate your Christmas there). We could not have just gone back after traveling such a long distance, so instead we took a cab to the temple.
The beauty of the temple was stupendous. Finding such a comely temple in a foreign country makes Indians proud of their roots. We went inside, did all those routinely stuff that we do in a temple i.e. asking God for extravagant favors, buttressing the forgotten relationship with all Gods etc. etc. I have put up a few photos of the temple with this blog right at the start. We enjoyed our stay there and time came to take the trip back to Chicago.

Since, we didn't want to bother the almighty once again for our food, we decided to go to Chinatown in the evening for a good dinner and time pass. From far away only one can identify that you have reached the proximity of Chinatown with a lot of people moving around, shining lights, some crap written on big posters and so and so.
We went around looking for a nice place to eat and entered a Vietnamese hotel hoping for some vegetarian dish. Don't blame me, it was not completely my idea. On asking the lady inside the hotel about any vegetarian dishes, she politely replied a big NO! But, she told us a place where we can get some, may the Vietnamese lord bless the lady.

We went to this Chinese restaurant as told by the lady and luckily found some veg dishes. We all ordered some vegetable curry kind of thing to eat with the egg drop soup. Don't ask me what is this egg drop soup. I don't know even when I have tasted it. Also, who in the hell knew that these people are so well eaters, the vegetable curry for one person was equivalent for two. Anyways we were hungry and we started gulping all those kinds of vegetables in the curry without even checking their identity. In the end it was a fun experience. Just to mention one more thing, we didn't have to pay a tip in the restaurant also, they took it on their own as gratuity in the bill.
It was time for all of us to go home and take a good night sleep after this tiring day. Same long train ride to home and we were back in our room for some cozy rest. Nah!, we never slept before making fun of each other and doing crazy things and checking out all the hot movies being screened on TV. Thats it for today. See you people on my next day desciption.

New Year Showers

Finally it snowed on the new year's eve. A long wait for the snow showers ended with strong flurries throughout the day. Even the gods were happy on this special new year. Hope that this year bring joy to everybody and fill their life with colors. It was a great experience to walk through the snowy roads in the night. Everything was covered white and one couldn't know where the real path lies ahead. The pics here are some which I took after the snow showers.