Krrish 3, Thor, Ram Leela, & Phata Poster Nikla Hero

I have seen quite few movies in the last 2 weeks and I realized I have not written any reviews on movies in a long time, so thought this might be a good time to update my blog and write something about each of the movies.

First up is the most hyped movie of Hrithik Roshan, Krrish 3 (I always forget that there is an additional "r" in the title). Just from looking at the trailers, I did not want to see the movie in theater, so waited until it was online.  With no expectations and thinking that the movie is going to be absolutely non-sense, I watched the entire movie and thought it was just what I had expected...!!  It's amazing how they have managed to take 3-4 Hollywood superhero films' scenes and combined it into one movie :-o.  Really!! That takes a lot of effort and hard work!  You don't believe me? Well, let me give you some comparisons.  First and for most, the villain character Kaal played by Vivek Oberoi who is in wheel chair, due to his paralyzed body (except his head and 2 fingers), can move things with his mind and in fact he can even manipulate the metals...sound familiar?? Yes, he is the combination of Professor X and Magneto from X-men.  If that's not enough, the character Kaya, Magneto's, I mean Kaal's mutant, is a copy of Mystique from X-men who can turn herself into anyone she wants.  Another mutant who has this long tongue is also seen in X-men's movie...just don't remember if that character had any importance in the X-men movie.  Ok, that's about the X-men movie characters copy.  The release of Antidote in the movie is similar to that of the Amazing Spider-man, the fighting scene at the end seems somewhat similar to the climax fighting scene of the Avengers, and quite a few more scenes taken right out of other superhero movies.  On top of this, once Kaal gets on his feet, he gets a terrible villain costume...I mean really...that was the worse helmet ever!!  Apart from the movie, I think the actors did good job of acting, especially Vivek Oberoi who was completely in his character and would definitely beg a nomination of best villain (don't know if he'll win it since I don't know who else is in the race).  Hrithik Roshan looked Amaaaaazing with his rigged body and Priyanka Chopra was normal in her role unlike in Krrish where it was hard to tolerate her acting.  The songs of the movie are not great at all.  They don't suit with the movie and seem outdated.  One of the songs that I did like was "Dil tu hi bata" but only until the point where Alisha was singing.  Ok, so there it is, my somewhat harsh review for the movie.  I think kids would love this movie since it's a super hero movie but I can't say about others...I am sure everyone loves this movie in India since it's said to have crossed 200 Crores in just 2 weeks!! Insane!!

Alright, after a Bollywood movie, I watched a Hollywood movie which was thankfully much better than Krrish 3.  It was Thor: The Dark World.  Let me tell you that I did not really like the 1st one so I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but I sat back and enjoyed what the movie had to offer.  I loved how this movie had lighthearted comedy here and there which held the entertainment portion as well as had good action in it!!  I was fully enjoying the movie up until the climax when they showed a twist (can't tell you because then it'll just spoil the movie for you) which left me completely confused when I got out of the theater.  So, if you watch Thor, and happen to know what the hell, no, how the hell happened whatever happened in the climax of the movie, please let me know!!  But, overall, I think it was a good movie and my favorite scene of the movie was the funeral scene (not going to say whose).  It was picturized so beautifully!!



Ok, next up, I just saw the much awaited Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie Ram Leela last weekend.  It just so happens that the movie's title had to be changed just 2 days before the release due to the controversies surrounding the original movie name.  So, the name became Goliyon ki Ras Leela: Ram Leela...interesting, isn't it?  The movie was not the usual Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie since it was quite violent.  Other than that, it had the signature of Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie which includes beautiful sets, amazing costumes, very colorful theme overall, and great songs!! I think the movie was good with the 2nd half being dragged little bit by adding unnecessary characters.  Deepika Padukone looked great and acted brilliant.  Ranveer Singh was the surprise package who has acted equally great, especially in the emotional scenes, he was spot on!! Supriya Pathak as Deepika's mother dons a great villain.  Richa Chadda and Barkha Bisht Sengupta, where both play the bhabhi of Ram and Leela have acted very nicely too.  I felt the item song of Priyanka Chopra was completely unnecessary and I don't really like that song...but she looks GREAT!! Apart from that item song, I think all the songs are amazing, my favorite being the Garba number Nagada Sang Dhol has amazing beat that just makes you want to get up and dance!!

Last, but not least, I just saw Phata Poster Nikla Hero on DVD yesterday at home.  I think this will be the shortest review for me since I don't really have much to say for this movie.  I watched this movie only and only for Shahid Kapoor!! My favorite movie of Rajkumar Santoshi is Andaaz Apna Apna which is a classic example of a stupid comedy which is 100% entertainer with full on laughter, but I think he got it completely wrong with this one.  There were definitely some funny scenes in here that would tickle your funny bone, especially the scene where Shahid does a poll dance but apart from those few funny scenes, the movie is flat and doesn't have much scope to it.  The songs are good and my favorite one is Dhating Naach.  Watch that song for Shahid's crazy moves and funny expressions!!  Illena D'cruz is alright in her role but it's not her fault as she doesn't have much scope in the movie.

Alright friends, I come to a conclusion of the reviews for the night and hope you don't take it personal if these movies are your favorites.  It's just my opinion and I wrote what I felt.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Bahamas Cruise - Carnival Sensation - Day 4 & 5

Day 4: Day on the Sea
Today was the day when it was a "Day at Sea" which means we were going to be on the cruise all day while the cruise is taking us back to the Port Canaveral in Orlando.  This was a day to relax and do things that we didn't get a chance to do the other days!  That mainly meant to do Water Slides!!!! We woke up around 8:30/9 am and my brother and I headed to the dining area for breakfast.  We had a nice breakfast which included pineapple juice, hash browns, and bread & butter.  After the breakfast, we were just strolling through the cruise and came across the casino :). Ok yea...we weren't just strolling, we made an intention to go there ;).  We thought of trying our luck again at black jack and surely, luck was on our side....we actually won some money.  This time, we didn't take chance and instead cashed out our winnings instead of keep playing.  We got back to our rooms, and changed into our swimwear to head out to the water slides!!!

I was kind of scared to try the tube water slide which is kind of enclosed, but decided to give it a try and it was amazing!! It was so much fun that we kept going on it again and again!!  I think we spent couple of hours there until we finally realized how tanned/sun burned we were :P.  We got back to our rooms, took shower, got ready and got something to eat!!  We sat out on the deck and it was just very peaceful.  Right in the middle of the ocean, no one to be seen, just you and the blue water...

After we got something to eat, my brother and I went back to the casino.   I don't know what it is, but the casino just draws you towards it if you know how to play a game or two...and it becomes addicting!!  We didn't play much, just sat at a table for some time, and then headed back to our room.  Today was the last day on the cruise, so there was an entertainment show organized at 7 pm which was called "Far from over".  We went to the show and it was a nice musical piece put together with singers and dancers.  Most of the songs were really nice and I think from late 80s or 90s.  I think the male singer was good, but the female singer was loud and I felt she was doing little bit over the top!! If she toned it down, she would be much better and people wouldn't have to cover their ears when she sings that high note :(.  Overall, I think it was a good 1 hour show.

After the show, I went back to the room and changed for dinner.  We all went to dinner, and had last good chat with our server, Marko.  Very nice guy and warm person.  I am definitely going to miss him and his amazing service of dining room.  After dinner, one of my friends went back to the room to pack her bag while the rest of us hung around the photo studio to look at our pics from all 4 days and my brother and I decided on which elegant night portrait to buy (after much debate, of course!!).  After that, 2 of my friends went to see the magic show tricks, while my brother and I hung out in the casino, again!!  Long story short, I lost the winnings from the morning plus some of my personal money :P....you must be getting bored now by hearing about my casino saga!! Trust me, this is the last time you will hear about it because even I was tired of losing.  I called it a night and for last time, all of us hung out on the deck for few minutes and then went to bed since we had to check-out early next morning!!

Day 5: Back to the Port Canaveral
We had decided to do self-assist debarkation which means that you carry all your luggage yourself and you get priority in getting off the ship.  Our debarkation time for the main deck was from 7:50 am to 8am.  That means we had to get up early, get ready, have breakfast and be out of our room by 8 am.  We all got ready one by one and finished our breakfast and came back to the room for our bags, and scanned for any last minute items in the room.  We probably got in the line by 8:05 am and since I was timing the total time, it took us about 45 minutes to 1 hour to get out of the ship.  We must have gotten out by 8:55 or 9 am.  In the meantime, you just follow the line until you get to the final customs check where they check your passports.  What surprised me is that my friend who is on H1 visa just had to show her Indian passport, and she was good to go without showing any of her other documents she had brought.  She neither had to show her I94 nor work documents which was great!! We got out of the cruise terminal and bid my friend, C, good bye since she had to take shuttle to go back to Tampa while we were taking our flights back from Orlando.  We got to the parking lot of the terminal and waited for our friend, K, to pick us up and go for lunch.  It turns out that K didn't show up until 3 and half hours :(.  But no worries, we made sure we made that time worth while.  We found a good shaded area on the road, yes...on the road, close to the walk way and sat down to play Indian cards game of Do, Teen, Paanch!! That was hell of a fun and time passed by quickly :)

Once K came to pick us up, we headed to an Indian all vegetarian restaurant in Orlando called Woodlands.  It had amazing food and we were starving, so that made for a good combination :)....haha!! We left from there straight to the airport since it was already time for us to leave :(.  We all said good byes and got on the flight to head back home!!

This was one amazing trip with good company of friends (and my brother as well...I can't leave him out)!!  It'll definitely be in my memory and hope we can see each other soon :).  With that, I come to a conclusion for my Bahamas cruise posts and hope you all had good time reading it and it gave you some insight into the trip that it can help you in the future for your trip to Bahamas!!

Bahamas Cruise - Carnival Sensation - Nassau - Day 3

Nassau was the 2nd stop on Day 3 of our cruise.  Due to a lot of walking in Freeport, we were really tired and everyone kind of got up late.  I was first one to get up and go for breakfast.  The first thing at the port of Nassau, when you go out on the deck, your attention is drawn to the beautiful view of the Atlantis Resort.

View from the ship at the port of Nassau

We all got ready and headed out of the ship around 11 am.  Important: Make sure you take an ID card with you when you go out of the ship to see the town.  It can be even driver's license!! When we were coming back from town, Nassau officials were checking everyone's cruise sail-and-sign card and an another identity card at the security check!! Once you walk out of the ship, there is a little shaded walkway that you go through.  Right there, there are quite few people standing waiting for tourists and trying to get them to come with them for city tour if you are interested.  Since we did adventurous excursion in Freeport, we wanted to take the city tour in Nassau.  As soon as I got hold of guide, Bernard, he offered the city tour of 2 to 2 and half hours for $25/person.  We bargained a little bit and asked for $20/person since there were 4 of us.  He agreed and got some more people for his van.  We all followed him to his van and off we go to the city tour.

Through his guide, we found out that the island of Nassau is very small.  It is just 21 miles long and 7 miles wide.  This is the reason the it has everything so close including the police station, the post office, the library, etc.  The place also feels little congested since the roads are very narrow.  It has population of about quarter of a million people.  The guide pointed out some major local spots as he was driving through them.  Our first stop on the tour was Fort Fincastle.  It is not that big, but you can still go in to check it out and see a 360 degrees view of the island from top.  The admission to the fort is not free, it's $1/person if you want to go in.  I think it was worth going in there since you are already there!!

Fort Fincastle @ Nassau, Bahamas

View from top of Fort Fincastle

After the visit to the fort, our next stop was visit to the Queen's staircase which was just a short walk from the fort.  If you have knee problem and can't walk a lot, you might not be able to walk down the stairs.  The guide gave option to those people to just sit in the van and drive down where the queen's staircase ended.  My friends and I decided to walk down the staircase.  I think it was gorgeous view from the staircase because the trees are covered on both sides which kind of looks like a passage in the woods :P.

Queen's Staircase @ Nassau, Bahamas

Waterfall at the Queen's Staircase

After what felt like a nice encounter with nature, we continued our city tour.  On the way, we found out that a lot of Hollywood actors own houses on this island which are quite pricey.  Some of the famous names include Anna Nicole Smith, Michel Jordan, Leonardo De Caprio, Oprah, and many more I am sure!!  The tour also had the Nassau hospital on the route where apparently Anna Nicole Smith's son was treated who later died there.  The next stop on the tour was Atlantis resort.  Now, for those who think that Atlantis is on Nassau, it is not!! Atlantis is on a separate island (I think it's known as Paradise Island) which you can go to through a bridge from Nassau.  There is a $2 toll right when you enter the perimeter at the entrance.  Also, if you are going to Atlantis to just visit it (and not staying in the hotel), you are only able to access some areas of it including the Casino.  The casino is also worth going because it includes some amazing art pieces/sculptures which are worth checking out!! The inside of Atlantis seriously feels like the Forum Shops of Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas and the Venetian shops with high-end brand shops and all.

Atlantis @ Paradise Island

After half an hour or so, we were picked up from the Atlantis and we finished our tour by seeing some local spots of Nassau from the Van itself.  After we were dropped off back at the ship, we went to the Straw Market.  Now, if you want to shop, this is the place for you!! It's packed with stalls of bags, jewellery, hand crafted items, etc.  And you can try to bargain as well.  There is also a public beach just 10 minutes walk from the cruise ship port which our server, Marko, had told us about, but we didn't have time to go there.  We headed back on the ship after another fun day, grabbed hot chocolate and sat out on the deck.  It was a nice view and good weather!

The rest of the day, there wasn't anything planned except dinner, my brother and I decided to be in the casino and try out Black Jack.  We met one of the casino crew member, Richard, who was from South Africa.  He showed us how to play Black Jack and we played couple of rounds with him.  He was very nice and welcoming guy...he asked us where we were from and upon finding out that we were from India, he shared his story with us.  He said that he met Shah Rukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty in South Africa when they had gone for their Cricket teams' match!!  I was so jealous :P...haha!!  Anyways, throughout the night, we pretty much lost all that we had played (after winning some and then losing the winning money as well)...so decided to call it a night.

The next day was going to be very relaxing since it was going to be on the sea :).  With that, I conclude my 3rd day of the cruise and hope you guys had fun reading it!!  I will be back with my 4th day adventures later....until then, have a great time!!

Bahamas Cruise - Carnival Sensation - Freeport, Bahamas - Day 2

For the 2nd day on cruise, I woke up in the Bahamas!! The cruise ship had already docked at Freeport, Bahamas.  One by one, we all got ready, had breakfast, and then started heading off the ship around 10:35/40 am.  Let me tell you that for this cruise, I did not get any excursions through Carnival.  Instead, I had researched a little bit before the cruise and asked my uncle who had taken this cruise before on what we could do at the port.  From my research, I found out that there is a resort called The Grand Lucayan Resort which has a beach and there is a 3rd party company Ocean Motion who have water activities on that beach which we can buy for much cheaper price than what we would pay at the cruise excursions.  With that in mind, when we got out of the ship, there were already local taxi drivers there ready to take you to Port Lucaya Marketplace which is just across from the The Grand Lucayan Resort.  The round trip ride was just $10/person, so we got on to one of their 10-passengers van.  We had a female driver, Geneva, who was very nice lady.  She dropped us off at the gate of Tennessee Bay Casino (which is next to the resort), we paid the round trip fare to Geneva and in return, they give you a pass which you present back to the agent at the gate whenever you want to head back to the ship.  That simple!

After getting our pass, it was just a short walk to the resort next door.  The resort has an all-day pass for non-guests for $15 which allows you the access to the beach and all their facilities such as pools, cafes, etc.  Make sure you bring the beach towels from the cruise since the resort does not provide them for free (you have to pay for them).  The resort has a free wi-fi!!  My brother and I wanted to do parasailing, so we started looking for the Ocean Motion guys where we could get that going.  We headed to the right side of the beach and found an agent of Ocean Motion.  He told us that their website shows $70/person for parasailing but he would give us a deal for $60/person.  In either case, it was going to be a good deal for us.  He also said if we wanted to do jet skiing, it was $60/30 minutes/2 people which is not bad deal.  We signed up for parasailing and headed on a boat to get to the dock where they had parasailing gear (just little bit away from the beach).  There was an option for 1 person/2 people/3 people parasailing and we just opted for all 1 person, that way each of us get to go alone!! This was the best experience we all had.  I didn't time it but we were up in the air for quite some time (maybe 7 minutes) and it was so beautiful and peaceful up there!! You can see the ocean clearly and even the surface underneath the water you can see clearly!! I was high enough to see a good view of the island!! Beautiful indeed!! We got back to the shore and wanted to relax a bit, so decided not to do jet skiing.  We relaxed a bit under the shade and then wanted to check out the resort's infinity pool that I had read about in the reviews online.

The Grand Lucayan Resort in Freeport, Bahamas

Relaxing under the shade, and still beautiful view!!

The beach, the white sand, the crystal clear blue water

After relaxing for a bit, we headed to the far left end of the beach where there was the infinity pool.  We reached there and it was worth walking that extra distance because the pool was nice!! It wasn't that deep and you have a good view of the beach from the pool.  We chilled in the pool until it was time for us to head back.

The Infinity Pool @ The Grand Lucayan Resort

The taxi driver had told us to be back by 4 pm and we wanted to stroll in the marketplace little bit, so we headed out from the resort around 3:15 pm and went to the marketplace across the street.  I personally felt that everything was kind of expensive in the shops, so just looked around and then finally we caught the taxi to get back to the ship.

This was really a tiring day since we walked a lot on the beach.  It was also a tanning day since it was crazy hot and the sun was upon us the entire time!!  But the day was not over yet.  This day also happened to be the elegant night on the cruise which means we all dress up and take bunch of fancy photo shoots around the cruise where they have different/elegant backgrounds set up for us.  We got on the ship, took shower, and got ready with our formal dinner outfits!! Headed out to take pics and then off to the dining room.  We were starving and attacked the bread and butter like crazy :P...haha.  We had to wait until our main dinner came, so we just fed ourselves to the readily available food which was bread & butter!! Don't worry, we finished our main course meal as well :).

Today, for entertainment, we had magic show which was going to feature at 10:30 pm, so before that we had some time on hand, so my brother and I tried our luck in the casino.  I can't remember right now, but I think we lost while playing Roulette. The magic show was  interesting and entertaining.  With that, I called it a night and went to bed.  This was a great fun and adventurous day and I will always remember it!!  The next stop is Nassau, Bahamas, so stay tuned for more stories!!

See ya!!

Bahamas Cruise - Carnival Sensation - Day 1

After a long day on Saturday, we all woke up around 7:30/8 am and started getting ready.  My initial plan was to leave house by 10 am and reach the rental company by 12 pm and be on the boat by 1 pm....but of course, when you plan something that precise, it never works out :P...haha!  Well, we were running little bit late and got out of the apartment by 10:45 am, loaded everyone's bags, and were on the road by 11 am.  This was the beginning of a 2 hour drive from Tampa to Cape Canaveral (to Enterprise's drop off location).  We had a good weather and no traffic on the road.  Also a good dose of Antakshari (Indian game of singing songs) in the car made it fun and time passed by quickly.  We got to the Cape Canaveral within 2 hours and at the location of Enterprise rental company in time.  We met up with one of their agents in the parking lots and I just had to take the receipt inside to get it processed and that was it!! I handed the keys to the agent and they had another shuttle pull in the parking lot when we were unloading our bags, ready to take us to Port Canaveral to our cruise!!  It was maybe 5-10 minute drive to the cruise ship and we started heading inside for the check-in.

One of my friends was on H1 visa and she did not get a Bahamas visa, so she was bit worried that Carnival might deny her boarding.  She was extremely nervous, but it all worked out as she wasn't really asked for visa at the check-in.  The agent checked all of our passports, boarding passes, and took our picture.  She quickly processed our sail-and-sign cards, and we were off to an exciting journey!!  My friend with H1 visa was relieved big time after she was good to go with check-in!! I was really surprised with the speed of check-in since it might have just taken 10-15 minutes and good thing was that there wasn't that big of a crowd at that time.

We started heading for the cruise entrance and then off to our stateroom.  We had an interior room (in the back of the ship) with 4 people.  It was different from last time but still not bad.  It was small and cozy :).  Here is a snap if you want to know what it looks like.

Interior room for 4 people

Once we got to our room, we freshened up, arranged our bags, and then headed out to the deck and to explore the cruise!!  We went up to the deck first to see the view, the pools, the restaurants and food stations that were going to be opened throughout the ship.  Food is important part of the cruise, so we wanted to make sure where exactly to go when we found ourselves starving :P....haha.    My brother and I also checked out the casino where we were planning to spend some quality time during the next 4 days ;).  I had recently learned how to play Black Jack, so I was curious to try my luck with that game!!  After a good hour or so, we just decided to chill out on the top deck.  While on the deck, I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets ever!!  I will just give you a glimpse of it since you have to be there to witness the true beauty but it's enough to give you an idea.

After the sunset, it was already time for our dinner.  We had late dining option at 8:15 pm, which I felt was kind of late for us but we didn't have an option since the earlier dining time was already full for 6 pm.  We got to the dining room and met our server, Marko, who was from Serbia.  Marko seemed very nice and warm person from the first impression.  We got our menus and we were happy to see that Indian Vegetarian Meal was one of the options on everyday menu :).  We did have special dietary needs for 2 of my friends who needed Jain meals (food which is vegetarian, and doesn't include root vegetables like potatoes, garlic, onions, etc.).  We let Marko know of the requirement and he consulted with the dining room host.  The host got the details from us and the Chef prepared fresh Jain meals for both of my friends!! This was amazing that they honored the meal option and prepared it on the spot for them.  The server took note of the meals and said that for the next 3 days, they wouldn't have to worry about the dining option as it'll be prepared properly according to Jain standards.  I was happy, my friends were happy, everyone was happy :)  My brother and I got the Indian vegetarian meal which was equally delicious.  Here is an example of what we had:

Corn chips and Guacamole

Rajma, Aloo & Capsicum vegetables with Rice & Papad

Apart from the delicious dinner, there was entertainment provided by the dining room staff as well.  To welcome all the guests, the dining room waiters/servers had prepared a small dance number.  They all danced to the song "Low" from the movie Step Up.  It was fun and entertaining!!  After the dinner, the day was not over yet.  There was a 10 pm welcome show from the cruise director Jimmy (he called himself "Weeeeee Jimmy").  It started with dancing and singing from their musical crew and after that Jimmy introduced himself with a fun game that involved the audience participation.  It was hillarious!! Also, there was a planned proposal on stage which ended with a "yes" from the girl being proposed :).  There was also a comedy show after that, but it wasn't that funny, so we called it a night around midnight and went to bed.  For the first day, I felt the boat moving quite a bit but once we went to bed, we didn't remember anything and were looking forward to a nice day in Freeport, Bahamas.

With that, I conclude our 1st day on the cruise!! Hope you all enjoyed reading.  I will be back with the most adventurous day details in the next post for Freeport, Bahamas!!

Enjoy!! Have a great day :)

Tampa, Florida - Vacation begins!!

To give you all a little background, one of my friends and I were brainstorming locations to go for vacation.  Yellowstone national park, and Grand Canyon were among the first 2 choices.  Then I realized that since we are planning a trip to either of the two places, we'll need to find lodging, we'll have to take care of food, and we'll have to rent a car to see these places, then why not just do a cruise!!  I instantly searched through my Carnival emails to see if there were any recent deals and came across a 4-days Bahamas cruise from Orlando which was priced at $129/person + taxes (if we have 4 people in the room).  I checked out the location, ports of call, excursions at those places, and felt that this was it!! This was the vacation we should be taking, and without having any second thoughts, I suggested this vacation to my friend.  She also loved it and we finalized on this wonderful cruise to Bahamas!!  I booked the cruise for myself, my brother, and 2 of my friends about a month before its sailing date.  After the cruise was booked, the next thing was to book the air travel.  One of my friends lives in Tampa, FL, so she suggested that we go to her place a day before, stay the night at her place, and then we all leave together for the Port Canaveral for the cruise.  I liked the idea, so we booked the air travel to go to Tampa and then once we return, we booked our return flight straight from Orlando back home.  Now, the 3rd question was the transportation from home to the Port Canaveral.  I inquired at couple of shuttle services and the cheapest price I got for the transfer from Tampa to Port Canaveral was $35/person.  Also since we were flying to Tampa and my friend didn't have a car, we would have had to get a shuttle from airport to her place, which would have cost another $15- $20/person.  With keeping this in mind, I decided to just rent a car on Saturday and return it on Sunday somewhere near the port.  I finalized Enterprise Rental Car for our travel from Tampa to Cape Canaveral (where they have their office to return the car) for as low as $32/day (plus gas money) for a mid-size car which was much better deal than going with any shuttles, plus you have the freedom to go wherever you want if you have the rental car.  After the car was rented, everything was set and we just had to prepare for a great vacation ahead of us.

Our cruise was from Sunday, so we were leaving for Tampa on Saturday and it was a really early morning flight for us :(.  With very little sleep the night before, we woke up, got ready, and headed for the airport at 4 am....yea...that's early!!  We got to the airport to find that there is a line for security check.  Seriously....Who travels this early(except us who had to choose this flight since we didn't have any other option)?? I had thought that the security check would be like a breeze at this early in the morning, but boy, was I wrong!  It took us about 25-30 minutes to clear security and then we headed for our gate.  I think partly reason of long wait was also the fact that they only had 1 person scanner open and only 2 baggage scanners running.  Normally I am done with security check within 20 minutes when it's busy time of the day at the airport...oh well.  We get to our gate and then on to the flight!! Off we go to Tampa!! With 1 stop in between, we finally get to Tampa at 1:30 pm, and start heading to Enterprise Rental Car office which is just across the street from baggage claim area.  One of my friends was flying in to Tampa as well and she was already here at 12: 30 pm, so she was waiting for us to get there and then get the car.

Enterprise Car Rental Experience:
We get to the Enterprise counter and I feel happy to find no crowd there except just 1 customer in the line.  I get in line to be called for my turn.  Apparently, the agent behind the counter was having good time chatting with the customer in front of me, so she was just taking her time to finish their transaction without even noticing that I had been waiting for over 15 minutes.  Finally, after about 20 minutes wait, another agent opens a 2nd counter to help us out.  Once we get our turn, I give my driver's license and he gets the basic info from that.  He asks me some basic stuff if I am interested in getting insurance, GPS, road side assistance, etc. etc., the services which they offer.  I declined all of them except one which I felt was good to have in case if we do get stuck somewhere in the middle, they send out another car to where we are which we can take for our onward journey ($4/day charge).  The agent was nice and didn't push us to take the services.  He gave us his card, and pointed us to go to the parking lot where we can pick the car we want for the class we paid for.  Once we got to the parking lot, it turns out that they only had 1 mid-size car, Ford Focus, which didn't have a good trunk space.  We needed a good trunk space since there were 4 of us and all of us had 1 carry-on bag + personal item.  The agent who was showing us the car pointed us to a different car, 2013 Nissan Versa, which was bigger in size and had a plenty of trunk space, enough to fit all the bags.  The only thing was that it was one class below the mid-size but was a better option for us.  The agent told us that he would give us 5% discount which should cover the price difference between compact and mid-size car, so we went ahead with Nissan Versa and continued with our journey!! Btw, I checked my credit card statement and I did not receive any 5% discount, but didn't want to call them back and be bothered with it since it was just about $2-$3 difference, but they should have been professional about it if they said they would give us the discount!

The trip had just started.  We put address of my friend, C, who lives in Tampa in the GPS of my friend, V, who was with us in car.  The structure of Tampa airport is so confusing that we got on the wrong road, and got lost instantly as we got out of the airport.  We stopped by at one of the parking lots, and quickly re-routed our way to make sure we get to C's place safe :).  Finally, after one and half hours after landing, we get to meet C!  We get to her apartment, freshen up, eat something and decide to just go out and see the town little bit.  My friend V had another friend, K, in Tampa whom she had contacted earlier, so he also joined us in the evening.  He took us all to one of the Tampa malls, and then after that he took us to Taco Bus which he owned.  This is the first time I have heard of this fast food chain.  It's basically Mexican restaurant and the great thing about this is that Taco Bus provides Vegetarian and Vegan food options and everything is cooked in separate vessels which doesn't cause any cross-contamination with non-veg/meat items.  We had delicious vegetarian Quesadilla and fresh watermelon juice!! That was delicious and very filling :).

Taco Bus in Tampa, FL (The area is called Brandon)

After that, he dropped us off back at my friend's place and we decided to meet later in the evening again since my friend, V, wanted to visit her aunt who lived in Clearwater, FL.  We all decided to meet at a place and from there K was going to take us to V's aunt's place since he knows them very well too.  We get to V's aunt's place around 9:15 pm and she had also prepared Mexican dinner for us including Quesadilla, rice, chips & guacamole!! We were kind of full from earlier but the food looked too delicious, so we sat down to eat again :P...haha.  We had great time with her aunt and uncle, we chatted about our cruise that we were going to take, the cruises they had taken before, etc.  Finally, at around 11 pm we say good bye to them and head back to Westin hotel where we had parked our car.  K actually owns that Westin hotel with other partners, so he was able to give us a tour of the hotel.  The tour included the visit to the rooftop of the hotel (15th floor) which gives you a great view of the city at night!! It was amazing!! Also, we got to see how one of the suites looked in that hotel....and boy, it was like a mini luxury apartment :).  The hotel had great views around it! Finally, after midnight we head back to my friend's apartment to get some sleep.

This was a very long day! But, it was great day with friends, exploring the place, and also I made a new friend!! Overall, worth the trip to Tampa!! Now, next stop is Port Canaveral to start a fun cruise to the Bahamas!! Stay tuned....more info coming!!!

Bahamas Cruise - Carnival Sensation - Vacation Highlights!!

Wow!! It's great to be back on my own blog after 3 months!! I have been so busy that I have not been able to write any posts on the blog :(.  Well, I am back and back with some stories to tell you about my experience and adventure on my recent vacation to Bahamas on a Carnival Sensation cruise!!!

Here are just few highlights for you until I can write the detailed posts on each destination...so here it is!!
- Flew to Tampa, met friends, drove from Tampa to Orlando (Port Canaveral), Carnival sensation cruise to 4-days bahamas
- Freeport, Bahamas: The Grand Lucayan Resort, sunny and beautiful beach, crystal clear blue water & white sand, amazing resort pools, Parasailing!!
- Nassau, Bahamas: The Atlantis Resort, Nassau city tour, Straw market!!
- Amazing food on cruise, Roulette & Black Jack fun in the casino, Amazing sunsets, Water slides, and Great entertainment!!!

Alright, that's all I am going to leave you with right now, with details coming up soon!!

Summer is here!!

Hi Friends,
I am writing after long time, but just been busy with work and everything else happening around day to day life.  I have had an itch to write something for a while and here I am!!  I am so happy that Summer is here.  You must be thinking that it's already June and Summer has been here for a while...but not in Colorado.  The weather has been changing so much that we had snow up until 1st week of May and then when we felt that summer is approaching, we get a week of cloudy and rainy weather.  Now, since May is gone, and June has been welcomed with temperatures in 80s, I feel summer is here to stay :).

Just in the past weekend (June 1st and 2nd), there was a Chalk Art Festival going on in the downtown Denver.  The weather was so good that it made the event more enjoyable for all of us who came to witness some amazing chalk artwork from various talented artists.  The place was crowded, artists were busy with their artwork, concert was going on one side and food vendors were busy on the other side.  Some of the artwork was still not complete but you could instantly tell if it was a hit or a miss and most of them were super hit!!  Here is an example of some of work I witnessed.

 

Also, summer has been very kind in the movies department as well.  How so?  Well, every time Summer comes, it brings with it a wave of some amazing movies which catches the eyes of all age groups.  I, myself have been paying quite a few visits to the theater lately due to the latest releases.  First one I saw was Iron Man 3 (Robert Downey Jr.!!), then Fast & Furious 6 (Man, it was fast and it was kick-ass!!), and recently I saw Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (fun filled, beautiful romantic movie)!!  The list doesn't end there as there are many more movies releasing in the next couple of months including Now you see me (already released past weekend), Man of Steel, X-Men Wolverine, Monsters University, and many more!!

Alright friends, gotta go right now...and hope to write something soon.  Take care :)

Return from India Trip 2013 - Part 3

Continuing from my previous post....Return from India Trip 2013 - Part 2

At the Newark airport, we get out to wait for the wheelchair and there are few other people as well who had assigned wheelchair, so we had to wait a little since the wheelchairs were being assigned by whose flight is leaving sooner than later.  We had about 10-15 minutes wait and then headed with the wheelchair person to get to immigration.  All of a sudden, on the way, he says that we can't go with my dad since the immigration people won't allow anyone with the wheelchair person.  What?? That's definitely new!!  We told him that we are all one family and we won't be going separate since we had already filled out one immigration as a family.....  We said let us at least go down the elevator with you and then we will join in the regular line while he took my dad in front of the line, but the guy was adamant!!  While we were talking with him, another wheelchair guy comes to pick up someone and I asked him whether we can or can not go with my dad since we are all together and he happily said that yea of course you can all go together....and he looked at my dad's wheelchair guy and said...take them together...well, at that point I wasn't sure if our guy was telling the truth or not.  We went down to the immigration department with my dad and started heading in the line with him, and all of a sudden another security personal comes and asks where we all were going.  We explained that we are one family and going with our dad...so, she refused and said that only spouse goes with him and the rest goes to stand in regular line.  At that point, we did not have any choice and me and my brother filled out another immigration form.  As we were going to the other immigration line, the wheelchair guy called out to us and signaled us to stand right behind him.  This way we got our turn right after my parent's immigration got through.  Phew!! That was interesting but it was nice of him to do that!! 

Finally we got through immigration in like 2 minutes and headed to get our bags.  Since bags had already started coming on the belt, it didn't take much time for our bags to come.  Now, this was getting little hard since we had to pull our check-in baggage along with our carry-on bag and a personal item....but it wasn't too long before we had to hand our check-in luggage for the connecting flight.  All the previous times, if we had a lock on our check-in bags, we were told to take it out but this time there was nothing like that.  We had the locks on our bags and when I started to unlock them, the wheelchair guy told us to keep them on since it's not necessary to unlock the bags.  I was surprised and asked him twice if it was alright and he said nothing to worry about.  We headed to the security after that and straight to the gate!  There was still one and half hours for our flight, so we got some good time to relax near the gate.

United Airlines from Newark to Denver:  Our last leg of the flight was from Newark to Denver on United Airlines which was about 4 hours flight.  I was pretty surprised to find touch screen monitors behind each seat which had pretty good selection of movies.  I felt some of the movies that were in the selection weren't even provided on the longer flight we were on.  Anyways, with over 4 hours flight, I was just waiting to get home and sleep!!  We reached Denver in time but apparently it had snowed that morning in Denver due to which the airport had runways covered in snow.  We must have flown in the air for about 15-20 minutes in order to be landed, but since only one of the runways was open and another one was being cleaned, the pilots had to take a detour to Colo. Springs airport and wait there for half an hour before they get a green signal from DIA to come back.  At this point, I was really tired, my body was aching, my legs were killing me (just from sitting for over 20 hours) and I wanted to go home!!!!  Finally we get to our airport, get our baggage and my friend had already arrived to pick us up.  After that, straight ride home, and then as I always say "Home sweet home" :D

Well, with this post,  I conclude my journey experience and hope you all enjoyed reading!!  Have a beautiful day :)

Return from India Trip 2013 - Part 2

Mumbai International Airport: We reached the international terminal via the transfer shuttle and were told that the gate for United Airlines was Gate C.  We showed our boarding passes and got in.
*Important Note*: If your flight is late at night (after midnight) and if you show up 5 to 6 hours before the flight time, the security at the gate might not let you in and tell you to come back 3 or 4 hours before the flight.  I saw that they sent back one family right in front of me and didn't allow them to go in.

Once we got in, we find that the United airlines counter doesn't open until 3 hours before the flight time.  Well, that leaves us plenty of time to sit at the airport.  Upon checking the counter again, I found out that they were going to open the counter at 7:30 pm, so we head for the counter around 7:25 pm and line had already started forming.  We stand in line only to wait another 45 minutes before they start checking in passengers.  While in the line, they give you new hand baggage tags, so it's another task to remove the old tags and replace them with new ones.  By the time we got our turn, all the passengers passports were checked twice by two different agents.  Also while in line, one of the agents was asking couple of questions to each of the passengers (or group if you are together) whether you packed the baggage yourself, whether anyone handed you anything at the airport, etc. etc. which are mainly security questions.  We get our turn and got new boarding passes and headed for the immigration.  The immigration line was really really long!! This would have taken us another 30 minutes to an hour if we were to sand in that line...but thankfully we didn't have to.  We were able to bypass this line with my dad's wheelchair and get in the front.  Our passports were stamped and we moved onto security.  Again, there was some shortcut for the security that we were able to take and clear the security screening quickly.  I think it was in the basement, or that's what it felt like.  Well, finally, now I felt like we were at the airport!!

This is the first time I have seen this part of the Mumbai international airport.  The place was booming with all the high-end brand shops whether it's perfumes, handbags, clothing, and also some nice food courts and restaurants.  I was pretty amazed.  We got to our gate and settled down.  All of a sudden we realize that we have entered into an on-going party which must have been organized by the head of the mosquitoes!!  They were everywhere...hovering above, below, sideways, everywhere!!  Instead of fighting a loosing battle, we decided to move away from the gate and sit somewhere else where we were still close enough to keep an eye on our gate to know whether they start boarding or not.  When the United Airlines agent announced the boarding, we went to the gate and headed inside for one last security screening.  Once through, we had to wait again for about 30 minutes or so in the passage before they started the actual boarding process.  Finally, boarding started and as we went in the plane, I noticed that the mosquitoes voluntarily checked-in and brought their party inside the plane as well!!  This was really annoying because we had to constantly move our hands around to get rid of them....unbelievable!! Finally, the staff on board sprayed something to crash their party and make them disappear.  And so the plane peacefully takes off.

United Airlines from Mumbai to Newark:  Our second leg of the journey was from Mumbai to Newark which was going to be a good long 16 hours journey!! The seats were comfortable and manageable.  The entertainment portion was, unfortunately, the same as the flight from Washington to Dubai, so there was no new addition of Bollywood movies and the same selection of Hollywood movies.  The food (we had Asian veg. meal) was definitely good...and provided different variety for dinner and breakfast.  And if I remember, I slept through most of the flight since I was just really tired.  We reached Newark early morning around 5:15 or 5:30 am and were happy to know that we were close to getting home :)

I will continue talking about the journey in the next post...until then, have fun!!

Return from India Trip 2013 - Part 1

It was sad but already time for us to leave India and head back to the states.  We woke up early morning and got ready, checked all the bags one last time and got everything ready.  We had nice lunch with family and decided to leave around 12:30 pm.  We reached Ahmedabad domestic airport in 45 minutes.  All of us just hung out outside of the airport and finally at 2 pm we bid our relatives goodbye and headed inside the airport.  The airport was empty.  There was no crowd and no lines.

We got to the Jet Airways counter to check-in.  The agent weighed our bags and it turns out that we had about 3 kilos more among 4 bags.  So, the agent tells us to take out 1 kilo.  From what I remember, back in 2008, when we flew with Jet they were not this picky.  In fact, at that time we had more than 4 kilos and there was no problem.  I think it also depends on how flexible the agent is.  Anyways, I reduce the weight of one of the bags by taking out an item and the agent continues by saying "Please bring your carry-on bags forward to weigh them"....Whaaaa???  Well, this is new!!  I have never had to weigh our hand baggage whenever I have traveled, even with Jet.  This kind of had me worried because I knew that all of our carry-on bags had more than 7 kilos.  After weighing all the carry-on bags, the weight was about 6 - 7 kilos over, but, the agent didn't say anything.  Phew! That was a relief.  Good thing is that the agent didn't ask to weigh our personal items (purses & backpack/laptop bag) because we were all carrying additional 5-6 kilos in hand :P.  Anyways, after the weighing luggage fiesta, we got our boarding passes for the entire journey (including the United Airlines passes), however, the agent told us to exchange the United Airlines passes with United when we reach Mumbai.  We also got tags for all of our carry-on bags and personal items.
*IMP*: Make sure that you have a tag for each carry-on bag and personal item you're carrying.  If you don't then you'll be sent back from the security screening to get the tags.  The reason for this is that during the security screening, after your bags have gone through the scanner, the tags for each carry-on gets stamped which later gets checked before you board the plane.

Before we head for security, we say our final goodbyes (in the form of weaving) to our family who were anxiously waiting to see us and make sure we checked-in fine.  The domestic airport is very small with only 6 or 7 gates, that's why you don't know the gate number until last minute.  Once our gate was announced, we headed upstairs and again, find no crowd.  Once the boarding started, our bags were checked to see if all the hand luggage had stamps or not.  After that, straight to the plane!!

Jet Airways from Ahmedabad to Mumbai:  Our first leg of the journey was from Ahmedabad to Mumbai on Jet Airways, less than 1 hour flight.  Our flight left on time around 3:55 pm.  The seats were good and comfortable.  Even though it was an hour long flight to Mumbai, Jet served complimentary meal to everyone which included Cheese & Chutney Sandwich, and a Fruity.  This was nice since I was hungry and also good to know that Jet is not "Kanjoos" (Cheap) like FlyDubai who even charge you to get water.  We also got the immigration forms on board to fill out ahead of time.  Once we landed at Mumbai domestic airport, I had an impression that we would have to take a bus from plane to get to terminal but things seemed to have changed.  Our plane taxied at the domestic terminal gate.  We were already at the terminal, so we headed to the transfer desk, so we could be transferred from the domestic to international airport.  Again, something seems to have changed.  In the past, I remember we had to go to the transfer desk, show them our onward boarding passes, and then they would give us tokens that we take to the transfer shuttle.  Now, we just headed straight to the transfer bus line and didn't need to get any tokens.  All we needed was our passports and the onward boarding passes.  The line for the transfer was huge...thankfully my dad had assigned wheelchair so we went straight in the front of the line and got on the shuttle first.  Before you get on shuttle, there is one more security screening of your bags and yourself which kind of takes longer time but it's for the safety of the people.  Once the shuttle was full, it was about 15-20 minute ride to the international terminal.  Mumbai's international terminal was crowded like crazy!!  The bus driver had to honk at the people signaling them to move so that the driver had enough space to park the bus!!  We get down and head inside for our onward journey.

I am going to stop right here and continue in the next post since this one is already becoming long.  Until then, see ya!!

India Trip 2013 - More highlights & fun...

After the wedding (India Trip 2013 - Wedding festivities) and 2 weeks of non-stop fun, we still had 1 week left in India.  This was not enough time as there were so many things we wanted to do, so many places we wanted to visit, a lot more restaurants we wanted to eat at, but had to fit all that in JUST 1 WEEK!!  We already had planned to visit some of the Jain temples after the wedding, so that's what we did.  To visit Palitana, we needed at least 2 days, so scratch those 2 days off the week we had left.  Unfortunately, while going to Palitana, my mom got really sick and couldn't come to the temple at the top of the mountains, but was able to do puja at other temples at the lower level.  Our trip was successful to Palitana where my brother and I got to do puja very nicely since there was no crowd at the temple.  We got back from Palitana on Tuesday night.  My mom started to feel better when we got back but I got really sick on Wednesday morning :(.  Not fun at all.  Seems that I might have caught it from my mom or got something from the Palitana itself.  In either case, I was shivering with 102 to 103 degree temperatures for 2 days which was not fun at all!! It made me really weak and I had lost taste of food no matter how delicious it was.  Finally, after starting an antibiotics course, I started feeling better on 3rd day and was getting my energy back.

With me being so sick, I seriously thought that my birthday, that was coming up soon, was going to be ruined with me lying in bed with no energy and high fever.  Thankfully, as I got better, I instantly made a plan to celebrate my birthday in a restaurant with my family and close relatives.  My cousin and I called couple of places to ask for the menu and finalized on a restaurant.  Some of the relatives couldn't come, but we still had a nice family time.

Also one of the other highlights of my trip was meeting two of my high school friends after 13 years!!  It was the best time I had where I laughed non-stop for 2 hours.....credit goes to my friend D, and also G's 4 years old son!!  We laughed recalling a lot of old school memories where I don't even remember half of it, but thanks to D for bringing those memories back.  It was also great to meet D's wife for the first time.  They make cute couple!!  After that evening, we only had one and half days left until our flight back to the states :(.  I celebrated my birthday a day before with the family since I knew that on my birthday we'll be doing a lot of packing, but I got even a special surprise on my birthday at midnight.  My cousin and his wife brought home a delicious chocolate-almond cake at midnight to celebrate my birthday!!  It was really sweet of them and that concluded the day by me cutting the cake!!  The next day, instead of packing, we were out meeting the remaining relatives.  After a tiring day, we went out to eat with family to celebrate my birthday again!! And that's it!! That was the last day before we all leave and our vacation is over in no time!!

We did our final check of the bags, and went to bed.  This vacation was a lot of fun with some of its downfalls with my mom getting sick, then me getting sick, and then, oh yea, I forgot to mention that my brother also got some viral eye infection which lasted for really long time :(....but what can you do?  When these things happen, you really don't have control over them and just hope and pray that you get well by taking the medicines :(....

In the next couple of posts, I will give you guys the details of our journey back to the States from India which was equally interesting!!  Until then, have fun!!

India Trip 2013 - Wedding festivities!!

After a long journey to India, you would think that we would get chance to relax, but that was not the case in our situation.  I went for my cousin's wedding where the ceremonies were going to start from Feb. 10th, just 5 days from the time we landed!!  That meant no resting for us. We had to go for shopping right away to buy clothes for all of us....so that started our 1st week in India.

We did pretty good in terms of shopping this time because we were able to cover a lot of places in the 1st week to get most of our shopping done.  I bought a lot of my dresses, my mom bought her dresses, and we got the traditional man's wear for my dad and brother ordered since theirs needed to be stitched....not bad for 1st week!!

Then comes the 2nd week for the wedding ceremonies to begin.  There were total of 7 events for this wedding which made me think of this wedding as a preview of some Yash Chopra  movie!! It was seriously celebrated in a grand way with ceremonies like Siddhchakra Pujan (Big Puja), Aanu(explained later), Sangeet Sandhya, Mehndi, Wedding, & Reception!!

Siddhchakra Pujan is considered one of the most auspicious pujan in Jainism and the purpose behind performing this pujan was to give the blessings and happiness to the couple who was going to start their lives together.  It's considered to be one of the longest Puja as well.

Moving on, the next event was Aanu.  This event is basically performed by the bride's side.  Aanu is a term for the things that the bride's family gives to the bride, when she gets married, to take to her in-laws house.  The things can be from anything to everything which includes clothes, jewellery, shoes, makeup items, crockery, etc. etc.  This was huge!!  We all helped my cousin decorate the terrace with her stuff and it pretty much covered the entire terrace...which was amazing!! The fun part was when the groom also came to look at the Aanu and he jokingly said that he might have to shift his wardrobe out of the house in order to fit everything that my cousin was bringing :).  It was fun.

Next event was the Sangeet Sandhya!! My favorite favorite ceremony which I enjoyed to the fullest...best show put together, hands down!!  For those who don't know what Sangeet Sandhya is, here is a short intro.  The meaning of this ceremony lies within the name itself, "Sangeet", which means music and dance.  This ceremony is usually performed by either bride or groom's family.  In this case, this event was organized by the bride's family.  Since my mami (aunt & my cousin's mom) is a famous singer in Ahmedabad, there were some brilliant singing performances by well-known Ahmedabad singers.  I don't remember everyone's names but one of the singers was Bhumik Shah.  He sang songs like Chaand sifarish from Fanaa, Teri Deewani by Kailash Kher, and more.  One of the other singers sang very emotional Gujarati song "Dikari mari ladakvayi" where my aunt joined later singing with him.  While the song was being performed, I noticed that all my masis (including my mom) was crying :(.  This song is really that emotional that it just makes you melt when you hear it.  Kudos to my mami who sang it so bravely for my cousin and didn't break down during the song!!  After the singing performances, then comes dancing performances.  This included performances by us cousins, my cousin's friends, the groom's friends, bride's side family members, and finally the performance by the bride & the groom!!  After everything wrapped up, party was not over yet :).  We all had dinner together where the food was just too delicious!! The menu was so good that I literally ate everything more than I could handle (in intervals, of course, otherwise I would have exploded)!!  The menu had Indian style Pizza, Pasta, Sizzler, Chole Bhature, Jalebi, Mango & Kiwi shake, is your mouth watering yet??  Anyways, that was the end of the day with an amazing night of fun and entertainment.

We were all very tired from the Sangeet Sandhya but had to pull ourselves together for yet another ceremony of Mehndi.  This event was kept at a place called Choki Dhaani where they have made the place to give a village-like atmosphere with Khatlo (a kind of a village bed) and all.  During Mehndi, there were also singers performing mehndi songs while Mehndi (henna) was being applied to the ladies.  Here is a snippet of my Mehndi.

We had a day break in between Mehndi and the Wedding which was a good time to relax and do some last minute preps for the wedding.  The wedding was going to take place in the evening, but before the wedding there is one more ritual that was going to take place early morning at 6 am.  And that was Ganesh Matli & Pithi (also known as Haldi rasam).  This ritual is performed by mostly women where the Ganesh (Ganpati) puja takes place in the morning and after that ritual, Pithi (Haldi rasam) takes place where we apply Turmeric on the face, hands, legs of the bride.  The purpose of Pithi is to apply Turmeric on the bride so that her face glows at the wedding.

The Wedding itself is broken down into a lot of rituals where the groom's side family comes dancing to the wedding venue, the bride's family welcomes the groom, and the groom & his friends demand to see the bride before entering the venue otherwise they'll stand outside until we bring the bride out, stealing groom's shoes and then demanding the money for returning them, and the list is never ending since there are a lot of wedding rituals itself that take place during the wedding.  All of us cousins had planned to steal the groom's shoes at the entrance when they demanded to see the bride.  Unfortunately, that plan failed and groom's friends secured his shoes in a room which was guarded by his 3-4 bodyguards (his friends, of course!!)....there was no hope of snooping into the room to steal the shoes :(.  Then we found out that one of the groom's friends was wearing his shoes to distract us thinking that the shoes are still in the room.  Unfortunately, by the time we found out, groom's friends brought the shoes to him.  But of course, one of the other cousin was a fighter and she tried to snatch the shoes from the hands of the friend who was carrying it.  That plan failed miserably too since we couldn't snatch the shoes and one of the ribbons on the shoe broke in the snatching process!!  NOW, the groom was refusing to give even a penny for that shoe...but all of us cousins hovered around him like a helicopter and didn't let him go until he paid us Rs. 5000 (it's like 100 bucks).  Well, he wasn't agreeing but obviously we weren't going to go down without a fight.  After much debate, and negotiation, and the pressure from the adults to come to a settlement, we fetched Rs. 3000 from him, that too when we didn't have his shoes in our possession :P...hahahaha.  This was great fun!!  Want to see how the wedding mandap looked?  Here is a snap! (please google up the meaning of "mandap" if you don't know, because it'll be too big of a description here)

Moving on to the Reception, a final event that was going to conclude this wedding festivities.  This was more relaxing event because it was hosted by the groom's family and we didn't really have to do much except to be present, take the pics with the newlyweds, and stuff ourselves with the absolutely delicious food they had!!  The weather was pleasant that day and we took a lot of family pics that evening which have become memory for life :).

Wow, I didn't realize how much I wrote until I previewed the post!! This is what happens when I get carried away in writing but it was worth it since I wanted to share the wedding that I attended and also explain the ceremonies associated with the wedding.  Apart from the events I wrote about, I forgot to even mention that we had a bachelor party for my cousin, and also get-together from 1 week before the wedding almost every night, so we got to see a lot of relatives during the wedding.  I guess, instead of making this post even longer, I will stop right here and share with you some more trip fun in my next post.  Hope you all enjoyed reading!!

India Trip 2013 - Part 3

.....Continuing from my earlier post India Trip 2013 - Part2

FlyDubai Airline Experience:
While we were waiting at the gate at terminal 2, FlyDubai began the boarding process.  While getting on the shuttle to get to the plane, FlyDubai staff said that the plane is full and we'll have to check-in all of our carry-on bags.  After much debate, they agreed to let us keep 2 of our carry-on bags and check-in the other 2 bags which we were going to get at the final destination along with our check-in bags.  We get boarded on the bus and obviously, the bus doesn't move for another 15-20 minutes until it's full or everyone is aboard....ughhh!!!  After long journey, and sitting and waiting, we were all really tired and I wouldn't have minded the wait on the bus either, but there were no seats on the bus and we all had to stand, that's what made me more mad.  It was extremely tiring, but I had no choice!!  Finally we board the plane and find out that it's half empty...x-(.....What????  Why did they take our carry-on bags if it was half empty and told us it was full???

Just a side note, our flight left at 9:45 pm at night from Dubai and once we were in the air, it was a sight to see!! Dubai looked so beautiful at night with the city completely lit up!! Just gorgeous!!  Now, about the flight experience.....the flight left on time and seats were comfortable too.  But, this is where the niceness of the airline ends.  With that said, EVERYTHING on this airline comes with a price, even water!!!  Can you believe this?? They don't even give you water for free!!!  We paid $2 to get a water bottle.  After all that you have spent for the ticket, the airline doesn't even have courtesy to give you water, but oh well!!! Big minus for this airline...

Ahmedabad Airport:
We reach Ahmedabad International Airport on time as well.  Luckily, there were no other flights at the airport when we landed, which meant no crowd at the airport :).  We got transported from plane to the terminal via shuttle and got in line for the immigration.  We got the immigration forms while in plane by FlyDubai staff, so we filled out the forms in the plane.  This made it quick for us to get in the immigration line.  The line moved quickly and we were done with immigration in 5 minutes.  After that, it took maybe another 10 minutes for our bags to come and we were the 1st people in line for the customs which was surprisingly fast too....another 5 minutes maybe.  This is the quickest we have been out of the airport that I can remember.

Anyways, what follows is much more fun to read than these immigration and customs timings.  When we were collecting our bags, I thought I saw my uncle and aunt outside of the airport, so we got out of the airport all excited to see them.  As it turns out, there was no one from our family....haha!!  Big Blooper!!  It must have been someone else's family that I was waving at when I was inside, because surely there was no one from our family at the airport.  From a near-by shop I call my uncle and they got so surprised to hear our voice and even find out that we were already outside the airport.  He said he was on his way and soon after talking to him, they all came to receive us at the airport.  I think this is partially our fault too because before our journey, we kept telling them that it will take us at least 1 and half hours to get out after we land since that has been the case in the past.  But, today was a complete surprise to even us when we got done with all the formalities so quickly and got out within 20 minutes.

When the family arrived, they were so upset that we had to wait outside but were also happy to see us.  We put all our bags in the car and drove away to my aunt's place.  It was a long journey, but finally at home now :)

With this last post, I conclude my India journey and hope my details give you the answers you are looking for regarding an airline or an airport experience.  I hope to actually share with you the 3 weeks of non-stop fun in another post, but that will take little while, so until then, have a great week ahead!!

India Trip 2013 - Part 2

.....Continuing from my earlier post India Trip 2013 - Part 1

Dubai Airport Experience:
Where were we?? Yes, at Dubai airport.  So, we had just landed in Dubai airport at Terminal 1 (United Airlines terminal).  We land at 3:40 pm instead of 4:40 pm ....which is a 6 hours wait for the next flight :(.  As we got out of the plane, my dad's wheelchair was waiting for him.  The person pushing my dad's wheelchair told us to take the escalator and go up to the 2nd floor and wait near transfer desk while he was going to go another route to bring the wheelchair by an elevator.  We thought it must be close by so went and waited for them near the transfer desk C even though that's not the transfer desk for our next flight.  5 minutes go by and no sign of my dad.  I kind of worry that we didn't have any contact with him and thought if we took the wrong route  but just then I see him and take a sigh of relief.  We all head down to the lower level to get to the transfer desk E.  For those wondering what these transfer desks are for, well, if you are connecting to another flight in Dubai, you have to go to the transfer desk of your airline in order to get the onward boarding passes and then continue with your journey.  For us, our onward flight was going to be with FlyDubai Airline and that airline took off from Terminal 2 which is located couple of miles from the Terminal 1.  For our onward journey, we had to go to transfer desk E (this is the desk you need to be at if you need to catch an onward flight from terminal 2) to get our onward boarding passes.

Our ticket was issued by United Airlines and it was 1 PNR where FlyDubai was also on that single ticket.  One advantage of this was that we did not have to collect our baggage at Dubai.  It was through checked-in from our first leg of the journey and we were only going to get it at the final destination.  We just had to give our baggage tags to the agent at the transfer desk so that they made sure to transfer our luggage for us.  Another advantage was that since we were flying with United Airlines and then going on FlyDubai, FlyDubai did not weigh our hand luggage since it was a connecting flight!!  This is a very important piece of information to know for people who are connecting to FlyDubai because their hand-baggage policy is very strict where they only allow 7 kilos of hand luggage and if it's more than that, you have to pay for it per kilo rate!!

We get to the desk and I give the agent behind the desk our passports, temporary FlyDubai boarding passes (that we got from UA at the first airport) and baggage tags.  Even though we had valid 10 years Indian Visa, it took them half an hour to issue us FlyDubai boarding passes.  There was something that the agent wanted to confirm on the Visa and he was having hard time reaching someone at the embassy.  It kind of concerned me because I knew we had all the necessary documents for travel but God knows what else they wanted to confirm.  Finally after 35 minutes of waiting the agent got the info they needed and gave our passports back.  They did the exact same thing with all the other passengers who were traveling to India with us where it took them really long time to issue boarding passes to each of those passengers.  Oh well, we were ready to go to terminal 2.  We waited for the shuttle to come and once it came, only then the agent provided everyone with their onward boarding passes.  The shuttle took about 15-20 minutes drive to go from terminal 1 to 2.

Once we were at Terminal 2, we had to go through another security screening, and then off to our FlyDubai gate.

Terminal 2 of Dubai airport:  Here is little insight into the Terminal 2 of the Dubai Airport.  The terminal is pretty small!!! It is a 1 floor building which has 6 gates and 1 big duty-free shop.  Due to being small, it was very crowded and it's hard to find seats.  The space started to open up a little as the flights took off and people left.  I had read that there is a free wi-fi at the terminal which I tried to connect to, but no luck!  I was able to connect to the wi-fi, but couldn't connect any of my iphone apps and it kept complaining that there was no connection.  That was a big bummer!!  With no wi-fi and over 5 hours of wait time, there was nothing for me to do but roam around in the duty-free shop and rest at our gate.  The only interesting thing out of the terminal 2 was that you could see Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) from where we were sitting at terminal 2.  It was kind of far but you can spot it easily with its unique design of the building.

Alrighty!! Well, my journey is not over yet, but if I continue writing any longer, there is a possibility of the post getting very lengthy and boring!!  Sooooooooo, with that, I conclude this post and give you our FlyDubai Airline experience in the next post.  See ya :)

India Trip 2013 - Part 1

As discussed in my last post, I am back with the post on my India trip with each and every detail of my travel.

As usual, before the journey I can never get full night sleep due to last minute packing, lots of excitement, and a lot of other things.  With the excitement of going to India (let's just call it excitement), woke up early at 6 am and helped my mom make the sandwiches to take with us.  Everyone got ready by 8 am, checked everything one last time and headed for airport around 8:20 am.  My friend got us to the airport in half an hour which was pretty fast compared to the time it takes us to get to the airport.  There was quite a bit of line for check-in but it was moving at steady speed.  This time, we were only allowed to check-in 1 bag per person, so the situation at the airport wasn't so bad with 4 check-in bags & 4 carry-on bags.  Every time we have traveled to India, the situation becomes a bit awkward when we have to drag all the check-in bags, and carry-on bags to the counter since there are always 6 or more check-in bags plus 3 or more carry-on bags plus ladies purses and laptop bag and/or backpack.  People at the airport glare at us as if we are going on a journey to never return back!!  Anyways, we got our turn in line within 10 minutes, and we pulled our bags to the counter and checked-in.  We got our baggage tags, and boarding passes.  Again, check-in wasn't bad either, maybe 10-15 minutes.  We headed for the security check.  Security checking lines seemed long but they always move faster and I have never had to wait for more than 15 minutes.  We got to our gate @ around 10:20 am and then we had all the time to sit and relax and observe the airport crowd going and coming....haha.

United Airlines from Denver to Washington Dulles:  Our first leg of the journey was on United Airlines from Denver to Washington Dulles.  The flight was to depart at 11:24 am, but since the plane came late we boarded around 11:35 am and didn't take off until 12:10 pm.  The flight itself was fine.  I think in-between my sleep I saw the movie Alex Cross which they were showing on board.  No comments on that!  We got to the Washington Dulles airport at around 5 pm and it took us about 15-20 minutes to get out since we were sitting all the way in the back.  Since our next flight was not until 6:40 pm, we were not in hurry.  We got off at one of the Concourse C gates and our next flight was also going from the same terminal which was a relief to not change terminals.  This is the 3rd time I am connecting to another flight via Washington Dulles and every time it's been from either from concourse C or D and both of them are on the same terminal.  This is one terminal I have encountered which is always busy, there is no open space, very little set of windows that makes it very dark at places, and always crowded.  But, what can I do?  I have no choice!!

United Airlines from Washington Dulles to Dubai (13 hours flight!!): Our second leg of the journey was from Washington Dulles airport to Dubai on United Airlines which was going to be the longest flight - 13 hours long!!! Yup!! This was first time for us to be on a long flight with United Airlines, so didn't know what to expect in terms of food, entertainment, comfort of seats, etc.  We boarded the plane and were not disappointed!!

The seats were comfortable, and there was enough leg room.  Entertainment wise, they had good selection of Hollywood movies like Argo, Taken 2, Prime Rush, etc., but very limited selection of Bollywood movies.  Only 5 movies which included Rowdy Rathore, Shanghai, Student of the Year, English Vinglish, & Monsoon Wedding.  Last time, I remember, I had watched so many movies on my Qatar flight but this time I didn't feel like watching anything.  I think I slept through most of my flight and only woke up when the air hostess came with the meal.  Now, about the food, the important part of the long flight!!  UA was providing dinner and breakfast.  We had requested Veg. Asian Meal and I wasn't sure what to expect but it sure didn't disappoint us.  They served dinner just after an hour the flight had taken off and it included Mix Vegetable & Dal with Rice, salad with yogurt and vinegar.  It was tasty but not enough.  Also for breakfast, which was served 1 and half hours before the flight landed, they served 2 coconut bhajiya, 3 puris, and a paneer vegetable along with yogurt, one small (really small) bread, and cream cheese.  Honestly, when they served breakfast, I was fast asleep and didn't want to wake up but whatever they were serving smelled good, so forced myself to open one eye and respond to the air hostess who was asking me if I wanted breakfast!!  I wasn't really hungry but wanted to try out the coconut bhajiya which I have never tried before and they sure were delicious!  Along with the dinner & breakfast, United Airlines have snacks in the back where people can go and grab them as needed.  They had veg. and non-veg. sandwiches made and packets of chips and candy already made.

This flight to Dubai had a lot of Indians traveling, especially a lot of Gujaratis which made it interesting because we got to hear other people speak in Gujarati instead of us :).

Apparently, our flight reached Dubai 1 hour before its assigned time.  What it meant for us?  Well, an additional hour meant that instead of 5 hours wait at Dubai, we were now going to have a 6 hours wait :(...that's really long time!!!

I am going to stop right here and continue the journey in the next post to make sure you are not fast asleep after reading this one!!  Upcoming is the experience at the Dubai airport .....