Miami over a long weekend!

I had been wanting to take a trip before our little one arrives (It's a boy and we call him TJ (Tarun Junior) so that's how I'll address him further in my post :)) and also before my doctor restricts me from traveling, which will be soon.

We did have a month long trip to India recently but that somehow didn't count as it was wedding centric and just too busy to relax.

Anyhow, so we had MLK's day coming up, which meant an extra day off for me! To capitalize on that, Tarun and I kept going back and forth on the idea of taking a trip. A week or so back, we decided, we'll stay back and get some things done around the house. It was all decided. The house help and the handyman were called and appointments fixed. Then came Wednesday, Jan 12th. After dinner that day, it just so happened, that we went back to talking about travel and we decided that we should take a trip, as we won't get this time back after TJ is born. Life will be different...definitely nice and a lot of fun but different. :)

We decided, I'll take an extra day off and we'll go down to Miami. We made reservations that night.

The morning of Saturday, Jan 15th, our very good friend Sanjay dropped us at the airport for our early morning (read 8:30 A.M.) flight to Fort Lauderdale. We landed at 11:00 A.M. and took a cab to South Beach Miami, where we were going to stay for 3 nights. The weather was lovely! It was so nice to see the crisp sun out and the water front, on our way to the hotel.

We arrived at our hotel at 11:45 A.M., freshened up and started on our walk to get some food. We walked on the Ocean drive and noticed a nice restaurant, whose name I now forget, but we did manage to get a table there after a descent wait and enjoyed our meal.



The rest of the day was mostly long walks. We went to our hotel's private beach and spent some time walking on the sand.


It was pretty windy, but the sun was nice, so we weren't cold.


We took a nice long walk and then came back to the hotel to take a little break before we continued further on our walk-a-thon (which is a common trend on our city and beach trips). We found ourselves a nice spot by the pool, ordered drinks and just relaxed for a little while.


Soon we were ready to go out again. This time, we decided to go explore the nearby happening place, the Lincoln street, which is where we spent most of our time, last time we were in Miami, almost 7 years ago. We actually went to the Lincoln street, looking for a sweater for Tarun, as he forgot his in the flight and now we needed one for our trip back!

So, we went to J.Crew and discovered that, the particular store was woman's only. Even though, I had no intention of buying anything, I did find some stuff which I ended up buying !

Tarun didn't want to shop/window shop any more that day, so we just strolled on the Lincoln street, passing all the restaurants and looking at their menus. Almost every restaurant had a special/happy hour running. After a while, we decided to eat. The dinner that night was pizza followed by a Hot Chocolate Sundae at Ghirardelli.

We returned to our hotel tired and I pretty much slept soon after.

On Sundays, Ritz has the best brunch in the area, which also happens to be our favorite meal, so we had to have the best! :)

It was of-course a big spread from fruits to salads to eggs station, shrimp and oyster station, cheese station, sushi and the carving station.

I ate a lot! Since I have been pregnant, my appetite has increased by manifolds. I surprise both myself and Tarun with how much I can eat now. I pretty much tried everything except what was available at the eggs, cheese and oyster stations.


It was delicious and I wasn't done. I was actually pretty full, but I still wanted to try the dessert. :)


After our brunch, we were ready to hit the Lincoln street again, in search of a sweater. It being Sunday, the street was definitely crowded. We went to different stores, but had no luck finding a woolen sweater. Of-course why would anyone need a woolen sweater when the weather is in 70's and 80's! We gave up and decided to go back to Ghirardelli for Tarun's favorite banana split!

For Monday, the plan was to just relax in the hotel, spend time in the pool, more time on the beach, get a massage and relax before heading back home the next day but the weather wasn't on our side. It poured all day!

Rain however, didn't stop us from our daily walk! We were out with our umbrellas (courtesy Ritz). Tarun had discovered "Shake Shack" through yelp as one of the highly rated food joints in the area. So, we decided to go there. Shake Shack serves burgers, shakes, hot dogs etc. We both had burgers and also shared a Vanilla shake. The serving size was not over-whelming and the burgers were delicious, loved the fries and the vanilla shake was awesome too!

Did some window shopping and some real shopping; ordered ourselves a full length mirror for our bedroom which should arrive may be next week and then headed back to the hotel.

I was a bit off because of the weather. It was a little cold that day due to the rain and the wind, but I didn't want to be inside, so we decided to sit outside in one of our hotel's restaurants. Of-course, we were not hungry, having had burgers a little while ago, so we decided to order drinks.

While I used some of this time booking childbirth preparation classes for us (we are now registered for Feb 23rd, 24th and March 5th!), Tarun, spent that time reading.


...and then were back talking and cracking jokes!


We ordered a dessert to share. I felt like having Key Lime Pie, but it was not on the menu! However the server was nice enough to arrange it for us.

There's Tarun ready for his first big bite! ;)


Soon, it was time to go for our massages, which we had booked the day before. We both enjoyed ours. Mine was the first pre-natal massage I had, although I do have a gift certificate from my dear brother for a massage at this top rated green spa (Nusta Spa) in DC, which I have yet to go to. I actually had a reservation for it, for this past Sunday, but had to cancel it due to the trip. I am now thinking of going in Feb!

Later that night, we dined at D. Rodriguez Cuba, again a yelp find and the food was delicious!


Now, it was almost time to go back to the land of cold. So, we decided to get up a little early the next day and take a walk on the beach before our cab arrived at noon to take us to the airport.

We woke up at 8:00 A.M., got ready and went out to a french bakery (La Provence) for breakfast, which we had discovered the day before during our walk. After the breakfast, we hit the beach walk. The weather was 78 degrees F. We walked soaking all the sun we could. Tarun tells me, we walked 60 blocks!


We reached our hotel at noon and the cab driver called. We got our stuff from our room, which was already packed and checked out.

Now we are back to the wintry cold, where the sky is overcast and one needs to wear layers and thick coats!

I tried to do a sad impression, but failed miserably. I guess, it's always nice to come back home! :)


I am back energized. Caught some TV with Tarun, spoke to some of my family on the phone, prepared a snack for my team, as I am headed to Harrisonburg tomorrow for a day long meeting. Wrote this blog entry after over an year. (I miss writing, work has been keeping me way too busy, hope I am able to get back in the blogging routine. Amen to that! :) )

It's past mid night and my alarm is set for 5:00 A.M. Although, my eyes are wide open, my mind tells me I should sleep! :) Good night all!

Ananda in the Himalayas

Myself and Tarun made a trip to Ananda early October for 2 nights and 3 days. It was for his birthday and I had made the bookings before leaving for Japan. We decided to take the Shatabdi from Delhi to Haridwar and had Ananda arrange a pick up for us from the train station. The journey was comfortable. When we reached Haridwar and got out of the train station there was our cab driver waiting for us with a placard. We were so disappointed when we reached the car, we had expected a clean well kept car to come pick us up, but that one was, I guess a car used for bringing supplies to the resort from the nearby town, it had some metal bars inside to safeguard stuff. Anyway, we were disappointed and our expectation of Ananda hit its bottom right there.

We reached the resort after a 1.5 hour car ride and were greeted with an aarti by the staff. We were made comfortable in the living area of the palace where we were served a welcome drink made of lemon and ginger (quite refreshing!). Our room keys were handed to us in a short while and a golf cart was arranged to show us the property and take us to our room.

As our driver showed us the property I admired how well it was kept and how lush green it was. Upon reaching our room, we were told that the resort provides white Kurta Pajamas for the guests in their size for the them to wear during their stay. I thought, that was pretty cool and we both ordered our sizes (well they didn't have mine, so I took the smallest they had).

Our room was quite nice and had a nice view of the greens and the valley; only if the sky was clear we would have seen the valley but we still enjoyed the greens!

We relaxed in the resort all 3 days, pampered ourselves with some great massages and caught up on our reading. I highly recommend the Abhyanga massage which is done by two therapist. I believe that is the best massage i've had!

We enjoyed all our meals, the food was simple but tastefully cooked.

The property is well kept and serene and the sight of the guests walking around the property, clad in white Kurta Pajamas makes everything look so pure and simple, which I loved.

The staff is genuinely nice and helpful. On our checkout, we were asked to fill the feedback form and we gave an honest feedback, which means we told them we didn't like our pick up car and guess what, they were extra nice while dropping us to the train station in Haridwar, not only did the driver do all he could to make us reach the train station on time (we started late from the resort, some last minute ticket drama), he also waited to see we board the train. (We didn't know he was waiting till he came to us when the train arrived). We thought that was very nice and then a day or two later we received an email from the resort manager, apologizing for the car at our pickup. This surely impressed us and it showed he cared.

A short quiet trip was exactly what we needed after our vacation in Japan. I had a very relaxing time and Tarun said he quite liked it too, so I was happy he enjoyed his b'day weekend that I had planned for him!

Japan: Day 9: Tokyo

Today is our last day in Japan, we head back to India tomorrow morning and we wanted to make the most of it. So, we started off by hitting the Tsukiji fish market again but this time not for fish watching but for eating some fresh sushi at Edogin, acclaimed to be one of the best sushi bars in the area. It definitely stayed up to its reputation.

After having some great sushi, I went looking for some Japanese tea and bought some packs of Sencha and Matcha varieties. I also bought a Japanese engraved knife, which I consider my best purchase of the trip!

We later headed to Ginza where we relaxed in a tea room while drinking some hot Japanese tea and then took the train to Shibuya. O boy, was it crowded there! I had never seen so many people cross the road at the same time. Shibuya's four way crossing is said to be the busiest in the world. At one light change, there are hundreds of people trying to reach the other side. It was quite intimidating at first but later I got used to it.

Also, the area is known to be the shopping destination for teenagers and young adults, so that was one reason I wanted to go check it out, but I guess I am old now, coz I didn't like a thing...yes, not even one thing! Since, there wasn't much to do in Shibuya, we decided to spend the rest of the evening at Omotesando. Here, we strolled, talked, people watched and later dined at the Anniversaire cafe and had a nice dinner...our last one in Tokyo...at-least till we come back!

Arigato gozaimas Japan, for a wonderful stay....and here we bow to you. :)

Japan: Day 8: Tokyo

Today, we went to Roppongi Hills, the most prestigious area in the city, where the Japanese hot shots and the expats live. It has a huge shopping mall, where getting lost is easy. For all the hype it has, I didn't quite like it. I find Omotesando and Ginza way more lively and better areas to shop and stroll.
We had a nice big lunch at Azabu Kyutoku, in Roppongi Hills, which I quite liked...and that's me eating my share. :)After lunch, we headed back to Ginza, where we did some people watching, strolling and some shopping too!
For dinner, we took some food to go and ate in our room at the hotel...it was nice.

Japan: Day 7: Tokyo

We got up at 5 in the morning today to check out the Tsukiji fish market, known to be the biggest wholesale fish market in the world! It was such an action packed place and for a fish market, it was really clean and not so stinky either.
We saw so many varieties and sizes of fish and some other seafood too.

After touring around the fish market, we had Maguro-donburi (raw slices of fresh tuna over rice, garnished with seaweed, ginger and some wasabi) for breakfast at Segawa, a much acclaimed, little counter restaurant by the fish market itself. It was delicious!

We spent the rest of the day roaming around Ginza and in the evening had sushi for my b'day dinner at Kyubei. It was the best sushi I've ever had!
And that's us at Kyubei! :) Tarun has a big piece of sushi in his mouth.Thanks to Tarun, I had a lovely day overall! :)

Japan: Day 6: Tokyo

We started our day at the Meiji-Jingu shrine where we happened to see a Japanese wedding procession!We spent the rest of the day at Omote-sando which harbors local and international fashion stores along with boutique shops and O so yummy looking cafes that it is hard to resist walking into at least one of them and enjoying a hot cup of coffee with a short piece of cake!
Among other things in the area, we noticed a FREE TIBET rally and cute Japanese girls giving away some free samples.

Japan: Day 5: Kyoto

Our day started with a visit to the Tenryu-ji temple which is laced with trails and has some nice zen gardens.

Walking along the trails, we reached the bamboo grove, one of the famous sites of Kyoto, more so because the movie, The Crouching tiger and the Hidden dragon had some scenes shot here.

We later made our way to the Kodaiji temple, stopping at the sites that caught our attention, like the Choin-in temple which has the biggest temple gate in all of Japan!

Kodai ji, again is a temple with massive grounds 
having beautifully landscaped gardens with bridges.Later, we strolled in the streets of Gion and visited some art galleries and antique stores and then made our way back to Tokyo in a three hour train ride!

Japan: Day 4: Kyoto

Today we did the much recommended South Higashiyama walking tour. The tour started with a visit to the Kiyomizu-dera temple, where we walked inside Tainai Meguri, a cave  with TOTAL darkness (I had never been in this much darkness before and I was almost scared), symbolizing buddha's belly and then coming out in the light, symbolizing rebirth! After the visit to the temple, we made our way to some of the prettiest streets of Kyoto with traditional Japanese houses, restaurants, inns, tea rooms and souvenir shops.

We walked in rain under our umbrellas almost all the distance, expect for an hour when it started to rain very heavily. This was when we stopped at a tea room and sipped some hot coffee!

We were lucky to sight Maikos too, this was a really exciting moment for me! :)

A traditional Japanese dinner, Kaiseki marked the end of our tour!

Japan: Day 3: Kyoto

Today, we got up early and caught the 9:30 A.M. train to Kyoto. It was a 3 hr. ride in the bullet train, I slept almost all the way. :)

After reaching Kyoto, we checked into our hotel, which is above the Kyoto station, (The train stations in Japan are amazing, they are a marketplace in themselves, having high end hotels, eating joints, department stores and fresh food stores). Since we were early, (the check-in time in the hotels in Japan is 3.00 P.M.), the hotel staff kept our luggage and asked us to return after the check-in time. We headed to have some lunch. We went to the 11th floor of the station and ate in a chinese restaurant, which we initially thought was Japanese! :) Everything was written in Japanese, so we couldn't really make out what it said. I only knew it was chinese when I saw the pictures in the menu. We both had shrimp wonton noodle soup, which was very nice and filling (We had been hungry, since we skipped the b'fast to catch the train).

After lunch, we decided to checkout some famous shrines and zen gardens in the area. We took bus 5 from the Tokyo station to Nanzen-ji Eikan-do-michi stop. It took us 45 minutes to get there. After getting down at the bus stop, we asked some school kids where the shrine was and they were nice enough to lead us to it.

We started off with Eikan-Do. This is a large temple which was founded in 855 and was renamed to Eikan-Do in the 11th century. The temple is beautiful, the work of art is quite ornamental here and the architecture quite varied. It has some beautiful gardens too. The top of the temple gives a nice view of the city.

After spending about 1.5 hours in the temple, we headed to Nanzen-ji, about 15 mins. walks from Eikan-do. Nanzen-ji is again a temple, it has various sub temples too and some beautiful zen gardens. Since, we were running short of time (the temples here close at 5.00 P.M. and it was already 4.00), we concentrated on the zen gardens. The zen gardens are a work of art, it's unbelievable, how well manicured they are!

Prompt at 5.00, the staff came to close the gates of the temple/gardens. I spent some time taking pictures from outside after it was closed and then we took the bus back to our hotel.

Tarun had really been wanting to eat Udon, since we have reached Japan, so today, I looked for a restaurant that serves Udon and after a lot of looking around, I finally found one. Tarun had an Unagi combo with udon and I had udon with shrimp tempura. We took a nice walk after our dinner and enjoyed a nice pudding cake in the hotel lounge before coming back to our room.

Earlier, the plan was to go to Osaka tomorrow, but we both like Kyoto so much, that we have decided to skip Osaka and do some more site seeing here, tomorrow as well!

Japan: Day 2: Tokyo

So, the early morning breakfast never happened today, for those who know both me and Tarun, know how much we both love to sleep till late :). Today, we got up past 10 in the morning and headed to the Tokyo station, after getting ready, where we had sushi for lunch at Kaiten-zushi, this is an automatic sushi place!! The sushi here is served on the conveyor belt that runs along the counter! I never knew something like this existed so I was quite excited to see it. So, here, you just grab whatever takes your fancy and you are charged by the number of plates of sushi you eat. The plates are color coded and the the cost is written either on the wall or on the plate itslef. The sushi here, I would say was just okay but the experience was quite unique and I enjoyed it!

After lunch, we took the JR train to Akihabara, Tokyo's electronic town. We spent about 5 hrs here and then headed to Harajuku, where we did some shopping and had an amazing dinner at Fujimamas, a Japanese fusion restaurant. This restaurant not just serves fusion food but employs staff from various ethnicities and so is its clientele!

After dinner, was us back at the hotel!

It has been mostly raining in Tokyo, since we have reached, I really hope to see some sun tomorrow in Kyoto, where we are headed in the morning!

Japan: Day 1: Tokyo

Myself and Tarun managed to get our visa for Japan just in time to make it to our flight y'day. We flew Air India and had an uneventful flight to Tokyo. The airline was not fully booked, so the staff was nice enough to offer passengers with the option of taking 3 seats so as to comfortably stretch and sleep!

We landed at the Narita International airport at 8:20 A.M. JST and got free from immigration and customs in an hour. Guess what our cell fones don't work here, (Japan only supports the fones with the 3G technology!), but one can rent cell fones here, so we rented one and went looking for the Narita Train station to get to Tokyo. The people at the airport were quite helpful and were able to direct us to the station, where we exchanged our rail passes (which we got from India) for the tickets. We boarded the Narita express train which was exactly on time (here they say, you can set the time of your watch by the train time, that's something, isn't it?!) and reached the Tokyo station in an hour.

You have to see the Tokyo station to believe what I am saying here, I haven't seen a station like this anywhere, it's beautifully constructed and is full of lovely looking restaurants and flower shops, the city impressed me right there!

It's a huge station covered on various levels, it was hard for us to locate where the exit for the cabs was, so we asked the locals working at the station, they were so nice that they escorted us till the cab! (now that's what I call a country which is a good host to travelers). And now I noticed something really cool, the cab doors here open and close by themselves, well I mean that the driver pushes a button form his seat and the door opens for the passenger!
Anyway, we got a cab and reached our hotel, although the check-in time here is 3.00 P.M, the hotel staff did let us check-in early. We got to our room and it was tiny but tastefully done!

After this we got ready and were really craving for some food. We went out and noticed a nice looking restaurant from the outside and guess what, we walked in! Now, the host made us sit in an informal room and showed us the menu, the first thing he told us was the price, it was an expensive restaurant serving pre-fix menu of 7 courses. We decided to try it and were escorted to the dining room, which was very formal. We enjoyed the lunch, portions were small and the food was good.

Later in the afternoon, we explored the city. Tokyo is quite charming, during the day it reminds me of San Francisco in more ways than one, with restaurant and coffee shops scattered everywhere and designer stores adding their glow to it, yet, it is less crowded and is free from homeless people! At night it seems more like Times Square, with flashing neon sign boards and cabs and cars lined up in a jam!

We were in Chuo dori, the main shopping street in Tokyo. The first stop was the Apple store, since Tarun forgot to bring the power adapter, so we bought one (now we have four power adapters b/w 2 macbooks and I hope this was the last one we bought :)). The apple store here is on 5 levels, even the store in NYC isn't spread over these many levels! In any case, then we headed to the House of Shiseido, which is a museum of Shiseido and guess what Shiseido is really big here, it has a restaurant and a tea room and then of-course there is the Shiseido store. After exploring the shopping district a little, where we saw may be a handful women dressed in kimonos (they look lovely), we had Oden (fish cakes, fish eggs, veggies, tofu etc. simmered in a flavored broth) for dinner, it was light and tasty.

It's only been 2 hrs since we had our dinner and Tarun is hungry again! I guess we will go for an early morning breakfast tomorrow! :)