Canada trip - 3 Final‏

Sandman Hotel had huge parking lot and we saw that lots of people moving out and in from the parking, and that lots of people were going in and coming outside of the adjoining building. We thought it to be a underground railways station or so but then it turned out to be an Bus station for local and upcountry area. It looked more like an LAL DARWAJA bus stop,where people go in and come out frequently. It seemed that Montreal had good connection with sorrounding areas and people were taking advantage of commuting from here, parking their vehicles in the Hotel parking ( obviously paid parking) and going for work. We also saw people dropping or picking up thier soul mate, near the bus stop. Bus stop was fully covered and people does not need to go out in the open to alight in the bus,this may be due to the fact that during snowfall people can board the bus from inside like,Aero bridge.

We got up in time and since we did not have complimentary breakfast facility, We had no choice but to remain without the tea,coffee and break fast. This was a MAJOR minus point.Our walkie-talkie came handy when Niipa went down to find out Nasta from van and other eating stuff for the kids, but was not knowing where it was kept, Lopa just guided Nipa from the Hotel room, by walkie-talkie, and giuded where it is located. Nimish and Mithun did went outside to find out Milk etc with Hotel restaurant but the prices were high and as such avoided to buy it from there. Thereafter our kids and we too remained without tea or Milk for the whole day.

We first went to Bio spehere dome which was just across the river of the Lake Ontario. We crossed the bridge and went into the garden and near the dome. But both parking and entry fees were too high and as such we just got down from the van, went near the Dome , had a close look of the dome and came back. Thereafter went to Bio Dome. This was constructed during a 1972 Olympics and was used as velodrome for bicyle events and thereafter to cover the expenses, was converted into Bio Dome, where continents are made to experience weather and life of that area.This continents were mainly Arctic, Rain forest (Tropical) and Desert. We went inside the dome after buying tickets of Canadian $ of 12 per person, $ 10 for seniors.

Childrens can learn a lot from this dome, with its Land, climate,animals, flora and fauna. They particularly enjoyed different types of birds and animals. Monkeys of Indonesia were the size of an small kitten (Biladi na bachaan jevda) Penguines were also worth watching. We came out after 2 hours. Bio Dome and sorrounding area being made beautiful but were unable to maintain it now.

We came outside and tried to find an Indian food restaurant , as we all were very hungry and wanted to have an Indian food, as far as possible. Snehal and Nimish went through the local telephone directory and found out a Punjabi restaurant in some area. we therefore marched, rather drived towards our destination FOOD. On reaching the area everybody started looking for an signboard of an punjabi restaurant and while searching , we saw a signboard of an Mysore Indian cuisine and everybody just shouted that no more searching for an Punjabi resaurant and we must go in this. Fortunately, we could get the parking nearby on the raod, so we all got down and ran towards DESTINATION JAMVA. Mysore Cafe was beautifully decorated and ambience was perfect for an french-Indian cuisine. We ordered an Indian lentil soup, Rice, vegetable and salad. Lentil soup was of Tuver Dal, but was made excellently and it was treat to taste it. Similarly Indian Basmati rice was also excellently cooked and we could smell basmati aroma. Salad was also made excellent. We also ordered Nan, which was too good.By God's grace, we were in time as they close down at 2.00 pm. Every item was cooked preciously and we enjoyed the food whole heartedly.

We had no time to waste and on inquiring what now to see, were told by the mysore cafe owner that old Down town is worth visiting, So we drived towards it and came near the Down town. It was typical of an old english/french town, with narrow lanes and cobbled stone pathway, having lots of curves and steep roads. We got a parking in a narrow lane, behind one bank building. Normally any Europian town, there will be an central square, where town activities are held.Here in Westford too, we have a central square where there is a church, a library,town hall ,garden etc. In a same fashion, we found out an central park,(garden) where people were loitering,seniors sitting , watching and some Art group was performing in a garden. We came near one Huge Church. Typical of its architecture, with wide steps in front and a lobby , huge entrance gate and inside high ceiling with sode walls of glass murals. Though we did not go inside by paying a fee we just stood near the gate and watched in sorrounding area, Having gothic art buildings, lots of flowers , people enjoying rides on Horse drawn Victoria. We moved forward and went inside an old type lane, having lots of european style shops of decorative artifacts for the tourist. Kids had a taste of ice cream .further ahead, a wide road was going up towards city library and musuem. On both the sides,cafeterias were serving foods to the customers and in the middle, small wooden carts selling different interesting arts materials. We went up the road ,watching beautifully decorated flowers' pots and lamp posts, came near the fountain, sat their for some time , came down again and walked towards the wharf of the river of lake Ontario, where tourist were taking rides on the sailing boats. Lake Ontario is turning into a river flowing towards Montreal and goes further towards Qubec and then merges into the Atlantic Ocean. Adventure sailors take a boat ride on lake Ontaria, move towards Montreal go further to Qubec and then sail into the Atlantic Ocean and come to Boston.

We sat their for some time , then decided that it was time to call off our visit to Montreal and must return to our abode of Westford. Snehal and Nimish therefore went back to parking where our van was parked , Mithun in the mean time played with kids, and when they came back with van ,We boarded and our final return journey started, which was to be for about 6 hrs.

Mithun is a very polite, cooperative and helpful person. He always was handy and helped while taking breakfast, or loading baggages, or finding direction for the destination . He is a fan of Donuts and used to bring frequently Tim Hortin's mini donuts. Once while talking he just mentioned that since Montreal is an old orthdox town there won't be much of TM (Tim hortin) outlets, but then whenever we used to see TM in Montreal everybody would shout Mithun TIM HORTIN. He had to go back to Torronto by railway, so we went towards the railway station, dropped Mitun said good bye and good luck to him and parted ways. Our journey towards Westford continued.

We almost had taken round (pradakshina) of the Lake ontario, as we drove north west on the freeway, reached Buffalo, went further towards Canada, took East towards Torronto and went further toward Montreal driving on the side of the river, reached Montreal and again took south East towards Massachussetes. Thus almost took a round trip of the Lake Ontario.

We reached State of Vermont on the border of USA, where our passports, green cards and visa were checked and our Van was also throughly checked, by the immigration authorities of USA and were allowed to enter the USA again.

Immediately we went on the Gas station (Petrol) and filled the gas tank, as gas prices in Canada were too high,we avoided to fill the tank. One more CURIOUS thing of Gas prices is that during NIGHT TIME gas PRICES are LOWER, whereas during day time THESE are higher.(Here I would like to point out one issue that was discussed during 1972 Oil crisis. As everybody knows that prices of petrol were very low before 1972, and I remember that during 1956/57, I used to pay 0.37 paise per litre - obviusly in gallons-for petrol and and in 1961/62 these were 0.65 paise, in 1972 I was paying some 2.72 paise and suddenly due to oil crisis and that OPEC came into existenace, prices flared above Rs 10.00 per litre. At that time an expert committee suggested that since ours is a tropical country, due to heat petrol evaporates during filling of vehicle tanks and it was estimated that almost 30% of petrol gets evaporated, so petrol prices should be kept low during evening, so that people are encouraged to fill up in the evening and ultimately huge losss to the country could be saved-Now some NGO should take up this matter. But typical of indian beaurocracy issue was ultimately dropped.)

We reached home at around 11.00 or so.Thus our journey to Canada ended in a very happy and joyous mood. We had an wonderful time altogether.Nimish stayed for 2 more days and then went to Omaha, Nebraska at Lopa's mama's place and then returned to Livermore.

We covered almost 1500 miles ( 2400 kms ) in four days, viz Friday the 25th August,Saturday 26th , Sunday 27th,and Monday the 28th August 2006.Our van was home away from home for 4 days and had ample space to sit,sleep and keep lots of luggage, as against its seating capacity of 12 persons, we were 10 initially, that is snehal,Nipa,Anvay & Dhrut, Nimish, Lopa & Lipi, Mithun pota and myself and Tarla.After Mithun went back to Torronto, we were 9 to accomodate in Van. Though van was heavy in driving, we otherwise had good comforts in seating and had no communication problem with all the members, which is normally experienced in Van here, by last seat passengers to driving seat passengers.

As for the Niagara trip it was wonderful, one can not express in words and fortunately I got a one hour of DVD of " Niagara, a Raging Rapids " with me which illustrates history of Niagara its past and present.

Now we alll are busy with our schedules, but definately have sweet rememberence of TRIP NIAGARA and family reunion.

Any mistakes, or omissions, in narration be forgiven and this is only an attempt to keep the trip record for future guidance and help.

Niranjan Buch

Canada trip -2‏

DAY 2: NIAGARA & TORRONTO; Due to tiresome jurney and walking all the time, we fell into deep sleep and were hardly able to get up at 8.00 am, but as we had to march forward for onward journey, we all got up and one by one got ready. Fortunately Roadways Inn, had very good breakfast facilties, with seperate breakfast room having bread butter, jam, juices, milk, tea coffee,muffins,fruits and cereals (corn flakes), we all had one by one hefty breakfast. Anvay has now become a swimming fan, so wanted to have a swim in Inn's indoor heated swimming pool He therefore took advantage and enjoyed swimming in the pool.Inn also had outdoor swimming pool too.It had elevator, ice maker, which is minimum in any motel/hotel.

We left the rooms by 11.00 am loaded the van and started for Torronto. Mithun became a guide to us. He guided us well at Niagara yesterday and has taken us to Tim Hortin, a chain of Donuts like Dunkin Donuts .Nimish had come to Torronto on 23 rd August 06 and had been to sight seeing of Lion Safari and other places.He had rented a Toyota Corolla for them and had brought it to Niagara, so they escorted us towards Niagara falls for the last time and then towards a site of whirl pool.These whirl pool is on the niagara river, and it takes turn here, making a dangerous whirl (vamal) in the big pond like pool of water.A jet boat ride is offered here for those who love adventure and scarry ride.We just went near vista point of that whirl pool, watched a dangerous deep whirl and also saw a jet boat come, take a round of the pool, stay their for some time and then go back.We therafter moved forward towards, an old downtown of " Niagara on the river".while going towards these downtown, we saw huge mansion like bungalows of winery owners.We also saw beautifully cut Floral clock on the way.

We reached Niagara by the river down town and got down the van.City Council has developed a wonderful flowers on both sides of the road and on the devider of the road.It was a wonderful sight to see the various multicolour flowers bloom in full, making it a memorable place that we visited(u can see these in photographs that we have sent).beautifully cut and maitained.I have no words to express myself for these lovely sight of flowers of various colours, beatufully developed and artistically hung on the poles.

It was time to move fast and as such we took freeway towards Tottonto, passing through various small towns and Lion safari exit,.We reached Hotel Renaissance where Nimish had to return his Corrolla, and come to our Van.We agian took freeway and reached down town and Torronto's Lake Ontario beach. Lake Ontario is approximately 500 miles in length and 150 miles width, sweet water lake.Ships and crusies ply in from one place to another.

We first went near the world famous CN Tower, which is 1514 feet high, world's highest lone structure tower, and moved around its area having one of the largest Base ball stadium having seating apacity of 65,000 and with having a facility of sliding plastic dome on top of it, so that play does not get disturbed even when it is raining of snowing.( Recently in arizona a base ball stadium is constructed obviosly with slidng plastic dome but is also have a slinding huge ground turf, where entire lawns can be slided out to give fresh air and water.( Ha niche ni mati ne lawn stadium niche thi bahar khenchi sakay chhe) .Threafter we took a round of a market place where international art & sculpture fair was going on.Normally here there will be 2/3 stages are erected, so that any artist can perform their art, whether its music or dance or magic or so.International food market was also their, but the stardard of cleaniness was not much good, compared to USA, so we did not took anything and went on a walk on Lake ontario beach. It was very windy and was difficult to take a walk ,so we went inside the mall, took a round of it, came out and went towards downtown of Torronto and moving towards Indian Bazaar.

Downtown of Torronto , is just like Manhattan of New york, having huge tall buildings, with grand show cases and luxirious shops.Traffic system here is not UP TO THE MARK and traffic signs are ambigous, making it difficult to drive. There are no right turn or left turn green arrows but instead only yeild sings or blinking signs which does not make it clear for the drivers. Just to diffentiate traffic sysem from the USA, they have adopted these signs.We observed that Law and order and over all system of govt. seemed to be weak though better than India, definately weaker than America.We then moved over towards Indian Bazaar.

These Indian bazaar was typical of indian habits and lawless ness. All the shops loaded their goods on one side of the foot path making it hard to walk and shopping windows were also poor in taste and show.We basically came for Indian food.Bhai Mithun guided us well and took us to a restaurant named Moti Mahal, from where we took,(to go-parcel) Lachha Parotha, of plain and of Fudina.one veg of Aloo,mutter, and another of Malai Kofta and Dal Makhani.Before that we took, Dahi Pakodi.I will say that all these food stuff was EXCELLENT and lasted long for us.In fact we have not tested so tasty authentic Punjabi food in india.As for the NAN, we always have observed that Nans here are soft,and very good,We all were very hungry ,so we moved towards the Hotel.We had to ckeck in at hotel and we already had an reservations at Hotel Comoforts Inn.

We arrived at hotel, , checked in.It was a big one story hotel.Having no elevator, we had to undergo hardship to take baggage on the first fllor. Rooms did not have an common door in between, so we had trouble in communication, but otherwise rooms were decent, had apart from standard facilities like TV,Table and chairs,2 Queen beds,Lamps,good bath room with napkins and towels, coffee maker it also had an fridge and Micro wave oven.We immediately took our food along with dahi, etc,and arranged an entertainment programme of Songs sung by Mithun,Lopa , Nipa and almost by everyone as also playing Antakshari. children making dhamal and playing in Bed. We went to bed at around 12.00.

DAY 3 TORRONTO

In the morning, since we had to have a long drive to Montreal, we got up early and had decided to move out from the hotel by 9.00am. We went for an break fast.Unfortunately Hotel did not have seperate break fast room and had only a small area, we took it all the regular stuff of Decaf coffee,tea,muffins, fruits,bread butter jam, milk, cereals, etc in our rooms and after finishing it moved out by 9.30 am.

We first went to CN Tower area, parked our van and went straight to CN Tower.Tickets for the visit on top of the tower was $ 22 per person.Since we had seen Sears tower at Chicago and Petronas Tower at Kaula Lumpur, we had no desire to spent money unnecessarily apart from what we had seen earlier Empire state building.World trade centre, etc, so refrained from going up and as Mithun too had been twice on top, we 3, me, Tarla and mithun stayed back and moved around the Base ball stadium. We first had lime juice and while moving around got access to one hotel on the stadium and were fortunate to have a look at the Base ball ground.It was meticuously maitanied, very decent, gorgeous, green turf ground having a seating capacity of 65,000.We then sat their for some time.

We had kept with us a walkie talkie and we had good use of it.We frequently got the message from the other party from the 1514 feet top of the CN Tower that they are coming back. After their return, we went towards parking, and on the way took Vegi Hot Dog, as also some grocery, samosa,ice cream etc for our lunch.We had planned to have a stop at one of the town on the way to Montreal,as, Lopa's one friend of Bombay was staying their, and Lopa wanted to meet her. We therefore had a stop in that town,and Lopa along with Nimish and Lipi went to her friend's home and we went to Sub way sandiwich, to get the sanwiches for all of us. We also went around to find Dahi (yogurt) at 2/3 places for about 2 kms and finally got the Dahi.As soon as Lopa etc came back, we moved fast took the freeway towards Montreal.We ate Theplas along with dahi and sand wiches, while on the way.

Freeways of Canada are not that good in conditions and only 2 lanes were their to drive with a speed limit of only 100km per hour i.e. 65 miles per hour. Normally we on the freeways take around 75/80 mph ,so it was boring to drive and that it had no good places to stop or have some snacks,we just drived on. Though we had to stop for 5 times, due to children's needs and our just getting out of the van for stretching out.It took almost 7 hrs for us to reach suburb of Montreal. (mand padre pahonchya). It was already 9.30 pm we need to have a dinner, so we waited at Pizza hut.

Torronto in genreal and Montreal, Quebec in particular were french colonies and they in fact wanted to have seperate nation of their own, but in voting they were defeated, so they are continuing with the Canadian government, reluctantly, but all sign boards and language is only and only French.They dislike English and avoid speaking in English.

Since childhood, we have been taught that French people are courteous and mannerful but experience of Nimish and Snehal during their Europe tour and our experience at these Pizza Hut found out that French people are mannerless,and are rough with the strangers or customers.They just threw pizzas and ketchup packets at us, without any shame and on asking for the dishes,that too was just thown on the service counter.We in fact had hot discussion with the manager, but of no use.We thereafter took road towards our hotel.

Roads of Montreal are very bad and are not mantained very well,the reason we heard was that Olympic games were held here in 1972 and city council has yet not come out the debts and are stilll paying huge amounts towards loans and as such has no funds to maitain the roads.After long search we could find our Sandman Hotel, which had some 14 floors.Hotel was good and rooms were also very good.we got two adjoining room with common door, so we had a good communications.We already had pizza for dinner, so we arranged a musical evening, With Mithun on top of the singer list, we enjoyed well and went to bed.

Cruise and Lego land trip DAY 4 ,5 & 6
On third day it was formal dress day and as such we all got ready in the late evening by putting on suit,tie, party shoes etc.(otherwise we were moving in shorts and canvass shoes ) . Unfortunately due to other engagements we could not attend a welcome receiption by ship's captain at Sound of Music theatre but we did attended gala dinner .
DAY 4 24th May 2008
This was our last day on cruise ship and we had reached Ensenada, Mexico a small town of mexico. We came out after our breakfast at windjammer cafe and boarded a bus taking us to down town of Ensenada. It was typical of some poor indian town, with ghoda gadi , small buses, unkempt dirty roads and hawkers on the footpaths. There is hardly anything to see here excepting one BLOW HOLE ,which was away of some 1 hr journey . We took small luxury bus to it .A girl guide was too talkative and talked continously for 1 hr. She narrated the life of Mexico and problems here. One important thing she said was that Military training is compulsory in Mexico and any person of 18 years of age must attend training on every week end for 1 year and if one fails to attend, then he will not get his degree certificate, house registration, tax benefits and job too. ( inspite of this , corruption and mafia menace is rempant here , police officers are killed in day light and as such just now more than 10 police officers have left their jobs )
We reached Blow Hole in time and walked towards it which was some 500 feet away , before reaching their a hugh market came in between and lots of salesman just like mangal bazar of vadodara were callling us to come inside the shop and to see for oursleves lots of vairities of toys and other things. One such mexican samlesman called us ' ANDAR AAVO '.
Blow hole is on the sea coast having high mountain above the sea and when high tide comes in , sea water gushes inside a cave type hole and due to high tide water force , it blows high up to 50/100 feet , making loud noise. similar Blow holes are also in Hawaii,Australia etc. While returning we bought some mementos . We came back to down town area but could not get down, due to heat so came back to the harbour and boarded our ship. We immediately went to windjamer cafe and had sumptous snacks . Kids were interested in their activities at Adventure oceans and went straight their.
It is customery for the passengers to pay tips to all the room and dinning hall staff members . Here this is called gratuity to staff . Managements sent suggestions of what tips normally is expected to pay, which comes to around $ 10/- per passenger per day . Since we had booked our ticket well in advance , we were given a $ 25/- bonus refund per room, so after deducting this we were to pay this personaly to Head waiter Mr. Anthony gonsalves, waiter Mr Lobo and asst waiter also from Goa, and to room attendant in envelopes supplied by the management , . We reached dinning hall in time . Mood was jubillant in hall as this was the last dinner and all have enjoyed the cruise very much . As soon as the dinner was served all the waiters got together , announcement came that now waiters will make the farewell dance , and then waiters started dancing on the tunes, some jumping, some keeping dishes on the head, some doing somersault . All the dinners started clapping. Then it was announced that now that we have danced , you will sing and we all will dance together . ,So we all got up somebody sang and all danced for few minutes. It was most memorable event for us . we paid gratuities to dinning staff and took photos with them . We then went to Sound of Music theatre for a grand gala musical show. Though we did not like it much, younger ones did enjoyed it. We returned to our rooms. This was our last night and in the early morning we were to leave the ship.
We were informed by the staff that as soon as we leave the ship, the ENTIRE SHIIP will be decontaminated with disinfectant , even railings, door handles, doors, tables ,toilets and dinnig hall etc just to make sure that food poisoning does not spoil the merriment of the oncoming passengers and tarnished the ships image.
Monarch of the seas had 3 bars, a casino , a sound of music theatre, a gym, beauty parlour, adventure ocaean play place for kids , 4 swimming pools, 2 jacuzzis, 3 music lounges, Art gallery, cyber cafe , Library, entertainment centre, rock climbing , tables tennis, basket ball court, 2 dinning halls, 3 breakfast cafes . etc etc.
DAY 5 FRIDAY 25th MAY 2008
More than 2500 passengers were to leave the ship in the morning and as Govt immigration process needed to be done., a full proof plan was announced, where in those who wish to go early can take their baggages on their own at 6.30 am , stand in queue for check out, but those who wish to go afterwards and does not want to carry their baggages should keep their baggages out side their rooms at night after attaching coloured tags provided by the management. This baggages were to be taken by their staff on the harbour and kept it aside as per the coloured tags. Our coloured tag was yellow and were given check out time of 9.30 am. In the morning last breakfast was upto 8.30, am so we went upstairs on the 11th floor and had hefty BF. From the early morning call announcements were made for different coloured tags to proceed towards check out counters . It was started from the 10th floor with green, then blue grey, red,purple tags etc . Ultimately our turn came at around 9.15 and we went for immigration process. This was exacltly like on the Airports . Lady immigration inspector was tough and made lots of questions to us as also to Lipi and Dhrut .She asked Lipi who are this, pointing towards Nimish and Lopa as also talked with Lipi just to know her accent and type of language etc, ( Mexicans might be getting smuggled their klds through this route, so inspector was tough ) . We came out and found our luggage in the yellow room . Snehal went ahead , got the van and brought near the curb (footpath ). We loaded the luggage and our journey started towards Lego land, San Diego which was some 150 miles away, a driving distance of more than 2 and half hours.
Now here Masala cruise has become popular among Indians, as it provides indian food and entertainment. Indian tour operators book some 500/700 seats in a Carnival cruise liner and then Indians get idli sambhar and medu vada in break fast , punjabi food in lunch and dinner. Also dances on Hindi film songs are performed by indian TV artist, thus indians get entertainment of their choice.
Again we all 9 were together in van . We needed to fill the gasoline (petrol ) and look for the directions to San diego . We had a GPS so no worries . After taking freeway we moved fast towards San diego and reached Lego land at around 12.00 p.m. Lego land ( Lego Land is a creation of makers of Lego toys/bricks ) is basically for the kids and does not have good many rides for the adults, so we decided not all the members to go inside as tickets were quite high of $ 60 and even after getting discount cost us $ 44 per person that too ith a time limit of 10 to 5.00 pm (sarkari office j lage ne. Disney land is much cheaper and much much better than this and it has timings from 9.00 am to 24.00 hrs ) . It is a failure project but somehow it is running, due to some attractions in it, just like a "MINDSTORM " where in child has to programme a ROBOT on computer by himself and then robot will work accroding to that progamme.
Me, Tarla and Nimish therefore decided to go on other places and Lopa alongwith Lipi and Snehal, Nipa alongwith Anvay and Dhrut went inside. I could not narrate the rides and other fun activites of Lego land as I have not gone inside, but one can get some idea from the photos.
We first went to nearby Mexican restaurant, took some food and then went to beach played in sea water took some rest and then went to flower field which is developed like Amesterdam's famous Tulip garden. We took round trip on the field , took photos of the flowers. One big American flag was also done with coloured flowers ,we then went to Starbuck's cafe to have some coffee and donuts. As time approached for close down of Lego land (sarkari office ) we reached with our hugh van near the gate, all boarded the van and our return journey started towards Livermore .
On return we had to cover the distance of more than 400 miles which was not possible to do it in a one go from the evening and needed to take a rest at night . We therefore decided to first reach Los Angeles, take some food of our choice and then stay overnight after crossing LA. Nimish had idea that there is one pure Gujarati hotel where we shall get typical Gujarati Thali . We took phone number from Dushyant Pota , phoned in Artesia area of LA but came to know that they don't have an entire gujarati menu. so dropped the idea of going their and instead reached an nearby area of Artesia of LA and entered one SURATI FARSAN MART. a typical gujarati farsan shop cum hotel .
It was typical of gujarati environment, with unkempt not too decent tables and chiars, lot of noise, but was having everything that any gujarati anywhere in the world would like to eat it. WE all 9 members took seat and had Pav Bhaji. Kachori bhel , Idli sambhar , Puri batata nu shak, Alu chat, methi na thepla, Sev khamani, Khaman dhokla , Ragdo patis ,mango lassi and Falooda.Every item was reasonably priced and quality quite satisfactory, though typical of surati taste, it was little chilli. After mouth watering satisfying meal, we headed towards Livermore and reached outskirts of Los Angeles . LA is tooooo hugh city and is said that it is 200 km in length and 125 km in breadth.
Boys started to find a suitable night halt for us and and after trying out various ways through GPS and through phones, we could get one Motel ( all others tried out but were full ) and took exit to reach this motel. Right from the entering the area, we found that the area was not too safe, as normally in USA, grills are NOT fitted to the show windows and doors but here everywhere grills were seen fitted, which indicated that this must be an area where some robbery and other mal practices must be going on. As it was already 10.00 pm at night, we had no courage to find another motel and went to the JAY MOTEL, where we had confirmed our reservation on the phone. Motel was of most ordinary type , just low category owned by Jay Bhagat a gujarati person and his wife came out to show us the rooms. Boys agreed to take the rooms, but when we occupied the rooms, we saw as many cocroaches in the bathroom and in the compund too. we have for the FIRST TIME IN USA have seen cocroaches in 10 years, and were happy that now we shall feel at home . But kids were scared ,so we went back to lady to cancel our reservation , who happily returned our money, we found another motel which was of branded value , namely ECONOLODGE, and reached their in just 5 minutes. This was definately better, though the area was same, we felt comfortable here . Owner of this Motel too was gujarati. Both the rooms had inside common internal door, so kids were hapy in the morning to play.We immediately went to bed and got up next morning at around 9.00 am , as all were extremly tired, due to entire days' hectick schedule. Nimish brought coffee and pan cakes for Break fast from Mcdonalds.
DAY 6 SATURDAY, 26th MAY 2008
We then loaded our van and started return journey to Livermore. Filling our gas tank and taking lunch on the way we reached Livermore at around 4.00 pm.
Thus our 6 days journey ended.
It was saturday and snehal family were to return on Monday night and that , Van was to be returned on Sunday evening . so on Sunday morning we went in van to Elizabeth lake park in Fremont, took our lunch from Masala grill of Veg manchurian,paneer makhani , roti and rice which was very tasty and all enjoyed food very well. We played cricket and Anvay too liked cricket. A toy plane was also sent into air and it worked well. IN the evening van was returned at Oakland airport, some 40 miles away. On Monday night snehal family taking whole night journey reached Westoford boston area.
One major achievement , what I observed is that all the 3 kids furthered their bond of relations and came nearer to know them each other, as this are my brothers and this is our sister . Wonderful achievement was that all the 3 kids during thier together for more than 12 days never even once quarraled and played most amicably between them and credit goes to Chi. Anvay who played with them, handled them, guided and taught them and also cared them well.
My sole purpose of writing this epilogue is to preserve record of our trip and nothing more . Normally we forget minute details in a few days and most of the details in a month or so, and then when we wish to refresh our cherisehd memories or go through the photos after some years , we have no clues or details and just grope in the dark .
Any grametical or sentence building mistake be pardoned .
niranjan buch

Day 2, April 22nd 2008 : Tuesday Since we went to bed early we woke up early in the morning and as habit demands, we need a morning tea, so I phoned customer service and ordered 2 tea for us. In a minute bearer came with a pot of tea, without milk, as this is customary in this part of the world to drink beverages without milk, I immediately rang again and got Indian type tea bags, milk and sugar. I made the tea, and then we both had a shower and got ready. By the time snehal and nimish family too got up and got ready after some time. They had to look after kids too, so they need more time. So we went upstairs on 11th floor, to windjammer café and reserved big table for us. There were lots of people enjoying morning breakfast, viewing sea on one side and on the other side a harbour of San Diego . we had planned to move around the town, but with kids we could not go out early and so went out at around 10.00 am on the harbour and sorrounding area . Snehal remained behind as he had to look after kids who were not interested in going to the town but instead wanted to go to Adventure ocean place where management were looking after the kids, so that parents could move out leisurely. Kids play their and specially 2/3 trained staff were employed to keep the kids busy in various games. We had an hefty breakfast, which contained, crossiant, , different types of breads,Bagels,donuts, muffins,cakes, pastries,, cereals of various type, pan cakes, yogurts, ,muesli, omlettes ,scrambled eggs, variety of fruits, 4 types of tea coffee, hot chocolate and lots of non-veg items .raisins, etc. We all except snehal and anvay came out of the ship on San diego harbour and moved around the area. We saw a old type of wooden ‘VAHAN “ which was named as STAR OF INDIA but was built in London and had 21 times taken round trip of the world. We took photographs in front of the ship. Just in front of the harbour a modern township was seen and one building which is famous for its shape is that of phillips type screw driver . Nimish inquired about moving around the new and old town and came to know that an Open bus moves around, takes 2 hr and charges $ 10 per person , so we came back to ship had our lunch on the ship’s windjammer café and again went out excepting Anvay on harbour In the morning Nimish had inquired about renting an cycle rickshaw which we have to drive it , which can sit 6 passengers, but we thought that it would be difficut for Boys to drive it. So took the open bus and had glimpse of the wonderful, very decent old and new town of San Diego . San Diego is very well designed, and laid out extremely beautiful town with all round greenery and decent high rise buildings. Our bus took us to Italian village and then to mexican village and old town. Nimish had desire to see the old town, but bus had a halt of hardly 5 minutes and that Anvay was in the kids place in the ship , Snehal etc wanted togo back, so we too and Nimish family got down, whereas Snehal family went ahead and reached the ship. We moved around the old mexico town which has much similarity to India. Restaurant had glass windows and ladies were cooking exactly like our ladies . They cook wheat floor ROTI which they call TORTILLAS, which is spread with our type of Velan and some ladies were preparing tortillas with both hands just like our ROTLAS. Even some toys are extremely similar to ours . We had to return to our ship by 4.30 pm , so we took taxi charging $ 11 and came on board the Monarch of the Seas . Every time we go out or come back our sail pass was scanned and our photo is matched. Our ship salied at 5.30 and we left the port of San Diego. Our kids were again wanted to have a swim, so we went on the upper deck 11th floor and sat on easy chairs. Kids went inside the pool. Here swim towels are supplied by the ship . People were in jolly mood . Band was playing and people were dancing . We then went near the back side deck where table tennis and basket ball play was going and above deck a wall climbing is done. Anvay wanted to have wall climbing which was 20 feet high. First Anvay went after putting on all the gear helmets, special shoes and with little diffculty reached the summit . There after Nimish and then Snehal too climbed the wall . It really was good adventure sports. Ship was sailing out of the port , so we all walked to the front deck and sat in the midst of the land moving behind and watching hugh high seas in the front. Sun was setting and It looked like an famaous song scene of TITANIC . We were moved by the escatic scene of entire family on board enjoying the cruise and moment of together ness in wilderness . As sun set on the horizon , cold returned and we were forced to return inside the ship. We then took a stroll in other areas of the ship . saw Casino and game of black jack . One Punjabi boy was playing and we watched how this game is played. You all must have seen in many hindi movies, where a man moves the roulette and put small white ball in the roulette and then people bat on particular number and then when roulette stops and ball settles on any particular number, people loose if they have not bat on that number.

OUR CRUISE AND LEGO LAND TRIP;
21st to 26th April 2008

Since long we had a plan in our mind to take a cruise with entire
famiy and as such Nimish and Snehal planned in time to book a
cruise of 4 nights tour on carribean international lines for Mexico.
All these cruise starts from Los Angeles on a west coast apart from
Boston, New york and florida.
Lot of planning needed to take this tour. first we need to inquire
about our visa for the Mexico .This was clarified after calling
mexico consulate in San jose and were informed that no visa is
necessary for the visit. Then how to reach LA ?. This was a major
challenge, as driving 400 miles to LA is not easy, so we discussed
various options and inquired about train service that goes to LA
but it takes 10 hrs and is not cheap and then from trains station to
reaching Harbour is also costly and time consuming, so we inquired
about Bus service which runs regularly, and came to know that this
too we have to take it at night at 22 hrs reaching LA at 8.00am but
then again reaching from bus stop to Harbour is disfficult and in
both the cases it was a night journey so kids may not sleep
properly and even we might not be confortable at night in bus. So
taking 2 cars was also not feasible,as in a long run of 400 miles,
we might get seperated on the way, might take ` wrong freeway or
some wrong inside road and then it makes it difficult to make the
bearing of the road and meet again at particular place, as we
all are new to that area and giving particular direction to meet is
difficult. So ultimately it was decided to rent a 12 seater VAN
which we did on canada tour.
We got the van rented from Oakland airport . On Saturday we went to
San francisco moved in a cable car , had ice creams at Ghirardelli and
visited our favourite Golden gate bridge. on sunday we went to
Fresh Choice salad buffet restaurant and in the evening, both
brothers went to get the van from Oakland airport which took 2 hrs
to return.
On the morning of Monday the 21st april 2008, we both got up at 4.30
in the morning and got ready and thereafter one by one others too got up and got
ready by 6.30 am. We loaded the van with all the luggage, which was
quite in a large numbers andt was meticulously thought over what
willl be needed during the trip .We started at around 7.00 am
stopped at Mcdonald for breakfast at around 9.00 am took pan
cake, buns, coffe tea etc and drove towards LA, again stopped
twice for lunch at visitor centre, which houses different
restaurants such as Taco bell, pizza hut, burger kings etc, so
everybody gets of his own choice for snacks, and for use of rest
rooms. We reached LA harbour at 14.30 and unloaded our luggage.
We were sent tickets by the caribean international and to save check
in time we had to do the online checking which we did it and had to
print sail pass and sign it. Alongwith all this we were also sent
boarding tags with room numbers to attach on the luggages .This is
exactly like airlines boarding tags. A lady porter was ready at the
harbour luggage unloading area where she took posssion of all our
luggage , attched tags and took away our luggage which was to be
delivered at our rooms inside the ship .We completed all the
formalities at the check in counter wherein our passports and
tickets were verified and credit card type boarding sail pass with
room numbers name and other details of dinnig time and table no. were given. Then as usual we
went through security check and on boarding of the ramp, again our
sail pass was chekced and our photos were taken.This was to become
our identity for the rest of the cruise, as we needed to go out as
many times.
DAY 1 MONDAY 21 st April 2008
We entered such an luxury liner ship for the first time in life and
WOW what a luxurious centrum it had. A five star hotel type guest
relationship counter and central area where huge stage was decorated
with sorrounding staircases and 2 bullet type open glass windows
elevators were moving up and down , entire area its staircases were
decorated with carpets and handrails of Golden chrome glittering metal. It
really looked like some PALACE . It really was so glittering and so
beautifully decorated that we just were dazed looking at it. We
were stunned . Those who have seen TITANIC will remember how the
main area was decorated and dances were going on , exactly like
that, Dancing and guitar performance was going on. Around the centrum on left side a painting studio was located, where as on other side a library and exactly opposite to it was internet cafe.
We then went towards our rooms which were on that same centrum floor no.4
Our luggages were waiting near the doors which we brought inside. Rooms
obviously were small as they had to accomodate lots of passengers
and earn profit, but quite comfortable, as matresses, pillows,
blankets were white and spotlessly clean. small writing table and
chairs were also provided as also small toilets with wash basin,
shower bath were provided . our rooms had enough lighting and TV ,
internal phone connection too. Entire ship was carpeted.
I inquired about the passengers and staff strength and I was told that today it has
2500 passengers and
855 staff members.
It had totally 8 elevators ( lifts ) 2 bullet type, open glass glittering lifts on centrum and 6 in the corridor in the front of the centrum. These lifts are also most modern with voice annoucements and blind people also can use it, as it has braile number of floor having a capacity of 16 passengers in each elevators . It also had inside the elevators,panel showing what facilites it had on each floor, so that we can get down on the floor where we wish to go and did not necessary to ask anyone.
As for the staff members,
we observed that most of them are from
INDIA, either from Mumbai or goa and they were very friendly
and cooperative to us .Services here in the dinning hall,
windjammer cafes or anywhere else, were excellent . All the staff was
very cooperative, very helpful and most courteous. Food on the cafes
were abundant and lavish.I will narrate it later on.
First class passengers are given cabins on 9th and 10 floors where
as all other passengers are given cabins from 4th to 8th floor, but
there is no descripancies between any passengers and everywhere else
they ALL are treated equally.
Rooms are alloted on bookings only and one has to adhered to it as
ship was fully booked. Even our dinning time preference of 5.30 pm
and 8.30 pm was also confirmed in advance ( we prefered to dine at
8.30 pm. How can we eat at 5.30 in the evening.) and our table no
112 was also given in advance and was printed in our sail pass.
We immediately went out for snacks as we all were hungry .
Unfortunately lunch was closed, so we went on to 11th floor for
snacks, but we were told that at 4.30 pm a security drill with life
jackets will be conducted at 7th floor and it is compulsory for
everyone to attend it.We all went to our rooms to collect our life
jackets which had room no. written on it with emergency life station
no. also written on it , so that in case of emergency we had to
reach that place on 7th floor. When we reached 7th floor open dack
there was hundreds of passengers lining up at their designated life
station and roll calls were taken.This is a system that in case of
emergency we had to reach that designated/particular place and our
boat was alloted to us which was just above our head, so that in
case of emergency there is no chaos and everybody knows where to go
and which boat is alloted to them and where they have to stand to
board the life boat . Children were tied a green bend on their wrist
with room no and emergency life station number. We were told that in
case of emergency we were not to worry about our children as they might be in some children's place and had to
run for our life station and children will be brought by their life
station staff.
After this drill, we came to deck no. 11 which was named
"windjammer cafe " and behind that a japanes style Sushi cafe was
situated. Japanese are the highest number of international tourist
and as such a special cafe is alloted to them. on 12th floor it was
pizza cafe which was named as "sorrento " We took tea, coffee,
pizza ,cookies etc. Our kids especially Anvay and Lipi are water
frenzy and as soon as they saw swimming pool they just ran towards
it. Water was warm and out of 4 pools and 2 jacuzzis, 2 pools were
deep up to 5 feet, where as 2 small pools were for the small kids
and had only 9 inches of warm water, so kids can fearlessly play in
the water. There was an atmosphere of celebration on the pool deck,
lots of people were dancing, sitting relaxing and enjoying the
live band playing on the upper deck.Upper deck too was full with
pool chairs and people thronged the outer railings to watch ship
leaving the harbour.
Ship left the pier at 5.30 p.m leaving Los Angeles harbour for 4 day
journey towards Mexico. Wind was getting cold and Lopa asked Lipi to
come out of the water, but she refused to come out for quite some
time and then when Lopa and Nimish lifted her and brought her out,
she just ran back towards water and on resisting to go towards water
she cried . Dhrut too was enjoying warm water pool. Anvay somehow
did not like the salty sea water of the pool and came out early.
We then moved around the ship and started a tour of the entire
ship.First we went on the 5th floor, which too was attached to
centrum area with staircases Here a luxurious shopping centre was
ocated and had mall type decorated shops of jewellery, cigarettes,
liquor, fancy items, perfumes, photos etc.On the 3rd floor behind
the centrum, a luxurious dinning hall was situated and just above
that on 4th floor another dinning hall was situated. A casino too was situated near the centrum and behind it we saw a gorgeous most luxurious theatre named " Sound of Music " .We have never seen such a luxurious theatre in our life. it seats were wide with 12 inch foam , red sllky cloth , having red carpet on the floor ,with small 3 floor design with moving bar chairs and yellow metal railings and extremely beautiful lamps, lights and decors. It was so glittering ,beautiful and dcorative ,illuminated that we will never see such theatre again in our life, unless we take another cruise.
It was getting dark and we all were hungry, so came back to room, got ready for dinner and we all together went to Dining hall situated behind centrum on 4th floor. Hall must have a capacity sit around 500 people to dine with and waiter staff was around 100 for 3rd and 4th floor dinning hall . as soon as dinner was served , music started and entire waiter staff came out walked and danced through the dinning hall waiving handkerchiefs and smiling to all, making the atmosphere vibrant and cheerful . We found some indian vegetarian dishes in the menu and ordered it. We had hefty,satisfying dinner and came out. Thereafter kids went to sleep, we moved to casino and young guys went to theatre show.

Royal Caribbean Cruise 2008

We took a journey last week, which was unforgettable and amazing. We went to CA on April 16th and came back on 29th. Our flight was from Providence, RI instead of Boston as that was cheaper. Drive form home to airport was about 1.5 hours. We picked up Anvay from school at 2PM and by 2:30, we started for airport. Our flight was at 5:15. It was late and there was a scare that we may not be able to get a connection at Chicago, but everything worked out and we reached San Francisco at 11PM. By then, it was 2AM our time and Anvay had a looong day. He didn’t get any sleep on planes either. He was sick for next couple of days, little cold and temp of 100F but then he was fine.

We had booked our Cruise in February. Early booking is good for a good rate. Although, we were to go in a spring vacation, so price wasn’t less any way. We paid $269 per person plus tax. It was a four night cruise from Los Angeles to Ensanada, Mexico in a Royal Caribbean ship called The Monarch of the Seas. The Cruise starts on April 21st from LA harbor at 5:30 PM, so we started from home which was near San Francisco and drove to LA. We had rented 12 seater van again for 3rd time in 3 years, as we were 9 people. 4 of us, Snehal’s brother’s family 3 and Snehal’s parents. We drove for about 7 hours with few breaks and reached LA harbor. There weren’t any clear signs to as which company’s ship is docked where so had to ask someone to find out. Parking lot is right in front of the ship, security people made sure we are the passanger for the ship named “ Monarch of the seas” and let us go with warning of not to use cameras because of the terrorist scare.
Outside on the curb, there was one lady waiting for us and she took charge of all the checked in luggage. They had sent us luggage tags ahead of time. She told us to put the tags on all the bags, which we would get in our rooms later. We kept purse and electronic item bag with us and gave rest of the bags to her. Luggage allowance is 200 LB per person, so weight wasn’t an issue. Snehal went and parked the car in the lot that was $12 per day.

Inside the building, they checked the passports and gave a Sea pass card, which is a room key as well as charge card. Our money or credit card is of no value on the ship. They connect pass card to credit card, so whenever we buy anything on the ship, we have to show this sea pass card and they will put charge on this sea pass card which will charge credit card. All 9 of us got this pass card with name, room number, formal dining room name and table number written on it. All three kids got a band on their hand with muster number written on it. So in an emergency, we shouldn’t go looking for them, they will be bring the kids to us at the muster station. More about muster station later.

Then we went inside the ship. At the entry, they scan the sea pass card and took our pictures. This ship was built in 1983 and was refurbished couple of times after. From the outside, it wasn’t that great looking, but inside it was magnificent! Our rooms were on deck 4, which was the main deck with all the flashy elevators, golden design and customer service counter. The ship has 14 decks, deck 1 is almost at the sea water level.

Our rooms (they call them state rooms) were inside of the ship, not ocean view. Ocean view rooms were $30-$60 more. Unfortunately they were already sold out in February. All the rooms were very tiny. They need to have more rooms in order to keep the price low.
We were four, so our room had two bunk beds, very small bathroom. But it had all the amenity of a good hotel room. Flush in the toilet was like in an airplane with suction. Luckily you have to put the cover down to pull the lever to flush, so our ears survived that suction sound. Our room number was 4039.

This ship has capacity of 2800 passengers and 850 crew members. They had some cancellation, so there were 2500 passengers and 805 crew. Ship had two swimming pools, two Jacuzzis, a rock climbing wall, table tennis, Billiards, Basket ball court, Gym, spa, big theater, two bars, Casino, dance studio, 3-4 stores, Ice cream store and a whole lot more which we may not have seen or remembered.

We reached in our rooms and got settled. In a few minutes our luggage also arrived. It was almost 4 by then. Ship’s departure time was 5:30. At 5, they opened two of their casual restaurants. Ship has two casual and two formal dining rooms. At the time of booking they asked for the time of seating for formal dining room. They have two seatings for both formal rooms. At 5:30 and at 8:00. I had put second seating with table for the size of 7-10 people. Casual dining rooms are buffet for Breakfast, lunch and Dinner. In between, they open for snack. At 5, there was a compulsory mustering. For that they called us to deck 3, and after looking at our sea pass, they told us to go to Muster station 1. This was a safety drill, so in an emergency, we have to come to that part of the ship where all the boats are hanging, wear life jackets. If the kids are at their activities, they will be brought to us. After that, when they opened for snack, we went for a slice of Pizza, cake, cookie and a sandwich. Water, lemonade, tea-coffee were free, all other drinks for a price. We were happy with free stuff!!!

Then we ventured in to the ship, it was little cold, so couldn’t go out on the pool side for long. We watched LA harbor going away from eyesight when the ship sailed. At 8, we went to the formal dining room to eat again. Our head waiter, waiter and assistant waiter all were Indians. Very happy to see us, as not many Indians come to Royal Caribbean Cruise lines. Most go to Carnival cruise. So in last couple of weeks, Royal had introduced Indian vegetarian dish in the menu every night. We were 9, so we ordered everything Veg on the menu. They had about 2 soups, 2 salads, 3-4 Entrees, and all the desserts for us every night. Portions were not huge, but everything was paid for, so you can order again if you wish to. Usually no one does because all you do whole day is eat on the ship. Food was very delicious, better than Carnival cruise, we were told (Nimishbhai family has been on a Carnival cruise before). Our head waiter told us that there are 55 people working in each dining hall of 26 different nationalities. His name was Anthony Gonsalvis and he made sure to let us know it was his real name!! Everyone works for 6 months and then take a leave of 6 weeks or so to go home. All the three waiters families live in mumbai. Just like any hotels, waiters don’t get paid much, their main salary is the Tip they receive.

There was an area for kids only called Ocean Adventure, where they take care of the kids and make them play while parents can go do some other activity. First night we didn’t put the kids there.

Next day at 8 in the morning, ship docked at San diego. They had all the excursion ready if you want to buy, but we had decided to go on our own at our time. Our rooms were getting cleaned every morning and afternoons, twice a day. At afternoon cleaning, they will decorate towels in to some animals and either hang it in the middle of the room or put it on the bed. That time, they will put next day’s activity planner which they call Cruise Compass. I told our room attendants to put compasses for kids activity too, so he put three compasses, one for adults, one for kids 3-5 and one for kids 6-8. Anvay read that his age group is doing Star wars themed games, so he was determined to go there and not come with us. So after breakfast, which was huge with all the breads, pastries, eggs, waffles, Juices, tea-coffee we left all the kids with them and went out. For younger kids, they gave a pager, which would work on the ship only. So we just went to take a walk around the harbor and then came back. Picked up two younger ones, Anvay still wasn’t ready to come, so left him there with instruction of our cell phones and went out. There was a double decker bus (open on the top) going from Harbor to 45 minute ride, so we took that. It was hop on and off, but we stayed in the bus. At the last stop, everyone got down, but Snehal, I and Dhrut came back to the ship. Checked on Anvay who wouldn’t have minded if we came couple of hours late!!! Others visited the Old Town of San Diego and came back in half an hour.

While going out of the ship, they again scan the sea pass card and make sure pictures match with our face. Coming back, same process to make sure everyone is on board. In the evening, we went up to the 13th deck to Rock climbing wall. This wall is 20 feet high and very daunting from down. Anvay wanted to climb it, so we went there and he climbed it very nicely. Nimishbhai and Snehal also climbed, but it was little easier for them.

At 5:30, ship sailed again for Catalina, which is an island but is part of the California. Reached there at 8 in the morning. It didn’t docked there, but anchored few hundred meters in to the ocean. There was a ferry taking people to the island. All of us also went there after breakfast. This island is very small with population of 2200. About 20,000 tourists come there every year. Main road is small and doesn’t allow any vehicles on it. Only rented bicycles, golf carts etc. are allowed. We took a walk there. Inside the ship, they gave a paper with 5 stores names where we have to get the stamp for a chance to win something. All the kids had fun trying to find those stores and getting stamp. Anvay, Dhrut, Lipi and Snehal took a paddle boat ride, then all of us went to the semi submarine ride to watch fishes under the ocean. Tickets were $20 per head. It was for 45 minutes. They took us in a small submarine, 20 people can sit in a big windowed seats. We saw lots and lots of weed and many many fishes. It wasn’t worth $20, but that was the price to pay for being a tourist. We all were still not hungry from breakfast, so just kids ate expensive Grilled Cheese sandwich. We all wanted to go out on a rented golf cart, but it was already windy and little chilly, so decided to let go. And came back to the ship. Had a late lunch there. That night kids had Pajama party with Movie, so we gave them dinner around 7 and dropped them off at “ Adventure Ocean” area, and then 6 of us adults went for dinner in dining hall. Waiters were asking about kids, but we had very nice time having dinner without all the ruckus!!

That night was a Chocolate Buffet night. At 11:30, they opened this buffet where they made lots of things with Chocolate including decorations. There was a Chocolate Eagle, big flower vases, Eiffel tower, fishes, Turkey and many other things. There was an ice sculpture of a dragon and a rooster. There were many varieties of cakes, mousses, breads etc. They were giving away some samples too!! With Vanilla and Orange icecream. It was a sight to see. Line had started forming at 11pm only but Snehal got a special early private tour courtesy of Mr Anthony Golsalves !!

Next day we reached Ensanada, Mexico at 8 AM. Again after scanning our Sea pass card, we stepped in to Mexico. Cruise tourists didn’t need to take a VISA. Just outside there were shops and buses to take down town. There was Excursion from the ship, but we didn’t take that and went on our own. We were thinking whether to take the bus or to hire a taxi, then bus wala started negotiating that we won’t have to take tickets for younger two kids and it’s only two dollars, so we decided to go in the bus upto Downtown, 5-7 minute bus ride.

Ensanada didn’t give that Mexican feeling, but then I don’t think any town in Mexico is like you see in “Clint Eastwood” movies anymore. It did give Indian feeling though!! All the shops are like you see in Amdavad. Small, congested and one person is always outside trying to lure you in. We decided not to roam around there and go for Blow hole 45-50 minutes away. Again there was a bus going there, telling us no tickets for younger two kids, rest were to pay $15 per head for 3 hour tour. We took that tour, our guide was a girl who had lot of knowledge of the area. She kept on talking for more then an hour, telling us about the area showing off newly built Walmart, Home Depot, Costco etc. Until these stores came two years ago, people have to go 25-30 minutes to buy anything and everything. In Mexico, there is a law, that every boy when turns 18, has to join Military for 1 year, going there every weekend. After one year, they can leave and start something else. If someone doesn’t join the military, country doesn’t forgive him until that person turns 45. They don’t get many benefits that usually people do.

After about an hour’s beautiful ride next to the bay of Ensanada, we came to “La Bufadora”. We have been warned from the ship by our waiter previous night not to drink outside water, we decided not to eat anything unless we becomes very hungry. But all of us were stuffed from breakfast, so didn’t eat anything, not that any vegetarian item was available. “La bufadora” is a Blowhole when ocean waves collides with narrow entrance of the cave, marine geyser explodes upwards with tremendous sound. Sometimes it goes up 80 Feet above sea level, for us that day it was 15 feet or so. Other Blowholes in the world are in Australia, Tahiti and Hawai. This one is believed to be most spectacular. Even at 15 feet, it did look very grand.

Just outside of “La Bufadora” there were about 500 shops selling art and craft stuff. There were many shops selling other regular stuff too. Rarely we have seen anything marked in Pesos, everything was marked in Dollars. Our guide told us that for local people, they gave in Pesos, their main customers are tourists, so everything is in Dollars. We asked her about gas price, she said in Mexico, gas is about $3 per gallon. We bought some toys for kids, and a single swing like Hammock for us. Came back to the down town. In Adventure ocean, kids had talent show, so they wanted to go back to the ship, so we didn’t venture in to downtown and head back to the ship. Everyone had lunch and then kids went to their part of the ship.

That night, kids had Pirate night with face painting and Parade, so again we fed them early and dropped them. Again, we had a quite, nice meal. That was the last dinner on the Cruise, so it was time to tip everyone. Recommended tip is $10 per head, per day. So we made three hefty envelopes and gave them to all three waiters. One more envelope went to room attendant. They have started announcing for departure next day. We have to put the bags outside of our rooms on Thursday night. If we want to get out early, then we have to take our bags with us and they will announce those people first. In the evening cleaning they left luggage tags of Yellow color. Everyone gets a colored tags, in the morning you have to depart when your color is announced.

There were some shows we went to which were good. Song and dance shows where kids also came. At night we would keep kids with Mummy-Pappa and go for adult shows which were good too. You can see people are drunk as they just let go, relax and take part in shows. Ship’s main income is from hard drinks. Everyone is relaxed with nothing to do or drive anywhere, they drink a lot and with drink, Tip is already included when they come to get a signature. We went to dance studio where they were teaching 70’s dance steps and Latin dance steps too.

At night, around 10PM ship started to take a speed, as they have to reach LA by early morning. That made ship rocking and gave us sea sickness. Until that night, all of us were good but that night for half an hour it was pretty bad. Snehal and Mummy took pills, rest just went to sleep. There was last hour sale at the shops, but none of us were in any condition to go anywhere.

In the morning ship docked at LA harbor at 6 AM. By 6:30, they started announcing for people who wants to go early. They also put board at the main deck giving time range for each color tag. Our time range was about 9-9:30 AM. They wanted everyone out of the ship by 10. Afterwards, they will sanitize the whole ship and start boarding at 12:30 for 3 night Cruise. We finished getting ready, had breakfast and by 9:15 we went to the main deck and waited for our turn. Soon, they announced and by 9:45, we were at the immigration. Luckily, they told us to stay together as a family, so we went in to the non-Citizen line which was smaller. Here they didn’t ask anything, but asked kids all the questions, like how old are they? Where do they live? Who are we? Etc. and let us go.

We came out and got our luggage. All the bags were in different rooms according to color tag. We got the van and went on our way. Kids wanted to go to “Lego land” which is Lego themed park with all the rides mainly for kids. We reached there after an hour and a half drive. Park is not good compare to the price of $60 which is also a Disney park price. But this one is full of Lego structures very nicely made. Park closed at 5, we came out and drove for 4 hours to North of LA. Found a Hotel and stayed there. In the morning, again drove for 5 more hours and reached home.

After staying couple more days, we came back home to Boston. Our Cruise and stay at Nimishbhai-Lopa’s place was very memorable.I would recommend Cruise to everyone. At least once everyone should take a cruise in their lifetime.

OUR USA TRIP : 10th APRIL 2008

We boarded Paschim express from Vadodara on 8th morning but got two difference seats, some how we managed the baggage and reached Bandra terminus at 3.10 pm .Bandra terminus has 2 cloak rooms , we kept all our luggaage and took a taxi to Babul Nath temple , which took around 1 hr to reach the destination. I had a long cherished memories of the past and so took photographs of the marble plaque which depicts a sliver vessels donated by my father Hiralal Bhagwanlal Buch before 85 years to Laxmi narayan temple in the presinct of the Babulnath temple, near Chowpatty, Bombay, took rest for half an hour, made Darshan of the Mahadevji and came down to Chowpatty to have a glimpse of the sea.
Since traffic is a problem in Bombay now, we need to return to Bandra to reach airport in time.We therefore took 80 Ltd bus from Babul nath and reached Bandra station after almost 1 hr 45 minutes. Took our luggage , took a taxi to Airport which again took 1 hr to reach airport. There was a commotion at the entry gates and it looked like some mela or a mad rush for free ration or free distribution of dhabla. It was extremely difficult to enter in the airport premises with so many luggage, but some how we managed it .
We thereafter took our dinner given by Potas and went for the x ray check up.Cathay pacific already has started the check in and since we were quite early, the person on the desk was helpful, we got the seats of our choice with 2 seats raw from Bombay -Hongkong and 3 seat raw from HK to SFO. Bombay airpot is now some what better with carpets on floor and good finish on the wall. The best thing of Bombay airport is its bed type sofa, which gives lots of comfort and good sleep This we have not seen anywhere. We took some rest and went in for security check. On annoucement of boarding, we went inside the plane. Normally dinner is served immediately after we are in the air, but they took some time, skipped the dinner and instead served breakfast at around 4.30 am. BF was really good contaning one small masala dosa , upama, sambhar,coconut chutney, soya raita , plus as usual, bun,butter ,jam , fruit tea coffee juices ,etc.
We landed at Honkong airport at our 8.00 am, when local time was 10.30. HK aiprot is excellent.What I have seen with our airport consturction is that our airports are huge monolithic RCC structure, with huge columns , beams and thick heavy walls giving a feeling of we being prinsoners and not travellers , where as what I have seen with other airports like Bangkok, Seoul, Kaula Lumpur, and HK is different. HK airport has 80 gates, compared to our 3 gates. It has a huge glass panels of 40 feet high , 20 feet wide on both the side of waiting hall giving us full view of runways, planes landing and taking off and hills sorrouiding the airport .(Photos attached ) it has a scenic panaromic view . Ceiling of airport is of plastic moulding giving full lights and ambience of an international airport. apart from ALL the modern facilites it has excllent service for the passengers. Unfortunately we were not served any beverages before landing and we ALL indians have habits of having morning tea , so all the fellow pasengeers were inquiring about how to get the indian type tea. I tried to find with one chinese reatuarant but it showed some$ 9.50 for cup of tea which was too exhorbitant, but ultimately after moving a lot I could find indian type tea a big cup for $ 2.70. We took some home made khari puri along with tea .
We boarded the plane for SFO at our 12.30 pm, when local time was 3.00 pm. first they served peanuts and juices, then they served lunch after 2 hrs which contained Nan,vegetables of flower and another palak paneer, Tuver dal , kakkdi nu kachumber, , rasgulla, pickle etc.food was very tasty and truly indian. Then lights were dimmed as our this flight was to take 12 hrs of continued flight,so we took rest for almost 10 hrs, during which we were served tea, coffee,juices, cookies, cup noodles etc. Then full lights were again made on and were served again a break fast of vada, idli smabhar, nan, dal , keri no ras etc.We had an individual TV with some 12 channels as also 6 music system channell . Hindi movie was shown during BOM- HK sector .
Our 3rd co passenger was Indonesian chinki (chinese woman ) who was seiying in Taipie and was going to meet her daughter in Houston.She was extremly mixing and from the start became friend of Tarla . she learned from us lots of Gujarati words and taught us chinese ( mandarin ) words to us. We taught her, " jamvu chhe, bhojan, kem chho, namaste suprabhat, dada, dadi, nana, nani etc.
We were taught :
Jamvu chhe -----maka nasi
kem chho ---Aapa tabhar
Kyan jav cho ---Nim havrand
Dada ---ye ye
dadi -nai nai
Nana ---kung kung
Nani --po po
Abhar --Tari maka kiri
abhar ---se se
Cninese (mandarin ) language has also has k kh g gh ch chh j jsh just like our barakhadi.
We reached SFO after 12 hrs continuious grueling journey , and ran for immigration process. We were asked routine questions of why have we come and how long wanted to stay and who relative are here , who will support you in case of illness.
We then proceeded towards baggage claim which took around 20/25 minutest come. After l;oading our baggages on troley we proceeded towards Agriculture deptt's check up. Previously our baggage was never checked up for any plants, fruits, vegetables, masalas etc. but now they have become strict and as soon as they see any indian, they are being sent for jeera or any other above mentioned stuff. fortunately we did not carry such stuff and so after opening only one beg, we were asked to go.
Nimish was waiting out side for us. since he had come directly from office Lopa and Lipi were waiting at home to receive us.( photo attached.)
We settled down after tea, snacks and as usual all the begs were opened.
niranjan buch