Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

The previous post in this series is here..

After our vegetarian lunch in Hanoi, we started off towards Ha Long Bay. It was a long drive and our attempts at telling our driver to keep his eyes on the road failed miserably. So we just braced ourselves for a potential accident and tried to look outside the window as much as possible to the side! Apparently the norm here per driver given the traffic. We even called the guy who ran the service and that person said we were with the safest driver in his fleet!

This was a local Electric Vehicle which had some ADAS. So that gave us some consolation even though I didn’t trust the ADAS in this type of traffic. Enough of the car stories..

On the way we saw the west lake and the Pagoda in it. There was no time to visit this Pagoda but we had spent a lot of time in the morning at another temple with the turtles. We prayed en route to the higher powers in that Pagoda to make it to Ha Long.

We made it to Halong bay in 2 hours. The place was empty. No tourists on the waterfront. Apparently the boats had all left for the all day tour of the rock formations and would return around sunset. So we had the place to ourselves. Walked around, took pictures, saw the Dolphin palace which was impressive and we decided to go to the beach side. It was a 20 minute ride and we spent a good 45 minutes in the beach taking pictures and just enjoying the relatively empty beach.

Ha Long bay is really beautiful with the unique rock formations. The views were the same from most places though. We were reasonably sure that our decision to see this from the shore instead of an all day boat ride was a good one given our time constraints. Here are the pics.. yoga first..

At this point we decided not to wait for the sunset. It would take us a lot more than 2 hours in evening traffic to get back. We had not even checked in to our hotel and we wanted to see the night market and old quarter by night. So we told our driver that we can start back with no breaks. He was also happy as we had started early that morning from the airport and it was a long day for him as well. More photos..

it was a good call. We drove past a glorious sunset towards Hanoi and were dropped off at hour hotel a little close to 6:30 PM. We had made it back in exactly 2 hours.

A video highlight of our visit to Ha Long bay

We checked into our room and ventured out towards the market.. that in the next post!

The Amalfi coast - Sorrento

The previous post in this series is here..

We reached Naples airport close to 8:30 PM. There was no public transport that would get us to Sorrento. It is an almost two hour drive along windy roads and lots of tunnels, with a lot of mopeds cutting in and out abruptly with no road rules applicable to them. Of course, I found out all this after driving. At the car rental place they asked us to take insurance as most cars get hit. They also told me to take enough pictures of the car in the freaking night to make sure we document all “existing scratches”. Was told that there would be. new ones by the time I return the car. Fortunately I got it back in two days with no additional scratches that I could see in “before vs. after” photos.

The family was proud of my effort to get them to the hotel. It was a large Volkswagen and I made a mental note that driving should be restricted only for the from and to airport. Again was wrong.

The hotel itself was cute. The staff friendly. There was no microwave or hot water but there was someone 24x7 downstairs who could get you that. He was like “I can make you a cappuccino now!” and I said “let me show you how to make Wagh Bakri instant chai with hot water”.. he watched me with an amused smile. The next two days he had hot water ready for me! He was reasonably sure there was something addictive in that chai packet. Once he was busy and he asked his daughter to get me hot water.. think the conversation in Italian was “why water? I can make him a Cappuccino!” and the response was something like “give him his damn water and see what he does with it”.. my broken Italian could only comprehend so much.

Where were we? Ah yes.. we settled into the room past 11 PM. So it was lights out. We had to get ready at 7 AM, have breakfast downstairs (which was really nice) and walk 20 minutes to Sorrento City center for a tour the kids had booked. It was Sorrento Food tours ! The kids took “namakku soru dhaan mukkiyam!” to a new level. We were met outside a local church by our guide Tamara. Turns out she was from the US but has spent the last 15 years there. Our group was the four of us, three folks from Irvine and a young couple from UK. We all made friends quickly thanks to Jr. talking about Irvine and me suddenly talking about Dorset and Blackpool. My family was eye rolling. . “who is this guy and how come we don’t know any of this?”. Tamara started the tour with some “good eats” she had got.. This was second breakfast. I also got a lecture on “if that couple from UK wants to have kids, they will. You don’t have to be the old uncle showing them how great it is to have kids by using this family as an example!” … Apparently I am advertising the value of a large family subliminally.. did not know that! All I asked was “how long have you guys been married? and “do you have any kids?”.

She took us through different restaurants, gave us a lesson on citrus, we had breakfast of sorts (again) at Franco’s. They made us a vegetarian sandwich with their special cheese (it had the Italian equivalent of ISI muththirai). In all my life I have not tasted a cheese sandwich that good ! The kids got 11/10 for this.

There was a good 45 minutes spent at a citrus garden and a private garden and limoncello making place. We got a factory tour.

Then we walked some more and came to a shopping district and the old square. There were chocolate fountains, candy stores. One store had lemon candy which I got hooked to. They checked to make sure that this was the only candy I could eat in that entire store. The manager took allergies seriously. Got myself a large bag of the lemon candy which has a small pocket of lemon juice at its core. Still enjoying it. Then it was time for lunch where they gave us pasta and a local cheese made from buffalo milk that was watery. It was interesting texture wise but very tasty. Then we stopped at Raki, a gelato place. Really good gelato! After this it was a walk to an overlook point and we all went our separate ways. We had gotten a good overview of Sorrento history, food, and the layout of the place.

While we were at lunch San kept getting calls from a local number.. We found out later that she had accidentally booked a kayaking tour same time as the food tour. She begged them to move it by a day and they did, but to the last group of the day.. (more on that later).

We walked by ourselves to see both the local church and cathedral. Then realized our legs were tired and our stomachs were too full. So we waited at a bus stop and took the bus to the stop closest to our hotel. They do have a fantastic public transport system. If you have the time and patience to use it. When you are a tourist, every minute counts!

The people and their pace is all laid back in Sorrento. They act like everyone is going to live past a 100 and there is 48 hours in a day. That somehow goes out the window the minute anyone gets behind a wheel.

Here is the morning and early afternoon in pictures. . .

and more photos.. of narrow streets and churches! Here is a quick lesson as we transition from landscape to portrait format photos.. when you do this food tour, DO NOT have breakfast in the hotel. You will be eating plenty and non stop over the next five hours. Also at Tamara’s request, her brochure is in the pictures below.

While adding the pictures I realized that a few things were missed. If you want to walk down from the top of city center, do it later in the evening. The sunset is just glorious here!

A video highlight reel of the food tour..

We also got a discount coupon for leather goods from our guide at some shops. Weren’t planning on it but on the way out of the shopping area the ladies jumped into a store. The owner was nice and he gave us the discount anyways even though it was not the store we were supposed to go to. Turns out all the leather goods came from Turkey which is considered “authentic” in Sorrento. It was a facepalm moment. We usually don’t buy leather goods. Think they got fake leather. It is time for me to stop questioning choices that are not mine.

There is this funny business of an extra tax that you get back at the airport when you show your passport. That assumes you have time in Naples airport to return the car, run to gate and stop at this counter which has long lines to get back money. So if you shop in Italy, give it time. The procedure to get this back after you have exit the country is painful.

There is one pano shot included in this. Italians were not as amused as Turkish folks when I did a backbend to take that photo in the church. The people who stared at me could definitely use yoga. I was not trying to show off. Wasn’t even wearing my challenge shirt yet.

After all the food and the bus ride and walk back to the hotel, we had time to spend. This was the kids part of the trip. So they wanted to go just “chill” and have a nice dinner locally. It was 3PM.

to be continued..

Tanjavoor to Guruvayoor

The previous post in this series is here..

We boarded the train at Tanjavoor close to a 7PM and it was to reach Thrissur in Kerala at 4AM. The train was 40 minutes late. FIL had booked a hotel room right next to the train station just so we could go, take a shower, change to dhotis and get going. We did get okay rest in the train given people kept changing at every station and kept waking us up. 

We reached the hotel at 5 AM, had some dip tea, and all four of us got ready in record time and were at the Sree Vadakkumnathan Temple before sunrise. The sun was just coming up when we came out of the temple. 

Then we went to the Thiruvambady Krishna temple which was just 5 or 10 minutes away.

After this we had a long car ride to Guruvayoor. We stopped for a quick bite to eat.. idly sambar and vadai at a local place (this is not related to HSB.. but the food is better!)

There was a ticket for an appointment with Guruvayoorappan at 9AM. However there was an utsavam and we found out that we should not have been sold those tickets. The temple staff said sorry and told us we will get the money back! Money or not, we wanted to see the deity before leaving. So we stood in line for 2 hours almost and got to go only so far to see the deity from 20 feet away for a few seconds before being pushed out. 

It was an interesting experience. Kerala temple crowds are really agressive. Especially the old ladies! 

The lines to keep your cell phone and footwear s a mile long! We still had fun at this temple. There was a person singing who we mistook for Yesudas first before walking to the area (you can see in video clip).. the stores on either side were cute and the ladies bought Onam sarees! 

Then we went to a shiva vishnu temple in Mamiyoor which was the last stop. It is a beautiful temple!

There was a plan to visit Chottanikkarai baghavathy amman temple which was an hours drive from there, but given we saw baghavathi in Guruvayoor, we decided to skip.

My MIL's close friend stayed in Cochin on the way to the airport. So we went to visit Kamala aunty and her husband for an evening chai visit and then head to the airport.

We saw elephants on this day. At the temples and on the roads. A land with elephants is a happy land!

a land with bananas galore is definitely a happy land..

We stopped by a place for lunch. It was awesome!

It was great to talk to them and spend a few hours. As I write this, Uncle is no more. He passed away recently. An extremely nice person. We were all glad we got to spend time with him. 

A video highlight of the Kerala leg of the trip

Then we were off to Cochin airport and flew to Mumbai. 

We had almost two days in Mumbai before our return trip to the US. That last post later..