Monday, December 11, 2017

Daddy's diary - checklist of checklists

2 more weeks to go from EDD and here is a quick checklist of things that we've done so far. I'll write more on the itemized list for each pointers later. This is 'daddy's perspective' - i.e. things that dad to be could do.

- research material: baby center, what to expect etc.
- travel plans and trips: 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester
- doctor visits: from selecting gyne to choosing hospital, insurance
- baby shopping: stroller, prams, cloths, toys etc.
- care taker planning: who comes when - parents/helpers visa, itineraries
- diet planning: grocery and changing tastes
- *most important* taking care of mommy: emotional and material support
- preparing for the arrival: going as couple and coming back as family!

Friday, November 10, 2017

Travel and more

Remember I mentioned no more travel for next few months? Well, after the Kashmir trip we’ve been to few more places - Cambodia, Bali, Phuket, Bangkok x 3, Krabi! And baby has also been to USA  and India - 5 countries and yet to see the world and get a passport! So looks like the baby is liking the same way of life that we’ve been living.

We’ve finally moved to new house today and 6 more weeks to go. 

Monday, April 24, 2017

Week 6 - 7 and Kashmir trip

We just returned from 4 day Kashmir trip. While Kashmir is a beautiful place, all our conversations and thoughts were all about just one thing.

Trip was Singapore - Delhi - Srinagar - Pahalgam - Gulmarg - Srinagar - Delhi - Singapore for me and Singapore - Delhi - Srinagar - Pahalgam - Gulmarg - Srinagar - Delhi - Jaipur - Singapore for her.

Now we give a break to travel for next few months. Focus on health and diet
.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Mysterious Iceland

After long time I've decided to resume writing about our travel experiences.


We just came back from Iceland. It was 9/8 days/night trip starting and ending at Reykjavik. It was three of us this time - me, Aanchal and Dippi.

We planned to do the complete ring road trip with rented car (two wheel drive) while spending nights in the cities on route. Majority bookings were completed beforehand.

We were flying from Amsterdam and Dippi flew from Aberdeen, arriving same day on 26th July.


Day 1: 
KEF - Reykjavik

We landed about at 2pm, picked up the rental car (Kia Rio 1.6 diesel, 2W) and directly rushed to the Blue Lagoon. There ware more than 100 cars parked with some tourist buses as well. We got the entree with online-booked tickets (some people were on waiting as they permit only so many visitors at once). 
We went to the heated pool for about 1hour, did put the mud peg on face and had something to eat. It was a nice experience. From there we planed to go to the supermarket - Bonus was the cheapest and most recommended which we passed on way but it was closed (Sunday closes at 1800). We decided to go to our place and came cross to Krona market right next to where we were staying. Bought some items and went to our place. An old Icelandic lady welcomed us with an even more welcoming dog - Nott. We received call from Dippi, he had landed as well. We asked him to meet us directly at the town. We had a round of beers and dinner at downtown area while I explained the whole plan to both of them. The town was impressive, quite colourful with a different vibe. We drove back to respective places.


Day 2: 
Reykjavik - Vik 
 
We started about at 11am towards Vik. On the way there were quite few places that we had to cover (Seljalandsfoss
 / Selfoss/ Hella/ Hvolsvollur/ Eyjafjallajokull volcano/ Skogafoss/ Vik). On way covering the iconic waterfalls, appreciating the sheer power of nature and stopping by here and there we arrived at Vik. We had a nice dinner there we started driving, out sleeping place was still 50km from Vik. I had a email confirmation from a farm like place which was a sleeping bag accommodation (a very common idea of night stay in Iceland). We reached to Kidda’s farm/guesthouse, which was about 30km offroad. There was another French group of 16 staying there with us. The room was small yet comfortable. The kitchen cum dining area was big, toilet facilities were hostel like. We slept there wondering why it was so expensive. Later we figured that there where not many farms around that area, it was at the plains of sudden island, which were flood fields right below the volcano with about 400m thick glacier on top of it. We slept thinking what all must had happened here.


Day 3:
Vik- Stöðvarfjörður

Started in the morning around 11am, stopped on way at creek hike and waterfall. We arrived at the visitor center where we had to decide whether to go for waterfall or to glacier. We went to the glacier. It was nice experience. Then was the hike to the canyon followed by Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. We did the boat tour and went very near to the icebergs, also very lucky to see an iceberg that had just turned upside down. After dinner in Hofn (went to fish and chips takeaway, fish was finished so end up having chicken with fries, huge crowd of tourists) we set off for the adobe for night at Stöðvarfjörður, a rather long and interesting drive. We made it to the guesthouse at 0130am at night!


Day: 4
Stöðvarfjörður – Lake Myvatn

Day to start with a long drive, we picked up items to prepare barbeque at dinner (although we had no idea where we were staying that night). I took a quick bath in one of the waterfalls on way. Stopping here and there on way we reached to mighty Dettifoss. Next were the geothermal fields of lake Myvatn, then the geothermal pool and lava fields. We arrived to the place we were supposed to spend the night at; right in front of lake with overwhelming view of Katla volcano there was hostel like space with camping area in front. Immediately we knew prepared barbeque and enjoyed with Gull and Glenlevit single malt while witnessing that magical sunset.


Day: 5
Lake Myvatn – Akureyri

This was rather a short drive but busy day. There was a lot to see around and cover in Lake Myvatn area. We look a walk to the Crater Lake, went to explore the lava fields, hiked over volcano and checked out the geothermal caves (temp ~40d). We managed to catch the guided tour at lava formation visitor center. We had a good conversation with our guide, the local Icelandic girl who told us her childhood experiences regarding volcanos and earthquakes. It was so evident that growing up in Iceland is all-together a different ball game. She mentioned that she was waiting for her ‘favorite’ volcano to erupt. I mean wow!
We checkout Godafoss on way and reached at Akureyri rather early to be able to catch the party. There was some kind of summer festival going on with concert on the Main Square and bunch of people hanging out on the main street. We grabbed a beer or two and had a nice meal at Dippi’s hostel. That’s where we tried the traditional Icelandic cuisine Plokkfiskur. It was fish mashed with potatoes and grilled together on bread.


Day: 6
Akureyri – Búðardalur

This was truly a beautiful drive. We skipped the Husavik pass and continued to further up towards Dalvik instead. There was a natural geothermal pool to be explored - Grettirs Pool. From there we continued to Búðardalur while taking break here and there. It was a rather relaxed day. Interestingly we visited 4 pools that day but dipped in none. It was not a pool’s day that we were hoping for, it was a fool’s day!
Reaching at Búðardalur we picked the barbeque items again and planned for the night. The place we stayed was nice with a barbeque area outside; we made good use of that. We went to another geothermal pool Laugar í Sælingsdal which was about 20KM from our place, it was so windy that we decided against it.


Day: 7
Búðardalur – Reykjavik

On the recommendation of our host, we started for Snæfellsnes Peninsula. It truly was a complete recap of the complete Iceland. We got to hear curious stories about mysterious clouds and UFO enthusiasts gathering back in year 2000. We saw loads of migratory birds (swans, flamingos among others) while driving through the beautiful landscapes. We picked a Canadian hitchhiker on way, who suggested us to go visit the Shark Museum. We went there to understand the six-month fermentation process and taste shark meat. Rich with mercury and ammonia, it was undoubtedly the worst thing that I’ve tasted in a long time. Moving on, we did a cave tour to Vatnshellir Caves. It was 45min tour, very informative and different. Cruising though the black and then golden sand beaches, we made it to Reykjavik. We had quick bite and started the party; it was Saturday night after all!


Day: 8
Golden circle

We had a rather late start (thanks to the party last night, went to bed at 4am), started for Golden Circle. We arrived at Geyser. It erupts in every 5-10mins ejecting hot water off surface. You can spend hours waiting and watching this magnificent phenomenon.
We had our first lunch of the trip at the Geyser visitor center; it was surprisingly nice and cheap. From there we went to Gullfoss, about 15mins drive. We waited there little bit for the clouds to clear so that we can see the rainbows. We caught a glimpse of rainbow and then decided to return back.
At Grill restaurant in Reykjavik, we summarized our trip remembering the most amazing moments that we had shared, sceneries that we had witnessed and sheer power of nature that had made us feel vulnerable.


Day: 9
Reykjavik – KEF

Caught the respective early morning flights to our destinations – that was Iceland for us.








Thursday, July 4, 2013

Wrapping Prague and Paris in 9 days

Summary


Day #1: Landed Prague in the afternoon, checked in hostel and explored Old Town Square area, attended the food festival. Night stay at Prague.
Day #2: Attended the walking tour in the morning, climbed the clock tower, after lunch went over to explore the Prague Castle etc. Did the pub crawl at night (crazy!!). Night stay at Prague.
Day #3: Segway tour in the morning, covered the Jewish Quarter in the afternoon. Took the pass in the evening to explore the city. Took flight to Paris in night, spent the night in hotel close to airport. Night stay at Paris.
Day #4: Moved to the apartment at Rue de Cardinal. We took a walk and visited Cathédrale de Notre-Dam; and went to Eiffel Tower, took River Seine tour. Night stay at Paris.


Day #5: Went to Musée du Louvre and spent the day there, late lunch at Gare du Nord, night we went to Arc de Triomphe at night. Night stay at Paris.
Day #6: Started in the morning and went to Montmartre to see the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur and the Place du Tertre. At night we went again to Eiffel Tower. Night stay at Paris.
Day #7: We went to Fontainebleau to visit the castle Chateau De Fontainebleau. Night we spent around the Arc de Triomphe and then Latin Square. Night stay at Paris.
Day #8: Went to Eiffel town in the morning, spent the afternoon there. Lunch at Gare du Nord and night we hanged around Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Night stay at Paris.
Day #9: Went to Notre-Dam in the morning, took the flight back to Scotland in the afternoon. Night stay at Paris.

Detailed Itinerary 

Day #1

We arrived Prague and reached the town center - Old Square area. Our hotel was walking distance, we checked in and started for the busy streets of Prague.


 There was a food festival going on with about 50 shops selling different food items. We had a bite there and went to the old square area. We watched the Astronomical Clock Tower, it really is the most over rated Tourist attraction in the whole Europe.
There were street performers everywhere and the atmosphere was very lively around the old town square. We spent time there at night and booked a walking tour for the next morning. 

Day #2

We attended the free walking tour starting from Old Square. It lasted for 3 hours and we got the orientation of the city, got to know about a bit of history as well. We had a lunch on the go and went to climb the clock tower. There is an elevator for those who need it. The view was worth it. From there we went across the river to the castle. There are basically few different buildings including basilica, monastery and bell tower. We also visited the golden street which is free to enter after 6pm. We enjoyed the city view and sunset from the hill and returned back to old square area. At night we joined the pub crawl, it costed 350Kc pp, they take you to couple of pubs and a night club, serving unlimited drinks at the first one. This one is tough to survive, we were smashed by the time we reached the night club! We made it to the hostel somehow.

 Day #3

We did the segway tour in the morning, managed to get a good price for 2 hours tour after a bargain (yes, it's allowed!). The guide was really good, trip was fun. We stopped close to the castle and had a beer, guide paid for that. It was a real nice place and cheapest beer in the town - 27Kc for a large pint.
We bought the combo ticket for the Jewish Quarter and covered them one after another. It took us whole of rest of the day. In evening we took a travel pass for 3 hours and went around the town in the trams. It was good experience. We had our flight at 9pm, we took the tram and then 107 bus to the airport. We arrived Paris about at 10.30pm and stayed close to the airport that night. We took the free shuttle to the hotel.



Day #4

We checked in our apartment at Rue de Cardinal. We walked till Cathédrale de Notre-Dam, it was just 10 mins walk from our place across the river. We visited it from inside, checked out the street market nearby. We bought Mobilis tickets, it is a one-day ticket that allows unlimited travel on the Metro, RER, bus, RATP. Validity is 24hrs from the first check in time, costs 6.3EUR. After lunch we went to Eiffel tower and took a river Siene cruise for 20EUR each. It lasted about an hour forty minutes. We grabbed a bite on the way, went to Chaillot and reached apartment.

 Day #5

We went to Musée du Louvre to spend the day there. It's not possible to cover the museum in a day but we had our wishlist. It's one place with world's finest art collection in it. Being there itself is an experience let alone the world class paintings and sculptures that are there. We went to Gare du Nord for a late lunch and then came back to Arc de Triomphe at evening. There is a flood of tourists around that area. We took a walk along the world famous Champs Elysees

Day #6

This day we went to Montmartre. This area has strong French culture and buildings, artists everywhere. We went over to see the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, you can look at the whole city while sitting on the stairs. We end up having an expensive lunch with wine over there. The setting is just irresistible. After spending few hours and little fortune of money there we went to see the Place du Tertre. It's called the most artistic cabaret in the world and truly so. At night we went again to Eiffel tower, there is no other place one can rather be !

Day #7

After a wee walk along the river and witnessing few pre wedding photo-shoots, we started for Fontainebleau. It's a small town about an hour from Paris, famous for Chateau De Fontainebleau and INSEAD Business School campus. The castle was quite and beautiful. there is a lake at the back side.
At night we went to Arc de Triomphe and then went to Musee de Louvre for night photographs.

Day #8

This was mainly dedicated to Eiffel tower, we had our tickets for morning 10am. We went up and looked at the view. Benefit of keeping it for the end day is that you know the city and attractions by then and can try to identify them from the top. We spend about 3 hours on the tower including wine at the 2nd floor cafe. It's shockingly huge structure with perfect symmetry. We had a late lunch at Gare du Nord and night we hanged around Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Day #9

We went to Notre Dam in morning and then took the RES from there to the airport. In the afternoon we flew back to Scotland.









Monday, June 24, 2013

A lesson of history - The Italy trip in 10 days.


Summary



Day 1: Landed in Venice - around 12 noon, stayed in Venice, saw around and stayed in Venice.



Day 2: Visited Venice, island hoping etc to Murano, Burano and Lido, stayed in Venice.

Day 3: We did the walking tour, took train to Florence in the evening and stayed in Florence.

Day 4: We did a walking tour in the morning, visited Davids statue, Duamo in Florence. We took train to Pisa. Then took train to Rome and stayed in Rome.

Day 5: We went to visit Spanish Steps, Pantheon etc. Stayed in Rome

Day 6: We did the walking tour in morning and visited Spanish steps and the area around, stayed in Rome.

Day 7: We saw the Roman Colosseum, Forum and Palantine Hill and other places and we stayed in Rome.

Day 8: We did the walking tour and went to Vatican City and visited St Peter's Basilica, stayed in Rome.

Day 9: We did the walking tour in the morning for Jewish Ghetto area and visited local streets at Trastevere, at night went to Piazza Navona, stayed in Rome.

Day 10: We had flight at 11am, flew back to Scotland.


Detailed Itinerary





Day#1



  • We landed in Venice around noon, took the bus to Piazzale Roma and then walked till hotel. It's must to carry a map because it's so easy to get lost in Venice. Luckily we had right directions from our hotel.
  • We then went out in town and explored it ourselves. San Marco square was the highlight.
  • First we visited Basilica followed by Doges Palace. There is a secret itinerary tour in Doges Palace at 11:35 am; you have to pre book if you want to visit this.
  • We hired a gondola for 40min, shared it with another couple and hence costed us £40. It was worth a while with our private chauffeur showing us world's most beautiful city around. 
  • After that we went to Rialto Bridge which is the famous bridge due to the story associated. It's a good place for shopping - definitely expensive.
  • We had few Galetoes and pizza slices here and there before settling down near canal for few beers from supermarket.


Day#2

  • Next day we bought the Veporetta pass for 24 hours, costed us £20 each. We decided to exploit it so started in morning, went to Murano island which is famous for glass work. 
  • We had our lunch there and from Murano we went to Burano island. Burano is famous for colorful houses and lace work. It's a great place to take pictures.
  • From Burano we went to Torecello island which was recommended by our gondola chauffeur. It was OK-ish with little bit of history.
  • After Torecello we went to Lido island which is famous for the sand beach. Lido has lagoon at one side and sea on another. It's quite a big island with lots of places to eat and drink.
  • We headed straight to the beach and relaxed for couple of hours, saw the sunset there and started back towards San Marco. They are really just 10mins apart.
  • We headed back to Lido after dinner as we wanted to attend the live music show at the beach. There were not many people, but the atmosphere was great. We came back to hotel around 2am.


Day#3
  • We had a late break fast at the hotel and headed to attend the free walking tour at 11am around San Marco Square.
  • After the walking tour, we headed to Piazza Roma and took a fast train to our next stop - Florence. It costed £45 each and took 1.5hours.


  • We reached Florence around 4pm, checked in at the hostel just next to railway station.
  • We explored Florence downtown ourselves visiting the Duamo and then walked along the river to see David’s (Michelangelo) statue at Michelangelo Square. 
  • We spent couple of hours there to witness the sun set, it was amazing - one of the most recommended things to do in Florence.
  • At night we decided to treat ourselves with fancy dinner and bottle of wine. It was great theme restaurant in front of Duamo.


Day#4
  • In the morning we had super heavy breakfast and started with the free walking tour organized by the hostel itself.
  • It was 2 hour tour, we got to see and know about the highlights of the area including local markets and galeto recommendations.
  • Around 12 noon, we took train to Pisa. Pisa was 1 hour journey, costed £7.5 each. From Pisa Centrale, we walked to Pisa Leaning Tower, took about 20mins.


  • There stood the stunning Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the Bapistry all nearby. We took pictures of all. We didn’t climb the top of tower as we had to pre book it. 
  • Around 5.30 pm we took the train to Rome (3.5 hours). Stayed in Rome close to Roma Termini station for that night.

Day#5
  • In the morning we changed the hotel and moved closer to Spanish Steps. Our hotel was 5 mins walk from Piazza di Spagna.
  • We did the walking tour in the evening around 5 pm starting from Spenish Steps covering Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and few other places, it lasted about 2 hours.
  • We got the basic orientation of the area and explored it further by ourselves during night.

Day#6

  • We bought the Roma pass for free transport and entry to first two places of interest for next three days. It costed us £34 each. By the end of day three, we thought we had complete value of the pass.
  • We visited Colosseum, it's the single most attractive archaeological site in the whole world.
  • After Colosseum, we went to Roman Forum and Palantine Hill. We had audio guides from Rick Steve with us which helped us a lot of understand the history of these sites.
  •  It was a hot day (38 degrees) and hence we took a break and came back to the hotel to relax for a while.
  • We went out for dinner at Pantheon.

Day#7

  • In the morning we went on another walking tour covering Colosseum, Capilotine Hill, Emmanuel Monument and Piazza Navona etc.
  • We went to Galleria Borghese at 1pm, you'll have to make a prior reservation for that. They only allow 350 people inside at a time for a span of 2 hours. The gallery has great art work from different periods.
  • We visited Villa Borghese which is a mythological theme park, it was OK-ish. 
  • We went around these places again listening the audio guide. We went out to Vatican city at night.

Day#8

  • In the morning we went on to do walking tour from Spanish Steps to Vatican city covering all the places on the way.
  • Immediately after the tour we queued up for entering St Peter Basilica - The most powerful and biggest church in the world. After about 1 hour queue, we finally entered to this magnificent building. 
  • We listened our audio guide and spent some quite time inside. We came out around 3 pm and headed back to hotel as it was too hot.
  • We had an early dinner and then went to explore the streets of Trevistere. 
  • From there we went to Piazza Navona and sat there for a while having beer.

Day#9

  • We did another walking tour with couchsurfers. It started from Circo Massimo. 
  • It was about the rather less known places and more interesting. We went to Jewish Ghetto and the streets around, Knights of Malta and the orange gardens.
  • We started around at 10 am and ended at 2 pm near one of the local weekend markets for locals. We had our lunch there itself.
  • We hang around in the street of Trevestere after that and changed the hotel back to Termini for the next day early morning flight.

Day#10

  • We took the Teta Vision bus for £4 from Termini to Campiano Airport for flight at 11am. These buses go every 30mins from Termini to airports non stop.
  • We took the flight for home with heavy heart !! 

Monday, February 18, 2013

Euro trip begins - 1 conti..


Day# 1 was fun. We bought the day pass in 7.5Eur and went around the town extensively. After trying Happy and Laughter truffle, we went to the Heineken  brewery for couple of hours laughing happily !
'I don't know how to behave because other people are not high' was the dialog worth remembering. The night ended at Red Light District, famous but seemingly artificial.


Day# 2 started at Ann Frank House. Good piece of history there. We then started exploring options to leave the place and head towards Brugge. We booked a Euroline bus ticket 30Eur pp for Ams-Brugge and Brussels-Ams. The bus has to start 7am in the morning, to be able to make it we have to wake up at 5.30am . Staying at Karo's place for the night didn't look like a good idea. We moved to another host, Chris. Chris stays about half an hour distance, married to Thai chic and had a beautiful 3yo daughter. We reached there and Chris had this massive collection of books and music CDs. After a bit of chit chat we decided to crash. Chris explained us how to reach the bus station etc.


Day# 3 we were at the bus station before I could open the eyes. I shared half 'Shiva' with the black dude at the station and slept in the super cozy Euroline coach. I remember updating my status for the free wifi in the bus and reaching Brugges then. Heavy snow shower was the prediction and so was the status when we reached there. Brugge was a little pretty town. We did the Bell tower, lunch, tunnels, coffee etc and headed to the train station for Brussels. Reaching Brussels we had our host came to pick us up from the train station. We had a rather (only) unpleasant experience with the Pak begger at the metro station.

Day# 4 started early morning again to see Brussels. We were carrying excellent guidelines from our host Guy and all he had to do was to follow them. Brussels has a bit of history left in it and that's what makes it more interesting.