Tour De Force

It seems like a holiday in US is a dream vacation for a lot of people. Although it was not a dream vacation for me but I use to always tease Aakaash that I have been to one more continent than him which was of course North America.  Now I know what people have to go through to get into one of the most powerful nations in the world. It is like conquering a war.

To begin with, the process starts of by applying for visa…... the length of the form is like writing a thesis and after submitting the form, to get a date for the interview – well there was 3 months waiting period. Finally when the day arrived of the interview I was nervous coz I had heard so many stories of the visa being declined without a reason. To make matters worse we saw a few people who were right in front of us get their Visa rejected within a matter of seconds. As we have been to a lot of countries so logically it shouldn't have been a problem still the worry about the Visa getting rejected for some frivolous reason weighed on my mind and the fact that a good amount of money would go waste was not a very comforting thought. I knew we were next and right at that moment nature decided to play Knock Knock with Aananya. Aakaash took her to the bathroom while I stared at the closed bathroom door willing it to open as quickly as possible; lo behold I was called. I started with the interview and finally after a while Aakaash also joined me. Everything went off well and within 3 days our 10 year multi entry visa was in our hands.

I personally feel that if you are planning a trip to USA, you should never plan a trip for anything less than 2 weeks. So we planned a trip for 21 days. This was for the first time that Aakaash was going to take such a long holiday; even for our honeymoon he hadn’t taken a holiday this long. Well with lots of persuasion, perseverance, fights, arguments etc. he agreed and I started working on the finer details of our holiday.

When I plan our holidays, I like to plan it perfectly and meticulously, nothing left to chance. The budget factor was also to be taken into account very seriously. I started planning with 5 and when it increased to 10, I promised Aakaash that we will not go for any holidays for a whole year and I kept my promise. However by the time we finished our trip and came back we had exceeded 15 for sure.

Discouraged by a lot of people we were told not to do east coast and west coast at one go. However we/I felt differently. I was not sure that we could cough up a huge amount so often and take so many holidays. Now that Aakaash’s leave was approved, we just decided to go ahead and do it all. We knew it would be hectic and tiring but what the heck. Sometimes it’s worth it.

So we booked our ticket almost a month before from Lagos to New York and back. Now the internal flights were to be done, so after deciding how much time to be spent where, I came up with tentative dates and the cheapest flight options, however later we had to rethink about the flights leaving the best deals and taking into account the time factor and convenience coz of the kids. I have to admit a lot of planning went in to execute this trip.

15 days prior to our trip we sat down to book our internal flight tickets. For some airlines we got to know that they accept credit cards only from US and not from any other country. This slowed down our booking process. One desperate call to Aakaash’s friend in US, Sundeep Dhaliwal, turned things around – he was extremely helpful and shared his Credit Card details and we proceeded with confirming our bookings.

So till now I was on my A game- month before international flight tickets done, 15 days before internal flight tickets done, 7 days before hotel bookings almost finalized. Just then we realized that there was some glitch happening in the west coast sector especially when we were trying to figure out our trip to Niagara Falls. When you Google Niagara Falls you would get that it is in NY. So we thought that we can cover that in a day since we were landing in New York City. Being our first time in NYC we didn't realize that Niagara Falls is located in the State of New York and is nowhere close to New York City. I can’t even begin to describe the last minute panic that I was struck with. However the years old adage came out to be true in this case – Whatever happens, happens for the best. While trying to figure how to get there with the cheapest and best way possible, considering the time constraint because we had already booked our internal flights, Aakaash stumbled upon a Bus tour company which was working out perfectly for us. We were able to cover so many more places because of it and it was a superb, comfortable and economical as well. We had to make a few changes but it turned out to be the best decision for us. After finalizing with the tour company, we finalized our hotels and booked our car for Florida. Now we were completely set and were just counting days to board our flight.

Well as I have mentioned in my previous blogs, nothing comes easy to me. There is always a twist or a tale somewhere in our trips. So all excited, bags packed, kids in place, all bookings done, printouts neatly kept, empty suitcases packed (lol for shopping of course; what do you expect), reached airport on time, it was a direct flight. I despise hopping flights and in 11 hours and 20 mins we would have been in U S of A.

So we were waiting in our lounge when we were told that our flight had been delayed indefinitely. That was of course the first blow. We waited for hours and the kids got impatient by the minute. Hours passed by and before we knew it the flight got delayed by 11 hours. Meanwhile, Aananya had managed to break the foot rest of her stroller so we tied her bib and made a make shift foot-board which was actually no good. Hence it was decided that we would have to go there and first thing buy a stroller coz it was not possible to carry a 3 year old everywhere.

While we were boarding, there was a cheer and relieve in the air. After exhausting 24 hours including reaching airport 3 hours before the time of the flight, delay, the check-in etc., we finally touched down at the JFK Airport. We were in a hurry to leave the airport and carry on with our plan since we had already lost out on 11 hours. But wait… could we leave that easy… Not just yet… Our bags were out thanks to the priority tags but we were waiting for the stroller. Waiting … waiting… waiting…. Wait a minute, the whole airport was almost empty and we were still waiting. Finally we had to go and ask for assistance since the special baggage belt was now empty and our stroller was still nowhere to be seen.

We finally got to know that our stroller had been lost in the transit – we had an option to either waste our next day to come back for it or the Airline was willing to replace it with an old stroller which was unclaimed. I was eyeing a beautiful princess stroller abandoned on the airport. The person in charge came to me and said “Let me see if I can find a more appropriate stroller”. I immediately asked him with a little hesitation about the abandoned princess stroller. He said, “Oh I thought you have a boy, if you want to take it, go ahead”. Aananya had really small hair then and was fully packed from head to toe with winter clothing to face the cold weather of New York, hence the confusion. I grabbed the almost new princess stroller with the price tag still on it and strolled out of the airport happily. Although we had spent more than an hour in the airport with the outcome that we had I didn't mind it at the end of it. Finally we stepped out of the Airport –exhausted and happy as we had finally got victory in a long unending combat. The fresh cold breeze of New York finally welcomed us.

Adieus Istanbul

Finally our wonderful trip came to an end and it was our last day in Turkey. Topkapi Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has to be on one’s check list before you leave Istanbul. So in the morning we left the hotel to tick this box. The palace is huge and is built on a hill right next to the sea. The palace also has a museum inside where all the original swords, cloaks, bone china, manuscript, jewelry etc are kept.

So we entered through the Gate of Salutation which connects to the courtyard and the rest of the palace. There are tons of things to see but hard to remember once you have left the place. The Iftar Kiosk was one of the places where the Sultans were believed to break their fast after Ramadan and is an ideal place to take picturesque photographs. Later we headed to see the panoramic view of the Marmara Sea. Another interesting pic that we took was that of a hollow tree which became a victim to fungus but is still standing tall till date.

It was already twilight and we headed straight for Blue Mosque to see the fancy fountain lights. We were pleasantly greeted with the brightly lit colourful lights. We took our pics with the lovely display and headed for dinner at this beautiful restaurant on the top floor of a building with the stunningly lit Blue Mosque as our backdrop. We had traditional Turkish food and relished every bit of it. This was a beautiful way to end our trip to Turkey and it was all the more memorable coz it was our first trip with Gagan and Shweta.

Izmir – Unreal landscape

So we boarded our flight from Cappadocia to Izmir. The main attraction of Izmir is undoubtedly Pamukkale. Everyone stays in Izmir the third largest city in Turkey but not us; we decided to stay in a small town around 1 hour from Izmir called Kusadasi. Major reason to stay in Kusadasi was that we were not able to get a hotel befitting our budget and requirement in Izmir. This in fact turned out to be a blessing in disguise and was the best decision for us.

The scenic beauty of Kusadasi was breath taking and our travel agent did not disappoint us a bit. This small coastal town has the sea hugging it on one end and the mountains embracing it on the other. To surge up our excitement we found out that our hotel was on a hillock overlooking the sea. So we dumped our luggage and went straight to soak ourselves into the sea. We reached back to the hotel right on time to witness an amazing panorama of the sunset from the dining area which was overlooking a small island in the middle of the sea. After dinner we just decided to call it a night and straight went to bed.

We got up early in the morning, dragged the sleeping kids for breakfast and waited for the honeymooning couple Gagan and Shweta. We were losing our patience when they graced us with their presence and decided to have breakfast while we were ready to run out the door. Anyhow we finally boarded our vehicle to take the journey of 2 and ½ hours to the World Heritage Site - Pamukkale. The landscape was absolutely unique and breathtaking. I have never seen or experienced a phenomenon like that. The ground is as white as snow and water as blue as sky. Pamukkale the name says is all. In Turkish language it means cotton castle which is a perfect description of the place. The place is covered by hot water springs, travertine’s and terraces of carbonate minerals. People come here and stay for long periods in the hope of healing themselves from the therapeutic minerals. Make sure that you carry an extra pair of clothes when you go there. Shoes are not allowed to protect the deposits.

When it was time for us to move out Aakaash suddenly realized that the lens cover of our new camera which was in his pocket fell out. It is practically impossible to find anything in the clayey sand below the water. After trying to sift through the mineral soil we gave up and decided to leave. However my 5 year old Aan kept going inch by inch trying to find it. It was an impossible task, quite akin to finding a needle in a hay stack. While we were out of the water and persuading Aan to abandon the search and join us; we suddenly saw a victorious smile on his face and out came the lens cover from his hands. He had finally found it and all of us cheered for him a lot. Soon after that we went to change to dry clothes but we just did not want to leave the fascinating place. However we had to continue our tour by visiting Hierapolis which means the sacred city in Turkish language. After the tour we headed back to Kusadasi and went on a stroll on the Beach Street.

The next day was full of sightseeing and loads of monuments to cover in our itinerary. We started with the House of Virgin Mary. It is believed that Mary had spent her last days in this house. The story goes that a nun had a vision and heard some voices which indicated that Virgin Mary moved to Ephesus and this nun had the full description of the place and wrote all this in her notes.  Later when people researched on it finally found the place and in the 18th century this place was declared as the House of Virgin Mary. There is a wishing wall where people write their names on a piece of fabric or paper. We did that and moved on our tour to Ephesus. 

We saw the Odion – a small theater, Prytaneion, Temple of Hadrian and the Temple of Artemis which is one of the Seven wonders of the Ancient World. The guide also took us to the Latriana – the public toilet with no partitions, the Ephesus Library, Marble Street and the Ephesus Theatre which is believed to originally accommodate 24000 people. We concluded our trip by visiting the Isa Bey Mosque which is one of the oldest mosques. So yes there was a lot of walking; a lot of history and culture to see and by the end of the tour we were simply just exhausted by the overload of information and heat.

This was our last evening in Kusadasi and we wanted to make the best of whatever time we had left, so we walked around the town, did a little bit of shopping and had the feel of this small but vibrant town. Next morning we were ready to head back to Istanbul to bid farewell to Turkey.

Cappadocia- A different world in itself

I would say your trip to Turkey can’t be complete if you don’t visit Cappadocia. It will be like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. The landscape of Cappadocia doesn’t look like it is a part of this Earth. It looks like a mysterious place with unique geological and historical features with many underground cities to unravel.

The tour guide picked us up from Kayseri airport and straight away took us to unravel the mysteries surrounding us. Our first stop was the Devrent Valley, also known as the Imaginary Valley due to its resemblance to the lunar landscape. Gazing upon the Devrent Valley we were confronted with overwhelming natural beauty with no civilization for miles. The extraordinary landscape is an archeological wonder filled with fairy chimneys, rock pillars, amazing volcanic structures and unique rock formations.

From Devrent Valley we headed to Zelve Open Air Museum. Until as recent as 40 to 50 years back the houses carved in the rocks had been a part of a cave town bustling with cave dwellers living in a honeycombed fashion. The Christians and Muslims lived together in perfect harmony. You can still see the Cave Churches and the Cave Mosques. The inhabitants had to ultimately move out due to the dangerous risk of erosion and had to finally settle in modern villages. It is extremely hard to imagine that people chose to stay there for such a long time without any electricity or technology. I am no one to judge but really have respect for those who stayed there since they valued their fellowship more than the comforts of materialistic world. I can certainly say that they were richer than us in every way for they spent quality time with their friends and family without any modern day distractions of phones, television or other gadgets that sidetrack us from our own people. Although now a ghost town it takes 2 hours to walk through the valley to see the entire place. I would encourage everyone to take a walk through the valley and go through the cave tunnels and houses in which once a civilization thrived and flourished. The government is trying to restore the place since the erosion continues to take place.

Later we went to Pasabaglari also known as the Monks Valley to see the three headed fairy chimneys. From the beautiful fairy chimneys we went to Avanos where we saw pottery demonstration and I got to try my hands on the potter’s wheels. It was my first experience and I did manage to make a pot. After a hard day’s labour our tummies were rumbling and we were taken by our travel guide to a beautiful restaurant by the side of a lake where the ducks were swimming and we were relishing the view coupled with the scrumptious Turkish cuisine. 

Later we headed to Uchisar rock castle. This perforated rock castle has many interconnecting rooms and staircases, tunnels and passages. It is said that a 1000 people could stay in it at one time. One thing is certain that seeing these places makes you wonder if you are on another planet. Even whilst we were planning the trip I had already decided to stay in one of the original rock castles. A word of caution - there are many hotels which claim to be rock castles but are not originals and have been created only for the purpose of tourism. So after a lot of research and asking I finally found an authentic rock castle with fairy chimneys as well. I really wanted to stay in a fairy chimney but only a couple can stay there and not a family of 4 coz they are tiny rooms. Of course the rooms had been modified to help the tourists stay more comfortably but I was happy to see that our bedroom was one of the original rock caves where people lived. So after an overload of sightseeing and an early dinner we retired to our rooms for the night so that we could be fresh in the morning to unravel the strange land that we were in.

The morning welcomed us with breakfast under the open sky surrounded by the extra-terrestrial landscape. Gagan and Shweta had got up very early in the morning to go for the hot air balloon ride which I feel is compulsory; however we backed off due to our small lil kids. Our first stop for the day was the famous Kaymakli underground city which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the largest, organized and structured underground cities with 8 stories under the ground out of which only 4 are open to the tourists. In its hay days 5000 people could easily live there. The whole tour takes about 2 hours so put on your comfortable walking shoes and be ready to bend and crawl through the small corridors.

From there we made a short stop at an old Greek town called Mustafapsa which became part of Turkey after the Greco-Turkish war. After crossing the town we went to Taskinpasa Medresesi an Ottoman theological school. Later we headed to Keslik monastery which has beautiful frescos dating back to a 1000 years. It is a must visit place even if you are not an art lover. After the Keslik Monastery our guide took us to Cemil - a Greek orthodox church.

Later we went to another UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited tourist place - The Gerome Open Air Museum. The museum has rock cut 1000 year old churches, frescos and monasteries. After spending about 2 hours we headed to Esentepe for the magnificent panoramic view of the Gerome Valley. The beautiful trees covered with evil eye makes the place look even more splendid. With this we concluded our stay in Cappadocia and were ready to take our flight to Izmer the next day.

What a journey to Istanbul!

So we were really excited about our trip to Turkey since this was going to be our first trip with my brother in law Gagan and his wife Shweta. All the planning was done, internal flight tickets bought, dates set, VISA in place, hotel bookings and tours decided. Everything perfectly planned to a T and we were ready to rock. However, I have always seen that there is always something that will make us sweat and our heart race…

So we were supposed to board our flight on Saturday. Aakaash has this awful habit of never knowing what time the flight will take off even when we are travelling to the airport he won’t know the exact time till I ask or we reach the airport and he finally has to take out the tickets and he is always in charge of the flight tickets, other than that I take care of all the planning and bookings. So we were all set to fly on Saturday night.

Whenever leaving for a vacation a lot of things need to be planned beforehand about the house, the maid, packing etc. I still remember it was Thursday late night and suddenly a friend from Australia was online and we rarely talked due to the time difference and by being sucked into busy lives. Sometimes things work in mysterious ways and it just so happened that out of the blue she started chatting with me and asked me about our trip and that how many days we were leaving for and when were we flying out? Suddenly while telling her I started calculating our days and something did not seem right.

All of a sudden I got a jolt and realized when I asked Aakaash for the tickets that we were travelling at 1:30 am on Saturday which meant that we were supposed to leave the very next day, Friday night and not Saturday night. We were relaxed that we had another 2 days to pack so we hadn’t put things together. Suddenly we were in a rush and packed all our stuff as we were leaving the very next day. I am still grateful that I did speak with my friend else we would have left on Saturday night; only to realize that our flight had already left the previous night.

Oh you think our escapade was over… not even close. So the next morning I got up and informed my nanny and steward to help me wrap up the kitchen and put together the kids clothes for packing. We were ready to leave and in Lagos the problem is that irrespective of the flight we need to reach the airport during day light due to security reasons. So even though the flight was at 1:30am we had to leave by 4pm. We got into our bus with the police escort and reached the airport; excited we went straight to the check in counter only to find out that we weren’t allowed to travel. No one can imagine the shock on our face. Our only question to them was WHY? They said your VISA is applicable from tomorrow……

We begged them and asked them to call the Turkish authorities in Istanbul and tell them that our flight was reaching after 10 pm and that we would wait those 2 hours in the airport and leave only at 12am so that we could show them our valid VISA. Our hotel booking was confirmed and paid for. We were supposed to stay in Istanbul for 3 days and then take our flights together with Gagan and Shweta to Capadoccia. The immigration authorities from Istanbul declined our plea. (PS – We always check till when our VISA is valid, I would recommend checking from when it is stamped- very important). To add to our miseries there was no flight the next day. So we had to wait 2 days before taking our flight. So immediately we called up our hotel and informed them about our problem and got that sorted out. Called my maids and told them to be at work tomorrow and of course they were disappointed but not as much as we were.

So 2 nights later we were back in the airport hoping and praying that nothing else goes wrong - with crossed fingers we boarded our plane. Finally we landed in Istanbul the 3^rd largest city in the world and if I am not wrong the only country which is in Europe as well as Asia. In the morning we reached Istanbul and checked into our hotel. I would say we still managed to save our holiday from getting ruined. Had we missed our internal flights we really would have been in a pickle. Later that day Gagan & Shweta were also arriving from London and our flight to Cappadocia was the next day early morning.

To my surprise the location of our hotel couldn't have been better. It was right in the heart of the city, a mere 2 minutes’ walk from the main attraction Hagia Sophia. We decided not to waste a moment and headed straight for the iconic Hagia Sophia which was originally a church subsequently turned into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire and now is a museum. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most unique part I found was that this place is shared by Christian and Muslims in harmony and is a secular building honouring both religions. There is Allah and Jesus in the same premises.

We met up with Gagan and Shweta and the reunion was amazing since I was meeting Shweta after her wedding for the first time. After our pleasantries we headed straight for Blue Mosque also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Barack Obama has also visited that mosque.. Lol.. Wonder why I said it but so be it!!! I don’t think I have seen a more beautiful mosque than that.

Later we decided to visit The Grand Bazaar - the largest covered market in the world with over 3000 shops. It is definitely a must visit place for all tourists. I bought a Turkish tea set for us and our families after the salesman demonstrated the durability of the fine cut glass by literally standing on it and nothing happened to the dainty looking glass; although I have never had the courage to try it on my tea cups. Later we decided to try the Turkish cuisine and retired early to bed since we had a 6 am flight to the splendid city of Cappadocia.

Amsterdam – Say Cheese

After coming back from Belgium we didn't have much to do so we soaked in the city and chilled in the evening at the City Centre. One thing I have to mention, we discovered this amazing chain of Chinese food called Walk to Wok and became permanent customers of it. So anyone travelling there must try their take away in the paper carton.

The next day we left for Alkmaar cheese market; although there are other cheese markets also but this is undoubtedly the mother of all. Even though Aakaash was just not interested in going and went just on my insistence, he came to like and enjoy the place more than me.  The market opens on every Friday at 10 am at the Waagplein also known as the weighing square and is a must see. The cheese has been traded in this square since 1365. People are all dressed in the traditional costumes of Holland wearing the traditional Dutch wooden shoes. The bell ringing at 10 am is the sign to start the market. There was a sea of people and we slowly crawled our way towards the front to have a better view and click pictures. The cheese carriers are the only ones allowed in the market. They carry cheese on wooden racks hung across their shoulder and a barricade separates the whole market from the tourist spectators. The kids were called in and traded their cheese.  Aan even managed to get a ride in the cheese selling cart. Aan had an amazing time being carried around in the hand carriages meant to carry the cheese. Later Aan and Aananya had a blast getting weighed on the huge cheese scales and got certificate of weight as souvenirs.

Aakaash was not far behind, although it was impossible for anyone to carry him around, he decided to do some weight lifting and carried  the block of cheese using the hand carriages.FYI each block of cheese is 9kgs so it is not an easy task to carry 8 blocks of cheese around. The market presents itself as a great spectacle with no active participation from the tourists; I think we were really lucky that we could play a small part in all the hustle and bustle that was going on. The medieval square is surrounded by loads of souvenir shops and local food stall. All in all I would say that Alkmaar is a must visit place and there are loads of other things that you can do there.

From there we took the train to see the famous traditional windmills of Amsterdam. Your trip will not be complete if you haven’t seen the iconic traditional windmills of Netherlands and indeed the view was spectacular. On our way back I realized we hadn't seen the famous 2 meter tall, red I AMSTERDAM sign, so we headed towards that and got our clicks in, around and on top of the slogan. We had a great time and although we were not ready to say bye we took our last stroll in the beautiful city with canals.

This was our last night in Amsterdam and the place is infamously famous for drugs and prostitution. Of course we weren't to do any of that but were inquisitive to see the so popularized red light district. So we decided to take a walk on the street. It was really odd to see the ladies in a box like cabin with red lights on and trying to entice customers. Felt bad but then life is not a bed of roses and people need to do what they need to do to survive. Anyway, we had an excellent trip and for the very first time we covered 4 countries at one go, gathered all the memories and were ready to head back home.

Belgium & Luxemburg - 2 countries in 2 days!!!

As soon as we reached Brussels by train, we just dumped our luggage in the hotel and headed straight to Atomium. The building is shaped like an atom and indeed has an amazing structure. From the top sphere you can see the panoramic view of Brussels.  

Later we headed towards the famous landmark of Brussels - The Manneken Pis. After stuffing ourselves with waffles buried in cream and strawberries we walked towards the Grand Place. It has been voted as the most beautiful central square of Brussels and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After taking our perfect shots we headed back to our hotel.

The next day we travelled to Luxemburg by train and in so many days for the first time we had a sunny day. The most unique thing about Luxemburg was the dramatic landscape wherein a valley runs through the center of the city. We saw the Pont Adolphe Bridge which was built in 1900 and is the largest stone arch in the world. Luxemburg is a very small country and there is not a lot to see, so we took a toy train which gave us a tour of the place. We made the most of the little time we were there and later that evening we went back to Belgium and were ready to take our train back to Amsterdam the next day.