Failed Boston Tour

This is the first time experience for me a failed tour after a month long plan. Since July we had been thinking of making a fall foliage tour during the first week of August. Though we didn’t get to Boston for seeing fall color, but the city tour was definitely in the plan. At least I was excited for a city tour. Mr. Man had already been in Boston. But it was about the first time for my son and mine.

Few hours at Premium Plaza at Hong Kong

Walking around for twelve hour inside an airport is not an exciting thing to do. It is boring and difficult to spend the whole time. This happens to us almost every-time when we back from India travel to the USA. This time while coming back we had a twelve hour lay back at Hong Kong Airport.

Tintin shoppe

We were done for the day and walking haggardly to the hotel through the by-lanes of Chinatown in Singapore. "Thundering typhoon!" "Blistering barnacles!". Yes, amid small shops selling Chinese items I saw shop bearing name “Tintin."

Trip to Singapore

Visiting India every summer is a tradition of our family. Flying over Singapore is also obvious. However, not visiting Singapore properly is not right thing to do. Yes, we didn’t visit Singapore in all those years. So, it was in my bucket list to take a tour to Singapore. It was a two-day visit. We thought about doing the city tour one day, and visit Santosa Island next day.

If you want to see the entire Singapore from top you can rise Singapore Flyer

Day trip to St. Helena

We had no plan for vacationing during kiddo’s spring break . However, kiddo badly wanted to go somewhere, as he was at home entirely during the time. So, we decided to go on a day trip in Napa Valley. Few weeks ago Mr. Man was in Napa with his friends, and for the first time he went to St. Helena downtown. He fell in love with the little downtown away from city bustles, and, wanted to show us the place.

St. Patricks Day Parade

That was the St. Patrick's Day , and Mr. Man was going to talk with few people in the city for his tea business. ( those who wants to buy pure darjeeling tea, please visit: www.freshcarton.com). I also wanted to go with him, because my plan was to watch the parade there. I’ve never been in SFO to watch any parade. So, I wanted to have an experience on that. Though it was a Saturday, but it was extremely busy for me unlike other Saturdays. Actually I invited a family for dinner Saturday evening.

Carmel Day 3 - Carmel Mission

Our last stop was the Carmel mission. After leaving the scenic road we headed towards the mission. As it was Christmas Day, the mission museum was closed. The mission itself was open, so we could walk around to see the mission .

Fr. Junipero Serra

Carmel Day 3 - Scenic Drive

After speeding the whole 24th of December in Carmel downtown, 25th morning we started for home. We were not in hurry. We wanted to take the last essence which was still left there. We decided to go visit the Carmel Mission on our way home.

Carmel Day 2- Shopping windows

I'm still continuing with my Carmel visit. Actually, there are so many things to share with you friends. One of them is the windows of the tiny shops. First of all most of the shops, look like little cottages. Every time I saw, I felt like living there.

Carmel Day 2- Fairy Tale houses

The rest of the California doesn’t have those kind of houses, at least,how much I’ve seen. To my knowledge, almost all the houses are same through out California, with some Spanish style houses in upscale Santa Barbara. 

Carmel Day2 - Cottage of Sweets

Carmel Day 2- Secret Garden

In my previous post of Carmel I told you about the secret passages. Some of my blogger friends, who visited those Carmel told me how exciting to discover those secret passages. So, I thought of writing again about my experience of those secret passages.

Carmel Day 2 - The walking tour

We reached Carmel in  the pitch dark, so we couldn’t see anything. Next morning when I woke up and look through the glass door of the balcony. I could see endless the deep blue ocean covered with gray clouds hovering over the horizon.

United Kingdom Trip (Part 6) -London

London- Day 1

After visiting southwest part of England on the weekend with our friend and his family, we went to my brother-in-laws place, who eventually lives very near to London. We planned stay at his place so that ,we could travel around London easily. Monday evening we reached his place. We were fatigued, on the top of that we had no time to visit any places in that evening, we decided to have rest. However, we had enough time to chalk out our plan for visiting London. My sister-in-law knows every nooks and corners of London, even every unknown places. She is a very good planning person.She asked us, what actually we wanted to see. After knowing our desire, she chalked put the whole plan, we just put little brain in that, rather Mr. Man, not me. Mr. Man  told her about the English afternoon tea. Promptly she booked table at Wolsey in London, one of the upscale restaurant famous for afternoon tea. We were lucky enough to get table there, as most of the time it remains overbooked. 

United Kingdom trip (Part 4)-City of dreaming spires

After coming back home at 11:00 Saturday night, we readily went to bed. We needed to be fresh next morning, as we were going to visit the Oxford, the city with dreaming spires.

Carfax tower

United Kingdom trip (Part 3)- City of Bath

City of Bath- UNESCO World heritage site

“Do you want know about Roman history in England?” Asked my friend. “Yes, I do” was my answer. So, we included City of Bath in our itinerary. After visiting Salisbury we headed toward City of Bath. Again we faced problem with parking the car. We entered Bath Cricket Club. We saw plenty of parking. We were so overjoyed that we didn’t notice, that , that was a private parking space. That means only the club members can park cars there. 

Bath cricket club ground

United Kingdom (Part 2) - Salisbury, the medieval city

From Stonehenge we went to our next destination was Salisbury. In the mean time all of us became hungry. We debated about the place where to have lunch. Everything was unknown to us, so relied on our friend. First he suggested trying luck in the adjacent restaurant of Stonehenge. We checked, but no food item was promising to us. So, last decision was to have lunch after reaching Salisbury.

Seattle trip

The hassles started as soon as we reached the Sea Tac airport. We reached at 9:00 in the  night, after waiting few minutes we got the shuttle bus to the car rental office. The car was booked prior to our journey. So, we thought that, we would get the car very soon. The queue was huge, and only two persons were at the customer service desk. We had been waiting almost an hour when my husband realized that, there should be different queue for those, who already booked their cars, and he was right. He asked me to find out, and when I went downstairs, and I found he was true. Anyway, when we got our car it was 10:30 at night, and our stomachs were rumbling. However, as soon as we started our journey towards the hotel, we lost the road. The road we took ,led us to the car rental office again. We were very confused, and the GPS was also telling something beyond our understanding. Luckily , one person, who was working on the road, told us the route. It was high time to put something in our stomach. 

Morning walk in Victoria Memorial Hall premises, Kolkata,India

Those who walk daily in the morning in the premises of Victoria Memorial Hall, to them it is just a daily routine. However, this is not the same to me. I left Kolkata years ago. Even when I was there, I leaved far from Victoria Memorial Hall, so, I never thought of going there in early morning.The other day something happened like this. 
11/30/2013
Suddenly the day before yesterday my husband wanted to go walking in the morning in 
Victoria memorial hall premises. I agreed with him because I also wanted get an experience of morning walking in the vast greenery there. I heard that many morning walkers gather there on every morning to get some fresh air and to do exercises. The morning breeze, in the green with aubade of birds creates a serene atmosphere in this oasis amid concrete jungle. Kolkata, which is one of most congested city in the world, and where this congestion is increasing day be day, getting fresh air is scarce. Just to get some fresh air, and to get rid of all the cacophony of a  metro, people throng here in the morning.
Before going there, though I understood that, it was going to be a great feeling, but after going there I found that, it was more than I thought.