An evening in Buenos Aires

The first post on this trip is here..

Before I start writing about our first evening in Buenos Aires, a few things for my fellow travelers. We went to BA with a stop over at Mexico city from SFO. 

For some strange reason, there is no concept of transit in Mexico City airport. Given every page in my passport is precious (and every renewal costs time and money), I like to avoid unnecessary stamping. We were not given a choice after landing in Mexico city and were directed to go through immigration. Luckily there were no baggage to transfer or we would not have made it. All we had was carry on bags! 

We stood in a long line (which moved okay) and there were most confused international travelers and no one to answer their questions. I asked the immigration officer why we had to get a stamp when we were clearly transit passengers and he acted like he didn't understand me. The family was pulling my jacket saying "don't start something you will regret. Let's go to the next gate as fast as possible!".. so off we went. 

Mexico city seems to be sprawling and beautiful from the sky! Someday we have to visit the place and see what sights are there to see around it. 

We did get to spend 30 minutes in a lounge as our connection was a little late. There we were introduced to what I call "Corn kuzhal".. basically thenkuzhal made with corn flour. It was tasty! Surprisingly have never had this before in the US.

We landed in BA and it was raining like crazy! Took an Uber to our hotel, Faena, which was located in what was being described by the cab driver as kind of a Bandra of BA called Porto Madera.  Land reclaimed from the water and fancy residences, and commercial real estate built on it. Apparently Messi had his apartment in this area (we were thinking.. sure Messi probably has apartments all over BA)! Our kids are not easy to impress as the driver soon found out. 

The hotel was fantastic. There was a catch. No microwave, hot water kettle or Fridge in the room. The staff brings you hot water, warms up any food you give to them to put in their common fridge.. you get the idea. They were very courteous and nice, but you had to give them a 10 minute heads up. It still worked out okay. 

We had warm idlis and packed pulav for lunch, made an early dinner reservation at Marcelos , a fine Italian place on the river front (where we were told there are veggie options) and had two hours to spend to walk around the riverfront. 

We sat at a local restaurant chain called La Panera Rosa (with pink umbrellas!) and had tea and hot chocolate.. interestingly, in BA, they call it a SubMarino where they give you frothy milk and a bar of Cocoa which you have to drop into the tall glass and stir.. it drops to the bottom and rises like a submarine is our guess... 

They put locks on the wires around the bridges.. we didn't get to ask anyone on why.. it did look pretty.

It was very windy and nice and we walked on both sides of the river, had a great dinner and headed back to the hotel. 

The view from our table was amazing!

The little one had had enough and wanted to rest.

We still had the rest of the night. So we made plans after dropping her to go on a night to remember.. 

Buenos Aires is beautiful! 

A short video of the evening..

The day before we flew out, the Peso had dropped to 50% of its value. We did not know how that would impact our trip. We did find that most things like Uber rides were really cheap. Food in fancy places were as pricey as expected. The people we interacted with were going about their lives, but they were very hospitable and extremely nice to tourists. We really enjoyed the local people and their culture. It was lovely. Just for that alone, would recommend folks visit this city!

A trip to Sausalito

Last weekend we decided to drive to Sausalito, thanks to NPR. Apparently the storm had moved over the bay area and it was supposed to be an extremely good visibility day to see the golden gate bridge and also the road down to Sausalito was going to be kept open over the weekend.

So off we drove and had a great time. Got to take some pictures of the bridge, then the kids spent two hours at the Kids discovery museum and we ended up driving around the cute downtown in Sausalito and had some great food at a Nepalese restaurant called "Taste of the Himalayas"

It was an afternoon well spent with something for everyone in the family!

A few photographs from the trip.

Separate posts on the museum trip and tiffin experience later...

.

The India trip roundup, last stop... Mumbai !!

We spent the last 7 days of our trip in Mumbai. That meant all last minute shopping for clothes, food, books, videos, you name it.. and the usual evening outings to show the kids some outdoor fun.

The only thing about showing outdoor Mumbai fun to kids in August is you never know when it will rain. When it rains it almost always pours!

Here is a sample of the monsoon. We did not have any umbrellas on day 1 because we were still getting used to the concept. This video was taken outside Basu tailor.

All our Mumbai trips start with a visit to Basu tailor on day 1. Why? He stitches custom fit jeans for 400-500 rupees a Jeans (be it for the adults or kids) including any embroidery. Perfect fit jeans measured and stitched within 5 days!

We still have the 2003 batch, the 2007 batch and now the 2010 batch of Jeans. They are still in good condition, were it not for the expanding waistline. There is an entire street in Kings Circle, Mumbai where there are shops like Basu where you walk in, get your measurement taken, then proceed to pick the fabric from the 150 or so samples and walk out with a card. 4-5 days later, voila... you have jeans that fit you perfectly!

The next few days were spent in Mumbai malls as we switched to indoor fun. Have already mentioned the quality of the malls. They are fantastic!

The K-stars mall in local Chembur has a movie theater complex, a food court, a grocery store, a dozen apparel stores, sporting goods, etc. etc. The movie theater was state of the art!

Once we got through this mall three four times in a couple of days, the FIL decided to take us through the new Worli sea link to go to Washi.

The sea link is great. The drive alone with the water on either side is very nice. Reminded me of the umpteen trips we took on the golden gate bridge.

A long ride with a skyline view on one side.

This is the first mall that you see in Washi. Great shops, great ambiance.

Then we went to another bigger mall further down the same road as you exit the sea link. This one was HUGE! It had a food court that had a sampler of every favorite Indian joint as well as the International sampling. The Pizza hut in this mall was really classy. Have not seen any pizza hut like this in the US. Think Olive Garden interior, Pizza hut menu!

There are speciality stores that sell "only Parathas" and those parathas were downright yummy..

This mall has a t-shirt vending machine in the food court. In case you need to hide those marinara stains ?!

We also made it to the Gateway of India area one afternoon.

and went on yet another horsie ride. The kids were obsessed with horsies on this trip!

Just as we were about to get our hands on this "butta" it started drizzling. We made a mad dash to our parked car and by the time we got to our car, everyone was thoroughly drenched!

A couple of shots taken from the moving horse cart..

We also did the usual trips to Mahalakshmi temple (and ate those delicious pakoras after visiting the temple) and Siddhi Vinayak and drove through the Marine drive area a few times.

Mumbai has an ever changing skyline, a constant reduction in available open spaces, and screams "development" from every street corner.

The Taj hotel was ready to be reopened and that was heart warming..

At the end of the trip I told FIL that either Mumbai is going to be a shining example to the world or go into military rule pretty soon! Had good reasons to make that statement because there are big big holes in law enforcement and the society is truly pocketed and segregated.

It is true that when you go to SFO you see Chinatown, Little Japan, Little Saigon etc. etc. and there is a desi pocket. But there are no issues between these pockets or within the pockets (or they do not come out in the news!). Mumbai is different. It is like a reaction waiting to happen. You sense it in the air.. from small things like the Butta vendor requesting we delete his photograph because "things are very difficult for them in the Gateway area" where "them" implied "muslims" to the auto rickshaw drivers choosing select routes to be on the safe side.

This is tricky business for a city that is "going viral" like a hit youtube video!

Now we get to look forward to our next India trip....

.

In dire Straits!

For those of you who are catching up on the big news item in Tamilnadu,

here is an update.. Peters Sellers style.

Fact: The sethusamudhram project is high on the news list

Fact: The religious and political connotations have a big role to play in how this project gets decided..

Also Fact: Rama's monkeys threw little boulders with Ram's name written on it, into the sea to make this bridge which has apparently lasted 1.356 jillion years. Of course all agencies from NASA to the NSA will vouch for this...

Also also fact: The Government will throw bundles of rupees into the same sea with Mahatma Gandhi's picture on it to undo Ramas bridge. At which point, Gandhi will turn in his grave so much that he will churn the seas and the bridge will start to disappear!

The end goal is to revive the economy of the local Indian coastline and make Tuticorin a port that would make waves in the international port scene.

One hopes that the amount of money spent on

legal fees and courtroom battles
loss of revenue from protests, bandhs, walkouts
posters printed for and against the case

will be less than than the

total economic benefit from the port
cost savings from fuel economy for ships circling Sri Lanka

over the next 0.0000000000001356 jillion years.

Viva Politics!

.

What is he searching for..

We had promised ourselves a one day trip to Big Sur, when we had visited Julia Pfeiffer Burns park last Christmas. This week we finally made it. It was also a little anniversary treat.

We were all having a good time, until...

The little one decided to walk a 0.3 mile steep trail by herself. She would insist on holding my hand, her mothers hand as well her blanket wedged between her shoulder and head and walk the trail at the same time. Talk about having your cake, eating it too, and more.

Any attempts to lift her and walk, would end up in a wail, falling on the floor head first, a rolling action of the torso, with her butt held high in the air and legs kicking, all at once. A motion so complicated, yet executed in such a fashion that spiders, centipedes and other organisms with complicated body structures would dedicate temples in her honor.

We were at the bottom of a waterfall view point, when this tantrum (which I call Combo #1) started. I picked the little one up and started running. San, Balaji and the few other hikers present, were trying to find out what I was searhing for. It was a weird sight with a guy running around with a screaming, fighting kid on his shoulder, looking at the ground.

I was literally searching for "ground"! Combo #1 starts with "falling on the floor". When you are on a steep trail with rocks and roots everywhere on the ground, the surface doesnt provide the adequate banging cushion for a 19 month old kid! These manouvers were perfected on carpeted floors and the little one is still learning the concept of relative hardness.

Granted, it was not as glamorous as a Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson trying to find some field in a foreign location, to land their bullet ridden plane with the tail in flames. But I was in effect trying to do the exact same thing. Safely land the little one on a flat surface so she can start banging her head on the floor and teach the wild life at Big Sur a thing or two about showing displeasure. I kept running and finally dropped her on a wooden bridge. She promptly bumped her head on the wood, put her butt high in the air, did the kicking and screaming routine.

By this time, everyone in our little travel group caught up with me. I was expecting a pat on the back for saving the little one's head. But they did not understand why I even dropped her on the ground in the first place and gave me the "how cruel?" look.

They did get to see Combo #1 in gory detail multiple times as we walked back and have probably forgiven me by now.

I am still working on a video blog of all the different tantrum combos. The compiled movie will hit your screens sometime before 4th of July!

Here is the bridge, and the little one crossing it before she entered her phase.

And in other news, got the new camera on Friday, :)
And in other other news, will get the lens only on Monday, :( !!!
So the photo and video you see were all the work of the old S30.

.