India Trip Continues…After Holi Events

Current Tune: U n I Let’s Do Balle - Naksha

So you would think that the mega surprise of NP reaching home to Hindaun would be enough, but we didn’t think so. We wanted to do something else for the family, so we decided to take them somewhere. Somewhere they have never been, and may not have a chance to go again as a full family due to timing, school of children, etc… Neeraj’s two brothers and two sisters were in Hindaun with us, like I had mentioned before, and one middle sister was in Ahmedabad. The night before Holi we told the family to be ready as we are going to the city that never sleeps on Monday. Which city is that? The bestest city of the world - Aamchi Mumbai.

We left for Jaipur the evening of Holi after our max masti morning/afternoon. It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Hindaun City to Jaipur, then we stayed over at Neeraj’s middle brother’s home, and left early on Monday morning via plane (SpiceJet) to Mumbai. Yes, we took 13 family members (the 4 children in the pic in the above post, Neeraj’s two brothers, their wives, two sisters, and one jijaji) on a plane from Jaipur to Mumbai in which it was the first time that all 13 members were going on a plane. It was going to be a high feat because anything can happen, you don’t know how people will react (health-wise) on a plane for the first time. One of Neeraj’s sister’s and her children also get motion sickness, so Neeraj and I were most worried for them. But all is well — everyone really enjoyed being on a plane, and we safely reached Mumbai.

Neeraj and I had planned and booked everything from the US for our big Mumbai trip with the family. This includes hotel booking in south side of Mumbai near Chowpatty Beach, two Toyota Qualis vehicles, and of course the itinerary - what we were going to do for two and half days. I was very impressed as everything worked as clock work for us — just as we had planned out. We had the two vehicles waiting for us as we had reached Mumbai’s domestic airport. Then we left immediately for the hotel where the family got freshed up while Neeraj’s brothers went back to the airport to pick up their sister and her family who were coming in a later flight from Ahmedabad. Neeraj and I went to my nani’s (grandmother) house to drop off some stuff for her that was sent from my Mumma.

The first evening was spent going first to Phoenix Mills mall in Lower Parel where the kids and adults both enjoyed playing video games at the arcade. Then we went out to the various famous sites in south side of Mumbai such as Gateway of India, Worli, Nariman Point, Marine Drive, and of course, Chowpatty Beach. We reached back to the hotel late and went to sleep.

The next day was an early day as we headed by our two vehicles to Essel World. All days in Mumbai were quite hot, weather wise. We took the long route by car because it was going to be too tough to take everyone by local train and then by ferry to Essel World. Once we reached, we went straight to the water park there, and what a great time we had!! Really, it was a great park, well made, and everyone enjoyed to the fullest! We stayed until the park closed, which I thought it closed too soon at 5.30 pm, and then headed for dinner at this restaurant that I had spotted on our journey. It turned out to be a very nice restaurant, and everyone enjoyed the food. Then Neeraj wanted to have ice cream at this place in Versova (Andheri) where we had last year when we had brought our Americans to Mumbai. So we called my masi and jijaji who live in Andheri, and they told us where it was and even said that they would come meet us. So we went there, and this ice cream place has various fruit ice creams that you don’t get to eat on the ordinary (sitaphal, leechi, mango, etc..). Everybody liked that as well, and then we headed back to the hotel.

The last day everyone woke up a bit late, and we went to Siddhi Vinayak mandir which was on the way to the airport for us. It was pretty crowded, but we were able to receive blessings from the Lord just as we had thought. Then we were off to the airport and back to Jaipur. The big Mumbai trip was going to be over…..:sad:

We took the SpiceJet flight back to Jaipur, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Neeraj’s niece, the one from Ahmedabad, was crying very badly due to the horrid navigating done by SpiceJet’s pilots. As you will read on about our experiences in the various airlines in India, SpiceJet was definitely the worse. They change altitudes too quickly, and when they say that they are landing, they are not really doing that, they are just lowering the air pressure and altitude which can hurt a person’s ears. We weren’t impressed, and really will think twice to fly with them again.

Anyway, we all reached Jaipur just fine, and now the rest of the trip continues….

Because the photos are too big in size and I don’t want to compress them, I am going to upload them on Yahoo. Please let me know if you want to view, and I will send you the link.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.