Return to Tokyo

 Finally made it to Tokyo Haneda Airport. Got our luggage and made it through customs and got tickets for the Limo Bus to Narita Airport. 1.5 hours later and we made it to Narita Airport and got checked in. At this point Priyanka wasn't feeling well and just wanted to rest. So we decided that Vatsala, Priyanka, and my In Laws would stay at the airport and the rest of us would go checkout more of Tokyo. We jumped on the subway and went to Akihabara which is known as Electric Town. This is area is known for its Anime Stores and Electronic stores. My niece is huge into Anime so we had to check it out. After arriving and checking out things I found out Akihabara has tons of Anime Stores, Electronic Stores, Video Game Stores, and what I call Pervy Restaurants. They claim to be "Maid" restaurants where they treat the customer like the master and serve you cute foods but some of these places the girls were not just wearing maid outfits and were very suggestive. I didn't check any of them out so I could be off base but based on the pictures, I think I'm in the ballpark of them just being places to gawk at ladies wearing skimpy clothes.  

The last picture was from outside the Cat Cafe my niece and Sister In law visited. Not sure what they were concerned about here but thought it was funny. 

After a few hours in Akihabara we made our way back to the airport, hung out in the lounge, and made our way home. 

Goa - Delhi

 Woke up early for a 7:45 AM pickup to the airport. Got our vehicles loaded and then took off like we were in a F1 Race. We zipped in and out of traffic, lanes, side streets. Saw my life flash before my eyes only twice but had some old memories flash several more times. We arrive at the airpot get checked in and settled in to the Lounge. Then we started getting notices are flight was delayed. Then another. Then another. Then another. At this point the Lounge kicked us out because we were over our time limit. We went to hang out near our gate to find out once we got settled the gate was moved to the other side of the terminal. We then got another delay and told to go to the Fisherman's Wharf. What the hell is the Fisherman's Wharf and why am I going there?! The airline was giving our free food for all those that were delayed and Fisherman's Wharf was the place that was providing it. We got our free food and some KFC for us meat eaters since it was Veg only at Fisherman's Wharf. We waited around a bit longer and now it was time to board. Flight itself was uneventful we got our luggage collected and realized that we had under 30 minutes to get our luggage checked in for our flight home!! We had allotted having 6 hours before our flight home but that was eaten up with the delays due to Fog/Smog. We barely get on the bus to get us from our terminal to the International Terminal. They're not connected. You have to go into the city to get from one to another. As we are heading to the terminal we are getting calls from the Airline telling us we need to hurry. We're on a bus, we have not control over when we get there. We eventually arrive and rush to check-in and are told we have less than 30 minutes to get on the plane and our gate is on the other side of the terminal. My son and I are the last to get through security. We get through and RUN as fast as we can to get to the gate and get on the plane with 4 minutes to spare before doors closed. That was the craziest experience related to air travel I have ever experienced. 8.5 hour flight to Tokyo, here we come.

Goa - Day 6

 Last day in Goa. We decide to check out the world famous Baga Beach. NOPE! It was 11:00am and it was already so crowded, broken glass, diapers, and other trash all over the place. Did I say "NOPE!"?! We immediately texted our driver and said pick us up and take us to Vagator Beach. 

Ahhh this is more like it. Still busier than Ashvem but still enjoyable. I was able to get some crab, not as cheap as I was hoping for but very delicious. 

We tried to do some waterspouts but it was a huge ripoff. The advertised prices for were 2 minute rides and the price shot up quickly. We decided to head back to Ashvem Beach to finish our trip to Goa. 

Got back to the villa and we were hungry. We had a ton of leftovers for the kiddos but not much for ourselves so we walked around the corner to a local hole in the wall where we introduced to a super creepy cat in the loft where we ate. 

    

Got a couple pics on our walk back

Goa - Day 5

Finally back to the beach, we asked our driver to take us to a quiet beach. He took us to Ashvem Beach. By far our favorite beach. Barely anyone there, affordable shacks, and large shallow beach.

Goa - Day 3 and 4

 Decided to take care of ourselves these two days. Give us a chance to recover and get massages and the ladies got their hair did. We swam in the pool and just chilled visiting local restaurants by foot. There was an older church by our house that seemed out of place in India but Goa was ran by the Portuguese so it makes some sense. 

Found a real authentic Italian restaurant ran by a Tuscan Couple. The food was super delicious but took over an hour for 4 dishes to be made. 83 rupees to 1 dollar.

Goa - Day 2

 Woke up around 10 and thought we were going to just hangout around the Villa. We were all tired and some of us were fighting the cooties but SURPRISE our Cousin from Mumbai showed up for only one day and wanted to see the beach, so off to Anjuna Beach. Much busier than Morjim Beach but tons of beach shacks. We finally settled on one but didn't realize the prices. They were US prices for drinks!! It was a pretty place but not worth the cost.

Priyanka found a friend on the beach. A very sweet loving Rottie 

Went back to the Villa and ordered in food again. Thank you Zomato and Swiggy.

Goa - Day 1

 We had an uneventful flight from Jaipur to Goa. We landed, collected our luggage and went out expecting a driver holding a sign with our name. NOPE!  Hmmmmm my cousin had setup our rides for the Goa leg so I assumed there would be someone waiting. Turns out our driver doesn't have access to the airport so we had a deal with a local cab company but our cousin failed to mention that. No biggie. 

We loaded up our two SUVs overflowing with luggage and people and took the 50 minute drive to our villa. We arrive and the previous guests were just leaving so we were only able to drop-off our luggage, freshen up and then had to wait until it was ready. Luckily there was a nice cafe nearby that had AC as the heat and humidity was much more than all of our other stops in India. We quickly learned that Goan Indian Food tastes different than the Northern India food, not better or worse just different. While waiting for our villa our driver arrived and we took a trip to Morjim Beach to check it out and kill some time. It was so quiet and beautiful but a little overcast. We may have to come back to this beach. 

Villa is ready so we headed back to check it out. It was everything and more that we saw in the pictures.  I unfortunately didn't take any pictures in the house but you can lookup Jimmy's Villa Goa on Instagram if you're curious. 

We had the driver for a few more hours so we went to another beach, I believe it was Vagator Beach (they all get mixed in my head). Little busier but still beautiful.

Headed back to the villa and ordered in food. Was mostly tasty but very small portions. Beach Day Tomorrow!

Jaipur Day 3 - Sick Day

 Welp! Got sick. My son texted us he wasn't feeling well at 5:30 in the morning and I noticed I too had a fever. We had a day filled with touristy stuff planned and there was no way my son was going to make it with his stomach issues. My fever came back shortly after they left and my sinuses were jacked. 

I will post pictures from their adventures in the next post.

Next stop Goa, where it's in the high 80's/low 90's, might be sitting poolside recovering.

Jaipur Day 2

 Made our way to the Radisson Jaipur City Centre and tried to check-in but unfortunately rooms weren't available yet but we were able to drop-off our luggage and then we attempted to tour the area. The traffic around our area is very busy and we got bombarded by people asking us if we needed a ride. We ended up at a restaurant that only had half their menu available because the chefs of that type of food were not around. So we ended with some snacks and one of our cousin's from the US had a Brother in law in the area who met up with us for a bit and would meet up with us tomorrow for our touring day. 

We chilled in our rooms for a bit and then attempted to find something to eat for dinner. There was a higher rated place immediately across the street from our hotel so we attempted to make our way there. We made across but my Brother in Law and his family didn't make it yet. We checked with the restaurant and they weren't open until 7:30 even though the websites said they were open. We then headed back across the street and I took a video of the craziness. 

We ended up at the in hotel restaurant, Priyanka ordered her first legal alcohol drink a mojito. I had a massage and then after me my Sister in Law had one. It was a little unique they have you put on these mesh underwear and lay on the table and some of the stretches and what not I haven't experienced but all good. At the end I got to take a steam shower and then headed back to the room to play cards with the kids. 

What in the Hell is this AirBnB?!

 We get on our transportation to our AirBnB, everything looked promising at first but that quickly changed. The place looked like the pictures but at the same time did not. Everything was rough around the edges and worn. The caretaker didn't speak any English so there was another guy who did the talking. They provided water bottles which were all re-used plastic water bottles refilled with "filtered" water. We walked the rooms and noticed everything was dirty and rundown. There were whole pieces of door frames missing. Switches covered in grime, broken outlets, broken heaters and the indoor pool was actually not indoor, it was fenced in and open air to the inside of the house. This caused the whole house to be completely cold almost worse than the villages. 

We were so tired that we tried to make the best of it. We all went to take showers and NO HOT WATER. Tried to connect to the wifi so we could communicate with the caretaker, NO WIFI. We were able to get the wifi "working" and the caretaker indicated the hot water heaters had to be turned on and wait a few minutes. Why this wasn't done before our arrival, I have no idea. My son's room's floor was so dirty the caretaker had to clean it. Finally time for showers......NOPE hot water only lasted 1 minute or less before it went to freezing cold. It was a 16L hot water heater and showers use roughly 15 L per minute!! Noticed in our bathroom there was no glass on the window so all the cold air was rushing in. I immediately contacted AirBnB and asked to get out of the room ASAP. It took a couple hours to get a response from AirBnB and never any response from the Host, they wanted to try and reach the host to see if they could "fix the issue". Not sure how you fix an open air house missing a fourth wall to keep cold air out and how you fix the hot water tanks being so small. 

In the middle of the night, the power went out so now the heaters didn't work and the wife but some of the lights worked. Not in my room of course. I honestly think the caretaker killed the power because it happened right after I said it was time to go to bed. The caretaker's bedroom was on the other side of the wall where I was, so maybe coincidental, but I don't know. When the power came back on I heard a noise like a breaker box being closed which reaffirms my theory. 

Finally got AirBnB to agree to a 30% refund for the first night and 100% for the next two nights. DEAL!!

Off to Radisson Jaipur City Centre