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Travelogue Hawaii: Deciding to Go (Sona)
Hawaii was never at the top of travel list. In fact, I don’t think it even made the top ten. Or the top twenty. I think the same holds true for Navdeep. So why are we headed there for two weeks of our hard-earned winter break?
Here’s the thing: every break, we pretty much plan to go to California. Since Kavya was born, and even before then, really, we wanted to make sure we got to spend some quality time with Navdeep’s parents and sister in California — especially as the family expanded to include little Seerit and Joshvir. But this curtails our ability to travel elsewhere. So we had the brilliant idea that we should go somewhere else — and that Navdeep’s parents should simply meet us there.
At first we thought Alaska. But given the Winter scheduling of the trip, it didn’t seem like it would be all that fun to go there right now. So then we said, let’s pick somewhere warm and exotic and closer to California, somewhere that would allow us to explore and enjoy each other’s company without over-stressing or renewing our (missing or expired) passports even. Somewhere where Kavya could have quality time with her grandparents in a leisurely fashion. Somewhere, after all of those requirements, that wouldn’t be boring.
And none of us had ever been to Hawaii, so that became an option. It was big, it was warm, it was technically American soil, it had beaches and culture and even active volcanos. Initially, we booked just four days in Waikiki Beach via a time share. THen my mom decided she’d join us. And paying $1100 a ticket for four days on the beach didn’t make sense, so we decided to add an island or two. This is a BIG family trip. Over the course of six months of planning, we added ten days, two more islands, four additional family members and a whole lot of adventure. In the end, it was 14 days on three islands with eight adults and one toddler.
Essentially, it’s a big bonding experience for us all. Not a single one of us have ever been to Hawaii. None of us have ever seen an active volcano, either, so that should be a big highlight of the trip, too. There’s plenty of adventure on the agenda: the windy and beautiful Road to Hana, underwater helmet-diving in Waikiki, a five a.m. lava boat tour. But another big highlight should be just chilling on the beach and enjoying each other’s company. Because we need that family time. My family of five — my parents, my brother, my sister and I — haven’t been on a trip all together since we went to Mexico a decade ago when I was in college. Navdeep’s parents and mine have never traveled together — Kavya’s going to be overwhelmed with grandparental love and hugs, not to mention kisses and cuddles from Tarun Mamu and Meena Masi.
All in all, Hawaii is a family adventure I’m really looking forward to — as much as it surprises me to say it. This time around, though, it’s not so much the place as it is the people I’ll be traveling with that make the trip worthwhile.
Travelogue: Lucky Cheng’s Drag Queen Karaoke in New York City
Okay, so these Groupon and Living Social deals can really get addictive. We all know that. But because of them, Navdeep and I have definitely had some experiences we wouldn’t have otherwise indulged in — ice climbing, anyone?
Another case in point: Lucky Cheng’s Drag Queen karaoke on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, largely the bastion of alcohol-fueled, giggle-heavy bachelorette parties and birthdays. A straight guy’s no man’s land. Still, when they offered up a two-for-one deal on Living Social, I convinced Navdeep we should give it a go. And just for amusement, he said okay. At the very least, it would be a nice Chinese dinner, right?
Photo of the Week: Sona Burning a Pepper in Puebla, Mexico
Sona Burning a Tortilla While Our Chef Watches From a Distance, Puebla, Mexico. Photo Credit: Navdeep Singh Dhillon
While in Puebla, Mexico, for our honeymoon, we took a wonderful cooking course at Mesones Sacristia, a boutique hotel. We learned how to make some truly spectacular dishes like Mole. In this photo, Sona is doing what she does best: burning a poblano pepper. In this case, she did it on purpose to use for the base of the Mole.
Travelogue California: The World’s Largest Gingerbread House in San Francisco?
We had all of two days to spend in San Francisco with my parents-in-law, and for some reason, I was stuck on seeing this two-story gingerbread house — made of real gingerbread, of course — at the Fairmont Hotel. So everyone decided to indulge me. (This isn’t so surprising, by the way.)
To capture the essence of San Francisco, our mission — and we all chose to accept it — was to abandon our car and navigate the hills and curves of the city by the bay completely on foot. Surprisingly, we more than managed (despite the stroller!) and we didn’t get lost. Not even once.
It turns out that getting to the aforementioned gingerbread house, though, was quite a hike. We started out from our hotel — the lovely Tuscan Inn, which hosts an evening wine reception and offers freshly brewed a.m. coffee — at the Fisherman’s Wharf, and headed west. Which turned out to be straight upward for more than a mile. Great exercise, yes, but not super-fun when you’re pushing a ten-month-old in a rickety stroller.
In any case, the trek itself was fun. Along the way, we stopped in North Beach for croissants and cappuccinos on Columbus Avenue. Then we paused for a break — which we certainly needed by then — at the Cable Car Museum (free!). The museum itself was fascinating — it showed the working gears of all three cable car lines, along with restored cars from the 19th century. There was a short documentary film, and photographs of the city before and after the great earthquake and fire of 1906.
The museum, it turned out, was only a few blocks from the Fairmont, but we didn’t realize that because of the giant hill in front of us. We huffed and puffed our way to the stately old building, which has been standing between California and Sacramento streets since 1907 — a year after the fire.
Travelogue India: The Countdown Begins, So Much to Do and Only Three Weeks to Go!
When we booked our tickets, way back in June, this trip seemed ages away. And now, there’s less than a month left. It seems surreal to think that in three short weeks my life as I know it will end—at least for a short while. Right now, to me, the daily grind is pitching stories and interviewing the random celebrity, pretending to work on my writing, endless loads of laundry, the occasional episode of House Hunters on HGTV and making often-elaborate meals for my husband, who’s been working his ass off teaching endless English classes to make up for our time off.
In the meantime, we’ve also been doing the things that make this trip seem a bit more real. Tickets. Check. Camera. Check. Backpacks. They’ll be here any second now. And we finally ordered the sleeping bag, too. But really, it’s the slow build of this website, Navdeep painstakingly learning Dreamweaver and Flash, me dictating design and writing content, that’s making it seem real. Slowly but surely, we’re getting closer. And as we add pages, we mark off another day—or four—on the calendar. And now it’s almost time to flip the page.
For three months, it’ll be just be me and Navdeep, on the road, a different city every week, lots of new tastes, people, places to explore and absorb. It’s exhilarating, but at the moment, it still seems unreal. And though I’m really excited, it’s also kind of scary.
I keep second-guessing other goals. What if this is the right time to get that script out, as studios stockpile under the threat of a long, grueling writers’ strike? What if I should have taken that job opportunity in New York a little more seriously? What about the fact that I’m going to miss several birthdays, or a big reason to celebrate that we’ve all been waiting for? I’m stepping out of my life, but it will go charging full speed ahead without me. Britney will lose custody. Lindsay will end up in prison. (Hey, these things are breaking news when you’re in the celeb content trade.) But it’s also that Meena will move to L.A., my cousin Arun will start college (oh my God!) and my brother will get a new (fulltime, with benefits!) job. Those are the things I’ll really be missing.
But there’s something more to the fear. It’s that my world will never really be the same after this. Travel changes people—Navdeep is a vivid, shining example of that. And sure, I’ve been on a plane loads of times, seen lots of exotic countries. But I’ve never really traveled. I’ve lived a very sheltered life. And I’m sort of excited to see who this new incarnation of me is going to be. But I’m also a bit sad to be leaving the old one behind.
She was hardly perfect, but we had some good times.
And it’s also the first time Navdeep and I will really travel together besides our 10-day Puebla honeymoon. We obviously have very different styles—he’s a hardcore backpacker, while I prefer all-inclusive, if possible. Do we meet in the middle? We’re sure to have cranky moments—after all, I’m only allowed to carry two pairs of flip-flops! We’ll truly be tested by this adventure—bugs and all. But no matter what, this journey is sure to bond us together even more.
Neither of us are strangers to travel, but we are very different travelers. Navdeep can brush aside a cockroach from his food and continue eating. Sona flies into hysterics at any creepy-crawlies (real or imagined) within a ten mile radius. 
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