Dharma & Nita travel blog

Today my cousin Nickesh Kalyan was showing us around the sights. Getting up early was the difficult bit for all of us, the long flight and lack of sleep was affecting us all, we somehow managed to drag ourselves out of bed and head out for breakfast around the corner @ iHOP. The place was a classic American Pancake diner. Pancakes were good, lots of variety, but nothing fantastic.

Nickesh was at the hotel around 9:20 am, was really good to meet him again, last we met was in India in 2011, and that was only a short catch-up. Lucky they had a big car – Chevrolet Suburban with 9 seats!, worked out well for our group of 8.

First stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, unfortunately the weather was not too favourable, it was very foggy, and only lower part of the Golden gate was visible. Still amazing seeing this magnificent structure. Time for golden gate snaps.

And walking onto the bridge, this is one big structure

Next stop was the Palace of Fine Arts. Nickesh tells us this place is where lots of wedding and bollywood photoshoot takes place. Being not to be outdone, we had to do some impromptu Photo shots.

After imitating many bollywood poses, it was time to head off to Lombard St (the crooked street). Driving through it, kids could not believe how crooked the street was, lots of sharp turns! Place was very clean and well maintained, considering the number of people that go through this section of Lombard St!

It was now time to head out of city area and off to Berkeley. We had asked Nickesh to take us to a good lunch venue, it was to be Viks Chaat Place! How fitting, Vikash.

It was proving a bit difficult getting there with San Francisco traffic, well that is what I thought, however Nickesh tells me that it was normal for these traffic delays! Urrg I could not handle the traffic on a daily basis.
Going through the city centre, Nick pointed out the new ingenious method of setting up food stations via mobile vans! In this case it was a new Indian station, Curry Up Now, and the queue on that station was LONG!

Enroute to Lunch, we crossed the Bay Bridge, another amazing piece of engineering, connecting San Francisco to Oakland.

Finally arrived at our lunch venue, this place was good with a very good menu range of veg and non veg. For all future travellers, the fusion menu is only available on weekends. We ordered a bit of everything, had to try em all! Taste was fantastic.

Lunch done, now time for some desi-dessert. Meeta and I were onto Khulfi. Dian and Pooja had the Ghulub Jamun, and Vik had sorted out a range of sweets, all tasted perfect! Very good.

Next off to Roopam Saree shop. Awaiting for us there was Pushpa Kaki (Nickesh’s mum), she was there to assist Nita and Meeta in selecting the indian wear! Was wonderful to meet her after 29 years! Last time I met her was in 1986  she was and is as wonderful as ever!

Whilst the ladies were doing desi-shopping, Nickesh assisted me and Vik in organising SIM cards for our phones. We got a great plan, $40 USD for unlimited voice, sms and 2.5 gb of data. This would be more than enough for our 3 weeks stay.

Post shopping around 4:30pm, it was off to Nickesh’s home, tonight dinner was at their place. Pushpa kaki had called in all my foi’s to her place for dinner, allowing me to meet them all in the shortest time frame .

It was a great Nite, meeting lots family members and most importantly meeting Rajend & Bhupen kaka, Pushpa and Bharti kaki, Hinal, Nickesh and kids. The happy mood all around was also showing in the bar, we going through lots of alcohol !
Kaki had prepared BBQ chicken and mamna for Dinner, yumm.

Lots of eating, drinking and catching up! Neha was referring to Rajend kaka as “American Dada”, as to not confuse with her Dada from Brisbane, she had taken a massive liking to the entire US Kalyan family to the point she was very upset to be coming back to the hotel and kept nagging me to cancel my booking and move into the Kalyan family residence!

Pushpa kaki and Rajend kaka drove us back to hotel post midnight. It had been a wonderful day with Nickesh and an even more amazing nite with our US family. Thanks sooo much for making it so very special for us.

It was finally here, Neha & Pooja were super excited up at 5am. Had planned to meet at the Airport @ 7am. check-in, immigration was uneventful other than the slow speed @ Brisbane, it seems to be getting worse!

Buying dutyfree was interesting, I had enquired beforehand on how to carryon dutyfree alcohol if also travelling via a domestic flight transfer. Essentially if the alcohol was placed in Secure Temper Evident Bags (STEB), then carrying them on US domestic flights was ok. Well this information was being contested by the sales girl who was 100% sure based on her numerous travels to US that it was not possible and the alcohol would be confiscated. After numerous checks on the websites, I decided to purchase the dutyfree and get it packed in the STEB. Well it worked fine and there was NO issue in the US domestic flight, well actually the local domestic providers were not even aware of the rule which was on their own website!! For all travellers to US, you can buy alcohol dutyfree and take it as carry on in a domestic flight as long as the bottles are in a STEB and the bag is not damaged.

Quick breakfast @ Windmill Café in the departures lounge, this place is very good! Nothing like Beer breakfast

 

On the flight, we had two 4 row seats, kids were in one and we took the other, well that did not last too long, the shuffling started soon after. By the end, everyone had changed seats including the adults! Flight was LOOOONG, and it was a relief to finally land @ LAX.

Out of immigration, collected our bags then off to Southwest Airlines to transfer onto San Francisco. Landed in San Francisco close to 2pm.

Getting out of the arrivals hall, we could definitely see the American difference by the size of the cars that were there, everything is BIGGER!! The UTEs were bigger, the Cars bigger, the shuttle buses were bigger, could definitely see the “American Muscle” attitude in the vehicles.

Drivetime to our Hotel @ Fisherman’s Wharf was around 45 minutes, passed some great sights and got to see the Wharf area very well. I had thought the area was small with just one or two piers, the place went for a LOOOONG way, with over 20 piers!
Arrived @ Radisson just after 3 pm, unfortunately the rooms were not ready, apparently in US check-in time is @ 4pm. It was then off for a leisurely walk around the Fisherman’s Wharf area which was literally behind our hotel.

(Madame Tussauds @ Fishermans Wharf)

4:30pm we were in our rooms, quick shower, freshen up and out again at 6pm, everyone was excited to see the surroundings and make the most of it, Meeta was keeping us on schedule to cover all the sights!
After more than 18 hours of total travel time, the kids were still energetic to get out and see it all.

Some of the highlights…

 

Dinner was easy, Priya Narsey had recommended the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, food and drinks were both top notch!! This place serves some amazing seafood, everyone including kids stuffed themselves well
Thanks Priya for suggesting that, starting our first US dinner on a very positive note.

 

Post dinner stepping outside, weather was very very chilly, the bay breezes also did not help. A bit of a change from the Brisbane weather!