Italy Trip

Some of the things I write are mostly for my own documentation. Time flies and then we forget where we went and what we did.

In the Spring Break of 2024, the first week of April, we traveled to Italy.

F is into Italian architecture and art and S is into food while N is all about family. 

We started our trip on a nonstop United flight from SF to Rome. I had prebooked a ride from the airport to Roma Termini which was next to Hotel Morgana where we were staying for 2 nights. The first night was rather uneventful but fun nonetheless. S and I went out for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant from across the street. We also bought an umbrella because it was raining in Rome that evening.

For our second day, we had booked a rather expensive "Rome in a Day" tour that started at the Vatican City. We wanted to try out the train in Rome so we took the train to The Vatican from Roma Termini. The concierge at our hotel had warned us about the pickpocketing in Rome. 

The other instruction provided to us was to cover our knees and the shoulder because were going to be on Holy Grounds. The Vatican was beautiful, especially the museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The highlight in the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel though. Imagining Michelangelo painting those ceilings during the Renaissance gave me the goosebumps. However, the crowds do take away from the experience. I would say that the crowds were still less compared to the crowds you see during the summer.

From the Vatican, we took a taxi to The Trevi fountain area. We were still with the tour guide and she showed us the Pantheon and then we broke for an Italian lunch. And that's when the pick pocketer struck. S, focused on shopping while we ordered lunch, was distracted enough that her iphone was pick pocketed from her coat pocket. The phone was turned off immediately and needless to say once it was gone, we did not waste our precious vacation time looking for it. 

Dejected but not disheartened, we continued with our Rome in a Day Tour. The next stop was The Forum, filled with ancient Government offices and ruins of the Roman Empire. It led to Palatine Hill and we eventually ended the tour at the Colosseum. We had walked nearly 20,000 steps that day.  We took the taxi back to Morgana. We ate dinner at a Ramen place in Roma Termini and called it a night.

The next morning, we were going to rent a car and head out on our road trip in Italy. We took a taxi to Avis, rented a car and started driving to Tuscany. We stayed at a beautiful AirBnb in the middle of the vineyards of Tuscany (in a town called Poggibonsi). We drove to the town of San Gimigano for dinner at a nice Italian place and enjoyed the small Tuscan town. 

Next morning, we relaxed in the vineyards before heading out to Pisa to see the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took the customary pictures and drove to Florence. Florence was an interesting experience because we were keeping the car with us and everyone who has been to Italy knows that its very hard to drive in the heart of Italian towns. We parked the car at a parking garage and spent the night at our AirBnb, that used to be a palace back in the day (in the middle of Florence). The most important thing we did that evening was a tour of the Academia Gallery, where the statue of David (another Michelangelo masterpiece) lives. N was scandalized by the number of naked statues in the galleries. We bought our own naked David as a souvenir. A note about Italian food- pasta in Southern and central Italy is mostly wheat based; however if you travel to North like Milan, risotto (rice based) starts replacing pasta as the staple food. We had a hearty dinner after our Florence tour and went back to the AirBnb to play cards and read books, after roaming around the beautiful streets of Florence at night.

Next day, we got back in the car and headed towards Venice. Florence to Venice was a long but pretty drive. It was marked with a lot of tunnels (I imagine lots of mountains were cut to carve out the path). Most people take the train to Venice but we are car people. You park the car at a garage in Venice and then you are either on your feet or on a gondola. We walked to our AirBnb first. There was crepe place next to the Airbnb that we enjoyed a lot. We walked a lot as well as shopped, and we got nice Italian dinner to close the night. A note about the restaurants in Italy; especially in big cities. A lot of them have Bangladeshi service staff. However, when you go to a smaller town, you will find more native Italian service staff. 

That first night in Venice, a crazy lady started banging our AirBnb door, which was a bit scary. I reported it to the hosts and they came in the morning to check on us and told us that a mentally unstable woman lives in the neighborhood. 

Needless to say we did the gondola next day (with Amitabh Bachchan's song playing in the background. We started the day with a good Italian brunch, then did the gondola and then more walking and gelato, ending at Piazza San Marco. And then we closed out the night. Venice is more of a tourist attraction unlike places of culture like Rome or Florence. 

Next morning, we took the gondola back to our car and started driving towards Terni. Terni is a small town in the region that rivals Tuscany, called Umbria. The difference between the two regions is that Tuscany is more cosmopolitan, while Umbria is more rustic. I love Rustic and I thoroughly enjoyed my day in Terni. We stayed at a very scenic AirBnb with the view of the entire mountain range of the area. We went out for dinner to the heart of Terni. While the Italian food was marvelous, one of the things that we ate was a small fish based pizza called Pizza Napoli that we hated. We walked around Terni and called it a night.

Next day, we were slated to return to Rome. The drive to the airport was great. It was bittersweet to leave Italy. We had a wonderful time but the spring break was over and we carried with us all the wonderful memories from the trip. But we were also excited to get back home because our family gets very tired after a week of traveling and we were looking forward to settling down back to our routines. Our nonstop flight from Rome to San Francisco was comfortable. Addio Italia!

Costa Rica Trip

While one can do many things with one's time, travel with family certainly takes the cake during the school holidays. This time around, we made a trip to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of the seven Central American countries. Central America connects North America (the southernmost country of North America is Mexico) and South America (the northernmost country of South America is Colombia). The other Central American countries are Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to the North of Costa Rica and Panama to the south (remember Panama Canal or Panama Papers). 

You can find the detailed itinerary in this blog but I want to highlight some of the special moments and the people.

On the first day, while traveling from San Jose airport in Costa Rica to Tirimbina Lodge in the Sarapiqui rainforest, our brakes failed. The animal instinct kicked in and I veered the car into the bushes and used the hand brake to stop the car. However, the car was fully damaged. A very sweet family came out from their home and invited us over. We spent the next few hours with them, eating lunch and getting to know each other. The single mom Sandra was 43 years old and had 3 kids, Valeria (23), a boy (18), and Louis (14). They were very affectionate and we connected well with each other. Valeria is studying Civil Engineering at UCR in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Our family with the hosts

We engaged in a lot of fun activities over the trip. We did a Chocolate tour at Tirimbina Lodge that taught us all the steps involved in getting chocolate from cacao fruit. It was very immersive and we participated hands-on in a lot of the steps. The tour guides William and Jose were very entertaining. 

Nirvanh breaking a cacao fruit

The process of chocolate making in pictures

The same day we left Tirimbina, we embarked on a rafting adventure. The goal here was to spot wild animals and birds and we did, lots of them. Here is a list that I remember and the tidbits our tour guide Warner told us about them.

1. Anhinga Anhinga- a bird that can dive into water for 3 minutes and looks like a snake when it does.
2. Spectacle owl- a big owl that can eat a small fox.
3. Crocodile- no comments needed, it loves humans.
4. Little Blue Heron
5. Howler Monkeys- howl a lot. 
6. Black and white owl.
7. Long nose bat.
8. Others that I don't remember now. 

Safari Rafting on Penas Blancas River

The other fun thing we did was the Tabacon Hot Springs the next morning. Warm geothermal water was very soothing. 

Tabacon Hot Springs

From the La Fortuna area, we proceeded to the Monteverde area. Our Airbnb host Olgar was awesome and treated us to some freshly extracted sugarcane juice in the morning (we extracted it together the old-school way). We also hiked up the trails in Monteverde Cloudforest Preserve. 

The trails took us to the Continental Divide that divides Central America into two hydrographic regions- the Pacific and the Caribbean. Rain on one side of the divide flows to the Pacific Ocean and on the other side to the Caribbean Sea. 

Monteverde has a Quaker history. Quakers moved to the region in the 1950s and 60s I think. We met a 60-year-old man called Steven Smith who moved from the US when he was 7 years old and has lived in Monteverde since. His daughter lives in the LA area in California. 

Our next stop was the adventure sport of zipling. With 13 things to do, 9 regular zip lines, 2 Superman zip lines, 1 rappelling, and 1 Mega Tarzan Swing, we had signed up for more than we could have chewed. Freyjaa did all of them, including the 1.6-mile longest zipline in Latin America in Superman pose. Nirvanh did all of them as well, including the drop from 300 feet on the Mega Tarzan Swing that is almost like bungee jumping (however he was not allowed to do any of the 2 zip lines in Superman pose but was allowed to do them in regular pose). Shweta and I opted out of the Mega Tarzan Swing. 

Zip lining was a terrific experience (and terrifying too). 

From Monteverde, we proceeded to Bijagua for a stay at a very unique accommodation called the Bitzu Dome (hosted by a nice gentleman called Alex). We did a couple of activities there as well. We hiked up to the Mirador Point to look at the Tenorio Volcano. One of the highlights of that area was chilling out at a roadside dhaba-like place they call sodas. 

Bijagua was a unique experience

Our final leg of the trip was to Nicoya Peninsula, one of the few blue zones of the world, where the longevity is 10 years higher than the rest of Costa Rica on average. We visited Playa Del Coco which is Del Coco Beach. It is a happening place, very boisterous and party-like compared to the rest of Costa Rica. 

Gelatos, sunset, and snacks were the main attractions at the Blue Zone beach of Del Coco. 

We were staying close to the airport in Guardia at an Airbnb with a nice host called Jose. We met another family staying at the same Airbnb- Kevin, Cory, and their two children Fiona and Calvin. We had some fun chatting with them before we retired to our cottages. 

The next morning, we flew back to SF on our nonstop flights from Liberia. Needless to say, it was one of the most fantastic trips of our lives. It was so good that Shweta told me half-jokingly to sell my trip (which I planned and executed by myself) to others. Since I am not going to do that, I am putting down the self-planned itinerary for free below :). Have fun and plan a trip to a very sustainable and biodiverse country. 

Our broad itinerary with lots of details removed

A short trip to the Tahoe Region

We have the utmost privilege of living in the Bay Area, where there is an abundance of natural beauty.

Every now and then, we make trips in the direction of Lake Tahoe. Hence, this Labor Day, we rented an Airbnb in the middle of a forest in Camino, CA for a couple of nights.

One of the highlights of this trip was a hike around Jenkinson Lake in the Sly Recreation Area. It is a 4-hour loop but we only did the 1-hour portion of it. For the rest of the time, we hung out by the lake.

We also heard about a waterfall around the Kyburz area called the Bassi Falls that requires a 1hr 30 minutes (4 miles) of hiking out and back to access it but we did not end up going there.

What we did instead was that we drove to White Hall. We used to regularly lounge on the rocks by the river there but this time we just took a short walk in that area. There is a favorite motel of ours called Kyburz Motel (now called Sierra Inn) that we used to go to often because it is by the river. We went there to check it out and on the way back, ate excellent food at a new Korean restaurant called Moon's Korean Kitchen in Silverfork, a town that is next door to Kyburz. 

Earlier on Sunday, we had lunch at the Apple Ridge Farm because our Airbnb was in the Apple Hill area of Camino. 

On Monday, we took an hour-long walk in the hills/forest on Copperton Road. It was a fabulous walk.

This place is in close proximity to towns like Fresh Pond, Pony Creek, Pollock Pines, and Placerville. The Airbnb itself had so much to do. There was a zipline for the kids and a play area as well. 

All in all, we had a great relaxing time on this vacation. 

Documenting family history

I probed my dad today, asking him questions on my grandfather's and his journey during the mid and late 20th century times.

My dad was born in December of 1951 and moved to Dhanbad in 1952. They lived in Dhanbad until 1958 and moved to Muzaffarpur thereafter where my dad attended a convent school for a couple of years before moving to a Government school in 7th grade. 

My dad's family moved to Chaibasa for some time thereafter.

My dad has the fondest memories from the Chaibasa days. They used to go on tours with my grandfather (Dadu) to different places like Jamshedpur. When in Jamshedpur, they used to spend some time with Bade Nana (my mom's uncle) and his family. My dad sang songs for Bade Nana who appreciated my dad's singing skills. They lived in a big Government bungalow in Chaibasa.

After Chaibasa, they moved to Patna. My ancestral home in Srikrishnapuri was built in 1965 after the land was bought in 1964, on the insistence of one of Dadu's colleagues. The house was rented out until the early 70s since Dadu still moved around a bit. BTW, our famed Ambassador car BRR73 was bought by my Dadu from Bade Nana in 1965 for mere Rs. 9000. It was a 1958 model. For the record, we kept it until 2012 (nearly 50 years).

When they were in Patna in the mid-60s, my dad and his two brothers started frequenting Bankipur club on Saturday nights, where my dad performed on stage and collected a lot of accolades doing the same. 

Eventually, my dad moved to the hostel in Patna College in 1969/70. He continued with his interest in music and visited Bombay in 1971-72 with a bunch of friends to sing at a friend's wedding. He had also visited Bombay with his brothers in 1971 and stayed with Mohanjee Prasad. After he came back from Bombay, he visited Bade Nana who asked him to visit Girija Samanta (Shakti Samanta's brother) on his next trip. He got several letters from Dadu's contacts via an Ex Income Tax Bombay chief and visited a host of actors like Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor on his next trip to Bombay. He started working for Shakti Samanta as the assistant director in movies like Ajanabee, Amanush, and Charitraheen. He also appeared for a couple of Pune Film city auditions (once in Delhi and once in Mumbai) around this time where the likes of Jaya Bahaduri suggested that he pursue singing instead of acting. He never pursued singing and returned back to Patna in 1975. 

Back in Bihar, he started a string of businesses. First, he dabbled with the "Glass tinting" business in Patna and then with "Varnishes and Paints" in Dhanbad and Patna. In both the Patna operations, his older brother was his business partner. 

In the late 70s, he started Pizza Hut, which ran until 1984. After Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, everything was shut down for a month and he lost his staff, which prompted him to close down operations.

He thereafter also started a dairy/milk business in Patna, Bihar Sharif, and Koderma, with my mom which he ran for a year. 

This was a brief summary to capture the first 35 years of my dad's life. He is nearly 70 years old now. 

Read to your child

You can start reading as early as 6 months. No need to stop.

E-reading, while better than no reading has lower retention because of physical stimuli absence and distractions.

Audiobooks while better than no reading still misses the visual cues. We have 200:1 visual to auditory nerve endings in the brain.

Closed Captions are thus helpful. An interesting idea is to watch TV with no volume and closed captions on.

TVs have some small advantages for young watchers. It can improve their vocabulary. However, after 10 years of age, there are no advantages. The main problem is what is missed while the hours are spent on TV. Hence, the research recommends not more than 10 hours of TV for kids 2 and older, and no TV for kids younger than 2. Another idea is to mandate no TV on weeknights or TV with no volume and only captions.

The Defining Decade

Some key lessons learned from the book- The Defining Decade- Why your twenties matter and how to make most of them now.

Work:

Build identity capital. Identity capital means skills, experience, and connections that establish the foundation of a strong long term career. It is not impossible but much harder to do this later. There is more long term satisfaction in building a good career in the 20s than frittering time as if the time in the 20s doesn't matter much since everything is happening later in life these days. 

Love:

Be intentional about finding a partner. Understand "The Cohabitation Effect". Don't move in with a person with whom there are no strong commitments. Living together without marriage makes sense only if both of you are somewhat committed. Otherwise, living together leads to the Cohabitation effect with a lock-in and people end up marrying these people even when their personalities are too different and later this ends in a divorce. WHAT YOU WANT is less important than WHO YOU ARE (OCEAN personality type) when it comes to finding a partner. A personality match is the number one indication of a marriage working, more than what you externally think you want in a marriage.
For eg, there are 5 personality traits- OCEAN. Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. One can be high, low or average in these 5 categories. The only deal-breaker is if someone is highly neurotic (extreme). Otherwise, most other personality differences can be bridged with hard work on the relationship.

Overall Satisfaction:

This has to do with future orientedness. People who are future-oriented with plans and goals tend to be more satisfied. Yes, being future-oriented means more sacrifices and more hard work but that tends to give more meaning to life so that when you look back at life, you tend to feel more satisfied. An example the author uses is starting a family. Having and caring for a child is not easy (and is not for everyone) but it tends to give a lot of overall satisfaction to life. Fertility peaks for women at 28 and starts declining rapidly after 35. Before 35 is the time to have a child since, after that, a lot of medical interventions are needed which have low success rates and are expensive. Despite IVF and Inuterine inseminations, the safest time to have a child is pre 35. 

Adventures in Africa

There was a Masai boy in Kenya, who wanted to be a warrior. He was guarding his family's cows one night when he heard the sounds of rainfall, out of the blue. He suddenly realized that it was not raining, rather, it was all the cows peeing at once.

A Masai boy knows when that happens, it happens only when the cows can smell or hear a lion. The lions were pretty smart. They were two of them. They figured that the wind was blowing from East to West. There was a lion on the West and one on the East. When the wind carried the aroma of the eastern lion to the cows, the cows started running towards the West, recognizing that the lion must be on the east and thus they were captured by the western lion. Game over!

Such is life in Africa.

Africa is a great continent. Even though it has gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to modernization, it is extremely blessed with natural resources.  

I love immersing in different cultures and I do a lot of research before I embark on a journey. After reading a few books and watching some documentaries, I booked the four of us tickets to Kenya, with a stopover for a night in Doha, Qatar. 

We even crossed over to Tanzania for a while and saw a single stone as a marker for border crossing!

We spotted all popular wild animals, except for Rhinoceros. You can see The Lion King!

The trip was extremely eventful and the kids loved every bit of it. The people were very warm and the safari in the Masai Mara Reserve delightful. It's a great reminder to step outside our comfort zones and explore different cultures. It binds humanity closer together and makes this world a better place to live!