Sayamini yagu Blog

The Vegas Trip, overall the Nevada trip

After many years of saying, I want to go, I want to go, made it there. It didn't meet my expectation, definitely disappointing place. After a day at the Las Vegas Strip, it got tiring. One after another big hotels, casino, crowd etc etc. A lot of walk as well.

On Wednesday, headed to Hoover Dam, the view was beautiful and amazingly man made Lake. No wonder, if the modern world's one of the wonders. It was pretty windy and cold. I wish it was a little warmer though.

The lunch at the Mexican restaurant was awesome, the bean burger with Avocado, tasty tasty.

After headed to do some hiking, the place Red Rock Canyon. The place, the view, the mountains, they were beautiful. When we started hiking up, I couldn't believe, we were really going up on those rocky mountain. I was a bit scared yet I was enjoying as I have never done that before.

My second trip to TX this year..

It all went good as I had planned. The best part about this time was staying awake till 12am on Monday, waiting to have the cake and Champagne. I was so happy, I don't remember the last time I was this happy.

Tres Leches Cake

Martini Rossi

Today is Friday August 24th, 2012, and the last day in Puerto Rico....

Pretty much we were home all day, I was super bored too. We then went for a walk later in the evening made which made the evening beautiful.

Mango's Ocean Park

It was a lovely evening tonight, sorta romantic dinner as well. Service wise, it was pretty bad but being in the corner just us, talking and people watching made it fun I guess.

August 23rd, the day we went to Old San Huan to see another Castillo de San Cristóbal.

It was another long walking day and we enjoyed it. It was raining off and on, it didn't take any fun away. I have posted few pictures in here, by the way, I didn't take these pictures. I have yet to post mine.

Aerial View

Oh wow, its already Wednesday August 22nd, 2012, few more days left.

Morning spent on the beach. Around 2pm, once again to Old San Juan. This time to Casa Bacardi. A bus, ferry and short cab ride. Dinner at Aquaviva, it was tasty and $$$.

Aquaviva

Tuesday August 21st, 2012.....

A humid and gloomy day. After having brunch walked to Museum of Puerto Rico<>. It was okay, my favorite part the Barber shop with all those new and old rims. There was a different theme running in that place, made us say, hmmmm interesting.

On the way back, we decided to stop in and have lunch in Bebo's Cafe, one of the places Emeo recommended. The food was not so much Puerto Rican, a bit disappointed. Afterwards we headed to SuperMax for some grocery. After reaching home, made some awesome tasty Shrimp Penne Pasta,it tasted so good with Wine.

Bebo's Cafe

Today, we decided to go to Old San Huan to check out more beautiful stuff.

Monday August 20th, 2012
After having brunch, headed to Old San Huan, where we started with Princess de Mario then the walk around and the Museum. Lunch in Mofongo where we had some awesome lunch. El Murro 'Castillo San Felipe del Morro' was beautiful, the view was spectacular. We were super tired by the time, we got back. We got stuck in the lobby and mosquitoes enjoyed us. It was painful and afterwards, had some fruits for dinner and was bed time.

Princess de Mario

El Morro

Technically second day but the first day on the beach, Sunday August 19th, 2012

Started the day with breakfast in Mango then Ocean Park beach. It was hot and humid, when I saw the water, I forgot all that. And the almost all day spent on the beach.

Picture of the beach

Dinner again in Le B de Burro <>, we tried some different dishes this time and was good as well. Because its the President's day, they didn't sell any alcohol, so we ended up with water.

Our first vacation in First Class to Puerto Rico, hoping to have a nice relaxing time.

Day started at 6am and by the time, we reached the airport, it was 8am for our 9am flight. After checking in our baggage, headed out for the Gate 21. Unlike other times, we were not worried about breakfast because we were flying First Class in Delta. Yes, First Class, breakfast was okay, seats were comfortable.

While on our transit in Atlanta, we headed to the Sky club, it was a good experience. The flight from ATL to Puerto Rico was comfortable as well with nice seats aha....One more breakfast this time, we had some drink as well. IT was just 7.17pm when landed.

After taking the cab, we headed out to our place. It was hot, humid and was already dark. After checking in, we went outside to check out places for dinner nearby. The first place we saw was, Le B de Burro, then we moved on to Kasalta. Nothing interesting so we came back to Le B de Burro instead. Started our with Margarita, and Punch and Cinnamon flavor, never had those flavor before and we enjoyed it. Our dinner was good.

The situation, the disappointment‏

I was a little worried how things would be and now this turned out worse than I thought. Few more days left and I am now more and more worried. I am so disappointed at myself. I feel like he came over with me, and now after this treatment, he must be so disappointed as well but he is so nice, he is not saying anything.

I guess I should have known, the moment, I found out, I was taking cab from the airport.But,I then thought, it made sense for us to come in cab since its a long drive here during that traffic time.The first day wasn't that bad, second was worse and now every day is getting worse. If we didn't plan our own plans the past two days, it would have been really bad.

I want to write so much, but my thoughts are extremely heavily full of disappointment and little bit of hurt feeling that, I can't seem to write it correctly either. Few more days, oh my god. At least right now, you are here with me, you will leave Friday morning, then I am not sure how it will turn out. God help me, if I am a nice person, something nice should happen.

Today was a good day, we made the best out of it.

Warana and Kelania were two very good places. We did pretty good today. I am a little disappointed at my friend which is making me feel like I can't wait to go back to Minneapolis and have my same routine days.

When we reached Warana, we had the best feeling ever. It was so quiet and relaxing, we couldn't ask for more. We did pretty good by renting the car with the driver today. The driver was friendly and he took us to Kelania temple which is so beautiful. After few minutes of us reaching there, people were playing drums, we had no clue what was going on. Later our driver Aichin told us the whole story behind people drumming. There were few females making rounds around the bo tree. We knew there were some reason behind it later we found out what it meant.

A very nice day, made it to two different temples, ate an onion looking Coconut and drank coconut water. Here is the picture of it.

Kandy, the place where Buddha's asti dhaato is...

Today we went to Kandy, which was a disappointment as it sounded like a nice town/city with less crowd. It was so crowded, hot, bad traffic oh god. Although I felt good going to the temple.

Oh we are finally in Sri Lanka, its hot, humid and crowded.

I wasn't expecting how hot and humid it would be here. I can't imagine how hot it is going to be, when we go out each day. I am sure, will get really tan.

We landed on time as we were filling up the Immigration form, our names were called in the airport. For a moment, we were surprised, wha wha what???? Then I knew Tathi must have done this. We were laughing as our names were getting announced however.,

So, did the immigration stuff and followed the lady who came was waiting for us. We took the cab and came to my friend's place from the airport. It took us 1 and half hour to get to the house. We were super hungry by the time, we reached. We sat and talked for little bit and had lunch. I was so hungry since I had threw up everything due to Turbulence. The food tasted so good, I ate like I haven't had any food for days, haha......

So, now we have checked into Panorama and now we have freshen up and now waiting it to be 7pm to go our for Japanese dinner with friends and family. The first day/evening in Sri Lanka.

So finally today, we are on our way to Sri Lanka...

From almost a decade, I have been saying I will come. As I always say, things happen for a reason. I believe I have not gone yet, because I was supposed to go with you. I am glad that we are going together to this beautiful island together. MSP -Chicago-London-Colombo, I am a little nervous but I think things would be fine.

The rest of the Chicago trip.

The trip hasn't been as adventurous as it was getting to the airport to make it to the flight but, it was nice. Yesterday, we made it to 'The Second City' to watch comedy, the show we watched was funny. http://www.secondcity.com/. After wards trying to get to a restaurant to find something eat was awful. We finally found a restaurant, who made the worst pizza in the world. After eating that no one would want to eat a Pizza. We were hungry so we had to eat that pizza anyway.

Saturday
The day started around 10am, we went to Millennium Park, shot some pictures. Then we walked to find Siam's Rice. I wanted to eat 'Drunken noodles' so badly, forgot to check if they are open during weekend or not. We were outside the restaurant and to our surprise, it was closed. It was funny, so much for nothing. But that Ruby's Siam's wasn't the best place for Thai food though.

However, Sushi for dinner was great. They definitely made good Sushi, I feel like eating. http://www.friendssushi.com/. Other than breakfast this was the best food we had.

Sunday
Once again, had breakfast in Corner Bakery, the some pictures, then checkout from hotel and headed to airport. This time there was no drama or rush rush reaching the airport or flight. It all went as planned. However, there was so much turbulence in the flight, I almost got a headache.

The story of waking the good looking, getting to the airport and getting into the flight.

It was April 1st,so called April fool's day. The day which almost made us fool outta ourselves because we almost didn't reach where we were supposed to. Of course, thanks to that good looking man who fell asleep and didn't hear a dozen calls I made.

I woke up at 3.45am, made the first call at 4am. It went to voice mail, I thought after shower, I will call again. The next 75 minutes, I kept calling 10-15 minutes apart. But, it kept going to voice mail. I thought of driving there too, but again, I might have gotten scolding. So, I waited instead, waited waited and waited patiently. Of course by that time, I know he has fallen asleep. Worse come to worse, I thought we will miss the flight and I will go back to work. My $$$ will be wasted, you will have to make another appointment and buy another ticket. Seemed like that was going to happen. I started thinking, may be this is the sign because you don't want to go anywhere with me anyway, god knows why.

At 5.15, finally the call got picked up. That's when he realized he had slept 75 minutes extra. In the next few minutes, I got another call, I thought now what. So, this is where the real adventure starts.

We headed to downtown, in a rush rush, we bought the train ticket. It was dark, we were late, we didn't see each other. I was in wrong side of the station trying to get in. Finally I heard a voice, wrong side. I thought, I would be left alone there.

The train kept making stops at its usual stops and finally it was our stop. By the time, we reached airport it was almost 6.30 am and our flight was at 7am. The security line was huge, didn't look like we will make it to the gate. Luckily expert traveler line was short and we cleared security shortly. After that we ran to the gate. I have never run that much in my high heels and today I did. I reached the gate, and I got myself boarded but you were no anywhere near. I told the lady to wait, she said 'you have 2-3 minutes'. After all the running around, we ended up in two different gates.

Now that I look back, it all seems funny. Although the best part about today however was the breakfast, lunch was okay and dinner was terrible.

Being home this time was different.

Meeting my family and good old frens from school were fun. So, I landed home on Dec 27,2010. I was excited being home, but at the same time, I was missing someone. I had 'you' in my mind all the time. The first thing, I wanted to do was to call you and ask, how are you feeling? As soon I got the first chance I did, I stayed awake for the power to come back at midnight, sneaked with my brother and called you.

Being able to talk to definitely felt good. It made it better because I had to sneak. Everyone else was sleeping except me and my youngest brother. I started calling like crazy at that hour, and to my surprise, you didn't pick up the phone. So, I went to bed after writing few lines of email to you and my goal next day was to call you. And I did, I got scolding too from my parents for staying on the computer for so long when the tea was ready and everyone was having tea. I had to keep disconnecting the call, since mom dad kept coming to interrupt. They knew I was talking to you and they wanted to see who this person is, funny as it is. I better stop it right here, before its gets too long...

As I was waiting in O'hare International airport for my flight to Bahrain..

Past couple of days, unexpected things happened, things that I thought would never happen to me, happened And with everything I am here now, writing about it. I miss you right now, and I know I will miss you even more but you know the best part is, I had great time together the past few days. Everything we did made it so special. I am so happy that we did so much things together.

I know your ears will feel a bit relief, since you wont have to hear me complain. But the truth is, whether you say it or not, admit it or not, you are going to miss me and wish, I am there with you. The small small jokes, drinks, dinner, breakfast everything was special, made me feel I want you even more and more. The time we spent always makes me feel a different type of relaxation and relief to my heart.

Now, I will have to wait until Feb to see you, touch you. Wherever I am, you will be in my mind and heart.

I like to travel, in other words, I would say, if I get chances, I would travel so much.

One of the places, I have been thinking of going to is UK. So, I have been thinking from the past 5 years but this year, I decided to apply for visa. I had a plan to go last August, I had to choose between spending the one month we had together without your class or travel to UK. I chose to spend the month together with you instead. I am happy I did so.

I finally submitted my application and now waiting for the appointment. If everything goes as planned, I will be able to make it to UK this year or in the next 6 months till the visa is valid. I am excited. Good luck to me.

Since I got back from Chicago, I have been just tired.

I was so tired during the week, I just wanted weekend to come. Weekend came, I knew so much needed to get done, but feeling sleepy so much, as if I took some medication.

Saturday slept till 9.30am, all day felt sleepy but nothing. Didn't get much work done for any class. Again, Sunday was so sleepy, slept till 10am. I really didn't want to get up but I did anyway. After taking shower at noon, I fell asleep again on the couch until I left for school. Studying in the library, my eyes are asking me to close. I don't know why I am this sleepy. If only I didn't have anything to do, I would just sleep may be.

Finally made it to Chicago,IL and it was great.

I have been saying, I want to go to Chicago, I want to go to Chicago, but finally I made it this time. I went to meet my friend but wasn't the greatest experience. But, my SL frens once again, gave me a good time while I was there. We walked so much in that cold weather, talked, ate, drank. It was an amazing experience. All of us, decided to not think of studies for those couple of day.

I could just do nothing but walk around in Chicago downtown, it was fun hanging out there at least this time of the year with all lights, decoration around. The Millennium Park, the Bean, Sears Tower plus its extended Deck, Magnificent Mile, the Bentley and Ferrari showroom, State street, Michigan Street. And one of the places where we ate was this small Mexican restaurant where we ate Fish Tacos, yum those were tasty..

Overall, it was fun hanging out with my SL frens. Sometimes I feel so much like a Sri Lankan than who I am haha...

Finally went on a trip which I was waiting for

I had planned to go to Seattle during Spring break week for two days. I needed to be out from here for few days which worked well. The weather in Seattle was not great, cloudy, rainy. If the weather was good, I would have done more things but it was okay. I did feel fresh when I came back.

I experienced few new things, which made me laugh too. I went to Space Needle, Pine Market or Fish Market, Seattle downtown.....Overall Pine Market/ Fish Market experience would have been better if it was not rainy, and would have got a parking spot. Great place for tourists to walk around to check out stuff. It was a fun small town to walk around.

Here are the interesting things I experienced. Looking for a place to eat dinner, was either looking for Thai or Seafood. Found out that Thin Pan Thai restaurant is a good place to eat. Reached outside of the restaurant, it was not at all appealing to me. I told my friend, I am not sure about this place. But we went inside anyway, found out it was a local Thai restaurant. So, we decided to check out the menu and then decided to eat there.

While looking at the menu, I saw "Stir Fired", it should have been "Stir Fried", it was misspelled, that made me laugh. I had ordered a Spinach wrap, when the order reached my table, it didn't look anything like a wrap. Usually wraps are already wrapped, but this wrap was different. You keep inside your mouth and then it becomes a wrap, I am sure if it making sense, but it was funny. And then I tasted "Thin Pan noodle" for the first time,was tasty and had a good flavor.

But the best part is still to come. Dessert "Fried Banana Ice cream with Coconut", how can Ice-Cream be fried. So, ordered one, it sure was different but was fun to try.

Blocked Web mails at my work

Last week Friday, I was trying to access my hotmail, I was seeing different isssues. Back of my mind, I was thinking, is it getting blocked, something is wrong here.At 5 pm, I was shutting down my laptop, I clicked on "sign out" link to get out from gmail, there it was. The CPS blocked page got displayed, I called this page "Horror page". Its Black and Red which is the CPS color.

The first time back in 2007, when I saw this page, I was scared, because I was new back then. But now I know, however I still get scared when the page gets displayed. Not that I am doing anything wrong but get scared for nothing. hehehe......

Holiday season this year

I had plans to go home, travel a little too. But things didn't work out this way or that. I then thought I will travel internally and again I was not sure if I wanted to do that either. I waited, waited, when the time came, I decided I am not going anywhere. With my vacation, company holiday and weekend, altogether it was 9 days long. First weekend past, then it was Monday, I went to the mall, different stores, I didn't find anything that I wanted or needed. I was super tired after walking all day long.

I went home after 4.30pm. I stayed home the next few days. All I did was, watched movies, cooked, ate, went to gym. But it was the best vacation and days off ever, so relaxing. I am glad I didn't go anywhere. And yesterday, I went out, to the mall where I haven't been before. I found coat which I wanted to buy. I bought two coats. I am happy that I waited and hoping I got very good deals for those brand.

Waiting in Zurich airport on the way back to US, January 14th, 08

Writing some lines for my blog, so I can upload it right after I reach my apartment. Leaving home this time was hard though.I am in the Zürich airport, feeling sleepy, and stomach is not doing good either.Just alone waiting for my next flight to Zürich - JFK.Then got 2 more JFK- O'Hare Int'l, O'Hare - MSP. Then I will be in my city. In one way good, that I will be there because the traveling will be done but again distance from home will increase by thousands of miles.

TBD can't type anymore, too tired

January 3rd, 08 not ready yet but have started doing it

Now I am counting days, in few days I will be flying out to USA. This time I had so much fun and still having fun in Kathmandu, feels like its time to come back. I have never been this sure but now I think I am sure I want to be back in another few years. The six years and USA had brought a lot of distance in my family, my sisters. My sister Nhasala and myself were so close before.

But this year, I don't know if its because she is busy or because of some other reason, I felt the distance has increased a lot and connection has decreased. I felt really sad, but the truth is when you are abroad, you don't get to celebrate all the festivals together, hang out with them all the time, it happens. I look back and think, how can I bring that connection back, I can but its not like when you are in the same place. But we will see what happens in the future. But the thing no matter where I am, I will always love my family, and beautiful small country where I can call my home.

My second trip home in December 12th, 2007 waiting for my flight in Zurich

I started my journey from MSP international Airport at 9:45am. My flight was from MSP Int'l to O'Hare International, Chicago, little over an hour. Before I boarded, I had a small pizza as breakfast/lunch. The person next to me was Dave, who worked in the Department of Correction for USA in St.Louis, IL. We started talking about different stuff. While talking I realized this is a person who has traveled a lot all over the world with his wife. Seemed like a very nice man. We talked about languages, culture, school, jobs and also about American. He is an American and being an American, he is one of those who thinks, that Americans expect entire world to speak English but they don't want to learn any second language. Everyone knows about it, some very few Americans admit it but not most. He got off in Chicago, and I was in the plane for about 1 hour. I called babu, and Suvechya was also on phone so we all talked until my flight took off to JFK.

I landed in JFK, had about 2 hours of transit, was wondering around in Duty Free store before I found the Terminal 39. I looked for a Pearl for mom, it was $109 without discount, with discount it was about $80. I thought about it, I know mom mentioned about liking Pearl but again recently she has mentioned, I don't know kinda, that's like my mom anyway. So, I called babu to ask what I should do. He kinda gave me an idea good but again how many times she might wear and it's a little yes expensive. So, I headed to think again so went around to find some food since I was so hungry. Couldn't find anything, saw a restaurant went and looked. Seafood soup was what I wanted to have but unfortunately it wasn't available that day. I said ok then forget it I will eat a bag a chips then in airplane.

At about 4:45pm or so, boarded, the plane in the ground for about an hour to take off since the run away was not clear for us yet. After few hours dinner started, there into my surprise the air hostess said, what would you like Lasagna or Pasta. I asked do they have meat. TO my surprise she said yes. I said ummm, there is nothing vegetarian coz I had ordered but she said I don't have anything for you. Now what, I haven't had anything for the whole day except that small bag of chips and a small pizza in the morning. I just ate little salad, with a bag of cookies and bread which came with it. Didn't want to but had to. I tried to sleep, the flight felt really long it was less than 8 hours but was boy too long.

IT was my first time in AA; I don't think I want to fly again in AA anymore though. Seats were not the most comfortable ones, the radios don't work in seats unless you hold the ear phones, and also there are no TV screens in the seat. Huh nice very nice. And with not having food it was terrible. But the best part about the flight was my neighbor sitting beside me. She just looked like a very nice girl, slim and really tall. I started talking, it was a lot fun, we didn't realize after that how time passed. She had the same kinda thinking about different stuff as we Asians or I at least think about. We talked exchanged email addresses too. Now I have a reason to come ad visit Switzerland, I am so excited.

We landed at around 7:07 am Zurich, Swiss time. Then I had to look for some flight info so I said bye to her. Then I met this one American couple and we started walking around together to find Gates, and also different information. The lady wife is from Syracuse, NY and he husband from NYC. They both are like photographer and researcher something. Nice people, we talked and shared about different stuff. They were going to Tanzania for business and pleasure. They have been living there for the past ten years and now they have bought house in here. They left around 2 hours ago and now I am here wondering. Bought a key ring for mom for $14 almost which is 14 Swiss Franc (CF 14) and also a shot glass may be I can give to my hondama yaluwa. I am still waiting, probably few more hours to go. That's all for now, started to feel sleepy a little coz its 2am my time which is CST. Hopefully I will get to eat some good Veg food in the flight; I am so hungry now, ate a croissant in the airport too. Almost 8 more hours flight, before that 2 more hours of transit may be. Hopefully when I reach Delhi, I get my all stuff, and then I will feel all relief before flying home on Saturday morning.

To be continued.............................