Vacation = Joie de Vivre!

Our ride back to the airport was filled with 'trivia quizzes' on our vacations; for example- "which was the favorite trip from the 6 family vacations we have been on in the past 3.5 years?" Parishi  picked Cancun and Chinmay loved New Zealand the most. As for me, I fail to settle on one. I can barely make up my mind on what ice cream flavor to choose or what to order at restaurants! Especially too many great choices warrant "all of the above" in the multiple choice question! The bottom line is that we love to vacation and highly recommend carving the time from busy mundane lives to go out, explore and relax with family and friends! It's nice to not have to worry about home works, Kumon (although we had both on this trip), errands and last but not the least, "time"! I loved how I didn't know and didn't care about what time it was! After all, we work hard year round for these fun get aways; these are well-deserved treats for us! You really don't have to spend a fortune on these trips; they are quite doable despite the logistical obstacles that the mind creates against them!  Refreshed and  rejuvenated from the warm Caribbean sun and the sea, a couple of pounds heavier from all the delicacies we devoured, we were happy to be back to home-sweet-home! Needless to say, my sneaky mind is already dreaming about the potential next trip!

Excitement galore!

Parishi and I had two personal milestones in the past two days! Our predominantly 'chillaxing' vacation was interspersed with a couple of memorable excursions - Swim with the dolphins and the Xcaret. With Kahan crying his lungs out during the former as he was the only one left out with me and Chinmay taking turns to be with him, Parishi was having the time of her life kissing and being kissed by the dolphin and shaking 'hands'! The belly-ride on the dolphin waist highlight of the excursion for all of us and especially Parishi who surprised us by swimming a considerably long distance on her own and succeeding at it on the very first of the two allowed attempts for kids! Later that night we enjoyed our 'dinner with the executive chef' at the sister palace resort- Cancun palace. The company of another nice family from Vancouver on our table was better than the food for our herbivorous family! Xcaret is an ecological paradise with diverse wildlife, birds, flora and fauna, all of which we could not visit due to our decision to start our day later after an extended leisurely breakfast! We did however see about 1/5th of it, the most unique experience being swimming and snorkeling across a 700 meter long underground river through several dark (scary) caves! While Parishi surprised us again by accomplishing this task fearlessly, Kahan's enjoyed his ride with his dad! And I turned out to be the 'chicken' of the family by giving up at the first exit bogged down by extreme claustrophobia trying to catch my breath in the darkness! I had to be rescued by a staff person with a torch light and a board to hold on to, to help me swim upto the exit!! My shame only made Parishi feel more triumphant of her success, voicing it with, "mummy, it was so easy, I saw so many cool fishes in the caves while snorkeling"! I did make it up to myself later that afternoon by my debut at successful snorkeling in the open waters, so what if it was as brief as 5 minutes. But this time I had to quit because of the wind making the water choppy and blurring the view under water! The lunch buffet at the Xcaret 'La Laguna' restaurant was delicious with a wide selection of salads, appetizers, pasta, thin crust margarita pizza and mouth watering desserts! Every show that we saw including the 'flying men' (sorry, can't recollect the Spanish name!), the horses and the spectacular colorful night show in the grand theatre with 100s of performers narrating the history of the Mayan culture, Spanish invasion, Mexican independence and how the fusion of the two cultures enriched the culture. While the kids crashed for the night on the bus ride back after a long day, we were refreshed after our naps and enjoyed dinner under the stars in the balcony on the last night in Cancun! I found the people in Cancun to be warm, honest and kind; everyone from the guys who waited at the resort restaurants, the manager, Juan who sent goodies to our room every night after he found out that our experience at Bocelli  on the second day was not as good as the first, the executive chef, Mauricio who took me on a personal tour behind the scenes in the multiple kitchens, to the half a dozen hotel staff and the shuttle driver who helped us find our camera that we had left in the shuttle one night! The kind staff person at the Xcaret park went out of his way to arrange a car for me and Kahan seeing the tired look on my face to help us avoid the long walk from the entrance of the river to the end! We decided to trade the Mayan ruins for more time at the pool and the beach. Although we would have loved to see the history behind Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba, it would have been a torture for the kids with 3 hour long bus rides and a lot of walking around the ruins that they would not care much for! After all, we have to justify another visit to Cancun in the future, perhaps with Anu-Varun, our nephew, Lavi and some close friends! 

The kids in Cancun

The power of excitement has made me question the 'Kumom' system of Math since my 6 year old who normally takes over 30 minutes to finish each packet finished 2 packets back to back in 10 minutes the evening of the flight! The 2 y.o had been looking forward to riding the 'big plane' and he couldn't wait to go and 'sleep' on the 'big plane'! He thinks it's a ritual to sleep on the plane rides after 2 consecutive red-eye flights in the last 2 weeks! I'd trade my urge to sleep in a bed on those flights for the naïveté of childhood!
Here in the resort, they both can practically live in the pool and the beach if they had their own way! Parishi has been having fun practicing her swimming and hanging out with her new friends in the pool and during the entertainment shows every night, collecting sea shells and doing craft projects at the Kids club. Kahan's favorite part of the trip is spotting gazillion buses on rhe road from the room balcony and counting the fishes in the lobby aquarium! Needless to say, he really thinks he can 'swim' with his floaties tied to his little arms! Meals at all the restaurants are quite interesting; I remain rather unaffected from the sheer mess of food and silver ware on and around the tables in the formal restaurants with a dress code! Nonetheless I can't say the same about Chinmay, who can't hide his expressions of dejection and embarrassment! The table next to us with a couple enjoying an intimate dinner and wine only added fuel to the fire giving him that envious look! "So sorry for all the mess", invariably follows our "Muchos gracias" and "adios/buenos noches" to our server!
A little anecdote worth sharing from today- I had this brilliant idea cooking in some corner of my mind which remained to be vocalized until we returned to the room after a long afternoon at the pool. "Let's dress up and hit the beach for some nice family photos by the beach around sunset time!" Everyone was game for it instantly and the process of dressing up and dressing the kids up took longer than the 10 minute window we had to make the most of the light we needed to get decent pictures! Kahan's misplaced hair gel took up a good chunk of time to find and finally the photographer amongst us had to call this proposed idea off! Oh well, after the effort into the make-up, hair, accessories, things I seldom spend time on, on vacations, I was not ready to call it quits! So, we did end up going to the beach and taking a few pictures albeit the dusk light which I thought was so serene and 'quite'! The noise of t2 kids rolling and playing in the sand all dressed up gets muffled by my years, but Chinmay could not buy into the 'serenity' concept very easily! All in all the kids are awesome travelers and thats what keeps us going with thes trips year after year! (Hope I didn't jinx it!!)

The Beach Palace Resort and the "all-inclusive"

After a couple of long and groggy plane rides, it was a welcome relief to be in warm sunny and green Cancun. The kids by now are great travelers, that's probably one of the few areas, we have no issues! Although I'd rather have Kahan est his meals and Parishi ace her tests than take pride in how they never fuss in long red-eye flights and can fasten their own seatbelts as early as age 2! Our passion for travel and exploring new lands has never been dampened by the extra baggage (literally and figuratively) that goes into traveling with young children! What has changed slowly and gradually over the past ten years is that we like to travel 'in style'! Our taste for the places we choose to stay has refined after trying out a variety of accommodation styles and of course one of us no longer being a perpetual student, the affordability factor is in better control! Although the later also didn't ever dampen our plans; after all it's about the priorities in life and travel is a special way to reward ourselves after all the commitment and dedication we have put into our professions!

"All-inclusive" is a neat concept; but wait! There is a fine print to this; the resort you pick can make it or break it for u! My so-called 'conclusive statement' comes after two "all-inclusive" trips- Riu Palace in Jamaica, the get-away for the two-some in May 2006 and the current Beach Palace vacation. The later is a much classier version in terms of food, service and activities. The all-inclusive concept means that all the food, beverages (the diluted alcoholic ones included!), actitvities including entertainment, kids club and entertainment are included in a single package that you prepay for. I like to compare it to a "stationery cruise" with nicer and much bigger rooms! Its prevalent in Mexico and across the Caribbean islands and is definitely a bang for the buck when traveling with family depending on the quality of the resort. Being a foodie and a vegetarian, I tend to make some of my judgements based on the ambiance of the places to eat and the quality and variety of food options! Riu in Jamaica disappointed us to the extent that we chose to eat out in an Indian restaurant being tired of the 'sophisticated mess food' both in terms of ambiance and food quality! Conversely, I have been quite impressed with the beautiful ocean facing setting of the restaurants here and the vegetarian friendly delicious fresh choices at every meal! The 'gourmet' experience takes it up a notch especially during dinner at the Italian restaurant "Bocelli"! The veggie lasagna deserve an honorable mention as the best lasagna that have tantalized my taste buds and have put my lasagna making skills in question! Everything from the unique look to the delicate taste of the two different sauces, the spinach and veggies stuffing to the fresh hand-made Lasagna were exotic! Although I didn't get any 'palatial' feel at the Beach Palace or the Cancun Palace resorts that I visited; they definitely met all the criteria of an upscale and contemporary Carribean resort.

While the 'grown-ups' in the family are busy pampering themselves with the laid back morning tea in the balcony, the massages and packing on extra pounds from all the eating and drinking, the kids are getting by on French fries, pasta, fresh fruits and juices! Yes, the later breaks the dentist mom's heart, but it's a vacation is an excuse to exceptions, right! Eating is their last priority when their other senses are so stimulated by hanging out in the pool and the beach to their heart's content, staying up late to watch some fascinating live music and dance shows at night on a huge stage by the pool and last but not the least being invited to dance to the live Mariachi music on stage!

"Blogging on Cancun??

...Really? That seems like a complete cliche in blogging", were the thoughts running through my head when the idea of continuing the whole blog saga after the last years trip struck me! Not surprisingly, hubby reiterated the same reaction independent of my thoughts when I requested him to pack a computer-like device (the iPad gift in this case) for the trip in case I feel like blogging! 'New Zealand is a whole different story, what is so exotic about Cancun after all!'

The reason I think it's important for me to write about the trips, no matter how cliche they are, is my tarnishing memory! I really want me and the family to cherish these memories for years to come and enjoy those sweet and minute details that go into the family trips! The other less important reason is that I used to love to write in grade school, but never really polished my skills; this could be a nice little way to pursue it on vacations when there is some quite time and no emails and errands to catch up on! Besides, can anyone ask for a more perfect setting than a comfy bed in the balcony facing a vast lagoon at 11.30 pm and 75 degree F weather?