2days Dubai

First trip to India after coming to US is always exciting! And the excitement doubles when you plan to stopover in other country for a short vacation! 

It was November 2011, our parents were here with whom we spent most memorable months of the year! Numerous local picnics, weekend parties, visit to Hawaii and much-much more! We decided to go to India for a month with them and scheduled a stopover in Dubai, UAE!

Weather was just fine and we were excited to explore one of the most talked cities. We landed late evening and Dubai treated us with amazing 'Indian Thali' for dinner; much needed after 16hours of flight food! Here we stayed at Holiday Inn Express, you can never go wrong with this hotel chain around the world!

Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. It is rather like an independent city-state and is the most modern emirate in the UAE. 

Day one we planned to visit the beach in the morning then drive the city in noon followed by Desert Safari in the evening.

ready to explore the city

Skyline from the beach

Jumeirah Mosque 

Burj Al Arab

one of my favorite pic

Beautiful architecture of Palm Jumeirah! loved the Villas there!

gateway to Atlantis, The Palm

Undersea Tunnel Road

one of the beautiful Villas at Palms

Dubai has a rich collection of buildings with various architectural styles

Apart from Palm Jumeirah and other traditional architectures, rest all was little too modern for me. For me it was more like out of the video games!

After a day long exploring the city, we planned to spend our evening with famous Desert Safari. This is one experience you can't miss when in Dubai. We chose Evening Desert Safari. This tour departs in the late afternoon across the desert of Dubai with several photo-stops during an exciting dune drive. The first destination a camel farm, the drive continues across the desert. We stopped to watch the beautiful sunset before reaching camp. There we had fun activities like camel ride, sand boarding and applying henna. After that we enjoyed traditional Arabic BBQ dinner. Before returning we also enjoyed watching belly dancer performing around the campfire! We highly recommend this experience!

the safari begin!

photo-stop :)

the drivers took of little air from tires to ride on dunes

and the fun ride!

notice the vehicles on dunes... 

they were not far, but up on the dunes

the sunset stop

at the Camel Farm

Man with Falcon

young camel

Camel Ride

The Camp

People doing Sand Boarding, we skipped that.

how can I not have Henna! love it

The belly dancer

After a fun and tiring day, next day we got ready early to explore two of the many famous Malls in Dubai; Ibn Battuta Mall and The Dubai Mall.

Ibn Battuta is the world’s largest themed shopping mall. It consists of six courts, each of whose designs are inspired by some of the countries visited by the great Moroccan Berber explorer, Ibn Battuta: Egypt, India, China, Andalusia, Persia and Tunisia.

Inside the mall, it was all beautiful. Sharing my favorites

loved this!

Burj Khalifa; tallest man-made structure in the world is situated next the world's largest mall; The Dubai Mall

large aquarium inside mall, nothing new or special but I love these :)

Liked this fountain wall. Rest of the mall was regular mall with high-end brands of the world.

This was our 2-day Dubai trip. 

Share your vacations with us here.

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Big Island, Hawaii

It was August 2011, and our parents were here in USA. Days were so good. It's always fun with family. And the best part is that we and G's elder brother live near to each other! and that is the fun. We used every weekend in different picnics, a day getaways or just walking on different beaches of SF and around the Golden Gate. And it was all of us together, so funn! It was around September when mummy-papa came back from a trip and we told them that they have to pack their bags again, as we are soon flying to HAWAII. 

Big Island Hawaii

We chose Big Island Hawaii as it has most the Hawaiian natural beauty. We flew to Kona late noon on Wednesday via LA and reached around 9pm. This time for a change we rented a condo instead of booking a hotel and this was a great change! Our condo was directly sea facing. 

it was a cute little 1bed-1bath condo; full kitchen; a nice patio with beautiful view

patio with view

and this was the view!

Next day after having our morning tea (just like we have each at home!), we went to walk on beach. Had a wonderful continental breakfast with fresh pine apple juice!

quite beach

G in some other thought! 

one and only one Desi Restaurant in Big Island, we were there most of the time.

After having wonderful breakfast + beach walk we decided to have some adventure.

This was my first adventure sport not G's, as he has done a lot more! It was amazing feeling up in the sky. All silence, pin drop silence. The island and blue water looked extremely beautiful. G and I were actually flying together, beautiful moment.

 Beautiful sunset with evening tea back at condo.

Next day we were ready for more adventures!

Ready in Hawaiian Style :D

a day before we were in sky, and now under water submarine

 it was more than 105ft, under water!

After our under water adventure, we headed for some beverage. 

Yes, it was Kona Coffee.

Kona coffee is the market name for coffee cultivated on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona of the Big Island of Hawaii. 

the coffee farm with pretty cute cottage and a coffee shop

coffee beans on tree, this looked pretty!

rows and rows of trees

after tree, magic happens here

and here

this is how coffee bean actually looks before processing, 

just plucked from the tree.

After coming back to condo and some rest, we went for dinner. 

Slept early as we had two most adventurous day coming up.

Next morning we all dressed in Blue! and headed towards Hilo.

The Hilo region is blessed with dramatic waterfalls, rain-forests and blooming gardens. Before entering Hilo, we decided to visit Mauna Kea Summit on the way. And this was perfect decision! The drive to Mauna Kea and the view from top is something you will never forget in life!!

"Mauna Kea is the world’s tallest mountain, rising over 32,000 feet from the ocean floor to its summit, which is considered by many Hawaiians to be the most sacred place in all the islands." via

Visitor’s Information Station at 9,000 ft elevation

all 4-wheel drive vehicles ready to ride on! some were ready to hike as well

on the way up

first view!

another

me!

beautiful! all you can see are Clouds!

as if you are standing above them! and you are actually!

Mauna Kea has world-class telescopes!

G happy to drive up his jeep! 

What a wonderful and memorable experience this was!

Would love to go again!

We reached our hotel late evening. Next morning we had another unforgettable coming up! 

Hilo hotel courtyard

view 2

view 3

beautiful Flora of Hilo

Rainbow Falls, Hilo

in garden of Rainbow Falls, Hilo

After roaming around beautiful garden and magnificent falls,

we drove towards our final and very interesting destination.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park offers visitors a look at two of the world's most active volcanoes: Kilauea and Mauna Loa. Kilauea is also known as "the world's only drive-in volcano". "This prolific volcano currently produces 250,000-650,000 cubic yards of lava per day, enough to resurface a 20-mile-long, two-lane road daily." via 

the geysers were all around

an active volcano behind us!

painting, can you guess its inspiration? :)

another one

all what we studied in our Science in school

entering the Lava Tube!

inside the tube

one of the crater

Lava Land!

land you see is made of lava!

lava flown down

water-lava-little life(green)

finally the 'Arch' 

Hawaii was the a memorable trip! I want to visit again!

Highly recommend Big Island Hawaii

visit and share with JWG

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