Cozumel, Mexico

March 20 - 28, 2010

We found a nice condo where we stayed for 3 nights 4 days in Cozumel. The people in Cozumel practically relies on tourism, mostly the cruises that stopped here. We found an eatery inside a local market by the beach that served some Indonesian dishes. I asked them if the owner is Indonesian. They said that the reason they served the Indonesian dishes was because some crews of the ships were from Indonesia and had taught them how to make simple dishes such as nasi goreng, ayam goreng, ampela goreng, sate, gado gado, and a couple other dishes.

The second day we rented a boat. It was a bit windy and cloudy. The temperature was not warm enough for me to snorkel. Mitch went diving, and I opted to take pictures while sitting pretty on the boat.

The last night on the island: We did a taco hopping, enjoying lingua tacos, barbacoa, and consome with garbanzo beans.

We took the ferry to Playa Del Carmen where we were to meet up with people from Mitch's office at the Secret Maroma Beach Resort. Dragging 3 suitcases while negotiating with taxi drivers were a bit of adventure. We only saved 2 bucks, but it was fun. The secret is obvious. If your destination is Secret Maroma Beach Resort, they are not going to give up their price for they figured out if we can afford the resort, we can afford their regular price.

The resort is absolutely awesome. Right on the beach. All you can drink of any beverages from so many bars around the property, and 5 different restaurants: one on the beach, one by the pool, and 3 in the main building. All you can eat lobsterss......!! Mmmmm yumm. We really indulged in the room service for typical hotel would charge extra. As the name represents, they can keep your affairs discreet. There is a delivery "opening" where they can put your order in the box without being able to see you. They would open the outer door and put the food and drinks inside the counter box. As soon as they closed the door, someone would call us to let us know that the food has been delivered. Each and every time.

From our side, there is also a door, which gives us access to the counter box. Your privacy is highly regarded here.

A weekend in New York City

February 27, 2010.

We took another red-eye flight for this weekend getaway from coast to coast. The taxi ride from La Guardia Airport took about 20 minutes. New York was cold, snow piles were every where on the curbsides. But New York is New York. Always busy with tourists.

We stayed at the French Quarters, a guest apartment (so they call it). It's a small boutique hotel in the Manhattan area. Well appointed rooms, with its restaurant on the second floor. Depending on the location of your room, and what night of the week you are staying. The restaurant, which is also a bar, turned into a busy night club on Saturdays, and the noise goes on till after midnight. Just about every other address on this street is an ethnic restaurant, it's really convenient from where we stayed. We never needed a taxi except to go from and to the airport. We walked five blocks to the theatre district, to see "West Side Story". Great Show ! I highly recommend it, especially to those who had come from a different culture, and have now adopted the American way of living. It's entertaining, and learning to understand other culture.

After the show we continued on our night walk towards the Time Square. It brought back the memory of about 5 years ago during a Christmas vacation. My husband and I had had Christmas dinner at Tavern on the Greens (unfortunately it's been closed now). We walked to the Rockefeler Center the next day, then spent another full day at the museum. The day before New Year's Eve, we dedicated it to a day of culinary experience, and learned about Little Italy. Every year on New Year's Eve, I see the cheering crowd around Time Square on TV, and thought to myself, I'll make it one of these days.

But five trips later, I once again ended up being there during a regular day.

Valentine's Day in Niagara Falls

February 14, 2010.

Seeing Niagara Falls was indeed my childhood dream. I was in elementary school, in Indonesia, when we studied geography of America. Our teacher told us that Niagara Falls was one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. She showed us pictures of them and the way she was reading the description of it was so inviting and giving me a lot of imagination. It had also made me wonder if someday I would be able to see it. Somehow, 20 years and 60 airport-entry stamps later, I finally got to see it.

You would think that if it were your dream, then the first time you go to America you would want to see it first. I guess, so many exciting places and things to do kept me busy all those years, and because now that I live in America the chance of seeing Niagara Falls become more and more possible. Though I live on the west coast, Niagara Falls is still far away. It is located on the east coast of the United States, and it's divided between the US and Canada. If you want to be on the Canada side, you would be entering another country and must show your passport at the border gate. To get there from the West Coast, there is no direct flight.

It was only a few days before Valentine's Day when my husband asked me what we should do for Valentine's. I certainly wouldn't pick Niagara Falls in the winter if I had months to plan. However, the spontaneous hearts that we have often tell us to travel as we see it fits our work schedule. Sometimes three days before departure we look for last minute deals on the internet. As you can imagine, we often end up going from coast to coast only to stay for 2 nights (mostly weekends), depart Friday, returning Sunday. Being a loyal passenger of United Airlines, my husband earns so many privileges, and most significantly getting free flights with class upgrades which I enjoy very much.

The duration of the flight, the time zone, and the little amount of time often leave us no choice but taking a red-eye flight. That means sleeping in the plane, waking up at an airport for a transit, getting back in the plane again to get more sleep, and to wake up (hopefully) fresh at our destination. Destination airport is Buffalo, New York. We arrived in the morning, went to Hertz booth to pick up our rental car, then off driving to Niagara Falls. We had decided to stay the weekend in a hotel on the Canada side. The drive took about 45 minutes. The snow was everywhere. The week before we left, there had been a lot of snow storms hitting that part of the east coast. The terrible weather condition continued on to hit that area and a lot of flights had been cancelled. But we took our chances, and got lucky that "our flight numbers didn't change", and our seats were kept "in our names" throughout the journey, despite the chaotic airports !

As we passed through the US/Canada custom/immigration gate, I began anticipating the view of the majestic falls. The cold weather and the snow were the last things I had in mind when I thought of Niagara Falls. But there it was ! The humongous waterfalls in several places seemed to move rather slowly because of the snow and ice chunks that float with them. It was not the view that I had seen in pictures when I was a child, but it was beautiful in its own. The good thing was, the freezing temperature kept most tourists out. So, there we were, just my husband and I standing on the very lip of the magnificent falls. I had never thought that I could be standing above the falls, and that up above the falls were restaurants and hotels. Indeed it was right above where we stood, where we had our candle light dinner. It's a restaurant on the top floor of a nice hotel with the best view you can have. In the evening, they turn a rainbow spot light right on the falls, creating a spectacular lookout while dining. It was one of the best dining experience I have had. Right across the street is our room with the beautiful view of the falls, where we were celebrating our 6th Valentine's Day. We could see the ice chunks and snow blobs floating on the river before the current carries it down the stream into the falls.