Mehico

Mehico written as Mexico

Atlanta Morning-Sunrise

Note: Don’t read this article, unless you want to live rather than existing.

So here we go to Mexico. Unusual, I know. Actually, I had a Amex miles card which was about to charge me 100 bucks from next month, just to use the credit card. Instead I wanted to get something out of it. Everyone wants the same. I wanted to avoid that charge and hence had to cancel it but it had 76680 miles on it. I wanted to utilize that as well and hence I was planning for a trip. India trip requires at least 80000, so that was not an option. Next was to visit somewhere within United States, again a bummer plan as I have already seen most of the hot spots. I was looking for a place to spend those miles and have a nice trip on long weekend. A colleague referred me Cancun, a Mexican city on the Yucatan Peninsula bordering the Caribbean Sea. I checked out the city and everything was looking perfect-miles, long weekend, location, even visa and budget. I researched for few days and finally made up my mind. This is the place, I am going and that’s it. Will figure out whatever happens next.

My Flight-Ready to Fly

I have heard some scary stuff about Mexico such as its famous for drugs, you might get kidnapped over there or your identity-passport/visa might be stolen. But who cares, I am ready to face anything and almost everything now a days. I am fearless bird who can migrate from one place to another in fraction of a second. I booked my flight with 75,000miles + 80$ and then 1,680miles + 270$ hotel. The best thing about hotel is that it was an all-inclusive hotel which means the room rent includes food and drinks as well. When we say food and drinks, it’s not 1 drink with lunch. It means unlimited food in all the restaurants on hotel property and unlimited drinks as well. I would say its heaven for drinkers and eaters. I bought some beach stuff for the trip like flip flops, lower and shoes. Then I packed everything a week in advance along with passport and visa. Finally the departure day came; I took off early from office in order to have some sleep. I planned in such a way that I had to stay at Atlanta Airport overnight and hence lil bit sleep was important. I didn’t get any sleep on airport as I was talking overseas half of the time, rest it was chill and I didn’t had a blanket. I got goose bumps as soon as I crossed customs and immigration as I was in a totally different part of the world all by myself. I have forgotten to mention that, it was a solo trip, yes I was alone. Quite adventurous!!!

Selfie @ Pool

I didn’t book my airport transfers with the hope that I’ll get something cheap locally. I tried searching for some time and got one for 33 $ round trip. Since, I was single, so it’s ok. It was Supershuttle- a well-known service, so I was in safe hands. I reached hotel earlier than the check in time around 11 AM and check out time was 12 PM. None of the rooms were available. As I was waiting for the room, I thought it would be best to snap some pictures in the meantime. I used the same time to schedule my visit next day to Chichen Itza. Got a offer at Viator for booking via mobile. I booked a tour called as “Early Access Tour” it allows us to complete the tour in morning. You can avoid the extreme hot temperature by visiting in morning and you have the rest of the day to enjoy and relax. Keep reading for rest of the tour…

3 States

You might have read Chetan Bhagat’s 2 States or must have seen the movie. Just like it has 2 states, I have got one more in addition. All credit goes to my lead, he added a state to my business trip in the last and hence it became 3 states. Yes, this time it was not a tourism trip, but a Business trip. I covered 3 states in 4 days. Every night I used to travel from one state to another. Still I was able to add just 1 more state in my US traveled states list. Rest 2 states were already covered in previous trips. I started from Chicago on a nice Sunday morning and reached first city: Atlanta in Georgia State. When I moved from Airport to Hotel, I understood, it was a blue land and I should be careful out here. I had only one day to roam around and explore the city, but I spent that day with my family. Morning to evening, I was on the phone. Finally in evening I came out and explored the city. The major attraction of Atlanta is its Georgia Aquarium; it’s the largest not only in America but in Western Hemisphere. I have already seen Shedd Aquarium of Chicago, so I wasn’t much interested into that and also I didn’t have that much time to explore it completely. Hence I visited The Coca Cola factory, it was a nice experience. It’s a guided tour with a complimentary welcome drink followed by tasting several flavors of coke all over the world.

It was quite late by this time, everything else was closed. There is a Centennial Olympic Park also in downtown, but some music event was going on inside. Next I visited Walmart to buy a belt as I didn’t have any and I can’t go to office without that. After such a long day, I took a cab towards hotel. I was hell tired so the best thing to relax was to take a hot shower. Now it was around 9 PM, I was worried that I may not get any good meal. Fortunately there were many restaurants around the corner and they were open. So I had Mexican dinner and then joined the daily office sync up call.

Next Morning, I checked out of hotel and took a cab to Atlanta branch office. My office contact lady was all prepared; she showed me entire office and was ready with complete documentation of the branch. I did not had space to carry such a big file, so I left it. She promised me to send it via courier, which I never received but its fine. I had soft copy of most of the details. They also had my name display on their TV which was a nice gesture, liked it. Once office work was over, I moved back in downtown. Atlanta’s another attraction is CNN Headquarters, although it’s not that cool, kind of ok. I completed that and finally moved towards airport. I took a flight towards Philadelphia; if you are thinking that day is over, wait. Next, I took a rental car from Phily to Wyomissing. It was just 2 hour drive but tough as I was seriously tired. As soon as I reached hotel, I watched movie for some time and slept. I guess, I have to watch screen for some time to make me sleep.