Home Sweet Home

Felt I should let everyone know we are home safe - got in around 6 am on Friday morning and spent the weekend with my family and the fat baby. I can't believe my india adventure is over! I'm a little sad to be home, although the creature comforts are nice, but Matt promises there will be more advenutres...
See you all soon!

New Years Eve in Dubai

Greetings from the UAE, where the buildings are tall, the streets are clean, the people are missing, and the government won't allow you to access your flickr page (the entire site is blocked). Fascinating. But for a couple of days, we are willing to trade censorship for the ability to brush our teeth with tap water again instead of bottled water.
Our flight finally took off around 3:30 which was annoying but somewhat made up for because the plane was awesome. We had our own little movie screens in the back of the seat in front of us, but each one had a list of over 100 movies you could choose from, and start, pause and stop at will. We had seats together but mine was a middle seat and the Indian guy next to me was incredibly sniffly so I ended up moving to an open aisle seat across the way from Matt, rather than listening to him through the whole flight.

We landed in the evening in the Dubai airport - the baggage claim hall has cathedral ceilings and while pillars. We caught a cab to our hotel, a sheraton right on the creek with a giant Christmas tree in the foyer - Mom, you would love Dubai, there are giant Christmas trees everywhere! Our room has a fantastic view out over the creek which is nice - last night we ate falafel and hummus and really good chicken shwarma and chips and I drank fresh pomogranate juice.

Today we actually got up at a decent hour and got moving - we walked down the creek to the spot where little wooden boats will ferry you across to the other side for 1 durham per person (about 30 cents). Guess what the little wooden boats are called?!?!? Abras! So all over the creek there are signs for Abra stations or cafes names something Abra something... very fun for me. We caught the boat across and walked through the Old Souk and textile market which was interesting but nothing to write home about.

Then we went in search of some of the other souks I have been reading about in the guidebooks etc... turns out in Dubai, all of the souks are actually very upscale malls that happen to carry middle eastern stuff, as opposed to the regular malls that carry western stuff and are just called malls. Sort of like the Disney World version of a souk. It was a bit of a disappointment to realise there were no real markets to be had, but then we settled into the fun of the crazy huge buildings. We saw the Burj Dubai which is not finished yet but when it is will be the tallest building in the world, and then went to a mall called the Wafi Mall that is built in the shape of a pyramid and has an arabian souk (read fancy mall with arabian stuff, including Palestinian pottery) underneath, and even more exciting - a Marks and Spencers (no sandwiches though)!

We came back to the hotel in time for me to have my spa treatments which we were able to reschedule for today.... it was lovely, if a bit bizarre. Tonight we are headed out for another lebanese style dinner, and then maybe to the street that runs along the public beach to find a place to have a drink and ring in the new year...

Dubai is the anti-India for sure - clean, modern, and devoid of people. Everywhere we go, we wonder where everyone else is. It also reminds us a bit of Berlin, in the sense that you get the impression that rather than visiting a city, you are touring the construction site of a city that will be really impressive in about 15 years. The buildings are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing but breathtaking none the less for their size and modernity...

Happy New Year to everyone and we'll see you soon!

Delayed in Delhi

Sounds like the title of a singles ad in the newspaper, doesn't it? Driving to the airport this morning the city was just one big white cloud - we couldn't see more than 10 feet out through the car windows. We were delighted to make it in one piece (3 hours early for our flight, as instructed), checked in, went through security, sat down, and... nothing. No announcements, no signage, and no flight listed on the monitors because they were still listing all the flights from last night that had been delayed to this morning. When it came time for our flight to board we finally approached the information desk where a harried indian guy informed us it had been delayed until 2:00 pm (from 10:45 am). Awesome. Since we are in India and not the US, the airline attendants tracked us down in our seats in the waiting area to let us know that we would be provided with breakfast at 11 am at one of the cafes by the gates, which is kind of cool. But also since its India, people crowded around in a huge clump around the cafe kiosk and we decided it was too much of a zoo to try and navigate, so we are keeping half an eye on things from our seats, although the little flight attendant girls keep coming over to see why we don't want our free breakfast. Oh, and they gave us a form we can fill out listing people for them to contact on our behalf to alert them we are delayed, and any connecting flights or hotel reservations they can either cancel or confirm for us because of the delay. In America, they would stick us on a plane, pull away from the gate, and then sit on the tarmac for 6 hours while they refuse to give us water or let us use the toilet. So despite the delay, I am feeling pampered. The only sad bit is Matt had to email the hotel in Dubai to cancel my spa appointment for this afternoon since we won't get there in time, although we plan to try and reschedule for tomorrow instead.

I'll keep you posted... since I have nothing else to do.

Last day in India

It's finally here... tomorrow morning we leave - Matt and I to Dubai and Mom to London. I can't believe it.

First the good news is that yesterday Hector got a little brother... you'll have to wait until we get home to see what he looks like because of course he is wrapped heavily in bubble wrap, etc, but the story of his purchase is very entertaining. We were driving out of Jaipur and passed a guy with wooden statues outside - particularly the ones we have been looking at this whole time which are wooden Ganeshas (although Matt has been very picky and hadn't seen one yet that really appealed to him). We stopped to have a look and the guy had some of the best ones we had seen but they were extraordinarily overpriced. The guy was asking 15,000 rupees for the one we were interested in (Matt lined them all up on the counter and then gradually eliminated one at a time until he was down to the one he wanted - that process in itself took 20 minutes at least!) and we weren't interested in paying that much at all. So we bargained the guy down to about 8,000 rupees, and then decided to get in the car and leave. We start driving out of Jaipur, and then the driver's cell phone rings - he answers it and its the guy from the store offering us the Ganesha for 6000 rs. Apparently, while the one guy was bargaining in the store with us, the other guy went out and got Manu's phone number - its a scheme they pull all the time with tourists who have drivers. Matt countered with 5,750 and the guys hopped on their motorcycle and drove out to the side of the road where we had pulled over to make the exchange. Definitely the craziest bargaining story we have ever been a part of.

We spent our last day in Delhi racing around trying to see/buy all the things we hadn't been able to see/buy yet - fortanetly the price we paid for a driver at the beginning of our trip included these last couple of days so we had a car to get everywhere we wanted to (although not our driver Manu from our trip, he was sadly reassigned).

We started this morning with breakfast at our hotel - fried indian bread and a potato curry sauce to dip it in - delicious delicious. We are staying in the same hotel we stayed in at the beginning of the trip but with much more appreciation this time around, after having experienced alternate accomodations that weren't quite as nice.

Afterwards we hit a couple of shops for some errands and then hopped in the car and headed out to the Lotus temple. Sadly it was closed (many things are closed on Mondays here) so we could only see it from the outside, but its quite an interesting building. Then we headed back to Dilli Haat, the cute closed off indoor market we enjoyed so much the last time we were there. Matt finally got his rug from India... Afterwards we had one final trip to my favourite department store, Fab India - this time we went to the location that someone had told us was the largest one in Delhi and it was fantastic... rack after rack, and even Matt found some shirts he liked.

After we finished we headed to Mom's friend Arun's house where we had dinner with him, his wife Gita, and their son Himanchu. In an attempt to make us feel comfortable they ordered Dominoes Pizza for dinner and we didn't have the heart to tell them that the last thing we wanted to eat for our last dinner in India was Dominoes. Fortanetly, it was a different, spicey kind of pizza which they served with some homemade vegetable biriyani and some delicious chutney sauce so it ended up being a pretty delicious meal.

While we were waiting for the pizza to arrive we looked at Himanchu's wedding album and in the process heard all about his match with his wife - it was fascinating. He's quite short, which apparently was an impediment to his marriage. Arun explained to us that these days, love marriages are acceptable as options, but since Himanchu couldn't find himself a woman on his own his parents stepped in. To find him a wife they put the word out with their relatives, and they also took out on ad in the newspaper (in the marital section) listing his occupation, salary, height, complexion (Himanchu is fair for an Indian, which is a plus), and his astrological sign. They ended up finding his wife through relatives in Varanasi, but we were astounded by the newspaper ad - Arun said there were many responses but many of them didn't work out. Himanchu and his wife were engaged for a year but never met in person before the wedding, although they spoke on the phone regularly throughout the year.

Now we are back in our hotel room packing for tomorrow - we had to buy an extra bag to fit everything we bought, so Matt found a cricket bag (designed to hold bats and wickets - read HUGE) and its pretty full... most of it is presents... I hope!

I'll try to write from Dubai too... all for now.

Last day in Jaipur

Breakfast on the lawn of our hotel...

Today was our last day in Jaipur. Tomorrow we head back to Delhi where we have one full day before we all fly out our seperate ways. It's hard to believe this is all coming to an end.

Yesterday morning we headed out of the city to the Amber Fort, a big old fort on the top of a hill. Pretty scenery, some good pictures, but mostly we decided we are done with forts. Then we did some shopping. One notable purchase - when Mom was in India in 1970 she bought 2 silver bangles, one for each wrist, and has worn then ever since (well, to be fair one had to come off when she broke her arm in 1980. But the other has been on since 1970, and even the one that came off hasn't been off since). Yesterday at a small jewelry store off of MI road I bought my own silver bangles. I can't promise they'll stay on eternally - I don't know how doing the Locust asana is going to feel with bracelets on - but I do feel like I have achieved some small right of passage - the journey to India, marked by the silver bracelets.

Today we wandered some of the bazaars in the old city - first some of the tourist shops, and then the Johari Bazaar section (traditional indian jewelry) and then we went back to the Hawa Mahal to go inside - the last time we just took photos from the outside. In the afternoon we enjoyed a traditional indian snack - lassi, a yogurt drink, from the very popular Lassiwala on MI Road. This evening our driver drove us about a half an hour out of the city to a place called Chokhi Dhani... quite an experience. It was like a county fair for Indian people... medival times meets six flags meets Epcot Center meets India. We stood in line for at least 20 minutes to get in and then wandered around in dust past little huts and buildings featuring a variety of different indian dancers, fortune tellers, magicians, shops, games, etc... there were camel and elephant rides (long lines for both) and Mom and I got our palms hennaed. The highlight was dinner - traditional rajhistani

food - we were given a silver tray and walked down a buffet line getting little leaf bowls of different traditional rajasthan foods. We had pretty much no idea what we were eating but most of it was totally delicious.