Another Wonder of the world..

Wow! We just back from the Taj Mahal and the Agra fort! Pictures do not do it justice - just like Machu Pichu! We went to see it at sunrise which is very hardcore but its supposed to be the best time, not to mention that there are fewer tourists and its cooler at that time.

We visited a place called Fatepur Sikri yesterday on the way to Agra which was a former palace of one of the maharajas, which was interesting to see.

So today was our third time going to Pizza Hut! I know - I'm usually a strong believer in experiencing local food but with so many indian twists to pizza, its as if we are eating the local food. We also had our very first thali yesterday which was yummy even though its pure vegetarian.

India is definately a different place - in the rest of india, the roads are shared by not only cars but livestock. In Jaipur, the roads are shared with livestock, camels and elephants. Indians work damn hard though! Adam and I can barely handle the heat for half an hour at midday but there are people on bicycle rickshaws, driving people around.

Tomorrow we are off to Rishikesh, which is the yoga capital of the world!

"Ar-e Yaar!"

We just left Jaipur in Rajastan! It was a nice place - interesting things to see but man the people were annoying. There were a ridiculous number of "hawkers" at every tourist site which was super irritating and exhausting. We took an elephant ride up to Amber fort, the former palace of the king of Jaipur and the entire ride, there were people trying to sell us things. The only cool thing was a young kid who was playing nice music as we rode to the top of the fort.


We saw a bollywood movie in Hindi (w/o subtitles) in the famous Raj Mandir cinema in the Diamond class but it still wasn't as nice as the theatres in Bangkok. The movie we saw was "New York" so thank god there were enough english bits that we could follow along and of course it was worth seeing a movie with John Abraham!

Didn't do too much shopping here - just a bhandani saree and some more bangles! We still have to get Adam a shervani but probably gonna have to wait til we get to Delhi!

And the shopping continues..

The food here has been pretty good and so cheap - dining is half the fun of vacation! Breakfast is intense here though - masala dosa, puri, potato curries and even fried food for breakfast! No wonder India is the diabetes capital of the world!

We went to khane a couple of times in Goa which was nice - there has been a khane in every city we've been to so far. We will be celebrating Khushali in Delhi but apparently there are fewer Ismailis there.

We met up with Alkarim Devanis family when we got back to Mumbai who were such kind and caring people. They were offended that we didn't stay with them but we had everything pre-booked with a travel agent so couldn't change much after the fact. Where they live is so cool - its an Ismaili "society" as they call it - there around ~ 6 apartment buildings in the complex and every single person that lives in that area is Ismaili - ~1000 people. They have there own khane (mosque) there too but unfortunately we spend most of our time shopping that we missed khane.

I am officially exhausted from shopping! But the good news is that I have gotten all of my wedding events outfits (puro, reception, wedding, mendhi, green saree, etc). But still have to get blouses sewn, more bangles and shoes and stuff for my family. Adam is one heck of a soldier - he has been there with me through the whole thing and barely complained. We were so intense that we usually skipped a meal to get stuff done and the sales staff at Seasons and Bawree boutique in Mumbai knew us by name! We really didn't see much of mumbai b/c its takes too long to get around and we definately did not have the energy to check out the nightlife, which is unfortunate.

FYI on the shopping front - if you are looking for really nice stuff, my favorites were Seasons and bawree in santa cruz - all operate on a fixed price basis which is good and bad - its not exhausting to shop but not cheap. Of course, there is Millionaire in juhu but that was super overpriced for the amount of work. Got one saree from satye paul so far - gotta check other cities now! Other apparently good places for shopping are Linking road and elco arcade in bandra. We never really got a chance to give it a good shot though.

We just got to jaipur this morning which is super hot! The rest of India has been okay so far esp since the monsoon is here which cools the place down like crazy. India is dirty already and the rain make it dirtier but the temp is very nice.

Shopping frenzy

We are now in Goa! Its a pretty nice place but its off season so most of the guests are Indian tourists. We are staying at a resort but its a bit secluded and hard to get around. The monsoon has definately hit Goa but it doesn't rain all day which is nice. It actually cooler which is nice.

Our train ride from Puna to Goa was quiet interesting! At first we were dreading the overnight sleeper train but it turned out to be an interesting experience. The man sitting across from us was so fascinated that we were from Canada but looked Indian and he just made himself at home with us! Midway through the ride, he started doing Yoga on his bed then asked if he could read one of my books. The book he was reading was "Dental Practice Management" which he read outloud and commented on anything interesting he read although I was reading my own book at the time. We wish we could have taken pictures of him but it would have been too obvious.

I went on a shopping frenzy in Pune so its nice that there is some downtime in Goa! I did most of my shopping on a street called Laxmi Road and MG road. On MG road, I did 100% of my shopping at one store called Anchaal. We are going back to Mumbai soon where I have to get the rest of my wedding stuff so its going to be a hectic 3 days!

So far we have been safe but there was one Rikshaw driver that scared the shit out of us b/c he kept asking about our blood type. We thought he might take us to the hospital to give blood or something so we just got his to stop, paid him and took another one from a nice hotel.

Incredible India!!!

Greetings from India!

We are now in Pune which is a few hr train ride from Mumbai. Mumbai was a very interesting city - so many frickin people! 20 million to be exact! There are ppl everywhere at every hour.
The first day we went sightseeing with a guide - saw a lot of places that were in Slum dog millionaire including the famous laundry area (dhobi ghat?!), Haji Ali mosque, Elephanta Caves, Gateway of India, Hanging garden, etc etc. It was cool to have a guide b/c he explained a lot of things that we would have never know about and got the driver to take us to see Amitabachan's house! Old and new house! His house was not what I'd expect - nothing crazy at all but apparently the real estate is insanely expensive - between $1000 - $2000/sq foot. Thats worse than Trump tower!

The second day was an entire day of shopping! Poor Adam! He's the best fiance ever! Don't think too many guys could put up with my indecisiveness and he actually has good feedback to give! Mumbai has some beautiful clothing and is heaven for shopping but not cheap at all. I have mostly browsed so far and got an idea of whats out there but I managed to already buy my wedding saree for khane (mosque) which I love and another random saree. So much choice - it is overwhelming!

At first it seemed really hot but now we've adjusted to the temp and its really not that bad so far. However, it gets super hot in Jaipur and Agra so that will be the real test of whether or not we can handle it! India smells like everyone says but it reminds us of thailand and other 3rd world countries we've been too. Much to our suprise, it did not smell like someone took a shit right outside the plane like Russel Peters said!