Honeymoon at the holiday inn!

Hello mates!! Hope everyone had a good holiday! So far Sydney kind of reminds me of Toronto but with a more European feel - just my kind of place! Everyone here is fit and fashionable and well put together. People are very friendly and you don't see many grumpy people here!

We are staying at the holiday inn darling harbour that we booked off hotwire so all we new was that we were getting a 4 star hotel in a certain area and found out it was the holiday inn after we paid for it  We were definitely disappointed that we didn't get intercontinental or sofitel but thats what you get for booking 6 weeks in advance for a busy city on nye.  Everything here is very expensive and even though there are a bunch of sales in the stores, it's still more expensive than canada or the us. I guess people here can afford it when they get paid 3 times on holidays, 2 times on Sunday's and 1.5 times on Saturdays! I like that way of thinking! 

We went to a really yummy restaurant called mamak on our first night that was highly recommended by everyone who gave me tips on sydney. Yummy roti canai, satays and Malaysian curries! Its so popular that we lined up for 30 min or so. The time passed quickly because we met a really nice couple from singapore but who live in Melbourne now. When I asked them for shopping suggestions in Melbourne, even they said they just wait until they go back to singapore to shop because Australia is too expensive!

We have been trying to find a place for new years but everything is sold out or damn expensive, some places have been sold out since Jan 1st 2010! One place we wanted to go to was a set menu for $850 per person so that was obv out of the question or a harbour cruise for between $550 - 1000 pp. We finally decided on an Indian fusion restaurant with a harbor view. Hope its good! They call sydney the news years eve capital of the world so lets see if it lives up to the hype!

On our second night, we went to a restaurant called chat thai and guess who we saw in the "que?" the same couple from the previous night!! Strangest thing! This time they were meeting friends but the four of them also got seated at the table next to us! 

The temperature tanked the day we got here but it warms up tomorrow so we are off the manly and bondi beach! Stay tuned

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!

Last post from Ecuador!

So today is our last day of our vacation - so sad =( Its been a fun 3 weeks with lots of ups and unfortunately a couple of downs. Actually its been almost 5 weeks for me but time flew by so quickly. The thought of going back to school is horrifying though and I don´t think I remember anything about the oral cavity right now! The first week back will be very interesting!

We came back from Banos this morning which seems to be a vacation spot for Ecuadorians. It has several natural hot springs and a lot of spas in town! So you can only guess what I spent the day doing - Beautify-ing myself! Since it was so damn cheap and I couldn´t decide what services to do, I basically decided to do them all! The day started off with a eucalyptus (sp!) steam, body scrub, milk and rose water bath, fruit body wrap, body massage and then a facial! But that wasn´t enough so this morning I went to the spa in our hotel for a manicure and pedicure! So much fun! In case anyone ever decides to go there, stay at the Sangay Spa and Hotel NOT Hotel Palace like the lonely planet suggests - we stayed at both and Sangay was much nicer.

If we had another day, I really wanted to go Swing jumping which is a less intense bungie jumping but we didn´t have time and Adam didn´t want me to do it. I chose the spa over extreme sports! Now your question must be, what the heck was Adam doing while I was spa-ing it up?! He basicallly was in the room with me reading a book for over 3 hrs and didn´t complain at all - what a good boyfriend! I tried to convince him to join me for some services but he´s burnt (yes, i know - how do brown ppl burn?!) and he hates other ppl touching him so no massages.

Today we are back in Quito and just chilling out before our 2nd dance class and our flights are at 6:30 am so it will be a super early morning and I fly to Toronto and Adam is flying to Calgary so its gonna be a long ass 15 hours. See you all when I get back!