Further Adventures of the Wandering Four in Indai

The spelling of India in the title of this post is a typo made on purpose.  While in Jaipur, the Pink City, mom wanted to buy a magnet.  We found one she liked with a beautiful painted elephant on it and bought it for Rs40.  It wasn’t until later that we noticed the “India” painted on the top of the magnet was actually spelled “Indai”.  Typical.  Mom just laughed and said it was so Indian and she didn’t mind the misspelling.

After Agra we wandered to Rajasthan, first stopping in the ‘Pink City’ of Jaipur.  I had been there in 2008 and really enjoyed the shopping there so wanted to bring mom, Nura and Naveed there.  We stayed in a great guesthouse that had a huge family suite for us all to be together and the Peacock Rooftop Restaurant with views of an old fort and the city and neat peacock decorations all over.  One day we went to visit the Amber Fort/Palace.  It is situated high in the hills surrounding Jaipur, was built in 1592 and was once the capital of Rajasthan.  It is really beautiful and we had fun wandering around, climbing up and down stairs and wandering through passageways and the view was amazing.  Naveed said it was his ‘most favoritest place’ ever because there was a snake charmer and he got to watch a cobra dance and giggled like a 5 year old.  That evening we ventured to Chokhi Dhani, a reconstructed traditional Rajasthani Village.  It was sort of like a theme park, Indian styles.  We got to sit on cushions on the floor and eat a traditional Rajasthani thali for dinner which was delicious!  Then there were elephant rides (which of course we avoided), a ferris-wheel-type contraction, dancers, singers, magicians etc.  It was quite the interesting experience and definitely one of the best meals I’ve had in India!

Our next day in Jaipur consisted mainly of shopping.  We did visit the City Palace and the Hawa Mahal then spent the rest of the day bargaining and head wobbling and lugging home bags filled with pashminas, skirts and dresses, a table cloth, some keychains, jewelry and other goodies, including a box of yummy Indian sweets. 

The following day we had a flight to Udaipur which kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed (thanks Kingfisher Airlines…) but we finally made it to our final stop, Panorama Guest House in beautiful Udaipur.  Udaipur is located near Lake Pichola, the Taj Lake Palace is on an island in the middle of the lake and the buildings are all gleaming white and really beautiful unique architecture.  It was Shiva’s birthday the day we arrived and we heard the celebrations long into the night.  The next day we decided to take a boat ride on the lake.  It took us a long time to find the place where the boats went out from but we made it and went on a dodgy little speedboat with 8 other Indians in a 20 minute circle around the lake. 

We did a lot more shopping in our couple days in Udaipur and also took an Indian cooking class from the wife of the owner of our guesthouse.  She was lovely and we had so much fun learning how to make the food and then eating it all for a delicious lunch!  We learned how to make chai, potato pakoras, dhal, aubergine potato curry, potato pulao, onion tomato raita, chapattis and halva.  It was one of my favorite experiences of the trip and hopefully when we all go home we might actually try to make the foods and invite you over for a traditional Rajasthani feast! 

Our last day with mom and Nura in India was spent visiting the City Palace in Udaipur, and yes, doing some last minute shopping.  They flew back to Delhi and then home meanwhile Naveed and I’s flight to Mumbai was canceled with no prior notice from Kingfisher and no other arrangements made for us.  We ended up buying the last two seats on another airline to get us home 5 hours later than planned and $450 poorer!  Boo! 

Anyways, we’re back in Pune now.  Looking forward to seeing everyone back at Deep Griha and our friends here in the city.  There’s a lot of new volunteers here so the house is full.  We’re not sure exactly how long we’ll be here, still waiting to hear from some universities but for now just enjoying being back in India!  We are looking forward to having more visitors (aren’t we lucky to have such wonderful friends and family who come halfway around the world to visit us!?) in Armand and Telia who arrive next weekend in Mumbai!!!

Love,

The Wandering Four/Two

 The Amber Fort

 Snake charmer (Naveed's dream job?)

 Bollywood shot!

 Welcomed to Chokhi Dhani!

 Eating our thalis.. Naveed got a cool hat!

 Pink city

 Enjoying some chai!

 On a bridge in Udaipur

 Boat ride on Lake Pichola

 Beautiful view from our hotel

 Mom making some potato pakoras

 Mom and Naveed enjoying their pakoras..

 Nura rolling some chapatis 

 Nura getting some henna done

City Palace in Udaipur

Excuse me sir, can I have some more toilet paper?

Hi folks, it’s Nura, I’m wandering again.  This time we’re the wandering four as Mary Frances and I have come to visit Olivia and Naveed in India!  After large amounts of nagging by a certain individual, we bought our tickets, got visas, packed our bags and flew to Delhi.  We stayed in Delhi for three nights and got right into the thick of it by spending our whole first day in India shopping.  There were saris and salwar kameez’ (is the plural of kameez ‘kameezi?’) flying everywhere as shop owners tried to find fabrics that suited our picky tastes and color choices.  We returned to our hotel in the evening exhausted but with our bags bulging with colorful fabrics.  At one point in Palika Bazaar I was trying to buy something for Faran but wasn’t sure about the size so the shop owner paraded a few men he randomly grabbed from the hallway to see if any of them were the right size.  Everyone was yelling, “come madam! Come look in my shop!” it was hectic and overwhelming but lots of fun.

The next day we visited the House of Worship in our snazzy new Indian clothes.  It was beautiful especially at night when it was all lit up.  We couldn’t believe how many people were there visiting the temple. 

We left for Agra the following morning on the Taj Express train.  Olivia and Naveed wanted us to experience an Indian train ride.  Despite our fears it wasn’t bad at all, and only took us three hours to get to Agra.  When we arrived two taxi drivers got into a fight over Naveed and who would drive us to our hotel.  Then the guy working in the restaurant at our hotel told Naveed he was very handsome to which Naveed replied, “thank you sir! My wife is very lucky!”  Oh dear.  We then visited the Taj Mahal, which was very beautiful but needed some pressure washing and restoration!  We watched the tail-end of the sunset over the Taj from the roof of our hotel as a young boy chased the mischievous monkeys away from us. 

Agra was quite a dirty town and we were glad to be leaving the next morning for Jaipur.  More about that later.

Love,

The Wandering Four

Shopping for Salwar Kameez

Getting measured for my new suit

"not more shoes!" -daddy

More shopping

Rickshaw ride home from Palika Bazaar with the loot

Typical

Everyone in their new clothes

Visit to the House of Worship

The Wandering Four!

Beautiful Temple at night

The Taj Mahal!

You want mmaaaaaaasssaaaaaage?

After our time in Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta we headed to the big city: Bangkok.  Our hotel was located in a pretty touristy part of town, Rambuttri, which is right near the Khao San Road which is ultimate tourist part of town.  Everyone around us was white tourists with backpacks. Shame.  But that’s okay because touristy part of town equals shopping and that is what we did.  There were lots of shops and stalls selling everything from knockoff polo shirts to $1 pad thai to fried scorpions to pashmina shawls.  We went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and bought more things that can’t fit into our backpacks.  Then we went to MBK Mall (also known as the best mall ever!) and bought more and more stuff that couldn’t fit into our backpacks.  I was super excited about buying $10 Lacoste shirts which look pretty real.  Every night we spoiled ourselves and got 100 baht foot massages on the street, sitting in the rows of chairs filled with tourists getting massages.  We ate lots of pad thai, curry and tom yam soup and other yummy Thai food.  We made one attempt at being cultured and visited the Wat Phra Kaew and Palace then went back to shopping again. 

We hope to return to Bangkok again soon, with more space in our luggage!  Now we’re back in India, currently traveling around the north with Olivia’s mom and sister.  Yippee! 

Love,

The Wandering Two

Chairs lined with people getting massages

Crickets, scorpions, grubs etc... YUM

Red Bull is from Thailand...did you know this?

MBK food court...no idea what anything was, we just ate it

Tom Yam Soup

$1 pad thai on our street, came in handy when we spent all our baht shopping!

Lots of delicious fresh fruit everywhere

This is me happy

On the crazy Khao San Road

Olivia and Becky at the weekend market

Sweat rag had to make an appearance

The temple and palace

So good

Olivia and Becky getting mani/pedis for $6

Phi Phi

Remember when we said that Zanzibar was the nicest beach in the world? Well I think we found a strong competitor in Phi Phi Island.  Just like in Zanzibar the water was this beautiful blue-turquoise color and so clear, the weather was so sunny and lovely and the beaches were fine white sand.  What gives Phi Phi an edge is that it had some of the most amazing snorkeling I have ever seen.  Our hotel, Phi Phi Hill Resort, was located at the end of Long Beach.  About 100 feet from the shore was this massive coral reef.  We found out that people from other parts of the island paid lots of money to hire boats to bring them to snorkel there, when we could just climb down some (very steep) stairs to the beach and swim out.  On our second day we bumped into some family friends, Payman and Klara, who are living in China now but who I’ve known since I was young.  We spent the next three days with them, exploring the beaches on Phi Phi Island and being entertained by their very energetic and wonderful children, Roya and Milad.  One day Becky went diving and we went on a snorkeling trip.  The boat took us first to Bamboo Island, an oasis in the middle of the ocean with the most incredible beach and clear water.  We stopped at a couple of spots to do some snorkeling and ended our trip at Maya Bay where they filmed the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio.  The “Beach” was alright but the snorkeling was one of the best I have ever seen.  The fish were so large and plentiful and the water was so clear I could have spent the whole day there.  On one of our last days I swam out to the coral from our beach and decided to climb onto the rocky coral island for a break.  This was a very bad idea.  I looked down and saw that there was blood all over my feet and in the water around me.  While climbing out of the water I must have sliced my feet on the barnacles which were so sharp that I hadn’t even felt it happen.  I got very scared that my blood would attract some nearby sharks that others mentioned having seen around the coral there.  Panicking, I swam as fast as I have ever swam back to shore, resulting in many blisters on my feet from the flippers in addition to the multiple slices from the barnacles.  Oh well, it was worth it to see the beautiful fish and coral.  And I’m alive.  Also our hotel had the best fruit smoothies ever, so big and so cheap.  We got many of them each day but the strawberry one was to die for! 

After our 5 days in Phi Phi Island we headed to Ko Lanta, another island further south.  Let me give a suggestion to anyone planning to travel to Thailand: don’t even try to go to another island after Phi Phi Island because nothing can ever compare.  Ko Lanta was very relaxing, we spent our days swimming, reading and catching up on podcasts.  We had a great view of the sunset from our beach and enjoyed some delicious Thai food from several restaurants on the beach.  One night we bought a floating lantern and had fun lighting it and watching it float away into the sky.  It was really pretty.  Nothing else to say about that.  We’re on our way to Bangkok now for a few days of shopping and visiting some temples. 

Love,

The Wandering Two

Sunset from Phi Phi Hill Resort

Amazing seafood stir-fry

Long Beach 

With Payman, Klara and the kids on the walk into Tonsai Village

Panoramic shot 

Amazing strawberry shakes

At Monkey Bay

Phi Phi Leh Island

Snorkeling in Maya Bay

Just on the beach, watching the sunset, on our computers...

Lighting our floating lantern

Bamboo Island, most beautiful beach