Home, Sweet Kitty-Cat Home!

Well we are now home with our lovely feline buddies purring around our feet - what a lovely welcome.

We spent our last day in Goa relaxing, reading, swimming and of course, eating! We were up at sunrise to watch the dolphins swimming in the bay - it was absolutely beautiful. To just imagine that in other regions of the country horns are blowing, darks are barking, pollution from the rickshaws is building but here we were in the middle of paradise watching and listening to the dolphins by sunrise.

Our two days in Mumbai were busy, busy and for those of you who know us well, you can imagine just how much we packed in. We estimate that we walked 12 km on our last day. We saw some of the beautiful old buildings that Mumbai is known for as well as visited the Crawford Market and the adjacent bazaars. Little gems exist in these bazaars. In the middle of one of the bazaars we were able to find the Mumba Devi temple - from which Mumbai derived its name. This temple was full of life and colour. We arrived at prayer time to witness devoted ones buying offerings for the gods. They brought wicker plates filled with coconut, candies, grasses and some other goodies (unidentifiable to us). After their worship time inside the temple, they gather around the front and sit with family members snacking on the goodies. Very peaceful indeed. And all this is occuring in a small oasis surrounded by thousands of people out in the streets shopping for the day. (photo above)

We were able to catch the newest Bollywood film, Baabul. It was a wonderful experience. The film filled with drama, tears, love, tears, friendship, tears, culture, tears, dancing, and tears! We loved it. It was a welcomed relaxing 2.5 hours rest from our touring and a nice look into a different part of their culture. A lot of the film revolved around a marriage, and during our visit to India we saw many, many marriages taking place. You see, this is the "marriage season", as everyone told us. Marriages here are quite the affair. Most of them are outdoors, extravagantly decorated with fresh flowers hanging at every possible spot, and lots of very bright white lights (much like our christmas strings of white lights) hanging vertically from trees. Hanging them vertically resembles the shape of the Banyon tree, which is a worshipped tree here. I can't imagine how many people attend these weddings, but would guess that there must be over 300 people at them. As an outsider, a magnificent and decadent display of love.


India is an incredible nation. With its wealth in culture, diversity of landscape, excellence in cuisine, and wonderful people any visitor has to see the beauty of India's growth and respect the changes that they are experiencing.

If you are interested in more of India, why not pick up a novel? There are many, many excellent books written by Indian authors. Some that we have read or were recommended are listed below.
A Fine Balance, Rohintin Mistry (this one inspired me to visit India)
The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand
The Alchemy of Desire, Tarun J Tejpal
Karma Cola, Gita Mehta
Chasing the Monsoon, Alexander Frater
Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
My Name is Red, Uhhan Pamuk
India, V.S. Naipaul

And that is the end of our blog. Of course, there are more stories, experiences, photos and great memories that we would love to share with you all - but the rest will have to be in person!

Tata,
Brenda and Jon

Fat Cows on the Beach!! That's Us!

Well, this town is all about food and drink (okay and shopping) - at least that is our version of it. Jon was almost IN the kitchen tonight - Yep, there he was asking what the marinades were made from, spices, etc and then, Oh Horror - He's has dipped his finger in the marinade, tasting it and recording it to memory! We ate seafood all day today. Tonight was Kingfish, a Goan speciality. Ours was marinated with masala and then cooked in the tandoori - yummy! To add to that, we ordered King Prawns grilled with garlic. And of course, aloo gobi (our best yet) and beer. Hmm, it doesn't get much better than this.
We spent the day lounging around our "spot", drinking ginger tea, masala chai and eating a freshly cut pineapple. The pineapple was so good it was silky and mouth wateringly sweet.
Jon's girlfriends (all the ladies selling jewellery) showed up many times to day. You see, Jon wants to support ALL of them by buying a little something from each of them. Hmm, what will we do with all the chucht-kas?

My favourite line today is Jon sitting in the restaurant, looking around with a chilly beer in hand (it is really hot here right now), and smiling saying "This is really f*&^ing great here!" He was beaming so much I had to put my shades back on.

I did manage to do a 1.5hr Yoga class today! It was great, everytime I did a sun salutation I was looking up into palm trees and eagles soaring high in the sky - now that is my kind of Yoga!

We are having an absolute ball. We are up at 6 a.m. tomorrow to watch the sun rise from an old wooden fishing boat and then to search for dolphins.

Off to bed now under our mosquito net, but not until we have a glass of port on the beach listening to the waves crashing...

Good Night All!

Brenda and Jon

Goan to Retire Here!

We are now in the beautiful land of beaches, seafood, coconut groves and ALCHOHOL! The atmosphere is laid back, "goan with the flow" in Goa! We love it here. It is an oasis in an Indian madness.

To get here, however, was no oasis. It took us a total of 30 hours from departure from Udaipur to arrival on the beach here, in Palolem. Our train ride was interesting, we both got motion sickness - that was the overnight train where we shared an "AC" berth with two Indian engineers. The air conditioning was luke warm, the room was about 6.5ft by 6ft. We arrived at 4:30 am in some small hot little industrial town. No sleep.
The next train ride was a grueling 11 hour ride! This was a chair ticket - we found our chairs pretty quicklly. So here we are - I was freaking - 6 people in a space of about 4ft by 5ft, no electricity (and remember it is early in the a.m.), knees hitting the passengers opposite of you! Oh my - I was ready to upgrade. But lucky us -- someone came with the ticket bearing the same seat number as ours. Hmm, it appears that we were in the wrong car! "Whew!" is all I can say -- this was a 3rd class car. So, off we go, running to the front of the train, about 200 m to catch our car before the train left -- me yelling at Jon -- Run faster Honey! (I should add, he has most of the souvenirs in his back pack, and he is refusing to use it properly - he had it over his shoulder, not like a back pack).
Arrived in Mumbai, starving, sweating and wearing our p.j's (well, we slept in our clothes, so technically they are p.j's). Hopped in a cab to a nicer area of town. Much different than Delhi - or are we just getting used to everything? Found a great restaurant, first real meal in the last 24 h - this is probably the first time that we were actually hungry (did we mention that we are gaining weight?). Sat on the walkway of Marine Drive, Jon was a bit tired and I almost fell asleep on the pavement when I rested my head on my backpack -- Ok, time to get moving!
At the airport, 6.5h early - so we tried to sleep. Many mosquitos - spray the OFF, and wrap up in a shawl. Pass out for maybe an hour. Then on the plane, out like a light -- but of course this is only a one hour flight. So we have now slept about a total of 4h in the last two nights!
It didn't matter that we had no sleep, because here we are in glorious sunshine, swimming, drinking and eating seafood!
We are staying in a beautiful little hut situated in a coconut grove at the end of the beach, next to a river. It is beautiful. I have found a marvelous shop filled to the ceiling with lovely, lovely clothing -- and no hassel from the shop owner. I shopped with three australian women and we all bought several items. The owner leaves the store and lets you shop, then tells you the prices. Great!
We are drinking Bacardi breezers as we write and are heading off for freshly caught seafood. The restaurant that we are going to tonight specializes in Goan food. It is situated across a long wooden, somewhat rickety bridge over the river into the hills. Of course, Jon was there today, knows the owners, and made arrangements for dinner - he has met so many people! He is so friendly some have claimed that he must of been here before -- "don't I know you?"

Making plans for all of you to come here with us for Christmas next year...

Brenda and Jon

Days 11-15: Heading to the country side & Udaipur

We have just updated our blog with some photos - it is painfully slow to load them, so that is all you get for now.

Tonight we are catching a train to Mumbai and from there we are flying to Goa. But first, we should backtrack the last few days.

We visited Jodhpur, the blue city and had some very famous Lassi. These ones are flavoured with cardamon and saffron and so thick that you have to eat it with a spoon. The touch of fresh butter on the top is why they are called Makhani Lassi (butter lassi). Yes, we are eating very, very well. In fact, I feel like I have gained 5 pounds. We scooted around the old market in Jodhpur, witnessed a full traffic jam in an area about as wide as my Honda Civic! Rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians and cattle all came to a complete stop until a police officer came by and sorted out the matter. Later we had dinner at a guest house where we listened to Indian tabla music from a CD that Rakesh bought for Jon. It was lovely in this garden area.

The next day we left for Ranakpur - where there is a very large Jain Temple. This temple has 1440 pillars intricately carved from marble. Absolutely stunning. The country side around Ranakpur is stunning. The fields are filled with either sugar, mustard or rice crops surrounded by huge majestic red sandstone mountains. We really enjoyed this drive. Then we went to Kumbalgarh Fort. This fort is surrounded by the second largest wall (next to China), it was 36km long. Again, beautiful views of the country side from the peak of the fort.
That brings us to our current city, Udaipur. We had our last dinner with Rakesh on Wednesday evening, he left Thursday at lunch. We are okay on our own, even though Jon has got us lost - okay only once!

Sitting on a cafe yesterday afternoon, our first hour alone. We sat at a marble table drinking Mirinda. The sun is burning hot but the air is a perfect temperature. Birds of prey soar in the sky above the lake and palace. The city is surrounded by sandstone hills. In the distance, you can hear the prayer service from across the lake. Unlike other larger cities, we can only occassionally hear the horns on the streets below. The breeze is soft and balmy. A gaze down over the edge of this rooftop oasis reveals a young man staining leather pieces later to be used as bookcovers. Behind him his family's laundry dances in the breeze.

Last night we had dinner on a rooftop patio under the orange lit moon, with fireworks in the distance while watching Octopussy (James Bond). Do you remember that scene in India?- James is being chased by the bad guys through the streets of Udaipur. Every restaurant shows the movie during the dinner hour - it was pretty funny!
In the morning, we have watched women washing their clothing, mostly saris at the Ghats of Uaipur. Udaipur has two beautiful lakes. Our hotel was on Fateh Sagar - each morning we had our Masala Chai while watching the sun rise over the lake with the pink mountains in the background. We are really enjoying Udaipur and being alone in India. It is quite exotic and charming in all its craziness.

While, here we go off to the streets of Udaipur for our last day. The train leaves at 7:45 pm, eventually arriving in Mumbai at 2 pm on Saturday. Let's see how this works out.....

Oh, for those who have asked: the weather has been beautiful everyday (except one day of slight showers), around 25 and no humidity. The food, well, we haven't touched North American food yet - we love the food! Aloo Gobi is the best here! No Delhi belly, colds are now gone (yes, I infected Jon). Sweets off the street are amazing - we love Cashew Barfi. Samosas are different in every city, but all yummy!

To our BBQ Hut Friends: Have a nice dinner tonight - we will be eating train curry!

Until Goa....

Days 11-14: Becoming Hindu

Well here are a couple of photos - we just lost our latest update due to some problem - You got to love India!

Off to an internet cafe tomorrow for our update -- Meanwhile, checkout one of my favourite, wild and wacky everyday image from India!

Brenda and Jon

Days 8 - 10: Going with the Flow

Here we are in Jaisalmer. We spent yesterday Camel Trekking in the Thar Desert, watched the sun set -- alright not really because it was overcast, but we were there! After trekkiing with our camels we sat on top of huge dunes and listened to Rajastani Folk music and rested while Jon danced to a tune that was only for him "Jon's Song" -- well that is what they said, many Hindi words and then an occasionaly Jon thrown in for good measure - and good tips!
We had the most amazing chicken curry that our driver Rakesh made for us. This was in a small village hut area - red sandstone huts surrounding a fire pit with burning incense. But that was too cozy for us, we decided to sleep in a many star hotel -- no, not 5 star - but many stars. Yes, that is right, we slept under the stars. Absolutely beautiful and peaceful. We woke up to the sun rising over the dunes.

Heading off to our hotel for a nap after an afternoon of wandering the bazaars of Jaisalmer and shopping for clothing that is being fitted for us as we speak. A few dollars does a lot.

Until the next blog....

Brenda and Jon