Dec 28, 2006
NYE and Thailand
Dec 27, 2006
Rahul and Sonu's Birthday
Being fed birthday cake!
Last night my sister and I went to Rahul and Sonu's birthday party. It was held at 6th Element, a pub about 10km from my apartment. They brought cake out and as part of Indian tradition, the birthday person feeds cake to all party attendees. Since it was technically Sonu's birthday (Rahul's was a few days back), she fed cake to all of us! Happy birthday!
Goa
We stayed at Neelam's the Grand, the hotel was OK, not the BEST (considering ants in our bed, stained shower door, pad locked door) but it's India, gotta love it! The hotel facilities were nice however, they had a HUGE pool and lots of Christmas decor. It was nice to see Christmas in Goa, allowed us to be in a festive mood. There are a lot of Christians in Goa, so Christmas is celebrated widely. Here's an article on Christmas in Goa, click here.
Tapestry of Goa
King crab at Souza Lobo's restaurant (Calangute Beach)
The first day we arrived, I took Celeste to get her first Ayurvedic massage, it sure was an experience! We ate at this restaurant called Souza Lobo's and had the best, biggest king Crab with garlic sauce. That night we went to the famous Ingo's Saturday night market, where thousands of stands gathered to sell textiles, artifacts, tapestries, jewelry and more. We spent way more than we should have :)
Merry Christmas!
Laughing at the fireworks!
Adorable kids singing Christmas caroles at the hotel party
Christmas Eve the hotel hosted a grand dinner and party. There was LOTS of food - both Indian and continental, we seriously stuffed our faces til we were blue. They had lots of entertainment too, fire dancers, music, fireworks - a nice way to ring in Christmas. I'm really happy my sister was there to spend it with me!
In front of the biggest church in Panjim
Sipping some hearty hot chocolate on Christmas night
Christmas day we tried to visit some churches in Panjim (state capital) but they were all closed (surprisingly.) The drive to Panjim allowed us to see a lot of buildings made with Portugese infludence, since they colonized Goa years ago. Nice drive it was... We closed off the night having the best Goan fish at this delicious Italian restaurant called J&A's Little Italy -- the fish literally melted in our mouths. All the wait staff were wearing Christmas hats and red shirts for the holiday!
Tuesday we both treated ourselves to pedicures and headed home. I had a great Christmas weekend! For more info on Goa, click here.
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Dec 26, 2006
The People of Goa
Celeste and Chandras, hotel staff
Cute little princess at the hotel
Massage lady and pedicure lady
Dec 23, 2006
Dress Night!
Anna, Mahin and I bought these SUPER cute dresses in Hampi last weekend. Since it was the last day in the office before Christmas vacation, we treated ourselves to a massage then dressed up for a night to dinner! Check out the fun...!
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Dec 22, 2006
Merry Christmas!
Friday I received a lot of nice gifts and sweet emails from my team wishing me a happy holidays -- above is a picture sent to me. It was good to be in Christmas spirit around the office, they even put a tree up!
And Celeste arrived to India last night! We are going to Goa for Christmas weekend. I plan to take her to the beach, introduce her to India and Indian food and relax after a long quarter of work. Have a Merry Christmas everyone! We'll be thinking of you in Goa :)
Dec 19, 2006
The People of Hampi
Fellow passengers on the river boat
Kids in an autorickshaw on the way to school
Waiting for video games to come to Hampi
Haha, this guy was totally modeling his bike
A Rajasthani tailor altering my kurta in Hampi
Keeping cool by the wall
Dec 18, 2006
Hampi
Ready for the train!
This past weekend, David, Stacy, Anna, Mahin, Jeff and I went to Hampi! Hampi is about 450km away from Hyderabad -- guess how we got there? BY TRAIN! Yes, we toughed it out for 12 hours there and 12 hours back on an Indian train! Being that I've never been on a train before, I wasn't expecting the best...but it wasn't so bad. We actually really enjoyed the experience. In our Tier 2 AC train they provided blankets and sheets, and let us know when we were arriving so that was nice. Heading to Hampi on the train we killed time by playing trivia games (Wies has a bunch of these up his sleeves.)
Morning we arrived to Hospet station where a driver for our hotel was awaiting. It took about 45mins to get into Hampi. Hampi is a village town in the north of the Karnataka state. Created from the previous Vijayanagara empire, tons of temples and ruins (a little too many) surround this village town. That afternoon we shopped and shopped (til we almost dropped.) I got a LOT of cute clothes! Hampi attacts a lot of hippie tourists (esp. from EUR) so the shops cater to hippie-style clothing. I fell in love with the style, and purchased myself a few tie-dye items. To get to Hampi from the hotel, we had to take a river boat (10Rs each way = ~10cents.) I also bought friendship bracelets for everyone and asked them to keep it on til it falls off. Brought me back to elementary school when friendship bracelets were a hit!
Paisley aladdin pants and a tie-dye shirt...what am I thinking?
Anna, Stacy and I on the river boat
Shopping for friendship bracelets
We ate lunch at this place called Mango Tree, where you have to walk along a path of banana trees to get to the restaurant. The food was great! That night we ate at the hotel, where they had complimentary dinner and bonfire. We went to bed early because we all hadn't slept that well on the train.
Next morning I enjoyed a nice morning jog around Hampi Boulders hotel. After breakfast we went back across the river to rent scooters for the day! It was really fun! We were lucky only to have one accident for the day (Jeff!) On our scooters, we stopped by Vitala Temple (most reknown), an underground temple and cruised on the open highway. It was a trek to get to Vitala temple, for a while we thought we were Lost! Finally found it, it was amazing as described. On the way back we hitched a ride on a basket boat. Midway the ore broke so the boat driver had us wait on an island for a rescue boat! We laughed about the thought of actually getting LOST on an island. At sunset, we returned our scooters, lugged our bags across the river and headed back to Hospet to catch a train back home.
Scooooooooooters! They were so much fun!!
Me and the Hampi boulders
The basket boat that brought us back from Vitala Temple
Me, Mahin and Anna "LOST" on the island when the ore broke!
Carrying our luggage back and forth across the river
At the underground temple
It was a great trip, much different than the posh, luxurious trips I've taken in the past. I felt like I was finally 'roughing' it! For more info on Hampi, check out this link.
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Dec 14, 2006
Only in India (8)
People of the North
Cute lil guy at Amer Fort
Making clay
Nice place to be hanging out
Boy selling Taj Mahal snowglobes
A photographer at the Taj Mahal
Dec 13, 2006
Golden Triangle
This past weekend Stacy, Karen, David (aka 'Wies') headed to the GOLDEN TRIANGLE! It was one of my favorite trips so far. The famous Golden Triangle of India covers three beautiful cities -- Delhi (the capital of India), Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and Jaipur ("Pink City" and land of Rajput kings.) The forts, palaces, architecture, color, art and history epitomizes India and its beauty. Each city is unique in its own, all three remain popular tourist destinations for tourists like us and are easy to drive to (5hr drive away from each.)
Agra
Friday night we flew into Delhi and drove to Gurgaon to stay at Karen's house. Saturday morning we drove to Agra, 250km north. I felt like I was taking a road trip down highway 5. We stopped at a little trucker stop which looked just like any other trucker stop -- food, overpriced goodies, lots of tourists stretching their legs. The hawkers along the truck stops (and in all of northern India) were really aggressive and tried to get you to pay them for anything. One guy had a bear on a rope dancing in hopes that we'd take a picture! It was really disturbing.We arrived in Agra, Stacy and I stayed at the Trident Hilton which was a nice, quaint hotel about 1.5km from the Taj Mahal. Wies and Karen opted for the Oberoi which overlooked the Taj from their window. The Oberoi is by far the classiest hotel chain in India, look at my webalbum for photos, it's extremely illuminating and beautiful. I shopped a little in Agra with our driver, Ram Babu, then headed to the Oberoi for a massage and dinner with everyone. It was a fun day just relaxing and taking it easy at the hotel.
Next morning we woke up at 5am to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise! (Click here for more info.) We were told it was the best time to go, so we headed to the Oberoi and took a golf cart to the front entrance. Already, hawkers approached us wanting to sell us postcards and gadgets. Stacy had to tell them she'd come back to them later (and sure enough, they remembered her when we were leaving.) It cost us $15USD to walk in, there were tons of tourists there waiting for the sun to rise. We all felt like we were kids going to Disneyland, we were SO excited to be seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world!!!
That's me and the Taj
The Taj was absolutely amazing -- words cannot even convey its beauty. The story behind the Taj -- Emperor Shah made this monument for his passed wife. According to history, it took 30 years to build with help of 20,000 workers. They hired European experts to come in to help with the artchitecture. It is believed that Shah had the hands chopped off of these 20,000 workers so nothing could ever be built like it again (not sure if this story is true.) A romantic monument with architecture, nice place to share with friends and loved ones.
Me, Karen, Stacy and Wies posing with the Taj Mahal!
Jaipur
After the Taj we headed to Jaipur, jumped back in the car with Ram Babu and rocked out to Indian tunes. Arrived to a beautiful city, by far my favorite in India. Jaipur, also known famously as the Pink City, also the capital of Rajasthan state. It's called the pink city because all the cities are painted pink. They did this to protect the buildings from the reflection of sun rays. Although I haven't been to Europe myself, it felt like I was walking along the streets of Europe. Gorgeous, gorgeous architecture, it was breathtaking. We checked into our hotel, Park Plaza, then went shopping along Jauhari, Bapu and Nehru Bazars all bordering each other. There we found a large collection of quilts, fabrics, handicrafts, jewelry... I bought some fun pajamas, shawls and bangles. Stacy found herself a cute little Santa to give away as part of her white elephant gift! Her and Wies also got some drums I bargained for (I bargained for them to be $2 each!) On a whim (total whim), Stacy and I got our hands painted with henna! It's called Mehndi design -- where women will paint their hands, feet and back with henna. Click here for photos of Mehndi designs. It was fun, it's still on my hands and should last a few weeks. Later that night we went to Four Seasons -- a family joint serving Indian and Multicuisine (which I've come to understand as just Indian and Chinese foods haha.)
Delhi
Before heading back to Delhi, Wies decided we go see one of the famous forts in Jaipur, so we visited the famous Amer Fort on the Jaipur-Delhi highway. What a great fort to pick! We got to ride elephants to the top (our first elephant rides!) It was a lot of fun, they kinda stunk but I braved through it for the chance to ride one :) Amazing architecture, and the weather was perfect!
Our last stop of the triangle was where we started, in Delhi. Delhi is the current state capital of India, and by far the most developed. It's a big metro city, old and new, urbanized and well structured and home to over 15 million people. I wish we had more time in Delhi to explore, maybe another trip and another time. We ate at the Oberoi again in hopes of tasting some of this delicious sushi Karen and Durand would rave about. Unfortunately they closed, so I guess I'll have to wait for sushi until I get back home :(
No wonder why tons of tourists flock to the Golden Triangle, it's beautiful!!! I wish I had more time to explore the North to such cities like Udaipur, Jodphur, Jammu... ah, another time!
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Dec 11, 2006
Our Indian Christmas!
Look at all the yummy food!
The hostesses with the most(esses) under the mistletoe!
Anna, Stacy and I decided to host a holiday Christmas party for all of the expats here in Hyderabad. We ordered LOTS of holiday food, pies, and even a turkey with mashed potatoes! We decorated Stacy's house with ornaments and party streamers we got from a local party store, and played Christmas music on Stacy's iPod (with a lot of my favorites: N*Sync, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Kenny G Xmas tunes.) The party was so fun! We played white elephant, for some it was their first time. I think everyone ended up with a gift they wanted, I was able to snag a gift with ethnic Bindi's (the stickers women wear on their foreheads), incense, a yo-yo and friendship bracelet. Sounds cheesy, but that's part of the fun of white elephant :)
As they say it in India, Happy Christmas everyone!