Mobilus in India

Making Samosas

2007-01-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

Delhi Street Scene

2007-01-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

Note the Happy Family sign for rice behind the driver and cart.

Suave, waiting for tea

2007-01-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

I just thought this guy looked so cool and smooth, a scene out of a Bogart movie while waiting for tea.

How bad was the hotel in Agra...the Taj Khema

2007-01-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

Pottery Samples for Cheryl & Mikeo

2007-01-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

Timea - a special lady

2007-01-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

In the morning in Agra we had a special view of the Taj from behind - a wonderful view - a better view and time was had meeting Timea her husband and his brother and wife. Timea with her husband, Sanj, her brother and sister-in-law have started a school in Calcutta for children of the street - they have 12 students right now. Timea and Sanj live in LA and put their spare money into their new school. Their sister-in-law is the teacher, and Sanj's brother runs a printing company and lives in Calcutta, next visit we would like to visit them in Calcutta. They are looking for a building right now to house the school and the printing business so that can all be involved in these endeavors together.

Dilli Haat - Bazaar in Delhi

2007-01-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

Local Starbucks

2007-01-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

Yes I did drink chai from this tea vendor and did not die...well didn't know the tea was from here until after I drank it..

Delhi neighborhood views

2007-01-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

Home

2007-01-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

Tired...stinky - but had such a good time - so good to see Marco, Jacquie, Hannah, Gary, Coco at the airport and Salad for supper yum! Photo posting later this week.!

Winding up

2007-01-06T04:09:00.000-08:00

Well we wandered around Old Delhi today - Pahar Gangh it is very Indian - more locals and hippies hang out there - so in a way more fun because you are not harassed to go into everystore - it is more like a neighborhood with shop keepers calling accross the alley to their neighbors. We got henna on our hands again, Susie did both but I could not wait the 30 minutes to do my right hand because I wanted to take photos and not stop. We made a few little purchases but mostly soaked up the Delhi atmosphere...and there is no room in our bags...leave for the airport in 4.5 hours where we know, we envision....we pray for bulkhead seats and Lufthtansa agents to be pleasant!!!! (of course there is a story here!) Next week I will post many India photos here so if you check back after I get over jet-lag there will be a link to more photos - from Delhi - hugs - KB

Saturday - our last day

2007-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Wow - we cannot believe it but today is our last day - we are up and ready to go - but unheard of freezing temps in Delhi - 4 degrees - which is really cold for us with nothing warmer than a T-shirt and a fleece - so we might take a taxi ride around some sites but probably won't do so much - sitting her typing, watching the monkeys playing in the trees beside the internet - they are huddled together for warmth - it will be fun to watch something besides animal planet on TV - this is the only english station we can consistently get - sometimes we get HBO but always B rated, terribly violet movies...and food - Susie and I were talking - what do we miss,I miss the gals J & C and Marco, friends, family, I miss fresh fruits and veggies - cold sparkling mineral water, milk, my own bed, my own potty, toilet paper always available and my laptop! Leave in 12 hours for airport - it is 9:30 am - so we have the day to chill and maybe wander a bit - right now...breakfast...(PS: not my monkey picture, snagged it from Google images...)

Can you say shopping at Delhi Haat, Madam?

2007-01-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

Today we awoke at the YWCA in Delhi, warm, clean... a wonderful feeling. Next door there is an associated restarant with beautiful food and always someone interesting to strike up a conversation with. Today I sat near a couple from Rome, he is an architect who travels all over the world consulting - he had been many places in Canada - I shared some details of our trip to Italy this summer and he and his wife shared their memories of Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver - we have a coffee date tomorrow am! He spoke longingly...before his wife arrived (ha...) of his first girfriend 30 years ago who emigrated to Canada and he declined to leave Rome!!!!! Tea and toast and veg cutlet and we were out the door to Delhi Haat - this is a combination of merchants who by lottery get 17 days in this year round bazaar. There are hundreds of merchants from all over India. What a sight. There was also a traditional dancing performace - smells that were incredible - it was hard to stagger out with our finds and flag down a rickshaw driver!

After this we headed to Rikhi Ram - he is a renown Sitara and Table maker to the stars - lots of famous musicians of course in India but also Europe, North America etc go to Rikhi Rams for their music. He played several instruments for us and served us Chai tea - how fun. It is a rickshaw ride away from the hotel - down in this crazy neighborhood, at the end of a convoluted street - with laundry crossing from one side to the other and shops mingle with housing and repair stores of all varieties. The base of the sitara is a gourd - which he calls a pumpkin!

Now we are warm and fed and wondering...how will we fit our month long collection of items into our luggage? Tonight will be our last sleep in India - we leave tomorrow night for the airport around 10 pm - for our 3am flight - we are envisioning a smooth flight - with Lufthtansa agents being happy and pleasant....Only 28 hours left in India - what awaits us on our touring of Delhi tomorrow?

A Toast (high Velocity) to Agra

2007-01-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

Oh my Gosh - what a journey - it was CRAZY Madam...if you had of written the script you could never have believed it - where to start????We got to Delhi and dragged our exhausted selves to the YWCA in Delhi - tumbled into bed and got up bright and early the next day (yesterday) for our journey to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Our driver Amar was a wonderful man who came to get us from Agra and we fought Delhi traffic for 2 hours then continued our journey - total time to Agra...5 hours......aaaaaaaaaahhhh. Halfway you can stop and we did at a hotel/roadhouse with a beautiful garden. We stopped for tea (as I had a terribly sore throat) and some chipati bread (tortilla) and a little abuse from the toilet attendant...a Rajistani woman - who was quite a pain!

Off we went and before you knew it we were in Agra - wan to know some of the things we saw on the way - crazy things - like lots of camels, pulling all sorts of things, crops, sugar cane, people - we pulled over and took the photo of a fellow and his camel - just before I clicked the shutter - he leaned over to Susie and said "not for free...rupies"... a little later there was a 10 camel, camel train on the other side. Amar stopped for us to take photos - I took photos and was aware of some men hovering - a quick smile and I was heading back to the car - Susie was ahead of me and started to giggle - from her vantage point she could see I had picked up a 15 man entourage of camel riders, workers etc and I was blissfully unaware that just feet behind my my fans were closing in...Amar had the door ready and off we went! Rickshaws that drive 2 or in a pinch 3 people are on this highway driving 6, 8 even 10 people - legs and arms hanging out - Crazy Madam we say as we look at each other. Much of the crop we pass is sugar cane - so always something to do with sugar cane, tending, threshing, loading, moving but camel or cart or buffalo. Imagine everyone intermingles on the 3 lane divided highway on each side...buffalo, camels, cows, horse carts, bikes, motor bikes, rickshaws, cars and buses!!!!!! Constant honking! As we passed the General Institute for the Reasearch into the Study of Goats Building - we had to smile...this is India Madam...Little patties built into little bee hive shaped structures dot the landscape...these are made of cow, buffalo and camel patties shaped into 12 inch diameter (ish) and 3 inches high circles and dried in the sun then stacked, used for fuel for cooking they remind us, nothing is wasted here in the rural communities. Halfway we took a breatk and had tea, this was the guard a the roadhouse/hotel
Our journey at an end, our Agra tour leader Sodhi met us by the side of the road and Amar had to leave us as cars not allowed in the city proper of Agra - so we transfer two big back packs, two little back packs on camera pack, big blue (the super gynormous back from MEC (familiar to Canadians) and the more modest killer whale black bad from Sonoma Outfitters) along with two very stinkly and exhausted madams to the rickshaw - Sodhi then excorted us to the Taj Khema hotel - the hotel from hell...more on that later...we head in, sign many many forms that Susie finally has a freak out about and they stop giving us forms - good job Susie...then Lalita arrives and Sodhi exits stage left... Sodhi is a good Sikh who of course set us up with a woman tour guide - she hurried us thru some tea and rice and off we went by the hawkers to the Taj Mahal - wow words cannot describe the Taj - it is magical, mystical, beautiful, crazy - incredible...We were there rather late so had only a couple of hours of light and photographed the heck out of the situation - went inside the tomb and wandered all around with Lalita insisting on taking our photos - we had to teach her how to do this though - as the first photo was just of our heads, the next of only the Taj - but she warmed up under our instruction sand soon both Taj and us were appearing in the same photo! Quick trip by a fabric store - where they had to fire up the generators to turn on the lights - enough allready take us home....we freshened up and ordered tea, 50 minutes later no tea ...then Susie being fresh of mind...decided to put our 2 day long joke about toast flying thru the air...not sure how we started joking about this...anyhow before I knew it, there was a projectile toast heading my way...one slightly fat lip later... we wandered down to the guest reception and gave up on tea - it was however ready about the time we had to leave for the Taj moonligh viewing...so a quick gulp and off we go - getting a flavor for the unintentionaly India diet? The full moon viewing was surreal - Sodhi had purchased tickets for us the day before and Lalita escorted us to the entrace - we entered annother world...there were easilty 200 military men, in body armor sporting automatic riffles - we were x-rayed, grabed, squeezed and probed by 3 women - Lalita had warned us, camera, money, water - NOTHING else - some not so lucky travellers were loosing the contents of their make-up kits etc...move, stop, push, pull - we were surrounded by the military - what had we gotten ourselves in to? Exiting the check point the crowd of 50 grew quite - what a privilege to view the Taj for 30 minutes in the moonliight with an unubstructed view - Alas Susies camera had died so I was on tap to photograph the situation. All too soon we had to leave and head back to the hotel -on the way we wanted to get, yes a drink...I admit it we needed it...but of course all of Agra is dry, almost impossible to find and buy some alcohol and we did not want to wander - so we went to the shop accross the street from the hotel, in the back room they sell sarees, have you ever seen this done, a huge platformed surface 2 feet up is covered in white sheets and the owners take our sarees after saree and flings the 6 metres of fabric out at you for viewing...a Russian couple and their child were there viewing sarees, Susie taught them how to dress in a Saree as the owners were hopeless and she bought 3 - she is an actress in Moscow and her husband a director, they are moving to New York shortly - what a kick - he thought Susie was the best as she helped him negotiate from $125 per saree, to $150 for all 3...finally we left to go back to the hotel..., the hotel itself has a viewing point so we headed up there...and took some more photos - now completely exhausted and freezing (no more bathing suites like Goa) we headed down to our room - queue spooky music from Scooby doo...don't go in there Shaggy...OK picture this - dirty dirty blankets - sheets with strange looking black specs on them, mosquitos everywhere because of bathroom window that would not shut - providing the additional added bonus of waiters and hotel staff getting a good view of our potty habits...being concerned about lice, Susied donned a blue plastic bag on her head...nicely matching her Venice Beach Sleep Shirt...we were afraid to turn out the lights so I stuck my Costco flashlight inbetween the two twin beds, which were side by side and we amused each other by making shadow puppets on the ceiling - made crazed creatures forced to stay at the Taj Khema for more than one night - I took photos of this for our upcoming slide show vidoe production that we will subject our family to later this month...We finally drifted off - so cold we were so cold, I kept going to my back-pack and adding another layer - sarong, after sarong - what a sight I was - finally we got warm and fell asleep - bang, bang bang...the ratty bellboy who had propositions Susie last night (sorry forgot to mention that one...) is at the door wanting to be paid for who knows what - I saw steam rise from Susie blue plastic head bag...oh my God what else...well - I definately had a throat infection so had started on meds about 24 hours earlier - that or some Hotel Khema bug was at work - I now had Delhi belly and was making regular trips to the potty - the viewing potty you remember that the busboys pass by...however Susie had some meds to snap me back in shape...oh boy - Lalita came and we were going to the Red Fort with her - and Amar - we just could not handle driving her there, then back to Agra so we begged off and headed out just with our driver - Susie waited outside having gone there a few years ago and I did the highlight, self-guided tour. Six Indian boys (are you getting that boys from the North, the the excepting of the wonderful sikh men we met up here in the north) were sassing me and I was at my India limit - I looked at them and yelled in English...while pointing my index finger at them "you need to go get some manners now!"...I am sure that had an undeniable influence on their lives...ha ...but a Britsh couple were passing and I said to the woman, I am sorry I was having a rough moment...she said you are not having a frustrating moment Love, you are having an India moment....it has to happen some time! Sprint tour done, back to the car, Amar and Susie and our trip back to Delhi, which thankfully took only 4 vs 5 hours and was rather uneventful - I did however see this veggie vendor - note the red carrots!- well until we landed close to our hotel, all the streets were closed for a visiting Shiek, we had to cross 6 lanes of traffic with all of our luggage and transfer it to a rickshaw to finish the way to the hotel because Amar could not get his car to the hotel...but now our bellies are full, we have posted and a luke warm shower awaits...tomorrow is another day! Love KB from Delhi - remember to check Susies blog
for her take on the Hitchcock day from hell.....

Made it to Delhi

2007-01-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well after that New Years Eve...then New Years Day just snoozing and walking down the beach and watching another gorgeous sunset - Good luck to you Chris and Jeff in getting into Hotel Vikki! Enjoy Hampi!Thanks for delivering the stuff to Hotel Vikki for us...Time for a Russian update you say...well if you read the excellent report from Susie on our New Years Eve you will remember the Russians we tried to rescue...well it turns out older sister Helen tried to leave in the middle of the night - thank God the 93 pound security guard was able to stop her - there were people and cars filling the street to capacity - probably 6-8 people walking in each direction - the football field beside us was filled with tail gate party people...she might have been lost - but later in the day we saw them and today before we left - they were sheepish but have not abandoned Vodka as their drink of choice...I suggested eating as well as an option...Anna laughed and said - youve arest too funny my canadian lady...OK well I still think it was good advice...Hey we forgot to mention that the toilet seat was stolen on New Years Eve from the toilet near the pool! The Hotel Manager was sad we would not consider being his american wives....hummm...you have to laugh...what flirty men...but then today we had to leave our wonderful Goa at 95 degrees to go to Delhi which is about 50 degrees...our new friend Ally drove us to the airport in his Honda SUV - what luxury - Air Conditioning...wow - we have not had that the whole time in India. Alas heading to Delhi I had to break out the shall we say...fragrant fleece sweatshirt? Ha! But we made it into Delhi - I think we got in about 1.5 hours late because of fog - a little wierd the airport tarmac was deserted as they were taking planes in so slowly with time between each. However - 4 flights hit the baggage round about inside at the same time...no carts - people were crazy with pent up post holiday energy and these fellows were just sceaming at one another - we could not understand but I think it went something like this...you son of an elephant - you stole my cart...I saw you - no that is not true you camel stealer - the cart was never yours - it was mine - go back to Goa you trouble maker...it was just crazy - I mean at the top of their lungs...or who knows - maybe it was just about wishing each other Happy New Years...ha -..but the screaming stopped when the ever present military quickly stepped in to check things out...something about the ever present machine guns that make the cart loss seem less important...Susie and I each stake out turf - her the luggage off, me the cart and loading - then off to the pre-paid taxi stand and out to manover cart and taxi drivers to take us to the YWCA in Delhi. Did we mention we miss Goa and want to go back with our families soon -evidently August is the best month - wouldn't that be fun! The airport at Delhi today...where is the airport you say? (PS: I changed my blog settings so it should be easier to post now - and thanks to Brenda, Mom/Dad, Aunt Carol and OJ for their great notes offline!) Photo from Delhi Newspaper

Happy New Year

2006-12-31T22:23:00.000-08:00

Not quite New Year on the West Coast...but New Years Day half over here! Susie has done an amazing post of last night which you should read! From crazy Russian girls, sisters having a fight, to crazy Indian dancers, prawns tooth picked to tree, Susies hair catching on fire, a cheezy Indian singer singing 70's and 80's pop, getting locked in our hotel room - it was the craziest night! We stayed up until 5 am and it is noon now - so we had a good sleep! It is quite a crazy place at New Years this Goa! Hugs from Goa and Happy New Year! click here for Susies blog

Feeding Mama

2006-12-30T23:46:00.000-08:00

Young Driver

2006-12-30T23:45:00.001-08:00

Local pigs, wander around

2006-12-30T23:42:00.000-08:00

Local Tailor's Son

2006-12-30T23:40:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve in Goa

2006-12-30T23:25:00.000-08:00

Today is New Years Eve. We got things started last night watching two football (Soccer for us!) games in the pub in the hotel. There are many English travellers here, our friends said they like to be known as English vs British...what a wild crowd going for their favoured teams! One man had his wife finally yell at him - just shut up, just shut up you bloke! We were cracking up!

Susie is a fan of wisky if she has a drink and she has converted me - you just cannot have soda that is from a fountain...as it has local water, beer too filling in the heat - wine...forget it...ha - so we have an occasional glass of wiskey, hoping the alcohol will kill any germs in the glass!

The military are out full time on the beach today - the revellers for New Years are filling the beach and they are maintaining control - I noticed them last night where there were about 50 on my walking stretch of the beach, there had been none before. This is the more family part of Goa - so you don't have a lot of wild college partiers, but lots of Indians come here to party with their families and many Brits come here year after year.

This is the local paper the Navhind Times
There was a crazy parade last night - for Christmas or New Years...complete with Santa and JingleBells and all sorts of marti-gras like floats - and also firecrackers! Went right in front of the pub - very fun. They are preparing all day for the party - this is a sample - the banana tree stalks have what attached to them you say? Yes those are shrimp for supper...on toothpicks...interesting presentation for sure!

We have only the rest of today and tomorrow in Goa - our time has flown!

Sunset in Goa

2006-12-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

My gals

2006-12-29T23:35:00.000-08:00

Who couldn't love these two crazies! Good looking right? Glad you are home and keep those photos coming girls! I can see you have been flossing! Went to Old Goa today and St. Francis Assisi Cathedral...that was totally cool - then we went to Panjim - hot and crazy...but cold Diet Coke...Ha! Now back at hotel and internetting...then we will have a swim...ahhhhh...Susie sent another box yesterday - she totally scored for her business in Mangalore - her friends helped her find some wonderful stuff! Hugs from South Goa and 87 degrees...87% humidity!!!!!!!!!!!

Dec 29th in Goa - Happy Birthday Brenda!

2006-12-29T07:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Sister - will toast you tonight! Actually it is night...8:30 pm but just 10 am for you - a whole birthday day ahead of you!

I took about 200 photos today on the beach - lots of kids ready to ham it up - we took great sunset shots tonight as well - We are going into old Goa tomorrow to look around but quite a haul from where we are...1300 rps...$33 which is a heck of a lot for a taxi drive return in India - but it will be worth it. Susie swam in the pool and met some British Mates whose wives all went topless and shocked the Indian boys assembing a stage for the New Years Eve party...I think there was a work slowdown... :) We are back to rice and tandori chicken -only safe food - we had some food last night that had us both gagging...so back to the simple...though the Brits beside us had chips and hamburgers for dinner....we were drooling....but of course better to be plain and boring and not get sick!

Thanks for all the emails - a bit lonely here...wanted to fly home yesterday and poor Susie was worried...but today was great ...so hangin in..!

Colva Beach

2006-12-28T22:42:00.000-08:00

We thought as I said yesterday it would be quiet here...we are going this aft to find a quite beach 3 km away up north the beach. But I found a great fellow and bought some earings and a ring today - for sure Marco you will love...ha! Jacquie I need your ring size - hugs