Turning up the heat in Udaipur

After leaving Delhi we've since been to Pushkar and now just spent 4 great days in Udaipur in central Rajasthan. We signed up last night for a cooking class with Shashi at her home below the Sunrise restaurant. It ran from 6 to 11pm and we cooked curries, pakora, naan, chapati and parantha plus got info on all kinds of other aspects of Indian cooking and life. This has been by far another highlight in India. Hopefully we can reproduce these dishes at home, as long as we can find the ingredients in Sudbury.

Potato, onion and veg pakora (with chillies) and fresh dips.

After we couldn't eat another bite we tried our hardest to get the family to eat the left overs but they only laughted and said it wasn't spicy enough so wasn't worth eating.

Colin, Shashi, Patti and Jenny post eating about 11 pm.

Agra and The Taj Mahal

We visited Agra to see the Taj Mahal before going to Delhi to get new passports so this is out of order however Agra deserves some comment.

We met lots of travellers who downplayed Agra and the Taj Mahal citing too many people and over priced entry. It did cost 700 rupees ($16) per person, which is outrageous compared to virtually any other sight in India and there were lots of tourists. That being said there is something almost fairy tale about this building, it is much larger and more beautifull than any photo I've ever seen and the crowds were swallowed up by the imense size of theTaj grounds.


Truly beautiful

Passport-less in India

Under-estimating the amount of space the greedy African border officials needed for visas and stamps we no longer have enough space for Visas in the up-coming countries we hope to visit. The result was a quick jaunt aboard the lowest class rail available to the Canadian Embassy in New Delhi (due to the short notice) .

Why sit in the seats when the luggae rack will do (really getting to know India now)

As hard as I try I can't quite blend in with the locals, next step is an orange hat.

If all goes well we should have new passports in 2.5 weeks when we pass back through Delhi on the way to Thailand. A great thanks to the extra freindly staff at the Canadian Embassy.

Cheers

Kama Sutra in Khajuraho

Kharjuraho is a welcome break from busy Varanasi. This small town has an incredible number of hindu temples that are covered in the most ornate and intricate stone carvings. These carvings depict largely gods and various religious scenes, but there is also a large amount of Kama Sutra positions. Some are very simple others are acrobatic feats involving multiple people and sometimes horses or mythical creatures. One of the most famous as shown in the picture below involves a head stand and four people.
Us imitating the same positions and almost getting caught by the guards.

Amazing place, off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal today.

Colin and Patti

Arriving in India!!!!

We'll we've only been in India for 4 days now and lots has happened: I've had delhi belly; Colin has it in reverse; we've seen several street animals including, rats (1 ran right under our table while eating dinner), goats (a few are in human clothes), cows, chickens, buffaloes, and dogs; we've had cockroaches in our bedrooms and the list goes on and on.

Right now we are in Varansi. This is a very important pilgrimage city for the Hindu people and they all wish to be cremated on the ghats running alongside the holy river, Ganges. In two spots along the river, they cremate bodies 24 hours a day. It is a powerful sight. All around the holy sites there are touts trying to sell us all kinds of things. Some are just children. Tomorrow we head off to Khajuraho. This city is renowned for its kama sutra temple carvings. Can't wait! Some are life size!

The food has been great so far. We've tried lots of Indian dishes, our favourites include lots of paneer (unfermented cheese). When we are tired of the Indian, there are no shortage of Western options for all the tourists. We've also tried some Indian sweets. They are all sticky with lots of sugar but they are soooo good! Perhaps we will gain weight with all this food but we might not. Since Varansi is so holy, no menus have beers on them. A restaurant owner bought us some from a shop the other night and delivered them in a paper bag!! We've heard it may not be such a hassle in other towns. We hope not because Kingkisher is pretty tasty!!

Miss you all!!!

Patti & Colin

Big Mountains!

We just finished an 18 day trek around the Anipurna Range in the central Nepali Himalayas and it was incredible. The mountains are bigger than we could imagine. It's something when you are standing at 5400m and the mountains are still towering over you! Here are a couple of photos, we will create some albums on the Picasa page soon.

The view from our teahouse in Manang Village at night.

After a 5:00am departure from high camp we headed for Thorung La pass through the snow.

After 3 hrs hiking we reached the world's "Largest Mountain Pass" still not sure what that means but it was beautiful. In the photo is Colin, Patti, Nim (guide) and Rham (porter) we couldn't have made without either of those two.
Day 16 or so, another early morning walk to the top of Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the mountain range.

Indian Visa Granted

It took three different trips over 5 days to the embassy but the Indians will allow us to enter their country! I hope this isn't foreshadowing any problems getting Chinese, Mongolian or Russian visas. Fingers crossed.

Talk to you all in 18 days or so.

C and P