So, how does the story end?

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long, but I have excellent excuses. We didn't have Internet access at any of our hotels after Mumbai (and that was the least of our worries), then we had a 21-hour overnight flight back home, and then I got deathly ill (I think Marcelo did too) with some kind of flu and was bedridden for 3 days. On the third day, I had to haul my ass out of bed, order Darcy around to pack our stuff, and get on a flight to Halifax to spend Christmas at home -- I barely made it. I'm so glad I did it though because I am loving being here with our families, fresh air, and yummy food.

So, I haven't forgotten that I need to tell you all about our crazy last days in India. Thank you to Sonia for organizing the trip for us. The weekend had both incredible highs and devastating lows (I'm being overly dramatic). We saw some amazing things, but it almost killed us. Let me tell you about it. Let me also warn you that this entry is loooong -- book off a couple of hours.

Saturday, December 16: Jaipur
After spending a very comfortable evening in rooms of comparable quality at the Orchid Hotel in Mumbai, Marcelo and I woke at 3AM to get ready to catch a 5:30AM flight to Jaipur. Similar to the Pride Hotel, checkout was a challenge. Their computers seemed to be down, so the guy had to look up information on a bunch of dot-matrix printed sheets and do everything by hand. I made sure that I didn't touch the mini bar in order to expedite the process, but it was still pretty slow and another guest who thought he was more important kept butting in and saying that he had a 4AM pickup to go to the airport (so did we). All 3 of us piled into a mini bus and made it to the very modern domestic airport in plenty of time.

The flight was a piece o' cake ( 1-1/2 hours) and we got to Jaipur right on time at 7. We hooked up with the driver easily and made our way to the Raj Mahal Palace -- a 'heritage' hotel. Before I say anything else, let me stress to you all that if a travel agent ever tries to get you to stay in a 'heritage' hotel, say NO. 'Heritage' means that the place is old enough for them to think that the history makes up for things like cleanliness and safety. The Raj Mahal Palace was an absolute disaster. My room looked like the cheap hostel where I stayed in Rome in 1996. The bed linen was dirty, there wasn't any hot water, there was a mosquito coil in the room, and the windows (which faced the train tracks) didn't lock. There weren't any peepholes and you couldn't call from room to room, so I freaked out every time someone knocked on the door. There were all these construction workers on the grounds staring at me going into my room alone, so it was pretty unsettling. When I slept that night, I put drinking glasses on the window sills in case anyone tried to get in.

Marcelo's room had its own problems. Although it was much sunnier and pleasant in general with no visible dirt on the linen, he had what looked like actual sewage coming out of his shower. On the first day, he thought it was just dirt so he let it run forever and it finally went clear. The next morning, it looked not only brown but lumpy so he took a sponge bath with bottled water instead. We really hope he doesn't have dysentery.

Our rooms (#120, 121) were in a sort of outbuilding, which was separate from the main 'palace' (maybe they were the servants' quarters?). Perhaps the rooms in the main building were half decent, but this was DEFINITELY not a 5-star hotel like advertised to us by the travel agent. At one point, we went into the main lobby and saw a picture of Princess Diana who had stayed there about 20 years back and looked so like she was trying to pretend to have a good time. After the dirty linen and sewage coming out of the tap, the look on her face struck us as so hilariously funny and we made a bit of a scene staggering around the hallway laughing our asses off. They must have thought that we were really enjoying the hotel.

Okay, so aside from the hotel, Jaipur was a beautiful city. At 8:45AM after settling into the Raj Mahal Ass hotel, we met up with our guide (I think her name was Annapurna) and set off to explore the city. She really was an excellent guide. She knew a lot about the city and its sites and she kept up a continuous stream of commentary at breakneck speed.

So, they call Jaipur the pink city because most of the buildings and walls are made with coral-coloured sandstone. I had originally thought that the colouring was for practical reasons, but actually it was deliberately done to welcome Prince Albert of England to the city. Today, Japiur is home to 3 million residents, but originally it was built for 25,000 people. It's one of the few Indian cities that is planned on a grid system so it was relatively easy to navigate. She said that Jaipur was and continues to be a city with an economy based on arts such as sculpture, metalwork, jewelry, carpet-weaving, block printing, and pottery. The city is divided into areas according to these arts (textile district, etc.).

The first site we stopped to see was a beautiful place called the Hawa Mahal, which is an extension of the city palace. It is a facade with ramps behind it that was built so that the ladies of the maharaja's harem could look at life going on in the city without being seen themselves (the ladies were not allowed outside the palace walls). We didn't actually go inside (not sure why), but we took some pictures from across the street.

Next we went to the Amber Fort, which is an enormous palace complex and was the seat of rule before Jaipur. The palace grounds are located at the top of a steep hill, which we traversed via elephant. There were tonnes of howaito-san in line waiting for elephant rides. In my mind, I had pictured Marcelo and I each riding our own elephant with the infinite silence of the desert all around, which was very naive because it turned out to be such a touristy 'half-dead-pony-trail-ride' kind of thing. Marcelo and I both sat on the same elephant in a kind of painted metal cage like a carnival ride. The driver sat on its head and kicked it around to make it do stuff (like lean way in against the stone wall to let us on). We were told that our elephant was very young (30 years old), which explained why we passed tonnes of other elephants and made it up the hill in record time. It was such a bumpy ride that we both had death grips on the metal cage and when we got off our hands were full of paint chips. Marcelo says that he doesn't think he needs to ride an elephant again. :) Nevertheless, it was a great experience.

The first building we went into was a small temple devoted to the Hindu goddess of war (I can't remember her name). We had to take our shoes and socks off before entering and it was all white marble inside. Annapurna kissed each of the steps leading into the temple, rang the bell, and prayed along with several other worshippers. Since I didn't grow up with any religion, I always feel a little awkward in churches, temples, and shrines and I'm a bit envious of how engrossed and serious the worshippers are while performing their rituals. Annapurna said that the goddess of war doesn't represent conflict; she signifies victory in any sense and gives you strength to succeed.

In addition to the temple, there are countless other buildings/areas within the palace walls including the mirror palace (winter palace), summer palace, rooftop party area (I'm paraphrasing here), children's area, wives' apartments, and gardens.

The mirror palace (aka the winter palace) was the most amazing and beautiful place. It is a domed building that is completely covered on the inside with convex mirrors, gold, and both semi-precious and precious stones. When candles were lit inside the rooms, the flames reflected off the mirrors and created lots of light and heat. While the winters were short, they were cold (around 0 C, I think) so without any kind of central heating, this was how they made themselves comfortable. It was so pretty.

The summer palace was located high up in the complex to take advantage of the breeze. Water was piped onto the rooftop and it trickled down through straw mats, which created an air conditioning effect when the wind blew through. The rooftop party area was adjacent to the summer palace and had a large dance floor and bandstand. Parties took place on the rooftop because they didn't have any electricity so their gatherings had to be lit by the starry sky. Isn't that cool? The children's area was also in the same vicinity and had gazebos with hooks for swings and curtains.

There were 12 apartments -- one for each of the maharaja's 12 wives. Each apartment had direct private access to his quarters so that the ladies would not know who was being sent for and would not be jealous. Annapurna said that way back, Hindu women and men had equal status in society and the same access to education and employment. But, when the Muslims invaded, they abducted the most attractive women and forcibly married them, so after that Hindus kept their women inside where no one could see them. In the palace, in addition to the apartments and rooftop areas, there were lots of screened balconies set up where women could see out, but no one could see in. At the front of the palace was a lovely lattice screened walkway where the ladies would shower the maharaja with flowers upon his return from war.

There were a lot of other cool and practical architectural features of the palace. Believe it or not, the entire complex was wheelchair accessible. They had these kind of rolling chaises for old and disabled people, so there were ramps everywhere. The passageways inside the palace were coated with a mixture of plaster, seashells, eggshells, and other minerals so that the walls reflected light and made navigating easier at night. I think she said that dead ends had a different, more matte coating so you'd know when it was time to stop or turn around. The palace had underground tanks that could filter enough water for the the whole city.

After the Amber Fort, Annapurna said she'd take us somewhere where we could see these storied Jaipur craftspeople at work. What we were too naive to realize was that she was taking us shopping to a place where she would get commission on anything we bought. I, at least, was completely oblivious so we went to a place called Rajasthan Textile Development Corporation (see, even the name is a decoy). Upon entering, we saw a small demonstration on carpet weaving and block printing. The block printing was kind of cool. He dipped a wooden stamp in vegetable dye (green from spinach and yellow from turmeric), made an elephant impression on the cloth, then dunked the entire piece in lemon juice. He made another liquid mixture of minerals and salts, which reacted with the lemon juice on the cloth and turned the parts that weren't dyed already bright red. Cool.

After the demo we were whisked upstairs to look at carpets. Marcelo and I are not carpet people, but we had a look anyways and they rolled out at least 20 for us. They were made of all different fibres, including camel hair, silk, and wool. All of these carpets are made by hand (dyeing, weaving, edging, tasseling, washing) and it can take up to 8 months to make one. Prices ranged from $650-$3800 depending on the size and complexity. A little tip for you all: if you have a mild stain on a carpet, use lemon juice; for a tougher stain, use vinegar. The guy was very gracious even after we declined to buy one.

Then we went back downstairs and looked at block printed bedspreads. On each, the front side was made of silk and the back side was made of cotton. Most designs included elephants because they are said to be good luck (Marcelo's family thinks the exact opposite though so it made buying gifts here very difficult for him). I'm a sucker for textiles, so I ended up buying 3. They had a really dramatic way of unfurling the bedpreads and flipping them over to reveal the other side. At one point, I had a shortlist of 7 or so and the guy recruited everyone in the store to hold them up for me while I picked and chose like some kind of socialite. The same guy showed me some pashminas and even though I had already bought 11 in Pune, I got one more because it was this amazing periwinkle colour.

We were almost out of the store when the guy who sold carvings and paintings upstairs accosted us, grabbed my pashmina, and dragged us up to see his stuff. We spent most of our time up there looking at his handpainted cards and drawings of elephants, peacocks, camels, and other Indian symbols. I bought some cards for Christmas and Marcelo bought a bunch of larger pieces. At one point, I wandered away from the counter and the guy asked Marcelo if he wanted to see his 'very special' paintings. In case his leer wasn't suggestive enough, he said, 'erotic paintings'. I was only gone for a second so I have no idea what he would have done if Marcelo had said yes. Was there a little room at the back with a black curtain and an '18 and over' sign? Ew.

At this point we had been shopping for something like 2 hours. We realized later that this was really bitchy of her because she wasted most of our day shopping and she rushed us through the rest of the sites. She had actually also wanted to take us to a jewelry place, but we said no. If we had we might have not seen anything else at all.

After shopping we went to lunch at a pretty decent place, but it was full of white tourists. All of these tour guides are getting kickbacks from these stores and restaurants so they aren't the best places. It's too bad. I don't know if you could pay enough money to get a tour guide who actually showed you what was best in the city. Anyways, we were fed and didn't get food poisoning.

After lunch she rushed us through Jantar Mantar, an ancient outdoor observatory built by Maharaja Jai Singh II that has, among other things, the world's largest sundial that can tell time up to the second. She went through how everything worked so fast that I didn't really understand. But, the structures were impressive.

After the observatory, we tore through the City Palace museum at a crazy speed. Among the notable things that she dragged us by was one of the maharaja's wedding gowns that had 3-1/2 kg of gold thread weaved in. Along the same lines, there was a blanket that had 9-1/2 kg of gold in it. Crazy. There were men dressed as ceremonial guards at the gates between buildings and they kept leaping in front of things so that you'd take their picture. I thought it was really sweet, so I took one, but then they both wanted money. I pretended to be really clueless and just thanked them profusely. Upon exiting the grounds, a pigeon pooped on my head. That had never happened to me before, but I knew exactly what it was without looking. Marcelo cleaned it out for me. We've reached a new level of intimacy.

Promptly at 5PM she took her leave and instructed the driver to take us to a place called Indiana for dinner that evening. After spending a couple of hours relaxing at the ass hotel, we went. Just like at lunch, the place was full of white tourists, but this time the food was AWFUL. The paneer tasted like a pencil eraser. To make things worse, there was 'entertainment' in the form of dancers, one of which was either a drag queen or a really ugly woman. All of them were haggling for tips. I was wondering, are you supposed to stuff a bill in her sari like a stripper? In any case, the place was a terrible tourist trap. Totally McIndia. The waiter tried to keep my change and when I asked for it he hovered over me so that no one else could get the tip. We HATED this place. Although, just like at the hotel, at one point it all seemed hysterically funny and we made another scene by laughing until we cried.

On the bright side, it was pretty late by this time and we had to get up at 4AM in order to catch a train to Agra, so we had only a handful of hours left to go at the ass hotel. I put all my booby traps in place and had a fitful few hours of sleep before I naturally woke up at 3:30AM, took a cold shower, and got ready to start another day.

For more pictures from Jaipur, click here.

Sunday, December 17: Agra

Marcelo didn't have an alarm clock and the TV didn't work, so I knocked on his door at 4AM to get him up. Little did I know that a few minutes later he would be witnessing sewage coming from his tap. Poor Marcelo. We checked out at 4:45AM and waited for our driver to take us to catch the 6AM train. By 5:15, he still hadn't shown up and he was supposed to be there at 5. I called the guy who was taking care of us in Agra and he said he'd handle it. 20 minutes later, the driver arrived looking like he just woke up. He sped, dodged, and wove the car to the train station at a reckless speed -- we thought we were going to die. Once there, he began arguing with a couple of porters who were trying to take our bags out of the car. More than once he forcibly grabbed them away from them. Then, he did a complete 180 and told us that they would take us to the train and keep us 'safe'. We basically said f**k off, grabbed our own bags, and went to find our seats. Thankfully, the car was really easy to find. The only problem was that my bag was about 75 lbs and I could barely get it on the train let alone up on the luggage racks. A very very sweet and strong guy from South Africa, Rene (see picture), was sitting behind me and he very very sweetly hoisted it up there for me. I love him.

One thing to keep in mind when travelling on any train in India is that even if your seats are numbered consecutively, that doesn't mean that they are together. Marcelo and I had seats 34 and 35, but I was sitting two rows behind him and on the opposite side of the train. Thankfully, someone wanted to switch with me, so we ended up sitting together after all. Across from us was a big extended Mennonite family from Southern Ontario (small world). Two of the parents had just started a 3-year teaching contract in Northern India and they had dragged their 3 kids with them. When I was a kid, I remember I didn't even want to change schools and have to meet all new people. They seem to be taking it well.

The train ride was perfectly fine once we were settled in. Vendors came around selling breakfast, chai, etc., but we were too worried about our GI tracts to partake. We zoned out and listened to our iPods and thought that everything looks better with a soundtrack running in the background. By about 11AM, we had arrived in Agra.

The very nice rep from the travel agency came right onto the train to find us. He already had a porter in tow who floored me by carrying both of our suitcases ON HIS HEAD. He looked like he weighed about 100lbs tops and our suitcases weighed at least 125lbs together. He carried them up a huge flight of stairs, down another, and had to crouch down to clear an overhang. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. We were driven to a hotel where we used the bathroom and had a little something to eat before meeting the Agra guide and heading to the Taj Mahal.

The new guide was very knowledgeable, polite, and well-spoken just like the one in Jaipur (I'm sorry to say that I don't remember his name). He knew lots of interesting things about the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort and he took everything at a leisurely pace, which was refreshing after getting bulldozed through Jaipur.

There are no factories/industry in Agra because the exhaust would make the Taj Mahal dirty. As extra precautions, you have to travel the last km to the Taj in a battery-operated car and once there you must wear surgical-type booties on your feet. You are not allowed to bring anything into the grounds except for a camera (no cellphones, iPods, video cameras, sharp objects) and before you enter the gates you are frisked by security personnel.

Immediately upon entering the gates, there is a long, low building that used to serve as an inn. Past this there is a central courtyard with four gates (north, south, east, and west). The south gates lead to a colony where the descendants of the marble workers who built that Taj live. During the years while it was being built, there were something like 20,000 workers living there. The north gates are the ones that lead to the Taj.

The north gates have 22 domes at the top signifying the 22 years that it took to build the Taj Mahal. On the gate are excerpts from the Koran. The letters range in size from 10-100 feet and are designed so that from a distance they all look the same size. The gate is made from sandstone and marble with stone inlay. The sandstone errodes and is repaired every 200 years, but the marble is the original because it never gets scratched or chipped. Most of the inlay is black onyx. In 1905, they tried to repair some inlay by using grey stone, but it faded while the black onyx kept its colour.

The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān as a memorial for his wife. She was 20 years old when they married and bore 14 children and had 2 miscarriages by the time she died at age 39. Before her death, she made the emperor promise that he would never marry again and that he would build her a memorial. No one has ever lived in the Taj Mahal.

All the pictures of the Taj on the Internet and in books are usually from the front, so you can't see that the structure is actually perfectly symmetrical on all four sides. If you look at it from any of its sides (north, south, east, and west), it looks exactly the same. The main dome has a false smaller dome on the inside, so it is really bigger on the outside than in. The reason for this is that while the dome looks impressive from the outside, if the inside was the same size, it would be too overwhelming. Inside are the tombs housing the actual bodies of the emperor and his wife.

Something that really surprised us was that the emperor was not supposed to be buried in the Taj Mahal. Upon his death, he wanted an identical black Taj Mahal built across the river in black marble. This didn't happen because his third son imprisioned him for the last 8 years of his life (he was jealous because he would never inherit the throne) and when he died his son was too cheap to carry out his wishes. So he buried him in the Taj, which was meant only for the empress, and the emperor's tomb is the only non-symmetrical element in the entire structure. Can you imagine how amazing it would have been to have a black Taj across the river?

Seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time really was a spine-tingling moment. It's so immense, white, graceful, and perfect. It was by far the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

After leaving the Taj Mahal we went to lunch at another tour guide-endorsed joint. The food was half decent, but there were more hawkers outside trying to get cash from us. This really creepy little kid was dressed in blue satin with gold earrings and was singing Frere Jacques and winking at us. To this day, I can't get that image out of my head. There was also a snake charmer that had two cobras and a python. He wanted us to take a picture of him and give him money.

After lunch we went to the Red Fort. Among other things, this is where the emperor was imprisioned by his son in the years before his death. 'Imprisioned' is slightly misleading because he had very comfortable quarters and an excellent view of the Taj.

Back in the day, the fort had both a wet moat filled with dangerous reptiles and a dry moat with tigers and lions. You need to go through several sets of gates before you can get past the palace walls. The gates are set at different angles because invaders used to use elephants to charge gates and they can only run in straight lines. The ramp leading up to the gates was sloped downwards so that big stones could be rolled down to impede intruders.

Inside, there is an area where the king's throne (the peacock throne) sat and used to house the world's biggest diamond, which is now one of the British crown jewels. This is where people could come to tell the king their problems and seek advice (I'm not sure if just anyone off the street could come).

The 3rd Mughul emperor had a harem of approximately 300 ladies housed in this fort. He had 4 wives and the rest were either concubines or other women he had taken into his care and was not sleeping with (widows of soldiers, daughters, sisters, etc.). It was an honour for a woman to be in the emperor's harem. All children of the harem were cared for by the emperor financially, but only the children of his wives could inherit the throne. Like at the Amber Fort, there were rooftop facilities where the ladies could dance and play without being seen.

The last thing we saw on the grounds was the king's portable bathtub -- a huge, stone tub with stairs on both the inside and out. Even though the thing must have weighed a tonne, it was taken with him when he travelled.

Unlike the Jaipur guide, this one showed us the sites very thoroughly before trying to loop us into shopping. Since we had a little time, we indulged him and looked at some jewelry. Marcelo looked at a lot of stuff, but didn't end up buying anything despite all the begging and pleading from the shopkeepers. I ended up buying some loose stones for my sister because she makes jewelry. I bought a Star of India, which is a black semi-precious stone that reveals a four-pointed white star when you shine a light on it. I also bought a star ruby, which is an actual precious ruby that shows a six-point star. I think I got a pretty good deal.

That evening, we had to get on another train to Delhi. Our wonderful friend from the travel agency (I have his name on a card somewhere) met up with us and took the same train. He organized the porters so it all went much smoother than in the morning. Again, the porters carried our suitcases on their heads up and down huge flights of stairs. Again, even though we were seated in seats 4 and 5, we were in different rows. Can't win.

For more pictures from Agra, please click here.

Monday, December 18: Delhi

By the time we got to Delhi 2-1/2 hours later, we were tired as death and all we wanted was a non-heritage hotel with clean linen, clean towels, and no sewage coming out of the taps. Our excellent driver took us to the Claremont hotel, which had all three things and we almost wept. However, no hot water to be had here either so we took cold showers and called it a day. Soon after crawling into bed, the phone rang (at 12:40AM) and some idiot said, "Good morning, ma'am. Breakfast is served between 6-10AM and you'll have to come down for it." All I could muster was a really sarcastic "okaa-ay" before he hung up on me. Ugh.

We had told the driver that we didn't want to go anywhere before 2PM because we had two consecutive days of getting up at 3. We sort of slept in, got ready for the long ass flight, read the paper, and had a leisurely lunch. In the light of day, we realized that for a 'business hotel and convention centre' it had very few amenities. For instance, you couldn't call long distance from your room. You had to go to the 'business centre' which was a backroom with two 100-year old computers and a couple of phones. There was no Internet access to be had in the rooms either. The safe didn't work and neither did the TV (all channels had static). Again, this is not a 5-star hotel. But, at that point, anything was better than the Raj Mahal Ass hotel.

At 2PM we checked out and met our Delhi guide. Let me just say that I can't even begin to tell you how much we HATED this guy. He was so not anywhere in the same league as the other two guides we had. He was unkempt, greasy, touchy-feely, and he didn't know anything. I instantly was in the bitchiest mood that Marcelo had witnessed so far on the trip. I was practically hissing. Since all the sites closed at 5PM, we figured we only had to spend a few hours with him and how bad could that be? Ew.

We started at Humayan's Tomb, which took a very long time to get to from the hotel. On the way, he told us a few facts about Delhi, including that the population is 16 million and that 13% of the population is homeless. Also, helmets are mandatory for men riding motorcycles, but not for women. There is 93 km of subway constructed, which will hopefully aid in congestion in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Let me just say that I can't imagine all of those people getting processed through the Delhi airport in time to actually participate in the games. Anyways, all the rickshaws, buses, and taxis run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and Delhi University is the biggest university in India. OK fine, so the guy did know some things.

Humayan's Tomb was built for the emperor Humayan by his widow. The architecture is a mix of different cultural symbols, including Jewish (star of David) and Turkish ones (certain flowers). While we were inside the tomb, an American woman said really loudly that the tombs were off centre, but that geometry probably hadn't been invented yet. I'm totally serious. I couldn't make that up.

After that we went to India Gate, which was built by the British in 1921 after the First World War to thank the Indian soliders who fought for Britain. The arch lists all the names of the soldiers who died. After that we turned around and drove up the street to the Presidential Palace. By this point, the guide was really on our last nerve, so I stopped taking notes and Marcelo stopped taking pictures. For the whole afternoon, I was playing 'keep away' and trying to keep Marcelo in between the guide and me, but poor Marcelo didn't want to get close to him either. He kept on touching both of us, which is so weird since we just met and he is basically working for us. When we got back in the car (surprise, surprise), he wanted to take us to watch people make 'handicrafts'. I said flat out no and he protested, but the driver was on my side (he didn't like the guide either). I asked the driver to take us to Le Meridien and to pick us up when we had to go to the airport. Once we arrived we both said a hasty goodbye and hightailed it inside. That was the longest 3 hours of my life.

Le Meridien was such an oasis after being on the tourist circuit for 3 days. India, and especially the tourist racket, had kicked our asses. We used the most palatial bathrooms ever, lounged in the lobby, and had a lovely last dinner at the cafe. The only discordant note was the live entertainment where a guy was singing Phil Collins crap.

At 8PM, we headed to the airport for our 1:45AM flight home. The Delhi airport was chaos -- hot and dirty. In the lineup for screening our bags, I met a guy from Bedford, Nova Scotia who went to the same high school as Darcy. I asked him when he graduated and he said 4 years ago. So, while we're not exactly old enough to be his parents, Darcy could have babysat him or I may have taught him swimming lessons. He had been backpacking in India for 2 months -- what a guy. For more pictures from Delhi, please click here.

By the time we boarded the plane, we were all India-ed out. Everyone I know who has travelled to India told me that I'd both love it and hate it and I have to say that is exactly right. I'm so glad we got to stay in Pune and meet real people, eat real food, and work. Being a full-time tourist is so much more taxing and you get pushed around while everyone is trying to get your money. We saw some great things though, so I'm happy we did all this sightseeing. Thank you again, Sonia, for arranging it for us. Please do not be offended by all my complaining.

Thank you to everyone who made our stay in India fun and safe. And this is it for the India blog. I'm starting a new blog for adventures in and around Toronto (and perhaps Montreal, Halifax, and Boston), which will not be as interesting for everyone here, but might be for you guys in India. I'll add the link to the Links section of this blog in the next couple of days.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Made it to Mumbai

Hey everyone. It's 5:40PM and Marcelo and I are comfortably settled in the Orchid Hotel for the night. It was very weird coming back here because this was where we stayed on our very first night in India. Unlike last time, Marcelo and I both have equally crummy rooms. I'm just kidding, Sonia, the rooms are fine. I bought a 24-hour Internet package, so I'm all set.

I was up pretty late last night blogging and trying to pack. I didn't accomplish much except to drag everything out of the closet and throw it on the other twin bed. I woke up at about 7:30 and started the arduous task of sorting through everything and engineering a strategy to get it all in. By 9:30, I had at least folded all my clothes and corraled everything into groups (clothes, toiletries, pashminas, etc.). We went for breakfast and said some goodbyes to David Gomes, the Executive Chef, and the guy who always greets us so enthusiastically at breakfast (I'm ashamed to say I didn't get his name). David offered to pack up some fruit for us to take for the drive to Mumbai, which he delivered to us just as we were checking out.

I was back in my room by 10 and the room was an absolute mess. I remember saying to Marcelo that I really only bought cloth and I gave away the AudienceView t-shirts, so my suitcase should actually be lighter than it was on the way over. That is so not the case. I had to open the expandable section all the way and it is so full that if you stand it up on carpet, it falls over like R2-D2. I can sort of lift it, but it is definitely nowhere near the 50lbs it was on the way here. We've both gained weight.

Marcelo called at about 11:30 to make sure I was on the right track. By that time, the suitcase was closed and I did a very princessy thing of calling down to have someone bring my luggage to the lobby. I don't think I could have fit in the elevator with all my bags. On our way down, I took a picture of the phone in the hallway that has been driving me crazy. Marcelo said something about it on our comments card. We're so passive aggressive.

Checking out was a complete nightmare. There were 4 people there serving us, but we had to tell 3 of them separately that we were checking out. All three of them noted our room numbers on the same pad of paper each time. Someone had already come into our rooms to check our mini bars before we headed to the lobby, but one of the desk clerks kept calling to get more people to do the same thing. We stayed for something like 25 nights and they are worried about losing the cost of a bag of chips? Usually, they ask you if you took anything and they believe you if you say no. I actually put stuff in my mini bar (cans of pop) so they have a surplus. Very annoying. I imagine that people check out all the time? It was like training day. It took forever. The thing about the Pride Hotel is that their intentions are all good, but their execution sucks. If you are going to Pune on business, fight tooth and nail to get into Le Meridien. Again Santosh, we were fine. I'm just cranky.

Pradeep picked us up in a gi-normous SUV, which was good because my suitcase was the size of a small refrigerator. Marcelo has two suitcases now because he bought a small one to go to Goa. We had to drive to the travel agent's office to pick up printouts of our e-tickets for the flight tomorrow morning to Jaipur. The travel agent was very sweet. I think this is going to be a great trip. After that, we went to a Citibank to get some more cash and then we were off to Mumbai.

I took a Gravol, which hit me right away because my stomach was a little empty. I slept for pretty much the whole way. When I woke up, we were already in Mumbai. When we were waiting at the travel agent's in Pune, it was 12:40PM. We got to Mumbai by something crazy like 2:20. Pradeep is the greatest. We were at the hotel and checked in before 4pm. This is so much better than flying. Before Pradeep left, he let me take his picture, so you can all see him. We looked up on the Internet what a nice tip would be, so I hope that I gave him enough. We miss him already.

We were starving, so we had some sandwiches at the hotel cafe. It was strange. You could choose two of chicken, tuna, egg, or something else that I can't remember. I asked for chicken and egg and I thought I'd get some chicken salad sandwiches and some egg salad ones. It turned out to be a chicken salad and fried egg sandwich. It was good though. I'm a sucker for mayonnaise.

Well, we have to check out tomorrow morning at 3:45AM (yikes). I'm planning on going to bed at like 8PM at the latest. I'm exhausted, so it shouldn't be too hard to sleep. Our flight leaves at 5:25AM and we land in Jaipur at 7, so we'll have a full day to see everything. I'm so excited.

Well, I hope I can get Internet access at the hotel tomorrow night. I'm sure I will have so much to tell. By this time tomorrow, I will have ridden an elephant! I didn't take a whole lot of pictures today, but if you'd like to see the few I did take, click here. Goodnight everyone.

Last day of school

Today was our last day at the SSS offices and I feel a bit sad -- kind of like the last day of school. We spent the day meeting with everyone and wrapping things up. Santosh took us for a lovely lunch at a Thai/Chinese restaurant called All Stir Fry in the Gordon House boutique hotel. Actually, I think the restaurant name is e.e.cummings-ish, so it's 'all stir fry'.

The hotel is in the same building as a huge multiplex movie theatre that has lounge areas and many fast food places, much like the Famous Players at John and Richmond. They were playing both English and Indian movies. There was a separate box office for men and women. The Irish guys (who are now on their way back to Ireland) thought that the seating in the theatre was segregated as well, but actually it's just the line-up. Santosh told me that the lines are separate because it's not good for them to be mixed when it's busy and crowded. He didn't say it explicitly, but I assume that this means that as a woman you wouldn't be jostled or bothered by strange men, which I think is nice. I'm totally making an assumption, so if I'm wrong, someone please tell me.

The restaurant interior was lovely (I know, I need a new word). The entire ceiling was a huge skylight and there was water cascading over it continuously like a fountain. I had a nice veggie dumpling and noodle soup, some steamed dumplings, and eggplant curry. You know, at every restaurant we have been to here, one of the waiters always gives me a comment card so I can rate the restaurant. They never give it to Marcelo. Today, I said that the pieces of eggplant could have been bigger. I wonder if they will change it just for me? The fortune cookies were really buttery and delicious (unlike the ones at home). My fortune was: Depend on the predictability and steadiness of life to support you. I've never gotten that one before. Marcelo and Santosh's fortunes were new to me too. I think Canadian fortune cookies include only a small subset of possible fortunes. I always get the same ones.

Something cool that Santosh told us was that people who belong to the Jain religion are vegan. They do not eat any animal products and at certain times of the year, they also abstain from foods like onion and garlic. Trina, these are your people! Trina, an old friend of Darcy's, is allergic to garlic and is vegetarian.

We lingered for a long time over lunch, so we didn't get back until about 3:30. Once back at the office, Santosh gave us some awesome-looking Indian snacks and sweets. The sweets are in the shape of little fruits that have been cut open. We're not sure what fruit they are mimicking, but they are beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat. Afterwards we had a wrap-up meeting with Santosh and Madhukar to talk about what the team has accomplished this month and how we feel about the project. Marcelo and I both think the automation is going full steam ahead and they have done so much in a short period of time. You will all be amazed when you see these scripts run. This is my first experience being on the client side of a client-vendor relationship, so these kinds of meetings and conversations about how they can make the project better for us are very foreign to me. Whenever I travel anywhere, I always feel like I am the vendor.

Madhukar and Santosh said that they have both been reading my blog. We agreed that it is a great way to share pictures and stories. Madhukar does a lot of travelling in remote areas in the Himalayas and takes lots of photographs, so I think that he is inspired to make his own travel blog. And Madhukar, when you do, you have to send me the link!

After the meeting, Shirish demonstrated our new test management system, TestLink, for us. This is an open source tool that SSS has customized and enhanced. Marcelo has decided to start using it to store and edit our test cases because it has more robust versioning, sorting, searching, and approval capabilities. We are going to put the cleaned up test cases in TestLink and the guys will be able to pick them up and automate them. Should be really cool. After the demo we said goodbye for now. My impulse is always to hug people, but I don't think anyone does that in India. Marcelo says that handshaking isn't popular either. If that's the case, then I assaulted a lot of people today.

Before we left, Sonia came up and gave us some beautiful parting gifts. She gave us each a framed piece of Dhokra art, which is a form of metal casting. It's so interesting and I'd never heard of this technique before. I took a picture of it to show all of you, but it doesn't do it justice. If you want to see it, let me know and I'll bring it in to the office.

We left at around 7pm and decided to go to Le Meridien for our last dinner in Pune. This is the fanciest hotel in town, so we thought it would be fun to see it. And all the hype is true; it is very fancy. Marcelo had to have a cell phone conference call with Santosh and Matt (Milberry) so while he was doing that I went to one of the hotel shops that specialized in Kashmir products, including (you guessed it) pashminas. My original intent was to see how much they were in comparison to the ones I bought already. They were of comparable price, which made me feel good. The man there was so sweet so I broke down and bought two. That brings the grand pashmina total to 11. Most of these are gifts, but I haven't decided which one is going to whom. I love them all in different ways. At one point, I went through a really greedy phase and decided to keep them all for myself, but that passed so entire my family will be ensconced in pashmina this Christmas. They are so warm, soft, and out-of-this-world. I haven't been so attached to an object since I had stuffed animals (well, I still do but you know what I mean).

We were supposed to meet the travel agent who arranged our weekend at 9:30PM back at the hotel, so we didn't have much time for dinner. But, we did go to one of the hotel's nice restaurants anyways. We went to their Thai/Chinese place called Spice Island (lots of Chinese for us today). We started with a green papaya salad that was actually much too salty and I couldn't eat it. The mains were good though. We had lamb and eggplant curry, phad thai, and rice. One appetizer and two mains -- it was the right amount of food. We learned our lesson.

We rushed out of there, but we were miserably late getting to the hotel. The travel agent was very sweet and the trip looks amazing. I think I should be able to blog this weekend from the hotels, so I'll tell you about it in detail then. For now, let me just say that we are going to tour the Amber Fort ON AN ELEPHANT! Darcy is all worried because before I left we saw one of those 'when elephants go crazy' type shows where a zoo elephant threw its trainer into a wall and tried to crush him with her knees. I'm sure, like trail ride horses, these elephants have done this many times. And I used to ride horses as a kid, so I think I'll be fine.

I cashed the rest of my travelers' cheques to pay the deposit on the trip. It was lucky that I did because I discovered that the exchange rate was wrong on the board (manual thing; not electronic) today, so the cheques I cashed this morning had a USD rate of 34 instead of 44. So, thankfully the manager realized the mistake and gave me the money I was missing. I never pay attention to those things.

So, we leave tomorrow at noon for Mumbai. We're driving there, staying the night, and then flying to Jaipur at the crack of dawn. I'm so excited. Pradeep is taking us to Mumbai, so we should be there in 2 hours. :) He's the best.

Well, goodnight to everyone. If anyone from Symphony is reading this, thank you so much for your hospitality. We had a wonderful time in Pune and we hope to be back in the future. I have plans to continue blogging, but on life in Toronto, so maybe you'd find that interesting. Thank you again. Namaste. :)

For more pictures from today, please click here.

Another wonderful family experience. I'll say it again...we are so spoiled.

This morning, Marcelo and I were graciously and unexpectedly invited to dinner at Chandrashekar's house. We have had so little opportunity to socialize during the day at SSS, so we were delighted to come and meet his family, chat, and have more amazing food.

At about 6pm, we got an email from Sonia saying that we would have a different driver for tonight. I wonder what happened to Pradeep? I hope he is okay. Laxman drove us from SSS to Chandrashekar's place, which is in an area of town that we have never been to before. In this neighbourhood, there are many new building complexes. Chandrashekar says that in their complex, 100% of the residents are working in IT. We left the office at about 6:45PM and the traffic was very light, so we got there in no time.

Once arrived, we met Chandrashekar's wife Brundavani, son Amandeepgupta (4 1/2 years old), daughter Madhulikha (2 1/2 years old), and cousin Pooja. Srihari, who is also on our team, was there as well. He just moved to Pune from Mumbai one week ago in order to start working on our project and he is living in one of SSS's guest houses, which are in the same neighbourhood. Srihari has only known the family for a short while, but the children are so comfortable with him and treat him like a favourite uncle.

Chandrashekar's place is very large (3 floors, I think) with a front terrace and back walk out area. Across the way in the centre of the building complex, there is a lovely yard and playground. It feels like a very safe and fun place to have children.

When we arrived, Chandrashekar's little guy took lots of pictures of us. He and I took pictures of each other taking pictures. Madhulikha was adorable and she spent much of the evening in Srihari's arms.

At dinner once again, Marcelo and I were the only ones eating while everyone else attended to our every need. Since it was the same at Shirish's, I assume that this is the way guests are treated all the time? Vijay and Sukhi, you didn't tell me this! Again, we were so spoiled and the food was so good. Chandrashekar's family is non-vegetarian, so we had both vegetable and meat dishes. There was chick pea curry, chicken masala, kofta (made from gourd), fish, roti, rice, curd, rasmalai, sweets, apples, and pomegranate. The rice was the last thing eaten and just like Shirish he said that the meal isn't complete without it. He also said that you shouldn't have the sweets (rasmalai, etc.) until you finish the main meal, which I think is the same rule everywhere. I tried to dive into the dessert early, but I was advised to wait. :) Everything was so incredibly delicious. Earlier on in this blog, I have been raving about the restaurant/hotel food, but it isn't even in the same universe as the home cooking that we've had over the past two days. The hotel food always felt very heavy and hard to digest while the home cooked food is lighter and tastier. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to have some real Indian food. Like Shirish last night, Chandrashekar kept serving us more and more food. Everything was delicious and we ate so much! Brundavani and Pooja are amazing cooks.

I asked Chandrashekar to write everyone's names in English, Hindi, and Telugu for me. I love Telugu script. It's so curvy and pretty. He also wrote my and Marcelo's names in Telugu. It's so cool. I tried to write Chandrashekar's name in Japanese Hiragana (I realized later that it should be written in Katakana because it is not a Japanese name), but it's been so long that I forgot some characters. I promised to look them up on the Internet tonight and be ready for tomorrow.

After dinner we took a short walk around the neighbourhood and Srihari and I talked about Canadian vs. Indian weather and festivals. Srihari has only seen snow in the movies, so he was asking how much we usually get. I said not that much regularly, aside from a few big snowstorms per winter. I wonder if people from India would enjoy the cold weather and snow as a novelty? Marcelo thinks it would only last for a few minutes and then they would hate it like he does. I don't hate it, but I definitely can't say that it's fun or comfortable. Srihari asked me what kind of festivals we have in Canada and I said that they are completely different from Indian ones. All Indian festivals have so much history and are centred around religion. I can't think of any big, religious celebrations we have except for Christmas (which most of the time has more to do with shopping than religion) and Easter (which is a big deal for Christians, but my experience only involved chocolate and a bunny). The more I talk about Canada, the more I feel that our country is an absence of everything (history, culture, religion). Of course, I can only speak for my small experience and life. But, other than native culture, what culture do we have that wasn't imported from somewhere else?

Chandrashekar had seen the pictures we took last night of me in Prasanna's sari, so I think Brundavani wanted to dress me up in her saris and other clothes. I would have been thrilled to do so, but she is probably 3 to 4 sizes smaller than me and I know I wouldn't be able to squeeze into the top and slip for any of her saris. I explained this to Chandrashekar and he said, "yes, it may not be possible." Yes, definitely not possible. But, I appreciate the gesture. Before I left, Brundavani put a bindi on me with red powder. Poor Marcelo doesn't get to dress up. All decorative clothing, jewellery, and other things are for women. While we were talking about clothing, Chandrashekar asked me how old I am (maybe something to do with certain styles of clothing?) and he was shocked to learn I was so old. He thought I was 27, so I decided that is going to be my new age. Everyone please go along with it.

We had such a wonderful time. Chandrashekar's family is so beautiful, generous, and kind. It's so nice to meet the families of the guys who are working with us. I'm so glad that we came on this trip at the beginning of the project and started everything on such a positive note.

Well, tomorrow is our last day in SSS's office. We're there for a full day and then we leave at around noon on Friday for Mumbai and the whirlwind sightseeing weekend. I took quite a few pictures today, so if you like to see them, click here. Goodnight all.