Sri Ram Ashram, The Taj and Jaipur

Well, as you may or may not have noticed, we have fallen behind on our lofty goals of doing a blog post each week of our trip.  The combination of enjoying each moment, early bedtimes and wakeups, and spotty internet has left us woefully behind the times.  But, we move forward.  We will do a bit of a recap in this post of our final time in India.  The first part of this post will be focused on, what was arguably each of our favourite time, at Sri Ram Ashram outside of Haridwar—very few photos but many memories and stories (and hopes to return soon!).  Next we will share a few photos—but very few words—on our early morning adventures at the Taj Mahal and our afternoon escapades in Agra, which might actually be a pretty fun city to spend more time in than just for the Taj.  And the final installment of our stories of India will be focused on Jaipur—again very few photos as it was hard to remember to capture images with +47Celcius weather upon us.

Sri Ram Ashram—A new extended family

Sri Ram Ashram is a home for children that was opened by Baba Hari Das and students.  This is the same teacher who inspired the Salt Spring Centre where Michelle completed some yoga training and continues to return to as part of her spiritual community.  Sri Ram Ashram is truly an amazing place, with an incredible energy.  Abandoned and orphaned children are welcomed there to be part of the Sri Ram family, and it really is that—a big and busy extended family full of love.  It is more than an orphanage in so many ways.  We were welcomed there as guests and left feeling like part of the extended family.  The children grow up there raised in a structured, supportive, and extremely loving environment.  After graduating from high school (Sri Ram also has a school for both the children living at the Ashram as well as community children) and moving away from home they remain supported throughout university, or other post secondary training, and they often return to the Ashram for all vacations or when they have time off of work—much like any family.  The Ashram also helps to arrange, support, or facilitate marriages and there are two planned weddings in the fall of Ashram raised women.

This is the schedule for the Ashram.  We were welcome to participate in everything!

To describe the magic of this place in a few words is really not possible.  Michelle is already trying to figure out how to make it work to get back there in October for festival season, a few weddings, and maybe to provide some nursing/mental health/yoga type volunteer support as deemed necessary by the Ashram staff.  They have a farm where most of their food (all mild and wheat, some vegetables) come from, a small clinic that used to provide support to the whole community but now does not have the capacity to, a school (as also mentioned above), and they work with multiple different local and international organizations and schools on different initiatives. 

We joined in with all of the daily activities including morning Sadhana (yoga exercise, breathing, sitting for short meditation, chanting), meals, playing with babies/toddlers or reading during the day while the other kids were at school, playing games during free time in the evening, and making ourselves available to support the youth during study hall.  Thomas even participated in the CrossFit during the mornings, and some of the older boys and girls enjoyed teaching him and sharing their knowledge.  We were welcomed and valued as members of an extended family would be and we really treasured our time there.

We have included a link to their website, and if any of you feel inclined to donate to this amazing organization you can rest assured that your money would be supporting a really special and well run place.

http://sriramfoundation.org/index.php/sri-ram-ashram

Cross fit and other morning exercises...

Agra and the Taj Mahal—“A teardrop on the cheek of eternity” (Michelle keeps quoting Rabindranath Tagore)

We decided to go to Agra for a brief visit with the purpose of visiting the Taj Mahal.  We were scolded by a few when our original plan for the trip was shared, and it did not include Agra.  We decided to go, and we really were glad that we did.  

It is quite a sight to behold, both inside and out.  Because we woke with the sun to visit this place in the early morning, we actually found it rather peaceful and enjoyed spending our morning wandering in the buildings and around the garden.  You can't take pictures inside the tomb, but there is some really incredible carving and marble inlay work.  The morning light and shadows inside were spectacular.

Jaipur—Carpe (Shade)-iem

Jaipur was hot, and we it drained our energy quickly.  No amount of water could keep our bodies and brains feeling energized.  We had high hopes for Jaipur with plans of buying art, gems, textiles and pottery—in all our travels, everyone said Jaipur was an art lover’s paradise—this did not happen the way we imagined.  We also missed some sights we were hoping to see (some forts and temples and trips into the desert), but it was just not possible for us with the blistering mid-day heat and our energy levels waning.  However, we still enjoyed the city tremendously and might even co

nsider going back one day, when it is not hot season.  We stayed in a pretty clean, hip and artsy area in the home of some hip artsy folk.  We noticed a large population of expats and artist folk.  The food scene was fun and we enjoyed browsing in some boutiques (but most items were outside of our budget at hundreds of thousands of rupees).

One memorable story requires recollection; it is that of our one day where we fell victim to the scams and manipulations of India: Michelle and Thomas’ “No Good Dirty Rotten Day”.  The day started out as per usual, dry and hot at 35 degrees before 8:00 am.  We decided to go to the local Tapri Tea House, and jumped in a tuk-tuk anticipating scrumptious masala teas and Indian snacks.  Upon arriving at the teahouse, we discovered it was closed, (a fact that the tuk-tuk driver standing by knew all too well).  However, he was more than happy to haggle over taking us to our next destination for an additional fee.  Based on our schedule, we decided to go to a local art museum (which was a fatal error because we had not packed snacks for Thomas).  The tuk-tuk driver dropped us off on the opposite end of the museum where he attempted to convince us that we needed to take a horse-drawn carriage ride.  All of this was manageable, and even the requirement of paying a ‘foreign tourist ticket surcharge’ was fine.  Even the 50 or so selfie photo requests were fine at the stiflingly hot museum of Indian artistic expression through the ages, but the next part of the story is where tragedy strikes.  We had managed to find a cold beer store near our place, and we made the trek to pick up some ice-cold Kingfisher Lager.  Buying beer in India feels very shady, and the vendors are often dark and dingy stalls.  In this case, there was a que of Indian men examining different types varieties of spirits.  Michelle handed Thomas a five hundred Rupee note which Thomas put in his pocket (equivalent to approximately 10 dollars CAD).  Michelle then waited for Thomas to purchase the beer.  As soon as the shopkeeper saw Thomas waiting in line, he beckoned for him to come to the other side.  Thomas ordered 3 large Kingfisher beers and waited.  The beers arrived, Thomas passed the note and awaited change.  To Thomas’ surprise, the shopkeeper showed that he had a 100 Rupee note in his hand, which was insufficient to purchase a single beer.  In the moment, Thomas hesitated and did not challenge the vendor, as he questioned whether Michelle had handed the right note.  This ultimately caused a fatal error; a loss of 400 Rupees as well as no beer.  Michelle and Thomas returned home; and that was that.  The first and last time we simultaneously let our guard down.

This concludes our blogging time in India.  We loved India and will most assuredly be back.  The next blog will go through our time in Thailand (spoiler alert: Thailand is the best)!

Rajasthani cuisine: these were some type of desert bean.  

Uttar Khand: "Mooooooooove and Stretch Here"

Part 3: Uttar Khand: "Mooooooooove and Stretch Here" 

In this next chapter, we will be going through our travels in the Himilayan foot hill region of India known as Uttar Khand.  One of the challenges that we have had with our time in India has been that in each place we have gone we have ended up staying longer than we anticipated!  The flexibility has been great, and has resulted in us reformulating plans/ideas which has been an adventure in its own right.

From Varanasi we had to make it up to the Rishikesh area to spend a week at an ashram doing yoga.  This meant another train journey.  This journey was twenty hours long and the train was of a different standard than we expected.  There were significantly fewer chaiwallas (no chaiwallas), and no snacks to be had for the entirety of the journey.  We also got sick on the train… not with gastrointestinal issues however, rather we both managed to

catch colds and were racked with respiratory and sinus distress! 
The lack of chai and burgeoning illness ended with us arriving in another holy city; Haridwar.  We arrived at 3:30 in the morning, and then took a bus and a tuk-tuk to get within the vicinity of the ashram.  We crossed a suspension bridge on foot and then discovered it was approximately 2-15 kilometers to the ashram on a winding mountain road (the distance varied depending on who you asked).  The town was silent, only slowly waking and the air was still.  We decided to hike in, and had an absolutely beautiful and peaceful walk ending at the ashram Phool Chatti as the sun was rising that ended up being around 6km.  During our walk we were invited into a ladies home for chai, and for the first time our trip there seemed to be no hidden agenda and we just gave a small donation for the nourishing nectar.

Our time at Phool Chatti was phenomenal.  The ashram (another name for spiritual home) has been open to spiritual seekers and pilgrims for over 120 years.  The ashram itself is nestled on the banks of the Ganges river (The goddess Maa Ganga), and we had a room where you could hear the roar of the river at night and look up to see the stars flipped in the sky from what we see at home.  The ashram is a self-contained series of buildings and garden areas with a rooftop terrace to eat meals on.  The energy of the space was very peaceful and the group we were with during the course was small.  We were grateful to our teachers, Lalitaji and Prashanti, for sharing with us some of their wisdom.

While the disciplined routine of the ashram and the information of the eight limbs of classical ashtanga yoga was not new to Michelle, it was new to Thomas.  For those of you that know Thomas, he is an avid racquet sport enthusiast, farmer and beer connoisseur.  It is safe to say that yoga is still in its beginning phases of relationship with him.  The course provided a broad introductory experience in the eight limbs of yoga and ashram life.  It was a pleasure to be there together, sharing in silence and learning and refreshing on the philosophy and practice of yoga.  While challenging in some ways, it was a beneficial experience that we are likely to repeat in some form.  Besides the schedule, we’ll leave the summary at that. If you’d like to hear more about our individual experiences feel free to ask more the next time you see us.  There was of course no internet, phone (sorry in our disconnecting we took very few photos) or meat and we were happy for that.  In addition to the human ashram dwellers, there were langour monkeys, a pair of German Shepherds (vegetarian), a chubby pug (also vegetarian), chinchillas and carrier pigeons.  

The schedule of each day was approximately the same… Silence during all meals and from technically from 2100-1300, and outside of that mindful speech only.  The food was incredible.

Wake up bell at 0530 (sometimes getting up earlier for own time to sit, read, walk etc)

Morning meditation 0600-0630 

Chanting 0630-0645

Shatkarma (yogic cleansing, during this course only jal netti was taught) 0645-0700

Pranayama (breathing exercise) 0700-0715

Hatha Yoga (yoga asana, physical practice of yoga) 0715-0845

Breakfast (and chai!) on the rooftop 0900

Karma Yoga (selfless service, doing tasks for the betterment of others and the ashram) 1000-1030

Meditative Walk (sometimes to the Ganga for bathing, sometimes up hills to waterfalls etc) 1030-1230

Lunch (and chai!!) on the rooftop 1230

Then some free time.  One could walk, read, sleep etc.

Lecture and Discussion 1500-1600 (although it often went longer as the group was very engaged)

More yoga asana 1600-1730

Pranayama again 1730-1745

Temple Pooja at sunset

Chanting and Kirtan after Pooja

Dinner (and chai!!!) at 1930

Guided meditation from 2030- 2100 (which would continue for some until 2300)

On the last evening we had a special fire ceremony and then a campfire in the evening with everyone sharing a song from their country.  Michelle re-vamped the moose song from summer camp (...there was a great big moose who liked to drink a lot of juice.)

So overall a simple and beautiful time for self contemplation and a more disciplined schedule.  We left grateful and really not wanting to leave, and the food and chai was lovely.  We continue with some morning Sadhana practice learned there, which has really helped us remain grounded (until Jaipur, but we won’t spoil the surprise yet!).

...

After the Ashram we were jonesing for some internet as we both had work related emails we felt we NEEDED to access and had no idea what had been happening in cyber world.  So after seven days we left the Ashram and planned to stay one night in Laxman Jhula area of Rishikesh.  We were happy for the lesson learned that there was nothing overly important or pressing waiting on our devices when we got back to them.  An important reminder that the world does not revolve around internet access and connectivity in that way.  In Rishikesh we stayed at an awesome little hotel owned by the sweetest and  most genuine family—we loved it so much we stayed two extra days (which changed our up coming plans slightly, but that was fine.  We’ll catch other things on our next trip).  We fell into an easy rhythm in the low key energy of Rishikesh, enjoying slow mornings and lovely walks throughout town during the day.  Oh, and the food was excellent.

We enjoyed our first non indian meal of the trip--yoga hippie salads and refreshing beverages in a spa like restaurant. Then back to the Indian food!

No meat or eggs in the whole town, which is pretty cool.  Also no beer or any other alcohol.



...

Next join us for our tales of our time in Haridwar (brief) and Sri Ram Ashram....

Varanasi

Hello all, here is another post. 

We have had a wonderful next portion of our trip and are excited to share it with you.  We previously went through our time in Delhi.  Now we will outline our first adventure on the marvelous interregional Indian railway, as well as our time in auspicious Varanasi.  Throughout this post we will be focusing on the importance of looking underneath the initial experience in order to appreciate the best parts of India.

In our opinion, the way trains in India are organized is fascinating.  Unlike the regulation of traffic as per our previous blog, the train system is regimented by very rigid rules around booking travel.  The average number of passengers travelling through New Delhi Train Station is half a million passengers per day, but it is exceedingly difficult to secure a ticket on an Indian train unless you are well versed in how the system works, or are an ignorant foreign tourist.  This system is problematic because there are more people wishing to take the train than tickets available, and the trains often sell out months in advance.  As foreign tourists, there is a certain quota available only to tourists and we were fortunate to secure 2 tickets on a train from New Delhi to Varanasi.  We were in sleeper AC 3 class, which means that there is air conditioning (yay) and three tiers of bunks in each open train compartment, with two bunks down the aisle.  On the surface, it was a nerve racking experience to figure out whether it was possible to use the train, but once we figured it out and were able to make it work it was a positive experience.  Here is a video that encompasses our experience on the train in a most excellent fashion.  Michelle loves chai, and on this train there were many opportunities to enjoy the masala tea.  It was fascinating to watch farming take place as we travelled.  The vast majority is done by hand, including swathing, gathering and threshing.  We also saw many people using backpack sprayers to spray wheat.

Next, our time in Varanasi.  As a city, Varanasi is known as a very sacred Hindu place.  There is a belief that anyone who dies and is burned in Varanasi is cleansed, causing the soul to go into moksha releasing you from the cycle of birth and death.  It is also very spiritually important for Hindus to bathe in the Ganges River (locally called the Ganga) which flows through Varanasi.  This means that there is an incredible number of Hindu people spending time in the city to bathe in the Ganga, to die near the Ganga, or to say goodbye to a loved one.  There are also sadhus, pilgrims, brahma and swamis who live sometimes sleeping on the steps of the city leading down to the Ganga.  It is a teeming mass of life that is equal parts intrigue and exhaustion.  Michelle loved getting to know several friendly goats and cows.



Upon arriving in Varanasi, we had made the decision to stay in a home stay/guesthouse that was run by a Varanasi family.  The house was approximately one kilometer from the Ganga River, and it was quite lovely.  We had the opportunity to eat with the family for every meal, and after tasting the first dish, we realized that the food was amazing and ate nearly every meal with them.

Varanasi assaults the senses in a way that Delhi did not.  While we experienced the crowded madness that is India in Delhi, Varanasi is on a different level.  The horns on motorcycles seem louder, there are increased numbers of cows and goats, and there is more interaction with Indian culture on every level.  On our first adventure we walked from our guest house to the Ganga, and were shocked by how exhausting it was to adventure.  People constantly come up to you trying to bless you, bindify you, offer a boat or tuk tuk ride, or give you a massage, and it was tough to push past this initial bombardment.  However, looking beyond this to the importance of this place and its place in history made it an important next part of our journey.  We did a bunch of walking, took a boat tour, and did most of our touring between the hours of 5:00 am to 9:00 am and 5:00pm to 9:00pm with an extended nap during the middle of the day.  Despite the chaotic mass of life and movement, Michelle often stopped to glance at and extend a greeting to all the cows… after all, you can’t feel stressed when looking at a cow!

Here are some additional photos that we took which we thought you would enjoy. 

Here is a shot of Thomas as we were walking along the ghats bright and early on the right, and a shot of Michelle doing the same on the left.  The most remarkable feature of Varanasi's architecture is the concrete steps leading down to the Ganges, depicted in the photo featuring Michelle.

In this picture, Michelle is receiving a blessing from a Brahmin, who sits along the banks of the Ganges.  In receiving this blessing, she also was the lucky recipient of a rather large artwork across her face made of sandalwood, tumeric and rice.  While of great spiritual significance, the substantial size made it challenging to appreciate.  Thomas was not intending to receive the same blessing, however it was not possible to opt out.

We have been trying to do a smattering of the more touristy things as we are in each place because they can be fun sometimes.  In Varanasi, we chose to go on a boat down the Ganga which was actually quite nice.  Also please note the substantial size of bindhi upon each of our foreheads.

Exploring Varanasi in the very early mornings and walking along the river provided a beautiful look at the beauty of the city and the devotion of the people.  There was no pestering or loud horns in the mornings.

Here is the Pooja (fire ceremony) that is performed every day at sunrise.  It is danced by young Brahmin boys and sung by young Brahmin girls.  There is a paradoxical existence of the caste system that is still alive and well in Varanasi.  The Brahmin caste is the a very holy caste and they perform many ceremonies and blessings; but they continue to rely on the untouchable caste to burn their bodies when they die.  It is challenging to see this through our eyes where we try very hard to uphold equality, but these traditions remain beautiful and vibrant to this day.  

Varanasi provides time to pause and reflect on the bookends of life... birth and death.  Life is out loud, and nothing on either end is hidden or glossed over.

We took a day to leave the hectic environment of Varanasi and venture to the nearby town of Sarnath.  Our lungs and spirits thanked us.

We visited a serene Buddhist garden, which has the claim to fame for being the place where the Buddha delivered his first teaching after attaining enlightenment.  We visited the ruin of a Buddhist Monastary. It was peaceful and very different than a lot of the Hindu things we had been seeing!  The place had a special gentle energy about it.  The picture of Thomas is beside a large structure that marks the supposed place of Buddha's first sermon discussing the middle path.

Those of you who have met Thomas know he is quite tall. There is no end to the architecture and clothing to remind us of this fact (note the arch he walked through to the right).



Thank you for reading and sharing in some stories of our travels!

….Next up a brief summary of our time at a Classical Ashtanga Yoga Ashram and Rishikesh

2017 Reunion Blawg

I.                  INTRODUCTION

a.      “We put the slog back in Travelers Blog”

Well…. Long time no blog.  When we started this blog many years back, we had very little intention to continue blogging after our initial trip to Southeast Asia.  But we are looking back at nearly 10 years together and nothingsays celebration like a reinvigorated blog (except perhaps wizened old folk rockers on reunion tours).  Additionally, in talking with our paranthas (our new endearing nick-name for each our parents, which also happens to be our new favourite Indian stuffed bread) about keeping in touch and sharing our experiences while travelling in India, we wondered what platform might be best… Should it be private email? Perhaps the ease and huge platform of the Facebook? Or Instagram?  The options to share experiences in this social media age are endless.  So we decided, why not switch it up and revisit that vintage blog we so lovingly crafted all those years ago.  We were shocked that it still exists too!!!  Nonetheless, the modern age has transitioned from the supreme quality of LPs and turntables to the convenience of Googleplay Music, and in an era where @RealDonaldTrump tweets increase the risk of migraines, hopefully these pithy remarks regarding our trip can provide solace and informed awareness regarding our adventures.

So blog readers, Thomas and Michelle are back to share with you some pictures and tales of our travels.  We are terrible at doing this type of thing regularly or thoroughly, but we think our paranthas might be on to something that sharing with others is good.  Also, we’ve been terrible with taking pictures, as our Canadian etiquette about picture taking gets in the way/we have gotten caught up in the hustle and bustle and just don’t capture what we see.  Besides, we are having too much fun to remember to blog more than a few times.  Please note: the headings are designed to facilitate a more convenient and user-friendly reading experience.  (This was a hot tip from law school learned by Thomas; it inflates the amount of work done re length)

II.                 A BREIF REVIEW OF THE LAST 9 YEARS

a.      Intro to the review

To catch this blob up in the time since we last visited, our time has been spent primarily in school with spring and summer journeys happening each year.  Our intention has always been to take at least one trip per year together, and we have been pretty successful at doing this.  We don’t have wedding photos, kids (besides Monroe) or a mortgage, but we have had some fun making memories with beautiful people in lovely places.  We now turn our attention to the trips we have taken in previous years.

b.      Trip summary

Very shortly after our 2009 Asiaextravegahnza Thomas enjoyed some time in Mexico and Central America with a few amigos while Michelle stayed in school.  Together, we hit up New York, Portugal, Spain, Mexico again, travelled in Canada from East Coast to the West Coast, Michelle beyond the Arctic Circle and a bit of everything in between visiting all the Canadian provinces except NWT, Yukon, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador—Canada is beautiful.

c.       Where we are now

Now, with Thomas finishing his Law degree (Yay Thomas!) and Michelle doing school and in a fairly flexible working situation we are now in India and then on to Thailand just to revisit that fun country that we loved so much (Feel free to look back to recall some of our fun last time.  Or don’t, but we had fun walking down our memory lane in that online journal).  With this in mind, we hope you enjoy reading about this trip, which is outlined below.

III.               AIRPORT ADVENTSCHH

We left Osler with Thom’s Mom and Dad at 3:30 am April 12^th.  Stupidly early but we are thrifty and have great family!  Then, we had a 12 hour layover in Toronto Pearson.  Laura (Michelle’s sister) came to the Toronto Airport and we had lunch at the Sheraton.  Food was okay, getting to see Laura was great!  When Laura left to get back to work in Hamilton, we still had several hours to kill, and there is this awesome feature in Pearson where you plop yourself down in front of an Ipad and you can summon cocktails and snacks to your heart’s content, which we did.  That was fun.  Thomas also submitted his final major research paper while sipping an old fashioned.  That was nice too, resulting in a cathartic moment coupled with intense euphoria (equal parts bourbon and completion of paper). 

Then, as we prepared to board our 14 hour flight from Toronto to Delhi a short baby booming woman sidled up to us.  We usually avoid cueing for our seats on those flights until the last moment, and this was no exception.  Due to the large population of East Indians living in Toronto, the cultural experience of this flight was akin to being in India as the flight began.  This meant that the cue to board was not a conventional Canadian line, rather it was a big push to get into the plane.  Back to the boomer.  She remarked on how ridiculous the line was and that she was making a mistake by going to India, and then we realized that she was flat out drunk on vodka cocktails.  She proceeded to latch onto us in the most lecherous way, and we did our very best to distance from her and her racist comments.  We managed to board the plane before her, and ultimately she ended up being banned from the flight for being too sauced and downright offensive.  

Air Canada provided us with two Indian meals and an Indian snack (see image above) which was a pleasant anticipatory precursor to the delicious flavours of India.

IV.              DELHI!

a.      Arrival

We arrived late at night, and after making some friends on the flight we were invited to a wedding.  Sadly we decided it was impractical to go because it was just too far our of the way (We’ve realized India is a huge country) but it was nice to be welcomed so sincerely.  The warm evening Delhi air greeted us and carried on it was the spicy smell of incense smoke, falling flowers, food, and exhaust.  Immediately, we fell in love.

We were greeted late at night by the caretaker of our airbnb, a goodhearted gentleman named Pitamber.


                 b. Transportation and a hierarchical breakdown of the traffic system

We stayed in a great place in a quiet part of Delhi that was very well connected by the best public transit system we’ve ever enjoyed (better than London's Tube or NYC Subway in our opinion).  We ventured into Old and New Delhi and enjoyed making our way through the crowds.  Never before has crossing the street been such an adventure!  It appears to be a traffic system premised upon the notion of accountability to avoiding accidents at all costs (we definitely wonder about insurance), but that there is flexibility in where you can drive depending on a relationship between various transportation entities.

Our take on it is that there is a hierarchy of responsibility regarding accident avoidance without a compromise on speed and access to destination.  If there is an open space, it can be filled.  Pedestrians are free to go where they want and can  travel with impunity as long as they telegraph where they are walking.  Uncertainty is a definite risk.  Sidewalks are not part of the equation and if a pedestrian is porting something they remain hierarchically dominant over non-porting pedestrians.  Second, scooters and motorcycles avoid pedestrians, and weave throughout traffic due to agility, size and speed while avoiding non-mechanized transportation methods (bicycles and rickshaws are a slower version of a scooter, therefore there is limited weaving but faster than walking thus requiring pedestrian avoidance).  Third, tuk-tuks avoid pedestrians and scooters, but when there is more than one tuk-tuk in formation they have the capability of restricting access to certain areas of the street, and in that case their avoidance responsibility increases to that of a larger vehicle.  Larger four wheeled vehicles (including taxis and personal vehicles) must avoid pedestrians and smaller transportation units unless the road is very narrow, in which case they receive right of way.  The commercial/industrial large vehicles do not have the mobility or agility of smaller vehicle and do considerably less weaving (please note: this is a simplified description)

We even climbed through a tuk tuk during a traffic jam to make our way across the street once.  We ate amazing food at fancy high class Indian restaurants as well as delicious naan and dahl in dark single room restaurants and street stalls, drank splendid chai, met some lovely people, Michelle said hello to every dog/cat/cow we passed in the street (that’s a lot of hello’s), and all in all had a supremely beautiful time.  Delhi is really great.

           c. Below is a smattering of photos from our four days in Delhi along with necessary remarks...

To the right: Kake di Hatti.  Amazing paranthas and dal.  The place looked like a brown sludge pile of a snack bar from the outside, but it was teeming with Indian folks eating and upon watching the kitchen looked quite clean.  We scoped it out by walking by a few times until we decided to risk it.  We're glad we stopped because the food was of most excellent quality.  Spicy dal! 

Approaching the Red Fort there was a pop concert of some sort with all of the musicians dressed in pseudo-military garb (or they might have been military).  The crowd just loved it.  This was the start of people asking to take pictures with us, and it hasn't ended.  We had to start limiting our photo sessions to just families with children and women in beautiful saris.  No more photos with single men.  It became rather overbearing and we imagine this must be how it feels to be a minor celebrity.  

We went to the Red Fort during the middle of the hottest hot day where the temperature peaked @ +45.  We could get in to the history and significance of the Red Fort, but you can look it up.  Suffice it to say, it is basically a walled off city that is no longer in use and is built using red sandstone bricks.  There is no food or water available inside which we did not know prior to entering.  The buildings are gorgeous and the garden is peaceful but thirst and heat were a factor in determining the length of our visit.  In some of the buildings there are displays of various items, and we enjoyed these enclosed spaces not only for their historical content but because of the oscillating fans.  In visiting the building that had been the hammam (the public and royal baths), Michelle wished for hammam herself (but perhaps in the luxury style of Ten Spa in Winnipeg).  

Michelle petting a puppy in the New Delhi Train Station.  We will include further stories about the trains in an upcoming blog.  One of the things that has impacted us is the way that people live their lives.  There is a certain playful acceptance that comes across, and while there is tremendous poverty and suffering, it is still apparent that life is good.

An open-air market.  Michelle went with a new German friend and found some neat stuff.  Thomas is not an avid shopper, however it is quite the experience just to be immersed in the life and vibrancy of each moment.

North Indian thali plate with selection of curries, dals, raita, chutney, and sweet with nann and roti.  We love to eat the thalis as you get a great selection of foods to try for affordable prices.  All of this food was around 4 dollars.  Quite frankly, the food has been amazing and we look forward to every meal!  

Thanks for reading our first blog!!  Next up our first train ride and time in Varanasi.... 

ITS THE FINAL BLOGDOWN!  DOODADOODOO DOODADOODOODOO DOODADOO DODADOODOODOO

Hello to all of our devoted beloved blog followers.  We are sorry to say that this will probably be the final blog in our exciting saga.  Thank you all so much for following!  We hope to do one more blog if possible, but if not, savour the words!

After our time spent in the south of Thailand, we hoofed it up to the north.  We had a lot of fun with the transport, going an entire day and a night on different buses.  We eventually made our way up to Chiang Mai, a beautiful metropolis that has many things to do.  We did everything from a cooking course, (above) to a day of ziplining through the forest. (Below)

We did this very cool ziplining through a jungle in Northern Thailand, just outside of Chiang Mai.  It was called FLIGHT OF THE GIBBON.  You are supposed to see gibbons but we didn't see any.....but we have seen gibbons, just earlier on the trip in Khao Yai National Park.  Anyway, we zipped through through the jungle, very high up...it was a little scary at first considering both Thomas and Michelle are slightly afraid of falling from high heights.  But by the end we were flying though the jungle like gibbons! 

above: Thomas "flying" through the trees....actually there were a few times that he alsmost ran into trees, but he's okay.

In Chiang Mai we enjoyed doing some shopping at the Sunday Walking Street Market and the Night Market.  Thomas was a very good shopper to keep up with very energetic and enthusiastic shopper Michelle.  Above Michelle is pictured walking the streets in Chiang Mai with her new patchwork backpack...that was one of her "special treasures" she found, isn't it great?!?!  

While walking through the walking streets we were able to see many Wats on the way...and, delightfully, right across from one of the Wats was the newly opened chocolate shop.....Our first real chocolate in Thailand, and oh was it delicious!

mmmmmmmmmmmm.........

mmmmmmmmm.......

We had an Iced Chocolate Lattle....very refreshing on a hot day! An amazing Chocoalte Heart Cake....so rich and wonderful, and beautifully decorated!  And a lovely chocolate Fondue....Fon-don't you think that sounds fantastic?!?!? and also complementary water...which was very nice as well.

After a few really fun days in Chiang Mai we headed off to Pai to do some trekking and explore that area.  When we got there we were pleasantly supprised by how much we loved Pai.  It was so relaxed, there weren't many other travellers because it was low season, and the people were so friendly.  We spent a few days exploring the town and the beautiful surrounding area.  If we had have had more time we would have loved to stay for longer, although it is a very small town there was so much adventuring to do in and around.  In Pai we decided to do a two day one night trek.  We had a great guide and it was a lot of fun.... and suprisingly Michelle actually enjoyed the constant hiking.  We met a great girl named Lyn from the Phillipeans who is half french as well....she was a lot of fun, somebody we would definitely want to see again!  Also on the trek were two Israelie girls....Lyn, Thomas, and Michelle had a good laugh over this...you would think that because all Isreali people have to spend two years in the army these girls would be like hard core GI Janes or something, but they were the most physically incompentant people....ever!  It was ridiculous....they sign up for a TREK, and then they get mad at our exteremely nice and patient guide who carried their bags (Thomas also carried on of the bags, very sweet) beacsue they were angry and shocked that they had to walk so much!  We tried so hard to be friendly to them and then they showed no warmth.  And we visited some very friendly and interesting hill tribe villages and they weren't interested at all!  We wondered why they were even on the trek....it must have been just to pose for pictures so they could say that they had gone on a trek or something.  On the last day they just got motorcycle rides back into town...c

razy people!  We're done ranting about them now...sorry.

Here (from left to right) Lyn, Michelle, Thomas....just in case you couldn't figure that out.

This picture was taking in a hut at one of the villages we vistited.  It was a really great trek....and the Isreali girl were sort of like entertainment.

There was a lot of up-hill trekking, but at the top the view was well worth it (even the Isreali girls' complaining was worth it!).

These are "jungle berries" in Michelle's hand...we were happy to taste an almost familiar taste.....hmmmm.....sweet....with a few seeds inside...purple skin.... SASKATOON BERRIES!!!

but not quite as delicious.  It made us excited to go home and hopefully have some Saskatoon's to pick!

Well, after Pai we headed back to Chiang Mai to do a bit more shopping in the evening and then take a night bus back to Bangkok where we head home from.  As we were walking around in Chiang Mai we found one of those Japanese restauraunts where all the Sushi and stuff to make Shabu Shabu rotate around infromt of you while you sit at the bar thing....We were so excited we decided we had to try it, and it was very good!

This picture is supposed to capture Michelle trying to decide from the many things moving past her.

Anyway...we went to the bus station in Chiang Mai expecting to take an ordinary bus....but....we stumbled upon the most fantastic bus ever!  The seats reclined all the way back, Thomas was happy because he could stretch his legs all the way out, there were lots of snack and drinks, and....the seats were MASSAGE SEATS!!!  It was the best 10 hour bus ride ever!  And there were no other foriegners on the bus, which was a bonus.

Back in Bangkok we did our last bit of urban exploring which mostly consisted of eating good food, window shopping at expensive stores, and going to movies in a huge and very luxurious theatre.  That was fun.  We stayed at the same guesthouse we stayed at for our first week in Thailand, Asha Guesthouse, and it was a great way to bring the trip full circle.  We are very sad to be leaving Thailand, but are so happy for all the experiences we had and are excited to come home and have cheese, potatoes, and of course see our beloved family and friends.

We are now writing this from Vancover.  We are back in Canada....it is certainly different than Thailand and it is almost strange to be back.  But we love strange, so it is GREAT to be back.  We have a 23 hour layover here in limbo between home and Thailand and are excited to arrive in home Saskatchewan!

See you all very soon.....

oh, and we might continue with the blog very not frequently after this trip....just because.

Much love and thanks for sharing this experience with us via the wonders of the internet,

T and M