Uttarayan - The Kite Flying Festival

Ahmedabad, India: We made it back to Ahmedabad just in time for the festival of Uttarayan (The Kite Flying Festival). Alan and Xavi were suppose to get to Ahmedabad in the morning of Jan. 14th, the first day of Uttarayan.

Uttarayan is a festival to celebrate the change in wind direction and the beginning of spring. We fly kites in that celebration for 2 days. January 14th is an official holiday when everyone gets involved in flying kites. Jan 15th is not unfortunately an official holiday, but people still manage to celebrate the festival.

The idea is to fly the kite and cut other people's kite. The more you can cut other people's kite without getting your kite cut shows how skilled you are. The string is also of special kind. There is bits of glass coated on the string. You have to be skilled enough to cut kites without getting your fingers cut. It really does take some serious skills to be good at it. The only festival in India, I think, that requires that much skill. It is fun nonetheless. The only thing that can spoil the fun is the lack of wind. Everyone keeps their fingers crossed for good wind. We had ours crossed!

Kids start flying kites days before Uttarayan. Some start practicing their skills and make sure they ready for the big day. Women generally aren't that interested in this festival. They do however play a very crucial role of holding the "firki" (a wooden spool with handles). The truly skilled brag about not needing any assistance in flying a kite. There is also special food for the festival. "Udhyu" is made up of 14 different vegetables and takes a very long time to prepare. It is most eaten with "Jalebi". Jalebi is a round circular thing made up of dough that is deep fried in clarified butter, then dipped in sugar syrup. It is fricken good and the combo of Udhyu and Jalebi is amazing. The foodies always look forward to it and that includes me.

The day before Uttarayan, I thought it would be a good idea to go to the terrace and test my skills. Afterall, it had been about 5 years since I've flown a kite. I wasn't too sure of my skills. To my surprise, on my first kite, I cut 10 kites. I think it was one of my best scores. I was hopeful about the next day.

After dinner, my dad, Gin, Devarshi (our neighbor) and I went to buy kite. The best deals you get on kites is in the old city, but my dad didn't want to go that far (far is a very relative term in Ahmedabad, anything past 3 miles is considered too far). So we went close to our house to buy the kites.

Buying kites also require skills. First, your ability to tell how good the kite is: from the paper they've used to the weight and size of the kite. Second, how good you're at bargaining (pretty much required in India for buying anything). We were hopeful that we did a good job at buying the kites. My dad got in an agrument with the guy selling the kite because he didn't want us to check the kites. Everyone knows to check the kites because they sell the kites in bungles of 5 to 10. The sellers put the best kites in the front and the back and in the middle they stick in the damaged kites. So everyone knows to check the kites very well. The seller had to back down and apologize because he was in the wrong. Anyhow, we got our supplies and headed back for home.

It wasn't time to call it a night yet because buying the kites isn't the only thing required. You need to tie the strings to the kites which is a task that requires hours. It also involves multiple people otherwise it would take days to get the job done. The process is too complicated to explain. But the more people there are to help, the better it is. So my dad, my mom, Gin & I got to the task. It took us an hour and half to get half the kites ready for the next day (about 50). It was already late and we wanted to make sure we wake up early in the morning and catch good wind. Generally, mornings are the best time to fly the kite and then late afternoons.

Around 6am I could hear people on their terrace blasting loud music with their boom box. We all got up around 7am and by 8am we were on our terrace ready for some kite action. My first kite didn't last for too long and my lucky streak from yesterday was over. It didn't matter because I wanted Gin to see and enjoy the thousands of kites flying in the sky. It's an amazing site to see thousands of people on their roofs flying kites screaming and yelling every time they cut someone else's kite.

I tried teaching Gin how to fly the kite, but it was too difficult for her to do it. Instead, she chose to takeover the kite that I had gotten up. Everytime the kite took a nose dive, Gin would yell for help and I'd have to takeover the kite again. Few times it was too late for the kite and it would get stuck on someone's roof or in the nearby tree. So unless the kite was very stable, Gin decided not to takeover it.


Alan and Xavi's train was delayed and they arrived around 11am. It's not the best time to fly the kite because it gets very hot and the wind starts dying down. Anyways, since they specially came over for Uttarayan, we flew the kite for a few more hours. The only problem was that they had never flown a kite before. I showed them the basics, but with low wind, it was very difficult for them to get the kite in the air. We decided to take a break and go for lunch.

My dad had gotten the food specially from a place about 100 miles away. It was darn good. There was no Jalebi, but the Udhyu made up for the lack of the sweet dish. Instead, we had Puri (puffed deep fried flat bread) with Udhyu which was a good substitute for Jalebi. Now with our bellies stuffed, we were too lazy to go to the terrace and do the work of flying the kite. Instead, we decided to hangout and my parents took some rest.

When the sun wasn't so bad, we went back to the terrace. This time around with the wind in our favor, Xavi was able to fly the kite. He was very happy about it. Getting the kite up in the air is the easiest part of flying the kite. Keep the kite in the air and not getting it cut by someone is where skills come in. I tried explaining to Xavi how you have to feel the string when someone comes to cut your kite. It's like someone is pulling the string away from you or sometimes like a jittery feeling to the string. Needless to say it was difficult to explain, it would just require practice and a lot of patience. In the end Xavi had good luck with cutting other people's kite. His personal best was cutting 3 kites before his was gone. Soon Alan and Xavi paired up and were having a great time trying to fly the kites.

After dinner, we were going to fly some lanterns in the sky. Yup, Lucy in the sky with lanterns. Instead, of Lucy it's kites that take the lanterns in the sky. Basically, you put a little candle in a paper lantern and attach the lantern to the string of the kite. Up, up and away it goes the lantern in the sky with the kite. It looks really nice in the sky and a little spooky because you can only see the lanterns but not the kite. About 6 paper lanterns are attached to a kite. Since there are people simply waiting to cut the kite with lanterns, you need windmen. One on either side of the kite that's treated like airforce one plane with wingmen. The wingmen's job is to make sure they take care of any kites that want to cut our lanterned kite. Now having explained all this, we actually never flew the kite with lantern because there was no wind. We decided to try again the following night.

The next day we woke up early and had a great morning. Again we rested in the afternoon and headed back up for more kite action. Unfortunately, the wind had totally died out. We decided to go to my dad's friend's apartment because their building is a lot higher. It didn't help. Alan couldn't go with us because he was sick. But Xavi went with us. We also had dinner at their house and Xavi found his favorite food there, Bataka Pauva (potato flakes with boliled potatoes, onions, green chillies, coriender, etc.).

Upon returning from my uncle's place, we regreted not trying to fly the lanterns the night before. At least the night before Gin saw some of the flying lanterns and she had better understanding of what we were talking about.

I was so happy that I was able to share this festival with Gin, my parents and my friends Alan & Xavi from Spain. What are holidays and festivals without friends and family anyways...

The Golden Temple of Amritsar

Amritsar, India: Finally, we were able to "kidnap" Shani for a few days to Amritsar. We got to Amritsar at the crack of dawn. As soon as we came out of the train station, we were flocked by rickshaw drivers wanting to take us to the downtown area near the golden temple. We refused the guys and decided to go out of the train station. There was one guy who would not take no for an answer. We finally flagged another rickshaw down and took that one. It wasn't how we wanted our 2 days in Amritsar to start.

I had informed the rickshaw driver to take us to a spot which was very close to the golden temple. Once we got off, he wanted to charge us much more than what it should've been. Shani got in an argument with the rickshaw driver and the tourist police got involved. Turned out the rickshaw driver was in the right, so we paid him.

The next step was looking for a hotel to stay. A random guy started following us to show us a room for a "good price". Everywhere we went, he kept on following us. We told him to stop following us several times, but he kept on following us. Finally, Shani got so frustrated, he threatened the guy. It worked! We were able to stay at a nice place specifically made for N.R.I (Non-Resident Indian). They were ok with Gin because she was my wife. No other people could stay there - even Indian Indians. At least, that guaranteed peace and cleanliness. It was the cheapest and cleanest place we'd stayed so far.


After we freshened up, we headed out for the golden temple. People from all faiths are welcome as long as they cover their heads and take off their shoes. It was a very beautiful place and you could feel the spiritual energy. We hung out there for a very long time, but decided not to go inside the main area because it was very crowded. Besides, we were very hungry by this time.

We decided to try the food in the "bhandar", a communal feeding area where the temple serves about 50,000 people free food everyday for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It was by far the most amazing temple experience I've had in my life. About every 15 minutes a flock of new people come in and eat. The food is very simple, but extremely delicious. Dal (lentils), rice, a subgee (vegetable), and chapati (flat bread). They even had a desert, ciro (made from clarified butter, flour, sugar, and maybe some more stuff I don't know about). After the lunch, they also provide tea. Not the best tea in the world, but it's more like a "prasad" (food that was offered to God, which in turn, is distributed to people to eat).

Everyday there are hundred of people that volunteer at the Bhandar. People that help cleaning dishes, serving food, making the food, etc. While we were going for some tea, an old gentleman saw us and directed us where the tea was being distributed. After we had the tea in our metal cups, he started chatting with us and got us a place to sit. He kicked some people out of the sitting area, so that we could sit there. He was talking to us mostly in Punjabi and I could barely understand him. He didn't speak much Hindi.


He offered us to go to his village and stay with his family there. Unfortunately, we had only 2 days in Amritsar, otherwise we could've taken up on his offer. Instead, he took us on a tour of the kitchen where all the food is prepared for 50,000 people everyday. It was a massive undertaking. There were utensils that I did not know even existed to make the food. The dough to make the chapati was being made by an extremely complicated machine, then taken to people where they made the dough flat and cooked it on a huge grill. It was absolutely amazing to be able to see something like this. Normally people aren't allowed in the kitchen area, but since we were with the old gentleman, no on questioned us. Besides, my Nikon camera makes people think I'm a journalist and lets me take as many pics as I want. Actually, there was an audience that wanted me to take their pictures and mail it to them. I took a lot of shots of them cooking food, making the bread, or simply hanging out in the kitchen. Women, as usual, wanted me to take their pictures with Gin. After about an hour or so, we decided to leave the kitchen area. It was a worthwhile experience to be had and now it was time to get some more tea.

We decided to hang out directly outside our hotel where there was a chaiwala (tea maker). We spent hours sitting there and chatting. Shani's phone was dying and he hadn't brought his charger. Luckily, the chaiwala also had a Nokia phone which allowed Shani to charge his phone while sipping his tea.

After chai, we went to the main area of the golden temple. I'd never felt such strong spiritual energy in my life before this incident. The chanting and singing inside the golden temple was so uplifiting, it almost brought me to tears. All I wanted to do was join them in their chanting and spend hours there. It was an experience I'd never had before going into any kind of religious building and that alone made this long journey worth it.

We returned to the hotel hoping to go back to see the temple closing ceremony. However, we were having such good conversation that we decided not to go and see the sacred ceremony of putting the temple's holy book to sleep. Yes, that's correct, putting the holy book to sleep. There is a separate area where the Sikhs bring their holy text every night at about 9pm and bring it back to the main area inside the temple at about 5am.

We did leave for dinner. By the time we left the hotel, almost everything was closed. Since the temple doesn't ever close except the main area, we decided to go and see it at 11pm. It was a beautiful time to visit because there weren't too many people around. It was very cold as well. The marble floor got so cold at night, it felt like walking on bare ice. Fortunately, at some spots they had a carpet where we could walk. Once we had gazed at the temple to our heart's content, we called it a night.

The following morning we woke up late and by the time we got to the temple it was past noon. Again, there were too many people around and we decided not to go inside the main area. We did go to the Bhandar for lunch again. It was an experience we all wanted to have again. Midafternoon we decided to hire a rickshaw driver and go check out the Jaliawala Bagh (a garden where about 2000 Indians were massacared by the British, an important event in history which fueled the fire of India's independence from the British. A scene you may remember from the movie Gandhi.), an imitation of the golden temple and Attari.

Attari is a village at the India-Pakistan border where they perform the border closing ceremony everyday. It's a ceremony where there is a parade on both sides of the border and there is a flag lowering ceremony on both sides. It's suppose to be quite a spectacle. It was quite amusing to see the ceremony. Men and women had separate sections (rightfully so because women get harrassed by men frequently in India, especially in crowded places). Unfortunately, we didn't realize that they had a separate foreign tourist sections until it was too late.

I think our experience would've been much more pleasant had we been in the foreign tourist section. The return journey was pretty terrible considering the sun was down and it was pretty cold. In an open rickshaw, it gets very chilly and the exhaust from the rickshaw was somehow getting in the sitting area which was nauseating after about 5 minutes in to the ride. Unfortunately, it was about an hour ride back to Amritsar. Upon returning back to Amritsar, we decided we could've skipped the border closing ceremony considering how unpleasant experience we had.

Overall, going to the golden temple in Amritsar was a very unique experience. To find such strong spiritual energy is rare these days. I am glad that we had an opportunity to experience it together with Shani.

The New Year in New Delhi!

New Delhi, India: Being in Rajasthan for so long, Gin & I were looking forward to taking a traveling break. Fortunately, our next destination was New Delhi. One of my childhood friends, Himanshu Shani, moved there from Ahmedabad. I was looking forward to catching up with him.

Shani went to a fashion school in Gujarat and became a fashion designer. All I knew was that he has his workshop in New Delhi and has received some awards for designing. I was looking forward to seeing all that when we got to New Delhi.

Shani's brother, Mehul, and his family were visiting from Chicago. I hadn't seen him for about 12 years. He's the father of 2 lovely kids, Shiv & Reva. I'd never seen them before. Shani's parents live with him, and I was looking forward to seeing them as well. Needless to say, I was excited about catching up with everyone.

Our train from Jaipur was suppose to arrive in New Delhi at 10pm, but it was delayed by 5 hours. We reached Delhi at 3am. Still Shani came to pick us up at the train station. It was good to see him after a few years. We were suppose to stay at Shani's apartment. He told us that there were already about 15 people there because of Mehul's family and some relatives. We would have to crash at his friend's place.

Now from the western standards, you don't go to a stranger's house in the middle of the night and stay with them. I felt a little uncomfortable about it when we got there. Shani introduced us to his friends, Gautam who was in his underwear when he opened the door. Considering this was India, it was very shocking that he didn’t bother putting his pants on even when we were sitting there and hanging out. We hung out 'til 5am and then went to bed. Shani went back to his place.

In the morning, it was awkward because we hadn't met Gautam's wife, Smita. Anyhow, we introduced ourselves and then had breakfast with them. Shani came to pick us up around noon and we went to his place. I told Shani how awkward I felt staying at Gautam's place because we had never met them before. We decided to stay at Shani's even if we had to sleep in the restroom. Luckily, we got the storage room :)

Prior to arriving in New Delhi, Shani had asked me what places we've been in India. I told him that because of my parents, we've mostly seen temples. He laughed and said, "Are you here on a pilgrimage?" The man had a good point; we had seen more temples than places in India.

Ironically, the first place he took us to was a temple, the Akshardham temple in New Delhi. This temple holds the Guiness Book of World Record for the fastest completion of a modern temple for its size, 5 years. We spent the entire day at the temple because it was massive. It certainly was very beautiful in its style and architecture. We stayed for the evening sound & light water fountain show. It was definitely entertaining. The best musical fountain show I’ve ever seen!

It also happened that it was new year’s eve 2009. Everyone was exhausted from being at the temple all day long and it didn’t feel like New Year’s Eve at all. We went to TLR (The Living Room), café & kitchen, which Gautam had started recently. We had no idea how expensive it was go get in and to my surprise it was comparable to New York price. It was about $50/person to get in with all the booze covered in the entry price. Mehul had a very good point when he said, even in the States he’s never gone to a place for New Year’s that had costed him $100 with his wife. Needless to say this was India. Shani had already made plans to go there and was intent on bringing us there. We got to TLR about 10 minutes before midnight. Neither one of us paid for the entrance because of Shani. We didn’t drink alcohol or eat the food there considering we had dinner right before getting there. It was nice spending the New Year’s Eve with Shani and part of his family. It was also Gin’s first New Year’s Eve in India. As Sarah McDonald mentions in The Holy Cow, that Indians can’t handle their alcohol, there were several people at TLR that were puking in the corner, some people drunk and passed out. It was not a scene we wanted to be around for too long. We called it a night soon after they closed around 1am.

In the New Year, we took the kids to the railway museum. They had a lot of fun and truthfully the adults had a good time as well. The following day Mehul and his family were heading back for the States. All of us hungout until they left. Unfortunately, Shani’s mom also had some family matters to take care of and left for Mumbai. So now the entire apartment went from being completely full, to being almost empty.


We were spending a lot of time playing Nintendo Wii which reminded me of Greenfield. I remember last year when, James & Michael got a new Wii, we spent the entire Christmas and New Year’s playing Wii. It was a lot of fun.

Finally we had an opportunity to visit Shani’s workshop/office in Hauz Khas Village. It was a nice workshop and we got an opportunity to see some of his employees in action. Since Shani was so busy at work and we barely spent any time with him alone, we decided to “kidnap” him. We wanted to go to Agra which Shani vetoed because he’d been there a lot of times. Instead, we decided to go to Amritsar for the golden temple. Again, a place very famous in India and a must do on the tourist track. We were looking forward to spending time with Shani and seeing the spectacular golden temple.

A 3 day plan to stay in New Delhi had already turned into a week. We hadn’t seen anything major in New Delhi yet and we felt obligated to go and explore a couple of things before we left for Amritsar. Gin & I decided to check out the Red Fort before we left for Amritsar. After seeing the Red Fort, we both decided we could’ve skipped it especially after seeing the spectacular palaces & forts in Rajasthan.


The night before Shani’s dad had taken us to see Qutb Minar (one of the best examples of architecture in India and definitely a must see). Gin & I both felt we needed more time at Qutb Minar and decided to go back after the Amritsar trip.

We were very happy with the decision we had made about spending the extra days in New Delhi. From our experience so far, the most memorable and fun times we’ve had were with friends and family along the way. Spending those extra days in New Delhi was well worth it.

The Pink City

Jaipur, India: Our last stop in Rajasthan was Jaipur. Jaipur is supposed to be one of the top cities in Rajasthan to visit. Our first day, we went out to lunch and then planned to do the walking tour as set out by Lonely Planet. About 15 minutes into the walking tour, I told Jigar I wasn’t feeling well. We went back to the hotel and I was sick for the rest of the day. When you are in India, “loose motions”, as they say around here, are a fairly close companion.

Feeling better the next day, we went to check out the city palace. If you thought, as we did, that this was the royal residence, you’d be wrong. It is an old part of the palace that they don’t use anymore. The “royal residence” is, apparently, the cool part, but it costs $40 (that’s dollars, not rupees) to visit. Needless to say, thus far Jaipur was a bit disappointing. As we left the city palace, we stopped at a chaiwalla to get some tea. While there, we met a rickshaw driver who offered to take us to some sights around the city. We are wary of these guys, but decided to give him a try. He took us to the lake palace, which was beautiful.

And then he took us to the obligatory shop (where all rickshaw drivers take you because if you buy something they get a hefty commission). The shop was interesting because they showed us how they do the Rajasthani block printing. But the sales pressure was high and we barely got out of there with our wallets in tact. We decided to steer clear of rickshaw drivers after that! We just had one last stop to make before we parted ways with our driver. We asked him to take us to a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. It was on a rooftop on the fort itself overlooking the city. We thought it’d be cool to check out. We settled in and placed our order. As we waited for our food, Jigar noticed that there was a menu on the wall in Hindi. That menu had different prices on it than the menu we had ordered from, which was in English. He asked the waiter about it. The waiter told him the reason our food was more expensive was that it was “special food”. Jigar told him that we didn’t need any special food, regular food was just fine for us. In the end, we got portions that were half of the size of everyone else in the restaurant – Indian or foreigner. The portions were so small, they had to serve it in different dishes than they used for everyone else. Anway, our visit to Jaipur was not starting out well.

The next day, we finished the walking tour (which involved a large amount of harassment from shopkeepers and rickshawwallas) and decided to take in a movie. The movie theater in Jaipur, called the Raj Mandir, is self proclaimed to be the biggest movie theater in Asia. It has over 1100 seats. While waiting in line, we met two American girls. Christine is working in Delhi for a year for a company that is equipping villages with solar panels so that they have power. Emily was just there for a visit. She was on her way home from working for a hospital in Tanzania for a year. When it turned out that the movie was sold out, we all decided to go hang out together. There weren’t too many options nearby, so we settled for McDonald’s. Jigar and I had been secretly dying to try the McDonald’s masala fries so we didn’t mind. We had our fries and milkshakes and got to know Christine and Emily a bit. Before too long, the manager came over and asked us to sign the guestbook! Who knew McDonald’s had a guestbook?

We hadn’t given up on the sightseeing yet, so our next stop was Amber Fort. Finally, something beautiful to make our time in Jaipur worthwhile! Amber Fort is on the outskirts of the city. It is a majestic old fort on a hill and you can feel the regal history steeped into the stones. There is another fort even further up the hill called Jaigadh Fort. We spent so long at Amber Fort that they told us not to bother going up the hill. It’s a 20 minute walk up and it’d be closed by the time we got there. The main attraction of the second fort is that it has the largest cannon on wheels in the world. Jigar really wanted to show it to me so we decided to take our chances. We made our trek up the hill and we were rewarded. The guards were kind enough to let us in. We went straight to the cannon (more or less) and watched the sunset from the top of the hill.

After our return to the city from the forts, we decided to give Raj Mandir one more try. This time we got tickets to the movie! We saw Rab ni de Bani Jodi starring Shuh Rakh Khan (also known as SRK). It was a typical, but very cute, hindi movie.

Our last day in Jaipur, we went to Jantar Mantar. Jantar Mantar is a weird place where one of the maharajas built all these crazy astronomical instruments. We had seen so many forts lately and heard so many audio guides that we decided to check out this place on our own. Big mistake! These giant gadgets meant nothing to us. Oh well! We had one more place we wanted to see – the Hawa Mahal. It was a palace built for the queens and other female royalty. Since they observed perda in India (which means women may never be seen), they had to build a place that the women could observe celebrations and festivals without being seen. Hawa Mahal was the answer. It was being renovated so the inside was not particularly beautiful, but we did get a nice view of the city.

Overall, we didn’t particularly enjoy our visit to Jaipur. We stayed to see all the sites so that we never have to go back there again. It was far too touristy and the vendors there are extremely pushy. India has some beautiful places, but the super touristy sites tend not to bring the worst of people. We were ready to visit Jigar’s childhood friend Himanshu in Delhi.

MORE PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=66548&id=813269869&l=72323c6ab8

Bikaner and the Temple of the Rats

We arrived in Bikaner at about 5am after a difficult night on an overnight bus. Luckily, we had a hotel reservation and went directly to the hotel. We slept for several hours until we were awoken by our phone ringing. It was my family calling to say merry Christmas! When they had called the day before (while we were racing our camels across the Great Thar Desert of Rajasthan), the call hadn't connected so I didn't get a chance to speak with them. It was a wonderful way to be woken up on Christmas morning. Everyone was there so we took turns talking to all my sisters, my nephews, and my parents.

When we finally got up, we set out to explore the town. We did a bit of walking tour and saw all the havelis (heritage homes) and temples in Bikaner. There is a beautiful Jain temple which is covered in colorful paintings inside (that's really unusual for a Jain temple). During our walk, we noticed that most of the shops were closed for Christmas, which I thought was interesting since most Indians are not Christian.

In the afternoon, we took a bus to Deshnok to the Karni Mata Temple. Otherwise known as the Rat Temple. The story goes that Karni Mata (a 14th century incarnation of the goddess Durga) asked the god of death, Yama, to restore to life the son of a grieving storyteller. When Yama refused, Karni Mata reincarnated all dead storytellers as rats, depriving Yama of human souls. And now the rats are considered holy at this temple.



As we entered, we saw rats scurrying around the floors. A rat running across the path here and there. I took a deep breath and told myself I could do it.

We crossed the temple courtyard and then entered the temple itself. There were hand railings along the entryway and when I looked down at them, I saw that they were lined with rats. Rats were perched all along the railing. And there were many, many more rats scurrying across the temple than there were in the courtyard. I took another deep breath and went for the darshan (which is like the altar where you pray – it is the idol of the god). I took about two steps when a rat ran across one foot and then the other. This is supposed to be a very lucky thing and is considered a blessing. I screamed and ran out of the temple. Jigar, who is much braver than I am when it comes to rats, continued on. He made it to the darshan and even took the prashad (food blessed by the gods). Rats share the same prashad as the people! After a few minutes, Jigar came out to get me. He said they were doing a special pooja inside and that anything you pray for will come true if you come all the way inside the temple and pray. He asked me if I wanted to come. I told him that no, I was just fine where I was outside the temple. He went back inside. I don’t know if his prayers came true or not, but I feel pretty blessed already so I was OK with not going back in..


The next day, we went to see the fort and then we went out for a special lunch in honor of Christmas. It was kind of our Christmas dinner. We went to the Laxmi Niwas Palace and had a feast fit for a king. It was a scrumptious meal in the palace courtyard.

Bikaner was a pleasant surprise for us. We really enjoyed the fort and the palace. The rat temple was an unusual and memorable experience. It was a fun stop in our tour of Rajasthan.




MORE PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55902&id=813269869&l=f670d1d8cb

Desert Safari...

Jaisalmer, India: I’d heard of the desert safari and was wondering what all the hype was about. It is one of the more expensive things to do in India, but it is suppose to be amazing. The problem with desert safaris is that it is really hot during day time and really cold during night time. You have to consider both extremes while packing your gear. We were only going for one night, so it wasn’t an enormous undertaking.

You have to do a lot of research on your own to make sure that you are getting everything you need to survive a night in the desert. Luckily, when we were at the Deepak Guesthouse, I had mentioned to the manager (Papli) that we were interested in doing the desert safari. There was a group of 14 people with Intrepid Travels that had checked in that morning. There were people from all over the world, some from Australia, some from England, some from USA, some from Poland and some other countries. We were sure that they were most likely to do the desert safari. I spoke to Papli and asked him if it were possible for Gin & I to join this group for the desert safari. It had to be approved by the group leader, Anand, from Intrepid Travels. He was a kid in his 20’s and didn’t mind us joining the group as long as we paid for the trip. I was happy about joining this group because I knew that joining this group meant that quality was guaranteed. Another advantage was that we didn’t have to pay for the folk dance that local villagers were going to do at night in the desert. The group had already paid for it. It was only Rs.50/person extra for the folk dance anyway.

We paid Rs. 850/person for the desert safari. It included a camel ride for 2 hours the first day, snacks at sunset, folk dance after sunset followed by dinner. The following morning, we would have breakfast and another 1.5 hour camel ride back. I was all excited about this adventure.

The following day we left for the safari. They drove us about 1.5 hour into the desert where we had our camels waiting for us. Each person got their own camel to ride. I was happy about that. It does take a little getting used to riding a camel. My camel was very obedient, but Gin’s camel was a renegade. He was a young 'en, a little hot blooded crazy renegade. He had to be tied with my camel, so whenever I went fast, Gin’s camel had to try and catch up to my camel. It was fun! Neither one of us had ridden a camel before for such a length of time and that too in the desert. Now the desert was a little bit of a disappointment. It wasn’t like the pictures I had seen. It was more like barren land with bushes here and there. Lonely Planet did mention this, but I was hoping that it would be wrong. Unfortunately, they were right.


At the end of the camel ride, we finally reached what looked like sand dunes. Yay! I was really happy to see the sand dunes now. I was off my camel and on my camera. It was the best time to take pics because the sun was setting. Once I was satisfied with the pics I had taken, we were ready for some snacks and tea. We took the snacks & the tea on the sand dunes and watched the sun disappear slowly in the horizon. It was one of the most amazing sunsets I’ve ever seen so far.

After the sunset, we hung out a little longer on the sand dunes and went back to our camp site. There was a bonfire the staff had created and we were waiting for the local villagers to come and perform the folk dance & music. Once the mucisians and the dancers came, they put on an excellent show. We were all then forced to join them. The crew made sure that everyone got up and danced along with the villagers. It didn’t matter what kind of dance we did. People from all over the world were drinking and dancing in the middle of the desert with the local villagers from Jaisalmer under a beautiful starry sky. It couldn’t get any better. After everyone was exhausted, the musicians & dancers left. Everyone was hungry and ready for dinner. It was really good food, especially since everyone had spent all their energy dancing. It was starting to get really cold. Everyone started huddling around the bonfire.

We laid on our bed under the open starry sky. Gin & I were counting the number of shooting stars as our eyes started getting heavy. Once the bonfire was over, it got cold. I put on my winter jacket and pulled two layers of thick blankets, but I was still cold. Luckily, I fell asleep.

The following morning everyone woke up early and was ready to see the sunrise in the desert. It was a beautiful sunrise. It was cold, but fortunately the crew had made hot tea and snacks for breakfast. After the sunrise, we packed up and got ready to get back on our camels. Going back we took a different route altogether. Before finishing the camel ride, we had an open field where we raced our camels! While, we were racing our camel, mom & dad called from Greenfield. I barely managed to get the phone out of my pocket and handed it over to Gin. It was really interesting watching Gin try to answer the phone and race her camel at the same time. God bless technology!

Once the camel ride came to an end we stopped to have some tea. I took some pictures of the crew and we started heading back to Jaisalmer. In conclusion, it was one of the most amazing experiences we’ve ever had.

MORE PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51814&id=813269869&l=e15e9b6827

The Golden City

Jaisalmer, India: Jaisalmer has always been a place that I dreamt of going to since I was a child. Finally, when we left Jodhpur, we were on our way to Jaisalmer. On our way to Jaisalmer on the train, we met a wonderful family of A.K.Bhakta. Their family was from a small place near Kolkata (Calcutta). Mr. Bhakta invited both Gin & I to go and visit their family if we ever made it to Kolkata. We promised to take their invitation if we’d make it to Kolkata.

Once we got to the train station, we had already arranged a pick up to the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel had already given all their good rooms to the customers that were going on the desert safari. We hadn’t made any arrangements to do the desert safari, but we were planning to do it. We just wanted to do our own research once we got to Jaisalmer. So we didn’t take any rooms at the hotel that we had arranged a pickup with.

While we were walking around looking for a hotel, we came across the Dutch couple that had asked us for a nearest ATM location in Jodhpur. We stopped and asked them what place they were staying at and if they liked the place. They said they were staying at Deepak Guesthouse and they liked it very much. I still went around and looked at many places to stay at and finally decided to stay at Deepak Guesthouse. The room was much better than most places I saw and their rate was very reasonable as well (Rs.500/night).

The hotel was inside the fort and this fort happens to be the only living fort in the world. So we had to experience staying inside the fort. We had a nice balcony in our room with beautiful view overlooking the Jaisalmer city. The hotel also had a lovely rooftop restaurant. They made kickass masala chai & awesome grilled cheese garlic sandwich. Gin & I would spend hours everyday sipping some good chai and enjoying the view.

Jaisalmer was much more than I had expected it to be. In just a day, it had become my favorite city we’d visited so far in India. There wasn’t much to do Jaisalmer, but it was very relaxing and just being in the fort was awesome. Going through the narrow streets of the fort where you can either ride a bicycle, a motorcycle or just walk made it a lot of fun. We preferred walking. There was also a big market outside the fort where you can do tons of shopping. You could buy real camel leather shoes, bags, sandals, etc. We did a fair bit of shopping while we were there.

The restaurants here were also really good. They were a bit pricier than other places we’ve been to, but the food was worth paying the extra money. After we came back from dinner one night, we saw the Dutch couple again and started chatting with them. Their names were Jeroen & Dyonne. They had been traveling for 8 months when we met them. They told us about their travel experience and we told them about our travel experience. They were really a nice couple. It was already getting late so we decided to meet for breakfast the next morning. After breakfast we all went to see the Jain temples, which were spectacular.

The following morning we told them to try the masala chai at the rooftop restaurant. I also told Jeroen to try the grilled cheese garlic sandwich. They certainly enjoyed the masala chai a lot & Jeroen loved his sandwich. While were hanging out in the restaurant, enjoying the beautiful view, we started noticing a bunch of fighter planes taking off from the near by Indian Air force base. It was a bit alarming since we were only 200 kilometers from the Pakistan border. I knew the tensions between the two countries were high because of the Mumbai terrorist attack and that there was a real possibility of a war breaking out between the two countries. After the 13th fighter plane took off, I decided to call my dad and see if there was anything in the news about a war starting between the two countries. Luckily, my father’s response was negative and we continued sipping tea and enjoying the company of Jeroen & Dyonne.

Since neither Jeroen nor Dyonne had tried different Indian cuisines in India, we decided to take them to a nice restaurant. I did all the ordering as usual. I couldn’t believe that Dyonee had been ordering Paneer Butter Masala everyday for meals because she was too scared to try something different. She did have a very weak stomach. Jeroen on the other hand was an adventurous eater. He tried everything we ordered and didn’t mind trying different things. At the end we all enjoyed the food very much. Since they were leaving Jaisalmer the following day, we decided to have lunch together. This time we ordered Indian Chinese. Jeroen loved the food and so did Dyonne, but it was a bit too spicy for her. After the meal, they had to get ready to leave and we took some snaps and exchanged contact information. They both invited us to go to the Netherlands and visit them someday. We’re both looking forward to seeing them in Holland or somewhere else in the world.

We were hanging out often with Dyonne and Jeroen while we were in Jaisalmer and their departure made us sad. Fortunately, we had something exciting to look forward to: we were to head out for the desert safari the following afternoon. Gin & I were really looking forward to the deseret safari.

One thing is for sure; good company makes a place stand out no matter where in the world you are. We were glad to have such an excellent company of Dyonne & Jeroen.

The Blue City

Our first stop in Rajasthan was Jodhpur. We wanted to stay in the old part of the city near the fort. Rajasthan literally means “land of the kings”. In the time before British rule, Rajasthan was not a state. Each city was its own state with its own king and its own palace. That palace is inside a fort so if any of the neighboring kings decided to attack (which was often), it would slow them down a bit.

We arrived in Jodhpur early in the morning and made the rounds looking for a hotel. We found a lovely place called the Discovery Guest House. If you ever find yourself in Jodhpur, I highly recommend it. It is lovely, clean, and nicely decorated. The rooms are big and airy. And, best of all, it is run by a really nice family who make you feel right at home.

We had grand plans of going to the fort and doing all the other touristy things there were to do around town, but then we saw the roof of our guest house. It had an amazing view of the fort and really amazing tea… so we camped out there for a good chunk of the first day. Eventually, we decided to wander the streets of the old city and get a feel for the city.

Later in the day, we went to the Umaid Palace. It is mostly a hotel now, but the outside is beautiful. The next day we went to Mandore gardens. There are temples and gardens and some kind of ruins. At the end of the day, we were excited to go back and see the view from our rooftop restaurant at night. We were disappointed to find that the fort isn’t lit at night. Apparently, since tourism is so low this year, they aren’t bothering to turn on the lights. We went out into the city for dinner. We ended up having omelets from a street vendor which may have been the best eggs I’ve ever eaten.

Finally, on the last day, we decided we should really go check out Meherangarh Fort. It was a 10 minute walk up the hill from our hotel. We set out after lunch. On our way up, a man sitting a house said hello. We said hi and he asked us where we were from. When Jigar said Ahmedabad, the gentleman lit up. He is also Gujarati. He invited us into his home. We chatted for a while with him and his son. They invited us back for tea in the afternoon and he said that his wife would put mendhi on me (that’s henna designs on your hands).


We said our goodbyes to our new friend and headed for the fort. It was as captivating as we expected it to be. My ticket (the foreigner ticket, that is) which costs about five times what Jigar’s ticket costs, comes with an audio tour. Between the audio tour and the restoration of the fort, we were transported back into the land of the Maharanas and their Maharanis. The view of the city from the fort was spectacular.

For more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51347&l=eb5d0&id=813269869

Adventures in Ahmedabad

We spent a total of eight weeks in Ahmedabad. We spent most of our time with Jigar’s friends and family (which was the whole idea). I got the chance to learn about Gujarati culture and Gujarati food. I took Gujarati lessons every morning (which means I can now say, “How are you?”, “I’m fine”, and “Goodbye” in Gujarati). We did a lot of shopping. Jigar watched every cricket match that India played in. We celebrated Diwali. We visited friends. We spent time together as a family, playing cards and watching TV. I learned to make masala chai. We went to the movies. In short, we slowed down, stopped traveling and just lived a regular life (minus the work part) for a few weeks. We did have a few adventures around town. We went and visited Jigar’s old school and he showed me the places they used to live. We visited the old city for the Heritage walk and also visited Ghandi’s ashram. We took a day trip to Lothal – the ruins of a 4500 year old city which seems to have a better drainage system than most present day Indian cities. We had a great time in Ahmedabad. It was the first time in many years that Jigar could just come home and relax, without having to worry about getting back to the States for work or school. I got to see the city I have been hearing about for years from Jigar and his friends and family. Next stop: Delhi, to visit Jigar’s childhood friend, Himanshu Shani… with a few stops in Rajasthan along the way.

For more photos, check out these albums...

Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55953&l=a305e&id=813269869

Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55961&l=c5287&id=813269869

An Typical Gujarati Weekend Getaway!

The Mumbai (Bombay) attacks had really dampened everyone’s spirit in India. The media kept on showing the same horrific images over-and-over again which reminded me of 9/11. After a while, my mom, Gin & I were fed up with the media coverage and just felt like getting away for a while. My dad on the other hand was glued to the TV and wanted to get all the media coverage. We finally convinced dad to get away for the weekend.

The idea was to go to Mount Abu, Rajasthan, a popular hill station (a resort town on the hills) via Ambaji (a famous temple 40km from Mt. Abu). I wanted to take Ginnie to the Delwara temple, in Rajasthan, which to me is one of the most remarkable things to see in India.

Growing up in India, our family often visited Mount Abu. I’ve been there at least 5 times before, but every time I go there, it’s a wonderful experience. Full of fun memories.

First we went to the temple at Ambaji and stayed a night there. It was really nice to see the lighting at the temple at night. The temple also holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest flag (abt 4500 feet).

Next morning we left for Mount Abu. We stayed at a great spot overlooking the Nakki Lake. There was a little porch outside our room and the view was so incredible that we didn’t even go anywhere for the day. Just sat outside on the swing and had some food and masala chai (Indian tea). The sunset was incredible! I don’t think I’d seen the sky look the way it did in my entire life. Later in the evening, all of us played cards and had a chillaxed evening.

The following morning we woke up and were surprised to see rain. None of us were expecting it to rain, especially because it was dry season. Anyways, it cleared up and we decided to go up to Guru Shikhar (the highest peak of Mount Abu about 1700mts/5500ft). The view from there was spectacular.

On our way back we went to the much awaited Delwara Temple. Unfortunately, the temple was closed because of some religious ceremony being performed. Luckily, the temple was to reopen again for the day 2 hours before closing hour. So we just went back to the hotel and rested. We wanted to make sure we go back in time. I knew 2 hours wasn’t going to be enough if we doodled around. We all felt the urgency to get there because we were leaving the following day. Unfortunately, no photography or videography is allowed inside the temple. Ginnie thought the carvings were amazing. After the temple, we returned back to our hotel and played more cards after having a leisurely dinner.

The following morning was tight schedule. We had to get back to Ahmedabad, but before we left, we decided to do boating in the Nakki Lake. It was a splendid idea. It was a paddle boat for 4. Gin & I paddled the boat with my parents sitting in the back. It was a great idea and a great end to our weekend getaway.