...home sweet home...

...back home to work, rain all the best friends in the world :) ... the good news are that the trip was excellent and the bad news are that our Ipod with almost all the pictures disappeared from pour luggage :(...will try to rescues some shots from left over cards ...thank you all again for following our steps...

...monsoon clouds covered India-time to go home...

...last few days we spent in Bangalore...IT center and nest of all the western companies...very different but only from inside...outside on the streets still cows wander around, rickshaws everywhere, chaos on the road, and dusty breeze in 30 C. We staid with our friend Joseph and had great introduction to the gaming companies here...visited 2 major outsourcing companies with 300 workers each ...impressive...especially since they manage to work with few hours power cut every day...manage to do some horse riding in the evening (my horse was totally crazy) ...had little tour for the poshest hotels and restaurants here...in general little bit different side of India we know :)
...last 2 days we spend in HongKong, very impressive, super clean city, and truly beautiful...very comparable to Vancouver I must say but seems cleaner and transport in the city the best I have ever seen....
...last day today ... :( ...:) will be back in Vancouver on Monday

....thank you all for all the comments, and for following our steps...it was kind of like we all travel together :)miss you all

...wild Andamans...

..it is third day on beautiful Andamans Island between India and Thailand....it is gorgeous here ...white coral beaches, mangroves treas, little wicker hats all over the Island...truism is still in development, life runs super slow here...seems like damage from Tsunami 2004 is still under constaration or will not be ever taken care of. No shiny resorts and very little tourist...on the first day we took a tuktuk (kind of motorcycle taxi) and went to the beach no 7, apparently one of the most beautiful- indeed it was. We did lots of snorkeling which was fantastic. On the way home we saw bunch of flying fish and bloody red sunset. Second day I did 2 boat dives....AMAZING!!!!. ...mean time Nik sign up for the diving course...today I rent a bicycle and wandered around the Island and that how i found the only ...and the slowest Internet possible :) but that's better than nothing. Tomorrow I am planning either to go for a snorkeling trip or visit elephant training camp in the jungle...still not sure how to get there but heard from locals that something like that exist here. Drinking lots of fresh juices, eating lots of fish ( barracuda taste the best so far) manage to find a coconut and open our selves with a rock, was delicious :) So in general taking easy, swimming a lot in turquoise 30 C water (it feels warmer in the water than outside for some reason)...on Thursday way back to Port Blair by ferry and flight back to land to Chennai.
...hugs and kisses :)


Mom and Dad I hope you got my text on the cell, if not Happy Anniversary again :) Adam thank you for updating parents with all the news :)

...Happy Easter to all...

...Happy Easter from Kolkata airport...just arrived to another hit waive...getting ready for a flight in 12 hours to the islands...all that time on the arrival terminal may be interesting...
big hug

...last day in Darjeelin...

...it is around 12 C, pretty cold compare to 45 C in Varanasi...today is our last day in the Indians mountain region. Wandered around tea plantations, watched locals doing craft and getting lots in little street with no names. Tomorrow morning we are taking off to Kolkata and from there to the Andaman Islands ( not sure about the spelling) to do some diving and have some beach lazy days.

...thank you Diana for following our steps and for the news about my parents...I hope you are feeling good...big hugs

...cold with warm hearts Darjeelin...

...we are close to Nepal...very close in beautiful Darjeelin which feels like a different country, different culture. Today woke up at 4 am to see sunrise above Mt Everest and Lhotse, was quite misty but we manage to see the picks. Little mountain city is incredible...everybody really cares about they land and culture...no plastic bags allowed in the city, the awareness about the clean planet is very high compare to central north India where it doesn't even exist. People super friendly, nobody is charging you crazy prices or attacking to buy their craft...definitely the best place to relax form crazy chaos :) In few hours we are going to visit tee plantations...yes Darjeerin produces most famous tea in the world...and indeed it tastes incredible. Need to buy a bigger backpack since my shopping don't fit anymore to my little 30 L one. :)

...thank you everybody for sweet as usual comments, it is wonderful to read them here and they make me super happy. Rowena!!! it is great, I am super happy for Kiara and her trip...is he visiting your relatives? Tell her I wish her good luck :) Tomoczko and Gregi I am glad that you enjoy our steps on this land, land full of surprises, hey Piotr how was your trip? big hugs to all...miss you all

...have never seen so much death and life at the same time...

...second day in Varanasi, woke up at 5 and took a little boat on the Ganges watching morning local life...have never seen so much life and death at the same time. Hundreds of people washing clothes, themselves, praying, and the same time burning their dead and burning ghats, unbelievable view...felt like on the final gate to the place after death where everybody was getting ready for a final judge...on the way back saw few dead bodies floating around...was told that if somebody died by being poison by snake you are not allowed to be burned...

Life is incredible fast here but on the other hand you can see lots of lay back, sleeping, hanging around looking for a shade to hide. Apparently hot season came way earlier and people are not ready for that yet (hmmm global warming? nobody talks about it here) As I mention before I feel like everything is fast forward and in 5 minutes you will never expect how much can happen....my remarkable 5 minutes in Agra: since we had few hours to kill before the train I decided to get to the roof of the restaurant we used to hang out (seems like lots of activities is happening on the roofs of the buildings)...in 5 minutes managed to have last view at Taj Mahal, admired parrots playing in the air on the red sunset, had to fight against kite strings (all the kids form neighbour roofs start pointing kites my direction), little lizards everywhere, I turned around and saw lots of monkeys playing and fighting with each other...and one particular was so beautiful that I couldn't resist to take a picture of..need to climb some pipes, boxes to have a better view, once got a perfect position and the angle I hit something soft with my right leg and felt needles all over my legs, bees were all over my leg...and were stinging where ever they could... took me a while to get to stable position walking back on boxes and pipes finally manage to rescue my leg...and all that was just a 5 minutes...:)


...besides that stomachs are doing better and we are ready for a next move.
hugs and kisses

...all sort of things...

Dear friends and family thank you so much for all the warm comments...
It took us 17 hours instead of 10 in a overnight train, hundreds of people packed 2 or 3 on one sit. Finally we got to Varanasi...incredibly amazing city on the Ganages river with thousands of people washing themselves in it, praying, doing yoga, improving their karmas by donating money to the poorest or burning their dead families...ye that was quite shocking...
...it is definitely getting hotter...I bet it is close to 50 right now and I need to have my shoulders cover most of the time. Foreign woman is quite an exotic creature and everybody wants to take pictures with me :) which I found super cute :) and woman always are touching my hair (I guess they figured that is not my real colour)
Today I walked 2 km among all the ghats watching locals and they spiritual rituals. Where ever I turned I saw Hindu gurus (I just call them like that) they all looks like Gods. It is the end of tourist season, so it is nice and relaxing...(if you can only relax here, trust me life runs 400 mile per hour here)
Tomorrow at 5:30 I planning to take a boat among the river and watch peoples lives at the start of the day.

Besides that we fulfill our trip by upset stomachs...yes the bug finally got us. Nik is all day in the room with his best friend washroom and I am still holding somehow on peptobismo with some washroom breaks...hopefully tomorrow will be better :)

Thank you for following our adventures...miss you all

...it is getting hot....

... Jaipur welcomed us with massive pink fort and tons of elephants...big creatures with delicate skin and beautiful eyes...Agra 6 hours away was our next destination, known of magic Taj Mahall (magic indeed)...6 hours on the crazy road next to lazy cows chilling on the road, camels carrying anything you can imagine, speeding overloaded tracks (manage to see 3 in the ditch) and all that is admired by sneaky looking monkey next to the road, the only way to peace my mind was to look towards horizon and watch colorful ladies working in the fields. Finally AGRA...Taj Mahal blow our minds... strong but delicate; rich with taste but modest; peaceful as powerful... spend good 4 hours wondering around...
...On the way to Agra Fort, which is another well known destination in Agra, got to know 2 funny rickshas (not sure about spelling) spent most of the afternoon on their falling apart bikes (Indian Helicopters as they claimed) In the end of the day one of the brother got drunk and manage to fell from the bike and all what I saw was him under his helicopter. He was fine and we all had good laugh. From that on guess who was doing all the biking ? :)
Have few hours to kill before our next trip, this time overnight train to Varanassi...

Thank you John for a sweet comment, yes no Chicken butter for us in fact we became vegetarians but just while traveling...will catch up with some chicken back home.

...Rajastan...

...it is hot and dry...love it...crazy traffic, friendly people, amazing food. Delhi didn't surprise us too much...which is a good thing, we didn't know what to expect but everything went really smooth with good energy. From Delhi we left to Rajastan, first destination -Pushkar...amazing little city with a holly lake in the middle. Women bathing in the holly water was quite spectacular. In generall very hippie oriented place..you are not allowed to eat meat within the city and plastic bags are not welcomed...very environmental friendly place. From Pushkar we head to Jaipur...wow the craziness starts, unbelievable traffic, crazy drivers, sticky dust everywhere. Lucking of oxygen and personal space going to walk around the old Jaipur City, apparently best shopping market are located here. :). In general we head to bed around 7pm with a dusk and wake up around 5am, eating great food (well missing chicken little bit) and learning a lot about new culture...next destination-Agra....have a great day everybody..talk to you soon :)

...new trip....India 2007

Dear Friends and family, on 23rd of March I am heading for another trip, this time India. I will be updating my blog as much as possible. Have a great day. Talk to you soon.