Life on the beach in Kolvam

So let me give you a little heads up on what we have done since we have been here. Well we wake up and think what should we do....normally this leads us to thinking our bellies are hungry and we need to find some grub. After we inhale some food we then look out at the crashing waves and think man its hot we should go swimming. This then leads us to our hotel where we get chanced into our swimming trunks and then we head to the beach. The last two days we have rented bodyboards and then we spend most of the day surfing the waves. Ya its been really tough so far, I mean its tough eating then having to surf in water that is warmer then most pools. Then we normally have a massive feast for dinner and head to bed.

Well last night we decided that one of the places on the beach was showing the movie Hitch with Will Smith. So we rolled on over there and had dinner and watched the show. Oh and since we were watching a show we thought we should have 3 huge kingfishers each. Ya that made the movie more enjoyable. Well the flick was totally ripped from the internet and wasn't that good quality but who cares we're in India so we can't complain. So headed home and woke up on new years eve. Surfed and hung out all day and now we are blogging before we head out and have some fun. Its going to be a total gong show because there are about a million Indians who have shown up on the beach and there are about 2 million police with sticks (their version of billy clubs) so we'll stay off the beach and in a club having a few while we watch the police beat on the Indians (well hopefully that won't happen). Club???? Well not exactly its more like a restaurant that plays western music.

Well I'm out to get some dinner and then some drinks so I hope everyone has a great new years and look for our blogs tomorrow since I'm sure we'll have some good stories.

Glenn

Happy New Year!

Hello all! We have been too lazy/busy to blog the last few days so we are now making an effort to fill you all in. Its New Year's Eve here and it is quite likely that tomorrow could generate a whole blog on its own, so we wanted to get something up today.
When last we posted, we were in Cochin. We left on the 27th and now we are in Kovalum, near the very south end of India. This place is one of a few very touristy beach resorts in India. It is full of a different kind of tourist; one that comes to India for a week or 2 strictly to hang out on the beach. They leave with very little cultural experience and are here mainly to just unwind. Basically there is one main beach, called Lighthouse Beach and it is lined with hotels and restaurants. Our hotel is about 50m behind, so that we don't have to pay too rediculous of a price. Our room is 350Rs/night which is a bit high, but after all it is tourist season and the hotel is very clean at least.
When we left Cochin, we caught an hour and half bus ride to Allepey and stayed the night. That place is pretty much a whole, but the attraction is that it is a starting point for backwater tours. We then took a tour boat from Allepey(aka Alapouza) to Kollam about 80km to the south. We were a bit hesitant to take the tour as we didn't have the greatest time in our water trek in Kashmir, but everyone said it was worth it, and after all we were only commiting to one day of 8 hours, not 5 days. The only downside was that even though we showed up about 20 minutes early, we were too late to get a seat under the shade on the boat, so we spent nearly an entire 8 hours, from 10am to 6pm in direct sunlight. We managed to keep our sunburns to a minimum.
In Kollam, we found the worst hotel so far. We looked at one place and it wasn't bad but the mattress was super hard, so we went across the street and took a room for 160Rs. That was a mistake; I would've much prefered a hard mattress to a room full of bugs. At least the weren't the biting kind, but I only knew that after I slept (miserably) in the bed. By the way, do you guys know how tough cockroaches are? I hit one with the heel of my shoe and it had no effect. I hit him again harder and he was stunned a bit but then tried to run away. The third time I hit him turned him into a white paste. It was kinda gross, but at least he didn't get away.
The next day, we toured the markets (pictures will be posted soon) and headed to Kovalum, our ultimate destination for New Years'. Everything else was just time spent in between Kochi and Kovalum. The bus drives thought that one day would be a good time to go on strike but the trains were still operating thankfully. We met a very nice lady at the bus station who was having the same problem and so we travelled with her to Kovalum and she was extremely helpful. It made it so much easier to deal with because she is Indian, so we had no hassles and she made sure we did not get ripped off.
Since then we have just been enjoying the sunshine, swimming, body boarding and the usual. I also checked out some fishing which was really cool, and I will tell you more about it once we get the pictures up in a day or two.

Happy New Year!

More thoughts on the dowry issue

Well I've had some really funny comments from friends on my thoughts about dowries. Rob has told me that if we could get dowries he would be more inclined to be into this whole marriage thing. So what I will do is post the emails that I have received but I will change the names in the emails because I haven't asked for permission from those people to post their emails. What I'll do instead is change the names to my sister Michelle and myself. Gross I know but I needed names people can't really place so here we go:

email number 1:

oh dude ' the dowry line' is your greatest idea ever ----- just think how
beautiful it wokrs as a comeback to the following bullshit

example 1:
girl: "sorry but i was raised old fashioned
believing the man should pay for everything"

glenn: "oh, ok, well I'm glad you're old fashion, it'll help you understand
a little thing called dowries"

----------------
example 2:
After re reading the email I can't post this one lol


Email number 2
Glenn I’ll be honest the dowry thought…Golden. Man my random thoughts had been going as well…I was thinking whenever I actually meet a girl I want to marry I’m going to ask her dad’s permission. He probably won’t like me for some reason but asking for his daughter’s hand may gain me some points, if he does like me this will get me in the will. When I get the approval that’s when I toss out the dowry request…I’ll ask for a fly fishing equipment, that way when I’m married and I want to get away I’ll say to the wife “I’m going to go fly fishing, your dad will be insulted if I don’t use his gift”, then I’ll probably go get drunk in some little town with a strip joint…you should ask for fly fishing gear as well that way we can meet up. I’m also going to ask for him to work for me 1 hour a day, that way I’ll be able to keep in shape instead of having to come home and fix the sink or something like that.

--------------

Rob thinks that we men should start a lobby group and get organized and maybe we can make some changes to our beliefs. I hope you enjoyed those thoughts from my friends.

Glenn

Christmas Lunch

How should I start this post. Oh I know by telling you something that my mother said to me today when I spoke to her on the phone this morning. It was Christmas eve back home and she was telling me that the next day they were having brussel sprouts tomorrow for dinner. Now must people think they are gross and I can see why but I actually really like them and I couldn't believe that my mom was rubbing it in that she was having turkey dinner with all the fixings. I mean she is my mother she isn't supposed to do stuff like that she is supposed to feel really bad that I don't get to have turkey with the family. So mom I hope you read this post because I got my brussel sprouts as well as a lot more.

After I spoke with my parents, sonja, and my sister I was thinking what the heck are we going to do today. Rob came up with the idea that we should find a turkey dinner and go from there. Well we called around and found a Christmas 5 course lunch at a swank 5 start hotel. It was only going to cost us 650rs each which is a lot but you have to remember we didn't buy anyone Christmas presents so this is cheap. Rob and I both need a serious shave so we cruise over to the barber and get our faces scraped then we walk across the road and buy nice shirts because we are going to a five star hotel so we had better look the part.

With our new shirts and our new faces we decide to head over to the hotel. Once we arrive we are in a different India from the one that we have been in the rest of the time. This place has AC and they are using it, good thing too because we are sweating. We find the resturant, one of four in this hotel, and sit down in the plush seats. The waiter is at our table in a second and invites us to check out the buffet. We have a look and its game on we are ready to attack this buffet. It had the following items:
-Roast duck and lamb
-Beef
-Mussels and calamari
-15 different kinds of salads
-Roast Turkey
-Brussel sprouts
-8 different high quality deserts
-A whole pile of different high quality rices and pastas
-Smoked salmon (we didn't touch it)

I'm a sucker for buffet in Canada but I'm an even bigger sucker for turkey 5 star hotel buffet in India cooked by a real chef. I think my first plate was just different kinds of meat. I know if I was a veg I would think thats gross but really its not when you consider we haven't had beef or duck or lamb in 2 months and this stuff was actually properly cooked. You have to remember there was turkey too so my plate was stuffed to the brim. After I sat down I realized that I had missed the open appies so thats what the second plate had a fair share of as well as more turkey. Funny story with the guy cutting the turkey, I think this was his first time because he was butchering this poor bird and whenever he was putting the turkey on my plate he was shaking. Third plate was salads and turkey as well as a pile of brussel sprouts and a sprinkling of duck and lamb. Fourth plate had pickles and pickled onions with some type of favoured beef.

Then came the three courses of deserts. Course one was everything at the desert table plus homemade icecream. Second course was all the chocolate dishes again. The last course was more chocolate and a really full belly. The whole time we were having the meal the kept our glasses full of champagne. Rob order coffee and it came in a bodem and said it was dam good.

So what were going to do with our bellies now that they were full? Well since we were at a five star hotel we might as well check out the pool. Yup we spent the afternoon lounging beside the pool and drinking gin and tonix. Now we are at home blogging and then at 8pm we are meeting another traveller for some beer and mayb some dinner if I can find room for it. Hope everyone has a good turkey dinner because we sure did.

G

Happy Christmas from Rob

Hope you all are having/have had a happy christmas! I will tell you briefly of my Christmas Day in case some of you wacko's are inarested in that crap....

First off, I woke up bright and early because Glenn was up to go for his run. "Merry Chrithmaph."

"Merry Christmas," he replied. Right at that moment I thought, hey I shoulda got him something for xmas. Then he threw a crumpled up shirt at me. "Here, open your present." Figures. I actually thought of getting Glenn a present, only it was 1.7 seconds before he gave me his present. People are always doing that kind of thing to me.

"Huh what? Now? But I am still in bed.... Alright..." So I unfolded his shirt and lo I uncovered a compass. I can't tell you what a great gift this was. If we had had it at the beginning of the trip, we probably would've seen ALL of India by now, because we spend half our time lost. I'll admit it, I am not the greatest navigator sometimes. Especially when all we have to go on are crumby maps from our guide books and vague directions from people on the street. Then the whole time we also have to watch out for piles of poo, not get hit by traffic while walking on the wrong side of the road and ignoring rickshaw drivers and beggars. It can be a bit disorientating and sometimes all I want to know is what friggin direction is north anyway?

After Glenn came back from his run, his face looked like a guava. We went and had a terrific breakfast at Kashi Art Cafe where they serve you your own little bodum of coffee for 30 Rs. Basically they have a set menu and this morning for it was a mountain of fruit and some kind of really good loaf/cake that just came out of the oven. It is definitly a tourist place, but I am telling you they would be pulling in at least 8 dollars a plate in Canada. Their lunches usually consist of some kind of really simple and good soup and sandwich. Anyway...We thought we should do something cool for Xmas so I tried to rent motorbikes again but it was too late in the day and they were all gone so instead we decided we would try to secure some kind of turkey dinner. I knew that it would be an ordeal. Anything not straight off the menu in India is an ordeal. Like if you are at a restaurant and they offer honey pancake and they offer banana pancake and you ask for a banana-honey pancake which is not listed in the menu, then I really don't know what you are going to get. Even if we explain it a couple times we are never really sure if he will come back with what was ordered or if he will come back with 2 separate pancakes, one honey and one banana. One time I was at a place that actually had real espresso so naturally I wanted an Americano, which for those of you who don't know is just an espresso with a little bit of hot water added to it. At this joint you write down your order yourself but they didnt have Americano, but it is very straight forward so I just wrote out the recipe like this:

-Americano (2 shots of espresso + hot water in one cup)

That's pretty clear isn't it? And then when I gave the order to the waitress, I explained to her what I wanted. Can you guess what I got? 2 shots of espresso in 2 separate cups, no water on the side or anywhere. This kind of stuff happens all the time, and thats fine, you just have to get used to expecting to be disappointed. Then on the other hand you can be amazed with how awesome something turns out to be.

I kinda digressed there, but my point was that everything in India can be an ordeal, so steeled myself before I took Glenn's guide book and started dialing up high end hotels. The first one I called was supposed to be a bona fide 5 star hotel. After dialing 3 times because the call would not go through, finally I heard a voice on the other end. I asked if their restaurant offered Christmas turkey dinner. He yelled something in my ear, to someone else in the room and then put me on hold. No real receptionist at a real 5 star hotel would yell in someone's ear, I thought. I waited for a minute listening to the music in the phone which might have been India's national anthem or something. It sounded very patriotic. Eventually someone picked up the other end.

"Hello, Can I help you"
"Yes, I was wondering if any of your restaurants(they have 6 by the way) are offering christmas dinner tonight?"
"Hello?"
"Yes, I am trying to find somewhere that offers turkey dinner..."
"Well what do you want me to do?" That made me laugh.
"I want you to tell me if you have turkey dinner."
"Where are you calling from sir?"
"Fort Cochin, Park Avenue Hotel..." Long pause. "Uh..Is this the Taj Malabar?"
"No, this is the operator."
"Uhh ok-thx-bye." Click.

This is what happens when you try to do stuff in India. The secret is, I hear, don't give up on your first try. I phoned the other two hotels we had and one said they were not doing anything special, that I could just have "a la card" and the other said they had a real roast turkey dinner--last night. At this point I was ready to just give up but Glenn told me to phone the first place again. Whats the point, I wondered, it's not going to work anyway. I dialed the stupid number and got the same person who yelled in my ear before. "Hello, Can you tell me if any of your restaurants offer a Christmas dinner?" Once again I got yelled at and was put on hold. This time though I managed to get through. The line was very quiet, but after 7 or 8 minutes I managed to secure a reservation at 2 o'clock for "Mr. Roe." I told her "R-O-B as in banana," but it didn't matter. It is not worth it to push points like that when you are in India, it just is not worth the effort. So what if my name is Mr. Roe. Anyway, the rest of the story you know from Glenn, and I have to go to bed because this place is closing. Tomorrow we head about 3 or 4 hours inland to a place called Munnar where there are the highest elevated tea fields or something or other, but it actually sounds very nice.

Bon Soir and Joie Noel.

Sincerely,
Mr. Roe.

Whats up with men wearing skirts? From Rob.

I am not talking about Indian men. It's true, in the south here some do wear kind of a sheet wrapped around sometimes like a long skirt, sometimes like a diaper, but whats with the western tourists doing it? I understand going to a place and trying to fit in, for example, not eating with your left hand, apologize if you touch someone's foot, be polite and chat with the locals--but wearing a skirt?

First off, only the labouring castes are the ones wearing them, to stay cool while they are working. Also because it doesn't cost much to tailor a sheet to fit. Basically one size fits all. The fact is actually many Indians can't understand why western tourists who come from rich countries dress like some of India's poorest. What are these hippies thinking? "I want to fit in, so I will dress like a bum."

As a side note, I can't understand uber yoga hippie logic anyway. When in Kharjuraho last week, I got up early, rented a bike a rode 15 minutes to a free yoga class. Glenn stayed in bed, but I figured, what the hell, its free after all. And of course, I thought it could be good for my back. The yoga class actually ended up being about yoga philosophy, meditation, etc. I stayed for nearly 2 and a half hours. There was the teacher guy, named Yogi Sharma, 4 other "students" including another skeptic like myself. I mostly just listened. I got a real kick out of people explaining how they "know" reincarnation exists and hearing them talk about memories from their past lives. It was great. I meant to get the yogi guy to read my aura, but I am sure it was red anyway. I left rather abruptly after comparing views on chemistry. His periodic table of elements consisted of earth, water, air and fire. Try as I might, I just could not wrap my head around it. I guess I need to meditate more. You can make yourself believe anything if you put your mind to it. But I tried to understand, I really did.

"So you are saying, if I have a glass of water--cold water, and I put it on a scale and weigh it, then I add fire to it and make it hot water it will weigh more then it did when it was cold??"

"Yes!"

"Alright! I have to go. Thank you very much!"

And I got up and left. That was my experience with those crazies. I came to ease my back pain, and instead came away more sore from sitting for so long. I guess if you can believe that there are only 4 elements, wearing a skirt in India might make sense. But I wonder, if they went to Scotland, would they wear a kilt? If in Africa would they run around in a loincloth, or wear a giant diaper in Japan?

Christmas plans

Today is Christmas Eve here in India and we are both boiling to death because of the heat here. It is awesome being in a place like this for Christmas. You have no tacky Christmas music, no crazy ladies on the streets who have to buy three more presents in the next 5 minutes, no oversize ladies squizing into undersize christmas party dresses, and none of that horribly tasting fruit cake. Why in the world do people make that stuff it tastes like crap. I could go on a serious rant about fruit cake but I'll leave it at that.

So our plan for Christmas day? Well we are going to open our presents, eat the sweats that we got in our stocking, have a big breakfast and fall asleep on the coach while mom makes a killer christmas dinner. Wait......I'll restart this for the Indian plan not for the plan that I would have at home. Here is what I have planned for Christmas day.

I have contacted my old roomates in Victoria whom I used to live with in what was known as the runners house. We have all agreed that since we are in different parts of the world we should all go for a run and report back on where we ran, the weather, how out of shape we are, and pretty much anything else. So I plan on going for a run on Christmas morning and then Rob and I will go eat some breakfast and from there I don't know what we will do. One plan has us going to a cooking course and another has us renting motorbikes and ripping around on the island and maybe hitting the beach. The only thing I do know is I'll be making some calls to people back home actually to be totally honest I'll only be calling a couple of people (Sonja, my parents, and my sister, and possibly one other person).

The weather here is currently a hundred degrees and the humidity is around a billion over the normal level but I can't complain because its not raining. Instead of turkey this year I think Rob and I are going to have a massive seafood feast but we'll have to wait and see.

OK I'm out so everyone have a wonderful Christmas

Glenn

Hey so um by the way..., from Rob

We forgot to tell most of you that we were going to the south of India where it is warm. Well we are here now. Yesterday we flew from Varanasi to Delhi, stayed overnight at our favourite hotel (The Rak International) and ate at our favourite nice resturant (Metropolis), then we flew today from Delhi to Cochin. For those of you who dont have a map, we just moved from the middle of the north east of India, down to about 150km from the southern tip on the west side of India.
We really wanted to be somewhere warm for Xmas, and it is definitely that! It is also super humid, like being in the shower. Just sitting here at 11pm right now it is probably 27 celsius and I am sweating. As if typing is hard excercise or something.
I think we will stay here for a few days and make plans for what we want to do. Tomorrow we plan on renting bikes, motor or green we are not sure, then taking a ferry to a neighboring island and checking it out. Supposedly there is a nice beach that we can vegitate on. Also while we are out we need to go to the local fish market to pick the fish we want cooked for us for dinner. I think I am going to like it here. The people seem way more laid/layed(?) back and less aggressive to sell you stuff you don't want. Its also really nice to see the ocean again. Cocchin is a major port full of freighters and real boats next to crappy little Indian ones. It will be a real nice change to have fish on the menu instead of just the usual chicken and occaisionaly mutton. I think the waiter we had the other day was taken aback when Glenn excitedly asked if the steak on the menu was cow.

Rob on the train to Bandhavgarh

Rob on the train to Bandhavgarh,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

Whole pile of new pictures for you guys. Man do we ever love when we find a place with a fast internet connection.

Cremation is Education, from Rob

I didn't make the title up. Those silly little Indians love sayings that rhyme.

We went and saw the burning ghats the other night. I really expected more. I had envisioned a pyre 20 feet high, not with a single body, but with dozens. I thought the fire would be so intense I would have to give it a 10 meter radius and that there would be a stench that would send me into dry heaves. Instead there were only multiple small pyres and they didnt seem to give off much smell at all. Not that I really took in a good whiff, but there did seem to be a faint smell of tandoori chicken. It was dark and hard to see what was going on. "Oh my god, is that really a burning body," Glenn whispers. "I don't know, I think its just a log on the fire. C'mon I am hungry, lets find some dinner..." We did eventually get a better look. We climbed up some stairs to a higher ghat where they burn the higher castes naturally. There was one pyre close to the top of the stairs and there was no way to not get a close up look. There was no mistaking it. The sizzle of barbecue. Made me yearn for home. All the presumed family members and friends seemed quite neutral, maybe a bit bored even. I think they welcomed the distraction of a couple of foreigners to their party. There was no tears or moaning, nor women either. They had to be left at home. I really got caught up in the lack of human emotion.

"Lets go Glenn...I think we are a few blocks away from that place in my book. Lets have chicken tonight."

Burning is learning by Glenn

OK so we are here in Varanasi and it is considered by the Hindus as the holiest of their cities. If you die here you end the eternal cycle of reincarnation so there are lots of old people waiting to die here. Varanasi isn't only famous for that its famous because its the place to be cremated if you are a hindu. What this means is there are 5 full time burning ghats, locations where the bodies are taken to to be burned, that run 24 hours a day. First the body is placed in the Ganges, their holiest and most polluted river, and then burned. Around the burning ghats there are stacks of firewood that is weighed so they know how much to charge for the cremation. Well its totally normal for people to come and watch the cremation as long as you don't take pictures. So Rob and I decide that we should go check this out since its one of the "things to do" in Varanasi. So we walk up to see these ghats and I thought they would be big and I don't know be very clean looking.

Well was I ever wrong. They put these bodies on fires the size of a large camp fire. I will never forget how chillin it was to hear the sizzilling of the skin on the bodies that were being burnt. I will never forget seeing a charred black human head and how the fire tender would use a stick to break up the body. Indian women aren't allowed to go to a cremation of a family member because they would cry and there is no emotions allowed at a cremation. Its really weird that no one is sad or crying at a cremation. It really wierded me out and I didn't like it. I didn't like seeing the bodies either and I'm pretty sure the images will stay in my mind forever. I thought it was a surral event but the funny thing was I think I could have stayed longer and watched because it was just so wierd and disturbing to me.

Clean in india is so far from being clean in Canada

So we wash our hands before every meal and we are always amazed at the amount of dirt that comes off our hands. This place is plain and simple dirty. In India its normal for me to go 3-4 days without a shower. I've been wearing the same pair of pants for the last 10 days, possibly more I've lost count. You recycle your clothes all the time. Ofcourse we get our laundry done but it never comes back perfectly clean so you just continue to build ontop of the dirt.

Dark alley showdown with a rickshaw driver

OK so we always come out of the train station and right away the rickshaw drivers want to take us to their hotels so that they can make commision. We normally get something like this, "Ten ruppees I take you anywhere". We never go for these deals because we know their game. So yesterday we were out near the train station checking out flights, it was a 70 ruppee rickshaw ride out there so we didn't want to pay that to get home. Rob has been talking about taking one of these 20 RS deals and seeing where they take us. Normally I'm against it because we have just come off an overly long bus/train ride and the last thing I want to do is fight with one of these guys.

So yesterday we only had our day packs and we were out near the train station. The plan was to get one of these rickshaw drivers to get us close to our hotel and then walk the rest of the way. The key to this plan was to make sure he thought he was going to get commision from our hotel room. We walk out of the train station and ofcourse we are attacked by rickshaw drivers (something we are used to) and they start asking where we want to go. We play the dumbest tourists of all time, "Um...we would like a hotel near the river". You can see their ears poke up and they can tell that we don't have a hotel. They are instantly thinking that they can make a killing on us. We get an offer for 40 RS for a ride to the river and a promise to be shown the nicest hotels around. We are almost about to go for this one when another rickshaw driver undercuts him by 20RS. So we head over to his rickshaw. The other rickshaw drivers are telling us that he is a thieve and we should be careful and that we shouldn't go with him. We would normally be a little worried by this type of statement from other rickshaw drivers but today we were running the show.

So after getting in the rickshaw driver starts asking us questions like why do we travel with so little luggage? We travel light. So after one of the craziest rickshaw rides of all time, we hit one dude on a bike, the rickshaw driver takes us down a super dark alley and turns off the rickshaw. He's all excited because he has a hotel near here. We hand him the 20RS and walk away. He is totally lost because he thinks that we wanted a hotel when in fact we were just getting a cheap ride home. The dark alley that he took us down was so sketchy that I'm glad that we didn't go down another dark alley to see the hotel that he wanted to show us. Finally after all the times we have been ripped off by rickshaw drivers because we are white we turned the tables on them. Made us smile :) I know what you are thinking that it wasn't very nice but we never lied to him we just said we needed to go to a hotel we just neglected to tell him which we wanted.

Sunset at a fort

Sunset at a fort,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

OK it took us almost 2 hours but we have put a whole pile of new pictures online for you guys to see. Hopefully you enjoy them since I think these will be the last until after Christmas. I guess you could say this is an early Christmas present to all of you reading the blog. We have some really nice ones of Taj and some really nice sunsets.

G

Random questions from my sister, from Rob.

My sister Amelia emailed me a bunch of questions about India and about our trip. Since they are fairly general questions I thought I would post the answers on the blog since many of you would like to know the answers.

I enjoyed the Taj very much. It was amazing when you actually stand in front of and see how big it is. And to think that it was built entirely as a tomb for pme of King Shah Jahan's wife.

Yes Andrew is a crazy driver, but not as crazy as most Indians.

The back of a camel is higher than my head. To get on the guide gets it to lie right down, then you climb on and it stands up, back legs first so you have to lean far back or you fall off, then the front legs so then you lean forward. They don't smell too much except for their breath. I think they probably run about 25kph but they bounce up and down at 5000 mph and it takes everything you have to stay on. Glenn and I were both sore the next day after riding one for about 30 mins. And no I dont think they are a viable solution to global warming.

No, I don't think you should remove that growth yourself, I think you should see a doctor for that. Or I could bring home some water from the holy Ganges. With 1.5 million fecal bacterial per 100mL, its healing powers are intense.

For Xmas we originally wanted to be in Goa, an old Portugese colony. Not too many places celebrated Xmas, but there are pockets of Christianity that do celebrate Xmas. We have since changed our plans to Goa. It is a crazy party town on the beach, but everyone we have met is going to Goa and they quadruple the prices over the Xmas week so we decided we will go there later in January when it will still be a good time without being a rip off.

Tiger Hunting from Rob

Wow its been 2 weeks since I last blogged. I never meant to go this long but it we haven't had a lot of chances to blog and when we have I just was not in the mood ok? Glenn has the ability to blog anytime, any place, but he also talks alot. Since Glenn last blogged we went to Bandhavgarh National Park to see a tiger. Unfortunately, we did not see one, although we should be happy, as the sign heading out of the park says, because one may have seen us. Whatever. If that's the case, then the tiger should give us some baksheesh(money/tip) then. We went on two safaris, one in the morning and one before sunset. The one in the morning was at 6 am and was freezing cold. We basically drove around the park in an open jeep for 4 hours. At one point we came around a corner and 6 or 7 jeeps were stopped in the middle of the road. Apparently a tiger had crossed the road only a few minutes before. We stayed for awhile and heard the tiger roar a few times and heard the alarm call of some deer. At that point we had the option of riding an elephant for 600 Rs/person to get a close look at the tiger. That seemed obscenely expensive at the time and people who did do it told us all they saw was the tiger lying down but nevertheless, I wished I had done it after all.
After the morning safari we had a few hours to kill so we ate breakfast and walked around the village called Tala for a while. One part of Tala is all hotels and tourist places but the rest of the villagers are farmers so it was interesting to walk around and see how they live.
I found the afternoon safari much more fun. First off it wasnt freezing cold. However the closest we came to a tiger was seeing some prints and we may or may not have heard one growl a couple times. To me it felt a lot like fishing. Instead of watching for jumpers we were staring into the jungle trying to spot any signs of a tiger. Occaisonally we would turn the jeep off and just listen. Everyone was so quiet I could hear the blood in my ears. At times it was very intense, but much like fishing, sometimes it all amounts to nothing. We were skunked. Well not totally I guess. We saw countless deer, mostly spotted, one barking and a few sambal deer. We also saw some wild boar and some birds. Yay.
I wished we could've stayed another day and tried again, but we needed to press on. We want to be in the south where it is actually warm before Xmas. We also knew we would be spending a few days in Varanasi (where we are now) and that we didn't really know how to get to the south other than by flying. Glenn is trying to find flights online right now, but I suspect that we will have to take a 9 to 12 hour train ride (Indian time, multiply by 1.5) back to Delhi, then take a flight to either Chennai, Bangalore or Cocchin hopefully.
For now we will hang out here, and make plans for the next stage of our trip. Maybe we will check out some burning ghats tonight. Tomorrow we will take a boat down the river and hopefully not bump into too many bodies...

Why is it everytime we get a tv we see one of these movies

Since we have been here we have seen Hot Shots part 1 and part 2. Why is this even on tv in India? It doesn't make any sense to me but it sure made us laugh.

G

Wow was the tag amazing or what

Ok so as many of you know Rob and I were at the Tag Mahal the other day and let me tell you it is as amazing as it is in the pictures. We got up early and went to the Tag Mahal for the sunrise like every other tour group. It was amazing and we have some get pictures to post as soon as we hit a town with broadband. I don't know if I mentioned it in my last blog but the reason the Tag Mahal was built was to be a tomb for one of the leaders wifes that had died. He loved her so much he spent 60 million in current money on this amazing tomb. One problem with the Tag Mahal it cost a ton of money to get into. I mean it great and everything but it was the most expense thing that we have seen in India so far. In fact its three times more expensive then anything else. It cost us 750 RS which is 18 Canadian dollars. People reading this I'm sure are like, "Dude come on thats cheap. Its the Tag Mahal". True but an Indian can get in for 50 RS so they are just taking the tourists for a ride and everything else in this country is so cheap this should be as well. Grumble grumble...In fact the most we ever paid for a place to stay has been 500 RS and we got a TV.

So the Tag day was kind of a long one because we wanted to see a lot as well as travel on that day. So I'll break it down for you.
5:30am-wake up
6-8am Hanging at the Tag and getting some great pictures.
8am-9 Breakfast
9:30 Train to Gwalior. We went there to check out the fort as well as some sculptures that came from the first century. Pretty wicked stuff.
6pm After seeing the city of Gwalior we decided that the city sucked and we wanted to continue onto our next destination which is a place called Khajuraho but a bus doesn't leave Gwalior to get there it leaves from Jhansi. So we hope on the train.

OK getting tickets can be a massive hassle in this country and getting the correct train with a seat can sometimes be almost impossible. So we lined up for our tickets and we bought them with no problem, I say that but Rob did a solid job of pushing to keep his spot in line. We then asked the train supervisor when the next train to Jhansi is. This is only a 1 hour and half trip and most trains stop there. The guy was kind enough to tell us where it was, this after him not understanding that we needed to catch a train. You could say it was a language barrier...lol something that we are used to. As we come down the steps to the platform the train is pulling away and there are people standing in the places where you would normally be able to get on the train. I tell Rob that we are getting this train but this could be a major problem since we have our massive bags on and there are people in the doorway. I point, yell and the guy figures out this massive bag and guy are coming at him and he has no choice but to move so he jumps off the train. I slam myself into the train and notice that it is packed! There are people on all the seats (two benches one below and one on top) and there are people in every aisle sitting down. People are not impressed with this bag that I'm bringing with me and I'm not impressed because I haven't seen Rob on the train yet. He soon rounds the corner and see stare at each other from each side of the train coach (not sure what you call them) and we know this is going to be a long trip.

I start walking down the aisle running into people looking for a place to put my bag luckly for me a dude who speaks perfect english who is in the army asks if I want to share his bench with him. I greatfully accept and squish onto the bench with him. I spend the rest of the time on the train just chatting with this guy. Rob has a different experience as he gets stuck with a family that doesn't speak very good english but I think he had an alright time. I'll have to let him blog about it. After we reach Jhansi we hit our hotel because the bus that we have to catch is at 5:30 in the morning.

We are currently in Khajuraho which is famous because it is thought to have the best kept temples in India. I would have to agree. Check out the site below if you want to see what we have seen. Trust me I think you'll be impressed:
www.liveindia.com/khajuraho
OK I actually went to this link and it does a decent, not great job, of the location that we are at.

I think we'll be away from the computer for a couple of days because we are heading into the wilderness to attempt to see a tiger. I'm not kidding we are going to a national park called Bandhavgarh National park and it is said to have the highest consentation of tigers in India. After we hit this park we will be heading up to Varanasi, the place with all the burning bodies and bodies in the Gange river. You may think this is gross and I would have to agree with you but it is an extremely holy city and it supposed to be really nice.

g

Tag Mahal we be seeing

So we arrived in Agra the home of the holy Tag Mahal. One of the most famous buildings in the world and for you non history buffs the parliament buildings in Victoria were built based on the dome of the Tag Mahal. Getting to Agra was a little more stressful/long then it was supposed to be. I had bought the tickets a day in advance and was totally pumped because we were supposed to be in the sleeper class. Since the train was at 6am that meant we would have an early wake up and we would be able to sleep on the train. Ya well I made a mistake because it turned out we were in the most unconfortable seats in the world, stuck between some unhappy Indians who were pissed because we kicked out some of their friends that were sitting in our seats. Great way to start the trip hey.

Well it was cold so I put on my woolen cap(....lol love the brits) and put my head against the window and was asleep. Rob, who has a bad back, didn't like the seats at all so within twenty minutes of seating there he stood up and walked away. I didn't know it at the time but he went to another section where it was totally nice with nice seats and no one around. He tells me he had a great sleep, I'm sure he did because he could strech out and enjoy his leg room.

Well the train hit some kind of animal about 2 hours into the trip and the engine was then busted. Great not only am I stuck in the crappy seats I'm having to sit even longer because the train is busted. We sat in the same location for a good solid two hours before our new train arrived to carry us to freedom. Two hours later Rob pops his head in and tells me he is in another seat and we should move our stuff there because there is tons of room. So we move our stuff and I"m totally pumped because I can stretch my legs out and finally get some solid sleep. Twenty minutes into my sleep I get woken up by the train guy asking to see our tickets. I know we are in the wrong section but I play dumb, it costs us 7 CAn in total to have the rest of the trip in the nice section. I wasn't going back if I didn't have to.

The tag is amazing from the outside if you can actually see it from the smog. We are heading to it tomorrow morning at 6am as we hope to be the first people there and hopefully get some good shots of the Tag Mahal. As you can imagine our next set of pictures will be of the Tag. I'm done blogging for the night and now I'm heading to bed, I have another early wake-up tomorrow.

g

Havelis in Jaisalmer

Havelis in Jaisalmer,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

We have posted a whole set of new pictures. Sadly the internet kept cutting out on us so you don't get all hundred that we wanted to upload. This is the start of the new pictures and at the very end there is something special so I hope you enjoy. There are lots of desert pictures so I hope you like those. We are off to Jaipur tomorrow (Wednesday) and from there we are off to Agra and the most famous building in India. Hope you enjoy.

g

Random thoughts by Glenn Saqui

So I've had some random thoughts as I've been travelling through India. You see Rob has his Ipod and normally listens to it on the bus rides that we take. If its not to bumpy I'll read my book or write postcards (if you want one you need to send me your address I sent off four this morning) but most of the time I either stare out the window or sleep. Lately I've been getting better at sleeping but I've spent a whole lot of time thinking about random stuff. So here are some random thoughts from my travels and I mean totally random. They may make you laugh I'm not sure but when you've spent over 48 hours on a bus thus far on my trip I have a lot of time to think.

-I'm totally into this dowery idea. I mean come on guys in the west we really need to get into this. I'm not going to marry her unless you give me a new pair of shoes, a donkey, and a new computer. The shoes I could wear for a run so that would make me happy, the donkey...lol...I don't know what I would do with a donkey but they look cool and seem to eat anything. Ok maybe I don't need a donkey but thats what makes a good dowery the ability to negotiate on what you want. I'm telling ya it would add a whole new element to the whole wedding thing. My cousin is getting married this coming May (I'm so pumped) and he went over and asked her father in advance for permission. Imagine if he went over and negotiated a dowery, man that would have been a good story. "I asked for two donkies and he came back with a rice cooker. So we agreed on a rice cooker and twenty thousand rupees" (Patience please don't be offended I'm making this up as I type)

-Puppies have small tongues...thats it (I told you they were random thoughts)

-Indian women will only talk to us if they want us to give them money. No other reason so we have stopped being impressed when Rob gets Indian women talking to him because it always turns out to be something like this "Take my picture....twenty rupees"

-The Indians love Robs moustache. The Indian men are always super impressed that he has grown one. I think Rob should keep growing it and I bet in the next couple of years moustaches are going to be super popular and Robs going to be the man leading the charge. Him and Burt Reynolds...love Smoky and the Bandit. Ladies what do you think? Post your comments please or send them to me and I'll post the feedback on the moustache. I'm hoping for good reviews but I'll post very thing that I get. Look below for my gmail address or post your comments on the site.

-My suit is awesome and I have already told the story about how I got it like a million times. I love that suit and the story that goes with it. Next thing I'm looking out for is someone to make me hand made shoes. A total hand made outfit, wow what a story.

-I think the buses in India are the slowest in the whole entire world but are possibly the most packed with smelly people.

-There are more Israeli people in India then there are in Israel. They are all over the place. Most of them stand out because the women don't wear that much clothes and the men just uber hippie. I'm not sure yet but I get the vibe from the locals that they really don't like them that much but I could be wrong I'll be able to tell you a little more in 2 months when my trip is done.

-Goa for Christmas? LOL ya I'm not sure any more because every person we talk to is going to Goa for Christmas and we spoke to some travellers trying to get places to stay there and they weren't able to find anything so who knows maybe we'll go somewhere else.

-I spend too much time on the bus dreaming of salads, homemade soups, roasts, and any other type of clean food that I'm not scared to eat. I eat street food and I'm impressed because its good but I'm normally worried that in about 4 hours I won't be impressed again.

-I love the dowery idea, totally awesome I need more people to get onboard

Thats some of the random stuff that comes into my head as I've been travelling around India.

g

Pushkar and Characters

We have been here for a couple days now. It is a nice place. Apparently Brahma dropped a lotus flower here and it created a lake so thousands of Hindus come here year to go for a dip. Only about 13000 people actually live here so the main industry is probably tourism. Its also where the massive camel fair is held that we missed because we thought freezing our asses off in Kashmir would be more fun. I dont know....
This morning we met a crazy lady from Isreal. I have not met many Isrealis but they are everywhere here. I do not have much to compare her to but she did have some definite similarities to George Costanza's mother, if that counts. Her name is Roma and I think she is about 50 years old. After her last child left home she announced she was going to India for a year. You meet some interesting characters here. Actually, a rabbi with a cowboy hat just walked by I think.
Roma had some interesting viewpoints too. When I asked her what food gave her Delhi Belly she said it had nothing to do with what she ate, it only had to do with some bad energy. She also filled us in on the fact that the reason Indians are poor is because they are lazy. I hadn't thought of it that way. She has travelled in SE Asia and says Laos is very beautiful, but does not have a lot of people. A perfect place for the Arabs to live. Oh how generous! Aaaaaagh! Ok nice to meet you, gotta go now. Bye!
About interesting characters here, we have also met 2 Ozzies and a Kiwi that have travelled here from England on motorbikes. They even came through Iran and Pakistan to get here! Their plan is to ride all the way home. They haven't planned it out too well though....But its true what they say about Canadians and Australians getting along well. They are crazy mofos but I havent met one I didnt like yet and we have met a lot here. So far I have met 3 yanks and for 2 thirds of those the stereotype very much held true! It was hilarious. The other one was from Colorado and I am told they are an exception. Still waiting to increase the sample size there are not many of them here. There are however tons of Isrealis. They have quite a reputation (with Indians and other tourists) for being rude, rowdy, and cheap but I have only met a few of them personally as they tend to travel in large groups. We also met an Indian who is a journalist that is in the process of opening up what he thinks is India's first Elvis museum. This place is random like that...

Book review

Ok for those that don't want to hear about the books that I have read since I've been in India they can skip this blog.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
If anyone wants to know what we see and what its like here you should read this book. It shows the life of two tailors as they go through their lives. I won't go into more details except that I really think this book shows the divide between the rich and the poor. Crazy book and a good read thanks Erin.

Tale of Two Cities · Charles Dickens
I think you can figure this one out. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is the famous line from this book. I've read a couple of Dickens books and I think this maybe his best. In fact, of the ones that I've read I think this is the best I've read so far and Dickens himself actually thought this was his best work. It turned out to be a fast read because as we took a bus through the desert I was able to read the whole book.

Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
This book is a great read like all his other books. I think I'll just say go read this and learn something new. It looks at Moronism as an example of people using faith as an excuse to do violent crimes. I'm having a hard time describing this book so I think I'll leave it at that.

Just started
The God of Small Things: Arundhati Roy I know nothing about this book except that it won the Booker award and its supposed to be a really good book, we'll see.

Palm reader (curse creator)

OK I totally forgot the both times I've posted in the last couple of days to fill you guys in on our palm reader dude. I was the first to go and here is what he had to say.

-Your parents were apart for 4 years between 1994 and 1998. (pretty close)
-You have moved 4 major times in your life. (bang on Victoria, Richmond, Berlin, London)
-You aren't a computer programmer, you work with hardware (I'm a programmer or was two months ago)
-You are the oldest one in your family (nope)
-You are the middle child (ahhh...nope)
-You were born at 4am (ahh...I have no idea I was being born)
-You'll hvae two children a girl then a boy (who knows I guess I'll have to look back at this in a couple of years)
-You are single (nope)
-You'll get married in 2008-9 (lol...we'll have to see)
-You'll make six times what your father makes (Rob was given 10 times so I can't complain too much but come on at least mine could have 8 times)
-Your father works for the government, is a civil engineer, teacher, computers, three other random stuff before I told him what my father did.
-My job will always be changing (I hope so because that way it will always be exciting)
-I'm an adventurer and Rob and I work together (true on the adventurer, false on Rob and working together)
-Had no idea that I'm with Sonja...useless guy

I think he can figure some things out based on the type of hands that you have but I think he is just good at making educated guesses and he builds his profile on what or how you respond to his guesses. The dude freaked me out when he said my parents were apart for a while but I think he just got lucky with his guesses. He didn't mention two of the most important parts of my life, Sonja or running so I don't think he was that good. He had a super hard time with Rob as he went second and has hands the size of footballs. The palmist had no idea what Rob did and just kept guessing and saying all this random stuff so by the end his lucky guess with my parents was just that a lucky guess. I guess I'll have to wait and see a bone reader in the middle of Africa as I hear they are a lot better.

g

(from Rob) I just didn't give him any reaction to judge, thats why he did so poorly on me. I was actually impressed after he did Glenn, especially the part where he nailed how long his parents lived apart. I guess he used up his special powers on him or maybe it was cuz i didnt bob my head like a chicken everytime he was in the ballpark who knows... but get this. He told us it was 250Rs to tell our fortune and it would take about 20 mins, then after when he took about 40 mins on each of us and wanted 1000Rs we were like, Huh? So we explained that we thought it was 500Rs so he said, "As you like" so we gave him 700 cuz thats in the middle and I am sure this guy does very well for himself. Then that night I got sick so you do the math....

Three things that are always true in India

So our guide today told us the following thing that I think is totally true when speaking of India.

1) Everywhere is a toilet. Let me tell you that I have seen people do the number 1 and 2 pretty much everywhere. The side of the road, on the sidewalk, on the road, right in front of me....you name they'll drop it.

2) Everyone is a doctor. If you are a little sick everyone will tell you how to solve your problem. I've had people tell me to take this drug and that drug and then eat this wierd thing and drink tons of water when I was sick. I don't take drugs unless I know what the heck I'm taking so I didn't take their wierd stuff even though I'm sure it would work just fine. The palm reader that we went to even told rob how to fix his back so now everynight he puts some wierd stuff on his back.

3) 24 hours a day you can get tea. Really this is totally true you can get it anywhere anytime. Train, bus, rickshaw you can tea in these little glasses and they are super hot. I guess thats one thing the useless Brits left over here. They didn't leave good beer grrrr...

Weather lol.....suckers

Just thought I should tell you that I haven't seen rain since I've been here. I haven't seen snow since.....Christmas of last year. I've had to wear all my clothes up in Kashmir so I guess I was cold for a week of this trip but I can't complain (actually we already did) since I've received emails from those in Victoria where they have been kind enough to tell me that they have snow there and its cold. LOL poor suckers don't you know you have to do what Rob is going to do for the rest of his life. Work in the summer and then go where its hot for a vacation. Rob told me the other day that he thinks he'll chase the sun around the planet. Sounds like a good idea to me except I don't think IT jobs really allow for this type of situation. Lucky fisherman.

Enjoy the weather lol......sorry guys I had to rub it in.

g

Thalis...From Rob

Have you guys heard of these things? Its pronounced talee and I think it literally means tray. The tray is divided into sections or sometimes has bowls and each one is filled with a different Indian dish, so you get to try several different dishes. But thats not even the best part. Waiters are going around constantly with pots and ladels filling you back up with more. They are also bringing round more bread(several different kinds) so you have to stay on the ball or you could theoretically end up there forever like a Star Trek episode or something....
Its originally a South Indian thing but you can find them all over. We just had a pretty good one tonight at a restaurant. We could not read the menu but discerned there were 2 different kinds of thali being offered one for 40Rs and one for 65Rs. Of course we went for the more expensive one without even knowing the difference. It would be too much effort to get the waiter to explain to us through broken english. We didn't have time for such nonsense. The thalis were so big we did not even get any extra food other than a few chappatis. I could not finish mine as it was the largest meal I have had since I was sick a few days ago and so Glenn ate a couple of my bowls. He is always good like that.
The night we arrived in Udaipur we were so hungry we found a restaurant before choosing a hotel. The place we went to offered an amazing thali for 50Rs. This was a quality joint too. Apparently the first thali made every day is sent to the palace where the Maharaja lives!
So I think you get the point. Thalis are really good, all you can eat for cheap. Maybe you guys get bored reading about good cheap plentiful food, but it still blows my mind when I see what they are asking for this. It also happens to illustrate the gap between rich and the poor here, when it does not cost very much to eat like a maharaja (about $1.50CAD) and yet there are starving and homeless people everywhere. But thats a whole other blog entirely...

feeling better...From Rob

Note: I actually wrote this about 8 hrs ago but the Internet crashed so I had to wait to put it up.

After spending nearly all day in bed yesterday I am feeling a bit better. Enough to get up anyway. As Glenn said, I thought I just ate too much, but all night I never felt any better so around 5am I got up, hoping to throw up. I stayed in the bathroom for half an hour not knowing what to do. I wasn’t quite sick enough to puke but I knew if I went back to bed I wouldn’t feel any better so I tried to work up the nerve to stick my toothbrush down my throat but I just couldn't do it so instead I decided to swallow a gravol to see if that might at least let me sleep. Within 10 seconds of taking the gravol and a little water I was throwing up the big lump in my stomach. I never left the bed till about 4pm when I had a shower and went to find some food. I started to feel a little bit better other than these intense cramps in my stomach but I thought a little food might make them stop. I really wanted banana porridge or maybe some other breakfast food but the place Glenn picked did not have breakfast so I just had a stuffed parantha which is a flat bread with some vegetables and spices in it. The hot peppers and spices in it were not exactly what I was looking for but Glenn really enjoyed his dinner, so that’s good. Afterwards we went back to our place and started to watch a movie on the roof but I was not feeling great and it was a bit chilly so I went back to bed. Its a bit depressing that I spent an entire day in bed and never even saw the sun. I managed to log another 10 hours in bed and finally got my banana porridge this morning. It is now about 10am.
We are staying here an extra day since I am not up to taking a bus today but tomorrow we go about 3hrs east to Chittaurgarh where there is a massive fort. We will probably just stay for the afternoon then head off to Pushkar and stay a few days there.

Bought a suit

OK thanks everyne for the info on the suit so here is what I got. I paid 130 Euro and got a wool suit lined with silk, one pair of pants half lined in silk, and two shirts. These are all hand made and in a couple of hours I have to go back and make sure its fits correctly. So I don't think you can complain when you have a hand made suit for you and it doesn't kill the pocket book. I'll be sending it to London so the girls there will be the first people to see it. The suit color is charcoal and the shirts are dark blue and a light green. The tailor will pack it in front of me and send it away for me. I'm pretty excited as this is my first suit ever. The suit is only taking a day to make so I'll soon have it.

Rob update: He lives!!! In fact he got out of bed last night and ate a little bit of food and today he is sitting beside me checking his email. Don't worry everyone he's fine just has a sore belly.

Christmas: I was asked by Sonja to let her know where we will be for Christmas so that she can send a present. Great idea in theory but I'm sorry to say there is no way for either Rob or I to know where we are going to be around Christmas, all we know is we will be in the state of Goa. If you want a postcard for christmas and maybe something else please comment with your address and I'll try my hardest to make sure we send you something.

g

My day today

So I need a little help from the people reading my blog. First I'll give you the run down of what I've done today without Rob.
-Ate breakfast (2 boiled eggs, cold toast, porridge, tea)
-Checked on Rob
-Checked out an old house here and then a Jain temple
-Checked on Rob
-Went for a walk and found a tailor who will make me a suit out of cotton for 9000 Rs I'm sure I can talk him down but I don't know anything about suits like is 9000 RS (240 CAN) is a good deal or not. So I need someone to let me know if thats a good deal or not. I get pants, jacket, shirt and tie for that price. For the polyiester (spelled wrong) it is only 150 can dollars. What I plan on doing is sending it to england if I do get it. He says it will only take 6 hours to make and then I can send it away the next day. But like I said I know nothing about suits. Sonja ask your brother if this is a good deal or not. Anyone who knows anything about suits please comment or send me an email to (glenn (period) saqui (at) gmail (period) com) and let me know whats the story here cause I could use some help. I don't even know what to ask for when I get a suit made.
-went to check on Rob
-Headed to the internet cafe to drop a few words about Rob and how he is feeling.

g

LOL the eating here is killing us

First of all let me tell you that sometimes we get so much food that we can't even finish it and yet we try and normally we come back and our bellies hurt. Normally we complain and normally we both say that we can't sleep on our tummys because they are so full. Well it seems Rob had this problem last night. We are currently in Udaipur the location Octopussy will filmed. Our hotel like almost every cheap hotel in the area plays this movie every night. So guess what Rob and I decide to have dinner on the rooftop patio and watch the movie. We order butter chicken, jeera rice, and curried veg with 3 nan. We finished that off with banana pancakes, actually they are more like crepes. We watched the movie as we ate and headed to our room earlier then we normally do as our hotel doesn't have beer (major problem when watching a bond flick). So we are laying in bed and Rob starts complaining that he ate to much and his belly was sore.

I ofcourse make fun of him because I, for once, didn't over eat. On that note let me tell you that I'm trying something new in India which is called trying to get fat. Its not working at all as I think I've lost weight here. Ok back to Rob, he's complaining the whole night and I'm just making fun of him. Well at 5am he busted out of bed (I mean busted out, arms a moving like mad) and he hits the toilet. All I hear is....well him throwing up and throwing up. He's sick for a good twenty minutes, guess he's eaten something that has made him sick. He hasn't gotten out of bed today because he is so sick. I've given him food and water and hopefully he'll get better soon. I leave the place for two hours and then I come back to see how he is doing. Let me tell you its 2pm and he doesn't look good. At least he's talking now earlier he would just make funny noises.....parents don't worry he'll be fine I'm looking after him.