The Motherland

After 2+ months of travel, it was the perfect time for us to get back to our roots.....India. We spent the majority of our time with family in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune. As always, our relatives absolutely spoiled us with our favorite foods - Pallavi had plenty of gazar ka halwa and pinneaple raita, while I had enough gulab jamun, papad, and paan to tide me over until our next visit to India. We also watched a bunch of Bollywood movies - Dostana was better than we expected (the song 'Desi Girl' is sure to be a hit at weddings in New Jersey).....the new Karz was worse.....much worse. We even caught a glimpse of Amitabh's SUV exiting the gates of his mansion. (For the non-Indians out there, Amitabh Bachchan is a Bollywood actor and a living legend in India.....if you combine the popularity of Oprah, George Clooney, Bono, and Barack Obama, you start to approach Amitabh's popularity here......I'm not even joking). We also picked up some skills while we were in India - Pallavi's can now understand basic Marathi fairly well, while I developed a surprising proficiency for killing mosquitoes with my bare hands.

The best part, of course, was hanging out with our relatives (and Mohammed, the driver).....although I'm not sure why they all kept trying to force us to take naps even when we're not sleepy.

We also spent two days in Udaipur, which coincidentally is known as the 'city of lakes' (the minneapolis of the east?). Now unfortunately, due to a logistical snafu (I'd rather not get into it), I won't be able to upload pictures from India for another week to 10 days. But rest assured, I will post pictures of our relatives, Udaipur, and of course, a few Tushar look-alikes. Stay tuned.

We were very sad to leave India....but we hope to be back soon......Parth, Sanket, or Choti - it's time to start planning Destination Delhi Part Deux.....

We're Safe

Just wanted to let everybody know that we are in Delhi today, not Mumbai (we were there last week). Also, we've checked with our relatives in Mumbai and everybody is fine. Thanks to everybody who checked in on us.
We've been in India the past three weeks, and we leave for Malaysia tonight. Given what's happening in Mumbai right now, we expect airport security in Delhi tonight to be extra tight.
We've had an amazing time in India, and we're sad to leave......I'll add a blog post about it in the next few days.

Three Days of Dubai-chery

After two weeks in Tanzania, no place (with the possible exception of Las Vegas) could have provided a more stark contrast than Dubai, where we spent 3 days last week.  Since we were only there a short time, we focused on the touristy side of the city -- all shiny and new and a complete spectacle.  The amount of construction throughout the city is staggering, with each new building bigger and more lavish than the last.  The largest mall in the world (Dubai Mall) just opened, and construction has already begun on another mall that will be even larger.  While construction of the Burj Dubai, which will be the world's tallest building at over 800 meters when it opens in 2009, continues, plans have already been finalized for the new Al Burj building, which will be more than 1km high!  Also, work has begun to build the world's biggest airport, even though they just completed a sparkling new terminal at the current airport.  Another spectacle was the series of man-made islands, built in the shape of a palm tree and another set of islands built in the shape of the world map.  As Pallavi commented, 'you can just see the money oozing all over the city'.  Here are a few pictures -- the two of us outside the Burj Al Arab hotel (the world's only 7-star hotel), Pallavi with the menu at Asha Bhosle's restaurant, me with the indoor ski resort in the background, a view of the construction of the Burj Dubai tower from our hotel balcony, a random Tushar look-alike (not as good as the one in Florence) in the mall, and Pallavi with the Burj Al Arab hotel in the background. 

It was a fun 3 days, and we look forward to returning to Dubai in 10-15 years to see the NEW world's tallest building at 3km+ in height and the world's NEW largest mall, large enough to include the world's NEW largest airport and a series of man-made islands in the shape of the solar system....built to scale.

So-fari, So Good

First of all, I encourage you to open this link in a separate window. Keep it open as background music while reading this entry.

Ok, now that you are really feeling 'Africa', let's get to it. After our 9 days at Peace House, we spent 5 days on safari, which we learned is a Swahili word meaning 'trip' (not just an animal-viewing trip). We rolled around in a tricked-out Land Rover with our awesome guide, Mweta, and explored Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, and Ngorongoro Conservation Area. I'm probably a bit biased, but I think we had the perfect safari experience -- a terrific guide who taught us the ways of the world, amazing nature, and amazing animal sightings. We were very fortunate to see each of the 'big five' (elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard) and to witness an actual kill, as a cheetah patiently stalked a gazelle until he finally pounced and hunted down his lunch. Mweta told us that he doesn't remember the last time he led a safari on which both the 'big five' and a kill were seen. I think pictures tell the story a lot better than I can, so here are a bunch of pictures -- the two of us with Mweta, some random scenery shots, a Maasai guide explaining Maasai traditions to Pallavi, and of course, the animals. Enjoy the pictures, especially the ones of the animals........they're wild!