A Super SIX-cessful Weekend in Tampa

Here are pictures from our Super Bowl XLIII weekend in Tampa, where the Steelers won 'one for the other ring finger'.

There's No Place Like Home

After 4+ months of travel, it's great to be back in Minny, where it's quite cold, but quite sunny. Here's a picture of us back at home, with the Sant family -- Rina, Savan, Sagar, the unborn baby, and the REAL Tushar (although we still think the dude in Florence was a better version of Tushar). 

For anybody's who interested, I'll post a link to a 'greatest hits' photo album from the entire trip sometime in the next week or so. 

To sum up our last 4 months, we visited 16 countries, and Pallavi beat me in Scrabble 10 games to 7. We had an amazing time, and we thank you for coming along with us!

-Team Dixit

Happy New Year, Part Deux!

Why settle for one New Year's Eve when you can have two! That's what I always say. Thanks to the genius of time zones, the international date line, and our flux capacitor, we were able to celebrate New Year's Eve twice. After the first celebration in Sydney, we hopped on a plane at 10am on Jan 1 and arrived in Tahiti (given the weather here right now, it should be called 'Ta-COLD-i') at 9pm on Dec 31, giving us plenty of time to ring in 2009 once again. Strong! Next year, we're going for the hat trick. Here are a couple pictures from New Year's Eve 2.0.We hope you had a great 2008 and that you have an even better 2009!
-Team Dixit

Happy New Year!

Here are a few pictures from New Year's Eve in Sydney. As you can see, we had a decent view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, which is the focal point of the fireworks extravaganza at midnight. I wanted post a short video of the midnight countdown and the beginning of the fireworks, but the computer I'm on right now isn't allowing me to upload videos. Oh well, I'm guessing the footage you might have seen on CNN is better than what I captured.

Here's a picture I'm posting purely for Pallavi's benefit.......it makes her really happy when her brother and I hug. As you can see, it makes Parth really happy too.
Joining us in Sydney for New Year's Eve was Paris Hilton, who apparently received $100,000 to attend a party. Pallavi and I didn't receive quite as much. Here is a picture of her after she got into her car outside her hotel (photo courtesy of Parth Sharma Photography, New York, NY). The big question on everybody's mind -- why was Paris HILTON staying at the Sydney SHERATON??

Bright Lights, Big Sydney

Greetings from our final stop in Australia. We arrived in Sydney a few days ago and were joined here by Pallavi's parents and brother, Parth, yesterday. Here are some of the pictoral highlights thus far -- a bunch of pictures of us with the main tourist attractions, Pallavi settling in as we were about to watch an outdoor movie at night in a bat-infested park, and Pallavi's father getting interviewed by the local ABC station for a story about folks visiting Sydney for New Year's......from New Jersey, USA to New South Wales, Australia, the man's a celebrity! In addition to what's pictured below, the highlights have been Pallavi and I trying to keep up with the speed-walking antics of her mom & dad, a cruise around Sydney Harbor, and Parth just being Parth. Good times.

The MelBOURNE Supremacy

The highlight of our one day in Melbourne was attending the 1st day of the Boxing Day (Dec 26) cricket test match between Australia and South Africa. For those of you who don't know anything about cricket, the Boxing Day match is an annual tradition in Melbourne....kinda like the Thanksgiving Day NFL games in Detroit and Dallas....only a much older tradition. And the Melbourne Cricket Grounds is considered to be one of the cathedrals of the sport.....like Fenway/Wrigley/Old Yankee Stadium for baseball or Madison Square Garden/Old Boston Garden for basketball. About 70,000 fans attended the first day of this 5-day match. I'm not gonna go into great detail about the sport of cricket.....if you'd like a full tutorial, feel free to contact my father. He'd be happy to talk to you about cricket for days. Anyway, it was a terrific day -- great atmosphere, great venue, and some great performances. I realize this won't mean much to most of you, but we were there to see Ricky Ponting score his 37th career test century, second only to India's Sachin Tendulkar, who has 41. Just trust me when I say that it was pretty cool. To paraphrase Pallavi - ''I think I like cricket a lot more than baseball.....it's much more elegant.'' Here are a few pictures from the day at Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

The Long And Winding (Great Ocean) Road

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on the southern coast of Australia, along the Great Ocean Road. It's like Australia's answer to the Pacific Coast Highway.....or is it the other way around?? Chicken or the egg. Either way, we agreed that it was the most scenic drive that we have ever taken. We stayed in Apollo Bay and spent the two days driving the coast, checking out the small beach towns, and visiting the main tourist attraction - The Twelve Apostles -- kinda like Stonehenge in the ocean. We were also amused by some of the road signs, including 'Kangaroo Crossing' and 'Beware of Koala Bears'. Here are a few shots taken along this magnificent stretch of pavement.

The Barrier Reef.......It's Grrrrrreat!*

Happy holidays from Down Under!

So the latest feat of nature to completely blow us away was the Great Barrier Reef, off the Northeast coast of Australia. After a 1.5 hour catamaran ride out into the ocean, we spent the next couple hours getting up close and personal with this underwater world by snorkeling and by going around on a submarine. This was definitely a 'Nature, who knew!' moment for Pallavi. Here are a few amphibious pictures of us, as well as of the reef.

*Note: Despite this comment, I remain 100% loyal to General Mills, Inc. (stock symbol: GIS)

New Zealand: Anybody Want To Go In On A Condo With Us?

That's how much we liked New Zealand. From the minute we landed there, we knew that we would feel like our 5 days on the South Island wouldn't be enough....and that's exactly how we felt when we left. Our time in the land of the Kiwis got off to an inauspicious start, as our flight from Auckland to Queenstown was diverted to Christchurch due to inclement weather. This ended up being a blessing in disguise, as we then had to take a 7-hour bus ride from Christchurch to Queenstown, allowing us to really take in the scenery of the South Island. Plus, the bus itself was surprisingly comfortable. Once in Queenstown, we spent the next few days taking in the scenery, playing golf (I confirmed that I'm as bad a golfer in the Southern hemisphere as I am in the Northern hemisphere), going to a winery, trying our hand at some games of chance, taking advantage of the area's adventure sports options (more on that below), and generally exploring Queenstown and Arrowtown. It's hard to believe that Queenstown's population is only 12,000.....that's basically the same as my hometown - Uniontown, PA. It's safe to say that more tourists visit Queenstown than Uniontown. Also in New Zealand, I learned that Pallavi thinks that sheep are really cute. Here's a picture of the two of us at the Wharf in Queenstown. Here's a picture of some of the great shopping we came across near Arrowtown. And here are some random shots of the South Island scenery.

Many of you may know that Queenstown is known as the adventure sports capital of the world. We figured that 'when in Queenstown'......so we went hang gliding (or as Pallavi likes to say, 'we hung glid'). Here are a few pix -- the two of us at the launch point, Pallavi getting suited up, and me in flight.

An Embarrassment Of Tushars

Over the past few weeks, we've had the good fortune of seeing many Tushar look-alikes (it helps that we were in India for three weeks). Here are a few of our favorites. I should warn you that none of these even comes close to the original look-alike in Florence.

Having A Bali

I'm not gonna lie, we spent the majority of our time in Bali relaxing...either at the hotel pool or on the beach. We did, however, manage to leave our hotel a few times. Here's a picture of the two of us at the Uluwatu Temple, a Hindu temple built high atop a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. A couple interesting notes about this temple -- only Hindus are allowed to actually go inside (fortunately we were carrying our membership cards) and there are an inordinate number of monkeys hanging around (literally)......and I'm not talking about your everyday, tourist-friendly monkeys....these monkeys were downright scary.

We also left the resort for a half-day surfing lesson. By the end of the lesson, we were both able to catch a wave, get up on the board, and stay upright for about 10 seconds......at least it felt like 10 seconds....it was probably more like 2 seconds. Regardless, it felt awesome. Here's a picture of the two of us after we conquered the waves of the Indian Ocean!

Missed Saigon

Due to a little hiccup with our Vietnam Visa, our 20 hours in Ho Chi Minh City turned into 20 hours at the Ho Chi Minh City airport. It was a good time nonetheless. Here's a picture of Pallavi sleeping in the transit lounge. The real highlight of the experience was an unexpected guest appearance by our friends from Minneapolis, Jim and Amy Wilson, who were on their way back to the US after spending two weeks in Vietnam. Here is a picture of Jim and me. If you look carefully, there are Vietnamese waiters in the background as 'proof' that this picture was taken in Vietnam.

(Angkor) Wat An Interesting Place

Two days in Siem Reap, Cambodia was just enough time to get a basic sense of what this place is all about -- beautiful temples and a city built for tourists. We were told that you could spend a week looking at temples, and you still wouldn't have covered all of them. So in our limited time, we focused on the ones that are supposedly the most important. Here is a picture of the two of us at Angkor Wat, the most famous of the temples in Cambodia. It was built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple.

It quickly became clear to us that the town of Siem Reap caters almost exclusively to tourists, with the city center packed with restaurants of all ethnicities, internet cafes, a night market (a definite theme during the SE Asia portion of our trip), souvenier shops, and of course, sports bars showing English Premier League football. Here is a picture of Pallavi at a cafe...the sign behind her should give you an idea of how inexpensive things are in Cambodia.
Finally, here's a picture of some kid at the night market getting a foot massage courtesy of tons of little fish nibbling at his feet......the name of this stall was 'Dr. Fish'. Strong.

Laos And Laos Of Fun

That's the best way to summarize our three days in Luang Prabang, which is the 4th largest city (population ~ 65,000) but #1 tourist destination in Laos. Based on comments from friends who had been to Laos, we had high hopes going in......it's safe to say that our experience exceeded those lofty expectations. The thing that really struck us was how peaceful this place is. Everything -- the people, the natural beauty, the temples, even the night market -- has a consistent serenity, making it easy for visitors to quickly feel very comfortable. The highlights of our three days included a hike to the top of Phousi Hill in the center of town, a 6-hour boat ride with stops along the way at a couple villages and the Tham Ting Cave, shopping at the night market, and sitting in at a temple as Buddhist monks chanted in prayer.
Here are a bunch of pictures -- the two of us in front of one of the MANY Buddhas we came across, Pallavi taking notes in the pottery village (notice the monk in the orange robe chilling in the background), the two of us in the Tham Ting Cave (there are over 5800 Buddha idols inside this cave!), our guide for the 6-hour boat tour....his name is Wat, and he kept directly addressing us as 'Dixits' (e.g. 'Dixits, see the man on left brushing his teeth in the river...'), the Luang Prabang night market, Sleeping Buddha (as opposed to Sleeping Beauty), the view from the top of Phousi Hill.

Finally, here is our favorite picture from Laos. Yes, that's a really sharp knife in that little girl's hand. Don't worry, her mother was right there, and she didn't seem too phased.

We highly recommend a trip to Laos if you get a chance.......we think you'll La-ove it!