Internet cafe

Using a cyber cafe-no internet in hotel. Lots of photos to come :)

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Wednesday – after one stop by the office, and one return to the house to pick up one more thing, we were off, We went by Anne’s and loaded up in the truck and headed off. Since Uncle Jiggs was not feeling great, we left him at home, but we did take the short cut in his honor.

Anne dropped up off at the door. Flying international did take a little longer but didn’t slow us down as much as the camera search. The process in El Paso was really slow. And bogged down. We finally managed to get through. Taking off at noon meant no lunch service, so we shared a burger and some potato skins. The plane was small and full, so we waited until it emptied before we got out. We knew we had a decent amount of time to get to out next gate and DFW is easy to maneuver.

We found our gate and looked around for something to eat. Dean was sort f worked the ford on the plane would not be great (he was right) plus he wanted some Tex Mex. We found chicken enchiladas with sour cream sauce. We split it and finished just in time to call Joy Anna and load the plane heading for London.

The flight was packed. We were fortunate to have two seats together by a window. Watching the familiar landmarks as we flew really put into perspective just how fast we were going. The flight was fairly smooth. Our flight attendant reminded me of Deb McGrew, so I felt right at home. I tried to watch a movie but had poor reception. I think I will rent it when we get home and actually hear the words. It will be better that way. I hope I guessed correctly on how the story goes.

We landed in London slightly groggy from the random bits of sleep. We had four hours to get to out flight. Much shorter and we might have missed it. Everyone had to disembark and then get on busses – after walking up and down several miles of corridors and escalators. We had to stand in line for new boarding passes and new security check. They want travelers to shop as they have the duty free shops surrounding all of the seating where one waits to discover the name of the gate. We were hungry, so we settled on an English breakfast – hearty and good, but expensive.

Our next flight was less crowded and we were able to spread out slightly. We thought we would plenty of sleep, however we were not counting on the child behind us – she must have aspirations to be not only a river dancer but to accompany herself on the drum (ie: the tray table). Can you say “Long Flight?”

The movie Ramona and Beazuz was really cute. I finally moved to a different seat and slept for a bit. Our plane had left late but managed to catch up. I am sure the pilot wanted to get the young river dancer to her next performance as quickly as possible.

Getting off that flight left us slightly dazed. I had been awake since 5am on Wednesday with only a few short naps. Landing in Delhi was at 2 pm El Paso time on Thursday. We managed to get our luggage and get through the check point without too much trouble. We walked through large glass doors to a see a blond guy waving. It was so goo to see that familiar face. We hugged quickly before he and Dean left to have money exchanged and to book us a $5.00 taxi.

We checked into our hotel and herd all the directions and tumbled into bed. Ashley and I are roommates for the next few days. We had twin beds. The shower head was in the corner of the bathroom – no curtain or ledge – so everything was wet.

We had a breakfast of a plain omelet, dry toast and chi. We ate it on our beds. We packed up and hurried out to meet our tour guide and taxi driver. Seeing a peacock on a roof is a very interesting site when you are barely awake. The tiny streets were crowded, dusty, and loud. Thank goodness for my arm bands for car sickness. Maybe it helps to drive on the wrong side of the road. Ashley and I decided the white lane markers were only suggestions or maybe they are guides for the driver to straddle in an effort to miss out on the other traffic.

Much of the drive took us by street merchants, Many of them seemed to be set up in the boxes you would see on the back of a uhaul truck- just the bow where you put your stuff. They are lined up side by side down the street. Any and all kinds of stuff and services were available. I hope to be able to take more photos of that type of thing today. We were all slightly surprised to see camels pulling carts down the side of the road. We even saw an elephant carrying a load on its back.

Much of what we saw looked like Belize, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Much of their building methods are the same. There were a few beggars at intersections. They are very brave and will actually tap on the window.

We stopped at place to have a snack and visit the toilet. We had to pay the attendant at the toilet. We walked around in the little gift shop. No prices, so we figured for foreigners, the prices would be higher. That was confirmed when we were charged more than 3 times the norm for a coke. The snack we had was fried cheese and vegetables. It was very yummy. I don’t think that the locals expect the blond American to speak their language.

We were on the road for several hours. The terrain is similar to El Paso area with a few more trees and actual green fields. When we arrived at Jaipur, the streets are narrow and everything is built close to the streets. Our hotel is very nice. It is a comfort inn with a fancy name Air Palace – named after one of the palaces we will see today. I wonder if the one we see today will actually have internet since this one promised it, yet has not provided it.

We settled in and rested for a bit. No one could decide what to do, so we decided to see what was close that we could do. We were informed that central park was not too far away. We walked across the street and Eric bartered for and secured us an auto rickshaw and a driver who would wait for us and return us to the hotel. The park was nice. There was a circle of statues that seemed almost a cross between Stonehenge and Easter Island? Very unusual. A singing fountain was there, but it was silent. There were lots of people flying kites. They didn’t think the Americans jumping off benches were too crazy. We did gather a following. We knew they were talking about us, only Eric knew what they were saying. He let them chatter on until one said that we had no idea what they were saying. At that he remarked that he speaks Hindi. The kid’s eyes got huge. He basically asked, “What did you say?” Eric said “I speak Hindi.” They kids said, “Say something in Indi.” Eric said, “this is me, speaking Hindi.” Everyone started laughing. Next they wanted to pretend they were the bodyguards. It was cute.

Our rickshaw driver was waiting for us. We rode back to the hotel and decided to try dinner there. The only glitch was the oven was not open for another thirty minutes. I made the mistake of lying down and dozing off. When we went down for dinner, I ordered Chi in order to wake up. I had no idea the national drink would take so long to fix. We had a delightful Indian dinner of chicken, rice, potatoes, cauliflower and bread. Even Dean enjoyed it.

Ironically, they played Christmas music while we were dining. It got us in the mood to go upstairs and have our Christmas with Eric and Ashley. I had winter/Christmassy pajamas for all of us, but we didn’t wear them. More on why follows.

The kids had fun opening all of their things. Ashley got some Texas paraphernalia. She brought us a beautiful Polish pottery piece and some Polish chocolate. Eric brought us elephants.

After that, Eric gave Ashley a book he had written for her. It is a time line of their relationship. The ending says how she met her future in laws and Eric gave her a ring. She said, “What?” He dropped to one knee and pulled out the ring. So, we had an engagement in our hotel room. She was super excited and they made lots and lots of phone calls.

This morning we had a tasty buffet breakfast. Our tour guide and taxi driver picked us about 8. We went to the pink city and saw the pink palace. Next we went up the mountain to the amber fort. It is a beautiful old palace. We rode elephants up to the palace. It was great! Even though I am scared of heights, I enjoyed it immensely. The view was gorgeous. There were so many beautiful things.

We saw the palace that used to be on top of a mountain but it is now in the middle of the lake because they built a dam and flooded the valley so they would have a house built on the water. It is no longer lived in. Supposedly a hotel is going to make it into restaurant. Currently, the only way to it is by boat.

We went to a jewelry store and saw how they cut and polish local stones. We saw how they make hand tied rugs and how they make block print fabric. We also saw how they do the painting with a brush so tiny I had to have glasses to see the end.

We went to another palace and saw so many interesting things. We went to the astronomical