A Weekend in England

Before heading to the states for a couple weeks, we enjoyed a beautiful weekend with the dogs in Surrey. On both Saturday and Sunday we took the dogs out to Virginia Water to let them play in the lake and run through the waterfall chasing rocks. Luke also got in a game of squash and we had "real Indian food" at the Mogul.

Portugal Pit-Stop

We made an unexpected trip to Portugal for the weekend of July 21. Luke's work sent him there for an exploratory visit (potential work opportunities) and I got to go along for the ride! We enjoyed the weekend to investigate Lisbon as a potential place to live. We enjoyed spectacular weather and evenings out to enjoy a return to western living and food! On Monday Luke spent the day at the office meeting people and finding out more about the job opportunity. I spent the day in the small village of Sintra. From Lisbon Luke returned to India. I cut my India time short by a week and returned to London directly from Lisbon.

The Taj Mahal!

On Thursday, July 12 we took a long weekend away from Mumbai and headed north to the capital city of New Delhi with a day trip scheduled to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. Our day trip to the Taj was scheduled for Friday, July 13. Upon checking into the hotel we saw a sign "reminding" visitors that the Taj, because it is essentially a mosque, is closed on Fridays. So we immediately called our travel agent to ask them how we could have a trip to the Taj scheduled for a day it was closed. Realizing the mistake, they gave us a full day tour of Delhi for Friday on the house and rescheduled our trip to the Taj for Saturday! The sights of Delhi were very majestic, the most amazing being Humayun's tomb. The temperatures were scorching, reaching over 110 degrees F over the course of the day. We were soaking wet and exhausted by the late afternoon when our tour wrapped up. We were up by 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning for the four hour drive to Agra. We payed a visit to Akbar's Mausoleum before seeing the Taj and having our very WOW moment at the very deserving wonder of the world. It was breathtaking. Hot, sweaty, tired, exhausted we were on our way back to Delhi in the mid-afternoon sun and arrived back for our last night in Delhi before heading back for Mumbai on Sunday afternoon.

Trip to Jaipur

With the goal to get out and see more of India, I (Kat) took off for a solo trip up to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. I left Mumbai on July 4 (Happy 4th of July!) and stayed in Jaipur until July 7. I took a full day tour of Jaipur and enjoyed a bit of solo time to investigate the markets and in my off time relaxed at the hotel visiting with an American family also visiting Jaipur. Rajasthan is in the north of India and there was a different feel about the place - the areas of the north are poorer than the big city life of Mumbai, and the saris worn by the women were much brighter and some men wear the traditional turban head dress and have the traditional long curled mustache. Any misconceptions I went there with expecting the smaller city to be less crazy and busy than Mumbai, were quickly swept aside! Jaipur was just as hassle-loaded as Mumbai but on a bit smaller scale, although the animals on the roads were a bit bigger! Rather than just the usual people, cows, dogs, monkeys, donkeys, bikes, auto-rickshaws, taxis, busses, and cars on the road, there are camels and elephants to contend with too! My favorite sights in Jaipur were the Amber Fort and the markets and bazaars of the Old City. Jaipur is known as "the pink city" since all the walls and buildings of the Old City are painted pink! This was done in 1876 when the then Maharaja decided to give the city a fresh coat of paint to welcome the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII). He chose pink as it is a color said to be associated with hospitality. The pink was not as vibrant as you might expect even though they do give the city buildings a touch up every once in a while. A few photos of my favorite sites are here, for more pics as usual visit shutterfly!

Monsoon Weekend

It is the weekend of June 30 and by now the monsoon is really into full swing. For the second weekend in a row our plans to get out and meet friends in Mumbai were put on hold because we could not drive off Madh Island. This weekend was far worse than last. The sky opened on Friday night and by Sunday afternoon there had not been one break in the torrents of rain coming down. It is a major understatement to say Mumbai is totally unprepared for the rains (even though they happen every year with this force). All the roads are flooded and even in some places the roads themselves are wearing away because the roads are that bad and the rains that hard. With cabin fever settling in, Luke tried to go out and get a hair cut on Saturday and only made it a few hundred meters before being forced to turn back because he could not walk down the road! A brave, but still long-haired man!