Anything is possible!

Becky and I decided that we really should take more advantage of the fact that "anything is possible in India...madam". Would you like a new tailor made shirt for $10. no problem. Tailor will meet you in your living room. Would you like 40 pounds of ice delivered to your house for your Saturday night party at 5pm and then again at 9pm... all for $12? done. How about calling the local market and asking them to deliver 110 pencils for the 9th grade student council project? for sure! Would you like to receive a massage every Tuesday in you own home by Yogesh, the master masseuse? Jon enjoys this luxury! Ah, India, the land of...any and everything.

Normalcy

The other day I was at the counter of my local chemist (pharmacy), and as I turned around to leave I was confronted by about 10 large cows that were migrating through the market. I was surrounded on all sides, and even had to take a step back to give them more space. I waited for them to slowly tread on until I could sneak around one and dart for my taxi where I found Jon laughing. The odd thing is, though, that I have to remind myself that cows at the pharmacy is just NOT normal (for a child of the USA).

Egypt is totally rad!

What a fantastic trip! We spent our Spring Break week checking out Cairo and Luxor, reminding ourselves of ancient Egyptian history that we probably learned in 6th grade, and all the while, we were totally awed and amazed. Here are some highlights and quirky stories:

1. Um, yes, the pyramids are all that they're cracked up to be. WOW. And, did you know that the Sphinx is neon green?! Just kidding...this is a photo taken from the "Sound and Light Show" at the Pyramids. So chessy, so fun. The Sphinx talks to the audience and tells the story of the pyramids and the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (approx 2700-2100 BC) while fun lights shine upon the pyramids and broadcast cool scenes onto their surfaces.

2. I may have eaten at my favorite restaurant of all time: Andrea's (I say "I" because Jon, unfortunately, does not agree....). Spit roasted chicken, freshly baked bread and a slew of mezzes - pickles, salad, tahini, baba ghanoush, some kind of fantastic beans and falafel. All topped off with a massive, delicious orange. That's about all that is on the menu, and it's divine.

3. I visited the oldest continually open restaurant in the world (200 years) a couple of times...Once in the wee hours of the early morning with my friend Skye (she and her fiance, Matt, were also traveling around Egypt this week). We enjoyed being the only people there and watching the Khan al-Khalili (large, popular market in Cairo) slowly wake up - quite the late awaking city (much like India). And once with Jon on a Friday night where we enjoyed sitting among tons of locals and foreigners drinking mint tea, mango juice and smokin' da sheesha (hookah).

4. The Egyptian Museum is very cool, and yet, very disorganized. They have so much stuff that they don't know what to do with it...and apparently, they aren't the biggest fans of labeling items either. Nonetheless, it doesn't change the fact that walking through rooms and aisles of 4000 year old, very intact stuff is quite extraordinary. I mean, we saw the mummy of Ramses II among other notable kings (Tuthmosis III, Seti I - Ramses I's son) of the New Kingdom (1500-1000 BC). Pretty freaking cool. That is, if you are in to mummies and don't find it wrong to dig up dead people and look at them...an opinion which I respect; however, mummies were meant to last forever, which is totally trippy...why not take a look? Then, there are rooms and rooms of the amazing "loot" that was recovered from King Tut's tomb in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. Gold, wood, statues, coffins galore....it's all there.

5. Jon and I had way fun playing with photos. Here are some examples:

6. UNC won the NCAA Basketball championship (And, I won the bracket pool!). While I did not get to watch the game, I did get to see highlights on CNN, cheer in my hotel room, and celebrate by checking out tombs and temples in the fantastic, can't miss it, town of Luxor.

7. We visited a lot of tombs. very cool. First, there was the Valley of the Queens, where, well... the queens were buried. Then, we visited the Valley of the Workers, where the artists and architects of the queens' and kings' tombs constructed their own tombs for their burial sites. Next, we visited the Valley of the Kings, where you will find the exquisite tombs of Ramses I, II, III, VI, IX, King Tut, Tuthmosis III, Seti I, and many others (62 have been uncovered so far!). Lastly, we checked out the Valley of the Nobles, which houses the tombs of the priests and other religious officials (there are over 100 here!). For all of these valleys, the bad news is that you can't see all or even many of these tombs...many are closed at the moment due to restoration or just because they are not safe to wander into. The good news is that the reliefs (wall carvings) and paintings of many are still quite present and quite amazing. Each tomb is usually constructed with multiple rooms for storing items that were believed to be needed by the individual in the afterlife such as food, chariots and mummified animals (yes! such as pets - dogs-, sacrificial animals - birds, crocodiles-, and animals for food). After wandering down long hallways or several long hallways, you reach the sight for the sarcophagus and coffins (yes, plural...coffins within coffins). The amount of time and energy put into these tombs must have been one's lifetime especially considering the fact that many of these individuals did not live to be older than 40!

8. One of the coolest spots was Medinat Habu in Luxor. Best explained via pictures. This is also the spot where I dropped my camera...the drop of all drops. Bounce, bounce, crash, boom. Broken. very sad...we'll see what the warranty and Canon can do. Cross your fingers!

9. We went on a Hot Air Balloon Ride over the ruins of Luxor at sunrise, and it was great fun! Now, I'm not an experienced hot air balloon rider, but I don't think that it always takes 20 men to help launch and retrieve a hot air balloon. Well, in Egypt it does....and I think I now know why. At the end of the ride (which, by the way, took place in the middle of a sugarcane field - i don't think that was planned, especially since I watched the 20 men try to sprint through the tall canes only to get stuck inside), the crew hosted a "ceremony" which consisted of singing and, to be frank, dancing with the "white chicks". Ah ha! This is why they all want to work here! I, of course, sacrificed myself (I can never turn down a good dance). Now, before you get all up and offended by my comments, travel to Egypt and count the number of times you (western women) get holla'ed at. Yeah. Word.

10. The Luxor Temple and ruins at Karnak are amazing and Ramses II was totally obsessed with himself.

11.
Luxor Museum security guards love to help you find the spots where the security cameras won't catch you taking illegal pictures of the museum artifacts...for a little bakshi (tip), of course. Here we are sneaking some photos. Just a couple more...

12. We were followed by a guy named Assaf for 4 days. Day 1: We are walking along the Nile on our way to catch a ferry boat and all of a sudden Assaf appears beside us. He introduces himself and proceeds to ask us where we are from. Then come the statements about Obama, etc, etc. He follows us onto the ferry boat where he then asks if we need a taxi for the day on the West Bank (which we do, but we're not biting just yet). He uses his phone. Once we reach the other side, we try to free ourselves of his following and we turn to a man named "Mr. Kind". Great! Mr. Kind offers us a better deal than Assaf and so we hop in his car. Mr. Kind's phone rings. He talks. He hangs up and tells us that Assaf just called and wants to know why we chose to ride with Mr. Kind. Uh, sketch. whatever. Day 2: We have already arranged for a ride with someone else for this day. Again, we walk along the water to the ferry boat, and out of nowhere Assaf appears- dang, he's good! We tell him we already have another driver, and no, it is not Mr. Kind. We try to fall behind him, which we do, and we take a quick turn towards a smaller ferry boat. We rush down to the captain, get on his boat, and ta da! Assaf appears on the boat and is already talking to the captain. Assaf makes a phone call, and low and behold, we reach the other side only to find Mr. Kind waiting for us. He is angry with us that we won't be choosing his services for the day and asks us to return his business card. Dude, seriously? And what's up with you and your buddy? leave us alone already! Day 3: We leave at 4:40am for our Hot air balloon ride, but when we return at 7:30am, we see Assaf standing across the street from our hotel, staring at the entrance. Day 4: We leave for the airport at 5:45am, and who do we see sitting in the roundabout median right next to our hotel...Assaf.

13. I then had the following conversation with a flight attendant on my flight from Luxor to Cairo: Me - May I have some water. FA - yes. Me - thanks. FA- Your welcome. And?... Me - Um, thank YOU. FA - And....?. (Awkward silence and staring). Me - Uhhhh. FA - And....? How about some guava juice. Me - Oh, No thank you. (Moments pass, and then she hands me guava juice). Me - Oh! I said no thanks. I'm sorry. FA - But why not? It's so tasty! Me - Um, yeah, no thank you. FA - Oh, alright then. (She leaves).

More pics in Picasa! Peace!

Holi Holi Holi

As Becky put it, this Holiday is way more fun than Halloween - it may be a new fave. Holi, the festival of colors. A celebration of the return of Spring. lovely. bright. colorful. Few vehicles inhabit the road. It's eerily un-crowded like Sunday mornings. But groups of men, women and children walk along the road looking fairly normal except for their bright pink faces and the green and orange smears across the backs of their shirts. Families on bicycles (yes, bicycles, not motorbikes) ride down the street all covered in pink, red, green and blue powdered paint. Your taxi driver picks you up covered from head to toe, and cars drive by with splatterings of purple paint on their doors. And everyone is fantastically cheerful - Happy Happy Holi!

Jon and I geared up for our first Holi party (not sure what we did last year, but for some reason didn't participate in Holi-ness). I selected some clothes, which I have now deemed as my permanent Holi outfit, greased my hair in oil (some of my kids last year had permanently dyed pink hair for the remainder of the school year...), and wrapped a bandanna around my head. What a hoot! We tossed paint onto one another and shot water guns...a child's dream. Or, um, a child at heart? Can't wait until next year!


http://www.theholidayspot.com/holi/

"Can I capture you? Can I hold you?"

said the Indian 20-something men that approached me and Maggie at the Suraj Kund Mela. Um, excuse me? You want to capture me and then hold me? While this sounds somewhat romantic/totally creepy/borderline plain scary, I'm afraid that I'll have to pass. Sad faced 20 something men try again with smiles and a more aggressive approach as they actually begin to do what they so politely asked to do earlier....Indeed they do capture us into their camera phones and hold us with one arm wrapped around our shoulders as we smile for the tiny lense. I love being lost in translation....

India with the VanDykes!

Finally! Time to write about my parent's and sister's trip to India...

Mom, Dad and Kathryn were to arrive at the Delhi Airport 45 minutes after Jon and I were to arrive at the Airport from Nepal. I gave them strict instructions to remain in the baggage claim area in case they arrived before us. Reason being, if you walk out of baggage claim, you will stared at, called at and eventually find yourself outside with hoards of people...and, well, good luck at that point. Well, of course, our plane was late and their plane was early. Meanwhile, Jon was sick with food poisoning (it hit right after we got off the plane) and had run off to the bathroom after puking on the bus on the tarmac...sorry honey, I know you probably don't want that on the blog, but in retrospect, it was pretty funny when that little kid just about knocked over his parents while trying to run away from you. So, I carried on alone in search of family members, luggage, and a booze run (duty free is the way to go - much cheaper than the bootlegger). I noticed that the bags for their flight were almost entirely claimed...but where is my family? hmmm....? No family. No family. Oh dear. They're out in the mob! But just as I was coming up with Plan B, I saw Kathryn! Who did confirm that yes, they had left baggage claim:) But, this is India, and sometimes rules don't apply to everyone, so the guards let my parents and all their bags back into the baggage claim area. Yipee! They have arrived!

We came home to a great meal that Pomi had prepared for us. Thai food, vegetable, homemade bread. yum. My poor Dad just about passed out into his plate. We tried to keep him awake as long as possible, but 8pm was his limit. Oh, the jet lag.

The next day I took them to school and then to Humayan's tomb (the structure that the Taj Mahal is modelled after). My family got quite acquainted with the "Hello!", "One photo please", hand shaking Indians who love to talk to Westerners as a school trip of about 200 girls was also touring Humayan's tomb. It was endless...cuteness.

We ended the day with a trip to Sarojini market. I don't know if you've seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, but do know that the haggling, the super glued bottles of water, the beggars, the awful things that happen to orphan children, the traffic and the fake tour-guiding are all very true to life here...and my parents can confirm this as they repeatedly informed me during their first full day in Delhi that "this place really is just like the movie".

That night, we introduced them to the restaurant Punjabi by Nature - delicious (and spicy!) tandoori chicken and the best garlic naan on the planet. They were hooked! It would be a week of searching for more garlic naan. Right, Dad? :)

The next early early morning we boarded the train to Agra - first trip to the Taj Mahal for all of us! It really is extraordinary. In the afternoon, we checked out the Agra Fort, and we still had 2 hours until our train departed that evening for Jaipur....Yatzee time! We played on the ground of the Agra train station...hmmm...put it this way, my mom probably would have poured hand sanitizer all over the seat of her pants if I had let her:)

The train was late, the train ride was 5 hours of shakiness, and I arrived in Jaipur with a very unpleasant stomach. Yep, the curse of Christmas break struck again! (this is the 4th winter break in a row that I've gotten food poisoning). This time, I even thought I was in the clear...when Jon got sick and I didn't, I was convinced that my body was finally a beast of immune system strength (surely, it was getting stronger by suffering through those past nasty food episodes). Little did I know that the organism was just festering inside of me ready to release its full fury in what would be the most awful of the 4 year experiences. By the next morning, I was in a Jaipur hospital with 3 liters of antibiotics, nutrients, sugars and who knows what about to be pumped into my arm with an IV. I was there for the next 30 hours :( boo. On a good note, we (sweet Jon stayed with me the whole time) had good cable TV and it was kind of fun to unleash my parents and Kathryn out into India on their own.

They survived. They shopped and rode tuk tuks. They haggled prices. They learned about Maharajas and Rajasthani culture. And they ate lots of butter chicken and garlic naan.

I was able to join the crew the next day for a bit of afternoon shopping. By the next morning, though, it was time to jump back in! Off to the Amber fort and elephant riding! Little did we know that the elephants only work until about 10am. We arrived around 10:30, and the elephants were done carrying people up to the Fort. WHAT?! That's the sole reason Kathryn came to India! (Ok, not really...but, well, maybe...). We were looking forward to the picturesque experience of riding an elephant up to this:

Well, by golly, it was going to have to happen! So, Jon did some talking and we ended up with....drum roll....this!

Not quite as romantic, but riding elephants alongside of cell phone advertisements, convenience stores and buses is still pretty unique as well...

After cramming into an auto rickshaw,

We hopped our first overnight train to Udaipur. The land of lake palaces and...

jetlag? No...jetlag has passed by now, this is the sleepiness that results from an uncomfortable sleepless night on the train that blew cold AC on us all night in DECEMBER! (Yes, it is hot in India, but not in December!)

After a much needed nap, we found that Udaipur is lovely! Great, skinny, alleyway streets full of shops and cafes, friendly people, beautiful landscape...Just a really nice time. We toured the City Palace and took a boat ride on the lake. Kathryn and I got henna-ed up...
And after 2 full days we jumped on our next overnight train back to Delhi. This one was the long one...12 hours...or so, we thought. Trains aren't always on time and they don't always go as fast as they could in India...and so, 16 hours later we were back in Delhi. No worries, though, we had a day of spa going planned. Nothing could ruin that! My Dad had Jon's masseuse, Yogesh come to the house and give him a massage while Kathryn, Mom and I went to Asian Roots for Balinese massages, steam baths and pedicures. Wonderful!

That night we went out to dinner with our friends Luke, Paola, Troy and Sam and two of Jon's friends who were also traveling around India at this time as well, Pete and Cindy. We went to Hookah, and I just want everyone to know that I have proof of both of my parents smokin' da hookah:)

Sunday was their last day in Delhi. We went to the Lotus Temple, Raj Ghat (Ghandi's Memorial) and Paharganj ("everything street" - where you can buy all things India). After packing their multitude of shawls, scarves, textiles and handicrafts, they were ready for their midnight plane back to the states. But we definitely were not ready for them to leave :( boo.

It was a great 10 days, and we've got plenty of pictures to prove it! Check them out in Picasa:)

Birthday Cranium...

Jon and I had great intentions to go out to one of our favorite restaurants in Delhi with our closest of friends for a little bday bash...Well, what matured instead was even way better than Thai food. Cranium and Dominos pizza! Ok, so this post is kind of lame, but really, I just wanted an excuse to put this picture on the blog. This just about sums up the evening...

More fun pics on Picasa:)