Our First Visitor!

My good friend Allison was in town last weekend, and it was fabulous:) We saw the sights of Delhi (perfect as I have not seen much of the history of this city I call home....in my defense, however, it is not until the current months that the weather is bearable enough for long days of sight-seeing and shopping) and we hit up some great markets. We ate delish food, including a trip to one of the top 50 restaurants in the World (according to Restaurant Magazine), Bukhara. It was indeed delightful.

Oh all the sights we visited and the good food we ate, our favorite part of the weekend was probably our ride on the Delhi metro. As we exited the station in Connaught Place, we trailed behind an Indian couple, who had evidently just rode the Metro for the first time. First they struggled to figure out what to do with their metro token in order to exit the automatic gates, but the cutest part of all was the escalator episode. They immediately hesitated upon encountering the moving stairs. The husband kept nudging his wife to go forward just like everyone else. She refused until he did so first. So, he stepped in front of her and...froze. Meanwhile we had already boarded the escalator, but I wanted so badly to run back down and help them overcome their fear. Ultimately, they gave up and took the stairs. I hope they give it another try:)

You check out more pics of Allison's visit in Picasa!

Bali pics!

Bali pictures are now uploaded into Picasa. You can check them out by clicking on the picture link at the right. Enjoy!

Bali Highlights

We're back in Delhi now and have already started school, but I thought that I'd take a moment to share a few more Bali stories. Here are some of the highlights:

In just about every bungalow/guesthouse that we stayed in, we had other houseguests. For example, flying ants decided to sleep in our bed one evening while we were at dinner in Ubud. A swarm of moths fought with all their might to squeeze through the window cracks (losing their wings along the way) just to be close to our lamps in Munduk, a rat/mouse left little treats for us scattered throughout our bungalow and stole our soap (no lie) in Permuteran, and geckos sprayed our room with junk from their trunks in Keliki. How sweet.

We went on a couple of fantastic dives! We saw 2 green turtles about a meter in width. Jon woke one up, it turned its head, yawned and floated away. very cool.

The people in Bali are incredibly friendly. It's a culture without a word for hello. Rather, they greet each other with smiles. We went on a bike ride with a guide named Dewa, who took us to his house, shared with us lots of Balinese history and culture and fed us some amazing tea and the best rice crackers we've ever had. The Balinese pride themselves on their soil because in every home, the families can grow everything they need - you name a vegetable or spice, and they've got it in their backyard.

Lak Lak (the above photo)! yummy! Lak lak is a balinese breakfast dish of 5 small (about the size of half a golf ball) pancakes made from rice flour with palm sugar and coconut sprinkled on top. Absolutely delish!

Last but not least, I must speak of the massages. In 20 days, I received 10 massages. Scalp, foot, body, facial, foot/hands and feet/hands/shoulder/neck massages. I have definitely found my favorite massage style....the balinese got it goin' on:)

Well, that's about it! Stay tuned for pictures!