Tiger Alert! (yes, this is 2 months late...i'm working on it!)

For Thanksgiving we were blessed with a visit from the Wyatts (Ruth and John, my sister and bro in law)! Minus the part where they arrived 6 hours late at 3 in the morning, the trip was a big success! During their first weekend in Delhi, we did a little sightseeing, checked out the craziness of a local market, got manis, pedis and head massages, went to 2 of my favorite restaurants, visited Mr. Khan the carpet man for several hours (ruth and john bought a carpet! and some pashminas), visited school and spent a morning in crazy Old Delhi. It was a jam packed, but super fun weekend.



On Monday, Ruth, John and I boarded the Taj Express for, um, the Taj Mahal. I introduced them to chai tea Indian style (which they loved. I think John had 4 cups in 2 hours) and peeing in a moving train over a squatter that empties to the train tracks below. We spent a couple of hours at the Taj Mahal taking goofy pictures with our excellent tour guide and enjoying it's beauty. We then dined at a 5 star. Hey, Agra is sketch. We asked our driver to take us to a wood carving shop. He took us somewhere else, of course, hoping to receive a cut for dropping off tourists. I fully expected to walk into some shop where they show us how they make marble inlay pieces or carve wood pieces or whatever...I never expected to walk into the showroom that we found ourselves in. Unbelievably tacky embroidered wall hangings. I couldn't believe it and I definitely quickly had the "church giggles". The kind salesman was very proud of this work, and I just couldn't keep it in. Then, John had to go and ask "oh, this purse is nice...how much is it?". There it goes, "bssppspsp" (while spit bursts out of my mouth). Sorry dude, your showroom looks like Vegas on steroids.


After our day in Agra we went our separate ways. I boarded the train back to Delhi....the freezing cold train. For some reason (smelly, cough, smelly), they love to blow the A/C even in the winter. I was so uncomfortable that I found that standing in between train cars next to two smelly bathrooms for 2 hours was much more enjoyable.

Ruth and John left for Jaipur, and check this out. They were in a berth with a professional photographer, who had just been totally played on the train station platform. A gentleman dressed as a train conductor approached him and asked if he could help him load his bags onto the train. The photographer said yes, handed him his camera bag (doh!), and the "conductor" took off running. Major bummer.

A couple of days later, Jon and I caught the train to Ranthambore National Park, where we were to reconnect with Ruth and John. Having forgot about the crappy train experience 3 days prior, I exclaimed to Jon how much I loved riding the train in India (we had a first class berth all to ourselves and I was drinking chai and delicious tomato soup). Just then, a mouse scurried out from under my seat.

Now...Ranthambore! What a treat that was! Ranthambore is a National Park with tigers and all sorts of animals. We enjoyed doing 2 jeep safaris. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. We saw spotted deer, crocodiles, owls, kingfisher, magpies, a caracal (small wild cat). And, sure enough, we saw him (or maybe it was a her...i forget)
Beautiful! Absolutely a very, very cool experience.

We returned to Delhi the next day for some last minute shopping and massages and facials before Ruth and John boarded the plane back to the USA. Thanks for visiting, you two! xoxo.