India - Day 8

The next day we went shopping in Pune with Prabha, Craig's secretary.  She knew some spots that we could find some good souvenirs and gifts to buy for friends and family.  Since she speaks Hindi, she was also able to negotiate with the sellers to get us a better deal.  This was nice so that we didn't have to - it can be a challenge especially if the seller doesn't speak much English. 

So all of us ladies and grandpa went out shopping for several hours.  The first place we went was a "lane" with tiny little shops off either side of it.  The "lane" was about the width of a sidewalk - maybe 5 feet - and the stores along it were tiny.  Some of them were like tents and others were kind of tucked in the side of a building.  All of them were just open to the air, almost like we would think of a craft show or something like that in the US.  You could only fit about 2 or 3 people in each "shop".  This was a unique place and it did get crowded, especially as we were there longer because it was getting closer to lunchtime.

We went to a few more places - one of them was actually a mall that was setup very similar to a mall in the US.  We didn't find much there because we were looking more for non-americanized items (if that makes sense).  We did find a fair amount by the time we were done shopping (but there were still some more things we wanted to try and find the next day).  And Grandpa had gone back over to Grasim's to meet up with the other guys so that they could do the rough fitting for his clothes.

By this time, lunchtime had come and gone and it was about 3:00.  Prabha had bought a guava for herself and her adorable daughter while we were shopping.  She offered us a piece to try so I did.  It was kind of strange because you supposedly eat the seeds, which there are a lot of and they're pretty hard too - it was almost like eating an apple but with the seeds too.  The guava was really good but just a little strange with the seeds.

Anyway, so by the time we were done, we went in search of a place to get some food.  We didn't want McDonald's and a Chinese place we found was closed (because it was after lunchtime and restaurants aren't usually open besides during the normal meal hours!).  We couldn't find any other place (and we really didn't want to get sick on street food) so we decided to head back to the apartment - we would just have a late lunch/snack.
When we got back, we found out that Chris and Craig had actually planned what they were doing around lunchtime (they had also gone out shopping, but separately from the rest of the gang), so they actually had a nice lunch!  So we had our snack and got to relax for a while.

Later that night we just hung out at the apartment and it was great.  The big plan for that night was to play a riveting game of mexican train dominoes!  (It's become a game that we play often when we get together with Chris' family.  Chris and I introduced it to everyone several years ago at Stevens' Christmas at Wellington Place and it's stuck ever since.  Chris' grandparents loved it so they started playing with their community and I think Chris' grandpa still plays.)  One game does take about 3 hours (or more) to play, so it was a good night to play since we knew we were staying up until midnight anyway! 

We were actually on the round of 3's or 4's when it was almost midnight.  So we took a break from the game to watch the many fireworks displays that we could see from the apartment balconies.  It was really awesome - there were a lot that were close (like at the Westin and other hotels in town) but then there were also some that were really far away and you could barely see them!  It was great to be surrounded by so many fireworks once the clock turned into the new year!  It was kind of surreal to be welcoming in the new year in India while it was still daytime in the US, but it was good to have Chris right next to me and his family there too.

The fireworks lasted for at least 10 or 15 minutes...but I kind of lost track of time at that point.  I think after that point we decided to just get back to our game while some of the fireworks kept going.  And the victorious winner of dominoes was Kaitlyn (if I remember right) - the first time she's ever won at this game (everyone always comments that I seem to win this game a lot)!

We all headed to bed well into the New Year of 2011 with smoke in the air outside (from all the fireworks) and hearing the honking horns!

India - Day 7

We woke up the next morning with windows open and horns honking outside.  (The honking horns is a normal thing to hear from the apartment since the apartment is in town and honking is the thing to do in India!)  We got a chance to take in the view from the ninth floor and have bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast before we were headed out to go to the tailor!

Craig has had quite a few pieces of clothing made at Grasim's because (a) it's quite awesome to have tailored clothes that are made to fit you and (b) the clothes are much, much, much cheaper than having something similar done in the US.  ($10 or less to have a long-sleeve button-up shirt made.)  Since Chris has an incredibly hard time getting any clothes to fit, this was the perfect opportunity for him - he decided to get 3 long-sleeve shirts, a suit, a black pair of pants, and a sport jacket.

We had fun picking out the material for everyone's clothes - Chris, his grandpa, and his dad were all getting clothes made.  It was a little overwhelming to have to pick from all of the fabric (you can see how many there were to choose from in our pics), but we got the hang of it soon enough.  The shirts were first and then we moved to the even nicer fabrics to pick out the material for the suits and slacks. 

After that was all decided, it was time to get measured from head to toe!  They were very detailed about everything, which is a really good thing, and they wrote down everything from your neck measurement to how many pockets you wanted on your pants.  A sample of the material was also stapled to each person's paper of instructions/details.

It was neat to have that experience and be there to have clothes made especially for the guys!  I just really enjoyed it and seeing Chris get some clothes that actually really fit him :)

After a couple hours at the tailor, we headed back to the apartment to chill out for the afternoon.  Shortly after getting back, some of us decided to take a walk around the block (the rather big block) that Craig's apartment is on.  We stopped in at Big Bazaar to get some Sprite for Rachelle.  It was quite interesting because Big Bazaar is a chain of the biggest grocery stores in India - it's pretty comparable to Walmart, but India style of course.  It's still smaller than our Walmart's but it has a large variety of merchandise and has lots of cashiers/check out lines.

We also made a stop at a local produce stand.  It was a little unnerving when the guy offered for us to try an orange - mind you he peeled it for us and we didn't know where his hands had been...we politely ate the inside of it :) (For those of you who don't know, the rule with foreigners and fruit in India is to only eat fruit that has been skinned since you don't know where the fruit with skin has been or how it was washed.)  So that was neat to get a little touch with the locals.  After walking around the rest of the block, we made it back to the apartment after Chris had some fun with some stray dogs wanting our fruit...they were jumping up on his back with muddy paws to try and get the food from him!  (They weren't aggressive, just persistent :)

A little while later, we all headed out to go to the Cummins office.  Craig wanted to take us all there to see where he spends a lot of his time.  We also got to meet Prabha, Craig's secretary.  It was a little strange to be walking around to the different areas, especially while people were trying to work in their cubicles.  (And everyone really noticed us too because we were the only Americans in the building...therefore, they knew we had to be with Craig :) But it was cool to see the place - they were even putting in an area for playing ping pong (for their "thinking" breaks)!

There are a few distinct differences from work here that I noticed:
- Cummins provides free meals for their employees while they're at work. I thought this was really nice!
- some people come in as late as 10-11am in the morning and sometimes work until 10pm at night - their work schedule starts and ends much later than ours

Before we knew it, we were back at the apartment and it was time to head out for our dinner at the new Hyatt in Pune.  The owner/manager at the Hyatt had invited Craig and all of his family to come to dinner for free!  They did this because they want Craig to recommend their hotel to people that he knows.  Craig does a lot of business with hotels in India because he stays at them frequently (when away from Pune), other Cummins' people stay at them when they visit, and they sometimes need a location for work functions.

So we got to eat at their Italian restaurant and it was delicious!  We had pizzas as appetizers, our main course, and then a sampler of desserts.  Everyone got a different main course and they were all really good.  I just remember that Chris got a leg of lamb with potatoes and looked great when it came out :) For the desserts, the waiter brought out 3 different kinds of sorbets, 3 different kinds of ice cream, tiramisu, and a chocolate/fudgy/ice cream combination.  It was all so good.  We were stuffed after all of that.  Our waiter was really nice (Craig actually knew him from another restaurant that he's frequented a lot and he missed this waiter when he was no longer there) - he made a lot of good suggestions on the food.  Only a few of us picked our own main course and he recommended the rest!  This waiter definitely knew his stuff and we enjoyed being at his table.

After our lengthy dinner, it was time to walk off some of the food by having a tour of the hotel.  We got to look at about every nook and crany of the place - several different types of rooms, the spa, swimming pool, the gym, the other restaurant, and the conference rooms and ballrooms.  We enjoyed this a lot.  That hotel is so beautiful - definitely one of the nicest hotels (if not the nicest) I've ever been in!  In the nicer hotels in India, it just seems like they really know how to put in that "wow" factor - the architecture is so nice and it doesn't hurt that they have an abundance of marble (because it's fairly readily available for a cheap price over there).

It was time to call it a day (a really good day) after leaving the Hyatt.

India - Day 6

On our last day at Pench Camp and after our exciting afternoon safari the previous day, we went on yet another cold morning safari.  We didn't see much of anything different (maybe some birds) but we were enjoying our last safari in India.  Before we knew it, we were leaving the park for the last time.  Such good memories were created there though!

Throughout the 4 safaris, here's a list of most of the animals we saw (and I know we saw more birds, but it was hard to remember all of them since we're not avid bird-watchers):
- Indian tiger!
- jackal
- blue-bull antelope
- spotted deer
- black-faced monkey
- monkey
- sambar deer
- bison
- jungle cat
- water buffalo
- wild boar
- peacock (national bird of India)
- greater-tailed drongo
- drongo
- indian roller
- european roller
- ruddy shelduck
- rufous treepie
- rose-ringed parakeet
- indian grey hornbill
- green bee-eater
- collared spocs owl
- spotted dove
Once we were back at camp, someone decided to pull out the cricket equipment so Chris, Kaitlyn, and Craig were playing around with that for a bit.  Craig was pitching and the others were trying to hit.  Chris ended up hitting a "home run" off into the distance...so he had to go hunt down the ball!  It was fun watching them try to play a sport that is SOOOO popular in India!

It was off to shower so we could "check out".  After we got all of our stuff together, it was time for relaxation!  We had several hours before we were actually leaving the camp to head back into Nagpur.  We ate lunch, read, and even watched a snake show!  The snake handler at the camp had brought out a few snakes including a cobra and a boa constrictor!  It was interesting to watch...but definitely from a distance for me.  (The night before there was a snake that slithered across on the trail in front of us.  I jumped like 4 feet in the air because some yelled 'snake!' and I ended up landing on Chris' foot - poor Chris!  So let's just say, I'm not too fond of snakes.)  And it was relaxing to just chill out and enjoy the beautiful weather - something we hadn't done on the trip yet.

And about mid-afternoon, we all piled into the car for a 2-hour ride back to Nagpur.  We were headed to have dinner at a restaurant inside a hotel.  (A lot of their restaurants are called "hotels"...talk about confusing.)  They had more "American" food, so that's what we ordered...6 of us ordered pizza!  It was kind of funny.  (After only having Indian food for the past 2 days, I think all of us wanted something to eat that reminded us of home.) 

Then it was time to go back to the airport to catch our flight to Pune - our last stop on our adventure!  Some of us (me included) were having a hard time staying awake while we were waiting to board.  Our flight was at 9:30pm and we had woke up at 5:30am for the safari that morning.  I think I slept that whole flight too :)

We were glad to land in Pune and we were at Craig's apartment soon enough (after waiting for our bags).  After seeing how great his place was, getting a tour of the whole place and getting settled, it was time for bed.  Another fun day was ahead of us the following day!

First pics from India

Hi all! I thought I'd post a link here of some of our pictures from India. I've posted some of the ones we took...the good, bad, and ugly! There are more to come and also captions to come. But enjoy what's there so far. I promise there are even better ones coming :)

Go here.

More India soon

We made it home safe on Monday night and are back in the real world now! We're getting back into the groove of things, working, cleaning up some stuff from our basement flooding (more details to come later), trying to catch up on laundry, getting over my stomach aches, and giving our poor dog attention since we've been away from her.

I hope to make some more posts about India soon - it will be this weekend since I'm busy tonight. And I'm hoping that all of us who went on the trip can compile our pictures soon so that I can post my favs on here!

India - status update

Today is our last day in India. We'll be driving to Mumbai in a little while so we can catch our 1:30 am flight later today. It will be a long flight home (just like it was on the way over)! Part of me is glad to be returning home and seeing Maggie and everyone again but part of me is sad to be leaving. I've just started getting used to India with it's food, customs, weather, and traffic! (But we did eat at Hard Rock Cafe last night and the American food was so yummy!)

This will definitely be a trip that I will remember for a very long time. I'm so thankful that I was given the opportunity to come have such an experience!!!

(Posts from the rest of our trip will be coming soon. I know this blog writer has not been very fast, but there's so much to tell! We'll see how quickly I get to posting more after we return home and get back to our normal life again.)

India - Day 4 and 5

After arriving back to the hotel late from the Taj Mahal, we turned right around the next morning and left the hotel about 7:00am again to catch our flight to the city of Nagpur. So the driver hurried us off to the Delhi airport and we were in Nagpur in no time.

Once again, we had an adventure once we all piled into the car. The car was a similar size to the one that picked us up at the Delhi airport, but instead of a back bench it had two seats facing each other. This ended up working out just fine. Chris, Kaitlyn, and I made our way into the back with almost all of the backpacks, stretched out our legs onto each other, and started our 2-hour car ride to Pench Camp.

It was an interesting way to ride...we got some looks from the many motorcycle riders that saw us. Kaitlyn and I even got an "OK sign" from a guy! We were having fun with it even though it was a little tight. We had fun having a different view from inside the car too. On the car ride, one of the things we saw was road construction - we were counting the number of Caterpillar machines, which there ended up being quite a few (which made Chris happy)!

Before we knew it, we were at Pench Camp for a few days of relaxation and going on safaris to see wildlife inside Pench National Park and hoping to catch a glimpse (and a picture) of a tiger - there is a tiger reserve inside this park.

We checked out our tents after we checked into the camp and were pleasantly surprised with what we found. These were tents, but definitely the nicest tents I've ever seen! They had several single beds, coat racks, chairs, coffee table, and also an attached bathroom with toilet, 2 sinks, and a shower. It was very nice! (Much nicer and more accomodating than I thought this "tent" would be.)

All 7 of us went on a safari pretty much right after checking into the camp. And I know all of us had a great time. That night we enjoyed some tea by a bonfire when we got back to camp (which I found out I really like Masala tea), enjoyed an Indian dinner later on, and then watched a little tribal dancing they had around the bonfire. It was already proving to be relaxing and a great time!

The next day we chose to wake up at 5:30 am so we could go on the morning safari! We weren't crazy about the time, but we were on the hunt to find a tiger so it didn't matter too much :) Rachelle was sick that morning so Grandpa stayed behind with her while the rest of us froze on the safari ride. (Yes, it does get cold in India. It is winter here right now. In this area of India, it got in the 40's at night which makes it very cold to ride in an open-air vehicle before the sun comes up to warm up the temperature.) But we had blankets so we did pretty well and didn't get too cold. We were thankful when the sun started to warm things up around 9 to 10am. We had fun and enjoyed the peacefulness of being in the jungle, but still no tiger or leopard spottings!

After lunch, the 5 of us headed back out to the park. Even though there were only 5 of us going, we still had to stay in our original vehicles. So Chris, Kaitlyn, and I were in one vehicle and Craig and Beth were in another. I think it was that safari that took us forever to get into the park. Each time we went on a safari, the government officials at the entrance to the park had to assign us a park guide and check our paperwork and passports. This proved to usually be at least a 30 minute process (especially since the park is so busy this time of the year). That afternoon we finally got into the park after about 45 minutes. Craig and Beth ended up having to waiting about another half hour because most of the tour guides went on strike. The head officials finally gave in to the issue the guides were mad about (hence the strike) and the rest of the vehicles were on their way :)

We were having fun that afternoon but still no tigers and we only had about an hour left that afternoon. Then we came upon a group of vehicles that said they heard an alarm call from a sambar deer about 10 minutes before we got there. We stopped for a few minutes and then decided to head on. Then we were passing another vehicle (it's common for the vehicles to stop while passing to see if either had seen any tigers) and they said they saw a tiger where they had just come from!

And we were off - racing down the road in the forest in hopes that we could see this tiger!!!

Kaitlyn and I were laughing and having fun because we were going so fast and bouncing around! The driver stopped the car to make sure we were ok with him driving fast. And we said "YES, YES, FAST!!!"

And off we went again racing through the forest! We felt like we were absolutely flying!

All of a sudden we started to go up a small hill and the park guide said "tigre!!!" and pointing ahead to a spot in the road at the crest of the hill! There it was!!! Oh my goodness!!! There's a tiger!!!

We slowed way down (to a crawl) as we finished going over the hill. The tiger was just as calm as could be. It walked along the road for a bit, went to the grass on the left, crossed back over the road to the right, walked down the road a little further, and then walked off to the left again and before we knew it the tiger disappeared back into the thick forest. It was absolutely amazing. I think we got to watch the tiger for about a minute. (It's hard to remember how long it really was but I took about 6 or 7 pictures and my camera is very slow when trying to take multiple pictures right in a row.) It was so great to see such a powerful animal and one that we don't see everyday (especially in the wild)! And the markings on a tiger are just beautiful!

We were so excited with what had just happened. Seeing that tiger definitely made all of the safaris and our trip out to Pench Camp worth it. After that tiger spotting, we actually turned around with the vehicle that had been behind us and drove for a little while. Then we decided to ditch that vehicle and we turned around to see if the tiger had come back out onto the road since we had left the area. No such luck.

But soon after that, we raced off again because we heard there may be another one in the area. We didn't end up seeing any other rare animals. For a while we felt like we were absolutely in the middle of nowhere and that we were way out in the park. We thought it was going to take forever to get back to the entrance since we had raced off so fast (and had traveled so far) when we raced to the tiger! But before we knew it, we popped back out onto the main road in the park and were back to the entrance :)

Craig and Beth told us that when they got back to the camp they had heard a rumor that we had seen a tiger! We thought that was kind of funny because the guides at the park entrance were talking about the "young Americans" who had seen the tiger :)

I think the 3 of us felt on top of the world for a while! We enjoyed another relaxing evening with tea by the bonfire and dinner before heading to bed for what would be another early morning safari.

India - Day 3

Today was our trek from Delhi to Agra and back in one day so we could visit the infamous Taj Mahal. The vehicle we had that day was more roomy – it was called a Force, which is similar to a small shuttle bus with 10 seats in the states.


We had a quick cold breakfast at the hotel and left around 7am to head to Agra. We wanted to try and get out early to avoid some of the crowds that would be at the Taj. It was foggy that morning (like it usually is in Delhi during the winter) so that made driving more difficult for the driver.

We experienced a few interesting things on the way there. We witnessed our first accident in India and it happened right in front of us! The car in front of us rear-ended the car in front of them. And they just kind of went on their way without it being a big deal. We also had to stop at the state line so the driver could talk with the authorities. While we were waiting, there were some people trying to sell items and there were also monkeys that were dressed up and on leashes. One of them decided to hop up on the teeny tiny window ledge (on the outside) right behind Rachelle, which of course startled her – we called that monkey “Jumper Monkey” :)

After making one stop at the “tourist stop” (which has ‘normal’ bathrooms) along the way, we finally met up with our tour guide for the Taj about 5 hours later! It was a long ride with us running into traffic and also passing through a bunch of smaller villages, which was cool to see. We were so glad to be at the Taj Mahal!

After getting inside, it was absolutely amazing! The Taj and the grounds around it are so beautiful and the crowds that day were also crazy. We eventually made our way from the gate up to the Taj, which is where we joined the end of the line. There was a huge line to go up the stairs to the elevated part and then there was also a line to walk through it. We had to wait a little while but it was well worth - we said it would have been silly to travel all that way and then say that we didn't feel like standing in line! So we got to walk around the Taj and also go inside to look at the beautiful marble and stone work inside. Some interesting facts about the Taj that we found out:
- there are 22 domes on top of the entrance gate - one for each year that it took to build the Taj!
- each of the 4 towers next to the Taj are pitched 2.5 degrees to the outside - 1 to each side and 2 to the back
- construction started in 1631 and was finished in 1653 (if I remember right) making the building about 360 years old!
- architectural design comes from Muslim and Hindu influences
- fountains are fed from the river behind the Taj
- on a night with a full moon, the Taj glows like a diamond
- the white marble is non-porous

After leaving the Taj Mahal, we noticed that the line to get through the gate was so long...much longer than when we entered. There were just tons of people everywhere! We finally caught back up with our driver and stopped at a place to do some shopping. This shop specialized in making pieces of the same marble used on the Taj Mahal. We even had the chance to see how they make the pieces, which was really neat. So everyone found something they wanted and Chris and I also went upstairs to look at their shawls/scarves, which were really pretty. We were eventually on our way (those Indian salesman are ruthless, trying to sell you everything in the store), which was good because we probably had another 5 hours ahead of us and it was already after 5pm.

It was a fairly quiet ride home because everyone's heads were bobbing (everyone was sleeping). We stopped at the tourist stop again. We got some drinks and a snack - a bunch of us got 'hot milk chocolate' which we were a little suspicious about (but thankfully ended up not making us sick). There was still a lot of traffic and it didn't help that the driver got us lost when we got back to Delhi. We were probably driving around for an extra hour! So we arrived back to the hotel after midnight. It made for an extremely long day, but it was well worth it. We got to see the Taj Mahal, which is one of the seven wonders of the world!

India - Day 2

(Sorry for the delay in the blogging from India...the last 2 days have been jam-packed of activities! We made it to the safari part of our trip today - so awesome - and we're just waiting to have dinner in a little whlie. So I'm typing from literally the middle of no-where in India!)

On Christmas morning, we left Mumbai and took a flight to Delhi - this was the next stop on our journey. The flight went well but when we got out of the airport in Delhi, we couldn't find our driver at first. Then a guy walked up to us with a sign saying "Craig Barnes". So we went with him (although he looked like he had just rolled out of bed!). When we got to the vehicle he was driving, we were a little concerned...this was a vehicle about the size of an Escape, but with a bench seat in the back instead of luggage space, and it wasn't in the best of condition. So the driver loaded the luggage on top to tie it down with Chris and Craig on-looking to make sure his methods would in-fact hold the luggage on the car :)

So we all squeezed in the car with our backpacks on our laps. Off we went for the ride to our hotel, with some of our seats shifting and all! This was definitely an "experience" for us, but was frustrating because a larger vehicle had already been paid for.

We were happy to reach the hotel and had fun seeing the Christmas brunch that was happening there. And it was especially funny because there were 2 Santas and they both had masks to make their faces look white...which looked so cheesy! But it was still fun to see all of the festivities they were having and the Christmas music they were playing. (We were surprised to hear them singing Christian Christmas songs!)

After we got different cars for the afternoon, we were on our way to tour Delhi in two cars and a tour guide.  We made a few stops:
- Humayan's tomb
- Quitab Minar
- President's residence and Parliament buildings
- India Gate

These were all fun to see and gave us a taste of what we would see the next day (the Taj Mahal) because some of the architecture is similar. The last 2 places we just drove by. Chris, grandpa, and myself were with the tour guide, so it was interesting to hear different things about Delhi from him and the fact that it has about 16 million people!

After getting back to the hotel, we had our Christmas dinner at the chinese restaurant in the hotel, called Jade. And the food was delicious! I think I ate the best spring roll ever...the roll was very light (the way it should be) and not heavy like they typically are in the US. We enjoyed dinner together and also got the chance to call all of our family, which was wonderful. At the time, it was Christmas morning in the states. It was so nice to talk to everyone and wish them a Merry Christmas!

It was a unique way to spend our Christmas this year. (It was nice to at least see some Christmas decorations and a tree in the hotel we stayed at in Delhi.) This trip has been such a great opportunity and time for all of us. But we can still remember why we celebrate this holiday even though we are halfway around the world and that everyone over here celebrates the giving of gifts for Christmas (instead of also Christ's birth). We remember the eternal gifts that we have through Jesus.

Also...pictures will be coming later after everyone compiles all of the pictures we've been taking! Oh, and it would take me forever to upload to this 4G internet connection I have in the middle of the jungle :)

India - Day 1

We just finished with Day 1 here in India and we're having fun! I thought I would give everyone an update...

It was a long trip over - it felt more like 2 days, which I guess it kind of was.

Getting ready to take off from Atlanta (and try to get some sleep)...

We were happy to be in India when our plan landed just before midnight last night. Our passports actually got stamped on December 24th by the time we got to customs :) And it was about 2 am by the time we got our luggage, got to the hotel (so nice by the way!), met up with Chris' dad, and got settled. It felt so good to not be in a plane!

After about 4 to 5 hours of sleep for everyone, we started off at 8:30 to see some of the sights in Mumbai (after a yummy breakfast in the hotel).

We stopped at the world's largest laundry location first...they wash about 8,000 pieces of clothing each day. It looked like quite the process. Sorry no pics right now.

Elephanta Island was up next...This was a gift from Craig's boss. The caves on this island were hand-carved with chisels and similar tools. It was so beautiful and we heard many stories about the meaning behind all of the "panels" which involved the Hindu religion. It was quite interesting to compare what our tour guide was explaining compared to our Christian beliefs. Here's one shot of how amazing these caves are:

Oh and I should mention that we took an hour-long boat ride (each way) to go out to the island. This way our view on the way back. The Taj Hotel is the largest hotel that you see on the left - this is where President Obama stayed while he was here and where the bombings occurred in Mumbai a couple years ago.

After we came back from the island and headed to lunch to meet back up with Craig. (He had an important meeting come up to attend this morning.) He took us to Kebab Korner in the Intercontinental Hotel and it was absolutely delicious! It was our first Indian food since being here. There was so much food...appetizers, starters, the main course, and dessert. I'm glad it was about 2:30 to 3:00 when we ate because there was so much food! We all left with our bellies stuffed with yummy Indian food (with the spices toned-down a bit) :) Here's a picture of our starters...

This afternoon we also went to the former Price of Wales Museum (also known as City Museum), the Gandi House, and also looked at some sights around town. It took us about 1.5 to 2 hours to get back to the hotel because the traffic was absolutely CRAZY! Let's just say there were way too many cars to be on the size of roads we were driving on.

And now for some comical times of the day...

the monkies were liking Kaitlyn at Elephanta Island!

the women had a fun experience with the toilets at Elephanta Island...we used the "western toilet"

and chose not to use their version of a hand-washing system...

This was some of the traffic that we saw as the sun was starting to set. I think this may have been one of the intersections that they showed on the Amazing Race a few seasons ago when the contestants were here in India.

more traffic...and you can see some tents setup on the right for a wedding - it looked like it would be a huge wedding (which our tour guide said is very common)

Tomorrow we'll be leaving Mumbai and heading to Delhi! Hopefully I'll be posting again soon (except I think I need to condense my stories a little since this took a little too long!).

And Merry Christmas Eve! As I type this it's about an hour away from being Christmas :) Blessings to everyone as you spend time with family.