Udaipur 2

Even in Pune, even after 9 months in India, I am still pretty rapt just by the view out the side of the rickshaw, and Udaipur was no exception.   The cows in Udaipur do look particularly healthy though.  Pune sees more water buffalo and garbage.

Udaipur

 

My next destination was Udaipur.  It looked like it would be beautiful and relaxing and exceeded all expectations.  I lucked out with a great auto rickshaw driver from the train station who showed me around and invited me to dinner with some other tourists.  In the end I extended my stay to over a week!

Jaipur

Hey!  Haven't been posting lately.  I've been looking for work, which isn't very interesting.  At the moment I am travelling India for about a month, which keeps me away from the internet.  My first destination was Jaipur.  Excuses and long stories, I didn't get too many photos there, but I did have a good time.

Landscapers

I've mentioned before the lines of people you see doing manual labor.  Here are the landscaping ladies in their sari uniforms, sweeping up the grass clippings at Sula's resort.  At least they had a mechanical lawnmower.

More pictures from Israel

Some of these are still from Tel  Aviv, most are from Jerusalem, Haifa, and Akko.  I would fail a quiz though.  Boaz insisted on going through all 710 photos in one sitting. 

Pictures from Tel Aviv

Here are some of Boaz's pictures from Tel Aviv.  I'll post those from Jerusalem, Akko, and Haifa in another entry.

 

If there is grafiti or boats, Boaz is taking a picture of it.  This is a piece by the Egg Plant Krew.  Eggplant being like a repurposed, empowered racial slur in this case.

My first Indian wedding!

One of the women that works at the education center, Swati, generously invited me to her wedding.

You can barely see her here surrounded by, oh, about 30 women in a room the size of a big closet.  Having trouble getting shots of the bride will be a theme for the evening.

Pictures from the Delhi trip

We were in Delhi over Holi.  We saw evidence of the festivities, but didn't get much action ourselves.

 

Cat and Kitten

The cat finally delivered in a box in our living room.  Very small litter of 2, but one was stillborn.  So only one kitten to find a home for, yay!  It's a pretty cute copy of mom.  Of course all they do right now is nap and nurse, nap and nurse, nap and nurse.

More pictures from Lucknow trip

We stayed at a pleasant little hotel in Lucknow.  These were the views out our little terrace in the back.

The Imambaras

Lucknow impressed us overall with its wonderful, old architecture.  Much older than Pune.  We visited both the Bara (big) Imambara and Chotta (little) Imambara.

 

As I understand it and that is probably not well, Imambargah are Shia congregation halls for ceremonies associated with the Remembrance of Muharram.  This is a time of mourning over Ashura, the martyrdom of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, on the tenth (ashura) day of Muharram (the first month of the islamic calendar).

South Africa

Just for fun, I grabbed a smattering of photos that Boaz took in South Africa.

(Click the link to see them all)

First family visit and domestic travel

 

(At a south Indian restaurant in Lucknow, Brij's sister Rashmi; my mom, Ann; my stepdad, Brij; Brij's brother, Ajesh; his wife, Jyoti; Rashmi's husband, Arun; me; and behind the camera, Boaz.)

My parents had planned a trip to visit Brij's family before we moved.  So Mom spent a couple nights with us in Pune, before we all headed to Lucknow for a few days and then Delhi for a few days.  It was a great trip.  We visited a number of historic sights, ate far too much good food (Jyoti's cooking in particular is fantastic), and I got to meet the rest of Brij's wonderful family.  Many, many, many thanks to them all and Push for inviting us into their homes and showing us around!

Many more pictures to follow shortly.

Fireworks!

No idea what the fireworks and loud music were actually about.  There is a tract of land near our house that often hosts carnivals or expos, currently a handloomed household goods tent.  Not just curtains and bedsheet sets, appliance covers for your fridge or washing machine are also very popular.  It is afterall a dusty country.  When we heard all the blasts outside and finally went up to the roof to investigate, we caught the end of the fireworks show and my camera caught a very ill-timed shot of the very last display.

Shama's home

 

After Boaz and I suffered greatly and failed miserably at the task, Shama was kind enough to track down a merchant with the kind of mosquito nets we wanted.  After cleaning today, we hopped in a rickshaw and headed to Camp.  First she needed to drop off her things at home, so I got to meet her family and see where she lives.  The little alleys snaking toward their home are charming, colorful, tidy, filled with plants and drying laundry.

 

Shama lives with her mother and daughter in a one room apartment.  It is utterly adorable, complete with a divided cottage style door.  I can't imagine living comfortably with three people in such a small space though.  They were incredibly hospitable, serving tea and pastry and white pumpkin dal.  Shama's daughter is currently studying science at a college here in Pune and hopes to go on to medical school.

Little visitors

Boaz and I are sitting on the couch eating dinner or something.  He's looking at me, talking, then shouts "OH MY GOD!" mid-sentence.  Obviously there is a giant, rabid, spider lunging at me from behind with its deadly poisonous fangs.  Or there was just a lizard in the entry way.

 

I've seen a little cat in the courtyard a few times and found paw prints across our table on the veranda.  Today I caught him lounging on my chair.  I can't tell if he's a stray.  He's friendly, but not very clean.  He seems to like cheese.

Miscellany

Boaz has recovered.  I thought I had escaped the infection and celebrated appropriately with a bottle of wine on Sunday.  Now I'm starting to feel crappy.  I've also been terrible about remembering to take pictures while wandering Pune, but I'll throw a few out to you while I spend some time resting.

Speaking of wine:  Alcohol is pretty expensive here.  The cheapest wines I can find are still over $5.  I've found a couple in that range that I like.  You can easily spend $30 on a domestic bottle of wine that is about on par with a $5 bottle at home.  I haven't found any reds I really like yet.  That's always a little trickier.  This system won't scale, but for the moment I take pictures of bottles I like or hate.

Making chapati

Boaz's coworkers do not believe something constitutes a meal unless it includes rice or chapati.  Samosas?  A snack.  Pizza?  A snack.  Fettuccine alfredo?  Also not a meal apparently.  The western style bread here is pretty terrible.  And we love bread.  So I have to make lots of chapati.  I don't mind.  Today I am going to experiment with making and rolling a bunch of dough to cook up as needed later.  Wish me luck!

(Siera's version of a) recipe and pictures after the jump.

Best household gadget EVER!!!

Now I'm the hunter. A rain of fire in my wake.

And Boaz is a little disturbed by my enthusiasm.

Squisito

We had dinner recently at Squisito, one of few restaurants here with Mexican food. It's an iffy proposition in India. Boaz has tried several other Mexican restaurants and wishes to return to none. The hotel in Magarpatta City had nachos on the room service menu. They were on the 'Do Not Order' list. It's kind of like somebody told them about Mexican food, but they haven't actually tasted it.

I think part of the problem is that they don't make the right kinds of cheese here. Squisito's nachos were drenched in gas station style cheese sauce, only redeemed by the delicious salsa.

The tacos were good. Boaz was impressed with the quality of the corn chips and tortillas. He found it perplexing that a country with myriad fried foods would struggle so much with this element, but his previous experiences were limp. Everything at Squisito was delightfully crunchy.

They also have an Italian menu, a common marriage here. I was impressed with the wine service, given that wine connoisseurship is only an emerging thing in India. They offered a taste, promptly refilled my glass only when it was down to less than 25% and never over-poured. American restaurants foul this up all the time.