Street kids, and our trip to the Taj Mahal.

This post will be mostly pictures because they pretty much explain themselves. And because we are just about to go out for supper. :)

Ok, so if you have Facebook, then you may have seen all or most of these pictures already, but they are just so darn cute that I have to put them on here as well! These are the kids that we spend our Saturday afternoons with. They live under a local flyover (or large highway overpass type thing). They are employed by their parents to look sad and hungry even if they aren't, and to ask as many people for money as possible. I don't think they like doing it at all, I can tell by how happy they are when they are free to run around and just play like kids should. We get in a lot of trouble from thier parents if we give them clothes, so we just give them little toys to play with and food and water. They are heartbreakingly beautiful.

















This last fella watched us most of the time, and he just cracked me up waay too much so I had to take a picture.

This next set were all taken at the Taj Mahal. They are also relatively self explanitory!




Alright, so that's that! We have our last day tomorrow, and we fly out to London at 12:30pm Delhi time Tuesday. This will be our last blog from here, sadly enough, but we are very excited to come home and re-unite with all of our friends and family whom we miss so much. So we will post about our adventures in England when we return, but don't expect it too soon after we return, there will be some recovery needed after our second Christmas and jet lag etc. So until then, farewell!

Neemrana Fort Palace

As some of you know, we were given a fantastic gift for Christmas this year. We got to stay for a night at Neemrana Fort-Palace, which is in a neighbouring state, Rajeshtan. It was a long 2 and a half hour ride from south New Delhi, but once we got there, we were struck with awe, and fascinated by the ancient architecture. This place was originally built in 1464, but fell to ruins after several wars and changing hands several times also. It was pretty well only a pile of rubble in 1986 when it was bought for restoration. Renovations commenced and in 1991 it opened for business with just 15 livable rooms. Since then it has one again become a magnificent Fort-Palace now with 11 levels of 45 suites, a pool, spa, gorgeous gardens, amphitheatre, restaurants and it's ancient jaw dropping views. Every room is unique, hard to find, and represents a period in history all the way from the 15th century to the 21st. I believe we had something in the middle. The rooms are named, not numbered, and if you forget the name and area, you will be searching for quite some time. But thankfully your room key has a large metal tag on it with the name of your room, so if you get lost you can just show the tag to someone who works there and they'll take you there, or if you like being lost like I do, you can wander around until you find it again!

This is our room. It was wonderfully cozy, had it's own front sitting room with a single bed in it, and had a fantastic view from the little terrace. The picture above with the amphitheatre in it was taken from our terrace, and the one to the right is our terrace. The lower of the two. Even the little bathroom windows had a spectacular view! I don't think I took any pictures of that though.













After a relaxing evening of exploring and eating, we retired to rest up for the next day. We found out late the evening before when we were wandering around that there were ruins of an old look-out fort at the top of the hill behind the fort. So we set off to find a way up at around nine thirty in the morning. It turns out that not many people wish to trek up their on their own because we found the gate described to us by the registration office, but it was boarded up and locked. It took nearly an hour and a half for someone to scare up the keys to unlock said gate, and once we got going, it was after eleven. With checkout at 12, we hurried up the mountain, took a bunch of photos, explored as much as we could and hurried back down. As it turns out, we could have meandered a bit more, since they are very relaxed about check out times. We learned this after returning from our hurried trek. Oh well, so be it! We still enjoyed ourselves. As you can see the view was spectacular. Just as we reached the lookout, the fog began to lift and we could see the farmland stretching out across the horizon. It made me miss Christmas hill and Mt. Finlayson and looking out over Victoria. It made me smile to see green and yellow fields, green trees not completely caked in dirt and dust, and flowers, after being in this dust bowl of a city for so long. I may just start crying when I step onto the ferry and see the ocean, trees and mountains once again.

The count is now on, and with only 13 days left here in India, we are going to try and squeeze in a trip to Agra (the Taj Mahal) and Jaipur in the next week or so. Then we're off to London for three days before returning home. It is just so hard to believe that it's almost over. I don't know if I'm ready, but I suppose I'll have to be. I will most likely write next after we've gone to Agra and Jaipur. And so until then, farewell.

Some goodies for your New Year?

Well folks, here we are already, a brand spanking new year ahead of us, and one filled with fantastic memories and experiences behind us. With all that the last couple of years have held, this one promises to be just as wonderful and filled with adventure also.

Christmas came and went without great fanfare, aside from the frightening Santa that is... We spent Christmas morning sleeping in, and the afternoon at "The Park" five star hotel eating lots of great food and sipping champagne and fresh squeezed orange juice with friends. This Santa fellow was having some issues with his mustache, so he decided it was best to forgo it all together and just pull his beard all the way up to his nose. As it was it looked funny but as he walked and the wind blew, the thin strands of white plastic "hair" would part, and expose his three-day-old stubble and tooth-rotting smile. He also had a large bell that he would ring as he yelled "MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!" (with vigor but no spirit). However, the sound which emanated from this bell was such that we all wanted to get up, take it from him and throw it over the 10 foot fence. And with the lofty open marble room we were dining in, this piercing chiming would resonate and threaten to shatter our bones. Thankfully we had all enjoyed a glass or two of Champagne, and we were able to laugh heartily at him.

This is Dave and I laughing very heartily at him. Alright, so not entirely at him per say, but mostly at him "gifting" us some chocolates that appeared to be wrapped by people with no fingers, and were warm and melty from his back pocket. Note that Davies face is nearly the colour of my Salwar suit.

Once the wind got too chilly for us to bear any longer, we moved ourselves to the indoors. Truthfully, we only ate outside because we wanted to boast to all of you in cold Canada that we ate outside on Christmas day in the nice warm sun. But as it was, some clouds rolled in shortly after we arrived, and a crisp wind was blowing our hair into our food as we delicately shoveled steak and prawns into our mouths. So we took the fun indoors.


Johnathan and Fosia were wonderful company, and delightfully photogenic. We were the few remaining people out of our group of friends still in Delhi for the holidays, so we were very thankful to have them to be with.


The suit I am wearing is one of two I bought to go to a wedding, but we never made it to the second day, and therefore I decided this was a suitable event to sport it. Who knows when I'll get another chance. There are no more big holidays, and I don't know of any more weddings we are invited to, so I thought, heck, why not? It may be the only use it gets.

While I'm on a roll, I may as well show you what the finished product (the bakery) looks like.With scrumptious goodies filling the cold case and the dry case, peoples mouths water as soon as they step foot into our tantalizing little sanctum. Here you can find Fresh Fruit Flans topped with pineapple, kiwi, oranges and pomegranate, Double Chocolate Cake, various tarts, an assortment of fresh every morning muffins and breads, and much much more.












As for Staff, if you arrive before 2:oo in the afternoon, you will see this smiling face as you enter, and these three making the goods in the back.

This is Ganesh on the left, and Anwar on the right. They are our prep/cleaning guys, and they are fantastic, indispensable and all around wonderful. We would be completely lost without them. The guy in the middle is Rahul, and he lasted two days. he lived fairly far away, and it was going to cost him a fortune in time and money to try and get himself to and from work every day. We just so happened to take this picture on his first day.

Well, that's all I can do for now, I hope this post finds you all well, and we are looking forward to seeing you all again in only a few short weeks!