The City Formerly Known as Bombay

Welcome to Dharavi:

Setting out on our bicycle tour @ 615am:

Church of North India:

Office of the first official newspaper of Bombay:

Riding near Victoria Terminus:

Crawford Market, the poultry section:

On Marine drive:

Taj Palace Hotel:

In front of the Gateway of India:

Dhobi Ghats:

Our train compartment on the way to Goa, I got the top bunk:)

Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong

 Our first Darjeeling tea experience:

 Engines for the Himalayan Toy Train:

Local barbershop.  See if you can find me in this photo...

Another Tea experience:

An idea of our weather in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong:

At the Darjeeling Zoo:

Loved these monkeys:

Red Panda:

Mountainside tea garden:

Our tour of the Happy Valley Tea Estate:

I finally found Jalebi in Kalimpong!  It was stale...

Thupka Buddhist Monastery:

Thongsa Buddhist Monastery:

Fat goat in Kurseong:

Kurseong Fruit and Vegetable Market:

Kurseong Fish Market:

City of Joy

Some photos from our time in Kolkata:

Kolkata was a really interesting place and you could definitely pick up on the influence of the earlier British  Occupation.

Standing in front of St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral:

Waiting for our taxi to 'cool off':

Victoria Memorial, situated in the middle of the city among beautiful gardens:

St. John's Cathedral, I think the oldest in the city:

A lot of the beautiful buildings constructed during the British Raj are now in really bad shape as seen here:

We took a walk through an artisans' colony where they work to make thousands of these clay idols for different festivals:

Goddess Kali, for whom the city is named:

Artisan working on some clay moulds:

Crossing Horwah Bridge:

Standing in front of Victoria Monument:

The tomb of Mother Teresa:

It's been a while...

Hi!

It's been more than 2 weeks since I've posted.  That's been mostly due to lack of a good internet connection, but also, it's nice to be away from technology a little bit.  

I'll do a bit of a quick recap of what we've been up to then I'll do some separate posts for pictures.

After Rishikesh we made our way to Kolkata, quite a fantastic and fascinating city.  It was so hot (46C)! And so humid!  We only got out a few hours each day before sweat and fatigue drove us to take  refuge in our air conditioned hotel with rooftop pool:)

After Kolkata we flew to Bagdogra in the North and made our way by car to Darjeeling.  It was quite a ride, 3 hours on narrow switchback roads up a mountain.   We drove through tropical forest, rain, fog and lovely tea estates.  Darjeeling was cool, but busy!  It was the holiday season for school children in India and many families also come North to escape the heat.  We had been hoping for a bit more of a quiet and charming place, but all-in-all it was a good time and we drank some great tea (Obviously!)

We left Darjeeling a bit earlier than we thought and went to another town in the region called Kalimpong.  Paragliding is a popular thing to do there and I was pretty stoked to give it a try...but...it was rain and fog every day so that put a damper on those plans.  Here we just went for walks, saw a few temples, a cacti nursery and watched too much TV.

Next we went to Kurseong which should have given us a nice opportunity to do some hiking...however rain and thick fog kept us mostly indoors.  We got out a few times in between showers to walk around a bit, hit internet cafes and take some photos.  Actually, in Kurseong the air was so damp that we had to buy a space heater to dry the laundry we washed in our room.  Even then it took over 2 days for our things to dry.

After Kurseong we drove back to Bagdogra and flew to Kolkata for one night before heading to Mumbai.  Mumbai was a blast.  We did two tours with Reality Tours and Travel.  One was the Dharavi Slum tour (biggest slum in Mumbai and setting of Slumdog Millionaire) and the other was a city tour via bicycle.  80% of the tour proceeds are put back into the Dharavi community and most of the employees are/were residents of the slum.  Both tours were awesome and I would highly recommend this tour group to anyone interested.

After 2 short days in Mumbai we took the train (13 hours) to Goa.  The train, aside from being a long journey, was super cool.  I really enjoy train travel, it's a nice way to see the countryside and for me is a bit more relaxing than flying.  We arrived in Goa yesterday and are lucky enough to be staying at the Park Hyatt Resort and Spa for 7 nights.  It's so beautiful here and such a nice relaxing change from the chaos of most of the places we've been.  I think it will be the perfect way to wind down from this trip before coming home (July 3rd, yay!)  Plans for this week are as follows:  Some Yoga classes, Spa visits, beach walks, pool lazing, eating, and we'll do a tour of old Goa to get a bit of culture.

Can't wait to see everyone when we get home!

xo Ruby

Top 10 Things I Miss about Canada

I've been in India for just over 40 days and it's great.  But, I have to admit there are some things about home that I'm missing and am definitely looking forward to when I get home.   Just for fun I thought I'd make a list.  So here it is: "Top 10 Things I miss about Canada" (Not including family and friends, that's a given:)

10.  Reliable services (ie. Police, Postal Service etc)
9. Not being regularly stared at
8. Salad
7. Other types of cuisine (esp. Japanese and Thai)
6. Riding my bike
5. Sailing
4. Traffic Rules
3. Potable Tap Water
2. Clean bathrooms with toilet paper
1. Food safety standards

There you have it, being in a foreign country really makes you appreciate the little things and I'm realizing more and more what a great country I live in.

xo Ruby

Back in Delhi

This morning we left Rishikesh @4am (no we're not crazy, we wanted to avoid traffic and were advised that would be the best time).  For this journey we took a tourist taxi (6.5 hour trip for approx $60 CAD).  Air conditioned, leather seats, working shocks, you have no idea the luxury!  We stopped for breakfast at a roadside restaurant/rest area.  Our choices were an Indian breakfast of what looked like dahl and parantha, or potato chips.  Much as I love Indian food, I wasn't feeling it at 730am so I opted for a bag of Lays "American Cream and Onion" flavour.  I've had my eye on those chips since I got here because they were always my favourite as a kid and sometimes you just long for something that reminds you of home.  Usually I avoid them due to unnecessary amounts of hard to pronounce ingredients, but after reading the ingredient list this morning I was surprised to learn that everything listed was actually food.  Yay for me!  However, after eating chips and a super sweet cup of chai for breakfast I have to admit, I had a stomach ache.

Today we checked in to a really nice hotel by the airport, the Uppal Ecotel, and Will and I both had a bath for the first time in over a month.  So good!   Also had a really nice lunch in the hotel.  Salad for me given my choice at breakfast, and also considering how infrequently I eat fresh veg here.  Tourists are not advised to eat salad/ fresh fruit and veg unless you can peel it or it comes from a reputable establishment.   It's funny how much I am missing a good green salad or some steamed kale.  I actually can't wait to get home to some fresh Ontario produce....

 Tonight we're visiting a friend of mine from University who lives and works in Delhi (I'm very excited!)  and tomorrow we fly to Kolkata.

More adventures to come!

xo Ruby 

Photo Update

A few more recent pics:

A Baba - a.k.a. Holy Man

Bought some delicious food from this vendor.

Street food: Potato patty with chick peas, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, curd and some spices.  Could be one of the most delicious things I've had in India.

Learning to make Chapatti

One of my accomplishments in Yoga asana: Scorpion Pose.   Unfortunately I have no other asana photos on my camera :(

Graduation Day!

Watercolour artist.  Loved this man, he was always smiling.  I bought 3 pieces of ladies in saris for about $3 CAD each

Our last day in Dharamsala we hiked to the waterfall and went for a swim.  The water felt ice-cold!  But we had to experience a dip in pure Himalayan glacier water. 

That's me figuring out the quickest way to get out of the frigid water!

Here's Will diving in!

Heading to the bus station.

Boarding our "deluxe" coach.

Crossing Ram Jhula Bridge in Rishikesh

Locals enjoying themselves on themselves on the banks of the Ganges.

A lot of Indian people want pictures with foreigners, Will and I are often asked to stop for a photo.  In this instance a man wanted me to hold his child. 

A monkey chilling on Ram Jhula bridge

That's all for now.

xo Ruby