India, Final Thoughts

The previous posts from our two week experience in India has a lot of contradictions. We saw a lot of depressing sights, but also incredible wonders. We were pickpocketed and taken advantage of, but also had some of the best experiences of our trip in India. There is no easy way to sum up India. There's also no way to answer the question, "Would you recommend going to India?" India definitely isn't for everyone. For us, India was incredible and we are so glad we went.

Now it's off to China!

India, Cast of Characters

For those of you following along at home I've created a quick reference guide for the characters we met along our tour of India. In order or appearance;

Colleen - Emergency room doctor in her second year of residency at a hospital in New Jersey. Colleen was part of our tour from Delhi to Pushkar. Colleen came to India to give a lecture on "The Thyroid Storm" at a medical conference.

Helene - Emergency room doctor (not related to Colleen, married to Mark) at a hospital in Chicago. Helene was part of our trip from Delhi to Pushkar and provided solid medical advice and acted as a proxy for our mothers.

Mark - Chief of Surgery at the University of Chicago's hospital (not related to Colleen, married to Helene). With us from Delhi to Pushkar. Mark is kind of like the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man. He's been to both the North and South Pole (the North by dog sled, the South by cross country skiing), been bitten by an anaconda in Central America, had a bug fly out of his shoulder while having the bug surgically removed and has run two marathons over the age of 50, both faster than me. Lesson learned from Mark: if you want to make a big purchase that your wife isn't keen on, buy her expensive jewellery before hand.

Kami - Tour guide from Delhi to Pushkar. Kami has a masters degree in history and definitely showed it. We learned a lot from Kami over the week we were with him. Kami had an educated answer for all of our questions, or he's an extremely good bull shitter.

Stuart - Brief but memorable appearances from Jaipur to Aurangabad. Stuart appears to be the love child of Mr. Burns from (the Simpsons) and Kramer (from Seinfeld). Divorce lawyer from New York. He is definitely his own best customer as he has been married and divorced 5 times. He currently has a girlfriend but that didn't stop him from trying to have sex with every female he saw. Of all the sleazy things he did over the time we were with him, the sleaziest thing he did was tell us to check out his daughter's sex scene and tell him what we thought. No joke. He has a daughter who is an actress and was in a sex scene in a movie, he simply wanted opinions.

Herb - 74 year old, semi-retired real estate professional from Santa Monica with strong resemblances to Mr. Magoo. Herb gets the sympathy card for this trip. He decided to do this trip because his beloved 10 year old German shepherd died and he thought this trip would take his mind off of it. A week into the trip his sister died as well. Herb mentioned these events in between bouts of complaining about everything else. We traveled with Herb from Pushkar to Aurangabad.

Maureen - 74 year old homemaker who is as sweet as she is immobile. You have to give her credit for going on a three week trip to India, but you also have to ask why a 74 year old who can barely get around would go on a 3 week trip to India?

Fran - 70 something widow and technophobe. At Jaipur Fran demanded a different hotel. The tour company obliged and sent her an email asking for her credit card info. Fran never responded and the day she was supposed to go to the different hotel our tour guide asked her why she hadn't responded. She yelled back at him that the tour company sent the email to her email in America, how could she possibly access her American email in India. Because you know, you can't access Hotmail in India. The tour of India cost several thousand dollars and was Fran's last big trip, she brought along two disposable cameras to remember it. Luckily, we were only with Fran from Pushkar to Udaipor.

Anna - 60 something from Texas. We were with Anna from Pushkar to Udaipor and she spent that entire time sleeping in the back seat of the bus or staying on a bench outside the site while we went in. Maybe Anna was a figment of our imagination...

Frank and Karen - 60 something couple from LA. Frank and Karen were taking a prviate tour with our tour company, which meant we saw them at all the sites and hotels, but we never travelled with them. Really nice couple that we enjoyed spending time with at dinner and the Mumbai airport. Favorite topics of conversation: Herbeen and the amazing sights we've seen on the tour.

Naji - Tour guide from Pushkar to Udaipor. You could definitely tell Naji was being pushed to his limits with the group he had (Herbeen, Fran and Anna). You could also tell that Naji liked us a lot because we were interested in the sights. At the end of our trip Naji gave us a nice little figurine.

Mumbai Tour Guide - Strong resemblance to pond scum. Neither one of us remember this guy's name, so "Mumbai Tour Guide" is the most civil name I can give him. The guy wasn't interested in showing us the sights or giving us information at all, he only cared about getting his cut from the sales.

Sanjay - Tour guide in Aurangabad. Another great tour guide. Taught us a lot about Aurangabad and India and showed us stunning sights. He's engaged to be married early next year and has met his fiance all of two times. We really felt bad for him for getting reamed by Herb for taking so long at the caves, even though we spent the exact amount of time that was specified in the itinerary.

Cameo appearances:

Anderson Cooper - Closeted TV news anchor travelling with his 'friend'. Cameo appearance at the Amber Fort in Jaipur and had a brief conversation with Lara (Lara: "Are you Anderson Cooper?!?!", Anderson: "Yes, I am", Lara: inaudible giggling)

That nice older couple with the guy who has a bad back - Nice older couple that was travelling solo with our tour company. We saw them at several locations. The guy had back surgery a month before the trip and couldn't carry anything.

Chennai, India

Arangabad was our last official destination with our tour company. Although we had to drop some serious coin to get the tour we both feel we made the right decision. The things we saw and people we met were fantastic and we never would have had the kind of experience we did had we gone alone. The tour company dropped us off at the airport and we flew to Mumbai to catch our flight to Chennai. Unfortunately, the time between flights was about 6 hours, so we got to know the Mumbai Domestic Airport pretty well. On the airport note. All new Indian airports are the same. They are long, cavernous buildings that are divided in two, with departures on one side and arrivals on the other. Very rarely do these new airports have the gate extensions that connect to planes. Instead, all departures have a single gate on the ground level and when a plane is ready you simply catch a bus, or walk, to your plane. The reverse is true for arrivals. All arrivals come into one gate, on the ground level and you walk to the carousel to get your bags. At Udaipor and Jaipur the airports were brand spanking new and both had the connecting tunnels and what appeared to be nice second floors. Unfortunately, the tarmac area where the planes are supposed to park and connect to the gate is occupied by the old airport. It appears that at both airports, they can't use their new facilities because they haven't torn down the old facilities which are blocking the planes. Another case of India's clusterfuck bureaucracy. I would put a picture of an Indian airport up, but you aren't allowed to take pictures of airports in India for security reasons.

Back to Chennai. We arrived in Chennai in the evening and were back on our own. The flight and cab to our hotel went perfectly, but so did our trip to Delhi and look what happened. One thing we hadn't experienced in India was some nightlife. Lucky for us, there was a dance club in the basement of our hotel. After getting rejected from the club once for wearing a t-shirt we were able to get and see the scene. There wasn't a scene. There is a term called sausage-fest that is in the contemporary vernacular which means a party predominately made up of males. This was a classic nerd sausage-fest. 30 people in the club, 25 men, all either sitting at a table, the bar, or standing staring at the dance floor or each other. The 5 girls in the club were socializing with each other, all probably asking what they were doing there. We had one round of over priced drinks and left.

Chennai is on the Bay of Bengal, on India's East Coast. One thing that we both wanted to do during our limited time in Chennai was touch the Indian Ocean. Our hotel was about a mile from the ocean so we made the trek. Chennai was similar to Mumbai in that it is much more developed than any other parts of India that we visited. There were nice houses and neighborhoods sprinkled throughout the city. It is also significantly cleaner than most of of the other places we had visited. However, it's still India. When we got within a 1/4 mile of the ocean we were surrounded by goats, kids peeing on the streets, and women drying dead fish on the pavement. For all the San Franciscans reading this, don't ever complain about the cleanliness of Ocean Beach. The beach on Chennai was disgusting. There was litter of every shape, size, and putridness scattered along the entire beach. Not to mention the hundreds of tee-pees built on the beach. What do they say about building your house on sand? We walked several miles along the beach and saw some OK sites; a lighthouse, statue of Gandhi, and some old colonial buildings. When we satisfied our desire to see the beach we headed inland to the George Town area of the city. George Town is filled with narrow streets and shops. We hung around there for a while but it got old pretty quick. We hopped in a tuck-tuck and headed out to a yoga studio.

Lara made a "Must do" list before our trip of things we had to do. On that list was do yoga in India. On our way to the yoga studio the skies opened up and we were caught in a monsoon like we had never seen before. The streets were flooded and we got drenched. The yoga session lasted an hour and it definitely wasn't the best yoga session, nor anything special. When the session ended we walked around the neighborhood.

The nieghborhood was kind of cool with some nice clean shops and an office of KPMG, the smallest of the Big 4 Accounting firms and not nearly as good as EY. As we were walking the sky opened up again. The rain wasn't as bad this time, but the streets became flooded, Venice style. We tried to get to another shop but we were spending more time dodging cars, motorcycles and dangling power lines than actually walking to the shop. We threw in the towel and got a cab back to our hotel.

Since we had a late flight we had some spare time at the hotel. Lara found the hotel's pool and we took a dip. The hotel's pool was a pool experience I won't soon forget. The pool was on the hotel's roof and as we were swimming another monsoon came in, it was like we were in a waterfall. We left Chennai and India that night.

Aurangabad, India

Although our tour guide was atrocious, Lara and I were sad to leave Mumbai so soon as it looked like a huge city with lots of sites to explore. We left Mumbai for Aurangabad first thing in the morning and we arrived in the small town around 9am. Aurangabad, at 900,000 people is a hamlet in India terms. It's a tourist destination because of its ancient Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist caves that are about 2000 years old, which we would be touring the two days we were in town. At the airport we were met by our local tour guide, Sanjay. We instantly knew Sanjay was going to be better than our last guide. He was a super nice guy that was telling us interesting information about Aurangabad, the caves, and the locals instantly. Sanjay's sexuality might be questionable, but his love of the caves certainly isn't.

Our first stop on the day's tour was the Ajanta caves. There are two groups of caves in Arangabad, the Ajanta and Ellora caves. We would be spending most of our first day at the Ajanta caves and most of our second day at the Ellora caves. From Mumbai up to our arrival at the Ajanta caves Herb continued to ask why we were going to a bunch of caves, even though he was given the itinerary months ago and could have reviewed it at any time. Lara and I had done our homework and knew the caves would be interesting and Sanjay was ecstatic that he was taking us to the caves. It definitely made for a long bus ride having Grumpy with us.

The Ajanta caves are a series of 31 caves that were dug out of the cliffside 2200 - 1400 years ago by Buddhist monks. The cliffside that the caves are dug into are high above a creek and the only way to get to them is to walk 1/4 mile uphill from the parking lot. As usual, Herb was his lovely self and Maureen insisted she couldn't make it. Luckily for all of us there are men who will carry tourists up to the entrance of the caves for a small fee. Lara and Sanjay arranged for Maureen to do it and everyone loved it. Once we got to the first cave Sanjay started telling us about the caves. Herb and Maureen were gone after 2 sentences. The first cave was amazing. It's a large hall carved out with small cells on the sides and a larger room in the back with a huge sitting Buddha. Seeing our first Buddha statue was really cool.

We continued to the second cave, by which time Herbeen had apparently left because they felt they had seen enough. We walked through all of the accessible caves over the course of the following 3 hours. Each cave was unique and some of the caves were simply spectacular. There was incredible artwork in so many caves and we had access to all of it. We would never had been allowed to access all that we did if these caves were in the West. The canyon that the caves are built into wraps around and the views are awesome. The final cave was the best because it has a 50 foot long statue of Buddha laying down. It doesn't sound like much, but if you see it you would definitely agree.

Like our itinerary said, we spent 4 hours at the caves. When we returned to the restaurant at the base of the caves we met up with Herbeen, who were not too happy. They made it clear they would be spending the following day in the hotel instead of the caves. We were happy.

The Ellora caves are made out to be the better of the two Arangabad caves. We weren't too sure why, but Sanjay was as gitty as a schoolgirl to take us. We started with some caves that were similar to the caves we saw the day before, which were cool, but kind of getting old (we had seen 30 caves in 24 hours at that point. Sanjay took us for a walk up a hill and mentioned that we were coming up to his favorite place in the world. 10 steps later we realized why. The Hindu 'cave' we walked up to was actually a massive (50 feet wide, 100 feet deep, 200 feet long) cut in the hillside. Inside of this 'cut' is a huge, intracitely cut Hindu temple. We approached the cliff and looked down on the dozens of tourists, students, and worshippors who were visiting the temple. Standing at the cliff was a moment I won't soon forget. We spent over an hour walking in and around the temple. It wasn't the best temple, but the size and fact that it's completely cut from one rock and almost hidden from view makes it one of the best religous sites we have been to. After the temple we finished up our Arangabad cave experience with a nice lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Ellora caves. Upon our request, Sanjay took us to some stores but the only thing we bought was some spices at an Indian supermarket. I have to say, the supermarket was one of our most interesting shopping experiences. Considering every person in the market stopped what they were doing and stared at us while we got some spices, makes me think they don't see white people very often.

That night we had a nice dinner with Frank and Karen and talked about how amazing the caves were. We don't know why the Aurangabad caves aren't better known, but we certainly won't complain about the lack of tourists there. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the caves become another major tourist destination.

Mumbai, India

Up to Mumbai our two Indian tour guides had been phenomenal. They both made it clear they were from the warrior caste and aren't too fond of Muslims or the Indian version of affirmative action, but hearing their uncensored opinions on life added to the great tours we received. Our Mumbai tour guide was not only the worst tour guide we had, but a complete a-hole as well.

Upon arriving and meeting our guide, Herb made it clear he wanted to see the sights from "Slumdog Millionaire" and wasn't too concerned with anything else. The first stop we made on our tour was the laundry area which was part of the movie. The laundry area was cool and it also kept Herb quiet for a few hours after. The laundry area is a large area in the middle of Mumbai made up of hundreds of 3'x3' concrete cells, some filled with water, some not, used to do laundry. There were hundreds of people working in the laundry area doing everything from beating clothes against cement, hanging clothes, moving clothes, etc. Our next destination was a temple in 'the Beverly Hills' of Mumbai. The temple was another Jain temple, but not nearly as nice as the Ranakpur temple. We toured the temple while Maureen stayed outside. Maybe she didn't go in because the sign outside said, "Women who are menstruating are not allowed in the temple." Our second inclination that our tour guide wasn't very good occurred while we were in the temple. I asked him about a picture in the temple showing a shipwreck and a guy getting eaten by an alligator. He stopped, looked at it, looked at me like I was stupid, said, "It's a shipwreck," then walked away. Our first inclination that our tour guy wasn't very good happened when he first talked to us on the van and never took his eyes off Lara's breasts. Literally never.

We left the temple and proceeded to the hanging gardens of Mumbai. The hanging gardens are a mislabelled park. It's a large park in the middle of the city with nice walking trails, hedged bushes, and trash cans that look like penguins. When you're surrounded by nothing but city it's a really nice tranquil area. Our tour guide gave us 10 minutes to enjoy. Our tour guide made a point that he speaks English, Spanish, Russian, French, and Hindi, but I can't count how many times he said, "Come please." As Maureen is 74 and has a bad back she doesn't move too well. So when we were walking slow our tour guide would yell "Come please" when he felt we were too far back. We left the hanging gardens and the 'Beverly Hills' of Mumbai for the Gateway of India. I mentioned the Beverly Hills of Mumbai twice to give you a flavor of what it was like for us. Our lovely tour guide mentioned that we were in the Beverly Hills of Mumbai and pointed out the Manhattan of India well over a dozen times.

No more than one hour before we got to the Gateway of India I mentioned to Lara that I thought it was nice that we had been solicited by all sorts of sales people and beggars throughout India, but not once had I been offered to buy drugs. I was making my comparison to Cabo San Lucas when I couldn't walk 100 yards without being offered drugs. We arrived at the Gateway of India and 10 minutes into checking out the Gateway out a guy offered to sell me weed. I told the guy to go fuck himself. Lara wasn't too happy with that. Besides the drug dealer, the Gateway was a cool sight.

We both knew that tour guides took a cut of the sales from the shops that they took us to and our previous guide, Kami, was very upfront with it and told us that he takes 5%. Our guide in Mumbai informed us that he works for the government and would never take a cut. We found it very odd then, that whenever he took us to sights he would give a specific time limit, never more than 20 minutes at a sight, but when we were at the shops he took us to there was never a time limit. The first shop he took us to was a government shop that had fixed prices and had goods that were guaranteed. However, we noticed that the stuff in the store was the exact same as all the other stores we had been to but the prices on the goods was 2x - 5x more. But, if we asked about the price and said it was too much, they were willing to negotiate. Even Herb, who appeared to come to India strictly to shop, was annoyed by how much time we were spending shopping. At 2pm we were starving and asked our guide when lunch would be. He seemed surprised that we would want to stop the tour and pointed out a few restaurants that were within eye sight. We had a nice lunch at an Iranian restaurant, just the type of restaurant we were looking for to get our first taste of South Indian food.

The bad press that I have been giving to the tour guide shouldn't take away from our experience in Mumbai. Mumbai is a 'struggling' metropolis. The skyline is filled with skyscrapers and there are even more going up. Unlike all of the other cities that we visited in India, there were very few cows walking the streets, almost no animal pulled carts and some semblance of order. That isn't to say there isn't absolute poverty, there is plenty of that. Mumbai was also incredibly cleaner than the other cities we were in and we felt like we could walk safely in the city.

Our tour concluded at Gandhi's house and the home of a Rabi who was killed by terrorist. Gandhi's 'home' is actually the former home of one of his friends and it has been turned into a museum on Gandhi. The museum is filled with 50 or so dioramas and was kind of interesting. We made the stop at the rabbi's home at Herb's insistence. The home was attacked by terrorists when they attacked the hotels last year. The rabbi and a friend of his were killed. Herb was shocked and appalled that we hadn't heard of the rabbi's death. Whatever Herb.

Lara and I had the evening to ourselves. We had the best dinner of our India trip at the hotel and stuffed ourselves silly. After dinner we tried to walk around, but Mumbai at night isn't the safest looking city. The following morning we got up at 4am and headed for the airport for Aurangabad.

Udaipor, India

Oh how things can change. Because Lara and I signed up for our Indian tour at the last minute the tour company accommodated us by putting us in one tour for the first half of our trip and a different tour for our second half. As mentioned before, the group that we were with in the first half could not have been better. The group in our second half left a lot to be desired. Our first day after Pushkar was a travel day. We drove from Pushkar to Udaipor. The drive was 8 hours on nothing but two lane roads with tractors and farm animals. Adding to our pain was Lara being sick with Delhi Belly. We made one tourist stop, Ranakpur Temple. Ranakpur Temple was the coolest temple I had seen in India. The temple is a Jain Temple and completely made out of marble. Supporting the multiple marble levels is 1,444 carved marble pillars, each one unique. Unlike the temple we toured in Pushkar, this temple was immaculate. Unfortunately, Lara was so sick that she just sat on the bench and didn't go in. However, Lara wasn't alone on the bench as our new tour group was apparently recruited from the AARP Complaints Department. The three other women on the tour with us were all tired of seeing temples and the only other guy in the group just wanted to take some pictures and go. They didn't think we would need more than 5 minutes. I spent 20 minutes inside taking pictures. I didn't feel bad at all, and Lara was glad I made them wait. We arrived in Udaipur in the evening and just crashed.


Starting our full day in Udaipor we toured the City Palace. As I mentioned previously, our new group wasn't the best to travel with. We had an entirely new group made up of Maureen and Herb (aka Maurb or Herbeen) a 74 year old married couple, Fran, a 70 something who's friends call her bitch, Anna, a quiet 60 something, and Naji, our new tour guide. When we arrived at the City Palace Lara and I took the tour with Naji and Herb tagged along (apparently thinking we would only be in there for 10 minutes). Maureen and Anna stayed at the entrance because they didn't feel like walking and Fran went to the gift shop. After one room Herb decided he had seen enough of the palace and walked out, leaving Lara and I with Naji for a private tour. Naji gave us a great one hour private tour of the palace which we really enjoyed. When we came out of the palace after an hour the rest of the group was waiting, except for Fran. As we waited for Fran outside the palace we had to listen to Herb and his complaints; it took 15 minutes just to get out of the palace, he lost his beloved hat while riding an elephant, Fran's a bitch, the camel ride made his ass sore, he overpaid for a marble table, Fran's a bitch...... We spent 45 minutes outside the palace waiting for Naji to find Fran. Fran was eventually discovered in the gift shop buying chachkies of a palace she didn't go in.

Udaipor is on a lake with two man-made palaces in the middle. One of the palaces was the palace used in the James Bond movie, "Octopussy". After the tour we took a boat to one of the island palaces, this was after we dropped Anna at her hotel because she didn't want to go. Before we boarded the boat Naji was bombarded with 'how long is this boat ride going to last?', 'what's on this island?', and 'can I stay here and just wait for you guys?'. The boat ride was just a simple cruise of a little lake on a pontoon boat, which was cool. At the island palace we stopped and had a drink. Following the boat cruise we took a tour of the city, stopping at a couple stores to acquiesce Herb.

Early the following morning we all went to Udaipor Airport. Herbeen, Lara and I were bound for Mumbai while Fran and Anna headed off somewhere else.

Pushkar, India

Again, we all piled into the van and got back on the road, destination: Pushkar. The ride from Jaipur to Pushkar is amazing. It's raw India. Rugged mountains, small towns, ox drawn carriages, everything. Included in everything....STICKERS! You might be wondering why we care about stickers. Lara came up with the cool idea of putting a sticker from each country on our netbook. Up to India we had put six stickers on our computer (Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, and Turkey, we forgot in Austria). We literally spent 4 hours looking for a Turkey sticker in Istanbul and we hadn't come across any place in India that had anything close to what we were looking for. So when we found a sticker of the Indian flag we were super excited.


We arrived at our camp in Pushkar a little after noon. The camp is a complex of really nice tents and huts. All of them have air conditioning, running water, clean bathrooms and nice beds. We weren't roughing it by any means. After we got situated we were taken by camel carts to the Pushkar fairgrounds. On the way to the fairgrounds we passed a gypsy camp. As the cart went by we were surrounded by little kids asking for rupees, shampoo, or chocolate. We could see the 'homes' that these kids came from and it's hard to imagine anyone having anything less than them. Spending five years in San Francisco with its plethora of homeless has definitely made me more immune to seeing homelessnes, but seeing little kids in it is still really hard. What's worse, is that you can't give the kids anything because it rarely makes it to the kids. If the kids receive something the parents or bosses in the beggar mafia take it from them. Besides the children, the ride to the Pushkar fairgrounds was amazing, in a good way. There were camels everywhere, literally. The Pushkar Camel Festival is many things: a holy pilgrimage to the local lake, a camel market, and a county fair. As we were coming in, so were dozens of camel owners with their herds for sale or trade. The landscape was also amazing, just rugged mountains as far as the eye can see.

Our cart dropped us off in the middle of the fair. I honestly believe you could walk a quarter mile in any direction, stepping only on camels. Besides camels, the fairground was filled with camel supply shops, food shops, a make shift movie theatre, arts and crafts, all of which were completely different than anything I've seen before. I know some of you are asking, "What could be in the camel supply store in Pushkar that isn't in my local camel store here in the US?" To ride a camel you need the right blankets, saddle and stirrups or sometimes just a rope. You also need colorful ribbons and ropes to pimp out your camel. And most important, you need nose 'nails' to go into your camel's nose. These nose nails are then connected to a rope and used to rein in the camel. Pretty crazy huh? We walked around the fair for a few hours taking it all in. The sun set as we walked around the fair and I had another one of those 'I'll never forget this' moments.

That night we were treated to some cool Pushkar entertainment at our camp. Dancers, a drum band, a fire breather, and a puppet show all entertained us. Adding to the entertainment was one of the other tourists staying at the camp, Stuart, who propositioned one of the dancers for 500 rupees (~$12). Classy.

We started our first full day in Pushkar with a camel ride to the camel arena in the middle of town. I use the word arena in the loosest sense. The arena was an enclosed arena with bleacher seats on two connecting sides, the other two sides simply had a wall. We rode into the arena on our camels and stayed on the camels as we watched the entertainment. First up on the entertainment ticket was the camel race. The camel race was argueably the most disorganized organized sporting event I've ever witnessed. One of the other tourists in our group had to get off of her camel because the camel was needed in the race. When the race actually started all the camels just started running everywhere. The best comparison I can make is it's like a vibrating football board game. At some point the race ended, everyone cheered and a small group of people ran up to one of the racers to applaud him. After the race was the camel dance performance, although it took 20 minutes for things to actually get organized. A small rink was made in the center of the arena and everyone gathered around. The camel dance performance was like a dance off for camels. The handler has the camel leashed up and he has the camel trot around. The coolest part was one of the camels got on its elbows and crawled on its front elbows. Beyond that, the camel dance was kind of lame. Going with the theme, there was no organization to the dance as well. Each individual dance would end when people started booing, there wasn't a clock or even what appeared to be official judges. When we had seen all of the camels a winner was declared and the horse dancing competition started. We were about to leave the horse dance competition before it started based off of the camel dance competition, but the horse dancing competition was really interesting. Like before, a handler would come out and would lead the horse around the circle. Two drummers would play as the horse was dancing. The horses actually appeared to dance to the beat of the drums. After a few minutes an assistant would bring out a tiered platform about 2 feet high and the horse would climb on top of it and dance as well. The handlers also got the horses to stand and walk on their back legs. We watched four or five of the horses strut their stuff and we were about to leave when the master horse dancer came out. Appearantly this guy is a local legend and has quite the following. This guy was dressed well and even had his own band. I have to admit, this guy was the real deal. His horse did everything I mentioned, but did it with style. The horse would not only get on its back legs, but it would walk circles on its back legs and then hop on just its back legs. The trainer had his drummers play under the horse while it walked on two legs. Everyone loved it. By the end of the performance the circle had shrunk in half because all the viewers were trying to get closer. We left a little bit afterwards once we realized no one would top the fan favorite.

We walked through the fairgrounds and checked out the town. The town has a lake and a temple which are revered by a group of Hindus. We toured the temple which was cool, but also the smelliest, most disguisting temple I've walked in. Think of an outdoor temple with several side rooms, all resembling a recycling center in smell and floor stickiness. Let's not forget that we had to take our shoes off and walk in our socks to go through the temple. As we walked into one of the side rooms I thought we were walking into an opium den. The lake that is thought to be highly spiritual by thousands of people has been completely drained. The lake is a huge dried lake bed with some man made pools for the believers to take dips in. Inside the lake is a tower with blinking christmas lights. The lake certainly wasn't impressive but the sights were.

With all of the Pushkar sights seen we headed back to our camp. That night we said our goodbyes with Mark, Helene and Colleen as they were all leaving the tour the next morning. Lara and I both agree that the Pushkar Camel Festival was one the coolest experiences we had ever seen.

Jaipur, India

Road Trip! As I said in the previous post, after sunrise we hopped in the van and started our drive to Jaipur. The van was a nice 11 person van with comfortable seats and air conditioning. In the van was Lara, Colleen, Helene, Mark, Kami, our helper, the driver and myself. The six of us (all mentioned except the helper and driver) chatted the whole way as we watched the Indian country side go by. I take back what I said in an earlier post about Turks having the craziest drivers. Indians are the craziest drivers by far. Most of the roads in India are two lanes with no shoulder, and that's being generous. Using the road is every possible vehicle with wheels, plus people, and animal herds. Because there are so many objects on the road drivers simply use the other side of the road as the passing lane. When you're driving in the city and you go into the opposite direction at 20 mph it isn't a big deal, but when you dive into the other direction at 45 mph and there is a large truck coming at you going the same speed, it's a little different. For the first half hour on the road it was fairly disturbing. Our guide told us that just a few months ago the tour company used to put a curtain behind the driver so that the passengers in the back of the van couldn't see what was happening. Our guide also informed us that most drivers believe in destiny and if it is their time to go then it is their time to go and there is nothing they can do about it. Not very reassuring.

On the topic of Indian driving and road conditions. Indian roads are completely different than roads we've seen anywhere else. Although there are lots of cars, they are definitely a minority on the road. Most of the traffic on the roads is motorcycles, bikes, and 3-wheeled tuck-tucks. The tuck-tucks are just what you've seen in movies, they are 3 wheeled vehicles with a roof on them. Bikes and motorcycles are the same as anywhere else. The biggest exception is how many people fit in/on a vehicle. Anywhere else in the world a motorcycle is a one person vehicle, occasionally a two person vehicle. In India, if only one person is riding a motorcycle it's being underutilized. Two, three, four people on a motorcycle was the norm. Apparently, in India the motorcycle is the family vehicle. Some of you might be thinking 'how can four people fit on one motorcycle'? It's actually quite simple. The father gets on first and assumes the driving position. Then the oldest child gets in behind the father. The mother gets in next, behind the oldest child at the rear of the motorcycle. The youngest child, typically a baby, gets in last in front of the father, just behind the steering wheel. I can't tell you how many times we saw a toddler behind the handle bars of a moving motorcycle. As for helmets, they are very rare. Our guide informed us that a helmet law has just been implemented in India and people are starting to buy helmets. However, the merits of helmets aren't appreciated, simply the legality. So the only helmets that people buy, or are even available, are $1 helmets that provide as much protection, possibly less, as a turban. On top of that, it is more common for riders to have a helmet on the arm then on their head. On top of that, the helmet law is only applicable to men, women don't have to wear helmets because it might mess up their hair.


Continuing on the road subject, although when the road is wide enough for multiple lanes the lanes are marked, people never obey lane markings. Drivers simply go where ever there is less resistance. When they pass another vehicle they honk their horn. With so many vehicles on the road and all passing frequently, the road is very, very loud. Drivers are actually encouraged to use their horn. It is a law that all trucks have a sign posted on the back saying "Use horn." The trucks in India are very cool. I think most trucks are owned by the drivers. I say this because no two trucks in India are the same. They are all painted different and many with really cool paintings. Although we didn't see any truck nuts, we did see the Indian version of them.

Finishing the side note on India roads. Unlike most other countries, there are almost no overpasses in India. This does create more traffic, but it also means your truck can be as filled as you can make it as there are no height restrictions. We saw trucks that were filled 20 feet high, easily. Some trucks would be filled so much that their cargo would be hanging 5 feet out the bed and dragging on the ground. Crazy.


Back to our road trip. After a few dozen games of playing chicken with other Indian drivers we arrived at Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri is a deserted, red sandstone city built around 1570. The city was your standard Indian fort; a walled city with red brick buildings inside. It was pretty cool.



We got back on the road of death and headed for Jaipur. We arrived in Jaipur in the early evening. In our first morning in Jaipur we went to the Amber Fort and Palace. The fort is on the top of hill and the only way to get to the top of the hill is to take an elephant! Taking an elephant in Amber Fort is like taking a taxi anywhere else, you just hop on and your driver takes you to where you want to go. The elephant ride was very cool. Once we got to the fort we toured around. This fort was slightly different from the other forts in that it had Anderson Cooper in it. Yes, Anderson Cooper, host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, was walking around the Amber Fort just like us. Although Lara was the one who spotted Anderson, our friend Colleen snagged the best photo of him completely by accident. She was trying to take a picture of some sexually explicit tiles that are in the Amber Fort when some guy came out the door and got in her picture, she later noticed that that guy was Anderson Cooper. For you celebrity buffs, Anderson was travelling with one other guy, which we have a picture of. We were waiting for them to hold to hands so we could sell that picture to TMZ. Anderson Cooper won't say he's gay, but he's ranked as the second most powerful gay man in America by Out magazine.

Once we got our fill of celebrity sightings we left the Amber Fort to check out the city of Jaipur. Inside the city of Jaipur is the City Palace, Jantar Mantar, and some good shopping. The City Palace is similar to other Indian palaces. This palace had a more English feel and it had an interesting armory museum with lots of crazy weapons. The Jantar Mantar was totally different. The Jantar Mantar is an Indian observatory made up of about two dozen sun dials. The sun dials are used primarily for astrological purposes. There is one sun dial for each zodiac sign, several sun dials to determine the zodiac sign, the world's largest sun dial, and the world's most precise sun dial.

The complex wasn't what we were expecting at all and it was a very cool surprise. We finished off our city tour by doing some shopping. We checked out a couple craft stores, an antique store, a jewelry store, and a textile store. The coolest purchase of the trip occurred at the antique store. Mark purchased a six foot tall wooden statue of Ganesha. The Ganesha will go well with the one ton Buddha statue that Mark bought in Cambodia and currently resides in his backyard. Helene expressed her reservations about where a six foot tall Ganesha statue would fit in their house, but after Mark bought her some nice diamond earrings at the jewelry store, her questioning subsided.

We finished the evening by having dinner with a royal family. One of the former princes of Rajasthan (the state that we were in) had a large home in the center or Jaipur that his family still maintains and lives in. The descendants of this royal family let us into their home and ate dinner with us. The entrance to the house is from the main street of Jaipur, which is loud, busy, and filled with beggars and homeless. The house is large, with several courtyards and an outdoor sitting area. The food was nothing special but it was fun interacting with a traditional Indian family. We also ate with other tourists who were travelling separately from us, but with the same company. All of them were over the age of 70 and would have absolutely nothing to do with the dinner and left after dinner was served. We knew we would be spending more time with them in a few days and were really excited.

The next morning we packed up and started on another road trip to Pushkar, for the Pushkar Camel Festival.

Agra, India

At the ass-crack of dawn we got on the tourist special, Delhi to Agra train. Agra has several cool palaces and tombs, including the Taj Mahal. The train was a special tourist train and it was fairly nice, like a low-end European train. The train certainly wasn't the stereotypical Indian train with people packed like cattle and other people riding on the top, but we did pass by some of those trains. When we got off our train we headed for our van where a band was playing traditional Indian music and dancing. Kind of cool. The van took the eight of us to Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb first. The tomb was a sprawling palace with great views of the Taj Mahal and we learned a lot about the place from Kami.

After the Itmad-Ud-Daulah Tomb we hit up Agra Fort. From the Itmad-Ud-Daulah Tomb to Agra Fort we had a virtual safari. We saw water buffalo being herded in the river wash, monkeys playing in the trees, goats walking the streets, horses pulling carriages, and of course, cows walking everywhere on the streets. Like other Indian forts, Agra Fort isn't a fort as much as it is a palace. It was a sprawling complex with rich history and some great sights.

A nice lunch followed the Agra Fort, which Mark and Helene (our adopted parents) graciously paid for. After lunch we visited the Taj Mahal. To protect the Taj Mahal's marble, vehicles are not permitted within two kilometers. So we were carried by a horse drawn cart to the entrance of the Taj Mahal. Very cool. The Taj Mahal isn't a single building. I would describe it as two complexes, with the well photographed white building having two smaller buildings on either sides and a separate, fort-like complex at the opposite side of the reflecting pool. All visitors enter the fort on one side and the path to the Taj Mahal is on the right side, about 50 yards away. From the fort, the path to the Taj Mahal has an entrance gate and it is only when you approach the entrance gate that you see the Taj Mahal. When you first see the Taj Mahal from the fort it is truly awesome. The walk from the entrance gate to the Taj Mahal is almost a quarter-mile of well kept gardens and the large reflecting pool. We slowly made the walk and got to the Taj Mahal. The line to get in the Taj Mahal was about 1000 people long and we waited for about an hour. I have to admit, waiting in line at the base of the Taj Mahal watching the sunset isn't the worst thing in the world.

Our wait in line was an hour, but it would have been a lot less if Indian tourists weren't as bad as first graders in terms of cutting. We quickly realized the strategy they all had. Send a little old lady who doesn't understand English, or at least acts like she doesn't understand English, right in front of a bunch of American tourists. Since most Americans aren't going to get upset about an old lady cutting in front of them they don't make any comments. After a few moments all the old lady's family members join her and in a matter of a few minutes 20 people have cut. This worked once on us. After the first time we weren't too kind to old Indian women. Helping our cause were the half-dozen Central Indian Security Forces personel with machine guns and whistles that would whistle and yell at people caught cutting.

Inside of the Taj Mahal is tomb of Emperor Shah Jahan's wife. It is a simple white marbled box about 2' x 2' x 5'. According to Islam, graves should be very simple, as they believe all people are created equal and a king's tomb should be the same as a pauper's tomb. Thus, the body of the Emperor's wife is actually in the dirt below the Taj Mahal and the box inside is just a symbol. Surrounding the tomb is a fine white marble lattice that prevents people from touching the tomb, but allows people to see it. What was amazing was that almost all the Indian tourists would push and pull their way to see the tomb and then walk out just as fast. Because the tomb is in the middle of the chamber you can easily walk around it. Lara and I walked to the other side of the tomb and we were practically the only people there. It was very odd but we enjoyed it. We explored some of the other rooms in the Taj Mahal and since all the Indian tourists were only interested in seeing the tomb and then leaving we were left alone to spend some quality time in the Taj Mahal. We left the Taj Mahal with dozens of great pictures and smiles on our faces.

The following morning we got up eary again to watch sun rise over the Taj Mahal. Our guide took us to the opposite side of the river from the Taj Mahal to watch the sun rist. Watching the sun rise against the Taj Mahal was another incredible moment. It was extra cool because that morning was a special festival for the local Hindus and there were lots of people on the river bank shooting off fireworks and playing music. When the sunrise colors were gone we left the Taj Mahal and headed for Jaipur.

Good Delhi

At 9am sharp we had a guide waiting for us in the lobby of our hotel. He escorted us to the car and driver that were waiting for us and we were Chauffeured to the India Gate of Delhi where we met the rest of our tour group. The group that we joined could not have been any better. There were five tourists (including ourselves), an expert guide, a driver, and a helper. The other three tourists were a married couple, Mark and Helene, and a married woman traveling through India before her conference, Colleen. Helene is an emergency room doctor, Mark is the chief of surgery at a large hospital, and Colleen is also an emergency room doctor in her second year of residency. Our expert guide, Kami, has a master's degree in history and has been a guide for several years. Needless to say, we definitely felt we were in good hands.

Kami guided us around New Delhi, showing us India Gate as well as the other sites around New Delhi. After New Delhi, we were taken to the Qutab Minar complex. The Qutab Minar complex is home to several palaces and a 239 foot tower. It was all very interesting and we learned a lot.

We made our way to the Red Fort, which was built by the Moghul emperors in pre-British times and then was occupied by the British. It's a cool fort with great history and is packed with stuff inside of it. We walked out of the Red Fort and then hopped on bicycle rickshaws and we were taken through the bazaar in Chandni Chowk. The bazaar at Chandni Chowk is a packed outdoor market in Old Delhi with a multitude of different shops and incredible sights. The bicycle rickshaw ride was an experience neither one of us were expecting but something we will remember for a long time.

After the rickshaw ride our car was waiting and we were taken back to our hotel. The first day of our tour was fantastic and a complete reversal of what we had been experiencing in India. We decided to go out to dinner to a restaurant that had been recommended to us by some Canadian tourists in our hotel. We told the concierge at the hotel where we wanted to go and he waived down a bicycle rickshaw driver and told him where we wanted to go. We were told by the Canadian tourists that the restaurant was only two blocks away. After being biked around for eight blocks we told our driver to take us back to our hotel. Talking to our driver was about as productive as talking to a shovel. A security guard heard the conversation and attempted to translate for us, the driver said to the security guard he knew where to go and off we went. Four blocks later he stopped at a hotel that wasn't ours and said something. After lots of pointing he was able to figure out that we would just direct him. 5 minutes and one slum later we were back at our hotel. We had another dinner in the hotel's restaurant. At that point we both realized that signing up for the tour was the only way we could see India.

Baaaaad Delhi

When we planned out our trip there were some places/activities that we really wanted to see/do. Oktoberfest in Munich and Pamukklae, Turkey are examples. We decided to spend almost two weeks in India because it is an incredible place that we hear lots about and also because Lara has a really good friend who lives there. Unfortunately, our friend wasn't able to join us due to a visa issue. Since we pretty much winged our European trip we thought we were now experienced travelers who could tackle anything. Wow, were we naive.

Since we received a 48 hour notice from our friend that he wouldn't be joining us, we were able to make hotel arrangements for two nights in Delhi. The hotel said they would pick us up at the airport (at 4am) and take us to the hotel. We arrived at Delhi Internation Airport and our hotel driver was no where to be found. We decided to take a cab to the hotel instead. As soon as we stepped out of the airport we knew we were in for an adventure. Entrance to the airport is restricted because there is litterally a mob outside of the airport trying to get in. Everything is different; the sights, sounds, and even the smells. Our driver took us to our hotel, dodging the cows, beggars, and stray dogs to get there. Our hotel was able to let us check in early and we slepped until noon.

When we got up we decided to explore the neighborhood, Karol Bagh. Like we expected, we saw poverty at its extreme. We made our way to the local Metro station to go to the center of New Delhi. Our Indian friend had said that we need to see Connaught Place and its underground bazaar. Our friend also said we should take the Delhi Metro to get there as its super cheap and 10x better than BART. The Metro is cheap..... overcrowded and smelly. I'll gladly pay $3 instead of $1 to ride BART instead of the Delhi Metro.

When we arrived in Connaught Place we explored the area. We literally could not go more than 20 yards without being stopped by someone trying to sell us something or strike up a conversation in hopes of selling something. Then we walked by one guy who walked along me and tried to talk to me. He then pulled out a piece of paper and tried to show me something. At the same time another guy walked towards us, in the opposite direction, on Lara's side. After the guy on Lara's side passed the other guy on my side walked away. When both had cleared us Lara told me that she had been pickpotted. Lara had a sweatshirt tied around her waist and the man walking in the opposite direction had reached into the sweatshirt pocket. Luckily, nothing was in it, before or after the incident.

We decided to tempt our fate again by checking out the underground bazaar. The underground bazaar is unequivacly the worst shopping experience I have ever had. It's an underground area with no natural light, or much unnatural light, with narrow walkways and shops on all sides. Although there are dozens, if not hundreds, of shops they are all the same; fake electronics (I-pad, I-fone, Compac computer, etc.), fake jewelry, fake jeans, etc., etc., etc. We tried to leave twice but we couldn't step over the people sleeping on the stairs.

We finally escaped the shit hole and tried to walk around. A nice guy approached us and struck up a conversation and said that he was headed to his shop and he would show us some sights on his way. Since he was 5' 3", 100lbs, and 50 years old we didn't feel too threatened and we proceeded to walk to a Hindu Temple. It was interesting. Then for some reason we all hopped in an auto-rickshaw and we went to another temple. Again, it was interesting. We went inside, saw some sights, eh. Again, we got into an auto-rickshaw with this guy and he took us to a 'credible tour company'. We went inside and we listened to a tour they had for a little over an hour. We tried to ditch our little friend but we were too nice and we couldn't shake him. We requested to be taken to the Government of India Tour Office. He obliged and we were taken to what we were told was the Government of India Tour Office. We sat down, were told this was the official Government of India Tour Office and we listened. 5 minutes in we realized that these guys were full of shit. When the tour company representative went to get us some tea we snuck out.

We were now lost in New Delhi with no one to contact and the sun was setting. We quickly asked some credible looking people where the Metro station was and we were directed in the right direction. We hoped onto the Metro (packed like sardines) and made it back to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel at 6pm and we never left that night.

We realized that we were fucked. I worked on the hotel's computer trying to make an itinerary in India (avoiding Delhi) while Lara looked for American tour companies that had India tours available. Luckily, Lara was able to find a reputable tour company and at 2am we booked our India tour. Unfortunately, our India trip went from being our least expensive to our most expensive.

You might notice that we don't have any pictures on this post. That's because we only took one picture while in Delhi that day and it wasn't even that good. We've been averaging ~100 pictures a day, but because we were so afraid of taking our camera out we only took one picture from our window while we ate lunch.

The next morning we were picked up by the tour company's car and things changed.

Istanbul - Delhi

Istanbul to Delhi was truly the most memorable air trip I've ever made. After saying our good-byes with the Foresmans we headed to Atuturk International Airport in Turkey. Anything related to transportation in Turkey has incredible security. The hotel we stayed at, a Courtyard by Marriott, has guards at the driveway to the hotel which stop every car has it enters the driveway and check for bombs under the car. Then, once you get inside the hotel you have to go through a metal detector, similar to an airport. At Istanbul airport you have to go through a security line before you even enter the airport, metal detectors and x-rays. Once you receive your boarding pass and check your bags you go through a second round of metal detectors and x-rays. We had to go through the same security precautions in the Izmir airport. It really makes you appreciate how safe America is, even though we think it isn't.

We boarded the plane, Qatar Airways, and went off to Doha, our transfer airport. Qatar Airways hypes itself up in its commercials as 'the world's only five star airline' so we were both excited to try it out. The flight attendants were no Agean Air flight attendants and there was nothing special about the cabin, but the food was awesome. I sampled the lamb and Lara had the default chicken. The lamb was exquisite and the pairing with the Hunter Valley syrah was like Sunny and Cher.

Our flight path from Istanbul to Doha was also extraordinary. We flew the complete length of Iraq, flying over Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad. Unfortunately, the skies were overcast and we couldn't see much. As the plane left Iraq we got to see a great sunset over the Tigris River delta. Amazing. We approached Qatar at night. As we flew in we could see oil rigs and refineries as far as the eye could see. The refineries of Richmond, California can't shake a stick at Qatar. The flames from the refineries and oil rigs literally illuminated the ground over what looked like the entire country.

We eventually made it to Doha Airport. We were both stoked about going through Doha Airport because you always hear about the incredible wealth and amount of money spent on infrastructure in the gulf and we figured Doha Airport would show it. Wrong. The airport is a glorified bus terminal. Planes land 1/4 mile away and a bus takes you to and from the terminal. We decided to sample the Doha Airport food court at what appeared to be an A&W. With some leftover GBPs (British pounds) we purchased two root beer floats and some onion rings, which came out to about $20. Without a doubt, they were the worst onion rings and root beer float I've ever had. Helping its case to being one of the worst airports the Doha International makes public announcements in English and Arabic for everything, loudly, everywhere. For the entire 2.5 hours we spent in the airport we never had silence from the PA. Then we went to the gate....... and got a free upgrade to business class. SCORE!!!!!

Business class isn't that great..... HAH! I couldn't kick the seat in front of me if I wanted to. My first decisions on the plane were what kind of beverage to have first (Laurent-Perrier Champagne) and what vibration setting to make for my seat massager. We tried to act cool and make it look like we fly business class all the time but utterly failed due to all the laughing and picture taking. A little after we left Doha we flew over Dubai and could see the palm tree-shaped peninsula that Dubai has created in the Persian Gulf. Another amazing site.

The flight lasted only 2.5 hours and we knew we were in for a complete change once we got off the plane.

Istanbul, Turkey

Turkey is a big country with mediocre roads, so we decided to fly from Izmir (near Pamukkale) to Istanbul. Nothing special about the flight or arrival at our hotel. Upon getting settled in our hotel we set about for a dinning experience which is exactly what we got. At the concierge's suggestion we went to a restaurant nearby which features belly dancers. We were seated near the dance floor with your blogger nearest the dance floor. I'm sure you already know where this is headed. The first belly dancer wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing (she was a butterface), but what she lacked in looks she made up for with stage presence. Towards the end of her routine she decided to get the audience participating so she pulls me up on stage. She told me to just follow her moves. Now I'll admit, I'm no Kevin Federline, but anyone that has been at a wedding with me knows that I have some killer moves; the shopping cart, sprinkler, modified worm and lawnmower to name a few. Unfortunately, these moves aren't traditional belly dance material so I was completely at her mercy. I was wiggling my belly pretty well and keeping up with her. Then she dropped to the floor over her knees, like in a limbo. I painfully followed suit. We got up and then she pinched my cheek, I followed her and pinched her cheek. Then she grabbed my butt, I grabbed her butt. Then she pinched my nipple, I pinched her nipple. Yes, I pinched a belly dancer's nipple in front of my wife and in-laws. The belly dancer acted surprised and then started more belly dancing, which I followed. The belly dancer then ended the performance by asking for a kiss on the cheek, which I obliged. Then the belly dancer asked for a kiss in between her breast. At that point I threw in the towel and said no. She thanked me and I walked off the stage to an applause. Lara and her parents all said I did well and they weren't upset that I pinched the belly dancer's nipple. But come on, what kind of in-laws would get upset seeing their son-in-law pinch a dancer's nipple in front of them?

The next morning we tackled Istanbul. We started by visiting Topkapi Palace. Topkapi Palace is a sprawling palace with great museums and views of the city. We explored the palace for a few hours and had a good time. We hit up the Grand Bazaar after Topkapi Palace. The Grand Bazaar is a massive, enclosed bazaar with hundreds of stores. Like most bazaars, there were hundreds of shops, but only a few different stores. Even with the repetition it was definitely an incredible experience.

In our second full day in Istanbul we hit up the big sites. First thing in the morning (11am) we headed for the Hagia Sophia. At the Hagia Sophia we hired a guide who gave us a great tour of the Hagie Sophia. It's definitely a place with deep history and we really enjoyed the tour. After the Hagia Sophia we walked across the courtyard to the Sultanahmet Mosque, aka the Blue Mosque. The Blus Mosque is Istabul's most notable landmark. It's a huge, blue covered mosque with tall Minarets. It's truly a sight.

With another check mark on the '1000 places to see before you die' list we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we walked along Istanbul's contemporary shopping street which was pretty cool. We used Istanbul's light-rail to get around as well as a funicular. Even though I've now been on two of Istanbul's funiculars I still don't know what they are.

Early the next morning the Foresmans left and we said our goodbyes. A few hours later we bid Turkey adieu and headed out for India.