I'M ON A YAK.

The blogging has lacked a bit in the last couple of weeks due to the fact that we have been busy with work and.. (drumroll) we have been traveling from mountain range to mountain range!!!!  First up... Shimla!


My most awesome-amazing-incredibly loving-army officer Uncle (Bobby Mamaji) invited us to visit him in Shimla.  Shimla is located in the foothills of the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh (see below)

Map of the Northern states of India.

We had a crazy driver that drove like a maniac through the winding roads of the Himalayas.  I was so happy to put my feet on the ground.  That evening all of us went to the Gaiety Club for dinner on the mall (main shopping area) road of Shimla.  It was wonderful to sauce it up with some local wine and have a wonderful dinner with Bobby Mamaji and his friends.  

The next day Bobby Mamaji took us on a drive through the mountains because it was raining.  We visited beautiful places like Naldehra and Mashobra.

I'M ON A YAK!

The beautiful Himalayas

The Viceregal Lodge

My Mamaji dressed in his Colonel uniform!

Next up... We spent a weekend in Kerala! Anitha's family lives in Kottiyam. we got to visit the hill station Munnar and also go house boating in the back waters!  Kerala was absolutely gorgeous and I will definitely make another trip!

Native fish topped with sauteed onions and spices

Beautiful waterfalls we encountered on our way up to the Gatt Mountains

Best coconut juice I've ever had!

An elephant playing

The lake was just gorgeous

Rare goats in the background that are found only in the Gatt Mountains

Tea as far as the eye can see!

Yummy curries 

Boating in the Backwaters

Driving the Boat!

Both of the trips were amazing!  Thank you to the fabulous families that hosted us!

A Week Worth of Pictures

This past week we visited Rock Garden.  Built by Nek Chand, this "garden" is built entirely of trash.  He started building these structures all on his own and almost 20 years later his park was inaugurated.  Who knew trash could be so beautiful?!

Many of the walls were made of old grain sacks

Who knew broken tile can make such beautiful things!

I'm not sure if you can tell but there is a swing in each of those arches!  People of all ages were enjoying this past time. So refreshing

Made out of broken bangles

Every Wednesday Nanaji (grandfather) goes to the Farmer's Market to get the week's worth of veggies and fruit.  It was amazingly colorful, wonderfully smelling, and exceptionally organic (and it was hotttttt!)

Love the color of the eggplants! 

Veggies

My Nanaji and I loading up on fruit at the farmer's market

tomatoes

Green and red chillies!

The sweetest mangoes

Love their old fashioned weighing scale

Okra

Can't have indian food without onions!

Garlic and Ginger

Papaya!

Next Stop... Simla in Himachal Pradesh!

Delhi Belly...not!

Delhi or "Dilli" in desi terms--was amazing. For the first time I felt like I was in the real India and not in the margaritaville of India aka Kerala. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Kerala. I love the spicy food, the genuine&humble people, the sprawling and beautiful backwaters, the laid back, palm trees swaying in the wind atmosphere, and the greenness of the entire state. It's got an easy island vibe (even though its landlocked on three sides) that is unrepresentative of the rest of the country. Delhi is a lot of what I imagined the "real" India to be--crowds, ancient ruins, smells (go0d&bad), animals stopping traffic, insane traffic, temples, amazing food, open markets--basically all 5 senses on fire. Delhi did not disappoint.

After our intense day of shopping in Chandni Chowk, we spent some of the next day taking a break and sightseeing. We started off at Qutub Minar...

...one of the first monuments of muslim India. The tower was built in 1202 as a sign of muslim victory and dominance over Delhi. It is now considered a world heritage site and a major tourist stop. It was an incredible sight and I got to take some pretty amazing pictures.

The next stop on our Delhi tour was Baha'i Temple, also known as the Lotus Temple.

I think I might have found a new religion (no one show this blog to my mom...i'll hunt u down). The Baha'i faith pretty much says that all religions have the same message and that important religious figures (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.) were divine messengers that established religions to suit the needs of their people at THAT time. The faith also believes that religion and people are constantly evolving and our ultimate goal is to achieve peace, justice, and unity for all people. Agreed.

After this refreshing religious rendezvous, we stopped off at Humayun's Tomb, another world heritage site.

Humayun's tomb is Delhi's first mughal mausoleum built to house the second mughal emperor, Humayun (duh). This was essentially a prototype for the Taj Mahal and it is no less breathtaking (well maybe it is, I haven't seen the Taj Mahal yet). I think what struck me about this site was how massive the structure was and how many people died building it. People literally worked themselves to death building these colossal monuments and tombs and now my douchy behind is over here taking pictures and making stupid poses to show off to my friends. I really hope I'm not reincarnated as a slave building a giant ridiculous tomb way in the future on some different planet in their version of ancient times.

Oh and there were some pretty awesome trees there--i love trees.

Our final stop (b/c I broke my glasses..womp womp) was Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate.

Rashtrapati Bhavan is the indian equivalent of the White House..but its way cooler because we've got landscaped elephants on our lawn.

India Gate commemorates indian lives lost in World War I, the Afghan War of 1919, and the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971

And we're done...phew! So after this quick lesson, you should all be semi experts in Indian History...or at the very least you should be able brag to your friends about some new fun facts that doesn't include what happened on the latest episode of Jersey Shore.