india

back in thailand now after some crazy adventures in India. I don't even know where to start. I guess by city descriptions. New Delhi is the political capital of India and less modern than Mumbai/Bombay, aka the Washington DC of India. Mumbai was the New York/business capital of India, though it's on the coast, so there are palm trees everywhere. We LOVED Mumbai, didn't care too much for Delhi, though the food was amazing everywhere in India.

We spent 5 or so days in Delhi and 2 in Mumbai. we arrived in delhi at around 11 or so at night, so we just passed out that first night. we stayed at a gorgeous hotel, The Ambassador, since our trade mission for Siam International was hsoted by Food Export USA. We were there to promote US foods in India, through Mel's moms import/export division. the hotel had awesome food and breakfast was included, I ate many dosas for breakfast, which are kind of like a crepe, though filled w/ a potato curry, if you get a masala dosa. They typically come with sambor i think it's called, which is like a minestrone soup, minus the noodles, and then 2 chutneys, a coconut chutney and a tomato chutney, though it's more like a paste you spread on the dosa. very, very good.

we hit connaught place the next day. mel bought some saris. i bought a little antique tiger. we did a lot of haggling. our associate, got poop thrown on his shoe. this is a scam we read about it our india travel guide. someone throws poop on your shoe, says its monkey poop, then offers to clean it up for 10 ruppees, which is only about a quarter in US money. i have a pic to show later on this. i ate some really good street food, a plate of spicy lentils with good grilled chapita bread. connaght place has a crazy underground, indiana jones type of shopping too, which just looked like all corny bootleg stuiff that is way cheaper in bangkok at MBK mall anyway.

next day we called up my uncle jay's client's brother, Rajeev, who lives in New Delhi. This guy was so cool and gracious...he hired a cab for the day, took us around to some sites then brought us to his house for a big home cooked indian lunch. we saw a huge temple in the shape of a lotus for all religions, the Bahá'í House of Worship. We saw Iskon temple, a huge krishna temple, where I got some good pics and video of music. we then went to a really sick muslim monument, which i have to dig for the name of the place. a former king built this as a memory ...

gotta run in mid sentence, be back later, lots more to come...

p