Yes, that's right, we finally arrived in Jodphur today. By train, of course. Our new place is a little ways outside of town. It is called the Mandore Guesthouse and it has 16 roundavels, most of the, with private balconies. We got two of those, and we spent the rest of the day lounging around outside in the late afternoon sun. There are lots of trees and places to sit in the lawn, and it is all very nice. No pool, though. We had an Indian (obviously) supper and ate till we were full, and then washed it down with ...
Today was another interesting day and here are some of the things that I personally found interesting: Rhaki: A rhaki is kind of like a braclet and oday was National Brothers' Day with some Hindi traditions that go along with that. The sister is supposed to by a rhaki for her brother and tie it onto his hand. Then, the brother is supposed to give the sister a present, and is supposed to protect the sister for the rest of his/her life. Eryn got me a rhaki and I got her a gift today. She got me a rhaki with ...
We woke up today to a warm morning, the almost worst time to do sightseeing out in the sun, or so we thought. As we approached the fort, we saw that it was a very big fort, with walls a long ways away. When we entered, we all thought that it was going to be another boring old fort, but, as it turns out, we couldn't have been farther from being wrong. The fort is very old and it has lots of passage ways and chambers, making it easy to get lost. There are at least four levels and a ...
Right now I am sitting in a room on the second floor of an old building with wall paintings and marble floors. It is called the Devi Niketan Hotel and it is run by Madhvendra Singh, an admiral that was in the Indian Navy a while ago. All along the walls by the stairs, there are certificates and plaques that are commemorated to him, and they are from a lot of different places like Vietnam, Australia, and the United States. As you probably don't know, we got off of the nice train last night and found an man waiting for ...
Yep, that’s right, it found us, and most of us were NOT happy campers today when we visited three different monuments in the hills around Agra. It wasn’t helpful either that we all wore our sandals. Anyway, back to the topic: The rain found us yesterday afternoon, but it only started to bother us this morning when we could hear it because our air conditioning stopped making noise due to a nationwide power outage that cut off all power. When we left the N Home Stay, it was still raining and there was so much water that, in some places, the streets were under about ...
Okay, so, last time I posted, I was in Bangkok the night before we took the plane to New Delhi. Since then, we have done a lot of things, and I will do my best to catch everyone up on the details. When we woke up on the morning of the flight, we all took showers and went in the shuttle to the airport. At the airport, we got our tickets, went through security and passport control to get to our gate by the United Lounge. When we finally got to New Delhi, I had watched a movie and taken ...
In case you hadn't read from everybody else's posts, the BTS is an elevated skytrain that goes across Bangkok. There are three cars on a train, and each train car has four sliding doors on each side. The ads on the sides of the train are very interesting. My favorite is the train with Swenson's ads all over the side, but that's just me. There is also one with a Canon ad on the side. And that is all that I have to say about the BTS. This is my last post from Bangkok, or Thailand for that matter. So Bye ...
Yeah, well, even if you are wondering about that, they are really out there. YesterdaOy I experienced one of them in the Terminal 21 mall in Bangkok while we were waiting to go to the visa place. Before that, we had gone to a park right down the street and had some magnum bars after I tried out some very weird exercise equipment. One of them was an excercise twister with handles up above. It was so weird that I gave up on the twister thing and just hung from the circles above. Okay. By now you probably want to know ...
Ethan: Dad, what is tofu? Jerry: You know about that stuff in between your toes? Its called 'fu.' ...
On our vivacious visit to Vientiane, I noticed that what stood out to me was the Americanization and the people of Laos. Americanization: Laos was established as a French colony, but today, there aren’t many things that are French anymore. There several bakeries (both French AND Scandinavian,) but for the most part, the whole of Vientiane was very western. There were many cafés, and we went to some of them and they had a lot of American dishes that we have at home; pancakes, waffles, and French (haha) toast. Also, instead of the signs being in French of even Lao, ...
We had to get up early this morning so we could go on a 2 hour trek through the jungle to get to a waterfall. But before we could do that, my mother had to take some laundry to the laundry place right down the street from our guesthouse. She took about twenty minutes, and by that time, the driver to take us to our trekking place was there in his blue pick-up truck. My mother finally came out of the laundry place, carrying all three bags of laundry back to us, and she then told me to carry them up ...
In case you don't know that song, it is a song (called Bicycle) that Queen played. The also played 'We Will Rock You' and 'Another One Bites the Dust.' Anyway, today we went to the Scandinavian Bakery for breakfast, they had lots of pastries, including some that look like glow-sticks. We all ordered some version of the Continental Breakfast. I don't know how it got that name, considering there are either Danish Buns of Croissants to go with it, and that I have never had anything like that before, so I don't know where in the world the 'continental' part ...
Today was a very hot day and we spent much of it looking at four of the most visited tourist sites (or sights) by a tuk-tuk, which here, is more commonly known by the name Jumbo. A Jumbo is pretty big, and it is a lot more comfortable than a tuk-tuk: tuk-tuks, have one row facing forward, while Jumbos have bench seats in what looks like the back of a small pick-up truck. Sights at Sites: We went to four sites: the Ho Phra Keo Museum, the Sisaket Museum, the Phra That Laung Museum, and the Patuxai Arch. The ones that I ...
Are you starting to see my series of posts called 'When in {insert city name}' yet? If you have or haven't, it is true, there is a method to my (increasing) madness. At any rate, there is new news; we have finally figured out what to do while the Indian Embassy people get us our visas; we will go to Laos. We figured that out last night, and now are in Laos, in our new guesthouse. Laos: Laos is a country wedged in between Thailand and Vietnam, with Cambodia at the bottom. Its capitol is Vientiane and that is where ...
That is what everyone should know if they are traveling to another county. Today we woke up waaaaay too early ( but still layer than we were supposed to) to go to the airport. Here is what happened with visas today: say (just for an example of what happened today) India. So, we had read on a website that India doesn't need a visa for American citizens, but at the check-in desk, we heard differently......... Apparently you have to have a tourist (or other type of) visa to get into India if you are an American. Since we didn't have ...
Well good morning Ethan. Are you warm yet? The high here today will be 63 with showers. By the end of next week it will finally be almost warm here. Did you enjoy your flight? Laters, Love Grandma
It’s pretty warm here ( as in I sweat when I stay outside for 10 minutes) and the flights were long and very annoying
Good Morning Ethan. Your body will adjust to the heat. Give it time.
Be very vigulant while there. The pick pockets are very good at what they do!
Its in the 50’s here this morning and raining.
I would like some of you heat. Love you
I would gladly trade this weather for your weather, because I prefer cold to warm. Also, we have not gotten pickpocketed yet, so that is good.
Good Morning Ethan. Sorry we wern’t home yesterday to take your call. We went to the Rodeo to watch Bull Riding. The sun was strong so was pretty hot because we went early so we could get a parking place close in the handicapped area. There was one bull that was full of trouble. He’d dump his rider fast and then run to the other end of the arena. Three guys on horseback were susposed to push him back to the open gate that he was suposed to go through. But instead the bull chased the horses and anybody too close to the fence. He was having a lot of fun. Finally they let a big black bull in to have a talk to the unruly one and lead him out the gate. A couple minutes of excitement.
On the 4th of July we went to the Island Park in Springfield. Again we went early for close up parking. We acheived that but I was ready to go home by 7 pm! Fireworks don’t start ’til 10 pm. We stayed. Luckily I brought a book to read and my puzzle book! It was cold too after the sun went down.
Summer arrived on Thursday. Todays in the mid 80’s tomorrow in low 90’s.
I’m glad you’re having a good time and seeing and experiencing a lot of different things. Sounds like a place much different then you’re used to. ENJOY!!!!
Love You and Eyrn
Grandma
Hey all the food sounds sooooooo good im camping right now but when i get home for I am going to try to mango banna pancakes. Yum
Our thermometer says that it is 102 degrees farenheit, so we are staying inside……
Sounds like you had a lot of fun at the Rodeo. Did you like the fireworks?
Ethan
Thats really neat that you get to go to another country. Is that because you are waiting for the visa to India? You said the food was better. Why is it better? Oh what fun! Love you
I’m sure glad you enjoyed holding that cobra. He looks kinda harmless!! Glad you were careful tho.
We’re having summer today. 98 or 99 degrees. Its to start cooling down tomorrow. I had forgotton how hot this really was!
Grandpa is having a grand time in California. Today he’s enjoying Tony and Jack. Well Brittany too and the rest of them. They were getting ready to go swimming.
I went and had lunch with Barbara at the Stage Coach Restaurant. Too warm to do much. Thought of going to the beach today. Its actually nice there today.
Love You All.
Grandma
I think the cobra was harmless because I heard one of the handlers talk about the cobras not having fangs. It sounds like it is hotter there than here, but soon we will be in the desert where it will be over 100 every day.
Ethan