Before our trip we had eaten and enjoyed quite a bit of Indian food, thanks to local restaurants and friends like the Bird, Colburn, Henriksen, and Sukrutham families. While in India we enjoyed many tasty paneers, curries, aloo ghobis, masalas, lassi drinks, and dals. The descriptions below are Indian foods new to us or variations of familiar favorites. Garlic naan – This bread is extremely tasty when chunks of fresh garlic are added to the top of the dough, baked in a tandoori oven and then topped with butter. A few restaurants we tried did not have or use a ...

Arranged marriages are still the norm in India, although the process has changed a bit in at least some parts of India with advances in technology and western ideas of falling in love and selecting your own spouse. Many families place advertisements in newspapers to find a potential spouse for their son or daughter. The larger newspapers have a whole section dedicated to matrimonial ads in the Sunday edition. The ads, which are similar to the personal ads in US newspapers, include information about age, height, looks (fair, handsome, beautiful, slim,) religion, caste, intelligence, education of potential spouse or father ...

Challenges Laundry – I attempted to go to one shop but not it did not open at the posted time and we had a ride to catch, so I had to do all the washing by hand in the hotel sink. Visas – Lots of worries on this topic. Would we get a visa on arrival for Laos? We weren’t absolutely sure.  Would the India visas be ready when we returned to Thailand? Would Thailand let us back in after leaving so recently and the first visa expired the day after we left? Fortunately all worked out well. Hiking on ...

During our week in Laos we enjoyed many foods and noticed both a Thai and French influence in the cuisine.  Most of the fruits and vegetables are the same as in Thailand and because of the previous French occupation, the people of Laos enjoy French bakery items such as croissants, baguettes, and cakes. Rice – The principal food in this country is steamed sticky rice, which is stickier and drier than in Thailand. One way to eat this rice is to take a small handful and dip it in a sauce.  We enjoyed sticky rice dipped in a thick, spicy ...

Challenges: No tap water for brushing teeth, drinking, ice, washing fruits and vegetable Communicating with those who don't speak English in rural parts of the country High heat and humidity Coping when Eryn got left behind at a subway station (doors to train closed before she got on.) Fortunately Eryn knew which stop we were going to use and just caught the next train. She was not stressed at all. I did not remain as calm. Figuring out life on the road -- living out of suitcase and backpack, how to get laundry done for four people, how to do both homeschooling ...

Scooters seem to outnumber cars in parts of Thailand. They are a common form of self or family transport, as well as a hired vehicle or delivery service, such as pizza delivery. In Bangkok scooters are usually driven by men and not women, probably because of the busy roads. In Chiang Mai men and women, as wells as teenage boys and girls, drive scooters. We saw many, many scooters parked in front of high schools and universities. It was not unusual to see two or three people on a scooter. Several times we saw four people on a scooter, but ...

The Thailand constitution guarantees children a free basic education for twelve years. However, it is not clear that the schooling is really free. We talked with the father of a high school student (one of the drivers we used for out-of-the-area trips) and he told us that he has to pay each year for his daughter to attend a government school. In addition to government-provided schools, there are a large number of private schools that offer some or all of the instruction on English. Children are required to attend school through the ninth grade.  School days are officially Monday through ...

Foods new to us: Rambutan – The skin looks like a red squishy ball with lots of green hair. It has kind of a grape texture on the inside and a very mild flavor. The edible portion is about the size of peewee chicken egg and includes a seed that looks like an almond. Dragon Fruit - We ate two varieties: white and pink.  Most of the time this fruit was served in cut pieces, such as in a fruit salad or on top of a pancake.  It was tasty and looked appealing. We also tried a dragon fruit shake and concluded ...

More familiar foods with a new twist: Tumeric –I am used to seeing ground turmeric in a spice bottle, not fresh in the produce section of a grocery store.  It looks like orange gingerroot and I think it is peeled and grated or finely chopped before adding to foods. Curries –We tried all types of curries and my favorite is still green curry. The vegetables added to the curries were a bit different, such as several types of eggplant. Fresh and fried spring rolls – We love vegetable spring rolls so we ate this food many times during our stay ...

Familiar foods with a new twist: Fresh fruit - Many tropical fruits that we enjoyed eating fresh: mango, papaya, pineapple, watermelon, banana, coconut, kiwi, and pomello. Most of bananas are small (about 3 or 4 inches long) and we saw several varieties in the store. Fruit shakes - These consist of ice, fruit (pieces and/or juice,) and sometimes a bit of milk whizzed together. Flavors we’ve tried: coconut, mango, banana, orange, lemon, watermelon and pineapple. Plus combinations of these fruits –mixture of lemon and pineapple is especially good. We quickly learned that a fruit shake does not include ice cream, ...