Salam Namaste!!!

We are off to India and are so excited! Please check in to get updates on our latest adventures!
xoxox

Mumbai

Hello Everyone! Just wanted to let you know that we love Mumbai and are not coming back!

Come visit.

Just kidding, we are enjoying Mumbai very much and have lots of stories to tell. On our first day, Azam hung out at the pool and worked out and I went shopping, which is what I do best. By now, I feel comfortable leaping through rickshaws and finding my way around. We then went out on the town to local lounges and saw how the locals hang out. It was fun! The next day was our city tour and boy did we see a lot. We saw Gandhi's residence and his old room and library, we took a boat ride to the Elephanta Island and saw a cave from the 8th century which contained huge statues carved into the stone walls. the panels were all carvings of Shiva and Parvati (Hindu Gods) and it was very artistic and amazing to see how they accomplished that 13 hundred years ago. Azam had a funny incident where a group of monkeys were hanging out on a tree near where we were resting and one bold monkey darted out towards us and scared us. Apparently he wanted Azam's sunglasses. When we bolted, the monkey starting playing with them. A local guy threw a rock at the monkey and we got the glasses back. It was really funny and i got a a picture.

We then went to the Taj Palace hotel for lunch. This was the 6 star hotel that was bombed in 2008 and has been restored/ restoring. The staff are still really shaken up by the incident. We had a nice view of the harbour where we had lunch. It is a beautiful and classy hotel. Hoity Toity! The inside reminds us of the interior of the Burg al Arab in Dubai.

We saw the Gateaway to India (which is what the picture is of). This is a very famous Mumbai monument and was where the British King and Queen entered from. We went to Kolabar Causeway, and Nargis Aunty, we stopped at the Ismaili guy's store and got purses. Your directions were perfect. Thank you.

Yesterday, we went shopping in Elco Center as referenced to us by Azmina Aunty and we had pani puri. I can't stop raving about this pani puri. It was awesome! They give you a little plastic dish and keep refilling it with fresh pani puri as you eat them. The outside of it is lined with stools and there are no tables. Great experience and very yummy. That evening, we went to Bandra JK for chandraat. Wow, what an experience! Guys on one floor and ladies on another. The local Ismailis are quite modern and stylish. The JK is also surrounded by an Ismaili colony. We have spent a lot of time at our hotel (Taj Lands End) which is a regular hangout for bollywood stars. Our parosi is Shah Rukh Khan. His residence (called Mannat) is down the street. We ran into Anushka Sharma (Rab ne Bana Di Jodi) in the lobby and spotted Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire etc) as we were having drinks and tapas in the lobbey lounge. We also just missed Jackie Shroff and Sunjay Dutt. It's nice rolling with the glamorous..hahhahah!


Anyways, today is our last day and are planning to go to Santa Cruz to pick up a Handee and Karai for dad and then Juhu Beach (Amitabh's neighbourhood). We will be flying out late tonight and may not be able to update till we are back home.

Shahal, if you are reading this, we will be in Sunday AM. Let us know if you need details. Also our phone disconnects shortly. So love to all and see you soon!
Love Saima and Azam

Goa

Hello Everyone! We are in Goa and today is our last day. Goa is really nice and has a very European feel. The buildings, roads and culture are inspired by Portugal as Goa was a colony of Portugal until the 1960s.

When we arrived we went straight for the beach and holy cow, the water was really warm. Like bath water. You will see from the picture that the beach is clean and that is exactly how our beach is. We are staying at the Taj Exotica which is on Varca beach. We have a lot of privacy and our sharing the beach with about 10 other people and a couple of stray/wild dogs that are harmless and very lazy. They even understand hindi as i told them JA! and they went away. We basically spent most of our time in Goa relaxing on the beach. It has been really nice! The resort reminds us of Punta Cana and thus we were able to adjust quickly. hahhah!

We went for a city tour in the afternoon on our second day and saw 2 of the main churches here in Goa. The first one had the relic (body) of St. Francis Xavier. This body has not decomposed very much in 400 years and it is considered a miracle. They have viewings of this body every 10 years and people travel from all over to see it up close. The second church was a cathedral built by the Portuguese and it was very beautiful. It took almost 100 years to bulid and it even had some Mulsim architecture incoroporated. We then went on a city tour of the newer parts of Goa. We saw the high end neighborhood (where the ministers, ambassadors, arch bishop live) and these houses are very nice and it reminded us of Europe. There was even a An Audi Q7 parked outside.

We then went on a boat cruise on the Mandovi river. The cruise was one hour long but felt much longer. The boat cruise included entertainment and there was a big stage where they called people up to dance. They first called up all the kids on the boat and allowed them to freestyle for a few songs. It was like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa chote and it was hilarious. The funniest was when they called up everyone and 90% men went up on to the stage and did their moves. This was hilarious!! We saw characters from all over India in one spot and it reminded us of all the TV shows that come on ZTV. These people here are all really just like they seem on TV. We felt like we were in the audience of an Indian TV dance - athon. There were also some dance performances of Goan Folk Dances and Portuguese dancing.

We came back and had dinner at the Lobster shack. We picked our own lobster and they cooked it the way we wanted. Overall, Goa has been a nice, relaxing experience and now we are ready for the hustle and bustle of Mumbai. We will update from Mumbai.

Take care everyone!

Saima and Azam

Cochin

We reached Cochin earlier today (May 7) and are taking it all in. It is late after dinner and we will update the blog soon. We hope all is well with all of you.

UPDATE FROM COCHIN:
Cochin is very similar to Mombasa, Kenya. The people are laid back, air is humid and water everywhere. On our first day here we had a city tour and we visited the first European church in India which was built by the Portuguese and saw Vasco de Gama's tomb, and visited a Maharaja's museum. We also visited Fort Cochin and saw Chinese fishing nets which was really interesting to see. It is an old process that the Indians learned from the Chinese over 400 years ago and they are still using it today. We saw the Dutch Cemetary and the Jewish Street called Jew town. There are a lot of Anglo Indians here in Cochin because the area was settled by Dutch, Portuguese and British explorers who came here for the spice trade. We also went on a boat cruise on the backwaters and saw various islands filled with coconut trees. Kerala, means land of the coconut. This was beautiful. We then watched a Kathakali performance in the evening. This in itself was an experience. The dancers were both men and the had on heavy makeup and made very exaggerated facial expressions to tell a story. Basically the whole story is told by the facial expressions and it is amazing to watch, and bizarre at the same time. The man was dancing with his eyes and eyebrows.

Yesterday we spent most of the day chilling at the pool. After lunch we went for an Ayurvedic massage which was let's say..authentic and intrusive. It was no oasis spa let me tell you. Azam and I are both still very traumatized from the experience. Overall, our muscles felt good but we can't really comment on the rest as this is a family blog..hahahhah!!!

Then we walked down MG road, the main street here, and went shopping to a famous local sari shop. It was crazyyy in there and the main problem was that they didn't really understand English or Hindi, and we got a lot of blank expressions and ladies running around not knowing what we were asking for. Anyways, I still managed to do some shopping.


Today was an amazing day! We spent most of the day on a houseboat touring the backwaterrs and Cochin's largest lake on the way to Kumarakom. The picture you see really does not do the reality much justice but we were cruising in the waterway that you see in the picture. We stopped by and picked up some fresh tiger prawns that were the size of Azam's arm, and then our personal chef cooked us our lunch which consisted of different curries, freshly caught fish and the above mentioned prawns. It was delicious. Afterwards, we were sitting and enjoying the breeze and it put us right to sleep. We took a short nap on the boat and when we awoke, there was fresh chai and banana fritters ready for us.

We forgot to mention our tour guide/personal assistant for the stay in Cochin. His name is Johnson and he is shorter than me! I think the best purpose he has served us is personal photographer. Funny guy, this tourism is his side job and he is actually a gym teacher. The thing that cracks us up the most about him is his command on the Indian head gesture/jingling. He has the Indian nod down pact and Azam and I can't stop laughing when he talks to us. Overall, the people here are very friendly and nice and we are having a beautiful time. Azam seems to be especially fond of this place because it really reminds him of Mombasa.

We are sitting here in the business center of Le Meridian hotel and our chai walla has just served us chai and cookies as we update this blog. I can really get used to this life.


take care
Saima and Azam

Hello from Hyderabad

Greetings! We were in Hyderabad on May 5 and 6th and left for Cochin on the 7th.

Hyderabad is an amazing place! On the flight from Jaipur to Hyderabad, we were on Spice Jet, they call passengers "Spice Jetters" we officially tried Hyderabadi biriani for the first time on the plane. Very good!

Anyways, when we got to Hyderabad we quickly noticed how different and modernized it was compared to the other cities we have visited. It seemed much more cosmopolitan. We learned that they have a big IT industry called Cyberabad (Microsoft, Oracle, ADP,etc) which is actually considered the newest Hyderabad and is only about 15 years old. I guess Americans are going for cheap labor. We reached our hotel, checked in and then were picked up by our trusty cab driver "Feeroz", he was a character. Drove us around, took us to Hyderabad house for more biriani and then drove us (me ) around to look at Indian clothes, much to Azam's dismay. This super cab driver then drove us back to our hotel in record time going the wrong way on the highway. He did this on purpose for us because he wanted to do khidmat for us.

The next day we visited Charimar which means 4 minarets. You can see the picture on this page. It was added to the city by the ruling Nizams under the Moguls as giving the city a landmark/identity. We even climbed up the narrow staircase to overlook the city. This was probably the steapest and most dangerous stair climb we had ever done. The view at the top was worth it and we have pictures. We also saw palaces and museums but the highlight of the day was our visit to JK in Karimabad colony. The JK is a nice building, 4 or 5 stories tall and surrounded by the Ismaili housing complex. JK ceremonies were much different than in North America, we will tell you stories when we get back. Then we walked around Chirag Ali lane which is the happening post jk hang out. We saw volunteers wheeling grannies back to their apartments, battling Tuk Tuks and oncoming traffic and cows and goats..no we are not kidding.

We went shopping around on Princess Street near Charminar and Azam had fresh coconut juice off the street, and paid the price later.Luckily we are armed with Cipro, Imodium and Pepto so he is now in better shape.

We really enjoyed our stay in Hyderabad and left for Cochin the morning of the 7th!!

Please read on as we update the Cochin page. We hope all is well in Calgary.

Jaipur

Hey sophia, it seems you're the only one following the blog. We left Agra and visited Fathepur Sikri...the fort built by Akbar (from johdaAkbar). it was amazing, massive, and full of palaces. The guide said that it once contained over 100 palaces... not anymore though. We only saw about 25% of the place because the rest was being used by the military. we took pics of the Akbar's wife's palaces...jodha's palace is the largest.We also took pics of where they did that dance in the pardes movie. Then we left for Jaipur, they have some kind of political issue going on so they closed the main highway....geez, we have had to put up with airline strikes by lufthansa pilots, volcanoes in iceland, and now rajasthani road closures. the good thing is that as a result we had to go through small villages and dirt roads to get here. the countryside is beautiful, the children very friendly (waving at all the cars). We stopped at one village and gave shampoo,conditioner etc. they were so thrilled. We arrived in Jaipur, and hit the fabric district. they charge $10 for a sari blouse! (inlcuding fabric amd stiching). Fong is a rip. anyways, we almost got mugged at bapoo bazaar. This is the main bazaar in Jaipur and it fel like all 4 million people in the city were crammed into this one street. No deodorant, and no manners. We almost ran into a cow on the street. We had lunch at a place called copper chimney, it was awsome, we hade manchurian chicken, khadi bhajia, and daal makhani. talk about variety...as usual. It is really hot here in Jaipur...the driver said it was 43.6 degrees. saima almost passed out at Janther Muntar...astrology site. We also visited the Maharajah's palace (called city palace). the highlight of the day was visiting Amber fort and the elephant ride. Our elephant was called lucky and he kept spraying us with "his" water. Saima was grossed out and ran to the bathroom as soon as we got off the elephant. Apparently, the "public" bathrooms are manned by local lower caste women which, i think, ensure that only toilet, sinks, and soaps that work are the ones that are manned by them which you have to tip. That was rather annoying. Next stop was Hawa Mahal, which is what the picture on this page is of. It is not a reall building, only a wall. The entire city including Hawa mahal was painted pink by one of the Maharajas of Rajestan as a way of welcoming the British. Directly across the street was a local street vendor with a shop called Rajan Enterprises so naturally Azam took a picture (now Saima is writing the blog).

The hotel is beatiful, pool is great and we just finished breakfast. We are going swimming and I (Saima) will try to do the yoga class. We will then go to the airport this afternoon and head to Hyderabad. We are looking forward to the Muslim influences there, Hyderabadi Biryani and ofcourse JK.

Take care of yourself, have fun in Toronto, and for those still in Calgary, BUNDLE UP!!

Love and miss you all!

Saima and Azam

Delhi

Greetings from Delhi! We arrived in Delhi early morning on Friday and were surpisingly not too jet lagged. We were greeted by an interesting fellow who could not hold back on the overly sugar coated, somewhat tacky compliaments.....I look like a hollywood star and azam has a buff body.Apparently people here like to stare and it is not unusal to see grown men walking aroud with their pinkies intertwined! Azam and I were amazed at how pervasive this is in Lodhi park. There were a lot of dates going on and then there were groups of single, ugly men hangng out! Azam and I were followed constantly. Anyways, the first day was spent doing the textbook tours of old and new delhi. There is quite a gap in status and aura of the two cities. Old Delhi is...well..OLD. Houses are close together, the roads are so narrow that roofs of houses across from each other are touching. We saw some conventional businesses which were made up dentistry being practiced on curbside, on the ground, ear wax cleaners who walkd around with a towel, palmsists and so on. We saw Chandni Chok from the car, and it was chaotic and crowded just like the hindi films. New Delhi is quite different in that roads are spaced out, it's clean, green and developed. We saw Humayun's tomb(aka as the Poor man's Taj Mahal ), the Red Fort( which is what the pic is) Gandhi's cremation site, Qutub Minar( leans towards one side like the Tower of Pisa), drove by parliament and governemnt buildings.We drove on a street called Raj Pat which means gateway of the kings and then Jan Pat which is the people's road. We discovered that Rajan is where the king and people meet!! Anyways we also saw the monument India Gate and had lunch at Moti Mahal. Very yummy Moghlai cuisine.

Now for the shopping stories. I must say i found some lovely sarees at a store called Frontier. Yes, Sophia there is a frontier in India and it is awesome!! Then we went to Karol Bagh which is market. It was ok, busy crowded, and dusty. We went to Lodhi gardens (as i mentioned earlier) and had lunch at Lodhi restaurant. It was very nice and posh.. Now the story of BayIman starts.

The tour guide took us to a Kashimiri carpet store and we got duped into buying a rug for wayyy more than it should be. We were told a sob story of how a Kashmiri family spent 5 months making the rug and that it is a lost art that they are trying to preserve. So we buy the rug and come back to our hotel. Guess what we see at a store in the mall....yes that same bloody rug for less than half the price!! The nice man in the shop looked at our receipt and told us that we got taken advantage of. Drivers and tour guides get commissions when they bring shmucks likes us. We are going back tomorrow to raise hell...and get our $$ back on visa. If they are difficult, Azam will use his legal expertise (ya right, if it's not TAX) and contact the Canadian Embassy..that should scare them.

So after a day of intense heat and shopping and more heat, we came to the hotel and rested. Then got dressed up for dinner at the hotel. The restuarnt at the hotel was very nice and had a live gazal band. We requested "Aaj Mausam bada Bayiman hai.... by Mohd Raf", Papa: the one we heard with you. They sang it for us a couple of times.

We are now going to head to the diso at the hotel as it is Bollywood night and Azam has practiced his dancing skills at family weddings and will now make some use of these skills.
Soph, my hair has been amazingly cooperative and so has my husband. hahahhah!

Love to all.
acha to hum chalte hai...
Love Azam and Saima

Agra

Hello Everyone! We left Delhi early mornng on Sunday and started our 4 hour drive to Agra. The drive was very interesting and eye opening. We saw how the locals live such simple lives and always look so content. They use cow dung for fuelling their ovens and they build cow dung huts to shelter themselves when it rains. I even learned that some casts of then Hindu women cover their entire faces(like a Burkha) out of respect for their inlaws and their husbands, so it is not just a Muslim thing. We saw many IT institutes along the road, rickshaws crammed with upto 15 people and banana stands on every corner. We have starbucks in North America and these guys have banana stands. We arrived to Agra this afternoon and went for lunch to a place called Indiana. We had lamb and chicken tikka kababs and also Afghani kababs called Malai kababs which were really good...Rahim you could eat them too. We also had thali which was pure veggie. We also had hot and sour soup. You are probably wondering what kind of mix is that? Well restaurants here have a bit of everything..so we wanted to try.

So we arrived to our hotel and then meet our tour guide to start our day tours of Agra. We learned a lof more about the Mogul emperors of the 15th and 16th century. Akbar the Great was the third Mogul Emperor and he was quite liberal and tolerant of all religions in India. He had 3 wives, one Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian. His Hindu wife, Joda ,was his favorite and the movie Joda Akbar was about their lives. Anyways Akbar's grandson was ShahJehan and he was the one who built the Taj Mahal for his wife, Mumtaz. Azam and I saw the tomb of Akbar, and then we saw the Taj Mahal. We know understand why it is a wonder of the world. It is an architectural and artistic masterpiece. It has a lot of Muslim motifs and was just amazing to see in real life. We got attacked by all the local nuisances trying to sell us all kinds of trinkets and useless items and we had to dodge them a lot so that was the only downside. We then saw the rest of his palace and also Agra Fort. We saw where ShahJehan was exiled and saw the views to the Taj Mahal from his place of exile. The tour guide told us that exile was actually more like house arrest because he was exiled into his own home and most literature doesn't really mention that.
We then went to see local craftsment show how the art of the jewels and marbles that adorn the Taj Mahal are actually done which was interesting to see.
We are leaving Agra tomorrow to head to Jaipur but we will be going to Fatehpur Sikhri first to learn more about the Moguls.
I hope things are well back at home for all of you. Take care..I will update this from Jaipur!!