First four days in Thailand at Siam Bayshore Resort & Spa (pictured). Next three days TBA. July 29th (my half birthday) to August 3rd.
Back to Bangalore after that, where Maggy will have returned from months in Belgium.
Then, less than 30 days till Minneapolis, UMN and Beth (xoxo).
Day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The sad part: I had come down with “Delhi-belly” the night before. Thought I would get well after waking up some, but no. Will & I left for Agra Saturday morning around 5 am, the three hour trip by train didn’t help. After visiting the Taj, I figured some light shopping and food would do me some good…
Our driver took us to a nice veg restaurant and I ordered some curry & rice with green tea. (I know, you may say, “curry when you have Delhi-belly?) After eating maybe 7 grains of rice, I said to Will, “I am so cold and need to lie down outside.” The restaurant staff brought me a chair when they saw me laying on the lawn. Not more then 59 seconds of chair, the 7 grains of rice came up with the green tea. Like a 2 for 1 second course.
Dear Will took me to a hotel (500 rs = $13) where I slept for a couple of hours. Then we traveled by taxi, train, car and were back in Gurgaon, six hours later.
Doing much better after three days.
Old Delhi is a bustling market with trade every which way. Wholesale, retail, shipping, delivery, and support are all done on a narrow, uncontrolled streets. Most means of trade are manual, simple, and gritty. Smiles come easy however, like a lotus flowers from the mud.
I rode on the back of motorcycle to get to the metro to get to a bike taxi. The air was hot and thick with dust, dirt, spice, incense, and “something” else. Spent the next few hours riding and walking though dense street markets; Spice, brass, sarees, jewels, shoes, and more. Visited a Muslim mosque & a Jain temple. My guide, Akbar took me through narrow hallways, blackened stairways, and into and through organized chaos.
http://nyti.ms/rdmPlu
Visited an incense “factory” in Mysore Sunday. After the process of rolling the paste on to sticks, the sticks are dipped in oils like sandalwood, rose, or lilly. After that, they are dried and packaged to be shipped around the world.
Next time you want to burn a little incense, remember the blackened hands of this young woman. Everything starts somewhere, consume wisely.
