HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Here's hoping your year is joyful and prosperous! - Theo and Amber from India

HIGH TECH BAG SECURITY

The new year in New Delhi

Wow. India needs a Punjabi Dick Clark stat! Hell, send us Seacrest! Happy New Year and we'll post an update during our train ride to Jaipur.

Ghandi and Lincoln

How very appropriate the Ghandi ashram bookstore would have a tome paying tribute to what many consider the greatest American president to live, and a reasonable analogue to the peaceful teachings of Ghandi during revolutionary times. There was this weird vibe at the ashram regarding Ghandi's visage. He was everywhere of course, in stone, bronze, marble, and canvas. It was as if he were the Virgin Mary, without all the prostrations. People clamored to have their photo taken next to the various busts and paintings of Ghandi. A guide working there repeatedly approached us beckoning for Ambi and I to have our picture taken in front of these objects. We politely refused again and again. Forget the whole "stalking the foreigner" thing, it was just a bit unnerving.

Somehow, I'm not sure Ghandi would approve of the near deification he now recieves. Everything I've ever read or seen shows him to have been a very honest and humble man. The amount of material at the ashram is mind numbing. Everything from letters he sent to the British goverment, to a notice in a UK daily regarding his jurist degree completion, to pictures from all points of Ghandi's life. It was a bit haphazardly arranged, which seems to be the norm here. To Amber, the ashram reminded her of the Lincoln museum in Springfield, Illinois. It's the city most identified with Honest Abe as Ahmedebad is as the birthplace of Ghandi. A bigger city could probably provide a better exhibition, but being so intertwined historically, it's hard to argue against them as hosts. We did enjoy our time spent there and recommend it to anyone traveling to India.

In India, Santa's laugh is creepy.

On the ride to the airport this morning, we heard a radio jingle in Gujarati where the jolly old elf pimps a radio station contest. In their version, Santa bellows "Ha, Ha, Ha!" Not knowing the phonological inventory of Gujarati, I can only assume it's a mistake in transference. That said, Santa's creepy maniacal laugh made me smile with evil crosscultural glee.

Having only a 160 character count. I've realised my blogs have to be minimal in nature. Expect short quips and pics for the duration of our stay. Cheers!

Even @ 4:30 am, I'm able to compartmentalize better than Ambi, so please pray for her. I'll deal with our loss when I return to the States. Thank you, all.

Please pray for Amber. She loved Ulee very much and is taking her passing very hard. Keep her in your thoughts during this difficult time as we stay in India.

is saddened by the loss of his beloved bearded dragon Ulee. It's so hard to deal with any loss, much less one from 6000 miles away.

After a short taxi ride through the city, we arrived at our lodging for the next 3 nights. We saw Ami for a few minutes before we crash. What a great day! :-)

We're in the Frankfurt airport, and it never ceases to amaze me how marked as an American I am. Twice I received double-takes when I spoke German. Awesome.

Dreaming of Deutschland

Amber and I are on the plane bound for Frankfurt. To be honest, I am just as excited to head back to Germany (even if it is the sanitized culturally neutral environ of a mega-airport) as I am heading to Ahmedabad. Don't get me wrong, I am seriously juiced for this, but I really miss living in Germany. I also miss butchering the German language on a daily basis. But it's all relative right? It's been nearly seven years since I lived in Benrath, and I was a bit zealous when the path to India went through Deutschland. Sure, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates was tempting, but the chance to have Amber experience Germany even a sliver of it, was exciting to me. Obviously, we'll travel there someday and do the country right. But for now, Amber will just have to settle for a taste. The taste just got a whole lot sweeter!! In the middle of blogging, Amber's duplicate seat got us an upgrade to business class! Europe in style, hells yeah!! (Man, I am using way too many exclamation points...) this trip just got a whole lot better. Well, I am pretty sure the plane is about to head out. So I'm going to wrap this up now. Next blog from Germany! Merry Christmas!

This is a test blog from Theo's mobile phone.

Tentative Itinerary

I think I've put more time into planning this trip than any other I've ever taken, including my four-month study abroad trip to Ireland. Neither of us have been to India before; I'm not sure what to expect, and when that happens, I try to plan and prepare for everything. I've done this knowing that I might have to throw the whole plan out the window when we arrive, but at least for now, we have a pretty set itinerary. Theo thinks it's funny that I've done this much planning ahead of time, but India is a large country with an enormous number of travel possibilities. I want to make sure we see as much as possible in the small amount of time (2 weeks) that we have.

That said, our travels are pretty much restricted to the northwest corner of the country. We knew we wouldn't have time (or the money) to see everything, and therefore wanted to concentrate our travels to one area. Our friend gave us some advice on the best places to visit, and we've planned our itinerary from there. Here's an outline of the places we're visiting:

Day 1-3: Ahmedabad for the wedding

Day 4: Delhi

Day 5: Agra

Day 6: Delhi

Day 7-8: Jaipur

Day 9-10: Jaisalmer

Day 11: Jodhpur

Day 12: Back to Ahmedabad and return to Chicago

We'll be traveling partially by by plane and primarily by train. (I'll be writing about the crazy online train reservation process soon.) Along with standard trips to various temples, forts, and the Taj Mahal, we'll also be taking a camel safari in Jaisalmer. Theo will be texting furiously while abroad, (it's only $0.35 to send, free to receive.) By proxy, he'll be updating our Facebook and Twitter accounts and the blog along the way. We'll try to update this blog as often as we can with pictures and prose. Please stay tuned!

Before We Go: Shopping for wedding clothes, not Christmas gifts

This trip will mark Theo and my first visit to India. While we have always wanted to visit this amazing country, we're not just going to sight see. We were invited to our good friend's wedding in Ahmedabad, which will take up the first portion of our trip. We're incredibly excited not only to be able to travel around India, but to participate in a great cultural experience like a wedding.

As we are attending an Indian wedding, we needed the right clothing. Our friend is having clothing made for us for the wedding itself, but there are three days of events beforehand, so we needed to pick up a few more things. We headed over to "Little India" in Chicago on Friday, and the women at the Al-rahim Sari Center were incredibly helpful in assisting us in picking out clothing. They gave us a great deal, altered my outfit within two hours, and even threw in free jewelry. (My accessories are pictured here below.)

Theo picked out two kurta, a long loose shirt that is worn with pants, one garnet-colored and another blue, along with a matching scarf. I chose a taffeta salwar kameez, which is a loose dress paired with pants. It looks more like this than those pictured in the previous link. I also bought gold heels to match. As graduate students, we don't have many opportunities to dress up, and it's been a long time since I've worn heels. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't appear too clumsy at the wedding! We topped off the afternoon by having dinner at Udupi Palace, one of the many outstanding restaurants in this area of Chicago. If you're in the area, we recommend their eggplant dishes. Amazingly good.

Since Friday, I've done a lot of shopping for much less glamorous things, including an electricity converter, a charger for my ipod, water filter bottles, and lots and lots sunscreen. (Stay tuned for our travel essentials checklist.) It's been crazy dodging Christmas shoppers at Target and the mall when I'm looking for things like insect repellent, but I thankfully finished up the shopping yesterday. Today I'll be attempting to fit all of my clothes into my new travel backpack that arrived just this morning. It's roomy, but I think it will still take more than a few tries.

No More UTE

This is it: our last Ultimate Thailand Explorer post. Although we've officially been eliminated from the contest for a few months, and our last post preceded the selection of the finalists, we know that many of our readers truly appreciated our blogs. Sure there were a number of detractors and cynics who criticized us, but we kept plugging away. Now's the time to move on to a new chapter, but a few words before we do.

We had a blast with the contest, and we were sad to see our involvement as participants end. We still vote, and we still post on the UTE Facebook page, but we've stepped away from commenting on the contest in this forum at this point. After the finalists were selected, none to our liking, our interest in the contest decreased dramatically. Our last blog succinctly emoted our thoughts on the voting discrepancies, and although 128 folks clicked to the blog from FB, only one pathetic little man commented disapprovingly here. I feel quite justified in noting that neither Greg or Alex continued their involvement with the contest.

In fact, commentary from most non-finalists ended. No more Rana & Sherry; no more Ben & Fee; no more Jackson & Lori; and most thankfully, no more Frank & Melona. We believe these teams were no more invested in the contest than Aubrey's sister, Aleene, or Ben's mom, Lisa: much less likely so. The chatter on the UTE wall has virtually disappeared save a few stalwarts like Stephanie, Lauren, and Ambi & I. It's not even really transferred to the main UTE site, much I'm sure to TAT's displeasure.

Before the voting period ends, I expect to see some more controversy, and I'm sure an undeserving team will win. Curtis & Mark have provided such little content, it's deplorable. Four, count 'em, four posts from Thailand! The other likely winners, Aubrey & Parker, continue deluge us with their drivel. "It’s wonderful hearing stories and seeing pictures from a century ago while asking questions to how they relate to the present." I'm sure Parker's English professors in Bloomington are very proud. The three other teams are all far more qualified, entertaining, and informative. I have been quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of their contributions. I wish them all luck, but hold no promise for their success.

Thus, the blog is changing in nature, but not in tenor. Instead of detailing our desires and qualifications for a trip to Thailand, we're going to tell you about our upcoming trip to India and beyond. Ambi and I love to travel, and now that we've gotten into travelogueing, we see no reason to stop! So even though the UTE contest is nearly done, stay with us and enjoy the ride. We'll have plenty to share from Ahmedabad!