Blogs from India, Asia
Not had a whole lot of time to write in the blog because of the new menu we are going to launch and i have to cook every item to see and taste if we can improve on it, also have to interview 2 more new cooks and have them cook something here so i can see what the can do, On Saturday we went to a exclusive night club here in Delhi called the blue frog. This is the place where the well to do and rich of Delhi now hang out, new york night club prices, the atmosphere was nice and it looked like the did not penny pinch on anything it is a amazing night club and also in the club there is a fine dining restaurant where chefs from all over the ... read more
Hi Everyone, Harder than we thought to get internet in Mumbai, hense the latepost. Obviously we made it to Mumbai, and have just arrived in Hanoi, very tired I may add. We made it safely to Mumbai, even survived the crazy cab ride to the hotel. Unfortunetly we were unable to book a train ticket to the Taj Mahal for when we needed it, and with our experience of Mumbai so far we were not going to risk getting stuck somewhere. However, things worked out and we spent the rest of our days in Mumbai seeing the elephant caves, lost of museums, galleries, shopping, world heritage sites etc. We booked a private tour guide and a car, so we got to see lots. It was about 28 degrees but with a nice breeze so bareable. Unfortunetly ... read more
Taj Mahal - Porte Sud
13 février 2012_Agra Me voilà déjà réconciliée avec l’Inde ! Le Taj Mahal est simplement malade, beau, grandiose, majestueux. C’est jusqu’ici le plus beau et impressionnant monument architectural que j’ai visité. Dire que c’est un tombeau… Et oui, un empereur a fait construire cette mausolée de marbre blanc pour sa 2e femme décédée en 1631, aidé par quelques 20 000 ouvriers qui y ont travaillé pendant 30 ans. Les détails sont principalement composés de bas-relief dans le marbre, de pierres précieuses incrustées dans le marbre (même dans les surfaces courbes) formant des fleurs ou des récits du Coran (tel qu’autour de la porte d’entrée) et de dentelles de marbre. D’ailleurs, des maîtres sont même venus d’Europe pour sculpter celles-ci. Petite anecdote : Phil et moi se levons à 6h30 am pour voir le levé du soleil ... read more
No surprise here, I guess :-)
Saturday was a very low-key day at KEM. The emergency room was calm, the medical ward was only sparsely occuped, and the highly unusual cases were nowhere to be seen. Sunday is a holiday for medical students, so I took advantage by doing non-medical stuff! On Saturday after rounds, a Seth GS Medical College student named Rahul, whom I had met a few days prior, invited me, Khaled, and Nasir to his home in Virar, a suburb that is found on at the very last stop of the Mumbai Western rail line. It was a good 1.5 hours from the hospital. This is actually a very common practice in Indian culture as a whole. Whether north, south, east, or west Indian (or any other differentiation you feel like making), the rules of hospitality remain congruent throughout ... read more
Scrappy quilt
Friday we realized that our 8 days have been intense; a lot learned and executed. It was decided (in Enlish and Gujarati) that we should take a break! It is time for the women to work alone starting on Saturday and to continue while we are in Katmandu. One quilt has been completed in its entirety with four others to be finished in our absence: Scrappy quilt: constructed of irregularly cut squares of various fabrics. A cutter practiced cutting strips, and Feroza is practicing stitching by attaching first to black strips, cut apart, and now with blue or red borders (see photo). Chinese coin: On Monday, the less skilled women sewing at home will return having sewn together one to three inch strips of various colors. Farnaz and I discussed the size of finished strips, so ... read more
Hi everyone, I just wanted to write quickly to say that I am safe and well and enjoying my trekking!!! I have been walking in knee deep snow for 3 days now. So beautiful!!! Happy birthday to Pop on the 16th. I will contact everyone again on the 18th. Love Love Love Internet is only on for 5 mins. Bye Missing you all.... read more
Cirage d'oreille de Phil
Par quoi débuter…… par le début ?! La veille du départ, on a dormi seulement 3hrs (ou plutôt Phil 0!), après une dernière poutine nocturne. On a eu la chance de passer nos dernières heures avant longtemps avec nos parents, et de prendre nos premières photos. Notre voyage en avion a très bien été; je recommande Swiss Air Line sans aucune hésitation! (Ils donnent plein de chocolat suisse gratos, et triple même la ration quand vous perdez le premier et que vous le retrouvez dans votre unique gilet chaud, fondu au fond d’une poche… bravo Hélène). Comme nous sommes arrivés à Delhi à 1ham, nous avons réservé un hôtel près de l’aéroport, et ce, par téléphone depuis l’aéroport. Bien que Phil ait bien épelé son nom au téléphone pour le chauffeur qui devait venir nous chercher, ... read more
Motif10th Annual Walkathon
Up early Sunday morning for the 10th annual Motif Walkathon to benefit selected charities. Motif is a call center company located here in Ahmedabad; one of its bigger clients is eBay. AWAG is one of the beneficiaries of this year's walk/run. AWAG is delighted with the extra funds for this year's budget. Apparently, we were 7000 runners/walkers. Does it surprise you that the Ethiopian man and woman took first place running the 10K? No prizes for the 5K walkers, but I did manage to get on stage because I was one of the older participants. Now 12 hours later, I am pretty stiff, and I realize that IF I am to complete the Charleston, SC Cooper River Bridge Run the end of March, I had better get in some training. BTW, I had forgotten that the ... read more
Yep, India is pretty crazy. We’ve been here five days now, and there’s quite a bit to tell, so I’ll start from the beginning… The flight was brilliant – we had our own little TV screen with On Demand remote controls so we could pick our own individual films or TV shows. We both decided to watch One Day, which left us both bawling our eyes out :/ for at least 20 minutes. It took two hours to get through customs and bag pick up, which was fine for us, but maybe not for the wee guy who was picking us up – bless him, he was sat in the scorching sun holding a sign with my name on for two hours – I’ve never been so pleased to see a total stranger in my life. ... read more
India has gone relatively smoothly so far. My airport pick up went well and then I waited for another volunteer's flight to arrive before we were driven to our home stay. Because it was very late (1:00 a.m) we went straight to bed. It wasn't until morning that we would have a chance to explore our new environment so of course, my anticipation didn't allow for a very restful sleep. Not only that, it was difficult to sleep because I was freezing cold. How come nobody told me that winter in India was going to be cold? I guess skipping one Canadian winter has made me weak as I can't put on enough layers of clothes to keep me warm. The evenings cool to around 6 degrees Celsius (no heater in the home stay) and warm ... read more
