Destination...Jodhpur!

We arrived in Jodhpur and met our driver, Salim Malik who is going to be with us the rest of our adventure.  He took us to our hotel, Bal Samad Garden Retreat.  Our room used to be part of the water canal system for the Maharaja in Jodhpur and later his horse stables.  Sounds weird but the hotel and grounds were amazing! We heard peacock calls,which sounded like Kevin in the movie UP, and toured the grounds to discover more.  Oh boy, did we discover more!  We saw monkeys which were not afraid of us.  They even let us get close to them.  We also saw a tree filled with something we thought were either little monkeys or birds.  They were actually giant fruit bats!  Hundreds of them!  When mom saw the tree, she was so suprised it looked like her head was going to come off.  We really got into the wildlife.  We found vines from a Banyan tree and swung on them like Tarazan.  At the end of the day we went to Megh Fort.  We looked out and saw the entire city of Jodhpur, known as the blue city because they paint their houses a light blue color. We later ate dinner at the fort, on the rooftop, at night under the stars.   

Elephants, Spices, and Flea Market

On Tuesday March 22, we started the day doing a spice plantation tour.  Did you know that a spice called nutmeg can help you fall asleep when you eat it?  We also learned a ton about other spices like cinnamon, basil, coriander, vanilla, pepper, peri peri chili peppers (the smallest chili peppers in the world, the seventh most spicy chili in the world).  It wasn't just about spices.  We also learned a ton about cashew nuts, pineapples, bananas (in the grass family, not a tree), and coconuts.  After the spice tour, we went to go get an elephant bath.  That's when you sit on a real elephant and it sprays water on you.  We all got soaked, and afterwards we got to feed bananas to Mala, our elephant.  In the afternoon, we splashed around in the Arabian Sea and had lunch at Zeebop, an authentic Indian beach shack.  On Wednesday March 23, we went to the famous Goan flea market where we bargained for a lot of fun souvenirs.

We're Here...Happy Holi!!

We arrived in India and celebrated Holi, the first day of summer, in style. Celebrating Holi was the best introduction to India we could ask for.  People come and apply streaks of colored powder on your face and say "Happy Holi". Garrett says "Do not put paint on someone unless it's Holi!"  Grant says "Holi is when buckets of color is poured on top of you and you get soaked.  It happened to me twice!"  Mom couldn't stop smiling and Dad even went out and danced in the colors.  Happy Holi everywhere!! 

TRIP ON!

We are on our way to India for Spring Break.  Look for our adventures to Goa, Jodhpur, Pushkar, Jaipur, Ranthambhore, Agra, Delhi and Hyderabad.  More to come...!