Okay – I know, no Taj post yet.  Even worse I haven’t filled out or mailed any of the postcards I bought.  Maybe I will be able to get them done before I leave.  I don’t know though – since I leave in 5 hours!!  Woo hoo!!!

That’s a whole 5 days before I was supposed to go home.  You have no idea how happy this makes me.  Hopefully I can get over a lot of my jet lag before all of our traveling for the holidays.  Plus, I’ll be able to finish the Christmas shopping I wasn’t able to do online.  And just to be home, sleeping in my own bed – wonderfulness.  Oh! I’ll have more than one night to wrap presents and do 6 weeks worth of laundry too.  All good things.

So yeah, those post cards.  Think anyone would notice if they have a Virginia postmark?  I have a 5 hour layover in the New Delhi airport.  I wonder if I can find a place to mail them from there….

Man, I wish I would have had this hotel in New Delhi.

The hallway I am staying in all rooms for women traveling alone – which is nice.  You have to have a key to even get into my hallway, and there’s a female guard outside the door to the hallway.  The bathroom has things like nail polish remover, facial toner (this scares me a little), pumice stones, and a pink comb.  It’s very girly.

It’s obviously very safe – which is fantastic – plus the room is bigger.  I have a little couch and a coffee table.  The bed is super comfortable.  I can’t wait until Saturday when I get to sleep in.

Maybe Saturday you’ll get your Taj post too…..maybe.  It’s way better for me to be halfway around the world and posting about things I found in the bathroom, don’t you think?

Right now though, it’s almost 9 pm and I think I’m going to do my ironing for tomorrow and go read in that big comfy bed.

Well, I haven’t been great about updating this while I’ve been here.  Okay, I’ve been really bad about updating.  To be fair, I’ve also been really busy.  My boss sent two people here to do a four person (or more job).  So as a result I’ve been a very busy  bee.  We’ve been working a lot of long days and a lot of weekends too – lucky me.

It doesn’t look like I’m in for a break when I get to Hyderabad either.  I’m going to be really busy while I’m there.  Thankfully, exactly two weeks from right now I will be on a plane home!!!  The good thing is that working so hard has really made the time pass quickly – so that’s a plus.

Anyway, in case you’re wondering what the weather is like here.  Here’s the current report:

I think the forecast has called for “smoke” each day I’ve been here – not fog, mist, or haze – but smoke.  Here is the view from my window right now, see that smoke in the background.

You probably don’t want to know what causes it.  I’ll probably tell you anyway.  It’s caused by the dung fires that people burn to keep warm and cook their food.  Yup, dung fires.  Awesome.

And as proof that Dave and I really did go to the Taj Mahal, here we are in front of it.

Eventually I will have the time/engery to write the full story up and include more photos.  I promise.

Dave just left for the airport to head home.

I’ve still got another 20 days here.

Ugh.

In the middle of our tour on Sunday our guide had the driver stop at a shop with the “most beautiful carpets in India”.  We got a demonstration on how the rugs are made (all by hand, and the strings are all individually knotted) and how durable they are – I was afraid to walk on them.

It turns out that Dave and I have very similar taste when it comes to these rugs.  Which is good, because we both loved the same two rugs right off the bat, and bad because we ended up buying them both.  The first one I posted is 4×6 feet, and the second one is 3×5 feet. 

Now we just need to redo our house with hardwood floors – or move.

Dave’s heading home Wednesday night (boo), I’ll share all our fun tour pictures once he leaves and I have more time. So you’ll all be a little behind, but that’s okay.

Yesterday was our great Taj Mahal adventure – it was amazing!

We saw camels, monkeys, elephants, and even almost got into a car accident thanks to a wandering cow.

The Taj was really awesome though. We took tons of pictures and I’ll post them, with the full story later. We have some more sight seeing to do today – I just wanted to check in 🙂

Will you find turkey there?

One of the ladies I have been working with here (actually I am working with her and her husband) invited us to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. So we had the traditional turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes dinner. There was even cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie cheesecake – yum.

There was an accordian too, which is a whole story in itself. I think we can safely cross Accordian Player off of Dave’s possible future career choices.

Do you get updates on travel conditions?

I do get updates through work on travel conditions and advisories. We are actually waiting right now to hear if we will be allowed to go to Agra this weekend and visit the Taj Mahal. It would be disappointing if we weren’t able to go. However, we’re not stupid (at least not most of the time) and if my work tells us not to travel, then we won’t go.

How many of you will be travelling together?

Right now I am with Dave and two other people from work. One of my teammates is leaving for Hyderabad on Sunday. Dave is leaving for home on December 4th. This will leave two of us in New Delhi. When our time here is up, my coworker will return to the US and I’ll go on to Hyderabad to meet three other guys I work with.

We all leave Hyderabad after our last day of work and we all have different routes home. I am currently scheduled to meet one the guys in Frankfurt and have the last leg of my flight home with him. I’m not sure if that will all stay the same though. I wasn’t planning on going to Hyderabad – I just found that out on Wednesday, so I am working on getting my flights changed now.

Is anybody concerned for your safety (besides all of us at home)?

Yes. If anything like what just happened (and is still happening) in Mumbai occured here, we would be evacuated and sent home. We have daily contact with our boss back home, and have people at work here that are looking after us.

I know it’s difficult not to worry, but we really are very safe. We definitely had a lot to be thankful for yesterday.

I’d also like to take a minute to mention http://travel.state.gov/. From here you can view travel alerts and warnings. You can also register with the State Department before any international travel by clicking on the Registration with Embassies link.

Registration at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate (in the country you are visiting) makes your presence and whereabouts known, in case it is necessary for a consular officer to contact you in an emergency. During a disaster overseas, American consular officers can assist in evacuation were that to become necessary. They cannot assist you if they do not know where you are.

(Yes, I took that last paragraph directly from the State Department’s Website, and yes, Dave and I register through that site before any international travel.)

I apologize for not posting this sooner, I know a lot of people back home are concerned about our safety. I didn’t get back from work last night until after midnight. Dave and I got a quick bite to eat and then went to bed. It wasn’t until we got up this morning and turned on the news that we realized how terrible the situation in Mumbai is.

We are over in New Delhi and are 700 miles away from Mumbai.

The hotel here has increased security. Each vehicle enters through a gate and is checked inside and out before being allowed to drive the front of the hotel. Guests coming in the hotel have their bags checked and pass through a metal detector.

We are currently going to be visiting Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) this weekend, but that is all the travel we have planned. Dave is flying home on the 4th of December, and I am supposed to be going to Hyderabad on the 8th or 9th. I will keep you posted.

Did you know, if things continue according to the current schedule.

In 2008 Dave and I will have spent 141 nights apart (38.5% of the time).

And I will have spent 160 nights not in my own bed (43.7% of the time).

However, we’re seeing more of each other than we did in 2007, so I can’t complain….too much.

Yesterday we actually went out and saw something other than our hotel. We went to Old Delhi, and the Red Fort. I got stared at – a lot. It was really strange and made me a bit uncomfortable. I also had two random guys ask if they could have their picture taken with me.

I found out today at work from one of the Americans here that it was most likely because of the blond highlights in my hair. I wish I had known that was the reason yesterday though, so I could have told them they’re not natural. Then maybe I wouldn’t end up on some Indian dudes’ MySpace pages.

There’s also a chance that the dudes will bring the photo in to try to get a visa to the US, showing it as proof of them with their very good American friend.

*sigh*

This is why I tell people I’m Canadian. And I always say, “I’m Canadian, eh”, when I say it – just so they don’t question me. And if they do question me, I’m from Toronto and work for a company that does Port-a-John rentals.

The Fort was cool though. I think I am going to take Dave back there on Thursday/Thanksgiving.

We went to a government run market after the fort. It was nice because people don’t hound you to buy things. The prices are fair too, so if you don’t want to bargain with them you don’t have to. I am definitely going back.

I was not in a shopping mood Sunday and so the only thing I bought was a little musical instrument thing for like $2, I don’t know what I’ll do with it – it’s cute though. If I end up giving it to one of you as a souvenir, pretend I didn’t just tell you it was only $2.

Also, I apparently did not get the memo on nose piercing, and pierced my nose on the wrong side. Everyone here (minus one American from CA that I met at the Fort) has the left side done. According to my internet research, the left side of the body is said to be tied to the reproductive organs. So they pierce the left side because it is supposed to ease child birth. When I get pregnant I am putting like 8 or 9 holes in the left side of my nose.

I had two goals set for this trip:

1 – Go to the Taj Mahal

2 – See 5 people on a motorcycle

I can cross number 2 off of the list, I saw not one, but two motorcycles with 5 passengers. It’s insane!! Granted three of the riders were kids – but still 5 people!! I don’t know if I should up the ante and shoot for 6 – that seems to be pushing it. In case you are concerned with safety, don’t worry, the men on both bikes were wearing helmets. The women ride sidesaddle, which would scare the crap out of me. (#5 is sitting on his mom’s lap – in case you didn’t see him right away – you can just see his head above her purse.)

Hopefully this Saturday we’ll be making the trip to see the Taj and I’ll be able to put a big ole [DONE] stamp on that as well.

I’m here – exhausted – but here.

The flight over was uneventful (which is a good thing).  The only real annoyance was the dude who sat next to me on the first leg of the trip.  He was completely engrossed in his blackberry and was typing on it most of the flight.  So engrossed in fact that he couldn’t even take the time to cover his mouth when he coughed.  Gross.  Thanks buddy – just the way I like to start my trips – with the plague.

The hotel is nice, I’ll share pictures (some time when I am not exhausted) of the two items in the room that tried to kill me and my square bath tub (it’s cute!).

I’m extremely tired right now. It’s an 10.5 hour time difference from back home and me and jet lag don’t get along.  I am trying to make myself stay awake until at least 9 (it’s 8:37) right now.  We have tomorrow off (Happy Veterans Day) so I can sleep in tomorrow (woo hoo!).

Apparently I really like parenthesis (maybe it’s just because I’m so tired?).

One quick story before I crash (in the figurative sense, not literally like you’ll hear in a minute).

The traffic here is insane.  Driving in last night I saw cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, horses, and auto rickshaws (basically the same thing as the tuk-tuks we saw in Bangkok) and pedestrians all “sharing” the road.

The lines on the road are treated as suggestions, head and taillights appear to be optional, and you aren’t cool unless you beep your horn at least once every 40 seconds.  This morning on our way in to work our taxi and another car hit each other.  We weren’t going fast and no one was hurt.  Our driver and the driver of the other car got out of their vehicles, yelled at each other for a while, decided everything was okay, and we went on our way.  Oh, and we got honked at – a lot.

Here’s a picture I found online – but trust me, it’s an accurate representation.  I would take my own picture for you but I can’t work the camera and hold on for dear life at the same time.  What the picture doesn’t show is the roundabouts and people cutting across three lanes of traffic (on a two lane road) to get to them.  It also doesn’t accurately convey the “floor it and then slam on the brakes” mentality of many drivers and exactly how close these vehicles get to each other.  It’s scary.

Those things with the yellow tops are the three-wheeled death traps auto rickshaws and no Dave, we are not riding in one when you get here.

Okay, I’m done for the night.  I’ve had about all the excitement I can handle for one day.

Oh, and in case you don’t want to do the math (10.5 hours is a pain to convert), the time here is currently:

Edited: I first wrote that it was an 11.5 hour time difference. Apparently my math skills failed me though, since it’s really 10.5 hours. I’m blaming it on the jet lag.