I'm Back Again - Friday, June 22, 2012, 11:41AM

Building in New Delhi, India

Well, back home in the cool San Francisco Bay area, it's Thursday night, 11:15PM.  I'm
in a state of perpetual confusion, living between India and the Golden Gate Bridge.  I
enjoyed my brief two and a half months at home though I never could seem to get warm.
After the 25 pound weight loss during my last India visit, I seemed to feel the cool
temperatures much more.  Since all my clothes were packed to the ceiling in storage, I
couldn't even access them.  I, finally, ordered a couple of pairs of sweats and bought a
heating pad so I could sleep comfortably!  Also, even with wining and dining ( oh, it
was so wonderful to have good wine again ) with family and friends, I managed to keep
off the weight!  Hopefully, I'll lose a bit more this go round and return to delight my
orthopedist even more.

My flight to India this time was much longer than last.  I went from Oakland to Seattle on
Alaska Airlines, then from Seattle to Seoul on Korean Airlines.  After a three hour layover,
I continued on Korean Airlines to Mumbai.  It was my first flight ever on Korean Airlines
and the service was superb - as were the meals.  I chose Korean food both flights -
yummy - and even got kimchi the second meal.   Once, when I accidentally hit the call
light, a flight attendant appeared instantaneously.

Street vendors in Patiala, Punjab, India

I am excited about being able to spend a month in Jaipur which will be on the radar

of more Americans since the release of  "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".  I saw the

movie twice in one week.  I have already arranged for my friend and taxi driver, Lala,

to pick me up at the airport.  We have stayed in touch ( that wonderful Skype! ) since

I left India and he had warned me that Jaipur is very HOT right now.  The monsoons

are supposed to come with my arrival and people are longing for the rains.  

I will try to post often but the picture situation is another story.  I had forgotten how

problematic uploads are with my Tata Photon Plus.  It is incredibly slow and takes

hours to upload a few photographs.  I will have to research something better or a

locale that has high speed internet for my use.

Namaste, everyone....hot but happy in the country of my heart!

Here I Go Again - Namaste, Y'All - June 3, 2012

June 16th, I board an Alaska Airlines flight and, after a two hour layover in Seattle, one
of my favorite U.S. cities, I board a Korean Airlines flight bound for India.  After less
than three hours at Seoul Incheon Airport, I'll be in the friendly skies again, touching
down at Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai on the 19th at 1:25 AM.
This time, finances permitting, I hope to stay six months.  I still haven't found a room
to rent in Mumbai so I am exploring other options.  My dear blogging buddy in Bangalore
has offered me a room at his lovely home - where I definitely want to visit again - but I
am hoping to find something a little further north since the majority of my many Indian
friends are in the Mumbai - Pune area.  

Of course, I also want to return to Jaipur and stay at that lovely Umaid Mahal Hotel
which I wrote about in a previous blog.  It's my brief escape into fantasy and I can
pretend I am an Indian princess, waiting for my painted elephant to arrive to take me
off to meet my handsome maharajah.  Reality returns when my dear taxi driver, Lala,
arrives downstairs and the front desk calls.  He was such a blessing during my last
Jaipur stay, spending hours driving me to forts and palaces and markets and restaurants.
It's no wonder we became good friends and have stayed in touch!

I've already been to see "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" ( for the Elderly and Beautiful ) -
and I will see it again on Tuesday.  If you haven't seen it, you must.  Here's the
description from the website:

A group of British retirees decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and 
seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel 
and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its 
former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever 
transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when 
you let go of the past


I've always loved Judi Dench and Maggie Smith and they are terrific in this movie.  

My favorite line from the movie was said often by Dev Patel, the star of "Slumdog" - 

"Everything will be all right at the end...if it's not all right, then it's not yet the end."

It always amazes me at how many different ways the English language is spoken.  I
really seldom say "y'all" anymore unless I've just returned from a visit to my Georgia
homeland.  I remember once, on a cruise with a number of British passengers, that an
elderly lady excused herself from the table saying she had to go and "spend a penny".
I looked at the others and asked, "Where on this ship can she get anything for a penny"?
Apparently, that was a polite way for excusing oneself to use the washroom back in the
day in the United Kingdom.  

I still have dozens of pictures from my last India trip that I haven't posted.  Here are
just a few from that wonderful city of Jaipur.

I just love these colorful umbrellas...but I didn't buy one.  With temperatures above 105 in 

some places, I just might need one to keep the sun off!  Now that I've had surgery for a 

basal cell carcinoma on my nose, I need all the protection I can get.

What do you think about these purple shutters?  Everyone airs their clean laundry in

public all over the world, it seems. 

Vendors are everywhere on the streets and the piles of "garbage" are eaten by the cows

and other creatures. 

The old town is incredibly beautiful with all its art work and arch ways.

It seems like everything gets hauled on motorcycles, bicycles, camel carts, elephants,

or on people's heads!!!

This was some sort of procession....I'm not sure what, though.

A wedding horse....I loved seeing them all decorated...that and the painted 

elephants!

I'm not sure if this man was selling chai which you could buy all over from little roadside

stands.  

Many cities have helmet laws.  Jaipur was one of the more compliant places.  I saw

more people there where both passengers used helmets.  Sometimes, though, in some

areas, you'd see whole familes...a husband, wife, and two toddlers and a baby, all on

a motorcycle, none with any protective headgear at all.

Always, there is such beautiful architecture, domes, arches.  I never grew tired of it.

Even before I get all my pictures from my last visit posted, I'll be starting on my next

collections.  I need to get out my Odomos cream and make sure I have fans with

me.  I know it will be REALLY hot this time...and rainy, something I didn't have

to contend with before.  I am sure the mosquitoes have missed me!  

Stayed tuned and......

NAMASTE, Y'ALL!!!

P.S. No cows, Shiju!