Another quick note from Akhil. Ahmedabad is quite different from other parts of India we've seen. Quite a bit more prosporous. We've been visiting with family and friends for the last three days. Visit, eat, sleep, eat, eat some more, visit some more... We've had the wonderful opportunity to get to know my cousin Devan and his wife Gauri, and their two children, Shreeja and Raj. I played a bit of street cricket with Raj yesterday (he's six, but he has a bat). Shannon got a scooter ride with Gauri (which involves avoiding cows and monkey street-gangs) as well. We went to the sari shop today which was fun - Shannon tried on a beaded chiffon number and wowed everyone (they were laughing, I think that means they were wowed). We visited Gandhi's Ashram, where he lived for 12 years and a famous temple just out of town. Some beautifully and extravagantly dressed Rajasthani women (stone bangles from their wrists to their shoulders, bright saris and huge nose rings with a chain to their ear) stopped, stared and pointed at Shannon - of course we were staring at them!

Tonight, we're having dinner with about 20+ friends and family - and we haven't even gone to Jamnagar yet where most of the family is!

That's it for now - wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year!! At some point I'll explain how they celebrate Christmas for a week with Indian Santas everywhere, but that's another story...

Ah, Ahmedabad. Things are more civilized in Gujerat! We arrived at my relative's apartment last night. This is more what I expected India to be like. Still plenty of cows, camels, autorickshaws and so on, but the storefronts seem more modern and clean and generally well put together. And of course, the hospitality of my uncle Indukaka and family is wonderful. In a few days we'll see the Topiwalas here, before we head off to Jamnagar...

Hello from Delhi! Another note from Akhil...We've been trying for two days to get to Varanasi and finally gave up. We were trying to fly from Khajuraho, but planes have been unable to land there due to insufficient visibility. Apparently, they were doing runway work and accidentally damaged the Instrument Landing System, so they have to fly in on visual flight rules. And they're not repairing the ILS because they don't think it's worth it until after the runway work is complete. So no flights without 3600 meters visibility! It's a wonder that this place functions on any level, it really is.

Anyways, we drove 4 hours to Jhansi (no train station in Khajaraho) and got on the train to Delhi, which was true to form, 2 hours late. We got to bed at about 2:30 this morning and hope to fly to Amedabad tonight to visit family.

An email note: Connections here are very slow, and my Disney VPN service is also very slow. So I'm having trouble accessing email at all in India. I'm not ignoring anyone, I just really can't send email. It usually takes an hour to get one or two emails off. So if you'd like to email me (and please do!!), please do so on Shannon's account at shannonpv@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Merry Christmas! A note from Akhil... We are in Kajuraho, and have miraculously found a working internet connection. So quickly, before the connection dies - we saw the Taj Mahal. Amazing! Walking around with Shannon is quite an experience. People stare, yell and generally harass her. I expected the stares, but the young men yelling "hey girl" and children mobbing her asking for "One pen!!" caught me off guard. Walking through Jaipur in the evening was pretty intense. But then again, it's not everyday we see an elephant (with driver) walking through the street. They honk, but the elephant doesn't seem to mind - he just keeps plodding along. We're trying to go to Varanasi tomorrow, but the Indian way is to kindof hope you get to where you want. Flights have been cancelled for the last four days - too much fog, and too few tourists? We're not quite sure. Driving the roads, I've seen my life flash before my eyes. Big Tata trucks heading your way on a one-lane road, bicyclists, tuk-tuks, motorcycles, scooters, women with firewood on their head, cows, cows, more cows, goats, starving dogs and the occasional man defecating, all share the road. And us in our mini tourist van, flying through it all at breakneck speed. I may become religious before I'm gone.

Ok, that's it for now, before the connection dies again!

It's now Sunday the 21st and we're in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, a fairly large city of more than 2 million. It's not every day that you can say you rode an elephant after breakfast - today's highlight, in addition to seeing the city's palace and museum and astronomical complex. We've travelled for a week now, first from Delhi to Kota by train, then to Bijaipur, Udaipur, Deogarh and now here in Jaipur; tomorrow we set off for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. People can tell you what to expect when you arrive in India -- you can read about it, hear about it, see photos of it -- but there's nothing that can truly prepare you for the wonder of this society. Cows and monkeys really do wander freely in the city streets - as well as on the highways - which our driver Mohan has been navigating beautifully (not an easy job). On Friday night we were entertained by traditional dancers in Deogarh, along with the former king and queen, who have turned their palace into the hotel we stayed at. Earlier in the week we lunched at the Lake Palace in Udaipur, which you can see in the Bond film "Octopussy" - I can't imagine anything more grand. All of this of course amid throngs of people living in what we'd consider very basic and difficult conditions, but the children seem happy, and the women look beautiful, dressed in colorful saris, even those working in the fields or carrying pots of water along the highway on their heads. This will be a Christmas season Akhil and I won't forget. Thinking of you here in India! Happy holidays!

Mina, Dhanvant, Akhil and I are here in this magical country of India - in Udaipur on the fourth day of our tour of Rajasthan. We've seen several palaces and driven hours through villages of people, places and things that are nothing like anything I've seen before. I'd like to elaborate and will do so soon once we get access to a faster Internet connection. For now, congratulations to MariCris and Lindsay on the birth of Connor!

A quick note from Akhil... We made it to Bangkok! The big, bustling Asian metropolis is nuts of course. Hot here, but not as bad as last summer. We walked all over yesterday, around the national gallery and grand palace. Today, we're taking it easy and browsing in air conditioned department stores! My Levi's are pretty much toast, which leaves me just one pair of khakis for two months, so I'm going to try and find something. Funny how wearing one pair of pants every day is a bit hard on them! Once, again, I think I'm a bit over the whole backpacker thing. Yesterday, we went to Khao San Rd. This is the ultimate backpacker hangout. In the 80's, it was just a street, in the early 90's, when I had stayed there, it was friendly and quaint. Now, it's like the Chiang Mai night market. You can barely walk down it and there's a McDonalds (see photo of the Asian "Ronald") and Burger King there too.



Completely out of control. The Lonely Planet effect strikes again. Globalization and the tourist economics have a radical effect on such places. I'm sure someone has done an interesting study on all of this.

Tomorrow, we're off to India to meet up with my folks - we're looking forward to it!

I saw a kangaroo. Really, I did. It was about 15 feet away in the brush on the trail during our "bushwalk" in the Blue Mountains, just two hours outside Sydney. The area, which I'd barely heard of, is stunning - the valleys are filled with this blue haze they say has something to do with the oil emitted into the air by the eucalyptus trees. Beautiful place. We hiked four hours down into the "Grand Canyon" and just made it back out by dusk, fortunately. Our hotel in Blackheath, the Gardiners Inn, was built in 1823, and Charles Darwin stayed there in 1836 during his five-year trip around the world pre- 'Origin of the Species.' The parlor room had a player piano in it and there were boxes and boxes of music scrolls.

We have been completely charmed by Sydney, having explored on Monday Bondi Beach, the miles and miles of shopping, the Blue Mountains area on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a Sydney Symphony performance last night at the Opera House, which can singlehandedly give you an appreciation for architecture if you didn't have one before. Akhil and I have visited it at least four times and can't get tired of sitting on the terrace at the Opera Bar for sunset cocktails! It's been a superb five days and now we have just a few hours before we depart for Bangkok. I heard about the east coast snow storm that occurred last night. And though I love the snow at Christmas, the 80-degree summer weather we're experiencing here now is nothing to complain about. Sorry, friends! We invited you!

Here's the infamous opera house, inside and out:

After ambling around Christchurch for a couple of days we were rested and ready to leave New Zealand for Australia. Akhil managed to fit at least seven more flat whites in before the departure and I dragged him around a fair amount looking for a new pair of pants. (No luck.) We just missed the Christmas parade Saturday afternoon - turning in our rental car with more than 2400 miles added to the odometer. It looked like it needed a good scrub.

New Zealand is a surreal place - you get a real sense of what truly "unspoiled" land is like - it's raw, even crude at times despite all its well-marked tramping tracks and sightseeing flights. On the other hand, you can see the development happening before your eyes and it's clear that this won't last forever. The hyperactive focus on tourism and real estate will take care of that - but it's amazing that there's any place left on earth that can feel like a "new frontiere." Somehow it's very foreign in that way... and stepping off the plane in Sydney was something of a relief. Like we're part of the world again. This is a huge, invigorating city, with a population of 4 million - about the same as the entire country of New Zealand! We spent our first day just hanging around the harborfront area - The Rocks, the Opera House, and took a ferry out of to the suburb of Manly. There's a whole bar scene just underneath the opera house with live music and terrace tables with a view of the Harbor Bridge - even the locals hang out there. One thing would make it so much more fun - having some friends here to travel with! Any takers?

I would have to say if you come all the way to New Zealand and don't absolutely have to see the albatross colony, skip the southeastern part of the South island. It's a little bit depressing. We spent two nights in Dunedin nevertheless, which is a university town and of course, now it's summer! So, no students. Not much else really either - just my opinion of course. We travelled up through Oamaru, which was interesting because of it's limestone buildings, penguin colonies, and its "Janet Frame" trail. Frame is a novelist who spent much of her life there in Oamaru and whose autobiography became famous when Jane Campion made it into the film "An Angel At My Table" (thanks for that information, Annemarie!).

Then up through Timaru which was so much like New London, CT, it was scary... then on to Arthur's Pass National Park for one last brush with nature. We hiked up Avalanche Peak there and spent the night in a very nice cabin - with six other people of course but that's hostel life. Afterwards it was on to Christchurch - where we depart from on Saturday for Sydney! Here is a photo from Avalanche Peak:



I have come to the conclusion that someone in the U.S. government must have conducted a study to determine the precise number of days one of its citizens could be away from work before they are fully relaxed and are not thinking about work anymore - and it has to be two weeks and two days. Because that is exactly how much vacation time they give us. But just this week, about two weeks and four days in, is when Akhil and I have gotten into the travel groove and we're pretty relaxed and enjoying it all. You know, when you can't remember your boss' email address and have forgotten what day it is and don't even know the names of Madonna's children anymore. We're just about there... looking forward to the next leg of the journey!

Hello from Dunedin, one of NZ's oldest big cities. We visited the Albatross colony on the Otago peninsula today - the only mainland breeding colony in the world for these enormous seabirds. We were fortunate enough to see them nesting and even flying. Hopefully you'll also notice we improved the quality of our images.... take a look!

Just a quick add from Akhil: Driving to Dunedin, we stopped off at A.J. Hackett Bungy jumping. Watched a bunch of folks bungy, including a 70-plus-year-old hitchhiker from England. When we left, we saw him hitching, so we gave him a ride and heard stories of his adventures hitching across the U.S., fighting for the British in Cypress and his other NZ hitchhiking journeys. He said the bungy was easy, but expensive, that getting shot at in Cypress was worse. $140 per jump, not including the video, though he got a "pensioner's rate." Dropped him off at the turn off to Waneka, and then motored on in to Dunedin.