Home at Last!

We got home yesterday - a day late.  We spent a night in Amsterdam.  We were going to spend a day there but it was too cold and we wanted to get home!  We are glad to see our home and looking forward to seeing all our friends!

January 5th - Rowena's Birthday in Jaipur (The Pink City)

On my birthday we were in Jaipur, a city with a population of 6 million.  First, we went to the wind palace.  Which is an optical illusion, it looks bigger than it really is.  It was built so that royal and noble family ladies could watch the king's procession because they were not allowed to show their faces.  That was really cool because when we saw it again from another view it looked like a big rectangle when it really wasn't. 

From there we went to an observatory where they have the biggest sun dial in the world.  I only understood how half of the instruments worked.  The ones I did understand I thought were really interesting.  The big sun dial is accurate up to 2 seconds. 

We then went to Jaigarh Fort and the Tiger Fort.  Jaipur is a walled city and the forts are located in different places along the wall.  There was a great view from both forts.  From there we went to Amber Palace that was once occupied by the Maharaja and his family.  It was beautiful.  One part of it was mostly made up of tiny mirrors and no two patterns of tiny pieces of mirrors were the same.  There was also a tunnel that the royal family could use to get to Jaigarh Fort in case of an attack.  There were tons of small bats in the places where the wall met the ceiling.  I think they might have been vampire bats.  Outside the tunnel we saw some snake charmers with cobras.  It was interesting to listen to the music the charmers were playing.  One of the cobras started to get a little cocky so the charmer put the lid back on its bin.  I don't know why they don't just push the lid back off. 

Mathura and Agra

January 4th, 2010 Birthplace of Krishna, Taj Mahal


Yesterday we left Kerala and went to New Delhi on an airplane. Today we woke up at 4:00 am in order to avoid the big crowds and traffic. First we went to Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna, a Hindu god.  The building has existed for 5,500 years. Then we drove to the Taj Mahal. As you all probably know, the Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the world. Now we know why. It’s huge! Made mostly out of white marble and a kind of stone that glows when light is shown upon it. It is truly a wonder among man-made creations. To this it is, and was only meant to be, a tomb for a queen. It took 22 years to build.

January 2, 2010, Mom’s Birthday:

This is Brogan and I’m doing my fourth blog. January 2nd began at midnight, we went to a poorum, we saw dressed-up elephants and people playing really loud music. Then we went back to bed. Next my sister, my grandma and my mom went to a spa. My sister got a really creepy haircut, I think she looks like me. For dinner we went to a place called Hotel Bharath. All my dad’s aunts and uncles were there. Everyone got ice cream except for Rowi who got a banana split to celebrate she and my mom’s birthday. Finally, we had an unsettling walk home during which we visited an elephant exhibit in a temple. Good night.

New Years Eve and New Year Day

December 31, 2009

Hello, my name is Brogan and I’m doing my third blog. So we started our day waking up at 5:00 am and getting in the car for 4 hours. Next we arrived at a boat place where we rented a houseboat for a day. The houseboat was awesome. It had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a deck. I played DS looked around me, went fishing, drove the boat and had a great time. Next there were the fireworks. . .

New Years Day:

On New Years day we were on the boat only about 1 hour after we woke up. When we got off the houseboat we drove to another of my dad’s uncle’s houses where we had lunch. They had the first pet dogs we’ve seen. When we left we went to Kodanad, where we got to ride an elephant. I mean the whole family riding bareback on an elephant at once! I was in front and the elephant just took a bath. I found out elephants have prickly back hairs about as thick as pine needles. After our amazing/almost terrifying ride we drove back to Thrissur and took a detour to look at a gleaming white Catholic church. We went to sleep late then woke up at midnight to see some dressed up elephants. They were beautiful. The decorations were all colors of the rainbow, too bad I was still half asleep.

Kumarakom backwaters houseboat on New years eve!

On New years eve we went on a "rented" a house boat and spent the night out in Coconut Lagoon. We left from Kumarakom in Kerala and onto the Vembanad Lake. It took us about four hours to drive to the dock and only ten miniutes to get on the river. The river was calm and Brogan tried to fish while we were moving, eventually he admitted defeat and sat there watching the bait skip on the water. He had a great time. Once we got out onto the lake Brogan and I got to take turns steering the huge boat, that was cool. It began to get dark and we played some card games to pass the time. (I'm not sure wether this counts as 2009 or 2010 but...) about midnight we sat watching the fireworks from hotels and resorts, and I'm not going to neglect to mention that the first thing Brogan did in 2010 was slap himself in the face (he's such a dork)!