The pyramids - simply amazing!

Cairo is our last stop and today we headed to the pyramids - the last of the wonders of the ancient world...and they definitely are a wonder!



No, this is not a fake picture - we were there!



Surprisingly, you were allowed to climb up the pyramids part way - I guess if they've survived this long...



Walking like an egyptian - how could i resist?



Naseem protests the triangle:



Nicole kisses the sphinx...



It was super windy and at the end of our trip we got caught in some (mini) sandstorms

Mumbai

We had a day and a half in Mumbai - it started out as an easy way to get a direct flight to Cairo, but in the end Naseem's Uncle joined us for the day and showed us around:

This is the Taj Hotel - they're still working on restoring it after the bombings in 2008, but one wing is now open:



We were fascinated by this photo guy: he took a picture of the three of us, popped out his memory card, opened his bag to reveal a small epson printer and printed our pic on the spot - crazy!



And by request for Naseem's dad - the park and hanging garden:


Mumbai was definitely a city of extremes for us and the poverty was much more apparently here than in Delhi (though in Delhi they've been knocking down the slums/tent housing in anticipation of the games later this year). Throughout the trip, there were definitely children asking for money, some pretty persistent, but even when you did give, it was never enough. In Mumbai, it was the kids begging that got to me, but the ones that weren't. There was this one main street we drove through a lot with makeshift 'housing' and the kids played in front of their home - which was the street...little kids playing and crawling bare kneed on the street...was hard to watch at times....

Elephant Bath

We pulled ourselves away from the beach for a trip to the spice plantations and an elephant 'bath'...now you may be wondering who bathes who...essentially you get to climb onto the elephant and it flips its trunk back and showers you with water. Naseem has some great videos that I'll get up here too, but mostly it was really cool to be so close to and interact with the elephant.

Ahhhh, the beach....

After our busy time in Hyderabad, it was time to unwind at the beach - Ashwem Beach in Goa...it was fantastic - quiet very clean beach, and we stayed in these cute huts - kinda like bamboo igloos:



The inside was pretty big, and had a very useful mosquito net over the bed!



We pretty much just chilled out at the beach, watched the sunsets, and other strange sights on the beach:

Naseem escaping the sun for a bit:



Cows on the beach and a stuck ship



How we ended every night:

Introducing Prince & Princess Husain

After Delhi we made our way to Hyderabad where Naseem's dad is from to meet the rest of the Husain family. We were met at the airport by a large contingent who presented us with roses (there is video footage out there - we just don't have it!). Then the shopping extravaganza began! We were taken shopping for full outfits for our big welcome event in the evening - and it was kinda like a second wedding for all the family who couldn't make it to Canada! I picked out colour and fabric for my outfit, which was sewn for me while we went shopping for Naseem's outfit....now, neither one of us are typical 'indian' size - they tend to be on the shorter side :) So you can imagine the number of shops we went into looking for something to fit Naseem's frame...and when they did have his size, the colour was usually pretty bad (I wish I had a pic of the shiny orangey-yellow one!). But then we found the perfect one and everyone smiled and sighed in its perfectness - Naseem looked like a prince....but it was already bought by another fellow...seriously....I still don't know how he did it, but Naseem's uncle Ahmed went to work negotiating, and somehow we walked out of the store with the perfect outfit for Naseem! (no mention of what the other guy was going to do :)

Now, this was only half the adventure - the perfect shoes were next....and we took more than 2 hours trying to find the right pair of shoes...this time, it was Nicole's huge size 10 feet that had shoe salesmen laughing at us...and the rare time we found a pair, they were the wrong colour/style or they were charging a ridiculous price for them (more than 10x the cost just isn't right!)...but determined indian spirit prevailed and we found them finally!

After this marathon shopping adventure, we convinced the family to give us an hour in the hotel to freshen up (remember, we got off the plane and started shopping ASAP), but I think you'll agree that all the shopping was worth it:



After a wonderful meal of Hyderabad briyani, where just like a wedding you don't get to eat very much because everyone wants to talk to you, we recieved traditional blessings from lots and lots of family. These blessings usually involved placing flowers around our necks:



...and more flowers...every 10 rounds or so, someone would offer to remove a bunch, so that more could be added...can you find our necks in this picture?



Here's Naseem giving a heartfelt hug to uncle Ahmed who put together a wonderful time for us:



There are so many more stories, pictures and videos that we need to compile when we return, but needless to say it was an unforgettable day!

Last days in Delhi

After the Taj we tried to see more sights in Delhi, but well...how to put this gently - after seeing the Taj Mahal, nothing else mattered. We took the subway to India Gate and started walking towards it, but it was far and hot, and we just weren't interested.

En route to the subway:


We were talking about finding an autorickshaw back to our hotel and just chilling out before our evening plans, when this autorickshaw driver approaches us and asks us to listen to his price and if we're interested fine, but if not, he'll go away...instead of shooing him off as we would normally do, we listening, and for 50 rupees (about $1.25), he would drive us up to India Gate, then drop us at Connaught Place where we could get a cold drink and the subway home. For the first time, we didn't even try to negotiate the price - it doesn't get much cheaper than that, and as our driver said, he had no fares and something was better than than nothing!

Naseem couldn't wouldn't even open his eyes for this picture, he was so bored (or maybe it was too sunny, you choose :)



After this, we ended up hiring him for an hour to drive us around New Delhi for 100 rupees - and really he saved our afternoon...we went from not caring about seeing sites, to hopping around a bunch of places and really enjoying chatting with Surinder. Totally unexpected, but an awesome afternoon! We enjoyed his tour so much, he even made it into a picture:



In the evening we met up with a friend from Toronto who is working in Delhi with the WHO on their polio program and took in the sound and light show at the Red Fort:

Agra Fort

After the Taj we stopped at Agra Fort - which was massive - and had lots of monkeys running around:



The care taken to designing all these buildings always amazes me - the symmetry, the arches are beautiful: