Drew & The Golden Triangle

Dear all,

It has been so long I don't even know what to write. I will start by saying that it's GGGRRREEEEEAAAAATTTTT to have Drewzie here. As is the case for all who do this type of travel, it seems like he has been here for a month already, but it has not even been a week. He arrived in Delhi at nearly midnight, we left at 8am to our tour of the Golden Triangle - Agra and Jaipur and Fatehrpur Sikri for the next 4 days - and we are now back in Delhi trying to get some business out of the way before leaving for Kolkata and Puri.

I am sorry for those whose individual emails I have not answered. I have not used the internet for about 8 days. Every time we thought we would have access, we didn't. So, today, Sunday, when everything is closed in Delhi, we found a random place that was open.

The only way I can do this is to do snippets:

--My 5 days in Pune at the OSHO Retreat Center was really great. I spent a lot of time by myself, and a lot of time with a wonderful new friend, Arya. The week consisted of a great deal of dancing, shaking uncontrollably, eating lots of croissants, crying a lot, and spending time in the OSHO pool. It was what I needed to rest from Tricia's and my India and get ready for India with Drew.

--Drew arrived early and I had a lot of CODE 31's with the taxi driver. (Code 31: information lost in communication with hands and hindi and english). I arrived at the airport late and Drewzie was looking around for me. I felt awful, but he was, of course, fine, if totally shocked like all of us who arrive in India after nearly 30 hours of travel. We made it home in one piece.

--The Taj Mahal was all it promised to be. Part of it is that is started with us staying at the Taj View Hotel where we had a full view of the Taj Mahal from our room. It was beautiful. And, the room was beautiful with lots and lots of hot water and a bathtub. I wanted to make sure Romina knows I took a really hot shower for her for a really long time and a long hot bath for Maria. It was outstanding.

The Taj Mahal was breath-taking in the way that other Wonders of the World are. For a moment you just stand there awe struck by the beauty of it, its magnitude, its historical power, and how clean it looks in the midst of such a polluted city. It is truly amazing. We took tons of pictures. To come in the future.

--Jaipur was also beautiful. We had another wonderful hotel room that looked over the Maharajah's hunting grounds (this means it was a beautiful building built in the middle of a lake). This place also had lots and lots of hot water and HBO! The Maharajah's Palace was beautiful and our visit to Fatehrpur Sikri, an vast planned city, was outstanding.

--Other than sites Drew and I have had a great time with Sarita and Eddie and Sarita's mom and dad. We have laughed a great deal, met lots of family members, eaten the yummiest home cooked meals, and drank lots and lots of tea.

--Health wise I have been sick for a week now. I got a cold from the 26 hour Pune-Delhi 2-AC train and have not been able to shake it off since we are now in cold India. Drewzie is remaining strong having been able to keep away my cold or any grastro issues of the millions that could arive.

--We are Delhi just kind of waiting for tomorrow morning when I can go to the Vietnamese Embassy to turn in my passport for a visa. After that we should be off to Kolkata where we will be for 2 days beforing going to stay at a resort in Puri, a beach a bit more southeast in the state of Orissa. We will stay there for about 6 days before coming back to Kolkata for New Years, then Delhi so that Sarita, Eddie and Drew can go back to the States and I can leave for Vietnam.

That's the news. Sorry if I did not make it sound exciting. I am still under the weather.

Kisses from both Drew and myself,

Julio

"Into the Woods to Find the Giant..."
www.brazilbean.net