I’ve been a bit lax in blogging, so it’s time to do a dump!
What a whirlwind week it has been!! 40 hour journey from Silver Spring to Indore via London and Delhi, with a trip out into London during a 12 hour layover.
Indore—days 1-4/5
So much love and gracious hospitality from numerous relatives filled our 4-5 days in Indore. (And scrumptious food OVER-filled our stomachs!!). It was so charming how DT quickly learned the tradition of manvar—which is an expression of hospitality and love in the form of offering food, feeding others. And so heartwarming to see the kids’ faces every time they discovered something new. The food is as expected—scrumptious!! Making up for 14 years of missing out (unfortunately the waistline is proof!!).
Jalebis
(Somehow I earned the duty of morning chai for the gang—the first day I made chai 5-6 times!!! But I’m a quick learner, and started making at least 10 cups at once—-with my signature masala turmeric, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, LOTS of ginger, and now also Vimla Bhua’s chai masala! YUM!)
Now, one cannot come to India and not shop—at least I can’t! But shopping in India has been transformed from 14 years ago!! High end malls with designer labels and brand names and so much more as we experienced in Phoenix Citadel Mall. Then the countless shops on the roadsides! Such a dizzying array of shops! Thankfully, we managed to get a good start on the shopping already—but still so much more to buy!!
Aside from the obvious changes in infrastructure, shops, cleanliness and modernization seen in Indore, the most striking change is the traffic. It reminds of the traffic we’d seen in Mumbai decades ago—-Indore is definitely living up to its title of “Little Bombay/Mumbai”
Indore to Nepal—day 5
We set off from Indore to Kathmandu via Delhi on an early morning flight. I slept only 1.5 hrs the night before!which is why I struggled when we had to gate hop for our flight—like 3 times—from one end to the other! Apparently here (and actually in London too), departure gates are constantly changing—depending on where there’s space for the plane to pull up). But finally made it aboard. First plane (Vistara) was nice—phone/tablet holder at every seat, free WiFi, great service.
Days 4/5-7–NEPAL—-(please see blog post Days 1,2 Nepal—Nikki’s perspective)