hankering for henna.

A henna tree.

Being the last day in Rajasthan, it was also my last chance at henna. Normally the environment needed for farming good quality henna is hot and dry, perfectly found in Rajasthan since it's western edge is just desert land. I had seen the shop signs offering mehndi all throughout the state, and sure enough, our guide informed us that you will not find it anywhere else. After the application, I had to wait at least an hour before I could wash off the crusty dye. The mehndi expert assured me that if I stayed away from housework, it would last about two weeks. Unfortunately, despite how much I avoided cleaning floors and doing dishes, my once beautiful mehndi-ed hand turned into this sickly, faded orange colour in just a couple of days. Here's hoping that R's bridal mehndi party has longer-lasting results...

Peacock, the national bird of India.

Spotted.

Back.

Front.

jai ho-ing in jaipur.

 

Up the hill to Amber Fort.

One-way elephant ride: 900 rupees.

Sharing a Kodak moment with your dad
 on an elephant: priceless.

The Great Wall's Indian cousin.

Delhi belly, number three.

When it comes to certain ethnic food, like everyone else I usually have a go-to staple. If it were Korean, I'd get kimbap. If it were Italian, I'd get insalata caprese. But my Indian one wasn't to be found in northern Rajasthan, but only in the southern parts of India. So you can imagine my joy when I discovered our lovely breakfast buffet had a dosa station, right across from the omelette one.  

The Indian version of a crèpe
made of lentils and rice, fermented
so a bit on the sour side.

Wrapped with different fillings, 
in this case sambar (a vegetable stew). 

Paired with a variety of chutneys,
the combinations are endless, miam!

jumping through jodhpur.

The first of what was to become a slew of Rajasthani forts, the Mehrangarh Fort hands down, had what I thought was the best hilltop view. Originally, the only buildings painted blue were those of the "Brahmin" caste, meaning priests or those with the highest spiritual knowledge, who wanted to be set apart from the other castes. In the end, the  calming blue colour was adopted by the others since it cooled the buildings interiors and kept away mosquitoes. If the view isn't enough for you, the ziplining will definitely immortalize the experience. I'm sure the film crew of Dark Knight Rises will agree with me.

The majestic Mehrangarh Fort.

The Dark Knight Rises
at Mehrangarh Fort.

The Blue City.

If you're ever in the area,
do check out Flying Fox Jodhpur.

venerating vishnu (and james bond).

With its Indo-Aryan architecture, the Jagdish Temple is the largest and most venerated Vishnu temple, not only in Udaipur, Rajasthan but in all of northern India. Its intricate carvings are worth noting as they outline the important stages of reincarnation.  

The idea behind reincarnation is  that as you are reborn and enter a new life cycle, you are put into a certain caste that reflects the actions and behaviour of your previous life. Basically, doing good deeds will reward you in the end, what goes around comes around, that's karma for ya dawg.

From the bottom sculptings do we find the demons, the lowliest of the bunch. Higher up are the animals, from elephants to horses. Then come the humans (and within this, another caste system) and finally, the angels, or as I like to call them, the dancing spirits (because life is one big dance party, isn't?). 

Makes you wonder, what good deeds will get you into the dance party? 

And just in case you forget where Octopussy was filmed, don't worry, the city will remind you.

Delhi belly, number two.

The colours of Udaipur.

Oh Delhi belly, I've heard so much about you. And taken every extra precaution to avoid meeting you. And after my experience at Bademiya's, I thought I had.  

For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, Delhi belly isn't a cute way of expressing overindulgance when it comes to eating Indian food, but some, rather unpleasant after-effects.

Udaipur street channa.

Those three words my brother will utter, haunting me full of regret. But how can you not be entranced by those wheels? By those colours? And that intoxicating smell of fried food? I figured, it does seem like everything is being cooked, no raw, India-water here.  So we dove right in... that is, until we saw the vendor scoop water from an unknown source, and pour it over the channa, and I mean all over.

Well, at least in regards to street food, we won't have to worry in the future about our curiosity getting the best of us.

Channa to the left, pani puri
in the middle, fried shells to the right.

Just a couple of regulars,
getting their daily pani puri fix.

If you can't fight 'em, join 'em.

unexpected udaipur.

After leaving the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, we found ourselves in the quaint city of Udaipur, in the northwestern state of Rajasthan. As the largest state in India, its land was once itself divided among many maharanas or maharajas (maha meaning "great" and rana/raja meaning "king"), to produce more individually ruling states. During the colonization, the Britsh only ruled 2/3 of India, with 1/3 being the 600 princely states of Rajasthan. As the "land of kings", this state encompasses many of India's palaces and forts, as well as numerous treasures left by their affluent rulers.

The City of Lakes & Palaces.

Set on the waters of Lake Pichola, and founded by Maharana Udai Singh, Udaipur is one of the most romantic cities in India. Despite the pearly-whiteness of the palaces, you'll never find a lack of  colour in this land where the cows are owner-less, roam freely, and cause traffic jams. 

   

Delhi belly, number one.

A regular Monday night.

Bademiya Seekh Kabobs, as the sign reads. As our first night in India was coming to a close,  my dad surprisingly permitted, nay insisted, that we eat at this famous roadside eatery. Situated in Colaba, the southern tip of Mumbai, this pop-up restaurant only caters  in the evening until... well basically, until everything runs out, and boy, do these babies sell like hotcakes!  

Ordering is a little chaotic, no discernable lines with everyone shouting their orders in Hindi. Tables are hard to come by, some of the locals even had the brilliant idea to bring their own chairs from home. My dad, being the pro that he is, was able to get what seemed to be a waiter to look out for a table for us, then to bring out our food in a super timely manner.

We decided to get one kabob each and to share a whole tandoori chicken. I'm not the biggest fan when it comes to kabobs, I always find that they're over-grilled and dry. But after just one bite, my first thought was: now, what would one have to do to replace Adelaide Street's Burrito Boyz with Bademiya Boyz? 

The making of a roomali roti.

Rotis are usually very thin,
unlike their naan counterparts.

Enjoying the sweet Indian
roomali roti-scented air.

mohandas' mumbai.

University of Mumbai.

Mumbai, or Bombay as the British once called it, is the financial and cultural hub of India. The capital of the state of Maharashtra, it is also the birthplace of  Bollywood's film industry, where many young and ambitious actors go, hoping to seek out their path to stardom. In fact, it is very reminiscent of L.A, with palm tree-lined beaches and imposing skyline across the metropolitan city.

But the Mumbai I saw wasn't laid out with sun-tanned bodies and movie stars. Instead, what stood out for me were the decaying marks left by the British during their colonial reign, and a country regaining back its identity.  

Born Mohandas Ghandi, it was the people
that gave him the honorary title of
Mahatma, meaning "Great Soul".

I would like to see India free and strong so that she may offer herself as a willing and pure sacrifice for the betterment of the world. The individual, being pure, sacrifices himself for the family, the latter for the village, the village for the district, the district for the province, the province for the nation, the nation for all...

- Mahatma Ghandi 

The Hindustan Ambassador,
a regular taxi in Mumbai.

indigenous to india.

After a long hiatus, I've decided to start my blog up again and to finally finish writing the poor, forgotten entries in my "to edit" list. I apologize to those faithful readers (you know who you are!), but the internet speed in China made uploading pictures a horrendous feat, as much as I would've liked to have kept my travels up-to-date.

Now, as I scrounge through year-old photographs and notes, I do hope the lack of chronological order doesn't cloud my memory too much and I'm still able to regale my tales of $3/night hostels, waterfall-laden trails, and elephant-riding.

I thought it would be best to start off with what was most fresh in my mind, and that was my recent trip to India earlier this year. The trip to India was by far at the top of the "most anticipated" list. Seeing where my parents grew up, piecing together stories of their individual hometowns and spending Chinese New Year how my aunts and uncles used to as kids, was only skimming the surface of my family's origins.  

 

Three weeks.

Eight cities.

First stop: Mumbai.

twenty-six candles.

Boxing Day. XXVI. The number of letters in the English alphabet.

...you're getting pretty damn old!

For the first time in 8 years, I got a hand-delivered birthday card from my family, instead of usually finding it in the mailbox. That being said, one of the great things of being back at home was that I was able to once again, celebrate with an old partner-in-crime. And to add to our traditional joint birthday bash, another fellow April baby :)

April babies #1 #19 #11

titillating translations.

Can you figure out the original meaning...?

星巴克 卡布奇诺  xīngbākè kǎbùqínuò

(Hint: A staple in my life; it's a faux pas to drink these after 11am in Italy.)