Mumbai to Singapore was super easy. Tauck continued their excellent service by facilitating our transfer to the airport in Mumbai despite us staying the extra days.

Many people told us that two days were enough in Singapore and quite honestly we could have used an extra day. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted. But we filled our two days fully with visits to the wonderful Asian Cultural Museum (thank you Barbara!), the modern waterfront area and iconic Sands Casino Complex, the Gardens By The Bay park, the subways, a food tour and a jazz performance at a French bistro on our last night. We didn’t have time for a harbor boat tour or the visit to the nearby Sentosa Island Island recommended by Doris (our food tour guide). Oh well, there’s always next time. Singapore seems like a good stopover on our way to Perth, Australia someplace we would like to visit someday.

We stayed at the Tanglin Club (a reciprocal club for the Rainier Club) and it is in a perfect location: quiet, a wonderful history, a great pool, and easy access to stores, restaurants and the amazing Singapore subway system.

Our first morning the Tanglin Club hosted a Chinese New Year celebration. And it was great fun! Our first afternoon we enjoyed some quiet time at the pool and a swim and a salad and Diet Coke (with ice!) (remember in India you can’t eat salad or have ice without risking getting the “Delhi Belly” upset stomach).

Singapore in many ways is the antithesis of India. This very small nation state, smaller than Rhode Island, has accomplished so much in 50 years, overcoming its 3 year occupation by Japan in WW2 and third-world poverty. Today, it’s the wealthiest nation in SE Asia, orderly, clean and fun. This progress has come in large part from government policy that targets drug traffickers with life imprisonment (or even death!), a commitment to publicly funded education, and a government funded housing authority that has built a lot of high quality, high rise condos that people buy using money they are required to save from every paycheck (they can also use these mandated savings accounts for “premium” USA-style medical insurance or retirement income).

After our restful afternoon we headed out for an evening food tour with Doris, who we found on TripAdvisor.com. The tour was great fun. I wish we had room to eat more, but she took us to some great places we wouldn’t have found ourselves.

After finishing our tour with Doris we ventured by subway to the light show (the Bellagio is better, but this was still fun) and walking around the iconic Marina Bay Sands Casino, shopping mall and marina district.

The Singapore subways are nicer than Japan’s, immaculate and easy to navigate and with more easy to find escalators and fewer steps. Granted they are newer and cover much less territory. Paying for your fare is super easy: you just tap your credit card on one of the many turnstile gates when you enter, and again when you leave, and you are automatically charged a dollar or two for your trip. If you don’t have a credit card, you can tap your phone, or use a prepaid metro card. This is something Seattle should do with its Sounder Light Rail system, rather than continuing to rely on the “honor” system in which most riders act dishonorably.

Our final day we started early and we headed out to explore the “Gardens By the Bay” marina district and the Asian Civilizations Museum. Both were a lot of fun and the exhibits at the Museum were very well done. Again our “advance team” Barbara and Richard Wortley told us to check it out! As usual there was too much to see in one day at the museum. But the jewelry exhibit was special, showing the jewelry on the photo of the person who wore it.

Our day ended with a lovely dinner at a nearby Maison Gerard, a little local french bistro. We had noticed a poster earlier for a jazz performance on Monday night, so we made a reservation. We love attending these small music performances in the cities we visit and this one didn’t disappoint. We met a married couple at the table next to us who knew the performers. They shared with us that their daughter plays Eponine (one of the leading roles) in the London performance of Les Miserables. They shared videos of one of her performances and it gave us goosebumps. Hopefully, we will meet Jenny and Kevin Ong somewhere in the world someday and watch their lovely and talented daughter Nathania Ong perform on stage.

As we toured around Singapore we constantly noticed the lovely soundtrack that accompanied many places. It was interesting and southing. Certainly different that the soundtrack of honking horns in much of India that we visited.

Our journey home began early in the day on Tuesday 2/20/2024. We left Singapore at 9 AM and arrived in Seattle the same day at 7 AM thanks to the international date line.

Jasmine picked us up at SeaTac and we headed to her house to hang out with Jasmine, David and the grandkids. It was so good to give them hugs and play a bit. Then we headed up to the mountains, retrieved our tons of mail at the little post office and stayed up until about 5 PM before we took a nap, stayed up a few more hours and then went back to sleep. May our jet lag adjustment take less than a week!

It’s been 5 days since we’ve been back and we’ve gotten back into our regular schedule; mail is sorted, groceries stocked, we’ve played bridge with friends, stayed on our boat, visited my sister, attended a bluegrass festival and finalized work on some business projects. Snow is in the forecast for the mountains and we hope to enjoy some good snow skiing later this week.

Jim says we can’t plan our next travel adventure for 2025 until we totally get through the jet lag. But we are thinking Germany/Austria/Switzerland or Croatia/Greece/Israel then of course there is always the option of going back to northern Italy (we haven’t been there since we visited with the kids 20 years ago). These will all be wonderful, but nothing like the exotic and unusual experience we just had in India.

Stay tuned for our yachting blog this summer!

Mumbai was named “Bombay” by the Portuguese because it’s a very “Good Bay.” Mumbai, like San Francisco, is a large vibrant city on a peninsula surrounded by water. But it’s much larger: the 10th largest city in the world, with over 23 million people.

After arriving at the airport we had a lunch at the airport’s Taj hotel complete with a space man! Then we loaded on a bus for our first driving tour with a stop at the massive “laundry Ghats”. This is where people still do laundry, not for individuals anymore (because of washing machines) but for the garment industry. If you get clothes from India and they are color safe or preshrunk and manufactured in Mumbai, they are washed here. It didn’t really make sense to me until we did our tour of the nearby Dharavi Slum the next day.

The Dharavi Slum is hard to understand until you see it. Our tour was led by a “slum tour” entrepreneur who took us through the allyways of the cramped confines of this part of the central city.

Unlike Seattle’s homeless encampments you don’t see crime, drugs and addiction here. Instead you see the manufacture of clothing, luggage, furniture and leather products (as well as old apartment buildings in the nearby residential areas), and very little begging. Many of these products are sold by Amazon and other international retailers. People were pleased to see us and proud of their work. These people work and live in the area because it is close to the central city and they don’t have to commute. Slums like Dharavi are the only affordable places to live in this very expensive city. The only other option is commuting 2 hours a day by train to the more affordable suburbs, but since most people work 10 hours a day, a lot of people choose to live in the slum. So Mumbia is a city of dramatic contrasts, from its many modern high rise buildings, to the ghats and the slums. The hard working entrepreneur who created our “slum tour” is proud of his community (where he was born and still lives) and wanted tourists to see and understand why so many people choose to live and work here.

He also trains other guides who live here so they can work part time to help pay their way through college. At first the local officials here didn’t like the idea of the tours saying that this wasn’t the “real India and why would you want to show people this?” But he convinced them it was important and tour companies like Tauck now bring lots of people here to tour. Part time work is very rare n Mumbai, so it’s difficult to “work your way through college.” Of course with the cost of real estate here, all of the old low-rise apartments will eventually be replaced by modern high rise apartments, although many plans to do so have failed because of corporate and government corruption.

I asked our guide what he would do and and he said the government should just give people who live and work here enough money for them to move out of the city and let them decide where to go and live and work. When our airport guide for Tauck (who is well paid) was asked why he still lives there, he said: “why wouldn’t I? It’s where I grew up, and where my family still lives.” Different strokes I guess.

I’m already brain storming about how I can get Amazon to help with this issue. If you have any ideas about how to do that, please share those with me.

We ended our final Tauck Tour day with a boat ride to tour Elephanta Island. Our boat departed from the famous “Gateway to India” built by the British a hundred years ago, when everyone who traveled to India came by boat and most embarked at Mumbia because that’s where you could most easily get on a train to continue to your final destination in India’s interior.

Our 45 minute boat ride crossed the big bay, passed large commercial freight docks and cruised over muddy waters.

Docking at the stone pier at tiny Elephanta Island is definitely like going back in time. After reaching the top of the pier, we rode a funky little toyish train to the shore, the then climbed the 120 steps up to the caves, which are filled with very impressive Hindu carvings of the Hindu Divine Trinity: the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer of Evil. Our guide beautifully narrated the stories behind the sculptures as we circled from the east entrance to the final statue of Shiva in a meditative pose. He sits at the end of his everlasting life cycle in the classic meditative pose with only two arms. The Hindu Divine Story reflects the 4 stages of humanity: Youth (where we gain knowledge), Marriage, Retirement, and then the end of life, giving up materialism, meditating on life and hopefully reaching Nirvana. The caves were carved in the 5th century AD. The caves are surprisingly dramatic, beautiful and insightful.

As we headed back to our hotel by boat, our incredible group was feeling a bit of melancholy. We’ve all had a great time together and shared so much, thanks to our leader and tour guide, the amazing Tina del Campo.

At our farewell dinner there was lots of joy and hugs and promises to stay in touch.

Because of the available flights from Singapore to Seattle, we decided to chill here in Mumbai for a few more days and did some touring on our own, confidently navigating our way across busy streets, hailing cabs and exploring the Victoria Terminus Train Station. Boy it’s huge and busy! We also went to the very good Prince of Wales Museum and strolled the waterway in front. of our hotel, past the many “art deco” style hotels and apartments.

A lot of people wanted to take pictures of me in my pink hat. Someone said I looked like Englands Queen Camilla (married to King Charles). The pink hat I bought in Kerala for $1.20 has made me a minor star on the Mumbai waterfront. I don’t see the resemblance, I’m definitely more “wheatish” as they say in India because of my dark skin, but a lot of people here think differently.

For Valentine’s night we were ready for a small local restaurant and the concierge suggested Poco Loco Town, a Mexican/Spanish Tapas restaurant in a less fancy part of town. We had a blast and the food was different but yummy. We walked back to the waterfront after dinner and stumbled on another remarkable serendipitous celebration of Ganesh (the beloved Indian deity of Good Fortune). Families arrived in trucks with their specially decorated Ganesh statues, walked onto the sandy beach, prayed, made wishes, lit incense and then took the Ganesh statue into the water and pushed it out to sea. We were surrounded by lots of Hindu joy and family celebration and welcomed into several celebrations for photos.

Organizing our luggage for our last leg of the journey is next on the agenda, followed by dinner with friends of the Wortleys, who are our Seattle-area friends who lived and worked in India years ago.

Our final day in Mumbai we woke up ready to find the big Jain Temple. Apple Maps said it wasn’t far, but we didn’t realize there were many Jain temples in the area. We wandered in areas of Mumbai that are very local: markets, local shops, cows, clothing, street side typists and more. We did find many small Jain temples, bought some sandals, laughed a lot and made it back to the hotel after about 3 hours of wandering.

After we got back to the hotel, we realized the big Jain Temple was very close to our friends business who we were visiting later. So we rested a bit, got a snack, and then took a cab and successfully visited the beautiful Temple in a very different part of the city.

As we write our final blog of India we are in Singapore and we fly home tomorrow. We don’t miss the honking. We are thrilled to have ice, salad, fresh vegetables and fresh air. But more on Singapore in the last blog.

We left Udaipur for our early flight to Kochi. Flying within India is different. Security is extremely uneven and doesn’t always make sense. You cannot check ANY electronics or eletrically powered equipment; no cords, shavers, hair blowers, curling irons, ear pods, computers, iPads, travel speakers, anything that can possibly be an electronic item in any way. (Strangely, large water bottles are fine). So all of your electrical or electronic devices, wires and chargers must be in your carry on bags and pulled out for detailed screening when you go through security. Otherwise they will pull your checked bag and throw away any electronics/electrical item (if you are lucky), or just put your checked bag in the holding area for further inspection if you are not lucky. Sometimes they will contact Tina who can sometimes go into the bowels of the airport to rescue the bag. Tina spent a lot of time pre-airport trip reminding us of the rules. Jim and I passed the test every time.

There are different lines for screening men and women. Sometimes the women’s line is a distance from the scanner. But “no problem” it all worked out and we eventually became experts at getting through Indian airport security.

In Kochi we stayed at a Hyatt on the Arabian Sea, with a lovely pool which we used in the evening after our long day, and in the morning for a few laps before our day began.

Our second day in Kochi included a boat tour of the bay complete with “Chinese” fishing nets and dolphins. Jim and I always love getting on the water. The south of India has a totally different vibe: it’s cleaner, slower, the roads are more orderly, and the traffic flows smoother. The bus driver’s good luck charms (usually Ganesh statues in the north) are replaced in the south by crosses and pictures of Jesus. Interestingly, the south has an almost 100% literacy rate due to its long history of Catholic education, beginning with the Portuguese in the 1600’s. The area also has a long history of a few large landowners and almost no property ownership for the people who worked the fields and the rice paddies. The Socialist/Communists saw an opportunity from that, supported land reform, and now control the local government in the Indian State of Kerala (of which Kochi is the Capitol). Fun fact: our bus team support person is named Stalin, which is not unusual in this area.

The excellent book “Covenant of Water” begins to come alive for us in Kochi and Kerala. We took a boat from our hotel to the other side of the bay where our bus was waiting for us to take us to Nimmy & Paul’s House. Nimmy is the Indian equivalent of Paula Deen or Julia Childs. She and her husband live in a house set up with a TV kitchen and we were treated to a lesson in Southern Indian cooking and a scrumptious lunch. Everything was delicious, but her Chicken Biryami was the best I’ve ever eaten. I can’t wait to cook it at home using her recipe. She was “discovered” 50 years ago by a NY Times travel writer and now does presentations for Tauck and a few other tour groups.

From there we headed to Kochi’s “Jew Town” and a fabulous old Synagogue. Interestingly, there were once a few thousand Jews in Kochi. A few families came as spice traders during Roman times, but most immigrated there after the Spanish Inquisition 500 years ago and lived under the protection of the local Maharaja in harmony with Hindus and Muslims for hundreds of years. Most immigrated to Israel after the State of Israel was created in 1947. Some historians even claim King Solomon visited Kochi to trade for spices 2,500 years ago.

I did my spice shopping there because this area is still where a lot of spices are grown.

We left Kochi the next morning to head to the Kerala Backwaters. The Kerala Backwaters are a chain of brackish lagoons, canals and lakes south east of Kochi. We began with a 2 hour bus drive and then boarded a large kettuvallam house boat to journey to the Kumarakom Lake Resort. The house boat journey felt like something out of the old Bogart movie “The African Queen”. We slowly navigated the river to a giant lake, enjoyed a yummy lunch onboard, and then docked at the resort. Along the way we saw rice paddies, hawks that looked like bald eagles and lot of other birds of all kinds. These waters are home to many species. Many of the house boats are quite fancy to accommodate tourists, complete with nice bathrooms and bedrooms.

Kumarakom Lake Resort’s lovely grounds include views of the lake and a meandering “canal” swimming pool that twists and turns and allows you to swim to almost any other room. We took advantage of the “Ayurvedic” spa treatments and massages at the resort. The Rejuvenation Massage included lots of oil and two masseuses. The second day I did the Pathrapotala Swedam which is supposed to be good for arthritis. Here’s the description: leaves or powders of medicated herbs are fried in medicated oils bundled in a Muslim cloth, and then applied over the body in a rhythmic manner. The “rhythmic manner” (performed by two women) was part cupping, rug beating, and hot stones. But it only started after an “all over” Ayurvedic oil massage. What can I say, I felt great after.

On our second morning we headed out early for a wonderful tour of a local village complete with two house visits. Whenever volunteers were needed to try something I was in, so I got to climb a coconut tree, make rope from coconuts, weave a fan from coconut leaves and dress in local saris, all of which were lovely experiences

The Kumarakum Resort had a different local presentation before dinner each night. Our first night we were entertained by two lovely folk dancers, while the second night we watched in awe as several young men recreated ancient battles with swords, spears, fire and the craziest extending whip sword you’ve ever seen. This was serious stuff.

All in all we couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

After two nights we left early in the morning to fly to Mumbai (India’s second largest city and the 10th largest in the world). Unfortunately, the Kochi airport is where we encountered our first big challenge with Indian airport security.

Although we had gone through security many times at many airports, the security people at Kochi confiscated our Garmin InReach device, which is a satellite security beacon that would allow us to give our GPS coordinates and send short texts in an emergency. We brought it with us just to be safe if something unexpected happened, but had never used it. At first the security people said it was e-cigarette (which are not allowed in either checked or carry-on luggage in India). I told them it wasn’t and showed them what it was online. Then they said, oh no, you can’t have that either because it’s a satellite phone. Tina tried to work her magic and we explained to them without success that we had gotten it through security in every other city. But in the end, there was no rational solution and they confiscated the $400 device. We keep it on our boat for emergencies so we’ll need to get a new one when we get back. Oh well. Security is extremely tight around India because of past terrorism and we did confirm online that the Garmin device is banned here. Of course it’s no different than any of our phones or watches. But that’s how it goes.

We made it to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) after another long flight delay, met up with our first local guides there and finally arrived at our last lovely Oberoi Hotel, which is located near the end of Mumbai Peninsula on beautiful Marine View Drive. Mumbia is a great city, and the last stop on our India Tour. I’ll tell you about our adventures there in the next blog. Thanks for reading!

I wish I was a poet then I could better capture the fullness of our journey in Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur. All are in “northern India, and yet very different. Our hotels there were all magnificent and the people and the food were amazing.

The Taj Mahal

Truly the most spectacular building in the world we’ve ever seen, the Taj Mahal was built by a Moghul Emporer for his beloved wife who died giving birth to her 14th child. They are both entombed there in the center of the central dome, while other family members are entombed nearby. The grounds compliment the buildings perfectly and we got the opportunity to visit it twice: first at sunrise with spectacular morning light and almost no people, and second, later that morning. Although we had just finished an extremely exhausting travel day from Varanasi the day before (with an early start and long air travel delays due to thick fog), I took full advantage of the special morning tour opportunity. Jim was exhausted so he slept in and enjoyed the second tour. No one knew if the weather would be clear enough, and we were worried the fog would be a problem in the morning, but our tour group has good Karma and the early morning weather was beautiful!

Marble and inlay work decorate every aspect of the Taj. After the tour, we went to see local artists train to create smaller marble creations with the same craftsmanship. The Indian government funds these programs to keep the ancient techniques alive for the future. We bought a small serving tray with the same incredibly fine detail to help us remember our visit.

Agra Fort

Red Forts are abundant in India. The Maharajas built them for protection from invaders but the Moguls captured almost all of them. Agra Fort is massive, built with the local red sandstone, and housed generations of Moguls and their harems. Eventually, the British took over the site and after India gained its independence in 1947, the site is now part museum and part military base. Agra Fort has multiple layers of defense, including two moats (one dry, the other flooded with river water and stocked with crocodiles), tall stone walls and a single, narrow, steep entrance that is flanked by tall stone walls.

The palace history includes some serious familial infighting, including siblings ousting their father (the King), and then murdering each other until only one was left (who became the new King).

Jaipur

From Agra we loaded onto our bus and headed for Jaipur, about 3 hours away in the State of Rajasthan (the largest of the 28 Indian States, but “lightly populated” with only about 70 million people). We met our new local guides Jai & Shailendra along the road.

We began our tour of Jaipur by driving into its downtown for a quick tour of the area in the evening late, navigating the traffic and getting a first peak at the bus old town. From there it was off to visit a remarkable Astronomical Observatory built 300 years ago by its Maharaja (King). With a population of only 3 million, Jaipur is a tenth the population of Delhi, much cleaner, and with less poverty. The buildings are beautiful and the city interesting.

One of the old Maharaja’s fascinations and interests was with the zodiac, the stars and keeping time, so he created these ancient wonders. The “sky stairs” are accurate sundials. The bigger the sundial, the more accurate, with the largest sundial accurate to within 2 seconds. The other structures help find Zodiac stars and other cool stuff.

From the Observatory we walked to the nearby City Palace. Part of it houses the current descendants of the Maharajas but most of it is now a museum open to the public. One of the former Maharajas was an enormous man with gigantism disease. His clothing is huge. He commissioned lots of art, including giant silver vessels that he used to drink Jaipur water even when he traveled to England. A big private party was setting up for the night with beautiful flowers.

From the City Palace we rode our bus to the Ramba Palace Hotel, for a dining extravaganza part that began with a procession of elephants, camels, horses and included a traditional Indian folk dance.

Needless to say we slept well that night at our hotel: the stunning Oberoi Raj Villas.

The next day we toured the the old town again in the morning light, crossed a crazy, very busy intersection. The key is to “walk like a cow”. Don’t run, don’t stop. Somehow the traffic weaves around you. Amazingly, in all the the chaotic Indian traffic we never saw an accident. It just works. But crossing the intersection wasn’t the craziest thing. A couple of us, including me, experience the snake charmer and his pet cobra. I’m assuming it was defanged, but strangely we didn’t ask.

Then it was back across the traffic and on to our magic bus for our next stop, the Amber Palace, a much larger and older palace on the outskirts of Jaipur that was protected by a hilltop fortress and a long stone wall that was miles long.

Back at our hotel, Jim napped while I walked the grounds and then we both enjoyed a truly delightful dinner under the stars at the hotel’s signature Indian Restaurant. We ordered a special chicken, wrapped in banana leaves, surrounded by dough, they buried and cooked for hours. It’s how the old hunting parties cooked and ate the game they caught when they were too far from the palace to bring it back. For dessert we had a delicious Kundalika cookie (warm crisp fennel cake steeped in sweetened extract and covered with edible silver foil referred to as “jalebi”), a traditional royal treat to end the meal.

We really wished we could have stayed here another night. The pace of the trip has been too fast for us up to this point, but when you travel in a group you have to follow the schedule.

Side note: Hotel laundry. We never pay for expensive hotel laundry, but we were pretty tired and decided to splurge. The laundry came back perfectly folded and wrapped, making repacking a breeze. I wouldn’t do it all the time, but it was definitely worth the splurge this time.

In Jaipur we had special packing instructions for our next adventure. Our bag pulls were the night before at 7:15 PM. The bags were going on the bus for an overnight 9 hour drive from Jaipur to Udaipur, while we would fly the next day. Our bus heroes were Arjune and our “Top Gun” bus driver Sarinder (who could weave our bus through the chaotic traffic, often with just an inch to spare on each side).

The next day began with a wake up alarm at 3:45 AM. We quickly got up, ate a few bites with our coffee and left the hotel for the airport at 4:30 AM.

Tina was nervous, because on her last tour the flight was delayed for two hours, then canceled (because of weather) and her group had no choice but to drive the 9 hours to Udaipur.

But our travel Karma was good again. We took off on time and landed in Udaipur two hours later without a problem.

Udaipur

With no delays in travel we headed to the Bougainvillea Art Gallery and restaurant for breakfast. The scenery here includes the oldest mountains in the world, the Aravali. The youngest are the Himalayas in northern India.

We picked up our local guides, Shakti and Jeevan along the road (it’s their way). Shakti’s wife needed the car. At the end of the Udaipur tour he used a scooter to drive home.

Although both are in Rajasthan, the scenery in Udaipur looked quite different from Jaipur. Udaipur has a lot more water, with lakes and green fields in the valleys, surrounded by small mountains and rolling hills that look like Northern California.

The Aravali’s art, trees, and background music created a “laid back” California vibe that we appreciated as we enjoyed our breakfast. The place is designed by a famous local who broke out of his “business caste” to successfully thrive in the art business. His family helps run and support the business side. The galleries also display stunning art from local artists.

After the art gallery we were in for a truly amazing and authentic village experience when our bus entered a small village that was just starting to celebrate a wedding! Instead of taking the direct freeway journey, our local guide (Shakti) asked our bus driver (Sarinder) to take our bus on a backroad through local villages and farmland. This is not a place where large 40 person buses usually go. The people we passed along the way seemed as happy to see us as we were to see them, and they waved and smiled and watched as we journeyed passed wheat fields and through simple villages, where women cary containers of water on their heads and there are plenty of cows and water buffalos.

And then the magic happened . . . a local village wedding blocked our road. “No Problem” as our amazing guide Tina says. Shakti, suggested we all get out to see the groom on his decorated horse.

The groom looked regal and was preparing to ride a short distance down the main village road to a special location for a ceremony. When we got there, we were all invited to join the festivities and draped with ceremonial orange scarves. Then the music from the giant “boom box van” started and everybody started dancing. The villagers, dressed in their finest clothes, loved that we were there with them and they embraced us, danced with us, took tons of selfies and none of us wanted to get back on the bus. Instead, we joined the procession to the bride’s house. The women of the village surrounded me and wanted to touch me, take pictures with me and dance with me. It was an amazing experience!

I really don’t think that anything on this trip will top the village wedding. We all had a blast.

Overjoyed, but exhausted and hot, we loaded back on the bus, drank cold bottled water and settled in for a drive to a smaller refurbished palace/hotel for lunch. This place, Devigarh, was purchased by an entrepreneurial Indian business woman and offers stunning views and a delightful lunch. Apparently, the building was in a state of extreme disrepair when she bought it and it took vision and a lot of hard work to reopen it as a small hotel and restaurant. In gratitude for its success, she built a small temple there to one of the female goddesses.

After Devigarh, it was on to a nearby 1,000 year old Hindu Temple that was filled with detailed carvings. Some of the carvings depict tantric acts that were supposedly designed to clear the mind of bad thoughts before praying. I’m not really sure that’s effective. However, many wedding couples come to the temple to take wedding pictures and we all enjoyed seeing the young couples, some very ornate, some more simple but all beautiful.

After that long fun day we finally reached the boat dock in Udaipur for the short boat trip to Lake Palace.

Normally, Tauck Tour groups stay at the lakeshore Oberoi, but it was booked for a big wedding so we got to stay at the Lake Palace. It’s all white marble, completely covering a small island so that it appears to “float” on the lake.

The Lake Palace epitomizes the paradox of India. Stunning, special, romantic and extremely quirky. The hotel rooms are all a bit different because the Lake Palace is over 250 years old. The staff is amazing. The boat ride to the hotel from the lake shore was delightful, and we really enjoyed the cooler temperature on the water and the fresh air. But once we got to our room, we were not allowed to open any of the windows. So sad! And then there are the birds. Tina told us a story about a past tour where a guest called her complaining that “she had to do something about the birds”. We laughed at her story, but that night after sunset and figuring out how to use the shower without flooding the bathroom (its a long story), the unbelievable cacophony of the birds started (and lasted for several hours). We cracked up. Check out the sounds in the video.

Instead of using roof nets to keep the birds out of the interior courtyard, large numbers of hotel staff constantly clean up the mess left by courtyard birds. We asked them why they don’t net, and they said, and I’m not kidding you, “we used to have nets, but the trees in the courtyard grew too tall, so we cut the nets down.” But no problem! The birds settle down around 9PM and we used our earplugs so they didn’t wake us at dawn.

Sari & Turban Fashion Show.

We loved Udaipur. The pace is slower, the town clean and safe, and the history interesting. We had a wonderful tour of the Udaipur City Palace, again part museum part home to the Maharana family. It was stunning as usual. Some of us did the long tour.

And we enjoyed another fantastic meal at a very nice local home owned by the descendants of a former high advisor to the last Maharaja of Udaipur. The experience is really special and they only do it a couple of months in the year, only for Tauck and Ambecrombie and Kent tours. The family sat with us in the foyer and chatted before we headed into the dining room where they served the most deliciuos and unusual meal, delicately seasoned and served family style.

Tuk Tuks in Jaipur and Udaipur.

Tuk Tuks in the city are just wild. The traffic in Jaipur moves with virtually no rules although there are traffic circles. Being on our big bus with our top gun driver feels a bit unsettling but we are safe, because we are the biggest vehicle out there. But Tuk Tuks are another story entirely.

In Jaipur we took them from the Palace, past camels, horses, elephants, cars, vespas, and lots of motorcycles to get from the crowded part of town to the bus to get to our dinner in an other part of the city.

On our last day in Udaipur, the Tuk Tuks were ours for the day. Jim was overjoyed. They took us through the old town to the market. Walking through the market early in the morning really gave us an idea of life in the city for most locals. Then we rode them to a special garden with water fountains that increase and decrease with the water level in the lake. From there we headed to the jewelry and craft area where we did some shopping. I got a beautiful filigree silver necklace, learned about rainbow moonstones and then headed back by tuk tuk to the boat for our last evening in the Palace. Tuk Tuks in the calmer traffic of Udaipur feel much safer.

Next blog will share our travels south to Kochi and Kerala, what a different vibe and experience.

Thankfully, the rain is falling in Delhi, cleansing the air around us. I’m going to attempt to share the last 48 hours with you all as we sit on our coach bus heading for Agra and the Taj Mahal.

The dense fog and pollution of the area has slowed and sometimes canceled air travel. And to get to Varanasi, air travel is a must.

Two days ago we gathered as a group at the Leela Palace Hotel with our remarkable tour guide Tina. We were told by Mona from the Leela Palace that Tina was the best guide and we agree! She is our logistics manager, trip mother, shopping guide, sister and overall everything. We feel that whatever we need, whatever problem arises, she can handle it with aplomb. Her caring, energy and humor has been wonderful. She started us off with some introductory ice breakers and then we headed out for our first tour around Delhi. We really have no idea how the bus driver was able to maneuver us through all the traffic. But he did it smoothly and expertly.

Over the last 48 hours Tina has coordinated luggage on two flights, 2 buses, hotel rooms, food, multiple flight delays, changes in plans and our expert guides. The result: we experience zero stress unless we think about what Tina is doing!

On our first tour day, we met our first guide, Samidha, who led us through the bus tour of the New Delhi and our first stop at Gandhi’s Smriti (where Gandhi spent the last four months of his life before he was martyred by a gunman during a public prayer meeting on January 30, 1948). The academy award winning film “Ghandi” was partly filmed at this site. If you haven’t watched it recently, you should. There is a reason he was called “Mahatma” Gandhi. As Albert Einstein wrote: “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon the earth.”

Aside: we just dropped off our airport guide, luggage and logistics leader in Delhi, Amrinder. We stopped in traffic near the Leela, he literally jumped out of our bus near a traffic circle in the crazy Delhi traffic, hailed a tuk-tuk to go back to the hotel, where he’s going to grab his car and drive 40 Kilometers home after a very full day. As Captain Kirk said about Spock in Star Trek IV (the humpback whale movie), Tina said, “it’s his way.” And, she said, “it’s India. He does it every trip.”

Ok, back to Ghandi. The museum and memorial site is quite moving and interesting. Combined with our knowledgeable guide, Ghandi’s life and last days come alive, including his final footsteps as he walked to his final prayer meeting. Ghandi was assassinated as he walked to the outdoor gathering, but he achieved in his violent, unnecessary death, what he couldn’t achieve in his life during the violent division of India into India & Pakistan, the end of the massive, nationwide, Hindu-Muslim violence throughout the country that had already killed over 1,000,000 people.

As the award winning book “Freedom at Midnight” described it: “For six terrible weeks, like the ravages of a medieval plague, a mania for murder would sweep across the face of northern India . . . Communities which had lived side by side for generations fell upon each other in an orgy of hate.” You can feel the trauma of the emotions resulting from the this violence just 75 years ago.

That night we headed back to the Leela, Jim and I swam in the beautiful rooftop pool, and then enjoyed a lovely group dinner together.

The next day we explored some of the amazing Muslim sites in Delhi, including the Tomb of Humayun (one of the early Mughal Emperors). It is the inspiration for the Taj Mahal. It was commissioned by Humayan’s wife.

The huge Qutb Minar (tower) that was erected on top of a Hindu Temple to commemorate the first Muslim conquest of Northern India and Delhi over 800 years ago, in the year 1191. It’s an extensive archaeological site. I must say our Hindu guide, Samidha, did her best, but as a Hindu, her heart was saddened by the 700 year years of Muslim rule that followed, before the British Empire replaced the Moghul Empire in 1857.

It was a full day and with the traffic we were running late. We had a lovely lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant and then headed back to the Leela for a last swim. Now it was time to pack for our 24 hour excursion to Varanasi (the holiest site in the Hindu religion). Most of our clothes went into our main suitcases to stay on the bus but we packed one small overnight bag for our flight and overnight at the Holy City.

We were up early for our last yummy Leela Palace breakfast and magic Chai Tea so that we could be on the bus by 7:30 to get to the airport. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed for several hours while we waiting for the thick Delhi smog to lift.

We finally arrived in Varanasi and were met there by a new bus and a new team of local guides Atanu and Devesh and the amazing bus drivers. We then headed immediately to Saranat, the birthplace of Buddhism (the Varanasi area is also one of the holiest places in Buddhism). On our way to Saranat our guide gave us a lecture about the 3 most important Hindu gods (Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu). Brahma is the Creator, Shiva is the Destroyer, and Vishnu is the Preserver who works to sustain the world by maintaining a sustainable balance between Creation and Destruction. Buddhists believe that Buddha was the first man to escape the endless Hindu cycle of birth, death and rebirth, achieving perfect enlightenment (“Nirvana”). Buddha was born into a royal family in India, near Nepal. However, when he became a young man, he was dissatisfied with his material wealth, and gave up his royal birthright to explore the world of the common people. There he learned about the suffering of all people, including growing older, getting sick and dying. He then meditated and prayed on his experiences over six years, before giving his first sermon, near Varanasi, around 2,500 years ago.

We walked around the Buddhist archeological site with its extensive ruins and large Stupa along with other tourists and some religious pilgrims.

Because of our earlier flight delays we were running late so we did not get to spend as much time with the Buddhists as we would have liked. But we needed to get back to our hotel so we could get ready for our Ganges river boat tour. At the hotel we threw our stuff into our rooms, had a quick buffet dinner, grabbed layers of clothes for the expected cold evening on the river. We then got back on our bus and went to the Ghats (riverside) area of Varanasi to witness the Cremation Ceremonies on the Mother Gonga River (known to English speakers as the Ganges River).

Darkness, the smells of wood burning, pilgrims, the river, the boats, the music, the prayers, the lights, the celebration of life and transition, smoke, burning the eyes, exhaustion, sights and sounds of wild weddings ceremonies briefly energized us again . . . It’s impossible to properly describe the experience, but here’s my attempt. It was otherworldly to witness the mass cremation of recently passed loved ones of devout Hindus. Their hope is that by cremating their beloved family members in this way, in Varanasi, that the departed souls will escape the otherwise eternal cycle of birth-death-rebirth and instead transition to a heavenly state of “nirvana.”

Back at our hotel, there were three consecutive weddings: all loud, colorful and beautiful. We showered and collapsed into bed. Jim was really affected by the relentless air pollution of northern India, and especially the smoke from the multiple cremations. I put in my earplugs to dim the wedding party sounds and fell soundly asleep until 4:45 AM when I was going to go back to the river to experience with some of our group the daily ceremony of “waking up” Mother Gonga for another day of religious experiences.

Again, we were enveloped in thick fog and air pollution. We walked past a different group of prayer leaders and people washing in the Ganges for purification and prayer. We stopped and watched the ceremony by the priests to “wake up” the river and welcome the sunrise. It involved four parts each: incense, conch shell blowing, wiping away the incense, and honoring the flame with frankincense and myrrh and the cobra, each time pointing at the four points of the compass.

Then we were back on a smaller boat, also decorated with marigolds (a holy flower in India) to head in the other direction on the river. There were fewer cremation ceremonies at this time of day but some people were immersing themselves in the river for a spiritual cleansing . Although the river is cleaner than it once was at the hight of its pollution, it is by no means clean. Yet, people still gather at the water’s edge and some actually go into it. On the boat we saw a yogi floating in the river, doing a yoga pose while floating on his back. We all thought he was dead. None of us got a picture, but all agreed it was remarkable. On the way back to the bus I spoke with Devesh about a charity he works that helps women caught up in sex slavery and prostitution usually from an early age. His charity is called Ganga Learning Center and it’s on facebook. Jim and I will make a donation on his behalf. The book I am currently reading is “Kaleidoscope City” which describes the history of Varanasi and also covers this scourge.

It began to rain hard as after we entered the bus to head out for our long drive. Our bus driver, Surinder, is truly superhuman. I don’t know how he does it! Because we arrived so late we hit big time traffic, add the rain and it took more than 90 minutes to get from the airport to a place where there was less traffic. The rain let up a bit, and quite honestly we were hopeful it would be an air-cleansing rain. But it made for an extra long bus ride to Agra and our Oberoi Hotel notoriously magical hotel near the Taj Mahal. I’m going to go on the early 6AM tour tomorrow morning because Tina said it was the best time for photos. Jim will join me for the main tour of the Taj Mahal later that morning.

We have two nights in Agra.

Today, we met our new tour guides and history teachers Duber and Rishi and checked in to our hotel where we threw down our bags and ordered room service. I stripped out of my dirty clothes ran a bath and meditated. After a remarkable dinner we collapsed and slept hard! Next bog our magical Taj Mahal and Massive Red Fort experience, hopefully on the Friday’s bus trip from Agra to Jaipur.

We had a little drama at the Bangkok airport before our 4.5 hour flight to Delhi. We arrived early to avoid the late afternoon/evening commute traffic and found the lounge to relax before our flight. Our plane had not been assigned a gate so we waited for our gate to appear on the video departures list. Unfortunately, it never did. Jim got up to look and didn’t think to ask the women at the counter. It’s an extension of the “never ask directions” guy thing. I felt uneasy because our flight was an hour away from leaving, so I went up to talk with her. She looked at the list and exclaimed: “Oh! Your gate has changed and you must head there immediately.” I scooped up Jim and our stuff. The gate was quite a distance away including an elevator and a tram. However, we ran into a nice Indian man and his Mom who were on our flight and he guided us on the way. We arrived at our gate about 10 minutes before boarding began.

We left Bangkok after 8 PM and it was fun watching the plane icon on the map of the world heading to places and over oceans and seas that were new to us.

Navigating customs in India was easy. In fact, because we are seniors, we didn’t even have to have our pictures taken or give our fingerprints (as we had to in Thailand). Once in the main terminal we easily connected with our Tauck Tours guide, who presented us with a Lai of daisies. We were so glad to see him because even at midnight the Delhi Airport chaos swirled around us as we were guided to where our car was waiting.

Delhi is the world’s second largest city, with over 29 million inhabitants. Only Tokyo is larger. Even in the middle of the night, the sounds of honking are constant. Our guide told us Indians navigating the roads of Delhi need 4 things: good horn, good brakes, good driver and good luck. Jim’s strong backseat driver tendencies made the journey from the airport to our hotel challenging, and he eventually just closed his eyes and meditated.

Our hotel (The Leela Palace) is in New Delhi, the federal administrative district on the south side of Delhi. New Delhi has less than 500,000 people and is much quieter. We entered the hotel gates and first had to stop to have our trunk checked for security. Security was higher than usual because later that morning in New Delhi was the big 75th Celebration of India’s Republic Day, marking the day India’s post-colonial Constitution took effect. The celebration mixes prayer and a parade focusing on military power, cultural traditions and India’s leading citizens.

By the time we were in our room and in bed it was 2:30 AM and we were very tired.

We woke up on our own the next morning and had a fantastic breakfast and watched some of the parade on TV. I immediately experimented with local foods. The Chefs loved that I was so willing to try the unusual things and wanted to bring me more. The intricate taste of the homemade Chai Tea that was served made having coffee totally unnecessary for me. Clearly breakfast was going to be our daily super meal.

The hotel staff is abundant, friendly, and very attentive. Everyone wants to converse and help us with anything we need.

After breakfast we explored the beautiful building, the art and the grounds. We found the spa, and the roof-top swimming pool (it’s delightfully warm!) and then decided to go for a swim.

Even though Delhi is the world’s second largest city, you can’t see it because the air pollution is so consistently poor, especially in the winter. We were warned about it, but it’s impossible to imagine until you’re in it. This really should be a top focus of the government here. We were told by an Austrian factory manager visiting the hotel for a weekend respite that people who live their whole lives in Delhi lose 15 years of life expectancy because of the air pollution. For a country as large and resource rich as India that is unacceptable. India is a very young country, with a very old, diverse mix of cultures, that is still recovering from centuries of colonial rule by the Mughals beginning in 1526 and then by the British (who formally took over the country from the East India Company in 1857) and then ended its colonial government in 1947.

Our first day had the worst air pollution of our visit. Visibility was less than 1 mile. After swimming 20 laps, I definitely noticed that I had difficulty breathing. Yesterday was much better because a breeze kicked up, we could see the sky and probably about 3 miles around the hotel and I could swim 30 laps without any difficulty. Today it appears that the winds have stilled again and the bad pollution is back although not as bad as the first day.

We only did one short walk outside the hotel grounds (to a nearby shopping mall), and we just aren’t moved to do much exploring on our own. Instead, we are pampering ourselves and eating wonderful food at the hotel’s three restaurants. Our first night we ate at the Japanese restaurant, last night we ate at the European restaurant and tonight our 20-person tour group will eat together at the Indian restaurant. We’ve met a few people from our tour group already and we are looking forward to meeting the rest this afternoon.

Our tour group gathers at 1:30 today and then we head out for our first group tour of Delhi, including Gandhi’s Smriti (assassination site).

We are both finishing the book, “Freedom at Midnight”, recommended to us by our dear friend Richard Wortley. The book was the used to create the script for the Oscar winning movie “Gandhi”, but has so much more information and is beautifully written. We both love reading books about the areas we are visiting while we are here; as I read I can feel the energy of the book come alive.

Well rested and well fed, today we begin our 18 day trip of India!

The flight from Osaka to Bangkok was easy. The Osaka airport is relatively new but not very spacious. But no matter, we made it to our gate easily after walking through the very popular tax-free shopping area. It was our first time flying Thai Airways and the service was quite good. Flight attendants wear traditional, colorful clothing. They were very concerned about a bumpy flight and worked super hard to serve everyone’s meal quickly. It turned out the flight was extremely smooth. After our 10 hour flight to Osaka, the 5.5 hours to Bangkok seemed like nothing. Going through customs was easy. Jim had to carry his walking sticks because security made him use them in the airport so we could carry them on. So we were escorted a faster line after arrival to make our transit easier. We decided to preorder a driver to our hotel from the airport for this part of the journey instead of mass transit because we were arriving so late. The cost was very reasonable and it’s hot here, so It was a good choice.

Leaving the airport you are greeted by many of biggest billboards we have ever seen, easily four times larger than typical billboards.

We chose the So/Bangkok Hotel because of the location next to a Lumphini Park (a medium sized park surrounded by 30-40 story residential and office buildings), and it’s easy access to transit. It was a good choice. Bangkok is a huge city with a population over 11,000,000. Traffic is terrible most of the time, construction is happening everywhere and the trains and subways are packed. In short, it’s a very busy place! On the flight from Osaka we listened to a well-timed Econ/Talk podcast that talked about many things including the next 100 years of growth of the world economy which guest economist believes will be centered in India and S.E. Asia. You definitely sense that dynamic here.

Because we arrived late, they didn’t have the room we booked and ended up in a room with 2 twin beds, but they assured us we would be upgraded the next day. We were pretty exhausted so it didn’t make much difference. The hotel is a bit noisy here, because there is a very busy road between it and the park, but I came prepared with silicone ear plugs for both of us. They make all the difference to mask out the traffic noises when you’re trying to sleep.

On our first day, after a breakfast fit for a Queen and King (complete with Thai soups, omelettes, breads, fruit smoothies and too much to even try) we decided to explore the park and the local “skytrain” elevated transit to visit Raja’s Fashions. Robert Scales, our new friend we met in Osaka, suggested we go there to get clothes made. We needed to get Jim a light weight sports coat for India and we thought we would do that in India, but the timing seemed better here in Bangkok. Raja’s is a multi-generation family-owned business and just lovely. They measured Jim and we picked out our fabric and while we were there we met two other couples from Seattle who were very familiar with Dick’s. We exchanged cards and will meet again in Seattle! The farther away we get from home the world seems smaller!

After our shopping we went to one of the many nearby malls and explored the food court. There were so many choices of local delectable Thai foods. It was amazing and overwhelming! And the prices are extremely reasonable. With our mouths a bit on fire, we decided we “needed” some ice cream to finish up and fortunately there was a a sit down Swenson’s Ice Cream Parlor in the food court. Yum!

There is the usual collection of American brands: McDonald’s, Burger King, Dominos, Crispy Cream (donuts are good here!). And the prices are cheap. $5.85 for a Big Mac combo meal.

Returning to the hotel after lunch we moved to our upgraded room. What an upgrade! It’s a huge corner room with amazing views in two directions. Then it was time to head to the pool. Bangkok hotels are famous for their rooftop pools. Ours was on the 10th floor, not on the rooftop, but because it faced the park it still had great views of the city.

Another must do in Bangkok is enjoying the spas and getting a Thai massage. We did ours at the hotel. It was quite reasonable and really nicely done. To end our first day we grabbed a snack at another must-do in Bangkok: the roof top bar. We were early and I’m guessing this place really hits its peak about midnight and has a very young vibe. Every tall hotel has one of these. I think we have passed our roof top bar phase, but it was a nice experience with a good view and it gave us time to use Google and learn more about the economic history of Thailand. The internet can be so amazing. Here we were sitting at a roof top bar, sipping a gin and tonic and learning so much about Bangkok and Thailand. The modern world is such an amazing place. So much is possible if humanity can just avoid war. Thailand has done a good job of that. They aren’t invaders and haven’t been invaded since the 1800’s and in general Thailand’s leaders have chosen collaboration and trade instead of plunder. So today Thailand is prospering and growing. However, there is definitely a dark side to Thailand that focus on sex and prostitution in parts of the country. Definitely a Yin/yang.

We’ve signed up for a couple of tours and the second day we did a “Temples, Palace and Canal” Tour. Our guide, Angelo, met us at the hotel and guided us through a full day of spiritual sharing, history, conversation and shared growth and experiences. We definitely could not have navigated all the visits in one day without a guide like Angelo. He coordinated the driver and our favorite part (the “James Bond Boat” (featured in “The Man With the Golden Gun”) through the canal and water way system that is like the one in Venice but much larger.

We visited the three large temples in Bangkok throughout the day. Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Arun, and Wat Pho. They are each unique and Angelo shared his Buddhist knowledge as we learned about each. We “talked story” as they say in Hawaii about traditional Buddhist beliefs and prayers. Along our journey Angelo made sure we were well hydrated, sprayed our hands with disinfectant, gave us treats (I especially like the Thai taco) and made sure we had got great photographs at all the key locations.

Our favorite part was getting onto the water and going through some of the locks of the canal system. We had to wait outside each lock to enter the canals because there was a large tidal surge coming from the Gulf of Thailand (the river tides in Bangkok can vary up to 14 feet because Bangkok is not far from the ocean).

Our final Temple visit was the giant golden Buddha laying on its side. It’s quite spectacular.

Back at the hotel we rested a bit before heading out for Jim’s fitting. This time we took the Metro (suggested by Angelo) instead of walking through the park to the elevated train. The trains and Metro were packed because it was peak commuting time. But we arrived at our appointment on time and they made the fitting improvements so that they could finish the sport coat by Thursday.

We hoped to grab a quick dinner in the Siam district before heading back. Unfortunately the recommended restaurant was closed. At this point it was 7:30, we were hungry, this area is definitely seedier, so we took the train back to our district and grabbed a quick bite at a local restaurant near the train station before heading to the metro and back to our hotel.

So, an extremely full day two came to an end.

Bike tour of the farm island: Our second full day in Bangkok was quite a contrast from our first. A driver took us by car from our hotel to the beginning of our “jungle bike tour” on a small island near the port of Bangkok. It’s mostly a manmade island that used to be an isthmus. It’s now built up and sea walls protect it from flooding. We met our guide “Vee” and 8 other bike tourists, then walked to a small boat dock on the Chaophraya River through a poorer part of Bangkok and took a short water taxi ride to the “jungle” Island. I’m just OK at bike riding, but as “admiral of atmosphere” I thought this would be something Jim would appreciate and our friends Kaysi and Stephen said it was a good excursion. But, meandering through narrow paths sharp turns of the paths was challenging for me. The bike through the nice park, and quiet roads, was much easier. It was quite a different experience, but well worth it.

We saw several large monitor lizards and learned about the “suicide/murder” tree that produces a poison seed that looks like a small coconut and has no antidote. It grows wild throughout SE Asia. For a completely different culinary experience, we stopped briefly at a roadside table for the best mango and sticky rice we’ve ever had! These guided tours are great at finding the local food gems.

Other tidbits:

There are only 3 seasons in Bangkok: Winter/Summer/Rainy. Winter is the coolest season, with highs in the high 80’s and low 90’s, but it didn’t feel as hot as we thought it would. We rarely saw the sun much and never saw any stars. We didn’t get rain, because this is the dry season

The people are delightful. Thai people smile a lot, and are very friendly. Bangkok is modern but still growing quickly with lots of construction sites all around the city. There are at least 6 tall buildings going up in the immediate vicinity of our hotel. What appeared to be a hot tub was no warmer than the pool, which was not warm. It was cold.

No bugs they are definitely spraying here.

As a marketing person, I’m always interested in the ads. No financial ads. The big billboard near our hotel is really pushing Dior red lipstick (definitely making me want to use my red lipstick) Samsung phones, cars and IKEA with a smattering of other things.

Thursday is our last day and it’s a transition day. We will pack, pick up Jim’s sport coat and do a little final exploring before heading to the airport for a 10pm departure on our 4-hour flight to Delhi. The next blog will be from India!

Arrived in India:

We arrived in India last night for the main course of our travels. Our Tauck pick up was super smooth and boy did we need the help navigating the airport chaos. The past week has been wonderful but we are excited for our India Adventure.

We are writing the blog the morning we leave Osaka. It’s our last day here in Osaka and it’s very rainy. A perfect day to for watching the football games this morning. It took a while, but we’ve figured out how to stream them. Go 49ers!

Yesterday, after a day of rest and relaxation we woke up to sunnyish weather that was perfect for exploring. So we headed out to 400-year old Osaka Castle by subway. We found the subway next to our building pretty quickly, but after arriving at the ticket booth, we discovered we could only pay with cash. After some local advice (everyone here has been so helpful and nice) we headed back up to the surface and the 7 Eleven near the exit to use the closest cash machine. The Osaka subways are very modern except that there aren’t many escalators and elevators are hard to find.

So began Jim’s adventure with climbing and descending multiple flights of stairs around Osaka. By the end of the day Jim’s Apple Watch clocked 20 flights of stairs and over 20,000 steps. Amazing!

With cash in hand we found the correct train and after a successful transfer and climbing some long stairs to get above ground we arrived near Osaka Castle Park. We enjoyed a long walk through the park (which must be very beautiful in Spring or Fall) and then had to climb more stairs to get to the Castle, which of course was located at the top of a hill and surrounded by moats. The impressive structure was originally built in the late 1500’s, but then destroyed during the Japanese civil war that ultimately unified the country in 1615. The Castle was rebuilt in the 1620’s, but the central tower was struck by lightning and burnt down in 1665, and not completely rebuilt until 1931. Surprisingly, it was not damaged in WW2.

The Castle has an elevator that takes you to the 5th floor but from there you need to climb stairs to reach the top on the 8th floor. It’s worth it to enjoy the magnificent 360° view from the top and then it’s relatively easy to take the stairs down and wind through the lower floors to learn the history of the Shoguns during the Japanese civil war and the huge battles that were fought at and near the Castle in the early 1600’s.

After a quick break for a snack and a bit of rest we walked to the Shinto shrine outside the castle grounds and discovered an extremely rare blooming winter cherry tree. It was a good sign that Spring is on its way!

Then we headed back through the park in search of the JR line commuter rail station so we could head north to Kyoto (Japan’s ancient Imperial Capitol that governed most of Japan for over 1,000 years, before the Capitol was moved to Tokyo). We followed the signs but we had some trouble with communication and ended up going up and down a long staircase two times causing Jim to say “Are you kidding me” and me to laugh. After climbing the stairs the first time, we spoke with an English speaking person on street level and unfortunately he told us to go back down the subway stairs to the information desk. When we got there, a lovely English speaking local translated for us with the train employee there who told us that we had to head back up the same long stairs and then walk about 300 yards to find the station for the the JR Loop Railroad, which would take us to the Osaka Central station, where we could transfer to the train that went to Kyoto. One more stair case and a brief walk and we finally made it! We needed a little help buying a ticket again and were very thankful that Osaka Central has a lot of escalators. And that is how we made it from Osaka Castle to the correct train to get to Kyoto (a 30 minute trip).

I wanted to head back to the “Sou Sou” brand store I had discovered in Kyoto 8 years ago. We thought we could walk there but weren’t exactly sure of the route from our paper map, so we reluctantly turned off “airplane mode” on our phone and paid for local cell service so we could use Apple map. On the way out of the train station two local high school students asked us to take a survey they had written about tourists’ impressions of Japan’s work-centered culture. By this time it was about 2:30 PM and we began a 1.5 mile walk to Kyoto’s shopping district, passing several impressive Buddhist Temples and taking the more pedestrian friendly back streets.

We found the Sou Sou store after stopping at a very modern and popular donut restaurant (although the donuts were dry and nothing like a freshly baked American donut). After some careful shopping I bought a beautiful jacket. Our plan was to hang around Kyoto’s shopping district, have dinner and then head back by cab to the train station. The salesperson suggested a nearby restaurant called Onikai. It took a while, but we found it and then stopped for a beer at a nearby establishment while we waited for it to open.

Forty-five minutes later we walked in to what we thought was the restaurant, it wasn’t. But it was super local and authentic. The food wan’t great, but it was interesting and on the way out we found Onikai but it was completely booked so it all worked out just fine.

Now it was time to find a cab. Jim found a wide spot on the street that appeared perfect for hailing cabs. And it was! The cab took us to the main Kyoto train station and we used escalators to find our train. Success, sort of. Turns out we boarded the express train and we only paid for the regular train. No problem, seated and underway we paid the conductor the extra $10 we owed for our quick trip back to Osaka.

When we arrived back at the Osaka Central train station, we decided that since we had no luggage, we wouldn’t use a taxi but would instead find the “Y” Subway Line that goes directly to our hotel. We had been warned that this was easier said than done because, OMG, Osaka Central Station is a gigantic labyrinth. I didn’t take a video of the mass of humanity crisscrossing hither and thither, but eventually we maneuvered our way through it, keeping our eyes out for the occasional signs showing us the way to the Y line, and although we had to reverse course a couple of times, we finally reached the correct platform, boarded the subway train in the correct direction and finally made it to the hotel. We were proud of ourselves, but next time we’ll just take the taxi, especially if we have any luggage.

We high-fived when we entered the hotel after a long day of walking, exploring a Castle, and maneuvering through crowded train stations. It was 8 PM but we’re finally back in our hotel room. Before bed we had to do some laundry and hang the clothes up to dry, but after that I ran a bath and we both collapsed in bed after a very successful day.

The Art Museum

The next day we had a much more mellow day and after the delicious buffet breakfast walked the 10 minutes to the nearby Osaka Art Museum. It’s a large museum (similar to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC) but with very few exhibits. The museum did have a remarked collection of early Osaka Women Artists. Japan is a very patriarchal society and it wasn’t easy being a women artist in the early 20th Century. Unfortunately, there was no English guide and no English translations, but we used google translate and enjoyed the exhibit. So much of the art reminded me of my Grandmother’s beautiful artwork. The exhibit featured Shima Seien and 4 other women artists who were allowed to exhibit at the 1916 National Japanese Art Exhibition.

The museum really needs a better leader. This could be a much better exhibit with more creative and informative curation. The descriptions read like they were cut and pasted from a 100 year old book. There is almost no discussion about technique or color. No real narrative. A local woman started whispering to us, because she was also clearly disappointed by the descriptions and wanted us to have better context for the various paintings.

It would have been great to build a bridge to more modern woman Japanese artists like Yayoi Kusama and others. But we still enjoyed the art and the experience. We couldn’t photograph most of the art. But these photos give you some idea of the exhibit and includes some of the museum’s funky sculptures.

Back at the hotel we did some yoga and swimming and soaking before going to a fantastic dinner at the hotel’s “Kora” restaurant. This was a pricey but very special dinner. We ate early at the Chef’s table and had a marvelous time talking with the Chef. The chef’s technique, service and the high quality of the fish, couldn’t have been better.

Back in the room we collapsed into a deep sleep.

Earlier in the gym we met Robert Scales, he asked us where we were from and he had been to Seattle many times, which led to a discussion about Dick’s of course. He lives in DC but works with T-Mobile. He’s traveling here with a friend, Gnoc, who also works for T-Mobile and lives in Renton. We met for breakfast and had a great visit. Robert is a world traveler who had been to Bangkok many times and he shared some of his Bangkok recommendations.

At the moment we are streaming the 49ers game, I’m working on the blog and immediately after the game we will head to the KIX international airport for our journey to Bangkok.

Overall, we’ve loved Osaka, it was a perfect stop for overcoming jet lag and experiencing a different side of Japan. It’s not crowded, it’s extremely authentic and not touristy. There are great restaurants and many interesting places to visit and excellent train and subway service (although more escalators would be appreciated!).

Fun fact about Japan: when someone asks you were you are from and you say Seattle, everyone smiles and says, “Ichiro!” Go Mariners!

Day 1: Plane, Train & Automobile

We begin our adventure flying from Oahu to Osaka. The flight was delayed an hour, but relatively uneventful. We were expecting our first stoic challenge would come after we landed in Osaka as we tried to find the JR express to Osaka with our luggage, but that all went remarkably smoothly.

The challenge came on the way to the airport when we realized Jim (the man who always double checks everything) left his wallet behind in the dresser in our condo. At first we thought we would have to drive back to get it. After starting our drive back to Waianae, we puzzled it out and realized we had our passports and I had all the credit cards we needed. The cash was unnecessary and although Jim felt “naked” without his wallet it was best to leave it behind. Cutting it so close was not a good idea. Our dear friends Ken and Maria went above and beyond to try to Fed Ex the wallet to Osaka. But it will take 5 or 6 days. Nothing is fast in HI. So we will make do with what we have.

As I said before going through customs was a breeze, we learned where to buy our tickets for the JR Express to Osaka by watching a YouTube before we left and we made it to the train with 10 mutes to spare. Trains in Japan are so efficient and so clean and Jim loves trains.

It’s a bit of a circuitous route out of the enormous Osaka Central Station to the taxis, but not a problem. We forgot about the lovely, clean Japanese taxis, complete with lace.

Our choice of the Conrad Hotel in Osaka to work through jet lag seems perfect so far. We slept relatively well, the service is excellent and the pool and spa lovely.

Today’s weather is pretty “Seattle”, 50 degrees and raining. So we’ve decided to enjoy the pool and spa. Dryer weather is in the forecast for tomorrow and we plan to explore.

Sayanora for now!

Fawn & Jim