Prawns and beer

24/09/10 Met up with Pravir on Friday night.  He took us out for the fattest prawns we've ever met.  Seriously, the size of bananas, and dam tasty too.  Thanks dude!!!  Back to basic curry again now :( for 25th of the price :)

Toasty

Cucumber, potato, onion, tomato and beetroot?! With butter, two types of chilli sauce and ketchup on top.
Awesome breakfast!
Rs 14

coal fired toasty maker

Kulfi

Bombay ice cream
Royal Pista flavour, Rs 36 per 100g

Bombay Dreams

24/09/10 Mumbai skyline from Chowpatty beach at sunset. really nice to be by the sea, even if it is toxic!  Also very cool to be in a cosmopolitan city and see some modern India.

Dude, Chef.

Evening time pass

Traveled around the city by local train, super cheap
Rs 4, single journey

London cabs are iconic, but bombay ambassadors are pure gangstar!

Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, Mumbai's largest man powered washing machine.  Pretty amazing that your clothes find their way back to you.  Although we keep finding numbers and dots written in pen on our collars and cuffs.

Paneer

Saw people making it fresh, with buckets and sacks and a big stone!  Amazing as we're generally eating veg curry.

Varanasi Breakfast

Puri, pumpkin curry and jalebis
Rs 25

Jalebis: deep fried batter, dunked in sweet sugary syrup.  Not great. Look cool though, Grace likes to call them Squiggly Wigglies.

The Ganges

20/09/10 Varanasi, wow.

 Ganges at dawn

Morning buffalo bath

Bathing and performing Puja (offerings and prayers)

Wizard Vs Mud Man

Grace likes flowers!

The rivers high after monsoon, temples are sinking!

Lotus flower candle offerings

Leaving the funeral pyres at Manikarnika Ghat

Did we come all this way for this?

20/09/10 Tetley tea bag and Fosters(?) water, Brown Bread Bakery, Varanasi.

Taj Mahal

19/09/10  We were second in the queue, 5.30 am, pouring with rain! Classic.

Grace with Taj

John and Grace with Taj (long arm technique)

John with Taj (classic Indian pose)

Grace dancing with Taj

Taj from the North

Taj over roofs of Agra, at night

Bhindi

18/09/10  Finally found Bhindi at Mohan restaurant, Jaipur.  When asked if we like it spicey, we said YESSSSS.
Served here with rice, Dal Fry and Chapatis. Rs 100 (for 2)

Bangles

18/09/10 Jaipur has a road famous for Bangle shops, Maniharon Rasta.

Traditionally in Rajasthan bangles are made out of Lak, a resin from trees.  Here's a dude melting and jeweling them.

Dabang!

17/09/10 Raj Mandir cinema, Jaipur.  The number 1 Hindi cinema in India.  We went to see the new hit Bollywood movie Dabang!

We couldn't book in advance, so Grace joined the 'ladies queue' for an hour with elbows ready ;)  Met Ranu, an Art teacher from Jaipur, she was really friendly and laughed at all Grace's jokes :)  We sat with her and her mum for the film.

We were sure it was a spoof, but when we enquired we were assured it was a serious Action movie.  Wow!  Lots of woops from the audience, lots of fun :)  Grace's face was in fixed smile throughout - new career aspirations!

Watch trailer here!

Pakora

Vegetable, masala, deep fried goodness...in a bag.
Rs 10.

Lassi

Mixture of yoghurt and ice (people say don't eat dairy or drink the water?!)  But they're lush!

This is a Makhani Lassi, with saffron, cardamon, rose, pistachio and cashew.  It was like drinking turkish delight!

Pushkar

15/09/10 We're in Pushkar.  A bit random, with an air of Glastonbury festival - shops, no rock n roll :(

Climbed up to a temple before day break.  Shame the temple was lit up like a casino, but really appreciated the exercise.

Feeding soul

Chili Wada

Found these! Battered chili snack attack
Rs 8.

Date Night

13/09/10 Thanks Charlotte and Adam for our meal at the fort :)

(UFO)