My Welcome Home Surprise

The Story:
I was really excited to come home and even more excited when I got to the airport because Riki proposed! To say the least, I was extremely shocked and could barely understand what was happening! It was really sweet tho - he flew in my parents and had everyone at the airport waiting for me. After I became a bit less hysterical, we had a champagne toast in the airport and I got a nice little welcome home basket. Oh yeah, and Riki talked to my manager and got me a business class ticket home so I wouldn't be so tired when I arrived. (My manager told me it was b/c I did such a good job...what bullshit :)

After the airport, we went home, and got ready for a big party Riki planned at my favorite restaurant with our closest friends and family. It was really amazing. We had such a blast and I was in heaven with yummy wine and ceviche. Take a look at the pictures - as you can see, I'm a complete scrub when I fly, but at least we got a few presentable pictures at the party :)

My Hyderabad Family

My last weekend in Hyderabad was all about spending time with my India family (aka - Facebook landing team). We had a great night dancing on Friday and went out for a family dinner on Sat. Here is a link to all pictures and below are a few of my favorites.

Bali!

I spent a wonderful 10 days in Bali, which was a nice way to pass my last days in India. The trip was characterized by the really cool things we (Tiff, Carrie & Traci) were able to do - below are the highlights.

1. Surfing
Not gonna lie...I was a bit nervous about surfing since I heard it was so hard. But...we all killed it! Got up on my first try and we had SO much fun! Pretty sure it'll be harder in the freezing rough water in SF, but I'm willing to try :)


2. Hiking a Freaking Volcano at Sunrise
Yeah...awesome! We got up at 1:30am to head to the volcano...that part sucked, but the rest was amazing. So we all got mini flashlights and hiked 2 hrs in the dark to the top of the volcano. We got there just in time to see the sunrise - it was beautiful! The one thing we were all surprised about was how freaking cold it was at the top...we totally froze.

Also, one of the reasons they do sunrise hikes is because people would never actually go to the top if they realized how steep it was. It was pretty intense! This is us trying not to die on the way down - it was all volcanic sand and was quite loose...

After the hike, we stopped at a beautiful hot springs hotel and hung out in the pool. It was a pretty amazing day :)



3. Bike tour of Ubud & Rice Fields
We took a day bike tour of Ubud, which was amazing! We stopped at an amazing viewpoint then went to a coffee making area that does Luwak coffee, which I call shit coffee since it requires a "Catfox animal" to eat the coffee beans and shit them out. Yeah, and it's the world's most expensive coffee. I'm not a big fan of black coffee, but I will say that it was the best black coffee I've ever had. I love shit coffee!

Next up was biking in the countryside to see local homes or compounds as they call them. It was really cool to see - life is so different on the compound! Outside of the entrance is a cock - or a fighting rooster that the husband spends hours massaging every day... Cock fighting is huge in Indonesia. There are multiple families living there, they all share a kitchen and never leave their family compound. They also have compound cows and pigs, which are prized possessions in the back.

Then it was off to the rice fields to see how they process rice. We got to see the end of the harvest, which was really cool. On the way to lunch, we stopped at a massive banyan tree, which Tiff and I attempted to climb :)

On the way to lunch, we had 2 options: 1) bike uphill for 45 minutes to lunch or 2) get a ride to lunch. I thought it was a great opportunity for a workout since I hadn't been able to work out in India for a few months. Uhhh...yeah, almost died. The guide said it "wasn't a bad ride", which is total bullshit. It was hard - not a good first workout!

4. Cooking Class
We learned some mad skills for cooking Indonesian food and I have to say - it was the best Indonesian food we had in Bali! And I didn't even blow anything up!

5. Dolphin Watching
Another early morning - we got on the boat at 6am to go watch the dolphins. It was pretty amazing to see so many dolphins out there and the scenery wasn't too bad :)

6. Monkey Forest
Yup, the name describes it. It's a huge forest with thousands of monkeys just roaming the area freely. And they're quite smart and aggressive - one chased Traci to get her water bottle and was jumping all over her! Overall - a little freaky, but pretty awesome.

Tripping Seems so Harmless

So I was walking up these big concrete stairs to get into a store and tripped. No big deal right? Well, considering these were ghetto concrete stairs and jagged (yes, I'm in India) it was a bit worse than expected.

I didn't think anything of it and got up and walked into the store. Then I realized my sandal was slipping because blood was pooling up and I looked down to see a huge chunk of my skin hanging off my toe. Awesome.

Thank goodness the Facebook crew had hydrogen peroxide (painful!!!) to clean it with, otherwise pretty sure it would have gotten infected! I guess my plan to go crazy dancing and workout this weekend is ruined since it hurts to walk...

Kerala

Kerala translates to "God's Own Country" and I have to agree. It really felt like an entirely different country than India. It was seriously beautiful. See all the pictures!

We arrived in Cochin on Friday night and drove into town. Since we were getting up and leaving at 6:30 in the morning, we decided to take it easy and went out for dinner & some beers. Then, like the grandmas we were on this trip, we went to bed early. In the morning we woke up early to give elephants bathes at this training center. I LOVE elephants!

Munnar
Munnar got hyped up a bit from friends who have been, but it surpassed the hype. It was one of the most beautiful and unique mountain areas I’ve ever seen. Munnar is all about tea plantations so when we arrived, we had some fresh squeezed tree tomato juice (kinda tastes like strawberry/banana) then went to learn the history of the tea plantations & how they make tea. Interestingly enough, black tea is made from green tea but oxidized more – who knew?! After some quality tea time, we went to a spice market and bought fresh spices for about 50 cents per bag. Pretty sure I would have paid $5 in the states. Then our homestay dad (Anil) took us a for a hike through the tea plantations, which was breathtaking.

Day 2 consisted of driving around the beautiful mountains and soaking it all in. About 30 min in, I had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at some random restaurant that was filled with 20-something boys. As soon as we walked in, about 40 eyes were on us. Then they crowded us in the sink area to get pictures with us. We literally had to push our way out of the crowd. We were also wondering where the hell are all of the women?! Oh India… As for the views, I think the pictures speak for themselves. Not gonna lie though, driving 5 hours through windy roads with crazy Indian drivers…we were happy to get out of the car.

And since it was Holi in India, we had to partake in the festivities. Even though Munnar is mainly catholic and they don’t really celebrate, we brought the party with us. Pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy running around the yard throwing colors :)

At night we went to see a traditional martial arts show, which was totally nuts and awesome. Of course, we had to go in the ring and try some fighting ourselves – Elisabeth looks so angry!

In Munnar, we stayed at a homestay with the owners Anil & Jeeva, who were amazing! We got delicious home cooked meals and got a little cooking lesson from Jeeva. And the fresh fruit was also a highlight (yum passion fruit!).

Houseboating on the backwaters in Allepey
Houseboating got a lot of hype, but it’s all true. It was pretty much the perfect day: gorgeous views, afternoon drinking & card games, nap, some laughs and of course huge amounts of food. When we docked for the night, a few boys took us out on a canoe to watch the sunset then we went through these narrow canals and saw all of the families out. The highlight of the night was the lake prawns that we bought from a little market that were GIANT and blue. The chefs on the boat made the most delicious prawns I’ve ever had…pretty sure I could have eaten 5 of those bad boys.

The whole experience was amazing and it was pretty crazy to see how much of their lives revolve around the backwaters. We saw people doing everything in the water: washing clothes & dishes, showering, drinking water, swimming, fishing, etc. The entire town was out on the edge of the water…pretty cool.

Varkala
Varkala was beautiful and uber relaxing, which is just what we needed. We basically, sat on the beach all day, read, and ate yummy fresh seafood. Perfect.

The one big outing that Rachael and I did do was to get an Ayuvedic massage, which is a Kerala specialty. We got a recommendation from the hotel owner and got picked up by a rickshaw to take us to the massage parlor that also doubled as a poorly lit, slightly dingy home. On to the massage – if you don’t want to get up close and personal with me, you should stop reading now 

I went into my massage room, which was decorated with a vinyl table and a step stool. There were some ants on the floor keeping me company & of course the window to the backyard was open so anyone could walk by and see me. I was immediately instructed to strip (while the masseuse stood there) and then told to sit on the stool that had a questionable cloth over it. So there I was sitting butt naked on a tiny stool with a random woman “rubbing” oil in my hair. Her head massage was a bit more like a giant noogie. Then I was told to lay on the vinyl table (no sheets mind you) while she poured oil over me and vigorously, I repeat vigorously rubbed everywhere… When I had to flip over, I thought I was going slid off of the table, no joke. When it was all over, I was told to enter the adjoining bathroom and sit on yet another step stool. Then the masseuse proceeded to bathe me…oh yes, you heard right. By that time, I had given in to the experience as was just going with the flow.

After the massage, I walked outside and saw Rachael. We immediately burst out laughing and knew we both had the same interesting experience. Definitely something I won’t forget. As we left, I gave the masseuse a nice tip – not because I enjoyed the massage, but because anyone who bathes me, deserves a solid tip.

The Trip Overall (pictures here)
Overall, we had an amazing time. I haven’t laughed that much or hard in a long time. It was also the perfect relaxing trip and just what I needed.

We also discovered something called Laugh Yoga, which is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Rachael was cracking us up with her version of laugh yoga the entire time...love it.

Our driver - Mr. Das
Oh Mr. Das was an interesting character. Within minutes of us meeting him, we learned that he was a bit of a Debbie Downer. Here is a select few of our conversations:
Das: It’s my grandma’s birthday.
Us: How great!
Das: She died last year (and indicated died with a squashed bug noise).

Das: My mom lives in NYC (where Rachael lives)
Rachael: Have you ever been there to visit?
Das: No, I hate my father-in-law.

Das: Do you like motorcycles?
Me: Yes – they’re so fun to ride!
Das: I got in an accident a few years ago and cut open my head.

We also learned that Mr. Das has 3 girlfriends that don’t know about each other which helps explain why his phone is constantly blowing up. But don’t worry - he keeps them all straight with separate, but equally annoying ringtones.

Golden Triangle

Of course Rachael & Elisabeth wanted to see the Taj so I said "what the hell - why not see it for the 2nd time?"

We started off in Delhi taking a bike tour of the old city. Here is the start of Delhi pics.


Then off to Agra to see the Taj. We got up early to see the Taj at sunrise...pretty gorgeous. Start of Taj pictures.


Then we went to see the Baby Taj, which is really underrated... Start of Baby Taj pictures.


Finally ended at the fort where Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (who built the Taj) was imprisoned by his son.

In the afternoon, it was off to Jaipur! We chilled for dinner then got up early to see Amber Fort, which had a giant wall surrounding it in the mountains like the Great Wall. Start of Jaipur pictures.


FYI - this blog post is so short because I just edited about 500 pictures and am way too tired to write more...but it was a great trip!

So many good bathroom suggestions...

Google in India has been extremely helpful to me with regards to how to use a toilet, flush it, then clean up after. Below are the simple steps for your reading enjoyment:

Step 1: Use the toilet properly (1st image)
Step 2: Women, please be courteous (2nd image)


Step 3: How to wash your hands