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

Salve: The Big Debate

I know people are kept up at night wondering how to actually pronounce the word "salve". Well, believe it or not, I've run into many many situations where people think I'm crazy because I don't pronounce the 'l' in the word salve. In fact, I had a debate with Rachael & Elisabeth last night so I finally looked it up on dictionary.com. And...drum roll...I win! It is pronounce: [sav, sahv]. Check out dictionary.com to listen to them saying it - trust me, time well spent :)

Spam Text Messages

India seems to provide endless entertainment for me. I get these spam text messages ALL the time. Some are offers and deals, etc, but some are just plain weird. Here are a few of my favorites:

"I called u 5 times but the line is busy so come outside... Iam standing outside ur home...
my name is MOON...i just came to say good night...,ur sudheer"

"plz forward to many gud hearts like u... If anyone met with fire accident or people born with problems in their ear, nose and mouth can get free Plastic"

"Journey of life strts wid a full bag of luck &
and empty bag of xprince, The goal if to fill the bag of experience before the bag of Luck gets empty GUD 9T"

"Plz fwd dis msg 2 atleast
5 ppl b4 deleting. PLZ 'DONT DRINK WATER PACKETS'
Becoz A new virus HBF (High Bone Fever) Is spreading now, gudnt....."

"Hi I'm SUN & specialy rise through ur inbox 2 say U GooD MoRNinG Have a nice day"

"MOON has come to color your dreams, STARS to make them musical and my SMS to give you warm and Peaceful Sleep. Good Night. sweet dreams."

"I've made so many mistakes in my life, but something I did right was to have you as a friend and I definitely won't make another mistake of losing someone like you. Gud ngt.."

Now that last one is just plain thoughtful :)

My upcoming schedule...even I'm a little jealous of myself...

In 7 weeks, I will accomplish the following...

1. Delhi
   
2. Agra - sunrise at the Taj Mahal
3. Jaipur
   
4. Kerala - 3 white girls traveling in the backwaters should be interesting :)
   
5. Bali - finally a trip with Tiffany!
   
6. Japan (ok, Japan was canceled. Get this - this was supposed to be for the same conference that I got stuck in Dublin for. Natural disasters are out to ruin the events!)
   

May 1 - coming back to the states! Get ready for Indianized Gina!

Goa...both times :)

So yes, I managed to go to Goa 2 times in a matter of 3 weeks...I was ambitious!
1st Goa Trip
AnnMarie came to India and we headed for a much needed relaxing weekend. We (and the cow) enjoyed the view & beach. AnnMarie was pretty much the hit of the town and got hit on every 2 seconds. We also were able to find a little hole in the wall gambling joint and loose big time...I lost $20 :)







In preparation for the beach, AnnMarie shaved her legs with an electric shaver. She then started complaining about her legs burning and when we got home, we found out her legs looked like this...only AnnMarie could make this happen :)

2nd Goa Trip
Now on to the epic birthday trip. As you all know, the Facebook landing team has adopted me so we all decided to go to Goa for Sarah's bday. There were 8 of us: me, Vik, Dmitry, Sarah, Joanna, Aruna, and Vik's parents (yes, you read correctly). Night one consisted of my usual face stuffing followed by drinks, hookah, and dancing on the beach. A few of the crazies in the group also decided to jump into the ocean at the end of the night as well (no, I wasn't one of them). The bad news is that a few carried items such as an iPhone, which of course is not friendly with water...

Then Saturday...and the big party. We chilled on the beach then decided to go for a sunset boat ride. We were able to charter a boat, bring on some beer and food and head out. The view and ride was amazing and well worth it. After our ride, we headed off for Sarah's bday dinner. The place was amazing - it was on the beach, all white, and had SUSHI and non-Indian food! WHAT?! I also was able to a massage during dinner, which might have been the best massage ever. Since we were so awesome (read: loud), we were able to get the owners laptop to create our own playlist and thus the dance party began.

Giant Sparklers & Cake on the face













And of course you can't miss Sarah's progression of falling asleep in Vik's lap... All-in-all - pretty epic night :)

ALL GOA PICTURES (still waiting for Vik to give me the rest of the pictures...sigh)

Start of 2011

And welcome back to my blog. It's been a long time since I've written because I went home for Xmas & New Years, which was amazing. Then I made a few great weekend trips, but have been sick for the last week so didn't have the energy to muster up any witty comments for the blog. So here you go - the last few weekends!

Sankranti (Kite Flying Festival) pictures
The first weekend back was the kite festival welcoming the harvest called Sankranti. The kites are supposed to be offerings to the sun God to help that year's harvest. All weekend there was kite flying and fighting. So if you haven't read the Kite Runner, kite fighting is awesome. They make string out of little shards of glass so when you cross kites, you can cut the other person's kite loose.

My favorite chef Gnane invited me, Vik & Dmitry to his home to fly kites on their roof. It was so cute - when we got there, Gnane immediately started showing us his wedding pictures & then served us lunch. His entire apartment for him, his son, and wife was about as big as our living room, which is crazy. After lunch, we went up to the roof and experienced a legit Indian tradition in a legit Indian neighborhood (we don't really see a ton of "real" India where we live). Dmitry said it was pretty much the coolest thing he's done in India. It was pretty cool to see how the entire neighborhood goes to the roofs and everyone celebrates together. And getting those kites off the ground weren't so easy as evidenced by my attempts :) But I was able to actually cut another person's kite - very exciting! Gnane's extended family were possibly the nicest people ever and were amazing hosts.

Oh - and once again, I managed to offend most Indians by wearing a very conservative tank top. Gnane wouldn't let me on the roof or stand outside his house without wearing one of his jackets. What a scandal! It's so funny - there are ads all over with half naked women on them, but my shoulders are just too much...

Srisailam Tiger Trip pictures
I know all everyone wants to know is if we saw a Tiger. The answer is no. Those bastards are great hiders :) But, it was worth trying! We left Hyderabad at 2am to get to the Tiger Reserve at 7am, which is when they were supposed to open (and is the best time to actually see the tigers). But seeing we're in India and nothing is reliable, the reserve didn't open until 10am. Thankfully, since this is India and you can pretty much get whatever you want if you have money, we bribed the guard to let us in with our own cars (which is illegal) for our own private tour. Best $50 the 8 of us ever spent :)

We proceeded with directions from the guard and saw Sambar (Indian deer), peacocks, monkeys, etc. on the drive. Then we hit a dead end when we thought the path was a loop and would lead us out of there. Thankfully the dead end was a gorgeous cliff and ideal picture spot. So we got out, took some pictures and walked in the jungle a bit. The guys saw giant 5 foot monkeys that were unreal, but I missed out. In order to see them, you had to get about 10 feet away from them and I wasn't about that :) So we were 3 hrs into the tour when we were supposed to only be in there for 1 hour so we headed back the way we came. The guards were pretty pissed and there was a lot of arguing in Hindi, but our drivers were able to get us out alive!

The rest of the day, we went into the town to visit a famous temple, which was an experience. If you ever want to be almost trampled, you should go there. The funny thing was the biggest offenders were elderly people! They kept pushing us and cutting in front of us. What the hell?! Needless to say, we were all excited after we were out of the temple (it was about 20 min of sardine-ville).

On the way home, we found ourselves driving through a herd of cattle. Just another day in India :)

What I've been up to...

As promised, here is a run-down of what I've been up to in November & December. I'll start from the most recent since this weekend was ridiculous!

Trip to Nagarjunasagar Dam
Yeah, try saying that name...

So we started off on our day trip to the dam (about 3 hrs away) a little late thanks to our friend Vik who kept sleeping through my reminder calls. After a nice (read: terrifying) drive, we arrived at the dam, which was actually really beautiful. At the dam, you can hop on a ferry to an island with a museum and some old monk monuments so we jumped on the 45 min ferry. The scenery was great, but that's not the best part of the story....

So apparently, in India, if you're white and wear sunglasses, EVERYONE things you're a movie star or something. With 2 white guys, 1 white girl, & 2 obviously American Indians, we were mobbed by people wanting to take our pictures as soon as we got out of the car. But by far, the best part of the trip was when we got to the island. As we were pulling up, there were a ton of people waiting to catch the ferry. We told Dmitry to wave to see what would happen and the crowd erupted in applause! It was the most insane thing I've ever seen! You HAVE to check out the videos. This one is of them cheering as we got to the island and this one is of me walking up through the crowd. I had to turn off the video because people kept asking for my photo. A few guys even asked to take a picture of us shaking hands with them - like we're some sort of government officials! It was literally the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. We kept joking that we had to keep our sunglasses on no matter what because otherwise they would see that we weren't famous and we're just frauds :) And after all of that, we were exhausted! I can't even imagine being a real celebrity and dealing with that every day!

Start of the dam pictures

Indian Wedding
So now that I'm an honorary Facebooker (sorry Google!), I tagged along to one of the Facebook team's weddings. My first Indian wedding! I think the highlight for me was the saree. It look about 15 minutes to get on (thanks to Aruna!) and is basically one 20ft piece of cloth that you bunch and tuck together. The wedding was Parsi, which is a very rare religion in India so the wedding wasn't what you would normally find (aka - it was only 2 days instead of 3-4). We ended up crashing the food/dancing part and had a blast! We ate off of banana leafs and the food was super yummy. And we pretty much started the actual party by hitting up the dance floor - go figure! All in all - awesome time.

Start of the Indian wedding pictures

Ridiculous Indian "Rave"
So one night we ended up getting out of dinner really late so ended up following people to an after party. This was supposed to be the cool place to go and is open until 4am. The actual set-up was pretty cool since it was big and by the lake, but there were pretty much zero people there. Good thing we found some amazing dancers to entertain us :) Sarah and I pretty much danced for 3 hours straight and just mimicked what these crazy dudes on the dance floor did. In India, there are a few differences with dancing: 1) it's all guys on the dance floor - we were the only girls and 2) any movement that you can do with your body is considered dancing (think Elaine from Seinfield). There was a lot of fist pumping and jigs to keep us busy all night. Sarah and I even tried to make up a ridiculous dance to see if others would start doing it. We started jumping up and down and flapping our arms like birds. Yeah...that caught on in a matter of seconds. Need I say anything more?!

Start of dancing pics

Thanksgiving
The Facebook landing team and I are buddies now (if you didn't know) and the good news was that Facebook was going to pay for a nice Thanksgiving feast! My contribution was my last 3 bottles of delicious imported wine. Pretty sure I drank more than 1 bottle, but that's another story :) Anyway, we made a list for the caterers consisting of every possible Thanksgiving dish and sushi and wonton soup. Random? yes. But come on - we all miss sushi!!! The sushi was actually pretty good once they brought us soy sauce. They somehow remembered wasabi, but forgot soy sauce! And of course, they said it would arrive in 20 min so we all decided to wait. About 30 min later, it was 10 minutes, then 10 minutes later another 10 min. I told them I didn't believe them anymore. The food ended up being pretty darn good and only a few dishes were really bad or weird. We had a great time drinking real wine, eating loads of food, and having a cucumber fight. Pretty great Thanksgiving :)

Start of Thanksgiving pics

Vietnam & Thailand

Vietnam
Vietnam is beautiful and amazing and I would love to share our hundreds of pictures with you, but unfortunately, they're at the bottom of Halong Bay thanks to a kayaking accident. How did this happen you ask? Let me tell you (sorry Riki!)

We were visiting Halong Bay, which is beautiful and has amazing caves. After lunch on the boat and the cave tour, we went out kayaking in the bay. It was a beautiful day and we were snapping pictures. We got one of Will in the other kayak then Will offered to take one of us. I sat there as Will rowed over to us. I turned around to talk to Riki, only to find Riki putting the camera on his oar and reaching it over the water toward Will. That same moment, the camera fell in the water and I knew it was gone. Riki dove in after it, but had a life jacket on so couldn't go deep enough. After that, we went to shore to ask for snorkel gear. Being islanders, we assumed they would have equipment, but all we got was a seriously old and ghetto mask. Enough for us to try! Will made many attempts for about 20 minutes and I tried for about 2 min (this is when my ears when crazy with shooting pain & the double ear infection started). Either way, it was pointless since the water was so dense and you couldn't see a thing until you got to the very bottom (20 ft down). So it was a total crap shoot. Then we offered a reward to the locals of $100, which could feed a family for a year there! We prayed they would find it and ship it back to us - apparently this sort of thing happens a lot there. But alas, they never found the camera - or claimed to find the camera. Will did have a weird interaction where they said "We didn't find the camera, but we might be able to mail you the memory card". How that makes sense, we don't know, but our guess is that if they had the camera, they just decided to sell it :(

Unfortunately Will forgot his camera and I didn't take any pictures on mine since Riki's is nicer. But I guess it's good that we had a camera at all for our Thailand pictures... Also, Will got a few pics on his camera and they're here.

Ok, on to actual Vietnam:

Phu Quoc Island
Riki and I had some alone time before meeting up with Will. Phu Quoc is a cute little island that really isn't touristy at all yet. It's like a different world. On one hand, the underdevelopment is really nice b/c you ride along crazy bumpy dirt roads and see local towns. The bad thing is that they haven't built up many touristy things to do like an easy way to go to the top of the island for amazing views, etc. Unfortunately Riki and I didn't get very good weather and it was a bit rainy and chilly, but it was ok - we wanted to just relax and spend some quality time together. We also had a great resort and found a really cute wine shop in town. This is also where I convinced Riki that Schafkopf is actually a fun card game :)

Hoi An
On to Hoi An, the famous tailoring town on the mainland to meet up with Will. The town was so cute and had such character. We also ended up buying a ton of custom clothes (suits, jackets, etc). It was amazing - you go there in the morning, order the clothes and then in the afternoon go for a fitting. Next day, they're done! We ended up buying the boys' suits at a shop called Mr. Xhe. The employees consisted of 1) Mr. Xhe, a gay guy who pinched Will's nipple moments after walking in and called Riki's stomach hair his love hair, 2) a girl who was obsessed with Will and kept saying the reason Will didn't have a girlfriend was b/c he was too picky. When we went to go get our measurements taken, we didn't do it at the shop, but instead we peddled a bike with Mr. Xhe on the back to the work shop a ways down the road. Obviously unique and awesome experience - especially the nipple grabbing and love hair :)

I also got groped by a shop-owner. I was bending over looking at scarves in her shop and she commented how lucky I was to be traveling with 2 men. She then proceeded to slap my butt. I was shocked and didn't move. Then she continued hitting each cheek and saying "One for you and one for you". Then she famously said to the boys "You hit that every day?" Will said my face was priceless and I would have to agree. And of course, this quote was used constantly through the rest of the vacation.

The rest of the trip consisted of massages, cafe sua da (iced Vietnamese coffee) and bumming around town stimulating their economy. Here is also where we discovered the amazing Vietnamese sandwich (Bahn Mi) that are about 50 cents and are seriously soooo delicious! At one of the food stands, Will got in a pepper match with the cart owner and downed an entire Thai chili...that was pretty fun to watch :)

Hanoi
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and the 2nd largest city. When we arrived at our hotel, we went up to find a room barely big enough for 2 people and a 3rd bed crammed in the corner. We would have been really nice and cozy in that room! The hotel guy was really nice and mentioned that they had a sister hotel that wasn't as noisy and was bigger. So I hopped on the hotel guy's scooter to go check out the other room. Gotta love random scooter rides in these countries :) We ended up moving, which was an awesome choice.

It's a really cool city and we had a great time bumming around, seeing the sites, and eating a TON of pho on the streets. I think the entire Vietnam trip, we ate at 2 restaurants and voted to eat at the little stands on the street. The food was amazing and stuffing yourself of pho and having 2 giant beers would set you back about $2. There was a stand right outside the hotel that was awesome and had really cute ladies who didn't speak any English, but thought we were funny.

Will got sick here (cold from China, not from the food or anything) and took it easy and Riki and bummed around town. I'm having a hard time thinking of everything we saw, but there were really cool street markets, a nice lake in the middle of the city, and a great rooftop restaurant with views of the entire city. This is one of those cities that you could live in.

We did a day trip to Halong Bay (story is above) and then Riki and I set off for Thailand a day before Will.

Thailand (pictures)
Throughout Vietnam and Thailand, everyone thought Riki was a local and most likely Will and my tour guide. Poor Riki always had to carry his luggage while Will's and mine were taken immediately from us. And at the hotel in Bangkok, we went up for drinks and she double checked 2x that we needed the table for 3 (looking at Riki the entire time). And people kept saying - "same same?" to Riki to ask him if he was also Asian. The Thai massage ladies were also confused but did call him a handsome Asian in their language :P) With all of this, we started calling Riki our local "fixer" and "tour guide". Ahh...good times!

Bangkok
Bangkok is a really cool city with tons to do. Unfortunately we didn't really see anything outside of our BEAUTIFUL hotel room. Riki found a deal on Jetsetter and we booked this place for 2 nights. It was a mansion and to top it off, since we stayed in a suite, we got free food and drinks all day at one of the bars overlooking the city. The first night Riki got sick (bad fever, etc) so I just went up there and chilled. Then the next day when Will arrived, I wanted to go see the sights, but the guys wanted to drink for free :) So we stayed and enjoyed the perks.

Koh Chang
After a 5 hour bus ride, we arrived at Koh Chang. We chose these islands b/c they had all of the activities but aren't as touristy as Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. Good thing too since Phi Phi was affected by the flooding. Our hotel looked really nice and we even splurged for a bungalow instead of a regular room. To our dismay, when you order a 3 person room, what that really means is a small 2 person room with a cot. There was no way we were going to be able to stay there so Will & Riki sent the closer in (aka me). I negotiated with the hotel and was able to get us upgraded to an amazing room that was HUGE! India is making me a much better haggler :)

In Koh Chang, we rented scooters and bummed around the island and checked out beaches. We had a pool/water day which consisted of us stealing a kid's ball and playing "head ball" then going out to the ocean to play paddle ball. We also went elephant trekking and were able to feed the elephants. That was seriously awesome! I even got to ride on the neck of the elephant! After the elephants, I saw a little monkey who you could take your picture with. I thought "When in Rome!" and went up to him. He then started picking through my hair looking though bugs, which was interesting... Then Will went up to him and the monkey went crazy and started biting Will's arm. The guy working said that the monkey didn't like Will. After that, Will pretty much freaked out saying how the monkey "broke skin" and how he was really nervous. First of all, the guy said the monkey had his vaccinations so Will was fine. Secondly, the monkey DIDN'T break skin. Will had a red mark for a day. What a baby ;)

The other excursion we went on was a 1/2 day snorkeling off of a speed boat. It was really awesome and we ended up going to one of those beach areas that you see in movies - so gorgeous! And I love speed boats - so awesome! On the way home, a boat crew member suggested that Will sit on top of the very tip of the boat and dangle his legs off. Of course Will and I climbed up even though in the states people would freak out if you did that! I love 3rd world countries - they let you sit on an elephant's head and on the tip of a speed boat. No biggie :) The rest of the day was spent in the ocean playing paddle ball and watching the beautiful sunset sipping fresh coconut shakes. Now that's the life!

At night pretty much every night, we bummed around town for a bit, got a Thai massage, then ate some really yummy Thai curry. Will also often got whistled at by transvestites, which are insanely common in Thailand. I really wish we had more time on the island. Even though it was 4 days, it really felt too quick :(

Overall, this trip was amazing and I totally fell in love with both places. Vietnam is much less westernized than Thailand and is obviously a poorer country. But that's what I loved about Vietnam - it was truly authentic.

Quotes from the Trip:

"You hit that everyday?" -Vietnamese lady referring to Riki & Will hitting my bum
"Nothing goes better together than a cup of coffee and some cock" -Will just being Will
"Ripcord!" -Riki inventing a word for Will where if said, you are allowed to stop what you're saying since it is coming out as non-sense.
"You could fry me like a chicken!" -Will referring to the amount of oil the masseuse used on him

My first Dr visit & Volunteering at a local school

My first Indian Doctor Visit
My first day back from Thailand/Vietnam, I went to the Dr. I knew I had an ear infection (thanks to the constant ones growing up). My first Dr experience was interesting, yet not as bad as I had expected.

First of all, you don't need insurance to see a dr. It costs about $5 for a consultation and then you pay for whatever drugs you need, which are also really cheap. When I got there, the ENT (ear, nose & throat specialist) wasn't working so they sent me to a general dr, which I thought would be totally fine. When I got in the office, I told him what was wrong and he proceeded to pick up a flashlight and look at my ears. He said "I don't see anything". Well no shit! I could have done that for free at home - I know that you can't see ear infections with a flashlight!!!

So I insisted that I see the specialist and he confirmed that my ears were screwed up. Then he ordered an x-ray of my head to check for a sinus infection, which of course is really weird in general. I wasn't really that stuffed up and have had zero sinus infections before, but he insisted. The x-ray machine was super old and they told me to lay on my stomach with my chin on a line and my mouth open. I said "are you serious?" And they started laughing at me - crazy Americans... After that, no sinus infection and he prescribed me drugs that did absolutely nothing. A week later, I consulted my Dr. from afar - Raquel. Got those drugs now and hopefully my earaches go away soon!

The rest of this week consisted of dinners, karaoke at our favorite Thur night spot, lots of reading, and a visit to a local school to play with the kids.

Volunteering at a Local School
The school I visited is one that Google is helping by getting them supplies, water, trash cans, etc. It's crazy - I felt like I was Angelina Jolie visiting the schools and I even was asked if I was a movie star. I told the little girl that of course I was :) Anyway, the kids LOVED my camera and phone and wanted picture after picture taken of them. I was literally mobbed by them all! I probably took 200 pictures and here are a few of my favorites. I want to go back and help and have tried to volunteer to teach English, but it's hard b/c you need to know the local dialect, which of course I don't. I guess my camera and willingness to be mobbed will have to do for now.

General Thoughts on Living in India
One of my Facebook friends, Dmitry posted such an amazing observation of India, I thought I would steal his material to try to explain to everyone else what it's like living here.

"A lot of people ask – “What is it like?”. There really is no one neat adequate answer – India is too complicated a place for one reaction. Every corner you look you see desperation, hope, love, grandeur, destitution, guilt, ambition, dirt, beauty – and you see it all at once." Dmitry's blog: http://dmitryindia.com

Weekend in Hyderabad

I've been hearing complaints that I don't write that often so I'm giving you an update on my happenings this weekend. I had a good weekend hanging out with the Facebook guys. For those of you who don't know, Facebook sent out a landing team to open their office in Hyd and thanks to Alex Janin, I now know them all.

Friday night
Vik invited me to a fashion show so I had to say yes. We got there a little late so missed some of the show, but made it in time for the after party. Free drinks, food, and a catwalk sound pretty awesome to me! We danced on the catwalk, made some friends and ate their bday cake and headed for an after party at Vik's place. It was a great night (and I didn't get home until 4am). Who knew I could stay awake so late!

Saturday
Basically, I recouped from Friday. Damn cheap alcohol leaves nasty hangovers. I also went to get a massage (for $5) since I was getting tension headaches. Those were probably caused from our overnight stay in KL... Anyway, after dinner, I met up with Vik and Sasha (FB peeps) to go see the movie The Other Guys. Hilarious! I wasn't expecting much and I laughed my ass off. The nice thing about Indian movies is that you get an intermission. Works very well when you have a small bladder.

Sunday
I worked and worked out during the day (boring). But then I went to an Oktoberfest celebration with Vik and the Captain. The Captain is this hilarious guy who was in the Indian army and just moved from Google to Facebook. So Oktoberfest...I had low expectations because I'm in India and all, but I was looking forward to a good solid beer that wasn't Kingfischer. We got to the swanky hotel and the set up was much nicer than I expected. They had benches and a Bavarian band (from SF btw), and the scene was cool....Until...I saw the event was sponsored by Kingfischer. And you guessed it - they only had Kingfischer beer. To top it off, the beer was warm and flat so I quickly switched to soda. Pretty much a bust in terms of drinks, but was still fun to dance to festive German music :)

Link to all the weekend pictures.

MALAYSIA BITCHES!

Pardon the name of this post. While Katherine and I were reminiscing about Malaysia over a bottle of wine, we came up with Malaysia bitches as the title. It just felt right. For those of you uninterested in reading such a long post, here is a short-cut to my pictures.

The great adventures of Katherine & Gina. Malaysia was awesome and Katherine and I tore it up and ate a lot (my pants are tight now!). To sum things up - Malaysia = Noodles. The street food there is amazing and we ate tons of seafood noodle dishes. Malaysia should be apart of the Vietnam/Thailand/Camodia adventure most Americans go on. A ton of people we met there had never met Americans so they were very excited to meet us :)

Also, I learned a lot about Katherine as our live were pretty much all open all the time - once you're with someone traveling in a 3rd world country with crazy hole in the floor toilets, you're ok with sharing pretty much anything. Good thing K and I are really open anyway :) Ok, on to the itinerary:

Kuala Lumpur (or as the cool kids call it - KL)
We landed in the KL airport and signed up for a van to take us directly to our hotel. The airport is about 1 hr away so we knew it was going to be a ride. However, we didn't expect to get an entire tour of the city while dropping off others to their hotels and for us to be last to ours (after they told us we were the first stop). So after 2-3 hours in a lovely van, we got to our hotel. The hotel was chic cheap ($35/night and actually really cute and clean). That night we went out around the town, and found an amazing bar with giant Hoegardens (my fav) and apple flavored hookah. We chilled there and had a great time.

The next day, we took a hop on hop off bus tour around the city and say the KL twin towers and the many other sites. KL in general is a really cool city with loads of activity & night life. Also, in KL, Katherine was nice enough to take a shot of my calves where I had a total of 42 bugs bites from the knees down. 42 you say? YES! 42 bug bites the first day!!! Thank goodness I was taking Malaria pills...

P.S. The customs line was a TOTAL cluster and we basically read an entire book while waiting in it. Be prepared for zero organization and crowds when you arrive :)

Melaka
Melaka was a cute town with a lot of character. We got in late at night and went down to Janker St (main local shops/food st) and it started pouring. We ran through the streets, got a beer, and then stopped in this hole in the wall place for dinner, which cost us $4 ($8 including beer).

The next day, we hired a cab to tour us around the city and show us the sights. We took a boat tour throughout the city and bummed around the cute town (they had the cutest bikes!) At night, we went back to the hotel to have a bottle of wine and some food at the hawker across the street. (FYI - hawkers are the food cafeteria areas with street food stands). We met a TON of people there including a guy who everyone said loved us, but was scared to talk to us. Naturally, I went over and gave him a hug and he looked terrified. The whole place was laughing after that! We made friends with our waitress and the guys sitting next to us. Almost everyone we met wanted a copy of our pictures so they gave us their addresses to send the pics to them. But, they gave us their real addresses, not email! Looks like we're mailing pics to Malaysia! It was sad leaving Melaka given our cute hotel and cute town, but we were off to Penang after 2 days.

Penang
Pretty much the only reason we came to Penang was for the food. Katherine read that Penang is the place to be for food lovers and since we both eat like pigs, we figured it would suit us well. And the reviews were right. When you arrive at the airport, instead of brochures for sights, you pick up brochures for food crawls. Our mission was to eat as many of the local dishes as possible and as much as possible. Here are the adventures we encountered as we were eating...

We arrived to the hotel from hell. Now I'm pretty low maintenance, but this place was below my minimum level of comfort. When we got there, Katherine took a nap and I went outside to call other hotels for availability in case I couldn't handle it. I also got really itchy after we arrived and was convinced it was due to the room and the room had bed bugs. Fortunately, it was a heat rash. Ok, on to the room. First of all, the bathroom was disgusting and the toilet only worked about every 5 tries. Of course, they had no toiletries besides a small bar of soap so we used soap for shampoo. I felt so ghetto... And to adjust the air conditioning in the room, you had to stand on a chair that was about to snap and move card board slats over the vent. Yeah...

To avoid our situation, we escaped to the beach to hang out and used the uber nice hotel's facilities. We seriously contemplated using the shower at the pool instead of our place! Also by the beach, there is an awesome night market and a great hawker area with the best fresh egg rolls.

After the night market, we decided to head back to the hellhole we called our room. On the drive home from beach, the driver had to make a stop to pay his friend b/c he borrowed 50 ringget. K and I now know he probably bought drugs and took a hit before driving us the 30 min home. We were scared for our lives the entire way - the driver was twitching and itching all over & kept talking all sorts of crazy shit about bombs. K and I were glancing at each other and looking for sharp object to defend ourselves and location markers so we know where we were. He was also driving at crazy speeds and taking corners like a mad man. (Reference for the fam- like crazy corners that Dad used to do when we were little).

Thankfully we lived and arrived at our hotel where Chinese men were playing checkers and/or sleeping in the streets. Yeah...don't stay at the Oriental Hotel in Penang...

Langkawi Island
Ahhhh Langkawi - what a glorious step up from Penang. After a 2.5 hour "ferry" (aka - small boat) ride we arrived. Our hotel was slightly more expensive, but what we endured in Penang made it worth paying the extra money. The island was beautiful and we had a great spot on the beach to watch the sunset, of course with a bottle of wine :)

During the day, we rented a moped and bummed around the island. We ended up going to this place where you can take a ski lift up to the top of the island and the view was AMAZING! We also hiked up to this beautiful waterfall and went swimming for a bit before the monkeys came (we decided after they stole a can of Pringles that we were done - damn smart monkeys!)

Food situation: Once again, we loved it all and found a few awesome restaurants that we frequented. The best was this Chinese seafood place where they had amazing fresh fish. We also loved this traditional Malay restaurant where we discovered tea tarik (pulled tea), which is a Malaysian specialty. Also, our hotel had this amazing brunch with a huge spread for free everyday. K & I were happy.

Other highlights:

• Our couples hot stone massage, which was kinda weird
  
• There are a TON of trannies in Langkawi, which was quite a surprise
• We found this awesome wine shop in town that was duty free and got good wine for $10/bottle
• We used an ice bucket instead of a champagne bucket and the hotel wouldn't lend out their wine openers (apparently the staff had only one to share - at least that's what they told us!)
• A little message I sent Riki from Langkawi :)
  

Unfortunately, we had to leave. On the way back to Hyderabad, we had a to sleep in the KL airport and found residence on some chairs in a chocolate shop that was open all night (or until they kicked us out at 4am). We did end up playing a bunch of trivial pursuit and we discovered that both Katherine and I are terrible at that game and apparently know nothing of other cultures. All in all, the trip was amazing and I'm lucky that Katherine was such a great travel companion.

Taj Mahal Baby!

Random Things:

• So, our chef sends out the dinner menu every day to the foreigners. Here is an item at dinner: "Assorted vegetable hard boiled to add natural food to the menu". Shit man - have I been eating plastic so far?! That is not good...
• People are so lazy in the office for 2 reasons. 1) It's like they're unable to use stairs. Even if they're going down one floor, no one takes the stairs - they wait for the elevator. So frustrating! 2) I think about 4 of the 8 hours of work are spent chit chatting and goofing around. It's crazy!
• Martijn's comment on how there are always people standing around "I love how in India, wherever you go, there is a guy"
  

Trip to the Taj!!!
Katherine, my good friend from home came to Hyderabad for 2 weeks for work and we've been enjoying wine and the Taj. We went to the Taj for the weekend and splurged and stayed at the Oberoi hotel. Every room in the hotel has a spectacular view of the Taj and the grounds are amazing! Totally luxurious and very expensive. But worth it! The Taj was seriously amazing and we had the BEST time together! Check out the pics - they say it all...

What else have I been up to? Working. Boring? Yes. True? Yes. My manager came for a week and it's review season so I've been working my tail off to be able to go to Malaysia this weekend and not be stressed. So far so good.

Next post - 10 days in Malaysia - get excited!

Hi all,

I haven't written in a long time. It's either I'm really important and busy or I'm just lazy - you take your pick :) I've settled back in after my trip home, although the first few days back were rough (missing my Riki - awww...). But, I'm back in the swing of things with all of the exploring and being very white and getting stared at, etc.

I'd like to start with a few fun stories and insights.

1. A friend and I got into cab and said "Hi, can we go to XXX [insert location]". He looked at us very confused. "Shit" we were thinking - "He doesn't speak English!" So we keep trying, in different variations and slower to say where we want to go. Then he turns and says "Do you speak English?" in perfect English. Ummm - what the F have we been speaking?!
2. Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was really hot. Arshad and I went on a run in this lovely park and I almost died from the heat. He was saying how for the next few months it's going to be so nice and cool. I'm thinking - "this is cool?! I would classify this as F'ing HOT!" I'm not sure I'm going to survive the heat! P.S. I forgot how running in the heat is 10x more difficult!
   
3. Arshad and I were riding home from the run on his motorcycle and it hit me. "Holy crap! I'm in India and I'm riding through the streets on a motorcycle! How freaking awesome is that!" You would think I would have recognized this early, but apparently I'm a little slow. Oh - and I LOVE motorcycles now - with the cool breeze and seeing the city whiz by? Amazing! And no Riki, you still can't get one :)
4. Insight: You need to have an open mind when you visit India or you will be extremely disappointed. For example, we have a new roommate (from Google) and she's really negative and only looks at the bad things about India. She's only been here for 2 weeks and already is disgusted and wants to go home. Yes, it's dirty and poor, but it's also really exciting and beautiful. You just need to look past all of the rubble on the side of the road and immerse yourself in the experience. I'm so glad I made friends that are open to the experiences and don't have to surround myself by that negativity. Ok, I'm done with the deep thoughts :)
   

Last Weekend:
Friday: First club in India! It was everything I dreamed of with crowds and trance music :) Actually, it was really like a normal club. However, a nice little fight broke out after the club closed and our friends were in it. They were justified to beat up this douche, but it was still crazy, although apparently it's pretty common here. Guess I'm going to have to get used to that! After the club, we went back to a friends place for late night food (my fav) and got tandoori chicken and biryani. Guess I'm going to have to get used to their late night food! At 3am, we decided to leave and the guys rode me and Martijn back on their motorcycles in the rain. It was pretty awesome! We had to stop for gas and Martijn, being as wasted as he was, started to light a cigarette! We all screamed at him to stop and started running away! He was very confused (a bottle of vodka will do that to you). It felt like a scene from Zoolander. Orange mocha frappuccino!

Saturday: After a hungover day, we went to the spa and got dinner at the Westin. The dinner was ok, but the awesome part was the bangles maker they had! I made friends quickly and got 3 beautiful bangles for free! It was seriously cool watching him make them!

Sunday: On Sunday, we went sight-seeing to these tombs in Hyderabad, which were cool. You can see the pictures here - not much more to say!

This Weekend:
Thursday: We had Friday off for Ramadan, which was awesome. So on Thursday night, I had meetings until 9:30 (boo), went home to have dinner, then went out to 10 Downing, a Thur karaoke hotspot and it was awesome! I LOVE a good karaoke song :)

Rest of the weekend: The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. I spent a lot of time researching my future trips (Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand), grabbed some Subway and watched a movie, then went for a run and brunch today. The coolest part was seeing the giant Ganesh (the biggest god in Hindu) that they put up for Ramadan. After worshiping him for 10 days, they throw all of the city's Ganesh statues in the lake. This happens every year, which means scuba diving in that lake would be cool, although you would probably grow a 3rd arm or something.

PICTURES ARE HERE!

My Birthday Weekend (Aug 6-9)

This was a busy birthday weekend. Let's kick it off with the highlights. You can see the list of all the events in my album and follow along.

Friday Aug 6th
We went to go see the movie Despicable Me, which was cute. When we were leaving the movie theater/mall, these people started asking to take Martijn and my picture. It was really insane - it was like we were movie stars and they couldn't believe we were there! Then this ADORABLE little girl with her dad comes up and asks to take a picture with me. She was so cute and after the picture, the dad put her hand in mine and I gave her a little kiss. Then the girl gave me a kiss! OMG - I melted!!!

After the movie, we went to dinner and had a feast. I literally wasn't hungry for another 16 hours. Damn the food is good, but I need to learn self-control!

Saturday Aug 7th
We went to get massages (they're $5 with the Google discount at this amazing spa), went to lunch, then did some shopping. After shopping, Martijn and I stopped by a local stand to get some coconut juice (video of them slicing it open) and went to a beautiful temple.

Sunday Aug 8th
This is the day where the really interesting stuff happened :) We went to the Old City (where Hyderabad city started) to go bum around, see Charminar, the Mosque and shop. We got there and it was INSANE! You think the other parts of the city are busy, but that's nothing compared to Old City.

Of course the first thing Martijn does is seek out the military trucks and ask to join them and hold their gun. Surprisingly, they were as fascinated at our white skin as we were of them! They were taking pictures & videos of us as we jumped up on the truck. Damn, Martijn is ballsy. I'm just glad I can go along for the ride :) That was a pretty sweet start to the day. And yes, that will be my facebook profile pic.

We move on to the Mosque where there was a terrible bombing a few years back. Of course, I decided to wear a tank top (in my defense, I had no idea where we were going so I didn't know how to dress). We had to buy a cover-up because I was very scandalous and they wouldn't let me in the Mosque! The kids inside loved us and followed us around!

Then our friend Arshad, our local guide, told us about this place where they sell all sorts of animals. We of course were intrigued so decided to head over. He did warn us to breath through our mouths, which was good advice. As we were walking through, Martijn & Arshad decided to get me a birthday present of a crow ritual. This ritual is meant to send away bad energy & bad luck by rubbing a crow's ass on you and setting it free. Oh yeah, check it out here. Afterwards, I felt free of bad luck...however, later that day, I rubbed my hand in bird shit and the next morning, my hot water no longer existed. Hmmm....not sure if that means the bird was defective...

Check out the video & the video of my reaction to the crow's ass touching me :)

Then as we were walking back, we saw a camel walking through the road. Just chillin. No biggie. Arshad whistled like he was hailing a cab and the camel stopped so we could take pictures. Awesome!

Monday Aug 9th (My Birthday!)
The day started out with a cold shower (damn crow) but things picked up. It was a great day and my team was really great. I got a nice loud Happy Birthday at lunch and they surprised me with a cake & gift. They also explained that an Indian tradition is to smash cake in the birthday girl's face so in good Indian form, I preceded to allow them to smear chocolate frosting all over my face. Then they made me walk around the office and have others add more frosting on my face. They did threaten to kick me (a tradition for guys), but I reminded them that I write their reviews. Then they backed off :)

Other noteworthy things
Video of traffic in Hyderabad (we're crossing the street)
What a lot of motorcyles look like
Video of our flat (you've already seen pictures of my room, but the flat is amazing!)