The Most Amazing Drive Ever

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and one of Phil's cousins were here visiting for almost two weeks, so after the usual Delhi sightseeing we took them north. Mostly because we've been really wanting to get there and they provided the excuse. We flew into Leh, which is on the dry side of the Himalayas and predominately Buddhist.

Then drove across the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir, ending up in Srinagar, which is on the wet side of the mountains with a Muslim population. Turns out "dry side" is a bit of an understatement. This area was barren. And absolutely stunning.

The road was crazy. Windy. Bumpy. Dusty. Narrow. We crossed one pass that was over 13,000 feet high. It was a 430km (270 mile) drive that took two 7 hour days to cover.

Luckily you could always get out and throw some rocks.

And there were monasteries

and 25 foot Buddha statues carved into rock for pit stops.

There were checkpoints galore. The whole area is quite militarized, owing to border disputes with both Pakistan and China. At one, Phil's mom misplaced her passport, which resulted in our being stopped later by the military, their radioing back, finding it, and our waiting for another vehicle to bring it. The army guys were rewarded with photos, tales of her family in the US and red vines.

Eventually a truck arrived with the passport in hand.

We did the same hike in Sonamarg, Kashmir on the way into Srinagar, that we did with my parents. And Phil got his turn to go to the early morning floating vegetable market on Dal Lake (Which is a lot cooler than that description sounds).

The Loo

Been traveling the last week or so with some of Phil's family. It's official. When you have to use a nasty public facility, I prefer the Indian variety, in all of it's no touch glory. I bet you'd been wondering...

never fear, lots of travel pics on the way, I won't leave you with this one for long

Freeze

Fighting off the space ship

Indiana Jones with gun and whip (the kid hasn't even seen Indiana Jones)

Recently everything that S draws has guns in it. I naturally lean towards the no gun camp, and as a result, I've caught myself saying things like, "I don't want to hear about guns and fighting." Great. He just heard that there are things that I would rather he not communicate with me.

When I stop to think about it, instead of just following popular mommy opinion, how can he be expected to play so many of the things that are naturally interesting to him without some toy gun involvement. I mean police? With no gun? But you should see the looks at the playground when your little boy invents a game that involves shooting.

So here's to all you moms frozen in politically correct child-rearing limbo. Good luck and let me know if you figure it out.

Cooks do Delhi/Srinigar/Agra Slideshow

I've been asked to post pictorial evidence of my parents adventures in India. Here it is:

Do they look legit to you?

When my parents were here we went to Agra (Taj Majal) by car. On the way back into Delhi we were waved off the road by these guys. Apparently we missed a toll booth. An unmarked toll booth that only cars with tourist plates and some large trucks have to stop at. They claimed that we would have to pay the fine immediately to them... and the other 5 or six guys hanging around. I was livid. Mostly with my driver for stopping (though to his credit the traffic was heavy and it would have been difficult to get past them without running one of them over since they were jumping out in the road) but also at the audacity. I refused to pay. I asked to speak to a supervisor by phone. They gave me a number that didn't work. Then while one guy gave me a second number, another walked around the back of the car with his cell phone. I started to laugh. They were getting rather angry since I continued to refuse to pay them. After much back and forth I had the driver go back to the toll booth, where I said I would pay my fine to the toll booth operator. When we got there only one lane was open and one of the guys that had been hanging around our car was sitting in an empty toll both, waving us over. We chose to wait in the regular line, by the time we got there they'd scared the uniform wearing toll booth operator out of his little booth, replaced by the same guy who'd been sitting in the other booth a few minutes earlier. The two in the picture continued to insist that we pay the fine/bribe/baksheesh, but the guy in the toll booth asked for the regular toll. I still don't know, maybe they were for real.

Oh and the fine/bribe? 210 Rupees. About $4. Still not quite sure why I didn't just pay it.

Here's the backside of the tollbooth, didn't look significantly different from the front.

First Day of Kindergarten

Wednesday, Aug 5 was S's first day of Kindergarten.

He was really happy because my parents were here visiting us and got to see his school and classroom. They just left last night, so they are currently somewhere near the north pole. We miss them already.

Ahh!

Top five things about the US that I've missed in the last year:

1. Green grass, especially Utah grass.




2. Dryers, nothing quite like warm, dry, sweet smelling laundry.

3. Being completely alone in the car.

4. Eating fruit without an antibacterial bath.



5. Family (cousins!) and friends.





What I haven't missed:

1. Dial-up: my parents have dial-up, which means it'll probably be a while before I post again (thank you Carrie for letting me use the computer). Hopefully you, my readership, (and I) will be able to survive the technology issues.