Home, Sweet Kitty-Cat Home!

Well we are now home with our lovely feline buddies purring around our feet - what a lovely welcome.

We spent our last day in Goa relaxing, reading, swimming and of course, eating! We were up at sunrise to watch the dolphins swimming in the bay - it was absolutely beautiful. To just imagine that in other regions of the country horns are blowing, darks are barking, pollution from the rickshaws is building but here we were in the middle of paradise watching and listening to the dolphins by sunrise.

Our two days in Mumbai were busy, busy and for those of you who know us well, you can imagine just how much we packed in. We estimate that we walked 12 km on our last day. We saw some of the beautiful old buildings that Mumbai is known for as well as visited the Crawford Market and the adjacent bazaars. Little gems exist in these bazaars. In the middle of one of the bazaars we were able to find the Mumba Devi temple - from which Mumbai derived its name. This temple was full of life and colour. We arrived at prayer time to witness devoted ones buying offerings for the gods. They brought wicker plates filled with coconut, candies, grasses and some other goodies (unidentifiable to us). After their worship time inside the temple, they gather around the front and sit with family members snacking on the goodies. Very peaceful indeed. And all this is occuring in a small oasis surrounded by thousands of people out in the streets shopping for the day. (photo above)

We were able to catch the newest Bollywood film, Baabul. It was a wonderful experience. The film filled with drama, tears, love, tears, friendship, tears, culture, tears, dancing, and tears! We loved it. It was a welcomed relaxing 2.5 hours rest from our touring and a nice look into a different part of their culture. A lot of the film revolved around a marriage, and during our visit to India we saw many, many marriages taking place. You see, this is the "marriage season", as everyone told us. Marriages here are quite the affair. Most of them are outdoors, extravagantly decorated with fresh flowers hanging at every possible spot, and lots of very bright white lights (much like our christmas strings of white lights) hanging vertically from trees. Hanging them vertically resembles the shape of the Banyon tree, which is a worshipped tree here. I can't imagine how many people attend these weddings, but would guess that there must be over 300 people at them. As an outsider, a magnificent and decadent display of love.


India is an incredible nation. With its wealth in culture, diversity of landscape, excellence in cuisine, and wonderful people any visitor has to see the beauty of India's growth and respect the changes that they are experiencing.

If you are interested in more of India, why not pick up a novel? There are many, many excellent books written by Indian authors. Some that we have read or were recommended are listed below.
A Fine Balance, Rohintin Mistry (this one inspired me to visit India)
The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand
The Alchemy of Desire, Tarun J Tejpal
Karma Cola, Gita Mehta
Chasing the Monsoon, Alexander Frater
Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
My Name is Red, Uhhan Pamuk
India, V.S. Naipaul

And that is the end of our blog. Of course, there are more stories, experiences, photos and great memories that we would love to share with you all - but the rest will have to be in person!

Tata,
Brenda and Jon