A tour through the region’s historic capitals shows that this place with a forbidding reputation has more to offer than snow.

Maxim Gorky called Siberia the “land of ice and chains.” A place with a reputation for extreme cold and prison camps doesn’t seem like the obvious choice for a summer holiday, but the pioneer cities along the trans-Siberian railroad and its tributaries are flowering in the elusive sunshine. Traveling in the area can be challenging, but the adventure has its rewards.

Beautiful Lake Baikal is often called Siberia’s “soul,” but the region’s towns are full of character and history. From the old capital at Tobolsk with its walled kremlin to the newest capital in vibrant Novosibirsk, there is plenty to discover in Siberia’s cities. Writers and artists, tsars and scientists have walked down these neglected streets.

Tobolsk is not on the main trans-Siberian route, but is just a night train away from Yekaterinburg. Siberia’s historic capital was founded in the 16th century by the explorer, Yermak, and his Cossacks. The elegant hilltop fortress in Tobolsk, with its gold and blue-domed churches and turreted trading rows, dates mostly from the early 18th century. The kremlin and surroundings have been beautifully restored, with two fine museums. One, in the 18th century “Deputy’s palace,” traces the town’s history. You can see the treacherous bell that Boris Godunov had flogged and silenced for tolling in a rebellion against him. The prison fort where the exiled Dostoevsky stayed is next door.

The art museum has a more cultural and ethnographic emphasis, including examples of local bone and antler carvings. Down the cobbled ravine and steps under the kremlin walls, you reach the dilapidated old town with its wooden houses and crumbling baroque churches. The stone mansions include the family home of Dmitry Mendeleev, inventor of the periodic table, and the house where the last Russian imperial family stayed shortly before they were murdered in Yekaterinburg. The tiny Tsar Nicholas II study-museum is upstairs.

A little lane past cows and poplar trees leads to the wide Irtysh River. Sightseeing cruises are rare and expensive, but for six rubles you can catch the rusting 1950s ferry. There’s nothing to see on the further shore, but you do get a view of the clifftop citadels across the water.

It’s also worth making the trip out of town to Abalak. The monastery there, high above the river, gleams with new whitewash.

Omsk took over as the Siberian capital in the early 19th century. The painter, Mikhail Vrubel, was born in the city and the excellent Art Museum has a characteristically impressionistic floral triptych and a statue outside. Other city monuments include a silver workman in a manhole. The Historical museum has a mammoth skeleton, shamanic stone-carvings and mock-up yurts and izbas.

This modern industrial city has some older mansions, including the home of piratical Admiral Kolchak, arctic explorer turned royalist minister, near the town beach. The memorial to white army forces in the center of town is a reminder that this was an anti-Bolshevik stronghold. Good cafes and bars are a bonus, but the best way to see the town might be from the back of a boat, cruising down the Irtysh River past wooded islands to the trans-Siberian railway bridge. Trips cost 250 rubles for an hour or so.

The university town of Tomsk is 15 hours away on the night train. This “Siberian Oxford” has a great student-y atmosphere with plenty of cheap bars and Internet cafes. It’s a beautiful place to spend a couple of days, with ornately carved wooden mansions and the wide Tom River. The tram, at seven rubles a ticket, is great for exploring. The number two tram runs from the railway station along picturesque Ulitsa Sovetskaya all the way up to foot of Resurrection Hill, where the Historical museum has a wooden reconstructed fire tower on top for fabulous views. The city’s other museums include a Museum of Repression, housed in the old NKVD prison. The garden, opposite the lively Trinity Square, with its fountains and horse rides, contains several monuments to victims of political oppression.

Novosibirsk has everything you would expect from Russia’s third largest city, including great museums, hundreds of cafes and an opera theatre bigger then the Bolshoi. There is a friendly center dedicated to the artist and spiritual guru Nikolai Rerikh, whose numinous paintings of snow-capped mountains you can see in the huge, 1920s art gallery around the corner on Krasny Prospekt.

This huge city has grown in just over a century from a railway workers’ settlement to a lively metropolis. New developments are rapidly replacing the older buildings, but there are still a number of early-20th century wood or brick houses hidden on the quieter back streets to the west. One pair of ornate mansions with carved eaves, on Ulitsa Gorkogo, houses the museum of Soviet memorabilia (re-opening in September) and the museum of birch bark. The gold-domed chapel on Krasny Prospekt marked the midpoint of Russia in 1915. Farther down the road, the neo-byzantine Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built in 1898.

From Novosibirsk, you can go on into the rugged Altai region for more adventures. The city’s hospitable infrastructure will provide the perfect contrast to a week in the wilderness.

Travel Information

Night trains between these cities, usually cost between 1,500 and 4,000 roubles for a bed in a four-bed coupe. There are great views of Siberian woods and rivers from the window.

Tobolsk

The new Georgievskaya Hotel, 35 Lenskaya Ulitsa, (email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is very central with a reasonable restaurant. Cafes in the older parts of town are currently in short supply. The summer tent near the Sophia Cathedral, with jars of wildflowers on the table, can provide snacks.

Omsk

The central Hotel Ibis Sibir (www.ibishotel.com/gb/hotel-6725-ibis-sibir-omsk/index.shtml) looks inviting and has rooms from 2500 roubles as a summer deal. If you’re on a really tight budget, you might go for a 750-rouble bed in the “Stroiservice” on Gospitalnaya Ulitsa, but its grimness does little to improve the bleak impression of the grey Omsk suburbs.

Kaffee Berlin on Ulitsa Lenina should cheer you up and the bakery next door does fresh garlic rolls for five rubles. The Kolchak Irish Pub is another good hangout. http://www.kolchakclub.ru

Tomsk

The University’s own guesthouse, at 49 Ulitsa Lenina (3822/528386) makes a good place to stay in Tomsk. Twin rooms are 2500 roubles. The People’s Bar and Grill, 54 Prospekt Lenina, does great pizza and the town has plenty of congenial cafes.

Novosibirsk

The budget Centralnaya hotel (www.hotel-1.ru/en) does beds from 500 roubles and has a good location, near to the regional museum on Ploschad Lenina. There is no shortage of places to eat. The Kafela coffee shop, in one corner of Pervomaisky Square, does fresh waffles with fruit, while the pizza restaurant above it has a roof terrace and a bargain business lunch.

Photos by Phoebe Taplin

While many people begin their journey through India in Mumbai, this city is the final leg of our trip. Making our way from the airport, it was clear that Mumbai was much different than the India we have seen so far. Crossing a large bridge toward the city it looked as if we were approaching Vancouver or some other such coastal cosmopolitan city. Large buildings, both commercial and residential, dot the horizon as far as the eye can see. Oddly however, interspersed among the affluent areas and modern buildings are large slums consisting of flimsy-looking makeshift shelters that are constructed of scrap materials and mud. Many look to be about 5 feet square, and likely house anywhere from 2 - 5 people each. Some of these slums house literally a hundred thousand people, and it is estimated that up to half of Mumbai's 20 million inhabitants live in the slums. Mumbai is somewhat analogous to our trip, in that there is an extreme contrast of wealth and affluence set against a backdrop of abject poverty.

We arrived to our hotel, the landmark Taj Mahal, which is quite impressive from the outside and located right across from the Gateway of India. It is crawling with security at every entrance as a result of the terrorist attack here a few years ago. It is similar in many ways to most of the CP/Fairmont hotels in that it is grand and stately in the common areas, but the rooms are somewhat dingy, shoddy and neglected over the years. We overheard a staff member explaining to a guest in the elevator that they had planned to renovate the rooms, but that plan was sidetracked by the "unfortunate episode in 2008". James, of course, resisted blurting out, "Oh, you mean the bloody massacre where guests were brutally slaughtered?"

We do however have a fabulous view from our room of the Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea (unfortunately it's somewhat occluded by wire mesh put in place to keep the pigeons of our deck). We wasted no time getting out to explore the city and started our exploration on the rooftop terrace at the Intercontinental on Marine Drive, and watched the sun set over the Arabian Sea and the city while enjoying an icy cold beverage - fabulous! We then had a very touristic dinner at a popular restaurant called Cafe Leopold which is right by our hotel - this place has become very popular with tourists and locals alike as it is prominently referred to in the book Shantaram (which Simon and I are both currently reading). It's a bit of a dive, and essentially serves fast food (both Indian and Western), but it was decent, cheap and kind of fun to experience.

Interestingly, while James has been quite enjoying the metropolitan vibe of Mumbai (he even declared that he could live here), Simon is less enthused. James finds it exciting, fast-paced and full of life - but Simon feels that it is in many ways just another big city that lacks the same charm we have found in other parts of India we've visited, including Delhi (that being said, with some very unique and interesting aspects). There is no doubt about it; the city is huge and metropolitan, and much more "western" in its way of life than the other parts of India we've visited. This city certainly doesn't seek approval from anyone . . . it's the kind of place that could chew you up and spit you out if you refused to learn to live here.

Our guide for the day was rather disappointing, and unlike all of our other guides he seemed completely disinterested in showing us what Mumbai had to offer. Mumbai is more the kind of city you experience rather than "sight see" in, and he clearly wasn't up for the task. The most interesting things he showed us were; the largest open air laundry in the world (which is really quite something to see - a mostly illiterate workforce washes millions of pieces of laundry by hand each day, and using a special tag and colour sorting system, nothing goes astray and it is apparently incredibly reliable and quick), and a very brief tour of one of the slums which just left us wanting to see more. He showed us most of the major monuments, mostly from the comfort of the car, and dropped us back at the hotel by 13:00. We were happy to be rid of him and decided to spend the rest of the day exploring on our own. First thing on the agenda was lunch, and we found a fabulous restaurant with the help of our Frommer's guide, where James had * THE BEST * Indian food he has had since arriving in India. We then walked through the buzzing streets and markets of Mumbai and to get a feel for the vibe of the city. One odd thing we noticed is that there is a "Xerox" store every ten feet with circa 1980's style photocopy machines - we are both left wondering where this demand for photocopying comes from in such a modern city.

One other really unique phenomenon that exists here is the lunch delivery men. They pick up lunches from an office worker's home in the morning and deliver it to their office every day for the lunch hour, like clockwork. This service is used by millions of people, and costs very little (~$10/month). Over 40,000 illiterate workers perform the service, and apparently NEVER mix up or misplace a lunch using a unique colour and number coded system with various symbols/dots on the lids of plain metal canisters (we will try to get a photo to attach tomorrow). Now why, Simon wondered, would someone not just take their own lunch with them? Our guide explained to us as follows: It is very expensive to live in the city, so most workers live in suburbs 40+ km outside of central Mumbai. They have long commutes, so must leave shortly before 07:00 to get to work. As such, their wives would have to wake up at 4:00 AM to prepare their meals, and this is not feasible (our guide told us they must have hot home-cooked meals because if they only ate sandwiches, they would die .. and apparently eating out is not an option). So the wives get up at 7:00, cook huge meals that are ready by 10:00, and that is where these guys come in. Pretty nifty!

Our travel plans, which had us leaving around noon tomorrow have been thwarted with British Airways strike and we are now not leaving till about 03:00 on the 28th, so that has given us an extra day in Mumbai. We are using that time tomorrow to go on a slum tour. It sounds kind of awful, but it's run by a company that uses the proceeds from the tour to operate a kindergarten in the slum and give back to the community. Our guidebook described it as the most riveting tour they've ever had anywhere in the world, so we are really looking forward to it. Afterwards, we will return to our hotel to prepare for the long journey home which routes us through London, Chicago, and finally to Calgary - ugh! We've had an amazing time in India, and would love to return someday, but we are also looking forward to finally being home.

Over 10 years ago, the family visited Sedona, a great place to visit by the way that everybody should put on a list at least once. During our week there, we planned on doing a hot air balloon ride but made the mistake of scheduling it for our last day. That particular day, the winds were not favourable so the ride was cancelled. Being our last day, we didn't have another opportunity to go for a ride. Ha! I still remember driving out of Sedona the next day back to the airport on a calm, sunny day and counting 8 balloons in the air around the town. Darn!

Consequently, when we decided to go to Sedona for a second time, I was determined to not make the same mistake. I booked a ride for us all but for early in the week. If we once again had bad luck with the winds, there was a good chance the next day or the following day would see us in the air. In any case, the lesson learned was to not book your flight for the last day of your vacation!

We arrived in Sedona on Saturday for our week long stay and had a day to unwind. On Monday, we got up at the ungodly hour of 4am to get ready before going to the pickup point to the central office of our resort. A truck company Red Rock Balloons came to pick us up at 5:25 and then our driver drove through the town of Sedona and continued in the national park to rendezvous with the rest of Red Rock group. I was given to understand that ballooning is something one does when the wind has died down as much as possible which seems to be either at sunrise or sunset hence, the "ungodly" hour of our flight.

Before you begin, the team always launches a trial balloon. By studying its trajectory, they can determine the strength of the winds and the currents at different altitudes, etc.; in short, if the winds are suitable and conducive to a launch. Obviously, if too much wind, a balloon ascent would be dangerous.

After five minutes of watching the test balloon, the team leader raised his thumb to indicate that they were going to start. Our truck and two other trucks of Red Rock including trailers containing the balloons themselves went to the launch point. A small bus full of other passengers joined us.

Once there, we noticed that there were two teams and two balloons. Our balloon, the largest, had a basket capable of holding twenty people while the smaller one was for ten.

Both teams set about removing the balloons and baskets from their trailers and setting them up. Part of this job was to unfold and stretch out the balloons themselves, a huge mass of what I guessed to be nylon fabric. Atop each basket, the teams set up a frame to which they attached a burner then attached the various ropes of the balloon to the frame. Interestingly enough, they anchored each basket to a truck before starting the process of blowing up the balloon. This entailed placing some large fans at the mouth of each balloon to inflate the fabric. Once the balloons were inflated, the pilots began to use the propane burners to heat up the air. As the air warmed, the balloons began to right themselves until they rose above the baskets. I asked as I stared up at the towering mass of inflated fabric and was told that each balloon had a height of 5 stories.

Boarding the basket was a bit of a novelty. Initially, the balloons and their baskets were laid out on their sides. Just before the balloon began to rise up due to the hot air and thus right the basket, the team partially fill the baskets by having some of the passengers essentially lie in it. Our basket of the largest balloon was divided into five compartments, four for passengers and a central one for the pilot. Half the passengers were ordered to get into each of four compartments, and when the balloon rose to the vertical, the passengers found themselves standing.

The rest of the passengers climbed on board and I did the same thing myself. Our driver gave a short speech on what to do in a balloon dotted of course with some jokes: "The smoking section is outside the basket."

I hadn't realized it but the basket had actually lifted off the ground. It was still tethered to one of the Red Rock trucks so the team could control when the launch actually took place. I was thinking with a smile of a funny scene where the balloon takes off with the entire truck dangling from it however I guessed that in reality, the balloon would never have enough lift to pick up a truck.

Finally, the driver yelled "Let's go!" and the ground crew detached the cables from the basket. Links to Mother Earth being cut, the basket and its 20 passengers rose from the clearing while floating silently above the treetops.

Silence reigned. This is the most striking feature of the flight that I remember. From time to time the pilot warmed the air in the balloon and we could all hear the swoosh of the propane burner but other than that, silence. We were floating in the air as if by magic. No plane, no rope, no other way to explain how we were hundreds of meters above the ground.

I have been in small planes over the years and of course, have been thrilled with flying. However, this experience has always been connected to a small plane, something which is noisy. In contrast, the balloon is totally silent. To stand in the basket and look around as you float with an incredible degree of calm and tranquillity without the noise of a propeller engine is a truly amazing experience. This seems strange to say but it is magic! Where is David Copperfield?

I think all the passengers gasped. The air in this region is clear, amazingly clear. This corner of the United States is not heavily industrialized, therefore there are no polluters. This morning was no exception. With such clarity, we could look quite a way into the distance. In addition, the sky was completely blue, no clouds, and we were all bathed in sunshine; the sun was just creeping above the horizon.

At the highest point of our flight, the pilot reached an altitude of 700 meters or approximately 2200 feet and at the lowest point, we touched a pond. Ah, here's the story of the pond.

We were floating near the ground, trying to see the fauna and flora. Slowly, we approached a pond. The pilot told us that often, he was able to perform a manoeuvre called "Splash and Dash" and since we ended up just above a pond, he would try to do it.

First, I should clarify the term "pilot" a balloon. An airship or dirigible balloon may be directed. Nevertheless, a balloon or a hot air balloon cannot be directed as such. The pilot can raise the balloon by heating the air or let it descend by letting the air cool but it cannot really direct the balloon. The balloon and its pilot are pretty much at the mercy of the wind. Yes, there are flaps with which a driver let out air, however the true piloting of a balloon is in understanding the currents of air and how air moves in a different way depending on the altitude. Our pilot spoke of the city of Albuquerque in the state of New Mexico, where every fall, there is a balloon festival, supposedly the best place for such an event. Apparently, at one altitude there is a current of air that moves away from the city and at another altitude there is another current of air that returns to the city. Consequently, the airmen can take a ride if they follow the proper air flow. In Sedona, the wind always blows in the same direction: we start from a point in a national park and we get to the other side of the park at the end of our journey.

Above the pond, the pilot pointed out to us that we could see the reflection of the balloon in water and of course ourselves, too. I looked down and the surface reflected the bottom of the basket, the faces of the other passengers peeking over the side and the huge balloon over our heads. Everyone took a photo. Slowly, we descended until the bottom of the basket touched the water surface and then the pilot turned the burner to warm the air and we rose once again. That was our "splash", touching the water, and our "dash", taking off again.
The region around the town of Sedona is typical for this part of the United States. It looks like the Grand Canyon and I was struck by the significance of this comparison. Normally, when you look at the mountains, you are seeing the phenomenon where tectonic plates have collided pushing up the land to form said mountains. In comparison, this region was formed by the action of water. It was submerged in an ancient ocean and the canyons and valleys represent the erosion of the earth. When you look at a mound, hill, higher ground, you tend to regard them as a mountain yet, in reality, the higher ground is usually ground level and you are actually below ground level.

When we were in the balloon, floating above the valley and had a panoramic view of the city of Sedona, the valley, the hills, the so-called remote mountains, I realized where we were. There were no mountains; we were in a trough, an area below ground level. The tops of these mountains, the "elevations" were in fact ground level.

Sedona is situated in a valley where half is occupied by the city and the other by a national park. Our launch has taken place from one side of the park, we were swept away by the wind through the park and we finally landed at the other side of the park just outside it. I asked the pilot how he planned the landing and he explained that it depended on the wind. Sometimes, depending on conditions, he was forced to land on private property, a ranch. However, despite the invasion by these balloons, the ranch owners seemed to warmly welcome these fliers.

All in all, a hot air balloon ride is a very unique experience. It's not cheap, but I can tell you it is not something you'll forget. If I can jokingly refer to the movie critics, I give ballooning 2 thumbs up!

Click HERE to read more columns by William Belle.

References

Wikipedia: Hot Air Ballooning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_ballooning

Wikipedia: Hot Air Balloon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_balloon

Red Rock Balloons
http://www.redrockballoons.com

Red Rock Balloons: Photos
http://www.redrockballoons.com/photos.html

You don't necessarily have to go all the way to Sedona, Arizona for a hot air balloon ride. A quick search on Google revealed a number of companies in and around Toronto which offer this unique experience. Check it out!

Google: Toronto Hot Air Balloon Rides

Our time in Udaipur is almost over, and we're getting excited about Mumbai. We have kept minimally busy here with tours, and spent the rest of the time relaxing in the lovely hotel pool and resting in general.

Yesterday morning we visited the largest temple in Udaipur, Jagdish temple. It is built in the traditional Hindi style; a steep flight of very large and narrow stairs leads to a large square platform with a large central temple and four smaller temples on each corner. Ornate carvings decorate the exterior of the temples. They depict the various layers of divinity: along the bottom there are demon faces, then people in various forms and poses including erotic carvings, then a layer of larger carvings of people of a more "divine" nature, followed by a layer of gods above. Before we could see inside the temple, we could hear the beat of drums and singing spilling into the warm, dry, morning air. When we reached the main room, there was a group of about 20 people seated on the floor in the centre. A few were standing and swaying or dancing to the music with their eyes closed, while the others sang, chanted, beat drums, and played other musical instruments. Everyone was smiling. It was very lively and made us think of an Eastern version of a Southern Baptist or Pentecostal church, where the worshipers really lose themselves in the moment with the music. Simon also fixated on the variegated floors of the temple, which were made of a raw granite which almost had a soft texture imparted by the irregular unfinished surface. It was quite beautiful (sorry, no photos allowed in the temple). Carvings and other idols adorned the various walls, and there was a secondary chamber set back from the main room in which could be seen a black marble idol of Shiva the Destroyer.

The Hindu religion is extremely confusing due in part to the enormous number of gods and also because everyone seems to believe that one or some of the gods are more important than others (there is a difference of opinion and spectrum of belief that seems more varied than all the different sects of Christianity). In spite of this, we seem to have been able to apprehend some basics. Hindus generally believe that there is a trinity composed of three supreme beings: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. Each of these gods have various incarnations (e.g. Vishnu has 9 incarnations including Rama, Krishna, and Buddha; his 10th incarnation will herald the end of the world). They each have wives (Lakshmi for Vishnu, Pavarti for Shiva) who are goddesses of various aspects of life and have different incarnations to match a given incarnation of their husbands. Then we have children of the gods. Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, is perhaps the most popular, son of Shiva and Pavarti. Each god has a particular vehicle (an animal such as a bull, a rat, a tiger, etc.) and are usually portrayed with multiple arms and sometimes heads, which represents the many facets of their power and knowledge. Something interesting we learned in Delhi was that Hindus acknowledge that this doesn't make rational sense, and as they enter the temple you can see them touch their head and then temple steps. This represents leaving their mind and reason outside, and using their heart inside the temple, since they believe religion is supposed to touch the heart and the mind can interfere with that.

We ambled from the temple up the road to the City Palace, which is still occupied by the Maharana (this means the same thing as Maharaja, but they cannot call themselves that anymore since they lost all their power in 1974). Construction of the City Palace began in the 6th century and continued over a period of 1000 years. You can see the different influences in the architecture of different parts of the palace depending on when it was constructed - it started with Persian style architecture and then there was Chinese style and finally more European influence. Like most palaces we have seen, parts of the palace are in pristine condition where other parts have been damaged and/or destroyed over the years. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the palace, but due to the heat and the number of other palaces we have seen on our trip so far, we kept him moving along at a pretty good pace.

Our final stop of the morning was the Fountain Gardens. The structure in and surrounding the gardens was rather decrepit, and like every other monument in India there were hawkers at the door selling everything from bottled water to memory cards for cameras. We have learned to ignore these hawkers completely, if you give them any hint of attention they will stick to you like glue and follow you around offering deals (each one better than the last) for tens of minutes in some cases. Blatant indifference comes much easier to James than Simon, but Simon has gotten much better at it as the trip goes on. The gardens themselves were lush and green, which is really quite impressive given the scorched earth that surrounds them (the temperature reached 48 C that day) - if you didn't look at the other surroundings, you would swear you were in Miami. For anyone who doubts global warming, they need to take a trip to India where the temperatures in the North have been rising about 2 degrees a year in the summers for the last 5 years. Udaipur, which is known as the City of Lakes, is virtually unrecognizable as such due to the increasing temperatures in the summers and the decreasing levels of rain in Monsoon season - it's really very sad and water supply is becoming a major problem facing the Northern parts of India.

That evening we went to a cooking class, which has been one of the highlights of the trip for both of us. We met with Shakti Singh, the owner of a local shop called the Spice Box. He led us across the street and up a narrow, labyrinthine staircase to the third floor of a building which housed his cooking studio. It was a small, cramped room with a bench along the walls and a table with a small gas stove in the middle. It was tremendously hot and he had several fans humming at full blast to cool the cramped quarters, but even with the fans James felt like he was going to pass out at one point until he acclimated. We were shown a variety of the base spices used in traditional Indian cooking and walked through preparation and cooking of several dishes, all of which were vegetarian. He gave us recipes for everything that we made, and we made notes as we went. The dinner was simple but delicious, and quite different from what you would get in a restaurant. We learned that restaurants usually have a stock of basic curries and pre-boiled meats and vegetables which they mix together and add whatever extra flavours and spices are called for in a particular dish. This results in an extremely saucy dish (which we love), but normal Indian cooking doesn't have so much sauce, which makes sense since we can't imagine eating that much rich, oily sauce on a daily basis. After dinner we sat for a while and chatted about life in India, and differences with other parts of the world including Canada. Our guide ate with us and joined in the conversation, and we learned a little bit about the importance of family life and food in Indian culture. They generally live with several generations of family in the same home, and dinner is the time when they all come together and talk as a family about everything going on in their lives and where the wisdom of older generations is shared. They are also accustomed to eating immediately before going to bed.

Mr. Singh was very proud about having recently been written up in the Victoria Times Colonist and featured in several other travel guides. He has had a lot of Canadians come in recently for cooking classes. He started his business several years ago as a spice vendor, and people thought he was crazy given the number of similar spice shops in the area. He decided to focus on selling to tourists, but realized that in order to sell to tourists you needed to teach them how to use the spices first, and started his cooking classes. Now he says that the bulk of his business comes from the cooking classes, but he still sells spices in a small shop just across from his studio. We went there after and purchased a few of the spices we had learned about. We also gave him a small gift of some maple sugar candies that we had brought from Canada. He was quite grateful for it, and threw in some black cardamom pods, which are supposed to be more difficult to find at home.

This morning we saw a few more temples. They were older ones, and one of them was partly in ruins and no longer active. Still, the carvings on the exterior are in fairly decent condition and quite interesting to see. On our way out there, we passed hundreds of marble yards. Marble is one of the major industries in the area, and they produce massive quantities of marble, granite, and other stone products in the area. We had originally planned to visit the Lake Palace (where one of the James Bond films was shot) for lunch. It is supposed to be quite spectacular when the lake is full. You have to take a boat out, and the palace is an island in the midst of a lovely deep lake. Now, instead of a lake, there's grass land and flocks of cattle around the perimeter, and there is a small swampy channel that a boat uses to ferry people between the palace and the "shore", all of a 1 minute journey. We were told by our concierge that there is a $50 cover charge just to GO to the palace, let alone eat their extremely overpriced fare, so we decided to skip it and cancelled our reservation. It would be something neat to do if there was a lake, but the sheer arrogance of it was a turn off to us, and we've had enough of hotel food at this point anyway. Instead we opted for a much more reasonable local restaurant for lunch, and then wandered around the local market streets and back alleys prior to hopping in a tuk-tuk (we finally found out that's what the 3-wheeled cabs are called) and coming back to our hotel. On our wandering, all the children we came across ran up to say hello to us. We have found this to be the case all over India, and they often wave when we drive by in the car. It seems they're fascinated by westerners, and we find it really adorable. Even in small villages, the children know how to say "hello" and "where are you from?".

Tonight we plan to feed the animals on the hotel's reserve grounds, and then venture out of the hotel again for dinner. In the evening, we will come back for a reprisal of last night, when we had drinks at the hotel's outdoor restaurant with live Indian performers playing music and dancing under the moon and stars. Then it will be off to Mumbai to finish our trip! We hope everyone is well at home…