Palace on Wings :)

After the trip to the south of India with the family, Alby and I flew up to Udaipur to take a tour of a few of India's beautiful palaces. In Udaipur, we found ourselves a very nice rickshaw driver that we paid for the entire day, and he took us all over the city. We started at the city palace, and booked dinner at Lake Palace for that evening. Udaipur was super romantic. Watching the sun set on the lake and then arrive at the magnificent Lake Palace, was very memorable.

From Udaipur, Alby and I flew to Jaipur, where we treated ourselves to stay at Rajvillas Oberoi (the top hotel in India). What a treat!!! If you ever want to be pampered to the max, stay here. The grounds of the hotel were massive, with their own golf course, tennis courts, spa, pool, etc. The spa was so great, that after the first day, Alby was ready to book for the next day again! We loved our time there just relaxing and spending time together. The staff at the hotel were great, remembering all the little details about what we liked to eat and order, so to have things ready before we even asked. I'm so glad that we kept our stay at Jaipur for the end of our trip, otherwise we would have peaked too early :)

Kerela and Ayurvedic Massages :)

From Bombay, my parents, Neil, Alby and I all flew to Cochin (Kerela) to visit the tea estates in Munnar and the backwater resorts of Kumarakom. The drive up to Munnar was amazing. The state of Kerela is so green and clean!! The drive to Munnar was a little long, but we had lots of stops along the way and it was very picturesque. We stayed at a nice resort in the hills overlooking the tea estates where we all tried out the famour Ayurvedic Massage. For a good laugh ask one of the guys about their fun experience.

After our stay in Munnar, we drove down from the hill station to the Kerela backwaters to the Kumarakom Resort. We had reserved these awesome villas that sat on a pool, so we could jump into the pool from our patio. The backwaters were a fun experience. Seeing how the lives of people were centered around the canals that wound through the area. We felt a little weird, as if we were intruding on the locals lives, as we took a boat tour through their 'neighborhood'. It would be like a bus load of people taking a tour along Cougar Circle :)

Start of 2006 ... at 6%!

At the start of 2006, Alby and I move a little closer to seeing 10% of the world!