White Coat Ceremony

This is the celebration of finishing their first two years. Now they enter the hospital as quasi-doctors. Doesn't Eric look good in his white coat?!

Dodgy Delhi

This is the street we stayed on in Delhi. Our hotel was down one of the alleys off this main road.

Sick of India... Literally

We mentioned that we got a little sick in Udaipur... Well that was an understatement. Lets see... it was the middle of the night when we were awoken by the fan turning off. The temperature raised 10 degrees instantly. This is normal. There are rolling blackouts all day. But about 10 minutes later it hit Eric. ("it" being the "cheese" pizza he ate for lunch). He was in serious pain. I spent the next half hour trying to fan him with a little battery powered fan I had bought in the states. It wasn't helping. Then it hit ME. Oh my gosh. I have never been so miserable in my life. I wanted to die. Neither of us have ever had food poisoning, but that must have been worst kind. Eric finally got up the energy to go down to the manager's office and ask for some water. He came back and we attempted to mix up some gatoraid to keep us alive. I was holding our lighter so Eric could see, then I burned my finger and dropped the flaming hot lighter on my leg. I think at that point we started laughing well I was crying/laughing... We were so miserable. Eric went downstairs again and demanded some electricity. (they were watching tv downstairs). A few minutes later they turned on our power. They offered to send for the doctor, but that is often a scam too. We weren't in the mood to deal with that.
As horrible as this was, this is one of my favorite memories of India. There is something strangely romantic about your husband holding your hair back for you when you lose your lunch. LIFE LESSON: only eat at places listed in your Lonely Planet Guide Book. PERIOD.

Jaisalmer

Sorry, it's been a while since we've written. We've been traveling a lot the last few days. Our last few days in Udaipur we got a bit sick so we'd like to put that behind us and not think about that anymore. But Udaipur did have some beautiful palaces built on lakes which made them look like they were floating. Next we went to Jodhpur known as the blue city. There was a huge fort overlooking the city which is very blue. I guess a while back they decided that in order to tell which houses the Brahmans lived in (so people could bow in front of their house as they passed) they were to paint their houses blue. So consequently everyone in the city painted their house blue. It looked pretty neat.Now we're in Jaisalmer which is in the desert on the Pakistani boarder. It's known as the golden city. all the buildings are built with a golden sandstone. We are staying in an old palace- where some of the royal family still live. This is the off season so there is nobody there except for us. It's like we have the palace to ourselves. Audrey keeps talking in the royal "we". Yesterday we went on a camel ride out into the desert. it was pimp. We tried to watch the sunset but it was so windy and dusty that the sun was blackened out. Today we are going back to Delhi... we don't know why... but we bought these tickets at the beginning so I guess we have to. Every place we've been has been a lot nicer than Delhi, but maybe it won't be as bad now that we're over the shock of it all.Lisa's camera is fine. we hope so. Mom- little kids do come up and want to shake our hands. We've been in many people's pictures because they are excited to see white people. Sometimes there will be a small group of people hounding us to take their cab to the hotel, but it's not that bad. Most of the people are very nice and want to practice their English with us. It can be annoying telling the difference between the nice ones and the ones who want your money. (and we haven't seen a single snake-which Eric is sad about)Love you. We'll be home in 5 days Audrey and Eric

Ahh, Venice!

From the emails we are receiving, it appears that everyone would like to also visit India. Just so that the record is clear, maybe we should explain further. The good times are really good, and amazing. But there are many off times as well. The smell walking down the street can be gut wrenching at times and people haggling everywhere. So we can paint you a picture imagine dogs, pigs, cows, and camels wandering the streets and people defecating on the walls. Today Audrey saw a cow and a bull consummating their marriage right in the middle of the main street. Audrey and I decided that if we were ever to do this again we need a lot more money and one week TOPS! Our guide book explains it well, it reads "many people show up in Delhi and turn around and buy a plane ticket home" and "you can have the greatest and the worst times of your life quite often in the same day" it's very true.But it is definitely an adventure and the pretty places are unbelievable.We are in Udaipur. The most "romantic" city in India. It is nice, the streets are cleaner then the past cities. It has a beautiful lake and some beautiful gardens. (We are trying to get as many pictures as possible, but we're not very good at it so don't get your hopes up). Yesterday we went on a search for a clean place to eat like we do in every city. We ended up lost in a winding palace on a hill and ran across a restaurant. It was very expensive ($20-- that's like $100 dollars here)but we were so tired and hot that we ate there. We must have looked rediculous. We were the only ones in the restaurant and we were a mess. There we were dripping with sweat, Audrey in pajama pants with waiters dressed in formal clothes constantly at our right feeding us with silver silverware. We felt very out of place. It had a beautiful view over the city though.This city's claim to fame is that Octopussy the 007 movie was filmed here. They have nightly showings of the movie. We might go to one tonight. Can you imagine working in a hotel that shows Octopussy every single day of every single year?

Jaipur

Today we had an elephant ride up to fort on a hill. We saw a couple palaces and we rode around in a 3 wheeled auto rickshaw which broke down every mile. We are staying in a much nicer hotel than we have before, and the food is really great. At the end of the day we went up to the Hindu Sun Temple which is on a hill overlooking the city. It was really peaceful and quiet. A very nice lady and her daughter live in the temple and showed us around. They explained the temple, put a dot on our foreheads (that represents that you've been to temple today). They read Eric's hand and said that he is going to live a long life 80 years, have 2 children, and be wealthy. They also read from this astrological type book according to our birthdays(Eric- says things that make people angry, is interested in Science and farming, and he loves his wife very much--- Audrey- I get sick all the time, I am interested in love and my lucky numbers are 1 and 9. and don't start any job on the 4th or the 8th.)The daughter put a henna design on Audrey's hand which is a type of plant mixture that brings out the pigment. It looks very cool.There was a Monkey Temple right next door and monkeys were everywhere. We tried to get some pictures of them, but there were little kids everywhere jumping in the pictures and scaring the monkeys off. We are going to Udipur tomorrow. It is supposed to be the Venice of India. I hope that's a good thing. Hope all is well at home! Love,Audrey and Eric