Vegetarianism..... or cheeseburgers?

I've discovered that it's so easy for vegetarians to eat in India! Most places offer at least half of the menu in vegetarian-only options. I'm on the fence about it myself and deciding whether or not I could really give up my beloved cheeseburgers I love so much. It's a good idea, vegetarianism, but the follow through might be a little difficult to adhere. I came across the vegetarian only restaurant below which would never survive in the states. I can only imagine cooking for yourself would be very time consuming to make veggies into something rather delicious other than a crunchy pile or tasteless mush.

All vegetarian foods here come stamped with the below icon either on the packaging or next to it on the menu. The picture is a little dark but it's a green dot in a green square. Red dots in red squares mean the item has some type of meat in it. And little red peppers inside little red squares usually mean its very very spicy and not for the easily spice-effected (as I think I might be.)

The below was a delicious plate I had this week, with a few items that the names of are escaping me at the moment. On the left is type of pita with another bread dipping type item, olives in the middle and spicy hummus. The red sauce only appeared to be spicy but was far from it and very tasty!

Completely unrelated to the topic is a beautiful waterfall we came across yesterday. It was so beautiful I thought I would share :)

The Big Bazaar

Last night the group headed down the street to the Big Bazaar which lived up to its name in that it was 5 stories of housewares, electronics, toys, clothing/fabric, and food. It just seemed to keep going and going. I made a few lucky purchase including more fabric (eek where/how will I be able to pack all of this), the cutest tiny tea set you'll ever find, and most importantly, lays potato chips.

Yes, that's "American Sour Cream and Onion", which I was seriously craving yesterday :)

Also other finds below: Brooke Bond Taj Mahal tea.

The below are large jars of pickled items. Most of these were filled with red, and (what I assume to be) very very very spicy pickled items. There was one customer that took a sample taste of one of them, it looked like green peppers in a deep red oil spicy sauce. Just like Costco!

Finally, the below is me with some rather large barrels of different kinds of rice.

Beautiful Fabric

For whatever reason Blogger.com won't let me add more pictures to a post after I've already selected some from my camera. As mentioned in the previous post, here is the fabric!

Hey look it's October 27th somewhere

So today just happens to be my birthday and I'm spending it here in India! Last year I was in Paris visiting the Eiffel Tower so I have a feeling next year's birthday might be a big dissapointment. Unless I can manage another international trip somewhere.

We are off in a bit but this morning at breakfast every hotel wait staff and cook came out to wish me a happy birthday. Also soon after they wheeled out a birthday cake complete with candles and a huge boquet of flowers! Only on your birthday is it okay to eat birthday cake at breakfast!

Tonight we are heading to the "Big Bazaar" which I'm told is like a large supermarket with clothes. I'm hoping maybe to get some more fabric and spices! Yesterday I found some amazing fabric (see next post) and a really cool green purse :)

Diwali

So this week in India we are celebrating Diwali, which is called the Festival of Lights. The holiday's significace has many meetings but mostly its about celebrating life and your family and friends. We've been heaing and seeing fireworks for days, really huge shows of fireworks you only really see on the fourth of july in the states.

The hotel threw an amazing Diwali party full with beautiful decorations, drinks, food and of course, fireworks. We also got a historical lesson about India from a local dressed in a beautiful Sari.

Dancers

I couldnt get the video to load so here is a still shot of the show we saw on Sunday.

We have arrived!

Landed safe and sound on local time Sunday morning 12 AM. After grabbing our luggage, passing through Customs and making our way to the hotel it was around 3 AM. Fought off a severe bout of motion sickness that made me feel like I was still sitting on a plane and the entire building was moving. Jet lag kicked in and I slept for 11 hours, completely missing breakfast and lunch!

When I finally woke up we made our way over to a local mall which seemed to have a million stores. There was lots of entertainment including dancers putting on a show, and some type of fashion show cat-walk off competition. I have video of the dancers but for some reason it's taking too long to upload. Will post tonight when I have more time.

It was around this time that I realised that my most comfortable pair of shoes were not comfortable at all so I made my best purchase so far, and awesome pair of sandals :)

I also purchased a few shirts and saw women buying Saris. I didn't try any on since I'm saving that occasion for a day when I feel better.

Just one more picture from my current view in Frankfurt, waiting on the next flight. Not very intersting though.

Time for Breakfast! But we just had dinner 3 hours ago....

This morning's breakfast came really really early, right about 12 AM EST. I awoke from my not so deep slumber to "breakfast maam?" Yes, please with coffee asap. We arrived a full 40 minutes early into the Frankfurt airport and quickly found the lounge.

After a shower and clothing change i'm feeling 100% better, if not a little off from the lack of sleep. We've met up with another member of our party and will take off at noon for our final leg to Bangalore India. We'll arrive there at 12 AM on Sunday morning then make our way to the hotel.

"It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
Yes, I did just quote Lord of the Rings.

This might be the longest plane wing I've ever seen! The end of it bobbled and waved once we were up in the air.

Willkommen!

Hello there and welcome to my page! You've landed here because you either know me personally or found me through a random blog search. This page is about my travels, pitcures and things I find amusing :) Hope you enjoy it and if not feel free to let me know through the comment button... actually don't do that, feel free to just move on :P

Hey look, it's Richmond! Hello and goodbye as we make our way past to Dulles and then on to Germany overnight.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.