Nothing says Christmas like mangos and elephants....

The events described in this post took place on or about Dec 23-Dec 29th, 2010 in the sub-continent of India.  For those of you viewing this through Facebook 'Notes', the original post is available on www.henrickatlarge.blogspot.com. It will enable you access to photo galleries and other multi-media material which don't transfer into 'Notes'
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So.... It has been a bit since I have posted anything on this blog. One of the down-sides of writing a blog documenting the things you do is having to do stuff to blog about. So, you can infer from this that my life has just been chock-full of the everyday doldrums of life. Unimpressive temporal clutter that was just, well, not worth writing about.

Time dripped steadily, as it does throughout the Fall and into the beginning of the the Arabic Winter-season. The semester came to a close. Due to scheduling problems involving the Sultanate's 40th anniversary we were given a holiday that landed between Christmas and New Years. Sooooo... what to do, where to go.

After juggling a few of the different options around, I decided on India. It's close, relatively cheap and has been on the to-do list since I was a teenager. Ok then, it was decided!

(For those of you who don't know where India is, I have included a map for you below)

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The readers-digest version....

Flew into Mumbai, stayed there for two days in Colaba. Took an overnight train to Goa and spent the next 7 days there....

The first two days were in, as I said Mumbai. Mumbai is an absolute crazy city... I don't think there are proper ways to describe it except to say that it is the most frenetic place I have ever been. India functions by its own organic laws, that are more like general organizational principals of humanity. The glue-and-morter that hold India together are the gossamer threads of humaness. Outside of that it is hard for me to describe it in any other way. If you want to understand it more fully, go there. If you can't visit India, read Shataram. He does an awesome job of distilling and conveying the complex essence of that is the Indian sub-continent.

Above all, India is the most Delicious place I have ever visited. THose of you who know me, know also that I have a 'soft-spot' for Indian food. I eat and try to cook it with some regularity. I had a 'field day' here. Of all the different varieties of Indian cuisine that were available I found that Punjabi food was the biggest hit (my opinion). But there is so much variety and styles of Indian cooking that I have only sampled a small amount of them.

Another thing I really liked about India is the amount of nature that is everywhere. I don't mean the grean-stuff either, I mean animals. There are dogs, cats, birds, and cattle everywhere. Walking through the streets, hanging out on corners, sunning themselves on the asphalt or pavement, lounging on the beach etc. So to have dogs and cows everywhere was a real treat that really brightened up my vacation.
That being said the photo album attached to this post are photos of some of the most popular tourist spots in Mumbai. Included are the Gateway to India, The Taj Mahal Hotel, the gardens overlooking Mumbai, and its glorious bay. So, I hope you like it