Gateway of India - which was built to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George and Queen Mary.  Construction was competed December 4th, 1924.


From the Gateway we took a ride to Mnemba island on Tina and Sam's brand new toy a 36 foot power boat.



Upon arrival on Mnemba island we caught site/video of a very very near miss ferry accident. Let me tell you, after what we witnessed, I was incredibly thankful we did not have any plans to ride any ferrys in India.  That being said... it would have been icing on the cake for our crazy India transportation mishaps! (Still not worth it!)



Antilla - the 27 story - worlds most expensive house. The property has 3 helipads, 6 floors of parking, a series of floating gardens and certianly stands out in the downtown Mumbai Skyline.


Really enjoyed our time with Nilima and Sanjeev.  Even had a chance to help Nilima with her school project (she is currently taking classes to become a primary school teacher) by cutting out a bunch of letter  B's!

We spent New Years Eve at a beautiful lake in Pavna with Sanjeev and his family and Suhas and Medha.


First activity of the day was wind surfing which Sanjeev (an expert) made look SO easy.  Suhas was the first and pretty much last person to give it a try.  After watching him struggle so much to lift the sail out of the water AND feeling how cold the water actually was - the rest of us bowed out.  We had a great time staying nice and dry in the rescue dingy while heckling Suhas!





The view was just absolutely beautiful almost like one of the breathtaking scenes from the TV show Lost. Surprisingly the entire area around the lake is almost uninhabited. Just a few very fancy vacation homes and some scattered small farms.


Suhas getting ready to put our New Years eve dinner on the grill.  Nilima and Tina hard at work in the kitchen.  I offered to help but had no idea what spices to add to each dish so decided I was a better help to them if stayed out of the kitchen.
We had a quiet but memorable New Years Eve stuffing ourselves with amazing shrimp, paneer and chicken tikka fresh off the grill along with the best black lentil daal (Tina's special dish) in the world!

Paragliding in India is something Kingsley has been wanting to do since his first trip to India over 10 years ago.  Also we were both happy to see all of our Bali friends again.  We had an great time flying with the Temple Pilots.

- Casual mornings sipping hot lemon tea and trying dosas, eggless omelets, vegetable cutlets, tapioca dumplings and many other delish dishes at Roopali.

- Kingsley and Suhas tennis re-match -- which shockingly did NOT result in a win for Woods.  We are blaming the loss on Suhas and Medha for the brilliant strategic move of feeding us too well - to ensure a win.  Re- re-match will be held in Singapore when the Kelkar family comes for a visit!


- Fun late night dinners (The Sizzler), and wonderful conversations about life, friends, family and raising children.

- The "three" kids - Kingsley, Rhea and Roma playing Fruit Ninja and competing for the HIGH SCORE!

Lake pichola is an artificial fresh water lake created in the year 1362AD.  It was primarily created for drinking water and irrigation needs.  Interesting fact during the years 1998 and 2005 the lake was actually dry due to lack of rainfall.



Our hotel can been seen directly across from the water - bright white hotel on the right side of the picture.

The City Palace was built by Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 and is considered the largest royal complex in Rajasthan. We found the palace to be in okay condition but was not nearly as well maintained as some of the other forts and palaces we had seen previously. I also suspect we were a little "palaced out" by the time we toured the City Palace so while we enjoyed it we did not spend hours exploring every nook and cranny.

Also we were there on Christmas day which meant the palace was packed with some international tourists but mostly other Indian tourists.  Some of which were taking more photos of me then of the actual palace which was initially flattering but quickly lost its charm!

While exploring in and around Udaipur we had some...unique experiences on the roads.  Hopefully the two video clips below capture a small glimpse of the chaos on the narrow roads.


Driver trying to see the road through his Hindu god and goddess stickers on the front windshield.



Herding Donkeys



Cow Stampede