I left for London today but Mum and Dad are still in Delhi being very good grandparents :-)
Another day, another bike shop: incense sellers in Meher Chand market.
The weather has definitely changed in Delhi, and with it a new lot of fruit and vegetables appear on vendors' trollies. Oranges, pomegranates, cauliflower and mustard leaves are all in season.
Ed, Mum and Dad went up to Old Delhi for a little look around today. The trip involved five different types of transport: car, metro, auto, cycle rickshaw, walking. Delhi is particularly good for transport enthusiasts (not that Ed, Mum or my Dad are transport enthusiasts).
I was in Chennai today and all I managed to take a photo of was these statues in the hotel lobby. And it's not even a very good photo. And you can't see how big they are. They're quite big.
I love this. This is the 'choose your language' screen of an ATM. In most countries, this would have two options - the national language and English. Or one or two more if it's in a tourist hot spot. This is a normal ATM in Chennai airport and there are eight Indian languages offered. I can't name them all unfortunately but I think from left column down it's: Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, English, Hindi, something, something. Go India!
The boys have become slightly obsessed with this little puppy who turned up outside our house. Even I am quite fond of him ...
My parents are here! We visited the Qila-i-Khuna mosque in the Purana Qila (old fort) today - Ed discovered it during one of his seven cities group trips. It's one of the best I've seen - the mosaics look Turkish or Moroccan and are in really good condition.
You can hear the brand meeting when they came up with the name for these. 'Let's just call them ... chips!'
I've been meaning to include a photo of a street-side barber for a while ... it's such a common sight and presumably something that will disappear one day. I'm starting a new series called ...
I really love this photo of this bhel puri stand. Bhel puri is a snack made from puffed rice and, onion, tomatoes, coriander and tamarind chutney. Absolutely delicious, haven't had it for ages.
We found this lovely shrine in Sarojini market in Delhi today with loads of these oil candles. It reminded me of temples in Nepal.
Back from Colombo to Delhi today, with the two tallest of these funny people to add to my collection. Loving the hairy chests.
... and origami becomes the latest fad to hit our household. Mostly foxes in this picture, with frogs wearing samurai hats on top of the tub. Just in case you were wondering.
Meanwhile back in Delhi Ed and his 'seven cities' group (see Day 556)had their turn to take the others on a tour of part of Delhi. They did a little play about the First War of Independence (otherwise known as the Indian Mutiny) - everyone loved it.
Sri Lanka this week for a meeting about teachers' access to technology in South Asia. We went out for a team dinner on the first night to a restaurant serving traditional Sri Lankan food - I don't think I'd ever had it before. On the left is a hopper - a kind of dry, crispy pancake with an egg cracked into the middle - and on the right too many different things to list, but all delicious.
Bike shop #13. This one encapsulates what I love about India. This guy has set up a little business riding around residential areas with an urn full of hot chai on the back of his bike, selling cups of tea to the guards who sit around all day outside people's houses. Totally genius.
My birthday! Such a treat to be able to spend it in Bangkok with Jessica, and a double bonus to be able to celebrate it at Pan Pan. If only we'd had time for a spinach pizza...
Another one from Loi Krathong with some friends from the yoga retreat and Pun Pun. We went to the temple in the village where they had a competition to launch a sky lantern through a hoop held high up on bamboo poles - we very nearly got one through, but not quite. This photo is taken at the river where several more were lit and released. Ed has a big problem with sky lanterns and their environmental impact but there's no denying they look beautiful.
This is me and my lovely Jessica with our kratongs that we made for the Loi Krathong festival. This was one of my favourite festivals when we lived in Thailand. The kratongs are made out of banana trees - the base is a section of the trunk and the leaves are folded to make the petals. Then they're floated downstream in rivers to take away the bad and wish for the good. So beautiful.
This is Mae Ngat Dam which we visited one afternoon. It's part of Sri Lanna National Park and has floating guesthouses and restaurants. There's also another, smaller, dam close to the farm where we went swimming several times - it was lovely. I think we're planning to go back here at Christmas.
This is the house we stayed in. There are many houses on the farm, mostly built with adobe mud bricks. They're quite basic inside, but the idea of building a house out of the land it sits on is very appealing. They've started using concrete for the foundations and steel for the roofs now as in the long run it's cheaper. We did a tour of the farm on one day and looked at the evolution of the buildings that they've made, the gardens and the hut where they grow mushrooms. It was very interesting. They have a simple but large water filter system that provides clean drinking water - I think I only had one plastic bottle of water the whole time I was in Thailand which is quite an achievement.
I didn't actually do this, but I found the yoga pretty hardcore. I'm not sure I'll do another yoga retreat. Four and a half hours a day and up at 6.30 every morning. Fantastic food though and some great workshops ... and I liked quite a lot of the yoga it was just a bit too much when I was supposed to be on holiday. I'm quite lazy, in case you hadn't noticed before.
This is the place we stayed for the yoga retreat: Pun Pun Centre for Self Reliance. It's beautiful. In fact the two fields you can see between here and the tree line don't belong to the farm, but most of what you can see beyond that does.
... but I eventually made it to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand, ready (or so I thought) for six days of yoga.
