Tuesday, September 15, 2009

story of my life and engrish fail...

saw this comic in the indian newspaper... story of my life.

some other things i forgot to post:
like pizza hut pizza. it looks delicious because it was delicious.
umm... so mcdonalds delivers here... awkward...

i didnt know there were that many ways to describe eating a mango... or any action for that matter
i felt bad for this penguin...

and some engrish fail:



saw a pair of these the other day. totally fitting for this season. maybe i should find where i could score a pair... GO BLUE


ok that should do for now.

i dont know what im doing in taiwan. haha, just waiting around for a flight out of here back to the states i guess...

Monday, September 7, 2009

the conclusion of an adventure and return to civilization (?)

in taiwan! currently sitting in a starbucks right across from taipei 101 (oh what a view!)... will be updating posts all day today and tomorrow so yay! (oh and that video i promised is up and posted on facebook so check it out!! - http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=933632625593)

updating progress: everything has been up-to-date. read ahead!

anyway, when getting back to new delhi, we did some touring and shopping as well as some cultural experiencing such as wearing kuptas for the guys and sarees for the girls, eating on the floor and with your right hand (minus pointing finger) only, and some traditional dancing.

the monkeys in our neighborhood, as promised. they move around a lot and dont like flashes so couldnt take a better picture. oh and this is our neighborhood deli?/grocery store? the owner is super chill... by the way, if you look carefully, there are racks of eggs sitting on the counter. they dont refrigerate eggs in india. not at the market, not at home. at first i was like, uhh dont they go bad? but they dont! it's so weird! so why do we have to refrigerate our eggs then?!

we visited a famous hindu temple site called chuttarpur mandir... (the statue is of a monkey god. awesome!)

we also went to see agra fort and the taj mahal. so at agra fort, i totally got in as a native indian. when asked where i was from, i just said ladakh, a province in the northwest - though if i said somewhere in the northeast, that wouldve worked too because people there totally look chinese. but anyway, the price for an indian was 10 rupees, and foreigner was 300 so obvi i wanted to pass for an indian. the dark skin totally helped...
the architecture was amazing ... and then we went to, tah-dah, the taj mahal. it was much more beautiful in person. there's something grand and magical aand indescribable about the taj mahal. everyone must visit it sometime in their lifetime, maybe honeymoon? silly poses of course.


we also went to the lotus temple, which was cool. architecture aside, the inside of the temple had awesome acoustics so when chanting, it just sounds like heaven.

tangent! clouds!
doesnt it look like a dog or hand-puppet dog and a baby deer?

and this one looks like the abominable snow man!

another adventure was going to see a futbol match. bare in mind, this is my first time ever seeing a futbol match so that's kinda cool. interesting how my first futbol match is not in the states or some known-for-their-futbol-team country like brazil or the UK but india. on the way there, we saw this awkward trunk thing ... not sure how to describe it or what's inside. anyway, granted india's futbol team isnt all that great, but the game was really good, thanks to the energy of the crowd and the awesome and suspense of the game itself. it was india vs syria and the score was syria 0 india 1 until the last 3 seconds when syria scored. then it went into overtime and noone scored again. then they did the kickoffs and that was really intense, but in the end, india won!!! woohoo!!! sorry the pics arent that great. they didnt allow cameras inside so had to take them with my phone instead (what a stupid rule)

4 more randoms...
1. so mcdonalds is actually quite good here. they dont have beef or pork so everything is chicken. their big mac equivalent is called the maharaja mac, which was quite tasty.
2. tax in india is 14%. ridiculous!!
3. i played cricket for the first time... what a complicated game. it's like baseball for geniuses.
4. road-side tea is amazing. so there are 2 things you could possibly hear about indian roadside tea: it's either the most delicious tea youll ever taste, or you'll end up dying from cholera or something terrible. luckily it was not the latter. for 4 rupees, or $0.08, you get a glass of delicious milk tea. totally worth the 8 cents.

and finally, on the day before i had to leave india, vikram calls and says he's free to hang out! yay! though thinking back, i dont understand why i didnt take a picture with him. but anyway, we had lunch (which was really really good. up until now, i havent really had dry foods. most of the stuff were in sauce or curry. the 'dry' chicken was to die for.) then we hung out with some of his friends. he took me around where he lived and then we went to another friend's place to pregame. now this fifth of vodka (750ml) of 75 proof liquor was 190 rupees... aka $4. if a fifth of vodka were 4 US dollars back in the states, i think every college student would die of happiness. unbelievable. we went to a restaurant / bar afterward and that concluded my visit with vikram. =)

ok that should be good for now.
adventures in taiwan (again) maybe?