After a quick face time with Rick and the Reed’s (I got to
see Mary’s belly!) I finished my packing.
Yikes! I have a lot of stuff already and I still have 2.5 weeks left…. On the way to Varanasi I will be leaving my
big luggage at the storage area in the airport so that I won’t have to pay the
airline fees for the extra and heavy baggage!
In the morning, I ran over to get Mary and Helen what they
asked me for….thankfully it fit in my luggage and hopefully they fit! Then we
went to the famous candy store for a last present for our clients to include
with our framed photos and other miscellaneous gifts. There were so many delicious looking candies,
one of my favorites is the Kaju Kulfi (cashews crushed with sugar, ghee and
milk) and so we did half a box of those and half of another that had almonds. I was a little nervous at first because when
they were showing me the different sized boxes there was a nice little live baby
cockroach that came with one….mmmmm.
We went off to our lunch that was scheduled for noon, and
due to traffic and getting a little lost, we arrived at Colonel Cabin at
12:10. Mr. Vijay arrived at around 12:45
and Kumar just after 1pm...I think noon is 1pm India Stretchable time ;) We ate a delicious veg lunch of chapatti,
dhal, masala paneer (amazing!) and Chana (spicy chickpeas) and for the breath
freshener they had a treat called paan.
Paan is a mixture of masala, beetle nut, sugar, etc, etc… wrapped in a
beetle leaf. The taste was quite a shock
and I wasn’t too sure, but once I popped it totally in my mouth and chewed it
up at once it wasn’t so bad! The
concoction has a numbing sensation on your mouth and later I actually felt the
cold numbing sensation in my chest…pretty wild.
Anyway, it is supposed to be good for digestion and the flavor is quite
enjoyed by the locals. I unfortunately
did not take a picture, but I will order another with Rick and this time we
will take pictures.
It was sad to say goodbye, but we had to head back to the
hotel to have our tip ceremony with the hotel staff and get to the train
station. Kumar actually met us at the
train station with a parting gift, (he had already been such an amazing host!)
that I couldn’t believe there was something else! Thank you Kumar, Kanika, Anubhav, Aashn,
Aryan, Rupah and Tej, Rosie, Ixxx and Axxxx for everything, I will miss you!
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| Fun menu |
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| We took the cycle rickshaws back from morning shopping in order to get to the taxi on time! |
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| Saying goodbye for the 2nd time :( |
It was fun seeing your view and room and stuff. Have an amazing time traveling and exploring. Wanita and Rosie are having fun and we ran into Chad at Hogshead and he said the cats are doing fine too and Dude is enjoying hunting in the nice weather. So all is well here!
ReplyDeleteMe and my feet are excited for you guys to get home though :)