Jama Masjid

We have made it to India safely, and have lots to tell….but we don’t want to stop for long enough to tell it!!  The photo (which I found here) is of Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India.  Our hotel window is in one of the buildings in the top left that looks directly into the west side of the Mosque.  September is the month of Ramadan in which Muslims fast during daylight hours.  In the evening the area has been more active than normal…we think.  Pilgrims sleeping on the sidewalks, goats everywhere, big booms going off at sunset, frantic looking men running to have the first meal of the day.

Delhi is quite an amazing town and India is quite a crazy country.  I can’t wait to see more.

We leave tomorrow morning at 5:00am to fly to Leh, which is a mountain town in the Himalayas.

People on Trucks from Nik's Blog

Yesterday, Nik and I spent some time driving around Chiang Mai simply to drive around Chiang Mai.  We have a love/fear relationship with it because it is fascinating to see things here that you would never see anywhere else, but because of these things it seems to be extremely dangerous.  Nik has done a great blog post and below is a video that we took that Nik has added some music to so that you get the jist.

Nik’s Blog: Sitting, Driving, Watching Chiang Mai Traffic

8inch Pizza on Huay Kaew Road

As soon as I stepped in this little Chiang Mai pizza restaurant, I could have sworn that I was in San Francisco.  More specifically, I felt like I stepped into the San Francisco kitchen that I dream about.  High ceilings, great work space, casual seating, and good pizza.  The proprietor was very friendly and even turned on the AC and closed the front door after she saw us slapping at early evening mosquitoes.

I just realized what this place reminds me of!!  Ken’s Bakery in Portland, OR on Monday evenings.  (They might not be twins, but maybe distant cousins)  You see, Ken does great wood-fired pizza every Monday, and Alex (my Portland roommate) and I would go from time to time and have two pizzas, a ceasar salad and two glasses of red wine.  8inch doesn’t have the ceasar salads or wine, but it has the potential!  Alex, if you were here, we would be friends with the owner of 8inch.