Chile chillin

Patterns of India

One of the things that has always stood out for me about India is the decorative art and architecture.

I suppose it's one of the things that draws me to it.

When I was 18, India was top on the list for places I wanted to visit.

Indian cooking was my favorite new hobby. I was fascinated by the curries and spices and wanted to learn more about Indian cooking. I then met an Indian Prince from Punjab at my rather alternative semester of commune living put on by my local community college. We spent an entire semester, 21 of us at an unoccupied summer camp one fall in Maine. Most of my "education" was spent in the kitchen learning both vegetarian and Indian cooking. 

Somehow plans to travel to India took a back burner and my next trip was my move to Alaska instead at age 19.

 Now over 35 years later I finally got my India trip.

I have traveled frequently to other parts of Southeast Asia- Thailand, Bali, Cambodia, Laos and had always heard from other travelers that India was a different sort of travel, "not a vacation, an experience"

"intense" "difficult" "mindblowing" "too many people" "filthy" "beggars everywhere following you and touching you"

It was with some trepidation that we planned this trip, I wasn't exactly sure what was in store for us.

My son's girlfriend is from India so when she was planning her yearly trip back to see her folks and had invited my son to make the trip we took it upon ourselves to invite ourselves along at least for the convenience of a jumping off and landing place to bookend our trip.

What I didn't expect was that our almost 5 week trip was like visiting about 5 different countries each with a different flavor, climate and scenery. I suppose I did know on some level when you think of a country that large that it will span many environs but it was the actual traveling and the short amount of time we did it in that made an even bigger impact on my psyche.

I've told more than a few people of how exhausting it was, we didn't spend more than 4 days in any one place and as I've experienced in most of my overseas travel that I tend to go into survival mode trying to conserve my energy and not to overextend myself. Try that when you are traveling with a non-stop energy bunny that I call my husband. He can just go-go-go and it's up to me to speak up for the rest breaks.

I had to abandon the diet I had crafted for myself just to make things simpler.

No wheat wasn't an option for me when there were daily offerings of naan, rotis and chapatis.

I was quite surprised that I didn't take to Indian food as I thought I would (or it didn't take to me)

The sauces seemed too heavy and I think I just didn't know what to order a lot of the time.

It took some trial and error to find my favorites.

Most of our meals were Indian food at restaurants for travelers and I tired of the menus.

The seafood and rice-based dishes in the south were my favorites and there was more fresh produce gracing our meals. We took the chance with salads.

My all time favorite food was dosas, a rice and dal based thin pancake with a bit of filling.

Paper dosas were enourmous bigger than your plate sized thin crepe like pancakes that had some nicely seasoned potatoes filling them. That's my kind of breakfast!

Pink Palace, Jaipur

I wonder what this says

Carving and paint job on a delivery truck

 India was such a wealth of imagery and experience that I'm hoping to distill it here to share with you some of the thoughts, images and feelings that I acquired on our trip.

Feel free to ask me any questions You may have. 

I'm only halfway through editing my photos from the trip so far.

I will share with you the biggest tragedy of the trip right now.

What, as a blogger would be one of the worst things that could befall you barring accidents and health concerns? 

Losing all your photos, right?

Well that's exactly what happened to my husband "Mr Paparazzi" himself on the last days of our trip.

He apparently left his camera with the memory chip from the entire trip in a taxi in Mumbai.

We were so incredibly careful the whole trip and it seems our guard was down when we took our last taxi ride to our friends house in Mumbai. He probably had twice as many as I did on that memory chip and there were quite a few that I counted on him having on his camera that I wanted to share.

At least my photos survived and so did we.

Hitting the Road~ North to Alaska

It's that time of year again when we head back to our home in Alaska.

We're doing it a bit differently this year and driving to Washington and catching the ferry to Haines, AK

We have a truck with no AC in Arizona and one with in Alaska so we'll be swapping them out next fall.

It will be strange to reenter the colder climes and watch spring all over again.

It should take us about 10 days with some of our stops in Seattle area.

I'm not sure how much internet access will be available but I hope to keep the posts coming when I can.

It will be an interesting road trip in that I have been on a rather strict dietary regimen for the last couple of weeks. After my chiropractor/naturopath determined that my adrenals were overtaxed and that I'm not

digesting as I should  she put me on a no sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine, no salt, no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no grain diet which may help with inflammation problems I've been having for awhile.

What's left you ask? Protein shakes, super greens,  flax seed, almond milk, whey, ( I guess that's some dairy) and loads of veggies, steamed and juiced and fruits and lots of blueberries and cranberries that we'd brought down here with us.

I really wanted to spare you the blow by blow details which seem to veer toward discussions of bodily functions but suffice it to say the first days were the toughest. 

Surprisingly I didn't/haven't missed the sugar, caffeine, meat or alcohol and the most difficult for me was giving up salt. Thankfully, Braggs amino acids have been added back and that seems to satisfy that craving.

It was doubly difficult at a birthday celebration across the border at a Mexican restaurant and I treated myself to some roasted green onions and peppers on a bed of lettuce while everyone else was eating carne asada and cheese.

Oh! that reminds me, I was going to post a picture of our friend Julio's 70th birthday present, an altered puzzle 

I lifted and printed some of his childhood photos off of facebook and decoupaged them to the puzzle pieces.

They were a little stark with the greys, black and blues so I spritzed them with some sunflower glimmer mist after a layer of matte mod podge to give then a bit of sepia character.

Look closely at the top piece and you can see Julio standing in from of an angel statuary.

This one was a gesso transfer that I learned from Caterina.

On the the bed of the puzzle I decoupaged this image of him an Lupita, his girlfriend from Mexico.

I happened to find this cigar label that I thought was fitting.

I am pleased to say that this present made him weep upon opening it.

My job is done!

Anyhow I'm also pleased to report that I'm feeling rather good and some niggling symptoms have been disappearing and my husband has been remarking that I look younger and less puffy and seem more calm, not to mention 4 or 5 lbs. that I've shed already in two weeks.

We'll see how it goes from here on out  but I'm feeling pretty motivated to continue as I can add  things slowly back to my diet. The Alaskan salmon sure tasted good the other night!