January 3 - January 6: Mumbai

A year ago, Kush's father past away. Its Hindu tradition to perform a puja or prayer ceremony at this time to pray for the souls and to the gods. A holy thread to worn around the neck and the position of the thread determines who you are praying to or for. Flowers, foods and spices are used in the cermony to represent shelter, safe journey, cleansing, etc.

All the perishable items used in the ceremony must be placed in the water so that they can not be walked on. We go to Juhu beach so that Kush can do this. We draw a quite a crowd since most of us are fair skinned with light hair. The tourist police had to come up and shoe everyone away. Its a little like being a celebrity since everywhere we go people stare. Lots of people come up to us to talk and take our pictures.

That night we have dinner and smoke some seesha (spices) at a hookah bar with the local affluent adolescents.

On Thursday we go into the heart of Mumbai. We lunch at Indigo, supposedly one of the top restaurants in the world, before heading to the Taj hotel and the gate of India. We take a boat ride over to Elephanta Island where there are rock cut temples dedicated to Shiva.

There is lots of animals about in India. Cows and dogs wander everywhere, including the beach. (And cow is king here - I was standing still taking a picture and a cow came up from behind me and head-butted me out of his way). Monkeys were running all over Elephanta Island. Rachel was even attacked by a monkey for her Coke bottle. I've also seen goats on the streets, I guess they are usually found in the Muslim parts of town.

Friday was spent shopping. We also tried some India sweets. Nothing was chocolate so I didn't like anything.

The beggars are the worst at the markets, though they are everywhere. There is also an unusually high number of deformities - people with missing limbs, twisted extremities and atrophied limbs. The worst is seeing men without legs crawl or scoot on the dirty streets.

Friday night we hung out at Kush's cousin's home. His cousin does voice-overs for Bollywood movies and is very entertaining. He's also into yoga and showed us the best shoulder stretch ever.

Rose and I get up at 6am on Saturday for a 2-hour yoga class. Unlike classes in the States, this class focused more on breathing and concentration instead of contorting your body in funny positions. The whole first hour was just breathing alone. It was so relaxing I had to take a nap afterwards.

Later that day we board a plane for Jodhpur.