India/Nepal/London 2007.

A thought from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra (1:36) that we love and think is really appropriate when thinking about India: “There is always a light within us that is free from all sorrow and grief, no matter how much we may be experiencing suffering.”

Just 3 days after we returned from India, Annabella’s father was diagnosed with stage IIIC colon cancer (happily we can now tell you to see the dad-daughter cancer survivor trip to the Holy Land report from 2009). Our travel journal musings were so prolific and we were so overwhelmed with helping out with medical treatments that we never got around writing up a full trip report, but please enjoy our photo journal.

Delhi

Delhi vendor

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Do contractors in India show up when you call them, or do their camels get stuck in traffic?

Do contractors in India show up when you call them, or do they come with excuses about their camels getting stuck in traffic?

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Cafeteria at the Jain hospital across from our hotel outside of Agra. Note the hair net!

Our hospital food -- better than in America and one of the best meals we had in India.

We remember riding in the backs of pickups when we were kids, but it was never quite like this!

Caution - wide load

Dung patties drying in the sun, later to be used for fuel.

Architectural details at the Fatehpur Sikri

Vito and Annabella at the Fatehpur Sikri

Entrance gates to the Taj Mahal

With Mom and Dad at the Taj.

Making an inlaid table, piece by piece. Interesting for a minute, but one of the aggravations of taking a group tour -- wasting time in factories where they hope you'll buy something (which we never do).

Our driver who took us the mall and who managed to locate us in a crowd of thousands several hours later to drive us back.

We spent an afternoon at the mall, mingling with the Indian middle class. But the cinema wasn't so fun for us since "Om Shanti Om" was sold out.

Wedding procession, which I was encouraged to join.

Hard to see, but that's me dancing in the middle of the wedding party -- they loved my moves, and everyone came to shake my hand. Wife had to stand outside since it's men-only.

At the sweet shop in Agra -- they put together a great box of sweets for us.

The hot desserts

Giving our driver some sweets after bicycling us back to our hotel, and a bunch of hopeful kids.

Snack stand in the Agra train station. Observe the orange cover.

Yes, those are flies.

Beggar with a sympathy puppy. It worked since we gave her the cracker she's eating.

Handing a girl a pen from inside the bus while stuck in traffic on a country road.

The Kama Sutra Temples in Khajuraho.

The Kama Sutra catalogs all the things you "could" do.

Remember, it's everything you "could" do, not necessarily what you "should" do.

This suggests something I "might" like to do.

This looked promising.

There wasn't a Dutch man or an Italian chef to be found, but the pizza wasn't half bad!

They really wanted to sell me something, and I really wanted to buy, so I bought a bell.

Our buddy Vinay and his pharmacy in Khajuraho. He sold us cold medicine for mom, which worked like a charm, and some Ayurvedic throat lozenges that were good as well.

Our buddy Vinay in his pharmacy in Khajuraho. He sold us cold medicine for mom, which worked like a charm, and some Ayurvedic throat lozenges that were good as well.

This the artist with the miniature painting he made for us - we selected the colors and borders, he worked all night and then delivered it to our hotel. We ordered another and had it mailed home.