Taj Mahal

Yes we got up at the crack of down to “beat the crowds” and see the Taj while were in India. Let me tell you, quite a few people get up and arrive there before 7am. I was freezing, but Duarte took tons of pics while we were there. We still recommend going early since the smog and haze will be visible any time after 8am.

From Taj Mahal

Our Place

Here’s some pics of our place, which is not completely together yet but in the works.

From Our Place

A monkey is eating my pillowcase!

During our trip to India, we stayed in Nahargarh, a fort on a ridge above Jaipur. It seemed like a real treat to stay in the turret of a fort with a view above the city, but we were wrong! The place we stayed was recommended by both Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, but we are thinking that they may have seen the room but not stayed there. Let me tell you what we learned. Note: we are usually budget/mid-range travelers and live in Pakistan.

Read full article and see photos here

From Nahargarh

Click here to see all Nahargarh photos

More detail on suicide attack

There was a pretty good article in the Dawn newspaper, a local paper from Pakistan, about the bombing yesterday near Mall Road. It seems like it was quite a gruesome attack.

Read the Dawn article here

We have not been affected by the bombing, but I think we’ll avoid that side of town until all this election stuff is over. It would be best to avoid large markets or any areas with a strong police presence.

In the day to day, we are being more affected by the power outages. Apparently Lahore only produces about one third of the energy that we need in this city. We are supposed to have a 30 minute blackout every four hours according to the official schedule, but electricity doesn’t usually come or go according to that. We’ll have 30 minutes on, one hour off, one hour on, off again etc. It’s good to keep things charged and have candles and matches in every room of the house. We were told after Feb 15th it should get better.

Suicide Blast in Lahore

Just read today that were was a suicide bombing near the high court.

See pictures here

Read BBC coverage here

For any of our friends and family: We are not living anywhere near the high court building and the target was policemen not civilians.