This year our annual ski trip with American friends took place at Aspen Snowmass in January. None of us had ever been, and one of the crew had recently moved to Denver, so seemed like a good spot to go. I flew in directly on points, but the other four drove four hours from Denver. We soon realized that regular Denverites go to Breckenridge for the weekend, as Aspen is too far of a drive.

We stayed literally right across street from Snowmass, which was the largest of the four mountains in the area, others being Aspen, Aspen Highlands and the beginner mountain Buttermilk. The cabin was really expensive and not nearly as nice at cabins at the other resorts we have tried, but it was alright. We headed up Snowmass the first day (Friday) and it was pretty quiet. It’s a big mountain, a lot like Whistler, lots of terrain. The big thing we noticed was their ‘double blacks’ were more like blacks at Whistler. We were on the lookout for some more challenging terrain, which we hoped we would find on Aspen Highlands.

On Saturday and Sunday, the boys hit Aspen, and Lisa and I watched A&E’s Pride and Prejudice in the cabin. It’s becoming a bit of a tradition on ski trips. I also went in search of JCrew and shopping at Aspen. It’s a cute little town, with lots of heritage timber buildings and high-end designer shopping. The village was full of women in fur coats and fur boots and over-sized diamond earrings, much more than you would see at Whistler. Whistler gets a lot of Vancouverites, but at Aspen, Denverites don’t come up so it seems to be all rich and famous who flew in (and don’t necessarily ski). I ventured to the young women’s store JCrew, and found it was supposed to be a special high-end JCrew, apparently like on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and everything was higher end. The store was also full of older wealthy women, the staff too. It was very weird, I felt out of place.

Monday, we hit Aspen Highlands which was completely dead, we had the whole mountain to ourselves it seemed. I guess cause it was mid-week and apparently Aspen Highlands is the locals mountain for more hardcore skiers. At 11am, the ridge with the double-blacks opened up, so we waited in line to have the snowcat take us up. It was just us and a bunch of ski patrol guys. It’s pretty neat – the snowcat takes you up most of the way, and then you hike to the top. Unfortunately I did this while hungry for lunch and got a bit tired and cranky, and made Kelly take one of the earlier entrances in. It was still more than a 30 minute hike! Keaka continued with the ski patrol guys to the top entrances, and had a longer run. The guys were loving that run, and hiked back in the afternoon to do it again from a top entrance – it took them most of the ski day to do that hike and run.

Overall, another successful ski trip. Next year we’re thinking Park City and the surrounding mountains in Utah.

In September, we made our way to the Carolinas to visit some friends. After a 3 stop flight, we met up with friends from Raleigh and Kansas City, and drove to Emerald Isle – a beach community 2 hours from Raleigh (just before the famed Outer Banks). It was extremely beautiful and quiet, we had the beach mostly to ourselves. Our rental house was right on the beach, so we only had to stumble downstairs. Tom and Kel got boogey boards which they had far too much fun with. The water was so warm, unlike the cold water at home in BC, so we were constantly out in the water.

The food was pretty great – had some deep fried chicken, pulled pork, fried okra and other fixings at Smithfield Chicken enroute to the beach, and then Jeff and Kelly were bbqing up some grouper and other local fresh fish, as well as pasta with fresh huge shrimp and scallops. Mmmm.

After the beach, we headed back and checked out Chapel Hill. It’s a cute little university town centred around UNC Chapel Hill, a liberal arts college. There was gorgeous houses, and a large downtown strip of shops. The university was gorgeous, with old stone, but it was pouring rain so we wanted to get out of there pretty quick.

Back in Raleigh, our friends had a huge house, as is the norm around there. It felt alot more suburban than we expected, but a beautiful suburbs as there was parks and forrests all around, as part of Research Triangle Park. In hindsight, I looked up population stats and realized that Vancouver has double the population of Raleigh, and metro Vancouver has double metro Raleigh, so it makes sense now that it didn’t feel as big city.

After wondering Raleigh and Durham, we set off to Charleston with my former co-worker Ashley. Enroute, we had to check out Cracker Barrel for a home cooked southern dinner which was really tasty and cheap – $7 for a huge spread of pulled pork, 2 sides and cornbread.

After five hours, we hit Charleston, which was much more of a tourist city than Raleigh, with a larger downtown core. We headed off on a small bus tour of town, and the elderly guide was quite a storyteller – he was a local resident all his life and had lots to us about the first shot in the civil war fired nearby, and about the gorgeous heritage houses in town. There were so many gorgeous old homes, with huge patios where you could picture yourself sipping a mint julip, trying to share yourself from the sun.

The last day we went to Magnolia Plantation, but were were a little disappointed as the flowers were not in bloom. We wondered the gardens for hours, and checked out the swamp walk where we saw several alligators.

Just got back from Boston, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard – wish I could’ve stayed longer. It was gorgeous and sunny, around 30 degrees Celcius in Boston, 34 in Cape Cod. Boston had alot to offer: we did the Lonely Planet book’s walking tours of Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the North End, the waterfront, the financial district and downtown, and Cambridge. Saw MIT, Harvard, and Fenway Park. Unfortunately the cheap tickets to the White Sox were sold out.

Next up, we drove down to Cape Cod, where we stayed at at a beautiful bed and breakfast, a block from the beach. All across town you could see the Pilgrim’s monument, in honour of the pilgrim’s stop at Provincetown in the Mayflower before settling elsewhere. We biked over and climbed to the top – it had a fabulous view. Mostly enjoyed sitting on the beach reading.

We added an unplanned stop at Martha’s Vineyard for a day and a half, wish we’d had more time! We stayed in Oak Bluffs, which features brightly painted Gingerbread style heritage houses, and biked out to cute Edgartown. I highly suggest Martha’s Vineyard, was our favorite spot from the trip.

Back in Delhi, our group headed to Old Delhi where we wondered around the narrow backstreets and peered at interesting shops. In the evening we had a final dinner and drinks together at DV8, which was an upscale bar in Connaught Place. Then we headed out on our own – we had three days to kill in Delhi so checked out Raj Ghat (memorial to Gandhi), the President’s Residence and parliament buildings, the India Gate and surrounding park, Humayan’s tomb. Also found an incredibly tasty restaurant called Veda at Connaught Place, voted Delhi’s top restaurant in Conde Naste Traveller. It was good and compared to gourmet food at home, pretty darn cheap.

We had pondered venturing out to Rishikesh five hours to the north, the yoga capital on the Ganges where the Beatles met with a guru, and also pondered taking a plane to the south to relax on the beach, but we were lazy so we stayed in Delhi.

We had an interesting evening the night before we left, meeting up with Kelly’s coworker Neeraj for dinner. Neeraj lives in Noida, a suburb of Delhi. We were slated to have him pick us up around 6 – we called him at 7pm and 8pm to figure out where he was. When he finally arrived at 9pm, we discovered not only is traffic from the suburbs terrible but he had hit a cow en route. Seriously. We headed out to the United Coffee House in Connaught Place with Neeraj and his friend. In an ill-advised move I said we hadn’t had any real hot food in India yet, and that there was hotter stuff at home, and that I’d like to eat something that would make me cry. Neeraj translated for the waiter, who had a good chuckle and ordered us up two incredibly hot dishes.

While the food did not actually make me cry, it did make me sick. I spent the next two days feeling ill and puking on occasion, including almost puking right before boarding the plane home. Up to this point I had mostly been fine, faring better than most in our tour. I was leaned against the wall right before entering the plane, and the stewardess actually asked if I was ok. I said yes, worried that otherwise they would not let me on the plane. Once the plane was up, I felt some relief that I would soon be home. We enjoyed the trip immensely but after two weeks of not being able to drink regular water, eat salad or many fruits, I was ready to get back to my regular diet.

On our last day in Varanasiwe ventured out to see the Ganges at sunrise, go the whole group trekked out around 5am and got on a boat. It was neat seeing everyone doing their morning rituals – bathing, washing their hair, praying on the ghats. Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges remits sins and that dying here ensures release of a person’s soul from the cycle of its transmigrations. The water is incredibly dirty, and contains enough bacteria to be septic (that’s right, as in septic tank) to we definitely weren’t sticking our hands in. We actually saw the corpse of a cow floating in there at one point, and saw people dumping ashes in the Ganges at the burning ghats. We could kinda make out some funerals on shore, and corpses draped in white muslin being dumped on the ever burning flames of the log fires.After the Ganges boat trip we grabbed a group breakfast and then visited the homes of some silk weavers and got a tour of a silk shop where we saw the fanciest Benares silks money can buy. Some of the stuff was incredibly detailed and sells for tens of thousands.That night, we took a night train back to Delhi, where our tour ended.

After a two and a half hour bumpy car ride and nine hour train, we finally arrived at 10pm in Varanasi, or Benares, the holy city on the Ganges, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. What a day. To pass the time en-route, we played  a lot of Uno with our tour-mates and read a lot of books, and I tried my best to remember Japanese phrases to try on our elderly Japanese bunkies, who didn’t speak English.

The next morning we explored Sarnath, 10km from Varanasi, which is a deer park where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon, where he taught of the Dharma. It’s pretty much a pile of rubble and bricks with the occasional mound-like structure called a stupa. The massive Dhamekh Stupa marks the actual spot in the deer park park where Buddha delivered the sermon to his five disciples after gaining enlightenment. We then wondered around, looking at deers and wildlife in the park, and checked out various Tibetan Buddhist and Jain temples.

Then onto to Varanasi itself. It’s a busy town, being one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists, attracting millions of pilgrims and tourists each year. It is also where devout Hindus come to die. The highlight of Varanasi for us was visiting the ghats, the steps leading down to the Ganges River, at night to view the aarti ceremony.

We went early, around 5pm, to check out the ghats and stake out a spot, but we were not successful in the latter. Everyone wanted to talk to us and sell us something. One gentleman said hi to Kelly, but then turned it into a hand massage, claiming “No rupees.” It swiftly became an arm and shoulder and back massage. I was getting worried (these things are never actually free) when Kelly finally escaped from the masseuse. He then proceeded to follow us around for the next ten minutes.

Suddenly viewing the aarti ceremony from a boat on the Ganges seemed like a great idea. In a stroke of luck, we spotted four girls from our group boarding a boat so we joined them.

We had a relaxing sunset boat trip, past the burning ghats where the dead are cremated on log fires, and back to the main ghat. Several in our group had purchased floating tin with candles and flowers, so they lit them and made a wish as they placed them in the holy Ganges. It was a beautiful scene with so many floating candles, as people in other boats were doing the same.

At 6:30 a hundreds of seated observers and boats had collected around the main ghat, where seven platforms had been setup and draped with cloth in preparation for the aarti. Music and chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra began on the microphone, and seven Brahmin priests dressed in orange robes stood on the platforms and began swinging incense and ringing a bell, and eventually swinging a metal contraption that looked a bit like a Christmas tree in shape, which had lots of candles lit on it. In general, there was a whole lot of candles and flame.

It says on wikipedia, “Aarti is generally performed two to five times daily, and usually at the end of a puja (giving an offering) or bhajan (singing devotional songs) session. It is performed during almost all Hindu ceremonies and occasions. It involves the circulating of an ‘Aarti plate’ around a person or idol and is generally accompanied by the singing of songs in praise. In doing so, the plate itself is supposed to acquire the power of the deity. The priest circulates the plate to all those present.” Unfortunately we could not see this kinda detail from the boat.

It was a long journey to Orccha in Madhya Pradesh, hours on the train and then more on a bumpy pot-holed covered road in an old car, along the lines of a Geo Metro. Could’ve used more in the way of shocks. Out of the window was lush green rural countryside.

At Orccha, we ventured among ancient temples and palaces, built by the Maharaja of Orccha, decorated in both Hindu and Muslim styles. There was a fabulous view of the surrounding temples from teh top of the three layer palace. Our camera battery died which was pretty unfortunate timing.

We had a quick lunch and then continued (hours more driving) to Khajuraho. The attraction in town is the largest group of Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculptures. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site. Since the town is very out of the way it’s not very touristy, a nice change after the tourist-trap that is Agra.

The temples, built of granite, are scattered in Eastern and Western groupings. To the West there were several temples depicting scenes from everyday life, golds and all 84 positions of the Kama Sutra. This seems out of place in the present day conservative India, where public displays of affection are frowned upon. There are two theories on why the erotic sculptures exist: either this was a sort of sex college for young men, or part of tantric Hinduism.

On the eastern side, the temples were Jain temples. Our guide Yadu explained there’s two sects of Jains – those who believe in ‘no cloth under sky’ and those who believe in ‘white cloth under sky’. The former go naked, and both do not eat animals nor cook their food.

Khajuraho itself is a very small town and locals were friendly and happy to speak with foreigners. We were asked many times where we were from by kids who wished to practice their English and hoped to go into a career in tourism.

The Taj Mahal, one of the seven new Wonders of the World, was an awesome sight. We left our hotel at 5:30am (no breakfast! no coffee! ugh!) to make the 6am sunrise opening of the Taj.

Unfortunately, the sun was not seen from behind the clouds, but the Taj wasn’t too crowded in the morning

The scale of the Taj was monumental in person. We could’ve easily spent a day just staring at it (especially if they sold some food). We ended up spending around 2 hours wandering around the Taj, its mosque, and the grounds, and attempted to take the perfect photo. Impossible I tell you. It was nice to enjoy the Taj before the crush of tourists arrived.

After a nap, we headed to Akbar’s tomb, Sikandara. There were few tourists and it was quite relaxing to walk the grounds. The mausoleum was pretty, with gold inlaid on the ceilings. The tomb itself contained marble coffins and was lit by a candle in a black metal lamp on a chain. The manicured lower lawn housed deer and black-faced monkeys, some of who got a little too close for my comfort. When the monkeys ventured up on the walkway I went running for the hills, much to the amusement of Kelly and the locals.

Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, is far the most touristy town we’ve been to – the touts and rickshaw wallahs are especially aggressive. There’s also some awful stories doing the rounds: our guide warned of merchants locking tourists in stores until they buy something, Lonely Planet mentions a local scam where travelers were poisoned and then rushed to crooked doctors who overcharge for services, and on the cover of all the newspapers when we arrived was a story of two female Japanese tourists who were raped by men posing as guides. Needless to say I wasn’t in the best mood after reading that story when we arrived.

On our first morning in Agra, we headed out to Agra fort. We were immediately latched onto by a very persistent guide. I had been feeling ill and was cranky so I told the guide to $%&* off. That didn’t work as I hoped. After about 20 minutes of persistence and arguing, we took on the annoying guide, and actually had a nice tour in the end.

Later, we checked out the ‘Baby Taj’ (Itmad-Ud-Daulah’s Tomb), which had a view of the real Taj, and took a rickshaw out to across the river from the Taj, and played around with fun photos. Had a lovely group dinner at a fabulous restaurant and went to sleep early, as we have a 5am wakeup call to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise tommorow. Busy day!

Next on our whirlwind tour of Northern India – Bharatpur, Rajistan, near the border of Uttar Pradesh. It’s a smaller town four hours from Jaipur with one claim to fame – Keoladeo Ghana National Park, which is really more of a bird sanctuary.

A cycle rickshaw guide toured us through the park, describing the birds and animals in incredible detail, listing the defining characteristics and even making their appropriate sounds. They sure work hard for their money! We saw every kind of bird you can think of, including cranes, and gazelles. On rare occasions tigers show up.

The idea of bird watching initially did not appeal to me but in the end everyone found it relaxing. The greenery was beautiful as were the sounds of birds and crickets.

Our guide was actually Sikh and was thrilled to hear we were from Canada, and more so Vancouver. It seems that every Sikh in India has friends and relatives in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.