Mumbai

We went to Mumbai last weekend for our Dad's birthday on Indigo Air. We got to the hotel in an A/C cab. We checked in and went up the super-duper fast elevator to the eleventh floor where our room was. We had a sea view room and a butler! He was pretty nice. Once all of the luggage was in the room and we had our "welcome drink," we took a boat to Elephanta Island.

That is where we saw the old Temple Caves. These are dedicated to the god, Shiva.
Boom!!! Bang!! Crack!!! A storm was starting. We had to walk up about 1,000 stairs (not really, but it felt like 1000) It was raining when we got to the caves.

We saw statues of Shiva and Ganesha, and thought we saw some bats! On the way back down we bought some "Kukare" - Audrey's favorite Indian snack. The boat was a little rocky on the way back, but nobody got sick.

When we got back to the hotel we had "high tea." This was actually like a big lunch with hot drinks and lots of desserts. Then Mom and Dad called for a baby sitter. The hotel brought Dad a birthday cake and champagne! When our babysitter came, Mom and Dad went to dinner. The sitter turned out to be pretty old, so she fell asleep before we had to go to bed. In the morning we went to the breakfast buffet and ate the yummy food!

After that we took a old non-A/C cab to go sight-seeing. Evan wanted to take one of these because it was an old Indian-Fiat "Premiere." They are pretty cool, old-fashioned taxis that you mostly only find in Mumbai. We saw a Temple and a famous old Mosque that looks like it is floating at high tide. It was a little boring since we have seen so many Temples in India. We went swimming in the Taj's pool in the afternoon.

After tea-time, we took a walk. A man took our picture in front of the Gateway of India. This is a memorial for King George V and Queen Mary. It was next to our hotel! There was a cool police armoured car outside by our hotel too! Then Mom and Dad walked with us to some shops nearby.

After that we took a horse-carriage ride around the city. When we got back to the hotel, our Mom and Dad went out to eat, so they got us a another babysitter. She was younger and watched TV with us. This one didn't fall asleep before she put us to bed.

Our New Apartment

Photos by Evan Sayer.

We thought we'd better show you some photos of our new apartment in Nizamuddin, New Delhi. It is a little bigger and nicer than our apartment in Noida. And the ceilings are a taller. We really like it here.

Here is our kitchen. You can see the new microwave and our new oven. We never had an oven before in India! The kitchen looks small, but it is bigger than our old one.

Our dining room and our living room make up one big place. This is where we spend most of our time when it is really hot because it has a big A/C. There is enough room for two couches, two chairs and our TV. We have a balcony and French doors that look out onto our street.

Our room has its own bathroom and our bunk beds. Dad let us keep our keyboard in here too. We have our own door to the utility balcony. That's where Dad does the laundry.

Mom and Dad's room is the same size as ours. They have their own bathroom and a big window that looks out onto our neighborhood park. Our bedrooms have big closets too!
The last room is made into an office. Mom uses that at night when she is on her calls. It has a desk, our shoe bench and the ironing board in it. Savita, our housekeeper uses that mostly. There's a little bathroom and a little balcony too!

Goa

We went to Goa for a long weekend. We flew there on "Spice Jet."  It was very fun, but it was the rainy season there so we thought it would rain every day. But it did not! We were very lucky.
A cab driver named, "Raj" picked us up at the airport.  He had a Maruti "DZire," it was just like our car in Delhi! Then we went sight-seeing in old Goa for three hours that first day. We saw two very famous churches. They were the Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi (1660) and the Cathedral Bom Jesus (1590). This second church is where St Francis Xavier's body is kept. He is a famous Portuguese Saint.

We also visited a small church that was built in 1510. It is called St Catherine's. It is exactly 500 years old this year!
Then we drove two hours to our hotel in South Goa. It was in the town of Palolem and is called, "Oceanic." Evan was afraid the room might be moldy because of all the rain, but it wasn't. It was very nice. They have 2 cats a dog, a swimming pool and A/C! We had dinner and went to sleep.
The next day we went to the beach. We could walk there from our hotel.

We played in the sand and tried to go swimming, but the life guards would only let us swim when the tide was going out because the water was very rough. We jumped in the waves with Mom and Dad.
We found lots of shells and baby clams in the sand. One day we took a hike down the beach and found some rocks in a cliff that looked like a face. We climbed up them to get a closer look.

Mom found a really cool restaurant called, "Cheeky Chapati." It was our favourite. We ate there almost every day because the food was very good. They made yummy western and Indian food. The restaurant was run by an English family who have lived in Goa for six years!
On Tuesday we left for Delhi in the pouring rain. Raj, our driver from the first day drove us back to the airport. We found out what "Monsoon" really means because it rained a lot that last morning! We flew back to Delhi a different airline called, "IndiGo".

Even though it rained a bit, we still got to swim and play on the beach. Our trip to Goa was a lot of fun!

The Last Tour

Evan wanted to give you a tour of our ATS apartment before we move from Noida to New Delhi... so here we go!

Our apartment is quite big. Here are some pictures I took with Dad's camera:

Our living room has a sofa and some chairs and our television. This is the room we watch movies in. That door leads to our balcony. We can watch everybody from the balcony.

This is the dining room. This is the room we eat in. It's right next to the living room.

My room. This is the room Audrey and I sleep in. Audrey has the top bunk. We play a lot of games in here. Audrey and I like to play with our friends in here.

The bathrooms. We have three of them. These are the rooms we wash our hands in. We wash our hands a lot here in India!

This is my Mom and Dad's room. It is a little bigger. Thought the door is a small balcony. We hang our clothes out to dry on the balcony.

The Guest Room.  This is were people have slept when they came to visit. Mom works at night in this room when she is on her calls to the U.S.

And last but not least, our kitchen. Our cook, or my Dad usually make dinner. We don't have a regular oven, but we can cook on the stove and in our microwave. Dad says we will have an oven when we move into our new apartment in Delhi.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. We have lived in this apartment since January, 2009!

Evan Sayer   July, 2010