Welcome back for more on our trip to Bali last May. I wanted to talk about a couple of other areas we visited while on our trip in the hope that if you ever go that you will try them too!

First, Bali is filled with different types of Hindu temples. No matter where you drive there will be temples on the road and altars at most homes. Bali is the only non muslim majority island in Indonesia so its very different from the rest of the country when it comes to buildings of faith and religious practices.

The next location is the Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest/Sanctuary. It is right in the middle of town so you could just walk to it. This sanctuary is like a large city park and it has over 700 monkey’s in it. There are also three temples located in the forest itself.

The monkeys are everywhere in this park and you essentially just stroll through it taking in the beauty of the forest, the temples, and animals. Tenley couldn’t control herself. She kept calling all the monkeys either “Abby” (our dog back home) or “woof woof”. If she wasn’t strapped to me she probably would have chased them. These monkey’s do everything in front of you — everything and if you think I am hinting to what you are thinking about…I am. You also have to be on guard while you are there. At one point I thought Tami was pulling my hand to hold hands and it turned out to be a monkey who was trying to steal my water bottle. I let out a loud, “eeehuhuhuh” and made several bystanders laugh as I awkwardly danced away from my new little friend. I highly recommend that you go. It is Tamaria’s favorite part of Ubud and you can literally spend hours walking around and watching the monkeys and enjoying nature.

Finally for today we visited the Sacred Waters of Tirta Empul (sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones movie).

It is one of the holiest water springs in the Hindu faith and its only located about a 90 minutes from Ubud. The belief is that the hidden underground springs that produce clean, fresh water can cleanse you of anything from physical ailments to emotional or spiritual impediments. It is meant to wash out the bad and free/restore your energy and health. Lilian/YaYa, my mother in law, was the one that really pushed us to go and I must admit I was not very happy about going. I mean come on, stripping in to a gown and standing in cold water is going to somehow be fun? I was so wrong.

You definitely had to be reverent on the site. There were large temples surrounding the entrance to the pools. You could only wear special robes in order to bathe which you had to rent and then put on in a shared locker room. There were individual changing rooms but they were very crowded and small. Here was us about to go in:

So you get in the water which was actually alot warmer than I was prepared for. It was cool but you weren’t shivering and for me it only came up to about my hip. You go to each of the fountains (except a few which they note you cannot drink from) and say a prayer to the gods (or in my case I prayed a different prayer to Jesus each time). Then you drink the water and then douse your head in to the fountain stream 3 times. Then you move to the next one.

It was actually really fun. It was hot outside too so the cool water felt good. It was a spiritual experience. I felt like I got alot of time with Jesus. When you have to pray 7-9 times within 20 minutes you start getting deep. And there is just something refreshing and life giving about water. After you make it to the appropriate fountain heads you get out and go back and change in to your clothes. As you exit there is a huge market filled with merchants selling stuff. I recommend you skip that part as they are very aggressive. Just go out through the same entrance you came in on.

Overall these were fun activities and was surprised that I enjoyed all more than I expected. Sometimes you just have to take a risk and sometimes it will pay off.

It has been awhile since my last post as we have been very busy with travel both work and personal. In the last few months since my last post we have flown almost 20,000 miles. But I couldn’t do this blog justice without touching upon a trip to one of our most favorite places on Earth – Bali. We have some history in Bali as we spent part of our honeymoon there (the remainder in Thailand). We so much enjoyed our time there we just had to come back — this time with the little ones (Tenley and my Mother in Law Ya Ya). I will do a few posts here about that trip to hopefully entice your interest in travel to this beautiful island in Indonesia.

Yes Bali is beautiful and yes the people are very kind and welcoming. Bali has many amazing things which I will talk about but let’s go straight to where my accountant brain lives in absolute joy — Bali is cheap….once you get there. Food, hiring a car and driver, clothes, souvenirs, hotels, etc. We spent a week in paradise, filled with relaxation and activities, for the cost of about 2 days in Oahu. It was brilliant to come home from a vacation and be surprised by how LITTLE you spent. Can you imagine? Well imagine no more, Bali is your place.

We stayed at a great little hotel called Surya Kembar which is just outside the centrally located city of Ubud. We like Ubud because you can really get to almost anywhere on the island from there in 2 hours or less. We booked a private villa with a pool and to our surprise, it was actually two villas with a pool in the middle. We were also across the street from the hotel and had a private driveway so we felt like residents! YaYa took the smaller villa and we of course took the larger ones. Outdoor showers, huge kitchen, plenty of bottled water, our own pool to do the occasional late night skinny dipping…everything! Our favorite activities at the hotel included pool time, several in room massages, and playing games late in to the night.

It was a great time for us to be together and bond.

The biggest surprise (although I should have known better) by far was the food. So many restaurants and choices but of course the big game changer was most food could be cooked without burning hot spice like we are used to in India. It was like manna from heaven. Tamaria and I found this great little restaurant on the strip in Ubud that had everything from cheese and meat, to pastas and pizzas, to steaks, fish filets, veggies (not spiced), and a great wine selection. We all shed some pounds in India, now was the time to gain it back! We ate Italian, Mexican, steak, all soaked in the deliciousness of butters, salts, and mild pepper. Cheers!

And of course you can’t go to Bali without visiting their beautiful beaches with light sand and clear blue water. We got our own driver the week we were there and he was able to find us this remote beach where we pretty much were by ourselves. No loud clubbing music, no $25 drinks, no obnoxious parties. It was wonderful. We “rented” two chairs for $2 and got to play in the sand and the somewhat warm water. Tenley loves the water (as long as she has daddy or mommy holding her). It was a beautiful day that we spent at the beach. God continues to surround us with beauty.

Writing this post has made me hungry and thirsty. Stay tuned for more of our trip to Bali!

Today I have some tidbits about India for you. This time, no pictures, just some writing on things to know about living in Pune, India.

The weather — Honestly I love it. It is like we live somewhere between Arizona and Florida all year. Pune is located about 1800 feet on the eastern slopes of the western mountain range. That is about 1/3rd of a mile up. The mountains and the elevation protect us from most of the humidity from the nearby ocean (90 miles from the sea/Mumbai). The seasons are Winter (Nov-Feb which have day time temps in the mid 80s and low 60s at night), Spring is pretty much March (it gets hotter), Summer (April – June where temps are usually in the high 90s or low 100s and evenings in the mid 80s), and monsoon/rainy season which is July – October. India gets more rain than any other country on the planet and most of it comes in the Monsoon season. The temperatures during the day are still in the 70s and low 80s but you could flash floods anywhere. Right now we are in summer and it is very hot but honestly I spend most of the time indoors with AC so it is not as noticeable. The Indian sun is very intense so staying in the shade cools it down a few degrees for sure. All this to say is that I haven’t worn more than one layer of clothing almost my entire trip (i put on a sports coat for work sometimes). I love wearing polos and light slacks to work and hanging out on our balcony at night in shorts and t shirt.

Power outages – We were warned about these. Due to the large population and the fact that most electricity is generated via coal and gasoline, India is prone to random blackouts. Some neighborhoods get it worse than others. Our neighborhood near Baner in Pune will have short bursts of outage that do not last more than a few minutes. Other areas of the city will have the power out sometimes between 4-8 hours on the same day every week. It is always best to have a small power back up keep your devices charged just in case! Most buildings do have short term power backups and generators though.

Head Bobble – Yes it exists and once you get used to it it can be very charming. I think it has a wide variety of meanings and you just have to try to figure it out based on body language – could mean no, could mean yes, could be i like you, or could be get lost. Most people that are native around Pune do it but I have noticed several people from the more northern parts of India do it less.

Buffet Protocol – I am not sure if this is a post COVID protocol but outside of western hotel brands, buffets are not long lines of never ending food that you choose and put on your plate. The buffet restaurants I have been to give you a ton of food but they serve it to you on plates. So you eat probably just as much because of the volume but the restaurant picks your food for you and your portion size. I have usually liked most of what was served so haven’t really asked to be given more of any particular item. Just a different way of doing it. Probably less food waste too.

Packages – do not send candy, coffee, or a refill of your prescription meds to India. We did all of the above and they confiscated our package. I do not think foreign residents can have their meds brought in and hence why that was seized. As for the candy – I guess there was a secret drug trade that involved shipping candy all around India that contained illegal drugs. So candy is banned from shipping now. As for the coffee….still can’t figure that one out.

Booze is $$ – Liquor is heavily taxed in Maharashtra and imports have even more tax. Suffice it to say, booze is very expensive in India. A 750 mil bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon (if you can find it) is 5,000 rupees or $61. A shot in India is 30ml and a double is 60ml (to put it in perspective a shot in the US is about 60ml). So in that one bottle you could get 12.5 US style shots at almost $5 a shot. And that is for booze you have at home. Liquor at bars and restaurants is even more expensive. A 750ml bottle of Bombay Sapphire is $35 and Absolut Vodka 750ml bottle is $28. Typical cocktails at restaurants are usually with tax close to $10 and if you want just a mixed drink you will be paying close to that too. There are some local Indian liquors and some are good. But some are terrible and it isn’t worth the cheaper price. It is very difficult to find a real imported beer here. There are some labels like Becks and Carlsberg but they are all made in India. Kingfisher is everywhere and is usually $3-4 a glass so it is a little more affordable.

Watch Out for Indian Wine – I am not commenting on the taste or flavor just a warning. Indian wine does not keep for more than a day. So if you open a bottle, drink it that day. Tami got super sick twice before we learned about this rule. I am not sure why the reason but trust me on this.

That is about it for this week. Stay tuned further along in May. We travel to Bali in two weeks and will document the trip. Have a good weekend!

I am just going to come out and say it. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see this 7th Wonder of the World. All of the others, yes I had an interest in going to but I never saw myself going to India to see this. I am so glad I did and I want to go back already. It was very moving and highly suggest all of you make it a point to see in your lifetime.

So how did our journey go? We took a 5:30am trip from Pune to Delhi on Vistara – a great Indian airline but it recently got bought by Air India. We landed in Delhi, got some Starbucks coffee, tea, and breakfast sandwiches and headed to Agra in our super van.

The drive from the Delhi airport to Agra (the city the Taj is in) was a little over 3 hours. There is a new, multi lane, highway that is about an hour from the airport that connects Delhi to Agra and it was a beautiful drive. Once you get out of the city it reminded me alot of the American Midwest – lots of farms, fields, and wide open spaces….something you don’t see much of in India. We stopped at a rest stop where we loaded up on KFC, Subway, and Dominos (they get alot of US visitors obviously). We even met a US tour group from Chicago there!

After lunch we arrived at our hotel — the ITC Mughal Agra. It is a Marriott hotel but it was very beautiful. I highly recommend it and it is probably the best hotel in town. Most people that come to see the Taj stay in Delhi and just do a very early morning trip out and come back in the evening. I highly suggest you all stay in Agra. It is a small tourist town and I will admit has a very small restaurant scene. We decided to spend two nights there. The ITC was great. Very modern and had some nice restaurants. Each night had a happy hour that with my status was included in the room. We got two suites next to each other for something like $200 a night. They had great restaurants there which we enjoyed.

We ate a bunch of meat our first night.

We loved our happy hours. Every evening from 5-7 the hotel would host suite guests and Marriott Platinum members with a free cocktail hour with snacks. It gave us a great opportunity to catch up, talk, and review our days. We had a great time. Also with our rooms came a free all you can eat breakfast which had all sort of Indian and Continental (read European) type of food. So if you stay at the ITC it is worth buying up to the club level or a suite.

Anyway we had a wonderful guide that Tami booked through an agency – his name is Daniyul. He found out we came in early on Day 1 and asked if we wanted to see some sites not included in our tour. We said yes and he took us to the baby Taj that late afternoon.

The baby Taj is in Agra and not far from the hotel. The King that built the Taj made it as a tomb for his in laws. How many of us would do that? It is a lesser known attraction and was not as crowded. We spent probably an hour there and it was a good appetizer for seeing the Taj the next day as a lot of the intricate and detailed work that was in the Taj was present here. After that Daniyul took us to a lesser known view of the Taj which is in the back of the property. It is contained in a large park and fields. We got some great pictures but watch out you will be surrounded by merchants.

I can only describe my first view of the Taj as breathtaking. I literally got goosebumps and that feeling you get when you are about to cry. It was beautiful and so different than anything I ever have seen that I was just overwhelmed. I was so grateful that God gave me the opportunity to see this. We took a ton of pictures, the above was just one. After we left we went back to the hotel for happy hour, a great non veg dinner in the Indian restaurant in the hotel, and then to bed for our early morning.

So tip #1 for visiting the Taj – go as early as you can. We met our tour guide at 5:30am and got there around 6:15am and there was already a crowd building but not enough to be stuck in a herd. We could still get some great pictures. It gets crowded very quickly so much so that you can forget getting a picture on your own or somewhere private. Plus, seeing the sunrise over the Taj made it even more beautiful. The sunrise adds a different dimension to the sparkle and color of the building. Just breathtaking! Other tips: bring water as they have no concessions inside the property and it gets hot fast. Use the bathroom at your hotel and if possible just don’t go until you are done with the tour – the restrooms at the Taj are some of the most disgustingly dirty squatters (look that up if you don’t know what it is) that we have ever seen. Both Tami and Nathan got sick just going in to the restroom and poor Nate got someone’s you know what on his leg because it was so dirty. Bring snacks as you will get hungry!

The Taj was built by a King whose wife of 20 years (and 14 kids) died after the birth of her last kid. As she was dying she made the King promise her 3 things: 1) he would never remarry 2) he would look after the children and 3) he would make something for her that would show his love for her — and boy did he do that! All I can say is its beautiful. In pictures it always looks a little fake but that is because it was built to give somewhat of a mirage. As we were told, just like a bride with a veil, you cant see the face until you get up to the bride and then the veil comes up and there is the beautiful bride. The Taj somewhat replicates that…for awhile you are getting closer and it actually seems like it is getting further away.

This second picture was at least 50 yards closer and yet as you can tell it looks further away. But once you get up close, BOOM, there she is!

Here are some shots we took around the Taj Palace.

There is a famous picture of Princess Diana sitting on this bench in the early 1990s so getting a picture here had a long line.

We got there at 6:15 and probably left around 10:30am. Going in to the Taj you are not allowed to take photos but it is a circular building and you can go around it in about 5-7 minutes. Its actually fairly small inside…at least the areas they let tourists go. When you get up close to the building you can see the sparkles of different gems in it that give it that fuzzy far away look. So many hands did such delicate work in the marble to make this happen. The craftmanship was out of this world. I think they said it took over 20 years to build the Taj. I saw why. By 10:30am it was hot and we were thirsty and tired so we made our way back to the hotel for breakfast and naps.

Once we rested and ate, we went to a nearby marble store. Honestly the guide probably got a kickback for taking us there but it was amazing to see how the generations of the people that made the Taj are still practicing the same craft. Tenley was amused by it and this man was so sweet with her.

By the way that elephant above there is pure marble. It weighed at least 100lbs and was worth $5000 plus USD. Expensive stuff! We ended up buying a marble chess set and table that we can use at home for the coming year.

The next stop was Agra Fort. We got there at about 1pm and it was already 100 degrees. We did go through the whole fort but honestly I was so tired and hot that I didn’t pay attention to most of it. However it was a very interesting estate which had a ton of history (including the jail of the King that built the Taj).

Approaching Agra Fort.

Inside the Fort

Look at the detail in the above carvings. This was all over the palace and they even had crews still working on it. All by hand. Just amazing.

Honestly we all thought the Fort was more interesting than the Taj. The Taj definitely had beauty on its side but the Fort had the “brains”. I just wished we werent so hungry and tired. We left after about 90 minutes and went to a buffet breakfast nearby that was pretty good….and yes Indian food.

We spent the rest of the day at the hotel using the pool and hanging out. Of course there was happy hour again and we ate dinner at a nearby restaurant that had “Continental” food. It was decent.

The next day we slept in and had breakfast. There was a guy in the lobby doing self portraits so I had each of the kids do one.

We left for Delhi around 2pm and made it to the airport about 6pm (lots of traffic). There was a Krispy Kreme next to our gate so we bought a dozen for the flight home!

It was a fun and exhausting weekend. Overall, if you ever go to the Taj Mahal in Agra I suggest you stay there. In fact do what we did and stay there 2 nights and 2.5 days. Going to see all of that in long road trip day is not worth it. But I wouldn’t do the Fort and the Taj in the same day. Its just too much to learn and it gets hot too early. If we were to do it again I would suggest either the Taj or Fort in the morning on Day 1 and the other the morning of Day 2. Once it gets back 11am or so its too hot and you cant really spend time enjoying the sightseeing. Agra is a small town so there are not alot of food options so ask your hotel or driver about good restaurants in the city.

Seeing the Taj was an incredible experience and I do want to go again. It was the topping of the boy’s Spring 2023 Introductory Trip to India. I hope you have enjoyed this series and that it may help you on your own planning or day dreaming. Standby for next week as we dive back in to Pune India!

When my boys were little, we enjoyed several trips to The Great Wolf Lodge. For those unfamiliar, it is an indoor water park throughout the US. They have some traditional water slides but also usually two very big ones that shoot you through very quickly or make you rotate in a gigantic sphere– all while on innertubes. It is all completely enclosed and kept at warm temperature so you can literally go anytime during the year. Its crowded, its dirty, the food and drinks are ridiculously overpriced, but it is a ton of fun. It is with these memories that we found ourselves making an important decision – if this was the experience in the US what would an Indian outdoor water park be like? Enter stage right….IMAGICAA (said in a movie announcer voice).

Imagicca is about 90 minutes east of Pune, about halfway to Mumbai. It is off in the mountain region and is fairly off the beaten path. Imagicca consists of two parks – an amusement park and a water park. We just went to the water Park. Prices for admission were 1,000 rupees ($12) on a normal day but because it was Water Wednesday we got ours for 800 rupees ($10). Parking was 200 rupees (about $1.50). So as you can see this is a waterpark everyone can afford. And as with any park you have to eat concessions right? We had a full lunch, including some beer and wine, for about $25 for all of us.

Look at those faces – we might be smiling over the fact they had a ton of western food for lunch Or the fact our entire lunch cost $25. As you can see it was pretty decent.

Ok now that I have covered how relatively inexpensive everything was, lets get to the park itself. Here is a map of the entire water park which shows you what they cover:

When you arrive you go through the main gates and then you have to take these old buses up a huge hill to get to the waterpark entrance (the water park is higher up the mountain than the theme park which is at the parking lot level). They have a gigantic locker room/changing room as well as a ton of restrooms (which were impressively clean surprisingly). So the highlights:

The Slides: Those of you that know me know that I am 1) scared of water and 2) scared of heights. So you can imagine how intimidating this park was for me. However I always have lived by the “you have to face your fears” mantra. Now I will never go skydiving but could I go on a waterslide with my family and experience a temporary life before my eyes flash? Yes. There were numerous long water slides that all had about the same procedure:

1. Cram yourself in to a tube: depending on the ride it could be 1, 2, 3, or 4 people.
2. Hold on to the handles and NEVER let go.
3. Wait for 20 minutes to get on the ride and expect the ride to generally take about a minute.
4. Get ready to see your families heads, shoulders, and arms flailing all over you as you shoot through tubes, get launched in to a large cylinder, or glide quickly into a shallow pool.\

I think this one was called Raging River.

I think this one was called the Screamer and as Nathan said “Ya Ya made it live up to its name”.

I was very afraid to go on this one but ended up folding to peer pressure. It scared the living hell out of me.

Here are the boys being launched up on one of the slides.

The Beach:

There is a huge beach area at the end of the park. It has beach sand at the beginning and then a huge pool of water that has continual waves in it so you feel like you are on an ocean beach. I forget the name of it but there was a DJ playing all sort of familiar pop and rap songs. They didn’t open the beach until about noon but when they did everyone poured in (it was a good time to get concessions and use the washrooms). It was so fun. If it wasn’t for the fact I would have become red with sun burn after 4 minutes of the intense Indian sun I would have joined in. Everyone was literally dancing, from ages 6 – 60, in a huge rave like style Miami Beach clubbing scene. It was hilarious.

Nathan showing his sister the party. That booth up top was where the DJ was at. Every 3-4 minutes he would say “Hey Akshay, your daughter is looking for you” or “Is there a Pramod out there because your wife needs the credit card”. It was funny and serious!

Quick Where is Waldo – Can you spot the lone blonde kid in this picture? Hi Nate!

The Kids Pool:

This area was just for younger kids. It had this enormous jungle gym complete with water slide all surrounded by a kids wading pool.

Mommy and baby feeling out the water. That big bucket in the top left that was filling up dumped water all over the crowd every minute or so.

It was fun for kids of all ages. There weren’t really any lines so the boys liked going down the slide and getting the bucket dumped on them.

We did the kid pool at the end which was a good wind down from the beach and slide scene. We also did a lazy river ride which was fun and gave us a chance to rest our adrenal glands.

We got there around 10am and left around 4pm. We were all pretty beat. Between all the stimulation and the intense sun, our energy was zapped.

I have to say, I had a wonderful time and look forward to going back (and also trying the theme park). It is a fun way to be in the summer heat but be in water. The crowds were all very respectful of our personal space – although as always they wanted photos or wanted to carry Tenley. I got to conquer my fear and find yet another thing off the beaten path to do while enjoying our life in India.