The kids had a snow giveback day on the day after Easter so we had an extra day to recover from our trip. They insisted on special breakfast so they did it all themselves!
Then we had our own small easter egg hunt at home. Jet lag + chocolate = ?
I don’t have a ton of other pictures from April, I guess we were resting a recovering? On 4/22 I somehow convinced the kids to go to an actual movie at a movie theater with me! I don’t recall how I talked them into it, they usually refuse. I’ve been dying to go to the renovated theater in Mamaroneck and it did not disappoint! We saw the Super Mario movie which was a big hit, and they had chocolate haagen daaz ice cream bars and cans of rose. Everyone was happy! Then we went to the Harbor Island playground for awhile and had dinner in Mamaroneck. I think Andrew was away for the day visiting his grandmother in Charlottesville.
In April I was able to volunteer at the kids’ school a few times, first for the Art Appreciation program, which had been on hold since the start of the pandemic! The project was to learn about stained glass art.
I also volunteered to help with Better Together, a program to raise awareness and acceptance of disabilities.
One more pic from the end of the month to document the fact that we got a little more water in our basement sadly! It had been 1.5 years since we had the drain put in with no more water, but this was a big storm and we got a small amount along the wall where we hadn’t installed a drain. So now we’re waiting to get that work done before we finally fix up the basement and make it usable again! 😛
The last stop on our big spring break trip of 2023 was Abu Dhabi to visit our friends, the Merchants. Blaine was SO happy to be reunited with Sami! It was like no time had passed at all.
We arrived about midnight on Wednesday and went right to sleep. On Thursday we decided to take it easy and spent the day at Yas Waterworld, a giant water park. It was amazing; our kids are pretty cautious and skipped all the big slides, but they enjoyed the spray area, two lazy rivers, and the giant wave pool. Sami was more adventurous and went on some of the tube rides including a huge heart-pounding ride on a 6-person tube. I left my phone in the locker so have no pictures, unfortunately! Here’s one from the house that morning:
We stayed so long that we went directly from the park to dinner at a place in Mamsha al Saadiyat/Soul Beach. It was beautiful! Here are some pics Melissa took:
The Merchants live in a beautiful house in the Hidd al Saadiyat area, next to a gorgeous beach. How did I not take any pictures? Oh well.
Friday was the day we’ve been looking forward to for years, ever since Blaine learned that the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. We drove to Dubai in the morning and were excited once the Burj was in view!
The entrance to the Burj is within the giant Dubai Mall. It wasn’t that crowded when we arrived but apparently it’s packed in the evenings because that’s what people do there, they hang out in the malls.
First, a yummy lunch at a dumpling place! Complete with chocolate dumplings for dessert.
Then we checked in for our timed tickets to the VIP SKY Lounge on the 148th floor.
Two short elevator rides later and we’d made it! It was breathtaking!
It was super pricey to get to the 148th floor but we figured, this is our one chance! The lounge was nice and calm, not crowded at all. They served coffee and tea and juice and little fig dessert things.
Eventually after we’d seen every side and checked out the outdoor terrace, we took the elevator down to the 124/125th floors which had other viewing decks.
It was a bit more crowded there so we didn’t stay too much longer before heading back down to the mall for some ice cream!
And then we checked out the Lego store. 🙂
We’d planned to go into the Old Quarter for some sightseeing and to have dinner, but we decided instead to go back to Abu Dhabi for a more relaxed evening, let the kids play in the pool, grill some dinner. It was nice to have a relaxing time to catch up!
The kids created a whole country complete with badges and paperwork.
Saturday was our last day of the trip! It was a full day — first Melissa and I snuck away for a brief time to play some tennis! It was hot, but felt great to get out and play!
Then we drove through Abu Dhabi and stopped to check out the Grand Mosque. Much like the Burj Khalifa, you enter through a mall where we stopped for lunch at the food court.
Melissa lent me an “abaya” so I’d be completely covered as is required, but I’d somehow left my scarf in the car. Not a problem, I just bought a $10 scarf from one of the many shops selling them for just this purpose. On our way!
I just had trouble keeping it on my head, it kept slipping back! I never learned how to properly use a scarf. 🙂
The mosque was huge! They kept the crowd moving, and had helpful signs with information. At the end they had a little tram you could ride back to the mall to exit.
It was just a brief stop because we’d booked an afternoon desert safari that was a bit of a drive outside the city. Let me take a minute now to thank Melissa and Farhan for all the driving that they did during our visit!!
The drive got pretty exciting toward the end as we started to see wild camels!
We arrived at the Arabian Village and got settled, then started on the activities. First, camel rides!
Fat tire bikes!
Dune bashing! This is an activity where you ride really fast in a jeep up and down the sand dunes. Sounded like fun, and I think it was the highlight for Blaine and Sami and Cyrus! But Melissa and I were feeling a bit queasy… Andrew and Sarah wisely passed on this activity.
Many of the activities resulted in a load of sand in our shoes… (side note– I am still feeling sand in my sneakers, weeks later).
After the dune bashing, we tried out “sandboarding” which is like snowboarding, but on the sand. It was tough since there’s a lot more friction than on snow. The kids tried sledding instead.
By then it was getting to be night time so the kids took a quick dip in the pool before dinner.
Dinner was buffet style with Arabian dishes. I guess typically there is entertainment as well but we were visiting during Ramadan so there was no food until sundown and no entertainment, but that was fine — the meal was delicious and relaxing.
Blaine said that the desert safari was his favorite part of the whole trip, even including the Burj Khalifa! That’s saying something.
We got up early the next morning to get to the airport for our 14 hour flight back to New York. Thank you to the Merchants for hosting us for such a wonderful visit!!
We were back home in Larchmont that afternoon for some Easter pizza for dinner and then went to bed! The two weeks flew by, such a memorable trip.
On our first day in Delhi (April 4) it turned out to be a holiday so everyone was at home spending time with family! Our driver helpfully told us this fact so that we could make the most of the break in the traffic to hit the sites that were farthest away from our hotel! Thanks for the tip, Kuber!!
So our first stop was the Red Fort — built by (guess who?) Shah Jahan, when he moved the capital from Agra to Delhi in 1638.
Beyond the entrance there was this old market area filled with stalls of crafts and other souvenirs in a non-pushy environment.
Inside the fort we found all the usual features — here’s the hall of public audiences!
And the hall of private audiences!
A lot of the structures were designed to have water flowing through them for cooling purposes, which was really impressive.
After the Red Fort we went to check out a modern Hindu temple called Swaminarayan Akshardham. It was a large elaborate complex with strict security — we had to leave all bags and electronics (including phones!) outside. So I don’t have any pictures except for this one taken outside the gate!
It was pretty impressive, particularly the carved marble domes inside the temple. The complex had lots of other offerings including a food court, playground, water show, boat ride, and animatronic show! We skipped most of it so we could get back to the hotel and relax. Back at the Oberoi, the view from our room:
And the view of the tranquil pool area.
That night we dined at the Oberoi’s fancy Indian restaurant, Dhilli. We had a delicious meal, and the kids were able to see directly into the kitchen through a viewing window, and even see the tandoor ovens they’d learned about in Jaipur.
The next morning we enjoyed our last fantastic Indian hotel brunch at the Oberoi. Blaine particularly enjoyed these donuts.
By this point in the trip Sarah seemed to be eating mostly plan baguettes at breakfast! Hmm.
Our first stop that day was the Qutb Minar, built around the year 1200.
Tourists used to be allowed to ascend to the top until an accident in 1976 when 45 people died in a stampede to exit after the lights failed. The kids kept looking for other things to ascend.
Next we went to another more modern site, the Lotus Temple, a Baha’i temple built in the 1980s. It was gorgeous!
Blaine enjoyed learning that the marble used in the temple was transported from the Penteli Mountain in Greece, the same marble used in the construction of many ancient monuments, including the Parthenon.
Next we went to see Humayun’s Tomb. You may recall from the previous post about the Mughal emperors that Humayun was the 2nd Mughal emperor; he died in 1556.
Our last stop was the Old Fort, aka Purana Qila. This site dates back to the 3rd century BC but was rebuilt by Humayun.
Unfortunately it’s also the site where Humayun met his end one night when he was stargazing on top of this structure, which was the library. He hurried down the stairs when he heard the call to evening prayer and fell; he died of his injuries two days later.
After that we went back to the hotel for more relaxing at the pool and a poolside lunch, then we showered and packed up to get to the airport for our evening flight to Abu Dhabi!
On April 2 we left Jaipur for a 5 hour drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. On the way we counted the number of cows we spotted — it was a lot. We also made some stops! First stop, an impressive step well called Chand Bawri. It’s huge!
Andrew found a yummy spot for us to stop for lunch called the Courtyard in Bharatpur.
After lunch we went to see a site called Fatehpur Sikri. It was built by Emperor Akbar to be the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571, but then was only used for about 15 years and was then abandoned due to the lack of fresh water. It’s worth noting the sequence of Mughal emperors since most of the sites we saw in Agra and Delhi were related to that period of rule from the 1500s through the 1800s. The earliest Mughal Emperors were: 1) Babur, 2) Humayun, 3) Akbar, 4) Jahangir, 5) Shah Jahan, 6) Aurangzeb and then so on.
Our guide explained that this spot was used for musical performances because the water would amplify the sound.
Many of the buildings were covered in beautiful carvings in the red sandstone.
Our guide also explained that Akbar decided to found his own religion, with him as the head. His idea was to combine all the influential religions from the area into one religion. This pole shows all those religions represented — from the bottom you can see Buddhist flowers, Hindu swastikas, Christian window shapes, the Islamic arch, Persian zig zags, and the Lotus flower on top unites them all. He would sit on top of the central pillar with his 9 advisors all around him.
Unfortunately, his religion failed when he died because he didn’t force anyone to convert to his religion and his children were Muslim.
Next we visited the mosque, which apparently has the largest gate in Asia.
Our guide tried to talk us into making a donation to get our wish to come true but we decided against it. He also tried to sell us some marble sculptures but we headed on our way. This site was in a very rural and poor area, and was the most aggressive tout experience that we encountered in India.
We continued on to our hotel in Agra, another Taj hotel, and had a delicious dinner before heading to bed… the following day we’d be seeing the Taj Mahal!
The next morning we woke up and wished Andrew a very happy birthday! We had a delicious hotel breakfast and were on our way early to see the Taj before it got too hot. Here we are at the entrance gate — there are 22 small domes on top to represent the 22 years it took to build.
The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his 3rd and favorite wife, Mumtaz aka Taj. She died in childbirth and he was so sad that he vowed that he would never marry again, that he would take care of their children, and that he would bury her above ground in the Islam tradition.
The four minarets surrounding the Taj are angled slightly outward, so that if there were ever an earthquake which caused them to fall they would fall outward and not damage the central structure.
The doorways are framed by marble inlay with verses from the Koran. They are designed to be larger at the top so that the words maintain their legibility when viewed from the ground.
We were told that Shah Jahan had plans to build a matching tomb for himself out of black marble, and place it across the river. Our guide said that he got so far as laying the foundation for the second black marble tomb before his son, Aurangzeb, called a stop to his expenditures and had his father locked away in the Agra Fort palace. Aurangzeb had deposed his father and killed his brothers in order to take control and become the next emperor. Now that I look on Wikipedia it’s not clear if the story is true or just a myth, but it’s a good story!
There were a LOT of people at the Taj who wanted to take Sarah’s picture, and she was having none of it! A few of them took my picture as a consolation prize. 🙂
We went back to the hotel for some pool time! The Taj hotel has a rooftop infiniti pool with a view of the Taj Mahal! So we hung out there for awhile and enjoyed a delicious poolside lunch.
We got a late checkout so we could shower and pack and then we spent our remaining time on a quick visit to the Agra Fort, which was another site built by Akbar!
Another cannon!
The view back to the Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan got to enjoy during his imprisonment.
Then we headed to the train station to wait for our train to Delhi!
Tea on the train!
Next stop, Delhi! The train station was intense, so crowded! But we were met by a greeter from the hotel who helped us navigate the crowd and get back to the Oberoi hotel to settle in and have some dinner. They also greeted Andrew with this!
It was raining when we arrived in Jaipur pretty late on Thursday, March 30. We went straight to our hotel, the Rambagh Palace, a Taj Hotel. It is a beautiful property and looked very romantic in the rain. It was originally a garden house, then became a royal hunting lodge, and then was the primary residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur.
We were feeling a little hungry so we ordered room service — dal makhani, naan, and chocolate cake for the kids.
The next morning we enjoyed the beautiful buffet breakfast and met some of the hotel peacocks (there are 200+ across the property!) before heading out for sightseeing.
We’d booked a car and driver for our stay in Jaipur, and they included an English-speaking guide, Raj. Unfortunately the kids had trouble understanding Raj’s accent so usually Andrew would need to repeat everything for them anyway! Oh well, we did our best. Our first site in Jaipur was the Amber Fort. We stopped on the way for a view and saw a real cobra!
We also made another stop en route to check out this step well.
Inside the Amber Fort!
First we saw the Hall of Public Audiences where the Raja would listen to the requests of the public.
There were beautiful views of the gardens and the wall surrounding the palace, which is apparently the 3rd longest in the world (the 1st being the Great Wall of China and the 2nd being something I can’t remember).
Then we went into the private area of the king and queens, where we saw some baths and even the royal toilet.
We also admired the Hall of Private Audience aka the Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace) because of the decoration with mirrors from Belgium.
Beyond this was the oldest part of the palace, completed in 1599. It was the private rooms of Raja Man Singh I and his wives. He had 12 wives and designed this central courtyard with 12 rooms around it, each with access to his rooms which were on the level above.
From there our guide took us to a site where they keep elephants for tourists to interact with. We felt a little bad for the elephants but it was neat to see them up close! I love elephants.
From there we went to see the Jaigarh Fort, which is uphill from the Amber Fort and was built to defend Amber Fort. The kids were losing interest at this point so we made it a brief stop and primarily focused on seeing the Jaivana Cannon which was the largest cannon in the world when it was built in 1720. It was only fired one time, and someone died from the kick back.
View from Jaigarh Fort down to the Water Palace.
We made a very brief stop at the third fort, Nahargarh, because the kids were ready to call it a day.
It also started raining! We tried to get a pic of the Water Palace but then ran back to the car.
We were all happy to get back to the hotel and relax over High Tea on the patio.
The kids were disappointed the rain would keep them out of the pool, but it turned out the hotel had a fabulous indoor pool as well. The most beautiful indoor pool I’ve ever seen.
For dinner we went to the hotel’s fancy restaurant, Suvarna Mahal. The kids liked all the gold plated tableware. The staff was wonderful, making sure everyone was happy. When the kids’ butter chicken turned out to be a little spicy for them the staff had the kitchen make them a completely non-spicy serving of chicken.
The next day our plan was to see some sights in the city — the Jantar Mantar, the City Palace, and the Wind Palace. The first stop was the Jantar Mantar, a collection of huge astronomical instruments built by Maharaja Jai Singh II and completed in 1734.
The giant sun dial was particularly impressive, it’s one of the largest in the world.
Next we visited the City Palace, current residence of the Jaipur royalty.
Here you could really see the pink which gives Jaipur the name the “Pink City.” It was painted pink in the 1800s because that was the color of welcoming.
There was some story about these giant vessels — the ruler at the time was traveling to visit England and tradition was that the ruler could only drink, cook with, and bathe in water from the Ganges. So they took the sacred water with them on travels.
These holes were to give the pet birds (parrots etc?) access to the palace.
On our way out of the City Palace we stopped to enjoy a brief puppet show!
We headed over to see the Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) and market via electric auto-rickshaw.
At this point the kids were getting pretty antsy so Andrew took them back to the hotel for pool time and lunch, and I went to see the palace with Raj. It was a small palace built specifically to allow the royal ladies to watch the city festivals without being seen.
After this our guide took me to see some local craftsmen, demonstrating how block printing is done and also hand made rugs.
Then it was back to the hotel for more high tea and to meet up with Andrew and the kids.
I can’t say enough good things about the Rambagh Palace! I think it’s probably the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at– beautiful rooms and grounds, and every staff member was so kind and helpful. The kids were interested in seeing the kitchen so one of the head chefs took them in for a private tour and showed them how the tandoor ovens work.
We went on a brief tour of the palace and saw this train (which houses a restaurant we were going to that night). We also went for a ride in a 1961 Mercedes and a horse and carriage.
Then we had dinner in a train car, at the hotel restaurant Steam.
The next morning we enjoyed one more hotel breakfast before saying goodbye to the Rambagh Palace and Jaipur!
