Lantau!

I've been to HK a few dozen times over the last two years, and I've never been to Lantau to see the Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastary. I guess after feeling settled, you don't do those touristy things.

We took the cable car from Tung Chung.

The Big Buddha is the largest bronze buddha in the world (34m). Yes, to be the largest or tallest of anything, one way to do it is to put as many descriptors/adjectives as possible.

It is a small world! Lora Oehlberg (friend from many ME classes) was traveling through China & HK for a conference. She had a friend who put her in touch with Amy Dinh in HK(who lived across the hall from me my senior year at FroSoCo) and told me about Lora's trip. So we spent the day sightseeing and hanging out in HK.

Guangzhou!

I've been in Shenzhen for more than two years, and I've only been to Guangzhou twice, both times for factory visits. I figured it was about time to explore the city, so one of my buddies and I decided to hop on a 1-hr train to Guangzhou and spend the day walking around.
Lots of roots and mushrooms for Chinese medicine... 
...including lizards on a stick! 
Me and Francis getting some Vietnamese food. 
A visit to the Canton Tower (108 floors, 600m high). Weather was a bit dreary, but at least it didn't rain! 

Cooking Classes!

Since I love Indian food so much, I figure it'd be a good idea to learn how to make it. This in no way means that I'll start cooking anytime soon, but I'll have these pictures and videos ready for the day that I start to use my kitchen.
 Fried Dal
 Tomato-Onion Raita
 Puris!
 My veg lunch thali, which includes dal, aloo gobi, tomato-onion raita, jeera rice, puri, chapati, halva (not pictured), and pakora (already eaten).

That's it for my India trip!

Sightseeing in Udaipur

 Ranakpur - a Jain temple with 1444 uniquely carved pillars.
 Kumbhalgarh, a walled fort built ~600yrs ago with a 36km perimeter. It has only been taken once, and even then, it was held only for 2 days.
 Having a nice cold Kingfisher at a rooftop restaurant before sunset.
 Nightime view of the City Palace.

Typical Day in Udaipur

Udaipur is my last stop in India, which was a fantastic way to decompress and relax. It's a charming clean city with lakes, small alleys, colorful dresses, and fantastic food.
 A stroll through the vegetable market.
 An India Mark II deep lift water pump can be found at every corner!
 A family from a farm 70km outside of Udaipur on vacation.
 The world as seen from 2 cows chillin' in the middle of a busy intersection. They say good milk comes from happy cows and happy cows come from California. I would argue that happy cows come from India, which is why the milk tea tastes so good!

Amritsar!

I planned a 1-day trip to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple and check out the changing of the guard/dance at the India-Pakistan border. What I didn't plan for was an 8-hr train delay, leaving me with only 5hrs in the city before my train back to New Delhi. While I missed the India-Pakistan border, I did get to catch the Golden Temple before sunset and stay till it got dark.
 Golden Temple (A Holy Sikh Temple)
 They provide free dinner and free accomodation to all who come. I joined the 40,000 people that eat here each day for a small meal.
 
 Looks like I could easily fit in this cooking pot!

Weddings!

Apparently, now is an auspicious time for weddings, so everyone in India is having their weddings in Jan/Feb. Varun had 3 weddings to attend this weekend, and for each wedding, there were multiple events.
 A Pakistani-themed dinner party.
 A Jain wedding ceremony.
 The wedding hopping crew (left to right: me, Supriya (Varun's wife), Varun, Shruti (Supriya's sister).
 One of many meals I had that weekend. Jain weddings serve only vegetarian food! Perfect!