..SouthAsiaRocks..

Well, believe it or not, today was a holiday here! Today's holiday was a matter of National Pride. It celebrates the country being recognized as their own country... but don't confuse that with Independence Day, we have that too :) So, today we ventured out with 7 other people (a big group of 9 white people) to see the parade. We really wanted to see the parade, but in most areas of the parade, you couldn't bring cameras inside... but in one end of the parade (in an area where you only get to see half of the parade - which we later learned) - we were able to bring our cameras in. We had to watch the parade through a fence most of the time, but still cool! They started off by showing off the military groups from the different states here. They all had really interesting uniforms - especially the hats! Way cool!! This military group (below) is from one of the states way up North of us that actually gets snow! It was awesome that part of their uniform included skis on...

Over the last few days we have been in M-town. Some new friends of ours (in the pic below) are moving to M-town for about a year, so we went to help a little in that moving process. All 4 of us fit on a little tiny bicycle rickshaw! It was awesome!! We got to hang out with the Kumars (the family we used to live with when we lived in M-town). Our favorite street dog (Mad Dog) had more puppies, so we got to see them and they were very cute! Of course we had to make a trip to Pizza Hut to see the dancing!! It's awesome! They turn up the music really loud, and all of the employees dance a choreographed dance! If you want to see a video of a previous Pizza Hut dance, then click on this link: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=614366532 OK, so on to the Kite Day Tragedy.... I think I mentioned in the previous post that Kite day is our all-time favorite holiday here... It's an awesome day of Kite-flying and great food! Last year we woke up re...

We definitely live in the land of a million and one holidays! Saturday we had a holiday called Lohri. Different people here have varying definitions as to what this holiday is all about, but the basis of it is that every January 13th, everyone builds fires all over town and celebrates that winter is begining to end. They say that after January 13th, the temperature will change and begin to get warmer and warmer from then on. That night people had fires EVERYWHERE! It was funny! About every other house or so on our street had a fire in front of their house or on their driveway. Some people had even hired "mini-bands" to come play at their fire in front of their house. (In the pic above you can see a bass drum and a couple of brass instruments) Our neighborhood association area had a Lohri party. They had a fire and snacks... as well as a stage and seating area! At the begining of the performance, kids came up and did a sort-of talent show. Most of the kids played their electr...

Well as you know, here in SouthAsiaLand, we always see funny things... things that really make us laugh! So today I'm going to share with you a few of thing things that have made us laugh in the last few weeks :) This one speaks for itself: This guy in the pic below was our rickshaw driver the other day... I liked his sporty jacket :) I think that was the first time I had ever seen the words "Hamster" and "Sporty" used together... hahaha I don't think any hamster I ever had was sporty... well, except for that whole wheel-running thing :) Now this guy was creative! When Adam & I were riding our scooters around Phuket Thailand, we saw this guy going for a walk with his baby.... He had somehow attached wheels to this baby carrier thing and then tied a string to it... he was pulling her up and down these hills and over those cobble stones on the left - it was pretty funny! The baby was loving it! This is a Mannequin that I saw in Thailand last week.... I co...

We just got back from our vacation to Phuket Thailand. We had a good and interesting trip :) No sightings of famous people or anything like that, but we did meet some interesting people :) One of the days we hiked to this waterfall... they told us to keep hiking up to see the waterfall... we saw the little waterfall in the picture above, but we didn't think that was it because it was so tiny... so we kept on hiking... well, we eventually figured out that that little trickle was the waterfall... the people working at the "waterfall" told us that that was the best time of year to go because in the summer the waterfall is non-existant! hahaha! We had fun though... Adam got to swing on a vine and pretent he was Tarzan... he thought he was cool :) We rented scooters for most of our time there. It was a lot of fun to explore the island by scooter :) I'm getting to be a professional at driving on the left side of the road :) I looked really cool in my helmet! :) While on o...

OK, so you never know who you're going to see when you're overseas! Tonight, we were in the night market in Chiang Mai, Thailand... we had just gotten foot massages, and we were walking around and guess who we saw????? NIGEL LYTHGOE! The producer of "AMERICAN IDOL" and "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE".... So, of course, we asked if we could take a picture with him :) He was really nice. It was funny and random to see him here! haha! You never know... We also saw a Thai Elvis... :)

Greetings from Thailand!! We got to Chiang Mai, Thailand a couple of days ago :) We're here for our bi-annual visa run and meetings! It's a great break and we're having fun :) Bangkok has a brand new airport and it's AWESOME! It has lots of food places and sleeping places! It's cool! When we were getting food at that airport, we saw this funny Christmas tree! I think they just stuck the top of the tree to the bottom of it, and just left out the middle of it! I thought it was funny! I saw this sign (below) at the hotel... and every time I see it, it cracks me up! There's a weekend market on the outside of the hotel/mall that we're staying at. At this weekend market, they have a lot of funny foods! It's awesome! Look closely at the funny foods below: Here's a close-up... yum! Fried crickets!! And Thai's love their seafood! Look at all that squid!! whoa! Anyone want me to ship some home to you? haha :) One of my favorite things about Thailand is ge...

CHRISTMAS EVE! Sometimes it seems like it takes forever for Christmas to come!! ... but it finally got here :) On Christmas Eve, we took a train to M-town to see all of our friends there :) (the pic below is from the M-town train station...it was about 8:00am and it was really foggy!) We got to M-town, and the first friends we went to see were the Kumars. They were the family we lived with while in M-town. The kids took us upstairs to the part of the house that we used to live in. It is now the kids area. They decorated a tree with cotton and we're really excited to show it off for us! The two youngest kids - Shakshi and UB performed a dance for us!! They sang Jingle Bells while dancing a choreographed dance! It was really cute! They even pulled out the tamborines for us and threw toffees at us :) hahaha - it was fun! We visited a few other friends too as well as going to a party :) We had a great time! It was really cool! As you can probably tell from the way I look in the pic b...