Swimming with the Whale Sharks

majestic whale shark

When we first heard of Donsol and the idea of swimming with the biggest fish in the ocean we knew this was something we had to do.   It is definitely one of the highlights of our honeymoon! Donsol is located on the south-eastern tip of Luzon (the main island) and was a small quiet fishing village until about 10 years ago.  That’s when the world got wind of the large concentration of whale sharks that gather in the waters off the shore from February to May each year and eco-tourism began.  They call it eco-tourism as the interaction with the whale sharks occurs in its natural habitat and is controlled to ensure the least amount of stress to the fish.

friendly giant so close you can pet it

The whale shark or buntanding as it’s locally known, is described as the gentle giant of the ocean.  Though the largest fish in the ocean it is quite harmless as it feeds exclusively on plankton.  It can grow up to 18 meters in size so imagine a public transit bus moving gracefully through the water with mouth open capturing all the plankton it can.  It comes up, feeds and then dives back down into the deep blue.  We were quite shocked at how close they swam to the shore, at times, we were no more than 100 meters off the coast.   Researchers think that the whale sharks come to this area to feed on the abundance of plankton found in the water, but as of recently they have started finding baby whale sharks in the area so mating may be another factor.

fun under water

Let us tell you how it works.  Donsol is now geared towards the  hordes of tourists that show up each year for a swim with the buntanding and is a very well oiled machine.  When you show up in town the first stop is the tourism office to sign in and pay your registration fee (which goes towards the conservation effort and is valid for one week) and watch the mandatory video.  The video explains the do’s and don’t of interacting with the whale shark: no scuba gear, no flash photography, no more than six swimmers per whale shark and lastly, you are not allowed to get too close to the fish (for your safety as the tail can do some serious damage).  You can hire your own boat if you want to go in the afternoon or you can line up and share a boat first thing in the morning (8 am start time).  Again, it’s a maximum of 6 people per boat.

first dive: concentrating (aka: praying)

Once on the boat with your mask, snorkel and fins (and fins are a must as though you may be a strong swimmer, the whale sharks is way stronger!) the captain circles in the water while the spotter and the BIO (Buntanding Interaction Officer) looks for the buntanding’s dark shadow below the surface.  Once one is spotted the captain turns off the engine and we all get ready to jump in with our hearts pounding with excitement and anticipation and, for the first time around, a bit of fear!  On the BIO’s command, everyone jumps into the water and the chase is on.  Our BIO was amazing and always managed to place us in the path of the whale shark so the first thing you see is its big mouth coming towards you.  There’s no words to describe the feeling of seeing this gigantic fish coming straight at you, having to dive out of its way and then frantically turning around and trying to keep up next to it.  It was just amazing!!!  We were so close to this giant that we could easily reach out and pet it as it swam by us.  We were very lucky as well, as we got to swim with 11 sharks in our three hour outing.   We were told that there is another place in the Philippines south of Tacloban (on the island Leyte) that is less touristy but it was a bit out of our way so we didn’t go check it out.

check out the sack under its stomach

Before we sign off we have to share a somewhat embarrassing and funny story.  We decided we didn’t want to stay in a resort and found ourselves a small cottage in the heart of the fishing village.  On our last day we were supposed to check out at noon but as no one else was moving in, we convinced the caretaker to let us stay until 5 pm when we had to catch our bus.  Everything was gong smoothly until about noon, when S was brushing her teeth and M shouted, “don’t move, there‘s an F’ing huge spider next to you”.   M kept his eye on the massive spider, while S slowly made her way over the kitchen counter, over the bed and out the door.  We were pretty freaked out as not only was this one of the biggest we had ever seen (up to this point), was missing two legs (hello, evil fighting spider!!) and it had this massive growth or sack attached to its stomach.  So, we slowly and carefully packed all of our stuff and moved to the porch where we spent the next five hours :).  We told the lady taking care of the place to be careful that there was a huge spider on the wall by the bathroom and she just laughed, gave us a weird look and walked away.   Losers.

For more pictures of our Donsol visit click HERE (password: whaleshark)

Until next time, your scaredy cat city-folk,  S&M

Mt. Mayon as seen from Legazpi bus station

on a high at the end of a day

best outdoor drying rack... ever!

traffic jam on the streets of Donsol

kicked out by the spider five hours before departure

beach in front of our bungalo

The Stairways to Heaven

Rice terraces of Batad

Before heading off to the many beaches in the Philippines we set off for the north of the main island Luzon to see the world renowned rice terraces.   The first stop was Banaue which is about an eight hour trip up the mountains on a good day so we chose travel in the comfort of a deluxe AC bus.  Were we ever wrong.  While the bus itself was comfortable the AC made it feel like we were traveling in a meat freezer!  Apparently the AC  switch on a Filipino bus only has two settings: off or full blast.  This also applies to the stereo systems.  We should have guessed it was going to be that bad when there were men selling blankets outside the bus.  Luckily we bought one but unfortunately we could have used four.  Thank god for the best of George Michael keeping us company all through the night!

the so called road to the Batad junction

The rice terraces around Banaue were carved into the mountain side by the Ifaguo tribes people two thousand years ago using primitive tools; an achievement in engineering terms that could rank alongside the building of the pyramids.  The Ifaguo people call these terraces the “stairways to heaven” and it is said that they would stretch 20,000 kilometres if laid out end to end.  While there is not much to see or do in Banaue (and admittedly it’s a dump), it is a good starting point for visiting the terraces and the nearby village of Batad.    Batad is a popular hiking destination and a peaceful place from which to view the rice terraces.   There are two ways to get there: either take a jeepney for the first 12 km to the Batad junction and then walk the remaining 3 km fairly difficult trail to the village or take a cyclo to the end of the main road and walk an extra three kilometres to the junction before starting on the hike to Batad.  We opted for the latter and were very happy we did as we beat all of the jeepneys to the junction as they kept getting stuck in the mud and potholes on the steep road!   As a side note, the road from Banaue to the road to Batad was not much better and particularly uncomfortable in our tiny cyclo built for the average Filipino.

terraces from the Banaue lookout

The Stairways to heaven are by far the most amazing rice terraces we have ever seen.  While we were there the rice had just been planted so the terraces were mostly brown but we’ve been told that the best time to go is in June or July just before harvest when all the terraces are a bright green.  We can only imagine how amazing that sight must be as they were already quite magnificent brown.   Another interesting aspect of Banaue and its surroundings is how all the buildings are built all along the mountain side so that front of the house sits on mountain while the back half is supported only by stilts!  Quite something and an economical use of space :).

the hanging coffins

Last stop in the north was Sagada: a beautiful charming village famous for its caves and hanging coffins.  We gotta say, the hanging coffins were a let down: you hike to the edge of a cliff and have to max out your camera’s zoom to see a few coffins hanging on the other side of the gorge.  We heard the caves were fun to explore but we didn’t do them as we simply enjoyed hiking the many trails and just relaxing in this laid back village.  There are plenty of cafes and guesthouse terraces from which to enjoy the peaceful surrounding limestone cliffs and rice terraces. We really liked Sagada and would highly recommend it to everyone: you can do nothing or keep yourself busy hiking, caving and visiting the nearby waterfalls.   Oddly, an informal 9pm curfew is still posted and supposedly in effect from the Marcos era in the 1970’s, though we don’t think it’s heavily enforced.

Click HERE (password: heaven) for more photos of our rice terrace adventures. Enjoy,
S&M

Ifaguo women in traditional dress

terraces in Batad - they use stone here to separate each level

rice terraces around Sagada

Ifaguo woman weaving a basket

working on the rice paddy

Sunday afternoon at the small waterfall

scenery on the way back from the waterfall

Thrilla in Manila

Hello ma’am, hello sir;

The title of this post if a bit misleading as the only “thrilla” that’s left in Manila is found in the numerous shopping malls and fast food joints.  But, if we are giving credit where credit is due then 7-11 is the ultimate king of Manila.  We stopped counting after 53 because it was getting pointless.

street view from the sky train

The fast food nation in North America can’t hold a candle to Manila and the Philippinos. We have never in our lives seen so many fast food places in one location until we walked into theSM City Manila shopping mall that was across the street from our hotel.  There are five levels of fast food restaurants with stores scattered around them and a food court with about twenty more restaurants to choose from.  As if there aren’t enough food options, they also have food carts in the middle of the hallways that sell anything from popcorn to shwarmas to Jamaican paddies.  This trend pretty much continues on the surrounding streets and other malls that are in Manila.  For God’s sake there were seven different Kenny Rogers Rotisseries that we counted in the four days we spent there.

family time on the boardwalk

One thing about Manila that we really enjoyed was the walk down their waterfront boardwalk which has some spectacular sunsets.  The boardwalk is built for walking, running and biking so its used as a social gathering for the locals.  Along with the couples holding hands and the men fishing, there are street vendors selling fresh green mangoes and numerous merchants peddling “real” pearls for about five bucks.  The only eyesore at the boardwalk is the fortress at one end that is the American embassy.

one of many family tombs

While in Manila we visited the morbidly impressive Chinese cemetery.  This place look more like a neighborhood than a cemetery with tombs resembling mini-houses (or not so mini) with fountains, fully functioning kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.  It is more of a showcase of wealth than anything else and the running joke is that it is packed with amenities that millions in Manila go without.  One interesting thing that we noticed was that a lot of people (we assumed the family of the deceased and maybe the caretakers) use the land and tombs for lounging, socializing and doing their laundry.  The latter was obvious from the piles of laundry that was drying in the sun next to the buildings.  The cemetery itself is huge and it would take around three to four hours to go through.  We opted for the shorter two hour version because after a while it all starts to look the same … and it was time to get away from the stray dogs.

Jeepney

There really isn’t much to do in Manila besides visiting one of the many many malls, walk the streets and eat.  A couple of cool things that we did notice were that there were: (1) more jeepneys (local transportation that we’ll discuss in another post) than cars, (2) basketball courts everywhere and we even saw one in the parking lot of the courthouse!; (3) a lot of 24 hour massage parlours;  and (4) a 10:1 ration of staff to customers in their department stores.

We would say that if you decide to visit the Philippines, Manila is worth a visit but we’d say for no more than two days.

For more pictures of Manila, click HERE (password: jollybee).

Thank you ma’am, thank you sir!
S&M

fisherman at the boardwalk

sunset over the marina with the volcano in the background

7-11 at the historic Intramuros

Rizal park

one of many streets in downtown Manila

Manila

rooftops in Manila

 

buying green mangos on the boardwalk

laundry drying along the golf course fence - downtown Manila

India Recap

We know, you’re probably thinking ‘enough already on India, move on!’ but we’re not done just yet.  There is so much to say on this country of opposites, so much we loved and hated and just a few more things that we’d like to share on this blog.  A few others we’ll leave for face to face discussion and S is working on a letter to the Indian government with some ideas on how to remedy the garbage problem so we’ll leave that out too :). 

too bad we can't zoom in to the interlocked fingers!

We’ll start off with some light humour before we get to some of the heavier thoughts we need to share. So, not sure how many of you have seen Russell Peters’ stand up, but for those of you that haven’t (you must! Here’s a link to a sample on youtube but check out his newest release Red White and Brown on DVD) he’s Indian but was born and raised in Brampton Ontario (yes, y’all, a fellow Torontonian of sorts :)), and his stand-up discusses some of the cultures he grew up with in Brampton and of course, he talks about his fellow Indians.  So, let us tell you if what he says is true:
1.  Do Indian men hold hands?  Oh they most certainly do and not only do they hold hand but they     interlock their fingers!!
2.  Are the guys ‘macking’ chicks while holding hands? They certainly try and it’s possibly the funniest thing in the world to see!
3.  Does it smell like shit at the airport? While we did not arrive by plane and we didn’t notice any particularly bad aromas at the Mumbai International airport as we were leaving, we can say that the country as a whole was not as overpoweringly smelly as expected.  However, when you walk by an old pile of garbage or a new urine puddle (as men urinate wherever they want) or the wind wafts the odours of these to you, then it smells pretty terrible.  We guess that it must be worse in the dead heat of the summer so we’re happy we visited the north in the winter and can’t really comment on much of the south as we didn’t go too far south. 

4.  Do all the men wear dress pants and flip flops? Yes, all the men wear dress pants, flip flops and you can’t forget the collard shirts.  Plus they have these woven shiny wool or polyester sweaters and vests that come in an array of colours but pink and red definitely dominate.  It’s a uniform that we even noticed on the Indian men in Singapore and Malaysia!  To get a better idea of what this style is like just picture an Indian John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever.
5.  Do they shake their heads from side to side when happy or meaning yes? Yes, and it is quite addictive as S started doing it a few weeks into the trip!
6.  Do they twist their hand in a circle when they want to question something, such as “what is this”?  Yes, they do twist their hands to ask “what is this” but we did not notice this gesture as often.   That being said, the first time we saw this was on our bus from the Nepali border.  The bus attendant was hanging out the door yelling the destinations while twisting his hand wondering if anyone was interested in jumping on :).

Some of you must also be wondering about the Hindu holy animal, the cow.  As they are a holy animal they cannot be killed (and if you kill one intentionally or accidentally you will have to pay a huge fine and possibly jail time!) and that means that they are free to roam everywhere and we mean everywhere!  As you probably guessed, that means no beef either so what we found a lot of in both Indian and Nepal is buff, which is water buffalo meat.  It can be a lot tougher than beef depending on how it is cooked.  Before we move on from cows we have to tell you about an incident S had at a bus stop in Karnataka.   There was a smaller cow walking around the bus stop and smelling everything and anyone sitting around. Well, S decided that she didn’t want any of the cow snot on herself or her bag so she got up and blocked her backpack from the cow. Well this cow, who has probably never been stopped from doing anything in its life was not too happy about this at all so to show its disapproval it put its head down and started head butting S’s thighs out of the way (thankfully the cow had only very small horns)!! S got scared and jumped up over the bench to the other side, well, the cow was not satisfied and followed S around the bench to continue to show her who’s boss.  S understood and kept out of the cows way after that!

Some of you may be wondering about security issues in India with the shooting and bombings that have occurred in the past between the Muslim and the Hindu groups.  While there was a bombing at the main ceremonial ghat in Varanasi just a few days before our scheduled arrival and we were worried about going into Varanasi at first when we arrived we did not feel unsafe or that there was any tension while we were travelling around the country.  Granted there are policemen with machine guns patrolling the train stations and trains and there is tight security before entering the Delhi subway and there were a lot of policeman around the ghats in Varanasi (particularly the main ghat that got bombed where they have a Hindu ceremony every night), from what we could see the Muslim and the Hindu Indians seemed to coexist peacefully.  

An extreme you notice right away in India is the severe poverty of many of the people and in the major cities this is mixed right in with some of the wealthiest people in the world. For instance, in Mumbai people are living everywhere, such as the ramps to and from the subway station (cooking, playing with their kids and just hanging out while the world walks by) and just down the street one of the wealthiest people in the world is building a 27 story house!!  In Delhi we really noticed it as it is quite cold and a lot of people are just wearing thin pants, slippers (if even that, many are barefoot) and a shawl/scarf wrapped around their upper bodies and heads to keep warm.  What you also notice are a lot of fires (wood or garbage) burning along the sidewalks to keep people warm.  It was really an awakening experience.

woman mixing cement while man plays with child

We can’t end this recap without mentioning a few things S noticed being a woman in India.  First thing was all the staring but having talked to single female travellers we discovered that we were lucky to have been travelling together as they had more than staring to deal with.  As well, as in Morocco, hardly any men spoke directly to S and directed everything to M, including asking M what his wife’s name was rather than asking S directly.   This took a lot of getting used to.  Does this tie in with the place of women in society or is this a respect thing?  We’re not sure. Overall, as we saw in Nepal, the woman were modest in their appearance (in Nepal all women wore skirts and in India most wore saris or tunics over pants) and we would say 99% of the women had long hair tied up and all the little girls we saw going to school in their uniforms (all kids wear uniforms to school) had the same hairstyle: braided pigtails.   Now you would think that with this girls are girls attitude the women would be treated chivalrously but no, that wasn’t the case as we saw the women doing a lot of hard labour while the men sat around!!

Finally, just like in Nepal, men are chewing and spitting paan everywhere!!  Paan, for those who have never come across it, is a betel leaf chew wrapped around a lime paste and other spices and is said to aid in digestion and freshen the breath.   It is very obvious who chews paan regularly as a red food dye inside the paan stains your mouth and teeth red and as people don’t swallow the red liquid and spit it out, it also leaves red stains all over the streets, walls and sidewalks!

All in all, with all its extremes of scents, flavours and colours (as I’m sure you could tell from all our previous posts) we absolutely loved India.  It is a stunning country with an extremely rich history and a definite challenge for all your senses.  We absolutely recommend giving India a go!!

the most common way to advertise in India (and Nepal)

the Indian sedan

hard at work

Food in our 5th and 6th Moons

one of many yummy street vendors

The biggest problem with writing this post is that we have no idea where to start.  The food in India was so incredibly good regardless of whether it was from a restaurant, a hotel or street vendors.  We ate a lot and we ate as often as we could or our stomachs could handle.  What we are going to do is divide this post into breakfast, lunch/dinner, desert and street food.  We could write a book on this topic but to spare you chapters and chapters of reading we will try to keep it as short and to the point as possible (not possible) and try to describe the food to the best of our recollection.

To start off with let’s look at the staple seasonings in Indian cooking (though we have to say, the cuisine varies greatly across the country from region to region).  Most of the salty dishes will have a combination of turmeric, cayenne and/or chilly powder, cumin (both powder and seeds), garlic, coriander and you can’t forget the all purpose garam masala.  Most of the dishes will also come with a sprinkling of cilantro and green chilly peppers.   We found this to be the pattern from north to south with the south known to have spicier food than the north, though we really couldn’t tell as we always asked  for our food to be made “Indian spicy” and everyone was shocked but happily obliged :).  

aloo paratha and a sweet lassi

Our first introduction to real Indian food (not counting the many feasts we have had in Toronto) was breakfast in Varanasi.   We decided to try both Indian breakfasts on the menu, the puri/poori subzi and the aloo paratha.  These two breakfasts which are served with chai or for us foreigners a delicious (NOT) Nescafe coffee (according to M, the worst coffee option in the world) can be found as an option all over northern India.  Let us explain what these breakfasts are: the puri/poori is a delicious puffed Indian bread (unleavened whole wheat dough which is deep fried in hot oil or ghee) that  is used to eat up the subzi, which is a dry vegetable curry and the aloo paratha is basically a potato (aloo), onion and green chilly stuffed roti (unleavened flat bread baked on a griddle) which we got both baked like a roti and fried.  Add a cup of lassi (which is Indian yoghurt blended with water or milk and can be had plain, sweet with a bit of sugar or with fruit) and you have a great start to your day!  S loved the Indian yoghurt so much she had a lassi almost every day with breakfast, lunch and dinner :).

masala dosa

Along the Goan coast the most popular breakfast was muesli with yoghurt and fruit and we had this every day, though we can’t say that this is a particularly Indian breakfast but something made available for the tourists.   In the south, what we saw offered for breakfast were dosas, which are fermented crepes made from rice batter and black lentils and are stuffed with potatoes and onions and sometimes vegetables and served along with a few sides such as a chutney or curd (yoghurt) or a curry.  Yummy!!  In addition to the above breakfasts, we also saw chicken, tomato, onion or masala omlets on the menu and in Mumbai noticed people eating bread buns they dipped in their chai.
 

one of our typical meals

Lunch and dinner are another gastronomic adventure and the types of dishes available are as varied and numbered as the variety of people and provinces in India.   The best part about lunches and dinners in India in most restaurants we visited is that everything is cooked fresh for you, so depending on what you order, you have to wait some time to get your food, but it is always well worth the wait.  The options are endless and the majority of the menu is vegetarian.  We would first choose a curry, whether it be vegetarian or a meat curry, and then decide whether we wanted to eat it with a chapati or roti or naan (be it cheese or garlic or butter and garlic naan but sadly only in the evening when the tandoor oven was on) or with rice.  We have to admit, we rarely went for the all rice dishes such as the pulao/pilaf (can be described the Indian version of risotto) or biryani  (like a fried rice of sorts), as we just loved sopping up our curries with the delicious Indian breads or the basmati rice.  The curry options are endless … endless!! You can have lentil, or potato or cauliflower or paneer (Indian cheese made from buffalo milk) or mixed vegetable curry or you can have them with a variety of meat excluding, of course, beef.  We tried to taste every option but I think we only tried 1/100th of what there is out there.  So much more eating to do!! 

two plain naans, tandoori chicken, Indian salad and a veg curry all for $6

On the Goan coast we had a lot of fish and cheap and delicious fish at that.  The local fish is called the Kingfish and you can have a 2.5 to 3 kilo whole fish meal (either grilled, fried or tandoori style) from $6-$10 depending on the size.  Tuna, which is a lesser fish according to the Goan’s, was even cheaper!!  In Rajasthan and Maharastra we also found thali’s on the menu (thali means plate in Hindi), which like Nepal’s daal bhaat tarkari is a selection of dishes served on a large round tray with small bowls and a pile of rice.  Typical dishes include dhal (lentils), vegetables, chapati, curd, chutney, and a vegetarian or meat based curry.  Unlike Nepal, they are always served with a desert.  Now we can’t finish our lunch and dinner portion without mentioning the tandoori.  We have to say, the tandoor oven has got to be the best oven ever created!!  Anything and everything that comes out of this oven is absolutely magical.  Whenever we could we definitely ate something from the tandoor, whether it was tandoori chicken (which is chicken marinated in yoghurt and seasoned with garam masala, ginger, garlic, cumin and cayenne pepper and sometimes other spices and then cooked in the tandoor oven) or chicken tikka masala (which is a curry made with chicken skewers that were marinated in yoghurt and spices and cooked in the tandoor oven).   In Goa we also ate the tandoori Kingfish quite a bit.  Anyone that wants to get us a delayed wedding gift feel free to get us a tandoor oven :).

gajar halva on the left and a gulab jamun on the right

We mostly ate deserts in the Northern part of India, namely Delhi and then in the province of Rajasthan.  Our two favourites were gajar halva (which is a carrot pudding or carrot milk porridge) and gulab jamun (which are deep fried milk balls in sugary syrup).  However, this doesn’t mean that we didn’t love the hundreds of other deserts we tried on our many walks.  We had cheese balls in a cardamom spiced custard, cornmeal balls in a sugary syrup with saffron, rice puddings and many varieties of these types of deserts.  North Indian deserts all seem to be derived from a milk pudding or rice base and are usually soaked in a syrup.   Goa, outside of its "German Bakeries" which carried fake brownies and an assortment of cakes, also had a large selection of desserts mostly catering to the western tourists which consisted of caramels, chocolates, ice creams and lady fingers.  The most popular seemed to be a desert called Hello to the Queen which we tried once and it consists of bananas and crumbled cookies in a caramel and chocolate sauce.   Not Indian but not bad.

mmmmm .... bhelpuri in Mumbai

Now we save the best for the last … okay, maybe not the best but certainly a delicious and integral part of any Indian food experience: the street food.   In the north, the streets were filled with pakora’s, samosas, breaded and deep fried chilli peppers and vegetable cutlets, along with your vendors serving lentil curries with chapati and mixed street nuts with dried vermicelli, spices and fresh onion, chilli peppers and tomatoes.  For beverages you could always find chai, sugar cane juice and citrus juice.   It was really hard to go half an hour without smelling something good that made your mouth water and your belly crave more food!!  Our favourite of all street food was the famous bhelpuri in Mumbai.  While the vendors at Chowpatti are said to have the best, we found the one we had there kind of stale but were lucky to have a street vendor only a 10 minute walk from our hotel who had amazing bhelpuri - and you know it’s good when there are always people around him lining up to get some!  What is this bhelpuri you ask, while we had a few variations, generally it is puffed rice balls that are cut open and filled with a chickpea curry and topped with chutney (we think it’s a tamarind chutney), green chillies, cilantro, dried vermicelli and crushed rice balls. 

making vegetable pakoras

For those health conscious people out there worried that we weren’t getting our daily quota of fresh fruits and vegetables you will be happy to hear that our meals were always served with an ‘Indian salad’ which consists of raw onions, tomatoes and cucumber and a lime and we always made sure to buy lots of fresh fruit daily.   We sure miss all that fresh and juicy guava, papaya, mango, watermelon and oranges!!!!

In conclusion, I'm sure it's obvious that we were constantly eating while in India and that we absolutely positively LOVE Indian food.  We ignored all the warnings and ate anywhere and everything and minus the one incident we have already spoken about (due to our coffee craving after too much shitty Nescafe) we enjoyed every second of it and can't wait to do it all over again. 

Happy eating!
S&M

you guessed it, another curry and a butter garlic naan

samosas frying

making samosas

paneer pakora

murg hydrebadi and a paratha

sugar cane juice vendor

the simply delicious vegetable cutlets

a meat thali

a sweets display in Jaipur

cheese balls in a spiced cardamom custard like liquid

breaded deep fried chilly peppers

another dosa variety

desert vegetable curry in Jaisalmer