Treasure hunting

My new L.A. Times article — "One-of-a-kind treasures in New Delhi's markets" — is in today's newspaper and online at travel.latimes.com. (The above photo was used on the front of the Travel section as well as a teaser pic on the front page of the paper).

We actually spent this weekend having some fun in Southern California. At Venice Beach we checked out the surfers, skaters, street performers and graffiti artists. Also on the itinerary was thrift store shopping (though not as good as the markets in India) and cruising Santa Monica and Hollywood (where we saw Michael Jackson, a platform-wearing Batman and Dora the Explorer).

Ediza recently discovered Dora and sometimes watches her on the laptop. It's funny because Ediza learns Spanish from Dora and then teaches it to Amber and I. Adios, for now.

Indian princess

Our last few days in India were filled with visiting Mahatma Gandhi's memorial, touring Delhi University and taking a bicycle rickshaw ride back at Chandni Chowk. We also paid a visit to one of the less touristy sites we saw on our entire trip: Coronation Park. This is where they put all the British monuments in one obscure park surrounded by a sewage treatment plant, radio towers and a dusty field where kids play cricket.

Once we said good-bye to all our Indian friends (we had a sendoff meeting and more parties) we headed to the airport and took a midnight flight back to the states. We flew into a snowy New Jersey, where our flight was delayed by nearly two hours. This caused us to miss our connecting flight in San Francisco, but we were able to get the next flight to Modesto.

Amber and Ediza picked me up at the airport and we went back home to go through all the presents I brought them. Amber said it was better than Christmas. In the photo above, Ediza is wearing a bindi, a pink Sanskrit scarf and a sparkly top to one of her lenghas. Truly an Indian princess!