Hotel Executive Lucknow

... like no other for me and it isn't about ensuring I have a photo album or a completed check list of to do's done to document my time here.

It is hard to believe that I have only been here a week. Gotta go get fitted for my clothes for the wedding. FUN!

... pretended it didn't happen and made my escape with pink roll of toilet paper hidden under my shirt. I killed that toilet and pretty much destroyed the other. When I used the toilets on trains before I wondered how could someone get **** that high up a wall. Now I know. Cleaning lady I salute you.

12 hours on a train is a long time to feel sick. No i-pod or reading due to nausea. Just staggered sleeping ...

... man again it turned out he was the chef too!!) ...... I have never encountered a kebab like it and never want to again ...a wilting sausage more like .... gross!!!!!

so we went off to the train station in the hope of booking an express train to DElhi ... on the way the pedal rickshaw driver decided to give us a grand tour instead .....we went miles ..we were yelling at him 'where are you going' he couldnt understand English and just kept ...

I first met Moses Prashant Rao, Executive Director of Nirmaan Bharati (NB) in Lucknow, India at the MicroCredit Summit in Bali. I instantly appreciated this warm and charismatic individual who was kind enough to go out of his way to introduce me to some of his friends in the MicroCredit world - some of which I would be visiting later in my trip ...

... of the irony of the situation. While the VIP seating area remained almost completely empty throughout the performance, the area with the plastic chairs behind the gate continued to get more and more packed with people until many were forced to stand. However, no one would even have considered allowing some of the non-VIP people to sit in the empty chairs of the VIP section. During the show, several men came over and took pictures of our group, claiming that ...

... drivers have to navigate among all these different modes of transportation moving at different paces. Not to mention that there are basically no traffic laws, and it's perfectly fine to drive the wrong way down a street, as I've seen done many times here. The one rule of the road that most drivers DO obey is that the biggest vehicle with the loudest horn has the right of way, so if you take cycle rickshaws like I do to/from work, you should leave a little extra time ...

... t too disappointed to have my apartment to myself either...it would be nice to not have to share a bathroom for the first time ever! The apartment that Paula had found to Sharon was a 5 minute walk from the office on the top floor of a nice house. Paula told us that the house belonged to the parents of a woman who used to work at our NGO, but now was working as a consultant at OXFAM. The apartment was nice and Sharon said she'd take it and move in on Oct. 1st, to allow ...

... check out for information. After leaving the gym, I made my way towards the vegetable stalls and the dairy that are about a 10-minute walk from my house. I also planned to get a box of sweets for my landlady, since today was her birthday. Rather than getting right to my food shopping, I decided to explore the several shops around the dairy and came upon a small shop called "Gujurati Government Emporium" with textiles and carved wooden pieces in the window. Government ...

... in a sleeper coach with beds and berths instead of seats and aisles. Each birth had 6 beds in a bunk bed arrangement, with people on the top bunk having to step on the lower people's beds to hoist themselves up. Three friends and I found our beds and hoped that the two unoccupied beds in our berth would remain that way to give us room to spread out. My friend Leah bought an Indian newspaper to read on the train, and she pointed out to us the odd and amusing ...

... Vengaboys-esque title song and later gig-scenes include full participation from the American audiences.... Ready? and 1 2 3 BOXSTEP and GRAPEVINE and BOXSTEP and 1 2 3 SQUAT THRUST.... I know line-dancing is popular in some parts of the States but there's something unpalatable about this image of the Big Apples socialites getting down to cheesy Indo-pop that would be more at home on the school disco scene. The implausible global adoration of a lyrically bereft keyboard ...