Hotel Gemini Continental Lucknow

... the restroom for me but somehow found electricity if I wanted the giftshop. We passed on dinner there and shared a wonderful package of pringles. We arrived quite late in Khajuarho. The hotel was clean and minimal. Khajuarho is off the beaten path to everywhere. It is near the mines that bring up the fabulous gems of India. The reason to visit is an archaelogical site of many temples that are ...

... and silent staring. Praying patiently for the journey to end. I just wanted to jump in a tuk-tuk and high speed it to a hotel and I'll be in heaven.<br><br>Although with hindsight. Being sick on a travel day, although highly inconvenient is very time efficient. No thats bollocks. It was like going to work with a hangover x10 with no option of a little phone call and a cough to get you out of dodge city.<br><br>

... ting, one was tracors!! another was mechanics and spairs, a whole line on them along the road, all basic and just shacks ....but very sad how many very young poor kids there were working everywhere .... there was always something to look at or photograph ..... in fact never a dull moment....<br><br>our arrival in Lucknow was a bit disheartening, no rooms to be had anywhere?? we couldnt believe it at this time of year when its so hot, but apparently its ...

... dressed them up with little bangles and hair bobbles and flowers. We dumped our bags in the haveli and then went for a walk around the tiny village, people coming out to look at us, men on the pavement smoking together and smiling up. A group of elders sharing a hookah outside a small house were completely indifferent to us and I wondered if they felt a bit exploited by us. But mostly we were greeted with the most friendly faces and 'hello' and ...

... lunch stop. I walked the breadth of the town in a few minutes. My fellow hungry travellers had headed straight for the sole somosa vendor who could not believe his luck. The somosas were cold and not very nice and something I would likely pay the price for. As it got cooler we raised the trucks windows to reveal an odour that one only expects in sewers, not knowing the source we had to drive with windows at half mast. Later we found that many of ...

... English, and I don't speak much Hindi, so I don't completely understand everything she says in class. But luckily, my Urdu-speaking friends can clarify for me if I look realy lost (FYI - Urdu and Hindi are almost the same language, except that they use different alphabets for reading/writing). I'm glad I can provide some comic relief for my teacher, though, since she gets a good laugh out of my attempts at pronouncing the Hindi words in the chants and songs we're ...

... the woman insisted and so we relocated ourselves to the "seats of honor" in the front of the room, facing the shrine. Soon the chanting paused while the yogi used one of the 4 remote controls sitting in front of him to turn on 2 big TV screens, one on each side of the shrine. He put in a tape and in a few seconds the "guru" appeared on the screen, talking in Hindi to a big group of televised followers. The people in the room with us watched and listened intently ...

... con cuatro bolitas cada uno. Estas bolitas son las tipicas de estos festivales. el recepcionista, he olvidado su nombre, me dijo que lo que suelen hacer es que todos los vecinos de un barrio ponen dinero y construyen un altar para los nueve dias que dura el festivaal. (creo que dijeron nueve). ASi que todo esto cambio otra vez como me sentia sobre india. la gente ha sido muy amable y agradable, asi que todo cambio otra vez. Aqui la gente realmente hace lo que le viene ...

... out the rush hour traffic at a nearby ice cream shop. I got a scoop and we sat for about 20 minutes, hoping the traffic would lighten up. We were successful in our second attempt, thanks to a nice Sikh man who was also going to Gomti Nagar and helped us locate a collective auto. Getting from the auto to the house was another adventure. We told the auto driver the name of our neighborhood, and he dropped us off on what he said was our street, though in the dark nothing ...

... in India, since people use them for everything from showering to doing laundry. After making our purchases at Sahara Ganj, we were taken to another of Lucknow's shopping malls, this one called Shopper's World, were Paula said there was an inexpensive supermarket. I had not seen any supermarkets in India before this one, and probably because they are a "luxury" for the wealthy. My suspicion seemed to be confirmed when we entered the market and saw the ...