Spice Spice Baby

No trip to India is complete without a visit to the Spice Market. Our tour guide told us that the majority of the world's spices are bought and sold in little shops like these.

While everything may look good and nice in this photo, you'll thank me for not including the pictures of the surrounding areas. I've been a lot of places in the world but I do have to say that I have never been anywhere as dirty or as unsanitary (If it really is true that all of our spices come from here, I may never let my kids put cinnamon on their toast again!)

On a more positive note, I'd have to say that the high point of my India trip was our visit this morning to the Taj Mahal. We were there for the sunrise and it was spectacular.

So far in India we've been to Delhi and Agra. And, after our 5 hour bus ride today, we'll spend our last night here in Jaipur.

PS-If you ever do get the chance to visit this country, I recommend staying as far away from the roads as possible. Driving here (or even just riding on a bus) is scary. The Indians make the bad Utah drivers look good :)
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It's a small world afterall

Tonight we are finishing up our time in China (Hong Kong to be exact.) We've got a late night flight and figured we'd spend our free time before then at the happiest place on earth. Anyone want to guess where? Here's a pic in case you need a hint...
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"Hope You Make It" Airlines

So my EMBA group has finished up our time in Beijing. We had a business visit this morning and then headed off to the airport for our flight to Shenzhen. We boarded our plane, pushed back from the gate, and then we wait.

And wait. We're still sitting here now (which is why I figured I'd take advantage of this time to do a quick post :) You know it isn't looking good when the pilot gets on the intercom and says (with his Chinese accent) that we will be waiting for A VERY LONG TIME. Too bad I'm not in the US since there's a three hours limit for "tarmac torture time"...

Apparently my group is not allowed to fly this trip without having some sort of delay (This is the Delta annoyance story that I promised in my last post :)

Our flight from SLC was just fine but once we got to Seattle, we found out our flight had been delayed two hours due to "mechanical issues." Two hours turned into three but once that was fixed our pilots couldn't fly or they'd be over hours (It is a 12 hour flight after all :) Then Delta had to track down a new crew. When we thought they finally had it all together, they realized that none of the 4 pilots had flown in to Beijing before (which is apparently a requirement) so the flight was cancelled. (We offered to let the pilot use our map but our wings had already been clipped.) After putting us all up in a hotel for the night, we were back at the SEA airport the next morning.

Let's hope this flight doesn't turn out the same way. So wish me luck. I think we're going to need it.

PS--And I have a five year old sitting in the seat behind me that is about to get his legs cut off! Anyone know what the punishment might be? (I'm not planning to kill him, just maim him a little :)
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Imperial Garden

This is my first time trying to post via email to my blog so forgive me if this comes out funky...

Now that we are here (I'll have to do a separate post some other time to talk about my "extended" Seattle layover and general annoyance with Delta)

Here is a quick recap since our arrival in Beijing yesterday afternoon:

We hiked the Great Wall yesterday. Very cool. Also took my first trip on an alpine slide--that was how we got down the mountain.

Bathrooms can sometimes be a little different over here. Basically I peed in a whole yesterday (bathroom in the airport parking garage) I'll assume that I have decent aim since I didn't get my feet wet.

So far today, we've been to Tianamen Square, The Forbidden City. I took a million pics (on my good camera) but since I can't load those up here's one I snapped on my cell.

Next stop? Silk Market. Let me know if you want me to pick you up any silk ;)
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Happy B-Day to my favorite middle sib

Anyone want to guess why this girl is smiling? (And no, it is not because she is just so happy for William and Kate :) It's because Cynthia is celebrating ANOTHER BIRTHDAY! And even though I'm technically "off the grid" at the moment (if my calculations are correct, I'm on a China-bound plane somewhere over the Pacific) I didn't want to let today go by without poking some fun, err.. I mean wishing my baby sister a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

There may be some of you that don't know this, but Cynthia is the middle child in the family. You know you've got it tough when they even have a special name (Middle Child Syndrome)to describe all your weirdness. I thought it would be funny to post some of the traits of a middle child (you know, to show you that Cynthia can't help being the way that she is :) but I couldn't find anything online that didn't list out traits that made her seem like a serial killer:
Loner
Quiet
Impatient
Uptight

That doesn't sound like a good way to wish someone a happy birthday. Anyway, I tkept looking and found a few more websites but it seemed like the information was just getting worse..."they may be a little weird, unfriendly and even worse, psychotic because of this feeling of emptiness."

Ouch. Anyway, I figured the BEST present I could give Cynthia for her birthday this year was an apology--Sorry I was born first. (It was a tough job being the favorite, but someone had to do it!) I hope you and your middle self are able to enjoy and happy and untraumatized day :)