Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Mumbai and Rajasthan

For our last Spring Break in Korea, we decided to travel to India for one last visit to Mumbai before the India Krembs become the China Krembs. We traveled together with our good friends, Ryan and Jolene, and Jess and Hugo. It was a super great trip and one we won't forget for a long time. Follow along with some of the pictures below.

We arrived in Bombay late, after a 4 hour delay in Hong Kong. Fortunately, Kevin and Ann had us covered with a driver and van waiting for us with a cooler of ice cold Kingfishers and bag of samosas. Yum. They had a party to attend that night, so we met them the next morning in South Bombay.

Jen and I were so excited, we got up extra early to go for a walk on Marine Drive.














Our van with the whole crew















We stopped in for lunch at the famous and infamous Leopold's'. The food was surprisingly really good. I hadn't expected that. This frightening picture below shows 3 bullet holes where those cowardly terrorists attacked Bombay just a few months earlier. So sad and worthless...



















Jen, me and Vince posing in front of the Gateway to India















Victoria Terminus from the car



















Lobby of the Taj Hotel. Behind was a memorial dedicated to those that died int he terror attack.















Unique architecture in front of the train terminal
















Sun setting over Mumbai from our hotel room
















We went to the roof of the Intercontinental for happy hour. Great view!
















Hugo, Ryan and I hanging with the staff
















Sweating after a morning walk...a few samosas left for breakfast!
















The Haji Ali Mosque on the way to the airport

































Now, we are in Udaipur. We found a neat place to stay with beautiful rooms and a great roof-top restaurant.
















Napping in the room
















At the Amet Haveli. We tried to stay here but it was full. The place we had was still great though.
















Dudes touring the City Palace. The tour guide was great; we randomly saw him at the Jain Temple later in the trip.
















View of Udaipur from the palace



















The Lake Palace shot taken from the City Palace. You might recognize this from the James Bond film Octopussy















Cool shot















This is now up at the Monsoon Palace on a nearby hilltop.




















Beautiful scenery

















Neat old building but not much inside but bats



















Monsoon Palace















Monsoon Palace















City Palace at night taken from our dining spot at the Amet Haveli. There were two guys playing the tablas and sitar like instruments behind us. Awesome!















Some touchups on the old Jain Palace about 2 hours from Udaipur
















The future High Priest of the Jain Temple, at least that's what he told us



















The entrance to the temple. The Jain followers do not eat any meat or dairy. In fact, they told us to take off any leather products before entering.















This dog's got her work cut out for her















That night we stayed at the magnificent Rawla Narlai hotel. One of the staff named Lala (I think) took us on a great little hike that looked over the village. We stayed for sunset and had tea. He was a great guide and even remembered the Krembs from visiting before.















At dinner that night, they had a sadhu playing some sitar. Hugo asked if he could play...he got rejected.



















Morning view over the pool















Before we left. You can start to see my mustache coming in. We were so impressed with the Indian mustache that the guys tried to grow their own. It didn't work so well...















On a village tour.















A home in the village















One of the many roaming cows doing as they please















The next night we stayed in Jodhpur. We found an awesome hotel called Pal Haveli. The rooms were fantastic.
















This is a view of the massive fort on the hill taken from the roof-top restaurant on top of the hotel















Such a great view from up there. (More mustache)















The city center area was a bit crazy and hectic. The real India, if you will.















Riding a rickshaw














This fort was incredible! Huge and so ornate. A definite highlight.
































Jen drew a crowd here...or just a really big family.















Sunset back at the Krembs on Juhu Beach



















Vince and Gigi really entertained us. Look at their skills! Gigi is not even using hands!















The ladies out for the night at Shiro















Groovy DJ shot
















Our last lunch out shopping for last minute goodies before flying home















Well, we took a 1,000 pics this week, so I have many more to share if you like. In 2 weeks we head to Jakarta for a conference. We are excited to see where we will be living next year and what it will all be like. We only have 10 weeks left in Korea. It's bittersweet for us. We are happy and excited for our next adventure but are sad to leave what we've built in Korea.

Till then...

Monday, January 19, 2009

Sept to Jan

We apologize for the lack of blog postings lately. We have been so busy it's been difficult to post. It looks like the last one came from all the way back in September. Yikes! Ok, so what have we been up to? Well, the vast majority of that time had to do with recruiting for a new job for next year. After months of hard work, we landed jobs at Jakarta International School as ES Counselor and ES Art. We feel exceptionally fortunate and to make things even better our good friends from Korea chose the same school for next year. Jess and Hugo will also be moving to Jakarta next year. We couldn't be happier! Anyway, during that process, Mom and Dad Krembs also visited for about 12 days. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them and show them our life in Korea. I think they had a nice time and enjoyed it. Below are pictures from our trip to Thailand for Christmas holidays.


Cork and Sally picked us up at the airport in Hong Kong. We had a 2 night layover. It was fun to meet Sally for the first time. She is a lot of fun and they seem like a great couple.














At Cork's place with the dogs. Funny dogs














The site of their first date, the Perfect Cup














On the Star Ferry at night














Christmas spirit in HK



















Woke up the next day in Krabi, Thailand on Rai Lei West Beach. Beautiful.














Kayak trip to explore more beaches














We found our private little beach














Great dinner served in a coconut















A note to Beijing-bound-Krembs. We missed each other by a few days but met up later on Koh Lanta.















We decided to be adventurous and try some places a little more off the beaten path for a few days. We found an island called Koh Jum. Not many people there.














Still no one to be found but us.














The start of sunset














Fishermen cruizin














Breakfast at Woodland Lodge














Food was fantastic there














Our sand castle.


















Riding the longtail out to catch the southbound ferry to Koh Lanta














Our cabanas on Koh Lanta. Thai House.















View from the restaurant at Thai House. This is a great beach!














Very strange lady taking a photo shoot with an inflatable Santa...














Jen driving the tuk-tuk moped sidecar.















Jen's manicure














Sunset














Looks like someone got burnt...again.














The entrance to the Mook Lanta, where Ryan and Jolene stayed.


















On Christmas Day, Hugo, Jess, Ryan, Jolene, Jen and I went for a snorkel trip. It was great snorkeling even though the water was a bit rough. Some poor lady was sick the entire trip. Luckily, the 6 of us fared just fine. Jen even saw a baby shark! I saw a Box Fish...not as cool as a shark though.














Christmas Dinner with some newly made friends from Scotland and Britain.















After our friends left for other destinations, we headed down to the southern tip of Lanta to meet up with the Krembs family, Kate and Adrian, and Pat and Joanie.














A big dinner feast on the beach.














Vince and Gigi playing on the beach.














The ladies favorite drink together. Pink Lady.






























Gigi is ordering up another. "Make it a double this time, Mac."


















After Koh Yao Yai, we traveled up to Chiang Mai for a few days.














An ancient Wat that's crumbling.


















We found a first rate restaurant that we liked so much we had to return the next night.





























Back in Bangkok we met up with our friends Becky and Isaac. They just got engaged, so they took us to an excellent Mexican restaurant. Bangkok has such great diversity in food.



















A couple of parting shots from us to you. Happy New Year!