The Roman Holiday.........

My checklist continues, as I tick off another destination I loved. A must see, Rome is all about history. The old and new live together very well.

A city more than 2000 years old, and still living very well. The women are fashionable and sexy and the men fashionable and bronzed. Food was good. Will I go back, most definitely. Feet still pain, as I walked all over the place.

We visited the Vatican musuems of course, me being this art buff... and its everything they tell you, you coulvad spend days there, its soo vast. Took the famous Roman Holiday walk, down from the Vatican, down the banks of the river Tiber, past Castle Saint Angelo, to the Spanish Steps, and then to the Trevi Fountain, had a gelato a shop. The walk is beautiful, and lots of cobble stone footpaths(not very good for your feet).

Will I go back, most definitely.

Checklist of places to see before we die.....

Just going to put it down on paper...a checklist of places to see before we die..
The places in the world you gotta go to..

1) The Taj Mahal- Agra- Obviously I am Indian...been there about 5 times..love it every time, and good for the Archeological Survey of India for cleaning up the place and making all the vehicles battery operated
2) Petra- Jordan- Breathtaking bas relief sculptures of the Roman garrison's stronghold...In fact the whole of Jordan, be it the Dead Sea, Jarash, Aqaba, Wadi Rumm, etc is beautiful.
3) Giza- Egypt the Pyramids and the Sphinx- sail down the Nile, go to Luxor, and the Valley of the Kings and of course the port city of Alexandria
4)CN Towers- Toronto- Canada, like a needle in the sky, if you are scared of heights, you need to be warned..its scary
5) Niagara Falls- from the Canadian side, the American side has nothing...lovely, breathtaking, Mother Nature at her best.
6) Petronas Towers- Malaysia- Was once the Worlds tallest towers, featured in countless movies, absolutely lovely architecture.
7) Sears Tower - Chicago- USA- Dont forget to go to the restaurant on the top, one floor below the top, and get a spectacular view of Chicago for miles on end.
8) Bahubali statue at Shravanbelogola- the tallest monolith statue carved out of one rock, the Jains biggest monument
9) Tokyo Towers, - kind of like the CN Towers in Canada, the only difference in Tokyo, with the old and the new right next to each other it not surprising that this structure exists in the land of earthquakes.
10) The sleeping Buddha's statue in Bangkok, covered in gold leaf this statue of the Buddha, is the biggest.
11) Safari's either in Kenya or South Africa
12) Safari either in Jim Corbett, Nagarhole or Ranthambore- anything to see the INDIAN TIGER

Now the agenda of the next ones to see

1) Rome, and the Vatican- for obvious reasons - now done
2) Greece- specifically the islands of Mykinos
3) Paris- France- the Arc de Trompe and the Museum
4) NY- Guegenhiem Museum
5) Mount Everest- or the Kanchanjunga...either or


Countdown begins.........

Something old and something new.......

A little nostalgic .....my favourite picture shot by the legendary Prabhudo Das Gupta....with Nayanika Chatterjee now Singh, Mehr jessia now Rampal and Madhu Sapre. In Rohit Khosla, in the middle of a jungle in Delhi.

It appears in a book on the late Rohit Khosla, and to me this epitomises fashion.

HARLEY DAVIDSON CLUB- VROOOM

Despite the 47 degrees in the sun and all wearing black, the Qatar Chapter of the Harley Davidson club came to Mesaieed, with some splendid display of beautiful bikes and good riding. I fell in love with a particular bike, custom built, custom fit and custom painted white bike of Sheikh Khaled, which made all the women go WOW!! Keith liked the more mellow Fat Boys on display...and his 40th birthday coming up, it may be a good gift dont you think!!!

The bikes have sound that is now we were told is the patented sound of the HARLEY....VROOOM

Visit to the Qatar Islamic Museum

Keith, Philippe and me went to the beautiful Qatar Islamic Museum last Saturday. The building is designed by I. M Pei- world reknowned architect.

Trip in Jan/Goa-Mysore-Singapore-Thailand-Malaysia

They say a picture speaks a thousand words....journey started in Goa...7th of Jan, went onto Mysore - 12 th Jan, then left for Singapore, spent two days, went on a cruise with the Royal Carribean - Legends of the Sea, sailed to Phuket, Thailand, then Port Kalang, Malaysia, visited KL, then back to Singapore, on day 5, stayed in Singpore for anohter 2 days, met up with classmates from school, Yatch club buddies and family. Left for Bangkok for the final leg of the journey, spent two days in Thail





























































































and

JORDAN - A MUST SEE

Keith took me to Jordan for a surprise holiday on the 16th of Dec. We landed in Amman the capital, and then left for an ancient town called Jarash in the north. We then drove down to Petra, the ancient capital of the Nebetians, and a key part of the trade route from and to Asia. We first went to Petra - by night, the whole route lit up with little candles, all the 1200 metres of the road.We visited Petra the next day, walking all the way right up to the Monastary on the top of steep climb into the hill.

The next day we left for Wadi Musa, the last place Moses lived and Bethany, where he saw the promised land. We visited Jordan river and the precise place that Jesus Christ got baptised by John the baptist. The last city of Madaba where he lived, and now famous for very intricately made glass, stoneware.
The last day we went to the Dead Sea resort, next to the Dead Sea. I had a traditional hot mud spa treatment, and Keith had a spa treatment next to the sea, where he was covered with the mud from the Dead sea, then it dries, and then he takes a dip in the Dead Sea, I say dip because there was not very much he could do but float.