Chai Masala Recipe

Ingredients
milk and water mixture (ratio 1:1. I'm guessing 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of water)
1 teaspoon of loose leaf tea (add more if the colour is too light, less if the colour is too dark)
1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar
1 small piece of cinnamon

Spices
2 or 3 Green cardamon
2 cloves
2 or 3 black pepper corns
1 small piece of ginger (1 cm in length approximately)

Method
1. Put the milk and water mixture in a saucepan on medium-high heat to boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Add in the tea. Do not cover.
2. Put all the spices in a mortar and pestle and pulverize. If you think it's done then smash for a minute longer. Look for the ginger to be broken down (not a single piece anymore).
3. Add the sugar and the cinnamon to the saucepan of boiling milk/water.
4. Then add the pulverized spices to the saucepan.
5. Stir occasionally.
6. When you judge it ready then strain into serving cups.

This is the recipe as taught to Kat, Megan and myself in Udaipur. We guessed the measurements while furiously recording everything as our teacher eyeballed everything.

Ugh

Have a headache and it's a bit miserable weather wise outside. Wanting to stay in bed today but it's the last full day of vacation. So the big buddah is being delayed - hopefully the weather will cheer up a bit.

Hong Kong Rocks

A day in Hongkers is a day that alternates between bliss and total sensory overload. We've taken the tram to Victoria Peak - so glad that the tram was there as it was really steep. We've wandered around Central on Hong Kong Island, which caters to Ferragamo fanatics, market maniacs and chain store chicas.

We tried some local specialties: milk tea (think over brewed tea with a big splash of milk with optional sugar), stir fried beef and rice noodles (there was a yummy hint of ginger), hot ribena (this was so good I almost stole it from Mike) and baked pork on rice (there was a plain tomato sauce which was surprisingly tasty). So all up I'd say that Hongkers is the culinary equal of Shanghai or Bangkok.

We stayed in our room to watch the laser show, with the radio broadcast and it was pretty darn spectacular! I'd love to video it all but I don't think I have enough time. I'll settle for capturing some flashing buildings and the finale lasers.

After dinner we walked to the temple market and saw lots of stuff but nothing we haven't seen online or in other markets. It was interesting to see and it was wonderfully hassle free.

There are two annoyances on the streets here: Indian tailors or fake watch sellers and foot massage pamphlet pushers. Mike has taken to asking for a suit made from crappy shiney material to deal with the former and I've taken to accepting every pamphlet as the simplest way to deal with the latter. Sadly I'd really love to have a foot massage but I'm yet to see a place that looks even a bit nice - they've all been dodge central. I guess that can be my mission for tomorrow after the big buddah.

Once More With Feeling

Today I said goodbye to our new friends and hopped in a cab. During the 45 minute long trip I realized that I didn't feel sad to be leaving India. We saw some brilliant stuff, were visited by the evil bug Delhi Belly more times than was reasonable and made new friends. I just haven't been moved or touched by this country in a good way.

The photos will be stunning - even with my hideous über zit... I tried to avoid being in photos with good reason. My video should be an improvement on previous efforts. But I feel as though India didn't really like us.

So when will we return to India? Not anytime soon. We've been twice now to very different areas and I can't in all honesty say that I loved it. There are too many other cool and exciting places to go.

The flight. Oh Cathay Pacific may you rise up and conquer all inferior airlines so that they too may offer the wonderous economy service that you do. The plane we had was a new one with new seats that were very comfortable. Very, very, very comfy. The food was ok, neuter offensive nor sublime; except the cheesecake that wasn't. Poor Mike the not cheese cake was covered in passionfruit - not his thing really.

So now it's after midnight, local time, in Hong Kong and I'm watching a landscape of shiny twinkling buildings go by from the bus. It brilliant to be somewhere new and exciting again.