Happy Birthday from the Kingdom of Jordan!

In Arabic: عيد ميلاد سعيد

Images of the desert, women in burkas, bedouins, kebabs pop into my mind when I imagine the Middle East. Not so far from what I imagined, but much much more. Jordan is the first country I visited in the Middle East.

Wadi Rum also known as The Valley of the Moon is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in south Jordan. This area of Jordan is quite isolated and largely inhospitable to settled life. The only permanent inhabitants are several thousand Bedouin nomads and villagers.

Read more here.

Jordan is almost completely land-locked, save for a small outlet on the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aqaba and a frontage on the Dead Sea. The photo above shows the Red Sea in Aqaba (south end of the country). The amazing thing here is that you could see Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel while standing on Jordanian soil. 4-in-1! :) And the photo below shows me floating in the Dead Sea (also called Salt Sea). Its surface and shores are 422 metres below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. And boy, you could REALLY float in here!

Happy Birthday from Incredible India!!!

In Hindi: जन्मदिन मुबारक हो

One of the most incredible things that you would first notice in India would be the filth! You get hit in all your senses and it seems like there's nowhere you could escape to. I think India would be one of the last places on earth that you (mummy) would want to visit, so here I am, sharing with you how it's like. Though you could only truly feel it when you are there yourself.

Smell: Like what I mentioned, you can never imagine how dirty a country could be till you see it with your very own eyes.

Hearing: "Puri! Puri! Puri!"     "Chai! Chai! Chai!"     "Chello! Chello! Chello!"    These are the constant sounds that you would hear all the time, not forgetting the constant honking from the crazy traffic. Vendors on the train selling food, tea and every other thing you could think of. Bus conductors in the bus stations shouting 'go! go! go!'.

Taste:  Spices were among the most demanded and expensive products in Europe since the Middle Ages and India has been famous for its spices even from early historical periods. Foods of India are known for its spiciness. Throughout India, be it North India or South India, spices are used generously in food. Spices that would tease your tongue and your sense of taste. Tastes that you never knew existed with the exotic spices used.

Touch: Everything in the shops seemed to be covered in this thick layer of dust (from the road) that you wouldn't like to touch anything. Shop vendors always have a piece of cloth where they use it to dust off that thick white layer before handing over that bottle of mineral water to you.

Sight: With one third of the poorest people in India, you could almost see poverty everywhere you go.