My 30th Birthday!! :)

Sorry I missed a day! This netbook really is not the easiest thing to use unfortunately! I now remember from the New Zealand trip that while I'm grateful to have it, it's not my mac!
Yesterday, as mentioned, we went to Elephanta Island. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great boat ride out there. The caves were spectacular. We were also impressed with the many monkeys, goats, and a puppy who lived on the island :)

We then went to the aunts' house where we had henna drawn onto our hands. It's quite the process! The women who did it were super talented and it was really neat to watch them work. Then you have to sit for 2 hours while it dries and then scrape off the excess. It's a pale orange when you first scrape it off, but it's a dark brown by the time you wake up the next morning. After henna, we had a traditional south indian meal. Also very delicious!!! :) A few people warned me that true Indian food isn't like Indian food that I've had elsewhere in the world and that I may not like it. Nope, not the case, I love it! After dinner, we learned a traditional stick dance that made for an interesting site of the bunch of us dancing around the living room trying to spin and hit sticks in time. :) Then, we went out to a club called "Tote" where we had a few drinks to bring in my birthday! :) The DJ even gave me a shout-out at midnight :)This morning we took a tour of the city with these four college-aged tour guides. They were great! We got to ride on a bus and a train and in a taxi. All three of these significant experiences in themselves. The train is interesting bc the doors always remain open, so people just hang out the sides as it speeds along. The taxi was great because for some reason I love witnessing how they drive here. Sonali's dad said that they are the best drivers bc of the chaos. I have to admit, I'm impressed. There are so many close calls, it's crazy. S's dad said that there are only signs so that sign-makers have a job and get paid, not to really direct any traffic (I believe him). Traffic lights are negotiable after 8 pm. The toughest job that the tour guides had today was getting our group to cross the street! They would walk so close to the cars, scooters, and bicycles! We had a great lunch at a place called Soam and walked quite a bit of the city as well. This is a photo inside the bus and another photo of a huge laundry facility:

After the tour, Cate and I picked up a few souvenirs before getting ready for tonight's reception. I'm pretty tired now, so I will leave it at that and continue the report, and try to make it more interesting, tomorrow! :)
I also wanted to say thank you so much for the birthday love! I love how not only did I get to celebrate my birthday in India, I also get an extra 21 hours of birthday because of that, it's wonderful!! :)