California Freezin

It's been an interesting trip so far back to California. First off we arrived about the same time as an arctic storm, which brought the temperatures down to almost freezing. There has been pretty continual rain for the first week back. The two combined have made us all pretty cold for the whole time so far. Definitely missing the temperate climate of Bangalore. Not missing the traffic though and we are enjoying just being able to get in the car and drive ourselves somewhere.

Other than that, it has been somewhat odd being back. Of course everyone drives in their lanes. People line up at the coffee shop, and in the grocery store. Probably the strangest was to visit our house. It is inhabited by several young men, but they don't have a lot of furniture, artwork, nick-nacks... so the house felt pretty empty. Fortunately they have kept the house in pretty good condition, minor repairs needed here or there. But just seeing our house, but not staying there is odd.

It is really nice seeing people, but trying to fit all the visits in, and accomplish final christmas shopping etc, is hectic. We saw Slumdog Millionaire today. Different people had different reactions. Cindy and I missed India--the hustle/bustle, the colors, the people. It made Marion wonder why she was going to go back, and very upset about the beggars. If you've seen the movie you'll know why. If not, you should see it. All in all a very good movie.

We promised our Australian friends we would take them winetasting, so we're likely off to the Santa Cruz mountains today to find some good wineries--wish us luck. Let's hope the wine isn't all frozen. That would be bad.

More later.

Santa Came to town

Yesterday was an amazing day. I know that Cindy has written before about Shristi Special Academy. It is one of the charities that the OWC supports with funding for projects. The school is about 1/2 hour drive outside of Bangalore, which means about a 1 hour drive for us. This place is amazing. They have over 140 children with Special Needs (Autistic, Downs, ...) who come daily to school there. They also work with some local children, to provide a good school for the local kids, plus have some non-disabled children for the special needs children to interact with. They are located on the outskirts of a village. They have a nice grounds with vegetable gardens where they try to grow their own vegetables for the students and staff. They have classroom environments, physical (and other) therapy rooms, and they have workshops to teach skills to the older children. We ate lunch in the workshop at the end of our visit and I saw they make paper bags out of recycled newspapers, candles, and other things there.

Anyways we were lucky enough to go along with some representatives of the OWC (Cindy being one of them) to a "Christmas Party" they were throwing. I think it was partly a celebration for the children, and partly a thank you to the OWC, and HP who support them. The opening part was some readings and thank yous, then the OWC sang Christmas carols, which the children really enjoyed. Then there were some Bollywood tunes played, and the children got to sing and dance. They loved that part. Then came the best part for me. The OWC had supplied pencil cases with a pencil and a couple of sweets for each child.

While the children were outside playing games, I went to the office and changed into a Santa suit. Maya and I were waiting there with the gifts for the children to go to their classrooms. One boy, must be a young teenager, came into the office. He stared at me for a bit, then his eyes went wide when he figured out who I was. He immediately went outside mumbling about Santa. It was priceless. One lady from the OWC had brought an accordion. So I was proceeded by a group of carolers, and got to go to each classroom and hand out the Gifts. The smiles, handshakes and general awe on the faces was priceless. I think I got the biggest gift of all.

This is a great memory to take away with me as we plan our trip back to CA for the holidays. It is a bit bittersweet. It is hard to see the children with such severe problems, but it is astonishing to see the care and love they get, and the happiness on their faces at Shristi. Such a wonderful place, built with such humble means.

Quick Note-Island Hopping

Well, now we have visited almost 4% of the islands in the Langkawi area. There are 99 islands, and we visited 3 of them today by 'charter boat'. This means that we didn't pay the per person rate, but rented the whole little boat, which is an open boat about 20' long, with a tarpaulin covering the seating area for shade. We spent time at two beaches where we could swim in the ocean which was delicious, ate an oversized picnic lunch for 2 from the hotel, and then hiked to a freshwater lake for a swim on a third island, along with Langkawi itself, that makes 4/99.

Yesterday we took a tour around the island of Langkawi, saw a mangrove swamp, bat cave, and got to see the eagles feeding in the river/estuary. Then we took a cable car to the top of the island for a fantastic 360 degree view. We could see Thailand, many of the islands, as well as the mainland of Malaysia.

Having a great time. Sad to leave already tomorrow, I hear there are blizzard conditions in middle Europe... Pictures and more details later.

If it's Tuesday, it must be Delhi

Travel seems to be the word of the day. Last week Sunday I flew to Frankfurt, took a few hours to look around the city, and then flew on to Helsinki, arriving Sunday evening. I spent 5 glorious days in the office, thankfully. It was raining most of the time. Cold, but not cold enough to freeze, roughly 8C in the mornings and evenings. I missed my scarf, but was happy to be wearing my 'husband sweater'-- see snidknits' blog to learn what that is. I came back on Saturday (spent basically the whole day in an airplane, not too much fun considering I had the back row which doesn't even lean back. So my butt was sore by the time I got home.

Sunday was a nice day off. We went to a Thanksgiving/Obama won! party. Had a lot of fun. Several Americans there, and many Indians who had lived in the US somewhere. I met and spent a lot of time talking to a retired gentleman who still goes to the lab he set up where the do arithmetic simulations of the oceans, this involves fluid mechanics, chemistry, biology, and of course the math/computer programming. We had a great conversation about everything from Obama winning, to how Silicon Valley and Bangalore are similar but different, and how Indians and westerners think differently. I found out he went to UCB also... We also met a couple, he works for Reuters, who had raised their sons mostly in Hong Kong, then been in Japan, and now India. Cindy had been to their house for a singalong/choir session. All in all a good time.

Monday--normal day at work, with long meetings, aside from the fact that Manju was taking Cindy home from the Gym at 3:45 (a trip which should have taken 10-15 mins) and they arrived at 7:45. He then had to still come get me. It is now 9:24 and he is still only half way here. There were political demonstrations at a rally for JDS near our house, and the traffic jam is absolutely horrendous. I hope to get home before 11. I leave for Delhi tomorrow morning at 5 to renew visas. I plan to be back in Bangalore late tomorrow evening. Then Wednesday evening we leave for Langkawi, Malaysia. A few days R&R in between our hectic schedules before returning home to the US (oh but wait). On Sunday we arrive somewhere after 11pm from Malaysia, and I should be getting on a plane for the great wet dark (Finland, and a day in Germany) Sunday night, well really Monday morning at 3:30--what fun.

After that it should be two weeks in Bangalore before going back to the US for the holidays. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Bang Bada Boom

It's Divali here. I had a 3 day weekend, which was nice. We didn't do too much, a little shopping on Monday, as Manju wanted Tuesday off instead of Monday. He needed to go to Tumkur (his hometown) to register his daughter's birth certificate. We got a nice painting for the living room. I don't know what we're going to do with all the artwork we are collecting when we need to go home. We don't have as much wall space in our house back in CA.

Oh yeah, on Saturday evening we went to a 1 year birthday party for one of my co-worker's children. There was a huge cake, and a magician. I got to be the guinea pig for one of the tricks. It was pretty fun, and I think our girls had fun even though most of the kids there were under 8.

There have been non-stop fireworks going all weekend. They start somewhere around 4:30 in the morning, and go till late at night, after midnight at least.
Boom,
bang,
pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,
BANG,
...

Some people have the kind that shoot off sparks, and some even have rockets which shoot fairly high into the air. All together a lot of noise and sparks.

On Monday evening we went to the Deville's and they had bought some 'crackers' as they are called here. We helped them set some off in the back yard, till the neighbors complained. I have to say, they were impressive. Our sparklers back in CA are about 1 foot long, and very thin. Some of these sparklers were close to 3 feet long, and about a 3/4 inch thick. They would go for a long time too.

After the neighbor got upset, we went out the front gate and set more off in the street, and empty lot/dirt road next to it. We got a whole collection of kids from the neighborhood. Marian started handing out sparklers to them and they had a ball. We shot off several firecrackers (again huge by my standards), and a bunch of sparkling fountains. All the while the neighbor kids were running around with sparklers. Then it was all suddenly over when we ran out of sparklers, and we had to go home. Cindy accused me of being like a big kid with the sparklers and fountains. I guess you could say I had fun...

Varkala

Last weekend was a long one for both Maya and me (though I had to work this Saturday to make up for last Friday). So, we decided a weekend away from the noise and hubbub and pollution of Bangalore would be just the ticket. We left early (very early) Thursday morning, and we were at the hotel by 9. We stayed at the Taj Garden Retreat in Varkala, which is nice enough, but not one of their top hotels. It was about a kilometer up the hill from the beach, but there was a nice little trail which went down there from the hotel.

Varkala is a small town about 1 hour north of Trivandrum and Varkala Beach is a community which is above the beach, and runs along the cliffs to the north of the beach. There are many lovely spots where one can stop for a drink, snack, or dinner with a great view. We went to Sunshine Cafe 2 nights and sat and watched the sun set, while drinking Mojitos and Cosmopolitans. Cindy and I enjoyed the former, Ari the latter, Anna was stuck with 7-up. Both nights the sunsets were absolutely the best. Two of the nights we ate at the Funky Art Cafe. The second night we went there because they were having local talent perform. First there was a band, and then that was followed by a local boy of 16 performing traditional dances. He was really good, but unfortunately his cd gave out fairly quickly and he didn't get to finish so I missed out on a Photo Op.

On Saturday Massages and Facials were the order of the day. Here the ladies are going over the menu. This lady's beauty spot was just above Varkala Beach.

Ari wasn't feeling too well, but Cindy, Maya and I went for a backwater tour on Sunday before coming home. The backwaters (at least in this area) are mostly salt water which has come in through the beaches which separate the ocean from the backwaters, but they are not open to the Arabian Sea. They get fairly large in some places, and narrow in others. We saw a few people out tending to their land along the shores, and two boatloads of people returning from Mosque. It was really nice, and I'd like to go and spend a day or two on a houseboat on the backwaters there somewhere in Kerala.

Rainy Lazy Day

I still have trouble adjusting to the fact that even though it is pouring outside, it can be warm. It is particularly hard when traveling in the car, or sitting at work in the air-conditioned cold air and watching it rain. But it's so, today it has decided to rain here in Bangalore (after several weeks of dry). The doors and windows are open, and it's a nice balmy warm day.

Yesterday evening we went to the OWC "Indian Night", where everyone is encouraged to dress in traditional Indian wear, and there is of course Indian food, drink, and entertainment. We went with Brad, Marion, Steve, Melissa, Rob and Jackie. We men had it fairly easy, but the women were all wearing Saris. In order to get dressed, they all met up about 2 hours ahead of time, and Jackie's maid (and her daughter) helped them all get dressed. They looked lovely. We had a good time, despite sitting too close to the stage and not being able to talk too much due to the loud Indian traditional music. I think I enjoyed it more than some, who were wanting it to stop...

So we slept in today, and did some puttering around the house while the clouds grew darker and darker. Ari wished at lunch time that it would rain, and about 1/2 hour later the large drops started falling. They were few and far between, but sounded like a very slow staccato on the roof. Then it started to pour just about the time I had my shopping list ready for getting my medications for the month. It got so loud, we could hardly hear each other talk. Fortunately it stopped pouring and turned to a drizzle. I didn't think it ever drizzled in India, but now I've seen it. All in all it has just become a lazy day, but minus the thought of curling up by a nice warm fireplace and listening to the rain and reading a good book. Sometimes I do miss the changes in weather.

Still it is nice to find a spot to curl up and listen to the pitter patter of the rain coming down and read a good book. I guess I better get mine and claim the easy chair upstairs.

Construction 101

I've been thinking a while about showing the construction progress next door. It may not be the most facinating for all, but living next to it for 8 months so far, it has been kind of interesting. So I'll chronicle the progress to date.

First it started out in March with a backhoe. He came and in about 2 days dug this lot empty to a large hole about one story deep. I don' have pictures of just the concrete foundations being poured, but they were all about 2 feet thick, with re-bar in them, and the re-bar for the columns coming out of them. You can see them here, with the mixer they used to mix all the concrete. It would run with the most obnoxious loud grinding sound for days on end when they were mixing concrete. Once this was done, they built a small brick room towards the back, near, but not surrounding the well housing. And they poured concrete supports between the uprights. I think this was also part of the support for the ground floor, but I'm not sure. you can see the wooden cement forms stacked up on the right. One side seems to be coated with something which helps it not stick to the concrete.

Then they proceeded to fill the hole with sand. I didn't get pictures of them doing that for the Apt building (I was out of town), but I did manage to get it for the independent house which they started next door. Although that has been stopped for more than a month now-reason not entirely clear. In this picture you can see a couple of other things. One is the supports they use to hold up the forms (see later), and you can also see the shack that the construction workers lived in before the apt building reached a point where they could move into part of it.

Then they poured the flooring, well more dumped it. It was damp, but not really wet sand, rock and cement mixed, and carried out. Then they sprayed it with water to get it really wet. I guess it was easier to handle this way. I was expecting by now that it would take them years to get even the next couple of floors up.

But I was wrong. Things started to proceed pretty quickly at this point. They would put up the forms for the columns, pour the cement over a day or two, all by hand, then they would start setting up the forms for the next floor. It was all held up by what look like random pieces of wood, but seem to be specifically cut and sized for the task. There are some steel poles used, I think they set the actual height, and the wood is adjusted to work with the rest. Then they quickly bring in the re-bar and pour the lateral supports and the floor together. This is where the heavy equipment shows up again.
They use a concrete pump and pre-mixed trucks of concrete. It is all poured in a matter of hours (unfortunately they seem to choose Saturday mornings at about 8 am to start (except for yesterday when they started at 6:30, right outside our window). They also brought in the pump at about 3:30am and woke us up when positioning it with the heavy diesel truck. Just like anywhere else in the world, it seems to take almost as many supervisors as workers.

And then they started on the walls. About 3 weeks ago, they started bringing in concrete blocks. During the week, the few laborers who are permanently here are building the walls, that is when they are not preparing other floors to be built. But it all goes up fairly quickly. I haven't seen any plumbing yet (other than the well at the ground floor, nor any electrical, other than the panel and the lights in the small room the workers use there.

I'll follow this up with more info as I capture the progress. The photos (and more) are located in this set on Flickr.

Weird Humor

Disclaimer--None if this is meant to reflect on India or the people here, it is just a peek into the strange way my mind works...

It wasn't long after we moved here that I figured out that they used Granite for the fence posts. I had to really think about that for a while. Several questions came to mind. Aren't they awful heavy to put in? How do they transport them without breaking them. How do they cut them? Isn't there a lot of waste?

Well when Giselle and I were staying near Pondicherry, we saw a rock garden. I guess they were trying to grow new fence posts. Most of them weren't that tall, and I kept wanting to go ask the gardeners how long it takes for them to reach maturity, and what they do to keep them from growing once they transplant them into the fenceline? Do they have a root system that needs to be removed? Couldn't they just plant them where they want the fence to be, or does it take too long to grow them?

Near the airport in Chennai, I spotted this bus. Now most of the airlines fly Airbus planes (320's and the like). I really had to wonder. Did some airline think they could fool the public into thinking they were just flying low, and drive the passengers to the next city? Or did Airbus really pull a fast one on some airline, but leave the wings off when they delivered it?

Then we were walking down the beach near Pondicherry, and I started seeing these. My first thought was, gee-what a lot of lost soles—call the local priest.

Then I started to think about how many of them there were in a short stretch of beach, not more than a kilometer and it was kind of frightening how much stuff washes up on the beach from the sea. The beaches are becoming a sort of dumping ground for the ocean, and here no-one cleans it up.

When we went to Hampi earlier in the summer. I remember going into one of the major complexes through the gate. I was kind of odd to notice where everyone touched the statues on the way into the complex. Surprised? Not me.

I noticed this sign in Pondicherry. Now I know where we can by new postmen when we run out in the US, of course import duty might be an issue. And is it just a misspelling, or are they really trying sell clever postmen?

Yes, a lot can happen over coffee, I wonder what they put in the coffee, if this is truely such a big problem in the Bangalore International Airport.

I guess that is about all for now. It has been a pretty slow week. We went to the Devilles to watch the AFL championships (that's Footy, or Austrialian Rules Football, for the uninitiated). Lots of fun, too much food!! Otherwise we went to dinner to see some friends off, going back home. And working...

To Trek or not to Trek

About a month ago, Brad asked me if I wanted to join him on a trek being organized by someone at his work. I thought, well -- an opportunity to get out of the city, sounds nice -- yes. Then I found out it was going to be 26 kilometers (work it out for those of you who only understand miles, multiple by .61). It was bit further than I would choose for a first trip, but ok. We planned to stay overnight in some government run accommodations (huts), near Muthathi. The trek was supposed to take us on a loop from there to Bheemeshwari which is only about 5K up the road, but was a 26K loop up to the top of the nearby mountains. So we drove out Saturday, leaving about 3pm, and arriving at about 6. The first thing we had to do was negotiate the accommodations. When we arrived, Ramu, the driver for the organizer(Shane) went into the lodge where we were supposed to stay. He came out and said-"it is fully filthy, sir", you should stay over there. He negotiated with the forest dept personnel that we could use the 3 2-person huts, which were more expensive. But we could not go into one of them till after 9pm. We could only guess that his superiors worked till nine.

We got things out of the cars. I had first understood it would be a loop, and then on the way, discussing with Brad, he said we couldn't leave things at camp, so I repacked into one backpack. Fortunately I didn't need to carry everything as when we got there, we got agreement that we could keep the key to one hut and keep things locked the next day. One burden off my shoulders. Anyways, we got some tables set up, and chairs out. Then it started to get dark, so they lit a streetlight like lamp in the courtyard. The fans in the rooms worked, but only if you push-started them... But they worked. Shane went into one of the bungalows to use the toilet. When he came out he described something of a geyser coming out of the back of the toilet. We went in and saw what happened. The tank wasn't properly attached to the bowl, the pipe missed the hole, so the water just sprayed all around the back of the bowl, onto the wall etc. We mentioned to the caretaker that this happened. He said, "that is how it works sir". So much for doing something about it...

Then we were about to get dinner ready, when it started to rain. So, under the porch roof of one of the cabins for everyone, food, stove et al. Then the lights went out. We asked the local worker--they turn the lights off when it rains-- go figure. Well we were lucky that Ramu had packed candles for us, so we still got the pasta cooked and the sauce heated up on the propane stove Shane had brought. Dinner was delicious. And then we went to bed as the guides(2 of them) were supposed to meet us at 7am for the start. I had forgotten my phone, so Sau set his alarm for 6 and we slept pretty well despite his snoring, my snoring, and the lack of a fan.

We were all up and ready by 7 the next morning, including having breakfast. One of the group nicely collected our garbage in a plastic bag, tied it up and put it into the rabbit-cum-garbage can they had on site. They are popular in India-and have a sign on them, 'use me', so we did. Then one of the workers came, opened up the back of the can, took out the bag. He promptly opened it, took out the glass bottles which he could recycle, and then walked across the yard with the rest, and pitched it over the fence in the direction of the river which was about 100m away. So much for doing the right thing. Look closely at the photo, and you can see the trash-rabbit on the right.

We locked up our stuff, and got our packs ready. I had cobbled together various peanut/candy bars, cookies, and some bananas for lunch, and had 2 liters of water to take along. The guide (one of them) showed up at about 7:30. I don't remember his name--the reason for this will probably become obvious as you read this. He had a discussion with the local forestry man who had opened the rooms for us, and with us, through the two Indians who were with us. We tried to communicate that we wanted to go on the long loop-we had a map of the trails, and go to the top of the one mountain. We kept hearing something about 6 kilometers and Elephants, but couldn't make out what they were discussing. The guide spoke NO English at all.

Anyways, after a bit we took off. We walked back down the main road for a short bit and took of up the hill. After about 15 mins, I was seriously wondering whether I would make it. The guide set a very quick pace and the hill was pretty steep. By the way, the guide had no pack, no water, and wore flip-flops. I figured out he had some fruit in a pocket as I saw him eating it at lunch later.

We walked for about an hour, and stopped to take pictures a couple of times etc. Then all of a sudden the guide tells us that we need to go left up the hill, and not follow the obvious trail straight in front of us. He tells us that to get where we want to go, we need to go on the unmaintained trail. It started raining about this time, which was nice as the weather wasn't so hot.

So off we went, up steep boulders, and through the grasslands and trees. I scraped up my knee on a rock that was fairly steep and slippery. I was stupid, I didn't put my water bottle back in my pack so I only had one hand free. It wasn't bad, but it attracted flies anytime we stopped for a rest which was annoying. Then we turned to go up the ridge, straight up the rock outcroppings. Beautiful sights, but not the easiest to walk.

After about 15 mins of this, we again go left, down the steep side of the ridge. He tells us that the trail isn't maintained, which we can tell. It looked more like a deer track than a trail--except for he Elephant droppings everywhere. This was one thing we couldn't figure out. The trail was narrow, sometimes going between rocks we could barely navigate, and steep, but there was elephant dung about every 50 meters. Well, we followed this "trail" down to a point where we were about 30 or so meters from the stream at the bottom. We could see some sort of a trail at about the same elevation on the other side, but the last section was steep rocks. It took us about 15-20 mins to find a spot to navigate down without slipping and hurting ourselves. Then we got back to the other trail and he wanted to head down. (I figure this was the 6K option which he had been discussing with the other gentleman.) We told him, no we wanted to go up to the top. He then said we should have told him earlier as then we could have stayed on the other trail which was much less steep.

We took off up the hill again, with a visibly upset guide. Things went fairly well for the next hour or so. Then we reached a point where we met some guys coming down. They assured us it was about another 45 mins to the top-but we were on the right trail. Then about 5 mins later the guide points into the brush, and asks if we want to go up that way, it is supposedly shorter. No, we decided to stay on the trail this time, luckily. On we went, and about 20 mins later there is a fork, with a faint trail up to the left. The guide insisted that we had to take that. It turned into a jeep road, and he was right this time. About an hour later we were at the top. It is now noon. 4.5 hours to the top. And we were told we would be back at camp by 3 (well first we had been told noon, but we didn't believe that). We had a nice lunch. Everyone brought too much, but we all shared. I had already started on my 2nd bottle of water, but figured the way down wouldn't be so bad, so I wasn't worried.........

1pm sharp we left. About 15 mins on the way down, we met a couple of forestry workers on a motorbike headed for the top. They talked with the guide, and one of our gang overheard him say "can you believe, these guys have a map, and they want me to follow it"--an omen of what was to come. So we went down a bit further, then there was a small trail off to the right, down hill. The guide asked us if we wanted to go back on the jeep road, or 'through the forest'? We asked him about difficulty-- "same". We asked which was faster-- "Forest". So we agreed to take the forest. Not ten mins later we came to a tank (small lake or pond) which the trail went through. We should have taken this as a sign. But no, we didn't want to go back up, so we figured out how to get around it, and found the trail (well cow track by now) again. Off we went. Then the guide started looking around like he's not sure which way to go. The trail totally dissapeared. We heard an elephant in the distance, so we had to stop.

Now I have to orient you. The mountain is behind us, the river (Cauvery, or Kaveri) where we stayed is off to the right (about 2 o'clock), the elephant sounds were more at 3 o'clock. Yes that line is the river, the picture is from the top of the mountain.

So we went off to the left some, slowly, quietly. We never saw the elephant. About 15 mins later, we meet some cows, and 2 cow herds. The guide asked them for directions about how to get to the trail. They pointed more to the left, and down. He went a bit left, and then started going right. He also told them he had lost the trail due to the elephant--it was long gone before the elephant. Now we knew he was officially lost. Well, we went down, very steep, tall grass, rocks any where the size of tennis balls to bowling balls, hidden in the grass. I was amazed none of us broke a leg or twisted an ankle. We went at least 1 hour more down before we reached some sort of a muddy creek. We stopped for a few mins and one of the guys put his feet in the stream to cool off. The guide drank the muddy water, none of the rest of us came any closer than our feet. There was a ridge on the other side. I figured out that he should have gone more to the left, and caught that ridge so we would be on the proper side to come down to the trail, but no he wanted to take the "faster route".

Next we asked where the trail was. He said 1/2 of a Kilometer up the next ridge, we said, ok is that the trail to Bheemeshwari (our destination). He said no, Muthathi. We asked where the trail to Bheemishwari was. He said back up the hill we had just come down. We all knew for sure that was not true. So we agreed to go the .5 kilometers to the next trail. Up the hill we went, over the top, and started going steep down again. About 1.5 Kilometers later we asked where the trail was. Only another .25 kilometers yet.... Well suffice it to say, it took us about another 1/2 hour to 45 mins to get to the trail.

By this time my water was totally gone. My legs wouldn't behave and I was very worried about twisting my ankle, spending the night in the wilderness, or becoming dehydrated. So I went slowly. The others went ahead. In about 1 more hour, we came out at the road, all safe and sound. We were met by Ramu and Suresh and gladly accepted the water they had waiting for us.

Fortunately we were all safe and sound back at camp, by about 4:30. We could tell the guide was hanging around for a tip, but given he had gotten lost, mis directed us up the mountain, and generally been unfriendly when we told him where we wanted to go, he didn't get one. We collected our things and made it back home by 8. I don't think I have ever been so sore as I was the next day, plus sun-burned. Somewhere along the way down, the sun came out, but we were all so focused on keeping our feet on solid ground, none of us noticed.

What at trek. But it was fun in the end. Shane took many more photos that I did and he is supposed to post them. If I get the link, I'll post it.

Ganesh Chaturthi

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi. We had the day off. Cindy wasn't feeling well, so I went by a walk by myself. I walked from our house to Sankey Tank (see it on google maps) which has a dunking station for Ganesh. There wasn't much activity there, but on the way I got a couple of pictures of a vendor on New B.E.L road who has Ganesh idols for people to use in their Poojas. She told me I could take pictures, if I would give her 2 copies. So now I owe her 2 photos. The walk was really nice. The roads were very quiet today. I think it was about 3 Kilometers each way, not too long, but long enough. It really felt good to get out and stretch my legs a bit.

So, it is sad that Giselle left last weekend to go back to the states, but she arrived ok and is now in Virginia--what a change after Germany for a year and then India. Now we await the arrival of Ari, coming to stay for 4 months till we go back for Christmas.

Pondicherry

Sunday Giselle and I visited Pondicherry--a former French 'colony'. I'm not exactly sure, but I think the first governor bought it from the ruling king at the time. Our guide there was much better. His english was very good, and interestingly he was a Catholic. I think this colored some of his commments a bit, but he was very gracious and tried to point out how well all three major religions (Catholic, Muslim and majority Hindu) worked and lived together. He even took us down one side street and showed us the houses by religion, all intermingled.

I wasn't prepared for a guide in Pondicherry, but it was nice to have one. The itinerary wasn't very clear that we would get one there. I didn't really understand why the driver was in a hurry to get there in the morning, until we stopped for the guide. He was probably the best we have had so far.

He showed us the local architecture, an Ashram-where I didn't get many pictures, and the market where I did get a lot...
and here you can see the influence of the French. They didn't like to buy food off the ground...

We also saw a local museum which had art / historical stuff on the ground floor--which I enjoyed, and a French living area on the upper floor, which Giselle enjoyed. We also saw "White Town" which is the former French area, and is fairly grey now-that is the color of the Ashram which has bought many of the houses. We went along the beach, but didn't get out... We went to the beach by the resort. And we saw a museum dedicated to a local freedom fighter. And the local Cathedral.

I think one of the best things though was the Dunes Eco-resort. It is eco-friendly. They promote saving water, not using electricity when possible. They have an electric car for taking people to the bungalows, instead of a gas engine one. And best of all, they support several charities with their work, from Tsunami relief, to land recovery with Biodynamic means, to local vocational training, some of which they do on the resort itself (Catering). They serve locally grown organic food when possible, much grown there on the resort grounds. There is also some awesome wildlife.

Mahabalipuram

Giselle and I got away for a few days to the south east coast of India. We started off on Saturday morning by flying to Chennai. Cindy wasn't in very good spirits when we left, but fortunately that got better by the time we returned. The flight from Bangalore is only about 45 mins by Jet, 1:10 by turboprop (which we took back). I had gotten sick the day wen went to Mysore, but I figured I was over it by Saturday, especially since I had taken something to quell the diarrhea. As it turns out, I didn't get over it, but it wasn't too bad while we were traveling. It hit me much worse when we got back and I was out of commission through the next weekend.

Anyways back to Mahabalipuram. After arriving in Chennai, we were picked up by the car, and driven to Mahabalipuram. On the way we picked up our guide P.M. Raman. He knew a lot about the place, and had stories to tell, but unfortunately we had trouble getting him to understand our questions.

The site is very interesting in that it is comprised of 3 different kinds of temples, which came from different times in history. There are cave temples (carved into the rocks),temples carved from a single rock, with most of the decoration on the exterior. ( I don't remember what he called these last 2). And there are temples built from rock, similar to those in Hampi. This technology apparently emanated from Hampi, so I'm glad I went there first. Also many of the temples in the area are dedicated to Shiva, or his wife.

The most famous and largest of the last style is located very close to the ocean. It is in a park which didn't exist till after the Tsunami. Only a small part of it was government land which was excavated in the 70's when much of it was re-discovered. The Tsunami wiped out a whole lot of shops which were close to it, now they have been moved further away. In the picture you can see the seawall in the background. There is some speculation that the sea used to come up to the temple, at least to let people off of boats. You can also see that the sea has worn away one side of the temple.

The other thing that you can see there which is really spectacular is one of the largest Bas Relief sculptures in the world. It is a whole scene which I cannot describe all of, but there is a part of it from top right down towards the center which depicts a river flowing, I think bringing life if I remember correctly.

Last but not least we saw Krishna's Butter Ball. At any rate, Giselle and I had fun despite my occasional slowness from the fever I was fighting with aspirin.

More photos here.