Bryan's Travels

Inlay Lake and Thaunggyi Hot Air Balloons

2011-11-29T18:40:00.001+05:30

The second part of our trip to Myanmar was centered around Inlay Lake and the Thaunggyi Hot Air Balloon Festival.After arriving in Heho, we had about a 1 hour ride to get to the lake. On the way we stopped at a delightful little umbrella shop, which makes not only the umbrellas from bamboo and paper, but also makes the paper from the bark of Mulberry trees.

Inlay Lake itself is the second largest lake in Myanmar, with many villages on it's edge, and even on the lake itself. It is also a large agricultural region as there are floating gardens on the lake. Many acres of tomatoes are grown there and the tomato salad is delicious.We took longtail boats to reach our resort, after a delicious lunch, somewhere on the lake. The resort itself was back between the floating gardens, and isolated from the main part of the lake. This was especially nice because the last several hundred meters they didn't allow any motors on the boats, only legrowing.

We saw fishermen several times, using regular nets, plus these net traps, which they put big end down on the bottom of the lake vertically and then poked inside with a sharp stick to scare the fish into the net.
We also saw them collecting lake grass from the bottom of the lake, which they use as fertilizer for the floating gardens. They would wind the plants around the poles like spaghetti, and pull it from the bottom into the boat.One morning we visited a local market, and our guide Ti showed the ladies how to apply Tanaka ( a mixture of sandalwood paste ) to their faces.

From there we walked up to a temple, and saw the local sights along the way.

I bought some really good peanut brittle here:

We also visited some weavers on the lake, there was a whole village of them. Some were spinning, others dyeing, and others weaving.

Away from the peaceful, relaxing lake, we visited Thaunggy, a local town on the hillside, for their balloon festival. I can only describe it as one of the most insane, chatotic, and thrilling events I've been to. The event has two parts, daytime when they launch large paper hot air balloons in a competition, and nighttime when the balloons are more traditional round, but have fireworks attached to them. We didn't stay for the nighttime as we heard it is a bit of a drunken revelry, and rather unsafe compared to the daytime.During the daytime, in a field about the size of 2-3 football fields, surrounded by food, gambling and other booths, plus a carnival with rides, they launch balloons and are judged on them.The balloons have to look realistic, fly well, and the teams have to work well together. Sometimes they fly really well, like this canary (btw if you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see the 1/2 meter long wick and flames to keep the balloon flying).

There were all sorts of shapes, leopards, cows, tapirs, elephants...
They would dance and sing while the team was sending up the balloon, and even more so if it went up successfully.There were thousands of people on and around the field, and sometimes there were several balloons going up at the same time. Once in a while they weren't so successful.

This tapir didn't make it that far...
Some others went up fairly far before catching on fire, and one came flaming down on some of the food booths. We had to constantly be looking over our shoulders to make sure that nothing dangerous would land on us while we were watching the one in front of us being prepared for flight.These guys were getting ready to put a flaming torch under their balloon to fill it up prior to lighting the wick and sending it off. If you can imagine how crazy this all was, just imagine adding dark, drunkenness, and fireworks (ie rockets etc) being launched from unmanned balloons and you will understand why we didn't stay for the night.

Only too soon we had to leave again after 3 delightful days on the lake.

Here's the final sunset from our hotel veranda.

Myanmar part 1

2011-11-27T14:24:00.003+05:30

Looking at my last post, it's been way too long. I planned, and started writing a post about our move to the Philippines, but that will have to wait.

Early November we, Cindy and I, went to Myanmar with Eyes on Asia. It was a great trip for the two of us because it was designed for photographers, so no-one got upset if you moved a little slowly to take some pictures. There were eight of us all in all, just a nice size. Two from the Maldives, one from Singapore, one from Switzerland living in Singapore, one from Germany living in Singapore, one from Australia, and the two of us. Cindy and I flew a day early to Singapore, and then left early the next morning to join the group. Two of the others were on the plane as well. The rest were already waiting in Yangon.

So after a lunch at Sharkeys, highly recommended, we set off for two pagodas. The first I don't remember the name, I should have written it down. It was a bit more relaxed than the big one , and there were interesting activities going on around it. One room had about 8 weavers working, and people spinning as well.

The second pagoda we went to was Shwedagon, the main pagoda in Yangon. We stayed there for a couple of hours, and took pictures in the late afternoon and early evening light.

We only stayed in Yangon one night, as we were headed to Bagan (or) the next morning for 3 days of photography amidst over two thousand temples. We spent the night at the Savoy hotel, which was a nice, older, more of a 'boutique hotel'.

It seemed to be our fate to get up early many times during this trip, this was the 2nd of 3 mornings in a row we had to get up at 5:15. We caught an early flight to Bagan. I found it interesting that we had to show our passports when going from one city to another within the country, not as identification to get on the plane, but to internal immigration control officers. I will admit that I had been a bit apprehensive about going to this country, but all in all, this was the only thing we saw which was in any way indicative of the political situation in the country.

In Bagan, we of course visited many temples, taking horse carts, and busses around to get to them. The horse carts were nicer in a way because we were able to go on roads the busses couldn't and we went at a slower pace and could stop and get off when we wanted to. We were two persons to a cart, and at a couple of times we ran into a whole lot of other carts. Tourism is increasing. We went early mornings two days, one on a balloon ride, and the other to see the monks going around town.
Here are a few photos from our balloon trip.

Getting the balloons full of hot air and ready to go. The basket could hold 12 plus the captain.

Taking off in the pre-dawn light.

View of another balloon after sunrise, about 3/4ths of the way into our one hour ride. I was surprised at how warm I was in the basket, but then since that flame was only a few feet above us when it was on, we would get warm.

Another view of one of the balloons, and many of the temples in the distance. As I mentioned already, there are over 2000 of them. There certainly isn't time to see them all. Some are in very good shape, others damaged by earthquakes, weather etc.
Many of them are over 2000 years old as well.

I'm not necessarily keeping our days in order. We visited the Shwezigon pagoda in Bagan, where I caught this group of musicians as they strode around the temple.

We took pictures of temples at sunset (here you see Muha, the master of Silhouettes).

And this was our guide. He was very helpful as he knew a lot about the history and culture of the place, as well as having been a photographer himself, he understood what we wanted and where the light would be good etc. He just didn't like to be in the photos.

One day we went to see the young monks go around town, I felt a bit like one of the paparazzi, but it was fun none the less. Cindy managed to lose us as we had to move fast to keep up with the monks, but fortunately she found us again not too much later.

There are many more photos on my flickr

We also visited a 100 year old photo studio, and since lacquer-ware comes from this area, also a factory.

I'd love to go back and visit the wonderful people again. Everyone was very warm, friendly, and open-hearted. This must be the result of the Buddhist influence on the people.

Unfortunately at the end of three days it was time to move on to our next location. Inlay Lake. But more about that next time.

Lalbagh

2011-03-03T10:00:00.003+05:30

Sunday morning, early around 6am, before it was fully light, I went to Lalbagh for a early morning walk. It was beautifully quiet there, and I enjoyed it along with a few (hundred) other people, who were also taking advantage of the quiet scenic spot for various activities.

I had thought it would be a nice quiet spot for some early morning photos, and some nice light exercise (a gentle stroll). It seems many others also were there for exercise. Either done by themselves, or groups, or even in classes, like this martial arts class.

Others came for more quiet activities, such as meditating on the sunrise
or reading the newspaper. I wonder how many years this couple has been coming to this spot every Sunday morning for a relaxing breath of fresh air and perusal of the week's news.

And then there were couples like this one. I could not help but wonder whether they are husband and wife, or if he is her brother chaperoning her to a meeting with friends, or potential husband. I didn't manage to catch him on camera, but he seemed to be more interested in his phone than in being there with her.

I just wish I lived closer to the park. It would be so lovely to be able to just walk over and enjoy the light morning air without having to arrange for a driver so early in the morning, or having to hunt for half an hour for a Rickshaw. They really don't start operating much till 7 on sundays. By then the park is already getting warm and very busy.

Philippines- El Nido

2011-02-28T14:22:00.001+05:30

Well, I got to add another country to the list I have visited. I went for a business trip to Manila. I had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Manila. I knew it is a country between the first and third world. It has a significant poor population, but also has some very wealthy--just like India. But somehow it was different from India. First off the infrastructure seems to be much better, at least in Manila. Secondly, it looks a lot like the US (not strange as it was a US colony for a while). The cars are 'huge' and the roads nicely paved. The other thing I noticed, at least in Makati, is all of the security forces carrying significant weaponry.

Cindy went on the trip with me, just to kind of scope the place out. We didn't actually see that much of Manila, or the surrounds. I did see our new office building there, and enjoyed the widely available decaf coffee (not just at the hundreds of Starbucks, but elsewhere as well).

After the business trip, Cindy and I went to El Nido for the weekend. Absolutely beautiful. The sky was blue, the ocean blue-green, and clear as a bell. We visited Snake Island where we climbed the long climb to the top, all of five minutes, and had this view. It is named snake island due to the undulating sandbar which is visible at low tide and looks like a long snake. No snakes on the island as far as we could tell.

We also saw a couple of caves, one of which we got to go inside. It was used as a hiding spot during the 2nd world war. Now it only houses some birds and bats. There's a tree whose roots grow right through the rock.

The snorkeling (and diving I presume) is superb. Here these Jack fish are being fed by the resort, as they are every morning for the benefit of the guests. I swam with them the next morning before the feeding as I had missed the sunrise cruise. They are about a meter long, and very fast. In the same area I saw probably two dozen different kinds of fish and sea creatures, including sea urchins, coral, sea stars, and lots of colorful fish. No pictures as my camera isn't waterproof.

We also went kayaking in a lagoon, snorkeling in the same lagoon, and went on a sunset cruise.

I'm ready to go back...

Wildlife Photography

2011-02-26T10:25:00.005+05:30

A couple of months ago, Cindy and I went to a photo show here in Bangalore. There was a drawing by Toehold and I was the lucky winner of a trip to Kabini for a wildlife photography bootcamp. It was all arranged by Toehold, and they even coordinated carpooling for us, as Kabini is about a 5 hour drive from Bangalore. I got to travel with two gentlemen, one who works here in Bangalore for one of the major real estate developers, the other lives and works in Dubai for a bank. I realized almost immediately as we started discussing photography on the way out that they both had more experience with DSLRs than I for wildlife types of photography, and I was outclassed in equipment as well. As it turned out I had the least equipment of anyone on the trip, but I still managed to get some nice pictures.

So we left on Friday morning at 7:30 from south Bangalore. Prasanna, the driver, knew a nice place to stop for breakfast on the way--good South Indian dosas, etc. Aziz was pretty tired on the trip, so he slept most of the way in the back seat. He had flown in from Dubai and arrive very early in the morning. We arrived a the Jungle Lodges at about 12:30, the appointed time, so we did really well. There we met Sudhir and Giri, the two instructors/ guides. After we all assembled, had lunch and got to know everyone on the trip, we went for our first Safari. The safaris run twice a day into the jungle, once from 3:30 till 6, and in the mornings from 6:30 till 9:30. So we head off in two jeeps. The group had been divided into two teams who would stay together for the weekend on the various Safaris, but the instructors would trade off. Sudhir was our first instructor.

We went out for a practice shoot the first afternoon, then we would discuss mistakes and preparation etc. afterwards. Sudhir was excellent at giving tips while we were out there shooting, light conditions, camera settings and all. We got lucky on this trip that we saw, amongst all of the other animals in the forest, a leopard crossing the road. He was a bit far away for me to get a really good picture. My longest lens is 300mm, and it really needed 400-600 to get a good shot of him. Sudhir was working with an 800mm lens which was really something to see. As you can see from the photo, he was walking about half way between our jeep, and another group on safari. They have banned the drivers and naturalists from carrying walkie talkies, something they did in the past, because it became like an overland race to get anywhere something good had been sighted, and the animals would get scared when 6 jeeps would come roaring up to wherever there was a good sighting. So our team saw the leopard, the other team didn't.

Friday evening we had a talk on technique, and then went to bed for an early trip into the forest the next day. Saturday we saw and took pictures of lots of animals, and different birds. I've posted only a few on Flickr The tips and tricks were really helpful. Giri led our morning session, and Sudhir the afternoon one. Unfortunately we didn't see any other cats on Saturday. The other team did see one at the end of the day. We were all waiting around near the Tiger Tank, because we could hear the alarm calls from the deer, indicating that a cat was in the neighborhood, but it never showed itself. We went one route out of the forest, the other jeep went the other way. They saw a tiger off in the distance on their way out, but it went into the jungle before they got close.

We did see Elephants, Deer, Monkeys and lots of Birds.

That evening we talked to someone at the Jungle Lodges who had been coming repeatedly for 7 years, and had never seen a tiger. So sightings are rare. Saturday evening we had a guest lecture from one of the heads of the forestry service who also happens to be an avid wildlife photographer. It was good to hear him talk, and see his beautiful pictures, very inspiring.

Sunday morning was to be our final safari. Giri was leading the group in our jeep. He and the driver kept stopping and listening for alarm calls. And we kept hearing them. Finally we were going up this long hill, stopping every so often. It was our 3rd or 4th stop. We were hearing the alarm calls, and wondering where the tiger was. I looked to the side of the jeep, and there she was, about 30 yards away, crouched down in the grass. I said "Tiger, Tiger 10 O'Clock". My jeepmates didn't believe at first, then they saw her. The camera clicking sounded more like a machine gun going, it was pretty amazing. She stayed there for about 10 mins and then got spooked, so she got up and went into the brush behind her. We could tell she was going down hill, back the way we had come. Giri had by now jumped up on the roof of the jeep cab, holding on to his camera with one hand and the roll bar with the other, he tells the driver to drive backwards down a bumpy, full of potholes, dirt track. We saw her come out of the brush down hill from us but the jeep was still moving too much for us to get pictures. Then she started back up. We raced back up the hill to where there was a clearing cut through the brush at about a 45 degree angle down the hill. She crossed there and some got good pictures. I really only got a good picture of the spotted deer she chased off. And then she went into the brush again. About this time another jeep showed up. They had just missed it all by 5 minutes. Timing is everything.

When I get some more time, I'll go through the hundreds of photos I took that day and see if I can process any more of them to be good for posting and I'll add them to the Flickr.

I have to thank Giri, Sudhir and Toehold for this amazing experience. One I won't forget till the day I die. Seeing a wild tiger, in the forest, and getting the time to take decent pictures doesn't happen every day. I'm inspired to be a better photographer, and to continue trying to get some good wildlife photos, along with the others I take. I can highly recommend Toehold for people who wish to improve their photo skills.

Down Under

2011-01-01T13:16:00.001+05:30

Rather than go back to the US for holidays, we decided this year to go visit Isha and Brenton in Melbourne. It was a bit odd for me, as I had to work most days so I was "in the office" at the hotel most afternoons, but got the chance to do some sightseeing in the mornings, and a couple of days I had off.

Rather than list the full itinerary, I'll just share a few places we saw.

We went to St. Kildas, and walked along the beach. My cousin Jan Marc, and my nephew Satchel were visiting as well.

We saw the tiny penguins (well actually penguin) on the pier. Too many people crowded around to get any good pictures.

On Christmas the Cicadas were very loud, this one joined us on the table after we ate dinner.

Cindy and I went for a drive down the Great Ocean Road. She put her toes in the Tasman Sea, and in the Southern Ocean.

And along the way we saw the 12 Apostles (though there are only 11 left standing now). It looked a lot like the California coast except that you have to drive on the wrong side of the road. And to prove we were there:

And of course we had to see Kangaroos, so we visited the Healsville Sanctuary where we saw all sorts of strange Australian wildlife.

And we even managed to stop at a winery and sample the local wines. No pictures, but we did bring back a couple of bottles to India.

Oh Yeah, We also went to the beach, where many went surfing, though your's truely had to get back to the "office" so I skipped this activity.

Satchel and Jan Marc did manage to do fairly well.
Here's Satchel on the Right.

And Jan Marc:

Even Marian got in on it.

And then on the way home I got serenaded by this group in BLUE at the Singapore airport. The picture is a bit blurry, but that's how I was feeling after 6 hours flying on New Years Day.

The rest of my Christmas in Melbourne photos can be found here.

Udaipur

2010-11-29T20:58:00.011+05:30

Our final destination was Udaipur. While most of Rajasthan is dry desert, Udaipur is best known for being on the lake. The lake does dry up a lot during the dry season, but as we were there just after monsoons, it was completely full. But more about that later.

We set off from Jodhpur fairly early in the morning (9 ish). We were to see a temple on the way to Udaipur. Not knowing much about it, I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I've seen a lot of temples during our stay in India, and some were just interesting, and others spectacular. This one, Sheth Anandji Kalyanji, is truely special. As we were driving along, we got on one road which started to get a little curvey and going up hill. The vegetation started to change, it became more green and the trees reminded me of home, looking very much like the big oaks of california. They weren't of course. Then we stopped at the temple.

Now this is a very active temple and has been there for several hundreds of years, managed by the same family. It is carved entirely out of Marble. I did hear one quote from an tourist while inside which totally flabbergasted me and almost caused us to break out in laughter. Mind you this is a Jain temple and they are very Vegetarian. The lady asked her guide if the temple was carved out of marble or Ivory. I couldn't believe it. Anyways we wandered around this architectural marvel for an hour or so. Even Maya was impressed by it. It maintained a cool atmosphere by being open enough to let the breeze through. It let in light, but wasn't so open as to warm up too much in the sun. It was filled with carvings and there were all sorts of colums, pillars, domes, and other wonders to look at.

We proceeded to lunch at Aranyawas which has a nice view of the little valley it overlooks. And then on to Udaipur.

We arrived in Udaipur in late afternoon and went pretty much straight to the hotel. Unfortunately we were not booked in a hotel on the lake, but it is a former palace of the local King. He still maintains his polo ponies there and has his own private airport there. Since it was Diwali when we arrived, the staff was pretty minimal and all of the staff were wearing what looked like army uniforms. This gave the whole place a bit of a military feel. There is a small private lake there too. It was pleasant, but not at the top of my list if I were to return. That evening the hotel had scheduled Diwali celebrations over the polo grounds. First they handed out sparklers to everyone and lit candles all around so we could litght the sparklers. These were more similar to the ones I've seen in the USA. About a foot long (1/3 meter). They were fun, but hard to light. There were a couple of children running around with the sparklers. I think they were something like 4 and 7 years of age.

Then the guards started lighting the big stuff. They had two different kinds of rockets, bottle rockets, and some in cardboard tubes. They started off putting the big ones in the tubes upside down, so the first 2 ejected the tubes into the air, and exploded on the ground at their feet. Pretty spectacular!! Fortunately no-one got hurt. Then they got it right and the children descended to "help". They kept running up to the guards who were lighting some rocket, or firecrakers, or strongter stuff. I kept wondering when they would get hurt or scared, fortunately they didn't. I couldn't understand how they could be running around down there, but then found out they were the hotel manager's children and knew all the guards. All was well.

The following day, we met our guide for Udaipur. Of all the guides, we liked him the least. He rushed us through the few sites he took us to, and seemed to be forgetting one we wanted to see. He started us off at the palace. It is a home to the current king, plus a hotel. Since it was part of the same hotel chain where we were staying, we got to go through the grounds without paying extra fees. We did have to pay for the tour though.

Inside they have a number of nice exhibits. Unfortunately as we were rushed through, we didn't get to see all of them. One I thought was particularly interesting is a represnentation of the King's horse in an historic battle against another Mughal supported king. He dressed his horse up as an elephant baby so that the war elephants from the other side would not injure it. The war elephants supposedly carried a sword in thieir trunk to injur the opposition horses and riders. It worked for a time, but then the elephants realized and did injure the horse.

The tour goes through all parts of the palace, up and down narrow stairs. The narrow passageways were part of the security scheme. Only 1 man could hold off several because the hallways were narrow enough for only one to go through at a time. We got to see views of the lake from the palace, the first working indoor plumbing, and many other things.

We had a short visit to the local temple. Then we went off to a garden which had been built for the palace ladies. Only women were allowed to enter there when it was built. Now it is open to all. After that a quick visit to a folklore museum. Then it was time for Lunch. The guide took his leave.

After lunch we asked our driver where to go for a while. We had tickets to take the boat tour at 5:30, and needed to kill a little time. Not so much we could go back to the hotel, but enough to need something to do. He took us to the lake shore where I spotted some pirate boats. And we enjoyed a leisurely walk along the water.

Then we went on the boat tour. We actually took a boat at about 4:45, which was just fine. We toured around a bit, and then stopped at Jagmandir. This is an island in the lake which was used as a summer picnic/ palace ground for the royal family. It is now open to the public and you can see the gardens, have a bite at the coffee shop, or even stay overnight in part of the former palace. We stopped in for a coffee, and the view. We had been wondering where to have dinner. We sort of wanted something scenic. Well we had found it. They had a dinner restaurant on the island. And they were willing to give us a table. So, all we had to do was wait around for dinner time. We wandered the island, saw the sunset. And we took pictures and then watched as they put blankets on the elephants out front of the Island. I guess they can get stone cold.

We enjoyed a delightful dinner at Jagmandir, along with a stunning view of the palace all lit up for Diwali. I'd love to go back and just relax on the lake for a couple of days.

Jodhpur and Surrounds

2010-11-21T16:58:00.005+05:30

We set off towards Jodhpur not too late in the morning, we were to stay 2 nights there, so we could move at a bit more leisurly pace. Jodhpur is known as the Blue City because many of the houses are painted blue. Originally the Brahmins were the onely ones allowed to paint their houses this particular color, but in recent times it has become unrestricted and more universal. But I get ahead of myself.

We didn't go into Jodhpur proper the day we arrived. We met our guide, and he took us to some villages in the surrounding areas of Jodhpur to visit some of the local crafts people. First we visited a potter. He had a very large kiln in the yard, but I didn't get to ask him how he covers it up. I'm actually curious to know. It is obviously fed by a fire which can be stoked through the hole on the bottom. It is obviously not too high temperature clay he uses as the iron doesn't melt in the kiln, which it could for a high temp firing.

His son demonstrated the wheel they use for making most of their pots. It is basically a big flywheel mounted on something which allows it to spin. It is not held horizontal, but has to be spun up with a stick and while doing that managed to keep it from wobbling. Once it is spinning well, it can be used for several minutes to make a pot. He was able to throw a pot in the space of about 2 minutes.

After he made a couple, I was convinced to give it a try. While I had used a wheel in my parent's pottery shop when I was a teenager, it has been many years. And the one I used was motorized and high up enough to stand at. Both my attempts were flops, but it was fun to try.

In the area around Jodhpur, there is a long standing tradition amongst some of the villagers of using Opium. It can be consumed in several ways, but one of the traditional ways to consume it there is by making Opium Tea. So our next stop was the house of an elderly man, his daughter and granddaughter. They demonstrated, or rather he demonstrated, how to make opium tea. He also demonstrated on me how to tie a turban, which can start at 9 meters long and go longer. They were very gentle kind people and genuinely open and friendly with their home.

Our final stop that afternoon was at a Dhurry Weaver village. This gentleman showed us the process for weaving them, and explained the different types of wool, silks and cottons they used. He also explained how the village had been set up by the government to promote the handicrafts and create a co-op for the weavers to get better incomes. We bought a couple of lovely dhurries from him for the house.

We ended the day with going to our hotel, which was another converted palace(Rohet Garh). This one was the nicest of them all. It was very homey. The owner lives in part of it, and he met us (and I suspect most of the other guests) in the garden at tea time just after we arrived. As I said the place felt very comfortable while being a very nice hotel. It had the nicer qualites of a B&B combined with a 4 or 5 star hotel. The hotel was all lit up at night, in preparation for Dhiwali. As such it was like walking out into fairy land.

The next day we made a tour of the royal crematorium, and the fort and palace. The royal crematorium looks imposing as you come to it, until you find out the cremations didn't take place in this building. The large building is a monument built by one of the kings of Jodhpur so that his mother could look out the window and be reminded of her husband who had been cremated there. You could go inside the monumnent, where there were pictures of all of the Kings of Jodhpur, plus a space for worship. All kinds of people come to worship here. Many people come and tie a knot in a a handkerchief or piece of fabric or thread on the chain dividing the insides of the hall. They make a wish for something good, i.e. a child, and then once the wish is granted, they come back and remove the item. It is a nice spot with a small lake, and a nice view when it isn't hazy, like the day we were there.

From there we went to the fort proper. The fort is high up on the hill, even after you park the car. This time we rode in an elevator up to the fort. It is walkable, but the elevator saves a lot of time. The rock was hand carved to make a shaft for the elevator some years ago. Inside there were a lot of items used by the Maharajas of the time. This silver palanquin was particularly interesting. Notice the human face on the lion. Again there were many rooms of sliver and gold. Very fancy digs for the these royals.

The view from the fort was stunning, albeit a bit hazy. You could certainly see why it is called the Blue City. And when we exited the fort, here was a camel waiting along beside all of the two wheelers parked by the entrance to the fort.
After visiting the fort, we visited a textile warehouse where they had seven floors of different kinds of textiles from floor to ceiling.

Then we went to the city market are and visited the clock tower. Since it was just before Diwali, the market was crammed with people. There were many side streets and alleys. We went through a few of them, ending up at the clock tower. We saw people selling clothing, running open air barber shops and dental clinics (have your tooth removed on the street anyone?), trinkets for Diwali, and anything else you could think of. And of course children passing the time...

Camels Ho!!

2010-11-20T21:36:00.004+05:30

I had reservations about this camel ride thing. I've never been tremendously comfortable on a horse, though I can ride one. I'd heard about people being bitten by camels, I heard they had bad breath, and many other stories. So, needless to say, I wasn't entirely sure about what was coming. Fortunately we all had reservations for the camel rides too, but more about that later.

We set off for the desert. Wait a minute, I thought we already were in the desert. Well yes we were, but this is the 'real desert' with lots of sand and camels and sand and more camels and sand and border security guards because it is so close to Pakistan. We ended up being about 100Km from Pakistan if I remember correctly. It's about 40km from Jaisalmer. Along the way I start to see patches of sand dunes and a lot less vegetation. Then all of a sudden off in the distance I see two ladies riding on camels with one attendant along walking with them. I think how nice, how open, how people free. Surprising for India. We drove on a ways, and then we reached the point for riding off into the sand dunes on the camels to see the sunset. Now I had had an image of being 'out there' sort of lonely with the sun setting. Think again Bryan!! There were busloads of people getting on camels, and hundreds of them riding off into the dunes. This wasn't some private moment in the large expanse of the desert, it was almost a traffic jam out there in the dunes.

We got on our camels and started off with the three young boys who were the camel attendants. This is where it was important to have reservations as there were so many people trying for camels. We just got on ours and took off. Momentarily we were joined by a young man trying to sell us soft drinks at exhorbitant prices. He called himself Ali Baba--I think he was one of the 40 thieves myself. The funny part is that since we weren't buying right then, he wandered off for a moment and a man at least 10 years his senior showed up and tried to sell us the same thing. Guess what his name was. You got it--Ali Baba. As soon as he told us this the boy showed up and ran him off, it was amusing.

I had said I was concerned about riding the camels. Well they were docile, gentle creatures and much more comfortable to ride. While we didn't gallop off into the sunset, I did see young men coming back trying to get a 2nd customer. They were at a full run. The camels were much smoother to ride, and if you just sort of relaxed, it was almost like being rocked on a boat. No wonder they are called the ships of the desert. By the way, did you know they are very intelligent and can find their way across from Pakistan to India without a rider and get to just where they are supposed to go. They are used by smugglers this way, sent off with contraband across the desert.

We got out into the desert and got off our camels. Ali Baba was right there handing out drinks, and then demanding twice the price he asked for at the beginning of the ride, citing desert prices. I told him I would pay what he asked at the start, even though that was roughly 6 times the store price for the drinks. But there wasn't any store handy. Cindy as always made instant friends and they had to take pictures.

We sat and enjoyed the sunset. Beautiful experience even if we did have to share it with 500 of our closest newly found friends. Then we rode back to the car. Cindy and I shared a camel this time as one of ours had gone for a ride with someone else and not returned by the time we were ready to leave. Even this was comfortable, though I didn't enjoy it as something I had eaten earlier in the day had caught up with me and my bowels were distinctly unhappy.

We proceeded back to our desert camp. Supposedly this was camping under the stars. It was more like hotel rooms with canvas roofs. We had marble floors, running water, toilets and electricity in our tents. The next morning, feeling better I got up in time to catch the sunrise over the camp, and then enjoy a cup of tea with a lovely family from Kerala. We met them several times over the next few days in Jodhpur, and Udaipur. They were going riding in the morning and these camels were waiting for them.

Jaisalmer

2010-11-20T20:41:00.005+05:30

Jaisalmer is the most comfortable city I've been in here in India, I think because it is a smaller city, much of which is still very close to the old fort. It really fealt like a human city, not one overrun by cars yet. We had arrived the previous afternoon and declined the trip to the local park/lake in the afternoon. I suppose it might have been nice during the afternoon, towards sunset, but as it was, we got to see it fresh in the morning.

Where we arrived, my first thought was tourist trap. It looked like we would have to walk up a long walkway lined with vendors trying to hawk items we didn't want. Fortunately that wasn't the case. Along the way our guide bought a loaf of bread and I really expected to be feeding the ducks. As it was, we got to the lake and the guide explained that there were various locations along the lake shore for differnent castes and people. For instance the Brahmins had one section of the lake shore, another was reserved for the laborers like carpenters, etc.

He then explained that since the lake is a holy lake, even the animals living in the lake are holy, thus there is no fishing to eat. He got out the bread and started throwing it in the water, immediately there were hundreds of catfish swimming or should I say swarming along the lake shore, hoping to catch a morsel from our hands. The guide told us to be careful when throwing in the bread. He then recounted a story of one of his guests who had gotten so exhuberant about the teeming fish that she had her camera in one hand, and the bread in the other. And you guessed it, she tossed the camera in the lake. They did manage to retrieve it, but just imagine.

After the lake, we drove up to the fort entrance which is on a large hill overlooking the rest of the city. Jaisalmer fort is one of the largest in the world, and about a third of the residents of the city still live within its walls. You can see the actual entrance at the right of the photo. A large section of the actual palace had to be restored after a recent earth quake, and work is still going on. It is built with interlocking stone, no mortar. On the way in, there are a lot of vendors trying to hawk local arts and crafts, hats, cameras, camera accessories, and other things, but most of them were really friendly and not overly pushy.

Inside we saw not only the palace, from the outside, but we also visited a Jain temple. The Jains were very influential and wealthy along the Silk Road in India. This is one such location. The temple is beautifully carved and well maintained to this day. There was work ongoing inside one of the temples cementing the idols in place. The idols were beautiful, and if you know what to look for, you could tell them apart. They pretty much all looked similar to me. I found the carvings more interesting actually. This one was pretty popular, seems to be touched by many people. The place was very busy with tourists coming and going all the time, with intermittent worshipers coming too. Outside I got this picture of the ticket taker at the entrance. He was kept very busy with people coming and going into the two entrances of the two different temples he had to monitor both doors. But he did it with aplomb.

After visiting the temple we wandered around the fort a bit. The guide explained there is a tradition when someone in the family is getting married. You paint the invitation/announcement on the wall of the house for all to see. We saw several such announcements while wandering around in the fort city, and even outside the fort. This makes it easy, you don't have to worry that someone will come along and say, "you didn't invite me" as it is posted for all to see. He even explained how you can tell by what is painted whether it is a bride or groom to be. After wandering the city, and looking down on the walls to see the ammunition left for dropping on enemies (round stones all along the walls), we walked out of the fort and visited a silver smith. They had some truely lovely modern and antique pieces. We picked up a couple of nice items, and then headed off for lunch at "On The Rocks" for a delicious lunch with a nice view of the fort.

After this we vistited some of the Havelis of Jaisalmer, where we got to see the former prime minister's house and several others. They were incredibly carved out of stone. One house was done in a fashion by two competing architects so that both sides of the house were carved similarly, but always different too. Strong rivalry there. We got to go inside one, where there was a store on the second floor, selling artifacts to maintain the house for tourists to see. Truely facinating to visit.

Then it was time to leave Jaisalmer for our excursion to the desert and Camel Rides.

Rajasthan, onwards to Jaisalmer

2010-11-14T17:10:00.004+05:30

The next day was a travel day again. Our itinerary had us going to Jaisalmer, and then doing some sightseeing. Since Maya was still recovering we decided to take it easier on this day and just do the traveling, we could see a lot in one day and didn't have far to go the next evening. Also we were staying at Gajner Palace, and really wanting to just relax a bit and enjoy the environs. It was truely a beautiful place, so peaceful on the lake.

Since we had less to do, Mr. Sing informed us we could leave later in the morning. Since I usually wake up early, and Cindy abnormally woke up early, we both had the opportunity to do some early morning photography. We also walked through the Gajner Palace grounds. Behind the maintained portion, was a large garden which was overgrown, all bounded by the lake. Further into the there was a small hill with a bungalow on top of it. We climbed up and it was unfortunately rather trashed, it would be the perfect place to have weddings or celebrations. It could even be used as a sort of private hideaway for newlyweds. On the way back there were parrots everywhere. And boy could they be noisy. There was a whole bunch of them in the trees just outside our hotel room when we arrived back from our walk. They were also bathing in the fountain. Then all of a sudden they disappeared into the higher branches of the trees. I noticed a maintenance man on the roof of the hotel which seems to have scared them off. They weren't bothered by us guests, nor the hotel staff walking back and forth to the various rooms with laundry, and housekeeping supplies. I guess they didn't like someone up above them.

As the ride to Jaisalmer progressed, the landscape changed. More rocks and sand, less dirt. There were mines of various sorts along the way as well. But the air cleared up. So it wasn't quite so hazy. There was hope for stars in the desert after all.

We arrived in the late afternoon just outside of Jaisalmer at the Fort Rajwada, a newly built "Fort" hotel. Fairly nice from the outside, but typical on the inside. Cindy and I went to the roof terrace for drinks at sunset.

Then we had a barbeque dinner by the pool. We saw the first of several "cultural programs" that occurred at various hotels we stayed at over the week there. This one was actually the best one, but both Cindy and I had left our cameras in the room and thinking we would see more, we were too lazy to go get them. Pity. Anyways, the two guys who were dressed as ladies and dancing were pretty good (this is typical in Rajasthan as in some parts it isn't acceptable for women to dance in public). The band, as it were, was pretty good to. I think we saw better in Jaipur two years ago, but still enjoyable.

Next is Jaisalmer.

Rajasthan Part 1, on the way to Bikaner

2010-11-13T12:49:00.005+05:30

We had been wanting to go to Rajasthan for a long time. Both Cindy and I were too busy to do the trip planning so we called a travel agent we use sometimes and asked him to put together a tour for us. Maya was sick the week before the trip, so we almost ended up cancelling, but in the end Maya went along and she recuperated along the way. We had seen Jaipur on our trip to Taj Mahal and Jaipur in 2008, so we skipped Jaipur, and started with Bikaner.

We didn't actually start in Bikaner, we flew to Delhi and then got in a car for a 6 hour drive to a horrible little hotel not far from Jaipur. Diwali is a busy time in Rajasthan, so we weren't able to fly to Jaipur which could have saved us a day in the car, but so it goes. The hotel, Gulmohar Sariska resorts, was a substitution since the travel agent had enquired about if we would have to cancel and our original hotel had then given our reservation away. This one was supposed to be better. The restaurant was just in the entry hall which was this large cavernous room, with poor lighting, the tables weren't particularly clean, and the food was average. The rooms were not well kept, the back door to our room didn't close properly, but you couldn't leave it open as there was no mosquito screen and there were monkeys ready to invade. We were really wondering what we were in for with this first night. When we got up in the morning, there was no hot water. Apparently the power was out and the geysers dont run on the backup generator.

When we checked in they told us we could arrange for a visit to the nearby wildlife park and it would take about 4 hours to see. Then we could start on the 7 hour trip to Bikaner. We declined the wildlife park, we've seen others and wanted to not have too long a day for Maya as she was still recovering from Strep.

We left the following morning early on recommendation from our driver Mr. Sardar Singh. He was really a good driver, very cautious, and a genuinely gentle soul. Unfortunately his english was not the best, so long conversations were not easy. He packed us in the car and we started off. I got my first photo of the trip of a truck we followed down this narrow road. I just loved the messages on the back of the truck. Not perfect grammar or spelling, but it gets the point across.

We soon discovered that one of the main reasons for the trip taking so long to Bikaner, was the road. As you can see it was one lane wide, if that, and full of potholes. So going 30 Kilometers took us over two hours. Fortunately most of the roads in Rajasthan were excellent and this was a true anomaly. As we were going further into Rajasthan and more into desert country for the first two days, it got hazier and hazier. To the point that I was truely concerned for our desert camping plans as we were to see the lovely stars from the desert. But more about that later.

Yes it is a bi-directional road and many times we had to pull over to the side to let some large truck or bus go by the other direction.

It wasn't quite desert yet, but the landscape was very different from what we are used to seeing in Bangalore.

Everything was very dry, hardly any trees. Along the sides of the roads, trees which had been planted were surrounded by protective walls about 1.5-2 meters high so that they could grow without getting eaten by the goats, cows, camels and other animals which would come to browse. We also encountered the first of many 'mini-buses' along the roads. These were large Jeeps. Usually the women would ride inside, and if there was room, the men would too. Here you see the men riding on the back because there are about 25 people inside. These were commonplace all across Rajasthan. Also Rajasthan is the first place where I have seen it common to ride on top of the larger busses. In south India I haven't seen that so much. 50Kph, or 30Mph wasn't an unusual speed for these jeeps with hangers on...

We stopped along the way at a water tank which is several hundreds of years old. It looks abandoned, but is used obviously for partying as evidenced by all the broken beer bottles. The driver told us it does fill with rainwater still and gets used when it has water in it.

Fortunately after a couple of hours the road opened up and was in excellent shape. So we didn't have to bounce the whole way to Bikaner. We had intended to make a side trip to Mahensar to see the Havelis there, but both the driver and the hotel had told us this would be a 2-3 hour diversion. So we looked in the guide book and found another town which had interesting Havelis as well. We stopped off there for a while, wandered around the town and saw the Havelis. Also got to start seeing the Rajasthani Women in their colorful dress. Some of the locals were absolutely beautiful, but I didn't dare ask them if they would stop for a photo. I should have.

And by comparison, the men dress very western for the most part. The one difference is there are a lot of turbans. This guy was proud of his donkey, but a bit shy.

We stopped along the road at a "tourist restaurant" for lunch. We had the experience the day before of having a tremendously overpriced meal at one of these stops and noticed that the Indians got a different menu. Well actually the same menu with lower prices (often by an order of magnitude). So we were determined not to be taken advantage of again. When we saw the prices being high again, we complained to the waiter, he talked to the owner and gave us a discount. At least the food was pretty good. And we felt like we'd gotten a better price, though still overpriced. But these places do offer a service, clean bathrooms and a place to stop on the long dusty roads.

After lunch we arrived in Bikaner and met our first Guide. He showed us the fort, the first of many, with its gold painted rooms, swing for Krishna, and many additions over the years. It was in relatively good shape, built along the Silk Road in the 15th Century, started by Rao Bika.

After touring the fort, we visited a camel research farm run by the local government. We learned that there are 3 types of camels in the area, one of which has curly hair. Also the best camel wool comes from the chin of the camel. We got to see them milk the camels, and I even had a taste of camel milk ice cream. Very rich, I have to say. Supposedly it is a bit salty, but I couldn't tell. Cindy had a coffee with Camel's milk.

We ended our day at a hotel which was a former palace on a lake, it is now run by the descendant of the former king of Udaipur who has a set of these hotels and other ventures to try to keep the heritage of Rajasthan alive and fund the things he needs to do in his "kingly" role.

Hong Kong

2010-11-13T11:10:00.007+05:30

I'm behind on my posts. I realize now that I've made two trips to Hong Kong in the last 6 months and posted neither of them. The first trip was in June as I was on my way back to the US for Isha's wedding. I had a long layover (13 hours If I remember correctly). So I put most of my luggage in storage, and took my camera and took the train into Hong Kong. I rode all the way into Central. As it was still morning, and I had a lot of time on my hands, I thought I would walk up the peak. I had taken the Peak Tram up on a previous visit to Hong Kong years ago, and I wanted to stretch my legs, knowing I had another 10+ hours in the plane coming.

It was already hot and muggy. Most of the people I met along the way were joggers and much more active than I was in that climate. It wasn't much warmer than Bangalore, but definitely more humid. Along the way up I managed to catch a couple of nice shots of the buildings and harbor area. I did meet this one group of four young Filipino ladies who all wanted their picture taken with me. I obliged. I should have had one taken with my camera too, but didn't. It was kind of amusing--they weren't trying to pick me up or offer me anything, just photos. I'm used to people asking for photos in India, but hadn't experienced it anywhere else yet.

Once I reached the top, the views were really nice as the air was relatively clear. I walked 1/3 of the way around the peak, but my feet were getting tired and I thought I should take it easy. I had an Ice Cream at Haggen Daz and then took the tram back down the hill. After this I wandered around the harbor area, over to Kowloon and walked up Nathan Road and back. Then it was time for dinner and back to the airport.

The second trip was the end of a business trip to China. I arrived on a Thursday night, saw some customers on Friday, and then Saturday was joined by Maya and Cindy for the weekend. We stayed at the YMCA in Kowloon, right on the water. We had a Suite room with a view of the harbor. It was very functional, but also nicely kept and not too expensive.

Maya and Cindy arrived on Saturday around noon, and they were exhausted from the overnight flight so they rested for an hour or so. Then we went sightseeing in and around Kowloon. There was a drumming competition, with competitors of all ages. Mostly it seemed that families were there to see their children play, but I really appreciated this group.

Afterwards we went for a wonderful Korean BBQ dinner at a tiny little place in Tsim Sha Tsui (Chang Won Korean Restaurant at 16 Kimberly St.) They were jam packed, and had a line out the door. Fortunately we got there early enough we didn't have to wait for long. Excellent food.

Sunday we were going to go over to Central and look around when Cindy spotted the Big Red Bus Tour--she had been on one of their tours in Dubai. So we go tickets (a bit pricey), and started our hop on hop off tour of Hong Kong. It was nice to see it from the bus and get a feel for what is where. After a while, we hopped off and wandered around Soho, looking at art galleries etc. We ate lunch right next to the escalators that take people up to the mid levels. We also took the peak tram up to the top and walked around the peak, took us about an hour and it was a nice leisurely stroll. Lots of people were out. We saw butterflies, birds, lots of greenery, and it was lovely and clean.

On the way back to the hotel, we encountered a sort of eco display at the ferry terminal.

Monday we were supposed to go to DisneyLand before flying back home, but Maya decided she would rather roam a bit more around the city so we did so. I must say I enjoyed Hong Kong more than Singapore, but it is best when you're traveling with someone and not alone. I actually didn't take too many pictures on this trip, mostly because I didn't bring my better camera due to the previous week's business trip in China.

Halloween ??

2010-10-29T15:02:00.003+05:30

I haven't posted Hong Kong yet, but I should. Just haven't had the time. I had to post this though. I noticed a new sign in our office building. I'm wondering if this is Halloween related, if they're afraid of some bad juju, or what?

Kerala Boat Races

2010-08-19T20:54:00.004+05:30

We had a fun and interesting trip last weekend. Cindy had gotten a notice about some pretty famous boat races in Kerala coming on Independence Day weekend, so I got in touch with a travel agent and said- book us there. Get us to the boat races, and find us something to do for another day. So he did. We didn't really know what we were getting into when we decided to go, and still didn't know much more than we were getting on a plane to Cochin, and then staying on a houseboat, then seeing the races.

Let's start of with the Houseboat. We arrived in Cochin and met our driver for the weekend. He started off down the highway from the airport and after about an hour, he turned down some narrow lane, which endded us up at the houseboat docks. Here we were afforded a welcome drink (tender coconut of course) and after a couple of formalities we were off. There were two guys on board who did the sailing and the cooking and everything else. We motored around the narrower waterways. Obviously meeting and following other houseboats. It was a great time to relax and just enjoy the slow pace of life there on the backwaters. We did also get to see a few sights along the way. We saw a couple of the boats being prepared for the races and people going about their daily lives, like this two waiting for the water bus.

We ate way too much on the boat. They served us a late lunch, snacks, dinner, and then breakfast the next morning. We moored along side of a waterway overnight and slept to the gently rocking movement of the boat. But it was truely gentle, almost imperceptible.

We arrived at the race venue at about 9:30 in the morning. We had been told by the travel agent to get there early. And the driver was in a hurry to get us there early too. I guess he had his instructions. The place was completely empty. Slowly we started to see things happen. There were practice runs. And some failed practice runs. This team managed to sink their boat, not once, not twice, but 3 times. I don't know if they ever actually raced in the competition. The gunwhales were so low to the water they would tip a bit and just swamp the boat.

In a while we started seeing a lot of floating advertisements. Some were blatant ads, others brought a bit of religion or entertainment along with them.

We didn't understand till after we arrived there that no food would be served there and we had to bring something, so off I went with the driver. This was probably the only downside to the trip. He took me to a hotel, which didn't offer any Indian Snacks, only chicken sandwiches. They turned out to be pretty bad. Usually we stay away from the western food as we find the chefs don't really know how to prepare it, and it isn't so good. Oh well.

The races started about 3, after President Patil showed up by helicopter/boat. We had fun and then got tired after a few hours and left about the same time that she did. A couple of us got good sunburns, despite the fact we were under cover all day. We went back to Cochin for a night, and then home the next day. A quick trip but fun. More pictures here. And here are a few fun pictures from the races themselves. Note that the guys in front are sitting on a narrow prow, with their feet held in place. The bigger boats have several people in the middle counting time and cheering the team on. And then there are several in the back who are steering, or paddling along with very exaggerated full circle strokes.

Some of the teams were obviously well sponsored and all wore jerseys etc advertising their sponsorship. Others were just a group of locals.

All in all it was a real party atmosphere. As you can see from this boat which was moored next to the viewing stand just opposite from us. Even the police seemed to enjoy it.

In hot water

2010-07-31T20:40:00.002+05:30

It's amazing how adaptable we really are. Now I have to give some background to the story, otherwise all of those of you reading this from the US and Europe won't understand. We just recently shifted (moved) from one house to another here in Bangalore. Prior to that house, we lived in a serviced apt for 2 weeks when we arrived in Bangalore a couple of years ago. Neither the serviced apt, nor the house had hot water in the kitchen (unless you heated it on the stove). The house had a beautiful kitchen, and had a hot and cold water tap in the sink. I asked how come there was no hot water and I was told "that's the way it is sir, one for corporation and one for borewell".

To explain. That house got corporation water, which was stored in a sump, and then pumped to the tanks on the roof when the tanks got empty. There is water delivery only every other day or so, thus most houses are this way. The same is the case in our current place. We get water 3x/week. The previous house also had a borewell, in case the corporation water didn't come. Seemed to make sense.

So anyways, we moved into the new house at the beginning of June. Promptly Cindy left, then Maya a bit later, and I stayed on another 2 weeks. Then I came back first from the US, and they followed me by a week.

Now, I don't often do the dishes, as the housekeeper complains if I do them because it is "her job". But occasionally I do, usually on a Saturday evening, or Sunday because she doesn't work on Sundays. I was running the water while doing the dishes to clean up after dinner. Much to my surprise the water got hot all of a sudden. Well not really hot, but warmer than lukewarm. We only have solar heat for the water and since there has been a serious cloud cover the last few weeks, the water isn't overly hot. But hot enough to notice while washing dishes. So there you have it, all of a sudden I was in hot water--so to speak. Totally surprised. 3 years ago I would have been upset if there wasn't hot water in the kitchen for the dishes, now I'm pleasantly surprised. It's amazing the little things that can make one happy...

Birds 2010-06-273

2010-06-28T22:36:00.001+05:30

Birds 2010-06-273
Originally uploaded by BryanBajema

I took a colleague to Mysore for the day, visited the Palace, and then the bird sanctuary. The boat ride was a trip... I didn't take many photos, but got a couple of the birds.

Kitchen Spider

2010-06-26T18:50:00.001+05:30

spider 2010-05-30
Originally uploaded by BryanBajema

I caught this spider in our kitchen. I just love the colors. It's too bad the camera didn't focus well at this range. Maybe I needed the flash, I don't know.

Home Alone

2010-06-26T17:34:00.002+05:30

It's been a quiet couple of weeks. I've been at home alone. I spent most of last weekend cleaning up and organizing from the move. Got books unpacked, organized on bookshelves, clothes closet put in order etc. Not much exciting there. So I decided last sunday to go for a walk. It was late in the afternoon. I walked up 80 Ft. road across from Ramiah Hospital in RMV. I came across this house which had been cut in half. The road was recently widened. We often drive by here on the way home, and I just liked seeing all of the colors open to the passers by. There are any number of smaller houses which have also been bisected further up the road on the opposite side. Sometimes I wonder if they had encroached on city property, or if they were 'condemned'. Did they get compensated for the loss of living space? Never know around here.

By the time I got close to home, it was already dark, and I tried out some night photography. Didn't turn out too great, but still fun. I'll have to try some more to see how I can get more of what I want.

Now I'm off to get my hair cut.

And then tomorrow I'm showing a colleague from Finland around Mysore. So, yet another palace visit, maybe go up the hills, and certainly try to see the bird park.

Late nights, and leisurely mornings

2010-05-02T17:11:00.003+05:30

I guess the weekend has been one for late nights out. Friday we went to Sundowners. They turned off all the lights in the bar at 11:30, but we left at about 12:15, certainly after the drinking curfew. Anyways, it was a very slow and lazy morning, but we got invited by Prakash and Ritu to go out for "retro music" which turned out to be music from the 50s and 60s at the Bangalore Golf Club. Very nice atmosphere and a very pleasant event. As things would have it, we left there just before midnight. On the way home we saw a beautiful moon. So both Cindy and I had the idea to go on the roof and try to get some interesting photos. Here are a couple I took.

And a couple of Cindy taking photos.

Also Cindy and I took a walk on Sunday morning and I got a couple more, just for fun. There were a number of couples obviously enjoying the relative privacy and quiet of the park.

And the good news is that we think we have a house lined up to shift into at the end of the month... Not far from where we live now. Hurrah!!

Mangoes

2010-04-26T21:29:00.004+05:30

The mangoes have arrived in Bangalore. I saw the first vendor yesterday, and another today. This guy had at least 4 varieties to sell. They're not all completely ripe, but they've arrived. It seems early this year, which I attribute to the early warm weather. I've also read that the crop is seriously smaller this year.

We've also been having some serious weather in the last week or so. It was truly coming down in buckets. It thought I might get a nice picture of everyone hiding from the downpour, but since it was getting late in the day, the flash went off and all I got was the reflection.

As you can see, there's a lot of it coming down. We had hail that day so much I had to terminate a phone call because neither of us could understand the other(I was in the car and it was LOUD).

I also spotted this in a goods carrier (delivery truck) on the way to work. I liked all his 'danglies'.

Home Sweet Home

2010-04-17T12:17:00.003+05:30

We spent almost 2 weeks in California. It was hard to be home, knowing we would leave again soon. The house was available for us to use, but not furnished much-- Cindy had gotten a few items out of storage, but not much.

Best part was the garden being in bloom. The roses were just starting.

And the apple tree was really going strong.

The children had fun playing in the yard. The other fruit trees were already past blooming.

Fortunately the day of Smitty's funeral (the reason for our quick visit back) was beautiful and sunny. We were able to have everyone over for a get together in the yard after the event. It was good to see everyone, even if briefly, and now it's good to be back in Bangalore again.

Odds and Ends

2010-03-27T15:28:00.003+05:30

So it's been a while since I've posted. I've traveled to a couple of locations, but for business, and didn't get to take many pictures.

First off I went to Finland. It was strange in a couple of ways. One, I went from a very warm Bangalore (35C) to a very cold and snowy Helsinki (-10C). So I really had to use the winter clothes, and the change was dramatic. But more than that, every other time I've been to Finland, the snow has only been a few centimeters and they really clean up the downtown area quickly, so after a couple of days, the sidewalks and streets are clean. Now there was about a half a meter of snow on the ground everywhere except the streets which still had several centimeters of snow, and it snowed every day--adding to the winter wonderland effect. It was the most snow they've had in Helsinki in several decades. In a way it was very pretty and clean. The snow didn't have a chance to get dirty as there was always new falling. All in all, I liked it a lot, but the residents were complaining how much it impacted their lives. I guess it is nice to visit the snow, but not to have to shovel it daily to get your car out etc.

More recently I traveled to China again after about a year. It was really interesting being there as I didn't feel as much of an outsider. I think I did see more foreigners in Hangzhou than before, but maybe I'm also just used to being stared at, now that I've lived in India for more than 2 years. Somehow I just didn't notice so many people looking at me. I did find I created some confusion from time to time as I would occasionally do the 'Indian head bobble', which I've become used to doing in India as a way of getting acceptance and letting people know I'm 'a local'. This of course got a very confused look back from the Chinese who don't recognize it at all. It's amazing how quickly one can pick up local culture somewhere and have it become habit.

So back to Bangalore. Haven't done much exploring around, but have been suffering the local traffic on our main road. Now they were doing a major retrofit of the road when we moved here and they finished by paving it and redoing all the sidewalks. The repaving was completed about a year ago. Then 6 months ago, they dug up the road from one end to the other to put in a new sewer pipe. Not only did they mess up the new pavement, but they left piles of dirt next to the ditch for weeks. That was finished about 4 months ago, then just in the last couple of months they started digging again (about 2 meters from the sewer ditch) for a new water line. Here we go again. The dirt is piled up on top of where the sewer pipe was put. This reminds me of the way government departments in the US don't coordinate roadwork. I guess this is the same the world over, bureaucracy cannot coordinate to do things efficiently.

I did get to go to Donna's for a dinner party yesterday evening. It was really nice to be able to just relax and talk with other people without having to be on my toes as I do at work. Had a lot of fun and took a few snaps for Donna (center here). Nice trade-good food and conversation for a few pictures...

Otherwise, it's been hot here and no sign of cooling off in the near future. Maybe the mangos will come early this year--I've already seen 'raw mangoes' (unripened) in the stores today.

And yet one more discovery. Today we ate at Cafe Noir at UB City. Food was delicious. But that wasn't the discovery... The pastry chef told us where we can get chocolate chips near Commercial St. Yeah! I know someone who will be very happy now.

Guano Sighting

2010-02-08T20:54:00.010+05:30

This last weekend was a pretty busy one. So much so that I actually forgot to call my mom--eek! Saturday we had a grand opening of our new office space. I had to attend that and it threw my schedule all off. Fortunately Sunday I got to relax. I had gotten notification of a group going to the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, just before Mysore City. (4 km from Srirangapatna) This info was forwarded to me by my wife who is out of station at the moment. I replied and said I was interested in going along, and would they let me know of any carpooling plans etc. In the mean time I arranged for Manju to come in on Sunday and drive if necessary.

Well Sunday came along, and I hadn't heard back, despite a followup. So, I thought, well, I'll just go to the park and be there at the time they plan to meet. If I recognize them, I'll join in, otherwise, I'll just see what comes. Well as it happens, I was there just about 15 mins early, and I waited for about 1/2 hour, checking out the map of the park, putting on sunscreen, adjusting the settings on my camera, etc. I didn't see anyone come in that I recognized. So I took off, and wandered the park by myself, well sort of.

The accessible part of the park basically runs along the river for maybe a little more than a Kilometer. I first took the path to the left (not sure if this is down or up river as the current was truly undetectable), and down past the islands where most of the birds nest. There was a nice raised viewing platform along the way, unfortunately the bamboo had grown across in front of it so the view from the ground was better. There were a lot of people there, obviously one group was a well prepared bunch of photograpers. They had serious lenses, tripods etc. There were also many families and couples just out for a nice picnic and afternoon in nature. I even saw something scandalous, there was one couple who were kissing behind the bamboo along the river.

Then I took the boat tour. Now these boats are all row boats, and can hold about 20 people. I was lucky being an only traveler, I got the bench behind the oarsman, well really in front, but we were all looking backwards. So I had lots of ability to turn around and focus my camera wherever I wanted without hitting someone, or having to dodge someone's head. We spent a leisurely 30 minutes on the water going around three islands, which had different birds on them, plus some other animals like crocodiles, and bats. It is also possible to rent private boats, like this well prepared gentleman did. I didn't feel the need, but might do so if I had a small group, or really wanted to do some serious photography as he did.

After the boat tour, I had a simple lunch. I had brought sandwiches, so I sat along the river and just enjoyed the location, weather, and quiet time. Then I went home. Manju did say he had seen a couple of expat drivers he knows, but I don't know if that was the group I was supposed to join. Their loss, if it was. I had fun anyways.

More pictures.

Back in the routine

2010-01-24T20:07:00.004+05:30

Well, we've been back in Bangalore for 3 weeks now. It's been pretty quiet, especially with Cindy staying back in CA for her mom. I must say it has been hard to be here when she is there having to deal with a sick parent, but life has to go on too.

Weekends haven't been very exciting. Last weekend I did get out for a walk. This weekend I just stayed home and managed to finish one book about Julius Caesar. Now I'm on to the third one in the series. Yesterday our housekeeper brought her little 3 year old girl with her. The preschool was closed. I had a lot of fun playing with her, reading to her, and watching her imitate her mother. When Lalitha was cooking, her daughter had to get up and make chapatis too. It was really cute.

On another note, I have been seeing this sight for a few months now. I think it is really ironic where this restaurant is built. The Stayfit place was there first and before it was a grocery store above, but then this fall MacDonalds opened up above. Stayfit sells exercise equipment. I find it ironic every time I drive by (which is daily, as it is on the main road here).

Out Walking

2010-01-17T18:34:00.003+05:30

I decided it was such a lovely day today I had to get out for a walk. It must have been about 30c--that's 86F for those of you in the US. It was a bit warm in the sun, but in the shade, just balmy and lovely. I chose to go to the same park where I had been before with Isha, but took a slightly different route. This time I went a bit more through the neighborhoods as opposed to on the main roads. On the way there, I got a number of stares. Obviously people weren't entirely comfortable with my being there. I also got a lot of smiles from people when I smiled at them and did the head bobble thing.

Once in the park, I sat and enjoyed the warm weather from a shady bench. What struck me was how few people were enjoying this beautiful park in the 'middle' of Bangalore. Most of the benches were empty. There were a few couples and families that came strolling by, but not many. Maybe it was because it was still the hot part of the day, but certainly it wasn't uncomfortable. I did wander around to the more tree covered parts of the park, mostly on the north side, and found this is where there were several couples sitting on park benches in the shade. This is not a common sight in Bangalore, but it seems the parks are one place couples can get away for a bit of 'privacy'. I also saw several groups of young people where it was pretty obvious there were some interested couples who were being chaperoned by others, usually brothers or sisters I would guess by age.

On my walk through the park I said hello to one elderly gentleman, and he stopped me to ask where he was from. When I told him I was from California, he immediately started telling me about his nephew, Vivek, who was top of his class and was working in CA now. His nephew is very spiritual, and went to Iscon with him several times. When I asked what city his nephew lives in, he couldn't tell me, nor what company, but he did tell me his nephew is a Chemical engineer. I almost felt like he thougth I should know his nephew. Then he proceeded to tell me that his nephew's brother, vikram, also was in California for a temporary assignment. After all of this he bid me a good day, telling me he would remember me often.

Then as I walked back through the neighborhood, I wondered if I would get a different reaction from people if I took of my sunglasses. So I did. I got a more pleasant reaction from most, and I presume it was that and not because it was my second walk down the same roads. Could have been the latter though I guess. Then I was stopped by an Auto driver. I was concerned he was going to hassle me to take a ride, but he just asked where I was from--California, USA-- and then he introduced himself and his friend, asked where I lived and when I pointed over the drainage ditch and in the neighborhood, he bid me farewell.

So I had two more very friendly and pleasant interactions with total strangers today, something I would never expect to happen in Silicon Valley.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

2010-01-08T20:58:00.001+05:30

For those of you with a tarnished Aura, this place may be able to help you. It can be found in Mountain View near 85...

Christmas in California

2009-12-31T20:23:00.000+05:30

It is kind of strange to go back to someplace you grew up, but haven't been to in a while. We were back in the SF Bay area for the first time in a year. The weather was lovely, though a bit colder than we're used to in Bangalore by now. But fortunately the weather cooperated mostly and we didn't end up with much rain.

It was a bitter-sweet visit. It was really wonderful to see my sister, my mother and my nephews, as well as our children who don't live with us. It was also great to just get to slow down and relax (well as much as one can during christmas time). But it was also the beginning of Smitty's chemo treatment, and that put a real damper on the festivities. Her health really suffered from the treatment and she's still dealing with it.

I was struck by the colors though. Somehow you get used to the colors where you are living and don't really realize how they may be so different from somewhere else. What I really noticed was the difference in shades of Green. Somehow in Bangalore though there's a lot of dust and smog, the greens are still brighter and fuller. Those in northern California are much greyer. As you can see in this photo taken while I was on a walk at "the ponds" near San Rafael with my mother and sister remembering my Father. He used to lead bird walks here every Thursday morning. And there is still a group of people who go every week and they call themselves the Bruce memorial Thursday walkers or something like that. They get to see birds like this Great Blue Heron every week. We didn't see any white pelicans this week, but we did see the river otters who have moved in to the ponds and a variety of water birds that seem to be there year round.

I guess this is one of the biggest things I miss not living in the Bay Area. It is so easy to get out into the open and see the beauty of nature.

I like this photo despite the power lines in the back, because it shows the old and new power generation (yes those are solar panels at the bottom), and yet is beautiful in its own way.

And finally, yet another example of the local green color in the wonderful winter sunlight.

Happy New Year!

Giving Thanks

2009-11-28T14:40:00.005+05:30

In my memories, Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of getting together with family and friends, eating too much, telling stories, laughing a lot and playing games like ping pong, board games, and of course the "blackboard game". This year was very different, but better than last year. Last year, I think we just stayed home and it was pretty much like any other day. This year we went out to dinner at Sunny's with some friends here in Bangalore. It was a very nice celebration and we did have some good laughs, but still not the same as getting together with family.

But Thanksgiving is also about giving thanks. And I have a lot to give thanks for. The whole family is healthy, and doing relatively well. Those of us in India have a tremendous opportunity to see things we otherwise wouldn't. And those 'at home' in CA can come to visit us here if they wish. As frustrated and sometimes homesick as I get around holidays etc, I still really love being here in India. And I love the new experiences all the time.

The last couple of weekends have offered a couple of new experiences. First we went to a village about 100K outside of Bangalore. It took several hours to get there, partially because we had to cross through Bangalore before exiting the city.

It was organized by Rachel-the wife of someone I work with. She's very interested in animals, and supporting good animal care. The reason we went to this village, Mittur, is because one of the families that lives there is supporting a charity which promotes good animal care, adopting stray dogs, etc. This village has done a lot for the local dogs, and we went to show appreciation and to see a bit of village life. When we arrived, we were immediately welcomed by the local children with a welcoming ceremony. Then we traipsed up to the local high school. We got to sit through the standard welcome at the school, where we saw the local officials speaking (this same family had donated the school building a couple of years ago), and then some of the children did various skits, dances, or music. This was the most fun part for me during this part of the day.

Then we got a tour of the village. This included a visit inside a local farmer's house. He raises silkworms. The house has to be kept dry, the mulberry leaves must be dry, and the sound of the worms munching is audible as soon as you walk into the rooms. They have two methods, one is large stacked trays, the other is more like large racks.

We also got a musical performance, as well as wandering through the rice paddies. Then we finished it all off with a rest period. During this time some of the local girls were wanting to see their photos on Cindy's camera, then she got them to sing a song for her, and she sang one for them. They sang a couple more after this. It was very interesting to see that when they were singing in English, then they were very animated and smiling. When they were singing in Kannada (or some other local language), they were almost droning, and their faces were almost blank. Odd, somehow, but interesting. The children were lovely and very friendly. And I got a lot more fun pictures.

Soma Vinyards:

The next weekend, we were invited with the OWC Wine Club to visit Soma Vineyards. We went for an evening barbecue-- some of the best steaks I've had here in India, and potluck salads and desserts. The Vineyard was absolutely beautiful in the late afternoon sun. We arrived a bit late as I had to go downtown to pick up plane tickets to the US. But we did get there around 5pm. When we arrived, we were served a welcome drink-fresh tender coconut juice-straight from the 'can'. We got a vineyard tour. They use an interesting way of managing the bugs, they have a lake with a bright light in it. The bugs are attracted to the light, which is by a sort of fountain, or spray of water, so the bugs get knocked into the water, and the fish eat them. Then the workers get to eat the fish, and the leftovers go to fertilize the vines again. There were very few mosquitoes during the evening, so I guess it works fairly well.

As it got dark, a bonfire was lit for us in the middle of the tables. We didn't need it for warmth as it was just the right temperature out to be out in shirtsleeves without getting cold, but it added a nice atmosphere. The best part was that we could see the stars, and there was no noise. The vineyards are about 1.5 hours drive outside of Bangalore. We also had a lovely chat, and lots of information from our host Raju. All in all, I think I have a lot to be thankful, and certainly enjoy being here in India--though I am missing my family now on the Thanksgiving weekend when I see the photos of them all around the table.

Vikings Ho

2009-11-01T17:52:00.002+05:30

As an antidote to the warm balmy, slightly humid, sunny and slow paced Thai holiday, I went where it is just above freezing, dark, and rainy. Yes to Scandinavia. I spent a week in Finland (for work) and had to stay over a weekend. The only bonus was that there was a lot of color in the trees. This was in a park close to the office I walked through every day on the way to and from the train station. Most days it was wet and cold, although the day before I left it turned downright freezing.

Oh yes, the vikings--well since I was there for the weekend, I thought I should make something out of it. The weather forecast was for no rain, and even possible sun, on Saturday. So I decided friday to catch the boat to Sweden. It goes overnight--leaving at 5:30, and arriving about 9:30am in Stockholm. The boat ride wasn't much to speak of. The rooms are small, and I had decided to take a shared room to keep the cost down. There are 4 bunks with just enough room to walk between them, and a little toilet w/ shower. Not exciting. I had dinner and then went to the party lounge. There were a couple of acts, neither exceptionally good, but lots of alcohol being consumed by the passengers probably made them seem better than they were. Eventually I got tired of it and went to bed. Arriving in Stockholm was beautiful, but cold enough not to want to be on the outer deck. So some of the pictures are through the window.

I took a bus tour around the city. We stopped at the palace, the city hall, a couple of nice viewpoints, and the penultimate stop was at the historical museum. There was a line out the door when we arrived. The exhibit was fabulous, though much of it was not very well lit, and therefore hard to see. But it was pretty much empty of people. The line was for a local festival of bread. You gotta love a place that has a bread festival and allows selling lots of yummy bread in a museum. I would have bought some, except I had no real need for any and most of it would have gone bad. So I just tasted from the samples available.

Then we drove around an island which is mostly museums--6 or 7 if I remember right. The guide told us that Stockholm is about 1/3 built up, 1/3 parks, and 1/3 water. That seemed to be true and it was a nice light airy and green city. There is also art everywhere, indoors and out. In the old town there are many art galleries, and outside, sculptures and beautifully built buildings and gates and... I also happened on a market with stalls and stalls of mushrooms. I recognized the chanterelles, but not the others. I also think I found the narrowest street in town-not sure though. And I enjoyed the odd displays I came across during my wanderings around town. I would like to go back when the weather is better. Although it didn't rain on me the whole day, for which I was really happy. It was cold and somewhat bleak. I would love to explore the city more and visit the museums with more time.

More Thailand

2009-10-24T12:32:00.002+05:30

I want to share a few more of my photos of Phuket. Not much to say about them.

First A couple of the temple we saw. It was a large area and had several buildings including a crematorium.

And there inside the temple there were many statues. They were gold in color, but Cindy and I couldn't tell if they were gold leaf, or actually plastic. We didn't touch one to find out.

Most buildings had a small building outside, almost like a doll house. I think they are actually small temples or places to worship. Here is the one outside our hotel room. If you look closely (click on the photo), you can see a drink with a straw in it, left for the gods. At first I though, oh, someone left some trash outside our door, and then realized, 'no actually it belongs there'.

As with any tropical country, there are some interesting plants and trees. Roots from a tree by our hotel.

There was a festival starting up the day we were leaving. Here you see colored sweets being sold by the roadside.

And finally back to the temple, a vendor playing a Thai version of hackey sack with a ball that seems to have a bamboo basket woven around it. I didn't examine closely, but from a distance that is what it looked and sounded like.

Phuket

2009-10-22T12:04:00.003+05:30

I won't say much about the whole stay in Phuket. It was very pleasant, though we stayed at a resort which was a bit out of the way. So, though from time to time it felt isolated, that was also nice as we sometimes need to escape to the quiet from Bangalore.

We arrived Thursday morning after a 3.5 hour flight from Bangalore to Bangkok, a short layover, and a one hour flight to Phuket. I guess it is telling that the plane from Blr to Bangkok was an airbus A330 and the flight to Phuket was a 747. We were pretty tired from the flight, due to short sleeping times. We left at 00:30 and arrived in Phuket by 9am, with a 1.5 hour time difference. So when we arrived at the resort, we mostly just lounged around the pool. Cindy and I went for a short walk down to and along the beach around sunset. Some beautiful sunsets while we were there.

Friday Ari was sick. Maya, Cindy and I went to Phuket town to see the old town, and just get our bearings. We did a little shopping, but overall not too much exciting. We did then go to a buddhist temple and have a looksee. Pretty awesome.

Saturday was set aside for Maya and Ari to choose an activity. We went into the little town just north of where we were staying. We were going to go shopping and have lunch, which we did, but the shopping was limited. Only Cindy and I found an interesting bit of art. We also had lunch which took forever, but was very good. After this we went back to the resort as we had arranged a horseback ride (Ari's choice). We went to the stables, and they saddled us up, complete with helmets. Then there were four young men who led our horses to the beach, and then along the beach. When the horses started to go faster, the men had to run to keep up. This is the first time in my life where I have ridden a horse and been led around for the full trip. I must say, I'm not much of a horseman. I'm just not that comfortable up there. Maybe with more practice I would be more comfortable, but I just am not that interested in that. Then we went back to the resort to change clothes, and out for dinner. The first restaurant we went to, White Box, was fully booked for a private party, so we drove further into Patong, and went to the 9th Floor Restaurant. Food was pretty good, atmosphere was sort of odd.

Sunday was to be my excursion day. I had chosen before we left to either go snorkeling or kayaking. I had decided on Kayaking and on Saturday we had booked a trip on Sunday to go kayaking on the Andman Sea. It was either this or go to Phi Phi islands. The snorkeling wasn't too good as the monsoon season was just over and so the water was fairly murky. We arranged the 'sea canoe' trip, and were all set to go. Sunday morning I woke up at about 6 am (as I had done on Saturday and Friday as well). As it had done on Saturday, it was raining. I was hoping for a thunder shower like the one we had on Saturday. No such luck. By breakfast it was really pouring. We were supposed to be picked up at 8:45. At 8:30, I was staring at 3 very long faces, and wondering what to do. It was really looking like I was going to have to cancel the one activity I really wanted to do in Thailand. The water was coming down, the skies were grey to the horizon (when you could see that far between downpours). It had been raining straight for close to 3 hours now. I was willing to go, but not looking forward to sitting in an open boat in the rain for hours, if it was really going to keep up. We didn’t know what kind of a boat it was to be, so we weren’t really up for a big risk. I called the hotel concierge who had arranged the trip. She told me that she would check and call back. About 5 mins later, after we were informed the car from the canoe place was already there, she called back, saying. The tour company will cancel if we so wish, but the sun is shining on the other side of the island, and only thundershowers were predicted. I could hardly believe this and was pretty down at this point. I suggested to the family that we would go to the boat at least and see what it looked like there. I said we would cancel out and come home if it really was raining on the trip. As it turned out, contrary to what were led to believe, the boat was big enough that we couldn’t have canceled and come home mid trip if we wanted to, but it also wasn’t necessary. The boat was covered and had 2 decks, and better yet, it didn’t rain the whole day.

We visited several islands that day. The first one didn’t have a real cave, but definitely had an interior to it, and an exterior part. The ‘canoes’ were actually sit on top inflatable kayaks. They were incredibly stable. We had a dry bag for our cameras, but didn’t really need it. The boat stayed pretty dry, and didn’t move around a lot. We explored the island, each boat had one guide with a paddle, and then two passengers, except for one. One man had to go it alone with his guide. We paddled around the inside with its steep sides, and could see out through the spots where the water had worn through. We could also see where the water had been about 3 meters higher for around 6-8 thousand years and had worn away the side of the island.

Next we went to an island with a true cave in it. This was an amazing experience. The water level was such that the cave roof at it’s lowest was only inches above the top of the kayak. We had to lie flat. I was in the center position, holding the flashlight. It was really dark in there otherwise. I had to take my hand off of my belly and hold the flashlight inside the boat, next to my legs, otherwise would have gotten cut by the sharp mollusk shells on the roof of the cave. We came out into this little lagoon inside the island (imagine a donut with a bite out of the bottom, sitting in a bowl of water). There was a whole ecosystem inside the island here. Of course it was normal sea water, but there were birds, monkeys (though I didn’t see any), mud skippers and banyan trees in the water. It was really quite and calm. In at least one or two of these lagoons, the water would drain out completely at low tide. When we were there the water was only about 2 feet deep. We had to leave again before the water got too low (and when then noisy tour group arrived with another boat).

We went to another cave which was similar, but it started out much bigger, and was much longer. It was filled with bats closer to the entrance. They would squeak and complain if you shone the flashlight on them too long. They really didn’t like the light. And of course it smelled like guano. I think this was actually the lowest cave. I did get a couple of pictures of the next group coming into this lagoon, and oh, you remember the guy who was by himself in the boat. He is a rather large fellow, and due to there being one less person, and his girth, they actually had to let air out of the boat so they could get into the lagoon.

After all of this wonderful exploring, we had a delicious lunch on the main boat. Got to go swimming, and try out the kayaks ourselves. Then some of the guides set up a series of four kayaks, upside down tied end to end. The youngsters then tried balance games on the kayaks. First it was who could cause the other to fall off first. Next was a chase game, running from one end to the other along the 4 boats. Many made it all the way, many fell off half way. Really a good time.

We got back to port around 4:30, totally exhausted, exhilarated, and very happy that we had braved the rain on the other side of the island. To imagine we might have missed the best experience of the weekend due to the weather we saw out our window is almost heart-stopping. I highly recommend the original sea canoe company on Phuket. They did a great job and we all had a blast.

A Little Time Out

2009-10-04T16:55:00.003+05:30

I had been a little out of sorts this last week, though it was a short work week, it was a bit frustrating and stressful. On Friday I wasn't too keen on being in and around the house, but not feeling up to venturing out either. In any case, my lovely wife suggested that we should get out of the house on Saturday morning for a few hours. So we decided to go to Lalbagh. Now we had been there before, but it was a long time ago. It was really nice to get out to a park which was clean (mostly) and had few people in it. I don't know why there weren't more. Mostly it seemed to be young couples enjoying a bit of privacy in the open. The trees are beautiful and some of them are very large. Much of the gardens are manicured, but some of the park is more wild looking. I don't know if it is completely wild or not.

We walked up and around the lake. Last time I was there, Cindy and I had seen the lake, but approached it from below and didn't realize it was quite as large as it is. The part we had seen was mostly covered in lilies and was rather small. There is a bridge crossing it which had obscured the rest of the lake for us at the time. This time we walked all the way around it, at a leisurely pace, and it took us almost an hour--well we did stop to take a picture or two. And as it is a botanical garden, they have some wonderful plants too, including lots of Bamboo. and some really pretty flowers, even those not necessarily in places like the rose garden. All in all I have to say it was delightful, and just the thing I needed to pick up my mood. It is so nice to get out to a natural space, even if it does take almost an hour to get there and another to get home again...

Dasara Followup

2009-09-28T20:08:00.002+05:30

Today I went to the grocery store. Along the way I spotted a couple of items which had had a pooja and were still garlanded. Over the last years I've seen a lot of things--all mechanical in some way. I have seen trucks, cars, motor bikes, gates, buses, but till now, never a petrol pump...

I also spotted one of the small garbage trucks which roam our neighborhood collecting the trash almost every day...

Dasara trip

2009-09-27T19:18:00.003+05:30

Typical Indian Style, I got invited to go on an expedition on Friday, leaving Saturday morning at 6:30 from downtown Bangalore. A friend at work had a trip to Mysore, there were extra seats on the trip available so I was offered one. Since I didn't have any big plans for the weekend, I decided to go along. Dasara is a 10 day festival celebrated in South India (maybe elsewhere, I'm not sure). There is a lot going on in Mysore for the whole 10 days, culminating on the last day which is Monday this year. Apparently it is divided into 9 days of Puja, 3 each to Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Durga, followed by one day of celebration. It is a time when there are poojas for tools and other implements of work. This came originally from blessings of weapons, but got widened to everything. For example Manju took our car today (sunday) for pooja and it will come back to the house with garlands and other indications of the blessing. We see lots of buses, trucks and other vehicles with garlands and banana leaves attached.

Anyways back to the Mysore trip. We left at about 6:30, in 2 Inovas. Someone from the German Consulate was one of the guests, my co-worker and his wife and several other Germans. Also a couple of Indian ladies. First off we went to breakfast in Mysore, a nice spread typical of any hotel restaurant. After this we were given turbans (sort of helmets with gold material on them) for the men, and shawls for the women. We had to take pictures out front of the hotel. I got a paper copy, but not an electronic one. I hope to get one yet from one of the others who did get pictures.

After this ceremony, we went to the house of someone that the travel agent who arranged this knows in Mysore. An aside-- the travel agent, Manuel, is used a lot by my co-worker and this was a freebie of sorts to show off Mysore to him/us. Manuel lives in Mysore, and knows a lot of people there apparently. He used to be in Industry, but retired from that to be a travel agent. So back to the house. We got to see the decorations they do for Dasara. They had one for the outside of the house, then one with what looked like a depiction of a procession in the main entry hall of the house, and then they had this one, in a separate room. Apparently it is tradition to pass these down inside the family, and for them to be set up each year. Once set up, friends and associates are invited over to see the decorations. It is a way for the families to get together once during the year and meet. We also heard it is a way for the young men to get to meet the young ladies in the social circle who might be 'interesting' to them.

After this we went off to see the palace. I've seen it two times, so I wasn't holding much out for this. But on the way we stopped, and then these 4 horse drawn carriages (of sorts) showed up. We were decked out in our finery, and off we went to the palace. I must say, since we were in the back, it was amusing to see the reactions of the locals and Indian tourists following us. There was a lot of smiling, laughing, and some hand waving. There were also looks of complete befuddlement and confusion. The sad part of the trip is that the vehicular traffic didn't give way at all for the horses. They honked, cut them off, etc. This was a bit uncomfortable for those up front, we (Max and I) didn't notice it too much at the back as one of the cars was following closely to protect our entourage.

Then we arrived at the Palace. We got special treatment there. We skipped the ticket line, we were able to take pictures inside the grounds, but had to hand in our cameras for the palace tour. As we went inside, we were escorted by a policeman. He was obviously there to help us get to specific parts of the palace quickly without having to do the whole tour. Then we were escorted behind the ropes to get close to some objects (ie the golden throne) which the general public had to stay far away from. Not quite the royal treatment, but obviously something special. After the palace, we went for lunch. This was at another hotel (The Windflower) Very nice overall. Didn't get to see the rooms, but the grounds were lovely and the food good.

After lunch, we went to see some wrestling. Wrestling is a tradition around Dasara, particularly in Mysore. We were asked to put on our turbans etc. Then we walked through the muddy parking lot, into the stadium area. We were immediately escorted up on to the VIP platform, and introduced to the Local Minister, along with other dignitaries. Then we were seated to watch the wrestling. The stadium was pretty full of people. But the audience was 99% men. The only women I saw during the whole time were a couple of press people, a couple of other dignitaries, and the ladies who were with us. During our time there we got to watch them put the orange turban on one of the dignitaries. Christina wondered how it stayed on, so they volunteered to put one on her. The begining, and the finishing. And then the result, as we were in the parking lot afterwards.
The wrestlers had to keep going, even when the rain started. It didn't come down hard, but it did get the mat wet, so there were 3 guys who were going around the mat, trying to avoid the ongoing wrestling, drying it with rags. They were able to sop up a fair amoung. Also the Policemen seemed to spend most of their time either chatting or watching the wrestling, not watching what was going on in the crowd, etc.

After the wrestling, we got to relax at a hotel for an hour's nap, and then off to the palace again. We got to see the elephants they use for the ceremonies, we saw the camels too. Then we got to see the royal elephant, and royal cow. It was too dark for good photos, but I did get a few. Look on my flickr if you want to see them. Then we got to see the procession, and the lit up palace. There are over 9000 15 watt lightbulbs on the outside of the palace. They only light it for festivals and one or 2 nights a week for a couple of hours. Otherwise it uses too much electricity. I took a few photos there from the palace grounds, and as well from the hotel where we had dinner. The hotel is a former palace built by one of the Mysore Kings as a guest palace. We got to sit on the 1st floor terrace overlooking Mysore for our dinner. Then we left Mysore at about 10pm and I finally got home around 12:30-- definitely a long day, but a fun trip.

Grey days in Bangalore

2009-09-07T21:16:00.004+05:30

It's been really drab here lately with the monsoons having finally hit with full force. The sky has been cloudy more often than not. It has rained almost every day for the last couple of weeks. Not all the time, but it rains hard for a while every afternoon. This has made it harder to get out of the house and do any photography. Saturday it was threatening to rain all morning, and the wind was really blowing. Unfortunately our house now has another house built up right next to the big picture windows we have on the ground and 1st floors, so it looks dark inside all the time. I was starting to feel a bit stuck, when I decided to head out anyways. Then the rains hit. I wasn't really feeling 100%--tummy problems-- so I gave up on Saturday and stayed home and read instead.

Sunday, I felt I just couldn't let the weather get the better of me. So about 3:30 I grabbed a rickshaw and headed for Sankey Tank--which is where the photo above was taken. It is the season to dunk Ganesha in the water, which is part of the reason I was itching to get out. I did manage to get a few photos of one being dunked, and later another showing up as I was getting ready to head back home. A couple of notes on the Ganesha activities. Some families have their own, and they come to dunk him, or do it at home in a bucket or elsewhere, but there are these larger ones which get taken around the neighborhoods. It seems that this activity is mostly young men, and they use a tractor, truck, or any other large vehicle capable of carrying him and them. They will decorate it up with flowers etc, and then they follow, or ride banging drums, and chanting loudly. Sometimes it will take them half an hour to go one block. Other times, they load up in the truck and go joy riding, yelling at everyone as they go by. It seems to be mostly a joyous celebration. And they are thrilled to have their pictures taken while doing this.

After wandering around the tank (or lake as we in the US would call it), I wandered down into Malleswaram. This is an older neighborhood close to Sankey tank. I wandered down Sampige road to the market, and back up. I must say it was nice to get out and wander around. I didn't even get rained on--lucky me. I did find this key maker, there is a fellow like him on the main road near our house too, but I got this one on camera. He shapes the keys by hand with various files. There is nothing mechanized about this process. (There are also higher tech places to get keys around). I also spotted these flowers which were knocked down by the rain into a construction site.

Last weekend we were invited to Manju's daughter's first birthday party. It was at his house. We had a nice time, but were again the guests of honor. We got the only chairs in the house (and there were about 25 people there); we got the first pieces of cake, the first food & drinks. I always feel a bit weird about this, but this is how it is done. Here is Manju with his daughter. You can see more on my Flickr page, including the candle which looked more like a bonfire and played music after opening up, and some of the other visitors.

And finally the grey days, sometimes lead to some fantastic sunsets. Here's one taken from the roof of our house. I was just trying out the camera.

About town

2009-08-22T17:54:00.002+05:30

The last few weeks this guy has been set up right across from the entrance to our Layout. I had to capture this for my US readers. I had to think of Obama. My suggestion for him is that we put all the congressmen who don't vote for real healthcare reform on a new congressional health plan. We can park this guy on the lawn outside the capitol building and he can provide for everything that ails them!!

One of my observations about India, is that not everything is so clearly demarcated. Many official items are personalized or done by hand or there is some mix of public and private. For instance one of our nearby police stations has a sign on it that it was provided by some fabric or apparel company. The sign for that is larger than the sign for the police station. If it wasn't for the gun toting policeman guarding the front door, you might not notice right away that it is the local police station. Many of the police now have motorbikes with a special pattern painted on them. They have a leopard print. I assume this was the predecessor to the leopard print. I spotted it on MG road last weekend.

We happened to be going through an intersection we don't normally go through to get to Garuda mall, but because of the construction on MG road, they have made it one way.

On New B.E.L. Road, the main road to our house, on one corner, there is this store. I guess it's a small world after all, but I do wonder what Walt would think of the dolls?

And I won't comment much on this, but those of you who read about it a year ago will recognize the festival. I did really enjoy the Ganesha in the Auto.
And here are people selling the necessaries to go with the Ganesha for the festival.

And an army of Ganeshas, both painted and unpainted, waiting to be blessed and 'drowned' until melted away.

Bannerghatta Park

2009-08-02T15:50:00.006+05:30

Yesterday we went to Bannerghatta Park. Bannerghatta is a wildlife park an zoo south of Bangalore. It took us about 1.5 hours to reach there from our house. We had been invited by Linda(a friend through the OWC), who was organizing an outing for some persons who live at a home for mentally disturbed, or delayed people. This is again one of the Charities that the OWC supports. We were going along to escort these residents, though in the end, I don't think they needed too much escorting as they pretty much kept together by themselves.

The first thing we did after we arrived there, was to take the safari tour. Here you can see out of the bus front windows. They had screens over all of the windows, presumably to protect us and to keep people from sticking things out of the bus.
I had heard bad stories about these buses and how crowded they can get. Fortunately we were with this group, so we got our own bus and it wasn't too bad. The driver did take us down this dirt road very quickly, I thought we must look like a car in a cartoon, where when it hits a bump, it flies up in the air and the wheels jump off. Unfortunately this caused the young man behind me to get car sick, so he didn't enjoy the trip so much.

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My !!!

Some of the bears we even roaming on the road and able to come up to the bus--you can just see the outline of the bear behind the glass of the door in this picture.

The Safari takes you through several sections. One of which is herbivores, so there is a section of deer, antelope, wild cows etc. Then you get into the section with the bears, where some are behind wire, and others are free to roam the road. We were able to get pretty close to the animals, especially the White tigers. Although you can tell they are still 'caged' animals, but it is nicer than the zoo where the cages are really not much to speak of. You can see one of the other buses in the background. They aren't that big.

After the bus ride, we went for lunch. And after lunch, we walked down the hill to the zoo. They had all kinds of signage about not teasing, feeding or yelling at the animals. It didn't work, but some of the signs were amusing.

At some point we were almost all collected for a group photo. I took this one while they were getting everyone in position for Cindy to take the official photo.

And then we put the group on their bus, and headed home. Conner and Maya seemed to have enjoyed the trip--we did let them wander during the zoo part as the rest of the part moved fairly slowly.

Painting the Future-My Dream India

2009-07-29T17:03:00.004+05:30

Sunday Cindy and I went to an event sponsored by Sukrupa. Sukrupa is an organization whose mission is to help underprivileged children escape a background of poverty, slum life, illiteracy and ignorance.
Cindy came to know of the organization through the OWC. It is one of the charities she works with on their charity committee.

The event was an artistic competition between children. I couldn't tell exactly what the age range was, but I know there were kids in 8th and 9th standard at the higher end. Some were probably down to about ten or eleven years old at the lower end.

Basically the children( all 137 of them) were given watercolor paints, brushes, and paper. They were asked to paint on the theme of "My Dream India". These children competing were from both the Sukrupa school, as well as local schools in the area. You can tell by the many school uniforms present.

The children were given roughly 1.5 hours to paint on the theme, and then all of the paintings were collected and hung inside. I was amazed at the creativity present here. Some were very detailed and drew with rulers and pencils before painting, others just started in. Many were very beautiful, and all were inspiring.
Once the paintings were hung up inside, the judges (Cindy was one), were asked to go in and pick the winners. During this time the children were fed Samosas and a sweet. Some of the children from Sukrupa school helped out with the distribution, as did others who were children of other sponsors or judges. The judging panel was comprised of artists, and local business people.

I was amazed at how quiet and well behaved the children were both during the painting, meal and waiting afterward. There was about 20 minutes once the food was done when the judges were making their decisions. I'm glad I didn't have to choose as it would have been very difficult. Anyways the children were sitting quietly, sometimes talking, but not rudely or loudly. Then there was some dancing and singing by some of the children.

In the end prizes were handed out and the event ended. I must say I was very impressed by what the children did, as well as the organization of the event, and how much was done with so little. Hats off to Sukrupa!!
More photos on Flickr.

Squeaky Green

2009-07-25T18:20:00.002+05:30

As friends and relatives will likely know, I like to do a bit of gardening. Unfortunately I don't get much time (nor have much space) to do that here in Bangalore. But... About a year ago, we went to a gardening center to pick out some potted plants and other things to spruce up the house. I found a number of plants I liked and we took them home, or had them delivered. I also found a variety of seeds.

So what does this all have to do with squeaking, well not long ago, I heard squeaking one night outside our bedroom window. At first I thought it might be animals. After all we do leave the garbage out there sometimes for collection. I did some looking around and never found anything. Then I heard it again, and yet again, especially on stormy evenings. So I started to get suspicious. We have a couple of plants out there-- actually dwarf papaya trees.

See I had gotten the seeds when we were shopping last year. I had planted 2 in a very large pot, thinking we would have some small (4-6 foot) papaya trees in the pot. Well, they outgrew the pot, and the gardener (who is now gone by the way--he just took off one day and never came back) moved them from the pot on the roof to by the side and front of the house.

I thought I might get one or two papayas from the trees when they started to flower, but holy cow, never this. And guess what, they squeak when the wind blows the trees around. So that is why I hear squeaking outside the window at night. Strangely enough only one of the three plants is very fruitful, the second has a few fruit, and the third has none, though it is around the corner from the other two.

Short stop in Shenzhen

2009-07-18T16:56:00.005+05:30

I had to go to Shenzhen for work for a couple of days. Left Sunday night (2:20 am) and arrived in Hong Kong at 10:30 Morning. Made it to the office by about 12:30, and fortunately they had a nice box lunch waiting for me. I was pretty tired by the end of the afternoon as the night had been very short (the flight is about 6 hours and I didn't get to sleep the whole time).
That evening I went to the hotel, and conked out pretty early. Second day was pretty full at the office, and I was hosted to dinner by the local team I was visiting. They decided that I needed to be toasted by each one individually with some "white wine". I think it was a rice wine which is very strong. Anyways, I was lucky to manage to walk home that evening. Next day more work, and another dinner. Last day I got to drive around town for a little over an hour to see some of the sights of Shenzhen. I got to see:
the Eiffel Tower--no not the real one, they have miniature copies of the wonders of the world there, and the Eiffel tower is visible as you drive by.

Some interesting Architecture. There were a lot of skyscrapers, and even more tall buildings, both residential and commercial. This city was formed about 30 years ago, and now has 14 Million people, that is 500000 new every year. But the nice part was the wide open streets.

Another surprise, or at least an indication that I wasn't in India is visible in this picture. Can you guess. Yes, the bare legs are on the ladies, not on the men. In south India, you can often see men in their Lungi, with their nobby knees sticking out if it is hot and they have hoisted them up to get some air--but women, almost never do you see bare legs. Also many of the women were carrying umbrellas. Now it did rain a little tiny bit, and it was very humid the whole time I was there, but the umbrellas were for shade.

And here is a set of signs for all Bangaloreans to be jealous of Imagine being able to go 50kph in the city center, imagine that honking was forbidden--and people followed the rules, and imagine there were places for people to walk and ride bikes away from the traffic--heaven I guess. Also they use overpasses for the pedestrian traffic on large roads.

I got a few more pictures which are not great--all taken through the taxi windows, but they do give a bit of Shenzhen flavor. They are on my flickr.

After the tour, we drove back to HK airport, with a minor 30 minute delay at customs due to high traffic, and I came home on Thursday.

Coastin in Cochin

2009-07-04T12:21:00.009+05:30

Well, it's been over a month since I've posted anything. I guess that's because Cindy was doing all of the traveling in Europe and I was at home, working, keeping the household going. I had help from the girls who did pitch in a fair amount. After Cindy got back from her trip, she wasn't too keen on traveling soon again, but I convinced her we should go away. I had picked out a couple of locations, but they were not viable. She managed to find a nice spot in Cochin (also known as Kochi on the coast of Kerala), one of the biggest ports in India.

Cochin has a fairly old history. There are accounts of very early contact with the Chinese, from whom they learned to use these Chinese fishing nets which line the coast of Fort Cochin. There are also accounts of Arabic contact and early Muslim visitors to the port city. At that time the port wasn't so big. It was really created by a huge flood, and then later in the 1900s a british man organized the dredging of the port and creation of another island. That led to it becoming a large seaport.

During the expansion of the European empires, the Dutch, the Portugese, and the English all conquered the area. As expected there are vestiges of all three cultures left behind in Cochin.

We lodged at the Malabar House. When we arrived, we discovered they had upgraded us to suite and decorated the bed for our anniversary. It's a bit pricey, but I do recommend it for anyone willing to spend the money.

We stayed in the old Fort town section. It is where the Chinese fishing nets are, it is also where Vasco de Gama is said to have to come to live after his explorations. There are some beautiful "Rain Trees" which are all over the area, they seem like they would be native to India, but they were brought from Brazil along with several other trees and plants by Vasco de Gama. The first day, after arriving in the late afternoon, we walked out to the Chinese fishing nets and it was starting to get dark, but there was a cool sunset, and they were still catching fish at one of the nets. It was really busy with locals out for a stroll on Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning we went for a walking tour around the area. We started out by the fishing nets, and progressed up to several local monuments from the European empires. We saw the Vasco de Gama house. We also walked by the Dutch Cemetery, the Bishop's house, and several other establishments, including the Santa Cruz Cathedral. There are a number of churches, mostly catholic, but not all. There are Roman and Syrian Catholic churches, as well as some protestant. There is also a Jewish section of town (which we missed actually) as there was an old Jewish settlement there.

In the evening we went and saw a Kathakali dance performance. We arrived at 5pm, and had reserved seats in the front row. This wasn't really hard as there were only about a dozen of us for the performance. It's low season in Kerala now. The theater could seat at least 100. The actual dancing didn't start till 6ish, but we got to watch them put on the makeup, which they did sittting on stage. The makeup is all 'natural' ingredients-- either ground stone or local plants, with the exception of blue which is indigo. I'm not sure indigo is local to Kerala. All these were mixed with Coconut oil for application. Then the extra things, like the nose on Shiva (in his disguise), or the white additions to the face on the side (looks sort of like gills) which is paper cut to fit on the spot, and applied with Rice Paste.

There is no speech in the performance other than the singer who tells the story in the background. The dancers tell the story with hand movements (some of which we had demonstrated to us beforehand) and with eye movements and facial expressions. The makeup really accentuates the facial expressions. The eye movements are really fast sometimes too. Because of the small audience it felt like we were getting a personal presentation. We were allowed to take photos as long as a flash wasn't used. Of course this was not a whole story presented. When actually danced for real, the Dance Stories (Kathakali) can go on for 8 hours or more.

The next day we went for a 'tour' with Selim, a rickshaw driver who hangs out in front of the Malabar Hotel. He met us the first day and tried to get us to take a tour with him. We were only interested in walking that day, so we put him off, but I can highly recommend him. He really knows a lot about Cochin and will take you to interesting places. He took us to a spice market. He is a neighbor of the owner, so he is allowed to take tourists inside to the various store and processing rooms. The market has been there for hundreds of years, and is located in at specific location as it is on the port.

Here he Selim stirring lime they use to coat the ginger which they dry for Ayurvedic uses here.

They had all kinds of spices here: Cinnamon, Pepper, Star Anise, "Long pepper", Red Sandalwood, Ginger, Nutmeg, you name it I think they had it.

He took us to a museum in the Dutch Palace which is being renovated. Part of the un-renovated section has these beautiful murals, which are deteriorating. No pictures allowed, I sure hope they get them preserved soon. We also stopped in the local laundry, The irons they used must have weighed at least 20 pounds. They were very heavy to lift up, some were electric, and some were still Coal heated.

We also stopped by a small 'factory' where they make papad--a fried bread, you can buy stacks of the dried dough in the store. Here she is making the dough into little rounds, which can be dried in the sun--no sun this day though.

Next day we went home as it really started to rain.

Psychic Security

2009-05-23T12:29:00.002+05:30

We have security at all of the buildings I work at, but they are only responsible for the access to our work areas etc. There is separate building security for the buildings where we don't occupy the whole building. In one of these buildings, there is a bank. I presume it is the bank that has required that there is a metal detector and anything that goes through needs to be checked. So everytime I enter, the metal detector beeps from my computer bag. So I put my bag on the table for the security guard to check. He puts his hands, one on each side, squeezes the bag slightly, and shakes his head. I guess he has either xray hands, or he's psychic. I've got a laptop, charger, phone charger, cables, notepad, and other items in the bag. There's no way he can tell what is in it by one little squeeze. But oh well, he's checked it and I can go on in.

An Indian Wedding Story

2009-05-03T18:38:00.005+05:30

I cannot take you through it all blow by blow, there's just too much to remember, but it was really something to sit through. At times it was drawn out and boring, at times there was a lot going on and almost too much to keep track of. Certainly there was too much food, at least for us. And the best part is that we got to participate in parts of it too.

Isha, Cindy and Ari had been shopping during the week for outfits to wear-2 each. There was a mixup and Cindy thought that the store had given her 3 and not one for Isha, but that got straightened out later. Saturday we had to pick up the items being tailored (one Salwar for Isha, and 2 Saris for Ari). Unfortunately we didn't take pictures, so we'll have to wait for copies from the wedding photographer who took several. At the same time Anna got 2 outfits as well. So we were all set.

We were told we could come as early as 6, though it wouldn't start till 7. This was good because Manju also had a wedding to go to. The downside is that we got to sit around for an extra hour before it started. The reception started with a procession leaving the wedding hall--it was the same hall where my assistant was married last year (not surprising as it was her brother's wedding). They came back with the couple in much finery, with a cloth behing held over their heads (on top of an umbrella). Then the long reception started. I heard an estimate of 1200 people came through and had to have their pictures taken (along with video) with the Bride and Groom. During this, we spent a lot of time just sitting around and waiting/watching the goings on. Some of the children in attendance found us and of course we were a curiosity. Also they enjoyed looking at the pictures that Cindy took of them. One of the girls, I hope I am spelling her name right-Aishwaria, is a real pistol. She asked to see the my camera, to see the pictures and then asked to take one of me. After this she took off with my camera and went around taking other pictures, some of which turned out nicely. Some time during the evening she also figured out there was a video feature and took a few videos too.

Some time during the evening we got to get dinner downstairs. It was pretty much the same as the last wedding here, except that they arranged a special table for us so that we would not hold up the process for all of the others getting food. They also provided bottled water for us, which the others didn't get. We were all served too much food-on banana leaves, and without utensils.

By about 10:30 or 11 the last of the guests had gone through the line. The bride and groom finally got to go down and eat themselves. We were invited to stay for afterwards, when the bangle pooja would be. This is a ceremony with the priest, and the bride, and many of the females in attendance. The men just get to hang around and wait-as I was told.

Ari and Maya were too tired by about 11:30 or 12, so they went to the hotel where we had a couple rooms. We got the hotel close by so we could be there again early in the morning, and yet sleep fairly comfortably.

Cindy and Isha got invited to sit up on the stage area, and participate in the bangle pooja. I took a few pictures, but with Cindy's camera, so she will have to load them up for people to see. Basically the bride gets a set of these black glass bangles, and then she gives some to all of the other women (I think in the family). They are supposed to be worn for the next 21 days. After this we went off to go to sleep.

Sunday morning we came back. The driver was a bit late, we expected to leave the hotel around 7:30, but he came at 8. So we arrived and I went to have some breakfast. All of the others just had coffee(except for Maya) because they were still full from the night before. It was served similar style. As I was eating I heard the band start up again. The bride and groom were entering the hall from downstairs.

When we arrived upstairs, we could see that the decorations on stage had all been changed, there was now a canopy for the remaining part of the ceremonies. Again I am sure I am forgetting the order of things. But there was a ceremony where the bride and groom came out. They were separated by a sheet held up by family members. They were standing in small baskets on either side of the sheet, and they had to reach across with various colored stuff to dribble on each others' heads. I believe it was rice, but I'm not sure. Then at some point the priest pulled the sheet away, and the pooja went on to the next phase.

Later in the morning there was a ceremony where the guests and family got to come up, pour milk over the clasped hands of the bride and groom. In/on their hands were flowers, coins and a coconut. After pouring 3 times, then one took rice and blessed the couple again. This took at least twenty minutes and the bride and groom had to sit there facing each other holding hands and the objects the whole time(well almost, the bowl underneath filled up once and the groom went to empty it). Cindy got some pictures of Maya, Ihsa and Ari doing this, I didn't.
I'm sure there was more, but I cannot remember it all. What I do remember is that it was really interesting to see and very touching to be allowed to participate. It was at times slow, but the overall feeling was really warm, human, relaxed, and it was obvious that this is all part of life. Some people stayed, others came and went. It was obviously an honor for people to be there, but the children were allowed to play. All in all, I enjoyed myself, but more importantly I felt honored to be allowed to be there the whole time we stayed. We left after lunch feeling full, tired, and blessed.

Santorini Easter

2009-04-26T10:54:00.004+05:30

Easter was our last day in Santorini (and Greece). We had gotten chocolate eggs for the girls, so they got those in the morning when they woke up. Again I was up earlier than the rest of the crowd, but not by much. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then Cindy had to unfortunately spend much of the day working on her school projects, so I went off with the car for a little bit of a tour of the lower coastline. Isha and Ari went with me. We stopped at all kinds of little beaches, and drove down narrow lanes. Didn't see too much, but had the opportunity to get out of the hotel for a while. Then we came back and I read for a while. I finished my reading for work (Scaling Lean and Agile Development), which was a real chore as the book put me to sleep very easily.

Then we went for a late lunch. We had heard that you could go to any taverna and they would serve a traditional Easter meal-family style. We were going to get in the car to go into town (and return the car to the rental place), when we heard music coming from the opposite side of the road. I suggested we not drive, and try out this place. Santorini Mou (or in greek it looks more like moy). It was run by Mihalis. He reminded me of Zorba, for those of you have seen the movie. He obviously loves the ladies. He has traveled the world on ships as an Engineer or apprentice. He lives in the SF bay area now each winter. He loves to sing and chat with the patrons.

But I have to back up a bit. We came in, and there were 2 large tables set with a number of people around them. We couldn't fit there, but were offered another table a bit on the side. He said that they weren't serving from the menu, but would serve us up a special dinner if we let him. Of course we said yes. Looking around the place (we were sitting outside, but right next to a window) there were photos hanging from the ceiling and on the walls everywhere. And hundreds, no thousands of more hooks from which to hang photos. Mihalis promptly came by and showed us his pictures of Green Day, and of him with Jennifer Anniston. Later we came to notice that he proudly has several pictures of her when she visited his restaurant on the walls. He also visits with Green Day when he is in the states.

We were served a traditional Easter feast of Tatziki, Greek Salad, Green Salad, Fried Cheese, some sort of chickpea dish, huge Fava Beans, and a large plate of Roast Lamb. Fortunately all of the food was veg, except the lamb, so Ari didn't have to feel left out. It was all very good, and we sat for several hours enjoying the food, the view and the company. After we were there for about 15-20 mins, Mihalis brought out an instrument which looked a lot like a mandolin, but with a sound chamber only about 10cm diameter. He played what sounded like traditional Greek songs and the others there sang along with the refrain. Then he came and repeated it just for us. He played it up for Isha and Ari. We chatted for a bit, and then he came with a photo of Green Day, autographed, and he added his own autograph.

After a while, he came out again, this time with a guitar. He came first to our table, and sang a song "Thanks for your smiles" and then took it around to the other tables. He came by at least one more time, and obviously he was enjoying the wine. He would forget just a little more each time. He had to take a photo of Ari, Maya and Isha for his wall.

By the end of the afternoon we were thoroughly stuffed, entertained, and had finished off the second liter of wine they offered us. I must say this was the hilight of the trip. We all enjoyed the afternoon. It was relaxing and fun, and a bit of traditional Orthodox Easter embellished by Mihalis.

Mihalis, Thanks for your smile, and all the others that day!!!

We finished off the day by returning the car and walking down to the end of Oia to see the sunset, and then packing for our early flight back to Athens the next day. We were ready to go, but sad to leave. I guess it's better to leave wanting to stay, than being tired of the place already.

Santorini Part 2

2009-04-25T20:12:00.006+05:30

Friday I got up early and went for a walk up the hill, not too far, just to stretch my legs a bit. Then I came back and met Cindy for breakfast. The breakfast we got every day was bread (similar to a white french loaf, but with sesame seeds on top), butter and jam, either fruit or cake, orange juice and a bowl of yummy greek thick yogurt which we topped with honey. Decent coffee was available too, although I still can't drink any. The girls slowly got up and ready. We spent the most part of the day perusing through the various art galleries and jewelry shops in Oia.

We had lunch in another little restaurant which looked to have a good menu in Oia, but the food was a bit disappointing and Ari was really unhappy with her margarita, though the waiter did at first confuse it with a margherita pizza, since she was asking for a strawberry margarita, he managed to catch his error. In the end he invited us to join him for a Carnival like celebration somewhere in mainland Greece (I think). He even gave me his mobile phone number. I think he was hoping for an introduction to one of the beautiful young ladies I was with at the time.

We did find another cool bookshop, The Atlantis Book Store. It gets its name because Santorini is rumored to be Atlantis. Once the Island was much larger. With an eruption of the volcano (maybe the one that happened around the end of the Minoan civilization), much of it collapsed into the sea. Only the Crescent half of the island is left now. It is conjectured that a Tsunami caused by this eruption, and the following ash, caused the end of the Minoan civilization on Crete.

Later in the afternoon we returned to the hotel. I didn't want to sit around the hotel for the rest of the afternoon, so I walked down to the sea on the more sloping side of the Island. I went through a small village right across the road from our hotel called Finikia. It only had narrow lanes going through it. But it had several churches.

Coming out of Finikia, at the end, there was a path through the fields to the road, the whole side of the hill was terraced with these rock walls. Actually I noticed that almost the whole island was terraced with rock walls.

It was a fairly quick walk down to the beach, and then I walked along the beach for a bit. I did notice a couple of interesting things. One is that there were doors leading into the cliffs. They seemed to mostly be under houses, so I suppose they were either storage for the owners of the houses, or they were actually access tunnels to the beach from the houses. I didn't ever figure it out. But some of the poor people's houses in the past used to be (and I think still are) caves dug into the volcanic ash which makes up the island.

The trip back up took a bit longer. Not that it was a hard climb, but I stopped off at a winery on the way. They have 6 wines, 3 whites, 1 red, and 2 dessert wines. I did learn here that there are 2 main white grapes grown on the island, though I don't remember the names. They are grown in "baskets" for 2 reasons. They are self protecting from the wind then. Also since they are not watered, they are able to collect more dew from the air, and water from the pumice in the soil if they are low to the ground.

The red wine made there is half from local grapes, which are very tannic, and half from imported grapes. I decided to only try one of the whites, which I enjoyed thoroughly. But I did want to be able to walk up the hill yet. I bought one bottle that day, which we consumed either that or the next evening. It took me about an hour to get up the hill. Also at the winery the lady serving told me that on Friday night there was a special procession to bury Jesus in Pyrgos, and after that they would light a lot of lanterns on the buildings.

So when I got back to the hotel I told Cindy about this. We heard the same from someone else, but hadn't understood it was that evening. So we got everyone together, and off we went to Pyrgos. It was supposed to start at around 9, but we were told to get there at 8:30, which we did. It was packed. We couldn't even get all the way into town to park. But park we did and we went up a small dark alley till we joined the throngs of people climbing the hill to the church at the top. There was a real choke point at the 'castle' which had a small door to go through. I banged my head on a lantern, but wasn't hurt. We continued on up to the top of the hill. It was by now pretty dark, and there wasn't much light. I hadn't taken my camera this evening for 2 reasons. One, I wanted to be able to just enjoy the evening, and two, I didn't think I could hold the camera still enough and didn't want to interrupt with a flash. I could have used a flash, many other people did. I would say about 90% of the people there were Greek, but many of them were not from Santorini.

At about 9, the procession came out of the church, after the bells started ringing. Then rather than going directly down the hill as we expected, it took off around the side of the church. So we got in line. I guess about 20 mins later we had progressed about 30 meters past the church down a narrow walkway. During this time people on the rooftops had lit hundreds of lanterns (I think they were really just cans with paraffin and sawdust). They gave off pretty large flames. Thank goodness the buildings are mostly rock and concrete. Finally after 30-45 mins, we made it around to a point where we could look down over the town. It was an awesome sight. Cindy got some good photos and I hope she gets them posted on Flickr soon.

Then we started down the hill. I think we made it back to the car by about 10:30. There was an incredible line of cars waiting to get out of the town, down the main road. Fortunately we noticed (actually I think it was Maya who pointed it out), that we were just off the side road I had accidentally taken the day before. So we went the other direction and were out of town and on our way through Fira about 10 mins later. I expect it took some people an hour or longer to wait to get down the other way. We pretty much skipped dinner this night as we got home fairly late, just a bit of wine and bread and cheese again.

Saturday morning I woke up before dawn (significantly) and decided to take a walk up the hill behind the hotel and see if I could get any good early morning photos. I did manage to get a few. I also really enjoyed the spring flowers which were blooming everywhere. And I got to see the sun come up over the island, till it got into the cloud cover. I took about two hours this morning and really enjoyed spending my time wandering alone.

That morning Ari and Maya decided to stay at the hotel. Ari wanted to work on her tan, and Maya wanted to just relax (too much walking in Athens I guess). So Cindy, Isha and I took off for the other end of the Island again. After going up the ridge past the winery, and skipping the turnoff for Pyrgos, we continued down the hill. Somewhere along the way I was supposed to turn right, but we missed the turn, so we went on to the town of Perissa. This is where the main beachfront vacation community is. Many of the tavernas and hotels looked like they were just being opened up for the beginning of the tourist season, or hadn't been touched yet since winter. There were very few people here on the beach, but you could sure tell why this was chosen as the beach hangout. Looks like it could be fun, if you like crowds on the beach in hot weather during July and August. We stopped for a few mins and dipped our feet in the Agean Sea. Not cold, but not really warm enough to swim in since the air wasn't too warm.

So we toodled along the beach and then went back to where we should have turned to get to the end of the island. We managed to go the right way this time and got all the way to the end where there is a lighthouse.
We had to park and walk along a short path to the end of the island. The really interesting part was that due to the angle of the sun, the sea was much clearer, much bluer, and idyllic looking than it had been from Oia. We could see all the way across to Oia, with the center of the volcano having left some islands in the middle. There are hot springs on one of these islands and there are boat trips there, but you have to swim to them, and the weather was just cool enough we decided not to do this. It was warm enough on Easter Sunday, but the boats weren't running on Easter.

Then we made our way back to the hotel and met up with the others. We drove into Oia, and went all the way to the end of town, and down to the port, it was again a narrow windy road. On the way back out of town, we followed the coast along the lower side of the island and came back by the winery I had stopped at earlier. So Ari and Maya decided to walk up the hill, and Cindy, Isha and I tasted the other two whites and a red. Boy was that red tannic, I can tell why they blend it. The whites were nice and we bought two to bring home to India. Fortunately with 4 over the age of 18, we could bring 8 bottles of wine back. That evening we were intending to go to a church. Unfortunately we all fell asleep before it was time to leave, so we missed out on an Orthodox Easter service.

Santorini Part 1

2009-04-25T18:47:00.005+05:30

Well,
It's been almost a week since we left Santorini. We had a lot of fun there. The weather was in general much better than when we were in Athens. The first day as we arrived, it was still raining a bit and dark and cold. The 'taxi driver' we had to the hotel was a nice kid. He pointed out the sights along the way. He told us where he likes to go for sunset watching, and which beaches might be good or not. He also suggested that we rent a car as the bus system is hub and spoke, thus to get from one point to another, you always have to go to the center of the Island, unless your destination happens to be along the spoke you're on. We arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday. We were staying in Atlantida Villas (formerly the Volcano Villas), just outside of Oia (pronounced eeah-the O is silent and the 'i' is pronounced like the i in ski). There are hundreds (over 350) churches on the island, and our hotel had it's own. Oia is a pretty little town at one end of the crescent shaped island. After getting installed in our room we all walked down the street for lunch at some place named after windmills. We walked past this place called Santorini Mou, but it appeared to be closed. This was a bummer as we had heard it is a great place to visit. After lunch, the girls decided to stay at the hotel and relax, and Cindy and I walked into town-minus cameras. I wish I had had mine with me. The towns have very small streets, and some of them are so small one can only use an ass to get around. We saw a donkey with a "taxi" sign on his forehead. We saw many more donkeys throughout the next 4 days, but this is the only taxi I saw. Oh well, cannot get everything. As with most of the major towns on Santorini, Oia is situated on the cliff of the caldera of the volcano which created the island. This gives it very steep streets/sidewalks/stairs down to the lower parts from the main road and walkway through town at the crest of the ridge.

After a nice stroll through the town, where the main walk is mostly a collection of art galleries and restaurants with spectacular views, we went back to the hotel, collected the girls and went for dinner at a restaurant we spotted during our outing. It was rather expensive, but very nice food. The view was spectacular out over the caldera. This picture is from another evening, but gives the right idea .

Thursday, Cindy and I went into town and rented a little little car. It was just big enough for the 2 of us in front, and the 3 in back. They only had one which was smaller (Smart Car) and we would have gotten that, but couldn't have taken everyone. After a bit of a slow start in the morning, we got everyone in the car with the intent of going around the Island a bit, and visiting Fira. Fira is the main town on the island. We had spotted a book store on the drive through from the airport and Maya needed a book. This one was supposed to have english books(or so I understood), so that was on the agenda. We decided to head off to the other end of the island. We never made it as there was road work just a bit more than half way. I was driving and I took a side road into a "traditional settling" as it was labeled on the sign. The road got very narrow-one car wide. I was following two other cars so I was hoping that no-one was coming up the other direction. I was literally worried that I would scrape a mirror off of the car on one of the two walls on the sides of the road. At one point we dove over someone's stoop, as there wasn't enough space to fit between it and the wall. I was also concerned that we would end up in a dead end, or facing some reason to have to back up. Now I can back a car up pretty well, but when I have to fit between two walls on a curvy road, not more than 20 centimeters wider than the car--no thanks!!

Luckily we made it through the town to a point where we could turn off. I did so and got us back up the hill on a side road (one way I think). So I decided that we would not proceed to the end of the island. Cindy wanted to stop and taste wine at one of the many wineries on the island. Fortuneately one happened to be at the top of the ridge there, overlooking the Caldera. So we stopped. Cindy and Isha got the tasters, and I had a few sips, but not too much as I was driving. It was decent wine, and we bought enough to bring back a few bottles to India. Ari just enjoyed the weather--looking like a European model in her sunglasses.

After the wine tasting, we drove to the top of the island. On the way we went through a small town called Pyrgos. At the top, we could see the whole island, and several in the distance, mostly to the north and east. We couldn't see Crete though.
I took a 'wrong turn' in Pyrgos on the way down, and we ended up much further away from Fira than we would have if I had taken the proper road, but it was a nice diversion and really didn't take more than an extra 5 to 10 minutes. Then we stopped in Fira for lunch, and went to the bookstore. Maya found a book she has read already in English, published in Spanish. She picked this up (this was her agenda all along), so she could practice her Spanish. Actually everyone but me got a book there that day. Then we drove back to the hotel. We relaxed a bit with the view. I went and got some sunset pictures a little closer to Oia, and we had wine, cheese, bread and fruit for dinner.

Athens Days 4 and 5

2009-04-14T10:51:00.012+05:30

Day 4
Well, not much to say. I spent most of the day waiting. Ari had forgotten some medication and needed to see the Dr. While she was doing that, Cindy, Maya and I went to the 'flea market' area. Not much flea market, but some interesting stuff, some not so interesting. Maya found some beads to buy. After Ari was done the girls wanted to go shopping, and that took most of the afternoon. We stopped for 2 lunches for some reason. The good thing is that Cindy did find some very nice home made sandals for a good price.

After second lunch we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard at parliament. It is a very stylized affair. The crowd was pretty thick and hard to get around in as the guards had to move the crowd to arrive. Cindy who hung back got better shots of the new guards arriving.

After that we took the Funicular to the top of Lycabettus hill and had an overpriced drink while enjoying the lovely view of Athens. The funicular is not much to speak of, it goes up the hill in a tunnel, so you don't see much, and the ride is very short. I would recommend for anyone who doesn't mind a short hike, to walk up to the top. There are a significant number of steps to get to the funicular. The view is good though. We really could see most of the city, despite the slight haze.

Day 5
The day started off wonderfully. We got out of the hotel fairly early. We did stop for coffee on the way, but we got to see all of the main part of the Agora, including Hephaisteion, and the rebuilt/renovated Stoa-- which contained shop. I guess even in ancient Athens, if you needed to do some shopping, you had to go to the stoa. One of the best parts is that the ruins were surrounded by wildflowers. There was an abundance of chamomile, clover, poppies and many others. Even many of the trees were in bloom. It was more like wandering a garden with occasional ruins or columns than wandering an archeological site. It started sprinkling while we were wandering in our garden of delights. We still visited the ancient church and then it really started to pour. So we gave up--we went for, what else, food at the local taverna, though no-one had coffee.

After we sat as long as we felt we could, Ari decided she would get boots after all. She had forgotten to bring any closed shoes and was very cold. So off we went. She got some nice boots fairly quickly, but it continued to rain. The girls were not very interested in braving the wet, and Cindy's foot was hurting. So I took off to see the temple of Zeus, and the theatre of Dionysius. They stayed behind in the shopping area and did, what I know not.

So I went up towards the Acropolis, and back down behind the other side, stopping a couple times to dodge the rain showers under a tree. I was offered an umbrella by persistent salesmen a couple of times, but declined. I was being brave. I made it down to the theater pretty easily. There is much work going on there, some reconstruction of temples, some work on the cave which was first a temple, then later a christian church above the theater. It is being worked on significantly as you can see here. Unfortunately you cannot go into either the cave, or the amphitheater proper, but you can still see some of the decorations. Where the people are standing was actually a building which served as a backdrop for the theater and I suppose space for the actors to prepare etc. The theater has been rebuilt at least 1 time, if not more. The Romans changed it after the Greeks built it.

From there it was a short walk to Hadrians Arch, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is an amazing and impressive structure. It was obviously very large. It has been at some time used by others, like it was an open air Mosque for a while. There are also roman baths at the site, and other ruins. Really special. Unfortunately the girls all missed it and it is our last day in Athens. Tomorrow we go off to Santorini--hoping the weather will be just a bit warmer.

Find more photos from day 5 here.

Athens 1

2009-04-13T00:49:00.005+05:30

We arrived in Athens 3 days ago now. Several people told us that 2 days in Athens would be enough, "you can do it all in 2 days." So far we have spent 1 day at the Acropolis, and surrounding areas. We spent one day at the archaeological Museum, and doing a bit of shopping. And the third day we went to Delphi. We still have so much to see.

So back to the beginning. We arrived Thursday afternoon after a long trip from Bangalore. It was long, not in duration but in the fact we left the house at 1:30am, our flight left at 4:15am, we had a 4 hour flight to Dubai, a several hour wait, and then another 5 hour flight to Greece. We arrived about 4 pm in Greece. We were exhausted. We went to the hotel, checked in, found dinner down the street, and then went to bed, we didn't even go to the rooftop to check out the view till the next day.

Friday we explored the Acropolis. It was amazing. That is all I can say about it. We walked from the hotel. Our hotel is less than 1 kilometer from the entrance, and although you do have to walk up the hill, it isn't bad. We went through the flea market area, and passed along the Agora. On the way we stopped at a couple of ruins--pictures to come later. Our first ruin visit was Hadrian's Library. From there we went to the Areopagus hill first, and then on to the main event. At the Areopagus hill, it was very slippery as the marble has been worn smooth from all the feet climbing. Also there were a lot of illegal vendors selling water, and later umbrellas for the sun and the next day for the rain.

After this we joined the hordes of people going up to the Acropolis proper. Our tickets were good for several days and multiple sites. So we didn't have to go everywhere all at once. This is good. We took several hours to explore just the acropolis, going around the Parthenon and the other building sites at the top. The only bummer is that the museum is closed so they can upgrade the exhibits and move them to the new museum at the bottom of the hill. Oh well, we'll have to come back I guess. After several hours, the troops were getting tired and hungry. So we decided to skip the Agora, and go back later. We had lunch at the Taverna Akropoli, with a view up to the top. The food there was probably the best we've had so far here in Greece.

Saturday was a good day to go to the museum. It was predicted to rain, and it did. We didn't get an tremendously early start, but from our hotel it was about a 1/2 hour walk to the museum. We got our fill of the various art forms of ancient Greece, and we saw Agamemnon's mask. Most of us ate lunch there, although I was having a bit of tummy trouble, so I skipped it. After finishing up there, we decided to split up. The girls wanted to do a bit of clothes shopping for things they could not get in India. I skipped that and took a leisurely walk around the base of the Acropolis, and climbed up to the Filopappus Monument. I saw Socrates's jail--where the artifacts from the museum were stored sealed behind concrete during the 2nd world war. It rained a bit when I was at the top of the hill overlooking the Acropolis at the Filopappus Monument, so, the pictures are not too good. I still have the memories.

Today we went to Delphi. This was truly a beautiful site. The actual ruins of Delphi are not that spectacular, as many of the statues etc., have been removed to museums. But the whole place was alive with wildflowers. This added to the magic of the place. It is at about 800 meters above sea level, so the air was crisp and cool. Sometimes the wind blew down off the snow covered slopes of Mt. Parnassus, and it was downright cold. But all in all it was lovely. The amphitheater and the sporting arena are in really good shape. One of the other temples is still mostly there (I believe it is the one to Athena). But a lot of it was destroyed by the Romans, or later people. We enjoyed a lovely lunch on the way back, and then all of us, except Cindy, fell asleep in the car. We were either so full from the meal, or not feeling well--Isha. It was about 4pm when we returned to the hotel. Maya and I decided to walk around a bit, so we went to the flea market area, and just wandered. In the evening a couple of the kids wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, so we did, for an outrageously priced dinner. Well at least they're happy for a bit now.

After dinner, I came home and took some night pictures of the Acropolis from our hotel rooftop terrace. Check Flickr, they may be there.

Tomorrow a bit more exploring--and maybe I'll get to post the photos. (Day 1) (Delphi)

Kabini

2009-03-30T19:27:00.004+05:30

The main reason we went to Kabini was the safaris. We were hoping to see lots of wildlife, and we did. The Orange County resort is located on the Kabini River, upstream of the dam which was built in the 70's to keep drinking water, and provide Hydro power to Bangalore. It is located about 4-5 hours from Bangalore, passing through Mysore on the way. The drive was pretty good up to the last hour which was about 20 Kilometers over bumpy gravel roads interspersed with nice paved roads. As I said before, we arrived on Friday evening and enjoyed a leisurely evening. The safaris are run both in the mornings (6:30) or afternoons (3:30). We opted for the afternoon boat safari on Saturday. This is a 2 hour trip up the river (lake) into the national parks. The lake is bordered by the Nagarhole park on one side and the Bandipur park on the other.

The best time to see elephants, and many of the other animals is during the hot summer months April-May when the lake is drying out, and much of the food source is gone in the jungle. Then the animals come to the lake edge to feed on the grass which grows where the lake has receeded, and to drink the water, which may not be available elsewhere. Unfortunately we are busy with other travel plans in April and May, so we opted to go at the beginning of the summer. We were still able to see many of the animals we wanted to see.

We experienced a sort of freak storm (well at least unexpected for the time of year), which woke us up at 3am on Saturday morning. None of us slept much for the next couple of hours. It was pouring rain (and due to the construction of the house) coming into the open atrium. It also leaked a bit in our bedroom, but the resort took care of that the next morning. So once we were able to get back to sleep, we all wanted to sleep in. Luckily we had chosen the afternoon Boat Safari.

The boat seated about 20 people, plus driver and guide. We started up the river/lake and first we saw birds on the dead trees which are rising from the water with the water level receeding. It was at least 15-20 feet below full. A variety of birds was visible- cormorants, painted storks, egrets, herons, and more. Then we approached a section of the bank where there were a herd of elephants. Overall we must have seen close to 50 elephants on the trip. It is possible to see hundreds during the really dry season, but this was significant and beautiful. We saw babies no more than a few weeks old, and some which must have been 40-50 years old, and everything in between. They were feeding on the new grass coming up on the lakebed. Since the grass is so short, they cannot grip it with their trunks, so they kick it loose, and then pick it up, shake out the dirt, and eat it. We also saw them eating the bamboo the next day.

Probably the best part though was watching 7 elephants swim across the lake and come out the other side. There were 2 boats other than ours which got fairly close-approximately 50 yards. There were two small elephants which were surrounded by the larger ones during the swim. There are crocodiles in the lake, and some of us had seen a glimpse of one earlier in the trip, but I don't suppose they could really get at one of these little elephants the way they were protected by the larger ones, and I don't think they could take on a full grown elephant.

Next we saw two different kinds of deer --spotted, and Sambar. We also some Gaur. There were literally hundreds of deer, but unfortunately on this trip, no predators. Oh well, you cannot see them all. Something to look forward to if we go back. There are many tigers which live in the park, but they apparently only come to the lake during the really dry season. There are also leopards who compete for some of the same prey. With the number of deer, I would guess they don't go hungry. We returned to the resort, enjoyed a dubious bottle of wine left by the manager due to the roof leak.

The next morning I got up early, but not as early as the morning safari--I got out about 7am, and went for a couple hour walk. It was really nice to get out and to be able to just walk along the lake. I ran across a site where someone had been making bricks. They build the dried mud bricks into an oven with multiple places for fire, and then light it up. It fires the bricks, except for a few at the top outside, and let it cool down, then they collect the bricks later. There were many water birds along the bank. Most beautiful were the egrets and herons. Also there were people doing their wash--unfortunately with the soap going right into the lake. Others were bathing or fishing. And some were just off to work.

We lounged around and relaxed during the mid day, and then took off on our jeep safari. We were lucky as most of the guests were leaving sunday. So there was only one other group, and the naturalists had booked them on the lake safari, which gave us a jeep all to ourselves. We had to cross the lake first, then take a jeep into the Nagarhole park. We saw lots of different birds like an Indian Roller, Flameback Woodpecker, Racket Tail Durango.

We met some elephants on the road. This one didn't want to leave, and got kind of mad. The guide told the driver to hurry once we got past. We didn't want it charging. We went looking for tigers but didn't find any. We did manage to find a group of cars which had located a leopard. We spent about 20 mins watching him. He was beautiful. Heard later that Manju had gone out Saturday as well and seen a leopard about 1/2 as far away as we did. So we are glad he had fun too.

Monday I went for another morning walk, I didn't get quite as muddy. It was foggier and I didn't see as many birds, but I did get a nice hike in.

Ugadi

2009-03-30T18:25:00.004+05:30

Wow, what a weekend. It all started off with Ugadi. I had booked us a long weekend stay at Orange County Kabini. I had planned we would leave early in the morning (well early for teenagers), and get there mid day. Then Cindy spoke with Lahlita, who looked crestfallen when told we would be gone for the weekend, including Ugadi. She had planned to invite us over to her apartment. Cindy quickly recovered the situation by telling Lahlita we could come before leaving for Kabini. So we arranged for Manju to come around 11am and to wait for Lahlita to call us that we should come over.

We got there around noon. She has a small apartment 3 rooms (kitchen the size of a closet, living room and bedroom) on the 3rd or 4th floor. I didn't count. What is really nice is it is the top floor of the building so they get some light and air flow through. There is also a roof patio they share with the other tenants, but being at that level, they have direct access and Bindu can play there with friends in the building. This was the first time I got to meet Bindu, and one of the reasons Lahlita wanted us to come over is that her husband had the day off.

Bindu was very shy till just about the time were were to leave, when she decided to let me hold her. I was honored. She sat mostly with her mother or father for the time we were there. Cindy and I got to sit in chairs, but Ari and Maya had to sit on the floor. There was about 4 feet between us. We were fed typical food for this holiday I believe-- Badji (sp?) which were deepfried vegetables, sort of like Tempura, sweet paratha (stuffed breads), rice with a cold tomato & peanut sauce, followed by a dessert of noodles in sweet cooked milk.

We had a delightful time and really enjoyed seeing their house as well as being blessed by the opportunity to visit them. I am sure they felt blessed that we would visit as well. Here is a picture of Bindu, who is just starting to learn English and her numbers to 10. She is only just over 2 years old, and very big for her age, especially considering how petite her mother is. Her dad isn't too large either. He's from Nepal. I hope to remember his name so I can add it here later...

We left for our Safari adventures in Kabini at around 1 or 1:30. It took us 4.5-5 hours to get there, just in time for dinner and a relaxing evening around our private pool(yes we were in the lap of luxury, not something I do all the time, but nice once in a while).

We also ordered our safari for the next day (Saturday). We decided to take the boat safari on Saturday afternoon, and the jeep safari the next day. It turned out to be a good decision. I'll blog more about that later though. I'll leave you with a sunset from the boat on Saturday.

Post Delhi and Holi

2009-03-14T12:10:00.003+05:30

Two weekends ago we had to go to Delhi to get our Visas extended. It wasn't the most exciting trip, but educational. 3 of us went, we had to arrive the day before for a long day of waiting in lines and overused waiting rooms. We did get out in the middle of the day for a few hours. During this time we wandered around Kahn's Market. It's great for shopping, but since we had come with hand luggage only, we didn't pick up much. We did eat at a nice place called the Side Wok Restaurant. Good Asian food. We managed to get the 8:15pm flight back to Bangalore same day. We had our letter to the FRO in hand. Unfortunately it was only a 3 month extension. So now we need to finish out the process here in Bangalore...

Last weekend was a long one for me-sort of. We had Tuesday off (Id), and were supposed to have Monday off in trade for a coming Saturday. I had meetings most of the day, so I worked from home instead. But it was still restful. I did get to relax, and read a book. Maya was gone, so it was just the 3 of us and pretty quiet around the house. Did a bit of shopping for Cindy's photography course on Tuesday.

Wednesday was Holi. I expected to see a lot of 'ruckus' and colors. I didn't. Cindy reported seeing some as she was out with Ari shopping and they saw some, but it was really quiet in our neighborhood. It seems Holi is more of a North Indian festival. I did see one boy the next day coming out to catch the school bus. He had obviously been playing Holi. His legs and arms were still all bright red from the dye. I wished I had a camera with me at that time, but no luck. Anyways he seemed to be hiding behind his mom a bit, I wonder if he wasn't a bit shy about it.

Today Maya got back from Singapore. She's tired but happy. We didn't hear much more (or maybe Cindy did on the way back from the airport). She's resting now.
More later...

The OC (Coorg style)

2009-02-28T10:54:00.006+05:30

Since I was traveling last weekend, when it was Valentines day. I decided that Cindy and I would take a weekend off in Coorg. I arranged a stay at Orange County Resort. Coorg is coffee country in India, and Orange County Resort is 50 acres, in the middle of a 350 acre coffee plantation, which is on the boundary of a 50,000 acre jungle area. Coorgis are also supposed to be descendants Alexander the Great's army, and the women are said to be some of the most beautiful in India.

I had decided to take Friday off, first I thought of leaving early, but then I decided to just take the whole day off. Boy am I glad. We left at around 10am. We had planned to leave at 9, but I wanted to call Lorelei for her birthday first, and then get a quick haircut, for which I was several weeks overdue. To cut a long story short, the barber took forever, and we got out of the house at about 9:40, leaving the girls in the care of Lalitha and Manju. Yes we took a different driver to leave our well trusted one at home. It turns out the driver is the same guy who drove Giselle and me around Pondicherry--imagine that.

We headed out through Bangalore traffic. It took us at least an hour to get out of Bangalore and onto the road to Mysore. But once we were there, we moved along quickly till the turn off shortly before Mysore, but after .... Then the road narrowed down and we had to slow down again for a while. For a short bit, it opened up again, but then we got to the 1 lane, pothole ridden, curvy road through the hillsides to the resort. All in all, including a short stop for a snack so we could skip lunch, it took about 4.5 hours. And then when we checked in they offered us lunch anyways as the restaurant was still open.

I didn't realize how much I needed this trip (ditto for Cindy). The quiet, the bird calls, the flowers, the lack of horns, the walking through the plantation, it's all just so relaxing. Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a walk through the plantation on the Joggers Trail. It took us about an hour through the coffee trees, pepper vines, and along some of the older narrow roads, leading to the home of the estate- Chickanhalli. We later met one of the grandsons of the founder of the estate through a mutual friend who happened to be here. We ran into him at lunch that day, and the next at breakfast. After the walk, we visited the coffee lounge, where they serve the local coffee, for free and you can sit and look out over the organic rice paddies in the small valley below, and across to more coffee. We also found some coffee plants on our walk which were already flowering. (They looked like it had snowed, and the snow was just sitting on the branches of the trees, kind of magical). Apparently now (end Feb through about 10 March) is when they come into full flower. I found out later that they bloom for 9 days. They smell much like Jasmine, but not quite as cloyingly sweet-very lovely, and so far no allergic reaction, thank goodness.

Saturday morning I went for a bird walk, we saw at least 2 dozen different kinds of birds. Most memorable were the Coucal, which is a large brown and black bird, the Kingfisher, and a Kite. We also saw many Bulbul, and Waggers, Mynahs, and other birds. Some were called locally Paddy Birds, they looked a lot like egrets, but when I asked about a different bird, that was an egret, so this obviously wasnt. The bird walk started at 6:30-so Cindy didn't join me. I was the only one. Apparently on Sunday, there were a lot of people but no birds as it was foggy. Good luck for me I guess. I almost went again but decided to stay in bed for the early morning. All the mornings thereafter were foggy. Though it did burn off fairly quickly once the sun was up.

Later in the day, we walked down to the Cauvery(or Kaveri) river-about 10 mins, and spent another 2 hours walking along it's banks through the village which ran along the banks. Lots of kids wanted to try out their English on us, but it often ended with My name is, and I am n years old. Still fun to see them, and meet the people living there. I suspect not many of the visitors to the resort wander down that far. They did seem surprised to see us. Cindy took a lot of pictures during our walk, unfortunately she may have lost them all as the CF card in the camer stopped working. She has to take it to a recovery center to see if they can still extract all the photo files.

We relaxed in the afternoon, took a coffee-at least Cindy did, and sat and read in the coffee bar. Listening to the birds, and just breathing the fresh air is so rejuvinating. In the late afternoon, we met Ari's friend Gavin in the bar for a drink and he joined us for dinner.

Sunday we had a nice breakfast, and then on the way back to our room, we ran into the nephew of the brother who manages the resort for the family--Gavin's friend. We had a wonderful chat with him about everything from Indian life and culture to elephants charging in the wild. Then we took off for the Tibetan Monastary which is close here. We went by the an elephant camp, but decided to skip that for another time when we bring the girls to visit here. We do want to come back. It is so refreshing--have I said that before? The monastary is one of the largest Tibetan settlements outside of Tibet. It is hard for me to describe. The temple inside was beautiful--See some of the pictures here. The grounds were very nice (and clean). The monks were all around, some of them obviously visiting with friends or family. Some were playing Cricket, others were going about their business. It would have been nice to have someone or something explain the temple and some of the pictures and or artifacts to us, but as it was, it was sort of nice not to be harassed by anyone too. We must have spent about an hour wandering about the temples and the grounds(more pictures). Then we came back to the resort--even though it is only about 15 Kilometers as the crow flies, it is about a 1 hour trip by car--crossing the river 2x.

I went on the guided plantation walk. They told about growing the pepper. The plant will drop a vine, called the mother plant, which is cut off and propogated to grow more vines. The vine will apparently not grow from the peppers themselves. The pepper is an annual plant which comes ripe here in Feb. We did see it along the road being dried. The naturalist told that some unscrupulous people will mix in Lantana berries and dry them up to bulk up their crop. It is only picked when ripe-it turns red, and the red skin is dried to black in the sun.

I learned a lot about the shade grown Coffee. There are two kinds grown here Arabica and Robusta. The Arabica plant will grow for about 60 years, the Robusta for 100. They are cut down to keep them from growing too tall,and then they produce more. One plant will yeild about 9 Kg of berries. A picker will pick about 300-350Kg of berries/day at 1RS per KG. The coffee takes 180 inches of water a year, and typical rain around here is about 130 inches. The rest is from sprinkling which happens in the dry part of the year after harvest. The harvest is in Dec/Jan. The sprinkling happens around now, and the flowers come out-they last for 9 days and drop off, then the berries start to form.

Other things which grow in the area are Rosewood, Avocados, and Jackfruit, which the elephants love. There are also some Orange trees left, but they are attacked by a disease and most of the Oranges are gone now.

Apparently the bamboo starts to dry out at this time, through May/June. There are 3 kinds of Bamboo, and some of it grows very tall(look back at the photo in the village, there you see the bamboo growing behind the houses). It is also used as a ladder--seen here. A single stalk is cut and trimmed and the side branches are the steps up. Anyways the wild elephants eat a lot of the Bamboo, but when it dries out they want other things. Since they like the Jackfruit so much, they will go long ways to get it. There are electrified fences around the plantation to keep the elephants out. But, some of the elephants are so smart, they will put a log on top of the fence to push it down. The plantation also uses 8 foot deep trenches. The elephants will fill in a trench to get across. Now I saw them putting the electric fences at the edges of the trenches--maybe the combination will keep them out. We also heard that the plantation has stopped the jungle walks as, since the government is catching some elephants to domesticate or transfer, they are becoming afraid of people, and have been attacking or charging recently. I guess it is ok to skip that now. We have been invited to come to the other resort they own in Kabini where there are a lot of elephants to see in May.

Monday we took a leisurely drive back home--well mostly leisurely. The driver seemed impatient to get home, except when he was taking calls from France booking vacation taxi rentals. All in all it was a very relaxing weekend and we hope to go back. It would be fun to go with some friends.

It's White, It's clean, it must be

2009-02-13T22:59:00.002+05:30

I've been in Finland for the last 5 days. When I arrived, there was some snow on the ground, but mostly ice and it was raining. Then Monday we had sunshine, and about 0C temperatures, By Thursday it was snowing, and today when I woke up it was all white and sparkly. It looked just like winter-wonder-land. By end of the day it was all gone on the roads, mostly gone on the sidewalks, especially downtown, and starting to turn grey in spots from the sand. But away from the roads, it was still white and pristine. I certainly understand why the Finns like it better in Jan/Feb when it is below 0 and the snow sticks on the ground. It really makes the light reflect a lot more and is absolutely beautiful, even in the city limits.

Walking around hasn't been as easy as normal. One has had to avoid icy spots, and sometimes a puddle or two. But all in all it is wonderful to be able to walk the 10 mins from the train to the office in the morning without worrying about falling into the drain, stepping into something, or getting run over by someone. The cars even stop for you when you cross the street-amazing, no? Having a short walk in just sub 0 weather is a really nice brisk way to get the blood moving, the lungs clear, and the head ready for work. I do wish it was easier to walk in Bangalore...

Still, I don't have the best shoes for snowy weather and I will be glad to be back somewhere that my toes don't exclaim they are ready to fall off after I've been outside for 10 mins. Back to warm and sunny Bangalore tomorrow.

Republic Day Weekend

2009-01-31T14:45:00.003+05:30

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend. So it was kind of split between fun and 'work'. Saturday, Maya, Cindy and I went shopping. Mostly for household, but also for some school items for Maya. We didn't have Manju, our regular driver, and it was a bit of a trial. The substitute didn't know his way around Bangalore (though he is a driver for another expat). He didn't know where Commercial Street was, or how to get there from our house. Not only that, but he didn't speak very good english, hardly any at all. So getting around town was a bit of a chore.

I had wanted to get out of the city for the day on Sunday. Cindy convinced me that we shouldn't go see the wildlife park as it would be overcrowded. It probably was based on our other experiences for the weekend. So after hemming and hawing about where we could actually go, and get our Driver to manage getting us there, we chose to go to Nandi Hills again. Ari hadn't been. It isn't too far from the house, and we could explain to the driver how to get there. So off we went.

We arrived around Noon and it was already crowded. We drove to the top and found some parking. At that time the loop around the top was about 1/2 parked full. Meaning cars on only one side of the road. It was still driveable. We wandered around the perimeter first. Saw a pooja going on at the Nandi Bull. Both Cindy and I wanted to take photos, but weren't sure if we would be intruding on the pooja, so we didn't. We showed Ari where Tipu Sultan would execute people by dropping them down the cliff, though she didn't want to get too close. Then we went to the top. Ari got to take pictures of the aggressive monkeys. This particular one decided to pee just as she was taking the picture! I didn't get that on film, so to speak. We wandered around the Nehru Guest house, which has some nice gardens around it. It also has some interesting statues in it. This particular smaller Nandi Bull had been recently decorated or blessed (I'm not sure which).

After wandering around, we had a simple lunch in the little restaurant overlooking the cliffs down towards the south, in the direction of Bangalore. Unfortunately the air was thick with dust and smog, and looked pretty brown. We could not see far. Last time we were there the view was much better. I guess we need some rain to clear the air out. Then we all had an ice cream. Mine was butterscotch, which came in an almost dayglow yellow. It was rather strange to eat, but tasted good enough. I had some guys come up and ask to have my picture taken with them. We figured this was an entree to getting a picture with Ari, who joined for the 2nd shot. She took a picture as well, but I don't have a copy of that.

Monday we were invited to a 'barbie' at the DeVilles. Good fun. We had to take a rickshaw there, fortunately there were only 3 of us as Cindy was sick, so we fit in ok. We managed by just giving directions, left, right, straight. Again he spoke a little, but not a lot of English. We had a nice day. There were some college age kids there who had been volunteering for a month or 2 a the school where Ari volunteers. They were from the US and England mostly. I think one was Aussie. They seemed nice enough and it was nice for Ari and Kelsey to have some other company. We got home after dinner, fully stuffed, and ready for a short week. So, another week in Bangalore goes by.

Today is sort of a lazy day, and tomorrow we go out to a friends house for an afternoon get together. It seems that where ever and what ever we do, all the talk these days is about the Economy, whether it is going to get worse here in India, how bad it is in the US, and Europe. Whether Obama will succeed--everyone seems to hope so. He has brought a lot of hope to people in this part of the world. I just count my lucky stars I am over here in India with a job, rather than in the US looking for one now...

Home is where...

2009-01-14T16:20:00.004+05:30

After returning to Bangalore, I had to think long and hard about the meaning of home, and where that is for me. While visiting California over the holidays, it was great to see all my friends and family. I do really miss them when I am here in Bangalore. On the other hand, our house was rented out, we were staying in a hotel (except those days when staying with my mom). We also were driving rented cars. So all in all, it didn't really feel like being "home".

In the airplane on the way back, it occurred to me that we were returning "home". After all, we have our own house here in Bangalore--albeit rented for 2 years. We have our daily routines, for me going to work, for Maya going to school, for Cindy her charity work, Ari friends & volunteering, etc... But more than that, we have the friendly faces in the neighborhood around us like the construction workers, or the pharmacist where I go to get my monthly refills. He always greets me with a smile, and even remembers my name-though he spells it Brayan, when he writes out the 'bill'. The barber knows me, and even if they are full up at 8:30 on Sunday morning, I can still get a haircut in relatively short time. (Yes I went on Sunday morning at 8:30, wondering if they would be open that early or if I would be taking a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. They had 10 chairs in operation, but fortunately no line yet.) And of course there is Manju. He always has a smile in the mornings when he comes and rings the doorbell for the key, and every night he asks "what time sir" and when I say "8 o'clock" he says, "yes, thank you sir" with a smile. And it is genuine. The thing that strikes both Cindy and me about Bangalore, is the friendliness, but not faked, genuine, of the people.
Lahlita too makes this feel like home. She was so excited to see us when we were there on that saturday morning, even though she hadn't planned any breakfast for us as she was expecting us only in the evening. She was almost crestfallen that she hadn't gotten something for us to eat. Still she managed to whip something up quickly. She doesn't do this only because she feels it is her job, but she really enjoys it. And she is especially happy when we like her cooking, which is always. I have had to stay home from work sick a couple of days this week. She has constantly been telling me to take it easy. I should be resting. I shouldn't do work if I'm sick. I should be eating something good for the cold, or specially having some of her ginger tea concoction--which I did and it really helped. She is so happy to be working for us, and likes to take care of us, and we are absolutely thrilled to have her work for us.
As an aside, when we moved here, I thought it would be difficult to have household staff--especially someone who is working in the house 6 days a week. But she fits right in with the family, and though we've had to make small concessions to her being here with us, the joy she brings, and the genuine warmth of her working style has made it delightful.

But then there are still all the things I miss about "Home":

Having a fire in the fireplace on a cold and rainy night (it's usually warm when it rains here).
Being able to prune my roses in the back yard.
The relative quiet. Here in Bangalore, there is always noise. Yes I missed it when I was in CA, but now I do find the cement mixers going 7 days a week a bit much.
Driving myself- it is nice to get out and just go once in a while, without having to negotiate overtime on a sunday or holiday.
Being able to get out into the wilderness for a hike or walk without making a days effort of it.
The Golden Gate Bridge
Good wine
Friends
And FAMILY-all of them, the noisy ones, the quiet ones, the older ones, the young ones, the tall ones, and the short ones. Yes I really miss my family.

In the end, not knowing where I'll end up over time. Whether I'll get to return to the Bay Area--I sure hope so, or if I'll end up somehwere else. I think I can make a home anywhere, but "home" will really be where the special people in my life are. I'm just glad that some of them are here with me in Bangalore, and that I do get to go back to CA and see the rest of them, if not too often.

20 Jan-- I wrote this several days ago. Today we get to go out for dinner to celebrate my birthday, and the inaguration of Obama--it'll be just going on around dinner time for us. Tomorrow we go to a celebration party for Obama at one of the big hotels here. Last friday we had fun with some new friends (parents from Maya's new school). Cindy and I left about 1am, not quite realizing how late it was till we started walking home. The nice part is they are about 15 mins walk from us-- a lovely Dutch/Thai couple. There were two other couples there too, one from the US, the other Australian/Russian. Anyways lots of fun. Got to go though, I am working today.

California Freezin

2008-12-23T10:05:00.004+05:30

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

2008-12-14T11:45:00.003+05:30

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

2008-11-22T15:47:00.002+05:30

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

2008-11-17T21:17:00.003+05:30

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

2008-10-28T15:11:00.003+05:30

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

2008-10-18T18:14:00.005+05:30

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

2008-10-05T14:31:00.002+05:30

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

2008-09-28T15:25:00.004+05:30

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

2008-09-28T12:02:00.004+05:30

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

2008-09-13T12:48:00.008+05:30

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

2008-09-03T20:32:00.002+05:30

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

2008-08-31T18:14:00.000+05:30

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

2008-08-30T15:57:00.003+05:30

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.

Elephant Slobber

2008-08-26T21:43:00.008+05:30

Last Thursday, Giselle and I went to Mysore for the day. It was really nice to have a day with her. We left at about 7:30 in the morning and arrived at the Mysore palace by 10. She and I went in very quickly-- there weren't many people. The same guide was there at the entrance to the palace that Cindy, Maya and I had used last time in March, and at first I thought to find someone else. In the end, after we walked around the gardens a bit, and stopped for a call of nature, we went back to the entrance for a guide, and picked him up as the best candidate.

As we were going into the palace itself, we noticed that there were several elephants lined up by the main gate to the palace grounds (and a jeep went whizzing by in that direction). The guide said that he knew the elephants, and would make sure we got to get close to them, but we would need to hurry a bit. So he took us on a tour of the palace (many of the same jokes and stories as last time), but fortunately there weren't many people in the palace, so we could move quickly from one area to another. I understood him better this time as my ears were not so stuffed up, and I think I understand the Indian speech patterns better as well. Giselle still had trouble with him. Giselle enjoyed the beautiful architecture, and the paintings of the gods/goddesses. Neither of us really were that interested in the royal family, though it is still interesting to see them at least once.

Anyways back to the elephants. They were coming for the first of the celebrations of Dasara (More info) So we watched the parade come up from the main gates, to the front of the Palace, 5 elephants, preceeded by a marching band, met by an honor guard of local police. There must have been about 200 people watching the whole thing, half of which were press. Then the elephants did a salute to the honor guard, and the guard left. The elephants then proceeded right up to the gate, and were turned around. At this point many photos were taken with some celebrities (local dignitaries I guess). And then, Giselle and I (no one else) were offered the opportunity to feed the head elephant. There were a variety of fruits. Now normally feeding an elephant is holding something out and he takes it in his trunk. But no, not this time. We had to put the food into his mouth (and get his saliva on our hands in the process). We each had a large bowl to feed him. Our pictures were taken by the press, and I was even interviewed on camera afterwards. At this time I was really kicking myself for not bringing in the camera. I had left it in the car as one is not allowed to take a camera into the Palace itself, and didn't want to leave it at the 'camera keep'. What a shame, my cell phone was running out of battery and I didn't get a photo. The guide did offer that if any photos of us turned up (he asked a couple of photographers), he would send them to me. I really hope something shows up, but I'm not holding my breath...

Well, anyways, what an exhilarating experience. These animals stand there and look you in the eye. You can just feel that they are gentle at the moment, but boy the power there is enormous. And they seem very intelligent. It was a once in a lifetime experience!!!

After that, we saw the St. Philomina Cathedral, went to the folklore museum on the Mysore University Campus. The museums are awesome, they have historical artifacts, a literary museum, and best of all a folklore museum with sculptures, paintings, puppets and much much more. Unfortunately the docent in the folkore museum part didn't speak much English, but still impressive.

And then went up the Chamundi Hills to see the temple and the demon statue.

All in all it was a long but very fun and interesting day. I never thought I'd be the attention of the media feeding elephants in India.

Giselle arrived

2008-08-16T17:39:00.002+05:30

Giselle made it here this morning (6am) after her year in Germany, flying in from London. She seems to be in good spirits and happy to see us all. It seems she had a good two weeks traveling to different cities in Europe, though she spent more time traveling than actually visiting sites.

I arrived back from a week in Finland about 5 hours before she arrived, so we are both a bit jet-lagged and tired today. So we didn't do much more than a bit of shopping for Anna's birthday present, and a few necessaries which Giselle hadn't brought. Then after a late lunch at Olive Beach, we came home and now Giselle is napping. I think I may do the same.

More Later...