Goa'n on vacation

Blue skys, miles of sandy beaches, palm trees waving in the breeze, cocktails by the pool, and a villa with a private porch. Sounds like heaven. Almost- we had a few misadventures, but all in all it was an absolutely delightful time.

Arriving in Goa by air, you land at a small airport with no taxiway, so when the plane gets to the end of the runway, it turns around and goes back towards the terminal, pulling off to a side track for a short bit to let the next plane land. The planes outside the terminal were lined up, business was brisk. No photos as it is also a military airport and photos are prohibited. They open the door, and the humid air hits you like, well..., actually it didn't hit too hard. I expected worse, having traveled in Hawaii and Mexico as well.


I think the first thing I noticed which was different from Bangalore was the riot of colors on the buildings-- Purples, yellows, pinks--nothing subdued. The pictures don't really do justice, but they give an idea, unfortunately they were taken through the window of the car. The airport, and ugly oil storage depot in Vasco is up on a plateau which appears to be fairly dry, but to get to the hotel, we dropped down into the plains, obviously river delta country, with Palms, rice paddies, and other greenery.
The other thing I noticed right away, is that there is construction everywhere. Goa is bursting with new buildings. The really interesting part is that they look like they are being built with Adobe (even multi story buildings), but they are actually being built with these bricks. They are rock, cut from a quarry in the shape of large bricks. They seem to be very good building material as the church in downtown "Old Goa" is built out of the same rock and is pretty old.

Arriving at the hotel, after tearing down one lane roads with 2 directional traffic, it was wonderful to just relax in the sun and enjoy the flowers, and have a drink by the pool. They kept cut flowers by our room and replaced them every day or so. There were of course flowers growing all over the grounds of the hotel, and several kinds of birds, even Cashews, but more about them later.

Maya had to study for midterms, which she told us were immediately when we returned, so we spend the first full day just doing nothing by the pool, well almost nothing. Cindy and I got in a lot of reading, swimming and relaxing, oh and Cindy also worked on her tan--well it was supposed to be a tan. Maya spent much of the day reading her texts and notes. Luckily she figured out by a day or 2 later that her tests were not till the end of the week after we came back, so she did have some more time to spend with us on our various adventures. Cindy has documented them pretty well,so I won't repeat all that.

I think my favorite part of the trip was to the spice plantation. We hired a taxi for the day and the taxi driver took us several places of our choosing. First we went to the plantation. We were greeted with a lovely lemongrass/ginger tea, all natural and organic. Once we had collected a group of about a dozen, we set off down a small trail, following our guide. The ground was very damp, even wet with puddles. This was the day before it rained, and they obviously kept it wet. The red earth was almost like a dark red soup in spots. We learned about pepper, which is not a tree, but a vine. It starts out green, and can be harvested then in an unripened state. It ripens to red, which can be picked then. If dried, it is red pepper, if boiled and the skin removed, then it is white pepper. And if let to dry out black, becomes black pepper. We didn't get to see any cardamom growing, but learned that chewing 1 pod a day is good for depression. There was a cardamom plant, but no pods. Jack Fruit seemed to abound. Apparently they are related to the "stinky fruit" found in Malaysia or Viet Nam. This is our guide standing next to a Jack Fruit tree. She was very knowledgeable about the spices and what their uses (other than cooking) could be. We saw a Mace tree, which is also a Nutmeg tree, and we saw a Cinnamon tree, the leaves of which are also Bay Leaves. But most interesting to me was the brightly colored Cashew Apples. I knew that the Cashew grew one nut to a flower, but I didn't know that they are the only nut to grow outside of the fruit. The fruit is a bright yellow or orange. I didn't notice them anywhere at first, but then later as we were driving around, I saw them in many places along the road. The color is hard to miss. They also had them at the hotel, by the walk to the beach. The cashews are harvested off the fruit, and are roasted to get the shell off. Then they crush the fruit, and ferment. It is then distilled into Feny. There are 3 kinds of Feny locally in Goa, Coconut, Palm and Cashew. I've tried 2 of them, they are strong, and rather sweet. Not really my thing, but we picked up a bottle just for fun in Panjim later that day (or was it the next while on the tour?).

Somewhere along the way we got to watch how they climb the palm trees to collect the Betel Nuts, and how they swing from tree to tree. Unfortunately you have to turn your head sideways as I don't know how to rotate it. And walked back to the compound. The tour ended after we watched the elephant rides. Just before getting back to the lunch, there was one last stop. There was a bucketfull of cold water, with citronella in it. Each of us stepped up and a ladle full of water was poured down our backs, starting just above the neck. It was very refreshing, but startling. Everyone sort of jumped and stood up straight. I wish I had videos of this. Maya got a good picture of me and I hope she posts it soon.
Well, I've probably been Goan on long enough now, so I'll continue about the rest of our adventures another time.

Short Post

Namaste.

Not a lot exciting has been happening. Cindy and I had a cultural introduction to India, provided by my company this week. Thankfully it cleared up some things we were curious about--i.e. wedding/party etiquette. We weren't sure whether it was going to be useful, but it was really great. We learned a few Hindi phrases. We also learned some about customs, colors, greetings...

Friday I got the show of a lifetime coming home. It took about an hour to come from the office, and it was dark as I didn't leave till 7. I noticed lights flashing around, and then figured out it was lightning. The lightning lasted the whole trip and longer. While I was being driven home, I could not hear the thunder, but the lightning was going almost constantly; mostly it went sideways, or sort of in circles. Absolutely amazing! Too bad inexpensive digital cameras don't have a manual setting for capturing things like lightning at night.

Then later in the evening Cindy and I were watching a movie, suddenly she says "It's going to rain, I can smell it" and it did. It rained hard for a little while, not long. Today it absolutely poured after Anna and I got home from our shopping trip this afternoon. The rain was coming down so hard that the top bedroom (the one which leaked before) sounded like someone was playing a snare drum on the roof. Fortunately I didn't detect any leaking either yesterday or today. The rain is great. It does make the air very humid, but it helps to cut down the air pollution which was getting pretty bad.

Today Anna and I had a shopping trip. Before leaving this morning Lahlita made Masala Dosas for breakfast. Last week when Cindy was sick, I stayed home and worked out of my home office for a day. Anna had previously mentioned that she wanted Dosas for breakfast sometime, so I asked Lahlita to make some this weekend. She was happy to oblige. They took a bit of preparation on her part, but they were delicious. She told us they were not quite so good as she had store flour rather than home ground and fermented. But they were still delicious. Fresh coconut and chili chutney, with spicy potatoes in the dosas, did I mention they were delicious. It is a good thing she doesn't cook for us all the time, I'd get fat just on breakfast. She insisted that I eat 2 of them, and then a plain dosa to cap it off with just the chutney. I couldn't turn her down! And she was just beaming with joy that we enjoyed them so much. Next she wants to make Idlis for us. I am looking forward to that. I must say, I think we're getting spoiled.

Bye for now

Nandi Hills-lots of photos

We finally got out of the city yesterday. The Nandi hills are an outcropping of Rock which reach out above the local Plateau about 50 Kilometers north of Bangalore (or at least the part we live in) , just a bit past where the new airport is going to be located. Another link. We left at a little before 11 in the morning, intending to leave earlier, but a certain sleepy teenager slowed us down at the start. The drive out started through the outskirts of Bangalore, looked very busy with development and industry. We passed a large quarry, more about that in another post. Close to the new airport there was a large construction site which was remarkable in a couple of ways. First there was a lot of large equipment, something you don't see too often here in and around Bangalore. Second, there were no women. In all the local construction, you see men and women, though they definitely have their own roles. Mostly the women seem to carry and move construction materials, i.e. sand, rocks, etc. Men do the actual constructing. Maybe in this case the women were replaced by the equipment. I believe this is an actual overcrossing/turnoff to the new airport. The current road is about 2K further and is a narrow dirt road.

Once past the Airport, things got really rural. All kinds of things were growing along the road, bananas, wheat, grapes, coconuts. There were a couple of small villages we went through to get to the base of the hills. On the way we got to some spots where there were piles of what looked like straw on the road. It was obvious we were intended to drive over them. Then we asked the driver what was going on. He said that it was wheat. We saw them winnowing the wheat along side of the road. I just love Indian creativity and innovation. Don't have a threshing machine, too expensive. Let the passing motorists do it for you. Why not, it is probably cleaner than having animals walking in circles on it to do same.

The road up to the top reminded us of the SF Bay Area, mixed with the Sierras. The grass was dry, the scrub was low, and the road was narrow and windy. The rock outcroppings looked like some of the big ones you see in Yosemite. The biggest difference was the Eucalyptus trees instead of Aspen. And then the Monkeys wouldn't have fit in back in CA. Anna remarked how the road reminded her of the road up to Hearst Castle. Very similar actually. And it led up to a castle, or fort, of sorts.

We arrived up top, and there were monkeys everywhere, and dogs. Anna took some pictures of puppies with my camera and they are on my flickr site. The monkeys were obviously trying to steal food from the vendors and tourists. The vendors were using sling shots to scare them away from the stands. I spotted this one on top of the local police station.

Once up top, we started wandering around by ourselves. We walked towards the very top where there was a closed building. Obviously the Sultan's house. The gardens around were beautiful, with many kinds of flowers. Were followed by an old bow-legged man with a walking stick, not too clean clothes, and a knit cap on his head. I thought he was just begging so I ignored him, but he managed to engage Cindy and then offered to show us the temple etc, so we had a guide. He was very nice to Cindy, picking various plants and flowers for her along the way, even though this is prohibited. He spoke very little English, but managed to get his point across. He took us to Tipu Drop, where there was an incredible view to the north, and almost straight down. The picture doesn't show the drop, but it is pretty steep. Several hundred meters of rock, then scrub. I certainly wouldn't want to fall down anywhere there. There was also a wall around the top of the hill. We had to drive through it to get in, didn't get a photo of that, but it was just wide enough for our car to fit through. There were also spots where you could get through a door in the wall and see the view. Here is one N/E view.
I tried to get Anna facing me in the picture, but my phone camera is too slow and when she saw that I was taking a picture, she turned around again. So you only get to see her backside.

Our guide took us to several other locations, one river source, which was all dried up. And we saw two temples. The Bull Temple is the most famous on the Nandi Hills. As you can see, it is covered in grease (which we think is Ghee) and flowers. It is a bit of a crude statue, which is typical of the Chola style. I have more pictures of the bull on Flickr. The temple went up, and into the rock behind the bull. It was possible to go in a small door on the side, about 4 meters up the hill. Our guide didn't join us because he had trouble walking on the hills. I spotted several carvings in the rocks. I captured this one to share.

I would like to leave the post with this. We saw many flowering trees, and often they had no leaves, just flowers. This is one particularly beautiful example.

Life is normal?

It sure was nice to have a regular weekend at home. I am starting to say home when I mean Bangalore now, I guess that means I am really getting accustomed to being here.
Friday night Anna had a school dance, and she looked very grown up--EEKS!! She came home with three of her friends who spent the night. They stayed up late, baked cup cakes, ate chips and watched movies. Fortunately they were considerate and didn't keep us up.
Saturday was a day spent mostly on household and personal things. I went and got a haircut for a whopping Rs40. For that 40 Rupees, I got a haircut, beard trim, shave, and a head massage. The estabilshment, Super Gents Beauty Parlor, is just around the corner from our house. I could have walked there, but I asked Manju to drive for a couple of reasons, I wanted to make a quick trip as Cindy needed me back at the house, and I wanted an estimate of what the haircut should cost. Remember that I got a haircut at the mall shortly after we arrived, I paid RS450 then. I guess I'll skip the mall from now on. After I got back, Cindy went to pick up her new outfit for the wedding we were invited to on Monday. I stayed home, waited for the UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) to be installed, and for Anna and her friends to wake up, have breakfast etc.
After Cindy got back and Anna's friends were gone, we went shopping for Flowers to bring to the wedding, and for an outfit for Anna to wear. Anna was a bit tired and it wasn't the most fun outing, but we saw some wonderful art at the "mall" where we went-- It is called Raintree. Then we went home and watched some movie on TV.
Sunday we let the driver have the day off, and we just stayed home. Cindy was knitting, I connected the printer to the computer and updated sw, finally I cooked pasta for dinner. All in all, just a nice relaxing day at home.
Monday we went to the wedding reception. I had asked what kind of a gift we should bring, and 2 different co-workers suggested that flowers were very appropriate, so we brought a nice large bouquet. Cindy had a beautiful red outfit with gold and sequins on it. Anna was in a very nice black skirt with white top. I didn't get pictures, but Cindy did. I hope she posts a couple of them for you all to see. We were advised to arrive around 1 hour after the invitation stated. We did and it seems we arrived just at the right time. Things were just getting rolling. The Bride and Groom came in, followed by the videographer, then they got up on stage and stood waiting for people to come greet them and get pictures. As I am the bride's superior at work, I was apparently a guest of honor and got to go up in the second group, after all of the men in the family went up for greetings and pictures. Then we were ushered down to a large room downstairs. There were about 15 people ahead of us. We sat down at long narrow tables with cups and bananna leaves on them. We were instructed to wash the leaf off (actually it was done for us). Then a parade of men with buckets of various vegetable dishes, rice, desserts and bread came by the other side of the table and filled the leaf with food, and then they came back and served seconds, and then thirds. We all managed to eat with our right hand only, and left the table totally stuffed. While we were eating the room had filled up pretty well, and they were already cleaning off the table ahead of us, and the other end of ours before we were done eating.
We were ushered up stairs again to the reception hall. People were still standing in line to talk to the bride and groom. We were told they might be there till 11pm or later, we had arrived at 7. After they met the bride and groom, they went down to eat. We met several relatives of the bride and groom, and spent a long time talking with one gentleman who lives 6 months of the year in Banglore and 6 months of the year in the USA. He got his US citizenship, and worked there for many years. He and his wife are both retired now. Anyways after another hour or so, we decided it was time to leave so that Anna could complete some of her homework. We got home just in time for Manju to dash off to catch the last bus home. What a day!! But we survived our first Indian wedding reception.

Of Grammys and Appliances

Sitting here watching the Grammys, yes we get them on delay in prime time here, I was reminded of our Fridge. I know, most appliances make some sort of noise, but most of them not musical. So why does watching the Grammys make me think of the fridge? Because ours sings to us. No really it does. When the door is left open too long it plays an electronic version of It's a Small Small World. Really pretty amusing when you think about it. It is a small world and we should take care of it by not wasting energy. The best part is that if you even leave the door open for just a few extra seconds more than it takes to reach in and grab the milk, when the door is closed it kind of whimpers the first 2 notes.

As for other things electrical, I called about our UPS today and our water filter. Both will be taken care of soon, ie nothing has been done yet. So more waiting and unfortunately another day for Cindy to stay home for the installers. Also I called about our couch which was supposed to be re-upholstered. In the afternoon I got a call from someone who said something like "mumble MG Road mumble Glass Samples mumble mumble office." I guessed he was coming to show me some samples of something and wanted to know where my office was. Sure enough he had fabric samples for the couch--which we ordered over 3 weeks ago and would be ready in a few days.... They hadn't even started. Worst yet, the sample wasn't really very nice, so now we need to figure out how to get something better. This means even more waiting. Oh well, welcome to Indian Stretchable Time.

Other than that, my trip to Finland was short but necessary. Unfortunately I didn't get to go back by Giselle on the way home, but I had been away from home for almost 2 weeks straight and needed to be back with people here. I hope to stay in India through March now (wish me luck).

Dodging Storms

I'm just back from China. It was a quick trip. I spent 2 days traveling and 2 days there. Fortunately I got out just in time. I got an sms from a co-worker as I was returning which described Gridlock in Hangzhou from all of the snow. My flight out was at 8:50 (we left at 9:30 due to de-icing), but I was really worried when I got to the airport. I had heard that they had closed down the airport due to snow earlier in the week, and the flight before mine to Hong Kong was cancelled due to weather at the airport. Since I was also outbound for Hong Kong, I thought I was in trouble. Fortunately China Eastern Air was willing/able to still leave.

I also heard horror stories from co-workers who had come into Shanghai the day before me. It took one of them 5 hours of sitting on the road for a 2 hour trip. Fortunately I had no trouble, other than a driver who was 1/2 hour late picking me up. Not much really, considering. The road was all clear.

I didn't get any pictures this time, too cold to wander around much and the trip was too short to do much anyways. The skys were grey and the weather was COLD--especially after coming from Bangalore where it is between 25-30C every day now--just nice. I felt strange carrying my wool coat and rain-overcoat to the airport, but I was very glad to have it with me in China. Worse yet was carrying the heavy coat, along with my permitted 2 bottles of wine, back and having to wait for Manju to get to the airport to pick me up. Traffic was heavy in Bangalore around the airport when I returned. But being back was really nice, it was feeling like home...

On the way home I saw an auto-rickshaw with an interesting handpainted sign on the back. This was one of those-darn, where is my camera moments. Oh well, I'll just have to describe it. It was in small nice letters, and it said "Don't Pullet". I think it is supposed to say "don't pollute" which is a bit of a laugh on a diesel belching auto-rickshaw, but the sentiment is nice. On the other hand he could be admonishing traffic not to play chicken--which seems to be another Indian traffic management technique. I guess it could be described as making the most use of all possible pavement surfaces. If the oncoming traffic is not as heavy as your direction, just pull out and claim more of the road's width to accommodate traffic in your direction--as long as there isn't a bus coming in the other direction.

Anyways we had a fairly relaxing weekend, complete with a nap in the shade behind the house where there was an already installed set of rings for a hammock.

We also got our shipment in from the states finally. It took me about an hour at customs. Most of the time was spent in a warehouse where the receiving shipper was looking for our crates. Customs went through most of the boxes, but didn't seem too interested to dig too deeply, which was nice. It could have taken a lot longer. Now we have some real cooking utensils, etc...

Earlier last week, we had someone in to install curtain rods. Take a look at how his extension cord was plugged in. This is typical in India. On the same day I saw the guy who was installing shower curtain rods sitting on the floor with a metal pipe across his foot, to create some space between the rod and the floor. He was cutting with a hacksaw, about 1/4 inch from the end of his big toe. Later I saw the curtain rod guy with a similar setup, but he had the other end of the rod in between his big and pointer toe on the other foot to hold it still...

That's all for now, I'm getting on a plane for Helsinki in a little bit.

House

Got keys today !!!! Yay!!!

Also discovered an excellent restaurant on Wood Rd-- Olive Beach. Best food so far in Bangalore. Good wine too.

Hope to be staying in the house by Friday.