The OC (Coorg style)

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

More later.

Santa Came to town

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

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

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

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

Quick Note-Island Hopping

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

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

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