What's for Dinner?

I've posted a few pictures of the meals being served at the Riverdale Resort, but there is a lot more selection. Here is there menu.

Note: Click on the thumbnail to see larger image...unless you can actually read this...

Note number 2: The prices in the menu's are in rupees. The conversion rate is around 46 to 1 USD.

 

By the way, if you want people to look at you very strangely in a restaurant, start taking pictures of the menu...or the food for that matter. The fact that I was not wheeled off in a strait jacket to the nearest instanity play house, must mean the people of India enjoy the entertainment of crazy tourists.

 

Monsoon HiJinks

Note from the Editor: High Jinks is a an english word meaning playful, often noisy and rowdy activity, usually involving mischievous pranks. "http://www.thefreedictionary.com/high jinks"

Some of the locals have asked that I use my skill sets in propagating the myth of the Monsoon. For a small fee, I was happy to help. Below are doctored photos of what appears to be heavy rain in Kochi.

Note from the Editor: If you were paid, where is my cut?

 

These photos were sent to various travel agencies abroad for purposes I have stated earlier.

Note from the Editor: Our facts department has yet to verify the earlier statements. I'm not sure what to believe in this case.

For those with Photoshop skills, notice how I have added the overcast sky with gradient transparency to create a density layer for the weather pattern to be mixed. Also notice the skewing of the tree fronds to create a sense of wind. I also added reflective emmisitivation and congorilation on the roof top for droplet and pool effects. A number of people have thought these were real photos, and that makes me very proud of my work on this project.

Note from the Editor: Where is my dictionary?

I realize that blogging about this exposes the Monsoon myth, but no one will believe me because I do very professional work when doctoring my photo's. I've also worked in Hollywood to make people look like someone they are not...for example Tom Cruise is actually only 4 foot 8 inches tall and mostly bald with a very bad acne problem.

Note from the Editor: Can we be sued for this?

I do feel a little guilty about misleading so many people, but I'm getting paid to do it. So, that should make up for something.

Note from the Editor: I feel so dirty.

Fruit of the Gods now for real people

Anyone who is anyone knows about the famous and worldly Jack Fruit. This made me a nobody until just a few days ago when I was introduced to the Jack Fruit. At first, I thought Jack Fruit may have been a local Bollywood actor, and I could get my picture taken with him along with a signed autograph. But when I was introduced to a Jack Fruit, I recognized immediately that my life would be change forever.  I have now joined the Jack Fruit singing gospel  missionaries, and I am spreading the word to the non-converted. You can find out about other local Jack Fruit singing cults in your area by opening your local paper to the fruits and vegetables entertainment section.

For those who are converted Jack Fruit lovers, here is a link for you with hundreds of pictures by those of us who are true Jack Fruit loving fanatics.

http://flickr.com/search/?q=jackfruit

In the local Malayalam language here in the state of Kerala this joyous of all fruits is called “Chakka”. Other countries around the world have endearing names for this wonderful of all fruits, like Kathal in Bengali, Mak in Lao, Jaca in Portuguese, and Panasa in Oriya….the list goes on and on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_fruit

These largest of all amazing fruits can weigh in at over 80 lbs. They are used throughout the world from sweets, cosmetics, and aphrodisiacs to high industrials products like the fire resistant tiles on the space shuttle.

In Greek mythology, when Zeus was just a boy, he used to throw Jack Fruit seeds as small explosive devices to keep  other lesser godly children from misbehaving. As he grew older and started throwing lighting bolts to impress his friends and enemies, he still used the godly Jack Fruit for many other uses. For example, his wife Hera married him because of his Jack Fruit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus

If you find that not everything I have said is true, that is only because we of the Jack Fruit singing gospel missionaries have not yet rewritten history. If you would like to join us in our noble endeavors to immortalize the Jack Fruit, please call 1-463-633-7848 or 1-GodofFruit. Ask for Sally our resident disciple for new worshipper recruits. I think there is a bonus for signing up over the Jack Fruit Festival of Seeds. You get a free bottle of fresh scented Jack Fruit pulp shampoo and  conditioner , a Jack Fruit baseball hat with the words “I believe in the God of Fruit, and it believes in me”, and the very popular Jack Fruit kitchen gourmet kit which includes an ever sharp knife, can of grease, and the all in one seed pulping popper.  All these things are completely valueless before coupon, but it’s now free for signing up and becoming a Jack Fruit frenzied semi-depressed cultist.

 

 

Mithra

I've dropped a few dozen pics of the store that is on Levels 1 and 2 of the IdentityMine building. The store is called Mithra which means "friend". If you find something you like just ask the clerk staring very strangly at me in isle 3 to help check you out at the register.

http://www.therhogue.com/images/Pictures/India/Blog/Mithra

This is not a big store, but it does carry a wide variety of goods. I'm sure I could live in this building if it wasn't for that pesky security guard and his pet watch goat.

Here are a couple of pics from the link above: (you can click on the pictures to see the larger thumbnail pic)

 

You can "Scratch and Win" here...I'm not sure where you scratch or what you win for scratching, but that is what the sign says.

 

I like this pic because the colors came out great as the white florescent light bounced off the varied colors from the fruits and vegetables.

 

Also, on the second floor there is a Restaurant that serves India Chinese food. This is different than American Chinese food, and all of this is different than Chinese Chinese food.

 

There are a lot more pictures in the link I gave you above. For a small store there is a lot of stuff, kids toys and games, school supplies, clothes, appliances, kitchen goods etc... Jophie at IdentityMine showed me some cereal he likes called "Crunchy Muesli" which is a Swiss style cereal with oats and nuts. It's really good. I have it in the mornings from time to time with a banana and cold milk. Now that I think of it, perhaps I should not have mentioned this. If Jophie goes to buy the cereal, and there isn't any left, he is going to hunt me down with his semi-automatic spear gun.

By the way, the story around the abundant use of semi-automatic spear guns is due to the large fishing industry here. Most people found it difficult to catch a lot of fish using a single hand held spear, and with the invention of James Bond films, the adoption of automatic spear guns was an obvious choice. After a few years, there were numerous spearing accidents due to overly sensitive trigger mechanisms, and the local government now requires a person to have a license before they can own an automatic spear gun. Since most people here drive without a license, it makes sense they would own a spearing gun without a license, and thus the semi-automatic gun was created to work around the existing gun laws. If you are wondering why fishing nets are not used much here, it is because India is a very eco-friendly place, and nets have to made out of material that will decompose naturally within a week...which makes nets a lot more expensive that spear rod bullets.

Now let's get back to the regularly scheduled program. When you shop for banana's in India, you buy them green because they are ripe at that stage. A fully yellow banana is too ripe. In the U.S. a green banana is equivalent to a small stick you might beat your little brother up with until he starts crying. Another factoid is that I can put the bananas in the refrigerator for over a week, and they will not age. The same method of keeping bananas doesn't appear to work on ittle brothers unfortunately.

 

Note: if you want a high resolution picture of something on the blog, send me an e-mail at Support1@TheRHogue.com .

Where am I?

The nice folks at IdentityMine India have showed me where I am at as I was very lost without a map.

 

Here is a link that will allow you to zoom in and look around. Use the stadium as a reference point.

http://www.indnav.com/servlet/DMap?mt=cityMap&ctyId=2199

I don't have street maps for the area as they don't seem to exists in order to keep tourists dependent on taxi's. But the nifty satelite view helped me a lot. I'll use it more when I start to travel around.

If you zoom in close enough to the resort, you will see me waving hello. If you get an error like, "sorry, we don't have imagery for this region", that is double talk for "we are censoring out this guy waving at us in his underwear". The guys at Google really need to get out more. It's called a "Mundu" here in Kochi. I'm just wearing it above the knee like shorts...hmmm...maybe they only censor foreigners that are wearing a mundu - I guess that is not a bad thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundu

What Monsoon

When I made a deal with the IdentityMine Execs to go to Kochi India, they kept telling me. “You are going in Monsoon season, and it rains all the time.” I find that an interesting comment because IdentityMine is in Tacoma, Washington which is near Seattle and it rains there all the time too.

 

Well, I have been here for 2 weeks and it hasn’t rained yet. It has been warm and sunny. I am beginning to think there is a conspiracy afoot around the Monsoon, and I’ll expose it right here and now…at this point there is a car chase seen with the evil leaders of the conspiracy and lots of big explosions, and of course our hero comes out on top.

 

The conspiracy started ages ago when foreigners started to enjoy being in other countries. As an odd note, people born in Scotland are native foreigners – if you don’t believe me, look it up in the all knowing and wise Wikipedia. Anyway, the people of Kochi India were getting tired of all these foreigners staying for longer and longer periods soaking up all the beautiful sunshine and generally enjoying themselves. We all know the worst sight is to see a foreigner have a good time which is the main reason Americans don’t watch French television or visa versa. Then, one day, it actually rained in Kochi, and all the foreigners were very sad which made all the Kochi  people very happy, and this is how the conspiracy gets started. When the foreigners asked why it was raining a small boy in the crowd sneezed while trying to call to his mother, and what was heard by the foreigners was “Monsoon”. When the foreigners asked what Monsoon was, one smart Kochi man said that the rainy day that was today will be for six more months, and that is the Monsoon. So, the foreigners left because they didn’t want to be sad, and the natives learned it was alright to tell a lie.

 

Like most myths, the Monsoon is really only a perception built out of ignorance. If you think the people of Kochi will be mad for be exposing this conspiracy, they won’t. Because a simple truth can never destroy a complicated lie.

 

In the local Kochi paper today, there was a picture of a elderly man on a beach looking out over the water. A black umbrella was perched unfolded over his head. In the picture, it was not raining. In the picture, it was a very nice sunny day.  It appears even some locals believe in the Monsoon so strongly  they think it’s raining when it’s not.

 

For those who do not have a sense of humor, here is a link just for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon

IdentityMine

 

When I tell people I’m going to India, they get excited, and they think that will be a fun adventure. Then I tell them I’ll be in India for almost a year. At this point, most people get a blurry eyed look as their mouth drops open with the comment “11 months ?”. I normally have to repeat that to people once or twice before they actually believe me. Once they are sure I’m totally insane, then everything seems to make sense to them. Or, perhaps when I tell them I’m in India to work for the company IdentityMine (IdentityMine.com) as a Computer Consultant on Microsoft’s latest technologies, it makes it easier for them to understand.

 

So now that I’m only partially insane, and I’ve become less of a potential physical threat, they start asking questions about the work I’m doing. Since there may be a few readers who know nothing about computers, I’ll just say that Microsoft is developing a new Windows Operating system which has some really cool shipping with it called Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). I’ve been working at Microsoft for the last 2 years on WPF. I think that is all any needs to know for now or I will get labeled as a geek or some other high school name I don’t want to be associated with.

 

When I found out that IdentityMine had a company in Kochi India, and that team needed a consultant in WPF. I offered my services, and they accepted. I still don’t think they know there are some great beaches in Kochi, or they would not have sent me. I normally fall asleep while sun bathing on the beach, and sleep can really hinder a person’s productivity. For those who are not getting this joke, it’s hard to sleep and work at the same time.

 

IdentityMine even offered to pay for my stay at the Riverdale Resort including meals. The big con never went so smoothly. You may think I’m crazy for telling you all this because the IM exec’s will find out, but if they didn’t know about the beach in Kochi, I’m sure they don’t read blogs either. Although if I find myself actually doing work for these folks, I may have under estimated them. I guess we’ll see if I can stay one step ahead of them.

 

So now that you think you know why I’m here for eleven months, and I may seem more sane at this point, I’ll show you where I’m supposed to be working on the occasionally rainy day.

 

 

IdentityMine is on the 3 rd floor, and they take up about half the floor space. I included the side picture to show the length of the building for a size perspective.

 

The cars are very small here due to the traffic and roads. I’ll post on that later. The Hyundia dealer ship is next door to the IdentityMine building.

 

 

To get to the IdentityMine office, it starts at the entry. This makes sense to me as an entry is defined as a place to enter. I’m find this concept easy to understand. Where I get confused is with exits, because exits can also be and entry, and the question becomes should I walk backward out of an exit entry, and am I coming or going. It’s very confusing.

 

There is an elevator to the left and stairs to the right. I find the stairs a more common means of travel as the elevator seems to pretentious to me.  There is also some sightseeing  while going up the stairs which starts with the painting in the entry way.

 

 

Here are other paintings as I go up the stairs.

 

I’m guessing these are not paintings done by famous artists from India, but I sense a theme from the local artists around obtaining happiness through bathroom fixtures.

 

Once I reach the 3^rd and top floor, I have to go through security checks to get into the office. The guy you see walking toward, pulling up his belt and ready to do some foreign body sand bag tossing (very popular in France or with someone French), politely greeted me and let me into the facility. I think I would have felt better if I had been frisked, cuffed, and pushed around while a background check was being done – just like residents in L.A face every day. This security guy was more like a Walmart greeter.

 

Now that I’m through the 7 foot steel plated door, having gone through multiple eye, finger and other body part scans to verify my identity, I was able to see the offices.

 

 

Here is Regi’s office. He is the main exec, and he doesn’t know why I’m here either.

 

Here is a panoramic view from the office. If you swing your head left to right to get the full effect, try not to get motion sickness.

 

 

I caught these folks sneaking a possibly unauthorized lunch in the lunch room during lunch time. They may be smiling now, but when they had to pay me 100 rupee each to keep me from telling Regi about their clandestine lunch, those upside down frowns turned right side up. Of course Regi will never find out about this because Exec’s don’t read blogs.

 

I actually decided to stay and do some work that day even though it was sunny because these really were some nice people. They have been a joy to work with, and I have nothing bad to say about them as long as they keep paying my not too.

 

Notice: for those folks offended by this blog, there is a comment section for you which I will never read.

To Riverdale Resort

After all that flying, it was time for some rest and relaxation. When we arrived at Riverdale, I was pleasantly surprised. Here are some pics, and you can judge for yourself.

 

Riverdale gets its name because it is located next to a…take a guess…correct…a river.

 

The fishing nets you see are very ancient, and you can read more about them here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheena_vala . You can find out more about Kochi at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kochi%2C_India .

 

Of course at this point in my journey, I was more interested in my room. To be more precise, I wanted the bed in the room.  I slept most of the day, ate dinner, and then slept all night. I really think it was a good idea to get a lot of rest. When I woke up it was 6:00am, and I felt very refreshed. I have not felt any jet lag or time discrepancy issues since my stay, and I believe it was because I slept it all off.

 

When I entered the room, I was really shocked. It was a 2 bedroom 2 bath room with full Kitchen. Ok, this was unexpected as I was expecting a standard hotel room…lucky me, and yes there is cable too.

 

 

One of the benefits of the Riverdale Resort is that there is a restaurant on site. I’ve had a variety of meals from french toast and fried chicken to authentic southern India dishes. The fruit is local and very fresh. The pineapple is amazing. The juices are freshly made. The fish is catch of the day. 

These dishes are fixed with an Indian style and flavor, and some dishes, not all, may be a bit spicy or hot at first, but I’ve gotten accustomed to it. It’s going to be interesting when I get back to the U.S. I wonder how bland the food is going to be.

If you know the names of the India food dishes in the pics below, please post comments on it. I have no clue what some of these things are yet.

 

Some of the plants around Riverdale Resort I have never seen before, and I took some close ups:

 

My stay here has been very pleasant thus far, and the staff are very nice and accommodating. As I find out more about Riverdale, I will pass it along. Post questions if you have them, and I can make inquiries.

 Here is a link to Riverdale Resort:

http://www.ernakulam.com/RiverdaleResort/index.htm

 

Destination Kochi

Getting to Kochi was very easy. Since my starting location was Seattle Washington,  I could take two paths to get to Kochi – to the east or to the west - some choices in life are easy to make. Going west made sense to me from Seattle, but I found it was full of  stops and long delays, which may not be bad if you want to explore these stops as part of the journey.  But for me, my trip is a business trip – more on that in later posts. Going East had less stops with no long layover delays.

The first flight was on British Airways on a 747-400 from Seattle to London. With all of the British passengers, crew and entertainment, it felt like I was visiting England for a short time. Most of the people on the plane were Anglo-European descent – sort of like being in a Hugh Grant movie. I’ve always enjoyed British humor, and it was fun to eavesdrop on peoples conversations from time to time.

After nine and a half hours in  the air…yes that is a long time…we all landed in Heathrow Airport. I arrived at the international terminal which is Terminal 4. My next British Airways flight to Chennai, India was also in Terminal 4. I only had 45 minutes until the plane left, and I had to go through a security check. The plane was boarding when I arrived at my gate with 30 minutes left until take off. So, I had plenty of time. The plane was a 777, and I found it strange that we all had to board the plane by taking buses to the plane, which means everyone walked up to the door of the plane by means of a long staircase. I’m not sure how handicapped folks go on, perhaps someone can comment on this. The majority of people on this flight were of Indian descent, and the food was also Indian cuisine.

After ten hours in the air, I landed in Chennai at 3:30am local time - Chennai is located on the east coast of India farther to the south. At this point, I was very glad to get off the plane as the 2 long flights were slowly wearing me down. In Chennai, I went through Immigration, down to baggage claim, out the exit, turned left and walked 200 meters to the Airport entrance to get my boarding pass to Kochi on Jet Airways. If someone asks to help you , it’s up to you. I said yes to have some haggling fun as I had 3 hours to wait until my flight to Kochi.  Before entering the airport, I was asked for my ticket. This was interesting because it means only people who are flying are allowed into the airport. It was the same at the Kochi airport. Once in the airport, I turned left, when through another security check. At this point, I noticed a pattern. All the security folks were wearing military uniforms, but none had weapons as far as I can recall. The next difference came when getting my boarding pass. I was asked to wait until the flight was posted on the big board…which would mean they had scheduled a gate for it at that time (My reasoning may be incorrect. Please correct if you know different). I sat down until about an hour before my flight left, and the plane was posted, and all passengers were asked to go through security. I got my boarding pass, given tags for my carry-on to be stamped at security, and went through security. Women were asked to go through a different security area than the men. A wand was used on each person, and my ticket was stamped with security approval. I then waited for my plane to be called.

When the plane was called to board around 6:30am, we loaded onto a bus that drove us out to the plane. Once all passengers loaded onto the plane we were given a cold towel which was refreshing on the back of the neck and face, small lime juice drink, local paper, and candy before the plane took off. In the air, we were served breakfast – cheese omelet, biscuit with butter and strawberry jam, chicken sausage, tea or coffee, and what appeared to be a hush puppy with local spices. It was all very good.

As we reached maximum flying altitude, I noticed that the Chennai landscape was generally brown and flat. See picture below:

 

There are a few lakes in the picture above. The area is generally broken in farm plots with a few towns large to small visible from time to time. I was told that Chennai is a dryer area than Kochi.

As we continued west toward Kochi, the landscape started to change. See pic below:

 

Farther to the west, the monsoon storm clouds grew:

 

I was afraid I was not going to get pics of Kochi from the air, but I got lucky:

         

 

From the air, it looks much more tropical than Chennai. I’m not sure why as the mountain ranges didn’t seem that high to block west to east weather. Perhaps I can find someone to explain this.

 

When I landed in Kochi, I was picked up by  Kurian C. George (sir name is used first) who is Country Managing Directory for IdentityMine. I was glad to see him as my flying days were done with – for a while a least.

 

Here is a quick traveling synopsis: I left June 3^rd at 6:30pm on a Saturday, and I arrived in Kochi June 5^th at 8:00 am. The total flying time was about 21 hours, and the total time from Seattle Airport to the Kochi Airport was 25 hours – mostly flying time.

The Kochi Adventure Begins

What is this blog about? Read on...

This blog is designed to be a travel documentary on my 11 month stay in Kochi, India. I’m hoping for content from the people I meet, business topics, personal topics, factoids, and other tidbits that arise in my stay. The pictures will range from raw to nice, and the prose will range from facts to enriched. Topics will range From chronological to topic based. All of this means a hodgepodge of possible interesting nuggets depending on your taste of the day.

One of the more interesting aspects of this blog will be the comments section. For reasons you will learn later, I expect there will be more interesting material in the comments than in my posts.

Note: Due to a policy change at IdentityMine, the previous blog is being moved here. Since the previous site was not public, you have not missed anything. This is the place to be.