The RHogue

End to a Journey

2008-06-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

I'm now back in the U.S.A, and this completes my 8 month round trip to India. I would like to thank all the great people I met and worked with while in India. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I would also like to thank IdentityMine for providing me the opportunity to be the guest to a wonderful host.

Of course, special thanks have to go to those I worked with at IdentityMine India. They opened their hearts and made me feel like part of the family.

I have always believed that people around the world are mostly the same. We wish to live each day wanting to respect and love our fellows. In times of joy, we are joyful, and in times of strife, we wish to band together. Many times, wishes do not come true without effort, diligence and understanding. I was privileged to feel the compassion of India, and I will be forever grateful. Sometimes, wishes do come true.

Warmest Regards

TheRHogue

New Dehli

2008-06-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

My last day in India was in New Dehli. I was able to visit a few parks and forts before my plane departed.

Here is a link to find out more about New Dehli

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

Here is a map of New Dehli:

http://dcnewdelhi.delhigovt.nic.in/images/ndmap.gif

You can see from the map there a a number of green zones which are parks. A number of parks are based around important ancient structures from old tombs, temples to forts built in the 1600's.

The India Gate is a memorial to all those who died in World War I. The road to it was blocked off because there was an assembly of dignitaries scheduled to hold a procession sometime during the week, and the event was important enough that a number of security measures needed to be made.

I stopped by a local fort, and it was very similar the fort in Agra.

There was another park with a large temple.

Looking back from the temple

You an see the people sitting in the front and walking in the back right to get the size relationship.

There were some other areas in the park with really old temples which were much smaller. You can see from the architecture and materials the difference between the ages.

My next stop was at another park with even older ruins. Notice the people near the base of the ruin. The height of this structure is amazing. It's incredible that it is still standing after hundreds of years. The age of some of the structures in this park go back as far as the 4th century.

This pic shows the very basic materials used only small amounts of carving once again showing it's age.

Some ancient carvings on a wall.

In contrast here is a new building that was just built recently.

I also stopped by a 5 star hotel known to be visited by the super wealthy and high ranking politicians.

It's now time for me to go to the airport and leave India. I'll make my final blog post when I get back to the states. It was a great day, and I'm glad I was able to travel around New Dehli before leaving. I believe I saw the oldest ruins here in the entire 8 months I stayed in India. It was interesting to see the older carvings and structures change into the current ones we see today.

Agra - Taj Mahal

2008-06-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to the Taj Mahal. I visited this amazing structure during my visit to Agra while the sun was setting. Here is a wikipedia link to learn more about this site.

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

Here are my two best pics:

When visiting the Taj Mahal, you are required to take electric carts from a parking lot which is fairly far away. This is to help prevent damaging exhaust which could get in the air. A lot of damage had been done in the past due to acid rain, and they try to keep cars as far away as possible.

The electric cart stops at the entrance courtyard.

There is a formal entrance into the Taj Mahal courtyard.

When you go through the doorway you see the Taj Mahal in all it's glory.

It is difficult to get a feeling of how large this tomb is until you get closer.

Here is a closer shot of the front entrance.

Let's get closer to see some of the inlay work.

The black stone has been inlayed into the marble with great precision.

There is a temple to the left and right of the tomb. In the pic below there is a man sitting and a girl walking out of the temple which shows the relative size of the structure. It is of course smaller than the tomb.

On the back side of the Taj Mahal is a river.

Finally, here is a look back from the Taj Mahal entrance. The symmetry of everything is amazing.

I encourage you to read about the Taj Mahal and the love story around why it was built. It really is a wonder of the world.

My next stop is in New Delhi which will be my last day in India. There are still a few places I have yet to see. So, stay tuned.

Agra

2008-06-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

My next stop was in Agra which is the home of the Taj Mahal. I will have a special post for the Taj Mahal, and this post will be about everything else I saw in Agra.

First, here is a wikipedia link to learn more about Agra:

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

My first stop was at the Fatehpur Sikri which is a fort 35 km from Agra. This fort was abandoned by Mughal Emperor Akbar due to a lack of water, and his headquarters moved into Agra Fort.

Below is the Diwan-i-Khas, which is a hall for private audiences. The fort's time frame is during the 1500's. So, the architecture is simpler than later structures.

Inside the audience hall.

Here is a close up of some of the carvings.

The couple below are renewing their wedding vows.

Here is a pic of the panchmahal.

This is the main courtyard.

The fort is on a small hill overlooking a valley which is mainly farm lands.

The entrance to the fort. On the left of the pic below there is a person sitting on a small landing. Even though Agra Fort is bigger wither later architecture, the Sikri was not small.

After I visited this fort, I went to the Akbar Tomb. The tome is in the white marble building, and next to it is a temple.

Akbar's tomb is very simple, but still done in marble.

The pic below is a sheet of marble with a carved pattern etched out of it.

The temple itself was very big.

Inside the temple there were some other tombs.

My next location was at a marble inlay shop. They took semi-precious stones, and ground them on a grinding wheel to create a number of mosaic designs etched out of the marble. For example a leaf on a flower. Some of these manufactured items were as small as a pin which required a very high level of sensitivity during the creation of the item.

This close up shows just how small and intricate these individual pieces become. The white part is the marble, and every piece is hand crafted on a grinding wheel using the appropriate colored semi-precious stone.

Here is a reproduction of the Taj Mahal done with inlay. For those who are interested in this type of product, you can visit Akbar International which has a website at www.akbarinternational.com

My next stop was at the Taj Mahal during sunset, but I'm leaving that for it own post. In the morning, I vistited Agra Fort. There is a couple on the left which will shows the relative size of the entrance.

There are a few inner courtyards with rooms and offices where business took place back in the 1600's.

Here is the main courtyard where the ruler made final judgements. There is a marble building in the center of the picture below where the ruler would sit.

The fort over looks the river, and on a clear day you can see the Taj Mahal.

Due to the fog in the morning, these birds were having a hard time seeing the Taj Mahal from the fort. They took some time to pose for the camera before flying off toward the Taj Mahal to see it during the sunrise.

The day at Jaipur

2008-06-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Jaipur around 4:00pm, and the traffic was heavy. Of course, the fact that Jaipur is one of the most densely populated cities in India means traffic is always heavy.

Jaipur is considered one of the best planned cities in India as streets run east to west and north to south. Based on this old 1875 pictures on wikipedia, it looks great, but now there are over 2 million people here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur - there is some great information here.

In one of the black and white courtyard pictures, you will see the Hawa Mahal. Here is a pic I took from the street. You will notice that the streets are no wider than they were back in 1875 when the picture was taken.

I visited the Jantar Mantar observatory - here is a link for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar_%28Jaipur%29

There are a number of interesting instruments created in the the early 1700's, and one of the largest time instruments in the world is here. In the pic below, there are some people in the upper left of the photo.

Here is a pic of the city palace.

I also went through the local fort which was up in the foothills.

It's a fairly steep climb up to the fort, and a number of lazy tourists took some alternate transportation.

They were shooting a movie in the courtyard while I was there. The actor and actress are to the left of the doorway in this scene. They had them stand on the pedestal and do a few dance moves. The film crew was generally moving around different places in the fort for the next couple of hours.

There is a great view from up on top of the fort. It really gives you a sense of the awe and beauty that the people of the time were witness too.

One thing to notice is the use of inlay work.

There was also some nice glass mosaics.

My next stop tomorrow is in Agra which is famous for the high skills of inlay workmanship. My guide for the day was Narendra Singh, and you can e-mail him at narendraguide@yahoo.com.in if you want a tour of Jaipur.

It was another great day, tomorrow I head for Agra and the Taj Mahal.

Udaipur Palace Day

2007-07-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

Udaipur day 2 was a tour of palaces, temples and parks. Here is a link with some history about Udaipur.

WikiPedia link to Udaipur

One thing to notice is that the ruler was called maharana, and not maharaja - both basically mean "great king", but if you use the term maharaja consider it a bit of an insult that may get you 30 days in the local dungeon.

My guide took me to the City Palace where the Maharana lived. It was enormous. Only part of the palace was open to tourists. This line of Maharana's believed in a sun god, and everything from building locations to furniture placement had something to do with the rising and setting of the sun.

The entrance door we used had the a plaque of the sun over it, and the door was facing east for the sunrise.

Just inside the doorway was large billboard with the genealogy of all the Maharana. It dates from 500 a.d. to present, and there are almost 80 rulers in the list.

We then started to go room to room.

One thing to notice is the use of semi-precious stones for inlay work, the use of mirrors, and colored glass from Belgium.

Here is an overlook from the upper floors of the palace.

There was a rooms for nothing but miniature paintings. Here is one of them. The paintins go from floor to ceiling. If you remember from my earlier blogs, miniature paintings are done using one squirrel hair as a brush.

There were rooms for artifacts also.

The Maharana had a stables on the grounds also. Here is one of his horses. There are other behind it, and they are all beautiful creatures.

We entered a few courtyards along the way. Here are two of many.

The detail in the picture above is impossible to show off because of the intricate inlay work. Here are some close inlay works around the palace.

Each inlay is made out of semi-precious stones. Each piece is created from hand on a grinding stone. Some of the pieces are as small as a very very small thumb tack. The ability to hold such a small piece with the fingers while shaping the stone against the grinding wheel takes years to master.

The work is so delicate that it's really hard to see the craftsmanship without a super close up shot on a very specific area. I equate this type of work to the miniature painting where only a squirrel hair is used.

After touring the palace, which took a few hours, we headed of to a nearby temple. There was a service in progress and the people inside where sitting on the floor chanting and praying.

The guide and I then headed toward a park which was used by the Maharana and his wives in the old days. The park was used as a place to keep cool during hot summer days.

We had a stop for lunch, and then we passed by a few shops. We stopped by Ali Baba arts, where there were a few guys doing miniature art paintings. They have old and new, large and small paintings. You can contact them at alibabaarts@yahoo.com . If you want to buy some miniture art in Udaipur this is the place to go.

There is also Cottage Industries Exposition in Udaipur if you want to buy what they have to offer - really beautiful stuff. Here is a link to their site - CIE Link

As it got later in the day, the guide set me up on a sunset lake tour where I could see some of the other palaces on the lake. These palaces were luxury hotels.

This shot gives you an idea of where things are located. The palace on the right is the City Palace, and then on the left is the white palace, and I'm taking a pic from another palace on the other side of the lake.

Here are some pics of flowers I took during the day. I like the first two the best.

Here are a couple more shots I took which I like.

It was a great day, and full of amazing places. I want to thank Sushil Joshi for being my guide for the day. If you are in Udaipur, and you need a guide his phone number is 91-294-2488750. If you just ask your hotel receptionist for him, they will know how to contact him.

Tomorrow is a travel day to Jaipur which is one of the more densely populated places in India. I'm currently on day 14 out of my 18 day non-stop trip. So, there is still a lot more to see here in the ancient kingdom of Rajasthan.

To Udaipur

2007-07-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

As promised, here come the monkeys. Today was a travel day from Mount Abut to Udaipur. While traveling down the mountain in the early morning, we came across a group of monkeys on coffee break.

The three monkeys on the left were socializing about local politics. They were not satisfied with the work being done by the road commission for garbage pickup. It seems the head of the road commission was in hot water for getting more than his fair share of the garbage being collected. The lone monkey on the right was mumbling on about global warming, and how the government should be responsible for giving out weekly rations of sun tan lotion due to lack of health care coverage to the poor monkey community.

Much to my relief, I found this mother and son playing this little piggy went to market on their toes. I was going to play itsy bitsy spider, but I had a lot of traveling to do to get to Udaipur. So, I said goodbye, and they wished me safe travels ahead.

The next stop was at a large temple area with a smaller temple next to it. Here are some pics of the smaller temple.

Here is a closeup which shows more detail:

Now off to the main temple which was huge.

The inside was spectacular.

While I was roaming around looking at all the intricate carvings, a security person pointed something out to me which was interesting. This is a honey hive attached to one of the stone figurines on the outside wall.

Here are a couple of other photogenic pics I liked.

So far this has been a great travel day. We continued over a mountain pass toward Udaipur, and I was able to get this shot back into the valley of the temple.

After a few more hours, we arrived at the hotel in Udaipur. I will provide more about this area in the next post.

Here is the hotel room.

I had a wonderful room on the top floor. Here is a vista shot from roof.

The sun was setting by this time, and it was time to call it a night. But was a great place, and what a great day. Udaipur seems like a really nice and romantic place.

Tomorrow, forts, temples, shops and sight seeing. I wonder if those monkeys are still sitting around talking about politics, or they have now advanced their discussion to the best way to groom ones fleas.

Of course, it's hard to end this day without a nice sunset.

Mount Abu

2007-05-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

My next couple of days were spent traveling and looking around Mount Abu which is a hill station known as a cool get away from the heat of the lower valleys. There is a great link on WikiPedia which gets into some details on elevation, climate and history. For example, the highest peak is 1722 meters (5500 feet). It's called the "oasis in the desert" because of the waterfalls, lakes and cool temps. Also of note is that Mount Abu is the only hill station in Rajasthan.

Jodhpur - Day 8

2007-04-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

In the morning, it was time for some local site seeing. I headed for the Jaswant Thada which is a memorial in memory of Maharja Jaswant Singh II. It's made out of marble, and here is a link with more info:

Link to Jaswant Thada

The pic below is the memorial for the wife.

This pic is different memorials for other relatives and generations. The more affluent the person the bigger the memorial. What is interesting is that there are still relatives that exist, and when they die, the body is burned in a sacred location on the grounds. Apparently there are no relatives today that are worthy of even on of the smaller memorial stones, but being consumed by fire to ashes in this sacred place is still an honor.

Of course the main memorial is much bigger than the others.

As you can see, the main memorial is made all out of marble with intricate hand crafting all around. Because marble is semi-translucent, the sun filters through the stone into the inside burial area. Even today people still come to pay respects in hopes for good fortune.

The next site was a visit to Mehrangarh fort. It's one of the largest forts in India, and it's 400 feet above the city. This link goes into a lot of detail on the history of the fort and what is inside.

Link to Fort Mehrangarh

Notice the blue houses in the pics below. These are Brahman houses. I was also told that painting a house blue made it cooler in side. I guess Brahman's are the privileged few who can afford visual air conditioning.

There were a lot of rooms, and the link will help explain them. Here is a pic of one of them to give you an idea.

After the fort tour, I headed to a garden temple where the wives of the Maharja would go when it was hot. There were canals for water around the garden and many shade trees for keeping cool. Again, a lot of intricate carvings were on all the structures.

After the temple, I stopped by a few shops and came across a major exporter of fabrics which are created by local tribes and villages. Here is a sample of the work which is all done by hand. This export office was one of the largest I've seen. It was eight stories high, and it was full of stuff going out to different places around the world.

I promised the owner to give him a plug on my site. So, as promised.

Maharani Art Exporters is the name of export house, and the e-mail contact is maharanitextile@sify.com. If you are in Jodhpur and you want to buy something to take back to friends or for yourself, this is the place to go. Forget all the other export shops locally or in other cities, as the best deals are here because of the huge volume. I spent a few hours there just looking at things, and I never bought anything. So, window shopping is fine.

At this point, I called it a day, and I headed back to my hotel. In the morning, I stopped by the palace of the Maharaja which had been converted into a luxury hotel.

I was told that this palace was built before the Taj Mahal, and it inspired the architects of the Taj. So, the locals call this the mini-Taj. Right now, I'm still a number of days away from visiting the Taj Mahal. So, if this is a miniature version, the Taj must be enormous.

My destination this morning is to get to Mt. Abu where there is one of the best Jain Temples in India.

Jodhpur Day 7

2007-03-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

On day 7, I was on my way to Jodhpur. I took one last morning pic before I left.

While heading out of the dessert, we med some kids who wanted to have their picture taken.

Pokaran fortress was along the way, and I stopped in to look around. It is currently under renovation, but what you will see is that the stone color. There are different stone quarries from region to region and each has it's own unique color.

Here is a link with some of the history, which I found interesting. It said that the first underground nuclear bomb was detonated in Pokaran. Since I didn't notice an abundance of five legged cows and sheep running around, I assumed it was safe to stay there for a few hours.

Info on Pokaran

There was a small temple residing on an upper floor with the walls where you could get a blessing.

Here are some guys who are doing some of the renovation work. They are carrying a small slab for a sidwalk. There is also a woman who was going around sweeping dust and debris from one corner of the fort to the other all the while being bent over at the back. I think I'd rather be carrying the stone all day than bent over smelling the earth all day.

Here are some other shots of the fortress.

There was a museum on some of the different floors which had weapons and clothing. I noticed these wooden sandals didn't look like they very good arch support.

This hallway had different gods represented. The rings and threads on the left handing between the pillar is where woman ask a god for a boy or girl baby.

A fort would not be a fort without a few cannons. If I'm a homeowner on the other side of the wall, I'm not sure my home insurance would be higher or lower. On the one hand, the firing of the cannons might place a cannon ball through your house rather than over it as these cannons didn't look in very good condition. On the other hand, the invading army might be stopped by a few cannon balls that reached their mark.

The sign says to tell foreigners these pottery items are relics of an ancient past because foreign tourists will believe anything you tell them.

We then left the Pokaran fortress, and I stopped to take a pic of the quarry where the stone came from.

When I reached the hotel, I was very impressed. Notice that here is a picture above each bed. These are Raja's who slept here from other regions. This was quite the honor to be sleeping in the same bed as a former ruler, and since I would be there for two nights, I could sleep in the other bed to claim I slept in the bed of two great rulers of India.

I probably should add that these rulers were dead at the time.

I may also want to add that they were not in the bed at the time. Misunderstandings are so easily made these days.

As the sun was starting to set, I took a walk around the grounds. I discovered that this place was a garden getaway for the ruling Raja, and it was enormous. Just out side my room was one of the gardens which hosted a nice looking peacock who was eating an early dinner.

This is the garden area where the peacock was eating. The rooms are in the back of the pic.

At this point in the walk, I really didn't know how big this place was. I walked some more and I found some tent rooms which were available for those who wished to stay outdoors. These would be used in the summer. Currently, it was fairly chilly at night, and you wouldn't get the privilege of sleeping in a Raja's bed.

After this I reached a bridge. When I looked to the sides, I then realized how big this garden may be. What you are seeing in the right pic is a canal which encircles the entire garden area. There are multiple bridges with multiple canals which look 2 meters high and 20 meters wide. There isn't any water because that is only allowed during the wet season or during important functions.

Another garden area. One thing to remember is that I'm still in Jodhpur. Take another look at the quarry shot. This is truly an oasis in the dessert.

I continued to walk, and I found this center piece of flowers. I really didn't know where I was standing until I got another perspective which I will show you shortly.

I turned up a long walkway, and I saw the pic below.

There is a lot going on here. First notice the large slabs of stone. They appear three meters square. If you remember the pic above of the four guys carrying that one stone. You can imagine the effort needed to carry something that was 100 times as massive - if not more.

In the center there is a water fall area which looks like scales while around it there are different circular rows of flowers. What is being created here is a peacock with it's feathers out stretched.

The pic below is on top. In front down the walkway (upper middle of picture) is the center piece I was at before. There is a man walking on the walkway if you look closely. Behind me is a small lake which feeds the peacock water fall and will fill up all the canals. The Raja and queen had seats up here, and they would get to see the procession of elephants, rituals and dancing among buy a few items of entertainment.

I really wanted someone to turn the water on as it would have be glorious in sight and sound.

Farther toward the left, is a building and garden with the swimming pool.

I can only say this was a very grand place, and certainly worthy of the ruling Raja.

Here are some final pics of a few of the flowers growing in the different gardens.

It was a great travel day, and I was looking forward to heading into see the palaces of Jodhpur in the morning.

Jaisalmer

2007-03-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

Day 5 and 6 was getting from Bikaner to and touring Jaisalmer. I got up early in the morning, and I took some pics of the Palace\Hotel I was staying in before leaving to go deeper into the desert.

This is one of the many hallways. The Hotel\Palace is like a mini-museum. There are artifacts and historical paintings and pictures describing the history of the area.

In the previous post, I showed a pic of the outside of the Hotel\Palace. Here is an interior courtyard pic.

Before reaching Jaisalmer, we stopped by another Palace\Hotel, and I took some pics there.

This was a very beautiful hotel with a the lake while being in the middle of the desert. I continued to be surprised by the number of areas with large lakes while traveling deeper in to the desert.

About midway to Jaisalmer, we stopped for a rest on top of a large sand dune. I was talking with the owner, and I asked, "How big is this hill." He replied, "This is a dune, not a hill." This was my first lesson in desert lingo. In order not to offend anyone else I would ask locals if I'm on a dune or hill when I found myself climbing upwards on rough terrain.

My driver and I then continued heading for Jaisalmer which is called the "Golden City" because of the yellowish sandstone used to build the forts and palaces. There is a great link about the history here:

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

I will let the link above fill you in on details, you will notice that Jaisalmer is fairly close to the Pakistan border. It relies on tourism for a lot of it's income. So, there are no security worries for foreigners. We passed a few military bases along the way, and tourists were everywhere.

Here is a pic of the room and my view out the window. My day was not over yet though as I was going to a temple area to see the sunset over the city.

After driving a few kilometers, I was able to take these pics during the sunset. This was an area where priests were buried. The level of priest could be determined by the size of the marker or the size of building in which the priest was buried.

While I was watching the sunset and taking pics. An old man sat down nearby and started playing some tunes. It was great to hear him play while being around the temples during sunset. It's as if you have gone back in time. Of course, history may be a place I'd like to visit, but I really don't want to live there - most people didn't live very long in ancient times.

The temple area overlooked the city and the fort. I would be visiting the fort the next day.

I also noticed a bunch of electricity making windmills on another "hill".

This was my favorite desktop pic.

Here is a night shot from the hotel room which was also on a "Hill". The had lots of lights shining on the fort. It was a great site.

The next day I took a tour of the city and the fort. I'm going to assume you read the Jaisalmer link I gave above at this point.

There was a lake area that supported the city, and I went there first.

Here is a temple that was by the lake.

I then went and explored the fort with a guide. This is a living fort, but you know that because you read the link...right. This is an inner courtyard. Because this is a living fort, there were a lot of sales people and performers. There was a girl walking back and forth on a tight rope. My guide told me not to buy anything as it was all junk.

The cows also performed as well, but I didn't have any feed. Otherwise, I may have been entertained by the local cow dances.

There were lots of Haveli's. If you don't know what a Haveli is, please read my previous posts. My guide told me that the stature of a person could be determined based on how ornate the craftsmanship was on the out side of the Haveli.

We then went to an overlook point on top of the fort wall.

Again, the history is in the link I gave. So, I'm not getting into details.

Our final fort stop was in front of the largest haveli owned by three bothers who had an export business. You could go look around at their stuff, which of course was for sale and not junk.

In the pic above, notice the guy in the red turbin in the lower right. He is currently attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest mustache. He will show it to you for a small price. I figured the cow dancing would be a better bargain, but I still didn't have any feed.

One of the things I was not able to show was the inside of a wonderful ornate temple. It was dark and enclosed which made it hard to get a good pic.

My next stop for Day 7 and 8 is Jodhpur. So, time to get some rest for another day of adventure and sight seeing.

Bikaner

2007-02-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

Day 4 was a long day that started from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm, but it was a great day with lots of pics. Here are the pics of the hotel which was an old fort at one time, and the local Raja still visits and stays at the fort during summer. Raja's don't have any governmental power, but they are still very rich as their money was never taken away from them. Most Raja's still own old forts and palaces which they may convert into hotels or tourist attractions.

Here is a link desrcribing the term Raja - which is just a king:

Raja Definition

Her e is a link on Mandawa:

Mandawa Info

Since I had to wake up early for the long day, I was able to get some sunrise shots.

When I went into the restaurant to eat breakfast, I was confronted with stunning paintings on the wall.

The intricate painting on the ceiling has to be seen to believe.

I asked the guy at reception if he would mind showing me to the top of the fort for picture taking, and he said he would get someone to do that, but I had to take his picture first.

Again, the paintings on the walls are great with lots of detail of gods and their stories. Then the receptionist asked someone to get me to the top. Here is a pic of where I was trying to get too - it's the look out room in white at the top of the fort.

This is a small city. I think I read there were only about 30,000 people here. I was also able to get some city shots from a turret location.

Here is the main courtyard. As I blogged in the previous post, you drive in through some ancient gates, a drummer starts to play, flowers are put around your neck and a red dot is placed on your forehead to please the gods.

I was also shown the area where the Raja stayed. This is a balcony area and the entry.

This is the living room and dining area.

While wandering around, I found the temple area which is part of the Raja's area, but the priest was kind enough to let me in. He then did a prayer for me, and wrapped a red threaded bracelet around my wrist. It took about 5 minutes to go through the entire procedure, and then we talked for a while after. He was very pleased that I was in India training people, and I think I got a good prayer in my behalf because of my good deeds.

Just before I was about to leave the fort to start the days touring, a male peacock started dancing, and the locals said I should take a picture because it doesn't happen very often. You will notice another peacock is looking over the hedge to checkout the moves.

The first touring stop for the day was a quick stop at another fort\hotel combo.

We kept moving to another temple location that was nearby. I call this the goat temple because this is where all the goats gathered to pray to the gods for health, prosperity and warm milking hands.

The next stop was at some nearby Haveli's. If you don't know what these are, then click the link below. The link will describe the fresco paintings you will see in the pics.

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

There were lots of buildings around with paintings, and we could have gotten tours for going inside, but I would be doing that later in the trip. So, we moved on toward the hotel which was still a couple hours away. You can see from the pics below that I'm in a very desert like environment.

We mad a quick stop past a small temple. I call this temple the pigeon temple as it is where pigeons pray for light winds, electrical lines that don't shock the feet, and clear shots of quick moving foreigners for the occasional bombing raid.

Now on to the Hotel which was also a Fort\Hotel combo of another Raja. This was a really nice hotel, but once I got my stuff into my room it was time to head to MikanerFort with a guide. So I didn't have to look around yet.

The guide was very nice and very informative. If you need a guide for Bikaner (French or English), I highly recommend him. Here is his contact info:

Dalip Jadiwal, dalip_jontybkn@yahoo.co.in

Here is a link to the Junagarh fort in Bikaner.

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

If you want to see more pics or find out more information about this fort, just do an internet search for "Junagarh Fort India", and you will lots of pics and history. Here are some pics to give you an idea.

This is the main outer fort walls.

This is one of the entry gate areas. There are normally multiple gate areas and courtyards to make invading armies have to work their way through. There can be narrow turns and steep inclines to prevent elephants from reaching ramming spead to knock down city gates. Also, spikes and things are put on gates to keep elephants from pushing the gates down. You will find hot oil spouts and areas for archers to make the invading army very miserable as they are now much easier to pick off as the move down these narrow passages to get to the Raja. Again, I really recommend a guide or at least doing a lot of reading on the site before visiting because there is a lot of history and culture which is being preserved.

For example, in the pic below, new Raja's would expand the forts which means old meets new as the centuries pass. In this case the 3 archways have gates which were all built by one of the later Raja's along side older architecture. There is a lot of detail and carvings which all have meaning and significance. Above the archway is where the queens could look out to see the Raja coming or going. It is traditional for the queens to see out of of a palace or fort, but nobody was allowed to see them to prevent other males, including relatives to the Raja, from wanting to become intimate with a queen which could create a baby that was not the Raja's. Also, since the first born male would be the next Raja, a Raja was not supposed to get other queens until he had a male child because a male child from another sub-queen would cause much tension.

After these gates and a narrow passage, one of many courtyards are in view.

There is a very nice inner courtyard where the celebration of colors would take place. In the pic below, the Raja would sit in the shrine area and around him a pool of water with red flower petals covered the surface of the water. You will also need to use your imagination in all these photos to add carpets and wall coverings. What you see now is like a room that has not been decorated, and that leaves a very blank looking area where only the architecture is revealed.

In the picture below, each column was made out of a single block of stone, and there are elephants carved out of the top from that same piece of stone. You can also see tiles from China as the Raja showed he had contacts from around the world.

The ceiling blow is made out of real gold which is why it is still vibrant today. There was a technique for painting with gold, and it was used a lot.

Here is a large garden area that the queens used. It also gives a good idea of the size of the fort. In general, the Raja's and queens would live in a palace where other government officials would reside, but in times of war, everyone moved to the fort. So, the palaces were not protected as everything would be taken to the fort leaving the palace completely abandoned and barren.

So, the palace was a location where the Raja ran the government in times of peace, and the fort was the location to run the government in times of war.

Below is a pic of restoration work being done.

Here is a golden baby rocker. A god's picture would be placed in the rocker for good fertility luck.

The next location was to a camel farm. Camels are used like horses in this part of the country. There were a number of camels hauling goods up and down roads as we traveled around the area. We were in a desert like area, and horses don't work well in that environment.

I happened to get at the farm during dinner. So, these camels were saying, "Butt out, I'm eating".

There is a part on the farm that is for camels who are pregnant, and here is a pic of a baby camel. It's sitting under the mother.

Here are some male camels which are kept in a different location. There are 3 types of camels you will see. The darker camel, dark brown color camel and the light brown camel...I don't remember their names, but they are different species.

At the farm, they serve you camels milk. It tasted like non-fat milk. So, it tasted like milk from a cow, but a very lean and healthy cow.

I then stopped at some shops. We did stop at one shop of the guy who owns the world record for minture paintings. These are paintings done with a single squirrel hair...that right...only one hair is used. It is beautiful work. Here is his contact info and web site.

Shiv Swami - www.bikanerminiaturearts.com

The painting below is 11.5 X 16 centimeters. This is truly amazing work, and the prices are very cheap given the labor involved. You have to use a magnifying glass to appreciate the work because the beard you see on the man's face below was created one squirrel hair stroke at a time. The paint that is used is made from traditional stones for centuries of long lasting color. These miniature painters are in many places practicing an ancient art form, and I encourage you to check out his and others sites.

You can also get carpets and fabric from nearby shops for great prices. I should have more contacts on those places in future blogs.

It was starting to get dark, and the guide said there was a special festival going on for foreigners, and he asked if I would like to see it. Since there wasn't any boiling of foreigners at the event, I thought I would go because I had had not had dinner, and I didn't want to spoil my appetite with a foreigner stew...of which I would, of course, not participate in.

The evenings festival turned out to be the Indian Air Force Symphony Orchestra. They played some foriegn and local tunes, and it was a really nice show with fire works at the end.

I thought this would be the end of the day, but I had to eat dinner. So, the guide, the driver Anil and myself went to the top of a hotel roof top within the city where they had local dancers and musicians performing while you ate. What people didn't realize is that your price of the meal included a free dance lesson. So, we would go up in two's with the dancer and try to dance the local steps. Everyone had a good time with lots of laughs, mostly laughing at each other dancing, and after a good meal, I was able to finally get back to the hotel room and get some much needed rest.

Mandawa

2007-02-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

Day 3 is the trip from New Delhi to Mandawa. It’s mainly a travel day with a few sightseeing stops, but travel days can be very interesting too when going to a new place.

I noticed a few more differences between Kochi and New Delhi as getting out of Delhi takes a while because it’s so big. New Delhi has special bus lanes which helps keep them out of main stream traffic this helps a lot. The New Delhi bus drivers don’t drive “road warrior” style attempting to leave their tread marks on unsuspecting passengers back sides like Kochi bus drivers.

The New Delhi buses private and government both have green and yellow lines painted all the way around the bus. The government bus has the green line on the top, and the private bus has the yellow line on the top. In Kochi the tan lined bus is the government bus and the other busses are private. The Rajasthan busses are white with a blue stripe. All of this may not sound very interesting given I’m never going to be taking a bus as it is hazardous to a foreigners sense of personal space, but it only shows how different states in India have their own personalities and way of doing things just like in the U.S.

In my last post, I mentioned how nice the driving was here in New Delhi, and Lal mentioned it still gets crazy during office commutes. While trying to get out of Delhi around 10:00 in the morning, we did hit a number of traffic congestion points where 8 lane highways were used like 10 lane highways as the 25 million people living in New Delhi tried to get to the office. There were points where new highways were in construction and we had to use older more narrow roads which means 8 lanes worth of traffic in 4 lanes where dirt shoulder areas were used by motorcycles.

Here is a pic of the new highway bridge under construction…I have not seen any highway system in India that compares to the U.S. multi bridge and clover systems you might see in L.A. for instance.

I passed a lot of business construction on the way out of Delhi. There was a large mall under contruction called Ambi mall which had 1 square kilometer of space on each floor, and there were at least 6 floors. I don’t know when it will be completed, but it looked about 30 percent done.

Other business parks had companies like Convergesys, DLF, Nestle, Alcatel, Eli Lilly, HCL, Rites, Delphi and much much more. I passed the Honda factory for cars, and then 10 kilometers down the road I passed the Honda factory for motorcycles.

Once I was out of Delhi and away from office commuters the highway went to a 4 lane with very light traffic, and generally everyone stayed in their lanes. My driver still could not help driving in the middle of the road at times to create a 6 lane highway…I guess old habits are hard to break.

Further down the road a Best Western Hotel popped up out of nowhere. I’m not sure why it was there.

A few kilometers away the hwy turned into a toll highway. For the next 200 kilometers we hit 3 of these toll booths and we paid around 50Rs for each (1 dollar). In Kochi, the toll roads are much cheaper, but they are still in bad shape. We were easily cruising at 90kmh on these roads which were straight. One reason for the nice roads is probably the climate difference. Kochi gets monsoon rains which can easily breakdown roads if they are not drained properly. But as we headed into Rajasthan, a desert type climate started to appear which allowed for much easier maintenance of roads. I was told that in July and August, the temperature could get to 40-50 degrees Celsius. On top of the uninhabitable heat, heavy rains would come turning the landscape into a giant sauna. The climate right now, January, is perfect during the day, and fairly cool at night.

Since it can get fairly hot here, and there are desert like conditions, I started seeing locals using camels everywhere instead of horses or mules. Since petrol price is 45Rs per liter, a camel is not a bad idea as it was built for living in the desert. I don’t know what a camel eats but there was a mainstay farming plant that seemed like 100’s of square kilometers.

Below is a pics of a yellow wild flower used to make cooking oil. There are Kansas like fields of this stuff which is watered to grow. If you look at the sides of the roads which are barren and desert, that is what the area would look like if it wasn’t watered to grow these yellow flowered plants. If you know the name of the plant, please add a comment on this. The Kochi difference is obvious. There are no coconut trees here. I did see a number of vendors selling roasted peanuts, but I don’t know what a peanut tree looks like. So, I can only guess they are grown locally.

Another staple business in the area are brick and tile plants. The brick backing stacks bellowing smoke from the top were scattered across 100’s of kilometers. Tile plants were located in the area of geological outcrops. I saw one foot by on foot tiles all cut and loaded on trucks for delivery as well has larger tiles. I also saw a few honey bee farms.

Based on the pics the area is generally flat with a few small mountainous out crops. The mountain range is called Aravily (not sure of spelling) and there is a giant monkey god statue if you keep a look out for it. If you don't see it, it will see you.

In one of the small towns we passed through, there were 2 guys and boy making peda which is a sweet that reminds me of raw cookie dough. Here are some pics of them making it – it was an interesting process which I watched for several minutes.

Toward the end of the day, we stopped by a local temple. Here are some pics of that. I asked if I could go inside, and they said it was not a problem. When I entered the inner courtyard, there were 4 other people sitting in a semi-circle facing toward an alter under one of the temple spires. I was asked to take off my shoes, and the younger priest took me to the small alter to show me figurines of 3 gods they are worshipping at the temple along with a few other side gods which are in the family tree somewhere. I said thank you for letting me into the temple and showing me around, and I proceeded to leave. Then the priest asked if I would like to sit and have tea with the other members. I was honored by the request, and accepted the invitation. I sat down on the ornate rug, and they asked me the standard question I always get from locals – where are you from, are you in India alone, where is your family, what do you do for a living, do you think Elvis is still alive, etc… Finally, after the 3^rd degree grilling, which I’m getting used too, I was served a spicy tea. I asked how old the temple was and the younger priest said it was 35 years old, and another older guy said it was 700 years old. Since the older person had spent many years praying to monkey and elephant gods with some odd family tree intermingling, I assumed the younger person’s logical and time perceptions were more intact. Thus, I assume the temple was built 35 years ago. Once I finished the tea, I said thank you, and they thanked me for stopping by, and the younger priest gave me his business card which was in Hindi with 2 mobile phone numbers. Here is a pic of the business card. If you are looking for a hip techno friendly priest, this is your guy.

It was now getting late, and I headed for the Hotel Mukandgarh Fort. When I arrived, we drove though some old fortress doors, and a drummer started playing. I got out of the car and walked up some steps toward reception. On my way, a girl put a dot on my forehead and a necklace of flowers were placed around my neck. It appears I had to convert to Hindu before I could stay in the hotel. I have to admit it is a novel way of getting more converts. At this point, I’m wondering if permanent red ink was used, or if I can wash the dot off my forehead, will they throw me out of the hotel.

Here are some pics of the room. It’s a nice place and very interesting. There is a curtain in front of the door to allow the doors to be open, but still have privacy during those very hot days. I will have pics of the place in the morning.

Link for more info: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukandgarh

My next stop tomorrow is Jaisalmer. It’s another travel day, but it appears travel days can be fairly interesting if you are willing to pay attention to meaningless factoids about your environment and convert your religion.

New Delhi

2007-02-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

Day 2 went much better than day 1. It was only a travel day to get back to where I should have been yesterday, but I did arrive in Delhi on schedule. When the plane touched ground in New Delhi, a number of people clapped, and I’m sure a lot of other people were relieved. Flights to New Delhi were still being rescheduled due to fog, but it was not as dense. I also dumped Go Air, and went with Jet Air which is the No. 1 airline in India. Jet Air also had to reschedule other flights, but my flight left on time, and we flew in circles for about 15 minutes before landing. Other Jet Air flights also ended up making their destinations. Go Air and other airlines were still having problems getting planes through.

When I arrived at baggage claim, Lal found me and gave me a hug. Lal is part of the tour agency that setup my trip around North India (Sohan Lal Bajaj of Welcome Travels – www.welcometravels.com for study, cultural and adventure tours). He couldn’t track me down because of the previous days canceled flights, and when he saw me he said, “Thank God you are here.” I guess that is enough sentiment to be worth a hug.

I saw some yelling and “palm hammering” (hitting your palm hard on a surface) around the Spice Airlines booth. A number of folks apparently lost their luggage. I heard one person in the growing crowd yell, “we will beat you up.”, and the Spice Airline manager in the middle of the crowd had a very scared look on his face with his eyes very wide open as if someone might attack. The security forces all took glances that direction occasionally along with their blankness expressions. Lal told me that was going on all night yesterday at all of the booths because a huge number of flights were canceled. Once again, I have a lot of sympathy for airline crews, but there is no question Jet Air was more organized and passenger satisfaction was much higher. So if you are coming to India, go with Jet Airlines…especially if you are coming to New Delhi after 4:00pm in the winter when the fog rolls in. Jet Air also serves the best meals, with candies and mango ice cream. The negative is that Jet Air is a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for. For me, peace of mind is priceless.

Lal took me to the vehicle I would be driving in for the next 16 days, and he then introduced me to Anil who would be my driver for the next 16 days. I think it will be a good idea for all of us to enjoy our company in the days that are to pass – a good driver can’t go anywhere without a dependable vehicle.

When we drove to the hotel, I noticed one thing instantly….the roads are really nice. We were on a 6 lane highway and people were keeping their lanes. When I asked Lal about the “rule sensitive” driving, he said they patrol these areas, and people have to obey the rules – most of the time. Lal said even the trucks are not allowed on the road during rush hour traffic morning and night. The word “civilized” came to mind. There is still a flavor of India driving, but it is much more subdued. The driving in Mubai was still the same craziness as in Kochi. It makes me wonder if New Delhi is ahead of the other cities in India. Lal mentioned to me that Delhi is the gateway to India. So, it’s not surprising more “civilized” driving would come to Delhi first.

As we headed toward my hotel, Lal pointed out that President Bush stayed at a hotel only half a kilometer away. So, we were in the center of Delhi which is mostly Hindu. We passed a temple where there were lots of people praying to a monkey god this month, and sweet treats were all around. I think I may be inclined to pray to a monkey god too if it meant I could get free sweet treats with every prayer. Having multiple gods has an advantage, you can choose the flavor of the month to what appeals to you – this seems modernly convenient.

The hotel was called “The Connaught”, and it was very nice. It even had a bathtub with a stopper in it – very high class. There is a soccer stadium next to the hotel which is unusual – here are some pics.

The menu prices are a lot more – this is an indication of type of hotel you are staying at. If it’s a 2\3 star hotel, you will pay a little over 20Rs (50 cents) for a bottle of mineral water. Connaught hotel is charging 85Rs which is almost 2 dollars, or 4 times as much for the same bottle of water. Therefore, Connaught is a 4\5 star hotel. So, if you want to know how nice a hotel is in India, all you need to know is how much the mineral water cost – travel tip one. I can get the same bottle of water for 20Rs in a Mithra grocery store. So, if you go to a hotel, and a bottled mineral water is less than 20Rs, you should not drink the water or stay in the hotel – travel tip two. If you are with a native, he can get the bottle of water for 15Rs which means foreigners should never buy anything if they want to get the most for their money – travel tip three.

At this point, I’m back on schedule. So, tomorrow I’m headed for Manadawa. New Delhi sightseeing has been moved to the end of the trip “due to Delhi fog” as the airline folks say.

Mumbai

2007-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

After attempting to dance at a News Years party at Riverdale Resort, I was quickly escorted to the airport, and sent to North India. Now, I wanted to see North India, but I had no idea that bad dancing would put me on the fast track to New Dehli. I barely had time to say goodbye to the nice people I worked with at IdentityMine India for 7 months. I wondered if I was going to get kicked out of the country for bad dancing, but instead, I was sent to live with the North India people, who were perhaps more tolerant of foreigners who did not know the native steps to local music.

I had heard that North India was much different culturally than South India. So, going to North India was an opportunity to investigate the differences.

Before I could get to New Delhi, I had a connection at Mumbai. When I arrived at Mumbai, I waited to get through the security check, but nobody was allowed through because the gate number was not known. So, I waited, and waited, and waited. I was talking to another passenger, Raaj, who was also booked for New Dehli but with another airline, and he was waiting too. Finally, they declared fog in New Dehli and all planes in or out were canceled. At that point, there was the typical “information chaos” where people circle the wagons around the check-in counter to get desperate scraps of information that might help them figure out what to do. The check-in girls were surrounded by “information vultures”, and I felt sorry for them. I’ve never been involved with a canceled flight, but I just sat down and waited for the vultures to fly away after getting their fill of information. After 2 hours of pecking at raw minute by minute information, the crowd finally dispersed. I walked up to the exhausted check-in girl and got some quick coherent information scraps within 2 minutes. The only difference between my approach and the crowd approach is that for 2 hours, I was sitting watching them in amusement, while the crowd stood and pecked at each other to see if someone knew something they did not. I believe “Information vultures” swarming check-in girls after a canceled flight is standard behavior across all cultures, and not limited to north Indian culture as there were a number foreigners from France, Asia, England, and Russia who were also part of the flock.

Each person finds themselves in a unique situation depending on their circumstance. For me, my airline was Go Air, and they had no seats available for at least 2 days. They could not schedule a new plane into the system either. There were only 2 options. Wait at the airport until morning, and try to get on an open seat on the next flight or find another ticket for the next day. So, I got on the internet via my lap top by way of a King Fisher airline wireless access point that was not encrypted; I could have also paid to get access, but King Fisher’s was open. I went to expedia.com, and checked for other available flights to New Delhi on Jan 2 – the next day. I found a reasonable fair on Jet Air at 7:00pm. So, I got a refund from Go Air, and then went to terminal B and bought a Jet Air ticket to New Delhi. There was a guy standing near the ticket counter, and he asked if I needed a hotel room. I said yes, and he told me I would get free transport to and from the airport if I went to the Hotel Jewel Palace. It sounded like a good deal, and I accepted his offer. When the taxi came, it was a small minivan, and there was a couple in the back seat who were also going to the same hotel because their flight to New Delhi was also cancelled.

Here is a pic of the room at the Hotel Jewel Palace. It looks like a 2 star type hotel. It is neither a Jewel or a Palace, but it was clean. The “Foreigner Rates” were reasonable, and there was a small restaurant. So now I will get a good night’s sleep, and see if my flight is canceled again, and I have to do this all over again.

What has impressed me so far, is the English skills of all the people I’ve met so far. They are great. Hindi is the main language, and it sounds very different from Malayalam. I found one person who knew the Malayalam numbers 1 through 10, and that was about it. So, now I hear Hindi and English as the mainstay of day to day discussions, which gives me the feeling I’m in a very different place – before it was Malayalam\English. The environment still looks similar though – buildings, traffic, and population density. I have not seen a man in a mundo – they are all wearing shirt and pants. The women are very mixed, but most have colorful pants and bright to dull colored long flowing shirts that hang below the knee with a slit on both sides.

Here are some pics outside the room.

So, my first experience in North India was a canceled flight due to fog. I didn't know fog could make life so interesting.

Munnar and Thekkady

2006-12-30T04:40:00.000-08:00

Everyone at the office told me to visit Munnar and Thekkady before I leave India. Everyone had great things to say about the area, and G.O.C. was able to set something up for me during the Christmas holidays.

Munnar was my first stop, and the first thing I noticed was that we were steadily climbing in elevation for over 2 hours from Kochi. There were a few waterfall stops along the way to Munnar.

We continued to climb in elevation for another hour until we reached Munnar which is known for it's vast tea plantations started during the British rule of India. Here is a link with some more info:

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

Our first stop in Munnar was a visit to a tea making plant and museum. This was a guided tour of the plant where they showed how the tea is processed. In the first pic, tea leaves are placed in a bin on top of a grate. Under the grate is spacious area for hot air to blow, and this dries out the leaves. After that, the leaves are processed in a number of different ways to get different tasting tea - rolled, ground, stripped etc...The key to taste is the size of the leaf particle. The smaller the particle the more oxidation occurs, and thus the taste will be stronger or weaker. In the second pic tea is running through plates to ground the tea leaves. The end product is placed in a furnace, and then the leaf particles are sorted through screens to get 6 different types of tea in this plant. When the tea does not go through the furnace, green tea particles are the result, and that is how Green Tea is made.

This was the view just outside the museum. The museum had a number of articles from old furniture and clocks from previous British owner of the plantation to a tea tasting area with plaques describing the history of tea and the planation.

After the tea museum, I went to a well known wildlife park in the upper peaks of the Munnar mountains. There was a 4 kilometer bus trip through a tea plantation, and then a 1 kilometer hike to the top of the look out area.

There is abundant wildlife in the area. At night, I was told there are Tigers that roam around, and the park is completely shut down during this time because it is very dangerous. But during the day, tourist are allowed to hike to the look out point. There were a few flowers out, but what got the attention of everyone was the mountain goats.

Once the hike was over, I headed toward my hotel for the night, which was on the other side of the valley.

I stayed at the Siena Resort, and it was a nice place. They had lights and a Christmas festival for all the guests. We all ate dinner and watched the show. When the sun went down, it cooled off nicely. I have been told that during winter it can get to freezing occasionally, but tonight it was only a little brisk.

One thing I noticed was that there was carpet on the floor instead of tile. Because of the cooler weather, carpet was put down to keep your feet warm - nobody likes stepping on cold tile with bare feet.

Here is a shot of the Christmas lights at the resort.

After a good night sleep, I was able to get up early to see the sunrise over Munnar.

In the morning, we continue to see some great views as we headed for a dam in Munnar which created a large lake system.

Here is a pic from the dam.

Here is a pic of the dam and tea plants near the lake.

At this point, a very light and cool breeze was blowing. It was really hard to leave this area, but I had to move on to my next destination - the wildlife sanctuary in Thekkady.

Along the way, we had to wait for about 30 minutes as a bus got stuck in a ditch which blocked the road. Everyone was out watching the tow truck try to pull the bus out. It appeared that many men who were standing around watching, thought they knew more about what should be done than the tow truck crew. I also noticed some interesting flowers in the area.

While driving to Thekkady, the temperature became warmer and milder, but not hot. I also noticed lots of spice farms for many kilometers. A local told me that the temperature in Thekkady is mild all year long, and it makes for a great place to grow coffee, pepper, and cardamom.

After a 3 hour drive, I arrived in Thekkady, and I stopped at the Elephant Jungle park. There was a new baby elephant that was born, and it was only 8 days old. Here is a pic of the mom and the baby.

There were some kids watching the elephant, and they wanted me to take their picture. I'm not sure why local kids enjoy having their pictures taken by foreigners.

They also had an elephant ride, and my taxi driver would not let me leave the park until he saw me on top of an elephant. I blogged about ridding an elephant in Kodanad, but this elephant was a bull elephant with large tusks, it was even bigger the other elephant I rode. After the ride I thanked the elephant, and his response was a puff of air from its long trunk. I assumed the puff of air meant "you are welcome" or "no problem, this is how I get fed without having to fix my own dinner."

The next stop was a boat ride around Periyar Wildlife preserve.

Here we saw a number of different types of birds like the KingFisher. We also saw Sambar deer, wild boar, black lemur, and some wild elephants. We were far enough away, that getting a good picture was difficult, but we could see them getting water at the lake edges.

I then went to the Arany Nivas Hotel, which is located within the wildlife preserve. There were monkeys in the trees and some wild animal sounds going on during the night.

The next morning I went to the Periyar Tiger Reserve Tribal Heritage area which has the oldest indigenous group in the area. The people are called Mannan. Here is a link with some background info on these people.

http://www.yearoutindia.com/mannan_tribal_houses.htm

I was guided through the village, and I was graciously served a snack of coconut, brown sugar and rice. I talked to the tribal chief during brunch who asked the typical questions of where I was from, why I was in India, and what I thought of the village. Her e is one of the village houses which is made out of bamboo and mud.

There is also a museum made out of bamboo that has different artifacts and pictures that represent the daily life and rituals of these indigenous people. The village had about 36 families. Each family had their own plot of land from which they grew coffee, pepper, cardamom, and other spices and foods which they sell at the local market. The guide told me that in the past, villagers would only get 50 percent market value for there goods. This changed when the government decided to buy their goods at normal market prices to create a fairer system.

The guide also gave me a few lessons on when and how to pick some of these spices. Pepper can be black, green, red or white even though the pepper plant is the same plant. Cardamom is picked when darker green - this would be for green cardamom.

After saying goodbye to the villagers, I started my ride back to Kochi. There were a couple of old churches that deserved to have their picture taken.

When I showed the taxi driver my pics, he seemed to like this one:

One thing that struck me on my weekend journey, other than the beauty of Munnar and Thekkady, was the diversity from Kochi to Munnar to Thekkady. The environment changes from warm beaches, to cool tea plantations, to mild spice farms. It was a great holiday weekend. My co-workers have mentioned a few other places I need to visit, and I'm going to try and see those soon.

Kodanad

2006-12-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Russ, one of my co-workers in the U.S.A. decided to taste India for a month along with his family (his wife Ann and daughter Lexi). It appears they had been following my blog, and then decided to come to India because Lexi wanted to see baby elephants, Ann wanted to see Lexi see baby elephants, and Jonathan wanted to taste the spicy food. If someone wants to see baby elephants and eat spicy food, India is a great place to visit.

I talked with G.O.C. , and we setup a local trip to help them reach their goals. Our First stop was at Paniyeli Poru park. Here is a link:

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/02/06/stories/2006020601150300.htm

When we arrived at the park, we took two guides on the 4 kilometer hike. We really didn't know what to expect as it was our first time. After about one kilometer we reached the banks of the river.

We continued along the path to find some nice flowers and interesting formations.

We then found ourselves pulling up our pant legs to our knees as we walked across numerous pools and streams about 3 kilometers into the trip. The water was very cool and refreshing. Lexi, who is four years old, played and splashed in the water along with the female guide. The male guide would scout ahead looking for safe way to cross the next stream.

At the end of the hike we reached the final destination Paniyeli Poru. It was a great place to picnic.

Here are some stitched shots which show the beauty and expanse of the area.

Of course, Paniyeli Poru is not a baby elephant, but Jonathan and his family were enjoying the natural environment. After a while, we headed back on a different path - once again crossing streams and pools. It was a great hike, and a lot of fun. When we got back to the parking lot, our driver was having lunch at a local store, and so we went with the flow. Our female guide dropped us off at a small shop nearby, and we relaxed to tea and fryed bananas as a energy boosting lunch time snack.

Once lunch time was over, we headed to the main attraction of the day - baby elephants in Kodanad where there is an elephant care center. The care center treats lost and found elephants, attempts to get them healthy, and perhaps put them back in the wild if possible. Here is a link about a baby elphant that was rescued:

http://www.newkerala.com/news3.php?action=fullnews&id=19231

Here is a baby and juvenile elephant at the care center. There was a very small baby elephant in a protected area that we were able to get a glimpse of and everyone thought it was very very cute.

This elephant was drinking and taking a bath. The other elephants were also led to this area one at a time for some cool drinks and a quick bath.

I was surprised to find out that there was also a zoo at the care center. Here are only a few of the animals at the zoo.

This is a boa snake and a crocodile.

These are some spotted deer. Other animals at the zoo were monkeys, parrots, assorted birds, eagles, giant squirrel, owl, and others.

The next surprise came when we were told we could ride an elephant. Everyone thought this would be a great adventure except Jonathan who preferred to take the pics of his wife and kid riding an elephant. So, I got on first, and then Lexi and Ann went behind me while Jonathan took these pics.

It was an amazing experience. The massive muscles flexed and rippled moving us from side to side with no effort at all. The hairs on the backside of the elephant were fairly stiff, and they easily poked through the light materials worn by Ann and Lexi - much to my amusement. It was a wonderous animal, and we thanked her (it was a female elephant) for giving us the ride.

For those who follow this blog, you may remember another blog post about this same care center. Savi and his wife visited the area a while back, and you can find more pics from that post. Here is the link:

http://www.therhogue.com/blog/2006/10/picnic.html

At this moment, you might think the adventure would be over, but only about an hour away was Cherai Beach. We estimated that we could get to the beach just before sunset, and we pushed on to the beach.

Along the way, we saw some local fisherman who were diving into the water to catch fish. On the other side was a Chinese fishing net that was hauling out the catch of the day.

We had about an hour to spare before sunset, and we watched people gather for another lovely sunset on a sandy beach in India.

Overall, Jonathan, Ann, Lexi and I had a great and memorable day in India. I'm sure one of many to come.

Company Meeting

2006-12-17T04:21:00.000-08:00

I've been working with the IdentityMine India team for over 7 months now, and I was invited to their executive summit meeting where they discuss the higher level workings within the organization. It is one of the most important meetings of the year, and the entire companies future plans are determined at this meeting. I was very surprised to be invited to such an important event in the companies history, and of course I accepted the invitation.

Because of all the busy schedules of all the executives, it is very difficult to get everyone together in the same place. I was told that the easiest meeting place for executives to gather was on boats. I found that a little strange, but later I noticed it was happening everywhere.

Here is the boat we were scheduled to meet on:

After all the executives arrived, we started to travel down the backwater areas. I was told that this type of environment was to allow executives the creative freedom to assist in creating the corporate future of the company.

The first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of people I had never seen before. I guess these executives where in other offices stationed around India. many of the executives were new to IdentityMine, and I classified them as young executives. Here are some of the young executives in action. They brought a lot of creativity and energy to the discussions, but it was obvious to me they lacked the overall business savvy that the older executives had acquired from years of hard work.

The meeting was about to get started when we all noticed other executive summit meetings were going on. This one was for a movie studio, and they decided to have there meeting in the water. While other people were having them on sailboats.

One of the execs brought up a point of order in the meeting, that perhaps there was a better way to have the executive summit meeting. Were these other companies trying to leap frog into new areas of meeting places? Could these new meeting places spur more creative ideas which would make them more profitable? These question s became the subject of debate.

I noticed a smaller executive summit meeting near us, and they appeared to be debating the same issue.

At this point, everyone was a bit perplexed on what to do.

Regi, the head executive made the bold decision to break off into different groups to research the prospects of whether a new meeting should take place in the water, on a sailboat or elsewhere. All the executives thought this was a great idea, and groups were formed.

Before the debates began, everyone took time out for lunch to get some energy for the important work ahead.

After lunch, the groups got together, and started to research the prospects of the validity of the current summit meeting place.

Franklin and Regi discussing the area of meeting in the water.

Other executives discussing having the meeting on a sailboat.

More executives debating having the meeting on a fishing boat.

Another executive reading "Where to have your Executive Summit to make more profit".

The stress of the event got to this executive. He started yelling about having the meeting in the air, and then yelling, "I can fly. I can fly".

Other executives in the group had to pull him back into the boat. It was obvious to me that executives lead very stressful lives, and I was glad to not be one.

This group of executives debate having the meeting on a Chinese fishing net. It appears a smaller company of execs are also looking into the same idea.

This group of executives debate having the meeting on top of poles, as the birds seemed to doing that too.

Some of the execs talked to the captain of the boat for some ideas. His suggestion was to have the meeting on a small boat. A number of the executives thought that was a good idea as it would create the need for coordinated teamwork. So, the captain asked for a small boat to come, and they all got into the boat.

At that point, one of the executives saw something that changed the entire debate.

It appeared that one of IdentityMine's competitors was having an executive summit meeting on a cruise ship. Regi decided all the executives had gathered enough information, and it was time to gather all the information to come up with a plan. The boat stopped at Bolgatty Palace and dinner was served.

After the meal, everyone gathered to come up with a final assessment for the validity of the meeting.

This meeting was confidential, and I was not allowed to participate. So, I didn't find out what happened until the next day when I asked one of the young executives about the executive meeting minutes. They told me the executive summit meeting was declared a success because the "Cruise Ship" format of the meeting was declared the best over other ideas like "Sailboats, floating in the water, fishing boats, Chinese Nets, traditional boats, or on top of poles".

When I asked if any future plans had been created for the future of IdentityMine India, I was told those plans had been postponed to another executive summit meeting on a "Cruise Ship".

I'm not really smart enough to understand the intricate working of the executive mind. So, I didn't question the results of the IdentityMine India executive summit meeting.

I did get some nice pics while all the executives were working hard on the validity of their existence:

Historical Journey

2006-11-20T00:52:00.000-08:00

Jophie and his wife, Subeena, invited me on a tour of historical Kochi, and I was happy to take up their offer.After some island hopping over some new bridges and almost getting lost in a pot hole (some of these pot holes in the road are big), we reached a ferry point to cross over to Fort Kochi. The view was nice because you could see the city on the other side of the bay - fishing boats were a regular site...as well as fishing canoes which toss out small nets.

When the ferry came, I noticed it was a "one way loading ferry". This means you drive off the ferry in a forward gear, and you drive on the ferry in a backward gear.

I think India's country motto is "If there is a space, fill it.". So, I was wondering how many people and cars they could fit on the ferry without it sinking.

The answer to my question was, if the boat starts to sink, nobody else can get on. Once the ferry was over loaded with to much cargo, it backed out and went to the other side.

Once we got to the other side, we tried to find an old Jewish Synagogue which has been around since 1568. Here is what the sign said:

"The Paradesi Synagogue was built in 1568 by descendants of Spanish, Dutch and other European Jews. It has served as a functioning synagogue throughout the centuries, and preserves a unique record of Jewish presence in India. The Clock Tower was added later in 1760."

Here is a pic of the clock tower and the gates. They don't allow pictures inside. You also must have "modest atire" to get in...there were a couple of guys with sleevless shirts, and they had to go to a shop nearby to get something to cover their arms. They may not allow people with shorts in either...so be prepared to dress in short sleeve and pants...or make the appropriate offering to the clothing shop next door.

After looking at old paintings, tile work and other old religious artifacts, we headed back out to the street to look at what the local shops had to offer.

There were lots of antique statues and figures. We think a lot of this material was made to look old, but it really wasn't.

There were numerous spice shops, and the spices smelled great.

We walked into an art gallery, and they had art work from local artists which the gallery sold on commission.

I found some old clocks here. So, these picks are for my Grandpa who is the "Clock Maker of the Ozarks".

We did find some great works in a few of the shops. Some were new and some were antique. These doors are antique, and the craftsmen ship is amazing.

There are some incredible metal work going on. I was told people from all over the world learn techniques to pour solid metal castings. The lion below is a full sized lion, and the vat is the largest single cast vat in the world.

We also found some interesting statues.

We took a quick break at a local shop and had tea and cake, and then headed off to a temple that was close by.

Our final stop was at St. Francis Church where Vasco da Gama was buried. According to wikipedia, his remains were returned to Portugal, but the original headstone is still on church grounds.

It was a great trip, and many thanks to Jophie and Subeena. We ended our historical journey eating dinner at a well known site of Jewish ancestor y which has been converted into a hotel\restaurant.

There were a lot of different cultures passing through Kochi over the many centuries, and the current culture reflects this diversity in the wide range of religions that are still practiced today.

Wayanad Jungle

2006-11-12T03:57:00.000-08:00

I had heard some great things about Wayanad area, and the folks at G.O.C. made arrangements for me to go there for a few days. Here is some info about the district http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayanad . There are wild life sanctuaries, historical caves, waterfalls, lakes, tea plantations, and temples. It's a high mountain range area with peaks over 2000 meters (over 6,000 feet). From a geological perspective, it is a very short distance from the sea to this high mountain area in the Western Ghats (perhaps 200 miles or 300 km). In the U.S., the Washington and Oregon western areas have similar geology which makes for spectacular mountain scenes.

By car, the trip from Kochi to Vythiri is about 6 hours. With encouragement from my co-workers, I took a train from Kochi to Kozhikode otherwise known as Calicut. From Kozhikode, I was to take a taxi for 2 hours to the Vythiri Resort. Of course, with my tendency to get lost, it wasn't that simple. The train was nice because the car I was in was air conditioned. Vendors walked up and down the isles of the train selling snaks, drinks and food. They would call out just like a vendor at a Baseball game..."Coffee, Coffe, get your creamy rich Coffee here". The only thing missing was the amazing accuracy of peanut vendors tossing bags to customers half way down an isle from behind their back.

The bad thing about the train is that it's difficult to know where you are. Apparently, I was supposed to know all the stops before I got on the train or ask someone every 5 minutes "Am I there yet?". There isn't a loud speaker that tells you what stop is coming and what stop is next. All I had to go on was the occasional station sign that wizzed past my window. Since I thought my stop was 5-6 hours away, I didn't get very concerned. When I reached Kunnar, the ticket attendant came to me and said it was time for me to get off. When I asked, "is this Kozhikode?", he replied, "Kozhikode is 90 minutes back. The resort called the station master, and they have been trying to find you." ...Oh...whoops...I guess my stop was 4 hours not 5-6...Oh...whoops...I guess I should have been asking "Am I there yet?" every 5 minutes.

The ticket attendant dropped me off at the station master's headquarters, and there were smiles on a number of faces in the room when I arrived. It's a good thing I enjoy entertaining people at my own expense. They were all very helpful, and they bought me a cup of tea. After talking with the resort on what to do next, I elected to to take a taxi from Kunnar railway station to Kozikode railway station where the resort taxi was still waiting for me. The positive in this mis-adventure is that I was able to see Kunnar at night. After about 90 minutes of driving, we ended up in Kozhikode, and we got lost. The taxi driver asked people along the street for directions, and we eventually made it to the Kozhikode railway station. I was about 3 hour late at this point.

It was about 10:00pm when we left the Kozhikode railway station to head to the resort. I still had 2 hours of traveling by car left as we needed to get to the top of a mountain pass to reach the resort. Since there wasn't anybody on the streets in the small towns we passed, the taxi driver sped through them at 80km an hour (50 mph). Any occasional lost goat or night life pedestrian quickly leaped to the side of the road as the taxi driver blinked his bright lights on and off which communicated, "I'm not slowing down under any circumstances...so if you don't want to be road kill, you better get out of the way". I was amazed at how effective and universal this form of communication was on humans and non-humans alike. I have also been suspect that drivers in India only have two modes of driving - pass and stop - where stopping is only allowed when you reach your destination.

After about an hour of driving, we hit the winding cut back roads that headed up to the top of the mountain pass. The moon was out, and I could see across the valley below. We had the windows rolled down, and the air was much cooler but still humid. It was a surreal feeling when I thought about starting the day in Kochi where there are a couple of million people in their tall buildings, and ending the day looking over a moonlite jungle at 2000 meters.

Another 30 minutes later we reached the top of the pass, and I was waiting for a band to be playing and fireworks to declare my arrival, but that didn't happen. Perhaps my 3 hour delay via Kunnar put the band past their bedtime. A few minutes after reaching the top of the pass we were at the road that lead to the resort. I was told this was a "Natural Road" which was 3 kilometers long heading deeper into the jungle. I determined that a "Natural Road" means a road made of small boulders that should be driven at two miles per hour, but my taxi driver thougth a "Natural Road" was a road made of small boulders to be driven based on how much air time you get out of your seat - he drove at about a 0.25 second air time. When his head hit the roof of the car, he slowed down a little bit.

After 15 minutes on this "Natural Road" getting a "Natural Massage" and "Natural Bruises", we finally reached the resort around 12:00am (midnight). I had started the day at 6:00 am, and 18:00 hours later, I reached my destination. Of course, like the station master headquarters, the people waiting for me at the resort reception desk were all smiling. I apologized about my delay, and made a joke about it. We all laughed. I thought I would be the running joke around the resort for a number of days, but then I assumed people would forget me as soon as the next foreigner did something really stupid - which turned out to be two days later, and I was all but forgotten.

The next morning, I was able to take a look at the resort for the first time. One thing to remember about Vythiri Resort is that it is very eco-friendly. They are so far into the jungle that the electricity must come from generators. They use solar power for heating water for showers. Vythiri Resort is an attempt to embed itself into the jungle without disturbing nature itself.

I apparently had one of the better rooms at the resort. The balcony overlooked into the jungle and I could see the small waterfall and creek below me.

When I came back from breakfast, I opened the doors to the balcony and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I came out there was monkey looking at me from the top rail. She stared at me, and I stared at her for a few moments. I guess she was checking out the new guest, and when I went to get my camera she leaped off into a tree. She may have been camera shy, or she thought I might try to put her into my backpack as a souvenir.

There are different types of units at the resort. I had a cabin type, but there are others as shown in the pics below.

There is an exercise room, play ground and court area.

The resort has a large conference area.

There is a cool rope bridge you have to cross to get to reception with a view of one of their small water falls.

There is a swimming pool. This wasn't used much, but I noticed a lot of baby monkeys were hanging around playing with each other from time to time. I didn't see any of them dive in and splash about - maybe they needed a monkey bathing suit for that.

The climate was much cooler than I expected, but still humid and wet. I'd recommend a light jacket around the resort because much of the resort is in the shade. Here is the reception area.

Now that I've seen the resort, it was time to see the rest of Wayanad. The resort reception hooked me up with an all day taxi, and he took me around to see the sites. By the way, he knew about my train mishap, and we joked about it. I was really hoping another foreigner would do something stupid, and I could stop being the running joke for the week.

Our first stop was Eddakal Caves which took us past Phantom rock. I found a map painted on a boulder there. This is probably the best map I've seen in India at this point, and I couldn't take it with me. I think being lost in India is supposed be a regular state of mind.

Eddakal Caves called a cave, but the curator said it was a natural rock shelter from an ancient earthquake.

There are carvings on the walls from the stone age era and other writings from over 300 B.C. The leader of the tribe is on the left and the queen is on the right. There are also figures of pets and children along with many other carvings from these stone age people.

Here is a nice pic from within the cave.

Getting the cave is quite a climb, but there are great vista points. Along the way, tender coconut was for sale to quench your thirst, and monkeys were everywhere eating the leftovers.

My next stop was at Soojipara Waterfalls which was through some tea plantations. This area was spectacular as it's many square kilometers in size. I've been told Munar is even bigger. Perhaps a good analogy would be that Munar tea might be like Kansas wheat, and Wayand tea might be like Washington apples. Kansas wheat acrage is enormous, and Washington apple orchards are huge. So to me, one is enormous and one is huge…which means they are both big in my view.

We also had some nice views of the mountains.

After about 2 hours driving, we arrived at the waterfall parking lot, and then I took a very pleasant hike for about a kilometer to the falls. There are some people under the fall to give you an idea of the size. This waterfall is always running, and it is the biggest in Wayanad.

The next day, I went to an over look point across the valley. This is the valley I saw at night on my up to the pass.

There were a number of monkey's looking for hand outs, and they got their fill of goodies.

We then went to Pookot Lake which has paddle boats and pony rides. It's a very family oriented place. A historical site called Chain Tree is up the hill from the lake entrance.

There were even more monkeys here. I saw at least 2 or 3 dozen, and they were all playing with each other. I watched them for a long time. Her e is a pic of a small family I saw up in a tree. They appear to be grooming them selves, and an infant monkey can be seen in the middle of the pic.

The next stop was at Muthunga Wildlife Sanctuary on the other end of Wayanad. You need to make sure you have your Visa with you or they may not let you into the park. I was told it's best to be there around 6:00am or 6:00pm as that is when all the animals come to the water holes. I got there to early in the day, and I didn't see much. One group saw a python, and we saw spotted deer.

This is one of the water holes we visited to find animals. Since it was still to early, nobody seemed thirsty.

Our best find of the day was some tiger tracks. The paw print below is as large as a human hand from finger tip to the heal of the hand with the fingers spread. This is not a zoo but a sanctuary where wildlife is allowed to be on it's own to fend for itself. We had a guide with us, but nobody was armed because we were in a jeep which would allows us to easily get away. There was definitely a heightened sense of our surroundings because there could be animals in the brush that could attack the vehicle. We kept our distance from any wildlife we saw because their behavior was generally known but ultimately unpredictable, and we stayed on the side of caution and safety.

I was also able to get some nice computer desktop pics while in the area which is always a bonus for me.

My favorite pics were these:

My travel back to Kochi was long, but uneventful. I had learned my lesson, and I kept asking the guy next to me on the train, "Is this Kochi?", "Is this Kochi?", "Is this Kochi?" ...He didn't seem to mind, and I think that is because I think it's normal for everyone to be lost in India.

Back in Kochi

2006-11-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Kochi. I was about ready to leave from work, and Franklin opened up the window, and there before me was the Indian sun in all it's glory posing for me and telling me to take it's picture. I was happy to oblige.

The picture above was a zoomed in pic. Jophie mentioned that the weather comes in from the west during monsoon, and if the sky is red, then no storms are coming. Since monsoon is over, and the weather now comes from east that no longer is true as there is a shower coming in as shown in the pic below

It rained heavily for about an hour after I took this picture, and all is calm again. It was a nice welcome back.

North of India

2006-11-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

While in India, I've been to a number of places, but India is a big place, and it is hard to see everything. I was told to go up North to see new things, and my trip to Northern India began...or so I thought. I traveled for many days and nights, but I became lost early on in the journey. I have a really hard time asking for directions, as most American men do...which means I ploddingly moved by way of mental compass to the north. It started to become evident to me that my wayward path had gone wildly astray as the weather turned wet and cold. I didn't remember anything about wet and cold in the India travel books except perhaps in the Himalayas...had I gone that far off course. I continued forward until night fall, and I checked into a hotel which was over 15 stories high. Perhaps a view from high above would allow me to get my bearings.

It was really too dark to see anything at this point, but something didn't seem right. Where were all the billboards?

When the sun arose, I thought everything was good. I didn't see any big mountains. So, I wasn't in the Himalayas. The problem was that I still didn't know where I was. I waited for the sun to rise further, and perhaps I would see a land mark.

Once the sun peeked above the city landscape. I was a bit confused. There were not many cars on the road. The roads were in good condition, and people were riding bicycles everywhere instead of motorcycles. There were not three wheeled auto rickshaw death mobiles to be found anywhere. Pedestrians were crossing the street without fear of being run over by a large red government bus...what fantasy land was this. I zoomed my camera in further to get a closer look at the building in hopes for a clue.

O.K. Those are windmills in the background. I've never read about windmills in India, and that clock tower...how far off course was I. I guess now would be a good time to ask for directions. I went down to the hotel lobby, and asked the clerk where I was. He looked at me a little strange, and blinked his eyes while looking down at the floor with a confused look. I asked again, and he raised his head, while wearing squinty eyes and a very curious brow. He then said, "Sir, you are in Copenhagen." Hmmm...I don't remember a town in India called Copenhagen. I then asked, "Where is Copenhagen?". I believe he took a step backward at that point as the situation was getting very unsettling to him. "Sir, Copenhagen is in Denmark.". The clerk paused, and took a step forward, and then assertively said, "Next to Germany and Sweden.", as if to interrupt any more stupid questions I might have. At this point, I was a bit dumb founded. I knew I was a bit off course but how did I get all the way to Denmark. I thought about introducing a cover story about space aliens, but the clerk was already calling the local police for his own safety, and that's when I left to go outside to see if he was right or not.

This is the pic of the hotel, and it's called the Scandic. I wonder if that is shor t for Scandinavian - maybe the clerk was right. But then I ran across the "Irish Rover" pub. I wasn't in Ireland was I?

I then started to see pedestrians who all had blond hair and blue eyes. That means I was definitely not in India. I really did go to far north. But, all the way to Denmark...it can't be. I continue to look around the city.

I tried to talk to this guy, but he wouldn't stop playing his accordion. It did sound like polka, but that's Germany right?

There was a bull a top this building, but what country has pastel colors with bulls. Spain doesn't do that.

I think this was a science experiment gone terribly awry, but the building is great. Maybe I was in England. When I went a little further I found this canal.

O.K. Either the clerk was right, and I am really in Denmark, or I discovered a long lost ancient European city in Pakistan. If I discovered a long lost European city in Iran, I'd be killed because they would not want anyone to know about their Euro Envy....so with that logic, I must be in Denmark.

Since I'm in Copenhagen, I might as well take advantage of it, and take some pics.

Here is another canal. I guy in the bottom right seemed to be following me around a lot, and he was constantly looking at his cell phone. Perhaps he was waiting for a call or trying to find a good signal. I kept my eye on him in case he was one of those sneaky Denmark pick pockets we have all heard about.

Another guy asked me to take his photo in this shot, but he is not there. Either I imagined this person or I used the wrong camera.

This is proof to my India colleagues that there isn't much traffic in Denmark - notice how the people are walking on the road and not looking for large red busses. I'm sure they think I've doctored the photos though.

In Denmark, bicycles have the right of way over cars and pedestrians. This was a bit of a shock as I was almost run over a couple of times on the numerous bike routes which are everywhere. These bicyclists are bloody and ruthless, and they wield their power with ultimate authority. The bicycle in the bottom left of the picture with the brown basket attached had a freshly severed head in it. After feeling sick to my stomach, I could not help but notice it was the head of a taxi driver that forgot the "rules of the road" in Denmark.

This is a park with some rides, but they are going broke because the three people standing outside are the only customers, and they are stuck in the middle of the square because they are afraid of the bicycle crossing zone of death.

This is a great building. It's unfortunate that there are no people in Denmark to appreciated it. I should also note that the blue bicycle lane was really stained blood red. I changed it blue in PhotoShop to keep people from getting sick. I also removed a few beheaded corpses which were mashed by the numerous mountain bikes...and yea...it smelled bad too.

Yes, those are inflatable head phones attached to a tower. Yes, I thought I was not in Denmark, but completely delusional. Apparently there was a week long music festival going on, and I was not invited...how rude.

These are not real people but manikins. They are of course taxed 50% like all the other non-living people in Denmark.

This is a bull with it's head diving into a serpent of some kind. It scared the pigeons, but not the guy just left of the statue. It's the same guy who was staring at his cell phone. I really think he is following me, and I'm getting a little scared.

This shot is for my Grandfather who is the "Clockmaker of the Ozarks". He like clocks, and they are all over Denmark.

One of the reason for the lack of people in Denmark is not only the beheading bicyclists, but these creatures are running around without a leash. They only seem to eat over paid union workers. So, I was safe taking this pic...and no, this union worker did not make it up the ladder in time. Like most union workers, he was to slow or his union card only allowed him to climb ladders very slowly.

I eventually reached a central square with a nice fountain in it.

On closer inspection of the fountain, there is something coming out of the woman's 2 nipples at the top of the fountain. I guess that would explain the foam in the pool below.

Here you go Grandpa, More clocks. I guess wrist watches are too expense in Denmark, and they need clock everywhere.

This brown building is a bank - it's empty. The white building is a hospital for pedestrians who try to walk across the bicycle lanes - it's full.

It looks like I found some real people hiding away in an obscure alley way. I think they all owed tax to the government as they looked very paranoid and edgy.

Yes, this architecture goes on and on and on. Amazing isn't it.

Yep, it just keeps going.

No, it doesn't stop here.

I feel like I'm being brain washed. Go to Denmark. Go to Denmark. You will go to Denmark and spend all your money. Go to Denmark.

This was an entrance to a park where people never seem to walk on the grass. I think it costs more if you do that.

This is the middle of the park. Which is fairly large, and nobody seems to want to use it. There are no bicycles here, and therefore I expected there would be lots of people and vendors selling hot dogs in a loaf of bread...or whatever they call it. I then realized all of this was someone's front lawn.

I guess we know where all the Denmark tax money goes. This palace\castle has a moat and armed guards carrying M-16 type rifles. Since I wasn't a citizen from Denmark and I don't pay Denmark taxes, they had nothing to fear from me. So, they let me walk around.

And my favorite pic...

All of this walking has made me hungry. I headed to one of the oldest restaurants in Copenhagen called "Det Lille Apotek". The stalker guy who was following me all day, was still hot on my heals. I thought I would play a trick on him, and so I headed into the restaurant. The stalker guy walked in behind me as I expected. When the waiter asked how many, I said two, and the stalker guy looked a bit stunned. He didn't know what to do, but followed waiter to a table. My plan was working well. I started a conversation with the stalker guy to try an convince him I was a lonely tourist in a foreign land who was looking for someone to talk to over dinner. When I told him I was paying, his tensions eased, and he sat back relaxed and ordered a Apotek beer. We chatted for a while, and the stalker guy didn't seem that bad of a person, but I don't like being stalked. So, after dinner I told him I was going to the restroom. When I got to the restroom, there was a small window open to the street above as the restaurant was in a half basement. I opened the window and crawled out leaving the bill to be paid by the stalker guy. I felt a little bad afterward because who know what first century tortures would by applied to the stalker guy - I was in Denmark after all.

I did manage to get a pic of the restaurant. So, if you are a family member of the stalker guy, his remains are probably in the vicinity.

Now that I've walked and eaten in Denmark, and seen what a high taxed society is like...people in constant fear of bicyclists, great architecture that nobody can afford to look at, parks that nobody can afford to walk in, and a country nobody can afford to live in...it was time to go back to the hotel and try to get out of paying the bill which I could not afford to pay.

Here is the room in case you are curious.

The view was great...if one could afford to look at it.

On the way back to my Hotel, there were police cars around the building with a few snipers on the roof tops, I quickly turned the opposite direction, and I started to head south as the government of Denmark didn't really want me in their country anymore. I guess it all worked out. I missed North India by a smudge, and now that I'm heading south again. I think I might ask for directions a couple of times. I think life becomes to risky if you don't ask for directions from time to time.

Big Tent

2006-10-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

Jophie, one of my co-workers, went to a Jehovah Witness convention in Kochi. It is the biggest one in all of India. There were around 10,000 people at the convention. What fascinated me about the event was that it all held under a tent. That's right, one very large tent. The tent is so large it has a ceiling with fans. So if you ever wanted to see what 10,000 people look like under a tent, look no further.

O.K. Some of you are going to say, you have seen bigger tents. If so, make a comment on how many people fit inside your big tent.

People could be sleeping in the back, and this speaker would never know...I mean, wow...people could have a soccer match going on in the back and the speaker would never know. It makes me wonder what other sinful things might have been going on in the back rows.

Waffles and a Band

2006-10-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Roel was kind enough to take me to a place in Kochi which had "Waffles" on the menu. That was just too tempting. I had to see what a Waffle in India would be like. I have to say, I was very disappointed because it tasted like...well...a Waffle. I was expecting a Waffle with a chilli pepper in it, but that didn't happen. I got a Waffle, some syrup, some butter, and little squirts of whip cream - good stuff. It reminded me of the all night Pancake houses where you eat breakfast for dinner. I also saw someone who was younger with an Apple laptop...this was a hip and cool place, and the music was techno. Can you imagine going to a Krispy Creme or Dunkin Donuts which serves waffles to the fast beat of techno pop. O.K. proabably not, but you can live the experience if you go to Kochi.

We then went to the Casino Hotel which has a live band that plays 6 days a week. The band works during the day, and for extra money they play at the hotel. I was expecting some local Malayalam type music, but apparently these groups don't exist except on CD's, and we were treated to 80's rock Pink Floyd and U2 type songs. They were very good, and the audience of around 20 which was made up of 17 waiters and 3 patrons were loudly clapping 6 hands of approval at the end of each song...it felt like a jam session. If you like more people around you, go on Friday's, Sat or Sunday, but I like mid week because it's more of a challenge to try an keep 17 waiters busy at the same time.

Here is a link with some pics of the Hotel:

http://www.cghearth.com/imggal_casino.htm

Picnic

2006-10-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

I was invited to a picnic by Savi to see Kodanad where there is a nice park and an elephant training ground. I was unable to participate because of work, but Savi was kind enough to take some photos for all of us to see.

This place is near Perumbavoor called Paniyeli Poru. Here are some links Savi found for me if you want to know more.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006020601150300.htm&date=2006/02/06/&prd=mp&

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/02/06/stories/2006020601150300.htm

Kodanad is also known for the elephant training ground. A baby elephant was recently rescued after almost drowning in a river like the one you see in the pics above. The elephant was sent to Kodanad for special care.

Here is a link to the new article about the baby elephant resuce:

http://www.newkerala.com/news3.php?action=fullnews&id=19231

Savi took some nice pics of other baby elephants too.

This one is taking a bath as all good baby elephants should.

There are a few other elephants at the training ground too. This is a fairly large elephant.

For those who would like to know more about the training center, here are some links:

http://www.kodanad.com/

http://www.keralatourism.org/index.php?source=desti&destid=332&zone=1

http://www.kuruppampady.com/kodanad.php

Thanx for the invite Savi. I'm sorry I missed out on this, but I'm sure you and your wife would rather picnic together without a foreigner as a chaperone.