Ramblings of a Slaint

We have moved!!

2011-09-10T14:11:00.001+05:30

Ramblings of a slaint can now be found on slaint.com

Come visit me there!

where does the time go?!

2011-01-31T18:23:00.003+05:30

I don't know how I cannot seem to stay up to date on this blog! I think having a baby is one way, but I mean really, I have full time household help, so I'm not doing the cleaning, but still I can't find the time??!? haha Baby bear keeps me busy busy!

A short quick recap - We went to Ireland for xmas. It was COLD and we had no water. I fell down the stairs and bounced off my tailbone, which still hurts a month later. I was sick. Cian was sick. Joanne & Mark did not have their baby while we were there. And then we left.

We then went to the US. Paul was only there for 8 days, which we spent seeing as many people as we could and shopping to fill up his 2 empty suitcases. Then he left me and C and headed back to India. Me and C ventured on our first plane ride together alone to Dallas. It wasn't his best flight, but he still barely made a peep! And then spent a week showing the little dude off to the family. Loved it. It wasn't stressful and I actually got a little bit of downtime!

Then back to SF for a quick little break before heading back to India on the monstrous 27 hr flight. Before leaving we got some professional photos done of Cian. Adorable! Seriously I could stare at them all day long, even with him sitting next to me!

Anyhow.. the flight home - Thankfully we were in business class, so it actually wasn't too bad. C was a gem as usual - everyone loved him on all the flights, even the grumpy business class men who were not happy to see a newborn baby up front ;) haha.

And then back to India and massive jetlag! sheesh.. i didn't even think about how bad it would be for the little dude. but after a week we are good as gold and even have managed to get him to sleep almost full nights. Its not the whole night, but I tell you it feels like it! He goes to bed around 5 pm and sleeps til around midnight. Paul then gives him a pacifier and checks his diaper and then right back to sleep he goes until around 4 when he wants to eat. Then a quick little snooze til 6 and then we are up. Sometimes I go to bed shortly after C does so I wake up feeling super refreshed!

I really wish I would have written more at the beginning about all the emotions, etc, but I just didn't have time. But thinking back on it and seeing other friends with their newborns I really realize how great we had it. Granted, we had some tough days, but for the most part I found it all so easy and natural. But I see friends who never had much experience with babies really struggling in their first few weeks. Or maybe it was because we were in the hospital for the first 8 days of his life and got to ease into things a bit more? Not sure. But for me I didn't find it SO difficult - Paul might disagree though and say he found it much harder.

But we did have our problems at the beginning. I would be a snapping turtle at times out of exhaustion and frustration, but usually folo handled it in stride and just let it roll off his back (thank goodness!). But 4 months into it all, I feel like our communication is much much stronger and that we are finding a better groove (as much as you can when paul has no real defined work schedule).

I'm even starting to think that maybe I need to pump more milk to keep in the freezer so I can leave Cian more when Paul unexpectedly has the day off. I just need to figure out the best time of day to do it.

I need a massage. I need a manicure/pedicure.

And since C is 4 months and we've recovered from jetlag, I am not preparing to do the Cry It Out method to get him to sleep on his own. Today we did it for his nap. He woke up after only 45 mintues, so we let him fuss for 15 minutes before going in. Then we just calmed him down and put him back down and he slept for another hour! (unheard of!) And now it's his bedtime. I put him down awake and planned to go in after 15 minutes if he was still up and/or crying. I heard him fussing around for a bit, but then he just drifted off to sleep (i think!). So perhaps it won't be so bad with C...he's so good in so many aspects... i just worry this means he's going to be a terror for a toddler :)

the quick recap is finished!

Early Arrival!

2010-11-05T17:26:00.003+05:30

As usual I am insanely behind on my blog, but thought I better take a quick moment and try to catch up!

On the 18th of September I got up to go to my Saturday exercise class,but I was super swollen and didn't feel that great, so I almost didn't go. But thankfully I did go! I forced myself there and then as we started the class my teacher noticed how swollen I was and I mentioned that it was the first day of the pregnancy that I couldn't wear my wedding ring. My yoga teacher had always told us that if we couldn't wear our rings then it signified a problem.. it's not as normal as people think... So she told me to go downstairs and have my blood pressure checked. Again I wanted to ignore her, because always to this point my BP had been perfect! But I did it, just to appease her.

And what do you know.. it is high! I was shocked that it was high to be honest. I asked her what that meant and she said it could be nothing, but could be serious and that I should go see my doctor. I didn't want to - as is typical of me. I don't know why I don't like to call into the doctor like that. I guess I just never want to be seen as a worry wort! I finally gave in around 2 pm and send the doctor a message telling her my BP and my swolleness and she said to come in right away. Hmm...

I got home and researched online and it seemed that I had all the symptoms of pre-eclampsia. this is about the only pregnancy problem that I remembered reading about and the one I sub-consciously was worried about. As soon as I read all the symptoms I knew that I had it.. but I went to the doctor still hoping that perhaps she'd look at me and say that it was just water retention.

Nope.. as soon as she saw me she said I had to be admitted right away. I immediately burst into tears. Paul was at work, finishing up a film and I was all alone. She told me to get him there right away as she didn't want me to do this alone. In hindsight that was so great of her - there is no way I could have done it alone!

After a long process, I was admitted and put on the VIP ward (of course you pay to be there...) Still at this point I believed them when they told me that they were trying to get my BP down. Come to find out later, they were lying to me the entire time. My BP was going up and up the entire time and they kept saying it was ok. But still I thought that after 2 nights that they were going to discharge me.

Two days after my arrival I was getting an ultrasound to check out the baby. I thought this was my normal ultrasound that had actually been scheduled already for this day. Nope.. it was prep for what was to come! They had been withholding food from me all morning and after the scan I asked a dr if I could eat and she said "No! You are having surgery later!"

WHAT?! I again immediately started crying. Paul wasn't there, but luckily my friend Natalia was and she was able to question the doctor to figure out what was going on. They backtracked and said no, no, it was a mistake. Come to find out later - they had wanted to do the surgery that day, but were worried about my being too upset!

That night my OBGYN came in and said that there was no choice - we were doing an emergency C-section the following day. The baby was a good size, they had been giving me injections to help speed the lung development and if we didn't get him/her out, it could be very serious for both mother and baby. So I had no choice.

I was fine with it all up until they rolled me out into the hall and we were waiting for the elevator. I then began to panic. I haven't ever had surgery. I've never been in a foreign hospital, and much less having surgery! I wanted to have a normal delivery. etc etc.

Luckily Paul was amazing. He was right there by my side the whole time. I freaked when they said he couldn't come into the room where they did the spinal injection.. and i refused to go unless they let him. And they did.. thankfully. I don't know if I could have done it without him! I was a nervous wreck by this point.

And then it was time for the surgery. I was freaking out because I could still feel things - just not pain. No one had really explained this to me properly. You think that if you have had an injection to numb your lower body you won't feel anything, but that's not how it is. You feel the pressure of the blankets, the pulling of the skin, etc just no pain. weirdest sensation ever physically and emotionally!

I was pretty out of it when the little one arrived... Its a boy! And my first reaction " oh no.. we don't have any boys names!" haha. They put him by my head and he was wailing away and all I could think is someone needs to hush that baby! I have to say the hardest thing about the Csection is that you just aren't really there and don't get to experience the birth like you always imagine you will.

And then my body went into shock. That's the thing with pre-eclampsia, your BP is high until the baby is out and then it goes back to normal right away. Or for me, it went too low. I had to spend a long while under the electric blanket until my body got back to normal. Paul was sitting there with me on one side and the baby on the other - just making sure we were both still breathing! haha.

So there you go.... the early arrival of Cian Patrick Byrne!

Born on Sept 21, 2010 @ 3:10 p.m. at Liliavati Hospital in Mumbai. He was 7lbs 2 oz and 19 inches. Pretty great since he was 5.5 weeks early!

BabyMoon

2010-08-16T15:25:00.005+05:30

We have just returned from our one week 'babymoon' holiday. Of course we waited until the absolute last minute to plan it and book it, but as it happens, it worked out well. Originally we had wanted to go to Berlin, but I just didn't think I could handle such a long flight again and boy was I right! So instead we focused on trying to find somewhere around India. And what better place than the Maldives! We couldn't afford a whole week there, and were afraid we'd get too bored sitting on the beach and the return connection was really bad (12 hr wait) so we decided to tag on a few days in Colombo on the way back to Mumbai.

The good...we booked our hotel through this place called Atoll Paradise which ended up being a fantastic option. They are located in the Maldives, so actually know the resorts personally. And they are quick and efficient over email (which our previous travel agent was not!). And the best was that they were there to meet us at the airport on our arrival, and guide us through every step until we stepped off the final boat at the resort. And amazingly, they were also there on our return to do the same. It was really a 5 star experience having them look after us so well. I don't know that we got our room any cheaper, but just having this little bit of additional service was nice.

The bad... our flight leaving to the Maldives was at 3:30 in the morning, which meant a night of no sleep.. which is never good for me. I was already vomiting before taking off from Mumbai and then started having severe stomach cramps. I didn't really know what the cramps were until we got to Sri Lanka and i had the runs... uh oh! And a 5 hour wait in the airport didn't help matters. I just found a few chairs and laid down and slept for a good 1.5 hrs straight which seemed to help, but the cramps continued. :(

But then we got to Male and were quickly ushered to a bus which then took us to our sea plane. The one thing I can say is that the Sri Lankans and the Maldivians are very caring and thoughtful of a big ol pregnant lady! They all took such good care of me. We were tired, but so excited to finally see the Maldives from the air - beautiful turquoise waters, clear blue skies, heaven!

The views from the sea plane were amazing - just look at those colors! the baby wasn't so happy with the sea plane ride though - it was loud, but smooth and the little one was kicking away!

Then we got to the resort - it was beautiful. I was worried that I would be very picky about it since it wasn't the most 'luxurious' hotel on the list - it was still expensive, but happened to be all inclusive which we thought would be better for me and my need to eat 6 times a day! And thankfully, the resort did not disappoint. Our room was a water villa, perched above the lagoon and just beautiful. At the entrance we had a big glass floor so that we could see the fish swim under the villa, then on either side were doors - one to a massive bathroom and one to a bedroom/sitting area - both connected outside by our private deck.

Outside we had a good size jacuzzi/plunge pool, which was actually a bit unexpected. We knew there was a jacuzzi, but didn't know that it would be so large and big enough to take care of our needs for a private pool! And of course the view from the deck was beautiful. Yeah!! And the best part is that everything was included. All alcohol for Paul and all food/drinks for me! So the mini bar was a own private fridge which was great and we could eat at any of the cafe's during the day between the designated meal times.

The snorkeling was great. It probably would have been good to go on a snorkel trip, one was included in our stay, but I just didn't think I could manage out on a boat for 3-4 hours without food and/or a restroom, so instead we just snorkeled off the island which was good enough for us. We even saw a massive stingray that kept me a little fearful for the rest of the day - i always worried that he'd be under my feet when i went to step down. Luckily Paul didn't step on him... he never even knew to look out for these things! Even though that didn't hurt paul, he did have a few other injuries... coral on one of his outings cut up his knee and a big cut on his wrist and massive bruise on his rear from falling down our private stair leading to the water. I didn't witness it.. but I probably would have been scared or cracking up laughing! Poor thing!!

After a beautiful and wonderful few days on our island paradise it was time to leave. Shockingly we weren't bored and could have stayed a few days longer actually. And we probably should have! The only bad thing is that even with all of the food options, I still struggled to eat at meal times. I think I have figured it out though - it's the buffet setting. I just can't handle all of the smells and choices. I need to be away from the smells and then just have a few things to choose from! But I did manage to eat ok - i ate fish for lunch every day and managed to find something, even if it was from the kids buffet for dinner!

Our arrival to Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo was nothing great - no 5 star service anymore and man did that suck! haha. We waited in line for a taxi to be told that it was only for Sri Lankan people - foreigners could not use it. You can only imagine how mad that made me! Then we arrived to our "5 star" hotel the Hilton - major disappointment. It was like we were time warped into 1970. Urgh. Specially after such a beautiful room in the Maldives.. this was a major let down.

And colombo just didn't seem so great. We had planned one day for site seeing, one day drive out to the elephant orphanage and then another day for shopping and pottering around. Not sure what we thought we'd do with our 4th day! But once we got there, we were exhausted and disappointed in the room, so we just took a nap on the insanely hard bed. (I had to ask for 8 pillows to make myself a little fortress so that I could actually sleep at night!!). So already on our first day/night we were not too pleased. The next day didn't add much to our happiness either. We saw all the sites, ate at a good foreigners hangout cafe and then again went back to the hotel. It was at this point that we decided that maybe it was best to go home early. There was no way I could manage going to the elephant orphanage - it was a 4 hr drive each way, so with nothing left to do we changed our flights to leave the following evening.

We just pottered around our last day and waited for our midnight flight. And of course.. by the time midnight rolled around, I was vomiting again. Urgh. At least I know it's mostly do to lack of sleep and messing up my food schedule. But the bad thing was that it lasted the entire flight home and even after we got home. My throat was so sore from all the sickness. Urgh. But there were empty seats at the back, so I managed to lay down for a bit and stretch my legs which was nice.

And then home sweet home.. after my re-entry to Mumbai this last time, I wasn't sure I would ever be happy to be back here, but I sure was after a few boring days in Colombo!! haha. The Maldives though were amazing and we do hope to make it back again some day with the little one.

Wedding Photos

2010-07-04T05:07:00.002+05:30

I'm not sure who on here wouldn't have seen these already from facebook.. but just in case you are interested.. here's the 'best of' of our wedding photos!

Chhanges...

2010-06-17T10:57:00.002+05:30

WOW.. you will be surprised with the amazing amount of things that has happened since my last update in Feb! Its been a whirlwind for sure!

So...we didn't go to Varanasi for two reasons - one confirmed that I was pregnant and two our cat ginger masala was super sick and we didn't feel good leaving her with no supervision while she was recovering. So poo-y nothing special for the birthday this year. But what other amazing news though right?!

And secretly, or not so secretly i had been planning an Oct wedding in SF but given the baby news, we had to push that up a lot earlier than hoped. And things just sort of fell into place in the most unlikely of ways!

For Paul's birthday and for a last minute getaway, we decided to go to Dubai. I had been insanely sick with the pregnancy and was dying for some American food from Chili's and a break from the heat of Mumbai. So off we went - last minute as usual. Had a great weekend - it was the first time in weeks that I had 3 consecutive days of no vomiting. I began to think that it must be India that was making me sick!

Then back to Mumbai.. or so we tried! Apparently something was wrong with Paul's visa and he was promptly deported from India and returned to Dubai. Well, actually it wasn't promptly - they kept him locked in a room with a chair all night long waiting to see if they were really going to deport him or allow him to enter and sort out the visa through the foreign registration office. They made me leave since I had been admitted into the country, so I went back home at 3 in the morning not knowing what was going on with paul - and a mess emotionally!

It wasn't until late afternoon the following day that I got a call from folo saying that he was in Dubai and checked back into the hotel we had just left. Urgh. His work was trying to help and we tried to see what could be done from Dubai. After a day or so it seemed that the only option was to return to Ireland to get a new visa. Double URGH! And so after 3 days of being in Mumbai myself, I returned to Dubai to give folo a suitcase of winter clothes and stuff for the wedding in May just in case he wasn't able to get back to India!

On Easter sunday Paul headed back to Ireland and I headed back to India. And again my stay would be short. I figured that if he wasn't going to be in Mumbai there surely wasn't any reason for me to stay there, so I booked a ticket to the US and headed off after 3 hectic days!

Yeah.. America! I loved that there was nice cool weather in SF, tons of food to eat and friends! Paul was stuck in Ireland getting his visa and I was in SF putting together the wedding. So even though it all seemed like a nightmare, it was great that it all happened and I went to the US well in advance of the wedding. Otherwise I don't know how we would have done it!

Finally Paul got a new visa and then headed over to SF to help with the final wedding preparations. We managed to pull off a great small wedding, all the family made it over from ireland (even with the volcano interrupting travel again!). And then a week after the wedding Paul headed back to India and back to work. I stayed on in the US to baby shop!

So now it's almost 3 months later from when I first came to the US. I can't believe i have been here so long, but it's been great and I've actually really enjoyed being back. At the moment I am ready to go "home" but I am not really that interested in going back to India if that makes any sense! I miss folo and the kitties and having my own space, but I don't miss the heat, the dirt and the noise. But I do know that having the luxury of a maid and a driver will be invaluable when the little one arrives in oct. so i'll just have to grin and bare it for a while. and the fact that i have no health insurance and wouldn't be able to have the baby here in the US anyhow!

So.. less than 2 weeks before I head back to India loaded down to the gills with baby supplies and a bulging belly. Fun fun.

oh and no, we don't know the sex of the baby. paul wants it to be a surprise and i wanted to know. and since you can't legally find out in India, I had a scan here in the states and had the sonographer (a friend from jr high) print the sex and put it in a sealed envelope! So now that I have the answer in my hands, I actually don't want to know! And i think Paul does! haha. So we shall see when we are both together in the same place what we decide to do. Without that official paper telling us, everyone else in our lives seems to think it will be a boy. stay tuned in Oct for the real results :)

So... life is changing and moving on. We are excited and scared and nervous, but looking forward to new adventures with a little one in the backpack :)

rantings!

2010-02-18T16:46:00.002+05:30

Oh I just need to moan for a bit!

I mentioned that I was working like a dog before going to the US for the xmas holidays - well I am supposed to be working like that again, but I just can't find the motivation and apparently my bosses can't find the money to pay me. This leaves us in a bit of a quandary I would say! I need money to motivate...Even though I get paid pennies.. it helps in making me feel like there is value in the work I am doing.

And to top it all off I keep getting crappy rude emails from the funders of the project wanting their accounts finalized and the final report. Except that they have ignored ALL of my emails asking for formats, requirements etc. And they KNOW i am not getting paid anymore... So I really wonder how it is that they think that by being rude and mean will facilitate or expedite the process any???

I'm almost to the point of just dropping all the documents into my bosses laps and saying have fun! when you can find some money to pay me, i'll finish it, otherwise enjoy sorting through it yourselves! It would NEVER get done if I walked away right now, so I'm not sure why the funder is being so rude to me. Seriously! GRRRRR.

The only thing making me keep my cool is that I don't want to ruin my relationship with TISS. It seems my relationship has already been ruined with the funders, which none of it is my fault, but there is nothing I can do about that now I guess. Urgh. Just annoyed. And so sick of working with rude, inefficient people who have no clue about what it actually takes to get things done.

In other news... I am equally distressed about the leaving of my last remaining great friend here. Oh so sad. Seriously, I just keep breaking down. I rely on having her here so much as moral support, that i don't know what I will do when she is gone. Her departure is rather hurried, even though I knew it would come eventually it was only a week since the announcement and her departure. :( But I know (and hope!) that we will keep in touch and that I will see her again soon. But it still is going to be hard for me to find my way here for a while without her.

And not to end on a moany note.. I got a surprise delivery of flowers today - for my birthday (still 10 days away though)! THANKS MOM! It helped this day not be as crappy as it was turning out to be. And I LOVE getting surprises - and it was good that it was so early because I won't be in town for my bday, so it all worked out for the best! Yeah!

And since the secret is out.. I will be going to Varanasi for my bday weekend, which also coincides with Holi - our favorite holiday in India. (Hence the reason we will be staying in country instead of going to some glamorous locale for my bday!). I think Varanasi will be chaos for Holi, but hopefully we manage to get some good photos.

I will report on it all when we return. Til then....

Update!

2010-02-04T15:08:00.002+05:30

Wow.. It has really been a long time since I have updated the blog. It's not that i don't think about doing it, I just haven't really had much time to sit down and write!

A quick recap of the last few months!

November:

I was hard at work preparing for the 1st National consultation on HIV Social research in India for the entire month. Typically my work week consisted of work from dawn to bed 6 or 7 days a week! I loved it though - well besides one of the conceptualizers of the project who made my life miserable at every turn! But i managed to make it through somehow!

We also went to Ireland for a week for Tom & Syro's wedding. It was great to go for a visit and see everyone and the wedding was great fun as well. It was way too short though and it didn't help that i got up at 4 a.m. every day to work for a few hours before everyone else got up. But i was very proud of myself for managing to get work done every day and enjoy myself as well. We did have time for a little bit of shopping when we were there.. mostly for shoes! I got 3 pairs of lovely shoes and paul got a new pair of runners. Yeah! It really does seem that ireland is my shoe shopping destination these days!

We returned to India and I was right back into the swing of work. We completely missed thanksgiving which stunk. The AWC who normally hosts it here had their celebration on the 20th as the actual date of thanksgiving was on the 1 yr anniversary of the Mumbai attacks. We were in Ireland on the 20th and here for real thanksgiving :( But I did go down to one of the memorials with a friend to honor those that died that day for a reminder for myself, but also for all of my jewish friends who found such comfort at the chabad house here in Mumbai. After the memorial, Folo came down to meet me and we had an impromptu thanksgiving dinner at Indigo. It wasn't real thanksgiving, but it was the best we could do on such a sad day.

Dec:

December flew by in a flash! My consultation was held on the 17-19th of Dec, and our flight from Mumbai to the US left on the night of the 22nd, so I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off for most of the month. The consultation was a success and I was so happy that I managed to pull it off with no real staff or help. After quickly wrapping things up, running around for last minute xmas gifts and packing, we finally boarded our flight to the US at 4:30 a.m. on the 22nd and slept the entire 19 hrs to the US! Man was that a needed sleep!!

After getting delayed in SF for about 15 hrs, we boarded another red-eye to OKC via cinncinati. And in less than 24 hrs of being in OKC we were hit with a blizzard!! Wow! I don't think I have ever had such a white xmas! We had a great xmas eve dinner with my mom and were showered with gifts on xmas day. Seriously so many gifts we couldn't fit them all in the suitcases!!

And then due to the blizzard, we weren't sure what our xmas day plans were going to end up being. We had planned to drive the hour south to my grandmothers on xmas day and not until moments before we packed the car did we know if we would actually be able to go! But we made it. I felt I needed to go and at least try - it has been years since I've spent xmas with my mom or my grandmother and the plan was to spend a bit of the day with both!

Another xmas dinner and we were fatter than ever! We spent the weekend with my grandmother which was great, then headed back up to OKC to see my mom quickly before heading to the north of Oklahoma to see Stacie! A great, but short visit to Tulsa and then Chicago for new years!

Blistering cold is all I can say about chicago! We did manage to walk around a bit (well never more than 4 blocks!), but I will have to go back as I have no idea what the city even looks like! A quick visit with Julie and Colin and lots of quality time with Adam and Ang and then I was off again. (And folo was back to India for a short week of work).

Pittsburgh!! I finally made it to Pittsburgh to see grace and her newborn son Wyatt. He was a doll and set my internal clock a tick'n! It snowed the entire time I was there, so we had lots of chatting time and HGTV time!

New York! Another quick jaunt to NYC to see adam and lisa, david and of course for val's bachlorette party. It was a fab weekend, but way too short. I think I need a good week there sometime soon to really get a chance to chill with people.

And back to SFO to meet folo and continue on with the world wind tour! A quick 48 hrs in Sf and then to LA for a few days and then back to SF for val's fabulous wedding weekend, some shopping, errands a visits with a few friends before packing it all up and flying back to India.

whew... it was a quick trip for a month, but it was one of the best i've had in a long while. it was so great to see people i hadn't seen in ages and to visit so many places. Not that i'll be doing that kind of trip again anytime soon though!

And now back to Mumbai...and slowly slowly getting back into the swing of things (well work that is). I have actually been very proactive since returning and have *almost* finished this house - After a year of being in it! We finally, or I finally bought a dining table, got things hung on the walls and got curtains hung up in the living room. Whoa! Now a few more finishing pieces and we'll be finished and ready to move somewhere else ;)

Now.. i am sure so much more happened, but this is already too long! I will try to be more regular on here if anyone even reads this these days!

ta ta for now.

US Trip Itinerary!

2009-10-31T11:24:00.002+05:30

It has taken weeks of checking flights talking to people about what their plans were, etc. But finally we have finalized the whole shebang! We'd already purchased our tickets from BOM-SFO, but then needed to organize 5 domestic flights... not an easy feat, especially around xmas and new years. But we've done it! By we, I mean me, of course! And we even managed to get a first class ticket for one of our domestic flights for not so many miles :)

The final itinerary:

Dec 22-25: OKC with Mom

Dec 25-28: Ardmore with Granny

Dec 28-31: Tulsa with Stacie

Dec 31 - Jan 4: Chicago with Adam/Angela (Paul's brother)

Jan 4 - Jan 7: Pittsburg with Grace

Jan 7 - Jan 10: NYC with Lisa/Adam and for Valerie's Bachlorette party

Jan 10- 12: SF

Jan 12-15: LA (mark, greg, amit, etc)

Jan 15 - 21: SF (Valerie's wedding, Dad, friends, etc)

This is probably going to be the least relaxing 'vacation' ever, but at least we are getting to see a lot of friends that we've not seen in a while, see some new cities and just get some time off of work! Now lets just see how many times our bags are lost ;) no no.. don't want to jinx ourselves, but that is a lot of flying in a short amount of time. Thankfully we are using our miles for most of it though so it's not costing as much as it would have! Glad that all these 22,000 mile return trips to the states is giving back somehow.

stress case

2009-10-28T18:49:00.002+05:30

So, the other day i got word through informal channels that all foreigners on business visas needed to leave the country by the 31st of Oct. I found this out only bc a friend's company had become aware of it when their employees were unable to register at the foreign registration office. I am not registered on this visa there because I leave every 6 months.

So now all (or a lot) of the foreigners here are in total panic mode. No one knows what to do. the embassy isn't really helping, they are aware of the change in business visa rules, but say that it is up to the Indian govt to enforce this and they don't know anything and can't do anything. Meanwhile, we are all being directed to the FRRO (foreign regional registration office). Paul has been down there the last 3 days all day to get his employment visa renewed. So far.. he still doesn't have it renewed. It expires tomorrow. So who knows we both might be on planes tomorrow leaving the country.

And in the meantime I have applied for a renewal of my passport - they did not take my old passport as yet, so i could go back home and then see if the US would forward my new passport to me there or if India would let me back in on my soon to be expiring passport... doubtful though.

grr.. so stressed and confused. my work has been great though and are willing to give me whatever i need to get the situation sorted. so the question is, do i go back home on sat and wait for a new passport and get a new visa or just ignore all of it and hope i can get back into the country later?!

full of plans...short on action!

2009-10-26T16:42:00.002+05:30

We've come up with a new plan... I think we have realized how difficult it would be to just "leave" leave india. So instead we concocted a new plan that might help us make a decision! The plan at the moment...

My job finishes at the end of June or July, so we can both take 3 months off and head to Europe. We'll use Berlin as our base, see if we find a place to buy, visit with friends and family in Europe, do a little travel maybe to Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Italy, who knows. But just generally chill out and enjoy some down time. I get plenty of downtime, but Paul has been working non-stop for the last gazillion years, and by then 9 of which will have been here in India, so he needs a break.

Hopefully his job will let him have the 3 months off and then we just have to figure out what to do with the cats for 3 months and then we'll be off. I'm already looking forward to it even though its still ages away.

Our thought is that perhaps having some time away from India will help us get out of the day in, day out rut and see clearly about whether we want to stay longer or if we are ready to call it quits. Of course Paul could always get a job here again if we changed our minds, but it isn't too likely he'd get the same financial package as he's on now..so we must think long and hard about what it is we really want to do.

So there ya have it... so if you have been hankering to go to Europe, come for a visit at the end of next summer :)

Kashmir!

2009-10-20T10:55:00.004+05:30

It feels like it has been ages since we have gone anywhere in India. Anytime we have a break, we always seem to leave the country - and we probably would have again this weekend except the place we wanted to go requires that your passport not expire in less than 6 months (which mine does :( ). So instead we finally decided on Kashmir - the far north of India, the land disputed between India and Pakistan. It's not always the safest place to go as there are frequent clashes between the two sides, but I've had a few friends go in the past month, who had a great time, so we decided to give it a go! And it's one of the places on our 'India list' that needs to be seen before we depart (which is still a complete unknown, so don't get too excited!).

Anyhow, we booked our flights, made a houseboat reservation and off we went. Well, not so quickly actually since our departing flight was 6 hrs late leaving Mumbai. Not a great start, but somehow I was still smiling and laughing sitting in the boring and not quite finished terminal at the domestic airport. (not quite finished means no food options!).

10 hours later, we finally arrive in Srinagar. Looking down from the plane all you see is military posts and soldiers. The whole airport was waiting for our flights arrival and as soon as we arrived and gathered our bags, the lights were off and the staff were out the door with us! I would imagine that Srinagar's airport doesn't get a lot of traffic and that it definitely doesn't allow planes to land at night and it was getting close to dusk, so everyone was ready to get home.

The air was nice and cool - absolutely perfect so far. The streets were lined with soldiers who happily waved at us as we passed by. So far the city looked like most other Indian cities, full of men! Except - it was a lot cleaner, the roads were nicer and there were a lot less people than we are used to seeing. Arriving to our lake - Nigeen lake and switching to a shikara boat to take us to our 'hotel' - a moored houseboat on the other side of the lake. It was beautiful arriving at sunset.

A little haze in the sky didn't dampen our spirits - seeing the shadows of the mountains, the boats on the lake and the cool breeze was all we needed. We immediately felt worlds away from Mumbai and the insanity that Diwali weekend brings. I loved listening to the call for prayer and the birds chirping and nothing else...

It wasn't long after being on the boat that we began to realize just how cold 5 degrees Celsius was going to be! Once the sun set, the temperature drops quick! We had our dinner and exhausted after a long day, retired to bed at the insanely early hour of 8 pm! haha. I don't think Paul has ever gone to bed this early!

The houseboat was nice, very old world style, but the bed..had a few inches taken off i think as we really felt the 2 inch traditional Indian mattress on our tired bones. Oh well.. no such thing as luxurious 5 star beds in the middle of nowhere!

Waking up the next day was painful - freezing coldbedroom and bathroom! So instead we retreated to the balcony overlooking the lake with the sun blaring down on, heating us up! Today we had planned a full day trip around the town, visiting the gardens and old Srinagar. We didn't even have a guidebook with us since none of the latest books even include Kashmir, so we just went with the recommendations of our houseboat owner.

Man... they love their gardens! We visited 3 gardens!

They all had the same flowers, but were nice to wander around in. The Indian tourists loved us and request our photos at each step. Funny that they really like having their photos made with white people who they don't know and don't care to know! But I bet we will be famous in the households of Kolkata! haha.

After the gardens, we got to visit an old wooden mosque in the old part of town. It was beautiful. I couldn't go in, but it was nice to just walk around the outside. then we pottered around the little lanes checking out the daily happenings, having our photos taken more often than taking our own and chatting to the locals who were interested in our impressions of Kashmir.

So far the Kashmiri people were so welcoming and nice. And it seems odd that they don't seem to think they are Indian.. they would always make comments about the "indians". weird.

We got back to our boat just in time for our 2 hr shikara ride around the lake that we had already planned. It was great slowly gliding through the lotus 'fields', seeing local life and running into the millions of boat sellers. I think we had at least 6 flower salesmen selling "groovy" flowers!

Tonight we had an addition to our houseboat - a Gujurati family had taken the other room. We were a little worried how it would be to share it, but they were very quiet and so non intrusive that it ended up being fine. Again, we were in bed shortly after sunset. This night was super cold for some reason so I slept in my gloves and paul slept with his hat on! hah. what a sight.

Our last full day in Srinagar we had planned to go to the mountain of Sonamarg. The day before had been quite warm in the daytime, so I didn't dress too warmly thinking it would be the same. All my winter gear nicely tucked in the suitcase just how it was packed. Oops. Big mistake! No one told me we were going to the snowy mountains!! After about 2.5 hrs of driving through beautiful mountain scenery, we arrived to our destination - the snowy hills of Sonamarg. We quickly got our horses ready for the trek, borrowed winter jackets from the horsemen and headed off. As is usual, I had the stubborn horse who wanted to do it's own thing! But he eventually fell into line :)

As we set off into the mountains, snow started to fall on us. Wow! Luckily it didn't last long or else I wouldn't have lasted long with no real warmth! The trek up the mountain to the glacier was beautiful. I am glad we had the horses though as it was pretty steep in parts.

After a 2.5 hr trek, we met a Kashmiri policeman wearing a "US Army" jacket which I thought was hilarious, so I asked if I could take his photo. I did and then 5 minutes later i turn around and see paul holding an AK47 (or the russian equivalent) with a huge grin! HAHA. the police thought it would be great to get his photo holding the gun up. Very trusting police up there!!

back down the mountain through the off/on snow falling, back to the boat thoroughly exhausted!

But a trip to Kashmir isn't complete without a visit to a local carpet sales shop. Big mistake. I don't know why we even tried it! We got out without buying anything, but I still have my mind on an Iranian Kilim I saw there. It was beautiful and expensive... I felt I shouldn't buy an Iranian carpet from India when i can probably get the same style from Turkey and hopefully someday from Iran itself. We'll see.. I could always call him and have him ship it to Mumbai :)

Our last day was spent just chilling on the houseboat's balcony, soaking up the sun and quiet. It was so peaceful there - no car horns, no people, only birds and the breeze to keep you company. Thankfully we had all that peace and quiet...getting out of Srinagar was such a hassle that I needed the calm to keep me from loosing it!

I recognize that Srinagar is a place with lots of trouble, but i think they would do better with fewer checkpoints and more attentive soldiers to be honest. I think they have the policy that hopefully 1 out of the 6 checks will catch what is needed to be caught. Entering the airport, we had to get out of the car, empty all of our belongings onto an x-ray machine, get our body searched, then back into the car. Ok. Good. Next, to enter the airport, again - all bags through the x-ray and our bodies searched. Ok. Understandable. Next we have to send our bags through the airline x-ray. Ok. Once we got our boarding passes, we then had to enter another secure area. Our bags and bodies searched. then with no signs to guide you, you have to go have all of your hand baggage dumped out and searched by people. The things they were not happy about were so silly... they poked holes in your unopened bag of chips, threw out your gum, too pointy of pens, lighters, etc. Then I had to go to another table to have my camera and lens's examined. I had to take off the lens and put each other lens on, so he could make sure they were actually lens. Then.... we had to go identify our checked baggage... Ok.. now we can rest right? Nope... Another body and baggage screening as you leave the airport heading for the plane. Jeeze louise!

The thing they just don't seem to understand is that no one arriving to Srinagar has to have this kind of security - all the things they made me throw out of my bag, had been fine through the multiple Mumbai screenings. So if a person wanted to do something to Kashmiris all they needed to do was board the flight somewhere else!

A bit of an annoyance, but we managed it make it fun - watching all of the other people get just as irritated as they were told to go back to x, y or z to get the proper stamp/search/ etc.

And back home to sweltering Bombay! but oh man the warmth did feel nice for the first few minutes! Now we prepare and plan our next adventure - Ireland and the US.

Charity Ball - Bali- Job- Car- US- Job- Leaving - Dubai

2009-08-27T18:25:00.007+05:30

Omg.. It has seriously been forever and a day since I’ve blogged. But really I do think about it often, but my internet has been so spotty the last few months that I get turned away when I can’t even load the page quick enough.

So a quick (in my terms isn't so quick now is it??) recap!

Feb-May –

To recap the previous postings in case you forgot - Stacie left in March Boo Hoo. Adam, Lisa and Andrea came for a two week visit in April - YEAH!! And I spent a lot of these months helping the American Women’s Club organize a charity ball. It was fun, but also annoying a bit. I enjoyed all my pieces, but it made me see clearer some friends I’ve had here for a long time. I didn’t realize the extent of how people can be different when you transform to work life from friend life. Not interested in seeing that again anytime soon! We did amazing though and raised around 15 lakh (close to 30,000 USD or more actually…) I didn’t go to the ball though – it’s not really my cup of tea to be honest. I like organizing things and doing logistics, but I don’t like the stress of getting all dolled up for a night of way over priced eating and drinking of diet cokes.

So instead… Paul and I took off to Bali, Indonesia for a week of relaxation! I needed it after the stress of the ball and he had been swamped doing films and commercials. It was beautiful! We had a great time. It was a true vacation vacation. I’m not usually very good at those. I don’t typically like to go to a destination to just laze around, but that’s exactly what we did! We went to the beach on the north-west coast (Permuteran) and snorkeled and got insanely burned. Boo hoo. But our villa was beautiful and we had an outside bathroom which was super cool. And it wasn’t outrageously expensive. Woo hoo. Then we went inland to Ubud and stayed in a gorgeous villa where we had our own private pool, outside bed, table, bath and then inside bed, bath, etc. amazing! And again not outrageously expensive.

Since we were so sunburned it wasn’t easy to do much, so we lazed around the villa quite a bit venturing out for meals and a touch of sightseeing. One place we went was to the Monkey forest… and Paul got attacked by monkeys! WHAT? You scream… yep. Attacked by monkeys!

Haha. I was clicking away too. If you blow up the photo you can see paul's skin in this monkey's teeth!! What we think happened --- a small monkey was pestering some other monkeys and they’d been chasing it. We sat on the wall a ways away, but then in a flash that little monkey had snuggled up next to Paul and we think the other monkeys thought he was protecting it, so they all attacked him – 5 total! He had flesh wounds and all. Oops. And of course he wasn’t too bothered. He was letting the monkeys climb on him within another 30 minutes and he didn’t go get rabies shots either. I would have been hysterical!

May- June

The day before we went to Bali I got a call from a job I had all but given up on. I’d applied in Feb, heard nothing for ages, interviewed in March and then still didn’t hear anything until May… they offered me the job, but since we were leaving I said they’d have to wait until I got back and I’d come meet again to discuss the job. I was so irritated though. I had already planned to go to the states for a month then over to Berlin for a month to buy a flat. I even had a free apt in Berlin lined up. But…I took the job of course… it’s as close to a dream job as I’ve wanted here. It’s research, its HIV, I can work from home and I’m considered a consultant (consistent with my visa) and the salary is respectable (nothing near the west, but nothing as bad as ‘local’). Perfect. And I have been dying without real work for a long time. I still do my CORP work, but I needed something with real deadlines, real responsibility and something that would challenge me. Of course they are all a bit unorganized and slow, but I’ve managed to deal with that.

Oh and did I tell you we bought a car? Not a new car, but a 2001 maruti esteem automatic. It’s old and a bit janky, but it wasn’t expensive and I can drive it all over!! I love it. I was scared the first day when I had to drive it home from downtown.. But I did it and I wasn’t even nervous once I got behind the wheel. And then after weeks of trying to get it transferred from diplomatic tags to normal person tags, I finally got to drive it again to my new job – which is 11 km away and takes about an hour and goes through some of the messiest parts of Mumbai (driving wise). And I did it and now there is no stopping me. I seriously love driving around. I find it so easy which shocks me. I find it keeps me occupied and hour long journey’s feel like 20 minutes. I love listening to my ipod again and having the mobility to just go where I want with no purpose in mind. Yeah!! you really can't understand what a sense of accomplishment it is to drive here. the first few weeks, i seriously would just beem, i was so proud of myself for driving in the insanity and not getting hit or hitting anyone else! Think..2 cm away from other cars, massive pot holes, chaos all around (cows, cars, walkers, bikers, push carts, motorcycles, choas!!)

Back to the job…Since they wanted me to start right away I thought I better go back to the states for a quick visit before getting sucked into a job that wouldn’t let me leave for at least 6 months (or so I thought at the time). So with 3 days notice I found a flight (for the same price I normally pay 2 months in advance!!) and headed to the US for 2 weeks. 1 week in CA and 1 in OK. The one in OK turned into a bit more due to missing my connection and having to wait a few more days.. but that’s ok. Had more Mexican and spent more time with Stacie and my mom. It was a great trip, short, but glad I went back.

Then I got back and was ready to get into work.. Well they are slow like I said, so I didn’t start for another week and then very slowly at that. I read and researched and tried to make myself useful, but only after a month did I start to get the hang of what was going on. At this point, 2 months later I am still not officially hired, nor have I been paid, but I hear that its coming and I might just see 2 months of paychecks on the 1^st of Sept. We shall see!!

July-Aug

And… the kicker…don’t get too excited, but we have set a tentative “leave date” for India. We are thinking Dec 2010… my job should be finished in June of 2010 and it will be 9+ years here for Paul at that point, so it’s either dig in our heels and buy a place here or move on for a bit. I can’t imagine not living here, but I also think that it’s time for a break. I think we need to get away for a while and see if we really miss it and want to come back. We can always come back. I’ve seen plenty of people do it. Of course it would suck to ship all of our stuff out of here and then bring it all back again… but we’ll see. But I think a lot also depends on Pauls work and my job. If i am offered a better and greater position doing HIV after this is finished.. then it will be hard to turn down.

And where would we go??? No clue. That’s why it’s a tentative leave date. We think perhaps Berlin as a temporary location to chill out for a while, visit with friends, buy an apt, just enough time to get bored of not working there before moving on to somewhere else… or it could be LA.. Who knows? Only time will tell.

But since we’ve made that arbitrary decision, we’ve made a goal to see more of India in the meantime. Our first opportunity was the other weekend, when Paul had two whole days off.. I had wanted to go somewhere in India, but I had also just gone to the states recently… but Paul wanted to go to Dubai and eat beef. So off to Dubai we went again. It’s summer so over 100 each day with high humidity, but when you only have to walk 500 feet to the mall.. It’s not soo bad. Haha. We didn’t buy anything though – seriously depressing. We are too fat and they already had winter clothes out. So instead we filled our suitcase with a cooler and stocked it full of frozen foods – hamburgers, bacon, sausages, cool whip, cheese, etc. fun fun.

And now we are back into the grind of work and life.

I am looking forward to a trip to Kolkata at some point this year. My friend Clare who used to live in Mumbai then went to London for 2 yrs has made her way back to India. I’ve only been to Kolkata once and never left the hotel (post rickshaw run), so we need to go explore. And I want to go to Berlin in Sept or Oct for a week to try to find a place to buy! Even if it sits empty for the next 6 months at least we’ve invested and have a place to go to there. We’ll see if any of these things happen.

And that’s about it… life is work and work and see a few friends here and there. I miss the west these days. I miss having lots of different friends. I miss being able to fly 2 hrs to another city to see a friend who’s just had a new baby. I miss seeing my friends’ bands tour through my city. But for now I will be happy with the things that I will surely miss here – the maids, the car washers, the chaos, etc.

And just like every year.. it is not time for the Ganesh Festival! Hopefully i can get my lazy arse outside to take some photos. And by the way.. monsoon has been super pathetic this year. I don't think I have one photo of the rain. we had a mini-flood at the beginning and it seriously haven't rained for more than 5 minutes since june. Bad news for India my friends. But I must say that I have loved the cooler weather and not so soggy feet. It is already starting to heat up again for our Sept-Nov summer...but at least i'll have the car to potter me around in this year.

And.. if you made it this far... John Harrison, email me! I think you can click on my profile and email or find me on facebook. would love to catch up. the email i have for you no longer seems to work!

Where has the time gone?

2009-04-30T11:12:00.003+05:30

It was brought to my attention last night that I have not updated since the end of March. I have no idea where the time has gone!

Stacie's leaving party was a huge success.. too big of a success for my comfort level! Haha. There were seriously like a 100 people in my house, drunk and making a mess :) But the house survived and so did I. Amazingly, even having people stand on my couch, it doesn't show any stains. Yeah!

After Stacie's party I spent most of my time organizing her last few days before leaving. She had so much to do and was feeling so overwhelmed, so anal organized me took action! haha. It was so sad to see her go, but I know that we'll continue to be in contact no matter where in the world we live, so I don't feel such a gap as I might have pre-internet and pre-facebook. We chat almost daily online and talk on the phone usually once a week at least.

So now life has a new time period - Post Stacie - since then I have mostly kept myself super busy organizing a charity fundraising ball for the American Women's Group and my friend Hayley's organization Atma. It's been fun, but a bit stressful. And I have started working at least 2 to 3 days a week with CORP, which is also no easy feat!

In the meantime two of my friends and their friend came out for a 2 week visit. It was so wonderful having friends here. It's been so long since we had visitors!! We ran out of time in Mumbai so couldn't do everything I would have liked here and then spent 4 days in Goa. I was so sad to say goodbye to them, but I hope I gave them a good enough impression of Mumbai to convince them to move here :)

And.. the only other development has been looking for a car to buy. I've been wanting this guys old Honda City for a year and a half, and only once I was ready to buy another car did he present his car to me again. But turns out his was in much worse shape than the indian brand one i had my eye on. So we decided to go for the not as old and in better shape Indian make car. I'm excited, but first i have to get through all the red tape of transferring it from a diplomatic car to a boring ol regular person's car! In both of these situations though I got to test drive the cars in Mumbai traffic. Fun. I was a bit scared, but I seemed to melt right into the flow of traffic here and even was told by one of the owners that i really seem like a Bombay driver. Probably not a real compliment.. but i took it as one!!

AND... i got to drive a rickshaw on Sunday night! I've been waiting and waiting for the opportunity to drive a rickshaw here in Mumbai. But first i needed an auto driver who was chatty chatty and seemed cool. Well, we finally found one. As soon as he was starting to get on my nerves with his constant chatter, i realized that he was the one I'd been waiting for! so we told him that we both had 3 wheelers licenses and of course he was shocked, but then super excited saying "test driving". So he let us drive! Yeah. I went first and did good but stalled, so took that as the sign it was paul's turn. Paul got to drive a bit and did well too. But of course the auto driver said "madam is best driving". hahah. And he was so excited that we drove the he offered to come the next sunday as well to let us drive more. He wants us to drive from Bandra to Lokhandwala (not sure why!). I think he wants all his rickshaw buddies to see us driving because he thought that was the best part ever - seeing other people's reactions. Fun fun.
But now my rickshaw thumb is acting up again. I think i really do have some problem with it.. but i think it's now called blackberry thumb!

And that is it.. that is the roundup over here. Looking to go somewhere for about a week next week - probably will be Indonesia (Bali) and then I'm thinking a trip to the states for June is in order. Will keep you updated.

randomness

2009-03-21T09:43:00.003+05:30

It's been a long time since I've written and I have no idea why, other than life has been pretty mundane lately. Although I say that and we did take a quick trip to Dubai a few weeks ago to escape and shop! It was exactly as we wanted and we had an amazing time just as we did there 2 years ago.

The house is starting to come together. After months of searching left and right, we are finally making some decisions and buying stuff. Mostly the motivation is coming from the fact that we are throwing Stacie a going away party and I want to have it as finished as possible!

Yes.. I did say that, Stacie is leaving Mumbai :( I have a feeling she will be back before we know it, so I am not feeling too sad yet, but I'm sure come April 3rd, I'll be full of tears. She's been here for 4 years and I've known her almost the whole time, which isn't a common thing here in Mumbai where people come and go like there is no tomorrow.

I feel like Jan-Mar I had a big black cloud hanging over me like Eyore in Winnie the Pooh, but magically within a week, this cloud has disappeared and let through the sun again. I feel so much lighter and happier in just a short space of time. Lets hope it lasts!

I saw this post from another blog today and it really hit home for me, so here it is reposted for you:

Girlfriends are special. They argue, hug, scream, support, defy, bitch and defend. In their company, one can sob without thinking and laugh like a hyena. Whether 15 or 50 years, girlfriends fill a vacuum like no man ever can. They are the keepers of secrets: new and old, exciting and hackneyed, matured and in-the-pipeline. They analyze with you and for you: his phone calls, his absence, his shoes, his behavior, his friends and his moves (even those that should not be discussed but are dissected under a microscope). You discuss eclectic music, the next-door-hottie, bra sizes, colors, books, shopping-woes, period-related-grumpiness, and just about anything that is capable of being strung into a sentence. They check-in on you, check-out for you, and provide a reality check. They listen – to childhood stories, movie stories, maid issues, family melodrama and boy drama. And they talk - about their sister, sister’s neighbor, sister neighbor’s dog, sister’s neighbor’s dog’s vet. They do this - incessantly and repeatedly and without yawning. They know just what to say, in varying situations, and automatically lift your spirits.

long over due update

2009-02-05T08:24:00.003+05:30

Where to even begin...

We managed the insane rickshaw run without killing each other. Yeah! We met great people out there and loved our adventure even though it was tough. I will hopefully be putting up detailed recaps on the Karma Kab blog and I have put up photos on flickr. Link is here. And hopefully soon Paul will get busy with the video. I've had problems loading it onto my computer for some reason... but we'll get to it soon enough so you can all live our adventure from your own home!

Getting home was great, but has also been a transition. Our house is still empty and needs lots of help, so we've been trying to spend our free time going to furniture shops here and there, with little luck so far. We find things we want but they are astronomical in price (10,000 dollars for a simple L shaped couch!) or we find something that is close to what we want, but cheap quality. urgh. shopping here is not fun I tell you. And I do have this feeling that as soon as we finish this apartment we will have decided it's time to leave Mumbai! I'm getting to that point... but maybe it's just itchy feet for travel and not longings to leave India?? But how can I already have itchy feet after only 2.5 weeks back from our last adventure?! maybe I just need a trip on the horizon to plan for!

My life has changed a bit as well. Stacie has moved out. It was sad, but has also been good since I feel like we make more of an effort to hang out now whereas it was too easy to just see each other in passing before. But I still miss having her around and haven't stopped calling the front room "stacie's room"! And another friend who I really relied on as my 'rock' here has virtually disappeared from my life. It's been an adjustment, but not one I've not done before, so I am getting through it. As Folo says, one door closes and another one opens and that seems to be what has happened once again.

And... last week folo got up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to stop smoking and to do this Master Cleanse (the lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper 'diet'). I thought he would not even go a day, but after 2 days I realized he was fully into it and thought I better join as well since I wasn't getting much food without him eating. So now it's been 5 days for me and 8 for him. we seem to be doing pretty good. Yesterday was a rough day for me, but he's been powering through it like nothing. You'd never know he's even on it. And he's doing great with not smoking. Sad to say..i've not stopped :( I wasn't prepared for his declaration that day!! But I have been wanting to quit for quite a while, so I hope he sticks to it and then slowly I will feel more like an idiot and stop myself!

Lets see.. what else....I have been working again which is good. I am doing lots of stuff with CORP, I am going to help out with the organization for the American Women's Charity Ball and I'm doing a bit of 'consulting' with an HIV orphanage outside of Mumbai. Nothing full time which is nice, but enough to keep my days full.

It seems that 2009 is already the year for transitions. I hope there aren't many more that we have to go through! Since 9 is my favorite number I have sort of looked forward to this year for a while... and in numerology (the calculation) it is the same as my birthday, so I feel it will be a good year somewhere somehow!

memorial

2008-12-18T21:19:00.002+05:30

Yesterday I had to go to town to run some errands, so I paid a visit to the Taj for the first time since the attacks. It is still completely cordoned off, but there are tons of people milling about trying to see any damage.. just as we were. One new addition is the security checkpoint to walk through towards the gateway of India. Of course we walked through with big shopping bags and the machine beeped like crazy, but the police officer didn't even look twice at us! Perhaps b/c we are white?

We also paid a visit to Indigo Deli..where we were searched regardless of being white. Good that they are trying.

We also attended a memorial service for the 6 Americans who were killed in the attacks. It was really nice of the US consulate to set it up and it was nice to attend and show our support. I was a bit sad though that not many people turned up for it.

After the memorial service we decided to pay a visit to Leopolds - another site of the attacks. It was packed as usual and everyone seemed cheery. It was sad to see the bullet holes in the mirrors and walls. But i think it's good that it's still there.. it serves as a constant reminder to the lives that were lost. At one point, a balloon popped and it caused a little tingle through me. People shouldn't be allowed balloons in former terrorist attack sites!

It was sort of an emotional day, but also good to see that life in Colaba is back to normal now. People are drawn to it even more I think.

Oh.. and when we were in Pune last weekend, we were driving in our rental car to get some coffee down the street when we heard a loud bang. It scared the daylights out of us! Turns out.. it was someone throwing a rock at our car. It caused a huge dent in the side. We were a bit freaked out thinking they were aiming it at us because we were foreigners, but the locals said it was just a crazy man. but that was a bit freaky as well. Even though we haven't felt too affected by the attacks, it seems that some fear does reside down inside even if we aren't aware of it.

blood and gore in the new hood

2008-12-11T19:31:00.002+05:30

Tuesday was Bakri Id. I usually don't notice Id too much except that I see all of the goats being carted in the rickshaws to their temporary home before being sacrificed. But this year with our new apartment I overlook what is aparently a muslim area. So as the days lead up to Id, i saw the number of goats on the roof opposite mine increase. I was having a hard time dealing with them up there to be honest. I kept worrying about them falling off or getting caught up in the rope they were tied up with. And they were also not happy.. they were bleating and moaning for the first day. :(

Then came Id... I was so scared they might slaughter them on the roof where I could see/hear/smell everything. Thankfully they did not. However I did watch them slowly disappear one by one and a few times I could hear the ferocious scream as they were being killed. Oh so sad!

And lucky for me, I had to go to town for a meeting. Urgh.. I wish i didn't go out. The roads had puddles of blood draining down them - all over the place! And as I got closer to Central Mumbai i could see the blood spots out in front of apartment buildings where they must have done the sacrifice. And seeing all the men walking around in their white kurta's splattered with blood. Oh you can tell it was not my favorite day in the neighborhood! haha.

To top the day off, on my way home from town I saw a dead cow's head sticking out of a dumpster with it's legs hanging out of a second dump. YUCK! not sure what happened there. but i guess they couldn't really leave a huge dead cow lying on the roadside. I had just never thought about what they do with them!

And last night... i heard a big crash and ran out on the balcony to see what was going on. By the time I got there ( 10 seconds maximum!) there was already a crowd of at least 100 milling about. They were screaming, yelling, pulling people aside, etc. I still have no real clue what happened. I think perhaps a bicycle, motorcycle and a rickshaw were involved. And I know that two limp bloody bodies were put in separate rickshaws to be taken to the hospital. I can still see the blood stains on the road. But this is Mumbai.. you are never alone and there will be hundreds there to help within seconds! It's really amazing to be honest.

So it seems that our new neighborhood has much more to offer than our past one where all we saw was the rich and famous honk their way into Olive!

planning begins!

2008-12-08T09:45:00.003+05:30

With the move finished and the city getting back to normal (as much as possible) it is now time to really start focusing on the upcoming Rickshaw Run. I always knew we'd wait until the last minute to plan all the juicy details...and of course it is 3 weeks away and we've not done our route nor have we booked any flights/hotels!

And.. another snag in our plans - our third 'wheel' Stacie has broken a bone in her wrist and it looks very unlikely that she will join us after all. This was her reason for staying in India for the last 6 months even, so it is very sad. But both Paul and I think that we really want a third person since we expect that we will have to drive for at least 6-8 hrs a day and a 3rd will be important to help carry the load. With the outing of Stacie, I think we are replacing her with our friend Janikka who has been in Mumbai for the last year. She and her boyfriend had also put their name in the hat for the rickshaw run, but weren't chosen, so now is her chance at least to see some of India.

Of course all of this hangs in the balance with a possible war with Pakistan looming over the horizon. Paul seems sure that we'll know something more in the week to come. If India follows through with it's threats and Pakistan continues to ignore the pressure, then I have no idea what all of this means. I would say that I'd either be on a flight with my two kitties or headed out to the far rural areas of inner India! I guess we'll just wait and see what happens.

In the meantime, we'll continue planning for the rickshaw run as needed. We are setting down thoughts on our route. You might think planning the route would be a quick and easy process, but from everyone I keep talking to it seems like it is an arduous process and will take lots of time and care. We need to at least establish checkpoints for ourselves to know if we are making good time or bad time - this will let us know if we can stop and enjoy places like Varanasi or if we just have to pass on through. Paul is gathering the medical kit and any other little supplies he thinks we might need and Janikka and I are just trying to figure out if she's coming and how to get that moving!

Next weekend we are off to Pune for mechanic lessons and our first little trial run of the rickshaw...wish us luck!

quiet day in the neighborhood

2008-12-06T10:34:00.002+05:30

Last night I went with my friends to a party in Colaba, a few streets from the Taj. As soon as we got off the main road on the sea right before the Oberoi/Trident, the roads were absolutely empty. Friday night in Mumbai and the roads are dead quiet. It was crazy to see. Even though it feels that Bandra is pretty much back to normal, I guess life really isn't back to normal. I haven't been out of the house or the neighborhood much at all for the last week due to the move and dealing with issues/workers/etc at the new apartment.

It was really eerie down there though with it so quiet. All of the roads around the Taj are still blocked and closed, the Oberoi was all dark and people were no where to be seen. The party itself was even this way.. very subdued. People were leaving and heading home by 11 pm. Most parties in Mumbai don't even kick off until then! On the way home, the roads were busier - only because the celebrations/mourning for Dr. Ambedkar had begun. People were lined up for kilometers near Shivaji park to pay their respects to Dr. Ambedkar.

Besides that though, no one was out. The normally bustling and busy Bandra was quiet and empty. It could be still from last week's attacks or the many warnings being put out about attacks this weekend. Today, Dec 6th is the anniversary of the destruction of a muslim temple in North India, so it is always a tense day and it also is the birthday of Dr. Ambedkar.

We are out and about today trying to buy a few items for our new flat.. dining table, sheets, rugs, etc. we'll see how it goes.

Mumbai terrorist attacks

2008-12-03T20:45:00.004+05:30

First I have to thank everyone- friends, family and strangers who emailed, called or sent text messages to find out how we were doing during the Mumbai terrorist attacks. We were home safe and sound working on our rickshaw run designs and playing guitar hero, when I got a message from a friend saying to turn on the news. Of course my first instinct was that something had happened to Obama! Instead the horrific attacks were taking place right before our eyes. TV crews in Mumbai show anything and everything often focusing considerably on the blood and gore. I think we witnessed someone being shot to death and of course it was replayed over and over again.

It was really horrible watching this all night long. Of course we couldn't turn it off and then we were fielding calls from friends from all over the world. The following day the entire city shut down and foreigners were told to stay indoors. It was pretty shocking how quiet the city was. After the floods in 2005 and the train bombings in 2006 the city was back to normal the following day (well as soon as the flood waters receeded!). The only thing I can think is that these attacks were so out of the ordinary and really hit home for the upper class. It wasn't 'those other people' this time.. it was us they were targeting.

The night of the attacks our friend was over and she spent the night since we still weren't exactly sure what was happening and how far up the city the mayhem would extend. But the next day I felt ok and wasn't so concerned.. but I also wasn't leaving my immediate neighborhood! I think if I went to town on a regular basis and had to work there I probably would have been a lot more freaked out, but since I always seem to stay in my neighborhood, I feel safe. But then this also scares me.. Are we so used to terrorist attacks these days that it doesn't instil as much fear as it should? Or is it all of the violent movies we watch?

The night after the attacks we had plans to attend a huge Thanksgiving Dinner hosted by the American Women's Group at the Taj Lands End (sister hotel to the Taj Mahal Palace that was attacked). Of course the event was cancelled, but I would have gone if they still held it. I might have been freaked out once I got there, but felt that I couldn't let terrorism control my life.

In the midst of all of this, we were moving apartments. It was scheduled for Friday, but since the city had been shut the previous day, the new apartment wasn't finished and not enough movers showed up at work, and the firing was still going on downtown. So we postponned to the next day. It was probably good that I had so many other things on my mind, so I couldn't just sit and watch tv constantly - although i don't think the tv was turned off for days!

A good friend of ours was down photographing it all for the New York Times. He thinks I'm funny because each time I'd see some new explosion or firing towards the reporters I would message him to make sure he was ok. He always replied in the affirmative! He has an amazing photo journal and account of it here

We know of many people who were down there when it happened, but thankfully everyone we know personally is fine and well. But one peice that really hit home for me was the seige on the Chabad House. I am not Jewish, but since college I have known and been very close to people from Israel or American Jews and feel a close connection to their religion and culture. I have always had many friends here in Mumbai who are Jewish and who visited the Chabad house every Friday night. I've heard all about the Rabbi and his wife and now all I can think about is their orphaned son Moshe. It's such a tragedy. But him being rescued by the Nanny shows again how amazing the Indian people are. They are willing to risk their lives to save others. We've heard this story over and over again from people rescued from the two hotels as well. So to them and the police (even with NO resources and no training tried as hard as they could) and the commandos who went in with little protection, we thank you for your dedication to your job and the country.

We've now moved into our new place and I have still not left Bandra. Too many things to do in the new place, that I've not had time to venture anywhere else. But I do look forward to going to town soon - I feel we must support our city that we've made home for the last few years.

It was really great though through all of this to get calls and messages from my friends all over the world - France, US, Scotland, Ireland, Israel, Germany, Iran, Russia, Egypt, and probably some more that i've not remembered at the moment. It's great to hear from all of you and I hope you stay in touch more regularly now!

moving...

2008-11-25T21:09:00.003+05:30

All I can say is I hope I never have to move within India again! I can only imagine how difficult it will be to actually leave India with all of this stuff!

The last 10 days or so have been insanely stressful. We have been dealing with Paul's work who are proving to be an absolute nightmare, vendors who are very unhelpful and a new apartment that is still not ready to move into!

I won't go into all the specifics because that will be reliving the frustration and exhaustion, but i hope that spark i see is the light at the end of the tunnel! We move on Friday, which is apparently an auspicious day according to Irish tradition.

And of course during the transition, we'll be without internet for a while. i'll miss my facebook and internet news, but am so looking forward to a new apartment!

visas, election, new beginnings

2008-11-15T17:34:00.004+05:30

This is a long overdue post..so let me go back to the beginning!
We went to Ireland to get a new work visa for folo since the foreign registration office here was sick of giving him extensions. Turns out the Consulate in Dublin also didn't want to see him! They told him/us that he wasn't supposed to come back for a new visa for 5 years. What?! after some wrangling with them, they finally agreed to give him a new 1 year visa, but said that they would not issue him another new visa for the same company for the next 5 years. Grr. They are so strange. And of course it took the entire 10 business days to get the thing. We only knew less than 24 hrs before our departure time if he was going to get it.

This is contrasted sharply with my visa experience in the US where I took my paperwork in at 11 am. and picked up the 5 yr business visa at 5:30 the same day! I was stressed out about not getting it, but seems like even with the outsourcing it's still as easy as ever.

During the processing of Paul's visa, we decided to finally see a bit of Ireland. I've been there at least 6 times now and still haven't seen anything besides Dublin and his brother's house in Waterford. We took a gamble and rented a car. thankfully automatic. We then set off for his brother's house to see his new neice Katy and then we cut across the entire country to the west coast where Galway is located. Amazingly I did great driving there - I thouht I might make some mistakes since they drive on the other side of the road, but I guess India has gotten me quite used to it. I also rocked on the round-abouts which was good since they were everywhere!

Word of warning.. GPS doesn't work that great in Ireland! We were 'in fields' more often than not while our little GPS friend 'recalculated' constantly. haha. While in Galway we took a day trip up through the northern countryside which was beautiful. Now I can see how people just love Ireland..it's really the countryside that does it for people I think. Another day we drove through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moher. Even though it rained about every 10 minutes, we somehow managed to get quite a few photos of sunshine. And the photos don't show how blustery cold it was out there either!

After a quick visit in Ireland we headed to the US for an even quicker visit - a total of 6 days. I got my visa and international driving license without hassle, so our remaining days were filled with seeing a couple of friends and buying things for our rickshaw run.

During our stay was the US Presidential election. It was really great to be there for it. I was super emotional..not sure that I have ever been emotional during an election, but this was just fantastic. Seeing the streets fill with happy people and to finally have that proud feeling again was more than I can explain. It was strange too, as all of my friends abroad all felt the same way.. we could finally proudly say we were from the US..while others rejoiced and said "we can finally go home".

And now we are back in Mumbai preparing for our move. We thought we'd be moving 3 days after returning, but looks like it's a bit behind schedule (as is typically India!). But it worked out for the best since I've been super jetlagged and there was probably no way I could have gotten anything sorted so quickly.

I am starting to feel sad though about leaving this apartment. Most of our India experience is centered around this apartment, so it feels weird to be leaving it, but not leaving India. I never really thought that we'd move apartments.. i just sort of figured when we left this apartment, we'd be leaving India for good. So who knows what this new chapter will bring.

Moving day is tentatively scheduled for next friday.... can't wait to get in and start decorating and fixing the new house up. Hope the kitties adjust well.. will be a little glimpse into how they would do moving across the planet!

life is full of ups and downs

2008-10-03T17:47:00.003+05:30

Life was getting back to normal, I had begun to get over my post travel depression and was getting back into the swing of things. But then I got some bad news from back home on top of the nightmare of looking for apartments and now my life feels out of control again! I hate having so many factors in my life that I have absolutely no control over - i feel so helpless!

I'm trying to stay busy, which isn't that hard when I have 15 brokers calling me every 5 minutes and millions of emails with new broker's phone numbers coming in. I am having absolutely no luck finding a new place though. Well thats not true.. we had found one down the street that we liked as it was pretty similar to our current apartment, but was new and was a full 3 bedroom (albeit small bedrooms!). But when we met with the owner all sorts of issues cropped up. There are no balcony railings (on the 10th floor) and no known date on when they will be put up. In the west you would not even be given an option of moving into a place with that not done.. but not here! And considering I have 2 cats, I just have to make sure that the balconies are safe as can be and I am not willing to take any risks. Then it also came out that just behind the building a new 16 story building is in the process of being built. This will cause lots of dirt, noise and of course take away our light/breeze. And to top it off, the building is on reclaimed slum land. What this means is that 350 families were removed from their homes so this nice new expensive apartment complex could be built. They will be eventually rehoused in a smaller, crappier building next door - but for the moment they are living in shacks down the road. So as a development worker this is tough to swallow.

So i've been on the hunt for other apartments. But basically no one has anything in our price range that is as nice as the one above. But folo's work also isn't so keen on us moving to this apartment because as they say "it's in the slums"! We don't care! it's just down the street from where we currently live, so it won't really be a change in neighborhood - and honestly I could do without listening to the posh Olive across the street! So this has been a huge stress on my shoulders. I had hoped to move by the 1st of Oct, but that is obviously not happened. Then I thought I'd be happy with moving even upto the 10th of Oct - but even that is looking less likely. So now the question is, do I risk it and move 3 days before we leave and hope the cats are adjusted or just wait until we are back from our Ireland/US trip? Due to family stuff at home, I may end up staying there longer than anticipated so Paul would have to do the move on his own... urgh. decisions. And nothing that I can really control. I guess I will just wait to see what happens. Life usually gives me a good indication of what I should do, so I will wait and hope it becomes clear soon.

time for a move??

2008-09-19T17:40:00.002+05:30

We've been in the same apartment for 4 years now and I am so sick of it. I love it in many ways, but coming back from Europe to house that smells of mold was not fun. we have little hope that our landlords would actually do anything to fix this place up and so we've been on the hunt again for a new apartment. I actually was looking before my trip as well, but not much had come up.

Then my broker told me about this new building down the street from where we are now. It is still under construction, i can see it from our window. usually one of my rules is that we won't move into a building under construction because it goes on forever and ever in Mumbai. No project ever finishes when they say it will. But with the absolute lack of options this is the only one that feels like it could be home.

It actually looks remarkably similar to a friend's past apartment. It's a 3 bedroom, but the bedrooms are quite small. the positive.. the showers are amazing. like real proper showers, with fancy showerheads and full body massagers!

my old 'criteria' was: bathtub and balconies.
now my new criteria: separate shower area, balcony (safe for cats), and big enough bed/living room to fit our furniture!

the bed just fits in this bedroom. the living room is a good size and would allow paul the ability to get his flat screen tv and surround sound he's been wanting. but i'm super indecisive. i've seen the place like 10 times already, measured everything from here and there and still can't feel 100%. maybe it's just the thought of change... but how much change would it be - its in the same neighborhood, it's a high floor, has balconies, still has a tiny sea view and would give us space to grow....

its now in the hands of folo's work, so we'll see if the owners accept an offer or not. either way we need to move soon since our trip to the US/Ireland has been moved up a few weeks!

journey home - welcome to mold land

2008-09-05T20:52:00.004+05:30

We arrived in Berlin easily from Riga. But one thing that is weird is that when the plane landed in Berlin, the whole plane started clapping. I really don't understand this! It also happened when we landed in Russia. Do people not have much faith in these budget airlines or are they showing respect for the pilot? Either way, it totally was odd to me and Granny!

After arrival, we hopped on the train making a quick stop to return some tights I bought before Russia. Then back on the same train for another 15 stops to get out to pouring rain! urgh! we didn't know it was going to rain! But luckily we met a nice German lady on the train who told us exactly where our Holiday Inn was located and that it wasn't far away at all. She ran for the bu to go two stops, but Granny and I braved the rain and walked the 200 meters to the hotel. It actually wasn't that bad. Our bags were a little wet, but we managed to stay dry!
It was already late in the day, so basically we just settled into the room and headed down for an early dinner. There was only one option and luckily it was a fantastic (if not overpriced) restaurant. Granny went for the typical German fare - some type of pork or something with turnips while I went for the gorganzola soaked lasange. We were stuffed and ready to pack!

I spent the next hour or so packing Granny's bag and then my own and off to bed we went. We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 4:30 a.m., so not much time for anything other than a little snooze!

It was a bit hectic at the airport - we were there super early, but for some reason it took me an hour and a half to check while it only took Granny 30 minutes. She was feeling stressed to go through security, but I told her that once she went through we'd not see each other again. She didn't believe me, so we just said a quick goodbye. Turned out that was the goodbye. I was feeling all sad about it, but I think it was probably for the best otherwise we probably would have cried!

Empty flights home which was nice. I was welcomed at the airport by Paul and muggy weather. But sort of felt good to be 'home'. But today I am not a happy camper. I saw online that my air miles were not credited to my account - after an hour of phone calls it seems that it cannot be credited since I bought my flight through airfrance rather than delta directly. so annoying. I have never had this problem before and feel really annoyed that i virtually have to beg for my milage. I have all my boarding passes, but of course Paul doesnt...so not sure how that is going to go down. But I am sick of dealing with it right now.

And to make my mood worse... i just saw that our Bollywood posters that are opposite the couch are growing mold in the glass!! None of our other ones have ever done this, but this one wall leaks water and apparently that is what is causing it. It is really upsetting as these are limited bollywood posters that we had framed ages ago and I love them! I will have to take them to the framer and see if he can do anything. But I've avoided taking anything to him during monsoon since his workshop is virtually outdoors and I'm sure he can't protect them from the humidity. GRRR. And my closets are all moldy and stink. Fun. Why oh why do I like living in this country?!

Riga - day 2/3

2008-09-03T22:42:00.002+05:30

Day two at Sylvia's started off much better with a good night's sleep. We both slept well and were up and ready to go earlier. Sylvia was worried about Charlotte, afraid she might be sick, so she thought it was best if we ventured on our own for the day. Riga is a small city, so it would be fine. But Sylvia still ended up walking us to the Old Town through a couple of beautiful parks. It was really nice - not sunny, but not cold and just felt nice to be out walking on nice paths with tons of greenery around.

After getting us to the Old town and showing us a good place for lunch and the tourist office, Sylvia was off to her house for some much needed rest awaiting the doctor's appointment. Granny and I just pottered around on the tourist walk, seeing the Blackheads building, a cathedral and little squares and tons of cobblestone roads. Our friend from the tour, Amit messaged saying he was nearby, so I dropped Granny off at the lunch spot and headed to the top of the cathedral with Amit and his friends of Latvian decent. It was just a short visit, but was good to see him again and to chat with his friends. We got some good arial shots of Riga and then they headed off to the bus station and I went back to the lunch spot. Granny was full and happy after another traditional Latvian lunch. I had a few things, but the veg options were limited, so I couldn't go all out. I think I spent 1 dollar! hah.

We then continued on our tourist path, stopping at shops along the way chatting with shop keepers. So far the people here seem much nicer and more open than in Russia. And there seems to be a decent level of English spoken which really helps things progress. We saw the very cool Kaku Haus (Cat House) which I just loved and then on route, we saw an adorable kitten. They really seem to love their cats here and in Russia - what a change to India!We enjoyed our little stroll down the cobble stone pathways taking photos and just enjoying the smallness of this cute little town. To end our tour we paid a visit to the Occupation Museum. It was really interesting to see how Latvia was passed back and forth during WWII (russians first invaded, then germany, then the western powers basically handed Latvia back to Russia at the end). It was pretty deep, but really gave us a better sense of what the people had suffered and helped us understand how there are still a lot of tensions between Latvians and Russian-Latvians. Latvia is part of the EU and will soon be getting the Euro as well. This seems to make the people there very happy, but I am not sure that Russia really likes Latvia's closeness with the West. I just hope that whatever happens in the future that Latvia is able to stay unoccuppied and free.

After that deep and moving museum, we needed to lighten our minds..what better way than shopping! One of the shopkeepers had told us where to buy silver rings, so we headed there and loaded up on stuff. Then we went to Swarvoski to get a fancy ring for Granny's birthday present. I hope it fits once she is back in the US - it's hard to tell when/if your fingers are swollen!

We were running a bit late, but managed to walk to our dinner spot to meet up with Sylvia, Charlotte and Tom. Had a nice Italian meal...that they of course wouldn't let us pay for, even though we felt we owed them for their wonderful hospitality.

Another early night.. but thats ok. we needed the down time, since we had many late nights and long days in Russia!!

Today was just for packing, saying goodbyes and boarding our flight for Berlin. I was so sad to say goodbye to Sylvia and Charlotte. When she left India I knew I'd probably see her this summer, so I didn't feel so sad. But now I don't know when we will meet again. But I guess we always have facebook :) And I am so glad that we did have a stop over in Riga. It really was a wonderful way to end our trip. It also gave us a good perspective on the Baltic post communism.

At the airport we ran our little errands (tax free stuff) and then found ourselves with 40 dollars still and the exchange office closed! So what to do...but shop! Hah. I got some Kenzo bath gel that I love and some other little trinkets before heading out of Latvia with only a few coins to my name.

Riga - day 1

2008-09-01T21:10:00.001+05:30

We arrived to Riga on the overnight train. Unfortunately again we didn't get much sleep - this time the train was freezing cold, which I could deal with fine, but we also had a 'roommate' who was a serious chatty cathy or prima dona as Granny calls her! She only spoke Russian (well and Dutch and some other random languages - none of which were English!) She just yammered on to us about who knows what. Something about her being a famous singer - which she demonstrated for us by belting out some tunes and her mother being a famous pianist. She then told us how Latvians are skinny and Americans are fat and that Americans are crazy, etc etc. All of this with sign language mind you - but what she said was perfectly clear! Then she went on and on about how Riga is horrible and Tallinn is much better. She just kept doing this throat slicing thing which was creepy. She was 85 mind you and travelling on her own to Latvia where she lives but apparently hates. Poor thing. But by 5 a.m. with her incessent talking I was about to slice her throat myself!

We got to Riga we all loaded off the train. Our fellow travel partner Amit (who was on tour with us) was also on the train but in the upper class compartment while we were in second class! The three of us headed out to find a taxi. Of course no one would take us b/c both places were 'too close'. Very annoying after a 15 hr train journey! But we did manage to find someone...still it was close to the price quoted by the other taxi's anyhow. whatever. But I have to say that Amit was a very good gentleman. He always carried Granny's bags when he was with us and even made her bed on our previous train journey. He was really sweet and it was too bad that him and Granny didn't get to say proper goodbyes!

Finally made it to Sylvia's and it was so good to see her and Charlotte! Sylvia's apartment was adorable and our room was like a 5 star hotel! She had roses by the bed, bottled water, glasses and 3 guidebooks for our use! And.. the best part - the floor of the bathroom was heated! What a special treat. Specially after being so cold all night long on the train. Granny took a nice long hot shower to warm her bones back up while Sylvia set out breakfast for us. It was seriously a wonderful feeling being there and being treated so well.

After getting ready, we went out for a little walk in the neighborhood, which also is the famous Art Nouveau district. It was a beautiful sunny day and we took advantage of it by doing the whole circuit. The buildings were really beautiful and amazing. it is crazy to think that much of riga was in shambles only 5 years ago. It has only been since 1991 that they were given their independence from Russia. I don't see as much of the communist mindset in Riga as we felt in Russia, but it is still there.

On our little tour, Sylvia took us to a little Latvian cafe type place that served traditional food. Luckily I have started eating fish, otherwise I am not sure I would have been able to eat anything there besides cold beetroot soup! But shockingly I ate my entire plate of food! I'm usually an insanely picky eater and will survive on snickers rather than eat stuff I don't like, but I was able to eat everywhere we went on this trip and I was really proud of myself for that!

After lunch we continued our stroll, enjoyed Sylvia's company and tried not to let our tiredness get in the way. I had a horrible headache by 6 and layed down for a nap and Granny was ready for bed by 8! Fun gals we are!! But I think we needed a mellow night to refresh ourselves after the tour and the train journey.

end of the tour

2008-08-31T16:25:00.003+05:30

Our tour officially ended today at noon. We are still here in St Petersburg waiting for our night train to Riga. We had thought we'd go into the city center again today and walk around, but it was pouring rain and now it is dry but freezing cold! I think Dasha told me it was 9 celcius. burr. So we are staying around the hotel, just relaxing, eating and spending the rest of our money!

It was sad to say goodbye to the rest of the group today. Granny's friends (well mine too..) left this morning and she was all sad to say bye. But perhaps they will get her over to South Africa. I have been wanting to go to Africa for ages, but Granny has never had much interest. Now perhaps she'll go..or maybe they will all meet in Europe sometime. And then the biggest bunch of our group left at 1:30 - the girls i hung out with most of the trip. I feel that chances are i'll see some of them again or at the least, we are all on facebook, so we'll keep in touch. Maybe i have just gotten used to saying goodbye to people, so i know you never know what will happen!

I hung out with Dasha (our tour leader) a bit today running around looking for chocolates for men.... finally found them. What are chocolates for men? It is a regular Nestle candy bar, but basically they had an advertising campaign here saying that if a woman got these chocolates for their men, the men would all of the sudden learn to be sweet, caring and compassionate - bringing flowers, etc. haha. so of course we needed some to take back!

Today in saying our goodbyes, one of the girls i just adored during the trip told me that she didn't have any grandparents anymore, so Granny is now like her Granny too! It was super sweet. Everyone really seemed to enjoy granny on the trip. perhaps they wanted to go a bit faster sometimes, but regardless there were also two other ladies on the tour who weren't too far behind Granny's age. I thought the mix of ages made it a really great group. we had some older wiser ladies and some younger ones as well.

Off to Riga tonight to see Sylvia. I am really excited to see her. It has been so great to be able to meet up with people who have lived in India - I feel I get a good view on their lives now and it sort of makes me appreciate what we have in India seeing all of them miss it so much!
Will update again soon!

STP - day 2 (1/2 really)

2008-08-30T18:37:00.000+05:30

Another long day in store for us, but again we are on the bus! Our first stop is St Isac's Cathedral that we saw from the outside yesterday. Today we actually went inside which was great. It was beautiful inside and quite large compared to the other cathedral's we'd seen in Russia so far. We heard a bit about it's construction, but mostly we just gazed up at the amazing dome and inside art.After a while here, we then headed to Peter & Paul's Fortress. I wasn't sure how much I would like this, but I found this to be one of the most enjoyable things we'd done so far. The fortress is actually on it's own little island in STP and houses the Russian Mint, a church and some other stuff that I am sure I was told but don't remember! We all did our group photo - it's pretty funny because we are all super bundled up! It was absolutely freezing outside and we were warned in the morning that it would be a cold day, so we bundled up as much as we could.

Inside the church are tons of graves/coffins. The one that was the most interesting to me was the area at the back that housed the grave of the last Tsar of russia. Apparently his family was scattered all over Russia and it's only been in the last few years that they have managed to find most of his families's remains and bring them here. It was strange again in that there seemed to be no security and not a lot of grandeur which you might expect for the last Tsar of Russia!!

Enjoying our time here, but needing to move on, we headed over to our traditional Russian lunch that was waiting for us. It was actually pretty good. I even managed to eat some vegetarian Borsch soup (beet root soup). It was good too.. My main course was a bit of a let down though - it was just a few tossed vegetables! haha. apparently they don't quite know what to do with vegetarians!

Our last stop on our day long tour was the Peterhof Gardens. Too bad it wasn't a sunny warm day! But Granny, Dasha and I enjoyed exploring it anyhow. It is full of gold plated fountains, tons of trees, greenery, etc. This is something I really miss while living in India. we just don't get outdoor beauty like this and it's really unfortunate. We were lucky too that Dasha came along with us since she was able to tell us about the different trick fountains where if you sit on a bench you will get sprayed with water or if you walk over certain rocks you get sprayed.

We also had a nice view over the Gulf of Finland. Granny got so excited thinking she could see Finland across the water.. but it was just STP :(

Since we were quite a bit out of the city it took a while for us to get back to town. As soon as we got back, it was time to head out to our final event of the day - the Cussak performance of traditional/folk Russian dance and music. I thought this would be cheesy, but since the whole gang was going, I figured I better participate as well since it is the last night! At first it was a bit dumb, but it ended up being super cool and I think I prefered this over the ballet. Those dancers are amazing. You know the ones that get super low to the ground and kick their legs up? So amazing. They even pulled one of our own up there, Amit! He was mortified.. and i was scared to death for the rest of the show thinking they would then pull a girl up - thank goodness they didn't!

It was already getting a bit late by the time we got back from the Cussack show, so we had to have our final night's dinner there at the hotel restaurant. Again a combo mix of Sushi and Italian (seems they like to combine those two restaurants in STP!). I again went for Italian, but it was a mistake!! Should have done the sushi.

It was a great last night though and it was already getting sad to think that we'd all be going our seperate ways the following day. Granny got up and gave a little speech which was excellent. made me all teary again (i had bumped my bruise earlier in the day and seriously broke down in tears it hurt so bad!!).

Most of us 'youngins' decided to go across the road to the supermarket where there was also a bar for a final farewell. It was a funny place. We think they were having a talent show type thing when we got there. But we can't be certain.. But by the end of the night, just random people were going up on stage to showcase their dance skills. It was hilarious.

And sadly our night had to end. I knew I'd see most people on Sunday since we didn't leave til the night, so I saved my farewells for then.

STP - day 2

2008-08-29T17:31:00.002+05:30

Today sort of was a whirlwind honestly. But luckily we had a bus for most of it! Our grand tour of St Petersburg started out slowly today with us sitting in traffic for over an hour. That was not fun! I would have prefered to just take the metro into town and have the bus pick us up there or something.

Our first stop was St Isacs Cathedral. It was nice and all, but at the point we had no real idea about it, so we just took our photos and moved on to the next sight. I think the next was a view of Peter & Paul's fortress from the water. It was nice, but freezing cold outside, so we hustled ourselves back to the van as soon as we could! And then to a souvenir shop to pick up some items and then time for St Basil's copy called the Church of Spilled Blood. It was nice, but not as inspiring as St Basil in Moscow. Then to lunch. We went to an all you can eat place. Everyone loved it.. but I kind of would have preferred to go down the street with Grant & Charlotte to McDonalds for my fish sandwich as there wasn't much for me to eat at the 'all you can eat' place! But no biggie.. i'd been able to eat most places.

The rest of the afternoon was reserved for our visit to the Hermitage museum. I'm not a big museum person, but some museum's you have to visit since they are so known and thats the Hermitage. It's a massive palace that is now a museum housing art from all over the world. Apparently if you spent even 5 seconds looking at each peice in the museum it would take over 5 years to see everything! Obviously we did a quicker version!

Some of us even did a quicker quicker version and left after about an hour to go do a bit of exploring on our own. I ended up finding the Soviet posters book that I had wanted in Moscow and I got a few posters too. I was very happy and felt that I could finally be finished with my shopping.

After our little break, it was time to meet up for our evening boat ride through St Petersburg. Unfortunately it was absolutely freezing, but luckily the boat had an inside area where we all sat. I ventured outside here and there to get photos, but otherwise it was just way too cold with our limited amount of winter wear on.

Another long day, but at least we weren't as pooped as we were in Moscow. Granny decided to head back with a group of people while I stayed in the city center to venture around. Granny's group got messed up on the train somehow and ended up going 6 stations out of the way and had to have a little 14 yr old girl (who apparently spoke great english) guide them back to the right line! I'm so glad this didn't happen to us b/c we left town with only 30 minutes to spare before the trains shut off - we would have been totally screwed!

Our little adventure wasn't much better though. We had another lesson in the wonderful customer service industry of Russia. The first bar we were at was fine except you almost had to beg to be served. After a while we started looking for a place to eat dinner and somehow ended up at another Italian place. It looked great an all, but it seriously took almost 2 hrs to get just half of our orders. It was then that we realized that we didn't have much time before the metro stopped so we had to cause a bit of a ruckus to get our remaining pizza's. grr. Another lesson.. don't eat out with a big group and expect to be served in a reasonable amount of time!

Our next day is another long day couch tour, so shouldn't be too strenous.

welcome to STP - 1/2 of day 1!

2008-08-28T16:39:00.000+05:30

Today we rode the bus from Pscov to St Petersburg. It took about 5 hours, but really wasn't so bad since it seemed that most of us seemed to sleep the entire journey. Although we did have to stop a few times so our guide from the day before could buy wild mushrooms on the roadside. Strange. And they were very odd mushrooms - yellow and long.

Arrived to STP just in time to have a quick lunch which turned into a nightmare for most people. Half the group ordered Chicken Kiev only to find that it was still raw. People were freaking out.. but managed to get some food anyhow. We ate quickly and then went back to the room to freshen up for the evening's ballet performance.

I had planned to wear this new dress that Granny had bought me in Berlin. I'd been saving it all the trip so far. In our room, we only had one small mirror, so I wanted to get up on a chair so I could see myself fully. Big mistake! I got on the chair, had a quick look before completly crashing off the chair onto the floor. I hurt my leg really bad and had a slight sting in the wrist and ribcage. Not good at all. But I had to act not too hurt since the look on Granny's face made me think she might have a heart attack right there!! I knew nothing was broken, but that my leg was going to be seriously bruised.

I finished getting ready and wobbled on downstairs for the ballet. No one quite believed me when I said my leg was swollen and bruised. But by the time we got to the ballet and I went to the restroom my entire upper thigh was black and blue. :(

Anyhow.. the ballet was interesting. I am pretty sure this was my first ballet. The building wasn't so fabulous, but we tried to overlook that and the fact that we had seats way in the back. I have to say that I wasn't so impressed with it. I felt that the ladies were a bit out of time with one another and they didn't seem to go with the music much. The first set was 1 hr, followed by a 30 minute set and then a 15 minute set. The last two set's were much better and got us much more into the performance. I could have seriously slept through the first set though!

We were all starving afterwards, but our bus driver didn't understand a word we were saying or else he just kept ignoring our pleas to go to McDonalds! haha. But I guess it was for the best - we needed to get to bed for our big tour of St Petersburg the following morning.

Sleeping was not easy with my leg hurting so badly, but i somehow managed to stay on my back the entire night rather than tossing and turning like usual!

The train to... Pscov

2008-08-26T19:10:00.002+05:30

Our train journey was an adventure that is for sure. I don't think our tour guide Dasha was prepared for the moaning and whining that went on at the beginning of our journey. We had tickets for all of us, but we were not all sleeping in the same birth so it got a little chaotic. Granny got on first and chose the first seat - which ended up being one of the worst. She believed it when Dasha told her that we could change later. Me.. I know how these things work and you never get to change!! But we managed and delt with it. We were the first seats right by the door and bathroom. I thought the problem would be people opening and closing the door all night, but that wasn't an issue because they never closed the door!!! Which meant that the light was shining in my face all night long. Grr. Granny also didn't get much sleep mostly because she would wake up each time the train stopped - which was all the time. And for those of us on the upper bunks, it was hot with no air circulation.

So basically a group of 15 tired, dirty and hungry travellers got off in Pscov not in the best of moods. We had little time to check in to our hotel change clothes and then head out for our day. I had borrowed a tank top from Barbara, which I promptly lost between the lobby and the 4th floor. I spent our 20 minutes freaking out trying to find that rather than actually getting ready for the day ahead. Luckily someone else had found the tank and returned it to Barbara, so all ended well.

Our first stop was the old monastry outside of Pscov. They were in preparations for a big festival the next day, so it was a bit interesting to see how it was all put together. They were laying a blanket of flowers that the procession would walk on. We were required to put on a black skirt over our clothes and then also cover our head. Unfortunately we weren't told in advance or else I could have brought the shawl that I brought all the way from india for this reason!!

And of course the OntheGo Tour brochure made this place sound fantastic with the burial caves, etc. But it really wasn't that interesting and we had no time to wonder around ourselves, so it sort of seemed a waste of time in my opinion. But others seemed to enjoy it a bit.
After being hustled through quickly, we were then taken to the Pscov Kremlin and driven past quickly! We did manage to get out for a moment and have a group photo taken, but that was about all. Then off to the other side of Pscov to have lunch and begin our sauna (banya) experience. It was a tiny little wooden cabin with a room to eat and one room to change and the actual sauna in the middle. it was nice, but not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be some super cool sauna experience.

We did have a great time though. We went into the sauna in groups. Got super hot.. came out and splashed ourselves with cold water, then repeated the process. But this next time, we were beaten with twigs by Dasha! That was a bit interesting. I didn't feel like my life had changed though. But then.. we were told to run outside and jump in the freezing cold lake. Yowzers.. that was ice cold. I felt my whole body go numb within seconds!

Then it was time for the actual lunch. Unfortunately it was all meat, so I didn't get to eat anything :( But I enjoyed playing with the 16 stray kittens outside and feeding them the salmon which was supposed to be for me.

Not the best day on the tour for sure, but we all still had a blast. Then it was time to go back home to shower and prepare for dinner. We had a group dinner that was included in our tour. It was good, if not a bit quick with the service! As soon as we all sat down, our plates began to arrive and within minutes of getting that our ice cream deserts started to come! A few people freaked out and told them to hold the ice cream, so luckily ours didn't melt in the process.

After dinner the youngin's decided to hit the town... not much to do here except a bowling alley/entertainment center or a disco. We opted for the first option. It was great fun. Bowling was excellent even though most of us sucked, then it was air hockey and just watching the locals in action. A good opportunity for all of us to really get ot know one another. I headed home around 1 but others stayed a bit later I think.

The next morning we were told breakfast was from 8 -9:30. So of course those of us who went out, decided to go down around 9. Well... not such a good idea apparently. We thought it was buffet style like our other hotels, but it was not. So our meal had been set out at 8 and was sitting there cold as a cucumber. We ate it without complaint, but when we asked for coffee this is when we received the true Russian hospitality. We were given the rolling eyes and loud sigh and told not possible. We continued to ask for it and finally got some. We let it sit and cool down a bit, added our sugar and cream and then went to drink it. It was COLD! When we then asked for HOT coffee.. we got more eye rolling and then our waitress went to the manager who was deeply engrossed in some russian soap on tv and started yelling about us. She was pointing our way, yelling, eye rolling and carrying on. It was pretty funny actually. Of course the manager told her to get us hot coffee. After we'd finished breakfast we had only a little amount of time before our bus was set to leave, but still no coffee. So I decided I would leave. She of course brought the coffee as I reached the door. I left anyhow fed up with this wonderful service, but my friend stayed and bore the brunt of her anger. Of course this just gave us a great story to talk about the whole day and for the rest of the trip! But it also clearly outlined how they do not care about their customers in the least!

So that was our experience in Pscov...not really worth the train journey there. I think we all would have prefered an extra day in either moscow or stp.
And tomorrow.. we board the bus for our 5 hr journey to STP.

moscow - day 2 & 3

2008-08-25T14:47:00.000+05:30

After an exhausting first day in Moscow, we were happy to look at the itinerary and see that we only had one thing booked today and then the rest of the day was ours! Our morning began at the famous Kremlin where the government of Russia still resides. I can't remember all the history that was given to us that day.. but I do recall that it used to be the center of the village and that the entire area was crowded with old wooden homes that were set fire during one of Russia's many wars!I thought that we'd get to go into some buildings or something, but instead we just go to walk around in the inside of the Kremlin walls and see the insides of the church there. But I guess with Putin hard at work within one of the buildings, figuring out what to do about the war with Georgia there was no chance we'd get to go inside!! But I must say there was a total lack of security presence inside the Kremlin. We weren't frisked as we went in, although we did go through metal detectors and I had my camera looked into. Besides that, the area was just filled with tourists like us!

We spent a good amount of time hearing the history of the Kremlin by our hilarious tour guide. She kept saying funny things that some might take as being anti-Russian. She made a comment about how Russia loves war, but is never prepared for them. She said that since Russia had signed a peace agreement with the Nazi's that they just left their borders unarmed..and then were shocked when Nazi troops were close to closing in on Moscow. She was totally different than our guide yesterday who seemed very pro-Russia. Interesting.

But again, we got very little information on what we wanted to hear most about - the Soviet Era. I guess perhaps they just don't know alot about it themselves to be honest.

After our short, but long tour of the Kremlin, the rest of the day was ours. Granny and I headed off to the canteen for our favorite lunch. I of course got the same food as the day before, but Granny tried all new things. She's adventurous like that! After lunch a few people were heading back to the hotel area, so Granny thought it might be best if she went with them since I had a long day planned for myself. I was going to see a friend who used to live in Mumbai to pick up our train tickets and then stay in the city center for night time so I could see all the buildings lit up. And the sun doesn't set until well after 9pm.

Granny headed back with a whole group of people and I ventured over to Hazel's place. I had hoped that by visiting someone who lived there I would get a better feel for Moscow and perhaps see something besides the Red Square. No such luck! Hazel lives on the road directly opposite the Red Square, so I didn't see much more of the city than that!. But it was great to see her place and her twin babies. And btw, her nanny was from Georgia, so that was a bit interesting. We mostly caught up on mutal friends and then she told me about life in Moscow. She's only been there about 8 months, but she hates it and is ready to leave again. She re-iterated what we had already felt - the people aren't so friendly, there is no service industry whatsoever and the prices are insane. For her it is also difficult as there are no lifts to be found anywhere so she can't take the metro since it's underground and can barely cross most of the streets since the street crossing is also below ground. And to top it off, when she is out walking the babies, there are often cars parked on the sidewalks so she can't walk there either.

This little visit made me realize that I probably wouldn't be so happy living in Moscow either. Although I can get up and down the stairs - it's just the not so friendly staff at places that would drive me insane. I'd probably be shot within a week for yelling at people!!

After our visit and my almost run over by a porche, bmw and mercedes all three trying to turn at the intersection at once I met up with some of the rest of our tour group for some dinner and drinks. We hung out at a cafe near red square for a while - watching a totally drunk man try to make his way to the door. It was our own little soap opera for a bit. After that, we decided to venture back towards where I was earlier in the day to find a place for dinner. Of course it was all a bit overpriced, but where we ended up had excellent food...Italian! After an hour wait for our change, we finally left close to 11 at night. Now it was time for me to get my night shots of the buildings. Oops.. I forgot my good lens and my tripod. Oh well.. still managed to get some decent photos.

And then the long journey back home on the metro. Since we can't read the signs, nor do we understand or even hear the announcements for the trains, we are forced to count stops. This is a lesson in concentration. If you have ever used subways much, you know that you can easily get carried away in conversation and forget how many stops you've passed. To combat this, all of us would hold our hands up with the number of the stop so that we didn't forget. And it worked.. we made it right back to the hotel without a hitch.

Wednesday - today is also a free day. I am in need of a swimsuit (swimmer, swim costume, etc) for the sauna experience coming up tomorrow. I don't know how I missed this when packing. So Barbara and I have decided that we will see the flea market by our hotel in the am and then head into town.

Oh man.. it is blustery cold and rainy today though! It is seriously cold. We managed to potter around the market buying all sorts of crap. I think i got a million things that I don't need, but missed out on the one thing that I would have loved. The russian book of old posters. Two other guys in the group got it and showed me later, but it was too late to go back :( I think it must not have been up when we were there, because all i saw were nesting dolls and christmas ornaments!

After spending all of our money, Barbara and I head to town to eat at our canteen for the last time. It was still yummy even on day 3! Did a bit of swim suit shopping, but gave up and decided I could just wear a tank top with undies. Heading back to our hotel was misery though. It was seriously freezing cold. And for some reason my shoes leak water inside. I don't know how this happened, but apparently there is a little hole at the bottom or at the seam. Oh so sad.

But we made it back in time to dry our socks under the hand dryer and retrieve our bags from the luggage room. And then it was time to head off for our night train to Pscov. it would be most people's first experience on a train such as this. Dasha, our tour guide, said it was exotic. but after hearing her descriptions, I realized it is just like the Indian trains I ride here. Uh oh.. the group is not going to be happy about this! haha.

More tomorrow after our journey.. all 50 people on one carriage with only 2 toilets as some of the ladies were obsessed with saying.

moscow - day 1

2008-08-23T21:07:00.002+05:30

On our first day of the tour, we absolutely pooped ourselves out! We started off a bit earlier than our original itinerary had stated, but it was because we were going to sneak in a quick look at Lenin's dead body! We waited in a long line, which apparently was quite short since it was a Sunday and was still early. We gave all of our belongings to Dasha our tour leader whom we had just barely met the previous night. Cameras, purses, basically everything of value we had to hand over since almost nothing was allowed inside Lenin's Mausoleum. We walked down some stairs to a cold dark room where we were admonished for talking and for putting hands in pockets! ok... Then we circled around his dead body. Not sure if it was really him or not. Apparently every so often they have to do 'maintenance' on his body which takes several months. During those times, a wax body is put in his place. I'm sure they have probably created a perfect copy in wax, so we wouldn't know the difference. I'd say you'd have to go once a month for a few years to see if you ever noticed any differences. But it was a bit eerie seeing his dead body there!

After that little intro to Russia, we walked a bit further on the Red Square to the colorful and beautiful St Basils Cathedral. I knew from my first look that I would end up taking hundreds of photos of this building. It's absolutely beautiful and feels like candyland or something from a fairy tale. Someone told me that this was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. Not sure though. We met our first local tour guide here and she gave us a ton of history on the area, the Red Square, St Basils, etc. But of course I don't remember much at all. I do know that the cathedral was built by Ivan the terrible and that it has 9 domes, which is apparently 9 different 'churches'?? or worship halls perhaps. Anyhow, I couldn't pay much attention to the guide since I was captivated by St Basils! We walked around Red Square for a while learning (or hearing in my case) the history of it all. Then we pottered over to a bridge by the water to see the Kremlin from another angle. After this our tour took us through the old GUM Government Department store which is now a high end mall. It was beautiful. Then on to one of the main streets just outside of the Red Square where we saw the KGB offices from afar. Its too bad I never went back there to see it close up. I really wanted to learn more about that - but as most things associated with the Soviet Era, it was just glossed over.

Even though thus far we had not done a lot of walking, it was the standing around that was already starting to kill my feet. Granny seemed to be managing fine, but i was already getting tired and hungry. It was after 1 when we finally were told we could go eat some lunch. We were pointed back towards the GUM where there was a Soviet era type canteen where we could get lunch for a decent price. I think the whole group headed there. And thank goodness we did. It was excellent. I got way too much food the first day - it was like a Luby's Cafeteria where you just go down the aisle picking up what you want. I love these type of places because I can actually find things to eat! I got apple strudel, apple/carrot salad, plain crepe, apple crepe, mashed potatoes and some brown bread. I was stuffed, but happy!

We had a little bit of free time before meeting up with the group again, so Granny and I just wandered around the mall a bit, checking things out. Then we met up with most of the group again at 6 for our tour of the subways. Of course that was a little bit delayed because Dasha recommended that we walk 30 minutes to this arty district called Arbat. Of course we took a long long long route and it ended up taking 1 1/2 hrs! Needless to say we were all pooped. Granny was still being a trooper, but I think she had just about had it. If we had been there a bit longer and she knew the way home she would have gone for sure. After that long walk, we finally did a quick tour of the subways.
The subways are insane there.. they are decorated like art museums. Not all of them, but the main ones for sure. Of course we were told we couldn't take photos since it is attached to the military. Urgh.. really this city needs to be a little more tourist focused I think. They could make good money doing subway tours!

We got home late and were thoroughly exhausted. granny just went up straight to bed. I did a little internet (see previous post) and then ate a snack before heading to bed.

I have to say that initially I wasn't that impressed with Moscow. I mean I loved the Red Square and all, but overall, I just didn't feel any real connection to the city at this point. Even looking back now, I am not sure if I would really ever want to go back to Moscow - I certainly don't think I want to live there like I had previously thought.... although that canteen is pretty yummy so maybe I could ;) But I think that as exhausted as Granny was she actually was quite impressed with Moscow. She had pictured it as very communist looking - dark, grey old buildings, but it was really colorful and beautiful instead. Off to sleep to prepare for another day tomorrow!

quick update from moscow

2008-08-23T10:31:00.000+05:30

We arrived to Moscow yesterday and were scooped up and taken to our hotel 'complex'. thank goodness we got a tour is all i can say! getting out of berlin was easy - well getting to the airport was at least. there were 3 train workers who saw us get on the train and when it was the final stop they took our bags from us and walked us to the lift, then across the street and even put our bags on the waiting bus!! that is hospitality. it was super nice of them and not expected at all.

glad that it went smoothly to that point, so that we weren't stressed too terribly much when we finally got to the check in counter after 30+ minutes. i was told right away that there was a problem with my visa. the sweating began and granny just about had a heart attack when i jokingly said she might have to go without me! we were taken out of the line and directed to someone else. still not knowing what the problem was except that perhaps my dates weren't correct and i didn't have a return flight? but what problem is this of the checkin staff of a german airline?!?

after a few anxious minutes waiting (well 20 to be exact) we were given the go ahead. apparently they had never seen a visa for russia that was issued in India, so they were not sure if it was real or not. After some calls and probably a check on their computer they found it was real and we were then checked in. shoo... glad that went ok. thought i might have to stay a while longer in berlin (which i wouldn't have minded actually!)

boarded and landed fine. immigration was also fine. no issues there. couldn't find our ride immediately and i started to panic.. but then granny found him. yeah! we checked in, ate some outrageously expensive food at the 'tour group buffet' and had our group meeting.

i love our actual guide, Dasha, but the initial lady who was speaking to us was super annoying and met all of those stereotypes that we think of. But she was also funny at times. obsessed with vodka - which is pretty funny considering that about half of our group doesn't drink!! haha. and she told us to put our passports in our panties, no matter if it came out smelly or not. uhhh... anyhow.

the group is cool. there are 3 people from South Africa, a few ozzies, kiwi, 1 irish lady and us. good age group and everyone seems super cool. only noticed today that there are only 2 guys - one of which is indian origin!

had a super super long day today at the red square which has absolutely pooped us out. visited lenin's dead embalmed body which was strange, but kind of cool. saw the color st basil's church with the onion domes and did way too much walking. granny was a trooper. i will write about it later. my internet time is up now and i need to get some dinner before crashing. another busy day tomorrow.

Granny in Berlin

2008-08-22T23:07:00.000+05:30

Granny arrived on her 75th birthday! I had been stressing out about what to do to mark the occasion but decided it was probably best to be flexible and keep things open depending on how she felt after her trans-Atlantic flight. She seemed pretty good - a bit tired, but otherwise ready to venture out into Berlin. She remarked a few days later that she had seen more of Berlin underground than above ground.. probably so. I probably should have made more detailed plans of what to do each day so that we weren't always on trains! But I just love the metro there and we certainly needed to get our moneys worth from our day passes :)

Our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie. And Granny immediately bought stuff! She's good at that - not indecisive like me. I always think - oh that would be nice to get, but I'll wait until later and see if I see it somewhere else. Of course you don't always see it later, which also means I usually don't end up buying anything! We didn't do the museum, but probably should have. It didn't look too busy, but I was afraid if we stopped for long that Granny would start passing out from the jetlag!!

From CC we walked on to one remnant of the wall. Mostly Granny and I were just catching up. And she was telling me about Walt (Gramps's brother in law) who was honored in a small town in Germany for saving their town during WWII. I was so amazed to hear this story. I think that is what was great about travelling with Granny - stories that I would never hear otherwise came up to the surface. So I have a family member who has a statue dedicated to them in Freidberg Germany! How cool is that.

After walking for a while more, we decided to stop for coffee to give us a pick me up. After the coffee, we had enough energy to walk through Potsdamer Platz and on to the Memorial to Murdered Jews. I just love this memorial. I think I could go a million times and take a million photos. It's just a really moving and cool memorial. I know there was a lot of controversy about it being put on prime real estate, but I think it is important for Berlin to really come to grips with what happened and put memorials in prominent locations so that people don't forget the atrocities of WWII.

And then we came up to the Brandenburg Gate. I'm not a very good tour guide since I don't specifically know the history of all of the sights in Berlin.. I just know my way around :p It was getting a little late in the afternoon and Granny was starting to fade. She had decided she wanted schnitzel for her bday dinner. I messaged all the people I know in Berlin and of course the wonderful Anja gave us a great recommendation. On the train we went and to the cafe. It was an adorable cafe and had excellent food. Granny got her schnitzel and I got a yummy pesto/goat cheese pizza. yum.

And then off to the apartment. Granny actually ended up staying up quite late considering. I think we finally went to bed around 10:30 or so! And she even slept in the next day as well. It was good that she was able to get on schedule so quickly.

Our second day in Berlin started off with a walk to Bergmanstrasse near the apartment. We sat out at a sidewalk cafe having a little breakfast and people watching. The sun was out and it just felt like it was going to be a great day. Of course we did a little shopping too! I found a cute black dress that I just loved and Granny got it for me as a gift. So sweet! Then we decided to head to the other side of town to a cute little cafe I had gone to with Andy & Anja. Anna Blooms. They had amazing food. I got a spinach quiche and granny got fish soup and as an extra we got some cold savory pancakes that were excellent. I am constantly surprised by the quality of vegetarian food that I get in Berlin these days. I remember 8 years ago all I ate was bread and cheese and french fries!

Spent some more time walking around Prenzlaurberg before heading back towards the apartment. I don't think we did much that day other than eat and just relax! But it was a great day by my standards!

Our last full day in Berlin started out with a trip out to the Berlin Wall Memorial. I had never been to that memorial before, so it was cool to visit. We could see the no mans land area that existed between the two walls as well as the spot where a church stood in that area that was destroyed by the Russians. After spending the morning there, we headed a cafe to have brunch - all you can eat for 3 euro! Bargain. Granny tried all the local favorites and love it all. I just ate up the eggs, bread and cheese as usual! After a little stroll we headed to Potsdamer Platz to check out an art exhibit that we read about in the paper. It wasn't so great, but we met Andy & Anja there which was nice. We headed over to a little coffee shop and then did a little shopping in the mall's bookstore! The one thing I didn't need to lug around for 2 weeks was 3 more books, but I just couldn't resist!!

After our little coffee, Granny I took the bus to Andy & Anja's place. I got lured in at the sock shop and ended up buying two awesome pairs of tights (which later turned out to not fit me!). Then hung out with A&A for a while before heading to dinner and getting Granny her last schnitzel in Germany!

It was a great night to end the beginning of our trip! I was so glad to be able to show Granny the Berlin that I love. I really do want to move there and now even Granny wants me to move there so she can come visit and hang out at cafes all day!!

sans internet

2008-08-19T22:33:00.002+05:30

I am officially without internet and must rely on the kindness of people! I am at a local English language bookshop in my neighborhood using theirs. it is not easy though as the german keyboard is a bit different! but i am managing.

quick update, mostly so i dont forget.

went to ikea yesterday and bought some curtains for india. then went home for a nap. later met up with the gang in prenzlauberg for tea and then falafel. thought it would be a quiet night, but then we ended up going out to Tacheles. here is the photo from 8 years ago when i visited. it is now a ton of cafes and bars, but still looks pretty much the same outside. we hung out there for a while until it was time to go back and pack up folo for the airport.

today i have done almost nothing. cleaned the apartment and then went to do laundry. i managed to figure out the laundry machines and then even was showing other foreigners how to do it! typical me...or rainman me as andys brother calls me! he was all chatty cathy with me until i said i had a boyfriend and then this guz wouldnt even look at me. weirdo. and he was juggling in the laundrymat.

then off to rest and do some grocery shopping. not too eventful. but berlin is mellow in the day so who knows what i'll get up to tonight!
Granny arrives in the a.m.... more updates later.

2008-08-18T20:00:00.002+05:30

Yesterday we had a slow day again, but managed to do some stuff. We went over to Andy & Anja's to drop our gifts and then ended up having some breakfast there as more and more people began arriving. Then we headed off with Andy's brother and sister to see some sights. We did a boat cruise down one of the canals. It was ok... the speaker was annoying because we could never understand her English or German! But it was relaxing and we got to see stuff we would go back to later.

Then off to the East Side Gallery - this is the longest stretch of the former Berlin Wall. It has been filled with grafitti and art. After all of our walking around, we headed back to the apartment for a little rest. this turned out to be bad - we ended up going to sleep and staying in the rest of the night! I think we probably needed it though. I did some organizing of the suitcases since Paul leaves on Tue and he watched tv. Feels like home already :)

Today we went to Ikea and bought a few things to take back to India. Now we are resting before Paul's final night out in Berlin. I will be without computer for the next few weeks, so probably won't update too often. I'll try to get a notebook though so I can remember to write things down and transcribe them later.

wedding festivities

2008-08-17T14:07:00.004+05:30

The wedding and reception that brought us to Berlin was held on Friday. Unfortunately it was a rainy cold day, but the festivities were excellent. Andy & Anja were married at the Rathaus in Schoneberg. The officiant was excellent. She was so personable and really made the ceremony feel like it was the only one she was doing all day. Even though another couple were outside waiting! It was really fantastic, even though it was in German and we got only half of it.
We then walked across the street for cake, but were getting pelted by the rain, so headed to the reception venue early. We all jumped into taxi's and headed to the lake. We had a wonderful terrace with heaters, couches and blankets and a gorgeous wood paneled room with bookcases filled with wine.
Festivities started at 3 pm and we were going until 5 a.m. Others stayed until 6:30!
Needless to say.. we slept all day yesterday!

The final meetup was last night at a Greek beer garden in Kleistpark. It was also really great with a live band.

Now that the wedding is behind us, we can try to get back to business being tourists!
Photos will come soon. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some up.

love love love berlin!

2008-08-15T13:25:00.003+05:30

I seriously do love this city. Maybe it's just because it's different than Mumbai, but I think I just really like it here. It already feels like home! The people are fantastic, the food options are wonderful, it's so easy to walk around or take the train and there are so many 'free' things to do!

The day before yesterday we had errands to run. Weird I know, specially when we are on holiday! But we had things we needed to mail and had to pick up some wrapping paper. It took us almost all day to find the post office. The maps are literal here - when it shows a little envelope on the map, it means a post box! But our little adventure took us walking through our neighborhood and through nice wall murals and then to checkpoint charlie. After that we went to the Reichstag (govt building) and waited in line for an hour to go in (free). It was nice. not sure if it was worth the hour wait, but it was sunny and it was fine to sit out in the sun for a while. Then we headed off this bombed out church that i remembered from my first trip here 8 years ago. It was a nice day of pottering around, getting the lay of the land.

At night we went out with our friends for their bachlor/bachelorette parties. I was a light weight and came home by 2 while paul stayed out until well after 3. Note - there are no real timings for bars here. They are open until the last patron leaves! Not good for some people i'd say! And apparently the beers are super cheap. A night of drinking for Paul and it was only 11 euro. Haha. My total bill was 3 euro :)

Yesterday we had a super mellow day, sleeping in and then napping for a good part of the day. I think I needed that to really get over this cold I've had. Then we decided to go down to the 'cool' street near our house. It was fantastic. It was a long boulevard lined with cafe's, arty shops and second hand shops. We had sushi for dirt cheap - 5 euro each for about 10 rolls each!! loved it. then sat at a park and watched the kids play in the water fountains since it was nice and hot out.

Then a friend of ours who used to live in Mumbai called and we met up with him. We met in the same district that we are staying in Kruezberg, but it was so different over on his side. First we met in a super Turkish area and then walked for about an hour along a beautiful canal to the other end of Kruezberg where he works. Had some drinks and snacks at a canal side cafe, had a tour of his new post production facility and then headed back to our part of town to meet up with the wedding party - 2 hours late! Saw a beatles inspired band at one cafe and then headed back to our favorite neighborhood bar Pinguin.

I was a little worried about getting home in the taxi thinking they wouldn't speak English. But our driver was Turkish and recognized my accent right away as being American. We yammered all the way home and really got some good insights in to how people think (at least perhaps the Turkish pop) about life here, America, politics, etc.

Today it's raining and it's the wedding day. But perhaps it will be fine since we'll be inside for most of the day. Most festivities, people to meet and reasons to love this super laid back city. I'm seriously ready to move here tomorrow!! We've been devising all sort of plans of how we could make this happen. Need to start working on my German skills asap :)

Journey to Germany

2008-08-13T10:56:00.002+05:30

Heading out from India is always a little tiring. You get a little sad in the taxi on the way to the airport about leaving 'home' as folo put it. But then you get to the chaos that is known as Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport and you are ready to get out! They have redone the airport a bit and it is starting to look nicer, but the people are still the same! Pushing, shoving, no sense of a line - drove me mad. Didn't help that I had fever and just did not feel well.

Made it on the flight - first with our 'elite' status which pleased folo to no end! This is his first trip with elite status, so he was excited. But i do have to say that these airlines are definately cutting back on food and drinks! We were given a drink with our food only and the options were so limited. No apple juice or diet sodas. 'dinner' was a small bread with a slice of cheese and tomato! And then no drink cart until breakfast... luckily i had my own bottle of water. Maybe it is just a short flight??? Eight hours shouldn't constitute short, but compared to the 16 hr flights i've been doing recently I felt I was getting jipped on the food!

Arrival in Paris was easy as pie... went through passport control, but they barely glanced at my passport. Then i was outside! I was shocked.. I know they don't always stamp US passports, but still...don't they need to scan my passport or something and know how long i'll be in the EU? Guess not. Then we got to Berlin and there wasn't even a passport control. I felt like I had just snuck in the country. I'm certainly not used to being ignored with my passport in hand! But what is funny is that the airport we flew into was Tegel which is on the West side of Berlin. They didn't care one bit about passport or customs. But in Jan when we flew from Ireland we flew into an airport on the former East side and they are still very strict there. The Berliners say perhaps they are former SS. I'm flying out of the east side next week, so i'll compare and get back to you!

As easy as it is to buy train tickets at the airport, it took Folo and I forever. Machines don't seem to like us these days. the coke machine wasn't working - just taking my money and then spitting it back out. then the train ticket machine wouldn't take our credit card, nor paper bills.. only coins. How are we supposed to have 52 euro in coins?! Then we saw the booth and got our week tickets in seconds. grr. what a waste of time.

Being in Berlin is super easy. I remember the first time I came how I was lost on the trains, going back and forth unable to figure out if i was going the correct direction. Now I just potter right on, and seem to just feel the right way. I guess that's what 8 years of international travel does for you.

Got to our apartment and couldn't get the keys to work! We struggled for seriously 45 minutes trying to unlock the door. By this point, we are sweaty, tired, and hungry. The neighborhood looked a bit dodgy and that didn't help our moods. The ladies who we picked the keys up from were rude as anything and i had to have a little yell with them. Finally they called the apt owner and he told me how to get in. Sheesh. Once inside, the apartment is fine. A little bare, with few necessities, but it's ok.. Helps us know what is important to have in a place if we do decide to get an apartment here. Across the street is a great organic grocery shop. Folo loaded up on 4 euro organic wine, cheeses, breads, german beers and other little snacks for our fridge.

Spent the rest of the day getting a phone chip and visiting with Andy & Anja. The weather is great by my standards. It was around 70 degrees, but got a little warm even with a hoodie on. Sprinkling a little, but it's nothing compared to the rain in Mumbai! It's so nice to be back in Berlin!! I really do want to live here for a while. Need to start working on my german though!

Now it's time to head out and enjoy the sun for a bit before the rains come again. More errands on the agenda today and then a 'hen' party tonight (bachlorette party).

off to another adventure..

2008-08-10T15:27:00.003+05:30

I am off to Berlin tomorrow. Whoot whoot! All smiles except that I have been down with some cold or flu for the past 3 days and have gotten nothing done in preparation for my trip. The other week my entire household was sick and I escaped it, but now I have it. I wish I would have gotten it then and not now. So i've just been resting as much as possible with olympic watching in between.

Haven't packed, haven't finished running errands and didn't even get to go to Goa for Stacie's bday. I didn't go so I could spend the weekend doing all my errands and packing..nope.

Tomorrow, no matter how crappy I feel I have a full day. I have a mani/pedi appt in the am to get me out of the house, then must run last minute errands and pay bills. Then come home and hope that my clothes are dry and pack before stacie gets back and needs her room! At the moment, her bed is covered in random bits that I plan to pack.

And tomorrow night we will be off. this week should be pretty mellow in Berlin at least until Thur when the rest of the gang arrives for Andy & Anja's wedding. hopefully we can look at some possible flats to purchase, do some shopping and just potter around Berlin. I've been several times before, but this is only folo's second time. And I need to search out things to show my Grandmother when she arrives the following week.

I'll be sure to update and post photos as I can. See you in Sept

Expats in India

2008-08-03T10:02:00.004+05:30

The monsoon has been very weak this year, but I guess we shouldn't complain too much because it has still been cooler for the most part and we don't have to deal with soggy wet fet all the time! But monsoon is also the time of year when people are coming and going. A few people we used to hang out with have left - for the best I think. Neither of them were particularly happy here and tended to just make others miserable in their wake. And we ran into some other people we know yesterday who are also planning on leaving soon. The male part of both of these has managed to stay in India much longer, but once their female counterpart's arrived, it all went downhill...

It makes me think about what qualities a person must have to be able to stick out India for so long. How have I been here for 4+ years and others who live much grander lifestyles than me can't make it past 1 year? Does it all come down to adaptability? Or is it just that there are things here to keep me occupied? Does it make a difference that I was already heavily involved in non profit work in my previous life and can easily do it here as well? Adventurous spirit - does that play any role? Wanting to experience new things, seeking out new possibilities? Anyone know what qualities it takes to stick out the expat lifestyle?!

There was just an article online discussing expats. Apparently Irish and Kiwi's are more often expats and India is the country with the lowest 'longevity' for expats. It is definately not an easy country to live in, but if you can stick it out, it tops the list of 'earn & save' while also living a luxurious lifestyle. But I think many people are lured her with those thoughts, but then can't handle it and end up leaving well before their contracts expire.

Meanwhile, I have friends who were transferred from India for other 'exotic' locales and still miss India intensely and would probably move back in an instant. They were 'typical' expats, but somehow really fell into life here. And then there are those who seriously LOVE India and fully immerse themselves and don't get annoyed by the little things that drive us mad... Food for thought I guess.

In other news, I am running around like mad trying to finish all my little projects so I can fully relax on my trip to Berlin, Russia & Latvia. I'm getting excited - only one week to go!

two days in a row

2008-07-27T09:16:00.003+05:30

On Friday there were bombs in Bangalore and yesterday more bombs in Ahmedabad. Of course no one from the west has called or emailed about it - either you know your geography and know that I am not close to either one or else you haven't heard about it yet! Probably the latter.

Anyway, we are all fine in Mumbai. But I have to say that I am sad to realize that I don't feel surprised or threatened by the events of the last two days. It is relatively common to hear about bombs in India and I feel that there is often an onslaught of 'bombing news' on tv these days for the entire world. Have mass bombings ceased to create panic these days because of its commoness? if so, it's a bit sad.

in other news, folo stacie karen and i went with the Sharanam girls to see a hindi flick yesterday. the girls loved it - even though it wasn't their film of choice. The girls love seeing folo and a few i think have crushes on him :) Apparently his hair all grown out and 'moppy' looking to me is huge for them... they said he looks like a bollywood star! haha. And they were of course so excited that he was with SRK (Shah Rukh Khan) the day before showing his latest film. He's slowly working on getting an autograph for the girls....

And.. the 'father' at Sharanam is now in charge of the parent organization as well - which means that I have lots of work to do with them now! I guess I might be getting back into working sooner than I thought! but for now it is Sunday and I am exhausted, so will rest!

Last but not least... Folo and I went to a gallery opening on Friday and bought our first real peice of Indian art. we have been wanting some cool art from India to commemorate our time here and finally we saw one that showed India how we see it! Next week is another opening that we are also interested in attending.. we might just become Indian art collectors :)

monsoon is back!

2008-07-24T19:01:00.003+05:30

So after 6 weeks of almost no rain and at least 2 weeks without a drop monsoon has decided to finally grace Mumbai with it's presence! Of all days - the day that I had tons of errands planned - it decided to dump buckets of water down on us. I would imagine that many parts of the city are flooding by now. Earlier in the day some of the roads around me were already small streams. All of my windows are pouring water in as well - which is too bad b/c there is a lovely breeze associated with the rain and it would be glorious to be able to have the windows even cracked!

we'll see if this rain keeps up.... if so, then i might be spending a lot more time indoors the next few weeks before i head out to Europe!

Fundraising....

2008-07-17T12:44:00.003+05:30

I have been busy doing the final planning for my upcoming trip to Russia. It is almost all complete!! And now that most of that is finished I have started to really focus on the upcoming Rickshaw Run that Stacie, Paul and I are participating in. We need to get busy raising money!!

But we also need a logo and help in designing a brochure to give to people and businesses. I think a few friends have stepped up to help with the logo and i'm peicing together the content for the brochure. My plan is to have something done by the beginning of Aug!!! eek.

One step has been completed already and it's our fundraising pages! If you are a reader of the blog then go check it out and donate!! Even if all you can give is 5 pounds that is excellent! Every little bit helps us out to our goal. I've not done the fundraising push quite yet.. but as soon as I get this brochure I will be going strong. But we already got one donation from a friend here in India and I was SOOO happy! Seriously so excited. I've never done a fundraising thing like this before, so it was really exciting to get an unsolicited donation.

Anyhow.. the donation pages are:
http://www.justgiving.com/karmakab (For Mercy Corps)
http://www.justgiving.com/karmakab3 (Frank Water)

I'll keep you updated on whats happening with it all. Soon we will be putting folo in driving school and then the three of us will be learning to drive the rickshaw! And in the meantime we are thinking and plotting of how to decorate our little vehicle so any and all ideas are welcome.

busy bee

2008-07-08T20:15:00.003+05:30

Somehow the last few weeks have been busy again and full of social engagements. I'm not complaining! It's been fun to get out and about again - I guess I was just going through a 'homebody' spell.

I also starting writing a column for the American Women's monthly magazine here. It's on travel... who would have guessed. This month's article was on Japan since I was still so excited about our trip there. I also had a few photos on in the magazine, but unfortunately they looked terrible! One was cropped badly and the colors did not come out well at all. But I guess you can't expect perfection from a no budget monthly - but I think things will get better as time goes on and things become more systematic. This was the first month that incorporated a ton of changes. Overall it's looking great though, so I am glad to be part of this initiative.

Also i've been trying to get more organized for the rickshaw run. I need to really start pushing people for donations. No one has donated yet.. so I think we might have to send the link to family first and get the ball rolling so our friends will be more inclined to give.

hmm. lets see what else... i'm trying to get back into the spirit of doing the MDP blog. Its hard to find new photos though as I feel like I've put just about everything up and Mumbai has become too normal for me again so that i don't even feel like taking my camera out anymore. gotta get back into it.

and i am planning my trip to russia with my grandmother. We seem to be on track. I should get my passport back on Friday from the Russian consulate..and crossing my fingers that it has a proper visa in place! We've booked flights, an apartment for Berlin and now I just need to finalize whether we are going to Tallinn (Estonia) or Riga (Latvia). Getting excited though.

Thats all from here... gotta get back to the wii fit :)

4 years in the making..

2008-07-01T07:47:00.003+05:30

We moved into this apartment 4 years ago and since that day I have been looking for a book shelf for this one wall... i still haven't found the 'one', but i did finally break down and buy one from Argos that is acceptable. We didn't want to wait for the guys to come and assemble it, so we did it ourselves without the aid of a screwdriver.. its a bit wobbly, so please don't lean on it!

the cats love it. my other bookshelf loves it. and now i wait for the second half of my delivery today so i can almost finish the living room.

and you know what.. i'll be finished with this room probably just in time for us to have to change apartments in Sept! haha. thats about how it is for me. i'd still like a new lamp, a small green dhurri (carpet) and to have my pictures hung on the wall rather than leaning against them!

oh and monsoon is back. i've been waiting patiently for it, but now that its back, i'm not sure i like this! i need some water proof shoes that cover my toes!

life changes....

2008-06-21T16:24:00.002+05:30

there seems to be something in the air.. all of my friends seem to be going through some major life changes these days. my close friends in the US are dealing with lots of changes, good and bad, my lovely T in Paris is going through a rough spell. And the most close to home now is that two of my closest friends in India most likely will not be here 6 months from now. I know I shouldn't think about that now, so far in advance, but I can't help it. I can't imagine life here without them. But I guess I had a friend like that here before and I couldn't imagine life without her when she left, but somehow I've managed to keep on going here for 3+ years since and we've managed to stay close even with the distance. And I made other new friends in the meantime. but still... for the last 3 years most of my fun nights, great talks, camaraderie, etc have included either S or H.

I guess this means i will have to get out and about again and make new friends... but I'm so over that! That is one of the hardest things about living abroad is constantly feeling the need to make new friends! And when so many of them just come for short spells, its difficult to really open up fully and get close.

I guess I am just feeling sad, but i know that things happen for a reason and that it always works out best in the end. And I know that with whatever happens in my friends lives, my memories of India will always be mostly centered around V, S and H - well and of course folo. Now we just have to make sure that we spend the next few months living it up as best we all can!

busy doing nothing

2008-06-16T12:49:00.003+05:30

For some reason I feel like I've been busy - but doing what I don't know! I have been researching about my upcoming trip to Russia, looking for an apartment, looking for a holiday apartment for Berlin this summer, reading on the summer rickshaw run, etc.

I'm perfectly happy doing all this - but then sometimes I feel like perhaps I should get out of the house and socialize a bit! But the problem is that I don't really want to - there are so few people here in Mumbai at the moment that I want to get out and socialize with. What happened to the social butterfly in me?

I also don't feel like taking photos at all anymore. Not sure if I am just bored with the Mumbai surroundings or if I'm just lazy. but i'm trying to find new places to visit and some reason to visit them so I can take photos.. just doesn't quite happen.

And.. those Japan photos... grr. still need to get through them, but it's so overwhelming. But I have to do it before my russia trip or else i'll be in big trouble with two trips of photos to go through!

The only other news here.. My friend Stacie will be moving in with us when she comes back from the States in July. it should be fun - although I am not sure how much time we'll actually overlap at the house since we both have too much travel coming up.

And the rickshaw run... gotta start thinking about that. we have our justgiving site up, but haven't sent it around yet. anyone want to be the first to donate??! www.justgiving.com/karmakab

guess thats it for now.. back to researching my adventures

pet peeves

2008-06-12T20:25:00.003+05:30

I've been in India long enough now that I should really be used to how things are done here. But occasionally you have one of those days where things just really get on your nerves! I had one of those days the other day. I went to Chroma (kind of like our version of Best Buy - but no where as good!) to pick up some rechargeable batteries. I was fine just looking at all the options on offer when a sales assistant asked if he could help me. I said "Yes - can you tell me the difference in these batteries?" He just looked at me blankly and then walked off to get someone else to help me. So I went ahead and started reading the backs and trying to figure it out on my own.

Second sales assistant comes up and asks "Can I help you?" I wanted to say "I don't know CAN YOU?!" but I resisted the urge and just repeated my question. He said "the one in your hand is the best" Ok.. so can you tell me why? Do more customers buy this one? Have you tried any of these or received feedback on them? Etc. Of course he had no response to any of my questions, so I just went ahead and got the one that I thought would be best.

Then I get to the register and I see another charger just the same as mine but a bit bigger and much cheaper. So I make the mistake of asking the cashier if he knows the difference and why that other one is cheaper. He hasn't the slightest clue, but asks the guy next to him. This guy also has no clue but decides he wants to look smart so he reads the back - until I explain that I can read English and have already done that! Then he tells me that the cheaper one also charges 9 volt batteries.. Ok.. so it does more and is cheaper?!? That doesn't make sense. Then he goes off to get another sales person (probably the same incompetent one who tried to help earlier). By the time he comes back I have read further on the back and found that one charges in 8 hrs while the cheaper one charges in 16 hrs. Ok. decision made. Thanks.

But what gets me is why do they even ask if they can help you if they know full well that they really can't help you!??!?! Mumbai really seems to just hire just about anyone who 'looks' the part - rather than train them and make sure they know something about what they are selling!! Very annoying. And you know that these guys who work in these places for the most part couldn't even dream of buying most of the products on offer, so of course they have no real experience with them. Just very annoying this day for some reason!

loving it...

2008-06-05T18:19:00.003+05:30

i'm loving these pre-monsoon thunderstorms and showers. today it rained in the middle of the day for about 4 minutes - but it was wonderful watching the rain sweep over Bandra starting with Mt Mary. I could see it coming.. Paul didn't believe me - I said it'll be here in less than a minute and it was!

Then the sun came out and gave some beautiful skies. And now it's raining again and thundering. I have the windows open, listening to the kids downstairs scream everytime it thunders. I really do love it. I talk about monsoon all year long, but then as it's approaching I wonder why I like it... this is what I like. The pre-monsoon showers, the excitment, the cooldown. I don't so much like the middle of monsoon when your clothes won't dry for days on end, and nothing you own smells clean! But i've got a while before then, so I'm enjoy it for now!

monsoon!

2008-06-03T21:05:00.002+05:30

You forget living in Mumbai that weather changes on a daily basis in many parts of the world. Here we only get weather changes a few times a year and it's always so exciting and dramatic! Tonight I am sitting with all the windows open (which I've not done much since coming back from Japan as it's too hot!) letting the wind whip through the apartment, watching the lightening and listening for the thunder. And whoooho! it's started to rain! It's seriously one of the most exciting days in India - the arrival of the monsoon! You can hear people cheering and screaming with delight outside even though it's after 9 pm.

Today felt a bit different. We no longer had the big blue skies with white fluffy clouds - instead it was replaced with a very heavy feeling and very little sun. I went out for a bit this afternoon and took my umbrella as I just felt that it was coming soon.

Not sure that this is really the true beginning of monsoon. We often get a few false starts before it really starts in it's 3 month long deluge, but it'll be nice for as long as it lasts before the heat swells again and we anxiously await another downpour!

ramblings of returning to India life.

2008-05-29T14:13:00.004+05:30

I got so used to updating when we were in Japan that I want to update now, but don't really have anything to say!

Coming back to India was a bit of culture shock, but I guess I've come and gone so many times that it doesn't take much to get back into the swing of things. The biggest barrier I am facing at the moment is the heat and humidity! It is 100x worse than it was when I left. I usually have a policy of not leaving India during the build up to monsoon season only because if you get used to the humidity gradually it doesn't seem to feel as bad. But I have utterly failed at that this year with all of my trips. But I am adjusting ok.. 4 days into it and I am starting to feel a bit better about having to wash my face 5 times a day and just being covered in a greasy slime when not in the AC!

The first day back we went to the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner and I was already ready to call it quits here! After the politeness of Japan I just wasn't ready for the push and shove mentality of India. I mean.. Tokyo had a ton of people, but I don't think I was pushed or shoved once - even when getting on the trains at rush hour! But here.. I can barely look at the vegetables in the grocery store without being pushed aside and being told that i am blocking the 'view'. Uh.. hello... wasn't I just looking at the veggies?!? Shouldn't you just wait your turn? I got so irritated I just walked away and waited until this one rude lady was gone before resuming my veg shopping!

Besides that though.. things have been fine. We broke down yesterday and bought the Nintendo Wii. We have been wanting this for a while, but somehow I never have room in my suitcase when I am in the US and we just couldn't decide on it in Japan. So we had to pay double the price, but at least we have it now. And man are we obsessed! My right arm and shoulder is in serious pain after just one night/day of play. I even had to start bowling with my left hand - luckily I am a little ambidextrous ;)

And that is all from here... looking to help out a bit possibly with the American Women's Newsletter. Somehow I have been bubbling with ideas. I always seem to have ideas, but I don't always have the stamina to see them through - so hopefully with some positive encouragement and pushing from the new editor of the newsletter I'll get some stuff put in!

Stacie and Janikka are both out of town at the moment... so I am feeling a bit alone! Luckily Folo hasn't resumed his insane work schedule so he's been able to hang out much more which is nice.

For now, my days seem to be filled with Wii, editing photos from Japan, returning emails, catching up with blogs and doing some research on prostitute's health and health of their children (for a possible study that is coming to India). Will try to update more often if I have anything useful to say.

Oh.. and the sky in Mumbai has been excellent since our return. Big blue skies with nice fluffy white clouds. I love it. It just makes it feel so much lighter, cleaner and lovely - especially at sunset!

back in bombay

2008-05-25T11:07:00.003+05:30

I was definately not happy to be leaving the orderly clean and beautiful weather Japan, but alas our holiday had to end sometime! We made it back to Mumbai without any problems. We caught the train from Shibuya station to the airport (over an hour long train journey - no wonder people don't fly internally!). We did some last minute shopping at the airport and headed off.

We didn't have much time in Singapore this time, so we just ran from shop to shop buying all of our vice items (cigarettes, wine, candy).

Back to Mumbai we were shocked with the humidity again. I don't seem to mind the heat so much, but add in humidity and it's miserable! It was 30 celcius when we arrived at 11:30 pm at night. shew.
Today we are just going through photos and fully relaxing from our holiday ;)
tomorrow back to work and life.
I posted a few photos in the old posts.. you can click on the "japan trip" tag at the bottom of the post and it will bring up all the japan entries so you can see a few new photos. Tokyo photos will come soon. And hopefully sooner than later, we will have tons up on flickr.

last day in tokyo...

2008-05-24T01:55:00.002+05:30

I woke up this morning from a dream about the Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa. I felt it was a sign that we better go before we leave. It is the oldest temple in Tokyo and the largest tourist attraction. It was on our list originally, but we were feeling so burnt out of temples by the time we got to Tokyo that we nixed all of the historical cultural sites and decided to stick with modern culture instead! But off we went.

it was insanity! The path leading up to the temple is jammed with souvenir shops selling all the tacky knick knacks possible and it was wall to wall people. And it was hot hot hot. (So much for that cyclone giving us rain!). The temple itself wasn't anything different than we'd seen before, so we weren't too enthused. But we did the 'needful' and went around it all and even checked out the tacky shops. By this point though it was boiling hot outside and we'd already gone through 4 bottles of water, so we decided it was time to do our last minute shopping and prepare for packing!

Off to Shinjuku for some socks and knee highs (all the rage here) and of course to Krispy Kreme to get our supply to take back to India. Today the line was even longer - it stretched around the corner, but luckily didn't take too long. We saw a billboard that said it was 30 degrees Celsius out -- man I knew it was hot today but didn't realize it was India hot! No wonder we were guzzling water - all the previous days it had been 22 maximum!

Donuts in hand, socks and other miscellaneous goodies we headed back to the hotel to pack to make sure we didn't need to buy a new bag! I managed to get everything to fit - so now we just hope that its not overweight!

And for our last night we weren't sure what to do. So we just sat in front of the busiest intersection people watching, commenting on fashion and chatting with an Australian who lives in Osaka. Then off to find our last meal... we couldn't figure out what to eat. Folo felt he wanted sushi, but wasn't in the mood. I wasn't hungry (too many donut snacks!), so we just headed to a local Irish pub to check out the goings on. It was a real Irish pub.... but full of Japanese! they had soda bread, did the beer properly according to folo and managed to get it all right. Folo finished his night off with some seafood and i had irish food! haha.

Sad to say goodbye to Tokyo, but also a bit ready to head home - mostly we want a nap and to rest our feet! But it's been an amazing trip and we'll have tons of photos to go through once we get back home and sort through them. Come back soon to check again for the photo updates.
Sayonara!

neighborhood hopping

2008-05-22T01:30:00.000+05:30

Today we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Photography Museum only to be shooed away by the 'missing' large permanent collection which has been replaced by rotating exhibitions that come with a hefty price tag. So sad! We were really looking forward to the photos. Instead, we bought little toy cameras at the museum shop and set off taking fun photos!!

We pottered around a few neighborhoods that we'd not been to yet - looking for the cool youth fashion and trendy cafe's. We didn't really find them, but seemed to find the neighborhood where the expats live! They were all over in suits and the like. If I didn't pay attention to the language difference I could have easily been in NYC.

Then off to find a tshirt shop in Ueno. No such luck, but we did find a huge market that kept us occupied for most of the afternoon. It was a black market during WWII, but now is pretty legit - just still crammed full of stuff. A peak down one of the lanes reminded me of India. Wires stretching from house to house, people everywhere, smells, random street stalls, etc.

Next stop.. the large Muji we'd run into a day before but were too tired to stop in. I spent ages in there. It was massive! I also bought way too much stuff but could have bought a ton more if we didn't have such small bags to take back to India!

Loaded down with packages, we headed back to the hotel to dump our stuff and rejuvenate for a few minutes before heading out into the night time throngs of humanity. Again we decided to go to a new area - Roppongi. It is supposedly the nightlife (and foreigner) area. First we went to an excellent pizzaria (paul had been craving pizza and that seems to be the one chain that hasn't made it to Japan - not one pizza chain anywhere!). Stuffed full of food, we headed to the bars. The first few we wanted to go into had hefty cover charges - a beatles bar that has had the same band playing for 20 years would have cost about 40 USD for us to just sit down then you had to buy drinks, another one was around 30 USD for another 'cover band' type place. We got lured into an Australian pub that was dead empty, but interesting to see and free to get in!

Next stop.. the best bar in Asia says Time magazine. Man.. we should have gone there first - they were having a screening of a cult Japanese classic horror film!! Still a hefty charge to get in, but would have been so interesting.

Pooped from trying to bar hop, we headed back to Shibuya on the still packed trains enjoying watching the drunken salarymen!

Not an eventful day as far as site seeing goes, but a great day like we like.. just doodling around checking out the neighborhoods.

shopping continued...

2008-05-21T19:56:00.003+05:30

Again we had a lazy morning. I think folo is getting worn out with all these early mornings and going going all day like the duracell bunny! I was up and ready, but it took ages for me to get him to roll out of bed.

Since there is construction going on at our building they have the windows covered so we have no idea what the weather is until we get out of the hotel. Once out we saw that it was nice and sunny so we decided to head over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building where there are free observatories on the 45th floors. It was quite a walk from the station, but it was all underground! I love it.. When you are underground you don't feel like it's such a long walk for some reason. And it didn't hurt that on the way there we had 'moving walk' paths!

Unfortunately even though it looked clear to us on the ground it was quite hazy and the view wasn't so great. We had hoped we might be able to see Mt Fuji from here. No such luck. But we did enjoy playing with all sorts of toys they had in the shop there!

Now it was time for shopping! I'd heard about this Manga shop that had cool shirts, so we went to find it. Paul hit gold there. He bought 11 t-shirts! Add that to his 3 yesterday and he has an entire new wardrobe. And the shirts were only 15 dollars. He's still on the lookout for more though. Since it is all he wears, its good to get as many as he can since he can never find any in India. With a massive heavy bag we decided to head back to the hotel to dump our stuff before heading back out. Before going home we stopped at the grocery and got cheese and bread for our lunch. Gotta stock up on our western goodies that we can't get in bombay.

Heading back out, we decided to just potter around our neighborhood of Shibuya to see what was going on here. I had heard about this shop called Tokyu Hands the "creative life shop" so we found our way there. It wasn't quite what I had thought it would be, but somehow we had fun in there anyhow! The health and beauty section was hilarious. There were nose pinchers to make your nose skinnier, all sorts of celulite creams, wraps, etc and all types of machines that we couldn't quite figure out! But they did have little dvd players showing descriptions of products on a lot of aisles which was pretty cool. So funny that we can spend ages in a beauty section!

Then we doodled around this area called "Love hotel hill". Basically they are pay by the hour hotels, but not seedy kinds for prostitutes. More for couples who have no privacy at their homes. There are all different types - carribean themed, luxury, etc. They actually looked pretty nice! for a "rest" it averaged about 45 dollars and to stay the night it was about 75 USD. I've heard though that you can't check in for the night until 11, so they can make maximum profits on the hourly charges! It was a cute area actually and it is also where all the indie rock clubs were. We had wanted to check out a few gigs, but seeing the price tag of 65 USD+ we decided we'd just search out more free sidewalk performers!

And next we found a conveyor belt sushi place again, so we had dinner there. Not as good for me as the one in Kyoto, but I think folo loved it - 1.15 USD per plate and fresh fish!

Full but still full of energy we headed out to this bar called the Pink Cow that I had read about. It is basically an expat bar. It was stand up comedy night and packed with all foreigners! It was a bit intimidating to go in with all those whiteys! We stayed for a bit, but then headed home to try out our new bath salts we bought. One seemed to say that it made the water even hotter and would make you sweat like crazy to loose weight! haha. It did make it pretty hot and make you all tingly, but doubt I lost a pound! Tomorrow I have a muscle ache one to try out.

No idea what our next two days will bring. We kind of feel like we should do more cultural sites here, but at the same time we have seen plenty of temples and have already done the two big things on our list here - Sumo and the fish market, so we might just keep shopping and doodling around neighborhoods. It's kind of nice not feeling like we have to run around to see things but can wander aimlessly and happen upon things as we do.

I want to buy some more leggings, knee highs and tights! it's so in fashion here which I love. Seriously like 3 out of 5 girls have one of the above on. Now i just have to find the cool ones! til tomorrow...

fish, water and much more!

2008-05-20T18:27:00.003+05:30

We made it up at 4 a.m.! We were exhausted but we did it. After getting dressed and ready we looked out the window to see that it was lashing rain. :( But since we were up and ready we had to go on with our plans.

It sucked though getting out in the rain. we were both drenched with umbrellas by the time we got to our first train. There is a typhoon or cyclone or something off the coast of Japan right now, so that is probably going to be bringing us lots of rain for our last few days. so sad!

The fish market was chaos! There are tons of these little carts that they whip around in, scooters and push carts, along with the people all over. I thought we might die by those automated vehicles!! But we made it inside and went through all the lanes. It was massive. And there were fish galore... so much of it that we didn't recognize at all. But tons of HUGE tuna's, octopus, shrimp, etc. We had fun pottering around taking photos and trying to stay out of the way of the carts. One cart was reversing and asked us to move.. as he shifted his attention to us for a moment, he ran into a huge stack of styrofoam boxes. oops! we walked off quickly!!

The plan was to eat sushi after the market as it's supposed to be the freshest in Tokyo. But folo wasn't too interested in that after seeing all the live and just dead fish! hah. so we went to our favorite breakfast - mcDs! Looking out the window at the insane rain and wind, we decided to head back to the hotel and sleep for a few more hours in the hope that the rain would chill when we woke up.

Off to sleep at 8 a.m.! And amazingly when we woke up at noon, the rain was gone. Happy day. We thought the day was going to be a mess, but it turned out to be quite nice - not sunny, but cool and dry. Our first stop of the afternoon was the Sony Building. It's 6 floors of Sony gadgets that you can play with and learn about (stuff that has/hasn't been released). Folo had fun of course! Next stop was the Leica gallery. I was really looking forward to that, but it ended up not being that interesting. Oh well... Back on the train one stop to the Tokyo Advertising Museum. We love old Chinese and Japanese ad's so this was a big highlight. And it's amazing.. the coolest things to do here seem to be free! We spent a long time in this museum checking out the posters and then watching commercials. The whole area where the museum was located was very arty and just a cool area.

Next stop... Harajuku for an amazing Mexican dinner. Both of our guidebooks say that this place is the best mexican in tokyo. We didn't have high high hopes, but it was amazing from the first step inside. We had to walk down about 3 flights of spiral stairs - all the walls were stucco looking and very mexican feeling. We were the first guests of the night - which was fine with us. We just enjoyed the beautiful restaurant and the real live mexican mariachi band!! I even got to speak some spanish to them. They come over from Mexico for 6 months at a time. And the chef is from Mexico. It was seriously a yummy dinner. I ate so much I was about to be sick.. like really. I could hardly breathe!! It was also our most expensive dinner in Japan, but worth it for the excellent Mexican food... for a few hours we got to pretend we were in Latin America!

We had to walk off all that food, so what better way than window shopping! Paul actually bought a few tshirts and we scoped out some more shops that we'll go to tomorrow.

So our rainy yucky morning turned into a pretty cool day. We feel like we've been in Tokyo forever now and we still have 3 days to go. So now we can just visit a little bit each day and focus on shopping which is what we wanted to have time to do. yeah!!

Oh! Sumo!

2008-05-19T18:13:00.002+05:30

We got up leisurely this morning and headed across town to the Sumo ticket office. It happens that the May two week tournement is happening during our visit, so of course we had to go! It was at the Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium. We had originally planned to go super early some morning to try to get the cheap tickets that go on sale at 8 a.m. but with a line forming from 6 a.m. Instead we opted to just buy regular tickets and attend today!

Considering our tickets were 50 USD each, I was disappointed with where our seats were -- way up at the top! But to get at the bottom we'd have to fork out a minimum of 400 USD! nope! But it was super cool regardless. We were able to walk around down at the bottom and even sit in other people's seats until they showed up. We also got the 100 yen English translation radio to help us along. it was great having that. Otherwise I think we would have gotten bored, but with it, we totally got into it. My "west side stables" won over Paul's "east side" overall.

We bought a few trinkets, ate junk food and folo drank beer - minimally compared to the Japanese who had boxes at their seats! It was great though. We were there about 4 1/2 hours and could have stayed even longer if he had gone on longer. It's on for the rest of the week.. so we saw some pretty good Sumo guys and will now keep up and see who wins overall on Sunday.

In between ticket buying and the main matches, we came back to the hotel to do laundry. I have to say I am a bit disappointed with how Tokyo doesn't seem to be as technologically advanced as some of the other places we've been in Japan! For example we had to actually do our laundry.. i.e. put it in the washer with soap (and the machine was out of it, so we had to hike to the shop to get some) and put it in the dryer! What happened to the super cool duo machinese?!?! And the internet at our hotel stinks! they don't allow uploads from the guest rooms. They had said they would get it fixed for our stay, but of course nothing is fixed today. grr. So no photos until we get back to our developing country with seemingly better internet!!

tonight we popped into the starbucks overlooking the 'busiest' pedistrian intersection near Shibuya station to people watch and try to get some photos. Then off to a huge Tower records.. quite a bit of foreign stuff, but the prices are no match to the US, so it's not really worth us buying anything here.

And then to some food... On the way home we saw a street band playing near the station and stood in the rain listening for a while. They were really good even though we couldn't understand the words. I just love how musical this city is. It must be hard to break through though with so many bands all over the place.

And even though we are wide awake and probably should go out tonight, we are going to try to go to bed so we can get up at 4 am to visit the fish market by 5:30! We are really looking forward to the insanity that awaits us there.

thankfully we had a mellow day today so our feet are slowly recovering from the brutal schedule i've had us on for the last 2+ weeks!! Tomorrow though will hopefully be another full day. somehow we have to fit in time to shop! Folo was counting on buying tons of tshirts here, but it seems most places carry americanized shirts, so they aren't that interesting. we need time to search out all the nooks and crannies of the shopping neighborhoods. So now our plan is to do a bit of touristy stuff in the first half of the day and shopping for the rest. We'll see how that goes.

Tokyo!

2008-05-19T03:48:00.002+05:30

We made it to Tokyo! At first glance from the train window it wasn't as I expected - the buildings aren't as tall as I thought it would be. For some reason I thought it would be a city of massive sky scrapers, but so far its not really.
We managed to navigate the train perfectly and somehow managed to leave from the proper exit and walked straight to our hotel. This was a huge feat. When we got out of the station, the roads didn't quite look like they did on the map, so we just took a guess and I went with my intuition. I looked at this intersection with 3 streets and picked one that was uphill. Paul was not sure I had made the correct decision and was dragging behind a bit, but I said "I feel it's this building up here" and it was!! He was so shocked. I was too.. not sure how I knew it.

Our hotel is a little boutique hotel in the area Shibuya - only about 5 minutes from the station which makes it super easy to get around. And it's up this little hill. I didn't realize that Tokyo had hills! I don't know why, but I had always assumed it was flat as a board kind of like NYC.

Got settled in our 'home' for the next 6 days and headed out to the hustle and bustle. Our first little foray to the hotel hadn't been as crazy noisy as I thought nor as many people as I had thought. But as soon as we began our 'walking tour' we became engulfed in roads jam packed with people. I seriously felt like I was at the world biggest concert or fair or something. It was insane the amount of people. India has a ton of people, but it's not that often that i find myself trying to walk down the street or window shop with 10 million other people!

Our little walk took us through Shibuya where there was some huge festival going on on one of the streets - dancing, singing and waving of flags. No idea what it was for though. Then we carried on through the area, people watching and just walking with our mouths open and few words! It was just insane the amount of people and stuff going on. People drinking beer on the streets all over, a "no nukes" protest went past and then we entered the Yoyogi park which was one of our destinations.

On both sides of the walkway there were bands set up about every 2 feet playing their hearts out. Some were just individual singers with guitars, others full on bands. You couldn't hear a thing since they were all positioned so close to one another. Total sensory overload. Apparently there was also a "Jamaica Fest" at the park as well, so tons of reggae stands and millions of people. Everyone had cameras as well which was funny! It felt like you wouldn't be 'admited' if you didn't have a camera strapped over your neck.

Our walk continued on through the hard core rock bands and then to the rock-a-billy band section with the guys in full on pompadour and girls wearing fluffy skirts dancing away! Here we finally decided to have a rest and sample some street food. It was yummy and kept us going for another few hours.

The next stop was to Harajuku station to see the 'cosplay kids' - apparently a lot of youth get all dolled up (maids costumes, total goth, princess, etc) and hang out near the station waiting for people to snap their photos. there weren't as many as I had hoped to see and really nothing too shocking. I guess the most shocking thing is that all of the crazy counter culture that is common in sf was everywhere and packed the streets. It was hard to determine what is counter culture here and what is normal!

And then we carried on walking through the Harajuku shopping district. Again the streets were packed wall to wall. I was beginning to feel a bit clausterphobic and just needing some silence! I can't believe I can come from a city with 22 million people and feel so overwhelmed in another city of similar size. But I think all of tokyo must have been out on the streets yesterday! I guess we'll see today if its the same or if Sunday was a rare treat!

And to top the day off.. we headed to Shinjuku station for Krispy Kreme doughnuts! I've been waiting for this since we first arrived in Japan! I don't know why i've been craving them, but I have and I knew there was one here. We asked the hotel and he knew exactly where it was.. he loves them as well. So off we headed. Again, found it without any issue... only issue was the 40 minute line out front!! can you believe it?! And can you believe we stood in the line for 40 minutes?! I think it's like that all the time actually. But they gave us free hot off the press donuts while we waited. And then we ordered a whole box - don't want to wait in that line again anytime soon!

We went to dinner and just pottered around looking into the tiny 4-10 seater bars. but we weren't inclined to go into any since they all had 1000 yen cover charges plus min 2 drinks. It was already getting late and we were tired, so no use in spending 20 USD to sit for 30 minutes! But we'll go again when we have more time.

And today.. not sure what is on the agenda. We had planned to go to the fish market, but that entails getting up at 4 a.m. - so we wanted a good nights rest first. I think we'll check out buying sumo tickets and potter around other areas!

Day 13: Yudanaka

2008-05-17T17:16:00.005+05:30

This morning we got up for breakfast that was prepared by the hotel. I typically don't like to get the breakfast included as it's way over priced and usually not very good. But in small towns like this you really don't want to be wandering around for hours trying to find anything that resembles breakfast!

Our breakfast was to be held in the terrace... we walked down to a basement room. I guess this is the terrace :) There was a Yamaha piano playing itself for us -- keys and foot pedals moving and all! A cool peice of furniture down there was an old 45 record jukebox. But that wasn't playing for us :( Breakfast was uneventful. They really tried, which was good. The bread was excellent and the Frosted Flakes were very welcomed to our breakfast starved selves.

Over breakfast we tried to determine what in the world we were going to do with this 'extra' day. We could take off and head to Hakone for a chance to glimpse Mt Fuji, we could go back to the monkey park or go back to Nagano. Nothing much left to see in Nagano, too lazy/tired to head all the way to Mt Fuji, we opted to go to the monkey park again!! The hotel owner thought we were crazy. "Again? Monkey Park". Yep!! So we showed in the 'onsen' downstairs and headed out to our long hike again! But today it didn't feel so long since we knew the trail and how close we were!

We were a little worried that day two wouldn't be as exciting.. Oh no worries there. It was just as exciting or maybe more! I wasn't scared at all today so I was able to get right up in the monkey's faces - so close that i really had to restrain myself from petting them. They were just too adorable. I was seriously in love with these little guys. And I was happy b/c i got good photos today being braver.

One little monkey was playing with another one near my feet when he accidentally stepped on my foot. He looked at me with such shock! It was so cute! Another time, i was leaning over this bar where the monkeys play on and when i turned around there was this little guy just staring up at me like "what are you doing on my bar"!

I didn't say in yesterday's post, but this park is basically in the wild. There are no fences, the monkey's are free to come and go, this is their home and we are visitors. And they just run all around all over. It's probably the closest I could feel to being invisible. For the most part they don't even recognize that you are there even if you are right in their face snapping away. It is by far one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I've met with wild animals in their habitat before, but at least with the previous monkey experiences i've had they were very scary and likely to snap at you or try to steal your coke out of your hand. These guys were so tame. Not tame enough that you could touch them, but if they came and sat next to you on the bench then it was fine.

I was sitting taking photos of this little baby for ages. He was all alone on the mountain side just munching grass and I seriously wanted to pick him up and cuddle him. He was soooooo cute! And these other ones that were running like wild things playing all over just looked like little teddy bears playing.
I have wanted a monkey as a pet for as long as i can remember... and i still do!!! They are insanely adorable. And of course paul was just as enammered with them as I was. It was his idea to go again today!

realizing we'd already been there for a good 3+ hours with another 500+ photos, we thought we better listen to our hungry stomaches and head down to town. Not really looking forward to the 4 mile hike home, we stopped halfway to have some food. And luckily the cafe owner spoke decent english so we were able to ask him to call our hotel and see if we could get a ride home!! We were wanting to catch the 4 pm train back to Nagano so we'd be well rested for our first day in Tokyo tomorrow!
Thank goodness we had our hotel owner come get us.. Our cafe host was a chatty cathy! He wanted to know everything about India and Ireland. He didn't seem to need any info about the US - he said in the papers here everyday they talk about the election and he's well versed in that! haha. But I had to pee and we really wanted to catch this train or else it would mean another 1 hr wait. Our chatty hotel owner rescued us!!

I must make a note about him. He's hilarious. He says "ok ok" all the time. Its so funny. And he kind of just tells you what you are going to do. This isn't so common with the other Japanese here, so it was pretty funny to us. And now I am due to write a review for him on his facebook! He's on facebook and wants me to add him asap! He also took a photo with us.

The other thing though.. the people in Yudanaka are so nice. The hotel gave us complementary chopsticks. I got one pair with the lucky cat and one pair with a traditional japanese woman. At the cafe he gave us some oragami toothpick set for couples. They are just so sweet and welcoming and really just want you to enjoy your time in their town.

We definitely hope to be back in Yudanaka someday.. hopefully in the winter so we can really see the snow monkeys in the snow! This is also the area where the 1988 olympic ski slopes were. It's a hotspot for skiing.. so maybe we'll give it a go someday.

Back in Nagano now - in our exact same hotel room as we were in on Thur! Nothing much to do but load photos, book train/hotel for tokyo and get cash. We saw a Denny's and thought we'd check it out.. i was in the mood for a grilled cheese. unfortunately it did not have ONE item from US denny's so we moved on and headed down the road to a traditional japanese hole in the wall. It was good and run by a sweet little granny who was excited to practice her English.

We are just astounded over and over by the friendliness of the people here and how they go out of their way to make sure you enjoy yourself. Such a change from India. And it's so genuine. I'm absolutely in love with Japan. Already scheming on how we could take off some time and live here for a while ;)

Some random observations from the last few days:

Japan is very technologically advanced! Today we were looking at our train wondering how they were going to turn it around so that the seats were facing the right way.. Then all of the sudden we look up and the seats were the other direction! We were shocked and amazed! Apparently they all rotate with a little shove. So cool!
The weather is amazing here. Its about 22 in the day and gets down to 15 at night. so perfect!

When you reserve a room without a credit card with some barely speaking night staff - it really works!
Probably already mentioned.. its so clean even though there are no rubbish bins anywhere! We had 2 coke cans and 3 bottles of water in bag by the end of the day!
The mirrors in hotel's bathrooms are heated (along with the toilet seats!)

Tomorrow we head to Tokyo!! We've extended our time there and are really looking forward to it all.

Day 12: Monkey Park!! (Yudanaka)

2008-05-16T16:55:00.001+05:30

On Friday we got up bright and early and headed out to Zenkoji Temple here in Nagano. It's one of the holiest Buddhist temples in Japan and houses the first Buddha statue to ever come to Japan. (Although it is mummified and kept from the public view). It's a huge temple complex filled with tons of photo opportunities. I had wanted to get there super early for services, but that didn't happen! We were fine just pottering around taking photos. We also did another one of those underground 'dark' rooms. This one wasn't as scary, but also didn't have anything to hold on to, so you just had to keep touch with the walls to know where to go.

After several hours taking photos and exploring all the nooks and crannies, we headed for lunch. I had cold soba noodles for the first time and they were yummy! I'd been weary of them since its cold, but it was really good actually. We even got to see the buckwheat noodles being freshly prepared from scratch.

Next it was time to head to Yudanaka... the monkey park! I have been so excited for this destination. When I was in grade school i remember writing a report on the Japanese snow monkey and as soon as I saw that it was near our route it was a must see.

Finding accommodation didn't prove too difficult. We called a few places in the morning and found one with a very characterful English speaking man. On the phone he was telling us to come now to go to the Monkey park and then for an onsen (outside hot bath). He was very insistent, but I told him we'd be there later in the afternoon. Our plan was just to chill for the night and then go to the park the next day. But once we arrived he was all set to take us to the monkey park and there was no arguing with him!

The park was about 3 miles from his place and then at the drop point it was another mile up hill. But we managed and actually enjoyed the quite walk up into the mountains.. with the anticipation growing! We aren't very good hikers.. neither of us had a drop of water, a map, anything - but luckily it's a pretty easy trail to follow!

Before we even made it to the entrance we had stopped at a vending machine (can't go too far in Japan without one) and there was a monkey sitting on top!! I was already so excited. But i'm also a bit scared of the monkeys since I've been chased by them in China and in India. These monkeys seem pretty cool, but it was difficult to get over my scared-ness!

Entering the park we were greeted by tons of monkeys all over the place. I was as excited as a kid in a candy store. But I was a little weary of getting too close. But eventually I noticed that Japanese families were letting their small children right up near them, so I figured it couldn't be so dangerous. I was starting to get my nerve up and then got 'yelled' at by a monkey!! They were so adorable. Little ones playing all over the place without a care in the world, others sitting in the hot outdoor springs, others cleaning each other, etc. Life just going on without a care about all of us watching and documenting their every move. Between us I think we took close to 500 photos. I didn't get anything that I totally loved since I was too wimpy to get right up in their faces, but Paul got some good close ups! Completely enthralled, we stayed until close to dark and then had a 4 mile walk back to the hotel.

The walk was a little brutal.. we had no idea where we were going since neither of us paid a lick of attention on the way - but amazingly we didn't make one wrong turn! We stopped at a police station that ended up being a block from our place, just to make sure..

Once arriving back at the hotel, the charismatic hotel owner told us we needed to do onsen baths. He said we could do it at his place, but we'd experienced an indoor private bath before, so we opted to head out to a private outdoor bath with views over the town and mountains. It was a bit expensive.. 25 dollars for a bath - but totally worth it! Our bodies were tired and looking forward to our 50 minute session.

The private facility had a sauna, outdoor hot spring and indoor showers. All of it overlooking the city below. It would have been great in the sunset, but we got there too late. Not totally sure on which order to do things, we just made our own rules! One thing we didn't realize is that the bath's are full full and anything on the ground beside it will be flooded. We found this out the hard way.. one towel totally soaked, cigarettes soaked and camera almost flooded! Luckily everything seems to be in working order - but a little scary experience to start off our relaxation!
And man.. that water is hot. It doesn't feel so hot until you sit in it for about 3 minutes and then you feel like you can't breathe anymore! Then we'd hop out.. cool off in the mountain air and then head back in. Repeat for 50 minutes. I think the longest we ever managed to sit in it at one go is about 4-5 minutes.

Feeling totally drowsy and about to pass out, our lovely hotel owner picked us up and then showed us where he'd take us to dinner! Haha. He dropped us at home and had us walk down the hill to a small local sushi place. It held about 10 people and there were already 5 in there when we arrived. All 'salary men' as paul loves to say. (he's become obsessed with the salary man and thinks he wants to be one.. mostly b/c he seems them drinking at the bar in their suits all the time!)

The owner of the restaurant didn't speak a lick of English, but seemed to understand. I ordered tempura and paul just asked for sashmi. No idea what we'd really get, but it was excellent. Paul loved the fish and ordered a second plate. I was just trying hard to not fall asleep in my plate. The onsen really drained me of any energy I had left!

I was asleep before my head hit the pillow! Luckily our talkative hotel owner wasn't around to chat before we went to bed!

No idea what is in store for us tomorrow... we just couldn't make any decisions with such heavy heads from food and hot springs. We'll figure it out tomorrow!

Day 11: Ride through the Japan Alps

2008-05-16T02:42:00.006+05:30

We are turning into early risers and its a good thing too! Breakfast wasn't chaos this morning which was nice, but the food was still terrible. But we ate plenty regardless - its free!

Having a decision on whether to walk around Takayama a bit more or head out earlier than planned, we decided to head out on the 9:40 bus to Shin Hotaka. Our main point in changing our route was to visit Shin Hotaka for the Cable Car/Gondola ride in the Japan Alps. It's the longest gondola ride in Asia. And this is probably the only place in Asia that I'd trust going on something like this!

The 1 hour bus ride from Takayama was through some beautiful scenery and got the whole bus ohhing and ahhing as we saw our first snow capped mountains. And then around the bend they were all around us. People were snapping photos left and right. I love mountains and add a little snow on top and I'm ohhing and ahhing with the best of them!

I wouldn't say the mountains were too dramatic. Nothing like the Swiss Alps, but pretty spectacular nonetheless.

Arriving to our destination we were at a quandary with what to do with our luggage. The lockers would hold only one of our backpacks. Luckily the tourist office was nice enough to hold the other one (for a fee) so off we headed walking up the mountain. Tickets were not cheap, but its ok.. we knew this was going to be an expensive excursion.

The first gondola was packed tight, so we decided to wait the 30 minutes for the next one and be first on to pick the good seats. During out wait we pottered around looking at the boiling eggs in the hot sulfur spring water (stinky) and beautiful mountains surrounding us. Our turn for the ride... It is split up into two cable car rides. The first is about 5 minutes and just goes up about 1500 meters over the greenery. But that little pop over the first hill gave us all hope for what was in store! That short ride was over and we had to walk a bit for the next cable car. Unfortunately the locals got the clue that it's best to be on first to get a prime seat, so they were high tailing it to the next cable car along with us. Thankfully this cable car was a double decker, so we weren't packed in and were able to move around to see all the gorgeous sites.

Once to the top there was a 4th level viewing platform. We were graced with perfect weather for this adventure. The sky was clear blue with a few fluffy white clouds and clear all the way to another mountain range in the distance. The sign as we arrived said the temp was 0 Celsius (32 F). Burr.. Again all we had on were t shirts and hoodies. But the thrill of being up in the snow and able to walk around it overshadowed the cold and we didn't really notice it.

There was a funny guy up at the top taking photos for the visitors. He'd do all these silly things to make you laugh. We did it and we even got to hold monkey babies! Not what you think... unfortunately. Takayama is known for it's stuffed doll that is called a monkey baby. Grannies used to make them in the war for the kids and now the town and region is known for them. See photo! We didn't have as long to potter around as we probably could have - but we were on a schedule.. the buses don't run too often to this area and we had to catch one to go to the next town to catch another one to take us to Matsumoto before catching our train to Nagano! Busy travel day.
But the scenery along the way was so beautiful. Passed huge dams, lakes rivers, rice fields and went through massive tunnel after tunnel. Paul thought he'd sleep during this leg of our journey but neither of us closed our eyes until we made it into Matsumoto town. We had considered staying here a night, but it didn't hold much for the visitor except a castle. We have seen enough castles for now and headed on to Nagano.

Considering we took 3 buses and 1 train today I have to say that the public transport system here is amazing! We never waited for more than 20 minutes and they were all super comfortable and efficient. If you were set to arrive at 2:32 - you arrived at 2:32!

Rambling into Nagano (where the 1988 Winter Olympics were held) we were greeted with another city surrounded by mountains, cool air and me with the sniffles. It was probably going from hot to cold to hot to cold so much today, but we had to snuff it out quick so i'd be tip top for Tokyo. Our first experience in the pharmacy went well.. we got some vitamin c tablets and some mystery pill that had photos of a red nose, runny eyes and nose dripping --- seems to be what I have!

We wandered around Nagano for a while getting our bearings and just seeing a new town. This one doesn't seem to close at 6 pm which is nice. We know we are getting closer to the big cities when there are other people on the street at 8 pm!

And waiting till the last minute to book hotels didn't work in our favor this time. Our chosen hotel only has a room for tonight and sat night, so we are heading out to the monkey park tomorrow for a night...with no confirmed accommodation! I hope it all works out ok.

Observations:

We ordered our lunch from a vending machine. The food didn't come that way, but you look at photos on a wall and then match it up with the corresponding number on a vending machine and out comes a ticket. You hand this ticket over to the counter and within minutes your hot and steaming food is ready! So cool.
Getting around Japan on your own is very easy really. You just have to make use of the tourist offices as they have loads of maps and bus schedules/routes, etc. It really makes it an easy place for foreigners to travel with absolutely no Japanese language skills.
This country is beautiful. And insanely clean. I feel that Japan is so much cleaner than Singapore (which is known for its cleanliness) -- I think i've not seen more than 4 cigarette butts or pieces of random trash on the roads through our entire trip!
Next time we come here, we want to rent a car for the mountain areas. The roads are great and marked pretty well, so driving would be a breeze and so much easier to stop along the way.

Day 10: Takayama

2008-05-15T03:20:00.004+05:30

We woke up bright and early today - mostly for the free breakfast, but probably also because it gets light here at 4:30 a.m.! Managed to get down for breakfast by 7:30 only to enter a world of chaos! Apparently this hotel is a big hit with senior citezen tour groups and they were all at breakfast. This is the first time that the Japanese effeciency and organizational system has truely broken down.

Our breakfast tickets were taken and we entered into the 'arena' (which is what it felt like jostling for space and food!) to go around the circuit for our food. The eggs were almost liquid and cold all the ladies were complaining, the bacon was barely toasted, most bowls of food were empty and it was utter chaos in there. We had our meager selection of food and then went around looking for a place to sit. As soon as we'd find something, we'd see it was already taken. After 10 minutes of looking around, we finally started asking people if we could sit with them. No one would let us!! And finally folo found a free, clean two person table with no 'reservation' markings (empty tray, juice, etc). He rushed over only to be told by the head waiter that it was for this older couple. I was starving by this point, so I just rested my tray on the side and tried to start eating when i dropped my entire tray and broke everything - in front of the entire crowd. So embarrasing! But it wasn't my fault.. if they wouldn't make us walk around for 30 minutes looking for a table I could have not tried to eat standing up! Embarrased and annoyed, we left our trays (well my broken one and folo's full one) and headed out.

Complaining to the front desk didn't seem to do anything as the lady on staff could barely understand English. Oh well. So instead we headed to the nearest corner store and got some rolls and diet coke. Not the best way to start our early day, but what can you do!

Since we were up and about so early we headed out to the morning market which is recommended. I must say it didn't look so much like a market, but rather a regular day on a street in India! Little stalls lining the road with a bunch of foods, knick knacks, etc. But the great thing here is that each stall has samples! Free food! So we went along sampling all sorts of random things. Most of it really good. This town is known for its salty crackers (like big thin breads) and rice ball skewers. We bought many of these rice ball skewers throughout the day. They are yummy. Paul even found some "Hida beef" skewers that he loved. This area is called Hida (maybe like the county??) and they are also known for their beef. But I've not seen one cow anywhere, even on the train journey in. hmmm.

It was nice to have a leisurely day with no real plans and nothing urgent that we had to see. So instead we walked around seeing all the old traditional store fronts, visiting sake brewerys (where folo got to try them for free or a small fee) and taking photos.

It was raining off and on throughout the day, but never hard and it was almost always still very sunny, so it was actually very nice. And actually a pleasant cold which was just beautiful! I can't even imagine the heat and humidity that awaits us back in India!

Realizing there was one thing we wanted to do, we headed to the bus station to head to the Hida Folk village. It's basically a 'village' that was put together from old houses in the region to show visitors how life was in this area throughout history. We thought it might be a bit kitch, but it was really nice and interesting. And they had a carp pond which folo has become obsessed with - kind of like he was with the deer in Nara! He loves feeding the animals here. I think I have rubbed off of him too much in regards to animals.

Pottering around the 'village' doing my stamp tour and just enjoying the lovely views of the mountains around made for a lovely afternoon. (Note on the stamp tour - I'm such a child... at a lot of these tourist attractions they have little stamp pads to commemorate your visit. I love them. So cute). I only got 4 out of 6 of my stamps though.. must have not followed the route properly!!

Heading back to town, it was time for lunch. Now it has become common for us to have meal #1 and meal #2 - usually because I can't eat anything at the first place or because folo didn't get full from meal #1. The last few days though we had been lucky and only had one meal for each meal time. Not here! The specialty here is hida beef curry and places that have that tend to not have anything else. So Paul had his beef curry and then we headed to a noodle bar to have my noodle soup!

Full and relaxed we headed home for an afternoon nap! Luckily after waking up from our nap, the day trippers were gone and the tour groups had departed so the town was basically ours. We spent hours on a few streets taking photos. During our photo session these little fluffy white things started flowing down our street. It was like a tree pollinating, but also like little snow flakes. You could see their 'route' coming down the street, around the corner and around another corner from near the river. It was pretty cool and interesting. No idea where it was coming from though. Within like 20 minutes the ground was covered in this white fluffy stuff. Fun!

(see this white stuff on the ground and flowing in the air?? its the 'snow'!)

With the entire town shut by 6 pm, we headed for dinner! We chose this place Origin from the guidebook that said it had beef and veg plates. Score! or so we thought. Paul got 6 thin slices of beef that he had to cook himself and I got a tofu steak. I was full, but folo was still starving! haha. We aren't quite used to these tiny japanese portions. We think they must follow the rule of 6 small meals a day.. but i'm not sure it quite works when you have them back to back!!

Feeling a little sick to my stomach we headed back to the hotel to gather our laundry and let me get over my sickness. Luckily it passed and I didn't face any MSG problems. (I'd had a lot of soy sauce today so thought it might be taking effect!)

Dropped our laundry at the laundry mat. Machines that wash and dry and dispense detergent!!! It was so cool. We weren't quite sure what was going to happen, but we loaded the clothes and put it on a 60 minute cycle before heading back to the mexican restuarant for some snacks and beer. The chef/waiter/owner was happy to see us back again. And even though I was full I did enjoy those chips and guac again!!

Right on time we made it back to our clothes and found them totally washed and dried. So cool! I wish we had these all over the world. Granted the machines aren't cheap - 900 Yen for a load (about 9 dollars), but it is worth it. They even had 'sneaker' machines there. Folo wouldn't let me try his new shoes though...

And now time to get online and figure out our next day's plans. Its not easy finding hotels at the last minute and most of the places aren't cheap regardless. But we can't ever make up our minds too far in advance, so we have to spend some time the night before we leave making the next days plans! We've opted for taking the bus to our next destination even though it's not on the rail pass we bought. its shorter and takes us directly through the Japanese Alps. Should be an interesting day. And we are counting down to our arrival in Tokyo!!!

Day 9: Himeji

2008-05-13T17:35:00.005+05:30

Today we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to the train station. We easily reserved seats for our 3 trains and were on our way out of Hiroshima. We loved Hiroshima and felt we could have stayed longer, but sometimes its better while the going is good!

Heading out this morning it started raining.. again. It seems to rain when we have travel days which I guess is the best case since it doesn't affect our site seeing!

Our first stop was Himeji, about an hour from Hiroshima by bullet train. Unfortunately the only seats available were in the "silence car". Folo wasn't sure I'd be able to be silent the whole time.. haha. I really wasn't but neither were other people. It mostly means there are no announcements for stops. That made me nervous though b/c I was worried we'd miss our stop. But no problems at all!

An old castle is the main attraction in Himeji. It basicall is a day trip for most people, so we felt it would be fine to do it in just a few hours before our next train. The castle was beautiful and imposing, but once inside the grounds there really wasn't much there. It was mostly just empty rooms with the same few signs telling you to look at the gun racks and wall holes where rocks or boiling water was thrown from. But if we didn't do it, we would have wondered if we missed out.

A joint ticket also got us admission to a wonderful garden next to the castle. We were running short on time and it started to rain again, so we had to whip through it a bit more than we would have liked. But it was still nice to see. And we loved the carp that were all over the ponds!Rushing back to the station to grab a bento box (a take away lunch basically) we picked up our bags from the lockers and made it to the second car of our bullet train! We are in love with the bullet trains. They are so fast! One went through the station while we were waiting and it sounded like an airplane taking off and just whips past so fast that you barely have time to notice it was there! I keep getting on them waiting for us to 'take off'! Definately the preferred way to travel here.

We had an 11 minute stop over in Nagoya to change trains. Of course me the worry wort was scared we'd not find our train. But a really nice station attendant who I asked to direct us actually walked us to the train. The people really do go out of their way to help us out.

The ride up to Takayama (where we are now) was beautiful. A river was running beside the train for most of the ride and mountains surrounded us on all sides. But getting to Takayama wasn't as nice.. It wasn't quite as cute as some of the earlier towns, but after arriving and walking around a bit its growing on us.

Amazingly we had mexican food for dinner! As I looked in the guidebook for dinner options the first one listed was mexican. Of course I can't pass that up. We planned to just get guac and chips and then go to a Japanese place. But the guac was so good that we decided to stay there. I had a burito which wasn't quite what i thought but was very good nevertheless. Also sampled cheese quesadillas and folo got chili con carne! Yum Yum.

And the rain has followed us and being out without umbrellas made us head back to the hotel - with the hope to get the umbrellas. But we are glued to CNN. We don't get tv in a lot of our guesthouses, so it's nice to be able to catch up on world news. And as Paul says we are having 'foot rest' day! haha.

Tomorrow we'll potter around and discover the town more and then head further into the mountains in the next day or so.

Day 8: Hiroshima

2008-05-12T18:42:00.005+05:30

Since we didn't have much planned for today we didn't even attempt to make it out of the hotel before 10... which is late for me since i'm usually up by 7! And unfortunately we just barely made breakfast with only 15 minutes to spare :(

Headed over to the hiroshima atomic bomb musuem which was excellent. We were there for over 2 hours. The exhibits were layed out well and all in English as well. I learned quite a bit about it all. Did you know that dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was basically an experiment?! I didn't realize this, but the way it was set up was to find out the effect it would have, how wide of an area it would cover, the after effects, etc. And I didn't realize that the UK and US governments had decided beforehand that Japan was the best target even though we were in war with Germany.

After that we headed to another memorial hall for the victims and then headed for lunch! We settled on western for lunch... Subway had a special avocado sandwich that I just couldn't resist! I never get avocado and I always crave it in India, so I was a happy camper. And to top it off we went across the street for haagen das coffee ice cream! Full of western food we decided to have a little rest and check online for our trains for tomorrow. It's going to be a busy travel day!

After resting we roused ourselves up and headed about 1 hr outside of hiroshima to an island off the coast called Miyajima. The whole point for our journey was to see a 'floating torii' that is one of the top 3 photographed things in Japan.

Upon our first glimpse we were disappointed. It looked so small and in the photos we've seen it looked massive! But once we got there and started getting in the water to take photos, we were enthralled! I think we spent a good 2 hrs taking photos from all angles and sky colors! So it was worth our late journey over there.

Getting back to Hiroshima it was getting late and as seems common here things were shutting up for the night. Its hard to remember that things close by 8 at the latest! But we knew our dinner from last night would still be open! There are 27 'cafes' in the building so something would have to be open. And luckily one place still was. So we had the same dinner as yesterday and it was still as good. (always a worry that the first try will be good but the next time it doesn't live up to the hype you create in your mind!)

And now we are back late and getting ready for an early start tomorrow. we are heading out around 7 to hit a castle on the way to the mountains again. And with our luck the warmish weather won't follow and we'll be freezing again :)

Day 7: Koya San - Hiroshima

2008-05-11T18:09:00.003+05:30

Rise and shine was around 6 (earlier for me) so that we could be dressed and ready for the buddhist prayers at half 6. Folo got up with a little nudging, but when the monk came barging in to force us to prayer he got moving! hah. I need these guys with me all the time to get him out of bed!

It was absolutely freezing this morning.. and still raining. We could see our breath! We were hearded along with the other guests (very few were foreign actually) to the prayer. Paul did very well sitting in meditation style for the half hour prayer. He couldn't walk though by the end! haha.

After prayers we headed over to watch the morning fire ceremony. This was super cool. I had never seen anything like it before. Folo was thinking he wouldn't be impressed, but after the flames reached 6 ft he was feeling more impressed.

Still aching with sitting and the cold, we headed back to our rooms for breakfast which has been laid out while we were gone. It was traditional Japanese breakfast. I did ok with this type of stuff when I was in China, but I wasn't so good with it this morning! I just couldn't stomach much of it. I managed to have the tofu and seaweed and plain rice. The soup and pickled radishes were pushed over to folo's plate! Still hungry I just had to power on. It was my choice to not eat all the food, so I had to manage!

Deciding that we were going to go ahead and leave as scheduled today, we took advantage of our early morning to do our last bit of exploring. I would have loved to stay longer but with the cold and rain, it just didn't seem worth it. I was doing ok as far as clothes.. i had my leggings on under my jeans, two pairs of socks, my shawl, hoodie and rain jacket along with my beanie that i use for my camera! Paul on the other hand was frozen in just jeans, tshirt and hoodie! :(

But we carried on and did a 2 hour audio guided tour of the cemetary shooting away before heading down to meet our train at 11 a.m.

Now the fun was to begin all over again... bus to cable car to local train to osaka train station to oaska subway to shinkansen (Bullet train) to street car tram! It felt that most of our day was spent travelling, but we did manage to do quite a bit as well. We activated our Japan Rail pass tickets which means we no longer pay for our trains (paid in advance), had a green tea/oreo cookie mcflurry and finally got to sample the famous bullet trains.

They have smoking cars and non smoking. I typically don't like to be in smoking cars, but since it was a short train we decided to try it out. It wasn't too bad.. but still I think I'd prefer the other where we can go smoke when we want! The train was nice though. big comfy seats that recline quite a bit, personal ashtrays and cup holders. Nice clean bathrooms as well! But man.. they do go fast! I could barely look out the window without feeling a little quesy!

After a long day, we arrived to hiroshima around 5 pm and loved it straight away. It is very modern but seems very nice. We checked in to our business hotel and realized we were on the premium floor (and it was cheaper than our other ones!). woo hoo. Oh.. so nice to have a real bed again. Two nights on the floor has been enough for me for a few days! Since it was still light out we just dumped our stuff and headed down the street to check out the Peace Memorial (site of the atomic bombing). We loved it all.. so many photo opportunities, beautiful sky, nice cool weather, but sunny and very walkable. We saw most everything on our agenda (again), but know we want to go back again tomorrow to do the museums!
Dinner time... Still starving from lack of a proper breakfast or much of a lunch, we headed out to find a recommended 'hole in the wall' that served authentic hiroshima food. No such luck... this LP guide sort of stinks! But we chose another option from the book and hit gold! It was this non descript building near a mall (that has muji and gap next door to one another!) that has 3 floors of tiny bar stool eateries. All serving authentic hiroshima food. The dish that is famous here is called hiroshima-yaki. It is basically a thin pancake type thing on a griddle, with sprouts, some other stuff, udon noodles, fried egg and other seasonings. It was yummy and very filling. Finally we don't have to have a second dinner!! And i was even too stuffed for my coffee ice cream that I finally found. There is always tomorrow.....

It's cool out.. well pretty chilly actually, but feels quite nice after the freezing cold of the mountain! And having gotten up at dawn, we headed home again for an early night. One of these days we really are going to sample the nightlife! Perhaps tomorrow since we don't have much on our agenda. I will post photos later as well. For now.. night night.

Day 6: Nara - Koya San

2008-05-10T17:39:00.001+05:30

I woke up off an on all night long hearing the rain beat down on the plastic shedding near our window. I kept thinking it was the AC dripping (ours at home drips like crazy)! Not sleeping well and having a day of rain we decided to head out early and see what time we could head to Koya San. Luckily we'd done most everything we wanted the previous day.. and that we had changed our original plans of staying there 2 days. It was an adorable town and would probably be nice to potter around on a bike, but not in the rain!

We went to Muji before heading out.. I just couldn't contain myself! I got some cute little organizational items that I love and then we packed up to head out. We decided to walk to the station even though it was rainy and cold. Somehow we have decided we don't want to take taxi's here!! So funny the little 'rules' we come up with. But it was nice walking actually - we were soaked by the time we got to the station, but we got to wander through some real neighborhoods and see some real Nara.

Our trip to Mt Koya was slated as an adventure.. the book says half the fun is in getting there! We boarded a local train for about an hour 1/2 and then had to change to another train, buying new tickets. I almost made a costly mistake by buying tickets for another carrier, but caught it just in time!! (there are state trains JR, and all sorts of private lines, so it gets confusing sometimes which machine to use -- especially since its rarely in english!)

But problem averted, food purchased (a bento box for folo -- 7 peices of sushi and crackers for me!) and second train boarded. First I have to mention that it was already pretty chilly down in Nara and the guidebook says that Koya san will always be at least 5 degrees centigrade colder than down below. This was seen a great thing when it was boiling in Kyoto, but now that the weather had turned a bit colder and rainy, it was a bit troublesome!

When we were changing trains, we were freezing... and weren't even near the mountain yet! uh oh. Luckily for these good ol vending machines.. they also dispense hot coffee in a can of all things. But these are very good for cold hands.

Our second train was slated as a very windy scenic trip. It was. It was beautiful even through the rain and fog. The houses were much more traditional and it was super green out. Our next stop was at the base of Koya San mountain where we then had to board a cable car to take us up the mountain. It was FREEZING when we got off to board the cable car. Unfortunately all I packed for us were our hoodies!! oops. It wasn't supposed to be this cold. It was probably in the mid 40s F and it was the middle of the day. But I was excited anyhow... I love going into the mountains and I love buddhist sanctuaries!

The cable car went straight up the mountain in about 5 minutes. Some people were scared, but I was too busy taking photos and being excited! Once we got to the top it was even colder! People were going on and on about it all... talk of the day! And now for our final leg of the journey... a bus for 20 minutes. Somehow I always tend to pick places that take ages to get to.. but I usually enjoy the journey and the place more than anything else!

The town was adorable as predicted. High in the mountains shrouded in fog (and still raining). We found our 'hotel' which was actually an operating buddhist monastry. It was beautiful. It was all the castles and temples we've been visiting but not allowed to wander around in freely. Our room was traditional tatami mat with a balcony overlooking the garden.. and thankfully had a portable heater!
We warmed our toes and then bundled as much as we could before heading out to the main site (for me) which is a massive cemetary. The guidebook says any buddhist worth his salt has had their ashes or at least a lock of hair deposited here. I love buddhism and i love cemetaries, so this was a must destination for me. We took the bus further up the hill and started our exploring. It was very vibrant in the rain - so much greenery and moss on the old tombstones mixed with just blooming colorful trees. Freezing but loving it we wandered around until our dinner time of 5:30.
The thing with staying at the monastries is that you have to go by their schedule and your stay includes dinner and breakfast. All food is completely vegetarian with no dairy, fish, also no onions or garlic. Typical buddhist food. But this was good news for me b/c it meant that no matter how funny it looked or smelt I knew it was veg and I could eat it without worry (not that I've been a very good vegetarian here.. been eating fish and pork!).

Dinner was brought to our room on trays with hot green tea as well. It was a beautiful setting. And the food was actually quite good. Folo ate his all of course along with a bit of mine, but I did pretty good and was stuffed. Since it was still light out we decided to head back out to explore the cemetary some more. We were trying to get 'atmospheric' photos.. but it was too dark and rainy to get much.

Again we headed to our room as the town was shut and were in bed before 9! No showers at this place.. only the communal hot bath. We checked it out, but it was full of other naked foreigners, so we decided to give it a pass and just head to bed. But not before trying on our yukata (robes) and modeling for photos!

Day 5: Kyoto - Nara

2008-05-09T17:17:00.001+05:30

Today we got to sleep in a bit and have a lazy morning! Much needed for our feet! We pottered down to the station and got breakfast and checked out train options for getting to Nara. Simple enough so we just chilled out in the room packing and watching CNN until it was time to head off.

Nara was the original capital of Japan long ago. The main attraction here for me was Todai-ji Temple which is the largest wooden building in the world and houses some massive buddha's as well.

We sucessfully navigated the train (only 40 minutes) and walked to our hotel. The walk from the train station was only about 10 minutes and was through covered shopping arcades which seem to be the norm here in Japan. I love them!! On the way to the hotel I saw my all time favorite shop - Muji and was happy to have finally found it in it's home country!

We had booked another traditional japanese inn (ryokan). We couldn't check in until after 3 pm, so we dumped the bags and headed out to explore. We ended up doing an entire walking circuit (5 km) that was planned for the next day. To our great joy, there were deer (or as I called them reindeer) all over the place! They just wander around, getting 'reindeer' biscuits from tourists, kids and locals alike who are willing to dish out the 150 yen for a pack! They are pretty rambuctious when they see you buy the biscuits, but aren't too aggressive. It was so cool to be able to pet them, touch their horns and noses and just google at them! Even the most hardend traveller was enjoying the deer! We saw groups of buff male western travellers surrounding the deer for ages with smiles and laughter! After getting over the initial novelty of the deer, we continued on our walk. It was a nice day although it had gotten a bit cool and looked like it might rain, so we thought we better do what we could. We followed gangs of school children down the walking path heading towards Todai-ji. I was highly amused by how all the groups of children (when i say group - i mean like 100+!) are kept together.... they all have color coded hats on! We saw red caps, blue caps, white caps, yellow caps, pink caps, white with red strip, white with yellow stripe, etc. Only after arriving at Todai-ji did we take out the book and learn that this is a huge destination for school outings so you are almost always assured of massive crowds.

Somehow the crowds didn't seem bothersome though.. The deer all over are so entertaining that people seem to be sort of dispersed throughout and not all grouped together. The building was massive and is apparently only 1/3 it's original size. And the buddha's within were amazing as well. It was a bit dark, so we'll have to see how the photos look.
There is a tree sort of thing inside the temple that has a hole in the bottom of it.. it is supposedly the size of one of the buddha's nostrils. If you can crawl through the hole you are supposed to be assured of enlightenment. The kids love it! They all line up to get a go. Folo really wanted to do it as well, but was scared off when we saw a grown Japanese lady (skinny and tiny) almost get stuck! I was egging him on along with another random foreigner, but he got too scared! Haha. probably best.. if he got stuck I might have had to walk off and pretend I didn't know him :)

Continuing on our trail, we walked up to some area that was supposed to have great views over Nara. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and overcast so our view wasn't so spectatular!
Again we meandered along - me moaning with aching feet! I hadn't been able to put on my real shoes and was in not so great walking shoes! But we happened upon some great shrines and temples with little crowds and lots of photo opportunities! (this is a photo of a random guy we kept seeing who made us think of mario! doesn't he look like super mario?!)

We slowly made our way back to our hotel and did some 'house cleaning'... i.e. laundry! Luckily there was a washing machine and dryer so no hand washing for me! Set the laundry in and headed out to find dinner. Apparently this town closes super early! It was only about 6:30 and the streets were dead empty and the shops were closed! It was even a friday night!

We found a nice place near our hotel that served traditional settings of food. Paul went all out and got a huge sample type meal and I got my good ol standby of tempura! The food was great, but all I got was 7 peices of vegetable fried up... when I say 7 peices i mean like 2 peices of string bean, 1 slice of potato, 1 seaweed, and some other tiny little veggies! I was by no means full after dinner while folo was stuffed! So we headed to circle k for some dessert! oreo cookies and kitkat are about the only western items you'll see in shops here.

After walking around a bit more and realizing everything was shut and there was little for us to do, we headed home. Our wonderful ryokan owners convinced us to have a traditional hot bath in their 'onsen'. It was nice.. a big tile tub (kind of like a spa, but no jets) in a room that is baking hot. It was definitely nice since it was a bit cooler outside. But it sapped any remaining energy we had and we were both fast asleep well before 9 pm! lol.

Day 5: Kyoto

2008-05-08T15:41:00.003+05:30

Today we sucessfully got up and out of the hotel early! Yeah for us! Even with all that sake, Paul managed to get up without any struggle. Maybe that is the trick ;)

We headed down for breakfast in the station and then onto the train to Fushiri Inari temple. This was in Memoirs of a Geisha (i think). It was a huge complex with trails leading up the mountain all covered in these red/orange 'tori gates'. It was cool and chill.. we just wish we had all day to wander around the mountainside. It would have been a wonderful area to spend a full day trekking and having a picknick! But time was of the essence today since it's our last day here. So we saw enough to wet our appetites and then headed on. It finally happened.. Folo lost his train ticket! When we were in SF last summer he lost his bus pass two times in a matter of a week! So, I was getting surprised since it had already been several days and he'd not lost anything!! haha. But he lucked out and the guard trusted us and let him go through without buying another one.

Then we headed to the Manga Museum. It wasn't quite what we were expecting. For some reason we thought it would have exhibitions showcasing old Manga. But instead it was like a huge library that had over 200,000 manga editions. Interesting, but not quite what we had hoped. Nevertheless, Paul bought a cool tshirt and some post cards that we might frame.

We headed back to the main station for a bit to dump our bags and to also get some time to tour around the station area. Did I already say how huge it is? It has a 10 floor department store, several malls, movie theater, long distance trains, local trains, our hotel and tons of eateries! Also a garden on the roof! It was cool to doodle around here for a bit.. we are just starting to get our barings here and not get lost in the station itself!

To keep on our busy schedule we then headed to another temple that we just realized we should see! It's the Heian Temple. This one was pretty cool also. Apparently the garden was in Lost in Translation.. will have to watch the movie again to check it out. We pottered along behind a tour group so didn't have to pay (if there was every a place to pay -- we aren't quite sure! The guidebook says its 600 for the gardens, but we never saw anyone taking money!). The garden was great and we managed to get a ton of photos. Also saw a lady fall in the pond which was pretty funny. so mean.. we laugh at other's misfortune!

Enjoying this run of activity we headed out to find this shoe shop I'd been dying to see. It's called Sou-Sou and specializes in 'toe' shoes. Basically the shoe separates your big toe from your other toes. They look a bit silly, but are sort of cool at the same time. I really wanted a pair, but couldn't manage to find any that fit just right. They have a shop in Tokyo, so I got the address and will try again there. I'm hoping that my feet were just too swollen and sore to fit anything properly! But Paul did manage to get a pair.. not the toe kind, but just regular ones that look similar to converse, but are black and black stripes. Pretty adventurous for him!

Sad and disappointed about the shoes, we headed to a sock shop so I could at least buy some more cute socks. Bought some with pads in the soles.. but once I got out of the shop and put them on I found they didn't fit. POOHIE! Next stop..Clarks, so I could try a pair of shoes on again. I ended up buying them, but within 10 minutes of walking out of the shop i already had blisters :( Definitely not a shopping day for me. But luckily we happened upon a Gap and I found a pair of leggings on sale for 10 USD and that fit! Also got two pairs of my no show socks that i know will fit. Things were starting to look up! But we were getting hungry and tired so headed back home instead of continuing on our shopping journey. I think there will be plenty of shopping in Tokyo, so we better save some room!!

Didn't make it to the Geisha show today, but added other stuff which ended up being more to our liking i'm sure. Sleepy and hungry we'll probably just get something in the 'station' and then relax tonight before we head out tomorrow. Our bodies need a bit of relaxation I think.. and this is a vacation afterall!

Observations for the day:

Toilets - Ok I know I have already said how cool the toilets are here. But today I had two great ones! One was at the Manga Museum. It was similar to ours in our hotel, but this one had an added button.. 'flushing' sound. Apparently Japanese girls don't like others to hear them pee, so they have a button they can push that mimics flushing sounds to cover up any noise they make! So cool! The second toilet was on the way to the Heian shrine and was a public restroom off the street. It was squat, but as soon as you squatted, the flushing sound started automatically!! I was so excited. They really go to so much effort to make things easy here!
Alot of the Japanese we see roaming around are actually from the West! We asked several 'locals' for help today to find that they were not from here either!

man....another missed opportunity!

2008-05-08T04:06:00.004+05:30

I predicted to my friend in Mumbai that there was going to be an earthquake in Japan while we were here.. i was just hoping we'd be in the place where it happened! Oh well.. guess Folo will have to keep waiting to feel his first earthquake! Didn't feel a thing here in Kyoto. But I was tossing and turning all night..maybe I did feel it....

Day 4: Kyoto

2008-05-07T18:49:00.005+05:30

Another day in Kyoto and we are loving it more and more. As is usual with us, we look around and think "Hmm.. Could we live here?" The answer so far is a definite yes! Folo feels like we've done lots already, but looking in the guidebook and passing the thousands (there are 2000 temples in Kyoto!) of temples, I feel like we've done very little! But I guess you need a reason to come back right?! (I do want to come back.. once in the winter to see it with snow and sometime in my lifetime for the cherry blossom festivals).

Today we got lost for the first time... in our 'building'! Our hotel is connected to the main train/bus station in Kyoto. This station is massive. It has several shopping malls, millions of trains, buses, etc. We were looking for a grocery store to buy cheese for a packed lunch and ended up totally lost... and in front of McDonalds! I normally stay away from McD's but when it's breakfast I'm easily lured in as I love their egg mcmuffin and hashbrowns! So we relented and had a western breakfast.... and it was yummy!

With full bellies we wandered around for a while, finally finding a grocery store and our way out! One note about the grocery store.. when we walked up to the counter, there were about 10 ladies at different registers. As soon as we started approaching they all started bowing and saying welcome or something nice in Japanese! It was a bit overwhelming to be honest. Then as we left they all started yelling other polite goodbyes or thank yous.. I think I was blushing when we left!!

Our plan was to head to a big temple complex called Nanzen-ji. Several things I have read have said it was their favorite temple, so I had high expectations. Getting there was fine, but then once inside the compound we had no idea what was going on - where the temple was, etc. All of the many maps were in Japanese only, there were no hoards of tourists to follow and it was hot!

Finally we managed to find our way to a garden.. which was pretty boring to be honest. So much for that 5 bucks! But then we decided to go through this little lane up into the woods. It was a hike, but nice and quiet and good for our little pik-nik snack!

Heading down, we were set to find this restaurant that we'd read about..It specialized in Kyoto's special dish - yodofu pot. We knew it would be expensive and traditional, but were willing to try it out for some local flavor. We found it easily and headed in. As is typical with the traditional places, you must take your shoes off before coming in and you sit on the floor on tatami mats. Folo isn't so flexible, so was a bit worried about the floor sitting, but he managed to do fine (with a few beers!)

The meal was a set meal of 6 courses. The first course was a potato soup.. which i would normally love. But this was cold and very slimy... kind of felt like spit!! Paul drank his down of course and i sipped at it slowly! Second course was cold sesame tofu with wasabi on top. It was good.. just difficult to eat with chopsticks! Next came tofu on bamboo sticks with a cold, sweetish soya paste. I loved these, but Paul didn't really like his as much. 4th course was a plate of tempura - yummy! Number 5 headed out.. this was the tofu in a boiling pot (that is boiling on your table). You put a slab of the tofu in your dish, cover with some onions and pepper (lots of chili for us in our indian-ness) and a little sauce. Pretty good.. but we had 5 each and I could barely get down 2.. Folo got down 3! And last was rice with two peices of pickled radish. It was chewy and crunchy... sort of tasted like a pickle but a different texture. For 60 USD i'm not sure it was so filling, but it was the experience and that was definitely worth it!

Not stuffed, but full enough, we headed back to the path of philosophy to see one of the most famous temples here - Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavillion). Unfortunately the temple itself was under construction, but the gardens were well worth the entrance fee. This was the first garden that I really felt was "Japanese" in what I had in my mind. Even with aching feet and hot and sweaty I really enjoyed this the most.
Again, we headed home for an afternoon rest... somehow our feet are not up to the task of walking 10 hrs a day! I have no excuse since I do so little in India, but Folo works in a dark room all day, so he has a reason for not being able to handle the walking!

Night falls in Kyoto and we head to Gion.. the Geisha district. We pottered around, looking in all the shops and taking photos before heading to a tiny alley called Pontocho which has lots of bars and restaurants. My only hope here was to see a real Geisha on her way to/from work! And that we did see!! She was actually with a man going somewhere!
We found a small little place to eat dinner that had the chef in the middle of the place so we could see all of the cooking. We spent a fortune again.. but whatever we had to sample things! Grilled salmon, fried pumpkin, fried cheese, grilled eggplant, asparagus wrapped in bacon. And Folo finally got to sample some sake! He was scared he'd not be able to walk out after 3 beers and a small sake (which is about 4 small cups). He managed.. and luckily for him he could no longer feel his aching feet!!
And not that anyone really cares, but we have been keeping track of all of our spending so we can figure out what our average daily costs are. Doing anything and everything we want, we are spending on average 140 Euro's per day including shopping and accommodation. Not so bad.. our theoretical budget was double that. And as Paul always likes to say.. its less than 75 Euro each per day (even though it's all coming from only one bank account!) It's good to know that we can continue on as is and not go over budget!! Some days are cheaper, some are more expensive. Today was an expensive day I think!

All in all.. we had a great Kyoto day today. We have tons still on our list of to-dos.. so we'll see if we can get up bright and early and get it all done! Friday we head out to Nara for a night to see the largest wooden temple in Japan. Tomorrow should be an active day.. plans include the Manga Museum (Japanese comics), two temples, booking train tickets, possible geisha dance show, and some shopping!!

Day 3: Kyoto

2008-05-06T18:52:00.004+05:30

Today we got up late again! I'm not sure what is wrong with us - we go to bed early (around 9 or 10 pm!) and then can't seem to wake up until after 8 a.m.!! I woke up still not feeling so hot, but managed to push through it. For the sake of time, folo went ahead to the bus depot to get some donuts, coffee and our bus pass while I packed up and got us ready to head to our 2nd hotel in Kyoto! The Granvia is above Kyoto's main train station and a good base to cover some other areas of Kyoto. It's a bit more expensive - well double the price of the first hotel, but it's nice to be in a bit of luxury for a few days. The ryokan was great and all, but we had to be very quiet as the walls are paper thin, we had to share a bathroom/shower with the other guests and our room was no smoking! So it wasn't quite as holiday-ish as we've come to like on our vacations!

After packing up we headed down to the other side of town (about 45 minutes) on the bus and off-loaded our bags until the 3 pm check in. And off we went....

Today we decided we were going to do a walk that was suggested in the guidebook - the southern higashiyama walk. It started off fantastic as right away we saw a geisha walking down the street in front of us!! We were so excited chasing her that we barely even noticed 'tea pot' lane that we were trudging up! At the top of the hill there was another geisha with whom i tried to get my photo made with. Apparently she was 'rented' out by a group or something?!? so no photo :( (i tried mom!)

The first temple on our stop was beautiful and much more to my liking! We followed the hoards of people around taking photos and then to a small entrance area where we paid 100 yen (about 1 dollar) to go inside. I didn't really know what was coming except that it said no photos and no shoes - both of which are common at these temples. I read the description which said the room we were going into was to resemble a womb and would be dark. Once we came out the other end we would feel as if we were reborn. Ok.. shoes off, money given and here we go!

Oh my god... I think that had to be one of the scariest things I've ever done! It was amazing, but also totally frightening! We started off along this path, holding onto the large prayer beads on the wall, and then all of a sudden it was PITCH BLACK. I mean seriously black. I couldn't tell if my eyes were even open. I kept blinking them to make sure they were open. But there wasn't even a speck of light and we were following along in a huge line of people (who i kept bumping into!). I was enjoying it and then all of the sudden i would get this feeling like the ceiling was really low and i was going to bump my head or that I was decending into this long cave like area and wasn't going to be able to get out. Then i'd start freaking out in my mind about what i'd do if i really started to go crazy with not being able to see... finally i realized that i could always turn on the screen to my camera and that would give me a little light. At one point we were stuck in one place for quite a while - waiting for the people in front of us to move. This is the time when i was sort of mentally freaking out the most. Folo was pressed against me, i was really close to the girls in front of me and we weren't moving!!!

Finally we made it to the end which was a big stone with a buddha on it with a tiny bit of light. You were to put your hand on it and make a wish and then go back up towards the light. Whew... i sort of did feel like i had been reborn again after that! It took my body awhile to adjust and calm down. I almost wanted to go again!! It was so extreme and so crazy since we really didn't know what to expect!

I had heard an English speaking guide tell some other foreigners something about it and asked if they had any ?? problems. I had missed the part about what type of problems.. but now I can only assume he was asking if they were clausterphobic!!

After doodling around this temple for ages, enjoying the views over kyoto and having the sun beat down on us (oh yeah.. it was hot and sunny again today!), we continued on our 'walk'. We wondered down a few little lanes with old kyoto homes, traditional style coffee/tea houses, etc. Then we came to another Geisha.. this one being photographed by a professional - with his reflectors and all. I got right behind him and managed to get a few pretty good shots! yeah!!
By this point we were getting hot and tired and there were no food options in sight. So we quickly ran through the rest of our 'walk' and headed back to the hotel/station for some food. We grabbed some food in this massive underground mall beneath our hotel and then checked into our room. It was defiintely worth the switch. We have a great view over Kyoto, large comfy room, tv, cold AC and our very own bathroom!! Folo napped for a while, moaning about his hurting feet (something I do on a daily basis!) while I enjoyed the free internet and caught up on this blog!

Dinner time!! We had planned to go to this tofu restaurant that was mentioned in the guidebook. It took us about 30 minutes to figure out the route and head off. We got there.. with no problems.. only to find that it has been closed for ages! (darn you lonely planet -- you always let me down like this!) But we had a wonderful exchange with this really nice japanese lady who was having a pottery exhibition. She told us where to find this street (Shinmashi Dori) that we'd been looking for for 2 days. So again, we figure out our route and head out. Again, we made it -- with the awesome help of locals who would chase us down the road to give us better directions after they had already pointed us in the right direction.

I'm not so sure i am glad to say that we made it to our second choice destination! It was recommended in the NYTimes article recently written about Kyoto. It was a 3 table restuarant - no English whatsoever and no other customers! But whatever.. we had made it this far, so we decided to just use our guidebook and have the chef cum waiter make us what he'd like. I asked for a tofu dish - fried if possible and some sashimi for paul.

The first dish to come out looked like pudding or something! He told us to put some salt on it and then dip it in the soy sauce. I'm not really too keen on having soy sauce as it usually makes me sick (MSG), but had to do it anyway since the tofu /pudding was tasteless! Then paul's place of fish came out and we figured out what it all was by the phrasebook. He loved all of his, but I was left still starving and not at all satisfied with my "tofu" restaurant!

Oh well.. it was an experience and the guy was super nice and welcoming (as all Japanese seem to be). Now we headed off in search of this Sake bar that I also read about in the NY Times article. We pottered around for ages asking everyone in sight, but somehow couldn't find it. Now we have looked online and will try again tomorrow. So still no food for me.. so we decide to head to our now favorite area Sanjo Arcade. We decided to try a new sushi place - the one actually recommended in the guidebook (we tried to find it the first day, only to eat at another one and then see it after we left the first one!). We sat down and i realized that there was nothing there i'd eat... i just can't stomach raw fish! So as embarrasing as it was, we got up after they served the tea and headed to our first sushi place. Yum yum. more veg sushi and fried shrimp! And a second dinner for paul.

Stuffed, fat and with aching bones, we headed back to our wonderful hotel. Paul is content watching tv and i'm enjoying all of the space!

Tomorrow is another full walking day... not sure how our feet are going to manage all of this walking for 3 weeks! But we are loving it and enjoying almost every minute of being here! Almost feels like home already! We even contemplated just staying here for 10 days and tokyo for 10 days.... but I think we'll probably still head out on Friday and see something new. Til tomorrow. (Oh and I'll go back and post some photos with each of these entries... just too lazy to dig for the photo cord now!)

Observations:

The people are so insanely nice and helpful!! Oh it's so wonderful to be out of India for a bit!

Green Tea ice cream is pretty good

Paul can eat alot of fish -- today he's had 24 peices of fish!

I'm not loosing any weight even with all this walking and eating pretty small portions :(

Day 2: Kyoto

2008-05-06T13:14:00.003+05:30

Well our day didn't start off as early as we'd planned... we got off to a little late start and I was grumpy. I don't think the sushi filled me up enough through the night!

We strolled to the bakery to pick up some ok baked goods and then headed to the bus depot to buy our daily bus pass (5 dollars for the day!). Our first stop of the day was Kinkuji temple... with about a million other tourists. However I must say that there are very few 'white' tourists.. most seem to be asian and probably Japanese. I was less than happy to be shuttled like cows through the Golden temple and less than impressed with the gardens. Uh oh.. not a great start to this day.. kyoto has over 2000 temples and most of our 5 days here were to be for those. I was getting a bit nervous as to what we were going to do with all of our time here if this was how the temples were going to be!!

Stopped off at one of the many vending machines to get a drink and figure out our next move! Not sure why we even try to figure out our plan as we just seem to hop on buses and go where they take us! We couldn't get on the one we had planned, so decided at the last minute to hop on another one! And it was starting to rain.... The rain wasn't supposed to come until a few days later, but seems we were out of luck and not prepared (umbrellas were back at the room).

This bus took us to Nijo ji castle. In the midst of the downpour we buy our tickets from vending machines and try to wait out the rain. it doesn't seem to be going anywhere so we just decide to run through it! Finally managed to get inside the castle to dry off and have a look around. This was much more of an enjoyable experience then the last one.. so the day was looking up! We pottered around inside for a while, then wondered around the gardens enjoying the cooler day.

It's time for lunch again... Always a delima for us it seems. Nothing was really around, our feet were already starting to hurt and hunger was setting in. We tromped along for a good 2km before deciding we should just hop a bus and head back to the Sanjo arcade area! Good choice! We found a great french bakery that did baguette sandwiches. This was just to tide us over until we found somewhere else. Of course it ended up being lunch as we got sucked into this wonderful covered market area - Teramachi! In the midst of thousands of shops are little temples tucked away - some with beautiful buddhas. We spent the rest of the afternoon just bopping around here. Folo bought a holga camera (same maker as his fisheye), i bought some leggings and some cool face wipes. Last shop we went into was a cool Japanese designer shop. I had been scared all day to even try anything on since most of the Japanese girls are so tiny! But in this shop I found a nice dress/long shirt that was so cute. I didn't even think about it, but went over and tried it on --- it fit!! It wasn't so expensive.. nor cheap! Some of the clothes in there were well over 300 USD, so I was happy with my moderate purchase. Overall it was a wonderful experience. It seems we really like doing window shopping and just watching regular people go about their day.

A few observations:

leggings are so in fashion here! Everyone has them on.. I'm so excited b/c i love to wear them and now can buy plenty more (edit: well... these don't seem to fit quite like they should.. perhaps i'm a bit too fat or too tall?? the leggings i bought only go to my knees when the photo shows them at your calfs!)

There are clean free toilets everywhere! So wonderful. And they are so cool! the one at our guesthouse has a seat heater, bedei (Spell?) and another water splasher! And has a 'sink' at the back where the water is recycled back into the toilet.

the people are really helpful even when neither of us speak the same language.

No one stares at us here.

Its not much more expensive then the west really...

After shopping, we decide to head back to our area and get some food. The wind is whipping up and its getting down right chilly out!! But we are loving the cool weather and want to get back to put our hoodies on since we never get to wear them!

Walking around our neighborhood we happen into a tiny little restaurant and are again welcomed loudly and energetically, so we decide we must stay even if there isn't anything on the menu we like!! Luckily there is some food for both of us! Paul got raw tuna with wasabi and avocado and i got veg tempura! Yeah!! Our waiter was so sweet and cute with us trying to speak japanese -- he just kept saying thank you in english anytime we spoke in Japanese!! So after a lovely real japanese meal we head off to the slot machine shops that are all over. It was so intimidating though!! There were workers on every aisle and everyone was staring at us and nothing was in English of course. So we booked it out of there and headed back home!

And.. i'm happy/sad to say.. i made it 30 hrs before having my first MSG reaction! I thought it would come after that soba noodle dish the first day, but it didn't, so I kind of let my guard down and just ate anything and everything! Well... apparently the sauce that comes with tempura or the tempura itself had MSG.. and within 1 hr I was in the toilet back at the hotel vomiting. Oh well.. i knew it would come sooner or later. But it hasn't discouraged me yet. We'll just have to keep experimenting! Off to bed, feeling the nice cold air come through the window!

Day 1 : Kyoto

2008-05-06T12:58:00.004+05:30

Well, after not having a shower available, we put back on our dirties and headed out the door to the unknown!

I do have to say that it isn't weird being in a country where I understand nothing and can read even less. Have I done too much travelling already? or lived too long in India? Very few things feel very foreign to me these days --- which kind of takes the fun out of travelling to be honest. I know that I can easily get around and manage with no local vocabulary and there is always somewhere to shop :)

We walked down the road a bit checking places out and trying to find our first lunch spot! We made it to some mall and everything I had read said that often the best and cheapest food is in the basement of malls... No such luck here though. We did manage to walk around the grocery store looking at all the food and sampling it as we went along! No idea what we tried, but most things were surprisingly good! To tide us over for some more adventuring we ate some little cripsy cream filled thing... which i thought was going to be a baked potato! (Note: Most restuarants and eateries have photos of everything... but these photos aren't always so detailed!)

Back out on the streets we were roasting in the heat (but thankfully no humidity!) but managed to find a Soba noodle joint that was on the recommended list from our guesthouse. We walked in to a tiny little place to be greeted with tons of "welcomes" in japanese and felt that we must stay no matter what now! We sat down and were quickly brought water and green tea along with an english menu! Whew... we had been looking at the regular one and had NO clue what we were going to order! We managed to order.. shrimp soba noodles for folo and tofu soba for me! We sucked them down and just enjoyed our first little meal in Japan! So far so good.. no major catastrophes yet!

Not sure what to do, we referred to our handy travellers bible (lonely planet) to see what was in our neighborhood. It looked like a temple wasn't too far away, so we decided to start walking. After about an hour of this (with aching feet) we decided that we weren't going to find it so we better just hop on a bus and head somewhere else! Not sure what the protocol was, we boarded where the rest of the folks did (the back) and then just kind of stood around waiting... In India someone comes to take your fare. I searched and searched, but didn't see anyone. Then I saw some girl go up the front and put some money in a slot. So i thought I should do the same!! Oops... it was a change machine!! haha. Well now we have plenty of change :) Our first bus experience was pretty smooth.

We just hoped on the first bus we saw and it was heading towards Gingkuji temple which was on our list. We knew we'd already missed the closing times, but thought we could just walk around for a bit. We ended up walking all along the "Path of philosophy" enjoying the quiet, the kitty cats and of course the Japanese homes. Starving and with aching feet we decided we better find out way out of the 'wooded' area and find a bus! Didn't ever find a bus, but we did manage to walk to a train station. That took a bit as well.... didn't have the slightest clue how to manage the automated machines! But we managed without loosing any money or patience!

Our next stop... to a sushi joint where you pick your food off of a conveyor belt! Just what the doctor ordered! Stepping out of the subway station we landed ourselves right in the midst of a very happening area -- Sanjo Arcade area. Found a sushi joint (not the one we had intended though!) and sampled our way through about 12 plates of sushi! I ate fried shrimp and lots of little vegetarian ones while paul picked up each and every type of fish that rolled by! Stuffed for about 25 dollars we were happy campers! Not sure if our feet could manage anymore, we opted for getting back to bed early so we'd be fresh for our first full day of Kyoto site seeing!

Travellator Begins here...

2008-05-06T12:40:00.004+05:30

First we have arrived in Japan safe and sound!

To recap the last few days...

We got up early Sat morning and headed to Mumbai's airport to board our 5 1/2 hr flight to singapore. I watched movies the entire flight (No country for old men and 1/2 of There will be blood) while folo slept and watched Juno!

We arrived to Singapore's airport knowing we'd have a 5 hr layover. But everyone assured us that this would be no problem in that airport. It surely wasn't! There is tons of nature to see, plenty of smoking rooms (or outdoor courtyards to be more specific), shopping and activities. We doodled around from one nature stop to another (i.e. smoking rooms), browsed the shops, picked up a few reading materials and just basically basked in the orderliness, quietness and cleanliness of it all! We rode the train from terminal to terminal and also the moving footpaths (called a travellator - hence the name of the post!)

Toward the end of our stay in Singapore's Changi airport we were both exhausted and ready to get on our next flight to sleep! Unfortunately it was full and not quite as spacious as our first flight but I guess that doesn't matter when you are sleepy!

I ate my first bit of fish on the flight -- the only options were chicken or shrimp, so i started our Japan trip with fish! I had told myself I was going to be open to eating whatever came across my plate and not be picky about being vegetarian. So far so good...

Arrived in KIX (the airport near to Osaka/Kyoto) and found ourselves in another country where we don't know whats going on!! Haha. Upon arrival the pilot said that the temperature was 29 degrees celcius -- WHAT?!?! We were so excited for our 22 degree days and it was only 8:30 a.m.!!! Feeling a bit flustered at the thought of that and hoping that he must be wrong, we headed out to immigration. Had our photos and fingerprints taken for entry, had our bags thoroughly searched by customs (apparently coming from India means we might have drugs on us!) and then walked out to meet our MK Shuttle man who was there waiting for us.

The shuttle guy directed folo to the ATM - now we have money in hand and are ready for the 1 and 1/2 hr drive to kyoto. So far so good.

I knew from reading other people's blogs not to expect much on that drive -- and it really wasn't much to see. Instead I layed down and slept some more to wake up in Kyoto and near our guesthouse. Arriving to our 'neighborhood' was nice -- it was a cute, residential area that felt not much different than other places we've been. Folo said he felt that it was like America.. whereas I felt it was more like some small European city. All of the buildings were small and low to the ground, lots of greenery and CLEAN! Spotless to be exact!

We were greeted warmly (in Japanese) and led to our room. We had booked a traditional japanese inn (called ryokan) for our first two nights (mostly because nothing else was available - but it was also cheaper than hotels - 100 USD per night).

It was a very cute little place with great wooden floors, tatami mats all on the floors and a view out to the garden (if you didn't know it.. kyoto-ites love their gardens!). We got settled in and ready for a shower only to realize that the hot water is only available from 6-9 a.m. and pm! oops. Guess we'll go our first day dirty!!

countdown and final preparations!

2008-05-02T13:11:00.002+05:30

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning. I am still trying to figure out what to pack, making final adjustments to our itinerary and sorting out issues here in Mumbai (bills, etc).

I'm really excited. It feels like its been ages since we've actually done a 'backpacking' trip! And besides going to the US or Ireland this will be Folo and I's longest trip together. Lets hope we survive it :)

Our itinerary as it stands for the moment:
May 3rd - leave Mumbai and sit and wait for next flight in Singapore
May 4th - arrive Kyoto
May 5-9th - Kyoto
May 9th - Nara
May 10th - Koya san - Stay in a buddhist temple
May 11th - Himeji (Castle stop over)/ Hiroshima
May 12-13th - Hiroshima
May 13-15th - Takayama
May 15-17th - Nagano
May 17 -18th - Hakone (See Mt Fuji - hopefully it peaks it's nose out!)
May 19-24th - Tokyo

We should have internet access most of the time and will hopefully be updating on a regular basis. Hope you all have a lovely May - see you at the end!

japan planning

2008-04-28T18:37:00.002+05:30

All weekend all we did was try to book hotels for our upcoming trip to Japan! Seriously I think i emailed about 20 hotels/guesthouses in Kyoto trying to find a room for the night of our arrival. Everything was booked or else it seemed that some places didn't give bookings for only 1 or 2 nights. Our arrival to Japan coincides with the last day of "Golden Week" which seems similar to spring break in America. Everyone is out and about travelling so nothing is available. We finally managed to find a traditional guesthouse for our first two nights. 100 dollars to sleep on futons on the floor... i thought that kind of travel was supposed to be free :) Its a traditional Japanese guesthouse and this is as cheap as they come in Kyoto! After two nights of 'roughing' it, we will move over to the luxurious Granvia Hotel above Kyoto Station. Not sure how luxurious it will be, but at 180 USD a night I hope it has a comfortable bed at least!

180 a night might sound like a lot, but we sort of feel like we got a bargin! We first booked it at the end of last week and it was double, we also booked the Westin which was at the time cheaper but still about 200 USD a night. But being as indecisive as we are, we went back to cancel our reservation for the Granvia and found that it was now cheaper then the Westin!! So after reserving and cancelling a handful of times, we finally have our final reservations for Kyoto!!

And the other big reservation was for Tokyo. We had originally wanted to stay in a hotel a friend recommended as it looked super chic and stylish. Turned out it was over 500 USD a night.. and fully booked! So over the weekend we went back and forth between two hotels -- one that was 350 USD a night and one that was 210 a night. One is with a view, one is no view.. we opted for the cheaper one!

And now we just have to buy our Japan Rail Pass that also costs a fortune and then we are ready to roll! This all looks very expensive in USD, but we are planning and thinking about the trip in Euros.. so we sort of feel like we are getting a good deal! Its all about perceptions!!

recap on my US trip

2008-04-25T19:52:00.003+05:30

I returned from my 3 week US visit a week ago... home to no internet! The maid nor folo paid the bill while I was away and it took 7 days to get it all sorted and us back online. GRR!

My trip to the US was short and a bit rushed, but I managed to see quite a few people and enjoy my time there. I landed in SF and got my bearings before heading to LA for a weekend for a high school friend's wedding. A total reunion that left me emotional and wondering what I am doing living all the way across the world. Nostalgia can creep up on you quickly, but then goes away just as fast!

Then in SF for 5 days to shop til I dropped. I had little time in SF compared to my normal trips, so I had to cram in a year's worth of shopping in only a few days. I shopped til I couldn't walk anymore, but didn't end up getting as much as I would have liked! Spent a good deal of time with my cousin and her kids and just a few friends in SF that I always miss a ton while in India.

Then off to Oklahoma to see the family. My mom has moved to Oklahoma City which I must say is a lot more energizing then Ponca City! We didn't do much, but it was still better to be in a big(ish) city! Then to Southern Oklahoma for more family. I saw a cousin of mine that I've not seen in probably 10+ yrs! She's now all grown up!

And then my final leg of the tour.. Dallas. It was quick as I had tons of errands to run (i.e. taxes!), but during my short stay there I found a house that I wanted to buy! We followed up on it over the last two weeks, but seems that 6 other offers were put in and it is now looking doubtful that we'll even have a chance to bid on it. :( But it was probably meant to be. But it got us energized about buying property and we'll definitely keep looking now - all over the world.

Returning home was good, but it is hot and humid!! I've hardly left the house since returning - not that that really helps shield me from the weather. And now I am busy planning our holiday to Japan. (We originally had planned to go to Cuba, but it just wasn't too enticing to do another 25,000 mile flight nor fighting with the bureaucracy of getting in/out!) Japan is a bit overwhelming though -- so much to see, even with 3 weeks! And of course prices of hotels is a bit discouraging -- our first night we will be staying in a traditional guesthouse (mats on the floor) with shared bath for 100 USD a night!! But keep up with the blog as we hope to update from there often - we leave on May 3rd, returning on the 24th of May. Til then...

link back up.

2008-04-25T19:40:00.002+05:30

So I finally got around to updating my link on slaint.com for this blog! Now I just have to remember to update again! Lots of news, so I will create a couple of posts to catch you all up!

I will also try to start uploading some photos to slaint again although I have been using flickr.com much more recently as it's so much easier to manage....

Happy Holi!

2008-03-22T16:58:00.003+05:30

We've gone and done it again! Holi is one of my favorite holidays in India. If you don't know what it is by now, it's the spring festival of colours. And one day in the country where most people enjoy the chaos of throwing powder color and water on friends, family and neighbors!

We decided to just cruise the neighborhood again this year since we couldn't find any cool parties worth attending! But this year we dragged along Stacie, Janikka, Hayley and two of Janikka's visitors from Portland - Robbie and Juliet!

Here are a few photos of our morning adventure!

gori beware, holi hai

2008-03-21T20:04:00.003+05:30

Foreigners Beware - its holi!

The few days before holi tend to be very dangerous on the roads. Kids armed with water balloons are out in full force and bystanders, foreigners especially have to take caution. Every single year since I have been in India I have been hit with these water balloons prior to holi. The first year it freaked me out, and sent me in a rage! Now I am used to it, even though they always get me when i'm least expecting it! Yesterday Stacie got hit as she travelled down Linking Road in a rickshaw.. and today as I passed the same exact spot I got NAILED. Seriously nailed. I was with an Indian friend telling her how I always get hit, but she said she never had that before. As we were just chatting away, i got hit with what felt like a rock on my upper arm, splashing all over me, Nisha and the rickshaw!

The bad thing is that it really really hurts! I'm lucky it was on my arm and not my face. I could have broken my nose with that one. My arm is still red, tender and starting to bruise - 7 hrs after the attack. I've been scared ever since to go out!

I also read in the paper how a boy got hit yesterday and has lost his sight! I've heard stories of vicious kids using acid in the balloons, but thankfully that hasn't happened to me yet!

This has also been a weekend of holidays for so many religions! Thur was Eid, a muslim holiday, Friday - good friday, Sat - Holi (Hindu holiday) and Sunday - Easter. I think as well it's Purim a jewish holiday! Hopefully the world is too busy celebrating to fight these 4 days.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2008-03-17T13:39:00.003+05:30

Since my boyfriend is Irish, I have to celebrate St Paddy's day! He's working as usual, but I am making him his traditional Irish Stew and will have his Guiness waiting at home for him! This year I doubt we'll really do anything - no one seems to really acknowledge this day here. Last year we were in Singapore and it was crazy for the Irish. The year before, we decided to pay a visit to all of the "Irish" bars in Mumbai. Not one of them even knew it was St. Patricks day. Pathetic!

Hope you all have a great day and are wearing green :)

more censorship

2008-03-15T21:56:00.002+05:30

In India all films are censored before they get released, foreign and local alike. Basically it is the morality police who go through the films and decide what is and is not appropriate for adults in India to view. Any sex scene, even if it doesn't show anything is usually cut (badly at that!). Often other random things are cut as well -- which I don't typically know since it's cut and I'm seeing it here! But you can usually tell when something is chopped out since there will be a jump in the story or you can actually see where it's been sliced up.

Today I went to see a Romanian film "4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days". First I have to say I am amazed that it even came to India. This is only the 3rd foreign (non English language) film I have seen here. And trust me, I try to see them all as that's all I watched back in the US! Besides it being foreign, it is also very heavy subject matter. It is about a girl getting an illegal abortion in communist Romania. Anyhow.. the point of this whole post is to say that at one point the character walked towards the camera showing her pubic hair -- well that's what it would have been if the censor board didn't scribble over her privates! Seriously, someone got a magic marker and scribbled! In a very serious movie, this was pretty funny.

So there is another job that someone has in India.. scribbling on films!

Government Stamp

2008-03-13T11:48:00.004+05:30

We get The Economist by subscription and this week it was several days late. I didn't think anything of it as the mail here is notoriously slow. Nor did I think anything of the plastic covering already being opened or the mailing label addressed to the wrong person. This is India afterall. But as I begin to go through the magazine, I came to a story about India and started reading. As I got half way through the article I noticed a map of India with a blue stamp over it. The stamp says " The external boundries (SIC) of India as depicted are neither correct nor authentic". I am shocked that the Indian government went to all the effort to go through each and every Economist to put this stamp over the India map! I'm shocked, but not really surprised! Crazy the lengths the government will go to make sure no one is confused about how much land is India's!!

cuba ramblings

2008-03-12T22:11:00.003+05:30

I was gifted a trip to Cuba for my birthday. I have been frantically trying to research it to figure out what we want to do, what is the best way to get there and how their insane money system works (money for foreigners, money for locals).

I'm starting to feel a bit annoyed with it all and thinking more and more about just going to Japan instead! However, I really do want a chance to practice my spanish again. I have been brushing up on it in the last week. I've not forgotten as much as I thought -- although I tend to do the Indian head waggle even when speaking spanish! hah

Goa Recap

2008-03-10T20:59:00.000+05:30

So we were three and then we were two and then we were three and then we were two and finally we ended up being three! J cancelled on Monday as she was summoned to Portland, so then Stacie and I proceeded as two. Then a friend from Mumbai Komal decided to join us - to then cancel at 2:30 a.m. the morning of our flight, to then rejoin us later that day at the last minute! man.. it was so confusing and difficult to go to Goa for a weekend!!

But we made it and had a good time. Stacie and I seem to be able to do just about anything together and have fun. It was nice to spend some good quality time with her and to just chill out, laying in the sun, reading books, taking naps and chatting.

I hadn't been to Palolem in 3 years, so I wasn't sure what to expect after so much time away. This time, we stayed at the north end of Palolem which seems to be much more mellow than the southern end, where I stayed previously. The north end is quiet and asleep by 10:30 pm and is filled with people my own age - some single, some with their families. But being mellow did not stop the women from going topless. Stacie and I were shocked by this... This is India after all - a very conservative country! We were also very happy with the hotel we ended up with - Alessandros. The staff were very nice and went out of their way to help us entertain ourselves! Stacie and I even made our own breakfast on the last day. She wanted french toast and I wanted eggs my way! Our rooms were right on the beach which was great as well. Except the waves at night were insanely loud! But we got used to it and fell asleep nicely listening to the quiet and the sea moving back and forth. It was pretty hot during the day, but at night it was still cooling down quite a bit which I loved but made Stacie cold with the fan on! hah.

Here's the view from our 'hut' on the beach!

I stayed out of the sun completely the first day -- reading under the umbrella, taking naps and just being lazy. The following few days I ventured into the sun briefly - mostly to play in the sea! Just a little amount of time in the sun creates disaster for my skin. I am apparently allergic to the sun and no matter how much SPF lotion I put on, I still end up with sun poisoning. :(

To help deal with the sun burn/poisoning, I had a nice cucumber body wrap which was nice. Otherwise we just chilled out, enjoyed our time and chatted with others at our hotel. we met some interesting Israeli's, a Canadian who lives in Mexico and watched lots of families enjoying their holiday.

Some observations -- the police really are enforcing the no hawking policy on the beach, so we had much fewer people hassling us while laying out, very few locals coming to stare at us, etc. So all in all it was a much more enjoyable beach experience than I've had previously at Goa. And also.. the water was much better looking than in the past. So given all of that, I think I will look forward to going back to Goa again in the near future.

rickshaw run names

2008-03-03T02:25:00.002+05:30

for now..our team name is karma kab.
we were under immense pressure to come up with a name quickly before providing our deposit. some other names we are still considering:
karma initiative
fast around the kormas
paan & curry
goodbye mumbai
bangladashing

Please give your feedback and thoughts! I'm not sure if we can even change our name at this point, but if we can, we might. we aren't creative on the cuff like this!

goa girls weekend

2008-03-02T23:38:00.002+05:30

It really shouldn't be that difficult to plan a weekend trip to Goa. People go all the time. It's only a 50 minute flight. There are trains, buses, and flights that go around the clock! But somehow getting the three of us blondes out of bombay for 4 days has been a monumental task!

First trying to decide whether we should fly or train it down, took ages. We decided to train it down there and fly back. But of course India doesn't always agree with your plans. The trains were booked solid. Over 50 people on the waiting list for first class. And even when looking at the option of tourist quota tickets it said unavailable. What is going on.. its not supposed to be high season anymore! Too many tourists in India I guess --- and all heading to Goa the same day apparently!

So we go to plan 2 - fly both ways. Some history - a return to goa last year would cost 2000 INR (50 USD), but now on EVERY flight, there are 2000 rupees worth of taxes alone. So the cheapest you could even hope for is 2001 rupees. not a chance that you can get that at the last minute. We agree on the flight and the price of 5,086 INR - more than we hoped, but decent enough. Oh, nope.. not gonna happen! As soon as we click to book, we see the return flight has increased by over 1,000. pwwww. So now we have no idea what to do. We figure perhaps we will just have to take the train back - at least it would be one way and would reduce our costs a bit. Check the trains again... still waitlisted, but not so bad with only 3 on the waitlist. There might be a chance of getting on....

For now, we decide lets just book the flight there and we'll figure out how to get back home later! One step at a time. I booked mine. J booked hers. S.... not so lucky. See, previously there was this issue with booking flights/trains with an international credit card. Some young 'ens working at Indian call centers thought it would be cool to steal foreign credit card numbers from their job and sell to other people. There was a big scandel and instead of dealing with the root of the problem, merchants here just decided that the best thing to do was to stop accepting ALL foreign credit cards. One website has finally stopped this - cleartrip - with whom we booked our tickets. Well.. apparently in all of this credit card business, they forgot about local Indians and people with Indian accounts. Of all of us - S the one with a local account couldn't book her ticket --- through 3 different websites!

In the meantime, I decided to go ahead and book our train tickets even if they are waitlisted... oh but guess what?!?! the Indian railway WEBSITE closes at 11:30 pm!!!! LOL have you ever heard of a website closing?! Ok. so no luck there. Back to see what S is managing. Still no luck on her end, so I just buy it with my foreign credit card. Sad isn't it that you have to resort to using a foreign credit card in India when you can't use your own INDIAN account!

So for now, our flights are booked to Goa. We still have no idea how we will get home. But that will come later. We need to get ahold of someone's passport so we can book tourist quota tickets - S is out of town until wed so we need a replacement passport for hers! one thing at a time.. one step then the next. this is what you have to remember in India.

Well J's motto as of late is "India always wins"... and perhaps she does!

I guess the good of all this... we will get good and stressed out, so we can fully enjoy the relaxation of the beach!

Birthday - #8

2008-02-29T00:06:00.000+05:30

I am a leap year baby. It has always been something of discussion to people when they find out. Always they say "What do you do in years when you don't have a birthday" -- My response - celebrate ALL week!! Haha. But it is hard not having an actual birth day 3 out of 4 years. When people call to say happy birthday on either the 28th of Feb or the 1st of March, I often reply "thanks, but its not really my birthday". I'm not sure why it is such an issue with me.

But this year was a real one. I was looking forward to it, but also stressing out about it. Everyone else feels that it is so special, so I also begin to believe that it should be that way. But then I wonder what to do to make it really memorable! And then to add more stress on top, my last real birthday was amazing. Several friends who are in bands came together and played a special show for me and all my friends. I was surrounded by tons of great people who really made me feel special and loved. That was my last birthday in America....

So this year I gave the planning to Folo. He doesn't like to plan typically and doesn't usually have to because I love to do it. But i was confused and not sure what we should do. And he didn't have the ability to take off more than just my actual birthday, so we couldn't run off to some far off destination like we would normally. But thankfully my friends stepped in to help him out and I ended up having a wonderful birthday!

The birthday run down:

Breakfast at the JW Marriott - stuffed ourselves with bacon, real bread and cheese and other goodies
Death at a Funeral - we were at breakfast and saw that this movie was playing down the street in just 15 minutes, so we high tailed it over to catch it. Funniest movie I have seen in forever. I laughed so hard!
The Lives of Others - another movie, one that was originally on our plans. An excellent film that must be seen!
Small resting between events... but i wasn't aware of what was coming and didn't realize it was only a short rest!
Surprise visit by friends -- bringing homemade birthday cake, balloons, party hats, fake spray snow and presents!
Dinner at one of my favorite Thai restuarants -- driven in an AC car hired for the night. good planning, so we didn't have to navigate and deal with taxi drivers all night!
Bauchklang @ the blue frog - a new music venue that is amazing was hosting a band from Austria that was equally amazing. Check them out. Totally blew my mind. And was surrounded by really great friends who I realize make my life here what it is.

And then to top off the whole day, we got home to an email from The Adventurists saying that we had been chosen to participate in the 2009 Winter Rickshaw Run!!! They only opened registration for 24 hrs beginning on the 28th and ending on my bday. 70 teams were selected and I was one of them! YEAH! I never have won anything - no drawing, no raffle, nothing! So i feel that it was meant to be. Now we have to pay the fee to secure our place --- but now I am feeling a bit scared about it. They say that you seriously take your life into your hands by doing this.. it is not something to be undertaken lightly... and i know what they mean.. i've seen how people drive here! But we'll pay the entry fee and give it some more thought.. we have 28 days before we have to fully fully commit!!!