Christmas time/hiatus

Hiatus time again. Why? Because tomorrow I'm going home for Christmas, hooray! (well, technically I leave on Sunday but at 2 a.m. so have to get to the airport tomorrow).
I am soooo excited but slightly nervous that I'm going to freeze after having been through 2 Delhi summers. Today on Boston.com there is this headline: Boston temps to near zero.
Uh-oh. Well I guess that means I'll just have to drink lots of hot chocolate (haven't had that in forever, yummmm) and sit by the fire in a big sweater.
I hope it is a white Christmas...although I wonder how long it will take me into shoveling before I'm pining for the non-snowy Delhi winters.
So, will be back in the new year for my final few months of life in India.

fun with words!

Just have to share some fun Indian-English isms today.
First, last week one of the girls in my office asked if it was okay if they turned on the AC for a bit (the switch is behind my desk which is why she had to ask me) because they wanted to get the air circulating. Why did they want to get the air circulating? Because they were "suffering from suffocation". Those are the actual words she used.
And then today I was sent a text message from one of my staff saying they would be late (yes, people text in late or sick here, they don't call) because her car had been "punctured". That means that they got a flat tire. The bit I really like is that they always say that the car is punctured, not the tire, the entire car...and they spell it punchured.
And finally...on a different note. Obviously it isn't that cold here if we had the AC on for a bit last week, but it definitely gets cold at night, around 45-50. Cold, but not freezing. So last Saturday I was at the office and smelled exhaust and realized that our company driver had (once again) started the car directly in front of the office door and the exhaust was heading right in the door directly to my desk. So I (once again) told him to a. not let the car idle and b. not to turn it on in front of the door. At this point I was informed that he had to let it idle for a few minutes in the "winter" before driving because it is so cold.
I decided not to argue that point but I cannot help but think of those freezy cold Boston and Toronto mornings when I had to let my car warm up. Definitely a few degrees colder than 45 or 50. Oh well, its all a matter of perspective, it is crazy hot in the summer so the cold seems that much colder.

Peacock run!

This morning I was out for my morning walk (which I've been really bad about doing lately because my bed is so nice and warm!) and I had two shocking things happen.
First it was raining. Well, not exactly raining, more like drizzling very lightly, light enough that I could be outside with no problem. But that is a big deal in December here; the last time it rained was Nov 11th and I didn't think I'd see another drop 'til at least Jan.
Second, I had a peacock run right in front of me! It seriously shocked me, I mean it was about 1 foot in front of me, I practically tripped over it. She seemed lost...but no, 2 minutes later another one joined her and they just walked around with me. Peacocks are the national bird of India so there are lots of them in the country but not tons in the city and definitely not in a neighborhood. I've decided that this is a good sign for the day.

I think I've been here too long...

It is fairly common here for every shop, restaurant, etc., to have a guard standing at the door. They check bags, keep out the rif-raf and, most importantly, open the door for you. I have gotten so used to always having the door opened for me that this weekend when I was at the mall with a friend we went to a shop and the guard didn't see us so I stood there for about 3 seconds waiting for him to open the door. Then it occurred to me that I could open the door for myself. Clearly I've been here too long if I'm 100% used to having the door opened for myself. Oh dear. I'll have to get myself out of that habit quickly.
On another note, I find that the closer I get to going home (I'm going home for the holidays - hooray!) the less patience I have for the little Indian annoyances. Like going to the movies and people talking through the entire movie; the non-stop honking, etc., etc. Normally I can put up with these things fairly well but over the past few days it has just been driving me absolutely insane. I mean really, if you are stopped dead in traffic and cannot move, how does honking help? And why go to a movie if you are going to talk, and text, and generally pay no attention? So frustrating.
But India does make an effort to balance out the frustrations with some good stuff; I saw an elephant Saturday morning, the second Saturday in a row I've seen one. In India elephants mean luck and I have to say that I had great days both Saturdays...maybe it is the elephant, maybe not, but it is such fun to see them...almost makes me not hear the honking...almost.

smelly breath

Last Friday night I was out for dinner pretty late. On the way home the police had the road blocked off in this one area and were stopping every car. I didn't think much about it because I was in a very nice area of town near all the Embassies and quite often there are road blocks set up for some reason or other.
The police asked my driver where we were coming from and then asked him another question which I didn't understand. They then rolled up a piece up paper kind of like a funnel and had him blow into it...then the cop smelled the paper. The stop was to check for drunk drivers. A good idea on a Friday night, but I'm not entirely sure how effective that technique is; especially since they seem to have only one paper...if someone is really drunk wouldn't the smell of booze stay on the paper for all future drivers?
Strangely they didn't ask my driver to see his license, they just asked where were had been and where we were going. Given how corrupt the police are here I can't help but wonder if you did have alcohol on your breath if you could buy your way out of it? Well, luckily my driver was 100% clean; he doesn't drink at all so I know that I never have to worry about that.
Just another one of the many things that is just not quite what you expect over here.

old fashioned popcorn

Last week I was in my car and thought I saw something on the side of the road but wasn't sure if I had seen it correctly so decided not to blog about it just in case I was wrong. On Saturday I saw it again and had seen correctly the first time.
What was this interesting sight?
Real old fashioned popcorn.
There was a man with a cart and on the cart he had peanuts for sale and some other nuts and he also had a ton of popcorn kernels. On one side of the cart there was a big pan...kind of the size of a wok...on a little fire. He would put kernels in and pop them over the fire and then put them into a small little bag for people. Now that is fresh popcorn.
I'm surprised I didn't notice it last year. Its a great idea for these cold Delhi nights (it actually gets quite cold at night...but the days are perfect). They only pop a little bit at a time so it is always fresh and warm. I almost bought some...probably the only street food in Delhi that I can be sure it 100% safe to eat...but I was in my car so couldn't exactly stop.
Will be tough to buy movie theatre popcorn now after remembering what real fresh popcorn is like.
Oh...and I saw an elephant walking down the street Saturday morning. Totally unrelated but seriously made my day!

batty birds

The one downfall of visiting the backwaters in a houseboat is that you can't walk around at all other than the 10 feet from the seating area to the bedroom. So what does one do to get the juices flowing again? Goes to a bird sanctuary of course.
After leaving our houseboat we drove about an hour to the northern part of a big lake in Kerala. The ocean meets this lake which then feeds the canals and streams in the backwaters. There wasn't much to do so we relaxed and watched the fishermen come by and check their catch all day. We also watched this plant; we think it was African moss; float back and forth; it was kind of mesmerizing. I also did some flower photography...the new flower on the right is from there.
The next morning we were up bright and early for a visit to the bird sanctuary. It was a hot morning and was quite humid on the walk so it was good that we were up and about so early because we were getting quite toasty! It was (depending on who you asked) a 3 or 4 km walk, nice and muddy in spots...our shoes were quite messy. We started by seeing a bunch of bats...creepy...there were quite a few herons around including one that was grey but its wings were white underneath which was just so cool when they were flying. There was a hawk type bird, and a kingfisher (or so our guide says...I couldn't find it) and various other birds flitting around. Oh, and a turtle. Oh, and we saw an elephant while we were driving there; he was walking down the street with his owner.
Due to the fact that it was so humid I didn't get many photos...my camera kept getting confused on what to focus on. But I do have a few.
The first is a fuzzy shot (because I was walking) of Carrie and our guide. You can see how green and lush it was. Kind of rain-foresty...not that I've ever been to a rainforest.
And the second is one of the grey, but with white wings, birds hanging out on a little bridge to nowhere. Never managed to get a picture of one in flight...they moved too quickly.

doing laundry and seeing stars

So what did we see while cruising through the backwaters? We saw life going on around us.
We saw men working in rice paddies and learned that apparently a lot of the canals in the backwaters were created; land was filled to create rice paddies.
We saw people using the water for everything imaginable...
Bathing
Brushing teeth
Doing laundry. Lots and lots of laundry was being done in the water; women (and a few men) standing in the water rinsing it out and then banging it on the rocks (I think the banging gets out the dirt?).
The water is truly life in the backwaters; it is used for everything. We were told we could go swimming if we wanted...we politely declined after seeing how much goes into the water.
We just enjoyed watching people living their lives in such a simple way. There were lots of boats, in addition to houseboats, going around. Small little canoes for individual travelers; larger boats for deliveries; and boats for public transport. Some small, just crossing from one side for a canal to another (there were a few bridges around but not many); some larger for longer rides. On all of the larger boats we noticed that men sat in the front and women in the back always. Didn't look like there were markers dividing them; that's just how people sat.
We docked just before a spectacular sunset. After the sunset I lay down for a bit and just looked up at the sky. Living in a big city you rarely see stars...living in a city as polluted as Delhi you never see stars...so it was so nice to just lay down and look up and see all the stars.
Sigh...so relaxing.
Picture time! First we have a small little shuttle boat going across one of the canals. And then you have a woman doing her laundry.

Happiness is...

I think that my favorite place in India is the Kerala backwaters. It is so relaxing and you feel like you are stepping into another world. I was thrilled to go back and, once again, I had a bit of a different experience than my first visit. On my first visit I stayed in a "floating cottage", which basically was a small island with a few little cottages that were in fact floating, and we took a boat ride around that area. This time I went further south and stayed on a houseboat.
The houseboats are all former cargo boats that are no longer needed and have been re-purposed into houseboats for tourism. We got on the boat around noon and after a little intro (including "there is a TV there, but only Indians ever use it" from an Indian, who was right...we didn't turn it on) we set sail.
The houseboat was cute and simple and had everything you could need. We had 3 staff; a chef, a captain and an engineer, all of whom wore traditional clothing and walked around barefoot...which I thought was a great idea and did as well. The captain sat in front of the boat and navigated while the engineer and chef sat in back. There was a little string next to the captain's chair which connected to a bell in the back so he could signal the engineer to adjust the engine speed.
We would 'dock' for our meals - which meant pulling up somewhere and tying the boat to a tree - and the meals were awesome. We asked them to take into account our western stomachs and not go too spicy and they didn't. I'm not going to bore you with a play by play of every meal but we did have a banana curry (or so they said, didn't taste like bananas but they said it was) at lunch that was delish; and a traditional southern breakfast which was hard boiled eggs in a curry over rice noodles. Sound strange? It was, but it was also really yummy. Tomorrow I'll talk about what we actually saw but for today 3 houseboat pictures...
The first is of a whole houseboat...not ours, but one just like ours to give you an idea of what it looks like. If you click on it for a larger view you can just see a man on the front with a black umbrella...that is the captain.
The second is of men building one. The material they are using is called coir which is a material taken from coconuts - they use every bit of the coconuts down in Kerala; milk for drinking, oil for cooking and coir is a really strong material for ropes that they use for many different purposes. All of the houseboats are made from bamboo and coir and almost all of the building is done by hand.
And the third picture is where we sat taking in the view as we cruised through the backwaters.

Synagogues and Churches

So much for a one day break from blogging about my travels...more like a week. Oh well, these things happen.
Back to travels. After our day in Delhi we headed down to Kerala. I've been there before and was more than happy to go back as I had such a great time the first time. This trip began much like the last one by touching down in Cochin (or Kochi); we checked into our hotel and then headed down to Old Cochin. In addition to the fact that I had enjoyed my first visit to Cochin, I was excited to go back for one very specific reason...the first time I was there was a Friday and the synagogue was closed and according to my guide books this synagogue was well worth a visit.
So we strolled through the lovely colorful Jew town with all its little tourist shops to the little synagogue. It was built in the 16th century and is quite small; a large room really. The floor is made up of all hand painted tiles from China; there is a very ornate pulpit and some really amazing lamps including one really big chandelier. Standing there you can imagine people a few hundred years ago worshipping by oil lamps; it is like a little time capsule.
You couldn't take photos inside; a bummer for the tourist in me; but it did help to maintain the feeling of a place of worship rather than a tourist spot. Interestingly you had to take your shoes off to enter; I think that is a spill over of the Indian influence and how Hindus worship.
After the synagogue we visited the great big Chinese fishing nets which were not in use; apparently they are only used during high tide, or low tide, basically the tide that brings all the fish in. But more on fish later...
On my previous trip to Cochin I also missed out on seeing the interior of the Church of St. Francis. It closes at 5 p.m. and we got there a bit after 5 but got in this time...one of those few times that Indians always doing things late has worked to my advantage. The church is also from the 16th century and had a quite simple interior. We were most fascinated by these things hanging down along the length of the pews; they were long, maybe 10 feet, and were made of wood with a bit of fabric over them. They hung about 6 feet over the pews but looked like they could be lowered so we thought maybe they were to divide men and women.
Turns out they were the original fans in the church; so during mass (in the times before electricity) some poor folks would stand outside pulling those ropes back and forth to help keep people cool inside. Quite smart really as it stays hot year round down there and I cannot imagine how stuffy that church would get during the really humid months.
Now they have regular fans...I wonder if they use the old ones during power outages?
Back to fish; well the nets weren't in use but the fishermen were bringing in their catch from their boats and the market was being set up so we saw all sorts of fish being brought in. Since I couldn't take photos in the synagogue or church I'll leave you today with a photo of one of the men carrying some huge fish near the market place. I cannot even imagine how heavy this basket must be.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving one and all. This is my 3rd Thanksgiving in a row away from the US of A (although the first doesn't really count because I was in Canada and my parents came up and we made Thanksgiving dinner) and I am determined that next year I'll be home for Turkey and Pie! No turkey for me this year (due to the fact that is next to impossible to get here) or tandoori chicken for that matter; will just be a quiet night at home. Which is fine with me.
So, what am I thankful for? Well, kind of a long story here so bear with me. My driver is currently away in his village for a bit so his dad is driving me this week. On Monday after I dropped my sister at the airport he asked me how long the flight was and where she was going in the states. He was wondering if she was going to DC because the Indian PM is there this week (very exciting for India that they got the President's first state dinner).
I explained and then he started asking me geography questions; where is this city, where is that city, etc., etc. Then he asked me if Paris is a beautiful city and I said yes, very. He said that he saw it on TV and it looks very beautiful. And I was suddenly very sad. I realized that this man who works so hard and is such a good man will never have enough money to travel outside of India. Other than going to his home village he probably rarely travels within India unless driving someone but he has the desire and the interest; every time he drives me he asks me about what life is like in 'my country' versus in India.
So I am thankful that I was born into a culture where the profession of my parents does not pre-determine my profession (i.e. my driver is the son of a driver; it is extremely difficult in India to break out of your 'caste' - even though the caste system is officially over, it really isn't) or the amount of education I receive. I could go to school and study what I chose; I can work as much or as little as I want and earn enough money to travel and see the world (economy permitting).
I wish I could give him enough money to travel to Paris; but that isn't possible...and he would never accept it if I could. So I will just continue to answer all of his questions about where places are in the world and hope to fulfill a little bit of his curiosity that way, and every question he asks helps me to appreciate just that much more what I have done and seen.

animal sightings

I forgot to mention my wacky animal sightings and then this morning I had another one so...a break from Carrie's trip here for a day while I talk about some of the wacky places I've seen animals of late.
First, I stopped at a market to do some last minute shopping before heading to the airport to pick up my sis. Along with regular shops this market has a few little stands, best thing I can relate it to is a newsstand back in the states; a smallish stall with an open window where you go to pay. At this one stand I see a guy peeking in looking to see what is for sale and right next to him - about 6 inches away - a cow is peeking his head in the stall as well checking out what is going on. I actually stopped in my tracks and stared, it was the funniest thing...especially because the two guys (the buyer and the seller in the stall) completely ignored the cow and went along doing their business. If only I had my camera.
Second wacky animal sighting - which I must give my sister credit for noticing - was in Old Delhi. We're sitting in traffic and there is an auto rickshaw next to us and she notices that along with the two passengers there is a goat in the autorickshaw. Must have been their goat and they were bringing him somewhere. Definitely looked like the goat was the only one that was comfy in the back of that autorickshaw.
And finally...this morning. I hear this loud bang that sounds like my air conditioner had just fallen. Luckily it hadn't fallen...a monkey had just jumped on it. My neighborhood family of monkeys was back and were running all around the back of mine and my neighbor's houses this morning. Kept me quite entertained - amazing that I was on time to work because I was having such fun watching them.
You honestly never know what you are going to see here.

Seeing something again...for the first time

I've done quite a bit of touring around Delhi so now when people come to visit me it is pretty rare that we actually see something in the city that is new to me. Luckily I really like showing people around the city and re-visiting places...otherwise I'd be a pretty miserable travel buddy. But every once in a while when I go somewhere I've been before I discover something new (or rather, new to me).

This happened on our first full day of sightseeing in Delhi; we went to Humayun's Tomb. This is a very large tomb in Delhi. I visited it over a year ago and hadn't been back but really enjoyed it because not only is it very pretty it is also not that popular of a spot for tourists so is relatively quiet. It is actually a really huge tomb; I think second only in size to the Taj Mahal in India and if it weren't for the Taj it would likely be visited more, but because of the Taj most people skip out on Humayun's Tomb. After a morning in the craziness of Old Delhi it was good to be somewhere a bit quieter.

So, what was new? Well the first time I went I noticed this much smaller tomb in an enclosed area off to one side but it was blocked off for some reason. This time it was open so we went in to explore and it was soooo pretty. There are lots of small tombs all throughout Delhi from the period of the Mughal rulers; most of which originally had quite a bit of decoration which has now come off, but a lot of the detail on this one was fairly well preserved...and it was built in 1547 - almost 500 years ago.

I think we actually spent more time walking around this little tomb than we did at Humayun's. There are only 2 other octagonal tombs I've seen in India; the rest are mostly 4-sided (like the Taj) and I really like the octagonal ones; even when they are small they seem very imposing.

Here are two photos; one of the whole tomb and one of some of the detail where you can see the tiling still in place...quite a rarity. I think that this might become another spot in Delhi that I start to visit more and more often for a nice Sunday afternoon walk.

and I'm back

Just dropped my sis off at the airport and am in the fun process of going through gobs of emails.
Will blog more tomorrow.

on hiatus

Will be away next week because...my sister is coming. Hooray for visitors.
Three pre-hiatus comments....
1 - it rained last night. Crazy, its definitely been at least a month, I think 6 weeks, since it rained. Still kind of raining. I wonder when it will rain next? Jan, Feb? Will I see rain again before I leave?
2 - got caught in a traffic jam this morning. At a 4-way intersection all the lights were out so everyone just drove into the intersection and started honking. Finally a traffic police guy came and cleared it out a little bit but it was just silly.
3 - Delhi is "on strike" today. Not sure what that means or why, all I know is that all the coffee shops are closed and I seriously need some caffeine. Oh well, at least the strike happened before my sister's visit so it doesn't screw up those plans.
Will be back in a little over a week with pictures and stories.

hot water perspective

I have no hot water right now, will hopefully get fixed today but definitely tomorrow the latest. The way my water is heated here is in a smallish hot water heater in my bathroom. It sits high on the wall above my toilet and I can tell when the water is heating because a light goes on.
I didn't think much about it when I got here; as in didn't think it was odd at all; because when I lived in France my apartment had a similar hot water heater in a big closet. For that one I just had to make sure that I ran water some time after 8 p.m. to get it to kick on...the only time in my life I've done my dishes every day because by doing them after 8 I knew I'd have hot water in the morning.
The slight bummer with my water heater here is that it only links to the taps in that bathroom, so none of the other sinks have hot water. And it isn't huge so if if someone is staying with me you need to wait about 5 or 10 minutes between showers for it to fill up with hot water again.
Other than those minor things it works well, and it plugs in to the wall so when I'm away I unplug it so I'm not using extra energy.
Then it stopped working and my affections quickly wained. My first thought was "only in India would I be stuck like this". Then I realized that isn't the case at all. Once when I was living in Boston (well, Watertown) our hot water heater stopped working and, in the process, put about 3 inches of water in the basement. That got fixed in a day but cost my landlord quite a lot of money. This will take 1 or 2 days and will only cost about $20. A slight inconvenience but I can boil water if I really need hot water.
Its funny, sometimes I think that when you are in a foreign country and something doesn't go just as planned the first thing you do is blame the country without realizing that something like that could very well happen back home.
Overall things do break a lot more often here than back home...that is because people keep using things about 10 years after they should have been tossed aside (I'm fairly certain my AC units are older than I am) but it usually takes relatively little time and definitely very little money to get things fixed.
Although, people never seem to believe me when I say that something is broken. Took me 2 days of insisting there really was a problem with the water heater (everyone said they all make weird noises) before I convinced my guy to go and check it out. I'm always right when things are broken, you'd think they'd start believing me. Oh well. I just count it as another minor adventure.
Aside: the low temp last night was 14C (57ish) and I saw a dog in a sweater this morning. I wonder if he is really cold...I mean he has fur and it isn't that chilly. Or do dogs in India get used to the heat as well and feel cold at not very cold temperatures.

Modern-ish architecture in Delhi

So this past weekend I decided to go somewhere in Delhi I haven't been before. I've been here a year and 4 months now and have been on a mission to see as much of this city as possible but it is a really big city so there are still places to see.
When I went to Jaipur I visited the Jantar Mantar there; an astrological park built in the 18th century. I really enjoyed it because it has such a modern cool feel but is so old and it is just so different from what you normally see in India. I knew there was one in Delhi but I had never heard anyone talk about visiting it so figured it probably wasn't much to see. But I had free time and enjoyed the one in Jaipur so I decided to check Delhi's out. So off I went and...I was quite impressed.

It is slightly worn and could use a coat of paint but it is very very big and just looks totally out of place, especially when you consider that it is almost 300 years old. It is a park with HUGE sundials and other HUGE instruments to tell the time and read your horoscope (alas, it was a bit hazy the day I was there so I couldn't confirm that the time was correct). It kind of felt like an abstract artists dream, lots of funny angles and shapes. One of the biggest differences between the one in Jaipur and this one is that you can climb all over lots of these instruments...which lots of people were doing.

I just set out to take lots and lots of pictures in all the odd little corners of these devices. Here is my favorite one along with a pic of the whole thing so that you can better understand what on earth I'm talking about because well, I certainly couldn't have imagined what an 18th century astrological park in India would look like.

Enjoy!

Animal kingdom

One of my new favorite past times in Delhi is to count the number of animals I see on any given day. On the weekends I usually see more since my weekdays usually just involve me going to/from the office which is on a pretty busy road and not very animally. This morning, however, I did see 4 cows...one of which was walking into traffic and kept walking to our car no matter how much my driver moved. Finally we slowed to a crawl and got past him...silly cow.

This weekend I saw some goats and pigs and a monkey. Well, not so much pigs as hogs. I don't know what the actual difference is but these guys are big and look like they have fur and they aren't cute...so I call them hogs. I saw about 8 of them, with a few piglets too (hoglets?).

Last weekend I had my second ferret sighting...quite tricky to see because they move really quickly and stay hidden, and I saw my peacocks again; this time I had my camera so you have a picture today...there are two in the photo, one is kind of hidden in the back.

As I was looking at the hogs though I couldn't help but wonder about them. At what point in time in the west did we move all of the wild animals (other than squirrels., etc) out of the cities? And will they ever do that here? The goats I see seem to be domesticated, I think people use them for their milk, but the hogs just kind of wander around. I feel badly for them. I think that the government should try to move them out of the city to somewhere greener where they can roam freely and have food to eat.

Much as I enjoy spotting animals in the city it doesn't seem like a good life for them, and they do quite often really mess up traffic. For now I'll just enjoy counting the animals and be happy my driver has good reaction time and can stop quickly for cows/goats/pigs that decide to stroll into the street

Bad blogger in a wacky time zone

I've been a bad blogger this week. Sorry. Had a bit of writers block combined with a general feeling of just being slightly off. I think my feeling of being off strangely has to do with daylight savings. See India doesn't do daylight savings so I'm now 10 1/2 hours ahead of the East Coast. So if I want to call someone back in the US of A I need to wait until 7:30 p.m., which means that I forget...and when these are work calls I really need to remember.
Another aspect of being on the other side of the world that I've noticed before but now it is extra noticeable this week...all because of Sesame Street.
Confused?
Well this week is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street and Google is running special Sesame Street style Google images this week. Today is Cookie Monster...only today isn't Cookie Monster, yesterday was, but since today for me is still yesterday in the US I still have Cookie Monster on my screen. It will change sometime mid-morning.
Kind of like this post will probably say that it was done on November 5th, but it is actually the 6th for me.
Another not-so fun website update is that all of the US websites do their maintenance during the night US time; usually between 2 and 5 a.m. which means that when I've tried to check my bank account or credit card on line lately about 1/2 the time the website is down for maintenance. You would think that I would remember this and start doing my banking first thing in the morning India time but alas, I always forget.
Maybe I just need to work on remembering this better so that I don't keep running into these obstacles.
Minor India pet peeve tirade...so we have a cleaning guy in our office and he cleans pretty much all the time; like every day dusts off desks, cleans the floors, etc., etc. But because this is India and people don't pick up after themselves he works during the day. What this means is that every morning he cleans off people's desks, while they are working, and the staff just sit back for 5 minutes and stop working. This drives me batty. Why can't he get here an hour before everyone? Why can't he just wait until they are on their lunch break? Luckily he knows that I'm weird and he cleans my desk when I'm away but really, why am I the only one to find this inefficient?
Sigh.
Oh well. I should just get over it.
Anyway...time to get back to work. Its 9:20 a.m. my time, still yesterday back in the US. I have a little more than an hour left with Cookie Monster on my Google screen.

lightbulbs and monkeys

two totally unrelated stories today.
First, I changed a lightbulb all by myself on Friday. I was quite proud of myself as this is the first time I have been able to do so here. Might not seem like much to those of you back in the real world but for me this was a big thing. If only I could figure out how to pay my own bills then I would really have this place figured out.
Second, on Sunday morning I was sitting on my couch drinking my coffee and suddenly a mommy and baby monkey jumped up onto my balcony (probably the same ones I saw in September from my balcony). They walked around for a minute or so then left and then the daddy monkey hopped up onto my balcony and walked around for about a minute.
And then, just to make it perfect, the baby monkey came up all by himself and jumped around on the balcony railings for a bit just playing around.
So exciting...monkeys, on my balcony, max 20 feet from where I was having my coffee.

Feed Me

Cooking here is kind of an adventure. Or rather, it is not an adventure at all; I cook the most basic of basic things because it is very difficult to keep foods fresh and I only have a stove top and one kind of good knife and no microwave so I don't cook much. Good thing it is super cheap to get take out curry! So on Saturday night I was making pancakes for dinner. I never eat pancakes back home but here they sell the Betty Crocker mix which you can just add water to and it is quite convenient. As I'm cooking pancake number one I feel like it is taking forever to cook. Then when I put the batter down for pancake number two I hear a weird noise so I look at the flame (gas stove) and see it flickering. Pancake number two barely gets cooked and then poof - the flame goes out. No more gas in my gas tank.
See, unlike gas stoves back home where your gas is piped in, my gas is from a tank which sits just below the stove top and is connected by a rubber tube (and yes, I do find this scary). Seeing as I've never operated this way before I had no way of knowing how to tell if it was getting low.
Of course, as with most things here, I hadn't the faintest clue how to get it refilled. So I went into work on Monday and asked my go-to guy and voila, just a few hours later I had a full tank.
But this meant that Sunday I was stove-less. So what did I do for food on Sunday? Well after some toast for breakfast (hooray for toasters) I went out on a mission - Greek food. I had once seen a Greek restaurant from my car but couldn't remember where it was...turns out I've driven past it tons of times but it isn't well marked. I was very excited. In Toronto I lived in Greek town so I ate Greek food quite a bit and I'd heard through the rumor mill that this place was pretty good. Alas it wasn't. It wasn't terrible; the veggie stuff was pretty good but they added a weird flavor to the chicken and the tzatziki was not exciting. I was so disappointed.
I feel like food has become such a focal point in my life here; what will my next meal be is always on my mind. I was hardly a great chef back home but I really miss the ability to get any ingredients I want and I also miss my good knives and good pots and pans. Funny, the idea of never having to cook for yourself sound glamorous but, for me at least, it isn't. I think that when I go home I'm going to take a few cooking classes to improve my skills so I can cook like crazy. Simply because I can.

spicy markets

So what does one do after visiting two temples? Have a great big yummy Indian lunch is what.
Our next and almost final stop was at a spice plantation for a tour. The plantation was relatively in the middle of nowhere so they included a yummy buffet lunch in the cost of the tour, it was extra yummy because of all the fun spices in the food. We ate lunch in an open picnic style area with a view over a big stream/small river which was full of herons and had an elephant hanging out on the other side - he kept waving his ears back and forth, it felt like he was waving at me. A great place to stop for lunch.
The actual tour wasn't that riveting for me as I'd gone on a spice tour in Kerala which was much more detailed...or maybe I just liked the spices there better, but the lunch and the location were well worth the stop.
Then it was off to Margoa, the 'big' city in central/southern Goa. By the time we got there we were pretty tired and really hot so we just wandered around the market a little bit - oddly almost all the women working in the fruit/vegetable part of the market were wearing green saris, between that and that green veggies it was a very green area. Then we took a quick stroll through their lovely municipal gardens - where the flower on the main page of the blog is from. And then off to the airport.
And so we bid farewell to Goa. Now that I've written all about it we actually did a lot but managed to not feel rushed...just the way I like things.
Final Goa photos: the elephant seen from where I ate lunch, and a woman at the Margoa market in her green sari sorting veggies.

temple time!

Is there anything sadder than the final day of a wonderful vacation?
Okay, yes, there are lots of things that are sadder but for a traveler that final day with the thought of "ugh - back to work tomorrow" in your head has a certain sadness to it. Especially when you are leaving a wonderful hotel with great staff and great guests. Alas, our final day in Goa came and we had to come back to the real world...but before our flight we still managed to fit in some sightseeing (and an early morning dip in the pool).
We were staying in North Goa and the airport is more Central Goa so I planned out a day of sightseeing that took us kind of sort of on a big loop to the airport. First up: temples. Two of my guidebooks had mentioned two of the same temples so I figured that they were the ones to visit so off we went. The first one we visited was very cute but had lots of construction going on around it which was a bummer. It was quite busy in the temple so we didn't stay too long because I was feeling a bit claustrophobic. I was actually more intrigued by two women that were working outside the temple. They were taking bricks and putting them in a bowl which they then put on their heads and then walked the bricks over to their new spot...about 20 feet away...seriously. I wondered - why are they moving a pile 20 feet and wouldn't it be faster to just walk them over one at a time? But they seemed content doing it their way so I'm sure there was a logic to it.
Then we asked the driver to take us to the second temple but he said he wanted to take us to a different one. Boy are we happy we listened to him. This second temple was similar in size to the first but was much quieter and also much prettier.
Prayer for Hindus is done very much at their own pace; they do have occasional group prayer services but for the most part people just go into temples in their own time and say their own prayers so temples are like living organisms with people always going in and out and saying their own prayers; quite different from what I'm used to. At times this means that a temple is teeming with people and is overwhelming but at other times, like at this temple where they were fewer people, there is a calm reverent feel to the place. We really enjoyed that temple quite bit. Super duper long name though which I don't remember.
One interesting thing about visiting temples in the heat...you have to take your shoes off outside all temples and they, for some odd reason, seem to always put the shoe place right on black pebbles which are blazing hot and also not comfy to walk on...so I did a fair amount of jumping to/from the shoe spot and the temple entrance. I was quite the spectacle with my jumping and my big floppy hat that protects me from the sun.
Anywho...I realized I've already written quite a bit so I'll save my final two Goa thoughts for tomorrow's post. For now a picture of the first temple. The second one was surrounded by a wall so I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing...and yes, that tower is actually leaning.

Old Goa

After Panjim we headed over to Old Goa which looked like a much smaller town and, according to our guide book map, had lots of churches. Lots of churches indeed, from what I could tell the only thing the town had was churches...not sure if anyone actually lived there. Our driver dropped us in front of one big church; the Basilica. It was very pretty and quite different from any other church I've seen in India because it was a dark red (although most of the earth in Goa had a red color to it so no doubt this was actually the most real colored church around). The basilica houses the remains of St. Francis Xavier; alas none of my photos of the interior of the church came out; either it was the spirit of St. Francis making them fuzzy or the humidity...I'm guessing it was the humidity. It was a beautiful church that even with gobs of tourists (why were no tourists in Panjim? Made it nicer but seems odd that they all skipped it) the church had a very calm peaceful holy feel to it...at least to me.

Then we walked for about 1 minute (literally) over to the Cathedral. A big white church with a little bit of a Tuscan flavor to it. Again, quite beautiful with a simpler interior but some beautifully ornate side chapels.

After visiting the cathedral it was judgement call time...do we check out some of the other 7 churches in town or head back to the hotel and the pool? Well seeing as it was about 100 degrees and we were both actually dripping with sweat (it is a weird feeling to have your eyelids sweat) the pool won out. I must say that was one of the most refreshing dips in a pool I've ever had.

So while our day of sightseeing in Goa wasn't very long; it was very wonderful. If you ever get a chance to come to Goa don't spend it all on the beach, check out Panjim and Old Goa. They are well worth the visit.

Pictures! The exterior of the basilica and a chapel in the Cathedral.

Panjim

After a day of beachy time it was time for a day of sightseeing. So we hopped in a car and were off to Panjim, the capital of Goa. It was a lovely 30 minute or so ride and I was ready with my Lonely Planet walking tour. I didn't really know what to expect, I'd skimmed over the sights and knew there was a big church and the town had a "Portuguese feel" to it (Goa was a Portuguese territory for over 400 years until 1961).

Well there was a big church...really big...although maybe it only seemed really big because it was up on a hill. It was painted all white - almost every church we saw was whitewashed - and was quite stunning high up on the hill overlooking the town and the water.

Then we walked over to what I guess could be called the old town with brightly painted houses and small little streets. I would say the best word to describe it is charming. We strolled around mostly following the walking tour but with a few diversions like when we stumbled across a very brightly colored temple which was closed but then walked to another temple perched up on a hill that was open so we peeked in.

One interesting thing in India, which I may have blogged about before so please excuse the repetition if I have, is that quite often there are religious practices that are quite regional. For example, apparently Diwali is celebrated much more in the north than in the south where Dishera (which I'm definitely misspelling), which is just before Diwali, is a much bigger deal. In Goa apparently the day before Diwali they burn in effigy a demon (or at least I think that is who it is - I asked and couldn't really understand the answer). So in Panjim we saw a few metal frames which was all that had remained of what had been burned a few days before. One of them was quite large, maybe 20-25 metres high and was at the base of the hill below the temple. Must have been quite a spectacle to see that burning.

I won't walk you through every step we took but suffice it to say that we loved Panjim; even though it was crazy hot and we did a fair amount of walking up and down steps which made us crazy sweaty (and rather stinky no doubt) we still loved it.

Oh no...blogger just lost half of my post so I guess that is my computer's way of telling me to get back to work.

But first, pictures. The first one is the church high on the hill and the second is a woman walking down the brightly colored streets of Panjim.

A day at the beach

Saturday was Diwali and we weren’t sure how much would be open and we were ready to just relax so we scooted off to a different beach which luckily was quite well marked so it wasn’t as tricky for me to navigate. This beach was also below a mini cliff which had great views; we could even see some cows on a beach a little south of us. We walked on down to find a rather interesting beach annoyance in Goa and the reason why lots of people stay at resorts…we had lots of women coming up to try and sell us things. Skirts, necklaces, etc., etc. Now I’ve been in India long enough to know that if you show even the slightest hint of interest you can’t get rid of people trying to sell you things; alas my travel buddy is newer to India but within about a ½ hour she figured it out and we got quite good at quickly shoo-ing them away.
After grabbing a quick lunch we decided to head over to an even quieter beach closer to the cows we had seen; Indians don’t go to the beach much and the few that do are mostly men, and the women keep all their clothes on when they go in the water (literally) so we were hoping to get a few less stares at this quiet beach. This beach was not well marked and I was 99% certain that we were totally lost but I knew that the ocean was west so we got there. Whew. The beach was super quiet with a few other foreigners around so we got much less attention. This beach also had a little café where we sat in the shade and had a drink (and some hummus…really difficult to find here so super exciting for me) and watched as the cows ran by.
Dinner was back at the hotel and was so amazing that it is blog-worthy. I love fish but don’t eat it in Delhi because I can never be sure that it is fresh so whenever I’m near the coast it is fish, fish, fish. At the hotel we met a French man who lives in Mumbai who comes to Goa every year during Diwali. He had stayed at the hotel the year before and became friendly with the owner so asked them to get him a nice big fish. We saw them bring it out and it looked amazing…they had another so we ordered it too and it was absolutely perfect. Indians tend to either fry fish or put it in a curry but this was perfectly cooked, broiled I think, with some roasted garlic…count on a French man to teach an Indian to cook fish the ‘right’ way. As the night progressed other guests came out and we all sat around chatting…the group was:
2 Americans living in Delhi (us)
A French man living in Mumbai
2 Frenchies living in Sweden
A Brit living in Spain
Quite an interesting bunch...like I said, a great little hotel with fun guests.
Picture time! A view down the coastline and 3 women surrounding guys on the beach trying to sell them stuff.

Goan to Goa

First and foremost...what is Goa? Goa is one of the states in India, the smallest state I think, which is known for its beaches and - especially in the 70s - for being a big party area. So I actually went to the town of Anjuna in Goa but unless you are actually from Goa or have been there you have never heard of it; much like when you go to the Jersey Shore you just say you are going to the shore and rarely say which actual town. I was confused and thought that Goa was a city and others have been confused too so I thought I'd give the whole story.
Anyway...I have been to Goa before. Last time I was there for only 2 nights and we stayed at a very nice resort with its own private beach. This time I was more concerned about money so found a more basic hotel with a pool that was just a few kilometers from the beach and it ended up being perfect. It was a small hotel with only 10 rooms or so with friendly guests and just a nice feel to it.
After checking in we were ready to explore...but how does one explore in Goa? Autorickshaws are few and far between and taxis are for long rides so...we did what you do in Goa and we rented a scooter. I was pretty nervous so I was the passenger, not the driver, and at first I was petrified but we drove quite slowly; our max speed ever was 40 km/hr and we didn't go that far and the roads are full of tourists on scooters so the locals are used to being careful around us. All in all it was a fun and convenient way of getting around and except for the fact that there were lots of cows in the road it was pretty easy (of course I was the passenger not the driver which made it easier for me).
Navigating was a bit tricky...take a left at the chickens, keep going straight past the palm trees, but we only made about two wrong turns which we quickly figured out.
So off we went on our scooter to the Anjuna beach. The beach was quite small and down a little mini-cliff (mini as in 20 feet tall and not really cliff like). We walked down the stairs and climbed over the rocks when we saw a little cafe on top of the mini cliff. It had about 15 chairs set up looking over the sea so we climbed back on up grabbed a chair ordered a beer and some fish and chips and sat watching the sun set.
A rather wonderful way to end a day.
Aside: I changed my flower picture on my main page, that is a flower I saw in Goa that I loved.
Pictures...first is our hotel, our room was in the corner. Second is me at our little cafe looking out over the sea after the sun set.

Back from Goa

Back from Goa with a tan (or rather, am a slightly darker shade of pale that only I can really see) and only got a small burn on my shoulders.
It was hot, hot, hot, but quite relaxing.
Anyway, our flight back was late last night (no surprise there, haven't been on an on-time flight in India) so got home after midnight so am tired and not thinking too clearly so will blog more tomorrow.
Will just leave you with this happy thought. Our return flight connected in Mumbai, my travel buddy hadn't been there so I suggested we get seats on the right side of the plane so she could see some of the city. I guessed correctly about sitting on the right side of the plane and we did see the city at night, and because it is still Diwali season there were fireworks being lit. Mostly just small flashes of light but there were a few big pretty ones - a fun thing to see from a plane.

Tractors and vacation

I have gotten stuck behind a tractor in traffic 4 times this week. 4 times! They are all hauling something or other. While it is kind of annoying I actually find it quite funny whenever I see a tractor because this is the capital city. Imagine a tractor in Washington, DC, or London, or Paris.
Anyway, off on my mini-holiday to Goa. Hopefully will come back with lots of pictures and fun stories...assuming we actually do something other than sit on the beach. You never know, the beach is quite lovely.

minor rant time

Diwali is Saturday and I have to say that I find this to be the most annoying and frustrating holiday EVER!!! It is the festival of light which means that people light candles but they also light fireworks. I was so frustrated by the fireworks last year that this year I'm leaving town and going down to Goa (yes, still in India but much less populous than Delhi and only 60% Hindu so hopefully will be calmer); but even though the holiday is on Saturday the fireworks have started.
Now you are probably wondering why I find fireworks annoying. Well, they aren't organized, it is basically kids running around lighting them off wherever and whenever they want to, so it is crazy unsafe; and they are really loud but really plain - HUGE boom, almost no light. How loud are they? Last night I was on the phone in the middle of my apartment, probably 100 meters away from where the kids were lighting them and I was inside, and the person I was talking to heard the boom through the phone. That is loud.
But my other frustration has to do with the fact that (in my opinion) most of the Hindus here seem to have no concept of religious awareness and don't understand why someone that is not Hindu wouldn't pray to their god or goddess.
Confused?
Well, last year on the day before Diwali the staff conducted a prayer service in the office, it was about a 1/2 hour long and involved singing and incense (cough, cough). I found it slightly annoying as I was trying to work but it was also interesting. But I could tell that the one muslim guy in our office was really annoyed by the whole thing. So this year I asked that if the staff want to have a prayer service that they do so in the conference room because now out of 25 staff there are 4 of us that aren't Hindu. Then an email was sent around to the entire office saying when the prayer service starts tomorrow and telling everyone they must dress up in traditional clothing and take part in the service.
Maybe I'm just being a stickler but I don't think that religion and work go together and I should not be forced to take part in a prayer service to a goddess I don't believe in. The muslim guys in our office would never say a peep; I guess they are used to it by now; so I'm just a lone crusader for religious awareness. I don't care which god (or gods) a person prays to but I do ask that people respect my decision to pray the way I choose.
And thus ends my mini-tirade. I guess I was spoiled growing up in a largely christan country in an area of the country that is quite tolerant so this is my first taste of intolerance that I have experienced.
Not fun.
Oh well, this weekend I'll be in Goa which is about 10% Catholic and I'll visit lots of churches so will get my fix and will feel better about the whole thing. And I will continue on my mini-crusade to educate people on fireworks safety (seriously, giving kids firecrackers to light off with no supervision is just not safe) and religious awareness.

Fair and Lovely???

Every day on TV I see at least one, if not 5 or 6, commercial for "skin lightening cream". One of them is called "Fair and Lovely"; Loreal has one, Ponds has one, pretty much every skin care product has one; there are even some for men. In India people want to be lighter skinned, apparently the lighter your skin the more beautiful you are.
Some of these commercials are completely ridiculous, like one where a girl's father gives her some of the skin lightening cream and because her skin is lighter she becomes a movie star; in another the girl gets proposed to by a boy that never noticed her before because she used this cream and in "just 7 days" she was fairer.
As someone who is incredibly fair I find the whole thing very strange. Being super pale for me means always having to worry about a sun burn; making sure I have sunscreen on and keeping an eye out for shade whenever possible. I've tried to explain to people here that have complimented me on my nice fair skin how it is actually not easy to be so pale but they don't understand. I suppose if you have never gotten a sunburn it can be difficult to comprehend the dangers of the sun.
I had kind of assumed that these lotions weren't that popular; one guy in the office was using Fair and Lovely and when people found out they promptly gave him a very hard time about it; but I did know that people tried to stay out of the sun; one girl went on vacation and came back with a tan and when I commented on her "nice tan" she told me that her mother in law was very angry with her for getting a tan.
But this weekend I discovered that not only is this desire to be fair real but people will actually bleach their skin! I was at my little spa getting a manicure and my hair mask thingy (the third time I've gotten it done and it seems to be the solution to my hair falling out problem - very exciting) and there was a woman who had a mask on her face and neck which was white and she sat with it on for about 20 minutes. Then another woman came in and had it done. I asked my friend and she said yes, they are bleaching their skin.
Crazy, huh! At this spa they use only natural ingredients so it is probably relatively safe but I imagine that some places use pretty harsh stuff. As I was leaving one girl came in who looked almost sickly, obviously she had been bleaching her skin for a very very long time and now she just looked like she could really use some color.
Funny, in the US it is all about fake tans and here in Asia it is all about being light-skinned. My friend whose is Canadian but has Indian parents had to tell the girls at the spa that she is allergic to bleach because they couldn't understand why she wouldn't want to be lighter. The girls also always comment that I'm very beautiful...because I'm fair. I wonder...I'm going to Goa this weekend for some beach time. Not that I ever really get tan but I definitely get a darker shade of pale...will people comment on my tan in a bad way? Well, my hair will probably get even blonder from swimming in the ocean so people will probably notice that more than my little tan.

Water

So I have lots of fears about living here; some big ones, like what if India and Pakistan stop talking and start fighting; some small, like malaria and dengue fever....I pretty much flip out every time I see a mosquito and can't rest 'til its dead. I've gotten quite good at killing them.
But one of my biggest fears is a day to day thing...running out of water. I should say running out of running water...I can always get drinking water. See for the most part water is stored in containers on the top of houses and the water people come and deliver it. Part of my rent every month is for water. Our office runs out of water all the time...and I always seem to be the one to discover it. It is sooo annoying.
I know of people who run out of water in their apartment fairly often, like once a month or so. My power might go out more than I would like but I can live with that, no running water absolutely not. So this past Friday after being out and about sightseeing I headed home ready to hop in the shower and...no water. I couldn't believe it. I have lived in this apartment for over a year and that had never happened. I was really nervous because it was a holiday, I had no clue how long it would take to get water. So I ran down to my landlord's apartment and he wasn't there - yikes! Then I called him and practically shouted "no water!!!" - he was somewhere outside and it was really loud - and amazingly, 1/2 hour later I had running water again. One of the best showers I've ever taken.
Its weird, living here you realize what is really important and what you really can live with and without. I would say that water is the number one thing I need to function. One of the women in my photography class went to one of the slums to take pictures and she was there when the water truck arrived. They have no running water so every day a big truck of water arrives and everyone goes out and fills up containers to get their water for the day. From her pictures it looked like a big party - everyone rushing out all excited to get their water and making sure they get enough water. Every day it is The Event.
1/2 hour without water in over a year. Not that bad overall. Although now every time I turn on a tap in my house I'm a bit nervous and then breathe a little sigh of relief when the water comes out.

Praying to the moon

Last night I had one of my many "only in India" moments. At around 8ish my doorbell rang, it was my landlady (they live on the ground floor) asking if she could go on my back balcony to look at the moon. She was dressed up in a very lovely sari and carrying a tray with a candle on it and some sweets. So I let her through and opened up the door to my back balcony so she could look at the moon.
Why did she want to look at the moon? There was no eclipse, it wasn't even a full moon.
Well....yesterday was the day when all the married women are supposed to fast for their husbands' health and they aren't allowed to eat until they see the moon and seeing as I live two floors higher than her she could get a view of the moon about 20 minutes earlier from my place than hers and she was ready to finish fasting.
So she went out back and said her prayers for about 5 minutes and then came back in, gave me one of the sweets as a thank you and then went back downstairs so she could eat her dinner.
Definitely one of those things that would never happen back home.

Monkeys and Peacocks and Cows, oh my!

Did I mention that I had a visitor last week? That is why my driver had to come at 5 a.m. yesterday; to drive her to the airport. It was a girl from our Toronto office here to help me with the software release (because that is definitely not my area of expertise). We tried to fit in some sightseeing here and there between the testing and actually did see quite a bit for the little amount of time we had...especially since it was super hot until Sunday.
She was super determined to see a monkey while she was here and lately, as I recently mentioned, I've seen tons of monkey, but they seemed to have gone into hiding during her visit. Finally on Sunday morning in Old Delhi she saw two hanging out on the street (usually I see at least 10 in Old Delhi so it was surprising to see only two).
However, we did see a ton of peacocks while she was here. I've seen peacocks once before in Delhi and had once again begun to think I'd only imagined them because I'd never seen them again. So on Friday (Gandhi's birthday, office was closed but we did only minimal sightseeing because of the heat) I took her to deer park. The deer park is in a larger area with some monuments and when I take people there I don't tell them that there are hundreds of deer in the middle of Delhi but say there is a 'surprise'; so we were walking up to the fence of the deer park and I'm expecting to - as usual - see a bunch of deer. Instead no deer but there were 6 peacocks! It was amazing. Of course I didn't have my camera because I was thinking that I'd been there tons of times before so why carry a heavy camera around on a super hot day. We did eventually see some deer, only a few, but plenty of peacocks, it was very cool.
Then at the Red Fort, also in Old Delhi, we saw another one! Craziness.
And, even though there aren't that many cows in Delhi I do think that they know when tourists are around because we had one walk directly towards us in traffic - which rarely happens; and another walked directly between us while we were walking through a market...we had to step out of her way, it was quite funny.
I feel like I talk about animals too much, but really, how often do you see monkeys and peacocks and cows (and goats, etc., etc.) just hanging out.
Definitely one of my favorite things about India.
Aside: heat is making a mini comeback after 3 cool days but I think (hope) that my nights with the AC on are over. Very exciting!

uh-oh

Twice this weekend I caught myself saying things in Indian English. I find this quite troublesome for several reasons:
1. I already talk with a funny Canadian/American accent; like I say Zed instead of Zee and I say sorry the Canadian way...I just can't help it...Canada just snuck up on me and wiggled its way into my speech.
2. I absolutely cannot spell any more, living in France all those years ago messed me up a bit (I always misspell apartment - and yes, spell check just had to correct me) and I throw an extra 'u' in everywhere, like rumour and favourite.
3. Some of the Indian English is just plain wrong and I shouldn't say it.
So what did I say? Well first I said that I "got to know" something. You don't get to know, you find out or learn. Then I added "itself" after a word, as in saying "I'm flying to Goa on Friday itself". Why add 'itself'? It is implied. But they always do.
Oh dear. So I'm on mission un-indian english-ify myself.
I suppose that as long as I never say that I'm going to "do the needful" or that I will "pressurize" someone that I'm still okay. I actually kind of crack up when people say that they are going to "pressurize" someone. It makes me think of a pressure cooker. It is used when talking about sales, i.e. "we need to pressurize this client to enroll before the deadline".
I suppose I've been here quite a while now so it makes sense that I'm talking funny but I hope I don't talk too funny.
aside #1: I'm actually going to Goa next Friday, not this Friday - hooray for Goa!
aside #2: I successfully told my driver when to come this morning in Hindi. Admittedly I had to count the numbers out on my fingers to make sure I got it right but I was quite proud of myself and he likes it when I talk in Hindi...seeing as I was asking him to come at 5 a.m. I figured it was the least I could do to try and ask in Hindi.

falling water

Well I'm happy to say that the big software release that I've been working on at work has happened and so far not so bad. Hopefully now I will have more time in my day...the past few weeks, as you can probably tell from my sporadic blogging, have been quite busy.

So before the last bit of training I'll try to squeeze in a post of my wonderful final day in Dharmsala. We had tried to visit the waterfall, which is actually in McLeod Ganj, on our first day there but it was raining a little so we decided to put it off until our last day. We didn't know what this waterfall would be like, we could see something from the road but that was pretty far away. So we followed the signs for "waterfall" and came around this corner to see a very very long cascade of water - much bigger than we ever expected. It was probably a mile long and there was mist hanging very low over it which gave it an extra cool look.

You could hire a guide to walk up through the falls or take the nice paved route. We opted for the nice paved route as we had neither a guide nor very good walking shoes.

So we slowly walked up stopping every few minutes to take in the view. As we got close to the top I saw the actual waterfall at the tippy top and I saw people right there so we kept following the path and then it kind of stopped. I was very confused, I saw people there but how did they get there? Well, this very nice man suddenly came over and told us we needed to climb over the slippery rocks and that it was just fine and totally safe. I was a tad bit skeptical but he gave us a helping hand and after 15 very nervous seconds I was over and it was well worth the fear. We hung out at the top for a bit, I contemplated jumping in the pool of water at the base of the actual falls but I wasn't that hot (I would have been very scandalous as the Indian men were jumping in while all the women sat on the side, almost worth it just to shock people but it really wasn't that hot and the water was quite cold).

There was a tea shop at the top but it was pretty crowded so we decided to walk back down over the (not at all scary going the other way) slippery rocks to a little tea shop half way down the falls. It was so nice and relaxing and while we were sitting about 5 goats came about 10 feet away from us and started munching on the grass.

Drinking a cup of tea next to a waterfall with a bunch of goats, quite a nice way to spend a morning...oh, and it was my birthday...definitely a birthday memory for the ages.

Two pictures again today (I'm so addicted to uploading pictures), one of the top of the waterfall, and one of the cascading water bit taken from where we stopped for tea.

Kangra

After visiting the rock temple and having lunch it was off to Kangra. Kangra is the "big town" in the area meaning that it was still pretty small but clearly the main city. We first went up, and up, and up, to Kangra fort. The fort was built on the top of a hillside and had the most amazing views. It was, however, rather hot that day (although still cooler than Delhi...when is summer going to end?) so while we were less than thrilled by all of the steps we were well rewarded for the walking. The fort itself was pretty basic, but there were a few little spots of amazing carvings; that is a pre-sweat covered me below with some of them. Interestingly when we got to the main courtyard of the fort we saw people living in the fort. From what we could figure - without intruding too much into their space - the people that work on the fort, cutting the grass and general maintenance and such - live in the fort. They have very little and would, in the US, be considered squatters I suppose, but here people just live where they can find space and it kind of works.

After exploring the fort...and then buying a bunch of drinks and re-hydrating we went to another temple which the guide book said to visit. The temple was rather a disappointment, it was swarming with people so we got in and out really quickly, but, the walk up to the temple was really fun. You walked through a market that was full of people selling things for people to offer at the temple, as well as other 'normal' things to buy. There were a few men selling different types of grain including flat rice, which is just what it sound like, rice flattened out; you could buy flowers; and, as seen below, bangles galore. We spent all of 2 minutes in the temple but almost an hour walking through the market taking it all in.

Quite a varied and fun day.

temple time...yes, again!

One of the reasons why I wanted to go to Dharmsala was this picture I had seen of a rock temple. On occasion when I travel I become somewhat fixated on seeing one thing in particular and this determination has served me well in the past and brought me to some pretty cool sights and I'm happy to say that once again my determination was rewarded. However I must say that when it comes to distances and guide books in India they are pretty much all wrong...our 'easy 1/2 hour ride' was a twisty turny 1 hour ride...but it was a very pretty ride.

The temple we went to visit is in Masroor and is carved into rock and is over 1,000 years old. I'm always amazed by how beautiful things are that were built so long ago when so much of the work was manual, just imagine how long that must have taken to make. It was damaged in an earthquake about 100 years ago and what is really cool (I think) is that you could see exactly where some of the damage occurred; the second picture below shows a big slab of the rock that slid down. We climbed up some very steep stairs (which I actually slid down on the way back down because I was so afraid of falling) for some great views over the valley. See those people on the top left hand side of the temple, that is where we went up to. Even though the temple was actually fairly small we spent about an hour walking around checking out the carvings. Definitely lived up to my expectations.

After visiting that we were on mission lunch, which, I'll admit had us a bit nervous because we were not near much of anything. Our driver took us to two places and we picked the one that looked a bit better but still made us a bit nervous as it was kind of like a diner on the side of the road...in India...that was empty. Turns out it was a really really good meal. We passed by it again on our way our home and it was quite busy, it was just empty when we went because we were there so early. Whew...that was lucky.

Anyway...its a very busy time at work right now so I'll cut this post short today so I can get back to everything I need to do.

Tomorrow Kangra and another temple!

McLeod Ganj

Today is one of many pseudo holidays over here, which means that in theory it will be a nice quiet day in the office. Tonight, however, I think will be noisy but I might have my holidays confused...will update you tomorrow.
For now back to the quiet of the hills...
So after visiting the church we headed into the town of McLeod Ganj; about 8 km up the hill from Dharmsala; this is where the Dalai Lama has his residence and is home to the Tibetan government in exile. It was a small little town with an interesting mix of about 1/3 Tibetans - half of those being monks; 1/3 foreign hippies of all ages; and the rest were Indians or non-hippie travelers.
We grabbed a very forgettable lunch and then walked around looking at all the stalls of things being sold, some very beautiful clothing which, alas, was made for small Tibetan women that I towered over so didn't exactly fit me.
We then strolled to the temple for the Buddhists and it was quite interesting. I didn't take any photos of it as there were quite a lot of people praying and I didn't feel I should take photos. The temple is part of a larger complex that the Dalai Lama's residence is attached to; it also has a shop and a small restaurant, and seems to be the hub for the Tibetans in the area.
We followed the sound of a voice which one of the monks told us was the recording of the teachings the Dalai Lama had given the day before. We walked up into this area which was a large square space; in the centre were over 100 monks sitting listening to the teachings. There was a little walkway around them and on the other side of the walkway there was probably 200 lay people listening to the teachings. I noticed in one area a few people eating rice from bowls; my hunch was that they were poor and came to the temple to be fed. We walked around to a small room which was quiet and had only a few people in it. I don't know much about the religion...actually I know almost nothing, but as we were walking around this small room a few people came in and prayed for a few minutes to one of the statues in the room and gave it an offering of a few rupees or food.
It was very interesting seeing how the Buddhists prayed; it very much felt like a community, perhaps because they are all in exile, and even though it was quite busy and there were tourists like myself, it still managed to have a spiritual feeling.
After visiting the temple we decided to take on a third religion and visit a Hindu temple. So we hopped in our car (we met a taxi driver at the bus station when we arrived and he was nice and a safe driver so we hired him for the rest of our time there) and went to the other end of McLeod Ganj to visit the Hindu temple and the waterfall. When we got there I decided not to go in the temple as it looked quite small and I felt a bit uncomfortable going in. My travel partner is Hindu so she went in while I sat outside near a little fountain (see picture) and relaxed more.
While she was inside it started to rain a little bit so we decided to postpone our visit to the waterfall for another day and we headed back to our hotel for a very yummy Indian dinner.

Mountains and Churches

So there we were in Dharmsala after our wild and crazy bus adventures and I was pretty much immediately relaxed. The town of Dharmsala is in the foothills of a mountain range called the Dhauladhar mountains. When I checked into our hotel I asked if our room had a view; they said "of course" because all the rooms have a view. We sat out on the patio and had a lovely little breakfast, rested a little and then set out.

The first photo below is of the view from the door of our hotel, colorful little houses climbing up the mountains. It was almost always cloudy in the top of the mountains so the tippy tops didn't come out much in pictures but the clouds actually made for a really cool atmosphere (and it was actually cool...So refreshing after the Delhi summer).

Our first stop was about a 20 minute drive from Dharmsala and it was a cute little church, the "Church of St. John in the Wilderness". We walked down the short path, greeted by a cow (church and cow pictured below) and luckily the church was open. It was non-denominational I think, basically for any Christians in the area and was built in the mid 19th century. A lot of these towns in the mountains became really popular for the British during their reign in India as a way to get away from the heat (just like I was doing) which is why there was a church in the middle of kind of nowhere.

India is usually such a loud country and this church was just a little back from a quiet road in the middle of some woods and it was so nice and peaceful. We sat in the church for quite a few minutes just enjoying the quiet.

Just thinking about it relaxes me...