Dad's visit - Trip to the Southern Tip of India

Dad's e-mail:
Hi All
Saturday morning we took off for southern India. We flew from Bangalore to Cochin (Kochi) on the coast.

Then took a car to Alleppey which took about 2 hours. Our driver, Mr. Johnson, dropped us at our house boat about 1 pm.





After we were underway, the crew fed us fresh fish, rice and some curry sauce for the rice.


We cruised some of the back water canals and then came out into a big lake. It is fresh water and not too deep. They have built dikes everywhere to create rice fields, thus making it look a lot like the Sacramento Delta.










We stopped at one island and bought prawns. Later that night the crew fixed them for our dinner. The house boat had two airconditioned bedrooms, a nice sitting/dining area at the front and a kitchen at the back. We had a 4 man crew.


That evening we tied up and spent the night on one of the waterways. The next morning after breakfast they dropped us at a dock and our car and driver was waiting for us.


It was then off to Kovalum. It turned out to be a four hour drive on narrow twisty roads with BIG trucks, BIG buses, lots of cars, motor bikes and scooters and of course the assorted cows, dogs, and lots and lots of people by the road side. We averaged only 22 miles per hour. Thus, when we started out from Alleppey and I saw a road sign that said 180 km (108 miles) to Kovalum I thought it would only take us maybe a little over 2 hours.

Annika and Auggie gave in to the long ride and took a nice nap in the back of the car

We stayed at a very nice beach resort in Kovalum called UDS (initials for some big chain of hotels).

It had 3 pools, 2 restaurants, room service, etc. We spent a little time in the pool then went to watch the sunset over the Arabian Sea.






The next morning it was pool time again before starting out on another tiresome car trip to Kanyakumari on the very southern tip of India.


Fortunately, it only took 2 1/2 hours. When we got there we saw a memorial built to M. Gandhi. They had just finished making repairs to it, because it was damaged in the big tsunami of Dec 2006. Apparently, there were 1,200 casualties in the district.

Gandhi Memorial Kanyakumari


"On this spot were the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi kept here on 12th February 1948 before immersion"


We also took a rather scary boat ride to an island just off the tip. Auggie got real scared and cried all the way across and back!








Our final activity was to go down beach and put our foot in the water.

From this point we could look to the left to see the Bay of Bengal, straight ahead to the Indian Ocean and to the right to the Arabian Sea. Pretty cool!






Tuesday morning we took the car for about 45 minutes to a town just north of us and caught a train back back to Cochin. It took 5 hours. It was an interesting trip. Helen had booked us reserved seats in First Class.







From Cochin we flew home to Bangalore.

More later.

John


This map is off the web and the route in red has nothing to do with us, but it does show Bangalore (Karnataka), Cochin, Alleppy, Trivandrum (Kerala) and Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu)

Dad's visit - Day 1

Dad's e-mail:
It is Saturday morning. We are packing to leave for southern India and the house boat. We will spend one night on the boat and then go to a beach resort. Erik will go with us today and spend the night on the house boat. Then he will fly back on Sunday.

Last night we went to a sports bar where I met 10 or 12 of Erik's co-workers and his boss, Steven, who was visiting from the states. Technicolor's US headquarters is in Burbank. It turns out that they just bought out their local Indian partner and they now own 100% of Paprikaas. Erik gets along well with Steve. He was actually one of the decision makers in hiring Erik.

Some friends at SBX Sports Bar - Helen, PK, Papa, Ramen and Kapil



Jenne and Ramen being artsy with PK behind the camera

Yesterday we toured Indus International School. We saw Annika and Auggie's classrooms, and then we toured the rest of the campus. It is huge. They have several building, a sports complex, a dining hall where they feed the kids breakfast and lunch. They also have a dorm because a few of the kids board there during the week.




Annika got a little overzealous while showing us around and ended up scraping up her leg, but this way she got to show Grandpa one of her favorite places on campus... the Infirmary


The traffic in Bangalore is as bad as advertised. But I felt safe as Gopi is an excellent driver. He is very careful and doesn't take any chances. But going anywhere is a slow process because of all of the trucks, cars, bikes and carts on the narrow roads.

Yesterday, Helen and I walked around her housing area and then down the main road to a restaurant for lunch. I had chicken kabob, some lentils in a sauce and some very nice grilled flat bread. Very tasty.

Papa on the streets of Whitefield, Bangalore

We took an Auto-Rick home from the restaurant.


After lunch Dad had one of his infamous "10 Minute Power Naps" - but he deserved it after his long flight

All for now.

John

Papa arrives!

So excited!!
My Dad has just arrived for a visit with the family.

Dad and Gopi at 5:00am in the morning, so happy to have him here!

Auggie's Photo Shoot

A few times since we've lived here we've received e-mails that a department store is looking for kids to do some print modeling. In the past I've deleted the e-mail, but this time I decided to tell Erik. So we submitted Auggie's photo and a couple weeks later were contacted to have August participate in a print campaign. How fun.

I brought Auggie for the fitting session and the photographer seemed really interested in siblings so they took several photos of Annika & August together.


Then they took several with August and a few of the other children present.



"Can we go home yet??"

August then had his photo taken in some of the client's sample clothing.

Auggie and the stylist

After we went home I received a phone call from the Production Manager telling me that the clothing would not be ready for shooting on 5 Feb. so the shoot would instead take place on Tuesday, 9 Feb. I told her that we would be out of station and not able to participate. She said that was too bad and would definitely keep the photos of the kids for the next upcoming shoot.

STD just got local

Too cute

An e-mail from my friend Renata:

Nadia came up to me this morning when I was getting ready and said
'Mama, here's your armpits" and she handed me my deodorant, and then she
said "Mama, here's your eyeballs" and gave me my contacts ;) Then she
made us 'coffee' with her tea set :)
My little munchkin is growing up so fast :)

Little man - cutie patootie- little square head - is growing fast too!
He's always holding his feet, blowing bubbles and chit-chatting with me.
He pees on Nadia in the bathtub (yesterday she put one of her tub cups
over his wee-wee and said 'don't pee baby broder') and is really getting
into his exersaucer :) He likes to watch tv too ;)

Anyways, hope everyone has a nice day!
xxoo
Renata

License plates

The license plate numbers here are painted on. This is strange because it wouldn't take much to alter the information.

I passed a shop with a display of the different fonts you can choose when having your licence plate info put on.
The "KA" is for Karnataka, the state we live in.

So many choices...

Bamboo Bazar

I needed a couple pieces of bamboo and didn't know where to go to find it until someone told me about Bamboo Street.

Well, ask and you shall receive.


I found the thickness I was looking for and this gentleman cut the pieces to 5'. The total cost was Rps. 40.

Mary Jane looking through the bamboo.


This man was slicing the bamboo into thin strips. Wonder what they do with those?

Ahhh, bamboo window shades.

Need a ladder?

Pottery Town

I've been needing some terracotta pots for my pomegranate and lemon trees. The choice of pots in Whitefield are concrete pots or painted terracotta pots from Northern India that are way overpriced. I've been wanting to go to Pottery Town and thought this was the perfect opportunity. I took the visiting wife of one of Erik's coworkers.

Pottery Town is a small neighborhood where nearly everyone makes pottery. The blue barrels are tandoors.



Small curd (yogurt) pots drying in the sun

Making Ganeshas

Temple in Pottery Town

In the area where they were making Ganeshas, there was a large discard pile of broken pieces of the elephant God. I saw this section of trunk and tusks and thought it was interesting. I turned to the woman at the tea stall next to the pile and made a motion like, "Can I have this?" So she said, "You want?? You take!" Score!

I came home and planted my trees in my new Rps. 70 pots.

My pomegranate is blooming!