Back in Delhi

Since I posted last, we haven't had access to the internet. But we toured Goa with

Savio and Ashwin (part of the package Nishant arranged),








met a bunch more interesting people, including Yakub, a South African businessman

who was buying maerial in Bombay, flew to Bombay, then got picked up by Surendra and driven to Pune (pronounced there 'puna') where we toured Philip Jose's (remember him, he was taking his grandfather back to Kerela after the housewarming) rubber factories

and new house and met his parents, wife, brother, and brother in law.

The next day we drove to Ajanta Caves and the next day to Ellora Caves.
I can't believe that everyone knows about an erector set tower in Paris, but hardly anyone knows about these two sets of caves.


Though cave is hardly the right description.



These are temples carved into solid rock over about 900 years altogether. More on this later. In fact, we leave India for the US tomorrow night and we've barely scratched the surface of India, and this blog has barely scratched the surface of our trip.


I'll try to put some of the better pics and interesting stories up in the next couple of weeks when we get home. A couple of pics in the mean time.

Catchup pictures

Salesmen in a sandal/shoe shop in Jaipur clowning for the camera.














Raghu, the owner the of place we stayed in Pushkar. We talked about the problems of tourism on this holy lake town.






Thapa and Thomas worked at the Illikkalam Lake Resort in Kummarakom. I guess Thomas was shy. And this computer is uploading really slow. So, Thomas will remain hiding til later.
















Our driver Pawan.

Bambolim Beach Resort

The 'resort' in Goa is quite nice. I'll try to get some pictures up. The colonial architecture and rich colors - yellows, brick reds, organges, whites - along with the lush tropical vegitation and beautiful blue pool are a nice relaxing respite. And we are on an almost deserted beach. The place hovers between elegant and shabby. Most of the guests are Indian. We met a young couple from Bangalore. Sareem is going to Chicago for three months late Dec. or early Jan. We also met an interesting Iranian couple. Both have spent considerable time in their lives outside of Iran. She's an architect and he's an academic who is currently a lecturer in Delhi. Ramin Jahanbegloo was released in September from four months in prison in Teheran. You can read more about it in the link. We had hours of interesting discussion. He's doing work on Gandhian non-violent ways of dealing with conflict as well as looking at the larger issue of cultural conflict and ways to reduce such conflict.

[Note: I posted pictures later at Bambolim Beach Resort.]

India Road Motto: Blow Horn

If we want to find some mottoes for India, Blow Horn would certainly be one. Not only is this motto plastered on the back of most trucks, every other vehicle driver practices it religiously. Basically it appears a way of saying, I'm behind you (or passing you) and I want you to move over or just know I'm here. There's no malice.




There is also the variation "Horn Please." In Kerrela we also saw, "Sound Horn."


See follow-up post Awazdo.

A Quickie from Goa

I'm in the 500 year old house of the travel guy Kenneth who picked us up atthe airport. It's huge, with very high ceilings. He's getting our credit card imprint. We met an Indian-American couple - Alex and Neetu - at the Kochi airport this morning. They are visiting relatives for two weeks, covering some of the same ground we have. Will post their pic soon. The airport guard told me pics were forbidden after I took it. They were on a connecting flight toi Delhi. We had 4 hours till our flight to Goa. So we walked to a Shiva temple someone in an airport shop told usabout. I don't know how to describe it. You walk past a numberof little exhibits about Shiva's life. 10 Rupees for flowers, 2 more to store your shoes, 20 more to go thru this grotto like space below the statue of Shiva (areally big statue). The grotto was a little like a Halloween haunted house - cave like.
Then 40 more Rupees to get coins to put into 109 cups while chanting a mantra.

I don't really know what it all means. It was connected to Kemp Fort Departmentstore where we were almostthe only customers and I bought a shirt. The guy there says the man who owns the store also owns the temple and the profits of the store go tothe temple.

Illikkalam Resort Kummarakom - Backwater

Here's an early morning view from our cottage. We were glad to see the rain had stopped and we were seeing blue sky for the first time since we got to India. Not that it has been cloudy, just the 'fog' and pollution hid the sky in the North.


We walked to the bird sanctuary thru the delightful village and canals.
Part of the sanctuary tour included a ride in a pole boat.

Camels

Taking pictures of camels and camel carts from a moving car is not easy. When Pawan finally stopped and let me out to take a picture - it was a great one - I guess I didn't push the button hard enough. Any way, here are some camel pictures between Bharatpur and Jaipur. As you can see, in Rajastan at least, camels are still an important means of transportation - even on the main highways.

Taking Grandfather Home

We met Philip Jose on the plane from Mumbai to Kochi. He was taking his grandfather (88) back home after a celebration in Mumbai. Philip is headed to Ohio soon to meet with manufacturers of plastics. He works six months in India and six months in Dubai.

Jantar Mantar and Hawa Mahal

Jantar Mantar means - according to one of the guides leading one of the German or British tours - calculating tools. This is the observatory in the old town of Jaipur. It was begun in 1728 and has the world's largest sun dial as well as smaller ones. What was cool was that the shadows fall on arches on the sides of the 'needle'. The arches are marked off in to show hours and minutes, and the one I saw was exactly right to the minute. (you have to add 11 minutes)

There are also constructions to track the stars and planets. All very amazing.

Right near by is the Hawa Mahal (Hawa = wind, Mahal = palace). This one was built with lots of little holes so the women, who were not allowed out, could still view the street outside. These pictures give you just a tiny peek into the fantastical architecture of Jaipur. This computer is impossibly slow. Not even sure these pics will load.

Call Center Workers

We started talking to two young men yesterday as we were getting on the ferry from Fort Cochin back to Ernakulum (same emphasis as binoculars). They are studying English and are hoping to becom call center workers because the money is good. I asked how much. They said 20,000 Rupees a year. Now, I'm not sure I got this right because that is only about $500. Less than $2 per day, which is one of the measures of poverty. But Nishant had told us earlier that a family could live on 15,000 Rupees a year and our driver said he made 1500 per month.