Bumpersticker of the Day

Ginger Rogers Did Everything Fred Astaire Did

Only Backwards & In High Heals

Bumpersticker of the Day

CIGAR SMOKERS

Appreciate a Good Butt

Day 17 - December 26, 2006

We got off the train at 8:00 am at Mysore in Karnataka, which is the state west of Tamil Nadu (Chennai/Madras is in Tamil Nadu). We had breakfast at a less than clean hotel. The bathrooms left a lot to be desired. We also switched drivers because our first driver had a family death. We headed to our safari place, only to find-after 1.5 hours of driving-they had taken us to the wrong place, in the wrong direction and it was going to be another 4 hour drive to our resort. We got there at about 5 pm.

In India distance has no bearing on the time it takes to get somewhere it has everything to do with the condition of the roads. Even though it was only about 70 km (50 mi), the roads are filled with pot holes, if you can even call it a road. In the US it would be considered 1 lane and probably closed down and deemed unsafe. The horn is a communication tool and most trucks say “sound horn” on the back. The smaller car yields to the larger one. You can not usually travel more than 40 kph (25 mph).

We unloaded and had a very late lunch at “The Jungle Hut.” It looked a little like a shack, but the rooms were clean. We had 4 rooms, which made up one house. The walls were paper thin, especially the bathrooms.
People would put grain in the road that you would drive over, to get rid of the chaff.

Also seen along the way: a herd of goats. And they are pretty much immune to horn honking, so you just have to wait. :)

A true pack-mule. :)

Day 16 - December 25, 2006

We woke up around 8:00 am and exchanged stockings. Micah got my name and gave me Son Pupity (indian dessert)which was amazing, a #5 coffee maker (the largest size), and a Christmas ornament. Ryan got Drew and gave him a book and a few other things.

We had Vermicilli Oopma for breakfast, then the “all American” mac and cheese for lunch and then made butterscotch cookies and rice crispy treats. It was nice but it didn’t feel much like Christmas.

At 4:00 pm we all went to the beach. It was a beautiful day and thousands of people there celebrating their day off. I love to watch the children, they always have bangles and ankle bracelets and they love the water.

It was odd to be in a country that doesn’t really celebrate Christmas. Many have the day off, but there are no festivities etc. not to mention it is 85 degrees. Occasionally you may see a nativity set, but only because it was “another god,” and people find it interesting. The hotels are usually somewhat decorated. In one way it makes you focus on the real meaning of Christmas, in another you almost forget the day completely and treat it like any other day.

Patti made Vuta Cormba for dinner, which was amazing. We then all showered and headed to the train station.

The train station is very chaotic. The train is one of the main ways to travel. In the night train, they really pack them in. In each cubicle there are 8 bunks, on the left there are 3 bunks and on the right there are 3 bunks and across the aisle there are 2 bunks. It is 600 Rupees for a triple bunk and 900 for a double. ($13 and $20). Andrew and I had middle bunks across from each other with Micah and Sarah above us. You have to sleep on your purse etc. to prevent theft. I woke up every time the train stopped, but it wasn’t horrible.

The toilets are interesting; you can see the tracks through the hole. One of the best things you can pack is toilet paper and wet wipes. There is no toilet paper and not always sinks, let alone soap, and you are lucky to find a western toilet.

Micah and Dad on Christmas morning.

Buzz, with his "stocking."

Scary. Even though it annoyed and scratched him Micah refused to shave the whole time we were there... just because he didn't have to. (He is in the Army).

And the not so scary. :)
A little girl on the beach, isn't she beautiful?? Look at those ankle bracelets!! If the Lord ever gives me a girl, I am going to get some of those for her!
I am not sure if Mom & Nate are whiter than the rest of us, but for some reason the children always flock to them, wanting the shake hands and stare. They left the rest of us (including Sarah, Drew & Mers who are all quite "white") alone for the most part. Nate just must have those magnetic looks.

And the night train. :)

Day 15 - December 24, 2006

We spent another wonderful day at home, playing Boggle and Phase 10. Around 3:00 we headed to Spenser Plaza, a mall in Madras. Even though it is a mall, you can still haggle over everything. We bought gifts and some remaining things for stockings.

Nate, Drew, and I decided to go home and dad found an auto, however he said that on the way there he would take us to a shop where we needed to spend 10 minutes and then he would get a free t shirt. Well we went in and walked around the tiny furniture store for as long as we could and then left. The driver came back angry because we had only spent 6 minutes and the owner wouldn’t give him a shirt, so then he took us to a rug shop. There we spent another 10 + minutes pretending we wanted an ugly rug. When we came out he looked angry and didn’t have a Christmas shirt, but he finally took us home.

Andrew had Micah for stockings, and I had Buzz, so we had no problem filling the stockings with biscuits, incense, tea, drums, sketch books, tea cups, stainless steel cups engraved, and a few other things.

Ryan, Mers, Micah, and Sarah had left their bags in the back of a rickshaw, so they had to re-buy everything.

I bought ice cream for everyone from a passing cart/shop; he always comes down the street ringing a bell. I bought 12, 10 of us and Meena, Patti’s servant and her son Murugan who is about 4, all that for $5 US.
Here are Ryan & Mers in the auto once they FINALLY got home. :)

Day 14 - December 23, 2006

Everyone spent the day sleeping late and recovering from the “Delhi Belly.” I didn’t get up until 10:30am.

Dad, Drew, Nate, Sarah, and I took 2 autos to Pandi Bazaar. We shopped for gifts and presents for our Christmas stockings (read: tube socks we are only allowed to fill with things we bought in India). I have Buzz, so I had a cup and saucer engraved with “Buzz Meister,” on it.

Who would have thought Madras would feel like home. It was so nice to come back to clean sheets, clean bathrooms, and food that you know is cooked well.

Andrew finished off the 6th Harry Potter book and has started Ivanhoe, book #8 for the trip.

Day 13 - December 22, 2006

We left the hotel at 8:30am, drove all day and got to the Delhi airport at 3:00pm. Waited until 8pm to board and didn’t get home until 2 am. Needless to say, it was a very long day.

Indians don’t understand the concept of standing in lines. They constantly butt in front of you and on airplanes they don’t let the people in front of them off first. I was almost run over. I finally jumped in front of a guy who didn’t seem happy, but I had waited for 15 plus people and no one let me in, even though they were behind me. It is the same in the bathroom line, in the grocery store, or going through a door. Rude is different in every culture I guess.

Darkness

Well, as Drew was walking to the alarm clock this morning at 5:30 he saw a big flash outside and everything went dark.

Although, I was extremely happy and warm in bed, the idea of getting up 3 hours later and still not having any power (meaning no hot water or heat) was enough to get me out of bed. I took a wonderfully hot shower by the glow of cell phone light. I then ate cereal by candle light, now here I am at 7:05am, fuzzy hair and all, at work blogging about it.

I know this might be regular hours for some of you people, like my husband, but for me, I wouldn't be getting OUT OF BED for another 30 minutes to an hour if this were a normal day. So, just because of the power outage, you will probably be getting a few posts before I start work in an hour (again, 90 minutes before I normally do :).

Good Morning World!! I had forgotten what it was like to get up in the dark. (Other than trips to the bathroom).

L

Day 12 - December 21, 2006

We toured Jaipur in the morning. We saw a real sundial, accurate to two seconds, and a beautiful palace, the Amber Red Fort. The shopping here is very cheap. I am hoping to do a little more before we leave.

We bought 2 pineapples on the street and the hotel cut them up for us, and brought them to our room on a platter. The best 2 dollars I ever spent!

We are still feeling sick, especially Andrew. He has slept most of the afternoon. Posted on the blog for the 1st time in India – 1st hotel with internet access!

Jaipur is in Rajistan, a northern state the clothing and trinkets are more colorful and “gaudy.” The clothes have lots of mirrors and gold thread. Also, in the north they were saris over the right shoulder and the nose ring on the left, as opposed to southern India where it is the opposite.

The Amber Fort was beautiful. It has a wall surrounding it that is second only to the Great Wall of China, however it is in need of great repair. It is only in the last few years that they have started repairing the fort. Once that is done they plan to move on to the wall.

We rode elephants to the top of the fort. There were vendors all along the way who would throw things up to you, and tell you to just throw money back down. I wanted the item but I kept throwing it back down until we could finally agree on a price. :)

The inside of the fort was beautiful.

They brought whole new meaning to the term manual labor. This woman would come down and fill her bowl with water and carry it up 2-3 levels of the fort to be used for repairing the walls.

They would use the water and mix it with mud and there were hundreds of women who would sit and beat it until it was solid. They would use anything to beat it, sticks, mallets, hands.

We took jeeps down from the fort. It took two jeeps to get us down. These are people hanging off trying to sell us stuff.

I can't remember the name of this building, but it is in Jaipur and is only about 20 feet deep and has no foundation. It has open windows on the front and the back so that the wind doesn't knock it over. Women (who were not to be seen) would go in there so they could watch what was going on in the street below.

The colors of Rajistan!

More colors.

Are there words for such a picture??

This was a little boy we met on the street, pictured with Sarah. My mom gave him a banana, you can see a little bit of it on his cheek. :) My brother Micah wasn't feeling well and "lost it" on the side of the street and the little boy said the only English words he knew... GOOD JOB!! OH!! GOOD JOB!! He said it over and over again.

Day 11 - December 20, 2006

Journal Entry:

We woke up early and left for the Taj Mahal at 6am. There are no motorized vehicles allowed in a 2km radius, so we took a battery-powered rickshaw to the Taj. Once inside we waited for the sun to rise. It is a beautiful structure and pictures doesn’t do it justice, made of all white marble. Everything is symmetrical – except the King’s tomb. It was put there, off center, but the same son who arrested him and put his father in prison.

Ryan proposed to Meredith and she said yes. They were twitterpated all day. We had breakfast at the hotel and went shopping. Mom bought a sitar, and I bought bedding and a Star of India jewel.

Then we headed to Jaipur. What was supposed to be a 4 hour drive turned into 8. A robber has stolen a bunch of money and the police had shut down the road trying to stop him. We sat in the car for 2 hours waiting. A group of young boys begged, asking for pens.

India is a world where hard work is expected and school and learning are privileges. If you have a pen and paper and know how to use them, you are worlds ahead of the others. There were camels on the road and more bike riskshaws then in Chennai. In the country, they were growing mostly mustard and wheat. You could see women carrying sticks, mustard leaves, bricks, water etc. on their heads. They were clearing the way to make our two-lane road a 4-lane, so boys everywhere had created cricket fields. We never saw more than huts and rubble used for homes. Cows, water buffalo and camels were everywhere.

We stopped after 6 hours for dinner and a bathroom break. The food was not good and we were the only ones there and we all (at least half) got sick from the food. The final 2 hours of driving was in the dark. Not fun for India driving. Thankfully I slept through most of it.

Our hotel is very nice, definitely worth the money. There is something very wonderful about sleeping in a clean bed and having unlimited not water and water pressure. You can do almost anything if you can come home to this. :)

The Taj Mahal at sunrise. There is a mosque on the east side of the Taj, so they built an identical one on the other side just to keep it even. The pillars are all tipped slightly out so that if there were an earth quake they would fall away from the structure. The perfectly manicured lawns were incredible.

Gotta love the not-quite-right signs. :)

And idea of size, this is my dad in one of the many arches.

After many many sales pitches at different shops this is the chess set that Andrew finally settled on. Still white marble but no carved flowers or anything girly like that. :)
A new way to haul cardboard boxes. :)
Boys playing cricket on the flattened, but unpaved new road. :) We probably saw this 5 times on our trip in different villages.

Three guards at the Taj Mahal.
Some of the boys who were begging us for pens while we were stopped. Yes, that is a little boy at the back with a bonnet on.

Day 10 - December 19th, 2006

I realized a few days ago that I never finished my India Trip Posts! I am sure you are all dying to see the other pictures. :-P Hopefully you can enjoy them. I thought I had better finish the posts before it has been an entire year. :-P You can see the previous 9 days here.
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Journal Entry:

Woke up early, and checked out, drove 4 hours SE to Agra. Checked into the Park Plaza, a much nicer hotel. Lunch at North Indian restaurant – had Thali, meaning “sample plate.” Went to Agra Red Fort, built in Moguls time. It was huge with room for all harem ladies. No men, other than the king were allowed inside. You could see the Taj Mahal from the top. It was a prison for the king who built the Taj, his son took him prisoner.

We went to a white marble shop and bought Taj Mahal coasters. Also went to a rug making shop and bought a small 3x5 rug. A beautiful green & tan Indian rug. Each string is individually tied and 1 can only tie 2 ½ cm per day, so each rug takes 3-6 months. We had a great tour guide, Arunkamar. He spoke pretty decent English. Later, Micah, Drew, Mom & I went with Arunkamar to a local mall. Apparently his English wasn’t that great because we wanted to take us some place with little shops… but he took up to a local shopping mall. It was a lot like the average American mall, nothing too special. Oh well, we had fun anyway.
Normal Traffic in India. This is a 2-way street.
Again, one of the "themes" I tried to focus on while over there was transportation. It was fascinating to me. This Auto Rickshaw typically holds 2-3 plus the driver. I think we counted somewhere between 9 & 13 on this one, plus all of the luggage.
These women passed in front of our van. All the patties are cow dung. They gather it, and stick it to a wall to dry into those patties. Then it is burned to keep warm.
No prizes on why is it called the RED fort. :) It was an amazing structure. Absolutely gorgeous.
You had to watch your purse. There were tons of little kids, they usually worked in pairs. One would give you a look like this while the other one went through your bag.

This was part of the "prison" talked about in the journal entry. The king had 3 sons, the youngest killed his two older brothers and took his dad prisoner. His dad had built the Taj Mahal and was starting to build a 2nd Taj made of Black Marble and the son was afraid his dad would spend all the money. So he locked him up in this "prison" made of all white marble and he could see the Taj, that he had built for his wife, from most of the windows.


Here is a picture of a man making one of the rugs we bought. This man had done it for over 40 years and was an expert and making the Taj Mahal rugs. His hands moved so fast tying the knots and cutting them that you couldn't even tell what he was doing. But even he could only do about 3cm in a day.

And here is one of the gang at the Red Fort.

L-R: Nate, Buzz, Me, Drew, Dad, Micah, Sarah, Mom, Mers & Ryan. :)

A Realization

Last night, while Drew was taking his Accounting Final, I wrapped Christmas presents while watching Oklahoma.

Realization: I KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO EVERY SONG!

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I am home alone for the next two days (and by alone I mean that Drew is out of town, Jonathon & Ivy are still around). I think I may watch The King & I, or The Sound of Music... or both! I am on a Rodgers & Hammerstein kick. :)

Not Quite Right

My dog will not eat oranges or limes, but she will eat my prenatal vitamins.

Go Figure.

Something Wrong with this Picture

Last time I checked it was December 13th and I am wearing crocs (no socks), a short sleeve shirt and jeans. And I am warm!!! (And not just because I am pregnant).

Crazy, crazy weather!!

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And on a completely different note... I am thankful for corporate gifts. At work today I had ham, rolls and mustard for lunch, followed by pistachios and Harry & David popcorn... all courtesy of different subcontractors. :) YAY for food!!!

Bumpersticker of the Day

All seen on the same car:

Life is Witch and Then You Die

I March to the Beat of a Different Accordion

Bewitched

Creature of the Night

Gaining Another Sister!!

Congratulations to Drew's brother Jonathon who is now engaged to the lovely Becki!! Sometime in the near future this will bring my sister count up to THREE!! (This is still waayy behind the brother count at 7, but little by little I am getting there!)

Bumpersticker of the Day

IT IS HORRIFYING THAT WE HAVE TO

FIGHT OUR GOVERMENT

TO SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT

- ANSEL ADAMS

Bumpersticker of the Day

I TRIED

TO CONTAIN MYSELF

BUT I ESCAPED

A Date with Mr. Martinelli

I love a good glass of red wine every now and then... but being pregnant sort of puts a cramp on that... so I have splurged a few times on "fun" things to drink. And yesterday I had 2 whole glasses of Martinelli's sparkling cider in a red wine glass :) ... yumm... I also managed to get all of my Christmas cards addresses and in the mail and get all the laundry done, menu planned, grocerys bought and kitchen clean... maybe this stuff makes me super productive!! So if you are just having a blah day... try some Martinelli's... you never know what might happen. :)

Bumpersticker of the Day

STOP BEING PESSIMISTIC

It Wouldn't Have Happened Anyway

It is only 10:15am

And already we have had 3 visitors in our office:

1. A sketchy looking man saying that he couldn't make his delivery and had a truck full of Thomasville Furniture to sell. Did we want any?

2. A woman looking for a reference on an old employee who no longer works for us for good reason.

3. A mute man, who came in signaling for paper and "asked" (via writing) if we had any apartments to rent.

Can't wait to see what the rest of the day holds!!

Bumpersticker of the Day

MY SOUL WAS REMOVED

TO MAKE ROOM FOR ALL THIS SARCASM

Feeling Christmasy

I love Christmas. Growing up my mom would start baking the day after Thanksgiving, and have tins and tins of Christmas cookies to keep us all sugared up for the entire month of December.

For me, Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving. Andrew and I have a tradition of cutting down a tree. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera, so I have no pictures to prove that we did it, but we took our friends Josh & Missy and Drew's brother Jonathon with us, and Ivy, and Josh's & Missy's two dogs tagged along too. They had quite a ball riding on the trailer behind the tractor and sniffing every possible tree. But there was no way we could handle a dog, a tree and a camera. :)

Thankfully Ivy has not been overly interested in the tree, however every once and a while we will turn around find her "checking" the size of the ornaments with her mouth. Thankfully none have been eaten. :)

This weekend we managed to take a Christmas picture (Thank you Jonathon for taking the picture and Becki for holding the cracker next to Jonathon's head so Ivy was looking in the right direction :) and even got it to Sam's for prints! We wrote our Christmas letter last week, printed it this weekend and I bought stamps this morning! All that remains now is addressing them all. I love sending them, and I LLLOOOOVVVEEE getting them. Whether it is a card, a picture, a letter or some combination of the above. We hand them up and get to look at them through the new year.

And finally, it is great to be pregnant this time of year! I can't eat very much in any one sitting, but I can justify trying all the yummy food!! I may even make a few cookies this weekend.