Many photos from Udaipur, we hope you enjoy!

We sure enjoyed our time in Udaipur, as you can see...



Of course, I had to get my car fix with the Maharajas' cars in town...



We enjoyed dining and exploring some beautiful restaurants and old palaces...



Please explorer further by clicking below!

http://bitjug.com/gallery/UdaipurAll

Bombay Photos also up!

Here is a short gallery of us at dinner (sorry, this gallery was broken before but is now fixed):

http://bitjug.com/gallery/BombayDinner

And on a different note, some photos from an exciting market we visited in Colaba, Bombay:



Many more here, please note there are 2 pages!: http://bitjug.com/gallery/BombayMarket

Breaking the Camera!

or, Finding a familiar tool in an unfamiliar city...

When you use a camera quite a lot, it becomes a very familiar object, even more so when it has many manual controls on the outside, and you use a variety of lenses with it. We have been carrying a 1 year old Nikon D70 Digital SLR which uses interchangeable lenses just like a 1970s or 1980s film SLR camera. We've also been carrying four lenses, And the total retail value of these items is about $2500 US, or, for that matter, 110,700 rupees . Needless to say, we've been careful with this stuff.

We try to be very careful when we have the camera out in public areas, wrapping the long strap around one of our wrists. We don't often leave the camera in the hotel room (it's usually with us), and even when we leave a lens or two they are swaddled in clothes and locked in a suitcase.

This care and security, therefore, makes it all the more ironic that when we were staying in the most modern hotel room, in the most cosmopolitan city we have stayed in in India, in one of the least threatening situations, I managed to pick up the small camera backpack without noticing it was unzipped (I had unzipped it earlier), and sling the camera with a lens attached on a few foot drop onto a marble floor!

I immediately picked up the camera to see if there was any damage.~> read more

There wasn't any apparent damage, but when I tried to take a photo I could tell something was wrong. The camera didn't want to recognize the memory card, and also the back screen wouldn't come on. However, the top screen with the settings seemed fine, I could change manual settings, and take a picture, but the picture wouldn't be saved to the memory card! I tried the "soft reset" and "hard reset" options that I had read about in the camera manual, but neither rectified the problems.

This presented quite a problem! We had 14 hours between the time I broke the camera and our flight out to Udaipur, called "The most romantic city in Rajastan," but no place at all to get a camera repaired, and we will be continuing on through Rajastan and finishing at the apparently picturesque Taj Mahal!

I tried to think fast. I first went to an internet cafe to search on the internet for the problems I was seeing on the camera, searches like "D70 clock flashing" (the "clock" indicator was flashing on the top screen), and "D70 black screen." I tried tens of variations, but came up empty handed. I decided to call Nikon support. It was about 9:00AM in Colorado, and about 9:30pm in Bombay. Nikon doesn't have an arm of their company in India, just some official agents, who of course were all closed, and many businesses don't open there until 10-11am, and we had to leave for our flight by 1pm!!

So, using the "net 2 phone" VoIP technology that sends your phone call over the Internet and is available many places in India, I tried to call Nikon Support in the US. I couldn't get it to work! I thought it was because their number was an 800, but they didn't list anything else! I called my dad who happened to be at work in Colorado for ideas, and he offered to conference me through to Nikon's 800! Great!

Nikon's rep, who sounded like an early 20s American or Canadian, but could have been an Indian with "accent training" according to the book I just finished, "The world is flat", started by asking me some questions about whether I had downloaded software from the website and what email address I had used to register. I was being patient but let him know that I was conferenced called through Denver from Bombay, and he quickly dispensed with the formalities! I explained that I wanted him to walk me through the resets or any other options for fixing the camera without an official service. He carefully walked me through the procedures, but we had no success in changing the unhappy state of the camera at all. He then uttered the terrible words, "I'm sorry, you are going to have to send it in."

He informed me that the turnaround time for repairs done by Nikon USA is approximately 7-10 days. However, getting packages reliably transported to the US is a challenge in itself, and more importantly our next 10 Days were in Rajastan and at the Taj Mahal and about our last 10 days in India. We plan to be in Cambodia (via Bangkok) before all would be done and who knows how we'd recieve the repaired camera there.

So I considered the option of buying an additional Camera "body." This is just the camera without any lens, and since I had 4 different lenses for different purposes, and hoped that the lens that was on the camera hadn't been damaged, perhaps I could get buy this way. I could get our old body repaired at our leisure and possibly sell one of them once we returned to the US. Professional photographers carry at least 2 of these bodies with them for just this kind of situation, but mere mortals like us have to economize on volume and weight of camera gear as well as the obvious cost!

It was quite late at this point so I went to bed with the intention to either try to take our damaged camera to one of Nikon's agents in Bombay hoping they could turn it around in an hour or two (wasn't seeming likely at this point), or investigate the cost of another camera (body). The whole camera (body plus the lens it comes with) runs about $1000 in the US, so I knew it wasn't going to be a pittance! Basic digital cameras are much cheaper but once you use an SLR it's hard to go back, and the difference in quality and creative possibilities is really significant for both of us. It's what we like to use.

In the morning, my luck started to change. I headed over to the internet cafe a couple of blocks away, and searched for "buy D70 Mumbai" and the magic of google led me to a photography discussion board where a fellow in India (actually on the other side of the country, not in Bombay) was asking other photographers how to buy a camera like ours in India. A fellow named Arnab Pratim Das contributed: "Surender, go to http://www.fotocentreindia.com/ or http://www.jjmehta.com/." Although Arnab didn't mention it, I clicked on both links and both companies happened to be in Bombay. I wrote down their bombay phone numbers and called both of them and asked for a price quote on a D70s "body only" meaning no lens would be included. Our model was a D70 which has now been replaced by the D70s but the differences are quite small. JJ Mehta quoted 41,000 rupees, while foto centre quoted 37,000 and was also more convienient for us to take a taxi to within the now about 3 hours left before our departure! 37,000 rupees is about US $836, and the reputable mail order B&H Photo in NYC showed $870 on their website! Great news, buying a D70s in Bombay was, surprisingly, not going to cost an extra arm and a leg.

Now, how to get 37,000 rupees? I asked foto centre whether they could take VISA, and the response was "No, I want only cash." I paused for a moment and the agent thought I was done and hung up. I called back a few minutes later to make sure they had the body in stock ( "it's ready to go!" ), and also asked if we could pay some of the amount in USD if we couldn't get enough rupees ("No No, only Rupees!") Of course we could get our USD changed into Rupees, which might cover a bit over a third of the total, but usually this carries a bit of a surcharge and we like to have some USD for emergencies and places without ATMs.

Oh yes, ATMs. We had tried to get 12,900 rupees out of one ATM and it turned us down, though we could get 10,900. I headed over to the fancy Taj Hotel hoping they had a loaded ATM, although the real issue is daily limits on ATM withdrawls through our banks in the US. The Taj directed me to a nearby bank whose ATM displayed limits; 10,000 for a basic account card, 15,000 for a debit current card, and 25,000 for a premium service card. These unfamiliar banking terms were not helping, so I of course tried for the 25,000. No way. I dropped down the the 15,000. The machine started whirring, but we have found that is no guarantee. A few more moments, and out pops a huge wad of 500 rupee bills. Great, we're almost 1/3 of the way! I then popped in Tiffany's card and tried the same trick, expecting the ATM to say it was out of cash or the security guard to restrain me until police arrived or some such situation. whir...pop! another 15,000. But I was out of cards, so back to the hotel I walked, trying to think of a way to get the remaining 7,000, plus I had no idea what taxes might be involved.

We figured we could change some USD to make up the difference, but only had about an hour and a half left, and would have had to run around town to do the exchange. Pondering this, Tiffany realized that she had another VISA from another bank account that she had activated, but never used at any ATM. Eureka! I planned to march right back to that ATM, but I thought twice since 1. The darn thing might be empty at this point, and 2. I didn't really want the same security camera and guard to see me back with the third card in an hour.

So I walked away a little of our precious time but found another ATM, and tried for another 15,000. Whirr-Snap! All right, that should be enough to cover the whole thing! Back to the hotel to regroup with Tiffany. Back in the room I stuffed all 45,000 (what a thick wad of cash, 500s and 100s!) into my around-the-neck traveller's pouch, and we decided we'd meet back at 1:00 at the hotel, which was when we had to get in a cab (hopefully a real one this time) for the airport. Tiffany wasn't going to hang around in the lobby since it had been full of arab men (the apparent clientele of our hotel) the entire time we were there, just shooting the breeze.

So I hopped in to a taxi bound for the next neighborhood in Bombay. After deciding that the driver knew where I was going (he did, but just the general area), and checking that he was really going to use his meter, we were off. We arrived in an area with a bunch of photo stores, from antique camera repairers to film sellers to hawkers of the latest slim-line point-and-shoot cameras and handhelds. Not many of these dealers handle Digital SLR cameras. Just for some perspective, I walked into the first big store with a Nikon sign and asked them how much for a D70s body, even though I wasn't sure they had one in stock. Response - 58,000! No Thanks. I stopped into another store, and was quoted something in the same neighborhood.

OK, so foto centre has a good deal, better find them as time is running out anyway. The address I had was:

Shop No.2, BNG Davar House,
Fort, Mumbai

The situation with these "Shop No." addresses is there is no actual address, BNG Davar House is the building (good luck finding the name of the building anywhere with all the shop signs running up the facades), and of course the shops aren't numbered either. Essentially, I wandered around until I ran into the place...

Which was a shop just big enough for a customer to stand in on one side of the counter, and 2 salespeople on the other side. As soon as I walked in the proprietor knew I was the westerner that had been calling him. Though he had been curt on the phone, he was exceedingly friendly and his assistant wasted no time in showing me the D70s, which looked totally new and I took a couple of photos with it using my lens (that was on the camera when I dropped it) to verify that both parts were working. I asked ... 37,000, correct? he said, 37,500. I had heard incorrectly on the phone (I was standing on the sidewalk next to the equivalent of 5th avenue, but with more horns), but this 500 was no problem.

So, I counted out this huge stack of cash from my pouch. 30 500s, 30 more 500s, and finally 15 more 500s. Wow. The fellow checked it, and with this transaction done, he asked if I would take tea. Though we didn't have too much time, I knew how long the cab back to the hotel would take and that I had 15 minutes or so to spare. I accepted the offer for tea. The assistant wrapped up the camera for me. I talked a bit with the proprietor about Nikons, when I told him I hadn't realized my backpack had been unzipped he informed me that another westerner had just the same problem yesterday but had broken a 70-200 f2.8 (high end) lens, which he didn't think would be repairable like my body, 75,000 rupees for that one!! I didn't feel quite so bad.

The tea arrived, served in soft disposable plastic cups barely bigger than a shot glass, but it was surprisingly tasty masala chai, in the top 5 chai servings I've had in India! Certainly not what I expected from a camera shop. We talked a bit more over the chai and when we were done I headed off, cab back to the hotel to meet tiffany, grab our big backpacks and into another cab for about 1.5+ hours in Bombay traffic, but soon we were on the airplane to Rajastan with a brand new camera, and no worries! Thanks to Arnab Pratim Das and foto centre for making this possible!

North Goa Photos now posted!

Please check out some new photos of North Goa!

Please click on the link below, and please note there are 2 pages in this gallery. I wouldn't want you to miss the sunset photos on the second page!

http://bitjug.com/gallery/NorthGoa

When the Ship hit the Fan

This is a long, but I hope entertaining, story.

Renting a motorcycle or Scooter seems to be THE way to get around north Goa. Every hotel or guest house has them or can get them, and there are a lot of beaches to explore in north Goa. We had rented one from the guest house in Anjuna where we were staying, and taken a ride to the beach pictured above (Candolim), which has this large ship run aground right in the middle of it. It would be quite easy to swim to.

Candolim also has some of the better waves in Goa. The Arabian sea doesn't have the kind of waves in Goa that surfers enjoy on the Pacific coast of the United States, but in Candolim we found some 5 footers, perhaps, that were consistent. I'd been bodysurfing at several beaches in Goa, but some of the best was here. I got brazen, though, and was opening my eyes as I was carried on the crest of the wave, enjoying the view as I was coming into the beach with no board.

That was my big mistake. One of the waves slapped me up a little as I was coming in and whisked the contact lens out of my right eye. I'm a -8.50 or so which translates to not being able to see the clock radio by the bedside when I'm in bed, and of course I didn't bring any extra contacts! I had rented a geared motorcycle because I prefer them to a scooter, but Tiffany doesn't have experience with the shifting, brakes,~> read more

and clutch on a motorcycle. So, I took my contact out right on the beach and switched it to my right, more dominant eye, being careful not to drop it in the sand and therefore have no contacts at all!

The sun was just getting ready to set so we decided to hop on the motorcyle and head back ASAP. we had about a 30 minute ride ahead of us over exciting roads! let's just say that driving on the left side of the road is the least of your problems, even with both contacts! We started on our way just as the twilight was dwindling. Then, things really started go get ugly. Our headlight was totally non-operable, in high beams, low beams, anything. we couldn't even turn on a blinker. Major electrical issues, we were lucky the bike was still running!

It's hard to explain the kind of traffic you see in India without the experience itself, but, for example, taxis just honk at pedestrians and don't slow down at all, just weave around them. Furthermore, there are just about no traffic lights and right-turners just push right in and force the opposing drivers to slam on their brakes. In short, a headlight is a really nice thing to have when it's dark out. I quickly figured out that following a scooter, motorcycle, or taxi (that had headlights, of course) fairly close behind was the safest thing to do, so that other drivers would avoid that vehicle, but when my protector turned off the road, I had to regroup and find a new one! Meanwhile Tiffany is on the back of this little bike hanging on to me and being very patient with our situation!

We made it home ok after 35 or 40 minutes, and I promptly informed the about 20 year old son of the family who runs the guest house we were staying at that there was a major problem! He was very apologetic and attended to the problem immediately. I think he took it to the motorcycle workshop, and had it fixed up within under an hour.

So, despite our frightful ride, we hopped right back on to go out to dinner, but not without a couple of extra contacts and a bright headlamp "just in case!" Little did we know, the night's stories weren't over yet! We went out to dinner at a nice restaurant near some of the higher end resorts, then headed to a 24-hour internet cafe to call some family 12.5 hours away, late at night is the best time. We started heading home just after midnight.

Our map showed a direct route home that involved a parking-lot type area at the end of a fairly minor road, then a dotted line, which we assumed was a dirt road, to a bridge back to a minor road. We meandered down empty streets to this parking lot area, which was mostly deserted and not well lit at all. It wasn't very apparent where this alleged dirt road was so I stopped facing back the way we came. Another bike with what looked like two Indian guys on it pulled up almost immediately, but there are tons of motorcyles in goa with at least two Indian guys on them so I didn't think twice about it until they pulled up close to us and started saying "excuse me sir". We are pretty well trained to ignore people that talk to us in tourist areas, but I was having problems getting the motorcycle started again. Just as I got it started the guys (in their early 20s, dressed in respectable clothes but not uniforms) said "stop, you must stop!" The guy on the back got off and was carrying a 2.5 foot long stick, he started walking around the bike and rapping it against his other hand. While these guys had a law enforcement tone about them, and in fact the police do carry sticks of that description, I decided it was probably time to leave and managed to throw the bike in gear and take off. I didn't waste any time zipping quickly through the empty streets, but we were not pursued that we could see. Perhaps they decided it wasn't worth it since one guy was off their bike.

Little did we know, this wasn't the last not-quite-law-enforcement experience of the night. Once we got back on the main road (the "long way home" but we had done it earlier that day with no headlight!) after a while we came to a place with metal gates partway across the road. You see cows, dogs, pedestrians, rickshaws, bicyles, and more on the streets of India and the normal thing to do is honk, so that's what I did. It turned out, however, that this was a Police checkpoint, and perhaps honking wasn't the smartest thing! This presented a problem, because although I have a motorcyle driver's license in Colorado, I technically should have an international driver's license to be driving in India, and anyway I didn't have my passport, colorado driver's license, or any other ID on me. Our guidebook had mentioned that license enforcement was "quite lax".

I imagined this was a drunk driving checkpoint, which is what it would be in the US. We each had a single drink with dinner but it had been several hours so I wasn't worried about my fitness for riding. We were directed over in front of one of the barricades and three policemen approached the bike. They nonchalantly asked me for the Indian equivalent of "License, registration, and proof of Insurance." I explained that I had none of this at hand, and of course I had no idea where the motorcycle registration document might be. I did say, however, that my license was back at our guest house, which was perhaps 15 minutes away. This didn't seem to impress the Policemen at all. They informed us repeatedly that the "proper" fine for riding without your license is 1000 rupees. While that's only a little over $20 US, 1000 rupees is a lot of money in India. We were only going to be in Goa for a couple more days, so clearly we weren't going to stick around to go to court.

I wanted to show my passport and Colorado Motorcycle license to straighten this all out, but these guys didn't seem interested in running us around. One of the officers was waving his finger at me and lecturing me about if I caused an accident, I could hurt someone and I would be responsible! Tiffany said "Our documents are at the guest house, do you have a motorcyle or car, you can take him there and I can stay here!" This wasn't going over very well either.

One of the police then changed tactics. He said "We have reports someone is carrying illegal things. Are you carrying illegal things? If you have illegal things tell us now." I'll put this in context by saying that there are more than a few foreigners rotting away on drug related charges in a prison just south of the beach where the picture with the ship was taken. We had nothing illegal, but it is not unheard of for officers to plant items in exchange for a big bribe. This tactic was designed to make us want to pay the 1000 rupees and leave, I'm sure, but it worked!

The problem was, our restaurant had been quite a bit more expensive than we had thought, and an average restaurant dinner for 2 is around 300, so we just weren't carrying much money, nowhere near 1000. We kept offering to go back to our guest house (with them or without, whatever) and get the 1000 rupees, license, passport, or some combination thereof. Finally we explained that we didn't have 1000 when it became apparent that the license documents didn't really matter. Eventually one of the officers asked how much we had. I said "not much, maybe 200" and pulled out the cash from one of my pockets. I probably had 100 in another pocket and tiffany had another 200 or so but I wanted to see what would happen. The first pocket actually had 250 in it and as I peeled this off the officer said "That's fine, 250 is enough." We were not amused at the time but laughed about this blatant bribe (called "baksheesh") situation later on that night and the following day.

We mentioned it to Marta, the mother of the family who runs the guest house we stayed at, because I wanted to have the registration document with us (along with the headlamp and extra contacts). She said, "There is no document! They just want baksheesh! How much did they want, 300?" She just laughed and laughed when we told her 1000. We said we didn't have it and gave them 250 and she said "fine, just fine" laughing along. She also said "Even if everything is in order, then they just get gruff and say 'Fine, give me a cigarette!' " Marta also related a story that was in their newspaper about a Russian who had been stopped in Anjuna, paid 500 baksheesh, then stopped at another barricade in Calangute, paid another 500 despite his insistence that he had already paid the fine, and then he was stopped a third time in Candolim for another bribe. The big Russian's temper got the better of him and he picked up the Goan policeman and held him entirely above his head like a weightlifter! He said "DON'T ASK ME AGAIN, I'VE AREADY PAID TWICE TONIGHT!" Apparently the other police ran off and the lifted man followed as soon as he was set down.

We're not going to be anywhere else in India where we will rent a motorcycle, and we're OK with that :)

Goa photos posted!

Hopefully, some of you have been looking forward to some photos from Goa. Well, here they are, some photos from south Goa, we have now moved on to north Goa.

Please Click Here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/SouthGoa

Cheers!

Mexican, Thai, Italian, Oh My!

In restaurants in touristed areas (particularly beaches), I have noticed a trend (It's hard to miss, actually). The restaurants advertise their capability to create nearly any cuisine you can imagine, from Israeli, to Continental, to Chinese, Thai, Italian, Pizzas, and more. Indian is very rarely on this list. Furthermore, when you sit down you are presented with an extensive menu of at least 8 pages (usually closer to 15) with a dizzying variety of options, and yes there are Indian items on these menus. There will be a row of 15 or more restaurants on the same beach with exactly the same apparent versatility and type of menu.

However, there is a catch. It seems that roughly half the items we attempt to order are simply "not possible." Reasons range from the Tandoori oven not being fired up (understandable, both wood and charcoal must be stoked just right and often aren't at 2pm), to simply "we opened the hummus this morning and it smelled sour, so we threw it out." While I appreciate not being served sour hummus, you might be able to imagine that this sort of statement erodes the confidence a bit, especially after some gastronomic misadventures in other provinces.

As long as you don't have your mind set on anything in particular, you can always pick something else. However, this can be difficult because of the very friendly but also insistent nature of Indian service. Indian servers want to know your order right now, if you've had the menu for a minute and a half before you're asked, you're lucky. so when you place your order and it isn't possible (these are the words used), you better be able to pick something else soon. we have started selecting alternates.

The other confusion I have is about the variety of ethnic possibilities. The kitchen is never something you see in a restaurant in India. So I'm trying to imagine whether there is a Chinese woman, an Italian guy, a Thai grandmother, and a rather Continental chef back there. somehow this seems unlikely. So my question becomes, where did whoever is back there learn to cook all this stuff? It's a question that remains unanswered.

But my bigger question, really, is what is wrong with good Indian food? Look, I can see someone from Israel craving an Israeli breakfast after you've been in India for a month and a half, but most of the travellers here in Goa seem to be down from europe (lots of brits) for 2 weeks tops. You'd imagine that at least a few of them might like to try a good Indian dinner while they are here, wouldn't you? But I have yet to see a restaurant in a tourist area that features Indian center stage.

Please understand that none of this is criticism of India or even the restaurants themselves, it's just an interesting phenomenon. We have chosen from so many beach restaurants almost at random and certainly ignored their signage, and seemingly against all odds the meals have been great everywhere. My pork vindaloo at the "Thai specialty" place was very authentic. My chicken tikka masala at the fresh seafood griller was exceptional. The Naan (fluffy but hearty Indian flatbread) we ordered at a place featuring Pizza and Pasta was perhaps the best we've ever had. We must admit, however, that we love Indian (especially north Indian/Punjabi) cuisine and order it much more often than the mysterious foreign options. "When in Rome" works great for us here!

Many new Photos!

Hi Folks, we found a good internet cafe here in goa, so I am now able to bring you some photos we have been waiting to post. There are 3 new galleries. The galleries will open in a new window so you can just close the window to come back here.

First, a gallery from our new year's eve celebration that I described in a previous post:
Please click here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/NewYearsEve



Second, a short gallery from my "UnBirthday" celebration described previously by Tiffany:
Please click here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/UnBirthday

Finally, a little bigger gallery of Munnar, the mountainous tea-centric area we just left a couple of days ago, including some pictures from the tea factory/museum and a hike we did. Please note this gallery is 2 pages, I have a link for the second page as well:

Please click here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/Munnar
and here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/Munnar?page=2




it's a very beautiful landscape up there.

We're happy to be in Goa and will hope to post some photos and impressons from here before too long. Cheers!

Happy New Year - AND Papa Burning

In Pondicherry, we found that some restaraunts had private parties for the christmas eve holiday. So in Fort Cochin Tiffany had the very wise idea to stop in at the Malabar house, one of the fancier
"home stays" in town, to see if their restaruant had a special event for New Year's Eve.

Indeed they did, and while the price per person seemed astronomical, it wasn't any more than we would have paid for a nice new year's dinner in the US, probably less. This begged the question ... was it going to be a nice dinner? We hadn't been so lucky in Pondicherry, when we "splurged" on dinner at the fanciest restaraunt in town (still much less than the new year's eve per-plate), well, let's just say we got food poisoning, without going into detail. More specifically, we've found that how agreeable a meal is to our stomachs is not at all proportional to the cost of the meal.

So, we broke out our fanciest duds. Which aren't quite what they would be at home... I had some dark jeans and a very nice madras plaid shirt with ribbonlike threads in various colors that I had been fortunate to find in Pondicherry. I spent the equivalent of about $15 US and I think the shirt now my nicest including what is at home. I have some running-type shoes that I had to wear but at least they are darkly colored.

Tiffany, in her typical style, was not to be restrained by this backpacking lifestyle. She broke out a beautiful black dress from the bottom of her suitcase, saying only "I just thought it wouldn't get wrinkled" as I stood aghast. she paired this with her new silver ganesh earrings from pondicherry and, cleverly, with the Guess platform flip-flops she's been wearing around town, which went surprisingly well in black and white.

So we trotted just a couple of doors down to the Malabar House. I wasn't ready to arrive exactly at our scheduled time of 8:00, so we arrived about 8:10. A maitre'd rushed up to the hotel desk as we were arriving and said "Mr. Skalet!??" and once I confirmed he whisked us past a beautiful small swimming pool bedecked with floating candles in coconut shells for this night, to our table, which was front and center! a table for two perhaps 4 feet from the stage, with tens of tables much farther away. I must say we did look the part of the important and fashionably late couple. This was looking like a good night. Traditional Keralan drumming was already going on onstage, with 6 or 7 men drumming rigorously. Our guidebook describes the traditional drumming as 'piercing' and I don't think I can say it better. Another acquired taste, perhaps.

The food started arriving soon (along with some dancing onstage) and we were impressed, with a very nice gazpacho and a fresh vinagrette salad that was a special treat (it's tough to find a nice western style salad here), on into a seared fish main dish that was just wonderful, a "noble" use of the fresh fish available in south india as far as we are concerned. Dessert was a little array of chocolate and a lime mousse tiffany nicknamed "sprite fluff". We certainly felt that we had made a good choice to splurge on dinner.

Once we had finished dinner it was approachng midnight and we participated in a basque tradition (the hotel manager is a basque woman) of eating one grape representing each month of the coming year. The 12 grapes are delivered wrapped in a leaf-pocket.

Next, we were paraded outside the front of the big house to see a few fireworks, and the ceremonial "Burning of the Papa". This ceremony is not to be missed. The basic idea is this: You start with a 10-15 foot tall Santa Claus doll, clothed in a full western style red suit and thick black belt along with the typical beard and red hat, and boots. This doll is made up of wood and tinder, and at midnight is lit ablaze!! It almost instantly becomes a standing bonfire splashing flickering orange on all around. As the flames die down a bit, however, the standing human form still engulfed in flames was a difficult sight for us to celebrate!

We have some pictures from new years that I would love to post but we just don't have the capability here in the mountains in Munnar; we will post them in about 5 days, until then let your imagination run wild!

What happened to the second Editor?

I've enjoyed posting some descriptive prose on our 'Blog'; we certainly have seen some interesting things to talk about. However, I haven't been posting much lately and I want to explain why. One thing is the technology; it is often a trick getting photos posted from virus-ridden computers with no DVD-ROM on dubious internet connections in locales where the power goes out several times a day for several minutes at a time. For instance, right now I think 4 computer users are using 1 dial up connection here.

However, it's fun to be able to share some of our pictures "live"; this is something we never could have done so easily (relatively speaking) without digital photography and of course the Internet.

The second thing I've been busy with is planning transportation. India is a big country, and, we've found, Indians just have a different tolerance level for transportation than we (at least Tiffany and myself) do. Doing a 4-5 hour bus ride on the buses we previously described, with plywood-hard seats and no legroom, is absolutely routine. It is also quite easy to end up on a 15-30 hour train ride trying to get where you want to go. Furthermore, many flights and trains are full. It is not wise to book trains any later than 2-3 weeks in advance, because they are so full. We saw some trains with 120 person waiting lists for a single class (3-bunk stack A/C)

So, the other thing I've been working on is arranging travel and lodging. It's kind of fun, it's a challenge to plan, and I hope it will be rewarding to us later. two days ago we traveled from Kochi to Munnar in a private car, about a 5 hour trip. we will be here 3 more days, then travel back to Kochi either in a car or on a bus, then take a train overnight to Mangalore, up the coast (not Bangalore) we'll have a 4 hour 'layover' in Mangalore, then continue on to goa, for a total of about 14 hours train travel. This is the best we could do booking 10 days in advance.

we'll be in Goa for a while then take a plane to Mumbai for a couple of days. Then, we will fly again from Mumbai to Udaipur, where a lake palace is, along with some cooking classes! a few days later, we will fly from Udaipur to Jaipur, then after a couple of days take a train from Jaipur to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. After a day and a half in Agra we'll take a train again to Delhi, and the following day we will fly from Delhi to Chennai, and fly later that evening from Chennai back to Bangkok!

All of the train and plane reservations have been made, and hotel reservations in Goa. We still need to make hotel reservations for Mumbai, Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi, but I think (hope) this will be fairly straightforward now that we have all of the dates lined up.

So ... that's what I've been up to, when we've had communications access. Hope to talk to you folks more now.

Kerala Backwater photos available for Viewing!

I posted some photos from the Keralan backwaters that I think some of you will enjoy, they should give some further illustration of some of Tiffany's recent posts.

Please click here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/KochiKeralanBackwaters