It has just past mid- night on the east coast of the US, so it is 2010 there as well as here in Bangalore! It is difficult to imagine that an entire year - and more has passed with us all in Bangalore! For New Years Eve we went out for a very good dinner at a hotel restaurant which serves Italian style food that has always been very good. We were joined by 3 friend from Egypt and one Indian friend. It was a good meal and a pleasant evening. After dinner Jim went home to sleep while Janet and our friend Anita went to the Bangalore Club to see what was going on. They have lights up all over the place through Christmas and New Year celebrations it is quite magical.
Jan. 1 is a holiday here this year from work. It was not last year at work, because so many other Indian Holidays of higher priority were given instead. We plan to stay in the area around home and relax as much as possible.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas 2009
Janet decorated a live tree she bought last year and brought it into the living room. We bought one string of LED lights in Cochin to put on the tree and it has been lit each evening for several days now. We got each other a few presents and placed them under the tree. The warm climate does not seem so much like Christmas, but we tried. Ziggy and Zoe don't seem as curious about this tree as the ones we have back home.
On Christmas day (which was a national Holiday in India) we relaxed in the morning and then walked over to the home of some friends about 1PM. There we had a very good Indian- American dinner with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salads and a number of Indian dishes as well. We talked to several people- some who live in the US and were home visiting. It was a pleasant way to spend a few hours and the food was very good too.
After the dinner we walked to a nearby place where they were having a baking exhibition. We had not heard about this until a day or 2 earlier, but it is quite a big deal. You pay to enter and see the items made. The is a navy ship
made of cake, as well as the Taj Mahal- not life size, but huge! Smaller items included a bird cage with birds of a sort inside and Rajasthani- looking people on horses. It was fun to see, but Very crowded- not as bad as Brindavan gardens a year ago, but bad enough. We just went to see what it was about and then we went to a cafe where one of the waiters was dressed as Santa and handing out candies. As with most holidays in India, many shops were open too, but we did not go in except for a stop at a pharmacy and florist. 
We may have mentioned before- flowers are very inexpensive here, so you can get fresh flowers every few days if you choose.
Friday, December 25, 2009
A visit to Kerala
A week ago we made a 4 day trip to Cochin or Kochi on the southwest coast of India. This is the state of Kerala, which is a little unusal for several reasons. There is a range of hills or mountains that separate the state from much of the rest of India so in more ancient times the state was somewhat isolated from the doings on the rest of the sub-continent. The state is also unusual in that it is about 20% Christian and 58% Hindu and around 20% Muslim. Currently it has a communist government- apparently it changes about every election cycle between Communist and Congress party, which is the major political party in India. The literacy rate in Kerala is also very high- the highest in India. The state is noted for its spices- especially black pepper, but many others as well. The ancient Romans traded here and Arab traders came long long ago too. St. Thomas is said to have come to Kerala in 52AD and the "Syrian Christian Church" has supposedly been active since his time.
It rains a lot in Kerala during the monsoon and it gets very hot too- very hot and very humid, so it is not a very comfortable place to visit and do outdoor activities. However, December and Jan. are supposed to be reasonably good.
We road to the airport in Bangalore for about an hour and 20 minutes on Thursday the 17th. There we checked into the airline and then waited about an hour and 20 minutes for our flight departure. The flight to Cochin took about an hour and 20 minutes. After we arrived in Cochin the drive to our hotel took about an hour and 20 minutes. We had arranged for the hotel to pick us up and the driver was waiting for us. The drive from the airport was at night, but we could see it was not very pretty- the whole area is a large group of cities and towns, The roads were reasonably good, but there was some construction that made them rougher. We checked into our hotel on the bay and had dinner before going to sleep. We chose a very nice hotel- the "Taj Malabar". The Taj chain is generally very good. The area of coast was and sometimes still is called "Malabar"- it is synonomous with "spices". The southern part of Kerala is called "Travancore".
On Friday the 18th we had a relaxing morning and breakfast and arranged to take the speed boat to the Jewish quarter of Cochin. The boat was fast and fun. This part of the city has many old warehouses- mostly from the spice trade and had a relatively large Jewish population until Israel was formed and many left here. There is still an old Synagogue, which is not open on Friday or Sat. so we did not attempt to enter. Currently there are dozens of of shops selling all sorts of handicrafts and many places selling antiques as well. As the guide books say - "and some of the antiques are genuine". We very much enjoyed looking around. We found several very nice shops for both new and older items. Items older than 100 years old are not supposed to be taken out of India, so it is a little odd that many dealers say items are more than 100 years old when they do not appear to be. However, it is likely more people are interested if they think its older. We did see many items that are probably between 50 and 100 years old. It was difficult to decide what we liked the most, so we figured we'd come back. It was also hot and humid - probably 85 F or so. We found a nice cafe and cooled off before meeting our speed boat again at the appointed
time. We spent 4 hours in what is called "Jew Town".
Back at the hotel we relaxed some and at 4:45 had some tea and then boarded the free harbor boat ride for hotel guests. This was rather pleasant and went for almost an hour. The days are shorter now- perhaps 11- 11.5 hours of daylight instead of 13 hours in June- but quite a lot longer than back home! We relaxed
some more and then went to a traditional dance demonstration at 7PM. This was very interesting and fun. A small boy played drum and a man who may have been his father was all dressed in elaborate costume and makeup. The dance is more about eye and hand movements than leg movements- this makes a lot of sense in a hot humid climate! The costume and makeup were quite remarkable- more on this later. We had a very good fish dinner in the hotel, though we both felt a little bit sick the next morning.
On Sat. the 19th we decided to stay around the hotel until about 3PM when we had arranged to go on a small boat tour of some canals.
Kerala is famous for house boats and canals and people come to an area south of Cochin from all over the world to ride the houseboats in the canals for a few days or week. We were just taking a large canoe in some small canals (with a guide and boatman). The ride to the canals was longer than we might have liked, but the boat trip was fun. We started out on a river and then went into some small canals that wind through coconut groves. We stopped at a "toddy collector's" home where he showed how he collects a sort of sap from some of the coconut trees which is then used to make "toddy". We learned that this as a beverage with about 8% alcohol and can only be sold through government shops. We saw the man in a very small canoe he uses to go to his trees. 
He climbs each tree- we think every day- maybe it is twice a day. The guide said there are 16 trees and the guy is 57 years old (and thin and in good shape!). We then went back out on the canal. The guide has several boats and ours was the largest- it was new and would hold about 10 people or the 2 of us! We saw how the weed grow in the canals, but the tidal flow helps break them loose to flow out, but they have a simple bamboo stick that floats on the water to close off the canals to keep the weeds from flowing back in when the tide comes in. So many things we see are very simple and made with a few sticks and string or wire!
We saw very pretty paper Christmas lanterns at many shops, so we asked our driver and the guide if we could stop to buy some, so we did. We bought 4 large and colorful "stars". These are presently hanging u
p outside our apartment. We had another good dinner at the hotel.
For Sunday the 20th we decided to take the public ferry to Fort Kochi. We had tickets for a dance show that evening and dinner plans at a hotel in Fort Kochi. We walked to the ferry (2Rs or about 4 cents each) and road over. From the ferry we walked along a somewhat busy lane and found the location of the Dance show for later- "Greenix". We then stopped at the "Brunton Boatyard" to look around. We continued to the "Chinese Fishing Nets". The legend we were told is that in the 15th century the Chinese navy landed in this area and taught the local people how to catch fish with these giant contraptions. We watched as the giant spider-like legs holding a net was lowered into the water, then after a few minutes the whole thing was raised- bringing a few fish up in the net. We then walked on to "St. Francis Church". We wanted to see this because this is where Vasco De Gama was buried. He landed in India around 1498
and apparently either came back many times or lived here. He died in the 1500's here in Cochin and was buried in the church. Some years later his remains were returned to Portugal. Cochin has many buildings from the 1500's through 1800's, so it has a relatively well preserved colonial history. We looked a little and then went to a cafe that was air conditioned to cool off. We then had lunch at the Brunton Boatyard and then took an auto rickshaw to the Jewish quarter- too far to walk in the heat! Of course, the auto driver wanted to have us stop at a shop where he would get a commission for bringing us, but he was wise enough to take us to where we wanted to go when we said we would not pay if he stopped. (He implied that the shop would give him more just for bringing us than we would be paying him to go to our destination- a common problem for tourists in India!) We got back to "Jew town" and visited more shops we had missed the other day and went to some we had seen before.
It was fun still, but hot. It was still confusing, so we bought very little and had more to drink at a cafe. We then took an auto back to the Greenix Theater in order to watch the performers apply makeup. They start more than 1.5 hours before the show. Quite a few people eventually showed up to watch- mostly tourists like us. We then stayed for the show where they demonstrated several dance forms from Kerala. It was a good performance and seemed worth the price. We had a good 
seafood dinner at the Brunton Boatyard and were then picked up by the hotel after dinner. The boatyard had many very pretty Christmas paper lanterns hanging from a tree. On the ride to our hotel we saw a lot of ATMs and a lot of the paper lanterns for sale, but we were tired so we thought we'd return in the morning to get some money and lanterns.
Monday the 21st was to be full day of filling in some loose ends. We stopped at the travel desk at the hotel when we returned Sunday night and were told that all the cars and auto rickshaws were to go on strike in the morning, so they
were not even sure we could go to the airport on Monday!
On Monday we were told that the strike was on, so no cars or drivers were available except one in which they were sending a police officer along with the driver! So, there was not much we could do. Then we thought we might take the speed boat, but they said that was booked too. Finally around noon they said they could get us to another town by speed boat and we could take the public ferry back, so we decided to try that. The boat ride was fun, but the craft shops were poor so we caught the first ferry back to the hotel! Janet swam, we had lunch, read, etc. until later afternoon when they said that there did not seem to be any violence surrounding the strike, so we took the car to the airport. We left early so we could stop at one place on the way which advertised itself as a "Folklore Museum". We had only about 20 minutes, but it turned out to be a remarkable place built from wood from 23 Kerala houses and structures. It was quite interesting and had displays of many artefacts from Kerala including wood masks, religious items, puppets, pottery and others. It is a very interesting place, but hot. It has only been open for 9 months. We told them we would like to see a book on the collections- they have only on CD now. Our ride to the airport was a little long, but uneventful. the flight was likewise.
We enjoyed our short visit to Kerala and Cochin and hope to go back sometime.
It rains a lot in Kerala during the monsoon and it gets very hot too- very hot and very humid, so it is not a very comfortable place to visit and do outdoor activities. However, December and Jan. are supposed to be reasonably good.
We road to the airport in Bangalore for about an hour and 20 minutes on Thursday the 17th. There we checked into the airline and then waited about an hour and 20 minutes for our flight departure. The flight to Cochin took about an hour and 20 minutes. After we arrived in Cochin the drive to our hotel took about an hour and 20 minutes. We had arranged for the hotel to pick us up and the driver was waiting for us. The drive from the airport was at night, but we could see it was not very pretty- the whole area is a large group of cities and towns, The roads were reasonably good, but there was some construction that made them rougher. We checked into our hotel on the bay and had dinner before going to sleep. We chose a very nice hotel- the "Taj Malabar". The Taj chain is generally very good. The area of coast was and sometimes still is called "Malabar"- it is synonomous with "spices". The southern part of Kerala is called "Travancore".
On Friday the 18th we had a relaxing morning and breakfast and arranged to take the speed boat to the Jewish quarter of Cochin. The boat was fast and fun. This part of the city has many old warehouses- mostly from the spice trade and had a relatively large Jewish population until Israel was formed and many left here. There is still an old Synagogue, which is not open on Friday or Sat. so we did not attempt to enter. Currently there are dozens of of shops selling all sorts of handicrafts and many places selling antiques as well. As the guide books say - "and some of the antiques are genuine". We very much enjoyed looking around. We found several very nice shops for both new and older items. Items older than 100 years old are not supposed to be taken out of India, so it is a little odd that many dealers say items are more than 100 years old when they do not appear to be. However, it is likely more people are interested if they think its older. We did see many items that are probably between 50 and 100 years old. It was difficult to decide what we liked the most, so we figured we'd come back. It was also hot and humid - probably 85 F or so. We found a nice cafe and cooled off before meeting our speed boat again at the appointed
time. We spent 4 hours in what is called "Jew Town".Back at the hotel we relaxed some and at 4:45 had some tea and then boarded the free harbor boat ride for hotel guests. This was rather pleasant and went for almost an hour. The days are shorter now- perhaps 11- 11.5 hours of daylight instead of 13 hours in June- but quite a lot longer than back home! We relaxed
some more and then went to a traditional dance demonstration at 7PM. This was very interesting and fun. A small boy played drum and a man who may have been his father was all dressed in elaborate costume and makeup. The dance is more about eye and hand movements than leg movements- this makes a lot of sense in a hot humid climate! The costume and makeup were quite remarkable- more on this later. We had a very good fish dinner in the hotel, though we both felt a little bit sick the next morning.On Sat. the 19th we decided to stay around the hotel until about 3PM when we had arranged to go on a small boat tour of some canals.
Kerala is famous for house boats and canals and people come to an area south of Cochin from all over the world to ride the houseboats in the canals for a few days or week. We were just taking a large canoe in some small canals (with a guide and boatman). The ride to the canals was longer than we might have liked, but the boat trip was fun. We started out on a river and then went into some small canals that wind through coconut groves. We stopped at a "toddy collector's" home where he showed how he collects a sort of sap from some of the coconut trees which is then used to make "toddy". We learned that this as a beverage with about 8% alcohol and can only be sold through government shops. We saw the man in a very small canoe he uses to go to his trees. 
He climbs each tree- we think every day- maybe it is twice a day. The guide said there are 16 trees and the guy is 57 years old (and thin and in good shape!). We then went back out on the canal. The guide has several boats and ours was the largest- it was new and would hold about 10 people or the 2 of us! We saw how the weed grow in the canals, but the tidal flow helps break them loose to flow out, but they have a simple bamboo stick that floats on the water to close off the canals to keep the weeds from flowing back in when the tide comes in. So many things we see are very simple and made with a few sticks and string or wire!We saw very pretty paper Christmas lanterns at many shops, so we asked our driver and the guide if we could stop to buy some, so we did. We bought 4 large and colorful "stars". These are presently hanging u
p outside our apartment. We had another good dinner at the hotel.For Sunday the 20th we decided to take the public ferry to Fort Kochi. We had tickets for a dance show that evening and dinner plans at a hotel in Fort Kochi. We walked to the ferry (2Rs or about 4 cents each) and road over. From the ferry we walked along a somewhat busy lane and found the location of the Dance show for later- "Greenix". We then stopped at the "Brunton Boatyard" to look around. We continued to the "Chinese Fishing Nets". The legend we were told is that in the 15th century the Chinese navy landed in this area and taught the local people how to catch fish with these giant contraptions. We watched as the giant spider-like legs holding a net was lowered into the water, then after a few minutes the whole thing was raised- bringing a few fish up in the net. We then walked on to "St. Francis Church". We wanted to see this because this is where Vasco De Gama was buried. He landed in India around 1498
and apparently either came back many times or lived here. He died in the 1500's here in Cochin and was buried in the church. Some years later his remains were returned to Portugal. Cochin has many buildings from the 1500's through 1800's, so it has a relatively well preserved colonial history. We looked a little and then went to a cafe that was air conditioned to cool off. We then had lunch at the Brunton Boatyard and then took an auto rickshaw to the Jewish quarter- too far to walk in the heat! Of course, the auto driver wanted to have us stop at a shop where he would get a commission for bringing us, but he was wise enough to take us to where we wanted to go when we said we would not pay if he stopped. (He implied that the shop would give him more just for bringing us than we would be paying him to go to our destination- a common problem for tourists in India!) We got back to "Jew town" and visited more shops we had missed the other day and went to some we had seen before.
It was fun still, but hot. It was still confusing, so we bought very little and had more to drink at a cafe. We then took an auto back to the Greenix Theater in order to watch the performers apply makeup. They start more than 1.5 hours before the show. Quite a few people eventually showed up to watch- mostly tourists like us. We then stayed for the show where they demonstrated several dance forms from Kerala. It was a good performance and seemed worth the price. We had a good 
seafood dinner at the Brunton Boatyard and were then picked up by the hotel after dinner. The boatyard had many very pretty Christmas paper lanterns hanging from a tree. On the ride to our hotel we saw a lot of ATMs and a lot of the paper lanterns for sale, but we were tired so we thought we'd return in the morning to get some money and lanterns.Monday the 21st was to be full day of filling in some loose ends. We stopped at the travel desk at the hotel when we returned Sunday night and were told that all the cars and auto rickshaws were to go on strike in the morning, so they
were not even sure we could go to the airport on Monday!On Monday we were told that the strike was on, so no cars or drivers were available except one in which they were sending a police officer along with the driver! So, there was not much we could do. Then we thought we might take the speed boat, but they said that was booked too. Finally around noon they said they could get us to another town by speed boat and we could take the public ferry back, so we decided to try that. The boat ride was fun, but the craft shops were poor so we caught the first ferry back to the hotel! Janet swam, we had lunch, read, etc. until later afternoon when they said that there did not seem to be any violence surrounding the strike, so we took the car to the airport. We left early so we could stop at one place on the way which advertised itself as a "Folklore Museum". We had only about 20 minutes, but it turned out to be a remarkable place built from wood from 23 Kerala houses and structures. It was quite interesting and had displays of many artefacts from Kerala including wood masks, religious items, puppets, pottery and others. It is a very interesting place, but hot. It has only been open for 9 months. We told them we would like to see a book on the collections- they have only on CD now. Our ride to the airport was a little long, but uneventful. the flight was likewise.
We enjoyed our short visit to Kerala and Cochin and hope to go back sometime.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Birthdays and things
Saturday Dec 5, 2009 was the 5th birthday of Ziggy and Zoe! They spent the day relaxing around the house while Jim and Janet went to a Christmas bazaar - we went to one last year too- there should be an entry about that- and then we struggled at the framing shop to get decisions made on some framing projects.
On Sunday We were relaxing some in the morning and were surprised to see a guy outside our balcony in a tall tree hacking branches off! We had told the landlord that the monkeys were climbing onto the roof of the building from the trees and also on to the balcony, but we did not expect to see a guy climb 30 feet off the ground to cut the branches. They are not very subtle about how they do these jobs. The guy is obviously in good shape to be able to do this so fearlessly. Later, Jim walked to an art exhibit late in the morning and then we met some friends for brunch at a good place. Later in the afternoon we took Ziggy and Zoe outside to look around in the areas around the building. They enjoy being out there, but we worry about pesticides that might be in use. The dogs and monkeys could be a danger to them as well. The building has a security wall around it so dogs are not really a problem, but monkeys can be. Of course, rats can be a problem, but we have not seen any.
Earlier in the week was Janet's birthday and we went out for a good dinner with some friends for that. we did not get home until very late that night, but it seemed worth it.
Janet was on the verge of firing the cleaning woman the other day. She made a list of all the things the girl had done wrong or might have done wrong after the most recent discovery that a glass vase was broken, but on further consideration, it seems that some of the things may not have been things she did wrong (though she has broken a few things through thoughtless action). Overall she is still pretty good- honest and reasonably hard working, but she does not ask when she does not understand and her English is not so good, so it is difficult to tell when she does understand and when she does not.
Meanwhile, we are more certain that Joseph, our driver takes a commission or cut whenever he arranges for workers to do things for us- whether it is photograph printing, carpenters working carpet cleaning or other things. We have had strong suspicions of this for a long time but have not made an issue of it yet because it is not a huge amount of money and we do appreciate the efforts to find good people to do these tasks. We hope to figure out a way to have him change his ways and we would reward him some ourselves directly rather than indirectly. Of course, we do not have very good ideas how much WE would pay of we tried to arrange some of the workmen ourselves- we would certainly pay more than most Indians pay.
On Sunday We were relaxing some in the morning and were surprised to see a guy outside our balcony in a tall tree hacking branches off! We had told the landlord that the monkeys were climbing onto the roof of the building from the trees and also on to the balcony, but we did not expect to see a guy climb 30 feet off the ground to cut the branches. They are not very subtle about how they do these jobs. The guy is obviously in good shape to be able to do this so fearlessly. Later, Jim walked to an art exhibit late in the morning and then we met some friends for brunch at a good place. Later in the afternoon we took Ziggy and Zoe outside to look around in the areas around the building. They enjoy being out there, but we worry about pesticides that might be in use. The dogs and monkeys could be a danger to them as well. The building has a security wall around it so dogs are not really a problem, but monkeys can be. Of course, rats can be a problem, but we have not seen any.
Earlier in the week was Janet's birthday and we went out for a good dinner with some friends for that. we did not get home until very late that night, but it seemed worth it.
Janet was on the verge of firing the cleaning woman the other day. She made a list of all the things the girl had done wrong or might have done wrong after the most recent discovery that a glass vase was broken, but on further consideration, it seems that some of the things may not have been things she did wrong (though she has broken a few things through thoughtless action). Overall she is still pretty good- honest and reasonably hard working, but she does not ask when she does not understand and her English is not so good, so it is difficult to tell when she does understand and when she does not.
Meanwhile, we are more certain that Joseph, our driver takes a commission or cut whenever he arranges for workers to do things for us- whether it is photograph printing, carpenters working carpet cleaning or other things. We have had strong suspicions of this for a long time but have not made an issue of it yet because it is not a huge amount of money and we do appreciate the efforts to find good people to do these tasks. We hope to figure out a way to have him change his ways and we would reward him some ourselves directly rather than indirectly. Of course, we do not have very good ideas how much WE would pay of we tried to arrange some of the workmen ourselves- we would certainly pay more than most Indians pay.
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