the Leavitt adventures in India

a link to a photo book

2011-05-09T22:47:00.002+05:30

Wow. I am lame. But what are ya gonna do? Life goes on.

I finally got around to making a photo book of when Don and MaryJo Rulffes visited us in India, and I went with them to Agra, Jaipur and Udaipur. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure...

PS this was Feb of 09 if you are wanting me to feel guilty!!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaNGbhw3buGTjA

I have never tried this before - I hope it works!

Randy's Rules for Driving in India

2009-03-17T21:37:00.002+05:30

1. There are no rules only guidelines
2. Generally speaking you should drive on the left side of the road (assuming the road is wide enough for there to be a left and a right side). If you should encounter a vehicle coming towards you on “your” side of the road, don’t be alarmed, refer to rule #1.
3. When you are turning onto any road, there is no need to yield to the oncoming traffic. In fact, it is best if you don’t even look to see if there is oncoming traffic, other drivers will take this as a sign of apprehension and will not deviate their course to accommodate you.
4. If for some reason you did yield to the oncoming traffic and find you have to wait your turn, you only need to put your arm out the window motioning for the traffic to stop as you bully your way in. If this doesn’t work at first try moving your hand a little, this is sure to work.
5. Controlled intersections: this is an intersection with a traffic signal that actually works. If the light is red or turns red as you approach refer to rule #1. If for some reason you felt compelled to stop, perhaps there was a large truck, cow, rickshaw, crowd of people or bicycle with two refrigerators on it in your way, most lights have visible timers on them. This is for your convenience, so you know when there is only 5 seconds of red left and you can proceed through the intersection before the light turns green.
6. If you approach a controlled intersection with vehicles stopped at it, it is perfectly acceptable to drive around the stopped vehicles so you can be the first in line. Drive on the opposite side of the road if you have to, to accomplish this. Don’t worry about if there is enough room for you to get back on the left side of the road when you get to the front, you can simply stay on the right until the light has 5 seconds of red left before proceeding through the intersection.
7. If you are not able to drive around the vehicles in front of you at a controlled intersection and actually have to wait in the line, the second the light turns green immediately honk your horn as the drivers in front of you are obviously not aware they only have to wait at the light until there is 5 seconds left, not until it turns green.
8. It is perfectly acceptable to make a right turn from the extreme left side of the road, or a left turn from the extreme right side of the road. This rule comes in handy when you have exercised rule #6 to get to the front or near the front of the line of traffic.
9. When the light turns green, if there are vehicles, people, carts, animals, etc., still blocking the intersection, you must, I repeat MUST, move forward until there is no visible space between your vehicle and whatever is blocking the intersection. There is two reasons for this, one is nature abhors a vacuum, and two it makes it virtually impossible to clear the intersection in a timely manner.
10. If you come to a blocked intersection, a line of stopped vehicles, or railway crossing with a train in the way, please fill both sides of the road using any dirt shoulders available. There is two reasons for this, first nature abhors a vacuum and second it makes it virtually impossible for the traffic to move anywhere.
11. Dealing with uncontrolled intersections, which is the large majority of intersections you will encounter, is very similar to dealing with controlled intersection and all of the same rules apply. Uncontrolled intersections have the added bonus that if you are a VIP, a VVIP (Very Very Important Person, a term actually used frequently in India), or and ITIVIP (I Think I’m a Very Important Person, a term Bobette came up with), you will automatically be allowed to go first. Titles are self appointed, you simply need to decide which one you are and buy a revolving red light for the roof of your vehicle.
12. When driving at night, you should drive with your bright lights on at all times. This is because the vehicle is equipped with them so obviously you should turn them on. Everyone else has them on bright you might as well too. Also you should drive at least 30% faster at night because visibility is greatly reduced (due to the bright headlights mostly), and if you can’t see anything in the road, there must not be anything there.
13. Honking: do it, do it often, and for any reason, or for no reason at all. If your horn wears out, flash your headlights.
14. Ignore the dotted lines on the road, they are just for decoration. If you find yourself strangely compelled to use the lines on the road the accepted method is to place your vehicle directly over the line so there are equal portions of your vehicle on both sides of the line. This applies if the lines are separating lanes going the same direction or the opposite direction. Solid lines don’t exist, that would use too much paint.
15. If you are fortunate enough to find a road that has more than one lane going each direction, you should drive in the right most lane (that would be considered the fast lane when driving on the left) regardless of how fast you are driving. Watch out for pedestrians on the road, the wider the road the more they seem drawn to them.
16. When driving at high speeds (above 75 KPH) you should always drive as close behind the vehicle in front of you as possible. There is two reasons for this, first, you can get better gas mileage if you can get close enough to draft, and second, you can test your psychic ability by reading the thoughts of the driver in front of you.
17. You will encounter numerous police officers while driving in India, fortunately they are only there to cause traffic jambs by placing barricades on roads wide enough for two vehicles so only one vehicle can pass at a time. This rule apply to two lanes highways as well so vehicles going opposite directions have to take turns passing through the barricade.
18. If you are waved over to the side of the road by an officer, just pretend you didn’t see him. He most likely doesn’t have a vehicle to chase you with and he won’t run after you. If you feel like contributing to the officer’s wage you can pull over and give him a portion of whatever fine he thinks you owe and he will let you go without a ticket. Being fined is not likely to happen as I have witnessed a number of vehicles, driving one the wrong side of the road, go right past an officer seated comfortably in his chair. If you are on a motorcycle you should avoid the barricades at all costs as the police are not afraid to motion over motorcyclists and extort some money from them.
19. If you are involved in a minor accident and it is your fault, get out of your vehicle, look at the damage to both vehicles, get back in and drive away.
20. If you run over a person sleeping in the middle of the road at night, do not stop as a crowd will soon gather and beat you senseless and vandalize your vehicle. If you survive the beating the police will eventually get there and arrest you for murder, because you should have known people sleep on the roads. (this is not made up - a famous actor in Mumbai is still fighting this in court!)
21. If you are driving along minding your own business and someone coming the opposite direction in a smaller vehicle runs right into the front of your vehicle and is seriously injured and your vehicle is no longer driveable, get out and run. A crowd will soon gather and beat you senseless because you are driving the larger vehicle. (again, not made up - this happens at least once a week in Delhi - often to bus drivers)
22. When turning across a lane of traffic (ie. When driving on the left side of the road you want to make a right hand turn across the traffic coming the opposite direction) you should drive on the right hand side of the road at least 200 feet before you get to the corner so the traffic coming the opposite direction knows you want to turn.
23. Also when making the above maneuver you should always cut across the corner. This is in case there is a vehicle wanting to turn right on the road you are turning into. The vehicle turning right will obviously be on the right side of the road as he is following rule #22. If there is a vehicle wanting to go straight or turn left you will need to work that out somehow. Which means, the bigger vehicle wins.

I hope this helps. It is good to share accumulated wisdom!

its a Holi time of year again!

2009-03-11T15:17:00.008+05:30

Holi is the Festival of Colours - it has something to de with harvest and bounty and all that, but basically it means people throw coloured powder at each other. This year we went to the Stoker's farmhouse for dinner and to "play" Holi.

Water guns also play a part - sometimes with coloured water, sometimes with pool water!

Miranda and Kiera Barnes. Kiera asked Miranda to push her into the pool. So she did.

Believe it or not, it all came out easily in the wash. Isaac's shirt had some faint blue marks, but the rest came remarkably clean!

The Holi party was Saturday night before the actual holiday. On the day, we were staying pretty close to home (Ajay was off and it is safer to stay off the roads) when the doorbell rang and Holi made a house call! Anita and Sadmet, their daughter Alisha and Ansheeta came to colour up Miranda, and they came in and marked us all! As you can see, being out in the neighbourhood could be dangerous!!

Polo - the sport of Kings - aka - getting a little culture

2009-02-28T23:28:00.000+05:30

We finally made it to a Polo match!! I say finally, because the first time we tried, despite having talked to someone at the Polo office and gotten a time for the match, and driving all the way to Delhi, there was no actual polo that day. (typical) The guy at the (padlocked) gate told us to come back another day for the semi-finals. So we did. We were early. So early that the chairs weren't set up yet. Not a big deal, no people came to sit in them anyway!! This was a Saturday, and apparently all the famous, rich and glittery people came on Sunday for the Finals. I did see an article in the paper about it, and the stands were ALOT fuller that day!

The field is HUGE. When we arrived, there were a whole bunch of people out putting divets back in (we think). Then this group of golfers had to play through. Yes, the polo grounds seem to be part of the golf course. They played right thru the middle of the field! With horses warming up and galloping around them.

This is a ref.

This is the scoreboard. The team scores are marked with those blocks of colour-in this case black and white. It is the second "chukkar". The score is 1/2 to 3. We don't know why the half score. We even googled on the Blackberry but still could not find out. There is a guy that hangs the score signs, and they are HUGE.
In the last 2 minutes of the last match, a player got hurt. So everybody and their brother went out onto the field. Not a medical professional? no problem. Not related to the injured player? so what. Have absolutely no reason to join the mob on the field, blocking the medi-van and impeding the work of the paramedics? don't let that stop you! even this gang of KIDS felt the need to join the throng. It's a bizarre culture thing - way common.

Miranda lost interest and went to sleep.

Like the really private urinals?

This is near the end. See how many people came??!!

I really enjoyed myself. To see live polo is frankly something I never imagined I would be able to do. It was very exciting when they thundered by near the short rail in front of us, or even better, when they were all fighting for the ball right near us. Unfortunately, the field is large (maybe I mentioned it) and it seemed like they spent alot more time on the far side. Also, we really didn't understand the finer points of it all ( aside from the obvious hit-it-between-the-posts) so that was too bad. But, it was very impressive to see these guys going full-tilt, leaning way out and swinging that long thing to connect with that tiny ball. I couldn't get over how complicated it looked. I would have had to spend all MY time focussed on not falling off, so I was impressed! Too bad it was the end of the season - I could have gone again. Oh yeah, and did I mention it was free? so Randy liked it too!

Here are a few videos for your viewing pleasure. The announcer didn't start until the second match - we couldn't decide if he was helping or not!

Stuff I saw today - Tuesday Jan 27 2009

2009-01-27T14:17:00.008+05:30

OK, so I haven't posted for quite awhile, and looking at the sheer numbers of photos we take (about 800 each in Dec and Jan!!) makes me feel completely overwhelmed. Also, I am taking photos like crazy, because we are now in our last 4 or 5 months here and I am scared I will not get pictures of everything insane I see. So, today I made a trip to the bank, and took photos as I usually do. Without making any extra effort to notice the crazy stuff, this is some of what I saw...

construction is everywhere - never ends - is not organized or planned. Sohna Road (the main road that goes by our apartments) has been re-paved twice since we came, and now they are making plans to widen it. They are also finally putting sewer and water lines in (thus the huge pipes) after they rip up the new paving to lay them.

Kids get out of school early here - generally they go for a half day. And when they let out it is so cute to see so many little uniforms running around.

The dichotomy of all those skyscapers behind all those pieced together tents never fails to get me. Notice the bed the woman and kid are on - they are woven ropes on a wood frame. There is one in front of the other tents too. Usually there is someone on them. She has these pots to sell.

washing his clothes

wild pigs are everywhere, altho we don't usually see them running across the road!

These rickshaws pick up the garbage. When you see them out of the colonies and neighbourhoods it is because they are full, and heavy.
This is a garbage truck, with sorted garbage.

A weird truck-thing.

Every street corner looks like this, all the time, every day. I have said it before, and I cannot over-state it - there are people EVERYWHERE. everywhere. all the time. you can NEVER look anywhere and not see people. so wild.

A guy taking a ride with barrels. Ok.

I took this photos to show all the bikes parked under this tower. The military guy with his gun was a bonus. We see it pretty often, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for where and when they are stationed, and they don't seem to be actually doing anything. Everywhere guys are doing manual labour you see so many bikes, because of course that is the most common form of transportation.

Shave and a haircut, two bits. Ok, actually about 4 bits! but look at the open-air salon and deluxe surroundings you get for that!

This is along MG Road - the main drag past all the posh malls and many expensive apartments. This is sewage. Nice, eh?

Get cozy!

Tractors are commonplace. These giganto loads are not rare either.

Lohri - another Indian holiday

2009-01-14T15:09:00.001+05:30

Lohri is a Punjabi festival on the winter solstice to celebrate the harvest and the end of winter. It involves a huge bonfire. The kids in our neighbourhood (including Miranda) went around door to door and collected snacks and treats for themselves, and also donations of used clothes etc or money for the poor. This is a tradition to honour a Punjabi "Robin Hood" type who lived many years ago. As everyone gathers around the bonfire, seeds and nuts and small vegetables are thrown in. Our neighbours told us it symbolizes throwing away your sins, and being cleansed for a new year. There was a table with all kinds of stuff and we did throw some sesame seeds and peanuts into the fire. The Indian ladies were all gathered in a group to sing songs. (everything in done that way - men over there, women over there. even the dancing. weird)

This is at the Eldeco Mansionz clubhouse.

the French Farm

2008-11-28T21:56:00.000+05:30

This is the French Farm - a farm owned and established by...wait for it...a French guy. He raises all sorts of fowl and pigs and produce for hotels and ex-pats in the Gurgaon area. We had heard about him long ago but never tried to find out more. When I wanted a turkey for Thanksgiving, tho, we decided to check it out. Randy and I and Christelle and her kids went out there, to the sticks. Our kids didn't want to come, but they should have, it was fun! He had chicks that he let the kids hold, and baby pigs, and HUGE pigs too. It's all free-range and organic, and they went to some trouble to explain how they feed and clean up and all that. The only thing I care about organic is that is costs more!

Looking in at all the critters.

He has geese, turkeys, chickens, Japanese quail, ducks. Turkeys are UGLY! we didn't really pick the one we wanted, we just told him how big of a turkey we wanted. Most of the biggest ones were spoken for already, so we ordered 2 that were about 4 kg each. Total cost, 3400 rupees, about $75 USD. ouch. But hey, it's organic right?

Thanksgiving. sort of.

2008-11-27T22:05:00.000+05:30

Last year we didn't do anything for Thanksgiving, since the kids had school and Randy worked, and I'm Canadian :)

This year, we were asked to host some of the missionaries for dinner. I had two turkeys delivered from the French Farm (see the blog entry about that) and set about figuring out how to cook a non-pop-up-button equipped turkey in a toaster oven. Luckily Mom came up with the brilliant idea to cook one the night before, and good thing, because the heat was too low and it was in for 5 hours!! At 1am I took it out, and hang the consequences! It was cooked, a bit too much, but edible. The next day I cooked the other one, and it turned out perfect (higher heat, more basting, etc). Like a ding-dong (or perhaps a frazzled cook) I didn't take any photos of the food, but we ate good - potatoes, gravy, peas and carrots, rolls, stuffing and apple crisp for dessert. We had two sets of missionaries, from our branch, with one American and one Indian in each companionship. Not any American Indians, altho that would have been appropriate!

We made them hold the sign. It is all part of singing for your supper here at the Leavitt house. From the left is Elder Chilumula, Elder Hawks, Elder Carmen, and Elder Adari.

After dinner, Alex thought we should all make toilet paper tube pilgrims and Indians (the native amer. kind) (we did this once several years ago with Clancy's and it was very fun) but she forgot to figure out instructions, and we didn't have black paper. Hard to make a pilgrim without black!! So while we all hemmed and hawed about what to do, Elder Carmen decided to make Santa Claus and then we were all off. I totally copied him. But I had cooked, so it was ok.

Here is the first batch.... notice the one Native American that came to our feast - he is Randy's minimum participation person. He started out as only a face, but decency (and I) demanded a loincloth.

Batch two showed some real creativity, and some randomness as well :) Elder Chilumula's is pretty wild - not even HE knew what it was!! And Elder Hawks' pope/disco king was a highlight too. I hope the Elders had fun, we all did.

And the unpleasant aftermath. I think every dish we own and several of the Taylor's pots and dishes were dirty! Good thing the new maid does the dishes!!

the National Museum in Delhi

2008-10-12T22:28:00.013+05:30

Doesn't this look like a happy bunch?? And this was the very first thing they saw! We went to the National Museum on a Saturday, and despite being all geared up for a fight, we got in at the Indian price no problem. Which meant, even paying for a camera (yes, you have to pay to bring a camera, more if it is a video camera) the total for the 6 of us was 44 rupees. I love that! The kids were one whole rupee each at the student rate. Anyway, they were mad I was making them go anywhere, since all they want to do is sit in front of the TV, but we did see some cool stuff. This stone Egyptian bust was the first thing we saw, and ended up being the oldest thing too, as it is from about 1000BC. There were lots of stone carvings in the main halls.
This was in the textiles area, which I thought was pretty sparse, considering the textile industry in India today. It is an embroidered boardgame, with ivory game pieces.

The museum is a round building, with a circular courtyard in the middle. There were some statues in the courtyard, but it was about 90 degrees out, so we saw them thru the window.

Lots of awesome carved wood lintels and tons of stone. (haha, little museum humour there) Much of the stone stuff had people that were... how to put it delicately ...underdressed. And then they had some polished parts. Can you see what I mean? Alex was grossed out. And later, when we went into a new gallery, she said "oh please, no more art of naked people!" She is NOT into it.

Sam is standing beside a very tall, very heavy trumpet.
Isaac is knocking on a 15cm thick door from the 14th century.

This is a gold-plated top of a temple - the very top of the spire even held a diamond!

You know how Isaac loves that self-portrait setting!

Oooh, the money room! Who doesn't love that? The coins thru the ages were pretty cool - square, round, solid, with holes, gold, silver, brass, copper, stone and shell. Some were big and some were sooooo tiny. Isaac's finger shows how small this one is.
We did like this, but on the way in to this exhibit, I read the sign and said "ooh, a numismatic gallary" and Isaac says "what does that mean? Bored?" he's funny, in a lippy kind of way :)

The dancing god is Shiva, god of dance. Pretty famous. That one and the one with all the arms are the only ones I was even vaugely familiar with before we came here. Of course, many of the exhibits would be more interesting if we knew the legends and stories of their history. So many of the paintings depict scenes of gods doing legendary stuff, and we know nothing.

A couple kids, lost in the desert, in need of water. One section had empty cases, so we fooled around for a bit, before the guard came to tell us to knock it off.
These guys were just inside the door of the Hall of Arms. I don't know, their arms aren't much to write home about. Look at those toothbpicks!

The Marine History room - Sam liked the replicas of the tall ships. Holy rigging, Batman!
I like the traditional painting on silk - I have bought several (cheap ones, of course). Randy thinks it is too two-dimensional, but I love the colours. We saw it demo'd at a gallary (Jaipur I think) where they crush the rocks and mix with water to make the paint, then use a tiny brush - maybe one hair - to paint.

Everyone loves the Armory - what is not to like about 6 foot muskets and wavy swords and elephant armour?

Muskets and powder horns.

Randy and Alex saw these spikey ankle trap things that go on the elephants - what they didn't get is why the spikes would be on the INSIDE of the ankle trap ???

I like the lethal-looking two-blade dagger things. Love that wavy blade!

Copper plates - a good way to store records and documents you want to last for hundreds or thousands of years. Gee, where have I heard that idea before?? And here is Vanna, to tell us more...

This sitar belonged to Eddie van Kumar. According to Randy.

This fits into the category of things you shouldn't really have to say on a sign... can you read it? and we DID see guards and cleaning crew sitting around upstairs under an identical sign.

This is the coded law of (I think) Sumeria. It is OLD - about the same age as the Egyptian bust.

The giant thing under glass is a five-tier temple chariot. It represents the spiritaul asprirations of a community. On auspicious days the temple diety would be loaded into the chariot and the people would, together, pull the chariot thru the village. Don't know why, just read it on the sign.

Hooray for cheap museums!!

Take another trip back in time...

2008-10-08T16:22:00.004+05:30

Well, I am blogging again, but some of it is a bit older. So if you are interested in the Taj Mahal and the visit of my friend Lori Clancy and what we did then, please go back to April and check it out.

But, as usual, be patient, it shows up a bit at a time :) !!

Miranda's Baptism!! (finally...)

2008-10-04T20:43:00.000+05:30

Well, only 4 months after Miranda's 8th birthday, we finally had her baptism. The delay was mostly because she turned 8 just a few days before we headed home to Canada for the summer, and she had decided she wanted to be baptized in India. It was a very small group - our family and the Barnes family, and Sister Stella, the Primary President. We even had to go upstairs and pull a missionary out of a meeting so we would have enough witnesses! It was very nice - Isaac said the opening prayer, Sam and Alex gave the talks, Miranda and Kiera Barnes sang with Isaac on the violin. It was fun to be baptized outside in the backyard of the church! And later, after brownies and pop (her choice) she came home and opened some cool presents. (we don't usually do that, as the other kids were quick to point out!) I had made for her a scrapbook of just her, with a written message from Randy and I and the other kids. Aunt Kari made a pretty neat "quiet book" with scripture cards, and Grandma Brooks gave her a Baptism scrapbook, which she LOVES, and we have worked on for several days now. The vandenBusches even sent a gift! Miranda was pretty excited to be baptized, and we are proud of her. It feels like a big step to have all our family now official members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!
I am adding these photos of the outside of the Church building which I took months ago and have never posted.

We meet in the bottom two floors of a 4 story house, and yes, people live upstairs. The first photos are inside the chapel area in the basement. The font is at the end of the driveway. There is a guard there full-time, since there are not really any outside doors. As I type this, I see that I need more photos to explain it properly - it is pretty different from church buildings at home!
PS if you go back to May you can read about her birthday!

back to the water park, but not alone this time.

2008-10-03T23:04:00.001+05:30

Since the kids hardly go to school in October (festival season means 2 days off for Ghandi's birthday, 2 for Dusshera, and a week for Diwali, plus a bonus day in between for I don't know what) we headed to the waterpark again. Sam chose to be a grump and stay home. It is still plenty hot for swimming (about 92 that day) but unfortunately, it was a holiday, and HORRORS! we had to share the place!!!

They brought some chairs so we could sit in the shade and watch the kids.

It was more of the usual, except that we got a much clearer picture (literally) of the weirdness of Delhi-ites when it comes to apparel in the pool. I say that because in the south, apparently it is much more relaxed. This place rents swim costumes (the speedo looking ones for the men, and sleeved ones with bike-short length legs and a skirt) for women. One girl had hers on backwards (not so modest that way) and this mom kept her pants on!! What?! The lady in the brown outfit probably figured that wearing her clothes would be more modest than a swimsuit, but I think not. And the men... those swim tunks should be outlawed - WAY too much information revealed. And Indians are sort of hairy, so that doesn't help. Really, these are some wacky ideas.

This is video that illustrates the extreme volume of EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE in India. We are forever asking stores and restaurants to turn down the music so we can hear ourselves. During festival time, someone is ALWAYS blaring distorted music or chanting from a truck or a temple. And even at the water park, they think if it isn't deafening, it isn't loud enough.

Mehndi, again. Sam is a fan :)

2008-09-22T23:08:00.000+05:30

Christelle's parents (who were here visiting for nearly a MONTH - more with them will show up on here eventually) were heading back to Belgium the next day, and we finally managed to convince her Mom to get some Mehndi done. This guy has a spot on the sidewalk at Omax Mall (the one across Sohna Road from us). Alex wanted to come but her dishes weren't washed, and Miranda didn't really seem into it, so just Sam and I went with Christelle and Frances.
I love to watch these guys work - what an art! We bought ourselves some tubes of the henna, but we are scared to try it. They make it look easy, but I am sure ours would look like stick people next to the Mona Lisa! (Incidently, a tube of the stuff they use costs 10 rupees in the market. Keep that in mind when you read what I paid! Pretty sure it is the White Lady price.) He had a binder with photos you could choose from - we sort of sign language what we want.
Sam wanted the full meal deal - both hands, up on the arm. (When we got home and it was dinner time. it presented a problem - she could not hold her own fork and Alex had to feed her!!) Frances was only brave enough to get one arm done, Christelle and I both opted for the ankle, she added one palm ("not the fingers, please, I need to cook tonight") I prefer the back of the hand. Less hassle while you wait for it to dry!

This much fun cost me 400 rupees, less than $10. Sam LOVES it. And it lasts several weeks, so its ok.

Alex? On the swim team? OUR Alex??

2008-09-17T21:14:00.000+05:30

So. I am at home, minding my own, when the phone rings. It is the swim coach at GDGoenka (the kids' school). She tells me that there is a swim meet today at the American Embassy School in Delhi and they are short some girls in Alex's age group and could she go and swim for them?......uh, I guess so. (Can she swim an actual stroke, an actual length of the pool is what I think, but I don't say that.) So we arrange that I will walk out to Sohna Road and deliver a swimsuit, towel, goggles, and swim cap and sign the permission forms as the bus goes by on its way to Delhi. About 10 minutes later, Alex calls. I say, I forgot to ask if you WANTED to do this - do you? She says, well, yeah, whatever. So, suddenly I have a competitive swimmer in my family! Incidently, Sam IS on the swim team, but dislikes competition, and they have enough girls in HER age group, so she didn't go. Weird. Anyway, Randy knocks off work early and we drive to Delhi, since this could very well be the only swim meet we ever have reason to go to, and the girls relay is the first race. Alex swims breast stroke. At a blistering pace. haha. Not. BUT, she does it, she makes it, and we are both tired just watching, so there you go. Of course, the Goenka kids get SLAUGHTERED by the AES kids, who swim several hours a DAY (and this is their varsity team, too, not the B list kids) The other school at the meet is Pathways, the other Indian school we looked at. They are also bad, but not as bad as us. To be fair, Goenka has had a pool for less than a year, so what do you expect. Anyway, after the relay (and AES was done, while we were on our 2nd leg) the boys relay started, and about halfway thru, lightening was spotted. Everybody got out of the pool, it proceeded to DUMP with rain, and after an hour, they called the meet. And we went home. By way of KFC for dinner :) . Of course, the photos do not do justice to the amount of rain that fell. We were trapped under a stand umbrella on the far side of the pool from the kids.
This is the GDGoenka contingent.
One thing to notice - the swim suits on the Indian girls. I talked about this earlier, when we went to the water park, but to see a kid try to RACE in a suit with a skirt and legs was pretty weird. Oh yeah, and the other teams both had team suits, and matching towels, etc etc. Oh well. I am just glad I don't have to fork out $50 for a special "swim costume" (not suit, costime). Here is video of Alex, and we were very pleased with her performance. She got the job done, and we were happy with her willingness to put herself out there and give it a shot.
Alex has surprised us with how her swimming has improved. Actually, all the kids are so much better this year. We have been experimenting with snorkeling too, and Alex caught on right away - she dives down under with the snorkel and everything.

The BLOG HAS BEEN UPDATED!!! Check March, April....

2008-09-16T15:43:00.000+05:30

I apologize again for the delay, but the blog is getting new stuff added all the time! Unfortunately for you, the fair reader, I am posting these events as to the dates they occured, NOT when I get around to finally blogging them. I am sorry - I know it is more work for you. But less confusing for me. So, to see our big vacation for real, (the cause of the blog delay) go back in time to March (which is when we went) and read the blogs in reverse order - they are numbered (1 to 15) for your convenience. Have fun! (the trip is the oldest stuff, and much has been posted that fits in the time frame since then, so check April - and soon May - too. ) Thanks for hanging in there, and being interested in our wacky experiences here. :)

we are famous! mis-quoted, but famous :)

2008-09-11T20:59:00.000+05:30

So we were in Delhi shopping at Janpath market, buying pillow covers, and a girl approached us and said she was a journalist doing an article about tourists in Delhi and would we comment. We said sure, but we weren't tourists. She said ok and took our photo and wrote our answers down, and our names. We watched the papers and thought she must have either been scamming us, or decided not to use us. It was a whole week later that we showed

up in there, on page 4. And our names are spelled right, and match our photo, but that is where it ends - NOTHING she says we said, we actually said. We are NOT from France, we were NOT buying silk scarves, and we do NOT have GPS on our cell phones! So, my faith in the paper dropped a few notches. We have long known, tho, that what is in quotation marks here is a loose interpretation, and not an actual quote - we figured this out when they would quote Americans using words and phrases that no American would ever use! It also baffles me that they cannot tell the difference between an American accent and a British accent and a German or Dutch accent. I mean, really, we sound NOTHING alike! (oh yeah, we don't know anything about Sector 42, but we don't care either! and I think "besotted" is a strong word.)
But still, it was kinda fun to be in the paper!

An electrical storm like we have never seen before!

2008-09-06T11:46:00.005+05:30

Last night we were hit with a storm. It started with incredible wind, then moved into sheets of rain and lightning like crazy! We were watching it from the door but didn't think fast enough to go to the roof and take video. The video is still pretty incredible, but this was when the wind and rain were over and the lightning was about half what it had been. Amazing!

A monkey on my back (yard, that is)

2008-08-05T12:48:00.001+05:30

Well, this was really fun! Isaac was in Miranda's room that looks into the back and started yelling at everyone to come quick! He ran for the camera and took the first video too. This monkey was eating all the fruit (not sure what fruit it is) off this little tree. He was messy, too! And completely not bothered by his audience. We took the photos and video thru the window, of course, so that is why it appears a bit fuzzy.

When he left, he swung up onto the wall with no effort at all and strolled away. Lately we see him almost every morning, taking his morning constitutional along the wall, the whole length of the block. Christelle sees him daily on her wall too, so I guess he must take a lap of the whole neighbourhood!

Sari shopping - FUN FUN FUN!!

2008-06-03T18:00:00.016+05:30

Christelle got this idea that we should shop for sari - even tho she thought she would look like a sausage in one! I said I thought they were kind of flattering, but we didn't really know anything about it. So off we went, to the Ambience Mall - the largest mall in India, with over a kilometre of shopping on each level! (and there are 5 levels!!)
The first place we went into was a friendly choice (you are my sister - this is your store) and lots of guys standing around. No women anywhere. And thousands of sari to choose from. So we jumped right in! You can see the long counter. You point to one and they take it down, hold it just so, and fling it out and away from them so it flows out, unrolling in the air and landing gently on the long counter so you can get a good view of the 6 metres of fabric. You say, oh no I don't like that one, and they say no problem, and get out another. Pretty soon you have a thick stack on the counter. You select two or three, step to the side, and he fits you (the fun part!)
You start with arms in the air so he can wrap around your waist. When he has gone around once, he starts making pleats about the width of his hand. Lots of pleats. Then he wraps a think velcro'd elastic around your waist to hold the pleats right in the front. There is still 2 metres of fabric to go, so it wraps to the left, under your left arm, rising up under your right armpit, to cross the chest and go over the left shoulder. The result is a sort of draped grecian goddess look that is so fun! There are many variations to the basic method - different ways to go over the shoulder etc. This is a regional thing. She decided she liked red, so she tried a bunch of those. Well, Christelle looked so NOT like a sausage and it looked so fun that I wanted in! The guy (you know, my brother) told me that with my large height, sari looked very good on me :)

We have our own shirts on to try on. We figured out that a plain colour t-shirt is best so the next time we went we planned ahead.

These are the same - just different colours. That is a bit rare - most sari are one-offs - there is ONLY one, ever. You will not see another woman wearing the same one because there isn't another one. We took some self-portraits.

Then we moved on to the cream coloured ones

We had lots of fun, but didn't buy sari that day. I got mine for Mother's Day, and we had ours stitched - which is to say they are "cheaters" - sewn into a dress with just the last draping around the body left up to us. This frees us from doing the pleats and worrying that someone will step on the hem and you will be dress-less suddenly!

This is at a baby shower in the neighbourhood - we were mixing an American idea (the baby shower part) with an Indian idea (to dress up and wear sari and celebrate the soon-to-be mom). It was fun to dress up! Sadly, sari seems to look a million times better on a size two Indian, than a somewhat larger whitey! We did learn the secrets of diaper pins to hold your sari together, tho!

BTW, sari prices vary widely - from 8 or 10 dollars for a rayon one, to thousands for an elaborate bridal one. (Of course, you pay more at the mall than you do at the market.) They come in silk, cotton, crepe, rayon, georgette... and more. In every colour imaginable. Except purple - we have never seen a purple one (?). They can be solid colours, patterned, embroidered, beaded, seuined, all of the above. You wear a petticoat under-skirt thing underneath. The fabric for the blouse part is attached to one end of the sari fabric and you have the blouse stitched up (costs about 5 dollars) into a very tight, usually short top with short sleeves. We both opted for as long a top as they had fabric to make! The Indian women let their bellies show, which is not always a good thing. To have it stitched up completely (which even some Indian women do because it is so much easier) costs another 10 to 15 dollars. The saris you see us wearing in this photo are georgette fabric and cost about 50 dollars for mine and 80 for Christelle's. We will definately buy more of these awesome dresses!

Miranda's birthday - 8 years old!!

2008-05-29T20:02:00.000+05:30

For Miranda's birthday she wanted to try out the Fun Village at the Ambience Mall. It is sort of a ChuckECheese thing (oh how I HATE ChuckECheese!) with arcade games, rides and prize tickets. For the rides you buy a pre-charged credit card thing and just put it into the ride and the amount is deducted. (Better and cleaner than tokens) It was very loud, of course. But it was pretty fun. My favorite is the Dance Dance Revolution Game - it is cheap too, so we danced several times. Isaac is the king, since he does it tons at Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt's every summer. Later we played Whack-a-Mole and we ALL whacked - you get lots of tickets that way!!

At the end the kids pooled their tickets (somewhat willingly) and let Miranda choose the prize. A tiny brown teddy bear then came home with us.

When we got home, we had very chocolatey cake and presents!

Her siblings gave her a Princess colouring set with Princess crayons, extra stickers from Alex (Princess of course), puzzle and PlayDoh and Oreos and an artbook from Mom and Dad. And of course, the blanket from Grandma Brooks that she actually got at Christmas time!

I think she had a good birthday.

I think they call it monsoon...

2008-05-23T11:02:00.000+05:30

Well, it has begun. Early this year. It started with a nice electrical storm that the girls went up on to the roof to watch - we could hear them screaming and singing and whatever else up there. The lightning is pretty good here. Sam has decided the storms are her favorite thing about India (altho I should add that the list is pretty short!). Anyway, that was a nice break, it cleans the air and keeps the dust down (by turning it into mud, of course!), even as the temperature stays the same (over 100 most of the time). After a couple days of rain at night, it really hit. We wanted to go to Delhi to shop but by the time I got to the end of the driveway I was drenched! And the problem is that many of the shops don't open because so much of their inventory has to be outside on the sidewalk or hanging on a wall or whatever. They use a lot of blue tarps, but they only work to a point. There were many trees down, and traffic is slow. People huddle under the overpasses to get out of it - especially the motorcyclists and bike rickshaws. It gets crowded under there!
This picture is of a parking area at the Omax Mall (the mall across the main road from our neighbourhood). It used to be grass, then they filled it in with dirt so it was less of a mosquito breeding ground, but now it is a lake!Can you see the truck on its side in this photo? The roads are poorly constructed and when the rain hits, there are so many potlholes and soft spots, that bad stuff happens. This one is a truck sunk to the bumper in mud/pothole/etc. It has been there in the middle of the road for 3 days now.

Then yesterday we really got slammed - SO much rain - the most on one day in May in 5 years. The temperature REALLY dropped - the lowest temp in May in 5 years - it was not over 74 all day! Which was great, except the laundry will never get dry under these circumstances!

The best part is, that usually it rains like mad then quits and the sun comes out. (I love that!) But in order to get that record-breaking rain yesterday, it rained ALL day, just like Seattle. No wind, not hard rain, just all day. Bleah. I thought I was done having to run the lights at noon :)
Randy had some excitement at work because the gutters broke, so water was pouring in the plant, and when he tried to go outside to see if he could fix the gutters, he discovered the guard had LOCKED THEM IN THE PLANT!! So he banged on the door until it was unlocked then yelled at the guard and said NEVER do that. Five minutes later, he was locked in again! Perhaps not the safest idea. No idea why he would do that. Anyway, he took these photos of the street outside Helac's gates - really like a lake. Drainage is poor and the rain comes down SO hard and SO fast - like pouring out a bucket. I tried to take a photo but it just doesn't do it justice.

New baby means an excuse to see a hospital!

2008-04-29T13:42:00.000+05:30

On the same day that we visited the slum school, we also went with Sister Dun n to the Holy Family Hospital in Delhi to visit a woman from our branch of the Church who had just had a baby. (Missionaries in Delhi don't have cars, and it was quite a ways away, so it worked out for us to take her.) Christelle couldn't come in because they would not allow Niek (who is 3) to go in. We were not there in visiting hours, either, but there were 3 of us white ladies, and we just marched right in.
Someday I will blog about the crappy voodoo medicine they practice here - it is unbelievable the garbage advice people are given - you can't fathom that a DOCTOR would say such ludicrous stuff! But not today.
This is Theresa Fernando and her new son. She had been thoroughly prepared by the Dunns (he is a doctor!) but it was still scary for her since NO ONE is allowed in with you - no mom, no husband, no sister. Notice the furnishings right out of the 50s - metal beds, etc. And I wish the photos of the baby's diapers would have turned out better - these diapers are basically a triangle of single layer flannel (and not soft or fluffy at all) with strings on the wide side and a loop in the front. You put the baby on the triangle, pull the strings to the front, go thru the loop and tie. (You can see in this photo it took two of us to figure it out!) And if he actually does anything, it is a waste, since one layer of old flannel doesn't absorb anything! (I know this because I got wet whilst holding him!) And it barely keeps the other stuff off the blankets. Crazy. My baby gift to her was some velcro diapers, more than one layer thick! And I have never seen more of them to buy since then. You rarely see a baby with a diaper or pants on - al fresco is the way to go here, and since babies are almost always at home with a maid or Grandma, and all the floors are marble and it is warm all the time... who needs Huggies? If you do buy diapers, they come in ridiculously tiny packages (like, 10. what is that, a one day supply??) and they are ridiculously expensive.
Look at the hair on that kid! Cute, eh?

We visit a "slum school" with Sister Dunn

2008-04-28T12:35:00.005+05:30

We went to visit a "slum school" with Sister Dunn, the LDS Humanitarian Services missionary in our area (with her husband). She had worked with these kids for well over a year, and they loved her. We went because the Young Women of our branch were working on a project (alphabet decorations for classrooms) and we wanted to see the school and meet the principal before Sister Dunn left India (which happened a few weeks later).
There is not much glass in the windows, no working A/C, no maps, no charts, no library. The kids are cheerful, clean, and neat in their uniforms. The principal seemed to have it going on, and doing great with her limited resources. These kids go to school year-round - not for classes, necessarily - she told us they have school in the summer months basically to give the kids somewhere to go. They mostly do art projects and crafts during that time, not core classes.
Sister Dunn had taught music to them. They sang with her one last time and she cried. It was very sweet to see the way they responded to her.
One of the fundamental things wrong with this country, in my opinion, is the lack of emphasis on education for everyone. There is no law requiring or providing education for everyone up to a certain age. (Even if there was, so few births are registered officially, who would know how many kids are out there that should be in school, and how can you force them to go when their family needs them to work? It is a broken system.) Many kids are working by 9 or 10 years of age, and even if they go to school, many attend Hindi medium school not English, which limits them somewhat. Teachers are paid little, the facilites are appalling, books, paper and pencils are in very short supply. In many schools, there is two shifts of kids - one morning and one afternoon - to get the most out of the school buildings. Many families send only their sons to school, just one more way they demonstrate how girls are of less value here. The newspaper started an initiative called "Teach India" some months ago, and they match volunteers with schools, to teach 2 hours a week. It has really caught on, with nearly 50,000 people signing up to teach across the country. It is a brilliant idea, and it certainly can't hurt, where the government system is such a joke. One of the guys at Randy's factory is teaching kids every Friday. Right now, there is a waiting list - of volunteers!

Alex's Birthday - oh no! another TEENAGER!!

2008-04-26T23:08:00.001+05:30

Can you believe it, we are now the parents of TWO teenagers!!?? yuck. Alex's birthday was kind of fun - the Taylor twins snuck in and decorated her room when she was at school, then later we went to the mall to the ceramic painting place.

Sam painted a car, Alex a bunny dish thing, Harmony a clock, and Cumorah an egg plate to hold earrings. I painted a square dish to hold jewelry. We had fun! Who doesn't like the ceramics place?!

Isaac and Miranda came later, so they painted some fish magnets.

At home, we had a cake from the French bakery, and presents.

Alex's presents were a Disney Mix-Max (much to Sam's dismay - "what is the point of being 14 if SHE gets one when she is only 13!?"), a beaded mirror (in purple, her favorite colour), some books, chocolate from Christelle, a purse from Lori (who had just left), and stuffed things from the Taylors.

After a week or so we collected our ceramic things and had a group photo!

Happy birthday, Alex!

Flat Stanley made the trip to India

2008-04-20T22:25:00.007+05:30

(look close - you can see Stanley with Alex) Flat Stanley (for those of you without young kids) is a character in a book who is squished flat when a bulletin board falls on him. Altho some bad stuff happens, he discovers some good things about being flat (sliding under doors is one!) including fitting into an envelope to travel around the world. Kids all over read this book and then do school projects where you send your Stanley somewhere to friends or relatives for an adventure and he comes back to you with information and stories about his trip. (I am pretty sure Sam did this in 2nd or 3rd grade). Anyway, a friend of Elmer's at work (in Las Vegas) asked if they could send Stanley to us for an adventure. It was very good timing, since Lori was coming and we were going to the Taj Mahal (I mean, really, how many times does Stanley see a Wonder of the World?). When she arrived, we (mostly Lori) decked out Stanley in authentic Indian clothes and off we went. At the end, we sent him home to Spokane with Lori then he went home to Las Vegas in the mail. It was fun for us too, except we had to carry him around and try not to wrinkle him!We took Stanley to Sarojini Nagar market, for shopping. And then we bought some fried potatoes (yumm) but being so thin, he hasn't got much appetite so I ate his. The guys at the food stand thought we were weird, but they still held him up for a photo!
This is another famous site in Agra, Itimadud-Daula, but we didn't go in. We jsut had a photo-op.We went to the Red Fort in Agra (not to be confused with the Red Fort in Delhi) which is HUGE and is on the other side of the river from the Taj Mahal. If you are high up you can see it across the river. We went there first, so that was our first look at the Taj.Gotta love these giant gates and entrances. Alex was pretty-much Stanley's guide and taxi.While we were there and wandering around, we came across this group of monkeys. Stanley got a nice view of them.Stanley and the other kids wandered around the Red Fort, climbing all the hidden staircases and poking their heads out of crazy little doors 20 feet up in the wall, like this one.With Lori and the girls. This is a part of the Fort even though it is not red.Randy and Isaac show how authentic Stanley's clothes are. Lori did a great job. I really like the turban! We sent Stanley home with some postcards, elephant keychains, photos and hopefully some memories of a good time.

Isaac's Birthday - the double digits!

2008-04-18T23:47:00.001+05:30

Isaac turned 10!! and celebrated by putting clothespins in his hair. ???

He wanted angel food cake with strawberries, and I did my best to make it from scratch without the right pan, but they didn't look so hot. Oh well, we ate it anyway!

His presents included Heelies (the shoes with wheels in the heels)(which he had wanted forever, but these were too small and there is nowhere here to use them, so he sent them back to the US!) and a book series about a boy-spy from Mom and Dad, a math-magic book from Sam, Oreos from Miranda, and a wooden snake from Alex. She bought the snake at the market for him and it was pretty cool. Then she saw a cooler one in Agra. Rats! but he loved it, so who cares. The wooden thing in the middle of the photos is a tiny carved chess set. The Racko game is from Lori, who was here for his birthday.

Lori and Bobette, doing what we do best - hitting the markets!

2008-04-09T12:21:00.000+05:30

Sarojini is my favorite market because it is big, there is a huge variety of stuff, and it is all pretty cheap. There are actual shops, but usually they have encroached so far out into the street you can't tell if there is a building back there somewhere or not! And in many areas, they just put the merchandise out on the wall, or pillars, or on the ground. This is actually an alley. Much of the clothing at Sarojini is seconds, or rejects, or stuff they made with the leftovers. But some is name-brand stuff. We usually wear something we can try things on overtop, or a skirt for trying pants, as there are never changing rooms. Or bathrooms. Or drinking water, or security, or anything else you might want.

This girl was asking Lori questions about being a tourist in Delhi - some survey for her school, I think. Then she wanted a photo.
These are the outfits for 75 rupees. Yep, less than 2 bucks for a salwaar kameez. Of course, the quality isn't great, and they tell you they fit all sizes (really, like me and that size 0 Indian lady are the same??), but if you are looking for cheap...
And this is at the back of the market, where everything is laid out on a tarp. If you have time, you can score some serious deals. These guys don't even have shop space, so their stuff is cheap. But you have to wade thru it, or know exactly what you want so they can look. Here Lori is shopping for the scarves that I have one-in-every-colour. :) I LOVE THEM! They are a cotton, and they are cheap!

Lunchtime!! I love Sarojini because I can get the fired potatoes there...mmmm. I carry my own ketchup packs because they want to put spicy stuff on it and I want ketchup! You can see the guy in the blue shirt is cooking chunks of potato in a shallow wok-type pan. There is a puddle of hot oil in the middle and when you order, they push some chunks down into it to crisp up, then they salt it and serve it to you in a bowl made out of banana leaves. I LOVE IT! Another food on that short list. You can see the other guy, in the pink shirt (BTW, pink is not a girl colour here - and all the mens clothes are...how to put it...a bit feminine. Randy would never wear 75% of what the men's departments sell) holding Indian dressed Flat Stanley. More on him later, but I needed the photo of the food.
About a week after the trip to Sarojini, we headed back into Delhi to my other favorite market, Janpath. This is more hand crafted stuff - and more souvenir type stuff. On this one street, hundreds of bed covers, wall hangings, paintings, shawls, dresses, purses, etc etc. We go there so much, they wave and call to us when they see us now! This shoe shop sells the traditional leather slip-on shoes and leather sandals, among other things. One thing I hate about shoe shopping here is that, lets face it, my feet are bigger than standard, but they will get you some shoes, and say, these are perfect, when you say they are too small, they say no madam, fitting, fitting. And you have 2 inches of heel hanging off the back! but I digress.
This is a little kid dressed up at the God Shiva. For money, of course. Christelle took a photo then had to put money is his pot. I would admire his parents ingenuity if it wasn't the middle of a school day.

Janpath is a long street, so for fun, and to save walking, when we were done we took an auto-rickshaw. It was a bit tight with 3 women and a 3 year old and bags and bags of shopping, but we did it. It usually costs 20 or 30 rupees for a ride.

This is the outside of our favorite purse place, run by our purse guy Bryan. The inside is not so big, but he has so much on display! That is cool. What I really love is when we say, ok, we want this shape, with a shorter handle, maybe in blue, how about stripes? And he disappears into the piles for a second and comes out with a blue striped short handled purse, and you go wow.
This is video of the inside of our favorite purse place - run by our purse guy, Bryan. On the video I say 12x10, but I have since decided 10x8 is more like it.

On the way home, we pass this statue of Ghandi leading the march to the salt. I know all about it, because I read the kid's histroy textbooks when we first got here. :) It was one of the first acts of rebellion, when the British were trying to tax the salt that the Indians were harvesting from the sea.

Here is Lori's plunder. Oh what fun this represents! and not really a lot of money. At the back are quilted patchwork wall hangings, then there is outfits for her kids, her 50 rupee shopping bag from Sarojini (we find if you have a big bag, even if it is full, they don't bother you. But if you have any plastic bags, they see that you have been shopping and that seems to be an invitation to harrass you no end. So, we save ourselves the headache, and take a fabric bag.) beaded mirrors for her primary class, her salwaar kameez, and knock-off DVDs. I have a DVD guy at Sarojini - he is pretty good - 100 rupees for DVDs with 4 movies, or 9, or 300 rupees for 64 movies. (yeah, not sure how that works...) Whenever I complain about quality, he lets me swap, no problem. I like him. We have been able to get DVDs of some of the movies we owned only on VHS, so that makes me happy. I tried another guy at another market, and that went badly. Christelle had to start yelling. We had both tried games, Xbox for her, Wii for me, and they didn't work. Or the movies. So there was trouble. Christelle is not afraid of a scene if it gets us what we want. That is a fine quality in a shopping partner!!

This pretty much sums up our market shopping, there will be more later, but this did it for Lori and I. Next up, the Taj Mahal!!

the Fabric market in Delhi

2008-04-06T23:53:00.000+05:30

I had been hearing about the fabric market at Nehru Place for awhile, but decided to wait for Lori to go there, since she is a big sewer. It is a bit different than a traditional market idea, because it is large shops, side by side. But we were completely blown away - this is like Jo-Ann's on steroids! And a whole street of it! Each shop was pretty big, then it had a basement or an upstairs or both. One place had a whole room of JUST EYELET!!! white, cream, ecru, brown. with small holes, medium holes, large holes. Every design you could imagine. It was incredible.

Of course, we bought stuff. The hard part was getting your eyes to notice any particular thing. It is hard to choose when faced with so many options. One store, tho, I was heading up the stairs and my eye caught on a piece of red and white fabric (80 rupees a metre - that's less than 2 dollars). I bought it for a kurta (the tunic-type tops everyone wears here). I LOVE it! And I think if you DO see one specific thing in all that chaos, you better go with it! I had it stitched for about $4. Only problem is, it looks great with white pants, except under the tunic the pants go pink! But it washes out.

This is Nehru Place - fabric and electronics, among other things. Can you see Lori and Christelle?? Isaac bought some computer games here another time (knock-off of course, and they were no good) and I had a printer cartridge refilled (after which it promptly leaked all out into the bag). (India tops the "buyer beware" list, I think). After all that shopping, we needed to eat. So throwing Lori to the wolves, we ordered food at this dhaba - Chinese, tho, not Indian. About $1.50. Iit was pretty good! And as I said, no one sick :) We also got fruit drinks, but we got them in disposable cups, especially after we saw this guy washing the glass ones. And I use the term "washing" VERY loosely. GROSS!!
He is just sitting in the middle of the street. With that nasty brown pan of water. ICK!

Next up, a visit to my favorite market, Sarojini Nagar.

Lori is here!! a visit to Qtab Minar and Dilli Haat

2008-04-05T19:45:00.002+05:30

YAY!! Somebody loves me!! Enough to come all the way to India! Lori Clancy, who now lives in Spokane, but whom I have know since we first moved to DesMoines way back in 1997, decided to come and experience "Incredible India". You may have to ask her if it matched up the hype! (She told me when people say "did you have fun in India?" she says "...I don't know that FUN is the right word...") But we tried to show her some amazing, fascinating, bizarre stuff, anyway. (FYI she has 6 kids but most notably, her son Jeffrey is Isaac's long-time buddy, and Kiersten and Alex have also been friends since they were in preschool together.)
I was at the airport to pick her up, and wanted a photo, but I was just one of hundreds cramming up to the rails to see the people getting off the plane, so there was no opportunity. I wish I had photos of the airport - it doesn't look much like an "International terminal". But I digress. Lori had a list that I sent a few weeks early, and she did well to bring us some staples...cake mix, hair colour, spaghetti, tortillas, baked beans, marshmallows, mosquito spray, tortellini, Miracle Whip, croutons, and printer cartridges. You know, more of the essentials of life. She was severely jet-lagged, of course, so we went immediately for facials. (A well-known remedy for jet-lag!) Before I came here, I had never had one. I don't know how they are in the US but a facial here is not all I hoped for, but then, what do you want for $6, right? They cream, buff, steam, massage, cream some more. I think we got pedicures, too, which I love. More on the salon in another blog. We had a fairly relaxed schedule while she was here - we went somewhere one day, then stayed home one day, then went somewhere, etc etc. It seemed to work good. She did NOT get sick, so that is very good. We kicked Alex out of her room (the nicest room with the largest bathroom) so Lori could have it. The first place we went, to ease her into India, was to Delhi to Qtub Minar. I had been already, but without Randy and the kids, so we all went. Qtub Minar is a Muslim site, with a tower (the Minar) that in this case is 72.5 metres tall. You used to be able to go up in it, (all 379 steps) until recently when people were throwing themselves off the top a bit too frequently. (Suicide is VERY common here.) It is most noteworthy for the 7.2 metre iron pillar, known to be erected in the 4th or 5th century as part of a Vishnu temple and with NO rust at all after 1500 years. No one can explain this. It is carved all over with Sanskrit inscriptions. There is also a hall of pillars - this we found similar to things we saw in Mexico, at Chichen Itza - rows and rows of hundreds of intricately carved pillars. I love that - the amount of work is so overwhelming, and it is so beautiful.

Of course, there are many buildings on the site, including a mosque, and a tomb. And amazingly, some very nice lawns!

This is the 24 metre tall ruins of a really big idea - another tower that would have dwarved the Qtub Minar - the plans were for it to be twice as tall. Only problem was that the king building it died, so it never got completed. These photos are in the tomb area, so pretty with all the carvings and those gorgeous arches. Isaac is playing Indiana Jones here, hoping to discover a secret entrance, or something.

And then there is a hill, so we must roll down it.

This is a funny one !

I don't know, am I too easily impressed? I love this stuff - 800 years old and still standing. I am constantly blown away but what those guys did with no heavy equipment and primitive tools. Of course, they had elephants, and that's a lotta horsepower!!

So, when we left Qtub Minar we headed to Dilli Haat, which roughly translated means Delhi Market. I have probably mentioned it before - you pay 10 rupees to get in (25 cents which keeps beggars out) and there are booths which are rented out to vendors from all over India, on a rotating basis, so each time you go, the stuff is different.

The prices are higher, and the people are usually foreign, but it is a nice way to start out shopping here - it is clean, quiet, not threatening. And there is food. We ate garlic and butter naan bread (my absolute favorite Indian food - but it's a short list) and had kulfi for dessert. Kulfi is a pistachio flavoured ice-cream thing on a stick. The kids and I love it, Randy not so much.

We bought a few things, a beaded door curtain for Kiersten, and a GORGEOUS all-over embroidered jacket for Lori among others. This is a great time of year to visit India - hot but not intolerable.

Next stop - the fabric market!

Anish and his family

2008-03-26T12:13:00.001+05:30

When we moved into Eldeco Mansionz, among the first poeple we met were the Raman family. They had moved here from California (where both kids were born). Their son Anish was in Isaac's class at school, and was his buddy. Mom Suba was a big help to me, showing me where stuff was, explaining things, translating, and Diwaker helped us get our driver a place to live, and explained stuff to us. Their daughter Rhea was part of the little gang of girls that Miranda hung out with and went to dance class with. Unfortunately for us, after the school year was over they moved back to California.
Near the end of their time here, they took a trip to the southern part of India and Suba brought back a GIANT souvenir! These are brass lions, and yes they are VERY heavy!

She had only unwrapped the one , and left the other packed to ship to the US. I wanted her to stand beside it for scale but she wouldn't :) Trust me, they are huge. How cool is that!? I think the plan is to put them at the front door. An impressive entrance!

EASTER

2008-03-25T12:19:00.000+05:30

We did all the traditional stuff for Easter - I had brought egg-dye kits so we were prepared! You can buy a flat of eggs (2.5 doz) for less than $1.50 (altho, you sometimes have to wash the feathers and mud off the shell!) so we had lots to decorate. The Easter Bunny came too - he hid the baskets but they were found pretty quickly - he must not have tried too hard!

Alex's basket was way up in the top of the stairwell by the maid's room. Miranda's was in the steel almirah (that means cabinet) with all my scrapbook stuff. Isaac's was under the chair and he went right to it like he had x-ray vision! Sam's was hidden in the desk with all the school books.

Everybody got swim goggles - now THIS is a good looking group!!
There was also books for everybody, and a bit of candy.

part XV is it over? can we get out of the car now?

2008-03-24T16:59:00.004+05:30

On the drive home, we saw so many crazy things - weird vehicles, overloaded vehicles, people working in the fields. The working in the fields was bothering me, because it was hot out, it is all totally manual, and all done by WOMEN. And more than once we saw men laying around on beds in the shade drinking something while across the road women in sari harvested grain STALK BY STALK! I am not kidding - we saw areas where they had obviously cut the heads that were mature and left others still growing - it looked like thinning hair! I guess when you cut it by hand you can do that. They would make stooks (is that how you spell that??) and in other fields we would see crews (of women again) gathering the stooks and once in a great while we saw a tractor. But never with equipment, only to haul a load.

Look! Palm trees!

I think seeing the guys that ride on top of the buses is one of my favorite things. So safe, eh?

This photo answers the question of what is in those puffy loads, and we are surprised the bursting at the seams thing doesn't happen more often. I don't think it is grain, tho, it must be chaff or it would be way too heavy.
Randy and I kind of like a road trip, because there is just so much wacky stuff to see out the windows! However, the roads are so narrow and windy, and are so full of bumps and potholes, and the driving is so bad (speed up, slam on the brakes to go over a sppedbump in the middle of nowhere, floor it, come up behind a tractor and slam on the brakes again, swerve around some rocks, honk the whole time, speed up again, drive fast thru a little village where small children walk in the road, swerve around a cow or a camel, repeat 35 times each hour) that being in the car is not that fun. And Isaac seems to have some motion sickness issues. So he barfed the whole drive home. Lots of fun for everyone! Luckily, not our car :)

Apparently this method of travel is very common in Rajasthan (the state we were in) and you hear often of accidents where a jeep-thing goes over a cliff with 25 people killed. The roads are narrow, there are many hilly areas, and it is a recipe for disaster.

More massive flocks of sheep and goats.

What kind of crazy vehicle is THIS?

This guy is going to a wedding - probably not his own, since he is not all decked out. But someone has to deliver the horse! It is traditional for the groom to arrive on a white horse.

The auto rickshaws we saw in Rajasthan were way more fancy than what we see in Delhi - all chromed out, with fancy colours and designs.

We were very happy to arrive at our little oasis of normal, Eldeco Mansionz, and just go to bed. And thus ends tha saga of our first (disastrous) vacation in India. whew. Glad that's over!

part XIV the private bath on the side of the road

2008-03-24T11:49:00.001+05:30

OK so here is something we saw SO much during the drive - people washing at the village pumps. All the pumps looked the same, and each village seemed to have 2 or 3, right along the road. Now in Gurgaon and Delhi, you see men washing behind water trucks, and in streams, but I had not seen women or children, and I had never gotten a decent photo. And this is not to be a voyeur, I just find it so amazing that this is how it is done. And in all these villages we drove through, it was going on constantly. I guess when 300 people have one pump...

The men strip down to their underwear and get right to it - lathering up and rinsing. They just get dressed again wet. The women have a more difficult time (typical. This is NOT an easy place to be a woman.) They use their sari to cover up while they wash one side then move the sari and wash the other. There really is no privacy - we saw it several times as we drove by - and the sari is not a very efficient cover.

This was the first time I had seen these water pots made of metal. I wonder how far these girls haul water every day and how many trips thay have to make.

We saw these elevated beds in the shade all the time. I do not know what the deal is, I don't think it is a residence, but there was usually someone having siesta.

part XIII Ranthambore Fort

2008-03-23T22:05:00.002+05:30

Inside the National Park is Ranthambore Fort - a VERY old, VERY large, VERY well fortified structure. It was built in about 944 AD and has a 7 km circumference. You can see in the photos haw high on the edge of the rock it is built. The climb to the top is a pretty good hike - it is 700 feet up.

This fort was fought over many times, but it is very difficult to conquer (even in a seige, it is a great location - there is a stream running right into the complex). The story goes, tho, that in about 1380 the Fort did fall, and 10,000 women committed mass suicide rather than be taken by the enemy!

The view from the top was great - you can see forever. It is pretty popular - there were lots of people there. We got talking to some older people, since the man was wearing a Seattle Mariners hat! Isaac told him he doesn;t like cricket and misses baseball, and they were sypathetic. One thing about being so far from home, you are not afraid to strike up conversation with strangers that look or sound like they might be American.

There were lots of monkeys here. And they didn't move out of the way!

Stairs, stairs and more stairs. And this is just the main biulding. There were structures all over the place - temples, living areas, etc.

One area was nicely grassed, and there were quite a few peacocks strutting around. Cool!

The area that is now the National Park was once the Royal Hunting ground.

This is in amazing shape for its age. Too bad about the graffiti.

part XII SAFARI - day 2 - oh yeah there IS no day 2 :(

2008-03-23T13:35:00.003+05:30

Ok I am going to give you the Reader's Digest version of Day 2, because (a) it is a long and sordid story that gains nothing in the telling, and (b) it still makes my blood boil if I think about it. We showed up outside the hotel nice and early for Safari #2, and vehicle after vehicle went by. Another couple from our hotel even got picked up, but not us. By an hour past pick up we figured there was a problem so we drove to the gates of the park.

It was there that we were made aware of how completely customer-service-free this country is. Altho there was time, there were cantors with space, and we knew we were listed and pre-paid, we were not allowed on the safari. After much gesturing, bargaining, explaining, then some shouting, a little swearing and even some poking-in-the-chest (Randy, not me!), with extremely elevated blood pressure we were forced to walk away. We really did walk, since the driver had gone back to the hotel with the kids so they could swim. We were SOOOOO mad. I cannot adequately express it. We drove all that way, endured the highway robbers, stood in the heat by the side of the road, paid good money for a safari, and got totally ripped off. And the part that made us the maddest is the smug looks and snickering as they told us it was impossible. And no refund, either. Grr. Even typing this I am livid all over again. And this is the short version! Imagine the long :)

So we spent the day at the hotel, which was pretty cool. We had two cabins, at the poolside! Awesome. The main pathways from the lodge were covered.

This is the view from the road. And in case you are wondering, like I did in the beginning, where does the driver go while you are staying at a swanky place, well, there is always driver housing next door. Our driver told us there is beds and a rec room with big screen TV and sound system, and they basically lay around and watch cricket while the tourists bounce around thru the parks and get all sweaty.

We mostly had the pool to ourselves.

Here is a clip of me feeding the wild animals.

The saddest thing about this incident is that even though we did lots of fun things on this trip, we can only look back at it and have bad feelings. The next morning, I got up early to check and see if we were on the safari list for that day (after the chest-poking incident, I thought it would be safer to leave Randy at the hotel!) and lo and behold, our names were not there. So, that was the end of that, and we ended up headed out a bit early.

part XI SAFARI Day 1 Ranthambore

2008-03-23T09:35:00.002+05:30

We had three safaris booked - twice on Sunday, morning and evening, then Monday morning. We were pretty excited for the chance to see tigers in their natural habitat. I had read in the paper that Ranthambore was not really the best place to see a tiger, but the travel agent had assured us the odds were not too bad. We waited outside the gate of our hotel complex to be picked up in a cantor vehicle. We sat right at the back which seemed like a good idea until we realized how incredibly ROUGH the ride was! We were bounced around like crazy! And by the time we wanted to move, the seats were full and we were stuck.

We rode around, picking up other riders at a variety of different hotels and resorts, then entered the National Park.

Right away we saw deer - lots of deer.

And then we saw monkeys, lots of monkeys.

Monkeys on the ground, monkeys in the trees . Monkeys with babies, and some with knobby knees. OK not really but I wax Seussian for a second.
A little bit farther (bump, bump, bump) and we came to the "walking tree". These trees put new roots down and shift around. I read how far and how fast but now I can't find my source. They sure look weird.

We had a great time, but unfortunately did NOT see a tiger.

The cantor ride was like a roller coaster and it was fun. The best part was when we got to an area with some tents and jeeps - I think the ranger station - and they asked if anyone needed to go to the bathroom. We looked around - no bathrooms and I realize what they really mean is you can find a tree to use, and now is your chance. A couple men got off, but no women. Surprise. While we waited here, under a tree, the birds started coming around. I am not sure who started it but pretty soon everybody was feeding them anything we could find. It was so cool! They would land right on your hand.

This crazy tree was way up on the side of the hill but had sent its roots waaaay down. Thirsty, I guess.

On the way home, dropping off some people at a really swanky place in the middle of nowhere.

We had a bit of fun with the Steve Irwin impersonation thing - we were all doing it! I had intended of course to have several installments of the show, but alas, it was not to be.

Jaipur - part X - to Ranthambore - highway robbery - literally!

2008-03-22T17:34:00.001+05:30

We left Jaipur and headed out on the highway to Ranthambore National Park, about 180km from Jaipur. The roads were decent and things were going along fine when we encountered a rock barrier on the road and a bunch of kids. The driver stopped, talked to them for a bit, then gave them some small amount of money. They moved the rocks and we drove on. It turns out, this is not that uncommon on Holi, they want money for their celebration, and each car only has to give 20 or 30 rupees (50 or 75 cents US). The first three times, it was not a big deal, it seemed all good-natured. As it went on, we encountered more groups and we felt the spirit of it change - the mood of the gangs was uglier, they wouldn't take the amount the driver wanted to give, they crowded around the car and tried to open the side doors, once they pretended to throw a big rock at the car. The driver started trying to speed around the barriers and leave them behind shouting after us. Frankly, it was NOT fun. It is remote out there and we felt a bit vulnerable. Once we came to a bridge with a barrier at one side - there was no one around. Randy and the driver got out and cleared the whole barricade. It seems typical to make a mess and not clean it up when you are done - Indians do not have much civic pride or social responsibility as a general rule. So for the gangs to walk away and leave the barrier up did not surprise us.
These photos show a bunch of cars lined up at a barricade. We were surprised that a busload of people would tolerate the shakedown.

We were in Rajasthan, one of India's larger states. It does not have the nicest terrain - kind of scrubby and flat. But it does have lots of great looking palm trees!
We saw many large fields, with crops being cut by hand. And exclusively by women. We also saw monkeys, and the driver was good to stop and let us take pictures.

And then, something totally cool happened!! We were suddenly in the middle of a herd of camels! Some were off to the side, but there was bunch on the road. And there were babies!! This was so neat! Make sure you play the video - this little guy was running with us!

Jaipur - part IX - more cool stuff we saw and did in Jaipur

2008-03-22T14:33:00.001+05:30

One landmark of Jaipur is the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of Winds. Hawa Mahal was built in 1799 and is a pyramid-shaped facade with five stories. It has 953 small windows decorated with tiny lattice work. These pink sandstone windows are constructed so that it looks like a giant honeycomb. The air circulation through windows comes from Mughal designing, to keep the Palace cool. Hawa Mahal is believed to have been built for the women of the Royal Families, since they were required to keep a veil over their faces. The small windows and screened balconies allowed the women to watch processions and different activities taking place on the main streets without showing themselves. The Palace is all facade - only 15 feet thick! It is hard to get good photos because it is on the street and you can't back up far enough to really see it.
It was closed that day so we didn't get to go it. Rats.
A highlight of our day for the kids was this ice cream place. (I swear, why do we go anywhere? all they remember are waterslides and ice cream parlours!) They were very impressed with the gigantic menu - so many choices! And since hard ice cream is a not terribly common, it was a real treat.

Jaipur has an area famous for its pigeons, too. You can buy feed and they will land on you. We didn't, partly because Randy thinks they are a plague and a menace. And partly because he is cheap :)

A favorite thing for me is always the big gates and walls around the old cities. I think those old fortifications are cool. Jaipur has many gates to see, some fancier than others.

Here are some photos of random stuff we saw around town - the shopping areas are always so brightly coloured!

I am not sure if I have talked about this before, but here in India, for little kids, clothing on the bottom half seems to be optional. I thought at first it was a potty-training thing, but it seems to be more than that. You see so many kids with no pants on! Hanging out at their hut, sitting on piles of rocks (ouch), walking around, showing the world at an intersection, whatever, they are doing it with no pants.

Another famous building in Jaipur is the Water or Lake Palace or Jai Mahal. It was built (again, what story you get depends on who you ask or where you read) as a summer retreat for the royal family. In the middle of the lake would be much cooler I am sure. No one uses it now, and I don't think there is any way to see it. Some reports say that they bird hunted in the fall and winter and that there is a path or bridge to it when the water is low. I am not knowing the answer to this. Coming down the hill from the Forts we could see the Palace and the road goes right by it with a great view.

This bright painting was in the lobby of our hotel. Sam really liked it. One night we ate at a restaurant next door to our hotel - it was weird - they have many cafeteria-style (sort of) places here - Haldiram's is a huge chain of them - and the process of getting your food is long and complicated. And is best done in better Hindi than I have! But upstairs in this place you could get pizza and fries (I think french fries must be the universal food - you seem to be able to get them in one form or another EVERYWHERE) and the best part - pop in GLASS BOTTLES!! This was the first time our kids had ever had that. :) good cheap fun!

Jaipur - part VIII - Holi celebrations

2008-03-22T11:33:00.002+05:30

So we got a taste of Holi at the Elephant Festival, and we could certainly see signs of it everywhere in Jaipur. One thing we noticed were these sheaves of grass on the street corners and at the intersections. Later on, we saw the bonfires and figured it out. Apparently there is a certain time that the fires should be lit - we missed that (other than the fire at the Festival) and just saw the remains. I bet it looks cool when fires are burning high all over the city.

We also saw people (women mostly) with these giant piles of stuff to sell. I THINK it is manure, maybe to burn, but it is in these spiral rings. It must be on a rope or something. (Poop on a rope, isn't that a Father's Day gift??!) We aren't sure, but it was certainly readily available.
The next thing we noticed all over was the Holi colours. Holi IS the Festival of Colour, and it is to celebrate the triumph of good over bad and to usher in the spring. The colours we refer to is the powder that they throw on each other. People everywhere have it to sell by weight - I think we paid 15 rupees per 100g. Sam wanted some to take home but we nearly weren't allowed back into the hotel with it! We had to swear we were taking it home and would NOT throw it inside!
I loved to see the bright piles everywhere. Most of the time the colours were pretty standard but sometimes someone would have a variation. I think it is possible to get organic or plant based colours but I am sure most now are synthetic colours.

We decided to take a rickshaw ride around an found a driver that said he would hit the major sites. We tired to get him to follow the meter (which is the law) but he claimed it didn't apply on a holiday. I think that is a load of crap, but it was still pretty cheap, so what the heck. We all piled in to an auto rickshaw (first time for everybody but me) and drove around. The streets were just FILLED with people, more than normal, and all of them not their original colour! We were told that on Holi, everybody is fair game - if you are outside, prepare to get colour - you can't opt out. We saw lots of crazy sights and made a loop thru the main part of town and were coming back to the hotel, when... splat! Randy and Miranda, who were riding in the back, facing back, receieved a direct hit from some guys on a motorcycle.

This first viedeo is out the window of our hotel. Apparently there is some dancing involved in Holi too, but you may have to be drunk for that.
Holi seems to me to be mostly a young man's holiday - a chance for them to let loose and forget the rules. You will see what I mean when you keep reading the next blog entries. What we saw that day seemed like harmless (maybe even pointless!) fun.
Most of these videos I took from the rickshaw, and I was just trying to show what the streets really looked like, and sounded like. Of course, it never really does it justice.

Jaipur - part VII - the Elephant Festival

2008-03-21T23:41:00.002+05:30

We were pretty excited to attend the Elephant Festival. It is a free event held in a large field- cricket pitch maybe? It started with a parade of elephants, camels, horses, and people in weird costumes. There were LOTS of people there, and I hate to guess, but I will say 40% were foreigners. We sat on risers, sort of shallow bleachers, to watch. (altho people were also on the under-construction building next door, for good seats!) There were bands playing too. Unfortunately, the announcer kept asking people to clear the field, but they never did, even after the police showed up. Then, everyone was on the field, including the cops sitting on the grass and ignoring the announcer! We were disappointed that there was no elephant polo - that had been an event in past years, but not this year. :(

There were 4 cameras in action, so we got a real variety of photos - Isaac is fond of the self-portrait function on my old camera!
It was hot, but the sun went down behind the building and then it was just really nice. The elephants were judged - best outfit I think - then people were taking photos and whatever. We were sitting beside a couple of backpackers from Vancouver, so we spent quite a bit of time talking to them about living in India.

this is video - check it out...

These "elephant ears" looking things were for sale - 10 rupees (25 cents) - all over the place - so we tried one. Guys were constantly roaming the crowd. We saw lots of people carrying the baskets on their heads too. They are crispy and don't have much flavour. Of course, we got the ones WITHOUT all the red spice (chili powder?) all over!

I liked seeing the paint jobs on the elephants. I touched the trunk of this one that Alex and Miranda had their photos with (which cost me money of course) and it was unexpectedly soft. We did NOT get a ride. rats. I also like their feet - so weird.
After the judging and awarding of prizes, some foreigners names were picked (I assume they paid someone) to ride on an elephant and "play Holi". Holi is the holiday of colour, and to play Holi is to throw coloured powder on everyone in sight. Frankly, as the one who does the laundry, the appeal is lost on me. But it would be kind of cool to do it 15 feet up on the back of an elephant!

Holi starts in the evening, and goes until 2 pm the next day (or something like that - there is really no definitive answers to these questions, I think - it depends who you ask) More about it in the next blog...

We finally decided that since no one else was leaving the field, we better get down there to see something. When they brought out the Holi colours, we headed for cover. But not fast enough! There was a bit of a breeze...

When it got dark, we headed for the car. Sam encountered some kids, who offered her some colour, so she put it in the one kid's hair, then they got it all over her! I didn't see it - next thing I knew, she was orange.
There was fireworks too. All in all, it was fun, altho we wish there had been polo or races or something to see besides the parade. But, being a free festival, the price was right so we won't complain too much!

Jaipur - part VI - hand stamped fabric factory

2008-03-21T17:41:00.002+05:30

Our guide took us to a place where they do stamping on fabric, with vegetable-based dyes, and on natural fabrics - silk and cotton. Jaipur is famous for this work, and it was pretty cool. The guy in charge took us out to the work-area (under cover but with only 3 walls and no door (??) and let the girls stamp something!

They all stamped with a different colour. Except Isaac who was waiting in the car because he was sure it would be boring. Then later he felt ripped off of course, because it was cool! Unfortunately, Miranda left the finished product at the hotel :( so these photos are all that is left.
The stamps are hand-carved, wooden blocks.
Because they are vegetable dyes, the true colour doesn't show up until they dry. They stamped 4 colours on this, so they had to like it up very carefully, then you have to press HARD (or pound, in Miranda's case).
To make yellow they use saffron, for blue, indigo, for red, sugar cane, onions to make grey, limestone for white, mango leaves to make green, and iron oxide for black.
To accelerate the colours they put it in a bath of something or other,

laid it on the marble block to check the work, then gave it to us. FUN!!! Too bad we don't have a photo of how good it looked when the colours came out.
Of course, when the fun is over, they want to show you their shop (surprise!! they want to sell you something!!). There were SO many things in there! Every wall, stacked right up. It is organized by product, then size, then you point at one you want to see, or they start pulling them out in a colour you like. We looked at tablecloths, wall hangings, and bedcovers. Randy, to my surprise, liked the bed covers, so after seeing about 100, we decided to buy a silk/cotton blend with elephants on it. It was my favourite design, but not my favourite colours, but it was close.
When they show you stuff, they unfold it, then spread it out on a table or counter for your viewing pleasure. Even when you say "No I don't like that colour" they still do it. At first when I would see stuff in a shop I would feel bad that they would unfold so many things that I would never buy, and I would feel guilty for all the additional work. Now I don't. First off, there are always about 12 employees more than they need, who spend their whole day refolding stuff that someone like me has not purchased. Secondly, I always SAY I don't want blue, or no paisley or whatever, and if they don't listen, how is that my fault. Plus, they always think they know what you want even if you have told them the exact opposite. So, as punishment for not listening, someone can refold! In this case, I think we had 20 or 30 bed covers on our laps, and it was HOT! I wasn't really sure how I felt about the bedcover idea - I have always prefered duvets to a bedspread, but I LOVE IT!! it is too hot for much more than a sheet, but it looks better. and it is so soft. And pretty. And it has elephants!

They sold turbans, too. Is it me?? BTW, a turban is 8 or 9 metres of fabric!Afterwards, we went back out to the work shed, and a guy was stamping this bedcover. It goes pretty fast. It is sort of like on a quilting frame, so they can roll in and get at the middle. A king-sized bed cover is pretty big! That shelf holds all the different stamps for all the different patterns.

Jaipur - part V - Jaigarh Fort

2008-03-21T14:43:00.004+05:30

We left the Amber Fort and drove farther up the hill to an older fort, more functional, less beautiful. It is on the crest of the hill and was designed to increase the security of the Amber Fort and the city of Jaipur. It also has massive tanks and a system to collect rainwater. One of the tanks holds 6 million gallons of water! These places are amazing, in their sheer size! This view is of the Amber Fort down below.
We walked out to the end of the wall, to the tower on the end. Each of these little arched battlements has a space for soldiers to get in and fire down on attackers thru an angled slit. We discovered a downside to the "crawl on all the historic buildings" philosophy - the Indians have a real shortage of public bathrooms, and as much as they like the side of the road, apparently they really like these tiny spaces every 12 feet along this 300 year old wall. GROSS! and really smelly. ick. On the way back, we cut thru a different way and discovered that the place is CRAWLING with monkeys! Tons of 'em. Lots of babies too. We were going to walk down this path but when that many monkeys start hissing at you, you start to reconsider!

This building houses the Jaivan cannon, the largest cannon in the world. It requires 3 elephants to move it. It has only been fired once, and apparently deafened the men who set it off.

Another panoramic look.

Jaipur - part IV - the Amber Palace

2008-03-21T11:32:00.005+05:30

This is really one of the coolest places we have seen so far. It is HUGE and way up on a hill, to be strategic militarily, of course. It was built in 1592. You have the option of riding an elephant to the Fort, which we intended to do, but unfortunately, it being Festival weekend, the lines were too long, and we were too late.

We waited in line, and the kids sat in the shade of the giant palm trees or got wet in the sprinklers, then we gave up and took a jeep up the steep hill.

This is a HUGE complex. The wall around it is wide enough to drive (or ride an elephant!) on.

This courtyard is built overtop of a huge cistern, designed to hold vast amounts of water that would let them resist a seige. It has a complicated system of drains and collection. We saw a woman getting water from this hole.
This goat was happy to eat out of your hand.

Ongoing repairs. Everything is so labour-intensive here.

This area with all the mirrors is pretty famous. It sure bounced the light around.

There were many little passages and halls cutting thru everywhere - the idea was that the women could get around without anyone seeing them. When this fort was built, the fashion was VERY heavy, ornate dresses for the queen. Like 45 pounds or so. So she mostly moved around in a wheeled-chair pushed by ladies-in-waiting. Many of the passages had ramps instead of stairs. There are often little slatted windows to let in air, and let them see out, but no one could see them. The windows up high that you can see in this full photo are carved with the star pattern. They were well-hidden here - you can see that there is someone there, but can't see their features. The king didn't like anybody looking at his woman.

This is all inlay. Must have taken FOREVER!

From the top, looking over the wall. Doesn't this seem to defeat the purpose of washing the clothes?

The guide showed us these bas-relief style panels. No two are the same.

There were monkeys everywhere. Somewhere along here is where Randy suddenly came upon a monkey, and his reaction was to reach out and PULL ITS TAIL!!! Not really a very good move - they bite and carry disease! I wasn't there but the kids came on the run to tell me.

This is not glass - it is carved out of a panel. These were behind a barrier to protect them. Most had some damage, this one was the best preserved.

This is a panoramic view.
On the way back to Jaipur, we got a good view out of the wall. Not quite like China's, but still pretty impressive. It goes for miles. We also saw lots of elephants on their way to the festival.

Jaipur - part III - the City Palace

2008-03-20T19:37:00.001+05:30

This is our tour of the City Palace, also built by Maharaja Jai Singh.

I am always amazed at the intricate carving. And it's not in just a few places, it is EVERYWHERE!
Many of these areas were designed as open air rooms, to catch the breezes. Sometimes you can see big hooks where they might hang curtains to give shade or privacy. Often these were the places where you could have an audience with the ruler.

There is always a huge center courtyard.
These little girls got in the way of some Holi colours!

Alex with this ...guard, I guess.
This vessel is silver, supposedly the largest one in the world, originally made to carry water from the River Ganga for the Maharaja to drink on his sea voyage to England.

I like the arches everywhere in the Mughal style.

The wheel is made of guns. Thus the pose!

Jaipur - part II - Jantar Mantar

2008-03-20T16:38:00.001+05:30

Our first stop was to Jantar Mantar, a giant complex of various sundials, and astrological devices. It was built by Maharaja Jai Singh in the early 1700s. The name literally means "calculation instrument" (or "magical device" in Sanskrit, depending on who you ask!). These are not your backyard sundials - these babies are HUGE and measure time to within 2 seconds. Here is the official overview...
"The observatory consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars in their orbits, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes and related ephemerides. Each is a fixed and 'focused' tool. The Samrat Jantar, the largest instrument, is 90 feet high, its shadow carefully plotted to tell the time of day. Its face is angled at 27 degrees, the latitude of Jaipur. The Hindu chhatri (small domed cupola) on top is used as a platform for announcing eclipses and the arrival of monsoons."
Cool, eh? Again, the best part about India is you can climb all over this stuff! Altho, later the guards blew their whistles at the kids when they were on their own sign of the Zodiac.

Our guide explained everything and showed us how the sundials worked. It was so interesting but of course I have forgotten most of it!

I did enjoy watching them mow those massive lawns with an electric mower. This requires a cord guy, so you don't run over it.

This is the 90 footer. We wanted to go up but some guys were working on the stairs. Well, they were sitting in the shade on the stairs avoiding work, maybe that is more accurate.

These big dishes in the ground are cut like this to make a full half globe if they were put together - (imagine the puzzle pieces fitting together) They represent one half of the year each, and are positioned to be accurate during that one half. They have markings on the marble that line up very precisely with where the shadows fall. The whole thing seemed unbeleivably advanced for 1730, ya know?
The guide is showing us (with a business card) how to read this different style timepiece.

Look at where the shadow falls on this sundial, then see the markings on this photo - each of these sections is 30 seconds - down to 2 seconds for the tiniest markings. Amazing. You could stand and watch the shadow move, and time pass. Pretty cool!

There are 13 to 17 devices here, again, depending on who you ask.

It was hot, and all that stone radiates the heat back.

Jaipur - Part I - the getting there

2008-03-20T13:49:00.004+05:30

The kids were finished their school year at the end of March, so we decided it was time to see something. So we headed west to Jaipur - about a four hour drive (it is 250km). The roads are ok.

I brought my old purse camera and Isaac discovered the self-portrait setting :)

We booked this trip thru a travel agent, so we had a different car and driver, altho it was still a Toyota Innova. This one had a DVD player, but we didn't watch any VeggieTales until the trip home.

As always, there was lots of crazy stuff to see - starting with THOUSANDS of goats and sheep. And that is literal - we tried to count (Alex keeps a little booklet of the numbers of animals she sees) but it was simply impossible.

The giant herds were everywhere, and we saw lots of shepherds and goatherds too, looking really busy, like these guys :)

Later, we saw all these monkeys on the side of the road - eating bananas and bread that one of the fruit sellers tossed them.
We also saw a garbage truck

and a truck filled with fabric, going to be shredded and re-woven into cloth.

We also saw some overloaded trucks (this is VERY common here - MOST trucks on the road are over the weight limit, have had very little maintainance, and are disasters waiting to happen). and some painted up trucks (also common).

Jaipur is called the Pink City because the wall around the city was painted pink before a visit from a king, and it has been that way since. The walls of the old city are so cool - I love the thick walls and huge ornate gates. There are many many things to see in Jaipur - it is one of the top tourist attractions in India. It was so fun to just be away from home!

Our hotel was not really deluxe, but it was clean and not too expensive :) The city was full due to the Elephant Festival and the holiday weekend for Holi. There was a fold-out couch in the room, and we got a cot, so the four kids were in their own room. We had windows overlooking an intersection, interesting to watch the traffic, the people and all the regular crazy stuff.

This mural is in the hotel. This is a neat building we saw - Albert House. I think it is a governnment building, currently being renovated, so not open to the public.
I like the arches and the stone.
We enjoyed just driving around, but we started right into the sightseeing!

The Spa at the top of the world

2008-03-18T10:23:00.001+05:30

Christelle and I were looking into spas in case we wanted to celebrate my birthday that way :) so we went to the Galaxy Tower in Gurgaon just to see it. It has a rooftop garden area that you walk thru to get to the spa, and the views of Gurgaon are pretty good. They have a rooftop pool too, and we did get a "menu" and then we immediately knew we weren't coming HERE anytime soon! whew! So we took some photos, and looked around and left. One thing about India, even when the prices are way out of our league, just because we are foreign, they always assume we COULD afford it, so nobody turns up their nose at you when you go into the Mercedes dealership at the mall, or check out a really pricey spa!

And here is the other thing about India - you stand in a crazy expensive place and look out over a crazy poor place. This group of tent houses is at the foot of the Tower, hidden behind a tall fence. My guess is that the people living here are working on this construction project. That is often how it works - they set up temporary housing on the site, and the whole family works. I have much more to say about this with other photos of construction.

It is so hard to reconcile the extremes here - so much money in the hands of a few, and such extreme poverty in the lives of so many. On the one hand, we ate in a hotel here (with the Helac accountant) and I saw an Indian woman so clearly filthy rich she could have bought and sold us with what she had in her purse! On the other hand, everywhere you look people live under a tarp tent with no floor, cook over a fire, and carry their water in a bucket. It is hard to wrap your head around it.

Bobette's birthday

2008-03-15T10:22:00.000+05:30

For my birthday, Alex and the Taylor twins (that's Harmony on the left and Cumorah in the middle) made me a cake! It wasn't the prettiest thing ever but I didn't have to make it so that is ok. And Randy sent me flowers! They arrived on a motorcycle (with 2 guys, of course) and they didn't live too long, but it was a nice gesture. We didn't have birthday candles, but we got some taper candles for free somewhere when we had first arrived, so we used one of those. They drip.

You may notice there is NOT a big pile of presents - that is because I did all my own gift shopping this year, and I did it early! I bought myself an oven! The apartment came with a microwave/convection combo oven but Harmony broke the door when she and Alex were baking something (OK not really her fault - it was almost broken already- she just finished it off!) and I had to wait nearly 2 MONTHS for them to repair it. They came, two at a time, often, but never with the right parts, or anything. I got VERY tired of not being able to bake

anything (and living without

a microwave is NOT good!) and Christelle bought an oven and I was jealous so I bought one too! It is really good - pretty much an oversized toaster oven, but it has pretty even heat, it has a rotisserie (and I roasted a chicken and it worked great!), when the power goes off then comes back on it starts back up (unlike the microwave which has to be reset everytime, so if you don't notice that the power was off....) and I can cook on more than one rack at a time. The bad news is that all the pizza pans and cookie sheets that I brought from home to use (very hard to find here since ovens are rare) DO NOT FIT!!! I bought the more square shape and I should have bought the more rectangular one. Didn't think about it until it was much too late. So that is sad, but otherwise I am very happy. I also bought myself a coat. A long, imported, expensive PURPLE coat!! SOOOOOO cute! No photos, since it is way past coat weather. Which is how I got a great deal and felt I could afford said coat. You will see it LOTS in the photos this fall. For now, I get to admire it in the closet. :)

The car is no longer perfect. rats!

2008-03-13T20:44:00.002+05:30

Well, it finally happened, as we knew it would. Ajay got in an accident. He had just dropped me at home and was on the way to get Randy, so he was alone in the car. That means we aren't really sure what happened or whose fault it was, but both cars lost their driver-side mirrors. (Yes, that would imply that a large disaster was narrowly averted :) The accident occured just outside the neighbourhood, so he called me and I went out there, but things are different here -

you don't call the cops (at least, we don't - foreigners like to stay off the police radar) so fault gets decided by the people involved and the guy at fault pays for repairs, or no fault is decided and your own insurance pays for your own car. Or you don't fix it at all and you drive around looking like you have rolled it over a time or two. That seems to be the option most people choose - you should see some of the cars on the road! Anyway, we feel lucky that the car has gone unscathed this long!