Going home

We flew from Goa to Delhi on Feb. 26, and had one day in Delhi before we headed for the airport the evening of Feb. 27 for our flight scheduled to depart just after midnight on Feb. 28. The weather was gorgeous in Delhi, warm but not hot during the day, pleasantly cool at night. We had dinner at Sagar at the recommendation of our friend Susan, delicious South Indian Thali. We did some last minute shopping, and then headed for the airport. The Delhi airport is a model of inefficiency and misorganization. It took a full three hours to get in, have our bags x-rayed, check in, clear immigration and security. After all this, our flight was delayed an additional two hours because other passengers had not arrived early enough for all of that rigamarole. We finally took off about 3:30 AM, and arrived in Amsterdam almost two hours later than scheduled. But we still had time to take the train into the city, have some breakfast, and take a little stroll around town, even though it was quite cold. See the photo album (http://picasaweb.google.com/kasbhai/2008IndiaPics.) for some of Bea's comments on the weather and the food.

Catching up: Goa

We flew from Cochin to Goa on Feb. 20, on a flight that took off and landed twice before we eventually got to Goa. It was really a puddle jumper (and had already had one previous take off and landing by the time we boarded).
We stayed at Villa Viega, which is a small guest house in the southernmost part of Goa. Goa was a Portuguese colony until 1961 (14 years after the rest of India gained independence) and has a very different culture than much of the rest of India. It has been, since at least the 1960's, a beach hangout for hippies and assorted counter culture types, as well as proculture (is that the opposite of counter culture?) more recently. The area we stayed in has developed a tourism industry only within the past 20 years.
Here is some video of Lynda, Sonia and Bea's first steps into the waves in Goa. The water, air, and beach were glorious, warm, gentle, just great. Our guest house came with a pass for the pool at the 5 star Interconinental Goa hotel, just across the street, so we swam there and at the beach. This was the first time I've ever swam in the ocean on my birthday. We had six wonderful days in Goa, hanging out at the beach, eating in waterfront restaurants, swimming on the pool, and just having a great time.

Catching up: Cochin

On Feb. 15, we went from Mamallapuram to Cochin (Kochi) in Kerala, on the southwest coast of India. This was the southernmost stop on our trip, at just a bit north of 10 degrees north of the equator, well within the tropics. The intensity of the sun was noticeably stronger here. This is a fascinating area, with longstanding ties to various places around the Indian Ocean, as well as a very long established Jewish community (said to have arrived within two years of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70CE), rule by Dutch, English and Portuguese colonists at various times throughout its history, and much else. The state, Kerala, is lush and tropical, and produces much of the spice and other enticing foods which drew people from all over the globe to this part of the world. Even just in the garden of the guest house we stayed at, there were pepper, nutmeg, mango, cinammon and jackfruit growing. We did not have time to visit the hills where all these are grown commercially, along with coffee and tea. We did take a backwater tour (see photo of Sonia above), which took us through a network of canals and rivers which have been used for a long time for transportation into the agricultural interior of the lowlands of the state. We saw many birds, coconut groves (the name Kerala is derived from the word for coconut tree), coconut twine manufacturing, toddy tapping, and many other activities, on our two hour boat ride.
We also visiting the Cochin synagogue, which was built in the 1500's, but which is not nearly as old as the now almost gone Jewish community of Cochin. The synagogue is surrounded by a spice market but, unfortunately, the day we visited, there was a general strike and the market was closed. This was a major disappointment, although it demonstrated something rarely seen in the US.

Catching up: Mamallapuram

We arrived very late night Feb. 12 in Mamallapuram, and awoke to a resort situated right on the Bay of Bengal, with a very nice swimming pool and easy beach access. The waters here are a little tricky, so we did not do much ocean swimming. The real attraction here is the 1000-2000 year old temples and carvings spread about this fairly small town. We were also in the south for the first time our whole trip, so the language changed (from Hindi to Tamil), and, especially, the climate. Mamallapuram is in the tropics, quite hot for us Seattle-ites. We found it was best to do our sight seeing early in the morning or late in the afternoon, which is when we visited "Arjuna's Penance" (morning), one of the most amazing bas relief carvings I have ever seen. There are several other photos of this town on our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kasbhai/2008IndiaPics. You may need to use the "slideshow" function to see all the pics.
This was the first place in which we were really in the tourist ghetto as well, which meant that we were also eating western food fairly often including the excellent coffee served at the French run "Nautilus" cafe.
Sonia absolutely loves swimming, to the point where she told us, as we were eating lunch at our poolside restaurant one day, the she was "demented" when she actually meant to say she was distracted.

Catching up: Varanasi

Note: these posts are being written after the fact. We arrived in Benares Feb. 9. Beatrice promised gruesome details about our arrival in Benares, but I will most likely not deliver in the same detailed vein in which she would have. Suffice to to say that after our taxi driver from the train station intentionally or cluelessly confused the name "Rashmi" with "Lakshmi" we had to walk through the early morning alleyways of Benares to our hotel. Anyone who has been there before knows that it is best to avoid the alleyways (galis) until after the sweepers have been through to clean up the cow/dog/whatever waste left behind overnight. So, the bottoms our our suitcases got a little dungy (is that a word?). We did eventually arrive at our hotel, and very much enjoyed its riverside location, with a marvelous view of the river Ganga, easy access to walk up and down the ghats, and a simple trip out our second morning there to take a boat ride and observe the city from the river, which is by far the most scenic way to do so.
We also were taken to a Saraswati Puja (a ceremony honoring the goddess of music and learning) by my tabla guru, A. Ramchandra Pandit, at the home of his music partner, sitarist Goswamiji. We were there for the prayers, the offerings of food and sweets, a concert by Goswamiji's students (accompanied by Ramuji on tabla), and lunch. It was definitely a unique experience which I think the girls will not soon forget.
I also had an early morning meeting with my Hindi language guru, Virendra Singh, which we were unfortunately not able to schedule at a time when I could also introduce him to the rest of my family.
Aside from simply not leaving enough time to visit all the wonderful friends I made in Benares when I lived there in the late '80's, we had an absolutely wonderful time in Kashi, the city of light, much to the surprise of some of us.