House Boats

Kerala! All the way south, such a long week I was so ready to relax. And relax we did. Arrived Friday evening, checked into our guest house after a 2 hour cab ride from Cochin to Allepy. Good thing Brian, Jason, My and I took the little car, apparently the 7 person jeep was not so much a 7 seater..I shockingly fell asleep for most of the ride.

Our guest house was nice-rooms set around a pretty garden courtyard. The rooms were pretty bare, but they had mosquito nets and fans, that was most important. After seeing the two pretty small downstairs rooms we'd booked, we were taken upstairs. As the guy was walking up the stairs he says 'you can play football in this room' i am like, ha, yeah right. But actually, it was true. We got the suite. Nice. too bad there weren't enough beds and we had to make them bring up some mattresses and jerry-rig the mosquito nets!

After watching those shenanigans, we need a beer and a good meal. We piled 5 into a rickshaw and met up with the others at the Royal Park Hotel bar. Apparently restaurants in Allepy don't serve alcohol; good thing the bars serve food, and a/c.

Long meal, lots of drinks and 200 rupees later (I am serious) we headed back to our guest house to rest up for our strenuous 22 hours on a boat.

Priz and Alon were the designated boat pickers and bargainers, and I decided to tag along. We woke up early, waited 45 min
for our omeletts at the 'restaurant' at our guest house (I put restaurant in quotes bc it consisted of a tiny stove and two pots cooking food and brining it to picnic tables in the garden), and hopped in a rickshaw to the place where all the boats were docked.

I think we climbed onto at least 8 boats, and climbing onto those boats was not easy. The planks leading from the dock to the boat was as wide as a shoebox, if not less so, and it was teathered to the boat quite precariously...i almost fell in, and one guy we saw did!

Finally we settled on a boat, hot and bedraggled we sat for 20 min arguing about the price of the boat, the price of the beers, and finaly, why they are charging us a 'lucury tax when they never mentioned that in the past. When the rest of our friends arrived the men we'd been making deals with met them at their rickshaw and were very quick to mention what great bargainers we were. SCORE.

There we are on our boat, just after bargaining madness.

The boat was baller, as Jason would say. Three bedrooms, a downstairs with lots of chairs and a table for meals, and then an upper level deck with shade and a mattress in the sun. We spent much of our time lounging around on the upper deck, sipping beer and watching the trees go by. Not gonna lie, it was nice.


We also hopped off the boat after lunch and wondered around a little village. Apparently it was laundry time.


Sunday after disembarking we went to the beach and wandered around Allepy. Fun times. I will let the pictures do the talking...

Saree Safari

Well, I'm in India, and Sarees are gorgeous. Even the ones that the ladies who sweep the street with brooms made of sticks are pretty! So naturally, I wanted one.

Then I found out Praveen was getting married and realized I had the perfect excuse to 'need' a saree. So I dragged three girls from the Checkout team out shopping with me one night after work--little did they know what they were getting themselves into! Since as Taylor knows, I am the most indecisive person in earth, especially when it comes to shopping.

Kamalika, Amrita and I hopped in the car from work and headed to Secunderbad through the traffic. We did a little gossiping, a little more getting to know each other. It's funny how similar Google offices are across the world--this is their first job out of college, they live with other Googlers, work with other Googlers (duh), and hang out outside of the office with other Googlers--sounds just like home!

Anyway, to the first store we went. I had this fixed idea in my head of the kind with the border, and not too flashy. But I quickly found out that the ones I thought were so pretty were stiffer material, which means 1) way harder to wrap and pleat and 2) it's not very flattering b/c it can get wrinkled and bunchy...moved on to the more flowy material as soon as they mentioned the word bunchy, i'm bunchy enough...

Swetha, the saree expert met us, and we realized that this store was not for Aly, so we headed next door. We had a seat and they started showing me sarees. So hard to tell when they are all folded up! They all look kind of pretty, but how do you know? That's when the fun part comes in...

Trying on a saree consists of men draping it over you and then showing you kind of what the blouse will look like--I just kept making fun of them for trying to lift up my skirt-I made the dude blush. But here were my options:










I picked the blue one. But then we went upstairs so i could get fitted for the blouse. Of course, while I was getting fitted the girls started looking at material for salwar, and when I was done getting measured I joined in! I left with a saree and a salwar on the way! Swetha was sweet enough to offer to come back and pick them up for me, since the store is right by her house. Really though, shopping in India doesn't have that instant gratification perk that it does in the US, in the US you can bring your stuff home, try it on, and even wear it to work the next day. In India you've gotta wait a few days while you think about how pretty what you bought is and try to explain it to people before you actually get to have it in your possesion.

So the next week she brought them to me at the office--and of course all the girls told me to go and try them on in the bathroom. Swathi came in with me to make sure the blouse fit correctly--those things are funny, they are half shirts half front close bras. But it fit just right, and thank goodness there are yards and yards of fabric draped over it! Then I tried on the salwar and skipped around the office showing everyone my new outfit!

Then everyone asked how I planned to wrap it. HA. I hadn't gotten that far--but figured I would just have one of them help me when the time came....I decided to use this little search engine called Google to look up how to wrap a saree--the internet is useful for all sorts of things!

With 'Sari Safari' as my guide (did you really think I was that original with my titles?) and a few glasses of wine in me Friday night, we decided to do a little practice for Saturday.


Rahul said I was close, but Priz thought I was showing a lil too much tummy, I agreed because I felt a little like a belly dancer!

...Somehow Saturday night I managed to do it right, after spending all of Saturday studying every woman I saw wrapped in a Saree--I'll show them staring! When I saw Ismail in the parking lot he said I was 99.5% Hyderabadi, and when I got to the wedding everyone asked who wrapped my saree for me, then gasped in amazement when I told them I did it myself, with no pins. I WIN!





My shopping gurus (apparently we all like blue)


does riding sidesaddle in a saree bring me closer to 100% Hyderabadi?

I even got mehinde for the occasion

Chaing Mai Part Deux

Day two in Chiang Mai was great (well, until afternoon 2 that is). We met Gary early in the morning so we could be at the orphanage on the early side. Piled in the car after Priz and I grabbed banana and mueslei snax--cookes, banana bread, cinamon toast, the works.

I of course fell right back asleep, knowing we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. But it was so pretty once we got out of the city! Since we are all coffee fiends and no one was as excited about the mueslei cookies and Priz and I, we pulled over at this little roadside cafe that said it had coffee. Gary wanted it too. Even the little roadside middle of nowhere place was tranquil and gorgeous, and had amazing chocolate cake.

Finally at 11ish we arrived in Fang village, and met Dr. Pimpant. We all thought we were going to an orphanage, and were excited to play with kids the way we had at Divya Disha. Instead, we followed Dr. Pimpant along winding roads through rice patties
and a rural village, to a cute little school. We were served coffee and cake, and got to watch a traditional umbrella dance!

It was sunday after all. Andrew's organization, Orphans Against Aids gives scholarship money for kids orphaned by AIDS. At this school in Fang Village the kids use their scholarship money to pay for the school, for books, clothes etc.


We talked to a few of the kids, and made them come to lunch with us! They seem really happy for the opportunity to escape what could be a viscous and dangerous cycle. Some of us had hesitations about whether or not medical treatment and safe sex education were included in the benefits of the scholarship--after bringing this up with Dr. Pimpant she was very happy to take our suggestions and work on them.


My at lunch with one of the kids who has a scholarship

Overall it was a great learning experience for us, and hopefully we helped Andrew know more about what's going on in Fang Village and the school he helped create! I am also happy to say that OAA takes donations via Google Checkout--so you can donate quickly and easily online! http://www.orphansagainstaids.org/

We did feel jipped that we didn't get to play with kids, so Dr. Pimpant offered to take us to another school closer to the city of Chiang Mai the next day. In the meantime, it was time to visit some tribal villages.

The Karen long neck tribes live in Chiang Mai province. And we felt much better about paying 500 Baht to see an actual village...at least we thought it was an actual village.

In the end, it was basically a long row of stalls selling the handi-crafts they make in the village. Still really interesting to see what they make, what they wear, and how cute their kids are! Also did some good shopping and bargaining.








After the village I started feeling a little questionable, thought it was my blood sugar, it was, so I had some OJ...but the feeling didn't go away. We piled into the car again, convinced the boys there was no need to make it to the Burma border, since we could see Burma over the mountains, and what's a border anyway...and headed back to Chiang Mai.

I won't go into the details of the sickness, but let's just say i made the outside of the car kind of dirty when i hung my head out the window as we were moving...Don't eat the massaman curry mystery meat.

Four hours later after a miserable car ride where I was half passed out, I climbed into bed while the others headed to the night market. I was so sad to miss that part of the trip, but clearly my body was telling me something.

In the morning, still feeling a little shakey, we headed to another school, saw more cute Thai kids learning enthusiastically. This was a fancy school--uniforms, dorms, really nice classrooms and facilities. 80% of the girls here are orphans, most orphaned by AIDS. Most will go on to university or some kind of career school! Pretty amazing. We got to watch a few classes and talk to them.


AIDs is a big issue in northern thailand, because right across the border are brothels. It also seems like there just isn't enough education around how to treat and prevent it. Also people don't get tested, because if they do find out they are HIV positive they are not treated the same in life. It was hard to step out of our Western minds to understand why no girls who tested positive for AIDS were allowed in the fancy schools, and why many of the kids in Fang Village whose parents died of AIDS were not even tested. For them it is about quality of life, not quantity I guess. Regarless, it was nice to see that so much was being done for these kids, and that although they lost their parents, and could have been left with nothing, they have a place to go and will be educated enough to make their way in the world.

It also made me want to move to Thailand to teach English!

The rest of the afternoon was spent nursing my tummy, and seeing more wats (temples)...there are a ton in Chiang Mai, some old, some new, some gold, some blue--actually, no, none of them are blue, i just wanted to rhyme. There was also monk chat time at one of them! The monks practice their english and the tourists get to learn about Buddhism, Chiang Mai or whatever they feel like.




Cheers!


Let's hope I make it back to Thailand soon, it was quite nice.

Chiang Mai, more than elephants

I am behind! But it's so hard, there is so much going on it's tough to write about it all. Plus, when you get home from a trip you are too exhausted to do anything...Anyway, Chiang Mai was Amazing. I know I say that about basically everywhere I have been so far, but I mean it this time. Having been in India for 3+ weeks it was nice to have a bit of a change of pace/culture/environment, oh, and FOOD.

I don't think I've ever appreciated Thai food more. Thing is, in India, they love their spice, they love it so much that they dump all of it in every dish. Seriously, it's all spicey, it all kind of tastes similar (sorry if this makes me sound like i have a very unrefined palate, but it's true, ask anyone not from India). In Thailand, they like their spice, but every dish is a little different. They also can put spice and flavor into things without making it so heavy you need a nap after you eat it.



That said, Thailand was the first place I got tummy sick--but we'll leave that story for later.

So we arrived Saturday morning, after a 3 hour redeye, three hours in the Bangkok Airport where we fell asleep at the table of the cafe at 5am, and a quick 50 min flight to Chiang Mai--keep in mind, we were fed meals on each flight. Hindu meals nonetheless--someone at Carlson Wagonlit was having fun with us.

My met us at the airport and we headed to our tranquil guest house--CM Blue House.

Our rooms weren't quite ready yet, but we needed to arrange our driver Gary for the next day. He couldn't hear Jason on the phone, so he just came over. The same happened with Dr. Pimpant, the coordinator for my friend Andrew's Orphans Against Aids scholarship program in Chiang Mai. We were excited not only to be tourists this weekend, but visit the school and meet the kids he is helping support. Andrew was happy because we could do some scouting work for him to see if he should divert more funds to the kids in Fang Village.

Once we organized our day for Sunday, we organized our Saturday afternoon--Elephants! We'd meet Gary in a few hours, and visit the Mesa Elephant Camp. From there see some long neck tribes, and whatever other touristy stuff he could come up with.

Apparently, we needed to add meal number 3 before 2pm, so before heading to see Elephants, we went to get coffee and more food. Tom Yum Soup is yum. Just enough spice, good warm broth to fix the cold I was nursing, and wide rice noodles. Went perfectly with the ice cream/coffee drink.

After lunch we piled into the fancy SUV Gary brought us and headed north. I was tired and as usual fell asleep in the car. Thanks Mom for putting me in my carseat and driving me around as a baby to put me to sleep, seriously, I'm in moving vehicle for more than 10 min and I pass out...


Jason and My had the back seat, they stayed awake.

So we arrived at the Elephant camp, and after a quick confusion about how many elephants to get and who was paying for what elephant (bet you've never argued with anyone over how many elephants you needed) we entered the camp, bought some bananas to feed to our friendly packaderms and watched them bathing!



Of course, there wasn't just watching, there was riding too--but you already saw that picture. Fun times, although it wasn't so fun when Priz and I got our feet snotted on by an elephant trunk that had just been sniffing his friend's bum--aaah animals. The most amazing part was how well trained our Elephant was. His trainer talked to him and he did what he said! (well, presumably, I don't speak Thai, but apparently elephants do). When the trainer hopped off to take our picture the elephant followed him! Then he said what must have been stay, and he stopped, then the trainer joked with us that he wasn't getting back on and just told the elephant to come, and we were riding solo...

After elephants Gary wanted to take us to a tribal village, but they wanted to charge us 500 Baht, and it was a fake village! We weren't in to that. So we headed instead to Wat Doi Suthep a crazy ornate temple on a hill overlooking the city. Lots of steps to the top, and then a biiiig golden temple. It was nice, but super crowded since it's a big tourist attraction.


Long first day! Time for cocktails. To the riverfront we went, the Good View Restaurant (such an original name, right next to the River Front restuarant) where the girls (and Brian) got a fruity cocktail served in a carved out pineapple, lots of spring rolls, and more great Thai food.


After driving around in a fancy SUV all day, we needed to come down to earth, so we decided to take a tuk-tuk. Just one. For five of us. Awesome.

Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Ok, this is taking far longer than i thought, and tomorrow is a non-holiday monday (in the States they are celebrating George Washington's birthday...I will write about the rest of the trip soon, I promise.

Praveen's Wedding

More to come once I finish working for the day, but for now, enjoy part of the traditional wedding ceremony.

Thailand!

no time to write, now, but, ELEPHANTS! Chiang Mai was amazing...

Giving Back

So staying local wasn't all about fancy meals, nights out and new experiences in the Apollo Hospital. We also wanted to do something for the community. Google Hyderabad has a program called Goal, where every weekend you can volunteer at one of three charities. We chose the orphanage--Divya Disha. About 70 girls living in a tiny house, with 20 or so beds, a small locker room for 'closets' and a big open tented space outside.


First impressions, wow--cute girls, all walk up to you and shake your hand and say hello madame. Big smiles, big eyes. No english. When we arrived the other googlers hadn't so here are a bunch of white kids (we roll deep to giving back too) ready to play and teach, but have no idea where to start or how to communicate with girls who have probably only seen a few other white people in their lives. I of course pull out my camera as they reach to shake hands with the others. This draws attention, a lot of it. When I bend down to show them their pictures on the back of my camera I get swarmed, literally, fall down. They love it. 'Photo madame? one more photo? single photo?' I put away the camera for the time being bc it was distracting.



We decided to start in true Google fashion: with our names. Biiig circle, around we go, most of them got it, the little ones had to be egged on. Then, thank goodness I have a one year old nephew, we decided it would be good to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes--teach them a little English, this was enjoyable, for 3 minutes....

It went on, we played clapping games, red light green light, Alon even had them dancing the hora--that was the best.



Leaving was sad. What can we do for these girls, what will happen to them when they are too old to live in the orphanage? Are they getting the education they need to live on their own in Hyderabad with jobs, or will they end up on the street knocking on the windows of cars waiting in traffic? It broke our hearts to leave. We want to send our pictures, sell them for donations, something. But that's just 70 girls, what about all the other orphanages? Every little bit helps I guess, and if we can brighten one of their days by coming to play, well, we did something. And know they know the parts of their face in english.

Staying Local

What fun! We stayed in Hyderabad for a weekend, and man were we busy!

Friday night was expat night-dinner out at this great place, 400 rupees for all you can eat kebab at your table AND buffet--what more could a girl want?

We have such a crew now, it's really great.



Next was drinks and dancing at Firangi Pani (which means foreign water-umm, ok) Fun times, although let me tell you, it was LOUD--and i am not a grandmother, it was seriously hard to hear each other talk. But, we got to hear the hare krishna hare ram song, AND the phillippino song, which has now gone from makking Diane gleeful to being a non-event since they play it almost everywhere we go!



You'll notice I am wearing glasses in the picture. Well, that's bc apparently in India it is common to contract conjunctivitis...or pink eye. Awesome. Saturday leads to my first, and hopefully last, India hospital experience...

It wasn't scary, it wasn't bad, just not a hospital in the states, and not somewhere I would like to be treated for more than an eye infection and a cold. No check-in, no waiting room. Neelima just walked into the doc's office, I stayed outside. Once she was done, he had me come in. What's wrong he said, I said I have goop in my eyes, albeit, maybe not a word they teach in english class, 'Come again?' he asks. Right, stuff, in my eyes, I point and make hand gestures. He gets it. Do you have an upper respiratory infection?' he asks.
'I have cystic Fibrosis'
'No No, not that, upper respiratory infection, nose, throat?'
'Well, yes, but it's my eyes that are the problem.' I point and gesture again, explain they are itchy etc etc. Still he pulls out his stethascope and asks if I have a sore throat. Then he explains that I have a cold that is manifesting itself through my eyes, writes down a bunch of perscriptions, shuts me up as I try to tell him what other meds I am on and what I've brought and tells me to go see the eye doctor just in case. Of course before sending me to the eye doctor I needed to pay, of course. Give him the payment and he stuffs it in his pocket--what? Can I have a receipt for that?
Once I go to the eye doctor, get my vision checked even though I told her I just did that, get a light shined in my eyes and try to pay again, I think I can go. But I made the mistake of asking for a receipt. Uh oh, someone noticed I was not registered with the hospital, that took 10 more minutes and 10 ruppes, but I got a fancy folder and a card. They didn't make Neelima do that! I wont go into waiting for the scripts, more of the same. All that wore me out and I needed a 2 hour nap before not going out that night....

The rest of Puri

You didn't think I would stop at the cab ride did you?



So we get to Puri, walk along the beach, see people selling fried fish and fried noodles on the street, which, after only eating 5 ritz crackers since lunchtime makes all our our tummies growl...We've been told not to eat the street food, however, so we'll settle for a restaurant inside one of the hotels along the beach. Good dinner, with the biggest shrimps I've ever had--seriously, have you ever split a shrimp with someone? I did.

Back outside, and guess what, it's POURING! not kidding, pouring. And it's almost 11pm. So we try to negotiate a rickshaw ride, say no to the first, get told by a random man on the porch of our hotel to settle on a price and get out, do just that with the second rickshaw that comes along and four of us pile in. Luckily I got the middle seat.

...Scariest ride ever--after passing back through Puri (our kind taxi driver took us as far as he could from our hotel) we enter nothingness. No more shacks selling whatever comes in those little plastic packets, no more people, no more lights or bikes or auto rickshaws. Just rain and darkness. It's cold, windy and raining. Again, thank goodness I was in the midding (did I tell you auto rickshaws don't have sides?) Poor Priz, Steven and Diane were getting soaked, using backpacks as shields from the rain. Then we passed a sign about entering a wildlife reserve and I was convinced our driver was going to just dump us in the middle of it and let us be eaten by a tiger. I am not kidding--we bargained pretty hard for that ride.

It's funny, I was thinking, you know, we bargain and fight with these people before we get in, and then, we agree, and we trust them to take them where we asked to be taken--we have no clue, and no control.

Don't worry mom, we made it to Toshali sands just fine, they laughed at us for being so drenched, came upstairs and showed us how to flip the switch for hot water, and then expected a tip.

Aaaa Puri...The rest of the trip was a bit less eventful--in a good way. Walked around the small town of Puri, saw pretty cool temples, ate seafood and walked along the beach. Fun Times.

And, if you were ever curious what it's like to ride thru a small town in a bike rickshaw: