overdue post about mark's visit

May 29…Chennai to Mumbai

Got on the plane rather early, arrived in Mumbai on time and had the hotel car pick us up. We were greeted at the door and were able to check in in our room instead of at the front desk. Taj Mahal tower, beautiful hotel, my favorite part was the book listed a service called “destiny planner” for the hotel astrologist. Got up and out right away to Elephanta Island and saw the caves and the monkeys, climbed on top of the caves, were hassled to pay more to be up on the hottest part of the boat, the roof. Our revenge on the boat company for not letting us onto the roof without pay despite our deluxe tickets came when on the way back the Coast Guard pulled the boat over, demanded the license of the driver and gave them a ticket. After arriving back in our hotel we showered and we went to the Harbour Bar where we could stare out at Gateway of India. Mark had the bar’s signature drink which came with a story acted out and a lighting of the brandy before putting into the drink, I got a champagne and gin and lemon-y drink; we also ordered tapas – ham and caramelized fig and also some potatoes raclette with rosemary. Then we took a long walk and saw the University and the cricket pitch and the high court and the Prince of Wales museum and the oldest library and the railway station. Back to the hotel for a nap and then dinner at the rooftop middle eastern restaurant Souk. I had a spiachy crepe-y think and Mark had some delicious lamb. Worst part of the day …the rose ice cream, yuk it tasted like soap, I mean it seemed like a good idea but GROSS. And I just realized that was not in fact the worst part, just remembered that this is the day that Mark’s brother passed away. Mark had been more prepared, I had really thought his brother would recover.

May 30…Mumbai to Shimla

Got up and packed pretty early to catch the plane to Chandigarth. The hotel car picked us up and we had a hair-raising ride through the “Foothills” of the Himalayas up and down and around curves that lasted FOUR hours. Eventually reached our hotel and relaxed. Had an amazing glass of wine watching the beautiful sunset. There was a note in our room warning us not to leave the windows open during the day or the monkeys would take our belongings. When we got back from our drinks we found a birthday cake in our room. The housekeeping staff insisted it was our birthday. Oh well, who was I to argue? We had dinner at the buffet restaurant, where I tripped and fell, catching the attention of our neighbors who stopped by to tell us we look like fun. Thanks.

May 31….Shimla

The next morning I worked out by doing bunches of flights of stairs and realized the altitude made the air thinner. We breakfasted and dressed and caught a shuttle up to the town. Walking up the stairs and ramp to get to the ridge road was a challenge! On the walk in we saw our first glimpse of snow-peaked Himalayas….amazing! We saw Christ Church where we lit candles and abandoned shoes and spoke to a nice couple and their cute kid. There was some political rally happening and the Indira Ghandi statue was flanked by pink tarps. We walked around some more exploring. We then explored the Mall and the Lower Bazaar, the “rabbit warren” shops. We started walking up to the monkey temple but when realizing how steep and far the walk would be we decided to wait. We then headed back to our hotel for some snacks and drinks. I then went to the pool and then we watched the sunset. I read and Mark slept, it was an early evening without dinner…but with much needed rest.

June 1…Shimla

We slept well and had our breakfast. Then we headed on out and walked back into town and up to the Monkey temple, with a rented monkey-beating-stick in each of our hands. Nearing the top we heard a woman scream as a monkey jumped on her and stole her dupatta. The monkey then proceeded to perch himself up on the hill and wrap the dupatta around his own neck and head as a lady would. When reaching the top, we were informed to take our glasses off so monkeys wouldn’t steal them. A man with a telescope showed me the six points of interest. Again, snow-capped peaks were visible. We then descended and went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we walked ourselves to the former Vice Regal lodge where we had a quick tour and then walked the grounds and walked on back. Overall that day we walked probably 14 kilometers and NOT on flat ground. We had kebabs and watched the sunset with wine and then retired early due to the necessity of an early start.

June 2, Shimla to Agra

We did the crazy ride back ½ way in the dark. I slept through the hardest parts. We got there with plenty of time to spare, having started at 4 in the morning. Took the plane to Delhi and the car was waiting with Holly’s awesome driver Sonu. We drove to our hotel in Agra and checked in (another 3 hours in the car), taking advantage of our view of the Taj Mahal from our room by ordering room service – a selection of real wines and beer for room service at normal prices!!!!!! Crazy!!!!! After lunch we went over to Agra Fort and got swept away by the majesty and beauty of times gone by. Then we went back and ordered a bottle of Chardonnay to watch the sun set over the Taj Mahal from our hotel room. Luckily, Sonu called to say that due to a VIP visit tomorrow the Taj Mahal would only be open until 7 a.m. …..changing our morning plans!

June 3, Agra to Jaipur

Up early to see the Taj Mahal. Bicycle rickshaw…poor guy was determined to do the whole ride! We could have walked but he seemed to really want to take us. Took lots of pictures and wandered around but had only limited time….again. The last time I was at the Taj Mahal I also only had limited time, must be fate! Then we had breakfast and got back on the road. We stopped at Fatehpur Sikri. This time we did walk up to the place and were harassed the entire time. Although the place was beautiful I felt unsafe much of the time because of the tourist predators. Another 5 or 6 hours on the rode and we arrived in Jaipur. We went to Amber Fort and it was AMAZING. It was HUGE and surrounded by mountains and the desert. We were allowed to wander through every nook and cranny and it was so easy to watch time melt away. Afterwards Sonu took us to our hotel, which was FAR out of town, far far far. In fact when we went down a dirt road for a long time before turning onto what didn’t even seem a road to get to the hotel. But it was worth it. The hotel is an old hunting lodge and we had the master suite with a huge balcony, our own sitting room, a dressing room. The lodge is on what was once a lake before it went dry and the place is filled with stuffed animals (not plushes but stuffed animals). Dinner was prepaid and in the dining hall, EXCELLENT. Okay, not the food but the entire creepy/phantasmogoric atmosphere. The food actually seemed like strange cafeteria food. I think they have frozen dishes for westerners that they microwave. Eh, the ambience outweighed the food.

June 4, Jaipur to Jodhpur

In the morning we went into Jaipur to check out the Pink City a bit. We went to Jantar Mantar, an observatory built between 1728 and 1734. So all the equipment seemed to do rudimentary crap but darn was it cool looking, especially with bright blue skies and mountains in the background. Rajastan is amazing in many ways for the light in the desert and the grand scale of things. My facebook has pictures which can describe it so much better. We then got back in the car for another long drive to Jodhpur. We went straight to our hotel, which had been recommended by friends. We checked in to our “luxury tent”. While it wasn’t as much of a tent as I’d hoped, it did have a canvas top and a really cool feel to it. The grounds of the hotel were fabulous, especially the pool! We slept well after booking the camel safari for the next day and eating.

June 5, Jodhpur

We woke up and the sandstorm that had been going on the day before persisted. Very strong winds. We first went to Mehrangarh Fort and walked around, seeing the beautiful views, the cool chariots, the canons. Jodhpur is the blue city and this was much more obvious than the pink city of Jaipur. All the houses were bluewashed and this was an amazing effect looking down on it from the Fort. In the afternoon we went on our camel ride!!!! Okay, it was cheesy and touristy but it was still fun! First we drove (no surprise!) and stopped in Osean where we explored a ridiculously old Hindu temple and then a Jain temple. We were really the only tourists in the area that day and so attracted many curious onlookers. The wind was blowing so we didn’t get sweeping views of the dunes but it was still very cool to be in them. I had never been in that type of desert with sand everywhere. Finally we went to where we would get our camel ride and had tea. And then FINALLY we got on the camel. So it was one camel (Hero was his name) for the two of us. I still loved it. And we were led around by someone. I still loved it! Camels walk funny. They are tall. The feel of them walking in the sand is cool. And it was all pretty. A great way to end the trip. After we went back to the hotel, had dinner. The next morning we pretty much just packed and caught our plane. A great trip though!

holidays

We were called home just in time for Thanksgiving. After we arrived home we found out the Keralan guys had in fact been able to depart. We were just happy to be home for turkey. My friend Holly had a whole lot of us over and a wonderful day of eating happened. Afterwards we headed to another colleague's house for dessert. Although the holiday months had a lot of really fun gatherings and plenty of fellowship, I hit my wall during the season. I had been hoping that I wouldn't go through the standard period of absolute resistance and "honeymoon over" that is common to people living abroad. But it hit me. And it hit me hard. Right during the holidays. I experienced more homesickness than I'd ever had, probably due to now having a niece and a nephew both uunder 5 years old to miss. It's been hard for me to blog mostly because I didn't want to talk about this time. There were lots of party and bollywood dancing was still going on and Natalie was with me but I went through a supreme funk. Everything I had once thought was cute or quaint or cool about India started to infuriate me. I had been warned that this was normal. There are charts showing the cycle of emotions that people go through...I had just thought that since I knew about the cycle I would be able to avoid the down part. Unfortunately I was unable to control the flood of frustration with never being able to get as many menus as there are people or constantly being followed all around any store getting harassed or the interminable cacophony or the inability to think a few steps down the line. As hard as I tried to check myself and remind myself how fortunate I am to have my dream job and to have been posted in such a great country, I kept going to the dark side and feeling down. Because of this, I don't feel like writing about a lot of the holidays. So I'll skip talking about the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and pick back up with my mom showing up at the end of December.

Keralan Craziness

The phone call in the tuk-tuk was to ask me to intervene on an emergency American citizen situation. Without going into detail an American citizen older gentleman and a young Frenchman had washed ashore in a sailboat with faulty equipment and the authorities were not so happy about it. I spent the next four days being the messenger girl between the gentlemen and my contacts back in the Consulate and beyond, bringing food and ice cream and water to the boat, and generally trying to be of help in a strange situation.

The first night just finding the boat was difficult because we had no idea where we were and it was storming (a large factor in why the boat had come ashore). However, the next morning I was able to see what a beautiful place it was. There was a large mosque near where the boat was docked and lots of fishing boats so that when one looked to the shore around the cove there was a harbor filled with colorful boats and pretty almost Mediterranean looking buildings. To get down to the boat we would drive down this pretty shoddy road where goats kept blocking our way and looking snidely at our car like, "yeah, I could take you".

If we turned the other way instead of going down the hill we would get to a pretty touristy beach town. Over the next few days we got to know that beach well as it was there that we would go for our meals. At the end of the beach we were able to climb a small cliff to get to a lighthouse which we were able to climb. One awesome thing about India is the lack of safety precautions which allowed us to climb all the way to the top and then get to the outside balcony. What a view!!! Mountains in the background and gorgeous ocean as far as one could see.

So much wonderfully delicious fish! The hotel had awesome baked yogurt which became my new favorite food! Because I kept not knowing when I would check out and we kept renting a car, the hotel loved us. They sent us free desserts. The head housekeeper came to meet us (I thought we were in trouble at first) and give us gifts (cute little frames!). When we called for room service and asked for tiramisu they said "We are sorry but we are out of mascarpone, would you like us to make it using vanilla pudding instead?" Um, no, no I didn't.

Although much of the time was pretty stressful juggling phone calls and changing stories and regulations, the area was beautiful and we did meet some great people. I can't wait to go back to Kerala and do a backwaters tour...and be completely on vacation!

beginning of the end of november

The end of November was quite a ride. Luckily I was chosen for quite a few opportunities. I got to help with a Foreign Commercial Service trade tour for energy efficiency products companies. I also got to go to Kerala with Natalie. Originally I was sent there to do a welfare and whereabouts visit, which is when a consular officer visits an american citizen child who has been abducted, in many cases by one of the parents, to ensure that the child is safe and accounted for. Kerala is beautiful, tons of palm trees all over and beautiful temples and the ocean and gorgeous light. We had to take a pretty long car ride inland up into the hills for the visit. Our driver did not speak much English and I didn't really know where I was going. After many stops to ask random people directions, the car stopped in front of a house. A very nice older lady beckoned for me to come into the house. She apparently spoke no English but smiled a lot and kept waving me in. She sat me down and looked expectantly at me. "Tea?" "Tea?" "Tea?" she kept asking quizzically. "Sure, thank you" I replied. Then I saw out the window that people were surrounding Natalie and it appeared she was motioning for me to go outside. So outside I went. Down the lane and behind the car a woman and a kid were seemingly conversing with Natalie and I thought maybe these were the people I came to visit. But no. They were just curious about the redhead in their lane. And it quickly became obvious that this was in fact not the house that I was supposed to be going to. Another man came down the lane. He got in the front seat of the car and drove with us to make sure we made it where we had in fact been heading. The visit was fine and Natalie had a nice time wandering around the village during it. Once we were back at the hotel we decided to try the other mission: figure out if an american citizen woman who was reported dead was in fact deceased and if so and if possible to get a copy of the death certificate. I had only a vague address but I found a tuck-tuck and took off for the general area. Thankfully I found the woman alive and she was a lovely lady. Unfortunately the power was out and so she had to go looking for I.D. by candlelight. It simply added to the strangeness of the day, which would only get stranger. On the way back to the hotel my phone rang, starting the really strange journey that was to occupy the rest of our Kerala trip.

settling down and in

I had a dream last night that I adjudicated a visa for Debbie Gibson. I realize that as an American citizen she would never show up at my visa window but since my mom answered some strange question on facebook "What is Becky dreaming of?" by saying I was dreaming about her arriving in Chennai I thought I would set the record straight. Lately I've been trying really hard to make sure I get enough blob out and do nothing time...I have a lot to catch up on after crazy October.

Last Sunday Natalie and I wore saris and attended another wedding. This one was for Nithya who works in the commissary. However, it was totally different from the last one. The ceremony had been at 7 in the morning but the reception that we attended was in the evening. It was a love match so the crowd was very small, it seems her family was not in attendance. There were "thrones" on the stage and lots of picture taking and buffet eating and staring at each other in our awesome outfits. But it was a bit strange that the Americans were the major group of guests.

This past week was my birthday. There was a high level visitor in town though and I was in charge of putting together a lunch at the CG's residence with university leaders for the visit so my actual bday consisted of just being exhausted. But since the 11th was a day off we went out on the 10th...after the lunch and then the ELO dinner at the CG's residence. We were supposed to go to Salsa at the Park but Salsa at the Park is no more...so we had drinks at the Leather Bar...and cake. It was fun to hang out with everyone although what I had really wanted was to see and talk with my niece and nephew. I did call them but Allie was out at day care and Luke was down for the count with Swine flu. I need to figure out Skype so I can see and talk to them.

Bollywood classes are back! We had a bit of a break as our teacher went to Thailand. Yay dancing!

It is raining. A lot. At one point during Diwali I remember thinking how can there possibly be any more fireworks left? They must have set them all, all the fireworks in all the world, off already...I feel the same way now about the rain. It is insane. Many families have been finding worms and tadpoles in their water. Not me yet. But I am terrified everytime I take a shower that I'm going to find worms. EEEEEEEEEkkkkkkk.

Bollywood dancing and a wedding

Natalie and I are taking Bollywood dancing lessons. With Chennai Man 2008, Jodi No 1 (the Indian version of either Dancing with the Stars or So you think you can dance?) winner Sanjay. Boy that man can moves his hips. And his shoulders. Along with Natalie and me, two others from the consulate, an Indian woman, a French woman, a British woman and a 12 year-old Indian boy hang out in a small room and bumble through his choreographed fun. I have to admit I was curious about Sanjay, especially after he was telling us that he would be on T.V. the next day. I don't have a T.V. but I do have You Tube. So I watched my teacher rock out to Bon Jovi on the Chennai beach with some little kid. Yes I did. We won't talk about it again. The first song we have been learning is Talli Main Talli Ho Gai which apparently means I'm so drunk. At many points in the song our hand motions are supposed to represent doing shots...I've never popped my hips so much while doing shots but whatever. I look like a epileptic spider on crack who just had vodka sprayed on her and fell into a blender that happens to have been slung down a slip and slide while trying to do the dance. Natalie looks flawless. I want to take a video of her and post it so people can have an idea of what I am SUPPOSED to be doing. But it is a ton of fun and next family wedding Natalie and I will totally rock our new dances. We are working on Jai Ho now. I've downloaded the songs and due to the monsoon making running impossible, Natalie and I just have Bollywood dance party in the apartment instead. Life is good. Some of the moves though are very counterintuitive. Sanjay gets a little fed up with the class's general lack of ability to do his crazy moves but he tries not to show it. Usually he starts showing us something insane which seems simple enough when shown slowly but becomes impossible to do at the speed of the music. After we try it with music he tends to sigh and then just tell us to shift from foot to foot and pump our arms. When the french lady kept saying "but my arm wants to go here not there" he took a deep breath and told her to "use your head". Heart.

Last weekend I went to my first Indian wedding. It was the pinnacle of efficiency, an economist's dream. We arrived slightly late having gotten lost (I suppose we should have turned at the cow in the road but we went straight). I sadly did not have a sari to wear as my sari shirt had not been made yet, sigh. Oh, I forgot to say whose wedding it was! Balu, a cutie who works in the consular section with us! He has the most rocking glasses. Anyways, we show up late and go up to the third floor and people usher us forward saying please come and then put up chairs in the front row for us to sit and give us diet cokes. Kinda felt bad ruining the view of the super cute kids who had heretofore been the front row. Balu and his bride and family members were on stage. As were bananas and flowers and things that were making smoke. A whole lot of photographers were at the foot of the stage. A heck of a lot of people were in the audience...hundreds and hundreds. I didn't really understand what was going on but jasmine was pinned in the bride's hair and the cords were tied around the neck and some rings were exchanged and then Balu and his bride walked around the alter and then walked around it with their family and then it was receiving line time. Everyone (yes EVERYONE) took off their shoes at the foot of the stage and worked their way up to say congrats and have a picture taken and then collect shoes and then were herded to the second floor. The second floor had eight rather long tables which probably fit about twenty people on a side. The room was arranged in sections of two tables with chairs just on one side of each table and an aisle between each pairing of tables. As guests sat in the chairs, waitstaff went down the aisles b/w the tables and rolled out new paper, then a waiter went down the aisle and gave each guest a fresh banana leaf and bottle of water, then a whole slew of chefs with their own pots walked down the aisle and loaded the banana leaf with all sorts of deliciousness (especially the pineapple wonder). People ate and if they wanted more they folded the leaf one way and when finished folded it the other. And then the waitstaff just rolled the paper and leafs back up which was our cue to move so that the little kids stalking our chairs could sit and the process could be repeated for the next batch of guests. We then left. Overall, ceremony plus meal took about an hour. Beautiful! Tonight we are invited to a wedding reception. My sari shirt is made but the tailor didn't open yesterday due to monsoon. I might just wear my sari with a tank top and tuck it into my workout shorts since I don't have a petticoat.

Hyderabad

The newest consulate in India is Hyderabad and since it just started adjudicating visas this year many of its ELOs have come to Chennai to do some training. Being plain awesome, they decided to invite all of us from Chennai to go visit them. Ten of us accepted including me and Natalie. We left right from work, fitting five of us in my hatchback with our bags and my driver to get to the airport. Tiny little plane, Nat and I seated in the very front FACING some nervous looking couple. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was Kingfisher Airlines (yes the country's equivalent of Budweiser has an airline...classic). The meal consisted of a cole slaw sandwhich and strangely cut up potatoes that pretended to be applesauce, dismaying Whitney. We arrived and were amazed by their beautiful, clean, orderly airport. You feel the high tech wave as soon as you get off the plane in Hyderabad.

We go to dinner at this peaceful restaurant with a Buddhist theme where I got myself a beautiful, juicy, heaven-tasting steak. The difference in the experience all had to do with the small details that for some reason they can't figure out in Chennai - the music was in the background allowing conversation to be in the foreground, the waiters are trained to not put their hands in your food or to rub their hand all over the rim of your glass when putting it down, we all got our own menu, they actually had the wines on their wine list, waiters walk around instead of reaching over people...it is amazing how much of a difference these little details make. Dinner ruled. So did bed. We stayed with Janice and Jerry and Abbie(Janice is the ELO, Jerry captains a ship in 3-month on, 3-month off intervals and yes he has dealt with pirates!!!!!, Abbie is the beautiful golden lab). They have a great apartment on the first floor but also have a "rooftoop palace", a little apartment on the roof!

My morning was so great. I woke up and watched the sunrise from the rooftop, going downstairs to make coffee by boiling water and putting it through a paper towel with coffee grounds...yum! Finally got to do some reading on Ghost Wars. Gotta stop and talk about something I read here. This is a quote by Ronald Reagan:
"My problem with Bill was that I didn't understand him at meetings. Now, you can ask a person to repeat himself once. You can ask him twice. But you can't ask him a third time. You start to sound rude. So I'd just nod my head, but I didn't know what he was actually saying."
He is talking about Bill Casey, the CIA director at the time. Seriously, if you are the president and it is your CIA director and the Cold War is going on...YOU CAN ASK AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT!!!! This both made me laugh and cower in fear at the same time. So Reagan really wasn't lying when he said he did not recall...except maybe it was that he never actually heard. WOW.

The rest of the weekend was pretty sweet too. We saw beautiful old buildings and palaces and arches. The town is much more Muslim and the architectural style reflects that. The city is old and walking around the streets has a real charm. Chennai, being the Detroit of India, appears to not have as many older buildings, most are more or less big concrete blocks, at least in the neighborhoods we are mostly in. There is a large stone Buddha statue in the middle of their (stinky) lake. Originally when they tried to take it out the barge sunk and many people died. It stayed on the bottom of the lake for I think 20 years before they raised the money to raise it out of the water. I got pics. When leaving the lake, there was a crowd staring over the side and a police van. The driver told us that they are fishing a corpse out of the lake. Huh. We ate at a Bollywood themed restaurant and I couldn't tell the wax people from the real ones. When we went to brunch at the Marriott the waiters did a choreographed line of cakes that they brought out to us (still don't know why). My favorite part was the confusion they had after depositing the cakes...they all kinda looked at each other like "Now what?" and then ran into each other trying to slink unnoticed back into the kitchen.

All in all a great time. Oh, when we tried to go home, the check in lady informed us that Kingfisher had sold us a flight that did not exist...maybe they had been sampling too much of their other product? So we spent a lot of quality time at the airport. Difference with the US? The airline offered nothing for the inconvenience - no free flight, no meal voucher, not even a bottle of water. Nothing. Oh well, I made it home.