We skipped the morning homework session on Wednesday and went to Irith's directly after breakfast. She lives in a very nice neighborhood - the people are clearly well-off but it's not as ritzy as the area by the hotel. Most of the buildings are smallish apartment houses, and we saw quite a few women in western clothes. We went to a nice Italian place for lunch and then did some shopping. We continued to the conference center and heard a very interesting talk about the role of tempreature and pressure gradients in the formation of the continents and in the formation of life.
After saying goodbye to Irith, we went with Jaikumar to a Chinese-Thai restaurant (his family had left already in the morning). The food was surprisingly good but the experience was quite bizarre - the restaurant was completely empty, decorated in a very garish fashion and there were about a dozen south-east Asian waiters with very poor English hovering over us.
We packed most of our stuff last night, and left the hotel after breakfast today. The flight to Mumbai left on time, so we arrived at the International terminal at Mumbai around 1pm, for a midnight flight to the US... We are used to sitting around by now, so we did. Now we are all checked in and sitting in the business lounge (those Continental Gold Elite cards are useful!). Seems the plane will be at least 20 minutes late - let's hope that not much more than that!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Photos
I was hoping to add photos to the blog, but the connection is very slow. So - all the photos are in http://picasaweb.google.com/ednawig (5 albums, title "India 2009 - Album 1" through "India 2009 - Album 5".
December 28-29
Both days were spent similarly: breakfast at 9, homework until around 12 and then we went shopping. On Monday we met Irith on Commercial Street and shopped there and on Tuesday we went to MG Street. We got quite a few things, enjoyed the tuk-tuk rides and managed to shoo away all the people who tried to sell us many different things on street corners.
On Monday we went to hear David Gross at the conference - he talked about the role of theory in research. Tuesday there was a concert of Indian music by a famous vocalist. This is not very easy to listen to for a long period of time so we bailed out after 1.5 hours.
Both nights there were banquets at the hotel - the food wasn't bad and it was nice to talk to different people.
Tomorrow we are going to Irith's place - will be interesting to see how they live. And then it is time for goodbyes - all good things have to come to an end...
On Monday we went to hear David Gross at the conference - he talked about the role of theory in research. Tuesday there was a concert of Indian music by a famous vocalist. This is not very easy to listen to for a long period of time so we bailed out after 1.5 hours.
Both nights there were banquets at the hotel - the food wasn't bad and it was nice to talk to different people.
Tomorrow we are going to Irith's place - will be interesting to see how they live. And then it is time for goodbyes - all good things have to come to an end...
Monday, December 28, 2009
December 27
The rest of the day was very leisurely and we enjoyed the luxury and lack of dust. Irith arrived around 1pm and it was great to catch up - we have not met in many years, although we more or less kept up on major news via email and such. They have been living here for 1.5 years already and will probably stay for at least one more year.
After lunch we had a short stroll in the hotel's neighborhood which is very affluent - lots of beautiful villas, no cows or cow dung on the streets and no beggars either (but there were about 15 tuc-tuc drivers who were trying to offer us their services and were hard to shake off).
Avi had a whole team of fans for the talk - Sumana and the children, Irith and ourselves but the talk was very well received by others as well. I have heard Avi give many talks, but I have never seen such an engaged audience - the questions (some of them rather aggressive, but in a friendly way) kept coming until Jaikumar had to forcibly announce that no more questions will be taken (and then agreed to one more as the person was so insistent he has to ask it...).
It had started to pour during that time (rather late in the season and quite surprising). So we went to the hotel and ate there again - I cannot remember ever eating 3 consecutive meals in a hotel!
Was wonderful to sleep in nice soft and clean beds. Would have been perfect if we could figure out how to turn off the light over our bed. This room has about 20 light switches, none of which controls this light. I think we'll have to call for help tonight - how embarrassing...
After lunch we had a short stroll in the hotel's neighborhood which is very affluent - lots of beautiful villas, no cows or cow dung on the streets and no beggars either (but there were about 15 tuc-tuc drivers who were trying to offer us their services and were hard to shake off).
Avi had a whole team of fans for the talk - Sumana and the children, Irith and ourselves but the talk was very well received by others as well. I have heard Avi give many talks, but I have never seen such an engaged audience - the questions (some of them rather aggressive, but in a friendly way) kept coming until Jaikumar had to forcibly announce that no more questions will be taken (and then agreed to one more as the person was so insistent he has to ask it...).
It had started to pour during that time (rather late in the season and quite surprising). So we went to the hotel and ate there again - I cannot remember ever eating 3 consecutive meals in a hotel!
Was wonderful to sleep in nice soft and clean beds. Would have been perfect if we could figure out how to turn off the light over our bed. This room has about 20 light switches, none of which controls this light. I think we'll have to call for help tonight - how embarrassing...
Sunday, December 27, 2009
December 26-27
We got into our 2 cars (the children had become very close to Na'ama
by then and wanted to join her on the drive). We started off at Aihole
which is an architectural lab - a site with
temples of many different styles. We drove on to Badami (Ritvik
developed some kind of stomach flu as we were driving so we had a few
vomiting stops). It was around 3:30pm and we had not eaten lunch yet.
This turned out to be quite a task - the first hotel we tried refused to
take us for some reason, the second restaurant was very crowded so we
could not fit in and then Jaikumar found a very strange place - an empty
large hall which apparently is a banquet hall and they managed to serve
us some mediocre food in some very dirty dishes. So far we had no ill
effects.
We were very tired and felt we had seen enough temples but as we had
time before having to go to the train station we stopped at the Badami
temples (Sumana stayed with Ritvik in the car as Ritvik was feeling very
badly). We walked listlessly up, turned a corner - and were amazed -
caves dug out of an almost sheer brown-pink rock. These were very old
caves with the most exquisite carvings - amazing what they could do 1500
years ago. The place was very crowded and seeing all the colorful saris
on the background of the rock was amazing. As in any other site there
were dozens of school groups there - all the students in their school
uniforms and all very excited to see us (apparently many of them live in
villages and don't see too many foreigners).
We drove to the train station, released the drivers and boarded the
train (it was late but that is to be expected). The berths are quite
comfortable and we all slept reasonably well. Now we are almost in
Bangalore, and will be very happy to arrive at the hotel and take long
hot showers...
A few hours later... we feel much cleaner after those showers and a very nice breakfast with lots of Western food. Indian food is great, but after a week of hardly any Western food, the change is nice.
Turns out that the conference reserved 2 rooms for us in the hotel for the rest of our stay. So we decided to stay here rather than move again to Irith & Alan's. Irith will come over here soon and later we will all go to hear Avi's talk. One of the plenary speakers had to cancel due to illness and Avi is the emergency replacement. Jaikumar was tasked with getting Avi to Bangalore (dead or alive?) and it seems everybody is very relieved that he arrived safely...
by then and wanted to join her on the drive). We started off at Aihole
which is an architectural lab - a site with
temples of many different styles. We drove on to Badami (Ritvik
developed some kind of stomach flu as we were driving so we had a few
vomiting stops). It was around 3:30pm and we had not eaten lunch yet.
This turned out to be quite a task - the first hotel we tried refused to
take us for some reason, the second restaurant was very crowded so we
could not fit in and then Jaikumar found a very strange place - an empty
large hall which apparently is a banquet hall and they managed to serve
us some mediocre food in some very dirty dishes. So far we had no ill
effects.
We were very tired and felt we had seen enough temples but as we had
time before having to go to the train station we stopped at the Badami
temples (Sumana stayed with Ritvik in the car as Ritvik was feeling very
badly). We walked listlessly up, turned a corner - and were amazed -
caves dug out of an almost sheer brown-pink rock. These were very old
caves with the most exquisite carvings - amazing what they could do 1500
years ago. The place was very crowded and seeing all the colorful saris
on the background of the rock was amazing. As in any other site there
were dozens of school groups there - all the students in their school
uniforms and all very excited to see us (apparently many of them live in
villages and don't see too many foreigners).
We drove to the train station, released the drivers and boarded the
train (it was late but that is to be expected). The berths are quite
comfortable and we all slept reasonably well. Now we are almost in
Bangalore, and will be very happy to arrive at the hotel and take long
hot showers...
A few hours later... we feel much cleaner after those showers and a very nice breakfast with lots of Western food. Indian food is great, but after a week of hardly any Western food, the change is nice.
Turns out that the conference reserved 2 rooms for us in the hotel for the rest of our stay. So we decided to stay here rather than move again to Irith & Alan's. Irith will come over here soon and later we will all go to hear Avi's talk. One of the plenary speakers had to cancel due to illness and Avi is the emergency replacement. Jaikumar was tasked with getting Avi to Bangalore (dead or alive?) and it seems everybody is very relieved that he arrived safely...
December 25
All 8 of us piled into our 6-passenger van and drove the 4 km from the
hotel to Hampi (this is nothing - we had seen close to 30 people pile
into a pickup or 10 people in a tuk-tuk). The first temple we saw was
nice but we had seen so many we were not too impressed (and the guide
was very mediocre). Then we went to admire the elephant who was washing
himself in the river and was very picturesque - big rocks in the water,
people bathing and washing their clothes and beautiful views. Next we
walked over to some ruined temples and started becoming amazed and it
only got better from then on. The valley opened up to reveal amazing
views and some wonderful boulders (we saw no climbers although Eyal says
this is a well known climbing site). We went down to a site which is
very reminiscent of King Loui's temple in the Jungle Book. There used to
be a bazaar there in olden times and it was easy to imagine the whole
area bustling and full of life. We walked back to the gat by the river
and hired a "boat" - a round basket made out of reeds with a tarred
bottom - basically a large saucer. We were rowed slowly down the river -
more ruined temples and beautiful boulders. Then some more archeology
and a walk back along the river to our starting point.
Jaikumar knew of a nice restaurant called the Mango Tree. It was a bit
of a walk and we were wondering if it's worth it as it was hot and there were so many
other restaurants closer by, but we were wrong. It's a most beautiful
setting - terraces on the side of a hill with built-in stone tables, all
facing the river, and shaded by large trees - mango and others. The food
was delicious (a special Christmas tali!). We called Einat from there
and she said she had also eaten there and has a photo of herself on a
huge swing. The swing must have shrunk since then - it is small
and very high up with a few dolls sitting on it - clearly not intended
for humans any more.
We got back to the hotel around 5 and decided to skip the other ruins
and have another leisurely evening.
hotel to Hampi (this is nothing - we had seen close to 30 people pile
into a pickup or 10 people in a tuk-tuk). The first temple we saw was
nice but we had seen so many we were not too impressed (and the guide
was very mediocre). Then we went to admire the elephant who was washing
himself in the river and was very picturesque - big rocks in the water,
people bathing and washing their clothes and beautiful views. Next we
walked over to some ruined temples and started becoming amazed and it
only got better from then on. The valley opened up to reveal amazing
views and some wonderful boulders (we saw no climbers although Eyal says
this is a well known climbing site). We went down to a site which is
very reminiscent of King Loui's temple in the Jungle Book. There used to
be a bazaar there in olden times and it was easy to imagine the whole
area bustling and full of life. We walked back to the gat by the river
and hired a "boat" - a round basket made out of reeds with a tarred
bottom - basically a large saucer. We were rowed slowly down the river -
more ruined temples and beautiful boulders. Then some more archeology
and a walk back along the river to our starting point.
Jaikumar knew of a nice restaurant called the Mango Tree. It was a bit
of a walk and we were wondering if it's worth it as it was hot and there were so many
other restaurants closer by, but we were wrong. It's a most beautiful
setting - terraces on the side of a hill with built-in stone tables, all
facing the river, and shaded by large trees - mango and others. The food
was delicious (a special Christmas tali!). We called Einat from there
and she said she had also eaten there and has a photo of herself on a
huge swing. The swing must have shrunk since then - it is small
and very high up with a few dolls sitting on it - clearly not intended
for humans any more.
We got back to the hotel around 5 and decided to skip the other ruins
and have another leisurely evening.
December 24
We found a very miserable Na'ama in the morning - she had thrown up at
night and was feeling very sick and weak. So we had to partake of the
lovely breakfast without her.
The first part of the drive was very slow - terrible traffic jams, and a
couple of stops for Na'ama to throw up. Once we left Bangalore the
highway became much better and we made good speed for 200 km. Then the
highway got bad again and Yuval got car sick so we had a couple more
throwing-up stops.
We met Jaikumar, Sumana, Samhita and Rikvik at Kamalpur and it was
great to see them again. The last time we saw the twins they did not
talk English but now their English is fluent and they are the nicest 9
year olds. They were a bit shy at first, but Rikvik overcame that
immediately and Samhita did too after a while. This was the first
evening we had to relax and we spent it talking, playing games, riding
bikes and shopping at Hampi Bazaar. The hotel was very simple and the
beds rather hard - felt a bit like the Beduin hut in the Sinai. We
decided we'd rather not spend 3 nights there, so Jaikumar spent hours on
a very slow Internet connection and managed to get us all train tickets
to Bangalore on the 26th.
night and was feeling very sick and weak. So we had to partake of the
lovely breakfast without her.
The first part of the drive was very slow - terrible traffic jams, and a
couple of stops for Na'ama to throw up. Once we left Bangalore the
highway became much better and we made good speed for 200 km. Then the
highway got bad again and Yuval got car sick so we had a couple more
throwing-up stops.
We met Jaikumar, Sumana, Samhita and Rikvik at Kamalpur and it was
great to see them again. The last time we saw the twins they did not
talk English but now their English is fluent and they are the nicest 9
year olds. They were a bit shy at first, but Rikvik overcame that
immediately and Samhita did too after a while. This was the first
evening we had to relax and we spent it talking, playing games, riding
bikes and shopping at Hampi Bazaar. The hotel was very simple and the
beds rather hard - felt a bit like the Beduin hut in the Sinai. We
decided we'd rather not spend 3 nights there, so Jaikumar spent hours on
a very slow Internet connection and managed to get us all train tickets
to Bangalore on the 26th.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
December 23
Dec 23: Madurai
We started at 8am. Our guide Mahesh was waiting for us - very different from previous guides, quiet and non-imposing. Besides guiding he runs the Aathma Foundation, a voluntary organization working to educate people in villages.
Our first stop was the Meenakshi Temple (excellent websites exists including some virtual tours) . As usual, it is a Siva temple, but while in all other Siva temple there would be a smaller temple for his wife Parvati, here Parvati is the main object of worship. If you are confused, Meenakshi is one of the many names of Parvati. We have seen by now many temples, many of them extremely impressive in size, beauty and detail, but this one tops them all. Beyond all the aspects mentioned, the activity in this temple is amazing - hordes of pilgrims queue up to go to the sanctum sanatorium to give offerings to the gods and get ashes to put on their foreheads. The halls are huge, with thousands of delicately sculptured columns supporting them. On the floors groups of visitors sit, eat, talk. A trained elephant (which we saw in other temples too) would perform the usual trick of picking a 10 Rupee note from anyone with his trunk, and then "bless" the giver by putting the trunk on their head (naturally the kids did it). Hundreds of elephants could easily fit between the columns and would not be noticed - it is that big. The pagodas at the gates are huge with numerous god and other sculptures, beautifully painted.
Next was the Nayak palace. It is really a recreation by the British of an older, destroyed palace. It has a huge dancing hall, and was a good starter for our next attraction, the Ghandi museum, dedicated mainly to the history of the occupation of India by the British, the resistance movement before and during Ghandi's time, and the eventual retreat and independence. We learned a lot there, and need to read more about it.
We finished the morning with the flower market, where you tread in mud between stalls of marigolds, jasmine and other flowers, sold in bulk to sellers. Flower sellers are numerous around temples as they serve as prime offerings to gods (with coconuts and bananas), as well as decorations for women's hair.
Still with our guide we went to a south indian restaurant and again had a Tali. This time we used utensils and not our hands. It was extremely tasty, some quite hot. BTW, Yuval is trying everything and eating quite a bit of stuff he wouldn't touch before - we are impressed! The highlight (which Avi liked and others hated) was a coconut leaf stuffed with coconut and sugar - a combination of sweet, sour and bitter tastes which is supposed to be good for digestion.
We then released the guide, and Ramu took us to the airport. He drove us for a week, and we were extremely impressed with his driving. He was not quite as reckless as some other drivers we had in the past, and probably better than all. The 7 hours of wait in the airport are coming to a close, and we'll soon board the flight to Bangalore.
P.S. we arrived safely in Bangalore, were picked up as planned and are staying in the lovely Le Meridien. Have to get up in less than 6 hours and drive to Hempi - that is expected to take 7 hours... Good night!
We started at 8am. Our guide Mahesh was waiting for us - very different from previous guides, quiet and non-imposing. Besides guiding he runs the Aathma Foundation, a voluntary organization working to educate people in villages.
Our first stop was the Meenakshi Temple (excellent websites exists including some virtual tours) . As usual, it is a Siva temple, but while in all other Siva temple there would be a smaller temple for his wife Parvati, here Parvati is the main object of worship. If you are confused, Meenakshi is one of the many names of Parvati. We have seen by now many temples, many of them extremely impressive in size, beauty and detail, but this one tops them all. Beyond all the aspects mentioned, the activity in this temple is amazing - hordes of pilgrims queue up to go to the sanctum sanatorium to give offerings to the gods and get ashes to put on their foreheads. The halls are huge, with thousands of delicately sculptured columns supporting them. On the floors groups of visitors sit, eat, talk. A trained elephant (which we saw in other temples too) would perform the usual trick of picking a 10 Rupee note from anyone with his trunk, and then "bless" the giver by putting the trunk on their head (naturally the kids did it). Hundreds of elephants could easily fit between the columns and would not be noticed - it is that big. The pagodas at the gates are huge with numerous god and other sculptures, beautifully painted.
Next was the Nayak palace. It is really a recreation by the British of an older, destroyed palace. It has a huge dancing hall, and was a good starter for our next attraction, the Ghandi museum, dedicated mainly to the history of the occupation of India by the British, the resistance movement before and during Ghandi's time, and the eventual retreat and independence. We learned a lot there, and need to read more about it.
We finished the morning with the flower market, where you tread in mud between stalls of marigolds, jasmine and other flowers, sold in bulk to sellers. Flower sellers are numerous around temples as they serve as prime offerings to gods (with coconuts and bananas), as well as decorations for women's hair.
Still with our guide we went to a south indian restaurant and again had a Tali. This time we used utensils and not our hands. It was extremely tasty, some quite hot. BTW, Yuval is trying everything and eating quite a bit of stuff he wouldn't touch before - we are impressed! The highlight (which Avi liked and others hated) was a coconut leaf stuffed with coconut and sugar - a combination of sweet, sour and bitter tastes which is supposed to be good for digestion.
We then released the guide, and Ramu took us to the airport. He drove us for a week, and we were extremely impressed with his driving. He was not quite as reckless as some other drivers we had in the past, and probably better than all. The 7 hours of wait in the airport are coming to a close, and we'll soon board the flight to Bangalore.
P.S. we arrived safely in Bangalore, were picked up as planned and are staying in the lovely Le Meridien. Have to get up in less than 6 hours and drive to Hempi - that is expected to take 7 hours... Good night!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
December 22
Prahladh and the driver picked us up around 8 and we went to see the Rock Fort - had to climb a few hundred steps to visit a Shiva temple and a ganesh temple. The views from the top were beautiful, and we were very interested to hear how Prahladh's father fixed the broken bell without breaking the bell tower. He had to resort to building a furnace inside the tower.
Next we visited the Lourdes Church on the St. Joseph campus. The church looks a bit like a temple... We also stopped on the way and bought a few trinkets in a souvenir store.
The highlight of the day was lunch at Prahladh's house. His mother prepared an excellent feast and we all had a lovely time and were sorry to leave, but tourism duty calls and we went to see Trichy's most famous site - the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple_(Srirangam). It had started to drizzle by then so we all wore our rain ponchos and walked barefoot in the mud - was quite fun. This is the first temple where we as non-hindus were barred from quite a few rooms so we did not get our share of ashes and dots.
The rain was getting worse so we left at 4:30, dropped Prahladh off at his parents and continued to Madurai. We were quite sad to say goodbye to Prahladh - he was great to be with and a most gracious host.
The way to Madurai is surprisingly modern - an almost continuous 4-lane highway. Of course you still get all the different wheeled- and foot-traffic and the occasional car which insists on going against the traffic but we made good time despite the rain and arrived at the hotel before 9pm. This hotel is much nice than the one in Trichy (and cheaper too), but the dinner was awful and expensive - you cannot win them all.
A guide will meet us tomorrow and show us the Madurai sties,. In teh evening we will fly to Banglaore, spend the night there and then drive on Thursday to meet Jaikumar and family in Hampi. So it's time to go to bed!
Next we visited the Lourdes Church on the St. Joseph campus. The church looks a bit like a temple... We also stopped on the way and bought a few trinkets in a souvenir store.
The highlight of the day was lunch at Prahladh's house. His mother prepared an excellent feast and we all had a lovely time and were sorry to leave, but tourism duty calls and we went to see Trichy's most famous site - the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Ranganathaswamy_Temple_(Srirangam). It had started to drizzle by then so we all wore our rain ponchos and walked barefoot in the mud - was quite fun. This is the first temple where we as non-hindus were barred from quite a few rooms so we did not get our share of ashes and dots.
The rain was getting worse so we left at 4:30, dropped Prahladh off at his parents and continued to Madurai. We were quite sad to say goodbye to Prahladh - he was great to be with and a most gracious host.
The way to Madurai is surprisingly modern - an almost continuous 4-lane highway. Of course you still get all the different wheeled- and foot-traffic and the occasional car which insists on going against the traffic but we made good time despite the rain and arrived at the hotel before 9pm. This hotel is much nice than the one in Trichy (and cheaper too), but the dinner was awful and expensive - you cannot win them all.
A guide will meet us tomorrow and show us the Madurai sties,. In teh evening we will fly to Banglaore, spend the night there and then drive on Thursday to meet Jaikumar and family in Hampi. So it's time to go to bed!
December 21
We started off at 9:30 and went to Prahladh's. His parents are also charming and we
sat there a bit before setting off to Thanjavur. A friend of Prahladh's father
joined us for the day. We started at the Brihadishwara temple which is almost
identical to the one we saw the previous day, but much more active and bustling with
tourists and pilgrims. We hired a guide who was extremely amusing. He told us of the
wonders of the digit 9, and tried to impress us (unsuccessfully) with some very silly
arithmetic magic - he was much impressed by the contra-trick Yuval showed him. We
did the rounds of the deities, admired the sculptures and talked to some pilgrims -
the guide almost undressed a very cute young man to show us all the pilgrim stuff he
was carrying - rosaries and bells on strings under his shirt. We broke for lunch and
decided we ate at enough hotels so Prahladh took us to a place where the lcoals eat
(and which of course costs less than a 1/0 of what we paid at the other places).
This was very nice - we ate off banana leaves using our hands and it was delicious.
No ill effects so far so we will try and repeat this. After lunch we went to see a
crafts bazarre which was pathetic and did not satisfy our consumerism and then to
the Royal Museum. It houses some amazing sculptures of Shiva, Vishna, Parvati etc.
which date back to the 11th century and later. It was a bit worrying to see all the
sculptures there completely unprotected and everybody able to touch them. We also
climbed the bell tower to enjoy the views and see the skeleton of a whale which
washed out to the shore 400 years ago. The sign said it belongs to the "particular
class of whale-bone whales!". Next we went to the Saraswati Mahal Libraries and
looked at the eclectic collection of books that the king had at the beginning of the
19th century.
We took a different way back and visited the ancient Kallanai dam and bridge over the Cauvery delta. Theway was much less busy than the highway and very beatiful - lots of trees and vegetation. We walked over the bridges and then continued to Prahladh's parent wherewe dropped Prahladh off and then to the hotel for dinner. It was nice that we got in a bit earlier today so we could have a nice relaxed evening.
sat there a bit before setting off to Thanjavur. A friend of Prahladh's father
joined us for the day. We started at the Brihadishwara temple which is almost
identical to the one we saw the previous day, but much more active and bustling with
tourists and pilgrims. We hired a guide who was extremely amusing. He told us of the
wonders of the digit 9, and tried to impress us (unsuccessfully) with some very silly
arithmetic magic - he was much impressed by the contra-trick Yuval showed him. We
did the rounds of the deities, admired the sculptures and talked to some pilgrims -
the guide almost undressed a very cute young man to show us all the pilgrim stuff he
was carrying - rosaries and bells on strings under his shirt. We broke for lunch and
decided we ate at enough hotels so Prahladh took us to a place where the lcoals eat
(and which of course costs less than a 1/0 of what we paid at the other places).
This was very nice - we ate off banana leaves using our hands and it was delicious.
No ill effects so far so we will try and repeat this. After lunch we went to see a
crafts bazarre which was pathetic and did not satisfy our consumerism and then to
the Royal Museum. It houses some amazing sculptures of Shiva, Vishna, Parvati etc.
which date back to the 11th century and later. It was a bit worrying to see all the
sculptures there completely unprotected and everybody able to touch them. We also
climbed the bell tower to enjoy the views and see the skeleton of a whale which
washed out to the shore 400 years ago. The sign said it belongs to the "particular
class of whale-bone whales!". Next we went to the Saraswati Mahal Libraries and
looked at the eclectic collection of books that the king had at the beginning of the
19th century.
We took a different way back and visited the ancient Kallanai dam and bridge over the Cauvery delta. Theway was much less busy than the highway and very beatiful - lots of trees and vegetation. We walked over the bridges and then continued to Prahladh's parent wherewe dropped Prahladh off and then to the hotel for dinner. It was nice that we got in a bit earlier today so we could have a nice relaxed evening.
December 20
The day started with a visit to Gopoal, Jaikumar's cousin. He lives in a small
village and manages a large farm. We were not sure how to get to his house but that
turned out to be easy as there was a young man on a scooter who waited for us at a
crossroads and had us follow him - a live GPS (it seems that neither GPSs or Google
Maps work in India). Gopal took us for a tour of parts of his farms - rice paddies,
a nice summer house of his uncle's where we ate pomellas and drank cocnut water from
trees which grow around the property. Everything is very lush and beautiful and
Gopal was very nice and hospitable.
We stopped for lunch at a hotel which Gopal recommended (a nice buffet) and we
continued to the Airavatershwara Temple in Darasuram. We took a guide there but he
was not very good and did not amuse us much. This temple is inactive and is run by
the Indian Archeological Survey - they take amazing care of these sites which are
extremeley clean and well maintained.
Next we went to the Brihadishwara Temple in the village which has the short name of
Gangaikondacholapuram (literally - the town of the Chola king who took the Ganges).
This is an active temple, and there were quite a few Indian tourists there. The
structure is very impressive and it was fun walking around it and visiting the
different dogs. We had ashes smeared on our foreheads and a red dot applied to our
foreheads. The visit ended with a race along the nice lawn between Yuval and Na'ama
which Na'ama won and another race between Na'ama & Avi which Avi won.
The road to Trichi (or Tiruchirapalli) is most bizarre. Large parts of it are
supposed to be a 4 lane highway but the project seems to have been abandoned
mid-stream. So you drive for 5 km on a nice wide road - as usual there are many
lanes of traffic going in the same direction - bikes, tuk-tuks, cars, lorries, cows,
goats, people (the last 3 might be going in any direction or just standing in the
middle of the road), when suddenly everything ends and you jump over a very bumpy
unpaved stretch of 100m or so, after which all the traffic in the opposite direction
is suddenly added to the mix (with their share of cows etc.). So you crawl for 5
km, where the lanes separate again and so it continues. This is somehow even more
nerve wracking than the regular nervousness associated with driving in India, but
our driver Ramu is very skillful, so we skip a beat only every other minute.
The hotel is much more expensive than the previous one but hardly any better (the
water is slightly warmer but far from hot). We ate supper in the Hotel restaurant
and Prahladh went to his parents' house.
village and manages a large farm. We were not sure how to get to his house but that
turned out to be easy as there was a young man on a scooter who waited for us at a
crossroads and had us follow him - a live GPS (it seems that neither GPSs or Google
Maps work in India). Gopal took us for a tour of parts of his farms - rice paddies,
a nice summer house of his uncle's where we ate pomellas and drank cocnut water from
trees which grow around the property. Everything is very lush and beautiful and
Gopal was very nice and hospitable.
We stopped for lunch at a hotel which Gopal recommended (a nice buffet) and we
continued to the Airavatershwara Temple in Darasuram. We took a guide there but he
was not very good and did not amuse us much. This temple is inactive and is run by
the Indian Archeological Survey - they take amazing care of these sites which are
extremeley clean and well maintained.
Next we went to the Brihadishwara Temple in the village which has the short name of
Gangaikondacholapuram (literally - the town of the Chola king who took the Ganges).
This is an active temple, and there were quite a few Indian tourists there. The
structure is very impressive and it was fun walking around it and visiting the
different dogs. We had ashes smeared on our foreheads and a red dot applied to our
foreheads. The visit ended with a race along the nice lawn between Yuval and Na'ama
which Na'ama won and another race between Na'ama & Avi which Avi won.
The road to Trichi (or Tiruchirapalli) is most bizarre. Large parts of it are
supposed to be a 4 lane highway but the project seems to have been abandoned
mid-stream. So you drive for 5 km on a nice wide road - as usual there are many
lanes of traffic going in the same direction - bikes, tuk-tuks, cars, lorries, cows,
goats, people (the last 3 might be going in any direction or just standing in the
middle of the road), when suddenly everything ends and you jump over a very bumpy
unpaved stretch of 100m or so, after which all the traffic in the opposite direction
is suddenly added to the mix (with their share of cows etc.). So you crawl for 5
km, where the lanes separate again and so it continues. This is somehow even more
nerve wracking than the regular nervousness associated with driving in India, but
our driver Ramu is very skillful, so we skip a beat only every other minute.
The hotel is much more expensive than the previous one but hardly any better (the
water is slightly warmer but far from hot). We ate supper in the Hotel restaurant
and Prahladh went to his parents' house.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
December 19
The driver finally arrived, and we went to pick Prahladh up from his uncle's and continued south to Dakshina Chitra - a reconstructed village depicting the art and architecture of Tamil Nadhu. It was quite nice, and not too much of a tourist trap. Avi bought a scroll depicting the story of Ganesh and N'ama had henna applied to her left hand and arm.
The next stop was at Mahabalipuram which is a complex of temples of different styles. We took a local guide there who was very passionate but Praladh said he also made a lot of stuff up. The guy apparently finished 10 grades (in a Tamil school) and then taught himself Engish. It was not always easy to understand what he said but it was amusing nonetheless. The first temple was by the ocean - a bit worse for wear due to the proximity to the sea. Then we went to an area containing 5 pagodas and a few other structures - called 5 Brothers. And finally to another site whose main attraction was a huge wall intricately carved, which created the most amazing bas-relief.
We continued from there to a very nice hotel for a very late lunch. The setting was beautiful, the food mediocre but we enjoyed it nonetheless.
Our hotel was in Mayapuram which was quite a drive so we decided to skip the last temple on the itinerary. We drove and drove, bought some snacks so we don't have to stop for dinner and then around 9:30pm the drive stopped and said that we did arrive at that temple - Chidambaram. So we decided to look at it quickly and were very glad we did - it was just amazing and seeing it at night made it even better, especially when the gongs started tolling and people ran in for the last prayer.
We got to the hotel after 11 extremely tired. The hotel was not very nice but we were too exhausted to notice and even the cold showers did not matter at that point.
Avi's laptop seems to have a bad fan, so I will stop before describing today's events in fear it will melt down. Hopefully we can still turn it on tomorrow!
The next stop was at Mahabalipuram which is a complex of temples of different styles. We took a local guide there who was very passionate but Praladh said he also made a lot of stuff up. The guy apparently finished 10 grades (in a Tamil school) and then taught himself Engish. It was not always easy to understand what he said but it was amusing nonetheless. The first temple was by the ocean - a bit worse for wear due to the proximity to the sea. Then we went to an area containing 5 pagodas and a few other structures - called 5 Brothers. And finally to another site whose main attraction was a huge wall intricately carved, which created the most amazing bas-relief.
We continued from there to a very nice hotel for a very late lunch. The setting was beautiful, the food mediocre but we enjoyed it nonetheless.
Our hotel was in Mayapuram which was quite a drive so we decided to skip the last temple on the itinerary. We drove and drove, bought some snacks so we don't have to stop for dinner and then around 9:30pm the drive stopped and said that we did arrive at that temple - Chidambaram. So we decided to look at it quickly and were very glad we did - it was just amazing and seeing it at night made it even better, especially when the gongs started tolling and people ran in for the last prayer.
We got to the hotel after 11 extremely tired. The hotel was not very nice but we were too exhausted to notice and even the cold showers did not matter at that point.
Avi's laptop seems to have a bad fan, so I will stop before describing today's events in fear it will melt down. Hopefully we can still turn it on tomorrow!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Getting there - dec. 16-18
The trip over was long but uneventful. We left Newark around 8:30pm on the 16th, arrived in Mumbai on the 17th close to midnight, transferred to the domestic terminal and sat there waiting for the 6:25am flight on the 18th to Chennai. In truth, the whole thing took about 30 hours, rather than 72 but with the time changes it was quite impressive.
We were very impressed with:
- the Indian food on Continental
- the airports. 6 years ago the Mumbai airport was awful and now it was modern and clean and with friendly staff.
We all converged in the hotel around 10am, and Prahladh, our friend arrived as well.
Prahladh will travel with us in the next 5 days. His parents are from Madurai and Trichi, temple cities in the south that we'll eventually get to.
He made many plans already, so Edna and the kids had no time to rest, just quick showers.
Here are the highlights of this full day.
Kuchipudi dance school.
Kuchipudi is one of 6 Indian dance forms, which Prahladh is very seriously into. We went to his old school, where he studied during his undergrad days in IIT Chennai. We sat hypnotized (Yuval and Na'ama dozing at the same time) during a regular lesson. Hopefully the pictures and short video reveal some of this sense - here is a more professional clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEUFNSlxpKk
Then to lunch at K.V.'s. KV is a friend who is at CMI (Chnnai Math Institute) who helped organized our stay here.
On a short notice he cooked a delicious lunch for us at home. His wife, a poet, was at work, teaching poetry at IIT Chennai, but we got one of her books of poems as gift (this seems to be a trend - we are accumulating books as you'll see).
Then, to pick up the tix for the evening performances we were going to see. They were purchased by Prahlad's great aunt, a lady of about 85, and the visit to her house was an event on its own. She is a famous music scholar, as was her father- both taught and have written many books (we got one of each). She is also a famous veena player and teacher, and has a beautiful music room in the basement which is full of them. It was really interesting talking to her, and get a glimpse of Prahladh's illustrious family. One of her brothers, and another cousin, are both Nobel laurates in Physics!
Finally Edna and the kids got to rest a bit in the hotel, while Prahladh and I strolled the streets.
We left the hotel again at 6pm and went to a music concert - a woman singer, a drummer and a violonisit. It was a bi monotone so we kept dozing off. We spent the 1/2 hour until the dance performance in a sari shop - it was huge and full of customers (locals, not tourists) - Indian consumerism seems to be definitely on the rise!
It was funny to look at the 2 Santas the store had - they wore rather scary masks, but did the Santa thing of giving out candy, and the children did not seem scared. We were of course followed by a salesgirl who must have been disappointed with our meager purchases - a pair of leggings for Na'ama.
The dance performance was very interesting - and the most amazing part was the involvement of the dancer's face and in particular her eyes in the dance - they were most expressive. The dances had some mythological themes and there was a short explanation to each dance which was helpful.
We ended the evening at a nice buffet in a nearby hotel - lots of food and very tasty. Nobody had any trouble falling asleep after this long day.
We are now waiting for our driver who is late and stuck in traffic, then will pick Praladh up and start our trip south.
We were very impressed with:
- the Indian food on Continental
- the airports. 6 years ago the Mumbai airport was awful and now it was modern and clean and with friendly staff.
We all converged in the hotel around 10am, and Prahladh, our friend arrived as well.
Prahladh will travel with us in the next 5 days. His parents are from Madurai and Trichi, temple cities in the south that we'll eventually get to.
He made many plans already, so Edna and the kids had no time to rest, just quick showers.
Here are the highlights of this full day.
Kuchipudi dance school.
Kuchipudi is one of 6 Indian dance forms, which Prahladh is very seriously into. We went to his old school, where he studied during his undergrad days in IIT Chennai. We sat hypnotized (Yuval and Na'ama dozing at the same time) during a regular lesson. Hopefully the pictures and short video reveal some of this sense - here is a more professional clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEUFNSlxpKk
Then to lunch at K.V.'s. KV is a friend who is at CMI (Chnnai Math Institute) who helped organized our stay here.
On a short notice he cooked a delicious lunch for us at home. His wife, a poet, was at work, teaching poetry at IIT Chennai, but we got one of her books of poems as gift (this seems to be a trend - we are accumulating books as you'll see).
Then, to pick up the tix for the evening performances we were going to see. They were purchased by Prahlad's great aunt, a lady of about 85, and the visit to her house was an event on its own. She is a famous music scholar, as was her father- both taught and have written many books (we got one of each). She is also a famous veena player and teacher, and has a beautiful music room in the basement which is full of them. It was really interesting talking to her, and get a glimpse of Prahladh's illustrious family. One of her brothers, and another cousin, are both Nobel laurates in Physics!
Finally Edna and the kids got to rest a bit in the hotel, while Prahladh and I strolled the streets.
We left the hotel again at 6pm and went to a music concert - a woman singer, a drummer and a violonisit. It was a bi monotone so we kept dozing off. We spent the 1/2 hour until the dance performance in a sari shop - it was huge and full of customers (locals, not tourists) - Indian consumerism seems to be definitely on the rise!
It was funny to look at the 2 Santas the store had - they wore rather scary masks, but did the Santa thing of giving out candy, and the children did not seem scared. We were of course followed by a salesgirl who must have been disappointed with our meager purchases - a pair of leggings for Na'ama.
The dance performance was very interesting - and the most amazing part was the involvement of the dancer's face and in particular her eyes in the dance - they were most expressive. The dances had some mythological themes and there was a short explanation to each dance which was helpful.
We ended the evening at a nice buffet in a nearby hotel - lots of food and very tasty. Nobody had any trouble falling asleep after this long day.
We are now waiting for our driver who is late and stuck in traffic, then will pick Praladh up and start our trip south.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
India trip - Getting ready...
Avi left yesterday - he arrived in Delhi late in the evening, slept for a few hours and flew on to Lucknow from where he was driven to the conference in Kanpur.
Yuval and I picked Na'ama up at Newark and we all went to celebrate his birthday at the Fs - it was a surprise - he really did not expect any birthday festivities and was very happy.
Tomorrow Yuval will go to school, I will go to work and Na'ama will work on her essay here. We'll leave for the airport around 4:30. The flight is almost 15 hours and then we have quite a long time at the airport before we catch the 6:25am flight to Chenai. Avi will arrive there the previous evening.
The time difference is very confusing - 10.5 hours ahead of NY, 3.5 hours ahead of Israel, and 13.5 hours ahead of California. Oh well.
Yuval and I picked Na'ama up at Newark and we all went to celebrate his birthday at the Fs - it was a surprise - he really did not expect any birthday festivities and was very happy.
Tomorrow Yuval will go to school, I will go to work and Na'ama will work on her essay here. We'll leave for the airport around 4:30. The flight is almost 15 hours and then we have quite a long time at the airport before we catch the 6:25am flight to Chenai. Avi will arrive there the previous evening.
The time difference is very confusing - 10.5 hours ahead of NY, 3.5 hours ahead of Israel, and 13.5 hours ahead of California. Oh well.